The underlying architecture of musical sensibility: One general factor, four subdimensions, and strong genetic effects.

Current evidence suggests moderate heritability of music phenotypes, such as music listening and achievement. However, other fundamental traits underlying people's interest in music and its relevance for their lives have been largely neglected, and little is known about the genetic and environmental etiology of what we refer to as musical sensibility-the tendency to be emotionally and aesthetically engaged by music. This study investigated the latent structure, as well as the genetic and environmental factors influencing individual variability in multiple domains of musical sensibility, and the etiological architecture of the relationship between the dimensions.

Attachment and Political Personality are Heritable and Distinct Systems, and Both Share Genetics with Interpersonal Trust and Altruism.

The attachment and caregiving domains maintain proximity and care-giving behavior between parents and offspring, in a way that has been argued to shape people's mental models of how relationships work, resulting in secure, anxious or avoidant interpersonal styles in adulthood. Several theorists have suggested that the attachment system is closely connected to orientations and behaviors in social and political domains, which should be grounded in the same set of familial experiences as are the different attachment styles. We use a sample of Norwegian twins (N = 1987) to assess the genetic and environmental relationship between attachment, trust, altruism, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and social dominance orientation (SDO).

The genetic underpinnings of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation explain political attitudes beyond Big Five personality.

Objective: Political attitudes are predicted by the key ideological variables of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), as well as some of the Big Five personality traits. Past research indicates that personality and ideological traits are correlated for genetic reasons. A question that has yet to be tested concerns whether the genetic variation underlying the ideological traits of RWA and SDO has distinct contributions to political attitudes, or if genetic variation in political attitudes is subsumed under the genetic variation underlying standard Big Five personality traits.

Stability and Change in Biopsychosocial Factors Associated With Fatigue 6 and 12 Months After Traumatic Brain Injury: An Exploratory Multilevel Study.

Objective: To explore factors associated with stability and change in fatigue from 6 to 12 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Setting: Combined in- and outpatient acute care and postacute rehabilitation settings.

Participants: A total of 103 patients with confirmed intracranial injury were assessed 6 and/or 12 months following TBI.

The role of neuroticism and pain in dental anxiety: A twin study.

Objectives: Accumulating evidence has revealed that dental anxiety is robustly associated with dental care-related pain and discomfort, but also with the personality trait of neuroticism (i.e. the relatively stable disposition to experience the world as distressing, threatening and unsafe).

Justice sensitivity is undergirded by separate heritable motivations to be morally principled and opportunistic.

Injustice typically involves some people benefitting at the expense of others. An opportunist might then be selectively motivated to amend only the injustice that is harmful to them, while someone more principled would respond consistently regardless of whether they stand to gain or lose. Here, we disentangle such principled and opportunistic motives towards injustice.

Impact of Somatic Vulnerability, Psychosocial Robustness and Injury-Related Factors on Fatigue following Traumatic Brain Injury-A Cross-Sectional Study.

Fatigue is a common symptom after traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and a crucial target of rehabilitation. The subjective and multifactorial nature of fatigue necessitates a biopsychosocial approach in understanding the mechanisms involved in its development. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive exploration of factors relevant to identification and rehabilitation of fatigue following TBI.

The role of pain and psychological distress in fatigue: a co-twin and within-person analysis of confounding and causal relations.

Objective: Fatigue is a common symptom in somatic and mental illness. Musculoskeletal pain and psychological distress have in turn frequently been shown to be associated with fatigue across clinical conditions and in the general population. The study aims to disentangle direct effects from those due to mere confounding from shared etiologies.

Dentist-administered cognitive behavioural therapy versus four habits/midazolam: An RCT study of dental anxiety treatment in primary dental care.

The study aimed to test the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) administered by a general dental practitioner (GDP) in a general dental practice. In a two-arm parallel randomised controlled trial, the experimental group received a short dentist-administered CBT-intervention (D-CBT). A best-practice control group (FHM) received dental treatment during sedation with midazolam combined with an evidence-based communication model (The Four Habits Model).

Correlations between social dominance orientation and political attitudes reflect common genetic underpinnings.

A foundational question in the social sciences concerns the interplay of underlying causes in the formation of people's political beliefs and prejudices. What role, if any, do genes, environmental influences, or personality dispositions play? Social dominance orientation (SDO), an influential index of people's general attitudes toward intergroup hierarchy, correlates robustly with political beliefs. SDO consists of the subdimensions SDO-dominance (SDO-D), which is the desire people have for some groups to be actively oppressed by others, and SDO-egalitarianism (SDO-E), a preference for intergroup inequality.

Genetics, personality and wellbeing. A twin study of traits, facets and life satisfaction.

Human wellbeing is influenced by personality traits, in particular neuroticism and extraversion. Little is known about which facets that drive these associations, and the role of genes and environments. Our aim was to identify personality facets that are important for life satisfaction, and to estimate the contribution of genetic and environmental factors in the association between personality and life satisfaction.

Cardiovascular responses to and modulation of pressure pain sensitivity in normotensive, pain-free women.

Background and purpose The psychophysiological responses to and modulation of pressure pain stimulation are relatively new areas of investigation. The aims of the present study were to characterize subjective and cardiovascular (CV) responses to pressure pain stimulation, and to examine the relationship between CV responding and pain pressure pain sensitivity. Methods Thirty-nine pain-free, normotensive women were included in the study and tested during the follicular phase of their menstrual cycles.

Psychophysiological responses to pain stimulation and cognitive tasks in female temporomandibular disorder patients.

Background and purpose Psychophysiological factors may contribute to the development of temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Both local orofacial and systemic responses have been investigated. However, most studies have concentrated on physiological responding during cognitive challenges, while responses during painful tasks may be highly relevant for the development of chronic pain conditions.

Fatigue symptoms in relation to neuroticism, anxiety-depression, and musculoskeletal pain. A longitudinal twin study.

Background: The nature of the relationship between fatigue and its risk factors is poorly understood. In the present study the genetic and environmental association between anxiety-depression, musculoskeletal (MS) pain and fatigue was examined, and the role of neuroticism as a shared risk factor that may possibly explain the co-occurrence between these phenotypes was investigated in a combined cross-sectional and longitudinal twin design.

Methods: The sample consisted of 746 monozygotic (MZ) and 770 dizygotic (DZ) twins in the age group of 50-65 (mean = 57.

Musculoskeletal complaints, anxiety-depression symptoms, and neuroticism: A study of middle-aged twins.

Background: Musculoskeletal (MS) complaints are reported commonly, but the extent to which such complaints reflect the severity of site-specific pathology or a more generalized susceptibility to feel pain/discomfort is uncertain. Both site-specific and more widespread MS conditions have been shown to be linked to anxiety and depression, but the nature of this relationship is poorly understood. In the present study the role of neuroticism as a shared risk factor that may possibly explain the co-occurrence between anxiety-depression and MS complaints was investigated.

A clinimetric analysis of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) in general population studies (Denmark, Norway, and Italy).

Background: Although the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) is one of the most widely used self-reported scales covering several psychopathological states, the scalability of the SCL-90-R has been found to be very problematic.

Aims: We have performed a clinimetric analysis of the SCL-90-R, taking both its factor structure and scalability (i.e.

Five-factor personality traits and pain sensitivity: a twin study.

Factors underlying individual differences in pain responding are incompletely understood, but are likely to include genetic influences on basal pain sensitivity in addition to demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnicity, and psychological factors including personality. This study sought to explore the relationship between personality traits and experimental pain sensitivity, and to determine to what extent the covariances between these phenotypes are mediated by common genetic and environmental factors. A sample composed of 188 twins, aged 23 to 35years, was included in the study.

Neuroticism and self-reported somatic health: a twin study.

Using a twin sample (N = 188; 53 monozygotic and 39 dizygotic twin pairs, and 4 single twins whose co-twin did not participate), this study sought (1) to estimate heritabilities of neuroticism and of somatic complaints rated on the basis of two different time frames ('the last week' vs. 'in general'); (2) to estimate the genetic association between neuroticism and the complaints indices and (3) to examine to what extent somatic complaints are aetiologically distinct from neuroticism. Using models with common additive genetic (A) and individual-specific environmental (E) factors, the heritabilities for neuroticism and complaints 'in general' and during 'the last week' were 0.

Dental anxiety in relation to neuroticism and pain sensitivity. A twin study.

Predisposing personality traits as well as heightened pain sensitivity and fear of pain have been hypothesized as central factors in the development of dental anxiety. The aim of the study was to estimate the heritability of dental anxiety, and to investigate the genetic and environmental sources of covariance between dental anxiety on one hand, and pain sensitivity and the neuroticism trait on the other. A sample comprising 188 twins, aged 23-35 years (53 monozygotic and 39 dizygotic twin pairs, and 4 single twins whose co-twin did not participate), was included in the study.

Experimental pain sensitivity in women with temporomandibular disorders and pain-free controls: the relationship to orofacial muscular contraction and cardiovascular responses.

Objective: Chronic pain may result both from a generalized hypersensitivity to acute pain, suggestive of central sensitization processes, and dysfunction of the endogenous pain regulatory system. One purpose of this study was to compare experimental pain sensitivity at several anatomic sites in temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients and pain-free controls during baseline and after standardized mechanical load of the orofacial region. A second purpose was to compare the pain-modulating effects of cardiovascular responses in TMD patients and pain-free controls.

Individual differences in pain sensitivity: genetic and environmental contributions.

Large individual differences in pain sensitivity present a challenge for medical diagnosis and may be of importance for the development of chronic pain. Variance in pain sensitivity is partially mediated by genetic factors, but the extent of this contribution is uncertain. We examined cold-pressor pain and contact heat pain in 53 identical (MZ) and 39 fraternal (DZ) twin pairs, and 4 single twins to determine the heritability of the two phenotypes, and the extent to which the same genetic and environmental factors affect both pain modalities.

Characterizing individual differences in heat-pain sensitivity.

Heat induced pain has been shown to follow a positively accelerating power function for groups of subjects, yet the extent to which this applies to individual subjects is unknown. Statistical methods were developed for assessing the goodness of fit and reliability of the power function for data from individual subjects with the aim of using such functions for characterizing individual differences in heat-pain sensitivity. 175 subjects rated ascending and random series of contact heat stimuli with visual analogue scales for pain intensity (VAS-I) and unpleasantness (VAS-A).

Personality, affective response, and facial blood flow during brief cognitive tasks.

Blood pressure, heart rate, and changes in facial and finger blood flow were monitored in 58 women during three laboratory tasks, i.e., reading out a neutral text, a personally relevant speech (including a silent preparation phase), and a tracking task.