Mental Distraction Research Articles

Dysphoric milk ejection reflex - call for future trials.

Dysphoric milk ejection reflex is a condition that causes an abrupt emotional downturn during the initial moments of milk ejection in a breastfeeding mother. Depression, anxiety, hopelessness, anger, irritability, homesickness, and stomach hollowness are all possible symptoms. The exact cause of D-MER remains unknown. However, it is proposed that it is caused by an alteration in oxytocin signaling response where secretion of oxytocin upregulates the stress response instead of its downregulation. Activation of the defensive response of the mother by oxytocin during breastfeeding, disruption in dopamine levels, and activation of vasopressin-regulated pathways are other probable causes. Due to a lack of awareness, this phenomenon is easily misdiagnosed as postpartum depression and aversion by many healthcare professionals. Its prevalence in various populations of the world remains unknown due to the lack of research studies conducted in these populations. While no medically approved therapeutic strategy is available, supportive techniques such as maintaining a healthy diet, mental distraction, relaxation methods, and increasing skin-to-skin contact can help alleviate dysphoria during breastfeeding. However, due to a lack of D-MER research, specific challenges exist regarding early withdrawal from breastfeeding and women's help-seeking attitude toward perinatal mental health.

HOW DOES MENTAL DISTRACTION INDUCED BY AN ADDITIONAL TASK AFFECT THE SEVERITY OF SIMULATOR SICKNESS SYMPTOMS IN PILOTS: A SPATIAL DISORIENTATION SIMULATOR STUDY

Introduction: To improve the effectiveness of spatial disorientation (SD) training in a flight simulator, pilots are recommended to perform an additional task that induces a mental distraction. The presented study explored how the inclusion of an additional task that may enhance the effectiveness of SD training changes the severity of simulator sickness symptoms reported after exposure in the Gyro-IPT simulator. Methods: We compared the incidence of simulator sickness symptoms in pilots across four setups of flight scenarios (varying according to cognitive load distraction) collected during our previous studies. A total of 77 male military pilots (age 28.3±6.2) with flight experience (810.72 ±969.43 hours) were randomly assigned to one of four groups and then exposed to a 60-min long flight session (12 flight profiles, six involved an SD-conflict) with active control in the Gyro IPT simulator. In addition to the primary flying task, in three flight scenarios, pilots were asked to perform an additional visual (a change detection flicker task [CDFT]), auditory (an auditory N-back task [NBT]), or duration-discrimination task (DDT)). To measure simulator sickness symptoms, the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) was administered pre- and post-simulator exposure. Results: The severity of simulator sickness symptoms due to visual and motion cues did not significantly change when the pilot performed a non-sickening cognitive task (additional visual or auditory task). The total SSQ score and scores for nausea, oculomotor disturbance, and disorientation in the CDFT and DDT were slightly higher than in the control condition (flight without additional task). Despite the observed differences, according to the SSQ scoring criteria, the simulator sickness symptoms reported by the pilots were negligible. Conclusions: The additional tasks (CDFT, auditory NBT, or DDT) applied to improve the effectiveness of SD training in the Gyro-IPT simulator do not significantly change unwanted effects, such as simulator sickness.

Work-Life Balance Experiences of Business Process Outsourcing Employees in a Remote Work-Set Up

The study investigates the impact of remote work setup on the work-life balance of BPO employees in China. The respondents, who have experienced remote work for over three years, expressed concerns about self-discipline, punctuality, dedication, respect, and tact in their interactions. They also expressed insufficient time for self-development, proper nutrition, and rest. Stress management was also deemed challenging, with employees unable to manage mental distractions caused by non-fulfilment of obligations. The study suggests the need for a work-life balance improvement program for BPO employees in remote work settings.

Group cohesion profiles in athletes: Relationships with two waves of coping and affects in competition

The study aimed to identify group cohesion profiles in athletes and examine whether athletes from distinct profiles significantly differed in affects and coping in competition. A total of 296 competitive athletes participated in the study and completed a series of self-report questionnaires in a temporal design with different measurement points. The athletes completed the questionnaires 2 days before competition, 2 h prior to competition and 2 h after competition. Results from latent profile analysis (LPA) model revealed that three profiles were the most suitable solution: (a) Low group cohesion profile, (b) a mixed group cohesion profile and (c) a high cohesion profile. In particular, (c) athletes from the high group cohesion profile revealed lower scores in intensity of negative affects after the competition, lower precompetitive relaxation, lower precompetitive mental distancing, lower precompetitive mental distraction, lower intracompetitive relaxation, lower intracompetitive logical analysis, lower intracompetitive mental distancing, lower intracompetitive mental distraction and lower intracompetitive disengagement. As a whole, the (b) mixed group cohesion profile revealed the worst combination of the three profiles in terms of coping strategies, which may be a profile at risk of not performing in competition. Thus, it is necessary to understand group cohesion as a multivariate experience for a better comprehension of this phenomenon.

Rumination in bipolar disorder associated with brain network and behavioural measures of inhibitory executive control.

Rumination is a passive form of negative self-focused cognition that predicts depressive episodes for individuals with bipolar disorder (BD). Individuals with BD also have impaired inhibitory executive control; rumination in BD may therefore reflect executive dysfunction. We investigated the relationship between a neural measure of executive functioning (functional connectivity between the frontoparietal control network [FPCN] and the default mode network [DMN] during an effortful task), behavioural measures of executive functioning (the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function) and rumination (the Ruminative Responses Scale). Fifteen individuals with BD and fifteen healthy controls underwent MRI scans during mental distraction. Using CONN toolbox, between-network FPCN-DMN connectivity values were calculated. We conducted Pearson's r bivariate correlations between connectivity values, BRIEF and RRS scores. RRS scores were positively correlated with BRIEF Behavioral Regulation Index (BRI) scores. In individuals with BD, there was a positive correlation between FPCN-DMN functional connectivity during distraction and BRIEF BRI scores. FPCN-DMN functional connectivity was also positively correlated with RRS ruminative brooding scores. Healthy controls did not show significant correlations between these behavioural and neural measures of executive functioning and rumination. For individuals with BD, the greater the tendency to ruminate and the higher the executive dysfunction, the stronger the connectivity between an executive control network and a network involved in rumination during an unrelated cognitive task. This could reflect continual attempts to inhibit ruminative thinking and shift back to the distraction task. Therefore, engagement in rumination may reflect failed inhibitory executive control.

Clinical Phenomenology of Fibromyalgia Syndrome in Male Patients: Same But Different

The majority of knowledge about fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) derives from studies of female patients. Little is known about the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of male patients with FMS. In this retrospective cohort study with a prospective posttreatment follow-up, we investigated whether male patients with FMS differ from female patients in terms of 1) symptom burden, 2) psychological characteristics, and 3) clinical treatment response. We identified 263 male (4%) out of 5,541 patients with FMS completing a 3-week multimodal pain-treatment program. Male patients (51.3 ± 9.1 years) were age- and time-matched (1:4) with female patients (N = 1,052, 51.3 ± 9.0 years). Data on clinical characteristics, psychological comorbidities, and treatment responses were obtained from medical records and validated questionnaires. Levels of perceived pain, psychological comorbidity, and functional capacity were similar between genders, although male patients with FMS showed a higher prevalence of alcohol abuse. Compared to female patients, male patients experienced themselves less often as overly accommodating (Cohen’s d = −.42) but more often as self-sacrificing (d = .26) or intrusive (d = .23). Regarding pain coping, male patients were less likely to utilize mental distraction, rest- and relaxation techniques, or counteractive activities (d = .18–.27). Male patients showed a slightly worse overall response rate than women (69% vs 77%), although differences between individual outcome measures were small (d < .2). Although male and female patients in our cohort were similar in clinical presentation and treatment response, the gender-specific differences in interpersonal problems and pain coping suggest consideration of these aspects in the treatment of male patients with FMS. PerspectiveKnowledge about fibromyalgia mostly derives from studies of female patients. Identifying and understanding gender-specific differences in fibromyalgia is an important roadmap in the treatment of this syndrome by focusing on specific gender aspects such as differences in interpersonal problems and pain coping mechanisms.

Mindfulness for violinists

An overabundance of mental distractions may prevent musicians’ minds from being in the moment while practicing. The present mixed-methods study examined the effects of three newly designed mindfulness meditations on six conservatory violinists’ levels of dispositional mindfulness, mind-wandering and respective variables. Thought probes were used before and after the intervention to examine frequency of mind-wandering and contextual variables (task difficulty, fatigue and stress, and motivation) during two hours of participants’ instrumental practice (one of technical work another of a new piece in their repertoire). FFQM (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) and MfM (Mindfulness for Musicians) questionnaires were used to measure mindfulness levels before and after the intervention. Interviews and meditation logs were used as qualitative data. Results indicated that all participants became more mindful at the end of the meditation week for all mindfulness’ facets for the FFQM and MfM questionnaires. However, the improvements were particularly noticeable for the “Acting with Awareness” and “Non-Judge” facets for the FFQM and for “Describe” in the MfM. Results showed opposing trends in mind-wandering levels throughout the intervention. That is, some participants showed higher mind-wandering at the post-intervention and others lower. However, contextual variables such as fatigue, motivation or worry, may have also affected how much participants wandered while practicing (e.g. some of them showed more rumination when being more worried and having slept less). Overall, results from the experiment evidenced the importance of including mindfulness in violinists’ daily practice as a useful routine to become more aware and less distracted.

Distraction: A game changer-A comparative interventional study in children aged between 4-7 years

Nowadays, various novel techniques have been documented to modify behaviour of the child and reduce dental anxiety in paediatric patients. Recently developed distraction methods have advancements that involve intellectual distraction games. This approach enables the clinicians to treat children with minimal resources and is readily accessible in the market. Several studies have also evaluated the productiveness of virtual reality (VR) as an audio-visual distraction aid in guiding anxious children. The aim of the present study was to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality eyeglasses vs intellectual colored game as a distraction aid to reduce anxiety of children undergoing dental procedure.This was an in vivo interventional comparative study. A total sample of 90 children was selected aged between 4-7 years. They were randomly divided by chit method into three different groups with 30 children in each group: Group I (Control), Group II (VR) and Group III (ICG). Child’s anxiety level was assessed using a combination of physiological parameter (pulse rate and oxygen saturation) and behavioral measures including subjective assessment (Venham’s anxiety rating scale) and objective assessmemt (Facial Image Scale). Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21, IBM Inc.The study displayed a high statistically significant reduction in anxiety with VR &amp; ICG Group when compared to Control group (p&amp;#60;0.001)Mental distraction (Intellectual coloured game) was proven to be a more promising distraction aid due to certain limitations of Virtual reality distraction.

Analysis of Driver Distraction Behaviour Causing Risk of Accidents in Jordan

This study investigates into the underlying causes of distracted driving leading to highway collisions among Jordanian drivers aged 18 to 65. Surveys unveiled a concerning statistic, indicating that a notable 64% of drivers involved in crashes were distracted. Among the identified distractions, texting emerged as the most perilous, with mental distractions such as anger or sadness ranking as the primary cause of crashes (20%), followed by interactions with passengers (13%) and phone conversations (11%). Furthermore, the study revealed a disproportionate representation of male drivers and individuals from both younger and older age groups in distracted driving incidents. These findings underscore the imperative for targeted interventions aimed at curbing distracted driving behaviors across diverse demographic segments, thus fostering safer road environments.

Effects of bali yoga program for athletes (BYP-A) on psychological state related to performance of circus artists

Yoga and the practice of mindfulness have gained popularity as performance psychology interventions, by promoting a relaxed state of focus, increasing body flexibility, and improving awareness during performances. Like professional athletes, circus performers invest a great deal of time, resources, and mental and physical energy in their performances. The present pilot project focuses on the effect of the Bali Yoga Program, adapted for athletes (BYP-A), on the general psychological state, quality of life, performance anxiety, and perceived athletic performance of circus artists studying at the National Circus School in Montreal. Over 8 weeks, student circus artists (n= 18) attended 90-min yoga session. Results showed that following the intervention, participants reported decreased depressive and somatic symptoms, decreased cognitive and somatic performance anxiety and enhanced coping abilities (relaxation, mental distractions). BYP-A has initially shown to provide benefits for circus artists, such as factors related to improved psychological health and mental state related to performance. Future avenues for research should explore yoga intervention more thoroughly and pursue to investigate the differences existing between circus arts and other performance fields.

Cognitive Skills in Adolescents’ Self-Directed Learning Efficacy

Hands-on science lessons to motivate and engage students as well as to enhance self-directed learning (SDL) have been suggested as the main goals of the 21st century through the knowledge-in-use perspective. Compared to conventional learning methods, SDL requires more advanced self-directedness and critical thinking skills applied by learners to conceptualize properly in sub-tasks to reach the relevant final conclusions. Achieving this requires one’s sophisticated executive functions to choose the best alternative, because proper processing is enabled only by resisting mental distractions and inhibiting prepotent answers. The aforementioned skills, however, markedly vary among school students, as they are still in the stage of normal maturing. Thus, possible individual and gender-based differences among school-age learners should be studied more carefully, as the majority of the SDL suggestions have been given based on adult learners. To enhance scientific literacy and explore the learners’ individual characteristics for that, we conducted a study of self-directed outdoor learning with school students aged 15 y (N = 82) examining their evidence-based concept construction in a real-life context. We measured: 1) participants’ cognitive executive skills, and 2) their prior and post-knowledge levels; with both variables compared also by gender. The results showed differences in participants’ knowledge acquisition trajectories and relations between their prior and post-knowledge as well as individual characteristics in predicting the outcome of self-directed learning (SDL). Further research on the heightened cognitive demand accompanying complex learning is needed in order to implement SDL efficiently.

ROLE OF MEDITATION ON SPORTS PERFORMANCES

The focus of the present research paper is too aware the masses about the role of mediation on the sports performances at the National and International level competitions. The paper also focuses on the procedure of the meditation and its impact on the lifestyle of the sportspersons and society as a whole. Meditation is beneficial for a human life which is full of mental distractions and ailments. In spite of different mental distress, people use to participate in games &amp; sports either for recreational or competitive purpose. In all sports and games of Olympic standard high level of fitness is required. Since meditation is very effective in treating different mental discomforts hence, meditation training program could positively affect the mind of athletes which would lead to enhancement of performance. So, in this study, it was tried to see the effect of meditation on athletes.

Intellectual emptiness and its relationship to mental distraction among some students of the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences

The study aimed to prepare psychological measures of intellectual emptiness and mental distraction on university students. The two researchers used the descriptive approach in the two methods of surveying and correlational relations to suit the nature of the research, where the study sample consisted of (101) students of physical education and sports sciences. The phrase- Intellectual emptiness(35) and (34) is a phrase for mental distraction and presented it to experts in psychology, testing and measurement, and the statistical bag for social sciences (spss) was used, and the results of the research showed that intellectual emptiness has a moral relationship with straying among some students of the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, and the necessity Providing a university environment dominated by an atmosphere of intellectual openness and respect for opinion and the other opinion

Young adults recruit similar motor modules across walking, turning, and chair transfers.

Moving about in the world during daily life requires executing and successfully shifting between a variety of functional tasks, such as rising from a chair or bed, walking, turning, and navigating stairs. Moreover, moving about during daily life requires not only navigating between different functional tasks, but also performing these tasks in the presence of mental distractions. However, little is known about underlying neuromuscular control for executing and shifting between these different tasks. In this study, we investigated muscle coordination across walking, turning, and chair transfers by applying motor module (a.k.a. muscle synergy) analysis to the Timed‐Up‐and‐Go (TUG) test with and without a secondary cognitive dual task. We found that healthy young adults recruit a small set of common motor modules across the subtasks of the TUG test and that their composition is robust to cognitive distraction. Instead, cognitive distraction impacted motor module activation timings such that they became more consistent. This work is the first to demonstrate motor module generalization across multiple tasks that are both functionally different and crucial for healthy mobility. Overall, our results suggest that the central nervous system may draw from a “library” of modular control strategies to navigate the variety of movements and cognitive demands required of daily life.

Cognitive Change and Relaxation as Key Mechanisms of Treatment Outcome in Chronic Pain: Evidence From Routine Care.

Despite effective treatment approaches within the cognitive behavioral framework general treatment effects for chronic pain are rather small to very small. Translation from efficacy trials to naturalistic settings is questionable. There is an urgent need to improve the effectiveness of well-established treatments, such as cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) and the investigation of mechanisms of change is a promising opportunity. We performed secondary data analysis from routine data of 1,440 chronic pain patients. Patients received CBT in a multidisciplinary setting in two inpatient clinics. Effect sizes and reliable change indices were computed for pain-related disability and depression. The associations between changes in the use of different pain coping skills (cognitive restructuring, activity despite pain, relaxation techniques and mental distraction) and changes in clinical outcomes were analyzed in structural equation models. Pre–post effect sizes range from g = 0.47 (disability) to g = 0.89 (depression). Changes in the use of cognitive restructuring, relaxation and to a lesser degree mental distraction were associated with changes in disability and depression. Effects from randomized trials can be translated to naturalistic settings. The results complement experimental research on mechanisms of change in the treatment of chronic pain and indicate an important role of cognitive change and relaxation as mechanisms of change. Our findings cautiously suggest that clinicians should optimize these processes in chronic pain patients to reduce their physical and emotional disability.

Psychosocial Climate and Its Relationship to Mental Distraction among Some Students of the Faculties of Physical Education and Sports Sciences

The needs of students are many and varied in the diversity of their physical and social formation, and thepsychosocial climate, which is one of the important and influential psychological processes in the nature ofthe university atmosphere, which has an effect and relationship with mental distraction from the intellectualside, and therefore it is necessary to identify this relationship, explain it and find appropriate solutions to it,and that the rise the behavior and feeling of students should be characterized by positive energy, in additionto the morale based on the desire and the struggle to excel in the situations of university life that will resultin a certain type of distinguished activity characterized by effectiveness and perseverance.

HoloLearn: An Interactive Educational System

The HoloLearn project is a sophisticated interactive educational system that attempts to simplify the educational process in the field of medicine, mainly, through the use of Hologram technology. The Hologram technology has been used in conjunction with the feature of user interaction, to take the whole educational process to a completely new level providing students with a different learning experience. The system is more dedicated to medical students as they must study diverse, complicated structures of the human body anatomy and its internal organs. HoloLearn is aimed at replacing the traditional educational techniques with a new one that involves user interaction with real-sized 3D objects. Based on the interview conducted with medical students from different universities and educational levels in Saudi Arabia, and the questionnaire results, it has been found that traditional learning techniques are insufficient/inefficient as they lack quality and most of the criteria that could qualify them to be highly effective as reliable learning materials. Therefore, there is an increasing need for new learning strategies/methods with enough capabilities to give the students the chance to perceive every concept they study, rather than depending on their imagination to picture what a human body looks like from inside, they need visual learning methods. From another perspective, teachers also face difficulties when explaining medical concepts, especially those related to human body structure and behavior. The currently available materials and sources are mostly theoretical. They promote indoctrination and a result-driven approach instead of engaging the students in a process of sharing knowledge and ideas from both parties i.e., teacher and students. In fact, students have to listen and read instead of practicing and exploring, consequently students are prone to loss of concentration and mental distraction during lessons repeatedly, while from another angle they suffer from long study hours and difficulties in retrieving information. The results of this project indicate that when combining the Hologram technology with the user interaction feature, the educational process can be highly improved, and can be much more creative and entertaining.

Mind-wandering Is Accompanied by Both Local Sleep and Enhanced Processes of Spatial Attention Allocation.

Mind-wandering (MW) is a subjective, cognitive phenomenon, in which thoughts move away from the task toward an internal train of thoughts, possibly during phases of neuronal sleep-like activity (local sleep, LS). MW decreases cortical processing of external stimuli and is assumed to decouple attention from the external world. Here, we directly tested how indicators of LS, cortical processing, and attentional selection change in a pop-out visual search task during phases of MW. Participants’ brain activity was recorded using magnetoencephalography, MW was assessed via self-report using randomly interspersed probes. As expected, the performance decreased under MW. Consistent with the occurrence of LS, MW was accompanied by a decrease in high-frequency activity (HFA, 80–150 Hz) and an increase in slow wave activity (SWA, 1–6 Hz). In contrast, visual attentional selection as indexed by the N2pc component was enhanced during MW with the N2pc amplitude being directly linked to participants’ performance. This observation clearly contradicts accounts of attentional decoupling that would predict a decrease in attention-related responses to external stimuli during MW. Together, our results suggest that MW occurs during phases of LS with processes of attentional target selection being upregulated, potentially to compensate for the mental distraction during MW.

Do Doctors Grieve: Addressing Physician Grief and Cultivating Better Doctors

Physician grief over patient loss is ubiquitous and often leads to mental distraction and compromised treatment decisions. Through personal narrative and a literature review, it is not the grief itself which brews poor outcomes, but lack of discussion or addressing such grief. Open and direct discussion, therefore, seem the first steps to address physician grief and support healthier physicians.

Upoređivanje stanja anksioznosti i prevladavanja stresa sprintera i trkača na srednje i duge distance

Competitive anxiety and coping with competitive stress determine successful athletic performance in important ways. The first goal of this study was to investigate the intensity and potential differences in state anxiety (somatic and cognitive) and self-confidence between sprinters and middleand long-distance runners, as well as to compare their use of coping strategies and/ or coping dimensions. The second goal was to define which coping strategies runners use most frequently in general. The third aim was to examine if there is a relationship between competitive anxiety and coping dimensions in runners. A sample of 52 runners, 44.2% sprinters and 55.8% long-distance runners, (Mage = 24.25; Msp.exp .= 9.78) completed the SCAI-2 and CICS. Compared to middleand long-distance runners, sprinters scored higher on somatic and cognitive anxiety and lower on self-confidence. In total, runners most frequently use task-oriented coping strategies. There are no differences between sprinters and middleand long-distance runners in coping dimensions and strategies except in mental distraction, which is more frequently used by middleand long-distance runners. Task-oriented coping was positively related to self-confidence and negatively to cognitive anxiety. Disengagement-oriented coping is positively related to both somatic and cognitive anxiety and negatively to self-confidence. The study results highlight the possible directions for further research and provide a basis for several practical recommendations.