Effects of Flexible Dry Electrode Design on Electrodermal Activity Stimulus Response Detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Haddad, Peter A; Servati, Amir; Soltanian, Saeid; Ko, Frank; Servati, Peyman

2017-12-01

The focus of this research is to evaluate the effects of design parameters including surface area, distance between and geometry of dry flexible electrodes on electrodermal activity (EDA) stimulus response detection. EDA is a result of the autonomic nervous system being stimulated, which causes sweat and changes the electrical characteristics of the skin. Standard silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) EDA electrodes are rigid and lack conformability in contact with skin. In this study, flexible dry Ag/AgCl EDA electrodes were fabricated on a compliant substrate, used to monitor EDA stimulus responses and compared to results simultaneously collected by rigid dry Ag/AgCl electrodes. A repeatable fabrication process for flexible Ag/AgCl electrodes has been established. Surface area, distance between and geometry of electrodes are shown to affect the detectability of the EDA response and the minimum number of sweat glands to be covered by the electrodes has been estimated at 140, or more, in order to maintain functionality. The optimal flexible EDA electrode is a serpentine design with a 0.15 cm 2 surface area and a 0.20 cm distance with an average Pearson correlation coefficient of . Fabrication of flexible electrodes is described and an understanding of the effects of electrode designs on the EDA stimulus response detection has been established and is potentially related to the coverage of sweat glands. This work presents a novel systematic approach to understand the effects of electrode designs on monitoring EDA which is of importance for the design of wearable EDA monitoring devices.

Relationship between frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and cognitive failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Kamiya, Shunji

2014-01-01

Involuntary autobiographical memories are memories of personal experiences that pop into mind without a conscious attempt at their retrieval. This study investigated individual differences in the number of involuntary autobiographical memories, and explored the relationship between the frequency of occurrence in involuntary autobiographical memory and cognitive failures in everyday memory, as indexed by metamemory questionnaires. A total of 24 undergraduate students reported involuntary autobiographical memories in controlled field interviews, and completed the Everyday Memory Questionnaire and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire. The results showed that, despite controlled conditions, considerable individual differences were observed in the number of involuntary autobiographical memories reported while walking along a prescribed route on the campus, and that reported memories were predominantly serving self function. In addition, the number of involuntary autobiographical memories was positively related to cognitive failures in everyday memory: participants who acknowledged more problems in everyday memory had a higher frequency of involuntary memories. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of the complementary function of involuntary autobiographical memory in everyday life.

Event-related brain potentials, bilateral electrodermal activity and Mangina-Test performance in learning disabled/ADHD pre-adolescents with severe behavioral disorders as compared to age-matched normal controls.

Science.gov (United States)

Mangina, C A; Beuzeron-Mangina, J H; Grizenko, N

2000-07-01

The most frequently encountered developmental problems of learning disabilities/ADHD often co-exist with severe behavioral disorders. As a direct consequence, this condition opens the way to delinquency, school drop-out, depression, suicide, substance abuse, work absenteeism, and other psycho-social complications. In this paper, we are presenting a selective overview of our previous research and its clinical applications in this field as it relates to our present research data pertaining to the effects of our original Memory Workload Paradigm on the event-related brain potentials in differentiating normal and pathological pre-adolescents (learning disabled/ADHD with concomitant severe behavioral disorders such as oppositional and conduct). In addition, it provides data on the bilateral electrodermal activity during cognitive workload and Mangina-Test performance of pathological and normal pre-adolescents conducted in separate sessions. The results of our present research indicate that a significant memory load effect for the P450 latency (F(3,27)=4.98, PWorkload Paradigm in pre-frontal and frontal regions clearly differentiated normal from pathological pre-adolescents (F(1, 18)=12.21, Presearch findings provide an original and valuable demonstration of an integrative and effective clinical psychophysiological application of central (ERPs), autonomic (bilateral electrodermal activity) and neuro-psychometric aspects (Mangina-Test) which characterize normal and pathological pre-adolescents and underpin the neurophysiological basis of learning disabled/ADHD with severe behavioral disorders as opposed to normal subjects.

Special involuntary conversion situations involving timberland

Science.gov (United States)

William C. Siegal

2001-01-01

If standing timber is destroyed or stolen, or if forest land is condemned for public use, the owner may be entitled to take a deduction on his or her income tax return. These types of losses are called involuntary conversions. In previous National Woodlands articles I've discussed in detail casualty losses, which represent the major type of timber involuntary...

Electrophysiologic Assessments of Involuntary Movements: Tremor and Myoclonus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyun-Dong Park

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Tremor is defined as a rhythmical, involuntary oscillatory movement of a body part. Although neurological examination reveals information regarding its frequency, regularity, amplitude, and activation conditions, the electrophysiological investigations help in confirming the tremor, in differentiating it from other hyperkinetic disorders like myoclonus, and may provide etiological clues. Accelerometer with surface electromyogram (EMG can be used to document the dominant frequency of a tremor, which may be useful as certain frequencies are more characteristic of specific etiologies than others hyperkinetic disorders. It may show rhythmic bursts, duration and activation pattern (alternating or synchronous. Myoclonus is a quick, involuntary movement. Electrophysiological studies may helpful in the evaluation of myoclonus, not only for confirming the clinical diagnosis but also for understanding the underlying physiological mechanisms. Electroencephalogram (EEG-EMG correlates can give us important information about myoclonus. Jerk-locked back-averaging and evoked potentials with recording of the long-latency, long-loop reflexes are currently available to study the pathophysiology of myoclonus.

Effect of body posture on involuntary swallow in healthy volunteers.

Science.gov (United States)

Shiino, Yoshitaka; Sakai, Shogo; Takeishi, Ryosuke; Hayashi, Hirokazu; Watanabe, Masahiro; Tsujimura, Takanori; Magara, Jin; Ito, Kayoko; Tsukada, Tetsu; Inoue, Makoto

2016-03-01

Clinically, reclining posture has been reported to reduce risk of aspiration. However, during involuntary swallow in reclining posture, changes in orofacial and pharyngeal movement before and during pharyngeal swallow should be considered. Further, the mechanisms underlying the effect of body posture on involuntary swallow remain unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of body posture on activity patterns of the suprahyoid muscles and on patterns of bolus transport during a natural involuntary swallow. Thirteen healthy male adults participated in a water infusion test and a chewing test. In the water infusion test, thickened water was delivered into the pharynx at a very slow rate until the first involuntary swallow was evoked. In the chewing test, subjects were asked to eat 10 g of gruel rice. In both tests, the recording was performed at four body postures between upright and supine positions. Results showed that reclining changed the location of the bolus head at the start of swallow and prolonged onset latency of the swallowing initiation. Muscle burst duration and whiteout time measured by videoendoscopy significantly increased with body reclining and prolongation of the falling time. In the chewing test, reclining changed the location of the bolus head at the start of swallow, and the frequency of bolus residue after the first swallow increased. Duration and area of EMG burst and whiteout time significantly increased with body reclining. These data suggest that body reclining may result in prolongation of pharyngeal swallow during involuntary swallow. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

General Practitioners and Involuntary Admission

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jepsen, Britta; Lomborg, Kirsten; Engberg, Marianne

2010-01-01

Background: In many countries, medical authorities are responsible for involuntary admissions of mentally ill patients. Nonetheless, very little is known about GPs' experiences with involuntary admission. Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore GP's experiences from participating....... They felt that sectioning patients was unpleasant, and felt nervous, but experienced relief and professional satisfaction if things went well. The GPs experienced the doctor-patient relationship to be at risk, but also reported that it could be improved. GPs felt that they were not taken seriously...

[Factors associated with involuntary hospital admissions in technology-dependent children].

Science.gov (United States)

Okido, Aline Cristiane Cavicchioli; Pina, Juliana Coelho; Lima, Regina Aparecida Garcia

2016-02-01

To identify the factors associated with involuntary hospital admissions of technology-dependent children, in the municipality of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State, Brazil. A cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach. After an active search, 124 children who qualified under the inclusion criteria, that is to say, children from birth to age 12, were identified. Data was collected in home visits to mothers or the people responsible for the children, through the application of a questionnaire. Analysis of the data followed the assumptions of the Generalized Linear Models technique. 102 technology-dependent children aged between 6 months and 12 years participated in the study, of whom 57% were male. The average number of involuntary hospital admissions in the previous year among the children studied was 0.71 (±1.29). In the final model the following variables were significantly associated with the outcome: age (OR=0.991; CI95%=0.985-0.997), and the number of devices (OR=0.387; CI95%=0.219-0.684), which were characterized as factors of protection and quantity of medications (OR=1.532; CI95%=1.297-1.810), representing a risk factor for involuntary hospital admissions in technology-dependent children. The results constitute input data for consideration of the process of care for technology-dependent children by supplying an explanatory model for involuntary hospital admissions for this client group.

Out of One's Mind: A Study of Involuntary Semantic Memories

Science.gov (United States)

Kvavilashvili, Lia; Mandler, George

2004-01-01

The study of memories that pop into one's mind without any conscious attempt to retrieve them began only recently. While there are some studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (e.g., Berntsen, 1996, 1998) research on involuntary semantic memories or mind-popping is virtually non-existent. The latter is defined as an involuntary conscious…

Electrodermal Screening of Asthmatics with AcuGraph 4

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuntal Ghosh

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Traditional Chinese Medicine holds that acupuncture meridian activity is correlated with quality of function of specific organs. This study sets out to determine acupuncture meridian characteristics of subjects with moderate asthma distinguishing them from healthy subjects. Fifty asthma patients (age 35.36 ± 8.68 years and fifty similarly aged (34.11 ± 7.29 years healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. Electrodermal conductances at Jing Well points were measured with Acugraph 4 and also Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR for the asthma group. All mean meridian conductances were lower for the asthma group, significance differences were in Lung and right Bladder meridians. In contrast, all but two of the standard deviations of group meridian conductances for the Asthma group were higher than those for the Healthy group. Difference in mean PEFR values between Asthma and Healthy groups was significant. These suggest that group measures of electrical conductance at Jing Well points can distinguish asthma from healthy individuals. The study provides support for the usefulness of meridian energy measurements to assess organ related dysfunction and for the idea that pathology groups exhibit higher standard deviations i.e. lower quality of regulation.

Electrodermal complexity during the Stroop colour word test.

Science.gov (United States)

Svetlak, Miroslav; Bob, Petr; Cernik, Michal; Kukleta, Miloslav

2010-01-15

Several recent studies suggest that quantitative description of signal complexity using algorithms of nonlinear analysis could uncover new information about the autonomic system that is not reflected using common methods applied to measures of autonomic activity. With this aim we have performed complexity analysis of electrodermal activity (EDA) assessed in 106 healthy university students during rest conditions and non-conflicting and conflicting Stroop task. Complexity analysis applied to EDA was performed using Skinner's algorithm for pointwise correlation dimension (PD2). Results have shown that EDA responses during the Stroop Colour Word test are related to significantly increased or decreased complexity. Particularly significant result is that PD2 has a unique ability to predict to an extent the change in EDA response to stress i.e. that subjects with low initial PD2 tended to respond to experimental stress by its increase and subjects with high initial PD2 values tended to respond by its decrease. This response was not found in EDA measures where increase of the EDA presented predominant response to experimental stress in majority of the subjects. These findings suggest that PD2 is more sensitive to subtle aspects of functionally and spatially distributed modulatory influences of various parts of the brain that are involved in the EDA modulation and provides novel information in comparison to traditional methods.

Bottom-up driven involuntary auditory evoked field change: constant sound sequencing amplifies but does not sharpen neural activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Okamoto, Hidehiko; Stracke, Henning; Lagemann, Lothar; Pantev, Christo

2010-01-01

The capability of involuntarily tracking certain sound signals during the simultaneous presence of noise is essential in human daily life. Previous studies have demonstrated that top-down auditory focused attention can enhance excitatory and inhibitory neural activity, resulting in sharpening of frequency tuning of auditory neurons. In the present study, we investigated bottom-up driven involuntary neural processing of sound signals in noisy environments by means of magnetoencephalography. We contrasted two sound signal sequencing conditions: "constant sequencing" versus "random sequencing." Based on a pool of 16 different frequencies, either identical (constant sequencing) or pseudorandomly chosen (random sequencing) test frequencies were presented blockwise together with band-eliminated noises to nonattending subjects. The results demonstrated that the auditory evoked fields elicited in the constant sequencing condition were significantly enhanced compared with the random sequencing condition. However, the enhancement was not significantly different between different band-eliminated noise conditions. Thus the present study confirms that by constant sound signal sequencing under nonattentive listening the neural activity in human auditory cortex can be enhanced, but not sharpened. Our results indicate that bottom-up driven involuntary neural processing may mainly amplify excitatory neural networks, but may not effectively enhance inhibitory neural circuits.

Involuntary Absence from an Organizational Point of View

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.M.P. de Kok (Jan)

1997-01-01

textabstractInvoluntary absence is often seen as an exogenous factor, but firms can take actions to reduce it. In this paper the notion that firms, especially SMEs, are faced with a single decision whether or not to undertake these actions is questioned. A firm model on involuntary absence measures

Priming involuntary autobiographical memories in the lab

OpenAIRE

Barzykowski, Krystian; Niedźwieńska, Agnieszka

2018-01-01

Involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) are recollections of personal past that frequently and spontaneously occur in daily life. Initial studies by Mace. Priming involuntary autobiographical memories. Showed that deliberately reminiscing about a certain lifetime period (e.g., high school) significantly increased the number of different IAMs from the same period in subsequent days, suggesting that priming may play a significant role in the retrieval of IAMs in everyday life. In the prese...

Involuntary expiratory phonation as a dose-related consequence of L-dopa therapy in a patient with Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Ishii, Kosuke; Kumada, Masanobu; Ueki, Akira; Yamamoto, Masanori; Hirose, Hajime

2003-12-01

We report a case of involuntary phonation caused by abnormal vocal cord movements during expiration in a patient with Parkinson's disease. A 60-year-old woman had been treated for parkinsonism at the outpatient clinic of the Department of Neurology since August 1999. She began to groan involuntarily in the daytime in September 2001. She could not eat well while groaning. Stridor was not noted during sleep at night. Endoscopic examination of the larynx revealed insufficient abduction of the bilateral vocal cords, although the glottis was not so small as to cause stridor during inspiration. During expiration, however, the vocal cords adducted, resulting in the involuntary production of voice. Electromyography showed an increase in the activity of the thyroarytenoid and lateral cricoarytenoid muscles. This muscle activity was further enhanced during inspiration. The involuntary phonation disappeared when the patient's dose of L-dopa was decreased, although she had a decrease in her systemic mobility as well. When the dose of L-dopa was increased to the therapeutic level, involuntary phonation recurred, and her voluntary systemic activity improved. In the present case, it was considered that excessive dopaminergic denervation occurred in the nerve innervating the laryngeal adductors. Involuntary voice appeared to be produced by hypertonus of the laryngeal adductors because of a lowering in the threshold level for L-dopa, even though the drug was administered at the usual dose.

Objective Measurement of Clinical Competency in Surgical Education Using Electrodermal Activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Quick, Jacob A; Bukoski, Alex D; Doty, Jennifer; Bennett, Bethany J; Crane, Megan; Barnes, Stephen L

Within the realm of surgical education, there is a need for objective means to determine surgical competence and resident readiness to operate independently. We propose a novel, objective method of assessing resident confidence and clinical competence based on measurement of electrodermal activity (EDA) during live surgical procedures. We hypothesized that with progressive training, EDA responses to the stress of performing surgery would exhibit decline, elucidating an objective correlate of clinical competence. EDA was measured using galvanic skin response sensors worn by residents performing laparoscopic cholecystectomy on sequential live human patients over an 8-month period. Baseline, phasic (peak) and tonic EDA responses were measured as a fractional change from baseline. University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, an academic tertiary care facility. Fourteen categorical general surgery residents and 5 faculty surgeons were voluntarily enrolled and participated through completion. Tonic fractional change (FC TONIC ) was highest in PGY3 residents compared with postgraduate year (PGY) 1 and 2 residents (7.199 vs. 2.100, p = 0.004, 95% CI: 8.58-1.61 and PGY4 and 5 residents (7.199 vs. 2.079, p = 0.002, 95% CI: 8.38-0.29). Phasic fractional change in EDA (FC PHASIC ) exhibited a progressive decline across resident training levels, with PGY1 and 2 residents having the highest response, and faculty displaying the lowest FC PHASIC responses. Statistical differences were seen between FC PHASIC faculty and PGY4 and 5 (3.596 vs. 6.180, p = 0.004, 95% CI: 0.80-4.36), PGY4 and 5, and PGY3 (6.180 vs. 15.998, p = 0.003, 95% CI: 3.33-16.3), as well as among all residents and faculty (13.057 vs. 3.596, p = 0.004, 95% CI: 15.8-3.1). Phasic EDA changes decrease with increasing clinical competence. For those participants with the lowest and highest levels of competence, tonic EDA changes are minimal. Tonic EDA changes follow an inverse-U shape with differing levels of clinical

28 CFR 549.43 - Involuntary psychiatric treatment and medication.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Involuntary psychiatric treatment and... INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT MEDICAL SERVICES Administrative Safeguards for Psychiatric Treatment and Medication § 549.43 Involuntary psychiatric treatment and medication. Title 18 U.S.C. 4241-4247 and federal court...

26 CFR 1.381(c)(13)-1 - Involuntary conversions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 4 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Involuntary conversions. 1.381(c)(13)-1 Section 1.381(c)(13)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES Insolvency Reorganizations § 1.381(c)(13)-1 Involuntary conversions...

Ways of sampling voluntary and involuntary autobiographical memories in daily life.

Science.gov (United States)

Rasmussen, Anne S; Johannessen, Kim B; Berntsen, Dorthe

2014-11-01

Cognitive psychologists have often equaled retrieval of personal events with voluntary recall from autobiographical memory, but more recent research shows that autobiographical memories often come to mind involuntarily-that is, with no retrieval effort. Voluntary memories have been studied in numerous laboratory experiments in response to word-prompts, whereas involuntary memories primarily have been examined in an everyday living context, using a structured diary procedure. However, it remains unclear how voluntary memories sampled in the laboratory map onto self-prompted voluntary memories in daily life. Here, we used a structured diary procedure to compare different types of voluntary autobiographical memories to their involuntary counterparts. The results replicated previous findings with regard to differences between word-prompted voluntary and involuntary memories, whereas there were fewer differences between self-prompted voluntary and involuntary memories. The findings raise the question as to what is the best way of sampling voluntary memories and the best comparison for involuntary memories. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Contractures and involuntary muscle overactivity in severe brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Pohl, Marcus; Mehrholz, Jan; Rockstroh, Günter; Rückriem, Stefan; Koch, Rainer

2007-04-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association of contractures with an increase or reduction of non-spastic muscle overactivity due to severe cerebral damage. Forty-five patients with tetraparesis after severe cerebral damage were investigated. Three groups were defined based on the presence of spasticity (revealed as resistance to passive stretch (= hypertonia)), and the presence of contracture of the relevant knee joint: Group(s) (17 patients with hypertonia without contracture), Group(s+c) (20 patients with hypertonia and contracture), and Group(c) (eight patients without hypertonia and with contracture). In all groups spontaneous involuntary muscle activity was assessed continuously over a 12-hour period through isometric measurement of knee joint flexion torque. A mathematical algorithm differentiated an hourly muscle activity spectrum (PI(h)). The frequency of peaks (peaks(h)) from the activity spectrum was determined. We revealed that Group(s) had higher PI(h) and more frequent peaks(h) compared with Group(s+c) and Group(c) (p0.05). The presence of contractures was associated with lower involuntary muscle overactivity in terms of lower PI(h) and less frequent peaks(h), indicating that contractures may be associated with reduced non-spastic positive features of the upper motor neurone syndrome in patients with severe brain damage.

Involuntary transfer of Intellectual property

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saeed habiba

2011-07-01

Full Text Available IPR owners have a right about voluntary transfer but sometimes Intellectual property right transfer by force and thus, there are challenge that this article regard for its. IPR shall be devolved to their legitimate heirs after their death unless, owner indicate otherwise in their wills. The heirs have the exclusive right to exercise economic and moral rights, they decide upon publication of the work and in general do every exploitation. But, they shall exercise The decisive manner that IPR of holder intended before his death. On other hand, IPR may be liable to seizure or IPR have been used in mortgage loan. Thus they can be transfer to new person.Here, we regard to Involuntary transfer.This article highlight subject of involuntary transfer and analysis on aspects

The Welfare Effects of Involuntary Part-time Work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borowczyk-Martins, Daniel; Lalé, Etienne

2018-01-01

Employed individuals in the USA are increasingly more likely to move to involuntarily part-time work than to unemployment. Spells of involuntary part-time work are different from unemployment spells: a full-time worker who takes on a part-time job suffers an earnings loss while remaining employed......, and is unlikely to receive income compensation from publicly provided insurance programmes. We analyse these differences through the lens of an incomplete-market, job-search model featuring unemployment risk alongside an additional risk of involuntary part-time employment. A calibration of the model consistent...... with US institutions and labour market dynamics shows that involuntary part-time work generates lower welfare losses relative to unemployment. This finding relies critically on the much higher probability to return to full-time employment from part-time work. We interpret it as a premium in access to full...

(Re)Constructing Career Strategies After Experiencing Involuntary Job Loss

OpenAIRE

Mulhall, Sue

2014-01-01

This research article focuses on experiences of involuntary job loss following organisational change as occasions for career (re)construction. Using narrative inquiry, it explores the career stories of four former professionals on an Irish active labour market programme assisting the long-term unemployed to transition to employment. The article portrays how, and in what ways, the participants respond when confronted with transformation. Offering an empirically grounded understanding of the ch...

Risk factors for readmission in schizophrenia patients following involuntary admission.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-Yuan Hung

Full Text Available Individuals with schizophrenia who are involuntarily admitted may have poorer prognosis, including higher readmission rates, than those voluntarily admitted. However, little is known about the risk factors for readmission in those schizophrenia patients who are involuntarily admitted.We aim to explore the risk factors for readmission in this population.We enrolled 138 schizophrenia patients with involuntary admission from July 2008 to June 2013 and followed those patients for readmission outcomes at 3 months and at 1 year.The one-year and 3-months readmission rates were 33.3% and 15.2%, respectively. Unmarried status (adjusted odds ratio (aOR = 6.28, 95% CI: 1.48-26.62, previous history of involuntary admission (aOR = 4.08, 95% CI: 1.19-14.02, longer involuntary admission days (aOR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01-1.07 and shorter total admission days (aOR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.05 were associated with increased risk for 1-year readmission. Younger age (aOR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.02-1.18 was associated with increased risk for 3-months readmission.Unmarried status, prior history of involuntary admission, longer involuntary admission days and shorter total admission days were associated with increased risk for 1-year readmission. Healthcare providers may need to focus on patients with these risk factors to reduce subsequent readmissions.

Risk factors for readmission in schizophrenia patients following involuntary admission.

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Yu-Yuan; Chan, Hung-Yu; Pan, Yi-Ju

2017-01-01

Individuals with schizophrenia who are involuntarily admitted may have poorer prognosis, including higher readmission rates, than those voluntarily admitted. However, little is known about the risk factors for readmission in those schizophrenia patients who are involuntarily admitted. We aim to explore the risk factors for readmission in this population. We enrolled 138 schizophrenia patients with involuntary admission from July 2008 to June 2013 and followed those patients for readmission outcomes at 3 months and at 1 year. The one-year and 3-months readmission rates were 33.3% and 15.2%, respectively. Unmarried status (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 6.28, 95% CI: 1.48-26.62), previous history of involuntary admission (aOR = 4.08, 95% CI: 1.19-14.02), longer involuntary admission days (aOR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01-1.07) and shorter total admission days (aOR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.05) were associated with increased risk for 1-year readmission. Younger age (aOR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.02-1.18) was associated with increased risk for 3-months readmission. Unmarried status, prior history of involuntary admission, longer involuntary admission days and shorter total admission days were associated with increased risk for 1-year readmission. Healthcare providers may need to focus on patients with these risk factors to reduce subsequent readmissions.

Involuntary memories of emotional scenes: The effects of cue discriminability and emotion over time

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staugaard, Søren Risløv; Berntsen, Dorthe

2014-01-01

a range of clinical disorders, there is no broadly agreed upon explanation of their underlying mechanisms and no successful experimental simulations of their retrieval. In a series of experiments, we experimentally manipulated the activation of involuntary episodic memories for emotional and neutral...... scenes and predicted their activation on the basis of manipulations carried out at encoding and retrieval. Our findings suggest that the interplay between cue discriminability at the time of retrieval and emotional arousal at the time of encoding are crucial for explaining intrusive memories following...... negative events. While cue distinctiveness is important directly following encoding of the scenes, emotional intensity influences retrieval after delays of 24 hr and 1 week. Voluntary remembering follows the same pattern as involuntary remembering. Our results suggest an explanatory model of intrusive...

Wearable sensor glove based on conducting fabric using electrodermal activity and pulse-wave sensors for e-health application.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Youngbum; Lee, Byungwoo; Lee, Myoungho

2010-03-01

Improvement of the quality and efficiency of health in medicine, both at home and the hospital, calls for improved sensors that might be included in a common carrier such as a wearable sensor device to measure various biosignals and provide healthcare services that use e-health technology. Designed to be user-friendly, smart clothes and gloves respond well to the end users for health monitoring. This study describes a wearable sensor glove that is equipped with an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor, pulse-wave sensor, conducting fabric, and an embedded system. The EDA sensor utilizes the relationship between drowsiness and the EDA signal. The EDA sensors were made using a conducting fabric instead of silver chloride electrodes, as a more practical and practically wearable device. The pulse-wave sensor measurement system, which is widely applied in oriental medicinal practices, is also a strong element in e-health monitoring systems. The EDA and pulse-wave signal acquisition module was constructed by connecting the sensor to the glove via a conductive fabric. The signal acquisition module is then connected to a personal computer that displays the results of the EDA and pulse-wave signal processing analysis and gives accurate feedback to the user. This system is designed for a number of applications for the e-health services, including drowsiness detection and oriental medicine.

The Frequency of Voluntary and Involuntary Autobiographical Memories across the Lifespan

Science.gov (United States)

Rubin, David C.; Berntsen, Dorthe

2011-01-01

Ratings of the memory of an important event from the last week on the frequency of voluntary and involuntary retrieval, belief in its accuracy, visual imagery, auditory imagery, setting, emotional intensity, valence, narrative coherence, and centrality to the life story were obtained from 988 adults whose age ranged from 15 to over 90. Another 992 adults provided the same ratings for a memory from their confirmation day when they were about age 14. The frequencies of involuntary and voluntary retrieval were similar. Both frequencies were predicted by emotional intensity and centrality to the life story. The results from this study, which is the first to measure the frequency of voluntary and involuntary retrieval for the same events, are counter to both cognitive and clinical theories, which consistently claim that involuntary memories are infrequent compared to voluntary memories. Age and gender differences are noted. PMID:19487759

How the mind shapes action: Offline contexts modulate involuntary episodic retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Frings, Christian; Koch, Iring; Moeller, Birte

2017-11-01

Involuntary retrieval of previous stimulus-response episodes is a centerpiece of many theories of priming, episodic binding, and action control. Typically it is assumed that by repeating a stimulus from trial n-1 to trial n, involuntary retrieval is triggered in a nearly automatic fashion, facilitating (or interfering with) the to-be-executed action. Here we argue that changes in the offline context weaken the involuntary retrieval of previous episodes (the offline context is defined to be the information presented before or after the focal stimulus). In four conditions differing in cue modality and target modality, retrieval was diminished if participants changed the target selection criterion (as indicated by a cue presented before the selection took place) while they still performed the same task. Thus, solely through changes in the offline context (cue or selection criterion), involuntary retrieval can be weakened in an effective way.

Involuntary craniofacial lingual movements in intensive care-acquired quadriplegia.

Science.gov (United States)

Cartagena, A M; Jog, M; Young, G B

2012-02-01

The syndrome of involuntary craniofacial lingual movements in the setting of acute intensive care-acquired quadriplegia (critical illness neuromyopathy) following sepsis-associated encephalopathy has not been previously described. We suggest a localization and treatment for this disabling condition. Three patients (2 female) from our center were quadriplegic from critical illness neuromyopathy when they developed involuntary craniofacial lingual movements following sepsis-associated encephalopathy. Extensive investigations failed to identify an etiology for the abnormal movements. Movements were of large amplitude, of moderate speed, and semi-rhythmic in the jaw, tongue, and palate, persistent and extremely bothersome to all patients. Injection with Botulinum toxin type A was very beneficial. Involuntary craniofacial lingual movements in the setting of flaccid quadriplegia following sepsis-associated encephalopathy are consistent with focal craniofacial brainstem myoclonus and constitutes a new syndrome. Botulinum toxin type A treatment maybe helpful in treatment.

26 CFR 1.1033(a)-1 - Involuntary conversions; nonrecognition of gain.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 11 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Involuntary conversions; nonrecognition of gain... Involuntary conversions; nonrecognition of gain. (a) In general. Section 1033 applies to cases where property... property. Section 1033 provides that, under certain specified circumstances, any gain which is realized...

Electrodermal responses to implied versus actual violence on television.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalamas, A D; Gruber, M L

1998-01-01

The electrodermal response (EDR) of children watching a violent show was measured. Particular attention was paid to the type of violence (actual or implied) that prompted an EDR. In addition, the impact of the auditory component (sounds associated with violence) of the show was evaluated. Implied violent stimuli, such as the villain's face, elicited the strongest EDR. The elements that elicited the weakest responses were the actual violent stimuli, such as stabbing. The background noise and voices of the sound track enhanced the total number of EDRs. The results suggest that implied violence may elicit more fear (as measured by EDRs) than actual violence does and that sounds alone contribute significantly to the emotional response to television violence. One should not, therefore, categorically assume that a show with mostly actual violence evokes less fear than one with mostly implied violence.

Adult Periodic Alternating Nystagmus Masked by Involuntary Head Movements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diego Kaski

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Acquired periodic alternating nystagmus (PAN describes a horizontal jerk nystagmus that reverses its direction with a predictable cycle, and is thought to arise from lesions involving the brainstem and cerebellum. We report a 20-year-old patient with PAN who presented with an acute vertiginous episode and developed an involuntary head movement that initially masked the PAN. The involuntary head movements were abolished with a subtherapeutic dose of botulinum toxin to the neck muscles. We propose that the head movements initially developed as a compensatory movement to the nystagmus, to maintain visual fixation in the presence of the underlying nystagmus, and became an entrained involuntary behavior. This case highlights the importance of disambiguating psychogenic from organic pathology as this may have clinical therapeutic implications, in this case resolution of the most disabling symptom which was her head oscillations, leading to improved day-to-day function despite PAN.

The frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and future thoughts in relation to daydreaming, emotional distress, and age.

Science.gov (United States)

Berntsen, Dorthe; Rubin, David C; Salgado, Sinue

2015-11-01

We introduce a new scale, the Involuntary Autobiographical Memory Inventory (IAMI), for measuring the frequency of involuntary autobiographical memories and involuntary future thoughts. Using the scale in relation to other psychometric and demographic measures provided three important, novel findings. First, the frequency of involuntary and voluntary memories and future thoughts are similarly related to general measures of emotional distress. This challenges the idea that the involuntary mode is uniquely associated with emotional distress. Second, the frequency of involuntary autobiographical remembering does not decline with age, whereas measures of daydreaming, suppression of unwanted thoughts and dissociative experiences all do. Thus, involuntary autobiographical remembering relates differently to aging than daydreaming and other forms of spontaneous and uncontrollable thoughts. Third, unlike involuntary autobiographical remembering, the frequency of future thoughts does decrease with age. This finding underscores the need for examining past and future mental time travel in relation to aging and life span development. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The involuntary nature of music-evoked autobiographical memories in Alzheimer's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

El Haj, Mohamad; Fasotti, Luciano; Allain, Philippe

2012-03-01

The main objective of this paper was to examine the involuntary nature of music-evoked autobiographical memories. For this purpose, young adults, older adults, and patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) were asked to remember autobiographical events in two conditions: after being exposed to their own chosen music, and in silence. Compared to memories evoked in silence, memories evoked in the "Music" condition were found to be more specific, accompanied by more emotional content and impact on mood, and retrieved faster. In addition, these memories engaged less executive processes. Thus, with all these characteristics and the fact that they are activated by a perceptual cue (i.e., music), music-evoked autobiographic memories have all the features to be considered as involuntary memories. Our paper reveals several characteristics of music-evoked autobiographical memories in AD patients and offers a theoretical background for this phenomenon. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Eugenics and Involuntary Sterilization: 1907-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Reilly, Philip R

2015-01-01

In England during the late nineteenth century, intellectuals, especially Francis Galton, called for a variety of eugenic policies aimed at ensuring the health of the human species. In the United States, members of the Progressive movement embraced eugenic ideas, especially immigration restriction and sterilization. Indiana enacted the first eugenic sterilization law in 1907, and the US Supreme Court upheld such laws in 1927. State programs targeted institutionalized, mentally disabled women. Beginning in the late 1930s, proponents rationalized involuntary sterilization as protecting vulnerable women from unwanted pregnancy. By World War II, programs in the United States had sterilized approximately 60,000 persons. After the horrific revelations concerning Nazi eugenics (German Hereditary Health Courts approved at least 400,000 sterilization operations in less than a decade), eugenic sterilization programs in the United States declined rapidly. Simplistic eugenic thinking has faded, but coerced sterilization remains widespread, especially in China and India. In many parts of the world, involuntary sterilization is still intermittently used against minority groups.

[Involuntary psychiatric care for inmates in France: Only for "dangerous" patients?

Science.gov (United States)

Fovet, T; Bertrand, M; Horn, M; Si Mohammed, W; Dandelot, D; Dalle, M-C; Thomas, P; Amad, A

2017-11-27

The unités hospitalières spécialement aménagées (UHSA) are full-time inpatient psychiatric units for inmates in France. Their creation has been associated with several advances in access to psychiatric care for inmates in recent years. However, there is still only one means of involuntary hospitalization for prisoners in France: care by decision of a representative of the state (les soins sur décision d'un représentant de l'état [SDRE]). Interestingly, for SDRE to be recognized as legal by the French judge, the patient must be "a danger to himself or to the others". Thus, there is a major difference with involuntary hospitalization outside the prison, and there are specific criteria for involuntary psychiatric hospitalization for inmates in France. This situation questions the general framework of involuntary psychiatric care and is very inconsistent with French law. Indeed, the goal of the loi n o  94-43 du 18 janvier 1994 relating to public health and social protection is to ensure equivalent care for all patients, incarcerated or not. Copyright © 2017 L'Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Contemplated Suicide Among Voluntary and Involuntary Retirees

Science.gov (United States)

Peretti, Peter O.; Wilson, Cedric

1978-01-01

This study explored anomic and egoistic dimensions of contemplated suicide among voluntary and involuntary retired males. Results indicated a direct relationship between anomie and egoism on the one hand, and contemplation of suicide on the other. (Author)

The Emotional Response to Everyday Involuntary and Voluntary Memories in Dysphoria and Non-Dysphoria

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

del Palacio Gonzalez, Adriana; Watson, Lynn; Berntsen, Dorthe

Retrieving personal memories may cause emotional reactions and thus a need for emotion regulation. Past research indicates that involuntary memories have a greater effect on mood that the voluntary counterparts. However, different dimensions of the emotional response (i.e., intensity and regulation...... regulation strategies in response to both involuntary and voluntary memories. The between-group differences were not accounted for by the individuals’ mood preceding memory retrieval or the valence of the remembered events. The results suggest an important effect of retrieval mode in the emotion regulation......) upon retrieval of both involuntary and voluntary personal memories have not been thoroughly examined. We examined individuals’ emotional intensity and regulation of everyday involuntary and voluntary memories during dysphoria and non-depression. Twenty dysphoric individuals and 23 non...

Involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation, stigma stress and recovery: a 2-year study.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Z; Lay, B; Oexle, N; Drack, T; Bleiker, M; Lengler, S; Blank, C; Müller, M; Mayer, B; Rössler, W; Rüsch, N

2018-01-31

Compulsory admission can be experienced as devaluing and stigmatising by people with mental illness. Emotional reactions to involuntary hospitalisation and stigma-related stress may affect recovery, but longitudinal data are lacking. We, therefore, examined the impact of stigma-related emotional reactions and stigma stress on recovery over a 2-year period. Shame and self-contempt as emotional reactions to involuntary hospitalisation, stigma stress, self-stigma and empowerment, as well as recovery were assessed among 186 individuals with serious mental illness and a history of recent involuntary hospitalisation. More shame, self-contempt and stigma stress at baseline were correlated with increased self-stigma and reduced empowerment after 1 year. More stigma stress at baseline was associated with poor recovery after 2 years. In a longitudinal path analysis more stigma stress at baseline predicted poorer recovery after 2 years, mediated by decreased empowerment after 1 year, controlling for age, gender, symptoms and recovery at baseline. Stigma stress may have a lasting detrimental effect on recovery among people with mental illness and a history of involuntary hospitalisation. Anti-stigma interventions that reduce stigma stress and programs that enhance empowerment could improve recovery. Future research should test the effect of such interventions on recovery.

Involuntary psychiatric admission based on risk rather than need for treatment: report from the Dublin Involuntary Admission Study (DIAS).

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Kelly, BD

2018-04-01

Involuntary psychiatric admission in Ireland is based on the presence of mental disorder plus serious risk to self\\/others and\\/or need for treatment. This study aimed to examine differences between use of risk and treatment criteria, about which very little is known.

Involuntary treatment of psychiatric patients in South Africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

When such a person refuses treatment, it may cause significant distress ... public safety. Patients, on the other hand, understandably have had mixed feelings about involuntary treatment. ... people with mental illness and intellectual disability.

Effect of Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on a Child with Involuntary Movement after Hypoxic Encephalopathy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mayumi Nagai

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation to the supplementary motor area to inhibit involuntary movements of a child. An 8-year-old boy who developed hypoxic encephalopathy after asphyxia at the age of 2 had difficulty in remaining standing without support because of involuntary movements. He was instructed to remain standing with his plastic ankle-foot orthosis for 10 s at three time points by leaning forward with his forearms on a desk. He received cathodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation to the supplementary motor area at 1 mA for 10 min. Involuntary movements during standing were measured using an accelerometer attached to his forehead. The low-frequency power of involuntary movements during cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation significantly decreased compared with that during sham stimulation. No adverse effects were observed. Involuntary movement reduction by cathodal stimulation to supplementary motor areas suggests that stimulations modulated the corticobasal ganglia motor circuit. Cathodal stimulation to supplementary motor areas may be effective for reducing involuntary movements and may be safely applied to children with movement disorders.

[Involuntary treatment of mental patients in the community: legal and ethical dilemmas].

Science.gov (United States)

Mitrossili, M

2014-01-01

This article focuses on the measure of involuntary treatment of mental patients in the community, not only with regard to human rights and more specifically those of persons with mental disorders, but also with regard to ethics and deontology in mental healthcare delivery service. In this light, the important role of informed consent in psychiatry with regard to the psychiatric act is examined. Informed consent of mental patients in treatment when they are in need of voluntary or involuntary hospitalization is further examined, while emphasis is being put on the case of involuntary treatment. The Convention for Human Rights and Biomedicine (Convention of Οviedo), the European Convention of Human Rights, other documents of International Organizations (UN) and specialized national legislation (A. 2071/1992, Chapter vi, Greek law) constitute basic reference and interpretation points. The examination of consent and the demarcation of the exceptions are important issues that need to be approached. More particularly, our interest lies with the article 7 of the Convention for Human Rights and Biomedicine, which specifically refers to the protection of person who suffers from a mental disorder. The opinion that informed consent in psychiatric treatment and involuntary treatment are concepts and processes which are distinct but not always mutually exclusive is enhanced. In any case, involuntary treatment causes major dilemmas as far as informed consent in the psychiatric act is concerned, as it raises issues that affect the autonomy of the person. Today, however, there are many factors which influence public politics towards the adoption of the measure of involuntary treatment within the community. How is it that this paradoxical link is legitimized and justified: involuntary treatment and community? The enactment of the above mentioned measure in many European and North American countries has created new paths in the practice of contemporary psychiatry. Nonetheless, it

[Quality of involuntary hospital administration in Switzerland].

Science.gov (United States)

Jäger, Matthias; Ospelt, Isabelle; Kawohl, Wolfram; Theodoridou, Anastasia; Rössler, Wulf; Hoff, Paul

2014-05-21

This study aims at investigating the formal and content-related quality of medical certificates directing compulsory hospital admissions before the scheduled alteration of the Swiss civil legislation in January 2013. A comparison between physicians with different professional backgrounds concerning certificates and patients was conducted. Retrospective investigation of medical records of involuntary inpatients at the University Hospital of Psychiatry in Zurich during a period of six months (N=489). Considerable deficits concerning formal and particularly content-related aspects of the certificates were found. Psychiatrists issued certificates of the highest quality followed by emergency physicians, hospital doctors and general practitioners. Patients differed with respect to several sociodemographic and clinical variables. The quality of certificates directing involuntary hospital admission has to be improved considering the impact on the individual concerned. The consequences of the new legislation on the quality of the admission practices should be inquired in order to improve professional training on the issue.

Modification of sudden onset auditory ERP by involuntary attention to visual stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Oray, Serkan; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Dawson, Michael E

2002-03-01

To investigate the cross-modal nature of the exogenous attention system, we studied how involuntary attention in the visual modality affects ERPs elicited by sudden onset of events in the auditory modality. Relatively loud auditory white noise bursts were presented to subjects with random and long inter-trial intervals. The noise bursts were either presented alone, or paired with a visual stimulus with a visual to auditory onset asynchrony of 120 ms. In a third condition, the visual stimuli were shown alone. All three conditions, auditory alone, visual alone, and paired visual/auditory, were randomly inter-mixed and presented with equal probabilities. Subjects were instructed to fixate on a point in front of them without task instructions concerning either the auditory or visual stimuli. ERPs were recorded from 28 scalp sites throughout every experimental session. Compared to ERPs in the auditory alone condition, pairing the auditory noise bursts with the visual stimulus reduced the amplitude of the auditory N100 component at Cz by 40% and the auditory P200/P300 component at Cz by 25%. No significant topographical change was observed in the scalp distributions of the N100 and P200/P300. Our results suggest that involuntary attention to visual stimuli suppresses early sensory (N100) as well as late cognitive (P200/P300) processing of sudden auditory events. The activation of the exogenous attention system by sudden auditory onset can be modified by involuntary visual attention in a cross-model, passive prepulse inhibition paradigm.

Development's Collateral Damage : The World Bank, involuntary resettlement and human rights

OpenAIRE

Martin, Deirdre Christine

2011-01-01

Each year millions of people throughout the world are forced from their homes to make way for new roads, dams and other infrastructure developments. The World Bank funds many of these projects in developing countries and has been both harshly criticised for its track record with involuntary resettlement and a global leader in producing guidelines aimed at ensuring those forced to relocate are not harmed by the process. The Bank’s policy on involuntary resettlement is backed up by an Inspecti...

Feasibility Exploration of Electrodermal Response to Food in Children with ASD Compared to Typically Developing Children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle A. Suarez

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD frequently have food selectivity that causes additional health and quality of life stressors for the child and the family. The causes of food selectivity are currently unknown but may be linked, at least in part, to sensory processing problems. Method: The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of using electrodermal activity (EDA measurement in response to food to gain insight into the physiological processes associated with eating for children with ASD compared to typically developing children. In addition, differences in food acceptance and the relationship between food acceptance and sensory over-responsivity were explored. Results: Children with ASD had significantly different EDA during food presentation compared to typically developing controls. In addition, children with ASD accepted significantly fewer foods as part of their regular diet, and the number of foods accepts was significantly related to a measure of SOR. Discussion: This information has the potential to inform research and treatment for food selectivity

Treatment or Involuntary Euthanasia for Severely Handicapped Newborns: Issues of Philosophy and Public Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, T. Hennessy; And Others

1982-01-01

Recent reports have indicated that parents and/or physicians occasionally decide not to provide life-sustaining treatment (referred to as involuntary euthanasia), thus ensuring that the severely handicapped newborn will die. The issues involved relative to treatment or involuntary euthanasia are reviewed from two opposing perspectives…

Individual differences in recognising involuntary autobiographical memories: impact on the reporting of abstract cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Mace, John H; Bernas, Ronan S; Clevinger, Amanda

2015-01-01

This study examined individual differences in the ability to recognise involuntary autobiographical memories. We hypothesised that individuals may not always recognise involuntary memories which are cued by abstract experiences (e.g., thoughts or language), while they are better able to recognise those which are cued by concrete sensory/perpetual experiences. We hypothesised that individuals without formal training in psychology would be more prone to these recognition failures than individuals with training in psychology. We tested the hypothesis by comparing the results of general first-year undergraduate students, graduate students in psychology and graduates students in other disciplines after each had participated in a two-week diary study of their naturally occurring involuntary memories. The results showed undergraduate participants and non-psychology graduate participants reporting fewer involuntary memories being triggered by abstract cues than the graduate psychology participants, while the groups did not differ in the report of memories triggered by sensory/perpetual cues. The implications of the findings are discussed.

In response to community violence: coping strategies and involuntary stress responses among Latino adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Epstein-Ngo, Quyen; Maurizi, Laura K; Bregman, Allyson; Ceballo, Rosario

2013-01-01

Among poor, urban adolescents, high rates of community violence are a pressing public health concern. This study relies on a contextual framework of stress and coping to investigate how coping strategies and involuntary stress responses may both mediate and moderate the relation between exposure to community violence and psychological well-being. Our sample consists of 223 ninth grade Latino adolescents from poor, urban families. In response to community violence, these adolescents reported using an array of coping strategies as well as experiencing a number of involuntary stress responses; the most frequent coping responses were turning to religion and seeking social support. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that involuntary stress responses mediated the relations between both witnessing or being victimized by violence and poorer psychological functioning, while coping strategies moderated these relations. These findings suggest that the negative psychological effects of exposure to community violence may, in part, be explained by involuntary stress responses, while religious-based coping may serve as a protective factor.

How involuntary commitment impacts on the burden of care of the family.

Science.gov (United States)

Hallam, Larissa

2007-08-01

Little research has examined how, or if, involuntary commitment has impacted on the burden experienced by the family. This paper reports a qualitative study which explored how involuntary commitment under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 2000 in Queensland, Australia impacted on families of people with mental illness. Family members of a person with a mental illness, under involuntary commitment at the time or in the previous 12 months, participated in focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to determine the themes. It was apparent from the views of the family that the use of the involuntary commitment was influenced greatly by the pressures experienced by the mental health services (MHS). The MHA did little to assist the family in gaining access to MHS. It was not until after the family made repeated attempts that they were taken seriously. Often the family had few options other than to use deceit and threats to obtain the necessary treatment required. In view of this, the inherit nature of what involuntary commitment implies for persons under it, such as refusing treatment and management difficulties, indicates the family with such an individual experience more hardship in trying to obtain assistance for that person. Thus, the MHA in Queensland has not met its goals of increasing access to MHS. Family members perceive that they were not being listened to and their concerns were not acted upon. The current culture of the MHS appears to serve, to a large degree, to estrange the family from the consumer making relationships difficult and time-consuming to repair. The mental health profession is urged to consider the culture within their workplace and move towards constructive involvement of the family.

Involuntary admission may support treatment outcome and motivation in patients receiving assertive community treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Kortrijk, Hans Erik; Staring, A B P; van Baars, A W B; Mulder, C L

2010-02-01

Patients with severe mental illness who are treated in assertive community treatment (ACT) teams are sometimes involuntarily admitted when they are dangerous to themselves or others, and are not motivated for treatment. However, the consequences of involuntary admission in terms of psychosocial outcome and treatment motivation are largely unknown. We hypothesized that involuntary admission would improve psychosocial outcome and not adversely affect their treatment motivation. In the context of routine 6-monthly outcome monitoring in the period January 2003-March 2008, we used the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) and a motivation-for-treatment scale to assess 260 severely mentally ill patients at risk for involuntary admission. Mixed models with repeated measures were used for data analyses. During the observation period, 77 patients (30%) were involuntarily admitted. Relative to patients who were not involuntarily admitted, these patients improved significantly in HoNOS total scores (F = 17,815, df = 1, p < 0.001) and in motivation for treatment (F = 28.139, df = 1, p < 0.001). Patients who were not involuntarily admitted had better HoNOS and motivation scores at baseline, but did not improve. Involuntary admission in the context of ACT was associated with improvements in psychosocial outcome and motivation for treatment. There are no indications that involuntary admission leads to deterioration in psychosocial outcome or worsening of motivation for treatment.

A dual contribution to the involuntary semantic processing of unexpected spoken words.

Science.gov (United States)

Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Turner, Jacqueline; Perez, Laura

2014-02-01

Sounds are a major cause of distraction. Unexpected to-be-ignored auditory stimuli presented in the context of an otherwise repetitive acoustic background ineluctably break through selective attention and distract people from an unrelated visual task (deviance distraction). This involuntary capture of attention by deviant sounds has been hypothesized to trigger their semantic appraisal and, in some circumstances, interfere with ongoing performance, but it remains unclear how such processing compares with the automatic processing of distractors in classic interference tasks (e.g., Stroop, flanker, Simon tasks). Using a cross-modal oddball task, we assessed the involuntary semantic processing of deviant sounds in the presence and absence of deviance distraction. The results revealed that some involuntary semantic analysis of spoken distractors occurs in the absence of deviance distraction but that this processing is significantly greater in its presence. We conclude that the automatic processing of spoken distractors reflects 2 contributions, one that is contingent upon deviance distraction and one that is independent from it.

The impossibility of involuntary unemployment in an overlapping generations model with rational expectation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schultz, Christian

1992-01-01

If there is unemployment no matter how low the wage rate becomes, one speaks of involuntary unemployment. This phenomenon has been shown to arise in a variety of temporary or atemporal macro models with imperfect competition in the goods markets. In this paper we investigate whether the phenomeno...... of involuntary unemployment arises in a Hartian overlapping generations model with rational expectations. It does not, neither in the short nor in the long run...

32 CFR Appendix C to Part 113 - Sample DD Form 2653, “Involuntary Allotment Application”

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 32 National Defense 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Sample DD Form 2653, âInvoluntary Allotment Applicationâ C Appendix C to Part 113 National Defense Department of Defense OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE... Part 113—Sample DD Form 2653, “Involuntary Allotment Application” ER05JA95.002 ER05JA95.003 ...

Does Involuntary Mental Time Travel Make Sense in Prospective Teachers' Feelings and Behaviors during Lessons?

Science.gov (United States)

Eren, Altay; Yesilbursa, Amanda

2013-01-01

This study examined the effects of involuntary mental time travel into the past and into the future on prospective teachers' feelings and behaviors during the period of a class hour. A total of 110 prospective teachers participated voluntarily in the study. The results of the present study showed that (a) the involuntary mental time travel into…

Cognitive Control of Involuntary Distraction by Deviant Sounds

Science.gov (United States)

Parmentier, Fabrice B. R.; Hebrero, Maria

2013-01-01

It is well established that a task-irrelevant sound (deviant sound) departing from an otherwise repetitive sequence of sounds (standard sounds) elicits an involuntary capture of attention and orienting response toward the deviant stimulus, resulting in the lengthening of response times in an ongoing task. Some have argued that this type of…

Psychiatric patients' views on why their involuntary hospitalisation was right or wrong: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Katsakou, Christina; Rose, Diana; Amos, Tim; Bowers, Len; McCabe, Rosemarie; Oliver, Danielle; Wykes, Til; Priebe, Stefan

2012-07-01

To explore involuntary patients' retrospective views on why their hospitalisation was right or wrong. Involuntary patients were recruited from 22 hospitals in England and interviewed in-depth. The study drew on grounded theory and thematic analysis. Most of the patients felt mentally unwell before admission and out of control during their treatment. Despite these common experiences, three groups of patients with distinct views on their involuntary hospitalisation were identified: those who believed that it was right, those who thought it was wrong and those with ambivalent views. Those with retrospectively positive views believed that hospitalisation ensured that they received treatment, averted further harm and offered them the opportunity to recover in a safe place. They felt that coercion was necessary, as they could not recognise that they needed help when acutely unwell. Those who believed that involuntary admission was wrong thought that their problems could have been managed through less coercive interventions, and experienced hospitalisation as an unjust infringement of their autonomy, posing a permanent threat to their independence. Patients with ambivalent views believed that they needed acute treatment and that hospitalisation averted further harm. Nonetheless, they thought that their problems might have been managed through less coercive community interventions or a shorter voluntary hospitalisation. The study illustrates why some patients view their involuntary hospitalisation positively, whereas others believe it was wrong. This knowledge could inform the development of interventions to improve patients' views and treatment experiences.

Longitudinal assessment of daily activity patterns on weight change after involuntary job loss: the ADAPT study protocol

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia L. Haynes

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The World Health Organization has identified obesity as one of the most visible and neglected public health problems worldwide. Meta-analytic studies suggest that insufficient sleep increases the risk of developing obesity and related serious medical conditions. Unfortunately, the nationwide average sleep duration has steadily declined over the last two decades with 25% of U.S. adults reporting insufficient sleep. Stress is also an important indirect factor in obesity, and chronic stress and laboratory-induced stress negatively impact sleep. Despite what we know from basic sciences about (a stress and sleep and (b sleep and obesity, we know very little about how these factors actually manifest in a natural environment. The Assessing Daily Activity Patterns Through Occupational Transitions (ADAPT study tests whether sleep disruption plays a key role in the development of obesity for individuals exposed to involuntary job loss, a life event that is often stressful and disrupting to an individual’s daily routine. Methods This is an 18-month closed, cohort research design examining social rhythms, sleep, dietary intake, energy expenditure, waist circumference, and weight gain over 18 months in individuals who have sustained involuntary job loss. Approximately 332 participants who lost their job within the last 3 months are recruited from flyers within the Arizona Department of Economic Security (AZDES Unemployment Insurance Administration application packets and other related postings. Multivariate growth curve modeling will be used to investigate the temporal precedence of changes in social rhythms, sleep, and weight gain. Discussion It is hypothesized that: (1 unemployed individuals with less consistent social rhythms and worse sleep will have steeper weight gain trajectories over 18 months than unemployed individuals with stable social rhythms and better sleep; (2 disrupted sleep will mediate the relationship between

Longitudinal assessment of daily activity patterns on weight change after involuntary job loss: the ADAPT study protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Haynes, Patricia L; Silva, Graciela E; Howe, George W; Thomson, Cynthia A; Butler, Emily A; Quan, Stuart F; Sherrill, Duane; Scanlon, Molly; Rojo-Wissar, Darlynn M; Gengler, Devan N; Glickenstein, David A

2017-10-10

The World Health Organization has identified obesity as one of the most visible and neglected public health problems worldwide. Meta-analytic studies suggest that insufficient sleep increases the risk of developing obesity and related serious medical conditions. Unfortunately, the nationwide average sleep duration has steadily declined over the last two decades with 25% of U.S. adults reporting insufficient sleep. Stress is also an important indirect factor in obesity, and chronic stress and laboratory-induced stress negatively impact sleep. Despite what we know from basic sciences about (a) stress and sleep and (b) sleep and obesity, we know very little about how these factors actually manifest in a natural environment. The Assessing Daily Activity Patterns Through Occupational Transitions (ADAPT) study tests whether sleep disruption plays a key role in the development of obesity for individuals exposed to involuntary job loss, a life event that is often stressful and disrupting to an individual's daily routine. This is an 18-month closed, cohort research design examining social rhythms, sleep, dietary intake, energy expenditure, waist circumference, and weight gain over 18 months in individuals who have sustained involuntary job loss. Approximately 332 participants who lost their job within the last 3 months are recruited from flyers within the Arizona Department of Economic Security (AZDES) Unemployment Insurance Administration application packets and other related postings. Multivariate growth curve modeling will be used to investigate the temporal precedence of changes in social rhythms, sleep, and weight gain. It is hypothesized that: (1) unemployed individuals with less consistent social rhythms and worse sleep will have steeper weight gain trajectories over 18 months than unemployed individuals with stable social rhythms and better sleep; (2) disrupted sleep will mediate the relationship between social rhythm disruption and weight gain; and (3

Capturing Physiology of Emotion along Facial Muscles: A Method of Distinguishing Feigned from Involuntary Expressions

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Masood Mehmood; Ward, Robert D.; Ingleby, Michael

The ability to distinguish feigned from involuntary expressions of emotions could help in the investigation and treatment of neuropsychiatric and affective disorders and in the detection of malingering. This work investigates differences in emotion-specific patterns of thermal variations along the major facial muscles. Using experimental data extracted from 156 images, we attempted to classify patterns of emotion-specific thermal variations into neutral, and voluntary and involuntary expressions of positive and negative emotive states. Initial results suggest (i) each facial muscle exhibits a unique thermal response to various emotive states; (ii) the pattern of thermal variances along the facial muscles may assist in classifying voluntary and involuntary facial expressions; and (iii) facial skin temperature measurements along the major facial muscles may be used in automated emotion assessment.

Voluntary "involuntary" commitment--the briar-patch syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, R D

1980-01-01

Szasz and others have pointed out that many so-called voluntary admissions to mental hospitals have various elements of coercion involved, and are thus not truly voluntary. The author contends that the converse situation is also true, that many patients admitted under involuntary commitment papers arrange for their own commitments. Reasons for such choices are discussed in the context of a review of the literature and several case histories.

I want to move, but cannot: characteristics of involuntary stayers and associations with health among Canadian seniors.

Science.gov (United States)

Strohschein, Lisa

2012-08-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of seniors in the Canadian population who are involuntary stayers and to assess associations with health. Data come from the 1994 Canadian National Population Health Survey, with the sample restricted to those 65 and older (N = 2,551). Nearly 1 in 10 seniors identified as an involuntary stayer. Seniors with few socioeconomic resources, poor health, greater need for assistance, and low social involvement were more likely to identify as an involuntary stayer. Furthermore, seniors who were involuntary stayers report significantly more distress and greater odds of low self-rated health than other seniors. This study brings into visibility an understudied segment of the elderly population: seniors who are unable to move from their present location despite their desire to do so. Further research and policy responses assisting seniors to age in a setting of their own choosing are needed.

Who cares for involuntary clients?

Science.gov (United States)

Soliman, Soheil; Pollack, Harold A; Alexander, Jeffrey A

2009-01-01

The objectives of this study were to compare characteristics of outpatient substance abuse treatment (OSAT) units that serve high proportions of involuntary clients (ICs) with those that serve a low percentage of such clients. The authors analyze unit-level 1995-2005 data from the National Drug Abuse Treatment System Survey (NDATSS). Approximately 1/6 of OSAT units draw the dominant majority of their clients from involuntary referrals. OSAT units that treat a high proportion of ICs are less likely to be accredited by professional organizations, have fewer treatment staff with advanced degrees, and have shorter average treatment duration than do OSAT units that serve few ICs. OSAT units that serve ICs are more likely to offer legal and domestic violence services but are less likely to offer mental health services or aftercare. OSAT units that serve ICs are less likely to be hospital-affiliated than are other units. Clients at such facilities are more likely to be convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI), are younger, are less likely to have received prior treatment, are more likely to remain abstinent after treatment, but are more likely to be remanded back to courts. The authors conclude that ICs are an important market niche in OSAT care. DWI is by far the most common offense reported in units that specialize in ICs. Aside from legal and domestic violence services, units with a high proportion of ICs appear to offer somewhat less intensive and professionalized services than do other facilities; however, clients at these units are more likely to be abstinent at the end of treatment and but more likely to be remanded back to the courts.

Involuntary masturbation and hemiballismus after bilateral anterior cerebral artery infarction.

Science.gov (United States)

Bejot, Yannick; Caillier, Marie; Osseby, Guy-Victor; Didi, Roy; Ben Salem, Douraied; Moreau, Thibault; Giroud, Maurice

2008-02-01

Ischemia of the areas supplied by the anterior cerebral artery is relatively uncommon. In addition, combined hemiballismus and masturbation have rarely been reported in patients with cerebrovascular disease. We describe herein a 62-year-old right-handed man simultaneously exhibiting right side hemiballismus and involuntary masturbation with the left hand after bilateral infarction of the anterior cerebral artery territory. Right side hemiballismus was related to the disruption of afferent fibers from the left frontal lobe to the left subthalamic nucleus. Involuntary masturbation using the left hand was exclusively linked to a callosal type of alien hand syndrome secondary to infarction of the right side of the anterior corpus callosum. After 2 weeks, these abnormal behaviours were completely extinguished. This report stresses the wide diversity of clinical manifestations observed after infarction of the anterior cerebral artery territory.

[German practice of involuntary commitment at both federal and state level after introduction of the Guardianship law (1992-2009)].

Science.gov (United States)

Valdes-Stauber, J; Deinert, H; Kilian, R

2012-05-01

Given the steady rise of psychiatric coercive measures in Germany, the question arises whether this development is significantly influenced by the corresponding legal basis or through epidemiological, socio-economic or socio-structural factors. Based on full surveys of the Federal Ministry of Justice we examined the development and associations of 10 indicators of coercive psychiatric measures over a period of 18 years. Time trends of all indicators have been descriptively analysed. Statistical associations between time trends and between involuntary and admissions economic indicators were analysed by regression models. All annual involuntary commitment rates have increased, judicial ordered physical restraint measures particularly strongly (848%). The rate of judicial rejections of applied involuntary measures showed the lowest increase. On the other hand, quotas of involuntary admissions remained stable. In former East Germany, the involuntary admission rates are only a third of those in the former West Germany. Results of regression analyses indicate an excess increase of physical coercive measures in psychiatric hospitals in relation to the increase of psychiatric admissions. In former East Germany the rate of involuntary admissions at the federal state level is negatively correlated with the average gross income. The continuous increase of coercive psychiatric measures in consequence to the change in the Guardianship law suggests that this change has influenced the practice. The differences at federal and state levels, and the sharper rise in the former East Germany by lower rates in comparison to the former West Germany need an explanation, as well as the fact that the rate of involuntary admissions is associated at least in the former East Germany with economic conditions. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Voluntary inhibitory motor control over involuntary tic movements.

Science.gov (United States)

Ganos, Christos; Rothwell, John; Haggard, Patrick

2018-03-06

Inhibitory control is crucial for normal adaptive motor behavior. In hyperkinesias, such as tics, disinhibition within the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loops is thought to underlie the presence of involuntary movements. Paradoxically, tics are also subject to voluntary inhibitory control. This puzzling clinical observation questions the traditional definition of tics as purely involuntary motor behaviors. Importantly, it suggests novel insights into tic pathophysiology. In this review, we first define voluntary inhibitory tic control and compare it with other notions of tic control from the literature. We then examine the association between voluntary inhibitory tic control with premonitory urges and review evidence linking voluntary tic inhibition to other forms of executive control of action. We discuss the somatotopic selectivity and the neural correlates of voluntary inhibitory tic control. Finally, we provide a scientific framework with regard to the clinical relevance of the study of voluntary inhibitory tic control within the context of the neurodevelopmental disorder of Tourette syndrome. We identify current knowledge gaps that deserve attention in future research. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

32 CFR Appendix D to Part 113 - Sample DD Form 2654, “Involuntary Allotment Notice and Processing”

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 32 National Defense 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Sample DD Form 2654, âInvoluntary Allotment Notice and Processingâ D Appendix D to Part 113 National Defense Department of Defense OFFICE OF THE..., App. D Appendix D to Part 113—Sample DD Form 2654, “Involuntary Allotment Notice and Processing...

Involuntary sterilization among HIV-positive Garifuna women from Honduras seeking asylum in the United States: Two case reports.

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, Holly G; Ottenheimer, Deborah

2018-05-01

Voluntary sterilization is one of the most widely used forms of contraception by women worldwide; however, involuntary sterilization is considered a violation of multiple human rights and grounds for asylum in the United States. Women have been disproportionately affected by this practice. We report two cases of involuntary sterilization in HIV-positive Garifuna women from Honduras who sought asylum in America and were medically evaluated at the request of their attorneys. Key lessons can be drawn from these cases with regard to the importance of medical evaluations in establishing persecution. These include the need for a detailed account of the events surrounding sterilization, radiologic proof of tubal blockage if at all possible, and confirmation of significant and enduring mental distress as a result of the involuntary sterilization. Immigration attorneys and medical evaluators need to be attuned to the possibility of a history of involuntary sterilization among at risk women seeking asylum in the United States. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Involuntary outpatient treatment (IOT) in Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernández-Viadel, M; Cañete-Nicolás, C; Bellido-Rodriguez, C; Asensio-Pascual, P; Lera-Calatayud, G; Calabuig-Crespo, R; Leal-Cercós, C

2015-01-01

In recent decades there have been significant legislative changes in Spain. Society develops faster than laws, however, and new challenges have emerged. In 2004, the Spanish Association of Relatives of the Mentally Ill (FEAFES) proposed amending the existing legislation to allow for the implementation of involuntary outpatient treatment (IOT) for patients with severe mental illness. Currently, and after having made several attempts at change, there is no specific legislation governing the application of this measure. Although IOT may be implemented in local programmes, we consider legal regulation to be needed in this matter. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A systematic review of the frequency, duration, type and effect of involuntary treatment for people with anorexia nervosa, and an analysis of patient characteristics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clausen, Loa; Jones, Allan

2014-01-01

observed between involuntary and voluntary patient-groups together with findings of higher co-morbidity, more preadmissions, longer duration of illness and more incidences of self-harm for involuntary patients suggest that involuntary treatment is not a reaction to the severity of eating disorder symptoms...

Long-term consequences of youth volunteering: Voluntary versus involuntary service.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jinho; Morgül, Kerem

2017-09-01

Despite the renewed interest in youth volunteering in recent years, there remain major gaps in our knowledge of its consequences. Drawing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine the long-term effects of youth volunteering on the civic and personal aspects of volunteers' lives. Our results suggest that youth volunteering has a positive return on adult volunteering only when it is voluntary, and that net of contextual factors neither voluntary nor involuntary youth service has a significant effect on adult voting. Regarding personal outcomes, our findings indicate that the psychological benefits of youth volunteering accrue only to voluntary participants, whereas both voluntary and involuntary youth service are positively associated with educational attainment and earnings in young adulthood. Taken together, these results lend support to the case for youth volunteer programs, though the civic benefits of these programs appear to be less dramatic than generally suggested. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Qualitative exploration of stakeholders' perspectives of involuntary admission under the Mental Health Act 2001 in Ireland.

Science.gov (United States)

Smyth, Siobhán; Casey, Dympna; Cooney, Adeline; Higgins, Agnes; McGuinness, David; Bainbridge, Emma; Keys, Mary; Georgieva, Irina; Brosnan, Liz; Beecher, Claire; Hallahan, Brian; McDonald, Colm; Murphy, Kathy

2017-12-01

There is international interest in, and continued concern about, the potential long-term impact of involuntary admission to psychiatric institutions, and the effect this coercive action has on a person's well-being and human rights. Involuntary detention in hospital remains a controversial process that involves stakeholders with competing concerns and who often describe negative experiences of the process, which can have long-lasting effects on the therapeutic relationship with service users. The aim of the present study was to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders involved in the involuntary admission and detention of people under the Mental Health Act 2001 in Ireland. Focus groups were used to collect data. Stakeholders interviewed were service users, relatives, general practitioners, psychiatrists, mental health nurses, solicitors, tribunal members, and police. Data were analysed using a general inductive approach. Three key categories emerged: (i) getting help; (ii) detention under the Act; and (iii) experiences of the tribunal process. This research highlights gaps in information and uncertainty about the involuntary admission process for stakeholders, but particularly for service users who are most affected by inadequate processes and supports. Mental health law has traditionally focussed on narrower areas of detention and treatment, but human rights law requires a greater refocussing on supporting service users to ensure a truly voluntary approach to care. The recent human rights treaty, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is to guarantee a broad range of fundamental rights, such as liberty and integrity, which can be affected by coercive processes of involuntary admission and treatment. © 2016 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

26 CFR 1.1033(c)-1 - Disposition of excess property within irrigation project deemed to be involuntary conversion.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... project deemed to be involuntary conversion. 1.1033(c)-1 Section 1.1033(c)-1 Internal Revenue INTERNAL... Nontaxable Exchanges § 1.1033(c)-1 Disposition of excess property within irrigation project deemed to be... project or division shall be treated as an involuntary conversion to which the provisions of section 1033...

Involuntary euthanasia of severely ill newborns: is the Groningen Protocol really dangerous?

Science.gov (United States)

Voultsos, P; Chatzinikolaou, F

2014-01-01

Advances in medicine can reduce active euthanasia of newborns with severe anomalies or unusual prematurity, but they cannot eliminate it. In the Netherlands, voluntary active euthanasia among adults and adolescents has been allowed since 2002, when the so-called Groningen Protocol (GP) was formulated as an extension of the law on extremely premature and severely ill newborns. It is maintained that, at bioethical level, it serves the principle of beneficence. Other European countries do not accept the GP, including Belgium. Admissibility of active euthanasia is a necessary, though inadequate, condition for acceptance of the GP. Greece generally prohibits euthanasia, although the legal doctrine considers some of the forms of euthanasia permissible, but not active or involuntary euthanasia. The wide acceptance of passive newborns euthanasia, especially when the gestational age of the newborns is 22-25 weeks ("grey zone"), admissibility of practices within the limits between active and passive euthanasia (e.g., withholding/withdrawing), of "indirect active euthanasia" and abortion of the late fetus, the tendency to accept after-birth-abortion (infanticide) in the bioethical theory, the lower threshold for application of withdrawing in neonatal intensive care units compared with pediatric intensive care units, all the above advocate wider acceptance of the GP. However, the GP paves the way for a wide application of involuntary (or pseudo-voluntary) euthanasia (slippery slope) and contains some ambiguous concepts and requirements (e.g., "unbearable suffering"). It is suggested that the approach to the sensitive and controversial ethical dilemmas concerning the severely ill newborns is done not through the GP, but rather, through a combination of virtue bioethics (especially in the countries of the so-called "Mediterranean bioethical zone") and of the principles of principlism which is enriched, however, with the "principle of mutuality" (enhancement of all values and

Involuntary Smoking in Adolescents, Their Awareness of Its Harmfulness, and Attitudes towards Smoking in the Presence of Non-Smokers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorota Kaleta

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study was to examine involuntary smoking among young people, their awareness of its harmfulness and the factors associated with attitudes towards smoking in the presence of non-smokers. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 3552 students from a socially disadvantaged rural area in central Poland. Almost 40% of the participants were exposed to involuntary smoking at home and 60% outside of home on a daily or almost daily basis. More than 80% of the students felt that smoking should be banned around children at home, 59% thought it should be banned in vehicles, and 41% in the presence of non-smokers. The majority of the students were aware of the health consequences of active smoking, and 69% understood the threats of passive smoking. Females, never-smokers and current non-smokers, as well as those without smoking parents were more likely to claim that smoking should be banned at home and in vehicles (p < 0.05. Those aware of the fact that smoking was harmful to health, who discussed those issues with their parents and teachers, and who saw school tobacco control policies, were more likely to maintain that passive smoking should be banned (p < 0.05. The study results highlight the need for programs and policies to eliminate involuntary smoking among young people.

Involuntary Smoking in Adolescents, Their Awareness of Its Harmfulness, and Attitudes towards Smoking in the Presence of Non-Smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaleta, Dorota; Polanska, Kinga; Wojtysiak, Piotr; Szatko, Franciszek

2017-09-21

The aim of the study was to examine involuntary smoking among young people, their awareness of its harmfulness and the factors associated with attitudes towards smoking in the presence of non-smokers. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 3552 students from a socially disadvantaged rural area in central Poland. Almost 40% of the participants were exposed to involuntary smoking at home and 60% outside of home on a daily or almost daily basis. More than 80% of the students felt that smoking should be banned around children at home, 59% thought it should be banned in vehicles, and 41% in the presence of non-smokers. The majority of the students were aware of the health consequences of active smoking, and 69% understood the threats of passive smoking. Females, never-smokers and current non-smokers, as well as those without smoking parents were more likely to claim that smoking should be banned at home and in vehicles ( p < 0.05). Those aware of the fact that smoking was harmful to health, who discussed those issues with their parents and teachers, and who saw school tobacco control policies, were more likely to maintain that passive smoking should be banned ( p < 0.05). The study results highlight the need for programs and policies to eliminate involuntary smoking among young people.

Cardinal features of involuntary force variability can arise from the closed-loop control of viscoelastic afferented muscles

Science.gov (United States)

Laine, Christopher M.; Valero-Cuevas, Francisco J.

2018-01-01

Involuntary force variability below 15 Hz arises from, and is influenced by, many factors including descending neural drive, proprioceptive feedback, and mechanical properties of muscles and tendons. However, their potential interactions that give rise to the well-structured spectrum of involuntary force variability are not well understood due to a lack of experimental techniques. Here, we investigated the generation, modulation, and interactions among different sources of force variability using a physiologically-grounded closed-loop simulation of an afferented muscle model. The closed-loop simulation included a musculotendon model, muscle spindle, Golgi tendon organ (GTO), and a tracking controller which enabled target-guided force tracking. We demonstrate that closed-loop control of an afferented musculotendon suffices to replicate and explain surprisingly many cardinal features of involuntary force variability. Specifically, we present 1) a potential origin of low-frequency force variability associated with co-modulation of motor unit firing rates (i.e.,‘common drive’), 2) an in-depth characterization of how proprioceptive feedback pathways suffice to generate 5-12 Hz physiological tremor, and 3) evidence that modulation of those feedback pathways (i.e., presynaptic inhibition of Ia and Ib afferents, and spindle sensitivity via fusimotor drive) influence the full spectrum of force variability. These results highlight the previously underestimated importance of closed-loop neuromechanical interactions in explaining involuntary force variability during voluntary ‘isometric’ force control. Furthermore, these results provide the basis for a unifying theory that relates spinal circuitry to various manifestations of altered involuntary force variability in fatigue, aging and neurological disease. PMID:29309405

Cardinal features of involuntary force variability can arise from the closed-loop control of viscoelastic afferented muscles.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagamori, Akira; Laine, Christopher M; Valero-Cuevas, Francisco J

2018-01-01

Involuntary force variability below 15 Hz arises from, and is influenced by, many factors including descending neural drive, proprioceptive feedback, and mechanical properties of muscles and tendons. However, their potential interactions that give rise to the well-structured spectrum of involuntary force variability are not well understood due to a lack of experimental techniques. Here, we investigated the generation, modulation, and interactions among different sources of force variability using a physiologically-grounded closed-loop simulation of an afferented muscle model. The closed-loop simulation included a musculotendon model, muscle spindle, Golgi tendon organ (GTO), and a tracking controller which enabled target-guided force tracking. We demonstrate that closed-loop control of an afferented musculotendon suffices to replicate and explain surprisingly many cardinal features of involuntary force variability. Specifically, we present 1) a potential origin of low-frequency force variability associated with co-modulation of motor unit firing rates (i.e.,'common drive'), 2) an in-depth characterization of how proprioceptive feedback pathways suffice to generate 5-12 Hz physiological tremor, and 3) evidence that modulation of those feedback pathways (i.e., presynaptic inhibition of Ia and Ib afferents, and spindle sensitivity via fusimotor drive) influence the full spectrum of force variability. These results highlight the previously underestimated importance of closed-loop neuromechanical interactions in explaining involuntary force variability during voluntary 'isometric' force control. Furthermore, these results provide the basis for a unifying theory that relates spinal circuitry to various manifestations of altered involuntary force variability in fatigue, aging and neurological disease.

Compulsory outpatient treatment can prevent involuntary commitment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lene Nørregård; Svensson, Eva Maria Birgitta; Brandt-Christensen, Anne Mette

2014-01-01

Compulsory outpatient treatment (co-pt) has been possible in Denmark since 2010. The aim is to secure necessary treatment, reduce involuntary commitment and improve quality of life for patients with a severe psychiatric illness. Co-pt has been brought into use in 33 cases. This case report...... describes a patient with paranoid schizophrenia who several times developed severe psychotic symptoms shortly after discharge due to lack of compliance with treatment. Within one year of co-pt the patient was not admitted to hospital and improved in overall functioning. After terminating co-pt the patient...

The Welfare Effects of Involuntary Part-Time Work

OpenAIRE

Borowczyk-Martins, Daniel; Lalé, Etienne

2016-01-01

Employed individuals in the U.S. are increasingly more likely to work part-time involuntarily than to be unemployed. Spells of involuntary part-time work are different from unemployment spells: a full-time worker who takes on a part-time job suffers an earnings loss while remaining employed, and is unlikely to receive income compensation from publicly-provided insurance programs.We analyze these differences through the lens of an incomplete-market, job-search model featuring unemployment risk...

The involuntary nature of music-evoked autobiographical memories in Alzheimer's disease

NARCIS (Netherlands)

El Haj, M.; Fasotti, L.; Allain, P.

2012-01-01

The main objective of this paper was to examine the involuntary nature of music-evoked autobiographical memories. For this purpose, young adults, older adults, and patients with a clinical diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) were asked to remember autobiographical events in two

Does retrieval intentionality really matter? Similarities and differences between involuntary memories and directly and generatively retrieved voluntary memories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barzykowski, Krystian; Staugaard, Søren Risløv

2016-01-01

differences between the characteristics of involuntary and directly retrieved memories. The results imply that retrieval intention seems to differentiate how a memory appears in a person’s mind. Furthermore, we argue that these differences in part could result from differences in encoding and consolidation.......Theories of autobiographical memory distinguish between involuntary and voluntary retrieval as a consequence of conscious intention (i.e., wanting to remember). Another distinction can be made between direct and generative retrieval, which reflects the effort involved (i.e., trying to remember......). However, it is unclear how intention and effort interacts. For example, involuntary memories and directly retrieved memories have been used interchangeably in the literature to refer to the same phenomenon of effortless, nonstrategic retrieval. More recent theoretical advances suggest...

Voluntary and Involuntary Singlehood and Young Adults' Mental Health: an Investigation of Mediating Role of Romantic Loneliness.

Science.gov (United States)

Adamczyk, Katarzyna

2017-01-01

The present study tested the hypothesis that single young adults who perceive their singlehood as voluntary would report a higher level of positive mental health (i.e., emotional, psychological and social well-being), lower levels of mental health illness (i.e., somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, severe depression) and romantic loneliness in comparison to young adults who perceive their singlehood as involuntary. This paper also investigated whether romantic loneliness mediates the relationship between voluntary and involuntary singlehood, positive mental health, and mental health illness. The study sample included 151 participants (86 females and 65 males) aged 20-26 ( M  = 22.48, SD  = 2.01) from Poland. The main findings were that voluntarily single young adults reported a lower level of romantic loneliness compared to involuntarily single young adults. The two groups differed neither in regard to positive mental health nor in regard to mental health problems. In addition, gender differences were observed solely in the domain of romantic loneliness, with women reporting greater romantic loneliness than men. The mediation analysis revealed that romantic loneliness does not mediate the relationship between voluntary and involuntary singlehood, positive mental health, and mental health illness. Voluntary and involuntary singlehood was predictive of somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, severe depression, and romantic loneliness.

Mending new communities after involuntary resettlement in the Philippines and Indonesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quetulio-Navarra, M.

2014-01-01

Displacement of poor families contribute to the worsening of their poverty situation yet involuntary resettlement still takes place. According to the latest Report of the Indonesian Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction, more than 12,000 people were reportedly evicted in August 2008 to give way

Classics in psychiatry and the law: Francis Wharton on involuntary confessions.

Science.gov (United States)

Weiss, Kenneth J

2012-01-01

Philadelphia attorney Francis Wharton was a key intellectual figure in linking the sciences of medicine and law. In 1860, he published a monograph on involuntary confessions, which represented the closing chapter of Wharton and Stillé's Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence. He had already published A Monograph on Mental Unsoundness in 1855, the first book of the Treatise in its first edition. Wharton was convinced that many criminals had an inner compulsion to confess or to be caught, explained as divine jurisprudence. His remarks on confessions include a typology spanning psychodynamics to police tactics, using contemporaneous, historical, and literary examples. This remarkable document provides insight into the dynamics of unintended and involuntary confessions and is compatible, in part, with current scholarship. The author contrasts Wharton's schema with those of his English predecessor Jeremy Bentham, the psychoanalyst Theodore Reik, and others, and concludes that it represents an important transition toward a psychological approach to the criminology of confessions.

Involuntary psychiatric holds - the structure of admissions on the example of Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw.

Science.gov (United States)

Markiewicz, Inga; Heitzman, Janusz; Gardyńska-Ziemba, Ewa

2016-01-01

The aim of the study was to analyse the structure of involuntary psychiatric holds in Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw, throughout the year. Our research interests included socio-demographic profiles of the patients, time of admissions (time of a day/night/ season), type of diagnoses at admission and suicide attempts preceding the admission. We also analysed the normative aspect of involuntary admissions, i.e. which Articles of the Polish Mental Health Act constituted the basis for these patients admission, and if the choice of articles was justifiable by a diagnosis of the mental disorder. The primary research tool consisted of an original questionnaire allowing for the collection of relevant data. The material was submitted to statistical analysis, using primarily simple percentage methods. Involuntary psychiatric holds constituted 15.8% of the total number of admissions to the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology (3,498 persons) in 2012. 522 persons with mental disorders were subject to involuntary admission on emergency basis (292 women and 260 men). Majority of patients was over 40 years old. The number of patients admitted to the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology on emergency basis without the consent ranged from 38 to 62 people per month. Season did not differentiate significantly the number of admitted persons, majority of patients was admitted during the day (82%). Among the diagnosed patients, paranoid schizophrenia was the most frequent illness (43%), delirium tremens (7%), bipolar disorders (6%), dementia (5%), other psychotic disorders (5%), paranoid syndrome (5%), schizoaffective disorder (5%), other diagnoses (less than 1%). 4% of admissions to the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology were due to attempted suicide. 37% of patients were admitted to the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology under Article 23.1 of the Mental Health Act, 34% under Article 22.2, in accordance with Article 24.1 - only 7% of patients. Invoking Article 28

Sociodemographic and medical characteristics of involuntary psychiatric inpatients--retrospective study of five-year experience with Croatian Act on Mental Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Potkonjak, Jelena; Karlović, Dalibor

2008-09-01

The aim of this study was to analyze sociodemographic and medical characteristics of involuntary psychiatric inpatients treated during the five-year period of implementation of the Croatian Act on Mental Health. Data on involuntarily hospitalized patients according to the Croatian Act on Mental Health were singled out from the pool of inpatients treated at University Department of Psychiatry, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital from January 1, 1998 till December 31, 2002. Data were collected from medical records. Patients were diagnosed according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision criteria. The prevalence of involuntary hospitalization was 2%, including a comparative number of male and female patients. Most patients had secondary school, were living alone, were unmarried, widowed or divorced, and did not work at the time of hospitalization; however, most patients had some kind of health insurance. Schizophrenia was the most common diagnosis in involuntary psychiatric inpatients. In conclusion, scientific evaluation of involuntary hospitalization poses a major problem because of the many different factors that can influence the prevalence of involuntary hospitalization. Some of this factors are type of institution (psychiatric hospital or psychiatry department at a general hospital), organization of psychiatric care in the region, psychiatric morbidity and dynamics of changes in psychiatric morbidity in a specific region, public opinion about people with mental disorders, legal provisions on this very sensitive topic, etc.

Commercial sex behaviours among involuntary male bachelors: findings from a survey of migrants in Xi'an, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xueyan; Li, Shuzhuo; Attané, Isabelle; Feldman, Marcus W

2015-06-01

The highly male-biased sex ratio at birth has produced a severe male 'marriage squeeze' in China. However, with an imbalanced sex ratio, the marriage-squeezed or involuntary bachelors can meet their sexual needs only through ways other than marriage. To investigate the commercial sex behaviours of involuntary bachelors, we conducted a survey on reproductive health and family living among male migrant bachelors in Xi'an City, the capital of Shaanxi Province, from December 2009 to January 2010. The prevalence of commercial sex use was 37.2% among unmarried men, 30.1% among married but separated men and 17.2% among married and cohabitating men (χ(2) = 31.33; P = 0.000; df = 2). Marital status, knowledge about acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), age and income were associated with the prevalence and frequency of commercial sex behaviours. Condom use was less frequent among involuntary bachelors and was significantly associated with knowledge about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, the frequency of commercial sex behaviours, marital status and age. The higher prevalence of commercial sex behaviours and the lower frequency of condom use indicate a higher risk of disease from commercial sex among involuntary bachelors, implicating both individual and public health. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Comparison of blood volume pulse and skin conductance responses to mental and affective stimuli at different anatomical sites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kushki, Azadeh; Fairley, Jillian; Merja, Satyam; King, Gillian; Chau, Tom

2011-01-01

Measurements of blood volume pulse (BVP) and skin conductance are commonly used as indications of psychological arousal in affective computing and human–machine interfaces. To date, palmar surfaces remain the primary site for these measurements. Placement of sensors on palmar surfaces, however, is undesirable when recordings are fraught with motion and pressure artifacts. These artifacts are frequent when the human participant has involuntary movements as in hyperkinetic cerebral palsy. This motivates the use of alternative measurement sites. The present study examined the correlation between measurements of blood volume pulse and skin conductance obtained from three different sites on the body (fingers, toes and ear for BVP; fingers, toes and arch of the foot for skin conductance) in response to cognitive and affective stimuli. The results of this pilot study indicated significant inter-site correlation among signal features derived from different sites, with the exception of BVP amplitude, the number of electrodermal reactions and the slope of the electrodermal activity response. We attribute these differences in part to inter-site discrepancies in local skin conditions, such as skin temperature. Despite these differences, significant changes from baseline were present in the responses to the cognitive and affective stimuli at non-palmar sites, suggesting that these sites may provide viable signal measurements for use in affective computing and human–machine interface applications

Evaluation of CHANGE, an Involuntary Cognitive Program for High-Risk Inmates

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, Nancy L.; Lambert, Eric G.; Barton-Bellessa, Shannon M.

2012-01-01

Prison violence is a major concern in most correctional institutions. One intervention frequently used to reduce violent behavior is cognitive therapy. An involuntary cognitive program at a Midwestern state prison was evaluated for its impact on official misconduct. A total of 213 inmates were randomly assigned to the treatment (CHANGE) group (n =…

26 CFR 1.168(i)-6 - Like-kind exchanges and involuntary conversions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... this paragraph (c) are the only permissible methods of accounting for MACRS property within the scope... apply this section. (2) Effect of depreciation treatment of the replacement MACRS property by previous... exchange or an involuntary conversion, the depreciation treatment of the replacement MACRS property by...

Sleep Deprivation in Young and Healthy Subjects Is More Sensitively Identified by Higher Frequencies of Electrodermal Activity than by Skin Conductance Level Evaluated in the Time Domain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hugo F. Posada-Quintero

2017-06-01

Full Text Available We analyzed multiple measures of the autonomic nervous system (ANS based on electrodermal activity (EDA and heart rate variability (HRV for young healthy subjects undergoing 24-h sleep deprivation. In this study, we have utilized the error awareness test (EAT every 2 h (13 runs total, to evaluate the deterioration of performance. EAT consists of trials where the subject is presented words representing colors. Subjects are instructed to press a button (“Go” trials or withhold the response if the word presented and the color of the word mismatch (“Stroop No-Go” trial, or the screen is repeated (“Repeat No-Go” trials. We measured subjects' (N = 10 reaction time to the “Go” trials, and accuracy to the “Stroop No-Go” and “Repeat No-Go” trials. Simultaneously, changes in EDA and HRV indices were evaluated. Furthermore, the relationship between reactiveness and vigilance measures and indices of sympathetic control based on HRV were analyzed. We found the performance improved to a stable level from 6 through 16 h of deprivation, with a subsequently sustained impairment after 18 h. Indices of higher frequencies of EDA related more to vigilance measures, whereas lower frequencies index (skin conductance leve, SCL measured the reactiveness of the subject. We conclude that indices of EDA, including those of the higher frequencies, termed TVSymp, EDASymp, and NSSCRs, provide information to better understand the effect of sleep deprivation on subjects' autonomic response and performance.

Activity in the superior colliculus reflects dynamic interactions between voluntary and involuntary influences on orienting behaviour.

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Bell, Andrew H; Munoz, Douglas P

2008-10-01

Performance in a behavioural task can be influenced by both bottom-up and top-down processes such as stimulus modality and prior probability. Here, we exploited differences in behavioural strategy to explore the role of the intermediate and deep layers of the superior colliculus (dSC) in covert orienting. Two monkeys were trained on a predictive cued-saccade task in which the cue predicted the target's upcoming location with 80% validity. When the delay between cue and target onset was 250 ms, both monkeys showed faster responses to the uncued (Invalid) location. This was associated with a reduced target-aligned response in the dSC on Valid trials for both monkeys and is consistent with a bottom-up (i.e. involuntary) bias. When the delay was increased to 650 ms, one monkey continued to show faster responses to the Invalid location whereas the other monkey showed faster responses to the Valid location, consistent with a top-down (i.e. voluntary) bias. This latter behaviour was correlated with an increase in activity in dSC neurons preceding target onset that was absent in the other monkey. Thus, using the information provided by the cue shifted the emphasis towards top-down processing, while ignoring this information allowed bottom-up processing to continue to dominate. Regardless of the selected strategy, however, neurons in the dSC consistently reflected the current bias between the two processes, emphasizing its role in both the bottom-up and top-down control of orienting behaviour.

Involuntary detention and treatment of the mentally ill: China's 2012 Mental Health Law.

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Ding, Chunyan

2014-01-01

The long-awaited Mental Health Law of China was passed on 26 October 2012 and took effect on 1 May 2013. Being the first national legislation on mental health, it establishes a basic legal framework to regulate mental health practice and recognizes the fundamental rights of persons with mental disorders. This article focuses on the system of involuntary detention and treatment of the mentally ill under the new law, which is expected to prevent the so-called "Being misidentified as mentally disordered" cases in China. A systematic examination of the new system demonstrates that the Mental Health Law of China implicitly holds two problematic assumptions and does not provide adequate protection of the fundamental rights of the involuntary patients. Administrative enactments and further national legislative efforts are needed to remedy these flaws in the new law. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia in The Netherlands: Dutch perspectives.

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Cohen-Almagor, Raphael

2003-01-01

During the summer of 1999, twenty-eight interviews with some of the leading authorities on euthanasia policy were conducted in the Netherlands. They were asked about cases of non-voluntary (when patients are incompetent) and involuntary euthanasia (when patients are competent and made no request to die). This study reports the main findings, showing that most respondents are quite complacent with regard to breaches of the guideline that require the patient's consent as a prerequisite to performance of euthanasia.

Involuntary Mental Time Travel and Its Effect on Prospective Teachers' Situational Intrinsic Motivations

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Eren, Altay

2010-01-01

Recent cognitive psychological research has argued that involuntary mental time travel is an important individual difference variable that has the potential to affect an individual's motivation. However, this issue has not been empirically investigated in educational settings such as teacher education. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the…

Geographic variations in involuntary care and associations with the supply of health and social care: results from a nationwide study.

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Gandré, Coralie; Gervaix, Jeanne; Thillard, Julien; Macé, Jean-Marc; Roelandt, Jean-Luc; Chevreul, Karine

2018-04-06

Involuntary psychiatric care remains controversial. Geographic disparities in its use can challenge the appropriateness of the care provided when they do not result from different health needs of the population. These disparities should be reduced through dedicated health policies. However, their association with the supply of health and social care, which could be targeted by such policies, has been insufficiently studied. Our objectives were therefore to describe geographic variations in involuntary admission rates across France and to identify the characteristics of the supply of care which were associated with these variations. Involuntary admission rate per 100,000 adult inhabitants was calculated in French psychiatric sectors' catchment areas using 2012 data from the national psychiatric discharge database. Its variations were first described numerically and graphically. Several factors potentially associated with these variations were then considered in a negative binomial regression with an offset term accounting for the size of catchment areas. They included characteristics of the supply of care (public and private care, health and social care, hospital and community-based care, specialised and non-specialised care) as well as adjustment factors related to epidemiological characteristics of the population of each sector's catchment area and its level of urbanization. Such variables were extracted from complementary administrative databases. Supply characteristics associated with geographic variations were identified using a significance level of 0.05. Significant variations in involuntary admission rates were observed between psychiatric sectors' catchment areas with a coefficient of variation close to 80%. These variations were associated with some characteristics of the supply of health and social care in the sectors' catchment areas. Notably, an increase in the availability of community-based private psychiatrists and the capacity of housing

Association of ethnicity with involuntary childlessness and perceived reasons for infertility: baseline data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

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Karmon, Anatte; Hailpern, Susan M; Neal-Perry, Genevieve; Green, Robin R; Santoro, Nanette; Polotsky, Alex J

2011-11-01

To evaluate whether ethnicity is associated with involuntary childlessness and perceived reasons for difficulties in becoming pregnant. Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a longitudinal cohort. Multiethnic, community-based observational study of US women. Women in midlife (3,149), aged 42-52 years. None. Involuntary childlessness and perceived etiology of infertility. One hundred thirty-three subjects (4.2%) were involuntarily childless, defined by a reported history of infertility and nulliparity. Ethnicity was significantly associated with self-reported involuntary childlessness. After controlling for economic and other risk factors, African American (odds ratio [OR] 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.15-0.59) and Chinese women (OR 0.36; 95% CI 0.14-0.90) were less likely to suffer from involuntary childlessness compared with non-Hispanic white women. In addition, 302 subjects reported a perceived etiology of infertility. An unexpectedly large proportion of these women (24.5%, 74 of 302) reported etiologies not known to cause infertility (i.e., tipped uterus, ligaments for tubes were stretched), with African American women having been most likely to report these etiologies (OR 2.81; 95% CI 1.26-6.28) as the reason for not becoming pregnant. Ethnicity is significantly associated with involuntary childlessness and perceived etiology of infertility. Misattribution of causes of infertility is common and merits further consideration with respect to language or cultural barriers, as well as possible physician misattribution. Copyright © 2011 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Medical Futility and Involuntary Passive Euthanasia.

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Nair-Collins, Michael

2018-01-01

Conflicts between providers and patients or their families surrounding end-of-life care are both regrettable and extremely challenging, interpersonally and ethically, for all involved. These conflicts often implicate the concept of medical futility. The concept of futility is too often conflated with distinct concepts that are more ethically salient, including the fiduciary responsibility to assess surrogate decision-making, and distributive justice. By distinguishing these concepts from futility, it becomes clear that there are some situations in which forgoing life-sustaining treatment over objection is permissible, and perhaps even obligatory. But the justification lies in the constellation of rights and responsibilities surrounding surrogate decision-making, or in distributive justice, but not futility. Once futility is disambiguated from these other concepts, the practice of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment over the objection of a valid surrogate or a competent patient, based on the alleged futility of such treatment, is more clearly described as involuntary passive euthanasia.

Involuntary attention with uncertainty: peripheral cues improve perception of masked letters, but may impair perception of low-contrast letters.

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Kerzel, Dirk; Gauch, Angélique; Buetti, Simona

2010-10-01

Improvements of perceptual performance following the presentation of peripheral cues have been ascribed to accelerated accrual of information, enhanced contrast perception, and decision bias. We investigated effects of peripheral cues on the perception of Gabor and letter stimuli. Non-predictive, peripheral cues improved perceptual accuracy when the stimuli were masked. In contrast, peripheral cues degraded perception of low-contrast letters and did not affect the perception of low-contrast Gabors. The results suggest that involuntary attention accelerates accrual of information but are not entirely consistent with the idea that involuntary attention enhances subjective contrast. Rather, peripheral cues may cause crowding with single letter targets of low contrast. Further, we investigated the effect of the amount of uncertainty on involuntary attention. Cueing effects were (initially) larger when there were more possible target locations. In addition, cueing effects were larger when error feedback was absent and observers had no knowledge of results. Despite these strategic factors, location uncertainty was not sufficient to produce cueing effects, showing that location uncertainty paired with non-predictive cues reveals perceptual and not (only) decisional processes.

Building Alliances with (In)Voluntary Clients: A Study Focused on Therapists' Observable Behaviors.

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Sotero, Luciana; Cunha, Diana; da Silva, José Tomás; Escudero, Valentín; Relvas, Ana Paula

2017-12-01

This study aimed to compare therapists' observable behaviors to promote alliances with involuntary and voluntary clients during brief family therapy. The therapists' contributions to fostering alliances were rated in sessions 1 and 4 using videotapes of 29 families who were observed in brief therapy. Using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances, trained raters searched for specific therapist behaviors that contributed to or detracted from the four alliance dimensions: engagement in the therapeutic process, an emotional connection with the therapist, safety within the therapeutic system, and a shared sense of purpose within the family. The results showed that when working with involuntary clients, therapists presented more behaviors to foster the clients' engagement and to promote a shared sense of purpose within the family. However, in the fourth session, the therapists in both groups contributed to the alliance in similar ways. The results are discussed in terms of (a) the therapists' alliance-building behaviors, (b) the specificities of each client group, and (c) the implications for clinical practice, training, and research. © 2016 Family Process Institute.

Institutional investors' involuntary trading behaviors,commonality in liquidity change and stock price fragility

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Guojin Chen; Aihuan Xu; Xiangqin Zhao

2013-01-01

Purpose-The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.Design/methodology/approach-This paper used two-step test method in Coughenour and Saad and empirically tested the relationship between institutional investors' involuntary trading behaviors and commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.Findings-The results showed that to take the open-end fund as a representative of institutional investors,their involuntary trading behaviors were an important source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.Originality/value-For a long time,the domestic researchers have ignored the study about the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.But,this study's conclusion expanded the explanation about the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market from a new point of view that the demand-side explanation.Because there is no market-maker trading behaviors in China's stock market,the paper cannot explain the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market from the point of view of the supply-side explanation.

Voluntary and involuntary emotional memory following an analogue traumatic stressor: the differential effects of communality in men and women.

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Kamboj, Sunjeev K; Oldfield, Lucy; Loewenberger, Alana; Das, Ravi K; Bisby, James; Brewin, Chris R

2014-12-01

Men and women show differences in performance on emotional processing tasks. Sex also interacts with personality traits to affect information processing. Here we examine effects of sex, and two personality traits that are differentially expressed in men and women - instrumentality and communality - on voluntary and involuntary memory for distressing video-footage. On session one, participants (n = 39 men; 40 women) completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, which assesses communal and instrumental traits. After viewing film-footage of death/serious injury, participants recorded daily involuntary memories (intrusions) relating to the footage on an online diary for seven days, returning on day eight for a second session to perform a voluntary memory task relating to the film. Communality interacted with sex such that men with higher levels of communality reported more frequent involuntary memories. Alternatively, a communality × sex interaction reflected a tendency for women with high levels of communality to perform more poorly on the voluntary recognition memory task. The study involved healthy volunteers with no history of significant psychological disorder. Future research with clinical populations will help to determine the generalizability of the current findings. Communality has separate effects on voluntary and involuntary emotional memory. We suggest that high levels of communality in men and women may confer vulnerability to the negative effects of stressful events either through the over-encoding of sensory/perceptual-information in men or the reduced encoding of contextualised, verbally-based, voluntarily accessible representations in women. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electro dermal activity as maker of psychophysiology and work stressed variations; L`attivita` elettrodermica come maker di variazioni psicofisiologiche e stress da lavoro

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cenni, P [ENEA, Centro Ricerche ` Ezio Clementel` , Bologna, Bologna (Italy). Dip. Ambiente; Arduini, R [Azienda USL, Citta` di Bologna, Bologna (Italy); Palomba, D [Padova Univ., Padua (Italy). Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale; Tuozzi, G [Bologna Univ., Bologna (Italy). Dipartimento di Psicologia

1996-10-01

In this report an approach is described on the use of work psychophysiology in stress research. Such a contribution may have its main impact on the organizational factors and on the identification and prevention of stress related diseases. Physiological parameters such a heart rate, muscular activity, peripheral temperature and electrodermal activity are investigated in a combined laboratory-field framework, in order to quantify changes in functions mostly regulated by autonomic nervous system and verify whether they can be caused by negative influence of environmental organizational or psycho social factors. In particular, the authors present the electrodermal activity as an interesting index related to clinical and emotional aspects and very significant for the experimental data recorded in a research on bus-drivers stress carried out at the Occupational Medicine Service, ENEA, Bologna.

Involuntary movement during mastication in patients with long-term facial paralysis reanimated with a partial gracilis free neuromuscular flap innervated by the masseteric nerve.

Science.gov (United States)

Rozen, Shai; Harrison, Bridget

2013-07-01

Midface reanimation in patients with chronic facial paralysis is not always possible with an ipsilateral or contralateral facial nerve innervating a free neuromuscular tissue transfer. Alternate use of nonfacial nerves is occasionally indicated but may potentially result in inadvertent motions. The goal of this study was to objectively review videos of patients who underwent one-stage reanimation with a gracilis muscle transfer innervated by the masseteric nerve for (1) inadvertent motion during eating, (2) characterization of masticatory patterns, and (3) social hindrance perceived by the patients during meals. Between the years 2009 and 2012, 18 patients underwent midfacial reanimation with partial gracilis muscle transfer coapted to the masseter nerve for treatment of midfacial paralysis. Sixteen patients were videotaped in detail while eating. Involuntary midface movement on the reconstructed side and mastication patterns were assessed. In addition, 16 patients were surveyed as to whether involuntary motion constituted a problem in their daily lives. All 16 patients videotaped during mastication demonstrated involuntary motion on the reconstructed side while eating. Several unique masticatory patterns were noted as well. Only one of the 16 patients reported involuntary motion as a minor disturbance in daily life during meals. All patients with chronic facial paralysis who plan to undergo midface reanimation with a free tissue transfer innervated by the ipsilateral masseter nerve should be told that they would universally have involuntary animation during mastication. Most patients do not consider this a major drawback in their daily lives. Therapeutic, IV.

Missed losses loom larger than missed gains: Electrodermal reactivity to decision choices and outcomes in a gambling task.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yin; Van Dijk, Eric; Aitken, Mike; Clark, Luke

2016-04-01

Loss aversion is a defining characteristic of prospect theory, whereby responses are stronger to losses than to equivalently sized gains (Kahneman & Tversky Econometrica, 47, 263-291, 1979). By monitoring electrodermal activity (EDA) during a gambling task, in this study we examined physiological activity during risky decisions, as well as to both obtained (e.g., gains and losses) and counterfactual (e.g., narrowly missed gains and losses) outcomes. During the bet selection phase, EDA increased linearly with bet size, highlighting the role of somatic signals in decision-making under uncertainty in a task without any learning requirement. Outcome-related EDA scaled with the magnitudes of monetary wins and losses, and losses had a stronger impact on EDA than did equivalently sized wins. Narrowly missed wins (i.e., near-wins) and narrowly missed losses (i.e., near-losses) also evoked EDA responses, and the change of EDA as a function of the size of the missed outcome was modestly greater for near-losses than for near-wins, suggesting that near-losses have more impact on subjective value than do near-wins. Across individuals, the slope for choice-related EDA (as a function of bet size) correlated with the slope for outcome-related EDA as a function of both the obtained and counterfactual outcome magnitudes, and these correlations were stronger for loss and near-loss conditions than for win and near-win conditions. Taken together, these asymmetrical EDA patterns to objective wins and losses, as well as to near-wins and near-losses, provide a psychophysiological instantiation of the value function curve in prospect theory, which is steeper in the negative than in the positive domain.

Involuntary and voluntary recall of musical memories: A comparison of temporal accuracy and emotional responses.

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Jakubowski, Kelly; Bashir, Zaariyah; Farrugia, Nicolas; Stewart, Lauren

2018-01-29

Comparisons between involuntarily and voluntarily retrieved autobiographical memories have revealed similarities in encoding and maintenance, with differences in terms of specificity and emotional responses. Our study extended this research area into the domain of musical memory, which afforded a unique opportunity to compare the same memory as accessed both involuntarily and voluntarily. Specifically, we compared instances of involuntary musical imagery (INMI, or "earworms")-the spontaneous mental recall and repetition of a tune-to deliberate recall of the same tune as voluntary musical imagery (VMI) in terms of recall accuracy and emotional responses. Twenty participants completed two 3-day tasks. In an INMI task, participants recorded information about INMI episodes as they occurred; in a VMI task, participants were prompted via text message to deliberately imagine each tune they had previously experienced as INMI. In both tasks, tempi of the imagined tunes were recorded by tapping to the musical beat while wearing an accelerometer and additional information (e.g., tune name, emotion ratings) was logged in a diary. Overall, INMI and VMI tempo measurements for the same tune were strongly correlated. Tempo recall for tunes that have definitive, recorded versions was relatively accurate, and tunes that were retrieved deliberately (VMI) were not recalled more accurately in terms of tempo than spontaneous and involuntary instances of imagined music (INMI). Some evidence that INMI elicited stronger emotional responses than VMI was also revealed. These results demonstrate several parallels to previous literature on involuntary memories and add new insights on the phenomenology of INMI.

Involuntary memory chaining versus event cueing: Which is a better indicator of autobiographical memory organisation?

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Mace, John H; Clevinger, Amanda M; Martin, Cody

2010-11-01

Involuntary memory chains are spontaneous recollections of the past that occur in a sequence. Much like semantic memory priming, this memory phenomenon has provided some insights into the nature of associations in autobiographical memory. The event-cueing procedure (a laboratory-based memory sequencing task) has also provided some insights into the nature of autobiographical memory organisation. However, while both of these memory-sequencing phenomena have exhibited the same types of memory associations (conceptual associations and general-event or temporal associations), both have also produced discrepant results with respect to the relative proportions of such associations. This study investigated the possibility that the results from event cueing are artefacts of various memory production responses. Using a number of different approaches we demonstrated that these memory production responses cause overestimates of general-event association. We conclude that for this reason, the data from involuntary memory chains provide a better picture of the organisation of autobiographical memory.

Involuntary human hand movements due to FM radio waves in a moving van.

Science.gov (United States)

Huttunen, P; Savinainen, A; Hänninen, Osmo; Myllylä, R

2011-06-01

Finland TRACT Involuntary movements of hands in a moving van on a public road were studied to clarify the possible role of frequency modulated radio waves on driving. The signals were measured in a direct 2 km test segment of an international road during repeated drives to both directions. Test subjects (n=4) had an ability to sense radio frequency field intensity variations of the environment. They were sitting in a minivan with arm movement detectors in their hands. A potentiometer was used to register the hand movements to a computer which simultaneously collected data on the amplitude of the RF signal of the local FM tower 30 km distance at a frequency of about 100 MHz. Involuntary hand movements of the test subjects correlated with electromagnetic field, i.e. FM radio wave intensity measured. They reacted also on the place of a geomagnetic anomaly crossing the road, which was found on the basis of these recordings and confirmed by the public geological maps of the area.In conclusion, RF irradiation seems to affect the human hand reflexes of sensitive persons in a moving van along a normal public road which may have significance in traffic safety.

Re-Creation in the Age of Wisdom : Involuntary Job Transition in Women over 50

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lyon-Dugin, Frances E.

2017-01-01

Re-Creation in the Age of Wisdom: Involuntary Job Transition in Women over 50 Frances Elizabeth Lyon-Dugin A large share of our time with each other is centered around employment or ‘work’, however we define it. A time of transition between jobs, especially when a job is lost through no choice of

Why Am I Remembering This Now? Predicting the Occurrence of Involuntary (Spontaneous) Episodic Memories

Science.gov (United States)

Berntsen, Dorthe; Staugaard, Soren Rislov; Sorensen, Louise Maria Torp

2013-01-01

Involuntary episodic memories are memories of events that come to mind spontaneously, that is, with no preceding retrieval attempts. They are common in daily life and observed in a range of clinical disorders in the form of negative, intrusive recollections or flashbacks. However, little is known about their underlying mechanisms. Here we report a…

Contingent capture of involuntary visual attention interferes with detection of auditory stimuli

OpenAIRE

Kamke, Marc R.; Harris, Jill

2014-01-01

The involuntary capture of attention by salient visual stimuli can be influenced by the behavioral goals of an observer. For example, when searching for a target item, irrelevant items that possess the target-defining characteristic capture attention more strongly than items not possessing that feature. Such contingent capture involves a shift of spatial attention toward the item with the target-defining characteristic. It is not clear, however, if the associated decrements in performance for...

Priming involuntary autobiographical memories in the lab.

Science.gov (United States)

Barzykowski, Krystian; Niedźwieńska, Agnieszka

2018-02-01

Involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) are recollections of personal past that frequently and spontaneously occur in daily life. Initial studies by Mace (2005) showed that deliberately reminiscing about a certain lifetime period (e.g., high school) significantly increased the number of different IAMs from the same period in subsequent days, suggesting that priming may play a significant role in the retrieval of IAMs in everyday life. In the present study, we used a modified experimental paradigm, originally used by Schlagman and Kvavilashvili (2008), to study IAMs under well-controlled laboratory conditions. Participants completed a monotonous vigilance task twice and reported the occurrence of any spontaneous thoughts that were later classed as IAMs or other thoughts. Priming was manipulated by having experimental participants reminiscing about high school period between the two vigilance tasks and control participants playing simple games. Results showed that participants in the experimental group reported IAMs relating to high school period more frequently during the second vigilance task than those in the control group. In the experimental group, the number of high school memories was marginally higher in the second vigilance task compared to the first vigilance task with the medium effect size, but this within subjects effect was not significant in the control group. Finally, priming also enhanced the retrieval of more remote IAMs in the experimental group compared to the control group. These results suggest that priming may play a significant role in the activation and recall of IAMs and open up interesting avenues for future research.

The role of involuntary aware memory in the implicit stem and fragment completion tasks: a selective review.

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Kinoshita, S

2001-03-01

In this article I argue that an awareness of the study episode that arises involuntarily during an implicit stem/fragment completion test can under some conditions lead to enhanced repetition priming effects, even though subjects are not engaged in intentional retrieval. I review findings that are consistent with this possibility, which include the effects of depth of processing, and of typography match and new association priming following deep encoding. A theoretical account of involuntary aware memory couched within Moscovitch's (1995b) memory systems framework which suggests that the medial-temporal lobe/hippocampal (MTL/H) complex functions as a memory module is outlined. A putative mechanism is proposed in which involuntary aware memory of a studied item enhances the size of repetition priming effects by guiding its selection in preference to the competitors.

Why does society accept a higher risk for alcohol than for other voluntary or involuntary risks?

Science.gov (United States)

Rehm, Jürgen; Lachenmeier, Dirk W; Room, Robin

2014-10-21

Societies tend to accept much higher risks for voluntary behaviours, those based on individual decisions (for example, to smoke, to consume alcohol, or to ski), than for involuntary exposure such as exposure to risks in soil, drinking water or air. In high-income societies, an acceptable risk to those voluntarily engaging in a risky behaviour seems to be about one death in 1,000 on a lifetime basis. However, drinking more than 20 g pure alcohol per day over an adult lifetime exceeds a threshold of one in 100 deaths, based on a calculation from World Health Organization data of the odds in six European countries of dying from alcohol-attributable causes at different levels of drinking. The voluntary mortality risk of alcohol consumption exceeds the risks of other lifestyle risk factors. In addition, evidence shows that the involuntary risks resulting from customary alcohol consumption far exceed the acceptable threshold for other involuntary risks (such as those established by the World Health Organization or national environmental agencies), and would be judged as not acceptable. Alcohol's exceptional status reflects vagaries of history, which have so far resulted in alcohol being exempted from key food legislation (no labelling of ingredients and nutritional information) and from international conventions governing all other psychoactive substances (both legal and illegal). This is along with special treatment of alcohol in the public health field, in part reflecting overestimation of its beneficial effect on ischaemic disease when consumed in moderation. A much higher mortality risk from alcohol than from other risk factors is currently accepted by high income countries.

Reflections on involuntary treatment in the prevention of fatal anorexia nervosa: A review of five cases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holm, Janni Schmidt; Brixen, Kim; Andries, Alin

2011-01-01

OBJECTIVE: Involuntary treatment in the prevention of fatal anorexia nervosa (AN) is still controversial. METHOD: Five fatal cases of AN were identified out of 1,160 patients who attended a specialized eating disorder unit between 1994 and 2006. Information on inpatient, ambulatory, and emergency...

SOCIAL CAPITAL IN INVOLUNTARY DISPLACEMENT AND RESETTLEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melissa Quetulio-Navarra

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Social capital is often seen as a substitute for lack of other types of capital amongpoor people. Because of the recognized applicability of the social capital conceptand its correlation with the different dimensions of poverty, it has been used inevaluating the adaptation and integration of involuntarily displaced individualsinto their new environment. This paper presents insights based on a review of thefindings of studies that looked into the role of social capital in conflict- anddevelopment-induced displacement contexts. Althoughboth types of displace-ments are involuntary or forced in nature, they differ in terms of the role of socialcapital regarding its main sources, the formation pattern and its determinants.Social capital studies in forced resettlement appear to be relatively small innumber and are heavily concentrated on first worldcountries and conflict- anddevelopment-induced displacements. The conduct of similar studies in developingcountries and in a disaster-induced resettlement context, the third type ofinvoluntary displacement, should generate new and relevant findings regardingthe role of social capital in resettlement communities.

Employees’ Involuntary Non-Use of ICT Influenced by Power Differences: A Case Study with the Grounded Theory Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thale Kvernberg Andersen

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Power differences affect implementation of information and communication technology (ICT in a way that creates differences in ICT use. Involuntary non-use of new ICT at work occurs when employees want to use the new technology, but are unable to due to factors beyond their control. Findings from an in-depth qualitative study show how involuntary non-use of new ICT can be attributed to power differences between occupational groups in the same organization. The findings suggest that experience is a moderating variable and that closeness to formal power holders as well as closeness to the new technology increases the probability for expert control of the ICT-organization processes. These power differences favor ICT experts over ICT novices and result in a high-quality learning environment for the ICT experts characterized by autonomy, inclusion, and adequate work processes and technological solutions. The ICT novices try to navigate in a learning-hostile work environment characterized by marginalization through expert control, isolation, and inadequate work processes and technological solutions. This led to involuntary non-use by the ICT novices, while the experts became more proficient in ICT use. These findings give managers facing a technological organizational change tools to understand important mechanisms for implementing the change in their own organization, and help them take the right actions to integrate new technology and new organization of work.

Coping with Terrorism: Age and Gender Differences in Effortful and Involuntary Responses to September 11th

Science.gov (United States)

Wadsworth, Martha E.; Gudmundsen, Gretchen R.; Raviv, Tali; Ahlkvist, Jarl A.; McIntosh, Daniel N.; Kline, Galena H.; Rea, Jacqueline; Burwell, Rebecca A.

2004-01-01

This study examined age and gender differences and similarities in stress responses to September 11th. Adolescents, young adults, and adults reported using a variety of strategies to cope with the terrorist attacks including acceptance, positive thinking, and emotional expression. In addition, involuntary stress responses such as physiological…

Poverty and involuntary engagement stress responses: examining the link to anxiety and aggression within low-income families.

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Wolff, Brian C; Santiago, Catherine DeCarlo; Wadsworth, Martha E

2009-05-01

Families living with the burdens of poverty-related stress are at risk for developing a range of psychopathology. The present study examines the year-long prospective relationships among poverty-related stress, involuntary engagement stress response (IESR) levels, and anxiety symptoms and aggression in an ethnically diverse sample of 98 families (300 individual family members) living at or below 150% of the US federal poverty line. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) moderator model analyses provided strong evidence that IESR levels moderated the influence of poverty-related stress on anxiety symptoms and provided mixed evidence for the same interaction effect on aggression. Higher IESR levels, a proxy for physiological stress reactivity, worsened the impact of stress on symptoms. Understanding how poverty-related stress and involuntary stress responses affect psychological functioning has implications for efforts to prevent or reduce psychopathology, particularly anxiety, among individuals and families living in poverty.

Involuntary outpatient treatment (iot) for severe mental patients: current situation in Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Cañete-Nicolás, Carlos; Hernández-Viadel, Miguel; Bellido-Rodríguez, Carmen; Lera-Calatayud, Guillem; Asensio-Pascual, Pedro; Pérez-Prieto, Juan F; Calabuig-Crespo, Roman; Leal-Cercós, Carmen

2012-01-01

Involuntary Outpatient Treatment (IOT) expects to improve treatment compliance and, therefore, prevent the impairment of patients with severe mental illness, as well as the risk for them and others. Besides IOT introduction defenders and opponent's states, scientific literature offers contradictory results. Legislative changes have been taken in the vast majority of our neighbouring countries in order to regulate IOT application. There is no legal regulation in Spain; however, OIT application is possible in certain Spanish cities. This article reviews IOT in Spain and surrounding countries.

Individual, interpersonal, and social-structural correlates of involuntary sex exchange among female sex workers in two Mexico-U.S. border cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldenberg, Shira M; Rangel, Gudelia; Staines, Hugo; Vera, Alicia; Lozada, Remedios; Nguyen, Lucie; Silverman, Jay G; Strathdee, Steffanie A

2013-08-15

To investigate individual, interpersonal, and social-structural factors associated with involuntary sex exchange among female sex workers (FSWs) along the Mexico-U.S. border. In 2010 to 2011, 214 FSWs from Tijuana (n = 106) and Ciudad Juarez (n = 108) aged ≥ 18 years who reported lifetime use of heroin, cocaine, crack, or methamphetamine, having a stable partner, and having sold/traded sex in the past month completed quantitative surveys and HIV/sexually transmitted infection testing. Logistic regression was used to identify correlates of involuntary sex exchange among FSWs. Of 214 FSWs, 31 (14.5%) reported involuntary sex exchange These women were younger at sex industry entry [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.84/1-year increase, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.72 to 0.97] and were significantly more likely to service clients whom they perceived to be HIV/sexually transmitted infection-infected (AOR: 12.41, 95% CI: 3.15 to 48.91). In addition, they were more likely to have clients who used drugs (AOR: 7.88, 95% CI: 1.52 to 41.00), report poor working conditions (AOR: 3.27, 95% CI: 1.03 to 10.31), and report a history of rape (AOR: 4.46, 95% CI: 1.43 to 13.91). Involuntary sex exchange is disproportionate among FSWs who begin to exchange sex at a younger age, and these women experience elevated risk of violence and HIV/STIs related to their clients' behaviors and their working conditions. These data suggest the critical need for evidence-based approaches to preventing sexual exploitation of women and girls and to reducing harm among current sex workers. Multilevel interventions for all females who exchange sex and their clients that target interpersonal and social-structural risks (eg, measures to improve safety and reduce exploitation within the workplace) are needed.

Neurological signs and involuntary movements in schizophrenia: intrinsic to and informative on systems pathobiology.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Whitty, Peter F

2012-02-01

While it has long been considered whether the pathobiology of schizophrenia extends beyond its defining symptoms to involve diverse domains of abnormality, in the manner of a systemic disease, studies of neuromotor dysfunction have been confounded by treatment with antipsychotic drugs. This challenge has been illuminated by a new generation of studies on first-episode schizophrenia before initiation of antipsychotic treatment and by opportunities in developing countries to study chronically ill patients who have remained antipsychotic naive due to limitations in provision of psychiatric care. Building from studies in antipsychotic-naive patients, this article reviews 2 domains of neuromotor dysfunction in schizophrenia: neurological signs and involuntary movements. The presence and characteristics of neurological signs in untreated vis-a-vis treated psychosis indicate a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia and implicate disruption to neuronal circuits linking the basal ganglia, cerebral cortex, and cerebellum. The presence and characteristics of involuntary movements in untreated vis-a-vis treated psychosis indicate an intrinsic feature of the disease process and implicate dysfunction in cortical-basal ganglia-cortical circuitry. These neuromotor disorders of schizophrenia join other markers of subtle but pervasive cerebral and extracerebral, systemic dysfunction, and complement current concepts of schizophrenia as a disorder of developmentally determined cortical-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical\\/cerebellar network disconnectivity.

Involuntary and voluntary recall of musical memories: a comparison of temporal accuracy and emotional responses.

OpenAIRE

Jakubowski, Kelly; Bashir, Zaariyah; Farrugia, Nicolas; Stewart, Lauren

2018-01-01

Comparisons between involuntarily and voluntarily retrieved autobiographical memories have revealed similarities in encoding and maintenance, with differences in terms of specificity and emotional responses. Our study extended this research area into the domain of musical memory, which afforded a unique opportunity to compare the same memory as accessed both involuntarily and voluntarily. Specifically, we compared instances of involuntary musical imagery (INMI, or “earworms”)—the spontaneous ...

The development of involuntary and voluntary attention from childhood to adulthood: a combined behavioral and event-related potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wetzel, Nicole; Widmann, Andreas; Berti, Stefan; Schröger, Erich

2006-10-01

This study investigated auditory involuntary and voluntary attention in children aged 6-8, 10-12 and young adults. The strength of distracting stimuli (20% and 5% pitch changes) and the amount of allocation of attention were varied. In an auditory distraction paradigm event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral data were measured from subjects either performing a sound duration discrimination task or watching a silent video. Pitch changed sounds caused prolonged reaction times and decreased hit rates in all age groups. Larger distractors (20%) caused stronger distraction in children, but not in adults. The amplitudes of mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, and reorienting negativity (RON) were modulated by age and by voluntary attention. P3a was additionally affected by distractor strength. Maturational changes were also observed in the amplitudes of P1 (decreasing with age) and N1 (increasing with age). P2-modulation by voluntary attention was opposite in young children and adults. Results suggest quantitative and qualitative changes in auditory voluntary and involuntary attention and distraction during development. The processing steps involved in distraction (pre-attentive change detection, attention switch, reorienting) are functional in children aged 6-8 but reveal characteristic differences to those of young adults. In general, distractibility as indicated by behavioral and ERP measures decreases from childhood to adulthood. Behavioral and ERP markers for different processing stages involved in voluntary and involuntary attention reveal characteristic developmental changes from childhood to young adulthood.

Contingent capture of involuntary visual attention interferes with detection of auditory stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Kamke, Marc R; Harris, Jill

2014-01-01

The involuntary capture of attention by salient visual stimuli can be influenced by the behavioral goals of an observer. For example, when searching for a target item, irrelevant items that possess the target-defining characteristic capture attention more strongly than items not possessing that feature. Such contingent capture involves a shift of spatial attention toward the item with the target-defining characteristic. It is not clear, however, if the associated decrements in performance for detecting the target item are entirely due to involuntary orienting of spatial attention. To investigate whether contingent capture also involves a non-spatial interference, adult observers were presented with streams of visual and auditory stimuli and were tasked with simultaneously monitoring for targets in each modality. Visual and auditory targets could be preceded by a lateralized visual distractor that either did, or did not, possess the target-defining feature (a specific color). In agreement with the contingent capture hypothesis, target-colored distractors interfered with visual detection performance (response time and accuracy) more than distractors that did not possess the target color. Importantly, the same pattern of results was obtained for the auditory task: visual target-colored distractors interfered with sound detection. The decrement in auditory performance following a target-colored distractor suggests that contingent capture involves a source of processing interference in addition to that caused by a spatial shift of attention. Specifically, we argue that distractors possessing the target-defining characteristic enter a capacity-limited, serial stage of neural processing, which delays detection of subsequently presented stimuli regardless of the sensory modality.

Contingent capture of involuntary visual attention interferes with detection of auditory stimuli

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marc R. Kamke

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The involuntary capture of attention by salient visual stimuli can be influenced by the behavioral goals of an observer. For example, when searching for a target item, irrelevant items that possess the target-defining characteristic capture attention more strongly than items not possessing that feature. Such contingent capture involves a shift of spatial attention toward the item with the target-defining characteristic. It is not clear, however, if the associated decrements in performance for detecting the target item are entirely due to involuntary orienting of spatial attention. To investigate whether contingent capture also involves a non-spatial interference, adult observers were presented with streams of visual and auditory stimuli and were tasked with simultaneously monitoring for targets in each modality. Visual and auditory targets could be preceded by a lateralized visual distractor that either did, or did not, possess the target-defining feature (a specific color. In agreement with the contingent capture hypothesis, target-colored distractors interfered with visual detection performance (response time and accuracy more than distractors that did not possess the target color. Importantly, the same pattern of results was obtained for the auditory task: visual target-colored distractors interfered with sound detection. The decrement in auditory performance following a target-colored distractor suggests that contingent capture involves a source of processing interference in addition to that caused by a spatial shift of attention. Specifically, we argue that distractors possessing the target-defining characteristic enter a capacity-limited, serial stage of neural processing, which delays detection of subsequently presented stimuli regardless of the sensory modality.

From Nose to Memory: The Involuntary Nature of Odor-evoked Autobiographical Memories in Alzheimer's Disease.

Science.gov (United States)

El Haj, Mohamad; Gandolphe, Marie Charlotte; Gallouj, Karim; Kapogiannis, Dimitrios; Antoine, Pascal

2017-12-25

Research suggests that odors may serve as a potent cue for autobiographical retrieval. We tested this hypothesis in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and investigated whether odor-evoked autobiographical memory is an involuntary process that shares similarities with music-evoked autobiographical memory. Participants with mild AD and controls were asked to retrieve 2 personal memories after odor exposure, after music exposure, and in an odor-and music-free condition. AD participants showed better specificity, emotional experience, mental time travel, and retrieval time after odor and music exposure than in the control condition. Similar beneficial effects of odor and music exposure were observed for autobiographical characteristics (i.e., specificity, emotional experience, and mental time travel), except for retrieval time which was more improved after odor than after music exposure. Interestingly, regression analyses suggested executive involvement in memories evoked in the control condition but not in those evoked after music or odor exposure. These findings suggest the involuntary nature of odor-evoked autobiographical memory in AD. They also suggest that olfactory cuing could serve as a useful and ecologically valid tool to stimulate autobiographical memory, at least in the mild stage of the disease. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Facial Involuntary Movements and Respiratory Failure in CANOMAD, Responsive to IVIG Therapy

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Kate Johnson

2015-01-01

Full Text Available CANOMAD is a rare chronic neuropathy, characterized by chronic sensory ataxia and intermittent brain stem symptoms due to antidisialosyl antibodies. The disorder results in significant morbidity but is poorly understood and often misdiagnosed. We describe a unique case of CANOMAD, associated with involuntary movements of the face; patient reported exacerbations with citrus and chocolate and respiratory muscle weakness. Our patient was initially misdiagnosed with Miller Fisher Syndrome, highlighting the need for vigilance should neurological symptoms recur in patients initially diagnosed with a Guillain Barre variant. Moreover, the optimal treatment is unknown. This patient responded remarkably to intravenous immunoglobulin and has been maintained on this treatment, without further exacerbations.

Adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope using liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator: Performance study with involuntary eye movement

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Hongxin; Toyoda, Haruyoshi; Inoue, Takashi

2017-09-01

The performance of an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AO-SLO) using a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator and Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor was investigated. The system achieved high-resolution and high-contrast images of human retinas by dynamic compensation for the aberrations in the eyes. Retinal structures such as photoreceptor cells, blood vessels, and nerve fiber bundles, as well as blood flow, could be observed in vivo. We also investigated involuntary eye movements and ascertained microsaccades and drifts using both the retinal images and the aberrations recorded simultaneously. Furthermore, we measured the interframe displacement of retinal images and found that during eye drift, the displacement has a linear relationship with the residual low-order aberration. The estimated duration and cumulative displacement of the drift were within the ranges estimated by a video tracking technique. The AO-SLO would not only be used for the early detection of eye diseases, but would also offer a new approach for involuntary eye movement research.

Modifying the frequency and characteristics of involuntary autobiographical memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Vannucci, Manila; Batool, Iram; Pelagatti, Claudia; Mazzoni, Giuliana

2014-01-01

Recent studies have shown that involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) can be elicited in the laboratory. Here we assessed whether the specific instructions given to participants can change the nature of the IAMs reported, in terms of both their frequency and their characteristics. People were either made or not made aware that the aim of the study was to examine IAMs. They reported mental contents either whenever they became aware of them or following a predetermined schedule. Both making people aware of the aim of the study and following a fixed schedule of interruptions increased significantly the number of IAMs reported. When aware of the aim of the study, participants reported more specific memories that had been retrieved and rehearsed more often in the past. These findings demonstrate that the number and characteristics of memories depend on the procedure used. Explanations of these effects and their implications for research on IAMs are discussed.

Modifying the frequency and characteristics of involuntary autobiographical memories.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manila Vannucci

Full Text Available Recent studies have shown that involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs can be elicited in the laboratory. Here we assessed whether the specific instructions given to participants can change the nature of the IAMs reported, in terms of both their frequency and their characteristics. People were either made or not made aware that the aim of the study was to examine IAMs. They reported mental contents either whenever they became aware of them or following a predetermined schedule. Both making people aware of the aim of the study and following a fixed schedule of interruptions increased significantly the number of IAMs reported. When aware of the aim of the study, participants reported more specific memories that had been retrieved and rehearsed more often in the past. These findings demonstrate that the number and characteristics of memories depend on the procedure used. Explanations of these effects and their implications for research on IAMs are discussed.

The speed of our mental soundtracks: Tracking the tempo of involuntary musical imagery in everyday life.

Science.gov (United States)

Jakubowski, Kelly; Farrugia, Nicolas; Halpern, Andrea R; Sankarpandi, Sathish K; Stewart, Lauren

2015-11-01

The study of spontaneous and everyday cognitions is an area of rapidly growing interest. One of the most ubiquitous forms of spontaneous cognition is involuntary musical imagery (INMI), the involuntarily retrieved and repetitive mental replay of music. The present study introduced a novel method for capturing temporal features of INMI within a naturalistic setting. This method allowed for the investigation of two questions of interest to INMI researchers in a more objective way than previously possible, concerning (1) the precision of memory representations within INMI and (2) the interactions between INMI and concurrent affective state. Over the course of 4 days, INMI tempo was measured by asking participants to tap to the beat of their INMI with a wrist-worn accelerometer. Participants documented additional details regarding their INMI in a diary. Overall, the tempo of music within INMI was recalled from long-term memory in a highly veridical form, although with a regression to the mean for recalled tempo that parallels previous findings on voluntary musical imagery. A significant positive relationship was found between INMI tempo and subjective arousal, suggesting that INMI interacts with concurrent mood in a similar manner to perceived music. The results suggest several parallels between INMI and voluntary imagery, music perceptual processes, and other types of involuntary memories.

Effect of infrared-C radiation on skin temperature, electrodermal conductance and pain in hemiparetic stroke patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chun-Chih; Chiang, Yong-Shun; Lung, Chia-Chi

2015-01-01

A novel application of infrared-C (IR-C) radiation (3-1000 μm) on hemiparetic stroke patients was evaluated. Hot compresses (HC) were used on the paretic shoulders of patients in this placebo-controlled trial to investigate the effects of IR-C on skin temperature, electrodermal conductance (EC) and pain relief. Skin temperature at the center of the middle deltoid (CMD), Quchi (LI11), and the center of the third metacarpal bone on dorsum of hand (COT) of the subjects at Brunnstrom stage 3-5 before and after IR-C HC, were examined. Meanwhile, EC was measured on Hegu (LI4), Quchi and Juanyu (LI15). Pain intensity was evaluated before and after treatment. Skin temperature increased significantly at the CMD and COT on the paretic side in males. In females after treatment, similar skin temperatures were found in each measured region on both the paretic and non-paretic sides. The EC on the paretic side tended to be higher than the non-paretic side before treatment. After treatment, the EC on paretic side declined in both sexes and became even lower than the non-paretic side in females. Pain intensity was lessened after treatment especially in males, which appeared to correspond with an increase in skin temperature and a decrease in EC. IR-C hot compress is a promising method for stroke patients in rehabilitation. Physiological mechanisms of this treatment were proposed and summarized from this research.

Destiny, Miracle Healers and Magical Intervention: Vernacular Beliefs on Involuntary Childlessness in Estonia

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Reet Hiiemäe

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The article focuses on the dynamics of contemporary beliefs related to involuntary childlessness. Firstly, the methodological issues of collecting source material on delicate matters and the advantages of anonymous and narrative presentation modes in certain contexts will be discussed. Secondly, conclusions drawn from the collected material, i.e. the temporary and changeable nature of those beliefs, their relations with the mass media, the social and the individual aspects and the motifs of guilt and supernatural punishment in the context of identity issues will be presented, concluding that such belief-based models of explanation and help-seeking eventually function as a mental self-defence mechanism.

Voluntary and Involuntary Singlehood and Young Adults’ Mental Health: an Investigation of Mediating Role of Romantic Loneliness

OpenAIRE

Adamczyk, Katarzyna

2016-01-01

The present study tested the hypothesis that single young adults who perceive their singlehood as voluntary would report a higher level of positive mental health (i.e., emotional, psychological and social well-being), lower levels of mental health illness (i.e., somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, severe depression) and romantic loneliness in comparison to young adults who perceive their singlehood as involuntary. This paper also investigated whether romantic loneliness mediates th...

Biofeedback treatment for Tourette syndrome: a preliminary randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagai, Yoko; Cavanna, Andrea E; Critchley, Hugo D; Stern, Jeremy J; Robertson, Mary M; Joyce, Eileen M

2014-03-01

To study the clinical effectiveness of biofeedback treatment in reducing tics in patients with Tourette syndrome. Despite advances in the pharmacologic treatment of patients with Tourette syndrome, many remain troubled by their tics, which may be resistant to multiple medications at tolerable doses. Electrodermal biofeedback is a noninvasive biobehavioral intervention that can be useful in managing neuropsychiatric and neurologic conditions. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of electrodermal biofeedback training in 21 patients with Tourette syndrome. After training the patients for 3 sessions a week over 4 weeks, we observed a significant reduction in tic frequency and improved indices of subjective well-being in both the active-biofeedback and sham-feedback (control) groups, but there was no difference between the groups in these measurements. Furthermore, the active-treatment group did not demonstrably learn to reduce their sympathetic electrodermal tone using biofeedback. Our findings indicate that this form of biofeedback training was unable to produce a clinical effect greater than placebo. The main confounding factor appeared to be the 30-minute duration of the training sessions, which made it difficult for patients to sustain a reduction in sympathetic tone when their tics themselves were generating competing phasic electrodermal arousal responses. Despite a negative finding in this study, electrodermal biofeedback training may have a role in managing tics if optimal training schedules can be identified.

A novel indirect method for capturing involuntary musical imagery under varying cognitive load.

Science.gov (United States)

Floridou, Georgia A; Williamson, Victoria J; Stewart, Lauren

2017-11-01

Involuntary musical imagery (INMI), i.e the internal experience of a repetitive musical fragment, is one of the most ubiquitous forms of spontaneous cognition. Findings regarding the relationship between INMI and cognitive load are conflicting. In the present study, 200 participants watched and evaluated two non-dialogue, music-only film trailers. Subsequently, they either closed their eyes for 5 min (baseline), or engaged in one of three dot tasks of varying challenge and attentional demand (low, medium, and high cognitive load). Finally, they completed a novel "Mind Activity Questionnaire", which allows for indirect INMI sampling rather than direct questioning. The same questionnaire was completed 24 hours later. Overall, a significant negative linear trend was found. At baseline, 65% of people reported experiencing INMI. This rate decreased to 32.5% in the low load condition with further reductions observed in the medium and high conditions, which did not differ significantly from each other. INMI frequency and duration followed the same pattern as the induction rates. In the 24-hour follow-up, 21% of participants reported INMI experiences. This study supports the hypothesis that INMI occurrence, frequency, and duration relate to spare cognitive capacity and demonstrates an ecologically valid laboratory paradigm for covertly inducing and documenting INMI experiences.

Re-building Trust after Physical Restraint During Involuntary Psychiatric Hospitalization.

Science.gov (United States)

Khatib, Anwar; Ibrahim, Mahajne; Roe, David

2018-06-01

This study attempted to identify the elements which might best minimize the negative consequences of restriction of inpatients and rebuild therapeutic alliance and trust. Through in depth interviews with 15 psychiatric patients who had experience restrained during the last involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. Analysis of the data revealed three major themes with regard to trust between restrained patient and restraining staff members during restriction of the patient's freedom. Duration of Restriction, Contact with a Staff Member while Restrained, Supportive Interactions and Staff's Response to Restricted Patients' Needs were reported by patients as crucial in determining the way restrained is experienced and its later impact. Physical restraint in psychiatric hospitalizations generates many negative feelings and can even be traumatic. The patients interviewed help us learn how to provide more human and therapeutic interactions even in extreme situations of restrain which can be crucial to rebuild therapeutic alliance and trust. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Transtorno da expressão emocional involuntária Involuntary emotional expression disorder

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Helga Cristina Santos Sartori

2008-01-01

Full Text Available CONTEXTO: O transtorno da expressão emocional involuntária (involuntary emotional expression disorder ou IEED consiste em um transtorno do afeto, caracterizado por uma dificuldade em controlar a expressão emocional, que se apresenta por episódios breves e estereotipados de riso e/ou choro incontroláveis. Pode estar relacionado a diversas patologias encefálicas, em variadas localizações anatômicas. OBJETIVOS: Revisar aspectos clínicos, epidemiológicos e fisiopatológicos envolvidos no transtorno da expressão emocional involuntária e apresentar as opções atuais e futuras na abordagem terapêutica. MÉTODOS: Pesquisa de base de dados MEDLINE/PUBMED e LILACS utilizando os termos transtorno da expressão emocional involuntária, afeto pseudobulbar, riso e choro patológicos, acidente vascular cerebral, doença de Alzheimer, esclerose múltipla, esclerose lateral amiotrófica. RESULTADOS: No trantorno da expressão emocional involuntária, as crises de choro e/ou riso, além de serem incontroláveis, tendem a ser desproporcionais ao estímulo recebido, podendo estar completamente dissociada do estado de humor do paciente ou mesmo ser contraditória ao contexto no qual o estímulo está inserido. Outros termos são usados na nosografia desse transtorno, como afeto pseudobulbar, riso e choro patológicos, labilidade emocional, emocionalismo e desregulação emocional. Termos como choro forçado, choro involuntário, emocionalidade patológica e incontinência emocional também têm sido utilizados com menor freqüência. Os mecanismos fisiopatológicos específicos envolvidos nesse transtorno ainda não estão bem esclarecidos. Lesões que podem causá-lo estão amplamente distribuídas no encéfalo, mas parecem envolver o lobo frontal, o sistema límbico, o tronco cerebral e o cerebelo, assim como a substância branca que interconecta essa rede. Seu principal diagnóstico diferencial é a depressão. As terapias farmacológicas hoje

Distinct roles of theta and alpha oscillations in the involuntary capture of goal-directed attention.

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Harris, Anthony M; Dux, Paul E; Jones, Caelyn N; Mattingley, Jason B

2017-05-15

Mechanisms of attention assign priority to sensory inputs on the basis of current task goals. Previous studies have shown that lateralized neural oscillations within the alpha (8-14Hz) range are associated with the voluntary allocation of attention to the contralateral visual field. It is currently unknown, however, whether similar oscillatory signatures instantiate the involuntary capture of spatial attention by goal-relevant stimulus properties. Here we investigated the roles of theta (4-8Hz), alpha, and beta (14-30Hz) oscillations in human goal-directed visual attention. Across two experiments, we had participants respond to a brief target of a particular color among heterogeneously colored distractors. Prior to target onset, we cued one location with a lateralized, non-predictive cue that was either target- or non-target-colored. During the behavioral task, we recorded brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG), with the aim of analyzing cue-elicited oscillatory activity. We found that theta oscillations lateralized in response to all cues, and this lateralization was stronger if the cue matched the target color. Alpha oscillations lateralized relatively later, and only in response to target-colored cues, consistent with the capture of spatial attention. Our findings suggest that stimulus induced changes in theta and alpha amplitude reflect task-based modulation of signals by feature-based and spatial attention, respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The separate roles of the reflective mind and involuntary inhibitory control in gatekeeping paranormal beliefs and the underlying intuitive confusions.

Science.gov (United States)

Svedholm, Annika M; Lindeman, Marjaana

2013-08-01

Intuitive thinking is known to predict paranormal beliefs, but the processes underlying this relationship, and the role of other thinking dispositions, have remained unclear. Study 1 showed that while an intuitive style increased and a reflective disposition counteracted paranormal beliefs, the ontological confusions suggested to underlie paranormal beliefs were predicted by individual differences in involuntary inhibitory processes. When the reasoning system was subjected to cognitive load, the ontological confusions increased, lost their relationship with paranormal beliefs, and their relationship with weaker inhibition was strongly accentuated. These findings support the argument that the confusions are mainly intuitive and that they therefore are most discernible under conditions in which inhibition is impaired, that is, when thinking is dominated by intuitive processing. Study 2 replicated the findings on intuitive and reflective thinking and paranormal beliefs. In Study 2, ontological confusions were also related to the same thinking styles as paranormal beliefs. The results support a model in which both intuitive and non-reflective thinking styles and involuntary inhibitory processes give way to embracing culturally acquired paranormal beliefs. ©2012 The British Psychological Society.

Literature Review Lifestyles and routine activities of South African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health ... Lifestyles and routine activities of South African teenagers at risk of being trafficked for involuntary prostitution. Thozama ... Actual lifestyle and routine activities of South African teenagers and risky behaviours (substance abuse, intergenerational sex and child prostitution) are ...

Electrical measurement of sweat activity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tronstad, Christian; Grimnes, Sverre; Martinsen, Ørjan G; Gjein, Gaute E; Fosse, Erik; Krogstad, Anne-Lene

2008-01-01

A multichannel logger for long-term measurements of sweat activity is presented. The logger uses skin surface electrodes for unipolar admittance measurements in the stratum corneum. The logger is developed with emphasis on clinical use. The portability of the logger enables recording of sweat activity under circumstances such as daily errands, exercise and sleep. Measurements have been done on 24 healthy volunteers during relaxation and exercise with heart rate monitoring. Recordings of sweat activity during sleep have been done on two healthy subjects. Early results show good agreement with the literature on sweating physiology and electrodermal activity. Results are presented showing measurements related to physical exercise, dermatomes, distribution of sweat glands and sympathetic activity. This study examines the normal sweating patterns for the healthy population, and we present results with the first 24 healthy volunteers. Comparing these results with similar measurements on hyperhidrosis patients will make it possible to find the most useful parameters for diagnosis and treatment evaluation

Assisted admissions? A national survey of general practitioner experience of involuntary admissions.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Kelly, M

2011-10-01

The 2001 Mental Health Act introduced in 2006, changed how a patient is admitted involuntarily to a psychiatric unit. This paper reports on a national survey of general practitioners\\' experience implementing the Act. Five hundred and sixty eight (568) GPs completed the survey. Twenty five percent (25%) of respondants had not used it. When used, twenty four percent (24%) report that it takes seven hours or more to complete an admission. Fifty percent (50%) of respondents are confident to complete the necessary paperwork. Overall GPs are dissatisfied with arrangements for transport of patients (mean Likert score 3.5), primarily due to the time delay. GPs believe this places risk on the patient, family and GP. Only thirty-three percent (33%) of respondents feel that the Mental Health Act has improved the patient, GP and family experience of involuntary admission.

Involuntary movements and coma as the prognostic marker for acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sooyoung; Sanefuji, Masafumi; Torio, Michiko; Kaku, Noriyuki; Ichimiya, Yuko; Mizuguchi, Soichi; Baba, Haruhisa; Sakai, Yasunari; Ishizaki, Yoshito; Torisu, Hiroyuki; Kira, Ryutaro; Hara, Toshiro; Ohga, Shouichi

2016-11-15

Acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion (AESD) occurs in children associated with infection. It is characterized by a prolonged febrile seizure in the first phase, and a cluster of seizures, deterioration of consciousness and the white matter lesions with reduced diffusion in the second phase. The patients often have severe neurological sequelae, but the prognostic indicators remain unknown. The present study aimed to clarify the characteristics of AESD patients who subsequently exhibited severe neurological sequelae. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and laboratory findings along with the brain imaging in patients who had severe (n=8) and non-severe neurodevelopmental outcomes (n=12). Severe group more frequently showed coma (p=0.014) or involuntary movements including dystonia and oral dyskinesia (p=0.018) before the second phase than non-severe group. Severe group exhibited higher levels of serum alanine aminotransferase than non-severe group (p=0.001). Quantitatively assessed MRI in the second phase revealed that severe group had more extensive lesions than non-severe group, in the anterior (p=0.015) and posterior parts (p=0.011) of the cerebrum and basal ganglia (p=0.020). Early appearing involuntary movements or coma might account for the extension of acute brain lesions and the poor neurological outcomes in AESD patients. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Firing patterns of spontaneously active motor units in spinal cord-injured subjects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zijdewind, Inge; Thomas, Christine K.

Involuntary motor unit activity at low rates is common in hand muscles paralysed by spinal cord injury. Our aim was to describe these patterns of motor unit behaviour in relation to motoneurone and motor unit properties. Intramuscular electromyographic activity (EMG), surface EMG and force were

Does sleep quality affect involuntary attention switching system?

Science.gov (United States)

Salmi, Juha; Huotilainen, Minna; Pakarinen, Satu; Siren, Teo; Alho, Kimmo; Aronen, Eeva T

2005-12-30

We studied the relationship between sleep quality and quantity and subsequently recorded automatically evoked event-related potential (ERP) responses. In previous studies decrement of attentional processing has been associated with changes in sleep. Sleep is shown to associate also with ERPs elicited by unattended sound stream, however, there is no consensus on these effects. A recent study suggested that the early anterior P3a to novel stimuli in attended stream is attenuated and the late parietal P3a is strengthened by total sleep deprivation. We carried out 72-h consecutive actigraphy measurements in a naturalistic setting to collect information about variation in sleep duration, sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, and percentage of sleep. MMN and P3a deflections to infrequent changes in sound duration and pitch in unattended sound stream were obtained in a separate recording session from the same subjects when they were awake. No significant correlations were found between sleep and MMN parameters, indicating that MMN is resistant to normal variation in sleep. However, P3a to both pitch and duration changes correlated positively with sleep onset latency, and P3a to duration changes correlated negatively with sleep efficiency and percentage of sleep. The correlation was higher in the posterior scalp areas. Our results suggest that the involuntary attention switching system, reflected by the P3a is sensitized as a function of decreased sleep quality.

Involuntary and Persistent Environmental Noise Influences Health and Hearing in Beirut, Lebanon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fooladi, M.M.; Fooladi, M.M.; Fooladi, M.M.

2012-01-01

Objective. This study was conducted to assess the effects of involuntary and persistent noise exposure on health and hearing among Lebanese adults in Beirut, Lebanon, where people are exposed to noise from construction sites, power generators, honking cars, and motorcycles. Methods. Using a descriptive and exploratory design with mixed methods, participants were surveyed, interviewed, and tested for hearing while street noise levels were measured near their residents and work places. Results. Self-reports of 83 Lebanese adult, who lived and worked in Beirut, helped identify common patterns in experiences such as irritability, anger, headaches, and sleep disturbances due to noise annoyance. Of those tested, 30% suffered from high-frequency hearing impairment. Our results showed that environmental sound dB had increased by 12% and sound intensity by 400% above the maximum standard level when compared to the WHO report of 1999. Conclusion. Environmental noise contributes to premature hearing loss and potentiate systemic diseases among Lebanese

Memory in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Properties of Voluntary and Involuntary, Traumatic and Nontraumatic Autobiographical Memories in People with and without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

Science.gov (United States)

Rubin, David C.; Boals, Adriel; Berntsen, Dorthe

2008-01-01

One hundred fifteen undergraduates rated 15 word-cued memories and their 3 most negatively stressful, 3 most positive, and 7 most important events and completed tests of personality and depression. Eighty-nine also recorded involuntary memories online for 1 week. In the first 3-way comparisons needed to test existing theories, comparisons were…

Electrodermal activity : Explorations in the psychophysiology of engagement with social robots in dementia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Perugia, Giulia; Rodriguez-Martin, Daniel; Boladeras, Marta DIaz; Mallofre, Andreu Catala; Barakova, Emilia; Rauterberg, Matthias

2017-01-01

The study of engagement is central to improve the quality of care and provide people with dementia with meaningful activities. Current assessment techniques of engagement for people with dementia rely exclusively on behavior observation. However, novel unobtrusive sensing technologies, capable of

Petitioning for Involuntary Commitment for Chemical Dependency by Medical Services.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamoureux, Ian C; Schutt, Paul E; Rasmussen, Keith G

2017-09-01

Patients who have chemical dependency (CD) are commonly encountered on medical and surgical wards, often for illnesses and injuries sustained as a direct result of their substance abuse. When these patients are repeatedly admitted to the hospital in certain states that provide a legal framework to commit chemically dependent persons to a treatment facility, clinicians often wonder whether they should initiate that process. Should consulting psychiatrists choose to initiate the commitment process, they put into motion a resource-intensive, time-consuming mechanism, with uncertain outcomes, both in the courtroom and at the bedside. Petitioning for involuntary commitment to chemical dependency treatment of a patient from medical and surgical services is poorly understood. In this study, we examined a series of patients for whom petitions for judicial commitment in the state of Minnesota were entered over a 12-month period, and evaluated the likelihood of commitment to treatment, the demographics of patients involved, and the outcomes for this series of patients. Three vignettes are presented to illustrate the severity of these patients' illnesses and potential outcomes of the process. We further describe potential limitations of the commitment system and alternatives to CD commitment that could be explored further. © 2017 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Elementary Anatomy: Activities Designed to Teach Preschool Children about the Human Body

Science.gov (United States)

Raven, Sara

2016-01-01

Studies show that children may not be able to conceptualize some of the topics associated with anatomy, including internal organs and involuntary muscles, because the concepts are too abstract and are not easily visualized. Thus, this article presents activities that incorporate a variety of models and hands-on activities designed to provide…

Pastoral Care Functional Approach as Panacea For Involuntary Childlessness Among Christian Couples In Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Oladele Ayankeye

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The phenomenon of involuntary childlessness is a serious one in Africa where parenthood is given a pride of place. The fact that there is a high population growth has not removed the trauma associated with inability to reproduce from the African society. The weight of the crisis cuts across socio-economic and religious boundaries. Little wonder why studies continue to emerge from various fields on the issue. This paper focused on the application of some functions of pastoral care that can be of help while pastoral caregivers and counsellors are caring for childless couples in Africa. The functions are educating healing and sustaining. The intention, since there have been several papers on causes and effects of childlessness, is to avail pastoral caregivers with a handy guideline in the process of ministering to the involuntarily childless couples in Africa

Electrodermal Activity Based Wearable Device for Drowsy Drivers

Science.gov (United States)

Malathi, D.; Dorathi Jayaseeli, JD; Madhuri, S.; Senthilkumar, K.

2018-04-01

Road safety and road accident mortality rate are a serious concern for the government. With rise in fatal road accidents, who’s leading cause is the driver being drowsy behind the wheel, measures to alleviate this problem becomes the prime task. To meet the purpose, methods adopted must be of minimum discomfort for the driver, easy to install, provide good detection accuracy and timely alert to circumvent a probable accident. A good candidate to meet these specifications is EDA. As it detects the level of sweat which directly corresponds to the mental state of the person, using EDA for the purposes of driver safety forms a good option. The novelty of this project lies in making use of EDA as a measure to detect if a person is drowsy or not. Much of the challenge lies in building a device equipped with the necessary sensors and processing the data on real-time. The novelty of this work lies in development of an embedded device interfaced with sensors and actuators to detect and alert a driver when found drowsy using sweat as a parameter.

Involuntary conscious memory facilitates cued recall performance: further evidence that chaining occurs during voluntary recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Mace, John H

2009-01-01

Recent studies have shown that conscious recollection of the past occurs spontaneously when subjects voluntarily recall their own past experiences or a list of previously studied words. Naturalistic diary studies and laboratory studies of this phenomenon, often called involuntary conscious memory (ICM), show that it occurs in 2 ways. One is direct ICM retrieval, which occurs when a cue spontaneously triggers a conscious memory; the other is chained ICM retrieval, which occurs when a retrieved conscious memory spontaneously triggers another. Laboratory studies investigating ICM show that chained ICM retrieval occurs on voluntary autobiographical memory tasks. The present results show that chained ICM retrieval also occurs on a voluntary word list memory task (cued recall). These results are among a handful suggesting that ICM retrieval routinely occurs during voluntary recall.

The Relative Utility of Skin Resistance and Skin Conductance

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Barland, Gordon

1990-01-01

The effectiveness of two circuits (constant current = skin resistance; constant voltage = skin conductance) used for measuring electrodermal activity during a psychophysiological detection of deception...

Sticky tunes: how do people react to involuntary musical imagery?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria J Williamson

Full Text Available The vast majority of people experience involuntary musical imagery (INMI or 'earworms'; perceptions of spontaneous, repetitive musical sound in the absence of an external source. The majority of INMI episodes are not bothersome, while some cause disruption ranging from distraction to anxiety and distress. To date, little is known about how the majority of people react to INMI, in particular whether evaluation of the experience impacts on chosen response behaviours or if attempts at controlling INMI are successful or not. The present study classified 1046 reports of how people react to INMI episodes. Two laboratories in Finland and the UK conducted an identical qualitative analysis protocol on reports of INMI reactions and derived visual descriptive models of the outcomes using grounded theory techniques. Combined analysis carried out across the two studies confirmed that many INMI episodes were considered neutral or pleasant, with passive acceptance and enjoyment being among the most popular response behaviours. A significant number of people, however, reported on attempts to cope with unwanted INMI. The most popular and effective behaviours in response to INMI were seeking out the tune in question, and musical or verbal distraction. The outcomes of this study contribute to our understanding of the aetiology of INMI, in particular within the framework of memory theory, and present testable hypotheses for future research on successful INMI coping strategies.

Sticky Tunes: How Do People React to Involuntary Musical Imagery?

Science.gov (United States)

Williamson, Victoria J.; Liikkanen, Lassi A.; Jakubowski, Kelly; Stewart, Lauren

2014-01-01

The vast majority of people experience involuntary musical imagery (INMI) or ‘earworms’; perceptions of spontaneous, repetitive musical sound in the absence of an external source. The majority of INMI episodes are not bothersome, while some cause disruption ranging from distraction to anxiety and distress. To date, little is known about how the majority of people react to INMI, in particular whether evaluation of the experience impacts on chosen response behaviours or if attempts at controlling INMI are successful or not. The present study classified 1046 reports of how people react to INMI episodes. Two laboratories in Finland and the UK conducted an identical qualitative analysis protocol on reports of INMI reactions and derived visual descriptive models of the outcomes using grounded theory techniques. Combined analysis carried out across the two studies confirmed that many INMI episodes were considered neutral or pleasant, with passive acceptance and enjoyment being among the most popular response behaviours. A significant number of people, however, reported on attempts to cope with unwanted INMI. The most popular and effective behaviours in response to INMI were seeking out the tune in question, and musical or verbal distraction. The outcomes of this study contribute to our understanding of the aetiology of INMI, in particular within the framework of memory theory, and present testable hypotheses for future research on successful INMI coping strategies. PMID:24497938

[Involuntary hospitalization under the Act of July 5th 2011: A study of patients' experience and understanding of their hearing with the judge ruling on civil detention cases].

Science.gov (United States)

Rossini, K; Verdoux, H

2015-09-01

To assess involuntary admitted patients' experience and understanding of their hearing with the judge ruling on civil detention cases according to the Act of July 5th 2011. The evaluation was conducted through face-to-face interviews, from a semi-structured questionnaire, with 48 involuntary admitted patients under psychiatric care admission on a third party request (ASPDT) or on state representative decision (ASPDRE) (participation rate=96%). Few participants knew the name of the hearing place (13%) and the judge's exact title (21%). About 58% of them had benefited from lawyer services. During the hearing, half of the patients contested the need for hospitalization. The judge was perceived as clear (79%), listening (69%) and benevolent (58%), but only 46% of patients believed that he/she was impartial and 35% that he/she was independent from medical decisions. More than half of the patients disagreed with the judge's decision (56%). However, only 19% of them planned to appeal. Three out of four were in favour of a judicial review of involuntary hospitalization. A feeling of protection was more common in people with a higher educational level (65% versus 35%, Chi(2) (1) = 3.9, P = 0.05) and who suffered from mood disorders (75% versus 46%, Chi(2) (1) = 3.8, P = 0.05). A feeling of being accused was more frequent in persons with hospitalization under psychiatric care admission on state representative decision (ASPDRE) than on a third party request (ASPDT) (37% vs 10%, Chi(2) (1) = 4.9, P = 0.03). Persons under guardianship were also more likely to report such feelings (32% versus 10%, Chi(2) (1) = 3.4, P=0.06). The feeling that "everything was preordained" was more common in younger patients (m = 36.4 years [SD = 13.9] vs m = 46.2 years [SD = 17.8], t-test [46] = 2.01, P = 0.04), as well as among those who used the advice of a lawyer, with an association at a trend level (73% versus 46%, Chi(2) (1) = 3.5, P = 0.06). Systematic judicial review of involuntary

Prolonged fever and involuntary weight loss as manifestations of bacterial endocarditis: A case report

Science.gov (United States)

Sukmawati, N. M. D. D.; Merati, T. P.; Somia, A.; Utama, S.; Gayatri, Y.

2018-03-01

We reported an unusual presentation of prolonged fever and involuntary weight loss in older adult as a manifestation of infective bacterial endocarditis. The patient had pre-existing compensated asymptomatic valvular heart disease without treatment. A positive fecal occult blood test is prompting an investigation of malignancy of gastrointestinal as one of other possible cause of prolonged fever with wasting, evaluation of HIV serostatus shows seronegative. The case fulfilled criteria for definitive infective endocarditis: one major criterion of positive blood culture for Streptococcus mitis, which was one of viridans group streptococci and three minor criteria of fever at least 38°Celsius, immunologic phenomena in the form of glomerulonephritis, and a predisposing heart condition. One course of third-generation cephalosporin successfully cleared the Streptococcus mitis infection proven by culture. Infective endocarditis should be considered as one of the causes of prolonged fever with wasting, especially in cases with the previous history of heart disease.

Re-assessment of road accident data-analysis policy : applying theory from involuntary, high-consequence, low-probability events like nuclear power plant meltdowns to voluntary, low-consequence, high-probability events like traffic accidents

Science.gov (United States)

2002-02-01

This report examines the literature on involuntary, high-consequence, low-probability (IHL) events like nuclear power plant meltdowns to determine what can be applied to the problem of voluntary, low-consequence high-probability (VLH) events like tra...

The effect of experimental stress and experimental occlusal interference on masseteric EMG activity.

Science.gov (United States)

McGlynn, F D; Bichajian, C; Tira, D E; Lundeen, H C; Mahan, P E; Nicholas, B V

1989-01-01

This experiment attempted to study the separate and combined effects of occlusal interference and transient stress on masseteric activity among eight nonclinical human subjects. Before each of two sessions, subjects were fitted with an occlusal interference or an occlusally inert (control) molar clasp. During each session they viewed horrific and idyllic videotapes while masseter EMG was recorded bilaterally. Electrodermal measures validated that the horrific videotapes were stressful. Studies showed that the occlusal variable worked less well. The EMG was elevated contralateral to both clasps and during videotape viewing. The EMG effects from videotape viewing were relatively pronounced without the occlusal interference. Research implications are discussed.

Fiducial marker-based correction for involuntary motion in weight-bearing C-arm CT scanning of knees. Part I. Numerical model-based optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Jang-Hwan; Fahrig, Rebecca; Keil, Andreas; Besier, Thor F; Pal, Saikat; McWalter, Emily J; Beaupré, Gary S; Maier, Andreas

2013-09-01

Human subjects in standing positions are apt to show much more involuntary motion than in supine positions. The authors aimed to simulate a complicated realistic lower body movement using the four-dimensional (4D) digital extended cardiac-torso (XCAT) phantom. The authors also investigated fiducial marker-based motion compensation methods in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) space. The level of involuntary movement-induced artifacts and image quality improvement were investigated after applying each method. An optical tracking system with eight cameras and seven retroreflective markers enabled us to track involuntary motion of the lower body of nine healthy subjects holding a squat position at 60° of flexion. The XCAT-based knee model was developed using the 4D XCAT phantom and the optical tracking data acquired at 120 Hz. The authors divided the lower body in the XCAT into six parts and applied unique affine transforms to each so that the motion (6 degrees of freedom) could be synchronized with the optical markers' location at each time frame. The control points of the XCAT were tessellated into triangles and 248 projection images were created based on intersections of each ray and monochromatic absorption. The tracking data sets with the largest motion (Subject 2) and the smallest motion (Subject 5) among the nine data sets were used to animate the XCAT knee model. The authors defined eight skin control points well distributed around the knees as pseudo-fiducial markers which functioned as a reference in motion correction. Motion compensation was done in the following ways: (1) simple projection shifting in 2D, (2) deformable projection warping in 2D, and (3) rigid body warping in 3D. Graphics hardware accelerated filtered backprojection was implemented and combined with the three correction methods in order to speed up the simulation process. Correction fidelity was evaluated as a function of number of markers used (4-12) and marker distribution

Involuntary Outpatient Commitment and the Elusive Pursuit of Violence Prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Swartz, Marvin S; Bhattacharya, Sayanti; Robertson, Allison G; Swanson, Jeffrey W

2017-02-01

Involuntary outpatient commitment (OPC)-also referred to as 'assisted outpatient treatment' or 'community treatment orders'-are civil court orders whereby persons with serious mental illness and repeated hospitalisations are ordered to adhere to community-based treatment. Increasingly, in the United States, OPC is promoted to policy makers as a means to prevent violence committed by persons with mental illness. This article reviews the background and context for promotion of OPC for violence prevention and the empirical evidence for the use of OPC for this goal. Relevant publications were identified for review in PubMed, Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, personal communications, and relevant Internet searches of advocacy and policy-related publications. Most research on OPC has focussed on outcomes such as community functioning and hospital recidivism and not on interpersonal violence. As a result, research on violence towards others has been limited but suggests that low-level acts of interpersonal violence such as minor, noninjurious altercations without weapon use and arrests can be reduced by OPC, but there is no evidence that OPC can reduce major acts of violence resulting in injury or weapon use. The impact of OPC on major violence, including mass shootings, is difficult to assess because of their low base rates. Effective implementation of OPC, when combined with intensive community services and applied for an adequate duration to take effect, can improve treatment adherence and related outcomes, but its promise as an effective means to reduce serious acts of violence is unknown.

The effects of cognitive and emotional workload on physiological reactions in Word Association Test in healthy adults

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Lukavský, Jiří

2010-01-01

Roč. 52, č. 1 (2010), s. 15-22 ISSN 0039-3320 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70250504 Keywords : Word Association Test * electrodermal activity * pupillary activity Subject RIV: AN - Psychology Impact factor: 0.254, year: 2010

Lived experience of involuntary transport under mental health legislation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradbury, Joanne; Hutchinson, Marie; Hurley, John; Stasa, Helen

2017-12-01

Police have historically been responsible for transporting people during a mental health crisis in Australia. A major change to the New South Wales (NSW) Mental Health Act (MHA) in 2007 expanded the range of coercive transportation agencies to include NSW Ambulance (paramedics) and NSW Health (mental health nurses). Anecdotal reports, however, describe a lack of clarity around how these changes should be implemented in practice. This research aims to explore this lack of clarity through qualitative analysis of interviews with people with the lived experience of involuntary transport under the MHA. Sixteen interviews were conducted; most (n = 14) interviews in northern NSW regions: six with people who had been transported (consumers), four with carers, and six with service providers (two police, one paramedic, and three mental health nurses). For consumers and carers, the police response was often perceived as too intense, particularly if the person was not violent. Carers were often conflicted by having to call for emergency intervention. Service providers were frustrated by a lack of a coordinated interagency response, resourcing issues, delays at emergency departments, and lack of adequate training. A central theme across all groups was the importance of communication styles. As one participant (consumer) said: 'Everybody needs a lesson in kindness'. All groups agreed that high-risk situations necessitate police involvement. However, invocation of the MHA during a high-risk situation is fraught with stress and difficulties, leaving little room for empathetic communications. Effective and diverse, evidence-based, early intervention strategies - both consensual and non-consensual - are necessary to reduce the requirement for police involvement in mental health transports. © 2016 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Association between voluntary/involuntary job loss and the development of stroke or cardiovascular disease: a prospective study of middle-aged to older workers in a rapidly developing Asian country.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mo-Yeol Kang

Full Text Available The aim of this research was to investigate the association between job loss and the development of stroke or cardiovascular disease among middle-aged to older individuals in Korea. We also examined how this relationship was modified by gender and the nature of the job loss.This study used samples from the first- to fourth-wave datasets from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA, which were collected in 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012. The study collected data from a total of 10,254 subjects aged ≥ 45 years at baseline. After applying exclusion criteria, the final sample size for analysis consisted of 4,000 individuals. Information about employment status, development of stroke or cardiovascular disease, and covariates (age, income level, and behavioral factors was obtained. Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association between voluntary/involuntary job loss and the development of stroke or cardiovascular disease. We performed these analyses separately according to disease, gender, and the nature of the job loss.Involuntary job loss significantly increased the risk of stroke or cardiovascular disease among males (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]  = 3.560, 95% confidence interval [CI]  = 2.055-6.168. Voluntary retirement also increased the risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke among males (adjusted HR = 2.879, 95% CI = 1.533-5.409. Job loss was more closely associated with stroke than with cardiovascular disease (stroke, adjusted HR = 6.208, 95% CI = 2.417-15.943; cardiovascular disease, adjusted HR = 2.768, 95% CI = 1.402-5.465.Our findings suggest that both voluntary retirement and involuntary job loss increase the risk for stroke or cardiovascular disease in middle-aged to older individuals, especially males.

Involuntary autonomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Noerreslet, Mikkel; Jemec, Gregor B. E.; Traulsen, Janine M

2009-01-01

Consumerism is a major force in western health care. It defines the process in which patients should or do play a more active and central role in making informed choices about health and illness. The talk of patients as consumers is closely linked, and is especially pertinent for patients managin...

THE SUBJECTIVAL CONTENT OF IMAGES “SUCCESSFUL MAN” AND “SUCCESSFUL WOMAN” AS A FACTOR OF PSYCHIC ADJUSTMENT OF WOMEN IN INVOLUNTARY UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ольга Геннадьевна Лопухова

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose of the study is investigation of correlation between a content of gender appearance of image “successful person” and parameters of psychic and social adjustment of women belonging to different generations.Methodology.  Subjective image “successful person” means a stable and possibly gender differentiated element of “Ideal Me” images system. It includes cognitive component (conscious and verbalization representations of typical description of successful person, and affective component (positive or negative positions in regards to image “successful person”. We have compared results of survey and valuation of 265 women belonging to different generations and staying in different social situations: involuntary unemployment situation, employment and getting professional education. Subjective and projective methods were used in survey of cognitive and affective components of “successful person” image. Valuation of psychic adjustment based on parameters of internal conflict in comparison with manifestations of anxiety, frustration, aggression, rigidity, neurotic. Data analysis used parametric and nonparametric methods, including ANOVA/MANOVA.Results. It has been discovered that level of psychic adjustment of women depends much more on proper integration of subjective “successful person” image content with individual features of self-conception than on objective “social status” (being in involuntary unemployment situation.Practical implications are psychology consulting and correction of social or psychic unadjustment.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-6-41

Impact of biofeedback on self-efficacy and stress reduction in obesity: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Teufel, Martin; Stephan, Kerstin; Kowalski, Axel; Käsberger, Saskia; Enck, Paul; Zipfel, Stephan; Giel, Katrin E

2013-09-01

Biofeedback application is an evidence-based technique to induce relaxation. A primary mechanism of action is the improvement of self-efficacy, which is needed to facilitate the translation of health behavioral intentions into action. Obesity is often associated with low self-efficacy and dysfunctional eating patterns, including comfort eating as an inexpedient relaxation technique. This is the first study investigating the effects of biofeedback on self-efficacy and relaxation in obesity. In the present experiment, 31 women, mean body mass index 35.5 kg/m², were randomized to a food-specific biofeedback paradigm, a non-specific relaxation biofeedback paradigm, or a waiting list control. Eight sessions of biofeedback of the electrodermal activity were performed while presenting either a challenging food stimulus or a non-specific landscape stimulus. Self-efficacy, stress, ability to relax, eating behavior, and electrodermal activity were assessed before, directly after, and 3 months after the intervention. The food-specific biofeedback predominantly showed effects on food-related self-efficacy and perceived stress. The non-specific relaxation biofeedback showed effects on the ability to relax. Self-reported improvements were confirmed by corresponding decrease in the electrodermal reaction to food stimuli. Biofeedback treatment is effective in improving self-efficacy in individuals with obesity and might therefore be a valuable additional intervention in obesity treatment.

Preparing computers for affective communication: a psychophysiological concept and preliminary results.

Science.gov (United States)

Whang, Min Cheol; Lim, Joa Sang; Boucsein, Wolfram

Despite rapid advances in technology, computers remain incapable of responding to human emotions. An exploratory study was conducted to find out what physiological parameters might be useful to differentiate among 4 emotional states, based on 2 dimensions: pleasantness versus unpleasantness and arousal versus relaxation. The 4 emotions were induced by exposing 26 undergraduate students to different combinations of olfactory and auditory stimuli, selected in a pretest from 12 stimuli by subjective ratings of arousal and valence. Changes in electroencephalographic (EEG), heart rate variability, and electrodermal measures were used to differentiate the 4 emotions. EEG activity separates pleasantness from unpleasantness only in the aroused but not in the relaxed domain, where electrodermal parameters are the differentiating ones. All three classes of parameters contribute to a separation between arousal and relaxation in the positive valence domain, whereas the latency of the electrodermal response is the only differentiating parameter in the negative domain. We discuss how such a psychophysiological approach may be incorporated into a systemic model of a computer responsive to affective communication from the user.

The saga of the returnee: exploring the implication of involuntary return migration, for development. A case study of the reintegration process for ghanaian migrant workers from Libya

OpenAIRE

Mensah, Esi Akyere

2012-01-01

Master thesis in development management- University of Agder, 2012 This thesis presents findings from a study that investigated the reintegration experiences of the returned Ghanaian migrants from Libya. The study, which was conducted in four communities employed qualitative methods to uncover the many complexities of involuntary return and its implications for development in southern countries; an under-researched area in the migration-return nexus. The findings highlight the effect o...

The role of the autonomic nervous system in Tourette Syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jack eHawksley

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Tourette Syndrome (TS is a neurodevelopmental disorder, consisting of multiple involuntary movements (motor tics and one or more vocal (phonic tics. It affects up to one percent of children worldwide, of whom about one third continue to experience symptoms into adulthood. The central neural mechanisms of tic generation are not clearly understood, however recent neuroimaging investigations suggest impaired cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical activity during motor control. In the current manuscript, we will tackle the relatively under-investigated role of the peripheral autonomic nervous system, and its central influences, on tic activity. There is emerging evidence that both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous activity influences tic expression. Pharmacological treatments which act on sympathetic tone are often helpful: for example, Clonidine (an alpha-2 adrenoreceptor agonist is often used as first choice medication for treating TS in children due to its good tolerability profile and potential usefulness for co-morbid attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Clonidine suppresses sympathetic activity, reducing the triggering of motor tics. A general elevation of sympathetic tone is reported in patients with TS compared to healthy people, however this observation may reflect transient responses coupled to tic activity. Thus the presence of autonomic impairments in patients with TS remains unclear. Effect of autonomic afferent input to cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuit will be discussed schematically. We additionally review how TS is affected by modulation of central autonomic control through biofeedback and Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS. Biofeedback training can enable a patient to gain voluntary control over covert physiological responses by making these responses explicit. Electrodermal biofeedback training to elicit a reduction in sympathetic tone has a demonstrated association with reduced tic frequency. VNS, achieved through an

Effect of preparation duration diminution in shot put through neurovegetative activity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A Dittmar

2003-12-01

Full Text Available Recently, time allocated to athletes concentration has been reduced to 1 minute. Increased activation and focused attention are thought to be important operations which influence performance during preparation. The aim of the study was to test whether reducing preparation time has an effect on subjects’ mental activity and consequently on performance. Ten subjects took part in the experiment. Each subject had to perform 14 throws: a 7 with preparation b 7 with no preparation. Autonomic nervous system activity was continuously recorded through six variables (2 electrodermal, 2 thermovascular and 2 cardiorespiratory variables. Performance was comparable in preparation and non-preparation modalities. Subjects increase their activation before throwing, however more rapidly without preparation time. Thus, performance was obtained through the same activation level whatever the time allocated to prepare. Shot-put performance seems to be dependent upon execution quality but also on reaching an optimal activation level. Phasic autonomic responses (related to focused attention and movement programming were recorded during preparation and execution. Only a weak relationship was evidenced between vegetative responses in preparation and execution phases. Thus, vegetative responses during the preparation phase did not attest mental operations such as focusing attention on a technical aspect.

Sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients in voluntary and involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Robson Bezerra de Medeiros

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Objective: To assess the sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients in psychiatric hospitalizations of voluntary inpatients (IPV and involuntary (IPI, in psychiatric hospitals of Fortaleza-CE, Brazil, under contract with the Unified Health System (SUS. Methods: A quantitative study, descriptive, cross-sectional and analytical. The sample comprised 393 patients, distributed among 253 IPV and 140 IPI, submitted to Psychiatry specialtytreatment, in the year 2007. Results: For both patients, IPV and IPI, most were male: 185 (73.1% and 82 (58.6%; single: 181 (46.7% and 103 (26.5%; living in Fortaleza: 181 (71.5% and 95 (67.9%, respectively, and aged 20 to 60 years (mean age of 37 years. Weobserved significant difference between the type of hospital and patient gender (p = 0.003, which did not occur with marital status (p = 0.688 and origin (p = 0.95. The main symptom profiles which justified the clinical admission of these patients were the use of alcohol or drugs 70 (27.6%, changes in critical judgments 40 (28.6% and psychological distress 68 (26.9%. Family members were the main responsible for conducting these patients to the hospital. Conclusion: The results showed that patients on IPV and IPI, which joined in the study, had a socio-demographic and clinical profile characterized by: prevalence of male patients, from the capital Fortaleza, single, mean age of 37 years, having been brought tohospital by a relative, mainly due to alcohol use or drugs.

Affective Man-Machine Interface: Unveiling human emotions through biosignals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Broek, Egon; Lisy, Viliam; Janssen, Joris H.; Westerink, Joyce H.D.M.; Schut, Marleen H.; Tuinenbreijer, Kees; Fred, A.; Filipe, J.; Gamboa, H.

2010-01-01

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various psychological and physiological processes, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and,

Involuntary switching into the native language induced by electrocortical stimulation of the superior temporal gyrus: a multimodal mapping study.

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Tomasino, Barbara; Marin, Dario; Canderan, Cinzia; Maieron, Marta; Budai, Riccardo; Fabbro, Franco; Skrap, Miran

2014-09-01

We describe involuntary language switching from L2 to L1 evoked by electro-stimulation in the superior temporal gyrus in a 30-year-old right-handed Serbian (L1) speaker who was also a late Italian learner (L2). The patient underwent awake brain surgery. Stimulation of other portions of the exposed cortex did not cause language switching as did not stimulation of the left inferior frontal gyrus, where we evoked a speech arrest. Stimulation effects on language switching were selective, namely, interfered with counting behaviour but not with object naming. The coordinates of the positive site were combined with functional and fibre tracking (DTI) data. Results showed that the language switching site belonged to a significant fMRI cluster in the left superior temporal gyrus/supramarginal gyrus found activated for both L1 and L2, and for both the patient and controls, and did not overlap with the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). This area, also known as Stp, has a role in phonological processing. Language switching phenomenon we observed can be partly explained by transient dysfunction of the feed-forward control mechanism hypothesized by the DIVA (Directions Into Velocities of Articulators) model (Golfinopoulos, E., Tourville, J. A., & Guenther, F. H. (2010). The integration of large-scale neural network modeling and functional brain imaging in speech motor control. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Involuntary Neuromuscular Coupling between the Thumb and Finger of Stroke Survivors during Dynamic Movement

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Christopher L. Jones

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Finger–thumb coordination is crucial to manual dexterity but remains incompletely understood, particularly following neurological injury such as stroke. While being controlled independently, the index finger and thumb especially must work in concert to perform a variety of tasks requiring lateral or palmar pinch. The impact of stroke on this functionally critical sensorimotor control during dynamic tasks has been largely unexplored. In this study, we explored finger–thumb coupling during close–open pinching motions in stroke survivors with chronic hemiparesis. Two types of perturbations were applied randomly to the index with a novel Cable-Actuated Finger Exoskeleton: a sudden joint acceleration stretching muscle groups of the index finger and a sudden increase in impedance in selected index finger joint(s. Electromyographic signals for specific thumb and index finger muscles, thumb tip trajectory, and index finger joint angles were recorded during each trial. Joint angle perturbations invoked reflex responses in the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS, first dorsal interossei (FDI, and extensor digitorum communis muscles of the index finger and heteronymous reflex responses in flexor pollicis brevis of the thumb (p < 0.017. Phase of movement played a role as a faster peak reflex response was observed in FDI during opening than during closing (p < 0.002 and direction of perturbations resulted in shorter reflex times for FDS and FDI (p < 0.012 for extension perturbations. Surprisingly, when index finger joint impedance was suddenly increased, thumb tip movement was substantially increased, from 2 to 10 cm (p < 0.001. A greater effect was seen during the opening phase (p < 0.044. Thus, involuntary finger–thumb coupling was present during dynamic movement, with perturbation of the index finger impacting thumb activity. The degree of coupling modulated with the phase of motion. These findings reveal a potential

Anorexia nervosa: the diagnosis. A postmodern ethics contribution to the bioethics debate on involuntary treatment for anorexia nervosa.

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Kendall, Sacha

2014-03-01

This paper argues that there is a relationship between understandings of anorexia nervosa (AN) and how the ethical issues associated with involuntary treatment for AN are identified, framed, and addressed. By positioning AN as a construct/discourse (hereinafter "AN: the diagnosis") several ethical issues are revealed. Firstly, "AN: the diagnosis" influences how the autonomy and competence of persons diagnosed with AN are understood by decision-makers in the treatment environment. Secondly, "AN: the diagnosis" impacts on how treatment and treatment efficacy are defined and the ethical justifiability of paternalism. Thirdly, "AN: the diagnosis" can limit the opportunity for persons with AN to construct an identity that casts them as a competent person. "AN: the diagnosis" can thus inherently affirm professional knowledge and values. Postmodern professional ethics can support professionals in managing these issues by highlighting the importance of taking responsibility for professional knowledge, values, and power and embracing moral uncertainty.

Profile of children placed in residential psychiatric program: Association with delinquency, involuntary mental health commitment, and reentry into care.

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Yampolskaya, Svetlana; Mowery, Debra; Dollard, Norín

2014-05-01

This study examined characteristics and profiles of youth receiving services in 1 of Florida's Medicaid-funded residential mental health treatment programs--State Inpatient Psychiatric Program (SIPP)--between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2008 (N=1,432). Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to classify youth, and 3 classes were identified: Children With Multiple Needs, Children With No Caregivers, and Abused Children With Substantial Maltreatment History. The results of LCA showed that Children With Multiple Needs experienced the greatest risk for adverse outcomes. Compared with youth in the other 2 classes, these children were more likely to get readmitted to SIPP, more likely to become involved with the juvenile justice system, and more likely to experience involuntary mental health assessments. Implications of the findings are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved

Chaos in schizophrenia associations, reality or metaphor?

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Bob, P.; Šusta, M.; Chládek, Jan; Glaslová, K.; Paluš, Milan

2009-01-01

Roč. 73, č. 3 (2009), s. 179-185 ISSN 0167-8760 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20650511; CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : Chaos * Schizophrenia * Associations * Electrodermal activity * Lyapunov exponent Subject RIV: FH - Neurology Impact factor: 3.045, year: 2009

Psychophysiological differentiation of two types of anxiety and its pharmacological modification by minor tranquillizer and beta-receptor-blocker.

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Albus, M; Stahl, S; Müller-Spahn, F; Engel, R R

1986-08-01

To evaluate the influence of beta-blockers and/or minor tranquillizers on autonomic reactions during brief stress, 48 healthy subjects were randomised into 4 groups: A = 4 mg Pindolol, B = 1.5 mg Cloxazolam, C = Placebo, D = 4 mg Pindolol + 1.5 mg Cloxazolam. Subjects underwent four stress situations: Counting, noise, mental arithmetic and ergometry, each lasting 4 min with rest periods of 8 min in between. Electromyogram, finger pulse amplitude, heart rate, pulse wave velocity and electrodermal activity were recorded simultaneously on-line. Analysis of variance showed that the two drugs had significant main effects in different systems: Pindolol reduced heart rate, mainly during mental arithmetic and ergometry, Cloxazolam reduced electrodermal activity, mainly during noise. It can be concluded that different structured situations with a varying amount and type of anxiety induce different autonomic reactions; these reactions can be differentially modified by the drugs applied.

Internally Generated Conscious Contents: Interactions between Sustained Mental Imagery and Involuntary Subvocalizations

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Hyein eCho

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The conscious field includes not only representations about external stimuli (e.g., percepts, but also conscious contents associated with internal states, such as action-related intentions (e.g., urges. Although understudied, the latter may provide unique insights into the nature of consciousness. To illuminate these phenomena, in a new experimental paradigm (Reflexive Imagery Task [RIT], participants were instructed to not subvocalize the names of visually-presented objects. Each object was presented for 10 s on a screen. Participants indicated whenever they involuntarily subvocalized the object name. Research has revealed that it is difficult to suppress such subvocalizations, which occur on over 80% of the trials. Can the effect survive if one intentionally generates a competing (internally-generated conscious content? If so, this would suggest that intentional and unintentional contents can co-exist simultaneously in consciousness in interesting ways. To investigate this possibility, in one condition, participants were instructed to reiteratively subvocalize a speech sound (da, da, da throughout the trial. This internally generated content is self-generated and intentional. Involuntary subvocalizations of object names still arose on over 80% of the trials. One could hypothesize that subvocalizations occurred because of the pauses between the intended speech sounds, but this is inconsistent with the observation that comparable results arose even when participants subvocalized a continuous, unbroken hum (daaa…. throughout the trial. Regarding inter-content interactions, the continuous hum and object name seem to co-exist simultaneously in consciousness. This intriguing datum requires further investigation. We discuss the implications of this new paradigm for the study of internally-generated conscious contents.

Tunes stuck in your brain: The frequency and affective evaluation of involuntary musical imagery correlate with cortical structure.

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Farrugia, Nicolas; Jakubowski, Kelly; Cusack, Rhodri; Stewart, Lauren

2015-09-01

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the neuroscience of spontaneous cognition. One form of such cognition is involuntary musical imagery (INMI), the non-pathological and everyday experience of having music in one's head, in the absence of an external stimulus. In this study, aspects of INMI, including frequency and affective evaluation, were measured by self-report in 44 subjects and related to variation in brain structure in these individuals. Frequency of INMI was related to cortical thickness in regions of right frontal and temporal cortices as well as the anterior cingulate and left angular gyrus. Affective aspects of INMI, namely the extent to which subjects wished to suppress INMI or considered them helpful, were related to gray matter volume in right temporopolar and parahippocampal cortices respectively. These results provide the first evidence that INMI is a common internal experience recruiting brain networks involved in perception, emotions, memory and spontaneous thoughts. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Involuntary psychiatric attendances at an Australasian emergency department: A comparison of police and health-care worker initiated presentations.

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Llewellin, Peter; Arendts, Glenn; Weeden, Jacqueline; Pethebridge, Andrew

2011-10-01

To identify any significant differences in the population of patients brought in to a hospital ED under involuntary mental health orders, based on whether the orders are initiated by police or health professionals. A retrospective analysis of consecutive presentations to a tertiary hospital ED with a co-located psychiatric emergency care centre over a 12 month period, with univariate and multivariate statistical comparisons. Two hundred and eighty-two patients (making 378 ED presentations) met the case definition and were analysed. Compared with patients on medical orders, patients on police orders had significantly more presentations related to violence, longer stays in ED and lower rates of admission to an inpatient bed, but were no more likely to require restraint or security intervention within the ED. Patients on police and medical orders differ considerably, but the impact of these differences on ED workload is small. © 2011 The Authors. EMA © 2011 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

[Single or double moral standards? Professional ethics of psychiatrists regarding self-determination, rights of third parties and involuntary treatment].

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Pollmächer, T

2015-09-01

The current intensive discussion on the legal and moral aspects of involuntary treatment of psychiatric patients raises a number of ethical issues. Physicians are unambiguously obligated to protect patient welfare and autonomy; however, in psychiatric patients disease-related restrictions in the capacity of self-determination and behaviors endangering the rights of third parties can seriously challenge this unambiguity. Therefore, psychiatry is assumed to have a double function and is also obligated to third parties and to society in general. Acceptance of such a kind of double obligation carries the risk of double moral standards, placing the psychiatrist ethically outside the community of physicians and questioning the unrestricted obligation towards the patient. The present article formulates a moral position, which places the psychiatrist, like all other physicians, exclusively on the side of the patient in terms of professional ethics and discusses the practical problems arising from this moral position.

Verbal instructions targeting valence alter negative conditional stimulus evaluations (but do not affect reinstatement rates).

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Luck, Camilla C; Lipp, Ottmar V

2018-02-01

Negative conditional stimulus (CS) valence acquired during fear conditioning may enhance fear relapse and is difficult to remove as it extinguishes slowly and does not respond to the instruction that unconditional stimulus (US) presentations will cease. We examined whether instructions targeting CS valence would be more effective. In Experiment 1, an image of one person (CS+) was paired with an aversive US, while another (CS-) was presented alone. After acquisition, participants were given positive information about the CS+ poser and negative information about the CS- poser. Instructions reversed the pattern of differential CS valence present during acquisition and eliminated differential electrodermal responding. In Experiment 2, we compared positive and negative CS revaluation by providing positive/negative information about the CS+ and neutral information about CS-. After positive revaluation, differential valence was removed and differential electrodermal responding remained intact. After negative revaluation, differential valence was strengthened and differential electrodermal responding was eliminated. Unexpectedly, the instructions did not affect the reinstatement of differential electrodermal responding.

Activation properties of trigeminal motoneurons in participants with and without bruxism

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D'Amico, Jessica M.; Yavuz, Ş. Utku; Saraçoğlu, Ahmet; Atiş, Elif Sibel; Türker, Kemal S.

2013-01-01

In animals, sodium- and calcium-mediated persistent inward currents (PICs), which produce long-lasting periods of depolarization under conditions of low synaptic drive, can be activated in trigeminal motoneurons following the application of the monoamine serotonin. Here we examined if PICs are activated in human trigeminal motoneurons during voluntary contractions and under physiological levels of monoaminergic drive (e.g., serotonin and norepinephrine) using a paired motor unit analysis technique. We also examined if PICs activated during voluntary contractions are larger in participants who demonstrate involuntary chewing during sleep (bruxism), which is accompanied by periods of high monoaminergic drive. In control participants, during a slowly increasing and then decreasing isometric contraction, the firing rate of an earlier-recruited masseter motor unit, which served as a measure of synaptic input to a later-recruited test unit, was consistently lower during derecruitment of the test unit compared with at recruitment (ΔF = 4.6 ± 1.5 imp/s). The ΔF, therefore, is a measure of the reduction in synaptic input needed to counteract the depolarization from the PIC to provide an indirect estimate of PIC amplitude. The range of ΔF values measured in the bruxer participants during similar voluntary contractions was the same as in controls, suggesting that abnormally high levels of monoaminergic drive are not continually present in the absence of involuntary motor activity. We also observed a consistent “onion skin effect” during the moderately sized contractions (motor units discharged at slower rates (by 4–7 imp/s) compared with motor units with relatively lower thresholds. The presence of lower firing rates in the more fatigue-prone, higher threshold trigeminal motoneurons, in addition to the activation of PICs, likely facilitates the activation of the masseter muscle during motor activities such as eating, nonnutritive chewing, clenching, and yawning

Affective Synchrony and Autonomic Coupling during Cooperation: A Hyperscanning Study

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Maria Elide Vanutelli

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Previous research highlighted that during social interactions people shape each other’s emotional states by resonance mechanisms and synchronized autonomic patterns. Starting from the idea that joint actions create shared emotional experiences, in the present study a social bond was experimentally induced by making subjects cooperate with each other. Participants’ autonomic system activity (electrodermal: skin conductance level and response: SCL, SCR; cardiovascular indices: heart rate: HR was continuously monitored during an attentional couple game. The cooperative motivation was induced by presenting feedback which reinforced the positive outcomes of the intersubjective exchange. 24 participants coupled in 12 dyads were recruited. Intrasubject analyses revealed higher HR in the first part of the task, connoted by increased cognitive demand and arousing social dynamic, while intersubject analysis showed increased synchrony in electrodermal activity after the feedback. Such results encourage the use of hyperscanning techniques to assess emotional coupling in ecological and real-time paradigms.

Keeping your distance: attentional withdrawal in individuals who show physiological signs of social discomfort.

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Szpak, Ancret; Loetscher, Tobias; Churches, Owen; Thomas, Nicole A; Spence, Charles J; Nicholls, Michael E R

2015-04-01

Being in close social proximity to a stranger is generally perceived to be an uncomfortable experience, which most people seek to avoid. In circumstances where crowding is unavoidable, however, people may seek to withdraw their attention from the other person. This study examined whether social discomfort, as indexed by electrodermal activity, is related to a withdrawal of attention in 28 (m=8, f=20) university students. Students performed a radial line bisection task while alone or together with a stranger facing them. Physiological arousal was indexed by a wrist monitor, which recorded electrodermal activity. Correlational analyses showed that individuals who displayed physiological discomfort when together showed a withdrawal of the perceived midpoint of the line towards them (and away from the stranger). Conversely, individuals who showed no discomfort exhibited an expansion of the perceived midpoint away from them. We propose that participants shift their attention away from the stranger to increase interpersonal distance and reduce anxiety/arousal. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trainability of muscular activity level during maximal voluntary co-contraction: comparison between bodybuilders and nonathletes.

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Sumiaki Maeo

Full Text Available Antagonistic muscle pairs cannot be fully activated simultaneously, even with maximal effort, under conditions of voluntary co-contraction, and their muscular activity levels are always below those during agonist contraction with maximal voluntary effort (MVE. Whether the muscular activity level during the task has trainability remains unclear. The present study examined this issue by comparing the muscular activity level during maximal voluntary co-contraction for highly experienced bodybuilders, who frequently perform voluntary co-contraction in their training programs, with that for untrained individuals (nonathletes. The electromyograms (EMGs of biceps brachii and triceps brachii muscles during maximal voluntary co-contraction of elbow flexors and extensors were recorded in 11 male bodybuilders and 10 nonathletes, and normalized to the values obtained during the MVE of agonist contraction for each of the corresponding muscles (% EMGMVE. The involuntary coactivation level in antagonist muscle during the MVE of agonist contraction was also calculated. In both muscles, % EMGMVE values during the co-contraction task for bodybuilders were significantly higher (P<0.01 than those for nonathletes (biceps brachii: 66±14% in bodybuilders vs. 46±13% in nonathletes, triceps brachii: 74±16% vs. 57±9%. There was a significant positive correlation between a length of bodybuilding experience and muscular activity level during the co-contraction task (r = 0.653, P = 0.03. Involuntary antagonist coactivation level during MVE of agonist contraction was not different between the two groups. The current result indicates that long-term participation in voluntary co-contraction training progressively enhances muscular activity during maximal voluntary co-contraction.

Trainability of Muscular Activity Level during Maximal Voluntary Co-Contraction: Comparison between Bodybuilders and Nonathletes

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Maeo, Sumiaki; Takahashi, Takumi; Takai, Yohei; Kanehisa, Hiroaki

2013-01-01

Antagonistic muscle pairs cannot be fully activated simultaneously, even with maximal effort, under conditions of voluntary co-contraction, and their muscular activity levels are always below those during agonist contraction with maximal voluntary effort (MVE). Whether the muscular activity level during the task has trainability remains unclear. The present study examined this issue by comparing the muscular activity level during maximal voluntary co-contraction for highly experienced bodybuilders, who frequently perform voluntary co-contraction in their training programs, with that for untrained individuals (nonathletes). The electromyograms (EMGs) of biceps brachii and triceps brachii muscles during maximal voluntary co-contraction of elbow flexors and extensors were recorded in 11 male bodybuilders and 10 nonathletes, and normalized to the values obtained during the MVE of agonist contraction for each of the corresponding muscles (% EMGMVE). The involuntary coactivation level in antagonist muscle during the MVE of agonist contraction was also calculated. In both muscles, % EMGMVE values during the co-contraction task for bodybuilders were significantly higher (Pbodybuilders vs. 46±13% in nonathletes, triceps brachii: 74±16% vs. 57±9%). There was a significant positive correlation between a length of bodybuilding experience and muscular activity level during the co-contraction task (r = 0.653, P = 0.03). Involuntary antagonist coactivation level during MVE of agonist contraction was not different between the two groups. The current result indicates that long-term participation in voluntary co-contraction training progressively enhances muscular activity during maximal voluntary co-contraction. PMID:24260233

The Biosocial Subject: Sensor Technologies and Worldly Sensibility

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de Freitas, Elizabeth

2018-01-01

Sensor technologies are increasingly part of everyday life, embedded in buildings (movement, sound, temperature) and worn on persons (heart rate, electro-dermal activity, eye tracking). This paper presents a theoretical framework for research on computational sensor data. My approach moves away from theories of agent-centered perceptual synthesis…

Affect-Based Adaptation of an Applied Video Game for Educational Purposes

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Bontchev, Boyan; Vassileva, Dessislava

2017-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify how affect-based adaptation can improve implicit recognition of playing style of individuals during game sessions. This study presents the "Rush for Gold" game using dynamic difficulty adjustment of tasks based on both player performance and affectation inferred through electrodermal activity and…

The effects of voluntary, involuntary, and forced exercises on brain-derived neurotrophic factor and motor function recovery: a rat brain ischemia model.

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Zheng Ke

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Stroke rehabilitation with different exercise paradigms has been investigated, but which one is more effective in facilitating motor recovery and up-regulating brain neurotrophic factor (BDNF after brain ischemia would be interesting to clinicians and patients. Voluntary exercise, forced exercise, and involuntary muscle movement caused by functional electrical stimulation (FES have been individually demonstrated effective as stroke rehabilitation intervention. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of these three common interventions on brain BDNF changes and motor recovery levels using a rat ischemic stroke model. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: One hundred and seventeen Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly distributed into four groups: Control (Con, Voluntary exercise of wheel running (V-Ex, Forced exercise of treadmill running (F-Ex, and Involuntary exercise of FES (I-Ex with implanted electrodes placed in two hind limb muscles on the affected side to mimic gait-like walking pattern during stimulation. Ischemic stroke was induced in all rats with the middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion model and fifty-seven rats had motor deficits after stroke. Twenty-four hours after reperfusion, rats were arranged to their intervention programs. De Ryck's behavioral test was conducted daily during the 7-day intervention as an evaluation tool of motor recovery. Serum corticosterone concentration and BDNF levels in the hippocampus, striatum, and cortex were measured after the rats were sacrificed. V-Ex had significantly better motor recovery in the behavioral test. V-Ex also had significantly higher hippocampal BDNF concentration than F-Ex and Con. F-Ex had significantly higher serum corticosterone level than other groups. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Voluntary exercise is the most effective intervention in upregulating the hippocampal BDNF level, and facilitating motor recovery. Rats that exercised voluntarily also showed less

Investigating the autonomic nervous system response to anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorders.

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Kushki, Azadeh; Drumm, Ellen; Pla Mobarak, Michele; Tanel, Nadia; Dupuis, Annie; Chau, Tom; Anagnostou, Evdokia

2013-01-01

Assessment of anxiety symptoms in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a challenging task due to the symptom overlap between the two conditions as well as the difficulties in communication and awareness of emotions in ASD. This motivates the development of a physiological marker of anxiety in ASD that is independent of language and does not require observation of overt behaviour. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using indicators of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity for this purpose. Specially, the objectives of the study were to 1) examine whether or not anxiety causes significant measurable changes in indicators of ANS in an ASD population, and 2) characterize the pattern of these changes in ASD. We measured three physiological indicators of the autonomic nervous system response (heart rate, electrodermal activity, and skin temperature) during a baseline (movie watching) and anxiety condition (Stroop task) in a sample of typically developing children (n = 17) and children with ASD (n = 12). The anxiety condition caused significant changes in heart rate and electrodermal activity in both groups, however, a differential pattern of response was found between the two groups. In particular, the ASD group showed elevated heart rate during both baseline and anxiety conditions. Elevated and blunted phasic electrodermal activity were found in the ASD group during baseline and anxiety conditions, respectively. Finally, the ASD group did not show the typical decrease in skin temperature in response to anxiety. These results suggest that 1) signals of the autonomic nervous system may be used as indicators of anxiety in children with ASD, and 2) ASD may be associated with an atypical autonomic response to anxiety that is most consistent with sympathetic over-arousal and parasympathetic under-arousal.

EDA-BASED ESTIMATION OF VISUAL ATTENTION BY OBSERVATION OF EYE BLINK FREQUENCY

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Sakai, Tsugunosuke; Tamaki, Haruya; Ota, Yosuke; Egusa, Ryohei; Inagaki, Shigenori; Kusunoki, Fusako; Sugimoto, Masanori; Mizoguchi, Hiroshi

2017-01-01

This paper describes the relationship between visual attention and eye blink frequency. In an experiment, we prompted the activation of a subject's visual attention and examined the influence of visual attention (as measured using electrodermal activity (EDA), which is meaningfully correlated with visual attention) on the subject's eye blink frequency. Experimental results show that engagement of visual attention decreased eye blink frequency and that when visual attention was not activated, ...

A Cross Cultural Comparison of Attitude of Mental Healthcare Professionals Towards Involuntary Treatment Orders.

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Hsieh, Ming-Hong; Wu, Hui-Ching; Chou, Frank Huang-Chih; Molodynski, Andrew

2017-09-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate East-West cultural attitudes of mental healthcare professionals (MHPs) towards Involuntary Treatment Orders (ITOs) among Taiwan, England, Wales, and New Zealand. Data on Taiwanese MHPs' views of ITO regime were collected from the National Psychiatric Disease Mandatory Assessment and Community Care Review Committee (N = 176). A national survey instrument was designed to assess the level of support for ITOs among senior clinicians and to determine their views on the importance of various factors in decision-making, the mechanisms through which coercion may work, impediments to its use, and its perceived impact on patients and therapeutic relationships. A descriptive analysis was carried out with data presented as appropriate for the distribution and a t-test was used to detect any differences by respondents. Risk reduction was ranked the most important factor in use of ITOs and reasons for discharging an order. Female respondents had higher approval ratings, with 85 % of agreeing that ITOs were of benefit to the therapeutic relationship, assured long-term stability, and increased medication compliance. The results suggest that clinicians decide the use of ITOs largely based on the risk management, both in terms of starting and ending an order. However, the use of ITOs vary which reflected in the practice. Given this variation in the use of enabling legislation, multidisciplinary input in decision-making is an essential safety mechanism.

Effectiveness of relaxation techniques before diagnostic screening of cancer patients

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Montserrat Aiger

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Psychophysiological arousal was observed in cancer patients during the application of relaxation techniques prior to a diagnostic scan (PET-CT. The aim of the study is twofold: firstly, it is sought to establish whether such techniques can minimize patient arousal before diagnostic screening begins, and secondly to measure which of them are most effective. The dependent variable is electrodermal activity, recording the attentional level and emotional response, and the independent variable comprises the relaxation techniques used, namely Jacobson, breathing and visualization. The 39 patients were split into experimental groups to whom the relaxation techniques (Jacobson, breathing exercises, and visualization were applied before they went for the PET-CT. An activity-module procedure was applied to track electrodermal activity during the relaxation sessions, consisting of instructions, timeout; wait, task; relaxation and end of the recording session. The control group received no relaxation techniques before the PET-CT. Session-end results show that patients who perform relaxation techniques achieve greater attentional focus using Jacobson's technique (M = .212 and enhanced emotional containment using visualization (M = .206. It is concluded that relaxation techniques minimize the state of activation during the waiting period before a diagnostic scan.

The role of the autonomic nervous system in Tourette Syndrome

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Hawksley, Jack; Cavanna, Andrea E.; Nagai, Yoko

2015-01-01

Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, consisting of multiple involuntary movements (motor tics) and one or more vocal (phonic) tics. It affects up to one percent of children worldwide, of whom about one third continue to experience symptoms into adulthood. The central neural mechanisms of tic generation are not clearly understood, however recent neuroimaging investigations suggest impaired cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical activity during motor control. In the current manuscript, we will tackle the relatively under-investigated role of the peripheral autonomic nervous system, and its central influences, on tic activity. There is emerging evidence that both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous activity influences tic expression. Pharmacological treatments which act on sympathetic tone are often helpful: for example, Clonidine (an alpha-2 adrenoreceptor agonist) is often used as first choice medication for treating TS in children due to its good tolerability profile and potential usefulness for co-morbid attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Clonidine suppresses sympathetic activity, reducing the triggering of motor tics. A general elevation of sympathetic tone is reported in patients with TS compared to healthy people, however this observation may reflect transient responses coupled to tic activity. Thus, the presence of autonomic impairments in patients with TS remains unclear. Effect of autonomic afferent input to cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuit will be discussed schematically. We additionally review how TS is affected by modulation of central autonomic control through biofeedback and Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS). Biofeedback training can enable a patient to gain voluntary control over covert physiological responses by making these responses explicit. Electrodermal biofeedback training to elicit a reduction in sympathetic tone has a demonstrated association with reduced tic frequency. VNS, achieved through an implanted device

The working memory Ponzo illusion: Involuntary integration of visuospatial information stored in visual working memory.

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Shen, Mowei; Xu, Haokui; Zhang, Haihang; Shui, Rende; Zhang, Meng; Zhou, Jifan

2015-08-01

Visual working memory (VWM) has been traditionally viewed as a mental structure subsequent to visual perception that stores the final output of perceptual processing. However, VWM has recently been emphasized as a critical component of online perception, providing storage for the intermediate perceptual representations produced during visual processing. This interactive view holds the core assumption that VWM is not the terminus of perceptual processing; the stored visual information rather continues to undergo perceptual processing if necessary. The current study tests this assumption, demonstrating an example of involuntary integration of the VWM content, by creating the Ponzo illusion in VWM: when the Ponzo illusion figure was divided into its individual components and sequentially encoded into VWM, the temporally separated components were involuntarily integrated, leading to the distorted length perception of the two horizontal lines. This VWM Ponzo illusion was replicated when the figure components were presented in different combinations and presentation order. The magnitude of the illusion was significantly correlated between VWM and perceptual versions of the Ponzo illusion. These results suggest that the information integration underling the VWM Ponzo illusion is constrained by the laws of visual perception and similarly affected by the common individual factors that govern its perception. Thus, our findings provide compelling evidence that VWM functions as a buffer serving perceptual processes at early stages. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Why are we not flooded by involuntary autobiographical memories? Few cues are more effective than many.

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Vannucci, Manila; Pelagatti, Claudia; Hanczakowski, Maciej; Mazzoni, Giuliana; Paccani, Claudia Rossi

2015-11-01

Recent research on involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) has shown that these memories can be elicited and studied in the laboratory under controlled conditions. Employing a modified version of a vigilance task developed by Schlagman and Kvavilashvili (Mem Cogn 36:920-932, 2008) to elicit IAMs, we investigated the effects of varying the frequency of external cues on the number of IAMs reported. During the vigilance task, participants had to detect an occasional target stimulus (vertical lines) in a constant stream of non-target stimuli (horizontal lines). Participants had to interrupt the task whenever they became aware of any task-unrelated mental contents and to report them. In addition to line patterns, participants were exposed to verbal cues and their frequency was experimentally manipulated in three conditions (frequent cues vs. infrequent cues vs. infrequent cues plus arithmetic operations). We found that, compared to infrequent cues, both conditions with frequent cues and infrequent cues plus arithmetic operations decreased the number of IAMs reported. The comparison between the three experimental conditions suggests that this reduction was due to the greater cognitive load in conditions of frequent cues and infrequent cue plus arithmetic operations. Possible mechanisms involved in this effect and their implications for research on IAMs are discussed.

Correlation between dopamine receptor D2 expression and presence of abnormal involuntary movements in Wistar rats with hemiparkinsonism and dyskinesia.

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Caro Aponte, P A; Otálora, C A; Guzmán, J C; Turner, L F; Alcázar, J P; Mayorga, E L

2018-03-07

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterised by motor alterations, which are commonly treated with L-DOPA. However, long-term L-DOPA use may cause dyskinesia. Although the pathogenic mechanism of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia is unclear, the condition has been associated with alterations in dopamine receptors, among which D2 receptors (D2R) have received little attention. This study aims to: (i)develop and standardise an experimental model of L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia in rats with hemiparkinsonism; and (ii)evaluate the correlation between D2R expression and presence of abnormal involuntary movements (AIM). We allocated 21 male Wistar rats into 3 groups: intact controls, lesioned rats (with neurotoxin 6-OHDA), and dyskinetic rats (injected with L-DOPA for 19 days). Sensorimotor impairment was assessed with behavioural tests. Dyskinetic rats gradually developed AIMs during the treatment period; front leg AIMs were more severe and locomotor AIMs less severe (Pde Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Involuntary autobiographical memories are relatively more often reported during high cognitive load tasks.

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Barzykowski, Krystian; Niedźwieńska, Agnieszka

2018-01-01

Recent studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) in daily life have shown that they are most frequently reported during daily routines (e.g. while ironing). Such studies have suggested that reporting IAMs may be influenced by the level of the ongoing task demands and availability of cognitive resources. In two studies, we investigated the effects of cognitive load on reporting IAMs. To examine the presumed cognitive load dependency of IAMs, we utilised an often-employed experimental paradigm (Schlagman & Kvavilashvili, 2008) to elicit IAMs under conditions that differed in cognitive load. When performing a vigilance task, participants had to interrupt the task each time they experienced any spontaneous mental contents and write them down. We manipulated the level of cognitive load by either instructing (cognitive load group) or not instructing (control group) participants to perform an additional demanding task. We compared the groups on the number of IAMs and other mental contents (non-IAM contents) recorded, as well as on the frequency of IAMs that was calculated as a proportion of IAMs in all mental contents reported by the participant. We expected that if reporting IAMs depends on the level of cognitive demands, then we should observe lower frequency of IAMs in the cognitive load group compared to the control group. Consistently across studies, we observed a lower number of IAMs and non-IAM contents in the cognitive load group. However, IAMs unexpectedly constituted a higher percentage of all mental contents when participants were cognitively loaded. Further implications of the cognitive load effects for IAMs research and experimental methodology are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Biosignals reflect pair-dynamics in collaborative work: EDA and ECG study of pair-programming in a classroom environment.

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Ahonen, Lauri; Cowley, Benjamin Ultan; Hellas, Arto; Puolamäki, Kai

2018-02-16

Collaboration is a complex phenomenon, where intersubjective dynamics can greatly affect the productive outcome. Evaluation of collaboration is thus of great interest, and can potentially help achieve better outcomes and performance. However, quantitative measurement of collaboration is difficult, because much of the interaction occurs in the intersubjective space between collaborators. Manual observation and/or self-reports are subjective, laborious, and have a poor temporal resolution. The problem is compounded in natural settings where task-activity and response-compliance cannot be controlled. Physiological signals provide an objective mean to quantify intersubjective rapport (as synchrony), but require novel methods to support broad deployment outside the lab. We studied 28 student dyads during a self-directed classroom pair-programming exercise. Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activation was measured during task performance using electrodermal activity and electrocardiography. Results suggest that (a) we can isolate cognitive processes (mental workload) from confounding environmental effects, and (b) electrodermal signals show role-specific but correlated affective response profiles. We demonstrate the potential for social physiological compliance to quantify pair-work in natural settings, with no experimental manipulation of participants required. Our objective approach has a high temporal resolution, is scalable, non-intrusive, and robust.

Depersonalization disorder: disconnection of cognitive evaluation from autonomic responses to emotional stimuli.

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Matthias Michal

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Patients with depersonalization disorder (DPD typically complain about emotional detachment. Previous studies found reduced autonomic responsiveness to emotional stimuli for DPD patients as compared to patients with anxiety disorders. We aimed to investigate autonomic responsiveness to emotional auditory stimuli of DPD patients as compared to patient controls. Furthermore, we examined the modulatory effect of mindful breathing on these responses as well as on depersonalization intensity. METHODS: 22 DPD patients and 15 patient controls balanced for severity of depression and anxiety, age, sex and education, were compared regarding 1 electrodermal and heart rate data during a resting period, and 2 autonomic responses and cognitive appraisal of standardized acoustic affective stimuli in two conditions (normal listening and mindful breathing. RESULTS: DPD patients rated the emotional sounds as significantly more neutral as compared to patient controls and standardized norm ratings. At the same time, however, they responded more strongly to acoustic emotional stimuli and their electrodermal response pattern was more modulated by valence and arousal as compared to patient controls. Mindful breathing reduced severity of depersonalization in DPD patients and increased the arousal modulation of electrodermal responses in the whole sample. Finally, DPD patients showed an increased electrodermal lability in the rest period as compared to patient controls. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrated that the cognitive evaluation of emotional sounds in DPD patients is disconnected from their autonomic responses to those emotional stimuli. The increased electrodermal lability in DPD may reflect increased introversion and cognitive control of emotional impulses. The findings have important psychotherapeutic implications.

Supplemental Work at Home among Finnish Wage Earners: Involuntary Overtime or Taking the Advantage of Flexibility?

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Satu Ojala

2011-11-01

Full Text Available It is suggested, that the new flexible work practices are enhanced to meet the work-family demandsand therefore benefit especially women. In the article the focus is on informal flexibilitytaking place at home, for which field studies of the role of gender are rare. Against the assumptions,paid work at home is mostly informal, supplementary overtime by nature. In this article, I explorewhy employees undertake work in their private sphere during their free time and whether gendermakes a difference there. I carry out both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The qualitativedata consists of 21 interviews with white-collar employees and the quantitative data from theFinnish Quality of Work Life survey 2008 for which there are almost 4400 respondents. The methodsinclude content analysis, descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis.According to both the qualitative and quantitative data, job characteristics play the most importantrole for all who work at home; employees with higher education, or supervisory tasks, inparallel with having an autonomous and inspiring job predict both tele- and supplemental work.Importantly, gender plays only a minor role in the puzzles of choosing when and where to work.The social relations at the workplace, including the atmosphere and the support of superiors andthe work community, are only weakly related to work at home. At the same time, supplementalwork is associated with great time pressure and involuntary overtime.

Active reward processing during human sleep: insights from sleep-related eating disorder

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Lampros ePerogamvros

2012-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present two carefully documented cases of patients with sleep-related eating disorder (SRED, a parasomnia which is characterized by involuntary compulsive eating during the night and whose pathophysiology is not known. Using video-polysomnography and psychometric examination, we found that both patients present elevated novelty seeking and increased reward sensitivity on reward-related questionnaires. In light of new evidence on the mesolimbic dopaminergic implication in compulsive eating disorders, our findings suggest a role of an active reward system during sleep in the manifestation of SRED.

The Effects of Instruction on the Frequency and Characteristics of Involuntary Autobiographical Memories.

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Barzykowski, Krystian; Niedźwieńska, Agnieszka

2016-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of experimental instruction on the retrieval of involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs). In previous studies of IAMs, participants were either instructed to record only memories (henceforth, the restricted group) or any thoughts (henceforth, the unrestricted group). However, it is unknown whether these two different types of instructions influence the retrieval of IAMs. The most recent study by Vannucci and her colleagues directly addressed this question and demonstrated that the frequency and phenomenological characteristics of IAMs strongly depended on the type of instruction received. The goal of the present study was to replicate these results while addressing some limitations of the Vannucci et al. study and to test three possible mechanisms proposed to explain the effect of instructions on the retrieval of IAMs. Our results accord well with the data presented by Vannucci et al. When participants were instructed to record only IAMs (the restricted group), they reported more memories and rated them as being retrieved in a more goal-oriented fashion. Their memories also were less clear, vivid, detailed and were less frequently accompanied by physiological reactions, compared to memories reported by the participants in the unrestricted group. In addition, the events to which the memories referred were rated as more unusual and personal by the restricted group. These results are consistent with the assumption that retrieval of IAMs depends on the type of instructions used in a study. In addition, our results suggest that one of the main mechanisms underlying the higher frequency of IAMs in the restricted group may be participants' ability to monitor the stream of consciousness and to extract autobiographical content from this flow. Further implications of the effect of instructions for IAMs research are discussed.

The Effects of Instruction on the Frequency and Characteristics of Involuntary Autobiographical Memories.

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Krystian Barzykowski

Full Text Available The present study investigated the effects of experimental instruction on the retrieval of involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs. In previous studies of IAMs, participants were either instructed to record only memories (henceforth, the restricted group or any thoughts (henceforth, the unrestricted group. However, it is unknown whether these two different types of instructions influence the retrieval of IAMs. The most recent study by Vannucci and her colleagues directly addressed this question and demonstrated that the frequency and phenomenological characteristics of IAMs strongly depended on the type of instruction received. The goal of the present study was to replicate these results while addressing some limitations of the Vannucci et al. study and to test three possible mechanisms proposed to explain the effect of instructions on the retrieval of IAMs. Our results accord well with the data presented by Vannucci et al. When participants were instructed to record only IAMs (the restricted group, they reported more memories and rated them as being retrieved in a more goal-oriented fashion. Their memories also were less clear, vivid, detailed and were less frequently accompanied by physiological reactions, compared to memories reported by the participants in the unrestricted group. In addition, the events to which the memories referred were rated as more unusual and personal by the restricted group. These results are consistent with the assumption that retrieval of IAMs depends on the type of instructions used in a study. In addition, our results suggest that one of the main mechanisms underlying the higher frequency of IAMs in the restricted group may be participants' ability to monitor the stream of consciousness and to extract autobiographical content from this flow. Further implications of the effect of instructions for IAMs research are discussed.

Fiducial marker-based correction for involuntary motion in weight-bearing C-arm CT scanning of knees. II. Experiment

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Choi, Jang-Hwan; Maier, Andreas; Keil, Andreas; McWalter, Emily J.; Gold, Garry E.; Fahrig, Rebecca; Pal, Saikat; Beaupré, Gary S.

2014-01-01

Purpose: A C-arm CT system has been shown to be capable of scanning a single cadaver leg under loaded conditions by virtue of its highly flexible acquisition trajectories. In Part I of this study, using the 4D XCAT-based numerical simulation, the authors predicted that the involuntary motion in the lower body of subjects in weight-bearing positions would seriously degrade image quality and the authors suggested three motion compensation methods by which the reconstructions could be corrected to provide diagnostic image quality. Here, the authors demonstrate that a flat-panel angiography system is appropriate for scanning both legs of subjectsin vivo under weight-bearing conditions and further evaluate the three motion-correction algorithms using in vivo data. Methods: The geometry of a C-arm CT system for a horizontal scan trajectory was calibrated using the PDS-2 phantom. The authors acquired images of two healthy volunteers while lying supine on a table, standing, and squatting at several knee flexion angles. In order to identify the involuntary motion of the lower body, nine 1-mm-diameter tantalum fiducial markers were attached around the knee. The static mean marker position in 3D, a reference for motion compensation, was estimated by back-projecting detected markers in multiple projections using calibrated projection matrices and identifying the intersection points in 3D of the back-projected rays. Motion was corrected using three different methods (described in detail previously): (1) 2D projection shifting, (2) 2D deformable projection warping, and (3) 3D rigid body warping. For quantitative image quality analysis, SSIM indices for the three methods were compared using the supine data as a ground truth. Results: A 2D Euclidean distance-based metric of subjects’ motion ranged from 0.85 mm (±0.49 mm) to 3.82 mm (±2.91 mm) (corresponding to 2.76 to 12.41 pixels) resulting in severe motion artifacts in 3D reconstructions. Shifting in 2D, 2D warping, and 3D

Stochastic Signatures of Involuntary Head Micro-movements Can Be Used to Classify Females of ABIDE into Different Subtypes of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

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Elizabeth B. Torres

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background: The approximate 5:1 male to female ratio in clinical detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD prevents research from characterizing the female phenotype. Current open access repositories [such as those in the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE I-II] contain large numbers of females to help begin providing a new characterization of females on the autistic spectrum. Here we introduce new methods to integrate data in a scale-free manner from continuous biophysical rhythms of the nervous systems and discrete (ordinal observational scores.Methods: New data-types derived from image-based involuntary head motions and personalized statistical platform were combined with a data-driven approach to unveil sub-groups within the female cohort. Further, to help refine the clinical DSM-based ASD vs. Asperger's Syndrome (AS criteria, distributional analyses of ordinal score data from Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-based criteria were used on both the female and male phenotypes.Results: Separate clusters were automatically uncovered in the female cohort corresponding to differential levels of severity. Specifically, the AS-subgroup emerged as the most severely affected with an excess level of noise and randomness in the involuntary head micro-movements. Extending the methods to characterize males of ABIDE revealed ASD-males to be more affected than AS-males. A thorough study of ADOS-2 and ADOS-G scores provided confounding results regarding the ASD vs. AS male comparison, whereby the ADOS-2 rendered the AS-phenotype worse off than the ASD-phenotype, while ADOS-G flipped the results. Females with AS scored higher on severity than ASD-females in all ADOS test versions and their scores provided evidence for significantly higher severity than males. However, the statistical landscapes underlying female and male scores appeared disparate. As such, further interpretation of the ADOS data seems problematic, rather suggesting the

Beyond face value: does involuntary emotional anticipation shape the perception of dynamic facial expressions?

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Letizia Palumbo

Full Text Available Emotional facial expressions are immediate indicators of the affective dispositions of others. Recently it has been shown that early stages of social perception can already be influenced by (implicit attributions made by the observer about the agent's mental state and intentions. In the current study possible mechanisms underpinning distortions in the perception of dynamic, ecologically-valid, facial expressions were explored. In four experiments we examined to what extent basic perceptual processes such as contrast/context effects, adaptation and representational momentum underpinned the perceptual distortions, and to what extent 'emotional anticipation', i.e. the involuntary anticipation of the other's emotional state of mind on the basis of the immediate perceptual history, might have played a role. Neutral facial expressions displayed at the end of short video-clips, in which an initial facial expression of joy or anger gradually morphed into a neutral expression, were misjudged as being slightly angry or slightly happy, respectively (Experiment 1. This response bias disappeared when the actor's identity changed in the final neutral expression (Experiment 2. Videos depicting neutral-to-joy-to-neutral and neutral-to-anger-to-neutral sequences again produced biases but in opposite direction (Experiment 3. The bias survived insertion of a 400 ms blank (Experiment 4. These results suggested that the perceptual distortions were not caused by any of the low-level perceptual mechanisms (adaptation, representational momentum and contrast effects. We speculate that especially when presented with dynamic, facial expressions, perceptual distortions occur that reflect 'emotional anticipation' (a low-level mindreading mechanism, which overrules low-level visual mechanisms. Underpinning neural mechanisms are discussed in relation to the current debate on action and emotion understanding.

Beyond face value: does involuntary emotional anticipation shape the perception of dynamic facial expressions?

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Palumbo, Letizia; Jellema, Tjeerd

2013-01-01

Emotional facial expressions are immediate indicators of the affective dispositions of others. Recently it has been shown that early stages of social perception can already be influenced by (implicit) attributions made by the observer about the agent's mental state and intentions. In the current study possible mechanisms underpinning distortions in the perception of dynamic, ecologically-valid, facial expressions were explored. In four experiments we examined to what extent basic perceptual processes such as contrast/context effects, adaptation and representational momentum underpinned the perceptual distortions, and to what extent 'emotional anticipation', i.e. the involuntary anticipation of the other's emotional state of mind on the basis of the immediate perceptual history, might have played a role. Neutral facial expressions displayed at the end of short video-clips, in which an initial facial expression of joy or anger gradually morphed into a neutral expression, were misjudged as being slightly angry or slightly happy, respectively (Experiment 1). This response bias disappeared when the actor's identity changed in the final neutral expression (Experiment 2). Videos depicting neutral-to-joy-to-neutral and neutral-to-anger-to-neutral sequences again produced biases but in opposite direction (Experiment 3). The bias survived insertion of a 400 ms blank (Experiment 4). These results suggested that the perceptual distortions were not caused by any of the low-level perceptual mechanisms (adaptation, representational momentum and contrast effects). We speculate that especially when presented with dynamic, facial expressions, perceptual distortions occur that reflect 'emotional anticipation' (a low-level mindreading mechanism), which overrules low-level visual mechanisms. Underpinning neural mechanisms are discussed in relation to the current debate on action and emotion understanding.

Whiplash evokes descending muscle recruitment and sympathetic responses characteristic of startle

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Mang, Daniel WH; Siegmund, Gunter P; Blouin, Jean-Sébastien

2014-01-01

Whiplash injuries are the most common injuries following rear-end collisions. During a rear-end collision, the human muscle response consists of both a postural and a startle response that may exacerbate injury. However, most previous studies only assessed the presence of startle using data collected from the neck muscles and head/neck kinematics. The startle response also evokes a descending pattern of muscle recruitment and changes in autonomic activity. Here we examined the recruitment of axial and appendicular muscles along with autonomic responses to confirm whether these other features of a startle response were present during the first exposure to a whiplash perturbation. Ten subjects experienced a single whiplash perturbation while recording electromyography, electrocardiogram, and electrodermal responses. All subjects exhibited a descending pattern of muscle recruitment, and increasing heart rate and electrodermal responses following the collision. Our results provide further support that the startle response is a component of the response to whiplash collisions. PMID:24932015

Physiological correlates and emotional specificity of human piloerection.

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Benedek, Mathias; Kaernbach, Christian

2011-03-01

Piloerection is known as an indicator of strong emotional experiences. However, little is known about the physiological and emotional specificity of this psychophysiological response. In the presented study, piloerection was elicited by audio stimuli taken from music and film episodes. The physiological response accompanying the incidence of piloerection was recorded with respect to electrodermal, cardiovascular and respiratory measures and compared to a matched control condition. The employment of an optical recording system allowed for a direct and objective assessment of visible piloerection. The occurrence of piloerection was primarily accompanied by an increase of phasic electrodermal activity and increased respiration depth as compared to a matched control condition. This physiological response pattern is discussed in the context of dominant theories of human piloerection. Consideration of all available evidence suggests that emotional piloerection represents a valuable indicator of the state of being moved or touched. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[A case of respiratory dyskinesia due to clebopride malate].

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Kawasaki, H; Yamamoto, M; Okayasu, H; Wakayama, Y

1991-08-01

Clebopride malate is therapeutically used for the treatment of peptic ulcer. This drug has potent antidopaminergic activity that causes acute dystonic reaction, parkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia as adverse effects. Here, we have reported an 86-year-old man who developed abnormal involuntary movement of respiratory muscles and lower limb muscles after this drug had been given for four months. This involuntary movement appeared spontaneously at resting state and disappeared during sleep. Surface EMG demonstrated a synchronous grouping discharge in m. orbicularis oris, m. sternocleidomastoideus and m. interstales which synchronized with diaphragmatic movement on cinefluorography. Involuntary movement of the lower limbs was synchronous bilaterally and had little relationship with diaphragmatic movement. This involuntary movement was irregular not only in rhythm but also in duration. According to this irregular nature, we diagnosed this involuntary movement as respiratory dyskinesia with limb dyskinesia that belongs to tardive dyskinesia. After cessation of clebopride malate limb dyskinesia disappeared rapidly and respiratory dyskinesia markedly decreased. We emphasize that respiratory dyskinesia should be differentiated from psychogenic hyperventilation as easily misdiagnosed on initial examination.

Investigating collaborative learning success with physiological coupling indices based on electrodermal activity

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Pijeira-díaz, Hector; Drachsler, Hendrik; Järvelä, Sanna; Kirschner, Paul A.

2017-01-01

Collaborative learning is considered a critical 21st century skill. Much is known about its contribution to learning, but still investigating a process of collaboration remains a challenge. This paper approaches the investigation on collaborative learning from a psychophysiological perspective. An

Peripheral physiological reactivity and brain activity in specific phobias - Reactividad fisiológica periférica y actividad cerebral en las fobias específicas

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José María Martínez Selva

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Specific phobias are exaggerated and irrational fears caused by specific stimuli. These anxiety disorders can appear together with physiological reactions and fight or flight responses. At a peripheral level the phobic response is featured by an increase in somatic and autonomic reactivity as shown by different physiological indices (heart rate, electrodermal activity and a potentiation of defensive reflexes, such as the cardiac defense response and the blink reflex. At a central level it has been described a network of brain structures that are involved both in the processing of the phobic stimulus and in the reaction that it provokes. This brain network is composed by the amygdala, the orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices and the anterior insula. An increase in the activity of these brain regions occurs during the phobic reaction that can be associated with the somatic and autonomic changes, the subjective experience of intense fear and the avoidance behavior elicited by the phobic stimulus.

The effect of age on involuntary capture of attention by irrelevant sounds: a test of the frontal hypothesis of aging.

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Andrés, Pilar; Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Escera, Carles

2006-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of aging on the involuntary capture of attention by irrelevant sounds (distraction) and the use of these sounds as warning cues (alertness) in an oddball paradigm. We compared the performance of older and younger participants on a well-characterized auditory-visual distraction task. Based on the dissociations observed in aging between attentional processes sustained by the anterior and posterior attentional networks, our prediction was that distraction by irrelevant novel sounds would be stronger in older adults than in young adults while both groups would be equally able to use sound as an alert to prepare for upcoming stimuli. The results confirmed both predictions: there was a larger distraction effect in the older participants, but the alert effect was equivalent in both groups. These results give support to the frontal hypothesis of aging [Raz, N. (2000). Aging of the brain and its impact on cognitive performance: integration of structural and functional finding. In F.I.M. Craik & T.A. Salthouse (Eds.) Handbook of aging and cognition (pp. 1-90). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; West, R. (1996). An application of prefrontal cortex function theory to cognitive aging. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 272-292].

Validation of orthopedic postoperative pain assessment methods for dogs: a prospective, blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled study.

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Pascale Rialland

Full Text Available In the context of translational research, there is growing interest in studying surgical orthopedic pain management approaches that are common to humans and dogs. The validity of postoperative pain assessment methods is uncertain with regards to responsiveness and the potential interference of analgesia. The hypothesis was that video analysis (as a reference, electrodermal activity, and two subjective pain scales (VAS and 4A-VET would detect different levels of pain intensity in dogs after a standardized trochleoplasty procedure. In this prospective, blinded, randomized study, postoperative pain was assessed in 25 healthy dogs during a 48-hour time frame (T. Pain was managed with placebo (Group 1, n = 10, preemptive and multimodal analgesia (Group 2, n = 5, or preemptive analgesia consisting in oral tramadol (Group 3, n = 10. Changes over time among groups were analyzed using generalized estimating equations. Multivariate regression tested the significance of relationships between pain scales and video analysis. Video analysis identified that one orthopedic behavior, namely 'Walking with full weight bearing' of the operated leg, decreased more in Group 1 at T24 (indicative of pain, whereas three behaviors indicative of sedation decreased in Group 2 at T24 (all p<0.004. Electrodermal activity was higher in Group 1 than in Groups 2 and 3 until T1 (p<0.0003. The VAS was not responsive. 4A-VET showed divergent results as its orthopedic component (4A-VETleg detected lower pain in Group 2 until T12 (p<0.0009, but its interactive component (4A-VETbeh was increased in Group 2 from T12 to T48 (p<0.001. Concurrent validity established that 4A-VETleg scores the painful orthopedic condition accurately and that pain assessment through 4A-VETbeh and VAS was severely biased by the sedative side-effect of the analgesics. Finally, the video analysis offered a concise template for assessment in dogs with acute orthopedic pain. However, subjective pain

Effects of hippotherapy on body functions, activities and participation in children with cerebral palsy based on ICF-CY assessments.

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Hsieh, Yueh-Ling; Yang, Chen-Chia; Sun, Shih-Heng; Chan, Shu-Ya; Wang, Tze-Hsuan; Luo, Hong-Ji

2017-08-01

To evaluate the effects of hippotherapy on body functions, activities, and participation in children with CP of various functional levels by using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth (ICF-CY) checklist. Fourteen children with cerebral palsy (CP) (3-8 years of age) were recruited for a 36-week study composed of baseline, intervention, and withdrawal phases (12 weeks for each phase, ABA design). Hippotherapy was implemented for 30 min once weekly for 12 consecutive weeks during the intervention phase. Body Functions (b) and Activities and Participation (d) components of the ICF-CY checklist were used as outcome measures at the initial interview and at the end of each phase. Over the 12 weeks of hippotherapy, significant improvements in ICF-CY qualifiers were found in neuromusculoskeletal and movement-related functions (b7), mobility (d4) and major life areas (d8) and, in particular, mobility of joint functions (b710), muscle tone functions (b735), involuntary movement reaction functions (b755), involuntary movement functions (b765), and play (d811) (all p hippotherapy on body functions, activities, and participation in children with CP. Implications for Rehabilitation ICF-CY provides a comprehensive overview of functioning and disability and constitutes a universal language for identifying the benefits of hippotherapy in areas of functioning and disability in children with CP. In children with CP, hippotherapy encourages a more complementary approach that extends beyond their impairments and limitations in body functions, activities, and participation. The effect of hippotherapy was distinct from GMFCS levels and the majority of improvements were present in children with GMFCS levels I-III.

Improving mouse controlling and movement for people with Parkinson's disease and involuntary tremor using adaptive path smoothing technique via B-spline.

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Hashem, Seyed Yashar Bani; Zin, Nor Azan Mat; Yatim, Noor Faezah Mohd; Ibrahim, Norlinah Mohamed

2014-01-01

Many input devices are available for interacting with computers, but the computer mouse is still the most popular device for interaction. People who suffer from involuntary tremor have difficulty using the mouse in the normal way. The target participants of this research were individuals who suffer from Parkinson's disease. Tremor in limbs makes accurate mouse movements impossible or difficult without any assistive technologies to help. This study explores a new assistive technique-adaptive path smoothing via B-spline (APSS)-to enhance mouse controlling based on user's tremor level and type. APSS uses Mean filtering and B-spline to provide a smoothed mouse trajectory. Seven participants who have unwanted tremor evaluated APSS. Results show that APSS is very promising and greatly increases their control of the computer mouse. Result of user acceptance test also shows that user perceived APSS as easy to use. They also believe it to be a useful tool and intend to use it once it is available. Future studies could explore the possibility of integrating APSS with one assistive pointing technique, such as the Bubble cursor or the Sticky target technique, to provide an all in one solution for motor disabled users.

Hazard personality profiles and individual differences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnett, J.; Breakwell, G.M.

1998-01-01

Full text of publication follows: the dominance of the 'psychometric paradigm' and the consequent emphasis on identifying the qualities related to a hazard's perceived risk has resulted in little attention being given to individual variations in the acceptance of such 'personality profiles' of hazards. Attempts to locate sources of variability have largely focused on social, cultural and institutional factors (Turner and Wynne, 1992; Sjoeberg, 1995). Less attention has been paid to the role of intra-individual differences (Myers, Henderson-King, and Henderson-King, 1997). To address this, a questionnaire study (n = 172) explored the relationships between anxiety, experience and risk perceptions in relation to 16 risk activities. Different patterns of relationships for voluntary and involuntary activities were expected. Measures of experience included assessments of impact and outcome valence as well as frequency. Proclivity for, and likelihood of, future risk experiences were also assessed. The results revealed a number of relationships between individual difference variables and risk perceptions relating to the voluntariness of the activities. For involuntary risk activities, there were associations between the experience variables and risk ratings, e.g. previous experience of positive outcomes of involuntary risk activities is associated with perceptions of them affecting few people, with not being fatal and with known risk levels. This would suggest that taking into account people's previous experience of risks is likely to affect reactions to, and mediate the effectiveness of risk communications relating to involuntary risk activities. In contrast for voluntary activities it is the two 'future' oriented variables that are associated with risk perceptions. The relationship between anxiety and risk perceptions also varied in relation to the voluntariness of risk activities. The importance of incorporating a consideration of individual differences within

Characterization of Noise Signatures of Involuntary Head Motion in the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange Repository

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Caballero, Carla; Mistry, Sejal; Vero, Joe; Torres, Elizabeth B

2018-01-01

The variability inherently present in biophysical data is partly contributed by disparate sampling resolutions across instrumentations. This poses a potential problem for statistical inference using pooled data in open access repositories. Such repositories combine data collected from multiple research sites using variable sampling resolutions. One example is the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repository containing thousands of imaging and demographic records from participants in the spectrum of autism and age-matched neurotypical controls. Further, statistical analyses of groups from different diagnoses and demographics may be challenging, owing to the disparate number of participants across different clinical subgroups. In this paper, we examine the noise signatures of head motion data extracted from resting state fMRI data harnessed under different sampling resolutions. We characterize the quality of the noise in the variability of the raw linear and angular speeds for different clinical phenotypes in relation to age-matched controls. Further, we use bootstrapping methods to ensure compatible group sizes for statistical comparison and report the ranges of physical involuntary head excursions of these groups. We conclude that different sampling rates do affect the quality of noise in the variability of head motion data and, consequently, the type of random process appropriate to characterize the time series data. Further, given a qualitative range of noise, from pink to brown noise, it is possible to characterize different clinical subtypes and distinguish them in relation to ranges of neurotypical controls. These results may be of relevance to the pre-processing stages of the pipeline of analyses of resting state fMRI data, whereby head motion enters the criteria to clean imaging data from motion artifacts. PMID:29556179

Characterization of Noise Signatures of Involuntary Head Motion in the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange Repository

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carla Caballero

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The variability inherently present in biophysical data is partly contributed by disparate sampling resolutions across instrumentations. This poses a potential problem for statistical inference using pooled data in open access repositories. Such repositories combine data collected from multiple research sites using variable sampling resolutions. One example is the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repository containing thousands of imaging and demographic records from participants in the spectrum of autism and age-matched neurotypical controls. Further, statistical analyses of groups from different diagnoses and demographics may be challenging, owing to the disparate number of participants across different clinical subgroups. In this paper, we examine the noise signatures of head motion data extracted from resting state fMRI data harnessed under different sampling resolutions. We characterize the quality of the noise in the variability of the raw linear and angular speeds for different clinical phenotypes in relation to age-matched controls. Further, we use bootstrapping methods to ensure compatible group sizes for statistical comparison and report the ranges of physical involuntary head excursions of these groups. We conclude that different sampling rates do affect the quality of noise in the variability of head motion data and, consequently, the type of random process appropriate to characterize the time series data. Further, given a qualitative range of noise, from pink to brown noise, it is possible to characterize different clinical subtypes and distinguish them in relation to ranges of neurotypical controls. These results may be of relevance to the pre-processing stages of the pipeline of analyses of resting state fMRI data, whereby head motion enters the criteria to clean imaging data from motion artifacts.

Cardiac responses predict decisions: an investigation of the relation between orienting response and decisions in the ultimatum game.

Science.gov (United States)

Osumi, Takahiro; Ohira, Hideki

2009-10-01

Emotion-based behaviors in humans cannot be fully explained by economic rationality. Particularly, in the ultimatum game, which incorporates conflict between self-interest and fairness, negative emotions evoked by an unfair offer seem to promote an economically irrational decision. In accordance with this suggestion, the previous studies have reported that physiological arousal is associated with rejecting unfair offers. In the present study, we investigated electrocardiogram and electrodermal activities in individuals which received fair, advantageously unfair, and disadvantageously unfair offers to specify the relations of the orienting and the defensive responses with these offers and with the decisions to accept and reject them. The results indicated that when an offer that would be rejected was presented, heart rate initially decelerated more than when an offer that would be accepted was presented. Additionally, there was a linear relationship between the deceleration and unfairness of offers. On the other hand, such different patterns were not seen in late cardiac acceleration or electrodermal response. The results suggest that because of perception of disadvantage and unpleasantness in a social context, the orienting response is evoked when an offer will be rejected. In addition, these results are discussed regarding the effect of the autonomic activity in decision-making.

The contest between psychiatrists and lawyers over involuntary detention: the effects of recent changes in mental health legislation in New South Wales.

Science.gov (United States)

Silove, D; Doutney, C; Pollock, C

1986-09-01

New mental health legislation was enacted in New South Wales in 1983 and, although the reformed Act remains unproclaimed, some of the new procedures have already been introduced into psychiatric hospitals. The spirit of the Act is clearly aimed at protecting the rights of the mentally ill, who are often unable to act as their own advocates. To ensure this protection, it is now routine for solicitors to represent detained patients in their pleas for release. In this report we describe three recent cases that illustrate the difficulties that arise when solicitors and psychiatrists contest the legitimacy of detention orders. The atmosphere of judicial hearings is becoming increasingly adversarial and the public disclosure of sensitive information can provoke unnecessary distress in patients and their families. In the zeal to preserve civil rights, the special needs of psychiatric patients can be obscured, sacrificing the patients' rights to confidentiality, privacy and appropriate treatment. While the involuntary detention of patients is a matter of the utmost seriousness, current procedures, which seem to be modelled on those of the criminal legal system, are proving to be inappropriate to the needs of psychiatric patients.

Delayed habituation in Behcet′s disease

OpenAIRE

Gulturk Sefa; Akyol Melih; Kececi Hulusi; Ozcelik Sedat; Cinar Ziynet; Demirkazik Ayse

2008-01-01

Background: The autonomic nervous system in Behcet′s patients may be affected due to various reasons. This entity may be detected with the measurement of the electrodermal activities, heart rate variability and pupillometric methods. Habituation is one of the implicit forms of learning and memory and the loss of habituation can reveal pathological changes in the synaptic regions. Aim: To determine whether there is a functional decrease in the synaptic effectiveness (habituation) of ...

Sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients in voluntary and involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations - doi:10.5020/18061230.2011.p361

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Selma Nogueira Oliveira

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: To assess the sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients in psychiatric hospitalizations of voluntary inpatients (IPV and involuntary (IPI, in psychiatric hospitals of Fortaleza-CE, Brazil, under contract with the Unified Health System (SUS. Methods: A quantitative study, descriptive, cross-sectional and analytical. The sample comprised 393 patients, distributed among 253 IPV and 140 IPI, submitted to Psychiatry specialty treatment, in the year 2007. Results: For both patients, IPV and IPI, most were male: 185 (73.1% and 82 (58.6%; single: 181 (46.7% and 103 (26.5%; living in Fortaleza: 181 (71.5% and 95 (67.9%, respectively, and aged 20 to 60 years (mean age of 37 years. We observed significant difference between the type of hospital and patient gender (p = 0.003, which did not occur with marital status (p = 0.688 and origin (p = 0.95. The main symptom profiles which justified the clinical admission of these patients were the use of alcohol or drugs 70 (27.6%, changes in critical judgments 40 (28.6% and psychological distress 68 (26.9%. Family members were the main responsible for conducting these patients to the hospital. Conclusion: The results showed that patients on IPV and IPI, which joined in the study, had a socio-demographic and clinical profile characterized by: prevalence of male patients, from the capital Fortaleza, single, mean age of 37 years, having been brought to hospital by a relative, mainly due to alcohol use or drugs.

Role of tempo entrainment in psychophysiological differentiation of happy and sad music?

Science.gov (United States)

Khalfa, Stéphanie; Roy, Mathieu; Rainville, Pierre; Dalla Bella, Simone; Peretz, Isabelle

2008-04-01

Respiration rate allows to differentiate between happy and sad excerpts which may be attributable to entrainment of respiration to the rhythm or the tempo rather than to emotions [Etzel, J.A., Johnsen, E.L., Dickerson, J., Tranel, D., Adolphs, R., 2006. Cardiovascular and respiratory responses during musical mood induction. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 61(1), 57-69]. In order to test for this hypothesis, this study intended to verify whether fast and slow rhythm, and/or tempo alone are sufficient to induce differential physiological effects. Psychophysiological responses (electrodermal responses, facial muscles activity, blood pressure, heart and respiration rate) were then measured in fifty young adults listening to fast/happy and slow/sad music, and to two control versions of these excerpts created by removing pitch variations (rhythmic version) and both pitch and temporal variations (beat-alone). The results indicate that happy and sad music are significantly differentiated (happy>sad) by diastolic blood pressure, electrodermal activity, and zygomatic activity, while the fast and slow rhythmic and tempo control versions did not elicit such differentiations. In contrast, respiration rate was faster with stimuli presented at fast tempi relative to slow stimuli in the beat-alone condition. It was thus demonstrated that the psychophysiological happy/sad distinction requires the tonal variations and cannot be explained solely by entrainment to tempo and rhythm. The tempo entrainment exists in the tempo alone condition but our results suggest this effect may disappear when embedded in music or with rhythm.

Performance of schizophrenic patients in the Stroop Color Word Test and electrodermal responsiveness after acute administration of cannabidiol (CBD Desempenho de pacientes esquizofrênicos no Stroop Color Word Test e responsividade eletrodérmica após administração aguda de canabidiol (CBD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaime E. C. Hallak

2010-03-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: The last decade has seen increasing evidence of dysfunctions in the endogenous cannabinoid system in schizophrenia and of its relationship with the typical cognitive impairment of the disorder. Studies in animal models, healthy volunteers, and psychotic patients clearly suggest an antipsychotic-like effect of cannabidiol. This study investigated the effects of cannabidiol on selective attention in 28 schizophrenic patients using the Stroop Color Word Test and on these patients' electrodermal responsiveness to auditive stimuli. METHOD: The subjects attended two experimental sessions, the first one without the administration of drugs. In the second session the subjects were divided into three groups that received either a single dose of cannabidiol 300mg or cannabidiol 600mg or placebo. RESULTS: The three groups did not differ significantly with respect to electrodermal measures in the two experimental sessions. When the first and second sessions were compared improved performance was found in all three groups, with patients who received placebo and cannabidiol 300mg performing better than those who received cannabidiol 600mg. CONCLUSION: The single, acute administration of cannabidiol seems to have no beneficial effects on the performance of schizophrenic patients in the Stroop Color Word Test, although the hypothesis that chronic administration may lead to improvement cannot be disregarded.OBJETIVO: Descobertas relativas a possíveis disfunções do sistema canabinóide endógeno na esquizofrenia e sua relação com o prejuízo cognitivo característico da doença têm aumentado durante a última década. Estudos com modelos animais, voluntários saudáveis e pacientes psicóticos sugerem claramente que o canabidiol possui efeitos antipsicóticos. Este estudo investigou os efeitos do canabidiol sobre a atenção seletiva por meio do Stroop Color Word Test e a responsividade eletrodérmica a estímulos auditivos em 28 pacientes com

Modulating presence and impulsiveness by external stimulation of the brain

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Baumgartner Thomas

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background "The feeling of being there" is one possible way to describe the phenomenon of feeling present in a virtual environment and to act as if this environment is real. One brain area, which is hypothesized to be critically involved in modulating this feeling (also called presence is the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC, an area also associated with the control of impulsive behavior. Methods In our experiment we applied transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS to the right dlPFC in order to modulate the experience of presence while watching a virtual roller coaster ride. During the ride we also registered electro-dermal activity. Subjects also performed a test measuring impulsiveness and answered a questionnaire about their presence feeling while they were exposed to the virtual roller coaster scenario. Results Application of cathodal tDCS to the right dlPFC while subjects were exposed to a virtual roller coaster scenario modulates the electrodermal response to the virtual reality stimulus. In addition, measures reflecting impulsiveness were also modulated by application of cathodal tDCS to the right dlPFC. Conclusion Modulating the activation with the right dlPFC results in substantial changes in responses of the vegetative nervous system and changed impulsiveness. The effects can be explained by theories discussing the top-down influence of the right dlPFC on the "impulsive system".

Novel vibration-exercise instrument with dedicated adaptive filtering for electromyographic investigation of neuromuscular activation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Xu, L.; Rabotti, C.; Mischi, M.

2012-01-01

Vibration exercise (VE) has been suggested as an effective methodology to improve muscle strength and power performance. Several studies link the effects of vibration training to enhanced neuromuscular demand, typically ascribed to involuntary reflex mechanisms. However, the underlying mechanisms

Psychophysiological Assessment Of Fear Experience In Response To Sound During Computer Video Gameplay

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garner, Tom Alexander; Grimshaw, Mark

2013-01-01

The potential value of a looping biometric feedback system as a key component of adaptive computer video games is significant. Psychophysiological measures are essential to the development of an automated emotion recognition program, capable of interpreting physiological data into models of affect...... and systematically altering the game environment in response. This article presents empirical data the analysis of which advocates electrodermal activity and electromyography as suitable physiological measures to work effectively within a computer video game-based biometric feedback loop, within which sound...

The Physiology of Fear and Sound

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garner, Tom Alexander; Grimshaw, Mark

2013-01-01

and systematically altering the game environment in response. This article presents empirical data the analysis of which advocates electrodermal activity and electromyography as suitable physiological measures to work effectively within a computer video game-based biometric feedback loop, within which sound......The potential value of a looping biometric feedback system as a key component of adaptive computer video games is significant. Psychophysiological measures are essential to the development of an automated emotion recognition program, capable of interpreting physiological data into models of affect...

Effects of unexpected chords and of performer's expression on brain responses and electrodermal activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Koelsch, Stefan; Kilches, Simone; Steinbeis, Nikolaus; Schelinski, Stefanie

2008-07-09

There is lack of neuroscientific studies investigating music processing with naturalistic stimuli, and brain responses to real music are, thus, largely unknown. This study investigates event-related brain potentials (ERPs), skin conductance responses (SCRs) and heart rate (HR) elicited by unexpected chords of piano sonatas as they were originally arranged by composers, and as they were played by professional pianists. From the musical excerpts played by the pianists (with emotional expression), we also created versions without variations in tempo and loudness (without musical expression) to investigate effects of musical expression on ERPs and SCRs. Compared to expected chords, unexpected chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN, reflecting music-syntactic processing) and an N5 (reflecting processing of meaning information) in the ERPs, as well as clear changes in the SCRs (reflecting that unexpected chords also elicited emotional responses). The ERAN was not influenced by emotional expression, whereas N5 potentials elicited by chords in general (regardless of their chord function) differed between the expressive and the non-expressive condition. These results show that the neural mechanisms of music-syntactic processing operate independently of the emotional qualities of a stimulus, justifying the use of stimuli without emotional expression to investigate the cognitive processing of musical structure. Moreover, the data indicate that musical expression affects the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of musical meaning. Our data are the first to reveal influences of musical performance on ERPs and SCRs, and to show physiological responses to unexpected chords in naturalistic music.

Effects of unexpected chords and of performer's expression on brain responses and electrodermal activity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Koelsch

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: There is lack of neuroscientific studies investigating music processing with naturalistic stimuli, and brain responses to real music are, thus, largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study investigates event-related brain potentials (ERPs, skin conductance responses (SCRs and heart rate (HR elicited by unexpected chords of piano sonatas as they were originally arranged by composers, and as they were played by professional pianists. From the musical excerpts played by the pianists (with emotional expression, we also created versions without variations in tempo and loudness (without musical expression to investigate effects of musical expression on ERPs and SCRs. Compared to expected chords, unexpected chords elicited an early right anterior negativity (ERAN, reflecting music-syntactic processing and an N5 (reflecting processing of meaning information in the ERPs, as well as clear changes in the SCRs (reflecting that unexpected chords also elicited emotional responses. The ERAN was not influenced by emotional expression, whereas N5 potentials elicited by chords in general (regardless of their chord function differed between the expressive and the non-expressive condition. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results show that the neural mechanisms of music-syntactic processing operate independently of the emotional qualities of a stimulus, justifying the use of stimuli without emotional expression to investigate the cognitive processing of musical structure. Moreover, the data indicate that musical expression affects the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of musical meaning. Our data are the first to reveal influences of musical performance on ERPs and SCRs, and to show physiological responses to unexpected chords in naturalistic music.

Synthesis and anticonvulsant activity of certain chalcone based pyrazoline compounds

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Sudhakara Rao Gerapati

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Convulsions are involuntary, violent, spasmodic and prolonged contractions of skeletal muscles. That means a patient may have epilepsy without convulsions and vice versa. Epilepsy is a common neurological abnormality affecting about 1% of the world population. The primary objectives of these synthesized compounds are to suppress seizures and provide neuroprotection by minimizing the effects from seizure attacks. Here some of the chalcones and chalcone based various pyrazolines were evaluated for anticonvulsant activity. Their structures have been elucidated on the basis of elemental analyses and spectroscopic studies (IR, 1H-NMR & Mass spectroscopy. A preliminary evaluation of the prepared compounds has indicated that some of them exhibit moderate to significant anticonvulsant activity compared to a diazepam standard1-3.  All compounds were tested for their anticonvulsant activity using maximal electroshock induced convulsions (MES in mice at a dose level of 4 mg/kg.b.w. The compounds  Ph1, Ph2 , Py2 ,Py3 and Py4 have shown  to  good anticonvulsant activity when doses are administered as 25mg/ kg.b.w  , reduced the phases of seizures severity and  found to be active and also  increased survival rate. Remaining compounds are less efficacious.

Involuntary top-down control by search-irrelevant features: Visual working memory biases attention in an object-based manner.

Science.gov (United States)

Foerster, Rebecca M; Schneider, Werner X

2018-03-01

Many everyday tasks involve successive visual-search episodes with changing targets. Converging evidence suggests that these targets are retained in visual working memory (VWM) and bias attention from there. It is unknown whether all or only search-relevant features of a VWM template bias attention during search. Bias signals might be configured exclusively to task-relevant features so that only search-relevant features bias attention. Alternatively, VWM might maintain objects in the form of bound features. Then, all template features will bias attention in an object-based manner, so that biasing effects are ranked by feature relevance. Here, we investigated whether search-irrelevant VWM template features bias attention. Participants had to saccade to a target opposite a distractor. A colored cue depicted the target prior to each search trial. The target was predefined only by its identity, while its color was irrelevant. When target and cue matched not only in identity (search-relevant) but also in color (search-irrelevant), saccades went more often and faster directly to the target than without any color match (Experiment 1). When introducing a cue-distractor color match (Experiment 2), direct target saccades were most likely when target and cue matched in the search-irrelevant color and least likely in case of a cue-distractor color match. When cue and target were never colored the same (Experiment 3), cue-colored distractors still captured the eyes more often than different-colored distractors despite color being search-irrelevant. As participants were informed about the misleading color, the result argues against a strategical and voluntary usage of color. Instead, search-irrelevant features biased attention obligatorily arguing for involuntary top-down control by object-based VWM templates. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

77 FR 21586 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-10

... involuntary termination of a job from September 2008 to May 2010, were eligible for COBRA benefits at the time of job loss, and were not eligible for certain other health insurance options. The overall aim of the... technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic...

Neurophysiological foundations of organ electrodermal diagnostics ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The nervous system is the primary computing system of the human body. The sensory nervous system detects any damage done to the body from both outside and inside and sends the information, at the earliest stage of pathology, to the central nervous system (CNS), which controls potent self-defense mechanisms.

Neurophysiological foundations of organ electrodermal diagnostics ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Adele

cial heating.1 Of particular interest is pulsed magnetic field therapy ... tion, reduced inflammation and oedema as well as increased meta- bolic rate. ... T Sierak. Department of Medical Biophysics, Silesian Medical University, Katowice, Poland.

Similarities and differences between learning abilities, "pure" learning disabilities, "pure" ADHD and comorbid ADHD with learning disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Mangina, Constantine A; Beuzeron-Mangina, Helen

2009-08-01

This research pursues the crucial question of the differentiation of preadolescents with "Pure" ADHD, comorbid ADHD with learning disabilities, "Pure" learning disabilities and age-matched normal controls. For this purpose, Topographic Mapping of Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERPs) to a Memory Workload Paradigm with visually presented words, Bilateral Electrodermal Activity during cognitive workload and Mangina-Test performance were used. The analysis of Topographic distribution of amplitudes revealed that normal preadolescents were significantly different from "Pure" ADHD (Plearning disabilities (Plearning disabilities (Plearning disabilities have shown a marked reduction of prefrontal and frontal negativities (N450). As for the "Pure" Learning Disabled preadolescents, very small positivities (P450) in prefrontal and frontal regions were obtained as compared to the other pathological groups. Bilateral Electrodermal Activity during cognitive workload revealed a significant main effect for groups (P<0.00001), Left versus Right (P=0.0029) and sessions (P=0.0136). A significant main effect for the Mangina-Test performance which separated the four groups was found (P<0.000001). Overall, these data support the existence of clear differences and similarities between the pathological preadolescent groups as opposed to age-matched normal controls. The psychophysiological differentiation of these groups, provides distinct biological markers which integrate central, autonomic and neuropsychometric variables by targeting the key features of these pathologies for diagnosis and intervention strategies and by providing knowledge for the understanding of normal neurocognitive processes and functions.

Toward understanding the active SETI debate: Insights from risk communication and perception

Science.gov (United States)

Korbitz, Adam

2014-12-01

Insights from the robust field of risk communication and perception have to date been almost totally absent from the policy debate regarding the relative risks and merits of Active SETI or Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI). For many years, the practice (or proposed practice) of Active SETI has generated a vigorous and sometimes heated policy debate within the scientific community. There have also been some negative reactions in the media toward the activities of those engaged in Active SETI. Risk communication is a scientific approach to communication regarding situations involving potentially sensitive or controversial situations in which there may be high public concern and low public trust. The discipline has found wide acceptance and utility in fields such as public health, industrial regulation and environmental protection. Insights from the scientific field of risk communication (such as omission bias, loss aversion, the availability heuristic, probability neglect, and the general human preference for voluntary over involuntary risks) may help those who have participated in either side of the debate over Active SETI to better understand why the debate has taken on this posture. Principles of risk communication and risk perception may also help those engaged in Active SETI to communicate more effectively with other scientists, the public, with the media, and with policy makers regarding their activities and to better understand and respond to concerns expressed regarding the activity.

Abnormal activation of the primary somatosensory cortex in spasmodic dysphonia: an fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Simonyan, Kristina; Ludlow, Christy L

2010-11-01

Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is a task-specific focal dystonia of unknown pathophysiology, characterized by involuntary spasms in the laryngeal muscles during speaking. Our aim was to identify symptom-specific functional brain activation abnormalities in adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) and abductor spasmodic dysphonia (ABSD). Both SD groups showed increased activation extent in the primary sensorimotor cortex, insula, and superior temporal gyrus during symptomatic and asymptomatic tasks and decreased activation extent in the basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebellum during asymptomatic tasks. Increased activation intensity in SD patients was found only in the primary somatosensory cortex during symptomatic voice production, which showed a tendency for correlation with ADSD symptoms. Both SD groups had lower correlation of activation intensities between the primary motor and sensory cortices and additional correlations between the basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebellum during symptomatic and asymptomatic tasks. Compared with ADSD patients, ABSD patients had larger activation extent in the primary sensorimotor cortex and ventral thalamus during symptomatic task and in the inferior temporal cortex and cerebellum during symptomatic and asymptomatic voice production. The primary somatosensory cortex shows consistent abnormalities in activation extent, intensity, correlation with other brain regions, and symptom severity in SD patients and, therefore, may be involved in the pathophysiology of SD.

Consumers' physiological and verbal responses towards product packages: Could these responses anticipate product choices?

Science.gov (United States)

Vila-López, Natalia; Küster-Boluda, Inés

2018-03-03

Today, it is a priority to predict what consumers will choose at the point of sale where there are more and more competing brands. But what kind of consumers' information can be used for that purpose? This paper compares the power of physiological responses (unconscious responses) and self-report/verbal responses (conscious responses) towards product packages, as a means of predicting product choices. To this end, six different packaging designs were created by combining three different colors (blue, red and black) and two different messages (simple and reinforced). Eighty-three young consumers were exposed to each of the six designs. In one phase of our investigation, unconscious electrodermal activity (EDA) for each participant and each packaging type was recorded. In another phase, conscious verbal opinions for each packaging type were collected in a questionnaire. Our results show that the blue packaging with a reinforced message was most often selected. For this packaging consumers' electrodermal values (unconscious responses) were lower, and verbal opinions (conscious responses) were higher. Thus, both data sets could be used to anticipate product choice. However, for the other five packages, only unconscious responses were related to product choices. In contrast, higher opinions in a questionnaire did not correspond to selection of packages. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Sound-induced facial synkinesis following facial nerve paralysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Ming-San; van der Hoeven, Johannes H; Nicolai, Jean-Philippe A; Meek, Marcel F

2009-08-01

Facial synkinesis (or synkinesia) (FS) occurs frequently after paresis or paralysis of the facial nerve and is in most cases due to aberrant regeneration of (branches of) the facial nerve. Patients suffer from inappropriate and involuntary synchronous facial muscle contractions. Here we describe two cases of sound-induced facial synkinesis (SFS) after facial nerve injury. As far as we know, this phenomenon has not been described in the English literature before. Patient A presented with right hemifacial palsy after lesion of the facial nerve due to skull base fracture. He reported involuntary muscle activity at the right corner of the mouth, specifically on hearing ringing keys. Patient B suffered from left hemifacial palsy following otitis media and developed involuntary muscle contraction in the facial musculature specifically on hearing clapping hands or a trumpet sound. Both patients were evaluated by means of video, audio and EMG analysis. Possible mechanisms in the pathophysiology of SFS are postulated and therapeutic options are discussed.

Régimen constitucional del internamiento involuntario y urgente por trastorno mental = Constitucional framework on involuntary and urgent confinement due to mental disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Francisco Sánchez Barrilao

2013-05-01

Full Text Available El presente trabajo aborda el régimen constitucional de los internamientos involuntarios y urgentes por trastorno mental como un supuesto de limitación de derechos fundamentales (especialmente, libertad personal; y, en particular, a la vista de la doctrina contenida en la Sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional 141/2012, dictada en resolución de un recurso de amparo al respecto. En tal sentido, se analiza el marco normativo de dichos internamientos (distinguiendo entre el estrictamente constitucional, el internacional y el meramente legal, su naturaleza (en relación al internamiento como tal, como respecto a la intervención judicial que ha de autorizarlo, sus concretas garantías (en especial, a la vista de la STC 141/2012, así como diversas cuestiones abiertas por la anterior Sentencia, no obstante, y que requieren de oportuna respuesta legal. The following piece of paper deals with the constitutional rule of the involuntary and urgent confinements due to mental disorder as restricting fundamental rights (especially, personal liberty according to the principles established in the judgement of the Spanish Constitutional Court 141/2012. Accordingly, the legal frameworkof a such confinements is analysed (making a distinction among constitutional, international and legal rules, its nature (ref. both confinements itself, as the role of judge who must authorize, its specific guarantees (in accordance with the judgement STC 141/2012, as well as a variety of issues requiring a timely legal response.

Food words distract the hungry: Evidence of involuntary semantic processing of task-irrelevant but biologically-relevant unexpected auditory words.

Science.gov (United States)

Parmentier, Fabrice B R; Pacheco-Unguetti, Antonia P; Valero, Sara

2018-01-01

Rare changes in a stream of otherwise repeated task-irrelevant sounds break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task by triggering shifts of attention to and from the deviant sound (deviance distraction). Evidence indicates that the involuntary orientation of attention to unexpected sounds is followed by their semantic processing. However, past demonstrations relied on tasks in which the meaning of the deviant sounds overlapped with features of the primary task. Here we examine whether such processing is observed when no such overlap is present but sounds carry some relevance to the participants' biological need to eat when hungry. We report the results of an experiment in which hungry and satiated participants partook in a cross-modal oddball task in which they categorized visual digits (odd/even) while ignoring task-irrelevant sounds. On most trials the irrelevant sound was a sinewave tone (standard sound). On the remaining trials, deviant sounds consisted of spoken words related to food (food deviants) or control words (control deviants). Questionnaire data confirmed state (but not trait) differences between the two groups with respect to food craving, as well as a greater desire to eat the food corresponding to the food-related words in the hungry relative to the satiated participants. The results of the oddball task revealed that food deviants produced greater distraction (longer response times) than control deviants in hungry participants while the reverse effect was observed in satiated participants. This effect was observed in the first block of trials but disappeared thereafter, reflecting semantic saturation. Our results suggest that (1) the semantic content of deviant sounds is involuntarily processed even when sharing no feature with the primary task; and that (2) distraction by deviant sounds can be modulated by the participants' biological needs.

Parental overcontrol x OPRM1 genotype interaction predicts school-aged children's sympathetic nervous system activation in response to performance challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Partington, Lindsey C; Borelli, Jessica L; Smiley, Patricia; Jarvik, Ella; Rasmussen, Hannah F; Seaman, Lauren C; Nurmi, Erika L

2018-04-26

Parental overcontrol (OC), the excessive regulation of a child's behavior, cognition, and emotion, is associated with the development of child anxiety. While studies have shown that genetic factors may increase sensitivity to stress, genetic vulnerability to parental OC has not been examined in anxiety etiology. A functional polymorphism in the mu opioid receptor OPRM1 (A118G, rs1799971) has been shown to impact stress reactivity. Using a community sample of children (N = 85, 9-12 years old), we examined the main and interactive effects of maternal OC and child OPRM1 genotype in predicting children's sympathetic nervous system reactivity during a performance stressor. Neither OC nor genotype predicted children's electrodermal activity (EDA); however, the interaction between OC and child genotype significantly predicted stress reactivity, as indexed by EDA, during the challenging task. Among children with the minor G-allele, higher maternal OC was associated with higher reactivity. In A homozygotes, maternal OC was not associated with EDA, suggesting a diathesis-stress pattern of gene x environment interaction. We discuss implications for anxiety etiology and intervention. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Remote Physical Activity Monitoring in Neurological Disease: A Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Block, Valerie A J; Pitsch, Erica; Tahir, Peggy; Cree, Bruce A C; Allen, Diane D; Gelfand, Jeffrey M

2016-01-01

To perform a systematic review of studies using remote physical activity monitoring in neurological diseases, highlighting advances and determining gaps. Studies were systematically identified in PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL and SCOPUS from January 2004 to December 2014 that monitored physical activity for ≥24 hours in adults with neurological diseases. Studies that measured only involuntary motor activity (tremor, seizures), energy expenditure or sleep were excluded. Feasibility, findings, and protocols were examined. 137 studies met inclusion criteria in multiple sclerosis (MS) (61 studies); stroke (41); Parkinson's Disease (PD) (20); dementia (11); traumatic brain injury (2) and ataxia (1). Physical activity levels measured by remote monitoring are consistently low in people with MS, stroke and dementia, and patterns of physical activity are altered in PD. In MS, decreased ambulatory activity assessed via remote monitoring is associated with greater disability and lower quality of life. In stroke, remote measures of upper limb function and ambulation are associated with functional recovery following rehabilitation and goal-directed interventions. In PD, remote monitoring may help to predict falls. In dementia, remote physical activity measures correlate with disease severity and can detect wandering. These studies show that remote physical activity monitoring is feasible in neurological diseases, including in people with moderate to severe neurological disability. Remote monitoring can be a psychometrically sound and responsive way to assess physical activity in neurological disease. Further research is needed to ensure these tools provide meaningful information in the context of specific neurological disorders and patterns of neurological disability.

Remote Physical Activity Monitoring in Neurological Disease: A Systematic Review

Science.gov (United States)

Block, Valerie A. J.; Pitsch, Erica; Tahir, Peggy; Cree, Bruce A. C.; Allen, Diane D.; Gelfand, Jeffrey M.

2016-01-01

Objective To perform a systematic review of studies using remote physical activity monitoring in neurological diseases, highlighting advances and determining gaps. Methods Studies were systematically identified in PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL and SCOPUS from January 2004 to December 2014 that monitored physical activity for ≥24 hours in adults with neurological diseases. Studies that measured only involuntary motor activity (tremor, seizures), energy expenditure or sleep were excluded. Feasibility, findings, and protocols were examined. Results 137 studies met inclusion criteria in multiple sclerosis (MS) (61 studies); stroke (41); Parkinson's Disease (PD) (20); dementia (11); traumatic brain injury (2) and ataxia (1). Physical activity levels measured by remote monitoring are consistently low in people with MS, stroke and dementia, and patterns of physical activity are altered in PD. In MS, decreased ambulatory activity assessed via remote monitoring is associated with greater disability and lower quality of life. In stroke, remote measures of upper limb function and ambulation are associated with functional recovery following rehabilitation and goal-directed interventions. In PD, remote monitoring may help to predict falls. In dementia, remote physical activity measures correlate with disease severity and can detect wandering. Conclusions These studies show that remote physical activity monitoring is feasible in neurological diseases, including in people with moderate to severe neurological disability. Remote monitoring can be a psychometrically sound and responsive way to assess physical activity in neurological disease. Further research is needed to ensure these tools provide meaningful information in the context of specific neurological disorders and patterns of neurological disability. PMID:27124611

[Effects of false memories on the Concealed Information Test].

Science.gov (United States)

Zaitsu, Wataru

2012-10-01

The effects of false memories on polygraph examinations with the Concealed Information Test (CIT) were investigated by using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, which allows participants to evoke false memories. Physiological responses to questions consisting of learned, lure, and unlearned items were measured and recorded. The results indicated that responses to lure questions showed critical responses to questions about learned items. These responses included repression of respiration, an increase in electrodermal activity, and a drop in heart rate. These results suggest that critical response patterns are generated in the peripheral nervous system by true and false memories.

iVAR: a program for imputing missing data in multivariate time series using vector autoregressive models.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Siwei; Molenaar, Peter C M

2014-12-01

This article introduces iVAR, an R program for imputing missing data in multivariate time series on the basis of vector autoregressive (VAR) models. We conducted a simulation study to compare iVAR with three methods for handling missing data: listwise deletion, imputation with sample means and variances, and multiple imputation ignoring time dependency. The results showed that iVAR produces better estimates for the cross-lagged coefficients than do the other three methods. We demonstrate the use of iVAR with an empirical example of time series electrodermal activity data and discuss the advantages and limitations of the program.

Motor unit firing rates during spasms in thenar muscles of spinal cord injured subjects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zijdewind, Inge; Bakels, Robert; Thomas, Christine K.

2014-01-01

Involuntary contractions of paralyzed muscles (spasms) commonly disrupt daily activities and rehabilitation after human spinal cord injury (SCI). Our aim was to examine the recruitment, firing rate modulation, and derecruitment of motor units that underlie spasms of thenar muscles after cervical

Optimal workfare with voluntary and involuntary unemployment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kreiner, Claus Thustrup; Tranæs, Torben

2005-01-01

This paper addresses the welfare implications of introducing workfare into unemployment benefit policy. We consider a population composed of employed and unemployed workers and of individuals who do not seek employment. Job search behavior is unobservable, which means that voluntarily unemployed ...... by facilitating better unemployment insurance for workers, and we characterize the situations where this is the case.......This paper addresses the welfare implications of introducing workfare into unemployment benefit policy. We consider a population composed of employed and unemployed workers and of individuals who do not seek employment. Job search behavior is unobservable, which means that voluntarily unemployed...... individuals can claim unemployment insurance (UI) benefits intended for unemployed workers. As a consequence, pecuniary benefit schemes underinsure workers against unemployment. We show that requiring unproductive activities (workfare) in exchange for UI benefits may generate a Pareto improvement...

Central Pain Processing in Early-Stage Parkinson's Disease: A Laser Pain fMRI Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christine Petschow

Full Text Available Pain is a common non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease. As dopaminergic dysfunction is suggested to affect intrinsic nociceptive processing, this study was designed to characterize laser-induced pain processing in early-stage Parkinson's disease patients in the dopaminergic OFF state, using a multimodal experimental approach at behavioral, autonomic, imaging levels.13 right-handed early-stage Parkinson's disease patients without cognitive or sensory impairment were investigated OFF medication, along with 13 age-matched healthy control subjects. Measurements included warmth perception thresholds, heat pain thresholds, and central pain processing with event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (erfMRI during laser-induced pain stimulation at lower (E = 440 mJ and higher (E = 640 mJ target energies. Additionally, electrodermal activity was characterized during delivery of 60 randomized pain stimuli ranging from 440 mJ to 640 mJ, along with evaluation of subjective pain ratings on a visual analogue scale.No significant differences in warmth perception thresholds, heat pain thresholds, electrodermal activity and subjective pain ratings were found between Parkinson's disease patients and controls, and erfMRI revealed a generally comparable activation pattern induced by laser-pain stimuli in brain areas belonging to the central pain matrix. However, relatively reduced deactivation was found in Parkinson's disease patients in posterior regions of the default mode network, notably the precuneus and the posterior cingulate cortex.Our data during pain processing extend previous findings suggesting default mode network dysfunction in Parkinson's disease. On the other hand, they argue against a genuine pain-specific processing abnormality in early-stage Parkinson's disease. Future studies are now required using similar multimodal experimental designs to examine pain processing in more advanced stages of Parkinson's disease.

Relationship between physical activity, quality of life and urinary incontinence in a sample of elderly women in Talca city – Chile

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Valdés Arriagada

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Urinary incontinence in elderly is defined as a condition in which there is an involuntary loss of urine that becomes a social/medical problem. It is a heterogeneous symptom that can often be found in older adults and is associated, among other variables, with the type of activity and quality of life. Objective: To determine the relationship between physical activity, stress urinary incontinence and quality of life in elderly women of Talca's commune (Chile. Methodology: This research was descriptive - correlational, with a cross-sectional design. A total of 386 older women from different sectors of Talca's commune were included. Three instruments, international questionnaire of physical activity (IPAQ, the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire and The Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL, were applied. Results: 61.9 % of the polled women had a low level of urinary incontinence, 65% was between a high or moderate level of physical activity, and 87% of the women reported a very good quality of life. Conclusion: The information, depending on the aim, reflects that the urinary incontinence associates of significant form with the variables physical activity and quality of life.

8-13 hz fluctuations in rectal pressure are an objective marker of clitorally-induced orgasm in women

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Netten, Jaap J.; Georgiadis, Janniko R.; Nieuwenburg, Arie; Kortekaas, Rudie

Orgasm is a subjective experience accompanied by involuntary muscle contractions. We hypothesized that orgasm in women would be distinguishable by frequency analysis of a perineal muscle-derived signal. Rectal pressure, an index of perineal muscle activity, was measured continuously in 23 healthy

The validity and reliability of modelled neural and tissue properties of the ankle muscles in children with cerebral palsy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sloot, L.H.; van der Krogt, M.M.; de Gooijer-van Groep, K.; van Eesbeek, S.; de Groot, J.; Buizer, A.I.; Meskers, C.; Becher, J.G.; de Vlugt, E.; Harlaar, J.

2015-01-01

Spastic cerebral palsy (CP) is characterized by increased joint resistance, caused by a mix of increased tissue stiffness, as well as involuntary reflex and background muscle activity. These properties can be quantified using a neuromechanical model of the musculoskeletal complex and instrumented

Effects of imposed monitoring and blunting strategies on emotional reactivity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Muris, Peter; Jong, de Peter; Merckelbach, Harald; van Zuuren, Florence J.

1994-01-01

The present study examined the effects of imposed monitoring and blunting coping strategies on emotional reactivity in 40 subjects who prepared themselves for upcoming neutral and aversive slides. Besides subjective indices, electrodermal measures and eye blink startle responses were used to

Pharmacokinetics and physiologic effects of intramuscularly administered xylazine hydrochloride-ketamine hydrochloride-butorphanol tartrate alone or in combination with orally administered sodium salicylate on biomarkers of pain in Holstein calves following castration and dehorning.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldridge, Sarah L; Coetzee, Johann F; Dritz, Steve S; Reinbold, James B; Gehring, Ronette; Havel, James; Kukanich, Butch

2011-10-01

To determine the pharmacokinetic parameters of xylazine, ketamine, and butorphanol (XKB) administered IM and sodium salicylate (SAL) administered PO to calves and to compare drug effects on biomarkers of pain and distress following sham and actual castration and dehorning. 40 Holstein bull calves from 3 farms. Calves weighing 108 to 235 kg (n = 10 calves/group) received one of the following treatments prior to sham (period 1) and actual (period 2) castration and dehorning: saline (0.9% NaCl) solution IM (placebo); SAL administered PO through drinking water at concentrations from 2.5 to 5 mg/mL from 24 hours prior to period 1 to 48 hours after period 2; butorphanol (0.025 mg/kg), xylazine (0.05 mg/kg), and ketamine (0.1 mg/kg) coadministered IM immediately prior to both periods; and a combination of SAL and XKB (SAL+XKB). Plasma drug concentrations, average daily gain (ADG), chute exit velocity, serum cortisol concentrations, and electrodermal activity were evaluated. ADG (days 0 to 13) was significantly greater in the SAL and SAL+XKB groups than in the other 2 groups. Calves receiving XKB had reduced chute exit velocity in both periods. Serum cortisol concentrations increased in all groups from period 1 to period 2. However, XKB attenuated the cortisol response for the first hour after castration and dehorning and oral SAL administration reduced the response from 1 to 6 hours. Administration of XKB decreased electrodermal activity scores in both periods. SAL administered PO through drinking water decreased cortisol concentrations and reduced the decrease in ADG associated with castration and dehorning in calves.

An explorative study into changes in reach performance after gravity compensation training in chronic stroke patients

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prange, Grada Berendina; Krabben, T.; Renzenbrink, G.J.; de Boer, Jan; Hermens, Hermanus J.; Jannink, M.J.A.

2009-01-01

After stroke, arm function can be limited by a reduction in the selectivity of movements, due to involuntary coupling of shoulder abduction and elbow flexion, limiting the ability to reach. Gravity compensation reduces the required active shoulder abduction torques, which results in a larger range

Predictors of responses to stress among families coping with poverty-related stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Santiago, Catherine DeCarlo; Etter, Erica Moran; Wadsworth, Martha E; Raviv, Tali

2012-05-01

This study tested how poverty-related stress (PRS), psychological distress, and responses to stress predicted future effortful coping and involuntary stress responses one year later. In addition, we explored age, sex, ethnicity, and parental influences on responses to stress over time. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses conducted with 98 low-income families (300 family members: 136 adults, 82 school-aged children, 82 adolescents) revealed that primary control coping, secondary control coping, disengagement, involuntary engagement, and involuntary disengagement each significantly predicted future use of that response. Primary and secondary control coping also predicted less maladaptive future responses to stress, while involuntary responses to stress undermined the development of adaptive responding. Age, sex, and interactions among PRS and prior coping were also found to predict certain responses to stress. In addition, child subgroup analyses demonstrate the importance of parental modeling of coping and involuntary stress responses, and warmth/nurturance and monitoring practices. Results are discussed with regard to the implications for preventive interventions with families in poverty.

Movement - uncontrolled or slow

Science.gov (United States)

Dystonia; Involuntary slow and twisting movements; Choreoathetosis; Leg and arm movements - uncontrollable; Arm and leg movements - uncontrollable; Slow involuntary movements of large muscle groups; Athetoid movements

Visual object imagery and autobiographical memory: Object Imagers are better at remembering their personal past.

Science.gov (United States)

Vannucci, Manila; Pelagatti, Claudia; Chiorri, Carlo; Mazzoni, Giuliana

2016-01-01

In the present study we examined whether higher levels of object imagery, a stable characteristic that reflects the ability and preference in generating pictorial mental images of objects, facilitate involuntary and voluntary retrieval of autobiographical memories (ABMs). Individuals with high (High-OI) and low (Low-OI) levels of object imagery were asked to perform an involuntary and a voluntary ABM task in the laboratory. Results showed that High-OI participants generated more involuntary and voluntary ABMs than Low-OI, with faster retrieval times. High-OI also reported more detailed memories compared to Low-OI and retrieved memories as visual images. Theoretical implications of these findings for research on voluntary and involuntary ABMs are discussed.

Functional Compensation of Motor Function in Pre-Symptomatic Huntington's Disease

Science.gov (United States)

Kloppel, Stefan; Draganski, Bogdan; Siebner, Hartwig R.; Tabrizi, Sarah J.; Weiller, Cornelius; Frackowiak, Richard S. J.

2009-01-01

Involuntary choreiform movements are a clinical hallmark of Huntington's disease. Studies in clinically affected patients suggest a shift of motor activations to parietal cortices in response to progressive neurodegeneration. Here, we studied pre-symptomatic gene carriers to examine the compensatory mechanisms that underlie the phenomenon of…

Preliminary results of training with gravity compensation of the arm in chronic stroke survivors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Kooij, Herman; Prange, Grada Berendina; Prange, G.B.; Krabben, T.; Krabben, T.; Renzenbrink, G.H.; Boer, J.; Hermens, Hermanus J.; Jannink, M.J.A.

2009-01-01

After stroke, arm function can be limited by a reduction in the selectivity of movements, due to involuntary coupling of shoulder abduction and elbow flexion, limiting the ability to reach. Gravity compensation of the arm reduces the required active shoulder abduction torques, which results in a

A Right to Die?: Ethical Dilemmas of Euthanasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Albright, Dianne E.; Hazler, Richard J.

1992-01-01

Euthanasia is considered an important social issue of the 1990s. Mental health professionals should understand the differences between voluntary, involuntary, passive, and active euthanasia; mercy killing, and assisted suicide. Encourages counselors to ethically formulate client-supportive positions to help clients face life-and-death decisions.…

Indicators of Multiple Personality Disorder for the Clinician.

Science.gov (United States)

Dalton, Thomas W.

Multiple personality disorder (MPD) is now recognized as a valid diagnostic category. Occurrence may be higher than previously suspected. While physiological testing of MPD has shown significant differences between the various personalities of individuals in terms of galvanic skin response, electroencephalogram recordings, electrodermal response…

Definition and classification of negative motor signs in childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanger, Terence D; Chen, Daofen; Delgado, Mauricio R; Gaebler-Spira, Deborah; Hallett, Mark; Mink, Jonathan W

2006-11-01

In this report we describe the outcome of a consensus meeting that occurred at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, March 12 through 14, 2005. The meeting brought together 39 specialists from multiple clinical and research disciplines including developmental pediatrics, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurophysiology, muscle physiology, motor control, and biomechanics. The purpose of the meeting was to establish terminology and definitions for 4 aspects of motor disorders that occur in children: weakness, reduced selective motor control, ataxia, and deficits of praxis. The purpose of the definitions is to assist communication between clinicians, select homogeneous groups of children for clinical research trials, facilitate the development of rating scales to assess improvement or deterioration with time, and eventually to better match individual children with specific therapies. "Weakness" is defined as the inability to generate normal voluntary force in a muscle or normal voluntary torque about a joint. "Reduced selective motor control" is defined as the impaired ability to isolate the activation of muscles in a selected pattern in response to demands of a voluntary posture or movement. "Ataxia" is defined as an inability to generate a normal or expected voluntary movement trajectory that cannot be attributed to weakness or involuntary muscle activity about the affected joints. "Apraxia" is defined as an impairment in the ability to accomplish previously learned and performed complex motor actions that is not explained by ataxia, reduced selective motor control, weakness, or involuntary motor activity. "Developmental dyspraxia" is defined as a failure to have ever acquired the ability to perform age-appropriate complex motor actions that is not explained by the presence of inadequate demonstration or practice, ataxia, reduced selective motor control

The effectiveness of physiotherapy for cervical dystonia: a systematic literature review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pauw, J. De; Velden, K. van der; Meirte, J.; Daele, U. Van; Truijen, S.; Cras, P.; Mercelis, R.; Hertogh, W. de

2014-01-01

Cervical dystonia is a form of adult-onset, focal dystonia characterized by involuntary contractions of the neck muscles, leading to a disabling, abnormal head posture. CD has a great impact on the activities of daily living (ADL) and quality of life. Currently, the most widely used and recommended

Swearing, Euphemisms, and Linguistic Relativity

Science.gov (United States)

Bowers, Jeffrey S.; Pleydell-Pearce, Christopher W.

2011-01-01

Participants read aloud swear words, euphemisms of the swear words, and neutral stimuli while their autonomic activity was measured by electrodermal activity. The key finding was that autonomic responses to swear words were larger than to euphemisms and neutral stimuli. It is argued that the heightened response to swear words reflects a form of verbal conditioning in which the phonological form of the word is directly associated with an affective response. Euphemisms are effective because they replace the trigger (the offending word form) by another word form that expresses a similar idea. That is, word forms exert some control on affect and cognition in turn. We relate these findings to the linguistic relativity hypothesis, and suggest a simple mechanistic account of how language may influence thinking in this context. PMID:21799832

Comparison of Ground Reaction Forces, Center of Pressure and Body Center of Mass Changes in the Voluntary, Semi-Voluntary and Involuntary Gait Termination in Healthy Young Men

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

behrooz teymourian

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Objective: The aim of this study was comparing the ground reaction forces, center of pressure and body center of mass changes in voluntary, semi-voluntary and involuntary gait termination in healthy young men. Methods: In this study, 12 young men performed termination of gait in three different patterns. The variable of peak antero-posterior and vertical forces in two directions at both limbs, the time to reach peak and average forces in every limb in both directions, the center of pressure displacement of medio-lateral and antero-posterior direction for each limb and the net center of pressure and the displacement of the center of mass motion in all three motion plates were recorded using motion analysis system and force plate.The repeated measurements test was used to compare three patterns of gait termination at significance level of p&le0.5. Results: The results showed a significant difference in variables of peak antero-posterior force, the time to reach peak antero-posterior force and mean antero-posterior forces of the leading limb, the peak antero-posterior force of the trialing limbs, the depth force of leading limbs, medio-lateral cop of leading limbs displacement and vertical displacement of the center of mass, among different patterns of gait termination. Conclusion: While walking, the probability of a fall or collision damage, when a sudden or unexpected stop is required, increases. Therefore, more coordination between neuromuscular systems is required.

Do ambient urban odors evoke basic emotions?

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Sandra Theresia Weber-Glass

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Fragrances, such as plant odors, have been shown to evoke autonomic response patterns associated with Ekman’s (Ekman et al., 1983 basic emotions happiness, surprise, anger, fear, sadness and disgust. Inducing positive emotions by odors in highly frequented public spaces could serve to improve the quality of life in urban environments. Thus, the present study evaluated the potency of ambient odors connoted with an urban environment to evoke basic emotions on an autonomic and cognitive response level. Synthetic mixtures representing the odors of disinfectant, candles / bees wax, summer air, burnt smell, vomit and musty smell as well as odorless water as a control were presented five times in random order to 30 healthy, non-smoking human subjects with intact sense of smell. Skin temperature, skin conductance, breathing rate, forearm muscle activity, blink rate and heart rate were recorded simultaneously. Subjects rated the odors in terms of pleasantness, intensity and familiarity and gave verbal labels to each odor as well as cognitive associations with the basic emotions. The results showed that the amplitude of the skin conductance response varied as a function of odor presentation. Burnt smell and vomit elicited significantly higher electrodermal responses than summer air. Also, a negative correlation was revealed between the amplitude of the skin conductance response and hedonic odor valence indicating that the magnitude of the electrodermal response increased with odor unpleasantness. The analysis of the cognitive associations between odors and basic emotions showed that candles / bees wax and summer air were specifically associated with happiness whereas burnt smell and vomit were uniquely associated with disgust. Our findings suggest that city odors may evoke specific cognitive associations of basic emotions and that autonomic activity elicited by such odors is related to odor hedonics.

Author Details

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Szopinski, JZ. Vol 10, No 3 (2004) - Articles Neurophysiological foundations of organ electrodermal diagnostics, acupuncture, TENS and other reflexive therapies: review. Abstract PDF. ISSN: 2220-1173. AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO USE AJOL... for Researchers · for Librarians · for Authors · FAQ's · More about ...

Strain-dependent characterization of electrode and polymer network of electrically activated polymer actuators

Science.gov (United States)

Töpper, Tino; Osmani, Bekim; Weiss, Florian M.; Winterhalter, Carla; Wohlfender, Fabian; Leung, Vanessa; Müller, Bert

2015-04-01

Fecal incontinence describes the involuntary loss of bowel content and affects about 45 % of retirement home residents and overall more than 12 % of the adult population. Artificial sphincter implants for treating incontinence are currently based on mechanical systems with failure rates resulting in revision after three to five years. To overcome this drawback, artificial muscle sphincters based on bio-mimetic electro-active polymer (EAP) actuators are under development. Such implants require polymer films that are nanometer-thin, allowing actuation below 24 V, and electrodes that are stretchable, remaining conductive at strains of about 10 %. Strain-dependent resistivity measurements reveal an enhanced conductivity of 10 nm compared to 30 nm sputtered Au on silicone for strains higher than 5 %. Thus, strain-dependent morphology characterization with optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy could demonstrate these phenomena. Cantilever bending measurements are utilized to determine elastic/viscoelastic properties of the EAP films as well as their long-term actuation behavior. Controlling these properties enables the adjustment of growth parameters of nanometer-thin EAP actuators.

Behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia mimicking Huntington's disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, T Rune; Bruhn, Peter; Nielsen, Jørgen E

2010-01-01

Behavioral changes and cognitive decline are the core clinical manifestations in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD). The behavioral changes may include characteristic stereotypic movements. These movements, although without clear purpose, are not involuntary. Involuntary...

Another Crisis Can We Count on the Reserves?

Science.gov (United States)

1994-05-16

the " marshmallow " of volunteerism is something that is too soft of a concept to be counted upon. It only makes sense to develop a more well-defined...unrealistic. Involuntary activation has proven to be a hollow concept in practice, and planners are reluctant to count on the " marshmallow " of

The locked psychiatric ward: hotel or detention camp for people with dual diagnosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Terkelsen, Toril Borch; Larsen, Inger Beate

2013-10-01

The concepts of autonomy and liberty are established goals in mental health care; however, involuntary commitment is used towards people with mental health and substance abuse problems (dual diagnosis). To explore how patients and staff act in the context of involuntary commitment, how interactions are described and how they might be interpreted. Ethnographic methodology in a locked psychiatric ward in Norway. Two parallel images emerged: (a) The ward as a hotel. Several patients wanted a locked ward for rest and safety, even when admission was classified as involuntary. The staff was concerned about using the ward for real treatment of motivated people, rather than merely as a comfortable hotel for the unmotivated. (b) The ward as a detention camp. Other patients found involuntary commitment and restrictions in the ward as a kind of punishment, offending them as individuals. Contrary, the staff understood people with dual diagnoses more like a generalized group in need of their control and care. Patients and staff have different perceptions of involuntary commitment. Based on the patients' points of view, mental health care ought to be characterized by inclusion and recognition, treating patients as equal citizens comparable to guests in a hotel.

Performance Optimization in Sport: A Psychophysiological Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Selenia di Fronso

2017-11-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT In the last 20 years, there was a growing interest in the study of the theoretical and applied issues surrounding psychophysiological processes underlying performance. The psychophysiological monitoring, which enables the study of these processes, consists of the assessment of the activation and functioning level of the organism using a multidimensional approach. In sport, it can be used to attain a better understanding of the processes underlying athletic performance and to improve it. The most frequently used ecological techniques include electromyography (EMG, electrocardiography (ECG, electroencephalography (EEG, and the assessment of electrodermal activity and breathing rhythm. The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of the use of these techniques in applied interventions in sport and physical exercise and to give athletes, coaches and sport psychology experts new insights for performance improvement.

[Vibration-assisted music therapy reduces pain and promotes relaxation of para- and tetraplegic patients. A pilot study of psychiatric and physical effects of simultaneous acoustic and somatosensory music stimulation as pain management].

Science.gov (United States)

Mariauzouls, C; Michel, D; Schiftan, Y

1999-11-01

Pain is a well known phenomenon in posttraumatic spinal cord injuries. Nearly 10% of the patients develop most severe, invalidizing, as a rule neurogenic pain conditions that are hardly accessible to conventional therapies. A pilot study was therefore conducted with 10 paraplegics and tetraplegics suffering chronic pain, investigating how vibration supported music therapy with the Musica Medica method affected pain experience, tension/relaxation and well-being. In addition to subjective experience, we measured physiological parameters (finger tip skin temperature, electrodermal activity, heart rate, respiration frequency) during the therapy sessions. All patients had a high acceptance of the method which throughout the group had brought about an increase in relaxation and well-being as well as a decrease of pain experience. The autonomic nervous system variables correlated with relaxation and in addition pointed to an activating impact of the therapy chosen.

Browse Title Index

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 301 - 350 of 553 ... Vol 23, No 2 (2017), Management for failed back surgery ... Vol 9, No 5 (2003), Morphine sparing effect of low dose ketamine ... Vol 8, No 2 (2002), Neuropathic Pain, Abstract PDF ... Vol 10, No 3 (2004), Neurophysiological foundations of organ electrodermal diagnostics, acupuncture, TENS and other ...

Sexual activity, fertility and contraceptive use in middle-aged and older men: Men in Australia, Telephone Survey (MATeS).

Science.gov (United States)

Holden, C A; McLachlan, R I; Cumming, R; Wittert, G; Handelsman, D J; de Kretser, D M; Pitts, M

2005-12-01

With limited information regarding fertility and sexual activity in the older population, men's behaviour, attitudes and concerns were explored in a representative population of middle-aged and older men using the Men in Australia, Telephone Survey (MATeS). A stratified random national sample of 5990 men participated in a standardized computer-assisted telephone interview. Equal numbers in the age strata 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and >or=70 years were surveyed with findings census-standardized to the national population. Broad aspects of men's health and well-being, including reproductive health, were explored. The majority of men were sexually active in the last 12 months (age-standardized proportion, 78.3%) with approximately 37% of men aged >or=70 years still continuing sexual activity. Overall, 12.2% of men had never fathered children, of whom most (7.7%) had chosen not to have children. Questioning on failed attempts to produce a pregnancy suggested an involuntary infertility rate of 7.6%. The age-standardized vasectomy rate was 25.1%, with 5.6% of vasectomized men having no children. Although 9.2% of vasectomized men regretted sterilization, only 1.4% had undergone vasectomy reversal. Continuing sexual activity, fertility and contraception needs in middle-aged and older men suggests that education and service delivery must be more appropriately directed to an ageing population.

Odor-induced recall of emotional memories in PTSD-Review and new paradigm for research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Daniels, Judith K.; Vermetten, Eric

2016-01-01

It is clinically well known that olfactory intrusions in PTSD can be a disabling phenomena due to the involuntary recall of odor memories. Odorants can trigger involuntary recall of emotional memories as well have the potential to help diminishing emotional arousal as grounding stimuli. Despite

Psykiatriloven forhindrer ikke alvorlige selvmordsforsøg hos patienter med skizofreni

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Day Poulsen, Henrik

2012-01-01

The Danish Mental Health Act does not prevent serious suicide attempts in patients with severe schizophrenia and a lack of compliance to medication. A case in which outpatient involuntary treatment could have prevented a very serious suicidal attempt is presented. In Denmark, outpatient involuntary...

The heart of the story: peripheral physiology during narrative exposure predicts charitable giving.

Science.gov (United States)

Barraza, Jorge A; Alexander, Veronika; Beavin, Laura E; Terris, Elizabeth T; Zak, Paul J

2015-02-01

Emotionally laden narratives are often used as persuasive appeals by charitable organizations. Physiological responses to a narrative may explain why some people respond to an appeal while others do not. In this study we tested whether autonomic and hormonal activity during a narrative predict subsequent narrative influence via charitable giving. Participants viewed a brief story of a father's experience with his 2-year-old son who has terminal cancer. After the story, participants were presented with an opportunity to donate some of their study earnings to a related charity. Measures derived from cardiac and electrodermal activity, including HF-HRV, significantly predicted donor status. Time-series GARCH models of physiology during the narrative further differentiated donors from non-donors. Moreover, cardiac activity and experienced concern were found to covary from moment-to-moment across the narrative. Our findings indicate that the physiological response to a stimulus, herein a narrative, can predict influence as indexed by stimulus-related behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Association of poor childhood fear conditioning and adult crime.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Yu; Raine, Adrian; Venables, Peter H; Dawson, Michael E; Mednick, Sarnoff A

2010-01-01

Amygdala dysfunction is theorized to give rise to poor fear conditioning, which in turn predisposes to crime, but it is not known whether poor conditioning precedes criminal offending. This study prospectively assessed whether poor fear conditioning early in life predisposes to adult crime in a large cohort. Electrodermal fear conditioning was assessed in a cohort of 1,795 children at age 3, and registration for criminal offending was ascertained at age 23. In a case-control design, 137 cohort members with a criminal record were matched on gender, ethnicity, and social adversity with 274 noncriminal comparison members. Statistical analyses compared childhood fear conditioning for the two groups. Criminal offenders showed significantly reduced electrodermal fear conditioning at age 3 compared to matched comparison subjects. Poor fear conditioning at age 3 predisposes to crime at age 23. Poor fear conditioning early in life implicates amygdala and ventral prefrontal cortex dysfunction and a lack of fear of socializing punishments in children who grow up to become criminals. These findings are consistent with a neurodevelopmental contribution to crime causation.

Prelude to a RIF: older workers, part-time hours, and unemployment.

Science.gov (United States)

Reynolds, Jeremy; Wenger, Jeffrey B

2010-04-01

Since the beginning of the most recent recession in December 2007, involuntary part-time employment (part-time for economic reasons) in the United States has increased from 4.2 million workers to 9.1 million, more than doubling. In this paper, we examine whether such increases in involuntary part-time employment have helped combat unemployment in the past or placed a disproportionate burden on older workers. Using Current Population Survey (outgoing rotation group) data from 1983 to 2002, we find that increases in involuntary part-time work in an industry raise the industry unemployment rate. Furthermore, the connection between rising rates of involuntary part-time work and unemployment is stronger among older workers than among younger workers. We conclude that reducing work hours through the use of part-time work does not ameliorate the effects of recessions on workers. Rather, it is a harbinger of unemployment, especially among those older than 55.

Firing patterns of spontaneously active motor units in spinal cord-injured subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Zijdewind, Inge; Thomas, Christine K

2012-04-01

Involuntary motor unit activity at low rates is common in hand muscles paralysed by spinal cord injury. Our aim was to describe these patterns of motor unit behaviour in relation to motoneurone and motor unit properties. Intramuscular electromyographic activity (EMG), surface EMG and force were recorded for 30 min from thenar muscles of nine men with chronic cervical SCI. Motor units fired for sustained periods (>10 min) at regular (coefficient of variation ≤ 0.15, CV, n =19 units) or irregular intervals (CV>0.15, n =14). Regularly firing units started and stopped firing independently suggesting that intrinsic motoneurone properties were important for recruitment and derecruitment. Recruitment (3.6 Hz, SD 1.2), maximal (10.2 Hz, SD 2.3, range: 7.5-15.4 Hz) and derecruitment frequencies were low (3.3 Hz, SD 1.6), as were firing rate increases after recruitment (~20 intervals in 3 s). Once active, firing often covaried, promoting the idea that units received common inputs.Half of the regularly firing units showed a very slow decline (>40 s) in discharge before derecruitment and had interspike intervals longer than their estimated after hyperpolarisation potential (AHP) duration (estimated by death rate and breakpoint analyses). The other units were derecruited more abruptly and had shorter estimated AHP durations. Overall, regularly firing units had longer estimated AHP durations and were weaker than irregularly firing units, suggesting they were lower threshold units. Sustained firing of units at regular rates may reflect activation of persistent inward currents, visible here in the absence of voluntary drive, whereas irregularly firing units may only respond to synaptic noise.

Deceptive Intentions: Can Cues to Deception Be Measured before a Lie Is Even Stated?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabine Ströfer

Full Text Available Can deceitful intentions be discriminated from truthful ones? Previous work consistently demonstrated that deceiving others is accompanied by nervousness/stress and cognitive load. Both are related to increased sympathetic nervous system (SNS activity. We hypothesized that SNS activity already rises during intentions to lie and, consequently, cues to deception can be detected before stating an actual lie. In two experiments, controlling for prospective memory, we monitored SNS activity during lying, truth telling, and truth telling with the aim of lying at a later instance. Electrodermal activity (EDA was used as an indicator of SNS. EDA was highest during lying, and compared to the truth condition, EDA was also raised during the intention to deceive. Moreover, the switch from truth telling toward lying in the intention condition evoked higher EDA than switching toward non-deception related tasks in the lie or truth condition. These results provide first empirical evidence that increased SNS activity related to deception can be monitored before a lie is stated. This implies that cues to deception are already present during the mere intention to lie.

Tourette--and Teachers.

Science.gov (United States)

Teitelbaum, Blanche R.

1979-01-01

Describes the Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome, a little-known disorder of the central nervous system whose symptoms include involuntary movements, such as facial tics, and the production of involuntary sounds, such as grunts and obscenities. Suggests ways teachers can help a child afflicted with this disorder. (SJL)

Relocation Stress, Coping, and Sense of Control among Resettlers Resulting from China's Three Gorges Dam Project

Science.gov (United States)

Xi, Juan; Hwang, Sean-Shong

2011-01-01

The involuntary relocation of people for development purposes has become prevalent across the world in recent decades. Depression is one of the documented negative outcomes of involuntary relocation among resettlers. Viewing the affected population simply as passive victims, past studies have largely ignored the coping strategies employed by…

Attentional Capture with Rapidly Changing Attentional Control Settings

Science.gov (United States)

Lien, Mei-Ching; Ruthruff, Eric; Johnston, James C.

2010-01-01

The classic theory of spatial attention hypothesized 2 modes, voluntary and involuntary. Folk, Remington, and Johnston (1992) reported that even involuntary attention capture by stimuli requires a match between stimulus properties and what the observer is looking for. This surprising conclusion has been confirmed by many subsequent studies. In…

Neuroradiologiske forandringer ved undertrykkelse af tics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Sara Bohn; Sørensen, Camilla Birgitte; Skov, Liselotte

2017-01-01

Neuroradiological changes by suppression of tics Tourette’s syndrome is characterized by involuntary tics. First choice of treatment has been pharmacological, but recently, behavioural therapy teaching patients to suppress their tics has been introduced. Neuroimaging studies have shown an increased...... activity in the prefrontal cortex, temporal lobes and caudate nucleus, and a decreased activity in globus pallidus and putamen during inhibition of tics. The activity in the frontal lobes changes with age, probably caused by a lack of compensatory hypertrophy. In order to fully understand the mechanism...

All projects related to sri lanka | Page 2 | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Region: Sri Lanka, Central Asia, Far East Asia, South Asia, Canada. Program: Agriculture and Food Security. Total Funding: CA$ 410,300.00. Involuntary resettlement: A cross-country study on urban inequality and poverty. Project. Involuntary displacement in urban areas takes place when people are forced to leave and do ...

The Role of Relational Information in Contingent Capture

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Stefanie I.; Folk, Charles L.; Remington, Roger W.

2010-01-01

On the contingent capture account, top-down attentional control settings restrict involuntary attentional capture to items that match the features of the search target. Attention capture is involuntary, but contingent on goals and intentions. The observation that only target-similar items can capture attention has usually been taken to show that…

Experience of action depends on intention, not body movement: an experiment on memory for mens rea.

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Mads; Vagnoni, Eleonora; Overgaard, Morten; Haggard, Patrick

2014-03-01

How do we know whether our own actions were voluntary or involuntary? Intentional theories of sense of agency suggest that we consciously perceive the intentions that accompany our actions, but reconstructive theories suggest that we perceive our actions only through the body movements and other effects that they produce. Intentions would then be mere confabulations, and not bona fide experiences. Previous work on voluntary action has focused on immediate experiences of authorship, and few studies have considered memory for voluntary actions. We devised an experiment in which both voluntary action and involuntary movement always occurred at the same time, but could either involve the same hand (congruent condition), or different hands (incongruent condition). When signals from the voluntary and involuntary movements involved different hands, they could therefore potentially interfere in memory. We found that recall of a voluntary action was unaffected by an incongruent involuntary movement. In contrast, recall of an involuntary movement was strongly influenced by an incongruent voluntary action. Our results demonstrate an "intentional capture" of body movement by voluntary actions, in support of intentional theories of agency, but contrary to reconstructive theories. When asked to recall both actions and movements, people's responses are shaped by memory of what they intended to do, rather than by how their body moved. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

How do retirement dynamics influence mental well-being in later life? A 10-year panel study.

Science.gov (United States)

Dingemans, Ellen; Henkens, Kène

2015-01-01

Empirical studies have consistently shown the negative impact of involuntary retirement on mental well-being. However, few studies have thus far investigated the degree to which post-retirement work affects late-life outcomes. The present study improves our understanding of the impact of retirement on the self-efficacy and life satisfaction among older adults by focusing on the combined impact of retirement voluntariness and participation in post-retirement work. By using panel data on retirement behavior in the Netherlands, we estimate fixed effects and multilevel models to explain (intra-)individual changes in self-efficacy and life satisfaction over a 10-year period in which most participants made the transition to retirement. The results indicate that involuntary retirement is associated with decreases in both self-efficacy and life satisfaction in later life. Whereas involuntary retirees who participate in bridge jobs show no changes in life satisfaction, those involuntary retirees without bridge jobs experience a decline in life satisfaction. In addition, we found enhanced levels of life satisfaction for voluntary retirees in bridge employment. The association with self-efficacy was less pronounced. These results suggest that the characteristics of the retirement process influence changes in mental well-being in later life. Specifically, bridge employment alleviates the negative consequences of involuntary retirement and even seems to enhance post-retirement well-being for voluntary retirees.

Exploration of the neural correlates of ticklish laughter by functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Wattendorf, Elise; Westermann, Birgit; Fiedler, Klaus; Kaza, Evangelia; Lotze, Martin; Celio, Marco R

2013-06-01

The burst of laughter that is evoked by tickling is a primitive form of vocalization. It evolves during an early phase of postnatal life and appears to be independent of higher cortical circuits. Clinicopathological observations have led to suspicions that the hypothalamus is directly involved in the production of laughter. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation, healthy participants were 1) tickled on the sole of the right foot with permission to laugh, 2) tickled but asked to stifle laughter, and 3) requested to laugh voluntarily. Tickling that was accompanied by involuntary laughter activated regions in the lateral hypothalamus, parietal operculum, amygdala, and right cerebellum to a consistently greater degree than did the 2 other conditions. Activation of the periaqueductal gray matter was observed during voluntary and involuntary laughter but not when laughter was inhibited. The present findings indicate that hypothalamic activity plays a crucial role in evoking ticklish laughter in healthy individuals. The hypothalamus promotes innate behavioral reactions to stimuli and sends projections to the periaqueductal gray matter, which is itself an important integrative center for the control of vocalization. A comparison of our findings with published data relating to humorous laughter revealed the involvement of a common set of subcortical centers.

The Mechanism of Dishabituation

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Genevieve Z. Steiner

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The dual-process theory of habituation attributes dishabituation, an increase in responding to a habituated stimulus after an interpolated deviant, to sensitisation, a change in arousal. Our previous investigations into elicitation and habituation of the electrodermal Orienting Reflex (OR showed that dishabituation is independent of sensitisation for indifferent stimuli, arguing against dual-process theory’s explanation. However, this could not be tested for significant stimuli in that study, because sensitisation was confounded with incomplete resolution of the preceding OR. This study aimed to clarify the mechanism of dishabituation for significant stimuli by extending the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA beyond the time required for the phasic response to resolve. Participants completed an auditory dishabituation task with a random SOA of 13-15 s while their electrodermal activity was recorded. The stimulus sequence was 10 standards, 1 deviant, 2-4 standards; counterbalanced innocuous tones. Two counterbalanced conditions were used: silently count all stimuli (significant and no task (indifferent. Skin conductance responses (SCRs and pre-stimulus skin conductance levels (SCLs both decremented over trials 1-10. In both conditions, SCRs showed response recovery and dishabituation, indicating habituation, and post-deviant SCL sensitisation was apparent. Across all trials, phasic ORs were dependent on the pre-stimulus SCL (arousal level; this did not differ with condition. Importantly, dishabituation was independent of sensitisation for both conditions. Findings indicate that sensitisation, the change in state, is a process separate from phasic response resolution, and that arousal consistently predicts OR magnitude, including the dishabituation response. This argues against dual-process theory’s explanation, and instead suggests that dishabituation is a disruption of the habituation process, with magnitude determined by the current arousal

Working Hours Mismatch, Macroeconomic Changes, and Mental Well-being in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

De Moortel, Deborah; Thévenon, Olivier; De Witte, Hans; Vanroelen, Christophe

2017-06-01

This study explores the association between involuntarily working less or more than the standard workweek and poor mental well-being, and whether this relationship is dependent upon (changing) national-level unemployment and gross domestic product growth rates. Data from the European Social Survey Round 2 (2004-2005) and Round 5 (2010) were analyzed. The sample included 16,224 male and 16,184 female employees. Mental well-being was assessed by the World Health Organization Well-being Index. Three-level linear multilevel modeling was used to account for clustering of employees within research years and countries. Working involuntary long hours was positively associated with poor mental well-being for men. For women, working voluntary long, involuntary long, and involuntary short hours were positively associated with poor mental well-being. The mental well-being of women working voluntary and involuntary long hours was negatively influenced by deteriorating economic conditions. This study suggests women are more vulnerable to the effects of long working hours and working hours mismatch on mental well-being, especially during difficult economic periods.

Stroking and tapping the skin: behavioral and electrodermal effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Etzi, Roberta; Carta, Carlotta; Gallace, Alberto

2018-02-01

Being caressed represents one of the most typical expressions of affection conveyed by touch. Converging evidence suggests that the pleasant perception of gentle and slow stroking delivered to the hairy skin is mediated by C-Tactile afferents (CTs). While behavioral and neural responses to CT-optimal touch have been moderately explored so far, less is known about the autonomic reaction to different kinds of touch (both CT-optimal and not). Here, we investigated whether physiological arousal varies as a function of the specific tactile stimulation provided. Stroking (slow: 3 cm/s 'CT-optimal'; or fast: 30 cm/s) and tapping (random or fixed spatial order) stimulations were delivered to the participants' forearm with a brush, for durations of 9 or 60 s. Participants' skin conductance response (SCR) and level (SCL), as well as subjective evaluations, were recorded. The results revealed that being stroked (at both the velocities) induced higher SCR and SCL than being tapped. Moreover, while higher SCR was elicited by CT-suboptimal stroking compared to CT-optimal stroking, SCL was not affected differently by CT-optimal touch. No differences were found between the effects of 9 and 60 s stimulations. Slow stroking was evaluated as the most pleasant, relaxing and 'social' type of touch compared to the other tactile stimulations. Taken together, these findings shed light on the psychophysiological responses to stroking (including CT-optimal touch) and tapping, and contribute to elucidate the mechanisms underlying hedonic tactile perception.

[Cardiac rhythm variability as an index of vegetative heart regulation in a situation of psychoemotional tension].

Science.gov (United States)

Revina, N E

2006-01-01

Differentiated role of segmental and suprasegmental levels of cardiac rhythm variability regulation in dynamics of motivational human conflict was studied for the first time. The author used an original method allowing simultaneous analysis of psychological and physiological parameters of human activity. The study demonstrates that will and anxiety, as components of motivational activity spectrum, form the "energetic" basis of voluntary-constructive and involuntary-affective behavioral strategies, selectively uniting various levels of suprasegmental and segmental control of human heart functioning in a conflict situation.

Hemichorea after multiple bee stings.

Science.gov (United States)

An, Jin Young; Kim, Ji Seon; Min, Jin Hong; Han, Kyu Hong; Kang, Jun Ho; Lee, Suk Woo; Kim, Hoon; Park, Jung Soo

2014-02-01

Bee sting is one of the most commonly encountered insect bites in the world. Despite the common occurrence of local and systemic allergic reactions, there are few reports of ischemic stroke after bee stings. To the best our knowledge, there have been no reports on involuntary hyperkinetic movement disorders after multiple bee stings. We report the case of a 50-year-old man who developed involuntary movements of the left leg 24 hours after multiple bee stings, and the cause was confirmed to be a right temporal infarction on a diffusion magnetic resonance imaging scan. Thus, we concluded that the involuntary movement disorder was caused by right temporal infarction that occurred after multiple bee stings.

An effective attentional set for a specific colour does not prevent capture by infrequently presented motion distractors.

Science.gov (United States)

Retell, James D; Becker, Stefanie I; Remington, Roger W

2016-01-01

An organism's survival depends on the ability to rapidly orient attention to unanticipated events in the world. Yet, the conditions needed to elicit such involuntary capture remain in doubt. Especially puzzling are spatial cueing experiments, which have consistently shown that involuntary shifts of attention to highly salient distractors are not determined by stimulus properties, but instead are contingent on attentional control settings induced by task demands. Do we always need to be set for an event to be captured by it, or is there a class of events that draw attention involuntarily even when unconnected to task goals? Recent results suggest that a task-irrelevant event will capture attention on first presentation, suggesting that salient stimuli that violate contextual expectations might automatically capture attention. Here, we investigated the role of contextual expectation by examining whether an irrelevant motion cue that was presented only rarely (∼3-6% of trials) would capture attention when observers had an active set for a specific target colour. The motion cue had no effect when presented frequently, but when rare produced a pattern of interference consistent with attentional capture. The critical dependence on the frequency with which the irrelevant motion singleton was presented is consistent with early theories of involuntary orienting to novel stimuli. We suggest that attention will be captured by salient stimuli that violate expectations, whereas top-down goals appear to modulate capture by stimuli that broadly conform to contextual expectations.

Effects of pushing height on trunk posture and trunk muscle activity when a cart suddenly starts or stops moving.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yun-Ju; Hoozemans, Marco J M; van Dieën, Jaap H

2012-01-01

Unexpected sudden (un)loading of the trunk may induce inadequate responses of trunk muscles and uncontrolled trunk motion. These unexpected perturbations may occur in pushing tasks, when the cart suddenly starts moving (unloading) or is blocked by an obstacle (loading). In pushing, handle height affects the user's working posture, which may influence trunk muscle activity and trunk movement in response to the perturbation. Eleven healthy male subjects pushed a 200 kg cart with handles at shoulder and hip height in a start condition (sudden release of brakes) and a stop condition (bumping into an obstacle). Before the perturbation, the baseline of the trunk inclination, internal moment and trunk extensor muscle activity were significantly higher when pushing at hip height than at shoulder height. After the perturbation, the changes in trunk inclination and internal moment were significantly larger when pushing at shoulder height than at hip height in both conditions. The opposite directions of changes in trunk inclination and internal moment suggest that the unexpected perturbations caused uncontrolled trunk motion. Pushing at shoulder height may impose a high risk of low-back injury due to the low trunk stiffness and large involuntary trunk motion occurring after carts suddenly move or stop.

The missio Dei as context for a ministry to refugees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diniz R. Soares

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The current global escalation of refugees and involuntary migration, due to the effects of war and world disasters, makes it imperative to devise an effective approach to care for refugees. This article, therefore examines the problem of displacement from the perspective of missio Dei. It presents God’s active involvement in his creation, recreating it and providing particular care for the vulnerable and refugees.

Experimental characterization and analysis of the BITalino platforms against a reference device.

Science.gov (United States)

Batista, Diana; Silva, Hugo; Fred, Ana

2017-07-01

Low-cost hardware platforms for biomedical engineering are becoming increasingly available, which empower the research community in the development of new projects in a wide range of areas related with physiological data acquisition. Building upon previous work by our group, this work compares the quality of the data acquired by means of two different versions of the multimodal physiological computing platform BITalino, with a device that can be considered a reference. We acquired data from 5 sensors, namely Accelerometry (ACC), Electrocardiography (ECG), Electroencephalography (EEG), Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Electromyography (EMG). Experimental evaluation shows that ACC, ECG and EDA data are highly correlated with the reference in what concerns the raw waveforms. When compared by means of their commonly used features, EEG and EMG data are also quite similar across the different devices.

Emotional Intensity and Emotion Regulation in Response to Autobiographical Memories During Dysphoria

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

del Palacio Gonzalez, Adriana; Berntsen, Dorthe; Watson, Lynn Ann

2017-01-01

Retrieving personal memories may provoke different emotions and a need for emotion regulation. Emotional responses have been studied scarcely in relation to autobiographical memory retrieval. We examined the emotional response to everyday involuntary (spontaneously arising) and voluntary...... (strategically retrieved) memories, and how this response may be different during dysphoria. Participants (20 dysphoric and 23 non-depressed) completed a structured diary where the intensity of basic emotions and regulation strategies employed upon retrieval of memories were rated. Brooding, memory suppression......, and emotional suppression were higher for all individuals’ involuntary memories than voluntary memories. Negative emotions and regulation strategies were greater for dysphoric individuals for both involuntary and voluntary memories after controlling for the valence of the remembered events. The results provide...

How intention and monitoring your thoughts influence characteristics of autobiographical memories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barzykowski, Krystian; Staugaard, Søren Risløv

2018-01-01

Involuntary autobiographical memories come to mind effortlessly and unintended, but the mechanisms of their retrieval are not fully understood. We hypothesize that involuntary retrieval depends on memories that are highly accessible (e.g., intense, unusual, recent, rehearsed), while the elaborate...... search that characterizes voluntary retrieval also produces memories that are mundane, repeated or distant – memories with low accessibility. Previous research provides some evidence for this ‘threshold hypothesis’. However, in almost every prior study, participants have been instructed to report only...... memories while ignoring other thoughts. It is possible that such an instruction can modify the phenomenological characteristics of involuntary memories. This study aimed to investigate the effects of retrieval intentionality (i.e., wanting to retrieve a memory) and selective monitoring (i.e., instructions...

Involuntary movements in the elderly. Parkinson's disease and other causes.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, J Q

1986-03-01

Dyskinesia is usually lifelong and progressive; therefore, physicians generally see the disorder in elderly patients. Medical treatment must be carefully selected on the basis of the cause of the dyskinesia. Parkinsonian dyskinesia is well controlled by drug therapy. However, patients can become less responsive to a drug after years of use and may experience unwelcome side effects. Cerebellar tremor is extremely disabling because it worsens with activity, but no satisfactory therapy is available. Senile, essential, and familial tremors are also intensified by action, but they can often be suppressed with a mild tranquilizer or a beta blocker. Drug treatment of blepharospasm and spastic dysphonia has been disappointing: Facial or laryngeal surgery is sometimes required. Tardive dyskinesia is caused by neuroleptic drugs, so the only therapy for the disorder is withdrawal of the offending drug.

Anesthetic activity and bio-guided fractionation of the essential oil of Aloysia gratissima (Gillies & Hook.) Tronc. in silver catfish Rhamdia quelen.

Science.gov (United States)

Benovit, Simone C; Silva, Lenise L; Salbego, Joseânia; Loro, Vania L; Mallmann, Carlos A; Baldisserotto, Bernardo; Flores, Erico M M; Heinzmann, Berta M

2015-09-01

This work aimed to determine the efficacy of the essential oil of A. gratissima as anesthetic for silver catfish, and to perform the bio-guided fractionation of essential oil aiming to isolate compounds responsible for the noted effects. Fish were submitted to anesthesia bath with essential oil, its fractions and isolated compounds to determine time of anesthetic induction and recovery. Eugenol (50 mg L(-1)) was used as positive control. Essential oil of A. gratissima was effective as an anesthetic at concentrations of 300 to 900 mg L(-1). Fish presented involuntary muscle contractions during induction and recovery. The bio-guided fractionation of essential oil furnished E-(-)-pinocamphone, (-)-caryophyllene oxide, (-)-guaiol and (+)-spathulenol. E-(-)-pinocamphone caused the same side effects observed for essential oil. (-)-Caryophyllene oxide, (-)-guaiol and (+)-spathulenol showed only sedative effects at proportional concentrations to those of the constituents in essential oil. (+)-Spathulenol (51.2 mg L(-1)) promoted deep anesthesia without side effects. A higher concentration of (+)-spathulenol, and lower or absent amounts ofE-(-)-pinocamphone could contribute to increase the activity and safety of the essential oil of A. gratissima. (+)-Spathulenol showed potent sedative and anesthetic activities in silver catfish, and could be considered as a viable compound for the development of a new anesthetic.

Neurophysiologic studies of functional neurologic disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Hallett, M

2016-01-01

Functional neurologic disorders are largely genuine and represent conversion disorders, where the dysfunction is unconscious, but there are some that are factitious, where the abnormality is feigned and conscious. Malingering, which can have the same manifestations, is similarly feigned, but not considered a genuine disease. There are no good methods for differentiating these three entities at the present time. Physiologic studies of functional weakness and sensory loss reveal normal functioning of primary motor and sensory cortex, but abnormalities of premotor cortex and association cortices. This suggests a top-down influence creating the dysfunction. Studies of functional tremor and myoclonus show that these disorders utilize normal voluntary motor structures to produce the involuntary movements, again suggesting a higher-level abnormality. Agency is abnormal and studies shows that dysfunction of the temporoparietal junction may be a correlate. The limbic system is overactive and might initiate involuntary movements, but the mechanism for this is not known. The limbic system would then be the source of top-down dysfunction. It can be speculated that the involuntary movements are involuntary due to lack of proper feedforward signaling. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Outsourcing, Unemployment and Welfare Policy

OpenAIRE

Christian Keuschnigg; Evelyn Ribi

2007-01-01

Outsourcing of labor intensive activities challenges the welfare state and undermines the protection of low-skilled workers. The stylized facts are that profits are concentrated among the high-skilled, involuntary unemployment is mostly among the low-skilled, and private unemployment insurance is missing. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of redistribution and insurance policies when heterogeneous firms can outsource labor intensive components to low-wage economies. The main results are: ...

Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis in hyperthyroidism.

OpenAIRE

Drake, M. E.

1987-01-01

Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis is an unusual movement disorder often triggered by attempts to use the limbs, and has sometimes been associated with diffuse or focal brain injury. We report its occurrence in hyperthyroidism, with which choreoathetosis has rarely been described in the past without known cause. Choreoathetosis has also occurred with other metabolic and toxic disorders, and the mechanism is uncertain. The development of involuntary movements activated by limb motion durin...

Wearable sensor platform and mobile application for use in cognitive behavioral therapy for drug addiction and PTSD.

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Richard Ribón; Tam, Sharon; Omojola, Olufemi; Redemske, Richard; Kwan, Joyce

2011-01-01

We present a wearable sensor platform designed for monitoring and studying autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity for the purpose of mental health treatment and interventions. The mobile sensor system consists of a sensor band worn on the ankle that continuously monitors electrodermal activity (EDA), 3-axis acceleration, and temperature. A custom-designed ECG heart monitor worn on the chest is also used as an optional part of the system. The EDA signal from the ankle bands provides a measure sympathetic nervous system activity and used to detect arousal events. The optional ECG data can be used to improve the sensor classification algorithm and provide a measure of emotional "valence." Both types of sensor bands contain a Bluetooth radio that enables communication with the patient's mobile phone. When a specific arousal event is detected, the phone automatically presents therapeutic and empathetic messages to the patient in the tradition of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). As an example of clinical use, we describe how the system is currently being used in an ongoing study for patients with drug-addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Quantitative EEG analysis in minimally conscious state patients during postural changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Greco, A; Carboncini, M C; Virgillito, A; Lanata, A; Valenza, G; Scilingo, E P

2013-01-01

Mobilization and postural changes of patients with cognitive impairment are standard clinical practices useful for both psychic and physical rehabilitation process. During this process, several physiological signals, such as Electroen-cephalogram (EEG), Electrocardiogram (ECG), Photopletysmography (PPG), Respiration activity (RESP), Electrodermal activity (EDA), are monitored and processed. In this paper we investigated how quantitative EEG (qEEG) changes with postural modifications in minimally conscious state patients. This study is quite novel and no similar experimental data can be found in the current literature, therefore, although results are very encouraging, a quantitative analysis of the cortical area activated in such postural changes still needs to be deeply investigated. More specifically, this paper shows EEG power spectra and brain symmetry index modifications during a verticalization procedure, from 0 to 60 degrees, of three patients in Minimally Consciousness State (MCS) with focused region of impairment. Experimental results show a significant increase of the power in β band (12 - 30 Hz), commonly associated to human alertness process, thus suggesting that mobilization and postural changes can have beneficial effects in MCS patients.

Custody, care and country of origin: demographic and diagnostic admission statistics at an inner-city adult psychiatry unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Brendan D; Emechebe, Afam; Anamdi, Chike; Duffy, Richard; Murphy, Niamh; Rock, Catherine

2015-01-01

Involuntary detention is a feature of psychiatric care in many countries. We previously reported an involuntary admission rate of 67.7 per 100,000 population per year in inner-city Dublin (January 2008-December 2010), which was higher than Ireland's national rate (38.5). We also found that the proportion of admissions that was involuntary was higher among individuals born outside Ireland (33.9%) compared to those from Ireland (12.0%), apparently owing to increased diagnoses of schizophrenia in the former group. In the present study (January 2011-June 2013) we again found that the proportion of admissions that was involuntary was higher among individuals from outside Ireland (32.5%) compared to individuals from Ireland (9.9%) (pIreland (206.1 voluntary admissions per 100,000 population per year; deprivation-adjusted rate: 158.5) compared to individuals from Ireland (775.1; deprivation-adjusted rate: 596.2). Overall, admission rates in our deprived, inner-city catchment area remain higher than national rates and this may be attributable to differential effects of Ireland's recent economic problems on different areas within Ireland. The relatively low rate of voluntary admission among individuals born outside Ireland may be attributable to different patterns of help-seeking which mental health services in Ireland need to take into account in future service-planning. Other jurisdictions could also usefully focus attention not just on rates on involuntary admission among individuals born elsewhere, but also rates of voluntary admission which may provide useful insights for service-planning and delivery. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The health care professional as a modern abolitionist.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Callaghan, Michael G

2012-01-01

Health care professionals are in a unique position to identify and to assist victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking today occurs both domestically and globally. It manifests in many forms, including adult and child forced labor, involuntary domestic servitude, adult and child sexual slavery, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, and child soldiers. This article offers insight into modern human trafficking and ways health care professionals can be activists.

The Health Care Professional as a Modern Abolitionist

OpenAIRE

O'Callaghan, Michael G

2012-01-01

Health care professionals are in a unique position to identify and to assist victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking today occurs both domestically and globally. It manifests in many forms, including adult and child forced labor, involuntary domestic servitude, adult and child sexual slavery, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, and child soldiers. This article offers insight into modern human trafficking and ways health care professionals can be activists.

Intersectional Discrimination of Romani Women Forcibly Sterilized in the Former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic.

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Albert, Gwendolyn; Szilvasi, Marek

2017-12-01

This paper reviews domestic and international activism seeking justice for Romani and other women harmed by coercive, forced, and involuntary sterilization in the former Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic. Framed by Michel Foucault's theory of biopower, it summarizes the history of these abuses and describes human rights campaigns involving domestic and international litigation, advocacy, and grassroots activism, as well as the responses of the Czech governments. The paper describes how legal and policy work during the past decade has led to recognition of coercive, forced, and involuntary sterilization as a present-day human rights issue worldwide, to the adoption of new guidelines on female sterilization, and to a joint statement on the issue by seven UN agencies. Relying on academic literature, reports by domestic and international human rights groups, state investigations, judgments from Czech courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), media reports, and the experience of the authors, who have been allies of the Romani women harmed in the Czech Republic since 2005 and 2012, respectively, the paper describes the current state of play with respect to achieving redress for them, including current conceptual, legal, political, and social obstacles and their antecedents in 20th century notions of population control.

The Health Care Professional as a Modern Abolitionist

Science.gov (United States)

O'Callaghan, Michael G

2012-01-01

Health care professionals are in a unique position to identify and to assist victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking today occurs both domestically and globally. It manifests in many forms, including adult and child forced labor, involuntary domestic servitude, adult and child sexual slavery, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, and child soldiers. This article offers insight into modern human trafficking and ways health care professionals can be activists. PMID:22745622

Reserve Component Personnel Issues: Questions and Answers

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-18

under this authority entered active duty on March 1, 1998. This low-intensity conflict with Iraq changed to a high -intensity conflict on March 20...for involuntary mobilization of Guard/Reserve units will remain a one year mobilized to five year demobilized ratio . However, today’s global demands...accrues or receives, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind every payday: basic pay, basic allowance for housing, basic allowance for subsistence, and

Using Psychophysiological Sensors to Assess Mental Workload During Web Browsing.

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Jimenez-Molina, Angel; Retamal, Cristian; Lira, Hernan

2018-02-03

Knowledge of the mental workload induced by a Web page is essential for improving users' browsing experience. However, continuously assessing the mental workload during a browsing task is challenging. To address this issue, this paper leverages the correlation between stimuli and physiological responses, which are measured with high-frequency, non-invasive psychophysiological sensors during very short span windows. An experiment was conducted to identify levels of mental workload through the analysis of pupil dilation measured by an eye-tracking sensor. In addition, a method was developed to classify mental workload by appropriately combining different signals (electrodermal activity (EDA), electrocardiogram, photoplethysmo-graphy (PPG), electroencephalogram (EEG), temperature and pupil dilation) obtained with non-invasive psychophysiological sensors. The results show that the Web browsing task involves four levels of mental workload. Also, by combining all the sensors, the efficiency of the classification reaches 93.7%.

Seizure detection, seizure prediction, and closed-loop warning systems in epilepsy.

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Ramgopal, Sriram; Thome-Souza, Sigride; Jackson, Michele; Kadish, Navah Ester; Sánchez Fernández, Iván; Klehm, Jacquelyn; Bosl, William; Reinsberger, Claus; Schachter, Steven; Loddenkemper, Tobias

2014-08-01

Nearly one-third of patients with epilepsy continue to have seizures despite optimal medication management. Systems employed to detect seizures may have the potential to improve outcomes in these patients by allowing more tailored therapies and might, additionally, have a role in accident and SUDEP prevention. Automated seizure detection and prediction require algorithms which employ feature computation and subsequent classification. Over the last few decades, methods have been developed to detect seizures utilizing scalp and intracranial EEG, electrocardiography, accelerometry and motion sensors, electrodermal activity, and audio/video captures. To date, it is unclear which combination of detection technologies yields the best results, and approaches may ultimately need to be individualized. This review presents an overview of seizure detection and related prediction methods and discusses their potential uses in closed-loop warning systems in epilepsy. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Autonomic nervous system dynamics for mood and emotional-state recognition significant advances in data acquisition, signal processing and classification

CERN Document Server

Valenza, Gaetano

2014-01-01

This monograph reports on advances in the measurement and study of autonomic nervous system (ANS) dynamics as a source of reliable and effective markers for mood state recognition and assessment of emotional responses. Its primary impact will be in affective computing and the application of emotion-recognition systems. Applicative studies of biosignals such as: electrocardiograms; electrodermal responses; respiration activity; gaze points; and pupil-size variation are covered in detail, and experimental results explain how to characterize the elicited affective levels and mood states pragmatically and accurately using the information thus extracted from the ANS. Nonlinear signal processing techniques play a crucial role in understanding the ANS physiology underlying superficially noticeable changes and provide important quantifiers of cardiovascular control dynamics. These have prognostic value in both healthy subjects and patients with mood disorders. Moreover, Autonomic Nervous System Dynamics for Mood and ...

Psychophysiological responses to imagined infidelity: the specific innate modular view of jealousy reconsidered.

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Harris, C R

2000-06-01

Three studies measured psychophysiological reactivity (heart rate, blood pressure, and electrodermal activity) while participants imagined a mate's infidelity. The specific innate modular theory of gender differences in jealousy hypothesizes that men are upset by sexual infidelity and women are upset by emotional infidelity, because of having faced different adaptive challenges (cuckoldry and loss of a mate's resources, respectively). This view was not supported. In men, sexual-infidelity imagery elicited greater reactivity than emotional-infidelity imagery. But, sexual imagery elicited greater reactivity even when infidelity was not involved, suggesting that the differential reactivity may not specifically index greater jealousy. In two studies with reasonable power, women did not respond more strongly to emotional infidelity. Moreover, women with committed sexual relationship experience showed reactivity patterns similar to those of men. Hypothetical infidelity self-reports were unrelated to reactivity.

Sleep deprived and sweating it out: the effects of total sleep deprivation on skin conductance reactivity to psychosocial stress.

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Liu, Jean C J; Verhulst, Silvan; Massar, Stijn A A; Chee, Michael W L

2015-01-01

We examined how sleep deprivation alters physiological responses to psychosocial stress by evaluating changes in skin conductance. Between-subjects design with one group allocated to 24 h of total sleep deprivation and the other to rested wakefulness. The study took place in a research laboratory. Participants were 40 healthy young adults recruited from a university. Sleep deprivation and feedback. Electrodermal activity was monitored while participants completed a difficult perceptual task with false feedback. All participants showed increased skin conductance levels following stress. However, compared to well-rested participants, sleep deprived participants showed higher skin conductance reactivity with increasing stress levels. Our results suggest that sleep deprivation augments allostatic responses to increasing psychosocial stress. Consequentially, we propose sleep loss as a risk factor that can influence the pathogenic effects of stress. © 2014 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC.

Adaptation of postural responses during different standing perturbation conditions in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury.

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Thigpen, Mary T; Cauraugh, James; Creel, Gwen; Day, Kristin; Flynn, Sheryl; Fritz, Stacy; Frost, Shirley; Respess, Robert; Gardner-Smith, Portia; Brack, Mia; Behrman, Andrea

2009-01-01

Incomplete spinal cord injury (ISCI) frequently disrupts afferent and efferent neural pathways underlying co-requisite voluntary and involuntary muscle activation required for functional standing and walking. To understand involuntary postural control mechanisms necessary for standing, we compared eight individuals with ISCI to eight controls with no impairment. The aim of this study was to investigate anticipatory and reactive balance responses in individuals with ISCI. The ability to adapt to changes in balance conditions was assessed by monitoring automatic postural responses (APRs) during a series of expected and unexpected changes in perturbation direction (backward translation versus toes-up rotation). Both groups were able to modulate appropriately within one or two trials following an unexpected change in condition. Onset times of anterior tibialis and medial gastrocnemius (MG) were significantly slower in the ISCI group during expected and unexpected conditions. These findings demonstrate that persons with mild to moderate lower extremity sensorimotor deficits are able to generate and adapt APRs to a rapid and unexpected contextual change during a simple standing balance task.

Memory and the Korsakoff syndrome: not remembering what is remembered.

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d'Ydewalle, Géry; Van Damme, Ilse

2007-03-14

Following the distinction between involuntary unconscious memory, involuntary conscious memory, and intentional retrieval, the focus of the present paper is whether there is an impairment of involuntary conscious memory among Korsakoff patients. At study, participants generated associations versus counted the number of letters with enclosed spaces or the number of vowels in the target words (semantic versus perceptual processing). In the Direct tests, stems were to be used to retrieve the targets with either guessing or no guessing allowed; in the Opposition tests, the stems were to be completed with the first word that came to mind but using another word if that first word was a target word; and in the Indirect tests, no reference was made to the target words from the study phase. In the Direct tests, the performance of Korsakoff patients was not necessarily worse than the one of healthy controls, provided guessing was allowed. More critical for the Korsakoff patients was the deficient involuntary conscious memory. The deficiency explained the suppression failures in the Opposition tests, the absence of performance differences between the Indirect and Opposition tests, the absence of a beneficial effect in providing information about the status of the stem, the performance boost when allowed to guess, and the very low rate of "Know"/"Remember" responses.

[A Case of Psychogenic Tremor during Awake Craniotomy].

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Kujirai, Kazumasa; Kamata, Kotoe; Uno, Toshihiro; Hamada, Keiko; Ozaki, Makoto

2016-01-01

A 31-year-old woman with a left frontal and parietal brain tumor underwent awake craniotomy. Propofol/remifentanil general anesthesia was induced. Following craniotomy, anesthetic administrations ceased. The level of consciousness was sufficient and she was not agitated. However, the patient complained of nausea 70 minutes into the awake phase. Considering the adverse effects of antiemetics and the upcoming surgical strategy, we did not give any medications. Nausea disappeared spontaneously while the operation was suspended. When surgical intervention extended to the left caudate nucleus, involuntary movement, classified as a tremor, with 5-6 Hz frequency, abruptly occurred on her left forearm. The patient showed emotional distress. Tremor appeared on her right forearm and subsequently spread to her lower extremities. Intravenous midazolam and fentanyl could not reduce her psychological stress. Since the tremor disturbed microscopic observation, general anesthesia was induced. Consequently, the tremor disappeared and did not recur. Based on the anatomical ground and the medication status, her involuntary movement was diagnosed as psychogenic tremor. Various factors can induce involuntary movements. In fact, intraoperative management of nausea and vomiting takes priority during awake craniotomy, but we should be reminded that some antiemetics potentially induce involuntary movement that could be caused by surgery around basal ganglia.

Wavelet-space correlation imaging for high-speed MRI without motion monitoring or data segmentation.

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Li, Yu; Wang, Hui; Tkach, Jean; Roach, David; Woods, Jason; Dumoulin, Charles

2015-12-01

This study aims to (i) develop a new high-speed MRI approach by implementing correlation imaging in wavelet-space, and (ii) demonstrate the ability of wavelet-space correlation imaging to image human anatomy with involuntary or physiological motion. Correlation imaging is a high-speed MRI framework in which image reconstruction relies on quantification of data correlation. The presented work integrates correlation imaging with a wavelet transform technique developed originally in the field of signal and image processing. This provides a new high-speed MRI approach to motion-free data collection without motion monitoring or data segmentation. The new approach, called "wavelet-space correlation imaging", is investigated in brain imaging with involuntary motion and chest imaging with free-breathing. Wavelet-space correlation imaging can exceed the speed limit of conventional parallel imaging methods. Using this approach with high acceleration factors (6 for brain MRI, 16 for cardiac MRI, and 8 for lung MRI), motion-free images can be generated in static brain MRI with involuntary motion and nonsegmented dynamic cardiac/lung MRI with free-breathing. Wavelet-space correlation imaging enables high-speed MRI in the presence of involuntary motion or physiological dynamics without motion monitoring or data segmentation. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sources of variation in emotional awareness: Age, gender, and socioeconomic status

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Mankus, Annette M.; Boden, Matthew Tyler; Thompson, Renee J.

2015-01-01

The present study examined associations between emotional awareness facets (type clarity, source clarity, negative emotion differentiation, voluntary attention, involuntary attention) and sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES)) in a large US sample (N = 919). Path analyses—controlling for variance shared between sociodemographic variables and allowing emotional awareness facets to correlate—demonstrated that (a) age was positively associated with type clarity and source clarity, and inversely associated with involuntary attention; (b) gender was associated with all facets but type clarity, with higher source clarity, negative emotion differentiation, voluntary attention, and involuntary attention reported by women then men; and (c) SES was positively associated with type clarity with a very small effect. These findings extend our understanding of emotional awareness and identify future directions for research to elucidate the causes and consequences of individual differences in emotional awareness. PMID:26500384

Testing the adaptation to poverty-related stress model: predicting psychopathology symptoms in families facing economic hardship.

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Wadsworth, Martha E; Raviv, Tali; Santiago, Catherine Decarlo; Etter, Erica M

2011-01-01

This study tested the Adaptation to Poverty-related Stress Model and its proposed relations between poverty-related stress, effortful and involuntary stress responses, and symptoms of psychopathology in an ethnically diverse sample of low-income children and their parents. Prospective Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses conducted with 98 families (300 family members: 136 adults, 82 adolescents and preadolescents, 82 school-age children) revealed that, consistent with the model, primary and secondary control coping were protective against poverty-related stress primarily for internalizing symptoms. Conversely, disengagement coping exacerbated externalizing symptoms over time. In addition, involuntary engagement stress responses exacerbated the effects of poverty-related stress for internalizing symptoms, whereas involuntary disengagement responses exacerbated externalizing symptoms. Age and gender effects were found in most models, reflecting more symptoms of both types for parents than children and higher levels of internalizing symptoms for girls.

Embodied neurofeedback with an anthropomorphic robotic hand

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Braun, Niclas; Emkes, Reiner; Thorne, Jeremy D.; Debener, Stefan

2016-01-01

Neurofeedback-guided motor imagery training (NF-MIT) has been suggested as a promising therapy for stroke-induced motor impairment. Whereas much NF-MIT research has aimed at signal processing optimization, the type of sensory feedback given to the participant has received less attention. Often the feedback signal is highly abstract and not inherently coupled to the mental act performed. In this study, we asked whether an embodied feedback signal is more efficient for neurofeedback operation than a non-embodiable feedback signal. Inspired by the rubber hand illusion, demonstrating that an artificial hand can be incorporated into one’s own body scheme, we used an anthropomorphic robotic hand to visually guide the participants’ motor imagery act and to deliver neurofeedback. Using two experimental manipulations, we investigated how a participant’s neurofeedback performance and subjective experience were influenced by the embodiability of the robotic hand, and by the neurofeedback signal’s validity. As pertains to embodiment, we found a promoting effect of robotic-hand embodiment in subjective, behavioral, electrophysiological and electrodermal measures. Regarding neurofeedback signal validity, we found some differences between real and sham neurofeedback in terms of subjective and electrodermal measures, but not in terms of behavioral and electrophysiological measures. This study motivates the further development of embodied feedback signals for NF-MIT. PMID:27869190

Embodied neurofeedback with an anthropomorphic robotic hand.

Science.gov (United States)

Braun, Niclas; Emkes, Reiner; Thorne, Jeremy D; Debener, Stefan

2016-11-21

Neurofeedback-guided motor imagery training (NF-MIT) has been suggested as a promising therapy for stroke-induced motor impairment. Whereas much NF-MIT research has aimed at signal processing optimization, the type of sensory feedback given to the participant has received less attention. Often the feedback signal is highly abstract and not inherently coupled to the mental act performed. In this study, we asked whether an embodied feedback signal is more efficient for neurofeedback operation than a non-embodiable feedback signal. Inspired by the rubber hand illusion, demonstrating that an artificial hand can be incorporated into one's own body scheme, we used an anthropomorphic robotic hand to visually guide the participants' motor imagery act and to deliver neurofeedback. Using two experimental manipulations, we investigated how a participant's neurofeedback performance and subjective experience were influenced by the embodiability of the robotic hand, and by the neurofeedback signal's validity. As pertains to embodiment, we found a promoting effect of robotic-hand embodiment in subjective, behavioral, electrophysiological and electrodermal measures. Regarding neurofeedback signal validity, we found some differences between real and sham neurofeedback in terms of subjective and electrodermal measures, but not in terms of behavioral and electrophysiological measures. This study motivates the further development of embodied feedback signals for NF-MIT.

Cue reactivity towards shopping cues in female participants.

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Starcke, Katrin; Schlereth, Berenike; Domass, Debora; Schöler, Tobias; Brand, Matthias

2013-03-01

Background and aims It is currently under debate whether pathological buying can be considered as a behavioural addiction. Addictions have often been investigated with cue-reactivity paradigms to assess subjective, physiological and neural craving reactions. The current study aims at testing whether cue reactivity towards shopping cues is related to pathological buying tendencies. Methods A sample of 66 non-clinical female participants rated shopping related pictures concerning valence, arousal, and subjective craving. In a subgroup of 26 participants, electrodermal reactions towards those pictures were additionally assessed. Furthermore, all participants were screened concerning pathological buying tendencies and baseline craving for shopping. Results Results indicate a relationship between the subjective ratings of the shopping cues and pathological buying tendencies, even if baseline craving for shopping was controlled for. Electrodermal reactions were partly related to the subjective ratings of the cues. Conclusions Cue reactivity may be a potential correlate of pathological buying tendencies. Thus, pathological buying may be accompanied by craving reactions towards shopping cues. Results support the assumption that pathological buying can be considered as a behavioural addiction. From a methodological point of view, results support the view that the cue-reactivity paradigm is suited for the investigation of craving reactions in pathological buying and future studies should implement this paradigm in clinical samples.

Experiencing art: the influence of expertise and painting abstraction level

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Elina ePihko

2011-09-01

Full Text Available How does expertise influence the perception of representational and abstract paintings? We asked 20 experts on art history and 20 laypersons to explore and evaluate a series of paintings ranging in style from representational to abstract in five categories. We compared subjective aesthetic judgments and emotional evaluations, gaze patterns, and electrodermal reactivity between the two groups of participants. The level of abstraction affected aesthetic judgments and emotional valence ratings of the laypersons but had no effect on the opinions of the experts: the laypersons’ aesthetic and emotional ratings were highest for representational paintings and lowest for abstract paintings, whereas the opinions of the experts were independent of the abstraction level. The gaze patterns of both groups changed as the level of abstraction increased: the number of fixations and the length of the scanpaths increased while the duration of the fixations decreased. The viewing strategies—reflected in the target, location and path of the fixations—however indicated that experts and laypersons paid attention to different aspects of the paintings. The electrodermal reactivity did not vary according to the level of abstraction in either group but expertise was reflected in weaker responses, compared with laypersons, to information received about the paintings.

Forma intermediária de síndrome de Foix-Chavany-Marie / síndrome de Worster-Drought associada a movimentos involuntários: aspectos neuropsicológicos e fonoaudiológicos Intermediary form of Foix-Chavany-Marie / Worster-Drought syndromes associated to involuntary movements: neuropsychological and phonoaudiological features

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Marcio Gadelha Vasconcelos

2006-06-01

Full Text Available A síndrome de Foix-Chavany-Marie (SFCM caracteriza-se por apraxia da fala associada à paralisia bilateral da face, palato mole, língua e musculatura da faringe, mas com preservação das funções reflexas e automáticas. Na síndrome de Worster-Drought (SWD, há predomínio da disartria. Descrevemos o caso de uma jovem de 18 anos, que apresenta os achados clínicos e radiológicos compatíveis com a forma intermediária de SFCM/SWD, acompanhados de movimentos involuntários (coréia e distonia, fato de ocorrência rara na descrição destas síndromes.The Foix-Chavany-Marie syndrome (FCMS is characterized by apraxia of speech associated to bilateral central facio-linguo-velo-pharyngeal paralysis, with automatic-voluntary dissociation. In Worster-Drought Syndrome (WDS, dysarthria is remarkable. We report an 18-year-old female, with clinical and radiological findings of intermediary form of FCMS/WDS, and showing involuntary movements, an unusual fact.

Dual Inhibition of MEK and PI3K/Akt Rescues Cancer Cachexia through Both Tumor Extrinsic and Intrinsic Activities

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Mace, Thomas A.; Farren, Matthew R.; Farris, Alton B.; Young, Gregory S.; Elnaggar, Omar; Che, Zheng; Timmers, Cynthia D.; Rajasekera, Priyani; Maskarinec, Jennifer M.; Bloomston, Mark; Bekaii-Saab, Tanios; Guttridge, Denis C.; Lesinski, Gregory B.

2016-01-01

Involuntary weight loss, a part of the cachexia syndrome, is a debilitating co-morbidity of cancer and currently has no treatment options. Results from a recent clinical trial at our institution showed that biliary tract cancer patients treated with a MEK inhibitor exhibited poor tumor responses, but surprisingly gained weight and increased their skeletal muscle mass. This implied that MEK inhibition might be anti-cachectic. To test this potential effect of MEK inhibition, we utilized the established Colon-26 model of cancer cachexia and the MEK1/2 inhibitor MEK162. Results showed that MEK inhibition effectively prevented muscle wasting. Importantly, MEK162 retained its ability to spare muscle loss even in mice bearing a Colon-26 clone resistant to the MEK inhibitor, demonstrating that the effects of blocking MEK is at least in part independent of the tumor. Because single agent MEK inhibitors have been limited as a front-line targeted therapy due to compensatory activation of other oncogenic signaling pathways, we combined MEK162 with the PI3K/Akt inhibitor buparlisib. Results showed that this combinatorial treatment significantly reduced tumor growth due to a direct activity on Colon-26 tumor cells in vitro and in vivo, while also preserving skeletal muscle mass. Together, our results suggest that as a monotherapy MEK inhibition preserves muscle mass, but when combined with a PI3K/Akt inhibitor exhibits potent anti-tumor activity. Thus, combinatorial therapy might serve as a new approach for the treatment of cancer cachexia. PMID:27811010

FIGHTING HUMAN TRAFFIKING

OpenAIRE

Alketa ELEZI

2011-01-01

Over the past 15 years, “trafficking in persons” or “human trafficking” have been used as umbrella terms for activities involved when one person obtains or holds another person in compelled service. This compelled service describes a number of different terms: involuntary servitude, slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor. A person may be a trafficking victim regardless of whether they once consented, participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked, were transported into the ex...

The labor/land ratio and India's caste system

OpenAIRE

Duleep, Harriet

2012-01-01

This paper proposes that India’s caste system and involuntary labor were joint responses by a nonworking landowning class to a low labor/land ratio in which the rules of the caste system supported the institution of involuntary labor. The hypothesis is tested in two ways: longitudinally, with data from ancient religious texts, and cross-sectionally, with twentieth-century statistics on regional population/land ratios linked to anthropological measures of caste-system rigidity. Both the longit...

Alleviation of Motor Impairments in Patients with Cerebral Palsy: Acute Effects of Whole-body Vibration on Stretch Reflex Response, Voluntary Muscle Activation and Mobility

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Anne Krause

2017-08-01

Full Text Available IntroductionIndividuals suffering from cerebral palsy (CP often have involuntary, reflex-evoked muscle activity resulting in spastic hyperreflexia. Whole-body vibration (WBV has been demonstrated to reduce reflex activity in healthy subjects, but evidence in CP patients is still limited. Therefore, this study aimed to establish the acute neuromuscular and kinematic effects of WBV in subjects with spastic CP.Methods44 children with spastic CP were tested on neuromuscular activation and kinematics before and immediately after a 1-min bout of WBV (16–25 Hz, 1.5–3 mm. Assessment included (1 recordings of stretch reflex (SR activity of the triceps surae, (2 electromyography (EMG measurements of maximal voluntary muscle activation of lower limb muscles, and (3 neuromuscular activation during active range of motion (aROM. We recorded EMG of m. soleus (SOL, m. gastrocnemius medialis (GM, m. tibialis anterior, m. vastus medialis, m. rectus femoris, and m. biceps femoris. Angular excursion was recorded by goniometry of the ankle and knee joint.ResultsAfter WBV, (1 SOL SRs were decreased (p < 0.01 while (2 maximal voluntary activation (p < 0.05 and (3 angular excursion in the knee joint (p < 0.01 were significantly increased. No changes could be observed for GM SR amplitudes or ankle joint excursion. Neuromuscular coordination expressed by greater agonist–antagonist ratios during aROM was significantly enhanced (p < 0.05.DiscussionThe findings point toward acute neuromuscular and kinematic effects following one bout of WBV. Protocols demonstrate that pathological reflex responses are reduced (spinal level, while the execution of voluntary movement (supraspinal level is improved in regards to kinematic and neuromuscular control. This facilitation of muscle and joint control is probably due to a reduction of spasticity-associated spinal excitability in favor of giving access for greater supraspinal input during voluntary motor

A case of atypical adult-onset tic disorder.

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Colosimo, Carlo

2015-04-01

The differential diagnosis of adult tic disorder is complex, and several common and uncommon causes have to be taken into consideration. A 30-year-old man came to our movement disorders clinic with multiple tics which had begun insidiously about 10 years earlier. No family history was reported, but his 65-year-old otherwise healthy father also had very subtle involuntary movements. A diagnosis of atypical Gilles de la Tourette syndrome was made. However, the neurological and psychiatric symptoms of the patient rapidly progressed over the following 2 years, resulting in increasingly severe involuntary movements and profound mood disorder. Further diagnostic tests were performed, and a genetic screening for Huntington disease revealed 45 repeats of the CAG nucleotide in the IT-15 gene. This case underlines the marked phenotypic variability of Huntington disease at presentation, including the presence of involuntary movements different from chorea and possibility of an apparently sporadic disorder.

Contextual memory, psychosis-proneness, and the experience of intrusive imagery.

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Glazer, Daniel A; Mason, Oliver; King, John A; Brewin, Chris R

2013-01-01

This study tested the hypothesis that the presence and characteristics of naturally occurring involuntary imagery would be related to poorer context-dependent spatial memory and higher levels of proneness to psychotic experiences. Poorer contextual memory was also predicted to be associated with a greater sense of "nowness". Participants completed a virtual environment task that assessed contextual memory through responses that required allocentric and egocentric processing of virtual stimuli. Two questionnaires assessing predisposition to psychotic experiences were employed. Finally, participants completed an interview that required details of recent, naturally occurring involuntary images. Reports of involuntary imagery were associated with greater proneness to psychotic experiences but not with memory. In those participants who reported imagery, however, poorer memory performance was associated with more vivid and detailed intrusive imagery. Poorer contextual memory was specifically associated with a greater sense of "nowness". Possible links between contextual memory and proneness to psychosis are discussed.

[Tardive dyskinesia--diagnosis and treatment].

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Kazamatsuri, H

1993-11-01

Tardive dyskinesia is defined as a syndrome consisting of abnormal, stereotypical involuntary movements usually of choreoathetoid type, principally affected the mouth, face, limbs and trunk, which occurs relatively late in the course of neuroleptic drug treatment and in the etiology of which the drug treatment is a necessary factor. Presently, the prevalence of tardive dyskinesia in the hospitalized patients in psychiatric hospitals in Japan is estimated to be 20-30%. Epidemiology, possible pathophysiology and symptomatology of tardive dyskinesia are briefly described. Differential diagnosis between this syndrome and other involuntary movements such as psychotic mannerism, senile orofacial dyskinesia, rabbit's syndrome, Pisa syndrome or Meige's syndrome is discussed. Several drugs to suppress involuntary movements of tardive dyskinesia are described. However, there appears to be no consistently reliable therapies for patients who develop the tardive dyskinesia. Treatment for this syndrome, other than neuroleptic withdrawal, are still uncertain.

Touch increases autonomic coupling between romantic partners

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Jonas eChatel-Goldman

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Interpersonal touch is of paramount importance in human social bonding and close relationships, allowing a unique channel for affect communication. So far the effect of touch on human physiology has been studied at an individual level. The present study aims at extending the study of affective touch from isolated individuals to truly interacting dyads. We have designed an ecological paradigm where romantic partners interact only via touch and we manipulate their empathic states. Simultaneously, we collected their autonomic activity (skin conductance, pulse, respiration. 14 couples participated to the experiment. We found that interpersonal touch increased coupling of electrodermal activity between the interacting partners, regardless the intensity and valence of the emotion felt. In addition, physical touch induced strong and reliable changes in physiological states within individuals. These results support an instrumental role of interpersonal touch for affective support in close relationships. Furthermore, they suggest that touch alone allows the emergence of a somatovisceral resonance between interacting individuals, which in turn is likely to form the prerequisites for emotional contagion and empathy.

Cessation of dangerousness status: an analysis of 224 reports from the Instituto de Perícias Heitor Carrilho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Gustavo C. Oliveira

Full Text Available Objectives: To evaluate factors related to dangerousness cessation at the end of involuntary commitment based on an analysis of expert reports. In light of the current legal requirement of dangerousness cessation as a pre-requisite for prison or internment release of individuals subjected to the safety measure, we sought elements to reflect on the practice of expert examiners in charge of making this decision. Methods: The authors revised 224 expert psychiatric dangerousness cessation reports released 2011 through 2014 and collected data for a statistical analysis. Results: The following variables were associated with positive risk cessation assessments: no inadequate behavior (according to the assistant professionals, no productive psychotic symptoms, no negative symptoms, presence of insight, presence of a support network, and no psychoactive substance abuse. The following variables were associated with negative dangerousness cessation decisions: early onset of malfunction, lack of insight, negative attitudes, active signs of major mental illness, presence of impulsiveness, poor response to treatment, presence of plans lacking feasibility, exposure to destabilizing factors, lack of personal support, and presence of stress. Conclusions: In this study we were able to identify factors associated with dangerousness in a sample of expert reports. The knowledge of factors linked to a higher risk of recidivism in illegal activities or violent behavior is crucial for decision-making regarding the release of offenders after their legally established period of involuntary commitment.

GPi oscillatory activity differentiates tics from the resting state, voluntary movements, and the unmedicated parkinsonian state

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Joohi Jimenez-Shahed

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS is an emerging treatment strategy for severe, medication-refractory Tourette syndrome (TS. Thalamic (Cm-Pf and pallidal (including globus pallidus interna, GPi targets have been the most investigated. While the neurophysiological correlates of Parkinson’s disease (PD in the GPi and subthalamic nucleus (STN are increasingly recognized, these patterns are not well characterized in other disease states. Recent findings indicate that the cross-frequency coupling (CFC between beta band and high frequency oscillations (HFOs within the STN in PD patients is pathologic. Methods: We recorded intraoperative local field potentials (LFPs from the postero-ventrolateral GPi in three adult patients with TS at rest, during voluntary movements, and during tic activity and compared them to the intraoperative GPi-LFP activity recorded from four unmedicated PD patients at rest. Results: In all PD patients, we noted excessive beta band activity (13-30Hz at rest which consistently modulated the amplitude of the co-existent HFOs observed between 200-400Hz, indicating the presence of beta-HFO CFC. In all 3 TS patients at rest, we observed theta band activity (4-7Hz and HFOs. Two patients had beta band activity, though at lower power than theta oscillations. Tic activity was associated with increased high frequency (200-400Hz and gamma band (35-200Hz activity. There was no beta-HFO CFC in TS patients at rest. However, CFC between the phase of 5-10Hz band activity and the amplitude of HFOs was found in two TS patients. During tics, this shifted to CFC between the phase of beta band activity and the amplitude of HFOs in all subjects. Conclusions: To our knowledge this is the first study that shows that beta-HFO CFC exists in the GPi of TS patients during tics and at rest in PD patients, and suggests that this pattern might be specific to pathologic/involuntary movements. Furthermore, our findings suggest that during tics, resting

Duodopa pump treatment in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karlsborg, Merete; Korbo, Lise; Regeur, Lisbeth

2010-01-01

Patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) often develop motor complications including fluctuations and involuntary movements (dyskinesias). In Denmark, treatment has comprised Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) since the late 1990s, and as from 2002 use of a subcutaneous apomorphine pump. Monothe......Patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) often develop motor complications including fluctuations and involuntary movements (dyskinesias). In Denmark, treatment has comprised Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) since the late 1990s, and as from 2002 use of a subcutaneous apomorphine pump...

Subjective and neurovegetative changes in healthy volunteers and panic patients performing simulated public speaking.

Science.gov (United States)

Parente, Alexandre C B V; Garcia-Leal, Cybele; Del-Ben, Cristina M; Guimarães, Francisco S; Graeff, Frederico G

2005-12-01

Drug-free symptomatic panic patients, drug-treated nonsymptomatic patients and healthy controls were submitted to simulated public speaking. Subjective anxiety, cognitive impairment and discomfort measured by the visual analog mood scale as well as skin conductance level were higher in symptomatic patients than in controls at the beginning of the experimental session, nonsymptomatic patients lying in between. Subjective sedation, spontaneous fluctuations of skin conductance, heart rate and blood pressure were similar in the three groups. Preparation and performance of speech decreased sedation while increasing anxiety, cognitive impairment, level and fluctuations of skin conductance, heart rate and blood pressure. Anxiety, cognitive impairment and conductance level were less increased in symptomatic patients than in controls. Electrodermal activity, but not cardiovascular measures of sympathetic arousal correlated with anticipatory anxiety. Chronic treatment with serotonin uptake inhibitors attenuated the differences between panic patients and controls, supporting the participation of serotonin in panic disorder.

Designing the Database of Speech Under Stress

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabo Róbert

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study describes the methodology used for designing a database of speech under real stress. Based on limits of existing stress databases, we used a communication task via a computer game to collect speech data. To validate the presence of stress, known psychophysiological indicators such as heart rate and electrodermal activity, as well as subjective self-assessment were used. This paper presents the data from first 5 speakers (3 men, 2 women who participated in initial tests of the proposed design. In 4 out of 5 speakers increases in fundamental frequency and intensity of speech were registered. Similarly, in 4 out of 5 speakers heart rate was significantly increased during the task, when compared with reference measurement from before the task. These first results show that proposed design might be appropriate for building a speech under stress database. However, there are still considerations that need to be addressed.

Imaging-guided hyperstimulation analgesia in low back pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gorenberg M

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Miguel Gorenberg,1,2 Kobi Schwartz31Department of Nuclear Medicine, B'nai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, Israel; 2The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; 3Department of Physical Therapy, B'nai Zion Medical Center, Haifa, IsraelAbstract: Low back pain in patients with myofascial pain syndrome is characterized by painful active myofascial trigger points (ATPs in muscles. This article reviews a novel, noninvasive modality that combines simultaneous imaging and treatment, thus taking advantage of the electrodermal information available from imaged ATPs to deliver localized neurostimulation, to stimulate peripheral nerve endings (Aδ fibers and in turn, to release endogenous endorphins. "Hyperstimulation analgesia" with localized, intense, low-rate electrical pulses applied to painful ATPs was found to be effective in 95% patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain, in a clinical validation study.Keywords: myofascial, noninvasive, electrical, impedance

Kinesthetic illusions attenuate experimental muscle pain, as do muscle and cutaneous stimulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gay, André; Aimonetti, Jean-Marc; Roll, Jean-Pierre; Ribot-Ciscar, Edith

2015-07-30

In the present study, muscle pain was induced experimentally in healthy subjects by administrating hypertonic saline injections into the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle. We first aimed at comparing the analgesic effects of mechanical vibration applied to either cutaneous or muscle receptors of the TA or to both types simultaneously. Secondly, pain alleviation was compared in subjects in whom muscle tendon vibration evoked kinesthetic illusions of the ankle joint. Muscle tendon vibration, which primarily activated muscle receptors, reduced pain intensity by 30% (p<0.01). In addition, tangential skin vibration reduced pain intensity by 33% (p<0.01), primarily by activating cutaneous receptors. Concurrently stimulating both sensory channels induced stronger analgesic effects (-51%, p<0.01), as shown by the lower levels of electrodermal activity. The strongest analgesic effects of the vibration-induced muscle inputs occurred when illusory movements were perceived (-38%, p=0.01). The results suggest that both cutaneous and muscle sensory feedback reduce muscle pain, most likely via segmental and supraspinal processes. Further clinical trials are needed to investigate these new methods of muscle pain relief. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Post-disaster resettlement, development and change: a case study of the 1990 Manjil earthquake in Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Badri, S Ali; Asgary, Ali; Eftekhari, A R; Levy, Jason

2006-12-01

Planned and involuntary resettlement after natural disasters has been a major policy in post-disaster reconstruction in developing countries over the past few decades. Studies show that resettlement can result in significant adverse impacts on the resettled population. Conversely, a well-planned and managed resettlement process can produce positive long-term development outcomes. This article presents the results of a case study undertaken 11 years after the 1990 Manjil earthquake in Iran. During the reconstruction period, a policy of involuntary planned resettlement was pursued extensively. The socioeconomic changes that occurred as a consequence of this policy of involuntary resettlement are analysed. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey that involved a sample of 194 relocated households (grouped into a settlement that later became a town). The paper shows that relocated families face difficult socioeconomic challenges after relocation and regrouping. This is especially true with respect to employment, income, the empowerment of women and lifestyle issues.

Factors associated with bruxism in children with developmental disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Souza, Valeska Aparecida Fernandes; Abreu, Mauro Henrique Nogueira Guimarães; Resende, Vera Lúcia Silva; Castilho, Lia Silva

2015-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate factors associated with bruxism in children aged from 1 to 13 years with developmental disabilities. A total of 389 dental records were examined. The bruxism analyzed was determined based on parental reports. The following variables were also analyzed: gender, age, International Code of Diseases (ICD), mouth breathing, history of gastroesophageal reflux, use of psychotropic drugs, gingival status, reports of xerostomia, hyperkinesis, pacifier use, thumb sucking and involuntary movements. For the purposes of analysis, the individuals were categorized as being with and without bruxism. Variables with a p-value bruxism than males. Individuals with gastroesophageal reflux had a 2.28-fold (95%CI: 1.03 to 5.02) greater chance of exhibiting bruxism. Individuals with reported involuntary movements had a 2.24-fold (95%CI: 1.19 to 4.24) greater chance of exhibiting bruxism than those without such movements. Exhibiting involuntary movements, the male gender and gastroesophageal reflux are factors associated with bruxism in children with developmental disabilities.

Assessing interactions among multiple physiological systems during walking outside a laboratory: An Android based gait monitor

Science.gov (United States)

Sejdić, E.; Millecamps, A.; Teoli, J.; Rothfuss, M. A.; Franconi, N. G.; Perera, S.; Jones, A. K.; Brach, J. S.; Mickle, M. H.

2015-01-01

Gait function is traditionally assessed using well-lit, unobstructed walkways with minimal distractions. In patients with subclinical physiological abnormalities, these conditions may not provide enough stress on their ability to adapt to walking. The introduction of challenging walking conditions in gait can induce responses in physiological systems in addition to the locomotor system. There is a need for a device that is capable of monitoring multiple physiological systems in various walking conditions. To address this need, an Android-based gait-monitoring device was developed that enabled the recording of a patient's physiological systems during walking. The gait-monitoring device was tested during self-regulated overground walking sessions of fifteen healthy subjects that included 6 females and 9 males aged 18 to 35 years. The gait-monitoring device measures the patient's stride interval, acceleration, electrocardiogram, skin conductance and respiratory rate. The data is stored on an Android phone and is analyzed offline through the extraction of features in the time, frequency and time-frequency domains. The analysis of the data depicted multisystem physiological interactions during overground walking in healthy subjects. These interactions included locomotion-electrodermal, locomotion-respiratory and cardiolocomotion couplings. The current results depicting strong interactions between the locomotion system and the other considered systems (i.e., electrodermal, respiratory and cardivascular systems) warrant further investigation into multisystem interactions during walking, particularly in challenging walking conditions with older adults. PMID:26390946

Dual Inhibition of MEK and PI3K/Akt Rescues Cancer Cachexia through both Tumor-Extrinsic and -Intrinsic Activities.

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Talbert, Erin E; Yang, Jennifer; Mace, Thomas A; Farren, Matthew R; Farris, Alton B; Young, Gregory S; Elnaggar, Omar; Che, Zheng; Timmers, Cynthia D; Rajasekera, Priyani; Maskarinec, Jennifer M; Bloomston, Mark; Bekaii-Saab, Tanios; Guttridge, Denis C; Lesinski, Gregory B

2017-02-01

Involuntary weight loss, a part of the cachexia syndrome, is a debilitating comorbidity of cancer and currently has no treatment options. Results from a recent clinical trial at our institution showed that biliary tract cancer patients treated with a MEK inhibitor exhibited poor tumor responses but surprisingly gained weight and increased their skeletal muscle mass. This implied that MEK inhibition might be anticachectic. To test this potential effect of MEK inhibition, we utilized the established Colon-26 model of cancer cachexia and the MEK1/2 inhibitor MEK162. Results showed that MEK inhibition effectively prevented muscle wasting. Importantly, MEK162 retained its ability to spare muscle loss even in mice bearing a Colon-26 clone resistant to the MEK inhibitor, demonstrating that the effects of blocking MEK are at least in part independent of the tumor. Because single-agent MEK inhibitors have been limited as a first-line targeted therapy due to compensatory activation of other oncogenic signaling pathways, we combined MEK162 with the PI3K/Akt inhibitor buparlisib. Results showed that this combinatorial treatment significantly reduced tumor growth due to a direct activity on Colon-26 tumor cells in vitro and in vivo, while also preserving skeletal muscle mass. Together, our results suggest that as a monotherapy, MEK inhibition preserves muscle mass, but when combined with a PI3K/Akt inhibitor exhibits potent antitumor activity. Thus, combinatorial therapy might serve as a new approach for the treatment of cancer cachexia. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(2); 344-56. ©2016 AACRSee related article by Kobayashi et al., p. 357. ©2016 American Association for Cancer Research.

Intelligent Speed Adaptation for involuntary drivers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agerholm, Niels; Tradisauskas, Nerius; Juhl, Jens

2012-01-01

and warning, the ISA had an incentive in the form of rewards for speeding avoidance and social control - the latter, however, did not work sufficiently. When a key ID was used, the proportion of speeding was low while driving with ISA. Without key ID there was virtually no change in driving behaviour...

32 CFR 584.9 - Involuntary allotments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY PERSONNEL FAMILY SUPPORT, CHILD...-G, Indianapolis, IN 46249-0160. An authorized person is— (i) Any agent or attorney of any State having in effect a plan approved under part D of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 651-664...

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease versus anti-LGI1 limbic encephalitis in a patient with progressive cognitive dysfunction, psychiatric symptoms, involuntary facio-brachio-crural movement, and an abnormal electroencephalogram: a case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sun L

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Li Sun, Jie Cao, Chang Liu, Yudan LvDepartment of Neurology, The First Hospital of JiLin University, ChangChun, People’s Republic of ChinaAbstract: Diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD is often challenging in elderly individuals, not only because of its variable clinical features but also because of nonspecific changes on the electroencephalogram (EEG in the early stages of the disease. Here we report on a patient who presented with progressive cognitive dysfunction, psychiatric symptoms, involuntary facio-brachio-crural movement, and an abnormal EEG. We provide a detailed analysis and differential diagnosis between anti-leucine-rich glioma inactivated 1 (LGI1 limbic encephalitis versus CJD, in the hope of providing a new understanding of CJD. A 65-year-old Chinese man presented with slowly progressive cognitive decline with psychiatric symptoms. On admission, he presented with facial grimacing and brief left upper limb dystonic posturing lasting 1–2 seconds, with hyponatremia that was difficult to rectify. Neurological examination showed increased muscle tension in the left limb but without pathological reflexes. His early EEG showed focal periodic wave complexes. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed a suspected “lace sign” in the occipital cortex. His cerebrospinal fluid was negative for LGI1 antibodies and positive for 14-3-3 brain protein. Therefore, we made a presumptive diagnosis of CJD. At the following visit, a second EEG showed paroxysmal sharp wave complexes, but the patient had a poor prognosis. Atypical facio-brachio-crural movement and nonspecific EEG changes may occasionally be found in patients with CJD or anti-LGI1 encephalitis. Clinicians should not be dissuaded from a diagnosis of CJD where the EEG does not show paroxysmal sharp wave complexes in the early stages but abnormal facio-brachio-crural movement is present.Keywords: abnormal facio-brachio-crural movement, hyponatremia, Creutzfeldt

Mental Simulation of Painful Situations Has an Impact on Posture and Psychophysiological Parameters

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Thierry Lelard

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Embodiment is made possible by the ability to imagine ourselves in a particular situation (mental simulation. Postural changes have been demonstrated in response to painful situations, but the effect of an implicit instruction has not been studied. The present study was designed to record differential responses according to whether or not subjects were instructed to imagine themselves in a painful or non-painful situation. Painful stimuli and instructions to mentally simulate the displayed situation were hypothesized to induce postural changes that could be demonstrated by changes in the center of pressure (COP trajectory compared to viewing the same stimuli with no instructions. We hypothesized that mental simulation of a painful situation would induce embodiment of the emotional situation as reflected by posterior displacement of the COP and physiological responses as compared to passive observation of the same visual scene. Thirty-one subjects participated in this study while standing quietly on a posturographic platform with presentation of visual stimuli depicting scenes defining three experimental conditions (painful, non-painful and neutral situations for 12 s. Physiological measurements [heart rate (HR and electrodermal activity] and postural responses (COP displacements were recorded in response to the stimuli with or without instructions to imagine themselves in the situation. Time-course analyses (1 s sliding window were conducted for several postural parameters, HR and electrodermal response. An interaction effect (instruction × stimuli × time demonstrated that mental simulation induced posterior displacement of the mean position of the COP at different times during presentation of visual stimuli (4 s; 9–12 s. An effect of instruction was reported for HR (HR was higher in the mental simulation condition, while a stimulation effect was reported only for HR (lower for painful stimuli than for non-painful stimuli. The results of

Urinary incontinence, pelvic floor dysfunction, exercise and sport.

Science.gov (United States)

Bø, Kari

2004-01-01

Urinary incontinence is defined as "the complaint of any involuntary leakage of urine" and is a common problem in the female population with prevalence rates varying between 10% and 55% in 15- to 64-year-old women. The most frequent form of urinary incontinence in women is stress urinary incontinence, defined as "involuntary leakage on effort or exertion, or on sneezing or coughing". The aim of this article is to systematically review the literature on urinary incontinence and participation in sport and fitness activities with a special emphasis on prevalence and treatment in female elite athletes. Stress urinary incontinence is a barrier to women's participation in sport and fitness activities and, therefore, it may be a threat to women's health, self-esteem and well-being. The prevalence during sports among young, nulliparous elite athletes varies between 0% (golf) and 80% (trampolinists). The highest prevalence is found in sports involving high impact activities such as gymnastics, track and field, and some ball games. A 'stiff' and strong pelvic floor positioned at an optimal level inside the pelvis may be a crucial factor in counteracting the increases in abdominal pressure occurring during high-impact activities. There are no randomised controlled trials or reports on the effect of any treatment for stress urinary incontinence in female elite athletes. However, strength training of the pelvic floor muscles has been shown to be effective in treating stress urinary incontinence in parous females in the general population. In randomised controlled trials, reported cure rates, defined as athletes than in other women. There is a need for more basic research on pelvic floor muscle function during physical activity and the effect of pelvic floor muscle training in female elite athletes.

Optimal tax progressivity in imperfect labour markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Peter Birch

1999-01-01

that there may be an optimal degree of tax progressivity where the marginal welfare gain from reduced involuntary unemployment is just offset by the marginal welfare loss from lower productivity. This paper sets up four different models of an imperfect labour market in order to identify the degree of tax......All modern labour market theories capable of explaining involuntary unemployment as an equilibrium phenomenon imply that increased income tax progressivity reduces unemployment, but they also imply that higher progressivity tends to reduce work effort and labour productivity. This suggests...

Electrodermal responses during appetitive conditioning are sensitive to contingency instruction ambiguity.

Science.gov (United States)

van den Akker, Karolien; Nederkoorn, Chantal; Jansen, Anita

2017-08-01

Studies on human appetitive conditioning using food rewards can benefit from including psychophysiological outcome measures. The present study tested whether the skin conductance response can function as a measure of differential responding in an appetitive conditioning paradigm including an acquisition and extinction phase, and examined which time window during a trial is most sensitive to conditioning effects. As a secondary aim, the effects of ambiguous vs. non-ambiguous contingency instructions on conditioned responses (skin conductance responses, US expectancies, chocolate desires, and CS evaluations) were assessed. Results indicated differential skin conductance responses in an anticipatory time window and during unexpected omission of the US in early extinction. Interestingly however, anticipatory responses were only found for participants who received ambiguous contingency instructions - possibly indicating a call for additional processing resources in response to the ambiguous CS+. Further, ambiguous instructions slowed the extinction of US expectancies but did not influence chocolate desires and CS evaluations. It is concluded that skin conductance can function as a sensitive measure of differential responding in appetitive conditioning, though its sensitivity might depend on the specific task context. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ambulatory monitoring of electrodermal and cardiac functioning in anxiety and worry

OpenAIRE

Doberenz, Sigrun

2011-01-01

Emotions are an integral part of the human experience and their interpretation can provide valuable but also misleading clues about oneself and other people’s state of mind. Negative emotional states can be perceived as uncomfortable and – when experienced chronically – can develop into anxiety and mood disorders. The more pervasive these disorders the more severely they affect and disable a person’s everyday functioning and often their sleep as well. According to Lang and colleagues (1998...

Electrodermal Reactivity to Emotion Processing in Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Hubert, B. E.; Wicker, B.; Monfardini, E.; Deruelle, C.

2009-01-01

Although alterations of emotion processing are recognized as a core component of autism, the level at which alterations occur is still debated. Discrepant results suggest that overt assessment of emotion processing is not appropriate. In this study, skin conductance response (SCR) was used to examine covert emotional processes. Both behavioural…

A noise-reduction program in a pediatric operation theatre is associated with surgeon's benefits and a reduced rate of complications: a prospective controlled clinical trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Engelmann, Carsten R; Neis, Jan Philipp; Kirschbaum, Clemens; Grote, Gudela; Ure, Benno M

2014-05-01

We assessed the impact of a noise-reduction program in a pediatric operating theatre. Adverse effects from noise pollution in theatres have been demonstrated. In 156 operations spatially resolved, sound levels were measured before and after a noise-reduction program on the basis of education, rules, and technical devices (Sound Ear). Surgical complications were recorded. The surgeon's biometric (saliva cortisol, electrodermal activity) and behavioral stress responses (questionnaires) were measured and correlated with mission protocols and individual noise sensitivity. Median noise levels in the control group versus the interventional group were reduced by -3 ± 3 dB(A) (63 vs 59 dB(A), P 0.05). Spontaneous noise during pediatric operations attains the magnitude of a lawn mower and peaks resemble a passing truck. The sound intensity could be reduced by 50% by specific measures. This reduction was associated with a significantly lowered number of postoperative complications. The surgeon's benefits are idiosyncratic with "responders" experiencing marked improvements.

The Buffer Effect of Therapy Dog Exposure on Stress Reactivity in Undergraduate Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Fiocco, Alexandra J; Hunse, Anastasia M

2017-06-30

Stress is an insidious health risk that is commonly reported among university students. While research suggests that dog exposure may facilitate recovery from a stress response, little is known about the buffer effect of dog exposure on the stress response to a future stressor. This study examined whether interaction with a therapy dog could reduce the strength of the physiological stress response when exposed to a subsequent stressor. Sixty-one university students were randomly assigned to either a therapy dog (TD, n = 31) or a no-dog control (C, n = 30) group. The stress response was measured by electrodermal activity (EDA) in response to the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). Participants also completed questionnaires that assessed pet attitude, general stress levels, and affect. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) showed that increase in EDA was significantly more pronounced in the C group than in the TD group ( p stress response in university students, which has implications for the promotion of a viable stress management program on university campuses.

Lost or fond? Effects of nostalgia on sad mood recovery vary by attachment insecurity.

Science.gov (United States)

Cavanagh, Sarah R; Glode, Ryan J; Opitz, Philipp C

2015-01-01

Nostalgia involves a fond recollection of people and events lost to time. Growing evidence indicates that nostalgia may ameliorate negative affective states such as loneliness and boredom. However, the effect of nostalgia on sadness is unknown, and there is little research on how social connectedness might impact nostalgia's effects. Grounded in a theoretical framework whereby people with lower levels of attachment insecurity benefit more from nostalgia, we exposed participants to a mortality-related sad mood and then randomly assigned them to reflect on a nostalgic or an ordinary event memory. We examined changes in mood and electrodermal activity (EDA) and found that nostalgic versus ordinary event memories led to a blunted recovery from sad mood, but that this effect was moderated by degree of attachment insecurity, such that participants with low insecurity benefited from nostalgia whereas people with high insecurity did not. These findings suggest that nostalgia's benefits may be tied to the degree of confidence one has in one's social relationships.

Assessing Affective and Deliberative Decision-Making: Adaptation of the Columbia Card Task to Brazilian Portuguese.

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Kluwe-Schiavon, Bruno; Sanvicente-Vieira, Breno; Viola, Thiago W; Veiga, Eduardo; Bortolotto, Vanessa; Grassi-Oliveira, Rodrigo

2015-11-20

The ability to predict reward and punishment is essential for decision-making and the ability to learn about an ever-changing environment. Therefore, efforts have been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying decision-making, especially regarding how affective and deliberative processes interact with risk behavior. To adapt to Brazilian Portuguese the Columbia Card Task (CCT) and investigate affective and deliberative processes involved in decision-making. This study had two main phases: (1) a transcultural adaptation and (2) a pilot study. The feedback manipulation among the three conditions of CCT had an effect on the risk-taking level (p accounting for 17% of the variance. The Brazilian CCT performs well and is a versatile method for the assessment of affective and deliberative decision-making under risk according to different feedback manipulation scenarios. This study goes further, comparing electrodermal activity during hot and warm conditions and addressing an advantageous level index analysis to asses deliberative processing.

Physiological reactivity in a community sample of sexually aggressive young men: a test of competing hypotheses.

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, Zoë D; Janssen, Erick; Goodrich, David; Heiman, Julia R

2014-01-01

Men's sexually aggressive behavior potentially could relate to either physiological hyporeactivity or hyperreactivity, and these two different physiological profiles could be associated with different underlying causes of sexual aggression. Thus, measurement of physiological reactivity could provide insight into mechanisms relevant to the etiology of sexual aggression. The relationship between sexual aggression and physiological reactivity was investigated in 78 community men (38 sexually aggressive and 40 non-aggressive men). In a laboratory protocol, the men were exposed to neutral, negative-affect-inducing, and positive-affect-inducing stimuli. Men's salivary cortisol concentrations and electrodermal activity (EDA) were measured throughout the laboratory procedure. Sexually aggressive men demonstrated (1) lower overall cortisol levels and (2) lower EDA reactivity in some conditions as compared to non-aggressive men. Results of this study were consistent with the idea that men's sexual aggression is associated with physiological hyporeactivity, a physiological profile that has been found to be associated with externalizing behaviors and psychopathic traits. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Lost or Fond? Effects of Nostalgia on Sad Mood Recovery Vary By Attachment Insecurity

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Sarah Rose Cavanagh

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Nostalgia involves a fond recollection of people and events lost to time. Growing evidence indicates that nostalgia may ameliorate negative affective states such as loneliness and boredom. However, the effect of nostalgia on sadness is unknown, and there is little research on how social connectedness might impact nostalgia’s effects. Grounded in a theoretical framework whereby people with lower levels of attachment insecurity benefit more from nostalgia, we exposed participants to a mortality-related sad mood and then randomly assigned them to reflect on a nostalgic or an ordinary event memory. We examined changes in mood and electrodermal activity and found that nostalgic versus ordinary event memories led to a blunted recovery from sad mood, but that this effect was moderated by degree of attachment insecurity, such that participants with low insecurity benefited from nostalgia whereas people with high insecurity did not. These findings suggest that nostalgia’s benefits may be tied to the degree of confidence one has in one’s social relationships.

Impact of boarding pediatric psychiatric patients on a medical ward.

Science.gov (United States)

Claudius, Ilene; Donofrio, J Joelle; Lam, Chun Nok; Santillanes, Genevieve

2014-05-01

Psychiatric disorders account for an increasing number of pediatric hospitalizations. Due to lack of psychiatric beds, patients on involuntary psychiatric holds may be admitted to medical units. Our objectives were to evaluate the rate of admission of psychiatric patients to a medical unit, psychiatric care provided, and estimated cost of care. The study involved retrospective chart review of all patients on involuntary psychiatric holds presenting to 1 pediatric emergency department from July 2009 to December 2010. We determined the rate of admission to a medical unit, the rate of counseling or psychiatric medication administration, and the estimated cost of nonmedical admissions (boarding) of patients on the medical unit. A total of 555 (50.1%) of 1108 patients on involuntary psychiatric holds were admitted to the pediatric medical unit. The majority (523 [94.2%]) were admitted for boarding because no psychiatric bed was available. Thirty-two (6.1%) patients admitted for isolated psychiatric reasons had counseling documented, and 105 (20.1%) received psychiatric medications. Patients admitted to an affiliated psychiatric hospital were significantly more likely to receive counseling and medications. Psychiatric patients were boarded in medical beds for 1169 days at an estimated cost of $2 232 790 or $4269 per patient over the 18-month period. We found high admission rates of patients on involuntary psychiatric holds to a pediatric medical unit with little psychiatric treatment in 1 hospital. Further research in other centers is required to determine the extent of the issue. Future studies of longer term outcomes (including readmission rates and assessments of functioning) are needed.

Stability of vertical posture explored with unexpected mechanical perturbations: synergy indices and motor equivalence.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamagata, Momoko; Falaki, Ali; Latash, Mark L

2018-03-21

We explored the relations between indices of mechanical stability of vertical posture and synergy indices under unexpected perturbations. The main hypotheses predicted higher posture-stabilizing synergy indices and higher mechanical indices of center of pressure stability during perturbations perceived by subjects as less challenging. Healthy subjects stood on a force platform and held in fully extended arms a bar attached to two loads acting downward and upward. One of the loads was unexpectedly released by the experimenter causing a postural perturbations. In different series, subjects either knew or did not know which of the two loads would be released. Forward perturbations were perceived as more challenging and accompanied by co-activation patterns among the main agonist-antagonist pairs. Backward perturbation led to reciprocal muscle activation patterns and was accompanied by indices of mechanical stability and of posture-stabilizing synergy which indicated higher stability. Changes in synergy indices were observed as early as 50-100 ms following the perturbation reflecting involuntary mechanisms. In contrast, predictability of perturbation direction had weak or no effect on mechanical and synergy indices of stability. These observations are interpreted within a hierarchical scheme of synergic control of motor tasks and a hypothesis on the control of movements with shifts of referent coordinates. The findings show direct correspondence between stability indices based on mechanics and on the analysis of multi-muscle synergies. They suggest that involuntary posture-stabilizing mechanisms show synergic organization. They also show that predictability of perturbation direction has strong effects on anticipatory postural adjustment but not corrective adjustments. We offer an interpretation of co-activation patterns that questions their contribution to postural stability.

Enhancing aesthetic appreciation by priming canvases with actions that match the artist’s painting style.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Francesco Ticini

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The creation of an artwork requires motor activity. To what extent is art appreciation divorced from that activity and to what extent is it linked to it? That is the question which we set out to answer. We presented participants with pointillist-style paintings featuring discernible brushstrokes and asked them to rate their liking of each canvas when it was preceded by images priming a motor act either compatible or incompatible with the simulation of the artist’s movements. We show that action priming, when congruent with the artist’s painting style, enhanced aesthetic preference. These results support the hypothesis that involuntary covert painting simulation contributes to aesthetic appreciation during passive observation of artwork.

Smoking behaviour, involuntary smoking, attitudes towards smoke-free legislations, and tobacco control activities in the European Union.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jose M Martínez-Sánchez

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The six most important cost-effective policies on tobacco control can be measured by the Tobacco Control Scale (TCS. The objective of our study was to describe the correlation between the TCS and smoking prevalence, self-reported exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS and attitudes towards smoking restrictions in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU27. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Ecologic study in the EU27. We used data from the TCS in 2007 and from the Eurobarometer on Tobacco Survey in 2008. We analysed the relations between the TCS and prevalence of smoking, self-reported exposure to SHS (home and work, and attitudes towards smoking bans by means of scatter plots and Spearman rank-correlation coefficients (r(sp. Among the EU27, smoking prevalence varied from 22.6% in Slovenia to 42.1% in Greece. Austria was the country with the lowest TCS score (35 and the UK had the highest one (93. The correlation between smoking prevalence and TCS score was negative (r(sp = -0.42, p = 0.03 and the correlation between TCS score and support to smoking bans in all workplaces was positive (r(sp = 0.47, p = 0.01 in restaurants; r(sp = 0.5, p = 0.008 in bars, pubs, and clubs; and r(sp = 0.31, p = 0.12 in other indoor workplaces. The correlation between TCS score and self-reported exposure to SHS was negative, but statistically non-significant. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Countries with a higher score in the TCS have higher support towards smoking bans in all workplaces (including restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs, and other indoor workplaces. TCS scores were strongly, but not statistically, associated with a lower prevalence of smokers and a lower self-reported exposure to SHS.

Tourette Syndrome and Consciousness of Action

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea E. Cavanna

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Tourette syndrome (TS is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by the chronic presence of multiple motor tics and at least one vocal/phonic tic since childhood. Tics typically change and vary in both intensity and severity over time, with remission and exacerbation common. In the vast majority of patients, tic expression is characteristically accompanied by discomforting bodily sensations, known as sensory phenomena or premonitory urges.Methods: We reviewed the existing literature on premonitory urges associated with the sense of voluntariness of action in TS.Results: Although the wish to move is perceived by the patient as involuntary, the decision to release the tic is often perceived by the patient as a voluntary capitulation to the subjective urge. Most patients with TS can exert a degree of control over the urge and constantly try to inhibit the movement. Based on these features, it has been suggested that tics performed in response to an urge to move should be classified as ‘unvoluntary’, as opposed to voluntary or involuntary acts. However, recent experimental data suggest that the brain areas involved in the generation of the wish to act show considerable overlap between healthy subjects and patients with TS.Discussion: The simultaneous presence of both voluntary and involuntary aspects in the expression of tic symptoms by patients with TS is consistent with the hypothesis that tics can have the same neurophysiologic substrate as voluntary acts, even though they are misperceived as being involuntary. This reinforces the view of TS as a hyperkinetic movement disorder primarily affecting the conscious experience of action.

Factors associated with anterior open bite in children with developmental disabilities.

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de Castilho, Lia Silva; Abreu, Mauro Henrique Nogueira Guimarães; Pires E Souza, Luiz Gustavo de Almeida; Romualdo, Leiliane Teresinha de Almeida; Souza E Silva, Maria Elisa; Resende, Vera Lúcia Silva

2018-01-01

To investigate factors associated with anterior open bite in individuals aged from 2 to 33 years with developmental disabilities. This is a cross-sectional study. A total of 271 dental records were examined. The anterior open bite analyzed was determined based on clinic exam. These variables were also analyzed: gender, age, education level of mother, International Code of Diseases (ICD), mouth breathing, use of anticonvulsant drugs, hyperkinesis, pacifier use, thumb sucking, seizure, and involuntary movements. For the purposes of analysis, the individuals were categorized as being with and without anterior open bite. Variables with a p-value of open bite than nasal breathers. Pacifier users are more likely to have an anterior open bite (3.32-fold, 95% CI: 1.62-6.77). Individuals with reported involuntary movements had a 2.66-fold (95% CI: 1.26-5.63) greater chance of exhibiting anterior open bite. Users of anticonvulsants drugs had a 3.05 (95% CI: 1.57-5.92) greater chance of showing anterior open bite. Involuntary movements, mouth breathing, using anticonvulsant drugs, and using pacifier are factors associated with anterior open bite in patients with developmental disabilities. © 2017 Special Care Dentistry Association and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of pharyngeal electrical stimulation on swallowing performance.

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Takeishi, Ryosuke; Magara, Jin; Watanabe, Masahiro; Tsujimura, Takanori; Hayashi, Hirokazu; Hori, Kazuhiro; Inoue, Makoto

2018-01-01

Pharyngeal electrical stimulation (PEStim) has been found to facilitate voluntary swallowing. This study investigated how PEStim contributed to modulation of swallowing function in 15 healthy humans. In the involuntary swallowing test, water was injected onto the pharynx at 0.05 ml/s and the onset latency of the first swallow was measured. In the voluntary swallowing test, subjects swallowed their own saliva as quickly as possible for 30 s and the number of swallows was counted. Voluntary and involuntary swallowing was evaluated before (baseline), immediately after, and every 10 min after 10-min PEStim for 60 min. A voluntary swallowing test with simultaneous 30-s PEStim was also conducted before and 60 min after 10-min PEStim. The number of voluntary swallows with simultaneous PEStim significantly increased over 60 min after 10-min PEStim compared with the baseline. The onset latency of the first swallow in the involuntary swallowing test was not affected by 10-min PEStim. The results suggest that PEStim may have a long-term facilitatory effect on the initiation of voluntary swallowing in healthy humans, but not on peripherally-evoked swallowing. The physiological implications of this modulation are discussed.

Involuntary symbol manipulation (Pig Latin) from external control: Implications for thought suppression.

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Cho, Hyein; Zarolia, Pareezad; Gazzaley, Adam; Morsella, Ezequiel

2016-05-01

In ironic processing, one is more likely to think about something (e.g., white bears) when instructed to not think about that thing. Entry into consciousness of such content may be automatic, reflecting the 'encapsulated' nature of the generation of conscious contents. Based on this research, the Reflexive Imagery Task (RIT) reveals that, following the activation of action sets, conscious contents can arise involuntarily and systematically in response to external stimuli. In the most basic version of this paradigm, participants are presented with visual objects and instructed to not think of the names of the objects, which is challenging. Here, we addressed one criticism of the RIT-that the effect arises only for automatic processes (e.g., forms of cued-memory retrieval) and not for more complex processes (e.g., symbol manipulation). Participants were first trained to perform a word-manipulation task similar to the game of Pig Latin (e.g., "CAR" becomes "AR-CAY"). Such a task involves complex symbol manipulations that are associated with processes in frontal cortex. After training, participants were instructed to not transform stimulus words in this way. The RIT effect still arose under these conditions. This striking finding is relevant to theories of cognitive control, psychopathology, and conscious/unconscious processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Understanding the process of fascial unwinding.

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Minasny, Budiman

2009-09-23

Fascial or myofascial unwinding is a process in which a client undergoes a spontaneous reaction in response to the therapist's touch. It can be induced by using specific techniques that encourage a client's body to move into areas of ease. Unwinding is a popular technique in massage therapy, but its mechanism is not well understood. In the absence of a scientific explanation or hypothesis of the mechanism of action, it can be interpreted as "mystical." This paper proposes a model that builds on the neurobiologic, ideomotor action, and consciousness theories to explain the process and mechanism of fascial unwinding. HYPOTHETICAL MODEL: During fascial unwinding, the therapist stimulates mechanoreceptors in the fascia by applying gentle touch and stretching. Touch and stretching induce relaxation and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. They also activate the central nervous system, which is involved in the modulation of muscle tone as well as movement. As a result, the central nervous system is aroused and thereby responds by encouraging muscles to find an easier, or more relaxed, position and by introducing the ideomotor action. Although the ideomotor action is generated via normal voluntary motor control systems, it is altered and experienced as an involuntary response. Fascial unwinding occurs when a physically induced suggestion by a therapist prompts ideomotor action that the client experiences as involuntary. This action is guided by the central nervous system, which produces continuous action until a state of ease is reached. Consequently, fascial unwinding can be thought of as a neurobiologic process employing the self-regulation dynamic system theory.

Compulsory outpatient treatment can prevent involuntary commitment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lene Nørregård; Svensson, Eva Maria Birgitta; Brandt-Christensen, Anne Mette

2014-01-01

describes a patient with paranoid schizophrenia who several times developed severe psychotic symptoms shortly after discharge due to lack of compliance with treatment. Within one year of co-pt the patient was not admitted to hospital and improved in overall functioning. After terminating co-pt the patient...

47 CFR 27.1252 - Involuntary Relocation Procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... costs, including all engineering, equipment, site and FCC fees, as well as any legitimate and prudent... measured by the percent of time the bit error rate (BER) exceeds a desired value, and for analog or digital video transmissions, it is measured by whether the end-to-end transmission delay is within the required...

47 CFR 101.91 - Involuntary relocation procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... engineering, equipment, site and FCC fees, as well as any legitimate and prudent transaction expenses incurred..., reliability is measured by the percent of time the bit error rate (BER) exceeds a desired value, and for analog or digital voice transmissions, it is measured by the percent of time that audio signal quality...

47 CFR 101.75 - Involuntary relocation procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... engineering, equipment, site and FCC fees, as well as any legitimate and prudent transaction expenses incurred... reliability of their system. For digital data systems, reliability is measured by the percent of time the bit error rate (BER) exceeds a desired value, and for analog or digital voice transmissions, it is measured...

Social capital in involuntary displacement and resettlement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Navarra, M.Q.; Niehof, A.; Vaart, van der W.

2013-01-01

Social capital is often seen as a substitute for lack of other types of capital among poor people. Because of the recognized applicability of the social capital concept and its correlation with the different dimensions of poverty, it has been used in evaluating the adaptation and integration of

Case-controlled Analysis of Patient-based Risk Factors for Assault in the Healthcare Workplace

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Ilene A. Claudius

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Violence against healthcare workers in the medical setting is common and associated with both physical and psychological adversity. The objective of this study was to identify features associated with assailants to allow early identification of patients at risk for committing an assault in the healthcare setting. Methods: We used the hospital database for reporting assaults to identify cases from July 2011 through June 2013. Medical records were reviewed for the assailant’s (patient’s past medical and social history, primary medical complaints, ED diagnoses, medications prescribed, presence of an involuntary psychiatric hold, prior assaultive behavior, history of reported illicit drug use, and frequency of visits to same hospital requesting prescription for pain medications. We selected matched controls at random for comparison. The primary outcome measure(s reported are features of patients committing an assault while undergoing medical or psychiatric treatment within the medical center. Results: We identified 92 novel visits associated with an assault. History of an involuntary psychiatric hold was noted in 52%, history of psychosis in 49%, a history of violence in the ED on a prior visit in 45%, aggression at index visit noted in the ED chart in 64%, an involuntary hold (or consideration of for danger to others in 61%, repeat visits for pain medication in 9%, and history of illicit drug use in 33%. Compared with matched controls, all these factors were significantly different. Conclusion: Patients with obvious risk factors for assault, such as history of assault, psychosis, and involuntary psychiatric holds, have a substantially greater chance of committing an assault in the healthcare setting. These risk factors can easily be identified and greater security attention given to the patient.

Affective and physiological correlates of the perception of unimodal and bimodal emotional stimuli.

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Rosa, Pedro J; Oliveira, Jorge; Alghazzawi, Daniyal; Fardoun, Habib; Gamito, Pedro

2017-08-01

Despite the multisensory nature of perception, previous research on emotions has been focused on unimodal emotional cues with visual stimuli. To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence on the extent to which incongruent emotional cues from visual and auditory sensory channels affect pupil size. To investigate the effects of audiovisual emotional information perception on the physiological and affective response, but also to determine the impact of mismatched cues in emotional perception on these physiological indexes. Pupil size, electrodermal activity and affective subjective responses were recorded while 30 participants were exposed to visual and auditory stimuli with varied emotional content in three different experimental conditions: pictures and sounds presented alone (unimodal), emotionally matched audio-visual stimuli (bimodal congruent) and emotionally mismatched audio-visual stimuli (bimodal incongruent). The data revealed no effect of emotional incongruence on physiological and affective responses. On the other hand, pupil size covaried with skin conductance response (SCR), but the subjective experience was partially dissociated from autonomic responses. Emotional stimuli are able to trigger physiological responses regardless of valence, sensory modality or level of emotional congruence.

Psychophysiological responses to short-term cooling during a simulated monotonous driving task.

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Schmidt, Elisabeth; Decke, Ralf; Rasshofer, Ralph; Bullinger, Angelika C

2017-07-01

For drivers on monotonous routes, cognitive fatigue causes discomfort and poses an important risk for traffic safety. Countermeasures against this type of fatigue are required and thermal stimulation is one intervention method. Surprisingly, there are hardly studies available to measure the effect of cooling while driving. Hence, to better understand the effect of short-term cooling on the perceived sleepiness of car drivers, a driving simulator study (n = 34) was conducted in which physiological and vehicular data during cooling and control conditions were compared. The evaluation of the study showed that cooling applied during a monotonous drive increased the alertness of the car driver. The sleepiness rankings were significantly lower for the cooling condition. Furthermore, the significant pupillary and electrodermal responses were physiological indicators for increased sympathetic activation. In addition, during cooling a better driving performance was observed. In conclusion, the study shows generally that cooling has a positive short-term effect on drivers' wakefulness; in detail, a cooling period of 3 min delivers best results. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Affective Man-Machine Interface: Unveiling Human Emotions through Biosignals

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van den Broek, Egon L.; Lisý, Viliam; Janssen, Joris H.; Westerink, Joyce H. D. M.; Schut, Marleen H.; Tuinenbreijer, Kees

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various psychological and physiological proce-sses, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and, as such, can serve as an advanced man-machine interface (MMI) for empathic consumer products. However, such a MMI requires the correct classification of biosignals to emotion classes. This chapter starts with an introduction on biosignals for emotion detection. Next, a state-of-the-art review is presented on automatic emotion classification. Moreover, guidelines are presented for affective MMI. Subsequently, a research is presented that explores the use of EDA and three facial EMG signals to determine neutral, positive, negative, and mixed emotions, using recordings of 21 people. A range of techniques is tested, which resulted in a generic framework for automated emotion classification with up to 61.31% correct classification of the four emotion classes, without the need of personal profiles. Among various other directives for future research, the results emphasize the need for parallel processing of multiple biosignals.

Bivariate autoregressive state-space modeling of psychophysiological time series data.

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Smith, Daniel M; Abtahi, Mohammadreza; Amiri, Amir Mohammad; Mankodiya, Kunal

2016-08-01

Heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA) are often used as physiological measures of psychological arousal in various neuropsychology experiments. In this exploratory study, we analyze HR and EDA data collected from four participants, each with a history of suicidal tendencies, during a cognitive task known as the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). A central aim of this investigation is to guide future research by assessing heterogeneity in the population of individuals with suicidal tendencies. Using a state-space modeling approach to time series analysis, we evaluate the effect of an exogenous input, i.e., the stimulus presentation rate which was increased systematically during the experimental task. Participants differed in several parameters characterizing the way in which psychological arousal was experienced during the task. Increasing the stimulus presentation rate was associated with an increase in EDA in participants 2 and 4. The effect on HR was positive for participant 2 and negative for participants 3 and 4. We discuss future directions in light of the heterogeneity in the population indicated by these findings.

The relationship between concussion and alcohol consumption among university athletes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bradey Alcock

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Introduction: This study investigated concussion as a potential risk factor for increased alcohol consumption in university athletes. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, 41 university students (37% with a history of concussion completed self-report measures, while electrodermal activation (EDA was recorded for each participant to capture baseline physiological arousal. Results: As expected, concussion status significantly predicted alcohol consumption over and above athletic status, b = 0.34, p = 0.034, 95% CI [0.195, 4.832], such that those with a prior concussion history engaged in greater alcohol consumption. Importantly, concussion status also significantly predicted baseline physiological arousal, b = −0.39, p = 0.014, 95% CI [−0.979, −0.120], such that those with a history of concussion exhibited lower EDA. Conclusions: Elevated alcohol consumption among athletes is a pronounced associate of concussion in sports and may be a behavioral reflection of disruption to the orbitofrontal cortex – an area implicated in inhibition. Keywords: Concussion, Arousal, Risk taking, Alcohol consumption, Athletes

Complementary and alternative medicine for the treatment and diagnosis of asthma and allergic diseases.

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Passalacqua, G; Compalati, E; Schiappoli, M; Senna, G

2005-03-01

The use of Complementary/Alternative Medicines (CAM) is largely diffused and constantly increasing, especially in the field of allergic diseases and asthma. Homeopathy, acupuncture and phytotherapy are the most frequently utilised treatments, whereas complementary diagnostic techniques are mainly used in the field of food allergy-intolerance. Looking at the literature, the majority of clinical trials with CAMS are of low methodological quality, thus difficult to interpret. There are very few studies performed in a rigorously controlled fashion, and those studies provided inconclusive results. In asthma, none of the CAM have thus far been proved more effective than placebo or equally effective as standard treatments. Some herbal products, containing active principles, have displayed some clinical effect, but the herbal remedies are usually not standardised and not quantified, thus carry the risk of toxic effects or interactions. None of the alternative diagnostic techniques (electrodermal testing, kinesiology, leukocytotoxic test, iridology, hair analysis) have been proved able to distinguish between healthy and allergic subjects or to diagnose sensitizations. Therefore these tests must not be used, since they can lead to delayed or incorrect diagnosis and therapy.

A Presence-Based Context-Aware Chronic Stress Recognition System

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Andrej Kos

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Stressors encountered in daily life may play an important role in personal well-being. Chronic stress can have a serious long-term impact on our physical as well as our psychological health, due to ongoing increased levels of the chemicals released in the ‘fight or flight’ response. The currently available stress assessment methods are usually not suitable for daily chronic stress measurement. The paper presents a context-aware chronic stress recognition system that addresses this problem. The proposed system obtains contextual data from various mobile sensors and other external sources in order to calculate the impact of ongoing stress. By identifying and visualizing ongoing stress situations of an individual user, he/she is able to modify his/her behavior in order to successfully avoid them. Clinical evaluation of the proposed methodology has been made in parallel by using electrodermal activity sensor. To the best of our knowledge, the system presented herein is the first one that enables recognition of chronic stress situations on the basis of user context.

Attend or defend? Sex differences in behavioral, autonomic, and respiratory response patterns to emotion-eliciting films.

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Wilhelm, Frank H; Rattel, Julina A; Wegerer, Melanie; Liedlgruber, Michael; Schweighofer, Simon; Kreibig, Sylvia D; Kolodyazhniy, Vitaliy; Blechert, Jens

2017-12-01

Sex differences in emotional reactivity have been studied primarily for negative but less so for positive stimuli; likewise, sex differences in the psychophysiological response-patterning during such stimuli are poorly understood. Thus, the present study examined sex differences in response to negative/positive and high/low arousing films (classified as threat-, loss-, achievement-, and recreation-related, vs. neutral films), while measuring 18 muscular, autonomic, and respiratory parameters. Sex differences emerged for all films, but were most prominent for threat-related films: Despite equivalent valence and arousal ratings, women displayed more facial-muscular and respiratory responding than men and pronounced sympathetic activation (preejection period, other cardiovascular and electrodermal measures), while men showed coactivated sympathetic/parasympathetic responding (including increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia). This indicates a prototypical threat-related defense response in women, while men showed a pattern of sustained orienting, which can be understood as a shift toward less threat proximity in the defense cascade model. Clinical implications are discussed within a socio-evolutionary framework. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The use of digital image speckle correlation to measure the mechanical properties of skin and facial muscular activity

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Staloff, Isabelle Afriat

Skin mechanical properties have been extensively studied and have led to an understanding of the structure and role of the collagen and elastin fibers network in the dermis and their changes due to aging. All these techniques have either isolated the skin from its natural environment (in vitro), or, when studied in vivo, attempted to minimize the effect of the underlying tissues and muscles. The human facial region is unique compared to the other parts of the body in that the underlying musculature runs through the subcutaneous tissue and is directly connected to the dermis with collagen based fibrous tissues. These fibrous tissues comprise the superficial musculoaponeurotic system, commonly referred to as the SMAS layer. Retaining ligaments anchor the skin to the periosteum, and hold the dermis to the SMAS. In addition, traditional techniques generally collect an average response of the skin. Data gathered in this manner is incomplete as the skin is anisotropic and under constant tension. We therefore introduce the Digital Image Speckle Correlation (DISC) method that maps in two dimensions the skin deformation under the complex set of forces involved during muscular activity. DISC, a non-contact in vivo technique, generates spatial resolved information. By observing the detailed motion of the facial skin we can infer the manner in which the complex ensemble of forces induced by movement of the muscles distribute and dissipate on the skin. By analyzing the effect of aging on the distribution of these complex forces we can measure its impact on skin elasticity and quantify the efficacy of skin care products. In addition, we speculate on the mechanism of wrinkle formation. Furthermore, we investigate the use of DISC to map the mechanism of film formation on skin of various polymers. Finally, we show that DISC can detect the involuntary facial muscular activity induced by various fragrances.

8-13 Hz fluctuations in rectal pressure are an objective marker of clitorally-induced orgasm in women.

Science.gov (United States)

van Netten, Jaap J; Georgiadis, Janniko R; Nieuwenburg, Arie; Kortekaas, Rudie

2008-04-01

Orgasm is a subjective experience accompanied by involuntary muscle contractions. We hypothesized that orgasm in women would be distinguishable by frequency analysis of a perineal muscle-derived signal. Rectal pressure, an index of perineal muscle activity, was measured continuously in 23 healthy women during different sexual tasks: receiving clitoral stimulation, imitation of orgasm, and attempt to reach orgasm, in which case the women were asked to report whether orgasm had been reached ("orgasm") or not ("failed orgasm attempt"). We performed spectral analysis on the rectal pressure data and calculated the spectral power in the frequency bands delta (0.5-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), and beta (13-25 Hz). The most significant and most important difference in spectral power between orgasm and both control motor tasks (imitation of orgasm and failed orgasm attempt) was found in the alpha band. An objective rule based on spectral power in the alpha band recognized 94% (29/31) of orgasms and correctly labeled 69% (44/64) of all orgasm attempts as either successful or failed. Because outbursts of alpha fluctuations in rectal pressure only occurred during orgasm and not during voluntary imitation of orgasm or failed attempts, we propose that they represent involuntary contractions of muscles in the rectal vicinity. This is the first objective and quantitative measure that has a strong correspondence with the subjective experience of orgasm.

Matthew and marginality

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Denis C. Duling

1995-12-01

Full Text Available This article explores marginality theory as it was first proposed in  the social sciences, that is related to persons caught between two competing cultures (Park; Stonequist, and, then, as it was developed in sociology as related to the poor (Germani and in anthropology as it was related to involuntary marginality and voluntary marginality (Victor Turner. It then examines a (normative scheme' in antiquity that creates involuntary marginality at the macrosocial level, namely, Lenski's social stratification model in an agrarian society, and indicates how Matthean language might fit with a sample inventory  of socioreligious roles. Next, it examines some (normative schemes' in  antiquity for voluntary margi-nality at the microsocial level, namely, groups, and examines how the Matthean gospel would fit based on indications of factions and leaders. The article ,shows that the author of the Gospel of Matthew has an ideology of (voluntary marginality', but his gospel includes some hope for (involuntary  marginals' in  the  real world, though it is somewhat tempered. It also suggests that the writer of the Gospel is a (marginal man', especially in the sense defined by the early theorists (Park; Stone-quist.

Hormonal modulation of novelty processing in women: Enhanced under working memory load with high dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate-to-dehydroepiandrosterone ratios.

Science.gov (United States)

do Vale, Sónia; Selinger, Lenka; Martins, João Martin; Bicho, Manuel; do Carmo, Isabel; Escera, Carles

2016-11-10

Several studies have suggested that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS) may enhance working memory and attention, yet current evidence is still inconclusive. The balance between both forms of the hormone might be crucial regarding the effects that DHEA and DHEAS exert on the central nervous system. To test the hypothesis that higher DHEAS-to-DHEA ratios might enhance working memory and/or involuntary attention, we studied the DHEAS-to-DHEA ratio in relation to involuntary attention and working memory processing by recording the electroencephalogram of 22 young women while performing a working memory load task and a task without working memory load in an audio-visual oddball paradigm. DHEA and DHEAS were measured in saliva before each task. We found that a higher DHEAS-to-DHEA ratio was related to enhanced auditory novelty-P3 amplitudes during performance of the working memory task, indicating an increased processing of the distracter, while on the other hand there was no difference in the processing of the visual target. These results suggest that the balance between DHEAS and DHEA levels modulates involuntary attention during the performance of a task with cognitive load without interfering with the processing of the task-relevant visual stimulus. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Factors associated with bruxism in children with developmental disabilities

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Valeska Aparecida Fernandes SOUZA

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the present study was to investigate factors associated with bruxism in children aged from 1 to 13 years with developmental disabilities. A total of 389 dental records were examined. The bruxism analyzed was determined based on parental reports. The following variables were also analyzed: gender, age, International Code of Diseases (ICD, mouth breathing, history of gastroesophageal reflux, use of psychotropic drugs, gingival status, reports of xerostomia, hyperkinesis, pacifier use, thumb sucking and involuntary movements. For the purposes of analysis, the individuals were categorized as being with and without bruxism. Variables with a p-value < 0.25 in the bivariate analysis were incorporated into the logistic regression models. Females had a 0.44-fold (95%CI: 0.25 to 0.78 greater chance of exhibiting bruxism than males. Individuals with gastroesophageal reflux had a 2.28-fold (95%CI: 1.03 to 5.02 greater chance of exhibiting bruxism. Individuals with reported involuntary movements had a 2.24-fold (95%CI: 1.19 to 4.24 greater chance of exhibiting bruxism than those without such movements. Exhibiting involuntary movements, the male gender and gastroesophageal reflux are factors associated with bruxism in children with developmental disabilities.

The influence of sodium bicarbonate on maximal force and rates of force development in the triceps surae and brachii during fatiguing exercise.

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Siegler, Jason C; Mudie, Kurt; Marshall, Paul

2016-11-01

What is the central question of this study? Does metabolic alkalosis in humans, induced by sodium bicarbonate, affect rates of skeletal muscle fatigue differentially in muscle groups composed predominately of slow- and fast-twitch fibres? What is the main finding and its importance? Sodium bicarbonate exhibited no effect on the fatigue profile observed between triceps surae and brachii muscle groups during and after 2 min of tetanic stimulation. For the first time in exercising humans, we have profiled the effect of sodium bicarbonate on the voluntary and involuntary contractile characteristics of muscle groups representative of predominately slow- and fast-twitch fibres. The effect of metabolic alkalosis on fibre-specific maximal force production and rates of force development (RFD) has been investigated previously in animal models, with evidence suggesting an improved capacity to develop force rapidly in fast- compared with slow-twitch muscle. We have attempted to model in vivo the fatigue profile of voluntary and involuntary maximal force and RFD in the triceps surae and brachii after sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO 3 ) ingestion. In a double-blind, three-way repeated-measures design, participants (n = 10) ingested either 0.3 g kg -1 NaHCO 3 (ALK) or equivalent calcium carbonate (PLA) prior to 2 min of continuous (1 Hz) supramaximal stimulation (300 ms at 40 Hz) of the triceps surae or brachii, with maximal voluntary efforts (maximal voluntary torque) coupled with direct muscle stimulation also measured at baseline, 1 and 2 min. Metabolic alkalosis was achieved in both ALK trials but was not different between muscle groups. Regardless of the conditions, involuntary torque declined nearly 60% in the triceps brachii (P < 0.001) and ∼30% in the triceps surae (P < 0.001). In all trials, there was a significant decline in normalized involuntary RFD (P < 0.05). Maximal voluntary torque declined nearly 28% but was not different between conditions (P < 0

The effects of crisis plans for patients with psychotic and bipolar disorders: a randomised controlled trial

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Roosenschoon BJ

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Crises and (involuntary admissions have a strong impact on patients and their caregivers. In some countries, including the Netherlands, the number of crises and (involuntary admissions have increased in the last years. There is also a lack of effective interventions to prevent their occurrence. Previous research has shown that a form of psychiatric advance statement – joint crisis plan – may prevent involuntary admissions, but another study showed no significant results for another form. The question remains which form of psychiatric advance statement may help to prevent crisis situations. This study examines the effects of two other psychiatric advance statements. The first is created by the patient with help from a patient's advocate (Patient Advocate Crisis Plan: PACP and the second with the help of a clinician only (Clinician facilitated Crisis Plan: CCP. We investigate whether patients with a PACP or CCP show fewer emergency visits and (involuntary admissions as compared to patients without a psychiatric advance statement. Furthermore, this study seeks to identify possible mechanisms responsible for the effects of a PACP or a CCP. Methods/Design This study is a randomised controlled trial with two intervention groups and one control condition. Both interventions consist of a crisis plan, facilitated through the patient's advocate or the clinician respectively. Outpatients with psychotic or bipolar disorders, who experienced at least one psychiatric crisis during the previous two years, are randomly allocated to one of the three groups. Primary outcomes are the number of emergency (after hour visits, (involuntary admissions and the length of stay in hospital. Secondary outcomes include psychosocial functioning and treatment satisfaction. The possible mediator variables of the effects of the crisis plans are investigated by assessing the patient's involvement in the creation of the crisis plan, working alliance

Japan's international peace operations in South Sudan ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2016-11-20

Nov 20, 2016 ... Legislation, peacekeeping operations (PKOs), protection of civilians. (POC), United Nations .... conflicts, poverty, environmental degradation, health problems, and involuntary ...... New York, Colombia. University Press. Willmot ...

All projects related to india | Page 6 | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Involuntary resettlement: A cross-country study on urban inequality and poverty. Project ... Topic: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, ZOONOSES, GENDER ANALYSIS, Disease control, ... Preparing States in India for Universal Health Coverage.

Multivariate pattern classification reveals autonomic and experiential representations of discrete emotions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kragel, Philip A; Labar, Kevin S

2013-08-01

Defining the structural organization of emotions is a central unresolved question in affective science. In particular, the extent to which autonomic nervous system activity signifies distinct affective states remains controversial. Most prior research on this topic has used univariate statistical approaches in attempts to classify emotions from psychophysiological data. In the present study, electrodermal, cardiac, respiratory, and gastric activity, as well as self-report measures were taken from healthy subjects during the experience of fear, anger, sadness, surprise, contentment, and amusement in response to film and music clips. Information pertaining to affective states present in these response patterns was analyzed using multivariate pattern classification techniques. Overall accuracy for classifying distinct affective states was 58.0% for autonomic measures and 88.2% for self-report measures, both of which were significantly above chance. Further, examining the error distribution of classifiers revealed that the dimensions of valence and arousal selectively contributed to decoding emotional states from self-report, whereas a categorical configuration of affective space was evident in both self-report and autonomic measures. Taken together, these findings extend recent multivariate approaches to study emotion and indicate that pattern classification tools may improve upon univariate approaches to reveal the underlying structure of emotional experience and physiological expression. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Initial validation of a virtual blood draw exposure paradigm for fear of blood and needles.

Science.gov (United States)

Trost, Z; Jones, A; Guck, A; Vervoort, T; Kowalsky, J M; France, C R

2017-10-01

Fear of blood, injections, and needles commonly prevents or delays individuals' receipt of health care, such as vaccines or blood draws. Innovative methods are needed to overcome these fears and reduce anxiety related to activities of this nature. The present study describes initial testing of an arm illusion paradigm that may prove useful during early phases of graded exposure for people with blood and needle fear. Seventy-four undergraduate students aged 18-29 years were tested. In line with study aims, results indicated that the virtual blood draw paradigm promoted strong perceptions of arm ownership and elicited significant changes in physiological indices (blood pressure, heart rate, electrodermal activity, respiratory rate) in response to key procedure elements (e.g., needle insertion). Further, bivariate correlations indicated that individual differences in self-reported blood and needle fear collected prior to the illusion paradigm were significantly associated with presyncopal symptoms reported following the procedure. In regression analyses, self-reported measures of blood and needle fear explained unique variance in presyncopal symptoms even after controlling for general state anxiety. These findings provide initial support for the virtual blood draw paradigm as a promising tool to help provide graded exposure to medical procedures involving needles and blood draw. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

All projects related to Sri Lanka | Page 2 | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Involuntary resettlement: A cross-country study on urban inequality and poverty ... INDIA, Poverty, SOUTH ASIA, SRI LANKA, SOCIAL CONFLICTS, Gender ... LOW INCOME GROUPS, WOMEN, RESEARCH CAPACITY, Social Policy, POLICY ...

42 CFR 460.112 - Specific rights to which a participant is entitled.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... access to a telephone. (5) To be free from harm, including physical or mental abuse, neglect, corporal punishment, involuntary seclusion, excessive medication, and any physical or chemical restraint imposed for...

ERISA 4044 (Immediate and Deferred) Annuities

Data.gov (United States)

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation — The select and ultimate interest rates are issued for the specific purpose of determining the present value of annuities in involuntary and distress terminations of...

The Relation Between Goals and Autobiographical Memory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johannessen, Kim Berg; Rasmussen, Anne Scharling; Berntsen, Dorthe

facilitate recall of goal congruent autobiographical memories which supports the idea of autobiographical memory facilitating goal attainment. Further, no differences between involuntary and voluntary memories with regard to frequency or characteristics of goal related content were found. Yet memories...... related to goals were rated as more central to the person's identity, life story and expectations for the future than non-goal related memories, irrespective of mode of recall. Interestingly, depression and PTSD symptoms correlated positively with the proportion of goal related memories, thereby......The present study examines involuntary (spontaneously retrieved) versus voluntary (deliberately retrieved) autobiographical memories in relation to earlier registered goals measured by the Personal Concern Inventory (Cox & Klinger, 2000). We found that the important and not yet planned goals...

Bilateral dystonia in type 1 diabetes: a case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yasuhara Akihiro

2008-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction Diabetic hemichorea-hemiballismus is a rare complication of type 2 diabetes. Here, we report a case with type 1 diabetes, with hemichorea and bilateral dystonia manifested as hyperglycemia-induced involuntary movement. Case presentation A 62-year-old Japanese women with body weight loss of 30 kg during the past year developed symptoms of thirst, polydipsia and polyuria. She also presented with hemichorea and bilateral dystonia for 5 days and extremely high plasma glucose (774 mg/dl, hemoglobin A1c (21.2% and glycated albumin (100% with ketosis. Based on the presence of glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (18,000 U/ml; normal Conclusion Hyperglycemia-induced involuntary movement is one of the manifestations of dystonia and hemichorea-hemiballism.

Neurophysiology and Clinical Implications of the Laryngeal Adductor Reflex.

Science.gov (United States)

Domer, Amanda S; Kuhn, Maggie A; Belafsky, Peter C

2013-09-01

The laryngeal adductor reflex (LAR) is an involuntary protective response to stimuli in the larynx. The superior laryngeal nerve (SLN) acts as the afferent limb and the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) as the efferent limb of this reflex, which is modulated by the central nervous system. Perhaps the most clinically significant application of the LAR is its use in laryngopharyngeal (LP) sensory discrimination testing. Importantly, aberrations in the LAR may predict dysphagia or portend clinical phenotypes of chronic cough, vocal cord dysfunction or pediatric apneas. LP sensation is a potential target for interventions addressing the aforementioned conditions though currently remains an area of active investigation.

Alpers' Disease

Science.gov (United States)

... underlying liver disease, failure to thrive, infection-associated encephalopathy, spasticity, myoclonus (involuntary jerking of a muscle or group of muscles), seizures, or liver failure. An increased protein level is seen in ...

Self-Reported Trait Mindfulness and Affective Reactivity: A Motivational Approach Using Multiple Psychophysiological Measures

Science.gov (United States)

Cosme, Danielle; Wiens, Stefan

2015-01-01

As a form of attention, mindfulness is qualitatively receptive and non-reactive, and is thought to facilitate adaptive emotional responding. One suggested mechanism is that mindfulness facilitates disengagement from an affective stimulus and thereby decreases affective reactivity. However, mindfulness has been conceptualized as a state, intervention, and trait. Because evidence is mixed as to whether self-reported trait mindfulness decreases affective reactivity, we used a multi-method approach to study the relationship between individual differences in self-reported trait mindfulness and electrocortical, electrodermal, electromyographic, and self-reported responses to emotional pictures. Specifically, while participants (N = 51) passively viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant IAPS pictures, we recorded high-density (128 channels) electrocortical, electrodermal, and electromyographic data to the pictures as well as to acoustic startle probes presented during the pictures. Afterwards, participants rated their subjective valence and arousal while viewing the pictures again. If trait mindfulness spontaneously reduces general emotional reactivity, then for individuals reporting high rather than low mindfulness, response differences between emotional and neutral pictures would show relatively decreased early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes, decreased skin conductance responses, and decreased subjective ratings for valence and arousal. High mindfulness would also be associated with decreased emotional modulation of startle eyeblink and P3 amplitudes. Although results showed clear effects of emotion on the dependent measures, in general, mindfulness did not moderate these effects. For most measures, effect sizes were small with rather narrow confidence intervals. These data do not support the hypothesis that individual differences in self-reported trait mindfulness are related to spontaneous emotional responses during picture

Self-reported trait mindfulness and affective reactivity: a motivational approach using multiple psychophysiological measures.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danielle Cosme

Full Text Available As a form of attention, mindfulness is qualitatively receptive and non-reactive, and is thought to facilitate adaptive emotional responding. One suggested mechanism is that mindfulness facilitates disengagement from an affective stimulus and thereby decreases affective reactivity. However, mindfulness has been conceptualized as a state, intervention, and trait. Because evidence is mixed as to whether self-reported trait mindfulness decreases affective reactivity, we used a multi-method approach to study the relationship between individual differences in self-reported trait mindfulness and electrocortical, electrodermal, electromyographic, and self-reported responses to emotional pictures. Specifically, while participants (N = 51 passively viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant IAPS pictures, we recorded high-density (128 channels electrocortical, electrodermal, and electromyographic data to the pictures as well as to acoustic startle probes presented during the pictures. Afterwards, participants rated their subjective valence and arousal while viewing the pictures again. If trait mindfulness spontaneously reduces general emotional reactivity, then for individuals reporting high rather than low mindfulness, response differences between emotional and neutral pictures would show relatively decreased early posterior negativity (EPN and late positive potential (LPP amplitudes, decreased skin conductance responses, and decreased subjective ratings for valence and arousal. High mindfulness would also be associated with decreased emotional modulation of startle eyeblink and P3 amplitudes. Although results showed clear effects of emotion on the dependent measures, in general, mindfulness did not moderate these effects. For most measures, effect sizes were small with rather narrow confidence intervals. These data do not support the hypothesis that individual differences in self-reported trait mindfulness are related to spontaneous emotional responses

Treatment of Encopresis in a Classroom Setting: A Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, E.

1977-01-01

This study describes the procedure and results of a behavior modification program carried out in the classroom and aimed at eliminating encopresis (involuntary defecation) in an 8-year-old boy. (Editor/RK)

A Critical Assessment of Total Force Pilot Requirements, Management, and Training

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Thie, Harry J; Taylor, William W; Mitchell Levy, Claire; Graf, II, Clifford M; Nataraj Kirby, Sheila

1994-01-01

..., in some services, on the reserve component. As they are positioning themselves in this new environment and drawing down, the services find themselves constraining accessions, encouraging voluntary departures, and imposing involuntary separations...

The Slovenian Mental Health Act de lege ferenda.

Science.gov (United States)

Ivanc, Blaz

2008-06-01

This article analyzes the case-law of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia relating to the protection of mentally ill persons. In case No. U-I-60/03 the Constitutional Court declared that the provisions of Arts. 70 to 81 of the Non-litigious Civil Procedure Act (a Chapter on involuntary Commitment to the closed wards of psychiatric hospitals) are not in conformity with the Constitution. As an interim measure the Constitutional Court instructed the regular Courts (in the procedure for the involuntary commitment of persons to a mental institution) to ensure the following: an ex officio counsel must be appointed for an involuntarily committed person upon the commencement of proceedings; and the notification of detention that the authorised mental institution is obliged to submit to the court must contain reasons substantiating the necessity of detention. The Legislature's intention is to enact a special Law (Mental Health Act) that will not only deal with the procedural questions, but also with all other constitutional and statutory rights and freedoms of the mentally ill patients. It should also deal with other forms of institutional and non-institutional care for mentally ill persons. The author discusses the Ombudsman's control over the rights and freedoms of involuntary committed in-patients. Finally, the author discusses some of the most problematic issues of the Slovenian Mental Health Actde lege ferenda.

How intention and monitoring your thoughts influence characteristics of autobiographical memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Barzykowski, Krystian; Staugaard, Søren Risløv

2018-05-01

Involuntary autobiographical memories come to mind effortlessly and unintended, but the mechanisms of their retrieval are not fully understood. We hypothesize that involuntary retrieval depends on memories that are highly accessible (e.g., intense, unusual, recent, rehearsed), while the elaborate search that characterizes voluntary retrieval also produces memories that are mundane, repeated or distant - memories with low accessibility. Previous research provides some evidence for this 'threshold hypothesis'. However, in almost every prior study, participants have been instructed to report only memories while ignoring other thoughts. It is possible that such an instruction can modify the phenomenological characteristics of involuntary memories. This study aimed to investigate the effects of retrieval intentionality (i.e., wanting to retrieve a memory) and selective monitoring (i.e., instructions to report only memories) on the phenomenology of autobiographical memories. Participants were instructed to (1) intentionally retrieve autobiographical memories, (2) intentionally retrieve any type of thought (3) wait for an autobiographical memory to spontaneously appear, or (4) wait for any type of thought to spontaneously appear. They rated the mental content on a number of phenomenological characteristics both during retrieval and retrospectively following retrieval. The results support the prediction that highly accessible memories mostly enter awareness unintended and without selective monitoring, while memories with low accessibility rely on intention and selective monitoring. We discuss the implications of these effects. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

The neuromechanical functional contractile properties of the thigh muscles measured using tensiomyography in male athletes and non-athletes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Toskić Lazar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Involuntary neuromechanical muscle contractile properties, especially of the extensor muscles and knee joint flexors as the largest muscle groups of the caudal part of the body, play an important role in both everyday movement and sport. Based on these data we can obtain important information on the functional properties of muscles. The basic means of evaluation of the functional involuntary neuromechanical muscles contractile properties is the non-invasive tensiomyographic method (TMG. The aim of this study was to determine the differences between the involuntary neuromechanical contractile properties of the thigh muscles measured using the TMG method on a sample of male athletes and non-athletes. The sample of participants was made up of 17 athletes and 10 non-athletes. By applying the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA and the t-test, we achieved results which indicate that of the overall 30 variables, a difference was determined among 13 of them. Most of the differences were determined for the extensor muscles of the right knee, especially of the rectus femoris muscle. It was also shown that in addition to the main knee joint extensor muscle (rectus femoris the main knee joint flexor muscle (biceps femoris also takes part in the definition of the difference between athletes and non-athletes. The results have shown that the following variables: contraction time (Tc and delay contraction time (Td are the functional parameters for which the highest difference between athletes and non-athletes were determined (from t = -2.284, p < 0.05 for the vastus lateralis of the right leg to t = -4.018, p < 0.01 for the rectus femoris of the left leg. These results have shown that it is possible to determine the differences in the functional involuntary neuromechanical contractile properties of the thigh muscles among trained and untrained individuals using the tensiomyographic method, but at the same time indicated that these differences were very

Alternatives in Human Reproduction for Involuntary Childless Couples.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmerman, Shirley L.

1982-01-01

Discusses human reproductive alternatives such as artificial insemination by husband and by donor, surrogate pregnancy, and in vitro fertilization in relation to involuntarily childless couples. Concludes by raising a number of questions for practice, policy, and research in the area of family life. (Author)

Predicting Occupational Role Choices after Involuntary Job Loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Kinicki, Angelo J.

1989-01-01

Analyzed longitudinal data from 126 employees 1 month prior to being permanently displaced. Behavioral choice model significantly predicted behavioral intention to look for job, effort in looking, and actual behavior/role choice 18 months later. Expectancy for obtaining job was inversely related with age, positively related with education,…

43 CFR 426.14 - Involuntary acquisition of land.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... from excess status, except for: (A) Financial institutions; or (B) Landowners for which § 426.12(g) (1.... (a) Definitions for purposes of this section. Financial institution means a commercial bank or trust company, a private bank, an agency or branch of a foreign bank in the United States, a thrift institution...

Satisfaction with services following voluntary and involuntary admission.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Smith, Damian

2014-02-01

Service user perspectives are essential for the evaluation and development of mental health services. Service users expressing less satisfaction with services subsequently have poorer treatment outcomes.

Involuntary outpatient treatment in civil law: A review

OpenAIRE

Portero, G.

2010-01-01

En este artículo se analiza el tratamiento ambulatorio involuntario (TAI) en España. También hacemos un breve repaso de él en el derecho internacional. En España no hay una legislación explícita del TAI, pero en el año 2004 el grupo parlamentario CIU (Convergencia i Unió) propuso una modificación del articulo 763 de la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil para autorizar el TAI. Surgió así uno de los temas más controvertidos sobre la salud mental de los últimos años estando aún sin resolver. Hay tres p...

Individual differences in vagal regulation are related to testosterone responses to observed violence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric C Porges

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Observing violent content has been hypothesized to increase antisocial behaviors including interpersonal violence. Testosterone is released in response to perceived challenges of social status, often followed by an increase in aggressive behaviors and physiological activation. Prior investigations evaluating the impact of observing violence on autonomic function have focused on sympathetic measures of arousal. Measurement of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS activity has been neglected, although reduced PNS activity has been associated with antisocial behavior. Consistent with a hierarchical model of the autonomic nervous system (i.e., Polyvagal Theory, individual differences in PNS activity reflected in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA were hypothesized to have an inhibitory impact on sympathetic and hormonal reactivity in subjects who were observing a violent video. Autonomic data (i.e., electrodermal activity (EDA, heart rate, and RSA were collected from forty adult males prior to and while viewing violent sports or a control video. Pre- and post-video saliva samples were assayed for cortisol and testosterone. Participants who viewed the violent video exhibited increased sympathetic activity compared to controls. In contrast to the sympathetic reactivity to the violent video, there were no significant RSA changes in response to the stimuli, suggesting that viewing violent sports selectively increases sympathetic activity without eliciting PNS withdrawal. However, within the group viewing the violent video, participants with lower RSA during baseline and the observation of violent videos, responded with greater increases in salivary testosterone, suggesting that high parasympathetic tone dampens testosterone reactivity. These individual differences in response to observed violence, associated with higher RSA, may account for some of the improved health, growth, and restoration outcomes across the lifespan, that this segment of the

Glossary of ALS-Related Medical and Scientific Terms

Science.gov (United States)

... dyskinesia An involuntary movement including athetosis and chorea. dysphagia Difficulty in swallowing. dystonia A slow movement or ... Paralysis of a muscle or group of muscles. Parkinson's Disease The most common form of Parkinson's is ...

Concerns Boys Have about Puberty

Science.gov (United States)

... Size Email Print Share Concerns Boys Have About Puberty Page Content Article Body Boys have pubertal concerns ... just part of growing up. Involuntary Erections During puberty, boys get erections spontaneously, without touching their penis ...

Genetics Home Reference: essential tremor

Science.gov (United States)

... Facebook Twitter Home Health Conditions Essential tremor Essential tremor Printable PDF Open All Close All Enable Javascript to view the expand/collapse boxes. Description Essential tremor is a movement disorder that causes involuntary, rhythmic ...

Secondhand Smoke/“Light” Tobacco/ Smokeless Tobacco | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

Science.gov (United States)

... also called environmental tobacco smoke, involuntary smoking, and passive smoking. Secondhand smoke contains at least 250 toxic ... in tea bag-like pouches or sachets. No matter what it's called, smokeless tobacco is addictive and ...

Basal ganglia dysfunction

Science.gov (United States)

... cells may cause problems controlling speech, movement, and posture. This combination of symptoms is called parkinsonism. A ... if you have any abnormal or involuntary movements, falls without known reason, or if you or others ...

1 effect and management of acute dichlorvos poisoning in wistar rats

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DR. AMINU

effect and antidotal therapy of dichlorvos was studied in laboratory animals. The LD50 in rats was ... sweating, involuntary muscle contractions and burning sensations or actual burns .... by inhibiting the cholinesterase enzyme in mammalian.

Experience of action depends on intention, not body movement

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Mads; Vagnoni, Eleonora; Overgaard, Morten

2014-01-01

in memory. We found that recall of a voluntary action was unaffected by an incongruent involuntary movement. In contrast, recall of an involuntary movement was strongly influenced by an incongruent voluntary action. Our results demonstrate an “intentional capture” of body movement by voluntary actions......, in support of intentional theories of agency, but contrary to reconstructive theories. When asked to recall both actions and movements, people's responses are shaped by memory of what they intended to do, rather than by how their body moved....... effects that they produce. Intentions would then be mere confabulations, and not bona fide experiences. Previous work on voluntary action has focused on immediate experiences of authorship, and few studies have considered memory for voluntary actions. We devised an experiment in which both voluntary...

A new look at Op art: towards a simple explanation of illusory motion

Science.gov (United States)

Zanker, Johannes M.; Walker, Robin

Vivid motion illusions created by some Op art paintings are at the centre of a lively scientific debate about possible mechanisms that might underlie these phenomena. Here we review emerging evidence from a new approach that combines perceptual judgements of the illusion and observations of eye movements with simulations of the induced optic flow. This work suggests that the small involuntary saccades which participants make when viewing such Op art patterns would generate an incoherent distribution of motion signals that resemble the perceptual effects experienced by the observers. The combined experimental and computational evidence supports the view that the illusion is indeed caused by involuntary image displacements picked up by low-level motion detectors, and further suggests that coherent motion signals are crucial to perceive a stable world.

A Case of Hemiabdominal Myoclonus.

Science.gov (United States)

Nociti, Viviana; Servidei, Serenella; Luigetti, Marco; Iorio, Raffaele; Lo Monaco, Mauro; Mirabella, Massimiliano; Frisullo, Giovanni; Della Marca, Giacomo

2015-10-01

Myoclonus consists of sudden, brief, involuntary jerky muscular contractions. Central and peripheral nervous system lesions are involved in the pathogenesis of this movement disorder. Symptomatic or secondary spinal myoclonus is the most common form. A 68-year-old woman was diagnosed with hemiabdominal spinal myoclonus. Occasional and very mild involuntary repetitive movements of the hemiabdomen began immediately after surgery for uterine cancer. After surgery for laparocele, secondary to the uterine cancer surgery, performed under spinal anesthesia, there was severe worsening of movements. Neuroradiological investigations failed to demonstrate spinal injury, while neurophysiological studies showed impairment of the right central somatosensory pathway. Considering the low resolution of magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of thoracic level, we suggest an extensive neurophysiological evaluation in patients with spinal myoclonus. © EEG and Clinical Neuroscience Society (ECNS) 2014.

Genetics Home Reference: spastic paraplegia type 7

Science.gov (United States)

... in the arms; speech difficulties (dysarthria); difficulty swallowing (dysphagia); involuntary movements of the eyes (nystagmus); mild hearing ... AH, Warner TT. A clinical, genetic and biochemical study of SPG7 mutations in hereditary spastic paraplegia. Brain. ...

Genetics Home Reference: autosomal dominant leukodystrophy with autonomic disease

Science.gov (United States)

... have muscle stiffness (spasticity) or weakness and involuntary rhythmic shaking, called intention tremor because it worsens during ... Hobson G, Brusco A, Brussino A, Padiath QS. Analysis of LMNB1 duplications in autosomal dominant leukodystrophy provides ...

Smoking During Pregnancy

Science.gov (United States)

... Low Socioeconomic Status Tobacco Use Among Adults with Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders Tobacco Use by Geographic ... Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report ...

Predictive Physiological Anticipation Preceding Seemingly Unpredictable Stimuli:A Meta-Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia eMossbridge

2012-10-01

Full Text Available This meta-analysis of 26 reports published between 1978 and 2010 tests an unusal hypothesis: for stimuli of two or more types that are presented in an order designed to be unpredictable and that produce different post-stimulus physiological activity, the direction of pre-stimulus physiological activity reflects the direction of post-stimulus physiological activity, resulting in an unexplained anticipatory effect. The reports we examined used one of two paradigms: 1 randomly presented arousing vs. neutral stimuli, or 2 guessing tasks with feedback (correct vs. incorrect. Dependent variables included: electrodermal activity, heart rate, blood volume, pupil dilation, electroencephalographic activity (EEG, and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD activity. To avoid including data hand-picked from multiple different analyses, no post-hoc experiments are considered. The results reveal a significant overall effect with a small effect size (random effects: overall [weighted] ES=0.21, 95%CI=0.13-0.29, z=5.3, p<5.7x10-8; fixed effects: overall ES=0.21, 95%CI=0.15-0.27, z=6.9, p<2.7x10-12. Higher quality experiments produce a quantitately larger effect size and a greater level of significance than lower quality studies. The number of contrary unpublished reports that would be necessary to reduce the level of significance to chance (p>0.05 was conservatively calculated to be 87 reports. We explore alternative explanations and examine the potential linkage between this unexplained anticipatory activity and other results demonstrating meaningful pre-stimulus activity preceding behaviourally relevant events. Multiple replications arising from different laboratories using the same methods are necessary to further examine this currently unexplained anticipatory activity. The cause of this anticipatory activity, which undoubtedly lies within the realm of natural physical processes (as opposed to supernatural or paranormal ones, remains to be determined.

Quagraine et al

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PUBLICATIONS1

Ghana has an average urban population growth ... ties, road networks and other infrastructure ... This study assessed the outcome of involuntary ... in the Eastern Region (1964-1968), the Kpong ..... Case Study of the Bui Dam Project, En-.

Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome: A Review and Implications for Educators.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemons, Laurie A.; Barber, William H.

1991-01-01

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome is a disorder characterized by multiple involuntary motor and verbal tics. This review covers the history, symptoms, diagnostic criteria, past and present treatments, associated disorders, and various educational techniques. (Author/DB)

5 CFR 890.806 - When can former spouses change enrollment or reenroll and what are the effective dates?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... satisfactory proof of eligibility within 60 days after the date of divorce, the enrollment may be made... reenroll in the FEHB Program for any reason other than an involuntary loss of coverage, may do so during...

Detection of Stress Levels from Biosignals Measured in Virtual Reality Environments Using a Kernel-Based Extreme Learning Machine.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Dongrae; Ham, Jinsil; Oh, Jooyoung; Park, Jeanho; Kim, Sayup; Lee, Nak-Kyu; Lee, Boreom

2017-10-24

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer technique that creates an artificial environment composed of realistic images, sounds, and other sensations. Many researchers have used VR devices to generate various stimuli, and have utilized them to perform experiments or to provide treatment. In this study, the participants performed mental tasks using a VR device while physiological signals were measured: a photoplethysmogram (PPG), electrodermal activity (EDA), and skin temperature (SKT). In general, stress is an important factor that can influence the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Heart-rate variability (HRV) is known to be related to ANS activity, so we used an HRV derived from the PPG peak interval. In addition, the peak characteristics of the skin conductance (SC) from EDA and SKT variation can also reflect ANS activity; we utilized them as well. Then, we applied a kernel-based extreme-learning machine (K-ELM) to correctly classify the stress levels induced by the VR task to reflect five different levels of stress situations: baseline, mild stress, moderate stress, severe stress, and recovery. Twelve healthy subjects voluntarily participated in the study. Three physiological signals were measured in stress environment generated by VR device. As a result, the average classification accuracy was over 95% using K-ELM and the integrated feature (IT = HRV + SC + SKT). In addition, the proposed algorithm can embed a microcontroller chip since K-ELM algorithm have very short computation time. Therefore, a compact wearable device classifying stress levels using physiological signals can be developed.

Stigma, disclosure, coping, and medication adherence among people living with HIV/AIDS in Northern Tanzania

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lyimo, R.A.; Stutterheim, S.E.; Hospers, H.J.; de Glee, T.; van der Ven, A.; de Bruin, M.

2014-01-01

This study examines a proposed theoretical model examining the interrelationships between stigma, disclosure, coping, and medication adherence among 158 HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in northern Tanzania. Perceived and self-stigma, voluntary and involuntary disclosure,

The Buffer Effect of Therapy Dog Exposure on Stress Reactivity in Undergraduate Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra J. Fiocco

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Stress is an insidious health risk that is commonly reported among university students. While research suggests that dog exposure may facilitate recovery from a stress response, little is known about the buffer effect of dog exposure on the stress response to a future stressor. This study examined whether interaction with a therapy dog could reduce the strength of the physiological stress response when exposed to a subsequent stressor. Sixty-one university students were randomly assigned to either a therapy dog (TD, n = 31 or a no-dog control (C, n = 30 group. The stress response was measured by electrodermal activity (EDA in response to the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT. Participants also completed questionnaires that assessed pet attitude, general stress levels, and affect. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs showed that increase in EDA was significantly more pronounced in the C group than in the TD group (p < 0.01. Pet attitudes did not modulate the buffer effect of therapy dog exposure. Results suggest that therapy dog exposure may buffer the stress response in university students, which has implications for the promotion of a viable stress management program on university campuses.

An integrated telemedicine platform for the assessment of affective physiological states

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ganiatsas George

2006-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract AUBADE is an integrated platform built for the affective assessment of individuals. The system performs evaluation of the emotional state by classifying vectors of features extracted from: facial Electromyogram, Respiration, Electrodermal Activity and Electrocardiogram. The AUBADE system consists of: (a a multisensorial wearable, (b a data acquisition and wireless communication module, (c a feature extraction module, (d a 3D facial animation module which is used for the projection of the obtained data through a generic 3D face model; whereas the end-user will be able to view the facial expression of the subject in real time, (e an intelligent emotion recognition module, and (f the AUBADE databases where the acquired signals along with the subject's animation videos are saved. The system is designed to be applied to human subjects operating under extreme stress conditions, in particular car racing drivers, and also to patients suffering from neurological and psychological disorders. AUBADE's classification accuracy into five predefined emotional classes (high stress, low stress, disappointment, euphoria and neutral face is 86.0%. The pilot system applications and components are being tested and evaluated on Maserati's car. racing drivers.

Biofeedback Training in Crisis Managers: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Janka, A; Adler, C; Brunner, B; Oppenrieder, S; Duschek, S

2017-06-01

Working in crisis environments represents a major challenge, especially for executive personnel engaged in directing disaster operations, i.e. crisis managers. Crisis management involves operating under conditions of extreme stress resulting, for instance, from high-level decision-making, principal responsibility for personnel, multitasking or working under conditions of risk and time pressure. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a newly developed biofeedback training procedure based on electrodermal activity, especially designed for the target group of crisis managers. The training comprised exercises promoting acquisition of control over sympathetic arousal under resting conditions and during exposure to visual, acoustic and cognitive stressors resembling situations related to crisis management. In a randomized controlled design, 36 crisis managers were assigned to either a biofeedback training group or waiting list control group. Subjective stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale. In the training group, stress level markedly decreased; the decrease remained stable at follow-up 2 months after the training. The results indicate that biofeedback training in crisis management is an effective method for stress management that may help to reduce vulnerability to stress-related performance decline and stress-related disease.

The effect of informed consent on stress levels associated with extraction of impacted mandibular third molars.

Science.gov (United States)

Casap, Nardy; Alterman, Michael; Sharon, Guy; Samuni, Yuval

2008-05-01

To evaluate the effect of informed consent on stress levels associated with removal of impacted mandibular third molars. A total of 60 patients scheduled for extraction of impacted mandibular third molars participated in this study. The patients were unaware of the study's objectives. Data from 20 patients established the baseline levels of electrodermal activity (EDA). The remaining 40 patients were randomly assigned into 2 equal groups receiving either a detailed document of informed consent, disclosing the possible risks involved with the surgery, or a simplified version. Pulse, blood pressure, and EDA were monitored before, during, and after completion of the consent document. Changes in EDA, but not in blood pressure, were measured on completion of either version of the consent document. A greater increase in EDA was associated with the detailed version of the consent document (P = .004). A similar concomitant increase (although nonsignificant) in pulse values was monitored on completion of both versions. Completion of overdisclosed document of informed consent is associated with changes in physiological parameters. The results suggest that overdetailed listing and disclosure before extraction of impacted mandibular third molars can increase patient stress.

“Take me Home and Allow me to Die Peacefully.”- An Ethical Dilemma of Grave Concern

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dhastagir SS

2010-01-01

Full Text Available To The Editor: Brain death that refers to the irreversible end of all brain activity, including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life, due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of blood flow and oxygenation [1,2]. Using brain-death criteria, the medical community can declare a person legally dead even if life support equipment keeps the body's metabolic processes working. However, putting an end to someone’s life createsmany ethical dilemmas. Many patients perceive death as a natural part of life, or relief from pain and they may express a wish to diequickly and painlessly. They often ask the treating physician and their family to be taken home and allowed to die peacefully. However,the next of kin may want the patient to be actively treated and kept alive. The physician hopes that the patient will survive and resortsto technical means to keep the patient alive. Who should decide; the patient, the family or the physician?

Delayed habituation in Behcet's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulturk, Sefa; Akyol, Melih; Kececi, Hulusi; Ozcelik, Sedat; Cinar, Ziynet; Demirkazik, Ayse

2008-01-01

The autonomic nervous system in Behcet's patients may be affected due to various reasons. This entity may be detected with the measurement of the electrodermal activities, heart rate variability and pupillometric methods. Habituation is one of the implicit forms of learning and memory and the loss of habituation can reveal pathological changes in the synaptic regions. To determine whether there is a functional decrease in the synaptic effectiveness (habituation) of the pathways to sympathetic neurons that had been repeatedly activated in Behcet's. Twelve patients with Behcet's disease and 12 healthy controls were included in the study. Sympathetic skin potential (SSP) records were taken at normal room temperature in a quiet place within a Faraday cage. Sixteen square wave single shock impulses (duration: 1200 ms, strength: 5 mA) were applied on each case. After the 1st stimulus, the SSP amplitudes were lower in the patients compared to the controls (P0.05). Whereas there was no significant differences among the SSP amplitudes after the 9th impulse in the controls (P>0.05). The habituation rate of the SSP after consecutive impulses was slowest in the patients compared to controls (P<0.001, t value=12.39). There is a delayed habituation in Behcet's disease and that may due to pathologic changes with vasculitis through their peripheral nerves.

Brain perfusion SPECT and FDG PET findings in a patient with ballism associated with hyperthyroidism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bae, Sang Kyun; Kim, Sang Jin [Pusan Paik Hospital, Pusan (Korea, Republic of)

2007-07-01

Ballism is a very rare presentation in association with hyperthyroidism. We describe a 22-year-old lady with episodes of recurrent ballism and hyperthyroidism. A 22-year-old lady was admitted to Neurology department because of sudden development of vigorous involuntary movement and dysarthria. She was diagnosed as hyperthyroidism at the age 12 and treated irregularly. She arrived at the emergency room because of sudden onset of involuntary movement. Computed tomography (CT) scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of brain was normal. Serum levels of thyroid hormone were increased (Free T4 3.15 ng/dl; normal range 0.93-1.71 ng/dl), whereas thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) was undetectable. The thyroid gland was diffusely enlarged and exophthalmos was found. She had been given antithyroid medication from local clinic but medicated irregularly. Technetium thyroid scan reveals diffusely enlarged thyroid with increased radioactivity. Radioiodine uptake in 24 hours was 71 %. Brain perfusion SPECT using Tc-99m ECD reveals asymmetrical perfusion pattern in basal ganglia. Brain PET using F-18 FDG reveals increased metabolism at both caudate nucleus and putamen. She was treated with radioiodine and involuntary movement was improved. There is only few report on ballism associated with hyperthyroidism and no report on functional brain imaging. Brain perfusion SPECT and FDG PET may give useful information about functional status of brain in patients with ballism associated with hyperthyroidism in case of normal anatomical finding on CT/MRI.

Curtailment of renewable generation: Economic optimality and incentives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klinge Jacobsen, Henrik; Schröder, Sascha Thorsten

2012-01-01

The loss from curtailing generation based on renewable energy sources is generally seen as an unacceptable solution by the public. The main argument is that it is a loss of green energy and an economic loss to curtail generation with near zero marginal costs. However, this view could lead to overinvestment in grid infrastructure and underinvestment in renewable energy sources. This article argues that some curtailment of fluctuating (variable) generation is optimal. We address the possible contributions to total curtailment from involuntary and voluntary curtailment. The costs of curtailment in terms of lost generation are discussed based on market price and support levels including the rationale for compensating generators for losses. The extent of actual curtailment is illustrated by examples from different global markets. In general, both the value of the curtailed energy and the amount of curtailed energy relative to total fluctuating generation is low but rising. Single generators may be affected considerably if insufficient compensation measures are in place. In the future, optimal curtailment will increase along with an increased share of fluctuating renewable generation. Extending renewable generation comparatively cheaply can be achieved by the installation of additional capacity at offshore locations until optimal curtailment levels are reached. - Highlights: ► Curtailment of renewable generation can be optimal. ► Voluntary and involuntary curtailment categories. ► Compensation for involuntary curtailment should be provided. ► Asymmetrical balancing price provides incentive for voluntary curtailment. ► Network enforcement costs can be reduced per renewable generation.

Nuclear waste: beyond Faust and fate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maxey, M.N.

1979-01-01

Regarding development of the nuclear industry and the resulting turmoil over generation of nuclear wastes, Dr. Maxey presents as a fundamental bioethical principle for organizing evidence and dealing with conflicting opinions the following formulation: social justice requires an equitable mangement of potential hazards that might have harmful health effects and unjustifiable social consequences. By equitable management she means: (1) comprehensively informing policymakers about the broad spectrum of hazards; (2) make comparisons of actual costs to reduce the effects; and (3) only then make policies and set standards that will get the most public protection out of a finite amount of money. Translating this principle into public policy is no easy task, since opponents have developed several arguments that appeal to nonscientific moral and ethical premises. Briefly, these statements can be summarized as: (a) indefinite delay of high-level waste disposal facilities is regarded as morally preferable to a policy of implementing one of several currently available options, and (b) it is claimed that involuntary risks of radiation exposure imposed on present and unconsulted future generations violate ethical principles of social justice and equity. Dr. Maxey uses most of the article in countering these premises and finally suggests the following bioethical principle for guidance: any involuntary risks imposed by social policies for radiation protection must be congruent with, must not be in excess of, and may be reasonably less than, those involuntary risks imposed by the naturally occurring toxic elements and harmful effects from our natural environment

Brain perfusion SPECT and FDG PET findings in a patient with ballism associated with hyperthyroidism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bae, Sang Kyun; Kim, Sang Jin

2007-01-01

Ballism is a very rare presentation in association with hyperthyroidism. We describe a 22-year-old lady with episodes of recurrent ballism and hyperthyroidism. A 22-year-old lady was admitted to Neurology department because of sudden development of vigorous involuntary movement and dysarthria. She was diagnosed as hyperthyroidism at the age 12 and treated irregularly. She arrived at the emergency room because of sudden onset of involuntary movement. Computed tomography (CT) scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of brain was normal. Serum levels of thyroid hormone were increased (Free T4 3.15 ng/dl; normal range 0.93-1.71 ng/dl), whereas thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) was undetectable. The thyroid gland was diffusely enlarged and exophthalmos was found. She had been given antithyroid medication from local clinic but medicated irregularly. Technetium thyroid scan reveals diffusely enlarged thyroid with increased radioactivity. Radioiodine uptake in 24 hours was 71 %. Brain perfusion SPECT using Tc-99m ECD reveals asymmetrical perfusion pattern in basal ganglia. Brain PET using F-18 FDG reveals increased metabolism at both caudate nucleus and putamen. She was treated with radioiodine and involuntary movement was improved. There is only few report on ballism associated with hyperthyroidism and no report on functional brain imaging. Brain perfusion SPECT and FDG PET may give useful information about functional status of brain in patients with ballism associated with hyperthyroidism in case of normal anatomical finding on CT/MRI

Design of a Magnetic Resonance-Safe Haptic Wrist Manipulator for Movement Disorder Diagnostics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bode, Dyon; Mugge, Winfred; Schouten, Alfred C.; van Rootselaar, Anne-Fleur; Bour, Lo J.; van der Helm, Frans C. T.; Lammertse, Piet

2017-01-01

Tremor, characterized by involuntary and rhythmical movements, is the most common movement disorder. Tremor can have peripheral and central oscillatory components which properly assessed may improve diagnostics. A magnetic resonance (MR)-safe haptic wrist manipulator enables simultaneous measurement

Red, green, blue equals 1, 2, 3 : Investigating the bidirectionality of digit-colour synaesthesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Teichmann, A Lina; Nieuwenstein, Mark; Rich, Anina N

In grapheme-colour synaesthesia, letters and digits elicit vivid and highly consistent experiences of colour. Typically, the conscious experience is unidirectional: digits elicit colours but colours do not elicit digits. If synaesthesia reflects an involuntary connection between representations,

Intermittent cortical involvement in the preservation of tremor in essential tremor

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sharifi, Sarvi; Luft, Frauke; Verhagen, Rens; Heida, Tjitske; Speelman, Johannes D.; Bour, Lo J.; van Rootselaar, Anne-Fleur

2017-01-01

Cortical involvement in essential tremor, an involuntary action tremor supposedly of subcortical origin, is uncertain. Conflicting results of corticomuscular coherence studies in essential tremor suggest an intermittent corticomuscular coupling. On the basis of the literature, we hypothesized that

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the frontal, cingulate and perirolandic cortices and its relationship to skin conductance in patients with schizophrenia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanches, R.F.; Crippa, J.A.S.; Hallak, J.E.C.; Sousa, J.P.M. de; Zuardi, A.W.; Araujo, D.; Santos, A.C.

2008-01-01

The aim of the present study was to determine whether specific subgroups of schizophrenic patients, grouped according to electrodermal characteristics, show differences in the N-acetylaspartate/creatine plus choline (NAA / (Cr + Cho)) ratios in the frontal, cingulate and perirolandic cortices. Skin conductance levels (SCL) and skin conductance responses to auditory stimulation were measured in 38 patients with schizophrenia and in the same number of matched healthy volunteers (control). All subjects were submitted to multivoxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. When compared to the control group, patients presented significantly lower NAA / (Cr + Cho) ratios in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (schizophrenia 0.95 ± 0.03; control = 1.12 ± 0.04) and in the right (schizophrenia 0.88 ± 0.02; control = 0.94 ± 0.03) and left (schizophrenia 0.84 ± 0.03; control = 0.94 ± 0.03) cingulates. These ratios did not differ between electrodermally responsive and non-responsive patients. When patients were divided into two groups: lower SCL (less than the mean SCL of the control group minus two standard deviations) and normal SCL (similar to the control group), the subgroup with a lower level of SCL showed a lower NAA / (Cr + Cho) ratio in the left cingulate (0.78 ± 0.05) than the controls (0.95 ± 0.02, P < 0.05) and the subgroup with normal SCL (0.88 ± 0.03, P < 0.05). There was a negative correlation between the NAA / (Cr + Cho) ratio in the left cingulate of patients with schizophrenia and the duration of the disease and years under medication. These data suggest the existence of a schizophrenic subgroup characterized by low SCL that could be a consequence of the lower neuronal viability observed in the left cingulate of these patients. (author)

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the frontal, cingulate and perirolandic cortices and its relationship to skin conductance in patients with schizophrenia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sanches, R.F.; Crippa, J.A.S.; Hallak, J.E.C.; Sousa, J.P.M. de; Zuardi, A.W. [Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), Ribeirao Preto, SP, (Brazil). Faculdade de Medicina. Dept. de Neurociencias e Ciencias do Comportamento]. E-mail: awzuardi@fmrp.usp.br; Araujo, D.; Santos, A.C. [Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP), Ribeirao Preto, SP, (Brazil). Faculdade de Medicina. Div. de Radiologia

2008-07-01

The aim of the present study was to determine whether specific subgroups of schizophrenic patients, grouped according to electrodermal characteristics, show differences in the N-acetylaspartate/creatine plus choline (NAA / (Cr + Cho)) ratios in the frontal, cingulate and perirolandic cortices. Skin conductance levels (SCL) and skin conductance responses to auditory stimulation were measured in 38 patients with schizophrenia and in the same number of matched healthy volunteers (control). All subjects were submitted to multivoxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. When compared to the control group, patients presented significantly lower NAA / (Cr + Cho) ratios in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (schizophrenia 0.95 {+-} 0.03; control = 1.12 {+-} 0.04) and in the right (schizophrenia 0.88 {+-} 0.02; control = 0.94 {+-} 0.03) and left (schizophrenia 0.84 {+-} 0.03; control = 0.94 {+-} 0.03) cingulates. These ratios did not differ between electrodermally responsive and non-responsive patients. When patients were divided into two groups: lower SCL (less than the mean SCL of the control group minus two standard deviations) and normal SCL (similar to the control group), the subgroup with a lower level of SCL showed a lower NAA / (Cr + Cho) ratio in the left cingulate (0.78 {+-} 0.05) than the controls (0.95 {+-} 0.02, P < 0.05) and the subgroup with normal SCL (0.88 {+-} 0.03, P < 0.05). There was a negative correlation between the NAA / (Cr + Cho) ratio in the left cingulate of patients with schizophrenia and the duration of the disease and years under medication. These data suggest the existence of a schizophrenic subgroup characterized by low SCL that could be a consequence of the lower neuronal viability observed in the left cingulate of these patients. (author)

Affective processing in bilingual speakers: disembodied cognition?

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlenko, Aneta

2012-01-01

A recent study by Keysar, Hayakawa, and An (2012) suggests that "thinking in a foreign language" may reduce decision biases because a foreign language provides a greater emotional distance than a native tongue. The possibility of such "disembodied" cognition is of great interest for theories of affect and cognition and for many other areas of psychological theory and practice, from clinical and forensic psychology to marketing, but first this claim needs to be properly evaluated. The purpose of this review is to examine the findings of clinical, introspective, cognitive, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging studies of affective processing in bilingual speakers in order to identify converging patterns of results, to evaluate the claim about "disembodied cognition," and to outline directions for future inquiry. The findings to date reveal two interrelated processing effects. First-language (L1) advantage refers to increased automaticity of affective processing in the L1 and heightened electrodermal reactivity to L1 emotion-laden words. Second-language (L2) advantage refers to decreased automaticity of affective processing in the L2, which reduces interference effects and lowers electrodermal reactivity to negative emotional stimuli. The differences in L1 and L2 affective processing suggest that in some bilingual speakers, in particular late bilinguals and foreign language users, respective languages may be differentially embodied, with the later learned language processed semantically but not affectively. This difference accounts for the reduction of framing biases in L2 processing in the study by Keysar et al. (2012). The follow-up discussion identifies the limits of the findings to date in terms of participant populations, levels of processing, and types of stimuli, puts forth alternative explanations of the documented effects, and articulates predictions to be tested in future research.

Selective effect of physical fatigue on motor imagery accuracy.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Franck Di Rienzo

Full Text Available While the use of motor imagery (the mental representation of an action without overt execution during actual training sessions is usually recommended, experimental studies examining the effect of physical fatigue on subsequent motor imagery performance are sparse and yielded divergent findings. Here, we investigated whether physical fatigue occurring during an intense sport training session affected motor imagery ability. Twelve swimmers (nine males, mean age 15.5 years conducted a 45 min physically-fatiguing protocol where they swam from 70% to 100% of their maximal aerobic speed. We tested motor imagery ability immediately before and after fatigue state. Participants randomly imagined performing a swim turn using internal and external visual imagery. Self-reports ratings, imagery times and electrodermal responses, an index of alertness from the autonomic nervous system, were the dependent variables. Self-reports ratings indicated that participants did not encounter difficulty when performing motor imagery after fatigue. However, motor imagery times were significantly shortened during posttest compared to both pretest and actual turn times, thus indicating reduced timing accuracy. Looking at the selective effect of physical fatigue on external visual imagery did not reveal any difference before and after fatigue, whereas significantly shorter imagined times and electrodermal responses (respectively 15% and 48% decrease, p<0.001 were observed during the posttest for internal visual imagery. A significant correlation (r=0.64; p<0.05 was observed between motor imagery vividness (estimated through imagery questionnaire and autonomic responses during motor imagery after fatigue. These data support that unlike local muscle fatigue, physical fatigue occurring during intense sport training sessions is likely to affect motor imagery accuracy. These results might be explained by the updating of the internal representation of the motor sequence, due to

Hemichorea-hemiballismus associated with hyperglycemia: A case report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heo, Young Jin; Jeong, Hae Woong

2017-01-01

Hemichorea-hemiballism (HCHB) associated with nonketotic hyperglycemia is the most common cause of unilateral chorea in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. T1-weighted MRI characteristically demonstrates hyperintensity in the contralateral corpus striatum. Here we describe a case of HCHB associated with nonketotic hyperglycemia and unusual brain involvement. A 51-year-old man presented with involuntary limb movements for several months. He had a history of diabetes mellitus and poorly controlled hyperglycemia. MRI demonstrated characteristic striatal hyperintensity, with involvement of the temporal lobe and midbrain. The patient's hyperglycemia was controlled with medication. However, his involuntary movements were reduced in terms of severity, but not eliminated, by the time of discharge. HCHB associated with hyperglycemia usually resolves rapidly after correction of blood glucose levels; thus, early recognition and glycemic control are needed to prevent an irreversible outcome

Hemichorea-hemiballismus associated with hyperglycemia: A case report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heo, Young Jin; Jeong, Hae Woong [Dept.of Radiology, Busan Paik Hospital, Inje University, Busan (Korea, Republic of)

2017-04-15

Hemichorea-hemiballism (HCHB) associated with nonketotic hyperglycemia is the most common cause of unilateral chorea in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. T1-weighted MRI characteristically demonstrates hyperintensity in the contralateral corpus striatum. Here we describe a case of HCHB associated with nonketotic hyperglycemia and unusual brain involvement. A 51-year-old man presented with involuntary limb movements for several months. He had a history of diabetes mellitus and poorly controlled hyperglycemia. MRI demonstrated characteristic striatal hyperintensity, with involvement of the temporal lobe and midbrain. The patient's hyperglycemia was controlled with medication. However, his involuntary movements were reduced in terms of severity, but not eliminated, by the time of discharge. HCHB associated with hyperglycemia usually resolves rapidly after correction of blood glucose levels; thus, early recognition and glycemic control are needed to prevent an irreversible outcome.

Service for fault tolerance in the Ad Hoc Networks based on Multi Agent Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghalem Belalem

2011-02-01

Full Text Available The Ad hoc networks are distributed networks, self-organized and does not require infrastructure. In such network, mobile infrastructures are subject of disconnections. This situation may concern a voluntary or involuntary disconnection of nodes caused by the high mobility in the Ad hoc network. In these problems we are trying through this work to contribute to solving these problems in order to ensure continuous service by proposing our service for faults tolerance based on Multi Agent Systems (MAS, which predict a problem and decision making in relation to critical nodes. Our work contributes to study the prediction of voluntary and involuntary disconnections in the Ad hoc network; therefore we propose our service for faults tolerance that allows for effective distribution of information in the Network by selecting some objects of the network to be duplicates of information.

The management of stress urinary incontinence: A case report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Preshani Reddy

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Conservative management is the first option for patients with stress urinary incontinence (SUI. However, successful management of women diagnosed with SUI is dependent on a proper assessment and a tailored treatment plan. This case report aims to show the effectiveness of physiotherapy management in a 42-year-old patient diagnosed with SUI. Patient presentation: The patient’s main complaints were involuntary loss of urine on coughing, sneezing and lifting of heavy objects, which started following the birth of her third child. Management and outcome: The patient was taught the ‘Knack’ manoeuvre and provided with a tailored pelvic floor exercise programme. Improvement was noted at the third visit and the patient no longer had involuntary episodes. Conclusion: This case report shows the successful outcome of conservative management in a patient with stress urinary incontinence.

Русский как один из языков двуязычного ребенка: методологические и методические аспекты

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Popova, Margarita; Kudrjavceva-Hentschel, Ekaterina

2012-01-01

is that Russian is one of languages of the bilingual child. In both cases the "involuntary natural bilingualism” is observed. Involuntary because in one case Russian is not the family language, in the other – not the country language, and the child is compelled to learn this language by the circumstances related...... the following differentiation of concepts: "native" and "another native", and also suggest to distinguish "Russian as mother tongue", "Russian as native tongue" and "mother Russian as foreign language". It is important to consider this distinction of concepts, as far as systematic language teaching is concerned...... in education leads to the pedagogical mistakes which may ultimately force a bilingual into group of "outcast" with a label “ADHD”. The authors discuss psychology lessons which they term “a methodical revelation” as a resource for teaching the bilingual and for his language development....

Increased frequency of involuntary semantic memories or mind-pops in schizophrenia: a diary study.

Science.gov (United States)

Elua, Ia; Laws, Keith R; Kvavilashvili, Lia

2015-01-01

Hallucinations constitute a prominent symptom of schizophrenia and may take a variety of forms (verbal, visual, musical, or environmental noises). Interesting similarities exist between hallucinations and so-called mind-pops which refer to isolated fragments of one's semantic knowledge (e.g., a word/sentence, visual image, or a song/melody) that come to mind unexpectedly, often without any obvious triggers, and are difficult to control. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether mind-pops may constitute the raw cognitive material from which hallucinations are constructed by studying the nature and frequency of mind-pops in the everyday life of people with schizophrenia and non-clinical controls. Eleven participants with schizophrenia and 14 non-clinical controls kept a diary of their mind-pops for seven days and completed a brief questionnaire every time they had a mind-pop. Schizophrenia participants reported significantly more verbal and image mind-pops than controls and their content was negative more often than in controls. No group differences were obtained in terms of reported triggers or ongoing activities. Data from both groups also supported the priming hypothesis by showing that stimuli encountered in one's environment or thoughts could later re-appear in the form of a mind-pop. The findings have implications for models of schizophrenia that emphasise the role of intrusive thoughts and memories in the aetiology and development of key psychotic symptoms.

The Acute Brain Response to Levodopa Heralds Dyskinesias in Parkinson Disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herz, Damian M.; Haagensen, Brian N.; Christensen, Mark S.

2014-01-01

In Parkinson disease (PD), long‐term treatment with the dopamine precursor levodopa gradually induces involuntary “dyskinesia” movements. The neural mechanisms underlying the emergence of levodopa‐induced dyskinesias in vivo are still poorly understood. Here, we applied functional magnetic...

DIFFERENTIAL ALLERGIC AND NEUROTROPHIN RESPONSES TO FUNGAL COMPONENT EXTRACTS IN BALB/C MICE

Science.gov (United States)

Metarhizium anisopliae mycelium (MYC), conidia (CON) and inducible protease (IND) extracts were combined to produce the antigen MACA to screen for allergenic potential. Involuntary aspiration (IA) exposure to MACA in BALB/c mice has caused immune, inflammatory and physiological ...

Original Article

African Journals Online (AJOL)

per week on a calendar. Children who showed ... involuntary voiding of urine during sleep at least twice per week in children ... Although the use of acupuncture and ... The practice uses the concept of 12 primary meridians or energy channels.

Milk progesterone measures to improve genomic selection for fertility in dairy cows

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tenghe, Amabel Manyu Mefru

2017-01-01

Improved reproductive performance has a substantial benefit for the overall profitability of dairy cattle farming by decreasing insemination and veterinary treatment costs, shortening calving intervals, and lowering the rate of involuntary culling. Unfortunately, the low heritability of classical

["Animal hypnosis" and defensive dominant, behavioral aspect].

Science.gov (United States)

Pavlygina, R A; Galashina, A G; Bogdanov, A V

2002-01-01

A stationary excitation focus produced in the sensorimotor cortex of a rabbit by rhythmic electrodermal paw stimulation was manifested in the reaction to a testing sound stimulus earlier indifferent for the animal. Regardless of the stimulated paw (left or right), reactions to the testing stimuli appeared approximately in the equal percent of cases (70.7% and 71.5%, respectively). After a single-trial induction of the "animal hypnosis" state, it was difficult to produce the dominant focus by simulation of the left paw, whereas the results of the right-paw stimulation did not differ from those obtained during control stimulation. Consequently, the influence of hypnosis on defensive stationary excitation foci in different hemispheres was not the same.

Effects of stress upon psychophysiological responses and performance following sleep deprivation

Science.gov (United States)

Roessler, R.; Lester, J. W.

1972-01-01

The usefulness of psychological and physiological variables in predicting performance under stress of 48 hours of sleep deprivation was investigated. Performance tests, with subjects of different ego strength personalities, in concept acquisition, reading comprehension, word association, word memory, and anagrams were conducted, and physiological measurements of (1) the phasic and tonic electrodermal, (2) galvanic skin response, (3) thermal skin resistance, (4) heart rate, (5) respiration, and (6) plethysmographic finger pulse volumn were recorded. It was found that the changes in the pattern of performance were the result of testing subjects at times when they would normally be sleeping, and that sleep deprivation longer than 48 hours must be maintained to produce changes in simple or well learned tasks.

The physiological rationale of heat and moisture exchangers in post-laryngectomy pulmonary rehabilitation: a review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zuur, J. K.; Muller, S. H.; de Jongh, F. H. C.; van Zandwijk, N.; Hilgers, F. J. M.

2006-01-01

Total laryngectomy results in a permanent disconnection of the upper and lower airways and inevitably leads to chronic pulmonary complaints like frequent involuntary coughing, increased sputum production and repeated daily forced expectoration to clean the airway. Heat and moisture exchangers