Impact of mindfulness-based and health self-management interventions on mindfulness, self-compassion, and physical activity in older adults with subjective cognitive decline: A secondary analysis of the SCD-Well randomized controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Older adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline (SCD) have a higher risk of dementia. Reducing this risk through behavioral interventions, which can increase emotional well-being (mindfulness and compassion) and physical activity, is crucial in SCD. METHODS: SCD-Well is a multicenter, observer-blind, randomized, controlled, superiority trial. Three hundred forty-seven participants (mean [standard deviation] age: 72.7 [6.9] years; 64.6% women) were recruited from memory clinics in four European sites to assess the impact of an 8-week caring mindfulness-based approach for seniors (CMBAS) and a health self-management program (HSMP) on mindfulness, self-compassion, and physical activity. RESULTS: CMBAS showed a significant within-group increase in self-compassion from baseline to post-intervention and both a within- and between-group increase to follow-up visit (24 weeks). HSMP showed a significant within- and between-group increase in physical activity from baseline to post-intervention and to follow-up visit. DISCUSSION: Non-pharmacological interventions can differentially promote modifiable factors linked to healthy aging in older adults with SCD.

Situational assessment of empathy and compassion: Predicting prosociality using a video-based task.

Classical psychometric approaches in social science measure individuals' tendency to experience empathy and compassion. Using abstract questionnaire items, they place high demand on subjects' capacity to introspect, memorize, and generalize the corresponding emotions. We employed a Socio-affective Video Task (SoVT)-an alternative approach that measures situationally elicited emotions-and assessed its predictive power over prosocial behavior against classical questionnaires in a sample of Israeli university students. We characterized the conceptual embedding of the SoVT concerning other measures of prosocial affect and cognition, and tested group identification as an alternative precursor to prosocial behavior. Eighty participants rated their reactions to videos that presented the suffering of others or everyday scenes on scales of negative affect (providing a proxy for elicited empathy) and compassion. We then administered classical questionnaires that target empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and compassion (the Compassionate Love Scale), as well as measures of hypothetical and real-life helping and prosocial attitudes-including conflict attitudes and intergroup bias. While compassion ratings in the SoVT failed to predict prosociality more accurately than classical questionnaires, the SoVT empathy index succeeded and correlated strongly with other precursors of prosociality. These results support video-based situational assessment as an implicit and robust alternative in the measurement of empathy-related processes.

An 18-month meditation training selectively improves psychological well-being in older adults: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: As the world population is ageing, it is vital to understand how older adults can maintain and deepen their psychological well-being as they are confronted with the unique challenges of ageing in a complex world. Theoretical work has highlighted the promising role of intentional mental training such as meditation practice for enhancing human flourishing. However, meditation-based randomised controlled trials in older adults are lacking. We aimed to investigate the effects of meditation training on psychological well-being in older adults. METHODS: This study presents a secondary analysis of the Age-Well trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02977819), which randomised 137 healthy older adults (age range: 65 to 84 years) to an 18-month meditation training, an active comparator (English language training), or a passive control. Well-being was measured at baseline, mid-intervention, and 18-month post-randomisation using the Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS), the World Health Organisation's Quality of Life (QoL) Assessment psychological subscale, and composite scores reflecting the meditation-based well-being dimensions of awareness, connection, insight, and a global score comprising the average of these meditation-based dimensions. RESULTS: The 18-month meditation training was superior to English training on changes in the global score (0.54 [95% CI: 0.26, 0.82], p = 0.0002) and the subscales of awareness, connection, insight, and superior to no-intervention only on changes in the global score (0.54 [95% CI: 0.26, 0.82], p = 0.0002) and awareness. Between-group differences in psychological QoL in favour of meditation did not remain significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons. There were no between-group differences in PWBS total score. Within the meditation group, psychological QoL, awareness, insight, and the global score increased significantly from baseline to 18-month post-randomisation. CONCLUSION: The longest randomised meditation training conducted to date enhanced a global composite score reflecting the meditation-based well-being dimensions of awareness, connection, and insight in older adults. Future research is needed to delineate the cognitive, affective, and behavioural factors that predict responsiveness to meditation and thus help refine the development of tailored meditation training.

Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention and a health self-management programme on psychological well-being in older adults with subjective cognitive decline: Secondary analyses from the SCD-Well randomised clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES: Older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) recruited from memory clinics have an increased risk of developing dementia and regularly experience reduced psychological well-being related to memory concerns and fear of dementia. Research on improving well-being in SCD is limited and lacks non-pharmacological approaches. We investigated whether mindfulness-based and health education interventions can enhance well-being in SCD. METHODS: The SCD-Well trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03005652) randomised 147 older adults with SCD to an 8-week caring mindfulness-based approach for seniors (CMBAS) or an active comparator (health self-management programme [HSMP]). Well-being was assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 6-month post-randomisation using the Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS), the World Health Organisation's Quality of Life (QoL) Assessment psychological subscale, and composites capturing meditation-based well-being dimensions of awareness, connection, and insight. Mixed effects models were used to assess between- and within-group differences in change. RESULTS: CMBAS was superior to HSMP on changes in connection at post-intervention. Within both groups, PWBS total scores, psychological QoL, and composite scores did not increase. Exploratory analyses indicated increases in PWBS autonomy at post-intervention in both groups. CONCLUSION: Two non-pharmacological interventions were associated with only limited effects on psychological well-being in SCD. Longer intervention studies with waitlist/retest control groups are needed to assess if our findings reflect intervention brevity and/or minimal base rate changes in well-being.

Getting closer: compassion training increases feelings of closeness toward a disliked person.

Evidence-based interventions to favor more harmonious interactions in difficult relationships remain scarce. This study examined whether compassion training may have beneficial effects in an ongoing tense relationship with a disliked person, by reducing schadenfreude toward them and increasing felt interpersonal closeness. 108 participants were assigned to one of three 5-week trainings in a longitudinal randomized controlled study: compassion training, reappraisal training (emotion regulation control condition), or Italian language training (neutral active control condition). The disliked person was not targeted during the trainings to test potential transfer effects. Misfortune scenarios and a measure of interpersonal closeness were used to test whether schadenfreude and closeness feelings toward a disliked person changed from pre- to post-training, across different experimental and control groups. Only compassion and reappraisal trainees reported a decrease of schadenfreude feelings toward the disliked person compared to their pre-training ratings, no changes were observed in the Italian language training. Importantly, feelings of closeness toward the disliked person increased in the compassion training group compared to the other two groups. This increase of closeness feelings could be a central mechanism for improving social interactions. These transfer effects open new perspectives concerning emotion regulation interventions in conflict resolution.

Long-term environmental enrichment is associated with better fornix microstructure in older adults.

Background: Sustained environmental enrichment (EE) through a variety of leisure activities may decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This cross-sectional cohort study investigated the association between long-term EE in young adulthood through middle life and microstructure of fiber tracts associated with the memory system in older adults. Methods: N = 201 cognitively unimpaired participants (≥ 60 years of age) from the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE) baseline cohort were included. Two groups of participants with higher (n = 104) or lower (n = 97) long-term EE were identified, using the self-reported frequency of diverse physical, intellectual, and social leisure activities between the ages 13 to 65. White matter (WM) microstructure was measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in the fornix, uncinate fasciculus, and parahippocampal cingulum using diffusion tensor imaging. Long-term EE groups (lower/higher) were compared with adjustment for potential confounders, such as education, crystallized intelligence, and socio-economic status. Results: Reported participation in higher long-term EE was associated with greater fornix microstructure, as indicated by higher FA (standardized ß = 0.117, p = 0.033) and lower MD (ß = -0.147, p = 0.015). Greater fornix microstructure was indirectly associated (FA: unstandardized B = 0.619, p = 0.038; MD: B = -0.035, p = 0.026) with better memory function through higher long-term EE. No significant effects were found for the other WM tracts. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that sustained participation in a greater variety of leisure activities relates to preserved WM microstructure in the memory system in older adults. This could be facilitated by the multimodal stimulation associated with the engagement in a physically, intellectually, and socially enriched lifestyle. Longitudinal studies will be needed to support this assumption.

The effect of plasma cortisol on hippocampal atrophy and clinical progression in mild cognitive impairment.

Introduction: Both elevated cortisol and hippocampal volume have been linked to an increased risk for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This longitudinal study assessed the effects of plasma cortisol on hippocampal atrophy and clinical progression rates in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: Patients with amnestic MCI (n = 304) were selected from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) based on availability of baseline plasma cortisol and hippocampal volume measures, assessed at baseline and during follow-ups. We investigated associations between plasma cortisol, hippocampal volume, and risk of clinical progression to AD over a study period of up to 100 months (mean follow-up time 36.8 months) using linear mixed models, Cox proportional hazards models, and Kaplan-Meier estimators. Results: Plasma cortisol predicted greater hippocampal atrophy, such that participants with higher cortisol showed faster decline in hippocampal volume over time (interaction: ß = -0.15, p = 0.004). Small hippocampal volume predicted a higher risk of clinical progression to AD (haard ratio [HR] = 2.15; confidence in terval [CI], 1.64-2.80; p < 0.001). A similar effect was not found for cortisol (HR = 1.206; CI, 0.82-1.37; p = 0.670) and there was no statistical evidence for an interaction between hippocampal volume and cortisol on clinical progression (HR = 0.81; CI, 0.57-0.17; p = 0.260). Discussion: Our findings suggest that higher cortisol predicts higher hippocampal atrophy, which in turn is a risk factor for progression to AD. Regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis through stress-reducing lifestyle interventions might be a protective factor against hippocampal degeneration at the prodromal stage of AD.

Effects of Meditation Training and Non-Native Language Training on Cognition in Older Adults: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Nonpharmacological interventions are a potential strategy to maintain or promote cognitive functioning in older adults. Objective: To investigate the effects of 18 months' meditation training and 18 months' non-native language training on cognition in older adults. Design, Setting, and Participants: This study was a secondary analysis of the Age-Well trial, an 18-month, observer-masked, randomized clinical trial with 3 parallel arms. Eligible participants were community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older residing in Caen, France. Participants were enrolled from November 24, 2016, to March 5, 2018, and randomly assigned (1:1:1) to meditation training, non-native language (English) training, or no intervention arms. Final follow-up was completed on February 6, 2020. Data were analyzed between December 2021 and November 2022. Interventions: The 18-month meditation and non-native language training interventions were structurally equivalent and included 2-hour weekly group sessions, daily home practice of 20 minutes or longer, and 1 day of more intensive home practice. The no intervention group was instructed not to change their habits and to continue living as usual. Main Outcomes and Measures: Cognition (a prespecified secondary outcome of the Age-Well trial) was assessed preintervention and postintervention via the Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite 5 (PACC5), and composites assessing episodic memory, executive function, and attention. Results: Among 137 randomized participants, 2 were excluded for not meeting eligibility criteria, leaving 135 (mean [SD] age, 69.3 [3.8] years; 83 female [61%]) eligible for analysis. One participant among the remaining 135 did not complete the trial. In adjusted mixed effects models, no interaction effects were observed between visit and group for PACC5 (F2,131.39 = 2.58; P = .08), episodic memory (F2,131.60 = 2.34; P = .10), executive function (F2,131.26 = 0.89; P = .41), or attention (F2,131.20 = 0.34; P = .79). Results remained substantively unchanged across sensitivity and exploratory analyses. Conclusions and Relevance: In this secondary analysis of an 18-month randomized trial, meditation and non-native language training did not confer salutary cognitive effects. Although further analyses are needed to explore the effects of these interventions on other relevant outcomes related to aging and well-being, these findings did not support the use of these interventions for enhancing cognition in cognitively healthy older adults. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02977819.

The Effect of Meditation-Based Interventions on Patients with Fatigue Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Persistent fatigue constitutes a prevalent and debilitating symptom in several diseases. The symptom is not effectively alleviated by pharmaceutical treatments, and meditation has been proposed as a non-pharmacological intervention. Indeed, meditation has been shown to reduce inflammatory/immune problems, pain, stress, anxiety and depression which are associated with pathological fatigue. This review synthesizes data from randomized control trials (RCTs) that explored the effect of meditation-based interventions (MeBIs) on fatigue in pathological conditions. Eight databases were searched from inception to April 2020. Thirty-four RCTs met eligibility criteria and covered six conditions (68% cancer), 32 of which were included in the meta-analysis. The main analysis showed an effect in favor of MeBIs compared to control groups (g = 0.62). Separate moderator analyses assessing control group, pathological condition, and MeBI type, highlighted a significantly moderating role of the control group. Indeed, compared to actively controlled studies, studies using a passive control group were associated with a statistically significantly more beneficial impact of the MeBIs (g = 0.83). These results indicate that MeBIs alleviate pathological fatigue and it seems that the studies with a passive control group showed a greater effect of MeBI on the reduction of fatigue compared to studies using active control groups. However, the specific effect of meditation type and pathological condition should be analyzed with more studies, and there remains a need to assess meditation effects on different types of fatigue (i.e., physical and mental) and in additional conditions (e.g., post-COVID-19).

Spreading positive change: Societal benefits of meditation.

Research over the past decades has revealed a variety of beneficial effects of meditation training. These beneficial effects span the levels of health and well-being, cognition, emotion, and social behavior. Around the same time, sociologists have shown that traits and outcomes on the individual level have the potential to spread in communities over three or more degrees. This means, for example, that changes can spread from one person to the next, and on to yet another person. Here, we propose that meditation-induced changes may likewise spread through the social networks of meditation practitioners. Such spreading may happen by positively influencing others through prosocial actions, improved cognitive functioning, and increased positive affect. Positive affective states and their underlying physiological correlates may also be shared in the literal sense. We argue that the spreading of positive meditation effects could provide the basis for collective responses to some of the urgent challenges we face in our current time and society and call for future meditation research to examine the phenomenon.

A multicenter feasibility study on implementing a brief mindful breathing exercise into regular university courses.

Practicing mindfulness is associated with stress reduction and with positive effects in the context of learning and teaching. Although effects on student populations have been studied extensively, there are few studies implementing mindfulness exercises in university courses directly. For this reason, we aimed to investigate whether the use of a brief mindfulness exercise in regular university courses, guided by the lecturers, is feasible and has immediate effects on the students' mental states. We conducted a preregistered multicenter study with one observational arm, following an ABAB design. In total, N = 325 students from 19 different university courses were included at baseline and n = 101 students at post measurement. Students were recruited by N = 14 lecturers located in six different universities in Germany. Lecturers started their courses either by guiding a brief mindfulness exercise (intervention condition) or as they regularly would, with no such exercise (control condition). In both conditions, the mental states of students and lecturers were assessed. Over the semester, n = 1193 weekly observations from students and n = 160 observations from lecturers were collected. Intervention effects were analyzed with linear mixed-effects models. The brief mindfulness exercise, compared to no such exercise, was associated with lower stress composite scores, higher presence composite scores, higher motivation for the courses, as well as better mood in students. Effects persisted throughout a respective course session. Lecturers also reported positive effects of instructing mindfulness. Implementing a brief mindfulness exercise in regular university teaching sessions is feasible and has positive effects on both students and lecturers.

Exposure to negative socio-emotional events induces sustained alteration of resting-state brain networks in older adults.

Basic emotional functions seem well preserved in older adults. However, their reactivity to and recovery from socially negative events remain poorly characterized. To address this, we designed a 'task-rest' paradigm in which 182 participants from two independent experiments underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while exposed to socio-emotional videos. Experiment 1 (N = 55) validated the task in young and older participants and unveiled age-dependent effects on brain activity and connectivity that predominated in resting periods after (rather than during) negative social scenes. Crucially, emotional elicitation potentiated subsequent resting-state connectivity between default mode network and amygdala exclusively in older adults. Experiment 2 replicated these results in a large older adult cohort (N = 127) and additionally showed that emotion-driven changes in posterior default mode network-amygdala connectivity were associated with anxiety, rumination and negative thoughts. These findings uncover the neural dynamics of empathy-related functions in older adults and help understand its relationship to poor social stress recovery.

Depressive symptoms in cognitively unimpaired older adults are associated with lower structural and functional integrity in a frontolimbic network.

Subclinical depressive symptoms are associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the brain mechanisms underlying this relationship are still unclear. We aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the brain substrates of subclinical depressive symptoms in cognitively unimpaired older adults using complementary multimodal neuroimaging data. We included cognitively unimpaired older adults from the baseline data of the primary cohort Age-Well (n = 135), and from the replication cohort ADNI (n = 252). In both cohorts, subclinical depressive symptoms were assessed using the 15-item version of the Geriatric Depression Scale; based on this scale, participants were classified as having depressive symptoms (>0) or not (0). Voxel-wise between-group comparisons were performed to highlight differences in gray matter volume, glucose metabolism and amyloid deposition; as well as white matter integrity (only available in Age-Well). Age-Well participants with subclinical depressive symptoms had lower gray matter volume in the hippocampus and lower white matter integrity in the fornix and the posterior parts of the cingulum and corpus callosum, compared to participants without symptoms. Hippocampal atrophy was recovered in ADNI, where participants with subclinical depressive symptoms also showed glucose hypometabolism in the hippocampus, amygdala, precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex, medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, insula, and temporoparietal cortex. Subclinical depressive symptoms were not associated with brain amyloid deposition in either cohort. Subclinical depressive symptoms in ageing are linked with neurodegeneration biomarkers in the frontolimbic network including brain areas particularly sensitive to AD. The relationship between depressive symptoms and AD may be partly underpinned by neurodegeneration in common brain regions.

Effect of an 18-Month Meditation Training on Regional Brain Volume and Perfusion in Older Adults: The Age-Well Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: No lifestyle-based randomized clinical trial directly targets psychoaffective risk factors of dementia. Meditation practices recently emerged as a promising mental training exercise to foster brain health and reduce dementia risk. Objective: To investigate the effects of meditation training on brain integrity in older adults. Design, Setting, and Participants: Age-Well was a randomized, controlled superiority trial with blinded end point assessment. Community-dwelling cognitively unimpaired adults 65 years and older were enrolled between November 24, 2016, and March 5, 2018, in France. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to (1) an 18-month meditation-based training, (2) a structurally matched non-native language (English) training, or (3) no intervention arm. Analysis took place between December 2020 and October 2021. Interventions: Meditation and non-native language training included 2-hour weekly group sessions, practice of 20 minutes or longer daily at home, and 1-day intensive practices. Main Outcomes and Measures: Primary outcomes included volume and perfusion of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and insula. Main secondary outcomes included a global composite score capturing metacognitive, prosocial, and self-regulatory capacities and constituent subscores. Results: Among 137 participants (mean [SD] age, 69.4 [3.8] years; 83 [60.6%] female; 54 [39.4%] male) assigned to the meditation (n = 45), non-native language training (n = 46), or no intervention (n = 46) groups, all but 1 completed the trial. There were no differences in volume changes of ACC (0.01 [98.75% CI, -0.02 to 0.05]; P = .36) or insula (0.01 [98.75% CI, -0.02 to 0.03]; P = .58) between meditation and no intervention or non-native language training groups, respectively. Differences in perfusion changes did not reach statistical significance for meditation compared with no intervention in ACC (0.02 [98.75% CI, -0.01 to 0.05]; P = .06) or compared with non-native language training in insula (0.02 [98.75% CI, -0.01 to 0.05]; P = .09). Meditation was superior to non-native language training on 18-month changes in a global composite score capturing attention regulation, socioemotional, and self-knowledge capacities (Cohen d, 0.52 [95% CI, 0.19-0.85]; P = .002). Conclusions and Relevance: The study findings confirm the feasibility of meditation and non-native language training in elderly individuals, with high adherence and very low attrition. Findings also show positive behavioral effects of meditation that were not reflected on volume, and not significantly on perfusion, of target brain areas. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02977819.

Empathy and correct mental state inferences both promote prosociality.

In a world with rapidly increasing population that competes for the earth's limited resources, cooperation is crucial. While research showed that empathizing with another individual in need enhances prosociality, it remains unclear whether correctly inferring the other's inner, mental states on a more cognitive level (i.e., mentalizing) elicits helping behavior as well. We applied a video-based laboratory task probing empathy and a performance measure of mentalizing in adult volunteers (N = 94) and assessed to which extent they were willing to help the narrators in the videos. We replicate findings that an empathy induction leads to more prosocial decisions. Crucially, we also found that correct mentalizing increases the willingness to help. This evidence helps clarify an inconsistent picture of the relation between mentalizing and prosociality.

Effects of a mindfulness-based versus a health self-management intervention on objective cognitive performance in older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD): a secondary analysis of the SCD-Well randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Older individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) perceive that their cognition has declined but do not show objective impairment on neuropsychological tests. Individuals with SCD are at elevated risk of objective cognitive decline and incident dementia. Non-pharmacological interventions (including mindfulness-based and health self-management approaches) are a potential strategy to maintain or improve cognition in SCD, which may ultimately reduce dementia risk. METHODS: This study utilized data from the SCD-Well randomized controlled trial. One hundred forty-seven older adults with SCD (MAge = 72.7 years; 64% female) were recruited from memory clinics in four European countries and randomized to one of two group-based, 8-week interventions: a Caring Mindfulness-based Approach for Seniors (CMBAS) or a health self-management program (HSMP). Participants were assessed at baseline, post-intervention (week 8), and at 6-month follow-up (week 24) using a range of cognitive tests. From these tests, three composites were derived-an "abridged" Preclinical Alzheimer's Cognitive Composite 5 (PACC5Abridged), an attention composite, and an executive function composite. Both per-protocol and intention-to-treat analyses were performed. Linear mixed models evaluated the change in outcomes between and within arms and adjusted for covariates and cognitive retest effects. Sensitivity models repeated the per-protocol analyses for participants who attended ≥ 4 intervention sessions. RESULTS: Across all cognitive composites, there were no significant time-by-trial arm interactions and no measurable cognitive retest effects; sensitivity analyses supported these results. Improvements, however, were observed within both trial arms on the PACC5Abridged from baseline to follow-up (Δ [95% confidence interval]: CMBAS = 0.34 [0.19, 0.48]; HSMP = 0.30 [0.15, 0.44]). There was weaker evidence of an improvement in attention but no effects on executive function. CONCLUSIONS: Two non-pharmacological interventions conferred small, non-differing improvements to a global cognitive composite sensitive to amyloid-beta-related decline. There was weaker evidence of an effect on attention, and no evidence of an effect on executive function. Importantly, observed improvements were maintained beyond the end of the interventions. Improving cognition is an important step toward dementia prevention, and future research is needed to delineate the mechanisms of action of these interventions and to utilize clinical endpoints (i.e., progression to mild cognitive impairment or dementia). TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03005652.

Back to the future: A way to increase prosocial behavior.

Previous studies suggest a link between future thinking and prosocial behaviors. However, this association is not fully understood at state and trait level. The present study tested whether a brief future thinking induction promoted helping behavior in an unrelated task. In addition, the relation between mental time travel and prosocial behaviors in daily life was tested with questionnaire data. Forty-eight participants filled in questionnaires and were asked to think about the future for one minute or to name animals for one minute (control condition) before playing the Zurich Prosocial Game (a measure of helping behavior). Results revealed that participants in the future thinking condition helped significantly more than participants in the control condition. Moreover, questionnaire data showed that dispositional and positive orientation toward the future and the past was significantly associated with self-reported prosocial behaviors. The present findings suggest that thinking about the future in general has positive transfer effects on subsequent prosocial behavior and that people who think more about the past or future in a positive way engage more in prosocial behavior.

Quarreling After a Sleepless Night: Preliminary Evidence of the Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Interpersonal Conflict.

Although poor sleep has been found to correlate with deteriorations in romantic relationships, its causal impact on interpersonal conflict has not previously been studied. Therefore, 30 couples were randomly assigned to either a single night of total sleep deprivation or a night of normal sleep to test the effects of sleep deprivation on couples' conflict. After the experimental night, all participants discussed a topic of recurrent conflict for 15 min. We collected pre- and post-conflict measures of cortisol, self-reports of feelings, and satisfaction with the conflictual discussion. Multilevel analyses revealed higher cortisol levels during conflict and less positive affect prior to and after the conflict for sleep-deprived couples compared to couples in the control condition. These findings provide initial evidence for a causal negative impact of sleep deprivation on couples' conflicts. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00076-4.

Association of Self-reflection With Cognition and Brain Health in Cognitively Unimpaired Older Adults.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Self-reflection (the active evaluation of ones thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) can confer protection against adverse health outcomes. Its effect on markers sensitive to Alzheimer disease (AD), however, is unknown. The primary objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between self-reflection and AD-sensitive markers. METHODS: This study used baseline data from cognitively unimpaired older adults enrolled in the Age-Well clinical trial and older adults with subjective cognitive decline from the SCD-Well clinical trial. In both cohorts, self-reflection was measured via the reflective pondering subscale of the Rumination Response Scale, global cognition assessed via the Preclinical Alzheimer's Cognitive Composite 5, and a modified late-life Lifestyle-for-Brain-Health (LIBRA) index computed to assess health and lifestyle factors. In Age-Well, glucose metabolism and amyloid deposition were quantified in AD-sensitive gray matter regions via fluorodeoxyglucose- and AV45-PET scans, respectively. Associations between self-reflection and AD-sensitive markers (global cognition, glucose metabolism, and amyloid deposition) were assessed via unadjusted and adjusted regressions. Furthermore, we explored whether associations were independent of health and lifestyle factors. To control for multiple comparisons in Age-Well, false discovery rate-corrected p values (p FDR) are reported. RESULTS: A total of 134 (mean age 69.3 ± 3.8 years, 61.9% women) Age-Well and 125 (mean age 72.6 ± 6.9 years, 65.6% women) SCD-Well participants were included. Across unadjusted and adjusted analyses, self-reflection was associated with better global cognition in both cohorts (Age-Well: adjusted-ß = 0.22, 95% CI 0.05-0.40, p FDR = 0.041; SCD-Well: adjusted-ß = 0.18, 95% CI 0.03-0.33, p = 0.023) and with higher glucose metabolism in Age-Well after adjustment for all covariates (adjusted-ß = 0.29, 95% CI 0.03-0.55, p FDR = 0.041). Associations remained following additional adjustment for LIBRA but did not survive false discovery rate (FDR) correction. Self-reflection was not associated with amyloid deposition (adjusted-ß = 0.13, 95% CI -0.07 to 0.34, p FDR = 0.189). DISCUSSION: Self-reflection was associated with better global cognition in 2 independent cohorts and with higher glucose metabolism after adjustment for covariates. There was weak evidence that relationships were independent from health and lifestyle behaviors. Longitudinal and experimental studies are warranted to elucidate whether self-reflection helps preserve cognition and glucose metabolism or whether reduced capacity to self-reflect is a harbinger of cognitive decline and glucose hypometabolism. TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Age-Well: NCT02977819; SCD-Well: NCT03005652.

Negative affective burden is associated with higher resting-state functional connectivity in subjective cognitive decline.

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), as expressed by older adults, is associated with negative affect, which, in turn, is a likely risk factor for Alzheimer's Disease (AD). This study assessed the associations between negative affective burden, cognitive functioning, and functional connectivity in networks vulnerable to AD in the context of SCD. Older participants (60-90 years) with SCD (n = 51) and healthy controls (n = 50) were investigated in a cross-sectional study. Subclinical negative affective burden, quantified through a composite of self-reported negative affective factors, was related to cognitive functioning (self-perceived and objective) and functional connectivity. Seed-to-voxel analyses were carried out in default mode network (DMN) and salience network (SAL) nodes using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Greater negative affective burden was associated with lower self-perceived cognitive functioning and lower between-network functional connectivity of DMN and SAL nodes in the total sample. In addition, there was a significant moderation of SCD status. Greater negative affective burden related to higher functional connectivity within DMN (posterior cingulate-to-precuneus) and within SAL (anterior cingulate-to-insula) nodes in the SCD group, whereas in controls the inverse association was found. We show that negative affective burden is associated with functional brain alterations in older adults, regardless of SCD status. Specifically in the SCD phenotype, greater negative affective burden relates to higher functional connectivity within brain networks vulnerable to AD. Our findings imply that negative affective burden should be considered a potentially modifiable target for early intervention.