亚磁场引起小鼠昼夜节律改变和热痛觉敏感增加

地外空间的亚磁场环境是影响宇航员健康的一种潜在风险因素．动物和人体实验表明,亚磁场显著影响个体行为和神经系统功能．但是,目前尚缺乏亚磁场对动物行为和生理等多方面影响的系统检测数据．本文构建了一个适用于动物饲养的亚磁场环境(< 500 nT),并系统检测了30天亚磁场处理对成年雄鼠(C57BL/6,4～6周龄,(20 ± 2) g)的昼夜周期、痛觉、情绪及激素水平的影响．实验结果表明,对比地磁场中饲喂对照组,亚磁场中小鼠的昼夜饮水节律改变、热敏痛觉耐受能力和整体活动水平降低,但是没有发生焦虑或抑郁情绪．亚磁场处理后,小鼠血清去甲肾上腺素水平显著下降． 这些结果说明一个月连续亚磁场处理扰乱动物的昼夜活动节律和内分泌,随后可能导致其感知觉能力的变化和运动机能的下降．     

Effect of the catechol-O-methyltransferase val(158)met genotype on children's early phases of facial stimuli processing

The ability to process and identify human faces matures early in life, is universal and is mediated by a distributed neural system. The temporal dynamics of this cognitive-emotional task can be studied by cerebral visual event-related potentials (ERPs) that are stable from midchildhood onwards. We hypothesized that part of individual variability in the parameters of the N170, a waveform that specifically marks the early, precategorical phases of human face processing, could be associated with genetic variation at the functional polymorphism of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (val(158)met) gene, which influences information processing, cognitive control tasks and patterns of brain activation during passive processing of human facial stimuli. Forty-nine third and fourth graders underwent a task of implicit processing of other children's facial expressions of emotions while ERPs were recorded. The N170 parameters (latency and amplitude) were insensitive to the type of expression, stimulus repetition, gender or school grade. Although limited by the absence of met- homozygotes among boys, data showed shorter N170 latency associated with the presence of 1-2 met158 alleles, and family-based association tests (as implemented in the PBAT version 2.6 software package) confirmed the association. These data were independent of the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism and the N400 waveform investigated in the same group of children in a previous study. Some electrophysiological features of face processing may be stable from midchildhood onwards. Different waveforms generated by face processing may have at least partially independent genetic architectures and yield different implications toward the understanding of individual differences in cognition and emotions.     

心理干预对高血压合并脑梗塞患者负性情绪及生活质量的影响

目的:探讨心理干预措施对高血压合并脑梗塞患者负性情绪及生活质量的影响。方法:本次选择的研究对象共92例,均为住院的高血压合并脑梗塞患者,采用简单随机分组方法,分为干预组和对照组,每组46例。对照组给予常规治疗及护理,干预组在对照组的基础上给予心理干预。在入组时、入组后1个月采用抑郁自评量表(SDS)、焦虑自评量表(SAS)、症状自评量表(SCL一90)作为测评工具,测评两组患者干预前后负性情绪和生活质量情况。结果:入组时两组患者的SDS评分、SAS评分及SCL-90各项分值比较差异无统计学意义(P0.05);干预治疗1个月后干预组较对照组患者的SDS评分、SAS评分及SCL-90各项分值均降低,差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。结论:心理干预不仅能缓解患者抑郁焦虑等负性情绪,而且有利于患者生活质量的提高。     

Dream Imagery and Emotion.

The relationship between prominent visual imagery and emotion within dreams was investigated in relation to E. Hartmann's (1996) contextualizing image (CI) theory and M. Seligman and A. Yellen's (1987) dual imagery theory. Fifty-nine students recorded dreams over a 2-week period and submitted 115 dreams for analysis. Participants recorded ratings of emotion type and emotion intensity in each scene. Prominent visual images were identified and scored for intensity and detail by independent judges. As hypothesized from Hartmann's theory, there was a significant positive relationship between CI intensity and emotion intensity in the CI scene, emotion intensity generally peaked in the CI scene, and dreams containing a CI had higher overall ratings of emotion intensity than non-CI dreams. The result for the correlation of detail of prominent imagery with emotion was inconclusive, with a low positive correlation across CI scenes. This raises the possibility that the CI is not a unitary construct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lateralization of olfactory processes

Over the last ten years, methods of cerebral imaging have revolutionized our knowledge of cognitive processes in humans. An impressive number of papers dealing with cerebral imaging for olfaction have been published to date. Whereas the early works revealed those structures participating in the processing of odours presented passively to subjects, researchers later recorded brain activity when subjects performed specific olfactory tasks based on memory, emotion and identification. From these results, we suggest that there is a dissociation of olfactory processes, with involvement of the right hemisphere in memory processes and the left hemisphere in emotional processes. The review concludes with a summary of how these lateralized processes are consistent with the gestalt-nature of our olfactory perception.     

研究: 异族面孔分类中情绪的调节作用

人们对异族面孔的分类绩效比本族面孔更好,这称作异族分类优势.但面孔异族分类优势是否也和面孔异族效应一样受到情绪的调节作用,尚未可知.本文通过两个实验考察情绪对于面孔种族分类任务的影响.实验一要求40名大学生被试对不同表情面孔(中性,负性,正性)完成种族判断任务,结果发现,正性和负性情绪使年轻人对异族面孔分类变得更慢,削弱了面孔异族分类优势,而且正性情绪对异族分类效应影响更大.实验二以不同情绪加工特点的老年人为被试,发现老年人对负性异族面孔的分类绩效明显更差,负性情绪对异族分类优势的影响更大.这些结果为异族分类优势理论中,异族面孔分类和个体身份加工过程相互制约的潜在假设提供了进一步的支持.     

不同心理素质水平军人在厌恶情绪条件下自主神经反应特点

目的:探讨不同心理素质水平军人在厌恶情绪条件下自主神经反应特点。方法:用军人心理素质量表筛选出54名部队官兵,其中高、中、低心理素质组军人各18名。采用3份情绪视频材料,诱导被试的中性和厌恶情绪,利用八通道多参数生物反馈仪,记录自主神经反应的十个指标和相应自主神经反应指标的平均恢复时间。结果:(1)在中性情绪条件下,低心理素质组[(12.06±4.89)b/min]的心率(HR)的变化上显著大于高心理素质组[(5.75±2.80)b/min];(2)在厌恶情绪条件下,低心理素质组[(7.09±2.02)nU]的心率变异性(HRV)频谱归一化低频功率(Lfnorm)的变化显著大于中等[(3.43±1.70)nU]与高心理素质组([2.66±1.50)nU];低心理素质组([357.94±129.33)Hz]的总功率(TP)的变化显著大于中等([171.14±73.02)ms2]与高心理素质组([167.84±86.38)ms2];(3)在自主神经反应指标的恢复时间上,低心理素质组([49.98±10.96)秒]在厌恶情绪条件下其心率(HR)的恢复时间显著大于高心理素质组([24.65±9.38)sec];低心理素质组([37.84±21.33)sec]在厌恶情绪条件下其皮电(SC)、皮温(TEMP)、指端血容振幅(BVP)、心率(HR)四个自主神经反应指标的平均恢复时间上显著大于高心理素质组([18.57±10.15)秒]。(4)在情绪的愉悦度、唤醒度的上,低心理素质组(0.88±1.11)在中性条件下其唤醒度的变化明显大于中等(0.50±0.70)与高心理素质组(0.12±0.33);低心理素质组(-2.11±0.90)在厌恶条件下愉悦度的变化明显大于中等(-1.56±0.86)与高心理素质组(-1.33±0.84)。结论:在中性条件下,低心理素质军人更容易出现生理上的唤醒警觉状态。在厌恶情绪条件下,低心理素质军人是副交感神经伴有较强交感神经兴奋的自主神经反应模式;高、中等心理素质军人副交感神经伴有较弱的交感神经兴奋。     

Verbal cues modulate hedonic perception of odors in 5-year-old children as well as in adults

The judgment of pleasantness/unpleasantness is the prominent reaction to the olfactory world. In human adults, the hedonic valence of odor perception is affected by various factors, among which is an individual's lexical knowledge about smells. The present study examined whether such top-down effects of lexical knowledge on hedonic judgment of olfactory input are similar in children (5-6 years) and adults (20-25 years). In both groups, the lexical knowledge was found to influence the perception of the least emotional (or most neutral) odors: the pleasantness of the smells of banana and mint was enhanced when participants were given the corresponding odor label before olfactory sensation. These results lend support to the notion that, during childhood, smells are not only encoded perceptually but that verbal encoding also steers contextual effects that may be prominent factors in the early memorization and categorization of odors.     

Contextualizing Images in Dreams and Daydreams

A contextualizing image (CI) is a powerful central image of a dream which appears to contextualize (provide a picture-context for) the dreamer's emotion. For instance, dreamers who have experienced any serious traumatic event sometimes dream, I was overwhelmed by a tidal wave. This appears to picture their feeling of terror and/or vulnerability.A scoring system for CIs is examined here and is applied to dreams and daydreams supplied by 40 students. Two raters scoring dreams on a blind basis showed good inter-rater reliability. Recent dreams were shown to have more as well as more intense CIs than recent daydreams; likewise, dreams that stand out had more intense CIs than daydreams that stand out. Students with thin boundaries had more and more intense CIs than students with thick boundaries in their recent dreams and nightmare, but not so clearly in dreams and nightmares that stand out. The emotions judged as contextualized by the powerful images tended towards fear/terror and helplessness/vulnerability in dreams (especially in dreams that stand out) whereas emotions contextualized by images in daydreams showed a wide range with no clusters.     

Negative emotional biases in late chronotypes

Increasing evidence suggests evening chronotypes are at increased risk for developing depression. Here, we examined if, similar to acutely depressed patients, evening chronotype individuals display biases in emotional face recognition. Two hundred and twenty-six individuals completed an online survey including measures of sleep quality, depression/anxiety and chronotype followed by a simple emotion recognition task presenting male and female faces morphed in 10 steps between 0 (neutral) and 100% sad or happy. Evening chronotype was associated with increased recognition of sad facial expressions independently of sleep quality, mood, age and gender. The current results extend previous work indicating that negative biases in emotional processing are present in evening chronotypes and may have important implications for the prevention and treatment of depression in these vulnerable individuals.