A recent line of research has provided consistent evidence that confiding traumatic or stressful experiences not only provides psychological benefits, but also improves physical health among populations without significant psychopathology. This study attempted to replicate and extend the work of Pennebaker and colleagues using a clinical population (i.e. Major Depressive Disorder) and a different method of disclosure (i.e. a structured clinical interview). Thirty-nine out of 61 subjects, who were interviewed to determine eligibility for a depression treatment study, met entrance criteria and completed the study. Heart rate (HR), skin conductance level (SCL), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded before, during and after administering the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression at baseline. In contrast to expectation and to previous research, disclosure level during the interview did not predict long-term improvements in mental or physical health amongst individuals with Major Depression who completed treatment. Disclosure during a clinical interview about depression may not be as beneficial as open-ended disclosure about traumatic or stressful experiences. Another possible explanation for why disclosure did not result in improved mental or physical health may be that the treatment effect was sufficiently strong to overshadow any subtle effects of disclosure. Increased physiological arousal from before to after the interview predicted less depression and anxiety at the end of the study, but did not predict decreased health utilization or improved health as found in previous research. Increased arousal following disclosure may indicate that cognitive change has occurred. Cognitive change may lead to insights that facilitate long-term improvements in mental health. The present study suggests the utility of further examining the association between physiological arousal during disclosure and its long-term impact on mental and physical health in clinical populations.

The current study was designed to test the efficacy of a meditation-based intervention, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), for women with stage II breast cancer. This prospective randomized study examined the effects of psychological and sleep functioning in the MBSR treatment group compared to a control group. The treatment consisted of a group format focusing on training participants in mindfulness meditation and its application to daily life. Participants in the control group recorded the stress management activities they chose to engage in each day. Results indicated that over time all participants' psychological well-being improved regardless of experimental condition. The MBSR condition did not improve significantly more than the control condition. Within the MBSR group, however, those participants reporting greater mindfulness meditation practice improved on both sleep and psychological variables more than those who practiced less. Implications of the study findings are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.

Few studies have been undertaken to explore whether REM EMG suppression is exhibited in facial muscles other than the mentalis. The present study is an investigation of facial muscle activity during REM sleep in ten vivid dreamers. Sustained facial muscle activity (FMA) was observed during paradoxical sleep in six of the ten subjects. The FMAs observed ranged from a minimum criterion of 6 seconds to sustained FMA "bouts" of up to 59.5 seconds in duration. The FMAs observed had voltages which ranged from a minimum criterion of 4.0 v to maximum bursts of 78 v. Across the 6 subjects who exhibited FMAs, there was a total of 19 events. EMG activity was usually observed in the corrugator, although it was sometimes observed in the zygomatic, frontalis, and masseter. The potential relevance of sustained facial muscle activity to emotion experienced during REM is discussed.

Positron emission tomography (PET) studies of the human brain reveal pain-related activation in several regions of the cerebral cortex. Nevertheless, patterns of activation vary among studies. This study used the more sensitive method, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to assess variability between and within subjects, for both pain and tactile-related activation. Four subjects participated in two fMRI sessions each. Thermal and tactile stimuli were applied to the skin on separate runs. Activation maps were generated comparing painful to neutral heat and tactile to rest. / Group analysis revealed pain- and tactile-related activation consistent with the majority of PET studies. Comparison of activation sites across subjects revealed differences in the location of peaks corresponding to anatomical variability in sulcal position. Comparing across sessions for each subject revealed differences in the intensity but not the location of peaks. / These results indicate that pain and touch evoke reliable patterns of cortical activation. Intensity-related differences and intersubject variability could explain the variable results of PET studies.

<p> Homophobia in men may be, in part, due to reaction formation rooted in unacceptable same-sex attraction. Previous studies have not confirmed a covert same-sex attraction in homophobic men, which is necessary for a reaction formation theory of homophobia. This study sought to reveal possible covert same-sex attraction in homophobic men. In this study, heterosexual and homosexual male erotic images were presented in a passive S1/S2 stimulus prediction design to 48 self-identified heterosexual participants, grouped by homophobia. Three event-related potential responses related to valenced emotional processing were examined: the medial frontal negativity (MFN), the late positive potential (LPP), and the positive frontal slow wave (FSW). While homophobic men have a larger FSW in response to erotics across the board, <i>F</i>(1,46) = 3.88, <i>p</i> = .055, no significant interactions between homophobia and image content were found. As such, homophobic men may have more interest in erotic images in general, but this study does not demonstrate that homophobic men find homosexual erotics appetitive.</p>

<p> The population structure of the United States is changing; the older age group is increasing in size relative to the younger generation. The trend is expected to continue, especially starting in 2020, when the baby boomer population&mdash;estimated at 80 million&mdash;will be reaching their 65^th birthday, a time associated with increasing health complications, including depression and dementia. The study employed a holistic paradigm as the conceptual framework to examine the association between depression and dementia in older adults, and generated a grounded theory to illuminate the relationship between depression and dementia. This theory was then used to assess the efficacy of stimulation, a nurturing environment, and treatment provided by an adult day health care (ADHC) in ameliorating the symptoms and progression of both dementia and depression. The sample consisted of 60 clients from a California ADHC center who were diagnosed with depression and dementia and who had received at least 6 months of services at the center. Paired <i> t</i> tests tested the validity of the hypotheses on depression among older adults and its correlation with their cognitive abilities. The results of paired <i>t</i> tests indicated a significant reduction in the client's level of depression between the time of their admission and the time of their reassessment 6 months later. This study can provide data for the larger social change discussion as to what resources should be allocated to meet the quickly escalating health, economic, and humanitarian pressures of the baby boom cohort.</p>

<p> Sharp waves are areas of transient electrophysiological activity on conventional electroencephalogram (EEG) and are controversial as to their role in psychopathology. While some previous research has approached sub-seizure sharp waves as benign phenomena, the position taken in this study is that such activity indicates focal brain abnormalities with demonstrable behavioral correlations. This study explored the hypotheses that prevalence, location, and pattern of distribution of sharp wave activities in psychiatric patients would be associated with significant pathology and would predict specific clinical features. In a sample of 250 outpatient psychiatric patients, seventy-one non-epileptic patients demonstrated focal epileptiform predominantly distributed to frontotemporal regions. Location and distribution patterns of sharp wave activity had significant implications for clinical presentation, including relationship between homologous pairs of electrodes and affective symptom endorsement. Results of this study provide support of the pathological nature of epileptiform activity and suggest location and distribution have significant impact on clinical features. </p>

<p>In order to integrate a mind, body, spirit approach in school settings, yoga programming such as Y.O.G.A. for Youth was introduced to one public and two charter schools in Los Angeles area urban neighborhoods. The study examined the effectiveness of the overall program and its effect on adolescent stress, emotional affect, and resilience. A survey was administered to measure the three dependent variables and informal interviews were conducted to determine the overall effectiveness of the program. The results of the mixed method approach indicated that the overall program was effective in creating a general sense of well-being and statistically significant in alleviating stress (p &lt; .05), increasing positive affect (p &lt; .05), and resilience (p &lt; .001), in the participants (N=30). </p>

Intraspecific chemical communications are documented in animals from single-celled organisms to nonhuman mammals. Increasing behavioral studies and recent brain imaging studies using positron emission tomography point to the existence of chemical communications in humans. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined whether the brain differentiates between human-related smells (sweat of sexual arousal, sweat of neutral emotion, and putative human sex pheromone androstadienone) and their non-social control (phenyl ethyl alcohol or PEA) after controlling for differences in the perceived intensity and pleasantness of the smells. With PEA as the reference point, we identified a region in the right fusiform gyrus which showed strong activation to the sweat of sexual arousal and little response to the putative sex pheromone. Our result suggests the right fusiform recognizes the human quality associated with the sweat of sexual arousal. Keywords. Chemical communication, fMRI, fusiform, human body odor

Recent research has shown that vision can enhance tactile perception in studies with monkeys, patients, and normal participants. However, relatively few studies have investigated if visual information can systematically increase tactile perception. This study used exposure to a visual-tactile conflict to improve tactile processing in order to determine what experimental manipulations of vision and touch induced sustained visual enhancement of tactile perception across extended time periods. A number of different tactile stimulation paradigms were used in order to determine which method would give the most robust and stable improvement in touch perception. While tactile perception was enhanced after conflict exposure in almost all the tactile tasks, the visual enhancement of touch could not be demonstrated repeatedly on successive blocks for an extended period of time. Therefore, subjects likely adapted to the visual-tactile conflict so that repeated administrations of the conflict did not influence their tactile processing.