The Time Course of Age-related Emotional Preference in Task-irrelevant Affective Processing

Studies of the age-related positivity effect have demonstrated that older adults have a generalized preference to positive stimuli or avoidance to negative stimuli compared with younger adults. However, it remains unclear when and how this positive effect occurs in task-irrelevant affective processing in the aging brain. The present study investigated age-related emotional preference in one task-irrelevant affective stimuli processing by event-related brain potentials (ERPs) measurement with a specific focus on the time course of older adults' emotional processing and regulation. Younger and older adults completed a modified oddball task in which the deviant stimuli were affective faces. In the relatively early time window, the brain activities were not modulated by emotional valence in younger adults, yet the sad stimuli elicited a larger P3a than the happy and neutral ones in older adults. In the late time window, the sad stimuli elicited a larger positive slow wave than the happy stimuli in younger adults. Contrarily, at the later processing stage older adults' valence differences were eliminated. In general, we found time course differences in how older adults processed task-irrelevant affective stimuli compared, with the young, and an age-related positivity effect occurred in the late time window, manifested as a negativity preference in younger and no preferences in older adults. These results provided evidence for supporting socioemotional selectivity theory from an ERP approach

A Conserved Cysteine Motif Is Critical for Rice Ceramide Kinase Activity and Function

Ceramide kinase (CERK) is a key regulator of cell survival in dicotyledonous plants and animals. Much less is known about the roles of CERK and ceramides in mediating cellular processes in monocot plants. Here, we report the characterization of a ceramide kinase, OsCERK, from rice (Oryza sativa spp. Japonica cv. Nipponbare) and investigate the effects of ceramides on rice cell viability.OsCERK can complement the Arabidopsis CERK mutant acd5. Recombinant OsCERK has ceramide kinase activity with Michaelis-Menten kinetics and optimal activity at 7.0 pH and 40°C. Mg2+ activates OsCERK in a concentration-dependent manner. Importantly, a CXXXCXXC motif, conserved in all ceramide kinases and important for the activity of the human enzyme, is critical for OsCERK enzyme activity and in planta function. In a rice protoplast system, inhibition of CERK leads to cell death and the ratio of added ceramide and ceramide-1-phosphate, CERK's substrate and product, respectively, influences cell survival. Ceramide-induced rice cell death has apoptotic features and is an active process that requires both de novo protein synthesis and phosphorylation, respectively. Finally, mitochondria membrane potential loss previously associated with ceramide-induced cell death in Arabidopsis was also found in rice, but it occurred with different timing.OsCERK is a bona fide ceramide kinase with a functionally and evolutionarily conserved Cys-rich motif that plays an important role in modulating cell fate in plants. The vital function of the conserved motif in both human and rice CERKs suggests that the biochemical mechanism of CERKs is similar in animals and plants. Furthermore, ceramides induce cell death with similar features in monocot and dicot plants

Manual development and efficacy of Mindful Living Group activities to promote trauma healing during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

Introduction:&nbsp;Disasters can be traumatic with a profound and lasting impact on individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our team developed the Mindful Living Group (MLG) activities manual based on Eastern body-mind wisdom and Western trauma healing theory to provide psychological assistance for trauma healing. Methods:&nbsp;In this study, we introduce a framework developed for the 10-session MLG activities manual, which consists of three core modules. Thirty-one participants living all over the country who had experienced traumatic stress resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic received the MLG intervention. This single-arm intervention study offered psychological assistance during the pandemic. The MLG intervention included 10 weekly 2-h sessions held online. Participants completed the initial interview, pre-test, post-test, and 1-month follow-up interviews. The effectiveness of the MLG activities manual was evaluated using psychological measures, including Self-Rating Depression Scale, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Post-traumatic Growth Inventory, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Perceived Social Support Scale. Results:&nbsp;Compared with the pretest level, the post-test levels of depression (F&nbsp;= 42.78,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.59) and anxiety (F&nbsp;= 23.40,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.44) were significantly lower; and mindfulness (F = 12.98,&nbsp;p&nbsp;=0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;=0.30), posttraumatic growth (F&nbsp;= 27.06,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.48), general self-efficacy (F&nbsp;= 13.20,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.31), and perceived social support (F&nbsp;= 16.27,&nbsp;p&nbsp;&lt; 0.001,&nbsp;&eta;2&nbsp;= 0.35) were significantly higher (ANOVA). Further correlation analysis revealed a significant negative relationship of mindfulness with both depression (r&nbsp;= &minus;0.43,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.015) and anxiety (r&nbsp;= &minus;0.35,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.053), and significant positive relationships of mindfulness with posttraumatic growth (r&nbsp;= 0.40,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.025), general self-efficacy (r&nbsp;= 0.52,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.003), and perceived social support (r&nbsp;= 0.40,&nbsp;p&nbsp;= 0.024). Discussion:&nbsp;These preliminary findings showed the effectiveness of MLG activities for trauma healing. The mechanisms underlying mindfulness promoting trauma healing are discussed based on both Eastern body-mind wisdom and Western theories of trauma healing.</p

Neuropsychological Impairment Characteristics of MCI and Its Early Detection and Intervention: Prevent and Delay The Onset of AD

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an intermediate clinical state between normal aging and dementia, and MCI patients are the risk population for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This article firstly introduced the international diagnosis criteria of MCI and its variations and modifications, and based on the previous findings, we proposed an ideal diagnosis model for MCI detection in which outmeasures included both patient's self-report, clinician's judgment and objective behavioral and neuropsychological tests as well as various biomarkers through advanced imaging techniques, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, or even urine endogenous formaldehyde analysis, both cross-sectional comparisons of an individual with the norms and longitudinal changes derived from multi-time point measurements were also involved. We reviewed the recent studies on the neuropsychological impairment characteristics of MCI and the corresponding measurement tools from both cognitive and neuropsychiatric aspects such as MMSE, MoCA, NPI and SCID, and various cognitive intervention methods for MCI were also reviewed. Future research is needed to extend the findings from experimental small samples into community-based large population, as well as from the cross-sectional studies into longitudinal studies, and to adopt multi-detection markers and multi-intervention methods to achieve the optimal effects of early detection and intervention of MCI

Early ERP effects on the scaling of spatial attention in visual search

This article describes the examination of the spatial `scaling' effect of visual attention with the technique of event-related potential (ERP). Eighteen participants were involved in a visual search task in which the cue-target paradigm was used. The search array was three concentric circles consisting of randomly selected English letters that were equally distributed in each circle. The behavioral and ERP data were recorded, respectively. The behavioral results showed that the response time increased and the response accuracy decreased with the increase of precue size. The ERPs amplitude of P1 and N1 components evoked by search array increased with the reduction of precue size. However, the latencies of these ERP components did not show significant differences between conditions. The hierarchical data of both behavioral assessment and ERPs provided evidence for the spatial `scaling' effect of visual attention. The amplitudes of P1 and N1 components may be used as indices to examine the effect of spatial `scaling'. In different tasks, the display-set size of stimuli and the task complexity may be important factors that affect the attention allocation.This article describes the examination of the spatial `scaling' effect of visual attention with the technique of event-related potential (ERP). Eighteen participants were involved in a visual search task in which the cue-target paradigm was used. The search array was three concentric circles consisting of randomly selected English letters that were equally distributed in each circle. The behavioral and ERP data were recorded, respectively. The behavioral results showed that the response time increased and the response accuracy decreased with the increase of precue size. The ERPs amplitude of P1 and N1 components evoked by search array increased with the reduction of precue size. However, the latencies of these ERP components did not show significant differences between conditions. The hierarchical data of both behavioral assessment and ERPs provided evidence for the spatial `scaling' effect of visual attention. The amplitudes of P1 and N1 components may be used as indices to examine the effect of spatial `scaling'. In different tasks, the display-set size of stimuli and the task complexity may be important factors that affect the attention allocation. (C) 2007 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science in China Press. All rights reserved

The ERP Effects of Combined Cognitive Training on Intention-Based and Stimulus-Based Actions in Older Chinese Adults

Age-related decreases in action are caused by neuromuscular weakness and cognitive decline. Although physical interventions have been reported to have beneficial effects on cognitive function in older adults, whether cognitive training improves action-related function remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of combined cognitive training on intention-based and stimulus-based actions in older adults using event-related potentials (ERPs). A total of 26 healthy older adults (16 in the training group and 10 in the control group) participated in the study. The training group received 16 sessions of cognitive training, including eight sessions of executive function training and eight sessions of memory strategy training. Before and after training, both groups of participants underwent cognitive assessments and ERP recordings during both the acquisition and test phases with a motor cognitive paradigm. During the acquisition phase, subjects were asked to press one of two keys, either using a self-selected (intention-based) method or based on the preceding stimulus (stimulus-based). During the test phase, subjects were asked to respond to the pre-cues with either congruent or incongruent tasks. Using ERP indices&mdash;including readiness potential, P3 and contingent negative variation to identify motor preparation, stimulus processing and interference effect, respectively&mdash;we revealed the effects of training on both intention-based</p

The Age Effects on the Cognitive Processes of Intention-Based and Stimulus-Based Actions: An ERP Study

The functional decline in action among older adults is caused not only by physical weakness but also by cognitive decline. In this study, we aimed to compare the cognitive effects of age between intention-based and stimulus-based action modes electrophysiologically. Because age-related declines in cognitive function might proceed distinctly according to specific action modes and processes, four specific cognitive processes, action-effect binding, stimulus-response linkage, action-effect feedback control, and effect-action retrieval, were investigated. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during a modified acquisition-test paradigm in young (mean age = 21, SD = 2) and old (mean age = 69, SD = 5) groups. A temporal bisection task and a movement pre-cuing task were used during the acquisition and test phases, respectively. Using ERP indices including readiness potential (RP), P3, N2 and contingent negative variation (CNV) to identify these four specific processes for the two action modes, we revealed the effects of age on each ERP index. The results showed similar patterns of waveforms but consistently decreasing amplitudes of all four ERP indices in the old age group compared with the young age group, which indicates not only generally declining functions of action preparation in older adults but also age effects specific to the action modes and processes that might otherwise be mixed together under confounding experimental conditions. Particularly, an interference effect indexed by the differences in the amplitudes of CNV between congruent and incongruent tasks was observed in the young age group, which is consistent with previous behavioral reports. However, this effect was absent in the old age group, indicating a specific age-related deficit in the effect-action retrieval process of intention-based action, which might be caused by an age-related deficit in associative memory. In sum, this study investigated the cognitive processes of two action modes from a developmental perspective and suggests the importance of adding associative memory training to interventions for older adults with the aim of improving intention-based action.</p

Caulis sargentodoxae prescription inhibits angiogenesis-related cytokines in a rat endometriosis model

Background: To determine the efficacy of the Caulis Sargentodoxae prescription, which is an empirical formula of Chinese herbs and has definite curative effects on endometriosis. Methods: The Caulis Sargentodoxae prescription on the growth of ectopic endometria was studied with a rat endometriosis (EMS) model. The EMS model was established by autoplastic transplantation. To study the curative effects of Chinese medicine on EMS in comparison with western medicine, gestrinone and an angiogenesis inhibitor were introduced. The rats were randomly divided into seven groups: normal group, model group, ovariectomized group, gestrinone (western medicine) group, Caulis Sargentodoxae prescription (Chinese medicine) group, apatinib (inhibitor) group, and combination (Chinese medicine + inhibitor) group. After administration for 21 days, the growth inhibitory rates of ectopic endometria in the treatment groups were evaluated, and the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR2) were detected by ELISA in the serum and peritoneal fluid, as well as in the ectopic endometrial tissues by real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. Results: The growth inhibitory rates of ectopic endometria in the treatment groups were significantly higher (P < 0.05). In the Caulis Sargentodoxae prescription group, the levels of angiogenesis-related factors, including VEGF and VEGFR2, were reduced in the serum and peritoneal fluid compared with the model group (P < 0.05). In addition, the positive expression of VEGF and VEGFR2 in ectopic endometria significantly decreased in the Caulis Sargentodoxae prescription group both at mRNA and protein levels. Conclusions: VEGF and VEGFR2 levels in the serum and peritoneal fluid can be used as a clinical reference for endometriotic pathogenesis and treatment, and the Caulis Sargentodoxae prescription has reliable therapeutic effects on EMS for its target-action ability to decrease angiogenesis