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Psychology Research and Behavior... 2024Money source influences risk-taking behaviors. Although studies consistently indicated that individuals demonstrate a higher propensity to make risky investments when...
INTRODUCTION
Money source influences risk-taking behaviors. Although studies consistently indicated that individuals demonstrate a higher propensity to make risky investments when utilizing non-labor income as opposed to labor income, explanations as to why non-labor income leads to continuously blowing money into risky investments are scarce.
METHODS
The current study leverages a computational modeling approach to compare the differences in the dynamic risk investment process among individuals endowed with income from different sources (ie, non-labor income vs labor income) to understand the shaping force of higher risk-taking propensity in individuals with non-labor income. A total of 103 participants were recruited and completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) with an equal monetary endowment, either as a token for completion of survey questionnaires (representing labor income) or as a prize from a lucky draw game (representing non-labor income).
RESULTS
We found that individuals endowed with non-labor income made more risky investments in BART compared to those with labor income. With computational modeling, we further identified two key differences in the dynamic risk investment processes between individuals endowed with labor and those with non-labor income. Specifically, individuals endowed with non-labor income had a higher preset expectation for risk-taking and displayed desensitization towards losses during risk investments, in contrast to individuals with labor income.
DISCUSSION
This study contributed to a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms of why individuals make more risk-taking behaviors with non-labor income, namely higher preset expectations of risk-taking and desensitization towards losses. Future research could validate these findings across diverse samples with varying backgrounds and adopt different manipulations of labor and non-labor income to enhance the external validity of our study.
PubMed: 38948335
DOI: 10.2147/PRBM.S462466 -
PeerJ 2024Variable practice is a broadly used tool to improve motor learning processes. However, controversial results can be found in literature about the success of this type of...
BACKGROUND
Variable practice is a broadly used tool to improve motor learning processes. However, controversial results can be found in literature about the success of this type of practice compared to constant practice. This study explored one potential reason for this controversy: the manipulation of variable practice load applied during practice and its effects according to the initial performance level and the initial intrinsic variability of the learner.
METHOD
Sixty-five participants were grouped into four practice schedules to learn a serial throwing task, in which the training load of variable practice was manipulated: one constant practice group and three groups with different variable practice loads applied. After a pre-test, participants trained for 2 weeks. A post-test and three retests (96 h, 2 weeks and 1 month) were carried out after training. The participants' throwing accuracy was assessed through error parameters and their initial intrinsic motor variability was assessed by the autocorrelation coefficient of the error.
RESULTS
The four groups improved their throwing performance. Pairwise comparisons and effect sizes showed larger error reduction in the low variability group. Different loads of variable practice seem to induce different performance improvements in a throwing task. The modulation of the variable practice load seems to be a step forward to clarify the controversy about its benefits, but it has to be guided by the individuals' features, mainly by the initial intrinsic variability of the learner.
Topics: Humans; Male; Motor Skills; Female; Learning; Practice, Psychological; Young Adult; Adult
PubMed: 38948206
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.17575 -
Contemporary Clinical Trials... Aug 2024Localized prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy is highly effective, though severe side-effects are common after the surgery. Prehabilitation is an approach...
BACKGROUND
Localized prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy is highly effective, though severe side-effects are common after the surgery. Prehabilitation is an approach to optimize patient's physical and mental resources before surgery, to improve postoperative outcomes. The feasibility of a multi-modal home-based prehabilitation program, delivered using telehealth in patients awaiting radical prostatectomy is unknown. This paper describes the development of a prehabilitation program for patients awaiting radical prostatectomy.
METHOD
A model by The Medical Research Council for developing and evaluating complex interventions (MRC Framework) was used in the development process. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist was applied for ensuring sufficient description of the interventions. A total of 40 patients will be randomized to either intervention or control group. Patients in the control group will follow standard care. The 4-week prehabilitation programme consists of exercise, pelvic floor exercise, sexual counseling, stress management and nutritional support. The interventions are home-based and delivered using telehealth. Feasibility outcomes will include recruitment, attrition rates, adherence, safety and suitability.
CONCLUSION
We have developed a multimodal prehabilitation programme, which has the potential to bring tangible health benefits to men with prostate cancer awaiting radical prostatectomy. The results of the feasibility study will inform the design of a fully powered randomized controlled trial.
PubMed: 38947984
DOI: 10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101319 -
Frontiers in Neural Circuits 2024Gamma oscillations nested in a theta rhythm are observed in the hippocampus, where are assumed to play a role in sequential episodic memory, i.e., memorization and...
Gamma oscillations nested in a theta rhythm are observed in the hippocampus, where are assumed to play a role in sequential episodic memory, i.e., memorization and retrieval of events that unfold in time. In this work, we present an original neurocomputational model based on neural masses, which simulates the encoding of sequences of events in the hippocampus and subsequent retrieval by exploiting the theta-gamma code. The model is based on a three-layer structure in which individual Units oscillate with a gamma rhythm and code for individual features of an episode. The first layer (working memory in the prefrontal cortex) maintains a cue in memory until a new signal is presented. The second layer (CA3 cells) implements an auto-associative memory, exploiting excitatory and inhibitory plastic synapses to recover an entire episode from a single feature. Units in this layer are disinhibited by a theta rhythm from an external source (septum or Papez circuit). The third layer (CA1 cells) implements a hetero-associative net with the previous layer, able to recover a sequence of episodes from the first one. During an encoding phase, simulating high-acetylcholine levels, the network is trained with Hebbian (synchronizing) and anti-Hebbian (desynchronizing) rules. During retrieval (low-acetylcholine), the network can correctly recover sequences from an initial cue using gamma oscillations nested inside the theta rhythm. Moreover, in high noise, the network isolated from the environment simulates a mind-wandering condition, randomly replicating previous sequences. Interestingly, in a state simulating sleep, with increased noise and reduced synapses, the network can "dream" by creatively combining sequences, exploiting features shared by different episodes. Finally, an irrational behavior (erroneous superimposition of features in various episodes, like "delusion") occurs after pathological-like reduction in fast inhibitory synapses. The model can represent a straightforward and innovative tool to help mechanistically understand the theta-gamma code in different mental states.
Topics: Gamma Rhythm; Theta Rhythm; Humans; Models, Neurological; Imagination; Memory; Hippocampus; Neural Networks, Computer; Animals
PubMed: 38947492
DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2024.1326609 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2024Postpartum fatigue (PPF) can impair the physical and mental well-being of women. The aims of this study were to assess the associations between fatigue and maternal...
BACKGROUND
Postpartum fatigue (PPF) can impair the physical and mental well-being of women. The aims of this study were to assess the associations between fatigue and maternal health-related variables, specifically, sleep quality, depression symptoms, and resilience, and to explore the moderating role of resilience in the relationships between sleep quality, depression symptoms, and fatigue.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study used data collected from mothers during the postpartum period via an online platform. PPF was assessed using the Fatigue Severity Scale, whereas sleep quality and depression symptoms were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, respectively. The Brief Resilience Scale was used to assess resilience. Simple and multiple binary logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association of each independent variable with PPF and to determine the most significant predictors of PFF. The data were analyzed using SPSS, and structural equation modeling was performed using AMOS 23. A moderation analysis was performed to explore the moderating role of resilience using the Hayes PROCESS macro.
RESULTS
A total of 1,443 postpartum mothers were included in the analysis. The simple binary logistic regression analysis showed that having chronic disease (odds: 1.52; = 0.02), mother's age (odds: 0.97; = 0.03), mother's body mass index (BMI; odds: 1.03; = 0.01), depression symptoms (odds: 1.09; ≤ 0.0001), sleep quality (odds: 1.17; ≤ 0.0001), and resilience (odds: 0.42; p ≤ 0.0001) all contributed to fatigue during postpartum. Multivariate logistic regression showed that the mother's BMI, sleep quality, depression symptoms, and resilience were significant predictors of PPF. Moderation analyses showed that resilience was not a significant moderator between the main effects of sleep quality and fatigue (interaction effect: = 0.01, = 0.31, 95% CI: -0.01 to 0.04) or between the main effects of depression symptoms and fatigue during postpartum (interaction effect: = 0.01, = 0.82, 95% CI: -0.01 to 0.02).
CONCLUSION
Given the deleterious effects of PPF on maternal health outcomes, factors associated with PPF should be assessed regularly. In addition to mothers' BMI, sleep quality, and depression symptoms, resilience could also be a crucial factor in predicting fatigue severity during this critical time for mothers even though it was not a significant moderator among this sample.
Topics: Humans; Female; Cross-Sectional Studies; Adult; Fatigue; Resilience, Psychological; Postpartum Period; Mothers; Sleep Quality; Surveys and Questionnaires; Depression, Postpartum; Depression; Risk Factors; Logistic Models
PubMed: 38947349
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1394380 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2024Internet hospitals, online health communities, and other digital health APPs have brought many changes to people's lives. However, digital health resources are...
BACKGROUND
Internet hospitals, online health communities, and other digital health APPs have brought many changes to people's lives. However, digital health resources are experiencing low continuance intention due to many factors, including information security, service quality, and personal characteristics of users.
METHODS
We used cross-sectional surveys and structural equation modeling analysis to explore factors influencing user willingness to continue using digital health resources.
RESULTS
Information quality ( = 0.31, < 0.05), service quality ( = 0.19, < 0.05), platform reputation ( = 0.34, < 0.05), and emotional support ( = 0.23, < 0.05) have significant positive effects on user value co-creation behavior. Additionally, user trust and perceived usefulness could mediate the association between user value co-creation behavior and continuance intention, with mediation effects of 0.143 and 0.125, respectively. User involvement can positively moderate the association between user value co-creation behavior and user trust ( = 0.151, = 2.480, < 0.001). Also, user involvement can positively moderate the association between value co-creation behavior and perceived usefulness ( = 0.103, = 3.377, < 0.001).
CONCLUSION
The keys to solving the problem of low continuance intention are improving the quality and service level of digital health resources, and promoting users' value co-creation behavior. Meanwhile, enterprises should build a good reputation, create a positive communication atmosphere in the community, and enhance user participation and sense of belonging.
Topics: Humans; Cross-Sectional Studies; Intention; Male; Latent Class Analysis; Female; Adult; Surveys and Questionnaires; Middle Aged; Trust; Health Resources; Young Adult
PubMed: 38947345
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1416750 -
Social History of Medicine : the... Feb 2024During the 1970s, the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) began to provide information and support to women experiencing postnatal mental illness, building on its promotion...
During the 1970s, the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) began to provide information and support to women experiencing postnatal mental illness, building on its promotion of natural childbirth and emphasis on the emotional wellbeing of women around birth, which had occupied the organisation since its establishment in 1956. This article argues that, alongside emotional, social and medical factors, the NCT attributed postnatal depression to the shift to hospital deliveries, involving high levels of intervention and frustrating women's choice and agency. While sharing ambitions to improve care in childbirth and giving women a voice in describing their experiences, it is suggested that the NCT's relationship with the feminist health movement remained ambiguous. The article also explores the NCT's collaboration with a variety of experts and advisors, some of whom emphasised the risk of postnatal depression to the bonding process and infant's development, potentially exacerbating the mental distress of new mothers.
PubMed: 38947274
DOI: 10.1093/shm/hkad083 -
Biomedical Engineering Letters Jul 2024Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe, chronic mental disorder without specific treatment. Due to the increasing prevalence of SZ in societies and the similarity of the...
Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe, chronic mental disorder without specific treatment. Due to the increasing prevalence of SZ in societies and the similarity of the characteristics of this disease with other mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, most people are not aware of having it in their daily lives. Therefore, early detection of this disease will allow the sufferer to seek treatment or at least control it. Previous SZ detection studies through machine learning methods, require the extraction and selection of features before the classification process. This study attempts to develop a novel, end-to-end approach based on a 15-layers convolutional neural network (CNN) and a 16-layers CNN- long short-term memory (LSTM) to help psychiatrists automatically diagnose SZ from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The deep model uses CNN layers to learn the temporal properties of the signals, while LSTM layers provide the sequence learning mechanism. Also, data augmentation method based on generative adversarial networks is employed over the training set to increase the diversity of the data. Results on a large EEG dataset show the high diagnostic potential of both proposed methods, achieving remarkable accuracy of 98% and 99%. This study shows that the proposed framework is able to accurately discriminate SZ from healthy subject and is potentially useful for developing diagnostic tools for SZ disorder.
PubMed: 38946814
DOI: 10.1007/s13534-024-00360-9 -
Children and Youth Services Review May 2024American Samoan adolescents experience a high prevalence of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, substance use, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. To...
American Samoan adolescents experience a high prevalence of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, substance use, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. To complement existing health system efforts, family-based interventions may be a feasible, cost-effective, and relevant opportunity to promote mental health. This community-partnered, qualitative study aimed to: (1) identify potential family-related psychosocial protective factors for adolescent mental health and (2) develop a framework for a parenting program to promote adolescent mental health in American Samoa. Applying the framework developed for research in Samoan communities, which emphasizes the importance of weaving a range of community member perspectives to reach consensus, semi-structured in-depth interviews with adult key informants (n=28) were conducted between October 2020 and February 2021. Results were validated through five focus groups with Samoan adolescents (n=35) between May and June 2022. Adult participants were sampled for diversity in profession, age, gender, education, and region of residence; adolescent participants were sampled for diversity in gender. Participants were recruited using personal networks and snowball sampling; adolescent participants also responded to Facebook advertising. The semi-structured interviews focused on broad topics including common mental health problems, contributors to mental illness, and potential interventions, among others. Transcripts were coded in duplicate and analyzed using deductive thematic analysis. Themes were collaboratively mapped onto an adapted model, an existing framework for Pacific Island health research. Six themes described key practices: (1) provide emotional safety and security; (2) provide physical safety and security; (3) encourage sense of self; (4) strengthen intergenerational communication skills; (5) prioritize quality time; and (6) cultivate healthy coping strategies. Participants also expressed the importance of a supportive environment grounded in culture, family and community, and caregiver mental health. These results provide an initial step to identify family-focused factors that promote adolescent mental health in American Samoa and categorize them into a framework to inform intervention development. Drawing on a collaborative and community-partnered process, these findings provide the first evidence-based framework to develop a parenting program to promote adolescent mental wellbeing and resilience in Samoan communities.
PubMed: 38946713
DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107502 -
Physiological Reports Jul 2024The present study aimed to investigate the effect of catechin-loaded Chitosan-Alginate nanoparticles (NPs) on cognitive function in an aluminum chloride (AlCl)-induced...
Oral administration of encapsulated catechin in chitosan-alginate nanoparticles improves cognitive function and neurodegeneration in an aluminum chloride-induced rat model of Alzheimer's disease.
The present study aimed to investigate the effect of catechin-loaded Chitosan-Alginate nanoparticles (NPs) on cognitive function in an aluminum chloride (AlCl)-induced rat model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Catechin-loaded Chitosan-Alginate nanocarriers were synthesized through ionotropic gelation (IG) method. Physio-chemical characterization was conducted with the Zetasizer Nano system, the scanning electron microscope, and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The experiments were performed over 21 days on six groups of male Wistar rats. The control group, AlCl treated group, Catechin group, nanocarrier group, treatment group 1 (AlCl + Catechin), and treatment group 2 (AlCl + nanocarrier). A behavioral study was done by the Morris water maze (MWM) test. In addition, the level of oxidative indices and acetylcholine esterase (AChE) activity was determined by standard procedures at the end of the study. AlCl induced a significant increase in AChE activity, along with a significant decrease in the level of Catalase (CAT) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in the hippocampus. Moreover, the significant effect of AlCl was observed on the behavioral parameters of the MWM test. Both forms of Catechin markedly improved AChE activity, oxidative biomarkers, spatial memory, and learning. The present study indicated that the administration of Catechin-loaded Chitosan-Alginate NPs is a beneficial therapeutic option against behavioral and chemical alteration of AD in male Wistar rats.
Topics: Animals; Catechin; Aluminum Chloride; Chitosan; Alginates; Male; Rats, Wistar; Alzheimer Disease; Rats; Nanoparticles; Administration, Oral; Cognition; Acetylcholinesterase; Maze Learning; Hippocampus; Disease Models, Animal; Antioxidants; Oxidative Stress; Drug Carriers
PubMed: 38946616
DOI: 10.14814/phy2.16095