EMOTIONAL HEALTH, MEMORY, ATTENTION AND SLEEP PATTERN

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• EMOTIONAL HEALTH, MEMORY, ATTENTION AND SLEEP
  PATTERN

THEORETICAL PART
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INTRODUCTION
Relationships between emotional health, cognitive
function and rest
Emotions and health
Memory and attention
Sleep pattern and rest
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Emotions and Health
• Emotional Health and its importance
• Objectives of Emotional Health
• Emotional control and coping strategies
• Patterns and recommendations
• Memory
• Functions of Memory
• Stages of the memorising process
• Attention
• Influence of attention on memory
• Individual characteristics of attention
• Factors impacting on attention
• Types of attention
• Benefits of increased attention
• Sleep and rest in healthy aging

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EMOTIONAL HEALTH
EMOTIONS AND HEALTH
Immune System Endocrine System Nervous System
FOUNDATIONS
? Emotional inhibition provokes disorders and
diseases. ? Anxiety is an element which
aggravates disease. ? Optimism increases the
response of the immune system. ? Anger (retained
or expressed) (Permanent hostility) as a heart
risk element. ? Depression after a heart attack
multiplies the risk of complications in the
following year. ? Connection between stress
(feeling of impotence/helplessness) and risk of
developing high-blood pressure. ? Cicatrisation
speed decreases in stressful situations. ? Depress
ion in young individuals is a risk factor for
later hypertension. ? Sadness and anxiety affect
the immune system. ? Social support in
seropositive patients improves their vital signs.
EMOTIONS EXERT AN INFLUENCE ON BIOCHEMICAL
REGULATION
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EMOTIONAL HEALTH
Their thoughts Their feelings Their behaviours
The people who are EMOTIONALLY healthy have
control over
LEARNING
They have good interpersonal relationships
I. PERCEPTION, EXPRESSION AND ASSESSMENT OF
EMOTIONS
II. EMOTIONS AT THE SERVICE OF THINKING
III. UNDERSTANDING OF EMOTIONS
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
IV. REGULATION MANAGEMENT OF EMOTIONS
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EMOTIONAL HEALTH
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING
What for?
POSITIVE EMOTIONAL STATES
Physical health improvement
Prevention of disease risks
Greater Quality of Life
Protection against depression
Handling anxiety
Strengthening the self-immune system
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EMOTIONAL HEALTH
OBJECTIVES

• Perceiving emotional health as a lifestyle that
  can be developed through knowledge and coping
  strategies.
• Identifying the basic emotional phenomena
  (emotions, feelings and states of mind).
• Developing healthy emotional habits.
• Applying the knowledge acquired to a healthy
  daily life (in the intra- and interpersonal
  context).

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EMOTIONAL CONTROL TO PREVAIL PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL
ALTERATIONS
People with more emotional intelligence (EI) have
a better well-being.
Anxiety and depression are reduced in people with
more EI. (Davis,Stankov y Roberts 1998)

• Capacities and strategies to develop

1) Perceiving, feeling and being aware of our
emotional state, without being overwhelmed or
threatened by it. 2) Selecting the emotional
thoughts to which attention is going to be paid
with a view to act rationally. 3) Controlling the
start of emotional alterations. 4) Tolerating
frustration. 5) Showing serene attitudes before
stress-inducing situations. 6) Ensuring
self-motivation to achieve feasible objectives,
regulating the state of mind
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POSITIVE EMOTIONAL COPING STRATEGIES

1. Search for alternatives
2. Emotional control
3. Positive re-evaluation
4. Search for social support
5. Search for professional support
6. Humour
7. Suppression of distracting activities
8. Personal development

1. Religion
2. Emotional expression
3. Positive visualisation
4. Emotional writing
5. Behavioral avoidance
6. Cognitive avoidance
7. Holding back coping
8. Waiting
9. Mental disconnection

Characteristics of coping strategies
Behavioural answers
Cognitive answers
Psyco-physiological answers
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IMPORTANCE OF MAINTAINING A GOOD COGNITIVE
FUNCTION FOR HEALTHY AGEING

• Some capacities suffer a continuous decline in
  the old age (Cabeza, 2001 Corral and Pardo,
  2007)
• The basic cognitive capacities which form the
  basis of most types of learning can be modified
  (Flavell, 1976 Feuerstein, 1980 and 1991).
• Slowing down the deterioration of seniors
  cognitive capacities is a learning-for-health
  task that influences emotional well-being and
  favours health and quality of life among seniors.
• Memory and attention are essential for everyday
  life.
• Encouraging rest and refreshing sleep are key
  factors in this task.

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MEMORY

• Definition Memory is the human capacity to store
  and retrieve information.
• Functions of memory Without it, we would be
  unable to cope in daily life because it takes
  care of
• Seeing
• Hearing
• Thinking
• Speaking
• What else can be done?

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STAGES OF THE MEMORISING PROCESS

• RECORDING STAGE
• When information enters the brain it is the
  entrance door through which information accesses
  our conscience.
• The intervening processes are
• Attention
• Concentration
• Perception

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STAGES OF THE MEMORISING PROCESS

• CONSOLIDATION STAGE
• We set in motion processes meant to consolidate
  or store information.
• The intervening processes are
• Association of new/old information
• Categorisation
• Integration into previous information
• Memory is emotionally charged
• etc.

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STAGES OF THE MEMORISING PROCESS

• RECALL STAGE
• When the stored information is retrieved
• The intervening processes are
• Situational references
• Evocation
• Retrieval keys
• etc

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ATTENTION

• Definition
• A system of limited capacity which performs
  information selection operations, the
  availability or alert state of which fluctuates
  considerably (De Vega, 1993).
• Study of an individuals capacities and
  limitations for the selection and processing of
  sensorial information about the environment
  (Jahnke and Nowaczyk, 1998)
• It is a conscious attitude aimed at the
  observation of a thing (Diccionario de
  Psicología, F Dorsch)

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ATTENTION

• The importance of memory processes
• It especially influences the recording stage.
  Therefore, it is one of the determining factors
  in the memory process.
• Lack of attention prevents information from being
  registered, thus hindering consolidation and
  recall.

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ATTENTION

• Individual characteristics of attention
• Capacity Extent to which the organism can pay
  attention to several tasks or processes
  simultaneously.
• Attention-Conscience Connection The extent to
  which the information to which we pay attention
  gets to our conscience.
• Attentional filters Ability to fix our attention
  before a number of predetermined stimuli.

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ATTENTION

• Factors impacting on attention
• Overall psychological condition it defines our
  state of mind (worried, anxious, depressed).
• Activation level how we are physically speaking
  (tired, awake...).
• Environment it defines the place where we find
  ourselves (there is a lot of noise or very little
  noise).
• Motivation it determines the degree of
  involvement in focalisation.
• Habituation and fatigue With the passing of
  time, attention decreases naturally. We cannot
  pay attention to something constantly without
  getting tired.

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ATTENTION

• Types of attention
• Selective attention a process which gives
  priority to some piece of information over
  another.
• Sustained attention Persistence over time in the
  priority of observation for a piece of
  information.
• Orientation reflex Interest in the new
  information that is presented to us.

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ATTENTION

• Benefits of increased attention for our daily
  activities
• An increase in our capacity to remember, which
  implies an improved self-esteem and self-efficacy
  levels because we have more confidence in our
  memory.
• An increase in the arrival of information from
  the world that surrounds us, which implies a
  stronger commitment to life because individuals
  are more aware of it.

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REST AND SLEEP WITHIN THE HEALTHY AGEING STRATEGY

• Sleep it is the state of uniform rest of an
  organism as opposed to the state of wakefulness.
• Insomnia Chronic absence of the ability required
  to be able to start or maintain sleep.

SLEEP PHASES
REM
Wakefulness
W a k e f u l n e s s
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
Phase IV
Hour
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REST AND SLEEP WITHIN THE HEALTHY AGEING STRATEGY

• Sleep serves to refresh organisms after the wear
  suffered during the wakefulness period.
• Its main objective is neurone restoration through
  the system of neurotrophins which promote
  neurone survival and restoration.
• Sleep maintains and reorganises neural circuits,
  including the neuroformation of synapses that
  permit to modify the existing neural networks due
  to the effect of experience.
• All this gives rise to adequate brain functioning
  and environmnental adaptation.
• (Montes Rodríguez et al., Revista de
  Neurología. 2006)

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CORTISOL CONNECTION

• There is a relationship between the subjective
  quality of sleep and cortisol levels. A low
  quality correlates with high cortisol rates.
• (Maldonado et al.C.Med.Psicosom.2004)

CORTISOL
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REST AND SLEEP WITHIN THE HEALTHY AGEING STRATEGY

• An abnormal cortisol secretion can lead the brain
  to increase its activity in two relevant areas
• The hippocampus and the amygdala.
• In the case of the hippocampus, it can cause
  atrophy and permanent damage.
• The hippocampus and the amygdala are crucial not
  only in stressful situations (fear, emotions,
  immunity) but also for their influence on
  superior functions of the brain such as memory.
• (Fraser. 2007)

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HIPPOCAMPUS AND MEMORY
HIPPOCAMPUS IN 3D

• The hippocampus seems to be involved in the
  formation of memory, not in its storage.
• It seems to play an essential role in the
  formation of new memories associated to
  autobiographical experience or memory.

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HIPPOCAMPUS AND MEMORY
Angle circumvolution

• The hippocampus forms part of a more complex
  system, that of the medial temporal lobe which
  grasps declarative memory
  (different memories which can be invoked
  explicitly, like semantic memory, characterised
  by the storage of specific data such as proper
  names)

Callused body
Third ventricle
Lateral ventricles
Hippocampus
Cerebellum
Fourth ventricle
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HIPPOCAMPUS AND MEMORY

• The hippocampus stops having a crucial role in
  the passage from the memory formation period to
  the memory consolidation period.
• Damaging the hippocampus causes difficulties in
  the formation of new memories and the processing
  of spatial information.
• (OKane et al. Hippocampus. 2004)

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SLEEP HIPPOCAMPUS-CEREBRAL CORTEX CONNECTION
Basic movements
CONSOLIDATION
Precise movements
Central fissure
Formix
Formix
Motor cortex
Emotions, conduct
Knowledge, memory
Parietal lobe
Frontal lobe
Hippocampus
Somatosensorial cortex
Visual recognition
Language (Brocas area)
Occipital lobe
Hearing
Vision
NEURAL NETWORKS
Smell
Muscle and balance coordination
Amygdala
Lateral fissure
Amygdalae
Temporal lobe
Hippocampus
LATERAL
VENTRAL
Language (Wernickes area)
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HIPPOCAMPUS AND EMOTIONS

• Emotional memories can be formed instantaneously,
  partly because the hippocampus acts comparing the
  outer world as it is collected by sensorial
  systems with the representation that the brain
  has of that same world.
• A sudden change in a situation causes the
  hippocampus and amygdala to start working
  together to build conscious memories of the
  events. (Fraser. 2007)

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CORTISOL INCREASE AND MEMORY
GLUCOCORTICOID CASCADE
CEREBRAL CORTEX

• The glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis suggests a
  significant relationship between the cumulative
  exposure to high levels of these substances (such
  as cortisol) and the deterioration in the
  functioning of memory due to atrophy of the
  hippocampus, an area that is essential for
  explicit memory as a conscious or voluntary
  recollection of previous information.
• (Csernansky et al. Am.J. Psy.2006)

HYPOTHALAMUS
HYPOPHYSIS
ADRENAL GLAND
GLUCOCORTICOIDS
(CORTISOL)
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REST AND SLEEP WITHIN THE HEALTHY AGEING STRATEGY

• Both the increase in the activity of the
  hypothalamus adrenal hypophysary axis and the
  lack of sleep cause the same effect through the
  glucocorticoid cascade.
• Therefore, lack of sleep, the same as emotional
  tension, impacts similarly on cognitive
  deterioration with effects such as the loss of
  certain types of memory and emotional health
  problems (among others).
• (Lupien et al. Psychoneuroendocrinology.2005)

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CORTISOL CONNECTION IN SENIORS

• In elderly people, cognitive deterioration is
  produced both by the long-term exposure to
  cortisol values and by current high levels, thus
  confirming the hypotheses of memory deterioration
  due to chronic exposure to these glucocorticoid
  rates.

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REST AND SLEEP WITHIN THE HEALTHY AGEING STRATEGY

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