Higher Levels Of Arousal Research Articles

Arousal and the modulation of sensory experience: evidence from food-related emotions.

Across sensory systems, several stimulus collative characteristics, including intensity, novelty, complexity and perceived dangerousness, are known to elicit high levels of physiological and psychological arousal. It has become apparent that food rejections by both children and adults are frequently linked to such arousal-inducing characteristics. This paper examines how arousal and arousability are important elements in responding to stimuli generally, but specifically to foods, ultimately influencing food preferences and choices. It is clear that responses to sensory properties are subject not just to variations in perceptual sensitivity due to genetics or experience-as in the case of widely rejected qualities such as bitterness or pungency-but also to the arousal potential of those stimuli. Moreover, this is linked to various enduring aspects of personality, suggesting that the impact of arousal on food choices is merely one aspect of a more general sensory sensitivity. The impact of diet on various health outcomes underlines the importance of understanding the relationship of arousal to food choices. This article is part of the theme issue 'Sensing and feeling: an integrative approach to sensory processing and emotional experience'.

Chocolates enriched with seaweed: Emotional data and its combination with sensory data for products profiling and consumer segmentation

Sensory and emotional profiling by consumers are tools used by scientists and companies to get a deeper level of understanding about product experiences and the variables which drive and motivate food choice. The work described in this publication is part of a broader study which aimed the development of three different types of chocolate enriched with seaweeds and its characterization for potential use in gastronomy by outlining their sensory profiles (results already published) and exploring product elicited emotion. Through binary logistic regression models, two different product-characterization and consumer segmentation profile were developed, one emotional profiles, and one combined sensory and emotional profile. Results show that the less familiar samples (described with sensory attributes unusual to chocolate, such as astringent, marine/ocean smell and vegetable flavour notes) are linked to emotional states associated with higher levels of arousal (as stimulated, adventurous, disgusted, and not being calm); whereas the most familiar sample tends to distance itself from active emotion dimensions (stimulated and enthusiastic) and is linked to emotions distant from the arousal pole (as satisfied). By complementing hedonic and sensory data with emotional variables, it was possible to attain a more detailed differentiation of products, which was further enhanced by the consumer-segmentation profiles. Several emotional associations linked to acceptability were uncovered – as good, satisfied, enthusiastic, or stimulated –, with satisfied appearing to be particularly discriminating among consumer-segments exhibiting larger between-segment discrepancies in liking.This study provides interesting insights for product development which can be useful to align products with the brand message and define possible marketing strategies.

Sex differences in body temperature and neural power spectra in response to repeated restraint stress

Repeated stress is associated with an increased risk of developing psychiatric illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is more common in women, yet the neurobiology behind this sex difference is unknown. Habituation to repeated stress is impaired in PTSD, and recent preclinical studies have shown that female rats do not habituate as fully as male rats to repeated stress, which leads to impairments in cognition and sleep. Further research should examine sex differences after repeated stress in other relevant measures, such as body temperature and neural activity. In this study, we analyzed core body temperature and EEG power spectra in adult male and female rats during restraint, as well as during sleep transitions following stress. We found that core body temperature of male rats habituated to repeated restraint more fully than female rats. Additionally, we found that females had a higher average beta band power than males on both days of restraint, indicating higher levels of arousal. Lastly, we observed that females had lower delta band power than males during sleep transitions on Day 1 of restraint, however, females demonstrated higher delta band power than males by Day 5 of restraint. This suggests that it may take females longer to initiate sleep recovery compared with males. These findings indicate that there are differences in the physiological and neural processes of males and females after repeated stress. Understanding the way that the stress response is regulated in both sexes can provide insight into individualized treatment for stress-related disorders.

A disinhibitory circuit mechanism explains a general principle of peak performance during mid-level arousal

Perceptual decision-making is highly dependent on the momentary arousal state of the brain, which fluctuates over time on a scale of hours, minutes, and even seconds. The textbook relationship between momentary arousal and task performance is captured by an inverted U-shape, as put forward in the Yerkes-Dodson law. This law suggests optimal performance at moderate levels of arousal and impaired performance at low or high arousal levels. However, despite its popularity, the evidence for this relationship in humans is mixed at best. Here, we use pupil-indexed arousal and performance data from various perceptual decision-making tasks to provide converging evidence for the inverted U-shaped relationship between spontaneous arousal fluctuations and performance across different decision types (discrimination, detection) and sensory modalities (visual, auditory). To further understand this relationship, we built a neurobiologically plausible mechanistic model and show that it is possible to reproduce our findings by incorporating two types of interneurons that are both modulated by an arousal signal. The model architecture produces two dynamical regimes under the influence of arousal: one regime in which performance increases with arousal and another regime in which performance decreases with arousal, together forming an inverted U-shaped arousal-performance relationship. We conclude that the inverted U-shaped arousal-performance relationship is a general and robust property of sensory processing. It might be brought about by the influence of arousal on two types of interneurons that together act as a disinhibitory pathway for the neural populations that encode the available sensory evidence used for the decision.

From risk communication about asymptomatic atherosclerosis to cognitive and emotional reactions and lifestyle modification

BackgroundNon-adherence in the general population to preventive guidelines on cardiovascular disease calls for an interdisciplinary approach acknowledging psychological factors of relevance for risk communication and lifestyle modification. Evidence is building up regarding the advantage of sharing arterial imaging evidence of subclinical atherosclerosis with asymptomatic individuals, but there is limited understanding of how this relates to mechanisms of importance for behavioural change. Longitudinal studies on associations between patients’ reactions and lifestyle modification are missing. The population-based randomized controlled trial VIPVIZA investigates the impact of pictorial information about subclinical atherosclerosis, added to traditional risk factor-based communication. The intervention includes a personalized, colour-coded and age-related risk communication strategy and a motivational conversation, and has been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease risk.MethodsIn the present study we assessed cognitive and emotional reactions to the intervention, and how these reactions are associated to lifestyle modification. The participants’ evaluation of the risk communication was assessed in the intervention group (n = 1749). Lifestyle modification was assessed with a lifestyle index based on physical activity, diet, smoking and alcohol consumption at baseline and after 3 years. Associations between cognitive and emotional response and lifestyle modification were tested with analyses of covariance in a subset of participants (n = 714–857).ResultsThe intervention increased understanding of personal CVD risk, the possibility to influence the risk, and how to influence the risk. Severity of atherosclerosis was associated with emotional reactions, but emotions of strong negative valence were uncommon. Cognitive response and emotional arousal evoked by the intervention were positively associated with lifestyle modification, whereas negative emotions in isolation were not. High level of cognitive response in combination with high level of emotional arousal was found to be most beneficial for lifestyle modification.ConclusionsThe results demonstrate the potential of communicating asymptomatic atherosclerosis with a pictorial, colour-coded and age-related strategy, also including a motivational conversation. Furthermore, the results show the importance of CVD risk communication evoking engagement, and that an interaction between cognitive and emotional reactions might be central for sustained lifestyle modification. Our results also indicate that, in an asymptomatic population, atherosclerosis screening may strengthen disease prevention and health promotion.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01849575. Registration date 08/05/2013.

Overgeneralization of conditioned fear in patients with social anxiety disorder.

While abnormal responses to threat, including overgeneralization to conditioned fear, have been postulated to play a critical role in pathological anxiety, the relevance of previous findings to social anxiety disorder (SAD) is unclear. We investigated conditioned and generalized fear responses in patients with SAD using socially relevant stimuli. A total of 26 patients with SAD and 25 healthy controls participated in a fear conditioning and generalization paradigm consisting of two neutral faces as conditioned stimuli (CS+ or CS-) and an angry face with contemptuous comments as unconditioned stimuli. Eight morphed faces of two conditioned stimuli in each continuum were given to test generalization. Behavioral data and physiological responses were acquired. Successful conditioning was observed in the risk ratings for both groups, while only a marginal indication of conditioning was noted in physiological measures. During the generalization phase, patients rated the risk higher than CS- when the stimuli close to CS- contained a portion of CS+ features. Larger skin conductance responses to this stimulus were linked to higher fear of negative evaluation. In addition, patients spent a longer time evaluating safe and ambiguous stimuli than healthy controls and exhibited consistently high levels of subjective arousal. Taken together, our findings suggest that SAD patients may exhibit a tendency towards overgeneralization of fear responses and show distinct patterns in processing generalized threat stimuli compared to healthy controls. Even though overgeneralization was not evident in physiological measures, it is necessary to consider this behavioral characteristic in the clinical management of patients with SAD.

Enhanced Empathic Pain by Facial Feedback.

The facial feedback hypothesis states that feedback from cutaneous and muscular afferents affects our emotion. Based on the facial feedback hypothesis, the purpose of this study was to determine whether enhancing negative emotion by activating a facial muscle (corrugator supercilii) increases the intensity of cognitive and emotional components of empathic pain. We also assessed whether the muscle contraction changed the pupil size, which would indicate a higher level of arousal. Forty-eight individuals completed 40 muscular contraction and relaxation trials while looking at images of five male and five female patients with neutral and painful facial expressions, respectively. Participants were asked to rate (1) how much pain the patient was in, and (2) how unpleasant their own feelings were. We also examined their facial muscle activities and changes in pupil size. No significant differences in pain or unpleasantness ratings were detected for the neutral face between the two conditions; however, the pain and unpleasantness ratings for the painful face were considerably higher in the contraction than relaxation condition. The pupils were considerably larger in the contraction than relaxation condition for both the painful and neutral faces. Our findings indicate that, by strengthening the corrugator supercilii, facial feedback can affect both the cognitive evaluative and affective sharing aspects of empathic pain.

The potential impact of emotionally loaded stimuli on over/under-estimating neutral situations among power plant control-room operators.

Human emotions vary on a contextual basis. The significance of emotions becomes even more salient in Control Room Operators (CROs) in power plants. This study investigated the effects of emotionally loaded pictures on over/underestimating neutral situations. Twenty CROs voluntarily enrolled in the present study. Twenty-one blocks were considered, including ten emotionally loaded and 11 neutral blocks. The stimuli were alternatively submitted to subjects in random order. Each block comprised 13 images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), which were shown for 5 seconds. Subjects were required to complete the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) after exposure to the first and the last neutral blocks, which were identical. Our analyses showed significant differences between IAPS arousal and SAM1 and SAM2 arousal ratings (p SAM1&IAPS = 0.00, p SAM2&IAPS = 0.02). There was no significant relationship between the first and the second arousals, and emotionally loaded images corresponded to no significant difference in terms of valence. The findings suggested that the participants overestimated neutral situations compared with IAPS only in arousal level. Furthermore, CROs can still retain their ability to assess neutral situations in the case of viewing emotional stimuli, especially in valence level, at least half an hour after the first rating. A study design with pure negative/positive and high arousal levels may still provide even more significant results.

Seizure-related stress and arousal responses mediate a relationship between anxiety trait and state in epilepsy

BackgroundEpilepsy causes substantial psychological distress and anxiety, primarily due to seizures. However, the impact of stress responses and changes in arousal and their association with anxiety patterns in patients with epilepsy (PWE) remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationships among seizures, stress and arousal characteristics, and trait and state anxiety characteristics in PWE. MethodsOur sample consisted of 159 outpatients with epilepsy recruited from five institutions in Japan in 2020. Participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Form JYZ (STAI) and the Japanese-Stress Arousal Check List (J-SACL). We analyzed the correlations between inventory scores and clinical information. Using principal component analysis (PCA), we derived epilepsy-specific stress/arousal characteristics, which accounted for high arousal and low-stress levels, termed epilepsy-specific stress or arousal response (ESAR), from the J-SACL scores. We conducted a mediation analysis to assess the mediating role of ESAR in the relationship between traits and state anxiety. ResultsWe found significant correlations between J-SACL stress and arousal factors (r = −0.845, p < 0.001), ESAR and seizure frequency (r = −0.29, p < 0.001), ESAR and trait anxiety scores on the STAI (r = −0.77, p < 0.0001), and ESAR and state anxiety scores on the STAI (r = −0.60, p < 0.0001). Mediation analysis supported by the Monte Carlo method revealed that ESAR significantly mediated the association between trait and state anxiety. ConclusionsThese findings elucidate the epilepsy-specific stress and arousal characteristics and their roles in mediating traits and state anxiety. These results may reflect the long-term clinical course and unique emotion recognition tendencies in epilepsy.

The effect of acute stress on humanitarian supplies management

Humanitarian workers often operate under highly stressful conditions, view emotional scenes, and face high time pressures. This may bias managerial decision‐making in humanitarian logistics, but evidence is lacking. We model humanitarian logistics decisions in an adapted newsvendor setting. We experimentally expose participants to time pressure, noise, and emotional pictures. Using physiological and self‐reported data, we confirm that these manipulations have different effects on two components of the stress response (negative valence and arousal) and on decision‐making quality. Specifically, medium levels of arousal seem to boost decision‐making quality, independent of affective valence. However, high time pressure (characterized by high levels of arousal) leads to a collapse in decision‐making quality. Our results highlight that some level of stress may be beneficial for decision‐making owing to its action‐activating properties. However, excessive time pressure sharply overrides and outweighs these benefits. We discuss the generalizability of our results to other emergency situations (e.g., firefighters) and managerial contexts (e.g., crisis responses).

Pupil-linked arousal modulates network-level EEG signatures of attention reorienting during immersive multitasking

Objective. When multitasking, we must dynamically reorient our attention between different tasks. Attention reorienting is thought to arise through interactions of physiological arousal and brain-wide network dynamics. In this study, we investigated the relationship between pupil-linked arousal and electroencephalography (EEG) brain dynamics in a multitask driving paradigm conducted in virtual reality. We hypothesized that there would be an interaction between arousal and EEG dynamics and that this interaction would correlate with multitasking performance. Approach. We collected EEG and eye tracking data while subjects drove a motorcycle through a simulated city environment, with the instructions to count the number of target images they observed while avoiding crashing into a lead vehicle. The paradigm required the subjects to continuously reorient their attention between the two tasks. Subjects performed the paradigm under two conditions, one more difficult than the other. Main results. We found that task difficulty did not strongly correlate with pupil-linked arousal, and overall task performance increased as arousal level increased. A single-trial analysis revealed several interesting relationships between pupil-linked arousal and task-relevant EEG dynamics. Employing exact low-resolution electromagnetic tomography, we found that higher pupil-linked arousal led to greater EEG oscillatory activity, especially in regions associated with the dorsal attention network and ventral attention network (VAN). Consistent with our hypothesis, we found a relationship between EEG functional connectivity and pupil-linked arousal as a function of multitasking performance. Specifically, we found decreased functional connectivity between regions in the salience network (SN) and the VAN as pupil-linked arousal increased, suggesting that improved multitasking performance at high arousal levels may be due to a down-regulation in coupling between the VAN and the SN. Our results suggest that when multitasking, our brain rebalances arousal-based reorienting so that individual task demands can be met without prematurely reorienting to competing tasks.

Simplicial Homology Global Optimization of EEG Signal Extraction for Emotion Recognition

Emotion recognition is a vital part of human functioning. textcolorredIt enables individuals to respond suitably to environmental events and develop self-awareness. The fast-paced developments in brain–computer interfacing (BCI) technology necessitate that intelligent machines of the future be able to digitize and recognize human emotions. To achieve this, both humans and machines have relied on facial expressions, in addition to other visual cues. While facial expressions are effective in recognizing emotions, they can be artificially replicated and require constant monitoring. In recent years, the use of Electroencephalography (EEG) signals has become a popular method for emotion recognition, thanks to advances in deep learning and machine learning techniques. EEG-based systems for recognizing emotions involve measuring electrical activity in the brain of a subject who is exposed to emotional stimuli such as images, sounds, or videos. Machine learning algorithms are then used to extract features from the electrical activity data that correspond to specific emotional states. The quality of the extracted EEG signal is crucial, as it affects the overall complexity of the system and the accuracy of the machine learning algorithm. This article presents an approach to improve the accuracy of EEG-based emotion recognition systems while reducing their complexity. The approach involves optimizing the number of EEG channels, their placement on the human scalp, and the target frequency band of the measured signal to maximize the difference between high and low arousal levels. The optimization method, called the simplicial homology global optimization (SHGO), is used for this purpose. Experimental results demonstrate that a six-electrode configuration optimally placed can achieve a better level of accuracy than a 14-electrode configuration, resulting in an over 60% reduction in complexity in terms of the number of electrodes. This method demonstrates promising results in improving the efficiency and accuracy of EEG-based emotion recognition systems, which could have implications for various fields, including healthcare, psychology, and human–computer interfacing.

Facial attractiveness in the eyes of men with high arousal.

Individuals differ in how they judge facial attractiveness. However, little is known about the role of arousal level and gender differences in individuals' facial attractiveness judgments. We used resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) to investigate this issue. A total of 48 men (aged 22.5±3.03years [mean±SD], range: 18-30years) and 27 women (aged 20.3±2.03years [mean±SD], range: 18-25years) participated in the experiment. After the EEG was collected, participants were instructed to complete a facial attractiveness judgment task. Connectome-based predictive modeling was used to predict individual judgment of facial attractiveness. Men with high arousal judged female faces as more attractive (M=3.85, SE=0.81) than did men with low arousal (M=3.33, SE=0.81) and women (M=3.24, SE=1.02). Functional connectivity of the alpha band predicted judgment of female facial attractiveness in men but not in women. After controlling for the age and variability, the prediction effect was still significant. Our results provide neural evidence for the enhancement of the judgment of facial attractiveness in men with high arousal levels, which supports the hypothesis that individuals' spontaneous arousal contributes to variations in facial attractiveness preferences.

Loading and Transportation Issues in Horses

Abstract Refusal to load into a trailer or horsebox is a commonly seen behaviour in equines and one which is experienced by laypersons and professionals alike. Transportation of equines is highlighted as a prevalent welfare problem facing UK equines during a recent study. Problems with loading and travelling may occur in any equine at any life stage and may appear as significant issues from the first performance or develop gradually over time, increasing in frequency and intensity of their performance. These issues are likely to be maintained or worsened by repeated exposure to the travelling process and the use of inappropriate methods to attempt to resolve them. Behaviourally these problems present in a variety of ways including signs of stress, displacement and high levels of negative arousal. To fully understand the motivation for the behaviours identified, it is important that social, biological, psychological and functional analyses of the behavioural performance should be considered. Within this, there is also the element of learning, which is a constant aspect of the antecedent, behaviour and consequence continuum. Treatment protocols for travelling related issues should be holistic in nature to address the environmental, social, biological and psychological elements of the behavioural response. Information © The Author 2023

The way you make me feel: an ecological momentary assessment study on couple similarity in sexual arousal and its sexual, relational, and affective correlates.

Although sexual arousal is commonly experienced in the daily context of relationships, most of what we know about sexual arousal comes from studies on individuals, often conducted in a laboratory context. To explore to what extent similarity in levels of sexual arousal during nongenital physical intimacy (ie, cuddling and kissing) was associated with each partner's affect as well as sexual and relationship satisfaction. Ninety-four cohabitating couples (mean ± SD age,26.30 ± 7.60; 88 mixed gender, 6 same gender) completed 6 ecological momentary assessments a day for 10 consecutive days. We used response surface analysis to examine the associations among the degree and direction of similarity in partners' sexual arousal and affective, sexual, and relational outcome variables. Sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and positive and negative affect. Sexual arousal levels covaried only when partners engaged in physically intimate behaviors, unlike affective responses, which covaried within couples more globally over time. Within-couple similarity at high levels of sexual arousal was positively associated with women's sexual satisfaction but unrelated to men and women's relationship satisfaction and affect. Individual- and couple-level sexual arousal was positively associated with men's sexual satisfaction and women's sexual and relationship satisfaction. Couple-level sexual arousal was relevant to men's affect such that positive affect was higher when sexual arousal levels within the couple were high. Our analyses also revealed a discrepancy effect in that women's positive affect was higher when their own sexual arousal levels were higher than those of their partners. These findings suggest that as long as sexual arousal levels within a couple are sufficiently high, sexual arousal similarity and discrepancy can be beneficial to one's well-being, supporting the relevance of therapeutical techniques aimed at increasing arousal levels to promote a better affective and relational climate for couples. This study is the first to test the daily associations among sexual arousal similarity and its correlates in a sample of cohabitating couples, providing a more comprehensive view of the interpersonal dynamics through which sexual arousal may influence individual, relational, and sexual well-being. Given our sample's relatively young age, as well as high sexual and relationship satisfaction, the results may not generalize to couples experiencing sexual or relational distress. Within the context of daily relationships, individual- and couple-level dynamics of sexual arousal were associated with sexual and relationship satisfaction, as well as with affective responses of relationship partners.

0749 Adolescents’ Self-Reported Insomnia, Subjective Experiences And Objective Sleep Measures During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Introduction Studies examining adolescents’ sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic yielded inconsistent results, with some studies finding a significant increase in insomnia symptoms but others finding no change. A majority of these studies used retrospective or concurrent reports of insomnia symptoms and did not include objective sleep measures, making it impossible to know the extent to which the reported symptoms were associated with actual sleep patterns. In addition, these studies did not account for factors that might have biased adolescents’ subjective reporting of insomnia such as negative emotions or high levels of pre-bedtime cognitive arousal. The goal of the present study was to examine the associations of self-reported symptoms of insomnia among typically developing adolescents with their emotional experiences, cognitive arousal at bedtime, and objective sleep measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Participants. Seventy-six adolescents (33 female, M(SD) age = 13.74(0.87) years). Procedure. Each participant’s sleep pattern was assessed in the home environment using actigraphy and a sleep log for seven consecutive nights in 2021. Adolescents provided information regarding their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic using the COVID-19 Adolescent Symptom &amp; Psychological Experience (CASPE) questionnaire; information regarding their arousal at bedtime using the Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale and information regarding the insomnia symptoms using the Insomnia Severity Index. Results Principal-component analysis produced a three-factor solution for the CASPE labeled as Negative-Anxious, Negative-Angry and Positive Emotions. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the cross-sectional associations among adolescents’ emotional responses and subjective and objective sleep measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being a girl, reporting high level of pre-bedtime cognitive arousal and high Negative-Anxious emotions accounted the explained variance in adolescents’ self-reported insomnia symptoms. Actigraphy measured sleep efficiency, latency or duration did not increase significantly the explained variance. Conclusion These findings suggest that documentation of adolescents’ insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic might have captured adolescents’ negative emotions rather than their objective sleep patterns. Limitations The cross-sectional design of this study limits the ability to determine causality. Support (if any) CIHR, SSHRC

Effect of emotion on galvanic skin response and vehicle control data during simulated driving

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effect of driver emotion on the physiological and vehicle control data and the possibility of predicting the driver emotion to enhance the driving experience. MethodThe driver emotions in the driving context were classified into eight categories depending on high and low levels of arousal and valence: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, depression, boredom, relief, and neutrality. Fourteen male and female volunteers with ages between 22 and 34 y participated in the test, and approximately 540 min of image, physiological, and vehicle data were collected. After inducing the participants’ target emotion through the viewing of a film and writing of passages, we asked the participants to drive on a highway through a driving simulator and self-evaluate their emotion. After the test, the participants were allowed to go home after emotion neutralization. ResultThe participants’ self-evaluated emotions correlated highly with the intended induced emotions. High arousal and negative valence emotions such as anger and low arousal and positive valence emotions such as relief exhibited a statistically significant elevation for the following indicators: galvanic skin response amplitude, longitudinal vehicle control data such as throttling and braking, and lateral vehicle control data. ConclusionsThe test results confirmed that a driver’s emotional state could be reflected in the differences between the biometric data or vehicle control data. In particular, the emotion associated with a high arousal and negative valence could be clearly distinguished from that associated with a low arousal and positive valence. Therefore, the driver's emotional state affects the traffic condition, and the detection of potentially risky emotions such as those associated with road rage and development of a suitable driving mode can help enhance the driving safety. ApplicationsDrivers’ emotions can be identified based on physiological data and vehicle control data and integrated into the system to formulate appropriate responses. For instance, anger anticipated from a driver can be alleviated by a preemptive measure, thereby enhancing the traffic safety.

Respiration and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep substructure: short versus long episodes.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in rodents is defined by the presence of theta rhythm in the absence of movement. The amplitude and frequency of theta oscillations have been used to distinguish between tonic and phasic REM sleep. However, tonic REM sleep has not been further subdivided, although characteristics of network oscillations such as cross-frequency coupling between theta and gamma vary within this sub-state. Recently, it has been shown that theta-gamma coupling depends on an optimal breathing rate of ~5 Hz. The frequency of breathing varies strongly throughout REM sleep, and the duration of single REM sleep episodes ranges from several seconds to minutes, whereby short episodes predominate. Here we studied the relation between breathing frequency, accelerometer activity, and the length of REM sleep periods. We found that small movements detected with three-dimensional accelerometry positively correlate with breathing rate. Interestingly, breathing is slow in short REM sleep episodes, while faster respiration regimes exclusively occur after a certain delay in longer REM sleep episodes. Thus, merging REM sleep episodes of different lengths will result in a predominance of slow respiration due to the higher occurrence of short REM sleep periods. Moreover, our results reveal that not only do phasic REM sleep epochs predominantly occur during long REM sleep episodes, but that the long episodes also have faster theta and higher gamma activity. These observations suggest that REM sleep can be further divided from a physiological point of view depending on its duration. Higher levels of arousal during REM sleep, indicated by higher breathing rates, can only be captured in long REM sleep episodes.

The temporal relation of arousal and perceived rejection in patients with borderline personality disorder and depressive disorders: An experience sampling approach.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by high levels of arousal and perceived rejection by others. The temporal relation between these constructs, however, remains largely unclear. Based on predictions derived from the dynamic affect model and the rejection sensitivity model, we expected increases in arousal and perceived rejection to predict subsequent increases in perceived rejection and arousal, respectively. To investigate this topic, we assessed current self-reported affective arousal and perceived rejection in patients with BPD (n = 42), patients with depressive disorders (DDs; n = 43), and healthy controls (HCs; n = 40) for 52 times within 13 hr (ca. every 15 min). In line with previous studies, dynamic structural equation model results indicate significantly higher trait levels of arousal and perceived rejection in patients with BPD compared with participants in the DD and HC groups. In addition, we found substantial autoregressive and cross-lagged effects for arousal and perceived rejection. Other than expected, the magnitude of these effects did not significantly differ across diagnostic groups. Our findings suggest close temporal relations between arousal and perceived rejection. In patients with BPD, these effects unfold against the background of substantially elevated trait levels of arousal and perceived rejection. Future experience sampling studies should provide additional context information (e.g., through monitoring rejection events) to investigate how patients with BPD perceive rejection in everyday life and how this affects subsequent levels of arousal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Physiological reactions to and recovery from acute stressors: the roles of chronic anxiety and stable resources

BackgroundResearch has shown that employees subjected to acute stressors at work can suffer devastating repercussions. However, little is known about how employees who are experiencing ongoing chronic anxiety or have stable resources respond to acute stressors, particularly regarding their physiological responses to these situations. This study examines the physiological effects of an acute stressor when workers are already under chronic anxiety (i.e., cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety) or when they have a stable resource (i.e., job control).Participants and procedureData were collected from 230 full-time employees working at three major oil companies in Brazil. First, demographic, anxie-ty, and job control measures were collected via questionnaire. Later, muscle tension, skin temperature, and heart rate were collected during a simulated task to assess the physiological response to stress. Hypotheses were tested by repeated measures general linear modeling.ResultsThe findings indicated that when employees were exposed to an acute stressor, those with chronic cognitive and somatic anxiety exhibited more heightened physiological responses than those lower on chronic anxiety. Further, compared to those with low control, employees with stable, high control over their work experienced a lower physiological reaction to the acute stressor.ConclusionsChronic anxiety generates high levels of physiological arousal and hyper-responsiveness to acute environmental stressors. Also, employees possessing stable resources, such as job control, experience reduced physiological responsivity to an acute stressor.