Effects of storytelling on the childhood brain: near-infrared spectroscopic comparison with the effects of picture-book reading.

In children, storytelling provides many psychological and educational benefits, such as enhanced imagination to help visualize spoken words, improved vocabulary, and more refined communication skills. However, the brain mechanisms underlying the effects of storytelling on children are not clear. In this study, the effects of storytelling on the brains of children were assessed by using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Results indicated significant decreases of the blood flow in the bilateral prefrontal areas during picture-book reading when the subjects were familiarized in comparison to the cases of the subject naïve to the stories. However, no significant differences in the blood flow were found during storytelling between the subjects naïve and familiarized to the stories. The results indicated more sustained brain activation to storytelling in comparison with picture-book reading, suggesting possible advantages of storytelling as a psychological and educational medium in children.

[Establishment of a practical training program in smoking cessation for use by pharmacists using cognitive-behavioral therapy and the motivational interview method].

We established a practical training program to nurture pharmacists who can give smoking cessation instructions. The program was provided to 85 interns (45 males and 40 females) in Teikyo University Hospital. The one-day practical training was provided to groups comprised of five members each. The training consisted of studies on the adverse effects of smoking, general outlines of the outpatient smoking cessation service, experiencing Smokerlyzer, studies about smoking-cessation drugs, studies about a smoking cessation therapy using cognitive-behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing, and case studies applying role-playing. Before and after the practical training, we conducted a questionnaire survey consisting of The Kano Test for Social Nicotine Dependence (KTSND) and the assessment of the smoking status, changes in attitudes to smoking, and willingness and confidence to give smoking cessation instructions. The overall KTSND score significantly dropped from 14.1±4.8 before the training to 8.9±4.8 after the training. The confidence to give smoking cessation instructions significantly increased from 3.4±1.9 to 6.2±1.3. Regarding the correlation between the smoking status and willingness and confidence to give smoking cessation instructions, the willingness and confidence were lower among the group of interns who either smoked or had smoked previously, suggesting that smoking had an adverse effect. A total of 88.2% of the interns answered that their attitudes to smoking had "changed slightly" or "changed" as a result of the training, indicating changes in their attitudes to smoking. Given the above, we believe that our newly-established smoking cessation instruction training is a useful educational tool.