Hope against the cold: individual differences in trait hope and acute pain tolerance on the cold pressor task

Hope theory (see Snyder, 1994) is presented as a useful framework for understanding reactions to pain. In Study 1, persons scoring higher on the trait Hope Scale (Snyder, Harris et al., 1991) kept their hands in the freezing water (of a cold pressor task) for significantly longer. In Study 2, the higher-hope males, and not females, as measured by both trait and state hope (Snyder, Sympson et al., 1996), recognized the onset of the pain threshold significantly later. Moreover, in Study 2, results showed that individual differences measures of optimism, self-efficacy, depression, and positive and negative affects did not relate to the pain onset and tolerance variables. The implications of hope as related to the pain process and related research are discussed.     

Amygdala sub‐regional functional connectivity predicts anxiety in children with reading disorder

Pediatric reading disorder (RD) is associated with an increased risk of anxiety symptoms, yet understudied are the neurobiological factors that might underlie anxiety in children with RD. Given the role of the amygdala in anxiety, we assessed resting state functional connectivity of amygdalar subregions in children with RD to identify functional correlates of anxiety and reading impairment. We collected resting state functional MRI data from 22 children with RD and 21 typically developing (TD) children, ages 7 to 13 years. We assessed group differences in resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) from amygdalar subregions. Associations of amygdalar RSFC and volume with reading impairment, reading fluency scores, and anxiety symptoms were explored. Relative to TD children, those with RD showed increased RSFC from amygdalar nuclei to medial prefrontal cortex. Across all subjects, RSFC from right centromedial amygdala to left medial prefrontal cortex positively predicted both reading impairment and self‐reported anxiety, and anxiety mediated the relationship between RSFC and reading impairment. These findings are consistent with amygdalar functional abnormalities in pediatric anxiety disorders, suggesting a common neurobiological mechanism underlying anxiety and reading impairment in children. Thus, aberrant patterns of RSFC from amygdalar subregions may serve as potential targets for the treatment of anxiety symptoms that typically co‐occur with RD. Our dimensional approach to studying anxiety in RD revealed how amygdalar connectivity underlies anxiety and reading impairment across a continuum from normal to abnormal.     

Comparison of three cognitive strategies in altering pain behaviors on a cold pressor task

The efficacy of three cognitive strategies for coping with pain was examined in a cold-water pressor task in a sample of college students. Subjects were pretested and then randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (Paradoxical Intention, Rational Self-statement, or Self-observation) or to an expectancy control group. Following training in the respective cognitive strategies, all groups were given a posttest in the cold-water pressor to determine the effectiveness of the treatment. Pain thresholds, tolerances, and discomfort ratings were recorded for subjects in each condition. No differences were found between the Paradoxical Intention or Rational Self-statement groups and the Expectancy Control on any of the pain measures. The Self-observation treatment condition, however, had significantly higher pain tolerance scores than the Expectancy Control group. The findings were attributed to the subjects' dissociating the sensory aspects of the pain experience from the anxiety when focusing upon the coldness and wetness of the cold water.     

Alexithymia is not related to tolerance for cold pressor pain

To test the hypothesis that higher scores on alexithymia are associated with reduced tolerance for cold pressor pain, 116 college undergraduates completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 of Bagby, Parker and Taylor and engaged in the cold pressor test. Their alexithymia scores were not associated with tolerance for cold pressor pain, suggesting that individuals scoring high on alexithymia do not show a general hypersensitivity to a cold stimulus.     

Differences in high and low anxiety sensitive women's responses to a laboratory-based cold pressor task

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been linked to a variety of disabling chronic health conditions, including pain-related conditions. A recent study has found that healthy women with high AS reported significantly higher levels of sensory and affective pain on an experimental cold pressor task compared to women with low AS. However, this study found no differences between AS groups for pain tolerance or pain threshold. In the present study, which was designed to replicate and extend these findings, 90 undergraduate university women were selected for inclusion in 1 of 2 AS groups (high or low) based on their screening scores on a 16-item measure of AS. Participants were tested individually on a lab-based cold pressor task using a variety of self-report and observer-measured variables. Data analyses revealed that, as expected, the high AS participants reported significantly more fear in response to the cold pressor on a relevant item of the McGill Pain Questionnaire-Short Form (SF-MPQ) than did the low AS participants. Also as expected, the high AS participants reported more pain in response to the cold pressor on the Present Pain Index (PPI) of the SF-MPQ than did the low AS participants. High AS participants did not differ from low AS participants on other aspects of the cold pressor response (e.g. pain threshold, pain tolerance, pain recovery). These results support the role of pain-related fear as a mediating variable between AS and increased perceived pain intensity.     

Cortical functional connectivity is associated with the valence of affective states

The study investigates the relationships between the valence of affective states and the cortical patterns of functional connectivity. The information flow rate and direction were estimated by means of Directed Transfer Function (DTF), a multivariate method based on Granger causality. It was calculated on EEG activity recorded during mental imagery tasks. As a result, three regions were revealed as main network hubs, where the information outflow changed specifically with valence: the anterior orbitofrontal cortex, and the right posterior and right temporal area. The role of these structures in synchronizing the cortical affective network as well as in mediating different aspects of emotional state is discussed.     

Working memory performance after acute exposure to the cold pressor stress in healthy volunteers

Effects of acute stress exposure on learning and memory have been frequently studied in both animals and humans. However, only a few studies have focused specifically on working memory performance and the available data are equivocal. The present study examined working memory performance during the Sternberg item recognition task after exposure to a predominantly adrenergic stressor. Twenty four healthy subjects were randomly assigned to a stress group or a control group. The stress group was exposed to the cold pressor stress test (CPS; i.e. insertion of the dominant hand into ice water for 60s), while 37 °C warm water was used with the control group. Twenty minutes after the stress exposure, working memory performance was tested with the Sternberg item recognition task with three levels of cognitive load. Sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis activation during CPS, were assessed by measuring heart rate and salivary cortisol before and during (heart rate) or 30 min after (cortisol) the stress procedure. Exposure to the CPS test was associated with a significant increase in heart rate but no increase in salivary cortisol. Participants exposed to the stress procedure showed significantly shorter reaction times during trials with higher cognitive load but tended to show higher false alarm rates than control subjects. The present results indicate that exposure to CPS can be associated with signs of both enhanced and impaired working memory performance. The observed behavioral pattern might represent a form of streamlined information processing advantageous in a threatening situation.     

The effect of situation-evoked anxiety and gender on pain report using the cold pressor test

The aims of the present study were to investigate the influence of anxiety on pain perception and to test whether gender differences in pain perception are anxiety dependent. Sixty male and female university students exposed to situation-evoked anxiety or a control procedure were measured for their pain threshold, tolerance, and perceived intensity during a cold pressor test. Both subjective and autonomic responses indicated that anxiety was successfully induced in participants exposed to the anxiety condition. Increased situational anxiety had no significant effect on pain threshold or pain tolerance. Significant increases in pain intensity were found for the anxiety group. Levels of anxiety, however, did not correlate with this increased intensity, raising doubt as to the role of anxiety in producing this effect. No gender differences were found for pain tolerance or pain intensity. Gender differences were found for pain threshold in the anxiety group with, contrary to past findings, females showing significantly higher pain thresholds than males. The results are discussed in the light of related studies.     

Extraversion and accuracy of aspects of memory for pain in the cold water pressor test

The role of Erlebnistypus personality features were investigated in 40 healthy subjects, as defined by the Rorschach Comprehensive System by Exner, in determining accuracy in recollecting acute tonic experimental pain, induced by the Cold Water Pressor Test. Multiple-regression analysis revealed that the difference between the number of movement answers and the number of chromatic answers in the Rorschach test, an index of general Extroversion, predicted accuracy in recollecting the qualitative features of pain, defined as affective and evaluative pain scores on the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Also, Extratensive subjects were less accurate than Introversive and Ambitent participants at recollecting sensory scores. The data suggest that general extroversion may have a role in individual differences in the higher cognitive processing of pain comprising pain memory.     

The temporal organization of functional brain connectivity is abnormal in schizophrenia but does not correlate with symptomatology

Previous work employing graph theory and nonlinear analysis has found increased spatial and temporal disorder, respectively, of functional brain connectivity in schizophrenia. We present a new method combining graph theory and nonlinear techniques that measures the temporal disorder of functional brain connections. Multichannel electroencephalographic data were windowed and functional networks were reconstructed using the minimum spanning trees of correlation matrices. Using a method based on Shannon entropy, we found elevated connection entropy in gamma activity of patients with schizophrenia; however, gamma connection entropy remained elevated in patients with schizophrenia even after a reduction in symptoms due to treatment with antipsychotics. Our results are consistent with several possibilities: (1) aberrant functional connectivity is epiphenomenal to schizophrenia, (2) aberrant functional connectivity is a central feature but antipsychotics reduce symptoms by an independent mechanism, or (3) connection entropy is not an appropriately sensitive measure of brain abnormalities in schizophrenia.     

人脑自适应多尺度功能连接的性别差异

已有脑成像研究展示了男女脑功能差异, 但功能磁共振信号的频率划分通常基于主观经验, 使脑功能性别差异的生物学解释遭遇瓶颈。本文提出人脑自适应多尺度功能连接算法, 刻画功能连接的时空多尺度特性, 揭示出0.06~0.10 Hz的性别差异：男性较强的连接主要与边缘网络和腹侧注意网络有关, 女性较强的连接主要与腹侧注意网络、视觉网络和额顶网络有关。     

Children's hostile attribution bias is reduced after watching realistic playful fighting, and the effect is mediated by prosocial thoughts

Hostile attribution bias (HAB) has been found to characterize aggressive children. Watching prosocial media has been shown to have positive effects on children, and the general learning model has been used to account for these observations. This study tested the hypotheses derived from this theory that exposure to playful fighting would lead to a reduction in HAB, both immediately and after a 1-day delay, and that this effect would be mediated by positive thoughts. Four studies exposed child participants (N=242) to playful fighting versus neutral behavior primes and then tested their HAB. In two studies, thoughts about playful fighting and about children were assessed and tested as mediators. The main hypotheses were supported. The positive effect of watching playful fighting on HAB was evident immediately but not after 1 day. This effect was mediated by positive thoughts. In line with the general learning model, watching playful fighting reduced HAB in children, and positive thoughts contribute to this effect. This extends the realm of the general learning model and suggests interventions to help children avoid aggression.     

Intra-individual variability in task performance after cognitive training is associated with long-term outcomes in children

The potential benefits and mechanistic effects of working memory training (WMT) in children are the subject of much research and debate. We show that after five weeks of school-based, adaptive WMT 6–9 year-old primary school children had greater activity in prefrontal and striatal brain regions, higher task accuracy, and reduced intra-individual variability in response times compared to controls. Using a sequential sampling decision model, we demonstrate that this reduction in intra-individual variability can be explained by changes to the evidence accumulation rates and thresholds. Critically, intra-individual variability is useful in quantifying the immediate impact of cognitive training interventions, being a better predictor of academic skills and well-being 6–12 months after the end of training than task accuracy. Taken together, our results suggest that attention control is the initial mechanism that leads to the long-run benefits from adaptive WMT. Selective and sustained attention abilities may serve as a scaffold for subsequent changes in higher cognitive processes, academic skills, and general well-being. Furthermore, these results highlight that the selection of outcome measures and the timing of the assessments play a crucial role in detecting training efficacy. Thus, evaluating intra-individual variability, during or directly after training could allow for the early tailoring of training interventions in terms of duration or content to maximise their impact.     

Decreased functional brain activation in Friedreich ataxia using the Simon effect task

The present study applied the Simon effect task to examine the pattern of functional brain reorganization in individuals with Friedreich ataxia (FRDA), using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thirteen individuals with FRDA and 14 age and sex matched controls participated, and were required to respond to either congruent or incongruent arrow stimuli, presented either to the left or right of a screen, via laterally-located button press responses. Although the Simon effect (incongruent minus congruent stimuli) showed common regions of activation in both groups, including the superior and middle prefrontal cortices, insulae, superior and inferior parietal lobules (LPs, LPi), occipital cortex and cerebellum, there was reduced functional activation across a range of brain regions (cortical, subcortical and cerebellar) in individuals with FRDA. The greater Simon effect behaviourally in individuals with FRDA, compared with controls, together with concomitant reductions in functional brain activation and reduced functional connectivity between cortical and sub-cortical regions, implies a likely disruption of cortico-cerebellar loops and ineffective engagement of cognitive/attention regions required for response suppression.     

Assessing the relationship between cold pressor pain responses and dimensions of the anxiety sensitivity profile in healthy men and women

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been shown previously to be an important factor in the perception and experience of experimentally induced pain within healthy adults. The aim of the current study was to extend this research by: (i) using the Anxiety Sensitivity Profile (ASP) as an alternative measure of AS; (ii) examining whether different coping instructions affect pain reports; and (iii) investigating potential differences between men and women. Participants were 50 healthy adults (23 males, 27 females) who were required to complete 2 versions of the cold pressor pain task; one version required the use of control instructions, whereas the other made use of acceptance-based instructions. Although the coping instructions were found to affect pain thresholds (acceptance resulted in lower thresholds), a similar pattern of correlations were found between the pain indexes and AS under both conditions. Of the ASP subscales, the gastrointestinal and cognitive concerns components were found to be the most strongly related to pain experiences. When the analysis was conducted separately for each sex, the ASP scales were related to the self-report measures of pain in women, whereas they were related to the behavioural measures of pain in men. These results not only confirm that AS is associated with experimental pain, but that there may be sex differences in this relationship.     

Family conflict is associated with longitudinal changes in insular‐striatal functional connectivity during adolescent risk taking under maternal influence

Maternal presence has marked effects on adolescent neurocognition during risk taking, influencing teenagers to make safer decisions. However, it is currently unknown whether maternal buffering changes over the course of adolescence itself, and whether its effects are robust to individual differences in family relationship quality. In the current longitudinal study, 23 adolescents completed a risk‐taking task under maternal presence during an fMRI scan before and after the transition to high school. Behavioral results reveal that adolescent risk taking increased under maternal presence across a one‐year period. At the neural level, we found that adolescents reporting higher family conflict showed longitudinal increases in functional coupling between the anterior insula (AI) and ventral striatum (VS) when making safe decisions in the presence of their mother, which was associated with increased real‐world risk taking. These findings show that individual differences in family relationship quality undermine effective development of AI‐VS connectivity resulting in increased risk taking.     

Trace fear conditioning is reduced in the aging rat

Auditory trace fear conditioning is a hippocampus-dependent learning task that requires animals to associate an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) and a fear-producing shock-unconditioned stimulus (US) that are separated by an empty 20-s trace interval. Previous studies have shown that aging impairs learning performance on hippocampus-dependent tasks. This study measured heart rate (HR) and freezing fear responses to determine if aging impairs hippocampus-dependent auditory trace fear conditioning in freely moving rats. Aging and Young rats received one long-trace fear conditioning session (10 trials). Each trial consisted of a tone-CS (5 s) and a shock-US separated by an empty 20-s trace interval. The next day rats received CS-alone retention trials. Young rats showed significantly larger HR and freezing responses on the initial CS-alone retention trials compared to the Aging rats. A control group of aging rats received fear conditioning trials with a short 1-s trace interval separating the CS and US. The Aging Short-Trace Group showed HR and freezing responses on the initial CS alone retention trials that were similar to the Young Long-Trace Group, but greater than the Aging Long-Trace Group. A second aging control group received unpaired CSs and USs, and showed no HR or freezing responses on CS-alone retention trials. These data show that HR and freezing are effective measures for detecting aging-related deficits in trace fear conditioning.     

Location-specific attentional control is also possible in the Simon task

Goal-directed behavior usually requires mental control that directs attention to task-relevant information and ignores irrelevant information. For investigating how flexible this mechanism is, researchers have varied the proportion of congruent trials depending on some context, such as stimulus location. The corresponding studies revealed that attentional control indeed adapts to location-specific demands. However, until now, this flexibility has only been demonstrated for the Eriksen flanker task and for the Stroop task but not for the Simon task. Therefore, a Simon-task experiment was conducted in the present study, where the proportion of congruent trials differed for stimuli appearing above or below fixation, respectively. As a result, a reliable interaction between congruency and stimulus location was found. This demonstrates, for the first time, that location-specific control also is possible in the Simon task.     

Pain perception to the cold pressor test during the menstrual cycle in relation to estrogen levels and a comparison with men

Animal and human research has shown that pain sensitivity changes during the menstrual cycle. This has sometimes been ascribed to hormonal variations. The aim of the present study was to examine how perception of pain, induced by the cold pressor test to the dominant hand, was related to gender and phases of the menstrual cycle. A repeated-meausres design was used, where twenty-two female students participated at two different phases of the menstrual cycle (days 2–4 and days 20–24). A control group of nineteen male students participated on two occasions, separated by a three week period. The cycle phase during which each woman began her participation was randomized. Pain was induced using the cold pressor test. Pain threshold was determined as the duration of time between when the subject first reported pain and exposure to the painful stimulus. Pain tolerance was determined as the duration of time until the subject withdraw her/his hand from the test water because the pain was too intensive. The results showed that men tolerated significantly greater pain than women. Women’s pain threshold was significantly higher during the second phase of the menstrual cycle. Systolic pressure was higher in men than women, increasing more in men in response to cold pressor testing than women. Further research, including measurments of plasma hormone levels during the menstrual cycle, is needed to clarify the role played by estrogens in pain perception.     

On the complexity of classical guitar playing: functional adaptations to task constraints

The authors performed a behavioral study of the complexity of left-hand finger movements in classical guitar playing. Six professional guitarists played movement sequences in a fixed tempo. Left-hand finger movements were recorded in 3 dimensions, and the guitar sound was recorded synchronously. Assuming that performers prefer to avoid extreme joint angles when moving, the authors hypothesized 3 complexity factors. The results showed differential effects of the complexity factors on the performance measures and on participants' judgments of complexity. The results demonstrated that keeping the joints in the middle of their range is an important principle in guitar playing, and players exploit the available tolerance in timing and placement of the left-hand fingers to control the acoustic output variability.