Vital and Alive - an Exploration of Subjective Vitality and Its Physiological Correlates

Dissertation ist gesperrt bis 14. August 2022 !The concept of vitality has attracted philosophers, scientists and medical practitioners for more than 2500 years. Today, an entire "vitality-industry", from diary supplements to self-help books, flourishes on people's quest for the "vital life". Research has shown that the subjective experience of energy and vitality is a powerful predictor of bene ficial outcomes in individuals, organizations and society. However, studies that look at the link between physiological processes and the subjective experience of energy and vitality are completely lacking. The present dissertation aims to address this gap with an exploration of the link between the self-report measure of Subjective Vitality and two prominent present-day physiological correlates: Resting state functional connectivity (RSFC), derived from human brain activity, and heart rate variability (HRV). The correlates are examined in their relation to trait, state and daily levels of Subjective Vitality. Chapter 1 lays the foundation for all subsequent chapters by providing a German language validated self-report measure of vitality, the Subjective Vitality Scale in German. Chapter 2 explores patterns of RSFC and their relation to differences in trait Subjective Vitality. Changes in parameters of HRV and state Subjective Vitality during Qi Gong are explored in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 examines a specifi c HRV parameter as an indicator of vagal tone and its association with daily Subjective Vitality in patients during residential psychotherapy. Overall, the fi ndings suggest specifi c physiological correlates for Subjective Vitality as a trait, state and on a daily basis. Subjective Vitality as a state shows associations with moderate peripheral-physiological activation and attainment of a state of cardiovascular coherence during Qi Gong. Daily levels of Subjective Vitality are associated with increased resting state vagal tone, psychological need ful lfilment and habitual physical activity on the same day. Subjects high in trait Subjective Vitality display a distinctive pattern of RSFC in posterior and temporal parts of the cortex; areas, that are associated with body-related self-representation. All fi ndings are discussed and integrated into a psychophysiological model of vitality. The present dissertation suggests Subjective Vitality as a marker of organismic well-being; covering a positive divergence in health, close to people's lay notion of vitality, and sensitive to somatic and psychological processes

Relaxation or Regulation: The Acute Effect of Mind-Body Exercise on Heart Rate Variability and Subjective State in Experienced Qi Gong Practitioners

Mind-body exercises such as Yoga or Qi Gong have demonstrated a wide range of health benefits and hold great promise for employment in clinical practice. However, the psychophysiological mechanism underlying these effects remains unclear. Theoretical frameworks highlight regulation as a characteristic and specific mechanism of mind-body exercise for which empirical evidence is scarce. To investigate the exact nature of this mechanism, we tracked acute changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and subjective state over a common form of mind-body exercise (Qi Gong). Heart rate variability (HRV) and subjective state were assessed in 42 Qi Gong practitioners from China and Germany during a standard moving Qi Gong exercise (Baduanjin). Relaxation in supine position prior and after the exercise served as a control condition to Qi Gong and to assess changes before and after the exercise. Following Qi Gong, all practitioners reported significantly increased subjective calmness and perceived body activation, attentional focus, and subjective vitality. On the physiological level, a significant decrease of parasympathetic modulation and increase in heart rate indicated a pattern of moderate general physiological activation during Qi Gong. A significant increase in overall RR-interval modulation and cardiac coherence during Qi Gong were indicative of a mechanism of active regulation. Examination of the RR-interval trajectories revealed a rhythmic pattern of ANS activation and deactivation in sync with activating and relaxing segments of the exercise. Significant changes in subjective state, not on the physiological level, before and after the exercise were observed. Significant associations between Qi-Gong-specific beliefs, age, cultural background, and experiential and physiological measures demonstrated the complexity of mind-body exercises as multicomponent interventions. Overall, this study highlights moderate general physiological activation, exercise-dependent rhythmic ANS modulation, and induction of a characteristic state of eutonic calmness as potential psychophysiological mechanisms underlying the health benefits of mind-body exercise

Van ROM naar gepersonaliseerde proces monitoring: een nieuwe kijk op meten in de praktijk

In dit artikel bespreken we twee onderzoeken naar casusbeschrijvingen met idiografische systeem modellen (ISMs) en gepersonaliseerde proces monitoring op basis van deze casusbeschrijvingen. Als geïntegreerd onderdeel van hun behandeling maakten meer dan 400 cliënten samen met hun behandelaren een persoonlijke casusbeschrijving in de vorm van een netwerk (het ISM) en vulden tijdens hun behandeling dagelijks een vragenlijst in die gebaseerd was op hun ISM. We onderzochten de inhoud van de ISMs met thematische analyse en vonden dat de ISMs sterk geïndividualiseerd waren en een breed scala aan thema’s bevatten. In het onderzoek van de dagelijkse vragenlijst data vonden we dat, alhoewel bij iedere cliënt diens eigen veranderproces gemeten werd, we toch algemene veranderprofielen konden classificeren (bijv. plotselinge of juist geleidelijke verandering) die ook relateerden aan behandeluitkomst. We eindigen het artikel met een reflectie op hoe gepersonaliseerde proces monitoring gebruikt kan worden in behandeling en om inzicht over persoonlijke verandering te verkrijgen. _____________________________________________________________________________________________English Summary In this article, we discuss two studies on case formulations with idiographic system models (ISMs) and personalized process monitoring based on these case formulations. As an integrated part of their treatment, more than 400 clients created a personalized case formulation in the form of a network together with their therapists (the ISM) and completed a questionnaire based on their ISM daily during their treatment. We examined the content of the ISMs with thematic analysis and found that the ISMs were highly individualized and contained a wide range of themes. When examining the daily questionnaire data, we found that although for each client their own individual change process was measured, we could still classify general change profiles (e.g., sudden or gradual change) that also related to treatment outcome. We end the article with a reflection on how personalized process monitoring can be used in treatment and to gain insights in personal change

The Positive Brain - Resting State Functional Connectivity in Highly Vital and Flourishing Individuals

The World Health Organization has defined health as “complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (World Health Organization, 1948). An increasing number of studies have therefore started to investigate “the good life.” However, the underlying variation in brain activity has rarely been examined. The goal of this study was to assess differences in resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) between regular healthy individuals and healthy individuals with a high occurrence of flourishing and subjective vitality. Together, flourishing, a broad measure of psycho-social functioning and subjective vitality, an organismic marker of subjective well-being comprise the phenomenological opposite of a major depressive disorder. Out of a group of 43 participants, 20 high-flourishing (highFl) and 18 high-vital (highSV) individuals underwent a 7-min resting state period, where cortical activity in posterior brain areas was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Network-based statistics (NBS) of FC yielded significantly different FC patterns for the highFl and highSV individuals compared to their healthy comparison group. The networks converged at areas of the posterior default mode network and differed in hub nodes in the left middle temporal/fusiform gyrus (flourishing) and the left primary/secondary somatosensory cortex (subjective vitality). The attained networks are discussed with regard to recent neuroscientific findings for other well-being measures and potential mechanisms of action based on social information processing and body-related self-perception

The Content of Personalised Network-Based Case Formulations

Case formulation is at the heart of personalised care in psychotherapy. Scientific research into case formulations can provide new insights in the heterogeneity of psychopathology which are relevant for advances in personalised psychopathology research and practice. This mixed-methods study examined the content of 483 fully personalised network-based case formulations in psychotherapy in terms of uniqueness (i.e., frequencies of concepts) and commonality (i.e., the presence of common themes over the different case formulations). In a real-world clinical care setting, patients co-created network-based case formulations with their therapist as part of their routine diagnostic process. These case formulations feature concepts that are relevant to individual patients and their current situation. We assessed how often concepts were used by different patients to quantify uniqueness. We applied a bottom-up thematic analysis to identify patient-relevant themes from the concepts. The case formulations of 483 patients diagnosed with mood and/or anxiety disorders contained a total of 4908 interpretable concepts of which 4272 (87%) were completely unique. Through thematic analysis, we identified seven overarching themes in the concepts: autonomy, connectedness, emotions, self-care, identity, self-efficacy, and bodily sensations. Case formulations were highly unique, thereby illustrating the importance of personalised diagnostics. The unique concepts could be grouped under seven overarching themes which seem to encompass basic human needs. Current advancements in personalised diagnostics and assessment should have a broader scope than symptoms alone, and could use the themes identified here as part of a topic list in the generation of (network-based) case formulations

The best of both worlds?:General principles of psychopathology in personalized assessment

A complex systems approach to psychopathology proposes that general principles lie in the dynamic patterns of psychopathology, which are not restricted to specific psychological processes like symptoms or affect. Hence, it must be possible to find general change profiles in time series data of fully personalized questionnaires. In the current study, we examined general change profiles in personalized self-ratings and related these to four measures of treatment outcome (International Symptom Rating, 21-item Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, daily symptom severity, and self-reflective capacity). We analyzed data of 404 patients with mood and/or anxiety disorders who completed daily self-ratings on personalized questionnaires during psychotherapy. For each patient, a principal component analysis was applied to the multivariate time series in order to retrieve an univariate person-specific time series. Then, using classification and regression methods, we examined these time series for the presence of general change profiles. The change profile classification yielded the following distribution of patients: no-shift (n = 55; 14%), gradual-change (n = 52; 13%), one-shift (n = 233; 58%), reversed-shift (n = 39; 10%) and multiple-shifts (n = 25; 6%). The multiple-shift group had better treatment outcome than the no-shift group on all outcome measures. The one-shift and gradual-change groups had better treatment outcome than the no-shift group on two and three outcome measures, respectively. Overall, this study illustrates that person-specific (idiographic) and general (nomothetic) aspects of psychopathology can be integrated in a complex systems approach to psychopathology, which may combine "the best of both worlds." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).</p