Prevalência e fatores associados à dor em bailarinos profissionais

To investigate the prevalence and factors associated to painful symptomatology in professional ballet dancers. Methodos: An analytical transversal cut study was performed with 141 professional ballet dancers in the main capital cities of the Brazilian Northeast. McGill`s Pain Questionnaire and the Wisconsin Brief Pain Inventory, both validated for Portuguese, were used to assess painful symptomatology. Descriptive statistical analysis of the results was carried out, followed by Student`s t-test and Pearson s correlation with pvalue < 0.05. Results: High pain tolerance levels were observed in 70.2% of the subjects, where the intensity varied from moderate to severe. Pain in the lumbar region was present in 85.8% of the individuals. Positive correlations were verified between the degree of pain intensity and activities how to dance (60,3%), general activities (32,6%), sleep (28,4%), mood (27,7%), march (20,6%) and relations with others (16,3%). Conclusions: High pain prevalence was found in professional ballet dancers in the main capital cities of the northeast, and the most affected area was the lumbar followed by knees, neck, hip and feet, with substantial interference of pain symptoms in several activities of the personal and professional lives of these people

Batidas intensas : corpo e sociabilidade nas festas de música eletrônica em Natal

The significance of the body in electronic music parties as a sign for communicating and socializing among participants is the focus of this work. Qualitative research undertaken in this study seeks to investigate how sociability happens at raves and nightclubs in Natal/RN. Sociability is understood here as a play expression involving the dimensions of music, dance and party; the body, seen from a transdisciplinary approach, is understood as a symbolic instance, with its own meanings, as a result and a producer of social and as a cross between the cultural and the biological. The body has a communicative potential, is primary media. An intersection point between nature and culture, it serves as the seat of emotions and sociability, since it is through it that social relations are made. In electronic music parties, the body is interpreted based on its communication signs: clothing, accessories, body movements, tactile contact, body language, interactions between the public and dj, the dj and the public, gestures, expressive speech of emotions. Through such signs, body communication and a sense of community among participants develop sociability in the festive place and change the mood of the dancers. The Natal s electronic music parties young goer interacts on parties, adopts cheerful and receptive positions towards the other, maintains physical contact, values dance as a form of communication and lists happiness as the main feeling aroused in electronic music festivals. To achieve this result, a plurimetodological approach was used, which consisted of various methodological devices and various techniques of investigation: ethnographic observation, individual and informal interview techniques, photographic record of the scene, in-depth interview and application thirty questionnaires to patrons of electronic music parties

Agentes Inteligentes com Foco de Atenção Afetivo em Simulações Baseadas em Agentes

Simulations based on cognitively rich agents can become a very intensive computing task, especially when the simulated environment represents a complex system. This situation becomes worse when time constraints are present. This kind of simulations would benefit from a mechanism that improves the way agents perceive and react to changes in these types of environments. In other worlds, an approach to improve the efficiency (performance and accuracy) in the decision process of autonomous agents in a simulation would be useful. In complex environments, and full of variables, it is possible that not every information available to the agent is necessary for its decision-making process, depending indeed, on the task being performed. Then, the agent would need to filter the coming perceptions in the same as we do with our attentions focus. By using a focus of attention, only the information that really matters to the agent running context are perceived (cognitively processed), which can improve the decision making process. The architecture proposed herein presents a structure for cognitive agents divided into two parts: 1) the main part contains the reasoning / planning process, knowledge and affective state of the agent, and 2) a set of behaviors that are triggered by planning in order to achieve the agent s goals. Each of these behaviors has a runtime dynamically adjustable focus of attention, adjusted according to the variation of the agent s affective state. The focus of each behavior is divided into a qualitative focus, which is responsible for the quality of the perceived data, and a quantitative focus, which is responsible for the quantity of the perceived data. Thus, the behavior will be able to filter the information sent by the agent sensors, and build a list of perceived elements containing only the information necessary to the agent, according to the context of the behavior that is currently running. Based on the human attention focus, the agent is also dotted of a affective state. The agent s affective state is based on theories of human emotion, mood and personality. This model serves as a basis for the mechanism of continuous adjustment of the agent s attention focus, both the qualitative and the quantative focus. With this mechanism, the agent can adjust its focus of attention during the execution of the behavior, in order to become more efficient in the face of environmental changes. The proposed architecture can be used in a very flexibly way. The focus of attention can work in a fixed way (neither the qualitative focus nor the quantitaive focus one changes), as well as using different combinations for the qualitative and quantitative foci variation. The architecture was built on a platform for BDI agents, but its design allows it to be used in any other type of agents, since the implementation is made only in the perception level layer of the agent. In order to evaluate the contribution proposed in this work, an extensive series of experiments were conducted on an agent-based simulation over a fire-growing scenario. In the simulations, the agents using the architecture proposed in this work are compared with similar agents (with the same reasoning model), but able to process all the information sent by the environment. Intuitively, it is expected that the omniscient agent would be more efficient, since they can handle all the possible option before taking a decision. However, the experiments showed that attention-focus based agents can be as efficient as the omniscient ones, with the advantage of being able to solve the same problems in a significantly reduced time. Thus, the experiments indicate the efficiency of the proposed architecture

Alternância no uso dos modos indicativo e subjuntivo em orações subordinadas substantivas: uma comparação entre o português do Brasil e o francês do Canadá

The purpose of this work is to analyze the use of the indicative mood, instead of the subjunctive prescribed by the normative grammar, in complement clauses introduced by the conjunction que in Brazilian Portuguese. Contexts of use of the subjunctive according to grammatical prescription, and contexts of fluctuation on the use of that verbal mood were analyzed, in an attempt to investigate what interferes on the choice of the mood by the user of the language. This study is based on North-American Functional Linguistics theoretical perspective, oriented to analyzing language in use, in the light of the principles of grammaticalization and markedness. The results obtained support that the contexts that favor the indicative over the subjunctive are those composed by a complement clause functioning as a direct object the unmarked clause of all complement clauses and by a verb on the main sentence that belongs to the semantic field of low certainty, corresponding to the epistemic sub-mode the unmarked category of the deontic sub-mode. The results indicate that pragmatics and semantics factors influence the language user on the choice of the verbal mood. This research also presents comparative data on the use of the indicative mood in place of the subjunctive in Brazilian Portuguese and Canadian French, aiming to providing suggestions on language teaching

A linguagem do blog escolar em um trabalho com multiletramentos: compartilhando sentidos

This research, part of Applied Linguistics field, aims to analyze the language of a school blog, developed with the participation of students, as a work based on the conception of multiliteracies, focusing on the construction of different meanings. The research is carried on from the building and maintenance of a school blog, the Ieceblog, with students of Ensino Fundamental II, since 2008, in a private school in Natal-RN. The investigation of the language produced on a school blog is justified due to the interactive conceptions of writing and reading on the virtual environment. Given the fact that new technologies are a reality in the schools opened to the practices of multiliteracies, it is assumed that text, image, video, audio, non-graphic signs and hypertext intensifies the produced interaction, in which the students become real authors. In this perspective, some voices belonging to the statements that are formed through the posts and comments chosen to the analyses and reflection on the blog space as locus of productions of senses inserted in the school and the world environment, as well as for the identification of the language resources used to intensify the senses that emerge from it. From the view of dialogism conceptualized by Bakhtin Circle, the qualitative interpretive-research deepens the experience of a school blog focusing on digital language in line with the vision of digital literacy. From the blog posts, a corpus that promote the exposure of different manifestations of language in the design of digital multiliteracies is elected. Thereby, the method used was the dialogical analysis of speech based on Bakhtin s studies and the Circle. The corpus was taken from the blog s posts in order to point up the different language manifestations in the following categories: (i) mood reinforced by the mockery, (ii) search for compliance with school sphere, (iii) conflicting social values and consistent complicity between sense and verbal imagery, and finally (iv) social practices that take place from and through the discursive genre. The study points to the tension between the active voices in several directions, revealing the distorted unit of posts which, under the analytical observation raises multiple meanings in a responsive manner. The analysis of the dialogue interaction in which intersperses the digital one becomes more apparent that the multiliteracies events that are mediated by language in addition to structure of the language and makes us rethink the students

Liberdade e negação da vontade: análise do ser-livre como representação e na angústia

Common understanding about what freedom means has always been more or less related to the power to realize something intended, desired, a capability. Therefore, being free is commonly interpreted under the concept of free-will and the category of possibility to act. Although there are predecessors in History of Philosophy, Schopenhauer refuses the thesis of free will proposing otherwise the denial of willing (to live) as the ultimate possibility for human freedom, if not the only one left. The thesis that would make him famous was deeply misunderstood and so miscarried somewhat due to the way it was many times presented by the means of exotic examples wrapped in a mystical mood besides exaltations to Eastern traditions, which may satisfy anthropological curiosity instead of being capable to satisfy the reader in a philosophical way. It seems to result from Schopenhauer s thought a kind of pessimism against life. Otherwise, typical readings on the Schopenhauerian thesis are found full of inconsistencies once closely regarded, which blame does not belong to the author but to his interpreters. A new reading about the denial of willing as the ultimate possibility for human freedom demands a criticism on the inconsistencies and prejudgments deep grounded. For this, we firstly clarify the ways of understanding the willing nothing , which cannot be reduced to the mere refusal or conformism, being instead positively understood as a special manner of willing: the admission of oneself for the sake of one is. A few more than a century later The world as will and representation came to light, Heidegger proposes in his fundamental ontology that the proper being-free concerns to originary decision by which, in anguish of being suspended in nothingness, Dasein renders itself singular as the being who is in-a-world and to-death, concluding that the ultimate possibility of freedom is being-free-to-death. Developing the hypothesis that freedom, properly understood, concerns to nothingness as to indeterminate possibilities, we seek for a dialogue between Schopenhauer s thought and existential philosophy aiming to reconstitute and overcome Metaphysics tradition turning the question about freedom into a matter of Ontology. From the factual existence perspective, as we must show, every human activity (or inactivity) is ordinarily mediated by representations, in which me and world appear as distinct entities. So, each one among determininate individuals finds itself connected to the things in the world by interest, which proper concept must be sufficiently explored. Starting from this point, we may proceed to detailed analysis of usual representations of freedom aiming their destruction by Ontology and then reaching existential thesis according to Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Turning back to the analysis of Schopenhauer s work, we conclude existential understanding of freedom as will-to-be can also be found in Schopenhauer. In this way, denial of willing means ultimate freedom once the Will turns back to its own essence by suppressing the world as representation, which means the originary absolute indetermination of the extreme possibility to-be

Administração repetida de baixas doses de reserpina: um possível modelo para o estudo de déficits cognitivos e motores associados à Doença de Parkinson

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative brain disorders and is characterized primarily by a progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons nigroestriatais. The main symptoms of this disease are motor alterations (bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor at rest), which can be highly disabling in advanced stages of the condition. However, there are symptomatic manifestations other than motor impairment, such as changes in cognition, mood and sensory systems. Animal models that attempt to mimic clinical features of PD have been used to understand the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying neurophysiological disturbance of this disease. However, most models promote an intense and immediate motor impairment, consistent with advanced stages of the disease, invalidating these studies for the evaluation of its progressive nature. The administration of reserpine (a monoamine depletor) in rodents has been considered an animal model for studying PD. Recently we found that reserpine (in doses lower than those usually employed to produce the motor symptoms) promotes a memory deficit in an aversive discrimination task, without changing the motor activity. It was suggested that the administration of this drug in low doses can be useful for the study of memory deficits found in PD. Corroborating this data, in another study, acute subcutaneous administration of reserpine, while preserving motor function, led to changes in emotional context-related (but not neutral) memory tasks. The goal of this research was to study the cognitive and motor deficits in rats repeatedly treated with low doses of reserpine, as a possible model that simulates the progressive nature of the PD. For this purpose, 5-month-old male Wistar rats were submitted to a repeated treatment with vehicle or different doses of reserpine on alternate days. Cognitive and motor parameters and possible changes in neuronal function were evaluated during treatment. The main findings were: repeated administration of 0.1 mg / kg of reserpine in rats is able to induce the gradual appearance of motor signs compatible with progressive features found in patients with PD; an increase in striatal levels of oxidative stress and changes in the concentrations of glutamate in the striatum were observed five days after the end of treatment; in animals repeatedly-treated with 0. 1 mg/kg, cognitive deficits were observed only after the onset of motor symptoms, but not prior to the onset of these symptoms; 0.2 mg / kg reserpine repeated treatment has jeopardized the cognitive assessment due to the presence of severe motor deficits. Thus, we suggest that the protocol of treatment with reserpine used in this work is a viable alternative for studies of the progressive appearance of parkinsonian signs in rats, especially concerning motor symptoms. As for the cognitive symptoms, we suggest that more studies are needed, possibly using other behavioral models, and / or changing the treatment regimen

Efeitos da prática de Yoga na memória e em parâmetros psicológicos e fisiológicos de indivíduos saudáveis

Techniques of mind & body control seem to benefit human organism in general and cognition in particular, because they involve a mindfulness practice. However, there is still a scarcity of studies with well-controlled methods to investigate the possible effects of Yoga practice. In this study, we investigated the effects of regular Yoga practice, based on Yoga postures (asanas), breathing techniques, and meditation exercises, on memory and physiologic and psychological parameters related to quality of life. There were significant improvements on performance tasks of short term memory and long term memory. We also observed significant beneficial effects on psychological and physiological parameters such as mood, anxiety, depression, stress, and modulation of the autonomic nervous system in Yoga practitioners group compared to the conventional physical exercises group. The results suggest the possible influences of stress, emotional state and mental training on cognitive effects of yoga practice. Our results support the indication of practice of Yoga for the treatment or prevention of stress, psychological disorders and their possible cognitive consequences

Avaliação comportamental e neuroquímica de ratos em dessincronização forçada: possíveis implicações para um modelo animal de oscilações no humor

Bipolar disorder has been growing in several countries. It is a disease with high mortality and has been responsible by the social isolation of the patients. Bipolar patients have alterations in circadian timing system, showing a phase shift in various physiological variables. There are several arguments demonstrating alterations in circadian rhythms may be part of the bipolar disorder pathophysiology. Given the necessity for further elucidation, the goal of this study was to validate the forced desynchronization protocol as an animal model for bipolar disorder. To do this, Wistar rats were submitted to a forced desynchronization protocol which consists in a symmetrical light dark cycle with 22h. Under this protocol, rats dissociate the locomotor activity rhythm into two components: one synchronized to the light / dark cycle with 22h, and another component with period longer than 24 hours following the animal endogenous period. These rhythms with different periods sometimes there is coincidence, which we named CAP (Coincidence Active Phase) and the opposite phase, non-coincidence, called NCAP (Non-Concidence Active Phase). The hypothesis is that in CAP animals present a mania-like behavior and animals in NCAP depressive-like behavior. We found some evidence described in detail throughout this thesis. In sum, the animals under forced desynchronization protocol were more stressed, showed an increase in stereotypic behaviors such as grooming and reduction in other behaviors such as risk assessment and vertical exploration when compared to the control group. The CAP animals showed increased locomotor activity, especially during the dark phase when compared to controls (rats under T24) and less depressive behavior in the forced swim test. The animals in NCAP showed a higher anxiety in elevated plus maze, but they don t have ahnedonia. The animals under dissociation have more labeled 5HT1A cells at the amygdala area, which appoint that they have more amygdala inhibition. Taking these data together, we could partially validated the forced desynchronization protocol as an animal model for mood oscillations

Interações físicas e psicossociais em mulheres com fibromialgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a non-inflammatory rheumatic syndrome of unknown etiology, with symptoms of diffuse musculoskeletal pain and presence of specific anatomic sites called tender points. The symptoms are often associated with fatigue, sleep disturbances, morning stiffness, alterations in pain perception, anxiety and depression. Fibromyalgia exhibits a correlation between physical and behavioral symptoms, which have a negative influence on the quality of life of patients. Emotional skills are important factors since they are related to subjective well-being, personal productivity, social interaction and interpersonal relationships. We aim to describe the physical and psychosocial interactions in women with FM, showing the association between perceived social support and affect with symptoms of pain, functionality and mood. We will also describe a body representation of pain in women with FM. Data were collected over 3 years and the sample size ranged between studies. This is an exploratory cross-sectional study conducted with a convenience sample of 63 women with FM and 42 healthy women as a control group (CT), aged 20-76 years, recruited through spontaneous demand at Onofre Lopes University Hospital (HUOL) and the Clinical School of Physiotherapy of Universidade Potiguar (UNP). The Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Social Support Scale (MOS), Hamilton Anxiety Scale and Scale of Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), in addition to pressure algometry were used. For data analysis, we used parametric and non-parametric tests and a general linear model with adjustment variables and analysis of variance. A significant difference was found between pain threshold and tolerance, functionality, depression, anxiety, social support, and positive and negative affect between the groups. Affective states and social support were associated with anxiety, depression and functionality. A body was drawn representing pain with higher incidences in trapeze, supraspinatus and second ribs. The reason for studying sensory aspects, affective behavior and social support in FM patients opens perspectives for scientific and clinical research of this syndrome. Women with chronic pain such as FM appear to have altered mood states, less social support and affective dysfunctions, influencing the other symptoms of the syndrome

Efeitos dos esteroides anabólicos androgênicos sobre funções cognitivas de ratos

The use and the demand for substances that enhance masculinity, strength and sexual power are not novel. Over the years, this search has assisted the research directions in this area, leading to the discovery of the primary male sex hormone testosterone in 1935. Since then, numerous testosterone analogue compounds were synthesized, which are generically called Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS). The AAS were produced for therapeutic purposes, but an increase in the use of these compounds for other purposes occurred over time. Initially they were used mainly to improve performance in athletes. However, recent studies have shown that the use of AAS by non-athletes with aesthetical purposes have been increasing as well. The abuse of AAS with non-clinical purposes can promote a number of physiological alterations, such as heart, liver, respiratory and psychological problems such as changes in mood, levels of anxiety and aggression. Exposure to supraphysiological doses of AAS is associated with behavioral changes, however, little is known about the effects of AAS on cognitive functions. In this work, we aimed to mimic the AAS abuse in humans with intramuscular administration of a supraphysiological dose of testosterone propionate (TP) in rats. We investigated the effects of this treatment on different aspects of cognitive function, specifically learning, memory and anxiety. Adult male Wistar rats were tested in the spontaneous alternation, novel object recognition and plus-maze discriminative avoidance tasks. The control group received intramuscular injections of vegetable oil (vehicle), and the TP group received injections of TP (10 mg/kg, i.m.). The injections were administered for 40 days, with intervals of 48 hours (chronic treatment) or in a single injection (acute treatment). In addition to the behavioral assessments, we performed biochemical analyzes as indicators of the endocrine effects of the treatment. Our results show that chronic treatment with a supraphysiological dose of TP caused memory impairments in the novel object recognition and the discriminative avoidance tasks. The spatial working memory (evaluated by spontaneous alternation task) was not affected. Also, we did not observe changes in anxiety levels. Regarding the biochemical parameters, chronic treatment increased serum levels of glutamicpyruvic transaminase, an indicator of hepatic and pancreatic lesions (as those observed after chronic use of these substances in humans). On the other hand, acute treatment with PT did not promote significant changes in any of these parameters when compared to the control group. In summary, we conclude that chronic treatment with a supraphysiological dose of testosterone propionate produces memory deficits in novel object recognition and retrieval of the discriminative avoidance task in adult male rats

Sonhos antecipatórios: influência de um evento significativo da vigília na atividade onírica

In most cultures, dreams are believed to predict the future on occasion. Several neurophysiological studies indicate that the function of sleep and dreams is to consolidate and transform memories, in a cyclical process of creation, selection and generalization of conjectures about the reality. The aim of the research presented here was to investigate the possible adaptative role of anticipatory dreams. We sought to determine the relationship between dream and waking in a context in which the adaptive success of the individual was really at risk, in order to mobilize more strongly the oneiric activity. We used the entrance examination of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) as a significant waking event in which performance could be independently quantified. Through a partnership with UFRN, we contacted by e-mail 3000 candidates to the 2009 examination. In addition, 150 candidates were approached personally. Candidates who agreed to participate in the study (n = 94) completed questionnaires specific to the examination and were asked to describe their dreams during the examinaton period. The examination performance of each candidate in the entrance examination was provided by the UFRN to the researcher. A total of 45 participants reported dreams related to the examination. Our results show a positive correlation between performance on the examination and anticipatory dreams with the event, both in the comparison of performance on objective and discursive, and in final approval (in the group that not dreamed with the exam the rate of general approval, 22,45%, was similar to that found in the selection process as a whole, 22.19%, while for the group that dreamed with the examination that rate was 35.56%). The occurrence of anticipatory dreams reflectes increased concern during waking (psychobiological mobilization) related to the future event, as indicated by higher scores of fear and apprehension, and major changes in daily life, in patterns of mood and sleep, in the group that reported testrelated dreams. Furthermore, the data suggest a role of dreams in the determination of environmentally relevant behavior of the vigil, simulating possible scenarios of success (dream with approval) and failure (nightmares) to maximize the adaptive success of the individual

Efeitos da cafeína sobre a memória de saguis (Callithrix jacchus)

Caffeine is considered the most consumed psychostimulant in the world, presenting several central and peripheral effects. In the Central Nervous System the major effect occur by its antagonistic activity at the A1 and A2a subtypes of the adenosine receptors. These receptors are responsible for the slow-wave sleep induction, and their binding, caused by the consumption of foods and beverages that contain caffeine, cause behaviors like increase of alertness, mood and locomotion. The effects of caffeine on memory are still discussed because of the diversity of experimental protocols. Also, it does not have the same effects on all stages of the processing of memory - acquisition, consolidation and recall. Thus, using the marmoset (Callitrhix jacchus) as subject, we aim to evaluate the effects of caffeine on the memory of this primate through the conditioned place preference paradigm, where the animal selects a context by presence of food. This cognitive task consists of five phases. The first phase was two sessions of pre-exposure, in which they were evaluated for preference for any compartment of the apparatus. Then, we proceeded the training, conditioning the animals to the food-present context for 8 days. Then, there was administration of caffeine or placebo (10mg/kg) for 8 consecutive days, during the pre-sleep phase, where the 20 animals were distributed in two groups: placebo and repeated. The forth phase was one day of retraining, a re-exposure of the apparatus to the marmosets followed by the administration of caffeine (for the repeated group and a new group called abstinence) or placebo (for placebo and abstinence groups). Finally, was the test where we evaluated if the subjects learned where the food was present. Moreover, in this work we evaluate the existence of differences between females and males on the task, and the locomotor activity for the experimental groups. The results showed that in the pre-exposure phase the animals were habituated on the apparatus and did not present differences for any contexts. In training, they were able to learn the conditioning task, independent of gender. For the retraining, the two groups exhibited more interactions in rewarded context than that in non-rewarded context. Nevertheless, in the locomotor activity, the repeated group moved similarly in contact with the apparatus and outside of it. In the other hand, the animals of the placebo group moved more when in contact with the apparatus. In the test phase, the marmosets under influence of caffeine presented an increase in the locomotor activity when compared with the placebo group, corroborating works that show this increase in locomotion. In the learning evaluation, the continuous and abstinence groups had a bad performance in the task in relation to the placebo and acute groups. This suggests that the prolonged administration of caffeine disrupts the memories because it affected sleep, which is largely responsible offline processing of memories

Avaliação do padrão do ciclo sono-vigília e a cognição em estudantes de medicina com diferentes esquemas de horários de aulas

The sleep patterns of students entering the university, is accompanied by many factors that can lead to changes in sleep habits, such as academic demands, new social opportunities, reduced parental care and irregular teaching schedules. The irregular pattern of sleep-wake cycle is usually accompanied by several daytime consequences, for example, reduced levels of motivation, performance, concentration, alertness and mood as well as increased fatigue and sleepiness.Thus, there are numerous reasons to support the fact that these students may suffer damage in their academic performance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sleep-wake cycle (SWC) and cognition in medical students with different schemes teaching schedules. One group started classes at 08am, while the other started at 07am. We analyzed the data from 88 volunteers, 39 from each group. However, only those who participated in both stages of the study (n = 78) underwent cognitive testing. For subjective evaluation of the SWC was used questionnaires to check the quality of sleep, chronotype, daytime sleepiness and sleep habits. For objective evaluation was used actigraphy. For cognitive assessment was used the test MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment). The results indicate that the group has class earlier had a greater irregularity of the SWC and a worse performance in cognitive testing. There was a difference between the schedules the week and weekend in the subjective variables, bedtime, wake up and sleep duration in both groups. The objective variables, time in bed showed difference between the schedules the week and weekend to the group started class at 08am and the variables bedtime, get up time, actual sleep time, time in bed and wake bouts in the class at 07am. In the cognitive test, there were differences between the groups in overall score and in the areas of executive function and memory recall. Thus, it is suggested that the class starting time may cause irregularity of the SWC and the irregularity may cause mild cognitive impairment. Moreover, cognitive testing MoCA was sensitive to detect differences among students, although the difference between the schedules is small

A influência da prática meditativa sobre parâmetros psicofisiológicos e tarefas de memória operacional em indivíduos saudáveis

Meditation is described as a method for improving attention and promoting psychological and emotional stability, presenting favourable results on memory and stress tolerance as well. Studies have shown differences in physiological and psychological measurements between meditators and non-meditators. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of regular meditation practice on working memory, psychological measurements and quality of life of healthy practitioners. We carried out a comparative study with meditators and non-meditators. Working memory tests and standard inventories of life quality, anxiety, mood, sleep quality, depression and stress were applied. Our study showed that meditators presented better scores in parameters indicative of life quality, mood, depression and stress when compared with non-meditators. Moreover, there was a trend in best performance of meditators in memory tasks (forward digit span task and Hanoi tower). These findings corroborate other studies showing that regular meditation can provide an improvement in general quality of life and affecting positively the behavioral and attentional functions in individuals