Search results for "Emotions."
showing 10 items of 722 documents
Physical activity and environmental enrichment: Behavioural effects of exposure to different housing conditions in mice.
2020
Enriched environments and exercise provide complex environmental stimulation that can induce emotional and cognitive changes; however, few studies have evaluated the effects of these two components on other behaviours, such as novelty seeking or pain sensitivity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of voluntary physical activity provided through different housing conditions on anxiety, locomotor activity, pain sensitivity, and exploration. Male mice at postnatal day (PND) 21 and were randomly assigned to one of four different conditions on PND 28: Marlau cages (MC), a standardized cage designed to provide a complex environment; physical exercise in large groups (PE…
Effects of social stress and clomipramine on emotional memory in mice.
2017
We have previously observed impairing effects of social defeat stress (CSDS) on inhibitory avoidance (IA) in mice. Given the similarity between changes produced by social stress in animals and symptoms of certain human psychopathologies such as depression and anxiety, the effects of the antidepressant clomipramine on IA impairment produced by CSDS were evaluated in the present study. Male CD1 mice were randomly assigned to the groups: non-stressed+saline, non-stressed+clomipramine, stressed+saline and stressed+clomipramine. Stressed animals were subjected to daily agonistic encounters (10 min) in the home cage of the aggressor over a 20-day period. Just before each encounter, non-stressed a…
Indomethacin counteracts the effects of chronic social defeat stress on emotional but not recognition memory in mice
2017
We have previously observed the impairing effects of chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) on emotional memory in mice. Given the relation between stress and inflammatory processes, we sought to study the effectiveness of the anti-inflammatory indomethacin in reversing the detrimental effects of CSDS on emotional memory in mice. The effects of CSDS and indomethacin on recognition memory were also evaluated. Male CD1 mice were randomly divided into four groups: non-stressed + saline (NS+SAL); non-stressed + indomethacin (NS+IND); stressed + saline (S+SAL); and stressed + indomethacin (S+IND). Stressed animals were exposed to a daily 10 min agonistic confrontation (CSDS) for 20 days. All subjec…
Mismatch or allostatic load? Timing of life adversity differentially shapes gray matter volume and anxious temperament
2015
Traditionally, adversity was defined as the accumulation of environmental events (allostatic load). Recently however, a mismatch between the early and the later (adult) environment (mismatch) has been hypothesized to be critical for disease development, a hypothesis that has not yet been tested explicitly in humans. We explored the impact of timing of life adversity (childhood and past year) on anxiety and depression levels (N = 833) and brain morphology (N = 129). Both remote (childhood) and proximal (recent) adversities were differentially mirrored in morphometric changes in areas critically involved in emotional processing (i.e. amygdala/hippocampus, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, res…
Microbiome restoration diet improves digestion, cognition and physical and emotional wellbeing
2017
Manipulating gut bacteria in the microbiome, through the use of probiotics and prebiotics, has been found to have an influence on both physical and emotional wellbeing. This study uses a dietary manipulation 'The Gut Makeover' designed to elicit positive changes to the gut bacteria within the microbiome. 21 healthy participants undertook 'The Gut Makeover' for a four week period. Weight and various aspects of health were assessed pre and post intervention using the Functional Medicine Medical Symptoms Questionnaire (MSQ). Paired sample t-tests revealed a significant reduction in self-reported weight at the end of the intervention. Adverse medical symptoms related to digestion, cognition and…
A new “sudden fright paradigm” to explore the role of (epi)genetic modulations of the DAT gene in fear-induced avoidance behavior
2020
Alterations in dopamine (DA) reuptake are involved in several psychiatric disorders whose symptoms can be investigated in knock out rats for the DA transporter (DAT-KO). Recent studies evidenced the role of epigenetic DAT modulation in depressive-like behavior. Accordingly, we used heterozygous (HET) rats born from both HET parents (termed MIX-HET), compared to HET rats born from WT-mother and KO-father (MAT-HET), implementing the role of maternal care on DAT modulation. We developed a "sudden fright" paradigm (based on dark-light test) to study reaction to fearful inputs in the DAT-KO, MAT-HET, MIX-HET, and WT groups. Rats could freely explore the whole 3-chambers apparatus; then, they wer…
Resilience and Vulnerability to Pain and Inflammation in the Hippocampus
2017
Increasing evidence demonstrates the importance of hippocampal neurogenesis, a fundamental mechanism of neuroplasticity associated with cognition and emotion, in correlation to neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Neuropsychiatric disorders are often a result of chronic stress or pain followed by inflammation; all these conditions manifest cognitive deficits and impairments in neurogenesis. However, while some individuals are more susceptible to stress, others are able to adapt to new environments via mechanisms of resilience. In light of this emerging field and based on extensive research, the role of neurogenesis is summarized and presented as a potentially powerful therapeutic to…
Momentary emotion identification in female adolescents with and without anorexia nervosa.
2017
Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) often report difficulties in identifying emotions, which have been mostly studied as an alexithymia trait. In a controlled two-day ecological momentary assessment, we studied the influence of time of day and aversive tension on self-reported momentary emotion identification. Analysis on an aggregated level revealed a significant lower mean emotion identification in the AN group. In a mixed model analysis, the AN group showed lower emotion identification than the control group (HC). Both a general and a group effect of time of day were found, indicating that emotion identification improved during the day in HC, whereas a negligible decrease of the emoti…
“Dissociation, posttraumatic stress symptoms, emotional dysregulation, and invalidating environments as correlates of NSSI in borderline personality …
2020
Theoretical models have proposed that inadequate caregiving environments undermine the development of adaptive regulation strategies at early stages and can lead children to inadequate regulation skills for coping with distress, such as dissociation, posttraumatic stress, and NSSI. The main aim of this work was to examine NSSI types and functions and the relationship between the aforementioned variables and lifetime NSSI in 102 patients with BPD diagnoses or BPD subthreshold symptoms. In addition, we explored the moderator role of dissociation between invalidating environments and NSSI. Results showed that 83.7% of the sample self-injured more than 5 times during their lifetime; 62.7% swall…
Like clouds in a windy sky : mindfulness training reduces negative affect reactivity in daily life in a randomized controlled trial
2020
While prior research has found mindfulness to be linked with emotional responses to events, less is known about this effect in a non-clinical sample. Even less is known regarding the mechanisms of the underlying processes: It is unclear whether participants who exhibit increased acceptance show decreased emotional reactivity (i.e., lower affective responses towards events overall) or a speedier emotional recovery (i.e., subsequent decrease in negative affect) due to adopting an accepting stance. To address these questions, we re-analysed two Ambulatory Assessment data sets. The first (NStudy1 = 125) was a 6-week randomized controlled trial (including a 40-day ambulatory assessment); the sec…