Associations between physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors among adolescents in 10 cities in China

BACKGROUND: Studies in western countries have revealed that excessive sedentary behavior is a major risk factor for physical inactivity in adolescents. This study was performed to investigate the association between sedentary behavior and physical inactivity in Chinese adolescents using a large-scale cross-sectional survey design. METHODS: This study was part of the 2011 Chinese Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Between March and September 2011, 10,214 11–18-year-olds were recruited for survey participation in 18 schools in 10 cities in China. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and the prevalences of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors, were examined. Correlations between sedentary behavior and physical inactivity were analyzed using baseline logistic regression. RESULTS: Among the final 9,901 students, physical inactivity (~80%) and sedentary behaviors (television viewing, 43%; computer use, 30.2%) were prevalent. More male than female students reported sedentary behaviors (television viewing > 2 h: 5.5% vs. 3.9%; computer use > 2 h: 7.2% vs. 3.5%; both p < 0.05), but more males were physically active than females (25.1% vs.14.6%; p < 0.05). Television viewing was associated with lower odds of no physical activity (No PA) in males [0–2 h: adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.68–0.96; >4 h: OR = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.18–0.64], but not in females. A similar pattern between insufficient physical activity and >4 h TV viewing (AOR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.23–0.76) and >4 h computer use (AOR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.30–0.78) was observed in males. In females, 0–2 h daily computer use was associated with higher odds of physical inactivity (No PA: AOR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.10–1.82; Insufficient PA: AOR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.24–2.01), while TV viewing was not associated with No PA or Insufficient PA. The probability of physical inactivity significantly increased with grade and decreased with socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS: Physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors were prevalent in Chinese adolescents. Further support, including parental guidance and the provision of publicly accessible facilities, is necessary to encourage Chinese youths to engage sufficiently in physical activities

Atypical Frontotemporal Connectivity of Cognitive Empathy in Male Adolescents With Conduct Disorder

Background: It has been suggested that adolescents with conduct disorder (CD) may have a deficit in the affective and cognitive domains empathy, but studies exploring networks within the key brain regions of affective and cognitive empathy in adolescents with CD are lacking.Methods: Functional connectivity (FC) analyses among key brain regions of the affective and cognitive empathy with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were conducted in 30 adolescent boys with CD and 33 demographically matched healthy controls (HCs).Results: Atypical FC within the key brain regions of affective empathy was not observed in CD adolescents. However, we found that CD adolescents showed decreased frontotemporal connectivity within the key brain regions of cognitive empathy in relation to HCs, that is, the FCs between right temporoparietal junction and ventromedial prefrontal cortex as well as dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.Conclusion: These findings may provide insight into neural mechanism underlying a cognitive empathy deficiency of CD adolescents from the perspective of FC

Altered white matter integrity in individuals with cognitive vulnerability to depression: a tract-based spatial statistics study

The microstructure of white matter in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) has been demonstrated to be abnormal. However, it remains unclear whether these changes exist prior to the onset of disease. In this study, diffusion tensor imaging was used to evaluate white matter integrity in individuals who exhibited cognitive vulnerability to depression (CVD), MDD, and healthy controls (HC). Compared with the HC, MDD exhibited a lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in ten brain regions: the cerebral peduncle, the anterior and posterior limbs of the internal capsule (ALIC and PLIC), the external capsule, the retrolenticular part of the internal capsule (RLIC), the body and splenium of the corpus callosum, the superior and posterior corona radiata, and the cingulum. Moreover, CVD had significantly lower FA in the ALIC, the PLIC, the external capsule, the RLIC, the cerebral peduncle, and the superior corona radiata than did the HC. However, the white matter integrity was not significantly different between the CVD and MDD. These preliminary results indicate that alterations in the white matter observed in CVD may be a marker of vulnerability to MDD and that these alterations may exist prior to the onset of depression

Altered Functional Connectivity of Striatum Based on the Integrated Connectivity Model in First-Episode Schizophrenia

Background: The human striatum is a heterogeneous structure involved in diverse functional domains that related to distinct striatum subregions. Striatal dysfunction was thought to be a fundamental element in schizophrenia. However, the connectivity pattern of striatum solely based on functional or structural characteristics leads to inconsistent findings in healthy adult and also schizophrenia. This study aims to develop an integrated striatal model and reveal the altered functional connectivity pattern of the striatum in schizophrenia. Methods: Two data-driven approaches, task-dependent meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) and task-independent resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC), were used for seven anatomical connectivity-based striatum subregions to provide an integrated striatal model. Then, RSFC analyses of seven striatal subregions were applied to 45 first-episode schizophrenia (FES) and 27 healthy controls to examine the difference, based on the integrated model, of functional connectivity pattern of striatal subregions. Results: MACM and RSFC results showed that striatum subregions were associated with discrete cortical regions and involved in distinct cognitive processes. Besides, RSFC results overlapped with MACM findings but showed broader distributions. Importantly, significantly reduced functional connectivity was identified between limbic subregion and thalamus, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and insula and also between executive subregions and thalamus, supplementary motor area, and insula in FES. Conclusions: Combing functional and structural connectivity information, this study provides the integrated model of corticostriatal subcircuits and confirms the abnormal functional connectivity of limbic and executive striatum subregions with different networks and thalamus, supporting the important role of the corticostriatal-thalamic loop in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia

Cognitive Vulnerability to Major Depression: View from the Intrinsic Network and Cross-network Interactions

Abstract Although it is generally accepted that cognitive factors contribute to the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD), there are missing links between behavioral and biological models of depression. Nevertheless, research employing neuroimaging technologies has elucidated some of the neurobiological mechanisms related to cognitive-vulnerability factors, especially from a whole-brain, dynamic perspective. In this review, we integrate well-established cognitive-vulnerability factors for MDD and corresponding neural mechanisms in intrinsic networks using a dual-process framework. We propose that the dynamic alteration and imbalance among the intrinsic networks, both in the resting-state and the rest-task transition stages, contribute to the development of cognitive vulnerability and MDD. Specifically, we propose that abnormally increased resting-state default mode network (DMN) activity and connectivity (mainly in anterior DMN regions) contribute to the development of cognitive vulnerability. Furthermore, when subjects confront negative stimuli in the period of rest-to-task transition, the following three kinds of aberrant network interactions have been identified as facilitators of vulnerability and dysphoric mood, each through a different cognitive mechanism: DMN dominance over the central executive network (CEN), an impaired salience network–mediated switching between the DMN and CEN, and ineffective CEN modulation of the DMN. This focus on interrelated networks and brain-activity changes between rest and task states provides a neural-system perspective for future research on cognitive vulnerability and resilience, and may potentially guide the development of new intervention strategies for MDD

Depression in China: Integrating Developmental Psychopathology and Cultural-Clinical Psychology

With a starting point in John Abela’s groundbreaking developmental psychopathology research on adolescent depression in China, we aimed to review the state of the literature on Chinese depression across the lifespan. We began with Dr. Abela’s published studies relevant to depression in China and our own research with adults before turning to the reference lists of these articles to find additional sources. Then we conducted literature searches using PsycINFO and PubMed to find other relevant studies published between April 2001 and April 2011. There are two distinct literatures on depression in China. Developmental psychopathology research has emphasized adolescent samples and cognitive models of causation; cultural-clinical psychology and cultural psychiatry research have emphasized adult samples and the meanings associated with emotions, symptoms, and syndromes. Both approaches to the study of depression in China have yielded important findings but have also highlighted issues that could be better addressed by incorporating the other approach. Beyond depression in China, the psychological study of culture and mental health more generally would benefit from greater exchange between developmental psychopathology and cultural-clinical psychology

The cultural shaping of alexithymia: Values and externally oriented thinking in a Chinese clinical sample

Objective: Alexithymia is a multi-faceted personality construct characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing emotional states. Originally based on observations of American psychosomatic patients, the construct is now studied in a variety of cultural contexts. However, few studies have critically examined alexithymia from a cultural perspective. Dere et al. [1] recently found support for the hypothesis that one alexithymia component \textendash {} externally oriented thinking (EOT) – is linked to cultural values, among Euro-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian students. The current study examines this association in a Chinese clinical sample. Methods: Outpatients presenting at three hospital-based psychology clinics in Hunan province, China (N=268) completed a structured clinical interview and self-report measures of alexithymia and cultural values. All participants endorsed clinically significant levels of depressed mood, anhedonia, and/or fatigue. Results: As expected, EOT was negatively predicted by Modernization and Euro-American values. Two other alexithymia components, difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings, were unrelated to cultural values. Conclusion: These findings suggest that cultural variations in the importance placed on emotional experience must be taken into account in cross-cultural alexithymia research. Such studies should also consider separately the specific components of alexithymia; failure to do so can lead to overestimation of alexithymia in groups where scores are driven by culturally-promoted EOT. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Anxiety symptom presentations in Han Chinese and Euro-Canadian outpatients: Is distress always somatized in China?

Background: Cultural variations in the relative emphasis on somatic versus psychological symptoms of distress are a common topic in cultural psychopathology. The most well-known example involves people of Chinese heritage, who are found to emphasize somatic symptoms in presenting depression as compared with people of Western European heritage. It remains unknown whether a similar cultural difference is found for anxiety disorders. Methods: Euro-Canadian (n = 79) and Han Chinese (n = 154) psychiatric outpatients with clinically significant concerns about both depression and anxiety were selected from a larger dataset based on their responses to a structured interview. They also completed two self-report questionnaires assessing somatization of depression and anxiety. Results: As expected, Chinese participants reported a greater tendency to emphasize somatic symptoms of depression, as compared to the Euro-Canadians. Contrary to expectations, the tendency to emphasize somatic symptoms of anxiety was higher among the Euro-Canadians as compared to the Chinese participants. Limitations: Characteristics of our participants limit the generalizability of our findings. The current study is preliminary and requires replication. Conclusions: Despite the exploratory nature of this study, the results suggest that the popular notion of ‘Chinese somatization’ should not be over-generalized. Our findings also imply that there may be important differences in the cultural understanding of depression and anxiety in both Chinese and ‘Western’ contexts. Future studies should seek to unpack potential cultural explanations for why Euro-Canadian outpatients may emphasize somatic symptoms in the presentation of anxiety to a greater degree than Chinese outpatients. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved