The effectiveness of stress inoculation group training (SIT on reducing job stress of employees of RAZAK pharmaceutical company in Tehran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Soudani

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Background and aims Despite the fact that work is the major part of human life and the source of satisfying the sense of idealism, innovation and the feeling of consent in the individual, but it is one of the most important factors of creating stress in today's societies. One of the most efficient methods of interfering in stress inoculation group training (SIT. The aim of the present research is the investigation of the efficacy of the stress inoculation group training (SIT on reducing career stress of employees of Razak Co.'s employees.     Methodsthis study is an intermediary study and the research method is experimental of pretest and posttest type with control group. 46 of subjects whose score in career stress test was above the average score were selected as sample, and were replaced in simple random way in two groups of test and control. 8-session test group of 1.5 hours each received team immunity training against stress. Both groups were tested and evaluated three times at the same time (pretest, posttest and follow up.   Resultsafter adjusting the posttest scores based on pretest scores, the results of one-way covariance pretest showed that stress inoculation group training (SIT had a meaningful influence on reduction of career stress on employees. Also the results of multivariable covariance analysis (Mankoa showed that this effect existed in every component of career stress, i.e. exceeding accountability, responsibility of others, very high working pressure, decision making that influences the others, and understanding of self as an individual not quite competent and qualified. In follow up studies after one month, the results showed that stress inoculation group training (SIT has a stable influence on reduction of career stress and it components.   Conclusion on the base of the obtained findings from research and effectiveness from the stress inoculation group training (SIT , it is recommended to apply this therapeutic

Inoculation with Azospirillum sp. and Herbaspirillum sp. Bacteria Increases the Tolerance of Maize to Drought Stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Curá, José Alfredo; Franz, Diego Reinaldo; Filosofía, Julián Ezequiel; Balestrasse, Karina Beatríz; Burgueño, Lautaro Exequiel

2017-07-26

Stress drought is an important abiotic factor that leads to immense losses in crop yields around the world. Strategies are urgently needed to help plants adapt to drought in order to mitigate crop losses. Here we investigated the bioprotective effects of inoculating corn grown under drought conditions with two types of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), A. brasilense , strain SP-7, and H. seropedicae , strain Z-152. Plants inoculated with the bacteria were grown in a greenhouse with perlite as a substrate. Two hydric conditions were tested: normal well-watered conditions and drought conditions. Compared to control non-inoculated plants, those that were inoculated with PGPR bacteria showed a higher tolerance to the negative effects of water stress in drought conditions, with higher biomass production; higher carbon, nitrogen, and chlorophyll levels; and lower levels of abscisic acid and ethylene, which are plant hormones that affect the stress response. The oxidative stress levels of these plants were similar to those of non-inoculated plants grown in well-watered conditions, showing fewer injuries to the cell membrane. We also noted higher relative water content in the vegetal tissue and better osmoregulation in drought conditions in inoculated plants, as reflected by significantly lower proline content. Finally, we observed lower gene expression of ZmVP14 in the inoculated plants; notably, ZmVP14 is involved in the biosynthesis of abscisic acid. Taken together, these results demonstrate that these bacteria could be used to help plants cope with the negative effects of drought stress conditions.

Enhanced fear recall and emotional arousal in rats recovering from chronic variable stress.

Science.gov (United States)

McGuire, Jennifer; Herman, James P; Horn, Paul S; Sallee, Floyd R; Sah, Renu

2010-11-02

Emergence of posttraumatic-like behaviors following chronic trauma is of interest given the rising prevalence of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Stress associated with combat usually involves chronic traumatization, composed of multiple, single episode events occurring in an unpredictable fashion. In this study, we investigated whether rats recovering from repeated trauma in the form of chronic variable stress (CVS) express posttraumatic stress-like behaviors and dysregulated neuroendocrine responses. Cohorts of Long-Evans rats underwent a 7 day CVS paradigm followed by behavioral and neuroendocrine testing during early (16 h post CVS) and delayed (7 day) recovery time points. A fear conditioning-extinction-reminder shock paradigm revealed that CVS induces exaggerated fear recall to reminder shock, suggestive of potentiated fear memory. Rats with CVS experience also expressed a delayed expression of fearful arousal under aversive context, however, social anxiety was not affected during post-CVS recovery. Persistent sensitization of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocorticotropic response to a novel acute stressor was observed in CVS exposed rats. Collectively, our data are consistent with the constellation of symptoms associated with posttraumatic stress syndrome, such as re-experiencing, and arousal to fearful contexts. The CVS-recovery paradigm may be useful to simulate trauma outcomes following chronic traumatization that is often associated with repeated combat stress. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in stress regulation of arousal and cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Bangasser, Debra A; Eck, Samantha R; Telenson, Alexander M; Salvatore, Madeleine

2018-04-01

There are sex differences in the prevalence and presentation of many psychiatric disorders. For example, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression are more common in women than men, and women with these disorders present with more hyperarousal symptoms than men. In contrast, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia are more common in men than women, and men with these disorders have increased cognitive deficits compared to women. A shared feature of the aforementioned psychiatric disorders is the contribution of stressful events to their onset and/or severity. Here we propose that sex differences in stress responses bias females towards hyperarousal and males towards cognitive deficits. Evidence from clinical and preclinical studies is detailed. We also describe underlying neurobiological mechanisms. For example, sex differences in stress receptor signaling and trafficking in the locus coeruleus-arousal center are detailed. In learning circuits, evidence for sex differences in dendritic morphology is provided. Finally, we describe how evaluating sex-specific mechanisms for responding to stress in female and male rodents can lead to better treatments for stress-related psychiatric disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

AMF Inoculation Enhances Growth and Improves the Nutrient Uptake Rates of Transplanted, Salt-Stressed Tomato Seedlings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Astrit Balliu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The study aimed to investigate the effects of commercially available AMF inoculate (Glomus sp. mixture on the growth and the nutrient acquisition in tomato (Solanumlycopersicum L. plants directly after transplanting and under different levels of salinity. Inoculated (AMF+ and non-inoculated (AMF− tomato plants were subjected to three levels of NaCl salinity (0, 50, and 100 mM·NaCl. Seven days after transplanting, plants were analyzed for dry matter and RGR of whole plants and root systems. Leaf tissue was analyzed for mineral concentration before and after transplanting; leaf nutrient content and relative uptake rates (RUR were calculated. AMF inoculation did not affect plant dry matter or RGR under fresh water-irrigation. The growth rate of AMF−plants did significantly decline under both moderate (77% and severe (61% salt stress compared to the fresh water-irrigated controls, while the decline was much less (88% and 75%,respectivelyand statistically non-significant in salt-stressed AMF+ plants. Interestingly, root system dry matter of AMF+ plants (0.098 g plant–1 remained significantly greater under severe soil salinity compared to non-inoculated seedlings (0.082 g plant–1. The relative uptake rates of N, P, Mg, Ca, Mn, and Fe were enhanced in inoculated tomato seedlings and remained higher under (moderate salt stress compared to AMF− plants This study suggests that inoculation with commercial AMF during nursery establishment contributes to alleviation of salt stress by maintaining a favorable nutrient profile. Therefore, nursery inoculation seems to be a viable solution to attenuate the effects of increasing soil salinity levels, especially in greenhouses with low natural abundance of AMF spores.

Arousal Predisposition as a Vulnerability Indicator for Psychosis: A General Population Online Stress Induction Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annika Clamor

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Explanatory models ascribe to arousability a central role for the development of psychotic symptoms. Thus, a disposition to hyperarousal (i.e., increased arousal predisposition (AP may serve as an underlying vulnerability indicator for psychosis by interacting with stressors to cause symptoms. In this case, AP, stress-response, and psychotic symptoms should be linked before the development of a diagnosable psychotic disorder. We conducted a cross-sectional online study in a population sample (N=104; Mage=27.7 years, SD=11.2, range 18–70. Participants rated their AP and subclinical psychotic symptoms. Participants reported their stress-levels before and after two stress inductions including an arithmetic and a social stressor. The participants with an increased AP generally felt more stressed. However, AP was not associated with the specific stress-response. As expected, positive psychotic symptoms were significantly associated with AP, but this was not mediated by general stress-levels. Its association to subtle, nonclinical psychotic symptoms supports our assumption that AP could be a vulnerability indicator for psychosis. The trait is easily accessible via a short self-report and could facilitate the identification of people at risk and be a promising target for early stress-management. Further research is needed to clarify its predictive value for stress-responses.

Rhizospheric salt tolerant bacteria improving plant growth in single and mixed culture inoculations under NaCl stress (abstract)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Afrasayab, S.; Hasnain, S.

2005-01-01

Salt tolerant bacterial strains isolated from rhizosphere of Mazus plant (inhabitant of salt range) were used singly (ST -1; ST -2; ST -3; ST -4) and in mixed combinations (ST -1,3,4; ST -2,3,4) to improve the growth to Tricticum aestivum in the pot experiments. Growth and yield of T. aestivum var. Inqlab-91 plants exposed to NaCl stress (0.75% NaCl) was markedly affected. Na/sup +//K/sup +/ ratios in shoots and roots were profoundly increased under NaCl stress. Bacterial inoculations improved plant growth under salt stress. Bacterial combinations ST - 1,3,4 and ST -2,3,4 were more effective in stimulating growth and showed prominent results as compared to their pure cultures. Mono and mixed bacterial inoculations improved yield parameters of wheat. ST -1,3,4 mixed culture inoculation maximally improved yield under salt stress. Generally bacterial inoculations resulted in increase in Na/sup +//K/sup +/ ratios in shoots and roots under salt free and salt stress conditions. Overall ST -1,3,4 mixed inoculation yielded promising results under NaCl stress, hence 168 rRNA gene sequence analysis of its pure cultures was obtained for their identification to genus level. (author)

Encoding negative events under stress: high subjective arousal is related to accurate emotional memory despite misinformation exposure.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoscheidt, Siobhan M; LaBar, Kevin S; Ryan, Lee; Jacobs, W Jake; Nadel, Lynn

2014-07-01

Stress at encoding affects memory processes, typically enhancing, or preserving, memory for emotional information. These effects have interesting implications for eyewitness accounts, which in real-world contexts typically involve encoding an aversive event under stressful conditions followed by potential exposure to misinformation. The present study investigated memory for a negative event encoded under stress and subsequent misinformation endorsement. Healthy young adults participated in a between-groups design with three experimental sessions conducted 48 h apart. Session one consisted of a psychosocial stress induction (or control task) followed by incidental encoding of a negative slideshow. During session two, participants were asked questions about the slideshow, during which a random subgroup was exposed to misinformation. Memory for the slideshow was tested during the third session. Assessment of memory accuracy across stress and no-stress groups revealed that stress induced just prior to encoding led to significantly better memory for the slideshow overall. The classic misinformation effect was also observed - participants exposed to misinformation were significantly more likely to endorse false information during memory testing. In the stress group, however, memory accuracy and misinformation effects were moderated by arousal experienced during encoding of the negative event. Misinformed-stress group participants who reported that the negative slideshow elicited high arousal during encoding were less likely to endorse misinformation for the most aversive phase of the story. Furthermore, these individuals showed better memory for components of the aversive slideshow phase that had been directly misinformed. Results from the current study provide evidence that stress and high subjective arousal elicited by a negative event act concomitantly during encoding to enhance emotional memory such that the most aversive aspects of the event are well remembered and

Arbuscular mycorrhizal inoculation of peanut in low-fertile tropical soil. II. Alleviation of drought stress

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quilambo, OA; Weissenhorn, I.; Doddema, H; Kuiper, PJC; Stulen, I.

2005-01-01

The effect of drought stress and inoculation with an indigenous Mozambican and a commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inoculant on root colonization and plant growth and yield was studied in two peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars-a traditional, low-yielding Mozambican landrace (Local) and a

Effects of pre-learning stress on memory for neutral, positive and negative words: Different roles of cortisol and autonomic arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwabe, Lars; Bohringer, Andreas; Chatterjee, Monischa; Schachinger, Hartmut

2008-07-01

Stress can have enhancing or impairing effects on memory. Here, we addressed the effect of pre-learning stress on subsequent memory and asked whether neutral and emotionally valent information are differentially affected by specific stress components, autonomic arousal and stress-induced cortisol. Ninety-six healthy men and women underwent either a stressor (modified cold pressor test) or a control warm water exposure. During stress, participants showed comparable autonomic arousal (heart rate, blood pressure), while 60 percent showed an increase of cortisol (responders vs. 40 percent non-responders). Ten minutes after the cold pressor test neutral, positive and negative words were presented. Free recall was tested 1 and 24h later. Overall, positive and negative words were better recalled than neutral words. Stress enhanced the recall of neutral words independently of cortisol response. In contrast, the free recall of negative words was enhanced in cortisol responders in the 1-h but not 24-h test which might suggest different effects of cortisol on consolidation and reconsolidation processes. Recall for positive words was unaffected by stress-induced cortisol. To summarize, (i) pre-learning stress can enhance memory for neutral words independently of cortisol and (ii) stress effects on memory for negative words appear to rely on stress-induced cortisol elevations, the absence of this effect for positive words might be at least partly due to differences in arousal evoked by positive vs. negative words.

Can sustained arousal explain the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eriksen Hege R

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract We present an integrative model of disease mechanisms in the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS, unifying empirical findings from different research traditions. Based upon the Cognitive activation theory of stress (CATS, we argue that new data on cardiovascular and thermoregulatory regulation indicate a state of permanent arousal responses – sustained arousal – in this condition. We suggest that sustained arousal can originate from different precipitating factors (infections, psychosocial challenges interacting with predisposing factors (genetic traits, personality and learned expectancies (classical and operant conditioning. Furthermore, sustained arousal may explain documented alterations by establishing vicious circles within immunology (Th2 (humoral vs Th1 (cellular predominance, endocrinology (attenuated HPA axis, skeletal muscle function (attenuated cortical activation, increased oxidative stress and cognition (impaired memory and information processing. Finally, we propose a causal link between sustained arousal and the experience of fatigue. The model of sustained arousal embraces all main findings concerning CFS disease mechanisms within one theoretical framework.

Stress inoculation training supported by physiology-driven adaptive virtual reality stimulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Popović, Sinisa; Horvat, Marko; Kukolja, Davor; Dropuljić, Branimir; Cosić, Kresimir

2009-01-01

Significant proportion of psychological problems related to combat stress in recent large peacekeeping operations underscores importance of effective methods for strengthening the stress resistance of military personnel. Adaptive control of virtual reality (VR) stimulation, based on estimation of the subject's emotional state from physiological signals, may enhance existing stress inoculation training (SIT). Physiology-driven adaptive VR stimulation can tailor the progress of stressful stimuli delivery to the physiological characteristics of each individual, which is indicated for improvement in stress resistance. Therefore, following an overview of SIT and its applications in the military setting, generic concept of physiology-driven adaptive VR stimulation is presented in the paper. Toward the end of the paper, closed-loop adaptive control strategy applicable to SIT is outlined.

The effects of exogenous progesterone on drug craving and stress arousal in cocaine dependence: impact of gender and cue type.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, Helen C; Sofuoglu, Mehmet; Morgan, Peter T; Tuit, Keri L; Sinha, Rajita

2013-09-01

Exogenous progesterone has been shown to attenuate the rewarding effects of cocaine. However, its effects on provoked drug craving, stress arousal and cognitive performance has not been systematically investigated in cocaine dependent men and women. Thus, we conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled study assessing the efficacy of progesterone in reducing provoked drug craving, stress system arousal and improving cognitive performance in cocaine dependent men and women. Forty-two early abstinent treatment-seeking cocaine dependent individuals were randomly assigned to either daily doses of placebo (12M/9F) or micronized progesterone (12M/9F) (400 mg/day), for 7 days. Under experimental conditions, all subjects were exposed to three 5-min personalized guided imagery conditions (stress, cocaine cue, relaxing), one per day, consecutively in a random, counterbalanced order. Subjective craving, mood, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and cardiovascular output, and a cognitive measure of inhibitory control (Stroop Color Word Task) were assessed pre- and post imagery. Progesterone relative to placebo significantly decreased cue-induced craving and cortisol responses and increased cue-induced ACTH. In addition, women but not men receiving progesterone reported lower ratings of negative emotion and higher ratings of relaxed mood following stress exposure. Improved Stroop performance was observed in all participants receiving progesterone, across all conditions. Progesterone was selectively effective in reducing cocaine cue-induced but not stress-related cocaine craving as well as specific measures of the provoked arousal state. Findings suggest that progesterone's effects on drug craving and arousal are moderated by both the type of environmental cue exposure and gender. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Imagery and Verbal Counseling Methods in Stress Inoculation Training for Pain Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Worthington, Everett L., Jr.; Shumate, Michael

1981-01-01

Pleasant imagery relieves pain and may account for much of the effectiveness of stress inoculation training. Women who used imagery controlled their pain better; women who did not use imagery had longer tolerance when they heard pain conceptualized as a multistage process. Self-instruction did not affect pain control. (Author)

Antioxidant properties of soybean seedlings inoculated with Trichoderma asperellum

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manojlović Ana S.

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This study was conducted in order to assess the effect of inoculation of soybean (Glycine max L. seeds with Trichoderma asperellum, followed by mites (Tetranychus urticae exposure on lipid peroxidation (LP process and the activity of antioxidant enzymes. T. urticae is an occasional pest of soybean that causes biotic stress. Biotic stress leads to overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS which may cause damage to vital biomolecules. Enzymatic antioxidant defense systems protect plants against oxidative stress. T. asperellum is commonly used as biocontrol agent against plant pathogens. It has been suggested that previous inoculation of seeds with T. asperellum may cause induced resistance against biotic stress. The aim of this study was to determine LP intensity and antioxidant enzymes activity in inoculated and non-inoculated soybean seedlings with and without exposure to mites. Noticeably higher LP intensity was detected in non-inoculated group treated with mites compared to control group. Inoculated soybean seedlings treated with mites had lower LP intensity compared to noninoculated group. Also, it has been noticed that inoculation with Trichoderma asperellum itself, produced mild stress in plants. In addition, positive correlation between enzymes activity and LP was noticed. The level of oxidative stress in plants was followed by the change of LP intensity. According to results obtained, it was concluded that the greatest oxidative stress occurred in non-inoculated group treated with mites and that inoculation successfully reduced oxidative stress. The results indicate that inoculation of soybean seeds with T. asperellum improves resistance of soybean seedlings against mites attack. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. TR-31022

Ectomycorrhizal inoculation with Pisolithus tinctorius reduces stress induced by drought in cork oak.

Science.gov (United States)

Sebastiana, Mónica; da Silva, Anabela Bernardes; Matos, Ana Rita; Alcântara, André; Silvestre, Susana; Malhó, Rui

2018-04-01

We investigated whether the performance of cork oak under drought could be improved by colonization with the ectomycorrhizal fungus Pisolithus tinctorius. Results show that inoculation alone had a positive effect on plant height, shoot biomass, shoot basal diameter, and root growth. Under drought, root growth of mycorrhizal plants was significantly increased showing that inoculation was effective in increasing tolerance to drought. In accordance, mycorrhizal plants subjected to drought showed less symptoms of stress when compared to non-mycorrhizal plants, such as lower concentration of soluble sugars and starch, increased ability to maintain fatty acid content and composition, and increased unsaturation level of membrane lipids. After testing some of the mechanisms suggested to contribute to the enhanced tolerance of mycorrhizal plants to drought, we could not find any by which Pisolithus tinctorius could benefit cork oak, at least under the drought conditions imposed in our experiment. Inoculation did not increase photosynthesis under drought, suggesting no effect in sustaining stomatal opening at low soil water content. Similarly, plant water status was not affected by inoculation suggesting that P. tinctorius does not contribute to an increased plant water uptake during drought. Inoculation did increase nitrogen concentration in plants but it was independent of the water status. Furthermore, no significant mycorrhizal effect on drought-induced ROS production or osmotic adjustment was detected, suggesting that these factors are not important for the improved drought tolerance triggered by P. tinctorius.

The effect of Piriformospora indica inoculation on salt and drought stress tolerance in Stevia rebaudiana under in vitro conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fahimeh Seraj

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In order to investigate the effect of Piriformospora indica under salt and drought stresses on some vegetative characteristics and physiological parameters of stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni medicinal plant, an experiment was conducted in factorial arrangement based on completely randomized design with three replicates at Genetics and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute in Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University. Factors include three levels of osmatic potential (0, -5, and -10 bar and with three osmotic sources including NaCl (Na, Mannitol (M and NaCl+Mannitol (N+M and inoculation of mycorrhizae like fungi at two levels (non-inoculated and inoculation with fungi. The plantlets were treated for 30 days and then some morphological and physiological parameters were measured. Results of ANOVA showed that there was a significant interaction between osmatic source and levels with fungi inoculation for the most determined parameters. Inoculation of stevia plantlets with P. indica at osmatic level of -5 bar caused either by M or M+Na markedly improved dry weight of leaf (112 and 156%, respectively and aerial parts (49 and 144%, respectively as compared to the uninoculated control. Fungi inoculation positively improved vegetative parameters of stevia plant under most osmatic levels and sources. The most ameliorate effect, however, was observed where M as drought stress or M+Na were adjusted to -5 bar. Therefore, the results of this study represented a positive effect of P. indica inoculation in inproving osmotic tolerance of stevia medicinal plant.

Remembering under stress: different roles of autonomic arousal and glucocorticoids in memory retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Schönfeld, Pia; Ackermann, Karina; Schwabe, Lars

2014-01-01

It is commonly assumed that stress impairs memory retrieval. Glucocorticoids, released with a delay of several minutes in response to stressful experiences, are thought to play a key role in the stress-induced retrieval impairment. Accordingly, most studies on the impact of stress on retrieval tested memory a considerable time after stressor exposure, when glucocorticoid levels were elevated. Here, we asked how stress affects memory when retrieval takes place under stress, that is, when stress is part of the retrieval situation and glucocorticoids are not yet increased at the time of testing. To contrast stress effects on ongoing and delayed memory retrieval, 72 participants learned first neutral and emotional material. Twenty-four hours later, half of the learned material was tested either in a stressful, oral examination-like testing situation or in a standard, non-stressful free recall test. Memory for the other half of the learned material was assessed 25 min after the first, stressful or non-stressful retention test. Significant increases in blood pressure and salivary cortisol confirmed the stress induction by the first, examination-like testing situation. Retrieval performance under stress was positively correlated with the blood pressure response to the stressor but unaffected by cortisol. Conversely, retrieval performance 25 min post stress was negatively correlated with the cortisol response to the stressor, particularly for emotional items. These results suggest that the same stressor may have opposite effects on ongoing and delayed memory retrieval, depending on the presence of autonomic arousal and glucocorticoids. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mitigation of salt stress in white clover (Trifolium repens) by Azospirillum brasilense and its inoculation effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Khalid, Muhammad; Bilal, Muhammad; Hassani, Danial; Iqbal, Hafiz M N; Wang, Hang; Huang, Danfeng

2017-12-01

Salinity is one of the increasingly serious environmental problems worldwide for cultivating agricultural crops. The present study was aimed to ascertain the potential of beneficial soil bacterium Azospirillum brasilense to alleviate saline stress in Trifolium repens. Experimental plants (white clover) were grown from seeds and inoculated with or without A. brasilense bacterial strain supplemented with 0, 40, 80, or 120 mM NaCl into soil. The growth attributes including, shoot heights, root lengths, fresh and dry weights, leaf area and chlorophyll content were significantly enhanced in T. repens plants grown in A. brasilense inoculated soil than un-inoculated controls, particularly under elevated salinity conditions (40, 80 and 120 mM NaCl). Malondialdehyde content of leaf was recorded to be declined under saline conditions. Moreover, the K + /Na + ratio was also improved in bacterium-inoculated plants, since A. brasilense significantly reduced the root and shoot Na + level under high salty environment. Results revealed that soil inoculation with A. brasilense could significantly promote T. repens growth under both non-saline and saline environments, and this study might be extended to other vegetables and crops for the germination and growth enhancement.

Assessing posttraumatic stress disorder's latent structure in elderly bereaved European trauma survivors: evidence for a five-factor dysphoric and anxious arousal model.

Science.gov (United States)

Armour, Cherie; O'Connor, Maja; Elklit, Ask; Elhai, Jon D

2013-10-01

The three-factor structure of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) specified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, is not supported in the empirical literature. Two alternative four-factor models have received a wealth of empirical support. However, a consensus regarding which is superior has not been reached. A recent five-factor model has been shown to provide superior fit over the existing four-factor models. The present study investigated the fit of the five-factor model against the existing four-factor models and assessed the resultant factors' association with depression in a bereaved European trauma sample (N = 325). The participants were assessed for PTSD via the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and depression via the Beck Depression Inventory. The five-factor model provided superior fit to the data compared with the existing four-factor models. In the dysphoric arousal model, depression was equally related to both dysphoric arousal and emotional numbing, whereas depression was more related to dysphoric arousal than to anxious arousal.

Yawning, acute stressors, and arousal reduction in Nazca booby adults and nestlings.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Amy C; Grace, Jacquelyn K; Tompkins, Emily M; Anderson, David J

2015-03-01

Yawning is a familiar and phylogenetically widespread phenomenon, but no consensus exists regarding its functional significance. We tested the hypothesis that yawning communicates to others a transition from a state of physiological and/or psychological arousal (for example, due to action of a stressor) to a more relaxed state. This arousal reduction hypothesis predicts little yawning during arousal and more yawning (above baseline) during and after down-regulation of arousal. Experimental capture-restraint tests with wild adult Nazca boobies (Sula granti), a seabird, increased yawning frequency after release from restraint, but yawning was almost absent during tests. Natural maltreatment by non-parental adults also increased yawning by nestlings, but only after the maltreatment ended and the adult left. CORT (corticosterone) was a logical a priori element of the stress response affecting the stressor-yawning relationship under the arousal reduction hypothesis, and cannot be excluded as such for adults in capture-restraint tests but is apparently unimportant for nestlings being maltreated by adults. The arousal reduction hypothesis unites formerly disparate results on yawning: its socially contagious nature in some taxa, its clear pharmacological connection to the stress response, and its temporal linkage to transitions in arousal between consciousness and sleep. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing a dysphoric arousal model of acute stress disorder symptoms in a clinical sample of rape and bank robbery victims.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Maj; Armour, Cherie; Elklit, Ask

2012-01-01

Since the introduction of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) into the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) research has focused on the ability of ASD to predict PTSD rather than focusing on addressing ASD's underlying latent structure. The few existing confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) studies of ASD have failed to reach a clear consensus regarding ASD's underlying dimensionality. Although, the discrepancy in the results may be due to varying ASD prevalence rates, it remains possible that the model capturing the latent structure of ASD has not yet been put forward. One such model may be a replication of a new five-factor model of PTSD, which separates the arousal symptom cluster into Dysphoric and Anxious Arousal. Given the pending DSM-5, uncovering ASD's latent structure is more pertinent than ever. USING CFA, FOUR DIFFERENT MODELS OF THE LATENT STRUCTURE OF ASD WERE SPECIFIED AND TESTED: the proposed DSM-5 model, the DSM-IV model, a three factor model, and a five factor model separating the arousal symptom cluster. The analyses were based on a combined sample of rape and bank robbery victims, who all met the diagnostic criteria for ASD (N = 404) using the Acute Stress Disorder Scale. The results showed that the five factor model provided the best fit to the data. The results of the present study suggest that the dimensionality of ASD may be best characterized as a five factor structure which separates dysphoric and anxious arousal items into two separate factors, akin to recent research on PTSD's latent structure. Thus, the current study adds to the debate about how ASD should be conceptualized in the pending DSM-5.

Bi-directional associations between psychological arousal, cortisol, and sleep

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garde, Anne Helene; Albertsen, Karen; Persson, Roger

2012-01-01

The aim was to elucidate the possible bi-directional relation between daytime psychological arousal, cortisol, and self-reported sleep in a group of healthy employees in active employment. Logbook ratings of sleep (Karolinska Sleep Questionnaire), stress, and energy, as well as positive...... and negative experiences in work and private life, were collected together with salivary cortisol over 3 days (n = 265). Higher bedtime ratings of stress and problems during the day were associated with morning ratings of poor sleep. Poorer morning ratings of sleep were associated with higher ratings of stress...... and problems during the day. The results underpin the possibility that arousal and poor sleep might create a self-reinforcing vicious circle that negatively affects a person's well-being....

Night-to-night arousal variability and interscorer reliability of arousal measurements.

Science.gov (United States)

Loredo, J S; Clausen, J L; Ancoli-Israel, S; Dimsdale, J E

1999-11-01

Measurement of arousals from sleep is clinically important, however, their definition is not well standardized, and little data exist on reliability. The purpose of this study is to determine factors that affect arousal scoring reliability and night-to-night arousal variability. The night-to-night arousal variability and interscorer reliability was assessed in 20 subjects with and without obstructive sleep apnea undergoing attended polysomnography during two consecutive nights. Five definitions of arousal were studied, assessing duration of electroencephalographic (EEG) frequency changes, increases in electromyographic (EMG) activity and leg movement, association with respiratory events, as well as the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) definition of arousals. NA. NA. NA. Interscorer reliability varied with the definition of arousal and ranged from an Intraclass correlation (ICC) of 0.19 to 0.92. Arousals that included increases in EMG activity or leg movement had the greatest reliability, especially when associated with respiratory events (ICC 0.76 to 0.92). The ASDA arousal definition had high interscorer reliability (ICC 0.84). Reliability was lowest for arousals consisting of EEG changes lasting <3 seconds (ICC 0.19 to 0.37). The within subjects night-to-night arousal variability was low for all arousal definitions In a heterogeneous population, interscorer arousal reliability is enhanced by increases in EMG activity, leg movements, and respiratory events and decreased by short duration EEG arousals. The arousal index night-to-night variability was low for all definitions.

Rapid upregulation of heart antioxidant enzymes during arousal from estivation in the Giant African snail (Achatina fulica).

Science.gov (United States)

Salway, Kurtis D; Tattersall, Glenn J; Stuart, Jeffrey A

2010-11-01

Estivation is an adaptive response to environments characterized by elevated temperatures and desiccative stress, as may occur during summer dry seasons. Similar to diapause and hibernation, it is characterized by low levels of activity, a drastically suppressed metabolic rate and enhanced stress resistance. We tested the hypothesis that Achatina fulica, a pulmonate land snail, enhances stress resistance during estivation and/or arousal by upregulating intracellular antioxidant defenses in the heart, kidney, hepatopancreas and foot tissues. No statistically significant changes in mitochondrial or cytosolic superoxide dismutase levels or activities, or glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase or catalase activities were associated with estivation in any tissue, however. In contrast, during arousal from estivation, activities of several antioxidant enzymes increased in heart, hepatopancreas and foot. In heart, a rapid increase in MnSOD protein levels was observed that peaked at 2h post arousal, but no such change was observed in CuZnSOD protein levels. Glutathione peroxidase activity was upregulated at 1h post arousal and remained elevated until 8h post arousal in heart tissue. Glutathione peroxidase was also upregulated at 24h post arousal in foot tissue. Glutathione reductase activity was upregulated at 4h post arousal in heart and foot tissues whereas catalase activity showed no changes. Markers of lipid peroxidation and protein damage revealed no significant increases during estivation or arousal. Therefore, antioxidant enzymes may play a role in oxidative stress defense specifically during arousal from estivation in A. fulica. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessing a dysphoric arousal model of acute stress disorder symptoms in a clinical sample of rape and bank robbery victims

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maj Hansen

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Since the introduction of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD into the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV research has focused on the ability of ASD to predict PTSD rather than focusing on addressing ASD's underlying latent structure. The few existing confirmatory factor analytic (CFA studies of ASD have failed to reach a clear consensus regarding ASD's underlying dimensionality. Although, the discrepancy in the results may be due to varying ASD prevalence rates, it remains possible that the model capturing the latent structure of ASD has not yet been put forward. One such model may be a replication of a new five-factor model of PTSD, which separates the arousal symptom cluster into Dysphoric and Anxious Arousal. Given the pending DSM-5, uncovering ASD's latent structure is more pertinent than ever. Objective:Using CFA, four different models of the latent structure of ASD were specified and tested: the proposed DSM-5 model, the DSM-IV model, a three factor model, and a five factor model separating the arousal symptom cluster. Method:The analyses were based on a combined sample of rape and bank robbery victims, who all met the diagnostic criteria for ASD (N = 404 using the Acute Stress Disorder Scale. Results:The results showed that the five factor model provided the best fit to the data. Conclusions:The results of the present study suggest that the dimensionality of ASD may be best characterized as a five factor structure which separates dysphoric and anxious arousal items into two separate factors, akin to recent research on PTSD's latent structure. Thus, the current study adds to the debate about how ASD should be conceptualized in the pending DSM-5.

Assessing a dysphoric arousal model of acute stress disorder symptoms in a clinical sample of rape and bank robbery victims

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, Maj; Armour, Cherie; Elklit, Ask

2012-01-01

Background Since the introduction of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) into the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) research has focused on the ability of ASD to predict PTSD rather than focusing on addressing ASD's underlying latent structure. The few existing confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) studies of ASD have failed to reach a clear consensus regarding ASD's underlying dimensionality. Although, the discrepancy in the results may be due to varying ASD prevalence rates, it remains possible that the model capturing the latent structure of ASD has not yet been put forward. One such model may be a replication of a new five-factor model of PTSD, which separates the arousal symptom cluster into Dysphoric and Anxious Arousal. Given the pending DSM-5, uncovering ASD's latent structure is more pertinent than ever. Objective Using CFA, four different models of the latent structure of ASD were specified and tested: the proposed DSM-5 model, the DSM-IV model, a three factor model, and a five factor model separating the arousal symptom cluster. Method The analyses were based on a combined sample of rape and bank robbery victims, who all met the diagnostic criteria for ASD (N = 404) using the Acute Stress Disorder Scale. Results The results showed that the five factor model provided the best fit to the data. Conclusions The results of the present study suggest that the dimensionality of ASD may be best characterized as a five factor structure which separates dysphoric and anxious arousal items into two separate factors, akin to recent research on PTSD's latent structure. Thus, the current study adds to the debate about how ASD should be conceptualized in the pending DSM-5. PMID:22893845

Emotional Arousal and Multiple Memory Systems in the Mammalian Brain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark G. Packard

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Emotional arousal induced by stress and/or anxiety can exert complex effects on learning and memory processes in mammals. Recent studies have begun to link study of the influence of emotional arousal on memory with earlier research indicating that memory is organized in multiple systems in the brain that differ in terms of the type of memory they mediate. Specifically, these studies have examined whether emotional arousal may have a differential effect on the cognitive and stimulus-response habit memory processes subserved by the hippocampus and dorsal striatum, respectively. Evidence indicates that stress or the peripheral injection of anxiogenic drugs can bias animals and humans towards the use of striatal-dependent habit memory in dual-solution tasks in which both hippocampal and stritatal-based strategies can provide an adequate solution. A bias towards the use of habit memory can also be produced by intra-basolateral amygdala administration of anxiogenic drugs, consistent with the well documented role of efferent projections of this brain region in mediating the modulatory influence of emotional arousal on memory. In some learning situations, the bias towards the use of habit memory produced by emotional arousal appears to result from an impairing effect on hippocampus-dependent cognitive memory. Further research examining the neural mechanisms linking emotion and the relative use of multiple memory systems should prove useful in view of the potential role for maladaptive habitual behaviors in various human psychopathologies.

Improvement of Canola (Brassica napus L.) Inoculated with Rhizobium, Azospirillum and/or Mycorrhizal Fungi Under Salinity Stress

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Ghandour, I. A.; Galal, Y.G; Ebraheem, Rabab M.M.; Yousef, Khayria A.

2004-01-01

Bio fertilization technology was applied for improving canola plant growth and nutrient acquisition in sandy saline soil ,as a biological mean used to develop plant growth and nutrient uptake under salinity stress. Canola was cultivated in pots packed at rate of 7 kg saline sandy soil pot -1 , and inoculated with Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viceae, Azospirillum brasilense strain no. 40 and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi either solely or in combinations of them. Nitrogen fertilizer was added in form ( 15 NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 with 5% 15 N atom excess at rate of 0.99 g N pot -1 . Maximum dry matter accumulation induced by composite inoculation (Rh + Azo + AM). Na concentrations were frequently affected by Rhizobium and /or mycorrhizae while K was affected by Azospirillum and /or mycorrhizae. Azospirillum enhanced Ca uptake whereas Mg content was responded well to composite inoculants of Rh + Azo + AM. Dual inoculation with Rh + Azo resulted in the highest values of N uptake by plant. Similar effect was noticed with P uptake when dual inoculums of Azo + AM were applied. Data of 15 N isotope showed that the highest portion and value of N 2 -fixed was recorded with composite inoculums followed by dual inoculations. On the other hand, the infection with AM fungi gave the highest proportion of N derived from fertilizer as compared to other inoculants or uninoculated control. In the same trend, the fertilizer use efficiency (FUE%) was enhanced by AM infection. Dual inoculums of Rh + Azo induced highest content of proline in leaves. (Authors)

Hypocretin as a Hub for Arousal and Motivation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan M. Tyree

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The lateral hypothalamus is comprised of a heterogeneous mix of neurons that serve to integrate and regulate sleep, feeding, stress, energy balance, reward, and motivated behavior. Within these populations, the hypocretin/orexin neurons are among the most well studied. Here, we provide an overview on how these neurons act as a central hub integrating sensory and physiological information to tune arousal and motivated behavior accordingly. We give special attention to their role in sleep-wake states and conditions of hyper-arousal, as is the case with stress-induced anxiety. We further discuss their roles in feeding, drug-seeking, and sexual behavior, which are all dependent on the motivational state of the animal. We further emphasize the application of powerful techniques, such as optogenetics, chemogenetics, and fiber photometry, to delineate the role these neurons play in lateral hypothalamic functions.

Phytohormones and induction of plant-stress tolerance and defense genes by seed and foliar inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense cells and metabolites promote maize growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Fukami, Josiane; Ollero, Francisco Javier; Megías, Manuel; Hungria, Mariangela

2017-12-01

Azospirillum spp. are plant-growth-promoting bacteria used worldwide as inoculants for a variety of crops. Among the beneficial mechanisms associated with Azospirillum inoculation, emphasis has been given to the biological nitrogen fixation process and to the synthesis of phytohormones. In Brazil, the application of inoculants containing A. brasilense strains Ab-V5 and Ab-V6 to cereals is exponentially growing and in this study we investigated the effects of maize inoculation with these two strains applied on seeds or by leaf spray at the V2.5 stage growth-a strategy to relieve incompatibility with pesticides used for seed treatment. We also investigate the effects of spraying the metabolites of these two strains at V2.5. Maize growth was promoted by the inoculation of bacteria and their metabolites. When applied via foliar spray, although A. brasilense survival on leaves was confirmed by confocal microscopy and cell recovery, few cells were detected after 24 h, indicating that the effects of bacterial leaf spray might also be related to their metabolites. The major molecules detected in the supernatants of both strains were indole-3-acetic acid, indole-3-ethanol, indole-3-lactic acid and salicylic acid. RT-PCR of genes related to oxidative stress (APX1, APX2, CAT1, SOD2, SOD4) and plant defense (pathogenesis-related PR1, prp2 and prp4) was evaluated on maize leaves and roots. Differences were observed according to the gene, plant tissue, strain and method of application, but, in general, inoculation with Azospirillum resulted in up-regulation of oxidative stress genes in leaves and down-regulation in roots; contrarily, in general, PR genes were down-regulated in leaves and up-regulated in roots. Emphasis should be given to the application of metabolites, especially of Ab-V5 + Ab-V6 that in general resulted in the highest up-regulation of oxidative-stress and PR genes both in leaves and in roots. We hypothesize that the benefits of inoculation of Azospirillum on

Ascending control of arousal and motivation: role of nucleus incertus and its peptide neuromodulators in behavioural responses to stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, S; Gundlach, A L

2015-06-01

Arousal is a process that involves the activation of ascending neural pathways originating in the rostral pons that project to the forebrain through the midbrain reticular formation to promote the activation of key cortical, thalamic, hypothalamic and limbic centres. Established modulators of arousal include the cholinergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic and dopaminergic networks originating in the pons and midbrain. Recent data indicate that a population of largely GABAergic projection neurones located in the nucleus incertus (NI) are also involved in arousal and motivational processes. The NI has prominent efferent connections with distinct hypothalamic, amygdalar and thalamic nuclei, in addition to dense projections to key brain regions associated with the generation and pacing of hippocampal activity. The NI receives strong inputs from the prefrontal cortex, lateral habenula and the interpeduncular and median raphe nuclei, suggesting it is highly integrated in circuits regulating higher cognitive behaviours (hippocampal theta rhythm) and emotion. Anatomical and functional studies have revealed that the NI is a rich source of multiple peptide neuromodulators, including relaxin-3, and may mediate extra-hypothalamic effects of the stress hormone corticotrophin-releasing factor, as well as other key modulators such as orexins and oxytocin. This review provides an overview of earlier studies and highlights more recent research that implicates this neural network in the integration of arousal and motivated behaviours and has begun to identify the associated mechanisms. Future research that should help to better clarify the connectivity and function of the NI in major experimental species and humans is also discussed. © 2015 British Society for Neuroendocrinology.

Are psychophysiological arousal and self-reported emotional stress during an oncological consultation related to memory of medical information? An experimental study.

Science.gov (United States)

Visser, Leonie N C; Tollenaar, Marieke S; Bosch, Jos A; van Doornen, Lorenz J P; de Haes, Hanneke C J M; Smets, Ellen M A

2017-01-01

Patients forget 20-80% of information provided during medical consultations. The emotional stress often experienced by patients during consultations could be one of the mechanisms that lead to limited recall. The current experimental study therefore investigated the associations between (analog) patients' psychophysiological arousal, self-reported emotional stress and their (long term) memory of information provided by the physician. One hundred and eighty one cancer-naïve individuals acted as so-called analog patients (APs), i.e. they were instructed to watch a scripted video-recoding of an oncological bad news consultation while imagining themselves being in the patient's situation. Electrodermal and cardiovascular activity (e.g. skin conductance level and heart rate) were recorded during watching. Self-reported emotional stress was assessed before and after watching, using the STAI-State and seven Visual Analog Scales. Memory, both free recall and recognition, was assessed after 24-28 h. Watching the consultation evoked significant psychophysiological and self-reported stress responses. However, investigating the associations between 24 psychophysiological arousal measures, eight self-reported stress measures and free recall and recognition of information resulted in one significant, small (partial) correlation (r = 0.19). Considering multiple testing, this significant result was probably due to chance. Alternative analytical methods yielded identical results, strengthening our conclusion that no evidence was found for relationships between variables of interest. These null-findings are highly relevant, as they may be considered to refute the long-standing, but yet untested assumption that a relationship between stress and memory exists within this context. Moreover, these findings suggest that lowering patients' stress levels during the consultation would probably not be sufficient to raise memory of information to an optimal level. Alternative

Reliefs the Exposure Stress of Soils Arsenic on Brassica campestris L. Growth and Its Possible Mechanisms by Inoculation of Trichoderma asperellum SM-12F1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHANG Hong-xiang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The over-accumulation of arsenic(Asin agricultural soils affects crop growth. Subsequently, the accumulated As can pose risk to human health via food-chain. It is urgent to develop technologies to relief the As exposure stress on crop growth and lower the As uptake by crop. In this study, Trichoderma asperellum SM -12F1, capable of As resistance and speciation transformation was used as experimental material. Pot experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of inoculation on the growth of Brassica campestris L. in As-contaminated soils. The possible mechanisms of inoculation relieving As exposure stress and lowering As uptake were revealed. The results indicated that the growth of Brassica campestris L. was significantly inhibited in soils spiked with As of 120 mg· kg-1. Inoculation could significantly improve the growth of Brassica campestris L. and significantly decreased the As uptake and bioconcentration factor(BCFof Brassica campestris L. Compared with As-contaminated soils without inoculation, the As contents in the over-and under-ground part of Brassica campestris L. declined by 12.4% and 20.2%, respectively, and the BCF declined by 7.8%. Soil available As contents decreased by 15.7% after inoculation. Methylarsonic acid(MMAand dimethylarsinic acid(DMAwere detected in water extraction of soil and the shoot of Brassica campestris L. tissues, which indicated that inoculation could trigger soil As methylation and decrease soil As availability and toxicity. Furthermore, inoculation could effectively relief the As exposure stress on Brassica campestris L. growth by the response of antioxidant enzymes. The enzymes in Brassica campestris L. such as superoxide dismutase(SODand catalase(CAT, and the contents of glutathione(GSH, ascorbic acid(AsAand malondialdehyde(MDA, capable of reactive oxygen elimination, significantly enhanced during soil As exposure. However, inoculation lessened the activities or contents of SOD, CAT, GSH, and MDA

Stress, arousal, and sleep

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sanford, Larry D.; Suchecki, Deborah; Meerlo, Peter; Meerlo, Peter; Benca, Ruth M.; Abel, Ted

2015-01-01

Stress is considered to be an important cause of disrupted sleep and insomnia. However, controlled and experimental studies in rodents indicate that effects of stress on sleep-wake regulation are complex and may strongly depend on the nature of the stressor. While most stressors are associated with

The sound of arousal in music is context-dependent.

Science.gov (United States)

Blumstein, Daniel T; Bryant, Gregory A; Kaye, Peter

2012-10-23

Humans, and many non-human animals, produce and respond to harsh, unpredictable, nonlinear sounds when alarmed, possibly because these are produced when acoustic production systems (vocal cords and syrinxes) are overblown in stressful, dangerous situations. Humans can simulate nonlinearities in music and soundtracks through the use of technological manipulations. Recent work found that film soundtracks from different genres differentially contain such sounds. We designed two experiments to determine specifically how simulated nonlinearities in soundtracks influence perceptions of arousal and valence. Subjects were presented with emotionally neutral musical exemplars that had neither noise nor abrupt frequency transitions, or versions of these musical exemplars that had noise or abrupt frequency upshifts or downshifts experimentally added. In a second experiment, these acoustic exemplars were paired with benign videos. Judgements of both arousal and valence were altered by the addition of these simulated nonlinearities in the first, music-only, experiment. In the second, multi-modal, experiment, valence (but not arousal) decreased with the addition of noise or frequency downshifts. Thus, the presence of a video image suppressed the ability of simulated nonlinearities to modify arousal. This is the first study examining how nonlinear simulations in music affect emotional judgements. These results demonstrate that the perception of potentially fearful or arousing sounds is influenced by the perceptual context and that the addition of a visual modality can antagonistically suppress the response to an acoustic stimulus.

Sexy thoughts: effects of sexual cognitions on testosterone, cortisol, and arousal in women.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldey, Katherine L; van Anders, Sari M

2011-05-01

Previous research suggests that sexual stimuli increase testosterone (T) in women and shows inconsistent effects of sexual arousal on cortisol (C), but effects of cognitive aspects of arousal, rather than behaviors or sensory stimuli, are unclear. The present study examined whether sexual thoughts affect T or C and whether hormonal contraceptive (HC) use moderated this effect, given mixed findings of HC use confounding hormone responses. Participants (79 women) provided a baseline saliva sample for radioimmunoassay. We created the Imagined Social Situation Exercise (ISSE) to test effects of imagining social interactions on hormones, and participants were assigned to the experimental (sexual) or one of three control (positive, neutral, stressful) conditions. Participants provided a second saliva sample 15 min post-activity. Results indicated that for women not using HCs, the sexual condition increased T compared to the stressful or positive conditions. In contrast, HC using women in the sexual condition had decreased T relative to the stressful condition and similar T to the positive condition. The effect was specific to T, as sexual thoughts did not change C. For participants in the sexual condition, higher baseline T predicted larger increases in sexual arousal but smaller increases in T, likely due to ceiling effects on T. Our results suggest that sexual thoughts change T but not C, baseline T levels and HC use may contribute to variation in the T response to sexual thoughts, and cognitive aspects of sexual arousal affect physiology. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Happiness and Arousal: Framing Happiness as Arousing Results in Lower Happiness Ratings for Older Adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Par eBjalkebring

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Older adults have been shown to describe their happiness as lower in arousal when compared to younger adults. In addition, older adults prefer low arousal positive emotions over high arousal positive emotions in their daily lives. We experimentally investigated whether or not changing a few words in the description of happiness could influence a person’s rating of their happiness. We randomly assigned 193 participants, aged 22-92 years, to one of three conditions (high arousal, low arousal, or control. In line with previous findings, we found that older participants rated their happiness lower when framed as high in arousal (i.e., ecstatic, to be bursting with positive emotions and rated their happiness higher when framed as low in arousal (i.e., satisfied, to have a life filled with positive emotions. Younger adults remained uninfluenced by the manipulation. Our study demonstrates that arousal is essential to understanding ratings of happiness, and gives support to the notion that there are age differences in the preference for arousal.

Effects of Rhizobium inoculation on Trifolium resupinatum antioxidant system under sulfur dioxide pollution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ladan Bayat

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Plant growth stimulating rhizobacteria are beneficial bacteria that can cause resistance to various stresses in plants. One of these stresses is SO2 air pollution. SO2 is known as a strong damaging air pollutant that limits growth of plants. The aim of this study is evaluation of the effects of bacterial inoculation with native and standard Rhizobium on Persian clover root growth and antioxidants activity and capacity under air SO2 pollution. Materials and methods: In this study, 31 days plants (no-inoculated and inoculated with two strains of Rhizobium exposed to the different concentrations of SO2 (0 as a control, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 ppm for 5 consecutive days and 2 hours per day. Results: Results showed different concentrations of SO2 had a significant effect on Persian clover root weight and antioxidant system. Increasing SO2 stress decreased root fresh and dry weight and antioxidant capacities (IC50 and increased antioxidant activities (I% of Persian clover leaves significantly in comparison to the control plants (under 0 ppm and increased SOD, CAT and GPX activity. Inoculation of Persian clover plants with native and standard Rhizobium increased root weight and did not show a significant effect on antioxidants activity and capacity, but interaction between Rhizobium inoculation and SO2 treatment reduced significantly the stress effects of high concentration of SO2 on root growth and antioxidants activity and capacity. In fact, level of this change of root growth and antioxidant system under SO2 pollution stress in inoculated plants was lower than in the non-inoculated plants. Discussion and conclusion: As a result, an increase in SO2 concentration caused a decrease in root weight, increase in antioxidants activity and capacity of Persian clover. Inoculation with Rhizobium strains could alleviate the effect of SO2 pollution on antioxidant system by effects on root growth.

Attribution of Arousal as a Mediator of the Effectiveness of Fear-Arousing Communications.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, Norbert; And Others

Characteristics of the situation in which a fear-arousing communication is received affect the effectiveness of the communication. The influence of situational factors affecting a recipient's interpretation of the arousal induced by communication were investigated with smokers (N=37) who were exposed to a fear-arousing anti-smoking movie. Prior to…

The neurophysiology of sexual arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Schober, Justine M; Pfaff, Donald

2007-09-01

Our understanding of the process and initiation of sexual arousal is being enhanced by both animal and human studies, inclusive of basic science principles and research on clinical outcomes. Sexual arousal is dependent on neural (sensory and cognitive) factors, hormonal factors, genetic factors and, in the human case, the complex influences of culture and context. Sexual arousal activates the cognitive and physiologic processes that can eventually lead to sexual behavior. Sexual arousal comprises a particular subset of central nervous system arousal functions which depend on primitive, fundamental arousal mechanisms that cause generalized brain activity, but are manifest in a sociosexual context. The neurophysiology of sexual arousal is seen as a bidirectional system universal to all vertebrates. The following review includes known neural and genomic mechanisms of a hormone-dependent circuit for simple sex behavior. New information about hormone effects on causal steps related to sex hormones' nuclear receptor isoforms expressed by hypothalamic neurons continues to enrich our understanding of this neurophysiology.

One Session of Autogenic Training Increases Acute Subjective Sexual Arousal in Premenopausal Women Reporting Sexual Arousal Problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanton, Amelia M; Hixon, J Gregory; Nichols, Lindsey M; Meston, Cindy M

2018-01-01

Below average heart rate variability (HRV) has been associated with sexual arousal dysfunction and overall sexual dysfunction in women. Autogenic training, a psychophysiologic relaxation technique, has been shown to increase HRV. In a recent study, sexually healthy women experienced acute increases in physiologic (ie, genital) and subjective sexual arousal after 1 brief session of autogenic training. To build on these findings by testing the effects of a single session of autogenic training on sexual arousal in a sample of women who reported decreased or absent sexual arousal for at least 6 months. Genital sexual arousal, subjective sexual arousal, and perceived genital sensations were assessed in 25 women 20 to 44 years old before and after listening to a 22-minute autogenic training recording. HRV was assessed with electrocardiography. Change in genital sexual arousal, subjective sexual arousal, and perceived genital sensations from the pre-manipulation erotic film to the post-manipulation erotic film. Marginally significant increases in discrete subjective sexual arousal (P = .051) and significant increases in perceived genital sensations (P = .018) were observed. In addition, degree of change in HRV significantly moderated increases in subjective arousal measured continuously over time (P autogenic training, and other interventions that aim to increase HRV, could be a useful addition to treatment protocols for women who are reporting a lack of subjective arousal or decreased genital sensations. There are few treatment options for women with arousal problems. We report on a new psychosocial intervention that could improve arousal. Limitations include a relatively small sample and the lack of a control group. Our findings indicate that autogenic training significantly improves acute subjective arousal and increases perceived genital sensations in premenopausal women with self-reported arousal concerns. Stanton AM, Hixon JG, Nichols LM, Meston CM. One Session of

Defence reactions of mature Norway spruce (Picea abies before and after inoculation of the blue-stain fungus Endoconidiophora polonica in a drought stress experiment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Netherer Sigrid

2016-12-01

Full Text Available We performed an inoculation experiment using the blue-stain fungus Endoconidiophora polonica at the Rosalia Roof study site, which was set up to study drought effects on Norway spruce susceptibility to attacks by the European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus. Tree resistance parameters such as resin flow rate and extent of hypersensitive wound reaction in the phloem were investigated prior to and after fungal infection. Sample trees with different drought treatments (trees fully covered or semi-covered by roofs, control trees were inoculated with E. polonica in July 2014. In order to check for areas of phloem necrosis, the outer bark around the inoculation holes was scratched off 6 weeks later. We recorded the amount of resin exudation within 12 hours overnight in August and September 2013 and 2014. Although wound reaction zones did not differ in size between tree collectives of the various treatments, fully covered trees tended to exhibit larger necrotic areas compared to control trees. The least water supplied trees showed lowest resin flow rates prior to fungal inoculation, but were the only group to show significantly enhanced resin flow five weeks after the evaluation of defence reactions. Our results agree with earlier findings that wounding and few fungal inoculations can increase tree resistance in the medium term given not too severe water stress. Further investigations will clarify how water stress affects the availability of non-structural carbohydrates for secondary metabolism, when depletion of resources eventually occurs, and at which point trees are most susceptible to bark beetle attack.

Effects of Pseudomonas putida and Glomusintraradices Inoculations on Morphological and Biochemical Traitsin Trigonellafoenum-graecum L.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

simin irankhah

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Fenugreek (Trigonellafoenum-graecum L. is a traditional medicinal plant belonging to the legume family Fabaceae. Diverse groups of microorganisms are symbiotic with Fenugreek roots system. This integration leads to significant increases in the development and production by increasing nitrogen fixation, phytohormones production, siderophores and phosphate solubilization. Plant growth-promoting bacteria increase plant growth byimproving nutrientuptake and phytohormones production. In addition, the beneficial effect of these bacteria could be due totheirinteractionwithArbuscularMycorrhizal fungi(VAM. Drought is one of the major limiting factors for crop production in many parts of the world including Iran. Symbiotic microorganisms can enhance plant tolerance to drought. This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of Vesicular ArbuscularMycorrhiza (VAM and Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR on morphological and biochemical characteristics of Fenugreek in drought stress conditions. Materials and Methods: The experiment was carried out in completely random design with 3 replications.There were four treatments including inoculation with Pseudomonas putida, inoculation with Glomusintraradices, combined association of Pseudomonas putida and Glomusintraradices and untreated as a check under drought stress (40% of field capacity and non-stress conditions (80% of field capacity. In this experiment fiveseeds were sowninplastic pots. Before sowing, seeds were inoculated with microorganisms. In order to inoculation ofseed with Mycorrhizal fungi, for each kilogram of soil, 100 grams of powder containing 10 to 15 thousand spores of fungal soil (produced by the biotech company Toos was added to three centimeters of soil in the pot. For seed inoculation with Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria, the growth curve of the bacteria was drawn at first and then the best time for the growth of bacteria was determined. The bacteria at

Arousal and consumer in-store behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Groeppel-Klein, Andrea

2005-11-15

From a psychophysiological point of view, arousal is a fundamental feature of behavior. As reported in different empirical studies based on insights from theories of consumer behavior, store atmosphere should evoke phasic arousal reactions to attract consumers. Most of these empirical investigations used verbal scales to measure consumers' perceived phasic arousal at the point-of-sale (POS). However, the validity of verbal arousal measurement is questioned; self-reporting methods only allow a time-lagged measurement. Furthermore, the selection of inappropriate items to represent perceived arousal is criticized, and verbal reports require some form of cognitive evaluation of perceived arousal by the individual, who might (in a non-measurement condition) not even be aware of the arousal. By contrast, phasic electrodermal reaction (EDR) has proven to be the most appropriate and valid indicator for measuring arousal [W. Boucsein, Physiologische Grundlagen und Messmethoden der dermalen Aktivität. In: F. Rösler (Ed.), Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Bereich Psychophysiologie, Band 1: Grundlagen and Methoden der Psychophysiologie, Kapitel, Vol. 7, Hogrefe, Göttingen, 2001, pp. 551-623] that could be relevant to behavior. EDR can be recorded simultaneously to the perception of stimuli. Furthermore, telemetric online device can be used, which enables physiological arousal measurement while participants can move freely through the store and perform the assigned task in the experiments. The present paper delivers insights on arousal theory and results from empirical studies using EDR to measure arousal at the POS.

Hyper-arousal decreases human visual thresholds.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam J Woods

Full Text Available Arousal has long been known to influence behavior and serves as an underlying component of cognition and consciousness. However, the consequences of hyper-arousal for visual perception remain unclear. The present study evaluates the impact of hyper-arousal on two aspects of visual sensitivity: visual stereoacuity and contrast thresholds. Sixty-eight participants participated in two experiments. Thirty-four participants were randomly divided into two groups in each experiment: Arousal Stimulation or Sham Control. The Arousal Stimulation group underwent a 50-second cold pressor stimulation (immersing the foot in 0-2° C water, a technique known to increase arousal. In contrast, the Sham Control group immersed their foot in room temperature water. Stereoacuity thresholds (Experiment 1 and contrast thresholds (Experiment 2 were measured before and after stimulation. The Arousal Stimulation groups demonstrated significantly lower stereoacuity and contrast thresholds following cold pressor stimulation, whereas the Sham Control groups showed no difference in thresholds. These results provide the first evidence that hyper-arousal from sensory stimulation can lower visual thresholds. Hyper-arousal's ability to decrease visual thresholds has important implications for survival, sports, and everyday life.

Thinking anxious, feeling anxious, or both? Cognitive bias moderates the relationship between anxiety disorder status and sympathetic arousal in youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Rozenman, Michelle; Vreeland, Allison; Piacentini, John

2017-01-01

Cognitive bias and physiological arousal are two putative markers that may underlie youth anxiety. However, data on relationships between cognitive bias and arousal are limited, and typically do not include behavioral measurement of these constructs in order to tap real-time processes. We aimed to examine the relationship between performance-based cognitive bias and sympathetic arousal during stress in clinically anxious and typically-developing youth. The sample included children and adolescents ages 9 to 17 (Mean age=13.18, SD=2.60) who either met diagnostic criteria for primary generalized anxiety, social phobia, or separation anxiety (N=24) or healthy controls who had no history of psychopathology (N=22). Youth completed performance-based measures of attention and interpretation bias. Electrodermal activity was assessed while youth participated in the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C; Buske-Kirschbaum, Jobst, & Wustmans, 1997). A mixed models analysis indicated significant linear and non-linear changes in skin conductance, with similar slopes for both groups. Interpretation bias, but not attention bias, moderated the relationship between group status and sympathetic arousal during the TSST-C. Arousal trajectories did not differ for anxious and healthy control youth who exhibited high levels of threat interpretation bias. However, for youth who exhibited moderate and low levels of interpretation bias, the anxious group demonstrated greater arousal slopes than healthy control youth. Results provide initial evidence that the relationship between anxiety status and physiological arousal during stress may be moderated by level of interpretation bias for threat. These findings may implicate interpretation bias as a marker of sympathetic reactivity in youth. Implications for future research and limitations are discussed. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Elevated arousal levels enhance contrast perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Dongho; Lokey, Savannah; Ling, Sam

2017-02-01

Our state of arousal fluctuates from moment to moment-fluctuations that can have profound impacts on behavior. Arousal has been proposed to play a powerful, widespread role in the brain, influencing processes as far ranging as perception, memory, learning, and decision making. Although arousal clearly plays a critical role in modulating behavior, the mechanisms underlying this modulation remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we examined the modulatory role of arousal on one of the cornerstones of visual perception: contrast perception. Using a reward-driven paradigm to manipulate arousal state, we discovered that elevated arousal state substantially enhances visual sensitivity, incurring a multiplicative modulation of contrast response. Contrast defines vision, determining whether objects appear visible or invisible to us, and these results indicate that one of the consequences of decreased arousal state is an impaired ability to visually process our environment.

Female Sexual Arousal Disorders

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Giraldi, Annamaria; Rellini, Alessandra H; Pfaus, James

2012-01-01

Introduction.  Definitions and terminology for female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) are currently being debated. While some authors have suggested that FSAD is more a subjective response rather than a genital response, others have suggested that desire and arousal disorders should be combined...... and psychological disorders, as well as to discuss different medical and psychological assessment and treatment modalities. Methods.  The experts of the International Society for Sexual Medicine's Standard Committee convened to provide a survey using relevant databases, journal articles, and own clinical experience....... Results.  Female Arousal Disorders have been defined in several ways with focus on the genital or subjective response or a combination of both. The prevalence varies and increases with increasing age, especially at the time of menopause, while distress decreases with age. Arousal disorders are often...

Arousal from sleep mechanisms in infants.

Science.gov (United States)

Franco, Patricia; Kato, Ineko; Richardson, Heidi L; Yang, Joel S C; Montemitro, Enza; Horne, Rosemary S C

2010-08-01

Arousals from sleep allow sleep to continue in the face of stimuli that normally elicit responses during wakefulness and also permit awakening. Such an adaptive mechanism implies that any malfunction may have clinical importance. Inadequate control of arousal in infants and children is associated with a variety of sleep-related problems. An excessive propensity to arouse from sleep favors the development of repeated sleep disruptions and insomnia, with impairment of daytime alertness and performance. A lack of an adequate arousal response to a noxious nocturnal stimulus reduces an infant's chances of autoresuscitation, and thus survival, increasing the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The study of arousability is complicated by many factors including the definition of an arousal; the scoring methodology; the techniques used (spontaneous arousability versus arousal responses to endogenous or exogenous stimuli); and the confounding factors that complicate the determination of arousal thresholds by changing the sleeper's responses to a given stimulus such as prenatal drug, alcohol, or cigarette use. Infant age and previous sleep deprivation also modify thresholds. Other confounding factors include time of night, sleep stages, the sleeper's body position, and sleeping conditions. In this paper, we will review these different aspects for the study of arousals in infants and also report the importance of these studies for the understanding of the pathophysiology of some clinical conditions, particularly SIDS. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Piriformospora indica inoculation alleviates the adverse effect of NaCl stress on growth, gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.).

Science.gov (United States)

Ghorbani, A; Razavi, S M; Ghasemi Omran, V O; Pirdashti, H

2018-03-25

Salinity is now an increasingly serious environmental issue that affects the growth and yield of many plants. In the present work, the influence of inoculation with the symbiotic fungus, Piriformospora indica, on gas exchange, water potential, osmolyte content, Na/K ratio and chlorophyll fluorescence of tomato plants under three salinity levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 mm NaCl) and three time periods (5, 10 and 15 days after exposure to salt) was investigated. Results indicate that P. indica inoculation improved growth parameters of tomato under salinity stress. This symbiotic fungus significantly increased photosynthetic pigment content under salinity, and more proline and glycine betaine accumulated in inoculated roots than in non-inoculated roots. P. indica further significantly improved K + content and reduced Na + level under salinity treatment. After inoculation with the endophytic fungus, leaf physiological parameters, such as water potential, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance and transpiration, were all higher under the salt concentrations and durations compared with controls without P. indica. With increasing salt level and salt treatment duration, values of F 0 and qP increased but F m , F v /F m , F' v /F' m and NPQ declined in the controls, while inoculation with P. indica improved these values. The results indicate that the negative effects of NaCl on tomato plants were alleviated after P. indica inoculation, probably by improving physiological parameters such as water status and photosynthesis. © 2018 German Society for Plant Sciences and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

Sympathetic arousal as a marker of chronicity in childhood stuttering.

Science.gov (United States)

Zengin-Bolatkale, Hatun; Conture, Edward G; Walden, Tedra A; Jones, Robin M

2018-01-01

This study investigated whether sympathetic activity during a stressful speaking task was an early marker for stuttering chronicity. Participants were 9 children with persisting stuttering, 23 children who recovered, and 17 children who do not stutter. Participants performed a stress-inducing picture-naming task and skin conductance was measured across three time points. Findings indicated that at the initial time point, children with persisting stuttering exhibited higher sympathetic arousal during the stressful speaking task than children whose stuttering recovered. Findings are taken to suggest that sympathetic activity may be an early marker of heightened risk for chronic stuttering.

Simultaneous conditioning of valence and arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Gawronski, Bertram; Mitchell, Derek G V

2014-01-01

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to the change in the valence of a conditioned stimulus (CS) due to its pairing with a positive or negative unconditioned stimulus (US). To the extent that core affect can be characterised by the two dimensions of valence and arousal, EC has important implications for the origin of affective responses. However, the distinction between valence and arousal is rarely considered in research on EC or conditioned responses more generally. Measuring the subjective feelings elicited by a CS, the results from two experiments showed that (1) repeated pairings of a CS with a positive or negative US of either high or low arousal led to corresponding changes in both CS valence and CS arousal, (2) changes in CS arousal, but not changes in CS valence, were significantly related to recollective memory for CS-US pairings, (3) subsequent presentations of the CS without the US reduced the conditioned valence of the CS, with conditioned arousal being less susceptible to extinction and (4) EC effects were stronger for high arousal than low arousal USs. The results indicate that the conditioning of affective responses can occur simultaneously along two independent dimensions, supporting evidence in related areas that calls for a consideration of both valence and arousal. Implications for research on EC and the acquisition of emotional dispositions are discussed.

The polarizing effect of arousal on negotiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Ashley D; Curhan, Jared R

2013-10-01

In this research, we examined the impact of physiological arousal on negotiation outcomes. Conventional wisdom and the prescriptive literature suggest that arousal should be minimized given its negative effect on negotiations, whereas prior research on misattribution of arousal suggests that arousal might polarize outcomes, either negatively or positively. In two experiments, we manipulated arousal and measured its effect on subjective and objective negotiation outcomes. Our results support the polarization effect. When participants had negative prior attitudes toward negotiation, arousal had a detrimental effect on outcomes, whereas when participants had positive prior attitudes toward negotiation, arousal had a beneficial effect on outcomes. These effects occurred because of the construal of arousal as negative or positive affect, respectively. Our findings have important implications not only for negotiation, but also for research on misattribution of arousal, which previously has focused on the target of evaluation, in contrast to the current research, which focused on the critical role of the perceiver.

Lost in Time and Space: States of High Arousal Disrupt Implicit Acquisition of Spatial and Sequential Context Information

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maran, Thomas; Sachse, Pierre; Martini, Markus

2017-01-01

Biased cognition during high arousal states is a relevant phenomenon in a variety of topics: from the development of post-traumatic stress disorders or stress-triggered addictive behaviors to forensic considerations regarding crimes of passion. Recent evidence indicates that arousal modulates...... the engagement of a hippocampus-based “cognitive” system in favor of a striatum-based “habit” system in learning and memory, promoting a switch from flexible, contextualized to more rigid, reflexive responses. Existing findings appear inconsistent, therefore it is unclear whether and which type of context...

Evaluation of Two Biochemical Markers for Salt Stress in Three Pistachio Rootstocks Inoculated with Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (Glomus mosseae)

OpenAIRE

Shamshiri M.H.; Fattahi. M.

2014-01-01

The possible involvement of the methylglyoxal and proline accumulation in leaves and roots of three pistachio rootstocks, cv. Sarakha, Abareqi and Bane baghi, pre-inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus ( Glomus mosseae ) in response to salt stress was studied during a greenhouse experiment in 2013. Six months old pistachio seedlings were exposed to four salinity levels of irrigation water (EC of 0.5 as control, 5, 10 and 15 dS m -1) for 70 days. Methylglyoxal and proline of the roots a...

Interplay between affect and arousal in recognition memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Greene, Ciara M; Bahri, Pooja; Soto, David

2010-07-23

Emotional states linked to arousal and mood are known to affect the efficiency of cognitive performance. However, the extent to which memory processes may be affected by arousal, mood or their interaction is poorly understood. Following a study phase of abstract shapes, we altered the emotional state of participants by means of exposure to music that varied in both mood and arousal dimensions, leading to four different emotional states: (i) positive mood-high arousal; (ii) positive mood-low arousal; (iii) negative mood-high arousal; (iv) negative mood-low arousal. Following the emotional induction, participants performed a memory recognition test. Critically, there was an interaction between mood and arousal on recognition performance. Memory was enhanced in the positive mood-high arousal and in the negative mood-low arousal states, relative to the other emotional conditions. Neither mood nor arousal alone but their interaction appears most critical to understanding the emotional enhancement of memory.

Interplay between affect and arousal in recognition memory.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ciara M Greene

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Emotional states linked to arousal and mood are known to affect the efficiency of cognitive performance. However, the extent to which memory processes may be affected by arousal, mood or their interaction is poorly understood.Following a study phase of abstract shapes, we altered the emotional state of participants by means of exposure to music that varied in both mood and arousal dimensions, leading to four different emotional states: (i positive mood-high arousal; (ii positive mood-low arousal; (iii negative mood-high arousal; (iv negative mood-low arousal. Following the emotional induction, participants performed a memory recognition test. Critically, there was an interaction between mood and arousal on recognition performance. Memory was enhanced in the positive mood-high arousal and in the negative mood-low arousal states, relative to the other emotional conditions.Neither mood nor arousal alone but their interaction appears most critical to understanding the emotional enhancement of memory.

Co-inoculation of arbusculr mycorrhizae and nitrogen fixing bacteria enhance alfalfa yield under saline conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu, R.; Tang, F.; Liu, F.; Chen, J.

2016-01-01

The study was to investigate the effects of combined inoculation of Glomus mosseae (arbusculr mycorrhizae fungi, AMF) and Sinorhizobium meliloti (nitrogen-fixing bacteria, i.e., an Rhizobium meliloti, RM) on yield, nutrient contents, nodulation and mycorrhizal colonization of different alfalfa cultivars under saline conditions. An experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of AMF and RM inoculation in development of salt tolerance in alfalfa cultivars (Zhaodong, Nongjing and Longmu) under different salinity levels (0, 60, 120 and 180 mM NaCl). We found that under non stress condition, double inoculation of alfalfa with rhizobium and AM increased the alfalfa yield, nodule weight and number, as well as shoot proline contents, the most when plants were double inoculated followed by AM and rhizobium inoculation, respectively. Whereas under salinity condition, double inoculation of alfalfa with rhizobium and AM increased alfalfa yield, mycorrhizal infection, nodule weight and number as well as increased in shoot proline content, the most followed by AM and rhizobium inoculation, respectively. The Results suggest that growth of alfalfa may be improved by combined inoculation of alfalfa with AM and rhizobium under salt and non-stress conditions. Alleviation of alfalfa growth under saline condition was perhaps due to an increase in mycorrhizal infection and nodule weight and number as well as an increased in shoot proline content by dual inoculation. (author)

Female sexual arousal disorders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giraldi, Annamaria; Rellini, Alessandra H.; Pfaus, James; Laan, Ellen

2013-01-01

Definitions and terminology for female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) are currently being debated. While some authors have suggested that FSAD is more a subjective response rather than a genital response, others have suggested that desire and arousal disorders should be combined in one entity.

Effect of salinity and inoculation with Azosprillium on carbohydrate ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Jane

2011-08-17

Aug 17, 2011 ... Inoculation reduced harmful effects of salinity especially on mean kernel weight and grain ... considered to play a key role in stress induced metabolic processes and membrane ..... osmoregulation. Conclusion. Increase in ...

Trigeminal induced arousals during human sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Heiser, Clemens; Baja, Jan; Lenz, Franziska; Sommer, J Ulrich; Hörmann, Karl; Herr, Raphael M; Stuck, Boris A

2015-05-01

Arousals caused by external stimuli during human sleep have been studied for most of the sensorial systems. It could be shown that a pure nasal trigeminal stimulus leads to arousals during sleep. The frequency of arousals increases dependent on the stimulus concentration. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of different stimulus durations on arousal frequency during different sleep stages. Ten young healthy volunteers with 20 nights of polysomnography were included in the study. Pure trigeminal stimulation with both different concentrations of CO2 (0, 10, 20, 40% v/v) and different stimulus durations (1, 3, 5, and 10 s) were applied during different sleep stages to the volunteers using an olfactometer. The application was performed during different sleep stages (light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep). The number of arousals increased with rising stimulus duration and stimulus concentration during each sleep stage. Trigeminal stimuli during sleep led to arousals in dose- and time-dependent manner.

Musical Tasks and Energetic Arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Hayoung A; Watson, Angela L

2018-03-08

Music is widely recognized as a motivating stimulus. Investigators have examined the use of music to improve a variety of motivation-related outcomes; however, these studies have focused primarily on passive music listening rather than active participation in musical activities. To examine the influence of participation in musical tasks and unique participant characteristics on energetic arousal. We used a one-way Welch's ANOVA to examine the influence of musical participation (i.e., a non-musical control and four different musical task conditions) upon energetic arousal. In addition, ancillary analyses of participant characteristics including personality, age, gender, sleep, musical training, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol revealed their possible influence upon pretest and posttest energetic arousal scores. Musical participation yielded a significant relationship with energetic arousal, F(4, 55.62) = 44.38, p = .000, estimated ω2 = 0.60. Games-Howell post hoc pairwise comparisons revealed statistically significant differences between five conditions. Descriptive statistics revealed expected differences between introverts' and extraverts' energetic arousal scores at the pretest, F(1, 115) = 6.80, p = .010, partial η2= .06; however, mean differences failed to reach significance at the posttest following musical task participation. No other measured participant characteristics yielded meaningful results. Passive tasks (i.e., listening to a story or song) were related to decreased energetic arousal, while active musical tasks (i.e., singing, rhythm tapping, and keyboard playing) were related to increased energetic arousal. Musical task participation appeared to have a differential effect for individuals with certain personality traits (i.e., extroverts and introverts).

Interacting Environmental Stress Factors Affects Targeted Metabolomic Profiles in Stored Natural Wheat and That Inoculated with F. graminearum

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esther Garcia-Cela

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Changes in environmental stress impact on secondary metabolite (SM production profiles. Few studies have examined targeted SM production patterns in relation to interacting environmental conditions in stored cereals. The objectives were to examine the effect of water activity (aw; 0.95–0.90 x temperature (10–25 °C on SM production on naturally contaminated stored wheat and that inoculated with Fusarium graminearum. Samples were analysed using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS on (a total number of known SMs, (b their concentrations and (c changes under environmental stress. 24 Fusarium metabolites were quantified. Interestingly, statistical differences (ChisSq., p < 0.001 were observed in the number of SMs produced under different sets of interacting environmental conditions. The dominant metabolites in natural stored grain were deoxynivalenol (DON and nivalenol (NIV followed by a range of enniatins (A, A1, B, B1, apicidin and DON-3-glucoside at 10 °C. Increasing temperature promoted the biosynthesis of other SMs such as aurofusarin, moniliformin, zearalenone (ZEN and their derivatives. Natural wheat + F. graminearum inoculation resulted in a significant increase in the number of metabolites produced (ChisSq., p < 0.001. For ZEN and its derivatives, more was produced under cooler storage conditions. Fusarin C was enhanced in contrast to that for the enniatin group. The relative ratios of certain groups of targeted SM changed with environmental stress. Both temperature and aw affected the amounts of metabolites present, especially of DON and ZEN. This study suggests that the dominant SMs produced in stored temperate cereals are the mycotoxins for which legislation exists. However, there are changes in the ratios of key metabolites which could influence the relative contamination with individual compounds. Thus, in the future, under more extreme environmental stresses, different dominant SMs may be formed which could

Micro-arousals during nocturnal sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Halász, P; Kundra, O; Rajna, P; Pál, I; Vargha, M

1979-01-01

In 8 young adult human subjects EEG- and polygraphic characteristics of transient shifts towards arousal (micro-arousal, MA) have been studied during sleep under five different experimental conditions in 40 night sessions. Out of the five applied experimental situations, two (psychostimulant application and sensory stimulation) resulted in a shift of the balance between the systems of sleep and arousal towards an increased activity of the arousal system, while an other condition (rebound following partial sleep deprivation) led to an opposite change to a rise in "sleep pressure". An inverse correlation has been found between the frequency of MA and the depth of sleep, a finding consistently observed in every subject and in every experimental situation. During the process of sleep periodic changes in the dispersity of MA could be seen; the number of MA-s decreased and increased according to the descending and ascending slope of the sleep cycles. During the ascending slope of cycles there was a coupling between the occurence of MA-s and the changes of phases. Increases in the level of activation and in sleep pressure did not influence the occurrence of MA-s. Increasing the tone of the arousal system in chemical way, or by means of enhancing the phasic sensory input resulted in a reduction of the difference between the number of MA on the descending and ascending slopes of cycles. During the phases of sleep, the spontaneous occurrence of MA-s went parallel with the possibility to evoke MA-s by sensory stimuli. These data show that MA is a regular phenomenon of nocturnal sleep; MA manifests itself as a result of phasic functioning of the reticular arousal system and plays a role in the organization of those periods of the sleep cycle, which tend toward arousal. It is suggested that MA-phenomenon is considered a standard measure of sleep and that it could represent an indicator of the function of the arousal system controlled by external or internal mechanisms during

Inoculation of bats with European Geomyces destructans supports the novel pathogen hypothesis for the origin of white-nose syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Warnecke, Lisa; Turner, James M; Bollinger, Trent K; Lorch, Jeffrey M; Misra, Vikram; Cryan, Paul M; Wibbelt, Gudrun; Blehert, David S; Willis, Craig K R

2012-05-01

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease of hibernating bats associated with cutaneous infection by the fungus Geomyces destructans (Gd), and responsible for devastating declines of bat populations in eastern North America. Affected bats appear emaciated and one hypothesis is that they spend too much time out of torpor during hibernation, depleting vital fat reserves required to survive the winter. The fungus has also been found at low levels on bats throughout Europe but without mass mortality. This finding suggests that Gd is either native to both continents but has been rendered more pathogenic in North America by mutation or environmental change, or that it recently arrived in North America as an invader from Europe. Thus, a causal link between Gd and mortality has not been established and the reason for its high pathogenicity in North America is unknown. Here we show that experimental inoculation with either North American or European isolates of Gd causes WNS and mortality in the North American bat, Myotis lucifugus. In contrast to control bats, individuals inoculated with either isolate of Gd developed cutaneous infections diagnostic of WNS, exhibited a progressive increase in the frequency of arousals from torpor during hibernation, and were emaciated after 3-4 mo. Our results demonstrate that altered torpor-arousal cycles underlie mortality from WNS and provide direct evidence that Gd is a novel pathogen to North America from Europe.

Negative Emotional Arousal Impairs Associative Memory Performance for Emotionally Neutral Content in Healthy Participants.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Guez

Full Text Available The effect of emotional arousal on memory presents a complex pattern with previous studies reporting conflicting results of both improved and reduced memory performance following arousal manipulations. In this study we further tested the effect of negative emotional arousal (NEA on individual-item recognition and associative recognition of neutral stimuli in healthy participants, and hypothesized that NEA will particularly impair associative memory performance. The current study consists of two experiments; in both, participants studied a list of word-pairs and were then tested for items (items recognition test, and for associations (associative recognition test. In the first experiment, the arousal manipulation was induced by flashing emotionally-negative or neutral pictures between study-pairs while in the second experiment arousal was induced by presenting emotionally-negative or neutral pictures between lists. The results of the two experiments converged and supported an associative memory deficit observed under NEA conditions. We suggest that NEA is associated with an altered ability to bind one stimulus to another as a result of impaired recollection, resulting in poorer associative memory performance. The current study findings may contribute to the understanding of the mechanism underlying memory impairments reported in disorders associated with traumatic stress.

Effect of free and symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacterial co-inoculation on seed and seedling of soybean seeds produced under deficit water condition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamed Hadi

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Effect of free and symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria on seed and seedling produced seeds under deficit irrigation was conducted in laboratory and field experiments in 2006. In laboratory of karaj’s Seed and Plant Research and Certificate Institute an experiment was conducted based on factorial in form of completely randomized design with four replications and in field’s of Islamic Azad University, Varamin Branch were split factorial in form of randomized completely block design with three replications. Treatments included water stress [Irrigation after 50 (Normal irrigation, 100 (Middle stress, 150 (Severe stress mm evaporation from pan class A], Cultivar [Manokin & Williams and SRF×T3 Line] and inoculation [Inoculation with Bradyrhizobium japonicum, Bradyrhizobium japonicum co-inoculated with Azotobacter chroococcum, No seed inoculation]. Results showed that drought stress decreased the uniformity and germination speed and seedling emergence. Bacteria increased leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, leaf area and seedling vigor index but had no effect on emergence. In irrigation levels inoculated treatments had higher seedling length, leaf, stem, seedling dry weight and seedling vigor. Severs stress seeds inoculated with Bradyrhizobium japonicum had higher root dry weight than control. Therefore in seeds which were produced under deficit irrigation conditions, bacteria increased seedlings vigor.

Resting sympathetic arousal moderates the association between parasympathetic reactivity and working memory performance in adults reporting high levels of life stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Giuliano, Ryan J; Gatzke-Kopp, Lisa M; Roos, Leslie E; Skowron, Elizabeth A

2017-08-01

The neurovisceral integration model stipulates that autonomic function plays a critical role in the regulation of higher-order cognitive processes, yet most work to date has examined parasympathetic function in isolation from sympathetic function. Furthermore, the majority of work has been conducted on normative samples, which typically demonstrate parasympathetic withdrawal to increase arousal needed to complete cognitive tasks. Little is known about how autonomic regulation supports cognitive function in populations exposed to high levels of stress, which is critical given that chronic stress exposure alters autonomic function. To address this, we sought to characterize how parasympathetic (high-frequency heart rate variability, HF-HRV) and sympathetic (preejection period, PEP) measures of cardiac function contribute to individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity in a sample of high-risk women. HF-HRV and PEP were measured at rest and during a visual change detection measure of WM. Multilevel modeling was used to examine within-person fluctuations in WM performance throughout the task concurrently with HF-HRV and PEP, as well as between-person differences as a function of resting HF-HRV and PEP levels. Results indicate that resting PEP moderated the association between HF-HRV reactivity and WM capacity. Increases in WM capacity across the task were associated with increases in parasympathetic activity, but only among individuals with longer resting PEP (lower sympathetic arousal). Follow-up analyses showed that shorter resting PEP was associated with greater cumulative risk exposure. These results support the autonomic space framework, in that the relationship between behavior and parasympathetic function appears dependent on resting sympathetic activation. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Positive and negative affect and arousal: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with adolescent cortisol diurnal rhythms.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoyt, Lindsay T; Craske, Michelle G; Mineka, Susan; Adam, Emma K

2015-05-01

Psychobiological research with adolescent populations tends to focus on negative mood, stress, and psychopathology, but the role of positive emotions is insufficiently understood. The current study examines the relative contributions of both negative and positive affective experiences to the basal activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, measured by levels of cortisol across the waking day. A sample of 315 ethnically and racially diverse high school students (mean age = 17.1 years, 73% female) completed a multiple-day naturalistic salivary cortisol protocol twice over a 5-year period. Along with each saliva sample, youth provided diary reports of their current mood states. Principal components analysis revealed four factors: high arousal positive affect (PA), low arousal PA, high arousal negative affect (NA), and low arousal NA. Multilevel growth curve models suggested that greater high arousal PA was associated with adaptive patterns of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity: steeper cortisol slope from waking to bedtime and lower evening cortisol, independent of NA. In addition, increases in high arousal PA over the 5-year follow-up period were associated with a steepening of the diurnal cortisol slope (β = -0.038, p = .009; negative values indicate the decrease of cortisol throughout the day) and lower evening cortisol levels (β = -0.661, p = .027) based on within-person fixed-effect regression analysis. This study shows that high arousal PA, such as feeling alert and active, is associated with a steeper decline in cortisol throughout the day. Low arousal positive emotions did not display this relationship.

Development of alginate-based aggregate inoculants of Methylobacterium sp. and Azospirillum brasilense tested under in vitro conditions to promote plant growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Joe, M M; Saravanan, V S; Islam, M R; Sa, T

2014-02-01

To develop co-aggregated bacterial inoculant comprising of Methylobacterium oryzae CBMB20/Methylobacterium suomiense CBMB120 strains with Azospirillum brasilense (CW903) strain and testing their efficiency as inoculants for plant growth promotion (PGP). Biofilm formation and co-aggregation efficiency was studied between A. brasilense CW903 and methylobacterial strains M. oryzae CBMB20 and M. suomiense CBMB120. Survival and release of these co-aggregated bacterial strains entrapped in alginate beads were assessed. PGP attributes of the co-aggregated bacterial inoculant were tested in tomato plants under water-stressed conditions. Results suggest that the biofilm formation efficiency of the CBMB20 and CBMB120 strains increased by 15 and 34%, respectively, when co-cultivated with CW903. Co-aggregation with CW903 enhanced the survivability of CBMB20 strain in alginate beads. Water stress index score showed least stress index in plants inoculated with CW903 and CBMB20 strains maintained as a co-aggregated inoculant. This study reports the development of co-aggregated cell inoculants containing M. oryzae CBMB20 and A. brasilense CW903 strains conferred better shelf life and stress abatement in inoculated tomato plants. These findings could be extended to other PGP bacterial species to develop multigeneric bioinoculants with multiple benefits for various crops. © 2013 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

Detection of arousals in Parkinson's disease patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Gertrud Laura; Kempfner, Jacob; Jennum, Poul

2011-01-01

sleepiness. Manual scoring of arousals is time-consuming and the inter-score agreement is highly varying especially for patients with sleep related disorders. The aim of this study was to design an arousal detection algorithm capable of detecting arousals from sleep, in both non-REM and REM sleep in patients......Arousal from sleep are short awakenings, which can be identified in the EEG as an abrupt change in frequency. Arousals can occur in all sleep stages and the number and frequency increase with age. Frequent arousals during sleep results in sleep fragmentation and is associated with daytime...... suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD). The proposed algorithm uses features from EEG, EMG and the manual sleep stage scoring as input to a feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN). The performance of the algorithm has been assessed using polysomnographic (PSG) recordings from a total of 8 patients...

Variability in emotional/behavioral problems in boys with oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder: the role of arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoorl, Jantiene; Van Rijn, Sophie; De Wied, Minet; Van Goozen, Stephanie H M; Swaab, Hanna

2016-08-01

It is often reported that children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD) are under-aroused. However, the evidence is mixed, with some children with ODD/CD displaying high arousal. This has led to the hypothesis that different profiles of arousal dysfunction may exist within children with ODD/CD. This knowledge could explain variability within children with ODD/CD, both in terms of specific types of aggression as well as comorbid symptoms (e.g., other emotional/behavioral problems). We measured heart rate variability (HRV), heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL) during rest and stress, and obtained parent and teacher reports of aggression, anxiety, attention problems and autism traits in a sample of 66 ODD/CD and 36 non-clinical boys (aged 8-12 years). The ODD/CD group scored significantly higher on aggression, anxiety, attention problems and autism traits than the controls; boys with ODD/CD also had higher resting HRs than controls, but HR stress, HRV and SCL did not differ. Hierarchical regressions showed different physiological profiles in subgroups of boys with ODD/CD based on their type of aggression; a pattern of high baseline HR and SCL, but low stress HRV was related to reactive aggression, whereas the opposite physiological pattern (low HR, low stress SCL, high stress HRV) was related to proactive aggression. Furthermore, high stress SCL was related to anxiety symptoms, whereas low stress SCL was related to attention problems. These findings are important because they indicate heterogeneity within boys with ODD/CD and highlight the importance of using physiology to differentiate boys with different ODD/CD subtypes.

Congruent bodily arousal promotes the constructive recognition of emotional words.

Science.gov (United States)

Kever, Anne; Grynberg, Delphine; Vermeulen, Nicolas

2017-08-01

Considerable research has shown that bodily states shape affect and cognition. Here, we examined whether transient states of bodily arousal influence the categorization speed of high arousal, low arousal, and neutral words. Participants realized two blocks of a constructive recognition task, once after a cycling session (increased arousal), and once after a relaxation session (reduced arousal). Results revealed overall faster response times for high arousal compared to low arousal words, and for positive compared to negative words. Importantly, low arousal words were categorized significantly faster after the relaxation than after the cycling, suggesting that a decrease in bodily arousal promotes the recognition of stimuli matching one's current arousal state. These findings highlight the importance of the arousal dimension in emotional processing, and suggest the presence of arousal-congruency effects. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sexual arousal, is it for mammals only?

OpenAIRE

Ball, Gregory F.; Balthazart, Jacques

2010-01-01

Sexual arousal has many dimensions and has consequently been defined in various ways. In humans sexual arousal can be assessed based in part on verbal communication. In male non-human mammalian species it has been argued that arousal can only be definitively inferred if the subject exhibits a penile erection in a sexual context. In non-mammalian species that lack an intromittent organ, as is the case for most avian species, the question of how to assess sexual arousal has not been thoroughly ...

Inoculation effects on root-colonizing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities spread beyond directly inoculated plants

Science.gov (United States)

Krak, Karol; Vosátka, Miroslav; Püschel, David; Štorchová, Helena

2017-01-01

Inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may improve plant performance at disturbed sites, but inoculation may also suppress root colonization by native AMF and decrease the diversity of the root-colonizing AMF community. This has been shown for the roots of directly inoculated plants, but little is known about the stability of inoculation effects, and to which degree the inoculant and the inoculation-induced changes in AMF community composition spread into newly emerging seedlings that were not in direct contact with the introduced propagules. We addressed this topic in a greenhouse experiment based on the soil and native AMF community of a post-mining site. Plants were cultivated in compartmented pots with substrate containing the native AMF community, where AMF extraradical mycelium radiating from directly inoculated plants was allowed to inoculate neighboring plants. The abundances of the inoculated isolate and of native AMF taxa were monitored in the roots of the directly inoculated plants and the neighboring plants by quantitative real-time PCR. As expected, inoculation suppressed root colonization of the directly inoculated plants by other AMF taxa of the native AMF community and also by native genotypes of the same species as used for inoculation. In the neighboring plants, high abundance of the inoculant and the suppression of native AMF were maintained. Thus, we demonstrate that inoculation effects on native AMF propagate into plants that were not in direct contact with the introduced inoculum, and are therefore likely to persist at the site of inoculation. PMID:28738069

Inoculation effects on root-colonizing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities spread beyond directly inoculated plants.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martina Janoušková

Full Text Available Inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF may improve plant performance at disturbed sites, but inoculation may also suppress root colonization by native AMF and decrease the diversity of the root-colonizing AMF community. This has been shown for the roots of directly inoculated plants, but little is known about the stability of inoculation effects, and to which degree the inoculant and the inoculation-induced changes in AMF community composition spread into newly emerging seedlings that were not in direct contact with the introduced propagules. We addressed this topic in a greenhouse experiment based on the soil and native AMF community of a post-mining site. Plants were cultivated in compartmented pots with substrate containing the native AMF community, where AMF extraradical mycelium radiating from directly inoculated plants was allowed to inoculate neighboring plants. The abundances of the inoculated isolate and of native AMF taxa were monitored in the roots of the directly inoculated plants and the neighboring plants by quantitative real-time PCR. As expected, inoculation suppressed root colonization of the directly inoculated plants by other AMF taxa of the native AMF community and also by native genotypes of the same species as used for inoculation. In the neighboring plants, high abundance of the inoculant and the suppression of native AMF were maintained. Thus, we demonstrate that inoculation effects on native AMF propagate into plants that were not in direct contact with the introduced inoculum, and are therefore likely to persist at the site of inoculation.

Subjective Sexual Arousal to Films of Masturbation

Science.gov (United States)

Mosher, Donald L.; Abramson, Paul R.

1977-01-01

A film of a male or female masturbating was viewed by 96 males and 102 females. Males reported the highest level of sexual arousal to the female film and the lowest level of arousal to the male film. Females were sexually aroused by both films. (Author)

Male bisexual arousal: a matter of curiosity?

Science.gov (United States)

Rieger, Gerulf; Rosenthal, Allen M; Cash, Brian M; Linsenmeier, Joan A W; Bailey, J Michael; Savin-Williams, Ritch C

2013-12-01

Conflicting evidence exists regarding whether bisexual-identified men are sexually aroused to both men and women. We hypothesized that a distinct characteristic, level of curiosity about sexually diverse acts, distinguishes bisexual-identified men with and without bisexual arousal. Study 1 assessed men's (n=277) sexual arousal via pupil dilation to male and female sexual stimuli. Bisexual men were, on average, higher in their sexual curiosity than other men. Despite this general difference, only bisexual-identified men with elevated sexual curiosity showed bisexual arousal. Those lower in curiosity had responses resembling those of homosexual men. Study 2 assessed men's (n=72) sexual arousal via genital responses and replicated findings of Study 1. Study 3 provided information on the validity on our measure of sexual curiosity by relating it to general curiosity and sexual sensation seeking (n=83). Based on their sexual arousal and personality, at least two groups of men identify as bisexual. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sexual Arousal Patterns of Autogynephilic Male Cross-Dressers.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Kevin J; Rosenthal, A M; Miller, David I; Bailey, J Michael

2017-01-01

Men's sexual arousal patterns have been an important window into the nature of their erotic interests. Autogynephilia is a natal male's paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of being a woman. Autogynephilic arousal per se is difficult to assess objectively, because it is inwardly focused. However, assessing sexual arousal patterns of autogynephilic males in response to external stimuli is also potentially useful. For example, there is substantial association between autogynephilia and gynandromorphophilia (GAMP), or sexual attraction to gynandromorphs (GAMs), colloquially "she-males." GAMP men's sexual arousal patterns in response to GAM, female, and male stimuli have recently been characterized. In the present study, we extended this understanding by comparing the sexual arousal patterns of autogynephilic male cross-dressers, GAMP men, heterosexual men, and homosexual men. Erotic stimuli included sexually explicit videos of men, women, and GAMs. Autogynephilic men were much more similar in their arousal patterns to heterosexual and GAMP men than to homosexual men. However, similar to GAMP men, autogynephilic men showed increased arousal by GAM stimuli relative to female stimuli compared with heterosexual men.

Plant water stress effects on stylet probing behaviors of Homalodisca vitripennis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) associated with acquisition and inoculation of the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa.

Science.gov (United States)

Krugner, Rodrigo; Backus, Elaine A

2014-02-01

ABSTRACT The glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis (Germar) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), is a xylem fluid-ingesting leafhopper that transmits Xylella fastidiosa Wells et al., a plant-infecting bacterium that causes several plant diseases in the Americas. Although the role of plant water stress on the population density and dispersal ofH. vitripennis has been studied, nothing is known about the effects of plant water stress on the transmission of X. fastidiosa by H. vitripennis. A laboratory study was conducted to determine the influence of plant water stress on the sharpshooter stylet probing behaviors associated with the acquisition and inoculation of X. fastidiosa. Electrical penetration graph was used to monitor H. vitripennis feeding behaviors for 20-h periods on citrus [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck] and almond [Prunus dulcis (Miller) D.A. Webb] plants subjected to levels of water stress. Adult H. vitripennis successfully located xylem vessels, then performed behaviors related to the evaluation of the xylem cell and fluid, and finally ingested xylem fluid from citrus and almond plants under the tested fluid tensions ranging from -5.5 to -33.0 bars and -6.0 to -24.5 bars, respectively. In general, long and frequent feeding events associated with the acquisition and inoculation of X. fastidiosa were observed only in fully irrigated plants (i.e., >-10 bars), which suggests that even low levels of plant water stress may reduce the spread of X. fastidiosa. Results provided insights to disease epidemiology and support the hypothesis that application of regulated deficit irrigation has the potential to reduce the incidence of diseases caused by X.fastidiosa by reducing the number of vectors and by decreasing pathogen transmission efficiency.

Automatic, ECG-based detection of autonomic arousals and their association with cortical arousals, leg movements, and respiratory events in sleep

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Mads; Schneider, Logan Douglas; Cheung, Joseph

2018-01-01

The current definition of sleep arousals neglects to address the diversity of arousals and their systemic cohesion. Autonomic arousals (AA) are autonomic activations often associated with cortical arousals (CA), but they may also occur in isolation in relation to a respiratory event, a leg movement...... event or spontaneously, without any other physiological associations. AA should be acknowledged as essential events to understand and explore the systemic implications of arousals. We developed an automatic AA detection algorithm based on intelligent feature selection and advanced machine learning using...... or respiratory events. This indicates that most FP constitute autonomic activations that are indistinguishable from those with cortical cohesion. The proposed algorithm provides an automatic system trained in a clinical environment, which can be utilized to analyse the systemic and clinical impacts of arousals....

Assessing a five factor model of PTSD: is dysphoric arousal a unique PTSD construct showing differential relationships with anxiety and depression?

Science.gov (United States)

Armour, Cherie; Elhai, Jon D; Richardson, Don; Ractliffe, Kendra; Wang, Li; Elklit, Ask

2012-03-01

Posttraumatic stress disorder's (PTSD) latent structure has been widely debated. To date, two four-factor models (Numbing and Dysphoria) have received the majority of factor analytic support. Recently, Elhai et al. (2011) proposed and supported a revised (five-factor) Dysphoric Arousal model. Data were gathered from two separate samples; War veterans and Primary Care medical patients. The three models were compared and the resultant factors of the Dysphoric Arousal model were validated against external constructs of depression and anxiety. The Dysphoric Arousal model provided significantly better fit than the Numbing and Dysphoria models across both samples. When differentiating between factors, the current results support the idea that Dysphoric Arousal can be differentiated from Anxious Arousal but not from Emotional Numbing when correlated with depression. In conclusion, the Dysphoria model may be a more parsimonious representation of PTSD's latent structure in these trauma populations despite superior fit of the Dysphoric Arousal model. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PTSD's latent structure in Malaysian tsunami victims: assessing the newly proposed Dysphoric Arousal model.

Science.gov (United States)

Armour, Cherie; Raudzah Ghazali, Siti; Elklit, Ask

2013-03-30

The underlying latent structure of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is widely researched. However, despite a plethora of factor analytic studies, no single model has consistently been shown as superior to alternative models. The two most often supported models are the Emotional Numbing and the Dysphoria models. However, a recently proposed five-factor Dysphoric Arousal model has been gathering support over and above existing models. Data for the current study were gathered from Malaysian Tsunami survivors (N=250). Three competing models (Emotional Numbing/Dysphoria/Dysphoric Arousal) were specified and estimated using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The Dysphoria model provided superior fit to the data compared to the Emotional Numbing model. However, using chi-square difference tests, the Dysphoric Arousal model showed a superior fit compared to both the Emotional Numbing and Dysphoria models. In conclusion, the current results suggest that the Dysphoric Arousal model better represents PTSD's latent structure and that items measuring sleeping difficulties, irritability/anger and concentration difficulties form a separate, unique PTSD factor. These results are discussed in relation to the role of Hyperarousal in PTSD's on-going symptom maintenance and in relation to the DSM-5. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Addiction and arousal: the hypocretin connection

Science.gov (United States)

Boutrel, Benjamin; de Lecea, Luis

2015-01-01

The hypocretins, also known as orexins, are two neuropeptides now commonly described as critical components to maintain and regulate the stability of arousal. Several lines of evidence have raised the hypothesis that hypocretin-producing neurons are part of the circuitries that mediate the hypothalamic response to acute stress. Intracerebral administration of hypocretin leads to a dose related reinstatement of drug and food seeking behaviors. Furthermore, stress-induced reinstatement can be blocked with hypocretin receptor 1 antagonism. These results, together with recent data showing that hypocretin is critically involved in cocaine sensitization through the recruitment of NMDA receptors in the ventral tegmental area, strongly suggest that activation of hypocretin neurons play a critical role in the development of the addiction process. The activity of hypocretin neurons may affect addictive behavior by contributing to brain sensitization or by modulating the brain reward system. Hypocretinergic cells, in coordination with brain stress systems may lead to a vulnerable state that facilitates the resumption of drug seeking behavior. Hence, the hypocretinergic system is a new drug target that may be used to prevent relapse of drug seeking. PMID:18262574

Emotions and false memories: valence or arousal?

Science.gov (United States)

Corson, Yves; Verrier, Nadège

2007-03-01

The effects of mood on false memories have not been studied systematically until recently. Some results seem to indicate that negative mood may reduce false recall and thus suggest an influence of emotional valence on false memory. The present research tested the effects of both valence and arousal on recall and recognition and indicates that the effect is actually due to arousal. In fact, whether participants' mood is positive, negative, or neutral, false memories are significantly more frequent under conditions of high arousal than under conditions of low arousal.

No arousal-biased competition in focused visuospatial attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Ásgeirsson, Árni Gunnar; Nieuwenhuis, Sander

2017-11-01

Arousal sometimes enhances and sometimes impairs perception and memory. A recent theory attempts to reconcile these findings by proposing that arousal amplifies the competition between stimulus representations, strengthening already strong representations and weakening already weak representations. Here, we report a stringent test of this arousal-biased competition theory in the context of focused visuospatial attention. Participants were required to identify a briefly presented target in the context of multiple distractors, which varied in the degree to which they competed for representation with the target, as revealed by psychophysics. We manipulated arousal using emotionally arousing pictures (Experiment 1), alerting tones (Experiment 2) and white-noise stimulation (Experiment 3), and validated these manipulations with electroencephalography and pupillometry. In none of the experiments did we find evidence that arousal modulated the effect of distractor competition on the accuracy of target identification. Bayesian statistics revealed moderate to strong evidence against arousal-biased competition. Modeling of the psychophysical data based on Bundesen's (1990) theory of visual attention corroborated the conclusion that arousal does not bias competition in focused visuospatial attention. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Inoculation of bats with European Geomyces destructans supports the novel pathogen hypothesis for the origin of white-nose syndrome

Science.gov (United States)

Warnecke, Lisa; Turner, James M.; Bollinger, Trent K.; Lorch, Jeffrey M.; Misra, Vikram; Cryan, Paul M.; Wibbelt, Gudrun; Blehert, David S.; Willis, Craig K.R.

2012-01-01

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging disease of hibernating bats associated with cutaneous infection by the fungus Geomyces destructans (Gd), and responsible for devastating declines of bat populations in eastern North America. Affected bats appear emaciated and one hypothesis is that they spend too much time out of torpor during hibernation, depleting vital fat reserves required to survive the winter. The fungus has also been found at low levels on bats throughout Europe but without mass mortality. This finding suggests that Gd is either native to both continents but has been rendered more pathogenic in North America by mutation or environmental change, or that it recently arrived in North America as an invader from Europe. Thus, a causal link between Gd and mortality has not been established and the reason for its high pathogenicity in North America is unknown. Here we show that experimental inoculation with either North American or European isolates of Gd causes WNS and mortality in the North American bat, Myotis lucifugus. In contrast to control bats, individuals inoculated with either isolate of Gd developed cutaneous infections diagnostic of WNS, exhibited a progressive increase in the frequency of arousals from torpor during hibernation, and were emaciated after 3–4 mo. Our results demonstrate that altered torpor-arousal cycles underlie mortality from WNS and provide direct evidence that Gd is a novel pathogen to North America from Europe.

The effects of acute stress on performance: implications for health professions education.

Science.gov (United States)

LeBlanc, Vicki R

2009-10-01

This paper is a review of representative research on the impact of acute stressors on the clinical performance of individuals and teams. The Sciences Citation Index, Medline, and Psychinfo were used to search for articles up to and including 2008. The search terms were stress/tension/arousal/anxiety/cortisol/threat, cognition/skills/memory/attention/problem solving/decision making/performance, stress reduction/stress exposure/stress management/stress inoculation, and health professionals/medicine/medical students/residents/physicians/teams. The search was limited to papers in English from all developed countries. Secondary references were selected from primary papers. Elevated stress levels can impede performance on tasks that require divided attention, working memory, retrieval of information from memory, and decision making. These effects appear to be determined by the individual's appraisal of the demands and resources of a situation, the relationship between the stressor and the task, and factors such as coping styles, locus of control, and social supports. Given the potential negative impact of stress on performance, and the individualistic way in which people respond, medical educators might want to consider avenues for training learners in stress management. More research is needed to fully understand the contributions of personal factors such as coping style and locus of control, as well as the relationship of perceptions of stress to issues such as fatigue.

The effect of mild acute stress during memory consolidation on emotional recognition memory

Science.gov (United States)

Corbett, Brittany; Weinberg, Lisa; Duarte, Audrey

2018-01-01

Stress during consolidation improves recognition memory performance. Generally, this memory benefit is greater for emotionally arousing stimuli than neutral stimuli. The strength of the stressor also plays a role in memory performance, with memory performance improving up to a moderate level of stress and thereafter worsening. As our daily stressors are generally minimal in strength, we chose to induce mild acute stress to determine its effect on memory performance. In the current study, we investigated if mild acute stress during consolidation improves memory performance for emotionally arousing images. To investigate this, we had participants encode highly arousing negative, minimally arousing negative, and neutral images. We induced stress using the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST) in half of the participants and a control task to the other half of the participants directly after encoding (i.e. during consolidation) and tested recognition 48 h later. We found no difference in memory performance between the stress and control group. We found a graded pattern among confidence, with responders in the stress group having the least amount of confidence in their hits and controls having the most. Across groups, we found highly arousing negative images were better remembered than minimally arousing negative or neutral images. Although stress did not affect memory accuracy, responders, as defined by cortisol reactivity, were less confident in their decisions. Our results suggest that the daily stressors humans experience, regardless of their emotional affect, do not have adverse effects on memory. PMID:28838881

Can Arousal Modulate Response Inhibition?

Science.gov (United States)

Weinbach, Noam; Kalanthroff, Eyal; Avnit, Amir; Henik, Avishai

2015-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine if and how arousal can modulate response inhibition. Two competing hypotheses can be drawn from previous literature. One holds that alerting cues that elevate arousal should result in an impulsive response and therefore impair response inhibition. The other suggests that alerting enhances processing of…

Caffeine effects on resting-state arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Barry, Robert J; Rushby, Jacqueline A; Wallace, Mark J; Clarke, Adam R; Johnstone, Stuart J; Zlojutro, Ilinka

2005-11-01

This study examined the use of caffeine to manipulate arousal level without the confounds associated with task-related activation. From previous work in our laboratory, an increase in skin conductance level (SCL) and EEG alpha frequency, together with a global decrease in alpha power, were used as markers of arousal increase, and we sought to identify these effects with caffeine ingestion. We examined the effect of a single oral dose of caffeine (250 mg) in a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled repeated-measures cross-over study. Eighteen healthy university students (mean age 21 years; 13/18 females) participated in two sessions 1 week apart. EEG and autonomic data (SCL, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and respiration rate) from a 2 min eyes-closed epoch, commencing approximately 30 min after ingestion of caffeine or placebo, were examined. Caffeine was associated with increased SCL, a global reduction in EEG power in the alpha band, and a global increase in alpha frequency. There were no cardiovascular effects. The positive results are consistent with recent electrodermal and EEG studies of arousal and suggest that caffeine may be utilised as a task-free means of manipulating arousal in future investigations. Further work is necessary to clarify the absence of cardiovascular effects, and to integrate those data with emerging conceptualisations of arousal and activation. The present data support the use of caffeine as a simple tool to explore the role of arousal in both normal and atypical functioning, and this may be useful in determining the validity and importance of supposed hyper- or hypo-arousal in such syndromes as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).

Sexual arousal, is it for mammals only?

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, Gregory F.; Balthazart, Jacques

2012-01-01

Sexual arousal has many dimensions and has consequently been defined in various ways. In humans sexual arousal can be assessed based in part on verbal communication. In male non-human mammalian species it has been argued that arousal can only be definitively inferred if the subject exhibits a penile erection in a sexual context. In non-mammalian species that lack an intromittent organ, as is the case for most avian species, the question of how to assess sexual arousal has not been thoroughly addressed. Based on studies performed in male Japanese quail, we argue that several behavioral or physiological characteristics provide suitable measures of sexual arousal in birds and probably also in other tetrapods. These indices include the performance of appetitive sexual behavior in anticipation of copulation (although anticipation and arousal are not the synonyms), the activation of specific brain areas as identified by the detection of the expression of immediate early genes (fos, egr-1) or by 2-deoxygucose quantitative autoradiography, and above all the release of dopamine in the medial preoptic areas as measured by in vivo dialysis. Based on these criteria, it is possible to assess in birds sexual arousal in its broadest sense but meeting the more restrictive definition of arousal proposed for mammals (erection in an explicit sexual context) is and will probably remain impossible in birds until refinement of in vivo imaging techniques such fMRI allow us to match in different species, with and without an intromittent organ, the brain areas that are activated in the presence of specific stimuli. PMID:21073874

Sunflower growth according to seed inoculation with endophytic bacteria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juliana Fernandes dos Santos

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The sunflower crop has a great importance worldwide, due to the oil of excellent quality extracted from its seeds and in natura grains that are consumed in various ways. However, drought is one of the main environmental factors that limit its yield. An experiment was carried out under controlled greenhouse conditions, in a completely randomized experimental design, in order to determine the effect of endophytic bacteria inoculation (Bacillus sp. and Enterobacter cloacae on the growth and contents of nutrients and organic solutes, in sunflower leaves and roots under water deficit. Plant height, stem diameter, fresh and dry biomass of shoot and roots, as well as contents of N, P, K, soluble carbohydrates, free proline, free amino acids and soluble proteins, were determined at 35 days after the plant emergence. The water deficit reduced plant growth regardless inoculation. However, under optimum conditions of soil moisture, the combination of both endophytic bacteria increased the sunflower growth. The water deficit also increased the N and K contents in leaves, as well as the organic solutes content in shoots, especially in inoculated plants. These results suggest that the inoculation of endophytic bacteria may increase the capacity of drought stressed plants to perform the osmotic adjustment through a higher accumulation of organic solutes, when compared to plants not inoculated.

Re-Thinking Anxiety: Using Inoculation Messages to Reduce and Reinterpret Public Speaking Fears.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Ben; Compton, Josh; Thornton, Ashleigh L; Dimmock, James A

2017-01-01

Inoculation theory offers a framework for protecting individuals against challenges to an existing attitude, belief, or state. Despite the prevalence and damaging effects of public speaking anxiety, inoculation strategies have yet to be used to help individuals remain calm before and during public speaking. We aimed to test the effectiveness of an inoculation message for reducing the onset of public speaking anxiety, and helping presenters interpret their speech-related anxiety more positively. Participants (Mage = 20.14, SD = 2.72) received either an inoculation (n = 102) or control (n = 128) message prior to engaging a public speaking task and reported a range of anxiety-related perceptions. Accounting for personality characteristics and perceptions of task importance, and relative to control participants, those who received the inoculation message reported significantly lower pre-task anxiety, and following the task, reported that they had experienced lower somatic anxiety, and that the inoculation message had caused them to view their nerves in a less debilitating light. Inoculation messages may be an effective strategy for helping participants reframe and reduce their apprehension about public speaking, and investigating their efficacy in other stress-inducing contexts may be worthwhile.

Sexual arousal, is it for mammals only?

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, Gregory F; Balthazart, Jacques

2011-05-01

Sexual arousal has many dimensions and has consequently been defined in various ways. In humans, sexual arousal can be assessed based in part on verbal communication. In male non-human mammalian species, it has been argued that arousal can only be definitively inferred if the subject exhibits a penile erection in a sexual context. In non-mammalian species that lack an intromittent organ, as is the case for most avian species, the question of how to assess sexual arousal has not been thoroughly addressed. Based on studies performed in male Japanese quail, we argue that several behavioral or physiological characteristics provide suitable measures of sexual arousal in birds and probably also in other tetrapods. These indices include, the performance of appetitive sexual behavior in anticipation of copulation (although anticipation and arousal are not synonymous), the activation of specific brain area as identified by the detection of the expression of immediate early genes (fos, egr-1) or by 2-deoxyglucose quantitative autoradiography, and above all, by the release of dopamine in the medial preoptic area as measured by in vivo dialysis. Based on these criteria, it is possible to assess in birds sexual arousal in its broadest sense but meeting the more restrictive definition of arousal proposed for male mammals (erection in an explicit sexual context) is and will probably remain impossible in birds until refinement of in vivo imaging techniques such fMRI allow us to match in different species, with and without an intromittent organ, the brain areas that are activated in the presence of specific stimuli. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Ventilatory response to induced auditory arousals during NREM sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Badr, M S; Morgan, B J; Finn, L; Toiber, F S; Crabtree, D C; Puleo, D S; Skatrud, J B

1997-09-01

Sleep state instability is a potential mechanism of central apnea/hypopnea during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. To investigate this postulate, we induced brief arousals by delivering transient (0.5 second) auditory stimuli during stable NREM sleep in eight normal subjects. Arousal was determined according to American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) criteria. A total of 96 trials were conducted; 59 resulted in cortical arousal and 37 did not result in arousal. In trials associated with arousal, minute ventilation (VE) increased from 5.1 +/- 1.24 minutes to 7.5 +/- 2.24 minutes on the first posttone breath (p = 0.001). However, no subsequent hypopnea or apnea occurred as VE decreased gradually to 4.8 +/- 1.5 l/minute (p > 0.05) on the fifth posttone breath. Trials without arousal did not result in hyperpnea on the first breath nor subsequent hypopnea. We conclude that 1) auditory stimulation resulted in transient hyperpnea only if associated with cortical arousal; 2) hypopnea or apnea did not occur following arousal-induced hyperpnea in normal subjects; 3) interaction with fluctuating chemical stimuli or upper airway resistance may be required for arousals to cause sleep-disordered breathing.

How Arousal Affects Younger and Older Adults' Memory Binding

Science.gov (United States)

Nashiro, Kaoru; Mather, Mara

2009-01-01

A number of recent studies have shown that associative memory for within-item features is enhanced for emotionally arousing items, whereas arousal-enhanced binding is not seen for associations between distinct items (for a review see Mather, 2007). The costs and benefits of arousal in memory binding have been examined for younger adults but not for older adults. The present experiment examined whether arousal would enhance younger and older adults' within-item and between-item memory binding. The results revealed that arousal improved younger adults' within-item memory binding but not that of older adults. Arousal worsened both groups' between-item memory binding. PMID:21240821

The Carotid Body and Arousal in the Fetus and Neonate

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Arousal from sleep is a major defense mechanism in infants against hypoxia and/or hypercapnia. Arousal failure may be an important contributor to SIDS. Areas of the brainstem that have been found to be abnormal in a majority of SIDS infants are involved in the arousal process. Arousal is sleep state dependent, being depressed during AS in most mammals, but depressed during QS in human infants. Repeated exposure to hypoxia causes a progressive blunting of arousal that may involve medullary raphe GABAergic mechanisms. Whereas CB chemoreceptors contribute heavily to arousal in response to hypoxia, serotonergic central chemoreceptors have been implicated in the arousal response to CO2. Pulmonary or chest wall mechanoreceptors also contribute to arousal in proportion to the ventilatory response and decreases in their input may contribute to depressed arousal during AS. Little is known about specific arousal pathways beyond the NTS. Whether CB chemoreceptor stimulation directly stimulates arousal centers or whether this is done indirectly through respiratory networks remains unknown. This review will focus on arousal in response to hypoxia and CO2 in the fetus and newborn and will outline what we know (and don’t know) about the involvement of the carotid body in this process. PMID:22684039

Detection of arousals in Parkinson’s disease patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Gertrud Laura; Kempfner, Jacob; Jennum, Poul

2011-01-01

sleepiness. Manual scoring of arousals is time-consuming and the inter-score agreement is highly varying especially for patients with sleep related disorders. The aim of this study was to design an arousal detection algorithm capable of detecting arousals from sleep, in both non-REM and REM sleep in patients......Arousal from sleep are short awakenings, which can be identified in the EEG as an abrupt change in frequency. Arousals can occur in all sleep stages and the number and frequency increase with age. Frequent arousals during sleep results in sleep fragmentation and is associated with daytime...... suffering from Parkinson’s disease (PD). The proposed algorithm uses features from EEG, EMG and the manual sleep stage scoring as input to a feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN). The performance of the algorithm has been assessed using polysomnographic (PSG) recordings from a total of 8 patients...

The effect of mild acute stress during memory consolidation on emotional recognition memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Corbett, Brittany; Weinberg, Lisa; Duarte, Audrey

2017-11-01

Stress during consolidation improves recognition memory performance. Generally, this memory benefit is greater for emotionally arousing stimuli than neutral stimuli. The strength of the stressor also plays a role in memory performance, with memory performance improving up to a moderate level of stress and thereafter worsening. As our daily stressors are generally minimal in strength, we chose to induce mild acute stress to determine its effect on memory performance. In the current study, we investigated if mild acute stress during consolidation improves memory performance for emotionally arousing images. To investigate this, we had participants encode highly arousing negative, minimally arousing negative, and neutral images. We induced stress using the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST) in half of the participants and a control task to the other half of the participants directly after encoding (i.e. during consolidation) and tested recognition 48h later. We found no difference in memory performance between the stress and control group. We found a graded pattern among confidence, with responders in the stress group having the least amount of confidence in their hits and controls having the most. Across groups, we found highly arousing negative images were better remembered than minimally arousing negative or neutral images. Although stress did not affect memory accuracy, responders, as defined by cortisol reactivity, were less confident in their decisions. Our results suggest that the daily stressors humans experience, regardless of their emotional affect, do not have adverse effects on memory. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology

Science.gov (United States)

Soffer-Dudek, Nirit

2017-01-01

The term “sleep experiences,” coined by Watson (2001), denotes an array of unusual nocturnal consciousness phenomena; for example, nightmares, vivid or recurrent dreams, hypnagogic hallucinations, dreams of falling or flying, confusional arousals, and lucid dreams. Excluding the latter, these experiences reflect a single factor of atypical oneiric cognitions (“general sleep experiences”). The current study is an opinionated mini-review on the associations of this factor—measured with the Iowa sleep experiences survey (ISES, Watson, 2001)—with psychopathological symptoms and stress. Findings support a strong relation between psychological distress and general sleep experiences. It is suggested that that they should be viewed as a sleep disturbance; they seem to represent involuntary intrusions of wakefulness into sleep, resulting in aroused sleep. These intrusions may stem from excessively thin boundaries between consciousness states (e.g., “transliminality”), or, conversely, they may follow an attempt at disconnecting mental elements (e.g., dissociation), which paradoxically results in a “rebound effect.” The extent to which unusual dreaming is experienced as intrusive, rather than controlled, may explain why general sleep experiences are related to psychopathology, whereas lucid dreams are related to psychological resilience. In conclusion, the exploration of the interplay between psychopathology and sleep should be expanded from focusing almost exclusively on quantitative aspects (e.g., sleep efficiency, latency) to including qualitative conscious experiences which may reflect poor sleep quality. Taking into account nocturnal consciousness—including unusual dreaming and permeable sleep-wake boundaries—may unveil rich information on night-time emotional states and broaden our definition of poor sleep quality. PMID:28539902

Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nirit Soffer-Dudek

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The term “sleep experiences,” coined by Watson (2001, denotes an array of unusual nocturnal consciousness phenomena; for example, nightmares, vivid or recurrent dreams, hypnagogic hallucinations, dreams of falling or flying, confusional arousals, and lucid dreams. Excluding the latter, these experiences reflect a single factor of atypical oneiric cognitions (“general sleep experiences”. The current study is an opinionated mini-review on the associations of this factor—measured with the Iowa sleep experiences survey (ISES, Watson, 2001—with psychopathological symptoms and stress. Findings support a strong relation between psychological distress and general sleep experiences. It is suggested that that they should be viewed as a sleep disturbance; they seem to represent involuntary intrusions of wakefulness into sleep, resulting in aroused sleep. These intrusions may stem from excessively thin boundaries between consciousness states (e.g., “transliminality”, or, conversely, they may follow an attempt at disconnecting mental elements (e.g., dissociation, which paradoxically results in a “rebound effect.” The extent to which unusual dreaming is experienced as intrusive, rather than controlled, may explain why general sleep experiences are related to psychopathology, whereas lucid dreams are related to psychological resilience. In conclusion, the exploration of the interplay between psychopathology and sleep should be expanded from focusing almost exclusively on quantitative aspects (e.g., sleep efficiency, latency to including qualitative conscious experiences which may reflect poor sleep quality. Taking into account nocturnal consciousness—including unusual dreaming and permeable sleep-wake boundaries—may unveil rich information on night-time emotional states and broaden our definition of poor sleep quality.

Arousal in Nocturnal Consciousness: How Dream- and Sleep-Experiences May Inform Us of Poor Sleep Quality, Stress, and Psychopathology.

Science.gov (United States)

Soffer-Dudek, Nirit

2017-01-01

The term "sleep experiences," coined by Watson (2001), denotes an array of unusual nocturnal consciousness phenomena; for example, nightmares, vivid or recurrent dreams, hypnagogic hallucinations, dreams of falling or flying, confusional arousals, and lucid dreams. Excluding the latter, these experiences reflect a single factor of atypical oneiric cognitions ("general sleep experiences"). The current study is an opinionated mini-review on the associations of this factor-measured with the Iowa sleep experiences survey (ISES, Watson, 2001)-with psychopathological symptoms and stress. Findings support a strong relation between psychological distress and general sleep experiences. It is suggested that that they should be viewed as a sleep disturbance; they seem to represent involuntary intrusions of wakefulness into sleep, resulting in aroused sleep. These intrusions may stem from excessively thin boundaries between consciousness states (e.g., "transliminality"), or, conversely, they may follow an attempt at disconnecting mental elements (e.g., dissociation), which paradoxically results in a "rebound effect." The extent to which unusual dreaming is experienced as intrusive, rather than controlled, may explain why general sleep experiences are related to psychopathology, whereas lucid dreams are related to psychological resilience. In conclusion, the exploration of the interplay between psychopathology and sleep should be expanded from focusing almost exclusively on quantitative aspects (e.g., sleep efficiency, latency) to including qualitative conscious experiences which may reflect poor sleep quality. Taking into account nocturnal consciousness-including unusual dreaming and permeable sleep-wake boundaries-may unveil rich information on night-time emotional states and broaden our definition of poor sleep quality.

Personality change at the intersection of autonomic arousal and stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Daniel; Eisenberg, Nancy; Valiente, Carlos

2007-06-01

We hypothesized that personality change in children can be predicted by the interaction of family risk with susceptibility to autonomic arousal and that children characterized by both high-risk families and highly reactive autonomic nervous systems tend to show maladaptive change. This hypothesis was tested in a 6-year longitudinal study in which personality-type prototypicality, problem behavior, and negative emotional intensity were measured at 2-year intervals. The results indicated that children who both had exaggerated skin conductance responses (a measure of autonomic reactivity) and were living in families with multiple risk factors were most likely to develop an undercontrolled personality type and to exhibit increases in problem behavior and negative emotional intensity. The implications of the results for understanding personality change are discussed.

Arousal, mood, and the Mozart effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, W F; Schellenberg, E G; Husain, G

2001-05-01

The "Mozart effect" refers to claims that people perform better on tests of spatial abilities after listening to music composed by Mozart. We examined whether the Mozart effect is a consequence of between-condition differences in arousal and mood. Participants completed a test of spatial abilities after listening to music or sitting in silence. The music was a Mozart sonata (a pleasant and energetic piece) for some participants and an Albinoni adagio (a slow, sad piece) for others. We also measured enjoyment, arousal, and mood. Performance on tbe spatial task was better following the music than the silence condition but only for participants who heard Mozart. The two music selections also induced differential responding on the enjoyment, arousal and mood measures. Moreover, when such differences were held constant by statistical means, the Mozart effect disappeared. These findings provide compelling evidence that the Mozart effect is an artifact of arousal and mood.

Determinants of subjective experience of sexual arousal in women: feedback from genital arousal and erotic stimulus content

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laan, E.; Everaerd, W.; van der Velde, J.; Geer, J. H.

1995-01-01

Sixty-two women participated in a study designed to explore the association between genital and subjective sexual arousal. Four stimulus conditions were created, designed to evoke differential patterns of genital arousal over time. Subjects were instructed to report sensations in their genitalia

The scoring of arousal in sleep: reliability, validity, and alternatives.

Science.gov (United States)

Bonnet, Michael H; Doghramji, Karl; Roehrs, Timothy; Stepanski, Edward J; Sheldon, Stephen H; Walters, Arthur S; Wise, Merrill; Chesson, Andrew L

2007-03-15

The reliability and validity of EEG arousals and other types of arousal are reviewed. Brief arousals during sleep had been observed for many years, but the evolution of sleep medicine in the 1980s directed new attention to these events. Early studies at that time in animals and humans linked brief EEG arousals and associated fragmentation of sleep to daytime sleepiness and degraded performance. Increasing interest in scoring of EEG arousals led the ASDA to publish a scoring manual in 1992. The current review summarizes numerous studies that have examined scoring reliability for these EEG arousals. Validity of EEG arousals was explored by review of studies that empirically varied arousals and found deficits similar to those found after total sleep deprivation depending upon the rate and extent of sleep fragmentation. Additional data from patients with clinical sleep disorders prior to and after effective treatment has also shown a continuing relationship between reduction in pathology-related arousals and improved sleep and daytime function. Finally, many suggestions have been made to refine arousal scoring to include additional elements (e.g., CAP), change the time frame, or focus on other physiological responses such as heart rate or blood pressure changes. Evidence to support the reliability and validity of these measures is presented. It was concluded that the scoring of EEG arousals has added much to our understanding of the sleep process but that significant work on the neurophysiology of arousal needs to be done. Additional refinement of arousal scoring will provide improved insight into sleep pathology and recovery.

Effects of stress on memory in children and adolescents: testing causal connections.

Science.gov (United States)

Quas, Jodi A; Rush, Elizabeth B; Yim, Ilona S; Nikolayev, Mariya

2014-01-01

Although a sizeable body of research has examined children's memory for stressful prior experiences, relatively few studies have experimentally manipulated stress during a to-be-remembered event to draw causal inferences about the effects of stress, especially across wide age ranges. We exposed children and adolescents to a more or a less arousing version of the Trier Social Stress Test-Modified (TSST-M), a widely used laboratory stress task. Two weeks later, we tested their memory for what happened. Interviewers behaved in a supportive or non-supportive manner. In adolescents, those who completed the high-arousal TSST-M provided fewer correct responses to recognition questions and fewer incorrect responses to misleading questions for which any answer would have been incorrect, compared to those who completed the lower-arousal TSST-M. Thus, arousal seemed to have reduced the adolescents' willingness to answer questions rather than having influenced their memory per se. In children, across TSST-M conditions, greater physiological arousal during the TSST-M predicted enhanced recall. Finally, interviewer support reduced the amount of factual information provided in free recall but increased correct responses to misleading questions. Results highlight the complex ways in which event stress and interviewer demeanour shape recounting of prior experiences across development.

Effects of Voice on Emotional Arousal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Psyche eLoui

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Music is a powerful medium capable of eliciting a broad range of emotions. Although the relationship between language and music is well documented, relatively little is known about the effects of lyrics and the voice on the emotional processing of music and on listeners’ preferences. In the present study, we investigated the effects of vocals in music on participants’ perceived valence and arousal in songs. Participants (N = 50 made valence and arousal ratings for familiar songs that were presented with and without the voice. We observed robust effects of vocal content on perceived arousal. Furthermore, we found that the effect of the voice on enhancing arousal ratings is independent of familiarity of the song and differs across genders and age: females were more influenced by vocals than males; furthermore these gender effects were enhanced among older adults. Results highlight the effects of gender and aging in emotion perception and are discussed in terms of the social roles of music.

Arousal and exposure duration affect forward step initiation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniëlle eBouman

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Emotion influences parameters of goal-directed whole-body movements in several ways. For instance, previous research has shown that approaching (moving toward pleasant stimuli is easier compared to approaching unpleasant stimuli. However, some studies found that when emotional pictures are viewed for a longer time, approaching unpleasant stimuli may in fact be facilitated. The effect of viewing duration may modulate whole-body approach movement in previous research but this has not been investigated before. In the current study, participants initiated a step forward after viewing neutral, high-arousal pleasant and high-arousal unpleasant stimuli. The viewing duration of the stimuli was set to 7 different durations, varying from 100 to 4000ms. Valence and arousal scores were collected for all stimuli.The results indicate that both viewing duration and the arousal of the stimuli influence kinematic parameters in forward gait initiation. Specifically, longer viewing duration, compared to shorter viewing duration, (a diminished the step length and peak velocity in both neutral and emotional stimuli, (b increased reaction time in neutral stimuli and, (c decreased reaction time in pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. Strikingly, no differences were found between high-arousal pleasant and high-arousal unpleasant stimuli. In other words, the valence of the stimuli did not influence kinematic parameters of forward step initiation. In contrast, the arousal level (neutral: low; pleasant and unpleasant: high explained the variance found in the results. The kinematics of forward gait initiation seemed to be reflected in the subjective arousal scores, but not the valence scores. So it seems arousal affects forward gait initiation parameters more strongly than valence. In addition, longer viewing duration seemed to cause diminished alertness, affecting GI parameters. These results shed new light on the prevailing theoretical interpretations regarding approach

Interobserver variability in recognizing arousal in respiratory sleep disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Drinnan, M J; Murray, A; Griffiths, C J; Gibson, G J

1998-08-01

Daytime sleepiness is a common consequence of repeated arousal in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Arousal indices are sometimes used to make decisions on treatment, but there is no evidence that arousals are detected similarly even by experienced observers. Using the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) definition of arousal in terms of the accompanying electroencephalogram (EEG) changes, we have quantified interobserver agreement for arousal scoring and identified factors affecting it. Ten patients with suspected OSA were studied; three representative EEG events during each of light, slow-wave, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep were extracted from each record (90 events total) and evaluated by experts in 14 sleep laboratories. Observers differed (ANOVA, p ASDA definition of arousal is only moderately repeatable. Account should be taken of this variability when results from different centers are compared.

Personalized stress management : enabling stress monitoring with LifelogExplorer

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kocielnik, R.D.; Sidorova, N.

2015-01-01

Stress is one of the major triggers for many diseases. Improving stress balance is therefore an important prevention step. With advances in wearable sensors, it becomes possible to continuously monitor and analyse user’s behavior and arousal in an unobtrusive way. In this paper, we report on a case

Comparison of Inoculation with the InoqulA and WASP Automated Systems with Manual Inoculation

Science.gov (United States)

Croxatto, Antony; Dijkstra, Klaas; Prod'hom, Guy

2015-01-01

The quality of sample inoculation is critical for achieving an optimal yield of discrete colonies in both monomicrobial and polymicrobial samples to perform identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing. Consequently, we compared the performance between the InoqulA (BD Kiestra), the WASP (Copan), and manual inoculation methods. Defined mono- and polymicrobial samples of 4 bacterial species and cloudy urine specimens were inoculated on chromogenic agar by the InoqulA, the WASP, and manual methods. Images taken with ImagA (BD Kiestra) were analyzed with the VisionLab version 3.43 image analysis software to assess the quality of growth and to prevent subjective interpretation of the data. A 3- to 10-fold higher yield of discrete colonies was observed following automated inoculation with both the InoqulA and WASP systems than that with manual inoculation. The difference in performance between automated and manual inoculation was mainly observed at concentrations of >106 bacteria/ml. Inoculation with the InoqulA system allowed us to obtain significantly more discrete colonies than the WASP system at concentrations of >107 bacteria/ml. However, the level of difference observed was bacterial species dependent. Discrete colonies of bacteria present in 100- to 1,000-fold lower concentrations than the most concentrated populations in defined polymicrobial samples were not reproducibly recovered, even with the automated systems. The analysis of cloudy urine specimens showed that InoqulA inoculation provided a statistically significantly higher number of discrete colonies than that with WASP and manual inoculation. Consequently, the automated InoqulA inoculation greatly decreased the requirement for bacterial subculture and thus resulted in a significant reduction in the time to results, laboratory workload, and laboratory costs. PMID:25972424

Quantifying the Arousal Threshold Using Polysomnography in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Science.gov (United States)

Sands, Scott A; Terrill, Philip I; Edwards, Bradley A; Taranto Montemurro, Luigi; Azarbarzin, Ali; Marques, Melania; de Melo, Camila M; Loring, Stephen H; Butler, James P; White, David P; Wellman, Andrew

2018-01-01

Precision medicine for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) requires noninvasive estimates of each patient's pathophysiological "traits." Here, we provide the first automated technique to quantify the respiratory arousal threshold-defined as the level of ventilatory drive triggering arousal from sleep-using diagnostic polysomnographic signals in patients with OSA. Ventilatory drive preceding clinically scored arousals was estimated from polysomnographic studies by fitting a respiratory control model (Terrill et al.) to the pattern of ventilation during spontaneous respiratory events. Conceptually, the magnitude of the airflow signal immediately after arousal onset reveals information on the underlying ventilatory drive that triggered the arousal. Polysomnographic arousal threshold measures were compared with gold standard values taken from esophageal pressure and intraoesophageal diaphragm electromyography recorded simultaneously (N = 29). Comparisons were also made to arousal threshold measures using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) dial-downs (N = 28). The validity of using (linearized) nasal pressure rather than pneumotachograph ventilation was also assessed (N = 11). Polysomnographic arousal threshold values were correlated with those measured using esophageal pressure and diaphragm EMG (R = 0.79, p < .0001; R = 0.73, p = .0001), as well as CPAP manipulation (R = 0.73, p < .0001). Arousal threshold estimates were similar using nasal pressure and pneumotachograph ventilation (R = 0.96, p < .0001). The arousal threshold in patients with OSA can be estimated using polysomnographic signals and may enable more personalized therapeutic interventions for patients with a low arousal threshold. © Sleep Research Society 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail journals.permissions@oup.com.

Respiratory and spontaneous arousals in patients with Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Mesquita, J; Porée, F; Carrault, G; Fiz, J A; Abad, J; Jané, R

2012-01-01

Sleep in patients with Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome (SAHS) is frequently interrupted with arousals. Increased amounts of arousals result in shortening total sleep time and repeated sleep-arousal change can result in sleep fragmentation. According to the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) an arousal is a marker of sleep disruption representing a detrimental and harmful feature for sleep. The nature of arousals and its role on the regulation of the sleep process raises controversy and has sparked the debate in the last years. In this work, we analyzed and compared the EEG spectral content of respiratory and spontaneous arousals on a database of 45 SAHS subjects. A total of 3980 arousals (1996 respiratory and 1984 spontaneous) were analyzed. The results showed no differences between the spectral content of the two kinds of arousals. Our findings raise doubt as to whether these two kinds of arousals are truly triggered by different organic mechanisms. Furthermore, they may also challenge the current beliefs regarding the underestimation of the importance of spontaneous arousals and their contribution to sleep fragmentation in patients suffering from SAHS.

Stress hormones receptors in the amygdala mediate the effects of stress on the consolidation, but not the retrieval, of a non aversive spatial task.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amir Segev

Full Text Available This study examined the effects of the arousal level of the rat and exposure to a behavioral stressor on acquisition, consolidation and retrieval of a non-aversive hippocampal-dependent learning paradigm, the object location task. Learning was tested under two arousal conditions: no previous habituation to the experimental context (high novelty stress/arousal level or extensive prior habituation (reduced novelty stress/arousal level. Results indicated that in the habituated rats, exposure to an out-of-context stressor (i.e, elevated platform stress impaired consolidation and retrieval, but not acquisition, of the task. Non-habituated animals under both stressed and control conditions did not show retention of the task. In habituated rats, RU-486 (10 ng/side, a glucocorticoid receptor (GR antagonist, or propranolol (0.75 µg/side, a beta-adrenergic antagonist, injected into the basolateral amygdala (BLA, prevented the impairing effects of the stressor on consolidation, but not on retrieval. The CB1/CB2 receptor agonist WIN55,212-2 (WIN, 5 µg/side microinjected into the BLA did not prevent the effects of stress on either consolidation or retrieval. Taken together the results suggest that: (i GR and β-adrenergic receptors in the BLA mediate the impairing effects of stress on the consolidation, but not the retrieval, of a neutral, non-aversive hippocampal-dependent task, (ii the impairing effects of stress on hippocampal consolidation and retrieval are mediated by different neural mechanisms (i.e., different neurotransmitters or different brain areas, and (iii the effects of stress on memory depend on the interaction between several main factors such as the stage of memory processing under investigation, the animal's level of arousal and the nature of the task (neutral or aversive.

Stress hormones receptors in the amygdala mediate the effects of stress on the consolidation, but not the retrieval, of a non aversive spatial task.

Science.gov (United States)

Segev, Amir; Ramot, Assaf; Akirav, Irit

2012-01-01

This study examined the effects of the arousal level of the rat and exposure to a behavioral stressor on acquisition, consolidation and retrieval of a non-aversive hippocampal-dependent learning paradigm, the object location task. Learning was tested under two arousal conditions: no previous habituation to the experimental context (high novelty stress/arousal level) or extensive prior habituation (reduced novelty stress/arousal level). Results indicated that in the habituated rats, exposure to an out-of-context stressor (i.e, elevated platform stress) impaired consolidation and retrieval, but not acquisition, of the task. Non-habituated animals under both stressed and control conditions did not show retention of the task. In habituated rats, RU-486 (10 ng/side), a glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist, or propranolol (0.75 µg/side), a beta-adrenergic antagonist, injected into the basolateral amygdala (BLA), prevented the impairing effects of the stressor on consolidation, but not on retrieval. The CB1/CB2 receptor agonist WIN55,212-2 (WIN, 5 µg/side) microinjected into the BLA did not prevent the effects of stress on either consolidation or retrieval. Taken together the results suggest that: (i) GR and β-adrenergic receptors in the BLA mediate the impairing effects of stress on the consolidation, but not the retrieval, of a neutral, non-aversive hippocampal-dependent task, (ii) the impairing effects of stress on hippocampal consolidation and retrieval are mediated by different neural mechanisms (i.e., different neurotransmitters or different brain areas), and (iii) the effects of stress on memory depend on the interaction between several main factors such as the stage of memory processing under investigation, the animal's level of arousal and the nature of the task (neutral or aversive).

Barratt Impulsivity and Neural Regulation of Physiological Arousal.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheng Zhang

Full Text Available Theories of personality have posited an increased arousal response to external stimulation in impulsive individuals. However, there is a dearth of studies addressing the neural basis of this association.We recorded skin conductance in 26 individuals who were assessed with Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11 and performed a stop signal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Imaging data were processed and modeled with Statistical Parametric Mapping. We used linear regressions to examine correlations between impulsivity and skin conductance response (SCR to salient events, identify the neural substrates of arousal regulation, and examine the relationship between the regulatory mechanism and impulsivity.Across subjects, higher impulsivity is associated with greater SCR to stop trials. Activity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC negatively correlated to and Granger caused skin conductance time course. Furthermore, higher impulsivity is associated with a lesser strength of Granger causality of vmPFC activity on skin conductance, consistent with diminished control of physiological arousal to external stimulation. When men (n = 14 and women (n = 12 were examined separately, however, there was evidence suggesting association between impulsivity and vmPFC regulation of arousal only in women.Together, these findings confirmed the link between Barratt impulsivity and heightened arousal to salient stimuli in both genders and suggested the neural bases of altered regulation of arousal in impulsive women. More research is needed to explore the neural processes of arousal regulation in impulsive individuals and in clinical conditions that implicate poor impulse control.

Barratt Impulsivity and Neural Regulation of Physiological Arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Sheng; Hu, Sien; Hu, Jianping; Wu, Po-Lun; Chao, Herta H; Li, Chiang-shan R

2015-01-01

Theories of personality have posited an increased arousal response to external stimulation in impulsive individuals. However, there is a dearth of studies addressing the neural basis of this association. We recorded skin conductance in 26 individuals who were assessed with Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11) and performed a stop signal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Imaging data were processed and modeled with Statistical Parametric Mapping. We used linear regressions to examine correlations between impulsivity and skin conductance response (SCR) to salient events, identify the neural substrates of arousal regulation, and examine the relationship between the regulatory mechanism and impulsivity. Across subjects, higher impulsivity is associated with greater SCR to stop trials. Activity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) negatively correlated to and Granger caused skin conductance time course. Furthermore, higher impulsivity is associated with a lesser strength of Granger causality of vmPFC activity on skin conductance, consistent with diminished control of physiological arousal to external stimulation. When men (n = 14) and women (n = 12) were examined separately, however, there was evidence suggesting association between impulsivity and vmPFC regulation of arousal only in women. Together, these findings confirmed the link between Barratt impulsivity and heightened arousal to salient stimuli in both genders and suggested the neural bases of altered regulation of arousal in impulsive women. More research is needed to explore the neural processes of arousal regulation in impulsive individuals and in clinical conditions that implicate poor impulse control.

Effects of drought stress and bio-fertilizers inoculation on growth, essential oil yield and constituents of thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

roghayeh mohammadpour vashvaei

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Thyme (Thymus vulgaris L. is perennial aromatic shrub belonging to the mint family which has anti-spasmodic, antiseptic, carminative, anti-cough, sputum and antioxidant properties. In order to study the effects of drought stress and bio-fertilizer on plant growth, essential oil yield and constituents of thyme plant, an experiment was conducted in a split plot based on randomized complete block design with two replications, at the Research Farm of Zabol University, during growing season of 2012 and 2013. Main plots consisted of irrigation with 30, 50, 70 and 90% field capacity and subplots including plant inoculation with nitroxin, bio-phosphorus and mycorrhiza. Plant traits such as plant height, fresh and dry weight of herb per plant, essential oil percentage, yield and constituents of Thyme were measured. Effects of drought stress, bio-fertilizer and their interactions on all studied traits were significant at the 1% probability level. The highest plant height (35.09 cm, fresh and dry weight of herb per plant (103.52 and 43,27 g.plant-1, respectively and essential oil yield (0.350 ml.plant-1 belong to treatment of irrigation with 90% field capacity and nitroxin bio-fertilizer. The maximum essential oil percentage with 0.413% was obtained by irrigation with 70% field capacity and nitroxin bio-fertilizer. Fresh weight of herb per plant was the most crucial component in determining essential oil yield in Thyme. Plants irrigated with 70% filed capacity gave the highest relative percentage of thymol, which reached 71.32, 50.68 and 47.71% in nitroxin, biophosphorus and mycorrhiza biofertilizer, respectively. This effect was accompanied with decrease in -cymene content. Inoculation with nitroxin bio-fertilizer as compared to other fertilizers could further amend drought stress and improved the plant growth, essential oil percentage and yield and phenolic compound thymol of Thyme. Thus, it appears that in order to achieve sustainable agriculture

Emotionally arousing pictures increase blood glucose levels and enhance recall.

Science.gov (United States)

Blake, T M; Varnhagen, C K; Parent, M B

2001-05-01

Arousal enhances memory in human participants and this enhancing effect is likely due to the release of peripheral epinephrine. As epinephrine does not readily enter the brain, one way that peripheral epinephrine may enhance memory is by increasing circulating blood glucose levels. The present study investigated the possibility that emotionally arousing color pictures would improve memory and elevate blood glucose levels in human participants. Blood glucose levels were measured before, 15 min, and 30 min after male university students viewed 60 emotionally arousing or relatively neutral pictures. Participants viewed each picture for 6 s and then had 10 s to rate the arousal (emotional intensity) and valence (pleasantness) of each picture. A free-recall memory test was given 30 min after the last picture was viewed. Although the emotionally arousing and neutral picture sets were given comparable valence ratings, participants who viewed the emotionally arousing pictures rated the pictures as being more arousing, recalled more pictures, and had higher blood glucose levels after viewing the pictures than did participants who viewed the neutral pictures. These findings indicate that emotionally arousing pictures increase blood glucose levels and enhance memory, and that this effect is not due to differences in the degree of pleasantness of the stimuli. These findings support the possibility that increases in circulating blood glucose levels in response to emotional arousal may be part of the biological mechanism that allows emotional arousal to enhance memory. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Sexual Arousal and Sexually Explicit Media (SEM): Comparing Patterns of Sexual Arousal to SEM and Sexual Self-Evaluations and Satisfaction Across Gender and Sexual Orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hald, Gert Martin; Stulhofer, Aleksandar; Lange, Theis

2018-03-01

Investigations of patterns of sexual arousal to certain groups of sexually explicit media (SEM) in the general population in non-laboratory settings are rare. Such knowledge could be important to understand more about the relative specificity of sexual arousal in different SEM users. (i) To investigate whether sexual arousal to non-mainstream vs mainstream SEM contents could be categorized across gender and sexual orientation, (ii) to compare levels of SEM-induced sexual arousal, sexual satisfaction, and self-evaluated sexual interests and fantasies between non-mainstream and mainstream SEM groups, and (iii) to explore the validity and predictive accuracy of the Non-Mainstream Pornography Arousal Scale (NPAS). Online cross-sectional survey of 2,035 regular SEM users in Croatia. Patterns of sexual arousal to 27 different SEM themes, sexual satisfaction, and self-evaluations of sexual interests and sexual fantasies. Groups characterized by sexual arousal to non-mainstream SEM could be identified across gender and sexual orientation. These non-mainstream SEM groups reported more SEM use and higher average levels of sexual arousal across the 27 SEM themes assessed compared with mainstream SEM groups. Only few differences were found between non-mainstream and mainstream SEM groups in self-evaluative judgements of sexual interests, sexual fantasies, and sexual satisfaction. The internal validity and predictive accuracy of the NPAS was good across most user groups investigated. The findings suggest that in classified non-mainstream SEM groups, patterns of sexual arousal might be less fixated and category specific than previously assumed. Further, these groups are not more judgmental of their SEM-related sexual arousal patterns than groups characterized by patterns of sexual arousal to more mainstream SEM content. Moreover, accurate identification of non-mainstream SEM group membership is generally possible across gender and sexual orientation using the NPAS. Hald GM

Nipple/Breast stimulation and sexual arousal in young men and women.

Science.gov (United States)

Levin, Roy; Meston, Cindy

2006-05-01

The role of nipple/breast stimulation in influencing sexual arousal in men and women during lovemaking has only been the subject of opinion-based comment rather than evidence-based study. No attempt to question people about such sexual behavior has ever been undertaken. The study was designed to ascertain the effects of nipple/breast manipulation in young men and women on their sexual arousal. A short questionnaire about nipple/breast stimulation during sexual activity was administered to 301 (148 men; 153 women) sexually experienced undergraduates (age range 17-29 years, 95% between 18 and 22). Replies to questions in questionnaire. The major findings in regard to the women were that 81.5% reported that stimulation of their nipples/breasts caused or enhanced their sexual arousal, 78.2% agreed that when sexually aroused such manipulation increased their arousal, 59.1% had asked to have their nipples stimulated during lovemaking, and only 7.2% found that the manipulation decreased their arousal. In regard to the men, 51.7% reported that nipple stimulation caused or enhanced their sexual arousal, 39% agreed that when sexually aroused such manipulation increased their arousal, only 17.1% had asked to have their nipples stimulated, and only 7.5% found that such stimulation decreased their arousal. Manipulation of the nipples/breasts causes or enhances sexual arousal in approximately 82% of young women and 52% of young men with only 7-8% reporting that it decreased their arousal.

Differential effects of arousal in positive and negative autobiographical memories.

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Jaclyn Hennessey; Addis, Donna Rose; Giovanello, Kelly S

2012-01-01

Autobiographical memories are characterised by a range of emotions and emotional reactions. Recent research has demonstrated that differences in emotional valence (positive vs. negative emotion) and arousal (the degree of emotional intensity) differentially influence the retrieved memory narrative. Although the mnemonic effects of valence and arousal have both been heavily studied, it is currently unclear whether the effects of emotional arousal are equivalent for positive and negative autobiographical events. In the current study, multilevel models were used to examine differential effects of emotional valence and arousal on the richness of autobiographical memory retrieval both between and within subjects. Thirty-four young adults were asked to retrieve personal autobiographical memories associated with popular musical cues and to rate the valence, arousal and richness of these events. The multilevel analyses identified independent influences of valence and intensity upon retrieval characteristics at the within- and between-subject levels. In addition, the within-subject interactions between valence and arousal highlighted differential effects of arousal for positive and negative memories. These findings have important implications for future studies of emotion and memory, highlighting the importance of considering both valence and arousal when examining the role emotion plays in the richness of memory representation.

Effect of Microbial inoculation in combating the aluminium toxicity effect on growth of Zea mays.

Science.gov (United States)

Arora, P; Singh, G; Tiwari, A

2017-07-31

The present study is aimed at improving the aluminium tolerance in maize crop employing the potential of microbial inoculants in conferring resistance to these toxicities via production of certain chelating compounds like siderophores, exopolysachharides and organic acids. Acid soils have now-a-days become one of the key factors for limiting growth of many agriculturally important crops. Aluminium  is one of the major elements present in acid soils and is mainly responsible for toxicity in the soil. This aluminium is rapidly soluble in soil water and hence absorbed by plant roots under conditions where soil pH is below 5. This toxicity leads to severe root growth inhibition, thereby limiting the production of maize crops. It was observed that use of microbial inoculums can be helpful in elimination of these toxic compounds and prevent the inhibition of root growth . It was found that the soils contaminated with aluminium toxicity decreased the root length of maize plant significantly by 65% but Bacillus and Burkholderia inoculation increased this root length significantly by 1.4- folds and 2- folds respectively thereby combating the effect of aluminium toxicity. Aluminium concentration was found maximum in roots of plants which were grown under aluminium stress condition. But this aluminium accumulation decreased ̴ 2-folds when Burkholderia was used as seed inoculants under aluminium stress conditions. Also, at 60mM aluminium accumulation, phosphorus solubilisation in roots was found to be increased upto 30% on Burkholderia inoculation. However, Bacillus inoculation didn't show any significant difference in either of the case. Thus, the inoculation of seeds with Burkholderia isolates could prove to be a boon in sequestering aluminium toxicity in Zea mays.

Interplay between Affect and Arousal in Recognition Memory

OpenAIRE

Greene, Ciara M.; Bahri, Pooja; Soto, David

2010-01-01

Background: Emotional states linked to arousal and mood are known to affect the efficiency of cognitive performance. However, the extent to which memory processes may be affected by arousal, mood or their interaction is poorly understood. Methodology/Principal Findings: Following a study phase of abstract shapes, we altered the emotional state of participants by means of exposure to music that varied in both mood and arousal dimensions, leading to four different emotional states: (i) positive...

Inoculation method could impact the outcome of microbiological experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kragh, Kasper Nørskov; Alhede, Maria; Rybtke, Morten

2018-01-01

For the last 150 years, bacteria have primarily been investigated in liquid bacth cultures (LBC). Contrary to most expectations, these cultures are not a homogeneous mixture of single-celled bacteria as free-floating bacterial aggregates eventually develop in most LBC. These aggregates share...... coli and Staphylococcus aureus also produce aggregates in LBC. Our results stress the importance of inoculation consistency throughout experiments and the substantial impact aggregate development in LBC has on the output of microbiological experiments.IMPORTANCE Liquid pure cultures are fundamental...... to the field of microbiological research. These cultures are normally thought of as a homogeneous mix of single cell bacteria. The present study shows how this is not always true. Bacteria may aggregate in these liquid cultures. The aggregation can be induced by the method chosen for inoculation. The presence...

Sexual arousal in men: a review and conceptual analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Janssen, Erick

2011-05-01

Sexual arousal is an emotional/motivational state that can be triggered by internal and external stimuli and that can be inferred from central (including verbal), peripheral (including genital), and behavioral (including action tendencies and motor preparation) responses. This article, while focusing on sexual arousal in men, provides a conceptual analysis of this construct, reviews models of sexual arousal, and discusses the usefulness of perspectives derived from motivation and emotion research in improving our understanding of its determinants and behavioral correlates. In this, it considers the role of genital feedback in men's subjective sexual arousal and the connections between sexual arousal and sexual desire. Future research and definitions may increasingly focus on its central integrative functions (as opposed to its input and output characteristics). Yet, the study of sexual arousal can be expected to continue to benefit from the measurement of its genital, verbal, and behavioral components. Instances of discordance between response components suggest that they are, at least in part, under the control of different mechanisms, and it is proposed that a better understanding of sexual arousal will prove contingent on a better understanding of such mechanisms and the conditions under which they converge and diverge. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Valence, arousal, and task effects in emotional prosody processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silke ePaulmann

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Previous research suggests that emotional prosody processing is a highly rapid and complex process. In particular, it has been shown that different basic emotions can be differentiated in an early event-related brain potential (ERP component, the P200. Often, the P200 is followed by later long lasting ERPs such as the late positive complex (LPC. The current experiment set out to explore in how far emotionality and arousal can modulate these previously reported ERP components. In addition, we also investigated the influence of task demands (implicit vs. explicit evaluation of stimuli. Participants listened to pseudo-sentences (sentences with no lexical content spoken in six different emotions or in a neutral tone of voice while they either rated the arousal level of the speaker or their own arousal level. Results confirm that different emotional intonations can first be differentiated in the P200 component, reflecting a first emotional encoding of the stimulus possibly including a valence tagging process. A marginal significant arousal effect was also found in this time-window with high arousing stimuli eliciting a stronger P200 than low arousing stimuli. The P200 component was followed by a long lasting positive ERP between 400 and 750 ms. In this late time-window, both emotion and arousal effects were found. No effects of task were observed in either time-window. Taken together, results suggest that emotion relevant details are robustly decoded during early processing and late processing stages while arousal information is only reliably taken into consideration at a later stage of processing.

Sexual Arousal and Sexually Explicit Media (SEM)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hald, Gert Martin; Stulhofer, Aleksandar; Lange, Theis

2018-01-01

-mainstream and mainstream SEM groups, and (iii) to explore the validity and predictive accuracy of the Non-Mainstream Pornography Arousal Scale (NPAS). METHODS: Online cross-sectional survey of 2,035 regular SEM users in Croatia. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: Patterns of sexual arousal to 27 different SEM themes, sexual...

Effects of Arousal on Mouse Sensory Cortex Depend on Modality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daisuke Shimaoka

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Summary: Changes in arousal modulate the activity of mouse sensory cortex, but studies in different mice and different sensory areas disagree on whether this modulation enhances or suppresses activity. We measured this modulation simultaneously in multiple cortical areas by imaging mice expressing voltage-sensitive fluorescent proteins (VSFP. VSFP imaging estimates local membrane potential across large portions of cortex. We used temporal filters to predict local potential from running speed or from pupil dilation, two measures of arousal. The filters provided good fits and revealed that the effects of arousal depend on modality. In the primary visual cortex (V1 and auditory cortex (Au, arousal caused depolarization followed by hyperpolarization. In the barrel cortex (S1b and a secondary visual area (LM, it caused only hyperpolarization. In all areas, nonetheless, arousal reduced the phasic responses to trains of sensory stimuli. These results demonstrate diverse effects of arousal across sensory cortex but similar effects on sensory responses. : Shimaoka et al. use voltage-sensitive imaging to show that the effects of arousal on the mouse cortex are markedly different across areas and over time. In all the sensory areas studied, nonetheless, arousal reduced the phasic voltage responses to trains of sensory stimuli. Keywords: cerebral cortex, cortical state, locomotion, sensory processing, widefield imaging

Brief Emotion Regulation Training Facilitates Arousal Control During Sexual Stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

van Overveld, Mark; Borg, Charmaine

2015-01-01

Disgust, a negative emotion which evokes strong behavioral avoidance tendencies, has been associated with sexual dysfunction. Recently, it was postulated that healthy sexual functioning requires a balance between excitatory (increased sexual arousal) and inhibitory processes (lowered disgust levels). This suggests that amplification of excitatory processes (like sexual arousal) could be a valuable addition to treatments for affect-based sexual dysfunctions. The major aim of the present study was to establish whether up-regulation could effectively enhance arousal levels during sexual stimuli, and whether such a training would simultaneously reduce disgust. Students (N = 163, mean age = 20.73 years, SD = 2.35) were trained in up-regulation of affect using either a sexual arousal film (i.e., female-friendly erotic movie) or a threat arousal film clip (i.e., horror movie), while control groups viewed the films without training instructions. Following this, participants viewed and rated state emotions during a series of pictures (sexual, disgusting, or neutral). Up-regulation of mood successfully enhanced general arousal in both groups, yet these arousal levels were not paralleled by reductions in disgust. Overall, the findings indicate that emotion regulation training by maximizing positive affect and general arousal could be an effective instrument to facilitate affect-related disturbances in sexual dysfunctions.

Frequency of EEG arousals from nocturnal sleep in normal subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Mathur, R; Douglas, N J

1995-06-01

Brief arousals are clinically important and increasingly scored during polysomnography. However, the frequency of arousals during routine polysomnography in the normal population is unknown. We performed overnight polysomnography in the 55 of 59 control subjects from a family practice list who were approached and agreed to undergo polysomnography. Awakenings were scored according to the criteria of Rechtschaffen and Kales and briefer arousals according to three different criteria, including the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) definition. There was a mean of 4 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1-15) Rechtschaffen and Kales awakenings per hour, whereas the ASDA definition gave 21 (95% CI, 7-56) per hour slept. Arousal frequencies increased significantly (p < 0.001) with age in our subjects, who ranged from the late teens to early 70s. The high upper limit of the frequency of brief arousals was not altered by exclusion of patients who snored or had witnessed apneas or daytime sleepiness. It is important that those scoring arousals on routine polysomnography recognize that high arousal frequencies occur in the normal population on 1-night polysomnography.

White-nose syndrome-affected little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) increase grooming and other active behaviors during arousals from hibernation.

Science.gov (United States)

Brownlee-Bouboulis, Sarah A; Reeder, DeeAnn M

2013-10-01

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is an emerging infectious disease of hibernating bats linked to the death of an estimated 5.7 million or more bats in the northeastern United States and Canada. White-nose syndrome is caused by the cold-loving fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), which invades the skin of the muzzles, ears, and wings of hibernating bats. Previous work has shown that WNS-affected bats arouse to euthermic or near euthermic temperatures during hibernation significantly more frequently than normal and that these too-frequent arousals are tied to severity of infection and death date. We quantified the behavior of bats during these arousal bouts to understand better the causes and consequences of these arousals. We hypothesized that WNS-affected bats would display increased levels of activity (especially grooming) during their arousal bouts from hibernation compared to WNS-unaffected bats. Behavior of both affected and unaffected hibernating bats in captivity was monitored from December 2010 to March 2011 using temperature-sensitive dataloggers attached to the backs of bats and infrared motion-sensitive cameras. The WNS-affected bats exhibited significantly higher rates of grooming, relative to unaffected bats, at the expense of time that would otherwise be spent inactive. Increased self-grooming may be related to the presence of the fungus. Elevated activity levels in affected bats likely increase energetic stress, whereas the loss of rest (inactive periods when aroused from torpor) may jeopardize the ability of a bat to reestablish homeostasis in a number of physiologic systems.

Effects of water stress, organic amendment and mycorrhizal inoculation on soil microbial community structure and activity during the establishment of two heavy metal-tolerant native plant species.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández, D A; Roldán, A; Azcón, R; Caravaca, F; Bååth, E

2012-05-01

Our aim was to examine the effect of water stress on plant growth and development of two native plant species (Tetraclinis articulata and Crithmum maritimum) and on microbial community composition and activity in the rhizosphere soil, following the addition of an organic amendment, namely sugar beet residue (SBR), and/or the inoculation with an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus, namely Glomus mosseae, in a non-sterile heavy metal-polluted soil. The AM inoculation did not have any significant effect on plant growth of both species. In T. articulata, SBR increased shoot growth, foliar P, total phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), fungi-related PLFA, AM fungi-related neutral lipid fatty acid, bacterial gram-positive/gram-negative PLFA ratio and the β-glucosidase and dehydrogenase activities. SBR and AM inoculation increased phosphatase activity in T. articulata plants grown under drought conditions. In both plants, there was a synergistic effect between AM inoculation and SBR on mycorrhizal colonisation under drought conditions. In C. maritimum, the increase produced by the SBR on total amounts of PLFA, bacterial gram-positive-related PLFA and bacterial gram-negative-related PLFA was considerably higher under drought conditions. Our results suggest that the effectiveness of the amendment with regard to stimulating microbial communities and plant growth was largely limited by drought, particularly for plant species with a low degree of mycorrhizal colonisation.

Termination of respiratory events with and without cortical arousal in obstructive sleep apnea.

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Amy S; Eckert, Danny J; Wellman, Andrew; Trinder, John A; Malhotra, Atul; White, David P

2011-11-15

A total of 20-30% of respiratory events in obstructive sleep apnea are terminated without clear arousal. Arousals are thought to predispose to further events by promoting hyperventilation, hypocapnia, and upper-airway dilator muscle hypotonia. Therefore, events terminated without arousal may promote stable breathing. To compare physiologic changes at respiratory event termination with American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) Arousal to No Arousal, and determine whether secondary respiratory events are less common and have higher dilator muscle activity after No Arousal compared with ASDA Arousal. Patients with obstructive sleep apnea wore sleep staging, genioglossus (EMG(GG)), and tensor palatini (EMG(TP)) electrodes plus a nasal mask and pneumotachograph. During stable sleep, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) was lowered for 3-minute periods to induce respiratory events. Physiologic variables were compared between events terminated with (1) ASDA Arousal, (2) No Arousal, or (3) sudden CPAP increase (CPAPinc, control). Sixteen subjects had adequate data. EMG(GG), EMG(TP), and heart rate increased after ASDA Arousal (340 ± 57%, 215 ± 28%, and 110.7 ± 2.3%) and No Arousal (185 ± 32%, 167 ± 15%, and 108.5 ± 1.6%) but not CPAPinc (90 ± 10%, 94 ± 11%, and 102.1 ± 1%). Ventilation increased more after ASDA Arousal than No Arousal and CPAPinc, but not after accounting for the severity of respiratory event. Fewer No Arousals were followed by secondary events than ASDA Arousals. However, low dilator muscle activity did not occur after ASDA Arousal or No Arousal (EMG(GG) rose from 75 ± 5 to 125 ± 7%) and secondary events were less severe than initial events (ventilation rose 4 ± 0.4 to 5.5 ± 0.51 L/min). Respiratory events that were terminated with ASDA Arousal were more severely flow-limited, had enhanced hyperventilation after event termination, and were more often followed by secondary events than No arousal. However, secondary events were not

Evoking and Measuring Arousal in Game Settings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cusveller, J.; Gerritsen, C.; de Man, J.; Gobel, S.; Wiemeyer, J.

2014-01-01

Serious games seem to be more effective if the participant feels more involved in the game. The participant should experience a high sense of presence which can be obtained by matching the level of excitement to the level of arousal a participant experiences. The level of arousal should be measured

Emotional Arousal Does Not Enhance Association-Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Madan, Christopher R.; Caplan, Jeremy B.; Lau, Christine S. M.; Fujiwara, Esther

2012-01-01

Emotionally arousing information is remembered better than neutral information. This enhancement effect has been shown for memory for items. In contrast, studies of association-memory have found both impairments and enhancements of association-memory by arousal. We aimed to resolve these conflicting results by using a cued-recall paradigm combined…

Role of innate and drug-induced dysregulation of brain stress and arousal systems in addiction: Focus on corticotropin-releasing factor, nociceptin/orphanin FQ, and orexin/hypocretin

Science.gov (United States)

Martin-Fardon, Rémi; Zorrilla, Eric P.; Ciccocioppo, Roberto; Weiss, Friedbert

2010-01-01

Stress-like symptoms are an integral part of acute and protracted drug withdrawal, and several lines of evidence have shown that dysregulation of brain stress systems, including the extrahypothalamic corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system, following long-term drug use is of major importance in maintaining drug and alcohol addiction. Recently, two other neuropeptide systems have attracted interest, the nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) and orexin/hypocretin (Orx/Hcrt) systems. N/OFQ participates in a wide range of physiological responses, and the hypothalamic Orx/Hcrt system helps regulate several physiological processes, including feeding, energy metabolism, and arousal. Moreover, these two systems have been suggested to participate in psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and drug addiction. Dysregulation of these systems by chronic drug exposure has been hypothesized to play a role in the maintenance of addiction and dependence. Recent evidence demonstrated that interactions between CRF-N/OFQ and CRF-Orx/Hcrt systems may be functionally relevant for the control of stress-related addictive behavior. The present review discusses recent findings that support the hypotheses of the participation and dysregulation of these systems in drug addiction and evaluates the current understanding of interactions among these stress-regulatory peptides. PMID:20026088

Paenibacillus lentimorbus Inoculation Enhances Tobacco Growth and Extenuates the Virulence of Cucumber mosaic virus.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susheel Kumar

Full Text Available Previous studies with Paenibacillus lentimorbus B-30488" (hereafter referred as B-30488, a plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR isolated from cow's milk, revealed its capabilities to improve plant quality under normal and stress conditions. Present study investigates its potential as a biocontrol agent against an economically important virus, Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV, in Nicotiana tabacum cv. White Burley plants and delineates the physical, biophysical, biochemical and molecular perturbations due to the trilateral interactions of PGPR-host-CMV. Soil inoculation of B-30488 enhanced the plant vigor while significantly decreased the virulence and virus RNA accumulation by ~12 fold (91% in systemic leaves of CMV infected tobacco plants as compared to the control ones. Histology of these leaves revealed the improved tissue's health and least aging signs in B-30488 inoculated tobacco plants, with or without CMV infection, and showed lesser intercellular spaces between collenchyma cells, reduced amount of xyloglucans and pectins in connecting primary cells, and higher polyphenol accumulation in hypodermis layer extending to collenchyma cells. B-30488 inoculation has favorably maneuvered the essential biophysical (ion leakage and photosynthetic efficiency and biochemical (sugar, proline, chlorophyll, malondialdehyde, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase attributes of tobacco plants to positively regulate and release the virus stress. Moreover, activities of defense related enzymes (ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase induced due to CMV-infection were ameliorated with inoculation of B-30488, suggesting systemic induced resistance mediated protection against CMV in tobacco. The quantitative RT-PCR analyses of the genes related to normal plant development, stress and pathogenesis also corroborate well with the biochemical data and revealed the regulation (either up or down of these genes in favor of

Emotional arousal and memory after deep encoding.

Science.gov (United States)

Leventon, Jacqueline S; Camacho, Gabriela L; Ramos Rojas, Maria D; Ruedas, Angelica

2018-05-22

Emotion often enhances long-term memory. One mechanism for this enhancement is heightened arousal during encoding. However, reducing arousal, via emotion regulation (ER) instructions, has not been associated with reduced memory. In fact, the opposite pattern has been observed: stronger memory for emotional stimuli encoded with an ER instruction to reduce arousal. This pattern may be due to deeper encoding required by ER instructions. In the current research, we examine the effects of emotional arousal and deep-encoding on memory across three studies. In Study 1, adult participants completed a writing task (deep-encoding) for encoding negative, neutral, and positive picture stimuli, whereby half the emotion stimuli had the ER instruction to reduce the emotion. Memory was strong across conditions, and no memory enhancement was observed for any condition. In Study 2, adult participants completed the same writing task as Study 1, as well as a shallow-encoding task for one-third of negative, neutral, and positive trials. Memory was strongest for deep vs. shallow encoding trials, with no effects of emotion or ER instruction. In Study 3, adult participants completed a shallow-encoding task for negative, neutral, and positive stimuli, with findings indicating enhanced memory for negative emotional stimuli. Findings suggest that deep encoding must be acknowledged as a source of memory enhancement when examining manipulations of emotion-related arousal. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Memory enhancement by a semantically unrelated emotional arousal source induced after learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielson, Kristy A; Yee, Douglas; Erickson, Kirk I

2005-07-01

It has been well established that moderate physiological or emotional arousal modulates memory. However, there is some controversy about whether the source of arousal must be semantically related to the information to be remembered. To test this idea, 35 healthy young adult participants learned a list of common nouns and afterward viewed a semantically unrelated, neutral or emotionally arousing videotape. The tape was shown after learning to prevent arousal effects on encoding or attention, instead influencing memory consolidation. Heart rate increase was significantly greater in the arousal group, and negative affect was significantly less reported in the non-arousal group after the video. The arousal group remembered significantly more words than the non-arousal group at both 30 min and 24 h delays, despite comparable group memory performance prior to the arousal manipulation. These results demonstrate that emotional arousal, even from an unrelated source, is capable of modulating memory consolidation. Potential reasons for contradictory findings in some previous studies, such as the timing of "delayed" memory tests, are discussed.

StressModEx--Physiotherapist-led Stress Inoculation Training integrated with exercise for acute whiplash injury: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Ritchie, Carrie; Kenardy, Justin; Smeets, Rob; Sterling, Michele

2015-07-01

Whiplash associated disorders are the most common non-hospitalised injuries following a road traffic crash. Up to 50% of individuals who experience a whiplash injury will not fully recover and report ongoing pain and disability. Most recovery, if it occurs, takes place in the first 2-3 months post injury, indicating that treatment provided in the early stages is critical to long-term outcome. However, early management approaches for people with acute whiplash associated disorders are modestly effective. One reason may be that the treatments have been non-specific and have not targeted the processes shown to be associated with poor recovery, such as post-traumatic stress symptoms. Targeting and modulating these early stress responses in the early management of acute whiplash associated disorders may improve health outcomes. Early aggressive psychological interventions in the form of psychological debriefing may be detrimental to recovery and are now not recommended for management of early post-traumatic stress symptoms. In contrast, Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) is a cognitive behavioural approach that teaches various general problem-solving and coping strategies to manage stress-related anxiety (ie, relaxation training, cognitive restructuring and positive self-statements) and provides important information to injured individuals about the impact of stress on their physical and psychological wellbeing. While referral to a psychologist may be necessary in some cases where acute stress disorder or other more significant psychological reactions to stress are evident, in the case of acute whiplash injuries, it is neither feasible nor necessary for a psychologist to deliver the early stress modulation intervention to all injured individuals. The feasibility of using other specially trained health professionals to deliver psychological interventions has been explored in conditions such as chronic low back pain, chronic whiplash and cancer, but few trials have studied

Increasing arousal enhances inhibitory control in calm but not excitable dogs

Science.gov (United States)

Bray, Emily E.; MacLean, Evan L.; Hare, Brian A.

2015-01-01

The emotional-reactivity hypothesis proposes that problem-solving abilities can be constrained by temperament, within and across species. One way to test this hypothesis is with the predictions of the Yerkes-Dodson law. The law posits that arousal level, a component of temperament, affects problem solving in an inverted U-shaped relationship: optimal performance is reached at intermediate levels of arousal and impeded by high and low levels. Thus, a powerful test of the emotional-reactivity hypothesis is to compare cognitive performance in dog populations that have been bred and trained based in part on their arousal levels. We therefore compared a group of pet dogs to a group of assistance dogs bred and trained for low arousal (N = 106) on a task of inhibitory control involving a detour response. Consistent with the Yerkes-Dodson law, assistance dogs, which began the test with lower levels of baseline arousal, showed improvements when arousal was artificially increased. In contrast, pet dogs, which began the test with higher levels of baseline arousal, were negatively affected when their arousal was increased. Furthermore, the dogs’ baseline levels of arousal, as measured in their rate of tail wagging, differed by population in the expected directions. Low-arousal assistance dogs showed the most inhibition in a detour task when humans eagerly encouraged them while more highly aroused pet dogs performed worst on the same task with strong encouragement. Our findings support the hypothesis that selection on temperament can have important implications for cognitive performance. PMID:26169659

Increasing arousal enhances inhibitory control in calm but not excitable dogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Bray, Emily E; MacLean, Evan L; Hare, Brian A

2015-11-01

The emotional-reactivity hypothesis proposes that problem-solving abilities can be constrained by temperament, within and across species. One way to test this hypothesis is with the predictions of the Yerkes-Dodson law. The law posits that arousal level, a component of temperament, affects problem solving in an inverted U-shaped relationship: Optimal performance is reached at intermediate levels of arousal and impeded by high and low levels. Thus, a powerful test of the emotional-reactivity hypothesis is to compare cognitive performance in dog populations that have been bred and trained based in part on their arousal levels. We therefore compared a group of pet dogs to a group of assistance dogs bred and trained for low arousal (N = 106) on a task of inhibitory control involving a detour response. Consistent with the Yerkes-Dodson law, assistance dogs, which began the test with lower levels of baseline arousal, showed improvements when arousal was artificially increased. In contrast, pet dogs, which began the test with higher levels of baseline arousal, were negatively affected when their arousal was increased. Furthermore, the dogs' baseline levels of arousal, as measured in their rate of tail wagging, differed by population in the expected directions. Low-arousal assistance dogs showed the most inhibition in a detour task when humans eagerly encouraged them, while more highly aroused pet dogs performed worst on the same task with strong encouragement. Our findings support the hypothesis that selection on temperament can have important implications for cognitive performance.

Physiological arousal in processing recognition information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guy Hochman

2010-07-01

Full Text Available The recognition heuristic (RH; Goldstein and Gigerenzer, 2002 suggests that, when applicable, probabilistic inferences are based on a noncompensatory examination of whether an object is recognized or not. The overall findings on the processes that underlie this fast and frugal heuristic are somewhat mixed, and many studies have expressed the need for considering a more compensatory integration of recognition information. Regardless of the mechanism involved, it is clear that recognition has a strong influence on choices, and this finding might be explained by the fact that recognition cues arouse affect and thus receive more attention than cognitive cues. To test this assumption, we investigated whether recognition results in a direct affective signal by measuring physiological arousal (i.e., peripheral arterial tone in the established city-size task. We found that recognition of cities does not directly result in increased physiological arousal. Moreover, the results show that physiological arousal increased with increasing inconsistency between recognition information and additional cue information. These findings support predictions derived by a compensatory Parallel Constraint Satisfaction model rather than predictions of noncompensatory models. Additional results concerning confidence ratings, response times, and choice proportions further demonstrated that recognition information and other cognitive cues are integrated in a compensatory manner.

Video lottery: winning expectancies and arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Ladouceur, Robert; Sévigny, Serge; Blaszczynski, Alexander; O'Connor, Kieron; Lavoie, Marc E

2003-06-01

This study investigates the effects of video lottery players' expectancies of winning on physiological and subjective arousal. Participants were assigned randomly to one of two experimental conditions: high and low winning expectancies. Participants played 100 video lottery games in a laboratory setting while physiological measures were recorded. Level of risk-taking was controlled. Participants were 34 occasional or regular video lottery players. They were assigned randomly into two groups of 17, with nine men and eight women in each group. The low-expectancy group played for fun, therefore expecting to win worthless credits, while the high-expectancy group played for real money. Players' experience, demographic variables and subjective arousal were assessed. Severity of problem gambling was measured with the South Oaks Gambling Screen. In order to measure arousal, the average heart rate was recorded across eight periods. Participants exposed to high as compared to low expectations experienced faster heart rate prior to and during the gambling session. According to self-reports, it is the expectancy of winning money that is exciting, not playing the game. Regardless of the level of risk-taking, expectancy of winning is a cognitive factor influencing levels of arousal. When playing for fun, gambling becomes significantly less stimulating than when playing for money.

Evaluation of Two Biochemical Markers for Salt Stress in Three Pistachio Rootstocks Inoculated with Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (Glomus mosseae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shamshiri M.H.

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The possible involvement of the methylglyoxal and proline accumulation in leaves and roots of three pistachio rootstocks, cv. Sarakha, Abareqi and Bane baghi, pre-inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Glomus mosseae in response to salt stress was studied during a greenhouse experiment in 2013. Six months old pistachio seedlings were exposed to four salinity levels of irrigation water (EC of 0.5 as control, 5, 10 and 15 dS m-1 for 70 days. Methylglyoxal and proline of the roots and leaves were increased by increasing salt stress. The highest concentrations of proline in leaves and roots were recorded in Abareqi rootstock while the lowest concentration was observed in Sarakhs. In general, a negative relationship was obtained between proline and methylglyoxal concentrations in both tissues especially at two highest levels of salinity. A very strong relationship between salinity and measured biochemical markers were found. The level of both biomarkers were reduced in both tissues and in all rootstocks as the effect of mycorrhizal symbiosis. Root colonization percentage was declined as the effect of salinity in Abareqi and Bane baghi and not in Sarakhs.

Arousal from sleep: implications for obstructive sleep apnea pathogenesis and treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckert, Danny J; Younes, Magdy K

2014-02-01

Historically, brief awakenings from sleep (cortical arousals) have been assumed to be vitally important in restoring airflow and blood-gas disturbances at the end of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) breathing events. Indeed, in patients with blunted chemical drive (e.g., obesity hypoventilation syndrome) and in instances when other defensive mechanisms fail, cortical arousal likely serves an important protective role. However, recent insight into the pathogenesis of OSA indicates that a substantial proportion of respiratory events do not terminate with a cortical arousal from sleep. In many cases, cortical arousals may actually perpetuate blood-gas disturbances, breathing instability, and subsequent upper airway closure during sleep. This brief review summarizes the current understanding of the mechanisms mediating respiratory-induced cortical arousal, the physiological factors that influence the propensity for cortical arousal, and the potential dual roles that cortical arousal may play in OSA pathogenesis. Finally, the extent to which existing sedative agents decrease the propensity for cortical arousal and their potential to be therapeutically beneficial for certain OSA patients are highlighted.

Enhanced auditory arousal increases intake of less palatable and healthier foods.

Science.gov (United States)

Privitera, Gregory J; Diaz, Melissa; Haas, Meagan C

2014-01-23

Two experiments were conducted to test a prediction of the arousal hypothesis that increased arousal will increase intake of less palatable and healthy foods. In both experiments, arousal was manipulated by adjusting the volume of a movie (soft, loud volume) while participants consumed foods. In Experiment 1, participants ate fresh (palatable) or stale (less palatable) popcorn during a 9-minute movie played at a soft or loud volume. Experiment 2 used the same procedures with healthier foods (carrot sticks and apple slices). Partial support for the arousal hypothesis in Experiment 1 showed that participants consumed more stale but not fresh popcorn in the loud (high arousal) versus soft (low arousal) volume group. These findings suggest that low but not high palatable foods are susceptible to manipulations of arousal. Consistent with this interpretation, Experiment 2 showed that high but not low environmental arousal increased intake of the fruits and vegetables, which are typically rated as lower in palatability compared to high fat foods. These results show that high arousal in an eating-typical environment increases intake of less palatable foods, and healthy foods (i.e., fruits and vegetables). Increasing the availability of healthier foods in a loud food environment can have a positive impact on increasing intake of fruits and vegetables in that environment.

Parental modelling of mathematical affect: self-efficacy and emotional arousal

Science.gov (United States)

Bartley, Sarah R.; Ingram, Naomi

2017-12-01

This study explored the relationship between parents' mathematics self-efficacy and emotional arousal to mathematics and their 12- and 13-year-old children's mathematics self-efficacy and emotional arousal to mathematics. Parental modelling of affective relationships during homework was a focus. Eighty-four parent and child pairings from seven schools in New Zealand were examined using embedded design methodology. No significant correlations were found when the parents' mathematics self-efficacy and emotional arousal to mathematics were compared with the children's mathematics self-efficacy and emotional arousal to mathematics. However, the parents' level of emotional arousal to mathematics was found to have affected their willingness to assist with mathematics homework. For those parents who assisted, a significant positive correlation was found between their mathematics self-efficacy and their children's emotional arousal to mathematics. Parents who did assist were generally reported as being calm, and used techniques associated with positive engagement. Fathers were calmer and more likely to express readiness to assist with mathematics homework than mothers. A further significant positive correlation was found between fathers' emotional arousal to mathematics and children's mathematics self-efficacy. Implications from the study suggest directions for future research.

Discharge patterns of human genioglossus motor units during arousal from sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Vanessa; Malhotra, Atul; Nicholas, Christian L; Worsnop, Christopher; Jordan, Amy S; Butler, Jane E; Saboisky, Julian P; Gandevia, Simon C; White, David P; Trinder, John

2010-03-01

Single motor unit recordings of the human genioglossus muscle reveal motor units with a variety of discharge patterns. Integrated multiunit electromyographic recordings of genioglossus have demonstrated an abrupt increase in the muscle's activity at arousal from sleep. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of arousal from sleep on the activity of individual motor units as a function of their particular discharge pattern. Genioglossus activity was measured using intramuscular fine-wire electrodes inserted via a percutaneous approach. Arousals from sleep were identified using the ASDA criterion and the genioglossus electromyogram recordings analyzed for single motor unit activity. Sleep research laboratory. Sleep and respiratory data were collected in 8 healthy subjects (6 men). 138 motor units were identified during prearousalarousal sleep: 25% inspiratory phasic, 33% inspiratory tonic, 4% expiratory phasic, 3% expiratory tonic, and 35% tonic. At arousal from sleep inspiratory phasic units significantly increased the proportion of a breath over which they were active, but did not appreciably increase their rate of firing. 80 new units were identified at arousals, 75% were inspiratory, many of which were active for only 1 or 2 breaths. 22% of units active before arousal, particularly expiratory and tonic units, stopped at the arousal. Increased genioglossus muscle activity at arousal from sleep is primarily due to recruitment of inspiratory phasic motor units. Further, activity within the genioglossus motoneuron pool is reorganized at arousal as, in addition to recruitment, approximately 20% of units active before arousals stopped firing.

Hormonal contraception use alters stress responses and emotional memory

OpenAIRE

Nielsen, Shawn E.; Segal, Sabrina K.; Worden, Ian V.; Yim, Ilona S.; Cahill, Larry

2012-01-01

Emotionally arousing material is typically better remembered than neutral material. Since norepinephrine and cortisol interact to modulate emotional memory, sex-related influences on stress responses may be related to sex differences in emotional memory. Two groups of healthy women – one naturally cycling (NC women, N = 42) and one using hormonal contraceptives (HC women, N = 36) – viewed emotionally arousing and neutral images. Immediately after, they were assigned to Cold Pressor Stress (CP...

Emotion and language: Valence and arousal affect word recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Brysbaert, Marc; Warriner, Amy Beth

2014-01-01

Emotion influences most aspects of cognition and behavior, but emotional factors are conspicuously absent from current models of word recognition. The influence of emotion on word recognition has mostly been reported in prior studies on the automatic vigilance for negative stimuli, but the precise nature of this relationship is unclear. Various models of automatic vigilance have claimed that the effect of valence on response times is categorical, an inverted-U, or interactive with arousal. The present study used a sample of 12,658 words, and included many lexical and semantic control factors, to determine the precise nature of the effects of arousal and valence on word recognition. Converging empirical patterns observed in word-level and trial-level data from lexical decision and naming indicate that valence and arousal exert independent monotonic effects: Negative words are recognized more slowly than positive words, and arousing words are recognized more slowly than calming words. Valence explained about 2% of the variance in word recognition latencies, whereas the effect of arousal was smaller. Valence and arousal do not interact, but both interact with word frequency, such that valence and arousal exert larger effects among low-frequency words than among high-frequency words. These results necessitate a new model of affective word processing whereby the degree of negativity monotonically and independently predicts the speed of responding. This research also demonstrates that incorporating emotional factors, especially valence, improves the performance of models of word recognition. PMID:24490848

[Design of SCM inoculation device].

Science.gov (United States)

Qian, Mingli; Xie, Haiyuan

2014-01-01

The first step of bacilli culture is inoculation bacteria on culture medium. Designing a device to increase efficiency of inoculation is significative. The new device is controlled by SCM. The stepper motor can drive the culture medium rotating, accelerating, decelerating, overturn and suspending. The device is high practicability and efficient, let inoculation easy for operator.

Does Emotional Arousal Influence Swearing Fluency?

Science.gov (United States)

Stephens, Richard; Zile, Amy

2017-08-01

This study assessed the effect of experimentally manipulated emotional arousal on swearing fluency. We hypothesised that swear word generation would be increased with raised emotional arousal. The emotional arousal of 60 participants was manipulated by having them play a first-person shooter video game or, as a control, a golf video game, in a randomised order. A behavioural measure of swearing fluency based on the Controlled Oral Word Association Test was employed. Successful experimental manipulation was indicated by raised State Hostility Questionnaire scores after playing the shooter game. Swearing fluency was significantly greater after playing the shooter game compared with the golf game. Validity of the swearing fluency task was demonstrated via positive correlations with self-reported swearing fluency and daily swearing frequency. In certain instances swearing may represent a form of emotional expression. This finding will inform debates around the acceptability of using taboo language.

Effects of Drought Stress and Bio-fertilizer Inoculation on Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Marian Thistle (Silybum marianum L.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

roghayeh mohammadpour vashvaei

2017-09-01

-fertilizers inoculation and drought stress on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Marian thistle. Materials and methods This experiment was conducted in a split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications, at the Research Farm of Zabol University, during growing season of 2012 and 2013. Main plots consisted of irrigation with 50, 70 and 90% field capacity and subplots including plant nutrition with nitroxin, supernitroplus, rich phosphate II, mycorrhiza and non-use of bio-fertilizer. Plant traits such as seed yield (kg.ha-1, the number of capitols per plant, the number of seeds per capitol, 1000-seed weight (g.plant-1, essential oil percentage, plant organic matter percentage, proline percentage and protein percentage of Marian thistle were measured. For statistical analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA, Duncan’s multiple range test (DMRT and simple correlation analysis were performed using SAS version 9.2 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. Results and discussion In this experiment, the effects of drought stress, bio-fertilizer and their interactions on all studied traits were significant at the 1% probability level. The highest grain yield (1300.00 kg, the number of capitols per plant (12.00 no., 1000-seed weight (23.27g, plant organic matter percentage (95.00% and protein percentage (17.19% belong to treatment of irrigation with 90% field capacity and nitroxin bio-fertilizer. The maximum number of seeds per capitol (87.67 were obtained by irrigation with 90% field capacity and mycorrhiza bio-fertilizer. Irrigation with 70 and 90% field capacity and nitroxin bio-fertilizer application were explained the maximum and minimum of essential oil percentage (3.72% and proline percentage (0.04%, respectively. The number of capitols per plant was the most important component in determining grain yield. The use of bio-fertilizers damped the effect of drought stress and improved qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Marian thistle. Conclusion

Contagious yawning, social cognition, and arousal: an investigation of the processes underlying shelter dogs' responses to human yawns.

Science.gov (United States)

Buttner, Alicia Phillips; Strasser, Rosemary

2014-01-01

Studies of contagious yawning have reported inconsistent findings regarding whether dogs exhibit this behavior and whether it is mediated by social-cognitive processes or the result of physiological arousal. We investigated why some dogs yawn in response to human yawns; particularly, whether these dogs are exceptional in their ability to understand human social cues or whether they were more physiologically aroused. Sixty shelter dogs were exposed to yawning and nonyawning control stimuli demonstrated by an unfamiliar human. We took salivary cortisol samples before and after testing to determine the role of arousal in yawn contagion. Dogs were tested on the object-choice task to assess their sensitivity for interpreting human social cues. We found that 12 dogs yawned only in response to human yawns (i.e., appeared to exhibit yawn contagion), though contagious yawning at the population level was not observed. Dogs that exhibited yawn contagion did not perform better on the object-choice task than other dogs, but their cortisol levels remained elevated after exposure to human yawning, whereas other dogs had reduced cortisol levels following yawning stimuli relative to their baseline levels. We interpret these findings as showing that human yawning, when presented in a stressful context, can further influence arousal in dogs, which then causes some to yawn. Although the precise social-cognitive mechanisms that underlie contagious yawning in dogs are still unclear, yawning between humans and dogs may involve some communicative function that is modulated by context and arousal.

Valence, arousal and cognitive control: A voluntary task switching study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jelle eDemanet

2011-11-01

Full Text Available The present study focused on the interplay between arousal, valence and cognitive control. To this end, we investigated how arousal and valence associated with affective stimuli influenced cognitive flexibility when switching between tasks voluntarily. Three hypotheses were tested. First, a valence hypothesis that states that the positive valence of affective stimuli will facilitate both global and task-switching performance because of increased cognitive flexibility. Second, an arousal hypothesis that states that arousal, and not valence, will specifically impair task-switching performance by strengthening the previously executed task-set. Third, an attention hypothesis that states that both cognitive and emotional control ask for limited attentional resources, and predicts that arousal will impair both global and task-switching performance. The results showed that arousal affected task-switching but not global performance, possibly by phasic modulations of the noradrenergic system that reinforces the previously executed task. In addition, positive valence only affected global performance but not task-switching performance, possibly by phasic modulations of dopamine that stimulates the general ability to perform in a multitasking environment.

Valence evaluation with approaching or withdrawing cues: directly testing valence-arousal conflict theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yan Mei; Li, Ting; Li, Lin

2017-07-19

The valence-arousal conflict theory assumes that both valence and arousal will trigger approaching or withdrawing tendencies. It also predicts that the speed of processing emotional stimuli will depend on whether valence and arousal trigger conflicting or congruent motivational tendencies. However, most previous studies have provided evidence of the interaction between valence and arousal only, and have not provided direct proof of the interactive links between valence, arousal and motivational tendencies. The present study provides direct evidence for the relationship between approach-withdrawal tendencies and the valence-arousal conflict. In an empirical test, participants were instructed to judge the valence of emotional words after visual-spatial cues that appeared to be either approaching or withdrawing from participants. A three-way interaction (valence, arousal, and approach-withdrawal tendency) was observed such that the response time was shorter if participants responded to a negative high-arousal stimulus after a withdrawing cue, or to a positive low-arousal stimulus after an approaching cue. These findings suggest that the approach-withdrawal tendency indeed plays a crucial role in valence-arousal conflict, and that the effect depends on the congruency of valence, arousal and tendency at an early stage of processing.

Sex differences in patterns of genital sexual arousal: measurement artifacts or true phenomena?

Science.gov (United States)

Suschinsky, Kelly D; Lalumière, Martin L; Chivers, Meredith L

2009-08-01

Sex differences in patterns of sexual arousal have been reported recently. Men's genital arousal is typically more category-specific than women's, such that men experience their greatest genital arousal to stimuli depicting their preferred sex partners whereas women experience significant genital arousal to stimuli depicting both their preferred and non-preferred sex partners. In addition, men's genital and subjective sexual arousal patterns are more concordant than women's: The correlation between genital and subjective sexual arousal is much larger in men than in women. These sex differences could be due to low response-specificity in the measurement of genital arousal in women. The most commonly used measure of female sexual arousal, vaginal photoplethysmography, has not been fully validated and may not measure sexual arousal specifically. A total of 20 men and 20 women were presented with various sexual and non-sexual emotionally laden short film clips while their genital and subjective sexual arousal were measured. Results suggest that vaginal photoplethysmography is a measure of sexual arousal exclusively. Women's genital responses were highest during sexual stimuli and absent during all non-sexual stimuli. Sex differences in degree of category-specificity and concordance were replicated: Men's genital responses were more category-specific than women's and men's genital and subjective sexual arousal were more strongly correlated than women's. The results from the current study support the continued use of vaginal photoplethysmography in investigating sex differences in patterns of sexual arousal.

Bidirectional interactions between the baroreceptor reflex and arousal: an update.

Science.gov (United States)

Silvani, Alessandro; Calandra-Buonaura, Giovanna; Benarroch, Eduardo E; Dampney, Roger A L; Cortelli, Pietro

2015-02-01

Studies involving genetic engineering on animal models and mathematical analysis of cardiovascular signals on humans are shedding new light on the interactions between the arterial baroreceptor reflex (baroreflex) and arousal. Baroreceptor stimulation, if very mild or performed under anaesthesia, may inhibit cortical arousal. However, substantial increases or decreases in baroreflex activation cause arousal in animal models and human subjects in physiological conditions. On the other hand, cardiovascular changes during autonomic arousals and between the states of wakefulness and sleep involve changes in the baroreflex set point and balance with central autonomic commands. Neural connectivity and functional data suggest that the nucleus of the solitary tract, adrenergic C1 neurons of the medulla, and the parabrachial nucleus of the pons mediate the bidirectional interactions between the baroreflex and arousal. These interactions may constitute a positive feedback loop that facilitates sharp and coordinated brain state and autonomic transitions upon arousal: upon arousal, central autonomic commands may increase blood pressure, thereby loading baroreceptors and further increasing arousal. Anomalies of this feedback loop may play a role in the pathophysiology of disease conditions associated with cardiovascular and sleep-wake cycle alterations. These conditions include: obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, with its association with excessive daytime sleepiness and baroreflex impairment; and insomnia, with its association with autonomic hyperarousal and hypertension. When faced with disorders associated with cardiovascular and sleep-wake cycle alterations, clinical reasoning should entertain the possibility that both conditions are strongly influenced by anomalies of baroreflex function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Higher motivation - greater control? The effect of arousal on judgement.

Science.gov (United States)

Riemer, Hila; Viswanathan, Madhu

2013-01-01

This research examines control over the effect of arousal, a dimension of affect, on judgement. Past research shows that high processing motivation enhances control over the effects of affect on judgement. Isolating and studying arousal as opposed to valence, the other dimension of affect, and its effect on judgement, we identify boundary conditions for past findings. Drawing from the literature on processes by which arousal influences judgement, we demonstrate that the role of motivation is contingent upon the type of judgement task (i.e., memory- versus stimulus-based judgement). In stimulus-based judgement, individuals exert greater control over the effect of arousal on judgement under low compared to high motivation. In contrast, in memory-based judgement individuals exert greater control over the effect of arousal under high compared to low motivation. Theoretical implications and avenues for future research are discussed.

Beyond intensity: Spectral features effectively predict music-induced subjective arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Gingras, Bruno; Marin, Manuela M; Fitch, W Tecumseh

2014-01-01

Emotions in music are conveyed by a variety of acoustic cues. Notably, the positive association between sound intensity and arousal has particular biological relevance. However, although amplitude normalization is a common procedure used to control for intensity in music psychology research, direct comparisons between emotional ratings of original and amplitude-normalized musical excerpts are lacking. In this study, 30 nonmusicians retrospectively rated the subjective arousal and pleasantness induced by 84 six-second classical music excerpts, and an additional 30 nonmusicians rated the same excerpts normalized for amplitude. Following the cue-redundancy and Brunswik lens models of acoustic communication, we hypothesized that arousal and pleasantness ratings would be similar for both versions of the excerpts, and that arousal could be predicted effectively by other acoustic cues besides intensity. Although the difference in mean arousal and pleasantness ratings between original and amplitude-normalized excerpts correlated significantly with the amplitude adjustment, ratings for both sets of excerpts were highly correlated and shared a similar range of values, thus validating the use of amplitude normalization in music emotion research. Two acoustic parameters, spectral flux and spectral entropy, accounted for 65% of the variance in arousal ratings for both sets, indicating that spectral features can effectively predict arousal. Additionally, we confirmed that amplitude-normalized excerpts were adequately matched for loudness. Overall, the results corroborate our hypotheses and support the cue-redundancy and Brunswik lens models.

AffectCam : arousal- augmented sensecam for richer recall of episodic memories

OpenAIRE

Sas, Corina; Fratczak, Thomasz; Rees, Matthew; Gellersen, Hans; Kalnikaitė, Vaiva; Coman, Alina; Höök, Kristina

2013-01-01

This paper describes the design and evaluation of AffectCam, a wearable system integrating SenseCam and BodyMedia SenseWear for capturing galvanic skin response as a measure of bodily arousal. AffectCam’s algorithms use arousal as a filtering mechanism for selecting the most personally relevant photos captured during people’s ordinary daily life, i.e. high arousal photos. We discuss initial findings showing that emotional arousal does improve the quality of memory recall associated with emoti...

Towards an exposure-dependent model of post-traumatic stress: longitudinal course of post-traumatic stress symptomatology and functional impairment after the 2011 Oslo bombing.

Science.gov (United States)

Solberg, Ø; Birkeland, M S; Blix, I; Hansen, M B; Heir, T

2016-11-01

Our understanding of the dynamics of post-traumatic stress symptomatology and its link to functional impairment over time is limited. Post-traumatic stress symptomatology (Post-traumatic Checklist, PCL) was assessed three times in 1-year increments (T1, T2, T3) following the Oslo bombing of 22 July, 2011, in directly (n = 257) and indirectly exposed (n = 2223) government employees, together with demographics, measures of exposure and work and social adjustment. The dynamics of post-traumatic stress disorder symptom cluster interplay were examined within a structural equation modelling framework using a cross-lagged autoregressive panel model. Intrusions at T1 played a prominent role in predicting all symptom clusters at T2 for the directly exposed group, exhibiting especially strong cross-lagged relationships with avoidance and anxious arousal. For the indirectly exposed group, dysphoric arousal at T1 played the most prominent role in predicting all symptom clusters at T2, exhibiting a strong relationship with emotional numbing. Emotional numbing seemed to be the main driver behind prolonged stress at T3 for both groups. Functional impairment was predominately associated with dysphoric arousal and emotional numbing in both groups. For directly exposed individuals, memories of the traumatic incident and the following intrusions seem to drive their post-traumatic stress symptomatology. However, as these memories lose their potency over time, a sequela of dysphoric arousal and emotional numbing similar to the one reported by the indirectly exposed individuals seems to be the main driver for prolonged post-traumatic stress and functional impairment. Findings are discussed using contemporary models within an exposure-dependent perspective of post-traumatic stress.

Is There a Relationship Between Tic Frequency and Physiological Arousal? Examination in a Sample of Children with Co-Occurring Tic and Anxiety Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Conelea, Christine A.; Ramanujam, Krishnapriya; Walther, Michael R.; Freeman, Jennifer B.; Garcia, Abbe M.

2014-01-01

Stress is the contextual variable most commonly implicated in tic exacerbations. However, research examining associations between tics, stressors, and the biological stress response has yielded mixed results. This study examined whether tics occur at a greater frequency during discrete periods of heightened physiological arousal. Children with co-occurring tic and anxiety disorders (n = 8) completed two stress induction tasks (discussion of family conflict, public speech). Observational (tic frequencies) and physiological (heart rate) data were synchronized using The Observer XT, and tic frequencies were compared across periods of high and low heart rate. Tic frequencies across the entire experiment did not increase during periods of higher heart rate. During the speech task, tic frequencies were significantly lower during periods of higher heart rate. Results suggest that tic exacerbations may not be associated with heightened physiological arousal and highlight the need for further tic research using integrated measurement of behavioral and biological processes. PMID:24662238

Is There a Relationship Between Tic Frequency and Physiological Arousal? Examination in a Sample of Children With Co-Occurring Tic and Anxiety Disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Conelea, Christine A; Ramanujam, Krishnapriya; Walther, Michael R; Freeman, Jennifer B; Garcia, Abbe M

2014-03-01

Stress is the contextual variable most commonly implicated in tic exacerbations. However, research examining associations between tics, stressors, and the biological stress response has yielded mixed results. This study examined whether tics occur at a greater frequency during discrete periods of heightened physiological arousal. Children with co-occurring tic and anxiety disorders (n = 8) completed two stress-induction tasks (discussion of family conflict, public speech). Observational (tic frequencies) and physiological (heart rate [HR]) data were synchronized using The Observer XT, and tic frequencies were compared across periods of high and low HR. Tic frequencies across the entire experiment did not increase during periods of higher HR. During the speech task, tic frequencies were significantly lower during periods of higher HR. Results suggest that tic exacerbations may not be associated with heightened physiological arousal and highlight the need for further tic research using integrated measurement of behavioral and biological processes. © The Author(s) 2014.

The effect of personality type and musical task on self-perceived arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Hayoung A

2008-01-01

This study was designed to measure the level of arousal influenced by 4 different musical experiences classified by task difficulty and to examine the relationship between music-induced arousal level and personality type. Participants included 32 university students who were neither musicians nor music majors. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975) was used to identify participants as either extravert or introvert. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 types of musical tasks: listening, singing, rhythm tapping, or keyboard playing. Arousal level was measured using the Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List (ADACL) (Thayer, 1978) before and after the musical task. The ADACL is a self-report scale consisting of a list of 20 adjectives which describe various transitory arousal states, including energy, tiredness, tension, and calmness. Results showed no significant difference between personality types and the changes in arousal level. Result indicated a significant effect of listening on decreased tension arousal. Singing and rhythm tapping, which are regarded as having a relatively moderate task difficulty, increased energy arousal significantly and decreased tiredness arousal significantly. Participants' tiredness arousal levels also decreased significantly after keyboard playing. These findings suggest that engaging in musical experience that has a moderate level of task difficulty makes individuals more energetic and less tired.

Necessity of mycorrhizal re-inoculation in the transplantation of banana in areas with precedent of inoculated canavalia with AMF

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaime Enrique Simó González

2016-07-01

Full Text Available From being the banana, a mycotrophic crop and previous results on the potential of green manure inoculated as a way to mycorrhizal economic crops, this work was developed in order to assess whether a precedent Canavalia ensiformis cultivation, inoculated with efficient strains of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF inoculation, it is necessary the banana inoculation, ‘FHIA-18’ (AAAB cultivar in the transplant field. Four treatments were evaluated: a control without application of fertilizers and other organic-mineral fertilizers (100% FOM, both without canavalia and two other treatments that are used above canavalia inoculated AMF and half also received organic-mineral fertilizer applications: (50% FOM, one of which, the banana was reinoculated in the transplant field and the other one not. The experimental design used, was randomized blocks, with four replications. The experiment ended after three productive cycles (mother plant, stems 1 and 2. Canavalia inoculated treatments and 50 % of FOM, guaranteed high yields and satisfactory nutritional content similar to that received 100 % of FOM and significantly higher than those obtained with the control treatment. This together with the values of colonization percentages and pores at both high and inoculated treatments were no significant differences between them, indicated not only the effectiveness of mycorrhizal inoculation but rather green manure inoculation was successful to inoculate bananas and re-inoculation of the same was not needed on the transplant.

Drought response of Mucuna pruriens (L. DC. inoculated with ACC deaminase and IAA producing rhizobacteria.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aansa Rukya Saleem

Full Text Available Drought is one of the major constraints limiting agricultural production worldwide and is expected to increase in the future. Limited water availability causes significant effects to plant growth and physiology. Plants have evolved different traits to mitigate the stress imposed by drought. The presence of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR could play an important role in improving plant performances and productivity under drought. These beneficial microorganisms colonize the rhizosphere of plants and increase drought tolerance by lowering ethylene formation. In the present study, we demonstrate the potential to improve the growth of velvet bean under water deficit conditions of two different strains of PGPR with ACCd (1-Aminocyclopropane-1-Carboxylate deaminase activity isolated from rainfed farming system. We compared uninoculated and inoculated plants with PGPR to assess: a photosynthetic performance and biomass; b ACC content and ethylene emission from leaves and roots; c leaf isoprene emission. Our results provided evidence that under drought conditions inoculation with PGPR containing the ACCd enzyme could improve plant growth compared to untreated plants. Ethylene emission from roots and leaves of inoculated velvet bean plants was significantly lower than uninoculated plants. Moreover, isoprene emission increased with drought stress progression and was higher in inoculated plants compared to uninoculated counterparts. These findings clearly illustrate that selected PGPR strains isolated from rainfed areas could be highly effective in promoting plant growth under drought conditions by decreasing ACC and ethylene levels in plants.

Drought response of Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. inoculated with ACC deaminase and IAA producing rhizobacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Saleem, Aansa Rukya; Brunetti, Cecilia; Khalid, Azeem; Della Rocca, Gianni; Raio, Aida; Emiliani, Giovanni; De Carlo, Anna; Mahmood, Tariq; Centritto, Mauro

2018-01-01

Drought is one of the major constraints limiting agricultural production worldwide and is expected to increase in the future. Limited water availability causes significant effects to plant growth and physiology. Plants have evolved different traits to mitigate the stress imposed by drought. The presence of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) could play an important role in improving plant performances and productivity under drought. These beneficial microorganisms colonize the rhizosphere of plants and increase drought tolerance by lowering ethylene formation. In the present study, we demonstrate the potential to improve the growth of velvet bean under water deficit conditions of two different strains of PGPR with ACCd (1-Aminocyclopropane-1-Carboxylate deaminase) activity isolated from rainfed farming system. We compared uninoculated and inoculated plants with PGPR to assess: a) photosynthetic performance and biomass; b) ACC content and ethylene emission from leaves and roots; c) leaf isoprene emission. Our results provided evidence that under drought conditions inoculation with PGPR containing the ACCd enzyme could improve plant growth compared to untreated plants. Ethylene emission from roots and leaves of inoculated velvet bean plants was significantly lower than uninoculated plants. Moreover, isoprene emission increased with drought stress progression and was higher in inoculated plants compared to uninoculated counterparts. These findings clearly illustrate that selected PGPR strains isolated from rainfed areas could be highly effective in promoting plant growth under drought conditions by decreasing ACC and ethylene levels in plants.

Persistent genital arousal disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eibye, Simone; Jensen, Hans Mørch

2014-01-01

We report a case of a woman suffering from persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) after paroxetine cessation. She was admitted to a psychiatric department and diagnosed with agitated depression. Physical investigation showed no gynaecological or neurological explanation; however, a pelvic MRI...

The inoculation method affects colonization and performance of bacterial inoculant strains in the phytoremediation of soil contaminated with diesel oil.

Science.gov (United States)

Afzal, Muhammad; Yousaf, Sohail; Reichenauer, Thomas G; Sessitsch, Angela

2012-01-01

Plants in combination with microorganisms can remediate soils, which are contaminated with organic pollutants such as petroleum hydrocarbons. Inoculation of plants with degrading bacteria is one approach to improve remediation processes, but is often not successful due to the competition with resident microorganisms. It is therefore of high importance to address the persistence and colonization behavior of inoculant strains. The objective of this study was to determine whether the inoculation method (seed imbibement and soil inoculation) influences bacterial colonization, plant growth promotion and hydrocarbon degradation. Italian ryegrass was grown in non-sterilized soil polluted with diesel and inoculated with different alkane-degrading strains Pantoea sp. ITSI10, Pantoea sp. BTRH79 and Pseudomonas sp. MixRI75 individually as well as in combination. Inoculation generally had a beneficial effect on plant biomass production and hydrocarbon degradation, however, strains inoculated in soil performed better than applied by seed imbibement. Performance correlated with the colonization efficiency of the inoculated strains. The highest hydrocarbon degradation was observed in the treatment, in which all three strains were inoculated in combination into soil. Our study revealed that besides the degradation potential and competitive ability of inoculant strains the inoculation method plays an important role in determining the success of microbial inoculation.

Effects of water stress and inoculation with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR on antioxidant status and photosynthetic pigments in basil (Ocimum basilicum L.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mostafa Heidari

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Effects of water stress and inoculation with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR on antioxidant activity and photosynthetic pigments were studied in basil plants. A field experiment was conducted at the University of Zabol in Iran during 2010 growing season. The experiment laid out as split plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Three levels of water stress W1 = 80 (control, W2 = 60 and W3 = 40% of the field capacity (FC as main plots and four levels of bacterial species consisting of S1 = Pseudomonades sp., S2 = Bacillus lentus, S3 = Azospirillum brasilens, S4 = combination of three bacterial species and S5 = control (without use of bacterial as sub plots. The results revealed that water stress caused a significant change in the antioxidant activity. The highest concentration CAT and GPX activity were in W3 treatments. By increasing water stress from control to W3, chlorophyll content in leaves was increased but Fv/Fm and APX activity decreased. Application of rhizobacteria under water stress improved the antioxidant and photosynthetic pigments in basil plants. S1 = Pseudomonades sp. under water stress, significantly increased the CAT enzyme activity, but the highest GPX and APX activity and chlorophyll content in leaves under water stress were in S4 = combination of three bacterial species.

Functional wiring of hypocretin and LC-NE neurons: implications for arousal.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew E Carter

2013-05-01

Full Text Available To survive in a rapidly changing environment, animals must sense their external world and internal physiological state and properly regulate levels of arousal. Levels of arousal that are abnormally high may result in inefficient use of internal energy stores and unfocused attention to salient environmental stimuli. Alternatively, levels of arousal that are abnormally low may result in the inability to properly seek food, water, sexual partners, and other factors necessary for life. In the brain, neurons that express hypocretin neuropeptides may be uniquely posed to sense the external and internal state of the animal and tune arousal state according to behavioral needs. In recent years, we have applied temporally precise optogenetic techniques to study the role of these neurons and their downstream connections in regulating arousal. In particular, we have found that noradrenergic neurons in the brainstem locus coeruleus are particularly important for mediating the effects of hypocretin neurons on arousal. Here, we discuss our recent results and consider the implications of the anatomical connectivity of these neurons in regulating the arousal state of an organism across various states of sleep and wakefulness.

Eyes Wide Shopped: Shopping Situations Trigger Arousal in Impulsive Buyers

Science.gov (United States)

Serfas, Benjamin G.; Büttner, Oliver B.; Florack, Arnd

2014-01-01

The present study proposes arousal as an important mechanism driving buying impulsiveness. We examined the effect of buying impulsiveness on arousal in non-shopping and shopping contexts. In an eye-tracking experiment, we measured pupil dilation while participants viewed and rated pictures of shopping scenes and non-shopping scenes. The results demonstrated that buying impulsiveness is closely associated with arousal as response to viewing pictures of shopping scenes. This pertained for hedonic shopping situations as well as for utilitarian shopping situations. Importantly, the effect did not emerge for non-shopping scenes. Furthermore, we demonstrated that arousal of impulsive buyers is independent from cognitive evaluation of scenes in the pictures. PMID:25489955

Eyes wide shopped: shopping situations trigger arousal in impulsive buyers.

Science.gov (United States)

Serfas, Benjamin G; Büttner, Oliver B; Florack, Arnd

2014-01-01

The present study proposes arousal as an important mechanism driving buying impulsiveness. We examined the effect of buying impulsiveness on arousal in non-shopping and shopping contexts. In an eye-tracking experiment, we measured pupil dilation while participants viewed and rated pictures of shopping scenes and non-shopping scenes. The results demonstrated that buying impulsiveness is closely associated with arousal as response to viewing pictures of shopping scenes. This pertained for hedonic shopping situations as well as for utilitarian shopping situations. Importantly, the effect did not emerge for non-shopping scenes. Furthermore, we demonstrated that arousal of impulsive buyers is independent from cognitive evaluation of scenes in the pictures.

Pre-learning stress that is temporally removed from acquisition exerts sex-specific effects on long-term memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Zoladz, Phillip R; Warnecke, Ashlee J; Woelke, Sarah A; Burke, Hanna M; Frigo, Rachael M; Pisansky, Julia M; Lyle, Sarah M; Talbot, Jeffery N

2013-02-01

We have examined the influence of sex and the perceived emotional nature of learned information on pre-learning stress-induced alterations of long-term memory. Participants submerged their dominant hand in ice cold (stress) or warm (no stress) water for 3 min. Thirty minutes later, they studied 30 words, rated the words for their levels of emotional valence and arousal and were then given an immediate free recall test. Twenty-four hours later, participants' memory for the word list was assessed via delayed free recall and recognition assessments. The resulting memory data were analyzed after categorizing the studied words (i.e., distributing them to "positive-arousing", "positive-non-arousing", "negative-arousing", etc. categories) according to participants' valence and arousal ratings of the words. The results revealed that participants exhibiting a robust cortisol response to stress exhibited significantly impaired recognition memory for neutral words. More interestingly, however, males displaying a robust cortisol response to stress demonstrated significantly impaired recall, overall, and a marginally significant impairment of overall recognition memory, while females exhibiting a blunted cortisol response to stress demonstrated a marginally significant impairment of overall recognition memory. These findings support the notion that a brief stressor that is temporally separated from learning can exert deleterious effects on long-term memory. However, they also suggest that such effects depend on the sex of the organism, the emotional salience of the learned information and the degree to which stress increases corticosteroid levels. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Comparisons of Cerebral Hemodynamics Induced by Obstructive Sleep Apnea with Arousal and Periodic Limb Movement with Arousal: A Pilot NIRS Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhongxing; Schneider, Maja; Laures, Marco; Qi, Ming; Khatami, Ramin

2016-01-01

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) and restless legs syndrome (RLS) with periodic limb movement during sleep (PLMS) are two sleep disorders characterized by repetitive respiratory or movement events associated with cortical arousals. We compared the cerebral hemodynamic changes linked to periodic apneas/hypopneas with arousals (AHA) in four OSA-patients with periodic limb movements (PLMA) with arousals in four patients with RLS-PLMS using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). AHA induced homogenous pattern of periodic fluctuations in oxygenated (HbO2) and deoxygenated (HHb) hemoglobin, i.e., the decrease of HbO2 was accompanied by an increase of HHb during the respiratory event and resolved to reverse pattern when cortical arousal started. Blood volume (BV) showed the same pattern as HHb but with relative smaller amplitude in most of the AHA events.These changing patterns were significant as Wilcoxon signed-rank tests gave p Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, p Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.001) and then decreased. The results of this preliminary study show that both AHA and PLMA induce changes in cerebral hemodynamics. The occurrence of cortical arousal is accompanied by increased HR in both events, but by different BV changes (i.e., decreased/increased BV in AHA/PLMA, respectively). HR changes may partially account for the increased cerebral hemodynamics during PLMA; whereas in AHA probable vasodilatation mediated by hypoxia/hypercapnia is more crucial for the post-arousal hemodynamics. The differences between changes of cerebral hemodynamics and HR may indicate different pathological mechanisms behind these two sleep disorder events.

Subjective sleep quality, unstimulated sexual arousal, and sexual frequency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rui Costa

Full Text Available Introduction: REM sleep deprivation increases unstimulated erections in rats, and total sleep deprivation increases erections during audiovisual sexual stimulation in men, but the effects of sleep problems on human unstimulated sexual arousal are unknown. Objective: We examined the associations of subjective sleep quality with unstimulated sexual arousal, satisfaction with sex life, and sexual frequency and desire over the past month. Methods: 275 Portuguese (169 women reported their anxiety, sexual arousal and sexual desire during a resting state, and completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the sexual satisfaction subscale of the LiSat scale, the Desire dimensions of the Female Sexual Function Index (women only and International Index of Erectile Function (men only. They additionally reported how many days in the past month they engaged in penile-vaginal intercourse, noncoital sex, and masturbation. Salivary testosterone (T was assayed by luminescence immunoassays. Results: Poorer sleep quality correlated with greater unstimulated sexual arousal in men with higher T levels and in women with higher T levels not taking oral contraceptives. In women with lower T, poorer subjective sleep quality correlated with greater sexual dissatisfaction. In both sexes, sleep quality was uncorrelated with sexual desire and sexual frequency over the past month. Discussion: Consistently with other studies in humans and animals, the findings are congruent with the notion that lack of sleep can increase sexual arousal, but not sexual frequency. T might play a role in the sexual arousal caused by lack of appropriate sleep.

Arousal-But Not Valence-Reduces False Memories at Retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Mirandola, Chiara; Toffalini, Enrico

2016-01-01

Mood affects both memory accuracy and memory distortions. However, some aspects of this relation are still poorly understood: (1) whether valence and arousal equally affect false memory production, and (2) whether retrieval-related processes matter; the extant literature typically shows that mood influences memory performance when it is induced before encoding, leaving unsolved whether mood induced before retrieval also impacts memory. We examined how negative, positive, and neutral mood induced before retrieval affected inferential false memories and related subjective memory experiences. A recognition-memory paradigm for photographs depicting script-like events was employed. Results showed that individuals in both negative and positive moods-similar in arousal levels-correctly recognized more target events and endorsed fewer false memories (and these errors were linked to remember responses less frequently), compared to individuals in neutral mood. This suggests that arousal (but not valence) predicted memory performance; furthermore, we found that arousal ratings provided by participants were more adequate predictors of memory performance than their actual belonging to either positive, negative or neutral mood groups. These findings suggest that arousal has a primary role in affecting memory, and that mood exerts its power on true and false memory even when induced at retrieval.

False physiological feedback and persuasion: effect of fear arousal vs. fear reduction on attitude change.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendrick, C; Giesen, M; Borden, R

1975-06-01

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that increases in false physiological feedback of fear arousal will enhance persuasion and that reduction in the arousal feedback is unnecessary for increased persuasion to occur. Prior research has usually found a positive relation between level of arousal and persuasion, but support for the drive reduction hypothesis is tenuous. However, Harris and Jellison (1971) claimed support for such a hypothesis. They manipulated subjects' fear arousal cognitively via false physiological feedback while the subjects listened to a persuasive communication. The present experiments used a similar procedure in an attempt to test an "arousal only" against an "arousal reduction" hypothesis. Subjects listened to a persuasive speech while receiving false feedback via a meter concerning their fear arousal. In Experiment I half of the subjects received high arousal and half received moderate arousal information. Within each of these conditions half of the subjects had their arousal reduced, and the other half did not. In Experiment II subjects received either low arousal, high arousal, or high then low arousal feedback while listening. The results of the two studies generally provided support for the "arousal only" hypothesis. An interpretation in terms of Bem's attribution theory was tentatively suggested.

Alexithymia and empathy predict changes in autonomic arousal during affective stimulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogdanov, Volodymyr B; Bogdanova, Olena V; Gorlov, Dmytro S; Gorgo, Yuriy P; Dirckx, Joris J J; Makarchuk, Mykola Y; Schoenen, Jean; Critchley, Hugo

2013-09-01

Alexithymia, the inability to describe one's own emotions, is linked to deficits in empathy, manifesting as a diminished capacity to recognize or understand the emotions and mental states of others. Several brain centers of autonomic control and interoception that are activated in empathy are thought to misfunction in alexithymia. We hypothesized that individual differences in autonomic changes under affective stimulation might be associated with differences in alexithymia and empathy. We studied 21 healthy volunteers, comparing their alexithymia and empathy scores with changes in their sympathetic autonomic arousal, indexed by the palmar skin potential level, during 3 tasks: playing a computer game, performing mental arithmetic, and watching a negative emotional valence video. Both autonomic and subjective sense of arousal increased at the beginning of each task and then gradually subsided over the course of the task. Higher autonomic arousal at the onset of the computer game was associated with higher empathy scores, and at the onset of the negative video with higher scores for both empathy and alexithymia. Alexithymia delayed the habituation of autonomic arousal during the computer game, while the empathy score was related to a faster decline in arousal during the negative video task. High alexithymia and high empathy scores were linked to increased autonomic arousal at the onset of emotional stimulation, but were distinguishable in the rates of habituation of the evoked arousal. Our data provide insight into the relationships among interacting psychological traits, physiologic regulation, and the arousal dimension of emotional experience.

Inoculation of sugarcane with diazotrophic bacteria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nivaldo Schultz

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The sugarcane industry, a strategic crop in Brazil, requires technological improvements in production efficiency to increase the crop energy balance. Among the various currently studied alternatives, inoculation with diazotrophic bacteria proved to be a technology with great potential. In this context, the efficiency of a mixture of bacterial inoculant was evaluated with regard to the agronomic performance and N nutrition of sugarcane. The experiment was carried out on an experimental field of Embrapa Agrobiologia, in Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, using a randomized block, 2 × 3 factorial design (two varieties and three treatments with four replications, totaling 24 plots. The varieties RB867515 and RB72454 were tested in treatments consisting of: inoculation with diazotrophic bacteria, N-fertilized control with 120 kg ha-1 N and absolute control (no inoculation and no N fertilizer. The inoculum was composed of five strains of five diazotrophic species. The yield, dry matter accumulation, total N in the shoot dry matter and the contribution of N by biological fixation were evaluated, using the natural 15N abundance in non-inoculated sugarcane as reference. The bacterial inoculant increased the stalk yield of variety RB72454 similarly to fertilization with 120 kg ha-1 N in the harvests of plant-cane and first ratoon crops, however the contribution of biological N fixation was unchanged by inoculation, indicating that the benefits of the inoculant in sugarcane may have resulted from plant growth promotion.

Eyes wide shopped: shopping situations trigger arousal in impulsive buyers.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin G Serfas

Full Text Available The present study proposes arousal as an important mechanism driving buying impulsiveness. We examined the effect of buying impulsiveness on arousal in non-shopping and shopping contexts. In an eye-tracking experiment, we measured pupil dilation while participants viewed and rated pictures of shopping scenes and non-shopping scenes. The results demonstrated that buying impulsiveness is closely associated with arousal as response to viewing pictures of shopping scenes. This pertained for hedonic shopping situations as well as for utilitarian shopping situations. Importantly, the effect did not emerge for non-shopping scenes. Furthermore, we demonstrated that arousal of impulsive buyers is independent from cognitive evaluation of scenes in the pictures.

Amines, Astrocytes and Arousal

OpenAIRE

Bazargani, N.; Attwell, D.

2017-01-01

Amine neurotransmitters, such as noradrenaline, mediate arousal, attention, and reward in the CNS. New data suggest that, from flies to mammals, a major mechanism for amine transmitter action is to raise astrocyte [Ca2+]i and release gliotransmitters that modulate neuronal activity and behavior.

Developmental Reversals in False Memory: Effects of Emotional Valence and Arousal

Science.gov (United States)

Brainerd, C. J.; Holliday, R. E.; Reyna, V. F.; Yang, Y.; Toglia, M. P.

2010-01-01

Do the emotional valence and arousal of events distort children's memories? Do valence and arousal modulate counterintuitive age increases in false memory? We investigated those questions in children, adolescents, and adults using the Cornell/Cortland Emotion Lists, a word list pool that induces false memories and in which valence and arousal can…

Emotionally enhanced memory for negatively arousing words: storage or retrieval advantage?

Science.gov (United States)

Nadarevic, Lena

2017-12-01

People typically remember emotionally negative words better than neutral words. Two experiments are reported that investigate whether emotionally enhanced memory (EEM) for negatively arousing words is based on a storage or retrieval advantage. Participants studied non-word-word pairs that either involved negatively arousing or neutral target words. Memory for these target words was tested by means of a recognition test and a cued-recall test. Data were analysed with a multinomial model that allows the disentanglement of storage and retrieval processes in the present recognition-then-cued-recall paradigm. In both experiments the multinomial analyses revealed no storage differences between negatively arousing and neutral words but a clear retrieval advantage for negatively arousing words in the cued-recall test. These findings suggest that EEM for negatively arousing words is driven by associative processes.

Psychopathology and Deviant Sexual Arousal in Incarcerated Sexual Offenders.

Science.gov (United States)

Serin, Ralph C.; And Others

1994-01-01

Investigates the relationship between psychopathology and deviant sexual arousal in sexual offenders (n=65), with approximately equal numbers of rapists and child molesters. Differentiating between rapists, extrafamilial pedophiles, and incest offenders revealed that the relationship between psychopathology and arousal was most apparent for…

A unifying computational framework for stability and flexibility of arousal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christin eKosse

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Arousal and consciousness flexibly adjust to salient cues, but remain stable despite noise and disturbance. Diverse, highly interconnected neural networks govern the underlying transitions of behavioural state; these networks are robust but very complex. Frameworks from systems engineering provide powerful tools for understanding functional logic behind component complexity. From a general systems viewpoint, a minimum of three communicating control modules may enable flexibility and stability to coexist. Comparators would subtract current arousal from desired arousal, producing an error signal. Regulators would compute control signals from this error. Generators would convert control signals into arousal, which is fed back to comparators, to make the system noise-proof through self-correction. Can specific neurons correspond to these control elements? To explore this, here we consider the brain-wide orexin/hypocretin network, which is experimentally established to be vital for flexible and stable arousal. We discuss whether orexin neurons may act as comparators, and their target neurons as regulators and generators. Experiments are proposed for testing such predictions, based on computational simulations showing that comparators, regulators, and generators have distinct temporal signatures of activity. If some regulators integrate orexin-communicated errors, robust arousal control may be achieved via integral feedback (a basic engineering strategy for tracking a set-point despite noise. An integral feedback view also suggests functional roles for specific molecular aspects, such as differing life-spans of orexin peptides. The proposed framework offers a unifying logic for molecular, cellular, and network details of arousal systems, and provides insight into behavioral state transitions, complex behaviour, and bases for disease.

Financial Anxiety, Physiological Arousal, and Planning Intention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John Grable

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Results from this exploratory clinical study indicate that financial anxiety—holding an unhealthy attitude about one’s financial situation—and physiological arousal—the physical precursor to behavior—play important roles in shaping consumer intention to engage in future financial planning activity. Findings suggest that those who are most likely to engage the services of a financial adviser exhibit low levels of financial anxiety and moderate to high levels of physiological arousal. The least likely to seek the help of a financial adviser are those who exhibit high financial anxiety and low physiological arousal. Results support findings documented in the literature that high anxiety levels often lead to a form of self-imposed helplessness. In order to move those experiencing financial anxiety towards financial solutions, financial advisers ought to take steps to simultaneously reduce financial stressors and stimulate arousal as a way to promote behavioral change and help seeking.

CAP, epilepsy and motor events during sleep: the unifying role of arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Parrino, Liborio; Halasz, Peter; Tassinari, Carlo Alberto; Terzano, Mario Giovanni

2006-08-01

Arousal systems play a topical neurophysiologic role in protecting and tailoring sleep duration and depth. When they appear in NREM sleep, arousal responses are not limited to a single EEG pattern but are part of a continuous spectrum of EEG modifications ranging from high-voltage slow rhythms to low amplitude fast activities. The hierarchic features of arousal responses are reflected in the phase A subtypes of CAP (cyclic alternating pattern) including both slow arousals (dominated by the ASDA arousals). CAP is an infraslow oscillation with a periodicity of 20-40s that participates in the dynamic organization of sleep and in the activation of motor events. Physiologic, paraphysiologic and pathologic motor activities during NREM sleep are always associated with a stereotyped arousal pattern characterized by an initial increase in EEG delta power and heart rate, followed by a progressive activation of faster EEG frequencies. These findings suggest that motor patterns are already written in the brain codes (central pattern generators) embraced with an automatic sequence of EEG-vegetative events, but require a certain degree of activation (arousal) to become visibly apparent. Arousal can appear either spontaneously or be elicited by internal (epileptic burst) or external (noise, respiratory disturbance) stimuli. Whether the outcome is a physiologic movement, a muscle jerk or a major epileptic attack will depend on a number of ongoing factors (sleep stage, delta power, neuro-motor network) but all events share the common trait of arousal-activated phenomena.

Enhanced conflict-driven cognitive control by emotional arousal, not by valence.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Qinghong; Qi, Senqing; Li, Miaoyun; Yao, Shuxia; Ding, Cody; Yang, Dong

2017-09-01

Emotion is widely agreed to have two dimensions, valence and arousal. Few studies have explored the effect of emotion on conflict adaptation by considering both of these, which could have dissociate influence. The present study aimed to fill the gap as to whether emotional valence and arousal would exert dissociable influence on conflict adaptation. In the experiments, we included positive, neutral, and negative conditions, with comparable arousal between positive and negative conditions. Both positive and negative conditions have higher arousal than neutral ones. In Experiment 1, by using a two-colour-word Flanker task, we found that conflict adaptation was enhanced in both positive and negative contexts compared to a neutral context. Furthermore, this effect still existed when controlling stimulus-response repetitions in Experiment 2, which used a four-colour-word Flanker task. The findings suggest emotional arousal enhances conflict adaptation, regardless of emotional valence. Thus, future studies should consider emotional arousal when studying the effect of emotion on conflict adaptation. Moreover, the unique role of the emotional context in conflict-driven cognitive control is emphasised.

Evaluation of Pure Aluminium Inoculated with Varying Grain Sizes of an Agro-waste based Inoculant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adeyemi I. Olabisi

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Pure Aluminium and its alloy are widely utilized in Engineering and Industrial applications due to certain significant properties such as softness, ductility, corrosion resistance, and high electrical conductivity which it possesses. Addition of an agro-waste based grain refiner to the melt can alter the characteristics positively or negatively. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the inoculating capability of an agro-waste based inoculant and the effect of adding varying sizes of its grains on some of the properties of pure aluminium after solidification. The beneficial outcome of this investigation would enhance the economic value of the selected agro-waste and also broaden the applications of aluminium in Engineering. The assessed properties include; microstructure, micro hardness, ductility, and tensile strength. The agro-waste used as the grain refiner is pulverised cocoa bean shells (CBS. Three sets of test samples were produced using dry sand moulding process, with each melt having a specified grain size of the inoculant added to it (150, 225 and 300microns respectively. Ladle inoculation method was adopted. The cast samples after solidification were machined to obtain various shapes/sizes for the different analysis. The microstructural examination showed that the mechanical properties are dependent on the matrix as the aluminium grains became more refined with increasing grain size of the inoculant. I.e. Due to increasing grain size of the inoculant, the micro hardness increased (56, 61, 72HB as the aluminium crystal size became finer. Meanwhile, the tensile strength (284, 251, 223N/mm2 and ductility (1.82, 0.91, 0.45%E decreased as grain size of the inoculant increased. The overall results showed that the used agro-waste based inoculant has the capability of refining the crystal size of pure aluminium as its grain size increases. This will make the resulting aluminium alloy applicable in areas where hardness is of

Adaptive memory: Is the animacy effect on memory due to emotional arousal?

Science.gov (United States)

Meinhardt, Martin J; Bell, Raoul; Buchner, Axel; Röer, Jan P

2018-05-07

Animate entities are often better remembered than inanimate ones. The proximal mechanisms underlying this animacy effect on recall are unclear. In two experiments, we tested whether the animacy effect is due to emotional arousal. Experiment 1 revealed that translations of the animate words used in the pioneering study of Nairne et al. (Psychological science, 24, 2099-2105, 2013) were perceived as being more arousing than translations of the inanimate words, suggesting that animacy might have been confounded with arousal in previous studies. In Experiment 2, new word lists were created in which the animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal (amongst several other dimensions), and participants were required to reproduce the animate and inanimate words in a free recall task. There was a tendency towards better memory for arousing items, but robust animacy effects were obtained even though animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal. Thus, while arousal may contribute to the animacy effect when it is not carefully controlled for, it cannot explain the memory advantage of animate items.

Independent effects of relevance and arousal on deductive reasoning.

Science.gov (United States)

Caparos, Serge; Blanchette, Isabelle

2017-08-01

Emotional content can have either a deleterious or a beneficial impact on logicality. Using standard deductive-reasoning tasks, we tested the hypothesis that the interplay of two factors - personal relevance and arousal - determines the nature of the effect of emotional content on logicality. Arousal was assessed using measures of skin conductance. Personal relevance was manipulated by asking participants to reason about semantic contents linked to an emotional event that they had experienced or not. Findings showed that (1) personal relevance exerts a positive effect on logicality while arousal exerts a negative effect, and that (2) these effects are independent of each other.

Resting-state functional connectivity differentiates anxious apprehension and anxious arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Burdwood, Erin N; Infantolino, Zachary P; Crocker, Laura D; Spielberg, Jeffrey M; Banich, Marie T; Miller, Gregory A; Heller, Wendy

2016-10-01

Brain regions in the default mode network (DMN) display greater functional connectivity at rest or during self-referential processing than during goal-directed tasks. The present study assessed resting-state connectivity as a function of anxious apprehension and anxious arousal, independent of depressive symptoms, in order to understand how these dimensions disrupt cognition. Whole-brain, seed-based analyses indicated differences between anxious apprehension and anxious arousal in DMN functional connectivity. Lower connectivity associated with higher anxious apprehension suggests decreased adaptive, inner-focused thought processes, whereas higher connectivity at higher levels of anxious arousal may reflect elevated monitoring of physiological responses to threat. These findings further the conceptualization of anxious apprehension and anxious arousal as distinct psychological dimensions with distinct neural instantiations. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Arousal-But Not Valence-Reduces False Memories at Retrieval.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiara Mirandola

Full Text Available Mood affects both memory accuracy and memory distortions. However, some aspects of this relation are still poorly understood: (1 whether valence and arousal equally affect false memory production, and (2 whether retrieval-related processes matter; the extant literature typically shows that mood influences memory performance when it is induced before encoding, leaving unsolved whether mood induced before retrieval also impacts memory. We examined how negative, positive, and neutral mood induced before retrieval affected inferential false memories and related subjective memory experiences. A recognition-memory paradigm for photographs depicting script-like events was employed. Results showed that individuals in both negative and positive moods-similar in arousal levels-correctly recognized more target events and endorsed fewer false memories (and these errors were linked to remember responses less frequently, compared to individuals in neutral mood. This suggests that arousal (but not valence predicted memory performance; furthermore, we found that arousal ratings provided by participants were more adequate predictors of memory performance than their actual belonging to either positive, negative or neutral mood groups. These findings suggest that arousal has a primary role in affecting memory, and that mood exerts its power on true and false memory even when induced at retrieval.

Upbeat and happy: arousal as an important factor in studying attention.

Science.gov (United States)

McConnell, Meghan M; Shore, David I

2011-11-01

The present study examined the effects of music-induced mood changes on different components of visual attention. Affective valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal (high vs. low) were manipulated by having participants listen to one of four versions of a Mozart Sonata that varied in mode (major or minor) and tempo (fast or slow). Attention was measured in three domains-alerting, orienting, and executive control. Affective valence and arousal had an effect on executive control, but not on alerting or orienting. Individuals who experienced positive valence had less efficient control over their responses than those who experienced negative valence, but only when arousal levels were high. Positive and negative valence did not influence executive control measures when arousal levels were low. These findings demonstrate that affective valence and arousal interact with one another to influence the processing of items in visual attention.

Psychological and hormonal stress response patterns during a blood donation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoogerwerf, M D; Veldhuizen, I J T; Merz, E-M; de Kort, W L A M; Frings-Dresen, M H W; Sluiter, J K

2017-11-01

Donating blood has been associated with increased stress responses, with scarce evidence indicating that levels of psychological and hormonal stress are higher pre-donation than post-donation. We investigated whether a blood donation induces psychological and/or hormonal stress during the course of a blood donation, and whether responses differed between men and women, first-time and experienced donors and donors with high or low non-acute stress. In 363 donors, psychological (donation-stress and arousal) and hormonal (cortisol) stress were measured by questionnaire and salivary sample at seven key moments during a routine donation. Non-acute stress was assessed by a questionnaire. Repeated measurement analyses were performed, using the last measurement (leaving the donation center) as reference value. Levels of donation-stress, arousal and cortisol were significantly higher during donation than when leaving the donation center. When compared with men, women reported higher levels of donation-stress and cortisol in the first part of the visit. When compared with first-time donors, experienced donors reported lower levels of donation-stress during the first part of the visit, and higher levels of arousal but less reactivity throughout the visit. When compared to donors high on non-acute stress, donors low on non-acute stress reported lower levels of donation-stress during the first part of the visit, and showed less cortisol reactivity throughout the visit. Donating blood influences psychological and hormonal stress response patterns. The response patterns differ between women and men, first-time and experienced donors and between donors high and low on non-acute stress. © 2017 International Society of Blood Transfusion.

Exposure to arousal-inducing sounds facilitates visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Asutay, Erkin; Västfjäll, Daniel

2017-09-04

Exposure to affective stimuli could enhance perception and facilitate attention via increasing alertness, vigilance, and by decreasing attentional thresholds. However, evidence on the impact of affective sounds on perception and attention is scant. Here, a novel aspect of affective facilitation of attention is studied: whether arousal induced by task-irrelevant auditory stimuli could modulate attention in a visual search. In two experiments, participants performed a visual search task with and without auditory-cues that preceded the search. Participants were faster in locating high-salient targets compared to low-salient targets. Critically, search times and search slopes decreased with increasing auditory-induced arousal while searching for low-salient targets. Taken together, these findings suggest that arousal induced by sounds can facilitate attention in a subsequent visual search. This novel finding provides support for the alerting function of the auditory system by showing an auditory-phasic alerting effect in visual attention. The results also indicate that stimulus arousal modulates the alerting effect. Attention and perception are our everyday tools to navigate our surrounding world and the current findings showing that affective sounds could influence visual attention provide evidence that we make use of affective information during perceptual processing.

Tracking arousal state and mind wandering with pupillometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Unsworth, Nash; Robison, Matthew K

2018-04-13

In four experiments, the association between arousal state and different mind-wandering states was examined. Participants performed a sustained attention task while pupil responses were continuously recorded. Periodically during the task, participants were presented with thought probes to determine if they were on task or mind wandering. Across the four experiments, the results suggested that in situations that promoted on-task behaviors and focused external attention, mind wandering was associated with lowered arousal, as seen by smaller tonic pupil diameters and smaller phasic pupillary responses. However, in situations that promoted a more internal focus of attention, there were no differences between on-task states and mind wandering in tonic pupil diameter (although differences emerged for phasic pupillary responses), suggesting similar arousal levels. Furthermore, across the four experiments, mind blanking and mind wandering dissociated in terms of whether the situation promoted focused external attention or focused internal attention. These results are broadly consistent with the notion that mind wandering is a heterogeneous construct, with different forms of mind wandering being associated with different arousal states, and suggest that a combination of behavioral and pupillary measures can be used to track these various states.

Effects of music on arousal during imagery in elite shooters: A pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuan, Garry; Morris, Tony; Terry, Peter

2017-01-01

Beneficial effects of music on several performance-related aspects of sport have been reported, but the processes involved are not well understood. The purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of relaxing and arousing classical music on physiological indicators and subjective perceptions of arousal during imagery of a sport task. First, appropriate music excerpts were selected. Then, 12 skilled shooters performed shooting imagery while listening to the three preselected music excerpts in randomized order. Participants' galvanic skin response, peripheral temperature, and electromyography were monitored during music played concurrently with imagery. Subjective music ratings and physiological measures showed, as hypothesized, that unfamiliar relaxing music was the most relaxing and unfamiliar arousing music was the most arousing. Researchers should examine the impact of unfamiliar relaxing and arousing music played during imagery on subsequent performance in diverse sports. Practitioners can apply unfamiliar relaxing and arousing music with imagery to manipulate arousal level.

The influence of valence and arousal on reasoning: Affective priming in the semantic verification task

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orlić Ana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of affective valence and arousal on the reasoning process. Reasoning was measured using a semantic verification task and the influence of valence and arousal was tracked using the affective priming paradigm. Primes were photographs varied on two dimensions - emotional valence (positive, neutral, negative and arousal (high, low. Forty-nine psychology students participated in the experiment. Results showed that reaction time needed for semantic verification was significantly faster for positive-high arousing in comparison to positive-low arousing condition and for neutral high arousing in comparison to neutral-low arousing condition, but there were no significant differences in negative low and high arousing conditions. Also, significant differences were found among all three valences in high arousing conditions and there were no such differences in low arousing conditions. These results reveal the importance of both arousal and valence in the research on the influence of emotions on the reasoning process. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179033

Cultural differences in emotion: differences in emotional arousal level between the East and the West

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nangyeon Lim

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Whether emotion is universal or social is a recurrent issue in the history of emotion study among psychologists. Some researchers view emotion as a universal construct, and that a large part of emotional experience is biologically based. However, emotion is not only biologically determined, but is also influenced by the environment. Therefore, cultural differences exist in some aspects of emotions, one such important aspect of emotion being emotional arousal level. All affective states are systematically represented as two bipolar dimensions, valence and arousal. Arousal level of actual and ideal emotions has consistently been found to have cross-cultural differences. In Western or individualist culture, high arousal emotions are valued and promoted more than low arousal emotions. Moreover, Westerners experience high arousal emotions more than low arousal emotions. By contrast, in Eastern or collectivist culture, low arousal emotions are valued more than high arousal emotions. Moreover, people in the East actually experience and prefer to experience low arousal emotions more than high arousal emotions. Mechanism of these cross-cultural differences and implications are also discussed.

Cultural differences in emotion: differences in emotional arousal level between the East and the West.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Nangyeon

2016-06-01

Whether emotion is universal or social is a recurrent issue in the history of emotion study among psychologists. Some researchers view emotion as a universal construct, and that a large part of emotional experience is biologically based. However, emotion is not only biologically determined, but is also influenced by the environment. Therefore, cultural differences exist in some aspects of emotions, one such important aspect of emotion being emotional arousal level. All affective states are systematically represented as two bipolar dimensions, valence and arousal. Arousal level of actual and ideal emotions has consistently been found to have cross-cultural differences. In Western or individualist culture, high arousal emotions are valued and promoted more than low arousal emotions. Moreover, Westerners experience high arousal emotions more than low arousal emotions. By contrast, in Eastern or collectivist culture, low arousal emotions are valued more than high arousal emotions. Moreover, people in the East actually experience and prefer to experience low arousal emotions more than high arousal emotions. Mechanism of these cross-cultural differences and implications are also discussed.

Catecholamines in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-01

CONTRACT NUMBER Catecholamines in post - traumatic stress disorder 5b. GRANT NUMBER W81XWH-08-1-0327 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d...emotionally arousing experiences are typically vivid and persistent. The recurrent, intrusive memories of traumatic events in post - traumatic stress disorder ...AD_________________ Award Number: W81XWH-08-1-0327 TITLE: Catecholamines in post - traumatic stress

Effects of music on arousal during imagery in elite shooters: A pilot study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garry Kuan

Full Text Available Beneficial effects of music on several performance-related aspects of sport have been reported, but the processes involved are not well understood. The purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of relaxing and arousing classical music on physiological indicators and subjective perceptions of arousal during imagery of a sport task. First, appropriate music excerpts were selected. Then, 12 skilled shooters performed shooting imagery while listening to the three preselected music excerpts in randomized order. Participants' galvanic skin response, peripheral temperature, and electromyography were monitored during music played concurrently with imagery. Subjective music ratings and physiological measures showed, as hypothesized, that unfamiliar relaxing music was the most relaxing and unfamiliar arousing music was the most arousing. Researchers should examine the impact of unfamiliar relaxing and arousing music played during imagery on subsequent performance in diverse sports. Practitioners can apply unfamiliar relaxing and arousing music with imagery to manipulate arousal level.

Low-Arousal Speech Noise Improves Performance in N-Back Task: An ERP Study

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Dandan; Jin, Yi; Luo, Yuejia

2013-01-01

The relationship between noise and human performance is a crucial topic in ergonomic research. However, the brain dynamics of the emotional arousal effects of background noises are still unclear. The current study employed meaningless speech noises in the n-back working memory task to explore the changes of event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the noises with low arousal level vs. high arousal level. We found that the memory performance in low arousal condition were improved compared with the silent and the high arousal conditions; participants responded more quickly and had larger P2 and P3 amplitudes in low arousal condition while the performance and ERP components showed no significant difference between high arousal and silent conditions. These findings suggested that the emotional arousal dimension of background noises had a significant influence on human working memory performance, and that this effect was independent of the acoustic characteristics of noises (e.g., intensity) and the meaning of speech materials. The current findings improve our understanding of background noise effects on human performance and lay the ground for the investigation of patients with attention deficits. PMID:24204607

Low-arousal speech noise improves performance in N-back task: an ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Longzhu; Liu, Yunzhe; Zhang, Dandan; Jin, Yi; Luo, Yuejia

2013-01-01

The relationship between noise and human performance is a crucial topic in ergonomic research. However, the brain dynamics of the emotional arousal effects of background noises are still unclear. The current study employed meaningless speech noises in the n-back working memory task to explore the changes of event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the noises with low arousal level vs. high arousal level. We found that the memory performance in low arousal condition were improved compared with the silent and the high arousal conditions; participants responded more quickly and had larger P2 and P3 amplitudes in low arousal condition while the performance and ERP components showed no significant difference between high arousal and silent conditions. These findings suggested that the emotional arousal dimension of background noises had a significant influence on human working memory performance, and that this effect was independent of the acoustic characteristics of noises (e.g., intensity) and the meaning of speech materials. The current findings improve our understanding of background noise effects on human performance and lay the ground for the investigation of patients with attention deficits.

Low-arousal speech noise improves performance in N-back task: an ERP study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Longzhu Han

Full Text Available The relationship between noise and human performance is a crucial topic in ergonomic research. However, the brain dynamics of the emotional arousal effects of background noises are still unclear. The current study employed meaningless speech noises in the n-back working memory task to explore the changes of event-related potentials (ERPs elicited by the noises with low arousal level vs. high arousal level. We found that the memory performance in low arousal condition were improved compared with the silent and the high arousal conditions; participants responded more quickly and had larger P2 and P3 amplitudes in low arousal condition while the performance and ERP components showed no significant difference between high arousal and silent conditions. These findings suggested that the emotional arousal dimension of background noises had a significant influence on human working memory performance, and that this effect was independent of the acoustic characteristics of noises (e.g., intensity and the meaning of speech materials. The current findings improve our understanding of background noise effects on human performance and lay the ground for the investigation of patients with attention deficits.

Inoculation Expedition of Agar wood

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peng, C.S.; Mohd Fajri Osman; Rusli Zakaria

2015-01-01

Inoculation expedition of agar wood is a main field works for researcher in Nuclear Malaysia to prove the real inoculation of agar wood in real jungle. These expeditions was conducted fourth times in the jungles of Malaysia including Gunung Tebu in Terengganu, Murum in Belaga, Sarawak, Kampung Timbang in Kota Belud, Sabah and Nuclear Malaysia itself. This expedition starts from preparation of samples and equipment, transportation into the jungle, searching and recognition of agar wood and lastly, inoculation of the agar wood. Safety aspects precedence set out in the preparation and implementation of this expedition. (author)

Assessing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder's Latent Structure in Elderly Bereaved European Trauma Victims: Evidence for a Five Factor Dysphoric and Anxious Arousal Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Armour, Cherie; O'Connor, Maja; Elklit, Ask

2013-01-01

to provide superior fit over the existing four-factor models. The present study investigated the fit of the five-factor model against the existing four-factor models and assessed the resultant factors association with depression in a bereaved European trauma sample (N=325). Participants were assessed...... for PTSD via the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and depression via the Beck Depression Inventory. The five-factor model provided superior fit to the data compared to the existing four-factor models. In the Dysphoric Arousal model depression was equally related to both Dysphoric Arousal and Emotional Numbing...

Maize Inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense Ab-V5 Cells Enriched with Exopolysaccharides and Polyhydroxybutyrate Results in High Productivity under Low N Fertilizer Input

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

André L. M. Oliveira

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Although Azospirillum strains used in commercial inoculant formulations presents diazotrophic activity, it has been reported that their ability to produce phytohormones plays a pivotal role in plant growth-promotion, leading to a general recommendation of its use in association with regular N-fertilizer doses. In addition, a high variability in the effectiveness of Azospirillum inoculants is still reported under field conditions, contributing to the adoption of the inoculation technology as an additional management practice rather than its use as an alternative practice to the use of chemical inputs in agriculture. To investigate whether the content of stress-resistance biopolymers would improve the viability and performance of Azospirillum inoculants when used as substitute of N-fertilizers, biomass of A. brasilense strain Ab-V5 enriched in exopolysaccharides (EPS and polyhydroxybutirate (PHB was produced using a new culture medium developed by factorial mixture design, and the effectiveness of resulting inoculants was evaluated under field conditions. The culture medium formulation extended the log phase of A. brasilense cultures, which presented higher cell counts and increased EPS and PHB contents than observed in the cultures grown in the OAB medium used as control. An inoculation trial with maize conducted under greenhouse conditions and using the biopolymers-enriched Ab-V5 cells demonstrated the importance of EPS and PHB to the long term bacterial viability in soil and to the effectiveness of inoculation. The effectiveness of liquid and peat inoculants prepared with Ab-V5 cells enriched with EPS and PHB was also evaluated under field conditions, using maize as target crop along different seasons, with the inoculants applied directly over seeds or at topdressing under limiting levels of N-fertilization. No additive effect on yield resulted from inoculation under high N fertilizer input, while inoculated plants grown under 80% reduction in

Maize Inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense Ab-V5 Cells Enriched with Exopolysaccharides and Polyhydroxybutyrate Results in High Productivity under Low N Fertilizer Input

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, André L. M.; Santos, Odair J. A. P.; Marcelino, Paulo R. F.; Milani, Karina M. L.; Zuluaga, Mónica Y. A.; Zucareli, Claudemir; Gonçalves, Leandro S. A.

2017-01-01

Although Azospirillum strains used in commercial inoculant formulations presents diazotrophic activity, it has been reported that their ability to produce phytohormones plays a pivotal role in plant growth-promotion, leading to a general recommendation of its use in association with regular N-fertilizer doses. In addition, a high variability in the effectiveness of Azospirillum inoculants is still reported under field conditions, contributing to the adoption of the inoculation technology as an additional management practice rather than its use as an alternative practice to the use of chemical inputs in agriculture. To investigate whether the content of stress-resistance biopolymers would improve the viability and performance of Azospirillum inoculants when used as substitute of N-fertilizers, biomass of A. brasilense strain Ab-V5 enriched in exopolysaccharides (EPS) and polyhydroxybutirate (PHB) was produced using a new culture medium developed by factorial mixture design, and the effectiveness of resulting inoculants was evaluated under field conditions. The culture medium formulation extended the log phase of A. brasilense cultures, which presented higher cell counts and increased EPS and PHB contents than observed in the cultures grown in the OAB medium used as control. An inoculation trial with maize conducted under greenhouse conditions and using the biopolymers-enriched Ab-V5 cells demonstrated the importance of EPS and PHB to the long term bacterial viability in soil and to the effectiveness of inoculation. The effectiveness of liquid and peat inoculants prepared with Ab-V5 cells enriched with EPS and PHB was also evaluated under field conditions, using maize as target crop along different seasons, with the inoculants applied directly over seeds or at topdressing under limiting levels of N-fertilization. No additive effect on yield resulted from inoculation under high N fertilizer input, while inoculated plants grown under 80% reduction in N fertilizer

Intrauterine inoculation of minipigs with Chlamydia trachomatis during diestrus establishes a longer lasting infection compared to vaginal inoculation during estrus.

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenzen, Emma; Follmann, Frank; Secher, Jan O; Goericke-Pesch, Sandra; Hansen, Mette S; Zakariassen, Hannah; Olsen, Anja W; Andersen, Peter; Jungersen, Gregers; Agerholm, Jørgen S

2017-06-01

Advanced animal models, such as minipigs, are needed for the development of a globally requested human Chlamydia vaccine. Previous studies have shown that vaginal inoculation of sexually mature Göttingen minipigs with Chlamydia trachomatis resulted in an infection lasting only 3-5 days. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of targeting the upper porcine genital tract by transcervical and transabdominal intrauterine inoculation, compared to previously performed vaginal inoculation. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of the hormonal cycle, estrus vs. diestrus, on the establishment of a C. trachomatis infection in the minipig. Targeting the upper genital tract (transcervical inoculation) resulted in a longer lasting infection (at least 7 days) compared to vaginal inoculation (3-5 days). When comparing intrauterine inoculation during estrus and diestrus, inoculation during diestrus resulted in a longer lasting infection (at least 10 days) compared to estrus (3-5 days). Furthermore, we found a significant C. trachomatis specific IFN-γ response in pigs inoculated during estrus correlating with the accelerated clearance of infection in these pigs. These findings suggest that for implementation of an optimal model of C. trachomatis in minipigs, inoculation should bypass the cervix and preferable be performed during diestrus. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.

Does optimism act as a buffer against posttraumatic stress over time? A longitudinal study of the protective role of optimism after the 2011 Oslo bombing.

Science.gov (United States)

Birkeland, Marianne Skogbrott; Blix, Ines; Solberg, Øivind; Heir, Trond

2017-03-01

Cross-sectional studies have revealed that high levels of optimism can protect against high levels of posttraumatic stress after exposure to trauma. However, this is the first study to explore (a) the protective role of optimism in a longitudinal perspective and (b) optimism's protective effects on specific symptom clusters within the posttraumatic stress symptomatology. This study used prospective survey data from ministerial employees (n = 256) collected approximately 1, 2, and 3 years after the 2011 Oslo bombing. To examine relationships between optimism and development of posttraumatic stress, we applied a series of latent growth curve analyses of both overall posttraumatic stress and the 5 clusters within the posttraumatic stress symptomatology (intrusions, avoidance, numbing, dysphoric arousal, and anxious arousal) with predictors and interaction terms. The results showed that levels of exposure and optimism had main effects on starting levels of all clusters of posttraumatic stress. In addition, optimism had a protective-stabilizing effect on starting levels of avoidance, numbing, and dysphoric arousal. No associations between optimism and rate of change in symptoms clusters were found. These results suggest that optimism may help to neutralize the effects of high exposure on levels of symptoms of avoidance, numbing, and dysphoric arousal but not on the symptoms of intrusions and anxious arousal. Thus, individuals high in optimism still experience intrusions and anxious arousal after trauma, but may be better equipped to cope with these so they do not develop into avoidance, numbing and dyshorical arousal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

A psychophysiological investigation of sexual arousal in women with lifelong vaginismus.

Science.gov (United States)

Cherner, Rebecca A; Reissing, Elke D

2013-05-01

Relatively little is known about the subjective reactions of women with lifelong vaginismus to erotic stimuli and genital arousal has never been investigated. Reports of maladaptive cognitions and fears regarding sexuality and intercourse suggest that anxiety may interfere with sexual arousal in women with vaginismus. To examine the genital and subjective responses to sexually explicit film stimuli of women with lifelong vaginismus compared with women with lifelong dyspareunia and women with no pain. Forty-five women (15 vaginismus, 15 dyspareunia, and 15 no pain) viewed two neutral and two erotic film sets, one depicting sexual activity without vaginal penetration and the other depicting intercourse, over two testing sessions. Vulvar temperature was recorded using an infrared camera. Participants completed a measure of subjective responses after viewing each film. All groups experienced increased vulvar temperature during the erotic films regardless of activity depicted. In response to the erotic films, the vaginismus group reported less mental arousal than the no-pain group and a range of negative subjective responses, including threat and disgust. Overall, participants showed concordance between peak subjective sexual arousal and temperature change from baseline to peak arousal. Despite negative subjective responses, women with vaginismus responded with increased genital sexual arousal to erotic films. The resilience of genital arousal may have resulted from moderate levels of anxiety experienced in the laboratory setting facilitating sexual response regardless of subjective appraisal; however, anxiety experienced in a dyadic context may interfere more substantially. © 2013 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

New inoculants on maize silage fermentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fábia Giovana do Val de Assis

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of bacterial inoculants at two inoculation rates on chemical and biological characteristics of maize silage. The treatments consisted of two inoculating rates (5 and 6 log cfu g-1 of forage for each strain of lactic acid bacteria (LAB identified as Lactobacillus buchneri, L. hilgardii, or L. plantarum. The maize was ensiled in experimental PVC silos. Samples were taken for the determination of the contents of dry matter (DM, crude protein (CP, neutral detergent fiber (NDF, water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC, organic acids and alcohols, for the evaluation of the populations of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi, and for the determination of pH values during ensilage and after 30 or 90 days of fermentation. The doses of inoculants did not promote significant differences on the evaluated characteristics. There was effect of inoculants on acetic acid, 1.2-propanediol, LAB population, filamentous fungi, and pH value. No significant influence of the treatments with inoculants was observed in the variables DM, WSC, CP, lactic acid concentrations, or ethanol. The maximum temperature, i.e., the time to achieve the maximum temperature (TMT and aerobic stability (AS, was not influencied by treatments. However, a decrease in maximum temperature, an increase in TMT, and improvement in the AS were observed after 90 days of fermentation. These results proved the advantage of microbial inoculation. The treatments influenced LAB populations and filamentous fungi, but no effect was observed on the yeast population. The best inoculation dose is 6 cfu g-1 of forage because it provides higher reduction of filamentous fungi in maize silage, thereby decreasing the aerobic deterioration by these microorganisms.

Inoculation Technique for Fungus Cultures

Science.gov (United States)

Fusaro, Ramon M.

1972-01-01

A plastic straw and wood applicator stick serve as a simple, inexpensive, and disposable inoculation unit for fungal studies. The method gives a uniform and intact inoculum. The technique is especially useful because a large number of agar plates can be inoculated rapidly. Images PMID:5059618

Depression, Fatigue, and Pre-Sleep Arousal: A Mediation Model

Science.gov (United States)

Karlson, Cynthia W.; Stevens, Natalie R.; Olson, Christy A.; Hamilton, Nancy A.

2010-01-01

Fatigue is a common and debilitating symptom of clinical depression; however, the causes are not well understood. The present study was designed to test the hypotheses that subjective sleep, objective sleep, and arousal in the pre-sleep state would mediate the relationship between depression status and fatigue. Sleep, pre-sleep arousal, and…

Epidural electrocorticography for monitoring of arousal in locked-in state

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alireza eGharabaghi

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Electroencephalography often fails to assess both the level (i.e. arousal and the content (i.e. awareness of pathologically altered consciousness in patients without motor responsiveness. This might be related to a decline of awareness, to episodes of low arousal and disturbed sleep patterns, and/or to distorting and attenuating effects of the skull and intermediate tissue on the recorded brain signals. Novel approaches are required to overcome these limitations.We introduced epidural electrocorticography (ECoG for monitoring of cortical physiology in a late-stage amytrophic lateral sclerosis patient in completely locked-in state. Despite long-term application for a period of six months, no implant-related complications occurred. Recordings from the left frontal cortex were sufficient to identify three arousal states. Spectral analysis of the intrinsic oscillatory activity enabled us to extract state-dependent dominant frequencies at < 4, ~ 7 and ~ 20 Hz, representing sleep-like periods, and phases of low and elevated arousal, respectively. In the absence of other biomarkers, ECoG proved to be a reliable tool for monitoring circadian rhythmicity, i.e. avoiding interference with the patient when he was sleeping and exploiting time windows of responsiveness. Moreover, the effects of interventions addressing the patient’s arousal, e.g. amantadine medication, could be evaluated objectively on the basis of physiological markers, even in the absence of behavioral parameters.Epidural ECoG constitutes a feasible trade-off between surgical risk and quality of recorded brain signals to gain information on the patient’s present level of arousal. This approach enables us to optimize the timing of interactions and medical interventions, all of which should take place when the patient is in a phase of high arousal. Furthermore, avoiding low-responsiveness periods will facilitate measures to implement alternative communication pathways involving brain

Influence of Body Odors and Gender on Perceived Genital Arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Alves-Oliveira, Patrícia; Carvalho, Joana; Ferreira, Jacqueline; Alho, Laura; Nobre, Pedro; Olsson, Mats J; Soares, Sandra C

2018-04-01

Olfaction is often linked to mating behavior in nonhumans. Additionally, studies in mating behavior have shown that women seem to be more affected by odor cues than men. However, the relationship between odor cues and sexual response-specifically, sexual arousal-has not been studied yet. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the exposure to human body odors (from individuals of the opposite gender) on perceived genital arousal, while these were presented concomitantly to sexually explicit video clips. Eighty university students (40 women) rated their perceived genital arousal (perceived degree of erection/genital lubrication) in response to an audiovisual sexual stimulus, while simultaneously exposed to a body odor from an opposite-gender donor or no odor. Participants also rated each odor sample's (body odor and no odor) perceived pleasantness, intensity, and familiarity. Findings indicated that odor condition had an effect on women's (but not men's) perceived genital arousal, with women showing higher levels of perceived genital arousal in the no odor condition. Also, results showed that women rated body odors as less pleasant than no odor. Notwithstanding, the odor ratings do not seem to explain the association between body odor and perceived genital arousal. The current results support the hypothesis that women, rather than men, are sensitive to odors in the context of sexual response. The findings of this study have relevance for the understanding of human sexuality with respect to chemosensory communication.

Stress Effects on Multiple Memory System Interactions

OpenAIRE

Ness, Deborah; Calabrese, Pasquale

2016-01-01

Extensive behavioural, pharmacological, and neurological research reports stress effects on mammalian memory processes. While stress effects on memory quantity have been known for decades, the influence of stress on multiple memory systems and their distinct contributions to the learning process have only recently been described. In this paper, after summarizing the fundamental biological aspects of stress/emotional arousal and recapitulating functionally and anatomically distinct memory syst...

Investigating psychological and physiological responses to the Trier Social Stress Test in young adults with insomnia.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Ivy Y; Jarrin, Denise C; Ivers, Hans; Morin, Charles M

2017-12-01

Stress and hyperarousal both contribute to insomnia. Elevated stress-related sleep reactivity is associated with hyperarousal, and might constitute a vulnerability to future insomnia. The present study examined acute stress-induced arousal and its association with nocturnal sleep. Participants were 30 healthy adults (66.7% female, M age  = 26.7 years): 10 with insomnia (INS) and 20 good sleepers with high vulnerability (HV) or low vulnerability (LV) to insomnia. They underwent two consecutive nights of polysomnography. During the evening preceding the second night, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was administered, and psychological and physiological arousal indices were assessed. The TSST elicited an increase in psychological and physiological arousal in all three groups. The INS group showed greater acute cortisol response (p stress reactivity and bedtime hyperarousal might represent a trait-like vulnerability in certain good sleepers. More research is warranted to validate and expand these preliminary findings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhanced sympathetic arousal in response to FMRI scanning correlates with task induced activations and deactivations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus Muehlhan

Full Text Available It has been repeatedly shown that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI triggers distress and neuroendocrine response systems. Prior studies have revealed that sympathetic arousal increases, particularly at the beginning of the examination. Against this background it appears likely that those stress reactions during the scanning procedure may influence task performance and neural correlates. However, the question how sympathetic arousal elicited by the scanning procedure itself may act as a potential confounder of fMRI data remains unresolved today. Thirty-seven scanner naive healthy subjects performed a simple cued target detection task. Levels of salivary alpha amylase (sAA, as a biomarker for sympathetic activity, were assessed in samples obtained at several time points during the lab visit. SAA increased two times, immediately prior to scanning and at the end of the scanning procedure. Neural activation related to motor preparation and timing as well as task performance was positively correlated with the first increase. Furthermore, the first sAA increase was associated with task induced deactivation (TID in frontal and parietal regions. However, these effects were restricted to the first part of the experiment. Consequently, this bias of scanner related sympathetic activation should be considered in future fMRI investigations. It is of particular importance for pharmacological investigations studying adrenergic agents and the comparison of groups with different stress vulnerabilities like patients and controls or adolescents and adults.

Neuroendocrine response to film-induced sexual arousal in men and women.

Science.gov (United States)

Exton, N G; Truong, T C; Exton, M S; Wingenfeld, S A; Leygraf, N; Saller, B; Hartmann, U; Schedlowski, M

2000-02-01

The psychoneuroendocrine responses to sexual arousal have not been clearly established in humans. However, we have demonstrated previously that masturbation-induced orgasm stimulates cardiovascular activity and induces increases in catecholamines and prolactin in blood of both males and females. We presently investigated the role of orgasm in producing these effects. Therefore, in this study parallel analysis of prolactin, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol concentrations, together with cardiovascular variables of systolic/diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were undertaken during film-induced sexual arousal in nine healthy adult men and nine healthy adult women. Blood was drawn continuously via an indwelling cannula and connected tubing system passed through a mini-pump. In parallel, the cardiovascular parameters were recorded continuously via a computerised finger-cuff sensor. Subjective sexual arousal increased significantly in both men and women during the erotic film, with sexual arousal eliciting an increase in blood pressure in both males and females, and plasma noradrenaline in females only. In contrast, adrenaline, cortisol and prolactin levels were unaffected by sexual arousal. These data further consolidate the role of sympathetic activation in sexual arousal processes. Furthermore, they demonstrate that increases in plasma prolactin during sexual stimulation are orgasm-dependent, suggesting that prolactin may regulate a negative-feedback sexual-satiation mechanism.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus inoculation reduces the drought-resistance advantage of endophyte-infected versus endophyte-free Leymus chinensis.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hui; Chen, Wei; Wu, Man; Wu, Rihan; Zhou, Yong; Gao, Yubao; Ren, Anzhi

2017-11-01

Grasses can be infected simultaneously by endophytic fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that endophyte-associated drought resistance of a native grass was affected by an AM fungus. In a greenhouse experiment, we compared the performance of endophyte-infected (EI) and endophyte-free (EF) Leymus chinensis, a dominant species native to the Inner Mongolia steppe, under altered water and AM fungus availability. The results showed that endophyte infection significantly increased drought resistance of the host grass, but the beneficial effects were reduced by AM fungus inoculation. In the mycorrhizal-non-inoculated (MF) treatment, EI plants accumulated significantly more biomass, had greater proline and total phenolic concentration, and lower malondialdehyde concentration than EF plants. In the mycorrhizal-inoculation (MI) treatment, however, no significant difference occurred in either growth or physiological characters measured between EI and EF plants. AM fungus inoculation enhanced drought resistance of EF plants but had no significant effect on drought resistance of EI plants, thus AM fungus inoculation reduced the difference between EI and EF plants. Our findings highlight the importance of interactions among multiple microorganisms for plant performance under drought stress.

Synchrony and Physiological Arousal Increase Cohesion and Cooperation in Large Naturalistic Groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Joshua Conrad; Jong, Jonathan; Bilkey, David; Whitehouse, Harvey; Zollmann, Stefanie; McNaughton, Craig; Halberstadt, Jamin

2018-01-09

Separate research streams have identified synchrony and arousal as two factors that might contribute to the effects of human rituals on social cohesion and cooperation. But no research has manipulated these variables in the field to investigate their causal - and potentially interactive - effects on prosocial behaviour. Across four experimental sessions involving large samples of strangers, we manipulated the synchronous and physiologically arousing affordances of a group marching task within a sports stadium. We observed participants' subsequent movement, grouping, and cooperation via a camera hidden in the stadium's roof. Synchrony and arousal both showed main effects, predicting larger groups, tighter clustering, and more cooperative behaviour in a free-rider dilemma. Synchrony and arousal also interacted on measures of clustering and cooperation such that synchrony only encouraged closer clustering-and encouraged greater cooperation-when paired with physiological arousal. The research helps us understand why synchrony and arousal often co-occur in rituals around the world. It also represents the first use of real-time spatial tracking as a precise and naturalistic method of simulating collective rituals.

Stress vulnerability and the effects of moderate daily stress on sleep polysomnography and subjective sleepiness.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Helena; Kecklund, Göran; D'Onofrio, Paolo; Nilsson, Jens; Åkerstedt, Torbjörn

2013-02-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate if and how sleep physiology is affected by naturally occurring high work stress and identify individual differences in the response of sleep to stress. Probable upcoming stress levels were estimated through weekly web questionnaire ratings. Based on the modified FIRST-scale (Ford insomnia response to stress) participants were grouped into high (n = 9) or low (n = 19) sensitivity to stress related sleep disturbances (Drake et al., 2004). Sleep was recorded in 28 teachers with polysomnography, sleep diaries and actigraphs during one high stress and one low stress condition in the participants home. EEG showed a decrease in sleep efficiency during the high stress condition. Significant interactions between group and condition were seen for REM sleep, arousals and stage transitions. The sensitive group had an increase in arousals and stage transitions during the high stress condition and a decrease in REM, whereas the opposite was seen in the resilient group. Diary ratings during the high stress condition showed higher bedtime stress and lower ratings on the awakening index (insufficient sleep and difficulties awakening). Ratings also showed lower cognitive function and preoccupation with work thoughts in the evening. KSS ratings of sleepiness increased during stress for the sensitive group. Saliva samples of cortisol showed no effect of stress. It was concluded that moderate daily stress is associated with a moderate negative effect on sleep sleep efficiency and fragmentation. A slightly stronger effect was seen in the sensitive group. © 2012 European Sleep Research Society.

Developmental Reversals in False Memory: Effects of Emotional Valence and Arousal

OpenAIRE

Brainerd, C. J.; Holliday, R. E.; Reyna, V. F.; Yang, Y.; Toglia, M. P.

2010-01-01

Do the emotional valence and arousal of events distort children’s memories? Do valence and arousal modulate counterintuitive age increases in false memory? We investigated those questions in children, adolescents, and adults using the Cornell/Cortland Emotion Lists, a word list pool that induces false memories and in which valence and arousal can be manipulated factorially. False memories increased with age for unpresented semantic associates of word lists, and net accuracy (the ratio of true...

Sexual Arousal and Sexually Explicit Media (SEM: Comparing Patterns of Sexual Arousal to SEM and Sexual Self-Evaluations and Satisfaction Across Gender and Sexual Orientation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gert Martin Hald, PhD

2018-03-01

Hald GM, Stulhofer A, Lange T, et al. Sexual Arousal and Sexually Explicit Media (SEM: Comparing Patterns of Sexual Arousal to SEM and Sexual Self-Evaluations and Satisfaction Across Gender and Sexual Orientation. Sex Med 2018;6:30–38.

Effect of Inoculant Alloy Selection and Particle Size on Efficiency of Isomorphic Inoculation of Ti-Al.

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, J R; Rouat, B; Daloz, D; Bouzy, E; Zollinger, J

2018-04-25

The process of isomorphic inoculation relies on precise selection of inoculant alloys for a given system. Three alloys, Ti-10Al-25Nb, Ti-25Al-10Ta, and Ti-47Ta (at %) were selected as potential isomorphic inoculants for a Ti-46Al alloy. The binary Ti-Ta alloy selected was found to be ineffective as an inoculant due to its large density difference with the melt, causing the particles to settle. Both ternary alloys were successfully implemented as isomorphic inoculants that decreased the equiaxed grain size and increased the equiaxed fraction in their ingots. The degree of grain refinement obtained was found to be dependent on the number of particles introduced to the melt. Also, more new grains were formed than particles added to the melt. The grains/particle efficiency varied from greater than one to nearly twenty as the size of the particle increased. This is attributed to the breaking up of particles into smaller particles by dissolution in the melt. For a given particle size, Ti-Al-Ta and Ti-Al-Nb particles were found to have a roughly similar grain/particle efficiency.

Preattentive processing, poststimulus elaboration, and memory for emotionally arousing stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Migita, Mai; Otani, Hajime; Libkuman, Terry M; Sheffert, Sonya M

2011-01-01

Christianson (1992) proposed two mechanisms to explain emotionally enhanced memory: preattentive processing and poststimulus elaboration. Experiment 1 examined these processes by instructing participants to perform (1) a concurrent distractor task, (2) a continuous distractor task, or (3) both while viewing the negatively arousing, positively arousing, and neutral pictures. Recall of negatively arousing pictures showed a small decline in one of the distractor conditions, indicating that elaboration plays a minor role in remembering these pictures. Experiment 2 partially replicated Experiment 1 with an intentional learning instruction to investigate whether participants in Experiment 1 were anticipating a recall test. For all three picture types, recall declined in the continuous distractor task condition, indicating that elaboration played a role, even when the pictures were negatively arousing. Overall, these results were consistent with the notion that remembering negatively valenced stimuli is largely based on preattentive processing with a minor role played by poststimulus elaboration.

Sex differences in the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system and its regulation by stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Bangasser, Debra A; Wiersielis, Kimberly R; Khantsis, Sabina

2016-06-15

Women are more likely than men to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression. In addition to their sex bias, these disorders share stress as an etiological factor and hyperarousal as a symptom. Thus, sex differences in brain arousal systems and their regulation by stress could help explain increased vulnerability to these disorders in women. Here we review preclinical studies that have identified sex differences in the locus coeruleus (LC)-norepinephrine (NE) arousal system. First, we detail how structural sex differences in the LC can bias females towards increased arousal in response to emotional events. Second, we highlight studies demonstrating that estrogen can increase NE in LC target regions by enhancing the capacity for NE synthesis, while reducing NE degradation, potentially increasing arousal in females. Third, we review data revealing how sex differences in the stress receptor, corticotropin releasing factor 1 (CRF1), can increase LC neuronal sensitivity to CRF in females compared to males. This effect could translate into hyperarousal in women under conditions of CRF hypersecretion that occur in PTSD and depression. The implications of these sex differences for the treatment of stress-related psychiatric disorders are discussed. Moreover, the value of using information regarding biological sex differences to aid in the development of novel pharmacotherapies to better treat men and women with PTSD and depression is also highlighted. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Noradrenergic System. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of emotional valence and arousal on the spread of activation in memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Jhean-Larose, Sandra; Leveau, Nicolas; Denhière, Guy

2014-11-01

Controversy still persists on whether emotional valence and arousal influence cognitive activities. Our study sought to compare how these two factors foster the spread of activation within the semantic network. In a lexical decision task, prime words were varied depending on the valence (pleasant or unpleasant) or on the level of emotional arousal (high or low). Target words were carefully selected to avoid semantic priming effects, as well as to avoid arousing specific emotions (neutral). Three SOA durations (220, 420 and 720 ms) were applied across three independent groups. Results indicate that at 220 ms, the effect of arousal is significantly higher than the effect of valence in facilitating spreading activation while at 420 ms, the effect of valence is significantly higher than the effect of arousal in facilitating spreading activation. These findings suggest that affect is a sequential process involving the successive intervention of arousal and valence.

Personality modulates the effects of emotional arousal and valence on brain activation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kehoe, Elizabeth G; Toomey, John M; Balsters, Joshua H; Bokde, Arun L W

2012-10-01

The influence of personality on the neural correlates of emotional processing is still not well characterized. We investigated the relationship between extraversion and neuroticism and emotional perception using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a group of 23 young, healthy women. Using a parametric modulation approach, we examined how the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal varied with the participants' ratings of arousal and valence, and whether levels of extraversion and neuroticism were related to these modulations. In particular, we wished to test Eysenck's biological theory of personality, which links high extraversion to lower levels of reticulothalamic-cortical arousal, and neuroticism to increased reactivity of the limbic system and stronger reactions to emotional arousal. Individuals high in neuroticism demonstrated reduced sustained activation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and attenuated valence processing in the right temporal lobe while viewing emotional images, but an increased BOLD response to emotional arousal in the right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). These results support Eysenck's theory, as well as our hypothesis that high levels of neuroticism are associated with attenuated reward processing. Extraversion was inversely related to arousal processing in the right cerebellum, but positively associated with arousal processing in the right insula, indicating that the relationship between extraversion and arousal is not as simple as that proposed by Eysenck.

Top-down control of arousal and sleep: Fundamentals and clinical implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Krone, Lukas; Frase, Lukas; Piosczyk, Hannah; Selhausen, Peter; Zittel, Sulamith; Jahn, Friederike; Kuhn, Marion; Feige, Bernd; Mainberger, Florian; Klöppel, Stefan; Riemann, Dieter; Spiegelhalder, Kai; Baglioni, Chiara; Sterr, Annette; Nissen, Christoph

2017-02-01

Mammalian sleep emerges from attenuated activity in the ascending reticular arousal system (ARAS), the main arousal network of the brain. This system originates in the brainstem and activates the thalamus and cortex during wakefulness via a well-characterized 'bottom-up' pathway. Recent studies propose that a less investigated cortico-thalamic 'top-down' pathway also regulates sleep. The present work integrates the current evidence on sleep regulation with a focus on the 'top-down' pathway and explores the potential to translate this information into clinically relevant interventions. Specifically, we elaborate the concept that arousal and sleep continuity in humans can be modulated by non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques that increase or decrease cortical excitability. Based on preclinical studies, the modulatory effects of the stimulation are thought to extend to subcortical arousal networks. Further exploration of the 'top-down' regulation of sleep and its modulation through non-invasive brain stimulation techniques may contribute to the development of novel treatments for clinical conditions of disrupted arousal and sleep, which are among the major health problems worldwide. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reduction of the Misinformation Effect by Arousal Induced after Learning

Science.gov (United States)

English, Shaun M.; Nielson, Kristy A.

2010-01-01

Misinformation introduced after events have already occurred causes errors in later retrieval. Based on literature showing that arousal induced after learning enhances delayed retrieval, we investigated whether post-learning arousal can reduce the misinformation effect. 251 participants viewed four short film clips, each followed by a retention…

Distinct parietal sites mediate the influences of mood, arousal, and their interaction on human recognition memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Greene, Ciara M; Flannery, Oliver; Soto, David

2014-12-01

The two dimensions of emotion, mood valence and arousal, have independent effects on recognition memory. At present, however, it is not clear how those effects are reflected in the human brain. Previous research in this area has generally dealt with memory for emotionally valenced or arousing stimuli, but the manner in which interacting mood and arousal states modulate responses in memory substrates remains poorly understood. We investigated memory for emotionally neutral items while independently manipulating mood valence and arousal state by means of music exposure. Four emotional conditions were created: positive mood/high arousal, positive mood/low arousal, negative mood/high arousal, and negative mood/low arousal. We observed distinct effects of mood valence and arousal in parietal substrates of recognition memory. Positive mood increased activity in ventral posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and orbitofrontal cortex, whereas arousal condition modulated activity in dorsal PPC and the posterior cingulate. An interaction between valence and arousal was observed in left ventral PPC, notably in a parietal area distinct from the those identified for the main effects, with a stronger effect of mood on recognition memory responses here under conditions of relative high versus low arousal. We interpreted the PPC activations in terms of the attention-to-memory hypothesis: Increased arousal may lead to increased top-down control of memory, and hence dorsal PPC activation, whereas positive mood valence may result in increased activity in ventral PPC regions associated with bottom-up attention to memory. These findings indicate that distinct parietal sites mediate the influences of mood, arousal, and their interplay during recognition memory.

Sympathetic arousal increases a negative memory bias in young women with low sex hormone levels

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Shawn E.; Barber, Sarah J.; Chai, Audrey; Clewett, David V.; Mather, Mara

2015-01-01

Emotionally arousing events are typically better attended to and remembered than neutral ones. Current theories propose that arousal-induced increases in norepinephrine during encoding bias attention and memory in favor of affectively salient stimuli. Here, we tested this hypothesis by manipulating levels of physiological arousal prior to encoding and examining how it influenced memory for emotionally salient images, particularly those that are negative rather than positive in valence. We also tested whether sex steroid hormones interact with noradrenergic activity to influence these emotional memory biases in women. Healthy naturally cycling women and women on hormonal contraception completed one of the following physiological arousal manipulations prior to viewing a series of negative, positive and neutral images: 1) Immediate handgrip arousal – isometric handgrip immediately prior to encoding, 2) Residual handgrip arousal – isometric handgrip 15 min prior to encoding, or 3) No handgrip. Sympathetic arousal was measured throughout the session via pupil diameter changes. Levels of 17β-estradiol and progesterone were measured via salivary samples. Memory performance was assessed approximately 10 minutes after encoding using a surprise free recall test. The results indicated that handgrip successfully increased sympathetic arousal compared to the control task. Under immediate handgrip arousal, women showed enhanced memory for negative images over positive images; this pattern was not observed in women assigned to the residual and no-handgrip arousal conditions. Additionally, under immediate handgrip arousal, both high estradiol and progesterone levels attenuated the memory bias for negative over positive images. Follow-up hierarchical linear models revealed consistent effects when accounting for trial-by-trial variability in normative International Affective Picture System valence and arousal ratings. These findings suggest that heightened sympathetic arousal

The effect of exercise-induced arousal on chosen tempi for familiar melodies.

Science.gov (United States)

Jakubowski, Kelly; Halpern, Andrea R; Grierson, Mick; Stewart, Lauren

2015-04-01

Many previous studies have shown that arousal affects time perception, suggesting a direct influence of arousal on the speed of the pacemaker of the internal clock. However, it is unknown whether arousal influences the mental representation of tempo (speed) for highly familiar and complex stimuli, such as well-known melodies, that have long-term representations in memory. Previous research suggests that mental representations of the tempo of familiar melodies are stable over time; the aim of the present study was to investigate whether these representations can be systematically altered via an increase in physiological arousal. Participants adjusted the tempo of 14 familiar melodies in real time until they found a tempo that matched their internal representation of the appropriate tempo for that piece. The task was carried out before and after a physiologically arousing (exercise) or nonarousing (anagrams) manipulation. Participants completed this task both while hearing the melodies aloud and while imagining them. Chosen tempi increased significantly following exercise-induced arousal, regardless of whether a melody was heard aloud or imagined. These findings suggest that a change in internal clock speed affects temporal judgments even for highly familiar and complex stimuli such as music.

Evaluative ratings and attention across the life span: emotional arousal and gender.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrari, Vera; Bruno, Nicola; Chattat, Rabih; Codispoti, Maurizio

2017-04-01

This study was designed to investigate the evolution of emotional processing over the whole adult life span as a function of stimulus arousal and participants' gender. To this end, self-reported affective evaluation and attentional capture prompted by pleasant and unpleasant pictures varying in arousal were measured in a large sample of participants (n = 211) balanced by gender and equally spread across seven decades from 20 to 90 years. Results showed age differences only for affective evaluation of pleasant stimuli, with opposite patterns depending on stimulus arousal. As age increased, low-arousing pleasant cues (e.g. images of babies) were experienced as more pleasant and arousing by both males and females, whereas high-arousing stimuli (e.g. erotic images) were experienced as less pleasant only by females. In contrast, emotional pictures (both pleasant and unpleasant) were effective at capturing attention in a similar way across participants, regardless of age and gender. Taken together, these findings suggest that specific emotional cues prompt different subjective responses across different age groups, while basic mechanisms involved in attentional engagement towards both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli are preserved in healthy ageing.

Reliability of scoring arousals in normal children and children with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Tat Kong; Galster, Patricia; Lau, Tai Shing; Lutz, Janita M; Marcus, Carole L

2004-09-15

Scoring of arousals in children is based on an extension of adult criteria, as defined by the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA). By this, a minimum duration of 3 seconds is required. A few recent studies utilized modified criteria for the study of children, with durations as short as 1 second. However, the validity and reliability of scoring these shorter arousals have never been verified. Based on studies in adults, we hypothesized that interscorer agreement for scoring arousals shorter than 3 seconds was poor. Retrospective review of polysomnograms by 2 experienced sleep practitioners who independently scored arousals according to the ASDA 3-second criteria and modified duration criteria of 1 and 2 seconds. Academic hospital. 20 polysomnographic studies from children aged 3 to 8 years with mild to severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and 16 polysomnographic studies from normal children. None. The intraclass correlation coefficient for scoring ASDA arousals was 0.90 (95% confidence interval: 0.81-0.95), indicating excellent interscorer agreement. The intraclass correlation coefficient for scoring modified 1-second and 2-second arousals were 0.35 (95% confidence interval: 0.02-0.61) and 0.42 (95% confidence interval: 0.12-0.65) respectively, indicating poor to fair interscorer agreement. Furthermore, modified 1-second and 2-second arousals accounted for less than 15% of all arousals scored. We conclude that there is much poorer interscorer agreement for scoring arousals shorter than 3 seconds, when compared to the standard ASDA criteria. We propose that scoring of arousals in children should follow the standard ASDA criteria.

Genetic diversity of symbiotic Bradyrhizobium elkanii populations recovered from inoculated and non-inoculated Acacia mangium field trials in Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Perrineau, M M; Le Roux, C; de Faria, S M; de Carvalho Balieiro, F; Galiana, A; Prin, Y; Béna, G

2011-07-01

Acacia mangium is a legume tree native to Australasia. Since the eighties, it has been introduced into many tropical countries, especially in a context of industrial plantations. Many field trials have been set up to test the effects of controlled inoculation with selected symbiotic bacteria versus natural colonization with indigenous strains. In the introduction areas, A. mangium trees spontaneously nodulate with local and often ineffective bacteria. When inoculated, the persistence of inoculants and possible genetic recombination with local strains remain to be explored. The aim of this study was to describe the genetic diversity of bacteria spontaneously nodulating A. mangium in Brazil and to evaluate the persistence of selected strains used as inoculants. Three different sites, several hundred kilometers apart, were studied, with inoculated and non-inoculated plots in two of them. Seventy-nine strains were isolated from nodules and sequenced on three housekeeping genes (glnII, dnaK and recA) and one symbiotic gene (nodA). All but one of the strains belonged to the Bradyrhizobium elkanii species. A single case of housekeeping gene transfer was detected among the 79 strains, suggesting an extremely low rate of recombination within B. elkanii, whereas the nodulation gene nodA was found to be frequently transferred. The fate of the inoculant strains varied depending on the site, with a complete disappearance in one case, and persistence in another. We compared our results with the sister species Bradyrhizobium japonicum, both in terms of population genetics and inoculant strain destiny. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

The effects of valence and arousal on the neural activity leading to subsequent memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Mickley Steinmetz, Katherine R; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2009-11-01

This study examined how valence and arousal affect the processes linked to subsequent memory for emotional information. While undergoing an fMRI scan, participants viewed neutral pictures and emotional pictures varying by valence and arousal. After the scan, participants performed a recognition test. Subsequent memory for negative or high arousal information was associated with occipital and temporal activity, whereas memory for positive or low arousal information was associated with frontal activity. Regression analyses confirmed that for negative or high arousal items, temporal lobe activity was the strongest predictor of later memory whereas for positive or low arousal items, frontal activity corresponded most strongly with later memory. These results suggest that the types of encoding processes relating to memory (e.g., sensory vs. elaborative processing) can differ based on the affective qualities of emotional information.

Maize water status and physiological traits as affected by root endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica under combined drought and mechanical stresses.

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseini, Fatemeh; Mosaddeghi, Mohammad Reza; Dexter, Anthony Roger; Sepehri, Mozhgan

2018-05-01

Under combined drought and mechanical stresses, mechanical stress primarily controlled physiological responses of maize. Piriformospora indica mitigated the adverse effects of stresses, and inoculated maize experienced less oxidative damage and had better adaptation to stressful conditions. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of maize root colonization by an endophytic fungus P. indica on plant water status, physiological traits and root morphology under combined drought and mechanical stresses. Seedlings of inoculated and non-inoculated maize (Zea mays L., cv. single cross 704) were cultivated in growth chambers filled with moistened siliceous sand at a matric suction of 20 hPa. Drought stress was induced using PEG 6000 solution with osmotic potentials of 0, - 0.3 and - 0.5 MPa. Mechanical stress (i.e., penetration resistances of 1.05, 4.23 and 6.34 MPa) was exerted by placing weights on the surface of the sand medium. After 30 days, leaf water potential (LWP) and relative water content (RWC), root and shoot fresh weights, root volume (RV) and diameter (RD), leaf proline content, leaf area (LA) and catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities were measured. The results show that exposure to individual drought and mechanical stresses led to higher RD and proline content and lower plant biomass, RV and LA. Moreover, increasing drought and mechanical stress severity increased APX activity by about 1.9- and 3.1-fold compared with the control. When plants were exposed to combined stresses, mechanical stress played the dominant role in controlling plant responses. P. indica-inoculated plants are better adapted to individual and combined stresses. The inoculated plants had greater RV, LA, RWC, LWP and proline content under stressful conditions. In comparison with non-inoculated plants, inoculated plants showed lower CAT and APX activities which means that they experienced less oxidative stress induced by stressful conditions.

Accessing inoculation methods of maize and wheat with Azospirillum brasilense.

Science.gov (United States)

Fukami, Josiane; Nogueira, Marco Antonio; Araujo, Ricardo Silva; Hungria, Mariangela

2016-03-01

The utilization of inoculants containing Azospirillum is becoming more popular due to increasing reports of expressive gains in grain yields. However, incompatibility with pesticides used in seed treatments represents a main limitation for a successful inoculation. Therefore, in this study we searched for alternatives methods for seed inoculation of maize and wheat, aiming to avoid the direct contact of bacteria with pesticides. Different doses of inoculants containing Azospirillum brasilense were employed to perform inoculation in-furrow, via soil spray at sowing and via leaf spray after seedlings had emerged, in comparison to seed inoculation. Experiments were conducted first under greenhouse controlled conditions and then confirmed in the field at different locations in Brazil. In the greenhouse, most parameters measured responded positively to the largest inoculant dose used in foliar sprays, but benefits could also be observed from both in-furrow and soil spray inoculation. However, our results present evidence that field inoculation with plant-growth promoting bacteria must consider inoculant doses, and point to the need of fine adjustments to avoid crossing the threshold of growth stimulation and inhibition. All inoculation techniques increased the abundance of diazotrophic bacteria in plant tissues, and foliar spray improved colonization of leaves, while soil inoculations favored root and rhizosphere colonization. In field experiments, inoculation with A. brasilense allowed for a 25 % reduction in the need for N fertilizers. Our results have identified alternative methods of inoculation that were as effective as the standard seed inoculation that may represent an important strategy to avoid the incompatibility between inoculant bacteria and pesticides employed for seed treatment.

Comparative analysis of tannery-effluent contaminated soil and mixed culture bacterial inoculation on helianthus annuus L. growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yasin, M.; Faisal, M.

2012-01-01

Here we reported the effect of four strains Bacillus pumilus-CrK08, Cellulosimicrobium cellulans-CrK16, Exiguobacterium-CrK19 and Bacillus cereus-CrK20 and tannery contaminated soil on Helianthus annuus L. var Hysun-33 growth parameters. Plants growing in tannery effluent contaminated soil have shown slowed leaf growth, reduced shoot length, burning of leaf margins and tips compared to plants growing in normal garden soil. The inoculated plants had shown overall increase in root length (15%), shoot length (33%) and fresh weight shoot (135%) compared to un-inoculated plants growing in stress conditions. Plants growing in tannery contaminated soil have shown increase in soluble proteins contents (9%), acid phosphatase activity (200%), peroxidase activity (203%) and decrease in chlorophyll a (39%), chlorophyll b (23%) and carotenoids contents (28%) compare to plants growing in normal control soil. Inoculated plants grown in contaminated soil have shown an increased in peroxidase activity, soluble proteins contents, acid phosphatase activity, chlorophyll a, b and carotenoid contents compare to respective un-inoculated plants. (author)

Diversity and persistence of ectomycorrhizal fungi and their effect on nursery-inoculated Pinus pinaster in a post-fire plantation in Northern Portugal.

Science.gov (United States)

Franco, Albina R; Sousa, Nadine R; Ramos, Miguel A; Oliveira, Rui S; Castro, Paula M L

2014-11-01

Ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECMF) play an important role in forest ecosystems, often mitigating stress factors and increasing seedling performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a nursery inoculation on Pinus pinaster growth and on the fungal communities established when reforesting burned areas. Inoculated P. pinaster saplings showed 1.5-fold higher stem height than the non-inoculated controls after a 5 year growth period, suggesting that fungal inoculation could potentiate tree growth in the field. Ordination analysis revealed the presence of different ECMF communities on both plots. Among the nursery-inoculated fungi, Laccaria sp., Rhizopogon sp., Suillus bovinus and Pisolithus sp. were detected on inoculated Pinus saplings on both sampling periods, indicating that they persisted after field establishment. Other fungi were also detected in the inoculated plants. Phialocephala sp. was found on the first assessment, while Terfezia sp. was detected on both sampling periods. Laccaria sp. and Rhizopogon sp. were identified in the control saplings, belonging however to different species than those found in the inoculated plot. Inocybe sp., Thelephora sp. and Paxillus involutus were present on both sampling periods in the non-inoculated plots. The results suggest that ECMF inoculation at nursery stage can benefit plant growth after transplantation to a post-fire site and that the inoculated fungi can persist in the field. This approach has great potential as a biotechnological tool to aid in the reforestation of burned areas.

Lead-resistant strain KQBT-3 inoculants of Tricholoma lobayensis Heim that enhance remediation of lead-contaminated soil.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ying; Qin, Chui-Xin; Gao, Biyu; Hu, Yuanjia; Xu, Heng

2015-01-01

To enhance lead-detoxifying efficiency of Tricholoma lobayensis Heim, one lead-resistant strain KQBT-3 (Bacillus thuringiensis) was applied owing to its excellent ability to tolerate Pb. KQBT-3 domesticated in liquid medium with increasing lead concentrations could tolerate Pb(NO3)2 up to a concentration of 800 mg L(-1). Pot experiments showed that the KQBT-3 not only could promote the growth of T. lobayensis, but also could enhance its Pb accumulation ability under heavy metal stress. Biomass and accumulation of Pb increased 47.3% and 33.2%, respectively. In addition, after inoculation of KQBT-3, the significant decrease of malondialdehyde indicated KQBT-3 could alleviate lipid peroxidation in T. lobayensis. What is interesting is that superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities in T. lobayensis inoculated with KQBT-3 were increased, and the maximum increasing rate was 121.71% and 117.29%, respectively. However, the catalase activity increased slightly. This revealed that inoculating KQBT-3 further induced oxidative response in T. lobayensis due to Pb accumulation. Therefore, the present work showed that KQBT-3 made a major contribution to promote growth and lead uptake of T. lobayensis and alleviate the oxidative stress. This kind of auxiliary effect on macrofungi can be developed into a novel bioremediation strategy.

Effects of Relaxing and Arousing Music during Imagery Training on Dart-Throwing Performance, Physiological Arousal Indices, and Competitive State Anxiety.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuan, Garry; Morris, Tony; Kueh, Yee Cheng; Terry, Peter C

2018-01-01

Music that is carefully selected to match the requirements of activities and the characteristics of individuals has been shown to produce significant impacts on performance enhancement (Priest et al., 2004). There is also evidence that music can enhance imagery (Grocke and Wigram, 2007), although few studies have investigated the effects of music on imagery in the context of sport skills. In the present study, the effects of relaxing and arousing music during imagery on dart-throwing performance, physiological arousal indices, and competitive state anxiety, were investigated among 63 novice dart throwers. Participants had moderate-to-high imagery ability and were randomly assigned to unfamiliar relaxing music (URM), unfamiliar arousing music (UAM), or no music (NM) groups. Performance was assessed by 40 dart throws at a concentric circles dartboard before and after 12 imagery sessions over 4 weeks. Measures of galvanic skin response (GSR), peripheral temperature (PT), and heart rate (HR) were taken during imagery sessions 1 and 12, and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised (CSAI-2R) was administered prior to the pre- and post-intervention performance task. Dart-throwing gain scores were significantly higher for URM than for UAM and NM, with no significant difference between UAM and NM (URM = 37.24 ± 5.66, UAM = 17.57 ± 5.30, and NM = 13.19 ± 6.14, F 2,62 = 5.03, p = 0.01, η 2 = 0.14). GSR, PT, and HR reflected lower arousal for URM than for UAM or NM. Significant decreases in somatic anxiety were evident for URM and UAM but not NM. Significant decreases in cognitive anxiety were evident for URM and NM but not UAM. Significant increases in self-confidence were evident for URM but not UAM or NM. Performance improved in all three conditions but URM was associated with the largest performance gain, the lowest physiological indices of arousal, and the most positive CSAI-2R profiles. Listening to relaxing music during imagery may have benefits for

Effects of Relaxing and Arousing Music during Imagery Training on Dart-Throwing Performance, Physiological Arousal Indices, and Competitive State Anxiety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garry Kuan

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Music that is carefully selected to match the requirements of activities and the characteristics of individuals has been shown to produce significant impacts on performance enhancement (Priest et al., 2004. There is also evidence that music can enhance imagery (Grocke and Wigram, 2007, although few studies have investigated the effects of music on imagery in the context of sport skills. In the present study, the effects of relaxing and arousing music during imagery on dart-throwing performance, physiological arousal indices, and competitive state anxiety, were investigated among 63 novice dart throwers. Participants had moderate-to-high imagery ability and were randomly assigned to unfamiliar relaxing music (URM, unfamiliar arousing music (UAM, or no music (NM groups. Performance was assessed by 40 dart throws at a concentric circles dartboard before and after 12 imagery sessions over 4 weeks. Measures of galvanic skin response (GSR, peripheral temperature (PT, and heart rate (HR were taken during imagery sessions 1 and 12, and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Revised (CSAI-2R was administered prior to the pre- and post-intervention performance task. Dart-throwing gain scores were significantly higher for URM than for UAM and NM, with no significant difference between UAM and NM (URM = 37.24 ± 5.66, UAM = 17.57 ± 5.30, and NM = 13.19 ± 6.14, F2,62 = 5.03, p = 0.01, η2 = 0.14. GSR, PT, and HR reflected lower arousal for URM than for UAM or NM. Significant decreases in somatic anxiety were evident for URM and UAM but not NM. Significant decreases in cognitive anxiety were evident for URM and NM but not UAM. Significant increases in self-confidence were evident for URM but not UAM or NM. Performance improved in all three conditions but URM was associated with the largest performance gain, the lowest physiological indices of arousal, and the most positive CSAI-2R profiles. Listening to relaxing music during imagery may have benefits for

The effects of valence and arousal on the neural activity leading to subsequent memory

OpenAIRE

Mickley Steinmetz, Katherine R.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2009-01-01

This study examined how valence and arousal affect the processes linked to subsequent memory for emotional information. While undergoing an fMRI scan, participants viewed neutral pictures and emotional pictures varying by valence and arousal. After the scan, participants performed a recognition test. Subsequent memory for negative or high arousal information was associated with occipital and temporal activity, while memory for positive or low arousal information was associated with frontal ac...

Improvement in phytoremediation potential of Solanum nigrum under cadmium contamination through endophytic-assisted Serratia sp. RSC-14 inoculation.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Abdur Rahim; Ullah, Ihsan; Khan, Abdul Latif; Park, Gun-Seok; Waqas, Muhammad; Hong, Sung-Jun; Jung, Byung Kwon; Kwak, Yunyoung; Lee, In-Jung; Shin, Jae-Ho

2015-09-01

The growth of hyperaccumulator plants is often compromised by increased toxicity of metals like cadmium (Cd). However, extraction of such metals from the soil can be enhanced by endophytic microbial association. Present study was aimed to elucidate the potential of microbe-assisted Cd phytoextraction in hyperaccumulator Solanum nigrum plants and their interactions under varied Cd concentrations. An endophytic bacteria Serratia sp. RSC-14 was isolated from the roots of S. nigrum. In addition to Cd tolerance up to 4 mM, the RSC-14 exhibited phosphate solubilization and secreted plant growth-promoting phytohormones such as indole-3-acetic acid (54 μg/mL). S. nigrum plants were inoculated with RSC-14 and were grown in different concentrations of Cd (0, 10, and 30 mg Cd kg(-1) sand). Results revealed that Cd treatment caused significant cessation in plant growth, biomass, and chlorophyll content, whereas significantly higher malondialdehyde (MDA) and electrolyte production in leaves were observed in a dose-dependent manner. Conversely, RSC-14 inoculation relived the toxic effects of Cd-induced stress by significantly increasing root/shoot growth, biomass production, and chlorophyll content and decreasing MDA and electrolytes contents. Ameliorative effects on host growth were also observed by the regulation of metal-induced oxidative stress enzymes such as catalase, peroxidase, and polyphenol peroxidase. Activities of these enzymes were significantly reduced in RSC-14 inoculated plants as compared to control plants under Cd treatments. The lower activities of stress responsive enzymes suggest modulation of Cd stress by RSC-14. The current findings support the beneficial uses of Serratia sp. RSC-14 in improving the phytoextraction abilities of S. nigrum plants in Cd contamination.

Non-monotonic relationships between emotional arousal and memory for color and location.

Science.gov (United States)

Boywitt, C Dennis

2015-01-01

Recent research points to the decreased diagnostic value of subjective retrieval experience for memory accuracy for emotional stimuli. While for neutral stimuli rich recollective experiences are associated with better context memory than merely familiar memories this association appears questionable for emotional stimuli. The present research tested the implicit assumption that the effect of emotional arousal on memory is monotonic, that is, steadily increasing (or decreasing) with increasing arousal. In two experiments emotional arousal was manipulated in three steps using emotional pictures and subjective retrieval experience as well as context memory were assessed. The results show an inverted U-shape relationship between arousal and recognition memory but for context memory and retrieval experience the relationship was more complex. For frame colour, context memory decreased linearly while for spatial location it followed the inverted U-shape function. The complex, non-monotonic relationships between arousal and memory are discussed as possible explanations for earlier divergent findings.

Time-limited effects of emotional arousal on item and source memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Bo; Sun, Bukuan

2015-01-01

Two experiments investigated the time-limited effects of emotional arousal on consolidation of item and source memory. In Experiment 1, participants memorized words (items) and the corresponding speakers (sources) and then took an immediate free recall test. Then they watched a neutral, positive, or negative video 5, 35, or 50 min after learning, and 24 hours later they took surprise memory tests. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that (a) a reality monitoring task was used; (b) elicitation delays of 5, 30, and 45 min were used; and (c) delayed memory tests were given 60 min after learning. Both experiments showed that, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal did not enhance item recall memory. Second, both experiments showed that negative arousal enhanced delayed item recognition memory only at the medium elicitation delay, but not in the shorter or longer delays. Positive arousal enhanced performance only in Experiment 1. Third, regardless of elicitation delay, emotional arousal had little effect on source memory. These findings have implications for theories of emotion and memory, suggesting that emotion effects are contingent upon the nature of the memory task and elicitation delay.

Co-inoculation with Rhizobium and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR for inducing salinity tolerance in mung bean under field condition of semi arid climate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Aamir

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Salinity stress severely affects the growth, nodulation and yield of mung bean (Vigna radiata L.. However, its growth can be improved under salinity stress by inoculation/co-inoculation with rhizobia and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR containing 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC deaminase enzyme. ACC-deaminase containing bacteria regulate the stress induced ethylene production by hydrolyzing the ACC (immediate precursor of ethylene into ammonia and ketobutyric acid, thus improve plant growth by lowering the ethylene level. A study was conducted under salt affected field conditions where pre-isolated strains of Rhizobium and PGPR were used alone as well as in combination for mitigating the salinity stress on growth, nodulation and yield of mung bean by following the randomized complete block design (RCBD. The data were recorded and analyzed statistically to see the difference among treatments.

Trait- and pre-sleep-state-dependent arousal in insomnia disorders: what role may sleep reactivity and sleep-related metacognitions play? A pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Palagini, Laura; Mauri, Mauro; Dell'Osso, Liliana; Riemann, Dieter; Drake, Christopher L

2016-09-01

Research into the cause of chronic insomnia has identified hyperarousal as a key factor, which is likely to have both trait and state components. Sleep-related cognition, metacognition, and sleep reactivity also play an important role in insomnia. Our aim was to investigate how these insomnia-related constructs are associated with trait predisposition and pre-sleep arousal in subjects with an insomnia disorder. Fifty-three individuals with insomnia disorder (according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) (F = 33; 52 + 10)) and 30 healthy controls (F = 18; 51.8 + 12 years) were evaluated with a set of questionnaires, including the Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test (FIRST), Metacognition Questionnaire - Insomnia (MCQI), Arousal Predisposition Scale (APS), and Pre-sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS). Statistical analyses included multiple regression to elucidate the independent determinants of APS and PSAS. Participants with insomnia presented higher FIRST, MCQI, APS, PSAS scores (p-values insomnia, APS and cognitive PSAS were best determined by MCQI (respectively, B = 0.09, p = 0.001, B = 0.08, p = 0.02), somatic PSAS by cognitive arousal (PSAS B = 0.35, p = 0.004) CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that in insomnia disorders, trait predisposition toward hyperarousal and pre-sleep-cognitive-state-dependent arousal may be closely related to sleep-related metacognitive processes. Sleep-related metacognitive processes may be associated with trait hyperarousal within the framework of a mutual relationship, and could, in turn, modulate cognitive pre-sleep-state arousal. A broad range of cognitive and metacognitive processes should be considered when dealing with subjects with insomnia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pre-Sleep Arousal and Sleep Problems of Anxiety-Disordered Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Alfano, Candice A.; Pina, Armando A.; Zerr, Argero A.; Villalta, Ian K.

2010-01-01

The current study examined sleep problems and pre-sleep arousal among 52 anxious children and adolescents, aged 7-14 years, in relation to age, sex, ethnicity, and primary anxiety disorder. Assessment included structured diagnostic interviews and parent and child completed measures of sleep problems and pre-sleep arousal. Overall, 85% of parents…

Pupil-linked arousal is driven by decision uncertainty and alters serial choice bias

Science.gov (United States)

Urai, Anne E.; Braun, Anke; Donner, Tobias H.

2017-03-01

While judging their sensory environments, decision-makers seem to use the uncertainty about their choices to guide adjustments of their subsequent behaviour. One possible source of these behavioural adjustments is arousal: decision uncertainty might drive the brain's arousal systems, which control global brain state and might thereby shape subsequent decision-making. Here, we measure pupil diameter, a proxy for central arousal state, in human observers performing a perceptual choice task of varying difficulty. Pupil dilation, after choice but before external feedback, reflects three hallmark signatures of decision uncertainty derived from a computational model. This increase in pupil-linked arousal boosts observers' tendency to alternate their choice on the subsequent trial. We conclude that decision uncertainty drives rapid changes in pupil-linked arousal state, which shape the serial correlation structure of ongoing choice behaviour.

Topical Administration Is a Promising Inoculating Route versus Intramuscular Inoculation for the Nanoparticle-Carried DNA Vaccine to Prevent Corneal Infections.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Kai; Malla, Tejsu; Zhai, Yujia; Dong, Lili; Tang, Ru

2015-01-01

To evaluate the comparative effect of topical versus intramuscular administration of nanoparticle-carried DNA vaccine in preventing corneal herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection. Nanoparticle [polyethylenimine (PEI)-Fe3O4]-carried DNA vaccine (PEI-Fe3O4-pRSC-gD-IL-21) or DNA vaccine (pRSC-gD-IL-21) alone were topically versus intramuscularly inoculated into one eye each of mice on days 0, 14 and 28. Three weeks after the final immunization, the specific immune responses and clinical degrees of primary herpes simplex keratitis were evaluated. Topical inoculation of nanoparticle-carried DNA vaccine induced mice to generate similar levels of specific HSV-1-neutralizing antibody, IFN-γ and IL-4 in serum and specific killing (cytotoxicity) and proliferative activities of the splenic lymphocytes, but a significantly higher level of secretory IgA in tears compared to those of intramuscular inoculation. More importantly, the mice inoculated topically showed a significantly decreased herpes simplex keratitis severity than the mice inoculated intramuscularly after HSV-1 challenge on the corneas of the mice. Topical inoculation of nanoparticle-carried DNA vaccine elicits a stronger specific local immune response and more effectively inhibits herpes simplex keratitis as compared to intramuscular inoculation in an HSV-1 ocular challenge mouse model. Thus, topical administration may be a promising inoculating route for the nanoparticle-carried DNA vaccine to prevent corneal infections. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

A Case of Frequent Arousal Following Nocturnal Dyspnea Caused by Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dae Wui Yoon

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD is a common disorder that is associated with many esophageal syndromes and complications. Most cases of reflux event occur during the day, but reflux during sleep can cause not only esophageal problems, but also sleep problems, such as arousal and poor sleep quality. We report the case of a 17-year-old man who had been referred to us with frequent arousal following sudden dyspnea. On polysomnography, no respiratory disturbances and periodic limb movements were found during the sleep study, but frequent events of arousal were reported (arousal index: 12.3/h. On a 24-hr esophageal pH monitoring test, his DeMeester score was 176.43 and the total reflux time was 1120.9 min (76.9%, indicating the presence of significant acid reflux. After treatment with a proton-pump inhibitor, the arousals following nocturnal dyspnea and fatigue in the morning disappeared in the patient. GERD should be considered as a cause of spontaneous arousal or awakening not accompanying respiratory disturbances.

WARMING UP FOR SLEEP - GROUND-SQUIRRELS SLEEP DURING AROUSALS FROM HIBERNATION

NARCIS (Netherlands)

DAAN, S; BARNES, BM; STRIJKSTRA, AM

1991-01-01

Hypothermia during mammalian hibernation is periodically interrupted by arousals to euthermy, the function of which is unknown. We report that arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) consistently sleep during these arousals, and that their EEG shows the decrease in slow wave activity

Genital responsiveness in healthy women with and without sexual arousal disorder

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laan, Ellen; van Driel, Esther M.; van Lunsen, Rik H. W.

2008-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Most pharmacological treatments that are currently being developed for women with sexual arousal disorder are aimed at remedying a vasculogenic deficit. AIM: This study investigated whether pre- and postmenopausal women with sexual arousal disorder are less genitally responsive to

The effect of academic stress and attachment stress on stress-eaters and stress-undereaters.

Science.gov (United States)

Emond, Michael; Ten Eycke, Kayla; Kosmerly, Stacey; Robinson, Adele Lafrance; Stillar, Amanda; Van Blyderveen, Sherry

2016-05-01

It is well established that stress is related to changes in eating patterns. Some individuals are more likely to increase their overall food intake under conditions of stress, whereas others are more likely to consume less food when stressed. Attachment style has been linked to disordered eating and eating disorders; however, comparisons of eating behaviors under attachment versus other types of stress have yet to be explored. The present laboratory study examined the eating patterns in self-identified stress-undereaters and stress-eaters under various types of stress. More specifically, the study examined the effects of academic and attachment stress on calorie, carbohydrate and sugar consumption within these two groups. Under the guise of critiquing student films, university students viewed either one of two stress-inducing videos (academic stress or attachment stress, both designed to be emotionally arousing) or a control video (designed to be emotionally neutral), and their food intake was recorded. Results demonstrated that the video manipulations were effective in inducing stress. Differential patterns of eating were noted based on group and stress condition. Specifically, stress-undereaters ate fewer calories, carbohydrates and sugars than stress-eaters in the academic stress condition, but not in the attachment stress or control condition. Findings suggest that specific types of stressors may influence eating behaviors differently. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Differences in Perceived and Physiologic Genital Arousal Between Women With and Without Sexual Dysfunction.

Science.gov (United States)

Handy, Ariel B; Stanton, Amelia M; Pulverman, Carey S; Meston, Cindy M

2018-01-01

Many sexual psychophysiologic studies have failed to find differences in physiologic genital arousal between women with and those without sexual dysfunction. However, differences in self-reported (ie, perceived) measures of genital responses between these 2 groups of women have been noted. To determine whether women with and without sexual dysfunction differ on measures of physiologic and perceived genital arousal based on type of analytic technique used, to explore differences in perceived genital arousal, and to assess the relation between physiologic and perceived genital arousal. Data from 5 studies (N = 214) were used in this analysis. Women were categorized into 3 groups: women with arousal-specific sexual dysfunction (n = 40), women with decreased sexual function (n = 72), and women who were sexually functional (n = 102). Women viewed an erotic film while their physiologic genital arousal was measured using a vaginal photoplethysmograph. After watching the film, women completed a self-report measure of perceived genital arousal. There were differences in vaginal pulse amplitude (VPA) levels and association of VPA with perceived genital sensations based on level of sexual function. Commonly used methods of analysis failed to identify significant differences in VPA among these groups of women. When VPA data were analyzed with hierarchical linear modeling, significant differences emerged. Notably, women with arousal-specific dysfunction exhibited lower VPA than sexually functional women at the beginning of the assessment. As the erotic film progressed, women with arousal-specific dysfunction became aroused at a faster rate than sexually functional women, and these 2 groups ultimately reached a similar level of VPA. Sexually functional women reported the highest levels of perceived genital responses among the 3 groups of women. No significant relation between VPA and perceived genital arousal emerged. Women's perception of their genital responses could play

Disconnection of the Ascending Arousal System in Traumatic Coma

Science.gov (United States)

Edlow, Brian L.; Haynes, Robin L.; Takahashi, Emi; Klein, Joshua P.; Cummings, Peter; Benner, Thomas; Greer, David M.; Greenberg, Steven M.; Wu, Ona; Kinney, Hannah C.; Folkerth, Rebecca D.

2013-01-01

Traumatic coma is associated with disruption of axonal pathways throughout the brain but the specific pathways involved in humans are incompletely understood. In this study, we used high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) to map the connectivity of axonal pathways that mediate the 2 critical components of consciousness – arousal and awareness – in the postmortem brain of a 62-year-old woman with acute traumatic coma and in 2 control brains. HARDI tractography guided tissue sampling in the neuropathological analysis. HARDI tractography demonstrated complete disruption of white matter pathways connecting brainstem arousal nuclei to the basal forebrain and thalamic intralaminar and reticular nuclei. In contrast, hemispheric arousal pathways connecting the thalamus and basal forebrain to the cerebral cortex were only partially disrupted, as were the cortical “awareness pathways.” Neuropathologic examination, which utilized β-amyloid precursor protein and fractin immunomarkers, revealed axonal injury in the white matter of the brainstem and cerebral hemispheres that corresponded to sites of HARDI tract disruption. Axonal injury was also present within the grey matter of the hypothalamus, thalamus, basal forebrain, and cerebral cortex. We propose that traumatic coma may be a subcortical disconnection syndrome related to the disconnection of specific brainstem arousal nuclei from the thalamus and basal forebrain. PMID:23656993

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Enhance Basil Tolerance to Salt Stress through Improved Physiological and Nutritional Status

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salwa, A.; Abeer, H.; Alqarawi, A. A.; Abdullah, E.F.; Egamberdieva, D.

2016-01-01

Pot experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of salinity on some physio-biochemical traits in sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) cultivars with contrasting salt stress tolerance and to determine the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in ameliorating the salt stress in plant. Salt stress (250 mM NaCl) reduced the colonization potential of AMF and inhibited photosynthetic pigments, chlorophyll and carotenoids in plant tissue. AMF inoculated plants contained higher level of chlorophyll pigments. Salt stressed plants showed increased lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzyme activities like superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and peroxidase (POD). Plants inoculated with AMF showed lower lipid peroxidation and enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities. Moreover, the content of lipids, proline, and soluble sugars in basil plants was improved with AMF inoculation. AMF inoculation reduced accumulation of Na+ and improved nutrient acquisition. In conclusion, AMF were capable to reduce oxidative stress via supporting of the antioxidant system. Salt tolerant cultivar showed higher antioxidant enzyme activity and accumulation of osmolytes. (author)

Stress Inoculation through Cognitive and Biofeedback Training

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-01

eLearning will motivate younger personnel to use these mobile devices and gain the training benefits; Utilizing Stress Productively The key...cognitive performance is high. Athletes call this THE ZONE. Game-Based eLearning It is clear that many of the effects of combat and...game-based eLearning framework. In Phase II the major development steps will be: (1) to implement the complete system on a mobile handheld device

Alleviating salt stress in tomato inoculated with mycorrhizae: Photosynthetic performance and enzymatic antioxidants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohsen K.H. Ebrahim

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Tomato cultivars (Sultana-7 & Super Strain-B were germinated with various concentrations (0–200 mM of NaCl. Seed germination in the Super Strain-B was promoted by 25 mM NaCl. However, the germination of both cultivars was progressively inhibited by 50 and 100 mM NaCl and obstructed at 200 mM NaCl, and this response was more pronounced for Sultana-7. Therefore, Super Strain-B was selected for further investigation, such as growth under NaCl stress (50 & 100 mM and inoculation with vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Glomus fasciculatum, VAMF. The leaves of Super Strain-B showed reduced mineral (N, P, K, Mg uptake and K/Na ratio as well as increased Na uptake and N/P ratio in response to salinity. Moreover, salinity decreased the chlorophyll (Chl contents coupled with an increase in Chl a/b, Hill-reaction activity, and quenched Chl a fluorescence emission. These changes reflect a disturbance in the structure, composition and function of the photosynthetic apparatus as well as the activity of photosystem 2. The superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities of leaves were enhanced by salinity, whereas the catalase activity was decreased. Leaf polysaccharides and proteins as well as shoot biomass also decreased as a result of salinity, but the total soluble sugars and root to shoot ratio improved.VAMF enhanced both the photosynthesis and productivity of plants; thus, VAMF may alleviate the adverse effects of salinity in plants by increasing their salt tolerance. Although mycorrhizal infection showed a negative correlation with salinity, it remained relatively high (21 & 25% at 100 mM NaCl. Keywords: Mycorrhizae, tomato, salinity, minerals, photosynthetic performance and antioxidant enzymes

The effect of exercise-induced arousal on chosen tempi for familiar melodies

OpenAIRE

Jakubowski, Kelly; Halpern, Andrea; Grierson, Mick; Stewart, Lauren

2014-01-01

Many previous studies have shown that arousal affects time perception, suggesting a direct influence of arousal on the speed of the pacemaker of the internal clock. However, it is unknown whether arousal influences the mental representation of tempo (speed) for highly familiar and complex stimuli, such as well-known melodies, that have long-term representations in memory. Previous research suggests that mental representations of the tempo of familiar melodies are stable over time; the aim of ...

Arousal, anxiety, and performance: a reexamination of the Inverted-U hypothesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Arent, Shawn M; Landers, Daniel M

2003-12-01

Until recently, the traditional Inverted-U hypothesis had been the primary model used by sport psychologists to describe the arousal-performance relationship. However, many sport psychology researchers have challenged this relationship, and the current trend is a shift toward a more "multidimensional" view of arousal-anxiety and its effects on performance. In the current study, 104 college-age participants performed a simple response time task while riding a bicycle ergometer. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight arousal groups (between 20 and 90% of heart rate reserve) and were told they were competing for a cash prize. Prior to the task, the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS) were administered to assess the influence of cognitive and somatic anxiety. As hypothesized, regression analysis revealed a significant quadratic trend for arousal and reaction time. This accounted for 13.2% of the variance, F change (1, 101) = 15.10, p performance beyond that accounted for by the nonsignificant linear trend. As predicted by the Inverted-U hypothesis, optimal performance on the simple task was seen at 60 and 70% of maximum arousal. Furthermore, for the simple task used in this study, only somatic anxiety as measured by the SAS accounted for significant variance in performance beyond that accounted for by arousal alone. These findings support predictions of the Inverted-U hypothesis and raise doubts about the utility theories that rely on differentiation of cognitive and somatic anxiety to predict performance on simple tasks that are not cognitively loaded.

Affective picture modulation: valence, arousal, attention allocation and motivational significance.

Science.gov (United States)

Leite, Jorge; Carvalho, Sandra; Galdo-Alvarez, Santiago; Alves, Jorge; Sampaio, Adriana; Gonçalves, Oscar F

2012-03-01

The present study analyses the modulatory effects of affective pictures in the early posterior negativity (EPN), the late positive potential (LPP) and the human startle response on both the peripheral (eye blink EMG) and central neurophysiological levels (Probe P3), during passive affective pictures viewing. The affective pictures categories were balanced in terms of valence (pleasant; unpleasant) and arousal (high; low). The data shows that EPN may be sensitive to specific stimulus characteristics (affective relevant pictures versus neutral pictures) associated with early stages of attentional processing. In later stages, the heightened attentional resource allocation as well as the motivated significance of the affective stimuli was found to elicit enhanced amplitudes of slow wave processes thought to be related to enhanced encoding, namely LPP,. Although pleasant low arousing pictures were effective in engaging the resources involved in the slow wave processes, the highly arousing affective stimuli (pleasant and unpleasant) were found to produce the largest enhancement of the LPP, suggesting that high arousing stimuli may are associated with increased motivational significance. Additionally the response to high arousing stimuli may be suggestive of increased motivational attention, given the heightened attentional allocation, as expressed in the P3 probe, especially for the pleasant pictures. The hedonic valence may then serve as a mediator of the attentional inhibition to the affective priming, potentiating or inhibiting a shift towards defensive activation, as measured by the startle reflex. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Azospirillum Inoculation Alters Nitrate Reductase Activity and Nitrogen Uptake in Wheat Plant Under Water Deficit Conditions

OpenAIRE

N. Aliasgharzad, N. Aliasgharzad; Heydaryan, Zahra; Sarikhani, M.R

2014-01-01

Water deficit stress usually diminishes nitrogen uptake by plants. There are evidences that some nitrogen fixing bacteria can alleviate this stress by supplying nitrogen and improving its metabolism in plants. Four Azospirillum strains, A. lipoferum AC45-II, A. brasilense AC46-I, A. irakense AC49-VII and A. irakense AC51-VI were tested for nitrate reductase activity (NRA). In a pot culture experiment using a sandy loam soil, wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Sardari) were inoculated with...

Approach and Withdrawal Tendencies during Written Word Processing: Effects of Task, Emotional Valence, and Emotional Arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Citron, Francesca M M; Abugaber, David; Herbert, Cornelia

2015-01-01

The affective dimensions of emotional valence and emotional arousal affect processing of verbal and pictorial stimuli. Traditional emotional theories assume a linear relationship between these dimensions, with valence determining the direction of a behavior (approach vs. withdrawal) and arousal its intensity or strength. In contrast, according to the valence-arousal conflict theory, both dimensions are interactively related: positive valence and low arousal (PL) are associated with an implicit tendency to approach a stimulus, whereas negative valence and high arousal (NH) are associated with withdrawal. Hence, positive, high-arousal (PH) and negative, low-arousal (NL) stimuli elicit conflicting action tendencies. By extending previous research that used several tasks and methods, the present study investigated whether and how emotional valence and arousal affect subjective approach vs. withdrawal tendencies toward emotional words during two novel tasks. In Study 1, participants had to decide whether they would approach or withdraw from concepts expressed by written words. In Studies 2 and 3 participants had to respond to each word by pressing one of two keys labeled with an arrow pointing upward or downward. Across experiments, positive and negative words, high or low in arousal, were presented. In Study 1 (explicit task), in line with the valence-arousal conflict theory, PH and NL words were responded to more slowly than PL and NH words. In addition, participants decided to approach positive words more often than negative words. In Studies 2 and 3, participants responded faster to positive than negative words, irrespective of their level of arousal. Furthermore, positive words were significantly more often associated with "up" responses than negative words, thus supporting the existence of implicit associations between stimulus valence and response coding (positive is up and negative is down). Hence, in contexts in which participants' spontaneous responses are

Segregation of information about emotional arousal and valence in horse whinnies.

Science.gov (United States)

Briefer, Elodie F; Maigrot, Anne-Laure; Mandel, Roi; Freymond, Sabrina Briefer; Bachmann, Iris; Hillmann, Edna

2015-04-21

Studying vocal correlates of emotions is important to provide a better understanding of the evolution of emotion expression through cross-species comparisons. Emotions are composed of two main dimensions: emotional arousal (calm versus excited) and valence (negative versus positive). These two dimensions could be encoded in different vocal parameters (segregation of information) or in the same parameters, inducing a trade-off between cues indicating emotional arousal and valence. We investigated these two hypotheses in horses. We placed horses in five situations eliciting several arousal levels and positive as well as negative valence. Physiological and behavioral measures collected during the tests suggested the presence of different underlying emotions. First, using detailed vocal analyses, we discovered that all whinnies contained two fundamental frequencies ("F0" and "G0"), which were not harmonically related, suggesting biphonation. Second, we found that F0 and the energy spectrum encoded arousal, while G0 and whinny duration encoded valence. Our results show that cues to emotional arousal and valence are segregated in different, relatively independent parameters of horse whinnies. Most of the emotion-related changes to vocalizations that we observed are similar to those observed in humans and other species, suggesting that vocal expression of emotions has been conserved throughout evolution.

Comparison of bedside inoculation of culture media with ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background: The yield of bacterial cultures from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is very low. Bedside inoculation of culture media with CSF may improve yields. Objective: To compare the culture yield of CSF inoculated onto culture medium at the bedside to that of CSF inoculated onto culture ...

Uncovering category specificity of genital sexual arousal in women: The critical role of analytic technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Pulverman, Carey S; Hixon, J Gregory; Meston, Cindy M

2015-10-01

Based on analytic techniques that collapse data into a single average value, it has been reported that women lack category specificity and show genital sexual arousal to a large range of sexual stimuli including those that both match and do not match their self-reported sexual interests. These findings may be a methodological artifact of the way in which data are analyzed. This study examined whether using an analytic technique that models data over time would yield different results. Across two studies, heterosexual (N = 19) and lesbian (N = 14) women viewed erotic films featuring heterosexual, lesbian, and gay male couples, respectively, as their physiological sexual arousal was assessed with vaginal photoplethysmography. Data analysis with traditional methods comparing average genital arousal between films failed to detect specificity of genital arousal for either group. When data were analyzed with smoothing regression splines and a within-subjects approach, both heterosexual and lesbian women demonstrated different patterns of genital sexual arousal to the different types of erotic films, suggesting that sophisticated statistical techniques may be necessary to more fully understand women's genital sexual arousal response. Heterosexual women showed category-specific genital sexual arousal. Lesbian women showed higher arousal to the heterosexual film than the other films. However, within subjects, lesbian women showed significantly different arousal responses suggesting that lesbian women's genital arousal discriminates between different categories of stimuli at the individual level. Implications for the future use of vaginal photoplethysmography as a diagnostic tool of sexual preferences in clinical and forensic settings are discussed. © 2015 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Arousal responses in babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome at different postnatal ages.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Dunne, K P

1992-03-01

Hypercarbic and hypoxic arousal responses during sleep were measured in healthy term infants, infants where a previous sibling died from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and infants suffering a clearly defined apparent life threatening event (ALTE) requiring vigorous or mouth to mouth resuscitation. Groups of infants were tested at approximately one, six and 13 weeks postnatally. Arousal was defined as gross body movement with eyes opening and moving or crying. Hypercarbic arousal was by step increases in F1 Co2 until arousal occurred or until endtidal (PETCO2) reached 8.7 KpA (65 mm Hg) Hypoxic arousal was by step decreases in FIO2 until arousal occurred or until an FIO2 of 0.15 had been maintained for 20 minutes. There was no difference in hypercaribic arousal threshold with age in any group. Hypercarbic arousal threshold was significantly higher in siblings (mean 53.4, 53.6, 54.7 mmHg. [7.12, 7.14, 7.29 KPA] at 0, 6, 13 postnatal weeks) compared to controls (mean 50.9, 52.3, 53.0mm Hg. [6.78, 6.97, 7.29 KPS respectively). ALTE infants differed only at 12 weeks having a significantly lower threshold (51.0mmHg. [6.80 KPA] V 53.0mm Hg. (7.06 KPA]) compared to controls. There was no difference in hypoxic arousal response with age in any group. An arousal response to hypoxia occurred in only 22% of ALTE infants and 40% of siblings compared to 67% of normal infants. Deficient sleep arousal, especially to hypoxia, is common in infants and especially those considered at increased risk from SIDS. This deficiency is present in the first postnatal week and did not vary overy the first three months of postnatal life.

The Influence of Presession Factors in the Assessment of Deviant Arousal

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, Jorge R.; Vollmer, Timothy R.; Hall, Astrid

2011-01-01

Three adult male sex offenders with developmental disabilities participated in an evaluation of presession factors that may influence levels of sexual arousal measured with a penile plethysmograph. We evaluated the effects of presession masturbation (1 participant) and arousal-suppression strategies (2 participants). Results showed that presession…

Physical activity, job demand-control, perceived stress-energy, and salivary cortisol in white-collar workers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Åse Marie; Blangsted, Anne Katrine; Hansen, Ernst Albin

2010-01-01

The aim of the present study is to examine the association between physical activity and perceived job demand, job control, perceived stress and energy, and physiological arousal reflected by morning and evening concentrations of cortisol in saliva among white-collar workers.......The aim of the present study is to examine the association between physical activity and perceived job demand, job control, perceived stress and energy, and physiological arousal reflected by morning and evening concentrations of cortisol in saliva among white-collar workers....

Preliminary support for a generalized arousal model of political conservatism.

Science.gov (United States)

Tritt, Shona M; Inzlicht, Michael; Peterson, Jordan B

2013-01-01

It is widely held that negative emotions such as threat, anxiety, and disgust represent the core psychological factors that enhance conservative political beliefs. We put forward an alternative hypothesis: that conservatism is fundamentally motivated by arousal, and that, in this context, the effect of negative emotion is due to engaging intensely arousing states. Here we show that study participants agreed more with right but not left-wing political speeches after being exposed to positive as well as negative emotion-inducing film-clips. No such effect emerged for neutral-content videos. A follow-up study replicated and extended this effect. These results are consistent with the idea that emotional arousal, in general, and not negative valence, specifically, may underlie political conservatism.

Preliminary Support for a Generalized Arousal Model of Political Conservatism

Science.gov (United States)

Tritt, Shona M.; Inzlicht, Michael; Peterson, Jordan B.

2013-01-01

It is widely held that negative emotions such as threat, anxiety, and disgust represent the core psychological factors that enhance conservative political beliefs. We put forward an alternative hypothesis: that conservatism is fundamentally motivated by arousal, and that, in this context, the effect of negative emotion is due to engaging intensely arousing states. Here we show that study participants agreed more with right but not left-wing political speeches after being exposed to positive as well as negative emotion-inducing film-clips. No such effect emerged for neutral-content videos. A follow-up study replicated and extended this effect. These results are consistent with the idea that emotional arousal, in general, and not negative valence, specifically, may underlie political conservatism. PMID:24376687

Transient decoupling of cortical EEGs following arousals during NREM sleep in middle-aged and elderly women.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramanand, Pravitha; Bruce, Margaret C; Bruce, Eugene N

2010-08-01

Spontaneous cortical arousals in non-REM sleep increase with age and contribute to sleep fragmentation in the elderly. EEG spectral power in the faster frequencies exhibits well-described shifts during arousals. On the other hand, EEG activities also exhibit correlations, which are interpreted as an index of interdependence between distant cortical neural activities. The possibility of changes to the interdependence between cortical regions due to an arousal has not been considered. In this work, using previously recorded C3A2 and C4A1 EEG signals from two groups of adults, middle-aged (42-50 years) and elderly (71-86 years) women, we examined the effects of spontaneous arousals in NREM sleep on cortical interdependence. We quantified the auto- and cross-correlations in these signals using mutual information and characterized these correlations in periods before the onset and following the end of arousals. The pre-arousal period exhibited significantly higher interdependence between central regions than that following the arousal in both age groups (middle-aged: p=0.004, elderly: ppower changes characteristic of an arousal are no longer visible. The findings suggest that the state following an arousal characterized by lower interdependence may resemble a more vigilant period during which the system may be vulnerable to more arousals. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of phosphate solubilizing microorganisms on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of maize (Zea mays L.) under water deficit stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Ehteshami, S M R; Aghaalikhani, M; Khavazi, K; Chaichi, M R

2007-10-15

The effect of seed inoculation by phosphate solubilizing microorganisms on growth, yield and nutrient uptake of maize (Zea mays L. SC. 704) was studied in a field experiment. Positive effect on plant growth, nutrient uptake, grain yield and yield components in maize plants was recorded in the treatment receiving mixed inoculum of Glomus intraradices (AM) and Pseudomonas fluorescens (Pf). Co-inoculation treatment significantly increased grain yield, yield components, harvest index, grain N and P, soil available P, root colonization percentage and crop WUE under water deficit stress. In some of investigated characteristics under well-watered conditions, chemical fertilizer treatment was higher than double inoculated treatments, but this difference was not significant. Seed inoculation only with AM positively affected the measured parameters as amount as co-inoculated treatments. According to the results showed in contrast to the inoculated treatments with AM+Pf and AM, the application of alone Pf caused a comparatively poor response. Therefore, this microorganism needs to a complement for its activity in soil. All of measured parameters in inoculated treatments were higher than uninoculated treatments under water deficit stress conditions. Furthermore, the investigated characteristics of co-inoculated plants under severe water deficit stress conditions were significantly lower than co-inoculated plants under well-watered and moderate-stressed conditions. Therefore it could be stated, these microorganisms need more time to fix and establishing themselves in soil. The present finding showed that phosphate-solubilizing microorganisms can interact positively in promoting plant growth as well as P uptake of maize plants, leading to plant tolerance improving under water deficit stress conditions.

Early life stress determines the effects of glucocorticoids and stress on hippocampal function: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence respectively.

Science.gov (United States)

Pillai, Anup G; Arp, Marit; Velzing, Els; Lesuis, Sylvie L; Schmidt, Mathias V; Holsboer, Florian; Joëls, Marian; Krugers, Harm J

2018-05-01

Exposure to early-life adversity may program brain function to prepare individuals for adaptation to matching environmental contexts. In this study we tested this hypothesis in more detail by examining the effects of early-life stress - induced by raising offspring with limited nesting and bedding material from postnatal days 2-9 - in various behavioral tasks and on synaptic function in adult mice. Early-life stress impaired adult performance in the hippocampal dependent low-arousing object-in-context recognition memory task. This effect was absent when animals were exposed to a single stressor before training. Early-life stress did not alter high-arousing context and auditory fear conditioning. Early-life stress-induced behavioral modifications were not associated with alterations in the dendritic architecture of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons or principal neurons of the basolateral amygdala. However, early-life stress reduced the ratio of NMDA to AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents and glutamate release probability specifically in hippocampal CA1 neurons, but not in the basolateral amygdala. These ex vivo effects in the hippocampus were abolished by acute glucocorticoid treatment. Our findings support that early-life stress can hamper object-in-context learning via pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms that affect hippocampal function but these effects are counteracted by acute stress or elevated glucocorticoid levels. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Physiological and biochemical changes in Matricaria chamomilla induced by Pseudomonas fluorescens and water deficit stress

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamid MOHAMMADI

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Environmental stresses and rhizosphere microorganisms affect growth parameters and accumulation of active ingredients especially in plants with medicinal properties. The present study examined the effects of chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L. seedling inoculation with Pseudomonas fluorescens PF-135 strain on its growth parameters, photosynthetic pigments, proline, malondialdehyde (MDA, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 content, and essential oil concentration at both regular watering and water deficit experiments. Based on the obtained results, water deficit stress reduced root dry mass, and flower fresh and dry mass as well. However, amount of H2O2 and MDA in root and shoot tissues were considerably lower in inoculated plants compared to non-inoculated ones under both normal watering and water deficit regimes. It indicates that lipid peroxidation and production of reactive oxygen species has been diminished in inoculated plants. Also, essential oil content in inoculated plants significantly increased compared with that of non-inoculated ones under water deficit stress condition. It can be concluded that P. fluorescens PF-135 strain has an outstanding potential to alleviate adverse effects of water deficit on plant growth, and hence can be used as an excellent PGPR in order to boost chamomile productivity especially under water deficit stress condition.

A computerized algorithm for arousal detection in healthy adults and patients with Parkinson disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Gertrud Laura; Jennum, Poul; Kempfner, Jacob

2012-01-01

arousals from non-rapid eye movement (REM) and REM sleep, independent of the subject's age and disease. The proposed algorithm uses features from EEG, EMG, and the manual sleep stage scoring as input to a feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN). The performance of the algorithm has been assessed using......Arousals occur from all sleep stages and can be identified as abrupt electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram (EMG) changes. Manual scoring of arousals is time consuming with low interscore agreement. The aim of this study was to design an arousal detection algorithm capable of detecting...

Influence of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty on alpha-EEG arousals in nonapnoeic snorers.

Science.gov (United States)

Boudewyns, A; De Cock, W; Willemen, M; Wagemans, M; De Backer, W; Van de Heyning, P H

1997-01-01

Arousals are more numerous in heavy snorers than in nonsnorers and might be a cause of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in these patients. The present study investigated whether treatment of snoring by uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) had an influence on sleep microstructure in nonapnoeic snorers. The polysomnographic records of 10 nonapnoeic snorers were reviewed retrospectively and arousals scored according to the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) 3 s definition. Scores for snoring, EDS and polysomnographic data were compared before and after UPPP (mean (+/-SD) time interval 249 +/- 183 days). UPPP resulted in a subjective improvement of snoring and a significant decrease in the arousal index (mean 14.6, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 8.5-20.8 vs mean 9.1, 95% CI 6.6-11.5) (p = 0.01). EDS and the amount of slow-wave sleep remained unchanged. Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty resulted in an improvement of subjective snoring and a significant decrease of arousals in nonapnoeic snorers. Although these data do not provide any insight into whether the improvement observed can be maintained on a long-term basis, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty can be considered as a useful treatment modality to reduce sleep fragmentation and snoring in nonapnoeic snorers.

Stress and memory in humans: twelve years of progress?

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, Oliver T

2009-10-13

Stress leads to an enhanced activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis resulting in an increased release of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex. These hormones influence target systems in the periphery as well as in the brain. The present review paper describes the impact of the human stress hormone cortisol on episodic long-term memory. Starting out with our early observation that stress as well as cortisol treatment impaired declarative memory, experiments by the author are described, which result in an enhanced understanding of how cortisol influences memory. The main conclusions are that stress or cortisol treatment temporarily blocks memory retrieval. The effect is stronger for emotional arousing material independent of its valence. In addition cortisol only influences memory when a certain amount of testing induced arousal occurs. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study suggests that the neuronal correlate of the cortisol induced retrieval blockade is a reduced activity of the hippocampus. In contrast to the effects on retrieval cortisol enhances memory consolidation. Again this effect is often stronger for emotionally arousing material and sometimes occurs at the cost of memory for neutral material. A fMRI study revealed that higher cortisol levels were associated with a stronger amygdala response to emotional stimuli. Thus stimulatory effects of cortisol on this structure might underlie the cortisol induced enhancement of emotional memory consolidation. The findings presented are in line with models derived from experiments in rodents and are of relevance for our understanding of stress associated psychiatric disorders.

Threat but not arousal narrows attention: Evidence from pupil dilation and saccade control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henk eVan Steenbergen

2011-10-01

Full Text Available It has been shown that negative affect causes attentional narrowing. According to Easterbrook’s (1959 influential hypothesis this effect is driven by the withdrawal motivation inherent to negative emotions and might be related to increases in arousal. We investigated whether valence-unspecific increases in physiological arousal, as measured by pupil dilation, could account for attentional narrowing effects in a cognitive control task. Following the presentation of a negative, positive, or neutral picture, participants performed a saccade task with a prosaccade versus an antisaccade instruction. The reaction time difference between pro- and antisaccades was used to index attentional selectivity, and while pupil diameter was used as an index of physiological arousal. Pupil dilation was observed for both negative and positive pictures, which indicates increased physiological arousal. However, increased attentional selectivity was only observed following negative pictures. Our data show that motivational intensity effects on attentional narrowing can occur independently of physiological arousal effects.

The Physiological Response of Soybean Genotypes to VAM Inoculation on Selected Drought Stress Levels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HAPSOH

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Present research was aimed to study physiological changes of soybean which were inoculated with vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (VAM. Glomus etunicatum was exposed to moderate and severe drought condition. Symbiotic association with VAM improved adaptability as it was shown by the increasing leaf proline content. The MLG 3474 and Sindoro are the more tolerant genotypes while the responses of plant to VAM on improving the adaptability to drought were larger on Lokon.

PLANT GROWTH-PROMOTING MICROBIAL INOCULANT FOR Schizolobium parahyba pv. parahyba

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Priscila Jane Romano de Oliveira Gonçalves

2015-08-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACTSchizolobium parahyba pv. amazonicum (Huber ex Ducke Barneby (paricá occurs naturally in the Amazon and is significant commercial importance due to its rapid growth and excellent performance on cropping systems. The aim of this paper was to evaluate a microbial inoculants such as arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF and Rhizobium sp. that promote plant growth. The inocula was 10 g of root colonized and spores of Glomus clarum and/or 1 mL of cell suspension (107 CFU/mL of Rhizobium sp. and/or 100 g of chemical fertilizer NPK 20-05-20 per planting hole. The experimental design was complete randomized blocks with five replications and eight treatments (n = 800. Plant height, stem diameter and plant survival were measured. The results were tested for normality and homogeneity of variances and analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey test (p < 0.05. Rhizobium sp and AM fungi showed no effect on plant growth. Environmental factors probably influenced the effectiveness of symbiosis of both microorganisms and plant growth. The chemical fertilizer increased S. parahyba growth. During the first 120 days plants suffered with drought and frost, and at 180 days plants inoculated with microorganism plus chemical fertilizer showed higher survival when compared with control. The results showed that the microbial inoculants used showed an important role on plant survival after high stress conditions, but not in plant growth. Also was concluded that the planting time should be between November to December to avoid the presence of young plants during winter time that is dry and cold.

Approach and withdrawal tendencies during written word processing: effects of task, emotional valence and emotional arousal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca M. M. Citron

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The affective dimensions of emotional valence and emotional arousal affect processing of verbal and pictorial stimuli. Traditional emotional theories assume a linear relationship between these dimensions, with valence determining the direction of a behaviour (approach vs. withdrawal and arousal its intensity or strength. In contrast, according to the valence-arousal conflict theory, both dimensions are interactively related: positive valence and low arousal (PL are associated with an implicit tendency to approach a stimulus, whereas negative valence and high arousal (NH are associated with withdrawal. Hence, positive, high-arousal (PH and negative, low-arousal (NL stimuli elicit conflicting action tendencies. By extending previous research that used several tasks and methods, the present study investigated whether and how emotional valence and arousal affect subjective approach vs. withdrawal tendencies towards emotional words during two novel tasks. In Study 1, participants had to decide whether they would approach or withdraw from concepts expressed by written words. In Studies 2 and 3 participants had to respond to each word by pressing one of two keys labelled with an arrow pointing upward or downward. Across experiments, positive and negative words, high or low in arousal, were presented. In Study 1 (explicit task, in line with the valence-arousal conflict theory, PH and NL words were responded to more slowly than PL and NH words. In addition, participants decided to approach positive words more often than negative words. In Studies 2 and 3, participants responded faster to positive than negative words, irrespective of their level of arousal. Furthermore, positive words were significantly more often associated with up responses than negative words, thus supporting the existence of implicit associations between stimulus valence and response coding (positive is up and negative is down. Hence, in contexts in which participants’ spontaneous

A stress marker in speech

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Broek, Egon

This study examines the variability of the fundamental frequency of the voice (SD F0), as an indirect measure of physiological arousal, reflecting the intensity of emotions. The Subjective Unit of Distress (SUD) was applied to assess (a) the success of the experimental manipulation of stress, and

Inoculation message treatments for curbing noncommunicable disease development.

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Alicia M; Miller, Claude H

2013-07-01

To study the effect of various types of inoculation message treatments on resistance to persuasive and potentially deceptive health- and nutrition-related (HNR) content claims of commercial food advertisers. A three-phase experiment was conducted among 145 students from a Midwestern U.S. university. Quantitative statistical analyses were used to interpret the results. RESULTS provide clear evidence that integrating regulatory focus/fit considerations enhances the treatment effectiveness of inoculation messages. Inoculation messages that employed a preventative, outcome focus with concrete language were most effective at countering HNR advertising claims. The findings indicate that inoculation fosters resistance equally across the most common types of commercially advertised HNR product claims (e.g., absolute, general, and structure/function claims). As the drive to refine the inoculation process model continues, further testing and application of this strategy in a public health context is needed to counter ongoing efforts by commercial food advertisers to avoid government regulations against deceptive practices such as dubious health/nutrition claims. This research advances inoculation theory by providing evidence that 1) good regulatory fit strengthens the effect of refutational preemption and 2) an inoculation approach is highly effective at fostering resistance to commercial advertisers' HNR content claims. This macro approach appears far superior to education or information-based promotional health campaigns targeted solely at specific populations demonstrating rising rates of noncommunicable disease.

Inoculation message treatments for curbing noncommunicable disease development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alicia M. Mason

2013-07-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of various types of inoculation message treatments on resistance to persuasive and potentially deceptive health- and nutrition-related (HNR content claims of commercial food advertisers. METHODS: A three-phase experiment was conducted among 145 students from a Midwestern U.S. university. Quantitative statistical analyses were used to interpret the results. Results: Results provide clear evidence that integrating regulatory focus/fit considerations enhances the treatment effectiveness of inoculation messages. Inoculation messages that employed a preventative, outcome focus with concrete language were most effective at countering HNR advertising claims. The findings indicate that inoculation fosters resistance equally across the most common types of commercially advertised HNR product claims (e.g., absolute, general, and structure/function claims. CONCLUSIONS: As the drive to refine the inoculation process model continues, further testing and application of this strategy in a public health context is needed to counter ongoing efforts by commercial food advertisers to avoid government regulations against deceptive practices such as dubious health/nutrition claims. This research advances inoculation theory by providing evidence that 1 good regulatory fit strengthens the effect of refutational preemption and 2 an inoculation approach is highly effective at fostering resistance to commercial advertisers' HNR content claims. This macro approach appears far superior to education or information-based promotional health campaigns targeted solely at specific populations demonstrating rising rates of noncommunicable disease.

An Online Cross-Sectional Comparison of Women With Symptoms of Persistent Genital Arousal, Painful Persistent Genital Arousal, and Chronic Vulvar Pain.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackowich, Robyn A; Pink, Leah; Gordon, Allan; Poirier, Évéline; Pukall, Caroline F

2018-04-01

Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) is an understudied condition characterized by unwanted physiologic genital arousal in the absence of subjective sexual arousal. Markos and Dinsmore (Int J STD AIDS 2013;24:852-858) theorized that PGAD shares a number of similarities with vulvodynia (unexplained chronic vulvar pain [CVP]), including symptom characteristics and comorbidities. To compare medical histories, symptom characteristics, pain characteristics, and daily functioning among women with persistent genital pain (PGA) (n = 42), painful PGA (n = 37), and CVP (n = 42) symptoms. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 2015 through April 2016. Self-report measures of symptoms, diagnosed medical conditions, pain characteristics (McGill Pain Questionnaire), catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale), and daily functioning (Functional Status Questionnaire) were collected. All 3 groups reported similar medical diagnoses and high frequencies of other chronic pelvic pain conditions. Women in all 3 groups reported comparable ages at symptom onset and timing of symptom expression (ie, constant vs intermittent). Women in the 2 PGA groups reported significantly greater feelings of helplessness than women in the CVP group. Women in the painful PGA and CVP groups endorsed significantly more sensory terms to describe their symptoms compared with women in the PGA group, whereas women in the painful PGA group reported significantly more affective terms to describe their symptoms compared with women in the CVP group. Women in the 2 PGA groups reported that their symptoms interfered significantly with most areas of daily functioning. Given the similarities between PGA and CVP symptoms, women with PGA may benefit from similar assessment, treatment, and research approaches. Limitations of the present study include its sole use of self-report measures; the presence of PGA or CVP symptoms was not confirmed by clinical assessment. However, the anonymous

Disentangling the Effect of Valence and Arousal on Judgments Concerning Moral Transgressions.

Science.gov (United States)

de la Viña, Luis; Garcia-Burgos, David; Okan, Yasmina; Cándido, Antonio; González, Felisa

2015-08-10

An increasing body of research has investigated the effect of emotions on judgments concerning moral transgressions. Yet, few studies have controlled for arousal levels associated with the emotions. High arousal may affect moral processing by triggering attention to salient features of transgressions, independently of valence. Therefore previously documented differences in effects of negative and positive emotions may have been confounded by differences in arousal. We conducted two studies to shed light on this issue. In Study 1 we developed a questionnaire including vignettes selected on the basis of psychometrical properties (i.e., mean ratings of the actions and variability). This questionnaire was administered to participants in Study 2, after presenting them with selected pictures inducing different valence but equivalent levels of arousal. Negative pictures led to more severe moral judgments than neutral (p = .054, d = 0.60) and positive pictures (p = .002, d = 1.02), for vignettes that were not associated with extreme judgments. In contrast, positive pictures did not reliably affect judgments concerning such vignettes. These findings suggest that the observed effects of emotions cannot be accounted for by an increase in attention linked to the arousal which accompanies these emotions.

Key factors to inoculate Botrytis cinerea in tomato plants

OpenAIRE

Borges,Álefe Vitorino; Saraiva,Rodrigo Moreira; Maffia,Luiz Antonio

2014-01-01

Studies addressing the biological control of Botrytis cinerea have been unsuccessful because of fails in inoculating tomato plants with the pathogen. With the aim of establishing a methodology for inoculation into stems, experiments were designed to assess: i. the aggressiveness of pathogen isolates; ii. the age at which tomato plants should be inoculated; iii. the susceptibility of tissues at different stem heights; iv. the need for a moist chamber after inoculation; and v. the effectiveness...

Temporal associations between arousal and body/limb movement in children with suspected obstructed sleep apnoea.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamprecht, Marnie L; Bradley, Andrew P; Williams, Gordon; Terrill, Philip I

2016-01-01

The inter-relationship between arousal events and body and/or limb movements during sleep may significantly impact the performance and clinical interpretation of actigraphy. As such, the objective of this study was to quantify the temporal association between arousals and body/limb movement. From this, we aim to determine whether actigraphy can predict arousal events in children, and identify the impact of arousal-related movements on estimates of sleep/wake periods. Thirty otherwise healthy children (5-16 years, median 9 years, 21 male) with suspected sleep apnoea were studied using full polysomnography and customised raw tri-axial accelerometry measured at the left fingertip, left wrist, upper thorax, left ankle and left great toe. Raw data were synchronised to within 0.1 s of the polysomnogram. Movements were then identified using a custom algorithm. On average 67.5% of arousals were associated with wrist movement. Arousals associated with movement were longer than those without movement (mean duration: 12.2 s versus 7.9 s respectively, p  <  0.01); movements during wake and arousal were longer than other sleep movements (wrist duration: 6.26 s and 9.89 s versus 2.35 s respectively, p  <  0.01); and the movement index (movements/h) did not predict apnoea-hypopnoea index (ρ  =  -0.11). Movements associated with arousals are likely to unavoidably contribute to actigraphy's poor sensitivity for wake. However, as sleep-related movements tend to be shorter than those during wake or arousal, incorporating movement duration into the actigraphy scoring algorithm may improve sleep staging performance. Although actigraphy-based measurements cannot reliably predict all arousal events, actigraphy can likely identify longer events that may have the greatest impact on sleep quality.

Klebsiella pneumoniae inoculants for enhancing plant growth

Science.gov (United States)

Triplett, Eric W [Middleton, WI; Kaeppler, Shawn M [Oregon, WI; Chelius, Marisa K [Greeley, CO

2008-07-01

A biological inoculant for enhancing the growth of plants is disclosed. The inoculant includes the bacterial strains Herbaspirillum seropedicae 2A, Pantoea agglomerans P101, Pantoea agglomerans P102, Klebsiella pneumoniae 342, Klebsiella pneumoniae zmvsy, Herbaspirillum seropedicae Z152, Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus PA15, with or without a carrier. The inoculant also includes strains of the bacterium Pantoea agglomerans and K. pneumoniae which are able to enhance the growth of cereal grasses. Also disclosed are the novel bacterial strains Herbaspirillum seropedicae 2A, Pantoea agglomerans P101 and P102, and Klebsiella pneumoniae 342 and zmvsy.

Early brain-body impact of emotional arousal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabien D'Hondt

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Current research in affective neuroscience suggests that the emotional content of visual stimuli activates brain–body responses that could be critical to general health and physical disease. The aim of this study was to develop an integrated neurophysiological approach linking central and peripheral markers of nervous activity during the presentation of natural scenes in order to determine the temporal stages of brain processing related to the bodily impact of emotions. More specifically, whole head magnetoencephalogram (MEG data and skin conductance response (SCR, a reliable autonomic marker of central activation, were recorded in healthy volunteers during the presentation of emotional (unpleasant and pleasant and neutral pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS. Analyses of event-related magnetic fields (ERFs revealed greater activity at 180 ms in an occipitotemporal component for emotional pictures than for neutral counterparts. More importantly, these early effects of emotional arousal on cerebral activity were significantly correlated with later increases in SCR magnitude. For the first time, a neuromagnetic cortical component linked to a well-documented marker of bodily arousal expression of emotion, namely, the skin conductance response, was identified and located. This finding sheds light on the time course of the brain–body interaction with emotional arousal and provides new insights into the neural bases of complex and reciprocal mind–body links.

Regulation of zebrafish sleep and arousal states: current and prospective approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cindy N Chiu

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Every day, we shift among various states of sleep and arousal to meet the many demands of our bodies and environment. A central puzzle in neurobiology is how the brain controls these behavioral states, which are essential to an animal’s well-being and survival. Mammalian models have predominated sleep and arousal research, although in the past decade, invertebrate models have made significant contributions to our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of behavioral states. More recently, the zebrafish has emerged as a promising model system for sleep and arousal research. Here we review experimental evidence that the zebrafish, a diurnal vertebrate, exhibits fundamental behavioral and neurochemical characteristics of mammalian sleep and arousal. We also propose how specific advantages of the zebrafish can be harnessed to advance the field. These include tractable genetics to identify and manipulate molecular and cellular regulators of behavioral states, optical transparency to facilitate in vivo observation of neural structure and function, and amenability to high-throughput drug screens to discover novel therapies for neurological disorders.

Increased Arousal Levels and Decreased Sleep by Brain Music in Rats

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Guang-Zhan Fang; Chun-Peng Zhang; Dan Wu; Yang Xia; Yong-Xiu Lai; De-Zhong Yao

2009-01-01

More and more studies have been reported on whether music and other types of auditory stimulation would improve the quality of sleep.Many of these studies have found significant results,but others argue that music is not significantly better than the tones or control conditions in improving sleep.For further understanding the relationship between music and sleep or music and arousal,the present study therefore examines the effects of brain music on sleep and arousal by means of biofeedback.The music is from the transformation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) of rats using an algorithm in the Chengdu Brain Music (CBM) system.When the brain music was played back to rats,EEG data were recorded to assess the efficacy of music to induce or improve sleep,or increase arousal levels by sleep staging,etc.Our results demonstrate that exposure to the brain music increases arousal levels and decreases sleep in rats,and the underlying mechanism of decreased non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep may be different.

Direct manipulation of physiological arousal in induced anxiety therapy - biofeedback approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Sappington, A A

1977-10-01

This study investigated the role of physiological arousal in the affect induction phase of Induced Anxiety therapy by using biofeedback to facilitate arousal. Twenty-one college students who were suffering from free-floating anxiety were assigned randomly to one of three groups: (1) a no-treatment control group simply completed the measures before and after therapy; (2) a conventional Induced Anxiety group went through five standard Induced Anxiety sessions; and (3) biofeedback Induced Anxiety group went through a similar procedure except that biofeedback was used in the affect induction phase to facilitate heart rate increase. It was found that the biofeedback procedure did result in a greater heart rate increase during the affect induction phase arousal than did the conventional procedure (.01 level of significance), but did not facilitate subjective emotional arousal. Biofeedback Induced Anxiety resulted in a greater reduction of trait anxiety as measured by the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List than did the no-treatment group or the conventonal Induced Anxiety group. The conventional Induced Anxiety group did not differ significantly from the no-treatment control group.

A stress marker in speech

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broek, E.L. van den

2003-01-01

This study examins the variability of the fundamental frequency of the voice (SD F0), as an indirect measure of physiological arousal, reflecting the intensity of emotions. The Subjective Unit of Distress (SUD) was applied to assess (a) the success of the experimental manipulation of stress, and (b)

All in its proper time: monitoring the emergence of a memory bias for novel, arousing-negative words in individuals with high and low trait anxiety.

Science.gov (United States)

Eden, Annuschka Salima; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Keuper, Katharina; Junghöfer, Markus; Laeger, Inga; Zwanzger, Peter; Dobel, Christian

2014-01-01

The well-established memory bias for arousing-negative stimuli seems to be enhanced in high trait-anxious persons and persons suffering from anxiety disorders. We monitored the emergence and development of such a bias during and after learning, in high and low trait anxious participants. A word-learning paradigm was applied, consisting of spoken pseudowords paired either with arousing-negative or neutral pictures. Learning performance during training evidenced a short-lived advantage for arousing-negative associated words, which was not present at the end of training. Cued recall and valence ratings revealed a memory bias for pseudowords that had been paired with arousing-negative pictures, immediately after learning and two weeks later. This held even for items that were not explicitly remembered. High anxious individuals evidenced a stronger memory bias in the cued-recall test, and their ratings were also more negative overall compared to low anxious persons. Both effects were evident, even when explicit recall was controlled for. Regarding the memory bias in anxiety prone persons, explicit memory seems to play a more crucial role than implicit memory. The study stresses the need for several time points of bias measurement during the course of learning and retrieval, as well as the employment of different measures for learning success.

All in its proper time: monitoring the emergence of a memory bias for novel, arousing-negative words in individuals with high and low trait anxiety.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annuschka Salima Eden

Full Text Available The well-established memory bias for arousing-negative stimuli seems to be enhanced in high trait-anxious persons and persons suffering from anxiety disorders. We monitored the emergence and development of such a bias during and after learning, in high and low trait anxious participants. A word-learning paradigm was applied, consisting of spoken pseudowords paired either with arousing-negative or neutral pictures. Learning performance during training evidenced a short-lived advantage for arousing-negative associated words, which was not present at the end of training. Cued recall and valence ratings revealed a memory bias for pseudowords that had been paired with arousing-negative pictures, immediately after learning and two weeks later. This held even for items that were not explicitly remembered. High anxious individuals evidenced a stronger memory bias in the cued-recall test, and their ratings were also more negative overall compared to low anxious persons. Both effects were evident, even when explicit recall was controlled for. Regarding the memory bias in anxiety prone persons, explicit memory seems to play a more crucial role than implicit memory. The study stresses the need for several time points of bias measurement during the course of learning and retrieval, as well as the employment of different measures for learning success.

Antagonistic interplay between hypocretin and leptin in the lateral hypothalamus regulates stress responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Bonnavion, Patricia; Jackson, Alexander C; Carter, Matthew E; de Lecea, Luis

2015-02-19

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functions to coordinate behavioural and physiological responses to stress in a manner that depends on the behavioural state of the organism. However, the mechanisms through which arousal and metabolic states influence the HPA axis are poorly understood. Here using optogenetic approaches in mice, we show that neurons that produce hypocretin (Hcrt)/orexin in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) regulate corticosterone release and a variety of behaviours and physiological hallmarks of the stress response. Interestingly, we found that Hcrt neuronal activity and Hcrt-mediated stress responses were inhibited by the satiety hormone leptin, which acts, in part, through a network of leptin-sensitive neurons in the LHA. These data demonstrate how peripheral metabolic signals interact with hypothalamic neurons to coordinate stress and arousal and suggest one mechanism through which hyperarousal or altered metabolic states may be linked with abnormal stress responses.

Physiological responses of genotypes soybean to simulated drought stress

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eleonóra Krivosudská

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of this research was to investigate possible genetic variation in the sensitivity of soybean cultivars for nitrogen fixation rates in response to soil drying. The work confirmed that the selected physiological characteristics (RWC, osmotic potential, stress index and created nodules on roots are good evaluating parameters for the determination of water stress in plant. In the floricultural year 2014 an experiment with four genetic resources of soybean was launched. Sowing of Maverick (USA, Drina (HRV, Nigra (SVK and Polanka (CZK genotypes was carried out in the containers of 15 l capacity. This stress had a negative impact on the physiological parameters. By comparing the RWC values, the decrease was more significant at the end of dehydration, which was monitored in Maverick and Drina genotypes using the Nitrazon inoculants and water stress effect. Inoculated stressed Nigra and Polanka genotypes have kept higher water content till the end of dehydration period. Also the proline accumulation was monitored during the water stress, whilst higher content of free proline reached of Maverick. More remarkable decrease of osmotic potential was again registered in a foreign Drina and Maverick genotypes in the inoculated variations. Nigra and Polanka genotypes responses not so significant in the given conditions.

Memory recall in arousing situations - an emotional von Restorff effect?

Science.gov (United States)

Wiswede, Daniel; Rüsseler, Jascha; Hasselbach, Simone; Münte, Thomas F

2006-07-24

Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between memory recall and P300 amplitude in list learning tasks, but the variables mediating this P300-recall relationship are not well understood. In the present study, subjects were required to recall items from lists consisting of 12 words, which were presented in front of pictures taken from the IAPS collection. One word per list is made distinct either by font color or by a highly arousing background IAPS picture. This isolation procedure was first used by von Restorff. Brain potentials were recorded during list presentation. Recall performance was enhanced for color but not for emotional isolates. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) showed a more positive P300-component for recalled non-isolated words and color-isolated words, compared to the respective non-remembered words, but not for words isolated by arousing background. Our findings indicate that it is crucial to take emotional mediator variables into account, when using the P300 to predict later recall. Highly arousing environments might force the cognitive system to interrupt rehearsal processes in working memory, which might benefit transfer into other, more stable memory systems. The impact of attention-capturing properties of arousing background stimuli is also discussed.

Public speaking in front of an unreceptive audience increases implicit power motivation and its endocrine arousal signature.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiemers, Uta S; Schultheiss, Oliver C; Wolf, Oliver T

2015-05-01

The present study explored the motivational characteristics of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993). Seventy-two participants either completed the public-speaking component of the TSST or, as a control condition, the friendly TSST (Wiemers, Schoofs, & Wolf, 2013) and wrote picture stories both before and after treatment. Stories were coded for motivational imagery related to power, achievement, and affiliation as well as for activity inhibition, a marker of functional brain lateralization during stress. The TSST had a specific arousing effect on power motivation, but not on other motivational needs, on activity inhibition, or on story length. TSST-elicited increases in power imagery, but not in achievement or affiliation imagery, were associated with a relatively greater salivary alpha-amylase response and with a relatively lesser salivary cortisol response. These findings suggest that the TSST specifically induces power-related stress. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biological Inoculants in Forage Conservation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judit Peter Szucs

2011-05-01

Full Text Available 3rd generation biological inoculants –containing lactic acid bacteria and enzymes – are prefered nowadays in order to coordinate the fermentation in such a way that they increase lactic acid production by leaps and bounds at the beginning of the fermentation and improve the quality and stability of silage during the fermentation and feeding. The quality of raw material (maturity of plant, chop lenght, spreading of inoculant uniformly and the proper filling, compacting, covering and wrapping have a great influence on the effectiveness of the inoculant. The mycotoxin content of malfermented silages is an undesirable risk factor. The authors established, that the Lactobacillus buchneri and enzymes containing inoculant protected better the carotene content of low, medium- and high wilteed lucerne haylages (P<0,05 compare to untreated ones Aerobic stability experiment by Honnig 1990 method was carried out with medium wilted (36 % DM lucerne haylage which was treatedtreated before ensilage with , the dosage of 105 CFU/g Pediococcus acidilactici, 1,5x105 CFU/g Lactobacillus buchneri and cellulase and hemicellulase enzimes (20 000 CMC /g remained stabyle, unspoiled after 9 days exposure to the air, while the untreated haylages spoiled after 2;4;or 7days on aerobic condition. The different Lactobacillus plantarum strains (50.000 CFU of Lactobacillus plantarum DSM 16568 + 50.000 CFU of Lactobacillus plantarum DSM 4784/ g FM of maize applied together were able to improve the aerobic stability of silomaize silage.

Approach and withdrawal tendencies during written word processing: effects of task, emotional valence and emotional arousal

OpenAIRE

Citron, Francesca Maria Marina; Abugaber, David; Herbert, Cornelia

2016-01-01

The affective dimensions of emotional valence and emotional arousal affect processing of verbal and pictorial stimuli. Traditional emotional theories assume a linear relationship between these dimensions, with valence determining the direction of a behaviour (approach vs. withdrawal) and arousal its intensity or strength. In contrast, according to the valence-arousal conflict theory, both dimensions are interactively related: positive valence and low arousal (PL) are associated with an implic...

Mood and sexual arousal in women

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laan, E.; Everaerd, W.; van Berlo, R.; Rijs, L.

1995-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a positive 'mood for sex' on genital and subjective sexual arousal in functional women, using a musical mood induction procedure. Fifty-one female Ss were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: erotic film preceded by mood induction;

The Effects of Valence and Arousal on Associative Working Memory and Long-Term Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Bergmann, Heiko C.; Rijpkema, Mark; Fernández, Guillén; Kessels, Roy P. C.

2012-01-01

Background Emotion can either facilitate or impair memory, depending on what, when and how memory is tested and whether the paradigm at hand is administered as a working memory (WM) or a long-term memory (LTM) task. Whereas emotionally arousing single stimuli are more likely to be remembered, memory for the relationship between two or more component parts (i.e., relational memory) appears to be worse in the presence of emotional stimuli, at least in some relational memory tasks. The current study investigated the effects of both valence (neutral vs. positive vs. negative) and arousal (low vs. high) in an inter-item WM binding and LTM task. Methodology/Principal Findings A five-pair delayed-match-to-sample (WM) task was administered. In each trial, study pairs consisted of one neutral picture and a second picture of which the emotional qualities (valence and arousal levels) were manipulated. These pairs had to be remembered across a delay interval of 10 seconds. This was followed by a probe phase in which five pairs were tested. After completion of this task, an unexpected single item LTM task as well as an LTM task for the pairs was assessed. As expected, emotional arousal impaired WM processing. This was reflected in lower accuracy for pairs consisting of high-arousal pictures compared to pairs with low-arousal pictures. A similar effect was found for the associative LTM task. However, the arousal effect was modulated by affective valence for the WM but not the LTM task; pairs with low-arousal negative pictures were not processed as well in the WM task. No significant differences were found for the single-item LTM task. Conclusions/Significance The present study provides additional evidence that processes during initial perception/encoding and post-encoding processes, the time interval between study and test and the interaction between valence and arousal might modulate the effects of “emotion” on associative memory. PMID:23300724

The Effect of Mycorrhizal Inoculation of Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L. on its Yield and Some Physiological Characteristics Under Drought Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Madineh Bijhani

2015-11-01

Full Text Available To study the effects of mycorrhizal inoculation of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L. plants and on its growth and yield under drought stress conditions a greenhouse experiment was carried out in split plot using a randomized complete block design at Zabol University green house in 2013. Treatments were three drought stresses: control, mild stress and severe stress (70, 50 and 30% FC assigned to main plots, and three species of mycorrhizal treatments (Glomus intraradices, G. versiform, G. mosseae and non-inoculation as control to sub-plots. The effects of drought on all traits under study were significant, and reduced number of leaves per plant, plant height, root length, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll by 15.6, 7.6, 10.7, 2.5 and 8.4 % and increased proline and carbohydrates by 38.6 and 17.7 % as compared with the control. Mycorrhizal treatments did not affect the amount of carbohydrates and proline content significantly. Interaction of mycorrhiza and drought stress was significant on grain yield, chlorophyll a and total chlorophyll. Among the mycorrhizal strains G. mosseae affected the traits significantly under drought conditions. The results suggested that mycorrhizal treatments of plants at different drought stresses could improve grain yield of fenugreek and reduce the negative effects of drought by increasing photosynthetic pigments and other quantitative and qualitative traits.

Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Enhance Salinity Stress Tolerance in Okra through ROS-Scavenging Enzymes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheikh Hasna Habib

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Salinity is a major environmental stress that limits crop production worldwide. In this study, we characterized plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR containing 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC deaminase and examined their effect on salinity stress tolerance in okra through the induction of ROS-scavenging enzyme activity. PGPR inoculated okra plants exhibited higher germination percentage, growth parameters, and chlorophyll content than control plants. Increased antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, APX, and CAT and upregulation of ROS pathway genes (CAT, APX, GR, and DHAR were observed in PGPR inoculated okra plants under salinity stress. With some exceptions, inoculation with Enterobacter sp. UPMR18 had a significant influence on all tested parameters under salt stress, as compared to other treatments. Thus, the ACC deaminase-containing PGPR isolate Enterobacter sp. UPMR18 could be an effective bioresource for enhancing salt tolerance and growth of okra plants under salinity stress.

Cytokinin-producing, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria that confer resistance to drought stress in Platycladus orientalis container seedlings.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Fangchun; Xing, Shangjun; Ma, Hailin; Du, Zhenyu; Ma, Bingyao

2013-10-01

One of the proposed mechanisms through which plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) enhance plant growth is the production of plant growth regulators, especially cytokinin. However, little information is available regarding cytokinin-producing PGPR inoculation on growth and water stress consistence of forest container seedlings under drought condition. This study determined the effects of Bacillus subtilis on hormone concentration, drought resistance, and plant growth under water-stressed conditions. Although no significant difference was observed under well-watered conditions, leaves of inoculated Platycladus orientalis (oriental thuja) seedlings under drought stress had higher relative water content and leaf water potential compared with those of noninoculated ones. Regardless of water supply levels, the root exudates, namely sugars, amino acids and organic acids, significantly increased because of B. subtilis inoculation. Water stress reduced shoot cytokinins by 39.14 %. However, inoculation decreased this deficit to only 10.22 %. The elevated levels of cytokinins in P. orientalis shoot were associated with higher concentration of abscisic acid (ABA). Stomatal conductance was significantly increased by B. subtilis inoculation in well-watered seedlings. However, the promoting effect of cytokinins on stomatal conductance was hampered, possibly by the combined action of elevated cytokinins and ABA. B. subtilis inoculation increased the shoot dry weight of well-watered and drought seedlings by 34.85 and 19.23 %, as well as the root by 15.445 and 13.99 %, respectively. Consequently, the root/shoot ratio significantly decreased, indicative of the greater benefits of PGPR on shoot growth than root. Thus, inoculation of cytokinin-producing PGPR in container seedlings can alleviate the drought stress and interfere with the suppression of shoot growth, showing a real potential to perform as a drought stress inhibitor in arid environments.

Mycorrhizal inoculation affects the phytochemical content in strawberry fruits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Paula Cecatto

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of the inoculation date of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on the fruit quality and the content of phytochemicals in a strawberry soilless growing system. The experiment was performed in Huelva (Spain and was conducted in a greenhouse on the La Rábida Campus of Huelva University under natural light and temperature from October 2013 to June 2014. Three short-day strawberry cultivars (‘Splendor’, ‘Sabrina’ and ‘Fortuna’ were grown in polyethylene bags filled with coconut fibres. Randomized block design, with 3 repetitions and factorial arrangement (3 cultivars x 3 treatments, was established. Each replicate consisted of one bag with 12 plants supporting structures at 40 cm height. The treatments were: T1 = mycorrhizal inoculation in the transplantation; T2 = mycorrhizal inoculation 30 days after transplantation (DAT; and T0 = control treatment, without inoculation. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculation significantly affected the contents of anthocyanin and phenolics. When the inoculation is performed in the transplantation, the fruits showed a high content of anthocyanin and total phenolics. The mycorrhizal inoculation influences decreasing the acidity in fruit throughout the growing season and increase firmness only during the early stage of production.

Experimental Evidence of the Knowledge Gap: Message Arousal, Motivation, and Time Delay

Science.gov (United States)

Grabe, Maria Elizabeth; Yegiyan, Narine; Kamhawi, Rasha

2008-01-01

This study experimentally tested the knowledge gap from an information processing perspective. Specifically, knowledge acquisition was investigated under conditions of medium and low news message arousal, with time delay. Results show the persistence of a knowledge gap, particularly for low arousing messages. In fact, at low levels of message…

Age differences in liking and recall of arousing television commercials

OpenAIRE

van der Goot, M.; van Reijmersdal, E.; Eisend, M.; Langner, T.

2011-01-01

This paper examines age differences in liking of arousing television commercials and recall of the advertised brands and products. Based on the activation theory of information exposure, sensation seeking theory and the limited capacity model of mediated message processing, we expect that the effects of arousing commercials on liking and recall are moderated by age. An experiment (N = 66) indeed demonstrated that older adults showed more liking of calm commercials and better recall of the bra...

Growth response of drought-stressed Pinus sylvestris seedlings to single- and multi-species inoculation with ectomycorrhizal fungi.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tabea Kipfer

Full Text Available Many trees species form symbiotic associations with ectomycorrhizal (ECM fungi, which improve nutrient and water acquisition of their host. Until now it is unclear whether the species richness of ECM fungi is beneficial for tree seedling performance, be it during moist conditions or drought. We performed a pot experiment using Pinus sylvestris seedlings inoculated with four selected ECM fungi (Cenococcum geophilum, Paxillus involutus, Rhizopogon roseolus and Suillus granulatus to investigate (i whether these four ECM fungi, in monoculture or in species mixtures, affect growth of P. sylvestris seedlings, and (ii whether this effect can be attributed to species number per se or to species identity. Two different watering regimes (moist vs. dry were applied to examine the context-dependency of the results. Additionally, we assessed the activity of eight extracellular enzymes in the root tips. Shoot growth was enhanced in the presence of S. granulatus, but not by any other ECM fungal species. The positive effect of S. granulatus on shoot growth was more pronounced under moist (threefold increase than under dry conditions (twofold increase, indicating that the investigated ECM fungi did not provide additional support during drought stress. The activity of secreted extracellular enzymes was higher in S. granulatus than in any other species. In conclusion, our findings suggest that ECM fungal species composition may affect seedling performance in terms of aboveground biomass.

Growth response of drought-stressed Pinus sylvestris seedlings to single- and multi-species inoculation with ectomycorrhizal fungi.

Science.gov (United States)

Kipfer, Tabea; Wohlgemuth, Thomas; van der Heijden, Marcel G A; Ghazoul, Jaboury; Egli, Simon

2012-01-01

Many trees species form symbiotic associations with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, which improve nutrient and water acquisition of their host. Until now it is unclear whether the species richness of ECM fungi is beneficial for tree seedling performance, be it during moist conditions or drought. We performed a pot experiment using Pinus sylvestris seedlings inoculated with four selected ECM fungi (Cenococcum geophilum, Paxillus involutus, Rhizopogon roseolus and Suillus granulatus) to investigate (i) whether these four ECM fungi, in monoculture or in species mixtures, affect growth of P. sylvestris seedlings, and (ii) whether this effect can be attributed to species number per se or to species identity. Two different watering regimes (moist vs. dry) were applied to examine the context-dependency of the results. Additionally, we assessed the activity of eight extracellular enzymes in the root tips. Shoot growth was enhanced in the presence of S. granulatus, but not by any other ECM fungal species. The positive effect of S. granulatus on shoot growth was more pronounced under moist (threefold increase) than under dry conditions (twofold increase), indicating that the investigated ECM fungi did not provide additional support during drought stress. The activity of secreted extracellular enzymes was higher in S. granulatus than in any other species. In conclusion, our findings suggest that ECM fungal species composition may affect seedling performance in terms of aboveground biomass.

Pain increases during sympathetic arousal in patients with complex regional pain syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Drummond, P D; Finch, P M; Skipworth, S; Blockey, P

2001-10-09

To investigate the effect of sympathetic arousal on pain and vasomotor responses in healthy control subjects and patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), and to determine whether pain increases in patients with particular symptoms. In experiments 1 and 2, capsaicin was applied to the forearm of 24 healthy subjects to induce thermal hyperalgesia. Vascular responses were monitored and subjects rated thermal hyperalgesia before and after being startled (experiment 1), and before, during, and after mental arithmetic, breath holding, forehead cooling, the Valsalva maneuver, and a cold pressor test in experiment 2. In a third experiment, sensitivity to heat, cold, and mechanical stimulation was investigated in 61 patients with CRPS. Pain ratings and vascular and electrodermal responses were recorded after patients were startled and during forehead cooling. In experiment 1, thermal hyperalgesia decreased in healthy control subjects after they were startled, and digital blood vessels constricted symmetrically. In experiment 2, thermal hyperalgesia decreased during and after other forms of sympathetic arousal. However, in experiment 3, ratings of clinical pain increased during forehead cooling or after being startled in over 70% of patients with CRPS. Pain increased most consistently during forehead cooling in patients with cold allodynia or punctate allodynia. Digital blood vessels constricted more intensely on the symptomatic than the nonsymptomatic side in patients with CRPS during sympathetic arousal. Normal inhibitory influences on pain during sympathetic arousal are compromised in the majority of patients with CRPS. The augmented vasoconstrictor response in the symptomatic limb during sympathetic arousal is consistent with adrenergic supersensitivity. An adrenergic sensitivity in nociceptive afferents might contribute to pain and hyperalgesia during sympathetic arousal in certain patients with CRPS.

Debating the Role of Arousal in Delirium Diagnosis: Should Delirium Diagnosis Be Inclusive or Restrictive?

Science.gov (United States)

Oldham, Mark A; Flaherty, Joseph H; Rudolph, James L

2017-07-01

Delirium is common in acute, postacute, and long-term care settings, and it can be difficult to recognize, especially without deliberate mental status evaluation. Because delirium typically presents with altered arousal and arousal can be assessed within a matter of seconds, routine assessment of arousal offers an efficient means of delirium screening. Nevertheless, impaired arousal often precludes formal assessment of attention and awareness, the cardinal features of delirium per the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Here we debate the relative merits of "ruling in" as delirious noncomatose patients with impaired arousal (inclusive approach) vs reserving delirium diagnosis to patients in whom diagnostic criteria can be elicited (restrictive approach). Inclusivism provides efficiency and may prevent missing or delaying delirium diagnosis. The restrictive approach challenges the utility of ruling such patients in as delirious and advocates for identifying mental states that directly inform clinical care. Both positions, however, firmly emphasize the value of routine clinical assessment of arousal. Copyright © 2017 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. All rights reserved.

Hormonal contraception use alters stress responses and emotional memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Shawn E; Segal, Sabrina K; Worden, Ian V; Yim, Ilona S; Cahill, Larry

2013-02-01

Emotionally arousing material is typically better remembered than neutral material. Since norepinephrine and cortisol interact to modulate emotional memory, sex-related influences on stress responses may be related to sex differences in emotional memory. Two groups of healthy women - one naturally cycling (NC women, n=42) and one using hormonal contraceptives (HC women, n=36) - viewed emotionally arousing and neutral images. Immediately after, they were assigned to Cold Pressor Stress (CPS) or a control procedure. One week later, participants received a surprise free recall test. Saliva samples were collected and later assayed for salivary alpha-amylase (biomarker for norepinephrine) and cortisol. Compared to NC women, HC women exhibited significantly blunted stress hormone responses to the images and CPS. Recall of emotional images differed between HC and NC women depending on noradrenergic and cortisol responses. These findings may have important implications for understanding the neurobiology of emotional memory disorders, especially those that disproportionately affect women. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Brain processing of emotional scenes in aging: effect of arousal and affective context.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolas Gilles Mathieu

Full Text Available Research on emotion showed an increase, with age, in prevalence of positive information relative to negative ones. This effect is called positivity effect. From the cerebral analysis of the Late Positive Potential (LPP, sensitive to attention, our study investigated to which extent the arousal level of negative scenes is differently processed between young and older adults and, to which extent the arousal level of negative scenes, depending on its value, may contextually modulate the cerebral processing of positive (and neutral scenes and favor the observation of a positivity effect with age. With this aim, two negative scene groups characterized by two distinct arousal levels (high and low were displayed into two separate experimental blocks in which were included positive and neutral pictures. The two blocks only differed by their negative pictures across participants, as to create two negative global contexts for the processing of the positive and neutral pictures. The results show that the relative processing of different arousal levels of negative stimuli, reflected by LPP, appears similar between the two age groups. However, a lower activity for negative stimuli is observed with the older group for both tested arousal levels. The processing of positive information seems to be preserved with age and is also not contextually impacted by negative stimuli in both younger and older adults. For neutral stimuli, a significantly reduced activity is observed for older adults in the contextual block of low-arousal negative stimuli. Globally, our study reveals that the positivity effect is mainly due to a modulation, with age, in processing of negative stimuli, regardless of their arousal level. It also suggests that processing of neutral stimuli may be modulated with age, depending on negative context in which they are presented to. These age-related effects could contribute to justify the differences in emotional preference with age.

Disentangling brain activity related to the processing of emotional visual information and emotional arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuniecki, Michał; Wołoszyn, Kinga; Domagalik, Aleksandra; Pilarczyk, Joanna

2018-05-01

Processing of emotional visual information engages cognitive functions and induces arousal. We aimed to examine the modulatory role of emotional valence on brain activations linked to the processing of visual information and those linked to arousal. Participants were scanned and their pupil size was measured while viewing negative and neutral images. The visual noise was added to the images in various proportions to parametrically manipulate the amount of visual information. Pupil size was used as an index of physiological arousal. We show that arousal induced by the negative images, as compared to the neutral ones, is primarily related to greater amygdala activity while increasing visibility of negative content to enhanced activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC). We argue that more intense visual processing of negative scenes can occur irrespective of the level of arousal. It may suggest that higher areas of the visual stream are fine-tuned to process emotionally relevant objects. Both arousal and processing of emotional visual information modulated activity within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Overlapping activations within the vmPFC may reflect the integration of these aspects of emotional processing. Additionally, we show that emotionally-evoked pupil dilations are related to activations in the amygdala, vmPFC, and LOC.

Disentangling the roles of arousal and amygdala activation in emotional declarative memory.

Science.gov (United States)

de Voogd, Lycia D; Fernández, Guillén; Hermans, Erno J

2016-09-01

A large body of evidence in animals and humans implicates the amygdala in promoting memory for arousing experiences. Although the amygdala can trigger threat-related noradrenergic-sympathetic arousal, in humans amygdala activation and noradrenergic-sympathetic arousal do not always concur. This raises the question how these two processes play a role in enhancing emotional declarative memory. This study was designed to disentangle these processes in a combined subsequent-memory/fear-conditioning paradigm with neutral items belonging to two conceptual categories as conditioned stimuli. Functional MRI, skin conductance (index of sympathetic activity), and pupil dilation (indirect index of central noradrenergic activity) were acquired throughout procedures. Recognition memory for individual items was tested 24 h later. We found that pupil dilation and skin conductance responses were higher on CS+ (associated with a shock) compared with CS- trials, irrespective of later memory for those items. By contrast, amygdala activity was only higher for CS+ items that were later confidently remembered compared with CS+ items that were later forgotten. Thus, amygdala activity and not noradrenergic-sympathetic arousal, predicted enhanced declarative item memory. This dissociation is in line with animal models stating that the amygdala integrates arousal-related neuromodulatory changes to alter mnemonic processes elsewhere in the brain. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The effects of similarity in sexual excitation, inhibition, and mood on sexual arousal problems and sexual satisfaction in newlywed couples.

Science.gov (United States)

Lykins, Amy D; Janssen, Erick; Newhouse, Sarah; Heiman, Julia R; Rafaeli, Eshkol

2012-05-01

Despite the importance of sexuality for romantic relationships, there has been little research attention to individual differences and dyadic variables, including couple similarity, and their association with sexual problems and satisfaction. The current study examined the effects of the propensity for sexual inhibition and sexual excitation scales (SIS/SES) and the effects of different mood states on sexuality (Mood and Sexuality Questionnaire [MSQ]), at both the individual and the dyad level, on sexual arousal problems and sexual satisfaction. Similarity in SIS/SES and MSQ was measured in a nonclinical sample of 35 newlywed couples and operationally defined as the within-couple, z-transformed correlations between the two partners' item responses. Sexual arousal problems were assessed using self-report measures (Demographic and Sexual History Questionnaire) and focused on the past 3 months. Sexual satisfaction was assessed using the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction. Regression analyses revealed that greater similarity in the effects of anxiety and stress on sexuality was associated with more reported sexual arousal problems of wives. In contrast, the husbands' sexual arousal problems were related only to their own higher SIS1 scores. Higher SES scores predicted lower sexual satisfaction for both husbands and wives. Wives who reported strong positive mood effects on their sexuality indicated greater sexual satisfaction, while husbands who were more similar to their wives in the effect of positive moods on sexuality indicated greater sexual satisfaction. The findings show that, above and beyond one's own sexual propensities, similarity in various aspects of sexuality predicts sexual problems (more so in women) and sexual satisfaction (in both men and women). © 2012 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Affective Norms for Italian Words in Older Adults: Age Differences in Ratings of Valence, Arousal and Dominance.

Science.gov (United States)

Fairfield, Beth; Ambrosini, Ettore; Mammarella, Nicola; Montefinese, Maria

2017-01-01

In line with the dimensional theory of emotional space, we developed affective norms for words rated in terms of valence, arousal and dominance in a group of older adults to complete the adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) for Italian and to aid research on aging. Here, as in the original Italian ANEW database, participants evaluated valence, arousal, and dominance by means of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) in a paper-and-pencil procedure. We observed high split-half reliabilities within the older sample and high correlations with the affective ratings of previous research, especially for valence, suggesting that there is large agreement among older adults within and across-languages. More importantly, we found high correlations between younger and older adults, showing that our data are generalizable across different ages. However, despite this across-ages accord, we obtained age-related differences on three affective dimensions for a great number of words. In particular, older adults rated as more arousing and more unpleasant a number of words that younger adults rated as moderately unpleasant and arousing in our previous affective norms. Moreover, older participants rated negative stimuli as more arousing and positive stimuli as less arousing than younger participants, thus leading to a less-curved distribution of ratings in the valence by arousal space. We also found more extreme ratings for older adults for the relationship between dominance and arousal: older adults gave lower dominance and higher arousal ratings for words rated by younger adults with middle dominance and arousal values. Together, these results suggest that our affective norms are reliable and can be confidently used to select words matched for the affective dimensions of valence, arousal and dominance across younger and older participants for future research in aging.

The Role of Arousal in the Spontaneous Regulation of Emotions in Healthy Aging: An fMRI Investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanda eDolcos

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Despite ample support for enhanced affective well-being and emotional stability in healthy aging, the role of potentially important dimensions, such as the emotional arousal, has not been systematically investigated in neuroimaging studies. In addition, the few behavioral studies that examined effects of arousal have produced inconsistent findings. The present study manipulated the arousal of pictorial stimuli to test the hypothesis that preserved emotional functioning in aging is modulated by the level of arousal, and to identify the associated neural correlates. Young and older healthy participants were presented with negative and neutral pictures, which they rated for emotional content, while fMRI data were recorded. There were three main novel findings regarding the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of negative pictures with different levels of arousal in young and older adults. First, the common engagement of the right amygdala in young and older adults was driven by high arousing negative stimuli. Second, complementing an age-related reduction in the subjective ratings for low arousing negative pictures, there were opposing patterns of activity in the rostral/ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC and the amygdala, which showed increased vs. decreased responses, respectively, to low arousing negative pictures. Third, increased spontaneous activity in the ventral ACC/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC in older adults was linked to reduced ratings for low arousing negative pictures. Overall, these findings advance our understanding of the neural correlates underlying processing of negative emotions with different levels of arousal in the context of enhanced emotional functioning in healthy aging. Notably, the results support the idea that older adults have emotion regulation networks chronically activated, in the absence of explicit induction of the goal to regulate emotions, and that this effect is specific to low arousing

Pleasure, arousal, dominance: Mehrabian and Russell revisited

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bakker, I.C.; van der Voordt, Theo; de Boon, J; Vink, P.

2014-01-01

This paper presents a discursive review of the dimensions pleasure, arousal and dominance that Mehrabian and Russell developed in 1974 to assess environmental perception, experience, and psychological responses. Since then numerous researchers applied these dimensions to assess the experience of the

The effect of arousal on regulation of negative emotions using cognitive reappraisal: An ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

Langeslag, Sandra J E; Surti, Kruti

2017-08-01

Because the effectiveness of the emotion regulation strategy cognitive reappraisal may vary with emotion intensity, we investigated how stimulus arousal affects reappraisal success. Participants up- and down-regulated emotional responses using cognitive reappraisal to low and high arousing unpleasant pictures while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Up-regulation resulted in more negative self-reported valence, while down-regulation resulted in less negative self-reported valence regardless of stimulus arousal, suggesting that subjective reappraisal success does not vary with emotional intensity. Participants felt that down-regulation of emotional responses to low arousing unpleasant pictures was easiest, which is in line with previous findings that participants showed a greater preference for reappraisal in low than high arousing situations. The late positive potential (LPP) amplitude was enhanced by down-regulation of high arousing unpleasant pictures. Even though this effect was unexpected and is opposite to the typical effect of down-regulation on the LPP, it is in line with several previous studies. Potential explanations for LPP regulation effects in the unexpected direction, such as strategy selection and task design, are evaluated. Suggestions and recommendations for future research are discussed, including using trial-by-trial manipulation of regulation instructions and studying the effect of stimulus arousal on up- and down-regulation of positive emotions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pupil-linked arousal is driven by decision uncertainty and alters serial choice bias

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Urai, A.E.; Braun, A.; Donner, T.H.

2017-01-01

While judging their sensory environments, decision-makers seem to use the uncertainty about their choices to guide adjustments of their subsequent behaviour. One possible source of these behavioural adjustments is arousal: decision uncertainty might drive the brain's arousal systems, which control

Chronic procrastination among Turkish adults: exploring decisional, avoidant, and arousal styles.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrari, Joseph R; Ozer, Bilge Uzun; Demir, Ayhan

2009-06-01

The authors examined the prevalence of chronic procrastination (decisional, avoidant, and arousal styles) as functions of demographic variables among 354 Turkish adults (148 men, 206 women; M age = 38.7 years, SD = 8.26 years). Prevalence analyses showed that among Turkish participants, 17.5% were indecisive procrastinators, 13.8% were avoidant procrastinators, and 14.7% were arousal procrastinators. Results did not yield significant differences for gender or age on any forms of procrastination, which is consistent with other international samples. However, significant differences emerged depending on the number of children such that Turkish adults who had more than 3 children claimed to be more indecisive than they claimed to be arousal or avoidant procrastinators. Respondents with less than a graduate degree reported higher rates of indecision than did respondents with at least a graduate degree.

Inducing Resistance to Conspiracy Theory Propaganda: Testing Inoculation and Metainoculation Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Banas, John A.; Miller, Gregory

2013-01-01

This investigation examined the boundaries of inoculation theory by examining how inoculation can be applied to conspiracy theory propaganda as well as inoculation itself (called metainoculation). A 3-phase experiment with 312 participants compared 3 main groups: no-treatment control, inoculation, and metainoculation. Research questions explored…

Stress Administered Prior to Encoding Impairs Neutral but Enhances Emotional Long-Term Episodic Memories

Science.gov (United States)

Payne, Jessica D.; Jackson, Eric D.; Hoscheidt, Siobhan; Ryan, Lee; Jacobs, W. Jake; Nadel, Lynn

2007-01-01

Stressful events frequently comprise both neutral and emotionally arousing information, yet the impact of stress on emotional and neutral events is still not fully understood. The hippocampus and frontal cortex have dense concentrations of receptors for stress hormones, such as cortisol, which at high levels can impair performance on hippocampally…

Influence of water stress on Botryosphaeriaceae disease expression in grapevines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan VAN NIEKERK

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Several species in Botryosphaeriaceae have been associated with grapevine trunk diseases. To evaluate the effect of water stress on infection of grapevines by Botryosphaeriaceae spp., 1-year-old Shiraz/101-14 Mgt nursery grapevine plants were planted in plastic potting bags and placed outdoors under shade netting. Five weeks after planting, vines were pruned and the pruning wounds inoculated with spore suspensions of Neofusicoccum australe, Neofusicoccum parvum, Lasiodiplodia theobromae or Diplodia seriata. Control treatments consisted of applications of sterile water or a Trichoderma harzianum spore suspension. Stem inoculations were done by inserting a colonised or uncolonised agar plug into a wound made in each stem. Four different irrigation regimes were introduced 12 weeks after planting to simulate varying degrees of water stress. Measurements of stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate and leaf spectrometry were made to monitor physiological stress. Eight months after inoculation, vines were uprooted and the root, shoot and plant mass of each vine determined. Lesions observed in the inoculated pruning wounds and stems were also measured. Vines subjected to the lowest irrigation regime were significantly smaller than optimally irrigated vines. Water stressed vines also had significantly lower photosynthetic rates and levels of stomatal conductance compared with vines receiving optimal irrigation, indicating that these plants experienced significantly higher levels of physiological stress. The mean lesion length was significantly longer in the pruning wounds and stems of plants subjected to the lowest irrigation regime, with lesion length declining linearly with increasing irrigation volume. These results clearly indicate that when a grapevine is exposed to water stress, colonisation and disease expression by Botryosphaeriaceae spp. are much more severe.

Relationship of slow and rapid EEG components of CAP to ASDA arousals in normal sleep.

Science.gov (United States)

Parrino, L; Smerieri, A; Rossi, M; Terzano, M G

2001-12-15

Besides arousals (according to the ASDA definition), sleep contains also K-complexes and delta bursts which, in spite of their sleep-like features, are endowed with activating effects on autonomic functions. The link between phasic delta activities and enhancement of vegetative functions indicates the possibility of physiological activation without sleep disruption (i.e., arousal without awakening). A functional connection seems to include slow (K-complexes and delta bursts) and rapid (arousals) EEG events within the comprehensive term of activating complexes. CAP (cyclic alternating pattern) is the spontaneous EEG rhythm that ties both slow and rapid activating complexes together during NREM sleep. The present study aims at exploring the relationship between arousals and CAP components in a selected sample of healthy sleepers. Polysomnographic analysis according to the scoring rules for sleep stages and arousals. CAP analysis included also tabulation of subtypes A1 (slow EEG activating complexes), A2 and A3 (activating complexes with fast EEG components). 40 sleep-lab accomplished recordings. Healthy subjects belonging to a wide age range (38 +/- 20 yrs.). N/A. Of all the arousals occurring in NREM sleep, 87% were inserted within CAP. Subtypes A2 and A3 of CAP corresponded strikingly with arousals (r=0.843; p<0.0001), while no statistical relationship emerged when arousals were matched with subtypes A1 of CAP. Subtypes A1 instead correlated positively with the percentages of deep sleep (r=0.366; p<0.02). The CAP subtype classification encompasses both the process of sleep maintenance (subtypes A1) and sleep fragmentation (subtypes A2 and A3), and provides a periodicity dimension to the activating events of NREM sleep.

Neural pathways in processing of sexual arousal: a dynamic causal modeling study.

Science.gov (United States)

Seok, J-W; Park, M-S; Sohn, J-H

2016-09-01

Three decades of research have investigated brain processing of visual sexual stimuli with neuroimaging methods. These researchers have found that sexual arousal stimuli elicit activity in a broad neural network of cortical and subcortical brain areas that are known to be associated with cognitive, emotional, motivational and physiological components. However, it is not completely understood how these neural systems integrate and modulated incoming information. Therefore, we identify cerebral areas whose activations were correlated with sexual arousal using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and used the dynamic causal modeling method for searching the effective connectivity about the sexual arousal processing network. Thirteen heterosexual males were scanned while they passively viewed alternating short trials of erotic and neutral pictures on a monitor. We created a subset of seven models based on our results and previous studies and selected a dominant connectivity model. Consequently, we suggest a dynamic causal model of the brain processes mediating the cognitive, emotional, motivational and physiological factors of human male sexual arousal. These findings are significant implications for the neuropsychology of male sexuality.

Brain activations to emotional pictures are differentially associated with valence and arousal ratings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antje B M Gerdes

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Several studies have investigated the neural responses triggered by emotional pictures, but the specificity of the involved structures such as the amygdala or the ventral striatum is still under debate. Furthermore, only few studies examined the association of stimuli’s valence and arousal and the underlying brain responses. Therefore, we investigated brain responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging of 17 healthy subjects to pleasant and unpleasant affective pictures with comparable arousal levels and afterwards assessed ratings of valence and arousal. As expected, unpleasant pictures strongly activated the right and left amygdala, the right hippocampus, and the medial occipital lobe, whereas pleasant pictures elicited significant activations in left occipital regions, and in parts of the medial temporal lobe. The direct comparison of unpleasant and pleasant pictures which were comparable in arousal clearly indicated stronger amygdala activation in response to the unpleasant pictures. Most important, correlational analyses revealed on the one hand that the arousal of unpleasant pictures was significantly associated with activations in the right amygdala and the left caudate body. On the other hand, valence of pleasant pictures was significantly correlated with activations in the right caudate head, extending to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc and the left dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. These findings support the notion that the amygdala is primarily involved in processing of unpleasant stimuli, and the stronger the more arousing the stimuli are, whereas reward-related structures like the NAcc primarily responds to pleasant stimuli, the stronger the more positive the valence of these stimuli is.

The effects of experimentally-induced sad and happy mood on sexual arousal in sexually healthy women.

Science.gov (United States)

ter Kuile, Moniek M; Both, Stephanie; van Uden, Janneke

2010-03-01

In depressed women, common sexual difficulties include decreased sexual desire, sexual arousal and orgasmic difficulties, reduced sexual satisfaction, and reduced sexual pleasure. Experimental research on the influence of depressed mood on genital and subjective sexual arousal in women is scarce. To investigate the effects of sad mood on genital and subjective sexual arousal in sexually healthy women, using a mood induction procedure. Thirty-two subjects received a sad mood and a happy mood induction, on two different days, using a within subjects design. The mood induction procedure was a combination of the Velten procedure and music. In the Velten procedure, the subject is asked to read sad or happy self-referent sentences and to experience the mood suggested by these sentences. Immediately following mood induction, the subjects were exposed to an erotic film clip. Genital arousal was assessed using vaginal photoplethysmography. Self-report ratings of sad and happy mood, subjective sexual arousal and affective reactions were collected before and after the erotic clip. The sad and happy mood ratings indicated that the mood inductions affected mood as intended. No difference in genital sexual arousal was found between the sad and happy mood conditions. Subjects reported significantly less subjective sexual arousal and positive affect and marginally significant fewer genital sensations and more negative affect in the sad mood condition than in the happy mood condition. The results provide empirical support for the idea that mood can impact on subjective sexual arousal in women.

Conditions Affecting Shelf-Life of Inoculated Legume Seed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Greg Gemell

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Microbial inoculants are becoming more available as sustainable alternatives to fertilizers and other agrichemicals in broad-acre cropping. However, with the exception of legume inoculants little is understood about effective delivery and survival of the inoculum. Legume inoculants are applied to both seed and soil but seed inoculation is the most economical technique. Large quantities of pasture seed in Australia are inoculated by commercial seed coating companies, but the long-term survival of seed-applied inoculum is variable and monitoring of viability requires specialist microbiology skills and facilities. The aim of our research was to define optimum storage conditions for survival of rhizobia on legume seed and evaluate water activity as a means of monitoring shelf-life. The relationship between survival and water activity varied according to seed species, inoculum preparation, coating ingredients, initial water activity and time suggesting that storage conditions would need to be defined for each different combination. Although drying seeds after coating significantly reduced viable numbers of rhizobia, survival of rhizobia on dried commercially coated lucerne seed after 11 weeks was less variable than seeds that had not been dried. The highest numbers were maintained when seeds remained dry with water activities of between 0.47 and 0.38. The quality of inoculated seed could be improved by reducing the death rate of inoculum during preparation and providing optimum storage conditions for long-term survival.

The dynamic opponent relativity model: an integration and extension of capacity theory and existing theoretical perspectives on the neuropsychology of arousal and emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Comer, Clinton S; Harrison, Patti Kelly; Harrison, David W

2015-01-01

Arousal theory as discussed within the present paper refers to those mechanisms and neural systems involved in central nervous system activation and more specifically the systems involved in cortical activation. Historical progress in the evolution of arousal theory has led to a better understanding of the functional neural systems involved in arousal or activation processes and ultimately contributed much to our current theories of emotion. Despite evidence for the dynamic interplay between the left and right cerebral hemispheres, the concepts of cerebral balance and dynamic activation have been emphasized in the neuropsychological literature. A conceptual model is proposed herein that incorporates the unique contributions from multiple neuropsychological theories of arousal and emotion. It is argued that the cerebral hemispheres may play oppositional roles in emotion partially due to the differences in their functional specializations and in their persistence upon activation. In the presence of a threat or provocation, the right hemisphere may activate survival relevant responses partially derived from hemispheric specializations in arousal and emotional processing, including the mobilization of sympathetic drive to promote heightened blood pressure, heart rate, glucose mobilization and respiratory support necessary for the challenge. Oppositional processes and mechanisms are discussed, which may be relevant to the regulatory control over the survival response; however, the capacity of these systems is necessarily limited. A limited capacity mechanism is proposed, which is familiar within other physiological systems, including that providing for the prevention of muscular damage under exceptional demand. This capacity theory is proposed, wherein a link may be expected between exceptional stress within a neural system and damage to the neural system. These mechanisms are proposed to be relevant to emotion and emotional disorders. Discussion is provided on the

Dissociable effects of valence and arousal on different subtypes of old/new effect: Evidence from event-related potentials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huifang eXu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Here we utilized the study-test paradigm combined with recognition confidence assessment and behavioral and event-related potential (ERP measurements to investigate the effects of valence and arousal on the different subtypes of the old-new effect. We also test the effect of valence and arousal at encoding stage to investigate the underlying mechanism of the effect of the two emotional dimension on different retrieval process. In order to test the effects of valence and arousal on old/new effect precisely, we used the subject-oriented orthogonal design which manipulated valence and arousal independently according to subjects’ verbal reporting to investigate the effects of valence and arousal on old/new effect respectively. Three subtypes of old/new effect were obtained in the test phase, which were FN400, LPC, and late positivity over right frontal. They are supposed to be associated with familiarity, recollection, and post-retrieval processes respectively according to previous studies. For the FN400 component, valence affected mid-frontal negativity from 350 to 500 ms. Pleasant items evoked an enhanced ERP old/new effect relative to unpleasant items. However, arousal only affected LPC amplitude from 500 to 800ms. The old/new effect for high-arousal items was greater than for low-arousal items. Valence also affected the amplitude of a positive-going slow wave at right frontal sites from 800 to 1000 ms, possibly serving as an index of post-retrieval processing. At encoding stage, the valence and arousal also have dissociable effect on the frontal slow wave between 350-800ms and the centro-parietal positivity in 500-800ms. The pleasant items evoked a more positive frontal slow wave relative to unpleasant ones, and the high arousal items evoked a larger centro-parietal positivity relative to low arousal ones. These results suggest that valence and arousal may differentially impact these different memory processes: valence affects familiarity and

Memory effects of sleep, emotional valence, arousal and novelty in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Vermeulen, Marije C M; van der Heijden, Kristiaan B; Benjamins, Jeroen S; Swaab, Hanna; van Someren, Eus J W

2017-06-01

Effectiveness of memory consolidation is determined by multiple factors, including sleep after learning, emotional valence, arousal and novelty. Few studies investigated how the effect of sleep compares with (and interacts with) these other factors, of which virtually none are in children. The present study did so by repeated assessment of declarative memory in 386 children (45% boys) aged 9-11 years through an online word-pair task. Children were randomly assigned to either a morning or evening learning session of 30 unrelated word-pairs with positive, neutral or negative valenced cues and neutral targets. After immediately assessing baseline recognition, delayed recognition was recorded either 12 or 24 h later, resulting in four different assessment schedules. One week later, the procedure was repeated with exactly the same word-pairs to evaluate whether effects differed for relearning versus original novel learning. Mixed-effect logistic regression models were used to evaluate how the probability of correct recognition was affected by sleep, valence, arousal, novelty and their interactions. Both immediate and delayed recognition were worse for pairs with negatively valenced or less arousing cue words. Relearning improved immediate and delayed word-pair recognition. In contrast to these effects, sleep did not affect recognition, nor did sleep moderate the effects of arousal, valence and novelty. The findings suggest a robust inclination of children to specifically forget the pairing of words to negatively valenced cue words. In agreement with a recent meta-analysis, children seem to depend less on sleep for the consolidation of information than has been reported for adults, irrespective of the emotional valence, arousal and novelty of word-pairs. © 2017 European Sleep Research Society.

Memory recall in arousing situations – an emotional von Restorff effect?

Science.gov (United States)

Wiswede, Daniel; Rüsseler, Jascha; Hasselbach, Simone; Münte, Thomas F

2006-01-01

Background Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between memory recall and P300 amplitude in list learning tasks, but the variables mediating this P300-recall relationship are not well understood. In the present study, subjects were required to recall items from lists consisting of 12 words, which were presented in front of pictures taken from the IAPS collection. One word per list is made distinct either by font color or by a highly arousing background IAPS picture. This isolation procedure was first used by von Restorff. Brain potentials were recorded during list presentation. Results Recall performance was enhanced for color but not for emotional isolates. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) showed a more positive P300-component for recalled non-isolated words and color-isolated words, compared to the respective non-remembered words, but not for words isolated by arousing background. Conclusion Our findings indicate that it is crucial to take emotional mediator variables into account, when using the P300 to predict later recall. Highly arousing environments might force the cognitive system to interrupt rehearsal processes in working memory, which might benefit transfer into other, more stable memory systems. The impact of attention-capturing properties of arousing background stimuli is also discussed. PMID:16863589

Glucocorticoid effects on object recognition memory require training-associated emotional arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Okuda, Shoki; Roozendaal, Benno; McGaugh, James L

2004-01-20

Considerable evidence implicates glucocorticoid hormones in the regulation of memory consolidation and memory retrieval. The present experiments investigated whether the influence of these hormones on memory depends on the level of emotional arousal induced by the training experience. We investigated this issue in male Sprague-Dawley rats by examining the effects of immediate posttraining systemic injections of the glucocorticoid corticosterone on object recognition memory under two conditions that differed in their training-associated emotional arousal. In rats that were not previously habituated to the experimental context, corticosterone (0.3, 1.0, or 3.0 mg/kg, s.c.) administered immediately after a 3-min training trial enhanced 24-hr retention performance in an inverted-U shaped dose-response relationship. In contrast, corticosterone did not affect 24-hr retention of rats that received extensive prior habituation to the experimental context and, thus, had decreased novelty-induced emotional arousal during training. Additionally, immediate posttraining administration of corticosterone to nonhabituated rats, in doses that enhanced 24-hr retention, impaired object recognition performance at a 1-hr retention interval whereas corticosterone administered after training to well-habituated rats did not impair 1-hr retention. Thus, the present findings suggest that training-induced emotional arousal may be essential for glucocorticoid effects on object recognition memory.

Memory recall in arousing situations – an emotional von Restorff effect?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasselbach Simone

2006-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between memory recall and P300 amplitude in list learning tasks, but the variables mediating this P300-recall relationship are not well understood. In the present study, subjects were required to recall items from lists consisting of 12 words, which were presented in front of pictures taken from the IAPS collection. One word per list is made distinct either by font color or by a highly arousing background IAPS picture. This isolation procedure was first used by von Restorff. Brain potentials were recorded during list presentation. Results Recall performance was enhanced for color but not for emotional isolates. Event-related brain potentials (ERP showed a more positive P300-component for recalled non-isolated words and color-isolated words, compared to the respective non-remembered words, but not for words isolated by arousing background. Conclusion Our findings indicate that it is crucial to take emotional mediator variables into account, when using the P300 to predict later recall. Highly arousing environments might force the cognitive system to interrupt rehearsal processes in working memory, which might benefit transfer into other, more stable memory systems. The impact of attention-capturing properties of arousing background stimuli is also discussed.

The effect of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria on asparagus seedlings and germinating seeds subjected to water stress under greenhouse conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Liddycoat, Scott M; Greenberg, Bruce M; Wolyn, David J

2009-04-01

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can have positive effects on vigour and productivity, especially under stress conditions. In asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) field culture, seeds are planted in high-density nurseries, and 1-year-old crowns are transplanted to production fields. Performance can be negatively affected by water stress, transplant shock, and disease pressure on wounded roots. PGPR inoculation has the potential to alleviate some of the stresses incurred in the production system. In this study, the effects of PGPR (Pseudomonas spp.) treatment were determined on 3-week-old greenhouse-grown seedlings and germinating seeds of 2 asparagus cultivars. The pots were irrigated to a predetermined level that resulted in optimum growth or the plants were subjected to drought or flooding stress for 8 weeks. The cultivars responded differently to PGPR: single inoculations of seedlings enhanced growth of 'Guelph Millennium' under optimum conditions and 'Jersey Giant' seedlings under drought stress. Seed inoculations with PGPR resulted in a positive response only for 'Guelph Millennium', for which both single or multiple inoculations enhanced plant growth under drought stress.

Effects of stress related acute exercise on consolidation of implicit motor memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Farhad Ghadiri

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Extensive evidence documents arousal modulation of declarative memory in humans. However, little is known about the arousal modulation of implicit motor memory. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a post-acquisition acute exercise stress on implicit motor memory consolidation.Materials and Methods: Forty healthy subjects were randomly divided into stress (10 men and 10 woman and non- stress (10 men and 10 woman groups. Experiment consisted of two phases of acquisition and retention. Serial Color matching (SCM task was used for this study. In acquisition period, all groups practiced the task for six blocks of 150 trials. Following, the stress group performed exercise on a treadmill until the moment of exhaustion while the non stress group did rest. In retention, all groups practiced the SCM task in one block. During the experiment the trends of saliva cortisol changes were measured.Results: Acute exercise stress leads to a significant increase in salivary cortisol level. While the non-stress group did not show enhancement of SCRT learning across the 24 hours delay interval, the stress group showed substantial enhancement across the same time (P<0.05.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that acute stress after acquisition can facilitate the implicit motor memory consolidation.

Performance demand and sexual arousal in women

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laan, E.; Everaerd, W.; van Aanhold, M. T.; Rebel, M.

1993-01-01

Up to now, no experimental studies have inquired into the possible role of performance demand in female sexuality. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of performance demand on sexual arousal in functional women, using explicit instructions. Forty-eight female subjects were

Physiological correlates of stress-induced decrements in human perceptual performance.

Science.gov (United States)

1993-11-01

Stress-induced changes in human performance have been thought to result from alterations in the "multidimensional arousal state" of the individual, as indexed by alterations in the physiological and psychological mechanisms controlling performance. I...

Norepinephrine is required to promote wakefulness and for hypocretin-induced arousal in zebrafish.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Chanpreet; Oikonomou, Grigorios; Prober, David A

2015-09-16

Pharmacological studies in mammals suggest that norepinephrine (NE) plays an important role in promoting arousal. However, the role of endogenous NE is unclear, with contradicting reports concerning the sleep phenotypes of mice lacking NE due to mutation of dopamine β-hydroxylase (dbh). To investigate NE function in an alternative vertebrate model, we generated dbh mutant zebrafish. In contrast to mice, these animals exhibit dramatically increased sleep. Surprisingly, despite an increase in sleep, dbh mutant zebrafish have a reduced arousal threshold. These phenotypes are also observed in zebrafish treated with small molecules that inhibit NE signaling, suggesting that they are caused by the lack of NE. Using genetic overexpression of hypocretin (Hcrt) and optogenetic activation of hcrt-expressing neurons, we also find that NE is important for Hcrt-induced arousal. These results establish a role for endogenous NE in promoting arousal and indicate that NE is a critical downstream effector of Hcrt neurons.

Directed attention reduces processing of emotional distracters irrespective of valence and arousal level.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiens, Stefan; Syrjänen, Elmeri

2013-09-01

Emotional stimuli tend to capture attention, and this so-called motivated attention is commonly measured using the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP). We hypothesized that voluntary, directed attention reduces motivated attention more strongly for highly than moderately arousing pleasant or unpleasant pictures. Participants were instructed to direct their attention to either a picture at fixation or the letters flanking the picture. Pictures varied substantially in arousal and valence. When the pictures were attended to, EPN and LPP increased linearly with arousal. When the letters were attended to, these linear effects decreased in the EPN for pleasant and unpleasant pictures and in the LPP for pleasant pictures. Thus, directed attention decreases processing of emotional distracters more strongly for highly than moderately arousing pleasant and unpleasant pictures. These results are consistent with the view that directed attention decreases emotion effects on sensory gain. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sexual arousal and rhythmic synchronization: A possible effect of vasopressin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Miani, Alessandro

2016-01-01

Music is ubiquitous. Yet, its biological relevance is still an ongoing debate. Supporting the view that music had an ancestral role in courtship displays, a pilot study presented here provides preliminary evidence on the link between music and sexual selection. The underlying hypothesis is based...... by vasopressin and its genes. Hence, to test this hypothesis, a rhythmic synchronization task was employed here on one male subject during sexual arousal. Results revealed a significant effect of sexual arousal on rhythm synchronization. This is the first report that empirically supports the hypothesis...

Disgust versus Lust: Exploring the Interactions of Disgust and Fear with Sexual Arousal in Women.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana S Fleischman

Full Text Available Sexual arousal is a motivational state that moves humans toward situations that inherently pose a risk of disease transmission. Disgust is an emotion that adaptively moves humans away from such situations. Incongruent is the fact that sexual activity is elementary to human fitness yet involves strong disgust elicitors. Using an experimental paradigm, we investigated how these two states interact. Women (final N=76 were assigned to one of four conditions: rate disgust stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; watch a pornographic clip then rate disgust stimuli; rate fear stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; or watch a pornographic clip then rate fear stimuli. Women's genital sexual arousal was measured with vaginal photoplethysmography and their disgust and fear reactions were measured via self-report. We did not find that baseline disgust propensity predicted sexual arousal in women who were exposed to neutral stimuli before erotic content. In the Erotic-before-Disgust condition we did not find that sexual arousal straightforwardly predicted decreased image disgust ratings. However, we did find some evidence that sexual arousal increased self-reported disgust in women with high trait disgust and sexual arousal decreased self-reported disgust in women with low trait disgust. Women who were exposed to disgusting images before erotic content showed significantly less sexual arousal than women in the control condition or women exposed to fear-inducing images before erotic content. In the Disgust-before-Erotic condition the degree of self-reported disgust was negatively correlated with genital sexual arousal. Hence, in the conflict between the ultimate goals of reproduction and disease avoidance, cues of the presence of pathogens significantly reduce the motivation to engage in mating behaviors that, by their nature, entail a risk of pathogen transmission.

Disgust versus Lust: Exploring the Interactions of Disgust and Fear with Sexual Arousal in Women

Science.gov (United States)

Fleischman, Diana S.; Hamilton, Lisa Dawn; Fessler, Daniel M. T.; Meston, Cindy M.

2015-01-01

Sexual arousal is a motivational state that moves humans toward situations that inherently pose a risk of disease transmission. Disgust is an emotion that adaptively moves humans away from such situations. Incongruent is the fact that sexual activity is elementary to human fitness yet involves strong disgust elicitors. Using an experimental paradigm, we investigated how these two states interact. Women (final N=76) were assigned to one of four conditions: rate disgust stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; watch a pornographic clip then rate disgust stimuli; rate fear stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; or watch a pornographic clip then rate fear stimuli. Women’s genital sexual arousal was measured with vaginal photoplethysmography and their disgust and fear reactions were measured via self-report. We did not find that baseline disgust propensity predicted sexual arousal in women who were exposed to neutral stimuli before erotic content. In the Erotic-before-Disgust condition we did not find that sexual arousal straightforwardly predicted decreased image disgust ratings. However, we did find some evidence that sexual arousal increased self-reported disgust in women with high trait disgust and sexual arousal decreased self-reported disgust in women with low trait disgust. Women who were exposed to disgusting images before erotic content showed significantly less sexual arousal than women in the control condition or women exposed to fear-inducing images before erotic content. In the Disgust-before-Erotic condition the degree of self-reported disgust was negatively correlated with genital sexual arousal. Hence, in the conflict between the ultimate goals of reproduction and disease avoidance, cues of the presence of pathogens significantly reduce the motivation to engage in mating behaviors that, by their nature, entail a risk of pathogen transmission. PMID:26106894

Disgust versus Lust: Exploring the Interactions of Disgust and Fear with Sexual Arousal in Women.

Science.gov (United States)

Fleischman, Diana S; Hamilton, Lisa Dawn; Fessler, Daniel M T; Meston, Cindy M

2015-01-01

Sexual arousal is a motivational state that moves humans toward situations that inherently pose a risk of disease transmission. Disgust is an emotion that adaptively moves humans away from such situations. Incongruent is the fact that sexual activity is elementary to human fitness yet involves strong disgust elicitors. Using an experimental paradigm, we investigated how these two states interact. Women (final N=76) were assigned to one of four conditions: rate disgust stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; watch a pornographic clip then rate disgust stimuli; rate fear stimuli then watch a pornographic clip; or watch a pornographic clip then rate fear stimuli. Women's genital sexual arousal was measured with vaginal photoplethysmography and their disgust and fear reactions were measured via self-report. We did not find that baseline disgust propensity predicted sexual arousal in women who were exposed to neutral stimuli before erotic content. In the Erotic-before-Disgust condition we did not find that sexual arousal straightforwardly predicted decreased image disgust ratings. However, we did find some evidence that sexual arousal increased self-reported disgust in women with high trait disgust and sexual arousal decreased self-reported disgust in women with low trait disgust. Women who were exposed to disgusting images before erotic content showed significantly less sexual arousal than women in the control condition or women exposed to fear-inducing images before erotic content. In the Disgust-before-Erotic condition the degree of self-reported disgust was negatively correlated with genital sexual arousal. Hence, in the conflict between the ultimate goals of reproduction and disease avoidance, cues of the presence of pathogens significantly reduce the motivation to engage in mating behaviors that, by their nature, entail a risk of pathogen transmission.

Effective visual short-term storage capacity and speed of encoding are affected by arousal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Thomas Alrik; Bundesen, Claus

2011-01-01

of encoding into visual short-term memory (VSTM) increased with the level of arousal in a single-stimulus identification experiment. Here we present a whole-report experiment corroborating the finding that speed of encoding stimulus items (letters) into VSTM increases with the level of arousal. However....... Thus, in terms of the TVA model (Bundesen, 1990), partial report experiments should show that, at high levels of arousal, parameter a (the ratio of the attentional weight of a distractor to the attentional weight of a target) increases....

Sleep fragmentation: comparison of two definitions of short arousals during sleep in OSAS patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Smurra, M V; Dury, M; Aubert, G; Rodenstein, D O; Liistro, G

2001-04-01

The measurement of arousals during sleep is useful to quantify sleep fragmentation. The criteria for electroencephalography (EEG) arousals defined by the American Sleep Disorders Association (ASDA) have recently been criticized because of lack of interobserver agreement. The authors have adopted a scoring method that associates the increase in chin electromyography (EMG) with the occurrence of an alpha-rhythm in all sleep stages (Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) definition of arousals). The aim of the present study was to compare the two scoring definitions in terms of agreement and repeatability and the time taken for scoring in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) of varying severity. Two readers using both ASDA and UCL definitions scored twenty polysomnographies (PSGs) each on two occasions. The PSGs were chosen retrospectively to represent a wide range of arousal index (from 6-82) in OSAS patients. There was no difference in the arousal indices between readers and between scoring methods. The mean+/-SD difference between the two definitions (the bias) was 1.1+/-3.76 (95% confidence interval: -0.66-2.86). There was a strong linear relationship between the arousal index scored with the two definitions (r=0.981, pASDA definitions (18.5+/-5.4 versus 25.3+/-6.6 min, p<0.001). In conclusion, it has been found that in obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome patients, the American Sleep Disorders Association and Université Catholique de Louvain definitions were comparable in terms of agreement and repeatability.

Nitrogen translocation in wheat inoculated with Azospirillum and fertilized with nitrogen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

RODRIGUES OSMAR

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The productivity and the translocation of assimilates and nitrogen (N were compared after inoculation of wheat (Triticum aestivum L., cv. BR-23 seeds with two strains of Azospirillum brasilense (strains 245 and JA 04 under field conditions. The inoculation of wheat seeds was done with a peat inoculant at sowing time. Plant material for evaluations were collected at anthesis and maturity. No differences in grain yield and in the translocation of assimilates resulting from inoculation were detected. Differences were observed in relation to N rates (0, 15, and 60 kg ha-1. N content in the grain increased significantly in the bacteria-inoculated treatments in which N was not added. This increase in N content in the grain with inoculation was probably due to higher N uptake after anthesis without any significant contribution on the grain yield. Such increment was of 8.4 kg ha-1 of N representing 66% more N than in no inoculated treatment. Regardless of the inoculation and the rate of N applied, it was observed that about 70% of the N accumulated at anthesis was translocated from vegetative parts to the grain.

The animacy advantage for free-recall performance is not attributable to greater mental arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Popp, Earl Y; Serra, Michael J

2018-01-01

People often demonstrate better memory for animate concepts (e.g., lion and sailor) than for inanimate concepts (e.g., hammer and mountain). Researchers have attributed this effect to an adaptive memory mechanism that favours information relevant for survival, including information about living things. In the present experiment, we examined the hypothesis that people demonstrate better free-recall performance for animate than inanimate words because animate words tend to be associated with greater mental arousal than inanimate words, a factor that was not controlled for in previous experiments on this topic. To this end, we matched animate and inanimate word lists on mental arousal (and several other factors), and compared participants' free-recall performance for the two word types. We were able to replicate past findings that participants' free-recall of animate words exceeds their free-recall of inanimate words, but we found no support for the possibility that the effect stems from differences in mental arousal between animate and inanimate concepts, as this effect maintained even when the word lists were matched on mental arousal. The present results therefore indicate that mental arousal cannot explain the effects of animacy on free-recall performance.

Acute stress alters autonomic modulation during sleep in women approaching menopause.

Science.gov (United States)

de Zambotti, Massimiliano; Sugarbaker, David; Trinder, John; Colrain, Ian M; Baker, Fiona C

2016-04-01

Hot flashes, hormones, and psychosocial factors contribute to insomnia risk in the context of the menopausal transition. Stress is a well-recognized factor implicated in the pathophysiology of insomnia; however the impact of stress on sleep and sleep-related processes in perimenopausal women remains largely unknown. We investigated the effect of an acute experimental stress (impending Trier Social Stress Task in the morning) on pre-sleep measures of cortisol and autonomic arousal in perimenopausal women with and without insomnia that developed in the context of the menopausal transition. In addition, we assessed the macro- and micro-structure of sleep and autonomic functioning during sleep. Following adaptation to the laboratory, twenty two women with (age: 50.4 ± 3.2 years) and eighteen women without (age: 48.5 ± 2.3 years) insomnia had two randomized in-lab overnight recordings: baseline and stress nights. Anticipation of the task resulted in higher pre-sleep salivary cortisol levels and perceived tension, faster heart rate and lower vagal activity, based on heart rate variability measures, in both groups of women. The effect of the stress manipulation on the autonomic nervous system extended into the first 4 h of the night in both groups. However, vagal tone recovered 4-6 h into the stress night in controls but not in the insomnia group. Sleep macrostructure was largely unaltered by the stress, apart from a delayed latency to REM sleep in both groups. Quantitative analysis of non-rapid eye movement sleep microstructure revealed greater electroencephalographic (EEG) power in the beta1 range (15-≤23 Hz), reflecting greater EEG arousal during sleep, on the stress night compared to baseline, in the insomnia group. Hot flash frequency remained similar on both nights for both groups. These results show that pre-sleep stress impacts autonomic nervous system functioning before and during sleep in perimenopausal women with and without insomnia. Findings also indicate

Sex Differences in Emotional Evaluation of Film Clips: Interaction with Five High Arousal Emotional Categories

Science.gov (United States)

Maffei, Antonio; Vencato, Valentina; Angrilli, Alessandro

2015-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate gender differences in the emotional evaluation of 18 film clips divided into six categories: Erotic, Scenery, Neutral, Sadness, Compassion, and Fear. 41 female and 40 male students rated all clips for valence-pleasantness, arousal, level of elicited distress, anxiety, jittery feelings, excitation, and embarrassment. Analysis of positive films revealed higher levels of arousal, pleasantness, and excitation to the Scenery clips in both genders, but lower pleasantness and greater embarrassment in women compared to men to Erotic clips. Concerning unpleasant stimuli, unlike men, women reported more unpleasantness to the Compassion, Sadness, and Fear compared to the Neutral clips and rated them also as more arousing than did men. They further differentiated the films by perceiving greater arousal to Fear than to Compassion clips. Women rated the Sadness and Fear clips with greater Distress and Jittery feelings than men did. Correlation analysis between arousal and the other emotional scales revealed that, although men looked less aroused than women to all unpleasant clips, they also showed a larger variance in their emotional responses as indicated by the high number of correlations and their relatively greater extent, an outcome pointing to a masked larger sensitivity of part of male sample to emotional clips. We propose a new perspective in which gender difference in emotional responses can be better evidenced by means of film clips selected and clustered in more homogeneous categories, controlled for arousal levels, as well as evaluated through a number of emotion focused adjectives. PMID:26717488

Sex Differences in Emotional Evaluation of Film Clips: Interaction with Five High Arousal Emotional Categories.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Maffei

Full Text Available The present study aimed to investigate gender differences in the emotional evaluation of 18 film clips divided into six categories: Erotic, Scenery, Neutral, Sadness, Compassion, and Fear. 41 female and 40 male students rated all clips for valence-pleasantness, arousal, level of elicited distress, anxiety, jittery feelings, excitation, and embarrassment. Analysis of positive films revealed higher levels of arousal, pleasantness, and excitation to the Scenery clips in both genders, but lower pleasantness and greater embarrassment in women compared to men to Erotic clips. Concerning unpleasant stimuli, unlike men, women reported more unpleasantness to the Compassion, Sadness, and Fear compared to the Neutral clips and rated them also as more arousing than did men. They further differentiated the films by perceiving greater arousal to Fear than to Compassion clips. Women rated the Sadness and Fear clips with greater Distress and Jittery feelings than men did. Correlation analysis between arousal and the other emotional scales revealed that, although men looked less aroused than women to all unpleasant clips, they also showed a larger variance in their emotional responses as indicated by the high number of correlations and their relatively greater extent, an outcome pointing to a masked larger sensitivity of part of male sample to emotional clips. We propose a new perspective in which gender difference in emotional responses can be better evidenced by means of film clips selected and clustered in more homogeneous categories, controlled for arousal levels, as well as evaluated through a number of emotion focused adjectives.

The Impact of Sexual Arousal on Sexual Risk-Taking and Decision-Making in Men and Women.

Science.gov (United States)

Skakoon-Sparling, Shayna; Cramer, Kenneth M; Shuper, Paul A

2016-01-01

Sexual arousal has emerged as an important contextual feature in sexual encounters that can impact safer-sex decision-making. We conducted two experiments that investigated the effects of sexual arousal among male and female participants. Experiment 1 (N = 144) examined the impact of sexual around on sexual health decision-making. Sexually explicit and neutral video clips as well as hypothetical romantic scenarios were used to evaluate the effects of sexual arousal on sexual risk-taking intentions. Men and women who reported higher levels of sexual arousal also displayed greater intentions to participate in risky sexual behavior (e.g., unprotected sex with a new sex partner). Experiment 2 (N = 122) examined the impact of sexual arousal on general risk-taking, using the same videos clips as in Experiment 1 and a modified version of a computerized Blackjack card game. Participants were offered a chance to make either a risky play or a safe play during ambiguous conditions. Increased sexual arousal in Experiment 2 was associated with impulsivity and a greater willingness to make risky plays in the Blackjack game. These findings suggest that, in situations where there are strong sexually visceral cues, both men and women experiencing strong sexual arousal may have lower inhibitions and may experience impaired decision-making. This phenomenon may have an impact during sexual encounters and may contribute to a failure to use appropriate prophylactic protection.

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Coma Arousal Communication Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Garin, Julie; Reina, Margot; DeiCas, Paula; Rousseaux, Marc

To develop a Coma Arousal Communication Scale and perform preliminary validation. A group of experts developed a questionnaire to assess communication between patients emerging from coma and caregiver (participation, communication modes, and themes) and the strategies used to facilitate communication. To assess the scale's psychometric characteristics, it was presented to the caregivers of 40 inpatients admitted to 5 coma units and (to obtain reference data) to 29 control participants. The Coma Arousal Communication Scale displayed good intra- and interrater reliability as judged by intraclass correlation coefficients (between 0.76 and 0.98) and Bland and Altman plots. Cohen κ coefficient revealed moderate to almost perfect levels of agreement for most individual items and slight levels for a few items dealing with compensatory strategies. We observed good internal consistency, relations with the Wessex Head Injury Matrix, and sensitivity to change for patients who had sustained brain injury in the previous 6 months. The Coma Arousal Communication Scale provides accurate information about communication skills of individuals emerging from coma. However, some compensatory strategies adopted by caregivers are difficult to characterize.

Neural correlates of emotional recognition memory in schizophrenia: effects of valence and arousal.

Science.gov (United States)

Lakis, Nadia; Jiménez, José A; Mancini-Marïe, Adham; Stip, Emmanuel; Lavoie, Marc E; Mendrek, Adrianna

2011-12-30

Schizophrenia patients are often impaired in their memory for emotional events compared with healthy subjects. Investigations of the neural correlates of emotional memory in schizophrenia patients are scarce in the literature. The present study aimed to compare cerebral activations in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls during memory retrieval of emotional images that varied in both valence and arousal. In a study with functional magnetic resonance imaging, 37 schizophrenia patients were compared with 37 healthy participants while performing a yes/no recognition paradigm with positive, negative (differing in arousal intensity) and neutral images. Schizophrenia patients performed worse than healthy controls in all experimental conditions. They showed less cerebral activation in limbic and prefrontal regions than controls during retrieval of negatively valenced stimuli, but had a similar pattern of brain activation compared with controls during retrieval of positively valenced stimuli (particularly in the high arousal condition) in the cerebellum, temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex. Both groups demonstrated increased brain activations in the high relative to low arousing conditions. Our results suggest atypical brain function during retrieval of negative pictures, but intact functional circuitry of positive affect during episodic memory retrieval in schizophrenia patients. The arousal data revealed that schizophrenia patients closely resemble the control group at both the behavioral and neurofunctional level. 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sexual Desire and Arousal Disorders in Women

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laan, Ellen; Both, Stephanie

2011-01-01

According to incentive motivation theory, sexual desire is the result of the interplay between a sensitive sexual response system and stimuli that activate the system. From this notion it follows that sexual desire is not a cause but a consequence of sexual arousal. The effects of hormones, somatic

Cognitive Processing of Fear-Arousing Message Content.

Science.gov (United States)

Hale, Jerold L.; And Others

1995-01-01

Investigates two models (the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Heuristic-Systematic Model) of the cognitive processing of fear-arousing messages in undergraduate students. Finds in three of the four conditions (low fear, high fear, high trait anxiety) that cognitive processing appears to be antagonistic. Finds some evidence of concurrent…

Effects of the inoculations using bacteria producing ACC deaminase on ethylene metabolism and growth of wheat grown under different soil water contents.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Guozhuang; Sun, Yonglin; Sheng, Hao; Li, Haichao; Liu, Xiping

2018-04-01

Crop growth and productivity are often impacted by the increased ethylene content induced by adverse environmental conditions such drought. Inoculations with bacteria producing ACC deaminase is considered as a potential biological approach to improve the growth and tolerance of stressed plants by lowering endogenous ethylene level. In this study, germinated wheat seeds were inoculated using three species of the rhizobacteria, which were isolated from the rhizosphere of wheat growing in dryland, and sown in pots. After three weeks, wheat seedlings were exposed to non-limiting water condition, medium drought and severe drought, respectively, for six weeks. The results showed that, irrespective of rhizobacterial inoculations, decreased soil water contents stimulated wheat ethylene metabolism, which was reflected by the significantly increased activity of ACC synthetase and ACC oxidase, besides an increased content of ACC both in the roots and leaves, and an enhanced capacity of leaves to release ethylene, concomitant with a significant decline in shoot and roots biomass. The inoculations of all three rhizobacterial species under each water condition reduced ACC content in wheat leaves, but effects of the inoculations on ACC synthase and ACC oxidase activity in the leaves and roots, ACC content in the roots, the capacity of leaves to release ethylene, and wheat growth varied with water conditions and bacterial species. Hence, both soil water conditions and rhizobacterial inoculations acted on all the processes of ethylene metabolism, with the former being dominant. The inoculations under non-limiting water condition and medium drought promoted shoot and root growth of wheat plants. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons by inoculation with laboratory-cultured microorganisms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maxwell, C.R.; Baqai, H.A.

1995-01-01

An unauthorized release of gasoline from an underground storage tank (UST) impacted the soil and groundwater beneath a maintenance and fueling capacity. The property owner attempted to remediate the site by inoculating wells screened within the unsaturated and saturated zones with laboratory-cultured microorganisms. The inoculation was a one-time event. No nutrients were added to the subsurface. Air was injected into all inoculation wells during the project to promote aerobic microbial activity. At the first groundwater sampling event after inoculation, concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbon constituents increased inoculation wells. Measurements of dissolved oxygen in the groundwater appeared to indicate that oxygen consumption, and thus hydrocarbon degradation, was not occurring. Visual and olfactory evidence of the groundwater indicated evidence of decaying organic matter. After approximately 1 year and a thorough purging of the inoculation wells, decaying matter disappeared and dissolved oxygen and hydrocarbon concentrations generally returned to preproject levels. Further contaminant reduction did not occur, indicating temporary degradation of water quality as a result of the project and unsuccessful remediation

Inoculation Effects of Cast Iron

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Fraś

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a solidification sequence of graphite eutectic cells of A and D types, as well as globular and cementite eutectics. The morphology of eutectic cells in cast iron, the equations for their growth and the distances between the graphite precipitations in A and D eutectic types were analyzed. It is observed a critical eutectic growth rate at which one type of eutectic transformed into another. A mathematical formula was derived that combined the maximum degree of undercooling, the cooling rate of cast iron, eutectic cell count and the eutectic growth rate. One type of eutectic structure turned smoothly into the other at a particular transition rate, transformation temperature and transformational eutectic cell count. Inoculation of cast iron increased the number of eutectic cells with flake graphite and the graphite nodule count in ductile iron, while reducing the undercooling. An increase in intensity of inoculation caused a smooth transition from a cementite eutectic structure to a mixture of cementite and D type eutectic structure, then to a mixture of D and A types of eutectics up to the presence of only the A type of eutectic structure. Moreover, the mechanism of inoculation of cast iron was studied.

Changes in blood glucose and salivary cortisol are not necessary for arousal to enhance memory in young or older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Gore, Jane B; Krebs, Desiree L; Parent, Marise B

2006-06-01

Emotional arousal enhances memory, and this memory-enhancing effect may involve neurochemicals released by arousal, such as glucose and cortisol. Physiological consequences of arousal change with age, and these changes may contribute to age-related memory decline. The present study examined whether emotionally arousing pictures would affect glucose and cortisol levels and enhance memory in young and older adults. Blood glucose and salivary cortisol were measured once before and six times after young and old adults viewed either 60 highly arousing or 60 relatively neutral pictures. Recall for the stimuli was measured 75 min later. The results indicated that recall was impaired in older adults. Arousal as measured by self-report enhanced recall in both young and older adults. However, arousal did not affect glucose or cortisol levels in either group. These findings demonstrate that changes in blood glucose or salivary cortisol levels are not necessary for arousal to enhance memory.

Comparing Relationships among Yield and Its Related Traits in Mycorrhizal and Nonmycorrhizal Inoculated Wheat Cultivars under Different Water Regimes Using Multivariate Statistics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Armin Saed-Moucheshi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Multivariate statistical techniques were used to compare the relationship between yield and its related traits under noninoculated and inoculated cultivars with mycorrhizal fungus (Glomus intraradices; each one consisted of three wheat cultivars and four water regimes. Results showed that, under inoculation conditions, spike weight per plant and total chlorophyll content of the flag leaf were the most important variables contributing to wheat grain yield variation, while, under noninoculated condition, in addition to two mentioned traits, grain weight per spike and leaf area were also important variables accounting for wheat grain yield variation. Therefore, spike weight per plant and chlorophyll content of flag leaf can be used as selection criteria in breeding programs for both inoculated and noninoculated wheat cultivars under different water regimes, and also grain weight per spike and leaf area can be considered for noninoculated condition. Furthermore, inoculation of wheat cultivars showed higher value in the most measured traits, and the results indicated that inoculation treatment could change the relationship among morphological traits of wheat cultivars under drought stress. Also, it seems that the results of stepwise regression as a selecting method together with principal component and factor analysis are stronger methods to be applied in breeding programs for screening important traits.

Influence of arousal threshold and depth of sleep on respiratory stability in man: analysis using a mathematical model.

Science.gov (United States)

Longobardo, G S; Evangelisti, C J; Cherniack, N S

2009-12-01

We examined the effect of arousals (shifts from sleep to wakefulness) on breathing during sleep using a mathematical model. The model consisted of a description of the fluid dynamics and mechanical properties of the upper airways and lungs, as well as a controller sensitive to arterial and brain changes in CO(2), changes in arterial oxygen, and a neural input, alertness. The body was divided into multiple gas store compartments connected by the circulation. Cardiac output was constant, and cerebral blood flows were sensitive to changes in O(2) and CO(2) levels. Arousal was considered to occur instantaneously when afferent respiratory chemical and neural stimulation reached a threshold value, while sleep occurred when stimulation fell below that value. In the case of rigid and nearly incompressible upper airways, lowering arousal threshold decreased the stability of breathing and led to the occurrence of repeated apnoeas. In more compressible upper airways, to maintain stability, increasing arousal thresholds and decreasing elasticity were linked approximately linearly, until at low elastances arousal thresholds had no effect on stability. Increased controller gain promoted instability. The architecture of apnoeas during unstable sleep changed with the arousal threshold and decreases in elasticity. With rigid airways, apnoeas were central. With lower elastances, apnoeas were mixed even with higher arousal thresholds. With very low elastances and still higher arousal thresholds, sleep consisted totally of obstructed apnoeas. Cycle lengths shortened as the sleep architecture changed from mixed apnoeas to total obstruction. Deeper sleep also tended to promote instability by increasing plant gain. These instabilities could be countered by arousal threshold increases which were tied to deeper sleep or accumulated aroused time, or by decreased controller gains.

Optimizing assessment of sexual arousal in postmenopausal women using erotic film clips.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramos Alarcon, Lauren G; Dai, Jing; Collins, Karen; Perez, Mindy; Woodard, Terri; Diamond, Michael P

2017-10-01

This study sought to assess sexual arousal in a subgroup of women by identifying erotic film clips that would be most mentally appealing and physically arousing to postmenopausal women. By measuring levels of mental appeal and self-reported physical arousal using a bidirectional scale, we aimed to elucidate the clips that would best be utilized for sexual health research in the postmenopausal or over 50-year-old subpopulation. Our results showed that postmenopausal women did not rate clips with older versus younger actors differently (p>0.05). The mean mental and mean physical scores were significantly correlated for both premenopausal subject ratings (r=0.69, perotic film clips; this knowledge is relevant for design of future sexual function research. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

smallholder farmers' use and profitability of legume inoculants

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ACSS

Rhizobia inoculant, a product of Kenya, and its profitability in smallholder farms. Data were collected from ... of the inoculants use and gross margin analysis to examine profitability. The area under the .... the effects of various factors on the extent of. BIOFIX® use. ..... little information, resulting in reduced adoption of legume ...

A Single Session of Autogenic Training Increases Acute Subjective and Physiological Sexual Arousal in Sexually Functional Women.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanton, Amelia; Meston, Cindy

2017-10-03

Heart rate variability (HRV) has recently been associated with female sexual function (Stanton, Lorenz, Pulverman, & Meston, 2015). Below-average HRV was identified as a possible risk factor for sexual arousal dysfunction and overall sexual dysfunction in women. Based on this newly established relationship between HRV and female sexual function, the present study examined the effect of autogenic training to increase HRV on acute physiological and subjective sexual arousal in women. Specifically, vaginal pulse amplitude (VPA), an index of genital sexual arousal, and subjective sexual arousal were assessed in 33 sexually functional women, aged 18 to 27, before and after a short session of autogenic training. Autogenic training, a relaxation technique that restores the balance between the activity of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system, has been shown to significantly increase HRV (Miu, Heilman, & Miclea, 2009). After autogenic training, significant increases in both VPA (p <.05) and subjective sexual arousal (p <.005) were observed. Moreover, change in HRV from pre- to postmanipulation significantly moderated changes in subjective sexual arousal (p <.05) when it was measured continuously during the presentation of the erotic stimulus. This cost-effective, easy-to-administer behavioral intervention may have important implications for increasing sexual arousal in women.

The relation between young children's physiological arousal and their motivation to help others.

Science.gov (United States)

Hepach, Robert; Vaish, Amrisha; Müller, Katharina; Tomasello, Michael

2017-10-10

Children are motivated to help others from an early age. However, little is known about the internal biological mechanisms underlying their motivation to help. Here, we compiled data from five separate studies in which children, ranging in age from 18 months to 5.5 years, witnessed an adult needing help. In all studies, we assessed both (1) children's internal physiological arousal via changes in their pupil dilation, and (2) the latency and likelihood of them providing help. The results showed that the greater the baseline-corrected change in children's internal arousal in response to witnessing the need situation, the faster and more likely children were to help the adult. This was not the case for the baseline measure of children's tonic arousal state. Together, these results suggest that children's propensity to help is systematically related to their physiological arousal after they witness others needing help. This sheds new light on the biological mechanisms underlying not only young children's social perception but also their prosocial motivation more generally. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Post-learning stress enhances long-term memory and differentially influences memory in females depending on menstrual stage.

Science.gov (United States)

Zoladz, Phillip R; Peters, David M; Cadle, Chelsea E; Kalchik, Andrea E; Aufdenkampe, Rachael L; Dailey, Alison M; Brown, Callie M; Scharf, Amanda R; Earley, McKenna B; Knippen, Courtney L; Rorabaugh, Boyd R

2015-09-01

Most work has shown that post-learning stress enhances long-term memory; however, there have been recent inconsistencies in this literature. The purpose of the present study was to examine further the effects of post-learning stress on long-term memory and to explore any sex differences that may exist. Male and female participants learned a list of 42 words that varied in emotional valence and arousal level. Following encoding, participants completed a free recall assessment and then submerged their hand into a bath of ice cold (stress) or lukewarm (no stress) water for 3 min. The next day, participants were given free recall and recognition tests. Stressed participants recalled more words than non-stressed participants 24h after learning. Stress also enhanced female participants' recall of arousing words when they were in the follicular, but not luteal, phase. These findings replicate previous work examining post-learning stress effects on memory and implicate the involvement of sex-related hormones in such effects. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emotional arousal and discount rate in intertemporal choice are reference dependent.

Science.gov (United States)

Lempert, Karolina M; Glimcher, Paul W; Phelps, Elizabeth A

2015-04-01

Many decisions involve weighing immediate gratification against future consequences. In such intertemporal choices, people often choose smaller, immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. It has been proposed that emotional responses to immediate rewards lead us to choose them at our long-term expense. Here we utilize an objective measure of emotional arousal-pupil dilation-to examine the role of emotion in these decisions. We show that emotional arousal responses, as well as choices, in intertemporal choice tasks are reference-dependent and reflect the decision-maker's recent history of offers. Arousal increases when less predictable rewards are better than expected, whether those rewards are immediate or delayed. Furthermore, when immediate rewards are less predictable than delayed rewards, participants tend to be patient. When delayed rewards are less predictable, immediate rewards are preferred. Our findings suggest that we can encourage people to be more patient by changing the context in which intertemporal choices are made. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion and decision-making under uncertainty: Physiological arousal predicts increased gambling during ambiguity but not risk.

Science.gov (United States)

FeldmanHall, Oriel; Glimcher, Paul; Baker, Augustus L; Phelps, Elizabeth A

2016-10-01

Uncertainty, which is ubiquitous in decision-making, can be fractionated into known probabilities (risk) and unknown probabilities (ambiguity). Although research has illustrated that individuals more often avoid decisions associated with ambiguity compared to risk, it remains unclear why ambiguity is perceived as more aversive. Here we examine the role of arousal in shaping the representation of value and subsequent choice under risky and ambiguous decisions. To investigate the relationship between arousal and decisions of uncertainty, we measure skin conductance response-a quantifiable measure reflecting sympathetic nervous system arousal-during choices to gamble under risk and ambiguity. To quantify the discrete influences of risk and ambiguity sensitivity and the subjective value of each option under consideration, we model fluctuating uncertainty, as well as the amount of money that can be gained by taking the gamble. Results reveal that although arousal tracks the subjective value of a lottery regardless of uncertainty type, arousal differentially contributes to the computation of value-that is, choice-depending on whether the uncertainty is risky or ambiguous: Enhanced arousal adaptively decreases risk-taking only when the lottery is highly risky but increases risk-taking when the probability of winning is ambiguous (even after controlling for subjective value). Together, this suggests that the role of arousal during decisions of uncertainty is modulatory and highly dependent on the context in which the decision is framed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

A relook at the motor vehicle buyer after the purchase: dissonance arousal

OpenAIRE

S. Brijball

2000-01-01

This study, based on Leon Festingers (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance, evaluates the relative power of various dissonance arousal factors, the impact of price and the psychological conditions necessary for dissonance arousal, for example, effort exerted. The empirical analysis was undertaken on a sample of 200 new motor vehicle buyers. Eight dimensions impact significantly on the magnitude of cognitive dissonance, namely, awareness of expectations, unconfirmed expectations, reported diss...

Growth and nutrition of eucalyptus clones seedlings inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco de Sousa Lima

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Eucalyptus is one of the most planted forest species, in Brazil, due to its rapid growth and high economic yield. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi improve the seedlings nutritional and phytosanitary status, besides increasing their resistance to biotic and abiotic stress. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi species on the growth and nutrition of different eucalyptus clones seedlings. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions, in a randomized blocks design and a 5x5 factorial scheme (five fungal species and five eucalyptus clones, with five replications. In general, the mycorrhizal symbiosis significantly increased the growth and nutrition of eucalyptus seedlings, when compared to the non-inoculated seedlings. The most efficient interaction occured between the 2361 clone and the Entrophospora infrequens fungus, with increases of 107.3% and 120.6%, for the shoot and root dry biomass yield, and 107.7%, 94.1% and 103.3%, respectively for the accumulation of N, P and K in the seedlings shoots. All the fungal species studied showed a high absolute compatibility index with eucalyptus clones. The Glomus manihots and E. infrequens fungi presented a higher functional compatibility index with the clones tested. The 5204 clone showed 75% of compatibility with the fungi evaluated.

Avoidance symptoms and assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder in Arab immigrant women.

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Anne E; Aroian, Karen J

2008-10-01

This study investigates whether the avoidance symptom criterion required for a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is overly conservative. Arab immigrant women (N = 453), many of whom reported experiencing multiple traumatic events, completed the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale in Arabic as part of a face to face interview. Analyses indicated all but one avoidance symptom was reported less frequently than reexperiencing and arousal symptoms. However, those who fully met reexperiencing, avoidance, and arousal symptom criteria had worse symptom severity and functioning than those who fully met reexperiencing and arousal symptom criteria, but only partially met avoidance symptom criterion. Study findings support importance of the PTSD avoidance symptom criterion.

The Relation Between Valence and Arousal in Subjective Experience Varies With Personality and Culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuppens, Peter; Tuerlinckx, Francis; Yik, Michelle; Koval, Peter; Coosemans, Joachim; Zeng, Kevin J; Russell, James A

2017-08-01

While in general arousal increases with positive or negative valence (a so-called V-shaped relation), there are large differences among individuals in how these two fundamental dimensions of affect are related in people's experience. In two studies, we examined two possible sources of this variation: personality and culture. In Study 1, participants (Belgian university students) recalled a recent event that was characterized by high or low valence or arousal and reported on their feelings and their personality in terms of the Five-Factor Model. In Study 2, participants from Canada, China/Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Spain reported on their feelings in a thin slice of time and on their personality. In Study 1, we replicated the V-shape as characterizing the relation between valence and arousal, and identified personality correlates of experiencing particular valence-arousal combinations. In Study 2, we documented how the V-shaped relation varied as a function of Western versus Eastern cultural background and personality. The results showed that the steepness of the V-shaped relation between valence and arousal increases with Extraversion within cultures, and with a West-East distinction between cultures. Implications for the personality-emotion link and research on cultural differences in affect are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Radiosensitivity of ileum crypt cells in hibernating, arousing, and awake ground squirrels (Citellus tridecemlineatus)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaroslow, B.N.; Michael Fry, R.J.; Suhrbier, K.M.; Sallese, A.R.

1976-01-01

Radiosensitivity of ileal crypt cells, to 60 Co gamma radiation, was studied in ground squirrels (Citellus tridecemlineatus) during hibernation, arousal, and the euthermic state. Survival of ileal crypt cells, assayed by the microcolony technique from stained transverse sections of ileum, was greater in animals irradiated in hibernation or 1 hr after initiation of arousal from hibernation. Crypt survival returned to the level of irradiated nonhibernating controls in animals irradiated 3 to 7 hr after initiation of arousal. Over the exposure range of 1500 to 2400 R, the survival of crypt cells for euthermic controls gave a D 0 = 133 +- 12 R and for animals irradiated in hibernation it gave a D 0 = 487 +- 92 R. In animals irradiated 1 hr after initiation of arousal, when core temperature is within the range of euthermic controls, crypt survival was almost as high as in the hibernators. These results suggest that the increased resistance of ileal crypt cells in hibernating animals could be due to hypoxia, although not direct evidence for hypoxia in hibernation was established. The changes in mitotic index of ileal crypt cells during hibernation and arousal indicate an alteration in the distribution of cells in the phases of the cycle. This change in distribution may also have contributed to the increased radioresistance of hibernators

Effects of nursery preconditioning through mycorrhizal inoculation and drought in Arbutus unedo L. plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Navarro García, Alejandra; Del Pilar Bañón Árias, Sebastián; Morte, Asunción; Sánchez-Blanco, María Jesús

2011-01-01

The influence of a water deficit treatment and mycorrhizal inoculation with Pisolithus tinctorius (Pers.) Coker and Couch on the water relations, gas exchange, and plant growth in Arbutus unedo L. plants was studied in order to evaluate the hardening process during the nursery period. The ability to withstand the adverse conditions after transplantation was also studied. Mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal seedlings of A. unedo were pot-grown for 4 months in a greenhouse (nursery period), during which time two irrigation treatments, well watered (100% water holding capacity, leaching 20% of the applied water) and deficit irrigation (50% of the well watered), were applied. Subsequently, the plants were transplanted to the field and well irrigated (transplanting period), after which and until the end of the experiment they received no water (establishment period). At the end of the nursery period, both water deficit and mycorrhizae were seen to have altered the plant morphology. Mycorrhizal plants had lower leaf area and improved leaf color parameters, while the water deficit increased root dry weight and the root/shoot ratio. Mycorrhizal plants had higher leaf water potential values than non-inoculated plants. Mycorrhizae increased stomatal conductance and photosynthesis values, especially in stressed plants. Drought led to an osmotic adjustment and a decrease in the leaf water potential values at turgor loss point in the mycorrhizal plants. Cell wall rigidity, measured as increased bulk modulus of elasticity, was decreased by the mycorrhizae effect. After transplanting, no differences were found in the water relations or gas exchange values between treatments. During the establishment period, the plants that had been exposed to both drought and mycorrhizae showed a better water status (higher leaf water and turgor potential values) and higher gas exchange values. In conclusion, water deficit and mycorrhizal inoculation of A. unedo plants in nursery produced changes in

Tinnitus and hyperacusis: Contributions of paraflocculus, reticular formation and stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yu-Chen; Chen, Guang-Di; Auerbach, Benjamin D; Manohar, Senthilvelan; Radziwon, Kelly; Salvi, Richard

2017-06-01

Tinnitus and hyperacusis are common and potentially serious hearing disorders associated with noise-, age- or drug-induced hearing loss. Accumulating evidence suggests that tinnitus and hyperacusis are linked to excessive neural activity in a distributed brain network that not only includes the central auditory pathway, but also brain regions involved in arousal, emotion, stress and motor control. Here we examine electrophysiological changes in two novel non-auditory areas implicated in tinnitus and hyperacusis: the caudal pontine reticular nucleus (PnC), involved in arousal, and the paraflocculus lobe of the cerebellum (PFL), implicated in head-eye coordination and gating tinnitus and we measure the changes in corticosterone stress hormone levels. Using the salicylate-induced model of tinnitus and hyperacusis, we found that long-latency (>10 ms) sound-evoked response components in both the brain regions were significantly enhanced after salicylate administration, while the short-latency responses were reduced, likely reflecting cochlear hearing loss. These results are consistent with the central gain model of tinnitus and hyperacusis, which proposes that these disorders arise from the amplification of neural activity in central auditory pathway plus other regions linked to arousal, emotion, tinnitus gating and motor control. Finally, we demonstrate that salicylate results in an increase in corticosterone level in a dose-dependent manner consistent with the notion that stress may interact with hearing loss in tinnitus and hyperacusis development. This increased stress response has the potential to have wide-ranging effects on the central nervous system and may therefore contribute to brain-wide changes in neural activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Music, emotion, and time perception: the influence of subjective emotional valence and arousal?

Science.gov (United States)

Droit-Volet, Sylvie; Ramos, Danilo; Bueno, José L. O.; Bigand, Emmanuel

2013-01-01

The present study used a temporal bisection task with short (2 s) stimulus durations to investigate the effect on time estimation of several musical parameters associated with emotional changes in affective valence and arousal. In order to manipulate the positive and negative valence of music, Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted the effect of musical structure with pieces played normally and backwards, which were judged to be pleasant and unpleasant, respectively. This effect of valence was combined with a subjective arousal effect by changing the tempo of the musical pieces (fast vs. slow) (Experiment 1) or their instrumentation (orchestral vs. piano pieces). The musical pieces were indeed judged more arousing with a fast than with a slow tempo and with an orchestral than with a piano timbre. In Experiment 3, affective valence was also tested by contrasting the effect of tonal (pleasant) vs. atonal (unpleasant) versions of the same musical pieces. The results showed that the effect of tempo in music, associated with a subjective arousal effect, was the major factor that produced time distortions with time being judged longer for fast than for slow tempi. When the tempo was held constant, no significant effect of timbre on the time judgment was found although the orchestral music was judged to be more arousing than the piano music. Nevertheless, emotional valence did modulate the tempo effect on time perception, the pleasant music being judged shorter than the unpleasant music. PMID:23882233

Music, Emotion and Time Perception: The influence of subjective emotional valence and arousal?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SYLVIE eDROIT-VOLET

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The present study used a temporal bisection task with short (< 2 s and long (> 2 s stimulus durations to investigate the effect on time estimation of several musical parameters associated with emotional changes in affective valence and arousal. In order to manipulate the positive and negative valence of music, Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted the effect of musical structure with pieces played normally and backwards, which were judged to be pleasant and unpleasant, respectively. This effect of valence was combined with a subjective arousal effect by changing the tempo of the musical pieces (fast vs. slow (Experiment 1 or their instrumentation (orchestral vs. piano pieces. The musical pieces were indeed judged more arousing with a fast than with a slow tempo and with an orchestral than with a piano timbre. In Experiment 3, affective valence was also tested by contrasting the effect of tonal (pleasant versus atonal (unpleasant versions of the same musical pieces. The results showed that the effect of tempo in music, associated with a subjective arousal effect, was the major factor that produced time distortions with time being judged longer for fast than for slow tempi. When the tempo was held constant, no significant effect of timbre on the time judgment was found although the orchestral music was judged to be more arousing than the piano music. Nevertheless, emotional valence did modulate the tempo effect on time perception, the pleasant music being judged shorter than the unpleasant music.

Music, emotion, and time perception: the influence of subjective emotional valence and arousal?

Science.gov (United States)

Droit-Volet, Sylvie; Ramos, Danilo; Bueno, José L O; Bigand, Emmanuel

2013-01-01

The present study used a temporal bisection task with short (2 s) stimulus durations to investigate the effect on time estimation of several musical parameters associated with emotional changes in affective valence and arousal. In order to manipulate the positive and negative valence of music, Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted the effect of musical structure with pieces played normally and backwards, which were judged to be pleasant and unpleasant, respectively. This effect of valence was combined with a subjective arousal effect by changing the tempo of the musical pieces (fast vs. slow) (Experiment 1) or their instrumentation (orchestral vs. piano pieces). The musical pieces were indeed judged more arousing with a fast than with a slow tempo and with an orchestral than with a piano timbre. In Experiment 3, affective valence was also tested by contrasting the effect of tonal (pleasant) vs. atonal (unpleasant) versions of the same musical pieces. The results showed that the effect of tempo in music, associated with a subjective arousal effect, was the major factor that produced time distortions with time being judged longer for fast than for slow tempi. When the tempo was held constant, no significant effect of timbre on the time judgment was found although the orchestral music was judged to be more arousing than the piano music. Nevertheless, emotional valence did modulate the tempo effect on time perception, the pleasant music being judged shorter than the unpleasant music.