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Repetitive negative thinking in daily life predicts psychopathology: Further validation of an ecological momentary assessment paradigm
Get PDFBackground
Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is an important transdiagnostic process involved in the development and maintenance of psychopathology. In a previous study, we developed an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) paradigm to assess RNT in daily life. This study aimed to replicate and extend earlier findings on the reliability and validity of the EMA paradigm, including the prediction of future mental health. In exploratory analyses, the predictive utility of dynamic patterns of RNT, such as stress-reactive RNT, variability, inertia, and instability of EMA-based RNT was investigated.
Methods
220 students filled out questionnaires (trait RNT, mental health-related measures) and completed the EMA-based RNT assessment five times daily for ten days on smartphones at the start of their semester. At the end of the semester, students filled out the same questionnaires during a high stress period.
Results
The reliability and validity of a process-related RNT scale for use in EMA was confirmed as it showed high reliability within and between persons. Furthermore, EMA-based RNT significantly predicted symptoms of depression and anxiety after three months over and above baseline symptoms and trait RNT. Of the dynamic RNT parameters, RNT instability and variability significantly predicted psychopathology over and above mean EMA-based RNT.
Discussion
Findings support the reliability and validity of the process-related measure of RNT in daily life, but not the hybrid measure. In addition, our results suggest that dynamic patterns of EMA-based RNT enhance the prediction of psychopathology beyond mean EMA-based RNT. Generalizability of findings is limited as a homogenous student sample was tested
Expression of SSTR2a, FAP, HER2 and HER3 as potential radionuclide therapy targets in higher-grade meningioma
No full textScaling the weight parameters in Markov logic networks and relational logistic regression models
No full textSide-specific implicit training of attentional disengagement and reorienting
No full textSome patients with parietal brain damage have problems disengaging their attention from ipsilesional stimuli. Although this disengage deficit has been described in the framework of the neglect syndrome, where it is particularly pronounced, no current treatment addresses this issue directly and side-specifically. In this study we propose a paradigm that could serve as such a training and – as a proof of concept – test its effects on the attentional allocation of healthy participants. We trained 36 participants between 20 and 35 years of age in a spatial orienting paradigm in which cues on one side were predictive of the opposite side, while the cues on the opposite side were neutral. We then compared reaction times before, during, and after this training. We could show that (1) this side-specific training specifically accelerated attentional disengagement from the predictive cues, (2) this effect persisted even when cues became unpredictive again, (3) it could be achieved implicitly, i.e., without the participants’ knowledge of the true cue-target-relationship, and that (4) it indeed relied on the learning of the cue’s predictiveness of the target location and not pure target occurrence probabilities. These results not only contribute to our knowledge about the spatial orienting of attention but might also form the basis for a new approach to treating the disengage deficit
A layered unity model of split-brain consciousness
No full textSplit-brain subjects can consciously perceive and identify two stimuli presented simultaneously but separately in opposite hemifields. Yet, they seem to lack a conscious experience of the two stimuli together, as they cannot judge whether these are the same or different. Such breakdowns in experiential or phenomenal unity would carry important implications for philosophical reflection on the essential properties of conscious experience, as well as for scientific theorising about consciousness’ neural and functional bases. Extant models supporting the preserved unity of split-brain consciousness secure unity in a subject or agential sense, but do not explain how right- and left-side conscious experiences could be unified in the problem cases. Here, I offer a new model that supplies the missing phenomenal unity. Based on the construct of layers of conscious experience, my model acknowledges breakdowns in local experiential layers but warrants preserved unity in global ones. A supporting argument draws on the preserved attentional capacities of split-brain subjects. My proposal goes beyond extant research in that it focuses on the conjoint phenomenology of simultaneous right- and left-side experiences, highlights the conceptual connections of phenomenal unity to attention, and discusses the impact of specific split-brain attentional capacities on the unity of right- and left-side experiences
Diversity of gobioid fishes in the late Middle Miocene of northern Moldova, Eastern Paratethys—part III: dwarf gobies
No full textThe Middle Miocene (upper Serravallian, Sarmatian sensu latu, Volhynian) deposits at Karpov Yar near Naslavcea, northern Moldova, yield exceptionally preserved fish fossils, often with otoliths in situ. This study, the third in our series on goby fossils from Karpov Yar, describes four new dwarf goby species (standard lengths 16–34 mm), including two new genera: †Moldavigobius gloriae sp. nov., †Cryptograciles conicus gen. et sp. nov., †Cryptograciles robustus gen. et sp. nov., and †Alienagobius pygmaeus gen. et sp. nov. A fifth species is left in open nomenclature as †Moldavigobius sp. The new genera share 27 vertebrae (10 abdominal), a D1 with six spines, a D2 with a spine and 9–11 rays, and ctenoid flank scales. Differences include the D1-pterygiophore formula, pelvic- and anal fin ray counts, scale number, and otolith morphology. The phylogenetic analyses suggest that †Moldavigobius spp. could be part of the Aphia lineage (Gobiidae), †Cryptograciles gen. nov. may belong to the Pomatoschistus lineage (Oxudercidae), and †Alienagobius gen. nov. possibly represents a stem member of the Stenogobius lineage, although this is surprising given the tropical biogeography of this lineage and its absence in the fossil record. Morphological similarities across the fossil genera likely reflect adaptations to a cryptobenthic lifestyle in a low-energy, lagoonal environment, while variations in scales and otoliths between species indicate microhabitat specialization. Our findings suggest Karpov Yar was an ecologically dynamic site, providing various microhabitats that allowed for the coexistence of multiple cryptobenthic goby species
Ethikberatung bei Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung
No full textEthische Fragen des Umgangs mit Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung sind zunehmend Gegenstand der Arbeit Klinischer Ethikkomitees und anderer Organisationsformen der Ethikberatung in Deutschland. Zugleich wird die Frage, ob und in welcher Form Ethikberatende einen Beitrag bei Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung leisten können beziehungsweise sollen, in der bioethischen Literatur kontrovers diskutiert. Die vorliegende, auf die Praxis der Ethikberatung ausgerichtete Publikation erörtert, welchen Beitrag Ethikberatung in den verschiedenen Arbeitsfeldern bei Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung leisten kann. Neben ethischen Empfehlungen und Fortbildungen wird insbesondere am Beispiel der prinzipienorientierten ethischen Falldiskussion erläutert, wie eine ethische Fallberatung die Beteiligten bei ethischen Herausforderungen bei Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung unterstützen kann. Hierfür werden zunächst die konzeptionellen Grundlagen der Autonomie- und Wohltuns-Verpflichtungen bei Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung skizziert. Nach einer kurzen Einführung in das Modell der prinzipienorientierten ethischen Falldiskussion erfolgt eine Schritt-für-Schritt Darstellung der Ethikfallberatung bei ethischen Fragen im Kontext von Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung. Der Beitrag schließt mit Überlegungen zu Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Ethikberatung bei Anfragen nach Assistenz bei der Selbsttötung.Definition of the problem
Ethical issues surrounding requests for assisted suicide are increasingly becoming the subject of clinical ethics committees and other forms of ethics consultation in Germany. At the same time, the question of whether and in what form ethical consultants can or should contribute to requests for assisted suicide is the subject of controversial debates in bioethical literature.
Arguments
This paper, which focuses on the practice of ethics consultation, discusses the various contributions that ethics consultations can make regarding requests for suicide assistance. In addition to ethical recommendations and training, the example of principle-based ethical case discussion is used to explain how ethics consultations can support those involved in ethical challenges when requests for assisted suicide arise. To this end, the conceptual foundations of the autonomy- and beneficence-based obligations in requests for assisted suicide are first outlined. After a brief introduction to the method of principle-based ethical case discussion, we provide a step-by-step presentation of ethics counseling for ethical issues in the context of requests for assisted suicide.
Conclusion
The article concludes with considerations on the possibilities and limitations of ethics consultation in cases of requests for assisted suicide
