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Journal Article 2003; 24(6): 449-453 PubMed PMID: 15073574 Citation  Keywords:  Adolescent, Adult, Educational Measurement, Exploratory Behavior, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone:metabolism, Male, Psychometrics, Saliva:metabolism, Stress, Psychological:diagnosis, Students:psychology,.   

OBJECTIVES: Although it is widely accepted that academic examinations are accompanied by a cortisol increase, some recent studies reported either no effect or even a decline of the cortisol level. To reevaluate these discrepancies, we investigated whether personality traits predict the cortisol response upon academic examinations.

SETTING AND DESIGN: Nineteen male and female adolescent pupils (17 to 19 years) participated in the study. Two anticipated, mandatory, routine written examinations were used as familiar stressful conditions, whereas an anticipated, mandatory oral examination in front of a board of known and unknown examiners was used as a novel stressful situation.

METHODS: Baseline, pre- and postexamination salivary cortisol were quantified and correlated with psychometric measures, including self-estimated stress level, obtained from a five-point scale, and sensation seeking subscales according to Zuckerman.

RESULTS: Salivary cortisol response, taken as an average of all subjects, showed a transient increase upon examinations. However, comparing individual cortisol responses revealed three distinct cortisol profiles, including a transient increase (Type 1), a transient decline (Type 2), or no response (Type 3). Type 1 predominates in examinations combined with novelty. A moderate negative association was noted between saliva cortisol concentrations on some sensation seeking subscales. Self-reported stress levels did not significantly correlate with salivary cortisol concentration.

CONCLUSION: Our findings show that upon academic examinations the cortisol response varies among subjects. A moderate negative association was unveiled by correlating individual cortisol responses with sensation seeking subscales....

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Editorial 2003; 24(6): 401-403 PubMed PMID: 15073564 Citation  Keywords:  Attitude to Health, Health, Humans, Psychophysiologic Disorders:psychology, Quality of Life,.   

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Clinical Trial 2003; 24(3-4): 197-202 PubMed PMID: 14523357 Citation  Keywords:  Adrenocorticotropic Hormone:blood, Adult, Anxiety:physiopathology, Blood Pressure:physiology, Conflict (Psychology), Heart Rate:physiology, Hemodynamics:physiology, Hormones:blood, Human Growth Hormone:blood, Humans, Hydrocortisone:blood, MMPI, Military P.   

OBJECTIVES: Pilots are exposed to the "stress of flight" and the chronically activated stress response may play an important role in circulatory system disease progression. We studied the effect of an experimental mental stress on cardiovascular and neuroendocrine activity, in Air Force Academy cadets, before and after one month intensive course.

DESIGN: Nine cadets were submitted to a psychometric evaluation before Stroop test (ST), including Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI X1 and X2 form) and Reaction Scheme Test. After ST, subjects completed a STAI X1 form. Heart rate (HR), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) were monitored and serum prolactin (PRL), growth hormone (GH), adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and cortisol levels were determined, during ST. The protocol was repeated at the end of the course.

RESULTS: No significant differences were evident in PRL, GH and ACTH levels. Cortisol concentrations were significantly higher before the course. ST did not modify hormone secretion. ST induced a significant and reproducible elevation of HR and SBP. Basal HR, SBP and DBP values were significantly elevated after the course. Two subjects presented a particular psychometric profile, a different cardiovascular response to ST and did not pass the course.

CONCLUSIONS: acute mental stress significantly activated cardiovascular response without modifying endocrine responses, in relation to the psychological profiles. A significant increase of cardiovascular parameters was present after the course, with enhanced dichotomy between the endocrine and sympathetic system, suggesting a careful evaluation and follow-up for circulatory system diseases in cadets....

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Journal Article 2003; 24(3-4): 181-184 PubMed PMID: 14523354 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Biomarkers, Circadian Rhythm:physiology, Humans, Male, Melatonin:blood, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Schizophrenia:blood, Schizophrenic Psychology,.   

OBJECTIVE: Aim of this study was to verify if a simple index as night-day plasma MLT level variation is able to confirm the existing data on circadian melatonin alterations in schizophrenia and if a relationship to disease itself instead of the actual clinical state can be suggested.

SETTING AND DESIGN: Ten consecutively admitted male schizophrenic inpatients were examined.

METHODS: The blood samples for melatonin were collected at 3.00 a.m. and 15.00 p.m. and consequently calculated the values of Delta () (MLT h.3.00- MLT h.15.00). We divided the sample into two subgroups: < 30 pg/ml and > 30 pg/ml taking 30 pg/ml as an arbitrary value, based on literature data, that should indicate a physiologically correct value of.

RESULTS: The 70% of the sample was under the 30 pg/ml value of (13.61 +/- 4.0) or was lacking of the characteristic circadian pattern of MLT secretion, whilst the 30% of the sample was over the 30 pg/ml value of (83.60 +/- 16.34) or was in presence of the characteristic circadian pattern of MLT secretion (p=.0001). No correlation was found between values and the scale and subscales scores for the assessment of psychopathology.

MAIN FINDINGS: The data confirm the lack of the characteristic circadian pattern of MLT secretion in schizophrenics.

CONCLUSION: The absence of significant correlation between night / day melatonin level differences and actual psychopathology variables should indicate that the suppression of is mostly related to the disease and independent from the clinical state. A neuroleptic-treatment effect cannot be excluded so far....

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Clinical Trial 2003; 24(3-4): 173-180 PubMed PMID: 14523353 Citation  Keywords:  Adult, Affect:physiology, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone:metabolism, Male, Music:psychology, Photic Stimulation, Radioimmunoassay, Saliva:metabolism, Sex Characteristics, Stress, Psychological:metabolism, Testosterone:metabolism,.   

OBJECTIVES: The aims of the present study were to examine sex-related differences in testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) changes with music listening and visual stress.

SETTING AND DESIGN: Saliva T and C concentrations were measured in 88 healthy college students (44 males and 44 females). These subjects were placed in one of 4 different conditions: (1) 30 min of listening to music, (2) 30 min of listening to music with visual stress (documentary film without sound including violent scenes), (3) 30 min of visual stress without music, and (4) 30 min of silence.

METHODS: All subjects provided two saliva samples, one collected before intervention and the other after intervention. T and C levels were assessed by radio immuno assay (RIA).

RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the sexes in the way music affected T. Music decreased T in males, whereas it increased T in females. As for C, no sex-related differences were found under any of the conditions studied. C decreased with music and increased under other conditions. THE MAIN FINDINGS: Our data suggests that the effects of music and stress on T differ between males and females.

CONCLUSION: Further investigation is necessary to evaluate the relationships between music and other substances, the effect of degree of preference and hormonal changes not only during music listening but also during music plays and creation....

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Journal Article 2003; 24(3-4): 151-160 PubMed PMID: 14523349 Citation  Keywords:  Aging:physiology, Attention:physiology, Brain:growth & development, Consciousness Disorders:psychology, Electroencephalography, Electrophysiology, Eye Movements:physiology, Female, Gravitation, Humans, Learning:physiology, Male, Sleep:physiology,.   

: The interest in studying the brain electrical activity as a function of the development of intelligence has been spurred by the need to understand how the brain responds to environmental information. The description of sleep in mentally retarded children reveals deviant patterns of the EEG-spindles and of the eye movement activity (REM sleep) when compared to normal children. The patterns may be considered as a valuable index of mental function. According to experimental evidence, the distribution of the eye movements of sleep appears either as random or ordered. The latter are altered in the mentally handicapped in whom the appearance out of chaos, of the order which is needed for intelligence and memory to function, is altered. The sleep signs are redundant as from birth. Their pattern is also related to the psychomotor development of the infant. If their distribution remains random, or appears in long uninterrupted sequences of waves as in epilepsy, intelligence does not develop. A similar strategy appears to function in the foetus when nature organizes the structures that will lead to the development of intelligence. The eye movement patterns of sleep change in the pregnant women as a function of term and resemble those of premature babies of a similar gestational age. They also change as a function of the menstrual cycle and more generally as a function of age. The hypothesis that attention is the diurnal equivalent of REM sleep is discussed. Attempts at modelling the eye movement patterns of REM sleep as a function of near zero gravity environments have been made. 1) By means of a Montecarlo simulation using the semi Markov model during the Spacelab 1 flight. 2) With the method of the single and multiple g-phase transition analysis of the strange attractor dimension (d) during parabolic flights. The implication of the latter for the neural processes involved in learning is that the central nervous system can preserve intact, from input to output, over a period of several days, all the information it receives 3) The relation between spindles and eye movements has also been viewed by a quantum approach which is another medium between the information and the way of describing it....

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Journal Article 2002; 23(Suppl 4): 98-104 PubMed PMID: 12496740 Citation  Keywords:  Algorithms, Biological Evolution, Humans, Mental Processes, Religion and Psychology, Religious Philosophies,.   

: How can the evolution of religiosity be explained? To answer this question, we attempt to develop an understanding of the psychological domains underlying religious behaviour. We see four evolved domains, the sum and interaction of which constitute religiosity, namely: mysticism, ethics, myths and rituals. Even if the individual content, accents and implementations differ in each specific religion, they nevertheless derive from evolved Darwinian algorithms that are species-specific adaptations of homo sapiens. Mysticism. Intuitive ontologies are the basis for mystical experiences. Usually they serve to classify reality into animate and inanimate objects, animals or plants, for example. For a variety of psychological reasons, supernatural experiences result from a mixture of different ontological categories. Ethics. The basis for ethics lies in the social competency of human beings. Ethics is founded on the concept of social exchange ("social-contract algorithm") with its ideas about reciprocity, fairness, justice, cheater detection, in-group/out-group differentiation, etc. Myths. The basis for myths is the "language instinct". We interpret myths as the verbal expression of the cognitive content of those individual modules that constitute the belief system. Above all, myths document the experience and processing of contingency and thus help social bonding. Rituals. Rituals are based on the handicap principle. By making certain symbols and acts more expensive, they signal commitment for a reliable in-group morale. In conclusion, we argue that human religiosity emerges from a cognitive interaction between these four domains. Religiosity processes contingencies and enhances co-operation through social bonding, norm setting and cheater detection. It fulfils those functions for which the mental modules of its four domains have evolved so that we feel it appears to be justified to attribute to religiosity the evolutionary status of an adaptation....

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Journal Article 2002; 23(Suppl 4): 92-97 PubMed PMID: 12496739 Citation  Keywords:  Brain Mapping, Courtship:psychology, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Marriage:psychology, Nervous System Physiological Phenomena,.   

: Scientists have described many physical and behavioral traits in avian and mammalian species that evolved to attract mates. But the brain mechanisms by which conspecifics become attracted to these traits is unknown. This paper maintains that two aspects of mate choice evolved in tandem: 1) traits that evolved in the "display producer" to attract mates and, 2) corresponding neural mechanisms in the "display chooser" that enable them to become attracted to these display traits. Then it discusses our (in-progress) fMRI brain scanning project on human romantic attraction, what we believe is a developed form of "courtship attraction" common to avian and mammalian species as well as the primary neural mechanism underlying avian and mammalian mate choice. The paper hypothesizes that courtship attraction is associated with elevated levels of central dopamine and norepinephrine and decreased levels of central serotonin in reward pathways of the brain. It also proposes that courtship attraction is part of a triune brain system for mating, reproduction and parenting. 1)The sex drive evolved to motivate birds and mammals to court any conspecifics. 2) The attraction system evolved to enable individuals to discriminate among potential mating partners and focus courtship activities on particular individuals, thereby conserving mating time and energy. 3) The neural circuitry for attachment evolved to enable individuals to complete species-specific parental duties....

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