A Systematic Review of the Relationship Between Traumatic Brain Injury and Disruptions in Heart Rate Variability.

Autonomic nervous system dysfunction is increasingly recognized as a common sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Heart rate variability (HRV) is a specific measure of autonomic nervous system functioning that can be used to measure beat-to-beat changes in heart rate following TBI. The objective of this systematic review was to determine the state of the literature on HRV dysfunction following TBI, assess the level of support for HRV dysfunction following TBI, and determine if HRV dysfunction predicts mortality and the severity and subsequent recovery of TBI symptoms.

Using the Research Domain Criteria as a framework to integrate psychophysiological findings into stress management and psychotherapy interventions.

Research on the psychophysiology of stress is expanding rapidly, but the field lacks a clear integrative framework to help translate research findings into empirically supported stress interventions. The Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) is an excellent candidate to explore as a framework to integrate stress research. The RDoC framework is a dimensional, multi-modal approach to psychopathology proposed as an alternative to categorical approaches used by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

Efficacy of Emotionally Focused Therapy among Spanish-speaking couples: study protocol of a randomized clinical trial in Argentina, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Spain.

Background: Couple relationship distress is common and associated with poor physical, psychological, and relational outcomes for both partners. Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples (EFT) is a short-term structured approach based on attachment theory that integrates a humanistic, experiential approach to restructuring emotional experience and a systemic structural approach to restructuring interactions. This model has been shown to be an effective treatment for couple distress.

The Brain Is Adaptive Not Triune: How the Brain Responds to Threat, Challenge, and Change.

Theory impacts how research is conducted. A popular theory used to conceptualize brain functioning is the triune brain theory. The triune brain theory is an evolutionary theory of brain development that emphasizes three key brain regions consisting of the brainstem, the limbic system, and the cortex that function relatively independently in coping with stress via fight or flight, emotion, and cognition, respectively.

The relationship between acute stress and neurophysiological and behavioral measures of food-related inhibitory control: An event-related potential (ERP) study.

Stress influences many health-related behaviors including diet and nutrition intake, often resulting in increased calorie intake, fewer healthy eating behaviors, and poorer nutrition. Food intake is modulated by inhibitory control and has important implications for our physical, mental, and emotional health. Yet, little is known about the relationship between stress and food-related inhibitory control.

Integrating Breathing Techniques Into Psychotherapy to Improve HRV: Which Approach Is Best?

Introduction: Approaches to improve heart rate variability and reduce stress such as breathing retraining are more frequently being integrated into psychotherapy but little research on their effectiveness has been done to date. Specifically, no studies to date have directly compared using a breathing pacer at 6 breaths per minute with compassion focused soothing rhythm breathing.

Current Study: In this randomized controlled experiment, 6 breaths per minute breathing using a pacer was compared with compassion focused soothing rhythm breathing, with a nature video being used as a control group condition.

Impact of a 12-Week Group-Based Compassion Focused Therapy Intervention on Heart Rate Variability.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered an index of self-regulatory capacity, and trait compassion predicts healthy HRV and self-regulation. Compassion focused psychotherapy interventions have been shown to increase levels of compassion in the general population but no studies to date have examined if these interventions also increase HRV in a distressed clinical sample. The present study examined whether a 12-week compassion focused therapy intervention administered in group format would improve resting HRV and impact HRV reactivity during self-critical writing and self-compassion writing tasks administered before and after the intervention.

The Association Between Experimentally Induced Stress, Performance Monitoring, and Response Inhibition: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Analysis.

Psychological stress is increasingly associated with alterations in performance and affect. Yet, the relationship between experimentally induced psychological stress and neural indices of performance monitoring and error processing, as well as response inhibition, are unclear. Using scalp-recorded event-related potentials (ERPs), we tested the relationship between experimental stress, using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), and the error-related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), and N2 ERP components.

Hispanic ethnicity, stress psychophysiology and paradoxical health outcomes: A review with conceptual considerations and a call for research.

It is not wise to generalize psychophysiological findings from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) samples to all people and yet this occurs frequently in research. Case-in-point is our understanding of psychophysiological responses to stress which suggest universality despite our knowledge that these pathways are moderated by factors such as ethnicity and culture. Here we discuss the epidemiological phenomenon commonly referred to as the Hispanic health paradox to illustrate the importance of culture in understanding stress.

Adding HRV biofeedback to psychotherapy increases heart rate variability and improves the treatment of major depressive disorder.

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a significant marker of health outcomes with decreased HRV predicting increased disease risk. HRV is decreased in major depressive disorder (MDD) but existing treatments for depression do not return heart rate variability to normal levels even with successful treatment of depression. Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) increases heart rate variability but no studies to date have examined whether combining HRVB with psychotherapy improves outcome in MDD treatment.

The Impact of Resonance Frequency Breathing on Measures of Heart Rate Variability, Blood Pressure, and Mood.

Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) significantly improves heart rate variability (HRV). Breathing at resonance frequency (RF, approximately 6 breaths/min) constitutes a key part of HRVB training and is hypothesized to be a pathway through which biofeedback improves HRV. No studies to date, however, have experimentally examined whether RF breathing impacts measures of HRV.

Comparing the impact of an acute exercise bout on plasma amino acid composition, intraerythrocytic Ca(2+) handling, and red cell function in athletes and untrained subjects.

The N-methyl d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) mediating Ca(2+) uptake upon stimulation with glutamate and glycine were recently discovered in red blood cells (RBC) of healthy humans. Activation of these receptors with agonists triggered transient Ca(2+)-dependent decrease in hemoglobin oxygen affinity in RBC suspension. The aim of this study was to assess the potential physiological relevance of this phenomenon.

The Effect of CardioWaves Interval Training on Resting Blood Pressure, Resting Heart Rate, and Mind-Body Wellness.

An experimental study to examine the effects of CardioWaves interval training (CWIT) and continuous training (CT) on resting blood pressure, resting heart rate, and mind-body wellness. Fifty-two normotensive (blood pressure <120/80 mmHg), pre-hypertensive (120-139/80-89 mmHg), and hypertensive (>140/90 mmHg) participants were randomly assigned and equally divided between the CWIT and CT groups. Both groups participated in the assigned exercise protocol 30 minutes per day, four days per week for eight weeks.

What Mediates the Relationship Between Religious Service Attendance and Aspects of Well-Being?

Religious service attendance predicts increased well-being across a number of studies. It is not clear, however, whether this relationship is due to religious factors such as intrinsic religiosity or due to nonreligious factors such as social support or socially desirable responding. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between religious service attendance and well-being while simultaneously examining intrinsic religiosity, social support, and socially desirable responding as potential mediators of the relationship.

The Effects of Job Instability and Financial Strain on C-Reactive Protein in a Sample of Mexican Immigrants.

Objective: Mexican immigrants have lower cardiovascular disease risk than US citizens, but risk increases with level of acculturation. Our study investigated whether job stress and financial strain would be related to inflammation (C-reactive protein), lipids, and blood pressure, and if they would play a role in the acculturation process in Mexican immigrants.

Methods: A sample of 310 Mexican immigrants living in the United States were studied on measures of job stress, financial strain, acculturation, and cardiovascular disease risk factors (C-reactive protein, lipids, and blood pressure).

Psychotherapy participants show increased physiological responsiveness to a lab stressor relative to matched controls.

Accumulating evidence indicates that psychotherapy participants show increased physiological responsiveness to stress. The purpose of the present study was to examine differences between individuals participating in outpatient psychotherapy and matched controls using an experimental design. Forty-two psychotherapy participants and 48 matched controls were assessed on cardiovascular and cortisol functioning at baseline, during the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), and during a 20-min recovery period.

Religious orientation and life aspirations.

The effects of religiosity on well-being appear to depend on religious orientation, with intrinsic orientation being related to positive outcomes and extrinsic orientation being related to neutral or negative outcomes. It is not clear, however, why intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity has the relationships they do. Self-determination theory may provide a useful framework of intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations that may help to answer this question.

The impact of a brief mindfulness meditation intervention on cognitive control and error-related performance monitoring.

Meditation is associated with positive health behaviors and improved cognitive control. One mechanism for the relationship between meditation and cognitive control is changes in activity of the anterior cingulate cortex-mediated neural pathways. The error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) components of the scalp-recorded event-related potential (ERP) represent cingulate-mediated functions of performance monitoring that may be modulated by mindfulness meditation.

Aligning clinical compensation with clinical productivity: design and implementation of the financial value unit (FVU) system in an academic department of internal medicine.

A new metric was developed and implemented at the University of Kansas School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine, the financial value unit (FVU). This metric analyzes faculty clinical compensation compared with clinical work productivity as a transparent means to decrease the physician compensation variability and compensate faculty equitably for clinical work.The FVU is the ratio of individual faculty clinical compensation compared with their total work relative value units (wRVUs) generated divided by Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) salary to wRVUs of a similar MGMA physician.

Ethnic differences in relationship orientation, marital quality and ambulatory blood pressure.

Mexican Americans typically have better cardiovascular health than Caucasians, despite being relatively economically disadvantaged. Given research indicating the importance of relationship quality on one's health, our study examined whether certain relationship orientations (eg, communal or exchange) differed between Caucasians and Mexican Americans and if these orientations could help explain the Hispanic Paradox. We recruited 582 adults from a community being primarily Caucasian (40%) and foreign-born Mexican Americans (55%).

Perfectionism and life aspirations in intrinsically and extrinsically religious individuals.

Religiosity is related to positive health and life satisfaction but the pathways through which this occurs have not been clearly delineated. The purpose of this study was to examine potential mediators of the relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and negative affect and life satisfaction. Perfectionism and life aspirations are two possible pathways through which religious orientation is related to outcome.

Red cell investigations: art and artefacts.

Red blood cell research is important for both, the clinical haematology, such as transfusion medicine or anaemia investigations, and the basic research fields like exploring general membrane physiology or rheology. Investigations of red blood cells include a wide spectrum of methodologies ranging from population measurements with a billion cells evaluated simultaneously to single-cell approaches. All methods have a potential for pitfalls, and the comparison of data achieved by different technical approaches requires a consistent set of standards.