Jeffrey R. Stowell

Psychoneuroimmunology: Mechanisms, Individual Differences, and Interventions

Jeffrey R. Stowell et al. — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:10:41 PST

The field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) addresses how psychological factors (particularly stress) influence the immune system and physical health through neural and endocrine pathways. These relationships are especially relevant to immunologically mediated health problems, including infectious disease, cancer, autoimmunity, allergy, and wound healing. In 2007, the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society’s flagship journal, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, published a series of papers summarizing the progress of PNI over the previous 20 years. As noted by Ader and Kelley (2007) in their overview of the series, the field has defined itself as a valid interdisciplinary area, complete with societies, publications, and grants to support it. PNI researchers have moved past the question of whether there are bidirectional connections between the nervous and immune systems to address the conditions under which these connections influence each other, their developmental origins, and clinical applications.

Marital Behavior, Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and Wound Healing

Jean-Phillipe Gouin et al. — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:44:41 PST

Animal studies have implicated oxytocin and vasopressin in social bonding, physiological stress responses, and wound healing. In humans, endogenous oxytocin and vasopressin levels covary with perceptions of relationship quality, marital behaviors, and physiological stress responses. To investigate relationships among marital behavior, oxytocin, vasopressin, and wound healing, and to determine the characteristics of individuals with the highest neuropeptide levels, 37 couples were admitted for a 24-hour visit in a hospital research unit. After small blister wounds were created on their forearm, couples participated in a structured social support interaction task. Blister sites were monitored daily following discharge to assess wound repair speed. Blood samples were collected for oxytocin, vasopressin, and cytokine analyses. Higher oxytocin levels were associated with more positive communication behaviors during the structured interaction task. Furthermore, individuals in the upper oxytocin quartile healed blister wounds faster than participants in lower oxytocin quartiles. Higher vasopressin levels were related to fewer negative communication behaviors and greater tumor necrosis factor-α production. Moreover, women in the upper vasopressin quartile healed the experimental wounds faster than the remainder of the sample. These data confirm and extend prior evidence implicating oxytocin and vasopressin in couples' positive and negative communication behaviors, and also provide further evidence of their role in an important health outcome, wound healing.

Attachment avoidance predicts inflammatory responses to marital conflict

Jean-Phillipe Gouin et al. — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:36:00 PST

Marital stress has been associated with immune dysregulation, including increased production of interleukin-6 (IL-6). Attachment style, one’s expectations about the availability and responsiveness of others in intimate relationships, appears to influence physiological stress reactivity and thus could influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. Thirty-five couples were invited for two 24-hour admissions to a hospital research unit. The first visit included a structured social support interaction, while the second visit comprised the discussion of a marital disagreement. A mixed effect within-subject repeated measure model indicated that attachment avoidance significantly influenced IL-6 production during the conflict visit but not during the social support visit. Individuals with higher attachment avoidance had on average an 11% increase in total IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit, while individuals with lower attachment avoidance had, on average, a 6% decrease in IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit. Furthermore, greater attachment avoidance was associated with a higher frequency of negative behaviors and a lower frequency of positive behaviors during the marital interaction, providing a mechanism by which attachment avoidance may influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. In sum, these results suggest that attachment avoidance modulates marital behavior and stress-induced immune dysregulation.

Using Peer Review in Honors Courses

Jeffrey Stowell — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:21:04 PST

Instructors of writing courses have used peer review in their classes for many years, but there is clear application in other disciplines, especially in honors courses in which instructors expect students to be actively engaged in the learning process and students are more likely to possess greater critical thinking skills. Indeed, because most honors courses are writing intensive, potentially all honors faculty are writing teachers.

Teaching and learning in a digital world

Keith Millis et al. — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:21:02 PST

no abstract.