Assessment of hormonal parameters and psychological well‐being in healthy subjects after a Taoist qigong program: An exploratory study

Qigong is an ancient form of health maintenance, which is part of Traditional China Medicine. Numerous beneficial mental and physical effects have been classically ascribed to this traditional psychosomatic method. The purpose of this work has been to assess the effects of Taoist qigong practice on several hormonal parameters of the Hipotalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenal axis and specific measures of psychological well‐being in healthy subjects. Forty‐three healthy volunteers participated in the study, of whom 22 were randomly allocated to the experimental group, and 21 were assigned to the control group. Experimental participants underwent a qigong training program for one month. Blood samples for the quantification of hormonal parameters, and several instruments to assess anxiety and depression symptoms as well as subjective sleep quality, were obtained before and after the program. Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups, with the experimental group showing lower blood levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). This study shows that Taoist qigong is a psychosomatic method able to exert a modulatory action on ACTH levels in healthy subjects. We consider the need to continue exploring the psychobiological modulation of this qigong method and its possible repercussion for human health care.     

Romantic attachment,dyadic coping,and parental adjustment across the transition to parenthood

This study explored the mediating role of common dyadic coping (common DC) on the longitudinal associations between attachment‐related anxiety and avoidance and parental adjustment to the first year postpartum. A total of 92 Portuguese couples completed self‐report questionnaires of romantic attachment, common DC, parenting stress, and parental confidence. Results showed that more avoidant parents (at mid‐pregnancy) engaged less in common DC (at 6 weeks postpartum), which consequently increased their partner's parenting stress (only in mothers) and decreased their partner's parental confidence (in both parents) at 6–9 months postpartum. Anxious attachment did not predict parents' adjustment directly or indirectly. Interventions aimed at preventing adjustment difficulties to early parenthood in more avoidant parents should focus on enhancing their common DC strategies soon after childbirth.     

Teaching Responsible Research and Innovation: A Phronetic Perspective

Science and Engineering Ethics - Across the European research area and beyond, efforts are being mobilized to align research and innovation processes and products with societal values and needs,...     

Newborns are sensitive to multiple cues for word segmentation in continuous speech

Before infants can learn words, they must identify those words in continuous speech. Yet, the speech signal lacks obvious boundary markers, which poses a potential problem for language acquisition (Swingley, Philos Trans R Soc Lond. Series B, Biol Sci 364 (1536), 3617–3632, 2009). By the middle of the first year, infants seem to have solved this problem (Bergelson & Swingley, Proc Natl Acad Sci 109 (9), 3253–3258, 2012; Jusczyk & Aslin, Cogn Psychol 29 , 1–23, 1995), but it is unknown if segmentation abilities are present from birth, or if they only emerge after sufficient language exposure and/or brain maturation. Here, in two independent experiments, we looked at two cues known to be crucial for the segmentation of human speech: the computation of statistical co‐occurrences between syllables and the use of the language's prosody. After a brief familiarization of about 3 min with continuous speech, using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy, neonates showed differential brain responses on a recognition test to words that violated either the statistical (Experiment 1) or prosodic (Experiment 2) boundaries of the familiarization, compared to words that conformed to those boundaries. Importantly, word recognition in Experiment 2 occurred even in the absence of prosodic information at test, meaning that newborns encoded the phonological content independently of its prosody. These data indicate that humans are born with operational language processing and memory capacities and can use at least two types of cues to segment otherwise continuous speech, a key first step in language acquisition.     

Emotional distress and tobacco demand during the menstrual cycle in female smokers

Fluctuations in ovarian hormones over the menstrual cycle contribute to cigarette reward, however less is known about menstrual cycle influences on emotional distress in female smokers. We examined between-group differences in emotional distress (negative affectivity, emotion dysregulation, distress intolerance) and hypothetical cigarette purchasing (i.e. tobacco demand) among female smokers at three different menstrual stages. Women (n = 32) were non-treatment seeking daily smokers not on hormonal contraceptive, and were currently in their follicular (estradiol-dominant; n = 10), early-mid luteal (progesterone-dominant; n = 15), and late-luteal phase (decreasing progesterone/estradiol; n = 7). Effect sizes are reported given the small sample. Women in the late-luteal phase, relative to the follicular and early-mid luteal phases, reported higher levels of negative affectivity (d = 0.69), emotion dysregulation (d = 1.03), and distress intolerance (d = ?0.86). Compared to the early-mid luteal and late-luteal phases, women in the follicular phase reported the highest hypothetical cigarette consumption when cigarettes were free (d = 0.71) and made the largest maximum expenditures on cigarettes (d = 0.74). Findings offer preliminary evidence that the late-luteal phase is characterized by emotional distress, and the follicular phase is associated with elevated tobacco demand, which if replicated could implicate ovarian hormones in emotion-focused smoking.     

Intercontinental telehealth coaching of therapists to improve verbalizations by children with autism

This study examined the effects of intercontinental telehealth coaching on the mastery of therapists’ skills and improvements in verbalizations by children with autism, testing whether telehealth can be a solution for underserved communities in developing countries such as Georgia‐Sakartvelo in Eastern Europe. Three therapists delivering and three children with autism receiving early‐intervention services from the nongovernmental organization Children of Georgia in Tbilisi participated. Experimenters provided coaching from Virginia, USA to therapists in Georgia‐Sakartvelo. Observers in Georgia‐Sakartvelo and in Virginia conducted the behavioral observations. We used inexpensive communications technology to provide the coaching and a multiple‐baseline design across participants to evaluate the effects of the intervention. Therapists demonstrated improvements in two classes of behaviors: correct command sequences and positive consequences. The children demonstrated improvements with echoics and mands. The study demonstrated that telehealth can be a good model for delivering early‐intervention services to children with autism in underserved and distant regions of the world.     

Family identity and severe mental illness: A thematic synthesis of qualitative studies

There is a growing amount of research showing that a shared social identity and the sense of belonging to a family have a potential effect on health. However, little is known about the effects of severe mental illness on family identity. The authors carried out this thematic synthesis based on a systematic review of literature on family narratives of severe mental illness and family identity. The main findings indicate that in many families (i) their identity—as a shared social identity—undergoes a transformation process by which the identity aspects of being a family are reinforced; (ii) family members often take on a caring role as their main family role; and finally, (iii) a cultural component shapes this transformation process. The authors describe implications for research and application in the mental health field. All in all, family identity is transformed by the experience of severe mental illness.     

A Test of the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model among Ethnic Minority Youth

Perfectionistic self-presentation (PSP) has been identified as a vulnerability factor in the development of depressive disorders during early adolescence. The Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model (PSDM) offers a theoretical framework suggesting PSP leads to depressive symptoms via interpersonal problems and social disconnection. Previous studies have supported the role of social disconnection as a mediator in the relation between PSP and suicidal ideation, but have not evaluated interpersonal problems in the model. Furthermore, the generalizability of the model has not been established for community and ethnic minority samples. Using cross-sectional data, the present study addresses these gaps by evaluating the PSDM and including social anxiety and loneliness as indicators of interpersonal problems and social disconnection, respectively, as predictors of youth depressive symptoms. The sample includes 289 (51.2% females) predominately low income and Latino and African American youth in fifth through seventh grade in three public schools. As predicted, social anxiety mediates the relationship between both PSP and loneliness and PSP and depressive symptoms. Moreover, mediational analyses indicate that social anxiety accounts for the relation between PSP and depression. Consistent with the PSDM model, the relationship between PSP and youth depressive symptoms is mediated sequentially through both social anxiety and loneliness, but primarily among the Latino sample.     

Quality of life after quitting smoking and initiating aerobic exercise

Quitting smoking and aerobic exercise each improve health. Although smokers may be concerned that quitting smoking will reduce their quality of life (QOL), recent research has shown that cessation is associated with QOL benefits. Elements of smoking cessation interventions, such as exercise, may contribute to changes in QOL. However, it is unknown whether initiating exercise in the context of smoking cessation is associated with greater or different effects on QOL than smoking cessation alone. The current study is a secondary analysis of data from a randomized trial (n = 61) of an exercise intervention for smoking cessation. We hypothesized that smoking abstinence and engagement in exercise would have positive, additive effects on QOL at end-of-treatment, 6- and, 12-month follow-ups. Sedentary adult smokers were randomized to the exercise intervention or a health education control (HEC) group. Additionally, all participants received smoking cessation counseling and nicotine patches. Data were analyzed using actual engagement in exercise, rather than group assignment as a proxy for exercise engagement, because some HEC participants also began exercising. Abstinence was positively associated with higher total and physical health QOL at follow-up. Exercise was not associated with total QOL and only marginally associated with physical health QOL, but was positively related to overall sense of well-being. Emphasizing that smoking cessation is associated with higher QOL may help motivate smokers to initiate quit attempts.