您选择的条件: Sun, Yuqi
  • Females Meditate and Males Play Games: Gender Differences in the Benefits of Meditation Training

    分类: 心理学 >> 应用心理学 提交时间: 2019-05-05

    摘要: Although extensive research has shown the benefits of meditation on attention, evidence for the benefits of short-term meditation training remains scarce. In addition, prior studies on these benefits have included considerably more females than males, potentially concealing gender differences in attention training effects. Here we present a longitudinal study including equal-sample male and female participants to explore potential gender differences in short-term meditation training effects on an attentional blink (AB) task. One hundred and sixty-five college students were randomly divided into three groups: meditation training, video game training and control (no training). Participants were asked to complete the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and to rate their level of emotional state and time spent on video game playing per day. Participants then completed a 4-day, 20-min training including meditation training, video game training, or a waiting period (control). After training, participants rated their arousal state and emotional state, and performed the AB task. Results showed that participants who completed either short-term meditation training or video game training showed significant improvement on AB performance. Interestingly, meditation training was more effective in females, while video game training was more effective in males. Meditation training, but not video game training, decreased anxiety scores. The current results indicate that gender plays an important role in the benefits of attention training. It is essential that clinicians take gender into consideration when implementing meditation based therapy.

  • Impaired spinal glucocorticoid receptor signaling contributes to the attenuating effect of depression on mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia in rats with neuropathic pain

    分类: 生物学 >> 神经生物学 提交时间: 2017-07-24

    摘要: Although depression-induced altered pain perception has been described in several laboratory and clinical studies, its neurobiological mechanism in the central nervous system, particularly in the spinal dorsal horn remains unclear. In this study, we therefore aimed to clarify whether nociceptive sensitivity of neuropathic pain is altered in the olfactory bulbectomy (OB) model of depression and whether glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which is involved in the etio-pathologic mechanisms of both major depression and neuropathic pain, contributes to these processes in the spinal dorsal horn of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The results showed that mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL) were attenuated in OB-SNL rats with decreased spinal GR expression and nuclear translocation, while NOB (non-olfactory bulbectomy)-SNL rats showed an increased spinal GR nuclear translocation. Decreased GR nuclear translocation with normal mechanical nociception and hypoalgesia of thermal nociception were observed in OB-Sham rats, too. Intrathecal injection of GR agonist dexamethasone (4 µg / rat / day for 1 week) eliminated the attenuating effect of depression on the nociceptive hypersensitivity in OB-SNL rats and aggravated neuropathic pain in NOB-SNL rats, associating with the up-regulation of BDNF, TrkB and NR2B expression in the spinal dorsal horn. The present study shows that depression attenuates the mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of neuropathic pain and suggests that altered spinal GR-BDNF-TrkB signaling may be one of the reasons for depression-induced hypoalgesia.

  • Impaired spinal glucocorticoid receptor signaling contributes to the attenuating effect of depression on mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia in rats with neuropathic pain

    分类: 生物学 >> 神经生物学 提交时间: 2017-03-31

    摘要: Although depression-induced altered pain perception has been described in several laboratory and clinical studies, its neurobiological mechanism in the central nervous system, particularly in the spinal dorsal horn remains unclear. In this study, we therefore aimed to clarify whether nociceptive sensitivity of neuropathic pain is altered in the olfactory bulbectomy (OB) model of depression and whether glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which is involved in the etio-pathologic mechanisms of both major depression and neuropathic pain, contributes to these processes in the spinal dorsal horn of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The results showed that mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL) were attenuated in OB-SNL rats with decreased spinal GR expression and nuclear translocation, while NOB (non-olfactory bulbectomy)-SNL rats showed an increased spinal GR nuclear translocation. Decreased GR nuclear translocation with normal mechanical nociception and hypoalgesia of thermal nociception were observed in OB-Sham rats, too. Intrathecal injection of GR agonist dexamethasone (4 µg / rat / day for 1 week) eliminated the attenuating effect of depression on the nociceptive hypersensitivity in OB-SNL rats and aggravated neuropathic pain in NOB-SNL rats, associating with the up-regulation of BDNF, TrkB and NR2B expression in the spinal dorsal horn. The present study shows that depression attenuates the mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of neuropathic pain and suggests that altered spinal GR-BDNF-TrkB signaling may be one of the reasons for depression-induced hypoalgesia.