One previous study indicated the significance of trait self-compassion in psychological well-being and adjustment in people with chronic pain. Higher-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) was found to be closely associated with self-compassion and pain coping. The current study was therefore designed to investigate the relationship between self-compassion and experimental pain as well as the impact of HF-HRV. Sixty healthy participants provided self-reported self-compassion and underwent a cold pain protocol during which HF-HRV was evaluated. Results demonstrated a dual relationship between self-compassion and pain, dependent on the level of HF-HRV during pain exposure. Specifically, self-compassion was associated with lower pain in the condition of higher HF-HRV, while there was an inverse relationship between self-compassion and pain when HF-HRV was lower. Our data indicate the significance of HF-HRV in moderating the association between self-compassion and experimental pain.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes of brain functional network after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatment in major depressive disorder (MDD).
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, resting electroencephalography (EEG) is used to explore the changes in spectral power density, functional connectivity and network topology elicited by an acute open-label course of ECT in a group of 19 MDD subjects. The brain functional network based on Pearson correlation is constructed in a continuous threshold space (0.38–0.59). Complex network theory is used to analyze the network characteristic such as the length of the characteristic path, clustering coefficient, degree, betweenness centrality, global efficiency and small-world architecture.
Findings
The results show that ECT increased the spectral power density of Delta, Theta and Alpha1 bands and the full frequency. ECT increases the functional connectivity in Delta and full frequency and reduces the functional connectivity in Alpha2 band. In the selected threshold space, the clustering coefficient, global efficiency and small-world attributes of the network are changed significantly after ECT.
Originality/value
The findings indicate that resting EEG could effectively characterize the changes of brain functional networks following ECT in MDD. The results provide a theoretical basis to explore the neurophysiological mechanism of ECT in the field of MDD treatment.
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