Mental health | EPFL Graph Search

Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. According to World Health Organization (WHO), it is a "state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to his or her community". It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health includes subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others. From the perspectives of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and to create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all af

In vivo neurochemistry of the ventral striatum and social competition in Homo sapiens

Alina Veronika Irene Strasser

Ventral striatal function and trait anxiety have been shown to influence reward-seeking behaviour and social competition in humans. Moreover, social status perceptions have been shown to modulate ventral striatal function. The neurochemical underpinnings of these associations have not been investigated in humans so far. Studies in rodents have previously shown that ventral striatal neurochemistry is associated with these concepts. In humans, objective and perceived social hierarchy position show some links to physical and mental health. Trait anxiety is understood as a predisposing factor underlying neuropsychiatric disorders and is associated with social anxiety. Fear and avoidance of social interactions, both inherent to environmental contexts of direct social competition, are hallmarks of social anxiety. Lost economic productivity due to anxiety and social status associated decrements in physical and mental health renders this scientific topic of high relevance to public health policies. Moving towards a deeper understanding of these associations might constitute an important part in ensuring public health. We combine proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy with personality profiling and an incentivised handgrip motivation task in a socially competitive context to investigate the neurochemical underpinnings of these associations in young adult men. We chose the occipital lobe as a control region. In addition, we have measured the salivary biomarkers cortisol, testosterone and alpha-amylase. We found that trait anxiety is negatively linked to taurine and positively to the excitation-inhibition balance. State anxiety was positively linked to lactate. The salivary biomarker alpha-amylase was found to be associated with both state anxiety and lactate. Social anxiety was positively linked to the excitation-inhibition balance. We also show links between reward-seeking task performance and ventral striatal glutamine, phosphorylethanolamine, GABA, choline, glutathione, myo-inositol, the excitation-inhibition balance and the ratio of glutamine to glutamate. These associations were observed in the ventral striatum but not the occipital lobe. Our methodological approach allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the neuroscience underlying the links between ventral striatal function, anxiety and motivated behaviour. Thereby, we have extended the literature on the links between personality traits, social status and motivated behaviour in socially competitive contexts and the underlying neurobiology. These new findings pave the way for future experimental investigations to further elucidate the links between neurochemistry, mental health and socially competitive behaviour. A deep understanding of the neuroscience underlying personality traits and performance allow for effective interventions with the goal to ensure public health.

EPFL2017

Design of Digital Mediation Tool for Self-disclosing PTSD

Isabelle Barbara Marie-Hélène Cardia, Marina Fiori, Maria Gaci, Denis Gillet, Delphine Preissmann

Establishing trust is an important aspect of the design of technological tools for mental health, as individuals are persuaded to disclose personal distressing experiences when privacy is ensured. This work-in-progress paper presents an interdisciplinary research project aiming to compare the behavior of individuals expressing trauma-related thoughts and feelings in response to trauma-evoking video clips, following three different interaction sources: a) a psychologist, b) a technological tool utilizing a human-like agent and c) a technological tool utilizing a machine-like agent. Electro-physiological, subjective and behavioral measures will be collected and triangulated to test the effectiveness of each interaction source. The design of the digital interface is presented in this paper aiming to provide insights for establishing trust in eHealth applications.

2020

Non-Invasive Brain-Actuated Control of a Mobile Robot

Wulfram Gerstner

Recent experiments have shown the near possibility to use the brain electrical activity to directly control the movement of robotics or prosthetic devices. In this paper we report results with a portable non-invasive brain-computer interface that makes possible the continuous control of a mobile robot in a house-like environment. The interface uses 8 surface electrodes to measure electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from which a statistical classifier recognizes 3 different mental states. Until now, brain-actuated control of robots has relied on invasive approaches-requiring surgical implantation of electrodes-since EEG-based systems have been considered too slow for controlling rapid and complex sequences of movements. Here we show that, after a few days of training, two human subjects successfully moved a robot between several rooms by mental control only. Furthermore, mental control was only marginally worse than manual control on the same task.

Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc2003

In vivo neurochemistry of the ventral striatum and social competition in Homo sapiens

Alina Veronika Irene Strasser

EPFL2017