Objective:
Childhood maltreatment is related to adverse health outcomes. However, the relation of childhood maltreatment to the menopause transition, a universal transition for women often accompanied by troubling symptoms such as vasomotor symptoms, is relatively underexplored. This study tested whether childhood abuse and neglect are associated with menopausal vasomotor symptoms, utilizing both physiologic and prospective self-report measures of vasomotor symptoms.

Methods:
295 nonsmoking perimenopausal and postmenopausal women aged 40 to 60 years with and without vasomotor symptoms completed psychosocial measures including the Child Trauma Questionnaire, ambulatory physiologic (sternal skin conductance) and self-report measurement of vasomotor symptoms during wake and sleep, and actigraphy measurement of sleep. Relationships between childhood abuse/neglect and vasomotor symptoms during wake and sleep were tested in linear regression models controlling for demographics, body mass index, and menopause stage.

Results:
44% of the sample reported abuse or neglect during childhood. Among women reporting vasomotor symptoms, childhood sexual or physical abuse was associated with more frequent physiologically-recorded vasomotor symptoms during sleep (sexual abuse: b(SE)=1.45(0.52), p=0.006; physical abuse: b(SE)=0.97(0.47), p=0.03) in multivariable models. Among these women, women with a physical or sexual abuse history had approximately 1.5-two fold the number of sleep vasomotor symptoms than women without this history.

Conclusions:
Childhood abuse is associated with more frequent physiologically-detected vasomotor symptoms during sleep.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether the change in (sub)maximal heart rate after intensified training is associated with the change in performance. Thirty subjects were recruited who performed cardiopulmonary exercise tests to exhaustion 2 weeks before (pre), 1 week after (post) and 5 weeks after (follow-up) an 8-day non-competitive amateur cycling event (TFL). The exercise volume during the TFL was 7.7 fold the volume during the preparation period. Heart rate and cardiopulmonary parameters were obtained at standardised absolute submaximal workloads (low, medium and high intensity) and at peak level each test. Subjects were classified as functionally overreached (FOR) or acute fatigued (AF) based on the change in performance. No differences between FOR and AF were observed for heart rate (P = .51). On total group level (AF + FOR), post-TFL heart rate decreased significantly at low (−4.4 beats·min−1, 95% CI [−8.7, −0.1]) and medium (−5.5 beats·min−1 [−8.5, −2.4]), but not at high intensity. Peak heart rate decreased −3.4 beats·min−1 [−6.1, −0.7]. O2pulse was on average 0.49 ml O2·beat−1 [0.09, 0.89] higher at all intensities after intensified training. No changes in ⩒O2 (P = .44) or the ventilatory threshold (P = .21) were observed. Pearson’s correlation coefficients revealed negative associations between heart rate and O2pulse at low (r = −.56, P < .01) and medium intensity (r = −.54, P < .01), but not with ⩒O2 or any other submaximal parameter. (Sub)maximal heart rate decreased after the TFL. However, this decrease is unrelated to the change in performance. Therefore, heart rate seems inadequate to prescribe and monitor intensified training.

Research indicates that impaired empathy is a risk factor of aggression and that social attention is important for empathy. The role of social attention in associations between empathy and aggression has not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, indicators of affective empathy, cognitive empathy, social attention, and aggression were simultaneously assessed in children aged 45 months. A total of 61 mother–child dyads participated in a lab visit, during which maternal reports of aggression were obtained. Children watched three clips showing a sad, scared, and happy child, respectively, and a neutral social clip while heart rate was recorded. Heart rate change from nonsocial baseline clips to emotional clips was calculated as an index of affective empathy. Questions about the emotions of the children in the clips were asked to assess cognitive empathy. Social attention was defined as time spent looking at faces during the clips. Correlation analyses revealed negative associations between affective empathy and aggression and between social attention and aggression. Furthermore, multivariate linear regression analyses indicated that the association between affective empathy and aggression was moderated by social attention; the negative association between affective empathy and aggression was stronger in children with relatively reduced social attention. No association was found between cognitive empathy and aggression. Therefore, both affective empathy and social attention are important targets for early interventions that aim to prevent or reduce aggression.

Besides reducing recidivism, juvenile justice institutions aim to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents, in order for them to reintegrate in society. As such, improving quality of life (QoL), especially post detention, is an important treatment goal. However, research is primarily focused on recidivism as an outcome measure for juvenile detention. The aim of the current study is therefore to describe and predict QoL of detained young offenders up to 1 year after an initial assessment, and to examine whether QoL differs between youth who are still detained versus released.

Early life stress has been shown to contribute to alterations in biobehavioral regulation. Genetic make-up, especially related to social sensitivity, might affect the child’s vulnerability to these alterations. This study examined whether maternal verbally aggressive behavior in early infancy interacts with oxytocin polymorphisms in changing resting cardiovascular outcomes at age 5–6. In the Amsterdam-Born-Children-and-their-Development-(ABCD)-study, a large prospective, observational, population-based birth cohort, maternal verbally aggressive behavior was assessed in the 13th postnatal week (range 11–25 weeks, SD 2 weeks) by a questionnaire (maternal self-report). Indicators of resting cardiac autonomic nervous system activity (sympathetic drive by pre-ejection period, parasympathetic drive by respiratory sinus arrhythmia), heart rate, and blood pressure were measured at age 5–6 years. Data on oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms rs53576, rs2268498 and oxytocin polymorphisms rs2740210, rs4813627, were collected (N = 966 included). If the child was carrier of the rs53576 GG variant, exposure to maternal verbally aggressive behavior (10.6%) was associated with increased systolic blood pressure at age 5–6 (B = 4.9 mmHg,95% CI[2.2;7.7]). If the child was carrier of the rs2268498 TT/TC variant, exposure to maternal verbally aggressive behavior was associated with increased systolic blood pressure at age 5–6 (B = 3.0 mmHg,95%CI[1.0:5.0]). No significant interactions of maternal verbally aggressive behavior with oxytocin gene polymorphisms on heart rate or cardiac autonomic nervous system activity were found. In conclusion, oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms may partly determine a child’s vulnerability to develop increased systolic blood pressure after being exposed to maternal verbally aggressive behavior in early infancy.

Men who misuse alcohol tend to experience negative affect, which may entail difficulties in regulating emotions to cope effectively with stressful or anxiety-provoking situations, thus increasing the risk of alcohol relapse. This dysphoric state has been associated with alexithymia, which compromises an individual’s abilities to acknowledge, recognize, and regulate emotional states. A physiological correlate of emotional regulation is autonomic flexibility, as shown by emotional dysregulation in men who misuse alcohol being correlated with reduced parasympathetic activation to control heart rate variability during stress and/or conflict situations. Hence, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether long-term abstinent alcoholic (LTAA) men exhibit higher levels of negative affect and sympathetic activation (cardiovascular and electrodermal) in response to acute standardized laboratory stress than non-alcoholic controls. In addition, we hypothesized that the higher the alexithymic traits, the greater would be the increase in negative affect and sympathetic activation in response to stress, especially in LTAAs. Our data demonstrated that LTAAs experienced slightly greater increases in anxiety, states of anger, and worsening of mood than controls. Moreover, they exhibited lower high-frequency heart rate variability, respiratory sinus arrhythmia values, shorter pre-ejection periods, and higher respiratory rates than controls. Finally, alexithymic traits imply greater worsening of mood and sympathetic predominance (shorter pre-ejection periods and smaller magnitude of response), with the associations being stronger in LTAAs. These findings indicate a different emotional and cardiovascular response to psychosocial stress in LTAA than non-alcoholic men. Improving our knowledge of the way this population reacts to stress may help identify risk factors for alcohol relapse.

Background The autonomic response to acute emotional stress can be highly variable, and pathological responses are associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events. We evaluated the autonomic response to stress reactivity of young healthy subjects and aging subjects with coronary artery disease to understand how the autonomic stress response differs with aging. Methods Physiologic reactivity to arithmetic stress in a cohort of 25 young, healthy subjects (< 30 years) and another cohort of 25 older subjects (> 55 years) with CAD was evaluated using electrocardiography, impedance cardiography, and arterial pressure recordings. Stress-related changes in the pre-ejection period (PEP), which measures sympathetic activity, and high frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV), which measures parasympathetic activity, were analyzed as primary outcomes. Results Mental stress reduced PEP in both groups (p<0.01), although the decrease was 50% greater in the healthy group. Mean HF HRV decreased significantly in the aging group only (p = 0.01). Discussion PEP decreases with stress regardless of health and age status, implying increased sympathetic function. Its decline with stress may be attenuated in CAD. The HF HRV (parasympathetic) stress reactivity is more variable and attenuated in younger individuals; perhaps this is related to a protective parasympathetic reflex. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02657382.

This study examined whether instructing mothers to apply emotion regulation strategies can change mothers’ perception and reactivity to infant crying in an experimental within-subject design. Perception of crying, skin conductance level (SCL), facial expressivity, and intended caregiving responses to cry sounds were measured in mothers (N = 101, M = 30.88 years) who received suppression, reappraisal, and no emotion regulation instructions. Reappraisal resulted in lower SCL during exposure to crying and a less negative perception of crying compared to the suppression condition. In contrast, suppression resulted in increased facial expressions of sadness compared to the control condition. Thus, simple instructions on how to reframe thoughts about crying can change mothers’ perception of and reactivity to crying.

Today, binaural and monaural beats are offered over the Internet or by mental health institutes to improve wellbeing or cognitive functioning. This improvement is explained by the assumption that the brain adapts its brainwave frequency to the frequency of the auditory beat. The present study examined the effects of binaural and monaural beat stimulation on attention and working memory in high and low emotional participants. A group of 24 participants (16 females, 8 males) between 19 and 31 years old (M = 22.33, SD = 3.42) performed a Flanker task to measure attention and a Klingberg task to measure working memory while listening to white noise (WN), 40 Hz gamma binaural beat (BB) and 40 Hz gamma monaural beat (MB). Speed of performance on all three levels of difficulty of the Flanker attention task was faster under the BB and MB condition than under WN. No differences were found between BB and MB conditions. With respect to the quality of performance on the Flanker attention task and the Klingberg working memory task no significant differences under the WN, MB, and BB condition were found. Finally, as participants with low or high emotionality did not respond differently to BB and MB under any of the conditions, effects of BB and MB seem similar in high and low emotional participants. The present study supports the notion that faster attention processing may equally be attributed to the influence of BB and MB. Further research is recommended to gain more insight in the role of factors such as duration of stimulation of BB and MB, frequency range, most appropriate carrier tones, and the role of personality traits.

In deze pilot studie wordt een poging gedaan om persoonlijkheid te relateren aan hersenactiviteit en hersenconnectiviteit. Voor de hersenactiviteit werden twee correlatiematen berekend die zijn gebaseerd op hersengolven, namelijk: intra-persoonlijke correlatie (samenhang linker- en rechterhemisfeer) en interpersoonlijke correlatie (samenhang EEG activiteit persoon A en persoon B).

Hypothesen: (1) Er bestaat een relatie tussen individuele persoonlijkheidsfactoren en intra- of interpersoonlijke correlatie. (2) Er bestaat een relatie tussen een overeenkomst in persoonlijkheid en interpersoonlijke EEG correlatie.

Methoden: Hiervoor werd bij 14 proefpersonen (10 vrouwen) tussen de 19 en 24 jaar de HEXACO-SPI persoonlijkheidsvragenlijst afgenomen en werd er EEG gemeten tijdens rust (ruststaat EEG). Deze ruststaat EEG werd vergeleken met het EEG tijdens een sociale interactie.
Resultaten: In rust bleek de persoonlijkheidsfactor emotionaliteit een significante invloed te hebben op de intra-persoonlijke EEG correlatie. Dat wil zeggen, hoe hoger de score op Emotionaliteit des te groter de correlatie tussen het EEG van de linker en rechter hemisfeer. Mogelijk staat dit in verband met onzekerheid en een verhoogd zelfbewustzijn. Er zijn geen overige relaties met persoonlijkheid of overeenkomst in persoonlijkheid tussen koppels gevonden.

Relevantie: Deze studie één van de eerste pogingen om een directe neurofysiologische relatie tussen connectiviteit en persoonlijkheid te onderzoeken. Onderzoek hiernaar is van belang om de neurale processen die onderhevig zijn aan cognitief functioneren en sociale gedragingen te ontdekken. De door ons gebruikte methoden zijn daarnaast eenvoudig toe te passen voor grootschaliger studies.