Physiology & behavior
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Physiology & behavior · Mar 2016
Effects of a single night of postpartum sleep on childless women's daytime functioning.
The maternal postpartum period is characterized by sleep fragmentation, which is associated with daytime impairment, mental health disturbances, and changes in melatonin patterns. In addition to sleep fragmentation, women undergo a complex set of physiological and environmental changes upon entering the postpartum period, confounding our understanding of effects of postpartum sleep disturbance. The primary study aim was to understand the basic impact of a single night of postpartum-like sleep fragmentation on sleep architecture, nocturnal melatonin levels, mood, daytime sleepiness, and neurobehavioral performance. ⋯ While there were no changes in measured physiological components of a single night of postpartum-like experimental sleep fragmentation, there were decreases in self-reported measures of mood and sleep quality. Future research should examine the effects of multiple nights of modeling postpartum-like sleep fragmentation on objective measures of sleep and daytime functioning.
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Physiology & behavior · Mar 2016
Sleep disruption increases seizure susceptibility: Behavioral and EEG evaluation of an experimental model of sleep apnea.
Sleep disruption accompanies sleep apnea as one of its major symptoms. Obstructive sleep apnea is particularly common in patients with refractory epilepsy, but causing factors underlying this are far from being resolved. Therefore, translational studies regarding this issue are important. ⋯ Number of ictal periods were increased and duration of it presented tendency to increase in SI+L comparing to AC+L. No convulsive signs were observed in TCc, ACc and SIc groups, as well as no ictal periods in EEG. These results indicate sleep disruption facilitates induction of epileptic activity in rodent model of lindane-epilepsy enabling translational research of this phenomenon.
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Physiology & behavior · Feb 2016
Sex differences in the relationships between parasympathetic activity and pain modulation.
Higher parasympathetic activity is related to lower pain perception in healthy subjects and pain patients. We aimed to examine whether this relationship depends on sex, in healthy subjects. Parasympathetic activity was assessed using time- and frequency-domain heart rate variability indices and deep breathing ratio. ⋯ Similarly, a significant negative correlation was found between higher rMSSD and higher efficiency of the CPM response in men (r=-0.510, p=0.026) but not in women (r=0.406, p=0.085). Sex hormones levels, psychological factors or baseline autonomic activity can be possible explanations for these sex differences. Future autonomic interventions destined to change pain modulation should consider sex as an important intervening factor.
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Physiology & behavior · Feb 2016
No effects of ingesting or rinsing sucrose on depleted self-control performance.
Self-control tasks appear to deplete a limited resource resulting in reduced subsequent self-control performance; a state of ego depletion. Evidence of reduced peripheral glucose by exertion of self-control, and attenuation of ego depletion by carbohydrate metabolism underpins the proposition that this macronutrient provides the energetic source of self-control. However, the demonstration of positive, non-metabolic effects on ego depletion when merely sensing carbohydrates orally contradicts this hypothesis. ⋯ In conclusion, a metabolic account of self-control was not supported. Whilst a positive effect of rinsing on depleted self-control performance was demonstrated, this was independent of energetic content. Findings suggest glucose is an unlikely physiological analogue for self-control resources.
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Physiology & behavior · Nov 2015
Comparative StudyPersistent, comorbid pain and anxiety can be uncoupled in a mouse model.
Clinically, pain and anxiety frequently coexist; however, these two conditions' interaction is limited and contradictory in animal studies. In this study, we combined social defeat (SD) stress with Freund's adjuvant (CFA)-induced persistent inflammatory pain to investigate the reciprocal relationship between anxiety-like and nociceptive behaviors in two mouse strains. C57BL/6J mice subjected to the 10-day period of SD stress by repeated CD-1 mice aggression exhibited significant social interaction avoidance behaviors in the social interaction (SI) test, which is believed to represent the symptoms of anxiety. ⋯ Interestingly, CFA-inflammatory mice exposed to SD stress were not accompanied by a worsening of pain and anxiety-like behaviors in most tests. In contrast, the SD stress-induced social avoidance was significantly antagonized by combining with CFA-inflammatory pain. These findings suggest that persistent inflammatory pain and SD stress-induced anxiety may not necessarily exacerbate one another in animal models of comorbidity.