Galina Arina

Values, Coping Strategies, and Psychopathological Symptoms Among Adolescents With Asthma A Cross-Cultural Study

Values are related to coping strategies. However, little is known about the relationship between values and coping strategies among people suffering from chronic illnesses. This study investigates the mediating role of coping strategies specific to asthma on the relationship between the value of health, the value of an exciting life, and anxiety/depression symptoms among Russian and French adolescents with asthma. Adolescents aged 14 to 16 years with moderate and severe asthma (N = 100, 58 males) were recruited in Russia and France and completed the Rokeach Value Survey, the Asthma-Specific Coping Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Among Russian adolescents, the coping strategy of hiding asthma mediated the relationship between the value of health and depression symptoms. Among French adolescents, the coping strategies of ignoring asthma and adopting a restricted lifestyle mediated the relationship between the value of an exciting life and depression/anxiety symptoms. Among Russian and French girls, the coping strategy of ignoring asthma mediated the relationship between the value of health and anxiety/depression symptoms. Valuing an exciting life, French adolescents used coping strategies that led them to ignore asthma more, and as a result, experienced greater levels of anxiety and depression. Valuing health, Russian adolescents used coping strategies in which they hid their asthma less, but experienced more symptoms of depression. Valuing health, Russian and French girls used coping strategies in which they ignored their asthma less and experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression less.

Kinematic predictors for the moving hand illusion

The sense of body ownership is a result of convergent input of several sensory modalities. Experimental manipulation of different sensory inputs is possible during bodily illusions. These illusions allow studying multisensory mechanisms of body representation. The aim of this research was to investigate motion characteristics of the virtual hand illusion. A novel kinematic analysis for moving hand illusion was applied. Several motion features (such as jerk, smoothness and velocity) predicted subjective and behavioral measures of the illusion. This result may reflect that subjects with higher motor abilities could have better multisensory body representation mechanisms that are responsible for the ownership illusion.

Artificial hand illusions dynamics: Onset and fading of static rubber and virtual moving hand illusions

The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal dynamics of two multisensory body illusions: a static rubber hand illusion (RHI) and a moving virtual hand illusion (VHI). We explored the onset and fading of these illusions. A sense of ownership questionnaire and proprioceptive drift were used for illusion estimation. Novel kinematic analysis was applied for the VHI. Positive dynamics of ownership were found in the RHI but not in the VHI. The general dynamics of proprioceptive drift were similar in both illusions: during the onset phase of artificial hand representation proprioceptive drift gradually increased, and during the fading phase - it gradually decreased. Kinematic analysis of the VHI revealed several motion features (such as jerk, smoothness, velocity), predicted illusion measures, and probably reflected that participants with higher motor abilities and better adaptation to new sensory conditions may have better multisensory integration mechanisms that are responsible for the ownership illusion.

Higher Emotional Intelligence Is Associated With a Stronger Rubber Hand Illusion

The aim of the study was to investigate how emotion information processing factors, such as alexithymia and emotional intelligence, modulate body ownership and influence multisensory integration during the ‘rubber hand illusion’ (RHI) task. It was previously shown that alexithymia correlates with RHI, and we suggested that emotional intelligence should also be a top-down factor of body ownership, since it was not shown in previous experiments. We elaborated the study of Grynberg and Pollatos [ Front. Hum. Neurosci . 9 (2015) 357] with an additional measure of emotional intelligence, and propose an explanation for the interrelation of emotion and body ownership processing. Eighty subjects took part in the RHI experiment and completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Only MSCEIT was detected to be a significant predictor of the subjective measure of the RHI. There were no significant correlations between alexithymia scores and the test statements of the RHI or the proprioceptive drift, thus we did not replicate the results of Grynberg and Pollatos. However, alexithymia correlated with the control statements of subjective reports of the illusion, which might be explained as a disruption of the ability to discriminate and describe bodily experience. Therefore, (1) alexithymia seems to be connected with difficulties in conscious or verbal processing of body-related information, and (2) higher emotional intelligence might improve multisensory integration of body-related signals and reflect better predictive models of self-processing.