Fear of the human 'super predator' in native marsupials and introduced deer in Australia.

Recent experiments have demonstrated that carnivores and ungulates in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America fear the human 'super predator' far more than other predators. Australian mammals have been a focus of research on predator naiveté because it is suspected they show atypical antipredator responses. To experimentally test if mammals in Australia also most fear humans, we quantified the responses of four native marsupials (eastern grey kangaroo, Bennett's wallaby, Tasmanian pademelon, common brushtail possum) and introduced fallow deer to playbacks of predator (human, dog, Tasmanian devil, wolf) or non-predator control (sheep) vocalizations. Native marsupials most feared the human 'super predator', fleeing humans 2.4 times more often than the next most frightening predator (dogs), and being most, and significantly, vigilant to humans. These results demonstrate that native marsupials are not naïve to the peril humans pose, substantially expanding the taxonomic and geographic scope of the growing experimental evidence that wildlife worldwide generally perceive humans as the planet's most frightening predator. Introduced fallow deer fled humans, but not more than other predators, which we suggest may result from their being introduced. Our results point to both challenges concerning marsupial conservation and opportunities for exploiting fear of humans as a wildlife management tool.

Quality of life, craniomandibular function, and psychosocial factors related to pain and movement in patients with head and neck cancer.

PURPOSE: To describe the characteristics of and the associations between health-related quality of life, pain, craniomandibular function, and psychosocial factors related to pain and fear of movement in patients with head and neck cancer. METHODS: Seventy-eight patients diagnosed with HNC were recruited. Measurements of the maximum mouth opening range and pressure pain thresholds on the masseter muscle and the distal phalanx of the thumb were conducted, as well as a battery of self-report questionnaires were administrated, including the QoL Questionnaire (EORT QLQ-H&N35), Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), the Spanish translation of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia for Temporomandibular Disorders (TSK-TMD), and the short version of the Craniofacial Pain and Disability Inventory (CF-PDI-11). RESULTS: The study sample (66.7% men, mean age 60.12 [11.95] years) experienced a moderate impact on their QoL levels (57.68 [18.25] EORT QLQ-H&N35) and high kinesiophobia values (20.49 [9.11] TSK-TMD). Pain was present in 41% of the patients, but only 3.8% reported severe pain. 26.4% had a restricted mouth opening range, and 34.62% showed significant catastrophism levels. There were strong positive correlations between EORT QLQ-H&N35 and CF-PDI-11 (r = 0.81), between NRS and CF-PDI-11 (r = 0.74), and between PCS and CF-PDI-11 (r = 0.66). CONCLUSION: Patients with HNC experience negative effects in their QoL, related to their impairment in craniomandibular function. Fear of movement, pain intensity, and catastrophism are associated with poorer functionality; relationships that should be considered when attempting to improve health care.

Erratum: Modified Fear Conditioning for Inducing Flight Behaviors in Mice.

This corrects the article 10.3791/66266.

Minimizing Variability in Developmental Fear Studies in Mice: Toward Improved Replicability in the Field.

In rodents, the first weeks of postnatal life feature remarkable changes in fear memory acquisition, retention, extinction, and discrimination. Early development is also marked by profound changes in brain circuits underlying fear memory processing, with heightened sensitivity to environmental influences and stress, providing a powerful model to study the intersection between brain structure, function, and the impacts of stress. Nevertheless, difficulties related to breeding and housing young rodents, preweaning manipulations, and potential increased variability within that population pose considerable challenges to developmental fear research. Here we discuss several factors that may promote variability in studies examining fear conditioning in young rodents and provide recommendations to increase replicability. We focus primarily on experimental conditions, design, and analysis of rodent fear data, with an emphasis on mouse studies. The convergence of anatomical, synaptic, physiological, and behavioral changes during early life may increase variability, but careful practice and transparency in reporting may improve rigor and consensus in the field. © 2024 The Authors. Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Social anxiety and psychological distress among polycystic ovarian syndrome patient's in Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the fear of negative evaluation as a predictor, and to explore the association of social anxiety with psychological correlates among women with polycystic ovaries. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2020 to November 2021 after approval form the University of Central Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, and comprised unmarried women aged 18-26 diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome. The sample was raised from different clinics and hospitals based in Lahore and Gujranwala cities. The sample was divided into obese, hirsutism and acne vulgaris groups. Data was collected using a demographic proforma along with standardised Derriford Appearance Scale, Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, University of California, Los Angeles, Loneliness Scale and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. Data was analysed using SPSS 24. RESULTS: Of the 180 patients, 60(33.3%) were in each of the 3 groups. The overall mean age was 21.4+/-2.27 years. A significant association of fear of negative evaluation was found with appearance distress, social anxiety and loneliness (p<0.05). The fear of negative evaluation and appearance distress also significantly predicted loneliness in the subjects (p<0.01). The obese group scored significantly higher in terms of fear of negative evaluation and social anxiety compared to the other groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: Women with polycystic ovaries were found to be suffering from adverse psychological outcomes and social anxiety.

The effect of social anxiety on threat acquisition and extinction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Although exposure-based therapy has been found to be effective at alleviating symptoms of social anxiety disorder, it often does not lead to full remission, and relapse after treatment is common. Exposure therapy is based on theoretical principles of extinction of conditioned fear responses. However, there are inconsistencies in findings across experiments that have investigated the effect of social anxiety on threat conditioning and extinction processes. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine whether elevated levels of social anxiety are associated with abnormalities in threat conditioning and extinction processes. A second aim was to examine the sensitivity of various study designs and characteristics to detect social anxiety-related differences in threat conditioning and extinction. A systematic search was conducted, which identified twenty-three experiments for inclusion in the review. The findings did not demonstrate compelling evidence that high levels of social anxiety are associated with atypical threat conditioning or extinction. Further, when systematically examining the data, there was no convincing support that the use of a particular psychophysiological measure, subjective rating, or experimental parameter yields more consistent associations between social anxiety and conditioning processes during threat acquisition or extinction. Meta-analyses demonstrated that during threat extinction, the use of anxiety ratings as a dependent variable, socially relevant unconditioned stimuli, and a higher reinforcement schedule produced more detectable effects of social anxiety on compromised extinction processes compared to any other dependent variable (subjective or physiological) or experimental parameter. Overall, the results of this study suggest that social anxiety is not reliably related to deficits in conditioning and extinction processes in the context of laboratory-based Pavlovian conditioning paradigms.

Pain and daily interference among reproductive-age women with myofascial pelvic pain: Serial mediation roles of kinesiophobia, self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing.

BACKGROUND: Myofascial pelvic pain (MFPP), which is identified by tender points in the pelvic floor musculature, is a prevalent source of chronic pelvic pain in women. It may lead to physical and mental exhaustion, reproductive concerns, and coping difficulties in daily life and work than the disease itself. Pain-related cognitive processes can affect pain relief and quality of life. Kinesiophobia, self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing are frequently treated as mediators between pain and its related consequences. Greater kinesiophobia and pain catastrophizing have been shown to be associated with adverse functional outcomes, while higher self-efficacy has been related with improved quality of life. Regarding MFPP in females of childbearing age, it remains unclear whether the effects of kinesiophobia, self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing on daily interference are direct or indirect; the influence on each variable is, therefore, not entirely evident. AIM: The present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between pain and daily interference in reproductive-age women with MFPP through kinesiophobia, self-efficacy and pain catastrophizing, as well as to identify areas for future investigation and intervention based on the data collected from this population. METHODS: This is a multi-center cross-sectional study. The study was conducted from November 15, 2022 to November 10, 2023, 202 reproductive-age women with MFPP were recruited from 14 hospitals in ten provinces of China. The demographic variables, Brief Pain Inventory, Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia, Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, and Pain Catastrophizing Scale were used to measure the participants' related information. The data was described and analyzed using Descriptive analyses, Pearson correlation analysis, and Serial mediation modeling. RESULTS: Pain not only had a direct positive impact (B = 0.575; SE = 0.081; 95%CI: LL = 0.415, UL = 0.735) on daily interference, but also had an indirect impact on daily interference through the independent mediating role of pain catastrophizing (B = 0.088; SE = 0.028; 95%CI: LL = 0.038, UL = 0.148), the chain mediating of kinesiophobia and catastrophizing (B = 0.057; SE = 0.019; 95%CI: LL = 0.024, UL = 0.098), and the four-stage serial mediating of kinesiophobia, self-efficacy and catastrophizing (B = 0.013; SE = 0.006; 95%CI: LL = 0.003, UL = 0.027). The proposed serial mediation model showed a good fit with the collected data. CONCLUSION: The findings illustrate the significance of addressing pain catastrophizing and kinesiophobia (especially catastrophizing), and increasing self-efficacy in pain therapy, and suggest that functional recovery be integrated into pain therapy for reproductive-age women suffering from MFPP.

Improved Perception of Aggression Under (un)Related Threat of Shock.

Anxiety shifts visual attention and perceptual mechanisms, preparing oneself to detect potentially threatening information more rapidly. Despite being demonstrated for threat-related social stimuli, such as fearful expressions, it remains unexplored if these effects encompass other social cues of danger, such as aggressive gestures/actions. To this end, we recruited a total of 65 participants and asked them to identify, as quickly and accurately as possible, potentially aggressive actions depicted by an agent. By introducing and manipulating the occurrence of electric shocks, we induced safe and threatening conditions. In addition, the association between electric shocks and aggression was also manipulated. Our result showed that participants have improved sensitivity, with no changes to criterion, when detecting aggressive gestures during threat compared to safe conditions. Furthermore, drift diffusion model analysis showed that under threat participants exhibited faster evidence accumulation toward the correct perceptual decision. Lastly, the relationship between threat source and aggression appeared to not impact any of the effects described above. Overall, our results indicate that the benefits gained from states of anxiety, such as increased sensitivity toward threat and greater evidence accumulation, are transposable to social stimuli capable of signaling danger other than facial expressions.

The psychometric evaluation of the Italian version of the Surgical Fear Questionnaire in adult patients waiting for major cardiac surgery.

Background and aim: Preoperative surgical fear is an emotional reaction that can be observed in many patients who are waiting to undergo a surgical procedure. The Surgical Fear Questionnaire was originally developed to determine the level of fear in patients who are expected to undergo elective surgery. This study aims to test the validity and reliability of this Italian version in a population of patients waiting for major cardiac surgery. Study design: Methodological research model. Methods: The population of this methodological study included the patients who presented to Lecco Hospital in Italy between January 2022 and October 2023 and were scheduled to undergo valve surgery, aortic surgery or coronary surgery; the sample involved 416 patients who met the inclusion criteria. Results: Results of the analyses showed that the Surgical Fear Questionnaire can be used with two subscales; the "Surgical Fear Questionnaire-S", which shows the fear of the short-term consequences of cardiac-surgery, and the "Surgical Fear Questionnaire-L", which shows the fear of the long-term consequences of cardiac-surgery. The mean score of the patients was 26.32+9.23 on the former, 27.62+11.89 on the latter, and 53.94 +19.16 for the entire questionnaire. The Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.952 for the "Surgical Fear Questionnaire-S", 0.920 for the "Surgical Fear Questionnaire-L", and 0.914 for the entire questionnaire. Conclusion: Based on the validity and reliability tests, we consider the questionnaire adaptable to the Italian reality, specifically to the population waiting for major cardiac surgery.

The basal forebrain to lateral habenula circuitry mediates social behavioral maladaptation.

Elucidating the neural basis of fear allows for more effective treatments for maladaptive fear often observed in psychiatric disorders. Although the basal forebrain (BF) has an essential role in fear learning, its function in fear expression and the underlying neuronal and circuit substrates are much less understood. Here we report that BF glutamatergic neurons are robustly activated by social stimulus following social fear conditioning in male mice. And cell-type-specific inhibition of those excitatory neurons largely reduces social fear expression. At the circuit level, BF glutamatergic neurons make functional contacts with the lateral habenula (LHb) neurons and these connections are potentiated in conditioned mice. Moreover, optogenetic inhibition of BF-LHb glutamatergic pathway significantly reduces social fear responses. These data unravel an important function of the BF in fear expression via its glutamatergic projection onto the LHb, and suggest that selective targeting BF-LHb excitatory circuitry could alleviate maladaptive fear in relevant disorders.

Medical secretaries' fears and opportunities in an increasingly digitalised workplace environment.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore how medical secretaries experience digital transformation in a Swedish healthcare organisation, with a focus on workplace climate and health. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Data were collected using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design based on grounded theory, with qualitative data collection (a Quality Café and individual interviews) followed by quantitative data collection (a questionnaire). FINDINGS: Four categories with seven underlying factors were identified, emphasising the crucial need for effective organisation of digital transformation. This is vital due to the increased knowledge and skills in utilising technology. The evolving roles and responsibilities of medical secretaries in dynamic healthcare settings should be clearly defined and acknowledged, highlighting the importance of professionality. Ensuring proper training for medical secretaries and other occupations in emerging techniques is crucial, emphasising equal value and knowledge across each role. Associations were found between some factors and the health of medical secretaries. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: This study adds to the knowledge on digital transformation in healthcare by examining an important occupation. Most data were collected online, which may be a limitation of this study. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Several aspects of the medical secretaries' experiences were identified. Knowledge of these is valuable for healthcare managers to make digital transformation more effective while avoiding excessive strain on medical secretaries. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Medical secretaries are expected to contribute to the digitalisation of healthcare. However, minimal research has been conducted on the role of medical secretaries in workplace digitalisation, focusing on workplace roles and its dynamics.

I rely on a little help from my friends: the effect of interpersonal and intrapersonal emotion regulation on the relationship between FOMO and problematic internet use.

BACKGROUND: This study investigated the role of emotion regulation in relation to the links between fear of missing out (i.e., FOMO) and two components of problematic internet use: problematic social media use and doomscrolling. METHODS: Participants (N = 603, Mage = 30.41, SDage = 7.64; 49.1% male-identifying) completed measures of fear of missing out, intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation, and problematic social media use, and doomscrolling. A parallel mediation model was tested to examine the nature of the associations between fear of missing out, intrapersonal, and interpersonal emotion regulation, in accounting for variance in the outcome measures. RESULTS: Analyses revealed that the effect of fear of missing out on problematic social media use was fully mediated by both intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation. In contrast, the effect on doomscrolling was fully mediated by intrapersonal emotion regulation only. CONCLUSIONS: Findings clarify the role of emotion regulation in explaining the relationship between fear of missing out and two types of problematic internet use, indicating a need to consider individual differences in emotion regulation in an evolving social media landscape.

Modality-specific effects of threat on self-motion perception.

BACKGROUND: Threat and individual differences in threat-processing bias perception of stimuli in the environment. Yet, their effect on perception of one's own (body-based) self-motion in space is unknown. Here, we tested the effects of threat on self-motion perception using a multisensory motion simulator with concurrent threatening or neutral auditory stimuli. RESULTS: Strikingly, threat had opposite effects on vestibular and visual self-motion perception, leading to overestimation of vestibular, but underestimation of visual self-motions. Trait anxiety tended to be associated with an enhanced effect of threat on estimates of self-motion for both modalities. CONCLUSIONS: Enhanced vestibular perception under threat might stem from shared neural substrates with emotional processing, whereas diminished visual self-motion perception may indicate that a threatening stimulus diverts attention away from optic flow integration. Thus, threat induces modality-specific biases in everyday experiences of self-motion.

Infralimbic activity during REM sleep facilitates fear extinction memory.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is known to facilitate fear extinction and play a protective role against fearful memories.1,2 Consequently, disruption of REM sleep after a traumatic event may increase the risk for developing PTSD.3,4 However, the underlying mechanisms by which REM sleep promotes extinction of aversive memories remain largely unknown. The infralimbic cortex (IL) is a key brain structure for the consolidation of extinction memory.5 Using calcium imaging, we found in mice that most IL pyramidal neurons are intensively activated during REM sleep. Optogenetically suppressing the IL specifically during REM sleep within a 4-h window after auditory-cued fear conditioning impaired extinction memory consolidation. In contrast, REM-specific IL inhibition after extinction learning did not affect the extinction memory. Whole-cell patch-clamp recordings demonstrated that inactivating IL neurons during REM sleep depresses their excitability. Together, our findings suggest that REM sleep after fear conditioning facilitates fear extinction by enhancing IL excitability and highlight the importance of REM sleep in the aftermath of traumatic events for protecting against traumatic memories.

Drawing as a window to emotion with insights from tech-transformed participant images.

This study delves into expressing primary emotions anger, happiness, sadness, and fear through drawings. Moving beyond the well-researched color-emotion link, it explores under-examined aspects like spatial concepts and drawing styles. Employing Python and OpenCV for objective analysis, we make a breakthrough by converting subjective perceptions into measurable data through 728 digital images from 182 university students. For the prominent color chosen for each emotion, the majority of participants chose red for anger (73.11%), yellow for happiness (17.8%), blue for sadness (51.1%), and black for fear (40.7%). Happiness led with the highest saturation (68.52%) and brightness (75.44%) percentages, while fear recorded the lowest in both categories (47.33% saturation, 48.78% brightness). Fear, however, topped in color fill percentage (35.49%), with happiness at the lowest (25.14%). Tangible imagery prevailed (71.43-83.52%), with abstract styles peaking in fear representations (28.57%). Facial expressions were a common element (41.76-49.45%). The study achieved an 81.3% predictive accuracy for anger, higher than the 71.3% overall average. Future research can build on these results by improving technological methods to quantify more aspects of drawing content. Investigating a more comprehensive array of emotions and examining factors influencing emotional drawing styles will further our understanding of visual-emotional communication.

Chronic ingestion of soy peptide supplementation reduces aggressive behavior and abnormal fear memory caused by juvenile social isolation.

Juvenile loneliness is a risk factor for psychopathology in later life. Deprivation of early social experience due to peer rejection has a detrimental impact on emotional and cognitive brain function in adulthood. Accumulating evidence indicates that soy peptides have many positive effects on higher brain function in rodents and humans. However, the effects of soy peptide use on juvenile social isolation are unknown. Here, we demonstrated that soy peptides reduced the deterioration of behavioral and cellular functions resulting from juvenile socially-isolated rearing. We found that prolonged social isolation post-weaning in male C57BL/6J mice resulted in higher aggression and impulsivity and fear memory deficits at 7 weeks of age, and that these behavioral abnormalities, except impulsivity, were mitigated by ingestion of soy peptides. Furthermore, we found that daily intake of soy peptides caused upregulation of postsynaptic density 95 in the medial prefrontal cortex and phosphorylation of the cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element binding protein in the hippocampus of socially isolated mice, increased phosphorylation of the adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase in the hippocampus, and altered the microbiota composition. These results suggest that soy peptides have protective effects against juvenile social isolation-induced behavioral deficits via synaptic maturation and cellular functionalization.

Workplace violence and depressive symptoms: the mediating role of fear of future workplace violence and burnout among Chinese nurses.

BACKGROUND: The mechanisms underlying the relationship between workplace violence (WPV) and depressive symptoms in nurses have been less studied. This study aims to examine the mediating role of fear of future workplace violence (FFWV) and burnout in the association between WPV and depressive symptoms. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional web survey at 12 tertiary hospitals in Shandong province, China, in 2020. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10), the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey and the Fear of Future Violence at Work Scale were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and ordinary least squares regression with bootstrap resampling were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 45.9% among nurses. The regression model showed that FFWV and burnout mediated the relationship between WPV and depressive symptoms. The total effects of WPV on depressive symptoms (3.109, 95% bootstrap CI:2.324 - 3.713) could be decomposed into direct (2.250, 95% bootstrap CI:1.583 - 2.917) and indirect effects (0.769, 95% bootstrap CI:0.543 - 1.012). Indirect effects mediated by FFWV and burnout were 0.203 (95% bootstrap CI:0.090 - 0.348) and 0.443 (95% bootstrap CI:0.262 - 0.642), respectively. Furthermore, serial multiple mediation analyses indicated that the indirect effect mediated by FFWV and burnout in a sequential manner was 0.123 (95% bootstrap CI:0.070 - 0.189). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depressive symptoms among Chinese nurses was high. The WPV was an important risk factor for depressive symptoms and its negative effect was mediated by FFWV and burnout. The importance of decreasing WPV exposure and level of FFWV and burnout was emphasized to prevent depressive symptoms among nurses. The findings implied that hospital managers and health policy makers should not only develop targeted interventions to reduce exposure to WPV in daily work among all nurses, but also provide psychological support to nurses with WPV experience to reduce FFWV and burnout.

Facial representations of complex affective states combining pain and a negative emotion.

Pain is rarely communicated alone, as it is often accompanied by emotions such as anger or sadness. Communicating these affective states involves shared representations. However, how an individual conceptually represents these combined states must first be tested. The objective of this study was to measure the interaction between pain and negative emotions on two types of facial representations of these states, namely visual (i.e., interactive virtual agents; VAs) and sensorimotor (i.e., one's production of facial configurations). Twenty-eight participants (15 women) read short written scenarios involving only pain or a combined experience of pain and a negative emotion (anger, disgust, fear, or sadness). They produced facial configurations representing these experiences on the faces of the VAs and on their face (own production or imitation of VAs). The results suggest that affective states related to a direct threat to the body (i.e., anger, disgust, and pain) share a similar facial representation, while those that present no immediate danger (i.e., fear and sadness) differ. Although visual and sensorimotor representations of these states provide congruent affective information, they are differently influenced by factors associated with the communication cycle. These findings contribute to our understanding of pain communication in different affective contexts.

Lung cancer-specific symptoms and fear of cancer recurrence among recurrence-free non-small cell lung cancer survivors.

PURPOSE: Lung cancer survivors have more psychosocial problems, including depression and anxiety disorder, than other cancer survivors. Lung cancer-specific symptoms, such as cough, dyspnea, or pain in chest, might increase FCR among survivors. We aimed to evaluate the association between lung cancer-specific symptoms and FCR among recurrence-free non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survivors. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. Recurrence-free NSCLC survivors were recruited from January to October 2020 at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. We measured FCR using the Korean version of FCRI-SF and categorized them into three groups: non-clinical FCR (nFCR, < 13), subclinical FCR (sFCR, 13 to 21), and clinical FCR (cFCR, ≥ 22). Lung cancer-specific symptoms were measured using the Korean version of EORTC QLQ-LC13 and EORTC QLQ-C30. RESULTS: A total of 727 survivors were enrolled. One-third (30.8%) of survivors reported sFCR, and 19.7% had cFCR. In a multivariate analysis, survivors with severe pain in chest were 4.7 times (95% CI: 2.4-9.0) more likely to experience cFCR compared to those without it. Mild dyspnea (OR 1.7, 95% CI: 1.1-2.7) and mild dysphagia (OR 2.4, 95% CI: 1.3-4.4) were associated with cFCR. Survivors with sFCR (Coef. - 6.3, 95% CI: - 9.8, - 2.8) and cFCR (Coef. - 11.3, 95% CI: - 15.5, - 7.2) had poorer quality of life compared to survivors with nFCR. CONCLUSION: NSCLC survivors were experiencing lung cancer-specific symptoms even a few years after treatment, which were associated with cFCR, resulting in poor HRQoL. It is necessary to develop a lung cancer-specific symptom checklist and use it during even long-term surveillance.