Recent animal studies have supported that Lactobacillus plantarum PS128 (PS128) can reduce the severity of anxiety and depression. However, previous studies did not focus on the sleep quality and mood of humans. This study determines whether PS128 reduces the severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms, regulates autonomic nervous system function, and improves sleep quality. Forty participants between 20 and 40 years of age with self-reported insomnia were randomly assigned to two groups, a PS128 group and a placebo group, in a double-blind trial. Participants took two capsules of either PS128 or a placebo after dinner for 30 days. Study measures included subjective depressive symptoms, anxiety and sleep questionnaires, and miniature-polysomnography recordings at baseline and on the 15th and 30th days of taking capsules. Overall, all outcomes were comparable between the two groups at baseline and within the 30-day period, yet some differences were still found. Compared to the control group, the PS128 group showed significant decreases in Beck Depression Inventory-II scores, fatigue levels, brainwave activity, and awakenings during the deep sleep stage. Their improved depressive symptoms were related to changes in brain waves and sleep maintenance. These findings suggest that daily administration of PS128 may lead to a decrease in depressive symptoms, fatigue level, cortical excitation, and an improvement in sleep quality during the deep sleep stage. Daily consumption of PS128 as a dietary supplement may improve the depressive symptoms and sleep quality of insomniacs, although further investigation is warranted.

Global smartphone penetration has led to unprecedented addictive behaviors. To develop a smartphone use/non-use pattern by mobile application (App) in order to identify problematic smartphone use, a total of 79 college students were monitored by the App for 1 month. The App-generated parameters included the daily use/non-use frequency, the total duration and the daily median of the duration per epoch. We introduced two other parameters, the root mean square of the successive differences (RMSSD) and the Similarity Index, in order to explore the similarity in use and non-use between participants. The non-use frequency, non-use duration and non-use-median parameters were able to significantly predict problematic smartphone use. A lower value for the RMSSD and Similarity Index, which represent a higher use/non-use similarity, were also associated with the problematic smartphone use. The use/non-use similarity is able to predict problematic smartphone use and reach beyond just determining whether a person shows excessive use.

1 Mechanical ventilation evokes a corresponding arterial pressure variability (APV) which is decreased by β-adrenoceptor antagonism. Therefore, in this study we set out to determine whether the respiratory-related APV can be used to assess cardiac sympathetic tone. 2 Computer-generated broad-band mechanical ventilation (0–3 Hz) was applied to Sprague-Dawley rats that had been anaesthetized with ketamine and paralysed with pancuronium. APV and its relationship to lung volume variability (LVV–APV) was systematically quantified with auto- or cross-spectral frequency domain analysis. 3 APV and LVV–APV transfer magnitudes between 0.5 and 1.5 Hz showed dose-dependent suppression by propranolol from 0.01 to 1 mg kg⁻¹, while the static value of arterial pressure remained unchanged. Stroke volume variability, assessed by the use of a pulse contour method, exhibited a similar pattern of suppression by propranolol. In contrast, heart rate variability was not lowered with propranolol. 4 The effect of propranolol on respiratory-related APV persisted even in the presence of combined α-adrenoceptor and muscarinic receptor blockade by phentolamine and atropine. 5 The frequency range of 0.5–1.0 Hz was optimal for LVV–APV transfer magnitude to correlate with cardiac sympathetic tone. 6 We conclude that respiratory-related APV may provide a valid assessment of cardiac sympathetic regulation which is independent of parasympathetic and vascular sympathetic influences in ketamine-anaesthetized and positive pressure-ventilated rats.

Objectives: Suboptimal health status (SHS) is a dynamic state wherein people have not been diagnosed with a disease but tend to develop diseases. People with SHS often experience fatigue and other nonspecific symptoms, which are related to a deviated body constitution in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, the correlation between TCM constitution and SHS has not been adequately investigated. Furthermore, no study has explored the radial pulse analysis—an assistive objective indicator of TCM constitution—in healthy people and people with SHS. Design: A cross-sectional study. Settings/Location: Center for Traditional Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan. Subjects: Sixty-six adults (27 healthy participants and 39 participants with SHS) who were aged 20–39 years. Outcome Measures: The body constitution questionnaire (BCQ) scores, suboptimal health status questionnaire-25 (SHSQ-25) scores, and radial pulse waves detected using sphygmography were recorded. Pulse wave analyses are presented as the ratio of frequency below 10 Hz to that above 10 Hz (SER10), which represent energy changes in organ blood flow. Results: Participants with SHS had significantly higher Yang-Xu, Yin-Xu, and stasis scores of BCQ compared with healthy participants. The SHSQ-25 scores of the participants with SHS were moderately correlated with their Yang-Xu, Yin-Xu, and stasis scores (r = 0.65, 0.66, and 0.72, respectively; all p < 0.001), but weak correlations were discovered for healthy participants. The participants with SHS had significantly higher SER10 at the left guan (the “liver” system in TCM) than did the healthy participants. Conclusions: SHS is moderately correlated with TCM-based constitution and those with SHS had increased SER10 at the leftguan of the radial pulse.

Reduced health-related quality of life in the physical domain (HRQOLphysical) has been reported to increase risks for cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, the mechanism underlying this phenomenon is still unclear. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) that connects the body and mind is a biologically plausible candidate to investigate this mechanism. The aim of our study is to examine whether the HRQOLphysical independently contributes to heart rate variability (HRV), which reflects ANS activity. We recruited 329 physically and mentally healthy adults. All participants completed Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory and World Health Organization Questionnaire on Quality of Life: Short Form-Taiwanese version (WHOQOL-BREF). They were divided into groups of individuals having high or low scores of HRQOLphysical as discriminated by the quartile value of WHOQOL-BREF. We obtained the time and frequency-domain indices of HRV, namely variance (total HRV), the low-frequency power (LF; 0.05–0.15 Hz), which may reflect baroreflex function, the high-frequency power (HF; 0.15–0.40 Hz), which reflects cardiac parasympathetic activity, and the LF/HF ratio. There was an independent contribution of HRQOLphysical to explaining the variance in HRV after excluding potential confounding factors (gender, age, physical activity, alcohol use, depression and anxiety). Compared with the participants with high levels of HRQOLphysical, those with low levels of HRQOLphysical displayed significant reductions in variance and LF. This study highlights the independent role of low HRQOLphysical in contributing to the reduced HRV in healthy adults and points to a potential underlying mechanism for HRQOLphysical to confer increased risks for CVD.

The effects of aging on the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectra of 8- and 60-week-old Wistar–Kyoto rats were examined during the waking baseline and treadmill exercise. Using continuous and simultaneous recordings of EEG and electromyogram signals, this study demonstrated that the alpha (10–13 Hz), theta (6–10 Hz), and delta (0.5–4 Hz) powers of the EEG were significantly lower in older rats as compared with young rats during the waking baseline. In the young rats, treadmill exercise resulted promptly in a higher alpha power, higher theta power, and higher theta power percentage as compared with the waking baseline. In the aged rats, treadmill exercise only resulted in a higher theta power and higher theta power percentage. During the treadmill exercise, however, the aged rats still showed a significantly lower exercise-evoked theta power change than the young rats. These results suggested that aging is accompanied by lower EEG activities during waking and this also is accompanied by an attenuated response of the brain to exercise in the rat.