A new paper published in Biological Psychiatry suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) not only reduces symptoms but also affects the underlying biology of this disorder.
The researchers, led by Dr. Szabolcs Kéri at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions and University of Szeged in Hungary, recruited 39 individuals diagnosed with PTSD to participate in the study. For a comparison group, they also included 31 individuals who had been exposed to trauma, but who did not develop PTSD. The individuals with PTSD then received 12 weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy, whereas the non-PTSD group received no therapy.
Before and after the 12 weeks, the researchers measured the volumes of certain brain regions using magnetic resonance imaging. They also collected blood samples to measure changes in expression of a specific gene, FKBP5, which has been implicated in the risk for developing PTSD and plays a role in regulating stress hormones.
Science of the Spirit
Researchers have struggled to identify how certain states of mind influence physical health. One biologist thinks he has an answer.
When Steve Cole was a postdoc, he had an unusual hobby: matching art buyers with artists that they might like. The task made looking at art, something he had always loved, even more enjoyable. "There was an extra layer of purpose. I loved the ability to help artists I thought were great to find an appreciative audience," he says.
At the time, it was nothing more than a quirky sideline. But his latest findings have caused Cole - now a professor at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California, Los Angeles - to wonder whether the exhilaration and sense of purpose that he felt during that period might have done more than help him to find homes for unloved pieces of art. It might have benefited his immune system too.
At one time, most self-respecting molecular biologists would have scoffed at the idea. Today, evidence from many studies suggests that mental states such as stress can influence health. Still, it has proved difficult to explain how this happens at the molecular level - how subjective moods connect with the vastly complex physiology of the nervous and immune systems. The field that searches for these explanations, known as psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), is often criticized as lacking rigour. Cole's stated aim is to fix that, and his tool of choice is genome-wide transcriptional analysis: looking at broad patterns of gene expression in cells. "My job is to be a hard-core tracker," he says. "How do these mental states get out into the rest of the body?"
© ANDREW BURTON/GETTY
A volunteer helps to bag meals for the homeless at Cathedral Kitchen in Camden, New Jersey.
A volunteer helps to bag meals for the homeless at Cathedral Kitchen in Camden, New Jersey.
At the time, it was nothing more than a quirky sideline. But his latest findings have caused Cole - now a professor at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California, Los Angeles - to wonder whether the exhilaration and sense of purpose that he felt during that period might have done more than help him to find homes for unloved pieces of art. It might have benefited his immune system too.
At one time, most self-respecting molecular biologists would have scoffed at the idea. Today, evidence from many studies suggests that mental states such as stress can influence health. Still, it has proved difficult to explain how this happens at the molecular level - how subjective moods connect with the vastly complex physiology of the nervous and immune systems. The field that searches for these explanations, known as psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), is often criticized as lacking rigour. Cole's stated aim is to fix that, and his tool of choice is genome-wide transcriptional analysis: looking at broad patterns of gene expression in cells. "My job is to be a hard-core tracker," he says. "How do these mental states get out into the rest of the body?"
© Ragini Verma et al, University of Pennsylvania
Brain networks showing significantly increased intra-hemispheric connectivity in males (Upper) and inter-hemispheric connectivity in females (Lower). Intra-hemispheric connections are shown in blue, and inter- hemispheric connections are shown in orange.
Brain networks showing significantly increased intra-hemispheric connectivity in males (Upper) and inter-hemispheric connectivity in females (Lower). Intra-hemispheric connections are shown in blue, and inter- hemispheric connections are shown in orange.
The research, which involved imaging the brains of nearly 1,000 adolescents, found that male brains had more connections within hemispheres, whereas female brains were more connected between hemispheres. The results, which apply to the population as a whole and not individuals, suggest that male brains may be optimized for motor skills, and female brains may be optimized for combining analytical and intuitive thinking.
"On average, men connect front to back [parts of the brain] more strongly than women," whereas "women have stronger connections left to right," said study leader Ragini Verma, an associate professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. But Verma cautioned against making sweeping generalizations about men and women based on the results.
© The Independent, UK
Study shows scents associated with terror may be passed on for two male generations.
Study shows scents associated with terror may be passed on for two male generations.
Experiments on mice have demonstrated that they can be trained to associate a particular kind of smell to a fearful memory and that this fear can be passed down through subsequent generations via chemical changes to a father's sperm cells.
The findings raise questions over whether a similar kind of inheritance occurs in humans, for example whether men exposed to the psychological trauma of a foreign war zone can pass on this fearful behavioural experience in their sperm to their children and grandchildren conceived at home.
The researchers emphasised that their carefully controlled study was carried out on laboratory mice and there are still many unanswered questions, but they do not discount the possibility that something similar may also be possible in people.
"I think there is increasing evidence from a number of studies that what we inherit from out parents is very complex and that the gametes - the sperm and eggs - may be a possible mechanism of conserving as much information as possible from a previous generation," said Kerry Ressler, professor of psychiatry at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
© Hermes Morrison 2/Alamy
Anxious patients four times more likely to experience pain than non-anxious patients, according to a recent survey.
Anxious patients four times more likely to experience pain than non-anxious patients, according to a recent survey.
The whir of a dentist's drill might bring on the shakes and a racing heart, but what happens in the brain has long been a mystery.
Now researchers in Japan believe they are closer to an answer after scanning people's brains while playing them sounds of dental drills and suction instruments.
People who were terrified of visits to the dentist showed marked differences in their brain responses compared with those who were more relaxed at the prospect, according to work reported at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego on Sunday.
Unravelling how the brain reacts to the sounds, particularly in the most anxious dental patients, could help scientists assess different ways to make patients more at ease, by seeing how they alter neural activity, said Hiroyuki Karibe at Nippon Dental University in Tokyo.
Although newlyweds may not be completely aware of it, they may know whether their march down the aisle will result in wedded bliss or an unhappy marriage, according to new study led by a Florida State University researcher.
Associate Professor of Psychology James K. McNulty and his colleagues studied 135 heterosexual couples who had been married for less than six months and then followed up with them every six months over a four-year period. They found that the feelings the study participants verbalized about their marriages were unrelated to changes in their marital happiness over time. Instead, it was the gut-level negative evaluations of their partners that they unknowingly revealed during a baseline experiment that predicted future happiness.
"Although they may be largely unwilling or unable to verbalize them, people's automatic evaluations of their partners predict one of the most important outcomes of their lives - the trajectory of their marital satisfaction," the researchers wrote in a paper published in the Nov. 29 issue of the journal Science.
The paper, "Though They May Be Unaware, Newlyweds Implicitly Know Whether Their Marriages Will Be Satisfying," outlined two important findings. First, people's conscious attitudes, or how they said they felt, did not always reflect their gut-level or automatic feelings about their marriage. Second, it was the gut-level feelings, not their conscious ones, that actually predicted how happy they remained over time.
Associate Professor of Psychology James K. McNulty and his colleagues studied 135 heterosexual couples who had been married for less than six months and then followed up with them every six months over a four-year period. They found that the feelings the study participants verbalized about their marriages were unrelated to changes in their marital happiness over time. Instead, it was the gut-level negative evaluations of their partners that they unknowingly revealed during a baseline experiment that predicted future happiness.
"Although they may be largely unwilling or unable to verbalize them, people's automatic evaluations of their partners predict one of the most important outcomes of their lives - the trajectory of their marital satisfaction," the researchers wrote in a paper published in the Nov. 29 issue of the journal Science.
The paper, "Though They May Be Unaware, Newlyweds Implicitly Know Whether Their Marriages Will Be Satisfying," outlined two important findings. First, people's conscious attitudes, or how they said they felt, did not always reflect their gut-level or automatic feelings about their marriage. Second, it was the gut-level feelings, not their conscious ones, that actually predicted how happy they remained over time.
© University of Pennsylvania
This still image was taken from one of a German participant's delivery runs. Video files of gameplay are available upon request.
This still image was taken from one of a German participant's delivery runs. Video files of gameplay are available upon request.
Their work shows how spatial information is incorporated into memories and why remembering an experience can quickly bring to mind other events that happened in the same place.
"These findings provide the first direct neural evidence for the idea that the human memory system tags memories with information about where and when they were formed and that the act of recall involves the reinstatement of these tags," said Michael Kahana, professor of psychology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences.
The study was led by Kahana and professor Andreas Schulze-Bonhage of Freiberg. Jonathan F. Miller, Alec Solway, Max Merkow and Sean M. Polyn, all members of Kahana's lab, and Markus Neufang, Armin Brandt, Michael Trippel, Irina Mader and Stefan Hefft, all members of Schulze-Bonhage's lab, contributed to the study. They also collaborated with Drexel University's Joshua Jacobs.
Their study was published in the journal Science.
The paper 'Under pressure to sext? Applying the theory of planned behavior to adolescent sexting', by Michel Walrave, Wannes Heirman & Lara Hallam, published in Behavior & Information Technology, studied the beliefs, social pressures, and predictors of sexting in adolescents.
Sexting is defined as the sharing of sexually explicit text messages or naked/semi-naked self-pictures using mobile phones. 26% of the teens surveyed had engaged in sexting in the two months preceding the survey.
Adolescents revealed that they sext for attention, to lower the chances of catching STDs, and to find a romantic partner. The concepts of receiving a bad reputation, or of being blackmailed, did not appear to influence their motivations. The authors note that "Remarkably, only the behavioral beliefs that expected positive outcomes of sexting were significant in predicting adolescents' willingness to engage in it."
Friends and romantic partners were found to be the only significant social pressures that affect an individual's motivation to sext: "The more positive the perceived social pressure that originates from these two categories of referents -- who mostly belong to the peer group -- the more adolescents will be inclined to engage in sexting." Negative pressures from parents and teachers did not affect motivations.
© iStockphoto
Whether out of guilt, gratitude or pure generosity, study finds that consumers spend more when they ‘pay-it-forward’ than when they pay what they want
Whether out of guilt, gratitude or pure generosity, study finds that consumers spend more when they ‘pay-it-forward’ than when they pay what they want
"It's assumed that consumers are selfish and always looking for the best deal, but when we gave people the option to pay for someone else, they always paid more than what they paid for themselves," said the study's lead author, Minah Jung, a doctoral student at the Haas School of Business and a Gratitude Dissertation Fellow at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center.
The results shed new light on the psychological and social forces - such as fairness, obligation, and reciprocity - that guide consumer decisions beyond getting the best deal. For example, the study found that people typically overestimate the financial generosity of others, until they learn what others have actually paid.
© Ryan Ritchie
For the first time differences in neural structures have been shown between people who are night owls and early risers.
For the first time differences in neural structures have been shown between people who are night owls and early risers.
Lower integrity in these areas has been linked to depression and cognitive instability.
This research doesn't tell us what the relationship is, but the authors guess that it may be related to 'social jet-lag'.
Social jet-lag comes about because night owls are forced to live - as most of us are - like early risers. Work, school and other institutions mostly require early rising, which, for night owls, causes problems.
As night owls find it difficult to get to sleep early, they tend to carry large amounts of sleep debt. In other words, they're exhausted all the time.
As a result, they tend to be larger consumers of caffeine and other stimulants, in order to counteract their sleep debt.
Comment: For a proved-effective meditation and stress management program, check out Éiriú Eolas.