Published papers

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for major depressive disorder (MDD), yet individual responses vary. Personality may relate to outcomes, but its role in brooding rumination during CBT remains unclear. This study tested whether baseline personality traits are associated with brooding change in patients with MDD receiving CBT. METHODS: In this prospective observational cohort, 75 outpatients were allocated to CBT + treatment-as-usual (TAU) (n=33 baseline; n=30 longitudinal) or TAU alone (n=42; n=38) based on clinical course and preference. The Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS) brooding subscale and the 17-item Grid-Based Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (GRID-HAMD17) were assessed at baseline and 16 weeks; the Temperament and Personality Questionnaire (T&P) was assessed at baseline. Multiple linear regressions within each group examined associations between baseline traits and brooding change, adjusting for sex, baseline brooding, and baseline GRID-HAMD17. A trait-wise single-predictor sensitivity analysis used the same covariates. RESULTS: Both groups demonstrated significant within-group improvements. Hedges' g (95% CI): CBT-brooding 0.48 (0.11-0.85), GRID-HAMD17 1.07 (0.63-1.50); TAU-brooding 0.84 (0.47-1.21), GRID-HAMD17 1.46 (1.01-1.91). In CBT, higher anxious worrying was associated with greater brooding reduction (eight-predictor model: B = 0.71, p = 0.026) and remained significant in the single-predictor analysis (B = 0.36, p = 0.014). Self-criticism showed a negative association in the eight-predictor model (B=-0.60, p = 0.043) but did not persist in the single-predictor analysis. In TAU, no personality trait was associated with brooding change. Adjusted between-group differences in change (brooding, GRID-HAMD17, total DDD) were not significant. LIMITATIONS: Nonrandomized allocation, modest sample sizes, and two assessment time points limit precision and power; the eight-predictor model in CBT may be prone to overfitting, so findings are exploratory. CONCLUSION: In this observational cohort, personality traits, with anxious worrying appearing relevant, were associated with brooding change within CBT, whereas between-group differences were not significant. These hypothesis-generating results require validation in adequately powered randomized trials to inform stratified depression care.

Our thoughts are inherently dynamic and often wander far from our current situation (mind wandering, MW). Although previous research revealed that brain regions involved in arousal regulation modulate neural dynamics to facilitate the transition from MW to the awareness of its occurrence, the specific physiological states and afferent signals underlying this process remain unclear. In this study, we examined electroencephalography, electrocardiography, and respiration data before participants were aware of MW during a task in which they focused on external or internal stimuli (tones or their breath). We showed that the transition to awareness of MW was characterized by decreased alpha and beta activity and a suppression of the parietal later component of the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP), a modulation pattern identified in this study as a marker of enhanced central processing based on its consistent appearance across internal attention conditions. Furthermore, when participants were instructed to focus on their breath, they were more likely to be in the exhalation phase during the transition to awareness of MW and in the inhalation phase when MW was reported. This respiratory pattern was accompanied by changes in cardiac activity and HEP amplitudes. Based on these findings, we propose that the transition from MW to the awareness of its occurrence is associated with diverse neural activity, including the enhanced processing of bodily signals that co-occurs with specific cardiac and respiratory dynamics.

To study the role of the frontal lobes in episodic remembering, directed forgetting effect of frontal patients was examined. Eight patients with frontal lobe damage, eight patients with temporoparietal lobe damage, and eight normal subjects were given a list of 24 nouns (12 remember-cued words and 12 forget-cued words). On the list method (Experiment 1), frontal patients were significantly impaired in recalling remember-cued items whereas they recalled inappropriate forget-cued items. Frontal patients showed much less directed forgetting effect than two control groups. On the item method (Experiment 2), performance of frontal patients was in between the other two groups. Patients with frontal lobe damage appeared to have impaired retrieval inhibition, and their retrieval process is interfered with by inappropriate stimuli which should be forgotten. © 2001 Academic Press.

私たちの思考の内容や，思考に対する集中度合いの強さは，いつの間にか変化する。この2つの指標の変動性は，自律神経活動のゆらぎと関連することが知られている。しかし，両者がどのような過程を経て対応づけられるのかは未だ不明である。本研究では，単純注意課題中に，参加者の思考内容と熟考性（思考に対する集中度合いの主観的評価）の時系列データを取得した。隠れマルコフモデルを用いて，2つの指標の系列の背後にある思考状態の遷移系列を推定した。思考状態の遷移パターンに基づき，参加者を3つのクラスターに分類した。その結果，思考状態の変動性が高いクラスターにおいて，心臓内受容感覚の正確さ（心拍検出の正確性）が高いほど，思考状態の遷移確率が高い傾向があることが分かった。このことは，思考の変動に対応する心拍変化があり，それを捉えやすい人ほど，思考状態の遷移が継続的に生じやすい可能性を示唆している。

Imagining ambiguous images in episodic future thinking (EFT) leads to various everyday problems. For instance, procrastination, caused by failing to make future preparations, may be related to ambiguity in EFT. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between procrastination and EFT ambiguity. Participants imagined and described three personal events in the future and then performed freely on the tasks requested by the experimenter, scoring the procrastination behavior. Finally, they filled out the General Procrastination Scale and a questionnaire originally designed by the experimenter. The result showed a correlation between EFT ambiguity, especially ambiguity of the five senses and internal perceptual information, and procrastination. The factor analysis of the questionnaire indicates that the individual's executive functions plays the most critical role in procrastination, and thus the ambiguity in the imagery of future sensory information is related to procrastination through its influence on this executive functions.

This paper discuss the image of robot and human in the future and reports the demonstration conducted as a proposal for the vision of robots that coexist with an user and encourage positive behavior. As the progress of aging society, we propose that the robot coexist with an user at home is required to have functions: estimating an user mental or physical state, and advising the user to do appropriate behavior so that keep/improve their mental or physical state. We conducted demonstrations to recreate several scenes as a proposal for the future coexistence of robots and humans at home. This paper also reports about the constructed robot system and the results of generated robot behaviors.