Effects of Music on the Recovery of Autonomic and Electrocortical Activity After Stress Induced by Aversive Visual Stimuli

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of music and white noise on the recovery of physiological measures after stressful visual stimulation. Twenty-nine participants took part in the experiment. Visual stimulation with slides eliciting disgust was followed by subjectively pleasant music, sad music, and white noise in three consecutive sessions. The spectral power of the frontal and temporal EEG, skin conductance, heart rate, heart period variability, facial capillary blood flow, and respiration rate were recorded and analyzed. Aversive visual stimulation evoked heart rate deceleration, increased high frequency component of heart period variability, increased skin conductance level and skin conductance response frequency, decreased facial blood flow and velocity, decreased temporal slow alpha and increased frontal fast beta power in all three sessions. Both subjectively pleasant and sad music led to the restoration of baseline levels on most parameters; while white noise did not enhance the recovery process. The effects of pleasant music on post-stress recovery, when compared to white noise, were significantly different on heart rate, respiration rate, and peripheral blood flow. Both positive and negative music exerted positive modulatory effects on cardiovascular and respiratory activity, namely increased heart rate, balanced heart period variability, increased vascular blood flow and respiration rate during the post-stress recovery. Data only partially supported the “undoing” hypothesis, which states that positive emotions may facilitate the process of physiological recovery following negative emotions.     

“情绪管理”在临床护理管理工作中的应用体会

目的：探讨情绪管理在临床护理管理工作中的应用和效果,为临床护理管理的实践提供指导和帮助。方法：选取我院244名护士为研究对象,随机分为常规管理组和情绪管理组,每组各122名护士。常规管理组采取常规的护理管理模式,情绪管理组则对护士进行情绪调节、以适当方式释放压力等情绪管理方法。比较两组研究对象在解决问题、求助、合理化、退避、自责、幻想等方面的评分情况。结果：实施不同的管理措施后,情绪管理组护士在解决问题、求助、合理化、退避、自责、幻想等方面的得分结果明显优于常规管理组护士的得分结果,差异显著有统计学意义（P〈0．05）。结论：情绪管理对临床护理管理工作的实践具有重要意义,可有效调节护理人员的工作情绪,从而提高临床护理的质量。     

On the relationship of emotional abilities and prosocial behavior

The ability to perceive and infer the meaning of facial expressions has been considered a critical component of emotional intelligence being essential for successful social functioning: Longitudinal findings suggest that the ability to recognize emotion cues is related to positive social interactions. Moreover, pronounced recognition abilities for at least some emotions facilitate prosocial behavior in everyday situations. Integrating paradigms from behavioral economics and psychometrics, we used an interdisciplinary approach to study the relationship between prosociality as trait cooperativeness and the ability to recognize emotions in others. We measured emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) using a multivariate test battery. We captured prosocial behavior in standard socio-economic games, along with spontaneous emotion expressions. Structural equation modeling revealed no significant relationship between overall ERA and prosocial behavior. However, modeling emotion-specific factors suggested that more prosocial individuals are better in recognizing fear and tend to express more spontaneous emotions during the prisoner's dilemma. In all, cooperative individuals seem to be more sensitive to the distress of others and more expressive, possibly fostering reciprocal interactions with like-minded others.     

雌雄同居对子午沙鼠情绪及下丘脑催产素表达的影响

雌雄同居是配偶关系形成的重要阶段,涉及到一系列生理和情绪的变化,对长期稳定的配偶关系形成具有重要意义。然而由于单配制动物模型较少,雌雄同居过程中的神经调控,尤其是两性差异仍不清楚。本研究以室内繁殖的子午沙鼠(Meriones meridianus)为研究对象,采用高架十字迷宫、强迫游泳和免疫组化法,探究雌雄同居对雌雄子午沙鼠的情绪变化及其相关脑区催产素表达的影响。结果表明：雌雄同居10 d后,在高架十字迷宫中,雌性沙鼠进入开放臂的频次显著减少(P <0.05),焦虑指数显著升高(P <0.05);在强迫游泳实验中,同居组雌性沙鼠停止游泳的频次和时间显著增加(P <0.05);同居组雌性沙鼠在下丘脑室旁核和视上核中的催产素表达水平显著升高(P <0.05)。然而同居组雄性的行为和催产素水平均没有出现显著变化,这可能与雌雄配偶关系形成过程中的两性不同步有关。综上,雌雄同居仅使得雌性子午沙鼠表现出焦虑样行为,且下丘脑催产素系统可能参与了该过程。     

Changes in CNS response to neurotensin accompany the postpartum period in mice

Neurotensin (NT) is a highly conserved neuropeptide in mammals. Recent studies suggest that altered NT neurotransmission in postpartum females could promote the emergence of some maternal behaviors, including offspring protection. Here we evaluated how virgin and postpartum brains from mice selected for high maternal defense differ in response to NT. Virgin and postpartum mice were injected with either vehicle or 0.1 μg NT icv and brains were evaluated for c-Fos immunoreactivity, an indirect marker of neuronal activity. Using ANOVA analysis, common significant responses to NT were found in both female groups in four brain regions, including supraoptic nucleus, ventromedial nucleus, bed nucleus of stria terminalis dorsal, and a subregion of lateral septum (LS). For postpartum mice, only one additional region showed a significant response to NT relative to vehicle, whereas for virgin mice seven unique brain regions showed a significant c-Fos response: nucleus accumbens shell, paraventricular nucleus, central amygdala, and substantia nigra. Using a principal components analysis of c-Fos, we identified regions within each group with highly correlated activity. As expected, virgin and postpartum mice (vehicle conditions) showed different activity hubs and in the postpartum group the hubs matched regions linked to maternal care. The response to injected NT was different in the maternal and virgin groups with maternal mice showing a stronger coordinated activity in periaqueductal gray whereas virgin mice showed a stronger septal and amygdala linking of activity. Together, these results indicate neuronal responses of virgin and postpartum mice to NT and highlight pathways by which NT can alter maternal responses.     

情绪的脑机制研究在社会认知神经科学中的进展

社会认知神经科学是近几年国外新兴起的交叉学科,旨在阐述社会性、情绪性的体验与行为的心理和神经基础。它综合了认知神经科学与社会心理学研究的长处,对刻板印象、态度与态度改变、他人知觉、自我认知以及情绪与认知交互作用等方面进行了深入研究。主要范式是应用认知神经科学的方法来验证社会心理学在这些范畴上的各种不同理论观点,并在某些方面取得了突破性进展,但仍存在着广泛的发展空间。随着当前各种脑成像技术的革新,人们对情绪状态下大脑的神经活动的了解在原来认知的层面上有了进一步提升。本文主要阐述社会认知神经科学在情绪的脑机制研究上所取得的进展。     

Does emotional dysregulation mediate the relationship between disability and depressive symptoms in older people?

BackgroundEmotion dysregulation has been consistently linked to psychopathology, and the relationship between disability and depressive symptomatology in old age is well-known.ObjectiveTo examine the mediational role of emotional dysregulation in the relationship between perceived disability and depressive symptomatology in older adults.MethodsTwo hundred eighty-three participants, aged 60–96 years (M ± SD = 74.22 ± 8.69; 62.9% women; 29.0% with long-term care support [LTC-S] and 71.0% community residents without LTC-S), were assessed with the Geriatric Depression Scale-8 (GDS-8), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule-2 (WHODAS-2), and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-16 (DERS-16).ResultsA mediation model was established, which revealed: (1) a moderate association between WHODAS-2 and GDS-8 (β = 0.20; p < .001); (2) DERS-16 partially and weakly mediated the relationship between WHODAS-2 and GDS-8 (β = 0.003; p < .01). The model explained 31.9% of the variance of depressive symptoms. An inconsistent mediation model was obtained in the LTC-S group.ConclusionsGlobally, our findings indicate that disability has an indirect relationship with depressive symptomatology through emotional dysregulation (except for those in the LTC-S). Accordingly, we present suggestions for the treatment of depressive symptoms and for the inclusion of other emotion regulation variables in the study of the disability-depressive symptom link in future studies with older people in the LTC-S.     

Emotional face recognition, empathic trait (BEES), and cortical contribution in response to positive and negative cues. The effect of rTMS on dorsal medial prefrontal cortex

The present study investigated the relationship between three different measures related to the affective empathy: facial expression detection in response to different emotional patterns (positive vs. negative), personal response to empathic scale [Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES)], and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) contribution to mediate the facial detection task. Nineteen subjects took part in the study and they were required to recognize facial expression of emotions, after having empathized with these emotional cues. Repeated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) method was used in the present research in order to produce a temporary virtual disruption of dMPFC activity. dMPFC disruption induced a worse performance, especially in response to negative expressions (i.e. anger and fear). High-BEES subjects paid a higher cost after frontal brain perturbation: they showed to be unable to correctly detect facial expressions more than low-BEES. Moreover, a “negative valence effect” was observed only for high-BEES, and it was probably related with their higher impairment to recognize negative more than positive expressions. dMPFC was found to support emotional facial expression recognition in an empathic condition, with a specific increased responsiveness for negative-valenced faces. The contribution of this research was discussed to explain the mechanisms underlying affective empathy based on rTMS application.