Risk Factors of Anxiety Disorders in Children

Anxiety disorders are common; lifetime prevalence for the group of disorders is estimated to be as high as 25%. The main question is What is the relative contribution of genetics and environment to etiology of anxiety disorders? The anxiety disorders are not, from a genetic perspective, etiologically homogeneous. Structural equation modeling provides estimates of variance in liability to a disorder that is attributable to additive genetic, common familial environmental, and individual-specific environmental factors. Familial aggregation that largely results from genetic risk factors has been documented for all of the major anxiety disorders. Genes predispose to two broad groups of disorders dichotomized as panic-generalized-agoraphobic anxiety versus specific phobias. The candidate genes are the ones encoding the central and peripheral nervous system receptors and transporters. Trauma in childhood disposes to further anxiety disorders through the hyperactivity of the HPA axis and the hypersecretion of CRF. Traumatic experience in developmental age leads to neurobiochemical changes in brain, typical for panic disorder or PTSD. Behavioral inhibition in early childhood is a predictor of further anxiety disorders. Some types of parental behaviors and family environment can lead to them, as well as improper interactions between parents and child

Exercise is More Effective at Producing Robust, Lasting Changes in Gut Microbial Composition in Juvenile than in Adult Male F344 Rats

The mammalian intestine harbors a complex microbial ecosystem that affects many aspects of host physiology. Exposure to specific microbes early in development can significantly impact host metabolism, immune function, and behavior across the lifespan. Just as the physiology of the developing organism undergoes a period of plasticity, the developing microbial ecosystem is characterized by instability and may be more sensitive to environmentally evoked change. Early life thus presents a window of opportunity for manipulations that produce adaptive changes in microbial composition. Recent insights have revealed that increasing physical activity status can increase the abundance of some beneficial microbial organisms. We therefore investigated whether exercise initiated in the juvenile period (P24) would produce more robust and stable changes in microbial communities versus exercise initiated in adulthood (P70) in male F344 rats. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to characterize the microbial composition of juvenile versus adult runners and their sedentary counterparts across multiple time points during exercise and following exercise cessation. Alpha diversity measures revealed that the microbial communities of young runners were less even and less diverse, a community structure that reflects volatility and malleability. Juvenile onset exercise altered the relative abundance of several phyla, and notably, increased Bacteroidetes and decreased Firmicutes, a configuration associated with leanness. Analyses of bacteria at the genus level using supervised learning approaches along with ANOVA also revealed potential functionally significant changes, and indicated that juvenile onset exercise dramatically changed the abundance and presence of genera important for metabolism and emotional behavior. Among these genera, juvenile onset exercise increased Lactobacillus spp. just three days following exercise onset. A follow up investigation utilizing bacterial culture methods and Lactobacillus spp. selective media confirmed these results, and also showed that at the species level, juvenile onset exercise can induce early increases in L. rhamnosus, a species shown to modulate a diverse array of host functions including carbohydrate metabolism and anxiety. Given the potential of these phyla and genus level changes to contribute to a lean phenotype, we chose to examine body composition in juvenile versus adult runners. Interestingly, exercise increased lean mass measured using chemical carcass analyses and in vivo MRI, in juvenile but not adult runners. Taken together, these results indicate that the impact of exercise on gut microbial composition as well as body composition depends on the developmental stage during which exercise is initiated. Furthermore, early life exercise produced robust, adaptive changes in bacteria associated with body composition, host metabolism and behavior, suggesting that a microbiome altered by exercise during early life could contribute to life-long improvements in mental and physical health

Early Life Exercise and Prebiotic Diet Modulate Stress Reactive Neurocircuitry, Increase Stress Resistance, and Promote Adaptive Gut Microorganisms

Early life is often described as period of vulnerability, as aversive events during this time lead to stress-related psychiatric disorders later in life. We demonstrate that early life is also a period of opportunity, as health promoting manipulations during this time can produce positive mental health outcomes that persist as the organism ages. Exercise is one such positive manipulation. Using a rodent model, we have previously shown that six weeks of habitual exercise on running wheels protects against stress-induced anxiety and depressive-like behavior, and produces numerous neurobiological adaptations. These neural adaptations include plastic changes within the brain’s serotonin circuits, which serve to attenuate stress-induced serotonergic dysregulation responsible for these behaviors. However, when exercise is begun in adulthood, these behavioral and neurobiological effects are short lived, and adults must continue to exercise in order to maintain mental health benefits. Here, we demonstrate that exercise begun earlier, during the developmentally sensitive juvenile period, can produce lasting protection against the behavioral consequences of stress. These effects persist even after wheel access is removed and the organism is no longer physically active, and are paralleled by persistent alterations in gene expression within serotonin circuits. In addition, durations of exercise shorter than those required by adult rats can produce lasting stress resistance. Early life exercise produces robust adaptations in other physiological systems. We also demonstrate that exercise initiated during the juvenile period uniquely modulates gut microbial ecology by increasing bacteria and metabolites previously shown to benefit mental health. Furthermore, sedentary juvenile rats fed diets containing prebiotic fibers—fibers known to increase probiotic gut bacteria— are protected against stress-induced anxiety and depressive-like behavior later in life. Like exercise, early life prebiotic diet produces adaptations within stress- sensitive brain circuits. Moreover, oral antibiotics fed to exercising juvenile rats dampen the ability of exercise to protect against the behavioral consequences of stress. Our work highlights early life as a window of opportunity for lasting stress resistance, and suggests that gut microbes play a role in mediating these effects

Is the Pandemic a Risk Factor for Eating Disorders?

COVID-19 has already established direct or indirect effect on the lives of everyone. One of its many consequences is exacerbation of eating disorders’ (ED) triggers. Numerous risk factors for ED are enhanced during pandemic – anxiety, fear, depressed mood. Distance learning or working may result in loss of daily-life routine and feeling of being overwhelmed with duties. Due to forced isolation people are more exposed to social media pressure. Additionally, awareness of limitations of physical activity can develop fear of gaining the weight. These are typical symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa, a disease with the highest mortality rate among psychiatric disorders. Frustration, tedium and lack of external distractors can lead to inappropriate food-related coping style. Especially during the first wave of the pandemic, society was cautious about fresh food supplies and therefore many decided to stock up with processed, unhealthy food. Aggregation of stressors (e.g., worries about health, financial problems, loneliness) may promote binge eating

Objective local weather types with applications in climate change detection

Objective classification of daily weather is performed for 9 vs. 5 stations of Poland and Hungary based on 30 years periods (1966-1995 and 1961-1990, respectively). Eight weather elements were pre-selected, and reduced to four, by Factor Analysis. They are the mean temperature, relative humidity, cloudiness and wind speed. The redundant elements are diurnal temperature amplitude, water vapour pressure, precipitation and sunshine duration. The omitted elements will be used for independent validation of the classification. Next, hierarchical cluster analysis is performed, having tested various other approaches, leading to six classes in Hungary and southern Poland and to eight classes in the rest of Poland, as the most frequent number of classes in all months and stations. Termination of the clustering, i.e. selection of the number classes is performed in an objective process applying three numerical criteria concerning the within-classes cumulated distance measures. Finally, the types have been re-defined by the method of K-means clustering. The obtained local classifications are compared to the macro-circulation types, based on variance “explaining” capacity concerning the above four basic and four independent variables. In overwhelming majority of the 12 months and 14 stations and 8 variables the obtained local types reduce the variances more effectively than the compared Péczely (1957) types for Hungary and the amalgamated Hess-Brezowsky (1969) types (Mika et al., 1999). These types are important tools in understanding the role of weather in the environmental indicators and in detection of climate change by presenting the processes in terms of weather types. Examples of both applications will be presented in the lecture and in its written version

Local weather classifications for environmental applications

Local weather classifications for environmental applications. Two approaches of local weather type definitions are presented and illustrated for selected stations of Poland and Hungary. The subjective classification, continuing long traditions, especially in Poland, relies on diurnal values of local weather elements. The main types are defined according to temperature with some sub-types considering relative sunshine duration, diurnal precipitation totals, relative humidity and wind speed. The classification does not make a difference between the seasons of the year, but the occurrence of the classes obviously reflects the annual cycle. Another important feature of this classification is that only a minor part of the theoretically possible combination of the various types and sub-types occurs in all stations of both countries. The objective version of the classification starts from ten possible weather element which are reduced to four according to factor analysis, based on strong correlation between the elements. This analysis yields 3 to 4 factors depending on the specific criteria of selection. The further cluster analysis uses four selected weather elements belonging to different rotated factors. They are the diurnal mean values of temperature, of relative humidity, of cloudiness and of wind speed. From the possible ways of hierarchical cluster analysis (i.e. no a priori assumption on the number of classes), the method of furthest neighbours is selected, indicating the arguments of this decision in the paper. These local weather types are important tools in understanding the role of weather in various environmental indicators, in climatic generalisation of short samples by stratified sampling and in interpretation of the climate change

Dietary Prebiotics and Bioactive Milk Fractions Improve NREM Sleep, Enhance REM Sleep Rebound and Attenuate the Stress-Induced Decrease in Diurnal Temperature and Gut Microbial Alpha Diversity.

Severe, repeated or chronic stress produces negative health outcomes including disruptions of the sleep/wake cycle and gut microbial dysbiosis. Diets rich in prebiotics and glycoproteins impact the gut microbiota and may increase gut microbial species that reduce the impact of stress. This experiment tested the hypothesis that consumption of dietary prebiotics, lactoferrin (Lf) and milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) will reduce the negative physiological impacts of stress. Male F344 rats, postnatal day (PND) 24, received a diet with prebiotics, Lf and MFGM (test) or a calorically matched control diet. Fecal samples were collected on PND 35/70/91 for 16S rRNA sequencing to examine microbial composition and, in a subset of rats; Lactobacillus rhamnosus was measured using selective culture. On PND 59, biotelemetry devices were implanted to record sleep/wake electroencephalographic (EEG). Rats were exposed to an acute stressor (100, 1.5 mA, tail shocks) on PND 87 and recordings continued until PND 94. Test diet, compared to control diet, increased fecal Lactobacillus rhamnosus colony forming units (CFU), facilitated non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep consolidation (PND 71/72) and enhanced rapid eye movement (REM) sleep rebound after stressor exposure (PND 87). Rats fed control diet had stress-induced reductions in alpha diversity and diurnal amplitude of temperature, which were attenuated by the test diet (PND 91). Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed a significant linear relationship between early-life Deferribacteres (PND 35) and longer NREM sleep episodes (PND 71/72). A diet containing prebiotics, Lf and MFGM enhanced sleep quality, which was related to changes in gut bacteria and modulated the impact of stress on sleep, diurnal rhythms and the gut microbiota

Potential Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Adolescents with Separation Anxiety Disorder

Children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD) experience unrealistic fear of being separated from their significant caregivers (mostly parents). The occurrence of pathological separation anxiety is determined by many factors: parental attitudes, their mental and physical health, but also the way of perceiving the environment, traumatic events in the child’s family and life, as well as genetic and individual effects. Pandemic situation and related isolation caused change in the current lifestyle. Both psychological (i.e. the novelty of the social situation, negative information in the mass media, fear of their own live and their loved ones) and daily-life routine disturbances (i.e. the closure of schools and restrictions of contacts with peers, limited contacts with distant family members, remote work of parents) generate difficulties for children and can contribute anxiety among children with SAD. Paradoxically, despite the fact that children and adolescents are at home, the COVID-19 pandemic may intensify SAD, exacerbating factors underlying separation anxiety. It turns out that family social isolation can escalate conflicts. This, in turn, adversely affects relationships between family members and can reduce children’s sense of security. Due to pandemic problematic access to specialized health care, especially personal contact with a psychotherapist, children with SAD suffer from insufficient professional help

Składnia średniowiecznej polszczyzny. Część I. Konteksty - metody - tendencje

Podstawowym celem książki jest identyfikacja tendencji składniowych, które przejawiają się w procesach i zjawiskach widocznych w staropolskim materiale językowym. Średniowieczna polszczyzna jest najstarszym historycznie udokumentowanym stanem języka polskiego, co pozwala z jednej strony na poszukiwanie w jej składni zjawisk archaicznych, mających swoje korzenie w okresie przedpiśmiennym, z drugiej – na wskazanie procesów zaistniałych dopiero pod wpływem różnorodnych czynników zewnątrz- i wewnątrzjęzykowych. Zaprezentowany w książce konstrukt myślowy odwołuje się do dziedzin formułujących hipotezy na temat zmian językowych, które zachodzą w przedziale czasowym sięgającym znacznie dalej w głąb dziejów niż okres piśmienny: teorii ewolucji, ewolucji języka, filozofii. Odwołaliśmy się także do zagadnień z zakresu ontogenezy oraz neurobiologicznych uwarunkowań zdolności lingwistycznych. Przyjęcie interdyscyplinarnej i diachronicznej perspektywy po pierwsze skłoniło nas do wybiórczego traktowania polskiej tradycji badawczej: w największym stopniu nawiązaliśmy do tradycji wskazywania zjawisk ciągłych w języku, odchodząc od patrzenia synchronicznego i tradycji skupiania się na strukturach osobliwych, nietrwałych; po drugie – pozwoliło postrzegać język jako twór wielowarstwowy, podlegający nieustannej ewolucji, w którym w każdym czasie odnaleźć można ślady stanów wcześniejszych. Na kształtowanie się składni mają wpływ czynniki zewnętrzne. W najstarszych zachowanych tekstach polskich obserwujemy polszczyznę w momencie kluczowej zmiany, jaką jest upiśmiennienie. Odbywa się ono w kontekście obcego wzoru. W naszych badaniach uwzględniliśmy specyfikę języka polskiego. Składają się na nią trudności z odczytaniem polskiego tekstu średniowiecznego i identyfikacją w nim struktur składniowych, a także podstawowe czynniki historyczne i kulturowe determinujące kształt badanych tekstów, w kontekście ich reprezentatywności dla badań nad składnią staropolską. Na podstawie przyjętych założeń wskazane zostały najważniejsze tendencje zmian składniowych. Są to: 1. Tendencja analityczna (od holizmu do analityzmu); 2. Tendencja do autonomizacji języka (odrywanie się języka od rzeczywistości pozajęzykowej); 3. Kategoryzacja (od semantyki leksykalnej do semantyki kategorialnej ujętej w formę); 4. Strukturyzacja (od apozycji do związków składniowych); 5. Kondensacja treści (od ubogiej treści jednostek składniowych do kumulacji treści w jednostkach). Kolejność przedstawienia i omówienia tendencji nie jest ich prezentacją w porządku chronologicznym, gdyż nakładają się one na siebie i wpływają na język w tym samym czasie. Dwie pierwsze tendencje są ściśle związane z relacjami między językiem a rzeczywistością pozajęzykową. Pozostałe dotyczą już samego języka, chociaż kształtują się w dużym stopniu pod wpływem czynników zewnętrznych, takich jak upiśmiennienie i kontakty językowe. Tendencje i procesy tworzą skomplikowany układ zależności, którego nie da się opisać teoretycznie, na poziomie modelu. Można jedynie, opisując proces, odnieść go do kilku tendencji i w ten sposób identyfikować ich powiązania. Procesy będące reprezentacją tendencji są wyizolowanymi z języka na potrzeby opisu pojedynczymi ciągami zmian. Zmiany składniowe w takim ujęciu mają charakter heterogeniczny i wielopoziomowy. Ukazały to znajdujące się w książce analizy szczegółowe dwóch obszarów języka, wyodrębnionych z dwóch perspektyw – semantycznej (mówienie o swoim stanie) i formalnej (nominalizacje). Dalsze analizy szczegółowe – którym będzie poświęcona II część Składni średniowiecznej polszczyzny – pozwolą na identyfikację kolejnych powiązań pomiędzy tendencjami oraz między tendencjami i odzwierciedlającymi je procesami.Publikacja sfinansowana ze środków Wydziału Filologii Polskiej i Klasycznej oraz Instytutu Filologii Polskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznani