The role of white matter variability in TMS neuromodulatory effects.

Background: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a widely used tool to explore the causal role of focal brain regions in cognitive processing. TMS effects over attentional processes are consistent and replicable, while at the same time subjected to individual variability. This individual variability needs to be understood to better comprehend TMS effects, and most importantly, its clinical applications.

Cardiac sensitivity to rewards in cognitively inflexible nonclinical participants.

Background: In psychopathologies characterized by compulsive decision-making, core impairments include cognitive inflexibility and excessive sensitivity to rewards. It has been posited that traits shared by nonclinical individuals and psychiatric patients could help explain the pathogenesis of compulsive decision-making.

Methods: To investigate whether cognitive inflexibility predisposes nonclinical individuals to poor choices and hyper-reactivity to reward, we recruited people with high and low scores for cognitive persistence and used the Iowa Gambling Task to assess decision-making and cardiac reactivity to monetary gains/losses.

Sympathetic contributions to habituation and recovery of the cardiac defense response.

The cardiac defense response (CDR) to intense auditory stimulation is characterized by two acceleration-deceleration heart rate (HR) components. This study investigated contributions of sympathetic cardiac control to habituation and recovery of the CDR. Fifty-six healthy subjects were presented with noise stimuli eliciting the CDR.

Tonic Immobility in PTSD: Exacerbation of Emotional Cardiac Defense Response.

Among defensive behaviors, tonic immobility (TI) is considered the last defensive resort when life is at extreme risk. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the main psychiatric consequence resulting from exposure to traumatic events. Increasing evidence indicate an association between peritraumatic tonic immobilility and severity of PTSD.

Mathematical detection of aortic valve opening (B point) in impedance cardiography: A comparison of three popular algorithms.

The preejection period (PEP) is an index of left ventricle contractility widely used in psychophysiological research. Its computation requires detecting the moment when the aortic valve opens, which coincides with the B point in the first derivative of impedance cardiogram (ICG). Although this operation has been traditionally made via visual inspection, several algorithms based on derivative calculations have been developed to enable an automatic performance of the task.

Relationships between baroreceptor cardiac reflex sensitivity and cognitive performance: modulations by gender and blood pressure.

This study aimed at replicating and extending previous results on the association between baroreceptor reflex sensitivity (BRS) and cognitive performance. Thirty men and 31 women performed an arithmetic task. After adjusting for numerical aptitude and effort, no predictors of performance were found in men.

Peculiar surface behavior of some ionic liquids based on active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The ionic liquids based on biologically active cations and anions, commonly designated by ionic liquids based on active pharmaceutical ingredients (ILs-APIs), are interesting compounds for use in pharmaceutical applications. Lidocaine docusate, ranitidine docusate, and didecyldimethylammonium ibuprofen are examples of promising ILs-APIs that were recently synthesized. They were submitted to biological testing and calorimetric measurements, but nothing is known about their surface properties.

Psychophysiological correlates of chronic worry: cued versus non-cued fear reaction.

Worry has been defined as a chain of thoughts and images that promote mental attempts to avoid anticipation of potential threats. From this perspective worry can be conceptualized as a state of anticipatory anxiety or non-cued fear reaction. The present study examines high and low chronic worriers during cued and non-cued defense reaction paradigms and during resting and self-induced worry periods.

Communalities and differences in fear potentiation between cardiac defense and eyeblink startle.

This study examines similarities and differences in fear potentiation between two protective reflexes: cardiac defense and eyeblink startle. Women reporting intense fear of animals but low fear of blood or intense fear of blood but low fear of animals viewed pictures depicting blood or the feared animal for 6 s in 2 separate trials in counterbalanced order. An intense burst of white noise, able to elicit both a cardiac defense response and a reflexive startle blink, was presented 3.

Habituation and sensitization of protective reflexes: dissociation between cardiac defense and eye-blink startle.

We examined the habituation and recovery of two protective reflexes, cardiac defense and eye-blink startle, simultaneously elicited by a white noise of 500ms as a function of the time interval between stimulus presentations. Participants were 90 volunteers (54 women) randomly distributed into 6 inter-trial interval (ITI) conditions. They all received three presentations of the stimulus with a time interval of 30min between the first and third noise.

[The International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS): Spanish norms].

The International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS): Spanish Norms. The Spanish norms for the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS) are reported. The IADS is a standardized set of 110 digitalized sounds which are both reliable and valid for the experimental study of emotional processes.

Behaviour of wetting films of sodium hyaluronate saline solutions.

The behaviour of wetting films of sodium hyaluronate (NaHA) saline solutions, at physiological conditions, is investigated using interferometry. Concentrations in the range of dilute and semi-dilute regimes were chosen to assess the role of bulk molecular interactions on the surface forces. The transition from dilute to semi-dilute solutions is known to occur at c*=0.

Cardiac defense: from attention to action.

The concept of defense relates to the idea that organisms react physiologically to the presence of danger or threat in order to protect themselves from potential injury or death. This article reviews the literature on cardiac defense, a specific defense reaction that has a long tradition in psychophysiological research. The review begins with a brief analysis of the two traditional approaches to understand this autonomic response: the cognitive -- linked to Pavlov, Sokolov, and Graham's work on sensory reflexes -- and the motivational -- linked to Cannon and Selye's work on the concepts of activation and stress.

Effect of concentration and temperature on surface tension of sodium hyaluronate saline solutions.

The effect of concentration and temperature on the surface tension of sodium hyaluronate (NaHA) saline solutions was investigated using the technique of the shape of pendant drops. The decay rate of the surface tension with the increase of NaHA concentration was well-described by the empirical Hua-Rosen equation. Adsorption at the air-liquid interface was estimated using the Gibbs equation.

[Psychophysiological mechanisms involved in the affective regulation and food restriction of women at risk of suffering from bulimia nervosa].

The aim of the study was to explore the effect of visualizing food images under different mood states and food restriction conditions on the emotional modulation of two defense reflexes (startle reflex and cardiac defense). 72 women at risk of suffering from bulimia nervosa were assigned to two groups: 1) a group under induced positive, neutral, or negative mood state and, 2) a 6-hour-food-deprived group or a non-deprived group. Second-by-second heart rate and electromyogram activity from the orbiculari oculi region were recorded after the auditory stimulus.

Stability of triglyceride liquid films on hydrophilic and hydrophobic glasses.

Wetting and dewetting of solid surfaces by oily fluids were investigated in terms of the stability of the liquid film formed between an air bubble and the solid surface. With the objective of understanding how molecules with low polarity but relatively complex molecular structure behave at the solid/liquid interface, three liquid triglycerides with different chain length and saturation were chosen, namely, tributyrin, tricaprylin, and triolein. Tributyrin and tricaprylin exist in milkfat while triolein is present in vegetable oils.

Non-conscious modulation of cardiac defense by masked phobic pictures.

The present study investigated the modulation of cardiac defense by presenting emotional pictures under both effective and non-effective masking procedures. The aim was to test Ohman's model of pre-attentive processing of fear. Participants were 48 women volunteers with intense fear of spiders.

A new method for bidimensional analysis of interferometric patterns of liquid films.

A new method for bidimensional analysis of interferometric patterns of wetting liquid films obtained with the captive bubble technique is described. This method replaces one-dimensional analysis along various intensity profiles with analysis of one average intensity profile. The advantage is to concentrate the surface characteristics of the whole film image into a single intensity profile.

Wetting films of polar and nonpolar liquids.

Disjoining pressure isotherms for water and n-octane films on glass obtained using a recently developed apparatus, based on the interferometric technique, are compared with other values reported in the literature. Our method, including a simple cleaning procedure, yields experimental results in excellent agreement both with other experimental results and with theoretical predictions. An error analysis was made which quantifies the uncertainty of our results and simultaneously allows the minimization of the errors.