Interpersonal touch and affective touch play a crucial role in social interactions and have a positive influence on mental health. The social distancing regulations implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced the ability to engage in interpersonal touch. This could cause longing for touch, and it might subsequently alter the way in which affective touch is perceived. To investigate this, we conducted an online survey and included 1982 participants, which contained questions regarding the COVID-19 regulations, longing for touch, and the perceived pleasantness of affective and non-affective touch. Results showed that participants reported feelings of longing for touch. This significantly increased with the duration and severity of the COVID-19 regulations. In addition, participants who experienced more longing for touch rated videos of affective and non-affective touch as more pleasant. Current results provide insight in the impact of sudden and prolonged COVID-19 regulations and show that increasing the duration and severity of these regulations is associated with a higher desire for touch, which is associated with increased perceived pleasantness of observing touch.
To combat the spread of the COVID-19, regulations were introduced to limit physical interactions. This could induce a longing for touch in the general population and subsequently impact social, psychological, physical and environmental quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to investigate the potential association between COVID-19 regulations, longing for touch and QoL. A total of 1978 participants from different countries completed an online survey, including questions about their general wellbeing and the desire to be touched. In our sample, 83% of participants reported a longing for touch. Longing for touch was subsequently associated with a lower physical, psychological and social QoL. No association was found with environmental QoL. These findings highlight the importance of touch for QoL and suggest that the COVID-19 regulations have concurrent negative consequences for the wellbeing of the general population.
Although body size estimation (BSE) tasks are frequently used to investigate distorted body representation in anorexia nervosa (AN), the link between anxiety and task performance has been overlooked. To investigate this, 30 female healthy controls (HCs) and 29 female AN patients completed two body attitude questionnaires and three BSE tasks (the Visual Estimation Task, the Tactile Estimation Task and the Hoop Task). Participants completed two body attitude questionnaires and three BSE tasks; the Visual Estimation Task, the Tactile Estimation Task, and the Hoop Task. The STAI-6 was administered before and after each body-related task to assess state anxiety. Results showed that state anxiety levels increased significantly more in AN patients than in HC after completing each task. Thus, performance of AN patients on BSE and other body-related tasks might not just indicate the (mis)perception of their body but also co-occur with increased state anxiety. This has implications for the interpretation of these tasks and for furthering our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie distorted body image in AN.
1995. Effect of ABA and slow drying on DNA replication in carrot (Daucus carota) embryoids. -Physiol. Plant. 95: 154-158.Addition of abscisic acid (ABA) at the torpedo-shaped stage of development and slow dehydration are two parameters necessary to produce completely desiccation-tolerant carrot {Daucus carota L.) embryoids. The mode of action of these parameters is still largely unidentified. Employing flow cytometry we investigated their effect on DNA replication and cell cycle activity of the developing embryoids. DNA replication was determir\ed as percentage of 4C nuclei. Addition of ABA did not alter DNA replication and cell cycle during embryoid development in vitro, in spite of the putative quiescent state of the torpedo-shaped embryoids. In contrast, during slow drying the nuclei were preferentially arrested in the presynthesis Ga/Grphase and the amount of Gi nuclei decreased. Dry zygotic carrot embryos do not contain any Gi nuclei and are completely desiccation tolerant. The decline of Gi nuclei in dry somatic embryoids seems to coitKide with the increase in desiccation tolerance, which is incomplete compared to zygotic embryos. Our results suggest that in order to withstand anhydrobiosis, DNA replication may be controlled during the embryoid developmental program and slow dehydration, but not by the plant growth regulator ABA.
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