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Immune System Irregularities Found in Women With Postpartum Mood Disorders

AHA Publisher — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 08:00:03 +0000

Cedars-Sinai via Newswise – LOS ANGELES (Dec. 2, 2022) — Women with prolonged mental health problems up to three years after childbirth may be suffering from irregular immune system responses, according to new research by Cedars-Sinai investigators. The findings are published in the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology. “We found that women who had clinically elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) two to three years after delivery had genetic evidence of a higher prevalence of immune system defense mechanism activation,”said Eynav Accortt, PhD, principal investigator of the study and director of the Reproductive Psychology Program at Cedars-Sinai. “These women also appeared to have a reduction in the activity of genes related to antiviral immune responses that can offer the body protection from pathogens,” said Accortt, a clinical psychologist. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 8 women experience significant symptoms of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders that can interfere with overall health, daily activities and family life. Much of the research into maternal mental health to date has focused on the perinatal period and the first year after childbirth. Cedars-Sinai investigators surveyed 33 women about their mental health over a longer period, two to three years after giving birth. Study participants also provided a blood sample, and scientists performed bioinformatic analyses of differential gene expression. “Delayed or persistent postpartum anxiety, depression and PTSD is an area that is woefully understudied,” said Sarah Kilpatrick, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai and one of the study’s co-authors. “In this preliminary research, we have identified genetic differences related to inflammation when comparing women experiencing prolonged symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders to those who did not report poor mental health. Additional studies will be needed for a deeper dive into the role inflammation may play in postpartum mental illness,” said Kilpatrick. A primary goal of this work is to design a blood test that would detect which women are at the highest risk for serious and prolonged postpartum mood disorders, according to Accortt. “A blood test could help us develop early interventions that provide medical and mental health treatments and support. We want to figure out why some women are at greater risk for depression, anxiety and PTSD. No one should have to suffer for years after childbirth,” said Accortt. To read the original article click here.

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How to Break Free from PTSD

AHA Publisher — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 08:00:26 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #425) and blog, I talk to former army captain, politician, attorney and podcast host Jason Kander about his new book Invisible Storm, managing and healing from PTSD and depression, what it looks like to seek help for mental health issues, overcoming mental health stigmas, and so much more! As noted in his book: “In 2017, President Obama, in his final Oval Office interview, was asked who gave him hope for the future of the country, and Jason Kander was the first name he mentioned. Suddenly, Jason was a national figure. As observers assumed he was preparing a run for the presidency, Jason announced a bid for mayor of Kansas City instead and was headed for a landslide victory. But after eleven years battling PTSD from his service in Afghanistan, Jason was seized by depression and suicidal thoughts. He dropped out of the mayor’s race and out of public life. And finally, he sought help. In this brutally honest second memoir, Invisible Storm, Jason has written the book he needed in the most painful moments of his PTSD. In candid, in-the-moment detail, we see him struggle with undiagnosed illness during a presidential bid, witness his family buoy him through challenging treatment, and, giving hope to so many of us, see him heal.” As Jason points out, in the army, the message you receive is that what you are doing is no big deal, and other people have it much worse. This makes it easier for people in military to do their job, especially when they are surrounded by danger and doing potentially life-threatening tasks. The notion that it is “no big deal” is like mental armor and helps soldiers do what they need to do. However, when you get out of army, there is no process for switching off this mindset. Many soldiers know [think] that it is okay for people to get help, but also believe that what they did “is no big deal” compared with what other people have gone through. Consequently, many former members of the military feel that if they are struggling and ask for help, this dishonors people that have gone through more than they have. Unfortunately, the military doesn’t do a good job of teaching soldiers when they are discharged that they have actually been through a lot and are entitled to get help. Indeed, we all need to process our experiences, even if we haven’t gone to war or been in the military. We all go through challenges, and if we don’t process what we go through, it can affect our lives in other ways, such as the night terrors that Jason experienced. As I have mentioned before, everything we experience is stored in our nonconscious mind. Things that happen to us do not just go away—we cannot outrun our past. We have to go through it; we have to reconceptualize our memories before they impact how we function. As Jason points out, there is a common misconception that if enough time goes by, we will be okay, but trauma doesn’t age well. We have to put in the hard work and deal with our stuff and change how it plays out in our future. This is part of being human. Indeed, we are with ourselves always, which is why mind management and self-regulation are so important. These are life skills, not one-off things. We cannot just “fix” an issue and move on. Life is filled with ups and downs, and figuring out how to manage these feelings and how they impact us is one of the most important things we can learn as human beings. To read the original article click here.

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A Farm Where Animals and People Heal From Trauma Together

AHA Publisher — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 07:00:27 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – The three-legged fox, the chameleon that can’t stick out its tongue, and about 200 other creatures on the modern-day Noah’s ark of psychotherapist Yoni Yehuda are rehabilitating from disability, trauma or injury – as is Yehuda himself. Puffing on medical cannabis to ease chronic pain resulting from a 1987 army parachuting accident and a 1996 terror attack, Yehuda explains that he and each of the rescued animals at his Havayot Center outside Jerusalem is an equal partner with patients in his unique “Therapeutic Triangles” model of animal-assisted psychotherapy. “The basis of the work here is saving animals and taking care of them. We are responsible for their welfare as long as they are in cages in our possession, which is not where they are supposed to be.” As he speaks, he’s hand-feeding a bald baby parakeet while a mare named Venus gives a contented snort in her corral outside. Aside from those born here, all animals at the one-acre Havayot Center arrived after some trauma rendered them unable to survive in the wild, temporarily or forever. Some were former patients of the Israeli Wildlife Hospital; others were saved and brought to Yehuda by individuals or by the National Parks Authority. The Triangle Animal-assisted psychotherapy isn’t new. In 1961, American clinical therapist Boris Levinson wrote a paper titled “The dog as a ‘co-therapist’” and coined the term “pet therapy” in 1964. Animals are known to induce calm, self-awareness, compassion and emotional adjustment. However, in typical animal-assisted therapy, usually with dogs or horses, the animals are adjuncts to the therapeutic process. At Havayot, they are fully part of the process as the client and therapist jointly care for the animal’s needs. “We are together on the same level and there is a triangular connection with the animal and with the therapist,” explains Yehuda. “Everything comes from a lot of respect for the animals and letting them lead the process. As a therapist, I have to put my ego aside and then the client can project things on the animals and start to speak about his own world and reach for solutions.” The therapist must have the knowledge and observational expertise to decide which animal will have best therapeutic value for each client. Yehuda chooses from a large variety: insects, fish, reptiles, birds, rodents, an assortment of wild and barnyard animals, dogs and a cat. He gives each one a name and comfortable conditions for its needs. University of Denver Prof. Philip Tedeschi, an expert in animal-assisted therapy and founder of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection, has visited the Havayot Center several times. “Philip said this may be the only place in the world with such a large range of animals for therapy. It was certainly the first of its kind,” says Yehuda. Goldfish Are Therapists, Too When I ask how fish can be therapeutic partners, Yehuda points to Yossi, a handsome goldfish swimming in an aquarium. “Put your finger on the glass and tap it. Now move your finger to the other side and tap it. He will come over to you because Yossi loves to be in touch with people,” Yehuda instructs me. Sure enough, Yossi follows my finger. “Now, think about a very shy child. He may have selective mutism. You want to give him the feeling of connection with an animal, but with Yossi he doesn’t have to be in physical touch with it and he doesn’t have to speak to it,” says Yehuda. “If he wants to, he can try to read Yossi’s body language and become his spokesman. If a child doesn’t want to speak to me but starts speaking to the animal, then he can speak to me. The animal makes the change.” An empty Jack Daniels bottle was placed in Yossi’s aquarium by a client struggling with alcoholism ever since his birth to an alcoholic mother. “The water in the aquarium symbolizes life, the womb. The fish represents our ability to return to the womb and be reborn,” says Yehuda. “Leaving the bottle in the aquarium allowed this man to start over. He was able to stop drinking. And neither I nor the fish had to say anything.” Yehuda shows me a maze constructed by a child grappling with his parents’ divorce. The mouse begins from one house and learns to follow a long route leading to two houses — a mother’s house and a father’s house. Insects such as butterflies, walking sticks and gigantic Madagascar hissing cockroaches can be effective in treating various phobias and difficulties. Snakes help clients with sexual identity issues because of the way they shed their skin and develop a new one as they grow throughout their lifetime. It’s Personal When Yehuda was 13, his beloved cousin Noam was killed in action in Lebanon. The two boys had enjoyed caring for Noam’s pets including a sheep. They used to talk about how animals helped them understand their own feelings. At the time of this tragedy, the Yehuda family was living in England. Sensitive to their son’s grief and his connection to animals, Yoni’s parents signed him up for a class for gifted children at the London Zoo under Sir David Attenborough. At 19, after a military parachuting accident rendered him unable to walk for some time, Yehuda was one of the first wounded soldiers treated by equine therapy pioneer Anita Shkedi, who later founded the Israel National Therapeutic Riding Association. Thus, when he was shot in a terror attack nine years later, “I knew that I had to have animals around me because only with animals could I understand what was happening inside me.” Yehuda, now 54, has a master’s degree in special education and a PhD in psychology. A man of faith, he speculates that God was the first animal-assisted psychotherapist. “To save humanity, God puts Noah in the ark with all these animals. He could have just put him to sleep and woken him up after the flood. But God put people with animals to save their own souls,” he says. Clients need not share his religious beliefs to benefit from his therapeutic model, he emphasizes. The nonprofit Havayot Center, built with Yehuda’s own hands and funds on the grounds of his home in Elazar in 1998, is supervised by the regional veterinary authorities and other governmental agencies and ministries. The center accepts private clients and is an authorized provider for victims of terror attacks and war. Yehuda opened a School of Animal Interventional Therapy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and traveled extensively lecturing about his work and teaching his protocols. In 2009, the Israel Postal Service issued a series of stamps recognizing the influence of Yehuda’s Therapeutic Triangles model in the field of animal-assisted therapy in Israel and around the world. Saying Hello to Each Animal But Yehuda’s ongoing physical and emotional rehab forced him to take a step back. He grapples daily with PTSD, fibromyalgia, CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome) and other ailments including osteoporosis from intensive steroid therapy. He has daily physical and hydrotherapy and periodically receives hyperbaric oxygen therapy for PTSD. Currently, he’s donating his services to members of an Israeli organization that helps people dealing with PTSD; the Jerusalem-area group encompasses more than 70 families. “My innovation was that I work with the families as well, because they are neglected,” says Yehuda. “No one ever asked my wife, Liat, if she needed help. When I was in a wheelchair, the need for help was obvious. But when you have PTSD, it’s hard for people to understand the hell that’s happening in your head and how it affects your family.” The Bernie Madoff financial scam and the Covid epidemic have left the Havayot Center struggling. Yehuda had to let go many staff members and rehome some horses. But despite his limited energy, time and money, he is carrying on – as much for himself as for his clients. “I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have the feeling of responsibility to wake up every morning and spend three hours saying hello to each animal,” he says. For more information, click here To read the original article click here.

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Ten Medical and Scientific Breakthroughs of 2021 at Mount Sinai

AHA Publisher — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 08:00:25 +0000

Mount Sinai Health System via Newswise 1. Ketamine Infusions Found Promising for PTSD A team of researchers led by Dennis Charney, MD, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine, and Adriana Feder, MD found that repeated intravenous ketamine infusions appeared efficacious in reducing symptom severity among individuals with chronic PTSD. Their study was published in The American Journal of Psychiatry. “We want people suffering with PTSD to know that hope is on the horizon, and we are working diligently to collect the information that will help bring them the relief they so desperately need,” said Dr. Feder. Speech Changes Predictor of Schizophrenia Risk Researchers hope to use speech changes to predict which adolescents and young adults are at high risk for schizophrenia and may go on to develop the disease. In a new study published in The Lancet journal E Clinical Medicine found that the artificial intelligence program predicted, with 75 percent accuracy, who would get Alzheimer’s disease. Cheryl Corcoran, MD, explains, “It’s been a lot of small studies finding the same signals.” At this point, she said, “We are not at the point yet where we can tell people if they are at risk or not.” First Successful Trachea Transplant Eric Genden, MD, and Sander Florman, MD, led a large team to perform the first successful transplant of a trachea, giving hope for patients throughout the world and future treatments of those who have been on ventilators. Dr. Genden said, “Although it seemed like a pretty straightforward thing, because at first sight it seems just like a tube, it turns out it’s a highly complex organ system. New Cancer Vaccine a Game Changer for Young and Old Patients Thomas Marron, MD, PhD, is developing a personalized cancer vaccine that was tested in a phase one trial. Dr. Marron and a lung cancer patient in the trial, a 74-year-old retired attorney, discussed the promising outcomes in a news report. “The cancer vaccines try to teach your immune system how to recognize your cancer and eliminate it,” Dr. Marron said. “Our initial data suggest that, after getting all 10 vaccines, patients can be very strongly immunized against their cancer.” Apple Watch Used to Measure Resilience in Health Care Workers A new study led by Robert Hirten, MD, and Zahi Fayad, PhD, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, shows how using wearable devices can track health care worker resiliency during the pandemic. Researchers from Mount Sinai gave 361 health care workers from seven hospitals across New York City Apple Watches to measure their heart rate. The study’s participants also downloaded a customized app to complete surveys each week that measured resilience, emotional support, stress, optimism and quality of life. Dr. Fayad said, “The experience of this pandemic has been especially stressful for health care workers, and as a community we need to be able to support them, especially as the virus persists. Our study is one of the first to document not only the toll the pandemic has taken on our health care workers, but also the importance of resilience and social support as specific paths toward efficiently and effectively directing support.” Launch of Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health Thomas Fuchs, DSc, and Dennis Charney, MD, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine, announce the first-of-its-kind Artificial Intelligence and Human Health Department at the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Fuchs said, “If you are serious about this, then computer scientists have to work together with the physicians in the trenches. One reason why big tech has failed in health care is that even with all their talent, if you’re just throwing artificial intelligence over the fence into a hospital, that doesn’t work. It has to come out of systems like ours.” COVID-19 Vaccine Less Protective for Multiple Myeloma Patients A new study led by Samir Parekh, MBBS, and published in the journal Cancer Cell shows how COVID-19 vaccines may be less protective for multiple myeloma patients. “[This research] suggests that booster shots are looking extremely promising for people with multiple myeloma,” said Dr. Parekh. “Patients who haven’t received them should do that immediately.” Long COVID Has Long-Lasting Impact A study published in the American Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine and led by David Putrino, PhD, showed that the impact on everyday functioning in patients with long COVID lasted at least a year after initial infection. “Our work and the work of others has shown that this affects people’s abilities to make plans, synthesize information, and do their daily activities of work,” said Dr. Putrino. “They suffer from a lot of memory loss and inability to form new memories, as well as difficulty with speaking. This is a very debilitating condition with serious cognitive conditions.” Cannabis Use in Pregnancy Women who use cannabis during their pregnancies could be putting their children at risk of developing mental health and behavioral problems, according to a new study by Yasmin Hurd, PhD, and published by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “I do think that pregnant women and their physicians need to have more discussions about cannabis use, just like they have in terms of alcohol,” said Dr. Hurd. “Then they need to be given the resources to be able to get help for themselves and their children. This is not about stigmatizing women. It’s the opposite. It’s about the more knowledge you have, the more power you have.” Lung Cancer Screening Saves Lives Early detection and the increased use of screening for lung cancer are saving lives, according to a study published on JAMA Network Open. Screening patients using CT scans and following up on potential cancers helps physicians identify precancerous and early cancer tissue growth to surgically remove, leading to a decline in lung cancer deaths, Mount Sinai Health System researchers report. Raja Flores, MD, the study’s lead author and Chair of Thoracic Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System, said, “If we find lung cancer early, we can cure it with surgery. Early screening is the key.” To read the original article click here.

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Healing Trauma: Research Links PTSD, Emotion Regulation and Quality of Life

AHA Publisher — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 07:00:28 +0000

Binghamton University via EurekAlert – We often talk about the coronavirus pandemic in terms of health or economic impacts: the numbers of cases and deaths, the persistence of long-haul COVID, lost jobs and toilet paper shortages. But there is another crisis, too… [t]he pandemic is a type of mass trauma, explained Binghamton University doctoral candidate in psychology Craig Polizzi. And trauma can and does give rise to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and potentially problematic behaviors and a lower quality of life. Recent research from Polizzi, fellow graduate student Damla Aksen and Distinguished Professor of Psychology Steven Jay Lynn provides insight into the impact PTSD has on emotional regulation and quality of life, and points to ways to improve both. Their article, “Quality of Life, Emotion Regulation Dissociation: Evaluating Unique Relations in an Undergraduate Sample and Probable PTSD Subsample,” was published in a recent issue of the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy. Their research fills some of the gaps left by previous studies into PTSD, emotion regulation and quality of life. Previous studies mainly focused on older adults and individuals with medical problems, and tested emotion regulation strategies or difficulties separately; they also didn’t account for important variables that may explain the relation between emotion regulation and quality of life. Polizzi, Aksen and Lynn instead take a more comprehensive approach and include such critical variables as dissociation, neuroticism and PTSD symptoms in addition to dimensions of emotion regulation. Using questionnaires and personal narratives, the researchers identified participating college students who potentially met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. The traumatic events these students experienced ranged from physical or sexual assault to car accidents, abuse, severe illness and witnessing suffering. The researchers then used a series of self-report surveys to measure difficulties in emotional regulation, positive and negative coping strategies and dissociative experiences with the participants. It’s eye-opening to see how much trauma college students — and the U.S. population in general — are exposed to, Polizzi acknowledged. “The positive side to these statistics, though, is how remarkably resilient people can be following traumatic events, especially during this pandemic,” he said. What Is Quality of Life? “Quality of life” isn’t an amorphous concept, although researchers can have different definitions, including improved function related to physical health and psychological well-being. It can actually be measured in many ways, such as through self-report surveys, physician ratings or direct observation, Polizzi explained. In the study, the researchers relied on a broad definition informed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which defines quality of life as healthy functioning across mental processing, life activities, physical mobility, participating in society, self-care and social skills. In particular, they administered a questionnaire, the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule, based on the organization’s definition of this concept. Closely associated with quality of life is emotion regulation, or the ability to alter your emotional state to better cope with the situation at hand. People with enhanced emotion regulation tend to have greater psychological health, whereas problems in this area are associated with psychological difficulties, Polizzi explained. During and following traumatic events, many people dissociate — or distance themselves from their emotions, body, mind and even personal identity — to escape overwhelming feelings such as shame, fear and anger. People who experience dissociation may lose focus, forget people and events, have out-of-body experiences or extreme daydreaming, and feel a sense of unreality and detachment from their immediate surroundings. While some researchers have argued that dissociation is an emotion regulation strategy, it typically has negative effects, including interfering with emotional awareness, sense of self, social bonds and engagement in daily activities. In fact, it was surprising how strongly dissociation was related to quality of life, Polizzi acknowledged. Rather than just a part of other unhealthy emotion regulation strategies, it appears to play a disruptive role in daily activities and everyday behaviors. Overall, their research suggests that decreased emotion regulation is related to a lower quality of life, although not necessarily a sole cause. People may experience a lowered quality of life for many reasons, one of which could be the inability to effectively regulate their emotions; conversely, the lack of psychological resources — for example, from stress, pain or physical health issues — could also limit a person’s ability to emotionally regulate. “These variables could exist in a vicious cycle, in which lack of emotion regulation contributes to lowering quality of life, which in turn reduces emotion regulation skills,” said Polizzi, adding that further research is needed to confirm this idea. On the plus side, emotion regulation is something that people can learn. “Many techniques used in psychological treatments are designed to help individuals enhance their emotion regulation. For example, learning to accept and re-interpret emotions in realistic ways rather than avoiding emotions and blaming them on others can improve people’s psychological functioning and their quality of life,” Polizzi said. Three Main Symptoms In their research, Polizzi, Aksen and Lynn provide information that could refine the current evidence-based practices for treating PTSD by focusing on a trio of symptoms that have a strong impact on an individual’s quality of life: namely, dissociation, impulsivity and blaming others. Used as a coping strategy for negative emotions, impulsive behaviors can lead to physical injury, substance abuse and other health concerns, while dissociation may make it even more difficult for people with PTSD to be emotionally engaged, cope with stress, set goals and have a healthy sense of self. Individuals with PTSD also tend to mistrust others, which could lead to blame in interpersonal interactions and the further erosion of social bonds. That doesn’t mean, however, that trauma is a one-way street to a diminished life. Many individuals can learn how to successfully cope with such experiences, and treatment can lead to a greatly improved quality of life. For those diagnosed with PTSD, focusing on these three factors would be especially helpful during the later phases of treatment, when the individual has improved their coping skills and stability, Polizzi said. If the pandemic’s aftermath has you feeling not quite yourself, it might be helpful to take an honest look at how you’re really feeling and the strategies — good and bad — that you’re using to cope. “People experiencing increased psychological stress during this pandemic may look to improve their quality of life by focusing on ways to enhance their emotion regulation skills via reducing dissociation, impulsivity and blaming others, such as increasing emotional engagement, planning goal-directed behaviors and fostering compassion toward others, respectively,” Polizzi said. To read the original article click here.

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“Brain Training” May Be an Effective Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

AHA Publisher — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 08:00:41 +0000

Lawson Health Research via EurekAlert – LONDON, ON – Neurofeedback, also called ‘brain training,’ consists of exercises where individuals regulate their own brain activity. In a new study from Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University, researchers have found that neurofeedback may be an effective treatment for individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Published in NeuroImage: Clinical, the clinical trial found that neurofeedback was effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD. “Brain connectivity involves different parts of the brain communicating with each other and helps to regulate states of consciousness, thought, mood and emotion,” explains Dr. Ruth Lanius, scientist at Lawson, professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and psychiatrist at London Health Sciences Centre. “Individuals with PTSD tend to have disrupted patterns of brain connectivity, but our research suggests they can exercise their brains to restore patterns to a healthy balance.” Neurofeedback uses a system called a neurofeedback loop in which a person’s brain activity is measured through sensors placed on the scalp and displayed back to them using a computer interface. This allows the individual to complete exercises and visually see the results. The trial tested neurofeedback with a total of 72 participants, including 36 participants with PTSD and 36 healthy control participants. Of those with PTSD, 18 were randomized to participate in neurofeedback treatment while the other 18 acted as a comparison group. The study found that the severity of PTSD symptoms decreased in participants randomized to receive neurofeedback treatment. After treatment, 61.1 per cent of participants no longer met the definition for PTSD. This remission rate is comparable to gold standard therapies like trauma-focused psychotherapy. The research team also used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at St. Joseph’s Health Care London to capture brain scans of participants both before and after participation in the trial. They found that individuals with PTSD experienced positive changes in brain connectivity in the salience network and the default mode network following neurofeedback treatment. “The salience network is involved in detecting threat as part of the ‘fight or flight’ response. It is normally hyperactive in individuals with PTSD. Meanwhile, the default mode network is activated during rest and is involved in autobiographical memory. We often see that this network is less active during rest and functionally disrupted among individuals with PTSD,” says Dr. Andrew Nicholson, affiliated scientist at Lawson. “Neurofeedback helped restore the functional connectivity of both networks to healthier levels.” Dr. Nicholson is an assistant professor at McMaster University and was formerly a post-doctoral fellow at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. The study involved weekly sessions of neurofeedback over 20 weeks. Participants were asked to reduce the intensity of the brain’s dominant brain wave – the alpha rhythm. Brain activity was visualized as either a still cartoon or a distorted picture. If the alpha rhythm was successfully reduced, the cartoon started playing or the picture started becoming clearer. “Participants were not instructed on how to reduce the alpha rhythm. Rather, each individual figured out their own way to do so,” notes Dr. Lanius. “For example, individuals reported letting their mind wander, thinking about positive things or concentrating their attention.” The team notes the treatment could have a number of clinical implications following further validation. “Neurofeedback could offer an accessible and effective treatment option for individuals with PTSD,” says Dr. Lanius. “The treatment is easily scalable for implementation in rural areas and even at home.” To read the original article click here.

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Study: How Experiencing Traumatic Stress Leads to Aggression

AHA Publisher — Wed, 20 May 2020 07:00:27 +0000

Society for Neuroscience via EurekAlert – Traumatic stress can cause aggression by strengthening two brain pathways involved in emotion, according to research recently published in JNeurosci. Targeting those pathways via deep brain stimulation may stymie aggression associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. The consequences of traumatic stress linger long after the stress ends. People suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder often display heightened aggression, caused by unknown changes in the amygdala. An almond-shaped structure nestled deep inside the brain, the amygdala plays an essential role in emotion, social behaviors, and aggression. Nordman et al. examined how different amygdala circuits changed in male mice after traumatic stress. Two connections strengthened, resulting in more attacks on other mice: the circuitry connecting the amygdala to the ventromedial hypothalamus and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. The former modulates the frequency of attacks, while the latter controls the length of attacks. The research team then used low frequencies of light to stop the pathways from strengthening, preventing an increase in aggressive behavior. Deep brain stimulation may elicit the same effect in humans. To read the original article click here.

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Extinguishing Fearful Memories Depends on the Flexibility of Your DNA

AHA Publisher — Thu, 07 May 2020 07:00:19 +0000

University of Queensland via EurekAlert – Fear is an important survival mechanism and so too is the ability to inhibit fear when it’s no longer needed. In order to counter-balance fear, the brain engages in fear extinction. In this process, memories are formed during non-fearful experiences with similar environmental elements. These non-fearful memories then compete with the original fear memory. Now, in a new paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the University of Queensland’s Professor Tim Bredy and his colleagues show that the ability to extinguish fearful memories in this way relies on the flexibility of your DNA. Flexible DNA “DNA can adopt a variety of different structures,” says Dr Paul Marshall, a researcher at UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute and lead author of the study. “The most common and most widely recognized form is the ‘B-DNA’ double helix, which twists in a clockwise direction. But, with a slight rearrangement of how DNA base-pairs connect with one another, DNA can form other helical structures, such as Z-DNA.” Z-DNA is a counter-clockwise twisted version of B-DNA, he explains. Imagine for a moment, that each of your hands is a DNA strand, the thumbs the bases. If you hold both hands out in front of you, palms out, so that your thumbs touch, this is how two bases connect in B-DNA. If you now flip your wrists so that your palms face inward and your pinkies touch, this is how bases flip-out during Z-DNA formation. If you keep rotating your hand and now re-join the thumbs this is what happens when Z-DNA is stabilized into a new twist. Turning Inside Out Z-DNA occurs over short regions and only certain sequences can turn inside-out like this. For a long time, no one knew why it existed at all. “We now know that Z-DNA appears wherever genes are being turned on,” says Dr Marshall. “It’s a marker of gene activity.” “Scientists have also noticed a connection between Z-DNA and certain diseases, including cancer, and high levels of Z-DNA have been found in the brains of people who had Alzheimer’s Disease.” This potential link with memory intrigued Dr Marshall and Professor Bredy, especially since the formation of fear extinction memories involves rapid changes in gene activity. To find out more, they turned their attention to an enzyme called ADAR1, which recognizes and latches onto Z-DNA. ADAR1 is known to play a role in RNA editing, which is important for modifying protein functions in the cell. Evidence also suggests that ADAR1 can convert Z-DNA back into B-DNA. “ADAR1 is doing a lot of things at once, but that’s what makes it interesting,” says Dr Marshall. Unable to Form Non-Fearful Memories He and his colleagues turned off the ADAR1 gene in mice, specifically in a part of the brain known to play a role in fear extinction. As a result, although the mice could still form fear memories, they were unable to form non-fearful memories. In short, they lost the capacity for fear extinction. The researchers observed a similar effect when they mutated ADAR1, so that it didn’t work very well. The findings suggest that Z-DNA forms during fear then, during fear extinction, ADAR1 binds to that Z-DNA and carries out two important jobs: it rapidly increases RNA editing and then flips Z-DNA back into B-DNA. “It seems that the more easily you can switch between DNA structures, the more plastic your memory is,” says Dr Marshall. “Flexibility of DNA structure, flexibility of memory.” Plastic Fear Memories This enables an agile response to our environment, he adds. “Fear memories need to be plastic. They can be very useful for survival, but they can also get in the way of normal functioning.” The balance between fear and fear-extinction is critical to cognitive flexibility, says Professor Bredy. Indeed, the impairment of fear extinction is a key feature of PTSD and phobias. The more we understand about how fear extinction works, the more chance we have of finding better treatments for those conditions. To read the original article click here.

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With These Neurons, Extinguishing Fear Is Its Own Reward

AHA Publisher — Sun, 26 Jan 2020 08:00:19 +0000

Picower Institute at MIT via EurekAlert – The same neurons responsible for encoding reward also form new memories to suppress fearful ones, according to new research by scientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT. When you expect a really bad experience to happen and then it doesn’t, it’s a distinctly positive feeling. A new study of fear extinction training in mice may suggest why: The findings not only identify the exact population of brain cells that are key for learning not to feel afraid anymore, but also show these neurons are the same ones that help encode feelings of reward. The study, published Jan. 14 in Neuron by scientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, specifically shows that fear extinction memories and feelings of reward alike are stored by neurons that express the gene Ppp1r1b in the posterior of the basolateral amygdala (pBLA), a region known to assign associations of aversive or rewarding feelings, or “valence,” with memories. The study was conducted by Xiangyu Zhang, a graduate student, Joshua Kim, a former graduate student, and Susumu Tonegawa, Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at RIKEN-MIT Laboratory of Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “We constantly live at the balance of positive and negative emotion,” Tonegawa said. “We need to have very strong memories of dangerous circumstances in order to avoid similar circumstances to recur. But if we are constantly feeling threatened we can become depressed. You need a way to bring your emotional state back to something more positive.” Overriding Fear With Reward In a prior study, Kim showed that Ppp1r1b-expressing neurons encode rewarding valence and compete with distinct Rspo2-expressing neurons in the BLA that encode negative valence. In the new study, Zhang, Kim and Tonegawa set out to determine whether this competitive balance also underlies fear and its extinction. In fear extinction, an original fearful memory is thought to be essentially overwritten by a new memory that is not fearful. In the study, for instance, mice were exposed to little shocks in a chamber, making them freeze due to the formation of fearful memory. But the next day, when the mice were returned to the same chamber for a longer period of time without any further little shocks, freezing gradually dissipated and hence this treatment is called fear extinction training. The fundamental question then is whether the fearful memory is lost or just suppressed by the formation of a new memory during the fear extinction training. While the mice underwent fear extinction training the scientists watched the activity of the different neural populations in the BLA. They saw that Ppp1r1b cells were more active and Rspo2 cells were less active in mice that experienced fear extinction. They also saw that while Rspo2 cells were mostly activated by the shocks and were inhibited during fear extinction, Ppp1r1b cells were mostly active during extinction memory training and retrieval, but were inhibited during the shocks. These and other experiments suggested to the authors that the hypothetical fear extinction memory may be formed in the Ppp1r1b neuronal population and the team went on to demonstrate this vigorously. For this, they employed the technique previously pioneered in their lab for the identification and manipulation of the neuronal population that holds specific memory information, memory “engram” cells. Zhang labeled Ppp1r1b neurons that were activated during retrieval of fear extinction memory with the light-sensitive protein channelrhodopsin. When these neurons were activated by blue laser light during a second round of fear extinction training it enhanced and accelerated the extinction. Moreover, when the engram cells were inhibited by another optogenetic technique, fear extinction was impaired because the Ppp1r1b engram neurons could no longer suppress the Rspo2 fear neurons. That allowed the fear memory to regain primacy. These data met the fundamental criteria for the existence of engram cells for fear extinction memory within the pBLA Ppp1r1b cell population: activation and reactivation by recall and enduring and off-line maintenance of the acquired extinction memory. Because Kim had previously shown Ppp1r1b neurons are activated by rewards and drive appetitive behavior and memory, the team sequentially tracked Ppp1r1b cell activity in mice that eagerly received water reward followed by food reward followed by fear extinction training and fear extinction memory retrieval. The overlap of Ppp1r1b neurons activated by fear extinction vs. water reward was as high as the overlap of neurons activated by water vs. food reward. And finally, artificial optogenetic activation of Ppp1r1b extinction memory engram cells was as effective as optogenetic activation of Ppp1r1b water reward-activated neurons in driving appetitive behaviors. Reciprocally, artificial optogenetic activation of water-responding Ppp1r1b neurons enhanced fear extinction training as efficiently as optogenetic activation of fear extinction memory engram cells. These results demonstrate that fear extinction is equivalent to bona fide rewards and therefore provide the neuroscientific basis for the widely held experience in daily life: omission of expected punishment is a reward. What Next? By establishing this intimate connection between fear extinction and reward and by identifying a genetically defined neuronal population (Ppp1r1b) that plays a crucial role in fear extinction this study provides potential therapeutic targets for treating fear disorders like PTSD and anxiety, Zhang said. From the basic scientific point of view, Tonegawa said, how fear extinction training specifically activates Ppp1r1b neurons would be an important question to address. More imaginatively, results showing how Ppp1r1b neurons override Rspo2 neurons in fear extinction raises an intriguing question about whether a reciprocal dynamic might also occur in the brain and behavior. Investigating “joy extinction” via these mechanisms might be an interesting research topic. To read the original article click here.

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