Depression is a common, debilitating mental disorder. Due to its frequency and negative effects, there is a strong need for the development of efficient treatments. Especially since a large...Show moreDepression is a common, debilitating mental disorder. Due to its frequency and negative effects, there is a strong need for the development of efficient treatments. Especially since a large percentage of people is resistant to commonly prescribed antidepressant interventions. Rumination is an important symptom and predictor of depression, and it has been linked to dysfunctional default mode network (DMN) connectivity in depression. A better understanding of the relationship between the DMN and rumination may help us understand depression better, which may support the development of new interventions. This study focuses on rumination and its effects on the DMN during a working memory (WM) task in healthy participants. This was tested by inducing rumination in participants before the WM task, where DMN and DMN subsystem connectivity were compared to participants who did not receive rumination induction. Results showed that inducing rumination during tasks requiring external focus does not increase functional connectivity of the DMN. Both the overall DMN connectivity and subsystem connectivity did not show any significant differences between groups. Furthermore, time-related changes in DMN connectivity were explored, but results indicated no significant changes either. Studies with depression showed that DMN connectivity is increased during WM tasks which was linked to rumination. But in this study with healthy participants DMN connectivity was suppressed during the WM task, even after inducing rumination. Therefore, these findings suggest that inducing rumination does not lead to insufficient DMN suppression in healthy participants, and that insufficient depression may be exclusive to depression.Show less
Itch can produce significant problems and diminish quality of life because it requires a great deal of attention. The studies conducted on attentional bias towards itch differ greatly in results....Show moreItch can produce significant problems and diminish quality of life because it requires a great deal of attention. The studies conducted on attentional bias towards itch differ greatly in results. The primary aim of the current meta-analysis is to determine the overall extent of attentional bias towards visual itch stimuli which healthy individuals display when measured with the dot-probe task. A secondary aim is to investigate how strongly the individual character trait neuroticism predicts attentional bias towards itch in healthy individuals. In total, 563 healthy participants from seven different studies had been included in this meta-analysis for the first hypothesis, and 408 healthy participants from five studies for the second hypothesis. The main findings of the present meta-analysis do not support the notion that healthy individuals display attentional bias towards itch pictures and words (ES = 0.76, SE = 3.43, t (4.27) = 0.22, P = 0.835, 95% CI: -.3.39 to 4.04). Furthermore, it does not support the notion that individuals who score higher on neuroticism have an attentional bias towards itch pictures and words (ES = 0.33, SE = 0.38, t (326.33) = -0.88, P = 0.381, 95% CI: -3.24 to 3.87). This meta-analysis leads to prospective directions to further explore different factors of attentional bias towards itch stimuli. Future researchers need to investigate whether itch stimuli may potentially be biased in patients with chronic itch. Furthermore, studies are needed to investigate whether attentional bias is not reflected in these studies and how the differences in results are caused, for instance by researching other character traits.Show less
