Perception of Size and Mass Relationships of Moving and Stationary Object in Collision Events in 10-to-11-Month-Old Infants.

Around 5.5-6.5 months of age, infants first attend to object size and perceive its mass cues in simple collision events.

Association between depression and epigenetic age acceleration: A co-twin control study.

Introduction: Prior studies have shown inconsistent findings of an association between depression and epigenetic aging. DNA methylation (DNAm) age acceleration can measure biological aging. We adopted a robust co-twin control study design to examine whether depression is associated with DNAm age acceleration after accounting for the potential confounding influences of genetics and family environment.

Application of Noninvasive Vagal Nerve Stimulation to Stress-Related Psychiatric Disorders.

Background: Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS) has been shown to be efficacious for the treatment of depression, but to date, VNS devices have required surgical implantation, which has limited widespread implementation.

Methods: New noninvasive VNS (nVNS) devices have been developed which allow external stimulation of the vagus nerve, and their effects on physiology in patients with stress-related psychiatric disorders can be measured with brain imaging, blood biomarkers, and wearable sensing devices. Advantages in terms of cost and convenience may lead to more widespread implementation in psychiatry, as well as facilitate research of the physiology of the vagus nerve in humans.

Investigating the social environment of the A-not-B search task.

Controversy exists concerning the origins of object permanence, with different measures suggesting different conclusions. Looking measures have been interpreted as evidence for early understanding (Baillargeon, 1987, Developmental Psychology, 23:655), while Piaget (The construction of reality in the child, 1954) interpreted perseverative reaching behaviour on his AB search task to be indicative of limited understanding. However, looking measures are often reported to be an unreliable index of infant expectation (Haith, 1998, Infant Behaviour and Development, 21:167) and reaching behaviour has been explained by many alternative processes (e.

Newborns are sensitive to the correspondence between auditory pitch and visuospatial elevation.

Amodal (redundant) and arbitrary cross-sensory feature associations involve the context-insensitive mapping of absolute feature values across sensory domains. Cross-sensory associations of a different kind, known as correspondences, involve the context-sensitive mapping of relative feature values. Are such correspondences in place at birth (like amodal associations), or are they learned from subsequently experiencing relevant feature co-occurrences in the world (like arbitrary associations)? To decide between these two possibilities, human newborns (median age = 44 hr) watched animations in which two balls alternately rose and fell together in space.

A Pilot Study of the Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Brain Response to Traumatic Reminders of Combat in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Combat Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

Objective: Brain imaging studies in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have implicated a circuitry of brain regions including the medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, parietal cortex, and insula. Pharmacological treatment studies have shown a reversal of medial prefrontal deficits in response to traumatic reminders. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a promising non-pharmacologic approach to the treatment of anxiety and pain disorders.

Association of vitamin D status with mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease.

Background: Mental stress-induced (MSIMI) or physical stress-induced (PSIMI) myocardial ischemia portends a worse prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, but its relationship to myocardial ischemia remains unclear. We hypothesized that vitamin D insufficiency will be associated with a higher prevalence of myocardial ischemia in patients with CAD.

Sex differences in mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia in young survivors of an acute myocardial infarction.

Objectives: Emotional stress may disproportionally affect young women with ischemic heart disease. We sought to examine whether mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia (MSIMI), but not exercise-induced ischemia, is more common in young women with previous myocardial infarction (MI) than in men.

Methods: We studied 98 post-MI patients (49 women and 49 men) aged 38 to 60 years.

Comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder and opiate addiction: a literature review.

Treatment of comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and opioid dependence has been a challenge for many clinicians. There are limited evidence-based guidelines for treatment of this comorbidity. Symptoms of PTSD and opiate dependence may converge, and it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between both conditions.

Association between promoter methylation of serotonin transporter gene and depressive symptoms: a monozygotic twin study.

Objective: Epigenetic mechanisms have been implicated in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders. The serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) is a key candidate gene for depression. We examined the association between SLC6A4 promoter methylation variation and depressive symptoms using 84 monozygotic twin pairs.

Monoamine oxidase A genotype, childhood trauma, and subclinical atherosclerosis: a twin study.

Objective: A functional promoter polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene has been implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders and also moderates the association between early-life stress and mental disorders, which often co-occur with cardiovascular disease. No study has examined the relationship between MAOA genotype, childhood trauma, and subclinical atherosclerosis. The objective of this investigation was to examine whether childhood trauma moderates the association between MAOA genotype and subclinical atherosclerosis.

Global DNA methylation is associated with insulin resistance: a monozygotic twin study.

Insulin resistance (IR), the hallmark of type 2 diabetes, may be under epigenetic control. This study examines the association between global DNA methylation and IR using 84 monozygotic twin pairs. IR was estimated using homeostasis model assessment (HOMA).

Is heart rate variability related to memory performance in middle-aged men?

Objective: Heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of autonomic function, has been associated with cognitive function, but studies are conflicting. Previous studies have also not controlled for familial and genetic influences.

Methods: We performed power spectral analysis on 24-hour ambulatory ECGs in 416 middle-aged male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry.

Validation and test-retest reliability of Early Trauma Inventory in Spanish postpartum women.

The aims were to study the validity and test-retest reliability of the Early Trauma Inventory-Self Report (ETI-SR) and its short-form (ETI-SF), which retrospectively assess different childhood trauma, in a sample of Spanish postpartum women. A total of 227 healthy postpartum women completed the ETI-SR and ETI-SF. The longitudinal, expert, all data procedure was used as the external criterion for the assessment of childhood trauma.

Pleiotropy of C-reactive protein gene polymorphisms with C-reactive protein levels and heart rate variability in healthy male twins.

Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) and increased C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are both predictors of coronary artery disease and correlate with each other. We examined whether these 2 phenotypes share a common genetic substrate and investigated the relations of the CRP gene polymorphisms with both CRP levels and HRV indexes. We examined 236 male twins free of symptomatic coronary artery disease, with a mean age +/- SD of 54 +/- 2.

Effects of a cognitive stress challenge on myocardial perfusion and plasma cortisol in coronary heart disease patients with depression.

Although it is well established that coronary heart disease (CHD) patients with depression exhibit increased mortality compared with equally ill cardiac patients without depression, the mechanisms mediating this effect remain obscure. Depression is characterized by vulnerability to stress and heightened stress responsiveness, and stress can theoretically act through several biological pathways to contribute to excess mortality from CHD. Mechanisms connecting stress, depression and cardiovascular mortality have not been previously explored in detail.

Compartmental modeling of 11C-HOMADAM binding to the serotonin transporter in the healthy human brain.

Unlabelled: The novel PET radioligand (11)C-N,N-dimethyl-2-(2'-amino-4'-hydroxymethylphenylthio)benzylamine ((11)C-HOMADAM) binds with high affinity and selectively to the serotonin transporter (SERT). The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable kinetic model to describe the uptake of (11)C-HOMADAM in the healthy human brain.

Methods: Eight volunteers participated in the study; 5 of them were fitted with arterial catheters for blood sampling and all were scanned on a high-resolution research tomograph after the injection of (11)C-HOMADAM.

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