Functional brain asymmetry for emotions: psychological stress-induced reversed hemispheric asymmetry in emotional face perception.

Empirical evidence has demonstrated functional (mostly right-biased) brain asymmetry for emotion perception, whereas recent studies indicate that acute stress may modulate left and/or right hemisphere activation. However, it is still unknown whether emotion perception can be influenced by stress-induced hemispheric activation since behavioral studies report inconsistent or even contradictory results. We sought to reevaluate this gap. Eighty-eight healthy Caucasian university students participated in the study. In half of the randomly selected participants, acute psychological stress was induced by displaying a brief stressful movie clip (the stress condition), whereas the other half were shown a neutral movie clip (the non-stress condition). Prior to (the baseline) and following the movie clip display an emotion perception task was applied by presenting an emotional (happy, surprised, fearful, sad, angry, or disgusted) or neutral face to the left or right visual field. We found a more accurate perception of emotional and neutral faces presented to the LVF (the right hemisphere) in the baseline. However, we revealed that after watching a neutral movie clip, behavioral performance in emotional and neutral face perception accuracy became relatively equalized for both visual fields, whereas after watching a stressful movie clip, the RVF (the left hemisphere) even became dominant in emotional face perception. We propose a novel hemispheric functional-equivalence model: the brain is initially right-biased in emotional and neutral face perception by default; however, psychophysiological activation of a distributed brain-network due to watching neutral movie clips redistributes hemispheric performance toward relative equivalence. Moreover, even reversed hemispheric asymmetry may occur.

Relationships of work-related psychosocial risks, stress, individual factors and burnout - Questionnaire survey among emergency physicians and nurses.

BACKGROUND: Psychosocial risks represent a great challenge for safety and health protection at work in Europe. The purpose of this study has been to determine the relationships of psychosocial risks arising from work, stress, personal characteristics and burnout among physicians and nurses in the Emergency Medical Service (EMS). MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study based on a questionnaire survey which contained the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). RESULTS: A total of 88 physicians and 80 nurses completed the survey. Physicians demonstrated higher emotional (mean (M) ± standard deviation (SD) = 74.57±16.85) and cognitive (M±SD = 75.95±13.74) demands as compared to nurses. Both groups had high sensory demands and responsibilities at work, in spite of the low degree of their autonomy. The meaning of work, commitment to the workplace, and insecurity at work were high for both groups. Among all participants, stressful behavior and reactions were within the limits of low values (< 40) and coping strategies showed high values (> 60). Personal and patient-related burnout was high for both groups, where physicians were significantly affected by work-related burnout. The influence at work, degree of freedom at work, social support, sense of coherence, mental health, and problem-focused coping are negatively related to work-related burnout. CONCLUSIONS: Based on personal factors and coping styles, emergency physicians and nurses are representing a self-selective professional group that meets high work demands, great responsibility, strong commitment and insecurity at work. Burnout of physicians and nurses in the EMS tends to be ignored, although it has severe consequences on their mental and general health. Med Pr 2017;68(2):178-178.

Inhibitory effect of aqueous and ethanolic garlic (Allium sativum L., Lilliaceae) extracts on the rat atria.

The acute negative inotropic and chronotrophic effects of aqueous and alcoholic garlic extracts (Allium sativum L.) on spontaneous and adrenalin-stimulated contractions of the Wistar rat atria were investigated. The addition of garlic extracts to isolated rat atria evoked negative inotropic and chronotropic effects. Ethanolic garlic extract exerts much stronger negative inotropic (58.33 +/- 14.76%) effects than aqueous extract (43.66 +/- 16.32%). The difference in frequency reduction is especially conspicuous. Aqueous garlic extract very slightly affects the frequency, while ethanolic extract reduces it by more than 40%. In addition to these effects, the positive inotropism and chronotropism induced by the addition of noradrenaline, were much more antagonized by ethanolic garlic extract than by aqueous extract. Moreover, ethanolic garlic extract establishes sinus rhythm in the atria with extrasystoles induced by noradrenaline.

Neonatal influence of monosodium glutamate on the somatometric parameters of rats.

The glutamate receptors are expressed in various cell types including bone and adipose cells. The effects of neonatal administration of monosodium glutamate (MSG) on the "programming" of somatometric parameters in Wistar rats during the period up to 14th week of life were estimated. The rats were treated subcutaneously with five doses of 4 mg/g MSG (10 microl/g body mass) during the first 10 postnatal days (group M). The control (group C) was treated in the same manner with normal saline solution. During three months, body mass, naso-anal length and tail length were measured in 14 days intervals, while femoral and tibial masses and lengths, and testicular mass were measured following sacrificing. The body mass at the end of this period in the M group of males was higher than the body mass in the group C. Reduction in relative bone length, body and tail lengths and the relative as well as absolute testicular mass were registered in MSG-treated rats. A significant reduction in somatometric parameters was registered only in female MSG-treated rats during period of sexual maturation compared to controls.

Contralateral Hemisphere Activation by Unilateral Hand Contraction: ReExamining Global and Local Attention.

While previous studies have shown that left- (vs. right-) hand contractions can improve the performance of global (vs. local) attention, these results were inconsistent in certain behavioral studies in which the left cerebral hemisphere was found to be specialized for local attention, while the right hemisphere was not specialized for global attention. Thus, we reexamined whether different global (vs. local) attention performances follow left- (vs. right-) hand contractions due to right (vs. left) hemisphere activation. We recruited 100 right-handed healthy female, university student (aged 19-26 years) participants. We used the Navon task to present 80 letter-stimuli (40 in the global task; 40 in the local task) to either the participants' left or right visual fields. Half of the participants (randomly selected) were instructed to squeeze a dynamometer with the left hand, while the other half squeezed with the right hand, prior to completing the Navon task. In line with previous research, we observed a perceptual advantage of global (large letters) over local (small letters) stimuli. Participants who contracted the right hand showed an enhanced local attention performance (from left hemisphere activation), whereas those who contracted the left hand did not improve global attention performance (from right hemisphere activation). Thus, we supported prior behavioral research suggesting that hemispheric asymmetry for attention processing is evident for left but not right cortical hemisphere processing.

Perceived parental acceptance/rejection, some family characteristics and conduct disorder in adolescents.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Conduct disorder is characterized by repetitive and persistent presence of dissocial, aggressive and defiant behavioral patterns, thus represents important public issue with comprehensive and far-reaching consequences both for the individual and society. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in sociodemographic family characteristics and the prominence of parental acceptance/rejection dimensions in groups of adolescents with and without conduct disorder, as well as to examine the connection between parental acceptance/rejection dimensions and externalizing symptoms in the group of adolescents with conduct disorder. METHODS: This research was conducted on 134 adolescents, aged 15 to 18, using the Parental Acceptance/Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ child), Youth Self-Report (YSR), and a questionnaire constructed for the purpose of this survey. RESULTS: The results showed that the number of adolescents with conduct disorder coming from divorced families was significandy higher than from complete families (44.8% vs 13.4%, respectively; p < 0.001). Also, in this group of adolescents there was a statistically significantly higher number of parents suffering from psychiatric disorders compared to the controls (31.3% vs 8.9%; respectively; p = 0.001). The perceived rejection dimension and the total index of maternal acceptance/rejection were significantly higher in adolescents with conduct disorder than in those with no such disorder (132.30 ± 38.05 vs 93.91 ± 26.29 respectively; p < 0.001). Similar results were found for paternal acceptance/rejection dimension (129.40 ± 39.58 vs 86.10 ± 15.95 respectively; p < 0.001). Adolescents with conduct disorder and severe perceived maternal and paternal rejection showed a significantly higher average score on the subscale of externalizing symptoms (14.55 ± 4.45 and 13.27 + 5.05) compared to adolescents with conduct disorder and lower total index of parental acceptance/rejection (8.32 ± 5.05 and 8.28 ± 5.08). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that adolescents with conduct disorder perceive their parents as more rejecting and less warm and supportive compared to adolescents without conduct disorder. The perception of significant and severe parental rejection was associated with a significantly higher averaged score on the subscale of externalizing symptoms in the group of adolescents with conduct disorder compared to those with no such disorder. It was found that adolescents with conduct disorder most often come from large families, have divorced parents or parents with multiple psychiatric disorders.

[Relaxant activity of aqueous and ethanol extracts of parsley (Petroselinum crispum (Mill) Nym. ex A. W Hill, Apiaceae) on isolated ileum of rat].

INTRODUCTION: Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is used in the traditional herbal medicine to treat intestinal disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of aqueous and ethanol extracts of parsley on spontaneous and acetylcholine induced contractions on isolated rat ileum. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Wistar albino rats (250-300 g) were used in this study. The ileum portions were isolated out and cleaned off mesenteries. Preparations 2 cm long were mounted in 20 ml tissue baths containing Tyrode's solution maintained at 37 degrees C and aerated with a mixture of 5% carbon dioxide in oxygen. In the first part of experiments, contractile responses to the aqueous (ethanol) extracts of parsley were recorded. In the second part, increasing concentrations of acetylcholine were added to the organ bath for a full concentration response curve and then concentration response curves were obtained after adding the aqueous (ethanol) extracts of parsley. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Our results showed that aqueous (62.22 +/- 7.15%) and ethanol (79.16 +/- 9.34%) extracts of parsley in dose dependent manner decreased the tonus of spontaneous contractions of isolated rat ileum. The aqueous (32.16 +/- 2.75%) and ethanol (53.96 +/- 4.86%) extracts of parsley reduced the acetylcholine induced contraction, the reduction was greater with ethanol extract than with the aqueous one. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that the aqueous and ethanol extracts of parsley exert antispasmodic activity on rat ileum. The relaxant effect of ethanol extract was better comparing to aqueous extract of parsley.

Formant structure of the voice during the intensive acute hypoxia.

The influence of intensive acute hypoxia on the frequency-amplitude formant vocal O characteristics was investigated in this study. Examinees were exposed to the simulated altitudes of 5,500 m and 6,700 m in climabaro chamber and resolved Lotig's test in the conditions of normoxia, i.e. pronounced the three-digit numbers beginning from 900, but in reversed order. Frequency and intensity values of vocal O (F1, F2, F3 and F4), extracted from the context of the pronunciation of the word eight (osam in Serbian), were measured by spectral speech signal analysis. Changes in frequency values and the intensity of the formants were examined. The obtained results showed that there were no significant changes of the formant frequencies in hypoxia condition compared to normoxia. Though, significant changes of formant's intensities were found compared to normoxia on the cited altitudes. The rise of formants intensities was found at the altitude of 5,500 m. Hypoxia at the altitude of 6,700 m caused the significant fall of the intensities in the initial period, compared to normoxia. The prolonged hypoxia exposure caused the rise of the formant intensities compared to the altitude of 5,500 m. In may be concluded that, due to different altitudes, hypoxia causes different effects on the formants structure changes, compared to normoxia.