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Brooding rumination is an intrapersonal emotion regulation strategy associated with negative interpersonal consequences. Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a psychophysiological marker of self-regulatory capacity, may buffer the association between maladaptive emotion regulation and negative interpersonal behaviors. The current work examines the moderating effect of RSA on the association between brooding rumination and different negative interpersonal consequences. Across three convenience samples, individuals with lower RSA showed a stronger association between brooding rumination and more negative interpersonal behaviors as well as less perception of received instrumental social support (Study 1; n = 154), higher levels of interviewer-rated interpersonal stress (Study 2; n = 42) and a stronger indirect association between brooding rumination and depressive symptoms via daily interpersonal stress (Study 3; n = 222). These findings highlight the negative interpersonal consequences of brooding rumination, particularly among individuals with lower RSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Close relationships are an important social context in which emotional experiences, regulation, and coregulation unfold. This interpersonal emotion regulation process is likely intertwined with the self-regulatory capacities and social skills of each individual dyad member. This study aimed to examine whether respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a physiological marker related to self-regulation, moderates the impact of rumination, a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy, on couples' conflict. A dyadic, longitudinal design examined the association among RSA, rumination, and couples' conflict in a sample of 83 cohabiting romantic partners raising young children. At baseline, rumination and RSA from each romantic partner were assessed. Couples' conflict was reported at 3 time points over the following 12 months. Actor-partner interdependence modeling examined the mutual contributions of each couple member's rumination to couples' conflict, as well as the moderating impact of RSA. Results indicated that rumination from both members of the dyad were independently associated with couples' conflict across the 12-month period. Furthermore, RSA moderated the association between one's partner's rumination and couples' conflict, such that high actor RSA attenuated the positive association between partner's rumination and couples' conflict. The findings highlight the interdependent nature of emotion regulation within close relationships, and the impact of RSA on interpersonal emotion regulation processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) has been conceptualized as a biomarker of a neurophysiological system supporting social behaviors. Capitalization, the interpersonal process of sharing positive experiences with close others, has been associated with improved intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning. The present study examined whether RSA moderated the within-person associations of daily capitalization with positive affect and relationship quality. Participants (N = 149) completed an electrocardiogram recording during a resting baseline and a worry induction period, as well as a 14-day daily diary assessment of capitalization, positive affect, and relationship quality. Results indicated that RSA reactivity moderated the within-person effects of daily capitalization on positive affect and relationship quality. On days when they did not capitalize, individuals with higher RSA reactivity experienced lower positive affect and poorer relationship quality than their counterparts with lower RSA reactivity. In contrast, no significant differences were observed between participants with lower and higher RSA reactivity on days when they capitalized. These results provide further evidence that RSA reactivity shapes sensitivity to social context, including one's responses to the lack of usual capitalization interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACE) has been associated with elevated circulating inflammatory markers in adulthood. Despite the robust effect of ACE on later health outcomes, not all individuals exposed to ACE suffer from poor health.Purpose: The goal of this study was to evaluate whether current resilience resources may attenuate the impact of ACE on inflammatory markers among individuals with elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.Methods: Participants (N = 174) completed one-time self-report questionnaires assessing ACE exposure within the first 18 years of life and current resilience resources, and provided blood samples for interleukin-6 (IL-6) and CRP.Results: Individuals who were exposed to multiple ACE had greater IL-6 than participants with lesser ACE exposure. However, current resilience resources significantly moderated this effect. Among individuals who reported multiple ACE, higher resilience resources were associated with lower IL-6 levels.Conclusion: These data suggest that resilience resources might attenuate the association between ACE and later health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disturbances of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signalling have been implicated in the evolution of depression, which likely arises, in part, as a result of diminished synaptic plasticity. Predictably, given stressor involvement in depression, BDNF is affected by recent stressors as well as stressors such as neglect experienced in early life. The effects of early life maltreatment in altering BDNF signalling may be particularly apparent among those individuals with specific BDNF polymorphisms. We examined whether polymorphisms of the Val66Met genotype might be influential in moderating how early-life events play out with respect to later coping styles, cognitive flexibility and depressive features. Among male and female undergraduate students (N = 124), childhood neglect was highly related to subsequent depressive symptoms. This outcome was moderated by the BDNF polymorphism in the sense that depressive symptoms appeared higher in Met carriers who reported low levels of neglect than in those with the Val/Val allele. However, under conditions of high neglect depressive symptoms only increased in the Val/Val individuals. In effect, the Met polymorphism was associated with depressive features, but did not interact with early life neglect in predicting later depressive features. It was further observed that among the Val/Val individuals, the relationship between neglect and depression was mediated by emotion-focused styles and diminished perceived control, whereas this mediation was not apparent in Met carriers. In contrast to the more typical view regarding this polymorphism, the data are consistent with the perspective that in the presence of synaptic plasticity presumably associated with the Val/Val genotype, neglect allows for the emergence of specific appraisal and coping styles, which are tied to depression. In the case of the reduced degree of neuroplasticity expected in the Met carriers, early life adverse experiences are not tied to coping styles, and hence less likely to be translated into depressive states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We use common conversion point (CCP) stacking of Ps receiver functions to image the crustal structure and Moho of the Garhwal Himalaya of India. Our seismic array of 21 broadband seismometers spanned the Himalayan thrust wedge at 79–80°E, between the Main Frontal Thrust and the South Tibet Detachment, in 2005–2006. Our CCP image shows the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT), the detachment at the base of the Himalayan thrust wedge, with a flat-ramp-flat geometry. Seismic impedance contrasts inferred from geologic cross-sections in Garhwal imply a negative impedance contrast (velocity decreasing downward) for the upper flat, located beneath the Lower Himalaya, and a positive impedance contrast (velocity increasing downward) for the ramp, located beneath the surface trace of the Munsiari Thrust (or MCT-I). At the lower flat, located beneath the Higher Himalaya, spatially coincident measurements of very high electrical conductivities require the presence of free fluids, and we infer a negative impedance contrast on the MHT caused by ponding of these fluids beneath the detachment. Our seismic image indicates that the upper flat of the MHT is below sea level and dips north at , connecting to a mid-crustal ramp which is high and dips at . The lower flat is 20–25km below sea level and dips at . The Main Central Thrust (MCT) appears as a negative impedance contrast, dipping at . The Moho is nearly horizontal at 35–45km depth beneath the Sub-Himalaya and Lower Himalaya, deepening to 50km or more beneath the Higher Himalaya. This depth is 10–25km shallower than in the NW Indian Himalaya and 5–10km shallower than in central Nepal, requiring significant along-strike variations in crustal thickness. The observed thickness of subducted Indian crust in Garwhal is 20–28km. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Seismic shear-wave velocities are sensitive to the partial melts that should be present in the Himalayan orogen if low-viscosity channel flow is active at the present day. We analyzed regional earthquakes in the western Himalaya and Tibet recorded on 16 broadband seismometers deployed across the NW Indian Himalaya, from the Indian platform to the Karakoram Range. We used a multiple filter technique to calculate the group velocity dispersion of fundamental-mode Rayleigh waves, and then inverted the dispersion records to obtain separate one-dimensional shear-wave velocity models for five geologic provinces: the Tibetan plateau, Ladakh arc complex, Indus Tsangpo suture zone, Tethyan Himalaya, and Himalayan thrust belt. Our velocity models show a low-velocity layer (LVL) with 7–17% velocity reduction centered at ~30 km depth and apparently continuous from the Tethyan Himalaya to the Tibetan plateau. This LVL shows good spatial correspondence with observations of low resistivity from magnetotelluric studies along the same profile. Of the possible explanations for low velocity and low resistivity in the mid-crust, only the presence of melts or aqueous fluids (or both) satisfactorily explains both sets of observations. Elevated heat flow observed in the NW Himalaya implies that if aqueous fluids are present in the mid-crust, then the mid-crust is well above its solidus. Comparison of our results with laboratory measurements and theoretical models suggests 3–7% melt is present in a channel in the upper-middle crust of the NW Himalaya at the present day, and the physical conditions to enable active channel flow may be present. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: High-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) reactivity was proposed as a vulnerability factor for stress-induced sleep disturbances. Its effect may be amplified among individuals with high trait worry or sleep reactivity.Purpose: This study evaluated whether HF-HRV reactivity to a worry induction, sleep reactivity, and trait worry predict increases in sleep disturbances in response to academic stress, a naturalistic stressor.Method: A longitudinal study following 102 undergraduate students during an academic semester with well-defined periods of lower and higher academic stress was conducted. HF-HRV reactivity to a worry induction, trait worry using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and sleep reactivity using the Ford Insomnia Stress Reactivity Test were measured during the low stress period. Sleep disturbances using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were assessed twice during the lower stress period and three times during the higher stress period.Results: Greater reductions in HF-HRV in response to the worry induction predicted increases in sleep disturbances from the lower to the higher academic stress period. Trait worry moderated this association: individuals with both higher trait worry and greater HF-HRV reactivity to worry had larger increases in stress-related sleep disturbances over time, compared to participants with lower trait worry and HF-HRV reactivity. A similar, but marginally significant effect was found for sleep reactivity.Conclusion: This study supports the role of HF-HRV reactivity as a vulnerability factor for stress-induced sleep disturbances. The combination of high trait worry and high HF-HRV reactivity to worry might identify a subgroup of individuals most vulnerable to stress-related sleep disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Daily life stress is associated with HPA-axis related gene methylation. • DNA methylation in HPA-axis genes is stable over time in healthy volunteers. • DNA methylation-brain associations are gene and tissue specific. • Measuring methylation in different tissues in the same persons can be recommended. Abstract Environmental factors can influence gene expression via epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation. DNA methylation levels of regulatory regions in Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis-related genes assessed from brain tissues as well as from surrogate, peripheral tissues have been associated with vulnerability to stress-related psychopathologies. Commonly used peripheral samples to assess DNA methylation in living humans are derived from blood, saliva or buccal cells. Although psychiatric epigenetic studies are increasingly relying on peripheral measures of DNA methylation, it is still unknown to what extent methylation patterns across peripheral tissues are associated with each other and with measures of brain processes and behavioural stress. In the present study, with a sample of 51 healthy adults, we assessed cross-tissue correlations of DNA methylation patterns in the glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1) 1 F promoter and the FK506 Binding Protein 5 (FKBP5) gene intron 7 region using saliva and buccal cell samples, and assessed two-year stability in both tissues in a male subsample (N = 14). We also investigated associations between peripherally-derived DNA methylation and measures of neural function and perceived daily stress, and compared the extent of these associations across tissue samples. DNA methylation cross-tissue correlations were highly significant for FKBP5 , but not significant for NR3C1. DNA methylation in both genes remained stable for two years. Tissue- and gene-specific associations were found for brain resting state connectivity and neural responses to sadness, thereby suggesting that saliva- and buccal cell-derived DNA methylation levels of NR3C1 -1 F and FKBP5 gene regions might differently capture different measures of putatively related brain processes. It was also found that greater buccal cell- (but not saliva-) derived NR3C1 -1 F methylation was associated with lower perceived daily life demands. Results of the present study may inform the design of future epigenetic studies on FKBP5 -intron-7 and NR3C1 -1 F-promoter methylation in relation to neuro-imaging and behavioural measures, and provide insight for the development of peripheral DNA methylation correlates of stress sensitivity and resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Evaluation of a Brief Group Intervention for Adolescents with Mild to Moderate Suicidal Ideation: Building Resilience and Attachment in Vulnerable Adolescents (BRAVA)," by Allison Kennedy and colleagues is presented.