Annals of Neurosciences最新文献

Background: Brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) aid in the diagnosis of probable neurologic disorders of the VIIIth cranial nerve, the associated auditory pathways, and an estimation of hearing sensitivity, for those who are unable to reliably provide information through behavioural hearing evaluations. BAEPs exhibit variabilities due to numerous pathologic and non-pathologic factors. One of the factors that may have a significant impact on typical BAEPs is gender. Although there are numerous studies documenting gender as an influencing factor on auditory evoked potentials in older subjects, there are few comparable studies among subjects who are just entering adulthood.

Objective: The current study aimed to understand the pattern of gender-based differences in BAEPs among emerging adults of Northern India.

Methods: The present study was conducted on 120 normal subjects (70 females, 50 males) who were relatives (second degree) of the patients belonging to Northern India aged between 19 and 25 years old, at the Institute of Medical Sciences. Absolute latencies I, III, V and Inter-peak latencies I-III, I-V, III-V were measured separately for both ears. Statistical analysis was done by using the independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test based on normality through SPSS version 20.0.

Results: Results revealed a statistically significant difference in absolute latency of Wave I and inter-peak latency (IPL) of I-III, I-V in the right ear and in the left ear. Wave III and IPL III-V were found to be significant. Females showed shorter absolute latencies and IPLs as compared to males.

Conclusion: Significant alterations in BAEPs provide evidence for the potential contribution of gender as an influencing factor in emerging adulthood.

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is associated with lower heart rate variability (HRV) and multiple psychological and sleep disturbances. OM chanting, a scriptural form of meditation, has been shown to improve multiple cardiac, psychological, and autonomic factors in different cohorts.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of listening to OM chanting composed at 528Hz on heart rate, blood pressure, HRV, psychological general wellbeing, and quality of sleep in patients with HTN.

Methods: Sixty patients with diagnosed Stage 1 HTN were randomised into control and intervention groups. Patients in the experimental group listened to an audio recording of OM chanting daily for one month. Patients in the control group received standard care. Outcome measures were assessed immediately after the first session and at the end of one month.

Results: After one month of intervention, a significant (p < .05) reduction in the pulse, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), a significant increase in RMSSD, SDNN, PNN50, HF, Total power, and LF/HF ratio was observed at the end of the first session and at the end of the intervention. No adverse events were reported during the trial period. Repeated-measures two-way ANOVA results indicate that significant time-dependent effects of OM chanting on pulse and SBP, and a marginal positive trend of effects on SDNN and RMSSD. Pearson correlation analysis indicates that the intervention group showed decoupling of the BP-sleep link, hinting at a beneficial effect.

Conclusion: Listening to 528 Hz frequency OM chanting for one month reduces pulse and blood pressure, and enhances parasympathetic dominance on HRV analysis. It also improves psychological wellbeing, reduces perceived stress, and improves the quality of sleep. OM can be considered an important non-pharmacologic therapy in HTN. It is convenient, socially, and culturally acceptable, harmless, and in sync with deeply rooted religious/spiritual practices of the community.

Background: Previous studies have shown improvement in anxiety and cardiac parameters among university students. However, no systematic review and meta-analysis have examined the effect of yoga-based interventions on heart rate variability (HRV) and anxiety among students.

Purpose: To synthesise the evidence regarding the effects of yoga-based intervention on improving HRV and anxiety among students.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed the effects of yoga on anxiety and HRV up to March 2025. We included the RCTs that assess both HRV and subjective measures of anxiety in the student population. The quality of the included studies was evaluated by the Cochrane 'risk of bias' tool (version 2019). Meta-analyses were conducted using RevMan software.

Results: The search identified 255 studies, out of which five studies met the inclusion criteria. Four studies were included in the meta-analysis, which show a positive impact of yoga on anxiety and HRV measures among the students.

Conclusion: Yoga reduces anxiety and improves HRV among the students. Further rigorous studies are needed to identify the optimal characteristics of yoga for the students.

Background: As John Dewey said-'School is a miniature form of society'. As India is a diverse country, our schools and colleges have students from culturally diverse backgrounds, and they have different kinds of habitual ways of learning, thinking and remembering information, that is, cognitive style. So, it is very important for teachers to know and understand the cognitive style and have cultural intelligence (CQ) to foster learning, diversity and inclusiveness in classrooms.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore the cognitive styles of pupil teachers in relation to their CQ with reference to gender, stream and family type.

Methods: In this study Descriptive Survey method is used to collect and analyse the data accurately. A standard tool on cognitive style and a self-made Likert-scale on CQ were used to collect research data from 100 pupil teachers belonging to different colleges of Kanpur city by using the Random Sampling technique.

Results: The results indicated that both male and female pupil teachers, as well as the pupil teachers living in joint and nuclear families, were found to have cognitive styles to the same extent in relation to their CQ. The cognitive style of arts stream pupil teachers was found to be significantly more from the cognitive style of science stream pupil teachers in relation to their CQ.

Conclusion: The findings urge a major concern towards pupil teachers to focus on Cognitive Style and CQ as it develops reasoning, understanding, patterns of adjustment to foster multicultural interaction that promotes unity in diversity.

Background: One of the primary cognitive impairments in people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is working memory difficulties. This study investigates the connection between teenage ADHD symptom subtypes and working memory components, including verbal, visuospatial and central executive.

Purpose: To examine how specific working memory subcomponents predict ADHD symptoms (inattention and learning problems), and to investigate potential gender differences in working memory performance among adolescents with ADHD.

Methods: Fifty children and adolescents (8-16.4 years old) with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD who were receiving treatment and medication in a hospital in Delhi-NCR were assessed. Parents completed the Conners 3 Parent Rating Scale, and adolescents were administered the Digit Span and Letter-Number Sequencing subtests from the WISC-IV and the Bender-Gestalt Test. Statistical analyses included Pearson's correlation, Mann-Whitney U test.

Results: Learning problems and inattention as components were negatively associated with working memory. The visuospatial component assessed by the Bender-Gestalt Test had no significant correlation with ADHD components. No significant gender differences in working memory performance were observed.

Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of targeted cognitive interventions for both genders, emphasising working memory enhancement to reduce ADHD-related impairments. Future studies should use larger and more diverse sample sizes and examine working memory in relation to ADHD severity and comorbid conditions.

Background: Ageing is a natural process observed in all living organisms. It is a complex biological process involving many genes and pathways. As such, ageing in an organism is associated with an increased likelihood of developing various neurological diseases, for example, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD).

Purpose: Ageing is associated with many complex processes and functions that are highly interconnected. In this study, we identified pivotal nodes or hubs that significantly contribute to an ageing network, including those highly connected nodes within the network that are particularly important, using available bioinformatics tools in humans and other model organisms. Thus, mutating or altering any of these nodes in a network can result in significant changes in the overall functioning of an organism.

Methods: For this study, the ageing genes of humans and mice were retrieved from the GenAge database, while the ageing genes of rats were retrieved from the Ageing & Age related Diseases present in Rat Genome Database. STRING (version 11.5), an online tool, was used to create the network. Cytoscape (version 3.10.0), an open-source software with an integrated tool called cytoHubba, was used to identify the hubs from the STRING network in humans, mice and rats. The online tool Enrichr was used to test the functional enrichment of hub genes in humans.

Results: TP53, Trp53 and Actb were identified as important genes in the network, contributing significantly to the process of ageing in humans, mice and rats, respectively, along with others in the network.

Conclusion: Identification of these hubs from the network of ageing and ageing-associated genes deserves further investigation to advance existing knowledge and to improve our understanding of ageing in humans and other model organisms.

Background: In the face of deadline-bound projects and tight work schedules, Indian Information technology (IT) employees may have to rely on positive psychological resources to maintain and enhance their psychological well-being (PWB). However, the inevitable experience of stress in IT workplaces may pose a significant challenge to their PWB via its negative association with positive psychological resources.

Purpose: Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, the current study attempts to explore the mediating role of job satisfaction (JS) in the relationship between work ability (WA) and PWB of Indian IT employees. Additionally, utilising the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the study further explores the moderating role of perceived stress (PS) in the WA-PWB relationship via JS.

Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design and collected data from 312 employees (193 males and 119 females) in the IT sector. Work Ability Index, Job Satisfaction Survey, Perceived Stress Scale and Ryff's Psychological Well-being scale were used to collect data. Correlation, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used to analyse the collected data.

Results: Correlation analysis revealed that WA was positively associated with PWB (r = 0.524, p < .01). Mediation analysis revealed that JS partially mediated the relationship between WA and PWB (indirect effect = 0.218, SE = 0.062, 95%CI = [0.105, 0.348]). Moderated mediation analysis revealed that PS moderated the relationship between JS and PWB (β = -0.0085, SE = 0.0026, p < .01, 95%CI = [-0.0135, -0.0034]) as well as the WA-PWB relationship via JS (Index of moderated mediation = -0.0143, SE = 0.0051, 95%CI = [-0.0257, -0.0056]).

Conclusion: The study's findings reveal how the various pathways shaped by WA, JS and PS are associated with PWB of Indian IT employees. The alignment of the findings with JD-R and COR provides theoretically driven insights for Indian IT organisations to consider while formulating their wellness programmes.

Background: Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a well-known, yet underreported, complication of Diabetes mellitus (DM). CAN assessment can be performed using heart rate variability (HRV) and Ewing's battery of tests. Severity of CAN may be affected by multiple factors like glycaemic control, obesity and co-existing distal neuropathy. However, the relationship between CAN and these factors remains underexplored.

Purpose: We conducted the present study to assess the relationship between the prevalence of CAN in patients with DM and associated factors like obesity and glycaemic control.

Methods: Clinically diagnosed patients of DM were recruited. They were divided into duration <5 years (early onset, 'Dur < 5') and ≥5 years (long-standing, 'Dur ≥ 5') and evaluated using HRV and Ewing's battery of tests. Apparently, healthy young adult controls were recruited as controls. Cardiac autonomic tone and reactivity parameters were compared between the groups.

Results: We recruited 50 patients with DM (25 'Dur < 5' and 25 'Dur ≥ 5') and 34 healthy controls. Controls were significantly younger than the patients. Height, weight and BMI were comparable between the groups. Patients had impaired cardiac autonomic tone but preserved response to reactivity tests when compared with controls. Normal BMI and good glycaemic control, indicated by lower values of HbA1C, may be responsible for these results.

Conclusions: Patients with DM demonstrated reduced tone but preserved autonomic reactivity, even when compared with younger, apparently healthy controls. Normal BMI and relatively lower HbA1C values may contribute to this phenomenon. Such patients may be identified and targeted for early clinical intervention for ANS salvage.

Background: In the Indian sociocultural context, women are disproportionately affected by mental health concerns, irrespective of their occupational status. The coping mechanisms employed to manage daily stressors are often maladaptive, contributing to the onset and maintenance of psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression. These conditions may further impair their affect regulation, particularly in the expression of anger.

Purpose: The study aims to see the role of depressive symptoms as a mediator of self-silencing and expression of anger among women living in the National Capital Region of Delhi, northern part of India, considering their possible consequences on women's psychological well-being.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional design with 201 participants aged 25-50 years, divided into two groups of 100 Working Women (WW) and 101 Non-Working Women (NWW), using the measures of Silencing the Self Scale (STSS), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2. Statistical analysis was conducted using International Business Machines Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBMSPSS) Statistics software, version 28.0, to perform both descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The results indicate robust findings on the mediational analysis of depressive symptoms between self-silencing and expression of anger. The direct effect of self-silencing on expression of rage was β = 1.01 (p < .01); β = 0.56 (p < .01). The total indirect effect (β = 0.456, p < .01) through the mediator, with a point estimate of 0.4617. Significant difference was found between WW and NWW on the domains of self-silencing, depressive symptoms and anger expression.

Conclusion: In the light of this, there is an alarming concern over the mitigation of these factors related to the mental health of women, who negotiate both professional and household roles in Indian context.

Background: Female sex workers rescued from trafficking or exploitative circumstances experience complex psychological challenges that extend beyond immediate trauma. Their recovery often depends on the restoration of autonomy and the rebuilding of self-acceptance, both of which are closely tied to perceived well-being. Understanding these relationships is essential for designing effective, sustainable rehabilitation programs.

Summary: This systematic review examined studies exploring autonomy, self-acceptance, and well-being among rescued female sex workers. A comprehensive search across Public/Publisher MEDLINE (PubMed), Psychological Information Database (PsycINFO), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and Cochrane databases (January 2010-December 2023) identified 23 studies including 2,847 participants from 15 countries. Quality appraisal used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for observational studies and the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for interventional designs. Findings indicated a strong positive correlation between autonomy development and self-acceptance (r = 0.67, p < 0.001), both of which were associated with higher well-being scores. Key factors influencing psychological recovery included duration of exploitation, age at rescue, access to mental health services, and opportunities for social reintegration.

Key message: Restoring autonomy and fostering self-acceptance are central to psychological recovery and long-term well-being among rescued female sex workers. Rehabilitation programs that adopt trauma-informed and culturally sensitive approaches emphasizing empowerment, dignity, and agency demonstrate the most effective outcomes for recovery and reintegration.