Identifying distinct subtypes of mother-to-infant bonding using latent profile analysis in a nationwide Japanese study.

BACKGROUND: Mother-to-infant bonding (MIB) is foundational for nurturing behaviors and an infant's development. Identifying risk factors for difficulties or problems in MIB is vital. However, traditional research often dichotomizes MIB using cutoff thresholds, overlooking its underlying complexities. This research utilizes latent profile analysis (LPA) to discern MIB subtypes in a nationwide Japanese dataset. METHODS: We conducted LPA on data from the Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS), collected from 3,877 postpartum women within one year of childbirth. To empirically validate the derived profiles, we examined their associated risk factors, focusing on sociodemographic, health, and perinatal variables. RESULTS: Four distinct MIB profiles emerged. Profile 1 indicated minimal difficulties, while Profile 4 exhibited severe multifaceted difficulties. Profiles 2 and 3 showed moderate difficulties distinguished by lack of positive affection and presence of negative affection (especially indifference), respectively. Compared to Profile 1, women in Profiles 2-4 had a higher likelihood of postpartum depression and low family support. Each profile also presented unique risk factors: medium family support in Profile 2, maternal working status in Profile 3, and pre-pregnancy underweight status in Profile 4. Notably, both Profiles 3 and 4 were also linked to increased feelings of loneliness since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSION: This study represents the first application of LPA to MIB, revealing distinct subtypes and their respective risk profiles. These insights promise to enhance and personalize early interventions for difficulties in MIB, affirming the necessity of acknowledging MIB's heterogeneity.

Mood and physiological effects of visual stimulation with images of the natural environment in individuals with depressive and anxiety disorders.

BACKGROUND: Nature therapies are gaining attention as non-pharmacological treatments for depressive and anxiety disorders, but research on their effectiveness in patients is limited. This study investigates the mood-improving effects of visual stimulation with natural environmental images in patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. METHODS: We conducted a randomized crossover comparison trial involving 60 right-handed adult participants with depressive or anxiety disorders and receiving outpatient treatment. Visual stimuli of natural environments consisted of green-themed nature images, while the control stimuli featured urban scenes dominated by buildings. The stimulation lasted for 3 min, during which orbital prefrontal brain activity was measured using a 2-channel Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) system, and heart rate variability was assessed using fingertip accelerated plethysmography. RESULTS: Mood enhancement effects were observed in both the depressive and anxiety disorder groups following visual stimulation with nature images. In the depression group, orbital prefrontal oxygenated hemoglobin concentration significantly increased after visual stimulation with nature images, while there were no significant changes in the anxiety group. However, in the anxiety group, a correlation was found between reduced orbital prefrontal oxygenated hemoglobin in response to nature images and increased mood-enhancement. Furthermore, the severity of depressive symptoms did not significantly affect the intervention effects, whereas heightened anxiety symptoms was associated with a smaller mood enhancement effect. DISCUSSION: Our study demonstrates the benefits of nature image stimulation for patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. Differential orbital prefrontal brain activity impacts notwithstanding, both conditions exhibited mood enhancement, affirming the value of nature image stimulation.

Introducing the Chen-HAgiwara Mood Test (CHAMT): A novel, brief scale developed in Japanese populations for assessing mood variations.

Understanding and assessing mood are pivotal in psychological and psychiatric research, yet existing scales often exhibit limitations such as focusing on singular dimensions of mood and introducing comparative bias through Likert scales. To address these issues, the Chen-HAgiwara Mood Test (CHAMT), a novel three-item scale, was developed. Grounded in the valence-arousal two-dimensional theory of affect, CHAMT offers a comprehensive assessment, focusing on three integral mood components: pleasure, relaxation, and vigor. This study evaluates the reliability, validity, and applicability of CHAMT in capturing mood variations post diverse experimental interventions. The results indicate that CHAMT exhibits high internal consistency and notable item-total correlations, underscoring its reliability. It demonstrated excellent same-day test-retest reliability, with variations observed on different days, implying a potential influence of temporal factors on mood assessments. The notable correlations between CHAMT's components and established external criteria such as positive affect, depression, and state anxiety substantiate its validity in assessing diverse mood dimensions. The examination of different interventions revealed a discernable impact on specific mood components, aligning with theoretical expectations, and showcasing the nuanced interplay between interventions and mood dimensions. The findings suggest that CHAMT holds substantial promise in refining mood assessments in psychological and psychiatric research, due to its brevity, multifaceted approach, and alignment with established theoretical frameworks.

Mother-to-infant bonding difficulties are associated with future maternal depression and child-maltreatment behaviors: A Japanese nationwide longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Mother-to-infant bonding difficulties (MIBD) are considered risk factors for postpartum depression and child-maltreatment behaviors. However, few longitudinal studies have examined this hypothesis. This study aims to explore the relationship between MIBD and subsequent maternal depression and child-maltreatment behaviors using longitudinal data from a 2021 Japanese nationwide survey. METHODS: We studied 658 first-time mothers who had given birth within the past year and had not reported postpartum depression or child-maltreatment behaviors at baseline. The Japanese version of Mother-to-Infant Bonding Scale (MIBS) was used to measure MIBD. Subjects were monitored for six months and subsequently completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and responded to inquiries about child-maltreatment behaviors. RESULTS: After adjusting for covariates, MIBD was associated with higher odds of maternal depression (OR=1.737, 95 % CI [1.078, 2.797]) and child-maltreatment behaviors (OR=2.040, 95 % CI [1.401, 2.970]) six months later. Further analysis indicated that MIBD was particularly associated with a heightened risk of emotional abuse (OR=2.172, 95 % CI [1.486, 3.176]). Sensitivity analysis confirmed these findings through multiple approaches, such as applying inverse probability weighting to mitigate selection bias, using an alternative MIBS cutoff score of 5, and adopting a time-varying model to account for the dynamic nature of depressive symptoms and child-maltreatment behaviors. CONCLUSION: Proactive screening for MIBD could serve as a valuable tool in the early detection of maternal depression and potential child-maltreatment behaviors.

Evaluating the impact of a short bout of stair-climbing on creative thinking in a between-subjects pretest posttest comparison study.

Recent studies have indicated potential links between short bouts of physical activity like stair-climbing and enhanced creative thinking. However, previous research featured limitations, such as using an uncommon 3 flights round-trip design and lacking baseline creative thinking evaluations. To rectify these limitations and build a more comprehensive understanding, the present study adopts a between-subjects pretest posttest comparison design to scrutinize the effects of ascending stair-climbing on both divergent and convergent thinking. 52 subjects underwent a pretest, followed by random assignment to one of four interventions: ascending stair-climbing for 2, 5, or 8 flights, or taking an elevator for 8 flights, before progressing to a posttest. The results revealed a notable improvement in convergent thinking, measured by the increased number of solved matchstick arithmetic problems (d = 1.165), for participants who climbed 2 flights of stairs compared to those who took the elevator. However, climbing 5 or 8 flights showed no such impact on convergent thinking, and stair-climbing, regardless of the number of flights, did not influence divergent thinking. These findings underscore the utility of brief stair-climbing as an accessible means to enhance convergent thinking in everyday settings, providing a nuanced insight into the relationship between physical activity and creative thinking processes.

The prevalence and risk factors of suicidal ideation in women with and without postpartum depression.

AIM: Suicidal ideation (SI) is a severe mental health issue in the postpartum period. As depression is a major risk factor of SI, it is often considered that the risk factors of SI are the same as those of postpartum depression. However, SI occurs in women without postpartum depression as well. The aim of this study is to separately examine the prevalence and risk factors of SI in postpartum women with and without depression. METHODS: We used data of 5688 postpartum women from a 2021 Japanese nation-wide survey, whose age and geographical distributions were nationally representative. Postpartum depression was evaluated with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and SI was measured with the 10th item of EPDS. RESULTS: The prevalence of SI in women with and without depression (EPDS≥9) was 51.8 % and 3.3 %, respectively. Younger age and low family support were risk factors common to both women with and without depression. Being single, currently working, history of depressive disorders, and family members' visits to support being cancelled were risk factors of SI for women with depression. In contrast, primipara, history of psychiatric disorders other than depressive disorders, infectious disease other than colds during pregnancy, and feeling of loneliness increased since COVID-19 were risk factor of SI for women without depression. CONCLUSION: Although with a low prevalence, SI occurs in women without postpartum depression, which has unique risk factors indicating distinct psychopathological mechanisms. These findings call for tailored SI intervention strategies according to whether postpartum depression is present or not.

Toward a computational understanding of how reminiscing about positive autobiographical memories influences decision-making under risk.

Recent computational psychiatric research has dissected decision-making under risk into different underlying cognitive computational constructs and identified disease-specific changes in these constructs. Studies are underway to investigate what kind of behavioral or psychological interventions can restore these cognitive, computational constructs. In our previous study, we showed that reminiscing about positive autobiographical memories reduced risk aversion and affected probability weighting in the opposite direction from that observed in psychiatric disorders. However, in that study, we compared positive versus neutral memory retrieval by using a within-subjects crossover posttest design. Therefore, the change of decision-making from baseline is unclear. Furthermore, we used a hypothetical decision-making task and did not include monetary incentives. We attempt to address these limitations and investigated how reminiscing about positive autobiographical memories influences decision-making under risk using a between-subjects pretest posttest comparison design with performance-contingent monetary incentives. In thirty-eight healthy, young adults, we found that reminiscing about positive memories reinforced the commonly observed inverted S-shaped nonlinear probability weighting (f = 0.345, medium to large in effect size). In contrast, reminiscing about positive memories did not affect risk aversion in general. Given that the change in probability weighting after reminiscing about positive memories is in the opposite direction from that observed in psychiatric disorders, our results indicate that positive autobiographical memory retrieval might be a useful behavioral intervention strategy for amending the altered decision-making under risk in psychiatric diseases.

Interferon signaling and hypercytokinemia-related gene expression in the blood of antidepressant non-responders.

Only 50% of patients with depression respond to the first antidepressant drug administered. Thus, biomarkers for prediction of antidepressant responses are needed, as predicting which patients will not respond to antidepressants can optimize selection of alternative therapies. We aimed to identify biomarkers that could predict antidepressant responsiveness using a novel data-driven approach based on statistical pattern recognition. We retrospectively divided patients with major depressive disorder into antidepressant responder and non-responder groups. Comprehensive gene expression analysis was performed using peripheral blood without narrowing the genes. We designed a classifier according to our own discrete Bayes decision rule that can handle categorical data. Nineteen genes showed differential expression in the antidepressant non-responder group (n = 15) compared to the antidepressant responder group (n = 15). In the training sample of 30 individuals, eight candidate genes had significantly altered expression according to quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The expression of these genes was examined in an independent test sample of antidepressant responders (n = 22) and non-responders (n = 12). Using the discrete Bayes classifier with the HERC5, IFI6, and IFI44 genes identified in the training set yielded 85% discrimination accuracy for antidepressant responsiveness in the 34 test samples. Pathway analysis of the RNA sequencing data for antidepressant responsiveness identified that hypercytokinemia- and interferon-related genes were increased in non-responders. Disease and biofunction analysis identified changes in genes related to inflammatory and infectious diseases, including coronavirus disease. These results strongly suggest an association between antidepressant responsiveness and inflammation, which may be useful for future treatment strategies for depression.

Associations of parent-child exercise with family relations and parental mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Due to COVID-19 pandemic and behavior restrictions, deterioration of family relations and mental health in child-rearing households has been reported. This study examined whether frequent parent-child exercise (PCE) is associated with improved family relations and parental mental health under COVID-19. METHODS: Using data from the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey (JACSIS), a nationwide survey conducted in August-September 2020, we extracted respondents with children aged 6 to 18 years (n = 2960). Logistic regression was performed to investigate the association between PCE frequency and changes in family relations and parental mental health. RESULTS: Compared with participants with 6-12-years old children, those with 13-18-years old children reported less PCE. Among participants with 6-12-years old children, compared to those without PCE, those conducted PCE more than once per week reported more improved relation with children and greater happiness (ORs ≥ 1.69), controlling covariates. Those conducted PCE 3 or more times a week also reported decreased loneliness (OR = 0.68). Whereas PCE conducted 1-2 times a month was not associated with any changes in participants with children of 6-12-years old, it was associated with more improved relations with children and spouses in participants with children of 13-18-years old (ORs ≥ 1.98). DISCUSSION: This study is the first to investigate the association of PCE with family relations and parental mental health under COVID-19. Our results suggest that PCE may enhance family relations and parental mental health and the effect may differ according to child's age.

The effect of positive autobiographical memory retrieval on decision-making under risk: A computational model-based analysis.

Psychiatric disorders such as depressive and anxiety disorders are associated with altered decision-making under risk. Recent advances in neuroeconomics and computational psychiatry have further discomposed risk-based decision-making into distinct cognitive computational constructs and showed that there may be disorder-specific alterations in these constructs. As a result, it has been suggested these cognitive computational constructs may serve as useful behavioral biomarkers for these disorders. However, to date, little is known about what psychological or behavioral interventions can help to reverse and manage the altered cognitive computational constructs underlying risk-based decision-making. In the present study, we set out to investigate whether recalling positive autobiographical memories may affect risk-based decision-making in healthy volunteers using a description-based task. Specifically, based on theories of behavioral economics, we dissected risk preference into two cognitive computational constructs, utility sensitivity and probability weighting. We found that compared to recalling neutral memories, retrieving positive autobiographical memories increased utility sensitivity (Cohen's d = 0.447), indicating reduced risk aversion. Meanwhile, we also tested the influence of memory retrieval on probability weighting, the effect, however, was unreliable and requires further in-depth investigation. Of clinical relevance, the change in risk aversion after recalling positive memories was in the opposite direction compared to those reported in psychiatric disorders. These results argue for the potential therapeutic effect of positive autobiographical memory retrieval for the amendment of altered risk-based decision-making in psychiatric disorders.

Computational markers of experience- but not description-based decision-making are associated with future depressive symptoms in young adults.

BACKGROUND: Early prediction of high depressive symptoms is crucial for selective intervention and the minimization of functional impairment. Recent cross-sectional studies indicated decision-making deficits in depression, which may be an important contributor to the disorder. Our goal was to test whether description- and experience-based decision making, two major neuroeconomic paradigms of decision-making under uncertainty, predict future depressive symptoms in young adults. METHODS: One hundred young adults performed two decision-making tasks, one description-based, in which subjects chose between two gambling options given explicitly stated rewards and their probabilities, and the other experience-based, in which subjects were shown rewards but had to learn the probability of those rewards (or cue-outcome contingencies) via trial-and-error experience. We evaluated subjects' depressive symptoms with BDI-II at baseline (T1) and half a year later (T2). RESULTS: Comparing subjects with low versus high levels of depressive symptoms at T2 showed that the latter performed worse on the experience- but not description-based task at T1. Computational modeling of the decision-making process suggested that subjects with high levels of depressive symptoms had a more concave utility function, indicating enhanced risk aversion. Furthermore, a more concave utility function at T1 increased the odds of high depressive symptoms at T2, even after controlling depressive symptoms at T1, perceived stress at T2, and several covariates (OR = 0.251, 95% CI [0.085, 0.741]). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to demonstrate a prospective link between experience-based decision-making and depressive symptoms. Our results suggest that enhanced risk aversion in experience-based decision-making may be an important contributor to the development of depressive symptoms.

Nonlinear Probability Weighting in Depression and Anxiety: Insights From Healthy Young Adults.

Both depressive and anxiety disorders have been associated with excessive risk avoidant behaviors, which are considered an important contributor to the maintenance and recurrence of these disorders. However, given the high comorbidity between the two disorders, their independent association with risk preference remains unclear. Furthermore, due to the involvement of multiple cognitive computational factors in the decision-making tasks employed so far, the precise underlying mechanisms of risk preference are unknown. In the present study, we set out to investigate the common versus unique cognitive computational mechanisms of risk preference in depression and anxiety using a reward-based decision-making task and computational modeling based on economic theories. Specifically, in model-based analysis, we decomposed risk preference into utility sensitivity (a power function) and probability weighting (the one-parameter Prelec weighting function). Multiple linear regression incorporating depression (BDI-II) and anxiety (STAI state anxiety) simultaneously indicated that only depression was associated with one such risk preference parameter, probability weighting. As the symptoms of depression increased, subjects' tendency to overweight small probabilities and underweight large probabilities decreased. Neither depression nor anxiety was associated with utility sensitivity. These associations remained even after controlling covariates or excluding anxiety-relevant items from the depression scale. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess risk preference due to a concave utility function and nonlinear probability weighting separately for depression and anxiety using computational modeling. Our results provide a mechanistic account of risk avoidance and may improve our understanding of decision-making deficits in depression and anxiety.

Symptom Patterns of the Occurrence of Depression and Anxiety in a Japanese General Adult Population Sample: A Latent Class Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Given the high comorbidity and shared risk factors between depression and anxiety, whether they represent theoretically distinct disease entities or are just characteristics of a common negative affect dimension remains debated. Employing a data-driven and person-centered approach, the present study aims to identify meaningful and discrete symptom patterns of the occurrence of depression and anxiety. METHODS: Using data from an adult sample from the Japanese general population (n = 403, including 184 females, age = 42.28 ± 11.87 years), we applied latent class analysis to identify distinct symptom patterns of depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (STAI Y1). To empirically validate the derived class memberships, we tested the association between the derived classes and personal profiles including childhood experiences, life events, and personality traits. RESULTS: The best-fitting solution had four distinct symptom patterns or classes. Whereas both Class 1 and 2 had high depression, Class 1 showed high anxiety due to high anxiety-present symptoms (e.g., "I feel nervous") while Class 2 showed moderate anxiety due to few anxiety-absent symptoms (e.g., "I feel calm"). Class 3 manifested mild anxiety symptoms due to lacking responses on anxiety-absent items. Class 4 manifested the least depressive and anxiety-present symptoms as well as the most anxiety-absent symptoms. Importantly, whereas both Class 1 and 2 had higher childhood neglect and reduced reward responsiveness, etc. compared to Class 4 (i.e., the most healthy class), only Class 1 had greater negative affect and reported more negative life events. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first latent class analysis that examined the symptom patterns of depression and anxiety in Asian subjects. The classes we identified have distinct features that confirm their unique patterns of symptom endorsement. Our findings may provide insights into the etiology of depression, anxiety, and their comorbidity.

Regular Vigorous-Intensity Physical Activity and Walking Are Associated with Divergent but not Convergent Thinking in Japanese Young Adults.

The beneficial effects of regular physical activity (PA) on cognitive functions have received much attention. Recent research suggests that regular PA may also enhance creative thinking, an indispensable cognitive factor for invention and innovation. However, at what intensity regular PA brings the most benefits to creative thinking remains uninvestigated. Furthermore, whether the levels of regular PA affect the acute PA effects on creative thinking is also unclear. In the present study, using a previous dataset that investigated the effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on creative thinking in healthy Japanese young adults (22.98 ± 1.95 years old) in the year 2020, we tested the association between different intensities of regular PA (i.e., vigorous, moderate, and walking) and creative thinking with the cross-sectional baseline data using multiple linear regression. We also investigated whether regular PA levels were associated with the acute aerobic exercise intervention effects on creative thinking. The results showed that cross-sectionally, the regular PAs were differentially associated with divergent but not convergent thinking. Specifically, whereas the amount of vigorous-intensity PA was positively associated with fluency and flexibility, the amount of walking was positively associated with novelty on the alternate uses test (AUT) measuring divergent thinking. Importantly, the explained variances of fluency, flexibility, and novelty were 20.3% (p = 0.040), 18.8% (p = 0.055), and 20.1% (p = 0.043), respectively. None of the regular PAs predicted convergent thinking (i.e., an insight problem-solving task), nor were they associated with the acute aerobic exercise intervention effects on divergent and convergent thinking. These findings suggest that engaging in regular vigorous-intensity PA and walking may be useful strategies to enhance different aspects of divergent thinking in daily life.

Optimized protocol for the extraction of RNA and DNA from frozen whole blood sample stored in a single EDTA tube.

Cryopreservation of whole blood is useful for DNA collection, and clinical and basic research. Blood samples in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt (EDTA) tubes stored at - 80 °C are suitable for DNA extraction, but not for high-quality RNA extraction. Herein, a new methodology for high-quality RNA extraction from human blood samples is described. Quickly thawing frozen whole blood on aluminum blocks at room temperature could minimize RNA degradation, and improve RNA yield and quality compared with thawing the samples in a 37 °C water bath. Furthermore, the use of the NucleoSpin RNA kit increased RNA yield by fivefold compared with the PAXgene Blood RNA Kit. Thawing blood samples on aluminum blocks significantly increased the DNA yield by ~ 20% compared with thawing in a 37 °C water bath or on ice. Moreover, by thawing on aluminum blocks and using the NucleoSpin RNA and QIAamp DNA Blood kits, the extraction of RNA and DNA of sufficient quality and quantity was achieved from frozen EDTA whole blood samples that were stored for up to 8.5 years. Thus, extracting RNA from frozen whole blood in EDTA tubes after long-term storage is feasible. These findings may help advance gene expression analysis, as well as biomarker research for various diseases.

The Mood-Improving Effect of Viewing Images of Nature and Its Neural Substrate.

It has been recently suggested that contact with nature improves mood via reducing the activity of the prefrontal cortex. However, the specific regions within the prefrontal cortex that underlie this effect remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify the specific regions involved in the mood-improving effect of viewing images of nature using a 52-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Specifically, we focused on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), two regions associated with affective processing and control. In a randomized controlled crossover experiment, we assigned thirty young adults to view images of nature and built environments for three minutes each in a counterbalanced order. During image viewing, participants wore a fNIRS probe cap and had their oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) measured. Immediately following each image viewing, participants indicated their mood in terms of comfortableness, relaxation, and vigor. Results showed that viewing images of nature significantly increased comfortableness and relaxation but not vigor compared to viewing images of built environments, with a large effect size. Meanwhile, the concentration of oxy-Hb in only the right OFC and none of the other regions significantly decreased while viewing the images of nature compared to built environments, with a medium effect size. We speculate that viewing images of nature improves mood by reducing the activity of or calming the OFC. Since the OFC is hyperactive in patients with depression and anxiety at rest, contact with nature might have therapeutic effects for them.

The Negative Association Between Positive Psychological Wellbeing and Loss Aversion.

When making decisions, people tend to overweigh the impact of losses compared to gains, a phenomenon known as loss aversion (LA). A moderate amount of LA may be adaptive as it is necessary for protecting oneself from danger. However, excessive LA may leave people few opportunities and ultimately lead to suboptimal outcomes. Despite frequent reports of elevated LA in specific populations such as patients with depression, little is known about what psychological characteristics are associated with the tendency of LA. Based on the neurobiological studies of LA, we hypothesized that positive psychological wellbeing may be negatively associated with people's tendency of LA. In the present study, we set out to test this hypothesis in a sample of young adults. We evaluated LA using a decision-making task in which subjects were asked to decide whether to accept or reject a series of coin-toss gambles. Our results revealed that individuals with more advanced personal growth as assessed by the Ryff's Psychological Well-being Inventory showed reduced LA. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating an association between positive psychological wellbeing and LA. These findings suggest that personal growth might be employed as interventional targets for correcting excessive LA in vulnerable populations.

Sex difference in the weighting of expected uncertainty under chronic stress.

The neurobiological literature implicates chronic stress induced decision-making deficits as a major contributor to depression and anxiety. Given that females are twice as likely to suffer from these disorders, we hypothesized the existence of sex difference in the effects of chronic stress on decision-making. Here employing a decision-making paradigm that relies on reinforcement learning of probabilistic predictive relationships, we show female volunteers with a high level of perceived stress in the past month are more likely to make suboptimal choices than males. Computational characterizations of this sex difference suggest that while under high stress, females and males differ in their weighting but not learning of the expected uncertainty in the predictive relationships. These findings provide a mechanistic account of the sex difference in decision-making under chronic stress and may have important implications for the epidemiology of sex difference in depression and anxiety.

The Effect of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Divergent and Convergent Thinking and Its Influence by Mood.

Abundant evidence shows that various forms of physical exercise, even conducted briefly, may improve cognitive functions. However, the effect of physical exercise on creative thinking remains under-investigated, and the role of mood in this effect remains unclear. In the present study, we set out to investigate the effect of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on divergent and convergent thinking and whether this effect depends on the post-exercise mood. Forty healthy young adults were randomly assigned to receive a 15-min exercise or control intervention, before and after which they conducted an alternate use test measuring divergent thinking and an insight problem-solving task measuring convergent thinking. It was found that exercise enhanced divergent thinking in that it increased flexibility and fluency. Importantly, these effects were not mediated by the post-exercise mood in terms of pleasure and vigor. In contrast, the effect on convergent thinking depended on subjects' mood after exercise: subjects reporting high vigor tended to solve more insight problems that were unsolved previously, while those reporting low vigor became less capable of solving previously unsolved problems. These findings suggest that aerobic exercise may affect both divergent and convergent thinking, with the former being mood-independent and the latter mood-dependent. If these findings can be replicated with more rigorous studies, engaging in a bout of mood, particularly vigor-enhancing aerobic exercise, may be considered a useful strategy for gaining insights into previously unsolved problems.