<p>Abstract: Objective: Innovative approaches to the treatment of war‐related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are needed. We report on secondary psychological outcomes of a randomized controlled trial of integrative exercise (IE) using aerobic and resistance exercise with mindfulness‐based principles and yoga. We expected—in parallel to observed improvements in PTSD intensity and quality of life—improvements in mindfulness, interoceptive bodily awareness, and positive states of mind. Method: A total of 47 war veterans with PTSD were randomized to 12‐week IE versus waitlist. Changes in mindfulness, interoceptive awareness, and states of mind were assessed by self‐report standard measures. Results: Large effect sizes for the intervention were observed on Five‐Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Non‐Reactivity (d = .85), Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Body Listening (d = .80), and Self‐Regulation (d = 1.05). Conclusion: In a randomized controlled trial of a 12‐week IE program for war veterans with PTSD, we saw significant improvements in mindfulness, interoceptive bodily awareness, and positive states of mind compared to a waitlist.</p>
Suffering from anxiety attacks? Karen Brody talks about how yoga nidra complete stopped her anxiety attacks for good.
Key mechanisms of action of psychosocial treatments for chronic pain include decreased catastrophizing and increased self-efficacy [cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)] and increased mindfulness and possibly pain acceptance [mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)]. Greater understanding of overlap among these variables is important in understanding treatment-specific and shared mechanisms of action. We examined, in an RCT comparing group CBT (n=112), MBSR (n=116), and usual care (UC; n=113) for chronic back pain: (1) baseline relationships among the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire-8 (CPAQ-8), and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-short form (FFMQ-SF); and (2) pre- to post-treatment changes in these measures. We hypothesized that: (1) at baseline, the PCS would be associated negatively with the CPAQ-8, PSEQ, and FFMQ-SF Non-Reactivity, Non-Judging, and Acting with Awareness scales, and the CPAQ-8 would be associated positively with the PSEQ; and (2) adjusting for baseline variables, FFMQ-SF and CPAQ-8 scores would increase more pre- to post-treatment in MBSR than in CBT and UC, and PCS scores would decrease more and PSEQ scores would increase more in CBT than in MBSR and UC. The hypothesized baseline associations were confirmed between the PCS and the CPAQ-8 (Spearman’s rho = -0.40 to -0.55), PSEQ (-0.57), and FFMQ (-0.22 to -0.30) scales (all Ps < 0.01), and between the CPAQ-8 and the PSEQ (0.46-0.65; all Ps < 0.01). Among all participants who completed baseline and post-treatment assessments (n = 290), catastrophizing decreased significantly more pre- to post-treatment in MBSR than in UC and CBT. Among those who attended >6 of the 8 group sessions, mindfulness increased more in MBSR than in CBT, but the groups did not differ significantly in pre- to post-treatment change on the other measures. The results suggest overlap in mechanisms of action of CBT and MBSR. Supported by NCCAM grant 1R01AT006226.
ObjectiveMindfulness interventions, which train practitioners to monitor their present-moment experience with a lens of acceptance, are known to buffer stress reactivity. Little is known about the active mechanisms driving these effects. We theorize that acceptance is a critical emotion regulation mechanism underlying mindfulness stress reduction effects.
Method
In this three-arm parallel trial, mindfulness components were dismantled into three structurally equivalent 15-lesson smartphone-based interventions: (1) training in both monitoring and acceptance (Monitor + Accept), (2) training in monitoring only (Monitor Only), or (3) active control training (Coping control). 153 stressed adults (mean age = 32 years; 67% female; 53% white, 21.5% black, 21.5% Asian, 4% other race) were randomly assigned to complete one of three interventions. After the intervention, cortisol, blood pressure, and subjective stress reactivity were assessed using a modified Trier Social Stress Test.
Results
As predicted, Monitor + Accept training reduced cortisol and systolic blood pressure reactivity compared to Monitor Only and control trainings. Participants in all three conditions reported moderate levels of subjective stress.
Conclusions
This study provides the first experimental evidence that brief smartphone mindfulness training can impact stress biology, and that acceptance training drives these effects. We discuss implications for basic and applied research in contemplative science, emotion regulation, stress and coping, health, and clinical interventions.
One of society’s greatest challenges is to sustain natural resources while promoting economic growth and quality of life. In the face of this challenge, society must measure the effectiveness of programs established to safeguard the environment. The impetus for demonstrating positive results from government-sponsored research and regulation in the United States comes from Congress (General Accountability Office; GAO) and the Executive Branch (Office of Management and Budget; OMB). The message is: regulatory and research programs must demonstrate outcomes that justify their costs. Although the concept is simple, it is a complex problem to demonstrate that environmental research, policies, and regulations cause measurable changes in environmental quality. Even where changes in environmental quality can be tracked reliably, the connections between government actions and environmental outcomes seldom are direct or straightforward. In this article, we describe emerging efforts (with emphasis on the role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; EPA) to frame and measure environmental outcomes in terms of ecosystem services and values—societally and ecologically meaningful metrics for gauging how well we manage environmental resources. As examples of accounting for outcomes and values, we present a novel, low-cost method for determining relative values of multiple ecosystem services, and describe emerging research on indicators of human well-being.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the acute and chronic effects of yoga practice. DESIGN: Quantitative study using a one-group pre-posttest design. SETTING: Visao Futuro Institute, Porangaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil. PARTICIPANTS: 22 volunteers (7 men and 15 women). INTERVENTION: Six weeks of a tantric yoga program (TYP), 50 minutes per session, held twice a week from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. The local ethics committee approved the protocol. OUTCOME MEASURES: Data were collected in the first week and at the end of the sixth week of TYP. Salivary cortisol concentration (SCC) was used to measure physiology of distress and to analyze the short- and long-term effects of TYP. Psychological distress was evaluated by applying a specific perceived stress questionnaire (PSQ). Results (mean+/-standard deviation) were analyzed by Wilcoxon test (p<0.05). RESULTS: SCC decreased 24% after the first (0.66+/-0.20 mug/dL versus 0.50+/-0.13 mug/dL) and last (1.01+/-0.37 versus 0.76+/-0.31 mug/dL) sessions, showing the short-term effect of yoga. Long-term effects were analyzed by daily rhythm of cortisol production. In the beginning, volunteers showed altered SCC during the day, with nighttime values (0.42+/-0.28) higher than those at noon (0.30+/-0.06). After the TYP, SCC was higher in the morning (1.01+/-0.37) and decreased during the day, with lower values before sleep (0.30+/-0.13). The TYP was also efficient to reduce PSQ scores (0.45+/-0.13 versus 0.39+/-0.07). Specifically, the irritability, tension, and fatigue domains on the PSQ decreased (0.60+/-0.20 versus 0.46+/-0.13), as did the fear and anxiety domains (0.54+/-0.30 versus 0.30+/-0.20). CONCLUSION: Over the short term, TYP led to the decrease of cortisol production. Over the long term, TYP induced higher cortisol production in the morning and lower production in the evening. Those effects contributed to the physical and mental well-being of the participants.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the acute and chronic effects of yoga practice. DESIGN: Quantitative study using a one-group pre-posttest design. SETTING: Visao Futuro Institute, Porangaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil. PARTICIPANTS: 22 volunteers (7 men and 15 women). INTERVENTION: Six weeks of a tantric yoga program (TYP), 50 minutes per session, held twice a week from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. The local ethics committee approved the protocol. OUTCOME MEASURES: Data were collected in the first week and at the end of the sixth week of TYP. Salivary cortisol concentration (SCC) was used to measure physiology of distress and to analyze the short- and long-term effects of TYP. Psychological distress was evaluated by applying a specific perceived stress questionnaire (PSQ). Results (mean+/-standard deviation) were analyzed by Wilcoxon test (p<0.05). RESULTS: SCC decreased 24% after the first (0.66+/-0.20 mug/dL versus 0.50+/-0.13 mug/dL) and last (1.01+/-0.37 versus 0.76+/-0.31 mug/dL) sessions, showing the short-term effect of yoga. Long-term effects were analyzed by daily rhythm of cortisol production. In the beginning, volunteers showed altered SCC during the day, with nighttime values (0.42+/-0.28) higher than those at noon (0.30+/-0.06). After the TYP, SCC was higher in the morning (1.01+/-0.37) and decreased during the day, with lower values before sleep (0.30+/-0.13). The TYP was also efficient to reduce PSQ scores (0.45+/-0.13 versus 0.39+/-0.07). Specifically, the irritability, tension, and fatigue domains on the PSQ decreased (0.60+/-0.20 versus 0.46+/-0.13), as did the fear and anxiety domains (0.54+/-0.30 versus 0.30+/-0.20). CONCLUSION: Over the short term, TYP led to the decrease of cortisol production. Over the long term, TYP induced higher cortisol production in the morning and lower production in the evening. Those effects contributed to the physical and mental well-being of the participants.
To test the effects of cortisol on affective experience, the authors orally administered a placebo, 20 mg cortisol, or 40 mg cortisol to 85 men. Participants' affective responses to negative and neutral stimuli were measured. Self-reported affective state was also assessed. Participants in the 40-mg group (showing extreme cortisol elevations within the physiological range) rated neutral stimuli as more highly arousing than did participants in the placebo and 20-mg groups. Furthermore, within the 20-mg group, individuals with higher cortisol elevations made higher arousal ratings of neutral stimuli. However, cortisol was unrelated to self-reported affective state. Thus, findings indicate that acute cortisol elevations cause heightened arousal in response to objectively nonarousing stimuli, in the absence of effects on mood.
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Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have elevated sympathetic nervous system reactivity and impaired sympathetic and cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity (BRS). Device-guided slow breathing (DGB) has been shown to lower blood pressure (BP) and sympathetic activity in other patient populations. We hypothesized that DGB acutely lowers BP, heart rate (HR), and improves BRS in PTSD. In 23 prehypertensive veterans with PTSD, we measured continuous BP, ECG, and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) at rest and during 15 min of DGB at 5 breaths/min ( n = 13) or identical sham device breathing at normal rates of 14 breaths/min (sham; n = 10). Sympathetic and cardiovagal BRS was quantified using pharmacological manipulation of BP via the modified Oxford technique at baseline and during the last 5 min of DGB or sham. There was a significant reduction in systolic BP (by −9 ± 2 mmHg, P < 0.001), diastolic BP (by −3 ± 1 mmHg, P = 0.019), mean arterial pressure (by −4 ± 1 mmHg, P = 0.002), and MSNA burst frequency (by −7.8 ± 2.1 bursts/min, P = 0.004) with DGB but no significant change in HR ( P > 0.05). Within the sham group, there was no significant change in diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, HR, or MSNA burst frequency, but there was a small but significant decrease in systolic BP ( P = 0.034) and MSNA burst incidence ( P = 0.033). Sympathetic BRS increased significantly in the DGB group (−1.08 ± 0.25 to −2.29 ± 0.24 bursts·100 heart beats −1
·mmHg
−1
, P = 0.014) but decreased in the sham group (−1.58 ± 0.34 to –0.82 ± 0.28 bursts·100 heart beats
−1
·mmHg
−1
, P = 0.025) (time × device, P = 0.001). There was no significant difference in the change in cardiovagal BRS between the groups (time × device, P = 0.496). DGB acutely lowers BP and MSNA and improves sympathetic but not cardiovagal BRS in prehypertensive veterans with PTSD.
NEW & NOTEWORTHY Posttraumatic stress disorder is characterized by augmented sympathetic reactivity, impaired baroreflex sensitivity, and an increased risk for developing hypertension and cardiovascular disease. This is the first study to examine the potential beneficial effects of device-guided slow breathing on hemodynamics, sympathetic activity, and arterial baroreflex sensitivity in prehypertensive veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
<p>BACKGROUND: In 2012, yoga was practiced by 20 million Americans, of whom 82% were women. A recent literature review on prenatal yoga noted a reduction in some pregnancy complications (ie, preterm birth, lumbar pain, and growth restriction) in those who practiced yoga; to date, there is no evidence on fetal response after yoga. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to characterize the acute changes in maternal and fetal response to prenatal yoga exercises using common standardized tests to assess the well-being of the maternal-fetal unit. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a single, blinded, randomized controlled trial. Uncomplicated pregnancies between 28 0/7 and 36 6/7 weeks with a nonanomalous singleton fetus of women who did not smoke, use narcotics, or have prior experience with yoga were included. A computer-generated simple randomization sequence with a 1:1 allocation ratio was used to randomize participants into the yoga or control group. Women in the yoga group participated in a 1-time, 1 hour yoga class with a certified instructor who taught a predetermined yoga sequence. In the control group, each participant attended a 1-time, 1 hour PowerPoint presentation by an obstetrician on American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommendations for exercise, nutrition, and obesity in pregnancy. All participants underwent pre- and postintervention testing, which consisted of umbilical and uterine artery Doppler ultrasound, nonstress testing, a biophysical profile, maternal blood pressure, and maternal heart rate. A board-certified maternal-fetal medicine specialist, at a different tertiary center, interpreted all nonstress tests and biophysical profile data and was blinded to group assignment and pre- or postintervention testing. The primary outcome was a change in umbilical artery Doppler systolic to diastolic ratio. Sample size calculations indicated 19 women per group would be sufficient to detect this difference in Doppler indices (alpha, 0.05; power, 80%). Data were analyzed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance, a chi(2), and a Fisher exact test. A value of P < .05 was considered significant. RESULTS: Of the 52 women randomized, 46 (88%) completed the study. There was no clinically significant change in umbilical artery systolic to diastolic ratio (P = .34), pulsatility index (P = .53), or resistance index (P = .66) between the 2 groups before and after the intervention. Fetal and maternal heart rate, maternal blood pressure, and uterine artery Dopplers remained unchanged over time. When umbilical artery indices were individually compared with gestational age references, there was no difference between those who improved or worsened between the groups. CONCLUSION: There was no significant change in fetal blood flow acutely after performing yoga for the first time in pregnancy. Yoga can be recommended for low-risk women to begin during pregnancy.</p>
<p>URL: <a href="https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(15)02580-6/fulltext" target="_blank">https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(15)02580-6/fulltext</a></p>
<p>The article describes the changing salt trade in Nepal. The article is based on the result of research undertaken in Nepal from October 1975 to July 1977. This article describes the changes which have occurred and the manner in which Humla traders have adapted to maintain long-distance trade as a viable strategy. (Rajeev Ranjan Singh 2007-01-25)</p>
OBJECTIVE:Despite the well-known stress of medical school, including adverse consequences for mental and behavioral health, there is little consensus about how to best intervene in a way that accommodates students׳ intense training demands, interest in science, and desire to avoid being stigmatized. The objective of this study, therefore, was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and initial effectiveness of an adapted, four-week stress management and self-care workshop for medical students, which was based on the science and practice of mind-body medicine.
METHODS:
The current study used a prospective, observational, and mixed methods design, with pretest and posttest evaluations. Participants (n = 44) included medical and physician-scientist (MD/PhD) students from a large, southeastern medical school. Feasibility was assessed by rates of workshop enrollment and completion. Acceptability was assessed using qualitative ratings and open-ended responses that queried perceived value of the workshop. Quantitative outcomes included students׳ ratings of stress and mindfulness using validated self-report surveys.
RESULTS:
Enrollment progressively increased from 6 to 15 to 23 students per workshop in 2007, 2009, and 2011, respectively. Of the 44 enrolled students, 36 (82%) completed the workshop, indicating that the four-session extracurricular format was feasible for most students. Students reported that the workshop was acceptable, stating that it helped them cope more skillfully with the stress and emotional challenges of medical school, and helped increase self-care behaviors, such as exercise, sleep, and engaging in social support. Students also reported a 32% decrease in perceived stress (P < .001; d = 1.38) and a 16% increase in mindfulness (P < .001; d = 0.92) following the workshop. Changes in stress and mindfulness were significantly correlated (r = -0.42; P = .01).
CONCLUSION:
Together, these findings suggest that a brief, voluntary mind-body skills workshop specifically adapted for medical students is feasible, acceptable, and effective for reducing stress, increasing mindfulness, and enhancing student self-care.
As mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) becomes an increasingly mainstream approach for recurrent depression, there is a growing need for practitioners who are able to teach MBCT. The requirements for being competent as a mindfulness-based teacher include personal meditation practice and at least a year of additional professional training. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between MBCT teacher competence and several key dimensions of MBCT treatment outcomes. Patients with recurrent depression in remission (N = 241) participated in a multi-centre trial of MBCT, provided by 15 teachers. Teacher competence was assessed using the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC) based on two to four randomly selected video-recorded sessions of each of the 15 teachers, evaluated by 16 trained assessors. Results showed that teacher competence was not significantly associated with adherence (number of MBCT sessions attended), possible mechanisms of change (rumination, cognitive reactivity, mindfulness, and self-compassion), or key outcomes (depressive symptoms at post treatment and depressive relapse/recurrence during the 15-month follow-up). Thus, findings from the current study indicate no robust effects of teacher competence, as measured by the MBI:TAC, on possible mediators and outcome variables in MBCT for recurrent depression. Possible explanations are the standardized delivery of MBCT, the strong emphasis on self-reliance within the MBCT learning process, the importance of participant-related factors, the difficulties in assessing teacher competence, the absence of main treatment effects in terms of reducing depressive symptoms, and the relatively small selection of videotapes. Further work is required to systematically investigate these explanations.
OBJECTIVES: Adequate relief (AR) of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms (IBS-AR) has been used as a primary end point in many randomized controlled trials of IBS and is considered by the Rome III committee to be an acceptable primary end point. However, controversy exists on whether baseline severity confounds the effect of the treatment outcome. The aim (1) is to compare a subjective report of IBS-AR with global assessment of improvement (IBS-GAI), change in IBS symptom severity scale (IBS-SSS), and IBS quality of life (IBS-QOL); (2) to explore whether initial IBS symptom severity influences the ability of these outcome measures to detect differences post treatment; and (3) to determine whether psychological symptoms influence the sensitivity of these measures, in a randomized controlled treatment trial.
METHODS: A total of 289 adult IBS patients were recruited to a treatment trial. Baseline IBS-SSS scores were used to classify IBS severity as mild (<175), moderate (175–300), or severe (>300). Questionnaires were completed at baseline and after 3 weeks of treatment with sham acupuncture or wait-list control.
RESULTS: IBS baseline severity (IBS-SSS) significantly affected the proportion of patients who reported IBS-AR at 3 weeks (mild, 70%; moderate, 49.7%; severe, 38.8%) (P<0.05). However, once the patients who reported IBS-AR at baseline (28.0%) were excluded from the analysis, baseline severity no longer affected the proportion of patients reporting IBS-AR. Baseline severity did not have a significant effect on patients reporting moderate or significant improvement on the IBS-GAI (mild, 30%; moderate, 25.3%; severe, 18.8%) (P=NS). Psychological symptoms had no significant correlations with responders after adjusting for baseline severity.
CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that IBS-AR as an end point is inversely related to baseline symptom severity. However, if patients who report AR at screening were excluded from study participation, baseline symptom severity was no longer confounded with a report of AR at the study end point.
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Adolescence is a time of change that can be both exciting and stressful. In this review, we focus on the central role that disturbed sleep and daytime sleepiness occupies in interactions involving substance abuse and negative health, social, and emotional outcomes. As a means of improving sleep and lowering risk for recidivism of substance abuse, we developed and implemented a six-session group treatment to treat sleep disturbances in adolescents who have received treatment for substance abuse. The components of the treatment are stimulus control instructions, use of bright light to regularize sleep, sleep hygiene education, cognitive therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Preliminary evidence indicates that participants who completed four or more sessions in the treatment program showed improved sleep and that improving sleep may lead to a reduction in substance abuse problems at the 12-month follow-up.
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This book introduces the multidisciplinary intersection of neuroscience, psychology, psychotherapy and ancient Eastern wisdom traditions; and offers profound insight into the field of contemporary science and public health. To explicate the rise of compassion-based practice and mindfulness-based interventions, the content includes contributions from scholars, researchers, and practitioners, including Robert Thurman, Daniel Siegel, Tara Brach, Paul Fulton, Sharon Salzberg, Rick Hanson, Christopher Germer, Pilar Jennings, and Mariana Caplan.
<p>Little attention has been paid to the psychological determinants by which benefits are accrued via yoga practice in cancer-related clinical settings. Using a longitudinal multilevel modeling approach, associations between affect, mindfulness, and patient-reported mental health outcomes, including mood disturbance, stress symptoms, and health-related quality of life (HRQL), were examined in an existing seven-week yoga program for cancer survivors. Participants (N = 66) were assessed before and after the yoga program and at three- and six-month follow-ups. Decreases in mood disturbance and stress symptoms and improvements in HRQL were observed upon program completion. Improvements in mood disturbance and stress symptoms were maintained at the three- and six-month follow-ups. HRQL exhibited further improvement at the three-month follow-up, which was maintained at the six-month follow-up. Improvements in measures of well-being were predicted by initial positive yoga beliefs and concurrently assessed affective and mindfulness predictor variables. Previous yoga experience, affect, mindfulness, and HRQL were related to yoga practice maintenance over the course of the study.</p>
Functional neuroimaging studies have implicated the fusiform gyri (FG) in structural encoding of faces, while event-related potential (ERP) and magnetoencephalography studies have shown that such encoding occurs approximately 170 ms poststimulus. Behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies suggest that processes involved in face recognition may be strongly modulated by socially relevant information conveyed by faces. To test the hypothesis that affective information indeed modulates early stages of face processing, ERPs were recorded to individually assessed liked, neutral, and disliked faces and checkerboard-reversal stimuli. At the N170 latency, the cortical three-dimensional distribution of current density was computed in stereotactic space using a tomographic source localization technique. Mean activity was extracted from the FG, defined by structure-probability maps, and a meta-cluster delineated by the coordinates of the voxel with the strongest face-sensitive response from five published functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. In the FG, approximately 160 ms poststimulus, liked faces elicited stronger activation than disliked and neutral faces and checkerboard-reversal stimuli. Further, confirming recent results, affect-modulated brain electrical activity started very early in the human brain (approximately 112 ms). These findings suggest that affective features conveyed by faces modulate structural face encoding. Behavioral results from an independent study revealed that the stimuli were not biased toward particular facial expressions and confirmed that liked faces were rated as more attractive. Increased FG activation for liked faces may thus be interpreted as reflecting enhanced attention due to their saliency.
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Individuals with asthma have twice the risk of developing mood and anxiety disorders as individuals without asthma and these psychological factors are associated with worse outcomes and greater need for medical intervention. Similarly, asthma symptom onset and exacerbation often occur during times of increased psychological stress. Remission from depression, on the other hand, is associated with improvement in asthma symptoms and decreased usage of asthma medication. Yet research aimed at understanding the biological underpinnings of asthma has focused almost exclusively on the periphery. An extensive literature documents the relationship between emotion and asthma, but little work has explored the function of affective neural circuitry in asthma symptom expression. Therefore, the following review integrates neuroimaging research related to factors that may impact symptom expression in asthma, such as individual differences in sensitivity to visceral signals, the influence of expectation and emotion on symptom perception, and changes related to disease chronicity, such as conditioning and plasticity. The synthesis of these literatures suggests that the insular and anterior cingulate cortices, in addition to other brain regions previously implicated in the regulation of emotion, may be both responsive to asthma-related bodily changes and important in influencing the appearance and persistence of symptom expression in asthma.
Individuals with asthma have twice the risk of developing mood and anxiety disorders as individuals without asthma and these psychological factors are associated with worse outcomes and greater need for medical intervention. Similarly, asthma symptom onset and exacerbation often occur during times of increased psychological stress. Remission from depression, on the other hand, is associated with improvement in asthma symptoms and decreased usage of asthma medication. Yet research aimed at understanding the biological underpinnings of asthma has focused almost exclusively on the periphery. An extensive literature documents the relationship between emotion and asthma, but little work has explored the function of affective neural circuitry in asthma symptom expression. Therefore, the following review integrates neuroimaging research related to factors that may impact symptom expression in asthma, such as individual differences in sensitivity to visceral signals, the influence of expectation and emotion on symptom perception, and changes related to disease chronicity, such as conditioning and plasticity. The synthesis of these literatures suggests that the insular and anterior cingulate cortices, in addition to other brain regions previously implicated in the regulation of emotion, may be both responsive to asthma-related bodily changes and important in influencing the appearance and persistence of symptom expression in asthma.
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This article reviews the author's program of research on the neural substrates of emotion and affective style and their behavioral and peripheral biological correlates. Two core dimensions along which affect is organized are approach and withdrawal. Some of the key circuitry underlying approach and withdrawal components of emotion is reviewed with an emphasis on the role played by different sectors of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala. Affective style refers to individual differences in valence-specific features of emotional reactivity and regulation. The different parameters of affective style can be objectively measured using specific laboratory probes. Relations between individual differences in prefrontal and amygdala function and specific components of affective style are illustrated. The final section of the article concludes with a brief discussion of plasticity in the central circuitry of emotion and the possibility that this circuitry can be shaped by training experiences that might potentially promote a more resilient, positive affective style. The implications of this body of work for a broader conception of psychophysiology and for training the next generation of psychophysiologists are considered in the conclusion.
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This past year has seen significant advances in our understanding of the physiology of emotion. Attention continues to focus on the amygdala and its interconnections with prefrontal cortical regions. New evidence underscores the importance of lateralization for emotion. There are also new findings on the physiological predictors of individual differences in emotional behavior and experience, and on the role of autonomic arousal in emotional memory.
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Little is known about the mechanisms through which mindfulness is related to psychological symptoms such as anxiety. One potential mechanism consists of individual differences in emotion-responding variables such as reactivity to aversive stimuli. The current research was designed to examine whether affective reactivity may act as a mechanism of mindfulness. Across two studies, an inverse relation between trait mindfulness (specifically, the Nonjudging of Inner Experience and Acting with Awareness factors of the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) and chronic anxiety was partially mediated by affective reactivity, assessed with direct (self-report in study 1) and indirect (lexical decision task in study 2) measures. These results contribute to the understanding of the psychological mechanisms through which mindfulness works.
<p>Individual differences in emotional reactivity or affective style can be decomposed into more elementary constituents. Several separable of affective style are identified such as the threshold for reactivity, peak amplitude of response, the rise time to peak and the recovery time. latter two characteristics constitute components of affective chronometry The circuitry that underlies two fundamental forms of motivation and and withdrawal-related processes-is described. Data on differences in functional activity in certain components of these are next reviewed, with an emphasis on the nomological network of surrounding individual differences in asymmetric prefrontal The relevance of such differences for understanding the nature affective dysfunction in affective disorders is then considered. The ends by considering what the prefrontal cortex “does” in certain of affective style and highlights some of the important questions for future research.</p>
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