scholarly journals Stress matters: a double-blind, randomized controlled trial on the effects of a multispecies probiotic on neurocognition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Papalini S. ◽  
Michels F. ◽  
Kohn N. ◽  
Wegman J. ◽  
van Hemert S. ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Placebo Group ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Self Report ◽  
List Type ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Emotion Reactivity ◽  
Neurocognitive Measures

AbstractProbiotics are microorganisms that can provide health benefits when consumed. Recent animal studies have demonstrated that probiotics can reverse gut microbiome-related alterations in anxiety and depression-like symptoms, in hormonal responses to stress, and in cognition. However, in humans, the effects of probiotics on neurocognition remain poorly understood and a causal understanding of the gut-brain link in emotion and cognition is lacking. We aimed to fill this gap by studying the effects of a probiotics intervention versus placebo on neurocognition in healthy human volunteers.We set out to investigate the effects of a multispecies probiotic (Ecologic®Barrier) on specific neurocognitive measures of emotion reactivity, emotion regulation, and cognitive control using fMRI. Critically, we also tested whether the use of probiotics can buffer against the detrimental effects of acute stress on working memory. In a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, between-subjects intervention study, 58 healthy participants were tested twice, once before and once after 28 days of intervention with probiotics or placebo.Probiotics versus placebo did not affect emotion reactivity, emotion regulation, and cognitive control processes at brain or behavioral level, neither related self-report measures. However, relative to the placebo group, the probiotics group did show a significant stress-related increase in working memory performance after versus before supplementation (digit span backward, p=0.039, ηp2=.07). Interestingly, this change was associated with intervention-related neural changes in frontal cortex during cognitive control in the probiotics group, but not in the placebo group. Overall, our results show that neurocognitive effects of supplementation with a multispecies probiotic in healthy women become visible under challenging (stress) situations. Probiotics buffered against the detrimental effects of stress in terms of cognition, especially in those individuals with probiotics-induced changes in frontal brain regions during cognitive control.HighlightsWe ran a randomized placebo-controlled fMRI study with a multispecies probioticProbiotics did not affect neurocognitive measures of emotion and cognitive controlProbiotics did affect stress-related working memory and neural correlatesProbiotics in healthy individuals can support cognition under stress

scholarly journals The role of pubertal status and sleep satisfaction in emotion reactivity and regulation in children and adolescents

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari A Lustig ◽  
Kimberly A Cote ◽  
Teena Willoughby
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Sleep Duration ◽  
Pubertal Development ◽  
Saliva Sample ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Emotion Reactivity ◽  
Pubertal Status ◽  
Sleep Satisfaction

Abstract Study Objectives This study investigated the role of pubertal status and hormones in the association between sleep satisfaction and self-reported emotion functioning in 256 children and adolescents aged 8–15. Methods Self-report data was provided on sleep duration, sleep satisfaction, and emotion reactivity and regulation, and a saliva sample was obtained for hormone measures. A subset of children also wore an Actigraph watch to measure sleep for a week. Results Latent-class analysis revealed three classes of sleepers: Satisfied, Moderately Satisfied, and Dissatisfied. Dissatisfied sleepers reported more difficulties with emotion regulation and greater emotion reactivity than Satisfied sleepers. High difficulties with emotion regulation was associated with shorter objective sleep duration, and high emotion reactivity was associated with lower sleep efficiency. For girls, Dissatisfied sleepers reported being further through pubertal development than Satisfied sleepers. There were also significant correlations between pubertal development and shorter sleep duration and longer sleep latency in girls, and shorter and more irregular sleep in boys. Finally, pubertal development in girls was a significant moderator in the relationship between sleep satisfaction and difficulties with emotion regulation in Dissatisfied sleepers, such that being further through puberty and having unsatisfactory sleep resulted in the highest emotion regulation difficulties. Conclusions This study expands on previous literature by considering the role of sleep satisfaction and the interaction with puberty development on emotion function. Specifically, a role for pubertal development was identified in the association between unsatisfactory sleep and emotion regulation in girls.

scholarly journals Dopamine D2 receptor stimulation modulates the balance between ignoring and updating according to baseline working memory ability

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 1254-1263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean James Fallon ◽  
Annika Kienast ◽  
Kinan Muhammed ◽  
Yuen-siang Ang ◽  
Sanjay G Manohar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Drug Administration ◽  
Dopamine D2 Receptor ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Dopamine Synthesis ◽  
Receptor Stimulation ◽  
Double Blind

Background: Working memory (WM) deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders have often been attributed to altered dopaminergic signalling. Specifically, D2 receptor stimulation is thought to affect the ease with which items can be gated into and out of WM. In addition, this effect has been hypothesised to vary according to baseline WM ability, a putative index of dopamine synthesis levels. Moreover, whether D2 stimulation affects WM vicariously through modulating relatively WM-free cognitive control processes has not been explored. Aims: We examined the effect of administering a dopamine agonist on the ability to ignore or update information in WM. Method: A single dose of cabergoline (1 mg) was administered to healthy older adult humans in a within-subject, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. In addition, we obtained measures of baseline WM ability and relatively WM-free cognitive control (overcoming response conflict). Results: Consistent with predictions, baseline WM ability significantly modulated the effect that drug administration had on the proficiency of ignoring and updating. High-WM individuals were relatively better at ignoring compared to updating after drug administration. Whereas the opposite occurred in low-WM individuals. Although the ability to overcome response conflict was not affected by cabergoline, a negative relationship between the effect the drug had on response conflict performance and ignoring was observed. Thus, both response conflict and ignoring are coupled to dopaminergic stimulation levels. Conclusions: Cumulatively, these results provide evidence that dopamine affects subcomponents of cognitive control in a diverse, antagonistic fashion and that the direction of these effects is dependent upon baseline WM.

scholarly journals Comparable Sensitivity of Postmenopausal and Young Women to the Effects of Intranasal Insulin on Food Intake and Working Memory

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 777-777
Author(s):  
Rosemarie Krug ◽  
Christian Benedict ◽  
Jan Born ◽  
Manfred Hallschmid
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Food Intake ◽  
Postmenopausal Women ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Energy Homeostasis ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Estrogen Signaling ◽  
Intranasal Insulin ◽  
Double Blind

ABSTRACT Context We have previously shown that enhancing brain insulin signaling by intranasal administration of a single dose of the hormone acutely reduces food intake in young men but not women, whereas its improving effects on spatial and working memory are restricted to young women. Objective Against the background of animal studies suggesting that low estrogen concentrations are a prerequisite for the anorexigenic impact of central nervous insulin, we extended our foregoing study by assessing intranasal insulin effects in postmenopausal women with comparatively low estrogen concentrations, expecting them to be more sensitive than young women to the anorexigenic effects of the hormone. Design, Setting, Participants, and Intervention In a within-subject, double-blind comparison performed at the University of Lübeck, 14 healthy postmenopausal women (body mass index, 23.71 ± 0.6 kg/m2; age, 57.61 ± 1.14 yr) were intranasally administered 160 IU regular human insulin or vehicle. Main Outcome Measures Subjects performed a working memory task (digit span) and a hippocampus-dependent visuospatial memory task. Subsequently, free-choice food intake from an ad libitum breakfast buffet was measured. Results Contrary to expectations, results in postmenopausal women mirrored those found in young women (22.44 ± 0.63 yr), i.e. insulin administration did not affect food intake (P > 0.46), but did enhance performance in the prefrontal cortex-dependent working memory task (P < 0.05). Conclusions Low estrogen levels as present in postmenopausal women do not modulate the effects of intranasal insulin in females, suggesting that in humans as opposed to rats, estrogen signaling does not critically alter central nervous system sensitivity to the effects of insulin on energy homeostasis and cognition.

Comparable Sensitivity of Postmenopausal and Young Women to the Effects of Intranasal Insulin on Food Intake and Working Memory

2010 ◽  
Vol 95 (12) ◽  
pp. E468-E472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemarie Krug ◽  
Christian Benedict ◽  
Jan Born ◽  
Manfred Hallschmid
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Food Intake ◽  
Postmenopausal Women ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Energy Homeostasis ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Estrogen Signaling ◽  
Intranasal Insulin ◽  
Double Blind

Context: We have previously shown that enhancing brain insulin signaling by intranasal administration of a single dose of the hormone acutely reduces food intake in young men but not women, whereas its improving effects on spatial and working memory are restricted to young women. Objective: Against the background of animal studies suggesting that low estrogen concentrations are a prerequisite for the anorexigenic impact of central nervous insulin, we extended our foregoing study by assessing intranasal insulin effects in postmenopausal women with comparatively low estrogen concentrations, expecting them to be more sensitive than young women to the anorexigenic effects of the hormone. Design, Setting, Participants, and Intervention: In a within-subject, double-blind comparison performed at the University of Lübeck, 14 healthy postmenopausal women (body mass index, 23.71 ± 0.6 kg/m2; age, 57.61 ± 1.14 yr) were intranasally administered 160 IU regular human insulin or vehicle. Main Outcome Measures: Subjects performed a working memory task (digit span) and a hippocampus-dependent visuospatial memory task. Subsequently, free-choice food intake from an ad libitum breakfast buffet was measured. Results: Contrary to expectations, results in postmenopausal women mirrored those found in young women (22.44 ± 0.63 yr), i.e. insulin administration did not affect food intake (P > 0.46), but did enhance performance in the prefrontal cortex-dependent working memory task (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Low estrogen levels as present in postmenopausal women do not modulate the effects of intranasal insulin in females, suggesting that in humans as opposed to rats, estrogen signaling does not critically alter central nervous system sensitivity to the effects of insulin on energy homeostasis and cognition.

scholarly journals Motivated Emotion Regulation: Impacts on Effort, Affect, and Strategy Selection

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyneé A. Alves ◽  
Sloan E. I. Ferron ◽  
Kimberly Sarah Chiew
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Intrinsic Motivation ◽  
Extrinsic Motivation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Affective Science ◽  
Emotional Outcomes ◽  
Regulation Strategies

Affective science literature has begun to acknowledge emotion regulation as a motivated process, and recognize that motivations to regulate our emotions might have important implications for emotional outcomes. Despite this acknowledgement, as well as evidence that emotion regulation depends on fundamental cognitive control processes that can be modulated by motivation, there is little research that experimentally manipulates motivation in the context of emotion regulation. To address this, we investigated emotion regulation task performance under baseline, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation conditions. Across two experiments, 149 participants completed an emotion regulation task under both baseline and motivation (extrinsic or intrinsic) conditions. During this task, participants were shown either negative or neutral images and asked to either regulate their emotions or attend and respond naturally. Self-report measures of negative affect, difficulty/effort, and regulation strategy choice were obtained after each trial. Under both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, participants reported decreased negative affect and task difficulty relative to baseline. The presence of a motivator also significantly increased the reported use of regulation strategies such as reappraisal, identified as a high-effort cognitive strategy. Taken together, these results suggest that experimental manipulations of motivation may enhance emotion regulation performance (in terms of decreased negative affect) and effort (in terms of increased use of regulation strategies), consistent with previously observed effects of motivation on performance and effort in classic cognitive control tasks. These results further demonstrate that motivation has important implications for emotion regulation outcomes and call for further research into differential effects of distinct motivators.

scholarly journals Emotion Reactivity and Regulation in Adolescent Girls Following an Interpersonal Rejection

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Bryant Miller ◽  
Mitchell J. Prinstein ◽  
Emily Munier ◽  
Laura S. Machlin ◽  
Margaret A. Sheridan
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Social Evaluation ◽  
Emotion Reactivity ◽  
Evaluation Task ◽  
Interpersonal Rejection ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Negative Stimuli

Failures in emotion regulation, especially as a result of interpersonal stress, are implicated as transdiagnostic risk factors for psychopathology. This study examines the effects of an experimentally timed targeted interpersonal rejection on emotion reactivity and regulation in typically developing adolescent girls. Girls ( n = 33, ages 9–16 years, M = 12.47, SD = 2.20) underwent fMRI involving a widely used emotion regulation task. The emotion task involves looking at negative stimuli and using cognitive reappraisal strategies to decrease reactions to negative stimuli. Participants also engaged in a social evaluation task, which leads participants to believe a preselected peer was watching and evaluating the participant. We subsequently told participants they were rejected by this peer and examined emotion reactivity and regulation before and after this rejection. Adolescent girls evidence greater reactivity via higher self-reported emotional intensity and greater amygdala activation to negative stimuli immediately after (compared with before) the rejection. Self-reported emotional intensity differences before and after rejection were not observed during regulation trials. However, on regulation trials, girls exhibited increased prefrontal activation in areas supporting emotion regulation after compared with before the rejection. This study provides evidence that a targeted rejection increases self-report and neural markers of emotion reactivity and that girls increase prefrontal activation to regulate emotions after a targeted rejection.

scholarly journals Child Abuse Subtypes and Automatic Emotion Regulation Processes in Children and Adolescents

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Gyuri Kim ◽  
David Weissman ◽  
Margaret Sheridan ◽  
Katie A McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Physical Abuse ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Conflict Adaptation ◽  
Emotional Conflict ◽  
Internalizing Psychopathology ◽  
Abuse Severity ◽  
Automatic Emotion Regulation

Child abuse is associated with elevated risk for psychopathology. The current study examined the role of automatic emotion regulation as a potential mechanism linking child abuse with internalizing psychopathology. A sample of 237 youth aged 8–16 years and their caregivers participated. Child abuse severity was assessed by self-report questionnaires, and automatic emotion regulation was assessed using an emotional Stroop task designed to measure adaptation to emotional conflict. A similar task without emotional stimuli was also administered to evaluate whether abuse was uniquely associated with emotion regulation, but not cognitive control applied in a non-emotional context. Internalizing psychopathology was assessed concurrently and at a two-year longitudinal follow-up. Child abuse severity was associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation but was unrelated to cognitive control. Specifically, the severity of emotional and physical abuse, but not sexual abuse, were associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation. Emotional conflict adaptation was not associated with internalizing psychopathology prospectively. These findings suggest that childhood emotional and physical abuse, in particular, may influence automatic forms of emotion regulation. Future work exploring the socioemotional consequences of altered automatic emotion regulation among youth exposed to child abuse is clearly needed.

scholarly journals Self-Reported Sleep and Executive Function in Early Primary School Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulu Chen ◽  
Yiji Wang ◽  
Si Wang ◽  
Ming Zhang ◽  
Nan Wu
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Card Sorting

The study investigated the associations between children’s self-reported habitual sleep disturbance and multidimensional executive function (EF). Two hundred and four 7–9-year-old typically developing children completed the Sleep Self-Report and finished the Red-Blue Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Backward Digit Span Test, indexing different EF components including inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Results revealed that all the three EF components were significantly correlated with sleep. However, cognitive flexibility was no longer significantly related to sleep when the other EF components – inhibitory control and working memory – were controlled for. Meanwhile, inhibitory control, as well as working memory, was still significantly related to sleep after controlling for the other EF components. Results suggest that children’s self-reported sleep might be associated directly with inhibitory control and working memory, but indirectly with cognitive flexibility.

Attenuation of the Preoperative Stress Response with Midazolam

2000 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeev N. Kain ◽  
Ferne Sevarino ◽  
Sharon Pincus ◽  
Gerianne M. Alexander ◽  
Shu Ming Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Placebo Group ◽  
Treatment Group ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Outpatient Surgery ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Anesthetic Technique ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Clinical Recovery ◽  
Sf 36

Background Previously, effects of preoperative sedatives were assessed mainly with respect to preoperative outcomes such as anxiety and compliance. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of preoperative sedatives on postoperative psychological and clinical recovery. Methods Patients undergoing general anesthesia and outpatient surgery were enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Subjects (n = 55) were randomly assigned to receive either 5 mg intramuscular midazolam (n = 26) or a placebo injection (n = 29) at least 30 min before surgery. The anesthetic technique was controlled. Postoperative anxiety, pain, analgesic consumption, clinical recovery parameters, and global health (SF-36) were evaluated up to 1 month after surgery. Results Surgery length did not differ significantly between the treatment and placebo groups (118 +/- 45 min vs 129 +/- 53 min; P = NS). Throughout the first postoperative week, subjects in the treatment group reported a greater reduction in postoperative pain compared with subjects in the placebo group (F1,50= 3.5; P = 0.035). Moreover, at 1 week, ibuprofen use was reported by less subjects in the treatment group than in the placebo group (0% vs 17.2%; P = 0.026). Subjects in the treatment group also reported a greater reduction in postoperative anxiety throughout the follow-up period (F1,53 = 9.2; P = 0.04). However, global health indexes (SF-36) did not detect any significant differences between the two experimental groups (multivariate F1,45 = 0.44; P = 0.51). Conclusion Subjects treated with midazolam preoperatively self-report improved postoperative psychological and pain recovery. However, the clinical significance of these findings is unclear at the present time.

Child abuse and automatic emotion regulation in children and adolescents

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Stephanie Gyuri Kim ◽  
David G. Weissman ◽  
Margaret A. Sheridan ◽  
Katie A. McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Physical Abuse ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Conflict Adaptation ◽  
Emotional Conflict ◽  
Internalizing Psychopathology ◽  
Abuse Severity ◽  
Automatic Emotion Regulation

Abstract Child abuse is associated with elevated risk for psychopathology. The current study examined the role of automatic emotion regulation as a potential mechanism linking child abuse with internalizing psychopathology. A sample of 237 youth aged 8–16 years and their caregivers participated. Child abuse severity was assessed by self-report questionnaires, and automatic emotion regulation was assessed using an emotional Stroop task designed to measure adaptation to emotional conflict. A similar task without emotional stimuli was also administered to evaluate whether abuse was uniquely associated with emotion regulation, but not cognitive control applied in a nonemotional context. Internalizing psychopathology was assessed concurrently and at a 2-year longitudinal follow-up. Child abuse severity was associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation but was unrelated to cognitive control. Specifically, the severity of emotional and physical abuse, but not sexual abuse, were associated with lower emotional conflict adaptation. Emotional conflict adaptation was not associated with internalizing psychopathology prospectively. These findings suggest that childhood emotional and physical abuse, in particular, may influence automatic forms of emotion regulation. Future work exploring the socioemotional consequences of altered automatic emotion regulation among youth exposed to child abuse is clearly needed.

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