Validation of laughter for diagnosis and evaluation of depression.

BACKGROUND: In the medical field, laughter has been studied for its beneficial effects on health and as a therapeutic method to prevent and treat major medical diseases. However, very few works, if any, have explored the predictive potential of laughter and its potential use as a diagnostic tool. METHOD: We registered laughs of depressed patients (n=30) and healthy controls (n=20), in total 934 laughs (517 from patients and 417 from controls). All patients were tested by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). The processing was made in Matlab, with calculation of 8 variables per laugh plosive. General and discriminant analysis distinguished patients, controls, gender, and the association between laughter and HDRS test. RESULTS: Depressed patients and healthy controls differed significantly on the type of laughter, with 88% efficacy. According to the Hamilton scale, 85.47% of the samples were correctly classified in males, and 66.17% in women, suggesting a tight relationship between laughter and the depressed condition. LIMITATIONS: (i) The compilation of humorous videos created to evoke laughter implied quite variable chances of laughter production. (ii) Some laughing subjects might not feel comfortable when recording. (iii) Evaluation of laughter episodes depended on personal inspection of the records. (iv) Sample size was relatively small and may not be representative of the general population afflicted by depression. CONCLUSIONS: Laughter may be applied as a diagnostic tool in the onset and evolution of depression and, potentially, of neuropsychiatric pathologies. The sound structures of laughter reveal the underlying emotional and mood states in interpersonal relationships.

Validación de la cordancia electroencefálica en la evaluación, pronóstico y tipología de fibromialgia / Validation of electroencephalic cordance for evaluation, prognosis and classification of fibromyalgia

Objetivo: Determinar los indicadores específicos para mejorar el diagnóstico y la evaluación de la gravedad de la fibromialgia, buscando la relación con distintos aspectos psíquicos. Material y método: En el primer estudio se comparó un grupo de 13 pacientes de fibromialgia con un grupo control de 13 individuos. En el segundo estudio se analizaron 56 pacientes antes y después del tratamiento psicoterapéutico ACT. Se calcularon los valores de intensidad de cordancia y se les evaluó mediante diversos cuestionarios psicológicos. Se obtuvieron, mediante el EEG cuantitativo, los valores de cordancia para los distintos electrodos y bandas de frecuencias, así como las correlaciones con los resultados de las pruebas psicológicas. Resultados: Los pacientes con mayor gravedad clínica mostraron valores de la cordancia prefrontal en la banda theta significativamente mayores que los enfermos menos graves. Encontramos una correlación negativa entre los valores prefrontal izquierdo y derecho de la cordancia en la banda theta (Fp1 y Fp2) y el estado global de salud (SF-36). Tras la terapia se observó una disminución significativa de la cordancia de los pacientes en varias regiones, fundamentalmente en prefrontales. Conclusión: Este estudio pone de manifiesto el interés de estudiar la cordancia como método de diagnóstico y tipificación de la fibromialgia (AU)

Objective: The main goal has been to determine specific indicators and to contribute to the diagnosis and assessment of severity of fibromyalgia, also looking for establishing its relationship with several psychological and neuropsychiatric tests. Material and method: In the first study a group of 13 patients with fibromyalgia was compared with a control group of 13 subjects. In the second study, we compared a group of 56 patients before and after Psychotherapy ACT. We calculated the intensity values of cordance and the correlations with various psychological questionnaires. The values of cordance for the different electrodes and frequency bands, as well as the correlations with the results of psychological tests, were obtained from EEG recordings. Results: Patients with clinical severity showed higher values of the prefrontal cordances in the theta band, significantly higher than less severe patients. There is also a strong negative correlation between left and right prefrontal values of concordance in the theta band (Fp1 and Fp2) and global health status (SF-36). After therapy, there was a significant decrease in the cordance of patients in several regions, particularly in the prefrontal regions. Conclusion: This study is the first step for the acceptance of cordance as a new tool for diagnostic and classification of fibromyalgia and other neuropsychiatric disorders (AU)

Cajal and consciousness. Introduction.

One hundred years after Santiago Ramón Cajal established the bases of modern neuroscience in his masterpiece Textura del sistema nervioso del hombre y de los vertebrados, the question is stated again: What is the status of consciousness today? The responses in this book, by contemporary leading figures of neuroscience, evolution, molecular biology, computer science, and quantum physics, collectively compose a fascinating conceptual landscape. Both the evolutionary emergence of consciousness and its development towards the highest level may be analyzed by a wealth of new theories and hypotheses, including Cajal's prescient ones. Some noticeable gaps remain, however. Celebrating the centennial of Textura is a timely occasion to reassess how close--and how far--our system of the sciences is to explaining consciousness.

Enzymes as molecular automata: a stochastic model of self-oscillatory glycolytic cycles in cellular metabolism.

A stochastic model based on the molecular automata approach was developed to simulate the cyclic dynamics of glycolysis-gluconeogenesis in cell energy metabolism. The stochastic algorithm, based on Gillespie's method, simulates the master equation associated with any network of enzymatically controlled reactions. This model of the glycolytic-gluconeogenetic cycle was developed by assembling the stochastic kinetic reactions controlled by two enzymes: phosphofructokinase (PFKase) and fructose-1, 6-biphosphatase (FBPase). In order to obtain the hysteresis behaviour predicted by classical Sel'kov analysis, a minimum complexity is required in the allosteric regulations. This implies that the FBPase cannot have a single binding site for its transition to the inactive state (a minimum of two or three binding sites is necessary). Given the multimeric structure of this enzyme, this kinetic hypothesis is tenable. Other possible applications of the stochastic automata approach for different cases of channels, receptors and enzymatic control are suggested.

Information and the unfolding of social life: molecular-biological resonances reaching up to the economy.

The much vexed analogy between cells, organisms, and societies receives a new treatment here. It is argued that, based on an enlarged view on the relationship between information and life, one can approach economy from an unusual angle: the accounting processes that take place in every productive unit and commercial organization. Such accounting processes have been historically developed in order to coordinate the economic 'physiology' of complex societies. In this sense, the convergence which can be found amongst the abstract, coordinating operations performed by cellular signaling systems, vertebrate nervous systems, and entrepreneurial accounting systems appears as a relevant theoretical item to analyze (the abstract organization of what can be called information 'phase transitions'). Its development lends support to the cogency of a 'vertical' information science approach.

'Gloom in the society of enzymes': on the nature of biological information.

Most approaches to information pay attention only to the 'positive' or constructive side ('presence') of this phenomenon: its composition, construction rules, emergence, effective activity, etc. However, the 'negative' or degrading aspects ('absences', disappearance of activity) are equally important within most biologico-informational processes. In fact, protein degradation can be put on a par with protein synthesis concerning its functionality and sophistication. By taking into account recent integrative discoveries in the molecular biology of the cell (signalling system, cell cycle, apoptosis, protein degradation, enzyme function) a wider approach encompassing both the 'presence' and 'absence' aspects seems possible. The overall dynamics which emerges--involving symmetry breaking and symmetry restoration by means of information processing mechanisms--may be extrapolated to neuronal and socio-economic realms too. Interestingly, the phenomenon of 'absence' can also be pinpointed, at least as a metaphor, within the internal structure of natural numbers.

Enzymes, artificial cells and the nature of biological information.

Recent progresses in enzyme processing within an expanding array of disciplines make the informational analysis of the whole enzymic complexity of the simplest cellular systems appear as a plausible interdisciplinary enterprise. The term 'artificial cell' could be used as a label to encompass these global information processing models of the cell. In a simplified view, three different degrees of enzymic complexity emerge: self-organization, self-reshaping and self-modification. They imply that metabolic enzyme networks endowed with a signaling system and with a 'DNA world', constitute a genuine information processing engine for cellular problem solving, a true molecular 'society'. Philosophically, a new path can be followed to discuss the biological foundations and the paradoxes of the information concept. Other 'informational societies' could be analyzed in a similar way.

Enzymes as molecular automata: a reflection on some numerical and philosophical aspects of the hypothesis.

Enzymes, by means of their properties of specific recognition and allosteric modulation, are able to integrate many separate processes into systemic units with coherent functions; in a sense, they have to be considered as the true organizers of the cytoplasmic processes. In this respect, the present article describes a simple model, based on binary variables and automata theory, which simulates the basic regulatory performance of the modulated enzyme. The model admits a variety of modifications and improvements; it also suggests some original lines of thought on which to reflect about the organization and collective phenomena of the networks of enzymes. In discussing the connection of this 'molecular automata' hypothesis with other areas of present-day theoretical biology, a fertile panorama of initiatives appear. A special partnership between Information Science (computation) and Biology is developing.

Enzymes and theoretical biology: sketch of an informational perspective of the cell.

In the theoretical scenarios of biology, new insights can be gained by the introduction of information-processing and artificial intelligence concepts, helping to organize the explanation of the many intra- and inter-cellular phenomena that molecular biology is accumulating. Enzymes contain some of the immediate clues; the whole informational processing of prokaryotic cells is another central subject of search. Additionally, prolonging the informational perspective of the cell, a significant parallel can be drawn between informational processes in biological, social and artificial intelligence systems. A more tangible definition of biological complexity and biological intelligence emerges.