Optimism as a key factor in coping with the common cold.

Objective: The optimism trait is considered one of the most important psychological factors in protecting and promoting health. This study aims to investigate whether trait optimism may help to cope better with the common cold by reducing the subjective perception of cold symptoms and affecting the immune response. Methods: To do so, 212 volunteers from the Pittsburg Cold Study 3 within the Common Cold Project were exposed to Rhinovirus (RV39). On the 5 days following the inoculation, a daily symptoms scale, nasal wash, and blood samples were collected to assess Jackson Symptoms (nasal congestion, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, cough, headache, chills, and malaise) and control the Immune System response to infection (concentrations of interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interferon (IFN)-α). Results: Results showed that approximately 30% of the inoculated participants were finally diagnosed with a common cold, showing higher Jackson Symptom severity and Immune System Response (IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNFα and IFNα). Importantly, moderation regression analyses showed that higher optimism scores were related to lower Jackson Symptom severity and TNFα response to infection in cold-diagnosed participants. Conclusions: Our results provide important evidence for the protective role of optimism, a trait factor that promotes a better perception of wellbeing and less need for immune system resources to successfully cope with the common cold.

[Three tasks for the exploration of verbal fluency: evidence of test-retest reliability in Argentine adults]. / Tres tareas para la exploración de la fluidez verbal: evidencias de su fiabilidad test-retest en adultos argentinos.

INTRODUCTION: The phonological and semantic verbal fluency tasks are frequently used in neuropsychological assessment due to their easy application and good sensitivity to dementia. In Argentina, the psychometric evidence for these tasks is limited, with a special lack of knowledge of the temporal stability of its measurements. The psychometric production is even lower for the action fluency variant (emission of verbs in the infinitive in one minute). In effect, this research analyzes the test-retest reliability of three verbal fluency tasks in Argentine adults. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The sample was made up of 85 Argentine (average age, 63.7 years), 75,3% women and with a medium-high educational level. A prospective longitudinal design was carried out, administering phonological, semantic and action fluency tasks at two different times with an interval of up to four months. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), a statistical method suggested for test-retest reliability studies, was analyzed. For the interpretation of the ICC, the Fleiss criteria were adopted. RESULTS: The phonological and semantic fluency tasks showed good reliability, with ICCs of 0.77 and 0.79. The fluidity of action variant yielded ICC of 0.90, indicating excellent reliability. CONCLUSIONS: All fluency tasks have appropriate temporal stability, and their use is recommended when prospective neuropsychological research is planned (with language evaluation at different times) or as a method of monitoring the evolution of aphasic patients undergoing neurorehabilitation. Based on its excellent reliability, it is recommended to use the action variant more frequently.

TITLE: Tres tareas para la exploración de la fluidez verbal: evidencias de su fiabilidad test-retest en adultos argentinos.Introducción. Las tareas de fluidez fonológica y semántica son de uso frecuente en la evaluación neuropsicológica por su fácil aplicación y buena sensibilidad al deterioro cognitivo. En Argentina es limitado el cuerpo de evidencia psicométrica para dichas tareas, con especial desconocimiento de la estabilidad temporal de sus medidas. La producción psicométrica es aún menor para la variante fluidez de acción (emisión de verbos en infinitivo en un minuto). En efecto, este estudio analiza la fiabilidad test-retest de tres tareas de fluidez en adultos argentinos. Sujetos y métodos. La muestra se compuso de 85 argentinos (medida de edad, 63,7) de población general no clínica, un 75,3% mujeres, de nivel de instrucción medio-alto. Se efectuó un diseño longitudinal-prospectivo administrando tareas de fluidez fonológica, semántica y de acción en dos momentos distintos con un intervalo hasta de cuatro meses. Se analizó el coeficiente de correlación intraclase (CCI), método estadístico sugerido para estudios de fiabilidad test-retest. Para interpretar el CCI se adoptaron los criterios de Fleiss. Resultados. Las tareas de fluidez fonológica y semántica demostraron buena fiabilidad, con un CCI de 0,77 y 0,79. La fluidez de acción obtuvo excelente fiabilidad, con un CCI de 0,9. Conclusión. Las tareas de fluidez relevadas poseen apropiada estabilidad temporal, por lo que se sugiere su uso en investigaciones neuropsicológicas prospectivas (cuando se evalúe el lenguaje en distintos momentos) o cuando se requiera un seguimiento de la evolución de pacientes afásicos en neurorrehabilitación. Basándose en su excelente fiabilidad, se recomienda utilizar con más frecuencia la variante de acción.

Being an optimist or a pessimist and its relationship with morning cortisol release and past life review in healthy older people.

OBJECTIVE: Investigate the relationship between optimism and pessimism and the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and past life review in healthy older people. DESIGN: 76 older volunteers summarised their lives, highlighting the most important events, impressions and experiences. Cortisol saliva samples were collected on two consecutive weekdays. High and low optimism and pessimism groups were computed by mean split. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentages of positive (PE) and negative events (NE) and positive (PCE) and negative cognitions and emotions (NCE) were obtained. Optimism and pessimism were measured with the Life Orientation Test Revised. The areas under the curve with respect to the ground and with respect to the increase were computed, with the latter understood as the CAR. RESULTS: The high pessimism group reported more NE and NCE and less PE and PCE (p's < 0.041). No significant differences in CAR were found between high and low optimism and pessimism groups after removing suspected non-adherent participants (p's > 0.116). Higher CAR was related to lower PCE, but higher NCE (both p < 0.008). CONCLUSION: Pessimism seems to increase the focus on negative aspects of the past, which may lead to a worse perception of life in ageing, whereas optimism contributes to a healthier CAR.

Acute stress and working memory: The role of sex and cognitive stress appraisal.

Sex is considered a moderating factor in the relationship between stress and cognitive performance. However, sex differences and the impact of cognitive stress appraisal on working memory performance have not received much attention. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of physiological responses (heart rate and salivary cortisol) and cognitive stress appraisal in Working Memory (WM) performance in males and females. For this purpose, we subjected a comparable number of healthy young adult males (N=37) and females (N=45) to a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), and we evaluated WM performance before and after the stress task. Females performed better on attention and maintenance after the TSST, but males did not. Moreover, we found that attention and maintenance performance presented a negative relationship with cortisol reactivity in females, but not in males. Nevertheless, we observed that only the females who showed a cortisol decrease after the TSST performed better after the stress task, whereas females and males who showed an increase or no change in cortisol levels, and males who showed a cortisol decrease, did not change their performance over time. In females, we also found that the global indexes of cognitive stress appraisal and cognitive threat appraisal were negatively related to attention and maintenance performance, whereas the Self-concept of Own Competence was positively related to it. However, these relationships were not found in males.