Cognitive and Psychological Reactions of the General Population Three Months After the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

BACKGROUND: The largest earthquake on record in Japan (magnitude 9.0) occurred on March 11, 2011, and the subsequent tsunami devastated the Pacific coast of Northern Japan. These further triggered the Fukushima I nuclear power plant accidents. Such a hugely complex disaster inevitably has negative psychological effects on general populations as well as on the direct victims. While previous disaster studies enrolled descriptive approaches focusing on direct victims, the structure of the psychological adjustment process of people from the general population has remained uncertain. The current study attempted to establish a path model that sufficiently reflects the early psychological adaptation process of the general population to large-scale natural disasters. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Participants from the primary disaster area (n = 1083) and other areas (n = 2372) voluntarily participated in an online questionnaire study. By constructing path models using a structural equation model procedure (SEM), we examined the structural relationship among psychological constructs known related to disasters. As post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS) were significantly more present in people in the primarily affected area than in those in secondary- or non-affected areas, the path models were constructed for the primary victims. The parsimoniously depicted model with the best fit was achieved for the psychological-adjustment centered model with quality of life (QoL) as a final outcome. CONCLUSION: The paths to QoL via negative routes (from negative cognitive appraisal, PTS, and general stress) were dominant, suggesting the importance of clinical intervention for reducing negative cognitive appraisal, and for caring for general stress and PTS to maintain QoL at an early stage of psychological adaptation to a disaster. The model also depicted the presence of a positive route where positive cognitive appraisal facilitates post-traumatic growth (PTG) to achieve a higher QoL, suggesting the potential importance of positive psychological preventive care for unexpected natural disasters

Augmented Reality in Stereotactic Neurosurgery: Current Status and Issues

Stereotactic neurosurgery is an established technique, but it has several limitations. In frame-based stereotaxy using a stereotactic frame, frame setting errors may decrease the accuracy of the procedure. Frameless stereotaxy using neuronavigation requires surgeons to shift their view from the surgical field to the navigation display and to advance the needle while assuming a physically uncomfortable position. To overcome these limitations, several researchers have applied augmented reality in stereotactic neurosurgery. Augmented reality enables surgeons to visualize the information regarding the target and preplanned trajectory superimposed over the actual surgical field. In frame-based stereotaxy, a researcher applies tablet computer-based augmented reality to check for the setting errors of the stereotactic frame, thereby improving the safety of the procedure. Several researchers have reported performing frameless stereotaxy guided by head-mounted-display-based augmented reality that enables surgeons to advance the needle at a more natural posture. These studies have shown that augmented reality can address the limitations of stereotactic neurosurgery. Conversely, they have also revealed the limited accuracy of current augmented reality systems for small targets, which indicates that further development of augmented reality systems is needed