Your presence matters: parallel group craft activities proven effective in occupational therapy
Working independently in a shared space was found to enhance relaxation
2023-08-07
(Press-News.org)
Osaka, Japan – “Your presence means the world to me” may sound like a wedding invitation cliché, but an Osaka Metropolitan University study has shown that the presence of others while working does generate a state of relaxation and positive brain activity.
In psychiatry, occupational therapy encompasses not only the individual-therapist relationship but also occupational activities and group work. In clinical practice, having multiple individuals engage in separate activities within the same room has been deemed effective as part of occupational therapy. However, there has been a dearth of clear electrophysiological evidence supporting this approach.
Meanwhile, previous studies have shown that performing craft activities alone can lead to a state of focused attention, as evident from specific brainwave patterns associated with concentration. Individuals exhibiting such brainwave patterns were also found to experience an increase in parasympathetic activity, which predominates in relaxation conditions.
Combining these two aspects, a research team led by Professor Ryouhei Ishii and graduate student Junya Orui, from the Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science at Osaka Metropolitan University, examined the electrophysiological effectiveness of performing craft activities in the presence of others.
The team measured and analyzed brainwaves and autonomic nervous system activity during craft activities in 30 healthy young adults under the following three conditions: an individual performed the craft activity alone (Alone condition); two individuals engaged in separate craft activities independently (Parallel condition); and two individuals participated, during which one individual performed the craft activity while the other observed (Nonparallel condition).
The experiment results revealed that parasympathetic activity was significantly higher in the parallel condition than in the alone condition. Additionally, in all conditions, individuals who exhibited concentration-related brainwave patterns during craft activities showed a significant increase in parasympathetic activity compared to those who did not exhibit such brainwave patterns.
“This study provides electrophysiological evidence that working in the presence of peers and the focus on craft activities can boost parasympathetic activity, even without physical contact or verbal interaction,” stated Mr. Orui. “In the future, we aim to investigate the structures and environments for more effective occupational therapy based on these findings.”
This study was published online in Neuropsychobiology.
###
About OMU
Osaka Metropolitan University is a new public university established in April 2022, formed by merger between Osaka City University and Osaka Prefecture University. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ or follow @OsakaMetUniv_en and #OMUScience.
END
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2023-08-06
The antibiotic cefazolin is an essential drug according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It is usually produced via batch manufacturing, but this multistep process is time-consuming, wasteful and requires very specialized facilities. Now for the first-time, researchers have manufactured cefazolin using the continuous-flow method. This method is cheaper, quicker, less wasteful and more flexible in terms of how much drug can be produced when it’s needed. Improving access to cefazolin is vital for global health and particularly relevant for countries such as Japan, which experienced a shortage in 2019. This study is published in the Bulletin ...
2023-08-05
BALTIMORE, August 5, 2023–As artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT find their way into everyday use, physicians will start to see these tools incorporated into their clinical practice to help them make important decisions on diagnosis and treatment of common medical conditions. These tools, called clinical decision support (CDS) algorithms, can be enormously helpful in helping guide health care providers in determining, for example, which antibiotics to prescribe or whether to recommend a risky heart surgery.
The success of these new technologies, however, depends largely on how physicians interpret and act upon a tool’s ...
2023-08-05
University of Melbourne researchers have developed a fast, inexpensive and scalable method for engineering blood vessels from natural tissue.
Co-led by ARC Future Fellow Associate Professor Daniel Heath and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Shanahan Chair in Frontier Medical Solutions Andrea O’Connor, both from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the researchers employed a novel approach to ‘tissue engineering’ blood vessels.
By combining multiple materials and fabrication technologies, they developed a method to create blood vessels with complex geometries like native blood ...
2023-08-04
By Wynne Parry
Much about tiny, swimming rotifers makes them ideal study subjects. Although barely visible to the naked eye, these transparent animals and their innards are readily viewed under a microscope. What’s more, they grow readily in laboratory culture, offering scientists an otherwise difficult-to-obtain perspective from their corner of the animal kingdom.
However, while rotifers have been used experimentally for more than a century by many research groups, scientists have so far lacked the ability to readily manipulate rotifers’ genetics, placing a hard limit on the experiments they can run with these animals.
A joint ...
2023-08-04
The Ecological Society of America has named Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Ph.D., as the editor-in-chief of the newest title in its portfolio of journals. The international open-access journal, Earth Stewardship, will focus on facilitating collaborations between scientists and society to shape a sustainable future for nature and people. It will be ESA’s first publication focused on integrating the natural and social sciences; the humanities; and technical, local and Indigenous Knowledges.
Earth Stewardship will highlight perspectives from the southern ...
2023-08-04
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) will present its 16th annual Regional Policy Award to the Director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s (CTUIR) Department of Natural Resources Eric Quaempts on Sunday, Aug 6, 5:00pm EDT, during the ESA Conference Opening Plenary. The ESA annual award recognizes the use of ecological science to inform regional policy decisions. This is the first time in the history of the ESA policy award that a Tribal member and Tribal governance employee has been recognized for integrating tribal ecological approaches.
Since ...
2023-08-04
BOSTON - A new way to monitor two-photon lithography nanoscale fabrication could help improve the accuracy and efficiency of creating 3D engineered tissue scaffolds, according to a new study. Tissue scaffolds mimic the natural extracellular matrices found in the body, which creates a 3D environment ideal for tissue formation.
Jieliyue Sun, an engineering Ph.D. student from the lab of Kimani Toussaint, Brown University will present this research at the Optica Imaging Congress. The hybrid meeting will take place 14 – 17 August 2023 in Boston.
“Tissue scaffolds are three-dimensional structures that can support the growth and development of cells or tissues for biomedical ...
2023-08-04
Highlights:
Researchers led by Rafael Auras in the Michigan State University School of Packaging have shown how to make a bio-based polymer compostable in both home and industrial settings.
The team said its research, published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, can help divert plastic packaging that’s been soiled by food, the vast majority of which is not recycled. Another end-of-use option, like composting, can thus help keep plastics out of landfills and the environment.
To make the compostable polymer, the team blended bioplastics known as polylactic acid, or PLA, and thermoplastic ...
2023-08-04
“Proton therapy [...] seems to have decisive advantages with regard to the long-term survival of [adenoid cystic carcinoma] [...]”
BUFFALO, NY- August 4, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 10) on June 28, 2023, entitled, “Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck – treatment strategies of a highly malignant tumor with variable localizations.”
In this new editorial, researchers Florian Dudde, Kai-Olaf Henkel and Filip Barbarewicz from the Army Hospital Hamburg discuss head and neck tumors, which are among the most common malignancies. ...
2023-08-04
Researchers have modified a commercial virtual reality headset, giving it the ability to measure brain activity and examine how we react to hints, stressors and other outside forces.
The research team at The University of Texas at Austin created a noninvasive electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor that they installed in a Meta VR headset that can be worn comfortably for long periods. The EEG measures the brain's electrical activity during the immersive VR interactions.
The device could be used in many ways, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Your presence matters: parallel group craft activities proven effective in occupational therapy
Working independently in a shared space was found to enhance relaxation
