[Research Progress in the Role of the Ventral Tegmental Area-Medial Prefrontal Cortex Neural Circuit in the Regulation of Arousal].

There are mutual neural projections between the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC),which form a circuit.Recent studies have shown that this circuit is vital in regulating arousal from sleep and general anesthesia.This paper introduces the anatomical structures of VTA and mPFC and the roles of various neurons and projection pathways in the regulation of arousal,aiming to provide new ideas for further research on the mechanism of arousal from sleep and general anesthesia.

A brainstem maestro conducting the somatic and autonomic motor symphony.

Somatic and sympathetic tones fluctuate together seamlessly across daily behaviors. In this issue of Cell, Zhang et al. describe populations of spinal projecting neurons in the rostral ventromedial medulla (rVMM) that harmonize somatic motor function and sympathetic activation. The coordinated regulation plays a vital role in supporting behaviors associated with various arousal states.

Circadian regulation of locomotion, respiration, and arousability in adult blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis).

The blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is an ectoparasitic arachnid and vector for infectious diseases, including Lyme borreliosis. Here, we investigate the diurnal activity and respiration of wild-caught and lab-reared adult ticks with long-term video recording, multi-animal tracking and high-resolution respirometry. We find male and female ticks are in a more active, more arousable state during circadian night. We find respiration is augmented by light, with dark onset triggering more frequent bouts of discontinuous gas exchange and a higher overall volume of CO2 respired. Observed inactivity during the day meets the criteria of sleep: homeostatic in nature, rapidly reversible, a characteristic pose, and reduced arousal threshold. Our findings indicate that blacklegged ticks are in a distinct, heightened state of activity and arousability during night and in dark, suggesting this period may carry higher risk for tick bites and subsequent contraction of tick-borne diseases.

Auditory vigilance task performance and cerebral hemodynamics: effects of spatial uncertainty.

The vigilance decrement, a temporal decline in detection performance, has been observed across multiple sensory modalities. Spatial uncertainty about the location of task-relevant stimuli has been demonstrated to increase the demands of vigilance and increase the severity of the vigilance decrement when attending to visual displays. The current study investigated whether spatial uncertainty also increases the severity of the vigilance decrement and task demands when an auditory display is used. Individuals monitored an auditory display to detect critical signals that were shorter in duration than non-target stimuli. These auditory stimuli were presented in either a consistent, predictable pattern that alternated sound presentation from left to right (spatial certainty) or an inconsistent, unpredictable pattern that randomly presented sounds from the left or right (spatial uncertainty). Cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) was measured to assess the neurophysiological demands of the task. A decline in performance and CBFV was observed in both the spatially certain and spatially uncertain conditions, suggesting that spatial auditory vigilance tasks are demanding and can result in a vigilance decrement. Spatial uncertainty resulted in a more severe vigilance decrement in correct detections compared to spatial certainty. Reduced right-hemispheric CBFV was also observed during spatial uncertainty compared to spatial certainty. Together, these results suggest that auditory spatial uncertainty hindered performance and required greater attentional demands compared to spatial certainty. These results concur with previous research showing the negative impact of spatial uncertainty in visual vigilance tasks, but the current results contrast recent research showing no effect of spatial uncertainty on tactile vigilance.

Neural markers of reduced arousal and consciousness in mild cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVES: People with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) experience changes in their level and content of consciousness, but there is little research on biomarkers of consciousness in pre-clinical AD and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). This study investigated whether levels of consciousness are decreased in people with MCI. METHODS: A multi-site site magnetoencephalography (MEG) dataset, BIOFIND, comprising 83 people with MCI and 83 age matched controls, was analysed. Arousal (and drowsiness) was assessed by computing the theta-alpha ratio (TAR). The Lempel-Ziv algorithm (LZ) was used to quantify the information content of brain activity, with higher LZ values indicating greater complexity and potentially a higher level of consciousness. RESULTS: LZ was lower in the MCI group versus controls, indicating a reduced level of consciousness in MCI. TAR was higher in the MCI group versus controls, indicating a reduced level of arousal (i.e. increased drowsiness) in MCI. LZ was also found to be correlated with mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores, suggesting an association between cognitive impairment and level of consciousness in people with MCI. CONCLUSIONS: A decline in consciousness and arousal can be seen in MCI. As cognitive impairment worsens, measured by MMSE scores, levels of consciousness and arousal decrease. These findings highlight how monitoring consciousness using biomarkers could help understand and manage impairments found at the preclinical stages of AD. Further research is needed to explore markers of consciousness between people who progress from MCI to dementia and those who do not, and in people with moderate and severe AD, to promote person-centred care.

[Advances in the detection of arousal in obstructive sleep apnea].

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is primarily characterized by intermittent nocturnal hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. Arousals interrupt sleep continuity and lead to sleep fragmentation, which can lead to cognitive dysfunction, excessive daytime sleepiness, and adverse cardiovascular outcome events, making arousals important for diagnosing OSA and reducing the risk of complications, including heart disease and cognitive impairment. Traditional arousal interpretation requires sleep specialists to manually score PSG recordings throughout the night, which is time consuming and has low inter-specialist agreement, so the search for simple, efficient, and reliable arousal detection methods can be a powerful tool to clinicians. In this paper, we systematically reviewed different methods for recognizing arousal in OSA patients, including autonomic markers (pulse conduction time, pulse wave amplitude, peripheral arterial tone, heart rate, etc.) and machine learning-based automated arousal detection systems, and found that autonomic markers may be more beneficial in certain subgroups, and that deep artificial networks will remain the main research method for automated arousal detection in the future.

[Posttraumatic stress disorder clinical guidelines and treatment standards: focus on the symptoms of the psychophysiological arousal]. / Klinicheskie rekomendatsii i standarty lecheniya posttravmaticheskogo stressovogo rasstroistva: fokus na simptomy psikhofiziologicheskogo vozbuzhdeniya.

The article describes the main diagnostic criteria and principles of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnostic with the consideration of risk factors and specific clinical features. The main biomarkers search trends and existing limitations are considered. The role of the psychophysiological arousal symptoms claster is highlighted in the clinical picture of PTSD as well as in connection with the main cluster of re-experiencing symptoms activation and slowing of sanogenesis process. The necessity of PTSD detection in somatic medicine is thoroughly described. The article presents therapeutic algorithms of the latest international and Russian PTSD treatment clinical guidelines based on the individual combination of psychotherapy and psychopharmacotherapy treatment choice. Additionally the accumulated during the last decades national clinical experience of the anxiety disorders treatment, including the symptoms of psychophysiological arousal is highlighted that determined the list of the recommended drugs indicating the evidence level, in the PTSD treatment standards and guidelines. The treatment choices possibilities with the consideration of different PTSD symptoms cluster expression and comorbid states and individual case distress level specific are presented. Main evidence based psychotherapeutic methods are described.

Warm-up music and low-dose caffeine enhance the activity profile and psychophysiological responses during simulated combat in female taekwondo athletes.

To assess the effects of warm-up music and low dose (3 mg·kg-1) of caffeine (CAF) on female taekwondo athlete's activity profile and psychophysiological responses during simulated combat. In a double-blinded, randomized, crossover study, 16 female athletes participated in simulated combats under one control and 5 experimental conditions [i.e., CAF alone (CAF), placebo alone (PL), CAF with music (CAF + M), PL with music (PL + M), and no supplement with music (M)]. After warming-up, athletes rated their felt arousal (FAS). Mean (HRmean) and peak (HRpeak) heart rate values were determined for each combat. After fighting, athletes rated their perceived exertion (RPE), feeling scale (FS), FAS, and physical enjoyment (PACES). Time-motion and technical-tactical variables were analyzed. CAF + M induced shorter skip and pause time, while attack time increased compared to other conditions (p < 0.05). Moreover, CAF + M increased single attacks, combined attacks, counter-attacks (p < 0.001), and defensive actions (p < 0.05) than other conditions. HRmean and HRpeak were lower under CAF + M than other conditions (p < 0.05). Additionally, higher FAS post-combat, FS, and PACES were observed under CAF + M, while RPE was lower (except CAF condition) compared to the other conditions (p < 0.05.Using CAF with warm-up music may increase combat cadence and improve the psychological state in female athletes more effectively than either strategy alone.

TPRO-NET: an EEG-based emotion recognition method reflecting subtle changes in emotion.

Emotion recognition based on Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been applied in various fields, including human-computer interaction and healthcare. However, for the popular Valence-Arousal-Dominance emotion model, researchers often classify the dimensions into high and low categories, which cannot reflect subtle changes in emotion. Furthermore, there are issues with the design of EEG features and the efficiency of transformer. To address these issues, we have designed TPRO-NET, a neural network that takes differential entropy and enhanced differential entropy features as input and outputs emotion categories through convolutional layers and improved transformer encoders. For our experiments, we categorized the emotions in the DEAP dataset into 8 classes and those in the DREAMER dataset into 5 classes. On the DEAP and the DREAMER datasets, TPRO-NET achieved average accuracy rates of 97.63%/97.47%/97.88% and 98.18%/98.37%/98.40%, respectively, on the Valence/Arousal/Dominance dimension for the subject-dependent experiments. Compared to other advanced methods, TPRO-NET demonstrates superior performance.

Age-related differences in the evaluation of highly arousing language.

Emotional properties of words can profoundly affect their processing, depending on both the valence (pleasantness) and the degree of arousal (excitation) that the word elicits. Words that are strongly emotionally arousing (such as taboo words) can interfere with subsequent language processing (White & Abrams, 2021). However, little is known about whether or how aging affects the processing of highly arousing language. The present study provides a characterization of how adults across the lifespan evaluate highly arousing language with a simple rating task that included taboo words, which have previously been used to examine lexical interference caused by arousal, and humorous words, which are also highly arousing without being negatively valenced. While arousal ratings were strongly positively correlated with both tabooness and humor ratings for young adults, these relationships weakened with age and overall arousal ratings were lower for middle-aged and older adults compared to young adults. Age effects cannot be readily accounted for by age-related differences in psychosocial variables such as self-reported profanity avoidance or religiosity. The effect of age on arousal should be considered in the design of studies examining age-related changes in emotional language processing. Furthermore, age differences in arousal should be considered as a potential mechanism in studies exploring emotional language processing across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Do pictures' emotional valence and arousal affect younger and older adults' narratives?

Emotional content, specifically negative valence, can differentially influence speech production in younger and older adults' autobiographical narratives, which have been interpreted as reflecting age differences in emotion regulation. However, age differences in emotional reactivity are another possible explanation, as younger and older adults frequently differ in their affective responses to negative and positive pictures. The present experiment investigated whether a picture's valence (pleasantness) and arousal (intensity) influenced older adults' production of narratives about those pictures. Thirty younger and 30 older participants produced narratives about pictures that varied in valence (positive, negative, and neutral) and arousal (high, low). Narratives were recorded via Zoom, transcribed, and analyzed with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count-22 to get measures of emotional word use, disfluencies, and linguistic distance. Results showed that negative valence increased age differences in speech production independent of picture arousal: Relative to younger adults, older adults used more positive words, fewer negative words, and had more silent pauses when telling narratives about negative pictures. In contrast, high arousal decreased age differences such that older adults used fewer positive words in narratives about positive pictures and more linguistically distant words evidenced by fewer present-tense verbs, relative to narratives about low-arousal pictures. Contrary to an explanation of enhanced regulation or control over emotions in older adulthood, these findings support the idea that older adults' speech production is influenced by their reactivity or affective response to emotional stimuli even when the task is not to communicate one's emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Within the sound of trouble: Do humans use pitch to correctly assess emotional arousal across species?

Comments on an article by Jay W. Schwartz , Kayleigh H. Pierson, and Alexander K. Reece (see record 2024-19488-001). In this issue, Schwartz et al. (2024) tackle the pitch rule in humans by testing to what extent we use pitch alone to judge emotional arousal across closely and distantly related animal species. The findings of Schwartz et al. open a number of intriguing possibilities for future research: Notably important additional steps would include to further investigate the accuracy of the pitch rule across closely and distantly related species. Upon this, in order to study the evolutionary ancestry of the pitch rule, it will be necessary to study its applicability across nonhumans. Particularly interesting would be the inclusion of subject species that have been found to eavesdrop on heterospecific alarm calls. Previous research (see Hoeschele, 2017 for a review) as well as present findings on human ratings of macaque versus cricket calls also suggest that we should additionally focus on sound features that compliment emotional arousal rating beyond pitch such as spectral information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cortical Networks Relating to Arousal Are Differentially Coupled to Neural Activity and Hemodynamics.

Even in the absence of specific sensory input or a behavioral task, the brain produces structured patterns of activity. This organized activity is modulated by changes in arousal. Here, we use wide-field voltage imaging to establish how arousal relates to cortical network voltage and hemodynamic activity in spontaneously behaving head-fixed male and female mice expressing the voltage-sensitive fluorescent FRET sensor Butterfly 1.2. We find that global voltage and hemodynamic signals are both positively correlated with changes in arousal with a maximum correlation of 0.5 and 0.25, respectively, at a time lag of 0 s. We next show that arousal influences distinct cortical regions for both voltage and hemodynamic signals. These include a broad positive correlation across most sensory-motor cortices extending posteriorly to the primary visual cortex observed in both signals. In contrast, activity in the prefrontal cortex is positively correlated to changes in arousal for the voltage signal while it is a slight net negative correlation observed in the hemodynamic signal. Additionally, we show that coherence between voltage and hemodynamic signals relative to arousal is strongest for slow frequencies below 0.15 Hz and is near zero for frequencies >1 Hz. We finally show that coupling patterns are dependent on the behavioral state of the animal with correlations being driven by periods of increased orofacial movement. Our results indicate that while hemodynamic signals show strong relations to behavior and arousal, these relations are distinct from those observed by voltage activity.

Differential posttraumatic stress disorder symptom cluster response to stellate ganglion block: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

Empirically supported treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exist, but research suggests these therapies are less effective, acceptable, and feasible to deliver to active duty service members (SMs) compared to civilians. Stellate ganglion block (SGB) procedure, in which a local anesthetic is injected around the cervical sympathetic chain or stellate ganglion to temporarily inhibit sympathetic nervous activity, is gaining popularity as an alternative PTSD treatment in military settings. However, it is unknown whether certain PTSD symptoms are more responsive to SGB than others. The current study involved a secondary analysis of data collected from a previous randomized controlled trial of SGB compared to sham (normal saline) injection (N = 113 SMs). PTSD symptoms were assessed via clinical interview and self-report at baseline and 8 weeks post-SGB or sham. Logistic regression analyses showed that the marked alterations in arousal and reactivity PTSD symptom cluster demonstrated the greatest symptom severity reductions after SGB, relative to sham. The reexperiencing cluster also showed pronounced response to SGB in clinician-rated but not self-reported outcomes. Post-hoc item-level analyses suggested that arousal and reactivity cluster findings were driven by reductions in hypervigilance, concentration difficulties, and sleep disturbance, whereas clinician-rated reexperiencing cluster findings were driven by reductions in physiological reactions to trauma cues, emotional reactions to trauma cues, and intrusions. Our findings align with a burgeoning literature positioning SGB as a potential novel or adjunctive PTSD treatment. Results could guide future hypothesis-driven research on mediators of therapeutic change during SGB for PTSD symptoms in SMs.

Appetitive conditioning with pornographic stimuli elicits stronger activation in reward regions than monetary and gaming-related stimuli.

Appetitive conditioning plays an important role in the development and maintenance of pornography-use and gaming disorders. It is assumed that primary and secondary reinforcers are involved in these processes. Despite the common use of pornography and gaming in the general population appetitive conditioning processes in this context are still not well studied. This study aims to compare appetitive conditioning processes using primary (pornographic) and secondary (monetary and gaming-related) rewards as unconditioned stimuli (UCS) in the general population. Additionally, it investigates the conditioning processes with gaming-related stimuli as this type of UCS was not used in previous studies. Thirty-one subjects participated in a differential conditioning procedure in which four geometric symbols were paired with either pornographic, monetary, or gaming-related rewards or with nothing to become conditioned stimuli (CS + porn, CS + game, CS + money, and CS-) in an functional magnetic resonance imaging study. We observed elevated arousal and valence ratings as well as skin conductance responses for each CS+ condition compared to the CS-. On the neural level, we found activations during the presentation of the CS + porn in the bilateral nucleus accumbens, right medial orbitofrontal cortex, and the right ventral anterior cingulate cortex compared to the CS-, but no significant activations during CS + money and CS + game compared to the CS-. These results indicate that different processes emerge depending on whether primary and secondary rewards are presented separately or together in the same experimental paradigm. Additionally, monetary and gaming-related stimuli seem to have a lower appetitive value than pornographic rewards.

Functionality of arousal-regulating brain circuitry at rest predicts human cognitive abilities.

Arousal state is regulated by subcortical neuromodulatory nuclei, such as locus coeruleus, which send wide-reaching projections to cortex. Whether higher-order cortical regions have the capacity to recruit neuromodulatory systems to aid cognition is unclear. Here, we hypothesized that select cortical regions activate the arousal system, which, in turn, modulates large-scale brain activity, creating a functional circuit predicting cognitive ability. We utilized the Human Connectome Project 7T functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset (n = 149), acquired at rest with simultaneous eye tracking, along with extensive cognitive assessment for each subject. First, we discovered select frontoparietal cortical regions that drive large-scale spontaneous brain activity specifically via engaging the arousal system. Second, we show that the functionality of the arousal circuit driven by bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (associated with the default mode network) predicts subjects' cognitive abilities. This suggests that a cortical region that is typically associated with self-referential processing supports cognition by regulating the arousal system.

Repetitive mild traumatic brain injury impairs norepinephrine system function and psychostimulant responsivity.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex pathophysiological process that results in a variety of neurotransmitter, behavioral, and cognitive deficits. The locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system is a critical regulator of arousal levels and higher executive processes affected by TBI including attention, working memory, and decision making. LC-NE axon injury and impaired signaling within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a potential contributor to the neuropsychiatric symptoms after single, moderate to severe TBI. The majority of TBIs are mild, yet long-term cognitive deficits and increased susceptibility for further injury can accumulate after each repetitive mild TBI. As a potential treatment for restoring cognitive function and daytime sleepiness after injury psychostimulants, including methylphenidate (MPH) that increase levels of NE within the PFC, are being prescribed "off-label". The impact of mild and repetitive mild TBI on the LC-NE system remains limited. Therefore, we determined the extent of LC-NE and arousal dysfunction and response to therapeutic doses of MPH in rats following experimentally induced single and repetitive mild TBI. Microdialysis measures of basal NE efflux from the medial PFC and arousal measures were significantly lower after repetitive mild TBI. Females showed higher baseline PFC-NE efflux than males following single and repetitive mild TBI. In response to MPH challenge, males exhibited a blunted PFC-NE response and persistent arousal levels following repetitive mild TBI. These results provide critical insight into the role of catecholamine system dysfunction associated with cognitive deficits following repeated injury, outcome differences between sex/gender, and lack of success of MPH as an adjunctive therapy to improve cognitive function following injury.

Taste the music: Modality-general representation of affective states derived from auditory and gustatory stimuli.

Prior studies have extensively examined modality-general representation of affect across various sensory modalities, particularly focusing on auditory and visual stimuli. However, little research has explored the modality-general representation of affect between gustatory and other sensory modalities. This study aimed to investigate whether the affective responses induced by tastes and musical pieces could be predicted within and across modalities. For each modality, eight stimuli were chosen based on four basic taste conditions (sweet, bitter, sour, and salty). Participants rated their responses to each stimulus using both taste and emotion scales. The multivariate analyses including multidimensional scaling and classification analysis were performed. The findings revealed that auditory and gustatory stimuli in the sweet category were associated with positive valence, whereas those from the other taste categories were linked to negative valence. Additionally, auditory and gustatory stimuli in sour taste category were linked to high arousal, whereas stimuli in bitter taste category were associated with low arousal. This study revealed the potential mapping of gustatory and auditory stimuli onto core affect space in everyday experiences. Moreover, it demonstrated that emotions evoked by taste and music could be predicted across modalities, supporting modality-general representation of affect.

Construction of a Chinese traditional instrumental music dataset: A validated set of naturalistic affective music excerpts.

Music is omnipresent among human cultures and moves us both physically and emotionally. The perception of emotions in music is influenced by both psychophysical and cultural factors. Chinese traditional instrumental music differs significantly from Western music in cultural origin and music elements. However, previous studies on music emotion perception are based almost exclusively on Western music. Therefore, the construction of a dataset of Chinese traditional instrumental music is important for exploring the perception of music emotions in the context of Chinese culture. The present dataset included 273 10-second naturalistic music excerpts. We provided rating data for each excerpt on ten variables: familiarity, dimensional emotions (valence and arousal), and discrete emotions (anger, gentleness, happiness, peacefulness, sadness, solemnness, and transcendence). The excerpts were rated by a total of 168 participants on a seven-point Likert scale for the ten variables. Three labels for the excerpts were obtained: familiarity, discrete emotion, and cluster. Our dataset demonstrates good reliability, and we believe it could contribute to cross-cultural studies on emotional responses to music.

The arousal level of consciousness required for working memory performance: An anaesthesia study.

Regarding the stage of arousal level required for working memory to function properly, limited studies have been conducted on changes in working memory performance when the arousal level of consciousness decreases. This study aimed to experimentally clarify the stages of consciousness necessary for optimal working memory function. In this experiment, the sedation levels were changed step-by-step using anaesthesia, and the performance accuracy during the execution of working memory was assessed using a dual-task paradigm. Participants were required to categorize and remember words in a specific target category. Categorization performance was measured across four different sedative phases: before anaesthesia (baseline), and deep, moderate and light stages of sedation. Short-delay recognition tasks were performed under these four sedative stages, followed by long-delay recognition tasks after participants recovered from sedation. The results of the short-delay recognition task showed that the performance was lowest at the deep stage. The performance of the moderate stage was lower than the baseline. In the long-delay recognition task, the performance under moderate sedation was lower than that under baseline and light sedation. In addition, the performance under light sedation was lower than that under baseline. These results suggest that task performance becomes difficult under half sedation and that transferring information to long-term memory is difficult even under one-quarter sedation.