It seems as if modern urban lifestyle disconnects people from nature, this may be associated with adverse health effects. In line with this notion it has been consistently shown that psychiatric ...diagnoses are more frequent in urban compared to rural regions. Most of the studies addressing potential causal mechanisms of this urban-rural difference focus on detrimental aspects of city living. In contrast, biophilia theory has posited an automatic, potentially deep-rooted need for contact with nature. Acting against this proposed tendency to seek contact to natural environments may affect mental health. As scientific evidence for this psycho-evolutionary biophilia theory is lacking by now, we utilized implicit test strategies developed to assess automatic associations between mental representations and action tendencies to put this theory to test. In an online study (N = 109), we administered three reaction time paradigms: the dot probe task (DPT), the implicit association test (IAT) and the approach avoidance task (AAT). All tasks reveal a tendency to approach nature and avoid cities (DPT: F(1,105) = 11.15, p = .001, ƞ2 = 0.096; IAT: F(1,107) = 17.10, p = 7.068E-5, ƞ2 = 0.138; AAT: F(1,103) = 4.36, p = .039, ƞ2 = 0.041). Interestingly, the results of the AAT, the only test that allows this differentiation, suggest that the tendency to approach nature seems to play a more important role than the avoidance of built environments. The present findings provide clear evidence in support of biophilia theory and can therefore inspire and foster further studies investigating whether acting against an automatic and potentially deep-rooted need for contact with nature, by living in cities e.g., may contribute more prominently to the emergence of mental health problems than (or at least in addition to) environmental or societal stressors individuals are exposed to in cities.
•We set out to test biophilia theory positing a human need for contact with nature.•Implicit tests are used to assess automatic associations and approach behavior.•All task reveal a tendency to approach nature and to avoid built environments.•Approach avoidance task reveals that effect is mainly driven by approach to nature.•The results argue in favour oft he biophilia theory.
Brain Changes in Response to Long Antarctic Expeditions Stahn, Alexander C; Gunga, Hanns-Christian; Kohlberg, Eberhard ...
New England journal of medicine/The New England journal of medicine,
12/2019, Letnik:
381, Številka:
23
Journal Article
In the past decades, the Internet has become one of the most important tools to gather information and communicate with other people. Excessive use is a growing concern of health practitioners. Based ...on the assumption that excessive Internet use bears resemblance with addictive behaviour, we hypothesized alterations of the fronto‐striatal network in frequent users. On magnetic resonance imaging scans of 62 healthy male adults, we computed voxel‐based morphometry to identify grey matter (GM) correlates of excessive Internet use, assessed by means of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and functional connectivity analysis and amplitude of low‐frequency fluctuation (ALFF) measures on resting state data to explore the functional networks associated with structural alterations. We found a significant negative association between the IAT score and right frontal pole GM volume (P < 0.001, family wise error corrected). Functional connectivity of right frontal pole to left ventral striatum was positively associated with higher IAT scores. Furthermore, the IAT score was positively correlated to ALFF in bilateral ventral striatum. The alterations in the fronto‐striatal circuitry associated with growing IAT scores could reflect a reduction of top‐down modulation of prefrontal areas, in particular, the ability to maintain long‐term goals in face of distraction. The higher activation of ventral striatum at rest may indicate a constant activation in the context of a diminished prefrontal control. The results demonstrate that excessive Internet use may be driven by neuronal circuits relevant for addictive behaviour.
The Internet has become one of the most important tools to gather information and communicate with other people. Excessive use is a growing concern of health practitioners.
We examined its neural correlates and found a negative association between the internet addiction test (IAT) score and right frontal pole grey matter volume. Functional connectivity of right frontal pole to left ventral striatum was positively associated with higher IAT scores and IAT score was positively correlated to ALFF in bilateral ventral striatum.
Bipolar-II Disorders Karamatskos, Evangelos; Gallinat, Jürgen
Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie
90, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Bipolar affective disorder (short: bipolar disorder) describe a group of affective disorders characterised by depressive as well as manic/hypomanic episodes. The article deals with the diagnostic and ...therapeutic challenges of bipolar II disorder.
Tetris has been proposed as a preventative intervention to reduce intrusive memories of a traumatic event. However, no neuroimaging study has assessed Tetris in patients with existing posttraumatic ...stress disorder (PTSD) or explored how playing Tetris may affect brain structure.
We recruited patients with combat-related PTSD before psychotherapy and randomly assigned them to an experimental Tetris and therapy group (n = 20) or to a therapy-only control group (n = 20). In the control group, participants completed therapy as usual: eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) psychotherapy. In the Tetris group, in addition to EMDR, participants also played 60 minutes of Tetris every day from onset to completion of therapy, approximately 6 weeks later. Participants completed structural MRI and psychological questionnaires before and after therapy, and we collected psychological questionnaire data at follow-up, approximately 6 months later. We hypothesized that the Tetris group would show increases in hippocampal volume and reductions in symptoms, both directly after completion of therapy and at follow-up.
Following therapy, hippocampal volume increased in the Tetris group, but not the control group. As well, hippocampal increases were correlated with reductions in symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety between completion of therapy and follow-up in the Tetris group, but not the control group.
Playing Tetris may act as a cognitive interference task and as a brain-training intervention, but it was not possible to distinguish between these 2 potential mechanisms.
Tetris may be useful as an adjunct therapeutic intervention for PTSD. Tetris-related increases in hippocampal volume may ensure that therapeutic gains are maintained after completion of therapy.
Abstract Background Rumination is a good predictor of major depression. The current study explores the structural and functional neural correlates of rumination. Methods To explore structural ...correlates of rumination (RRS, Treynor et al., 2003) we used voxel-based morphometry. We relate these correlates of rumination to concurrence of grey matter reductions in depressed patients by means of a quantitative meta-analysis on 16 VBM studies. Resting state data was used to compute maps of the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations. Results Rumination correlated negatively with grey matter volume in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and bilateral mid cingulate cortex. The volume reductions were within proximity of grey matter reductions identified in the meta-analysis on depressed patients in bilateral IFG and ACC. Moreover reductions in resting state activity were overlapping with volume reductions correlated with rumination in ACC and right IFG. Limitations The participants were all healthy control subjects. Future research is needed to explore the neural correlates of rumination in major depression. Conclusions The results show that rumination is associated with volume and resting state reductions in brain areas that have been related to cognitive control process of inhibition and thought suppression. We conclude that rumination not only qualifies as a behavioural predictor of major depression but also goes along with neuroanatomical abnormalities that are similar to those identified for depression.
This pilot study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of an assessor-blind, randomised controlled trial of psychodynamic art therapy for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia, and to generate ...preliminary data on the efficacy of this intervention during acute psychotic episodes. Fifty-eight inpatients with DSM-diagnoses of schizophrenia were randomised to either 12 twice-weekly sessions of psychodynamic group art therapy plus treatment as usual or to standard treatment alone. Primary outcome criteria were positive and negative psychotic and depressive symptoms as well as global assessment of functioning. Secondary outcomes were mentalising function, estimated with the Reading the mind in the eyes test and the Levels of emotional awareness scale, self-efficacy, locus of control, quality of life and satisfaction with care. Assessments were made at baseline, at post-treatment and at 12 weeks' follow-up. At 12 weeks, 55% of patients randomised to art therapy, and 66% of patients receiving treatment as usual were examined. In the per-protocol sample, art therapy was associated with a significantly greater mean reduction of positive symptoms and improved psychosocial functioning at post-treatment and follow-up, and with a greater mean reduction of negative symptoms at follow-up compared to standard treatment. The significant reduction of positive symptoms at post-treatment was maintained in an attempted intention-to-treat analysis. There were no group differences regarding depressive symptoms. Of secondary outcome parameters, patients in the art therapy group showed a significant improvement in levels of emotional awareness, and particularly in their ability to reflect about others' emotional mental states. This is one of the first randomised controlled trials on psychodynamic group art therapy for patients with acute psychotic episodes receiving hospital treatment. Results prove the feasibility of trials on art therapy during acute psychotic episodes and justify further research to substantiate preliminary positive results regarding symptom reduction and the recovery of mentalising function.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01622166.
Brands surround us everywhere in daily life. Here we investigate the influences of brand cues on gustatory processing of the same beverage. Participants were led to believe that the brand that ...announced the administration of a Cola mixture provided correct information about the drink to come. We found stronger fMRI signal in right mOFC during weak compared to strong brand cues in a contrast of parametric modulation with subjective liking. When directly comparing the two strong brands cues, more activation in the right amygdala was found for Coca Cola cues compared with Pepsi Cola cues. During the taste phase the same beverage elicited stronger activation in left ventral striatum when it was previously announced by a strong compared with a weak brand. This effect was stronger in participants who drink Cola infrequently and might therefore point to a stronger reliance on brand cues in less experienced consumers. The present results reveal strong effects of brand labels on neural responses signalling reward.
PDF
