Technological development in recent times has dramatically changed the way people live, interact with, and consume information. Since the emergence of the first iPhone in January 2007 until today, mobile phones are used daily for a range of purposes. Using mobile phones for various purposes intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic due to isolation or government lockdown regulations. However, along with the advantages of smartphone usage there are many disadvantages such as smartphone addiction and continuous exposure to digital screens, behaviors known as PSU—problematic smartphone use. This study explores the impact of several variables on PSU: loneliness, the need for social interaction, sleep hours, fear of losing phone access (nomophobia), and stress among young adults in Israel. The variables are examined with respect to two time periods: 1. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns (defined as “T1”) and 2. Following the end of the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns (defined as “T2”). The results indicated that nomophobia, social affiliation, and sleep hours affect PSU. In addition, the indirect effect of the number of sleep hours on stress and PSU was found to be significant in T2 and in T1. The findings and their implications are discussed.

/pdf/the-impact-of-nomophobia-stress-and-loneliness-on-smartphone-20ibfnvo.pdf

The Impact of Nomophobia, Stress, and Loneliness on Smartphone Addiction among Young Adults during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Israeli Case Analysis

Abstract Fears and social ties have been frequently discussed during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, it is still insufficiently examined how people have developed or mitigated social ties, bias and inter-group conflicts caused by fear. This review examined relevant COVID-19 literature and the psychology of anxiety, distress and aggression to consider how these adverse behaviours might be neutralised by cognitive flexibility. The results showed that social ties function as both risk and protective factors. The importance of social ties was repeatedly described as alleviating loneliness; nevertheless, people also expressed stigma-related anxiety (fear of criticism via empathic distress) associated with peer pressures and hostile vigilantism. Social ties and empathy have strengthened human cohesion and helped reconcile relations, but they also reinforced unfavourable biased bonds, terror and rumours that benefited in-group members while discriminating against out-group individuals. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility may assuage these negative consequences through shifting attention and perspective. Context-adjusted viewpoints and reciprocal dialogues seem crucial. The subsequent mitigation of misunderstandings, fear-induced bias, and maladaptive distress appraisal may lead to more reasonable and flexible recognition of social ties. The significance of this conclusion is in its potential for implementing intervention programmes to reduce pandemic-induced fear, and it could help to address other relevant issues, such as refugee crises and displaced people, a phenomenon that is globally developing discrimination, stigma and polarised blaming. It is worth further investigating how flexibility and inter-group empathy help pursue humanitarianism. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01210-8.pdf

Social ties, fears and bias during the COVID-19 pandemic: Fragile and flexible mindsets

Mapping the brain basis of feelings, emotions and much more: A special issue focused on ‘The Human Affectome’

Background Despite common dissatisfaction with the syndromic heterogeneity of major depression, investigations into its symptom structure are scarce. Self-worthlessness/inadequacy is a distinctive and consistent symptom of major depression across cultures. Aims We investigated whether self-worthlessness is associated with self-blaming attribution-related symptoms or is instead an expression of reduced positive feelings overall, as would be implied by reduced positive affect accounts of depression. Methods 44,161 undergraduate students in Study 1, and 215 patients with current Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 237 age-matched healthy control participants in Study 2 completed the well-validated Symptom Check List-90. Depression-relevant items were used to construct regularized partial correlation networks with bootstrap estimates of network parameter variability. Results Worthlessness co-occurred more strongly with other symptoms linked to self-blaming attributions (hopelessness, and self-blame), displaying a combined edge weight with these symptoms which was significantly stronger than the edge weight representing its connection with reduced positive emotion symptoms (such as reduced pleasure/interest/motivation, difference in edge weight sum in Study 1 = 2.95, in Study 2 = 1.64; 95% confidence intervals: Study 1: 2.6–3.4; Study 2: 0.02–3.5; Bonferroni-corrected p < 0.05). Conclusions This confirms the prediction of the revised learned helplessness model that worthlessness is most strongly linked to hopelessness and self-blame. In contrast, we did not find a strong and direct link between anhedonia items and a reduction in self-worth in either study. This supports worthlessness as a primary symptom rather than resulting from reduced positive affect.

/pdf/the-psychopathology-of-worthlessness-in-depression-11jsl50a.pdf

The Psychopathology of Worthlessness in Depression

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most discussed and actively researched areas in medicine, psychiatry, neurophysiology, biochemistry and rehabilitation over the last decades. Multiple causes can trigger post-traumatic stress disorder. Humans subjected to violence, participants in hostilities, victims of terrorist attacks, physical or psychological persecution, witnessing scenes of cruelty, survival of natural disasters, and more, can strongly affect both children and adults. Pathological features of post-traumatic stress disorder that are manifested at molecular, cellular and whole-organism levels must be clearly understood for successful diagnosis, management, and minimizing of long-term outcomes associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. This article summarizes existing data on different post-traumatic stress disorder causes and symptoms, as well as effects on homeostasis, genetic instability, behavior, neurohumoral balance, and personal psychic stability. In particular, we highlight a key role of mitochondria and oxidative stress development in the severity and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Excessive or prolonged exposure to traumatic factors can cause irreversible mitochondrial damage, leading to cell death. This review underlines the exceptional importance of data integration about the mechanisms and functions of the mitochondrial stress response to develop a three-dimensional picture of post-traumatic stress disorder pathophysiology and develop a comprehensive, universal, multifaceted, and effective strategy of managing or treatment post-traumatic stress disorder.

/pdf/an-orchestrating-role-of-mitochondria-in-the-origin-and-1e9miuf9.pdf

Tomasso Ballarini

Papers

The neuroscience of social feelings: mechanisms of adaptive social functioning.