Assessing the Relationship Between Emotional States of Dogs and Their Human Handlers, Using Simultaneous Behavioral and Cardiac Measures.

Negative stress due to human handling has been reported for a number of domestic animals, including dogs. Many companion dogs display significant stress during routine care in the veterinary clinic, risking injury to staff and potentially compromising the quality of care that these dogs receive. On the other hand, positive interactions with humans can have a beneficial effect on dogs, particularly in stressful situations such as animal shelters.

Menstrual Type, Pain and Psychological Distress in Adult Women with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD).

Objective: We evaluated the effects of menstrual types inclusive of PMS on reports of chronic pain intensity and psychopathology in twenty-eight women (mean age 38.93 ± 13.51) with Sickle Cell disease (SCD).

Systematic Review of Biofeedback Interventions for Addressing Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents with Long-Term Physical Conditions.

Children and adolescents with long-term physical conditions are at increased risk of psychological problems, particularly anxiety and depression, and they have limited access to evidence-based treatment for these issues. Biofeedback interventions may be useful for treating symptoms of both psychological and physical conditions. A systematic review of studies of biofeedback interventions that addressed anxiety or depression in this population was undertaken via MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases.

A comparison of the cardiovascular effects of simulated and spontaneous laughter.

Objectives: Laughter has long been regarded as beneficial for health, but the mechanisms are not clearly understood. The current study aimed to compare the acute cardiovascular effects of spontaneous and simulated laughter.

Design: A mixed factorial experiment was performed to examine changes in cardiovascular variables in response to experimental tasks across conditions.

Stereotype threat, trait perseveration, and vagal activity: evidence for mechanisms underpinning health disparities in Black Americans.

Black Americans (BAs) are at an elevated risk for morbidity and mortality in comparison to White Americans (WAs). Racial stressors are a common occurrence in American culture and is theorized to contribute to these disparities. When race-focused, stereotype threat (ST) is considered to be a factor that is detrimental to health in BAs; however few studies have directly investigated the impact of a ST manipulation on physiological function.

Visual cue-specific craving is diminished in stressed smokers.

Background: Craving among smokers is increased by stress and exposure to smoking-related visual cues. However, few experimental studies have tested both elicitors concurrently and considered how exposures may interact to influence craving.

Objective: The current study examined craving in response to stress and visual cue exposure, separately and in succession, in order to better understand the relationship between craving elicitation and the elicitor.

Higher resting heart rate variability predicts skill in expressing some emotions.

Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) is a measure of cardiac vagal tone, and is widely viewed as a physiological index of the capacity to regulate emotions. However, studies have not directly tested whether vmHRV is associated with the ability to facially express emotions. In extending prior work, the current report tested links between resting vmHRV and the objectively assessed ability to facially express emotions, hypothesizing that higher vmHRV would predict greater expressive skill.

The association of resting state heart rate variability and 24-hour blood pressure variability in spinal cord injury.

Patients with high cervical complete spinal cord injuries (tetraplegia) sustain damage to the autonomic neural pathways that influence cardiovascular functioning and produce variability in the heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP). In non-injured individuals, an inverse relationship exists between resting autonomic control of the heart (as evidenced by HR variability (HRV)) and BP variability (BPV). This study examined the relationship between HRV, BP and BPV in individuals with tetraplegic (n=10) and paraplegic (n=10) spinal cord injuries, and a group of healthy controls (n=14).

Acute effects of BZP, TFMPP and the combination of BZP and TFMPP in comparison to dexamphetamine on an auditory oddball task using electroencephalography: a single-dose study.

Rationale: Piperazine-based designer drugs such as benzylpiperazine (BZP) and trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) have been marketed and sold as legal alternatives to dexamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) until 2008 in New Zealand. When administered in combination, BZP + TFMPP have been reported to produce drug-drug synergism in rodents by stimulating the release of dopamine and serotonin.

Objectives: This study was to evaluate the acute event-related potential effects of BZP, TFMPP or the combination of BZP + TFMPP compared with dexamphetamine in young healthy male adults.

Gender differences in the relationship between resting heart rate variability and 24-hour blood pressure variability.

The study explored the relationship between time- and frequency-domain indices of cardiac autonomic control and 24 h blood pressure variability (BPV) in a sample of healthy men and women. Vagally mediated cardiac control was inversely related to 24 h BPV, and measures of cardiac autonomic control were better predictors of systolic BPV in men and better predictors of diastolic BPV in women. These findings may help researchers to understand the disparity in cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality between men and women.

Placebo 'serotonin' increases heart rate variability in recovery from psychosocial stress.

Objective: To investigate placebo effects on heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) in recovery from a psychosocial stressor.

Methods: A healthy sample underwent two mental arithmetic stress tests in one experimental session. After undergoing the baseline test, participants were randomized into control or placebo groups.

Ethnic differences in resting heart rate variability: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Ethnic disparities in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are widely documented in the literature. Recently, research has shown that decreased parasympathetic cardiac modulation is associated with the established and emerging risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke. In consideration of the disproportionate CVD risk and disease profile of African Americans (AAs), it is plausible that decreased cardiac parasympathetic functioning may partially explain these disparities.

Effects of exercise on the desire to smoke and physiological responses to temporary smoking abstinence: a crossover trial.

Rationale: Exercise has been shown to attenuate cigarette cravings during temporary smoking abstinence; however, the mechanisms of action are not clearly understood.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to compare the effects of three exercise intensities on desire to smoke and explore potential neurobiological mediators of desire to smoke.

Methods: Following overnight abstinence, 40 participants (25 males, 18-59 years) completed three 15 min sessions of light-, moderate-, or vigorous-intensity exercise on a cycle ergometer in a randomized crossover design.

Do slumped and upright postures affect stress responses? A randomized trial.

Objective: The hypothesis that muscular states are related to emotions has been supported predominantly by research on facial expressions. However, body posture also may be important to the initiation and modulation of emotions. This experiment aimed to investigate whether an upright seated posture could influence affective and cardiovascular responses to a psychological stress task, relative to a slumped seated posture.

Junior doctors in their first year: mental health, quality of life, burnout and heart rate variability.

There is a burgeoning interest in, and evidence of, quality of life and burnout issues among doctors. It was hypothesized that the junior doctors in this study would experience psychosocial and physiological changes over time, and that the obtained measures would indicate psychosocial and physiological anomalies. In addition, it was hypothesized that their psychosocial perceptions would be significantly associated with their physiological measures.

Robots with display screens: a robot with a more humanlike face display is perceived to have more mind and a better personality.

It is important for robot designers to know how to make robots that interact effectively with humans. One key dimension is robot appearance and in particular how humanlike the robot should be. Uncanny Valley theory suggests that robots look uncanny when their appearance approaches, but is not absolutely, human.

Expectation and the placebo effect in inflammatory skin reactions: a randomised-controlled trial.

Objective: This study investigated the placebo effect on experimentally induced skin reactions via the manipulation of expectation.

Methods: Fifty-eight healthy volunteers were randomised into either expectancy or control groups. All participants received a baseline administration of histamine on one arm (Time 1), then a second administration on the other arm, approximately 30 minutes later (Time 2).

The effect of anxiety on heart rate variability, depression, and sleep in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objectives: The current study investigates heart rate variability (HRV) responses to a psychosocial stressor in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, and the potential role of anxiety as a confounding factor in this relationship. Additionally, this study also investigates the influence of anxiety on sleep and depressive symptoms among COPD patients.

Methods: The study utilized a 2 (disease status)×2 (anxiety group) factorial design examining HRV associated with anxiety symptoms and COPD during a standardized acute social stress task.

The Relationship between Heart Rate Variability and Adiposity Differs for Central and Overall Adiposity.

While frank obesity is associated with reduced HRV, indicative of poorer autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, the association between body mass index (BMI) and HRV is less clear. We hypothesized that effects of adiposity on ANS are mostly mediated by visceral fat and less by subcutaneous fat; therefore, centrally distributed adipose tissue, that is, waist circumference (WC), should be more strongly associated with HRV than overall adiposity (BMI). To examine this hypothesis, we used data collected in a subset of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging to compare strength of association between HRV and WC to that of HRV and BMI.

A meta-analysis of heart rate variability and neuroimaging studies: implications for heart rate variability as a marker of stress and health.

The intimate connection between the brain and the heart was enunciated by Claude Bernard over 150 years ago. In our neurovisceral integration model we have tried to build on this pioneering work. In the present paper we further elaborate our model and update it with recent results.

Cardiovascular-emotional dampening: the relationship between blood pressure and recognition of emotion.

Objective: Persons with elevated blood pressure (BP) show dampened emotional responses to affect-laden stimuli. We sought to further examine cardiovascular-emotional dampening by examination of the relationship between resting hemodynamic measures and recognition of emotion in an African American community-based sample.

Methods: Participants were 106 African American men and women (55 women; mean age = 52.

Sex differences in the neural correlates of autonomic arousal: a pilot PET study.

Electrophysiology, behavioral, and neuroimaging studies have revealed sex-related differences in autonomic cardiac control, as reflected in measurements of heart rate variability (HRV). Imaging studies indicate that the neurobiological correlates of autonomic nervous system (ANS) function can be investigated by measuring indices of HRV during the performance of mildly strenuous motor tasks or mildly stressful cognitive tasks. In this preliminary study, fifteen male and seven female healthy subjects underwent H(2)(15)O-positron emission tomography (PET) and electrocardiograph (ECG) recording while performing a handgrip motor task and an n-back task.

Sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in cancer-related fatigue: more evidence for a physiological substrate in cancer survivors.

Fatigue is a notable clinical problem in cancer survivors, and understanding its pathophysiology is important. This study evaluated relationships between fatigue and both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity in breast cancer survivors. Norepinephrine and heart rate variability (HRV) were evaluated at rest, as well as during and after a standardized laboratory speech and mental arithmetic stressor.

Effects of the physical work environment on physiological measures of stress.

Aims: In this study we investigated the effects of the physical work environment on two physiological measures of the stress response.

Methods And Results: Circadian variations in vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) and the morning rise in cortisol were evaluated in 60 participants working in a government building either in a traditional (individual offices and old cubicles; n=40) or a modern workspace (individualized cubicles with improved views and lighting; n=20). Results revealed significant linear (B=-1.