TY - JOUR A1 - Scheel, Tabea A1 - Hoeppner, Dorothea A1 - Grotevendt, Anne A1 - Barthlen, Winfried T1 - Clowns in Paediatric Surgery: Less Anxiety and More Oxytocin? A Pilot Study JF - Klinische Pädiatrie : clinical research and practice in pediatrics N2 - Background Hospital stays and medical interventions are accompanied by worries and anxiety in children and parents. Recent studies show that hospital clowns may reduce anxiety and enhance well-being. However, so far studies are based solely on subjective measures and clowns are usually not integrated in medical routine. With this pilot study, we aim to provide both psychological and physiological evidence of positive effects of clowns’ interventions in hospitalized children. Patients/Method In a consecutive randomized intervention-control group design with 31 children aged 4 to 13 years, 17 patients were accompanied by a clown prior to surgery or during ward round (intervention group) and 14 were not (control group). Saliva samples for oxytocin measurement were taken from all patients before hospitalization (T1) and prior to surgery or after ward round (T2). Self- and parents-reports were obtained at T1, T2 as well as at time of discharge from hospital (T3) regarding children’s anxiety (STAI), worries and well-being. Clowns evaluated their success in cheering up the child. Health professionals were asked for their acceptance of clowns in hospitals. Results Children in the intervention group had lower anxiety ratings and a higher oxytocin concentration at T2 as compared with T1; the control group showed no changes. Parents rated the well-being of their children higher if their child had clown’s contact and were more willing to recommend the hospital. The staff judged the clowns as helpful for patients. Discussion Consistent psychological and physiological results suggest the positive impact of a clown’s intervention in hospitalized children. KW - hospital clowns KW - medical routine KW - oxytocine KW - psychological well-being KW - anxiety KW - childcare Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-106854 SN - 0300-8630 SN - 1439-3824 VL - 229 SP - 274 EP - 280 PB - Thieme CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dolcos, Florin A1 - Katsumi, Yuta A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Moore, Matthew A1 - Tsukiura, Takashi A1 - Dolcos, Sanda T1 - Emerging Directions in Emotional Episodic Memory JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Building upon the existing literature on emotional memory, the present review examines emerging evidence from brain imaging investigations regarding four research directions: (1) Social Emotional Memory, (2) The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Impact of Emotion on Memory, (3) The Impact of Emotion on Associative or Relational Memory, and (4) The Role of Individual Differences in Emotional Memory. Across these four domains, available evidence demonstrates that emotion-and memory-related medial temporal lobe brain regions (amygdala and hippocampus, respectively), together with prefrontal cortical regions, play a pivotal role during both encoding and retrieval of emotional episodic memories. This evidence sheds light on the neural mechanisms of emotional memories in healthy functioning, and has important implications for understanding clinical conditions that are associated with negative affective biases in encoding and retrieving emotional memories. KW - emotion-cognition interactions KW - social cognition KW - emotion control KW - associative memory KW - individual differences (personality, sex, age) KW - anxiety KW - depression KW - PTSD Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01867 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 SP - R1277 EP - R1280 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -