Stress Responses Among Individuals with Spiritual Struggles in Hungary: An Experimental Study.

Individuals with a Religious or Spiritual Problem (RSP), as defined in the DSM-5, experience distress associated with faith-related moral dilemmas, existential meaning, and transpersonal attitudes toward other people. It is unclear whether a RSP reflects a generally heightened stress reactivity or whether the stress response is confined to religious and spiritual contexts. To elucidate this issue, we measured behavioral and physiological responses during social-evaluative stress (public speaking-Trier Social Stress Test) and in religious/spiritual contexts (Bible reading and listening to sacred music) in 35 individuals with RSP and 35 matched participants. We found no stress reduction in the religious/spiritual context in RSP, as indicated by increased heart rate, saliva cortisol, and relatively higher left than right frontal activity. Religious stimuli evoked physiological stress responses in RSP. Contrary to the physiological parameters, participants with RSP reported less anxiety in the religious/spiritual context. Religious individuals with and without RSP showed similar stress responses during public speaking. Religious individuals without RSP displayed reduced stress responses in the religious/spiritual context. These results indicate that specific physiological distress in religious/spiritual contexts should be considered in the psychological care of RSP.

The Relationship Among Mentalization, Mindfulness, Working Memory, and Schizotypal Personality Traits in the General Population.

Individuals with high schizotypal traits are less able to observe, describe, and monitor inner feelings, thoughts, and experiences, commonly referred to as mindfulness and mentalization. High schizotypy is also associated with impaired working memory (WM). However, the relationship among mindfulness, mentalization, WM, and schizotypal traits is unknown. Three hundred individuals from the community (mean age: 38.0 years, SD = 10.5; 49.3% women) completed questionnaires examining schizotypal traits, mindfulness, and mentalization and performed working memory tasks. Results revealed that mentalization was a general predictor of schizotypal traits, including unusual experiences, cognitive disorganization, introverted anhedonia, and impulsive nonconformity, when the effect of mindfulness and working memory was controlled. We also found a positive correlation between mindfulness and mentalization. Low mindfulness and mentalization performances were associated with high schizotypy. However, poor working memory was only weakly linked to cognitive disorganization and introverted anhedonia. These findings suggest that weak mentalization is a core feature of schizotypy independent of mindfulness and working memory.

[Religious-spiritual crisis or psychosis? The impact of basic symptoms in the differentiation of prepsychotic states].

Religious-spiritual crises include distress associated with the weakening or loss of faith, turbulent conversions, and affective states associated with negative spirituality. The differential diagnosis in regard to psychosis is often challenging. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of basic symptoms (changes in the subjective experience of perception, thinking, feeling, and self) in the differential diagnosis. We evaluated 106 help-seeking individuals with the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms (BSABS). The results indicated that religiousspiritual crises and psychotic states could be properly differentiated with the BSABS. Although the crisis and psychosis groups scored similarly on perplexity, self-disorder, depression, and anxiety, the disturbance of social contact and cognition was observed only in psychosis. These results indicate that the assessment of basic symptoms is useful in the differentiation of religious-spiritual crisis and psychosis, but it does not replace a multidisciplinary approach when, in addition to the routine psychiatric examination, the wider cultural context and the personal narratives are also considered.

Christianity and Schizophrenia Redux: An Empirical Study.

This paper explores the relationship among schizophrenia, spirituality, and Christian religiosity. We interviewed 120 patients with schizophrenia and 120 control individuals (74.2 % of individuals with self-reported Christian religions). Patients with schizophrenia showed increases in positive spirituality and decreases in positive congregational support, as measured by the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality. There was no significant difference in Christian religiosity. Higher positive spirituality was predicted by more severe self-disorder, perceptual disorder, and positive clinical symptoms. Schizophrenia patients with religious delusions did not exhibit enhanced Christian beliefs and rituals. These results do not confirm the hypothesis of general hyper-religiosity in schizophrenia.

Early-Stage Vision and Perceptual Imagery in Autism Spectrum Conditions.

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are characterized by multifaceted alterations in visual perception and mental imagery. However, the interaction between early-stage visual perception and imagery has not been explored. We recruited 40 individuals with ASC and 20 neurotypical control volunteers to participate in a lateral masking task. Participants detected a luminance-contrast target pattern (Gabor patch) flanked by two collinear masks. The flanking masks inhibit target detection at small target-mask distances and facilitate target detection at intermediate target-mask distances. In the perceptual task, the masks appeared adjacent to the target. In the imagery task, participants imagined the masks immediately after seeing them. Results revealed that individuals with ASC characterized by exceptional visuoconstructional abilities (enhanced Block Design performance; n = 20) showed weaker inhibition at small target-mask distances and stronger facilitation at intermediate target-mask distances relative to the controls. Visual imagery was markedly dampened in ASC regardless of the visuoconstructional abilities. At the behavioral level, these results indicate increased facilitation via lateral connections in the primary visual cortex (V1) of individuals with ASC who exhibit exceptional visuoconstructional abilities, together with less efficient mental imagery.

Enhanced mental imagery and intact perceptual organization in schizotypal personality disorder.

According to a widely held view, psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are characterized by a vague boundary between the perception of the external world and the inner imagery of persons, objects, and events. In this study, we addressed the perception-imagery debate in schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). Thirty individuals with SPD and 30 matched healthy subjects completed a lateral masking task. Participants were asked to detect a low-contrast Gabor patch flanked by two collinear Gabor masks. In the perceptual task, the masks were physically present, whereas in the imagery task, participants only imagined the masks. By applying a binocular rivalry paradigm, we also measured the imagery priming effect. Results revealed that, in the perceptual task, collinear masks similarly decreased contrast threshold in SPD and controls. In the imagery task, contrast threshold reduction (facilitation by the imagined masks) was more pronounced in SPD relative to the controls. In the binocular rivalry paradigm, individuals with SPD showed higher imagery priming effects as compared to healthy controls. Enhanced imagery was not related to schizotypal traits. These results indicate intact early visual perception and heightened imagery in SPD, which may be a trait marker of unusual experiences without psychotic disorganization.

Intuitive physics and intuitive psychology ("theory of mind") in offspring of mothers with psychoses.

Offspring of individuals with psychoses sometimes display an abnormal development of cognition, language, motor performance, social adaptation, and emotional functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of children of mothers with schizophrenia (n = 28) and bipolar disorder (n = 23) to understand mental states of others using the Eyes Test (folk psychology or "theory of mind") and physical causal interactions of inanimate objects (folk physics). Compared with healthy controls (n = 29), the children of mothers with schizophrenia displayed significantly impaired performances on the Eyes Test but not on the folk physics test when corrected for IQ. The children of mothers with bipolar disorder did not differ from the controls. The folk physics test showed a significant covariance with IQ, whereas the Eyes Test did not exhibit such covariance. These results suggest that the attribution of mental states, but not the interpretation of causal interaction of objects, is impaired in offspring of individuals with schizophrenia, which may contribute to social dysfunctions.

Reconceive shamanism related theory of schizophrenia.

In this review we try to summarize the concepts, hypotheses and facts about schizophrenia and shamanism. Because during this dispute the evolutionary approach has been cited lately we briefly discuss this point of view as well. To make a proper comparison first we discuss the main characteristic of the two concepts. After a hundred years of medical research, schizophrenia is a diagnostic term useful in clinical practice but ambiguously defined scientifically. In ethnology the term shamanism also cover a wide phenomenological spectrum, so we exclude the differences to stipulate the essence of shamanism in order to make the comparison with schizophrenia possible. Than we discuss the pros and cons data on phenomenological similarity, course and prognosis, epidemiology and available psychological items. We finally reach the same conclusion as the recent ethnological literature that in connection with shamanism schizophrenia should be avoided. However we consider the possible compromising explanations as well.

Characterization of gene-environment interactions by behavioral profiling of selectively bred rats: the effect of NMDA receptor inhibition and social isolation.

Gene-environment interactions have an important role in the development of psychiatric disorders. To generate and validate a new substrain of rats with signs related to schizophrenia, we used selective breeding after postweaning social isolation and chronic ketamine treatment through several generations of animals and compared the subsequent strain to naive rats that were not genetically manipulated. We further investigated whether social isolation and ketamine treatment augmented the appearance of schizophrenic-like signs in these rats. Four experimental groups were studied (n=6-15 rats/group): naive rats without any treatment (NaNo); naive rats with postweaning social isolation and ketamine treatment (NaTr); 15th generation of selectively bred animals without any treatment (SelNo) or selectively bred rats with both isolation and ketamine treatment (SelTr). The startle reaction, tail-flick and novel object recognition tests were used to classify the animals into low- or high-risk for schizophrenia. Reduced pain sensitivity, higher degree of the startle reaction, disturbed prepulse inhibition, altered motor activity and decreased differentiation index in the memory test were observed in the 15th generation of the substrain, along with enhanced grooming behavior. Five functional indices (TF latency, startle reaction, prepulse inhibition, differentiation index, and grooming activity) were rated from 0 to 2, and the analysis of the summarized score revealed that the NaNo group had the lowest overall indication of schizophrenic-like signs, while the SelTr animals scored the highest, suggesting that both heritable and environmental factors were important in the generation of the behavioral alterations. We assume that further breeding after this complex treatment may lead to a valid and reliable animal model of schizophrenia.

The hippocampus plays a role in the recognition of visual scenes presented at behaviorally relevant points in time: evidence from amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and healthy controls.

When people perform an attentionally demanding target task at fixation, they also encode the surrounding visual environment, which serves as a context of the task. Here, we examined the role of the hippocampus in memory for target and context. Thirty-five patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and 35 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and education participated in the study. Participants completed visual letter detection and auditory tone discrimination target tasks, while also viewing a series of briefly presented urban and natural scenes. For the measurement of hippocampal and cerebral cortical volume, we utilized the FreeSurfer protocol using a Siemens Trio 3 T scanner. Before the quantification of brain volumes, hippocampal atrophy was confirmed by visual inspection in each patient. Results revealed intact letter recall and tone discrimination performances in aMCI patients, whereas they showed severe impairments in the recognition of scenes presented together with the targets. Patients with aMCI showed bilaterally reduced hippocampal volumes, but intact cortical volume, as compared with the controls. In controls and in the whole sample, hippocampal volume was positively associated with scene recognition when a target task was present. This relationship was observed in both visual and auditory conditions. Scene recognition and target tasks were not associated with executive functions. These results suggest that the hippocampus plays an essential role in the formation of memory traces of the visual environment when people concurrently perform a target task at behaviorally relevant points in time.

[Schizophrenia and evolutionary psychopathology]. / A szkizofrénia az evolúciós pszichopatológia tükrében.

Evolution can shape any characteristic appearing as a phenotype that is genetically rooted and possesses a long history. The stress-diathesis model suggests that psychiatric disorders have some genetic roots, and therefore the theory of evolution may be relevant for psychiatry. Schizophrenia is present in every human culture with approximately the same incidence. The great evolutionary paradox is: how can such illness persist despite fundamental reproductive disadvantages? Since the 1960s, several evolutionary explanations have been raised to explain the origins of schizophrenia. This article reviews all the major evolutionary theories about the possible origins of this disease. On the one hand, some researchers have proposed that schizophrenia is an evolutionary disadvantageous byproduct of human brain evolution (e.g. the evolution of hemispheric specialization, social brain or language skills). On the other hand, others have suggested that a compensatory advantage must exist either in the biological system of patients with schizophrenia (e.g. resistance against infectious diseases), or within the social domain (e.g. greater creativity of the relatives). According to some theories, shamanism and religion demonstrate some similarities to psychosis and provide clues regarding the origins of schizophrenia. At the end of this article we discuss this last theory in detail listing arguments for and against.

Light therapy increases visual contrast sensitivity in seasonal affective disorder.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of light therapy on visual contrast sensitivity in patients with seasonal affective disorder (n=10) and healthy control subjects (n=10). Static and dynamic visual contrast sensitivity was measured using a Venus system before and after 4 weeks of light therapy (10,000 lux, 30 min, 5 times a week). Light therapy increased static visual contrast sensitivity in the patients. We found no significant difference between the patients and controls either before or after light therapy. These results raise the possibility that light therapy induces retinal sensitization in seasonal affective disorder.