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Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 2019
PubMed: 31447656
DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2019.00080 -
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 2022Loneliness is a complex and uncomfortable feeling that results from the perception of a lack of desired personal and social ties. Loneliness is accentuated with aging....
Loneliness is a complex and uncomfortable feeling that results from the perception of a lack of desired personal and social ties. Loneliness is accentuated with aging. It has been related to a wide range of objective and subjective health indicators and is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. One of the proposed underlying mechanisms through which loneliness affects health is the dysregulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. However, the relationship between loneliness and cortisol, the main product of the HPA axis, is unclear and requires more research. The aims of this cross-sectional study were to investigate the relationships between loneliness, subjective health, and cortisol indexes, taking the sex into account, and investigate whether the HPA axis mediates the relationship between loneliness and subjective health. For this purpose, 79 participants (between 55 and 75 years old) completed several scales on loneliness, depression, perceived stress, psychological and physical health, and social relationships. Various salivary cortisol measurements were obtained on two consecutive days. The initial results showed that loneliness was related to psychological and physical health in the mixed-sex sample. However, when covariates were introduced, loneliness was only associated with psychological health in males. In addition, the cortisol indexes employed were not related to loneliness and did not mediate the relationship between loneliness and subjective health. Hence, we did not find a relevant role of the HPA axis in the association between loneliness and subjective health. More severe perceptions of loneliness would probably be necessary to detect this role. Overall, these results also show that the expected negative outcomes of loneliness associated with aging can be countered by an active life that can compensate for the natural losses experienced with age or at least delay these negative outcomes. Finally, some sex differences were found, in line with other studies, which warrants further examination of social variables and dimensions related to gender in future research.
PubMed: 35359585
DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.809733 -
Journal of Neuroscience Research May 2023Many studies have reported sex differences in empathy and social skills. In this review, several lines of empirical evidences about sex differences in functions and... (Review)
Review
Many studies have reported sex differences in empathy and social skills. In this review, several lines of empirical evidences about sex differences in functions and anatomy of social brain are discussed. The most relevant differences involve face processing, facial expression recognition, response to baby schema, the ability to see faces in things, the processing of social interactions, the response to the others' pain, interest in social information, processing of gestures and actions, biological motion, erotic, and affective stimuli. Sex differences in oxytocin-based parental response are also reported. In conclusion, the female and male brains show several neuro-functional differences in various aspects of social cognition, and especially in emotional coding, face processing, and response to baby schema. An interpretation of this sexual dimorphism is provided in the view of evolutionary psychobiology.
Topics: Male; Female; Humans; Sex Characteristics; Social Cognition; Brain; Emotions; Empathy; Facial Expression; Cognition
PubMed: 33608982
DOI: 10.1002/jnr.24787 -
Frontiers in Endocrinology 2021
PubMed: 35069457
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2021.832866 -
Journal of Intelligence Nov 2023In this paper, we propose an application of critical thinking (CT) to real-world problems, taking into account personal well-being (PB) and lifelong formation (FO)....
In this paper, we propose an application of critical thinking (CT) to real-world problems, taking into account personal well-being (PB) and lifelong formation (FO). First, we raise a substantial problem with CT, which is that causal explanation is of little importance in solving everyday problems. If we care about everyday problems, we must treat the identification of causal relationships as a fundamental mechanism and action as a form of solution once the origin of the problem is unequivocally known. Decision-making and problem-solving skills should be the execution of the causal explanations reached. By acting this way, we change reality and achieve our goals, which are none other than those imposed by our PB. However, to achieve changes or results, we must have these fundamental competencies in CT, and these are not innate; we must acquire and develop them, that is, we must train ourselves to have CT competencies according to the demands of today's world. Finally, in this paper we propose a causal model that seeks to identify and test the causal relationships that exist between the different factors or variables that determine the CT-PB-FO relationship. We present some results on the relevance of causality and how to effectively form and address real-world problems from causality. However, there are still questions to be clarified that need to be investigated in future studies.
PubMed: 38132837
DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11120219 -
Sleep Advances : a Journal of the Sleep... 2023My long day's journey into sleep began as an adolescent trying to manage my evening chronotype. The relief, I felt when my undergraduate finals were scheduled at night...
My long day's journey into sleep began as an adolescent trying to manage my evening chronotype. The relief, I felt when my undergraduate finals were scheduled at night and as a medical student being able to select psychiatry over surgery deepened my interest in sleep and chronobiology. That interest was allowed to flourish at the National Institute of Mental Health and then at Yale Medical School in setting up a sleep laboratory. The decision to move to the University of Pittsburgh in 1973 led to a 42-year adventure in which we were able to initiate research efforts on the psychobiology of depression. Our interest in social zeitgebers (daily routines) led directly to the development and testing of a treatment intervention for mood disorders, interpersonal, and social rhythm therapy. Our continued emphasis on sleep and circadian rhythms convinced us that sleep and circadian factors were central to all of health, based on the importance of connectivity between sleep and major metabolic and cell functions. This ongoing research motivated our strong desire to study the developmental aspects of sleep. Our success was influenced immensely by the presence of young scientists and a strong subsequent interest in career mentoring. Finally, as we left Pittsburgh in 2015, we became involved in the field of continuous objective monitoring using the commercial smartphone's behavioral sensing capabilities. Our journey is not over. We hope to explore the potential of these remarkable devices to improve our understanding of sleep/wake and circadian factors across all of health.
PubMed: 37614777
DOI: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpad002 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2021The aim of the study is to determine the association between Behavioral Lifestyles (regular physical activity, healthy diet, sleeping, and weight control) and longevity...
The aim of the study is to determine the association between Behavioral Lifestyles (regular physical activity, healthy diet, sleeping, and weight control) and longevity in the elderly. A search strategy was conducted in the PsycInfo, Medline, PubMed, Web of Science (WoS), and Scopus databases. The primary outcome was mortality/survival. Four variables (mean of participant's age at the baseline of the study, follow-up years of the study, gender, and year of publication) were analyzed to evaluate the role of potential moderators. Ninety-three articles, totaling more than 2,800,000 people, were included in the meta-analysis. We found that the lifestyles analyzed predict greater survival. Specifically, doing regular physical activity, engaging in leisure activities, sleeping 7-8 h a day, and staying outside the BMI ranges considered as underweight or obesity are habits that each separately has a greater probability associated with survival after a period of several years.
PubMed: 35185686
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.786491 -
Translational Psychiatry Apr 2022Alcohol is part of the usual diet of millions of individuals worldwide. However, not all individuals who drink alcohol experience the same effects, nor will everyone...
Alcohol is part of the usual diet of millions of individuals worldwide. However, not all individuals who drink alcohol experience the same effects, nor will everyone develop an alcohol use disorder. Here we propose that the intestinal microbiota (IMB) helps explain the different consumption patterns of alcohol among individuals. 507 humans participated in this study and alcohol consumption and IMB composition were analyzed. On the other hand, in 80 adult male Wistar rats, behavioral tests, alcohol intoxication, fecal transplantation, administration of antibiotics and collection of fecal samples were performed. For identification and relative quantification of bacterial taxa was used the bacterial 16 S ribosomal RNA gene. In humans, we found that heavy episodic drinking is associated with a specific stool type phenotype (type 1, according to Bristol Stool Scale; p < 0.05) and with an increase in the abundance of Actinobacteria (p < 0.05). Next, using rats, we demonstrate that the transfer of IMB from alcohol-intoxicated animals causes an increase in voluntary alcohol consumption in transplant-recipient animals (p < 0.001). The relative quantification data indicate that the genus Porphyromonas could be associated with the effect on voluntary alcohol consumption. We also show that gut microbiota depletion by antibiotics administration causes a reduction in alcohol consumption (p < 0.001) and altered the relative abundance of relevant phyla such as Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes or Cyanobacteria (p < 0.05), among others. Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction was performed for multiple comparisons. These studies reveal some of the consequences of alcohol on the IMB and provide evidence that manipulation of IMB may alter voluntary alcohol consumption.
Topics: Alcohol Drinking; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Bacteria; Fecal Microbiota Transplantation; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Male; Rats; Rats, Wistar
PubMed: 35393390
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-01920-2 -
Social Cognitive and Affective... Oct 2022Growing evidence suggests that cognitive maps represent relations between social knowledge similar to how spatial locations are represented in an environment. Notably,...
Growing evidence suggests that cognitive maps represent relations between social knowledge similar to how spatial locations are represented in an environment. Notably, the extant human medial temporal lobe literature assumes associations between social stimuli follow a linear associative mapping from an egocentric viewpoint to a cognitive map. Yet, this form of associative social memory does not account for a core phenomenon of social interactions in which social knowledge learned via comparisons to the self, other individuals or social networks are assimilated within a single frame of reference. We argue that hippocampal-entorhinal coordinate transformations, known to integrate egocentric and allocentric spatial cues, inform social perspective switching between the self and others. We present evidence that the hippocampal formation helps inform social interactions by relating self vs other social attribute comparisons to society in general, which can afford rapid and flexible assimilation of knowledge about the relationship between the self and social networks of varying proximities. We conclude by discussing the ramifications of cognitive maps in aiding this social perspective transformation process in states of health and disease.
Topics: Cognition; Cues; Hippocampus; Humans; Learning; Temporal Lobe
PubMed: 35257155
DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac017 -
International Journal of Psychological... 2023Stress is fundamental for health and adaptation; it is an evolutionarily conserved response that involves several systems in the organism. The study of the stress...
Stress is fundamental for health and adaptation; it is an evolutionarily conserved response that involves several systems in the organism. The study of the stress response could be traced back to the end of the nineteenth century with George Beard's or Claude Bernard's work and, from that moment on, several studies that have allowed the elucidation of its neurobiology and the consequences of suffering from it were consolidated. In this theoretical review, we discuss the most relevant researches to our knowledge on the study of stress response, from the concept of stress, its neurobiology, the hormonal response during stress, as well as its regulation, the effects of acute and chronic stress, stress from cognition, the different stress responses during life, as well as its relationship with different psychiatric disorders. Taken together, the reviewed research updates the classic perspective on stress, increasing the factors that should be considered in research to explore the effects of stress on health.
PubMed: 38106958
DOI: 10.21500/20112084.5815