Research shows the disruptive effects of early maltreatment on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning in adulthood. Psychotherapists not only tend to report higher rates of personal experience with early maltreatment, but also fewer mental problems and disturbances in adulthood, as compared to other professions. However, the role of the ANS in these processes has been understudied despite the relevance of the therapist's psychological state and related nonverbal communication for the therapeutic alliance. By comparing body psychotherapists to the general population, the present study aimed to explore the effects of practicing body psychotherapy (BPT) on the link between early maltreatment and autonomic reactivity in adulthood. An online study included 570 body psychotherapists from 35 countries (54% from the United States, = 52.92, 81% of females) and 592 participants from the U.S. general population ( = 51.89, 78% females). We first inspected the factorial structure of the Body Perception Questionnaire-Short Form (Cabrera et al., 2018) in the specific population of BPT practitioners, confirming the three-factor model with one body awareness and two autonomic reactivity factors. Compared to the general population, BPT practitioners reported higher levels of childhood maltreatment, but fewer autonomic symptoms in adulthood, better differentiation of body awareness and autonomic reactivity, and a weaker association between childhood maltreatment experiences and present-day autonomic symptoms. Results are discussed in the framework of polyvagal theory (Porges, 1995, 2011). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pst0000463 | DOI Listing |
Alzheimers Dement
December 2024
ARTFL-LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD) Research Consortium, CA, USA.
Background: Autonomic dysfunction has been linked to empathy deficits in symptomatic frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), but less is known about pre-symptomatic FTD mutation carriers (preFTD+). Our prior work found that increasing resting heart rate (RHR) over time predicts decline in emotional empathy in preFTD+. Here, we replicate previous findings in a large, multi-site consortium sample and assess relationships between RHR and empathy loss across disease stages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain Behav Immun
December 2024
Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address:
Background: Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have high rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and increased cardiometabolic CVD risk factors (CVDRFs, e.g., hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or diabetes mellitus).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurosci
December 2024
Department of Neurology, Center for Translational Neuro-and Behavioral Sciences (C-TNBS), University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
Background: This study explored the potential of electrogastrography (EGG) and heart rate variability (HRV) as psychophysiological markers in experimental pain research related to the gut-brain axis. We investigated responses to the experience of pain from the visceral (rectal distension) and somatic (cutaneous heat) pain modalities, with a focus on elucidating sex differences in EGG and HRV responses.
Methods: In a sample of healthy volunteers (29 males, 43 females), EGG and ECG data were collected during a baseline and a pain phase.
J Neurotrauma
December 2024
Department of Medical Sciences, Section of Neurosurgery, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
This study compared the roles of extraparenchymal autonomic nervous system (ANS) control of cerebral blood flow (CBF) versus intraparenchymal cerebrovascular autoregulation in 487 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and 413 patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Vasomotion intensity of extraparenchymal and intraparenchymal vessels were quantified as the amplitude of oscillations of arterial blood pressure (ABP) and intracranial pressure (ICP) in the very low frequency range of 0.02-0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrim Behav Ment Health
December 2024
The City University of New York, New York, New York, USA.
Introduction: Recent evidence suggests that autonomic nervous system functioning can reflect individual differences in sensitivity to the environment, which in turn moderates the effects of family context on psychopathic and antisocial behaviour. Although some preliminary research suggests that the coordination of the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) branches of the autonomic nervous system may reflect sensitivity to environmental influences, the majority of research to date has been limited in its focus on just one branch, and little is known about the effects of parental empathy on a child's psychopathic-like traits. This study aimed to address this gap by examining if the SNS and PNS jointly moderate the prospective contribution of parental empathy to youth psychopathic-like traits.
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