In manned deep-space exploration, extremely isolated environments may adversely affect the mood and cognition of astronauts. Horticultural plants and activities have been proven to be effective in improving their physical, psychological, and cognitive states. To assess the effects of applying horticultural plants and activities in isolated environments, this study investigated the influence of viewing strawberry plants on the mood of people in a laboratory experiment as indicated by heart rate, salivary cortisol, and psychological scales. The results showed that heart rate and salivary cortisol were significantly decreased after viewing strawberry plants for 15 min. "Tension" and "confusion" scored using the Profile of Mood States negative mood subscales, and anxiety levels measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory scale were also significantly reduced. This study further explored the impact of viewing strawberry plants on cognition. A notable reduction of the subjects' reaction time after 15-min plant viewing was observed. Based on these findings, a long-duration isolated experiment in a bioregenerative life support system-"Lunar Palace I"-was conducted. A similar trend was obtained that crew members' mood states were improved by viewing the strawberry plants, but no significant change was observed. This study provided some experimental evidence for the benefits of interacting with strawberry plants in isolated environments.
Adult ; Affect ; Cognition ; Emotions ; Environment ; Female ; Fragaria ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Hydrocortisone/analysis* ; Male ; Saliva/chemistry*

BACKGROUNDIn patients with depression, as well as in patients with schizophrenia, both mood and working memory performance are often impaired. Both issues can only be addressed and improved with medication to some extent.

OBJECTIVEThis study investigates the mood and the working memory performance in patients with depression or schizophrenia and whether acupuncture can improve these.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONSA pragmatic clinical trial design was used. The study was conducted in a psychiatric clinic. Fifty patients with depression and 50 with schizophrenia were randomly divided into an experimental and a waiting-list group. Additionally, 25 healthy control participants were included. Twelve weeks of individualized acupuncture treatment was used as the clinical intervention.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESAll patients were tested before (T1) and after (T2) acupuncture treatment on a mood scale (Beck Depression Inventory-II, BDI-II), a simple working memory task (digit span), and a complex working memory task (letter-number sequencing); the healthy controls were tested at T1 only.

RESULTSPatients with depression scored worse than the others on the BDI-II, and patients with schizophrenia scored worse than the healthy controls. On the digit span, patients with schizophrenia did not differ from healthy controls whereas they scored worse of all on the letter-number sequencing. With respect to the acupuncture findings, first, the present study showed that the use of acupuncture to treat patients with schizophrenia was both practical and safe. Moreover, acupuncture had a positive effect on the BDI-II for the depression group, but acupuncture had no effect on the digit span and on the letter-number sequencing performance for the two clinical groups.

CONCLUSIONThe clinical improvement in patients with depression after acupuncture treatment was not accompanied by any significant change in a simple working memory task or in a more complex working memory task; the same was true for the patients with schizophrenia.

TRIAL REGISTRATIONDutch Trial Register NTR3132.

Acupuncture Therapy ; Adult ; Affect ; Depression ; therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Memory, Short-Term ; Middle Aged ; Schizophrenia ; therapy

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Studies have indicated that university students majoring in nutrition and dietetics or sport sciences may have more obsessions associated with eating attitudes and body shape perception compared to other disciplines i.e. social sciences. Therefore, this study aimed to assess and compare the risk of eating disorders and body shape perception. MATERIALS/METHODS: Data was collected from 773 undergraduate students at the Departments of Nutrition and Dietetics (NDD) (n = 254), Physical Education and Sports (PESD) (n = 263), and Social Sciences (SOC) (n = 256).A socio-demographic and personal information questionnaire, Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40), Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ-34), Perceived Figure Rating Scale (FRS) were applied; and body weights and heights were measured. RESULTS: Mean EAT-40 scores showed that, both male and female students of PESD had the highest scores (17.4 +/- 11.6) compared with NDD (14.3 +/- 8.3) and SOC (13.0 +/- 6.2) (P < 0.05). According to EAT-40 classification, high risk in abnormal eating behavior was more in PESD (10.7%) compared to NDD (2.9%) and SOC (0.4%) students (P < 0.05). Students of PESD, who skipped meal, had higher tendency to the risk of eating disorders (P < 0.05). In parallel, body shape perception was found to be marked with higher scores in NDD (72.0 +/- 28.7) and PESD (71.5 +/- 32.8) compared with SOC (64.2 +/- 27.5) students (P < 0.05). Considering BSQ-34 classification, high concern (moderate and marked) for body shape were more in PESD (7.4 %) compared to NDD (5.2%) and SOC (1.9%) students (P < 0.05). The body size judgement via obtained by the FRS scale were generally correlated with BMI. The Body Mass Index levels were in normal range (Mean BMI: 21.9 +/- 2.8 kg/m2) and generally consistent with FRS data. CONCLUSIONS: Tendency to the abnormal eating behavior and substantial body shape perception were higher in PESD students who have more concern on body shape and were not well-educated about nutrition. In conclusion, substantial concern on physical appearance might affect eating behavior disorders in PESD students.
Affect ; Body Image ; Body Mass Index ; Body Size ; Body Weight ; Classification ; Dietetics ; Eating ; Feeding and Eating Disorders* ; Feeding Behavior ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Meals ; Mental Disorders ; Obsessive Behavior ; Physical Education and Training ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Reference Values ; Social Sciences ; Sports*

The validity and reasonableness of emotional data are the key issues in the cognitive affective computing research. Effects of the emotion recognition are decided by the quality of selected data directly. Therefore, it is an important part of affective computing research to build affective computing database with good performance, so that it is the hot spot of research in this field. In this paper, the performance of two classical cognitive affective computing databases, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) cognitive affective computing database and Germany Augsburg University emotion recognition database were compared, their data structure and data types were compared respectively, and emotional recognition effect based on the data were studied comparatively. The results indicated that the analysis based on the physical parameters could get the effective emotional recognition, and would be a feasible method of pressure emotional evaluation. Because of the lack of stress emotional evaluation data based on the physiological parameters domestically, there is not a public stress emotional database. We hereby built a dataset for the stress evaluation towards the high stress group in colleges, candidates of postgraduates of Ph. D and master as the subjects. We then acquired their physiological parameters, and performed the pressure analysis based on this database. The results indicated that this dataset had a certain reference value for the stress evaluation, and we hope this research can provide a reference and support for emotion evaluation and analysis.
Affect ; Computing Methodologies ; Databases, Factual ; Emotions ; Humans ; Recognition (Psychology) ; Stress, Psychological

Although a great number of studies have investigated the changes of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in patients with mental disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia etc, little is known how stable the changes are, and whether temporal sad or happy mood can modulate the intrinsic rsFC. In our experiments, happy and sad video clips were used to induce temporally happy and sad mood states in 20 healthy young adults. We collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while participants were watching happy or sad video clips, which were administrated in two consecutive days. Seed-based functional connectivity analyses were conducted using the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and amygdala as seeds to investigate neural network related to executive function, attention, and emotion. We also investigated the association of the rsFC changes with emotional arousability level to understand individual differences. There is significantly stronger functional connectivity between the left DLPFC and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) under sad mood than that under happy mood. The increased connectivity strength was positively correlated with subjects' emotional arousability. The increased positive correlation between the left DLPFC and PCC under sad relative to happy mood might reflect an increased processing of negative emotion-relevant stimuli. The easier one was induced by strong negative emotion (higher emotional arousability), the greater the left DLPFC-PCC connectivity was indicated, the greater the instability of the intrinsic rsFC was shown.
Adult ; Affect ; Amygdala ; physiology ; Attention ; Gyrus Cinguli ; physiology ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Prefrontal Cortex ; physiology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo explore the effect of occupational stress and related factors to the mood of speed train drivers.

METHODSBy using cluster sampling method, a cross-sectional study was conducted in 1 352 speed train drivers (including 291 passenger train drivers, 640 freight trains drivers, 342 passenger shunting train drivers, and 79 High Speed Rail drivers) from a Railway Bureau depot. The survey included mood, individual factors, occupational stress factors, personality factors and mitigating factors. The mood status was evaluated by mood scale, and the occupational stress factors, personality factors and mitigating factors were measured by the revised effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model questionnaires and occupational stress measurement scale.

RESULTSCorrelation analysis showed that the mood score was negative correlated with age(r = -0.07, P = 0.01), working age (r = -0.07, P = 0.01), ERI(r = -0.53, P < 0.01), extrinsic effort(r = -0.41, P < 0.01), intrinsic effort(r = -0.39, P < 0.01), group conflict(r = -0.12, P < 0.01), role conflict(r = -0.16, P < 0.01), role ambiguity(r = -0.08, P < 0.01), and social support(r = -0.36, P < 0.01), and was positive correlated with rewards(r = 0.42, P < 0.01), self-esteem(r = 0.20, P < 0.01), and coping strategy(r = 0.12, P < 0.01). The mood scores of passenger train drivers, passenger shunting train drivers, freight train drivers and High Speed Rail drivers were 4.88 ± 2.78, 4.72 ± 2.50, 4.28 ± 2.57 and 4.12 ± 3.02, respectively, which the differences had statistical significance(F = 4.23, P = 0.01), unrelated to age and working age. The descending sort of mood corrected mean was passenger train drivers(4.87), passenger shunting train drivers (4.69), freight train drivers (4.29) , and High Speed Rail drivers (4.17). Stepwise regression analysis indicated that ERI, social support, rewards, intrinsic effort, self-esteem, extrinsic effort and coping strategy were the predictors, which could explain the 74.36% of total variance.

CONCLUSIONMost occupational stress factors may cause negative mood, but rewards, self-esteem, social support and coping strategy were the protection factors of mood; different train drivers had different mood status, High Speed Rail drivers were the worst, and passenger train drivers were the best.

Adaptation, Psychological ; Adult ; Affect ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Railroads ; Regression Analysis ; Reward ; Self Concept ; Social Support ; Stress, Psychological ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of vitamin-mineral supplement on young males with physical overtraining.

METHODSTwo hundred and forty male Chinese field artillery personnel who undertook large scale and endurance military training and were on ordinary Chinese diet were randomized to receive a multivitamin/multimineral supplement or a placebo for 1 week. After a 1-week wash-out period, a cross-over with 1 week course of a placebo or multivitamin/multimineral supplement was conducted. Blood and urine samples were analyzed for adrenal, gonadal and thyroid hormones. In addition, cellular immune parameters (CD3+, CD3+CD4+, CD3+CD8+, CD4/CD8, CD3-CD56+, CD3-CD19+) were examined and psychological tests were performed before and after the training program and nutrition intervention.

RESULTSAfter a large scale and endurance military training, the participants showed significantly increased thyroid function, decreased adrenal cortex, testosterone and immunological function, and significantly increased somatization, anger and tension. Compared to placebo, multivitamin/ multimineral intervention showed significant effects on functional recovery of the pituitary - adrenal axis, pituitary-gonadal axis, pituitary- thyroid axis and immune system as well as psychological parameters.

CONCLUSIONHigh-intensity military operations have significant impacts on the psychology, physical ability and neuroendocrine-immune system in young males. Appropriate supplementation of multivitamin/multimineral can facilitate the recovery of the psychology, physical ability and neuroendocrine-immune system in young males who take ordinary Chinese diet.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Affect ; drug effects ; CD4-CD8 Ratio ; Dietary Supplements ; Double-Blind Method ; Emotions ; drug effects ; Exercise ; Hormones ; blood ; Humans ; Killer Cells, Natural ; cytology ; Leukocyte Count ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Minerals ; administration & dosage ; Psychological Tests ; Stress, Psychological ; prevention & control ; Vitamins ; administration & dosage ; Young Adult

Perception, affection and consciousness are basic psychological functions of human being. Affection is the subjective reflection of different kinds of objects. The foundation of human being's thinking is constituted by the three basic functions. Affective computing is an effective tool of revealing the affectiveness of human being in order to understand the world. Our research of affective computing focused on the relation, the generation and the influent factors among different affections. In this paper, the affective mechanism, the basic theory of affective computing, is studied, the method of acquiring and recognition of affective information is discussed, and the application of affective computing is summarized as well, in order to attract more researchers into this working area.
Affect ; Computing Methodologies ; Emotions ; Humans ; Mental Processes

Diagnostic errors can result in tangible harm to patients. Despite our advances in medicine, the mental processes required to make a diagnosis exhibits shortcomings, causing diagnostic errors. Cognitive factors are found to be an important cause of diagnostic errors. With new understanding from psychology and social sciences, clinical medicine is now beginning to appreciate that our clinical reasoning can take the form of analytical reasoning or heuristics. Different factors like cognitive biases and affective influences can also impel unwary clinicians to make diagnostic errors. Various strategies have been proposed to reduce the effect of cognitive biases and affective influences when clinicians make diagnoses; however evidence for the efficacy of these methods is still sparse. This paper aims to introduce the reader to the cognitive aspect of diagnostic errors, in the hope that clinicians can use this knowledge to improve diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes.
Affect ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Cognition ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diagnostic Errors ; psychology ; Humans ; Physicians ; psychology ; Prejudice ; Thinking

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of music therapy on depressive mood and anxiety in post-stroke patients and evaluate satisfaction levels of patients and caregivers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighteen post-stroke patients, within six months of onset and mini mental status examination score of over 20, participated in this study. Patients were divided into music and control groups. The experimental group participated in the music therapy program for four weeks. Psychological status was evaluated with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) before and after music therapy. Satisfaction with music therapy was evaluated by a questionnaire. RESULTS: BAI and BDI scores showed a greater decrease in the music group than the control group after music therapy, but only the decrease of BDI scores were statistically significant (p=0.048). Music therapy satisfaction in patients and caregivers was affirmative. CONCLUSION: Music therapy has a positive effect on mood in post-stroke patients and may be beneficial for mood improvement with stroke. These results are encouraging, but further studies are needed in this field.
Adult ; Affect/*physiology ; Anxiety/therapy ; Depression/therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Music Therapy ; Stroke/*psychology ; Treatment Outcome