O Distúrbio do Espectro do Autismo caracteriza-se como uma síndrome comportamental complexa, que compromete o processo do desenvolvimento ao longo da vida, ocorrendo uma grande variabilidade na intensidade e forma de expressão da sintomatologia, nas áreas que definem o seu diagnóstico. Pessoas com autismo necessitam de atenção especial durante toda a vida e é necessário voltar a atenção também para cuidador. O estresse parental da família de uma criança com autismo é significantemente maior do que o observado em famílias de crianças com desenvolvimento típico ou outras deficiências. A comunicação é um aspecto especialmente afetado nos quadros de autismo e pode ser potencializadora do estresse, sendo uma das primeiras preocupações dos pais. Assim foi indagado se, com relação à comunicação, o fato do filho com autismo não usar alguma fala para se comunicar teria relação com o aumento do nível de estresse dos pais. O Objetivo deste estudo foi investigar o nível de estresse de pais de crianças com autismo, verificando sua associação com a ausência de oralidade na comunicação de seus filhos. Participaram dessa pesquisa os pais de 75 crianças com autismo e pais de 100 crianças sem nenhuma queixa quanto ao desenvolvimento, que foram divididos em três grupos, sendo o grupo 1 formado por pais de crianças autistas que não apresentam comunicação oral; o grupo 2 por pais de crianças autistas que apresentam comunicação oral e o grupo 3, por pais de crianças sem nenhuma queixa. Todos os participantes responderam ao questionário sócio-demográfico, ao questionário de nível de estresse (formulado pela própria autora) e ao questionário de qualidade de vida. Os resultados mostraram que a maioria dos pais dos três grupos apresentaram médio nível de estresse e que não houve diferença significativa entre os pais de crianças com autismo, com e sem comunicação verbal. Quando os pais de crianças com autismo foram comparados aos pais do grupo controle, foi verificada diferença significativa, sendo que mais pais de crianças com autismo apresentaram alto nível de estresse. Foi constatada existência de associações entre o nível de estresse identificado e a qualidade de vida relatada pelos pais, mostrando que quanto maior o estresse apresentado pelos pais, menor é a qualidade de vida. Conclui-se, portanto, que o nível de estresse de pais de crianças com autismo não é influenciado pela ausência de oralidade na comunicação de seus filhos / Autism spectrum disorders are described as a complex behavioral syndrome. It impairs the development throughout life and has great variability in symptoms and intensity in the various areas that define the diagnosis. Persons with autism need special care during all life and therefore the caretakers need attention too. Parental stress in families with children with autism is significantly higher than the observed in families with children with other disorders or with typical development. Communication is specially affected in autism, is one of parent\'s first concerns and may increase stress. This study asked if parents of non-verbal children with autism have higher levels of stress than parents of verbal children with autism. The purpose of this study was to assess the stress levels of parents of children with autism and to verify its association with the abscess of verbal communication. Participants were parents of 75 children with autism and 100 parents with no complaints about their children development. They were divided in 3 groups: Group 1 comprised by parents by children with autism and no verbal communication; Group 2 comprised by parents by verbal children with autism and Group 3 with parents with no complaints about their children development. All participants responded to a socio-demographic questionnaire, to a stress level questionnaire (proposed by the author) and the questionnaire about quality of life. Results show that most parents from the three groups presented medium level of stress and that there was no significant difference between parents of children with autism with and without verbal communication. When parents of children with autism were compared with parents from the control group a significant difference was observed, with more parents of children with autism with high levels of stress. Associations between the stress level and the quality of life were also observed, showing that when higher stress levels were reported, lower quality of life was verified. It can be concluded that the stress level of parents of children with autism not influenced by their lack of verbal communication

Objectives: Dysregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has frequently been reported in multiple sclerosis (MS). So far, HPA axis function in MS has predominantly been studied under pharmacological stimulation which is associated with a series of methodological caveats. Knowledge of circadian cortisol patterns and cortisol awakening response (CAR) is still limited. Methods: A total of 77 MS patients (55 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS)/22 secondary-progressive MS (SPMS)) as well as 34 healthy control (HC) subjects were enrolled. Diurnal cortisol release was assessed by repeated salivary cortisol sampling. Neurological disability was rated by the Kurtzke’s Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Depressive symptoms and perceived stress were assessed by self-report measures. Results: RRMS but not SPMS patients differed in circadian cortisol release from HC subjects. Differences in cortisol release were restricted to CAR. Treated and treatment naïve RRMS patients did not differ in CAR. In a RRMS follow-up cohort (nine months follow-up), RRMS patients with EDSS progression (≥0.5) expressed a significantly greater CAR compared to HC subjects. RRMS patients with a stable EDSS did not differ from HC subjects. Neither depressive symptoms nor perceived stress ratings were associated with CAR in RRMS patients. In a step-wise regression analysis, EDSS at baseline and CAR were predictive of EDSS at follow-up (R2 = 67%) for RRMS patients. Conclusions: Circadian cortisol release, in particular CAR, shows a course specific pattern with most pronounced release in RRMS. There is also some evidence for greater CAR in RRMS patients with EDSS progression. As a consequence, CAR might be of predictive value in terms of neurological disability in RRMS patients. The possible role of neuroendocrine-immune interactions in MS pathogenesis is further discussed.

It has been repeatedly shown that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) triggers distress and neuroendocrine response systems. Prior studies have revealed that sympathetic arousal increases, particularly at the beginning of the examination. Against this background it appears likely that those stress reactions during the scanning procedure may influence task performance and neural correlates. However, the question how sympathetic arousal elicited by the scanning procedure itself may act as a potential confounder of fMRI data remains unresolved today. Thirty-seven scanner naive healthy subjects performed a simple cued target detection task. Levels of salivary alpha amylase (sAA), as a biomarker for sympathetic activity, were assessed in samples obtained at several time points during the lab visit. SAA increased two times, immediately prior to scanning and at the end of the scanning procedure. Neural activation related to motor preparation and timing as well as task performance was positively correlated with the first increase. Furthermore, the first sAA increase was associated with task induced deactivation (TID) in frontal and parietal regions. However, these effects were restricted to the first part of the experiment. Consequently, this bias of scanner related sympathetic activation should be considered in future fMRI investigations. It is of particular importance for pharmacological investigations studying adrenergic agents and the comparison of groups with different stress vulnerabilities like patients and controls or adolescents and adults.

Background: Patients with Panic Disorder (PD) direct their attention towards potential threat, followed by panic attacks, and increased sweat production. Onés own anxiety sweat odor influences the attentional focus, and discrimination of threat or non-threat. Since olfactory projection areas overlap with neuronal areas of a panic-specific fear network, the present study investigated the neuronal processing of odors in general and of stress-related sweat odors in particular in patients with PD. Methods: A sample of 13 patients with PD with/ without agoraphobia and 13 age- and gender-matched healthy controls underwent an fMRI investigation during olfactory stimulation with their stress-related sweat odors (TSST, ergometry) as well as artificial odors (peach, artificial sweat) as non-fearful non-body odors. Principal Findings: The two groups did not differ with respect to their olfactory identification ability. Independent of the kind of odor, the patients with PD showed activations in fronto-cortical areas in contrast to the healthy controls who showed activations in olfaction-related areas such as the amygdalae and the hippocampus. For artificial odors, the patients with PD showed a decreased neuronal activation of the thalamus, the posterior cingulate cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex. Under the presentation of sweat odor caused by ergometric exercise, the patients with PD showed an increased activation in the superior temporal gyrus, the supramarginal gyrus, and the cingulate cortex which was positively correlated with the severity of the psychopathology. For the sweat odor from the anxiety condition, the patients with PD showed an increased activation in the gyrus frontalis inferior, which was positively correlated with the severity of the psychopathology. Conclusions: The results suggest altered neuronal processing of olfactory stimuli in PD. Both artificial odors and stress-related body odors activate specific parts of a fear-network which is associated with an increased severity of the psychopathology.

MA (Psychology) / Department of Psychology / See the attached abstract below

No description available.

A dor na coluna vertebral é a principal causa de incapacidade no mundo, com altas taxas de prevalência global. A partir de estudos sobre a fisiologia da dor e suas relações com estados psicológicos, tornou-se essencial a avaliação psicológica dos indivíduos com quadros dolorosos, para selecionar os perfis mais favoráveis às diferentes formas de tratamento. O questionário DRAM (Distress Risk Assessment Method) foi desenvolvido como instrumento de triagem para portadores de dor na coluna vertebral subclassificando os indivíduos em quatro grupos distintos (normal, sob risco, somático e depressivo), conforme a pontuação dos dois questionários que compõem o DRAM (MSPQ e Zung). O objetivo desse estudo é traduzir e adaptar o DRAM para o português brasileiro da versão original em inglês, além de analisar a confiabilidade da versão traduzida e adaptada. Segundo a metodologia IQOLA, consagrada em inúmeras publicações, foi desenvolvida uma versão em português brasileiro que foi aplicada a uma amostra inicial de 30 pacientes e a seguir à amostra final de 85 indivíduos dos três centros participantes portadores de dor lombar. Os resultados comprovaram a confiabilidade e reprodutibilidade da versão traduzida e adaptada do questionário DRAM com índice de Cronbach alfa de 0,815 para o MSPQ e 0,794 para o Zung e coeficiente de correlação intraclasse de 0,688 para o MSPQ e 0,659 para o Zung. Tais dados permitiram concluir que a versão do questionário DRAM traduzida e adaptada culturalmente para o português brasileiro é confiável e está disponível para uso na prática clínica / Back pain is the leading disability cause worldwide, with high global prevalence rates. Based on studies regarding pain physiology and its relation to emotional distress conditions, psychological evaluation became essential to determine the most favorable patient profiles to distinct therapeutic approaches. DRAM (Distress Risk Assessment Method) has been developed as screening instrument for patients with lumbar pain, classifying them in subgroups as normal, at risk, distressed somatic and distressed depressive, based on the two components of DRAM scores (MSPQ and Zung questionnaires). The objective of this study is to translate and culturally adapt DRAM to Brazilian Portuguese language, and determine the final version reliability. As proposed by IQOLA method, a Brazilian Portuguese version of DRAM has been applied to an initial sample of 30 patients and finally to a 85 individuals from three participant centers. Results confirmed the reliability and reproducibility of DRAM in its Brazilian Portuguese final version: Cronbach alpha of 0.815 (MSPQ) and 0.794 (Zung) and ICC (intraclass correlation coefficient) of 0.688 (MSPQ) and 0.659 (Zung), thus concluding that the presented DRAM version in Brazilian Portuguese is reliable as available to clinical practice use

A dor na coluna vertebral é a principal causa de incapacidade no mundo, com altas taxas de prevalência global. A partir de estudos sobre a fisiologia da dor e suas relações com estados psicológicos, tornou-se essencial a avaliação psicológica dos indivíduos com quadros dolorosos, para selecionar os perfis mais favoráveis às diferentes formas de tratamento. O questionário DRAM (Distress Risk Assessment Method) foi desenvolvido como instrumento de triagem para portadores de dor na coluna vertebral subclassificando os indivíduos em quatro grupos distintos (normal, sob risco, somático e depressivo), conforme a pontuação dos dois questionários que compõem o DRAM (MSPQ e Zung). O objetivo desse estudo é traduzir e adaptar o DRAM para o português brasileiro da versão original em inglês, além de analisar a confiabilidade da versão traduzida e adaptada. Segundo a metodologia IQOLA, consagrada em inúmeras publicações, foi desenvolvida uma versão em português brasileiro que foi aplicada a uma amostra inicial de 30 pacientes e a seguir à amostra final de 85 indivíduos dos três centros participantes portadores de dor lombar. Os resultados comprovaram a confiabilidade e reprodutibilidade da versão traduzida e adaptada do questionário DRAM com índice de Cronbach alfa de 0,815 para o MSPQ e 0,794 para o Zung e coeficiente de correlação intraclasse de 0,688 para o MSPQ e 0,659 para o Zung. Tais dados permitiram concluir que a versão do questionário DRAM traduzida e adaptada culturalmente para o português brasileiro é confiável e está disponível para uso na prática clínica / Back pain is the leading disability cause worldwide, with high global prevalence rates. Based on studies regarding pain physiology and its relation to emotional distress conditions, psychological evaluation became essential to determine the most favorable patient profiles to distinct therapeutic approaches. DRAM (Distress Risk Assessment Method) has been developed as screening instrument for patients with lumbar pain, classifying them in subgroups as normal, at risk, distressed somatic and distressed depressive, based on the two components of DRAM scores (MSPQ and Zung questionnaires). The objective of this study is to translate and culturally adapt DRAM to Brazilian Portuguese language, and determine the final version reliability. As proposed by IQOLA method, a Brazilian Portuguese version of DRAM has been applied to an initial sample of 30 patients and finally to a 85 individuals from three participant centers. Results confirmed the reliability and reproducibility of DRAM in its Brazilian Portuguese final version: Cronbach alpha of 0.815 (MSPQ) and 0.794 (Zung) and ICC (intraclass correlation coefficient) of 0.688 (MSPQ) and 0.659 (Zung), thus concluding that the presented DRAM version in Brazilian Portuguese is reliable as available to clinical practice use

We often form intentions but have to postpone them until the appropriate situation for retrieval and execution has come, an ability also referred to as event-based prospective memory. After intention completion, our cognitive system has to deactivate no-more-relevant intention representations from memory to avoid interference with subsequent tasks. In everyday life, we frequently rely on these abilities also in stressful situations. Surprisingly, little is known about potential stress effects on these functions. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the reliability of event-based prospective memory and of intention deactivation in conditions of acute psychosocial stress. To this aim, eighty-two participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test, a standardized stress protocol, or a standardized control situation. Following this treatment, participants performed a computerized event-based prospective memory task with non-salient and focal prospective memory cues in order to assess prospective memory performance and deactivation of completed intentions. Although the stress group showed elevated levels of salivary cortisol as marker of a stress-related increase in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity throughout the cognitive testing period compared to the no-stress group, prospective memory performance and deactivation of completed intentions did not differ between groups. Findings indicate that cognitive control processes subserving intention retrieval and deactivation after completion may be mostly preserved even under conditions of acute stress.

Předložená disertační práce se zabývá vývojem algoritmů pro detekci stresu z řečového signálu. Inovativnost této práce se vyznačuje dvěma typy analýzy řečového signálu, a to za použití samohláskových polygonů a analýzy hlasivkových pulsů. Obě tyto základní analýzy mohou sloužit k detekci stresu v řečovém signálu, což bylo dokázáno sérií provedených experimentů. Nejlepších výsledků bylo dosaženo pomocí tzv. Closing-To-Opening phase ratio příznaku v Top-To-Bottom kritériu v kombinaci s vhodným klasifikátorem. Detekce stresu založená na této analýze může být definována jako jazykově i fonémově nezávislá, což bylo rovněž dokázáno získanými výsledky, které dosahují v některých případech až 95% úspěšnosti. Všechny experimenty byly provedeny na vytvořené české databázi obsahující reálný stres, a některé experimenty byly také provedeny pro anglickou stresovou databázi SUSAS.