The Neuroimmunological Research Of Cognition-Emotion Interactions

The research of Cognition-Emotion interactions have been an important field of Cognitive Neuroscience. The researches of this interdisciplinary field mainly focus on the stress-induced health problems, the brain mechanism of mental stress and the effects of body-mind interventions on cognition, emotion and self-regulation in recent years. Concerning the problems of this field, some researches and discussions are made in this dissertation, and main work is summarized as follows:In chapter one, the subhealth status and correlativity between indexes of subhealth and mood states were investigated in undergraduates. The results indicated schoolgirls have better body-mind states than schoolboys, Negative mood states may be a primary cause of subhealth formation, and there are promoted and inhibited interactions between indexes of subhealth and mood states in undergraduates. Moreover, the researching states of various body-mind interventions (eg. meditation, hypnosis, imagery, biofeedback, music, etc) were summarized and prospected.In chapter two, the brain mechanism of mental mathematics stress was researched. Firstly, as an example research of functional connectivity in brain, the results indicate the activation map is consistent with the previous findings with Chinese words and English characters processing while the connectivity analysis between Broca's area and the left VWFA (Visual Word Form Area) indicate a reverse pattern. The results provide strong evidence for VWFA in processing Chinese characters similar to that found in alphabetic scripts and hence support the hypothesis that left VWFA cooperates with Broca's area to respond to the different task demands. Second, the activation of cerebellum during mental arithmetic tasks was found having a tendency of left laterality and was modulated by the difficult degree of tasks. Moreover, the functional connectivity was analyzed between cerebellum and cerebrum and the results indicated cerebellum had the connection of cooperation which was modulated by the difficult degrees of tasks with frontal lobe of cerebrum. Third, a profound deactivation of limbic system and anterior frontal cortex was observed in healthy subjects during mathematics stress. The results suggests the brain areas of deactivation are activated at rest and during nonstressful situations and the deactivation of the functional network among these brain areas plays a important role in detrimental health effects of psychosocial stress. Fourth, a differential cortical representation of numbers was demonstrated between native Chinese and English speakers. Contrasting to native English speakers, who largely employ a language process that relies on the left perisylvian cortices for mental calculation, native Chinese speakers, instead, engage a visuo-premotor association network for the same task. Whereas in both groups the inferior parietal cortex was activated by a task for numerical quantity comparison, functional connectivity analyses revealed a functional distinction between Chinese and English groups among the brain networks involved in the task. The results further indicate that the different biological encoding of numbers may be shaped by visual reading experience during language acquisition and other cultural factors such as mathematics learning strategies and education systems.In chapter three, the correlativity between indexes of physiology and mood states was investigated in undergraduates, and the results indicated there were promoted and inhibited interactions between indexes of physiology and mood states in undergraduates. More over, the effect of IBMT (Integrative Body-Mind Training) for modulation on correlativity between indexes of physiology and mood states was investigated in undergraduates, and the results of this study have implications for the use of IBMT in modulating of parasympathetic system and enhancing immune function in undergraduates.In chapter four, firstly, a group randomly assigned to 5 days of IBMT practice was showed significantly better attention and control of stress than a similarly chosen control group given relaxation training. Compared with the control group, the experimental group showed a significant decrease in stress-related cortisol, and an increase in immunoreactivity. These results provide a convenient method for studying the influence of meditation training by using experimental and control methods similar to those used to test drugs or other interventions. Second, the effects of IBMT for body-mind regulation on the level of salivary cortisol after mental arithmetic stress and the basal level of salivary cortisol were investigated. The results of these studies may have implications for the use of IBMT in modulating of parasympathetic system and enhancing immune function and practicers may need longer time of training if more effective effects are expected.