Attention modulates the dorsal striatum response to love stimuli

In previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies concerning romantic love, several brain regions including the caudate and putamen have consistently been found to be more responsive to beloved‐related than control stimuli. In those studies, infatuated individuals were typically instructed to passively view the stimuli or to think of the viewed person. In the current study, we examined how the instruction to attend to, or ignore the beloved modulates the response of these brain areas. Infatuated individuals performed an oddball task in which pictures of their beloved and friend served as targets and distractors. The dorsal striatum showed greater activation for the beloved than friend, but only when they were targets. The dorsal striatum actually tended to show less activation for the beloved than the friend when they were distractors. The longer the love and relationship duration, the smaller the response of the dorsal striatum to beloved‐distractor stimuli was. We interpret our findings in terms of reinforcement learning. By virtue of using a cognitive task with a full factorial design, we show that the dorsal striatum is not activated by beloved‐related information per se, but only by beloved‐related information that is attended. Hum Brain Mapp 35:503–512, 2014. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Diabetes and Female Sexuality

Although diabetes plays a significant role in causing impotence in the diabetic male, its effects on female sexuality have only recently been studied. Surprisingly, no demonstrable effect on the capacity for sexual arousal or orgasm has been found in the diabetic female. This paper compares male and female anatomy, physiology, and neurology, and speculates about reasons for this sex difference.     

Facial expression recognition in Alzheimer’s disease: A systematic review

Introduction: It is well established that behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia can impair social and emotional function. However, there is no consensus regarding how Alzheimer’s disease can affect facial expression recognition. We aim to systematically review all the literature addressing this issue over the last 10 years.

Method: We conducted a search based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The search for literature was undertaken on 19 September 2017, using Pubmed, SciELO, BIREME, and Thomson Reuters Web of Science electronic databases. The key terms for the search were: Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and facial expression recognition.

Results: We screened 173 articles, and 22 of them were selected. The most common methodology involved showing participants photographs of people expressing the six basic emotions—fear, anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, and happiness. Results were ambiguous. Among people with mild Alzheimer’s disease, happiness was easier to recognize than the other five basic emotions, with sadness and anger the most difficult to recognize. In addition, the intensity level of the emotions presented seems to be important, and facial expression recognition is related to specific cognitive capacities, including executive function and visuoperceptual abilities. Impairment in facial expression recognition does not appear to be a consistent neuropsychological finding in Alzheimer’s disease.

Conclusions: The lack of standardized assessment instruments and the heterogeneity of the methods and samples used across studies hamper comparisons. Future researches should investigate facial expression recognition through more ecological and standardized methods.     

A Historical View of the Stress Field

Abstract

An analysis is presented of selected aspects of stress theory and research in biology and medicine, both before and after the introduction of Selye's stress formulations, which have been of major importance in the development and popularity of this research area. An attempt is made to explore some possible sources of present confusion and controversy in the stress field, with a view to the development of new research strategies that may enable us to clarify, update, and revise stress concepts and to facilitate future progress. In particular, it is suggested that an experimental reevaluation of the concept of the nonspecificity of pituitary-adrenal cortical response is a matter of particular strategic importance, if we are to move out of the present prolonged period of stalemate and confusion over stress theory and terminology. Recent experimental studies which suggest that the nonspecificity concept may have been applied erroneously to lower level physiological mechanisms, rather than to higher level psychological processes, are reviewed. The possible implications of this development are discussed in terms of clarifying current concepts and providing guidelines for future lines of approach in stress research.     

共情护理改善老年脑梗死患者负性情绪的作用

目的探讨共情护理改善老年脑梗死患者负性情绪的作用。方法选取我院自2013年2月~2014年7月收治的153例老年脑梗死患者,随机分为观察组和对照组,观察组77例,对照组76例,对照组给予常规护理,观察组在常规护理的基础给予共情护理,分析各自护理方式对两组病例负性情绪的影响。结果护理前,两组病例抑郁自评量表(SDS)评分和焦虑自评量表(SAS)评分比较,P0.05,差异不具有统计学意义;护理后,两组病例SDS评分和SAS评分均有所下降,而对照组下降的程度小于观察组,观察组改善程度优于对照组,P0.05,差异具有统计学意义。结论共情护理能够有效改善老年脑梗死患者负性情绪的作用,患者依从性好,有利于病情的恢复。     

键对键与面对面联动在改善心外科患者不良情绪和睡眠质量的应用评价

目的:探讨分析键对键与面对面联动在改善心外科患者不良情绪和睡眠质量中的应用效果.方法:选取2018年5月至2019年5 月湖南师范大学附属第一医院收治的心脏外科手术患者100例作为研究对象,按照患者病房号分为对照组和观察组,每组50例.对照组采用常规护理,观察组在此基础上实施键对键与面对面联动的护理模式.结果:出院3个月后,与对照组患者比较,观察组患者情绪、机体不适感、睡眠质量显著改善,差异均有统计学意义(P<0.05).结论:键对键与面对面联动的护理模式可显著改善心外科患者的不良情绪,提高睡眠质量,值得临床推广.     

People with chronic facial pain perform worse than controls at a facial emotion recognition task,but it is not all about the emotion

Alexithymia, or a lack of emotional awareness, is prevalent in some chronic pain conditions and has been linked to poor recognition of others' emotions. Recognising others' emotions from their facial expression involves both emotional and motor processing, but the possible contribution of motor disruption has not been considered. It is possible that poor performance on emotional recognition tasks could reflect problems with emotional processing, motor processing or both. We hypothesised that people with chronic facial pain would be less accurate in recognising others' emotions from facial expressions, would be less accurate in a motor imagery task involving the face, and that performance on both tasks would be positively related. A convenience sample of 19 people (15 females) with chronic facial pain and 19 gender‐matched controls participated. They undertook two tasks; in the first task, they identified the facial emotion presented in a photograph. In the second, they identified whether the person in the image had a facial feature pointed towards their left or right side, a well‐recognised paradigm to induce implicit motor imagery. People with chronic facial pain performed worse than controls at both tasks (Facially Expressed Emotion Labelling (FEEL) task P < 0·001; left/right judgment task P < 0·001). Participants who were more accurate at one task were also more accurate at the other, regardless of group (P < 0·001, r² = 0·523). Participants with chronic facial pain were worse than controls at both the FEEL emotion recognition task and the left/right facial expression task and performance covaried within participants. We propose that disrupted motor processing may underpin or at least contribute to the difficulty that facial pain patients have in emotion recognition and that further research that tests this proposal is warranted.     

二元应对干预对乳腺癌术后患者及配偶的影响

目的探讨二元应对干预对乳腺癌术后患者心理资本及其与配偶间疾病沟通问题的影响。方法选取乳腺癌改良根治术后患者及其配偶为研究对象,按住院时间段分为对照组和干预组各48例,对照组给予常规护理,干预组在此基础上实施二元应对护理干预。干预前及干预16周后采用积极心理资本问卷、夫妻癌症相关沟通问题量表、二元应对量表评价干预效果。结果干预后,干预组患者心理资本得分,夫妻双方二元应对得分显著高于对照组,患者自评夫妻间疾病沟通问题得分显著低于对照组(均P<0.01)。结论二元应对干预能够提高乳腺癌患者心理资本、二元应对水平,降低其与配偶间疾病沟通问题。