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Research Update
Mind-Body Medicine Research Update
身心医学科研动态
Effects of Tai Chi on pre-landing muscle response
latency during stepping down while performing a
concurrent mental task in older adults. Eur. J Appl.
Physiol. 2011 Nov 22. by Tsang WW, Hui-Chan CW, Fu
SN. From Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
Abstract: To investigate whether elderly Tai Chi
practitioners are better able to descend a step while performing
a concurrent mental task than non-practitioners.
The design includes cross-sectional study. The setting
includes university-based rehabilitation center. The subjects
were 16 young women, 29 elderly women, and 31
elderly women who had been practicing Tai Chi regularly
for at least half a year. Pre-landing muscle response latencies
in their tibialis anterior (TA) and medial gastrocnemius
(MG) muscles were measured during stepping down
(single task) and stepping down while performing a concurrent
mental activity (dual tasking). The nonpractitioners
had earlier onset of muscle activity in the
TA in preparation for landing than the other subjects. The
response latency of the Tai Chi practitioners was not significantly
different from that of the young controls. When
the cognitive task was added, the pre-landing response in
the TA was significantly altered in both elderly groups.
Response was significantly delayed among the nonpractitioners,
but significantly earlier among the Tai Chi
subjects. The average change in response latency was
significantly greater in the non-Tai Chi group compared
with the young subjects and the Tai Chi practitioners
(p = 0.006). Such findings suggest that practicing Tai Chi
helps the elderly maintain the same strategy as much as
younger subjects during stepping down. Tai Chi practitioners
seem to have a greater capacity to shift attention between
mental and physical tasks than other elderly
women.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/g72n671158616345
Mindful attention reduces neural and self-reported
cue-induced craving in smokers. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci.
2011 Nov 22. by Westbrook C, Creswell JD,
Tabibnia G, Julson E, Kober H, Tindle HA. From University
of Wisconsin. cwestbrook@wisc.edu.
Abstract: An emerging body of research suggests
that mindfulness-based interventions
may be beneficial for
smoking cessation and the treatment
of other addictive disorders. One way that mindfulness
may facilitate smoking cessation is through the reduction
of craving to smoking cues. The present work
considers whether mindful attention can reduce selfreported
and neural markers of cue-induced craving in
treatment seeking smokers. Forty-seven (n = 47) meditation-naïve
treatment-seeking smokers (12-h abstinent
from smoking) viewed and made ratings of smoking and
neutral images while undergoing functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were trained and
instructed to view these images passively or with mindful
attention. Results indicated that mindful attention reduced
self-reported craving to smoking images, and reduced
neural activity in a craving-related region of subgenual
anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC). Moreover, a psychophysiological
interaction analysis revealed that mindful
attention reduced functional connectivity between sgACC
and other craving-related regions compared to passively
viewing smoking images, suggesting that mindfulness
may decouple craving neurocircuitry when viewing
smoking cues. These results provide an initial indication
that mindful attention may describe a 'bottom-up' attention
to one's present moment experience in ways that can
help reduce subjective and neural reactivity to smoking
cues in smokers.
Effects of yoga exercise on serum adiponectin and
metabolic syndrome factors in obese postmenopausal
women. Menopause. 2011 Nov 14. by Lee JA, Kim JW,
December, 2011 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) 31