The role of Tai Chi,cultural dancing,playing a musical instrument and singing in the prevention of chronic disease in Chinese older adults: a mind–body meditative approach

Older adults with chronic diseases have a high level of depression and poor mental health status. Previous public health interventions have attempted to reduce chronic disease-related health risks including depression and to improve mental health, but have had limited success. This study examined whether 15 months of regular participation in Tai Chi (TC) exercise, dancing, instrument playing and singing, as part of a mind–body meditative approach (MBMA), improves brain executive function, psychological functioning and mental health in Chinese older adults. Results indicated that the MBMA programme improved participants' executive function, psychological functioning, mental health and resilience, compared with a control group. These findings indicate that MBMA activities may be adopted as lifestyle approaches to promote mental health in different areas as follows: (1) TC and dancing have the biggest effect for reducing the prevalence of depression and for improving their mental health and resilience in older people with chronic conditions and (2) playing a musical instrument and singing have moderate effect for reducing depression symptoms and promoting mental health. The findings of the study suggest that there are mental health promotion implications relating to exercise type and minimal exercise dosage for older adults. Cultural dancing and TC may be a form of physical activity that is more likely to appeal to older people, when they are most at risk of being overweight or obese, of suffering from depression and/or of experiencing a decline in brain function. TC has been found to be highly effective in preventing depression and promoting brain executive function, and appears to be a form of physical activity that appeals to older people. Dancing, in combination with TC and singing, may be highly effective in protecting older adults from metabolic syndrome and brain function decline and in promoting a positive quality of life including psychological health. Playing a musical instrument may be used as an alternative method for maintaining good mental health in healthy people and for promoting mental health in people suffering from stress and its related depression and anxiety.     

Electrophysiological responses to violations of expectation from eye gaze and arrow cues

Isolating processes within the brain that are specific to human behavior is a key goal for social neuroscience. The current research was an attempt to test whether recent findings of enhanced negative ERPs in response to unexpected human gaze are unique to eye gaze stimuli by comparing the effects of gaze cues with the effects of an arrow cue. ERPs were recorded while participants (N = 30) observed a virtual actor or an arrow that gazed (or pointed) either toward (object congruent) or away from (object incongruent) a flashing checkerboard. An enhanced negative ERP (N300) in response to object incongruent compared to object congruent trials was recorded for both eye gaze and arrow stimuli. The findings are interpreted as reflecting a domain general mechanism for detecting unexpected events.     

Episodic memory and self-awareness in Asperger Syndrome: Analysis of memory narratives

Previous findings from researchers on individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS) suggest peculiarities of autobiographical memory (AM). They have shown a personal episodic memory deficit in the absence of a personal semantic memory impairment. The primary aim of this study was to explore AM in individuals with AS, and more specifically to investigate the link between episodic memory, self-awareness, and autonoetic consciousness through language analysis. We asked fifteen adults with AS and fifteen age- and IQ-matched controls to recall autobiographical memories from three life periods. Recorded interviews were processed using Alceste software. We found that participants with AS recalled fewer and less-detailed episodic memories than did controls. A content analysis revealed that family-related vocabulary as well as possessive pronouns was significantly less frequent in AS interviews than in those of controls. In conclusion, our results support the hypothesis that a deficiency of episodic memory may be due to poor awareness of the self in social relationships. Reduced use of possessive pronouns may also indicate less self-investment in life experiences, which would in turn impact recall.     

Somatics: Investigating the common ground of western body–mind disciplines

Western body–mind disciplines (known by the name of somatics) encompass ways of working with the body that are therapeutic, educational, creative and physically expressive. This literature review uses a ‘bird's eye view’ meant to provide a comprehensive synthesis of somatic theory. This brief analysis of somatic theory examines common principles behind somatic work rather than necessarily differentiating between the wide variety of available practices. This review aims to consolidate somatic theory by drawing from key theorists within the field of somatic movement education and therapy. In addition, this review also investigates an interdisciplinary approach exploring somatic work in relation to the fields of dance and body psychotherapy in an attempt to include related fields of knowledge. Furthermore, this review explores a new avenue of research looking at the historical roots of Western body–mind methods within the physical culture of the nineteenth century. Somatics and body psychotherapy have common ancestors although a great deal of further investigation remains for this type of historical analysis.     

Social cognition and interaction training for patients with stable schizophrenia in Chinese community settings

Accumulated evidence suggests that Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) is associated with improved performance in social cognition and social skills in patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders. The current study examined the clinical utility of SCIT in patients with schizophrenia in Chinese community settings. Adults with stable schizophrenia were recruited from local community health institutions, and were randomly assigned to SCIT group (n=22) or a waiting-list control group (n=17). The SCIT group received the SCIT intervention plus treatment-as-usual, whereas the waiting-list group received only treatment-as-usual during the period of the study. All patients were administered the Chinese versions of the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP), Face Emotion Identification Task (FEIT), Eyes task, and Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) at baseline of the SCIT treatment period and at follow-up, 6 months after completion of the 20-week treatment period. Patients in SCIT group showed a significant improvement in the domains of emotion perception, theory of mind, attributional style, and social functioning compared to those in waiting-list group. Findings indicate that SCIT is a feasible and promising method for improving social cognition and social functioning among Chinese outpatients with stable schizophrenia.     

Theory of mind deficits in patients with mild symptoms of major depressive disorder

The aim of this study was to investigate theory of mind (ToM) in a sample of depressed patients with mild symptom severity using a measure with varied cognitive processing demands. Patients demonstrated impaired performance on second-order, cognitively demanding ToM scenarios. Reduced ToM ability was associated with poor psychosocial functioning.