Our results indicate that proper ultra-short-term recording method can provide a quick and reliable source of cardiac autonomic nervous system assessment.

The global prevalence of obesity has been steadily increasing. Although pharmacotherapy and bariatric surgeries can be useful adjuvants in the treatment of morbid obesity, they may lose long-term effectiveness. Obesity result largely from unbalanced energy homeostasis. Palatable and densely caloric foods may affect the brain overlapped circuits involved with homeostatic hypothalamus and hedonic feeding. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) consists of delivering electrical impulses to specific brain targets to modulate a disturbed neuronal network. In selected patients, DBS has been shown to be safe and effective for movement disorders. We review all the cases reports and series of patients treated with DBS for obesity using a PubMed search and will address the following obesity-related issues: (i) the hypothalamic regulation of homeostatic feeding; (ii) the reward mesolimbic circuit and hedonic feeding; (iii) basic concepts of DBS as well as the rationale for obesity treatment; (iv) perspectives and challenges in obesity DBS. The small number of cases provides preliminary evidence for the safety and the tolerability of a potential DBS approach. The ventromedial ( n = 2) and lateral ( n = 8) hypothalamic nuclei targets have shown mixed and disappointing outcomes. Although nucleus accumbens ( n = 7) targets were more encouraging for the outcomes of body weight reduction and behavioral control for eating, there was one suicide reported after 27 months of follow-up. The authors did not attribute the suicide to DBS therapy. The identification of optimal brain targets, appropriate programming strategies and the development of novel technologies will be important as next steps to move DBS closer to a clinical application. The identification of electrical control signals may provide an opportunity for closed-loop adaptive DBS systems to address obesity. Metabolic and hormonal sensors such as glycemic levels, leptin, and ghrelin levels are candidate control signals for DBS. Focused excitation or alternatively inhibition of regions of the hypothalamus may provide better outcomes compared to non-selective DBS. Utilization of the NA delta oscillation or other physiological markers from one or multiple regions in obesity-related brain network is a promising approach. Experienced multidisciplinary team will be critical to improve the risk-benefit ratio for this approach.

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This study investigated time-on-task effects on heart rate variability (HRV) and its relationship with self-reported and cognitive performance. Data were collected from 19 volunteers aged between 18 and 24 years, who performed a Go/NoGo task for 50 min. The interbeat intervals recording at resting baseline and along with the task were assessed by electrocardiogram NeXus-10 apparatus. HRV data (time and frequency domain), self-reported scores, and cognitive performance were compared along the task. The variables’ reactivity during mental fatigue (fifth minus first block values) were also correlated. Results indicated that time-on-task effects cause a decrease in parasympathetic activity (rMSSD and pNN50), self-report scales (attention, drowsiness, and motivation) and cognitive impairment (RT and error frequency). Only frequency domain (LF/HF) had relation with self-report measures, suggesting a link between the HRV and psychometric measurement of mental fatigue. These results suggest that time-on-task effects on HRV are related to decrease in parasympathetic activity, in which time domain indices have more reliability to monitoring autonomic changes during mental fatigue induction while the frequency domain is related to psychological symptoms of mental fatigue.

RESUMO O programa Antártico Brasileiro (PROANTAR) realiza expedições à Antártica, onde militares e civis são expostos a estressores. A presente pesquisa mapeou os estressores ambientais, ocupacionais e interpessoais percebidos por participantes do PROANTAR. Uma amostra de 38 pessoas, separadas em dois grupos, foi avaliada no início e final de uma expedição. Os resultados obtidos por meio de questionários e entrevistas indicaram prevalência de estressores ambientais (60,71%), ocupacionais (23,80%) e interpessoais (15,47%) no início, e de estressores interpessoais (55,97%), ambientais (32,08%) e ocupacionais (11,94%) ao final. Os resultados sugerem que a convivência forçada gera a percepção de estressores interpessoais se sobrepondo aos ambientais. Fenômenos psicológicos deveriam ser considerados no planejamento de futuras expedições, pois estão relacionados à saúde e desempenho das atividades.

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O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a variação das estratégias de coping e padrões de sono em 13 expedicionários do sexo masculino da aviação naval no início e ao final de uma expedição de verão à Antártica. Para investigar as variáveis de coping e de sono foram utilizadas a escala BriefCOPE, um questionário de ritmos biológicos e um formulário sociodemográfico para controle de variáveis. As estratégias de coping focadas na emoção do tipo disfuncional aumentaram de forma significativa ao longo da exposição e não houve relação entre as alterações nos padrões de sono e as estratégias de coping entre o início e final da exposição ao ambiente. A atenção a fatores psicológicos em ambientes polares pode prevenir acidentes no contexto.

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