(2019) Testing for the myth of cognitive reserve: are the static and dynamic cognitive reserve indexes a representation of different reserve warehouses? Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 72 (1). pp. 111-126.

Background Anxiety related to the dental context is a clinically significant challenge. In children, dental fear is often accompanied by disruptive and uncooperative behaviours that can render treatment difficult. Although techniques to reduce children's anxiety exist, many have not been formally evaluated. Design Diaphragmatic breathing has been shown to reduce fear and anxiety, but few investigations have evaluated whether it can reduce dental anxiety in children. This crossover study tested the effectiveness and feasibility of diaphragmatic breathing in twenty children undergoing dental care. Results Compared with the treatment as usual, such a simple technique had significant benefits on mood, self‐reported pain and autonomic balance, thus reducing sympathetic activation. Conclusion Diaphragmatic breathing is a low‐cost, easy–to‐implement technique suitable for daily dental practice, and is a promising tool for reducing negative effect and physiological distress in children with dental anxiety that results in more cooperative behaviours and reduced visit time.

Abstract. Sleep quality is considered a basic dimension of emotional health. The psychophysiological mechanisms underlying the associations between sleep quality and positive emotions are still largely unknown, yet autonomic regulation may play a role. This study employed a two-day ecological momentary assessment methodology in a sample of young adults to investigate whether subjective sleep quality reported in the morning was associated with daily positive emotional experience and whether this association was mediated by heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of cardiac vagal tone. Sleep quality was assessed using an electronic sleep diary upon awakening, while resting HRV and positive emotions were inspected at random times throughout the day using photoplethysmography and an electronic diary, respectively. Relevant confounding variables such as smoking, alcohol intake, and physical exercise between each measurement were also assessed. The sample included 121 participants (64.8% females, Mage = 25.97 ± 5.32 years). After controlling for relevant confounders including health behaviors and psychiatric comorbidities, mediation analysis revealed that greater sleep quality positively predicted daily HRV (β = .289, p < .001) which, in turn, had a direct influence on positive emotions (β = .244, p = .006). Also, sleep quality directly predicted positive emotional experience (β = .272, p = .001). Lastly, the model showed an indirect effect between sleep quality and positive emotions via HRV (β = .071, 95% BCI [.011, .146]). Results support the view of HRV as a process variable linking sleep to positive emotions. Experimental data is needed to consolidate the present findings.