Search results for "311"
showing 10 items of 433 documents
Physical activity and anxiety: A perspective from the World Health Survey
2017
BackgroundDespite the known benefits of physical activity (PA) among people with anxiety, little is known about PA levels in people with anxiety at the population level. This study explored the global prevalence of anxiety and its association with PA.MethodsCross-sectional, community-based data from the World Health Survey was analyzed. Prevalence of anxiety was estimated for 237,964 individuals (47 countries). PA was categorized as low, moderate, and high based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (short form). The association between PA and anxiety was assessed by multivariable logistic regression.ResultsThe overall global prevalence of anxiety was 11.4% (47 countries). Ac…
Chemotherapy disrupts learning, neurogenesis and theta activity in the adult brain
2012
Chemotherapy, especially if prolonged, disrupts attention, working memory and speed of processing in humans. Most cancer drugs that cross the blood–brain barrier also decrease adult neurogenesis. Because new neurons are generated in the hippocampus, this decrease may contribute to the deficits in working memory and related thought processes. The neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie these deficits are generally unknown. A possible mediator is hippocampal oscillatory activity within the theta range (3–12 Hz). Theta activity predicts and promotes efficient learning in healthy animals and humans. Here, we hypothesized that chemotherapy disrupts learning via decreases in hippocampal adult…
The Molecular Genetic Architecture of Self-Employment
2013
Economic variables such as income, education, and occupation are known to affect mortality and morbidity, such as cardiovascular disease, and have also been shown to be partly heritable. However, very little is known about which genes influence economic variables, although these genes may have both a direct and an indirect effect on health. We report results from the first large-scale collaboration that studies the molecular genetic architecture of an economic variable-entrepreneurship-that was operationalized using self-employment, a widely-available proxy. Our results suggest that common SNPs when considered jointly explain about half of the narrow-sense heritability of self-employment es…
Phase-locked hippocampal theta-band responses are related to discriminative eyeblink conditioned responding
2013
Hippocampal electrophysiological oscillatory activity is undoubtedly related to learning and memory. The relative power of spontaneously occurring hippocampal theta (∼4-8 Hz) oscillations predicts how fast and how well an animal will learn: more theta predicts faster acquisition of the conditioned response in eyeblink conditioning in both rats and rabbits. Here, our aim was to study how hippocampal theta-band responses to conditioned stimuli elicited during very-long delay discrimination eyeblink conditioning relate to the accompanying conditioned behavior. We trained adult male New Zealand White rabbits using 1500-ms auditory stimuli as conditioned stimuli and a 100-ms airpuff as an uncond…
Chronic fluoxetine treatment alters the structure, connectivity and plasticity of cortical interneurons
2014
Novel hypotheses suggest that antidepressants, such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine, induce neuronal structural plasticity, resembling that of the juvenile brain, although the underlying mechanisms of this reopening of the critical periods still remain unclear. However, recent studies suggest that inhibitory networks play an important role in this structural plasticity induced by fluoxetine. For this reason we have analysed the effects of a chronic fluoxetine treatment in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of transgenic mice displaying eGFP labelled interneurons. We have found an increase in the expression of molecules related to critical period pla…
Cognitive control in auditory working memory is enhanced in musicians
2010
Musical competence may confer cognitive advantages that extend beyond processing of familiar musical sounds. Behavioural evidence indicates a general enhancement of both working memory and attention in musicians. It is possible that musicians, due to their training, are better able to maintain focus on task-relevant stimuli, a skill which is crucial to working memory. We measured the blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) activation signal in musicians and non-musicians during working memory of musical sounds to determine the relation among performance, musical competence and generally enhanced cognition. All participants easily distinguished the stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that mus…
Miglustat in patients with Niemann-Pick disease Type C (NP-C): A multicenter observational retrospective cohort study
2009
Miglustat has been shown to stabilize disease progression in children, juveniles and adults with Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C), a rare genetic disorder characterized by progressive neurological deterioration. We report findings from a retrospective observational cohort study assessing the effects of miglustat on neurological disease progression in patients treated in the clinical practice setting. Data from all NP-C patients prescribed miglustat at 25 expert centers were evaluated using a disease disability scale. The scale analyzed four key parameters of neurological disease progression in NP-C (ambulation, manipulation, language, swallowing). Mean individual parameter scores and a co…
Effects of aerobic exercise on home-based sleep among overweight and obese men with chronic insomnia symptoms: a randomized controlled trial
2016
Objective: To determine the effect of a six-month aerobic exercise program on home-based sleep quality among overweight and obese men with chronic insomnia symptoms. Methods: Participants were 45 Finnish men (93% had body mass index >= 25) aged 30-65 years, with chronic months) insomnia symptoms as classified by the DSM-IV criteria. Participants were randomized into an exercise (n = 24) or control group (n = 21). The exercise group received six-month aerobic exercise intervention with one to five sessions per week of 30-60 minutes duration. The control group was instructed to maintain habitual lifestyle behaviors during the study period. Seven-night home sleep was measured with a piezoelect…
Toxicological Profile of Ultrapure 2,2´,3,4,4´,5,5´-Heptachlorbiphenyl (PCB 180) in Adult Rats
2014
PCB 180 is a persistent non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyl (NDL-PCB) abundantly present in food and the environment. Risk characterization of NDL-PCBs is confounded by the presence of highly potent dioxin-like impurities. We used ultrapure PCB 180 to characterize its toxicity profile in a 28-day repeat dose toxicity study in young adult rats extended to cover endocrine and behavioral effects. Using a loading dose/maintenance dose regimen, groups of 5 males and 5 females were given total doses of 0, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300, 1000 or 1700 mg PCB 180/kg body weight by gavage. Dose-responses were analyzed using benchmark dose modeling based on dose and adipose tissue PCB concentrations. Body w…
Being moved by listening to unfamiliar sad music induces reward‐related hormonal changes in empathic listeners
2021
Many people enjoy sad music, and the appeal for tragedy is widespread among the consumers of film and literature. The underlying mechanisms of such aesthetic experiences are not well understood. We tested whether pleasure induced by sad, unfamiliar instrumental music is explained with a homeostatic or a reward theory, each of which is associated with opposite patterns of changes in the key hormones. Sixty-two women listened to sad music (or nothing) while serum was collected for subsequent measurement of prolactin (PRL) and oxytocin (OT) and stress marker (cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone) concentrations. Two groups of participants were recruited on the basis of low and high trait e…