Scientists need social media influencers

Abstract

Ethanol addiction is a serious public health problem that still needs more effective pharmacological treatment. A key factor in the development and maintenance of this disease is the advent of neuroadaptations in the mesocorticolimbic brain pathway upon chronic ethanol abuse. In general, these neuroadaptations are maladaptive and affect numerous neurotransmitter systems and intracellular molecules. One of these molecules is DFosB, a transcription factor that is altered after chronic drug use. Behavioural sensitization is a useful model for the study of the neuroadaptations related to addiction. Recent works have shown a role for the imbalance of glutamatergic neurotransmission in the symptoms found in addicted people. In this sense, the treatment with N-acetylcysteine, a L-cysteine prodrug that acts by restoring extrasynaptic concentrations of glutamate through the activation of cystine-glutamate antiporter, has shown promising results in the treatment of addiction. Thus, an animal model of behavioural sensitization was used to evaluate the effects of N-acetylcysteine treatment in the behavioural and molecular alterations induced by chronic ethanol administration. Swiss mice were subject to 13 days of daily ethanol administration to induce behavioural sensitization. Two hours before each ethanol administration and locomotor activity evaluation, the animals received intraperitoneally Nacetylcysteine injections. Immediately after the last test session, their brains were removed for DFosB and cystine-glutamate antiporter quantification. It was found that N-acetylcysteine treatment blocked ethanol-induced behavioural sensitization, the increase of DFosB content in the prefrontal cortex, and its reduction in the nucleus accumbens. The results suggest a possible use of N-acetylcysteine in ethanolrelated disorders.

Tweet success? Scientific communication correlates with increased citations in Ecology and Conservation

“…Communicating science to policymakers, other scientists, and the public is an increasingly important task in an era of “alternative facts” ( Galetti & Costa-Pereira, 2017 ). Scientists are finding new means to communicate science using a wide array of online media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, blogs; Piwowar, 2013 ; Bornmann, 2014 ; Donner, 2017 ).…”

Spokespersons for science: examining social media influencers' popularization of controversial technologies on YouTube

“…The findings provide conceptual, theoretical, and practical contributions: first, the findings addressed research gaps in science communication by examining SMIs' role in popularizing controversial technologies [Galetti & Costa-Pereira, 2017]. The findings also contributed to influencer marketing research by examining how SMI characteristics shaped individuals' attitudinal and behavioral responses.…”

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“…It is also very probable that scientists will increasingly need to exploit social media tactics and influencers to promote discoveries (or niche papers) to expand their audience and reach. 18 The desire to contribute, innovate and communicate will always produce the usual 'hit' papers, but the long tail suggests that new and different ideas will emerge from the diversity and ambition written into the papers published in the 'niches'.…”