Biological psychology
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Biological psychology · Apr 2010
ReviewCortico-limbic circuitry and the airways: insights from functional neuroimaging of respiratory afferents and efferents.
After nearly two decades of active research, functional neuroimaging has demonstrated utility in the identification of cortical, limbic, and paralimbic (cortico-limbic) brain regions involved in respiratory control and respiratory perception. Before the recent boon of human neuroimaging studies, the location of the principal components of respiratory-related cortico-limbic circuitry had been unknown and their function had been poorly understood. ⋯ This paper will review functional neuroimaging studies of respiration with a focus on whole brain investigations of sensorimotor pathways that have identified respiratory-related neural circuitry known to overlap emotional/affective cortico-limbic circuitry. To aid the interpretation of present and future findings, the complexities and challenges underlying neuroimaging methodologies will also be reviewed as applied to the study of respiration physiology.
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Biological psychology · Apr 2010
The impact of affective states on the perception of dyspnea in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Dyspnea is the cardinal symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Affective states can profoundly impact upon the perception of dyspnea, but little is known about this relationship in patients with COPD. ⋯ Regression analyses showed that only during positive picture viewing increases in the affective unpleasantness of dyspnea, but not in the sensory intensity of dyspnea, during CEETs were predictive of greater dyspnea during everyday activities and reduced health-related quality of life. The results suggest that negative affective states increase perceived dyspnea in patients with COPD and underline the importance of targeting the affect-dyspnea-relationship in this patient group.
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Biological psychology · Feb 2010
Interaction between 5-HTTLPR and BDNF Val66Met polymorphisms on HPA axis reactivity in preschoolers.
This study examined whether the interaction between the serotonin transporter promoter region (5-HTTLPR) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphisms was associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity to stress. A community sample of 144 preschool-aged children was genotyped and exposed to stress-inducing laboratory tasks. ⋯ In contrast, children who were homozygous for the short-5-HTTLPR and the Val-BDNF alleles evidenced a greater decline in cortisol in response to the laboratory stressors. Findings indicated that the BDNF gene moderated the association between 5-HTTLPR and children's biological stress responses, suggesting that epistatic effects play a role in individual differences in stress regulation, and possibly genetic vulnerability to stress-related disorders.
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Biological psychology · Jan 2010
The role of childhood abuse in HPA-axis reactivity in Social Anxiety Disorder: a pilot study.
Studies on depression have found that childhood abuse (CA) is associated with a persistent sensitization of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis to stress in adulthood. So far, it is unknown whether this HPA-axis sensitization is specific to depression, or whether this is a more general outcome associated with CA in patients with mood and anxiety disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate whether CA is associated with enhanced cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). ⋯ Consistent with the findings in depression, these results show for the first time that childhood abuse is also associated with strongly increased cortisol reactivity in SAD. When replicated in a larger sample, these findings may have important implications for the treatment of SAD.
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Biological psychology · Sep 2009
Breathing frequency bias in fractal analysis of heart rate variability.
Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) is an algorithm widely used to determine fractal long-range correlations in physiological signals. Its application to heart rate variability (HRV) has proven useful in distinguishing healthy subjects from patients with cardiovascular disease. ⋯ Results revealed that: (1) the periodical properties of RSA produce a change of the correlation exponent in HRV at a scale corresponding to the respiratory period, (2) the short-term DFA exponent is significantly reduced when breathing frequency rises from 0.1Hz to 0.2Hz. These findings raise important methodological questions regarding the application of fractal measures to short-term HRV.