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Abstract
Prairie voles have emerged as an important rodent model for understanding the neuroscience of social behavior. Prairie voles are well known for their capacity for pair bonding and alloparental care. These behavioral phenomena overlap with human social behavior but are not commonly observed in traditional rodent models. In this article, we highlight the many benefits of using prairie voles in neuroscience research. We begin by describing the advantages of using diverse and non-traditional study models. We then focus on social behaviors, including pair bonding, alloparental care, and peer interactions, that have brought voles to the forefront of social neuroscience. We describe many additional features of prairie vole biology and behavior that provide researchers with opportunities to address an array of research questions. We also survey neuroethological methods that have been used with prairie voles, from classic to modern techniques. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of other vole species, particularly meadow voles, and their own unique advantages for neuroscience studies. This article provides a foundation for researchers who are new to working with voles, as well as for experienced neuroscientists who want to expand their research scope. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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Affiliation(s)
- William M. Kenkel
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
| | - Morgan L. Gustison
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA
| | - Annaliese K. Beery
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
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Ferorelli D, Mandarelli G, Solarino B. Ethical Challenges in Health Care Policy during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy. MEDICINA (KAUNAS, LITHUANIA) 2020; 56:E691. [PMID: 33322462 PMCID: PMC7764230 DOI: 10.3390/medicina56120691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 11/28/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Italy has proven to be one of the countries with the highest coronavirus-linked death rate. To reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the Italian Government decision-makers issued a series of law decrees that imposed measures limiting social contacts, stopped non-essential production activities, and restructured public health care in order to privilege assistance to patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Health care services were substantially limited including planned hospitalization and elective surgeries. These substantial measures were criticized due to their impact on individual rights including freedom and autonomy, but were justified by the awareness that hospitals would have been unable to cope with the surge of infected people who needed treatment for COVID-19. The imbalance between the need to guarantee ordinary care and to deal with the pandemic, in a context of limited health resources, raises ethical concerns as well as clinical management issues. The emergency scenario caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the lockdown phase, led the Government and health care decision-makers to prioritize community safety above the individuals' rights. This new community-centered approach to clinical care has created tension among the practitioners and exposed health workers to malpractice claims. Reducing the morbidity and mortality rates of the COVID-19 pandemic is the priority of every government, but the legitimate question remains whether the policy that supports this measure could be less harmful for the health care system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Ferorelli
- Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Legal Medicine, University of Bari, Piazza Giulio, Cesare 11, 70100 Bari, Italy; (G.M.); (B.S.)
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Trivedi GY, Patel V, Shah MH, Dhok MJ, Bhoyania K. Comparative Study of the Impact of Active Meditation Protocol and Silence Meditation on Heart Rate Variability and Mood in Women. Int J Yoga 2020; 13:255-260. [PMID: 33343158 PMCID: PMC7735506 DOI: 10.4103/ijoy.ijoy_18_20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2020] [Revised: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 06/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Aim The aim of this study was to understand the impact of an active meditation protocol on heart rate variability (HRV) and mood in women as compared to breath-focused silence meditation. Materials and Methods Women experienced two different practices of 20 min each: (a) control group: silence meditation focusing on breath and (b) experiment group: active meditation that included four activities, each lasting for 5 minutes - (1) simple humming, (2) coherent heart-focused breathing with 5s of inhalation and 5s of exhalation, (3) coherent heart-focused breathing while invoking positive emotions, and (4) guided imagery about a preidentified goal. The silence meditation encouraged women to only focus on the breath. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale measured mood before/after the practice (n = 24), and emWavePro device measured HRV parameters for 5 min before/after the practices (n = 18). Statistical data analysis was done using a paired t-test. Results HRV (specifically, parasympathetic nervous system [PNS]) parameters showed a statistically significant improvement in the experiment group as compared to the control group. There was a statistically significant reduction in negative affect after both the practices, and the increase in positive affect was observed only for the experiment group. Conclusions The active meditation provides a significant enhancement in mood and HRV parameters related to PNS as compared to silence meditation where the changes in HRV were not consistent and the positive mood did not increase significantly. Future research in this area could explore the impact of such practice for a longer duration and understand the impact of each component of the meditative practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gunjan Y Trivedi
- Research Scholar, JJT University and Cofounder, Society for Energy & Emotions, Wellness Space, India
| | - Vidhi Patel
- Intern at Society for Energy and Emotions, Wellness Space and Biomedical Engineering Student, L D College of Engineering, GTU, Ahmedabad, India
| | - Meghal H Shah
- Intern at Society for Energy and Emotions, Wellness Space and Biomedical Engineering Student, L D College of Engineering, GTU, Ahmedabad, India
| | - Meghana J Dhok
- Intern at Society for Energy and Emotions, Wellness Space and Biomedical Engineering Student, L D College of Engineering, GTU, Ahmedabad, India
| | - Kunal Bhoyania
- Head of the Deparment, Biomedical Engineering, L D College of Engineering, GTU, Ahmedabad, India
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McInnis PM, Braund TA, Chua ZK, Kozlowska K. Stress-system activation in children with chronic pain: A focus for clinical intervention. Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry 2020; 25:78-97. [PMID: 31364391 DOI: 10.1177/1359104519864994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Accumulating evidence indicates that psychological and neurophysiological processes interconnect and interact to activate the body's stress system and to trigger and maintain functional somatic symptoms. This study used the Early Life Stress Questionnaire, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales and biological markers (heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance, C-reactive protein (CRP) titre, respiratory rate, and accuracy and reaction time in an emotion-face identification task), to examine childhood adversity, psychological distress and stress-system activation in 35 children and adolescents (23 girls and 12 boys, 9-17 years old) disabled by chronic pain (vs two groups of age- and sex-matched healthy controls). Patients reported more early-life stress (U = 798.5, p = .026) and more psychological distress (U = 978, p < .001). They showed activation of the autonomic system: elevated heart rate (U = 862.5, p = .003), elevated electrodermal activity (U = 804.5, p = .024) and lower heart rate variability in the time domain (U = 380.5, p = .007) and frequency domain (U = 409.5, p = .017). The group showed an upward shift of CRP titres (with 75th and 90th CRP percentiles of 4.5 and 10.5 mg/L, respectively), suggesting the activation of the immune-inflammatory system. Elevated CRP titres were associated with elevated heart rate (p = .028). There were no differences in respiratory rate or in accuracy and reaction time in the emotion-face identification task. The results indicate that interventions for children and adolescents with chronic pain need a multidisciplinary mind-body approach that concurrently addresses psychological distress, physical impairment and stress-system dysregulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter M McInnis
- Department of Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Australia
| | - Taylor A Braund
- Total Brain, Australia.,Brain Dynamics Centre, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Australia.,Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Zhi Kai Chua
- Department of Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Australia
| | - Kasia Kozlowska
- Department of Psychological Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Australia.,Brain Dynamics Centre, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Australia.,Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia
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Siennicka A, Quintana DS, Fedurek P, Wijata A, Paleczny B, Ponikowska B, Danel DP. Resting heart rate variability, attention and attention maintenance in young adults. Int J Psychophysiol 2019; 143:126-131. [PMID: 31255739 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.06.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2019] [Revised: 06/25/2019] [Accepted: 06/26/2019] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Heart rate variability (HRV) is a widely used measure that reflects autonomic (parasympathetic) control of the heart. HRV has been linked with attentional performance, but it is unclear to what extent resting HRV is associated with both attention and attentional maintenance. In order to address this, we calculated HRV in seventy-four young and healthy volunteers (43 men, age: 21.6 ± 2.4), who completed the D2 Test of Attention (D2), which was used to calculate an index of Concentration Performance (CP) and a measure of attention maintenance, the coefficient of variation (CV). After accounting for the effects of sex and age on HRV, there was no significant association between HRV and CP (p = .2), but a significant relationship between HRV and CV (p = .03). Overall, our study demonstrates that attention maintenance, but not attentional performance, is associated with higher resting state HRV which suggests that attentional performance from D2 subtest-to-subtest may reflect HRV's facilitation of behaviour flexibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Siennicka
- Department of Physiology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland; Department of Cardiology, Military Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland.
| | - D S Quintana
- NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, University of Oslo, and Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - P Fedurek
- Department of Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom
| | - A Wijata
- Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Zabrze, Poland
| | - B Paleczny
- Department of Physiology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland; Department of Cardiology, Military Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland
| | - B Ponikowska
- Department of Physiology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - D P Danel
- Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland
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Anti-aging effects of long-term space missions, estimated by heart rate variability. Sci Rep 2019; 9:8995. [PMID: 31222071 PMCID: PMC6586662 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45387-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2019] [Accepted: 06/05/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Reports that aging slows down in space prompted this investigation of anti-aging effects in humans by analyzing astronauts’ heart rate variability (HRV). Ambulatory 48-hour electrocardiograms from 7 astronauts (42.1 ± 6.8 years; 6 men) 20.6 ± 2.7 days (ISS01) and 138.6 ± 21.8 days (ISS02) after launch were divided into 24-hour spans of relative lower or higher magnetic disturbance, based on geomagnetic measures in Tromso, Norway. Magnetic disturbances were significantly higher on disturbed than on quiet days (ISS01: 72.01 ± 33.82 versus 33.96 ± 17.90 nT, P = 0.0307; ISS02: 71.06 ± 51.52 versus 32.53 ± 27.27 nT, P = 0.0308). SDNNIDX was increased on disturbed days (by 5.5% during ISS01, P = 0.0110), as were other HRV indices during ISS02 (SDANN, 12.5%, P = 0.0243; Triangular Index, 8.4%, P = 0.0469; and TF-component, 17.2%, P = 0.0054), suggesting the action of an anti-aging or longevity effect. The effect on TF was stronger during light (12:00–17:00) than during darkness (0:00–05:00) (P = 0.0268). The brain default mode network (DMN) was activated, gauged by increases in the LF-band (9.7%, P = 0.0730) and MF1-band (9.9%, P = 0.0281). Magnetic changes in the magnetosphere can affect and enhance HRV indices in space, involving an anti-aging or longevity effect, probably in association with the brain DMN, in a light-dependent manner and/or with help from the circadian clock.
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