Skip to main content Skip to search
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9
Dougal Dixon has given himself the intriguing task of contemplating a future evolution on our own planet, closely based on species that exist at present. By waving a time-wand and eliminating today’s dominant species, including man, he has been able to watch, through his mind’s eye, the lesser animals gradually taking over as the major occupants of the earth’s surface.Setting his scenario in the distant future, about 50 million years from now, he has given the members of his new animal kingdom time to undergo dramatic changes in structure and behaviour. But in doing this he has never allowed himself to become too outlandish in his invention. He has created his fauna of the future so painstakingly that each kind of animal teaches us an important lesson about the known processes of past evolution. By introducing us to fictitious examples of these factual processes, his book is not only great fun to read, but also has real scientific value.

The primary taste cortex consists of the insula and operculum. Previous work has indicated that neurons in the primary taste cortex respond solely to sensory input from taste receptors and lingual somatosensory receptors. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show here that expectancy modulates these neural responses in humans. When subjects were led to believe that a highly aversive bitter taste would be less distasteful than it actually was, they reported it to be less aversive than when they had accurate information about the taste and, moreover, the primary taste cortex was less strongly activated. In addition, the activation of the right insula and operculum tracked online ratings of the aversiveness for each taste. Such expectancy-driven modulation of primary sensory cortex may affect perceptions of external events.
Zotero Collections:

If character is what we do when no one’s watching, a new study suggests that only some of us truly have enough character to be labeled altruists. What’s more, altruism may bring unexpected rewards down the line.

The experience of aversion is shaped by multiple physiological and psychological factors including one's expectations. Recent work has shown that expectancy manipulation can alter perceptions of aversive events and concomitant brain activation. Accruing evidence indicates a primary role of altered expectancies in the placebo effect. Here, we probed the mechanism by which expectation attenuates sensory taste transmission by examining how brain areas activated by misleading information during an expectancy period modulate insula and amygdala activation to a highly aversive bitter taste. In a rapid event-related fMRI design, we showed that activations in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to a misleading cue that the taste would be mildly aversive predicted decreases in insula and amygdala activation to the highly aversive taste. OFC and rACC activation to the misleading cue were also associated with less aversive ratings of that taste. Additional analyses revealed consistent results demonstrating functional connectivity among the OFC, rACC, and insula. Altering expectancies of upcoming aversive events are shown here to depend on robust functional associations among brain regions implicated in prior work on the placebo effect.
Zotero Collections:

Mindfulness is theorized to attenuate negative responses to stress, but the majority of prior research supporting this hypothesis has relied on cross-sectional correlations or reactions to laboratory-induced stressors. In two independent samples, we tested whether dispositional mindfulness promoted less negative reactions to naturally-occurring day-to-day stressors. Participants first completed measures of dispositional mindfulness and individual differences in negative reactivity and emotion regulation. Participants then reported their level of stress and depressed mood, at the end of each day, for 10 days. Greater daily stress was associated with increases in daily depressed mood, but the negative impact of daily stress was attenuated for people higher in dispositional mindfulness. The stress buffering effect of mindfulness was also independent of participants’ neuroticism, existing depressive symptoms, and emotion regulation tendencies. These results reveal the unique and important role dispositional mindfulness plays in producing more constructive emotional reactions to routine stress and difficulties.

Mindfulness is theorized to attenuate negative responses to stress, but the majority of prior research supporting this hypothesis has relied on cross-sectional correlations or reactions to laboratory-induced stressors. In two independent samples, we tested whether dispositional mindfulness promoted less negative reactions to naturally-occurring day-to-day stressors. Participants first completed measures of dispositional mindfulness and individual differences in negative reactivity and emotion regulation. Participants then reported their level of stress and depressed mood, at the end of each day, for 10 days. Greater daily stress was associated with increases in daily depressed mood, but the negative impact of daily stress was attenuated for people higher in dispositional mindfulness. The stress buffering effect of mindfulness was also independent of participants’ neuroticism, existing depressive symptoms, and emotion regulation tendencies. These results reveal the unique and important role dispositional mindfulness plays in producing more constructive emotional reactions to routine stress and difficulties.

Mindfulness is theorized to attenuate negative responses to stress, but the majority of prior research supporting this hypothesis has relied on cross-sectional correlations or reactions to laboratory-induced stressors. In two independent samples, we tested whether dispositional mindfulness promoted less negative reactions to naturally-occurring day-to-day stressors. Participants first completed measures of dispositional mindfulness and individual differences in negative reactivity and emotion regulation. Participants then reported their level of stress and depressed mood, at the end of each day, for 10 days. Greater daily stress was associated with increases in daily depressed mood, but the negative impact of daily stress was attenuated for people higher in dispositional mindfulness. The stress buffering effect of mindfulness was also independent of participants’ neuroticism, existing depressive symptoms, and emotion regulation tendencies. These results reveal the unique and important role dispositional mindfulness plays in producing more constructive emotional reactions to routine stress and difficulties.

OBJECTIVE:To determine whether neurocognitive performance and clinical outcomes can be enhanced by a mindfulness intervention in older adults with stress disorders and cognitive complaints. To explore decreased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity as a possible mechanism. METHODS: 103 adults aged 65 years or older with an anxiety or depressive disorder (diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria) and subjective neurocognitive difficulties were recruited in St. Louis, Missouri, or San Diego, California, from September 2012 through August 2013 and randomly assigned in groups of 5-8 to mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) or a health education control condition matched for time, attention, and credibility. The primary outcomes were memory (assessed by immediate and delayed paragraph and list recall) and cognitive control (Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Verbal Fluency Test and Color Word Interference Test). Other outcomes included clinical symptoms (worry, depression, anxiety, and global improvement). HPA axis activity was assessed using peak salivary cortisol. Outcomes were measured immediately post-intervention and (for clinical outcomes only) at 3- and 6-month follow up. RESULTS: On the basis of intent-to-treat principles using data from all 103 participants, the mindfulness group experienced greater improvement on a memory composite score (P = .046). Groups did not differ on change in cognitive control. Participants receiving MBSR also improved more on measures of worry (P = .042) and depression (P = .049) at posttreatment and on worry (P = .02), depression (P = .002), and anxiety (P = .002) at follow-up and were more likely to be rated as much or very much improved as rated by the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale (47% vs 27%, χ² = 4.5, P = .03). Cortisol level decreased to a greater extent in the mindfulness group, but only among those participants with high baseline cortisol. CONCLUSIONS: In this population of older adults with stress disorders and neurocognitive difficulties, a mindfulness intervention improves clinical outcomes such as excessive worry and depression and may include some forms of immediate memory performance.

Mindfulness is linked with improved regulatory processes of attention and emotion. The potential benefits of mindfulness are vast, including more positive emotional states and diminished arousal in response to emotional stimuli. This study aims to expand of the current knowledge of the mechanisms of mindfulness by relating the latter to cardiovascular processes. The paper describes two studies which investigated the relationship of trait mindfulness to self-report measures of emotions elicited during a violent video clip and cardiovascular responses to the clip. Both studies recruited male and female participants, mainly university undergraduate students. The clip was 5-min-long and evoked mainly feelings of tension and disgust. In study 1, we found that higher scores for trait mindfulness were associated with increased scores for valence (r = .370, p = .009), indicating a more positive interpretation of the clip. In study 2, the average heart rate during the clip was lower than during the preceding (p < .05) and following (p < .01) non-exposure conditions. Higher trait mindfulness was related to diminished heart rate reactivity (r = −.364, p = .044) and recovery (r = −.415, p = .020). This latter effect was obtained only when trait anxiety was used as a statistical covariate. Additionally, increased trait mindfulness was accompanied by higher resting heart rate (r = .390, p = .027). These outcomes suggest that mindfulness is linked with reductions in negative feelings evoked by violent motion stimuli.