Univ., Diss.--Louvain-la-Neuve, 2007.

Zugl.: Chemnitz, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

Univ., Habil.-Schr.--Göttingen, 2000.

Zugl.: Oestrich-Winkel, Europ. Business School, Diss., 2009

Thesis (PH.D.)--Michigan State University. Family and Child Ecology, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Aug. 28, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-94). Also issued in print.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of St. Gallen, 2009.

Why do we need to sleep? Not only is getting enough sleep important for our overall health and well-being, it is perhaps of utmost importance for normal brain functioning. Scientific findings derived from studying sleep deprivation suggests that sleep also plays an important role in our emotional functioning, which has led researchers to propose a causal and intimate relationship between sleep and emotional brain functioning. Without sleep it seems as our emotional processing become impaired in various ways. Along with advances in cognitive neuroscience, it is now possible to characterize mechanisms underlying emotional brain processes. In pursuit of the possible functions of sleep, researchers have also proposed that rapid eye movement sleep, might support a process of affective brain homeostasis and recalibration that optimally prepares the organism for next-day social and emotional functioning. This thesis reviews current behavioral and neurophysiological evidence focused on the relationship between sleep and emotional brain functioning, and the role of rapid eye movement sleep in emotional processing.

Political disillusionment is widespread in contemporary Japanese society, despite people’s struggles in the recession. Our social relationships become entangled, and we can no longer clearly identify our interest in politics. The search for the outside of stagnant reality sometimes leads marginalised young people to a disastrous imaginary for social change, such as war and death. The imaginary of disaster was actualised in March 2011. The huge earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which triggered the largest wave of activism since the 1960s. Based on the author’s fieldwork on the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements in Tokyo, this thesis investigates how the disaster impacted people’s sense of agency and ethics, and ultimately explores the new political imaginary in postmodernity. The disaster revealed the interconnected nature of contemporary society. The thesis argues that their regret about their past indifference to politics motivated the protesters into social commitment without any totalising ideology or predetermined collective identity. They also found an ambiguity of the self, which is insufficient to know what should be done. Hence, they mobilise their bodies on to the streets, encountering others, and forcing themselves to feel and think. This is an ethical attitude, yet it simultaneously stems from the desire of each individual to make a difference to the self and society. The thesis concludes that the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements signify a new way of doing politics as endless experiments by collectively responding to an unexpected force from an outside in a creative way.

By reflecting upon the works I make and my thoughts surrounding them I've been looking to develop my way of understanding and working with art. By looking at both creative and emotional aspects underlying the artistic process I try to understand what impact they have on both the art and the artist. Through my working process and by writing about my thoughts and emotions during this project I come to the conclusion that this is what can be referred to as a cathartic experience for me.

Resilience refers to the fact that some individuals cope well with stressful experiences. Many factors contribute to this sort of resilience, such as the early environment, the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTPLR), the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis, the sympathetic-adrenal medullary (SAM) axis, and emotion regulation techniques. The aim of this thesis is to investigate which factors contribute to resilience, with a particular focus on the emotion regulation technique of cognitive reappraisal. The results show that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala each play a crucial role when it comes to stress regulation. Studies have found that the PFC inhibits the amygdala response, but that the PFC is vulnerable to exposure to chronic stress. As a result, the PFC might fail to inhibit the amygdala response. Individuals who use cognitive reappraisal techniques – which has been associated particularly with frontal and parietal brain activity – seem to be less prone to this sort of problem, and, as a result, more resilient to stress.