Short-Term Medication Effect on Fall Risk in Multimorbid Inpatients with Dementia.

INTRODUCTION: Dementia increases the risk of falls and fall-related injuries, which may be caused by inappropriate medication use. To date, there is little evidence on which medications are more likely to cause falls. We therefore investigated the effects of medication use and medication changes 48 h before falls in hospitalised patients with dementia. METHODS: This matched case-control study included 74 patients with a mean age of 83 years (38% women) who had been hospitalised for at least 7 days. Information on medications, diagnoses, disease severity, use of walking aids, falls, and demographics was collected from electronic medical records. The effects of the number of medications and psychotropics, equivalent daily doses of antidepressants, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, anticholinergic burden, medication initiation, dose change, medication discontinuation, as-needed medications, opioid use and the presence of fall-increasing diseases were examined separately for the periods 0 h-24 h and 24 h-48 h before the falls using binomial logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Falls increased significantly with higher daily antipsychotic doses 24 h before the fall. In addition, the rate of falls increased with higher anticholinergic burden and prevalence of medication discontinuation 24-48 h before the fall. Notably, the total number of medications and psychotropic medications had no effect on the incidence of falls. CONCLUSION: With regard to the short-term effects of medication on fall risk, particular attention should be paid to the daily dose of antipsychotics, anticholinergic burden and medication discontinuation. Further studies with larger samples are needed to confirm the results of this study.

Multimodal in-vehicle lighting system increases daytime light exposure and alertness in truck drivers under Arctic winter conditions.

Drowsiness while driving negatively impacts road safety, especially in truck drivers. The present study investigated the feasibility and alerting effects of a daylight-supplementing in-truck lighting system (DS) providing short-wavelength enriched light before, during, and after driving. In a within-participants design, eight truck drivers drove a fully-loaded truck under wintry Scandinavian conditions (low daylight levels) with a DS or placebo system for five days. Subjective and objective measures of alertness were recorded several times daily, and evening melatonin levels were recorded three times per study condition. DS significantly increased daytime light exposure without causing negative side effects while driving. In addition, no negative carry-over effects were observed on evening melatonin and sleepiness levels or on nighttime sleep quality. Moreover, objective alertness (i.e., psychomotor vigilance) before and after driving was significantly improved by bright light exposure. This effect was accompanied by improved subjective alertness in the morning. This field study demonstrated that DS was able to increase daytime light exposure in low-daylight conditions and to improve alertness in truck drivers before and after driving (e.g., during driving rest periods). Further studies are warranted to investigate the effects of daylight-supplementing in-cabin lighting on driving performance and road safety measures.

Preventive Effect of a 7-Week App-Based Passive Psychoeducational Stress Management Program on Students.

Passive psychoeducation is an easily accessible and cost-effective self-guided intervention that does not use elements of active psychotherapies or require homework. The present study aimed to investigate the acceptability and efficacy of a 7-week app-based passive psychoeducation stress management program to promote adaptive emotion regulation and coping skills in university students (i.e., 80% psychology students). Participants were tested via Lime-Survey® at pre- and post-test with the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), the Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). A stratified permutation block randomization by age, gender, and the DASS-21 stress subscale was performed. Each week, the psychoeducation group (n = 123) received different psychoeducation modules. At the end of each module, participants answered questions about their satisfaction with each module and adherence to psychoeducation. The control group (n = 130) received no intervention. The psychoeducation program led to a significant improvement in the adaptive emotion regulation strategy: "reappraisal" (p = 0.004) and a significant reduction in the dysfunctional coping style: "symptom-related rumination" (p = 0.01) but not to a significant reduction in depression, anxiety, and stress scores compared to the control group. Thus, the present study might demonstrate a preventive effect of an app-based passive psychoeducation program in students with low clinically relevant psychopathological symptoms.

Impact of repeated morning bright white light exposures on attention in a simulated office environment.

Attention is essential to the work. This study investigated the effects of two different light pulses on a simple attention task. In addition, the effects of subsequent exposure to constant but different illuminance levels on the continuation of the simple attention task and a subsequent complex attention task were examined. A total of 56 subjects were assigned in random order to two white light interventions that were repeated five times during the morning. Each light intervention consisted of a brief light pulse followed by constant light exposure and differed in temporal dimming dynamics and corneal illuminance. Subjective and psychometric parameters were recorded several times during light exposure. Heart rate variability (HRV) was derived from continuous electrocardiograms. Subjects showed improved reaction speed in the simple attention task, accompanied by higher HRV under a brighter light pulse without habituation by repetition. This difference in simple attention performance disappeared when light exposure remained the same after the light pulse. In addition, higher reaction speed and HRV were observed in the complex attention task under constant bright light exposure. Intermittent bright light seems promising to acutely improve attentional performance in office workplaces. Future research is needed to investigate daytime light effects on other work-related cognitive functions.

Different Facets of Creativity in Employees Covering Non-Clinical to Clinical Manifestations of Burnout.

Empirical studies exploring the relationship between burnout and creativity are very rare. In the present study, a well-defined group of clinical burnout patients (n = 75) and two groups of working people showing high (n = 39) vs. low burnout symptoms (n = 62) were investigated. Participants completed various creativity tests including self-assessed facets of creativity, as well as psychometric measures of figural and verbal creativity. Furthermore, we examined individual and clinical characteristics that may influence creativity in burnout patients, such as depression, sleep quality, daytime fatigue, and cognitive measures (i.e., selective attention and executive control). The clinical burnout group scored lowest in all creativity tasks and cognitive tests. Additionally, they showed lower nighttime sleep quality and higher depression scores. However, creativity scores in both groups of working people were largely comparable, indicating that only more severe (i.e., clinical) manifestations of burnout are linked to creativity.

Effects of dynamic bedroom lighting on measures of sleep and circadian rest-activity rhythm in inpatients with major depressive disorder.

Bright light therapy is an effective treatment option for seasonal and non-seasonal affective disorders. However up to now, no study has investigated effects of dynamic bedroom lighting in hospitalized patients with major depression. A bedroom lighting system, which automatically delivered artificial dawn and dusk and blue-depleted nighttime lighting (DD-N lighting) was installed in a psychiatric ward. Patients with moderate to severe depression were randomly assigned to stay in bedrooms with the new lighting or standard lighting system. Patients wore wrist actimeters during the first two treatment weeks. Additionally, hospitalization duration and daily psychotropic medication were retrieved from patients' medical charts. Data from thirty patients, recorded over a period of two weeks, were analyzed. Patients under DD-N lighting generally woke up earlier (+ 20 min), slept longer (week 1: + 11 min; week 2: + 27 min) and showed higher sleep efficiency (+ 2.4%) and shorter periods of nighttime awakenings (- 15 min). In the second treatment week, patients started sleep and the most active 10-h period earlier (- 33 min and - 64 min, respectively). This pilot study gives first evidence that depressed patients' sleep and circadian rest/activity system may benefit from bedroom lighting when starting inpatient treatment.

Disorder-Specific Profiles of Self-Perceived Emotional Abilities in Schizophrenia and Major Depressive Disorder.

Deficits in social cognition are a core feature of neuropsychiatric disorders. The purpose of this study was to compare profiles of self-perceived abilities across the core domains of emotional functioning between patients with schizophrenia (n = 22), major depressive disorder (n = 31) and healthy participants (n = 43) with the Self-report Emotional Ability Scale (SEAS). Profile analyses were used to explore group differences in the overall level of self-perceived effectiveness of emotional functioning and in the patterns in which the four functions of emotion perception and regulation in the intra- and inter-personal domains are arranged to each other. Both patient groups showed significantly lower overall levels of self-perceived emotional functioning compared to healthy controls. Most importantly, we found significant differences between patient groups in their profile patterns. Patients with schizophrenia indicated experiencing difficulties in all investigated domains, but the profile pattern largely matched that of healthy individuals. Instead, the profile of patients with depression was much more accentuated, showing lower perceived effectiveness of emotion perception and regulation in the intra-personal domain compared to inter-personal functions. Our results of disorder-specific emotional deficits may have profound implications for early screening and identification of at-risk populations as well as recovery-oriented interventions.

Light Intervention Effects on Circadian Activity Rhythm Parameters and Nighttime Sleep in Dementia Assessed by Wrist Actigraphy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Persons with dementia often show circadian rhythm disturbances and sleep problems. Timed light exposure seems to be a promising nonpharmacological treatment option. In this review, meta-analyses were run on light effects on circadian activity rhythm parameters in persons with dementia measured with wrist actimetry. Furthermore, we update a Cochrane review, published in 2014, on actigraphically measured light effects in nighttime sleep parameters in persons with dementia. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Four electronic databases were searched for randomized controlled trials. Effects in meta-analyses were summarized by using mean differences and 95% confidence intervals. We followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines to assess the risk of bias and registered the review protocol (PROSPERO: CRD42020149001). RESULTS: Thirteen trials met inclusion criteria, and either utilized light therapy devices, ambient room lighting systems, or dawn-dusk interventions. Eleven of these studies were subjected to meta-analyses. They did not reveal significant light effects on circadian activity parameters: amplitude (p = .62; n = 313), acrophase (p = .34; n = 313), intradaily variability (p = .51; n = 354), and interdaily stability (p = .38; n = 354). Furthermore, no light effects were found on sleep parameters: total sleep duration (p = .53; n = 594), sleep efficiency (p = .63; n = 333), wake after sleep onset (p = .95; n = 212), and sleep onset latency (p = .26; n = 156). Subgroup analyses, pooling data from 3 studies including persons with Alzheimer's dementia, also did not show light effects on circadian activity and sleep parameters. The overall risk of bias of included studies was high. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: There is insufficient evidence for actigraphically measured circadian light effects in persons with dementia. More high-quality research is needed to recommend the application of adjunctive light.

University students' adherence and vaccination attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic: Focusing on costs and benefits.

Numerous measures were implemented to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Adhering to these measures as well as getting vaccinated is associated with subjective costs and benefits. Since young people like university students largely feel less vulnerable to the virus, other costs and benefits than health might be more decisive for them. This article combines the results of a qualitative and a quantitative longitudinal study conducted with university students mainly living in Tyrol, Austria. The studies focused on the second wave of infections of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health concerns, altruistic concerns, worrying about the economic consequences of the measures and reactance played an important role for students in deciding what measures to follow and their vaccination attitudes. The effects were partially mediated by understanding the measures' necessity. Qualitative results enabled further insights into thought processes during these decisions and revealed additional aspects, such as concerns about mental health consequences. This research suggests that students make their decisions about adherence and vaccinations based on a variety of aspects that they weigh against each other. Understanding the individual assessments of costs and benefits is crucial to promote both adherence to the measures against the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination readiness.

Assessment of Fractal Characteristics of Locomotor Activity of Geriatric In-Patients With Alzheimer's Dementia.

INTRODUCTION: Many physiological signals yield fractal characteristics, i.e., finer details at higher magnifications resemble details of the whole. Evidence has been accumulating that such fractal scaling is basically a consequence of interaction-dominant feedback mechanisms that cooperatively generate those signals. Neurodegenerative diseases provide a natural framework to evaluate this paradigm when this cooperative function declines. However, methodological issues need to be cautiously taken into account in order to be able to provide reliable as well as valid interpretations of such signal analyses. METHODS: Two conceptually different fractal analyses, i.e., detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and analysis of cumulative distributions of durations (CDDs), are applied to actigraphy data of 36 geriatric in-patients diagnosed with dementia. The impact of the used time resolution for data acquisition on the assessed fractal outcome parameters is particularly investigated. Moreover, associations between these parameters and scores from the Mini-Mental-State-Examination and circadian activity parameters are explored. RESULTS: Both analyses yield significant deviations from (mono-)fractal scaling over the entire considered time range. DFA provides robust measures for the observed break-down of fractal scaling. In contrast, analysis of CDDs results in measures which highly fluctuate with respect to the time resolution of the assessed data which affects also further derived quantities such as scaling exponents or associations with other (clinically relevant) assessed parameters. DISCUSSION: To scrutinize actigraphic signal characteristics and especially their (deviations from) fractal scaling may be a useful tool for aiding diagnosis, characterization, and monitoring of dementia. However, results may, besides contextual aspects, also substantially depend on specific methodological choices. In order to arrive at both reliable and valid interpretations, these complications need to be carefully elaborated in future research.

Actigraphy for Assessing Light Effects on Sleep and Circadian Activity Rhythm in Alzheimer's Dementia: A Narrative Review.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is often accompanied by severe sleep problems and circadian rhythm disturbances which may to some extent be attributed to a dysfunction in the biological clock. The 24-h light/dark cycle is the strongest Zeitgeber for the biological clock. People with AD, however, often live in environments with inappropriate photic Zeitgebers. Timed bright light exposure may help to consolidate sleep- and circadian rest/activity rhythm problems in AD, and may be a low-risk alternative to pharmacological treatment. OBJECTIVE & METHODS: In the present review, experts from several research disciplines summarized the results of twenty-seven light intervention studies which used wrist actigraphy to measure sleep and circadian activity in AD patients. RESULTS: Taken together, the findings remain inconclusive with regard to beneficial light effects. However, the considered studies varied substantially with respect to the utilized light intervention, study design, and usage of actigraphy. The paper provides a comprehensive critical discussion of these issues. CONCLUSION: Fusing knowledge across complementary research disciplines has the potential to critically advance our understanding of the biological input of light on health and may contribute to architectural lighting designs in hospitals, as well as our homes and work environments.

Effects of an adjunctive, chronotype-based light therapy in hospitalized patients with severe burnout symptoms - a pilot study.

Light therapy is a well-established treatment option for seasonal affective disorders and is effective in reducing sleep problems and daytime fatigue. Symptoms of severe burnout include feelings of exhaustion and impaired sleep and mood. Thus, light therapy seems promising for burnout treatment. So far, light therapy effects in burnout were investigated in outpatient settings only, with inconclusive results. The present study targeted light therapy effects in an inpatient setting. Participants with severe burnout were recruited in two psychosomatic clinics and randomly assigned to a control group with multimodal psychiatric treatment or an add-on light treatment group. Participants in the latter group were additionally exposed to morning bright light (illuminance: 4246 lux, irradiance: 1802.81 µW.cm-2) for 3 weeks, 30 minutes a day, timed to their chronotypes. Light effects on burnout symptoms, depression, well-being, daytime sleepiness, sleep quality, and attentional performance were measured twice (pre-/postintervention design). Adjunctive chronotype-based bright light therapy was well tolerated and improved burnout symptoms and well-being without additional effect on severity of depression. Furthermore, reduced daytime sleepiness, improved nighttime sleep quality, a sleep phase advance of 25 minutes, shortened sleep latency, less sleep disturbances and increased sleep duration were observed in the light treatment group. No group differences were found in attentional performance. Chronotype-based bright light therapy seems to be effective in improving burnout symptoms and sleep problems in patients with severe burnout symptoms. Further studies with larger sample sizes and objective measures of sleep are necessary to confirm these preliminary results before practical recommendations can be made.

Impact of a single, short morning bright light exposure on tryptophan pathways and visuo- and sensorimotor performance: a crossover study.

BACKGROUND: Bright light (BL) has been shown to be effective in enhancing both cognitive and physical performances. Alterations in nighttime melatonin levels have also been observed. However, evaluations of light-induced changes in the preceding biochemical processes are absent. Therefore, the impact of a single morning BL exposure on sensorimotor and visuomotor performance, as well as tryptophan (trp) and trp metabolites, was evaluated in this study. METHODS: In a crossover design, 33 healthy volunteers were randomly exposed to 30 min of < 150 lx at eye level (office light, OL) and 5000 lx at eye level (bright light, BL) of 6500 K in the morning hours. Trp, sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s), and kynurenine (kyn) courses over the morning hours were analyzed, and changes in sensori- and visuomotor measures were examined. RESULTS: Motoric performance increased in both setups, independent of light intensity. aMT6s and kyn decreased equally under both lighting conditions. Trp levels decreased from a mean (95% confidence interval) of 82.0 (77.2-86.9) to 66.5 (62.5-70.1) in the OL setup only. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that BL in the morning hours has a limited effect on visuo- and sensorimotor performance. Nevertheless, trp degradation pathways in the morning show diverse courses after OL and BL exposure. This suggests that trp courses can potentially be altered by BL exposure.

Subtypes in clinical burnout patients enrolled in an employee rehabilitation program: differences in burnout profiles, depression, and recovery/resources-stress balance.

BACKGROUND: Burnout is generally perceived a unified disorder with homogeneous symptomatology across people (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy). However, increasing evidence points to intra-individual patterns of burnout symptoms in non-clinical samples such as students, athletes, healthy, and burned-out employees. Different burnout subtypes might therefore exist. Yet, burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles have hardly been explored in clinical patients, and the samples investigated in previous studies were rather heterogeneous including patients with various physical, psychological, and social limitations, symptoms, and disabilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles in clinically diagnosed burnout patients enrolled in an employee rehabilitation program, and to investigate whether the subtypes differ in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics. METHODS: One hundred three patients (66 women, 37 men) with a clinical burnout diagnosis, who were enrolled in a 5 week employee rehabilitation program in two specialized psychosomatic clinics in Austria, completed a series of questionnaires including the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS), the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Recovery-Stress-Questionnaire for Work. Cluster analyses with the three MBI-GS subscales as clustering variables were used to identify the burnout subtypes. Subsequent multivariate/univariate analysis of variance and Pearson chi-square tests were performed to investigate differences in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: Three different burnout subtypes were discovered: the exhausted subtype, the exhausted/cynical subtype, and the burned-out subtype. The burned-out subtype and the exhausted/cynical subtype showed both more severe depression symptoms and a worse recovery/resources-stress balance than the exhausted subtype. Furthermore, the burned-out subtype was more depressed than the exhausted/cynical subtype, but no difference was observed between these two subtypes with regard to perceived stress, recovery, and resources. Sociodemographic characteristics were not associated with the subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicates that there are different subtypes in clinical burnout patients (exhausted, exhausted/cynical, and burned-out), which might represent patients at different developmental stages in the burnout cycle. Future studies need to replicate the current findings, investigate the stability of the symptom patterns, and examine the efficacy of rehabilitation interventions in different subtypes.

Psychophysiological Effects of a Single, Short, and Moderately Bright Room Light Exposure on Mildly Depressed Geriatric Inpatients: A Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Light interventions typically exert their mood-related effects during morning bright light exposures over several weeks. Evidence about immediate ambient room light effects on depressed individuals is still sparse. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed at examining the acute effects of a single moderately bright room light exposure on mood, and behavioural and cardiac stress reactions of mildly depressed geriatric inpatients during a short cognitive stimulation and while resting. METHODS: Twenty-one inpatients were tested in a balanced cross-over design on 2 consecutive days under either conventional room light (standard light) or artificial sunlight conditions for 30 min. Room illumination was implemented with an artificial skylight, which perfectly imitated solar indoor illumination (e.g., cloudless sky and bright artificial sun). Light-induced changes of mood, heart rate, and heart rate variability were recorded while performing a perseveration test (acted as cognitive stimulation) twice. Additionally, light-related behaviour was observed during a resting period between the cognitive tests and various subjective ratings were obtained. RESULTS: Compared to standard light, exposure to artificial sunlight had a subjective calming effect over time (p = 0.029) as well as decreased heart rate and increased vagal tone (root mean squared of successive inter-beat intervals), both under cognitive workload and in resting conditions. Effect sizes of reported cardiac reactions were large. Cognitive variables were not influenced by light. Additionally, under the higher corneal illuminance of the artificial sunlight, patients perceived stronger glare (p = 0.030) and kept their eyes closed for longer times (p = 0.033) during the resting period. However, patients did not avoid bright light exposure while resting but voluntarily stayed within the area directly lit by the artificial sun nearly all the time (97%). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this study for the first time demonstrated immediate psychophysiological effects of a single, short room light exposure in mildly depressed geriatric inpatients during a short cognitive stimulation and while resting. The findings complement reported evidence on immediate alerting and mood-related effects of bright light exposures.

Acute effects of different light spectra on simulated night-shift work without circadian alignment.

Short-wavelength and short-wavelength-enhanced light have a strong impact on night-time working performance, subjective feelings of alertness and circadian physiology. In the present study, we investigated acute effects of white light sources with varied reduced portions of short wavelengths on cognitive and visual performance, mood and cardiac output.Thirty-one healthy subjects were investigated in a balanced cross-over design under three light spectra in a simulated night-shift paradigm without circadian adaptation.Exposure to the light spectrum with the largest attenuation of short wavelengths reduced heart rate and increased vagal cardiac parameters during the night compared to the other two light spectra without deleterious effects on sustained attention, working memory and subjective alertness. In addition, colour discrimination capability was significantly decreased under this light source.To our knowledge, the present study for the first time demonstrates that polychromatic white light with reduced short wavelengths, fulfilling current lighting standards for indoor illumination, may have a positive impact on cardiac physiology of night-shift workers without detrimental consequences for cognitive performance and alertness.

Brief Morning Light Exposure, Visuomotor Performance, and Biochemistry in Sport Shooters.

CONTEXT: Demands on concentrative and cognitive performance are high in sport shooting and vary in a circadian pattern, aroused by internal and external stimuli. The most prominent external stimulus is light. Bright light (BL) has been shown to have a certain impact on cognitive and physical performance. PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of a single half hour of BL exposure in the morning hours on physical and cognitive performance in 15 sport shooters. In addition, courses of sulfateoxymelatonin (aMT6s), tryptophan (TRP), and kynurenine (KYN) were monitored. METHODS: In a crossover design, 15 sport shooters were exposed to 30 min of BL and dim light (DL) in the early-morning hours. Shooting performance, balance, visuomotor performance, and courses of aMT6s, TRP, and KYN were evaluated. RESULTS: Shooting performance was 365.4 (349.7-381.0) and 368.5 (353.9-383.1), identical in both light setups. Numbers of right reactions (sustained attention) and deviations from the horizontal plane (balance-related measure) were higher after BL. TRP concentrations decreased from 77.5 (73.5-81.4) to 66.9 (60.7-67.0) in the DL setup only. CONCLUSIONS: The 2 light conditions generated heterogeneous visuomotor and physiological effects in sport shooters. The authors therefore suggest that a single half hour of BL exposure is effective in improving cognitive aspects of performance, but not physical performance. Further research is needed to evaluate BL's impact on biochemical parameters.

Intense illumination in the morning hours improved mood and alertness but not mental performance.

Cognitive performance and alertness are two determinants for work efficiency, varying throughout the day and depending on bright light. We conducted a prospective crossover study evaluating the impacts of exposure to an intense, early morning illumination on sustained attention, alertness, mood, and serum melatonin levels in 33 healthy individuals. Compared with a dim illumination, the intense illumination negatively impacted performance requiring sustained attention; however, it positively impacted subjective alertness and mood and had no impact on serum melatonin levels. These results suggest that brief exposure to bright light in the morning hours can improve subjective measures of mood and alertness, but can also have detrimental effects on mental performance as a result of visual distraction. Therefore, it is important that adequate lighting should correspond to both non-visual and visual demands.

[The current state of research in bright light therapy]. / Lichttherapie: Zum Stand der aktuellen Forschung.

The significance of light for the human organism and especially for the mental health is well-established for a long time. Therefore, the impact of light on mood and the use of bright light as a treatment-option for affective disorders have been studied extensively by scientists. Today bright light therapy is the treatment of choice for saisonal affective disorders. In the last years several clinical trials could demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of bright light therapy for different neurological and psychiatric disorders such as sleep disorders, non-seasonal affective disorders or dementia. This article will give an overview about the neurobiological basis for light therapy and discuss different disorders responsive to light therapy. Finally a short overview about technical aspects of light therapy and new developments in light engineering will be presented.

Influence of serotonin transporter genotype and catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism on recognition of emotional faces.

Monoamines, such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, play a crucial role in the regulation of emotion processing and mood. In this study, we investigated how polymorphisms of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) influence emotion recognition abilities. We recruited 88 female undergraduate students and assessed 5-HTT genotype and the COMT Val158Met polymorphism. The subjects completed two computerized tasks: The Penn Emotion Recognition Test (ER40) and the Penn Emotion Acuity Test (PEAT). For the ER40, we found that s-allele carriers performed significantly worse in the recognition of happy faces, but did better in the recognition of fearful faces, compared with homozygous l-carriers of the 5-HTT gene. Neither 5-HTT nor COMT genotypes influenced the ability to discriminate between different intensities of sadness or happiness on the PEAT. Moreover, there was no significant interaction between the two polymorphisms in their effect on performance on the ER40 or the PEAT.