Evidence for a Behaviourally Measurable Perseverance Trait in Humans

The aim was to create and study a possible behavioural measure for trait(s) in humans that reflect the ability and motivation to continue an unpleasant behaviour, i.e., behavioural perseverance or persistence (BP). We utilised six different tasks with 54 subjects to measure the possible BP trait(s): cold pressor task, hand grip endurance task, impossible anagram task, impossible verbal reasoning task, thread and needle task, and boring video task. The task performances formed two BP factors. Together, the two-factor solution is responsible for the common variance constituting 37.3% of the total variance in the performances i.e., performance times. Excluding the impossible anagram task, the performance in any given task was better explained by performances in the other tasks (i.e., “trait”, η2 range = 0.131–0.253) than by the rank order variable (“depletion”, i.e., getting tired from the previous tasks, η2 range = 0–0.096)

Understanding depressive symptoms through psychological traits and physiological stress reactivity

Peer reviewe

Evidence for a Behaviourally Measurable Perseverance Trait in Humans

The aim was to create and study a possible behavioural measure for trait(s) in humans that reflect the ability and motivation to continue an unpleasant behaviour, i.e., behavioural perseverance or persistence (BP). We utilised six different tasks with 54 subjects to measure the possible BP trait(s): cold pressor task, hand grip endurance task, impossible anagram task, impossible verbal reasoning task, thread and needle task, and boring video task. The task performances formed two BP factors. Together, the two-factor solution is responsible for the common variance constituting 37.3% of the total variance in the performances i.e., performance times. Excluding the impossible anagram task, the performance in any given task was better explained by performances in the other tasks (i.e., “trait”, η2 range = 0.131–0.253) than by the rank order variable (“depletion”, i.e., getting tired from the previous tasks, η2 range = 0–0.096)

Toiminnanohjaus ja musiikin harrastaminen 40–66 -vuotiailla : tehtävänvaihto- ja ERP-tutkimus

Toiminnanohjauksella tarkoitetaan laajaa kirjoa erilaisia kognitiivisia toimintoja, joiden ajatellaan olevan vastuussa mm. tarkkaavaisuuden suuntaamisesta ja ylläpitämisestä, työmuistista, itse-tarkkailusta ja -hillinnästä, tunnesäätelystä ja tavoitteellisesta toiminnasta. Toiminnanohjauksen ulottuvuuksia kuten skeemojen vaihtamista, inhibointia ja tehtävänhallintaa voidaan kutsua yleisemmin kognitiiviseksi joustavuudeksi, jota on tutkittu nk. tehtävänvaihtotehtävillä. Tehtävänvaihtotehtävissä skeemojen tai toimintaohjelmien vaihtamisesta seuraa tehtävänvaihtokustannus suorituksissa. Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin työikäisten suoriutumista tehtävänvaihtotehtävässä, sekä tehtävänvaihtokustannukseen liittyviä aivosähkökäyrän tapahtumasidonnaisia jännitevasteita (ERP). Erityisenä kiinnostuksen kohteena olivat musiikin harrastamisen vaikutukset toiminnanohjauksellisiin kykyihin. Musiikin harrastamisen oletettiin pienentävän tehtävänvaihtokustannusta. Aiemmat tutkimukset osoittavat, että etenkin lapsena harjoitetulla musiikkiharrastuksella on kognition kehittymistä ja säilymistä tukevia vaikutuksia, jotka näkyvät myös aivotasolla. Näissä tutkimuksissa kuitenkin keskitytään harvoin työikäisiin. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostui suoritusaineiston osalta 28 perusterveestä 40–66 -vuotiaasta koehenkilöstä. Koehenkilöistä 20 kuului ERP-aineistoon. Koehenkilöt rekrytoitiin erilaisista harrasteryhmistä ja jaettiin harrastuneisuuden pohjalta musiikki- ja verrokkiryhmiin. Koeasetelmana käytettiin aiemmin mm. Leinikan ym. (2014) käyttämää tehtävänvaihtokoeasetelmaa. Koehenkilöiltä mitattiin reaktioaikoja sekä aivosähkökäyrää n. 15 minuuttia kestäneen tehtävänvaihtotehtävän ajan. Sekä suoritus- että ERP-aineisto analysoitiin tilastollisesti käyttämällä toistettujen mittausten varianssianalyysiä. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin selkeä tehtävänvaihtokustannus suoritusaineistossa että sitä heijasteleva amplitudin nousu ERP-aineistossa. Suoritus- tai ERP-aineistossa ei havaittu ryhmäkohtaisia eroja tehtäväkustannuksen osalta. Sukupuolten välillä havaittiin suoritusaineistossa pieni mutta merkitsevä ero tehtäväkustannuksen osalta. Tehtäväkustannus on suurpiirteinen ilmiö, jolla on selkeä vastine aivojen sähköisessä toiminnassa. Tehtävänvaihtotehtävässä suoriutumiseen ei kuitenkaan näyttäisi vaikuttavan musiikin harrastaminen, mikä voi kertoa joko musiikin harrastamisesta koituvien kognitiivisten hyötyjen rajallisuudesta, tehtävänvaihtotehtävän luonteesta tai tutkimuksen koehenkilöiden demografisista piirteistä. Sukupuolten välisille eroille suoritusaineistossa ei ole selkeää tulkintaa.Executive functioning is a general concept covering a multitude of different cognitive functions, e.g. direction and upkeep of attention, working memory, self-observation and -inhibition, emotional control and goal-directed behavior. Specific aspects of executive functioning such as switching between schemas, inhibition and task management can be defined as flexible cognition, and they have been studied extensively with so called task switching tasks. Switching between schemas or task-sets can be seen in task switching tasks as a task switching cost. This study focuses on measuring the performance and event-related potentials (ERP) of subjects of working age during task switching situations. Of special interest were the effects of musical training on the quality of flexible cognition, the training presumably lowering the cost of switching between tasks. Previous research shows that musical training can facilitate positive physiologically based development of cognition and alleviate age-related natural deficits in cognition. However, there is not much research on this subject concerning the working age-group. The data consists of 28 healthy, working subjects of 40–66 years. Out of the 28 subjects, adequate ERP-data was collected from 20 subjects. The subjects were recruited from different groups of hobby and leisure and were divided into musical or control group according to their experience in musical training. The design of the task switching task experiment followed the example of Leinikka et al. (2014). Reaction times and ERPs were measured from the subjects during a short, 15-minutes task switching task. Both the behavioral and ERP-data were analyzed statistically using a repeated measures variance analysis. A clear task switching cost was observed in behavioral data and a rise in amplitude in ERP-data reflecting the behavioral task switching cost. No differences between the musical and control groups were observed. However, a small but statistically significant difference in task switching cost was observed between sexes in the behavioral data. The task switching cost is clearly a robust phenomenon that can be observed both in behavioral and in brain-based measures. According to this data, it seems that the performance in task switching task is not influenced by musical training. These results can be due to the limitations of the influence of musical training on flexible cognition, the nature of the current experimental design, or the demographics of the current sample. As for the differences in performance between sexes, no clear interpretation is available

Understanding depressive symptoms through psychological traits and physiological stress reactivity

Understanding the relationship between psychological and physiological factors in depression and depressive symptoms may help us define depression subcategories based on their parasympathetic nervous system activity and reactivity, and perhaps in the future, develop more effective symptom-based treatments. In this study we aimed to shed light on the relationship between selected psychological traits (harm avoidance and self-rumination) and physiological stress (high-frequency heart rate variability, HF-HRV). We recruited 58 females to participate in a laboratory study where they completed a public speech preparation task designed to induce stress. We found that participants with higher scores in self-reported harm avoidance and self-rumination had lower HF-HRV during the stress task, indicating a parasympathetic withdrawal (i.e. more stress). The associations between self-reported depressive symptoms and HF-HRV were not statistically significant. Thus, we linked psychological depression risk factors to specific indices of higher physiological stress

Positive affect state is a good predictor of movement and stress: combining data from ESM/EMA, mobile HRV measurements and trait questionnaires

Personality describes the average behaviour and responses of individuals across situations; but personality traits are often poor predictors of behaviour in specific situations. This is known as the “personality paradox”. We evaluated the interrelations between various trait and state variables in participants’ everyday lives. As state measures, we used 1) experience sampling methodology (ESM/EMA) to measure perceived affect, stress, and presence of social company; and 2) heart-rate variability and real-time movement (accelerometer data) to indicate physiological stress and physical movement. These data were linked with self-report measures of personality and personality-like traits. Trait variables predicted affect states and multiple associations were found: neuroticism and rumination decreased positive affect and increased negative affect. Positive affect state, in turn, was the strongest predictor of observed movement. Positive affect was also associated with heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV). Negative affect, in turn, was not associated with neither movement, HR or HRV. The study provides evidence on the influence of personality-like traits and social context to affect states, and, in turn, their influence to movement and stress variables