Toru Uehara

Bio: Toru Uehara is an academic researcher from Gunma University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Physics & Personality. The author has an hindex of 27, co-authored 68 publications receiving 2457 citations. Previous affiliations of Toru Uehara include Niigata University & Fujita Health University.

Linking "big" personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders: a meta-analysis.

Abstract: We performed a quantitative review of associations between the higher order personality traits in the Big Three and Big Five models (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, disinhibition, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness) and specific depressive, anxiety, and substance use disorders (SUD) in adults. This approach resulted in 66 meta-analyses. The review included 175 studies published from 1980 to 2007, which yielded 851 effect sizes. For a given analysis, the number of studies ranged from three to 63 (total sample size ranged from 1,076 to 75,229). All diagnostic groups were high on neuroticism (mean Cohen's d = 1.65) and low on conscientiousness (mean d = -1.01). Many disorders also showed low extraversion, with the largest effect sizes for dysthymic disorder (d = -1.47) and social phobia (d = -1.31). Disinhibition was linked to only a few conditions, including SUD (d = 0.72). Finally, agreeableness and openness were largely unrelated to the analyzed diagnoses. Two conditions showed particularly distinct profiles: SUD, which was less related to neuroticism but more elevated on disinhibition and disagreeableness, and specific phobia, which displayed weaker links to all traits. Moderator analyses indicated that epidemiologic samples produced smaller effects than patient samples and that Eysenck's inventories showed weaker associations than NEO scales. In sum, we found that common mental disorders are strongly linked to personality and have similar trait profiles. Neuroticism was the strongest correlate across the board, but several other traits showed substantial effects independent of neuroticism. Greater attention to these constructs can significantly benefit psychopathology research and clinical practice.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: replication and exploration of differential relapse prevention effects.

Abstract: Recovered recurrently depressed patients were randomized to treatment as usual (TAU) or TAU plus mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Replicating previous findings, MBCT reduced relapse from 78% to 36% in 55 patients with 3 or more previous episodes; but in 18 patients with only 2 (recent) episodes corresponding figures were 20% and 50%. MBCT was most effective in preventing relapses not preceded by life events. Relapses were more often associated with significant life events in the 2-episode group. This group also reported less childhood adversity and later first depression onset than the 3-or-more-episode group, suggesting that these groups represented distinct populations. MBCT is an effective and efficient way to prevent relapse/recurrence in recovered depressed patients with 3 or more previous episodes. Cognitive– behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979) administered during depressive episodes is effective in reducing subsequent relapse and recurrence. Patients who recover following treatment of acute depression by CBT subsequently show less relapse or need for further treatment than do patients who recover following treatment with antidepressant medication and are then withdrawn from medication (Blackburn, Eunson, & Bishop, 1986; Evans et al., 1992; Shea et al., 1992; Simons, Murphy, Levine, & Wetzel, 1986). As a result of CBT, patients presumably acquire skills, or changes in thinking, that confer some protection against future onsets. A recent approach of combining treatment of the acute episode by antidepressant medication with provision of CBT following recovery, while antidepressant medication is gradually withdrawn, has yielded preliminary successful findings in preventing relapse/ recurrence (Fava, Grandi, Zielezny, Canestrari, & Morphy, 1994; Fava, Grandi, Zielezny, Rafanelli, & Canestrari, 1996; Fava, Rafanelli, Grandi, Canestrari, & Morphy, 1998). The strategy of combining acute pharmacotherapy with psychological prophylaxis has the advantage of capitalizing on the cost-efficiency of antidepressant medication to reduce acute symptoms while reducing the need for patients to remain indefinitely on maintenance medication to prevent future relapse and recurrence. This strategy has also been evaluated using a novel, theory-driven approach to psychological prophylaxis, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002), formerly called attentional control (mindfulness) training. An initial evaluation of MBCT (Teasdale et al., 2000) demonstrated encouraging prophylactic effects. The present study examined the replicability of those findings and explored a number of related issues. MBCT was derived from a model of cognitive vulnerability to depressive relapse (Segal, Williams, Teasdale, & Gemar, 1996; Teasdale, 1988; Teasdale, Segal, & Williams, 1995) that assumes that individuals who have previously experienced episodes of major depression differ from those who have not in the patterns of negative thinking that become activated in mildly depressed mood. Specifically, it is assumed that in recovered depressed patients, compared with never-depressed controls, dysphoria is more likely to activate patterns of self-devaluative depressogenic thinking, similar to those that prevailed in preceding episodes. Considerable

Sex differences in the functional organization of the brain for language

Abstract: A MUCH debated question is whether sex differences exist in the functional organization of the brain for language1–4. A long-held hypothesis posits that language functions are more likely to be highly lateralized in males and to be represented in both cerebral hemispheres in females5,6, but attempts to demonstrate this have been inconclusive7–17. Here we use echo-planar functional magnetic resonance imaging18–21 to study 38 right-handed subjects (19 males and 19 females) during orthographic (letter recognition), phonological (rhyme) and semantic (semantic category) tasks. During phonological tasks, brain activation in males is lateralized to the left inferior frontal gyrus regions; in females the pattern of activation is very different, engaging more diffuse neural systems that involve both the left and right inferior frontal gyrus. Our data provide clear evidence for a sex difference in the functional organization of the brain for language and indicate that these variations exist at the level of phonological processing.

HomER: a review of time-series analysis methods for near-infrared spectroscopy of the brain.

Abstract: Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a noninvasive neuroimaging tool for studying evoked hemodynamic changes within the brain. By this technique, changes in the optical absorption of light are recorded over time and are used to estimate the functionally evoked changes in cerebral oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin concentrations that result from local cerebral vascular and oxygen metabolic effects during brain activity. Over the past three decades this technology has continued to grow, and today NIRS studies have found many niche applications in the fields of psychology, physiology, and cerebral pathology. The growing popularity of this technique is in part associated with a lower cost and increased portability of NIRS equipment when compared with other imaging modalities, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography. With this increasing number of applications, new techniques for the processing, analysis, and interpretation of NIRS data are continually being developed. We review some of the time-series and functional analysis techniques that are currently used in NIRS studies, we describe the practical implementation of various signal processing techniques for removing physiological, instrumental, and motion-artifact noise from optical data, and we discuss the unique aspects of NIRS analysis in comparison with other brain imaging modalities. These methods are described within the context of the MATLAB-based graphical user interface program, HomER, which we have developed and distributed to facilitate the processing of optical functional brain data.