Visual-graphic spiral pattern can reduce medical-associated stress during the geomagnetic storm

Introduction. About 18% of all health problems in the working population are related to stress, depression and anxiety. The consequences of industrial stress exacerbated by unfavorable geomagnetic activity, can manifest itself in an increase in the psychophysiological “price” of activity, overstrain and depletion of the regulatory mechanisms of functional systems that ensure the adaptation of the body to vital factors and, ultimately, in a significant deterioration in the health of workers. Medical workers occupy a special place in the structure of professional groups of the working population, since they are at increased risk of neuro-emotional overstrain up to the development of professional burnout syndrome. The aim of the study is to develop and test a technique that helps to reduce the level of stress and emotional load affecting the psychophysiological state of a person. Materials and methods. The study involved 15 relatively healthy medical students aged 19 to 25 years. The algorithm of the study was as follows: the forecast of geomagnetic storms (G3-5) was tracked on the website of the Laboratory of X-ray Astronomy of the Sun (https://tesis.lebedev.ru /). During the storm a student was given the graphic task, in the form of synchronous outlines of stencils with two hands, before and after completing the experimental task the subject was asked to pass psychological tests: a visual-analog scale of situational emotional state according to the Dembo-Rubinstein method and the Spielberger-Khanin scale of personal and situational anxiety (STAI). The electroencephalogram was recorded using an electroencephalograph recorder "Encephalan-EEGR-19/26". Results. The Dembo-Rubinstein technique showed that after passing the experimental task 21% of the subjects significantly improved their emotional state according to a quantitative assessment of the visual-analog scale of situational emotional state. The level of personal anxiety also significantly decreased by 5% and the level of situational anxiety did not change, the assessment was carried out using the Spielberger-Khanin scale of personal and situational anxiety (STAI). Limitations. The obtained results require further verification on the larger experimental groups with the involvement of medical workers of different age and specialties; lengthening the period of observation of the recorded indicators after completing of the tactile-graphical task to clarify the timing of changes in indicators of situational emotional state and personal anxiety. Conclusions. A simple technique for reducing stress levels in medical students has proved its effectivity in changing the psychophysiological manifestation of stress, since the level of stress activity is directly related to the degree of personal anxiety. This technique can be recommended to medical workers and students as an exercise to improve cognitive activity by reducing stress and anxiety associated with the influence of geomagnetic storms, which increase sensitivity to external stress factors, on the psychophysiological state of a person

Psychologie und Gehirn 2007

Die Fachtagung "Psychologie und Gehirn" ist eine traditionelle Tagung aus dem Bereich psychophysiologischer Grundlagenforschung. 2007 fand diese Veranstaltung, die 33. Jahrestagung der „Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychophysiologie und ihre Anwendungen (DGPA)“, in Dortmund unter der Schirmherrschaft des Instituts für Arbeitsphysiologie (IfADo) statt. Neben der Grundlagenforschung ist auch die Umsetzung in die Anwendung erklärtes Ziel der DGPA und dieser Tradition folgend wurden Beiträge aus vielen Bereichen moderner Neurowissenschaft (Elektrophysiologie, bildgebende Verfahren, Peripherphysiologie, Neuroendokrinologie, Verhaltensgenetik, u.a.) präsentiert und liegen hier in Kurzform vor

Using auditory evoked brain responses to detect anxious vulnerabilities in neonates.

Anxiety disorders are prevalent in both adult and child populations, and are associated with significant economic and psychosocial costs. There are clearly familial patterns of transmission within the anxiety disorders, and the inherited risk is likely a non-specific vulnerability toward negative affect, with a biological-environmental interaction leading to specific manifestations within the anxiety disorders. Among the vulnerabilities toward anxiety may be information processing biases that predispose individuals to be more vigilant to novelty, processes that may be specifically associated with the right cerebral hemisphere. The current study utilized auditory event related potentials (ERPs) to explore the degree to which such processes may be related to risk toward anxiety disorders in a neonatal population (n=30). Findings supported the growing evidence that predispositions toward anxious patterns of responding are associated with greater activation of the right cerebral hemisphere, as neonates of more highly anxious mothers displayed more positive right hemisphere responses overall. Further, consistent with theories that attentional biases toward novelty are associated with the development and maintenance of pathological anxiety, it was found that measures of both maternal state and trait anxiety were significant predictors of the neonate\u27s brain response to a stranger\u27s voice. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for further understanding the developmental pathways associated pathological anxiety

ADHD as a Specific Cause for Learning Disability

In the spectrum of possible causes for discrepancy between the capacity to learn and the level of school achievement, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has an important place. The aim of this chapter is to present obtained own results for a group of 200 pupils, mean age 10.5 ± 2.35 years, and both genders, diagnosed as ADHD following DSM-5 criteria. As psychometric tests, Kohs Block Design Test, Achenbach CBCL, ACTeRS, Stroop Color Word Task (SCWT), and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) are used. Additionally, Q-EEG recording using Mitsar 19-channel Q-EEG 201 system was performed. Obtained results confirmed the diagnosis of ADHD as well as the presence of serious difficulties in executive system functioning through ERP’s component extracted from Q-EEG analysis. In the chapter, results for Q-EEG will be discussed more extensively including subtypes. As a used nonpharmacological therapeutic approach, very positive outcome of neurofeedback treatment of these children is accentuated

Positive emotion broadens attention focus through decreased position-specific spatial encoding in early visual cortex: evidence from ERPs

Recent evidence has suggested that not only stimulus-specific attributes or top-down expectations can modulate attention selection processes, but also the actual mood state of the participant. In this study, we tested the prediction that the induction of positive mood can dynamically influence attention allocation and, in turn, modulate early stimulus sensory processing in primary visual cortex (V1). High-density visual event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a demanding task at fixation and were presented with peripheral irrelevant visual textures, whose position was systematically varied in the upper visual field (close, medium, or far relative to fixation). Either a neutral or a positive mood was reliably induced and maintained throughout the experimental session. The ERP results showed that the earliest retinotopic component following stimulus onset (C1) strongly varied in topography as a function of the position of the peripheral distractor, in agreement with a near-far spatial gradient. However, this effect was altered for participants in a positive relative to a neutral mood. On the contrary, positive mood did not modulate attention allocation for the central (task-relevant) stimuli, as reflected by the P300 component. We ran a control behavioral experiment confirming that positive emotion selectively impaired attention allocation to the peripheral distractors. These results suggest a mood-dependent tuning of position-specific encoding in V1 rapidly following stimulus onset. We discuss these results against the dominant broaden-and-build theory

Schizotypy: A Multi-Country Study of Psychometrics, Socio-Cultural Influences, Cognitive Processes, and Electrophysiological Markers

Schizotypy represents a latent personality organisation reflecting a putative liability for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Schizotypic traits include anomalies in cognition (e.g., hallucinations), socio-emotional function (e.g., constricted affect), and behaviour (e.g., odd behaviour and language) that do not meet the clinical threshold for psychotic disorders. This thesis presents a series of studies investigating schizotypal measurement across ethno-cultural settings, examining cognitive antecedents and outcomes of schizotypy, and a schizotypal-continuum exploration into electrophysiological function. Studies 1-3 examined the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) as a measurement tool for schizotypy. These studies re-evaluated the domain structure of the English SPQ and the German SPQ, and developed and evaluated a Malay translation of the SPQ. Further, through the evaluation and development of these measures, schizotypy was explored within the framework of ethnic and cultural identities. This included evaluations between African Caribbeans in the UK and Trinidad, with White British participants; Malay and Chinese participants in Malaysia, and; central European White participants from Austria and southern Germany, with a similar cultural (migrational) group in the UK. Studies 4a and 4b concerned schizotypy, cognitive processes, and conspiracy ideation. From an initial pilot, associations were established with conspiracy ideation, included as a prima facie outcome of disordered thinking. A follow-up study showed that analytic thinking mediated the relationship between Odd Beliefs or Magical Thinking (but not Ideas of Reference) and belief in conspiracy theories. Study 5 investigated whether a combination of high schizotypal ratings and abnormal electrophysiological function could be established. Second, this study allowed for a unique comparison between culture and ethnicity, within the assessment of electrophysiological function. Finally, this study allowed for an investigation into associations between the domains established in Study 1 (namely, Cognitive-Perceptual, Paranoid, Disorganised, and Negative) and electrophysiological function. Results indicated little evidence of association between the schizotypy and schizophrenia literature; that is, there was no apparent electrophysiological deficits for high schizotypal individuals and no ethno-cultural influence. Further, the results of the regression indicated no support for associations at the higher-order domain level and electrophysiological function. Taken together, these studies informed the schizotypal literature through multiple routes. Indeed, this thesis addressed both the personality (cognitive outcomes) and clinical (electrophysiological) nature of schizotypy with the foundation of a thorough measurement examination

Relationship between cognitive functions and occupational performance in children, adults, and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), The

2018 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.The overarching goal of this dissertation is to explore the relationship between cognitive functions and occupational performance in neurotypical children, neurotypical adults, and adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Electroencephalography (EEG)/event-related potential (ERP) techniques were used to measure the neural processes while participants performed a speeded computer-based task for the three studies conducted in this dissertation. The first study examined the test-retest reliability on the amplitudes of two ERP components associated with performance monitoring, the error-related negativity (ERN) and error-positivity (Pe), in 53 neurotypical adults and 118 neurotypical children aged 8-12-year-old. The findings indicated that the test-retest reliability of these measures was moderate for children (rERN = 0.55, rPe = 0.62), and was moderate to strong for adults (rERN = 0.69, rPe = 0.75). Moreover, the adaptive Woody filter was implemented to adjust for the trial-to-trial variation in latency (i.e., latency jitter) when measuring the ERN and Pe amplitudes. The findings showed that adjusting for the latency jitter did not improve the reliability of ERN and Pe amplitudes for both groups, suggesting that the latency variability may be a trait-like variable which systematically occurred across sessions. Furthermore, the test-retest reliability of stimulus-locked ERP components on correct trials was higher compared to the reliability of response-locked ERPs for children and adults, confirming that both children and adults generally attended to the task consistently across sessions. The second study demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to model the complicated inter-relationship between neural processes and simple task behaviors (e.g., response times) in 143 children with typical development aged 8-12 years. The findings from the latent models indicated that the brain-and-behavior relationships were significant on correct trials but were not significant on incorrect trials after controlling for trait and state factors. Moreover, both models demonstrated different patterns of relationship among latent variables to response time, yet both models yielded excellent model fit indices. This finding suggested that our conceptual models were valid in terms of detecting the distinct patterns of neural processes leading to opposite behavioral outcomes (e.g., correct and incorrect). The final model demonstrated that the post-error adjustment in the stream of neural processes provided an adaptive effect on the early neural processing of the stimulus on correct trials. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating how the post-error adjustment occurs at the level of neural processing. The third study (1) compared the group differences (children, adults, and adults with ADHD) on neural and occupational performance measures, (2) examined the inter-relationship between these measures for each group, and (3) investigated which measures can best differentiate three groups. The findings suggested that adults with ADHD demonstrated significantly lower quality of occupational performance particularly on the motor aspect of the activities of daily living (ADL). Moreover, for neurotypical children, larger ERN amplitudes were associated with lower quality of social interaction. For adults with ADHD, larger N2 amplitude was associated with lower quality of social interaction. Lastly, discriminant analyses demonstrated that the combination of neural and occupational performance measures differentiated children, adults, and adults with ADHD with 93.2% classification accuracy. Taken together, this dissertation demonstrated significant brain-and-behavior relationships especially for neurotypical children and adults with ADHD by relating the neural measures (e.g., ERP components) to behaviors obtained from the computer-based task (e.g., response times), and to the quality of occupational performance (e.g., social interaction and ADL). Moreover, this dissertation demonstrated that having both neural and occupational performance measures is beneficial to obtain a comprehensive understanding of dimensions of maturation and disability

The Impact of Trait Anxiety on Slow-Wave Sleep Processes.

The sleep of high anxiety/worry and low anxiety/worry subjects was studied by means of nocturnal polysomnography. Fifteen high anxiety adult subjects were chosen to represent an analog Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) population, and were selected from among individuals scoring within the upper 20th percentile on the trait portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ). Fifteen low anxiety subjects were selected from among individuals scoring within the lower 50th percentile on those measures, and were matched with high anxiety subjects for age, sex, race, and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. Analysis of polysomnography variables revealed that high anxiety subjects took longer to fall asleep, had a smaller percentage of deep (slow-wave) sleep, and a larger percentage of light transitional sleep (stage 1 NREM). High anxiety subjects also had more stage 1 NREM periods, more micro-arousals during the first half of the sleep period, and a lower REM density relative to low anxiety subjects. In addition, high anxiety subjects had more electrodermal storming when SWS and REM sleep variables were co-varied. Results indicated that the pattern of disruption of sleep depth and continuity was very similar to that documented in clinical anxiety disorder patients, and was distinct from that typically shown in depressed patients. A major implication is that anxiety and worry are associated with disrupted sleep, independent of whether or not a diagnosed anxiety disorder is present. Current results indicate that these factors are associated with the sleep disruption observed in anxiety disorders, independent of the presence of panic, previous exposure to trauma, or a disease process per se