The purpose of this study was to investigate the trait cortical arousal level, measured by extraversion-introversion, in schizophrenics. Subjects in this study were 231 (chronic schizophrenics= 78, acute schizophrenics= 62, and normal persons= 91). All subjects were asked to respond to extraversion-introversion subtest scale in the korean EPQ(Korean Version Eysenck Personality Questionnaire). Collected data were analyzed by using the. t-test and one-way analysis of variance. Results were as follows: 1) Trait cortical arousal level of chronic schizophrenics, which was measured by extraversion-introversion subtest scale in the Korean EPQ, was statistically higher than that. of. acute schizophrenics and normals. 2) Acute schizophrenics and normals were not significantly different in the trait cortical arousal level. However, the trait cortical arousal level of chronic schizophrenics was higher than that of acute schizophrenics. Therefore, it may state that the trait cortical arousal level of schizophrenics is getting higher when schizophrenic symptoms become more chronic.
Arousal

No abstract available.
Alprazolam* ; Arousal*

Psychostimulants are a broad class of sympathomimetic drugs that include drugs of abuse, such as illegal substances, as well as therapeutic drugs, such as methylphenidate and modafinil. The common effect of psychostimulants is to improve motivation, mood, movement, energy, wakefulness, arousal, anorexia and attention. Methylphenidate and modafinil are psychostimulants used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy. They have also been found to be effective for treating certain cognitive disorders that result in secondary depression or profound apathy, obesity, cancer-related fatigue as well as in specific treatment-resistant depressions as an augmentation therapy with antidepressants. Psychostimulants are also used in an non-medical manner, such as cognitive and/or performance enhancers in healthy population. However, the most limiting adverse effect of psychostimulants is their vulnerability to psychological and physical dependence. Therefore, the abuse and misuse of stimulants, including methylphenidate and modafinil, for the purpose of neuroenhancement is an issue of concern throughout the world including Korea. Although several recent studies have reported on the cognitive and performance enhancement effects of methylphenidate and modafinil in healthy population, psychostimulants should be administered with discretion in the light of their potential adverse effects and the lacks of long-standing efficacy.
Anorexia ; Antidepressive Agents ; Apathy ; Arousal ; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity ; Depression ; Fatigue ; Korea ; Methylphenidate ; Motivation ; Narcolepsy ; Obesity ; Street Drugs ; Sympathomimetics ; Wakefulness

OBJECTIVES: As interest in the field of affective science continues to increase, research into the arousal of emotions by the use of facial stimuli, event pictures, and stimulus words is now being actively pursued. The purpose of this study was to develop a Korean Affective Word List for eliciting emotional reactions. METHODS: The preliminary selection process was more carefully divided into the primary process when the words were extracted which the author thought elicited the emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust from the Korean-Language Dictionary according to vocabulary frequency, the secondary process when the words were extracted which the Affective Words Selection Committee judged elicited only a single category of emotion. The affective words selected in the two-stage preliminary process were then presented to normal, young subjects, who were asked to allocate each word on the basis of their emotional reaction to one of the following emotional categories: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise. After the selected words caused the intended-emotional response with inter-rater agreement in more than 80%, a total of 166 words were selected except surprise. The complementary selection process was carried out following the preliminary process in order to make up for the lack of surprise words and the relative want of anger words. RESULTS: A total of 184 words were finally selected: 83 words for happiness, 36 for sadness, 24 for fear, 10 for anger, 20 for disgust, and 11 for surprise. CONCLUSION: These Korean affective words are expected to be widely used for eliciting emotions in future Korean research on emotion.
Anger ; Arousal ; Happiness ; Vocabulary

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the nature of emotional responsiveness in normal adults, we exam the emotional responses to emotional pictures in an evaluative space defined by arousal and valence. METHODS: Subjects were instructed to rate the arousal and valence that they experienced from the presentation of one of two sets of 60 emotional pictures. These two picture sets were comprised of 107 pictures: 101 selected from International Affective Pictures System and six pictures from our own collection. According to "evaluative space model", the authors set an evaluative space defined by the arousal scores as independent variable and the valence scores as dependent variable. In this evaluative space, one-hundred-and-seven pairs of coordinates representing respective emotional pictures were plotted. With regression analyses, the steepness of the regression lines on the plots with positive emotional responsiveness (n=51) and those with negative emotional responsiveness (n=56) were compared. RESULTS: In the evaluative space, the regression line of negative emotional responsiveness was significantly different from that of positive responsiveness. The slope of negative responsiviveness was significantly steeper than that of positive responsiveness. At a low arousal level, the absolute valence of a positive stimuli was larger than that of a negative picture. CONCLUSION: This finding indicates that the function of the negative affective responsiveness might be different from that of the positive responsitiveness. IAPS also seems applicable to Korean subjects.
Adult ; Arousal ; Humans

Vigilance is defined as the ability to maintain attention or alertness over prolonged periods of time. Since Mid-20th century, following the increasing man-machine communication, high level of vigilance has been demanded in many areas including driving safety, medical care and therapy, aerospace and military affairs, etc. Therefore, finding quick methods to improve the level of vigilance has become a key issue in medical study. Based on physical regulation, chemical regulation and physiological regulation, the research progress has been summarized in this paper. We, furthermore, also try to predict the future trend in this academic area and develop some tentative ideas about seeking more effective and convenient ways to improve the level of brain vigilance.
Arousal ; physiology ; Attention ; Brain ; physiology ; Coffee ; Humans ; Light ; Rest ; physiology ; Sound

OBJECTIVES: To characterize sleep of subjects with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) with insomnia compared to OSA without insomnia in terms of polysomnography (PSG) and cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC) analysis. METHODS: Subjects with OSA (apnea-hypopnea index, AHI > or =5 /h, n=200) were enrolled and divided into subjects OSA with insomnia (OSA-I) and subjects with OSA only (OSA-O). OSA-I complained of difficulty falling and/or staying asleep at an initial interview in clinic. We compared demographics including mood states, daytime sleepiness, PSG, and CPC parameters between groups, and performed correlation analyses between PSG and CPC parameters for each group. RESULTS: Female ratio was higher in OSA-I than OSA-O. OSA-I were older and slimmer than OSA-O. OSA-O were much drowsier (Epworth Sleepiness Scale 10.0 vs. 6.8). However, mood states were not different between two groups. OSA-I showed significantly longer sleep latency and lower sleep efficiency than OSA-O. Despite of higher arousal index (AI) and AHI of OSA-O, wakefulness after sleep onset was greater in OSA-I. There was no significant difference of CPC parameters between two groups after adjustment of AHI. In correlation analyses, low frequency coupling and high frequency coupling duration were associated with AHI, AI, and lowest SaO2 in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: OSA-I demonstrated more fragmented sleep architecture and disruptive sleep in spite of lower sleep-disordered breathing related distress than OSA-O. CPC analysis is unable to differentiate sleep patterns of OSA subjects with or without insomnia. It is needed to explore factors causing fragmented sleep architecture and disruptive sleep rather than respiratory disturbances in OSA subjects complaining of insomnia.
Arousal ; Demography ; Female ; Humans ; Polysomnography* ; Sleep Apnea Syndromes ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive* ; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders ; Wakefulness

OBJECTIVE: Sleep problems are a prominent feature in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and about 25-43% of ADHD patients were reported to have sleep problems including higher level of nocturnal activity, longer sleep latency, lower sleep efficiency, more frequent night awakenings and shorter total sleep time. However, the association between sleep and ADHD is poorly understood and their relationships to sleep structure are not consistent across studies. The aims of our study were to ascertain the nocturnal sleep disturbances in patients with ADHD by objective measure, polysomnography. METHODS: The subjects were 20 patients with ADHD and 21 control children (6-12 years). We tested them by polysomnography to get sleep variables and compare sleep disturbances. In addition, we tested ADHD group by neurocognitive function test and assessed the correlation between sleep variables and neurocognitive functions in ADHD group. RESULTS: In sleep variables by polysomnography, the total time in bed (509.73+/-24.56 min vs. 490.51+/-20.71 min, p=0.01), sleep latency (21.30+/-19.33 min vs. 10.72+/-7.26 min, p=0.031) and limb movement arousal (6.56+/-2.19 /hr vs. 5.98+/-1.38 /hr, p=0.043) were significantly increased in patients with ADHD compared with controls. And the slow wave sleep (24.59+/-4.73% vs. 28.45+/-5.63%, p=0.023) were significantly decreased in patients with ADHD compared with controls. There were no significant differences in sleep period time and sleep efficiency test. CONCLUSION: The patients with ADHD had more sleep problems and results of this study suggested that they have significantly increased the total time in bed, sleep latency and Limb movement arousal. And in the patients with ADHD, some sleep variables indicated poor sleep quality. However, further studies should repeatedly suggest consistent results about sleep problems in children with ADHD.
Arousal ; Child* ; Extremities ; Humans ; Polysomnography*

Sexual arousal is an important factor for the success of sexual behavior, and regulated by the central nervous system, its underlying mechanism is very complicated. Androgen is the most important endocrine hormone in men, which is deeply involved in the whole process of male sexual response, but how it regulates male sexual arousal has not been fully clarified and remains one of the hotspots in current andrological research. Therefore, this paper presents an overview of the advances in the studies of the related role and mechanism of androgen in male sexual arousal. In the central nervous system, androgen regulates the release of dopamine neurotransmitters by binding androgen receptors or metabolizing neurosteroids, thus activating the brain reward system. Besides, androgen regulates the neuronal plasticity and spinous process formation in the neural circuit of sexual arousal to ensure successful activation and conduction of the neural circuit. However, the specific regulating mechanism of sexual arousal remains to be further explored.
Androgens ; Humans ; Male ; Sexual Arousal

PURPOSE: Pediatric sedation is an important factor for obtaining the images of good quality. We performed this study to analyze the efficacy of our sedation protocol using chloral hydrate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected prospectively 151 sedation records of children(1 day-15 years old), who were sedated with chloral hydrate for MR(n=112) or CT(n=39) studies. We initially administered 50mg/Kg orally(n=94) or rectally(n=57) 30 minutes before the scheduled examinations, and then administered additionali dose (second dose :25-35mg/Kg, third dose:10-15mg/Kg) to patients whom initial dose failed to sedate. RESULTS: Satisfactory sedation was achieved by initial administration in 109 patients(72%) without si difference between oral(per oral: P.O.) and rectal(per rectal: P.R.) administration. Second dose was required in 28% and third dose in 5%. MR and CT examinations required second dose in 36(32%) and 6 patients(15%), respectively. P.O. -patients vomited in 5%. P.R. -patients defecated in 22% after initial administration. There were no other serious complications. Time interval from the drug administration to the start of examinations was 33 minutes in initial-dose-group and 64 minutes in additional-dose-group. Two patients could not complete MR examination due to early arousal. Prolonged sedation, requiring more than 30 minutes for alertness after MR and CT examinations, was encountered in twenty(18%) and two patients(5%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Our protocol using chloral hydrate(P.O. or P.R.) is thought to be an effective and safe method for pediatric sedation for MR or CT imaging.
Arousal ; Child* ; Chloral Hydrate* ; Humans ; Prospective Studies