Responses Of Young Adults Research Articles

The influence of physical activity levels on lactate production during squat training using a functional electromechanical dynamometer.

This study aimed to determine the association between changes in lactate production and levels of physical activity in a group of healthy young adults in response to two squat training protocols. Twenty-nine students majoring in Sports Science willingly participated in this study. Participants visited the lab four times within a two-week period, ensuring at least 48 h between visits. In each session, they completed three sets of 12 repetitions at 75% 1RM and three sets of 30 repetitions at 50% of maximum strength, with the order of protocols being randomized. In the regression analysis, there was a significant positive association between lactate delta changes immediately post-squat at 50% of maximum strength at session 2 with the variable "sex: women" (β: 3.02, 95% CI [-0.18-0.30], p=0.047) and BMI (kg/m2). Age exhibited a positive association (β: 0.19, 95% CI [0.02-0.36], p=0.032) with lactate delta changes immediately post-squat at 75% of maximum strength at session 2. There was also a significant inverse association between lactate delta changes at 10 min post-squat test exercise at 75% of maximum strength at session 1 and 2, and vigorous physical activity (-0.01, 95% CI [-0.02-0.00], p=0.046). In summary, this study provides valuable insights into the association between lactate production and physical activity levels in young, healthy adults undergoing different squat training protocols. These findings suggest that intense physical activity may be associated with lower lactate production, indicating greater metabolic efficiency. In addition, sex differences in metabolic responses were observed, emphasizing the importance of personalized approaches in program design.

Older adults use fewer muscles to overcome perturbations during a seated locomotor task.

Locomotor perturbations provide insights into humans' response to motor errors. We investigated the differences in motor adaptation and muscle cocontraction between young and older adults during perturbed-arm and -leg recumbent stepping. We hypothesized that besides prolonged adaptation due to use-dependent learning, older adults would exhibit greater muscle cocontraction than young adults in response to the perturbations. Perturbations were brief increases in resistance applied during each stride at the extension onset or midextension of the left or right leg. Seventeen young adults and eleven older adults completed four 10-min perturbed stepping tasks. Subjects were instructed to follow a visual pacing cue, step smoothly, and use all their limbs to drive the stepper. Results showed that young and older adults did not decrease their errors with more perturbation experience, and errors did not wash out after perturbations were removed. Interestingly, older adults consistently had smaller motor errors than young adults in response to the perturbations. Older adults used fewer muscles to drive the stepper and had greater cocontraction than young adults. The results suggest that, despite similar motor error responses, young and older adults use distinctive muscle recruitment patterns to perform the motor task. Age-related motor strategies help track motor changes across the human life span and are a baseline for rehabilitation and performance assessment.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Older adults often demonstrate greater cocontraction and motor errors than young adults in response to motor perturbations. We demonstrated that older adults reduced their motor errors more than young adults with brief perturbations during recumbent stepping while maintaining greater muscle cocontraction. In doing so, older adults largely used one muscle pair to drive the stepper, tibialis anterior and soleus, whereas young adults used all muscles. These two muscles are crucial for maintaining upright balance.

Lower back muscle activity during weight-shifting is affected by ageing and dual-tasking

PurposePostural control deteriorates with age, especially under dual-task conditions. It is currently unknown how a challenging virtual reality weight-shifting task affects lower back muscle activity. Hence, this study investigated erector spinae neuromuscular control during mediolateral weight-shifting as part of an exergame during single- (ST) and dual-task (DT) conditions in young and older adults. MethodsSeventeen young and 17 older adults performed mediolateral weight-shifts while hitting virtual wasps in a virtual environment with and without a serial subtraction task (DT). Center of mass position was recorded in real-time using 3D motion capturing. Electromyography recorded bilateral activation of the lumbar longissimus and iliocostalis muscles. ResultsWeight-shifting (p < 0.03) and targeting the wasps (p < 0.005) deteriorated with age and DT. Relative muscle activation during both quiet stance and weight-shifting increased with age, while the DT-effect did not differ consistently between age-groups. However, bilateral muscle co-contraction decreased with DT in young adults only. When switching direction and targeting the wasps, variability of muscle activation increased with age and DT and proved related to worse targeting performance. These effects were mainly visible at the non-dominant body side. ConclusionOlder adults showed a higher erector spinae muscle contribution to perform weight-shifts with increased variability at the end of a shift, whereby muscle activity was modulated less well in older than in young adults in response to DT. Hence, the current findings point to the potential for developing postural training in which older adults learn to fine-tune trunk muscle activity to improve weight-shifting and reduce fall risk.

Zachowania prozdrowotne młodych dorosłych oraz zdolność regulacji emocji w dobie pandemii koronawirusa

The pandemic reality has a huge impact on the daily functioning of people around the world. Young adults have had to face new requirements and barriers both at school and at work. The prolonged lockdown was connected with passive observation and learning about the dynamics of changes which were taking place in front of our own eyes during the following months of the pandemic. After the initial reaction of shock and generalized peritraumatic anxiety, a gradual development of adaptive behaviour was observed. The article analysis data collected online at two-time points (April 2020 and November–December 2020). The main research question was to explore if there is a change in well-being among the group of young adults in response to the restrictions imposed by the government on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Among women and men, statistically significant differences between the results in the declared attitudes regarding compliance with hygiene and social behavior at two-time points were confirmed. The captured differences may suggest a gradual reduction of generalized anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic threat. Originally increased results in the use of behaviors aimed at reducing the possibility of infection, in the second round were significantly lower, confirming the lessened negative emotions and normalization of behavior.

Action-speech and gesture-speech integration in younger and older adults: An event-related potential study

In daily communication, speech is enriched with co-speech gestures, providing a visual context for the linguistic message. It has been shown that older adults are less sensitive to incongruencies between context (e.g., a sentence) and target (e.g., a final sentence word). This is evidenced by a smaller and delayed N400 (in)congruency effect that reflects the difference between the N400 component in response to congruent versus incongruent targets. The present study investigated whether the effect of age on the N400 effect in sentence-final word integration would also arise for verb-gesture/action integration. Assuming that gestures have a tight connection to language these would provide a higher contextual constraint for the action phrase than the literal actions (i.e., an action performed on an object can be understood in isolation, without the action phrase). EEG was recorded from a sample of younger and older participants, while they watched audio-visual stimuli of a human actor performing an action or pantomime gesture while hearing a congruent or incongruent action phrase. Results showed that the N400 (in)congruency effect was less widespread in the older than the younger adults. It seemed that older adults, but not younger adults were less sensitive to the gestural than the action (object) information when processing an action phrase. • Older adults show a less widespread N400 effect than young adults in response to multimodal action/gesture-speech stimuli. • Older adults are less responsive to gestures than actions accompanying speech. • Overall, a similar N400 (in)congruency effect for gesture-speech stimuli and action-speech stimuli was found.

Informational Masking Effects of Speech Versus Nonspeech Noise on Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials.

Purpose Background noise has been categorized as energetic masking due to spectrotemporal overlap of the target and masker on the auditory periphery or informational masking due to cognitive-level interference from relevant content such as speech. The effects of masking on cortical and sensory auditory processing can be objectively studied with the cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP). However, whether effects on neural response morphology are due to energetic spectrotemporal differences or informational content is not fully understood. The current multi-experiment series was designed to assess the effects of speech versus nonspeech maskers on the neural encoding of speech information in the central auditory system, specifically in terms of the effects of speech babble noise maskers varying by talker number. Method CAEPs were recorded from normal-hearing young adults in response to speech syllables in the presence of energetic maskers (white or speech-shaped noise) and varying amounts of informational maskers (speech babble maskers). The primary manipulation of informational masking was the number of talkers in speech babble, and results on CAEPs were compared to those of nonspeech maskers with different temporal and spectral characteristics. Results Even when nonspeech noise maskers were spectrally shaped and temporally modulated to speech babble maskers, notable changes in the typical morphology of the CAEP in response to speech stimuli were identified in the presence of primarily energetic maskers and speech babble maskers with varying numbers of talkers. Conclusions While differences in CAEP outcomes did not reach significance by number of talkers, neural components were significantly affected by speech babble maskers compared to nonspeech maskers. These results suggest an informational masking influence on neural encoding of speech information at the sensory cortical level of auditory processing, even without active participation on the part of the listener.

The Perceived Stigma Reduction Expressed by Young Adults in Response to Suicide Prevention Videos.

Evidence indicates that stigma impedes an individual’s chance of seeking professional help for a mental health crisis. Commonly reported aggregate-level results for stigma-reduction efforts obfuscate how much stigma reduction is needed to incur a practically meaningful change within an individual, defined here as an attitudinal shift and openness towards seeking mental health for oneself and/or support for others. When basing conclusions and recommendations about stigma-reducing interventions on aggregate scales, it is unclear how much stigma reduction is needed to incur meaningful change within an individual. We explored the impact of reductions in stigma of help-seeking scores in response to an online suicide prevention video among young adults in the United States, using online surveys to collect qualitative and quantitative data. We compared mean changes in the stigma scores from pre- to post-test (video exposure) of 371 young U.S. adults using standard t-tests and individual level analysis. A separate thematic analysis of free-text responses was also conducted from a smaller, randomly-selected subgroup, capturing individuals’ attitudes towards help-seeking for mental health problems. Great attention was given to participants to ensure that they were in a campus setting where counseling services were available. Four main themes emerged: (1) small changes in stigma scores were associated with individual reports of meaningful reductions in their attitudes towards professional counseling; (2) increased empathy towards victims of suicide and other mental health problems sometimes indicated increased empathy for victims of suicide and decreased openness in professional help; (3) empathy towards victims sometimes took the form of increased scores and grief or sadness, possibly thwarting the potential for help-seeking; and (4) self-reports of decreased stigma were not always associated with increased openness towards help-seeking. Results also indicated that small stigma score charges, not meeting statistical significance, were often associated with increased openness towards seeking help. These findings, discovered using mixed-methods, contribute to the body of literature regarding stigma towards suicide and help-seeking by demonstrating deficits in the aggregate-only analysis of stigma-reducing interventions specifically aimed at suicide prevention. Such individuation in stigma experiences indicates that public education on how to reduce the stigma of help-seeking for suicide prevention needs to consider individual-level analyses for improving target populations. Recommendations for future research include additional studies prior to releasing suicide prevention videos to public forums where they may be seen by individuals without access to help.

Long-Lasting Event-Related Beta Synchronizations of Electroencephalographic Activity in Response to Support-Surface Perturbations During Upright Stance: A Pilot Study Associating Beta Rebound and Active Monitoring in the Intermittent Postural Control.

Movement related beta band cortical oscillations, including beta rebound after execution and/or suppression of movement, have drawn attention in upper extremity motor control literature. However, fewer studies focused on beta band oscillations during postural control in upright stance. In this preliminary study, we examined beta rebound and other components of electroencephalogram (EEG) activity during perturbed upright stance to investigate supraspinal contributions to postural stabilization. Particularly, we aimed to clarify the timing and duration of beta rebound within a non-sustained, but long-lasting postural recovery process that occurs more slowly compared to upper extremities. To this end, EEG signals were acquired from nine healthy young adults in response to a brief support-surface perturbation, together with the center of pressure, the center of mass and electromyogram (EMG) activities of ankle muscles. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related spectral perturbations were computed from EEG data using the perturbation-onset as a triggering event. After short-latency (<0.3 s) ERPs, our results showed a decrease in high-beta band oscillations (event-related desynchronization), which was followed by a significant increase (event-related synchronization) in the same band, as well as a decrease in theta band oscillations. Unlike during upper extremity motor tasks, the beta rebound in this case was initiated before the postural recovery was completed, and sustained for as long as 3 s with small EMG responses for the first half period, followed by no excessive EMG activities for the second half period. We speculate that those novel characteristics of beta rebound might be caused by slow postural dynamics along a stable manifold of the unstable saddle-type upright equilibrium of the postural control system without active feedback control, but with active monitoring of the postural state, in the framework of the intermittent control.

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN TRUST

This systematic review and meta-analysis quantifies the magnitude and breadth of age-related differences in trust. Thirty-eight independent data sets met criteria for inclusion. Overall, there was a moderate effect of age group on trust (g = 0.22), whereby older adults were more trusting than young adults. Three additional meta-analyses assessed age-related differences in trust in response to varying degrees of trustworthiness. This revealed that older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to neutral (g = 0.31) and negative (g = 0.33), but not positive (g = 0.15), indicators of trustworthiness. The effect of age group on trust in response to positive and neutral cues was moderated by type of trust (financial vs. non-financial) and type of responding (self-report vs. behavioral). Older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to positive and neutral indicators of trustworthiness when trust was expressed non-financially, but not financially. There was also an age-related increase in self-reported, but not behavioral, trust in response to neutral cues. Older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to negative indicators of trustworthiness regardless of the type of trust or type of responding. The reliability of information about trustworthiness (superficial vs. genuine cues) did not moderate any effects of age on trust. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of age-related differences in trust.

This systematic review and meta-analysis quantifies the magnitude and breadth of age-related differences in trust. Thirty-eight independent data sets met criteria for inclusion. Overall, there was a moderate effect of age group on trust (g = 0.22), whereby older adults were more trusting than young adults. Three additional meta-analyses assessed age-related differences in trust in response to varying degrees of trustworthiness. This revealed that older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to neutral (g = 0.31) and negative (g = 0.33), but not positive (g = 0.15), indicators of trustworthiness. The effect of age group on trust in response to positive and neutral cues was moderated by type of trust (financial vs. nonfinancial) and type of responding (self-report vs. behavioral). Older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to positive and neutral indicators of trustworthiness when trust was expressed nonfinancially, but not financially. There was also an age-related increase in self-reported, but not behavioral, trust in response to neutral cues. Older adults were more trusting than young adults in response to negative indicators of trustworthiness regardless of the type of trust or type of responding. The reliability of information about trustworthiness did not moderate any of the effects of age group on trust. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Prefrontal cortex NG2 glia undergo a developmental switch in their responsiveness to exercise.

Aerobic exercise is known to influence brain function, e.g., enhancing executive function in both children and adults, with many of these influences being attributed to alterations in neurogenesis and neuronal function. Yet oligodendroglia in adult brains have also been reported to be highly responsive to exercise, including in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a late myelinating region implicated in working memory. However, whether exercise affects oligodendroglia or myelination in juveniles, either in the PFC or in other brain regions, remains unknown. To address this, both juvenile and young adult mice were provided free access to running wheels for four weeks followed by an analysis of oligodendrocyte development and myelination in the PFC and the corpus callosum, a major white matter tract. Working memory and PFC NG2+ cell development were both affected by exercise in juvenile mice, yet surprisingly these exercise-mediated effects were distinct in juveniles and young adults. In the PFC, NG2+ cell proliferation was increased in exercising juveniles, but not young adults, whereas newly-born oligodendrocyte production was increased in exercising young adults, but not juveniles. Although no overall changes in myelin genes were found, elevated levels of Monocarboxylate Transporter 1, a glial lactate transporter important during active myelination, were found in the PFC of exercising young adults. Overall our findings reveal that long-term exercise modulates PFC glial development and does so differentially in juvenile and young adult mice, providing insight into the cellular responses that may underlie cognitive benefits to teenagers and young adults in response to exercise. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 78: 687-700, 2018.

Neural correlates of attention bias to masked facial threat cues: Examining children at-risk for social anxiety disorder.

BackgroundBehavioral inhibition (BI) is an early-appearing temperament trait and a robust predictor of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Both BI and anxiety may have distinct patterns of emotion processing marked by heightened neural responses to threat cues. BI and anxious children display similar frontolimbic patterns when completing an emotion-face attention bias task with supraliminal presentation. Anxious children also show a distinct neural response to the same task with subliminal face presentations, probing stimulus-driven attention networks. We do not have parallel data available for BI children, limiting our understanding of underlying affective mechanisms potentially linking early BI to the later emergence of anxiety.MethodWe examined the neural response to subliminal threat presentation during an emotion-face masked dot-probe task in children oversampled for BI (N = 67; 30 BI, 9–12 yrs).ResultsNon-BI children displayed greater activation versus BI children in several regions in response to threat faces versus neutral faces, including striatum, prefrontal and temporal lobes. When comparing congruent and incongruent trials, which require attention disengagement, BI children showed greater activation than non-BI children in the cerebellum, which is implicated in rapidly coordinating information processing, aversive conditioning, and learning the precise timing of anticipatory responses.ConclusionsNon-BI children may more readily engage rapid coordinated frontolimbic circuitry to salient stimuli, whereas BI children may preferentially engage subcortical circuitry, in response to limbic “alarms” triggered by subliminal threat cues. These data help reveal the extent to which temperamental risk shares similar neurocircuitry previously documented in anxious adolescents and young adults in response to masked threat.

0159 LABORATORY-BASED SLEEP RESTRICTION ENHANCES THE CORTISOL AWAKENING RESPONSE IN HEALTHY ADULTS

Sleep restriction is related to risk for stress-related symptoms and disease processes. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is the increase in cortisol observed immediately post-awakening in the morning. CAR is an indicator of an individual’s readiness to maintain alertness and psychological function in response to demands of the upcoming day. CAR is affected by insufficient sleep, though the direct effect of extended sleep restriction on CAR is not known. We examined profiles of CAR of healthy good-sleeping young adults in response to extended moderate sleep restriction and subsequent sleep recovery. Healthy participants [N=48; M(SD) age: 25.4(3.9); 39.4% Female] underwent sleep satiation (5 nights/10h time in bed [TIB]), extended sleep restriction (5 nights/5 h TIB; 0200-0700), and sleep recovery (3 nights/8h TIB). Salivary cortisol was collected 5-, 30-, and 45-minutes post-awakening following sleep satiation (baseline), and every morning following sleep restriction and recovery evenings. CAR was quantified using area under the curve relative to ground (AUC-G). Linear mixed effects models were used to examine baseline-to-sleep restriction and baseline-to-recovery AUC-G trends. AUC-G increased linearly from baseline across sleep restriction (b=.06, SE=.02, t=2.8, p=.007), and remained elevated relative to baseline following the sleep recovery (b=.03, SE=.01, t=2.4, p=.02). Model fit was not improved including age and sex as covariates. Increased CAR across the restricted sleep period supports the notion that the CAR may represent an adaptive response to restricted sleep associated with arousal and anticipation to meet the demands of the upcoming day. We also observed a lack of recovery to baseline following 3 nights of recovery sleep. While acute increases in CAR may be related to the ability to effectively cope with the demands of a day following sleep loss, more prolonged or chronic sleep restriction and concurrent elevations in CAR may be related to health-compromising hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) function. Department of Defense Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP).

Older adults report more sadness and less jealousy than young adults in response to worry induction

ABSTRACTObjectives: The present study examined age differences in descriptions of the experience of worry and worry content.Method: Twenty-eight older and 25 younger adults participated in an experimental manipulation of worry (i.e. 5-minute worry induction). Participants identified their three main worries and completed an emotion checklist before and after the induction.Results: After the induction, younger adults endorsed feeling fearful, impatient, and irritated, whereas older adults endorsed feeling tense or worrying. Older adults were more likely than younger adults to report feeling sad (χ2(53) = 7.52, p = .01), whereas younger adults were marginally more likely to report feeling jealous (χ2(53) = 4.34, p = .05). With regards to worry content, older adults worried more about community/world affairs (χ2 = 6.59, p = .01), whereas younger adults worried more about school (χ2 = 17.61, p < .001). Only age differences in worry about school remained significant after applying the Holm-Bonferroni correction.Conclusion: Following a worry induction, older and younger adults endorsed a wide variety of negative affect beyond the typical emotions associated with worry. Greater sadness experienced by older compared with younger adults highlights the importance of considering negative affect states, particularly depression, when working with older adult worriers.

Psychological and cortisol human reactions in experimental stress

Aim of the studyThe manuscript provides the description of the methodological and instrumental base for experimental stress researchSubject or material and methodsThe main results of the research aimed to identify endocrine and psychological characteristics of stress reactivity in both gender young adults in response to social stressors. The algorithm and components of complex stress reactivity assessment was developed. Two types of social daily hassles (microstressors) were modeled in experimental conditions (public speaking and interview with opposite sex interviewer).ResultsStress reactivity was assessed using endocrine (cortisol level in saliva) and psychological (observation and psychometric measurements).DiscussionDifferent types of stress reactivity were identified significantly associated with gender, coping strategies, emotional experience, personality traits and specific of stress situation.ConclusionsAssessment of cortisol level is considered as objective parameter of stress level evaluation. Psychological and mental parameters are much more subjective and mediated comprehensively. The choice of psychometric tests and methods should be based on the specificity of evaluation related to the experimental situation

Age differences in conscious versus subconscious social perception: the influence of face age and valence on gaze following.

Gaze following is the primary means of establishing joint attention with others and is subject to age-related decline. In addition, young but not older adults experience an own-age bias in gaze following. The current research assessed the effects of subconscious processing on these age-related differences. Participants responded to targets that were either congruent or incongruent with the direction of gaze displayed in supraliminal and subliminal images of young and older faces. These faces displayed either neutral (Study 1) or happy and fearful (Study 2) expressions. In Studies 1 and 2, both age groups demonstrated gaze-directed attention by responding faster to targets that were congruent as opposed to incongruent with gaze-cues. In Study 1, subliminal stimuli did not attenuate the age-related decline in gaze-cuing, but did result in an own-age bias among older participants. In Study 2, gaze-cuing was reduced for older relative to young adults in response to supraliminal stimuli, and this could not be attributed to reduced visual acuity or age group differences in the perceived emotional intensity of the gaze-cue faces. Moreover, there were no age differences in gaze-cuing when responding to subliminal faces that were emotionally arousing. In addition, older adults demonstrated an own-age bias for both conscious and subconscious gaze-cuing when faces expressed happiness but not fear. We discuss growing evidence for age-related preservation of subconscious relative to conscious social perception, as well as an interaction between face age and valence in social perception.

Age Differences in the Repetition Effect for Studied or New Objects

The current study investigated the age differences in repetition priming of studied or new objects in a delayed-matching-to-sample task involving common objects. Prior to matching task, older or young participants intentionally studied a set of object pictures. For the matching task, a trial began with the presentation of two sample pictures(both were studied objects or both were new objects), then followed by twelve successive test pictures. The test pictures were classified into four types: studied match, new match, studied non-match, new non-match. Each types of test picture were repeated for three to four times within each trial. Participants were instructed to judge whether each test picture match one of the sample pictures or not as quickly and as accurately as possible. The results showed that older adults were generally slower than young adults in response, and both older and young participants respond faster to matches than to non-matches. RTs to studied matches were faster than to new matches, but RTs to studied non-matches were slower than to new non-matches for both older and young adults. Moreover, both older and young adults showed repetition effect for matches, with reduced repetition effect for non-matches. Repetition effect was reduced over times, and was differentiated between older and young participants. Importantly, while young adults showed no repetition effect for studied non-matches, older adults were significantly longer in response to repeatedly presented studied non-matches. These results demonstrated that implicit repetition effects for objects in older and young adults were affected by previous experiences with these objects. Repeatedly presented non-matches induced higher familiarity and caused difficulty for older adults in rejecting them, but this familiarity did not affect young adults.

Nocturnal dipping behaviour in normotensive white children and young adults in response to changes in salt intake

Nocturnal nondipping is a feature of salt-sensitive, hypertensive individuals. In normotensive children and adults, the impact of salt intake on circadian blood pressure (BP) rhythm is not well defined. To test whether a high-salt diet abolishes nocturnal dipping in salt-sensitive, normotensive individuals. In normotensive, healthy individuals dichotomized for age (children: n = 28, age 11.9 +/- 0.8 years, 43% girls; adults: n = 41, age 25.7 +/- 0.9 years, 46% women), 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring was performed and 24-h urine collections were obtained during the steady-state phase of a low and a high-salt diet. Salt-sensitivity was defined as at least 3-mmHg increase in 24-h mean arterial pressure during the high-salt diet. Salt-sensitive children and young adults (n = 11 in each group) and salt-resistant individuals (n = 17 children and n = 30 adults) were recruited. Circadian BP rhythm was maintained irrespective of age, salt intake and salt sensitivity. In contrast to the pronounced pressure response to high salt, a low-salt diet lowered the BP of salt-sensitive individuals as compared with salt-resistant individuals at daytime (SBP 107.6 +/- 1.2 vs. 114.8 +/- 1.6 mmHg, P = 0.002 in adults and SBP/DBP 103.1 +/- 1.6/68.6 +/- 1.5 vs. 111.2 +/- 1.3/74.5 +/- 1.1 mmHg, P = 0.005 in children), yet left night-time BP unchanged. Nonlinear mixed effects modelling indicated a steeper downward slope of BP from daytime to night-time in salt-sensitive as compared with salt-resistant children and all adults (P < 0.0015). Without exception, daytime mean arterial pressure disclosed salt-sensitive individuals upon salt loading. Normotensive children and young adults maintain normal nocturnal BP dipping irrespective of salt intake and of individual salt sensitivity. Thus, daytime BP assessment is sufficient to characterize salt responsiveness in normotensive individuals.

Contribution of Spectrotemporal Features on Auditory Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Consonant-Vowel Syllables

To determine the influence of spectrotemporal properties of naturally produced consonant-vowel syllables to speech-evoked auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) for stimuli with very similar or even identical wide-band envelopes. Speech-evoked ERPs may be useful for validating the neural representation of speech. Speech-evoked ERPs were obtained from 10 normal-hearing young adults in response to the syllables /da/ and /ta/. Both monosyllables were obtained from ongoing speech. They have quite similar wide-band envelopes, and they mainly differ in the spectrotemporal content of the consonant parts. Additionally, each stimulus derivatives were investigated with (1) isolated consonant part ("consonant stimulus"), (2) isolated vowel part ("vowel stimulus"), and (3) removed spectral information but identical wide-band envelope. Latencies and amplitudes of the N1 and P2 components were determined and analyzed. ERPs in response to the naturally produced /ta/ syllable had significant shorter N1 and P2 latencies and larger amplitudes than ERPs in response to /da/. Similar differences were observed for the ERPs evoked by the consonant stimuli alone. For the vowel stimuli and stimuli with removed spectral information, no significant differences were observed. In summary, differences between the ERPs of /da/ and /ta/ corresponded to the distinct spectrotemporal content in the consonant parts of the original consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. The study shows that even small differences in spectrotemporal features of speech may evoke different ERPs, despite very similar or even identical wide-band envelopes. The results are consistent with a model that ERPs evoked by short CVs are an onset response to the consonant merged with an acoustic change complex evoked by the vowel part. However, all components appear as one P1-N1-P2 complex. The results may be explained by differences in the narrow-band envelopes of the stimuli. Therefore, this study underlines the limitations of the wide-band envelope in explaining speech-evoked ERPs. Additionally, the results of this study are of special interest for clinical application since some of the ERP parameter differences, as the N1 latency, are present not only in the ERPs of each single subject but also in the group mean value of all N1 latencies. Thus, presented ERP measurements in response to CVs might be used for identification of potential problems in phoneme differentiation caused by spectrotemporal analysis problems.

Making Meaning from Personal Loss: Religious, Benefit Finding, and Goal-oriented Attributions

This study examined the role of religious, benefit finding, and goal-oriented meaning making strategies used by 111 young adults in response to their experience of personal loss. Death of a loved one and relationship loss were the two types of loss most frequently reported by participants. In general, young adults reported being affected by their loss experience, loss impacted their personal strivings and goals, and both religious and benefit finding strategies were used to derive meaning from loss. Religious, benefit finding, and goal-oriented meaning making strategies were differentially related to young adults' reports of depressed mood and interpersonal loneliness.