Impact trajectories of childhood maltreatment duration on affective and social development.

Childhood maltreatment (CM) deeply impacts victims' social competences. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect that CM duration exerts on victims' affective and social development testing three different impact trajectories (i.e.

Autonomic assessment at the intersection of psychosocial and gastrointestinal health.

Background: Wearable technology is increasingly used in clinical practice and research to monitor functional gastrointestinal symptoms and mental health.

Aims: This article explores the potential of wearable sensors to enhance the understanding of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), particularly its role in linking psychological and gastrointestinal function. The ANS, facilitates brain-gut communication and is responsive to psychosocial conditions.

Well-being in healthy Icelandic women varies with extreme seasonality in ambient light.

Seasonal variation in photoperiod may affect psychosocial and physical well-being in healthy persons. We tested this hypothesis in healthy pre-menopausal women, without a history of mood disorders, living year-round in Reykjavik, Iceland (64.1°N).

Association of Self-Reported Autonomic Symptoms With Sensor-Based Physiological Measures.

Objective: Autonomic regulation of organ and tissues may give rise to disruptions of typical functions. The Body Perception Questionnaire Short Form (BPQ-SF) includes items that were developed to assess autonomic symptoms in daily life. This pair of studies aimed to establish previously unexplored psychometric properties of the BPQ-SF autonomic symptoms scale, develop normative values for clinical and research use, and assess the convergence of self-reports with sensor-based measures.

PISTACHIo (PreemptIon of diSrupTive behAvior in CHIldren): real-time monitoring of sleep and behavior of children 3-7 years old receiving parent-child interaction therapy augment with artificial intelligence - the study protocol, pilot study.

Background: Emotional behavior problems (EBP) are the most common and persistent mental health issues in early childhood. Early intervention programs are crucial in helping children with EBP. Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based therapy designed to address personal difficulties of parent-child dyads as well as reduce externalizing behaviors.

Cardiac Vagal Regulation Is Impeded in Children With Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome.

Introduction: The pathophysiology underlying cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) remains undefined. Scant data and distinct clinical features point to altered autonomic nervous system function. Autonomic signaling can be noninvasively assessed through cardiac indices of parasympathetic vagal regulation, which is reduced in children with disorders of gut-brain interaction.

Predictors of Participation for Sexuality Items in a U.S. Population-Based Online Survey.

Online surveys are a popular tool in sex research and it is vital to understand participation bias in these surveys to improve inferences. However, research on this topic is limited and out of date given the increase in online survey methodology and changes in sexual attitudes. This study examined whether demographics and sexual abuse and assault history predict opting into online survey questions about sex.

Association of childhood maltreatment with adult body awareness and autonomic reactivity: The moderating effect of practicing body psychotherapy.

Research shows the disruptive effects of early maltreatment on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning in adulthood. Psychotherapists not only tend to report higher rates of personal experience with early maltreatment, but also fewer mental problems and disturbances in adulthood, as compared to other professions. However, the role of the ANS in these processes has been understudied despite the relevance of the therapist's psychological state and related nonverbal communication for the therapeutic alliance.

"A new measure of feeling safe: Developing psychometric properties of the Neuroception of Psychological Safety Scale (NPSS)": Correction.

Unlabelled: Reports an error in "A new measure of feeling safe: Developing psychometric properties of the Neuroception of Psychological Safety Scale (NPSS)" by Liza Morton, Nicola Cogan, Jacek Kolacz, Calum Calderwood, Marek Nikolic, Thomas Bacon, Emily Pathe, Damien Williams and Stephen W. Porges (, Advanced Online Publication, Jul 18, 2022, np). In the original article, the first name of Jacek Kolacz was misspelled as "Jakec" in the author byline and twice in the acknowledgments.

ENACT study: What has helped health and social care workers maintain their mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic?

A growing body of research has highlighted the adverse impact of COVID-19 stressors on health and social care workers' (HSCWs) mental health. Complementing this work, we report on the psychosocial factors that have had both a positive and negative impact on the mental well-being of HSCWs during the third lockdown period in Scotland. Using a cross-sectional design, participants (n = 1364) completed an online survey providing quantitative data and free open-text responses.

A new measure of feeling safe: Developing psychometric properties of the Neuroception of Psychological Safety Scale (NPSS).

Unlabelled: [Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online in on Sep 15 2022 (see record 2023-01894-001). In the original article, the first name of Jacek Kolacz was misspelled as "Jakec" in the author byline and twice in the acknowledgments. In addition, the affiliations of Jacek Kolacz and Stephen W.

Childhood Maltreatment Influences Autonomic Regulation and Mental Health in College Students.

Childhood maltreatment history may influence autonomic reactivity and recovery to stressors. Hypothetically, the maltreatment history may contribute to a retuned autonomic nervous system that is reflected in a novel metric, vagal efficiency (VE), designed to assess the functional efficiency of vagal cardioinhibitory pathways on heart rate. We explored whether VE mediates the well-documented relationship between maltreatment history and psychiatric symptoms.

Increased Autonomic Reactivity and Mental Health Difficulties in COVID-19 Survivors: Implications for Medical Providers.

Background: Because there is a relationship between mental health (MH) and medical adversity and autonomic dysregulation, we hypothesized that individuals infected with COVID-19 would report greater current autonomic reactivity and more MH difficulties (emotional distress, mindfulness difficulties, and posttraumatic stress). We also hypothesized that individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 who are experiencing difficulties related to their prior adversity and those providing medical care to COVID-19 patients would be more negatively impacted due to their increased stress and infection rates.

Method: US participants ( = 1,638; 61% female; Age = 46.

Use of heart rate variability to predict hospital length of stay for COVID-19 patients: A prospective observational study.

Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, determining hospital demands has become a vital priority. Heart rate variability (HRV) has been linked to both the presence of viral infection and its severity. We investigate the possibility of using HRV parameters in comparison to other clinical parameters for predicting the hospital length of stay (LOS) for COVID-19 patients.

Associations between acoustic features of maternal speech and infants' emotion regulation following a social stressor.

Caregiver voices may provide cues to mobilize or calm infants. This study examined whether maternal prosody predicted changes in infants' biobehavioral state after the still face, a stressor in which the mother withdraws and reinstates social engagement. Ninety-four dyads participated in the study (infant age 4-8 months).

Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Body Perception Questionnaire.

Background/objective: The purpose of this study was to cross-culturally adapt the Body Perception Questionnaire Short Form (BPQ-SF) into Italian and to assess its psychometric properties in a sample of Italian subjects.

Methods: A forward-backward method was used for translation. 493 adults were recruited for psychometric analysis.

Cardiac autonomic regulation and joint hypermobility in adolescents with functional abdominal pain disorders.

Background: Joint hypermobility (JH) is associated with autonomic nervous system dysregulation and functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs). Understanding the neurophysiological processes linking these conditions can inform clinical interventions. Autonomic activity regulates gastrointestinal (GI) sensorimotor function and may be a key mechanism.

Item Reduction, Psychometric and Biometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Body Perception Questionnaire-Short Form (BPQ-SF): The BPQ-22.

Body awareness disorders and reactivity are mentioned across a range of clinical problems. Constitutional differences in the control of the bodily state are thought to generate a vulnerability to psychological symptoms. Autonomic nervous system dysfunctions have been associated with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress.

Adversity History Predicts Self-Reported Autonomic Reactivity and Mental Health in US Residents During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The spread of the COVID-19 virus presents an unprecedented event that rapidly introduced widespread life threat, economic destabilization, and social isolation. The human nervous system is tuned to detect safety and danger, integrating body and brain responses via the autonomic nervous system. Shifts in brain-body states toward danger responses can compromise mental health.

Towards an understanding of neurophysiological self-regulation in early childhood: A heuristic and a new approach.

Self-regulation in early childhood encompasses both "top down," volitional processes, as well as the "bottom up" activity of three neurophysiological systems: the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In this paper we briefly review the structure, function, and early development of each of these systems and then explain why neurophysiological self-regulation is most accurately defined as a function of their joint activity. We note that while there are a number of predictive models that employ this definition, the field would benefit from a straightforward heuristic and aligned methods of visualization and analysis.

Impaired Vagal Efficiency Predicts Auricular Neurostimulation Response in Adolescent Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders.

Introduction: To determine whether pretreatment vagal efficiency (VE), respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and heart period can predict pain improvement with auricular neurostimulation in pediatric functional abdominal pain disorders.

Methods: A total of 92 adolescents with functional abdominal pain disorders underwent a 4-week randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled auricular neurostimulation trial. Electrocardiogram-derived variables at baseline were used to predict pain using mixed effects modeling.

The neurophysiological embedding of child maltreatment.

Maltreatment adversely impacts the development of children across a host of domains. One way in which maltreatment may exert its deleterious effects is by becoming embedded in the activity of neurophysiological systems that regulate metabolic function. This paper reviews the literature regarding the association between childhood maltreatment and the activity of three systems: the parasympathetic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Early Life Maternal Separation and Maternal Behaviour Modulate Acoustic Characteristics of Rat Pup Ultrasonic Vocalizations.

Early separation of preterm infants from their mothers has adverse, long-term neurodevelopmental consequences. We investigated the effects of daily maternal separation (MS) of rat pups from postnatal days 2-10 (PND2-10) on neurobehavioural responses to brief isolation at PND12 compared with pups receiving controlled handling without MS. Ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) were measured at PND12 during two, 3-minute isolations occurring immediately before and after a 3-minute maternal reunion.

Sexual function in adults with a history of childhood maltreatment: Mediating effects of self-reported autonomic reactivity.

Objective: A growing body of literature documents sexual problems following maltreatment and traumatic experience, but the mechanisms of these effects are poorly understood. The autonomic nervous system coordinates typical and threat-reactive functions throughout the body, including those of reproductive organs. We examined whether relations between adult sexual function problems and childhood maltreatment history could be mediated by an autonomic nervous system retuning with a bias toward maintaining a physiological state that supports defensive strategies.