ParentHooD: From Bench To Crib Side

Combining career and family is a problem most of us will encounter during our lives – and you will have to deal with questions ranging from parental leave to finding a day-care center. However, it is not always easy to find the right moment for having children in a scientific career. During your post-doc? During your PhD?

Always Bad Timing?
From an economic and organizational perspective, having a child while you are employed is always a burden to the employer: they lose an employee during parental leave, meaning they need to look for a replacement or pause the project for some time. However, we should understand that employers are fine with fulfilling these duties and providing support to the parents-to-be – after all people are people and not merely employees. Having a child is a very individual decision and if you decide to do it during your PhD or post-doc, it will always come with a lot of problems: From a work point of view, there will never be a perfect moment.

The Challenges
When having a child as a PhD student, you are up for several challenges – one of them being your terms of employment. Usually, PhD students are paid either with a scholarship or a part-time contract. If you have a part-time contract, the same rules apply to you as to any employee. Your situation is regulated by law in that you will be eligible for parental leave, allowance and child benefits [1]. Your contract will be extended by the amount of time of maternal or paternal leave.

Scholarship students get the short end of the stick

In case of a scholarship, the situation is much more complicated. Since you are not regularly employed and don’t pay taxes, you are not entitled to have parental leave and will receive only the minimum amount of parental allowance, which sums up to 300 euros per month [2]. With a contract, the parental allowance equals 65-67% of your pre-leave income [1]. If you have a scholarship, it depends very much on your institute whether or not and for how long your scholarship can be extended [2]. In this sense, having a scholarship during your PhD rather seems like a stumbling block when trying to re-conciliate career and family.

Source: Juliane Schiweck

Where To Get Information
Once you decide to have a child, your first challenge will be to obtain information regarding your situation. Especially – but not only – as an international PhD student, the process of becoming a parent in terms of knowing your rights and obligations in the workplace, as well as the financial benefits you can receive, can be confusing to say the least.
It is essential to talk to your supervisor in order to plan the subsequent steps of your PhD, but many times your supervisor might not have all the information you need. This is pretty unfortunate, since it would be fairly easy for the central institutions of the universities to provide such crucial information to the supervisors, be it an information brochure or a seminar!

Pay a visit to the Familienbüro

  

However, you can get some advice at the Familienbüro of your institution, which deals with combining carrier and family [3]. Unfortunately, the relevant information available on the internet is almost exclusively in German, making it very difficult for international students. If you decide to have a child during the PhD and you are part of a PhD program, the Familienbüro is one of the first places you should turn to. If you are part of the Medical Neurosciences Program, you can get help at the program office. There, they offer support and information, especially for international students who do not speak German and need help with administrative issues.

Back To Work?
Once your kiddo is born, parents will have to think about getting back to work. Parental leave can be split between the two parents, so that each is absent at work for the least amount of time possible and gets to spend time with the child as well [4].
When both parents decide to return to work, new problems arise, like finding a day-care center. This can be challenging and at times, you have to wait for over a year to get a spot. Fortunately, being employed at a big institution like the Charité has certain benefits. The Charité cooperates with day-care centers in Berlin and, in most cases, it will be possible for you to get a spot for your baby reasonably fast.

In a nutshell, having a baby during your PhD is difficult, mostly because it depends on how supportive and understanding your supervisor is. Uncertainties concerning financial aspects and the regulations of your contract also make things worse. If you are a PhD student with a scholarship, the situation is far from ideal.

It is necessary that universities start taking responsibility for their employees – especially the ones without a contract. However, having a child is an individual decision and if you decide it is the right moment for you, don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself.

[1] http://bit.ly/2adGdca

[2] http://bit.ly/2apoMZ1

[3] http://bit.ly/29T3cHa

[4] http://bit.ly/2ai01et

Juliane Schiweck, PhD Student AG Eickholt

Fasting: Cleansing of Spirit and Body?

Let’s face it: we live in a throwaway society and, in our daily lives, the longest period of food withdrawal lasts from dinner to breakfast the next morning. However, back when the word "globalization" did not exist, our ancestors used to undergo alternating periods of overfeeding and starvation, caused by fluctuating weather conditions and food availability. Fasting was a part of life. Nowadays, regular periods of fasting are still practiced around the world, but mainly for traditional, religious, or cultural reasons [1]. But what exactly are the effects of fasting on the brain and is it really healthy to fast? 

Source: Flickr

Fasting Comes in All Shapes and Sizes!
Before getting into the brain facts of fasting, let’s work a bit on terminology. Fasting is defined as abstaining from all kinds of food or drink and can last for short or extended periods of time, typically between 12 hours and 3 weeks [2]. Intermittent fasting is a type of fasting where you cycle between periods of fasting and non-fasting. In addition, fasting can also refer to abstaining only from selected foods, which usually lasts for longer time periods. On the other hand, starvation is defined as chronic nutritional insufficiency and although it is sometimes used synonymously for fasting, it generally describes more extreme forms [2].

Fasting: age less and be happier!

One example of short intermittent fasting is Ramadan, one of the best known religious fasting practices. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar during which Muslims don’t eat or drink from dawn to sunset [3]. Other fasting practices can be observed in several religions and range from abstinence from some or all kinds of food or drinks. Examples are Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in Judaism, when adults abstain from any food or drink for 24 hours [3], and fasting practices of the Greek Orthodox Christians, who forgo certain foods for a total of 180-200 days each year [4].

Effects on Our Bodies
While the purpose of religious fasting is primarily spiritual, it also has the potential to greatly affect one's physical health [4]. Prolonged fasting is a strong physiological stimulus and initiates a variety of responses in the body. Stunningly, intermittent fasting has been shown to enhance network plasticity, reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain, increase neurotrophic factor availability and enhance stress resistance [2]. It is therefore not surprising that fasting is sometimes used in clinics: physicians monitor patients while they are fasting for periods lasting for one week or longer (usually only consuming water or a very low-calorie diet with less than 200 kcal/day) in order to improve weight management, disease prevention or treatment [2]. Fasting also seems to relieve various form of pain, ranging from non-specific chronic pain and fibromyalgia to migraines [5].

Lifting Up Your Spirits
Even more surprisingly, fasting doesn’t make you grumpy – on the contrary! Several studies have found that prolonged fasting is accompanied by increased alertness, better mood, a subjective feeling of being well and sometimes even euphoria [1]. One explanation for this could be an increase in tryptophan availability and serotonin turnover in the brain and the release of endogenous opioids [5].
Animal and human studies indicate that fasting – when done right, with the supervision of a professional – can have beneficial effects by reducing inflammatory markers and age-associated processes and be useful in the treatment of many different diseases [2].

[1] http://bit.ly/2vBPDqk
[2] http://bit.ly/2tpY7nY
[3] http://bit.ly/2u7PoUh
[4] http://bit.ly/2ua1XQJ
[5] http://bit.ly/2u7XkoT

by Juliane Schiwek, PhD Student AG Eickholt

This article originally appeared September 2017 in CNS Volume 10, Issue 3, Spirituality in Science

Brain-gnacy: How Giving Birth Changes Your Brain

If I asked you for the most apparent change in a pregnant woman, you would probably not answer ‘the brain’. Looking at all the physical changes in a woman’s body during pregnancy, it is understandable that the brain seems to be a supporting rather than a main actor in the 9 month-long play called pregnancy. Here is why – surprise – the brain is important for pregnancy and child birth.

The pregnant brain needs to coordinate physiological changes that on the one hand allow the baby to grow and on the other hand prepare the mother for the challenges of giving birth and motherhood. Female sex steroid hormones, like estrogens and progesterone are elevated during pregnancy and can act on the brain to induce changes that favor pregnancy, like increased appetite, a reduced stress response or the inhibition and accumulation of neuropeptides until they are needed [1].

Adapted from http://bit.ly/2dlW1si

Hungry All the Time? 

Growing new life inside one’s body means that a lot more energy is needed – to supply the fetus with nutrients and to build up energy reserves that can be used in the period of lactation after the child is born. Appetite is usually regulated so that energy intake is in balance with energy expenditure [2]. To allow for increased food intake, changes in the brain that suppress the sensation of satiety take place. While satiety is normally signaled by the hormone leptin, the pregnant brain develops a central resistance to leptin, which ultimately increases appetite and food intake [2]. So, in a sense, your brain acts like your grandma, stuffing you with food for the bad times!

 

YOUR BRAIN MAKES YOU HUNGRY

Stressless Superwomen

Since exposure of the fetus to high levels of stress hormones increases the risk for cardiovascular, metabolic and psychiatric diseases in later life, it is necessary to minimize the exposure of the fetus to stress [3]. This means that either everyone has to tip-toe around pregnant women, or we need to change the mother-to-be’s physiological response to stress. If only it were possible to reduce the levels of circulating stress hormones! Wait – that is exactly what’s happening. In pregnancy, changes in the maternal hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis occur which render mommy hyporesponsive to stressors. This process involves changes in several HPA components, but also higher brain regions and is reflected by reduced secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone following stress [3].

PREGNANCY MAKES YOU (ALMOST) IMMUNE TO STRESS

Just On Time!

A normal pregnancy is estimated to last around 268 days, and more often than not, the due date is not too far off from what the gynecologist predicted. To prevent premature birth, the brain has to coordinate the availability and action of labor-inducing factors. For example, the neuropeptide oxytocin stimulates contractions of the uterus during birth. Throughout pregnancy, the hormonal environment changes in a way that keeps oxytocin-secreting neurons quiescent, while oxytocin continues to accumulate and its receptor expression increases [1]. This accumulation of oxytocin is believed to facilitate synchronized firing of neurons that then secrete pulses of oxytocin during birth. In concert, these stimulate contractions of the uterus and ultimately facilitate childbirth [1].

How to Be a Mommy

Let the brain do the job. Many mothers-to-be might have wondered at some point if they are capable of being a mom. Maternal love seems to be somewhat natural and unconditional everywhere in the world. You might have guessed it already, it is indeed the usual suspect who pulls the strings for maternal love: your brain.

After birth, maternal behavior needs to be initiated to ensure survival of the newborn. The medial preoptic area (mPOA), which has some control over the reward circuitry, has a central role in the regulation of maternal behavior. Priming of the mPOA by the changed endocrine environment during pregnancy is necessary for the fast initiation of maternal behavior right after childbirth [3]. During delivery, oxytocin is released and acts on receptors in the mPOA and other brain regions – and maternal behavior is induced [3].

Your Kid Lives On In You 

During pregnancy, cells from the fetus can cross the placenta and remain in the mother’s body – sometimes for decades. These cells are mainly found in the bloodstream during and right after pregnancy, but can be found anywhere in the body as well. Some studies have even shown a migration of fetal cells to the maternal brain [4]. Different studies found positive or negative effects on maternal health, ranging from increased risk for autoimmune disease [5] to improved wound healing [6].

In a nutshell, your brain needs to adapt during pregnancy and changes a lot of processes in the body. Being the perfect host, the brain does everything in its powers to make pregnancy and being a mother possible.

[1] http://bit.ly/2deNVll

[2] http://bit.ly/2d9Cuju

[3] http://go.nature.com/2d9Du7q

[4] http://bit.ly/2e0f7sg

[5] http://bit.ly/2dVr4hV

[6] http://bit.ly/2dgM4fx

by Juliane Schiweck, PhD Student AG Eickholt

this article appeared December 2016 in CNS Volume 9, Issue 4, From Cradle to Grave in the Brain

The Leaky Pipeline in Academia

Tomorrow is an important day: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY (March 8) is a day to celebrate women's social, economic, cultural & political achievements and a call for gender parity. To raise awareness for womans rights and equal pay, the next few days will center around gender equality in science.
 

Source: "Mind the Gap" goes feminist, London Student Feminists

“With boys there was a fundamental assumption that they had a right to be there – not always, but more often than not. With girls, 'why her?' came up so quickly.”

Helen Oyeyemi, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

  

Academia's Leaky Pipeline

Imagine the following scenario: you turn on the tap and very little water comes out. When checking your pipe, you realize it has plenty of holes and the water is dripping out before reaching the tap – it is wasted. It seems like academia has some holes just like that: if you imagine academia to represent the tap in this example – female scientists are the lost water drops!

Although nowadays it is generally accepted that intelligence and capability have nothing to do with gender, we, as society, still struggle to provide equal opportunities to men and women. This becomes quite obvious when we look at the so-called leaky pipeline, a phenomenon that describes how women progressively drop out and become underrepresented in the course of a typical academic career – like drops out of a leaky pipe.

How Much is Spilling Out?

If you are at least a bit like myself, you look around and think: 'where is this inequality? I don't see it! More than half of my colleagues are women!‘ So here's the evidence for vertical segregation, that is the higher and more important a position, the less represented women are.

Fortunately, there seems to be no gender gap until university level [1] – a big progress compared to the 19th century, where only 21% of university students were female [2]. In 2013, the proportion of female students (55%) and graduates (59%) at the first level of academic education even exceeded that of male students [3]. However, in the same study, women represented only 45% of grade C academic staff (the first position for which a newly qualified PhD graduate would normally be recruited), 37% of grade B (associate professors) and 21% of grade A academic staff (professors/principal investigator).

What's Making Those Holes?

These statistics make you wonder: if access to education and the likelihood of successful graduation is equal for both genders, why are women far behind when it comes to taking up leading positions?

One answer may lie in the existence of a bias when examining the performance of female scientists. For example, according to one study, women needed 2.4 times as many merits compared to their male counterparts to achieve the same evaluation in peer reviews [4].  

Family formation impairs women’s but not men’s careers

Other studies found that marriage, childbearing, and caregiving are major factors that push women out of the scientific pipeline. It seems that in academia, starting a family negatively affects women’s, but not men’s, careers [5]. For instance, a study from 2009 found that women in science who are married and have children are 35% less likely than married men with children to enter a tenure-track position after receiving a PhD [6].

We need to question and change the factors that contribute to the situation where society fails to provide equal opportunities for men and women.

Patching the Pipeline

The good news is that, thanks to extensive statistics like the 'She Figures', there is clear evidence that a gender gap exists in top positions and that attempts are being made to counteract it. For instance, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, a central organization for the promotion of science in Germany, has made it a central task that ''universities and non-university research institutions must commit themselves to promoting equal rights for women and men in all areas of work'', including the improvement of compatibility of career and family life in research and science [7]. 

The European Commission also actively works on structural changes in its member states, summarized in a report from 2011, in which they identify problems contributing to the gender gap and possible solutions. One problem the report identified is a lack of awareness of how systems can be discriminatory, even if the employers have the best of intentions. For example, employers may be aware of the existence of a gender pay gap, but may not realize that they themselves contribute to it [4].

broken pipe by Horst Gutman via Flickr

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution and we cannot call a handyman (or -woman) to patch the leaky pipeline. However, what we can do is raise awareness and do our bit to make sure we do not waste potential. There is no trade-off for gender and excellence!

by Juliane Schiweck, PhD Student AG Eickholt

this article originally appeared March 2017 in "Diversity in Neuroscience"

[1] http://bit.ly/1MFMUAn

[2] http://bit.ly/2j45R56

[3] http://bit.ly/2kifUnS

[4] http://bit.ly/2kigUbG

[5] http://bit.ly/2jRYK48

[6] http://bit.ly/2jHZcPV.

[7] http://bit.ly/2jS6FhK