Astrocytic calcium waves:unveiling their roles in sleep and arousal modulation

Neuron-astrocyte interactions are vital for the brain’s connectome.Understanding astrocyte activities is crucial for comprehending the complex neural network,particularly the population-level functions of neurons in different cortical states and associated behaviors in mammals.Studies on animal sleep and wakefulness have revealed distinct cortical synchrony patterns between neurons.Astrocytes,outnumbering neurons by nearly fivefold,support and regulate neuronal and synaptic function.Recent research on astrocyte activation during cortical state transitions has emphasized the influence of norepinephrine as a neurotransmitter and calcium waves as key components of ion channel signaling.This summary focuses on a few recent studies investigating astrocyte-neuron interactions in mouse models during sleep,wakefulness,and arousal levels,exploring the involvement of noradrenaline signaling,ion channels,and glutamatergic signaling in different cortical states.These findings highlight the significant impact of astrocytes on large-scale neuronal networks,influencing brain activity and responsiveness.Targeting astrocytic signaling pathways shows promise for treating sleep disorders and arousal dysregulation.More research is needed to understand astrocytic calcium signaling in different brain regions and its implications for dysregulated brain states,requiring future human studies to comprehensively investigate neuron-astrocyte interactions and pave the way for therapeutic interventions in sleep-and arousal-related disorders.

USE OF PULSE TRANSIT TIME AS A MEASURE OF AUTONOMIC AROUSALS IN PATIENTS WITH OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA

Objective To evaluate the feasibility of pulse transit time (PTT) arousals as an index of sleep fragmentation in patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Methods Individuals referred for evaluation of possible OSAHS underwent overnight polysomnography (PSG). Three conventional indices of sleep fragmentation [electroencephalography (EEG) arousals, apnea/hypopnea index (AHI), oxygen desaturation index (ODI)], PTT arousals, and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) were compared. Results PTT arousals were positively correlated with EEG arousals (r= 0.746, P<0.001), AHI (r= 0.786, P<0.001), and ODI (r= 0.665, P<0.001), respectively. But, both PTT arousals and EEG arousals had no correlation with ESS (r= 0.432, P=0.201; r= 0.196, P=0.591, respectively). Conclusion PTT arousals are correlated well with other standard measures estimating severity of OSAHS and potentially a non-invasive marker with which to measure the sleep fragmentation in patients with OSAHS.

The Effect of Food Images on Mood and Arousal Depends on Dietary Histories and the Fat and Sugar Content of Foods Depicted

Background: While brain imaging studies show that reward regions in the human brain that regulate reward-guided behavior and integrate sensory modalities of smell, taste, and texture respond preferentially to high calorie foods, few studies account for dietary histories or account for recent behavioral evidence showing preferential responding for fruits (a low calorie food that tastes sweet). To address these concerns, the present study tested the hypothesis that images of high/low fat and sugar foods, even sugary foods that are low calorie (i.e., fruits), will enhance emotional responsiveness and that these changes may be related to dietary histories with fat and sugar intake. Method: Participants were shown 4 sets of 15 food images with each food image automatically timed every 9 s to transition to a new food image;participant pre-post mood and arousal was measured. The 4 sets of food images were high fat-high sugar (HFHS;desserts), high fat-low sugar (HFLS;fried foods), low fat-high sugar (LFHS;fruits), or low fat-low sugar (LFLS;vegetables) foods. To account for dietary histories, participants also completed estimated daily intake scales (EDIS) for sugar and fat. Results: Mood and arousal significantly increased in all groups, except Group LFLS, and even in a group that was low calorie but shown foods that taste sweet, i.e., Group LFHS. Interestingly, changes in arousal, but not mood, were dependent on participant histories with sugar and fat intake. Conclusion: Changes in emotional responsiveness to food images were nutrient-specific, which can be a more detailed level of analysis for assessing responsiveness to food images. Also, participant histories with sugar and fat should be taken into account as these histories can explain the changes in arousal observed here.

Electroencephalographic Correlates of Sexual Arousal Induced by Sexually-Explicit Reading in Human Females

This study explored the cortical functionality in young women while reading a sexually-explicit text. Electroencephalographic activity (EEG) was recorded in heterosexual women while reading either a sexually-explicit text or one with neutral content. Absolute power (AP) and the degree of EEG synchronization among the prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortices were analyzed for the different EEG bands. To evaluate sexual arousal, valence and general activation, Likert-type and Manikin scales were applied. Subjects scored the sexually-explicit text as more pleasurable, and reported greater general activation and sexual arousal than while reading the neutral one. During reading of the sexually-explicit text only, they showed a higher AP in the beta and gamma bands in temporal areas in both hemispheres, and in the theta band in parietal ones, with a lower degree of EEG synchronization between prefronto-temporal areas in the fast bands. Results show that both hemispheres were activated in these sexually-aroused women. The low bilateral synchronization between prefrontal and temporal regions indicates the independent functionality of these cortices, which could be a requirement for inducing and maintaining sexual arousal during reading of sexually-explicit texts in women. These data should broaden our knowledge of the cortical mechanisms that underlie sexual arousal in women.

Characteristics of Electroencephalogram Arousals of Sleep- disordered Breathing Children at Different Sleep Stages

Sleep-disordered breathing （SDB） is the most common sleep- related disorder, and it can seriously affect sleep conditions, growth, and neurocognitive function. Recent research even demonstrates that hypertensive patients with SDB are at an increased risk of developing resistant hypertension.

Modulating arousal to overcome gait impairments in Parkinson’s disease:how the noradrenergic system may act as a double-edged sword

In stressful or anxiety-provoking situations,most people with Parkinson’s disease(PD)experience a general worsening of motor symptoms,including their gait impairments.However,a proportion of patients actually report benefits from experiencing-or even purposely inducing-stressful or high-arousal situations.Using data from a large-scale international survey study among 4324 people with PD and gait impairments within the online Fox Insight(USA)and ParkinsonNEXT(NL)cohorts,we demonstrate that individuals with PD deploy an array of mental state alteration strategies to cope with their gait impairment.Crucially,these strategies differ along an axis of arousal-some act to heighten,whereas others diminish,overall sympathetic tone.Together,our observations suggest that arousal may act as a double-edged sword for gait control in PD.We propose a theoretical,neurobiological framework to explain why heightened arousal can have detrimental effects on the occurrence and severity of gait impairments in some individuals,while alleviating them in others.Specifically,we postulate that this seemingly contradictory phenomenon is explained by the inherent features of the ascending arousal system:namely,that arousal is related to task performance by an inverted u-shaped curve(the so-called Yerkes and Dodson relationship).We propose that the noradrenergic locus coeruleus plays an important role in modulating PD symptom severity and expression,by regulating arousal and by mediating network-level functional integration across the brain.The ability of the locus coeruleus to facilitate dynamic‘cross-talk’between distinct,otherwise largely segregated brain regions may facilitate the necessary cerebral compensation for gait impairments in PD.In the presence of suboptimal arousal,compensatory networks may be too segregated to allow for adequate compensation.Conversely,with supraoptimal arousal,increased cross-talk between competing inputs of these complementary networks may emerge and become dysfunctional.Because the locus coeruleus degenerates with disease progression,finetuning of this delicate balance becomes increasingly difficult,heightening the need for mental strategies to self-modulate arousal and facilitate shifting from a sub-or supraoptimal state of arousal to improve gait performance.Recognition of this underlying mechanism emphasises the importance of PD-specific rehabilitation strategies to alleviate gait disability.

Brain arousal dysfunction induced by severe craniocerebral trauma treated with acupuncture

Objective To observe the early rehabilitation effects of acupuncture on brain arousal in patients with severe craniocerebral injury. Methods One hundred and two patients with severe craniocerebral injury were randomly divided into an acupuncture group and an electrical stimulation （ES） group with 51 cases in each group. In addition to conventional treatment and nursing in neurosurgery, acupuncture at Shuigou （水沟 GV 26）, Neiguan （内关PC 6） and Sanyingjiao （三阴交 SP 6）, as the main aeupoints, were applied for the cases in acupuncture group, and functional electrical stimulation （FES） was applied at selected muscles in the affected upper limb for the cases in ES group. The awaken rate, time for arousal and clinical therapeutic effects were compared between the two groups after 30 days of treatments. Results The awaken rate was 82.4%（42/51） in acupuncture group, which was significantly higher than 56.9%（29/51） in ES group （P〈0.01）, and the arousal time was significantly shorter and therapeutic effects were better in acupuncture group than those in ES group （both P〈0.01）. Conclusion On the basis of conventional treatment, early application of acupuncture provides better effects on restoration of arousal function of the brain in patients with severe craniocerebral injury than functional electrical stimulation.

Provoking Buying Behaviors Amid Crises:Unfolding the Underlying Mechanisms of Psychological Impairments

Crises in the past have caused devastating,long-lasting impacts on the global economy.The after-effects always bring some dynamic and rigorous challenges for businesses and governments.Such challenges have always been a point of discussion for scholars.The recent COVID-19 pandemic emaciated the global economy,leaving everyone mired in uncertainty,fear,and psychological impairments.One of the headwind features utilized by consumers during pandemic was panic buying(PB),which must be explored in various contexts for policymakers and practitioners.To address this gap,this study deployed a moderated mediation mechanism,integrating the health belief model(HBM)and competitive arousal theory(CAT)to excavate the notions underlying PB with the intrusion of evolved real-time psychological disorders:intolerance of uncertainty(IU)and cyberchondria(CYC).The study was conducted as a natural experiment in a South Asian developing economy using online surveys.It found that health beliefs—perceived severity(PSV)and perceived susceptibility(PSC)—positively impact perceived arousal(PA),which causes PB,and that PA has a sturdy mediator role.Moreover,in the relationship between health beliefs and arousal,the different psychological disorders were found to have significant moderating roles The study findings can help mitigate risk uncertainties and panic situations and thus contribute to consumers’wellbeing.

Effect of arousal methods for 175 cases of prolonged coma after severe traumatic brain injury and its related factors

Objective: To determine the effect of arousal methods for prolonged coma of 175 patients with severe traumatic brain injury and related factors.Methods: There were 175 cases with persistent coma longer than 1 month after severe traumatic brain injury. Coma lasted 1-12 months. Arousal procedures included hyperbaric oxygen, physical therapy and arousal drugs. Results: In the 175 prolonged coma patients 110 got recovery of consciousness; in 118 cases with coma of 1-3 months, 86 cases recovered consciousness ((72.9)%); in 42 cases with coma of 4-6 months, 20 cases recovered consciousness ((47.6)); and in 15 cases with coma of longer than 6 months, only 4 cases recovered consciousness ((26.7)%). The recovery of consciousness depended on patient’s primary brain stem damage, cerebral hernia, GCS score, and age. Conclusions: Application of appropriate arousal procedures improves recovery of consciousness in patients with prolonged coma.

A qualitative and quantitative study of color emotion using valence-arousal

This paper describes qualitative and quantita- tive analysis of color emotion dimension expression using a standard device-independent colorimetric system. To collect color emotion data, 20 subjects are required to report their emotion responses, using a valence-arousal emotion model, to 52 color samples that are chosen from CIELAB Lch color spaces. Qualitative analysis, including analysis of variance （ANOVA）, Pearson＇s correlation and Spearman＇s rank cor- relation, shows that significant differences exist between re- sponses to achromatic and chromatic stimuli, but there are no significant differences between chromatic samples. There is a positive linear relationship between lightness/chroma and valence-arousal dimensions. Subsequently, several clas- sic predictors are used to quantitatively predict emotion in- duced by color attributes. Furthermore, several explicit color emotion models are developed by using multiple linear re- gression with stepwise and pace regression. Experimental results show that chroma and lightness have stronger effects on emotions than hue, which is consistent with our qualitative results and other psychological studies. Arousal has greater predictive value than valence.

Humans identify negative （but not positive） arousal in silver fox vocalizations： implications for the adaptive value of interspecific eavesdropping

The ability to identify emotional arousal in heterospecific vocalizations may facilitate behaviors that increase survival opportunities. Crucially, this ability may orient inter-species interactions, par- ticularly between humans and other species. Research shows that humans identify emotional arousal in vocalizations across multiple species, such as cats, dogs, and piglets. However, no previ- ous study has addressed humans＂ ability to identify emotional arousal in silver foxes. Here, we adopted low- and high-arousal calls emitted by three strains of silver fox--Tame, Aggressive, and Unselected--in response to human approach. Tame and Aggressive foxes are genetically selected for friendly and attacking behaviors toward humans, respectively. Unselected foxes show aggres- sive and fearful behaviors toward humans. These three strains show similar levels of emotional arousal, but different levels of emotional valence in relation to humans. This emotional information is reflected in the acoustic features of the calls. Our data suggest that humans can identify high- arousal calls of Aggressive and Unselected foxes, but not of Tame foxes. Further analyses revealed that, although within each strain different acoustic parameters affect human accuracy in identifying high-arousal calls, spectral center of gravity, harmonic-to-noise ratio, and F0 best predict humans＇ ability to discriminate high-arousal calls across all strains. Furthermore, we identified in spectral center of gravity and F0 the best predictors for humans＇ absolute ratings of arousal in each call. Implications for research on the adaptive value of inter-specific eavesdropping are discussed.

Affective rating ranking based on face images in arousal-valence dimensional space

In dimensional affect recognition, the machine learning methods, which are used to model and predict affect, are mostly classification and regression. However, the annotation in the dimensional affect space usually takes the form of a continuous real value which has an ordinal property. The aforementioned methods do not focus on taking advantage of this important information. Therefore, we propose an affective rating ranking framework for affect recognition based on face images in the valence and arousal dimensional space. Our approach can appropriately use the ordinal information among affective ratings which are generated by discretizing continuous annotations.Specifically, we first train a series of basic cost-sensitive binary classifiers, each of which uses all samples relabeled according to the comparison results between corresponding ratings and a given rank of a binary classifier. We obtain the final affective ratings by aggregating the outputs of binary classifiers. By comparing the experimental results with the baseline and deep learning based classification and regression methods on the benchmarking database of the AVEC 2015 Challenge and the selected subset of SEMAINE database, we find that our ordinal ranking method is effective in both arousal and valence dimensions.

Gazing through the bubble:an experimental investigation into financial risk‑taking using eye‑tracking

Eye tracking can facilitate understanding irrational decision-making in contexts such as financial risk-taking.For this purpose,we develop an experimental framework in which participants trade a risky asset in a simulated bubble market to maximize individual returns while their eye movements are recorded.Returns are sensitive to eye movement dynamics,depending on the presented visual stimuli.Using eye-tracking data,we investigated the effects of arousal,attention,and disengagement on individual payoffs using linear and nonlinear approaches.By estimating a nonlinear model using attention as a threshold variable,our results suggest that arousal positively influences trading returns,but its effect becomes smaller when attention exceeds a certain threshold,whereas disengagement has a higher negative impact on reduced attention levels and becomes almost irrelevant when attention increases.Hence,we provide a neurobehavioral metric as a function of attention that predicts financial gains in boomand-bust scenarios.This study serves as a proof-of-concept for developing future psychometric measures to enhance decision-making.

Heart Rate Variability as an Indicator of Stress in Students’ Athletes

Introduction: The wellbeing of student’s athletes has a paramount importance, a prolonged period of cognitive and physical performance that characterizes the life of student’s athletes often leads to fatigue, and a psychobiological state that increases the risk of injury and accidents. The use of Heart rate variability (HRV) has become increasingly popular as a non-invasive methodology that provides an indirect insight into the autonomic nervous system. HRV can be utilized as a diagnostic tool in detection of autonomic nervous system impairment and sympatho-vagal imbalance. HRV technology is employed to monitor the internal response of athletes to workload and identify athletes’s psychophysical stress to predict and therefore prevent injuries. Objective: The objective of the investigation is to establish whether the use of Polar H10 sensor heart rate monitors worn by athletes in a sitting position (inclination 60 degrees) during periods characterized by stress can provide a valid and non-invasive method to assess the psychophysiological state during sports competition and school exams. Method and Statistics: In the study, the HRV of 12 basketball students athletes and 4 students non-athletes was analyzed as a control group. The autonomic nervous system activity was assessed based on heart variability parameters (HRV): SDNN, rMSSD, LF, HF, and LF/HF. The measurements were made after establishing the baseline at rest, during the training phase (CT), competition phase (CC) and during the acute phase of stressors due to school exams coinciding with the competitive season (CC + E). Results: Compared to the respective values prior to the stress of the competitions and exams, a significant decrease in HRV indices was found: SDNN (P Conclusions: The analysis and examination of the data on the sample of the student population also showed a statistically significant correlation between decreased cardiac variability and injuries or indisposition to physical exertion.

Somnambulism: Varenicline-Induced Sleep Driving

Background: Varenicline, which is derived from the cytisine compound, is used to assess in smoking cessation. Sleep driving (SD) is often classified as a variant of somnambulism. Although, somnambulism has been reported as a side effect of varenicline, varenicline-induced sleep driving (VISD) has not been reported. Case Report: A 56-year-old man with a history of 35 pack year smoking who presented for smoking cessation counseling. Treatment with varenicline was initiated. In the following night, the patient drove to a shopping center and woke up in his car. Varenicline was discontinued. SD has not been reported in the following nights. In a repeated attempt to stop smoking, treatment with varenicline was resumed by the patient. SD reoccurred in the following night. Varenicline was discontinued indefinitely, and SD has not been reported.

What emotion dimensions can affect working memory performance in healthy adults?A review

Due to the critical roles of emotion and working memory in our daily activities,a great deal of attention has been given to how emotion influences working memory performance.Although the association between emotion and working memory is relatively well established,whether mood enhances or impairs working memory performance remains controversial.The present review provides a relatively representative overview of the research on the effect of different dimensions of emotion on working memory among healthy adults spanning a 30-year period.The findings show that the valence,arousal and motivational dimensions of emotion could all exert an impact on working memory performance.The impact of emotion on working memory might be modulated by task relevance,emotion type,working memory paradigms and individual differences.The vast majority of the studies regarding the effect of emotion on working memory performance focused on the impact of negatively valenced affect and yielded highly contradictory findings.The impacts of arousal and motivation on working memory have been less explored,and inconsistent findings have also been reported.Possible explanations are discussed.Considerable research on the effect of certain dimensions of emotion on working memory has suffered from a lack of control of other emotional dimensions,and different aspects of working memory have been investigated by various paradigms.Directions for further studies should include the exploration of specific dimensions of emotion on different aspects of working memory,with the other dimensions being well controlled.

The Effect of Emotional Conflict on Attention Allocation: An Event-Related Potential Study

Attention allocation research frequently focuses on the valence of emotion. However, there is increasing evidence to indicate that arousal may be more relevant at some stages of affective processing. The present study employed a combined priming and cue-target paradigm and examined event-related potentials (ERPs) in order to explore the effects of emotional conflict of arousal on attention allocation. The background context of arousal was manipulated (using photos of facial expressions) while subjects performed a cognitive task in which a central arrow cue indicated the location of a peripheric target square, and a response was made according to the direction of the square. There was no main effect between incongruent emotion and congruent emotion in the response time, which means the resolution of the emotional conflict facilitate the participant behavioral response. There was a main effect of different emotional states on ERP component. In the present study, incongruent arousal also triggered greater positive potential compared with congruent arousal.

Prenatal nicotine alters development of the laterodorsal tegmentum:Possible role for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and drug dependence

As we cycle between the states of wakefulness and sleep,a bilateral cholinergic nucleus in the pontine brain stem,the laterodorsal tegmentum(LDT),plays a critical role in controlling salience processing,attention,behavioral arousal,and electrophysiological signatures of the sub-and microstates of sleep.Disorders involving abnormal alterations in behavioral and motivated states,such as drug dependence,likely involve dysfunctions in LDT signaling.In addition,as the LDT exhibits connectivity with the thalamus and mesocortical circuits,as well as receives direct,excitatory input from the prefrontal cortex,a role for the LDT in cognitive symptoms characterizing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD)including impulsivity,inflexibility,and dysfunctions of attention is suggested.Prenatal nicotine exposure(PNE)is associated with a higher risk for later life development of drug dependence and ADHD,suggesting alteration in development of brain regions involved in these behaviors.PNE has been shown to alter glutamate and cholinergic signaling within the LDT.As glutamate and acetylcholine are major excitatory mediators,these alterations would likely alter excitatory output to target regions in limbic motivational circuits and to thalamic and cortical networks mediating executive control.Further,PNE alters neuronal development and transmission within prefrontal cortex and limbic areas that send input to the LDT,which would compound effects of differential processing within the PNE LDT.When taken together,alterations in signaling in the LDT are likely to play a role in negative behavioral outcomes seen in PNE individuals,including a heightened risk of drug dependence and ADHD behaviors.

The influence of core affect on cyclo-ergometer endurance performance:Effects on performance outcomes and perceived exertion

Background:Core affect is defined as the most general affective construct consciously accessible that is experienced constantly.It can be experienced as free-floating(mood)or related to prototypical emotional episodes.The aim of this study was to examine the influence of pleasant and unpleasant core affect on cyclo-ergometer endurance performance.Specifically,we considered the influence of pleasant and unpleasant core affect on performance outcomes(i.e.,time to task completion)and rate of perceived exertion(RPE;Borg Scale,category ratio-10)collected during the task.Methods:Thirty-one participants aged 20-28 years were recruited.Core affect was randomly elicited by 2 sets of pleasant and unpleasant pictures chosen from the international affective picture system.Pictures were displayed to participants during a cyclo-ergometer performance in 2 days in a counterbalanced order.RPE was collected every minute to detect volunteers’exhaustion.Results:The study sample was split into 2 groups.Group 1 comprised participants who performed better with pleasant core affect,whereas Group 2 included participants who performed better with unpleasant core affect.Mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance revealed a significant 2(group)×2(condition)×5(isotime)interaction(p=0.002,ηp^2=0.158).Post hoc comparisons showed that participants who obtained better performance with pleasant core affect(pleasant pictures;Group 1)reported lower RPE values at 75%of time to exhaustion in a pleasant core affect condition compared to an unpleasant core affect condition.On the other hand,participants who obtained better performance with unpleasant core affect(unpleasant pictures;Group 2)reported lower RPE values at 75%and 100%of time to exhaustion in an unpleasant core affect condition.Conclusion:Findings suggest differential effects of pleasant and unpleasant core affect on performance.Moreover,core affect was found to influence perceived exertion and performance according to participants’preferences for pleasant or unpleasant core affect.

The Physiological Response to Drawing and Its Relation to Attention and Relaxation

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the physiological response of participants during a creative activity and compare the results to their physiological response during states of high attention and relaxation. Our interest was not only about the relationship between creativity and attention, but also about the role of valence and arousal. We used heart rate variability (HRV) as our physiological measure. We asked twenty-two participants to undertake three activities: a stroop test;a relaxation activity;and a drawing activity. After each activity, the participants were asked to reflect on their levels of attention, relaxation and enjoyment. The results showed significant physiological differences between the three activities: mean heart rate, F(2, 42) = 8.96, p = 0.001;log-transformed low frequency HRV power, F(1.43, 30.07) = 18.12, p < 0.001;and log-transformed high frequency HRV power, F(2, 42) = 6.25, p = 0.004. Overall, the results suggested that participants had high levels of attention during the drawing activity, with positive valence. The results also suggested that participants’ levels of arousal differed between the three activities. The implications of these results are described in the discussion.