Multiple fear-related stimuli enhance physiological arousal during extinction and reduce physiological arousal to novel stimuli and the threat conditioned stimulus

Highlights•Involved Pavlovian conditioning, extinction, extinction generalization test, and extinction retest.•Compared extinction with CS+ and CS− and generalization stimuli and ‘extinction-as-usual’.•Multiple stimuli increased physiological arousal to both CSs during, and negative CS evaluations, after extinction.•Multiple stimuli reduced physiological arousal to novel stimuli and CS+ after extinction but did not alter negative CS evaluations.•No group differences were observed in subjective anxiety ratings

Examining the Effectiveness and Feasibility of a Self-Guided Version of Positive Affect Treatment

Anxiety disorders and depression are among the most prevalent mental disorders with close to one third of the population meeting diagnostic criteria at some point during their lifetimes (Kessler et al., 2005; 2012). Cognitive and behavioral therapies (CBT) are considered to be the most efficacious and empirically supported psychosocial interventions for anxiety and depression (Hofmann & Smits, 2008; Norton & Price, 2007; Tolin, 2010). While research indicates CBT to be superior to several other treatments, placebos, and waitlist controls, there is evidence that not every individual benefits from CBT and response rates hover around 50% at post-treatment (Loerinc et al., 2015). There are also several barriers to evidence-based outpatient treatment for anxiety and depression including cost effectiveness, adherence to the CBT model, and clinical attitudes about delivering evidence-based treatments (Addis, 2002; Barlow, 2004; Barlow et al., 1999; Chorpita & Nakamura, 2004). To address the barriers, researchers have begun developing self-guided or internet-based delivery of CBT. Research indicates no differences in effectiveness between self-guided CBT and traditional face-to-face CBT (Cuijpers et al., 2010; Hedman et al., 2012). Additionally, reliance upon the DSM for clinical decision-making does not appropriately align with neuroscience or genetics (Insel et al., 2010) and recent research suggests that anxiety disorders and depression share common higher-order constructs (Brown, 2007). The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) is an initiative designed to address these limitations (Insel et al., 2010). Thus, using the principals of RDoC, this study sought to examine the effectiveness of a self-guided approach to the treatment of deficits in reward sensitivity using a positive affect protocol. Participants who self-referred for treatment and met criteria for Depression (CSR >4) on the SCID 5 (First et al., 1994) were recruited for the study. Utilizing a multiple baseline experimental design, participants were randomized to a 2, 4, or 6-week baseline prior to treatment administration to test the effects of the positive affect intervention on symptoms of depression and anxiety. The 15-session intervention included pleasant events scheduling, attending to the positive, and cultivating positive emotions. The daily measures largely did not reflect that symptoms remained stable during the baseline phase and reduced during the intervention period. We did find, however, that symptoms of depression and anxiety decreased overall on pre/post measures of depression and anxiety symptoms. Additionally, diagnosis severity of depression decreased for all participants on the SCID 5

Data_Sheet_1_Development and validation of a scale to measure team communication behaviors.docx

IntroductionWith the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work was increased all over the globe. As a consequence, workers had to adapt their communication behaviors to smoothly coordinate work in their flexible teams (i.e., when team members divide work between the office and their homes). Drawing on relational coordination theory, we constructed and validated a scale to capture the most relevant team communication behaviors.MethodsWe employed interviews and focus groups to construct the scale, refined the scale based on three samples with employees working flexibly and finally validated the scale with 130 teams from diverse organizations.ResultsOur scale comprises three dimensions: focused communication, knowledge sharing and spontaneous communication. All three dimensions showed convergent validity with team planning and discriminant validity with time-spatial flexibility. Also, predictive validity with collective efficacy and team viability was achieved for focused communication and knowledge sharing. Spontaneous communication only predicted collective efficacy, but not team viability.DiscussionWe conclude that the TCS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing team communication and contribute by focusing on behaviors.</p

Tumour regression in the randomized Stockholm III Trial ofradiotherapy regimens for rectal cancer

BackgroundThe Stockholm III Trial randomized patients with primary operable rectal cancers to either short-course radiotherapy (RT) with immediate surgery (SRT), short-course RT with surgery delayed 4-8 weeks (SRT-delay) or long-course RT with surgery delayed 4-8 weeks. This preplanned interim analysis examined the pathological outcome of delaying surgery. MethodsPatients randomized to the SRT and SRT-delay arms in the Stockholm III Trial between October 1998 and November 2010 were included, and data were collected in a prospective register. Additional data regarding tumour regression grade, according to Dworak, and circumferential margin were obtained by reassessment of histopathological slides. ResultsA total of 462 of 545 randomized patients had specimens available for reassessment. Patients randomized to SRT-delay had earlier ypT categories, and a higher rate of pathological complete responses (11&lt;bold&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;8 versus 1&lt;bold&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;7 per cent; P=0&lt;bold&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;001) and Dworak grade 4 tumour regression (10&lt;bold&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;1 versus 1&lt;bold&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;7 per cent; P&lt;0&lt;bold&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;001) than patients randomized to SRT without delay. Positive circumferential resection margins were uncommon (6&lt;bold&gt;&lt;/bold&gt;3 per cent) and rates did not differ between the two treatment arms. ConclusionShort-course RT induces tumour downstaging if surgery is performed after an interval of 4-8 weeks