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Purpose: To explore electroencephalographic (EEG) alterations in young women with different eating disorder (ED) psychopathology levels. Methods: Thirty-seven young women completed general and ED psychopathology (i.e., the ED Examination Questionnaire; EDE-Q) measures. EEG power spectra data were investigated in two conditions: (a) 5 min of resting state (RS) and (b) 5 min of RS after a single taste of a milkshake (ML-RS). EEG analyses were performed using exact Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography software (eLORETA). Results: Cluster analysis performed on the EDE-Q responses revealed a group of 17 women with high levels of ED pathology falling into the subclinical (i.e., sub-threshold) EDs category and a group of 20 women with low levels of ED pathology (controls). In the RS conditions, no significant modifications were observed between groups. Compared to controls, women with subclinical EDs showed an increase in theta activity in the parieto-occipital areas in the ML-RS condition. After controlling for body mass index and general psychopathology, theta activity in these brain structures was positively associated with EDE-Q global and subscale (restraint, shape and weight concern) scores. Conclusions: Our results may reflect the neurophysiological substrate of ED psychopathology core features like shape/weight concerns. Previous brain imaging and qEEG studies with full-syndrome ED patients also underscored the involvement of parieto-occipital areas in ED pathophysiology. These studies also found brain alterations in the RS condition, not observed here. This is notable given that full-syndrome and subclinical EDs are considered as different manifestations of the same disease along a severity spectrum. Level of evidence: Level V, cross-sectional, electroencephalographic, descriptive study.

In the ACT Consortium funded project SUCCEED, researchers study the potential for monitoring the process of (re-)injecting produced and captured CO2 into the Hellisheiði geothermal field for the aid of enhancing geothermal deployment as well as permanently storing CO2 through mineralization. The Hellisheiði site provides an excellent opportunity for demonstrating an innovative seismic monitoring technique. Prior to conducting an active-source monitoring survey, we perform acoustic transmission measurements, on Hellisheiði rock samples, at field-representative stress conditions to obtain the seismic-response characteristics of all present formations. Subsequently, we use the acquired velocity data as an input for simulating 2D seismic surveys using a subsurface model representing the Hellisheiði site. Results show that the impact of increasing depth, i.e., stress, on seismic velocities is most apparent for the porous basalt layers due to their relatively large portion of open pore space, allowing for substantial compaction, increasing their bulk density and thus velocity. The poorly-consolidated hyaloclastites reveal a negligible effect of increasing depth on their velocity as the material already reached its maximum compaction at low stresses, thus at shallow depths. Comparison of synthetic and field geophone data reveal that the velocity profiles have to be updated for the shallow depths in the model., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Applied Geophysics and Petrophysics

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global health emergency requiring clinicians to be prepared to cope with the increase in the future incidence of trauma and stress-related psychopathological symptoms. The early detection of psychological distress and timely intervention are strongly recommended. Clinicians should also consider integrating new technologies such as virtual reality (VR) in the treatment of these trauma and stress-related psychopathological symptoms. Here we provide a brief overview of how VR can help to cope with the potential short-term and long-term mental health consequences related to this global emergency.

The Experiences in Close Relationship Scale (ECR) is one of the most commonly used self-report instruments of adult attachment and has been widely adopted in psychotherapy research. Composed of two subscales, namely Attachment Avoidance and Anxiety, the ECR was recently shortened to a 12-items version, called the ECR-12. Given the importance of extending knowledge on its applicability in understudied populations, our aim was to validate the ECR-12 in a large sample of Italian native-speakers. A total of 1197 participants (73.2% females; mean age=28.53±11.37 years) completed the ECR-12. Each participant also completed other measures of attachment, psychopathology, interpersonal distress, coping strategies, and well-being. An Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling analysis showed an excellent fit of the data, providing support for the two-dimensional orthogonal structure of the ECR-12. In addition, the measurement model was invariant across genders. Both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance subscales demonstrated good internal reliability, with McDonald's Omegas and Cronbach's Alphas above the suggested 0.8 cut-off. Finally, the Italian version of ECR-12 showed adequate convergent, concurrent, and divergent validity. Highly anxious individuals reported the highest levels of maladaptive interpersonal functioning and coping strategies, resulting in lower well-being. Interestingly, both attachment insecurity dimensions predicted higher levels of psy-chopathology, even after controlling for demographic variables and levels of self-reported relational difficulties. Given the good psychometric properties of the ECR-12, researchers and practitioners in Italy are encouraged to adopt the ECR-12 in their future research on adult attachment in psychotherapy.

Background: Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) has been widely investigated in depressive disorders (DDs) with contradictory and not conclusive results. The main aim of the current study was to explore the association between a new neurophysiological index, the so-called frontal alpha connectivity asymmetry index (FACA-I), and depressive symptoms. Methods: One hundred and thirteen participants (45 men and 68 women, mean age: 22.83 ± 2.26 years) were enrolled. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were performed during 5 min of resting state (RS). FACA-I was computed by subtracting connectivity at left frontal regions from right frontal regions and dividing by their sum. RS FAA were also computed and compared to the FACA-I in all analyses. Results: After controlling for the presence of potential confounding variables (i.e., sex, age and anxiety symptoms), only FACA-I scores between medial prefrontal cortex and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex were negatively associated with both somatic and cognitive/affective depressive symptoms and were lower in individuals with significant level of depressive symptoms. Limitations: We focused on a sample of university students with no formal diagnosis of depression and we did not assess FAA and FACA-I during cognitive and/or emotional tasks, which make our interpretation specific to the RS condition. Conclusions: Taken together our data suggest that alpha connectivity asymmetry between medial prefrontal cortex and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex may be a useful neurophysiological index in the assessment of depressive symptoms.

Background: Although several researches investigated Default Mode Network (DMN) alterations in individuals with anxiety disorders, up to now no studies have investigated DMN functional connectivity in non-clinical individuals with high-trait-anxiety using quantitative electroencephalography (EEG). Here, the main aim was to extend previous findings investigating the association between trait anxiety and DMN EEG functional connectivity. Methods: Twenty-three individuals with high-trait-anxiety and twenty-four controls were enrolled. EEG was recorded during 5 min of resting state (RS). EEG analyses were conducted by means of the exact Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography software (eLORETA). Results: Compared to controls, individuals with high-trait-anxiety showed a decrease of theta connectivity between right medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and right posterior cingulate/retrosplenial cortex. A decrease of beta connectivity was also observed between right mPFC and right anterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, DMN functional connectivity strength was negatively related with STAI-T total score (i.e., lower connectivity was associated with higher trait anxiety), even when controlling for potential confounding variables (i.e., sex, age, and general psychopathology). Limitations: Small sample size makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. Furthermore, we did not assess state variation of anxiety, which make our interpretation specific to trait anxiety. Conclusions: Taken together, our results suggest that high-trait-anxiety individuals fail to synchronize DMN during RS, reflecting a possible top-down cognitive control deficit. These results may help in the understanding of the individual differences in functional brain networks associated with trait anxiety, a crucial aim in the prevention and in the early etiology understanding of clinical anxiety and related sequelae.

The individuation of sensitive and specific biochemical markers, easily assessable on large samples of subjects and usefully employable as predictors of severe psychiatric disorders, such as mood disorders, could help clinicians to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic processes facilitating the long-term follow-up. In particular, serum cholesterol levels may potentially be optimal markers due to their relative easy sampling and low cost. The involvement of cholesterol in affective disorders such as Major Depression (MD), Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and Bipolar Disorders (BD) is a debated issue in current research. However, current literature is controversial and, to date, it is still not possible to reach an agreement on its possible usefulness of cholesterol as a biological marker of affective disorders. Despite the controversial results on the relationships between cholesterol levels and affective disorders, the majority of literature seems to show a more consistent relationship between cholesterol levels and suicidal behaviour, with few studies that have found no relationships. The aim of this review is to elucidate current facts and views about the role of cholesterol levels in mood disorders as well as its involvement in suicidal behaviour.