Psychological effects of deep-breathing: the impact of expectancy-priming

Outcome expectancy could mediate the psychological effects of exercise-related interventions, which implies that part of the psychological benefits of physical activity could be ascribed to placebo effects. In this framed field-experiment, 89 healthy participants were studied in three groups, (1) breathing-primed (deep-breathing with an exercise-related expectancy), (2) breathing-unprimed (deep-breathing with no exercise-related expectancy), and (3) control (no intervention). Deep-breathing lasted for three minutes. Before and after deep-breathing, or sitting quietly in the control group, participants completed two questionnaires assessing their positive- and negative affect (NA) and subjective well-being (WB). In contrast to the control group, both the breathing-primed and breathing-unprimed groups showed decreased NA and increased subjective WB. The breathing-primed group reported larger changes in WB than the breathing-unprimed group, in addition to also exhibiting significant increases in positive affect. These findings support the hypothesis of the work that expectations mediate the psychological effects of deep-breathing beyond the intervention’s specific effects. Therefore, future research should control for expectations related to an intervention when gauging psychological changes.     

A pilot study on the motivational effects of an internet-delivered physical activity behaviour change programme in Nova Scotian cancer survivors

Objective: To examine the effects of an internet-delivered, distance-based physical activity (PA) behaviour change programme on motivation to perform PA in cancer survivors.

Design: Breast, prostate and colorectal cancer survivors (N = 95) were randomized to either an online Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)-based PA behaviour change programme (UCAN) or usual care.

Main Outcome Measures: Motivational variables from the TPB including intention, planning, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and underlying beliefs.

Results: UCAN had significant negative effects on self-efficacy (?.7; 95% CI = ?1.2 to ?.1; d = ?.53, p = .019), affective attitude (?.4; 95% CI = ?.8 to ?.0; d = ?.45, p = .044), instrumental attitude (?.5; 95% CI = ?.9 to ?.1; d = ?.43, p = .026) and confidence to perform PA in bad weather (?.8; 95% CI = ?1.6 to ?.1; d = ?.49, p = .030), despite health issues (?.7; 95% CI = ?1.3 to ?.1; d = ?.48, p = .031), despite pain/soreness (?.7; 95% CI = ?1.4 to ?.1; d = ?.52, p = .020), despite family responsibilities (?1.0; 95% CI = ?1.7 to ?.3; d = ?.62, p = .005) and when PA is boring (?.8; 95% CI = ?1.4 to ?.1; d = ?.54, p = .016).

Conclusion: UCAN had negative effects on motivational variables in cancer survivors. These findings may be explained by methodological issues related to measuring motivation and/or the absence of post-intentional constructs.     

From academic communities to managed organisations: The implications for academic careers in UK and German universities

This paper examines the implications for academic careers of the apparent global trend towards marketisation and managerialism in higher education with reference to the UK and Germany. It discusses how university employers might exercise greater control over their employees, privileging research and international publication, and fragmenting the traditional unity of the academic role. The effect is to challenge the values of academic communities, subject individuals to greater uncertainty, competition and insecurity, and influence the shape and direction of academic careers. The paper notes how today’s academic careers could be understood in terms of Kanter’s three forms of career as well as the boundaryless and protean career. However, it argues that these approaches do not address the key issue in both the UK and German cases: the changed locus and exercise of power within the employment relationship. It concludes that, to understand how careers are changing, this power relationship and the context of career in general have to be taken into account.     

Cognitive behavioural treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome in a rehabilitation setting: effectiveness and predictors of outcome

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was combined with graded exercise therapy (GET) for patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in an uncontrolled implementation study of an inpatient multidisciplinary group therapy. During the intake procedure, 160 CFS patients completed a questionnaire on fatigue related measurements, physical impairment, depression, somatic and psychological attributions, somatic focus, and sense of control over symptoms. Pre-treatment physical activity level was measured with an actometer. At baseline, post-treatment and 6-month follow-up individual strength, subjective fatigue and physical impairment, were reassessed. Large effect sizes were found on subjective fatigue (1.2 post-treatment; 1.2 follow-up) and physical impairment (−.9 post-treatment; −.9 follow-up), Clinically significant improvement was found in 33.8% of the participants at post-treatment and 30.6% at follow-up. Individual strength at post-treatment was predicted by level of physical activity before treatment, and by sense of control over symptoms and physical activity at follow-up. Clinically significant improvement in subjective fatigue was predicted by not receiving a disablement insurance benefit, shorter duration of fatigue, higher sense of control over symptoms and, at follow-up by more pre-treatment physical activity. In conclusion, the intervention was effective for CFS patients. Cognitive behavioural factors that perpetuate fatigue symptoms are also predictors of treatment outcome.     

Bipedal Hopping Reveals Evidence of Advanced Neuromuscular Aging Among People With Mild Multiple Sclerosis

Measures of walking such as the timed 25-ft walk test (T25FWT) may not be able to detect subtle impairment in lower limb function among people with multiple sclerosis (MS). We examined bipedal hopping to determine to what extent people with mild (Expanded Disease Severity Scale ≤ 3.5) MS (n = 13) would differ compared to age-, gender-, and education-matched controls (n = 9) and elderly participants (n = 13; ≥ 70 years old). We estimated lower limb power (e.g., hop length, velocity), consistency (e.g., variability of hop length, time), and symmetry (ratio of left to right foot). Participants completed the T25FWT and, after a rest, they then hopped using both feet 4 times along the walkway. We found that although all groups scored below the 6 -s cutoff for T25FWT, the elderly group had significantly shorter hop lengths, more variability, and more asymmetry than the controls. The results of the MS group were not significantly different from the elderly or controls in most measures and most of their values fell between the control and elderly groups. Hop length, but not measures of walking predicted Expanded Disease Severity Scale score (R² = .38, p = .02). Bipedal hopping is a potentially useful measure of lower limb neuromuscular performance.     

166例冠心病患者活动平板试验中室性心律失常的分析

探讨冠心病患者冠状动脉狭窄程度与室性心律失常的关系,用Mar-quette Case16型活动平板系统测试,采用改良的Bruce方案。结果显示,偶发室早在单支狭窄和多支狭窄中无明显差异,恶性室性心律失常发生率在多支狭窄中较单支狭窄明显增高。冠心病患者出现的恶性室性心律失常提示病变严重或预后较差。     

Reasons for Exercise and Body Esteem: Men's Responses to Self-Objectification

In this study, we applied the construct of self-objectification to men, specifically to examine the role of reasons for exercise in men's responses to objectification. A questionnaire that assessed self-objectification, reasons for exercise, body esteem, and self-esteem was voluntarily completed by 153 Australian participants between the ages of 18 and 35 years (82 men and a comparison group of 71 women). Self-objectification and appearance-related reasons for exercise were significantly negatively related to body esteem for both men and women. Self-objectification was also positively related to appearance-related reasons for exercise. The latter was found to mediate the relationship between self-objectification and body esteem for both men and women. Men were just as likely as women to exercise for appearance-related reasons. Together, the results suggest that objectification may be sensibly applied to men and that exercising for appearance-related reasons appears to exacerbate the negative impact that self-objectification has on both men's and women's esteem.     

Electroencephalographic evidence for improved visual working memory performance during standing and exercise

While a substantial body of research has investigated the effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive performance, few have monitored exercise‐concurrent cognitive processes via electroencephalography and fewer still using an event‐related potential (ERP) approach. As such, little is known regarding how the temporal dynamics of cognitive processing are influenced during aerobic activity. Here, we aimed to elucidate the influence of aerobic exercise on the temporal dynamics of concurrent visual working memory (VWM) performance. Participants performed a VWM retro‐cue task at rest and during aerobic exercise across two postural modalities: seated (using a stationary bicycle) and standing upright (using a treadmill). Three consecutive phases of the VWM processing pipeline were assessed by means of lateralized ERPs: access of VWM representations, response selection, and response execution. Aerobic exercise and upright posture were found to have significant effects on VWM performance, facilitating processing speed in the retro‐cue task. This facilitation arose primarily at an intermediary stage between the phases of accessing VWM representations and response selection. Our findings hold implications not only for understanding the influence of aerobic activity on VWM, but also for contemporary models of VWM that are built exclusively on data recorded during stationary, seated conditions.     

Examining the Effects of Exercise on Pattern Separation and the Moderating Effects of Mood Symptoms

Aerobic exercise has broad cognitive benefits. One target of interest is enhanced memory. The present study explored pattern separation as a specific memory process that could be sensitive to acute and regular exercise and clinically significant for disorders (e.g., depression) characterized by cognitive-affective deficits and hippocampal impairment. In a within-subjects design, participants (N = 69) attended two visits during which they repeated a behavioral pattern separation task at rest and after an activity (cycling, stretching). Regular exercise habits, demographics, mood and anxiety symptoms, and recognition memory capacity were also measured. More regular exercise predicted better resting pattern separation, t(62) = 2.13, b = 1.74, p = .037. Age moderated this effect, t(61) = 2.35, b = .25, p = .02; exercise most strongly predicted performance among middle-age participants. There was no main effect of activity condition on post-activity performance, t(61) = .67, p = .51. However, with significant heterogeneity in reported mood symptoms and regular exercise habits, there was a three-way interaction between condition, regular exercise, and depression, t(55) = 2.08, b = .22, p = .04. Relative to stretching, cycling appears to have enhanced the benefit of regular exercise for pattern separation performance; however, this was evident among participants with mild to no symptoms of depression, but absent among participants with moderate to severe symptoms. Results have implications for how exercise might protect against declines in pattern separation. Future research should explore exercise’s potential as a prevention tool or early intervention for pattern separation and related clinical outcomes.     

Combination Effects of Forced Mild Exercise and GABAB Receptor Agonist on Spatial Learning,Memory, and Motor Activity in Striatum Lesion Rats

Basal ganglia (BG) lesions cause impairments of different mammalian’s movement and cognition behaviors. Motor circuit impairment has a dominant role in the movement disorders. An inhibitory factor in BG is GABA neurotransmitter, which is released from striatum. Lesions in GABAergic neurons could trigger movement and cognition disorders. Previous evidence showed that GABA_B receptor agonist (Baclofen) administration in human improves movement disorders and exercise can improve neurodegenerative and cognitive decline; however, the effects of both Baclofen and mild forced treadmill exercise on movement disorders are not well known. The main objective of this study is to investigate the combined effects of mild forced treadmill exercise and microinjection of Baclofen in the internal Globus Pallidus on striatum lesion-induced impairments of spatial learning and motor activity. We used Morris water maze and open filed tests for studying spatial learning, and motor activity, respectively. Results showed that mild exercise and Baclofen microinjection could not lonely affect the spatial learning, and motor activity impairments while the combination of them could alleviate spatial learning, and motor activity impairments in striatum-lesion animals. Our results suggest that striatum lesion-induced memory and motor activity impairments can improve with combination interaction of GABA_B receptor agonist and exercise training.