Feasibility and acceptability of measuring positivity resonance in nurse-patient telehealth videoconferencing visits: A mixed-methods observational study.

Aim: To investigate the feasibility and acceptability of the training process, procedures, measures and recruitment strategies necessary for a future investigation to test the reliability and validity of using positivity resonance measures in health care encounters.

Background: Although the measurement of positivity resonance is promising, and non-participant observation is considered effective, their approaches to studying nurse-patient relationships have not been fully explored.

Design: A mixed-methods observational study.

Diminished preparatory physiological responses in frontotemporal lobar degeneration syndromes.

Researchers typically study physiological responses either after stimulus onset or when the emotional valence of an upcoming stimulus is revealed. Yet, participants may also respond when they are told that an emotional stimulus is about to be presented even without knowing its valence. Increased physiological responding during this time may reflect a 'preparation for action'.

Positivity resonance in long-term married couples: Multimodal characteristics and consequences for health and longevity.

The Positivity Resonance Theory of coexperienced positive affect describes moments of interpersonal connection characterized by shared positive affect, caring nonverbal synchrony, and biological synchrony. The construct validity of positivity resonance and its longitudinal associations with health have not been tested. The current longitudinal study examined whether positivity resonance in conflict interactions between 154 married couples predicts health trajectories over 13 years and longevity over 30 years.

Problem Solving Training for Veterans with Complex Comorbidities: Treatment Delivery Adaptations during COVID-19.

Objectives: To summarize adaptations due to COVID-19 for VA Problem Solving Training (PST) for clinicians serving medically complex patients and to compare patient mental health outcomes in the year before (2019) and during COVID-19 (2020).

Methods: Clinicians attended a multi-day workshop and up to 6 months of small-group consultation for two training cases. In 2019 and 2020, 122 Veteran patients completed baseline and posttreatment measures of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 item), and negative problem-solving beliefs (Negative Problem Orientation Questionnaire).

Shared emotions in shared lives: Moments of co-experienced affect, more than individually experienced affect, linked to relationship quality.

Motivated by collective emotions theories that propose emotions shared between individuals predict group-level qualities, we hypothesized that co-experienced affect during interactions is associated with relationship quality, above and beyond the effects of individually experienced affect. Consistent with positivity resonance theory, we also hypothesized that co-experienced positive affect would have a stronger association with relationship quality than would co-experienced negative affect. We tested these hypotheses in 150 married couples across 3 conversational interactions: a conflict, a neutral topic, and a pleasant topic.

Physiological linkage during shared positive and shared negative emotion.

Physiological linkage refers to the degree to which peoples' physiological responses change in coordinated ways. Here, we examine whether and how physiological linkage relates to incidents of shared emotion, distinguished by valence. Past research has used an "overall average" approach and characterized how physiological linkage over relatively long time periods (e.

Behavioral indices of positivity resonance associated with long-term marital satisfaction.

Positivity resonance-defined as a synthesis of shared positive affect, mutual care and concern, plus behavioral and biological synchrony-is theorized to contribute to a host of positive outcomes, including relationship satisfaction. The current study examined whether, in long-term married couples, behavioral indices of positivity resonance (rated using a new behavioral coding system) are associated with concurrent shared positive affect using a well-established dyadic-level behavioral coding system (i.e.

Emotion regulation via visual avoidance: Insights from neurological patients.

Visual avoidance of unpleasant stimuli (i.e., strategic positioning of eyes, head and torso away from an environmental stimulus) is a common attentional control behavior that may down-regulate emotion by reducing visual input.

Greater Experience of Negative Non-Target Emotions by Patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases Is Related to Lower Emotional Well-Being in Caregivers.

Background: Behavioral symptoms in patients with neurodegenerative diseases can be particularly challenging for caregivers. Previously, we reported that patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) experienced emotions that were atypical or incongruent with a given situation (i.e.

Lower Visual Avoidance in Dementia Patients Is Associated with Greater Psychological Distress in Caregivers.

Caring for a spouse with dementia can lead to increased health problems in caregivers. The present study examined whether patient deficits in visual avoidance, a common form of emotion regulation, are related to greater psychological distress in caregivers. Participants were 43 Alzheimer disease (AD) patients, 43 behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, and their spousal caregivers.

Insular atrophy and diminished disgust reactivity.

Disgust is an emotion that helps us deal with potential contamination (Rozin & Fallon, 1987). It produces a distinctive facial expression (e.g.

Abnormal decision-making in generalized anxiety disorder: Aversion of risk or stimulus-reinforcement impairment?

There is preliminary data indicating that patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) show impairment on decision-making tasks requiring the appropriate representation of reinforcement value. The current study aimed to extend this literature using the passive avoidance (PA) learning task, where the participant has to learn to respond to stimuli that engender reward and avoid responding to stimuli that engender punishment. Six stimuli engendering reward and six engendering punishment are presented once per block for 10 blocks of trials.

Dissociable roles of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) in value representation and optimistic bias.

Optimistic bias (OB) is seen when individuals underestimate their probability of experiencing negative life events and overestimate their probability of experiencing positive life events. A reduced OB has been linked with increased depression symptoms. However, given the relevance of this information to mood and anxiety disorders, little is currently known regarding the neurobiology of OB.

Reduced dorsal anterior cingulate cortical activity during emotional regulation and top-down attentional control in generalized social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and comorbid generalized social phobia/generalized anxiety disorder.

Background: Generalized social phobia (GSP) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are both associated with emotion dysregulation. Research implicates dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in both explicit emotion regulation (EER) and top-down attentional control (TAC). Although studies have examined these processes in GSP or GAD, no work compares findings across the two disorders or examines functioning in cases comorbid for both disorders (GSP/GAD).

The pathology of social phobia is independent of developmental changes in face processing.

Objective: While social phobia in adolescence predicts the illness in adulthood, no study has directly compared the neural responses in social phobia in adults and adolescents. The authors examined neural responses to facial expressions in adults and adolescents with social phobia to determine whether the neural correlates of adult social phobia during face processing also manifest in adolescent social phobia.

Method: Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses were compared in 39 medication-free participants with social phobia (25 adults and 14 adolescents) and 39 healthy comparison subjects (23 adults and 16 adolescents) matched on age, IQ, and gender.

Atypical modulation of medial prefrontal cortex to self-referential comments in generalized social phobia.

Generalized social phobia (GSP) involves the fear of being negatively evaluated. Previous work suggests that self-referentiality, mediated by the medial prefrontal cortex (MFPC), plays an important role in the disorder. However, it is not clear whether this anomalous MPFC response to self-related information in patients with GSP concerns an increased representation of their own or others' opinions.

Social norm processing in adult social phobia: atypically increased ventromedial frontal cortex responsiveness to unintentional (embarrassing) transgressions.

Objective: Little is known about the neural underpinnings of generalized social phobia, which is defined by a persistent heightened fear of social disapproval. Using event-related functional MRI (fMRI), the authors examined whether the intent of an event, which mediates the neural response to social disapproval in healthy individuals, differentially affects response in generalized social phobia.

Method: Sixteen patients with generalized social phobia and 16 healthy comparison subjects group-matched on age, gender, and IQ underwent fMRI scans while reading stories that involved neutral social events, unintentional social transgressions (e.

Sporadic hemiplegic migraine and CREST syndrome.

Hemiplegic migraines are characterised by attacks of migraine with aura accompanied by transient motor weakness. There are both familial and sporadic subtypes, which are now recognised as separate entities by the International Classification of Headache Disorders, edition II (ICHD-II). The sporadic subtype has been associated with other medical conditions, particularly rheumatological diseases.