Learning from the past: the asset disposition experiences of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, The Resolution Trust Corporation, and the Asset Control Area Program

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The use of a self-affirmation intervention to increase the psychological help-seeking behavior of student Veterans

The self-stigma of seeking help is a significant barrier to utilizing mental health care services (Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006). Veterans may be particularly vulnerable to stigma, as seeking help violates the “warrior ethos” of the military, which holds values such as competence, emotional stoicism, and strength as sacrosanct (Skopp et al., 2012). Psychoeducational interventions are typically used to normalize counseling; however, information that suggests one may need mental health care can threaten an individual’s self-concept. Research has shown that when people reflect on personal values, they can cope better with threatening information (Sherman & Cohen, 2006). This study tested a self-affirmation and psychoeducational intervention in 43 student Veterans enrolled at 8 undergraduate institutions in Iowa. Participants in the self-affirmation plus psychoeducation condition ranked their personal values and reflected on why they are important before being exposed to psychoeducational information about counseling that was tailored to Veterans. Participants in the psychoeducation-only condition solely viewed the educational information. It was hypothesized that participants in the self-affirmation group would experience less threat and more engagement with the counseling information, and in turn, demonstrate decreased self-stigma of seeking help, increased attitudes towards counseling, and increased intentions to seek counseling. Results partially supported the hypotheses, with the self-affirmation intervention leading to increased intentions to seek counseling

The use of a self-affirmation intervention and group therapy to increase psychological help-seeking

The self-stigma of seeking help is a significant barrier to utilizing psychotherapy (Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006). Self-stigma may also impair therapeutic factors from emerging during the therapy process itself (Kendra, Mohr, & Pollard, 2014). In order to manage fears of negative reactions, clients may conceal painful emotions, interfering with therapeutic work (Corrigan & Rao, 2012). This may help explain why the majority of clients only attend one session (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2018). Research has provided evidence for the ability of a self-affirmation intervention to reduce self-stigma and, via an indirect effect, increase anticipated benefits and decrease anticipated risks of self-disclosure among clients about to meet for a psychotherapy intake (Seidman, Lannin, Heath, & Vogel, 2018). However, research is needed to examine if this intervention influences actual behaviors in a therapy session. In addition, there is no known research on its effect on post-session perceptions of therapy or openness to continued help-seeking. This study tested the utility of a self-affirmation intervention to improve group therapy process variables (e.g., cohesion) and increase openness to continued help-seeking (i.e., less public stigma, self-stigma, increased attitudes and intentions). This study also sought to replicate and extend upon findings from a previous study (Wade et al., 2011), which demonstrated that attending a single session of group therapy reduces self-stigma compared to a waitlist condition

Associations of suffering with facets of health and well-being among working adults : longitudinal evidence from two samples

Bibliografia na końcu artykułuSuffering is an experiential state that every person encounters at one time or another, yet little is known about suffering and its consequences for the health and well‑being of nonclinical adult populations. In a pair of longitudinal studies, we used two waves of data from garment factory workers (Study 1 [T1: 2017, T2: 2019]: n = 344) and flight attendants (Study 2 [T1: 2017/2018, T2: 2020]: n = 1402) to examine the prospective associations of suffering with 16 outcomes across different domains of health and well‑being: physical health, health behavior, mental health, psychological well‑ being, character strengths, and social well‑being. The primary analysis involved a series of regression analyses in which each T2 outcome was regressed on overall suffering assessed at T1, adjusting for relevant sociodemographic characteristics and the baseline value (or close proxy) of the outcome assessed at T1. In Study 1, associations of overall suffering with worse subsequent health and well‑ being were limited to a single outcome on each of the domains of physical health and mental health. Overall suffering was more consistently related to worse subsequent health and well‑being in Study 2, with associations emerging for all but two outcomes. The pattern of findings for each study was largely similar when aspects of suffering were modeled individually, although associations for some aspects of suffering differed from those that emerged for overall suffering. Our findings suggest that suffering may have important implications for the health and well‑being of worker populations

Motor Learning Induces Plasticity in the Resting Brain—Drumming Up a Connection

Neuroimaging methods have recently been used to investigate plasticity-induced changes in brain structure. However, little is known about the dynamic interactions between different brain regions after extensive coordinated motor learning such as drumming. In this article, we have compared the resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) in 15 novice healthy participants before and after a course of drumming (30-min drumming sessions, 3 days a week for 8 weeks) and 16 age-matched novice comparison participants. To identify brain regions showing significant FC differences before and after drumming, without a priori regions of interest, a multivariate pattern analysis was performed. Drum training was associated with an increased FC between the posterior part of bilateral superior temporal gyri (pSTG) and the rest of the brain (i.e., all other voxels). These regions were then used to perform seed-to-voxel analysis. The pSTG presented an increased FC with the premotor and motor regions, the right parietal lobe and a decreased FC with the cerebellum. Perspectives and the potential for rehabilitation treatments with exercise-based intervention to overcome impairments due to brain diseases are also discussed

Systems Analysis Implicates WAVE2 Complex in the Pathogenesis of Developmental Left-Sided Obstructive Heart Defects.

Genetic variants are the primary driver of congenital heart disease (CHD) pathogenesis. However, our ability to identify causative variants is limited. To identify causal CHD genes that are associated with specific molecular functions, the study used prior knowledge to filter de novo variants from 2,881 probands with sporadic severe CHD. This approach enabled the authors to identify an association between left ventricular outflow tract obstruction lesions and genes associated with the WAVE2 complex and regulation of small GTPase-mediated signal transduction. Using CRISPR zebrafish knockdowns, the study confirmed that WAVE2 complex proteins brk1, nckap1, and wasf2 and the regulators of small GTPase signaling cul3a and racgap1 are critical to cardiac development

Drum training induces long-term plasticity in the cerebellum and connected cortical thickness

It is unclear to what extent cerebellar networks show long-term plasticity and accompanied changes in cortical structures. Using drumming as a demanding multimodal motor training, we compared cerebellar lobular volume and white matter microstructure, as well as cortical thickness of 15 healthy non-musicians before and after learning to drum, and 16 age matched novice control participants. After 8 weeks of group drumming instruction, 3 ×30 minutes per week, we observed the cerebellum significantly changing its grey (volume increase of left VIIIa, relative decrease of VIIIb and vermis Crus I volume) and white matter microstructure in the inferior cerebellar peduncle. These plastic cerebellar changes were complemented by changes in cortical thickness (increase in left paracentral, right precuneus and right but not left superior frontal thickness), suggesting an interplay of cerebellar learning with cortical structures enabled through cerebellar pathways