Teachers' Social-Emotional Capacity: Factors Associated with Teachers' Responsiveness and Professional Commitment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buettner, Cynthia K.; Jeon, Lieny; Hur, Eunhye; Garcia, Rachel E.

2016-01-01

Research Findings: Early care and education has pronounced implications for young children's social-emotional learning. Although program structural and classroom process quality indicators have been widely explored, teachers' personal social-emotional capacity has only recently been recognized as an indicator of quality. This study reviewed and…

Changing views of emotion regulation and neurobiological models of the mechanism of action of psychotherapy.

PubMed

Messina, Irene; Sambin, Marco; Beschoner, Petra; Viviani, Roberto

2016-08-01

Influential neurobiological models of the mechanism of action of psychotherapy attribute its success to increases of activity in prefrontal areas and decreases in limbic areas, interpreted as the successful and adaptive recruitment of controlled processes to achieve emotion regulation. In this article, we review the behavioral and neuroscientific evidence in support of this model and its applicability to explain the mechanism of action of psychotherapy. Neuroimaging studies of explicit emotion regulation, evidence on the neurobiological substrates of implicit emotion regulation, and meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies of the effect of psychotherapy consistently suggest that areas implicated in coding semantic representations play an important role in emotion regulation not covered by existing models based on controlled processes. We discuss the findings that implicate these same areas in supporting working memory, in encoding preferences and the prospective outcome of actions taken in rewarding or aversive contingencies, and show how these functions may be integrated into process models of emotion regulation that depend on elaborate semantic representations for their effectiveness. These alternative models also appear to be more consistent with internal accounts in the psychotherapeutic literature of how psychotherapy works.

Acute tryptophan depletion attenuates conscious appraisal of social emotional signals in healthy female volunteers.

PubMed

Beacher, Felix D C C; Gray, Marcus A; Minati, Ludovico; Whale, Richard; Harrison, Neil A; Critchley, Hugo D

2011-02-01

Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) decreases levels of central serotonin. ATD thus enables the cognitive effects of serotonin to be studied, with implications for the understanding of psychiatric conditions, including depression. To determine the role of serotonin in conscious (explicit) and unconscious/incidental processing of emotional information. A randomized, double-blind, cross-over design was used with 15 healthy female participants. Subjective mood was recorded at baseline and after 4 h, when participants performed an explicit emotional face processing task, and a task eliciting unconscious processing of emotionally aversive and neutral images presented subliminally using backward masking. ATD was associated with a robust reduction in plasma tryptophan at 4 h but had no effect on mood or autonomic physiology. ATD was associated with significantly lower attractiveness ratings for happy faces and attenuation of intensity/arousal ratings of angry faces. ATD also reduced overall reaction times on the unconscious perception task, but there was no interaction with emotional content of masked stimuli. ATD did not affect breakthrough perception (accuracy in identification) of masked images. ATD attenuates the attractiveness of positive faces and the negative intensity of threatening faces, suggesting that serotonin contributes specifically to the appraisal of the social salience of both positive and negative salient social emotional cues. We found no evidence that serotonin affects unconscious processing of negative emotional stimuli. These novel findings implicate serotonin in conscious aspects of active social and behavioural engagement and extend knowledge regarding the effects of ATD on emotional perception.

The Impact of Emotional States on Cognitive Control Circuitry and Function.

PubMed

Cohen, Alexandra O; Dellarco, Danielle V; Breiner, Kaitlyn; Helion, Chelsea; Heller, Aaron S; Rahdar, Ahrareh; Pedersen, Gloria; Chein, Jason; Dyke, Jonathan P; Galvan, Adriana; Casey, B J

2016-03-01

Typically in the laboratory, cognitive and emotional processes are studied separately or as a stream of fleeting emotional stimuli embedded within a cognitive task. Yet in life, thoughts and actions often occur in more lasting emotional states of arousal. The current study examines the impact of emotions on actions using a novel behavioral paradigm and functional neuroimaging to assess cognitive control under sustained states of threat (anticipation of an aversive noise) and excitement (anticipation of winning money). Thirty-eight healthy adult participants were scanned while performing an emotional go/no-go task with positive (happy faces), negative (fearful faces), and neutral (calm faces) emotional cues, under threat or excitement. Cognitive control performance was enhanced during the excited state relative to a nonarousing control condition. This enhanced performance was paralleled by heightened activity of frontoparietal and frontostriatal circuitry. In contrast, under persistent threat, cognitive control was diminished when the valence of the emotional cue conflicted with the emotional state. Successful task performance in this conflicting emotional condition was associated with increased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, a default mode network region implicated in complex processes such as processing emotions in the context of self and monitoring performance. This region showed positive coupling with frontoparietal circuitry implicated in cognitive control, providing support for a role of the posterior cingulate cortex in mobilizing cognitive resources to improve performance. These findings suggest that emotional states of arousal differentially modulate cognitive control and point to the potential utility of this paradigm for understanding effects of situational and pathological states of arousal on behavior.

The effects of serotonin manipulations on emotional information processing and mood.

PubMed

Merens, Wendelien; Willem Van der Does, A J; Spinhoven, Philip

2007-11-01

Serotonin is implicated in both mood and cognition. It has recently been shown that antidepressant treatment has immediate effects on emotional information processing, which is much faster than any clinically significant effects. This review aims to investigate whether the effects on emotional information processing are reliable, and whether these effects are related to eventual clinical outcome. Treatment-efficiency may be greatly improved if early changes in emotional information processing are found to predict clinical outcome following antidepressant treatment. Review of studies investigating the short-term effects of serotonin manipulations (including medication) on the processing of emotional information, using PubMed and PsycInfo databases. Twenty-five studies were identified. Serotonin manipulations were found to affect attentional bias, facial emotion recognition, emotional memory, dysfunctional attitudes and decision making. The sequential link between changes in emotional processing and mood remains to be further investigated. The number of studies on serotonin manipulations and emotional information processing in currently depressed subjects is small. No studies yet have directly tested the link between emotional information processing and clinical outcome during the course of antidepressant treatment. Serotonin function is related to several aspects of emotional information processing, but it is unknown whether these changes predict or have any relationship with clinical outcome. Suggestions for future research are provided.

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Model of Mood and Anxiety Disorders.

PubMed

Hofmann, Stefan G

2014-10-01

Although social factors are of critical importance in the development and maintenance of emotional disorders, the contemporary view of emotion regulation has been primarily limited to intrapersonal processes. Based on diverse perspectives pointing to the communicative function of emotions, the social processes in self-regulation, and the role of social support, this article presents an interpersonal model of emotion regulation of mood and anxiety disorders. This model provides a theoretical framework to understand and explain how mood and anxiety disorders are regulated and maintained through others. The literature, which provides support for the model, is reviewed and the clinical implications are discussed.

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ): Scale Development and Psychometric Characteristics

PubMed Central

Hofmann, Stefan G; Carpenter, Joseph K.; Curtiss, Joshua

2016-01-01

Despite the popularity of emotion regulation in the contemporary literature, research has almost exclusively focused on only intrapersonal processes, whereas much less attention has been placed in interpersonal emotion regulation processes. In order to encourage research on interpersonal emotion regulation, we present a series of 4 studies to develop the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ). The final scale consists of 20 items with 4 factors containing 5 items each. The 4 factors are: Enhancing Positive Affect; Perspective Taking; Soothing; and Social Modeling. The scale shows excellent psychometric characteristics. Implications for future research are discussed. PMID:27182094

Exposure to emotionally arousing, contamination-relevant pictorial stimuli interferes with response inhibition: Implication for obsessive–compulsive disorder

PubMed Central

Adams, Thomas G.

2016-01-01

Multiple emotional processes are implicated in the pathogenesis of obsessions and compulsions and individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have reliably shown deficits in response inhibition. Little research has tested how emotional processes might interact with cognitive control in the context of OCD. High contamination obsessive-compulsive (OC) and low contamination-OC participants completed an emotional go/no-go task to measure the interfering effects contamination-threat images relative to neutral images on action restraint (errors of commission). Results revealed that high contamination-OC participants committed marginally more commission errors (11.04%) than low contamination-OC participants (10.30%) on neutral no-go trials, but this effect was not significant (p > .05). All participants committed significantly more errors of commission on contamination-threat trails relative to neutral no-go trials, p < .01, but the interfering effects of contamination-threat images was significantly larger (p = .05) for high-contamination-OC participants. Errors of commission almost doubled for high contamination-OC participants on contamination-threat no-go trials (20.78%), compared to a more modest increase for low contamination-OC participants (14.80%). These findings suggest that individuals with elevated symptoms of OCD may have significantly more difficulty inhibiting their actions when processing disorder relevant or emotionally arousing information. This observation has implications for the pathogenesis of obsessions and compulsions. PMID:28090434

Altered Negative Unconscious Processing in Major Depressive Disorder: An Exploratory Neuropsychological Study

PubMed Central

Yang, Zhi; Zhao, Jinping; Jiang, Yi; Li, Chunbo; Wang, Jijun; Weng, Xuchu; Northoff, Georg

2011-01-01

Objective Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been characterized by abnormalities in emotional processing. However, what remains unclear is whether MDD also shows deficits in the unconscious processing of either positive or negative emotions. We conducted a psychological study in healthy and MDD subjects to investigate unconscious emotion processing and its valence-specific alterations in MDD patients. Methods We combined a well established paradigm for unconscious visual processing, the continuous flash suppression, with positive and negative emotional valences to detect the attentional preference evoked by the invisible emotional facial expressions. Results Healthy subjects showed an attentional bias for negative emotions in the unconscious condition while this valence bias remained absent in MDD patients. In contrast, this attentional bias diminished in the conscious condition for both healthy subjects and MDD. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate for the first time valence-specific deficits specifically in the unconscious processing of emotions in MDD; this may have major implications for subsequent neurobiological investigations as well as for clinical diagnosis and therapy. PMID:21755006

Altered negative unconscious processing in major depressive disorder: an exploratory neuropsychological study.

PubMed

Yang, Zhi; Zhao, Jinping; Jiang, Yi; Li, Chunbo; Wang, Jijun; Weng, Xuchu; Northoff, Georg

2011-01-01

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been characterized by abnormalities in emotional processing. However, what remains unclear is whether MDD also shows deficits in the unconscious processing of either positive or negative emotions. We conducted a psychological study in healthy and MDD subjects to investigate unconscious emotion processing and its valence-specific alterations in MDD patients. We combined a well established paradigm for unconscious visual processing, the continuous flash suppression, with positive and negative emotional valences to detect the attentional preference evoked by the invisible emotional facial expressions. Healthy subjects showed an attentional bias for negative emotions in the unconscious condition while this valence bias remained absent in MDD patients. In contrast, this attentional bias diminished in the conscious condition for both healthy subjects and MDD. Our findings demonstrate for the first time valence-specific deficits specifically in the unconscious processing of emotions in MDD; this may have major implications for subsequent neurobiological investigations as well as for clinical diagnosis and therapy.

Wellbeing: causes and consequences of emotion regulation in work settings.

PubMed

Zammuner, V L; Galli, C

2005-10-01

Emotion regulation processes are a crucial aspect of the working role in jobs which require employee-customer interactions: What kinds of regulation processes are activated, with what frequency, and what are their correlates and consequences are important aspects to consider because of their potential implications for the well-being of individuals. To investigate these issues, a set of studies was carried out with Italian workers (N=769) performing service jobs in different sectors. Job-related, socio-demographic, and individual psychological variables were taken into account. The results confirmed the hypothesis that in service job-roles emotional labour (EL) is a component whose negative and positive implications for employees' well-being need to be considered. Emotional labour, embedded in a net of relationships with such job variables as frequency and duration of client-interaction, can result in high psychological costs for service workers. In particular, surface acting regulation was found to have a personal cost, indexed by the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.

Three decades of Cognition & Emotion: A brief review of past highlights and future prospects.

PubMed

Rothermund, Klaus; Koole, Sander L

2018-02-01

Over the past three decades, Cognition & Emotion has been one of the world's leading outlets for emotion research. In this article, we review past highlights of and future prospects for the journal. Our tour of history covers three periods: The first period, from 1987 to 1999, was a pioneering era in which cognitive theories began to be applied to the scientific analysis of emotion. The second period, from 2000 to 2007, was characterised by a sharp increase in the number of empirical research papers, a lot of which were concerned with automatic processing biases and their implications for clinical psychology. During the third period, from 2008 to 2017, a new focus emerged on self-regulatory processes and their implications for emotion. We then turn to the present profile of Cognition & Emotion and introduce our new editorial team. Finally, we consider how the journal's future success can be continued and increased by a) providing authors with fast and high-quality feedback; b) offering attractive publication formats, including the newly introduced Registered Reports for pre-registered studies; and c) consolidating key methodological paradigms with reproducible findings.

Emotional self-reference: brain structures involved in the processing of words describing one's own emotions.

PubMed

Herbert, Cornelia; Herbert, Beate M; Pauli, Paul

2011-08-01

The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated the role of emotion-related (e.g., amygdala) and self-related brain structures (MPFC in particular) in the processing of emotional words varying in stimulus reference. Healthy subjects (N=22) were presented with emotional (pleasant or unpleasant) or neutral words in three different conditions: (1) self (e.g., my fear), (2) other (e.g., his fear) and (3) no reference (e.g., the fear). Processing of unpleasant words was associated with increased amygdala and also insula activation across all conditions. Pleasant stimuli were specifically associated with increased activation of amygdala and insula when related to the self (vs. other and no reference). Activity in the MPFC (vMPFC in particular) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was preferentially increased during processing of self-related emotional words (vs. other and no reference). These results demonstrate that amygdala activation in response to emotional stimuli is modulated by stimulus reference and that brain structures implicated in emotional and self-related processing might be important for the subjective experience of one's own emotions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The development of emotion perception in face and voice during infancy.

PubMed

Grossmann, Tobias

2010-01-01

Interacting with others by reading their emotional expressions is an essential social skill in humans. How this ability develops during infancy and what brain processes underpin infants' perception of emotion in different modalities are the questions dealt with in this paper. Literature review. The first part provides a systematic review of behavioral findings on infants' developing emotion-reading abilities. The second part presents a set of new electrophysiological studies that provide insights into the brain processes underlying infants' developing abilities. Throughout, evidence from unimodal (face or voice) and multimodal (face and voice) processing of emotion is considered. The implications of the reviewed findings for our understanding of developmental models of emotion processing are discussed. The reviewed infant data suggest that (a) early in development, emotion enhances the sensory processing of faces and voices, (b) infants' ability to allocate increased attentional resources to negative emotional information develops earlier in the vocal domain than in the facial domain, and (c) at least by the age of 7 months, infants reliably match and recognize emotional information across face and voice.

An exploratory study of the relationship between changes in emotion and cognitive processes and treatment outcome in borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

McMain, Shelley; Links, Paul S; Guimond, Tim; Wnuk, Susan; Eynan, Rahel; Bergmans, Yvonne; Warwar, Serine

2013-01-01

This exploratory study examined specific emotion processes and cognitive problem-solving processes in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), and assessed the relationship of these changes to treatment outcome. Emotion and cognitive problem-solving processes were assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count, the Derogatis Affect Balance Scale, and the Problem Solving Inventory. Participants who showed greater improvements in affect balance, problem solving, and the ability to identify and describe emotions showed greater improvements on treatment outcome, with affect balance remaining statistically significant under the most conservative conditions. The results provide preliminary evidence to support the theory that specific improvements in emotion and cognitive processes are associated with positive treatment outcomes (symptom distress, interpersonal functioning) in BPD. The implications for treatment are discussed.

Investigating emotion in moral cognition: a review of evidence from functional neuroimaging and neuropsychology.

PubMed

Young, Liane; Koenigs, Michael

2007-01-01

Human moral decision-making has long been a topic of philosophical debate, and, more recently, a topic for empirical investigation. Central to this investigation is the extent to which emotional processes underlie our decisions about moral right and wrong. Neuroscience offers a unique perspective on this question by addressing whether brain regions associated with emotional processing are involved in moral cognition. We conduct a narrative review of neuroscientific studies focused on the role of emotion in morality. Specifically, we describe evidence implicating the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), a brain region known to be important for emotional processing. Functional imaging studies demonstrate VMPC activation during tasks probing moral cognition. Studies of clinical populations, including patients with VMPC damage, reveal an association between impairments in emotional processing and impairments in moral judgement and behaviour. Considered together, these studies indicate that not only are emotions engaged during moral cognition, but that emotions, particularly those mediated by VMPC, are in fact critical for human morality.

Cognitive neuroscience of social emotions and implications for psychopathology: examining embarrassment, guilt, envy, and schadenfreude.

PubMed

Jankowski, Kathryn F; Takahashi, Hidehiko

2014-05-01

Social emotions are affective states elicited during social interactions and integral for promoting socially appropriate behaviors and discouraging socially inappropriate ones. Social emotion-processing deficits significantly impair interpersonal relationships, and play distinct roles in the manifestation and maintenance of clinical symptomatology. Elucidating the neural correlates of discrete social emotions can serve as a window to better understanding and treating neuropsychiatric disorders. Moral cognition and social emotion-processing broadly recruit a fronto-temporo-subcortical network, supporting empathy, perspective-taking, self-processing, and reward-processing. The present review specifically examines the neural correlates of embarrassment, guilt, envy, and schadenfreude. Embarrassment and guilt are self-conscious emotions, evoked during negative evaluation following norm violations and supported by a fronto-temporo-posterior network. Embarrassment is evoked by social transgressions and recruits greater anterior temporal regions, representing conceptual social knowledge. Guilt is evoked by moral transgressions and recruits greater prefrontal regions, representing perspective-taking and behavioral change demands. Envy and schadenfreude are fortune-of-other emotions, evoked during social comparison and supported by a prefronto-striatal network. Envy represents displeasure in others' fortunes, and recruits increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, representing cognitive dissonance, and decreased reward-related striatal regions. Schadenfreude represents pleasure in others' misfortunes, and recruits reduced empathy-related insular regions and increased reward-related striatal regions. Implications for psychopathology and treatment design are discussed. © 2014 The Authors. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences © 2014 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Shame, Guilt and Remorse: Implications for Offender Populations

PubMed Central

Tangney, June Price; Stuewig, Jeff; Hafez, Logaina

2011-01-01

The emotions shame and guilt may represent a critical stepping stone in the rehabilitation process. Often referred to as “moral” emotions owing to their presumed role in promoting altruistic behavior and inhibiting antisocial behaviors, shame and guilt provide potentially exciting points of intervention with offenders. In this article, we describe current psychological theory and research that underscores important differences between shame and guilt. We note parallels between psychologists’ conceptions of guilt and shame, and criminologists’ conceptions of reintegrative and disintegrative shaming. We summarize recent research investigating the implications of these moral emotions for criminal and risky behavior, with special emphasis on the handful of studies conducted with actual offenders. We conclude with a discussion of implications for treatment in criminal justice settings. PMID:22523475

Acute tryptophan depletion attenuates conscious appraisal of social emotional signals in healthy female volunteers

PubMed Central

Gray, Marcus A.; Minati, Ludovico; Whale, Richard; Harrison, Neil A.; Critchley, Hugo D.

2010-01-01

Rationale Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) decreases levels of central serotonin. ATD thus enables the cognitive effects of serotonin to be studied, with implications for the understanding of psychiatric conditions, including depression. Objective To determine the role of serotonin in conscious (explicit) and unconscious/incidental processing of emotional information. Materials and methods A randomized, double-blind, cross-over design was used with 15 healthy female participants. Subjective mood was recorded at baseline and after 4 h, when participants performed an explicit emotional face processing task, and a task eliciting unconscious processing of emotionally aversive and neutral images presented subliminally using backward masking. Results ATD was associated with a robust reduction in plasma tryptophan at 4 h but had no effect on mood or autonomic physiology. ATD was associated with significantly lower attractiveness ratings for happy faces and attenuation of intensity/arousal ratings of angry faces. ATD also reduced overall reaction times on the unconscious perception task, but there was no interaction with emotional content of masked stimuli. ATD did not affect breakthrough perception (accuracy in identification) of masked images. Conclusions ATD attenuates the attractiveness of positive faces and the negative intensity of threatening faces, suggesting that serotonin contributes specifically to the appraisal of the social salience of both positive and negative salient social emotional cues. We found no evidence that serotonin affects unconscious processing of negative emotional stimuli. These novel findings implicate serotonin in conscious aspects of active social and behavioural engagement and extend knowledge regarding the effects of ATD on emotional perception. PMID:20596858

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Model of Mood and Anxiety Disorders

PubMed Central

Hofmann, Stefan G.

2014-01-01

Although social factors are of critical importance in the development and maintenance of emotional disorders, the contemporary view of emotion regulation has been primarily limited to intrapersonal processes. Based on diverse perspectives pointing to the communicative function of emotions, the social processes in self-regulation, and the role of social support, this article presents an interpersonal model of emotion regulation of mood and anxiety disorders. This model provides a theoretical framework to understand and explain how mood and anxiety disorders are regulated and maintained through others. The literature, which provides support for the model, is reviewed and the clinical implications are discussed. PMID:25267867

What develops during emotional development? A component process approach to identifying sources of psychopathology risk in adolescence.

PubMed

McLaughlin, Katie A; Garrad, Megan C; Somerville, Leah H

2015-12-01

Adolescence is a phase of the lifespan associated with widespread changes in emotional behavior thought to reflect both changing environments and stressors, and psychological and neurobiological development. However, emotions themselves are complex phenomena that are composed of multiple subprocesses. In this paper, we argue that examining emotional development from a process-level perspective facilitates important insights into the mechanisms that underlie adolescents' shifting emotions and intensified risk for psychopathology. Contrasting the developmental progressions for the antecedents to emotion, physiological reactivity to emotion, emotional regulation capacity, and motivation to experience particular affective states reveals complex trajectories that intersect in a unique way during adolescence. We consider the implications of these intersecting trajectories for negative outcomes such as psychopathology, as well as positive outcomes for adolescent social bonds.

Following Your Heart or Your Head: Focusing on Emotions versus Information Differentially Influences the Decisions of Younger and Older Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mikels, Joseph A.; Lockenhoff, Corinna E.; Maglio, Sam J.; Carstensen, Laura L.; Goldstein, Mary K.; Garber, Alan

2010-01-01

Research on aging has indicated that whereas deliberative cognitive processes decline with age, emotional processes are relatively spared. To examine the implications of these divergent trajectories in the context of health care choices, we investigated whether instructional manipulations emphasizing a focus on feelings or details would have…

The unconscious regulation of emotion: nonconscious reappraisal goals modulate emotional reactivity.

PubMed

Williams, Lawrence E; Bargh, John A; Nocera, Christopher C; Gray, Jeremy R

2009-12-01

People often encounter difficulty when making conscious attempts to regulate their emotions. We propose that nonconscious self-regulatory processes may be of help in these difficult circumstances because nonconscious processes are not subject to the same set of limitations as are conscious processes. Two experiments examined the effects of nonconsciously operating goals on people's emotion regulatory success. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in an anxiety-eliciting task. Participants who had a reappraisal emotion control goal primed and operating nonconsciously achieved the same decrease in physiological reactivity as those explicitly instructed to reappraise. In Experiment 2, the effect of nonconscious reappraisal priming on physiological reactivity was shown to be most pronounced for those who do not habitually use reappraisal strategies. The findings highlight the potential importance of nonconscious goals for facilitating emotional control in complex real-world environments and have implications for contemporary models of emotion regulation.

On the dynamics of implicit emotion regulation: counter-regulation after remembering events of high but not of low emotional intensity.

PubMed

Schwager, Susanne; Rothermund, Klaus

2014-01-01

Valence biases in attention allocation were assessed after remembering positive or negative personal events that were either still emotionally hot or to which the person had already adapted psychologically. Differences regarding the current state of psychological adjustment were manipulated experimentally by instructing participants to recall distant vs. recent events (Experiment 1) or affectively hot events vs. events to which the person had accommodated already (Experiment 2). Valence biases in affective processing were measured with a valence search task. Processes of emotional counter-regulation (i.e., attention allocation to stimuli of opposite valence to the emotional event) were elicited by remembering affectively hot events, whereas congruency effects (i.e., attention allocation to stimuli of the same valence as the emotional event) were obtained for events for which a final appraisal had already been established. The results of our study help to resolve conflicting findings from the literature regarding congruent vs. incongruent effects of remembering emotional events on affective processing. We discuss implications of our findings for the conception of emotions and for the dynamics of emotion regulation processes.

Relationships among cognition, emotion, and motivation: implications for intervention and neuroplasticity in psychopathology.

PubMed

Crocker, Laura D; Heller, Wendy; Warren, Stacie L; O'Hare, Aminda J; Infantolino, Zachary P; Miller, Gregory A

2013-01-01

Emotion-cognition and motivation-cognition relationships and related brain mechanisms are receiving increasing attention in the clinical research literature as a means of understanding diverse types of psychopathology and improving biological and psychological treatments. This paper reviews and integrates some of the growing evidence for cognitive biases and deficits in depression and anxiety, how these disruptions interact with emotional and motivational processes, and what brain mechanisms appear to be involved. This integration sets the stage for understanding the role of neuroplasticity in implementing change in cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes in psychopathology as a function of intervention.

A new look at emotion perception: Concepts speed and shape facial emotion recognition.

PubMed

Nook, Erik C; Lindquist, Kristen A; Zaki, Jamil

2015-10-01

Decades ago, the "New Look" movement challenged how scientists thought about vision by suggesting that conceptual processes shape visual perceptions. Currently, affective scientists are likewise debating the role of concepts in emotion perception. Here, we utilized a repetition-priming paradigm in conjunction with signal detection and individual difference analyses to examine how providing emotion labels-which correspond to discrete emotion concepts-affects emotion recognition. In Study 1, pairing emotional faces with emotion labels (e.g., "sad") increased individuals' speed and sensitivity in recognizing emotions. Additionally, individuals with alexithymia-who have difficulty labeling their own emotions-struggled to recognize emotions based on visual cues alone, but not when emotion labels were provided. Study 2 replicated these findings and further demonstrated that emotion concepts can shape perceptions of facial expressions. Together, these results suggest that emotion perception involves conceptual processing. We discuss the implications of these findings for affective, social, and clinical psychology. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion Decoding and Incidental Processing Fluency as Antecedents of Attitude Certainty.

PubMed

Petrocelli, John V; Whitmire, Melanie B

2017-07-01

Previous research demonstrates that attitude certainty influences the degree to which an attitude changes in response to persuasive appeals. In the current research, decoding emotions from facial expressions and incidental processing fluency, during attitude formation, are examined as antecedents of both attitude certainty and attitude change. In Experiment 1, participants who decoded anger or happiness during attitude formation expressed their greater attitude certainty, and showed more resistance to persuasion than participants who decoded sadness. By manipulating the emotion decoded, the diagnosticity of processing fluency experienced during emotion decoding, and the gaze direction of the social targets, Experiment 2 suggests that the link between emotion decoding and attitude certainty results from incidental processing fluency. Experiment 3 demonstrated that fluency in processing irrelevant stimuli influences attitude certainty, which in turn influences resistance to persuasion. Implications for appraisal-based accounts of attitude formation and attitude change are discussed.

Spatial frequency filtered images reveal differences between masked and unmasked processing of emotional information.

PubMed

Rohr, Michaela; Wentura, Dirk

2014-10-01

High and low spatial frequency information has been shown to contribute differently to the processing of emotional information. In three priming studies using spatial frequency filtered emotional face primes, emotional face targets, and an emotion categorization task, we investigated this issue further. Differences in the pattern of results between short and masked, and short and long unmasked presentation conditions emerged. Given long and unmasked prime presentation, high and low frequency primes triggered emotion-specific priming effects. Given brief and masked prime presentation in Experiment 2, we found a dissociation: High frequency primes caused a valence priming effect, whereas low frequency primes yielded a differentiation between low and high arousing information within the negative domain. Brief and unmasked prime presentation in Experiment 3 revealed that subliminal processing of primes was responsible for the pattern observed in Experiment 2. The implications of these findings for theories of early emotional information processing are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mapping patterns of change in emotion-focused psychotherapy: Implications for theory, research, practice, and training.

PubMed

Watson, Jeanne C

2018-05-01

An important objective in humanistic-experiential psychotherapies and particularly emotion-focused psychotherapy (EFT) is to map patterns of change. Effective mapping of the processes and pathways of change requires that in-session processes be linked to in-session resolutions, immediate post-session changes, intermediate outcome, final therapy outcome, and longer-term change. This is a challenging and long-term endeavour. Fine-grained descriptions of in-session processes that lead to resolution of specific interpersonal and intrapersonal issues linked with longer-term outcomes are the foundation of EFT, the process-experiential approach. In this paper, evidence in support of EFT as a treatment approach will be reviewed along with research on two mechanisms of change, viewed as central to EFT, clients' emotional processing and the therapeutic relationship conditions. The implications for psychotherapy research are discussed. Given the methodological constraints, there is a need for more innovative methodologies and strategies to investigate specific psychotherapy processes within and across different approaches to map patterns and mechanisms of change to enhance theory, research, practice, and training.

What develops during emotional development? A component process approach to identifying sources of psychopathology risk in adolescence

PubMed Central

McLaughlin, Katie A.; Garrad, Megan C.; Somerville, Leah H.

2015-01-01

Adolescence is a phase of the lifespan associated with widespread changes in emotional behavior thought to reflect both changing environments and stressors, and psychological and neurobiological development. However, emotions themselves are complex phenomena that are composed of multiple subprocesses. In this paper, we argue that examining emotional development from a process-level perspective facilitates important insights into the mechanisms that underlie adolescents' shifting emotions and intensified risk for psychopathology. Contrasting the developmental progressions for the antecedents to emotion, physiological reactivity to emotion, emotional regulation capacity, and motivation to experience particular affective states reveals complex trajectories that intersect in a unique way during adolescence. We consider the implications of these intersecting trajectories for negative outcomes such as psychopathology, as well as positive outcomes for adolescent social bonds. PMID:26869841

The role of mood and personality in the perception of emotions represented by music.

PubMed

Vuoskoski, Jonna K; Eerola, Tuomas

2011-10-01

Neuroimaging studies investigating the processing of emotions have traditionally considered variance between subjects as statistical noise. However, according to behavioural studies, individual differences in emotional processing appear to be an inherent part of the process itself. Temporary mood states as well as stable personality traits have been shown to influence the processing of emotions, causing trait- and mood-congruent biases. The primary aim of this study was to explore how listeners' personality and mood are reflected in their evaluations of discrete emotions represented by music. A related aim was to investigate the role of personality in music preferences. An experiment was carried out where 67 participants evaluated 50 music excerpts in terms of perceived emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and tenderness) and preference. Current mood was associated with mood-congruent biases in the evaluation of emotions represented by music, but extraversion moderated the degree of mood-congruence. Personality traits were strongly connected with preference ratings, and the correlations reflected the trait-congruent patterns obtained in prior studies investigating self-referential emotional processing. Implications for future behavioural and neuroimaging studies on music and emotions are raised. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

Risky family processes prospectively forecast shorter telomere length mediated through negative emotions.

PubMed

Brody, Gene H; Yu, Tianyi; Shalev, Idan

2017-05-01

This study was designed to examine prospective associations of risky family environments with subsequent levels of negative emotions and peripheral blood mononuclear cell telomere length (TL), a marker of cellular aging. A second purpose was to determine whether negative emotions mediate the hypothesized link between risky family processes and diminished telomere length. Participants were 293 adolescents (age 17 years at the first assessment) and their primary caregivers. Caregivers provided data on risky family processes when the youths were age 17 years, youths reported their negative emotions at age 18 years, and youths' TL was assayed from a blood sample at age 22 years. The results revealed that (a) risky family processes forecast heightened negative emotions (β = .316, p < .001) and diminished TL (β = -.199, p = .003) among youths, (b) higher levels of negative emotions forecast shorter TL (β = -.187, p = .012), and (c) negative emotions served as a mediator connecting risky family processes with diminished TL (indirect effect = -0.012, 95% CI [-0.036, -0.002]). These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that risky family processes presage premature cellular aging through effects on negative emotions, with potential implications for lifelong health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Risky Family Processes Prospectively Forecast Shorter Telomere Length Mediated through Negative Emotions

PubMed Central

Brody, Gene H.; Yu, Tianyi; Shalev, Idan

2016-01-01

Objective This study was designed to examine prospective associations of risky family environments with subsequent levels of negative emotions and peripheral blood mononuclear cell telomere length (TL), a marker of cellular aging. A second purpose was to determine whether negative emotions mediate the hypothesized link between risky family processes and diminished telomere length. Methods Participants were 293 adolescents (age 17 years at the first assessment) and their primary caregivers. Caregivers provided data on risky family processes when the youths were age 17 years, youths reported their negative emotions at age 18 years, and youths’ TL was assayed from a blood sample at age 22 years. Results The results revealed that (a) risky family processes forecast heightened negative emotions (β = .316, p < .001) and diminished TL (β = −.199, p = .003) among youths, (b) higher levels of negative emotions forecast shorter TL (β = −.187, p = .012), and (c) negative emotions served as a mediator connecting risky family processes with diminished TL (indirect effect = −0.012, 95% CI [−0.036, −0.002]). Conclusions These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that risky family processes presage premature cellular aging through effects on negative emotions, with potential implications for lifelong health. PMID:27831704

Translating emotion theory and research into preventive interventions.

PubMed

Izard, Carroll E

2002-09-01

Scientific advances in the field of emotions suggest a framework for conceptualizing the emotion-related aspects of prevention programs that aim to enhance children's socioemotional competence and prevent the emergence of behavior problems and psychopathology. A conception of emotions as inherently adaptive and motivational and the related empirical evidence from several disciplines and specialities suggest 7 principles for developing preventive interventions: the utilization of positive and negative emotions, emotion modulation as a mediator of emotion utilization, emotion patterns in states and traits, different processes of emotion activation, emotion communication in early life, and the development of connections for the modular and relatively independent emotions and cognitive systems. Each principle's practical implications and application in current prevention programs are discussed.

Association between level of emotional intelligence and severity of anxiety in generalized social phobia.

PubMed

Jacobs, Madeline; Snow, Joseph; Geraci, Marilla; Vythilingam, Meena; Blair, R J R; Charney, Dennis S; Pine, Daniel S; Blair, Karina S

2008-12-01

Generalized social phobia (GSP) is characterized by a marked fear of most social situations. It is associated with an anomalous neural response to emotional stimuli, and individuals with the disorder frequently show interpretation bias in social situations. From this it might be suggested that GSP involves difficulty in accurately perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Here we applied the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) to medication-free GSP (n=28) and no pathology (n=21) individuals. Patients with GSP performed within the normal range on the measure however severity of social anxiety significantly correlated with emotional intelligence (EI). Specifically, there was a negative correlation between social anxiety severity and Experiential (basic-level emotional processing) EI. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between social anxiety severity and Strategic (higher-level conscious emotional processing) EI. These results suggest that EI may index emotional processing systems that mitigate the impact of systems causally implicated in GSP.

Association between Level of Emotional Intelligence and Severity of Anxiety in Generalized Social Phobia

PubMed Central

Jacobs, Madeline; Snow, Joseph; Geraci, Marilla; Vythilingam, Meena; Blair, R.J.R.; Charney, Dennis S.; Pine, Daniel S.; Blair, Karina S.

2008-01-01

Generalized Social Phobia (GSP) is characterized by a marked fear of most social situations. It is associated with an anomalous neural response to emotional stimuli, and individuals with the disorder frequently show interpretation bias in social situations. From this it might be suggested that GSP involves difficulty in accurately perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Here we applied the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) to medication-free GSP (n=28) and no pathology (n=21) individuals. Patients with GSP performed within the normal range on the measure however severity of social anxiety significantly correlated with emotional intelligence (EI). Specifically, there was a negative correlation between social anxiety severity and Experiential (basic-level emotional processing) EI. In contrast, there was no significant correlation between social anxiety severity and Strategic (higher-level conscious emotional processing) EI. These results suggest that EI may index emotional processing systems that mitigate the impact of systems causally implicated in GSP. PMID:18439799

Functional MRI of music emotion processing in frontotemporal dementia.

PubMed

Agustus, Jennifer L; Mahoney, Colin J; Downey, Laura E; Omar, Rohani; Cohen, Miriam; White, Mark J; Scott, Sophie K; Mancini, Laura; Warren, Jason D

2015-03-01

Frontotemporal dementia is an important neurodegenerative disorder of younger life led by profound emotional and social dysfunction. Here we used fMRI to assess brain mechanisms of music emotion processing in a cohort of patients with frontotemporal dementia (n = 15) in relation to healthy age-matched individuals (n = 11). In a passive-listening paradigm, we manipulated levels of emotion processing in simple arpeggio chords (mode versus dissonance) and emotion modality (music versus human emotional vocalizations). A complex profile of disease-associated functional alterations was identified with separable signatures of musical mode, emotion level, and emotion modality within a common, distributed brain network, including posterior and anterior superior temporal and inferior frontal cortices and dorsal brainstem effector nuclei. Separable functional signatures were identified post-hoc in patients with and without abnormal craving for music (musicophilia): a model for specific abnormal emotional behaviors in frontotemporal dementia. Our findings indicate the potential of music to delineate neural mechanisms of altered emotion processing in dementias, with implications for future disease tracking and therapeutic strategies. © 2014 The Authors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences.

Opposing effects of perceptual versus working memory load on emotional distraction.

PubMed

Tavares, Tamara P; Logie, Kyle; Mitchell, Derek G V

2016-10-01

Throughout our day-to-day activities, we are subjected to numerous stimuli that compete for our attention; consequently, we must prioritize stimuli for further processing and influence over behaviour. Previous research has demonstrated that the extent to which task-irrelevant distractors are processed is mediated by the nature of the cognitive task, and the level of processing load. Importantly though, the interaction between cognitive task, processing load, and emotional distractor processing remains unclear. This is a particularly important question given the unique ways that emotion interacts with attention, and the fact that some other forms of processing load have been shown to reduce emotional distractor encoding. In the present study, participants were presented with emotional distractors during a perceptual and working memory task, under varying levels of load. In Experiment 1, we showed that the impact of emotional distractors on behaviour was reduced under conditions of high relative to low perceptual load. However, in sharp contrast, high working memory load was associated with increased emotional distraction. Importantly, these results were replicated in Experiment 2. Overall, the impact of processing load on emotional distraction varies according to the cognitive function being performed. These results raise the intriguing possibility that working memory operations deplete some of the cognitive resources needed to control the impact of emotion on behaviour. The findings, therefore, may have important implications for clinical populations featuring cognitive dysfunction and emotional dysregulation.

Emotion and decision-making: affect-driven belief systems in anxiety and depression.

PubMed

Paulus, Martin P; Yu, Angela J

2012-09-01

Emotion processing and decision-making are integral aspects of daily life. However, our understanding of the interaction between these constructs is limited. In this review, we summarize theoretical approaches that link emotion and decision-making, and focus on research with anxious or depressed individuals to show how emotions can interfere with decision-making. We integrate the emotional framework based on valence and arousal with a Bayesian approach to decision-making in terms of probability and value processing. We discuss how studies of individuals with emotional dysfunctions provide evidence that alterations of decision-making can be viewed in terms of altered probability and value computation. We argue that the probabilistic representation of belief states in the context of partially observable Markov decision processes provides a useful approach to examine alterations in probability and value representation in individuals with anxiety and depression, and outline the broader implications of this approach. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Emotion and decision-making: affect-driven belief systems in anxiety and depression

PubMed Central

Paulus, Martin P.; Yu, Angela J.

2012-01-01

Emotion processing and decision-making are integral aspects of daily life. However, our understanding of the interaction between these constructs is limited. In this review, we summarize theoretical approaches to the link between emotion and decision-making, and focus on research with anxious or depressed individuals that reveals how emotions can interfere with decision-making. We integrate the emotional framework based on valence and arousal with a Bayesian approach to decision-making in terms of probability and value processing. We then discuss how studies of individuals with emotional dysfunctions provide evidence that alterations of decision-making can be viewed in terms of altered probability and value computation. We argue that the probabilistic representation of belief states in the context of partially observable Markov decision processes provides a useful approach to examine alterations in probability and value representation in individuals with anxiety and depression and outline the broader implications of this approach. PMID:22898207

Emotions and Decisions: Beyond Conceptual Vagueness and the Rationality Muddle.

PubMed

Volz, Kirsten G; Hertwig, Ralph

2016-01-01

For centuries, decision scholars paid little attention to emotions: Decisions were modeled in normative and descriptive frameworks with little regard for affective processes. Recently, however, an "emotions revolution" has taken place, particularly in the neuroscientific study of decision making, putting emotional processes on an equal footing with cognitive ones. Yet disappointingly little theoretical progress has been made. The concepts and processes discussed often remain vague, and conclusions about the implications of emotions for rationality are contradictory and muddled. We discuss three complementary ways to move the neuroscientific study of emotion and decision making from agenda setting to theory building. The first is to use reverse inference as a hypothesis-discovery rather than a hypothesis-testing tool, unless its utility can be systematically quantified (e.g., through meta-analysis). The second is to capitalize on the conceptual inventory advanced by the behavioral science of emotions, testing those concepts and unveiling the underlying processes. The third is to model the interplay between emotions and decisions, harnessing existing cognitive frameworks of decision making and mapping emotions onto the postulated computational processes. To conclude, emotions (like cognitive strategies) are not rational or irrational per se: How (un)reasonable their influence is depends on their fit with the environment. © The Author(s) 2015.

Alexithymia, emotion processing and social anxiety in adults with ADHD.

PubMed

Edel, M-A; Rudel, A; Hubert, C; Scheele, D; Brüne, M; Juckel, G; Assion, Hans-Jörg

2010-09-24

given sparse research on the issue, this study sought to shed light upon the interactions of alexithymia, emotion processing, and social anxiety in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 73 German adults with ADHD according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria participated. We used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess alexithymia, the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) to assess different features of social anxiety, and we applied the German "Experience of Emotions Scalerdquor; (SEE) to measure emotion processing. 40% of the sample were found to meet the DSM-IV criteria of social anxiety disorder, and about 22% were highly alexithymic according to a TAS-20 total score ≥ 61; however, the mean TAS-20 total score of 50.94 ± 9.3 was not much higher than in community samples. Alexithymic traits emerged to be closely linked to emotion processing problems, particularly 'difficulty accepting own emotions', and to social anxiety features. our findings suggest interactions of alexithymia, emotion processing dysfunction, and social anxiety in adults with ADHD, which may entail the therapeutic implication to thoroughly instruct these patients to identify, accept, communicate, and regulate their emotions to aid reducing interaction anxiety.

Relationships among cognition, emotion, and motivation: implications for intervention and neuroplasticity in psychopathology

PubMed Central

Crocker, Laura D.; Heller, Wendy; Warren, Stacie L.; O'Hare, Aminda J.; Infantolino, Zachary P.; Miller, Gregory A.

2013-01-01

Emotion-cognition and motivation-cognition relationships and related brain mechanisms are receiving increasing attention in the clinical research literature as a means of understanding diverse types of psychopathology and improving biological and psychological treatments. This paper reviews and integrates some of the growing evidence for cognitive biases and deficits in depression and anxiety, how these disruptions interact with emotional and motivational processes, and what brain mechanisms appear to be involved. This integration sets the stage for understanding the role of neuroplasticity in implementing change in cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes in psychopathology as a function of intervention. PMID:23781184

On Emotion and Rationality: A Response to Barrett.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steutel, Jan; Dam, Ellis van

1996-01-01

Maintains that recent criticism of cognitive psychologists' conception of irrational emotions as marginal and ephemeral is misguided and inaccurate. Argues that this interpretation is a misstatement of the psychologists' position and analyzes the process resulting in this misinterpretation. Discusses the implications of these arguments for moral…

Desired emotional states: their nature, causes, and implications for emotion regulation.

PubMed

Tamir, Maya; Gutentag, Tony

2017-10-01

Emotion regulation is a process directed toward achieving desired emotions. People want to experience different emotions at different times and for different reasons, leading them to change emotions accordingly. Research on desired emotions has made several discoveries. First, what people want to feel varies across individuals and across situations. Second, what people want to feel depends on how much they value emotions and on the extent to which they expect emotions to yield behavioral, social, or epistemic benefits. Third, what people want to feel sets the direction of emotion regulation and can shape emotional experiences and subsequent behavior. Identifying and understanding desired emotional states can promote healthier emotion regulation and emotional experiences, and more adaptive personal and social functioning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dopamine modulation of emotional processing in cortical and subcortical neural circuits: evidence for a final common pathway in schizophrenia?

PubMed

Laviolette, Steven R

2007-07-01

The neural regulation of emotional perception, learning, and memory is essential for normal behavioral and cognitive functioning. Many of the symptoms displayed by individuals with schizophrenia may arise from fundamental disturbances in the ability to accurately process emotionally salient sensory information. The neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) and its ability to modulate neural regions involved in emotional learning, perception, and memory formation has received considerable research attention as a potential final common pathway to account for the aberrant emotional regulation and psychosis present in the schizophrenic syndrome. Evidence from both human neuroimaging studies and animal-based research using neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and electrophysiological techniques have implicated the mesocorticolimbic DA circuit as a crucial system for the encoding and expression of emotionally salient learning and memory formation. While many theories have examined the cortical-subcortical interactions between prefrontal cortical regions and subcortical DA substrates, many questions remain as to how DA may control emotional perception and learning and how disturbances linked to DA abnormalities may underlie the disturbed emotional processing in schizophrenia. Beyond the mesolimbic DA system, increasing evidence points to the amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuit as an important processor of emotionally salient information and how neurodevelopmental perturbances within this circuitry may lead to dysregulation of DAergic modulation of emotional processing and learning along this cortical-subcortical emotional processing circuit.

Neurofunctional Underpinnings of Audiovisual Emotion Processing in Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Doyle-Thomas, Krissy A.R.; Goldberg, Jeremy; Szatmari, Peter; Hall, Geoffrey B.C.

2013-01-01

Despite successful performance on some audiovisual emotion tasks, hypoactivity has been observed in frontal and temporal integration cortices in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Little is understood about the neurofunctional network underlying this ability in individuals with ASD. Research suggests that there may be processing biases in individuals with ASD, based on their ability to obtain meaningful information from the face and/or the voice. This functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined brain activity in teens with ASD (n = 18) and typically developing controls (n = 16) during audiovisual and unimodal emotion processing. Teens with ASD had a significantly lower accuracy when matching an emotional face to an emotion label. However, no differences in accuracy were observed between groups when matching an emotional voice or face-voice pair to an emotion label. In both groups brain activity during audiovisual emotion matching differed significantly from activity during unimodal emotion matching. Between-group analyses of audiovisual processing revealed significantly greater activation in teens with ASD in a parietofrontal network believed to be implicated in attention, goal-directed behaviors, and semantic processing. In contrast, controls showed greater activity in frontal and temporal association cortices during this task. These results suggest that in the absence of engaging integrative emotional networks during audiovisual emotion matching, teens with ASD may have recruited the parietofrontal network as an alternate compensatory system. PMID:23750139

Implicit emotion regulation affects outcome evaluation

PubMed Central

Yang, Qiwei; Tang, Ping; Luo, Wenbo; Luo, Yue-jia

2015-01-01

Efficient implicit emotion regulation processes, which run without awareness, are important for human well-being. In this study, to investigate the influence of implicit emotion regulation on psychological and electrophysiological responses to gains and losses, participants were required to select between two Chinese four-character idioms to match the meaning of the third one before they performed a monetary gambling task. According to whether their meanings were related to emotion regulation, the idioms fell into two categories. Event-related potentials and self-rating emotional experiences to outcome feedback were recorded during the task. Priming emotion regulation reduced subjective emotional experience to both gains and losses and the amplitudes of the feedback-related negativity, while the P3 component was not influenced. According to these results, we suggest that the application of implicit emotion regulation effectively modulated the subjective emotional experience and the motivational salience of current outcomes without the cost of cognitive resources. This study implicates the potential significance of implicit emotion regulation in decision-making processes. PMID:25332404

Emotional intelligence and attentional bias for threat-related emotion under stress.

PubMed

Davis, Sarah K

2018-06-01

Emotional intelligence (EI) can buffer potentially harmful effects of situational and chronic stressors to safeguard psychological wellbeing (e.g., Mikolajczak, Petrides, Coumans & Luminet, ), yet understanding how and when EI operates to promote adaptation remains a research priority. We explored whether EI (both trait and ability) modulated early attentional processing of threat-related emotion under conditions of stress. Using a dot probe paradigm, eye movement (fixation to emotive facial stimuli, relative to neutral) and manual reaction time data were collected from 161 adults aged 18-57 years (mean age = 25.24; SD = 8.81) exposed to either a stressful (failure task) or non-stressful (control) situation. Whilst emotion management ability and trait wellbeing corresponded to avoidance of negative emotion (angry and sad respectively), high trait sociability and emotionality related to a bias for negative emotions. With most effects not restricted to stressful conditions, it is unclear whether EI underscores 'adaptive' processing, which carries implications for school-based social and emotional learning programs. © 2018 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Role of Emotions in Employee Creativity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higgins, Lexis F.; And Others

1992-01-01

This paper examines research on influences of emotions on creativity, describes how feelings impact an individual's ability and willingness to function creatively, and discusses the implications for management of creativity in the employment setting. A four-step model of the creative process is discussed, and two sources (proximal and distal) of…

Gender differences in the activation of inferior frontal cortex during emotional speech perception.

PubMed

Schirmer, Annett; Zysset, Stefan; Kotz, Sonja A; Yves von Cramon, D

2004-03-01

We investigated the brain regions that mediate the processing of emotional speech in men and women by presenting positive and negative words that were spoken with happy or angry prosody. Hence, emotional prosody and word valence were either congruous or incongruous. We assumed that an fRMI contrast between congruous and incongruous presentations would reveal the structures that mediate the interaction of emotional prosody and word valence. The left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was more strongly activated in incongruous as compared to congruous trials. This difference in IFG activity was significantly larger in women than in men. Moreover, the congruence effect was significant in women whereas it only appeared as a tendency in men. As the left IFG has been repeatedly implicated in semantic processing, these findings are taken as evidence that semantic processing in women is more susceptible to influences from emotional prosody than is semantic processing in men. Moreover, the present data suggest that the left IFG mediates increased semantic processing demands imposed by an incongruence between emotional prosody and word valence.

Mindfulness Training Targets Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Addiction at the Attention-Appraisal-Emotion Interface

PubMed Central

Garland, Eric L.; Froeliger, Brett; Howard, Matthew O.

2014-01-01

Prominent neuroscience models suggest that addictive behavior occurs when environmental stressors and drug-relevant cues activate a cycle of cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological mechanisms, including dysregulated interactions between bottom-up and top-down neural processes, that compel the user to seek out and use drugs. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) target pathogenic mechanisms of the risk chain linking stress and addiction. This review describes how MBIs may target neurocognitive mechanisms of addiction at the attention-appraisal-emotion interface. Empirical evidence is presented suggesting that MBIs ameliorate addiction by enhancing cognitive regulation of a number of key processes, including: clarifying cognitive appraisal and modulating negative emotions to reduce perseverative cognition and emotional arousal; enhancing metacognitive awareness to regulate drug-use action schema and decrease addiction attentional bias; promoting extinction learning to uncouple drug-use triggers from conditioned appetitive responses; reducing cue-reactivity and increasing cognitive control over craving; attenuating physiological stress reactivity through parasympathetic activation; and increasing savoring to restore natural reward processing. Treatment and research implications of our neurocognitive framework are presented. We conclude by offering a temporally sequenced description of neurocognitive processes targeted by MBIs through a hypothetical case study. Our neurocognitive framework has implications for the optimization of addiction treatment with MBIs. PMID:24454293

Anxiety, Depression, and Cigarette Smoking: A Transdiagnostic Vulnerability Framework to Understanding Emotion-Smoking Comorbidity

PubMed Central

Leventhal, Adam M.; Zvolensky, Michael J.

2014-01-01

Research into the comorbidity between emotional psychopathology and cigarette smoking has often focused upon anxiety and depression’s manifest symptoms and syndromes, with limited theoretical and clinical advancement. This paper presents a novel framework to understanding emotion-smoking comorbidity. We propose that transdiagnostic emotional vulnerabilities—core biobehavioral traits reflecting maladaptive responses to emotional states that underpin multiple types of emotional psychopathology—link various anxiety and depressive psychopathologies to smoking. This framework is applied in a review and synthesis of the empirical literature on three trandiagnostic emotional vulnerabilities implicated in smoking: (1) anhedonia (Anh; diminished pleasure/interest in response to rewards); (2) anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of anxiety-related sensations); and (3) distress tolerance (DT; ability to withstand distressing states). We conclude that Anh, AS, and DT collectively: (a) underpin multiple emotional psychopathologies; (b) amplify smoking’s anticipated and actual affect enhancing properties and other mechanisms underlying smoking; (c) promote progression across the smoking trajectory (i.e., initiation, escalation/progression, maintenance, cessation/relapse); and (d) are promising targets for smoking intervention. After existing gaps are identified, an integrative model of transdiagnostic processes linking emotional psychopathology to smoking is proposed. The model’s key premise is that Anh amplifies smoking’s anticipated and actual pleasure-enhancing effects, AS amplifies smoking’s anxiolytic effects, and poor DT amplifies smoking’s distress terminating effects. Collectively, these processes augment the reinforcing properties of smoking for individuals with emotional psychopathology to heighten risk of smoking initiation, progression, maintenance, cessation avoidance, and relapse. We conclude by drawing clinical and scientific implications from this framework that may generalize to other comorbidities. PMID:25365764

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex encodes emotional value.

PubMed

Winecoff, Amy; Clithero, John A; Carter, R McKell; Bergman, Sara R; Wang, Lihong; Huettel, Scott A

2013-07-03

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a critical role in processing appetitive stimuli. Recent investigations have shown that reward value signals in the vmPFC can be altered by emotion regulation processes; however, to what extent the processing of positive emotion relies on neural regions implicated in reward processing is unclear. Here, we investigated the effects of emotion regulation on the valuation of emotionally evocative images. Two independent experimental samples of human participants performed a cognitive reappraisal task while undergoing fMRI. The experience of positive emotions activated the vmPFC, whereas the regulation of positive emotions led to relative decreases in vmPFC activation. During the experience of positive emotions, vmPFC activation tracked participants' own subjective ratings of the valence of stimuli. Furthermore, vmPFC activation also tracked normative valence ratings of the stimuli when participants were asked to experience their emotions, but not when asked to regulate them. A separate analysis of the predictive power of vmPFC on behavior indicated that even after accounting for normative stimulus ratings and condition, increased signal in the vmPFC was associated with more positive valence ratings. These results suggest that the vmPFC encodes a domain-general value signal that tracks the value of not only external rewards, but also emotional stimuli.

Processing emotion from abstract art in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

PubMed Central

Cohen, Miriam H.; Carton, Amelia M.; Hardy, Christopher J.; Golden, Hannah L.; Clark, Camilla N.; Fletcher, Phillip D.; Jaisin, Kankamol; Marshall, Charles R.; Henley, Susie M.D.; Rohrer, Jonathan D.; Crutch, Sebastian J.; Warren, Jason D.

2016-01-01

Abstract art may signal emotions independently of a biological or social carrier: it might therefore constitute a test case for defining brain mechanisms of generic emotion decoding and the impact of disease states on those mechanisms. This is potentially of particular relevance to diseases in the frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) spectrum. These diseases are often led by emotional impairment despite retained or enhanced artistic interest in at least some patients. However, the processing of emotion from art has not been studied systematically in FTLD. Here we addressed this issue using a novel emotional valence matching task on abstract paintings in patients representing major syndromes of FTLD (behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, n=11; sematic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), n=7; nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), n=6) relative to healthy older individuals (n=39). Performance on art emotion valence matching was compared between groups taking account of perceptual matching performance and assessed in relation to facial emotion matching using customised control tasks. Neuroanatomical correlates of art emotion processing were assessed using voxel-based morphometry of patients' brain MR images. All patient groups had a deficit of art emotion processing relative to healthy controls; there were no significant interactions between syndromic group and emotion modality. Poorer art emotion valence matching performance was associated with reduced grey matter volume in right lateral occopitotemporal cortex in proximity to regions previously implicated in the processing of dynamic visual signals. Our findings suggest that abstract art may be a useful model system for investigating mechanisms of generic emotion decoding and aesthetic processing in neurodegenerative diseases. PMID:26748236

Sex differences in the cerebral lateralization of a cichlid fish when detouring to view emotionally conditioned stimuli.

PubMed

Reddon, Adam R; Hurd, Peter L

2009-09-01

The lateralization of emotion has been described in a variety of animals. The right hemisphere has been implicated in the processing of negative emotions while positive emotions are processed in the left. Most animal studies of this phenomenon to date have used intrinsically emotionally arousing stimuli and there are few examples of lateralized responses to learned emotional triggers. It is known that males and females may demonstrate different patterns of lateralization, and that these sex differences may interact with other variables. We investigated the lateralized response of male and female convict cichlids to emotionally conditioned stimuli. One stimulus was given an appetitive (positive emotional valence) association by pairing with food. The other stimulus was given an aversive (negative emotional valence) association by pairing with a chemical alarm signal. We found that males tend to be more strongly lateralized to aversive stimuli while females are more strongly lateralized when responding to appetitive stimuli.

The Social Neuroscience of Interpersonal Emotions.

PubMed

Müller-Pinzler, Laura; Krach, Sören; Krämer, Ulrike M; Paulus, Frieder M

In our daily lives, we constantly engage in reciprocal interactions with other individuals and represent ourselves in the context of our surrounding social world. Within social interactions, humans often experience interpersonal emotions such as embarrassment, shame, guilt, or pride. How interpersonal emotions are processed on the neural systems level is of major interest for social neuroscience research. While the configuration of laboratory settings in general is constraining for emotion research, recent neuroimaging investigations came up with new approaches to implement socially interactive and immersive scenarios for the real-life investigation of interpersonal emotions. These studies could show that among other brain regions the so-called mentalizing network, which is typically involved when we represent and make sense of others' states of mind, is associated with interpersonal emotions. The anterior insula/anterior cingulate cortex network at the same time processes one's own bodily arousal during such interpersonal emotional experiences. Current research aimed to explore how we make sense of others' emotional states during social interactions and investigates the modulating factors of our emotional experiences during social interactions. Understanding how interpersonal emotions are processed on the neural systems level may yield significant implications for neuropsychiatric disorders that affect social behavior such as social anxiety disorders or autism.

Neurobiology of emotions: an update.

PubMed

Esperidião-Antonio, Vanderson; Majeski-Colombo, Marilia; Toledo-Monteverde, Diana; Moraes-Martins, Glaciele; Fernandes, Juliana José; Bauchiglioni de Assis, Marjorie; Montenegro, Stefânia; Siqueira-Batista, Rodrigo

2017-06-01

The 'nature' of emotions is one of the archaic themes of Western thought, thematized in different cultural manifestations - such as art, science, philosophy, myths and religion -, since Ancient times. In the last decades, the advances in neurosciences have permitted the construction of hypotheses that explain emotions, especially through the studies involving the limbic system. To present an updated discussion about the neurobiology of processes relating to emotions - focusing (1) on the main neural structures that relate to emotions, (2) the paths and circuits of greater relevance, (3) the implicated neurotransmitters, (4) the connections that possess neurovegetative control and (5) the discussion about the main emotions - is the objective of this present article.

Alexithymia, emotion processing and social anxiety in adults with ADHD

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Objective Given sparse research on the issue, this study sought to shed light upon the interactions of alexithymia, emotion processing, and social anxiety in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Subjects and methods 73 German adults with ADHD according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria participated. We used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess alexithymia, the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) to assess different features of social anxiety, and we applied the German 'Experience of Emotions Scale' (SEE) to measure emotion processing. Results 40% of the sample were found to meet the DSM-IV criteria of social anxiety disorder, and about 22% were highly alexithymic according to a TAS-20 total score ≥ 61; however, the mean TAS-20 total score of 50.94 ± 9.3 was not much higher than in community samples. Alexithymic traits emerged to be closely linked to emotion processing problems, particularly 'difficulty accepting own emotions', and to social anxiety features. Discussion/conclusion Our findings suggest interactions of alexithymia, emotion processing dysfunction, and social anxiety in adults with ADHD, which may entail the therapeutic implication to thoroughly instruct these patients to identify, accept, communicate, and regulate their emotions to aid reducing interaction anxiety. PMID:20952350

Oversimplification in the study of emotional memory

PubMed Central

Bennion, Kelly A.; Ford, Jaclyn H.; Murray, Brendan D.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2014-01-01

This Short Review critically evaluates three hypotheses about the effects of emotion on memory: First, emotion usually enhances memory. Second, when emotion does not enhance memory, this can be understood by the magnitude of physiological arousal elicited, with arousal benefiting memory to a point but then having a detrimental influence. Third, when emotion facilitates the processing of information, this also facilitates the retention of that same information. For each of these hypotheses, we summarize the evidence consistent with it, present counter-evidence suggesting boundary conditions for the effect, and discuss the implications for future research. PMID:24007950

A Longitudinal Process Analysis of Mother-Child Emotional Relationships in a Rural Appalachian European American Community

PubMed Central

Bornstein, Marc H.; Putnick, Diane L.; Suwalsky, Joan T. D.

2012-01-01

This prospective longitudinal study examines emotional relationships in 58 Appalachian mother-child dyads observed at home at 5 and 20 months. Between infancy and toddlerhood, 3 of 4 dimensions of dyadic emotional relationships were stable, and 3 remained continuous in their mean level. Increasing maternal age was associated with greater maternal sensitivity and structuring and with more responsive and involving children. Marital status and father presence in the home as well as maternal openness, parenting knowledge, investment, and satisfaction accounted for effects of maternal age on dyadic emotional relationships. This longitudinal process analysis provides unique insights into temporal dynamics of mother-child emotional relationships and their determinants in an underserved and underresearched U.S. community. Implications for community-specific interventions are discussed. PMID:22080397

The roles of cannabinoid and dopamine receptor systems in neural emotional learning circuits: implications for schizophrenia and addiction.

PubMed

Laviolette, S R; Grace, A A

2006-07-01

Cannabinoids represent one of the most widely used hallucinogenic drugs and induce profound alterations in sensory perception and emotional processing. Similarly, the dopamine (DA) neurotransmitter system is critical for the central processing of emotion and motivation. Functional disturbances in either of these neurotransmitter systems are well-established correlates of the psychopathological symptoms and behavioral manifestations observed in addiction and schizophrenia. Increasing evidence from the anatomical, pharmacological and behavioral neuroscience fields points to complex functional interactions between these receptor systems at the anatomical, pharmacological and neural systems levels. An important question relates to whether these systems act in an orchestrated manner to produce the emotional processing and sensory perception deficits underlying addiction and schizophrenia. This review describes evidence for functional neural interactions between cannabinoid and DA receptor systems and how disturbances in this neural circuitry may underlie the aberrant emotional learning and processing observed in disorders such as addiction and schizophrenia.

Adolescents' ability to read different emotional faces relates to their history of maltreatment and type of psychopathology.

PubMed

Leist, Tatyana; Dadds, Mark R

2009-04-01

Emotional processing styles appear to characterize various forms of psychopathology and environmental adversity in children. For example, autistic, anxious, high- and low-emotion conduct problem children, and children who have been maltreated, all appear to show specific deficits and strengths in recognizing the facial expressions of emotions. Until now, the relationships between emotion recognition, antisocial behaviour, emotional problems, callous-unemotional (CU) traits and early maltreatment have never been assessed simultaneously in one study, and the specific associations of emotion recognition to maltreatment and child characteristics are therefore unknown. We examined facial-emotion processing in a sample of 23 adolescents selected for high-risk status on the variables of interest. As expected, maltreatment and child characteristics showed unique associations. CU traits were uniquely related to impairments in fear recognition. Antisocial behaviour was uniquely associated with better fear recognition, but impaired anger recognition. Emotional problems were associated with better recognition of anger and sadness, but lower recognition of neutral faces. Maltreatment was predictive of superior recognition of fear and sadness. The findings are considered in terms of social information-processing theories of psychopathology. Implications for clinical interventions are discussed.

Attachment, emotion regulation, and adaptation to breast cancer: assessment of a mediational hypothesis.

PubMed

Ávila, Marisa; Brandão, Tânia; Teixeira, Joana; Coimbra, Joaquim Luis; Matos, Paula Mena

2015-11-01

This study examines the links between attachment, adaptation to breast cancer, and the mediating role played by emotional regulation processes. Participants were 127 women with breast cancer recruited in two public hospitals of Porto and at the Portuguese Cancer League. Women completed measures of attachment, quality of life, and emotion regulation. Path models were used to examine the associations between the constructs and to test the mediational hypotheses. Significant associations were found between attachment and adaptation. Dimensions of emotion regulation totally or partially mediated the associations between attachment and adaptation outcomes. Attachment security effects on interpersonal relations were totally mediated by communicating emotions. Also, attachment anxiety effect on physical well-being was totally mediated by rumination. Attachment avoidance effects on psychological outcomes were totally mediated by emotional control and partially mediated by communicating emotions for the case of interpersonal relations. This study highlights the importance of addressing emotional regulation jointly with attachment to deepen the comprehension of the relational processes implicated in adaptation to breast cancer. Results supported a mediational hypothesis, presenting emotional regulation processes as relevant dimensions for the understanding of attachment associations with adaptation to breast cancer. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Current emotion research in cultural neuroscience

PubMed Central

Chiao, Joan Y.

2013-01-01

Classical theories of emotion have long debated the extent to which human emotion is a universal or culturally-constructed experience. Recent advances in emotion research in cultural neuroscience highlight several aspects of emotional generation and experience that are both phylogenetically conserved as well as constructed within human cultural contexts. This review highlights theories and methods from cultural neuroscience that examine how cultural and biological processes shape emotional generation, experience and regulation across multiple time scales. Recent advances in the neurobiological basis of culture-bound syndromes, such as Hwa-Byung (fire illness), provide further novel insights into emotion and mental health across cultures. Implications of emotion research in cultural neuroscience for population health disparities in psychopathology and global mental health will be discussed. PMID:26346827

Emotional Intelligence: A Theoretical Framework for Individual Differences in Affective Forecasting

PubMed Central

Hoerger, Michael; Chapman, Benjamin P.; Epstein, Ronald M.; Duberstein, Paul R.

2011-01-01

Only recently have researchers begun to examine individual differences in affective forecasting. The present investigation was designed to make a theoretical contribution to this emerging literature by examining the role of emotional intelligence in affective forecasting. Emotional intelligence was hypothesized to be associated with affective forecasting accuracy, memory for emotional reactions, and subsequent improvement on an affective forecasting task involving emotionally-evocative pictures. Results from two studies (N = 511) supported our hypotheses. Emotional intelligence was associated with accuracy in predicting, encoding, and consolidating emotional reactions. Furthermore, emotional intelligence was associated with greater improvement on a second affective forecasting task, with the relationship explained by basic memory processes. Implications for future research on basic and applied decision making are discussed. PMID:22251053

Emotional intelligence: a theoretical framework for individual differences in affective forecasting.

PubMed

Hoerger, Michael; Chapman, Benjamin P; Epstein, Ronald M; Duberstein, Paul R

2012-08-01

Only recently have researchers begun to examine individual differences in affective forecasting. The present investigation was designed to make a theoretical contribution to this emerging literature by examining the role of emotional intelligence in affective forecasting. Emotional intelligence was hypothesized to be associated with affective forecasting accuracy, memory for emotional reactions, and subsequent improvement on an affective forecasting task involving emotionally evocative pictures. Results from two studies (N = 511) supported our hypotheses. Emotional intelligence was associated with accuracy in predicting, encoding, and consolidating emotional reactions. Furthermore, emotional intelligence was associated with greater improvement on a second affective forecasting task, with the relationship explained by basic memory processes. Implications for future research on basic and applied decision making are discussed.

Age-Related Changes in Amygdala-Frontal Connectivity during Emotional Face Processing from Childhood into Young Adulthood

PubMed Central

Wu, Minjie; Kujawa, Autumn; Lu, Lisa H.; Fitzgerald, Daniel A.; Klumpp, Heide; Fitzgerald, Kate D.; Monk, Christopher S.; Phan, K. Luan

2016-01-01

The ability to process and respond to emotional facial expressions is a critical skill for healthy social and emotional development. There has been growing interest in understanding the neural circuitry underlying development of emotional processing, with previous research implicating functional connectivity between amygdala and frontal regions. However, existing work has focused on threatening emotional faces, raising questions regarding the extent to which these developmental patterns are specific to threat or to emotional face processing more broadly. In the current study, we examined age-related changes in brain activity and amygdala functional connectivity during an fMRI emotional face matching task (including angry, fearful and happy faces) in 61 healthy subjects aged 7–25 years. We found age-related decreases in ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity in response to happy faces but not to angry or fearful faces, and an age-related change (shifting from positive to negative correlation) in amygdala-anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (ACC/mPFC) functional connectivity to all emotional faces. Specifically, positive correlations between amygdala and ACC/mPFC in children changed to negative correlations in adults, which may suggest early emergence of bottom-up amygdala excitatory signaling to ACC/mPFC in children and later development of top-down inhibitory control of ACC/mPFC over amygdala in adults. Age-related changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity did not vary for processing of different facial emotions, suggesting changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity may underlie development of broad emotional processing, rather than threat-specific processing. PMID:26931629

Behavioral dissociation between emotional and non-emotional facial expressions in congenital prosopagnosia

PubMed Central

Daini, Roberta; Comparetti, Chiara M.; Ricciardelli, Paola

2014-01-01

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have shown that facial recognition and emotional expressions are dissociable. However, it is unknown if a single system supports the processing of emotional and non-emotional facial expressions. We aimed to understand if individuals with impairment in face recognition from birth (congenital prosopagnosia, CP) can use non-emotional facial expressions to recognize a face as an already seen one, and thus, process this facial dimension independently from features (which are impaired in CP), and basic emotional expressions. To this end, we carried out a behavioral study in which we compared the performance of 6 CP individuals to that of typical development individuals, using upright and inverted faces. Four avatar faces with a neutral expression were presented in the initial phase. The target faces presented in the recognition phase, in which a recognition task was requested (2AFC paradigm), could be identical (neutral) to those of the initial phase or present biologically plausible changes to features, non-emotional expressions, or emotional expressions. After this task, a second task was performed, in which the participants had to detect whether or not the recognized face exactly matched the study face or showed any difference. The results confirmed the CPs' impairment in the configural processing of the invariant aspects of the face, but also showed a spared configural processing of non-emotional facial expression (task 1). Interestingly and unlike the non-emotional expressions, the configural processing of emotional expressions was compromised in CPs and did not improve their change detection ability (task 2). These new results have theoretical implications for face perception models since they suggest that, at least in CPs, non-emotional expressions are processed configurally, can be dissociated from other facial dimensions, and may serve as a compensatory strategy to achieve face recognition. PMID:25520643

Behavioral dissociation between emotional and non-emotional facial expressions in congenital prosopagnosia.

PubMed

Daini, Roberta; Comparetti, Chiara M; Ricciardelli, Paola

2014-01-01

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have shown that facial recognition and emotional expressions are dissociable. However, it is unknown if a single system supports the processing of emotional and non-emotional facial expressions. We aimed to understand if individuals with impairment in face recognition from birth (congenital prosopagnosia, CP) can use non-emotional facial expressions to recognize a face as an already seen one, and thus, process this facial dimension independently from features (which are impaired in CP), and basic emotional expressions. To this end, we carried out a behavioral study in which we compared the performance of 6 CP individuals to that of typical development individuals, using upright and inverted faces. Four avatar faces with a neutral expression were presented in the initial phase. The target faces presented in the recognition phase, in which a recognition task was requested (2AFC paradigm), could be identical (neutral) to those of the initial phase or present biologically plausible changes to features, non-emotional expressions, or emotional expressions. After this task, a second task was performed, in which the participants had to detect whether or not the recognized face exactly matched the study face or showed any difference. The results confirmed the CPs' impairment in the configural processing of the invariant aspects of the face, but also showed a spared configural processing of non-emotional facial expression (task 1). Interestingly and unlike the non-emotional expressions, the configural processing of emotional expressions was compromised in CPs and did not improve their change detection ability (task 2). These new results have theoretical implications for face perception models since they suggest that, at least in CPs, non-emotional expressions are processed configurally, can be dissociated from other facial dimensions, and may serve as a compensatory strategy to achieve face recognition.

Processing emotion from abstract art in frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

PubMed

Cohen, Miriam H; Carton, Amelia M; Hardy, Christopher J; Golden, Hannah L; Clark, Camilla N; Fletcher, Phillip D; Jaisin, Kankamol; Marshall, Charles R; Henley, Susie M D; Rohrer, Jonathan D; Crutch, Sebastian J; Warren, Jason D

2016-01-29

art may signal emotions independently of a biological or social carrier: it might therefore constitute a test case for defining brain mechanisms of generic emotion decoding and the impact of disease states on those mechanisms. This is potentially of particular relevance to diseases in the frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) spectrum. These diseases are often led by emotional impairment despite retained or enhanced artistic interest in at least some patients. However, the processing of emotion from art has not been studied systematically in FTLD. Here we addressed this issue using a novel emotional valence matching task on abstract paintings in patients representing major syndromes of FTLD (behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, n=11; sematic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), n=7; nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), n=6) relative to healthy older individuals (n=39). Performance on art emotion valence matching was compared between groups taking account of perceptual matching performance and assessed in relation to facial emotion matching using customised control tasks. Neuroanatomical correlates of art emotion processing were assessed using voxel-based morphometry of patients' brain MR images. All patient groups had a deficit of art emotion processing relative to healthy controls; there were no significant interactions between syndromic group and emotion modality. Poorer art emotion valence matching performance was associated with reduced grey matter volume in right lateral occopitotemporal cortex in proximity to regions previously implicated in the processing of dynamic visual signals. Our findings suggest that abstract art may be a useful model system for investigating mechanisms of generic emotion decoding and aesthetic processing in neurodegenerative diseases. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The role of interpersonal harm in distinguishing regret from guilt.

PubMed

Zeelenberg, Marcel; Breugelmans, Seger M

2008-10-01

Regret and guilt are emotions that are produced by negative outcomes for which one is responsible. Both emotions have received ample attention in the psychological literature; however, it is still unclear to what extent regret and guilt represent distinct psychological processes. We examined the extent to which the distinction between interpersonal harm (negative outcomes for others) and intrapersonal harm (negative outcomes for self) is crucial in differentiating these two emotions. In a series of 3 studies we found that guilt is predominantly felt in situations of interpersonal harm, whereas regret is felt in both situations of interpersonal harm and intrapersonal harm. Moreover, the results show that in situations of interpersonal harm the phenomenology of regret shares many, but not all features with the phenomenology of guilt. We conclude that the emotion processes resulting from interpersonal and intrapersonal harm are clearly distinct, but that regret as an emotion label is applied to both types of processes whereas the emotion label guilt is primarily used to refer to experiences of interpersonal harm. Implications for emotion research are discussed. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved

Understanding the social effects of emotion regulation: the mediating role of authenticity for individual differences in suppression.

PubMed

English, Tammy; John, Oliver P

2013-04-01

Individuals differ in the strategies they use to regulate their emotions (e.g., suppression, reappraisal), and these regulatory strategies can differentially influence social outcomes. However, the mechanisms underlying these social effects remain to be specified. We examined one potential mediator that arises directly from emotion-regulatory effort (expression of positive emotion), and another mediator that does not involve emotion processes per se, but instead results from the link between regulation and self-processes (subjective inauthenticity). Across three studies, only inauthenticity mediated the link between habitual use of suppression and poor social functioning (lower relationship satisfaction, lower social support). These findings replicated across individuals socialized in Western and East Asian cultural contexts, younger and older adults, when predicting social functioning concurrently and a decade later, and even when broader adjustment was controlled. Thus, the social costs of suppression do not seem to be due to reduced positive emotion expression but rather the incongruence between inner-self and outer-behavior. Reappraisal was not consistently related to social functioning. Implications of these findings for emotion processes, self processes, and interpersonal relationships are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Sleep and dreaming are for important matters

PubMed Central

Perogamvros, L.; Dang-Vu, T. T.; Desseilles, M.; Schwartz, S.

2013-01-01

Recent studies in sleep and dreaming have described an activation of emotional and reward systems, as well as the processing of internal information during these states. Specifically, increased activity in the amygdala and across mesolimbic dopaminergic regions during REM sleep is likely to promote the consolidation of memory traces with high emotional/motivational value. Moreover, coordinated hippocampal-striatal replay during NREM sleep may contribute to the selective strengthening of memories for important events. In this review, we suggest that, via the activation of emotional/motivational circuits, sleep and dreaming may offer a neurobehavioral substrate for the offline reprocessing of emotions, associative learning, and exploratory behaviors, resulting in improved memory organization, waking emotion regulation, social skills, and creativity. Dysregulation of such motivational/emotional processes due to sleep disturbances (e.g., insomnia, sleep deprivation) would predispose to reward-related disorders, such as mood disorders, increased risk-taking and compulsive behaviors, and may have major health implications, especially in vulnerable populations. PMID:23898315

Cognitive Control Mechanisms, Emotion & Memory: A neural perspective with implications for psychopathology

PubMed Central

Banich, Marie T.; Mackiewicz, Kristen L.; Depue, Brendan E.; Whitmer, Anson; Miller, Gregory A.; Heller, Wendy

2009-01-01

In this paper we provide a focused review of the literature examining neural mechanisms involved in cognitive control over memory processes that can influence, and in turn are influenced, by emotional processes. The review is divided into two parts, the first focusing on working memory and the second on long-term memory. With regard to working memory, we discuss the neural bases of 1) control mechanisms that can select against distracting emotional information, 2) mechanisms that can regulate emotional reactions or responses, 3) how mood state influences cognitive control, and 4) individual differences in control mechanisms. For long-term memory, we briefly review 1) the neural substrates of emotional memory, 2) the cognitive and neural mechanisms that are involved in controlling emotional memories and 3) how these systems are altered in post-traumatic stress disorder. Finally, we consider tentative generalizations that can be drawn from this relatively unexplored conjunction of research endeavors. PMID:18948135

The Narrative-Emotion Process Coding System 2.0: A multi-methodological approach to identifying and assessing narrative-emotion process markers in psychotherapy.

PubMed

Angus, Lynne E; Boritz, Tali; Bryntwick, Emily; Carpenter, Naomi; Macaulay, Christianne; Khattra, Jasmine

2017-05-01

Recent studies suggest that it is not simply the expression of emotion or emotional arousal in session that is important, but rather it is the reflective processing of emergent, adaptive emotions, arising in the context of personal storytelling and/or Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) interventions, that is associated with change. To enhance narrative-emotion integration specifically in EFT, Angus and Greenberg originally identified a set of eight clinically derived narrative-emotion integration markers were originally identified for the implementation of process-guiding therapeutic responses. Further evaluation and testing by the Angus Narrative-Emotion Marker Lab resulted in the identification of 10 empirically validated Narrative-Emotion Process (N-EP) markers that are included in the Narrative-Emotion Process Coding System Version 2.0 (NEPCS 2.0). Based on empirical research findings, individual markers are clustered into Problem (e.g., stuckness in repetitive story patterns, over-controlled or dysregulated emotion, lack of reflectivity), Transition (e.g., reflective, access to adaptive emotions and new emotional plotlines, heightened narrative and emotion integration), and Change (e.g., new story outcomes and self-narrative discovery, and co-construction and re-conceptualization) subgroups. To date, research using the NEPCS 2.0 has investigated the proportion and pattern of narrative-emotion markers in Emotion-Focused, Client-Centered, and Cognitive Therapy for Major Depression, Motivational Interviewing plus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and EFT for Complex Trauma. Results have consistently identified significantly higher proportions of N-EP Transition and Change markers, and productive shifts, in mid- and late phase sessions, for clients who achieved recovery by treatment termination. Recovery is consistently associated with client storytelling that is emotionally engaged, reflective, and evidencing new story outcomes and self-narrative change. Implications for future research, practice and training are discussed.

Implicit emotion regulation affects outcome evaluation.

PubMed

Yang, Qiwei; Tang, Ping; Gu, Ruolei; Luo, Wenbo; Luo, Yue-jia

2015-06-01

Efficient implicit emotion regulation processes, which run without awareness, are important for human well-being. In this study, to investigate the influence of implicit emotion regulation on psychological and electrophysiological responses to gains and losses, participants were required to select between two Chinese four-character idioms to match the meaning of the third one before they performed a monetary gambling task. According to whether their meanings were related to emotion regulation, the idioms fell into two categories. Event-related potentials and self-rating emotional experiences to outcome feedback were recorded during the task. Priming emotion regulation reduced subjective emotional experience to both gains and losses and the amplitudes of the feedback-related negativity, while the P3 component was not influenced. According to these results, we suggest that the application of implicit emotion regulation effectively modulated the subjective emotional experience and the motivational salience of current outcomes without the cost of cognitive resources. This study implicates the potential significance of implicit emotion regulation in decision-making processes. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A systematic review on the neural effects of music on emotion regulation: implications for music therapy practice.

PubMed

Moore, Kimberly Sena

2013-01-01

Emotion regulation (ER) is an internal process through which a person maintains a comfortable state of arousal by modulating one or more aspects of emotion. The neural correlates underlying ER suggest an interplay between cognitive control areas and areas involved in emotional reactivity. Although some studies have suggested that music may be a useful tool in ER, few studies have examined the links between music perception/production and the neural mechanisms that underlie ER and resulting implications for clinical music therapy treatment. Objectives of this systematic review were to explore and synthesize what is known about how music and music experiences impact neural structures implicated in ER, and to consider clinical implications of these findings for structuring music stimuli to facilitate ER. A comprehensive electronic database search resulted in 50 studies that met predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Pertinent data related to the objective were extracted and study outcomes were analyzed and compared for trends and common findings. Results indicated there are certain music characteristics and experiences that produce desired and undesired neural activation patterns implicated in ER. Desired activation patterns occurred when listening to preferred and familiar music, when singing, and (in musicians) when improvising; undesired activation patterns arose when introducing complexity, dissonance, and unexpected musical events. Furthermore, the connection between music-influenced changes in attention and its link to ER was explored. Implications for music therapy practice are discussed and preliminary guidelines for how to use music to facilitate ER are shared.

Analysis of cognitive theories in artificial intelligence and psychology in relation to the qualitative process of emotion

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Semrau, P.

The purpose of this study was to analyze selected cognitive theories in the areas of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and psychology to determine the role of emotions in the cognitive or intellectual processes. Understanding the relationship of emotions to processes of intelligence has implications for constructing theories of aesthetic response and A.I. systems in art. Psychological theories were examined that demonstrated the changing nature of the research in emotion related to cognition. The basic techniques in A.I. were reviewed and the A.I. research was analyzed to determine the process of cognition and the role of emotion. The A.I. research emphasized themore » digital, quantifiable character of the computer and associated cognitive models and programs. In conclusion, the cognitive-emotive research in psychology and the cognitive research in A.I. emphasized quantification methods over analog and qualitative characteristics required for a holistic explanation of cognition. Further A.I. research needs to examine the qualitative aspects of values, attitudes, and beliefs on influencing the creative thinking processes. Inclusion of research related to qualitative problem solving in art provides a more comprehensive base of study for examining the area of intelligence in computers.« less

Emotional memory and perception in temporal lobectomy patients with amygdala damage.

PubMed

Brierley, B; Medford, N; Shaw, P; David, A S

2004-04-01

The human amygdala is implicated in the formation of emotional memories and the perception of emotional stimuli--particularly fear--across various modalities. To discern the extent to which these functions are related. 28 patients who had anterior temporal lobectomy (13 left and 15 right) for intractable epilepsy were recruited. Structural magnetic resonance imaging showed that three of them had atrophy of their remaining amygdala. All participants were given tests of affect perception from facial and vocal expressions and of emotional memory, using a standard narrative test and a novel test of word recognition. The results were standardised against matched healthy controls. Performance on all emotion tasks in patients with unilateral lobectomy ranged from unimpaired to moderately impaired. Perception of emotions in faces and voices was (with exceptions) significantly positively correlated, indicating multimodal emotional processing. However, there was no correlation between the subjects' performance on tests of emotional memory and perception. Several subjects showed strong emotional memory enhancement but poor fear perception. Patients with bilateral amygdala damage had greater impairment, particularly on the narrative test of emotional memory, one showing superior fear recognition but absent memory enhancement. Bilateral amygdala damage is particularly disruptive of emotional memory processes in comparison with unilateral temporal lobectomy. On a cognitive level, the pattern of results implies that perception of emotional expressions and emotional memory are supported by separate processing systems or streams.

Epistasis between 5-HTTLPR and ADRA2B polymorphisms influences attentional bias for emotional information in healthy volunteers.

PubMed

Naudts, Kris H; Azevedo, Ruben T; David, Anthony S; van Heeringen, Kees; Gibbs, Ayana A

2012-09-01

Individual differences in emotional processing are likely to contribute to vulnerability and resilience to emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety. Genetic variation is known to contribute to these differences but they remain incompletely understood. The serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) and α2B-adrenergic autoreceptor (ADRA2B) insertion/deletion polymorphisms impact on two separate but interacting monaminergic signalling mechanisms that have been implicated in both emotional processing and emotional disorders. Recent studies suggest that the 5-HTTLPR s allele is associated with a negative attentional bias and an increased risk of emotional disorders. However, such complex behavioural traits are likely to exhibit polygenicity, including epistasis. This study examined the contribution of the 5-HTTLPR and ADRA2B insertion/deletion polymorphisms to attentional biases for aversive information in 94 healthy male volunteers and found evidence of a significant epistatic effect (p<0.001). Specifically, in the presence of the 5-HTTLPR s allele, the attentional bias for aversive information was attenuated by possession of the ADRA2B deletion variant whereas in the absence of the s allele, the bias was enhanced. These data identify a cognitive mechanism linking genotype-dependent serotonergic and noradrenergic signalling that is likely to have implications for the development of cognitive markers for depression/anxiety as well as therapeutic drug effects and personalized approaches to treatment.

Age and gender modulate the neural circuitry supporting facial emotion processing in adults with major depressive disorder.

PubMed

Briceño, Emily M; Rapport, Lisa J; Kassel, Michelle T; Bieliauskas, Linas A; Zubieta, Jon-Kar; Weisenbach, Sara L; Langenecker, Scott A

2015-03-01

Emotion processing, supported by frontolimbic circuitry known to be sensitive to the effects of aging, is a relatively understudied cognitive-emotional domain in geriatric depression. Some evidence suggests that the neurophysiological disruption observed in emotion processing among adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) may be modulated by both gender and age. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of gender and age on the neural circuitry supporting emotion processing in MDD. Cross-sectional comparison of fMRI signal during performance of an emotion processing task. Outpatient university setting. One hundred adults recruited by MDD status, gender, and age. Participants underwent fMRI while completing the Facial Emotion Perception Test. They viewed photographs of faces and categorized the emotion perceived. Contrast for fMRI was of face perception minus animal identification blocks. Effects of depression were observed in precuneus and effects of age in a number of frontolimbic regions. Three-way interactions were present between MDD status, gender, and age in regions pertinent to emotion processing, including frontal, limbic, and basal ganglia. Young women with MDD and older men with MDD exhibited hyperactivation in these regions compared with their respective same-gender healthy comparison (HC) counterparts. In contrast, older women and younger men with MDD exhibited hypoactivation compared to their respective same-gender HC counterparts. This the first study to report gender- and age-specific differences in emotion processing circuitry in MDD. Gender-differential mechanisms may underlie cognitive-emotional disruption in older adults with MDD. The present findings have implications for improved probes into the heterogeneity of the MDD syndrome. Copyright © 2015 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dissociable patterns of medial prefrontal and amygdala activity to face identity versus emotion in bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Keener, M T; Fournier, J C; Mullin, B C; Kronhaus, D; Perlman, S B; LaBarbara, E; Almeida, J C; Phillips, M L

2012-09-01

Individuals with bipolar disorder demonstrate abnormal social function. Neuroimaging studies in bipolar disorder have shown functional abnormalities in neural circuitry supporting face emotion processing, but have not examined face identity processing, a key component of social function. We aimed to elucidate functional abnormalities in neural circuitry supporting face emotion and face identity processing in bipolar disorder. Twenty-seven individuals with bipolar disorder I currently euthymic and 27 healthy controls participated in an implicit face processing, block-design paradigm. Participants labeled color flashes that were superimposed on dynamically changing background faces comprising morphs either from neutral to prototypical emotion (happy, sad, angry and fearful) or from one identity to another identity depicting a neutral face. Whole-brain and amygdala region-of-interest (ROI) activities were compared between groups. There was no significant between-group difference looking across both emerging face emotion and identity. During processing of all emerging emotions, euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder showed significantly greater amygdala activity. During facial identity and also happy face processing, euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder showed significantly greater amygdala and medial prefrontal cortical activity compared with controls. This is the first study to examine neural circuitry supporting face identity and face emotion processing in bipolar disorder. Our findings of abnormally elevated activity in amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during face identity and happy face emotion processing suggest functional abnormalities in key regions previously implicated in social processing. This may be of future importance toward examining the abnormal self-related processing, grandiosity and social dysfunction seen in bipolar disorder.

Explicit attention interferes with selective emotion processing in human extrastriate cortex.

PubMed

Schupp, Harald T; Stockburger, Jessica; Bublatzky, Florian; Junghöfer, Markus; Weike, Almut I; Hamm, Alfons O

2007-02-22

Brain imaging and event-related potential studies provide strong evidence that emotional stimuli guide selective attention in visual processing. A reflection of the emotional attention capture is the increased Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) for pleasant and unpleasant compared to neutral images (approximately 150-300 ms poststimulus). The present study explored whether this early emotion discrimination reflects an automatic phenomenon or is subject to interference by competing processing demands. Thus, emotional processing was assessed while participants performed a concurrent feature-based attention task varying in processing demands. Participants successfully performed the primary visual attention task as revealed by behavioral performance and selected event-related potential components (Selection Negativity and P3b). Replicating previous results, emotional modulation of the EPN was observed in a task condition with low processing demands. In contrast, pleasant and unpleasant pictures failed to elicit increased EPN amplitudes compared to neutral images in more difficult explicit attention task conditions. Further analyses determined that even the processing of pleasant and unpleasant pictures high in emotional arousal is subject to interference in experimental conditions with high task demand. Taken together, performing demanding feature-based counting tasks interfered with differential emotion processing indexed by the EPN. The present findings demonstrate that taxing processing resources by a competing primary visual attention task markedly attenuated the early discrimination of emotional from neutral picture contents. Thus, these results provide further empirical support for an interference account of the emotion-attention interaction under conditions of competition. Previous studies revealed the interference of selective emotion processing when attentional resources were directed to locations of explicitly task-relevant stimuli. The present data suggest that interference of emotion processing by competing task demands is a more general phenomenon extending to the domain of feature-based attention. Furthermore, the results are inconsistent with the notion of effortlessness, i.e., early emotion discrimination despite concurrent task demands. These findings implicate to assess the presumed automatic nature of emotion processing at the level of specific aspects rather than considering automaticity as an all-or-none phenomenon.

Explicit attention interferes with selective emotion processing in human extrastriate cortex

PubMed Central

Schupp, Harald T; Stockburger, Jessica; Bublatzky, Florian; Junghöfer, Markus; Weike, Almut I; Hamm, Alfons O

2007-01-01

Background Brain imaging and event-related potential studies provide strong evidence that emotional stimuli guide selective attention in visual processing. A reflection of the emotional attention capture is the increased Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) for pleasant and unpleasant compared to neutral images (~150–300 ms poststimulus). The present study explored whether this early emotion discrimination reflects an automatic phenomenon or is subject to interference by competing processing demands. Thus, emotional processing was assessed while participants performed a concurrent feature-based attention task varying in processing demands. Results Participants successfully performed the primary visual attention task as revealed by behavioral performance and selected event-related potential components (Selection Negativity and P3b). Replicating previous results, emotional modulation of the EPN was observed in a task condition with low processing demands. In contrast, pleasant and unpleasant pictures failed to elicit increased EPN amplitudes compared to neutral images in more difficult explicit attention task conditions. Further analyses determined that even the processing of pleasant and unpleasant pictures high in emotional arousal is subject to interference in experimental conditions with high task demand. Taken together, performing demanding feature-based counting tasks interfered with differential emotion processing indexed by the EPN. Conclusion The present findings demonstrate that taxing processing resources by a competing primary visual attention task markedly attenuated the early discrimination of emotional from neutral picture contents. Thus, these results provide further empirical support for an interference account of the emotion-attention interaction under conditions of competition. Previous studies revealed the interference of selective emotion processing when attentional resources were directed to locations of explicitly task-relevant stimuli. The present data suggest that interference of emotion processing by competing task demands is a more general phenomenon extending to the domain of feature-based attention. Furthermore, the results are inconsistent with the notion of effortlessness, i.e., early emotion discrimination despite concurrent task demands. These findings implicate to assess the presumed automatic nature of emotion processing at the level of specific aspects rather than considering automaticity as an all-or-none phenomenon. PMID:17316444

Perception of emotional prosody: moving toward a model that incorporates sex-related differences.

PubMed

Everhart, D Erik; Demaree, Heath A; Shipley, Amy J

2006-06-01

The overall purpose of this article is to review the literature that addresses the theoretical models, neuroanatomical mechanisms, and sex-related differences in the perception of emotional prosody. Specifically, the article focuses on the right-hemisphere model of emotion processing as it pertains to the perception of emotional prosody. This article also reviews more recent research that implicates a role for the left hemisphere and subcortical structures in the perception of emotional prosody. The last major section of this article addresses sex-related differences and the potential influence of hormones on the perception of emotional prosody. The article concludes with a section that offers directions for future research.

Cognitive biases in processing infant emotion by women with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in pregnancy or after birth: A systematic review.

PubMed

Webb, Rebecca; Ayers, Susan

2015-01-01

Perinatal psychological problems such as post-natal depression are associated with poor mother-baby interaction, but the reason for this is not clear. One explanation is that mothers with negative mood have biased processing of infant emotion. This review aimed to synthesise research on processing of infant emotion by pregnant or post-natal women with anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Systematic searches were carried out on 11 electronic databases using terms related to negative affect, childbirth and perception of emotion. Fourteen studies were identified which looked at the effect of depression, anxiety and PTSD on interpretation of infant emotional expressions (k = 10), or reaction times when asked to ignore emotional expressions (k = 4). Results suggest mothers with depression and anxiety are more likely to identify negative emotions (i.e., sadness) and less accurate at identifying positive emotions (i.e., happiness) in infant faces. Additionally, women with depression may disengage faster from positive and negative infant emotional expressions. Very few studies examined PTSD (k = 2), but results suggest biases towards specific infant emotions may be influenced by characteristics of the traumatic event. The implications of this research for mother-infant interaction are explored.

Negative attention bias and processing deficits during the cognitive reappraisal of unpleasant emotions in HIV+ women.

PubMed

McIntosh, Roger C; Tartar, Jaime L; Widmayer, Susan; Rosselli, Monica

2015-01-01

Deficits in emotional processing may be attributed to HIV disease or comorbid psychiatric disorders. Electrocortical markers of emotional attention, i.e., amplitude of the P2 and late positive potential (LPP), were compared between 26 HIV+ women and 25 healthy controls during an emotional regulation paradigm. HIV+ women showed early attention bias to negative stimuli indexed by greater P2 amplitude. In contrast, compared with the passive viewing of unpleasant images, HIV+ women demonstrated attenuation of the early and late LPP during positive reappraisal. This interaction remained significant after adjusting for individual differences in apathy, anxiety, and depression. Post hoc analyses implicated time since HIV diagnosis with LPP attenuation during positive reappraisal. Advancing HIV disease may disrupt neural generators associated with the cognitive reappraisal of emotions independent of psychiatric function.

Reflexive journaling on emotional research topics: ethical issues for team researchers.

PubMed

Malacrida, Claudia

2007-12-01

Traditional epistemological concerns in qualitative research focus on the effects of researchers' values and emotions on choices of research topics, power relations with research participants, and the influence of researcher standpoints on data collection and analysis. However, the research process also affects the researchers' values, emotions, and standpoints. Drawing on reflexive journal entries of assistant researchers involved in emotionally demanding team research, this article explores issues of emotional fallout for research team members, the implications of hierarchical power imbalances on research teams, and the importance of providing ethical opportunities for reflexive writing about the challenges of doing emotional research. Such reflexive approaches ensure the emotional safety of research team members and foster opportunities for emancipatory consciousness among research team members.

Upward Spirals of Positive Emotions Counter Downward Spirals of Negativity: Insights from the Broaden-and-Build Theory and Affective Neuroscience on The Treatment of Emotion Dysfunctions and Deficits in Psychopathology

PubMed Central

Garland, Eric L.; Fredrickson, Barbara; Kring, Ann M.; Johnson, David P.; Meyer, Piper S.; Penn, David L.

2010-01-01

This review integrates Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions with advances in affective neuroscience regarding plasticity in the neural circuitry of emotions to inform the treatment of emotion deficits within psychopathology. We first present a body of research showing that positive emotions broaden cognition and behavioral repertoires, and in so doing, build durable biopsychosocial resources that support coping and flourishing mental health. Next, by explicating the processes through which momentary experiences of emotions may accrue into self-perpetuating emotional systems, the current review proposes an underlying architecture of state-trait interactions that engenders lasting affective dispositions. This theoretical framework is then used to elucidate the cognitive-emotional mechanisms underpinning three disorders of affect regulation, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia. In turn, two mind training interventions, mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation, are highlighted as means of generating positive emotions that may counter the negative affective processes implicated in these disorders. We conclude with the proposition that positive emotions may exert a countervailing force on the dysphoric, fearful, or anhedonic states characteristic of persons with psychopathology typified by emotional dysfunctions. PMID:20363063

Cognitive mechanisms of diazepam administration: a healthy volunteer model of emotional processing.

PubMed

Pringle, A; Warren, M; Gottwald, J; Cowen, P J; Harmer, C J

2016-06-01

Benzodiazepine drugs continue to be prescribed relatively frequently for anxiety disorders, especially where other treatments have failed or when rapid alleviation of anxiety is imperative. The neuropsychological mechanism by which these drugs act to relieve symptoms, however, remains underspecified. Cognitive accounts of anxiety disorders emphasise hypervigilance for threat in the maintenance of the disorders. The current study examined the effects of 7- or 8-day administration of diazepam in healthy participants (n = 36) on a well-validated battery of tasks measuring emotional processing, including measures of vigilance for threat and physiological responses to threat. Compared to placebo, diazepam reduced vigilant-avoidant patterns of emotional attention (p < 0.01) and reduced general startle responses (p < .05). Diazepam administration had limited effects on emotional processing, enhancing the response to positive vs negative words in the emotional categorisation task (p < .05), modulating emotional memory in terms of false accuracy (p < .05) and slowing the recognition of all facial expressions of emotion (p = .01). These results have implications for our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms of benzodiazepine treatment. The data reported here suggests that diazepam modulates emotional attention, an effect which may be involved in its therapeutic actions in anxiety.

Pleasurable Emotional Response to Music: A Case of Neurodegenerative Generalized Auditory Agnosia

PubMed Central

Matthews, Brandy R.; Chang, Chiung-Chih; De May, Mary; Engstrom, John; Miller, Bruce L.

2009-01-01

Recent functional neuroimaging studies implicate the network of mesolimbic structures known to be active in reward processing as the neural substrate of pleasure associated with listening to music. Psychoacoustic and lesion studies suggest that there is a widely distributed cortical network involved in processing discreet musical variables. Here we present the case of a young man with auditory agnosia as the consequence of cortical neurodegeneration who continues to experience pleasure when exposed to music. In a series of musical tasks the subject was unable to accurately identify any of the perceptual components of music beyond simple pitch discrimination, including musical variables know to impact the perception of affect. The subject subsequently misidentified the musical character of personally familiar tunes presented experimentally, but continued to report the activity of “listening” to specific musical genres was an emotionally rewarding experience. The implications of this case for the evolving understanding of music perception, music misperception, music memory, and music-associated emotion are discussed. PMID:19253088

Pleasurable emotional response to music: a case of neurodegenerative generalized auditory agnosia.

PubMed

Matthews, Brandy R; Chang, Chiung-Chih; De May, Mary; Engstrom, John; Miller, Bruce L

2009-06-01

Recent functional neuroimaging studies implicate the network of mesolimbic structures known to be active in reward processing as the neural substrate of pleasure associated with listening to music. Psychoacoustic and lesion studies suggest that there is a widely distributed cortical network involved in processing discreet musical variables. Here we present the case of a young man with auditory agnosia as the consequence of cortical neurodegeneration who continues to experience pleasure when exposed to music. In a series of musical tasks, the subject was unable to accurately identify any of the perceptual components of music beyond simple pitch discrimination, including musical variables known to impact the perception of affect. The subject subsequently misidentified the musical character of personally familiar tunes presented experimentally, but continued to report that the activity of 'listening' to specific musical genres was an emotionally rewarding experience. The implications of this case for the evolving understanding of music perception, music misperception, music memory, and music-associated emotion are discussed.

The effects of poverty on the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children and youth: implications for prevention.

PubMed

Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Aber, J Lawrence; Beardslee, William R

2012-01-01

This article considers the implications for prevention science of recent advances in research on family poverty and children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health. First, we describe definitions of poverty and the conceptual and empirical challenges to estimating the causal effects of poverty on children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health. Second, we offer a conceptual framework that incorporates selection processes that affect who becomes poor as well as mechanisms through which poverty appears to influence child and youth mental health. Third, we use this conceptual framework to selectively review the growing literatures on the mechanisms through which family poverty influences the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children. We illustrate how a better understanding of the mechanisms of effect by which poverty impacts children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health is valuable in designing effective preventive interventions for those in poverty. Fourth, we describe strategies to directly reduce poverty and the implications of these strategies for prevention. This article is one of three in a special section (see also Biglan, Flay, Embry, & Sandler, 2012; Muñoz, Beardslee, & Leykin, 2012) representing an elaboration on a theme for prevention science developed by the 2009 report of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.

Functional overlap of top-down emotion regulation and generation: an fMRI study identifying common neural substrates between cognitive reappraisal and cognitively generated emotions.

PubMed

Otto, Benjamin; Misra, Supriya; Prasad, Aditya; McRae, Kateri

2014-09-01

One factor that influences the success of emotion regulation is the manner in which the regulated emotion was generated. Recent research has suggested that reappraisal, a top-down emotion regulation strategy, is more effective in decreasing self-reported negative affect when emotions were generated from the top-down, versus the bottom-up. On the basis of a process overlap framework, we hypothesized that the neural regions active during reappraisal would overlap more with emotions that were generated from the top-down, rather than from the bottom-up. In addition, we hypothesized that increased neural overlap between reappraisal and the history effects of top-down emotion generation would be associated with increased reappraisal success. The results of several analyses suggested that reappraisal and emotions that were generated from the top-down share a core network of prefrontal, temporal, and cingulate regions. This overlap is specific; no such overlap was observed between reappraisal and emotions that were generated in a bottom-up fashion. This network consists of regions previously implicated in linguistic processing, cognitive control, and self-relevant appraisals, which are processes thought to be crucial to both reappraisal and top-down emotion generation. Furthermore, individuals with high reappraisal success demonstrated greater neural overlap between reappraisal and the history of top-down emotion generation than did those with low reappraisal success. The overlap of these key regions, reflecting overlapping processes, provides an initial insight into the mechanism by which generation history may facilitate emotion regulation.

Gender-specific disruptions in emotion processing in younger adults with depression.

PubMed

Wright, Sara L; Langenecker, Scott A; Deldin, Patricia J; Rapport, Lisa J; Nielson, Kristy A; Kade, Allison M; Own, Lawrence S; Akil, Huda; Young, Elizabeth A; Zubieta, Jon-Kar

2009-01-01

One of the principal theories regarding the biological basis of major depressive disorder (MDD) implicates a dysregulation of emotion-processing circuitry. Gender differences in how emotions are processed and relative experience with emotion processing might help to explain some of the disparities in the prevalence of MDD between women and men. This study sought to explore how gender and depression status relate to emotion processing. This study employed a 2 (MDD status) x 2 (gender) factorial design to explore differences in classifications of posed facial emotional expressions (N=151). For errors, there was an interaction between gender and depression status. Women with MDD made more errors than did nondepressed women and men with MDD, particularly for fearful and sad stimuli (Ps <.02), which they were likely to misinterpret as angry (Ps <.04). There was also an interaction of diagnosis and gender for response cost for negative stimuli, with significantly greater interference from negative faces present in women with MDD compared to nondepressed women (P=.01). Men with MDD, conversely, performed similarly to control men (P=.61). These results provide novel and intriguing evidence that depression in younger adults (<35 years) differentially disrupts emotion processing in women as compared to men. This interaction could be driven by neurobiological and social learning mechanisms, or interactions between them, and may underlie differences in the prevalence of depression in women and men. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Age-related changes in amygdala-frontal connectivity during emotional face processing from childhood into young adulthood.

PubMed

Wu, Minjie; Kujawa, Autumn; Lu, Lisa H; Fitzgerald, Daniel A; Klumpp, Heide; Fitzgerald, Kate D; Monk, Christopher S; Phan, K Luan

2016-05-01

The ability to process and respond to emotional facial expressions is a critical skill for healthy social and emotional development. There has been growing interest in understanding the neural circuitry underlying development of emotional processing, with previous research implicating functional connectivity between amygdala and frontal regions. However, existing work has focused on threatening emotional faces, raising questions regarding the extent to which these developmental patterns are specific to threat or to emotional face processing more broadly. In the current study, we examined age-related changes in brain activity and amygdala functional connectivity during an fMRI emotional face matching task (including angry, fearful, and happy faces) in 61 healthy subjects aged 7-25 years. We found age-related decreases in ventral medial prefrontal cortex activity in response to happy faces but not to angry or fearful faces, and an age-related change (shifting from positive to negative correlation) in amygdala-anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex (ACC/mPFC) functional connectivity to all emotional faces. Specifically, positive correlations between amygdala and ACC/mPFC in children changed to negative correlations in adults, which may suggest early emergence of bottom-up amygdala excitatory signaling to ACC/mPFC in children and later development of top-down inhibitory control of ACC/mPFC over amygdala in adults. Age-related changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity did not vary for processing of different facial emotions, suggesting changes in amygdala-ACC/mPFC connectivity may underlie development of broad emotional processing, rather than threat-specific processing. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1684-1695, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Serotoninergic regulation of emotional and behavioural control processes.

PubMed

Cools, Roshan; Roberts, Angela C; Robbins, Trevor W

2008-01-01

5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) has long been implicated in a wide variety of emotional, cognitive and behavioural control processes. However, its precise contribution is still not well understood. Depletion of 5-HT enhances behavioural and brain responsiveness to punishment or other aversive signals, while disinhibiting previously rewarded but now punished behaviours. Findings suggest that 5-HT modulates the impact of punishment-related signals on learning and emotion (aversion), but also promotes response inhibition. Exaggerated aversive processing and deficient response inhibition could underlie distinct symptoms of a range of affective disorders, namely stress- or threat-vulnerability and compulsive behaviour, respectively. We review evidence from studies with human volunteers and experimental animals that begins to elucidate the neurobiological systems underlying these different effects.

Delay discounting as emotional processing: an electrophysiological study.

PubMed

Blackburn, Marianna; Mason, Liam; Hoeksma, Marco; Zandstra, Elizabeth H; El-Deredy, Wael

2012-01-01

Both theoretical models and functional imaging studies implicate the involvement of emotions within the delay discounting process. However, defining this role has been difficult to establish with neuroimaging techniques given the automaticity of emotional responses. To address this, the current study examined electrophysiological correlates involved in the detection and evaluation of immediate and delayed monetary outcomes. Our results showed that modulation of both early and later ERP components previously associated with affective stimuli processing are sensitive to the signalling of delayed rewards. Together with behavioural reaction times that favoured immediacy, we demonstrated, for the first time, that time delays modify the incentive value of monetary rewards via mechanisms of emotional bias and selective visual attention. Furthermore, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that delayed and thus intangible rewards are perceived less saliently, and rely on emotion as a common currency within decision making. This study provides a new approach to delay discounting and highlights a potential novel route through which delay discounting may be investigated.

The electrophysiological effects of the serotonin 1A receptor agonist buspirone in emotional face processing.

PubMed

Bernasconi, Fosco; Kometer, Michael; Pokorny, Thomas; Seifritz, Erich; Vollenweider, Franz X

2015-04-01

Emotional face processing is critically modulated by the serotonergic system, and serotonin (5-HT) receptor agonists impair emotional face processing. However, the specific contribution of the 5-HT1A receptor remains poorly understood. Here we investigated the spatiotemporal brain mechanisms underpinning the modulation of emotional face processing induced by buspirone, a partial 5-HT1A receptor agonist. In a psychophysical discrimination of emotional faces task, we observed that the discrimination fearful versus neutral faces were reduced, but not happy versus neutral faces. Electrical neuroimaging analyses were applied to visual evoked potentials elicited by emotional face images, after placebo and buspirone administration. Buspirone modulated response strength (i.e., global field power) in the interval 230-248ms after stimulus onset. Distributed source estimation over this time interval revealed that buspirone decreased the neural activity in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that was evoked by fearful faces. These results indicate temporal and valence-specific effects of buspirone on the neuronal correlates of emotional face processing. Furthermore, the reduced neural activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in response to fearful faces suggests a reduced attention to fearful faces. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the role of 5-HT1A receptors in emotional face processing and have implications for affective disorders that are characterized by an increased attention to negative stimuli. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Emotional intelligence in anorexia nervosa: is anxiety a missing piece of the puzzle?

PubMed

Hambrook, David; Brown, Gary; Tchanturia, Kate

2012-11-30

Problematic emotional processing has been implicated in the genesis and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). This study built on existing research and explored performance-based emotional intelligence (EI) in people with AN. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) was administered to 32 women diagnosed with AN and 32 female healthy controls (HC). Compared to HC women, the AN group demonstrated significantly lower total EI scores and poorer ability to understand how emotions can progress and change over time. Despite scores within the broadly average range compared to published EI norms, there was a general pattern of poorer performance in the AN sample. Self-reported anxiety symptoms were the strongest predictor of EI, over and above a diagnosis of AN. This study adds to the literature documenting the socioemotional phenotype of AN, suggesting this group of individuals may find it relatively difficult to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions, and to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought. Anxiety was highlighted as a putative variable partially explaining why people with AN demonstrated lower EI compared to controls. Implications for further research are discussed, including the need to explore the specificity of EI difficulties in AN using larger samples and additional control groups. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Neurobiological Model for the Effects of Early Brainstem Functioning on the Development of Behavior and Emotion Regulation in Infants: Implications for Prenatal and Perinatal Risk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Geva, Ronny; Feldman, Ruth

2008-01-01

Neurobiological models propose an evolutionary, vertical-integrative perspective on emotion and behavior regulation, which postulates that regulatory functions are processed along three core brain systems: the brainstem, limbic, and cortical systems. To date, few developmental studies applied these models to research on prenatal and perinatal…

Automaticity in Anxiety Disorders and Major Depressive Disorder

PubMed Central

Teachman, Bethany A.; Joormann, Jutta; Steinman, Shari; Gotlib, Ian H.

2012-01-01

In this paper we examine the nature of automatic cognitive processing in anxiety disorders and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Rather than viewing automaticity as a unitary construct, we follow a social cognition perspective (Bargh, 1994) that argues for four theoretically independent features of automaticity: unconscious (processing of emotional stimuli occurs outside awareness), efficient (processing emotional meaning uses minimal attentional resources), unintentional (no goal is needed to engage in processing emotional meaning), and uncontrollable (limited ability to avoid, alter or terminate processing emotional stimuli). Our review of the literature suggests that most anxiety disorders are characterized by uncontrollable, and likely also unconscious and unintentional, biased processing of threat-relevant information. In contrast, MDD is most clearly typified by uncontrollable, but not unconscious or unintentional, processing of negative information. For the anxiety disorders and for MDD, there is not sufficient evidence to draw firm conclusions about efficiency of processing, though early indications are that neither anxiety disorders nor MDD are characterized by this feature. Clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed and directions for future research are offered. In particular, it is clear that paradigms that more directly delineate the different features of automaticity are required to gain a more comprehensive and systematic understanding of the importance of automatic processing in emotion dysregulation. PMID:22858684

Unconscious emotion: A cognitive neuroscientific perspective.

PubMed

Smith, Ryan; Lane, Richard D

2016-10-01

While psychiatry and clinical psychology have long discussed the topic of unconscious emotion, and its potentially explanatory role in psychopathology, this topic has only recently begun to receive attention within cognitive neuroscience. In contrast, neuroscientific research on conscious vs. unconscious processes within perception, memory, decision-making, and cognitive control has seen considerable advances in the last two decades. In this article, we extrapolate from this work, as well as from recent neural models of emotion processing, to outline multiple plausible neuro-cognitive mechanisms that may be able to explain why various aspects of one's own emotional reactions can remain unconscious in specific circumstances. While some of these mechanisms involve top-down or motivated factors, others instead arise due to bottom-up processing deficits. Finally, we discuss potential implications that these different mechanisms may have for therapeutic intervention, as well as how they might be tested in future research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of emotion in decision-making: evidence from neurological patients with orbitofrontal damage.

PubMed

Bechara, Antoine

2004-06-01

Most theories of choice assume that decisions derive from an assessment of the future outcomes of various options and alternatives through some type of cost-benefit analyses. The influence of emotions on decision-making is largely ignored. The studies of decision-making in neurological patients who can no longer process emotional information normally suggest that people make judgments not only by evaluating the consequences and their probability of occurring, but also and even sometimes primarily at a gut or emotional level. Lesions of the ventromedial (which includes the orbitofrontal) sector of the prefrontal cortex interfere with the normal processing of "somatic" or emotional signals, while sparing most basic cognitive functions. Such damage leads to impairments in the decision-making process, which seriously compromise the quality of decisions in daily life. The aim of this paper is to review evidence in support of "The Somatic Marker Hypothesis," which provides a systems-level neuroanatomical and cognitive framework for decision-making and suggests that the process of decision-making depends in many important ways on neural substrates that regulate homeostasis, emotion, and feeling. The implications of this theoretical framework for the normal and abnormal development of the orbitofrontal cortex are also discussed.

Abstract semantics in the motor system? - An event-related fMRI study on passive reading of semantic word categories carrying abstract emotional and mental meaning.

PubMed

Dreyer, Felix R; Pulvermüller, Friedemann

2018-03-01

Previous research showed that modality-preferential sensorimotor areas are relevant for processing concrete words used to speak about actions. However, whether modality-preferential areas also play a role for abstract words is still under debate. Whereas recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies suggest an involvement of motor cortex in processing the meaning of abstract emotion words as, for example, 'love', other non-emotional abstract words, in particular 'mental words', such as 'thought' or 'logic', are believed to engage 'amodal' semantic systems only. In the present event-related fMRI experiment, subjects passively read abstract emotional and mental nouns along with concrete action related words. Contrary to expectation, the results indicate a specific involvement of face motor areas in the processing of mental nouns, resembling that seen for face related action words. This result was confirmed when subject-specific regions of interest (ROIs) defined by motor localizers were used. We conclude that a role of motor systems in semantic processing is not restricted to concrete words but extends to at least some abstract mental symbols previously thought to be entirely 'disembodied' and divorced from semantically related sensorimotor processing. Implications for neurocognitive theories of semantics and clinical applications will be highlighted, paying specific attention to the role of brain activations as indexes of cognitive processes and their relationships to 'causal' studies addressing lesion and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) effects. Possible implications for clinical practice, in particular speech language therapy, are discussed in closing. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Bonds or Bargains: Relationship Paradigms and Their Significance for Marital Therapy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Sue

1986-01-01

Discusses contrasting conceptual paradigms describing the nature of intimate relationships. Relationships may be viewed in terms of a rational bargain or as an emotional bond. The implications of each paradigm for the process of marital therapy and the role of bonding and attachment in adult intimacy are prescribed. Implications for marital…

Dual coding theory, word abstractness, and emotion: a critical review of Kousta et al. (2011).

PubMed

Paivio, Allan

2013-02-01

Kousta, Vigliocco, Del Campo, Vinson, and Andrews (2011) questioned the adequacy of dual coding theory and the context availability model as explanations of representational and processing differences between concrete and abstract words. They proposed an alternative approach that focuses on the role of emotional content in the processing of abstract concepts. Their dual coding critique is, however, based on impoverished and, in some respects, incorrect interpretations of the theory and its implications. This response corrects those gaps and misinterpretations and summarizes research findings that show predicted variations in the effects of dual coding variables in different tasks and contexts. Especially emphasized is an empirically supported dual coding theory of emotion that goes beyond the Kousta et al. emphasis on emotion in abstract semantics. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

Emotional Granularity Effects on Event-Related Brain Potentials during Affective Picture Processing.

PubMed

Lee, Ja Y; Lindquist, Kristen A; Nam, Chang S

2017-01-01

There is debate about whether emotional granularity , the tendency to label emotions in a nuanced and specific manner, is merely a product of labeling abilities, or a systematic difference in the experience of emotion during emotionally evocative events. According to the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion (CAT) (Barrett, 2006), emotional granularity is due to the latter and is a product of on-going temporal differences in how individuals categorize and thus make meaning of their affective states. To address this question, the present study investigated the effects of individual differences in emotional granularity on electroencephalography-based brain activity during the experience of emotion in response to affective images. Event-related potentials (ERP) and event-related desynchronization and synchronization (ERD/ERS) analysis techniques were used. We found that ERP responses during the very early (60-90 ms), middle (270-300 ms), and later (540-570 ms) moments of stimulus presentation were associated with individuals' level of granularity. We also observed that highly granular individuals, compared to lowly granular individuals, exhibited relatively stable desynchronization of alpha power (8-12 Hz) and synchronization of gamma power (30-50 Hz) during the 3 s of stimulus presentation. Overall, our results suggest that emotional granularity is related to differences in neural processing throughout emotional experiences and that high granularity could be associated with access to executive control resources and a more habitual processing of affective stimuli, or a kind of "emotional complexity." Implications for models of emotion are also discussed.

The Interplay between Emotion and Cognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Developmental Theory

PubMed Central

Gaigg, Sebastian B.

2012-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is clinically defined by abnormalities in reciprocal social and communicative behaviors and an inflexible adherence to routinised patterns of thought and behavior. Laboratory studies repeatedly demonstrate that autistic individuals experience difficulties in recognizing and understanding the emotional expressions of others and naturalistic observations show that they use such expressions infrequently and inappropriately to regulate social exchanges. Dominant theories attribute this facet of the ASD phenotype to abnormalities in a social brain network that mediates social-motivational and social-cognitive processes such as face processing, mental state understanding, and empathy. Such theories imply that only emotion related processes relevant to social cognition are compromised in ASD but accumulating evidence suggests that the disorder may be characterized by more widespread anomalies in the domain of emotions. In this review I summarize the relevant literature and argue that the social-emotional characteristics of ASD may be better understood in terms of a disruption in the domain-general interplay between emotion and cognition. More specifically I will suggest that ASD is the developmental consequence of early emerging anomalies in how emotional responses to the environment modulate a wide range of cognitive processes including those that are relevant to navigating the social world. PMID:23316143

The Interplay between Emotion and Cognition in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Developmental Theory.

PubMed

Gaigg, Sebastian B

2012-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is clinically defined by abnormalities in reciprocal social and communicative behaviors and an inflexible adherence to routinised patterns of thought and behavior. Laboratory studies repeatedly demonstrate that autistic individuals experience difficulties in recognizing and understanding the emotional expressions of others and naturalistic observations show that they use such expressions infrequently and inappropriately to regulate social exchanges. Dominant theories attribute this facet of the ASD phenotype to abnormalities in a social brain network that mediates social-motivational and social-cognitive processes such as face processing, mental state understanding, and empathy. Such theories imply that only emotion related processes relevant to social cognition are compromised in ASD but accumulating evidence suggests that the disorder may be characterized by more widespread anomalies in the domain of emotions. In this review I summarize the relevant literature and argue that the social-emotional characteristics of ASD may be better understood in terms of a disruption in the domain-general interplay between emotion and cognition. More specifically I will suggest that ASD is the developmental consequence of early emerging anomalies in how emotional responses to the environment modulate a wide range of cognitive processes including those that are relevant to navigating the social world.

Sleep facilitates consolidation of emotional declarative memory.

PubMed

Hu, Peter; Stylos-Allan, Melinda; Walker, Matthew P

2006-10-01

Both sleep and emotion are known to modulate processes of memory consolidation, yet their interaction is poorly understood. We examined the influence of sleep on consolidation of emotionally arousing and neutral declarative memory. Subjects completed an initial study session involving arousing and neutral pictures, either in the evening or in the morning. Twelve hours later, after sleeping or staying awake, subjects performed a recognition test requiring them to discriminate between these original pictures and novel pictures by responding "remember,"know" (familiar), or "new." Selective sleep effects were observed for consolidation of emotional memory: Recognition accuracy for know judgments of arousing stimuli improved by 42% after sleep relative to wake, and recognition bias for remember judgments of these stimuli increased by 58% after sleep relative to wake (resulting in more conservative responding). These findings hold important implications for understanding of human memory processing, suggesting that the facilitation of memory for emotionally salient information may preferentially develop during sleep.

Gender Differences in Emotion Regulation: An fMRI Study of Cognitive Reappraisal.

PubMed

McRae, Kateri; Ochsner, Kevin N; Mauss, Iris B; Gabrieli, John J D; Gross, James J

2008-04-01

Despite strong popular conceptions of gender differences in emotionality and striking gender differences in the prevalence of disorders thought to involve emotion dysregulation, the literature on the neural bases of emotion regulation is nearly silent regarding gender differences (Gross, 2007; Ochsner & Gross, in press). The purpose of the present study was to address this gap in the literature. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we asked male and female participants to use a cognitive emotion regulation strategy (reappraisal) to down-regulate their emotional responses to negatively valenced pictures. Behaviorally, men and women evidenced comparable decreases in negative emotion experience. Neurally, however, gender differences emerged. Compared with women, men showed (a) lesser increases in prefrontal regions that are associated with reappraisal, (b) greater decreases in the amygdala, which is associated with emotional responding, and (c) lesser engagement of ventral striatal regions, which are associated with reward processing. We consider two non-competing explanations for these differences. First, men may expend less effort when using cognitive regulation, perhaps due to greater use of automatic emotion regulation. Second, women may use positive emotions in the service of reappraising negative emotions to a greater degree. We then consider the implications of gender differences in emotion regulation for understanding gender differences in emotional processing in general, and gender differences in affective disorders.

Gender Differences in Emotion Regulation: An fMRI Study of Cognitive Reappraisal

PubMed Central

McRae, Kateri; Ochsner, Kevin N.; Mauss, Iris B.; Gabrieli, John J. D.; Gross, James J.

2009-01-01

Despite strong popular conceptions of gender differences in emotionality and striking gender differences in the prevalence of disorders thought to involve emotion dysregulation, the literature on the neural bases of emotion regulation is nearly silent regarding gender differences (Gross, 2007; Ochsner & Gross, in press). The purpose of the present study was to address this gap in the literature. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we asked male and female participants to use a cognitive emotion regulation strategy (reappraisal) to down-regulate their emotional responses to negatively valenced pictures. Behaviorally, men and women evidenced comparable decreases in negative emotion experience. Neurally, however, gender differences emerged. Compared with women, men showed (a) lesser increases in prefrontal regions that are associated with reappraisal, (b) greater decreases in the amygdala, which is associated with emotional responding, and (c) lesser engagement of ventral striatal regions, which are associated with reward processing. We consider two non-competing explanations for these differences. First, men may expend less effort when using cognitive regulation, perhaps due to greater use of automatic emotion regulation. Second, women may use positive emotions in the service of reappraising negative emotions to a greater degree. We then consider the implications of gender differences in emotion regulation for understanding gender differences in emotional processing in general, and gender differences in affective disorders. PMID:29743808

Why emotions matter: expectancy violation and affective response mediate the emotional victim effect.

PubMed

Ask, Karl; Landström, Sara

2010-10-01

The mechanisms behind the 'emotional victim effect' (i.e., that the emotionality of a rape victim's demeanor affects perceived credibility) are relatively unexplored. In this article, a previously neglected mechanism--observers' affective response to the victim--is proposed as an alternative to the traditional expectancy-violation account. The emotional victim effect was replicated in an experiment with a sample of police trainees (N = 189), and cognitive load was found to increase the magnitude of the effect. Importantly, both compassionate affective response and expectancy violation actively mediated the emotional victim effect when the other mechanism was controlled for. These findings extend previous research on credibility judgments by introducing a 'hot' cognitive component in the judgment process. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Numbing of Positive, Negative, and General Emotions: Associations With Trauma Exposure, Posttraumatic Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Justice-Involved Youth.

PubMed

Kerig, Patricia K; Bennett, Diana C; Chaplo, Shannon D; Modrowski, Crosby A; McGee, Andrew B

2016-04-01

Increasing attention has been drawn to the symptom of emotional numbing in the phenomenology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), particularly regarding its implications for maladaptive outcomes in adolescence such as delinquent behavior. One change in the definition of emotional numbing according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) was the limitation to the numbing of positive emotions. Previous research with youth, however, has implicated general numbing or numbing of negative emotions in PTSD, whereas numbing of positive emotions may overlap with other disorders, particularly depression. Consequently, the goal of this study was to investigate whether numbing of positive emotions was associated with PTSD symptoms above and beyond numbing of negative emotions, general emotional numbing, or depressive symptoms among at-risk adolescents. In a sample of 221 detained youth (mean age = 15.98 years, SD = 1.25; 50.7% ethnic minority), results of hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that only general emotional numbing and numbing of anger accounted for significant variance in PTSD symptoms (total R(2) = .37). In contrast, numbing of sadness and positive emotions were statistical correlates of depressive symptoms (total R(2) = .24). Further tests using Hayes' Process macro showed that general numbing, 95% CI [.02, .45], and numbing of anger, 95% CI [.01, .42], demonstrated indirect effects on the association between trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Emotion in Organizational Learning-Implications for HRD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turnbull, Sharon

2004-01-01

In this article I draw attention to the under-researched domain of emotion in the study of organizational learning and its implications for HRD. The paper identifies four aspects of organization learning in which an emotional dimension is evident. These are: Emotion as a learned response, Emotion as codified meaning, Emotion as affective component…

Relationship Between Emotional Processing, Drinking Severity and Relapse in Adults Treated for Alcohol Dependence in Poland

PubMed Central

Kopera, Maciej; Jakubczyk, Andrzej; Suszek, Hubert; Glass, Jennifer M.; Klimkiewicz, Anna; Wnorowska, Anna; Brower, Kirk J.; Wojnar, Marcin

2015-01-01

Aims: Growing data reveals deficits in perception, understanding and regulation of emotions in alcohol dependence (AD). The study objective was to explore the relationships between emotional processing, drinking history and relapse in a clinical sample of alcohol-dependent patients. Methods: A group of 80 inpatients entering an alcohol treatment program in Warsaw, Poland was recruited and assessed at baseline and follow-up after 12 months. Baseline information about demographics, psychopathological symptoms, personality and severity of alcohol problems was obtained. The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence (EI) Test and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) were utilized for emotional processing assessment. Follow-up information contained data on drinking alcohol during the last month. Results: At baseline assessment, the duration of alcohol drinking was associated with lower ability to utilize emotions. Patients reporting more difficulties with describing feelings drank more during their last episode of heavy drinking, and had a longer duration of intensive alcohol use. A longer duration of the last episode of heavy drinking was associated with more problems identifying and regulating emotions. Poor utilization of emotions and high severity of depressive symptoms contributed to higher rates of drinking at follow-up. Conclusions: These results underline the importance of systematic identification of discrete emotional problems and dynamics related to AD. This knowledge has implications for treatment. Psychotherapeutic interventions to improve emotional skills could be utilized in treatment of alcohol-dependent patients. PMID:25543129

Expressive inhibition in response to stress: implications for emotional processing following trauma.

PubMed

Clapp, Joshua D; Patton, Samantha C; Beck, J Gayle

2015-01-01

Expressive inhibition--the willful restriction of expressed emotion--is documented in individuals reporting trauma-related distress, but its impact on global affective functioning remains unclear. Theoretical models propose that chronic activation of negative emotion and deliberate restriction of affect operate synergistically to produce trauma-related emotional deficits. The current project examined the impact of these factors on subjective experience and physiological activation following exposure to an analog trauma. University students (N=192; Mage=20, 57% female, 42% White/Non-Hispanic) viewed a graphic film depicting scenes of a televised suicide. Participants then viewed either a sadness- or humor-eliciting film under instructions to inhibit [nsadness=45, nhumor=52] or naturally express emotion [nsadness=48, nhumor=47]. Expressive inhibition was associated with restricted amusement specifically among participants viewing the humor film. Inhibition also produced attenuated sympathetic and parasympathetic recovery, irrespective of film assignment. Evidence of disruptions in emotional processing supports models identifying inhibition as a possible mechanism in post-trauma affect dysregulation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

More than words (and faces): evidence for a Stroop effect of prosody in emotion word processing.

PubMed

Filippi, Piera; Ocklenburg, Sebastian; Bowling, Daniel L; Heege, Larissa; Güntürkün, Onur; Newen, Albert; de Boer, Bart

2017-08-01

Humans typically combine linguistic and nonlinguistic information to comprehend emotions. We adopted an emotion identification Stroop task to investigate how different channels interact in emotion communication. In experiment 1, synonyms of "happy" and "sad" were spoken with happy and sad prosody. Participants had more difficulty ignoring prosody than ignoring verbal content. In experiment 2, synonyms of "happy" and "sad" were spoken with happy and sad prosody, while happy or sad faces were displayed. Accuracy was lower when two channels expressed an emotion that was incongruent with the channel participants had to focus on, compared with the cross-channel congruence condition. When participants were required to focus on verbal content, accuracy was significantly lower also when prosody was incongruent with verbal content and face. This suggests that prosody biases emotional verbal content processing, even when conflicting with verbal content and face simultaneously. Implications for multimodal communication and language evolution studies are discussed.

Expressive inhibition in response to stress: Implications for emotional processing following trauma

PubMed Central

Clapp, Joshua D.; Patton, Samantha C.; Beck, J. Gayle

2015-01-01

Expressive inhibition - the willful restriction of expressed emotion - is documented in individuals reporting trauma-related distress, but its impact on global affective functioning remains unclear. Theoretical models propose that chronic activation of negative emotion and deliberate restriction of affect operate synergistically to produce trauma-related emotional deficits. The current project examined the impact of these factors on subjective experience and physiological activation following exposure to an analog trauma. University students (N = 192; Mage = 20, 57% female, 42% White/Non-Hispanic) viewed a graphic film depicting scenes of a televised suicide. Participants then viewed either a sadness- or humor-eliciting film under instructions to inhibit [nsadness = 45, nhumor = 52] or naturally express emotion [nsadness = 48, nhumor = 47]. Expressive inhibition was associated with restricted amusement specifically among participants viewing the humor film. Inhibition also produced attenuated sympathetic and parasympathetic recovery, irrespective of film assignment. Evidence of disruptions in emotional processing supports models identifying inhibition as a possible mechanism in post-trauma affect dysregulation. PMID:25576773

New learning following reactivation in the human brain: targeting emotional memories through rapid serial visual presentation.

PubMed

Wirkner, Janine; Löw, Andreas; Hamm, Alfons O; Weymar, Mathias

2015-03-01

Once reactivated, previously consolidated memories destabilize and have to be reconsolidated to persist, a process that might be altered non-invasively by interfering learning immediately after reactivation. Here, we investigated the influence of interference on brain correlates of reactivated episodic memories for emotional and neutral scenes using event-related potentials (ERPs). To selectively target emotional memories we applied a new reactivation method: rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). RSVP leads to enhanced implicit processing (pop out) of the most salient memories making them vulnerable to disruption. In line, interference after reactivation of previously encoded pictures disrupted recollection particularly for emotional events. Furthermore, memory impairments were reflected in a reduced centro-parietal ERP old/new difference during retrieval of emotional pictures. These results provide neural evidence that emotional episodic memories in humans can be selectively altered through behavioral interference after reactivation, a finding with further clinical implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Applying a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective to Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Implications for Schools.

PubMed

Tyler, Patrick M; White, Stuart F; Thompson, Ronald W; Blair, R J R

2018-02-12

A cognitive neuroscience perspective seeks to understand behavior, in this case disruptive behavior disorders (DBD), in terms of dysfunction in cognitive processes underpinned by neural processes. While this type of approach has clear implications for clinical mental health practice, it also has implications for school-based assessment and intervention with children and adolescents who have disruptive behavior and aggression. This review articulates a cognitive neuroscience account of DBD by discussing the neurocognitive dysfunction related to emotional empathy, threat sensitivity, reinforcement-based decision-making, and response inhibition. The potential implications for current and future classroom-based assessments and interventions for students with these deficits are discussed.

Mindlessly Polite: A Conceptual Replication of the Emotional Seesaw Effect on Compliance and Information Processing

PubMed Central

Kaczmarek, Magdalena C.; Steffens, Melanie C.

2017-01-01

Recent studies demonstrated that the sequential induction of contrasting negative and positive emotions can be used as a social influence technique. The original field experiments found that whenever a sudden change in the emotional dynamic occurs – from negative to positive or vice versa – an increase in compliant behavior and an impairment in cognitive functioning can be observed. The goal of the present experiments was a conceptual replication and extension of the results in a more controlled and counterbalanced fashion. To this aim a novel emotion induction technique was created using an outcome related expectancy violation to induce and change emotions. In a first experiment, the influence of contrasting emotions (vs. only one emotion) on compliance, message processing and information recall was assessed among 80 undergraduate students. We were able to show that a positive, then negative experience, and vice versa, led to losses in processing efficacy, not only leaving individuals momentarily vulnerable to social influence attempts, but also impairing information recall. We replicated this pattern of findings in a second experiment (N = 41). The implications of this innovative induction technique and its findings for theory and future research on the emerging field on contrasting emotions as social-influence techniques are discussed. PMID:28270788

Mindlessly Polite: A Conceptual Replication of the Emotional Seesaw Effect on Compliance and Information Processing.

PubMed

Kaczmarek, Magdalena C; Steffens, Melanie C

2017-01-01

Recent studies demonstrated that the sequential induction of contrasting negative and positive emotions can be used as a social influence technique. The original field experiments found that whenever a sudden change in the emotional dynamic occurs - from negative to positive or vice versa - an increase in compliant behavior and an impairment in cognitive functioning can be observed. The goal of the present experiments was a conceptual replication and extension of the results in a more controlled and counterbalanced fashion. To this aim a novel emotion induction technique was created using an outcome related expectancy violation to induce and change emotions. In a first experiment, the influence of contrasting emotions (vs. only one emotion) on compliance, message processing and information recall was assessed among 80 undergraduate students. We were able to show that a positive, then negative experience, and vice versa, led to losses in processing efficacy, not only leaving individuals momentarily vulnerable to social influence attempts, but also impairing information recall. We replicated this pattern of findings in a second experiment ( N = 41). The implications of this innovative induction technique and its findings for theory and future research on the emerging field on contrasting emotions as social-influence techniques are discussed.

Word type effects in false recall: concrete, abstract, and emotion word critical lures.

PubMed

Bauer, Lisa M; Olheiser, Erik L; Altarriba, Jeanette; Landi, Nicole

2009-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated that definable qualities of verbal stimuli have implications for memory. For example, the distinction between concrete and abstract words has led to the finding that concrete words have an advantage in memory tasks (i.e., the concreteness effect). However, other word types, such as words that label specific human emotions, may also affect memory processes. This study examined the effects of word type on the production of false memories by using a list-learning false memory paradigm. Participants heard lists of words that were highly associated to nonpresented concrete, abstract, or emotion words (i.e., the critical lures) and then engaged in list recall. Emotion word critical lures were falsely recalled at a significantly higher rate (with the effect carried by the positively valenced critical lures) than concrete and abstract critical lures. These findings suggest that the word type variable has implications for our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie recall and false recall.

Role of emotional processing in depressive responses to sex-hormone manipulation: a pharmacological fMRI study

PubMed Central

Henningsson, S; Madsen, K H; Pinborg, A; Heede, M; Knudsen, G M; Siebner, H R; Frokjaer, V G

2015-01-01

Sex-hormone fluctuations may increase risk for developing depressive symptoms and alter emotional processing as supported by observations in menopausal and pre- to postpartum transition. In this double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, we used blood−oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate if sex-steroid hormone manipulation with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) influences emotional processing. Fifty-six healthy women were investigated twice: at baseline (follicular phase of menstrual cycle) and 16±3 days post intervention. At both sessions, fMRI-scans during exposure to faces expressing fear, anger, happiness or no emotion, depressive symptom scores and estradiol levels were acquired. The fMRI analyses focused on regions of interest for emotional processing. As expected, GnRHa initially increased and subsequently reduced estradiol to menopausal levels, which was accompanied by an increase in subclinical depressive symptoms relative to placebo. Women who displayed larger GnRHa-induced increase in depressive symptoms had a larger increase in both negative and positive emotion-elicited activity in the anterior insula. When considering the post-GnRHa scan only, depressive responses were associated with emotion-elicited activity in the anterior insula and amygdala. The effect on regional activity in anterior insula was not associated with the estradiol net decline, only by the GnRHa-induced changes in mood. Our data implicate enhanced insula recruitment during emotional processing in the emergence of depressive symptoms following sex-hormone fluctuations. This may correspond to the emotional hypersensitivity frequently experienced by women postpartum. PMID:26624927

Music and emotions: from enchantment to entrainment.

PubMed

Vuilleumier, Patrik; Trost, Wiebke

2015-03-01

Producing and perceiving music engage a wide range of sensorimotor, cognitive, and emotional processes. Emotions are a central feature of the enjoyment of music, with a large variety of affective states consistently reported by people while listening to music. However, besides joy or sadness, music often elicits feelings of wonder, nostalgia, or tenderness, which do not correspond to emotion categories typically studied in neuroscience and whose neural substrates remain largely unknown. Here we review the similarities and differences in the neural substrates underlying these "complex" music-evoked emotions relative to other more "basic" emotional experiences. We suggest that these emotions emerge through a combination of activation in emotional and motivational brain systems (e.g., including reward pathways) that confer its valence to music, with activation in several other areas outside emotional systems, including motor, attention, or memory-related regions. We then discuss the neural substrates underlying the entrainment of cognitive and motor processes by music and their relation to affective experience. These effects have important implications for the potential therapeutic use of music in neurological or psychiatric diseases, particularly those associated with motor, attention, or affective disturbances. © 2015 New York Academy of Sciences.

Neural correlates of cross-modal affective priming by music in Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Lense, Miriam D; Gordon, Reyna L; Key, Alexandra P F; Dykens, Elisabeth M

2014-04-01

Emotional connection is the main reason people engage with music, and the emotional features of music can influence processing in other domains. Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder where musicality and sociability are prominent aspects of the phenotype. This study examined oscillatory brain activity during a musical affective priming paradigm. Participants with WS and age-matched typically developing controls heard brief emotional musical excerpts or emotionally neutral sounds and then reported the emotional valence (happy/sad) of subsequently presented faces. Participants with WS demonstrated greater evoked fronto-central alpha activity to the happy vs sad musical excerpts. The size of these alpha effects correlated with parent-reported emotional reactivity to music. Although participant groups did not differ in accuracy of identifying facial emotions, reaction time data revealed a music priming effect only in persons with WS, who responded faster when the face matched the emotional valence of the preceding musical excerpt vs when the valence differed. Matching emotional valence was also associated with greater evoked gamma activity thought to reflect cross-modal integration. This effect was not present in controls. The results suggest a specific connection between music and socioemotional processing and have implications for clinical and educational approaches for WS.

The Influences of Emotion on Learning and Memory

PubMed Central

Tyng, Chai M.; Amin, Hafeez U.; Saad, Mohamad N. M.; Malik, Aamir S.

2017-01-01

Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially modulating the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This attentional and executive control is intimately linked to learning processes, as intrinsically limited attentional capacities are better focused on relevant information. Emotion also facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently. However, the effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always univalent, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory (LTM) retention, depending on a range of factors. Recent neuroimaging findings have indicated that the amygdala and prefrontal cortex cooperate with the medial temporal lobe in an integrated manner that affords (i) the amygdala modulating memory consolidation; (ii) the prefrontal cortex mediating memory encoding and formation; and (iii) the hippocampus for successful learning and LTM retention. We also review the nested hierarchies of circular emotional control and cognitive regulation (bottom-up and top-down influences) within the brain to achieve optimal integration of emotional and cognitive processing. This review highlights a basic evolutionary approach to emotion to understand the effects of emotion on learning and memory and the functional roles played by various brain regions and their mutual interactions in relation to emotional processing. We also summarize the current state of knowledge on the impact of emotion on memory and map implications for educational settings. In addition to elucidating the memory-enhancing effects of emotion, neuroimaging findings extend our understanding of emotional influences on learning and memory processes; this knowledge may be useful for the design of effective educational curricula to provide a conducive learning environment for both traditional “live” learning in classrooms and “virtual” learning through online-based educational technologies. PMID:28883804

Regulatory brain development: balancing emotion and cognition.

PubMed

Perlman, Susan B; Pelphrey, Kevin A

2010-01-01

Emotion regulation is a critical aspect of children's social development, yet few studies have examined the brain mechanisms involved in its development. Theoretical accounts have conceptualized emotion regulation as relying on prefrontal control of limbic regions, specifying the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a key brain region. Functional magnetic resonance imaging in 5- to 11-year-olds during emotion regulation and processing of emotionally expressive faces revealed that older children preferentially recruited the more dorsal “cognitive” areas of the ACC, while younger children preferentially engaged the more ventral “emotional” areas. Additionally, children with more fearful temperaments exhibited more ventral ACC activity while less fearful children exhibited increased activity in the dorsal ACC. These findings provide insight into a potential neurobiological mechanism underlying well-documented behavioral and cognitive changes from more emotional to more cognitive regulatory strategies with increasing age, as well as individual differences in this developmental process as a function of temperament. Our results hold important implications for our understanding of normal development and should also help to inform our understanding and management of emotional disorders. © 2010 Psychology Press

[Identification and memorisation of emotions in Alzheimer's disease: a critical review of litterature].

PubMed

Morrone, Isabella; Besche-Richard, Chrystel; Mahmoudi, Rachid; Novella, Jean-Luc

2012-09-01

Although the first signs of Alzheimer's disease (AD) mainly affect episodic memory and executive functions, emotional disturbances also have a considerable impact on the mental and relational capacities of AD patients. In AD, the early impairment of amygdala structures, whose central role in the recognition and memorisation of emotions has previously been demonstrated, has led researchers to focus on the possible implications of such impairment in generating cognitive disturbances or behavioural troubles in these subjects. Several studies have shown that emotional processes are altered in AD, and can contribute to varying degrees to deficits in terms of social cognition, and to the generation of behavioural troubles. This review will detail the main avenues of research into the capacity to identify and memorise emotions in AD, and summarise the often conflicting results that have, to date, prevented the emergence of a general consensus concerning the emotional processes. It seems thereby legitimate to question about different elements that can explain these conflicting results, such as the existence of various theories, divergences about the definition of emotions and important methodological differences.

Retro-Active Emotion: Do Negative Emotional Stimuli Disrupt Consolidation in Working Memory?

PubMed

Kandemir, Güven; Akyürek, Elkan G; Nieuwenstein, Mark R

2017-01-01

While many studies have shown that a task-irrelevant emotionally arousing stimulus can interfere with the processing of a shortly following target, it remains unclear whether an emotional stimulus can also retro-actively interrupt the ongoing processing of an earlier target. In two experiments, we examined whether the presentation of a negative emotionally arousing picture can disrupt working memory consolidation of a preceding visual target. In both experiments, the effects of negative emotional pictures were compared with the effects of neutral pictures. In Experiment 1, the pictures were entirely task-irrelevant whereas in Experiment 2 the pictures were associated with a 2-alternative forced choice task that required participants to respond to the color of a frame surrounding the pictures. The results showed that the appearance of the pictures did not interfere with target consolidation when the pictures were task-irrelevant, whereas such interference was observed when the pictures were associated with a 2-AFC task. Most importantly, however, the results showed no effects of whether the picture had neutral or emotional content. Implications for further research are discussed.

Emotional content enhances true but not false memory for categorized stimuli.

PubMed

Choi, Hae-Yoon; Kensinger, Elizabeth A; Rajaram, Suparna

2013-04-01

Past research has shown that emotion enhances true memory, but that emotion can either increase or decrease false memory. Two theoretical possibilities-the distinctiveness of emotional stimuli and the conceptual relatedness of emotional content-have been implicated as being responsible for influencing both true and false memory for emotional content. In the present study, we sought to identify the mechanisms that underlie these mixed findings by equating the thematic relatedness of the study materials across each type of valence used (negative, positive, or neutral). In three experiments, categorically bound stimuli (e.g., funeral, pets, and office items) were used for this purpose. When the encoding task required the processing of thematic relatedness, a significant true-memory enhancement for emotional content emerged in recognition memory, but no emotional boost to false memory (exp. 1). This pattern persisted for true memory with a longer retention interval between study and test (24 h), and false recognition was reduced for emotional items (exp. 2). Finally, better recognition memory for emotional items once again emerged when the encoding task (arousal ratings) required the processing of the emotional aspect of the study items, with no emotional boost to false recognition (EXP. 3). Together, these findings suggest that when emotional and neutral stimuli are equivalently high in thematic relatedness, emotion continues to improve true memory, but it does not override other types of grouping to increase false memory.

Deficits in Autonomic Indices of Emotion Regulation and Reward Processing Associated with Prescription Opioid Use and Misuse

PubMed Central

Garland, Eric L.; Bryan, Craig J.; Nakamura, Yoshio; Froeliger, Brett; Howard, Matthew O.

2016-01-01

Rationale Prescription opioid misuse and high dose opioid use may result in allostatic dysregulation of hedonic brain circuitry, leading to reduced emotion regulation capacity. In particular, opioid misuse may blunt the ability to experience and upregulate positive affect from natural rewards. Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine associations between opioid use/misuse and autonomic indices of emotion regulation capability in a sample of chronic pain patients receiving prescription opioid pharmacotherapy. Methods Chronic pain patients taking long-term opioid analgesics (N = 40) completed an emotion regulation task while heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded, as well as self-report measures of opioid misuse, craving, pain severity, and emotional distress. Based on a validated cut-point on the Current Opioid Misuse Measure, participants were grouped as opioid misusers or non-misusers. Opioid misuse status and morphine equivalent daily dose (MEDD) were examined as predictors of HRV and self-reports of emotion regulation. Results Opioid misusers exhibited significantly less HRV during positive and negative emotion regulation, and significantly less positive affect, than non-misusers, after controlling for confounders including pain severity and emotional distress. MEDD was inversely associated with positive emotion regulation efficacy. Conclusion Findings implicate the presence of reward processing deficits among chronic pain patients with opioid-misusing behaviors, and opioid dosage was associated with deficient emotion regulation, suggesting the presence of compromised top-down cognitive control over bottom-up hedonic processes. Emotion regulation among opioid misusers may represent an important treatment target. PMID:27933366

Emotion Discourse, Social Cognition, and Social Skills in Children with and without Developmental Delays

PubMed Central

Fenning, RM; Baker, BL; Juvonen, J

2009-01-01

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children’s independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children’s emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning/problem solving) was coded in the context of parent-child conversations about emotion, and children were interviewed separately to assess social problem solving. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on children’s social skills. The proposed strengths-based model partially accounted for social skills differences between typically developing children and children with delays. A multigroup analysis of the model linking emotion discourse to social skills through children’s prosocial problem solving suggested that processes operated similarly across the two groups. Implications for ecologically focused prevention and intervention are discussed. PMID:21410465

Emotional competence relating to perceived stress and burnout in Spanish teachers: a mediator model.

PubMed

Rey, Lourdes; Extremera, Natalio; Pena, Mario

2016-01-01

This study examined direct associations between emotional competence, perceived stress and burnout in 489 Spanish teachers. In addition, a model in which perceived stress mediated pathways linking emotional competence to teacher burnout symptoms was also examined. Results showed that emotional competence and stress were significantly correlated with teacher burnout symptoms in the expected direction. Moreover, mediational analysis indicated that perceived stress partly mediated the relationship between emotional competence and the three dimensions of burnout even when controlling for salient background characteristics. These findings suggest an underlying process by which high emotional competence may increase the capacity to cope with symptoms of burnout, by reducing the experience of stress. Implications of these findings for future research and for working with teachers to prevent burnout are discussed.

Emotional competence relating to perceived stress and burnout in Spanish teachers: a mediator model

PubMed Central

Extremera, Natalio

2016-01-01

This study examined direct associations between emotional competence, perceived stress and burnout in 489 Spanish teachers. In addition, a model in which perceived stress mediated pathways linking emotional competence to teacher burnout symptoms was also examined. Results showed that emotional competence and stress were significantly correlated with teacher burnout symptoms in the expected direction. Moreover, mediational analysis indicated that perceived stress partly mediated the relationship between emotional competence and the three dimensions of burnout even when controlling for salient background characteristics. These findings suggest an underlying process by which high emotional competence may increase the capacity to cope with symptoms of burnout, by reducing the experience of stress. Implications of these findings for future research and for working with teachers to prevent burnout are discussed. PMID:27280077

The automaticity of emotion recognition.

PubMed

Tracy, Jessica L; Robins, Richard W

2008-02-01

Evolutionary accounts of emotion typically assume that humans evolved to quickly and efficiently recognize emotion expressions because these expressions convey fitness-enhancing messages. The present research tested this assumption in 2 studies. Specifically, the authors examined (a) how quickly perceivers could recognize expressions of anger, contempt, disgust, embarrassment, fear, happiness, pride, sadness, shame, and surprise; (b) whether accuracy is improved when perceivers deliberate about each expression's meaning (vs. respond as quickly as possible); and (c) whether accurate recognition can occur under cognitive load. Across both studies, perceivers quickly and efficiently (i.e., under cognitive load) recognized most emotion expressions, including the self-conscious emotions of pride, embarrassment, and shame. Deliberation improved accuracy in some cases, but these improvements were relatively small. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for the cognitive processes underlying emotion recognition.

Emotional Granularity Effects on Event-Related Brain Potentials during Affective Picture Processing

PubMed Central

Lee, Ja Y.; Lindquist, Kristen A.; Nam, Chang S.

2017-01-01

There is debate about whether emotional granularity, the tendency to label emotions in a nuanced and specific manner, is merely a product of labeling abilities, or a systematic difference in the experience of emotion during emotionally evocative events. According to the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion (CAT) (Barrett, 2006), emotional granularity is due to the latter and is a product of on-going temporal differences in how individuals categorize and thus make meaning of their affective states. To address this question, the present study investigated the effects of individual differences in emotional granularity on electroencephalography-based brain activity during the experience of emotion in response to affective images. Event-related potentials (ERP) and event-related desynchronization and synchronization (ERD/ERS) analysis techniques were used. We found that ERP responses during the very early (60–90 ms), middle (270–300 ms), and later (540–570 ms) moments of stimulus presentation were associated with individuals’ level of granularity. We also observed that highly granular individuals, compared to lowly granular individuals, exhibited relatively stable desynchronization of alpha power (8–12 Hz) and synchronization of gamma power (30–50 Hz) during the 3 s of stimulus presentation. Overall, our results suggest that emotional granularity is related to differences in neural processing throughout emotional experiences and that high granularity could be associated with access to executive control resources and a more habitual processing of affective stimuli, or a kind of “emotional complexity.” Implications for models of emotion are also discussed. PMID:28392761

Neural evidence that human emotions share core affective properties.

PubMed

Wilson-Mendenhall, Christine D; Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Barsalou, Lawrence W

2013-06-01

Research on the "emotional brain" remains centered around the idea that emotions like fear, happiness, and sadness result from specialized and distinct neural circuitry. Accumulating behavioral and physiological evidence suggests, instead, that emotions are grounded in core affect--a person's fluctuating level of pleasant or unpleasant arousal. A neuroimaging study revealed that participants' subjective ratings of valence (i.e., pleasure/displeasure) and of arousal evoked by various fear, happiness, and sadness experiences correlated with neural activity in specific brain regions (orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, respectively). We observed these correlations across diverse instances within each emotion category, as well as across instances from all three categories. Consistent with a psychological construction approach to emotion, the results suggest that neural circuitry realizes more basic processes across discrete emotions. The implicated brain regions regulate the body to deal with the world, producing the affective changes at the core of emotions and many other psychological phenomena.

Neural Evidence that Human Emotions Share Core Affective Properties

PubMed Central

Wilson-Mendenhall, Christine D.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Barsalou, Lawrence W.

2014-01-01

Research on the “emotional brain” remains centered around the idea that emotions like fear, happiness, and sadness result from specialized and distinct neural circuitry. Accumulating behavioral and physiological evidence suggests, instead, that emotions are grounded in core affect – a person's fluctuating level of pleasant or unpleasant arousal. A neuroimaging study revealed that participants' subjective ratings of valence (i.e., pleasure/displeasure) and of arousal evoked by various fear, happiness, and sadness experiences correlated with neural activity in specific brain regions (orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala, respectively). We observed these correlations across diverse instances within each emotion category, as well as across instances from all three categories. Consistent with a psychological construction approach to emotion, the results suggest that neural circuitry realizes more basic processes across discrete emotions. The implicated brain regions regulate the body to deal with the world, producing the affective changes at the core of emotions and many other psychological phenomena. PMID:23603916

Effects of Acute Alcohol Consumption on the Processing of Emotion in Faces: Implications for Understanding Alcohol-Related Aggression

PubMed Central

Attwood, Angela S.; Munafò, Marcus R.

2016-01-01

The negative consequences of chronic alcohol abuse are well known, but heavy episodic consumption ("binge drinking") is also associated with significant personal and societal harms. Aggressive tendencies are increased after alcohol but the mechanisms underlying these changes are not fully understood. While effects on behavioural control are likely to be important, other effects may be involved given the widespread action of alcohol. Altered processing of social signals is associated with changes in social behaviours, including aggression, but until recently there has been little research investigating the effects of acute alcohol consumption on these outcomes. Recent work investigating the effects of acute alcohol on emotional face processing has suggested reduced sensitivity to submissive signals (sad faces) and increased perceptual bias towards provocative signals (angry faces) after alcohol consumption, which may play a role in alcohol-related aggression. Here we discuss a putative mechanism that may explain how alcohol consumption influences emotional processing and subsequent aggressive responding, via disruption of OFC-amygdala connectivity. While the importance of emotional processing on social behaviours is well established, research into acute alcohol consumption and emotional processing is still in its infancy. Further research is needed and we outline a research agenda to address gaps in the literature. PMID:24920135

Isolating N400 as neural marker of vocal anger processing in 6-11-year old children.

PubMed

Chronaki, Georgia; Broyd, Samantha; Garner, Matthew; Hadwin, Julie A; Thompson, Margaret J J; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J S

2012-04-01

Vocal anger is a salient social signal serving adaptive functions in typical child development. Despite recent advances in the developmental neuroscience of emotion processing with regard to visual stimuli, little remains known about the neural correlates of vocal anger processing in childhood. This study represents the first attempt to isolate a neural marker of vocal anger processing in children using electrophysiological methods. We compared ERP wave forms during the processing of non-word emotional vocal stimuli in a population sample of 55 6-11-year-old typically developing children. Children listened to three types of stimuli expressing angry, happy, and neutral prosody and completed an emotion identification task with three response options (angry, happy and neutral/'ok'). A distinctive N400 component which was modulated by emotional content of vocal stimulus was observed in children over parietal and occipital scalp regions-amplitudes were significantly attenuated to angry compared to happy and neutral voices. Findings of the present study regarding the N400 are compatible with adult studies showing reduced N400 amplitudes to negative compared to neutral emotional stimuli. Implications for studies of the neural basis of vocal anger processing in children are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotions and memory in borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

Winter, Dorina; Elzinga, Bernet; Schmahl, Christian

2014-01-01

Memory processes such as encoding, storage, and retrieval of information are influenced by emotional content. Because patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are particularly susceptible to emotional information, it is relevant to understand whether such memory processes are altered in this patient group. This systematic literature review collects current evidence on this issue. Research suggests that emotional information interferes more strongly with information processing and learning in BPD patients than in healthy controls. In general, BPD patients do not seem to differ from healthy control subjects in their ability to memorize emotional information, but they tend to have specific difficulties forgetting negative information. Also, BPD patients seem to recall autobiographical, particularly negative events with stronger arousal than healthy controls, while BPD patients also show specific temporo-prefrontal alterations in neural correlates. No substantial evidence was found that the current affective state influences learning and memory in BPD patients any differently than in healthy control subjects. In general, a depressive mood seems to both deteriorate and negatively bias information processing and memories, while there is evidence that dissociative symptoms impair learning and memory independently of stimulus valence. This review discusses methodological challenges of studies on memory and emotions in BPD and makes suggestions for future research and clinical implications. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Women in the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle have difficulty suppressing the processing of negative emotional stimuli: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Lusk, Bethany R; Carr, Andrea R; Ranson, Valerie A; Felmingham, Kim L

2017-08-01

Emotion regulation deficits have been implicated in anxiety and depressive disorders, and these internalising disorders are more prevalent in women than men. Few electrophysiological studies have investigated sex differences in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation controlling for menstrual phase. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 28 early follicular women, 29 midluteal women, and 27 men who completed an emotion regulation task. A novel finding of increased N2 amplitude during suppression was found for midluteal women compared with men. These findings suggest midluteal women may be significantly less able to suppress cortical processing of negative stimuli compared to men. This ERP finding was complemented by behavioral ratings data which revealed that while both early follicular and midluteal women reported more distress than men, midluteal women also reported greater effort when suppressing their responses than men. P1 and N1 components were increased in midluteal women compared to men regardless of instructional set, suggesting greater early attentional processing. No sex or menstrual phase differences were apparent in P3 or LPP. This study underscores the importance of considering menstrual phase when examining sex differences in the cortical processing of emotion regulation and demonstrates that midluteal women may have deficits in down-regulating their neural and behavioural responses.

Face processing in chronic alcoholism: a specific deficit for emotional features.

PubMed

Maurage, P; Campanella, S; Philippot, P; Martin, S; de Timary, P

2008-04-01

It is well established that chronic alcoholism is associated with a deficit in the decoding of emotional facial expression (EFE). Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether this deficit is specifically for emotions or due to a more general impairment in visual or facial processing. This study was designed to clarify this issue using multiple control tasks and the subtraction method. Eighteen patients suffering from chronic alcoholism and 18 matched healthy control subjects were asked to perform several tasks evaluating (1) Basic visuo-spatial and facial identity processing; (2) Simple reaction times; (3) Complex facial features identification (namely age, emotion, gender, and race). Accuracy and reaction times were recorded. Alcoholic patients had a preserved performance for visuo-spatial and facial identity processing, but their performance was impaired for visuo-motor abilities and for the detection of complex facial aspects. More importantly, the subtraction method showed that alcoholism is associated with a specific EFE decoding deficit, still present when visuo-motor slowing down is controlled for. These results offer a post hoc confirmation of earlier data showing an EFE decoding deficit in alcoholism by strongly suggesting a specificity of this deficit for emotions. This may have implications for clinical situations, where emotional impairments are frequently observed among alcoholic subjects.

An ERP investigation of conditional reasoning with emotional and neutral contents.

PubMed

Blanchette, Isabelle; El-Deredy, Wael

2014-11-01

In two experiments we investigate conditional reasoning using event-related potentials (ERPs). Our goal was to examine the time course of inference making in two conditional forms, one logically valid (Modus Ponens, MP) and one logically invalid (Affirming the Consequent, AC). We focus particularly on the involvement of semantically-based inferential processes potentially marked by modulations of the N400. We also compared reasoning about emotional and neutral contents with separate sets of stimuli of differing linguistic complexity across the two experiments. Both MP and AC modulated the N400 component, suggesting the involvement of a semantically-based inferential mechanism common across different logical forms, content types, and linguistic features of the problems. Emotion did not have an effect on early components, and did not interact with components related to inference making. There was a main effect of emotion in the 800-1050 ms time window, consistent with an effect on sustained attention. The results suggest that conditional reasoning is not a purely formal process but that it importantly implicates semantic processing, and that the effect of emotion on reasoning does not primarily operate through a modulation of early automatic stages of information processing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The structural neuroanatomy of music emotion recognition: Evidence from frontotemporal lobar degeneration

PubMed Central

Omar, Rohani; Henley, Susie M.D.; Bartlett, Jonathan W.; Hailstone, Julia C.; Gordon, Elizabeth; Sauter, Disa A.; Frost, Chris; Scott, Sophie K.; Warren, Jason D.

2011-01-01

Despite growing clinical and neurobiological interest in the brain mechanisms that process emotion in music, these mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) frequently exhibit clinical syndromes that illustrate the effects of breakdown in emotional and social functioning. Here we investigated the neuroanatomical substrate for recognition of musical emotion in a cohort of 26 patients with FTLD (16 with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, bvFTD, 10 with semantic dementia, SemD) using voxel-based morphometry. On neuropsychological evaluation, patients with FTLD showed deficient recognition of canonical emotions (happiness, sadness, anger and fear) from music as well as faces and voices compared with healthy control subjects. Impaired recognition of emotions from music was specifically associated with grey matter loss in a distributed cerebral network including insula, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, anterior temporal and more posterior temporal and parietal cortices, amygdala and the subcortical mesolimbic system. This network constitutes an essential brain substrate for recognition of musical emotion that overlaps with brain regions previously implicated in coding emotional value, behavioural context, conceptual knowledge and theory of mind. Musical emotion recognition may probe the interface of these processes, delineating a profile of brain damage that is essential for the abstraction of complex social emotions. PMID:21385617

The structural neuroanatomy of music emotion recognition: evidence from frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

PubMed

Omar, Rohani; Henley, Susie M D; Bartlett, Jonathan W; Hailstone, Julia C; Gordon, Elizabeth; Sauter, Disa A; Frost, Chris; Scott, Sophie K; Warren, Jason D

2011-06-01

Despite growing clinical and neurobiological interest in the brain mechanisms that process emotion in music, these mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) frequently exhibit clinical syndromes that illustrate the effects of breakdown in emotional and social functioning. Here we investigated the neuroanatomical substrate for recognition of musical emotion in a cohort of 26 patients with FTLD (16 with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, bvFTD, 10 with semantic dementia, SemD) using voxel-based morphometry. On neuropsychological evaluation, patients with FTLD showed deficient recognition of canonical emotions (happiness, sadness, anger and fear) from music as well as faces and voices compared with healthy control subjects. Impaired recognition of emotions from music was specifically associated with grey matter loss in a distributed cerebral network including insula, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, anterior temporal and more posterior temporal and parietal cortices, amygdala and the subcortical mesolimbic system. This network constitutes an essential brain substrate for recognition of musical emotion that overlaps with brain regions previously implicated in coding emotional value, behavioural context, conceptual knowledge and theory of mind. Musical emotion recognition may probe the interface of these processes, delineating a profile of brain damage that is essential for the abstraction of complex social emotions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Relations between social-perceptual ability in multi- and unisensory contexts, autonomic reactivity, and social functioning in individuals with Williams syndrome

PubMed Central

Järvinen, Anna; Ng, Rowena; Crivelli, Davide; Arnold, Andrew J.; Woo-VonHoogenstyn, Nicholas; Bellugi, Ursula

2015-01-01

Compromised social-perceptual ability has been proposed to contribute to social dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders. While such impairments have been identified in Williams syndrome (WS), little is known about emotion processing in auditory and multisensory contexts. Employing a multidimensional approach, individuals with WS and typical development (TD) were tested for emotion identification across fearful, happy, and angry multisensory and unisensory face and voice stimuli. Autonomic responses were monitored in response to unimodal emotion. The WS group was administered an inventory of social functioning. Behaviorally, individuals with WS relative to TD demonstrated impaired processing of unimodal vocalizations and emotionally incongruent audiovisual compounds, reflecting a generalized deficit in social-auditory processing in WS. The TD group outperformed their counterparts with WS in identifying negative (fearful and angry) emotion, with similar between-group performance with happy stimuli. Mirroring this pattern, electrodermal activity (EDA) responses to the emotional content of the stimuli indicated that whereas those with WS showed the highest arousal to happy, and lowest arousal to fearful stimuli, the TD participants demonstrated the contrasting pattern. In WS, more normal social functioning was related to higher autonomic arousal to facial expressions. Implications for underlying neural architecture and emotional functions are discussed. PMID:26002754

Processing of subliminal facial expressions of emotion: a behavioral and fMRI study.

PubMed

Prochnow, D; Kossack, H; Brunheim, S; Müller, K; Wittsack, H-J; Markowitsch, H-J; Seitz, R J

2013-01-01

The recognition of emotional facial expressions is an important means to adjust behavior in social interactions. As facial expressions widely differ in their duration and degree of expressiveness, they often manifest with short and transient expressions below the level of awareness. In this combined behavioral and fMRI study, we aimed at examining whether or not consciously accessible (subliminal) emotional facial expressions influence empathic judgments and which brain activations are related to it. We hypothesized that subliminal facial expressions of emotions masked with neutral expressions of the same faces induce an empathic processing similar to consciously accessible (supraliminal) facial expressions. Our behavioral data in 23 healthy subjects showed that subliminal emotional facial expressions of 40 ms duration affect the judgments of the subsequent neutral facial expressions. In the fMRI study in 12 healthy subjects it was found that both, supra- and subliminal emotional facial expressions shared a widespread network of brain areas including the fusiform gyrus, the temporo-parietal junction, and the inferior, dorsolateral, and medial frontal cortex. Compared with subliminal facial expressions, supraliminal facial expressions led to a greater activation of left occipital and fusiform face areas. We conclude that masked subliminal emotional information is suited to trigger processing in brain areas which have been implicated in empathy and, thereby in social encounters.

Anterior cingulate activation is related to a positivity bias and emotional stability in successful aging.

PubMed

Brassen, Stefanie; Gamer, Matthias; Büchel, Christian

2011-07-15

Behavioral studies consistently reported an increased preference for positive experiences in older adults. The socio-emotional selectivity theory explains this positivity effect with a motivated goal shift in emotion regulation, which probably depends on available cognitive resources. The present study investigates the neurobiological mechanism underlying this hypothesis. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired in 21 older and 22 young subjects while performing a spatial-cueing paradigm that manipulates attentional load on emotional face distracters. We focused our analyses on the anterior cingulate cortex as a key structure of cognitive control of emotion. Elderly subjects showed a specifically increased distractibility by happy faces when more attentional resources were available for face processing. This effect was paralleled by an increased engagement of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and this frontal engagement was significantly correlated with emotional stability. The current study highlights how the brain might mediate the tendency to preferentially engage in positive information processing in healthy aging. The finding of a resource-dependency of this positivity effect suggests demanding self-regulating processes that are related to emotional well-being. These findings are of particular relevance regarding implications for the understanding, treatment, and prevention of nonsuccessful aging like highly prevalent late-life depression. Copyright © 2011 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming

PubMed Central

Malinowski, Josie E.; Horton, Caroline L.

2015-01-01

In this paper we propose an emotion assimilation function of sleep and dreaming. We offer explanations both for the mechanisms by which waking-life memories are initially selected for processing during sleep, and for the mechanisms by which those memories are subsequently transformed during sleep. We propose that emotions act as a marker for information to be selectively processed during sleep, including consolidation into long term memory structures and integration into pre-existing memory networks; that dreaming reflects these emotion assimilation processes; and that the associations between memory fragments activated during sleep give rise to measureable elements of dream metaphor and hyperassociativity. The latter are a direct reflection, and the phenomenological experience, of emotional memory assimilation processes occurring during sleep. While many theories previously have posited a role for emotion processing and/or emotional memory consolidation during sleep and dreaming, sleep theories often do not take enough account of important dream science data, yet dream research, when conducted systematically and under ideal conditions, can greatly enhance theorizing around the functions of sleep. Similarly, dream theories often fail to consider the implications of sleep-dependent memory research, which can augment our understanding of dream functioning. Here, we offer a synthesized view, taking detailed account of both sleep and dream data and theories. We draw on extensive literature from sleep and dream experiments and theories, including often-overlooked data from dream science which we believe reflects sleep phenomenology, to bring together important ideas and findings from both domains. PMID:26347669

Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming.

PubMed

Malinowski, Josie E; Horton, Caroline L

2015-01-01

In this paper we propose an emotion assimilation function of sleep and dreaming. We offer explanations both for the mechanisms by which waking-life memories are initially selected for processing during sleep, and for the mechanisms by which those memories are subsequently transformed during sleep. We propose that emotions act as a marker for information to be selectively processed during sleep, including consolidation into long term memory structures and integration into pre-existing memory networks; that dreaming reflects these emotion assimilation processes; and that the associations between memory fragments activated during sleep give rise to measureable elements of dream metaphor and hyperassociativity. The latter are a direct reflection, and the phenomenological experience, of emotional memory assimilation processes occurring during sleep. While many theories previously have posited a role for emotion processing and/or emotional memory consolidation during sleep and dreaming, sleep theories often do not take enough account of important dream science data, yet dream research, when conducted systematically and under ideal conditions, can greatly enhance theorizing around the functions of sleep. Similarly, dream theories often fail to consider the implications of sleep-dependent memory research, which can augment our understanding of dream functioning. Here, we offer a synthesized view, taking detailed account of both sleep and dream data and theories. We draw on extensive literature from sleep and dream experiments and theories, including often-overlooked data from dream science which we believe reflects sleep phenomenology, to bring together important ideas and findings from both domains.

Odor-induced recall of emotional memories in PTSD-Review and new paradigm for research.

PubMed

Daniels, Judith K; Vermetten, Eric

2016-10-01

It is clinically well known that olfactory intrusions in PTSD can be a disabling phenomena due to the involuntary recall of odor memories. Odorants can trigger involuntary recall of emotional memories as well have the potential to help diminishing emotional arousal as grounding stimuli. Despite major advances in our understanding of the function of olfactory system, the study of the relation of olfaction and emotional memory is still relatively scarce. Odor memory is long thought to be different than other types of memories such as verbal or visual memories, being more strongly engraved and more closely related to strong emotions. Brain areas mediating smell memory including orbitofrontal cortex and other parts of medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala, have been implicated in learning and memory and are part of a neural circuitry that is involved in PTSD. The olfactory cortex itself also plays an important role in emotional processing. Clinical observations support the notion that odor-evoked memories can play a role in the symptomatology of PTSD. This paper reviews a re-emerging body of science linking odor processing to emotional processing in PTSD using the calming and grounding effect of odors as well as the use of odors in augmented exposure therapy. This results in converging evidence that olfaction is an excellent model for studying many questions germane to the field of human emotional memory processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotional Regulation and Depression: A Potential Mediator between Heart and Mind

PubMed Central

Van Gordon, William

2014-01-01

A narrative review of the major evidence concerning the relationship between emotional regulation and depression was conducted. The literature demonstrates a mediating role of emotional regulation in the development of depression and physical illness. Literature suggests in fact that the employment of adaptive emotional regulation strategies (e.g., reappraisal) causes a reduction of stress-elicited emotions leading to physical disorders. Conversely, dysfunctional emotional regulation strategies and, in particular, rumination and emotion suppression appear to be influential in the pathogenesis of depression and physiological disease. More specifically, the evidence suggests that depression and rumination affect both cognitive (e.g., impaired ability to process negative information) and neurobiological mechanisms (e.g., hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis overactivation and higher rates of cortisol production). Understanding the factors that govern the variety of health outcomes that different people experience following exposure to stress has important implications for the development of effective emotion-regulation interventional approaches (e.g., mindfulness-based therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and emotion regulation therapy). PMID:25050177

False recognition of facial expressions of emotion: causes and implications.

PubMed

Fernández-Dols, José-Miguel; Carrera, Pilar; Barchard, Kimberly A; Gacitua, Marta

2008-08-01

This article examines the importance of semantic processes in the recognition of emotional expressions, through a series of three studies on false recognition. The first study found a high frequency of false recognition of prototypical expressions of emotion when participants viewed slides and video clips of nonprototypical fearful and happy expressions. The second study tested whether semantic processes caused false recognition. The authors found that participants made significantly higher error rates when asked to detect expressions that corresponded to semantic labels than when asked to detect visual stimuli. Finally, given that previous research reported that false memories are less prevalent in younger children, the third study tested whether false recognition of prototypical expressions increased with age. The authors found that 67% of eight- to nine-year-old children reported nonpresent prototypical expressions of fear in a fearful context, but only 40% of 6- to 7-year-old children did so. Taken together, these three studies demonstrate the importance of semantic processes in the detection and categorization of prototypical emotional expressions.

Emotional Modulation of Learning and Memory: Pharmacological Implications.

PubMed

LaLumiere, Ryan T; McGaugh, James L; McIntyre, Christa K

2017-07-01

Memory consolidation involves the process by which newly acquired information becomes stored in a long-lasting fashion. Evidence acquired over the past several decades, especially from studies using post-training drug administration, indicates that emotional arousal during the consolidation period influences and enhances the strength of the memory and that multiple different chemical signaling systems participate in this process. The mechanisms underlying the emotional influences on memory involve the release of stress hormones and activation of the basolateral amygdala, which work together to modulate memory consolidation. Moreover, work suggests that this amygdala-based memory modulation occurs with numerous types of learning and involves interactions with many different brain regions to alter consolidation. Additionally, studies suggest that emotional arousal and amygdala activity in particular influence synaptic plasticity and associated proteins in downstream brain regions. This review considers the historical understanding for memory modulation and cellular consolidation processes and examines several research areas currently using this foundational knowledge to develop therapeutic treatments. Copyright © 2017 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Collective Efficacy in Sports and Physical Activities: Perceived Emotional Synchrony and Shared Flow.

PubMed

Zumeta, Larraitz N; Oriol, Xavier; Telletxea, Saioa; Amutio, Alberto; Basabe, Nekane

2015-01-01

This cross-sectional study analyzes the relationship between collective efficacy and two psychosocial processes involved in collective sport-physical activities. It argues that in-group identification and fusion with the group will affect collective efficacy (CE). A sample of 276 university students answered different scales regarding their participation in collective physical and sport activities. Multiple-mediation analyses showed that shared flow and perceived emotional synchrony mediate the relationship between in-group identification and CE, whereas the relationship between identity fusion and CE was only mediated by perceived emotional synchrony. Results suggest that both psychosocial processes explain the positive effects of in-group identification and identity fusion with the group in collective efficacy. Specifically, the role of perceived emotional synchrony in explaining the positive effects of participation in collective sport-physical activities is underlined. In sum, this study highlights the utility of collective actions and social identities to explain the psychosocial processes related to collective efficacy in physical and sports activities. Finally, practical implications are discussed.

Collective Efficacy in Sports and Physical Activities: Perceived Emotional Synchrony and Shared Flow

PubMed Central

Zumeta, Larraitz N.; Oriol, Xavier; Telletxea, Saioa; Amutio, Alberto; Basabe, Nekane

2016-01-01

This cross-sectional study analyzes the relationship between collective efficacy and two psychosocial processes involved in collective sport-physical activities. It argues that in-group identification and fusion with the group will affect collective efficacy (CE). A sample of 276 university students answered different scales regarding their participation in collective physical and sport activities. Multiple-mediation analyses showed that shared flow and perceived emotional synchrony mediate the relationship between in-group identification and CE, whereas the relationship between identity fusion and CE was only mediated by perceived emotional synchrony. Results suggest that both psychosocial processes explain the positive effects of in-group identification and identity fusion with the group in collective efficacy. Specifically, the role of perceived emotional synchrony in explaining the positive effects of participation in collective sport-physical activities is underlined. In sum, this study highlights the utility of collective actions and social identities to explain the psychosocial processes related to collective efficacy in physical and sports activities. Finally, practical implications are discussed. PMID:26779077

Deafness to Fear in Boys with Psychopathic Tendencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blair, R. J. R.; Budhani, S.; Colledge, E.; Scott, S.

2005-01-01

The processing of the emotional signals of others is fundamental for normal socialization and interaction. Reduced responsiveness to the expressions of sadness and fear has been implicated in the development of psychopathy (Blair, 1995). The current study investigates the ability of boys with psychopathic tendencies to process auditory affect…

Mixed emotions: the contribution of alexithymia to the emotional symptoms of autism.

PubMed

Bird, G; Cook, R

2013-07-23

It is widely accepted that autism is associated with disordered emotion processing and, in particular, with deficits of emotional reciprocity such as impaired emotion recognition and reduced empathy. However, a close examination of the literature reveals wide heterogeneity within the autistic population with respect to emotional competence. Here we argue that, where observed, emotional impairments are due to alexithymia-a condition that frequently co-occurs with autism-rather than a feature of autism per se. Alexithymia is a condition characterized by a reduced ability to identify and describe one's own emotion, but which results in reduced empathy and an impaired ability to recognize the emotions of others. We briefly review studies of emotion processing in alexithymia, and in autism, before describing a recent series of studies directly testing this 'alexithymia hypothesis'. If found to be correct, the alexithymia hypothesis has wide-reaching implications for the study of autism, and how we might best support subgroups of autistic individuals with, and without, accompanying alexithymia. Finally, we note the presence of elevated rates of alexithymia, and inconsistent reports of emotional impairments, in eating disorders, schizophrenia, substance abuse, Parkinson's Disease, multiple sclerosis and anxiety disorders. We speculate that examining the contribution of alexithymia to the emotional symptoms of these disorders may bear fruit in the same way that it is starting to do in autism.

Mixed emotions: the contribution of alexithymia to the emotional symptoms of autism

PubMed Central

Bird, G; Cook, R

2013-01-01

It is widely accepted that autism is associated with disordered emotion processing and, in particular, with deficits of emotional reciprocity such as impaired emotion recognition and reduced empathy. However, a close examination of the literature reveals wide heterogeneity within the autistic population with respect to emotional competence. Here we argue that, where observed, emotional impairments are due to alexithymia—a condition that frequently co-occurs with autism—rather than a feature of autism per se. Alexithymia is a condition characterized by a reduced ability to identify and describe one's own emotion, but which results in reduced empathy and an impaired ability to recognize the emotions of others. We briefly review studies of emotion processing in alexithymia, and in autism, before describing a recent series of studies directly testing this ‘alexithymia hypothesis'. If found to be correct, the alexithymia hypothesis has wide-reaching implications for the study of autism, and how we might best support subgroups of autistic individuals with, and without, accompanying alexithymia. Finally, we note the presence of elevated rates of alexithymia, and inconsistent reports of emotional impairments, in eating disorders, schizophrenia, substance abuse, Parkinson's Disease, multiple sclerosis and anxiety disorders. We speculate that examining the contribution of alexithymia to the emotional symptoms of these disorders may bear fruit in the same way that it is starting to do in autism. PMID:23880881

The Contribution of "Cool" and "Hot" Components of Decision-Making in Adolescence: Implications for Developmental Psychopathology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seguin, Jean R.; Arseneault, Louise; Tremblay, Richard E.

2007-01-01

Impairments in either "cool" or "hot" processes may represent two pathways to deficient decision-making. Whereas cool processes are associated with cognitive and rational decisions, hot processes are associated with emotional, affective, and visceral processes. In this study, 168 boys were administered a card-playing task at ages 13 and 14 years…

How avatar customizability affects children's arousal and subjective presence during junk food-sponsored online video games.

PubMed

Bailey, Rachel; Wise, Kevin; Bolls, Paul

2009-06-01

The purpose of this study was to determine how children cognitively and emotionally process interactive marketing of snack food products in advergames. Children (N = 30) aged 10 to 12 were asked to play advergames with (a) avatars that were assigned to them, (b) avatars chosen from a pool, and (c) self-designed avatars. The children's skin conductance levels were collected during play. After gameplay, at each customization level, self-reported presence was collected. The results of this study indicate that customization of game avatars can affect both subjective feelings of presence and psychophysiological indicators of emotion during gameplay, which may make the gameplay experience more enjoyable. This may have implications for game sponsors and producers. Self-reported presence had no effect on psychophysiological indicators of emotion during gameplay. Implications of this finding and limitations of this study are discussed.

Intersect between self-esteem and emotion regulation in narcissistic personality disorder - implications for alliance building and treatment.

PubMed

Ronningstam, Elsa

2017-01-01

Building an alliance with patients with pathological narcissism or narcissistic personality disorder, NPD, can be challenging and include avoidance, negative reactivity and disruptions. A main contributing factor can be the complex interaction between emotion and self-esteem regulation, which affects patients' ability to engage in a therapeutic alliance and treatment. Recent studies, especially in neuroscience have identified functional characteristic and compromises in self-esteem and emotion regulation related to NPD. Self-enhancement, hyper reactivity and need for control, which patients within the range of disordered narcissism often present, can have different roots and underpinnings that require thorough exploration in the process of building the therapeutic alliance and promote change in treatment. Clinical examples with treatment implications and strategies will be discussed to highlight both internal fluctuations and external features and shifts in narcissistic personality functioning.

The Neural Mechanisms of Meditative Practices: Novel Approaches for Healthy Aging.

PubMed

Acevedo, Bianca P; Pospos, Sarah; Lavretsky, Helen

2016-01-01

Meditation has been shown to have physical, cognitive, and psychological health benefits that can be used to promote healthy aging. However, the common and specific mechanisms of response remain elusive due to the diverse nature of mind-body practices. In this review, we aim to compare the neural circuits implicated in focused-attention meditative practices that focus on present-moment awareness to those involved in active-type meditative practices (e.g., yoga) that combine movement, including chanting, with breath practices and meditation. Recent meta-analyses and individual studies demonstrated common brain effects for attention-based meditative practices and active-based meditations in areas involved in reward processing and learning, attention and memory, awareness and sensory integration, and self-referential processing and emotional control, while deactivation was seen in the amygdala, an area implicated in emotion processing. Unique effects for mindfulness practices were found in brain regions involved in body awareness, attention, and the integration of emotion and sensory processing. Effects specific to active-based meditations appeared in brain areas involved in self-control, social cognition, language, speech, tactile stimulation, sensorimotor integration, and motor function. This review suggests that mind-body practices can target different brain systems that are involved in the regulation of attention, emotional control, mood, and executive cognition that can be used to treat or prevent mood and cognitive disorders of aging, such as depression and caregiver stress, or serve as "brain fitness" exercise. Benefits may include improving brain functional connectivity in brain systems that generally degenerate with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and other aging-related diseases.

Glutamate and GABA contributions to medial prefrontal cortical activity to emotion: implications for mood disorders.

PubMed

Stan, Ana D; Schirda, Claudiu V; Bertocci, Michele A; Bebko, Genna M; Kronhaus, Dina M; Aslam, Haris A; LaBarbara, Eduard J; Tanase, Costin; Lockovich, Jeanette C; Pollock, Myrna H; Stiffler, Richelle S; Phillips, Mary L

2014-09-30

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (MdPFC) and anterior cingulate cortices (ACC) play a critical role in implicit emotion regulation; however the understanding of the specific neurotransmitters that mediate such role is lacking. In this study, we examined relationships between MdPFC concentrations of two neurotransmitters, glutamate and γ-amino butyric acid (GABA), and BOLD activity in ACC during performance of an implicit facial emotion-processing task. Twenty healthy volunteers, aged 20-35 years, were scanned while performing an implicit facial emotion-processing task, whereby presented facial expressions changed from neutral to one of the four emotions: happy, anger, fear, or sad. Glutamate concentrations were measured before and after the emotion-processing task in right MdPFC using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). GABA concentrations were measured in bilateral MdPFC after the emotion-processing task. Multiple regression models were run to determine the relative contribution of glutamate and GABA concentration, age, and gender to BOLD signal in ACC to each of the four emotions. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant negative correlation between MdPFC GABA concentration and BOLD signal in subgenual ACC (p<0.05, corrected) to sad versus shape contrast. For the anger versus shape contrast, there was a significant negative correlation between age and BOLD signal in pregenual ACC (p<0.05, corrected) and a positive correlation between MdPFC glutamate concentration (pre-task) and BOLD signal in pregenual ACC (p<0.05, corrected). Our findings are the first to provide insight into relationships between MdPFC neurotransmitter concentrations and ACC BOLD signal, and could further understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying emotion processing in healthy and mood-disordered individuals. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotion brain alterations in anorexia nervosa: a candidate biological marker and implications for treatment

PubMed Central

Hatch, Ainslie; Madden, Sloane; Kohn, Michael R.; Clarke, Simon; Touyz, Stephen; Gordon, Evian; Williams, Leanne M.

2010-01-01

Background Identification of the biological markers of anorexia nervosa (AN) is crucial for the development of new treatments. We aimed to determine whether AN is associated with disturbances in the nonconscious neural processing of innate signals of emotion and whether these disturbances persist after weight gain. Methods In a retest design, 28 adolescent females with AN were tested at first admission to hospital and again after they had gained weight. Matched healthy control participants were tested at the same times. We assessed emotion-elicited event-related potentials (ERPs) during overt and covert presentation of emotion expressions, scores on an emotion-identification behavioural task, and symptom measures. We performed between and within group analyses. Results Individuals with AN had a marked alteration in ERPs relative to healthy controls. Irrespective of the form of stimulus, early and late ERP components were significantly reduced in AN patients at baseline (when underweight) and on retest (after weight gain), especially in the temporo-occipital regions, suggesting a persistent disruption of the early automatic appraisal of salient emotional signals. Limitations This study could have been improved with a longer standardized retest interval. Conclusion There is likely a core, generic disturbance in AN in the early “automatic” neural processing of emotion irrespective of weight or nutritional status. New innovative emotion-based psychologic or pharmacologic treatments targeting these nonconscious processes may prove beneficial. PMID:20598239

Emotion brain alterations in anorexia nervosa: a candidate biological marker and implications for treatment.

PubMed

Hatch, Ainslie; Madden, Sloane; Kohn, Michael R; Clarke, Simon; Touyz, Stephen; Gordon, Evian; Williams, Leanne M

2010-07-01

Identification of the biological markers of anorexia nervosa (AN) is crucial for the development of new treatments. We aimed to determine whether AN is associated with disturbances in the nonconscious neural processing of innate signals of emotion and whether these disturbances persist after weight gain. In a retest design, 28 adolescent females with AN were tested at first ad not mission to hospital and again after they had gained weight. Matched healthy control participants were tested at the same times. We assessed emotion-elicited event-related potentials (ERPs) during overt and covert presentation of emotion expressions, scores on an emotion-identification behavioural task, and symptom measures. We performed between and within group analyses. Individuals with AN had a marked alteration in ERPs relative to healthy controls. Irrespective of the form of stimulus, early and late ERP componotnents were significantly reduced in AN patients at baseline (when underweight) and on retest (after weight gain), especially in the temporo-occipital regions, suggesting a persistent disruption of the early automatic appraisal of salient emotional signals. This study could have been improved with a longer standardized retest interval. There is likely a core, generic disturbance in AN in the early "automatic" neural processing of emotion irrespective of weight or nutritional status. New innovative emotion-based psychologic or pharmacologic treatments targeting these nonconscious processes may prove beneficial.

Emotion regulation choice in an evaluative context: the moderating role of self-esteem.

PubMed

Shafir, Roni; Guarino, Tara; Lee, Ihno A; Sheppes, Gal

2017-12-01

Evaluative contexts can be stressful, but relatively little is known about how different individuals who vary in responses to self-evaluation make emotion regulatory choices to cope in these situations. To address this gap, participants who vary in self-esteem gave an impromptu speech, rated how they perceived they had performed on multiple evaluative dimensions, and subsequently chose between disengaging attention from emotional processing (distraction) and engaging with emotional processing via changing its meaning (reappraisal), while waiting to receive feedback regarding these evaluative dimensions. According to our framework, distraction can offer stronger short-term relief than reappraisal, but, distraction is costly in the long run relative to reappraisal because it does not allow learning from evaluative feedback. We predicted and found that participants with lower (but not higher) self-esteem react defensively to threat of failure by seeking short-term relief via distraction over the long-term benefit of reappraisal, as perceived failure increases. Implications for the understanding of emotion regulation and self-esteem are discussed.

Emotion processing biases and resting EEG activity in depressed adolescents

PubMed Central

Auerbach, Randy P.; Stewart, Jeremy G.; Stanton, Colin H.; Mueller, Erik M.; Pizzagalli, Diego A.

2015-01-01

Background While theorists have posited that adolescent depression is characterized by emotion processing biases (greater propensity to identify sad than happy facial expressions), findings have been mixed. Additionally, the neural correlates associated with putative emotion processing biases remain largely unknown. Our aim was to identify emotion processing biases in depressed adolescents and examine neural abnormalities related to these biases using high-density resting EEG and source localization. Methods Healthy (n = 36) and depressed (n = 23) female adolescents, aged 13–18 years, completed a facial recognition task in which they identified happy, sad, fear, and angry expressions across intensities from 10% (low) to 100% (high). Additionally, 128-channel resting (i.e., task-free) EEG was recorded and analyzed using a distributed source localization technique (LORETA). Given research implicating the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in depression and emotion processing, analyses focused on this region. Results Relative to healthy youth, depressed adolescents were more accurate for sad and less accurate for happy, particularly low-intensity happy faces. No differences emerged for fearful or angry facial expressions. Further, LORETA analyses revealed greater theta and alpha current density (i.e., reduced brain activity) in depressed versus healthy adolescents, particularly in the left DLPFC (BA9/BA46). Theta and alpha current density were positively correlated, and greater current density predicted reduced accuracy for happy faces. Conclusion Depressed female adolescents were characterized by emotion processing biases in favor of sad emotions and reduced recognition of happiness, especially when cues of happiness were subtle. Blunted recognition of happy was associated with left DLPFC resting hypoactivity. PMID:26032684

Sentence processing in anterior superior temporal cortex shows a social-emotional bias.

PubMed

Mellem, Monika S; Jasmin, Kyle M; Peng, Cynthia; Martin, Alex

2016-08-01

The anterior region of the left superior temporal gyrus/superior temporal sulcus (aSTG/STS) has been implicated in two very different cognitive functions: sentence processing and social-emotional processing. However, the vast majority of the sentence stimuli in previous reports have been of a social or social-emotional nature suggesting that sentence processing may be confounded with semantic content. To evaluate this possibility we had subjects read word lists that differed in phrase/constituent size (single words, 3-word phrases, 6-word sentences) and semantic content (social-emotional, social, and inanimate objects) while scanned in a 7T environment. This allowed us to investigate if the aSTG/STS responded to increasing constituent structure (with increased activity as a function of constituent size) with or without regard to a specific domain of concepts, i.e., social and/or social-emotional content. Activity in the left aSTG/STS was found to increase with constituent size. This region was also modulated by content, however, such that social-emotional concepts were preferred over social and object stimuli. Reading also induced content type effects in domain-specific semantic regions. Those preferring social-emotional content included aSTG/STS, inferior frontal gyrus, posterior STS, lateral fusiform, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, regions included in the "social brain", while those preferring object content included parahippocampal gyrus, retrosplenial cortex, and caudate, regions involved in object processing. These results suggest that semantic content affects higher-level linguistic processing and should be taken into account in future studies. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Inconsistent emotion recognition deficits across stimulus modalities in Huntington׳s disease.

PubMed

Rees, Elin M; Farmer, Ruth; Cole, James H; Henley, Susie M D; Sprengelmeyer, Reiner; Frost, Chris; Scahill, Rachael I; Hobbs, Nicola Z; Tabrizi, Sarah J

2014-11-01

Recognition of negative emotions is impaired in Huntington׳s Disease (HD). It is unclear whether these emotion-specific problems are driven by dissociable cognitive deficits, emotion complexity, test cue difficulty, or visuoperceptual impairments. This study set out to further characterise emotion recognition in HD by comparing patterns of deficits across stimulus modalities; notably including for the first time in HD, the more ecologically and clinically relevant modality of film clips portraying dynamic facial expressions. Fifteen early HD and 17 control participants were tested on emotion recognition from static facial photographs, non-verbal vocal expressions and one second dynamic film clips, all depicting different emotions. Statistically significant evidence of impairment of anger, disgust and fear recognition was seen in HD participants compared with healthy controls across multiple stimulus modalities. The extent of the impairment, as measured by the difference in the number of errors made between HD participants and controls, differed according to the combination of emotion and modality (p=0.013, interaction test). The largest between-group difference was seen in the recognition of anger from film clips. Consistent with previous reports, anger, disgust and fear were the most poorly recognised emotions by the HD group. This impairment did not appear to be due to task demands or expression complexity as the pattern of between-group differences did not correspond to the pattern of errors made by either group; implicating emotion-specific cognitive processing pathology. There was however evidence that the extent of emotion recognition deficits significantly differed between stimulus modalities. The implications in terms of designing future tests of emotion recognition and care giving are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotion Regulation in Emerging Adult Couples: Temperament, Attachment, and HPA Response to Conflict

PubMed Central

Laurent, Heidemarie; Powers, Sally

2007-01-01

Difficulty managing the stress of conflict in close relationships can lead to mental and physical health problems, possibly through dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the neuroendocrine stress response system. Temperament, an individual characteristic, and attachment, a dyadic characteristic, have both been implicated in emotion regulation processes and physiological reactivity, yet there is no clear consensus on how the two work together to influence the stress response, especially after childhood. The present study investigated the ways in which temperament and attachment together predict HPA response in emerging adult couples. Analyses using multilevel modeling (HLM) found that partners' dyadic fit on attachment avoidance impacted females' cortisol response patterns, and attachment avoidance further moderated the effect of males' emotionality on both their own and their partners' cortisol. Results are discussed in terms of emotional coregulation processes in romantic attachment. PMID:17681662

Emotion discourse, social cognition, and social skills in children with and without developmental delays.

PubMed

Fenning, Rachel M; Baker, Bruce L; Juvonen, Jaana

2011-01-01

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children's independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children's emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning and problem solving) was coded in the context of parent-child conversations about emotion, and children were interviewed separately to assess social problem solving. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on children's social skills. The proposed strengths-based model partially accounted for social skills differences between typically developing children and children with delays. A multigroup analysis of the model linking emotion discourse to social skills through children's prosocial problem solving suggested that processes operated similarly for the two groups. Implications for ecologically focused prevention and intervention are discussed. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

The Role of Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Intelligence in Cognitive Control Processes

PubMed Central

Checa, Purificación; Fernández-Berrocal, Pablo

2015-01-01

The relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and cognitive control processes has been extensively established. Several studies have shown that IQ correlates with cognitive control abilities, such as interference suppression, as measured with experimental tasks like the Stroop and Flanker tasks. By contrast, there is a debate about the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in individuals' cognitive control abilities. The aim of this study is to examine the relation between IQ and EI, and cognitive control abilities evaluated by a typical laboratory control cognitive task, the Stroop task. Results show a negative correlation between IQ and the interference suppression index, the ability to inhibit processing of irrelevant information. However, the Managing Emotions dimension of EI measured by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), but not self-reported of EI, negatively correlates with the impulsivity index, the premature execution of the response. These results suggest that not only is IQ crucial, but also competences related to EI are essential to human cognitive control processes. Limitations and implications of these results are also discussed. PMID:26648901

Self-Compassion, Emotion Regulation and Stress among Australian Psychologists: Testing an Emotion Regulation Model of Self-Compassion Using Structural Equation Modeling

PubMed Central

Finlay-Jones, Amy L.; Rees, Clare S.; Kane, Robert T.

2015-01-01

Psychologists tend to report high levels of occupational stress, with serious implications for themselves, their clients, and the discipline as a whole. Recent research suggests that self-compassion is a promising construct for psychologists in terms of its ability to promote psychological wellbeing and resilience to stress; however, the potential benefits of self-compassion are yet to be thoroughly explored amongst this occupational group. Additionally, while a growing body of research supports self-compassion as a key predictor of psychopathology, understanding of the processes by which self-compassion exerts effects on mental health outcomes is limited. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test an emotion regulation model of self-compassion and stress among psychologists, including postgraduate trainees undertaking clinical work (n = 198). Self-compassion significantly negatively predicted emotion regulation difficulties and stress symptoms. Support was also found for our preliminary explanatory model of self-compassion, which demonstrates the mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties in the self-compassion-stress relationship. The final self-compassion model accounted for 26.2% of variance in stress symptoms. Implications of the findings and limitations of the study are discussed. PMID:26207900

Prospective relations between family conflict and adolescent maladjustment: security in the family system as a mediating process.

PubMed

Cummings, E Mark; Koss, Kalsea J; Davies, Patrick T

2015-04-01

Conflict in specific family systems (e.g., interparental, parent-child) has been implicated in the development of a host of adjustment problems in adolescence, but little is known about the impact of family conflict involving multiple family systems. Furthermore, questions remain about the effects of family conflict on symptoms of specific disorders and adjustment problems and the processes mediating these effects. The present study prospectively examines the impact of family conflict and emotional security about the family system on adolescent symptoms of specific disorders and adjustment problems, including the development of symptoms of anxiety, depression, conduct problems, and peer problems. Security in the family system was examined as a mediator of these relations. Participants included 295 mother-father-adolescent families (149 girls) participating across three annual time points (grades 7-9). Including auto-regressive controls for initial levels of emotional insecurity and multiple adjustment problems (T1), higher-order emotional insecurity about the family system (T2) mediated relations between T1 family conflict and T3 peer problems, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Further analyses supported specific patterns of emotional security/insecurity (i.e., security, disengagement, preoccupation) as mediators between family conflict and specific domains of adolescent adjustment. Family conflict was thus found to prospectively predict the development of symptoms of multiple specific adjustment problems, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, conduct problems, and peer problems, by elevating in in adolescent's emotional insecurity about the family system. The clinical implications of these findings are considered.

The neural correlates of cognitive reappraisal during emotional autobiographical memory recall.

PubMed

Holland, Alisha C; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2013-01-01

We used fMRI to investigate the neural processes engaged as individuals down- and up-regulated the emotions associated with negative autobiographical memories (AMs) using cognitive reappraisal strategies. Our analyses examined neural activity during three separate phases, as participants (a) viewed a reappraisal instruction (i.e., Decrease, Increase, Maintain), (b) searched for an AM referenced by a self-generated cue, and (c) elaborated upon the details of the AM being held in mind. Decreasing emotional intensity primarily engaged activity in regions previously implicated in cognitive control (e.g., dorsal and ventral lateral pFC), emotion generation and processing (e.g., amygdala, insula), and visual imagery (e.g., precuneus) as participants searched for and retrieved events. In contrast, increasing emotional intensity engaged similar regions during the instruction phase (i.e., before a memory cue was presented) and again as individuals later elaborated upon the details of the events they had recalled. These findings confirm that reappraisal can modulate neural activity during the recall of personally relevant events, although the time course of this modulation appears to depend on whether individuals are attempting to down- or up-regulate their emotions.

Age-induced differences in brain neural activation elicited by visual emotional stimuli: A high-density EEG study.

PubMed

Tsolaki, Anthoula C; Kosmidou, Vasiliki E; Kompatsiaris, Ioannis Yiannis; Papadaniil, Chrysa; Hadjileontiadis, Leontios; Tsolaki, Magda

2017-01-06

Identifying the brain sources of neural activation during processing of emotional information remains a very challenging task. In this work, we investigated the response to different emotional stimuli and the effect of age on the neuronal activation. Two negative emotion conditions, i.e., 'anger' and 'fear' faces were presented to 22 adult female participants (11 young and 11 elderly) while acquiring high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) data of 256 channels. Brain source localization was utilized to study the modulations in the early N170 event-related-potential component. The results revealed alterations in the amplitude of N170 and the localization of areas with maximum neural activation. Furthermore, age-induced differences are shown in the topographic maps and the neural activation for both emotional stimuli. Overall, aging appeared to affect the limbic area and its implication to emotional processing. These findings can serve as a step toward the understanding of the way the brain functions and evolves with age which is a significant element in the design of assistive environments. Copyright © 2016 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cerebellar damage impairs the self-rating of regret feeling in a gambling task

PubMed Central

Clausi, Silvia; Coricelli, Giorgio; Pisotta, Iolanda; Pavone, Enea Francesco; Lauriola, Marco; Molinari, Marco; Leggio, Maria

2015-01-01

Anatomical, clinical, and neuroimaging evidence implicates the cerebellum in processing emotions and feelings. Moreover recent studies showed a cerebellar involvement in pathologies such as autism, schizophrenia and alexithymia, in which emotional processing have been found altered. However, cerebellar function in the modulation of emotional responses remains debated. In this study, emotions that are involved directly in decision-making were examined in 15 patients (six males; age range 17–60 years) affected by cerebellar damage and 15 well matched healthy controls. We used a gambling task, in which subjects’ choices and evaluation of outcomes with regard to their anticipated and actual emotional impact were analyzed. Emotions, such as regret and relief, were elicited, based on the outcome of the unselected gamble. Interestingly, despite their ability to avoid regret in subsequent choices, patients affected by cerebellar lesions were significantly impaired in evaluating the feeling of regret subjectively. These results demonstrate that the cerebellum is involved in conscious recognizing of negative feelings caused by the sense of self-responsibility for an incorrect decision. PMID:25999829

The Role of Emotion in Global Warming Policy Support and Opposition

PubMed Central

Smith, Nicholas; Leiserowitz, Anthony

2014-01-01

Prior research has found that affect and affective imagery strongly influence public support for global warming. This article extends this literature by exploring the separate influence of discrete emotions. Utilizing a nationally representative survey in the United States, this study found that discrete emotions were stronger predictors of global warming policy support than cultural worldviews, negative affect, image associations, or sociodemographic variables. In particular, worry, interest, and hope were strongly associated with increased policy support. The results contribute to experiential theories of risk information processing and suggest that discrete emotions play a significant role in public support for climate change policy. Implications for climate change communication are also discussed. PMID:24219420

The role of emotion in global warming policy support and opposition.

PubMed

Smith, Nicholas; Leiserowitz, Anthony

2014-05-01

Prior research has found that affect and affective imagery strongly influence public support for global warming. This article extends this literature by exploring the separate influence of discrete emotions. Utilizing a nationally representative survey in the United States, this study found that discrete emotions were stronger predictors of global warming policy support than cultural worldviews, negative affect, image associations, or sociodemographic variables. In particular, worry, interest, and hope were strongly associated with increased policy support. The results contribute to experiential theories of risk information processing and suggest that discrete emotions play a significant role in public support for climate change policy. Implications for climate change communication are also discussed. © 2013 Society for Risk Analysis.

Brain Response to a Humanoid Robot in Areas Implicated in the Perception of Human Emotional Gestures

PubMed Central

Chaminade, Thierry; Zecca, Massimiliano; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne; Takanishi, Atsuo; Frith, Chris D.; Micera, Silvestro; Dario, Paolo; Rizzolatti, Giacomo; Gallese, Vittorio; Umiltà, Maria Alessandra

2010-01-01

Background The humanoid robot WE4-RII was designed to express human emotions in order to improve human-robot interaction. We can read the emotions depicted in its gestures, yet might utilize different neural processes than those used for reading the emotions in human agents. Methodology Here, fMRI was used to assess how brain areas activated by the perception of human basic emotions (facial expression of Anger, Joy, Disgust) and silent speech respond to a humanoid robot impersonating the same emotions, while participants were instructed to attend either to the emotion or to the motion depicted. Principal Findings Increased responses to robot compared to human stimuli in the occipital and posterior temporal cortices suggest additional visual processing when perceiving a mechanical anthropomorphic agent. In contrast, activity in cortical areas endowed with mirror properties, like left Broca's area for the perception of speech, and in the processing of emotions like the left anterior insula for the perception of disgust and the orbitofrontal cortex for the perception of anger, is reduced for robot stimuli, suggesting lesser resonance with the mechanical agent. Finally, instructions to explicitly attend to the emotion significantly increased response to robot, but not human facial expressions in the anterior part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, a neural marker of motor resonance. Conclusions Motor resonance towards a humanoid robot, but not a human, display of facial emotion is increased when attention is directed towards judging emotions. Significance Artificial agents can be used to assess how factors like anthropomorphism affect neural response to the perception of human actions. PMID:20657777

Neural correlates of cross-modal affective priming by music in Williams syndrome

PubMed Central

Lense, Miriam D.; Gordon, Reyna L.; Key, Alexandra P. F.; Dykens, Elisabeth M.

2014-01-01

Emotional connection is the main reason people engage with music, and the emotional features of music can influence processing in other domains. Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder where musicality and sociability are prominent aspects of the phenotype. This study examined oscillatory brain activity during a musical affective priming paradigm. Participants with WS and age-matched typically developing controls heard brief emotional musical excerpts or emotionally neutral sounds and then reported the emotional valence (happy/sad) of subsequently presented faces. Participants with WS demonstrated greater evoked fronto-central alpha activity to the happy vs sad musical excerpts. The size of these alpha effects correlated with parent-reported emotional reactivity to music. Although participant groups did not differ in accuracy of identifying facial emotions, reaction time data revealed a music priming effect only in persons with WS, who responded faster when the face matched the emotional valence of the preceding musical excerpt vs when the valence differed. Matching emotional valence was also associated with greater evoked gamma activity thought to reflect cross-modal integration. This effect was not present in controls. The results suggest a specific connection between music and socioemotional processing and have implications for clinical and educational approaches for WS. PMID:23386738

Emotion perception accuracy and bias in face-to-face versus cyberbullying.

PubMed

Ciucci, Enrica; Baroncelli, Andrea; Nowicki, Stephen

2014-01-01

The authors investigated the association of traditional and cyber forms of bullying and victimization with emotion perception accuracy and emotion perception bias. Four basic emotions were considered (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear); 526 middle school students (280 females; M age = 12.58 years, SD = 1.16 years) were recruited, and emotionality was controlled. Results indicated no significant findings for girls. Boys with higher levels of traditional bullying did not show any deficit in perception accuracy of emotions, but they were prone to identify happiness and fear in faces when a different emotion was expressed; in addition, male cyberbullying was related to greater accuracy in recognizing fear. In terms of the victims, cyber victims had a global problem in recognizing emotions and a specific problem in processing anger and fear. It was concluded that emotion perception accuracy and bias were associated with bullying and victimization for boys not only in traditional settings but also in the electronic ones. Implications of these findings for possible intervention are discussed.

What is shared, what is different? Core relational themes and expressive displays of eight positive emotions.

PubMed

Campos, Belinda; Shiota, Michelle N; Keltner, Dacher; Gonzaga, Gian C; Goetz, Jennifer L

2013-01-01

Understanding positive emotions' shared and differentiating features can yield valuable insight into the structure of positive emotion space and identify emotion states, or aspects of emotion states, that are most relevant for particular psychological processes and outcomes. We report two studies that examined core relational themes (Study 1) and expressive displays (Study 2) for eight positive emotion constructs--amusement, awe, contentment, gratitude, interest, joy, love, and pride. Across studies, all eight emotions shared one quality: high positive valence. Distinctive core relational theme and expressive display patterns were found for four emotions--amusement, awe, interest, and pride. Gratitude was associated with a distinct core relational theme but not an expressive display. Joy and love were each associated with a distinct expressive display but their core relational themes also characterised pride and gratitude, respectively. Contentment was associated with a distinct expressive display but not a core relational theme. The implications of this work for the study of positive emotion are discussed.

Neural Basis of the Emotional Conflict Processing in Major Depression: ERPs and Source Localization Analysis on the N450 and P300 Components

PubMed Central

Zhu, Jing; Li, Jianxiu; Li, Xiaowei; Rao, Juan; Hao, Yanrong; Ding, Zhijie; Wang, Gangping

2018-01-01

Objects: Effective psychological function requires that cognition is not affected by task-irrelevant emotional stimuli in emotional conflict. Depression is mainly characterized as an emotional disorder. The object of this study is to reveal the behavioral and electrophysiological signature of emotional conflict processing in major depressive disorder (MDD) using event-related potentials (ERPs) and standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) analysis. Method: We used a face–word Stroop task involving emotional faces while recording EEG (electroencephalography) in 20 patients with MDD and 20 healthy controls (HCs). And then ERPs were extracted and the corresponding brain sources were reconstructed using sLORETA. Results: Behaviorally, subjects with MDDs manifested significantly increased Stroop effect when examining the RT difference between happy incongruent trials and happy congruent trials, compared with HC subjects. ERP results exhibited that MDDs were characterized by the attenuated difference between P300 amplitude to sad congruent stimuli and sad incongruent stimuli, as electrophysiological evidence of impaired conflict processing in subjects with MDD. The sLORETA results showed that MDD patients had a higher current density in rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rostral ACC) within N450 time window in response to happy incongruent trials than happy congruent stimuli. Moreover, HC subjects had stronger activity in right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) region in response to incongruent stimuli than congruent stimuli, revealing successful inhibition of emotional distraction in HCs, which was absent in MDDs. Conclusion: Our results indicated that rostral ACC was implicated in the processing of negative emotional distraction in MDDs, as well as impaired inhibition of task-irrelevant emotional stimuli, relative to HCs. This work furnishes novel behavioral and neurophysiological evidence that are closely related to emotional conflict among MDD patients. PMID:29896094

Misinterpretation of Facial Expressions of Emotion in Verbal Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Eack, Shaun M.; MAZEFSKY, CARLA A.; Minshew, Nancy J.

2014-01-01

Facial emotion perception is significantly affected in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet little is known about how individuals with ASD misinterpret facial expressions that result in their difficulty in accurately recognizing emotion in faces. This study examined facial emotion perception in 45 verbal adults with ASD and 30 age- and gender-matched volunteers without ASD to identify patterns of emotion misinterpretation during face processing that contribute to emotion recognition impairments in autism. Results revealed that difficulty distinguishing emotional from neutral facial expressions characterized much of the emotion perception impairments exhibited by participants with ASD. In particular, adults with ASD uniquely misinterpreted happy faces as neutral, and were significantly more likely than typical volunteers to attribute negative valence to non-emotional faces. The over-attribution of emotions to neutral faces was significantly related to greater communication and emotional intelligence impairments in individuals with ASD. These findings suggest a potential negative bias toward the interpretation of facial expressions and may have implications for interventions designed to remediate emotion perception in ASD. PMID:24535689

Repetition-Related Reductions in Neural Activity during Emotional Simulations of Future Events.

PubMed

Szpunar, Karl K; Jing, Helen G; Benoit, Roland G; Schacter, Daniel L

2015-01-01

Simulations of future experiences are often emotionally arousing, and the tendency to repeatedly simulate negative future outcomes has been identified as a predictor of the onset of symptoms of anxiety. Nonetheless, next to nothing is known about how the healthy human brain processes repeated simulations of emotional future events. In this study, we present a paradigm that can be used to study repeated simulations of the emotional future in a manner that overcomes phenomenological confounds between positive and negative events. The results show that pulvinar nucleus and orbitofrontal cortex respectively demonstrate selective reductions in neural activity in response to frequently as compared to infrequently repeated simulations of negative and positive future events. Implications for research on repeated simulations of the emotional future in both non-clinical and clinical populations are discussed.

A rational look at the emotional stroop phenomenon: a generic slowdown, not a stroop effect.

PubMed

Algom, Daniel; Chajut, Eran; Lev, Shlomo

2004-09-01

The role of Stroop processes in the emotional Stroop effect was subjected to a conceptual scrutiny augmented by a series of experiments entailing reading or lexical decision as well as color naming. The analysis showed that the Stroop effect is not defined in the emotional Stroop task. The experiments showed that reading, lexical decision, and color naming all are slower with emotional words and that this delay is immune to task-irrelevant variation and to changes in the relative salience of the words and the colors. The delay was absent when emotional and neutral words appeared in a single block. A threat-driven generic slowdown is implicated, not a selective attention mechanism associated with the classic Stroop effect. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires

PubMed Central

Fredrickson, Barbara L.; Branigan, Christine

2011-01-01

The broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) hypothesises that positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Two experiments with 104 college students tested these hypotheses. In each, participants viewed a film that elicited (a) amusement, (b) contentment, (c) neutrality, (d) anger, or (e) anxiety. Scope of attention was assessed using a global-local visual processing task (Experiment 1) and thought-action repertoires were assessed using a Twenty Statements Test (Experiment 2). Compared to a neutral state, positive emotions broadened the scope of attention in Experiment 1 and thought-action repertoires in Experiment 2. In Experiment 2, negative emotions, relative to a neutral state, narrowed thought-action repertoires. Implications for promoting emotional well-being and physical health are discussed. PMID:21852891

Negative emotional experiences arouse rumination and affect working memory capacity.

PubMed

Curci, Antonietta; Lanciano, Tiziana; Soleti, Emanuela; Rimé, Bernard

2013-10-01

Following an emotional experience, individuals are confronted with the persistence of ruminative thoughts that disturb the undertaking of other activities. In the present study, we experimentally tested the idea that experiencing a negative emotion triggers a ruminative process that drains working memory (WM) resources normally devoted to other tasks. Undergraduate participants of high versus low WM capacity were administered the operation-word memory span test (OSPAN) as a measure of availability of WM resources preceding and following the presentation of negative emotional versus neutral material. Rumination was assessed immediately after the second OSPAN session and at a 24-hr delay. Results showed that both the individual's WM capacity and the emotional valence of the material influenced WM performance and the persistence of ruminative thoughts. Following the experimental induction, rumination mediated the relationship between the negative emotional state and the concomitant WM performance. Based on these results, we argue that ruminative processes deplete WM resources, making them less available for concurrent tasks; in addition, rumination tends to persist over time. These findings have implications for the theoretical modeling of the long-term effects of emotions in both daily life and clinical contexts.

Implications for neurobiological research of cognitive models of psychosis: a theoretical paper.

PubMed

Garety, Philippa A; Bebbington, Paul; Fowler, David; Freeman, Daniel; Kuipers, Elizabeth

2007-10-01

Cognitive models of the positive symptoms of psychosis specify the cognitive, social and emotional processes hypothesized to contribute to their occurrence and persistence, and propose that vulnerable individuals make characteristic appraisals that result in specific positive symptoms. We describe cognitive models of positive psychotic symptoms and use this as the basis of discussing recent relevant empirical investigations and reviews that integrate cognitive approaches into neurobiological frameworks. Evidence increasingly supports a number of the hypotheses proposed by cognitive models. These are that: psychosis is on a continuum; specific cognitive processes are risk factors for the transition from subclinical experiences to clinical disorder; social adversity and trauma are associated with psychosis and with negative emotional processes; and these emotional processes contribute to the occurrence and persistence of psychotic symptoms. There is also evidence that reasoning biases contribute to the occurrence of delusions. The benefits of incorporating cognitive processes into neurobiological research include more sophisticated, bidirectional and interactive causal models, the amplification of phenotypes in neurobiological investigations by including emotional processes, and the adoption of more specific clinical phenotypes. For example, there is potential value in studying gene x environment x cognition/emotion interactions. Cognitive models and their derived phenotypes constitute the missing link in the chain between genetic or acquired biological vulnerability, the social environment and the expression of individual positive symptoms.

Neurophysiological correlates of attention behavior in early infancy: Implications for emotion regulation during early childhood

PubMed Central

Perry, Nicole B.; Swingler, Margaret M.; Calkins, Susan D.; Bell, Martha Ann

2015-01-01

Current theoretical conceptualizations of regulatory development suggest that attention processes and emotion regulation processes share common neurophysiological underpinnings and behavioral antecedents such that emotion regulation abilities may build upon early attentional skills. To further elucidate this proposed relationship, we tested whether early neurophysiological processes measured during an attention task in infancy predicted in-task attention behavior, and whether infant's attention behavior was subsequently associated with their ability to regulate emotion in early childhood (N=388). Results indicated that, greater EEG power change (from baseline to task) at medial frontal locations (F3 and F4) during an attention task at 10 months were associated with concurrent observed behavioral attention. Specifically, greater change in EEG power at the right frontal location (F4) was associated with more attention, and greater EEG power at the left frontal location (F3) was associated with less attention, indicating a potential right hemisphere specialization for attention processes already present in the first year of life. In addition, after controlling for 5-month attention behavior, increased behavioral attention at 10-months was negatively associated with children's observed frustration to emotional challenge at age 3. Finally, the indirect effects from 10-month EEG power change at F3 and F4 to 3-year emotion regulation via infants' 10-month behavioral attention were significant, suggesting that infant's attention behavior is one mechanism through which early neurophysiological activity is related to emotion regulation abilities in childhood. PMID:26381926

Misinterpretation of facial expressions of emotion in verbal adults with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Eack, Shaun M; Mazefsky, Carla A; Minshew, Nancy J

2015-04-01

Facial emotion perception is significantly affected in autism spectrum disorder, yet little is known about how individuals with autism spectrum disorder misinterpret facial expressions that result in their difficulty in accurately recognizing emotion in faces. This study examined facial emotion perception in 45 verbal adults with autism spectrum disorder and 30 age- and gender-matched volunteers without autism spectrum disorder to identify patterns of emotion misinterpretation during face processing that contribute to emotion recognition impairments in autism. Results revealed that difficulty distinguishing emotional from neutral facial expressions characterized much of the emotion perception impairments exhibited by participants with autism spectrum disorder. In particular, adults with autism spectrum disorder uniquely misinterpreted happy faces as neutral, and were significantly more likely than typical volunteers to attribute negative valence to nonemotional faces. The over-attribution of emotions to neutral faces was significantly related to greater communication and emotional intelligence impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder. These findings suggest a potential negative bias toward the interpretation of facial expressions and may have implications for interventions designed to remediate emotion perception in autism spectrum disorder. © The Author(s) 2014.

Using Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development to Understand the Construction of Healing Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook-Cottone, Catherine P.

2004-01-01

The construction of healing narratives is a framework within which the college counselor can view the progressive development of the counseling process. The level of a client's narrative processing appears to depend on an interaction between experience-specific knowledge and experience-specific emotionality. Implications for college counselors and…

[Children's Rights Council--Move Away in Divorce Panel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zapf, Charles Z.

This paper deals with the psychological processes and emotional experiences of children whose parents are going through the process of divorce and the complications posed by divorced or divorcing parents moving to new locations. The paper begins with a discussion of the implications of divorce, claiming that divorce is a change that affects…

Emotion recognition in early Parkinson's disease patients undergoing deep brain stimulation or dopaminergic therapy: a comparison to healthy participants.

PubMed

McIntosh, Lindsey G; Mannava, Sishir; Camalier, Corrie R; Folley, Bradley S; Albritton, Aaron; Konrad, Peter E; Charles, David; Park, Sohee; Neimat, Joseph S

2014-01-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) is traditionally regarded as a neurodegenerative movement disorder, however, nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration is also thought to disrupt non-motor loops connecting basal ganglia to areas in frontal cortex involved in cognition and emotion processing. PD patients are impaired on tests of emotion recognition, but it is difficult to disentangle this deficit from the more general cognitive dysfunction that frequently accompanies disease progression. Testing for emotion recognition deficits early in the disease course, prior to cognitive decline, better assesses the sensitivity of these non-motor corticobasal ganglia-thalamocortical loops involved in emotion processing to early degenerative change in basal ganglia circuits. In addition, contrasting this with a group of healthy aging individuals demonstrates changes in emotion processing specific to the degeneration of basal ganglia circuitry in PD. Early PD patients (EPD) were recruited from a randomized clinical trial testing the safety and tolerability of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) in early-staged PD. EPD patients were previously randomized to receive optimal drug therapy only (ODT), or drug therapy plus STN-DBS (ODT + DBS). Matched healthy elderly controls (HEC) and young controls (HYC) also participated in this study. Participants completed two control tasks and three emotion recognition tests that varied in stimulus domain. EPD patients were impaired on all emotion recognition tasks compared to HEC. Neither therapy type (ODT or ODT + DBS) nor therapy state (ON/OFF) altered emotion recognition performance in this study. Finally, HEC were impaired on vocal emotion recognition relative to HYC, suggesting a decline related to healthy aging. This study supports the existence of impaired emotion recognition early in the PD course, implicating an early disruption of fronto-striatal loops mediating emotional function.

Socio-emotionally Significant Experience and Children’s Processing of Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli

PubMed Central

Schermerhorn, Alice C.; Bates, John E.; Puce, Aina; Molfese, Dennis L.

2017-01-01

Theory and research indicate considerable influence of socio-emotionally significant experiences on children’s functioning and adaptation. In the current study, we examined neurophysiological correlates of children’s allocation of information processing resources to socio-emotionally significant events, specifically, simulated marital interactions. We presented 9- to 11-year-old children (n = 24; 11 females) with 15 videos of interactions between two actors posing as a married couple. Task-irrelevant brief auditory probes were presented during the videos, and event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited to the auditory probes were measured. As hypothesized, exposure to higher levels of interparental conflict was associated with smaller P1, P2, and N2 ERPs to the probes. This finding is consistent with the idea that children who had been exposed to more interparental conflict attended more to the videos and diverted fewer cognitive resources to processing the probes, thereby producing smaller ERPs to the probes. In addition, smaller N2s were associated with more child behavior problems, suggesting that allocating fewer processing resources to the probes was associated with more problem behavior. Results are discussed in terms of implications of socio-emotionally significant experiences for children’s processing of interpersonal interactions. PMID:27993611

Social-Emotional Correlates of Early Stage Social Information Processing Skills in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Russo-Ponsaran, Nicole M; McKown, Clark; Johnson, Jason K; Allen, Adelaide W; Evans-Smith, Bernadette; Fogg, Louis

2015-10-01

Difficulty processing social information is a defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet the failure of children with ASD to process social information effectively is poorly understood. Using Crick and Dodge's model of social information processing (SIP), this study examined the relationship between social-emotional (SE) skills of pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition on the one hand, and early stage SIP skills of problem identification and goal generation on the other. The study included a sample of school-aged children with and without ASD. SIP was assessed using hypothetical social situations in the context of a semistructured scenario-based interview. Pragmatic language, theory of mind, and emotion recognition were measured using direct assessments. Social thinking differences between children with and without ASD are largely differences of quantity (overall lower performance in ASD), not discrepancies in cognitive processing patterns. These data support theoretical models of the relationship between SE skills and SIP. Findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms giving rise to SIP deficits in ASD and may ultimately inform treatment development for children with ASD. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Memory reconsolidation, emotional arousal, and the process of change in psychotherapy: New insights from brain science.

PubMed

Lane, Richard D; Ryan, Lee; Nadel, Lynn; Greenberg, Leslie

2015-01-01

Since Freud, clinicians have understood that disturbing memories contribute to psychopathology and that new emotional experiences contribute to therapeutic change. Yet, controversy remains about what is truly essential to bring about psychotherapeutic change. Mounting evidence from empirical studies suggests that emotional arousal is a key ingredient in therapeutic change in many modalities. In addition, memory seems to play an important role but there is a lack of consensus on the role of understanding what happened in the past in bringing about therapeutic change. The core idea of this paper is that therapeutic change in a variety of modalities, including behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and psychodynamic psychotherapy, results from the updating of prior emotional memories through a process of reconsolidation that incorporates new emotional experiences. We present an integrated memory model with three interactive components - autobiographical (event) memories, semantic structures, and emotional responses - supported by emerging evidence from cognitive neuroscience on implicit and explicit emotion, implicit and explicit memory, emotion-memory interactions, memory reconsolidation, and the relationship between autobiographical and semantic memory. We propose that the essential ingredients of therapeutic change include: (1) reactivating old memories; (2) engaging in new emotional experiences that are incorporated into these reactivated memories via the process of reconsolidation; and (3) reinforcing the integrated memory structure by practicing a new way of behaving and experiencing the world in a variety of contexts. The implications of this new, neurobiologically grounded synthesis for research, clinical practice, and teaching are discussed.

How Do Adolescents Process Advertisements? The Influence of Ad Characteristics, Processing Objective, and Gender.

PubMed

Edens; McCormick

2000-10-01

This study investigates the influences of print advertisements on the affective and cognitive responses of adolescents. Junior and senior high school males (n = 111) and females (n = 84) were randomly assigned to either a low- or high-elaboration condition to process primarily visual and primarily verbal print advertisements. The students then responded to questions measuring three dependent variables-memory of specific facts, inference, and emotional response. Three-way ANOVA results indicated that predominantly visual advertisements elicited memory of more facts, more inferencing, and more intense emotional responses than predominantly verbal ads. In addition, females remembered more facts, made more inferences, reported stronger emotional responses, and detected the explicit claim of the ad more frequently than males. Finally, students in the high-elaboration condition remembered more details than students in the low-elaboration condition. The results are discussed in terms of implications for advertising media literacy. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Emotion, Affect, and Risk Communication with Older Adults: Challenges and Opportunities

PubMed Central

Finucane, Melissa L.

2008-01-01

Recent research suggests that emotion, affect, and cognition play important roles in risk perception and that their roles in judgment and decision-making processes may change over the lifespan. This paper discusses how emotion and affect might help or hinder risk communication with older adults. Currently, there are few guidelines for developing effective risk messages for the world’s aging population, despite the array of complex risk decisions that come with increasing age and the importance of maintaining good decision making in later life. Age-related declines in cognitive abilities such as memory and processing speed, increased reliance on automatic processes, and adaptive motivational shifts toward focusing more on affective (especially positive) information mean that older and younger adults may respond differently to risk messages. Implications for specific risk information formats (probabilities, frequencies, visual displays, and narratives) are discussed and directions for future research are highlighted. PMID:19169420

The role of emotion in the learning and transfer of clinical skills and knowledge.

PubMed

McConnell, Meghan M; Eva, Kevin W

2012-10-01

Medical school and residency are emotional experiences for trainees. Most research examining emotion in medicine has focused on negative moods associated with physician burnout and poor quality of life. However, positive emotional states also may have important influences on student learning and performance. The authors present a review of the literature on the influence of emotion on cognition, specifically how individuals learn complex skills and knowledge and how they transfer that information to new scenarios. From September 2011 to February 2012, the authors searched Medline, PsycInfo, GoogleScholar, ERIC, and Web of Science, as well as the reference lists of relevant articles, for research on the interaction between emotion, learning, and knowledge transfer. They extracted representative themes and noted particularly relevant empirical findings. The authors found articles that show that emotion influences various cognitive processes that are involved in the acquisition and transfer of knowledge and skills. More specifically, emotion influences how individuals identify and perceive information, how they interpret it, and how they act on the information available in learning and practice situations. There are many ways in which emotions may influence medical education. Researchers must further explore the implications of these findings to ensure that learning is not treated simply as a rational, mechanistic process but that trainees are effectively prepared to perform under a wide range of emotional conditions.

Acculturation and emotion among Asian Americans.

PubMed

Liem, R; Lim, B A; Liem, J H

2000-02-01

This study examined the emotion experience of Asian Americans in relation to respondents' orientation to acculturation: Assimilation, Integration, Separation, or Marginalization (J. W. Berry, 1980). Ego- versus other-focused emotion experiences (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991) and attention and valence, 2 stages in P. C. Ellsworth's (1994) model of emotion appraisal, were used to investigate the relation between acculturation and affect. Asian Americans most and least assimilated to the dominant Anglo American culture were expected to exhibit emotion responses correspondingly similar to and different from those of Anglo Americans. Those with a bi-cultural or integrationist trajectory should occupy a middle ground in terms of emotional experience. Compared with the appraisal process, ego- versus other-focused emotions, mediated in part by one's self-construal (e.g., independent or interdependent), were more strongly associated with acculturation orientation in the expected directions. The implications of recognizing the influence of acculturation on the emotional meaning of life encounters of newcomers are discussed in light of community psychology and clinical practice.

Sex differences in the response to emotional distraction: an event-related fMRI investigation.

PubMed

Iordan, Alexandru D; Dolcos, Sanda; Denkova, Ekaterina; Dolcos, Florin

2013-03-01

Evidence has suggested that women have greater emotional reactivity than men. However, it is unclear whether these differences in basic emotional responses are also associated with differences in emotional distractibility, and what the neural mechanisms that implement differences in emotional distractibility between women and men are. Functional MRI recording was used in conjunction with a working memory (WM) task, with emotional distraction (angry faces) presented during the interval between the memoranda and the probes. First, we found an increased impact of emotional distraction among women in trials associated with high-confidence responses, in the context of overall similar WM performance in women and men. Second, women showed increased sensitivity to emotional distraction in brain areas associated with "hot" emotional processing, whereas men showed increased sensitivity in areas associated with "cold" executive processing, in the context of overall similar patterns of response to emotional distraction in women and men. Third, a sex-related dorsal-ventral hemispheric dissociation emerged in the lateral PFC related to coping with emotional distraction, with women showing a positive correlation with WM performance in left ventral PFC, and men showing similar effects in the right dorsal PFC. In addition to extending to men results that have previously been reported in women, by showing that both sexes engage mechanisms that are similar overall in response to emotional distraction, the present study identifies sex differences in both the response to and coping with emotional distraction. These results have implications for understanding sex differences in the susceptibility to affective disorders, in which basic emotional responses, emotional distractibility, and coping abilities are altered.

Neural bases of different cognitive strategies for facial affect processing in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Fakra, Eric; Salgado-Pineda, Pilar; Delaveau, Pauline; Hariri, Ahmad R; Blin, Olivier

2008-03-01

To examine the neural basis and dynamics of facial affect processing in schizophrenic patients as compared to healthy controls. Fourteen schizophrenic patients and fourteen matched controls performed a facial affect identification task during fMRI acquisition. The emotional task included an intuitive emotional condition (matching emotional faces) and a more cognitively demanding condition (labeling emotional faces). Individual analysis for each emotional condition, and second-level t-tests examining both within-, and between-group differences, were carried out using a random effects approach. Psychophysiological interactions (PPI) were tested for variations in functional connectivity between amygdala and other brain regions as a function of changes in experimental conditions (labeling versus matching). During the labeling condition, both groups engaged similar networks. During the matching condition, schizophrenics failed to activate regions of the limbic system implicated in the automatic processing of emotions. PPI revealed an inverse functional connectivity between prefrontal regions and the left amygdala in healthy volunteers but there was no such change in patients. Furthermore, during the matching condition, and compared to controls, patients showed decreased activation of regions involved in holistic face processing (fusiform gyrus) and increased activation of regions associated with feature analysis (inferior parietal cortex, left middle temporal lobe, right precuneus). Our findings suggest that schizophrenic patients invariably adopt a cognitive approach when identifying facial affect. The distributed neocortical network observed during the intuitive condition indicates that patients may resort to feature-based, rather than configuration-based, processing and may constitute a compensatory strategy for limbic dysfunction.

Modulation of the composite face effect by unintended emotion cues.

PubMed

Gray, Katie L H; Murphy, Jennifer; Marsh, Jade E; Cook, Richard

2017-04-01

When upper and lower regions from different emotionless faces are aligned to form a facial composite, observers 'fuse' the two halves together, perceptually. The illusory distortion induced by task-irrelevant ('distractor') halves hinders participants' judgements about task-relevant ('target') halves. This composite-face effect reveals a tendency to integrate feature information from disparate regions of intact upright faces, consistent with theories of holistic face processing. However, observers frequently perceive emotion in ostensibly neutral faces, contrary to the intentions of experimenters. This study sought to determine whether this 'perceived emotion' influences the composite-face effect. In our first experiment, we confirmed that the composite effect grows stronger as the strength of distractor emotion increased. Critically, effects of distractor emotion were induced by weak emotion intensities, and were incidental insofar as emotion cues hindered image matching, not emotion labelling per se . In Experiment 2, we found a correlation between the presence of perceived emotion in a set of ostensibly neutral distractor regions sourced from commonly used face databases, and the strength of illusory distortion they induced. In Experiment 3, participants completed a sequential matching composite task in which half of the distractor regions were rated high and low for perceived emotion, respectively. Significantly stronger composite effects were induced by the high-emotion distractor halves. These convergent results suggest that perceived emotion increases the strength of the composite-face effect induced by supposedly emotionless faces. These findings have important implications for the study of holistic face processing in typical and atypical populations.

Dissociable neural systems resolve conflict from emotional versus nonemotional distracters.

PubMed

Egner, Tobias; Etkin, Amit; Gale, Seth; Hirsch, Joy

2008-06-01

The human brain protects the processing of task-relevant stimuli from interference ("conflict") by task-irrelevant stimuli via attentional biasing mechanisms. The lateral prefrontal cortex has been implicated in resolving conflict between competing stimuli by selectively enhancing task-relevant stimulus representations in sensory cortices. Conversely, recent data suggest that conflict from emotional distracters may be resolved by an alternative route, wherein the rostral anterior cingulate cortex inhibits amygdalar responsiveness to task-irrelevant emotional stimuli. Here we tested the proposal of 2 dissociable, distracter-specific conflict resolution mechanisms, by acquiring functional magnetic resonance imaging data during resolution of conflict from either nonemotional or emotional distracters. The results revealed 2 distinct circuits: a lateral prefrontal "cognitive control" system that resolved nonemotional conflict and was associated with enhanced processing of task-relevant stimuli in sensory cortices, and a rostral anterior cingulate "emotional control" system that resolved emotional conflict and was associated with decreased amygdalar responses to emotional distracters. By contrast, activations related to both emotional and nonemotional conflict monitoring were observed in a common region of the dorsal anterior cingulate. These data suggest that the neuroanatomical networks recruited to overcome conflict vary systematically with the nature of the conflict, but that they may share a common conflict-detection mechanism.

Adversarial Collaboration Decision-Making: An Overview of Social Quantum Information Processing

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-01-01

collaborative decision - making (CDM) to solve problems is an aspect of human behavior least yielding to rational predictions. To reduce the complexity of CDM...increases. Implications for C2 decision - making are discussed. Overview of research Game theory was one of the first rational approaches to the study of...Psychologist, 36, 343-356. Lawless, W.F. (2001), The quantum of social action and the function of emotion in decision - making , Proceedings, Emotional and

Neural circuitry of emotional face processing in autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Monk, Christopher S; Weng, Shih-Jen; Wiggins, Jillian Lee; Kurapati, Nikhil; Louro, Hugo M C; Carrasco, Melisa; Maslowsky, Julie; Risi, Susan; Lord, Catherine

2010-03-01

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with severe impairments in social functioning. Because faces provide nonverbal cues that support social interactions, many studies of ASD have examined neural structures that process faces, including the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and superior and middle temporal gyri. However, increases or decreases in activation are often contingent on the cognitive task. Specifically, the cognitive domain of attention influences group differences in brain activation. We investigated brain function abnormalities in participants with ASD using a task that monitored attention bias to emotional faces. Twenty-four participants (12 with ASD, 12 controls) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study while performing an attention cuing task with emotional (happy, sad, angry) and neutral faces. In response to emotional faces, those in the ASD group showed greater right amygdala activation than those in the control group. A preliminary psychophysiological connectivity analysis showed that ASD participants had stronger positive right amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex coupling and weaker positive right amygdala and temporal lobe coupling than controls. There were no group differences in the behavioural measure of attention bias to the emotional faces. The small sample size may have affected our ability to detect additional group differences. When attention bias to emotional faces was equivalent between ASD and control groups, ASD was associated with greater amygdala activation. Preliminary analyses showed that ASD participants had stronger connectivity between the amygdala ventromedial prefrontal cortex (a network implicated in emotional modulation) and weaker connectivity between the amygdala and temporal lobe (a pathway involved in the identification of facial expressions, although areas of group differences were generally in a more anterior region of the temporal lobe than what is typically reported for emotional face processing). These alterations in connectivity are consistent with emotion and face processing disturbances in ASD.

Physiological phenotyping of dementias using emotional sounds.

PubMed

Fletcher, Phillip D; Nicholas, Jennifer M; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Downey, Laura E; Golden, Hannah L; Agustus, Jennifer L; Clark, Camilla N; Mummery, Catherine J; Schott, Jonathan M; Crutch, Sebastian J; Warren, Jason D

2015-06-01

Emotional behavioral disturbances are hallmarks of many dementias but their pathophysiology is poorly understood. Here we addressed this issue using the paradigm of emotionally salient sounds. Pupil responses and affective valence ratings for nonverbal sounds of varying emotional salience were assessed in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) (n = 14), semantic dementia (SD) (n = 10), progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) (n = 12), and AD (n = 10) versus healthy age-matched individuals (n = 26). Referenced to healthy individuals, overall autonomic reactivity to sound was normal in Alzheimer's disease (AD) but reduced in other syndromes. Patients with bvFTD, SD, and AD showed altered coupling between pupillary and affective behavioral responses to emotionally salient sounds. Emotional sounds are a useful model system for analyzing how dementias affect the processing of salient environmental signals, with implications for defining pathophysiological mechanisms and novel biomarker development.

Impact of Spirituality/Religiousness on Cyber Bullying and Victimization in University Students: Mediating Effect of Emotional Intelligence.

PubMed

Yadav, Mohit; Yadav, Rohit

2018-05-22

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between spirituality/religiousness with cyber bullying and victimization amongst Indian University students and whether emotional intelligence mediates the relationship. Data were collected from 490 University students studying in undergraduate and postgraduate courses across India. IBM AMOS was used to find reliability and validity of instruments and PROCESS macro for IBM SPSS by Preacher and Hayes (Behav Res Methods 36(4): 717-731, 2004) was used for conducting mediation analyses. Both spiritual and existential well-being were found negatively related with cyber bullying and victimization. As far as mediation goes, the negative relationships between spiritual and existential well-being with that of cyber bullying and victimization were significantly mediated by Appraisal of Self-Emotions, Appraisal of Other's Emotions and Regulation and control of Emotions dimensions of emotional intelligence. Implication and future directions are also discussed.

Emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory across the preschool years: a cross-cultural longitudinal investigation.

PubMed

Wang, Qi

2008-07-01

Knowledge of emotion situations facilitates the interpretation, processing, and organization of significant personal event information and thus may be an important contributor to the development of autobiographical memory. This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis in a cross-cultural context. The participants were native Chinese children, Chinese children from first-generation Chinese immigrant families in the U.S., and European American children. Children's developing emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory were assessed three times at home, when children were 3, 3.5, and 4.5 years of age. Children's emotion knowledge uniquely predicted their autobiographical memory ability across groups and time points. Emotion knowledge further mediated culture effects on autobiographical memory. The findings provide important insight into early autobiographical memory development, and extend current theoretical understandings of the emotion-memory interplay. They further have implications for the phenomenon of infantile amnesia and cross-cultural differences in childhood recollections.

Early effects of duloxetine on emotion recognition in healthy volunteers

PubMed Central

Bamford, Susan; Penton-Voak, Ian; Pinkney, Verity; Baldwin, David S; Munafò, Marcus R; Garner, Matthew

2015-01-01

The serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) duloxetine is an effective treatment for major depression and generalised anxiety disorder. Neuropsychological models of antidepressant drug action suggest therapeutic effects might be mediated by the early correction of maladaptive biases in emotion processing, including the recognition of emotional expressions. Sub-chronic administration of duloxetine (for two weeks) produces adaptive changes in neural circuitry implicated in emotion processing; however, its effects on emotional expression recognition are unknown. Forty healthy participants were randomised to receive either 14 days of duloxetine (60 mg/day, titrated from 30 mg after three days) or matched placebo (with sham titration) in a double-blind, between-groups, repeated-measures design. On day 0 and day 14 participants completed a computerised emotional expression recognition task that measured sensitivity to the six primary emotions. Thirty-eight participants (19 per group) completed their course of tablets and were included in the analysis. Results provide evidence that duloxetine, compared to placebo, may reduce the accurate recognition of sadness. Drug effects were driven by changes in participants’ ability to correctly detect subtle expressions of sadness, with greater change observed in the placebo relative to the duloxetine group. These effects occurred in the absence of changes in mood. Our preliminary findings require replication, but complement recent evidence that sadness recognition is a therapeutic target in major depression, and a mechanism through which SNRIs could resolve negative biases in emotion processing to achieve therapeutic effects. PMID:25759400

Emotional intelligence and spiritual well-being: implications for spiritual care.

PubMed

Beauvais, Audrey; Stewart, Julie G; DeNisco, Susan

2014-01-01

Understanding factors that influence spiritual well-being may improve nurses' spiritual caregiving. This study examined relationships between emotional intelligence (EI) and spiritual well-being (SWB) in undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the spiritual well-being scale (SWBS) relationships were found between managing emotion and spiritual well-being, and managing emotion and existential well-being. Implications for education and practice are discussed.

Adolescents' aggressive and prosocial behaviors: links with social information processing, negative emotionality, moral affect, and moral cognition.

PubMed

Laible, Deborah J; Murphy, Tia Panfile; Augustine, Mairin

2014-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine whether moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases independently predicted adolescents' prosocial and aggressive behavior in adolescence. A total of 148 adolescents completed self-report measures of prosocial and aggressive behavior, moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases. Although in general all 3 factors (emotional, moral, and social cognitive) were correlated with adolescent social behavior, the most consistent independent predictors of adolescent social behavior were moral affect and cognition. These findings have important implications for intervention and suggest that programs that promote adolescent perspective taking, moral reasoning, and moral affect are needed to reduce aggressive behavior and promote prosocial behavior.

Emotion, decision making, and the amygdala.

PubMed

Seymour, Ben; Dolan, Ray

2008-06-12

Emotion plays a critical role in many contemporary accounts of decision making, but exactly what underlies its influence and how this is mediated in the brain remain far from clear. Here, we review behavioral studies that suggest that Pavlovian processes can exert an important influence over choice and may account for many effects that have traditionally been attributed to emotion. We illustrate how recent experiments cast light on the underlying structure of Pavlovian control and argue that generally this influence makes good computational sense. Corresponding neuroscientific data from both animals and humans implicate a central role for the amygdala through interactions with other brain areas. This yields a neurobiological account of emotion in which it may operate, often covertly, to optimize rather than corrupt economic choice.

Second Language Use Facilitates Implicit Emotion Regulation via Content Labeling

PubMed Central

Morawetz, Carmen; Oganian, Yulia; Schlickeiser, Ulrike; Jacobs, Arthur M.; Heekeren, Hauke R.

2017-01-01

Previous studies reported that negative stimuli induced less affect in bilinguals when stimuli were presented in bilinguals’ second, weaker language (L2) than when they were presented in their native language (L1). This effect of L2 use was attributed to increased emotional distance as well as to increased levels of cognitive control during L2 use. Here we investigated how explicit (cognitive reappraisal, i.e., reinterpreting the meaning of the emotional stimulus to alter its emotional impact) and implicit (content labeling, i.e., categorizing the content of the image; and emotion labeling, i.e., naming the emotion induced by the emotional stimulus) emotion regulation strategies are altered in an L2 (English) context in German native speakers with medium to high proficiency in their L2. While previous studies used linguistic stimuli, such as words, to induce affect, here we used images to test whether reduced affect could also be observed for non-linguistic stimuli when presented in an L2 context. We hypothesized that the previously implicated increase in emotional distance and cognitive control in an L2 would result in an L2 advantage in emotion regulation (i.e., leading to less negative emotions compared to an L1 context), by strengthening the effect of linguistic re-evaluation on the evoked emotions. Using a classic emotion regulation paradigm, we examined changes in subjective emotional state ratings during reappraisal, emotion labeling and content labeling in a L1 and L2 context. We found that the strength of evoked affective responses did not depend on the language context in which an image was presented. Crucially, content labeling in L2 was more effective than in L1, whereas emotion labeling did not differ between languages. Overall, evoked responses were regulated most effectively through explicit emotion regulation (reappraisal) in L1 and L2 context. These results demonstrate an L2 advantage effect for emotion regulation through content labeling and suggest that L2 context alters sub-processes implicated in content labeling but not emotion labeling. PMID:28360873

Anterior cingulate hyperactivations during negative emotion processing among men with schizophrenia and a history of violent behavior.

PubMed

Tikàsz, Andràs; Potvin, Stéphane; Lungu, Ovidiu; Joyal, Christian C; Hodgins, Sheilagh; Mendrek, Adrianna; Dumais, Alexandre

2016-01-01

Evidence suggests a 2.1-4.6 times increase in the risk of violent behavior in schizophrenia compared to the general population. Current theories propose that the processing of negative emotions is defective in violent individuals and that dysfunctions within the neural circuits involved in emotion processing are implicated in violence. Although schizophrenia patients show enhanced sensitivity to negative stimuli, there are only few functional neuroimaging studies that have examined emotion processing among men with schizophrenia and a history of violence. The present study aimed to identify the brain regions with greater neurofunctional alterations, as detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotion processing task, of men with schizophrenia who had engaged in violent behavior compared with those who had not. Sixty men were studied; 20 with schizophrenia and a history of violence, 19 with schizophrenia and no violence, and 21 healthy men were scanned while viewing positive, negative, and neutral images. Negative images elicited hyperactivations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left and right lingual gyrus, and the left precentral gyrus in violent men with schizophrenia, compared to nonviolent men with schizophrenia and healthy men. Neutral images elicited hyperactivations in the right and left middle occipital gyrus, left lingual gyrus, and the left fusiform gyrus in violent men with schizophrenia, compared to the other two groups. Violent men with schizophrenia displayed specific increases in ACC in response to negative images. Given the role of the ACC in information integration, these results indicate a specific dysfunction in the processing of negative emotions that may trigger violent behavior in men with schizophrenia.

Embodied simulation in exposure-based therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder—a possible integration of cognitive behavioral theories, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis

PubMed Central

Peri, Tuvia; Gofman, Mordechai; Tal, Shahar; Tuval-Mashiach, Rivka

2015-01-01

Exposure to the trauma memory is the common denominator of most evidence-based interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although exposure-based therapies aim to change associative learning networks and negative cognitions related to the trauma memory, emotional interactions between patient and therapist have not been thoroughly considered in past evaluations of exposure-based therapy. This work focuses on recent discoveries of the mirror-neuron system and the theory of embodied simulation (ES). These conceptualizations may add a new perspective to our understanding of change processes in exposure-based treatments for PTSD patients. It is proposed that during exposure to trauma memories, emotional responses of the patient are transferred to the therapist through ES and then mirrored back to the patient in a modulated way. This process helps to alleviate the patient's sense of loneliness and enhances his or her ability to exert control over painful, trauma-related emotional responses. ES processes may enhance the integration of clinical insights originating in psychoanalytic theories—such as holding, containment, projective identification, and emotional attunement—with cognitive behavioral theories of learning processes in the alleviation of painful emotional responses aroused by trauma memories. These processes are demonstrated through a clinical vignette from an exposure-based therapy with a trauma survivor. Possible clinical implications for the importance of face-to-face relationships during exposure-based therapy are discussed. PMID:26593097

Anorexia nervosa and its relation to depression, anxiety, alexithymia and emotional processing deficits.

PubMed

Lulé, Dorothée; Schulze, Ulrike M E; Bauer, Kathrin; Schöll, Friederike; Müller, Sabine; Fladung, Anne-Katharina; Uttner, Ingo

2014-06-01

Psychopathological changes and dysfunction in emotion processing have been described for anorexia nervosa (AN). Yet, findings are applicable to adult patients only. Furthermore, potential for discriminative power in clinical practice in relation to clinical parameters has to be discussed. The aim of this study was to investigate psychopathology and emotional face processing in adolescent female patients with AN. In a sample of 15 adolescent female patients with AN (16.2 years, SD ± 1.26) and 15 age and sex matched controls we assessed alexithymia, depression, anxiety and empathy in addition to emotion labelling and social information processing. AN patients had significantly higher alexithymia, higher levels of depression, and state and trait anxiety compared to controls. There was a trend for a lower ability to recognize disgust. Happiness as a positive emotion was recognized better. All facial expressions were recognized significantly faster by AN patients. Associations of pathological eating behaviour and trait anxiety were seen. In accordance with the stress reduction hypothesis, typical psychopathology of alexithymia, anxiety and depression is prevalent in female adolescent AN patients. It is present detached from physical stability. Pathogenesis of AN is multifactorial and already fully present in adolescence. An additional reinforcement process can be discussed. For clinical practice, those parameters might have a better potential for early prognostic factors related to AN than physical parameters and possible implication for intervention is given.

Embodied simulation in exposure-based therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder-a possible integration of cognitive behavioral theories, neuroscience, and psychoanalysis.

PubMed

Peri, Tuvia; Gofman, Mordechai; Tal, Shahar; Tuval-Mashiach, Rivka

2015-01-01

Exposure to the trauma memory is the common denominator of most evidence-based interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although exposure-based therapies aim to change associative learning networks and negative cognitions related to the trauma memory, emotional interactions between patient and therapist have not been thoroughly considered in past evaluations of exposure-based therapy. This work focuses on recent discoveries of the mirror-neuron system and the theory of embodied simulation (ES). These conceptualizations may add a new perspective to our understanding of change processes in exposure-based treatments for PTSD patients. It is proposed that during exposure to trauma memories, emotional responses of the patient are transferred to the therapist through ES and then mirrored back to the patient in a modulated way. This process helps to alleviate the patient's sense of loneliness and enhances his or her ability to exert control over painful, trauma-related emotional responses. ES processes may enhance the integration of clinical insights originating in psychoanalytic theories-such as holding, containment, projective identification, and emotional attunement-with cognitive behavioral theories of learning processes in the alleviation of painful emotional responses aroused by trauma memories. These processes are demonstrated through a clinical vignette from an exposure-based therapy with a trauma survivor. Possible clinical implications for the importance of face-to-face relationships during exposure-based therapy are discussed.

Emotion regulation in mothers and young children faced with trauma.

PubMed

Pat-Horenczyk, Ruth; Cohen, S; Ziv, Y; Achituv, M; Asulin-Peretz, L; Blanchard, T R; Schiff, M; Brom, D

2015-01-01

The present study investigated maternal emotion regulation as mediating the association between maternal posttraumatic stress symptoms and children's emotional dysregulation in a community sample of 431 Israeli mothers and children exposed to trauma. Little is known about the specific pathways through which maternal posttraumatic symptoms and deficits in emotion regulation contribute to emotional dysregulation. Inspired by the intergenerational process of relational posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in which posttraumatic distress is transmitted from mothers to children, we suggest an analogous concept of relational emotion regulation, by which maternal emotion regulation problems may contribute to child emotion regulation deficits. Child emotion regulation problems were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist-Dysregulation Profile (CBCL-DP; T.M. Achenbach & I. Rescorla, 2000), which is comprised of three subscales of the CBCL: Attention, Aggression, and Anxiety/Depression. Maternal PTSD symptoms were assessed by the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (E.B. Foa, L. Cashman, L. Jaycox, & K. Perry, 1997) and maternal emotion regulation by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (K.L. Gratz & L. Roemer, 2004). Results showed that the child's emotion regulation problems were associated with both maternal posttraumatic symptoms and maternal emotion dysregulation. Further, maternal emotion regulation mediated the association between maternal posttraumatic symptoms and the child's regulation deficits. These findings highlight the central role of mothers' emotion regulation skills in the aftermath of trauma as it relates to children's emotion regulation skills. The degree of mothers' regulatory skills in the context of posttraumatic stress symptoms reflects a key process through which the intergenerational transmission of trauma may occur. Study results have critical implications for planning and developing clinical interventions geared toward the treatment of families in the aftermath of trauma and, in particular, the enhancement of mothers' emotion regulation skills after trauma. © 2015 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Neural correlates of math anxiety - an overview and implications.

PubMed

Artemenko, Christina; Daroczy, Gabriella; Nuerk, Hans-Christoph

2015-01-01

Math anxiety is a common phenomenon which can have a negative impact on numerical and arithmetic performance. However, so far little is known about the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. This mini review provides an overview of studies investigating the neural correlates of math anxiety which provide several hints regarding its influence on math performance: while behavioral studies mostly observe an influence of math anxiety on difficult math tasks, neurophysiological studies show that processing efficiency is already affected in basic number processing. Overall, the neurocognitive literature suggests that (i) math anxiety elicits emotion- and pain-related activation during and before math activities, (ii) that the negative emotional response to math anxiety impairs processing efficiency, and (iii) that math deficits triggered by math anxiety may be compensated for by modulating the cognitive control or emotional regulation network. However, activation differs strongly between studies, depending on tasks, paradigms, and samples. We conclude that neural correlates can help to understand and explore the processes underlying math anxiety, but the data are not very consistent yet.

Neural correlates of math anxiety – an overview and implications

PubMed Central

Artemenko, Christina; Daroczy, Gabriella; Nuerk, Hans-Christoph

2015-01-01

Math anxiety is a common phenomenon which can have a negative impact on numerical and arithmetic performance. However, so far little is known about the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. This mini review provides an overview of studies investigating the neural correlates of math anxiety which provide several hints regarding its influence on math performance: while behavioral studies mostly observe an influence of math anxiety on difficult math tasks, neurophysiological studies show that processing efficiency is already affected in basic number processing. Overall, the neurocognitive literature suggests that (i) math anxiety elicits emotion- and pain-related activation during and before math activities, (ii) that the negative emotional response to math anxiety impairs processing efficiency, and (iii) that math deficits triggered by math anxiety may be compensated for by modulating the cognitive control or emotional regulation network. However, activation differs strongly between studies, depending on tasks, paradigms, and samples. We conclude that neural correlates can help to understand and explore the processes underlying math anxiety, but the data are not very consistent yet. PMID:26388824

Maternal Elaborative Reminiscing Mediates the Effect of Child Maltreatment on Behavioral and Physiological Functioning

PubMed Central

Valentino, Kristin; Hibel, Leah C; Cummings, E. Mark; Nuttall, Amy K.; Comas, Michelle; McDonnell, Christina G.

2016-01-01

Theoretical and empirical evidence suggest that the way in which parents discuss everyday emotional experiences with their young children (i.e., elaborative reminiscing) has significant implications for child cognitive and socio-emotional functioning, and that maltreating parents have a particularly difficult time in engaging in this type of dialogue. This dyadic interactional exchange, therefore, has the potential to be an important process variable linking child maltreatment to developmental outcomes at multiple levels of analysis. The current investigation evaluated the role of maternal elaborative reminiscing in associations between maltreatment and child cognitive, emotional, and physiological functioning. Participants included 43 maltreated and 49 nonmaltreated children (aged 3–6) and their mothers. Dyads participated in a joint reminiscing task about four past emotional events, and children participated in assessments of receptive language and emotion knowledge. Child salivary cortisol was also collected from children three times a day (waking, midday, and bedtime) on two consecutive days to assess daily levels and diurnal decline. Results indicated that maltreating mothers engaged in significantly less elaborative reminiscing than nonmaltreating mothers. Maternal elaborative reminiscing mediated associations between child maltreatment and child receptive language and child emotion knowledge. Additionally, there was support for an indirect pathway between child maltreatment and child cortisol diurnal decline through maternal elaborative reminiscing. Directions for future research are discussed and potential clinical implications are addressed. PMID:26535941

Component Neural Systems for the Creation of Emotional Memories during Free Viewing of a Complex, Real-World Event

PubMed Central

Botzung, Anne; LaBar, Kevin S.; Kragel, Philip; Miles, Amanda; Rubin, David C.

2010-01-01

To investigate the neural systems that contribute to the formation of complex, self-relevant emotional memories, dedicated fans of rival college basketball teams watched a competitive game while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During a subsequent recognition memory task, participants were shown video clips depicting plays of the game, stemming either from previously-viewed game segments (targets) or from non-viewed portions of the same game (foils). After an old–new judgment, participants provided emotional valence and intensity ratings of the clips. A data driven approach was first used to decompose the fMRI signal acquired during free viewing of the game into spatially independent components. Correlations were then calculated between the identified components and post-scanning emotion ratings for successfully encoded targets. Two components were correlated with intensity ratings, including temporal lobe regions implicated in memory and emotional functions, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, as well as a midline fronto-cingulo-parietal network implicated in social cognition and self-relevant processing. These data were supported by a general linear model analysis, which revealed additional valence effects in fronto-striatal-insular regions when plays were divided into positive and negative events according to the fan's perspective. Overall, these findings contribute to our understanding of how emotional factors impact distributed neural systems to successfully encode dynamic, personally-relevant event sequences. PMID:20508750

Cognitive and physiological markers of emotional awareness in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

PubMed

Parr, L A

2001-11-01

The ability to understand emotion in others is one of the most important factors involved in regulating social interactions in primates. Such emotional awareness functions to coordinate activity among group members, enable the formation of long-lasting individual relationships, and facilitate the pursuit of shared interests. Despite these important evolutionary implications, comparative studies of emotional processing in humans and great apes are practically nonexistent, constituting a major gap in our understanding of the extent to which emotional awareness has played an important role in shaping human behavior and societies. This paper presents the results of two experiments that examine chimpanzees' responses to emotional stimuli. First, changes in peripheral skin temperature were measured while subjects viewed three categories of emotionally negative video scenes; conspecifics being injected with needles (INJ), darts and needles alone (DART), and conspecific directing agonism towards the veterinarians (CHASE). Second, chimpanzees were required to use facial expressions to categorize emotional video scenes, i.e., favorite food and objects and veterinarian procedures, according to their positive and negative valence. With no prior training, subjects spontaneously matched the emotional videos to conspecific facial expressions according to their shared emotional meaning, indicating that chimpanzee facial expressions are processed emotionally, as are human expressions. Decreases in peripheral skin temperature, indicative of negative sympathetic arousal, were significantly lower when subjects viewed the INJ and DART videos, compared to the CHASE videos, indicating greater negative arousal when viewing conspecifics being injected with needles, and needles themselves, than when viewing conspecifics engaged in general agonism.

Prospective Relations between Family Conflict and Adolescent Maladjustment: Security in the Family System as a Mediating Process

PubMed Central

Cummings, E. Mark; Koss, Kalsea J.; Davies, Patrick T.

2018-01-01

Conflict in specific family systems (e.g., interparental, parent-child) has been implicated in the development of a host of adjustment problems in adolescence, but little is known about the impact of family conflict involving multiple family systems. Furthermore, questions remain about the effects of family conflict on symptoms of specific disorders and adjustment problems and the processes mediating these effects. The present study prospectively examines the impact of family conflict and emotional security about the family system on adolescent symptoms of specific disorders and adjustment problems, including the development of symptoms of anxiety, depression, conduct problems, and peer problems. Security in the family system was examined as a mediator of these relations. Participants included 295 mother-father-adolescent families (149 girls) participating across three annual time points (grades 7–9). Including auto-regressive controls for initial levels of emotional insecurity and multiple adjustment problems (T1), higher-order emotional insecurity about the family system (T2) mediated relations between T1 family conflict and T3 peer problems, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Further analyses supported specific patterns of emotional security/insecurity (i.e., security, disengagement, preoccupation) as mediators between family conflict and specific domains of adolescent adjustment. Family conflict was thus found to prospectively predict the development of symptoms of multiple specific adjustment problems, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, conduct problems, and peer problems, by elevating in in adolescent’s emotional insecurity about the family system. The clinical implications of these findings are considered. PMID:25131144

Growing Up Amid Ethno-political Conflict: Aggression and Emotional Desensitization Promote Hostility to Ethnic Out-groups

PubMed Central

Niwa, Erika Y.; Boxer, Paul; Dubow, Eric; Huesmann, L. Rowell; Shikaki, Khalil; Landau, Simha; Gvirsman, Shira Dvir

2016-01-01

Ethno-political violence impacts thousands of youth and is associated with numerous negative outcomes. Yet little research examines adaptation to ethno-political violence over time or across multiple outcomes simultaneously. The present study examines longitudinal patterns of aggressive behavior and emotional distress as they co-occur among Palestinian (n=600) youth exposed to ethno-political violence over 3 years in 3 age cohorts (starting ages: 8, 11, 14). Findings indicate distinct profiles of aggressive behavior and emotional distress, and unique joint patterns. Further, youth among key joint profiles (e.g., high aggression-emotional desensitization) are more likely to endorse normative beliefs about aggression toward ethnic out-groups. This study offers a dynamic perspective on emotional and behavioral adaptation to ethno-political violence and the implications of those processes. PMID:27684400

Molecular neuroimaging of emotional decision-making.

PubMed

Takahashi, Hidehiko

2013-04-01

With the dissemination of non-invasive human neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and the advancement of cognitive science, neuroimaging studies focusing on emotions and social cognition have become established. Along with this advancement, behavioral economics taking emotional and social factors into account for economic decisions has been merged with neuroscientific studies, and this interdisciplinary approach is called neuroeconomics. Past neuroeconomics studies have demonstrated that subcortical emotion-related brain structures play an important role in "irrational" decision-making. The research field that investigates the role of central neurotransmitters in this process is worthy of further development. Here, we provide an overview of recent molecular neuroimaging studies to further the understanding of the neurochemical basis of "irrational" or emotional decision-making and the future direction, including clinical implications, of the field. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

The place of emotion in stories told by children: an exploratory study.

PubMed

Allen, N B; Bradley, B S

1993-09-01

This study explored the relationship between developmental changes in children's understanding of emotions and their use of affective content (Wilkinson, Barnsley, Hanna, & Swan, 1980) and affective structure (Brewer & Lichtenstein, 1982) in the production of stories. We hypothesized that children with an advanced understanding of emotions would make more use of both affective content and affective structure. This relationship was found only for affective content, which was more advanced in girls than boys. Affective structure did not relate to affective understanding or sex but, rather, to verbal intelligence. The implications of these results for the part played by psychological processes in children's story telling are discussed.

Heightened aversion to risk and loss in depressed patients with a suicide attempt history.

PubMed

Baek, Kwangyeol; Kwon, JaeHyung; Chae, Jeong-Ho; Chung, Yong An; Kralik, Jerald D; Min, Jung-Ah; Huh, HyuJung; Choi, Kyung Mook; Jang, Kuk-In; Lee, Na-Bin; Kim, Sunyoung; Peterson, Bradley S; Jeong, Jaeseung

2017-09-11

Suicide attempters have been found to be impaired in decision-making; however, their specific biases in evaluating uncertain outcomes remain unclear. Here we tested the hypothesis that suicidal behavior is associated with heightened aversion to risk and loss, which might produce negative predictions about uncertain future events. Forty-five depressed patients with a suicide attempt history, 47 nonsuicidal depressed patients, and 75 healthy controls participated in monetary decision-making tasks assessing risk and loss aversion. Suicide attempters compared with the other groups exhibited greater aversion to both risk and loss during gambles involving potential loss. Risk and loss aversion correlated with each other in the depressed patients, suggesting that a common pathophysiological mechanism underlies these biases. In addition, emotion regulation via suppression, a detrimental emotional control strategy, was positively correlated with loss aversion in the depressed patients, also implicating impairment in regulatory processes. A preliminary fMRI study also found disrupted neural responses to potential gains and losses in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, insula cortex, and left amygdala, brain regions involved in valuation, emotion reactivity, and emotion regulation. The findings thus implicate heightened negative valuation in decision-making under risk, and impaired emotion regulation in depressed patients with a history of suicide attempts.

Affective agnosia: Expansion of the alexithymia construct and a new opportunity to integrate and extend Freud's legacy.

PubMed

Lane, Richard D; Weihs, Karen L; Herring, Anne; Hishaw, Alex; Smith, Ryan

2015-08-01

We describe a new type of agnosia consisting of an impairment in the ability to mentally represent or know what one is feeling. Freud the neurologist coined the term "agnosia" in 1891 before creating psychoanalysis in 1895 but the term has not been previously applied to the domain of affective processing. We propose that the concept of "affective agnosia" advances the theory, measurement and treatment of what is now called "alexithymia," meaning "lack of words for emotion." We trace the origin of the alexithymia construct and discuss the strengths and limitations of extant research. We review evidence that the ability to represent and put emotions into words is a developmental achievement that strongly influences one's ability to experience, recognize, understand and use one's own emotional responses. We describe the neural substrates of emotional awareness and affective agnosia and compare and contrast these with related conditions. We then describe how this expansion of the conceptualization and measurement of affective processing deficits has important implications for basic emotion research and clinical practice. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Functional and clinical neuroanatomy of morality.

PubMed

Fumagalli, Manuela; Priori, Alberto

2012-07-01

Morality is among the most sophisticated features of human judgement, behaviour and, ultimately, mind. An individual who behaves immorally may violate ethical rules and civil rights, and may threaten others' individual liberty, sometimes becoming violent and aggressive. In recent years, neuroscience has shown a growing interest in human morality, and has advanced our understanding of the cognitive and emotional processes involved in moral decisions, their anatomical substrates and the neurology of abnormal moral behaviour. In this article, we review research findings that have provided a key insight into the functional and clinical neuroanatomy of the brain areas involved in normal and abnormal moral behaviour. The 'moral brain' consists of a large functional network including both cortical and subcortical anatomical structures. Because morality is a complex process, some of these brain structures share their neural circuits with those controlling other behavioural processes, such as emotions and theory of mind. Among the anatomical structures implicated in morality are the frontal, temporal and cingulate cortices. The prefrontal cortex regulates activity in subcortical emotional centres, planning and supervising moral decisions, and when its functionality is altered may lead to impulsive aggression. The temporal lobe is involved in theory of mind and its dysfunction is often implicated in violent psychopathy. The cingulate cortex mediates the conflict between the emotional and the rational components of moral reasoning. Other important structures contributing to moral behaviour include the subcortical nuclei such as the amygdala, hippocampus and basal ganglia. Brain areas participating in moral processing can be influenced also by genetic, endocrine and environmental factors. Hormones can modulate moral behaviour through their effects on the brain. Finally, genetic polymorphisms can predispose to aggressivity and violence, arguing for a genetic-based predisposition to morality. Because abnormal moral behaviour can arise from both functional and structural brain abnormalities that should be diagnosed and treated, the neurology of moral behaviour has potential implications for clinical practice and raises ethical concerns. Last, since research has developed several neuromodulation techniques to improve brain dysfunction (deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation), knowing more about the 'moral brain' might help to develop novel therapeutic strategies for neurologically based abnormal moral behaviour.

Is evaluative conditioning really uncontrollable? A comparative test of three emotion-focused strategies to prevent the acquisition of conditioned preferences.

PubMed

Gawronski, Bertram; Mitchell, Derek G V; Balas, Robert

2015-10-01

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is defined as the change in the evaluation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) because of its pairing with a valenced unconditioned stimulus (US). Counter to views that EC is the product of automatic learning processes, recent research has revealed various characteristics of nonautomatic processing in EC. The current research investigated the controllability of EC by testing the effectiveness of 3 emotion-focused strategies in preventing the acquisition of conditioned preferences: (a) suppression of emotional reactions to the US, (b) reappraisal of the valence of the US, and (c) facial blocking of emotional responses. Although all 3 strategies reduced EC effects on self-reported evaluations by impairing recollective memory for CS-US pairings, they were ineffective in reducing EC effects on an evaluative priming measure. Regardless of the measure, effective control did not depend on the level of arousal elicited by the US. The results suggest that the 3 strategies can influence deliberate CS evaluations through memory-related processes, but they are ineffective in reducing EC effects on spontaneous evaluative responses. Implications for mental process theories of EC are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Motivated emotion and the rally around the flag effect: liberals are motivated to feel collective angst (like conservatives) when faced with existential threat.

PubMed

Porat, Roni; Tamir, Maya; Wohl, Michael J A; Gur, Tamar; Halperin, Eran

2018-04-18

A careful look at societies facing threat reveals a unique phenomenon in which liberals and conservatives react emotionally and attitudinally in a similar manner, rallying around the conservative flag. Previous research suggests that this rally effect is the result of liberals shifting in their attitudes and emotional responses toward the conservative end. Whereas theories of motivated social cognition provide a motivation-based account of cognitive processes (i.e. attitude shift), it remains unclear whether emotional shifts are, in fact, also a motivation-based process. Herein, we propose that under threat, liberals are motivated to feel existential concern about their group's future vitality (i.e. collective angst) to the same extent as conservatives, because this group-based emotion elicits support for ingroup protective action. Within the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, we tested and found support for this hypothesis both inside (Study 1) and outside (Study 2) the laboratory. We did so using a behavioural index of motivation to experience collective angst. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding motivated emotion regulation in the context of intergroup threat.

The Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal during Emotional Autobiographical Memory Recall

PubMed Central

Holland, Alisha C.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2013-01-01

We used fMRI to investigate the neural processes engaged as individuals down- and up-regulated the emotions associated with negative autobiographical memories (AMs) using cognitive reappraisal strategies. Our analyses examined neural activity during 3 separate phases, as participants: (a) viewed a reappraisal instruction (i.e., Decrease, Increase, Maintain), (b) searched for an AM referenced by a self-generated cue, and (c) elaborated upon the details of the AM being held in mind. Decreasing emotional intensity primarily engaged activity in regions previously implicated in cognitive control (e.g., dorsal and ventral lateral prefrontal cortex), emotion generation and processing (e.g., amygdala, insula), and visual imagery (e.g., precuneus) as participants searched for and retrieved events. In contrast, increasing emotional intensity engaged similar regions during the instruction phase (i.e., before a memory cue was presented) and again as individuals later elaborated upon the details of the events they had recalled. These findings confirm that reappraisal can modulate neural activity during the recall of personally-relevant events, though the time course of this modulation appears to depend on whether individuals are attempting to down- or up-regulate their emotions. PMID:22905826

The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality.

PubMed

Schaller, Mark

2011-12-12

Because immunological defence against pathogens is costly and merely reactive, human anti-pathogen defence is also characterized by proactive behavioural mechanisms that inhibit contact with pathogens in the first place. This behavioural immune system comprises psychological processes that infer infection risk from perceptual cues, and that respond to these perceptual cues through the activation of aversive emotions, cognitions and behavioural impulses. These processes are engaged flexibly, producing context-contingent variation in the nature and magnitude of aversive responses. These processes have important implications for human social cognition and social behaviour-including implications for social gregariousness, person perception, intergroup prejudice, mate preferences, sexual behaviour and conformity. Empirical evidence bearing on these many implications is reviewed and discussed. This review also identifies important directions for future research on the human behavioural immune system--including the need for enquiry into underlying mechanisms, additional behavioural consequences and implications for human health and well-being.

The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality

PubMed Central

Schaller, Mark

2011-01-01

Because immunological defence against pathogens is costly and merely reactive, human anti-pathogen defence is also characterized by proactive behavioural mechanisms that inhibit contact with pathogens in the first place. This behavioural immune system comprises psychological processes that infer infection risk from perceptual cues, and that respond to these perceptual cues through the activation of aversive emotions, cognitions and behavioural impulses. These processes are engaged flexibly, producing context–contingent variation in the nature and magnitude of aversive responses. These processes have important implications for human social cognition and social behaviour—including implications for social gregariousness, person perception, intergroup prejudice, mate preferences, sexual behaviour and conformity. Empirical evidence bearing on these many implications is reviewed and discussed. This review also identifies important directions for future research on the human behavioural immune system—including the need for enquiry into underlying mechanisms, additional behavioural consequences and implications for human health and well-being. PMID:22042918

Personality Processes: Mechanisms by which Personality Traits “Get Outside the Skin”

PubMed Central

Hampson, Sarah E.

2011-01-01

It is time to better understand why personality traits predict consequential outcomes, which calls for a closer look at personality processes. Personality processes are mechanisms that unfold over time to produce the effects of personality traits. They include reactive and instrumental processes that moderate or mediate the association between traits and outcomes. These mechanisms are illustrated here by a selection of studies of traits representing the three broad domains of personality and temperament: negative emotionality, positive emotionality, and constraint. Personality processes are studied over the short-term, as in event-sampling studies, and over the long-term, as in lifespan research. Implications of findings from the study of processes are considered for resolving issues in models of personality structure, improving and extending methods of personality assessment, and identifying targets for personality interventions. PMID:21740225

Neurophysiological correlates of attention behavior in early infancy: Implications for emotion regulation during early childhood.

PubMed

Perry, Nicole B; Swingler, Margaret M; Calkins, Susan D; Bell, Martha Ann

2016-02-01

Current theoretical conceptualizations of regulatory development suggest that attention processes and emotion regulation processes share common neurophysiological underpinnings and behavioral antecedents such that emotion regulation abilities may build on early attentional skills. To further elucidate this proposed relationship, we tested whether early neurophysiological processes measured during an attention task in infancy predicted in-task attention behavior and whether infants' attention behavior was subsequently associated with their ability to regulate emotion during early childhood (N=388). Results indicated that greater electroencephalogram (EEG) power change (from baseline to task) at medial frontal locations (F3 and F4) during an attention task at 10months of age was associated with concurrent observed behavioral attention. Specifically, greater change in EEG power at the right frontal location (F4) was associated with more attention and greater EEG power at the left frontal location (F3) was associated with less attention, indicating a potential right hemisphere specialization for attention processes already present during the first year of life. In addition, after controlling for 5-month attention behavior, increased behavioral attention at 10months was negatively associated with children's observed frustration to emotional challenge at 3years of age. Finally, the indirect effects from 10-month EEG power change at F3 and F4 to 3-year emotion regulation via infants' 10-month behavioral attention were significant, suggesting that infants' attention behavior is one mechanism through which early neurophysiological activity is related to emotion regulation abilities during childhood. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on neural responses to facial emotion.

PubMed

Mukherjee, Prerona; Whalley, Heather C; McKirdy, James W; McIntosh, Andrew M; Johnstone, Eve C; Lawrie, Stephen M; Hall, Jeremy

2011-03-31

The brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism has been associated with affective disorders, but its role in emotion processing has not been fully established. Due to the clinically heterogeneous nature of these disorders, studying the effect of genetic variation in the BDNF gene on a common attribute such as fear processing may elucidate how the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism impacts brain function. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging examine the effect of the BDNF Val66Met genotype on neural activity for fear processing. Forty healthy participants performed an implicit fear task during scanning, where subjects made gender judgments from facial images with neutral or fearful emotion. Subjects were tested for facial emotion recognition post-scan. Functional connectivity was investigated using psycho-physiological interactions. Subjects were genotyped for the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and the measures compared between genotype groups. Met carriers showed overactivation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), brainstem and insula bilaterally for fear processing, along with reduced functional connectivity from the ACC to the left hippocampus, and impaired fear recognition ability. The results show that during fear processing, Met allele carriers show an increased neural response in regions previously implicated in mediating autonomic arousal. Further, the Met carriers show decreased functional connectivity with the hippocampus, which may reflect differential retrieval of emotional associations. Together, these effects show significant differences in the neural substrate for fear processing with genetic variation in BDNF. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of DAT1 genotype on fMRI activation in an emotional go/no-go task.

PubMed

Brown, Brenna K; Murrell, Jill; Karne, Harish; Anand, Amit

2017-02-01

Dopaminergic brain circuits participate in emotional processing and impulsivity. The dopamine transporter (DAT) modulates dopamine reuptake. A variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) in the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) affects DAT expression. The influence of DAT1 genotype on neural activation during emotional processing and impulse inhibition has not been examined. Forty-two healthy subjects were classified as 9DAT (n = 17) or 10DAT (n = 25) based on DAT1 genotype (9DAT = 9R/9R and 9R/10R; 10DAT = 10R/10R). Subjects underwent fMRI during non-emotional and emotional go/no-go tasks. Subjects were instructed to inhibit responses to letters, happy faces, or sad faces in separate blocks. Accuracy and reaction time did not differ between groups. Within group results showed activation in regions previously implicated in emotional processing and response inhibition. Between groups results showed increased activation in 9DAT individuals during inhibition. During letter inhibition, 9DAT individuals exhibited greater activation in right inferior parietal regions. During sad inhibition, 9DAT Individuals exhibited greater activation in frontal, posterior cingulate, precuneus, right cerebellar, left paracentral, and right occipital brain regions. The interaction between DAT genotype and response type in sad versus letter stimuli showed increased activation in 9DAT individuals during sad no-go responses in the anterior cingulate cortex, extending into frontal-orbital regions. 9DAT individuals have greater activation than 10DAT individuals during neutral and sad inhibition, showing that genotypic variation influencing basal dopamine levels can alter the neural basis of emotional processing and response inhibition. This may indicate that 9R carriers exert more effort to overcome increased basal dopamine activation when inhibiting responses in emotional contexts.

The effects of social anxiety on emotional face discrimination and its modulation by mouth salience.

PubMed

du Rocher, Andrew R; Pickering, Alan D

2018-05-21

People high in social anxiety experience fear of social situations due to the likelihood of social evaluation. Whereas happy faces are generally processed very quickly, this effect is impaired by high social anxiety. Mouth regions are implicated during emotional face processing, therefore differences in mouth salience might affect how social anxiety relates to emotional face discrimination. We designed an emotional facial expression recognition task to reveal how varying levels of sub-clinical social anxiety (measured by questionnaire) related to the discrimination of happy and fearful faces, and of happy and angry faces. We also categorised the facial expressions by the salience of the mouth region (i.e. high [open mouth] vs. low [closed mouth]). In a sample of 90 participants higher social anxiety (relative to lower social anxiety) was associated with a reduced happy face reaction time advantage. However, this effect was mainly driven by the faces with less salient closed mouths. Our results are consistent with theories of anxiety that incorporate an oversensitive valence evaluation system.

Gendered emotion work around physical health problems in mid- and later-life marriages☆

PubMed Central

Thomeer, Mieke Beth; Reczek, Corinne; Umberson, Debra

2015-01-01

The provision and receipt of emotion work—defined as intentional activities done to promote another’s emotional well-being—are central dimensions of marriage. However, emotion work in response to physical health problems is a largely unexplored, yet likely important, aspect of the marital experience. We analyze dyadic in-depth interviews with husbands and wives in 21 mid-to later-life couples to examine the ways that health-impaired people and their spouses provide, interpret, and explain emotion work. Because physical health problems, emotion work, and marital dynamics are gendered, we consider how these processes differ for women and men. We find that wives provide emotion work regardless of their own health status. Husbands provide emotion work less consistently, typically only when the husbands see themselves as their wife’s primary source of stability or when the husbands view their marriage as balanced. Notions of traditional masculinity preclude some husbands from providing emotion work even when their wife is health-impaired. This study articulates emotion work around physical health problems as one factor that sustains and exacerbates gender inequalities in marriage with implications for emotional and physical well-being. PMID:25661852

Human Emotion Experiences Can Be Predicted on Theoretical Grounds: Evidence from Verbal Labeling

PubMed Central

Scherer, Klaus R.; Meuleman, Ben

2013-01-01

In an effort to demonstrate that the verbal labeling of emotional experiences obeys lawful principles, we tested the feasibility of using an expert system called the Geneva Emotion Analyst (GEA), which generates predictions based on an appraisal theory of emotion. Several thousand respondents participated in an Internet survey that applied GEA to self-reported emotion experiences. Users recalled appraisals of emotion-eliciting events and labeled the experienced emotion with one or two words, generating a massive data set on realistic, intense emotions in everyday life. For a final sample of 5969 respondents we show that GEA achieves a high degree of predictive accuracy by matching a user’s appraisal input to one of 13 theoretically predefined emotion prototypes. The first prediction was correct in 51% of the cases and the overall diagnosis was considered as at least partially correct or appropriate in more than 90% of all cases. These results support a component process model that encourages focused, hypothesis-guided research on elicitation and differentiation, memory storage and retrieval, and categorization and labeling of emotion episodes. We discuss the implications of these results for the study of emotion terms in natural language semantics. PMID:23483988

Motor signatures of emotional reactivity in frontotemporal dementia.

PubMed

Marshall, Charles R; Hardy, Chris J D; Russell, Lucy L; Clark, Camilla N; Bond, Rebecca L; Dick, Katrina M; Brotherhood, Emilie V; Mummery, Cath J; Schott, Jonathan M; Rohrer, Jonathan D; Kilner, James M; Warren, Jason D

2018-01-18

Automatic motor mimicry is essential to the normal processing of perceived emotion, and disrupted automatic imitation might underpin socio-emotional deficits in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly the frontotemporal dementias. However, the pathophysiology of emotional reactivity in these diseases has not been elucidated. We studied facial electromyographic responses during emotion identification on viewing videos of dynamic facial expressions in 37 patients representing canonical frontotemporal dementia syndromes versus 21 healthy older individuals. Neuroanatomical associations of emotional expression identification accuracy and facial muscle reactivity were assessed using voxel-based morphometry. Controls showed characteristic profiles of automatic imitation, and this response predicted correct emotion identification. Automatic imitation was reduced in the behavioural and right temporal variant groups, while the normal coupling between imitation and correct identification was lost in the right temporal and semantic variant groups. Grey matter correlates of emotion identification and imitation were delineated within a distributed network including primary visual and motor, prefrontal, insular, anterior temporal and temporo-occipital junctional areas, with common involvement of supplementary motor cortex across syndromes. Impaired emotional mimesis may be a core mechanism of disordered emotional signal understanding and reactivity in frontotemporal dementia, with implications for the development of novel physiological biomarkers of socio-emotional dysfunction in these diseases.

Gendered emotion work around physical health problems in mid- and later-life marriages.

PubMed

Thomeer, Mieke Beth; Reczek, Corinne; Umberson, Debra

2015-01-01

The provision and receipt of emotion work-defined as intentional activities done to promote another's emotional well-being-are central dimensions of marriage. However, emotion work in response to physical health problems is a largely unexplored, yet likely important, aspect of the marital experience. We analyze dyadic in-depth interviews with husbands and wives in 21 mid- to later-life couples to examine the ways that health-impaired people and their spouses provide, interpret, and explain emotion work. Because physical health problems, emotion work, and marital dynamics are gendered, we consider how these processes differ for women and men. We find that wives provide emotion work regardless of their own health status. Husbands provide emotion work less consistently, typically only when the husbands see themselves as their wife's primary source of stability or when the husbands view their marriage as balanced. Notions of traditional masculinity preclude some husbands from providing emotion work even when their wife is health-impaired. This study articulates emotion work around physical health problems as one factor that sustains and exacerbates gender inequalities in marriage with implications for emotional and physical well-being. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Childhood trauma exposure disrupts the automatic regulation of emotional processing.

PubMed

Marusak, Hilary A; Martin, Kayla R; Etkin, Amit; Thomason, Moriah E

2015-03-13

Early-life trauma is one of the strongest risk factors for later emotional psychopathology. Although research in adults highlights that childhood trauma predicts deficits in emotion regulation that persist decades later, it is unknown whether neural and behavioral changes that may precipitate illness are evident during formative, developmental years. This study examined whether automatic regulation of emotional conflict is perturbed in a high-risk urban sample of trauma-exposed children and adolescents. A total of 14 trauma-exposed and 16 age-, sex-, and IQ-matched comparison youth underwent functional MRI while performing an emotional conflict task that involved categorizing facial affect while ignoring an overlying emotion word. Engagement of the conflict regulation system was evaluated at neural and behavioral levels. Results showed that trauma-exposed youth failed to dampen dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity and engage amygdala-pregenual cingulate inhibitory circuitry during the regulation of emotional conflict, and were less able to regulate emotional conflict. In addition, trauma-exposed youth showed greater conflict-related amygdala reactivity that was associated with diminished levels of trait reward sensitivity. These data point to a trauma-related deficit in automatic regulation of emotional processing, and increase in sensitivity to emotional conflict in neural systems implicated in threat detection. Aberrant amygdala response to emotional conflict was related to diminished reward sensitivity that is emerging as a critical stress-susceptibility trait that may contribute to the emergence of mental illness during adolescence. These results suggest that deficits in conflict regulation for emotional material may underlie heightened risk for psychopathology in individuals that endure early-life trauma.

Amygdala excitability to subliminally presented emotional faces distinguishes unipolar and bipolar depression: an fMRI and pattern classification study.

PubMed

Grotegerd, Dominik; Stuhrmann, Anja; Kugel, Harald; Schmidt, Simone; Redlich, Ronny; Zwanzger, Peter; Rauch, Astrid Veronika; Heindel, Walter; Zwitserlood, Pienie; Arolt, Volker; Suslow, Thomas; Dannlowski, Udo

2014-07-01

Bipolar disorder and Major depressive disorder are difficult to differentiate during depressive episodes, motivating research for differentiating neurobiological markers. Dysfunctional amygdala responsiveness during emotion processing has been implicated in both disorders, but the important rapid and automatic stages of emotion processing in the amygdala have so far never been investigated in bipolar patients. fMRI data of 22 bipolar depressed patients (BD), 22 matched unipolar depressed patients (MDD), and 22 healthy controls (HC) were obtained during processing of subliminal sad, happy and neutral faces. Amygdala responsiveness was investigated using standard univariate analyses as well as pattern-recognition techniques to differentiate the two clinical groups. Furthermore, medication effects on amygdala responsiveness were explored. All subjects were unaware of the emotional faces. Univariate analysis revealed a significant group × emotion interaction within the left amygdala. Amygdala responsiveness to sad>neutral faces was increased in MDD relative to BD. In contrast, responsiveness to happy>neutral faces showed the opposite pattern, with higher amygdala activity in BD than in MDD. Most of the activation patterns in both clinical groups differed significantly from activation patterns of HC--and therefore represent abnormalities. Furthermore, pattern classification on amygdala activation to sad>happy faces yielded almost 80% accuracy differentiating MDD and BD patients. Medication had no significant effect on these findings. Distinct amygdala excitability during automatic stages of the processing of emotional faces may reflect differential pathophysiological processes in BD versus MDD depression, potentially representing diagnosis-specific neural markers mostly unaffected by current psychotropic medication. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The detrimental effects of emotional process dysregulation on decision-making in substance dependence

PubMed Central

Murphy, Anna; Taylor, Eleanor; Elliott, Rebecca

2012-01-01

Substance dependence is complex and multifactorial, with many distinct pathways involved in both the development and subsequent maintenance of addictive behaviors. Various cognitive mechanisms have been implicated, including impulsivity, compulsivity, and impaired decision-making. These mechanisms are modulated by emotional processes, resulting in increased likelihood of initial drug use, sustained substance dependence, and increased relapse during periods of abstinence. Emotional traits, such as sensation-seeking, are risk factors for substance use, and chronic drug use can result in further emotional dysregulation via effects on reward, motivation, and stress systems. We will explore theories of hyper and hypo sensitivity of the brain reward systems that may underpin motivational abnormalities and anhedonia. Disturbances in these systems contribute to the biasing of emotional processing toward cues related to drug use at the expense of natural rewards, which serves to maintain addictive behavior, via enhanced drug craving. We will additionally focus on the sensitization of the brain stress systems that result in negative affect states that continue into protracted abstinence that is may lead to compulsive drug-taking. We will explore how these emotional dysregulations impact upon decision-making controlled by goal-directed and habitual action selections systems, and, in combination with a failure of prefrontal inhibitory control, mediate maladaptive decision-making observed in substance dependent individuals such that they continue drug use in spite of negative consequences. An understanding of the emotional impacts on cognition in substance dependent individuals may guide the development of more effective therapeutic interventions. PMID:23162443

Emotional reasoning processes and dysphoric mood: cross-sectional and prospective relationships.

PubMed

Berle, David; Moulds, Michelle L

2013-01-01

Emotional reasoning refers to the use of subjective emotions, rather than objective evidence, to form conclusions about oneself and the world. Emotional reasoning appears to characterise anxiety disorders. We aimed to determine whether elevated levels of emotional reasoning also characterise dysphoria. In Study 1, low dysphoric (BDI-II≤4; n = 28) and high dysphoric (BDI-II ≥14; n = 42) university students were administered an emotional reasoning task relevant for dysphoria. In Study 2, a larger university sample were administered the same task, with additional self-referent ratings, and were followed up 8 weeks later. In Study 1, both the low and high dysphoric participants demonstrated emotional reasoning and there were no significant differences in scores on the emotional reasoning task between the low and high dysphoric groups. In Study 2, self-referent emotional reasoning interpretations showed small-sized positive correlations with depression symptoms. Emotional reasoning tendencies were stable across an 8-week interval although not predictive of subsequent depressive symptoms. Further, anxiety symptoms were independently associated with emotional reasoning and emotional reasoning was not associated with anxiety sensitivity, alexithymia, or deductive reasoning tendencies. The implications of these findings are discussed, including the possibility that while all individuals may engage in emotional reasoning, self-referent emotional reasoning may be associated with increased levels of depressive symptoms.

Relating specific emotions to intrinsic motivation: on the moderating role of positive and negative emotion differentiation.

PubMed

Vandercammen, Leen; Hofmans, Joeri; Theuns, Peter

2014-01-01

Despite the fact that studies on self-determination theory have traditionally disregarded the explicit role of emotions in the motivation eliciting process, research attention for the affective antecedents of motivation is growing. We add to this emerging research field by testing the moderating role of emotion differentiation -individual differences in the extent to which people can differentiate between specific emotions- on the relationship between twelve specific emotions and intrinsic motivation. To this end, we conducted a daily diary study (N = 72) and an experience sampling study (N = 34). Results showed that the relationship between enthusiasm, cheerfulness, optimism, contentedness, gloominess, miserableness, uneasiness (in both studies 1 and 2), calmness, relaxation, tenseness, depression, worry (only in Study 1) on one hand and intrinsic motivation on the other hand was moderated by positive emotion differentiation for the positive emotions and by negative emotion differentiation for the negative emotions. Altogether, these findings suggest that for people who are unable to distinguish between different specific positive emotions the relationship between those specific positive emotions and intrinsic motivation is stronger, whereas the relationship between specific negative emotions and intrinsic motivation is weaker for people who are able to distinguish between the different specific negative emotions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Affective neuroscience of the emotional BrainMind: evolutionary perspectives and implications for understanding depression

PubMed Central

Panksepp, Jaak

2010-01-01

Cross-species affective neuroscience studies confirm that primary-process emotional feelings are organized within primitive subcortical regions of the brain that are anatomically, neurochemically, and functionally homologous in all mammals that have been studied. Emotional feelings (affects) are intrinsic values that inform animals how they are faring in the quest to survive. The various positive affects indicate that animals are returning to “comfort zones” that support survival, and negative affects reflect “discomfort zones” that indicate that animals are in situations that may impair survival. They are ancestral tools for living - evolutionary memories of such importance that they were coded into the genome in rough form (as primary brain processes), which are refined by basic learning mechanisms (secondary processes) as well as by higher-order cognitions/thoughts (tertiary processes). To understand why depression feels horrible, we must fathom the affective infrastructure of the mammalian brain. Advances in our understanding of the nature of primary-process emotional affects can promote the development of better preclinical models of psychiatric disorders and thereby also allow clinicians new and useful ways to understand the foundational aspects of their clients' problems. These networks are of clear importance for understanding psychiatric disorders and advancing psychiatric practice. PMID:21319497

The paradox of fiction: Emotional response toward fiction and the modulatory role of self-relevance.

PubMed

Sperduti, Marco; Arcangeli, Margherita; Makowski, Dominique; Wantzen, Prany; Zalla, Tiziana; Lemaire, Stéphane; Dokic, Jérôme; Pelletier, Jérôme; Piolino, Pascale

2016-03-01

For over forty years, philosophers have struggled with the "paradox of fiction", which is the issue of how we can get emotionally involved with fictional characters and events. The few neuroscientific studies investigating the distinction between the processing of real and fictional entities have evidenced that midline cortical structures and lateral fronto-parietal regions are more engaged for real and fictional entities, respectively. Interestingly, the former network is engaged in autobiographical memory retrieval and self-reference, processes that are known to boost emotional reactivity, while the latter underpins emotion regulation. Thus, a possible modulation of the emotional response according to the nature (real or fictional) of the stimulus is conceivable. To test this hypothesis, we presented short emotional (negative and positive) and neutral video as fictional or real. For negative material, we found that subjective emotional experience, but not physiological arousal measured by electrodermal activity, was reduced in the fictional condition. Moreover, the amount of personal memories linked to the scenes counteracted this effect boosting the subjective emotional response. On the contrary, personal memories elicited by the scenes, but not fiction, modulate the emotional response for positive material. These results suggest that when a stimulus triggers a personal memory, the emotional response is less prone to be modulated by contextual factors, and suggest that personal engagement could be responsible for emotional reaction toward fiction. We discuss these results in the emotion regulation framework and underline their implications in informing theoretical accounts of emotion in the neuroscientific domain and the philosophical debate on the paradox of emotional response to fiction. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Dynamic Effects of Self-Relevance and Task on the Neural Processing of Emotional Words in Context

PubMed Central

Fields, Eric C.; Kuperberg, Gina R.

2016-01-01

We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the interactions between task, emotion, and contextual self-relevance on processing words in social vignettes. Participants read scenarios that were in either third person (other-relevant) or second person (self-relevant) and we recorded ERPs to a neutral, pleasant, or unpleasant critical word. In a previously reported study (Fields and Kuperberg, 2012) with these stimuli, participants were tasked with producing a third sentence continuing the scenario. We observed a larger LPC to emotional words than neutral words in both the self-relevant and other-relevant scenarios, but this effect was smaller in the self-relevant scenarios because the LPC was larger on the neutral words (i.e., a larger LPC to self-relevant than other-relevant neutral words). In the present work, participants simply answered comprehension questions that did not refer to the emotional aspects of the scenario. Here we observed quite a different pattern of interaction between self-relevance and emotion: the LPC was larger to emotional vs. neutral words in the self-relevant scenarios only, and there was no effect of self-relevance on neutral words. Taken together, these findings suggest that the LPC reflects a dynamic interaction between specific task demands, the emotional properties of a stimulus, and contextual self-relevance. We conclude by discussing implications and future directions for a functional theory of the emotional LPC. PMID:26793138

Emotion, reflexivity and social change in the era of extreme fossil fuels.

PubMed

Davidson, Debra J

2018-05-09

Reflexivity is an important sociological lens through which to examine the means by which people engage in actions that contribute to social reproduction or social elaboration. Reflexivity theorists have largely overlooked the central place of emotions in reflexive processing, however, thus missing opportunities to enhance our understanding of reflexivity by capitalizing on recent scholarship on emotions emanating from other fields of inquiry. This paper explores the role of emotion in reflexivity, with a qualitative analysis of social responses to hydraulic fracturing in Alberta, Canada, utilizing narrative analysis of long-form interviews with rural landowners who have experienced direct impacts from hydraulic fracturing, and have attempted to voice their concerns in the public sphere. Based on interviews with a selection of two interview participants, the paper highlights the means by which emotions shape reflexivity in consequential ways, beginning with personal and highly individualized emotional responses to contingent situations, which then factor into the social interactions engaged in the pursuit of personal projects. The shared emotional context that emerges then plays a substantial role in shaping outcomes and their implications for social stasis or change. This study exemplifies the extent to which reflexive processing in response to breaches in the social order can be emotionally tumultuous affairs, constituting a significant personal toll that many may be unwilling to pay. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2018.

Bottom-up and top-down emotion generation: implications for emotion regulation

PubMed Central

Misra, Supriya; Prasad, Aditya K.; Pereira, Sean C.; Gross, James J.

2012-01-01

Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in adaptive functioning and mounting evidence suggests that some emotion regulation strategies are often more effective than others. However, little attention has been paid to the different ways emotions can be generated: from the ‘bottom-up’ (in response to inherently emotional perceptual properties of the stimulus) or ‘top-down’ (in response to cognitive evaluations). Based on a process priming principle, we hypothesized that mode of emotion generation would interact with subsequent emotion regulation. Specifically, we predicted that top-down emotions would be more successfully regulated by a top-down regulation strategy than bottom-up emotions. To test this hypothesis, we induced bottom-up and top-down emotions, and asked participants to decrease the negative impact of these emotions using cognitive reappraisal. We observed the predicted interaction between generation and regulation in two measures of emotional responding. As measured by self-reported affect, cognitive reappraisal was more successful on top-down generated emotions than bottom-up generated emotions. Neurally, reappraisal of bottom-up generated emotions resulted in a paradoxical increase of amygdala activity. This interaction between mode of emotion generation and subsequent regulation should be taken into account when comparing of the efficacy of different types of emotion regulation, as well as when reappraisal is used to treat different types of clinical disorders. PMID:21296865

The NMDA antagonist ketamine and the 5-HT agonist psilocybin produce dissociable effects on structural encoding of emotional face expressions.

PubMed

Schmidt, André; Kometer, Michael; Bachmann, Rosilla; Seifritz, Erich; Vollenweider, Franz

2013-01-01

Both glutamate and serotonin (5-HT) play a key role in the pathophysiology of emotional biases. Recent studies indicate that the glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine and the 5-HT receptor agonist psilocybin are implicated in emotion processing. However, as yet, no study has systematically compared their contribution to emotional biases. This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) and signal detection theory to compare the effects of the NMDA (via S-ketamine) and 5-HT (via psilocybin) receptor system on non-conscious or conscious emotional face processing biases. S-ketamine or psilocybin was administrated to two groups of healthy subjects in a double-blind within-subject placebo-controlled design. We behaviorally assessed objective thresholds for non-conscious discrimination in all drug conditions. Electrophysiological responses to fearful, happy, and neutral faces were subsequently recorded with the face-specific P100 and N170 ERP. Both S-ketamine and psilocybin impaired the encoding of fearful faces as expressed by a reduced N170 over parieto-occipital brain regions. In contrast, while S-ketamine also impaired the encoding of happy facial expressions, psilocybin had no effect on the N170 in response to happy faces. This study demonstrates that the NMDA and 5-HT receptor systems differentially contribute to the structural encoding of emotional face expressions as expressed by the N170. These findings suggest that the assessment of early visual evoked responses might allow detecting pharmacologically induced changes in emotional processing biases and thus provides a framework to study the pathophysiology of dysfunctional emotional biases.

Neural Processing of Emotional Musical and Nonmusical Stimuli in Depression

PubMed Central

Atchley, Ruth Ann; Chrysikou, Evangelia; Martin, Laura E.; Clair, Alicia A.; Ingram, Rick E.; Simmons, W. Kyle; Savage, Cary R.

2016-01-01

Background Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and striatum are part of the emotional neural circuitry implicated in major depressive disorder (MDD). Music is often used for emotion regulation, and pleasurable music listening activates the dopaminergic system in the brain, including the ACC. The present study uses functional MRI (fMRI) and an emotional nonmusical and musical stimuli paradigm to examine how neural processing of emotionally provocative auditory stimuli is altered within the ACC and striatum in depression. Method Nineteen MDD and 20 never-depressed (ND) control participants listened to standardized positive and negative emotional musical and nonmusical stimuli during fMRI scanning and gave subjective ratings of valence and arousal following scanning. Results ND participants exhibited greater activation to positive versus negative stimuli in ventral ACC. When compared with ND participants, MDD participants showed a different pattern of activation in ACC. In the rostral part of the ACC, ND participants showed greater activation for positive information, while MDD participants showed greater activation to negative information. In dorsal ACC, the pattern of activation distinguished between the types of stimuli, with ND participants showing greater activation to music compared to nonmusical stimuli, while MDD participants showed greater activation to nonmusical stimuli, with the greatest response to negative nonmusical stimuli. No group differences were found in striatum. Conclusions These results suggest that people with depression may process emotional auditory stimuli differently based on both the type of stimulation and the emotional content of that stimulation. This raises the possibility that music may be useful in retraining ACC function, potentially leading to more effective and targeted treatments. PMID:27284693

Strategic Planning for Divorce Mediation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weingarten, Helen R.

1986-01-01

Presents a theoretical model that focuses attention on the multiple arenas of life that are disrupted by divorce, the emotional stages of divorce, and the interpersonal dynamics of separating couples. Discusses the implications of these factors for strategically planning and carrying out the mediation process. (Author/ABB)

Learning Disability: An Educational Adventure. The 1967 Kappa Delta Pi Lecture.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kephart, Newell C.

Educational implications and symptoms are described for learning disorders, the disruption in the processing of information within the central nervous system caused by brain damage, emotional disturbance, or inadequate presentation of learning experiences. Developmental sequences, developmental progression, and restoration of development are…

Neurosciences, empathy, and healthy interpersonal relationships: recent findings and implications for counseling psychology.

PubMed

Coutinho, Joana Fernandes; Silva, Patrícia Oliveira; Decety, Jean

2014-10-01

In this article, we define the construct of empathy and its relevance for counseling psychology. The importance of deficits in empathic processes for most of the psychological disorders is presented within the context of the social brain hypothesis (Frith, 2007). We provide a review of empirical research about the neural correlates of empathy in terms of both the central and peripheral nervous system. We present recent evidence on the cortical and subcortical regions involved in different dimensions of empathy-emotional contagion, cognitive and emotional empathy, and self-regulation. Regarding the autonomic correlates of empathy, we present evidence about the correlates of sympathetic arousal associated with empathic processes and review data supporting the idea of the physiological linkage or synchrony as indicator of empathy in interpersonal relationships. The implications of these findings for counseling psychology, particularly for the psychotherapist-client relationship and for context of intimate relationships or couples therapy, are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Process analysis of trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy for individuals with schizophrenia.

PubMed

O'Driscoll, Ciarán; Mason, Oliver; Brady, Francesca; Smith, Ben; Steel, Craig

2016-06-01

Therapeutic alliance, modality, and ability to engage with the process of therapy have been the main focus of research into what makes psychotherapy successful. Individuals with complex trauma histories or schizophrenia are suggested to be more difficult to engage and may be less likely to benefit from therapy. This study aimed to track the in-session 'process' of working alliance and emotional processing of trauma memories for individuals with schizophrenia. The study utilized session recordings from the treatment arm of an open randomized clinical trial investigating trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) for individuals with schizophrenia (N = 26). Observer measures of working alliance, emotional processing, and affect arousal were rated at early and late phases of therapy. Correlation analysis was undertaken for process measures. Temporal analysis of expressed emotions was also reported. Working alliance was established and maintained throughout the therapy; however, agreement on goals reduced at the late phase. The participants appeared to be able to engage in emotional processing, but not to the required level for successful cognitive restructuring. This study undertook novel exploration of process variables not usually explored in CBT. It is also the first study of process for TF-CBT with individuals with schizophrenia. This complex clinical sample showed no difficulty in engagement; however, they may not be able to fully undertake the cognitive-emotional demands of this type of therapy. Clinical and research implications and potential limitations of these methods are considered. This sample showed no difficulties engaging with TF-CBT and forming a working alliance. However, the participants may not have achieved a level of active involvement required for successful cognitive restructuring of trauma memories. This discrepancy may relate to the mediating role of both working alliance and cognitive-emotional processing. The results underscore the importance of therapists understanding the relationship between alliance and other process factors which may be implicit in facilitating change. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Understanding narrative effects: The role of discrete negative emotions on message processing and attitudes among low-income African American women

PubMed Central

Yoo, Jina H.; Kreuter, Matthew W.; Lai, Choi; Fu, Qiang

2014-01-01

This study tests the processes through which breast cancer narrative messages are effective by taking a functional approach. We explore how discrete negative emotions (i.e., sadness, fear, and anger) induced by breast cancer survivor stories affect African American women’s message processing, recall of message content, and attitudinal outcomes. Structural equation modeling was performed for narrative and informational versions of a breast cancer screening video shown to 409 low-income African American women ages 40 and older. The model was well fitted. Sadness enhanced the persuasive process, while fear inhibited it. Sadness also helped participants recall more message-relevant content, while fear inhibited recall. Anger was not related to the persuasive process. Implications of these findings for narrative research and application are discussed. PMID:24111724

Growing Up Amid Ethno-Political Conflict: Aggression and Emotional Desensitization Promote Hostility to Ethnic Outgroups.

PubMed

Niwa, Erika Y; Boxer, Paul; Dubow, Eric; Huesmann, L R; Shikaki, Khalil; Landau, Simha; Gvirsman, Shira D

2016-09-01

Ethno-political violence impacts thousands of youth and is associated with numerous negative outcomes. Yet little research examines adaptation to ethno-political violence over time or across multiple outcomes simultaneously. This study examines longitudinal patterns of aggressive behavior and emotional distress as they co-occur among Palestinian (n = 600) youth exposed to ethno-political violence over 3 years in three age cohorts (starting ages: 8, 11, and 14). Findings indicate distinct profiles of aggressive behavior and emotional distress, and unique joint patterns. Furthermore, youth among key joint profiles (e.g., high aggression-emotional desensitization) are more likely to endorse normative beliefs about aggression toward ethnic outgroups. This study offers a dynamic perspective on emotional and behavioral adaptation to ethno-political violence and the implications of those processes. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Poverty, household chaos, and interparental aggression predict children’s ability to recognize and modulate negative emotions

PubMed Central

Raver, C. Cybele; Blair, Clancy; Garrett-Peters, Patricia

2015-01-01

The following prospective longitudinal study considers the ways that protracted exposure to verbal and physical aggression between parents may take a substantial toll on emotional adjustment for 1,025 children followed from 6 to 58 months of age. Exposure to chronic poverty from infancy to early childhood as well as multiple measures of household chaos were also included as predictors of children’s ability to recognize and modulate negative emotions in order to disentangle the role of interparental conflict from the socioeconomic forces that sometimes accompany it. Analyses revealed that exposure to greater levels of interparental conflict, more chaos in the household, and a higher number of years in poverty can be empirically distinguished as key contributors to 58-month-olds’ ability to recognize and modulate negative emotion. Implications for models of experiential canalization of emotional processes within the context of adversity are discussed. PMID:25215541

Poverty, household chaos, and interparental aggression predict children's ability to recognize and modulate negative emotions.

PubMed

Raver, C Cybele; Blair, Clancy; Garrett-Peters, Patricia

2015-08-01

The following prospective longitudinal study considers the ways that protracted exposure to verbal and physical aggression between parents may take a substantial toll on emotional adjustment for 1,025 children followed from 6 to 58 months of age. Exposure to chronic poverty from infancy to early childhood as well as multiple measures of household chaos were also included as predictors of children's ability to recognize and modulate negative emotions in order to disentangle the role of interparental conflict from the socioeconomic forces that sometimes accompany it. Analyses revealed that exposure to greater levels of interparental conflict, more chaos in the household, and a higher number of years in poverty can be empirically distinguished as key contributors to 58-month-olds' ability to recognize and modulate negative emotion. Implications for models of experiential canalization of emotional processes within the context of adversity are discussed.

Effects of the potential lithium-mimetic, ebselen, on impulsivity and emotional processing.

PubMed

Masaki, Charles; Sharpley, Ann L; Cooper, Charlotte M; Godlewska, Beata R; Singh, Nisha; Vasudevan, Sridhar R; Harmer, Catherine J; Churchill, Grant C; Sharp, Trevor; Rogers, Robert D; Cowen, Philip J

2016-07-01

Lithium remains the most effective treatment for bipolar disorder and also has important effects to lower suicidal behaviour, a property that may be linked to its ability to diminish impulsive, aggressive behaviour. The antioxidant drug, ebselen, has been proposed as a possible lithium-mimetic based on its ability in animals to inhibit inositol monophosphatase (IMPase), an action which it shares with lithium. The aim of the study was to determine whether treatment with ebselen altered emotional processing and diminished measures of risk-taking behaviour. We studied 20 healthy participants who were tested on two occasions receiving either ebselen (3600 mg over 24 h) or identical placebo in a double-blind, randomized, cross-over design. Three hours after the final dose of ebselen/placebo, participants completed the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) and a task that required the detection of emotional facial expressions (facial emotion recognition task (FERT)). On the CGT, relative to placebo, ebselen reduced delay aversion while on the FERT, it increased the recognition of positive vs negative facial expressions. The study suggests that at the dosage used, ebselen can decrease impulsivity and produce a positive bias in emotional processing. These findings have implications for the possible use of ebselen in the disorders characterized by impulsive behaviour and dysphoric mood.

Anterior cingulate hyperactivations during negative emotion processing among men with schizophrenia and a history of violent behavior

PubMed Central

Tikàsz, Andràs; Potvin, Stéphane; Lungu, Ovidiu; Joyal, Christian C; Hodgins, Sheilagh; Mendrek, Adrianna; Dumais, Alexandre

2016-01-01

Background Evidence suggests a 2.1–4.6 times increase in the risk of violent behavior in schizophrenia compared to the general population. Current theories propose that the processing of negative emotions is defective in violent individuals and that dysfunctions within the neural circuits involved in emotion processing are implicated in violence. Although schizophrenia patients show enhanced sensitivity to negative stimuli, there are only few functional neuroimaging studies that have examined emotion processing among men with schizophrenia and a history of violence. Objective The present study aimed to identify the brain regions with greater neurofunctional alterations, as detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotion processing task, of men with schizophrenia who had engaged in violent behavior compared with those who had not. Methods Sixty men were studied; 20 with schizophrenia and a history of violence, 19 with schizophrenia and no violence, and 21 healthy men were scanned while viewing positive, negative, and neutral images. Results Negative images elicited hyperactivations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left and right lingual gyrus, and the left precentral gyrus in violent men with schizophrenia, compared to nonviolent men with schizophrenia and healthy men. Neutral images elicited hyperactivations in the right and left middle occipital gyrus, left lingual gyrus, and the left fusiform gyrus in violent men with schizophrenia, compared to the other two groups. Discussion Violent men with schizophrenia displayed specific increases in ACC in response to negative images. Given the role of the ACC in information integration, these results indicate a specific dysfunction in the processing of negative emotions that may trigger violent behavior in men with schizophrenia. PMID:27366072

Memory and emotion processing performance contributes to the diagnosis of non-semantic primary progressive aphasia syndromes.

PubMed

Piguet, Olivier; Leyton, Cristian E; Gleeson, Liam D; Hoon, Chris; Hodges, John R

2015-01-01

The two non-semantic variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), nonfluent/agrammatic PPA (nfv-PPA) and logopenic variant PPA (lv-PPA), share language features despite their different underlying pathology, and may be difficult to distinguish for non-language experts. To improve diagnostic accuracy of nfv-PPA and lv-PPA using tasks measuring non-language cognition and emotion processing. Thirty-eight dementia patients meeting diagnostic criteria for PPA (nfv-PPA 20, lv-PPA 18) and 21 matched healthy Controls underwent a comprehensive assessment of cognition and emotion processing, as well as a high-resolution structural MRI and a PiB-PET scan, a putative biomarker of Alzheimer's disease. Task performances were compared between the groups and those found to differ significantly were entered into a logistic regression analysis. Analyses revealed a double dissociation between nfv-PPA and lv-PPA. nfv-PPA exhibited significant emotion processing disturbance compared to lv-PPA and Controls. In contrast, only the lv-PPA group was significantly impaired on tasks of episodic memory. Logistic regression analyses showed that 87% of patients were correctly classified using emotion processing and episodic memory composite scores, together with a measure of visuospatial ability. Non-language presenting features can help differentiate between the two non-semantic PPA syndromes, with a double dissociation observed on tasks of episodic memory and emotion processing. Based on performance on these tasks, we propose a decision tree as a complementary method to differentiate between the two non-semantic variants. These findings have important clinical implications, with identification of patients who may potentially benefit existing therapeutic interventions currently available for Alzheimer's disease.

Relating Specific Emotions to Intrinsic Motivation: On the Moderating Role of Positive and Negative Emotion Differentiation

PubMed Central

Vandercammen, Leen; Hofmans, Joeri; Theuns, Peter

2014-01-01

Despite the fact that studies on self-determination theory have traditionally disregarded the explicit role of emotions in the motivation eliciting process, research attention for the affective antecedents of motivation is growing. We add to this emerging research field by testing the moderating role of emotion differentiation –individual differences in the extent to which people can differentiate between specific emotions– on the relationship between twelve specific emotions and intrinsic motivation. To this end, we conducted a daily diary study (N = 72) and an experience sampling study (N = 34). Results showed that the relationship between enthusiasm, cheerfulness, optimism, contentedness, gloominess, miserableness, uneasiness (in both studies 1 and 2), calmness, relaxation, tenseness, depression, worry (only in Study 1) on one hand and intrinsic motivation on the other hand was moderated by positive emotion differentiation for the positive emotions and by negative emotion differentiation for the negative emotions. Altogether, these findings suggest that for people who are unable to distinguish between different specific positive emotions the relationship between those specific positive emotions and intrinsic motivation is stronger, whereas the relationship between specific negative emotions and intrinsic motivation is weaker for people who are able to distinguish between the different specific negative emotions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. PMID:25517984

Emotional Processing of Infants Displays in Eating Disorders

PubMed Central

Cardi, Valentina; Corfield, Freya; Leppanen, Jenni; Rhind, Charlotte; Deriziotis, Stephanie; Hadjimichalis, Alexandra; Hibbs, Rebecca; Micali, Nadia; Treasure, Janet

2014-01-01

Aim The aim of this study is to examine emotional processing of infant displays in people with Eating Disorders (EDs). Background Social and emotional factors are implicated as causal and maintaining factors in EDs. Difficulties in emotional regulation have been mainly studied in relation to adult interactions, with less interest given to interactions with infants. Method A sample of 138 women were recruited, of which 49 suffered from Anorexia Nervosa (AN), 16 from Bulimia Nervosa (BN), and 73 were healthy controls (HCs). Attentional responses to happy and sad infant faces were tested with the visual probe detection task. Emotional identification of, and reactivity to, infant displays were measured using self-report measures. Facial expressions to video clips depicting sad, happy and frustrated infants were also recorded. Results No significant differences between groups were observed in the attentional response to infant photographs. However, there was a trend for patients to disengage from happy faces. People with EDs also reported lower positive ratings of happy infant displays and greater subjective negative reactions to sad infants. Finally, patients showed a significantly lower production of facial expressions, especially in response to the happy infant video clip. Insecure attachment was negatively correlated with positive facial expressions displayed in response to the happy infant and positively correlated with the intensity of negative emotions experienced in response to the sad infant video clip. Conclusion People with EDs do not have marked abnormalities in their attentional processing of infant emotional faces. However, they do have a reduction in facial affect particularly in response to happy infants. Also, they report greater negative reactions to sadness, and rate positive emotions less intensively than HCs. This pattern of emotional responsivity suggests abnormalities in social reward sensitivity and might indicate new treatment targets. PMID:25463051

The emotional side of cognitive distraction: Implications for road safety.

PubMed

Chan, Michelle; Singhal, Anthony

2013-01-01

Driver distraction is estimated to be one of the leading causes of motor vehicle accidents. However, little is known about the role of emotional distraction on driving, despite evidence that attention is highly biased toward emotion. In the present study, we used a dual-task paradigm to examine the potential for driver distraction from emotional information presented on roadside billboards. This purpose was achieved using a driving simulator and three different types of emotional information: neutral words, negative emotional words, and positive emotional words. Participants also responded to target words while driving and completed a surprise free recall task of all the words at the end of the study. The findings suggest that driving performance is differentially affected by the valence (negative versus positive) of the emotional content. Drivers had lower mean speeds when there were emotional words compared to neutral words, and this slowing effect lasted longer when there were positive words. This may be due to distraction effects on driving behavior, which are greater for positive arousing stimuli. Moreover, when required to process non-emotional target stimuli, drivers had faster mean speeds in conditions where the targets were interspersed with emotional words compared to neutral words, and again, these effects lasted longer when there were positive words. On the other hand, negative information led to better memory recall. These unique effects may be due to separate processes in the human attention system, particularly related to arousal mechanisms and their interaction with emotion. We conclude that distraction that is emotion-based can modulate attention and decision-making abilities and have adverse impacts on driving behavior for several reasons. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aberrant Neural Connectivity during Emotional Processing Associated with Posttraumatic Stress

PubMed Central

Sadeh, Naomi; Spielberg, Jeffrey M.; Warren, Stacie L.; Miller, Gregory A.; Heller, Wendy

2014-01-01

Given the complexity of the brain, characterizing relations among distributed brain regions is likely essential to describing the neural instantiation of posttraumatic stress symptoms. This study examined patterns of functional connectivity among key brain regions implicated in the pathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 35 trauma-exposed adults using an emotion-word Stroop task. PTSD symptom severity (particularly hyperarousal symptoms) moderated amygdala-mPFC coupling during the processing of unpleasant words, and this moderation correlated positively with reported real-world impairment and amygdala reactivity. Reexperiencing severity moderated hippocampus-insula coupling during pleasant and unpleasant words. Results provide evidence that PTSD symptoms differentially moderate functional coupling during emotional interference and underscore the importance of examining network connectivity in research on PTSD. They suggest that hyperarousal is associated with negative mPFC-amygdala coupling and that reexperiencing is associated with altered insula-hippocampus function, patterns of connectivity that may represent separable indicators of dysfunctional inhibitory control during affective processing. PMID:25419500

Aberrant Neural Connectivity during Emotional Processing Associated with Posttraumatic Stress.

PubMed

Sadeh, Naomi; Spielberg, Jeffrey M; Warren, Stacie L; Miller, Gregory A; Heller, Wendy

2014-11-01

Given the complexity of the brain, characterizing relations among distributed brain regions is likely essential to describing the neural instantiation of posttraumatic stress symptoms. This study examined patterns of functional connectivity among key brain regions implicated in the pathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 35 trauma-exposed adults using an emotion-word Stroop task. PTSD symptom severity (particularly hyperarousal symptoms) moderated amygdala-mPFC coupling during the processing of unpleasant words, and this moderation correlated positively with reported real-world impairment and amygdala reactivity. Reexperiencing severity moderated hippocampus-insula coupling during pleasant and unpleasant words. Results provide evidence that PTSD symptoms differentially moderate functional coupling during emotional interference and underscore the importance of examining network connectivity in research on PTSD. They suggest that hyperarousal is associated with negative mPFC-amygdala coupling and that reexperiencing is associated with altered insula-hippocampus function, patterns of connectivity that may represent separable indicators of dysfunctional inhibitory control during affective processing.

A network of amygdala connections predict individual differences in trait anxiety.

PubMed

Greening, Steven G; Mitchell, Derek G V

2015-12-01

In this study we demonstrate that the pattern of an amygdala-centric network contributes to individual differences in trait anxiety. Individual differences in trait anxiety were predicted using maximum likelihood estimates of amygdala structural connectivity to multiple brain targets derived from diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) and probabilistic tractography on 72 participants. The prediction was performed using a stratified sixfold cross validation procedure using a regularized least square regression model. The analysis revealed a reliable network of regions predicting individual differences in trait anxiety. Higher trait anxiety was associated with stronger connections between the amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, an area implicated in the generation of emotional reactions, and inferior temporal gyrus and paracentral lobule, areas associated with perceptual and sensory processing. In contrast, higher trait anxiety was associated with weaker connections between amygdala and regions implicated in extinction learning such as medial orbitofrontal cortex, and memory encoding and environmental context recognition, including posterior cingulate cortex and parahippocampal gyrus. Thus, trait anxiety is not only associated with reduced amygdala connectivity with prefrontal areas associated with emotion modulation, but also enhanced connectivity with sensory areas. This work provides novel anatomical insight into potential mechanisms behind information processing biases observed in disorders of emotion. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Merging Technology and Emotions: Introduction to Affective Computing.

PubMed

Brigham, Tara J

2017-01-01

Affective computing technologies are designed to sense and respond based on human emotions. This technology allows a computer system to process the information gathered from various sensors to assess the emotional state of an individual. The system then offers a distinct response based on what it "felt." While this is completely unlike how most people interact with electronics today, this technology is likely to trickle into future everyday life. This column will explain what affective computing is, some of its benefits, and concerns with its adoption. It will also provide an overview of its implication in the library setting and offer selected examples of how and where it is currently being used.

Psychophysiology of neural, cognitive and affective integration: fMRI and autonomic indicants

PubMed Central

Critchley, Hugo D.

2009-01-01

Behaviour is shaped by environmental challenge in the context of homoeostatic need. Emotional and cognitive processes evoke patterned changes in bodily state that may signal emotional state to others. This dynamic modulation of visceral state is neurally mediated by sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system. Moreover neural afferents convey representations of the internal state of the body back to the brain to further influence emotion and cognition. Neuroimaging and lesion studies implicate specific regions of limbic forebrain in the behavioural generation of autonomic arousal states. Activity within these regions may predict emotion-specific autonomic response patterns within and between bodily organs, with implications for psychosomatic medicine. Feedback from the viscera is mapped hierarchically in the brain to influence efferent signals, and ultimately at the cortical level to engender and reinforce affective responses and subjective feeling states. Again neuroimaging and patient studies suggest discrete neural substrates for these representations, notably regions of insula and orbitofrontal cortex. Individual differences in conscious access to these interoceptive representations predict differences in emotional experience, but equally the misperception of heightened arousal level may evoke changes in emotional behaviour through engagement of the same neural centres. Perturbation of feedback may impair emotional reactivity and, in the context of inflammatory states give rise to cognitive, affective and psychomotor expressions of illness. Changes in visceral state during emotion may be mirrored in the responses of others, permitting a corresponding representation in the observer. The degree to which individuals are susceptible to this ‘contagion’ predicts individual differences in questionnaire ratings of empathy. Together these neuroimaging and clinical studies highlight the dynamic relationship between mind and body and help identify neural substrates that may translate thoughts into autonomic arousal and bodily states into feelings that can be shared. PMID:19414044

Breastfeeding: an emotional instinct.

PubMed

Díaz Meneses, Gonzalo

2013-04-01

The proposed objective of this research is twofold: (1) it examines the significance of emotions to the breastfeeding experience in relation to cognition, and (2) it analyzes the extent to which emotions and cognition are connected to breastfeeding. An empirical research work has been carried out based on a questionnaire that was administered in a maternity hospital in the autumn of 2008, in order to gather information regarding cognitive and emotional aspects of breastfeeding behavior. The final sample comprised 311 breastfeeding mothers, and the sampling error was 5.55%. The research shows that breastfeeding is not only more of an emotional reaction than a rational decision, but also demonstrates that the emotional development of breastfeeding is independent from the cognitive process. A new approach in the literature of breastfeeding is put forward in which the predominant cognitive techniques and theories are complemented by highlighting the importance of understanding the target group and implementing suitable and affective actions. Specific practical implications are provided for social marketing campaigns as well as future lines of research.

Bush v. Bin Laden: Effect of State Emotion on Perceived Threat is Mediated by Emotion Towards the Threat Agent (Bush vs. Ben Laden: l’Effet de l’Emotion etat sur la Menace Percue est Mediatisees par l’Emotion vis-a-vis de l’Agent Menacant)

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-07-01

auteurs discu- tent des implications des resultats pour les theories qui postulent un effet de I’emotion sur la perception du risque et pour com...effect of global negative emotion on perceived threat . The authors discuss implications of the findings for theories that postulate an effect of... auteurs ont mene une etude perception j emotion j experimentale afin d’examiner les effets d’etats emotionnels Specifi- ques (peur et colere) et globaux

The Effects of Poverty on the Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health of Children and Youth: Implications for Prevention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Aber, J. Lawrence; Beardslee, William R.

2012-01-01

This article considers the implications for prevention science of recent advances in research on family poverty and children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health. First, we describe definitions of poverty and the conceptual and empirical challenges to estimating the causal effects of poverty on children's mental, emotional, and behavioral…

The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions: Assumptions, Corollaries, and Implications for Educational Research and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pekrun, Reinhard

2006-01-01

This article describes the control-value theory of achievement emotions and its implications for educational research and practice. The theory provides an integrative framework for analyzing the antecedents and effects of emotions experienced in achievement and academic settings. It is based on the premise that appraisals of control and values are…

Coping and Sexual Harassment: How Victims Cope across Multiple Settings.

PubMed

Scarduzio, Jennifer A; Sheff, Sarah E; Smith, Mathew

2018-02-01

The ways sexual harassment occurs both online and in face-to-face settings has become more complicated. Sexual harassment that occurs in cyberspace or online sexual harassment adds complexity to the experiences of victims, current research understandings, and the legal dimensions of this phenomenon. Social networking sites (SNS) are a type of social media that offer unique opportunities to users and sometimes the communication that occurs on SNS can cross the line from flirtation into online sexual harassment. Victims of sexual harassment employ communicative strategies such as coping to make sense of their experiences of sexual harassment. The current study qualitatively examined problem-focused, active emotion-focused, and passive emotion-focused coping strategies employed by sexual harassment victims across multiple settings. We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with victims that had experienced sexual harassment across multiple settings (e.g., face-to-face and SNS). The findings present 16 types of coping strategies-five problem-focused, five active emotion-focused, and six passive emotion-focused. The victims used an average of three types of coping strategies during their experiences. Theoretical implications extend research on passive emotion-focused coping strategies by discussing powerlessness and how victims blame other victims. Furthermore, theoretically the findings reveal that coping is a complex, cyclical process and that victims shift among types of coping strategies over the course of their experience. Practical implications are offered for victims and for SNS sites.

Emotion and the prefrontal cortex: An integrative review.

PubMed

Dixon, Matthew L; Thiruchselvam, Ravi; Todd, Rebecca; Christoff, Kalina

2017-10-01

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a critical role in the generation and regulation of emotion. However, we lack an integrative framework for understanding how different emotion-related functions are organized across the entire expanse of the PFC, as prior reviews have generally focused on specific emotional processes (e.g., decision making) or specific anatomical regions (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex). Additionally, psychological theories and neuroscientific investigations have proceeded largely independently because of the lack of a common framework. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of functional neuroimaging, electrophysiological, lesion, and structural connectivity studies on the emotion-related functions of 8 subregions spanning the entire PFC. We introduce the appraisal-by-content model, which provides a new framework for integrating the diverse range of empirical findings. Within this framework, appraisal serves as a unifying principle for understanding the PFC's role in emotion, while relative content-specialization serves as a differentiating principle for understanding the role of each subregion. A synthesis of data from affective, social, and cognitive neuroscience studies suggests that different PFC subregions are preferentially involved in assigning value to specific types of inputs: exteroceptive sensations, episodic memories and imagined future events, viscero-sensory signals, viscero-motor signals, actions, others' mental states (e.g., intentions), self-related information, and ongoing emotions. We discuss the implications of this integrative framework for understanding emotion regulation, value-based decision making, emotional salience, and refining theoretical models of emotion. This framework provides a unified understanding of how emotional processes are organized across PFC subregions and generates new hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying adaptive and maladaptive emotional functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

[Cognition-Emotion Interactions and Psychopathic Personality: Distinct Pathways to Antisocial and Violent Behavior].

PubMed

Verona, Edelyn

Researchers have long acknowledged heterogeneity among persons who exhibit antisocial and violent behaviours. The study of psychopathic personality or psychopathy can help elucidate this heterogeneity through examination of the different facets that constitute this disorder. In particular, the distinct correlates of the interpersonal-affective traits (Factor 1) and the impulsive-antisocial traits (Factor 2) of psychopathy suggest at least two possible pathways to antisocial behaviours. Building on basic studies in cognitive and affective neuroscience, we provide a focused, non-comprehensive review of work identifying the biopsychological mechanisms involved in these two pathways, with special attention to studies using event-related potential (ERP) methods. In specific, a series of studies are discussed which examined affective and cognitive processes that may distinguish offenders high on psychopathic traits from other offenders, with emphasis on alterations in emotion-cognition interactions related to each factor of psychopathy. The set of findings reviewed highlight a central conclusion: Factor 1 represents a pathway involving reduced emotional responding, exacerbated by attentional abnormalities, that make for a more deliberate and emotionally insensitive offender profile. In contrast, Factor 2 characterizes a pathway marked by emotional and behavioural dysregulation and cognitive control dysfunctions, particularly in emotional contexts. Implications for identifying etiological processes and the further understanding of antisocial and violent behaviours are discussed.

The relationship between trait emotional intelligence, resiliency, and mental health in older adults: the mediating role of savouring.

PubMed

Wilson, Claire A; Saklofske, Donald H

2018-05-01

The present study explores savouring, defined as the process of attending to positive experiences, as a mediator in the relationships between resiliency, trait emotional intelligence (EI), and subjective mental health in older adults. Following Fredrickson's Broaden and Build Theory of positive emotions, the present study aims to extend our understanding of the underlying processes that link resiliency and trait EI with self-reported mental health in older adulthood. A sample of 149 adults aged 65 and over (M = 73.72) were recruited from retirement homes and community groups. Participants completed measures of resiliency, savouring, trait EI, and subjective mental health either online or in a paper format. Path analysis revealed that savouring fully mediated the relationship between resiliency and mental health. However, trait EI did not significantly predict mental health in this sample. These findings provided partial support for the Broaden and Build Theory of positive emotions. As anticipated, savouring imitated the broadening effect of positive emotions by mediating the relationship between resiliency and mental health. However, savouring failed to reflect the undoing effect of positive emotions and did not mediate the relationship between EI and mental health. These findings have implications for positive psychology exercises and may be a simple, yet effective means of improving the life quality of older adults.

Emotional intensity influences pre-implementation and implementation of distraction and reappraisal

PubMed Central

Shafir, Roni; Schwartz, Naama; Blechert, Jens

2015-01-01

Although emotional intensity powerfully challenges regulatory strategies, its influence remains largely unexplored in affective-neuroscience. Accordingly, the present study addressed the moderating role of emotional intensity in two regulatory stages—implementation (during regulation) and pre-implementation (prior to regulation), of two major cognitive regulatory strategies—distraction and reappraisal. According to our framework, because distraction implementation involves early attentional disengagement from emotional information before it gathers force, in high-intensity it should be more effective in the short-term, relative to reappraisal, which modulates emotional processing only at a late semantic meaning phase. Supporting findings showed that in high (but not low) intensity, distraction implementation resulted in stronger modulation of negative experience, reduced neural emotional processing (centro-parietal late positive potential, LPP), with suggestive evidence for less cognitive effort (frontal-LPP), relative to reappraisal. Related pre-implementation findings confirmed that anticipating regulation of high-intensity stimuli resulted in distraction (over reappraisal) preference. In contrast, anticipating regulation of low-intensity stimuli resulted in reappraisal (over distraction) preference, which is most beneficial for long-term adaptation. Furthermore, anticipating cognitively demanding regulation, either in cases of regulating counter to these preferences or via the more effortful strategy of reappraisal, enhanced neural attentional resource allocation (Stimulus Preceding Negativity). Broad implications are discussed. PMID:25700568

[Recognition of facial expression of emotions in Parkinson's disease: a theoretical review].

PubMed

Alonso-Recio, L; Serrano-Rodriguez, J M; Carvajal-Molina, F; Loeches-Alonso, A; Martin-Plasencia, P

2012-04-16

Emotional facial expression is a basic guide during social interaction and, therefore, alterations in their expression or recognition are important limitations for communication. To examine facial expression recognition abilities and their possible impairment in Parkinson's disease. First, we review the studies on this topic which have not found entirely similar results. Second, we analyze the factors that may explain these discrepancies and, in particular, as third objective, we consider the relationship between emotional recognition problems and cognitive impairment associated with the disease. Finally, we propose alternatives strategies for the development of studies that could clarify the state of these abilities in Parkinson's disease. Most studies suggest deficits in facial expression recognition, especially in those with negative emotional content. However, it is possible that these alterations are related to those that also appear in the course of the disease in other perceptual and executive processes. To advance in this issue, we consider necessary to design emotional recognition studies implicating differentially the executive or visuospatial processes, and/or contrasting cognitive abilities with facial expressions and non emotional stimuli. The precision of the status of these abilities, as well as increase our knowledge of the functional consequences of the characteristic brain damage in the disease, may indicate if we should pay special attention in their rehabilitation inside the programs implemented.

Emotion-attention interactions in recognition memory for distractor faces.

PubMed

Srinivasan, Narayanan; Gupta, Rashmi

2010-04-01

Effective filtering of distractor information has been shown to be dependent on perceptual load. Given the salience of emotional information and the presence of emotion-attention interactions, we wanted to explore the recognition memory for emotional distractors especially as a function of focused attention and distributed attention by manipulating load and the spatial spread of attention. We performed two experiments to study emotion-attention interactions by measuring recognition memory performance for distractor neutral and emotional faces. Participants performed a color discrimination task (low-load) or letter identification task (high-load) with a letter string display in Experiment 1 and a high-load letter identification task with letters presented in a circular array in Experiment 2. The stimuli were presented against a distractor face background. The recognition memory results show that happy faces were recognized better than sad faces under conditions of less focused or distributed attention. When attention is more spatially focused, sad faces were recognized better than happy faces. The study provides evidence for emotion-attention interactions in which specific emotional information like sad or happy is associated with focused or distributed attention respectively. Distractor processing with emotional information also has implications for theories of attention. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Different Neural Correlates of Emotion-Label Words and Emotion-Laden Words: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Zhang, Juan; Wu, Chenggang; Meng, Yaxuan; Yuan, Zhen

2017-01-01

It is well-documented that both emotion-label words (e.g., sadness, happiness) and emotion-laden words (e.g., death, wedding) can induce emotion activation. However, the neural correlates of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words recognition have not been examined. The present study aimed to compare the underlying neural responses when processing the two kinds of words by employing event-related potential (ERP) measurements. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in which they should judge whether a two-character compound stimulus was a real word or not. Results showed that (1) emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicited similar P100 at the posteriors sites, (2) larger N170 was found for emotion-label words than for emotion-laden words at the occipital sites on the right hemisphere, and (3) negative emotion-label words elicited larger Late Positivity Complex (LPC) on the right hemisphere than on the left hemisphere while such effect was not found for emotion-laden words and positive emotion-label words. The results indicate that emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicit different cortical responses at both early (N170) and late (LPC) stages. In addition, right hemisphere advantage for emotion-label words over emotion-laden words can be observed in certain time windows (i.e., N170 and LPC) while fails to be detected in some other time window (i.e., P100). The implications of the current findings for future emotion research were discussed.

Growth curves of clients' emotional experience and their association with emotion regulation and symptoms.

PubMed

Fisher, Hadar; Atzil-Slonim, Dana; Bar-Kalifa, Eran; Rafaeli, Eshkol; Peri, Tuvia

2017-12-06

Emotional experience during psychotherapy is considered a core mechanism of change. Yet the sheer experience itself may not necessarily be beneficial; instead, the trajectories of emotional experience need to be explored as possible predictors of treatment outcomes. This study investigated whether clients' pre-treatment levels of emotion regulation and symptoms predicted patterns of session-to-session change in emotional experience. We also explored which patterns better predict clients' improvement in emotion regulation and symptoms from pre- to post treatment. One-hundred and seven clients undergoing psychodynamic psychotherapy completed questionnaires on their symptoms and emotion regulation at pre- and post- treatment. They also reported their level of emotional experience at the end of each session. Pre-treatment symptoms and difficulties in emotion regulation predicted greater instability in emotional experience. Higher mean levels of emotional experience during treatment were associated with an improvement in emotion regulation, and greater stability during treatment was associated with improvement in emotion regulation and symptoms. These findings lend weight to the idea that experiencing emotion in the therapeutic environment has significant implications for clients' ability to manage their emotions outside the session. However, emotions experienced in an unstable manner within therapy are associated with poorer outcomes. Clinical and methodological significance of this article: Therapists can benefit from observing the patterns and not only the level of their clients' emotional experiences. The identification of clients' difficulties early in treatment may help therapists guide clients through the delicate process of carefully attending to their emotions.

A Preliminary Study of DBH (Encoding Dopamine Beta-Hydroxylase) Genetic Variation and Neural Correlates of Emotional and Motivational Processing in Individuals With and Without Pathological Gambling.

PubMed

Yang, Bao-Zhu; Balodis, Iris M; Lacadie, Cheryl M; Xu, Jiansong; Potenza, Marc N

2016-06-01

Background and aims Corticostriatal-limbic neurocircuitry, emotional and motivational processing, dopaminergic and noradrenergic systems and genetic factors have all been implicated in pathological gambling (PG). However, allelic variants of genes influencing dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurotransmitters have not been investigated with respect to the neural correlates of emotional and motivational states in PG. Dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) converts dopamine to norepinephrine; the T allele of a functional single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1611115 (C-1021T) in the DBH gene is associated with less DBH activity and has been linked to emotional processes and addiction. Here, we investigate the influence of rs1611115 on the neural correlates of emotional and motivational processing in PG and healthy comparison (HC) participants. Methods While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, 18 PG and 25 HC participants, all European Americans, viewed gambling-, sad-, and cocaine-related videotapes. Analyses focused on brain activation differences related to DBH genotype (CC/T-carrier [i.e., CT and TT]) and condition (sad/gambling/cocaine). Results CC participants demonstrated greater recruitment of corticostriatal-limbic regions, relative to T-carriers. DBH variants were also associated with altered corticostriatal-limbic activations across the different videotape conditions, and this association appeared to be driven by greater activation in CC participants relative to T-carriers during the sad condition. CC relative to T-carrier subjects also reported greater subjective sadness to the sad videotapes. Conclusions Individual differences in genetic composition linked to aminergic function contribute significantly to emotional regulation across diagnostic groups and warrant further investigation in PG.

Right brain, left brain in depressive disorders: Clinical and theoretical implications of behavioral, electrophysiological and neuroimaging findings.

PubMed

Bruder, Gerard E; Stewart, Jonathan W; McGrath, Patrick J

2017-07-01

The right and left side of the brain are asymmetric in anatomy and function. We review electrophysiological (EEG and event-related potential), behavioral (dichotic and visual perceptual asymmetry), and neuroimaging (PET, MRI, NIRS) evidence of right-left asymmetry in depressive disorders. Recent electrophysiological and fMRI studies of emotional processing have provided new evidence of altered laterality in depressive disorders. EEG alpha asymmetry and neuroimaging findings at rest and during cognitive or emotional tasks are consistent with reduced left prefrontal activity in depressed patients, which may impair downregulation of amygdala response to negative emotional information. Dichotic listening and visual hemifield findings for non-verbal or emotional processing have revealed abnormal perceptual asymmetry in depressive disorders, and electrophysiological findings have shown reduced right-lateralized responsivity to emotional stimuli in occipitotemporal or parietotemporal cortex. We discuss models of neural networks underlying these alterations. Of clinical relevance, individual differences among depressed patients on measures of right-left brain function are related to diagnostic subtype of depression, comorbidity with anxiety disorders, and clinical response to antidepressants or cognitive behavioral therapy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Looking down: the influence of contempt and compassion on emergent leadership categorizations.

PubMed

Melwani, Shimul; Mueller, Jennifer S; Overbeck, Jennifer R

2012-11-01

By integrating the literatures on implicit leadership and the social functions of discrete emotions, we develop and test a theoretical model of emotion expression and leadership categorizations. Specifically, we examine the influence of 2 socio-comparative emotions-compassion and contempt-on assessments of leadership made both in 1st impression contexts and over time. To demonstrate both internal and external validity, Studies 1a and 1b provide laboratory and field evidence to show that expressing the discrete emotions of contempt and compassion positively relates to perceptions that an individual is a leader. Study 2 tests the mechanism explaining these associations. Specifically, we show that in a leadership emergence context, contempt and compassion both positively relate to perceptions that the expresser is a leader because each provides cues matching the implicit theory that leaders have higher intelligence. Our findings add to a growing body of literature focused on identifying the processes through which leaders emerge in groups, showing that emotions are an important input to this process. We discuss the implications of our findings and how they might guide future research efforts. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Emotional states as mediators between tinnitus loudness and tinnitus distress in daily life: Results from the “TrackYourTinnitus” application

PubMed Central

Probst, Thomas; Pryss, Rüdiger; Langguth, Berthold; Schlee, Winfried

2016-01-01

The psychological process how tinnitus loudness leads to tinnitus distress remains unclear. This cross-sectional study investigated the mediating role of the emotional state “stress level” and of the two components of the emotional state “arousal” and “valence” with N = 658 users of the “TrackYourTinnitus” smartphone application. Stress mediated the relationship between tinnitus loudness and tinnitus distress in a simple mediation model and even in a multiple mediation model when arousal and valence were held constant. Arousal mediated the loudness-distress relationship when holding valence constant, but not anymore when controlling for valence as well as for stress. Valence functioned as a mediator when controlling for arousal and even when holding arousal and stress constant. The direct effect of tinnitus loudness on tinnitus distress remained significant in all models. This study demonstrates that emotional states affect the process how tinnitus loudness leads to tinnitus distress. We thereby could show that the mediating influence of emotional valence is at least equally strong as the influence of stress. Implications of the findings for future research, assessment, and clinical management of tinnitus are discussed. PMID:26853815

Teacher Strategies for Effective Intervention with Students Presenting Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: Implications for Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Paul

2011-01-01

In this paper some key practice and policy implications emerging from a review of literature on effective teacher strategies for social, emotional and behavioural difficulties are set out. Particular attention is given to implications in relation to the development of teachers' skills.

Attachment and selective attention: disorganization and emotional Stroop reaction time.

PubMed

Atkinson, Leslie; Leung, Eman; Goldberg, Susan; Benoit, Diane; Poulton, Lori; Myhal, Natalie; Blokland, Kirsten; Kerr, Sheila

2009-01-01

Although central to attachment theory, internal working models remain a useful heuristic in need of concretization. We compared the selective attention of organized and disorganized mothers using the emotional Stroop task. Both disorganized attachment and emotional Stroop response involve the coordination of strongly conflicting motivations under conditions of emotional arousal. Furthermore, much is known about the cognitive and neuromodulatory correlates of the Stroop that may inform attempts to substantiate the internal working model construct. We assessed 47 community mothers with the Adult Attachment Interview and the Working Model of the Child Interview in the third trimester of pregnancy. At 6 and 12 months postpartum, we assessed mothers with emotional Stroop tasks involving neutral, attachment, and emotion conditions. At 12 months, we observed their infants in the Strange Situation. Results showed that: disorganized attachment is related to relative Stroop reaction time, that is, unlike organized mothers, disorganized mothers respond to negative attachment/emotion stimuli more slowly than to neutral stimuli; relative speed of response is positively related to number of times the dyad was classified disorganized, and change in relative Stroop response time from 6 to 12 months is related to the match-mismatch status of mother and infant attachment classifications. We discuss implications in terms of automatic and controlled processing and, more specifically, cognitive threat tags, parallel distributed processing, and neuromodulation through norepinephrine and dopamine.

Interparental Conflict in Kindergarten and Adolescent Adjustment: Prospective Investigation of Emotional Security as an Explanatory Mechanism

PubMed Central

Cummings, E. Mark; George, Melissa R. W.; McCoy, Kathleen P.; Davies, Patrick T.

2012-01-01

Advancing the long-term prospective study of explanations for the effects of marital conflict on children’s functioning, relations were examined between interparental conflict in kindergarten, children’s emotional insecurity in the early school years, and subsequent adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. Based on a community sample of 235 mothers, fathers and children (M = 6.00, 8.02, 12.62 years), and multi-method and multi-reporter assessments, structural equation model (SEM) tests provided support for emotional insecurity in early childhood as an intervening process related to adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems, even with stringent auto-regressive controls over prior levels of functioning for both mediating and outcome variables. Discussion considers implications for understanding pathways between interparental conflict, emotional insecurity and adjustment in childhood and adolescence. PMID:22694264

Exploring expressivity and emotion with artificial voice and speech technologies.

PubMed

Pauletto, Sandra; Balentine, Bruce; Pidcock, Chris; Jones, Kevin; Bottaci, Leonardo; Aretoulaki, Maria; Wells, Jez; Mundy, Darren P; Balentine, James

2013-10-01

Emotion in audio-voice signals, as synthesized by text-to-speech (TTS) technologies, was investigated to formulate a theory of expression for user interface design. Emotional parameters were specified with markup tags, and the resulting audio was further modulated with post-processing techniques. Software was then developed to link a selected TTS synthesizer with an automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine, producing a chatbot that could speak and listen. Using these two artificial voice subsystems, investigators explored both artistic and psychological implications of artificial speech emotion. Goals of the investigation were interdisciplinary, with interest in musical composition, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), commercial voice announcement applications, human-computer interaction (HCI), and artificial intelligence (AI). The work-in-progress points towards an emerging interdisciplinary ontology for artificial voices. As one study output, HCI tools are proposed for future collaboration.

Anger Promotes Economic Conservatism.

PubMed

Kettle, Keri L; Salerno, Anthony

2017-10-01

Research suggests that certain facets of people's political ideals can be motivated by different goals. Although it is widely accepted that emotions motivate goal-directed behavior, less is known about how emotion-specific goals may influence different facets of ideology. In this research, we examine how anger affects political ideology and through what mechanisms such effects occur. Drawing on the dual-process motivational model of ideology and the functionalist perspective of emotion, we propose that anger leads people to support conservative economic ideals, which promote economic independence and discourage societal resource sharing. Four studies support our hypothesis that anger can enhance support for an election candidate espousing conservative economic ideals. We find that anger shifts people toward economic conservatism by orienting them toward competition for resources. Implications and future research on the relationship between emotions and political ideology are discussed.

Emotional eating and eating psychopathology in nonclinical groups: a cross-cultural comparison of women in Japan and the United Kingdom.

PubMed

Waller, G; Matoba, M

1999-11-01

Emotional eating is associated with eating psychopathology among Western populations. It is not known whether the same conclusions hold in non-Western cultures, where norms for emotional expression differ. This study examined whether emotional eating has the same eating psychopathology correlates in different cultures. Three groups of nonclinical women were compared-Japanese living in Japan; Japanese living in the United Kingdom; and British living in the United Kingdom. They completed an Emotional Eating Scale and the Eating Disorders Inventory. There were different patterns of association between emotional eating and eating attitudes in the three groups. British women showed a strong linkage, Japanese women living in Japan showed no association, and Japanese women in the United Kingdom showed an intermediate pattern. Emotional eating may be less of an index of eating psychopathology in non-Western cultures. However, there appears to be an acculturative process, linking the two when one enters a Western culture. This cross-cultural difference may have implications for the targeting of therapies, although this conclusion requires support from further research. Copyright 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

More than mere mimicry? The influence of emotion on rapid facial reactions to faces.

PubMed

Moody, Eric J; McIntosh, Daniel N; Mann, Laura J; Weisser, Kimberly R

2007-05-01

Within a second of seeing an emotional facial expression, people typically match that expression. These rapid facial reactions (RFRs), often termed mimicry, are implicated in emotional contagion, social perception, and embodied affect, yet ambiguity remains regarding the mechanism(s) involved. Two studies evaluated whether RFRs to faces are solely nonaffective motor responses or whether emotional processes are involved. Brow (corrugator, related to anger) and forehead (frontalis, related to fear) activity were recorded using facial electromyography (EMG) while undergraduates in two conditions (fear induction vs. neutral) viewed fear, anger, and neutral facial expressions. As predicted, fear induction increased fear expressions to angry faces within 1000 ms of exposure, demonstrating an emotional component of RFRs. This did not merely reflect increased fear from the induction, because responses to neutral faces were unaffected. Considering RFRs to be merely nonaffective automatic reactions is inaccurate. RFRs are not purely motor mimicry; emotion influences early facial responses to faces. The relevance of these data to emotional contagion, autism, and the mirror system-based perspectives on imitation is discussed.

A discrete emotions approach to positive emotion disturbance in depression

PubMed Central

Gruber, June; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher; Johnson, Sheri L.

2012-01-01

Converging findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit disturbances in positive emotion. No study, however, has ascertained which specific positive emotions are implicated in depression. We report two studies that compare how depressive symptoms relate to distinct positive emotions at both trait and state levels of assessment. In Study 1 (N = 185), we examined associations between depressive symptoms and three trait positive emotions (pride, happy, amusement). Study 2 compared experiential and autonomic reactivity to pride, happy, and amusement film stimuli between depressive (n = 24; DS) and non-depressive (n = 31; NDS) symptom groups. Results indicate that symptoms of depression were most strongly associated with decreased trait pride and decreased positive emotion experience to pride-eliciting films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for understanding emotion deficits in depression as well as for the general study of positive emotion. PMID:21432655

A View of Developmental Education and the "Disadvantaged" in a National Perspective: Implications for International Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Thomasyne Lightfoote

1972-01-01

After defining developmental education as referring to processes that expand the physical, emotional, educational, artistic, scientific, and political spheres of diverse ethnic and cultural communities within a nation, the author discusses the case of the Loma people of Liberia. (JM)

Early Adversity and Learning: Implications for Typical and Atypical Behavioral Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanson, Jamie L.; van den Bos, Wouter; Roeber, Barbara J.; Rudolph, Karen D.; Davidson, Richard J.; Pollak, Seth D.

2017-01-01

Background: Children who experience early adversity often develop emotion regulatory problems, but little is known about the mechanisms that mediate this relation. We tested whether general associative learning processes contribute to associations between adversity, in the form of child maltreatment, and negative behavioral outcomes. Methods:…

Sensory Integration Dysfunction: Implications for Counselors Working with Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Withrow, Rebecca L.

2007-01-01

Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID), a sensory processing problem that afflicts about 15% of children, sets many children on a developmental trajectory of emotional and social problems. Children with SID often unintentionally alienate parents, peers, and teachers in their efforts to modify the amounts of sensory stimulation they receive. They…

Developmental and Neurological Implications for Relating Cognition and Affect.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bart, William M.

Elements of a theory relating cognition and affect are outlined. The theory is heavily based upon neuroscience research regarding the hemispheric lateralization of various cognitive processes and emotions; specific examples are provided. Developmental research on intelligence as well as theories of intrinsic motivation, are also discussed.…

Neurogenic Communication Disorders and Paralleling Agraphic Disturbances: Implications for Concerns in Basic Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Jarnette, Glenda

Vertical and lateral integration are two important nervous system integrations that affect the development of oral behaviors. There are three progressions in the vertical integration process for speech nervous system development: R-complex speech (ritualistic, memorized expressions), limbic speech (emotional expressions), and cortical speech…

Computer-mediated communication preferences predict biobehavioral measures of social-emotional functioning.

PubMed

Babkirk, Sarah; Luehring-Jones, Peter; Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy A

2016-12-01

The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a form of social interaction has become increasingly prevalent, yet few studies examine individual differences that may shed light on implications of CMC for adjustment. The current study examined neurocognitive individual differences associated with preferences to use technology in relation to social-emotional outcomes. In Study 1 (N = 91), a self-report measure, the Social Media Communication Questionnaire (SMCQ), was evaluated as an assessment of preferences for communicating positive and negative emotions on a scale ranging from purely via CMC to purely face-to-face. In Study 2, SMCQ preferences were examined in relation to event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with early emotional attention capture and reactivity (the frontal N1) and later sustained emotional processing and regulation (the late positive potential (LPP)). Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while 22 participants passively viewed emotional and neutral pictures and completed an emotion regulation task with instructions to increase, decrease, or maintain their emotional responses. A greater preference for CMC was associated with reduced size of and satisfaction with social support, greater early (N1) attention capture by emotional stimuli, and reduced LPP amplitudes to unpleasant stimuli in the increase emotion regulatory task. These findings are discussed in the context of possible emotion- and social-regulatory functions of CMC.

Computer-Mediated Communication Preferences and Individual Differences in Neurocognitive Measures of Emotional Attention Capture, Reactivity and Regulation

PubMed Central

Babkirk, Sarah; Luehring-Jones, Peter; Dennis, Tracy A.

2016-01-01

The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to engage socially has become increasingly prevalent, yet few studies examined individual differences that may shed light on implications of CMC for adjustment. The current study examined neurocognitive individual differences associated with preferences to use technology in relation to social-emotional outcomes. In Study 1 (N =91), a self-report measure, the Social Media Communication Questionnaire (SMCQ), was evaluated as an assessment of preferences for communicating positive and negative emotions on a scale ranging from purely via CMC to purely face-to-face. In Study 2, SMCQ preferences were examined in relation to event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with early emotional attention capture and reactivity (the frontal N1) and later sustained emotional processing and regulation [the late positive potential (LPP)]. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while 22 participants passively viewed emotional and neutral pictures and completed an emotion regulation task with instructions to increase, decrease or maintain their emotional responses. A greater preference for CMC was associated with reduced size of and satisfaction with social support, greater early (N1) attention capture by emotional stimuli, and reduced LPP amplitudes to unpleasant stimuli in the increase emotion regulatory task. These findings are discussed in the context of possible emotion- and social-regulatory functions of CMC. PMID:26613269

The role of language in the experience and perception of emotion: a neuroimaging meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Brooks, Jeffrey A.; Shablack, Holly; Gendron, Maria; Satpute, Ajay B.; Parrish, Michael H.

2017-01-01

Abstract Recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies demonstrate that labeling one’s emotional experiences and perceptions alters those states. Here, we used a comprehensive meta-analysis of the neuroimaging literature to systematically explore whether the presence of emotion words in experimental tasks has an impact on the neural representation of emotional experiences and perceptions across studies. Using a database of 386 studies, we assessed brain activity when emotion words (e.g. ‘anger’, ‘disgust’) and more general affect words (e.g. ‘pleasant’, ‘unpleasant’) were present in experimental tasks vs not present. As predicted, when emotion words were present, we observed more frequent activations in regions related to semantic processing. When emotion words were not present, we observed more frequent activations in the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus, bilaterally. The presence of affect words did not have the same effect on the neural representation of emotional experiences and perceptions, suggesting that our observed effects are specific to emotion words. These findings are consistent with the psychological constructionist prediction that in the absence of accessible emotion concepts, the meaning of affective experiences and perceptions are ambiguous. Findings are also consistent with the regulatory role of ‘affect labeling’. Implications of the role of language in emotion construction and regulation are discussed. PMID:27539864

Emotional Reasoning Processes and Dysphoric Mood: Cross-Sectional and Prospective Relationships

PubMed Central

Berle, David; Moulds, Michelle L.

2013-01-01

Emotional reasoning refers to the use of subjective emotions, rather than objective evidence, to form conclusions about oneself and the world [1]. Emotional reasoning appears to characterise anxiety disorders. We aimed to determine whether elevated levels of emotional reasoning also characterise dysphoria. In Study 1, low dysphoric (BDI-II≤4; n = 28) and high dysphoric (BDI-II ≥14; n = 42) university students were administered an emotional reasoning task relevant for dysphoria. In Study 2, a larger university sample were administered the same task, with additional self-referent ratings, and were followed up 8 weeks later. In Study 1, both the low and high dysphoric participants demonstrated emotional reasoning and there were no significant differences in scores on the emotional reasoning task between the low and high dysphoric groups. In Study 2, self-referent emotional reasoning interpretations showed small-sized positive correlations with depression symptoms. Emotional reasoning tendencies were stable across an 8-week interval although not predictive of subsequent depressive symptoms. Further, anxiety symptoms were independently associated with emotional reasoning and emotional reasoning was not associated with anxiety sensitivity, alexithymia, or deductive reasoning tendencies. The implications of these findings are discussed, including the possibility that while all individuals may engage in emotional reasoning, self-referent emotional reasoning may be associated with increased levels of depressive symptoms. PMID:23826276

Neural processing of emotions in traumatized children treated with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy: a hdEEG study

PubMed Central

Trentini, Cristina; Pagani, Marco; Fania, Piercarlo; Speranza, Anna Maria; Nicolais, Giampaolo; Sibilia, Alessandra; Inguscio, Lucio; Verardo, Anna Rita; Fernandez, Isabel; Ammaniti, Massimo

2015-01-01

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been proven efficacious in restoring affective regulation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients. However, its effectiveness on emotion processing in children with complex trauma has yet to be explored. High density electroencephalography (hdEEG) was used to investigate the effects of EMDR on brain responses to adults’ emotions on children with histories of early maltreatment. Ten school-aged children were examined before (T0) and within one month after the conclusion of EMDR (T1). hdEEGs were recorded while children passively viewed angry, afraid, happy, and neutral faces. Clinical scales were administered at the same time. Correlation analyses were performed to detect brain regions whose activity was linked to children’s traumatic symptom-related and emotional-adaptive problem scores. In all four conditions, hdEEG showed similar significantly higher activity on the right medial prefrontal and fronto-temporal limbic regions at T0, shifting toward the left medial and superior temporal regions at T1. Moreover, significant correlations were found between clinical scales and the same regions whose activity significantly differed between pre- and post-treatment. These preliminary results demonstrate that, after EMDR, children suffering from complex trauma show increased activity in areas implicated in high-order cognitive processing when passively viewing pictures of emotional expressions. These changes are associated with the decrease of depressive and traumatic symptoms, and with the improvement of emotional-adaptive functioning over time. PMID:26594183

The Route to an Integrative Associative Memory Is Influenced by Emotion

PubMed Central

Murray, Brendan D.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2014-01-01

Though the hippocampus typically has been implicated in processes related to associative binding, special types of associations – such as those created by integrative mental imagery – may be supported by processes implemented in other medial temporal-lobe or sensory processing regions. Here, we investigated what neural mechanisms underlie the formation and subsequent retrieval of integrated mental images, and whether those mechanisms differ based on the emotionality of the integration (i.e., whether it contains an emotional item or not). Participants viewed pairs of words while undergoing a functional MRI scan. They were instructed to imagine the two items separately from one another (“non-integrative” study) or as a single, integrated mental image (“integrative” study). They provided ratings of how successful they were at generating vivid images that fit the instructions. They were then given a surprise associative recognition test, also while undergoing an fMRI scan. The cuneus showed parametric correspondence to increasing imagery success selectively during encoding and retrieval of emotional integrations, while the parahippocampal gyri and prefrontal cortices showed parametric correspondence during the encoding and retrieval of non-emotional integrations. Connectivity analysis revealed that selectively during negative integration, left amygdala activity was negatively correlated with frontal and hippocampal activity. These data indicate that individuals utilize two different neural routes for forming and retrieving integrations depending on their emotional content, and they suggest a potentially disruptive role for the amygdala on frontal and medial-temporal regions during negative integration. PMID:24427267

NEVER forget: negative emotional valence enhances recapitulation.

PubMed

Bowen, Holly J; Kark, Sarah M; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2018-06-01

A hallmark feature of episodic memory is that of "mental time travel," whereby an individual feels they have returned to a prior moment in time. Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience methods have revealed a neurobiological counterpart: Successful retrieval often is associated with reactivation of a prior brain state. We review the emerging literature on memory reactivation and recapitulation, and we describe evidence for the effects of emotion on these processes. Based on this review, we propose a new model: Negative Emotional Valence Enhances Recapitulation (NEVER). This model diverges from existing models of emotional memory in three key ways. First, it underscores the effects of emotion during retrieval. Second, it stresses the importance of sensory processing to emotional memory. Third, it emphasizes how emotional valence - whether an event is negative or positive - affects the way that information is remembered. The model specifically proposes that, as compared to positive events, negative events both trigger increased encoding of sensory detail and elicit a closer resemblance between the sensory encoding signature and the sensory retrieval signature. The model also proposes that negative valence enhances the reactivation and storage of sensory details over offline periods, leading to a greater divergence between the sensory recapitulation of negative and positive memories over time. Importantly, the model proposes that these valence-based differences occur even when events are equated for arousal, thus rendering an exclusively arousal-based theory of emotional memory insufficient. We conclude by discussing implications of the model and suggesting directions for future research to test the tenets of the model.

Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor gene influences the perception of anger and fear in the human brain

PubMed Central

Puglia, Meghan H.; Lillard, Travis S.; Morris, James P.; Connelly, Jessica J.

2015-01-01

In humans, the neuropeptide oxytocin plays a critical role in social and emotional behavior. The actions of this molecule are dependent on a protein that acts as its receptor, which is encoded by the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). DNA methylation of OXTR, an epigenetic modification, directly influences gene transcription and is variable in humans. However, the impact of this variability on specific social behaviors is unknown. We hypothesized that variability in OXTR methylation impacts social perceptual processes often linked with oxytocin, such as perception of facial emotions. Using an imaging epigenetic approach, we established a relationship between OXTR methylation and neural activity in response to emotional face processing. Specifically, high levels of OXTR methylation were associated with greater amounts of activity in regions associated with face and emotion processing including amygdala, fusiform, and insula. Importantly, we found that these higher levels of OXTR methylation were also associated with decreased functional coupling of amygdala with regions involved in affect appraisal and emotion regulation. These data indicate that the human endogenous oxytocin system is involved in attenuation of the fear response, corroborating research implicating intranasal oxytocin in the same processes. Our findings highlight the importance of including epigenetic mechanisms in the description of the endogenous oxytocin system and further support a central role for oxytocin in social cognition. This approach linking epigenetic variability with neural endophenotypes may broadly explain individual differences in phenotype including susceptibility or resilience to disease. PMID:25675509

Neurocircuitry of limbic dysfunction in anorexia nervosa.

PubMed

Lipsman, Nir; Woodside, D Blake; Lozano, Andres M

2015-01-01

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a serious psychiatric condition marked by firmly entrenched and maladaptive behaviors and beliefs about body, weight and food, as well as high rates of psychiatric comorbidity. The neural roots of AN are now beginning to emerge, and appear to be related to dysfunctional, primarily limbic, circuits driving pathological thoughts and behaviors. As a result, the significant physical symptoms of AN are increasingly being understood at least partially as a result of abnormal or dysregulated emotional processing. This paper reviews the nature of limbic dysfunction in AN, and how structural and functional imaging has implicated distinct emotional and perceptual neural circuits driving AN symptoms. We propose that top-down and bottom-up influences converge on key limbic modulatory structures, such as the subcallosal cingulate and insula, whose normal functioning is critical to affective regulation and emotional homeostasis. Dysfunctional activity in these structures, as is seen in AN, may lead to emotional processing deficits and psychiatric symptoms, which then drive maladaptive behaviors. Modulating limbic dysregulation may therefore be a potential treatment strategy in some AN patients. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The social biofeedback theory of parental affect-mirroring: the development of emotional self-awareness and self-control in infancy.

PubMed

Gergely, G; Watson, J S

1996-12-01

The authors present a new theory of parental affect-mirroring and its role in the development of emotional self-awareness and control in infancy. It is proposed that infants first become sensitised to their categorical emotion-states through a natural social biofeedback process provided by the parent's 'marked' reflections of the baby's emotion displays during affect-regulative interactions. They argue that this sensitisation process is mediated (similarly to that of adult biofeedback training) by the mechanism of contingency-detection and maximising. Apart from sensitisation, affect-mirroring serves three further developmental functions: (1) it contributes to the infant's state-regulation; (2) it leads to the establishment of secondary representations that become associated with the infant's primary procedural affect-states providing the cognitive means for accessing and attributing emotions to the self; (3) it results in the development of a generalised communicative code of "marked' expressions characterised by the representational functions of referential decoupling, anchoring and suspension of realistic consequences. They consider the clinical implications of our theory, relating it to current psychodynamic approaches to the functions of parental affect-mirroring. Using their model they identify various types of deviant mirroring styles and speculate about their developmental consequences. Finally, they discuss what role their social biofeedback model may play as a mediating mechanism in the therapeutic process.

Effect of relevance on amygdala activation and association with the ventral striatum.

PubMed

Ousdal, Olga Therese; Reckless, Greg E; Server, Andres; Andreassen, Ole A; Jensen, Jimmy

2012-08-01

While the amygdala historically has been implicated in emotional stimuli processing, recent data suggest a general role in parceling out the relevance of stimuli, regardless of their emotional properties. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we tested the relevance hypothesis by investigating human amygdala responses to emotionally neutral stimuli while manipulating their relevance. The task was operationalized as highly relevant if a subsequent opportunity to respond for a reward depended on response accuracy of the task, and less relevant if the reward opportunity was independent of task performance. A region of interest analysis revealed bilateral amygdala activations in response to the high relevance condition compared to the low relevance condition. An exploratory whole-brain analysis yielded robust similar results in bilateral ventral striatum. A subsequent functional connectivity analysis demonstrated increased connectivity between amygdala and ventral striatum for the highly relevant stimuli compared to the less relevant stimuli. These findings suggest that the amygdala's processing profile goes beyond detection of emotions per se, and directly support the proposed role in relevance detection. In addition, the findings suggest a close relationship between amygdala and ventral striatal activity when processing relevant stimuli. Thus, the results may indicate that human amygdala modulates ventral striatum activity and subsequent behaviors beyond that observed for emotional cues, to encompass a broader range of relevant stimuli. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Following your heart or your head: focusing on emotions versus information differentially influences the decisions of younger and older adults.

PubMed

Mikels, Joseph A; Löckenhoff, Corinna E; Maglio, Sam J; Goldstein, Mary K; Garber, Alan; Carstensen, Laura L

2010-03-01

Research on aging has indicated that whereas deliberative cognitive processes decline with age, emotional processes are relatively spared. To examine the implications of these divergent trajectories in the context of health care choices, we investigated whether instructional manipulations emphasizing a focus on feelings or details would have differential effects on decision quality among younger and older adults. We presented 60 younger and 60 older adults with health care choices that required them to hold in mind and consider multiple pieces of information. Instructional manipulations in the emotion-focus condition asked participants to focus on their emotional reactions to the options, report their feelings about the options, and then make a choice. In the information-focus condition, participants were instructed to focus on the specific attributes, report the details about the options, and then make a choice. In a control condition, no directives were given. Manipulation checks indicated that the instructions were successful in eliciting different modes of processing. Decision quality data indicate that younger adults performed better in the information-focus than in the control condition whereas older adults performed better in the emotion-focus and control conditions than in the information-focus condition. Findings support and extend extant theorizing on aging and decision making as well as suggest that interventions to improve decision-making quality should take the age of the decision maker into account.

Anxiety, cognition, and habit: a multiple memory systems perspective.

PubMed

Packard, Mark G

2009-10-13

Consistent with a multiple systems approach to memory organization in the mammalian brain, numerous studies have differentiated the roles of the hippocampus and dorsal striatum in "cognitive" and "habit" learning and memory, respectively. Additional research indicates that activation of efferent projections of the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a brain region implicated in mammalian emotion, modulates memory processes occurring in other brain structures. The present brief review describes research designed to link these general concepts by examining the manner in which emotional state may influence the relative use of multiple memory systems. In a dual-solution plus-maze task that can be acquired using either hippocampus-dependent or dorsal striatal-dependent learning, acute pre-training or pre-retrieval emotional arousal (restraint stress/inescapable foot shock, exposure to the predator odor TMT, or peripheral injection of anixogenic drugs) biases rats towards the use of habit memory. Moreover, intra-BLA injection of anxiogenic drugs is sufficient to bias rats towards the use of dorsal striatal-dependent habit memory. In single-solution plus-maze tasks that require the use of either cognitive or habit learning, intra-BLA infusions of anxiogenic drugs result in a behavioral profile indicating an impairing effect on hippocampus-dependent memory that effectively produces enhanced habit learning by eliminating competitive interference between cognitive and habit memory systems. It is speculated that the predominant use of habit memory that can be produced by anxious and/or stressful emotional states may have implications for understanding the role of learning and memory processes in various human psychopathologies, including for example post-traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction.

Individual differences in emotional complexity: their psychological implications.

PubMed

Kang, Sun-Mee; Shaver, Phillip R

2004-08-01

Two studies explored the nature and psychological implications of individual differences in emotional complexity, defined as having emotional experiences that are broad in range and well differentiated. Emotional complexity was predicted to be associated with private self-consciousness, openness to experience, empathic tendencies, cognitive complexity, ability to differentiate among named emotions, range of emotions experienced daily, and interpersonal adaptability. The Range and Differentiation of Emotional Experience Scale (RDEES) was developed to test these hypotheses. In Study 1 (N=1,129) students completed questionnaire packets containing the RDEES and various outcome measures. Study 2 (N=95) included the RDEES and non-self-report measures such as peer reports, complexity of representations of the emotion domain, and level of ego development measured by a sentence completion test. Results supported all of the hypotheses, providing extensive evidence for the RDEES's construct validity. Findings were discussed in terms of the role of emotional complexity in ego maturity and interpersonal adaptability.

A discrete emotions approach to positive emotion disturbance in depression.

PubMed

Gruber, June; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher; Johnson, Sheri L

2011-01-01

Converging findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit disturbances in positive emotion. No study, however, has ascertained which specific positive emotions are implicated in depression. We report two studies that compare how depressive symptoms relate to distinct positive emotions at both trait and state levels of assessment. In Study 1 (N=185), we examined associations between depressive symptoms and three trait positive emotions (pride, happy, amusement). Study 2 compared experiential and autonomic reactivity to pride, happy, and amusement film stimuli between depressive (n=24; DS) and non-depressive (n=31; NDS) symptom groups. Results indicate that symptoms of depression were most strongly associated with decreased trait pride and decreased positive emotion experience to pride-eliciting films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for understanding emotion deficits in depression as well as for the general study of positive emotion. © 2010 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

Can achievement emotions be used to better understand motivation, learning, and performance in medical education?

PubMed

Artino, Anthony R; Holmboe, Eric S; Durning, Steven J

2012-01-01

In this article, we consider an emergent theory of human emotion. The overarching purpose of the article is to introduce medical education researchers to the notion of achievement emotions and provide a brief overview of how this work can inform the theory, research, and practice of medical education. First, we define achievement emotions and describe one of the leading contemporary theories of achievement emotions, control-value theory (Pekrun R. 2006. The control-value theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educ Psychol Rev 18:315-341.). Next, we distinguish between different types of achievement emotions, their proximal causes, and their consequences for motivation, learning, and performance, and we discuss several implications for educational practice. Finally, we end with a call for more research on achievement emotions in medical education to facilitate our understanding of emotions and their impact on important educational outcomes.

Beyond catharsis: the nuanced emotion of patient storytellers in an educational role.

PubMed

Roebotham, Taylor; Hawthornthwaite, Lisa; Lee, Lauren; Lingard, Lorelei A

2018-05-01

As health care organisations seek to cultivate patient and family-centred care, patient storytelling has emerged as a valued educational resource. However, repeatedly harnessing patient perspectives to educate health care professionals may have consequences. We need robust insight into what it means to be a patient storyteller in order to ensure ethical and appropriate engagement with patients as an educational resource. Constructivist grounded theory was used to explore the experience of patients involved in a storytelling curriculum as part of hospital staff continuing education. All 33 storytellers were invited by e-mail to participate in the study. Twenty-six storytellers responded to the invitation, and 25 could be scheduled to participate. Using theoretical sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed in a process that was inductive, iterative and comparative. Participants described the central role of emotions in their storytelling experience, which varied from 1 to 25 tellings over a period of 1 month to 2 years. These emotions were shaped by the passage of time, repetition of storytelling and audience acknowledgement. However, emotion remained unpredictable and had lingering implications for storytellers' vulnerability. The multiple storytelling experiences of our participants and ongoing educational nature of their role provides unique insight into how emotions ebb and flow across tellings, how emotions can be both a surprise and a rhetorical strategy, and how emotions are influenced by audience acknowledgement. These findings contribute to an emerging conversation regarding the power and politics of selecting and using storytellers for organisational purpose. Implications include how we support patient storytellers in educational roles and how we can sustainably integrate patient storytelling into health professional education. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Multiple mechanisms of consciousness: the neural correlates of emotional awareness.

PubMed

Amting, Jayna M; Greening, Steven G; Mitchell, Derek G V

2010-07-28

Emotional stimuli, including facial expressions, are thought to gain rapid and privileged access to processing resources in the brain. Despite this access, we are conscious of only a fraction of the myriad of emotion-related cues we face everyday. It remains unclear, therefore, what the relationship is between activity in neural regions associated with emotional representation and the phenomenological experience of emotional awareness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and binocular rivalry to delineate the neural correlates of awareness of conflicting emotional expressions in humans. Behaviorally, fearful faces were significantly more likely to be perceived than disgusted or neutral faces. Functionally, increased activity was observed in regions associated with facial expression processing, including the amygdala and fusiform gyrus during emotional awareness. In contrast, awareness of neutral faces and suppression of fearful faces were associated with increased activity in dorsolateral prefrontal and inferior parietal cortices. The amygdala showed increased functional connectivity with ventral visual system regions during fear awareness and increased connectivity with perigenual prefrontal cortex (pgPFC; Brodmann's area 32/10) when fear was suppressed. Despite being prioritized for awareness, emotional items were associated with reduced activity in areas considered critical for consciousness. Contributions to consciousness from bottom-up and top-down neural regions may be additive, such that increased activity in specialized regions within the extended ventral visual system may reduce demands on a frontoparietal system important for awareness. The possibility is raised that interactions between pgPFC and the amygdala, previously implicated in extinction, may also influence whether or not an emotional stimulus is accessible to consciousness.

Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder

PubMed Central

Goldin, Philippe R.; Gross, James J.

2014-01-01

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an established program shown to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. MBSR is believed to alter emotional responding by modifying cognitive–affective processes. Given that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by emotional and attentional biases as well as distorted negative self-beliefs, we examined MBSR-related changes in the brain-behavior indices of emotional reactivity and regulation of negative self-beliefs in patients with SAD. Sixteen patients underwent functional MRI while reacting to negative self-beliefs and while regulating negative emotions using 2 types of attention deployment emotion regulation—breath-focused attention and distraction-focused attention. Post-MBSR, 14 patients completed neuroimaging assessments. Compared with baseline, MBSR completers showed improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms and self-esteem. During the breath-focused attention task (but not the distraction-focused attention task), they also showed (a) decreased negative emotion experience, (b) reduced amygdala activity, and (c) increased activity in brain regions implicated in attentional deployment. MBSR training in patients with SAD may reduce emotional reactivity while enhancing emotion regulation. These changes might facilitate reduction in SAD-related avoidance behaviors, clinical symptoms, and automatic emotional reactivity to negative self-beliefs in adults with SAD. PMID:20141305

Implications of Emotion Regulation on Young Children's Emotional Wellbeing and Educational Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Djambazova-Popordanoska, Snezhana

2016-01-01

Effective regulation of both positive and negative emotions plays a pivotal role in young children's emotional and cognitive development and later academic achievement. A compelling body of evidence has highlighted the symbiotic relationship between emotion regulation competencies and young children's emotional health, in particular their mood and…

The Cerebellum and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

PubMed Central

Rapkin, Andrea J.; Berman, Steven M.; London, Edythe D.

2017-01-01

The cerebellum constitutes ten percent of brain volume and contains the majority of brain neurons. Although it was historically viewed primarily as processing motoric computations, current evidence supports a more comprehensive role, where cerebro-cerebellar feedback loops also modulate various forms of cognitive and affective processing. Here we present evidence for a role of the cerebellum in premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which is characterized by severe negative mood symptoms during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Although a link between menstruation and cyclical dysphoria has long been recognized, neuroscientific investigations of this common disorder have only recently been explored. This article reviews functional and structural brain imaging studies of PMDD and the similar but less well defined condition of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The most consistent findings are that women with premenstrual dysphoria exhibit greater relative activity than other women in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior lobules VI and VII of the neocerebellum. Since both brain areas have been implicated in emotional processing and mood disorders, working memory and executive functions, this greater activity probably represents coactivation within a cerebro-cerebellar feedback loop regulating emotional and cognitive processing. Some of the evidence suggests that increased activity within this circuit may preserve cerebellar structure during aging, and possible mechanisms and implications of this finding are discussed. PMID:28275721

The Cerebellum and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder.

PubMed

Rapkin, Andrea J; Berman, Steven M; London, Edythe D

2014-01-01

The cerebellum constitutes ten percent of brain volume and contains the majority of brain neurons. Although it was historically viewed primarily as processing motoric computations, current evidence supports a more comprehensive role, where cerebro-cerebellar feedback loops also modulate various forms of cognitive and affective processing. Here we present evidence for a role of the cerebellum in premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which is characterized by severe negative mood symptoms during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Although a link between menstruation and cyclical dysphoria has long been recognized, neuroscientific investigations of this common disorder have only recently been explored. This article reviews functional and structural brain imaging studies of PMDD and the similar but less well defined condition of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The most consistent findings are that women with premenstrual dysphoria exhibit greater relative activity than other women in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior lobules VI and VII of the neocerebellum. Since both brain areas have been implicated in emotional processing and mood disorders, working memory and executive functions, this greater activity probably represents coactivation within a cerebro-cerebellar feedback loop regulating emotional and cognitive processing. Some of the evidence suggests that increased activity within this circuit may preserve cerebellar structure during aging, and possible mechanisms and implications of this finding are discussed.

Neurocognitive mechanisms of gaze-expression interactions in face processing and social attention

PubMed Central

Graham, Reiko; LaBar, Kevin S.

2012-01-01

The face conveys a rich source of non-verbal information used during social communication. While research has revealed how specific facial channels such as emotional expression are processed, little is known about the prioritization and integration of multiple cues in the face during dyadic exchanges. Classic models of face perception have emphasized the segregation of dynamic versus static facial features along independent information processing pathways. Here we review recent behavioral and neuroscientific evidence suggesting that within the dynamic stream, concurrent changes in eye gaze and emotional expression can yield early independent effects on face judgments and covert shifts of visuospatial attention. These effects are partially segregated within initial visual afferent processing volleys, but are subsequently integrated in limbic regions such as the amygdala or via reentrant visual processing volleys. This spatiotemporal pattern may help to resolve otherwise perplexing discrepancies across behavioral studies of emotional influences on gaze-directed attentional cueing. Theoretical explanations of gaze-expression interactions are discussed, with special consideration of speed-of-processing (discriminability) and contextual (ambiguity) accounts. Future research in this area promises to reveal the mental chronometry of face processing and interpersonal attention, with implications for understanding how social referencing develops in infancy and is impaired in autism and other disorders of social cognition. PMID:22285906

Meditation-induced neuroplastic changes in amygdala activity during negative affective processing.

PubMed

Leung, Mei-Kei; Lau, Way K W; Chan, Chetwyn C H; Wong, Samuel S Y; Fung, Annis L C; Lee, Tatia M C

2018-06-01

Recent evidence suggests that the effects of meditation practice on affective processing and resilience have the potential to induce neuroplastic changes within the amygdala. Notably, literature speculates that meditation training may reduce amygdala activity during negative affective processing. Nonetheless, studies have thus far not verified this speculation. In this longitudinal study, participants (N = 21, 9 men) were trained in awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) or matched relaxation training. The effects of meditation training on amygdala activity were examined during passive viewing of affective and neutral stimuli in a non-meditative state. We found that the ABCM group exhibited significantly reduced anxiety and right amygdala activity during negative emotion processing than the relaxation group. Furthermore, ABCM participants who performed more compassion practice had stronger right amygdala activity reduction during negative emotion processing. The lower right amygdala activity after ABCM training may be associated with a general reduction in reactivity and distress. As all participants performed the emotion processing task in a non-meditative state, it appears likely that the changes in right amygdala activity are carried over from the meditation practice into the non-meditative state. These findings suggest that the distress-reducing effects of meditation practice on affective processing may transfer to ordinary states, which have important implications on stress management.

Emotional working memory capacity in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

PubMed Central

Schweizer, Susanne; Dalgleish, Tim

2011-01-01

Participants with a lifetime history of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma-exposed controls with no PTSD history completed an emotional working memory capacity (eWMC) task. The task required them to remember lists of neutral words over short intervals while simultaneously processing sentences describing dysfunctional trauma-related thoughts (relative to neutral control sentences). The task was designed to operationalise an everyday cognitive challenge for those with mental health problems such as PTSD; namely, the ability to carry out simple, routine tasks with emotionally benign material, while at the same time tackling emotional laden intrusive thoughts and feelings. eWMC performance, indexed as the ability to remember the word lists in the context of trauma sentences, relative to neutral sentences, was poorer overall in the PTSD group compared with controls, suggestive of a particular difficulty employing working memory in emotion-related contexts in those with a history of PTSD. The possible implications for developing affective working memory training as an adjunctive treatment for PTSD are explored. PMID:21684525

Realistic Affective Forecasting: The Role of Personality

PubMed Central

Hoerger, Michael; Chapman, Ben; Duberstein, Paul

2016-01-01

Affective forecasting often drives decision making. Although affective forecasting research has often focused on identifying sources of error at the event level, the present investigation draws upon the ‘realistic paradigm’ in seeking to identify factors that similarly influence predicted and actual emotions, explaining their concordance across individuals. We hypothesized that the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion would account for variation in both predicted and actual emotional reactions to a wide array of stimuli and events (football games, an election, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, happy/sad film clips, and an intrusive interview). As hypothesized, individuals who were more introverted and neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more unpleasant emotional reactions, and those who were more extraverted and less neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more pleasant emotional reactions. Personality explained 30% of the concordance between predicted and actual emotional reactions. Findings suggest three purported personality processes implicated in affective forecasting, highlight the importance of individual-differences research in this domain, and call for more research on realistic affective forecasts. PMID:26212463

Realistic affective forecasting: The role of personality.

PubMed

Hoerger, Michael; Chapman, Ben; Duberstein, Paul

2016-11-01

Affective forecasting often drives decision-making. Although affective forecasting research has often focused on identifying sources of error at the event level, the present investigation draws upon the "realistic paradigm" in seeking to identify factors that similarly influence predicted and actual emotions, explaining their concordance across individuals. We hypothesised that the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion would account for variation in both predicted and actual emotional reactions to a wide array of stimuli and events (football games, an election, Valentine's Day, birthdays, happy/sad film clips, and an intrusive interview). As hypothesised, individuals who were more introverted and neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more unpleasant emotional reactions, and those who were more extraverted and less neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more pleasant emotional reactions. Personality explained 30% of the concordance between predicted and actual emotional reactions. Findings suggest three purported personality processes implicated in affective forecasting, highlight the importance of individual-differences research in this domain, and call for more research on realistic affective forecasts.

Different Neural Correlates of Emotion-Label Words and Emotion-Laden Words: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Zhang, Juan; Wu, Chenggang; Meng, Yaxuan; Yuan, Zhen

2017-01-01

It is well-documented that both emotion-label words (e.g., sadness, happiness) and emotion-laden words (e.g., death, wedding) can induce emotion activation. However, the neural correlates of emotion-label words and emotion-laden words recognition have not been examined. The present study aimed to compare the underlying neural responses when processing the two kinds of words by employing event-related potential (ERP) measurements. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in which they should judge whether a two-character compound stimulus was a real word or not. Results showed that (1) emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicited similar P100 at the posteriors sites, (2) larger N170 was found for emotion-label words than for emotion-laden words at the occipital sites on the right hemisphere, and (3) negative emotion-label words elicited larger Late Positivity Complex (LPC) on the right hemisphere than on the left hemisphere while such effect was not found for emotion-laden words and positive emotion-label words. The results indicate that emotion-label words and emotion-laden words elicit different cortical responses at both early (N170) and late (LPC) stages. In addition, right hemisphere advantage for emotion-label words over emotion-laden words can be observed in certain time windows (i.e., N170 and LPC) while fails to be detected in some other time window (i.e., P100). The implications of the current findings for future emotion research were discussed. PMID:28983242

The effect of analytic and experiential modes of thought on moral judgment.

PubMed

Kvaran, Trevor; Nichols, Shaun; Sanfey, Alan

2013-01-01

According to dual-process theories, moral judgments are the result of two competing processes: a fast, automatic, affect-driven process and a slow, deliberative, reason-based process. Accordingly, these models make clear and testable predictions about the influence of each system. Although a small number of studies have attempted to examine each process independently in the context of moral judgment, no study has yet tried to experimentally manipulate both processes within a single study. In this chapter, a well-established "mode-of-thought" priming technique was used to place participants in either an experiential/emotional or analytic mode while completing a task in which participants provide judgments about a series of moral dilemmas. We predicted that individuals primed analytically would make more utilitarian responses than control participants, while emotional priming would lead to less utilitarian responses. Support was found for both of these predictions. Implications of these findings for dual-process theories of moral judgment will be discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Self-Regulation Principles Underlying Risk Perception and Decision Making within the Context of Genomic Testing

PubMed Central

Cameron, Linda D.; Biesecker, Barbara Bowles; Peters, Ellen; Taber, Jennifer M.; Klein, William M. P.

2017-01-01

Advances in theory and research on self-regulation and decision-making processes have yielded important insights into how cognitive, emotional, and social processes shape risk perceptions and risk-related decisions. We examine how self-regulation theory can be applied to inform our understanding of decision-making processes within the context of genomic testing, a clinical arena in which individuals face complex risk information and potentially life-altering decisions. After presenting key principles of self-regulation, we present a genomic testing case example to illustrate how principles related to risk representations, approach and avoidance motivations, emotion regulation, defensive responses, temporal construals, and capacities such as numeric abilities can shape decisions and psychological responses during the genomic testing process. We conclude with implications for using self-regulation theory to advance science within genomic testing and opportunities for how this research can inform further developments in self-regulation theory. PMID:29225669

Self-Regulation Principles Underlying Risk Perception and Decision Making within the Context of Genomic Testing.

PubMed

Cameron, Linda D; Biesecker, Barbara Bowles; Peters, Ellen; Taber, Jennifer M; Klein, William M P

2017-05-01

Advances in theory and research on self-regulation and decision-making processes have yielded important insights into how cognitive, emotional, and social processes shape risk perceptions and risk-related decisions. We examine how self-regulation theory can be applied to inform our understanding of decision-making processes within the context of genomic testing, a clinical arena in which individuals face complex risk information and potentially life-altering decisions. After presenting key principles of self-regulation, we present a genomic testing case example to illustrate how principles related to risk representations, approach and avoidance motivations, emotion regulation, defensive responses, temporal construals, and capacities such as numeric abilities can shape decisions and psychological responses during the genomic testing process. We conclude with implications for using self-regulation theory to advance science within genomic testing and opportunities for how this research can inform further developments in self-regulation theory.

Counseling Psychology in the Era of Genetic Testing: Considerations for Practice, Research, and Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaut, Kevin P.

2006-01-01

The field of genetics and the process of testing for genetic disorders have advanced considerably over the past half century, ushering in significant improvements in certain areas of medical diagnosis and disease prediction. However, genetic discoveries are accompanied by many social, emotional, and psychological implications, and counseling…

Annual Research Review: Development of the Cerebral Cortex--Implications for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubenstein, John L. R.

2011-01-01

The cerebral cortex has a central role in cognitive and emotional processing. As such, understanding the mechanisms that govern its development and function will be central to understanding the bases of severe neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly those that first appear in childhood. In this review, I highlight recent progress in elucidating…

Psilocybin biases facial recognition, goal-directed behavior, and mood state toward positive relative to negative emotions through different serotonergic subreceptors.

PubMed

Kometer, Michael; Schmidt, André; Bachmann, Rosilla; Studerus, Erich; Seifritz, Erich; Vollenweider, Franz X

2012-12-01

Serotonin (5-HT) 1A and 2A receptors have been associated with dysfunctional emotional processing biases in mood disorders. These receptors further predominantly mediate the subjective and behavioral effects of psilocybin and might be important for its recently suggested antidepressive effects. However, the effect of psilocybin on emotional processing biases and the specific contribution of 5-HT2A receptors across different emotional domains is unknown. In a randomized, double-blind study, 17 healthy human subjects received on 4 separate days placebo, psilocybin (215 μg/kg), the preferential 5-HT2A antagonist ketanserin (50 mg), or psilocybin plus ketanserin. Mood states were assessed by self-report ratings, and behavioral and event-related potential measurements were used to quantify facial emotional recognition and goal-directed behavior toward emotional cues. Psilocybin enhanced positive mood and attenuated recognition of negative facial expression. Furthermore, psilocybin increased goal-directed behavior toward positive compared with negative cues, facilitated positive but inhibited negative sequential emotional effects, and valence-dependently attenuated the P300 component. Ketanserin alone had no effects but blocked the psilocybin-induced mood enhancement and decreased recognition of negative facial expression. This study shows that psilocybin shifts the emotional bias across various psychological domains and that activation of 5-HT2A receptors is central in mood regulation and emotional face recognition in healthy subjects. These findings may not only have implications for the pathophysiology of dysfunctional emotional biases but may also provide a framework to delineate the mechanisms underlying psylocybin's putative antidepressant effects. Copyright © 2012 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Working memory for social cues recruits orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of delayed matching to sample for emotional expressions.

PubMed

LoPresti, Matthew L; Schon, Karin; Tricarico, Marisa D; Swisher, Jascha D; Celone, Kim A; Stern, Chantal E

2008-04-02

During everyday interactions, we continuously monitor and maintain information about different individuals and their changing emotions in memory. Yet to date, working memory (WM) studies have primarily focused on mechanisms for maintaining face identity, but not emotional expression, and studies investigating the neural basis of emotion have focused on transient activity, not delay related activity. The goal of this functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to investigate WM for two critical social cues: identity and emotion. Subjects performed a delayed match-to-sample task that required them to match either the emotional expression or the identity of a face after a 10 s delay. Neuroanatomically, our predictions focused on the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the amygdala, as these regions have previously been implicated in emotional processing and long-term memory, and studies have demonstrated sustained OFC and medial temporal lobe activity during visual WM. Consistent with previous studies, transient activity during the sample period representing emotion and identity was found in the superior temporal sulcus and inferior occipital cortex, respectively. Sustained delay-period activity was evident in OFC, amygdala, and hippocampus, for both emotion and identity trials. These results suggest that, although initial processing of emotion and identity is accomplished in anatomically segregated temporal and occipital regions, sustained delay related memory for these two critical features is held by the OFC, amygdala and hippocampus. These regions share rich connections, and have been shown previously to be necessary for binding features together in long-term memory. Our results suggest a role for these regions in active maintenance as well.

Nonlinear dynamics of emotion-cognition interaction: when emotion does not destroy cognition?

PubMed

Afraimovich, Valentin; Young, Todd; Muezzinoglu, Mehmet K; Rabinovich, Mikhail I

2011-02-01

Emotion (i.e., spontaneous motivation and subsequent implementation of a behavior) and cognition (i.e., problem solving by information processing) are essential to how we, as humans, respond to changes in our environment. Recent studies in cognitive science suggest that emotion and cognition are subserved by different, although heavily integrated, neural systems. Understanding the time-varying relationship of emotion and cognition is a challenging goal with important implications for neuroscience. We formulate here the dynamical model of emotion-cognition interaction that is based on the following principles: (1) the temporal evolution of cognitive and emotion modes are captured by the incoming stimuli and competition within and among themselves (competition principle); (2) metastable states exist in the unified emotion-cognition phase space; and (3) the brain processes information with robust and reproducible transients through the sequence of metastable states. Such a model can take advantage of the often ignored temporal structure of the emotion-cognition interaction to provide a robust and generalizable method for understanding the relationship between brain activation and complex human behavior. The mathematical image of the robust and reproducible transient dynamics is a Stable Heteroclinic Sequence (SHS), and the Stable Heteroclinic Channels (SHCs). These have been hypothesized to be possible mechanisms that lead to the sequential transient behavior observed in networks. We investigate the modularity of SHCs, i.e., given a SHS and a SHC that is supported in one part of a network, we study conditions under which the SHC pertaining to the cognition will continue to function in the presence of interfering activity with other parts of the network, i.e., emotion.

Emotions and attributions of legal responsibility and blame: a research review.

PubMed

Feigenson, Neal; Park, Jaihyun

2006-04-01

Research on the effects of emotions and moods on judgments of legal responsibility and blame is reviewed. Emotions and moods may influence decision makers in 3 ways: by affecting their information processing strategies, by inclining their judgments in the direction of the valence of the emotion or mood, and/or by providing informational cues to the proper decision. A model is proposed that incorporates these effects and further distinguishes among various affective influences in terms of whether the affect is provoked by a source integral or incidental to the judgment task, and whether it affects judgment directly (e.g., by providing an informational cue to judgment) or indirectly (e.g., by affecting construal of judgment target features, which in turn affects the judgment). Legal decision makers' abilities to correct for any affective influences they perceive to be undesirable and normative implications for legal theory and practice are briefly discussed.

Augmenting a Ballet Dance Show Using the Dancer's Emotion: Conducting Joint Research in Dance and Computer Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clay, Alexis; Delord, Elric; Couture, Nadine; Domenger, Gaël

We describe the joint research that we conduct in gesture-based emotion recognition and virtual augmentation of a stage, bridging together the fields of computer science and dance. After establishing a common ground for dialogue, we could conduct a research process that equally benefits both fields. As computer scientists, dance is a perfect application case. Dancer's artistic creativity orient our research choices. As dancers, computer science provides new tools for creativity, and more importantly a new point of view that forces us to reconsider dance from its fundamentals. In this paper we hence describe our scientific work and its implications on dance. We provide an overview of our system to augment a ballet stage, taking a dancer's emotion into account. To illustrate our work in both fields, we describe three events that mixed dance, emotion recognition and augmented reality.

Cognitive and emotional processes during dreaming: a neuroimaging view.

PubMed

Desseilles, Martin; Dang-Vu, Thien Thanh; Sterpenich, Virginie; Schwartz, Sophie

2011-12-01

Dream is a state of consciousness characterized by internally-generated sensory, cognitive and emotional experiences occurring during sleep. Dream reports tend to be particularly abundant, with complex, emotional, and perceptually vivid experiences after awakenings from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. This is why our current knowledge of the cerebral correlates of dreaming, mainly derives from studies of REM sleep. Neuroimaging results show that REM sleep is characterized by a specific pattern of regional brain activity. We demonstrate that this heterogeneous distribution of brain activity during sleep explains many typical features in dreams. Reciprocally, specific dream characteristics suggest the activation of selective brain regions during sleep. Such an integration of neuroimaging data of human sleep, mental imagery, and the content of dreams is critical for current models of dreaming; it also provides neurobiological support for an implication of sleep and dreaming in some important functions such as emotional regulation. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Elevated amygdala activity to sad facial expressions: a state marker of bipolar but not unipolar depression.

PubMed

Almeida, Jorge R C; Versace, Amelia; Hassel, Stefanie; Kupfer, David J; Phillips, Mary L

2010-03-01

Difficulties in emotion processing and poor social function are common to bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) depression, resulting in many BD depressed individuals being misdiagnosed with MDD. The amygdala is a key region implicated in processing emotionally salient stimuli, including emotional facial expressions. It is unclear, however, whether abnormal amygdala activity during positive and negative emotion processing represents a persistent marker of BD regardless of illness phase or a state marker of depression common or specific to BD and MDD depression. Sixty adults were recruited: 15 depressed with BD type 1 (BDd), 15 depressed with recurrent MDD, 15 with BD in remission (BDr), diagnosed with DSM-IV and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Research Version criteria; and 15 healthy control subjects (HC). Groups were age- and gender ratio-matched; patient groups were matched for age of illness onset and illness duration; depressed groups were matched for depression severity. The BDd were taking more psychotropic medication than other patient groups. All individuals participated in three separate 3T neuroimaging event-related experiments, where they viewed mild and intense emotional and neutral faces of fear, happiness, or sadness from a standardized series. The BDd-relative to HC, BDr, and MDD-showed elevated left amygdala activity to mild and neutral facial expressions in the sad (p < .009) but not other emotion experiments that was not associated with medication. There were no other significant between-group differences in amygdala activity. Abnormally elevated left amygdala activity to mild sad and neutral faces might be a depression-specific marker in BD but not MDD, suggesting different pathophysiologic processes for BD versus MDD depression. Copyright 2010 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mood dysregulation and stabilization: perspectives from emotional cognitive neuroscience.

PubMed

Yamawaki, Shigeto; Okada, Go; Okamoto, Yasumasa; Liberzon, Israel

2012-06-01

Mood is conceptualized as a long-lasting emotional state, which can have profound implications for mental and physical health. The development of neuroimaging methods has enabled significant advances towards elucidating the mechanisms underlying regulation of mood and emotion; however, our understanding of mood and emotion dysregulation in stress-related psychiatric disorders is still largely lacking. From the cognitive-affective neuroscience perspective, achieving deeper, more mechanistic understanding of mood disorders necessitates detailed understanding of specific components of neural systems involved in mood dysregulation and stabilization. In this review, we provide an overview of neural systems implicated in the development of a long-term negative mood state, as well as those related to emotion and emotion regulation, and discuss their proposed involvement in mood and anxiety disorders.

Piccolo genotype modulates neural correlates of emotion processing but not executive functioning.

PubMed

Woudstra, S; Bochdanovits, Z; van Tol, M-J; Veltman, D J; Zitman, F G; van Buchem, M A; van der Wee, N J; Opmeer, E M; Demenescu, L R; Aleman, A; Penninx, B W; Hoogendijk, W J

2012-04-03

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by affective symptoms and cognitive impairments, which have been associated with changes in limbic and prefrontal activity as well as with monoaminergic neurotransmission. A genome-wide association study implicated the polymorphism rs2522833 in the piccolo (PCLO) gene--involved in monoaminergic neurotransmission--as a risk factor for MDD. However, the role of the PCLO risk allele in emotion processing and executive function or its effect on their neural substrate has never been studied. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate PCLO risk allele carriers vs noncarriers during an emotional face processing task and a visuospatial planning task in 159 current MDD patients and healthy controls. In PCLO risk allele carriers, we found increased activity in the left amygdala during processing of angry and sad faces compared with noncarriers, independent of psychopathological status. During processing of fearful faces, the PCLO risk allele was associated with increased amygdala activation in MDD patients only. During the visuospatial planning task, we found no genotype effect on performance or on BOLD signal in our predefined areas as a function of increasing task load. The PCLO risk allele was found to be specifically associated with altered emotion processing, but not with executive dysfunction. Moreover, the PCLO risk allele appears to modulate amygdala function during fearful facial processing in MDD and may constitute a possible link between genotype and susceptibility for depression via altered processing of fearful stimuli. The current results may therefore aid in better understanding underlying neurobiological mechanisms in MDD.

False belief attribution in children with Williams syndrome: the answer is in the emotion.

PubMed

Campos, R; Martínez-Castilla, P; Sotillo, M

2017-11-01

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) show difficulties in attributing false beliefs, whereas they are better at attributing emotions. This study examines whether being asked about the emotion linked to a false belief, instead of explicitly about the belief, facilitates performance on theory of mind (ToM) tasks. Thirty children with WS and 90 typically developing children, who were individually matched on mental age (50-112 months), were administered six explicit (i.e. questions on belief) and six implicit (i.e. questions on emotion) trials of false belief tasks. Theory of mind competences were related to cognitive development. Children with WS performed comparably to typically developing children on the emotion questions. Correct answers to questions on emotion reveal an implicit understanding of false belief. The Representational redescription process could be impaired in the domain of ToM in this population. This finding has relevant implications for the design of supports aiming to optimise the development of ToM competences in individuals with WS. © 2017 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A novel theory of experiential avoidance in generalized anxiety disorder: A review and synthesis of research supporting a contrast avoidance model of worry☆,☆☆

PubMed Central

Newman, Michelle G.; Llera, Sandra J.

2011-01-01

An important emphasis of the literature on generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has been to achieve a greater understanding of the function of emotion (e.g., avoidance, dysregulation) in the etiology and maintenance of this disorder. The purpose of the following paper is to propose a new way of conceptualizing emotional sequelae in GAD by detailing the Contrast Avoidance Model of Worry. In presenting this model, we review theory and data that led to our current position, which is that individuals with GAD are more sensitive to feeling emotionally vulnerable to unexpected negative events, and that worry (the key pathological feature of GAD) is employed to prolong and maintain a negative emotional state thereby avoiding an unexpected negative emotional shift, or contrast experience. We also discuss implications for treatment given the presence of a new target for emotional exposure techniques. Finally, we establish the Contrast Avoidance Model within the framework of extant theories and models of pathogenic processes of GAD. PMID:21334285

The affective (re)production of refugee representations through educational policies and practices: Reconceptualising the role of emotion for peace education in a divided country

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zembylas, Michalinos

2012-08-01

Drawing into a discussion of the politicisation of emotion, this paper develops a framework to analyse some of the processes and strategies by which educational policies and pedagogical practices "emotionalise" the representation of refugees in conflict-ridden societies such as Cyprus and explores the implications for peace education. In particular, this paper aims to refine our understanding of how emotions affect the ways in which educational policies and practices reproduce self-other dichotomies through certain representations of the refugee experience. It is argued that these dichotomies are relevant to the emotional reactions against peace education initiatives. Second, this paper examines alternative possibilities of promoting peaceful coexistence, while taking into consideration the affective (re)production of refugee representations yet without undermining the refugee experience. Better understanding of how emotion is involved will help educational policymakers and teachers in divided societies to take into account the hitherto poorly developed aspects of the ways in which emotions, the refugee experience and peace education are inextricably intertwined.

Age differences in dual information-processing modes: implications for cancer decision making.

PubMed

Peters, Ellen; Diefenbach, Michael A; Hess, Thomas M; Västfjäll, Daniel

2008-12-15

Age differences in affective/experiential and deliberative processes have important theoretical implications for cancer decision making, as cancer is often a disease of older adulthood. The authors examined evidence for adult age differences in affective and deliberative information processes, reviewed the sparse evidence about age differences in decision making, and introduced how dual process theories and their findings might be applied to cancer decision making. Age-related declines in the efficiency of deliberative processes predict poorer-quality decisions as we age, particularly when decisions are unfamiliar and the information is numeric. However, age-related adaptive processes, including an increased focus on emotional goals and greater experience, can influence decision making and potentially offset age-related declines. A better understanding of the mechanisms that underlie cancer decision processes in our aging population should ultimately allow us to help older adults to better help themselves.

Age Differences in Dual Information-Processing Modes: Implications for Cancer Decision Making

PubMed Central

Peters, Ellen; Diefenbach, Michael A.; Hess, Thomas M.; Västfjäll, Daniel

2008-01-01

Age differences in affective/experiential and deliberative processes have important theoretical implications for cancer decision making as cancer is often a disease of older adulthood. We examine evidence for adult age differences in affective and deliberative information processes, review the sparse evidence about age differences in decision making and introduce how dual process theories and their findings might be applied to cancer decision making. Age-related declines in the efficiency of deliberative processes predict poorer-quality decisions as we age, particularly when decisions are unfamiliar and the information is numeric. However, age-related adaptive processes, including an increased focus on emotional goals and greater experience, can influence decision making and potentially offset age-related declines. A better understanding of the mechanisms that underlie cancer decision processes in our aging population should ultimately allow us to help older adults to better help themselves. PMID:19058148

A Review of Sex Differences in Peer Relationship Processes: Potential Trade-offs for the Emotional and Behavioral Development of Girls and Boys

PubMed Central

Rose, Amanda J.; Rudolph, Karen D.

2011-01-01

Theory and research on sex differences in adjustment focus largely on parental, societal, and biological influences. However, it also is important to consider how peers contribute to girls’ and boys’ development. This paper provides a critical review of sex differences in: several peer-relationship processes, including behavioral and social-cognitive styles, stress and coping, and relationship provisions. Based on this review, a speculative peer-socialization model is presented that considers the implications of these sex differences for girls’ and boys’ emotional and behavioral development. Central to this model is the idea that sex-linked relationship processes have costs and benefits for girls’ and boys’ adjustment. Finally, we present recent research testing certain model components and propose approaches for testing understudied aspects of the model. PMID:16435959

Negative emotion evoked by viewing snakes has a motivating effect on cognitive processing in human children with or without intellectual disability.

PubMed

Masataka, Nobuo

2017-06-01

It is well known that prioritization of the processing of threatening stimuli generally induces deleterious effects on task performance. However, a study recently reported that emotion (possibly fear) evoked by viewing images of snakes exerts a facilitating effect upon making judgments of the images' color in neurotypical adults and schoolchildren. Here, the author has attempted to confirm the relevance of this notion in children with and without intellectual disability. The author here compared the reaction time required to name the colors of snake and flower images between children with Down syndrome (DS) and mental age matched, typically-developing (TD) children. Snake images were responded to faster than flower images in both the groups, while the children with DS tended to respond more slowly overall. As in TD children, negative emotion can have a motivating effect on cognitive processing in children with DS. Some implications of the findings are pointed out with respect to the lower-level task persistence as a characteristic motivational orientation in children with DS.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and fear of emotions: the role of attentional control.

PubMed

Sippel, Lauren M; Marshall, Amy D

2013-06-01

Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience elevated concerns about their capacity to control, and the consequences of, strong emotions that occur in response to trauma reminders. Anxiety is theorized to compromise attentional control (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). In turn, diminished attentional control may increase vulnerability to threat cues and emotional reactivity (Ehlers & Clark, 2001). Consequently, attentional control may play a role in the fear of emotions frequently experienced by individuals with PTSD. Study participants included 64 men and 64 women with a mean age of 37 years, 86% of whom were White, non-Hispanic. Participants experienced an average of 7.68 types of traumatic events, most commonly including motor vehicle accidents and intimate partner violence. PTSD symptoms positively correlated with fear of emotions (r = .53) and negatively correlated with attentional control (r = -.38). Attentional control was negatively correlated with fear emotions (r = -.77) and partially mediated the link between PTSD and fear of emotions (R(2) = .22). Given the findings regarding top-down attentional control, these results have implications for cognitive and emotional processing theories of PTSD and emphasize the importance of clinical consideration of fear of emotions and attentional control in the treatment of PTSD. Copyright © 2013 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

The emotional valence of a conflict: implications from synesthesia.

PubMed

Perry, Amit; Henik, Avishai

2013-01-01

According to some synesthetes' reports, their experience involves an emotional sensation in which a conflict between the photism and presented color of a stimulus may evoke a feeling of discomfort. In order to investigate the impact of this experience on performance, two experiments were carried out on two synesthetes and their matched control groups. Experiments were tailored for each synesthete according to her unique photism. Participants were presented with stimuli (numerals or words) in colors and were asked to name the color of the stimulus and to ignore its meaning. Incongruent colors were associated with negative or positive emotional words or with non-emotional words. Not surprisingly, an incongruent color (e.g., 5 presented in yellow to a synesthete that sees 5 in red) slowed down color naming. Conflict situations (e.g., a numeral in an incongruent color) created a negative emotional experience. Most importantly, coherence between a conflict or non-conflict emotional experience and the emotion elicited by the color of the stimulus for a given synesthete modulated performance. In particular, synesthetes were faster in coherent than in incoherent situations. This research contributes to the understanding of emotional experience in synesthesia, and also suggests that synesthesia can be used as an instrument to investigate emotional processes in the wider population.

Emotion recognition deficits associated with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions are improved by gaze manipulation.

PubMed

Wolf, Richard C; Pujara, Maia; Baskaya, Mustafa K; Koenigs, Michael

2016-09-01

Facial emotion recognition is a critical aspect of human communication. Since abnormalities in facial emotion recognition are associated with social and affective impairment in a variety of psychiatric and neurological conditions, identifying the neural substrates and psychological processes underlying facial emotion recognition will help advance basic and translational research on social-affective function. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has recently been implicated in deploying visual attention to the eyes of emotional faces, although there is mixed evidence regarding the importance of this brain region for recognition accuracy. In the present study of neurological patients with vmPFC damage, we used an emotion recognition task with morphed facial expressions of varying intensities to determine (1) whether vmPFC is essential for emotion recognition accuracy, and (2) whether instructed attention to the eyes of faces would be sufficient to improve any accuracy deficits. We found that vmPFC lesion patients are impaired, relative to neurologically healthy adults, at recognizing moderate intensity expressions of anger and that recognition accuracy can be improved by providing instructions of where to fixate. These results suggest that vmPFC may be important for the recognition of facial emotion through a role in guiding visual attention to emotionally salient regions of faces. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Face and emotion expression processing and the serotonin transporter polymorphism 5-HTTLPR/rs22531.

PubMed

Hildebrandt, A; Kiy, A; Reuter, M; Sommer, W; Wilhelm, O

2016-06-01

Face cognition, including face identity and facial expression processing, is a crucial component of socio-emotional abilities, characterizing humans as highest developed social beings. However, for these trait domains molecular genetic studies investigating gene-behavior associations based on well-founded phenotype definitions are still rare. We examined the relationship between 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphisms - related to serotonin-reuptake - and the ability to perceive and recognize faces and emotional expressions in human faces. For this aim we conducted structural equation modeling on data from 230 young adults, obtained by using a comprehensive, multivariate task battery with maximal effort tasks. By additionally modeling fluid intelligence and immediate and delayed memory factors, we aimed to address the discriminant relationships of the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphisms with socio-emotional abilities. We found a robust association between the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism and facial emotion perception. Carriers of two long (L) alleles outperformed carriers of one or two S alleles. Weaker associations were present for face identity perception and memory for emotional facial expressions. There was no association between the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism and non-social abilities, demonstrating discriminant validity of the relationships. We discuss the implications and possible neural mechanisms underlying these novel findings. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

Social reactions to disclosure of sexual victimization and adjustment among survivors of sexual assault.

PubMed

Orchowski, Lindsay M; Untied, Amy S; Gidycz, Christine A

2013-07-01

How a support provider responds to disclosure of sexual victimization has important implications for the process of recovery. The present study examines the associations between various positive and negative social reactions to sexual assault disclosure and psychological distress, coping behavior, social support, and self-esteem in a sample of college women (N = 374). Social reactions to assault disclosure that attempted to control the survivor's decisions were associated with increased symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety and lower perceptions of reassurance of worth from others. Blaming social reactions were associated with less self-esteem and engagement in coping via problem solving. Social reactions that provided emotional support to the survivor were associated with increased coping by seeking emotional support. Contrary to expectations, social reactions that treated the survivor differently were associated with higher self-esteem. Implications are discussed.

Guanfacine modulates the influence of emotional cues on prefrontal cortex activation for cognitive control.

PubMed

Schulz, Kurt P; Clerkin, Suzanne M; Fan, Jin; Halperin, Jeffrey M; Newcorn, Jeffrey H

2013-03-01

Functional interactions between limbic regions that process emotions and frontal networks that guide response functions provide a substrate for emotional cues to influence behavior. Stimulation of postsynaptic α₂ adrenoceptors enhances the function of prefrontal regions in these networks. However, the impact of this stimulation on the emotional biasing of behavior has not been established. This study tested the effect of the postsynaptic α₂ adrenoceptor agonist guanfacine on the emotional biasing of response execution and inhibition in prefrontal cortex. Fifteen healthy young adults were scanned twice with functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a face emotion go/no-go task following counterbalanced administration of single doses of oral guanfacine (1 mg) and placebo in a double-blind, cross-over design. Lower perceptual sensitivity and less response bias for sad faces resulted in fewer correct responses compared to happy and neutral faces but had no effect on correct inhibitions. Guanfacine increased the sensitivity and bias selectively for sad faces, resulting in response accuracy comparable to happy and neutral faces, and reversed the valence-dependent variation in response-related activation in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), resulting in enhanced activation for response execution cued by sad faces relative to happy and neutral faces, in line with other frontoparietal regions. These results provide evidence that guanfacine stimulation of postsynaptic α₂ adrenoceptors moderates DLPFC activation associated with the emotional biasing of response execution processes. The findings have implications for the α₂ adrenoceptor agonist treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Sex differences and emotion regulation: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Gardener, Elyse K T; Carr, Andrea R; Macgregor, Amy; Felmingham, Kim L

2013-01-01

Difficulties in emotion regulation have been implicated as a potential mechanism underlying anxiety and mood disorders. It is possible that sex differences in emotion regulation may contribute towards the heightened female prevalence for these disorders. Previous fMRI studies of sex differences in emotion regulation have shown mixed results, possibly due to difficulties in discriminating the component processes of early emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine sex differences in N1 and N2 components (reflecting early emotional reactivity) and P3 and LPP components (reflecting emotion regulation). N1, N2, P3, and LPP were recorded from 20 men and 23 women who were instructed to "increase," "decrease," and "maintain" their emotional response during passive viewing of negative images. Results indicated that women had significantly greater N1 and N2 amplitudes (reflecting early emotional reactivity) to negative stimuli than men, supporting a female negativity bias. LPP amplitudes increased to the "increase" instruction, and women displayed greater LPP amplitudes than men to the "increase" instruction. There were no differences to the "decrease" instruction in women or men. These findings confirm predictions of the female negativity bias hypothesis and suggest that women have greater up-regulation of emotional responses to negative stimuli. This finding is highly significant in light of the female vulnerability for developing anxiety disorders.

Neutral and emotional episodic memory: global impairment after lorazepam or scopolamine.

PubMed

Kamboj, Sunjeev K; Curran, H Valerie

2006-11-01

Benzodiazepines and anticholinergic drugs have repeatedly been shown to impair episodic memory for emotionally neutral material in humans. However, their effect on memory for emotionally laden stimuli has been relatively neglected. We sought to investigate the effects of the benzodiazepine, lorazepam, and the anticholinergic, scopolamine, on incidental episodic memory for neutral and emotional components of a narrative memory task in humans. A double-blind, placebo-controlled independent group design was used with 48 healthy volunteers to examine the effects of these drugs on emotional and neutral episodic memory. As expected, the emotional memory advantage was retained for recall and recognition memory under placebo conditions. However, lorazepam and scopolamine produced anterograde recognition memory impairments on both the neutral and emotional components of the narrative, although floor effects were obtained for recall memory. Furthermore, compared with placebo, recognition memory for both central (gist) and peripheral (detail) aspects of neutral and emotional elements of the narrative was poorer after either drug. Benzodiazepine-induced GABAergic enhancement or scopolamine-induced cholinergic hypofunction results in a loss of the enhancing effect of emotional arousal on memory. Furthermore, lorazepam- and scopolamine-induced memory impairment for both gist (which is amygdala dependent) and detail raises the possibility that their effects on emotional memory do not depend only on the amygdala. We discuss the results with reference to potential clinical/forensic implications of processing emotional memories under conditions of globally impaired episodic memory.

Maternal Emotion Regulation and Adolescent Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Family Functioning and Parenting.

PubMed

Crandall, AliceAnn; Ghazarian, Sharon R; Day, Randal D; Riley, Anne W

2016-11-01

Prior research links poor maternal emotion regulation to maladaptive parenting and child behaviors, but little research is available on these relationships during the adolescent period. We use structural equation modeling to assess the influence of poor maternal emotion regulation, measured as emotional reactivity and distancing, on adolescent behaviors (measured as aggression and prosocial behaviors) among 478 adolescents (53 % female; baseline age 10-13 years) and their mothers over a 5 year period. We also tested the possible mediating roles of family functioning and parenting behaviors between maternal emotion regulation and adolescent behaviors. Results indicated that higher baseline maternal emotional distancing and reactivity were not directly predictive of adolescents' behaviors, but they were indirectly related through family functioning and parenting. Specifically, indulgent parenting mediated the relationship between maternal emotional reactivity and adolescent aggression. Maternal-reported family functioning significantly mediated the relationship between maternal emotional distancing and adolescent aggression. Family functioning also mediated the relationship between emotional distancing and regulation parenting. The results imply that poor maternal emotion regulation during their child's early adolescence leads to more maladaptive parenting and problematic behaviors during the later adolescent period. However, healthy family processes may ameliorate the negative impact of low maternal emotion regulation on parenting and adolescent behavioral outcomes. The implications for future research and interventions to improve parenting and adolescent outcomes are discussed.

A temporal dissociation of subliminal versus supraliminal fear perception: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Liddell, Belinda J; Williams, Leanne M; Rathjen, Jennifer; Shevrin, Howard; Gordon, Evian

2004-04-01

Current theories of emotion suggest that threat-related stimuli are first processed via an automatically engaged neural mechanism, which occurs outside conscious awareness. This mechanism operates in conjunction with a slower and more comprehensive process that allows a detailed evaluation of the potentially harmful stimulus (LeDoux, 1998). We drew on the Halgren and Marinkovic (1995) model to examine these processes using event-related potentials (ERPs) within a backward masking paradigm. Stimuli used were faces with fear and neutral (as baseline control) expressions, presented above (supraliminal) and below (subliminal) the threshold for conscious detection. ERP data revealed a double dissociation for the supraliminal versus subliminal perception of fear. In the subliminal condition, responses to the perception of fear stimuli were enhanced relative to neutral for the N2 "excitatory" component, which is thought to represent orienting and automatic aspects of face processing. By contrast, supraliminal perception of fear was associated with relatively enhanced responses for the late P3 "inhibitory" component, implicated in the integration of emotional processes. These findings provide evidence in support of Halgren and Marinkovic's temporal model of emotion processing, and indicate that the neural mechanisms for appraising signals of threat may be initiated, not only automatically, but also without the need for conscious detection of these signals.

An investigation of a novel transdiagnostic model of delusions in a group with positive schizotypal symptoms.

PubMed

Cameron, Clare; Kaplan, Ryan A; Rossell, Susan L

2014-01-01

Although several theories of delusions have been put forward, most do not offer a comprehensive diagnosis-independent explanation of delusion aetiology. This study used a non-clinical sample to provide empirical support for a novel transdiagnostic model of delusions that implicates aberrant semantic memory and emotion perception processes as key factors in delusion formation and maintenance. It was hypothesised that among a non-clinical sample, people high in schizotypy would demonstrate differences in semantic memory and emotion perception, relative to people low in schizotypy. Using the Cognitive Disorganisation subscale of the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences, 41 healthy participants were separated into high and low schizotypy groups and completed facial emotion perception and semantic priming tasks. As expected, participants in the high schizotypy group demonstrated different performance on the semantic priming task and reduced facial affect accuracy for the emotion anger, and reaction time differences to fearful faces. These findings suggest that such processes may be involved in the development of the sorts of unusual beliefs which underlie delusions. Investigation of how emotion perception and semantic memory may interrelate in the aetiology of delusions would be of value in furthering our understanding of their role in delusion formation.

Face-memory and emotion: associations with major depression in children and adolescents.

PubMed

Pine, Daniel S; Lissek, Shmuel; Klein, Rachel G; Mannuzza, Salvatore; Moulton, John L; Guardino, Mary; Woldehawariat, Girma

2004-10-01

Studies in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) document abnormalities in both memory and face-emotion processing. The current study used a novel face-memory task to test the hypothesis that adolescent MDD is associated with a deficit in memory for face-emotions. The study also examines the relationship between parental MDD and memory performance in offspring. Subjects were 152 offspring (ages 9-19) of adults with either MDD, anxiety disorders, both MDD and anxiety, or no disorder. Parents and offspring were assessed for mental disorders. Collection of face-memory data was blind to offspring and parent diagnosis. A computerized task was developed that required rating of facial photographs depicting 'happy,"fearful,' or 'angry' emotions followed by a memory recall test. Recall accuracy was examined as a function of face-emotion type. Age and gender independently predicted memory, with better recall in older and female subjects. Controlling for age and gender, offspring with a history of MDD (n = 19) demonstrated significant deficits in memory selectively for fearful faces, but not happy or angry faces. Parental MDD was not associated with face-memory accuracy. This study found an association between MDD in childhood or adolescence and perturbed encoding of fearful faces. MDD in young individuals may predispose to subtle anomalies in a neural circuit encompassing the amygdala, a brain region implicated in the processing of fearful facial expressions. These findings suggest that brain imaging studies using similar face-emotion paradigms should test whether deficits in processing of fearful faces relate to amygdala dysfunction in children and adolescents with MDD.

Is valuing positive emotion associated with life satisfaction?

PubMed

Bastian, Brock; Kuppens, Peter; De Roover, Kim; Diener, Ed

2014-08-01

The experience of positive emotion is closely linked to subjective well-being. For this reason, campaigns aimed at promoting the value of positive emotion have become widespread. What is rarely considered are the cultural implications of this focus on happiness. Promoting positive emotions as important for "the good life" not only has implications for how individuals value these emotional states, but for how they believe others around them value these emotions also. Drawing on data from over 9,000 college students across 47 countries we examined whether individuals' life satisfaction is associated with living in contexts in which positive emotions are socially valued. The findings show that people report more life satisfaction in countries where positive emotions are highly valued and this is linked to an increased frequency of positive emotional experiences in these contexts. They also reveal, however, that increased life satisfaction in countries that place a premium on positive emotion is less evident for people who tend to experience less valued emotional states: people who experience many negative emotions, do not flourish to the same extent in these contexts. The findings demonstrate how the cultural value placed on certain emotion states may shape the relationship between emotional experiences and subjective well-being.

Theory and Methodology in Researching Emotions in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zembylas, Michalinos

2007-01-01

Differing theoretical approaches to the study of emotions are presented: emotions as private (psychodynamic approaches); emotions as sociocultural phenomena (social constructionist approaches); and a third perspective (interactionist approaches) transcending these two. These approaches have important methodological implications in studying…

Associations between maternal negative affect and adolescent's neural response to peer evaluation

PubMed Central

Tan, Patricia Z.; Lee, Kyung Hwa; Dahl, Ronald E.; Nelson, Eric E.; Stroud, Laura J.; Siegle, Greg J.; Morgan, Judith K.; Silk, Jennifer S.

2016-01-01

Parenting is often implicated as a potential source of individual differences in youths’ emotional information processing. The present study examined whether parental affect is related to an important aspect of adolescent emotional development, response to peer evaluation. Specifically, we examined relations between maternal negative affect, observed during parent–adolescent discussion of an adolescent-nominated concern with which s/he wants parental support, and adolescent neural responses to peer evaluation in 40 emotionally healthy and depressed adolescents. We focused on a network of ventral brain regions involved in affective processing of social information: the amygdala, anterior insula, nucleus accumbens, and subgenual anterior cingulate, as well as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Maternal negative affect was not associated with adolescent neural response to peer rejection. However, longer durations of maternal negative affect were associated with decreased responsivity to peer acceptance in the amygdala, left anterior insula, subgenual anterior cingulate, and left nucleus accumbens. These findings provide some of the first evidence that maternal negative affect is associated with adolescents’ neural processing of social rewards. Findings also suggest that maternal negative affect could contribute to alterations in affective processing, specifically, dampening the saliency and/or reward of peer interactions during adolescence. PMID:24613174

Effects of worry on physiological and subjective reactivity to emotional stimuli in generalized anxiety disorder and nonanxious control participants.

PubMed

Llera, Sandra J; Newman, Michelle G

2010-10-01

The present study examined the effect of worry versus relaxation and neutral thought activity on both physiological and subjective responding to positive and negative emotional stimuli. Thirty-eight participants with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and 35 nonanxious control participants were randomly assigned to engage in worry, relaxation, or neutral inductions prior to sequential exposure to each of four emotion-inducing film clips. The clips were designed to elicit fear, sadness, happiness, and calm emotions. Self reported negative and positive affect was assessed following each induction and exposure, and vagal activity was measured throughout. Results indicate that worry (vs. relaxation) led to reduced vagal tone for the GAD group, as well as higher negative affect levels for both groups. Additionally, prior worry resulted in less physiological and subjective responding to the fearful film clip, and reduced negative affect in response to the sad clip. This suggests that worry may facilitate avoidance of processing negative emotions by way of preventing a negative emotional contrast. Implications for the role of worry in emotion avoidance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Entrepreneurial stressors as predictors of entrepreneurial burnout.

PubMed

Wei, Xueyan; Cang, Shuangxin; Hisrich, Robert D

2015-02-01

Research on the effects of entrepreneurial stressors is limited, especially regarding its relation to the burnout that frequently occurs in the process of starting and growing a venture. The effect of the role of entrepreneurial stressors (workload, competitive comparison, demands-of-knowledge, managing responsibility, and resource requirements) on burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment) was examined in a Chinese sample of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial stressors emerged as a significant predictor of burnout in the process of entrepreneurship in a sample of 289 entrepreneurs (63.8% men; M age = 26.2 yr.; 39.6% of their parents have been self-employed). The findings clarify the functional relationship between entrepreneurial stressors and burnout. Entrepreneurial stressors played multiple roles. Managing responsibility was an active contributor to the sense of achievement and to emotional exhaustion. Workload was an active contributor to emotional exhaustion. Demands-of-knowledge negatively affected three of the dimensions of burnout. Theoretical and practical implications for management of the effect of these relationships are discussed.

Acute effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol and their combination on facial emotion recognition: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in cannabis users.

PubMed

Hindocha, Chandni; Freeman, Tom P; Schafer, Grainne; Gardener, Chelsea; Das, Ravi K; Morgan, Celia J A; Curran, H Valerie

2015-03-01

Acute administration of the primary psychoactive constituent of cannabis, Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), impairs human facial affect recognition, implicating the endocannabinoid system in emotional processing. Another main constituent of cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD), has seemingly opposite functional effects on the brain. This study aimed to determine the effects of THC and CBD, both alone and in combination on emotional facial affect recognition. 48 volunteers, selected for high and low frequency of cannabis use and schizotypy, were administered, THC (8mg), CBD (16mg), THC+CBD (8mg+16mg) and placebo, by inhalation, in a 4-way, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. They completed an emotional facial affect recognition task including fearful, angry, happy, sad, surprise and disgust faces varying in intensity from 20% to 100%. A visual analogue scale (VAS) of feeling 'stoned' was also completed. In comparison to placebo, CBD improved emotional facial affect recognition at 60% emotional intensity; THC was detrimental to the recognition of ambiguous faces of 40% intensity. The combination of THC+CBD produced no impairment. Relative to placebo, both THC alone and combined THC+CBD equally increased feelings of being 'stoned'. CBD did not influence feelings of 'stoned'. No effects of frequency of use or schizotypy were found. In conclusion, CBD improves recognition of emotional facial affect and attenuates the impairment induced by THC. This is the first human study examining the effects of different cannabinoids on emotional processing. It provides preliminary evidence that different pharmacological agents acting upon the endocannabinoid system can both improve and impair recognition of emotional faces. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Acute effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol and their combination on facial emotion recognition: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in cannabis users

PubMed Central

Hindocha, Chandni; Freeman, Tom P.; Schafer, Grainne; Gardener, Chelsea; Das, Ravi K.; Morgan, Celia J.A.; Curran, H. Valerie

2015-01-01

Acute administration of the primary psychoactive constituent of cannabis, Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), impairs human facial affect recognition, implicating the endocannabinoid system in emotional processing. Another main constituent of cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD), has seemingly opposite functional effects on the brain. This study aimed to determine the effects of THC and CBD, both alone and in combination on emotional facial affect recognition. 48 volunteers, selected for high and low frequency of cannabis use and schizotypy, were administered, THC (8 mg), CBD (16 mg), THC+CBD (8 mg+16 mg) and placebo, by inhalation, in a 4-way, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. They completed an emotional facial affect recognition task including fearful, angry, happy, sad, surprise and disgust faces varying in intensity from 20% to 100%. A visual analogue scale (VAS) of feeling ‘stoned’ was also completed. In comparison to placebo, CBD improved emotional facial affect recognition at 60% emotional intensity; THC was detrimental to the recognition of ambiguous faces of 40% intensity. The combination of THC+CBD produced no impairment. Relative to placebo, both THC alone and combined THC+CBD equally increased feelings of being ‘stoned’. CBD did not influence feelings of ‘stoned’. No effects of frequency of use or schizotypy were found. In conclusion, CBD improves recognition of emotional facial affect and attenuates the impairment induced by THC. This is the first human study examining the effects of different cannabinoids on emotional processing. It provides preliminary evidence that different pharmacological agents acting upon the endocannabinoid system can both improve and impair recognition of emotional faces. PMID:25534187

Convergence of semantics and emotional expression within the IFG pars orbitalis.

PubMed

Belyk, Michel; Brown, Steven; Lim, Jessica; Kotz, Sonja A

2017-08-01

Humans communicate through a combination of linguistic and emotional channels, including propositional speech, writing, sign language, music, but also prosodic, facial, and gestural expression. These channels can be interpreted separately or they can be integrated to multimodally convey complex meanings. Neural models of the perception of semantics and emotion include nodes for both functions in the inferior frontal gyrus pars orbitalis (IFGorb). However, it is not known whether this convergence involves a common functional zone or instead specialized subregions that process semantics and emotion separately. To address this, we performed Kernel Density Estimation meta-analyses of published neuroimaging studies of the perception of semantics or emotion that reported activation in the IFGorb. The results demonstrated that the IFGorb contains two zones with distinct functional profiles. A lateral zone, situated immediately ventral to Broca's area, was implicated in both semantics and emotion. Another zone, deep within the ventral frontal operculum, was engaged almost exclusively by studies of emotion. Follow-up analysis using Meta-Analytic Connectivity Modeling demonstrated that both zones were frequently co-activated with a common network of sensory, motor, and limbic structures, although the lateral zone had a greater association with prefrontal cortical areas involved in executive function. The status of the lateral IFGorb as a point of convergence between the networks for processing semantic and emotional content across modalities of communication is intriguing since this structure is preserved across primates with limited semantic abilities. Hence, the IFGorb may have initially evolved to support the comprehension of emotional signals, being later co-opted to support semantic communication in humans by forming new connections with brain regions that formed the human semantic network. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Definitional Issues in Emotion Regulation Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bridges, Lisa J.; Denham, Susanne A.; Ganiban, Jody M.

2004-01-01

Operational definitions of emotion regulation are frequently unclear, as are links between emotion regulation measures and underlying theoretical constructs. This is of concern because measurement decisions can have both intentional and unintentional implications for underlying conceptualizations of emotion regulation. This report examines the…

Tryptophan depletion decreases the recognition of fear in female volunteers.

PubMed

Harmer, C J; Rogers, R D; Tunbridge, E; Cowen, P J; Goodwin, G M

2003-06-01

Serotonergic processes have been implicated in the modulation of fear conditioning in humans, postulated to occur at the level of the amygdala. The processing of other fear-relevant cues, such as facial expressions, has also been associated with amygdala function, but an effect of serotonin depletion on these processes has not been assessed. The present study investigated the effects of reducing serotonin function, using acute tryptophan depletion, on the recognition of basic facial expressions of emotions in healthy male and female volunteers. A double-blind between-groups design was used, with volunteers being randomly allocated to receive an amino acid drink specifically lacking tryptophan or a control mixture containing a balanced mixture of these amino acids. Participants were given a facial expression recognition task 5 h after drink administration. This task featured examples of six basic emotions (fear, anger, disgust, surprise, sadness and happiness) that had been morphed between each full emotion and neutral in 10% steps. As a control, volunteers were given a famous face classification task matched in terms of response selection and difficulty level. Tryptophan depletion significantly impaired the recognition of fearful facial expressions in female, but not male, volunteers. This was specific since recognition of other basic emotions was comparable in the two groups. There was also no effect of tryptophan depletion on the classification of famous faces or on subjective state ratings of mood or anxiety. These results confirm a role for serotonin in the processing of fear related cues, and in line with previous findings also suggest greater effects of tryptophan depletion in female volunteers. Although acute tryptophan depletion does not typically affect mood in healthy subjects, the present results suggest that subtle changes in the processing of emotional material may occur with this manipulation of serotonin function.

All about the Money - External Performance Monitoring is Affected by Monetary, but Not by Socially Conveyed Feedback Cues in More Antisocial Individuals.

PubMed

Pfabigan, Daniela Melitta; Alexopoulos, Johanna; Bauer, Herbert; Lamm, Claus; Sailer, Uta

2011-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between feedback processing and antisocial personality traits measured by the PSSI questionnaire (Kuhl and Kazén, 1997) in a healthy undergraduate sample. While event-related potentials [feedback related negativity (FRN), P300] were recorded, participants encountered expected and unexpected feedback during a gambling task. As recent findings suggest learning problems and deficiencies during feedback processing in clinical populations of antisocial individuals, we performed two experiments with different healthy participants in which feedback about monetary gains or losses consisted either of social-emotional (facial emotion displays) or non-social cues (numerical stimuli). Since the FRN and P300 are both sensitive to different aspects of feedback processing we hypothesized that they might help to differentiate between individuals scoring high and low on an antisocial trait measure. In line with previous evidence FRN amplitudes were enhanced after negative and after unexpected feedback stimuli. Crucially, participants scoring high on antisocial traits displayed larger FRN amplitudes than those scoring low only in response to expected and unexpected negative numerical feedback, but not in response to social-emotional feedback - irrespective of expectancy. P300 amplitudes were not modulated by antisocial traits at all, but by subjective reward probabilities. The present findings indicate that individuals scoring high on antisociality attribute higher motivational salience to monetary compared to emotional-social feedback which is reflected in FRN amplitude enhancement. Contrary to recent findings, however, no processing deficiencies concerning social-emotional feedback stimuli were apparent in those individuals. This indicates that stimulus salience is an important aspect in learning and feedback processes in individuals with antisocial traits which has potential implications for therapeutic interventions in clinical populations.

Three-year Trajectories of Emotional Expressiveness among Maltreating Mothers: The Role of Life Changes.

PubMed

Milojevich, Helen M; Haskett, Mary E

2018-01-01

Parents are perhaps the most direct and profound influences on children's development of emotional competence. For example, how and what emotions parents express in the family has implications for children's ability to understand and regulate their emotions. What is less well understood is what potential environmental or contextual factors impact parents' emotional expressiveness, particularly in high-risk samples prone to atypical emotional expressiveness (e.g., deficits in the production and recognition of emotional expressions). The present longitudinal study examined the association between life changes and parents' expression of positive and negative emotions, as well as, how these associations changed over time in a sample of maltreating mothers. Eighty-eight mothers with a substantiated history of physical abuse completed measures of emotional expressiveness and life changes experienced over the past 6 months when their children were in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Results indicated that life changes decreased over time, while parental emotional expressiveness remained stable. Moreover, life changes were associated across time with the expression of negative emotions, but were unrelated to expressions of positive emotions. Findings have important implications for understanding emotional expressiveness in high-risk samples.

Indicators of positive and negative emotions and emotional contagion in pigs.

PubMed

Reimert, Inonge; Bolhuis, J Elizabeth; Kemp, Bas; Rodenburg, T Bas

2013-01-17

For the welfare of group-housed animals, such as pigs, the emotional state of an individual pig is relevant, but also the extent to which pen mates are affected by the distress or pleasure of other individuals, i.e. emotional contagion, a simple form of empathy. Therefore, indicators of positive and negative emotions were investigated in pigs during anticipation and experience of a rewarding (access in pairs to a compartment with straw, peat and chocolate raisins) or aversive (social isolation combined with negative, unpredictable interventions) event. Thereafter the same indicators were investigated in naive pigs during anticipation and experience of a rewarding or aversive event by their trained pen mates. Positive emotions could be indicated by play, barks and tail movements, while negative emotions could be indicated by freezing, defecating, urinating, escape attempts, high-pitched vocalizations (screams, squeals or grunt-squeals), tail low, ears back and ear movements. Salivary cortisol measurements supported these behavioral observations. During anticipation of the aversive event, naive pigs tended to show more tail low. During the aversive event, naive pigs tended to defecate more, while they played more during the rewarding event. These results suggest that pigs might be sensitive to emotional contagion, which could have implications for the welfare of group-housed pigs. Pig emotions and the process of emotional contagion merit, therefore, further research. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gender Moderates Association Between Emotional-Behavioral Problems and Text Comprehension in Children with Both Reading Difficulties and Adhd.

PubMed

Mano, Quintino R; Jastrowski Mano, Kristen E; Denton, Carolyn A; Epstein, Jeffery N; Tamm, Leanne

2017-05-01

Evidence suggests that higher order linguistic functioning such as text comprehension is particularly vulnerable to emotional modulation. Gender has been identified as an important moderating variable in emotional expression such that girls tend toward internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety) whereas boys tend toward externalizing emotions (e.g., anger, combativeness), which may influence the relationship between emotion and text comprehension. The present study examined whether gender moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension among children ( n = 187; boys= 115, girls = 72) with both word reading difficulties (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample widely acknowledged to be at increased risk for developing emotional-behavioral problems such as anxiety, poor academic self-concept, and delinquency. A moderated regression analysis tested for the significance of two separate interaction terms (i.e., gender × externalizing problems, gender × internalizing problems) after controlling for gender, IQ, basic reading skills, cognitive-linguistic processes closely related to reading, attentional problems, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Results indicated that gender significantly and uniquely moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension. Specifically, text comprehension was relatively lower among girls with relatively higher externalizing problems, whereas no such association was observed among boys. These results contribute to our understanding of cognition-emotion interactions within reading development and raise important implications.

Gender Moderates Association Between Emotional-Behavioral Problems and Text Comprehension in Children with Both Reading Difficulties and Adhd

PubMed Central

Mano, Quintino R.; Jastrowski Mano, Kristen E.; Denton, Carolyn A.; Epstein, Jeffery N.; Tamm, Leanne

2017-01-01

Evidence suggests that higher order linguistic functioning such as text comprehension is particularly vulnerable to emotional modulation. Gender has been identified as an important moderating variable in emotional expression such that girls tend toward internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety) whereas boys tend toward externalizing emotions (e.g., anger, combativeness), which may influence the relationship between emotion and text comprehension. The present study examined whether gender moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension among children (n = 187; boys= 115, girls = 72) with both word reading difficulties (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample widely acknowledged to be at increased risk for developing emotional-behavioral problems such as anxiety, poor academic self-concept, and delinquency. A moderated regression analysis tested for the significance of two separate interaction terms (i.e., gender × externalizing problems, gender × internalizing problems) after controlling for gender, IQ, basic reading skills, cognitive-linguistic processes closely related to reading, attentional problems, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Results indicated that gender significantly and uniquely moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension. Specifically, text comprehension was relatively lower among girls with relatively higher externalizing problems, whereas no such association was observed among boys. These results contribute to our understanding of cognition-emotion interactions within reading development and raise important implications. PMID:28751795

[Changes in self-referent emotions during inpatient psychotherapy: the role of mindfulness and acceptance].

PubMed

Mitmansgruber, Horst; Beck, Thomas N; Grubinger, Thomas; Schüssler, Gerhard; Dahlbender, Reiner W

2012-01-01

Current theoretical and clinical approaches conceive the avoidance and acceptance of emotions as critical factors in the maintenance and alleviation of psychological problems. This study investigates the role of mindfulness, experiential avoidance (EA), and positive and negative meta-emotions (emotional reactions towards the emotional self) on the symptoms and psychological well-being of inpatients. Changes of mindfulness measured during a 6-week stay at a psychosomatic clinic were explored in a sample of 293 inpatients with diverse psychological problems. Multivariate analyses were performed to determine the predictive power of mindfulness and acceptance on symptoms and psychological well-being. Staying on an inpatient ward was associated with reductions in EA and negative meta-emotions as well as improvements in mindful awareness and positive meta-emotions, i.e., participants reported greater acceptance of their own emotional reactions. These aspects were associated with a reduction in symptom severity and greater psychological well-being. A differentiation of meta-emotions allowed the meaningful identification of possible processes of change. Anger and contempt seem to have distinctive functions in self-regulation. Reducing the amount of contempt/shame for one's own emotions and generating greater interest were associated with symptom reduction and greater psychological well-being. Self-compassion was negatively associated with symptoms, though it had no association with psychological well-being. The theoretical implications are discussed.

"We Hardly Ever Talk about It": Emotional Responsive Attunement in Couples after a Child's Death.

PubMed

Hooghe, An; Rosenblatt, Paul C; Rober, Peter

2018-03-01

Within Western cultural traditions, the idea that parents should talk about the death of their child with each other is deeply rooted. However, across bereaved parent couples there are wide variations in communication about their grief with each other. In this study, we explored the experiences of bereaved couples related to the process of talking and not talking. We used a thematic coding approach to analyze 20 interviews with 26 bereaved parents (11 interviewed as couples, four as individuals). Four main meanings emerged out of our analysis: not talking because of the inadequacy and pointlessness of words in grief, not talking as a way to regulate emotions in daily life, not talking as an expression of a personal, intimate process, and not talking because the partner has the same loss but a different grief process. In addition, we found that the process of talking and not talking can partly be understood as an emotional responsive process on an intrapersonal and interpersonal level. In this process partners search for a bearable distance from their own grief and their partner's, and attune with their relational context. A better understanding of this process is sought in a dialectical approach, emphasizing the value of both talking and not talking in a tense relationship with each other. Implications for clinical work are described. © 2017 Family Process Institute.

Using an Emotion Regulation Framework to Understand the Role of Temperament and Family Processes in Risk for Adolescent Depressive Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yap, Marie B. H.; Allen, Nicholas B.; Sheeber, Lisa

2007-01-01

Although recent evidence implicates the importance of the family for understanding depressive disorders during adolescence, we still lack a coherent framework for understanding the way in which the myriad of developmental changes occurring within early adolescents and their family environments actually operate to increase adolescents'…

Situation Analysis of Students' Welfare Services in Universities in South-Western Nigeria: Implications for Students' Personnel Management Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alani, Ramoni Ayobami; Okunola, Phillips Olaide; Subair, Sikiru Omotayo

2010-01-01

Motivating learners in university depends largely on those services, processes and procedures whose primary purpose is to enhance and maintain learners' physical, social, intellectual and emotional well-being. This study examined the situation of welfare services in the context of university education vis-a-vis students' perceived motivation to…

Hoarding and emotional reactivity: the link between negative emotional reactions and hoarding symptomatology.

PubMed

Shaw, A M; Timpano, K R; Steketee, G; Tolin, D F; Frost, R O

2015-04-01

Hoarding disorder (HD) is characterized by difficulty discarding, clutter, and frequently excessive acquiring. Theories have pointed to intense negative emotional reactions (e.g., sadness) as one factor that may play a critical role in HD's etiology. Preliminary work with an analogue sample indicated that more intense negative emotions following emotional films were linked with greater hoarding symptoms. Symptom provocation imaging studies with HD patients have also found evidence for excessive activation in brain regions implicated in processing emotions. The current study utilized a sample with self-reported serious hoarding difficulties to examine how hoarding symptoms related to both general and hoarding-related emotional reactivity, taking into account the specificity of these relationships. We also examined how two cognitive factors, fear of decision-making and confidence in memory, modified this relationship. 628 participants with self-identified hoarding difficulties completed questionnaires about general emotional reactivity, depression, anxiety, decision-making, and confidence in memory. To assess hoarding-related emotional reactivity, participants reported their emotional reactions when imagining discarding various items. Heightened general emotional reactivity and more intense emotional reactions to imagined discarding were associated with both difficulty discarding and acquisition, but not clutter, controlling for age, gender, and co-occurring mood and anxiety symptoms. Fear of decision-making and confidence in memory interacted with general emotional reactivity to predict hoarding symptoms. These findings provide support for cognitive-behavioral models of hoarding. Experimental research should be conducted to discover whether emotional reactivity increases vulnerability for HD. Future work should also examine whether emotional reactivity should be targeted in interventions for hoarding. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hoarding and emotional reactivity: The link between negative emotional reactions and hoarding symptomatology

PubMed Central

Shaw, A.M.; Timpano, K.R.; Steketee, G.; Tolin, D. F.; Frost, R.O.

2015-01-01

Hoarding disorder (HD) is characterized by difficulty discarding, clutter, and frequently excessive acquiring. Theories have pointed to intense negative emotional reactions (e.g., sadness) as one factor that may play a critical role in HD’s etiology. Preliminary work with an analogue sample indicated that more intense negative emotions following emotional films were linked with greater hoarding symptoms. Symptom provocation imaging studies with HD patients have also found evidence for excessive activation in brain regions implicated in processing emotions. The current study utilized a sample with self-reported serious hoarding difficulties to examine how hoarding symptoms related to both general and hoarding-related emotional reactivity, taking into account the specificity of these relationships. We also examined how two cognitive factors, fear of decision-making and confidence in memory, modified this relationship. 628 participants with self-identified hoarding difficulties completed questionnaires about general emotional reactivity, depression, anxiety, decision-making, and confidence in memory. To assess hoarding-related emotional reactivity, participants reported their emotional reactions when imagining discarding various items. Heightened general emotional reactivity and more intense emotional reactions to imagined discarding were associated with both difficulty discarding and acquisition, but not clutter, controlling for age, gender, and co-occurring mood and anxiety symptoms. Fear of decision-making and confidence in memory interacted with general emotional reactivity to predict hoarding symptoms. These findings provide support for cognitive-behavioral models of hoarding. Experimental research should be conducted to discover whether emotional reactivity increases vulnerability for HD. Future work should also examine whether emotional reactivity should be targeted in interventions for hoarding. PMID:25732668

Emotion, decision-making and the brain.

PubMed

Chang, Luke J; Sanfey, Alan G

2008-01-01

Initial explorations in the burgeoning field of neuroeconomics have highlighted evidence supporting a potential dissociation between a fast automatic system and a slow deliberative controlled system. Growing research in the role of emotion in decision-making has attempted to draw parallels to the automatic system. This chapter will discuss a theoretical framework for understanding the role of emotion in decision-making and evidence supporting the underlying neural substrates. This chapter applies a conceptual framework to understanding the role of emotion in decision-making, and emphasizes a distinction between expected and immediate emotions. Expected emotions refer to anticipated emotional states associated with a given decision that are never actually experienced. Immediate emotions, however, are experienced at the time of decision, and either can occur in response to a particular decision or merely as a result of a transitory fluctuation. This chapter will review research from the neuroeconomics literature that supports a neural dissociation between these two classes of emotion and also discuss a few interpretive caveats. Several lines of research including regret, uncertainty, social decision-making, and moral decision-making have yielded evidence consistent with our formulization--expected and immediate emotions may invoke dissociable neural systems. This chapter provides a more specific conceptualization of the mediating role of emotions in the decision-making process, which has important implications for understanding the interacting neural systems underlying the interface between emotion and cognition--a topic of immediate value to anyone investigating topics within the context of social-cognitive-affective-neuroscience.

Negative Mood State Enhances the Susceptibility to Unpleasant Events: Neural Correlates from a Music-Primed Emotion Classification Task

PubMed Central

Yuan, Jiajin; Chen, Jie; Yang, Jiemin; Ju, Enxia; Norman, Greg J.; Ding, Nanxiang

2014-01-01

Background Various affective disorders are linked with enhanced processing of unpleasant stimuli. However, this link is likely a result of the dominant negative mood derived from the disorder, rather than a result of the disorder itself. Additionally, little is currently known about the influence of mood on the susceptibility to emotional events in healthy populations. Method Event-Related Potentials (ERP) were recorded for pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures while subjects performed an emotional/neutral picture classification task during positive, neutral, or negative mood induced by instrumental Chinese music. Results Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes were positively related to the affective arousal of pictures. The emotional responding to unpleasant pictures, indicated by the unpleasant-neutral differences in LPPs, was enhanced during negative compared to neutral and positive moods in the entire LPP time window (600–1000 ms). The magnitude of this enhancement was larger with increasing self-reported negative mood. In contrast, this responding was reduced during positive compared to neutral mood in the 800–1000 ms interval. Additionally, LPP reactions to pleasant stimuli were similar across positive, neutral and negative moods except those in the 800–900 ms interval. Implications Negative mood intensifies the humans' susceptibility to unpleasant events in healthy individuals. In contrast, music-induced happy mood is effective in reducing the susceptibility to these events. Practical implications of these findings were discussed. PMID:24587070

Phytocannabinoids modulate emotional memory processing through interactions with the ventral hippocampus and mesolimbic dopamine system: implications for neuropsychiatric pathology.

PubMed

Hudson, Roger; Rushlow, Walter; Laviolette, Steven R

2018-02-01

Growing clinical and preclinical evidence suggests a potential role for the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) as a pharmacotherapy for various neuropsychiatric disorders. In contrast, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive component in cannabis, is associated with acute and neurodevelopmental propsychotic side effects through its interaction with central cannabinoid type 1 receptors (CB1Rs). CB1R stimulation in the ventral hippocampus (VHipp) potentiates affective memory formation through inputs to the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, thereby altering emotional salience attribution. These changes in DA activity and salience attribution, evoked by dysfunctional VHipp regulatory actions and THC exposure, could predispose susceptible individuals to psychotic symptoms. Although THC can accelerate the onset of schizophrenia, CBD displays antipsychotic properties, can prevent the acquisition of emotionally irrelevant memories, and reverses amphetamine-induced neuronal sensitization through selective phosphorylation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) molecular signaling pathway. This review summarizes clinical and preclinical evidence demonstrating that distinct phytocannabinoids act within the VHipp and associated corticolimbic structures to modulate emotional memory processing through changes in mesolimbic DA activity states, salience attribution, and signal transduction pathways associated with schizophrenia-related pathology.

Active interoceptive inference and the emotional brain

PubMed Central

Friston, Karl J.

2016-01-01

We review a recent shift in conceptions of interoception and its relationship to hierarchical inference in the brain. The notion of interoceptive inference means that bodily states are regulated by autonomic reflexes that are enslaved by descending predictions from deep generative models of our internal and external milieu. This re-conceptualization illuminates several issues in cognitive and clinical neuroscience with implications for experiences of selfhood and emotion. We first contextualize interoception in terms of active (Bayesian) inference in the brain, highlighting its enactivist (embodied) aspects. We then consider the key role of uncertainty or precision and how this might translate into neuromodulation. We next examine the implications for understanding the functional anatomy of the emotional brain, surveying recent observations on agranular cortex. Finally, we turn to theoretical issues, namely, the role of interoception in shaping a sense of embodied self and feelings. We will draw links between physiological homoeostasis and allostasis, early cybernetic ideas of predictive control and hierarchical generative models in predictive processing. The explanatory scope of interoceptive inference ranges from explanations for autism and depression, through to consciousness. We offer a brief survey of these exciting developments. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health’. PMID:28080966

Patterns of informal reasoning in the context of socioscientific decision making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadler, Troy D.; Zeidler, Dana L.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study is to contribute to a theoretical knowledge base through research by examining factors salient to science education reform and practice in the context of socioscientific issues. The study explores how individuals negotiate and resolve genetic engineering dilemmas. A qualitative approach was used to examine patterns of informal reasoning and the role of morality in these processes. Thirty college students participated individually in two semistructured interviews designed to explore their informal reasoning in response to six genetic engineering scenarios. Students demonstrated evidence of rationalistic, emotive, and intuitive forms of informal reasoning. Rationalistic informal reasoning described reason-based considerations; emotive informal reasoning described care-based considerations; and intuitive reasoning described considerations based on immediate reactions to the context of a scenario. Participants frequently relied on combinations of these reasoning patterns as they worked to resolve individual socioscientific scenarios. Most of the participants appreciated at least some of the moral implications of their decisions, and these considerations were typically interwoven within an overall pattern of informal reasoning. These results highlight the need to ensure that science classrooms are environments in which intuition and emotion in addition to reason are valued. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Maternal Emotion Socialization in Maltreating and Non-Maltreating Families: Implications for Children's Emotion Regulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shipman, Kimberly L.; Schneider, Renee; Fitzgerald, Monica M.; Sims, Chandler; Swisher, Lisa; Edwards, Anna

2007-01-01

This study investigated the socialization of children's emotion regulation in physically maltreating and non-maltreating mother-child dyads (N = 80 dyads). Mother-child dyads participated in the parent-child emotion interaction task (Shipman & Zeman, 1999) in which they talked about emotionally-arousing situations. The PCEIT was coded for maternal…

Emotionally-Vulnerable Subjects and New Inequalities: The Educational Implications of an "Epistemology of the Emotions"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ecclestone, Kathryn

2011-01-01

Motivated by very different goals, various interest groups argue that the British government should address problems with citizens' emotional well-being. Concerns about emotional vulnerability and poor emotional well-being amongst growing numbers of children, young people and adults produce ideas and approaches from different branches of…

The Relationship Between Family Functioning and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: The Role of Emotional Clarity.

PubMed

Freed, Rachel D; Rubenstein, Liza M; Daryanani, Issar; Olino, Thomas M; Alloy, Lauren B

2016-03-01

Emotion regulation has been implicated in the etiology of depression. A first step in adaptive emotion regulation involves emotional clarity, the ability to recognize and differentiate one's emotional experience. As family members are critical in facilitating emotional understanding and communication, we examined the impact of family functioning on adolescent emotional clarity and depressive symptoms. We followed 364 adolescents (ages 14-17; 52.5% female; 51.4 % Caucasian, 48.6% African American) and their mothers over 2 years (3 time points) and assessed emotional clarity, depressive symptoms, and adolescents' and mothers' reports of family functioning. Emotional clarity mediated the relationship between adolescents' reports of family functioning and depressive symptoms at all time points cross-sectionally, and according to mothers' reports of family functioning at Time 1 only. There was no evidence of longitudinal mediation for adolescents' or mothers' reports of family functioning. Thus, family functioning, emotional clarity, and depressive symptoms are strongly related constructs during various time points in adolescence, which has important implications for intervention, especially within the family unit.

The Relationship between Family Functioning and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: The Role of Emotional Clarity

PubMed Central

Freed, Rachel D.; Rubenstein, Liza M.; Daryanani, Issar; Olino, Thomas M.; Alloy, Lauren B.

2016-01-01

Emotion regulation has been implicated in the etiology of depression. A first step in adaptive emotion regulation involves emotional clarity, the ability to recognize and differentiate one’s emotional experience. As family members are critical in facilitating emotional understanding and communication, we examined the impact of family functioning on adolescent emotional clarity and depressive symptoms. We followed 364 adolescents (ages 12–17; 52.5% female; 51.4 % Caucasian, 48.6% African American) and their mothers over 2 years (3 time points) and assessed emotional clarity, depressive symptoms, and adolescent-reported and mother-reported family functioning. Emotional clarity mediated the relationship between adolescent-reported family functioning and depressive symptoms at all time points cross-sectionally, and according to mother-reported family functioning at Time 1 only. There was no evidence of longitudinal mediation for adolescent- or mother-reported family functioning. Thus, family functioning, emotional clarity, and depressive symptoms are strongly related constructs during various time points in adolescence, which has important implications for intervention, especially within the family unit. PMID:26832726

Sex-related functional asymmetry of the amygdala: preliminary evidence using a case-matched lesion approach.

PubMed

Tranel, Daniel; Bechara, Antoine

2009-06-01

We have reported previously that there appears to be an intriguing sex-related functional asymmetry of the prefrontal cortices, especially the ventromedial sector, in regard to social conduct, emotional processing, and decision-making, whereby the right-sided sector is important in men but not women and the left-sided sector is important in women but not men. The amygdala is another structure that has been widely implicated in emotion processing and social decision-making, and the question arises as to whether the amygdala, in a manner akin to what has been observed for the prefrontal cortex, might have sex-related functional asymmetry in regard to social and emotional functions. A preliminary test of this question was carried out in the current study, where we used a case-matched lesion approach and contrasted a pair of men cases and a pair of women cases, where in each pair one patient had left amygdala damage and the other had right amygdala damage. We investigated the domains of social conduct, emotional processing and personality, and decision-making. The results provide support for the notion that there is sex-related functional asymmetry of the amygdala in regard to these functions - in the male pair, the patient with right-sided amygdala damage was impaired in these functions, and the patient with left-sided amygdala damage was not, whereas in the female pair, the opposite pattern obtained, with the left-sided woman being impaired and the right-sided woman being unimpaired. These data provide preliminary support for the notion that sex-related functional asymmetry of the amygdala may entail functions such as social conduct, emotional processing, and decision-making, a finding that in turn could reflect (as either a cause or effect) differences in the manner in which men and women apprehend, process, and execute emotion-related information.

What neurophysiological recordings tell us about cognitive and behavioral functions of the human subthalamic nucleus.

PubMed

Marceglia, Sara; Fumagalli, Manuela; Priori, Alberto

2011-01-01

The behavioral implications of deep brain stimulation (DBS) observed in Parkinson's disease patients provided evidence for a possible nonexclusively motor role of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in basal ganglia circuitry. Basal ganglia pathophysiology can be studied directly by the analysis of neural rhythms measured in local field potentials recorded through DBS electrodes. Recent studies demonstrated that specific oscillations in the STN are involved in cognitive and behavioral information processing: action representation is mediated through β oscillations (13-35 Hz); cognitive information related to decision-making processes is mediated through the low-frequency oscillation (5-12 Hz); and limbic and emotional information is mediated through the α oscillation (8-12 Hz). These results revealed an important involvement of STN in decisional processes, cognitive functions, emotion control and conflict that could explain the post-DBS occurrence of behavioral disturbances.

Fusiform Gyrus Dysfunction is Associated with Perceptual Processing Efficiency to Emotional Faces in Adolescent Depression: A Model-Based Approach.

PubMed

Ho, Tiffany C; Zhang, Shunan; Sacchet, Matthew D; Weng, Helen; Connolly, Colm G; Henje Blom, Eva; Han, Laura K M; Mobayed, Nisreen O; Yang, Tony T

2016-01-01

While the extant literature has focused on major depressive disorder (MDD) as being characterized by abnormalities in processing affective stimuli (e.g., facial expressions), little is known regarding which specific aspects of cognition influence the evaluation of affective stimuli, and what are the underlying neural correlates. To investigate these issues, we assessed 26 adolescents diagnosed with MDD and 37 well-matched healthy controls (HCL) who completed an emotion identification task of dynamically morphing faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed the behavioral data using a sequential sampling model of response time (RT) commonly used to elucidate aspects of cognition in binary perceptual decision making tasks: the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model. Using a hierarchical Bayesian estimation method, we obtained group-level and individual-level estimates of LBA parameters on the facial emotion identification task. While the MDD and HCL groups did not differ in mean RT, accuracy, or group-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency (i.e., drift rate parameter of the LBA), the MDD group showed significantly reduced responses in left fusiform gyrus compared to the HCL group during the facial emotion identification task. Furthermore, within the MDD group, fMRI signal in the left fusiform gyrus during affective face processing was significantly associated with greater individual-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency. Our results therefore suggest that affective processing biases in adolescents with MDD are characterized by greater perceptual processing efficiency of affective visual information in sensory brain regions responsible for the early processing of visual information. The theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of our results are discussed.

Fusiform Gyrus Dysfunction is Associated with Perceptual Processing Efficiency to Emotional Faces in Adolescent Depression: A Model-Based Approach

PubMed Central

Ho, Tiffany C.; Zhang, Shunan; Sacchet, Matthew D.; Weng, Helen; Connolly, Colm G.; Henje Blom, Eva; Han, Laura K. M.; Mobayed, Nisreen O.; Yang, Tony T.

2016-01-01

While the extant literature has focused on major depressive disorder (MDD) as being characterized by abnormalities in processing affective stimuli (e.g., facial expressions), little is known regarding which specific aspects of cognition influence the evaluation of affective stimuli, and what are the underlying neural correlates. To investigate these issues, we assessed 26 adolescents diagnosed with MDD and 37 well-matched healthy controls (HCL) who completed an emotion identification task of dynamically morphing faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We analyzed the behavioral data using a sequential sampling model of response time (RT) commonly used to elucidate aspects of cognition in binary perceptual decision making tasks: the Linear Ballistic Accumulator (LBA) model. Using a hierarchical Bayesian estimation method, we obtained group-level and individual-level estimates of LBA parameters on the facial emotion identification task. While the MDD and HCL groups did not differ in mean RT, accuracy, or group-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency (i.e., drift rate parameter of the LBA), the MDD group showed significantly reduced responses in left fusiform gyrus compared to the HCL group during the facial emotion identification task. Furthermore, within the MDD group, fMRI signal in the left fusiform gyrus during affective face processing was significantly associated with greater individual-level estimates of perceptual processing efficiency. Our results therefore suggest that affective processing biases in adolescents with MDD are characterized by greater perceptual processing efficiency of affective visual information in sensory brain regions responsible for the early processing of visual information. The theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of our results are discussed. PMID:26869950

Daily family conflict and emotional distress among adolescents from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds.

PubMed

Chung, Grace H; Flook, Lisa; Fuligni, Andrew J

2009-09-01

The authors employed a daily diary method to assess daily frequencies of interparental and parent-adolescent conflict over a 2-week period and their implications for emotional distress across the high school years in a longitudinal sample of 415 adolescents from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds. Although family conflict remained fairly infrequent among all ethnic backgrounds across the high school years, its impact on emotional distress was significant across ethnicity and gender. In addition, parent-adolescent conflict significantly mediated the association between interparental conflict and emotional distress. These associations were observed at both the individual and the daily levels, providing evidence for both the chronic and episodic implications of family conflict for adolescents' emotional adjustment.

Assessing client self-narrative change in emotion-focused therapy of depression: an intensive single case analysis.

PubMed

Angus, Lynne E; Kagan, Fern

2013-12-01

Personality researchers use the term self-narrative to refer to the development of an overall life story that places life events in a temporal sequence and organizes them in accordance to overarching themes. In turn, it is often the case that clients seek out psychotherapy when they can no longer make sense of their life experiences, as a coherent story. Angus and Greenberg (L. Angus and L. Greenberg, 2011, Working with narrative in emotion-focused therapy: Changing stories, healing lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press) view the articulation and consolidation of an emotionally integrated self-narrative account as an important part of the therapeutic change process that is essential for sustained change in emotion-focused therapy of depression. The purpose of the present study was to investigate client experiences of change, and self-narrative reconstruction, in the context of one good outcome emotion-focused therapy dyad drawn from the York II Depression Study. Using the Narrative Assessment Interview (NAI) method, client view of self and experiences of change were assessed at three points in time--after session one, at therapy termination, and at 6 months follow-up. Findings emerging from an intensive narrative theme analyses of the NAI transcripts--and 1 key therapy session identified by the client--are reported and evidence for the contributions of narrative and emotion processes to self-narrative change in emotion-focused therapy of depression are discussed. Finally, the implications of assessing clients' experiences of self-narrative change for psychotherapy research and practice are addressed.

Leaving Distress Behind: A Randomized Controlled Study on Change in Emotional Processing in Borderline Personality Disorder.

PubMed

Berthoud, Laurent; Pascual-Leone, Antonio; Caspar, Franz; Tissot, Hervé; Keller, Sabine; Rohde, Kristina B; de Roten, Yves; Despland, Jean-Nicolas; Kramer, Ueli

2017-01-01

The marked impulsivity and instability of clients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) greatly challenge therapists' understanding and responsiveness. This may hinder the development of a constructive therapeutic relationship despite it being of particular importance in their treatment. Recent studies have shown that using motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTR), a possible operationalization of appropriate therapist responsiveness, can enhance treatment outcome for BPD. The overall objective of this study is to examine change in emotional processing in BPD clients following the therapist's use of MOTR. The present paper focuses on N = 50 cases, n = 25 taken from each of two conditions of a randomized controlled add-on effectiveness design. Clients were either allocated to a manual-based psychiatric-psychodynamic 10-session version of general psychiatric management (GPM), a borderline-specific treatment, or to a 10-session version of GPM augmented with MOTR. Emotional states were assessed using the Classification of Affective-Meaning States (Pascual-Leone & Greenberg, 2005) at intake, midtreatment, and in the penultimate session. Across treatment, early expressions of distress, especially the emotion state of global distress, were shown to significantly decrease (p = .00), and adaptive emotions were found to emerge (p < .05). Between-condition differences of change were found, including a significant increase in emotional variability and stronger outcome predictors in the MOTR condition. The findings indicate initial emotional change in BPD clients in a relatively short time frame and suggest the addition of MOTR to psychotherapeutic treatments as promising. Clinical implications are discussed.

What about the leader? Crossover of emotional exhaustion and work engagement from followers to leaders.

PubMed

Wirtz, Nina; Rigotti, Thomas; Otto, Kathleen; Loeb, Carina

2017-01-01

Although a growing body of research links leadership behavior to follower health, comparatively little is known about the health effects of being in the lead. This longitudinal study of 315 team members and 67 leaders examined the crossover of emotional exhaustion and work engagement from followers to leaders. Leader emotional self-efficacy was tested as a moderator in the crossover process. Multiple regression analyses revealed that followers' work engagement was positively related to leaders' work engagement eight months later, controlling for followers' tenure with the leader, leader gender, autonomy, workload, and work engagement at Time 1. Leaders' emotional self-efficacy did not moderate the crossover of work engagement. Followers' emotional exhaustion was not directly related to leaders' emotional exhaustion over time. We did find a significant interaction effect for follower emotional exhaustion and leader emotional self-efficacy. This study is the first to show that crossover of emotional exhaustion and work engagement can unfold over time from team members to leaders. Main theoretical implications lie in the finding that-in line with job demands-resources theory-followers' psychological states can pose a demand or resource for leaders, and influence their well-being. For practitioners, our results offer valuable insights regarding the design of organizational health interventions as well as leadership development measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The neural networks of subjectively evaluated emotional conflicts.

PubMed

Rohr, Christiane S; Villringer, Arno; Solms-Baruth, Carolina; van der Meer, Elke; Margulies, Daniel S; Okon-Singer, Hadas

2016-06-01

Previous work on the neural underpinnings of emotional conflict processing has largely focused on designs that instruct participants to ignore a distracter which conflicts with a target. In contrast, this study investigated the noninstructed experience and evaluation of an emotional conflict, where positive or negative cues can be subjectively prioritized. To this end, healthy participants freely watched short film scenes that evoked emotional conflicts while their BOLD responses were measured. Participants' individual ratings of conflict and valence perception during the film scenes were collected immediately afterwards, and the individual ratings were regressed against the BOLD data. Our analyses revealed that (a) amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex were significantly involved in prioritizing positive or negative cues, but not in subjective evaluations of conflict per se, and (b) superior temporal sulcus (STS) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL), which have been implicated in social cognition and emotion control, were involved in both prioritizing positive or negative cues and subjectively evaluating conflict, and may thus constitute "hubs" or "switches" in emotional conflict processing. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses further revealed stronger functional connectivity between IPL and ventral prefrontal-medial parietal areas in prioritizing negative cues, and stronger connectivity between STS and dorsal-rostral prefrontal-medial parietal areas in prioritizing positive cues. In sum, our results suggest that IPL and STS are important in the subjective evaluation of complex conflicts and influence valence prioritization via prefrontal and parietal control centers. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2234-2246, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Quantifying Emotional Intelligence: The Relationship between Thinking Patterns and Emotional Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cox, Judith E.; Nelson, Darwin B.

2008-01-01

This article explores the relationship between thinking patterns and emotional skills identified by 2 research-derived measures of emotional intelligence that reflect integrative and positive theories of human behavior. Findings suggest implications for planning educational and counseling interventions to facilitate positive growth and future…

Divorce: An Unreliable Predictor of Children's Emotional Predispositions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernard, Janine M.; Nesbitt, Sally

1981-01-01

Used the Children's Emotion Projection Instrument to investigate the emotional predispositions of children from divorce or disruption and children from intact families. Results indicated that children of divorce or disruption are not more hampered emotionally than children from intact families. Discusses implications for family therapists.…

Preschool children’s views on emotion regulation: Functional associations and implications for social-emotional adjustment

PubMed Central

Dennis, Tracy A.; Kelemen, Deborah A.

2009-01-01

Previous studies show that preschool children view negative emotions as susceptible to intentional control. However, the extent of this understanding and links with child social-emotional adjustment are poorly understood. To examine this, 62 3- and 4-year-olds were presented with puppet scenarios in which characters experienced anger, sadness, and fear. Forty-seven adults were presented with a parallel questionnaire. Participants rated the degree to which six emotion-regulation strategies were effective in decreasing negative emotions. Results showed that even the youngest preschoolers viewed cognitive and behavioral distraction and repairing the situation as relatively effective; compared to adults, however, preschoolers favored relatively “ineffective” strategies such as venting and rumination. Children also showed a functional view of emotion regulation; that effective strategies depend on the emotion being regulated. All participants favored repairing a negative situation to reduce anger and behavioral distraction to reduce sadness and fear. Finally, the more children indicated that venting would reduce negative emotions, the lower their maternal report of social skills. Findings are discussed in terms of functional emotion theory and implications of emotion-regulation understanding for child adjustment. PMID:19724663

Effects of an Integrated Science and Societal Implication Intervention on Promoting Adolescents' Positive Thinking and Emotional Perceptions in Learning Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hong, Zuway R.; Lin, Huann-Shyang; Lawrenz, Frances P.

2012-02-01

The goal of this study was to test the effectiveness of integrating science and societal implication on adolescents' positive thinking and emotional perceptions about learning science. Twenty-five eighth-grade Taiwanese adolescents (9 boys and 16 girls) volunteered to participate in a 12-week intervention and formed the experimental group. Fifty-seven eighth-grade Taiwanese adolescents (30 boys and 27 girls) volunteered to participate in the assessments and were used as the comparison group. Additionally, 15 experimental students were recruited to be observed and interviewed. Paired t-tests, correlations, and analyses of covariance assessed the similarity and differences between groups. The findings were that the experimental group significantly outperformed its counterpart on positive thinking and emotional perceptions, and all participants' positive thinking scores were significantly related to their emotional perceptions about learning science. Recommendations for integrating science and societal implication for adolescents are provided.

Antecedent descriptions change brain reactivity to emotional stimuli: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of an extrinsic and incidental reappraisal strategy.

PubMed

Mocaiber, I; Sanchez, T A; Pereira, M G; Erthal, F S; Joffily, M; Araujo, D B; Volchan, E; de Oliveira, L

2011-10-13

In the present study we investigated whether individuals would take advantage of an extrinsic and incidental reappraisal strategy by giving them precedent descriptions to attenuate the emotional impact of unpleasant pictures. In fact, precedent descriptions have successfully promoted down-regulation of electrocortical activity and physiological responses to unpleasant pictures. However, the neuronal substrate underlying this effect remains unclear. Particularly, we investigated whether amygdala and insula responses, brain regions consistently implicated in emotional processing, would be modulated by this strategy. To achieve this, highly unpleasant pictures were shown in two contexts in which a prior description presented them as taken from movie scenes (fictitious) or real scenes. Results showed that the fictitious condition was characterized by down-regulation of amygdala and insula responses. Thus, the present study provides new evidence on reappraisal strategies to down-regulate emotional reactions and suggest that amygdala and insula responses to emotional stimuli are adaptive and highly flexible. Copyright © 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conflict, negative emotion, and reports of partners' relationship maintenance in same-sex couples.

PubMed

Ogolsky, Brian G; Gray, Christine R

2016-03-01

The literature on relationship maintenance has focused primarily on the beneficial outcomes of maintenance, and, as a result, little is known about relational processes that may interfere with reports of partners' maintenance. The authors examine how daily conflict influences individuals' reports of their partners' maintenance, and how a constructive communication style buffers this influence by reducing negative emotion on conflict days. In a daily diary study of 98 same-sex couples in romantic relationships, they found that the negative association between conflict and reports of a partner's relationship maintenance was mediated by negative emotion. That is, there was an indirect effect by which daily conflict was associated with higher levels of daily negative emotion, which was associated with reports of lower levels of partners' relationship maintenance. This indirect effect was moderated by couples' overall level of constructive communication such that higher levels diminished the degree to which couples experienced negative emotion on days with episodes of relational conflict. The authors discuss results in the context of interpersonal theory and provide implications for clinicians and practitioners. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

The relationship between emotion regulation strategies and job search behavior among fourth-year university students.

PubMed

Wang, Ling; Xu, Huihui; Zhang, Xue; Fang, Ping

2017-08-01

The job search process is a stressful experience. This study investigated the effect of emotion regulation strategies on job search behavior in combination with anxiety and job search self-efficacy among Chinese university fourth-year students (N = 816, mean age = 21.98, 31.5% male, 34.9% majored in science, 18.0% from "211 Project" universities). Results showed that cognitive reappraisal was positively related to job search behavior, while expressive suppression was negatively related to job search behavior. Additionally, anxiety was negatively related to job search behavior, while job search self-efficacy was positively associated with job search behavior. Moreover, both anxiety and job search self-efficacy mediated the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and job search behavior. In general, emotion regulation strategies played an important role in job search behavior. Implications include the notion that emotion regulation interventions may be helpful to increase job search behavior among university students. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Processes linking cultural ingroup bonds and mental health: the roles of social connection and emotion regulation.

PubMed

Roberts, Nicole A; Burleson, Mary H

2013-01-01

Cultural and ethnic identities influence the relationships individuals seek out and how they feel and behave in these relationships, which can strongly affect mental and physical health through their impacts on emotions, physiology, and behavior. We proposed and tested a model in which ethnocultural identifications and ingroup affiliations were hypothesized explicitly to enhance social connectedness, which would in turn promote expectancy for effective regulation of negative emotions and reduce self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety. Our sample comprised women aged 18-30 currently attending college in the Southwestern US, who self-identified as Hispanic of Mexican descent (MAs; n = 82) or as non-Hispanic White/European American (EAs; n = 234) and who completed an online survey. In the full sample and in each subgroup, stronger ethnocultural group identity and greater comfort with mainstream American culture were associated with higher social connectedness, which in turn was associated with expectancy for more effective regulation of negative emotions, fewer depressive symptoms, and less anxiety. Unexpectedly, preference for ingroup affiliation predicted lower social connectedness in both groups. In addition to indirect effects through social connection, direct paths from mainstream comfort and preference for ingroup affiliation to emotion regulation expectancy were found for EAs. Models of our data underscore that social connection is a central mechanism through which ethnocultural identities-including with one's own group and the mainstream cultural group-relate to mental health, and that emotion regulation may be a key aspect of this linkage. We use the term ethnocultural social connection to make explicit a process that, we believe, has been implied in the ethnic identity literature for many years, and that may have consequential implications for mental health and conceptualizations of processes underlying mental disorders.

Processes linking cultural ingroup bonds and mental health: the roles of social connection and emotion regulation

PubMed Central

Roberts, Nicole A.; Burleson, Mary H.

2013-01-01

Cultural and ethnic identities influence the relationships individuals seek out and how they feel and behave in these relationships, which can strongly affect mental and physical health through their impacts on emotions, physiology, and behavior. We proposed and tested a model in which ethnocultural identifications and ingroup affiliations were hypothesized explicitly to enhance social connectedness, which would in turn promote expectancy for effective regulation of negative emotions and reduce self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety. Our sample comprised women aged 18–30 currently attending college in the Southwestern US, who self-identified as Hispanic of Mexican descent (MAs; n = 82) or as non-Hispanic White/European American (EAs; n = 234) and who completed an online survey. In the full sample and in each subgroup, stronger ethnocultural group identity and greater comfort with mainstream American culture were associated with higher social connectedness, which in turn was associated with expectancy for more effective regulation of negative emotions, fewer depressive symptoms, and less anxiety. Unexpectedly, preference for ingroup affiliation predicted lower social connectedness in both groups. In addition to indirect effects through social connection, direct paths from mainstream comfort and preference for ingroup affiliation to emotion regulation expectancy were found for EAs. Models of our data underscore that social connection is a central mechanism through which ethnocultural identities—including with one's own group and the mainstream cultural group—relate to mental health, and that emotion regulation may be a key aspect of this linkage. We use the term ethnocultural social connection to make explicit a process that, we believe, has been implied in the ethnic identity literature for many years, and that may have consequential implications for mental health and conceptualizations of processes underlying mental disorders. PMID:23450647

Aging and Emotion Recognition: Not Just a Losing Matter

PubMed Central

Sze, Jocelyn A.; Goodkind, Madeleine S.; Gyurak, Anett; Levenson, Robert W.

2013-01-01

Past studies on emotion recognition and aging have found evidence of age-related decline when emotion recognition was assessed by having participants detect single emotions depicted in static images of full or partial (e.g., eye region) faces. These tests afford good experimental control but do not capture the dynamic nature of real-world emotion recognition, which is often characterized by continuous emotional judgments and dynamic multi-modal stimuli. Research suggests that older adults often perform better under conditions that better mimic real-world social contexts. We assessed emotion recognition in young, middle-aged, and older adults using two traditional methods (single emotion judgments of static images of faces and eyes) and an additional method in which participants made continuous emotion judgments of dynamic, multi-modal stimuli (videotaped interactions between young, middle-aged, and older couples). Results revealed an age by test interaction. Largely consistent with prior research, we found some evidence that older adults performed worse than young adults when judging single emotions from images of faces (for sad and disgust faces only) and eyes (for older eyes only), with middle-aged adults falling in between. In contrast, older adults did better than young adults on the test involving continuous emotion judgments of dyadic interactions, with middle-aged adults falling in between. In tests in which target stimuli differed in age, emotion recognition was not facilitated by an age match between participant and target. These findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and methodological implications for the study of aging and emotional processing. PMID:22823183

Oxytocin attenuates neural reactivity to masked threat cues from the eyes.

PubMed

Kanat, Manuela; Heinrichs, Markus; Schwarzwald, Ralf; Domes, Gregor

2015-01-01

The neuropeptide oxytocin has recently been shown to modulate covert attention shifts to emotional face cues and to improve discrimination of masked facial emotions. These results suggest that oxytocin modulates facial emotion processing at early perceptual stages prior to full evaluation of the emotional expression. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine whether oxytocin alters neural responses to backwardly masked angry and happy faces while controlling for attention to the eye vs the mouth region. Intranasal oxytocin administration reduced amygdala reactivity to masked emotions when attending to salient facial features, ie, the eyes of angry faces and the mouth of happy faces. In addition, oxytocin decreased neural responses within the fusiform gyrus and brain stem areas, as well as functional coupling between the amygdala and the fusiform gyrus specifically for threat cues from the eyes. Effects of oxytocin on brain activity were not attributable to differences in behavioral performance, as oxytocin had no impact on mere emotion detection. Our results suggest that oxytocin attenuates neural correlates of early arousal by threat signals from the eye region. As reduced threat sensitivity may increase the likelihood of engaging in social interactions, our findings may have important implications for clinical states of social anxiety.

Brain activations during judgments of positive self-conscious emotion and positive basic emotion: pride and joy.

PubMed

Takahashi, Hidehiko; Matsuura, Masato; Koeda, Michihiko; Yahata, Noriaki; Suhara, Tetsuya; Kato, Motoichiro; Okubo, Yoshiro

2008-04-01

We aimed to investigate the neural correlates associated with judgments of a positive self-conscious emotion, pride, and elucidate the difference between pride and a basic positive emotion, joy, at the neural basis level using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Study of the neural basis associated with pride might contribute to a better understanding of the pride-related behaviors observed in neuropsychiatric disorders. Sixteen healthy volunteers were studied. The participants read sentences expressing joy or pride contents during the scans. Pride conditions activated the right posterior superior temporal sulcus and left temporal pole, the regions implicated in the neural substrate of social cognition or theory of mind. However, against our prediction, we did not find brain activation in the medial prefrontal cortex, a region responsible for inferring others' intention or self-reflection. Joy condition produced activations in the ventral striatum and insula/operculum, the key nodes of processing of hedonic or appetitive stimuli. Our results support the idea that pride is a self-conscious emotion, requiring the ability to detect the intention of others. At the same time, judgment of pride might require less self-reflection compared with those of negative self-conscious emotions such as guilt or embarrassment.

Training the emotional brain: improving affective control through emotional working memory training.

PubMed

Schweizer, Susanne; Grahn, Jessica; Hampshire, Adam; Mobbs, Dean; Dalgleish, Tim

2013-03-20

Affective cognitive control capacity (e.g., the ability to regulate emotions or manipulate emotional material in the service of task goals) is associated with professional and interpersonal success. Impoverished affective control, by contrast, characterizes many neuropsychiatric disorders. Insights from neuroscience indicate that affective cognitive control relies on the same frontoparietal neural circuitry as working memory (WM) tasks, which suggests that systematic WM training, performed in an emotional context, has the potential to augment affective control. Here we show, using behavioral and fMRI measures, that 20 d of training on a novel emotional WM protocol successfully enhanced the efficiency of this frontoparietal demand network. Critically, compared with placebo training, emotional WM training also accrued transfer benefits to a "gold standard" measure of affective cognitive control-emotion regulation. These emotion regulation gains were associated with greater activity in the targeted frontoparietal demand network along with other brain regions implicated in affective control, notably the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. The results have important implications for the utility of WM training in clinical, prevention, and occupational settings.

The Functional Neuroanatomy of Male Psychosexual and Physiosexual Arousal: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Poeppl, Timm B.; Langguth, Berthold; Laird, Angela R.; Eickhoff, Simon B.

2016-01-01

Reproductive behavior is mandatory for conservation of species and mediated by a state of sexual arousal (SA), involving both complex mental processes and bodily reactions. An early neurobehavioral model of SA proposes cognitive, emotional, motivational, and autonomic components. In a comprehensive quantitative meta-analysis on previous neuroimaging findings, we provide here evidence for distinct brain networks underlying psychosexual and physiosexual arousal. Psychosexual (i.e., mental sexual) arousal recruits brain areas crucial for cognitive evaluation, top-down modulation of attention and exteroceptive sensory processing, relevance detection and affective evaluation, as well as regions implicated in the representation of urges and in triggering autonomic processes. In contrast, physiosexual (i.e., physiological sexual) arousal is mediated by regions responsible for regulation and monitoring of initiated autonomic processes and emotions and for somatosensory processing. These circuits are interconnected by subcortical structures (putamen and claustrum) that provide exchange of sensorimotor information and crossmodal processing between and within the networks. Brain deactivations may imply attenuation of introspective processes and social cognition, but be necessary to release intrinsic inhibition of SA. PMID:23674246

An Examination of the Role of Emotions in Antiracist Pedagogy: Implications, Scholarship, and Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grosland, Tanetha J.

2013-01-01

Tanetha Grosland's goal is to inform and extend the current knowledge base concerning the intersection of antiracist pedagogy and emotions, and its implications for reconceptualizing such pedagogy. Therefore, she begins by addressing some fundamental theoretical claims about antiracist education. Then utilizing two sources to contextualize…

Enhanced interoceptive awareness during anticipation of public speaking is associated with fear of negative evaluation.

PubMed

Durlik, Caroline; Brown, Gary; Tsakiris, Manos

2014-04-01

Interoceptive awareness (IA)--the ability to detect internal body signals--has been linked to various aspects of emotional processing. However, it has been examined mostly as a trait variable, with few studies also investigating state dependent fluctuations in IA. Based on the known positive correlation between IA and emotional reactivity, negative affectivity, and trait anxiety, the current study examined whether IA, as indexed by heartbeat detection accuracy, would change during an anxiety-provoking situation. Participants in the experimental condition, in which they anticipated giving a speech in front of a small audience, displayed significant IA increases from baseline to anticipation. Enhancement in IA was positively correlated with fear of negative evaluation. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to the role of trait and state IA in emotional experience.

An exploration of decision aid effectiveness: the impact of promoting affective vs. deliberative processing on a health-related decision.

PubMed

Davis, Esther L; McCaffery, Kirsten; Mullan, Barbara; Juraskova, Ilona

2015-12-01

Decision aids (DAs) are non-directive communication tools that help patients make value-consistent health-care decisions. However, most DAs have been developed without an explicit theoretical framework, resulting in a lack of understanding of how DAs achieve outcomes. To investigate the effect of promoting affective vs. deliberative processing on DA effectiveness based on dual-process theory. One hundred and forty-eight female university students participated in a randomized controlled experiment with three conditions: emotion-focused, information-focused and control. Preference-value consistency, knowledge, decisional conflict and satisfaction were compared across the conditions using planned contrast analyses. The intervention comprised two different DAs and instructional manipulations. The emotion-focused condition received a modified DA with affective content and instructions to induce an affective reaction. The information-focused and control conditions received the same DA without the affective content. The information-focused condition received additional instructions to induce deliberative processing. Controlling for the experiment-wise error rate at P < 0.017, the emotion-focused and information-focused conditions had significantly higher decisional satisfaction than the control condition (P < 0.001). The emotion-focused condition did not demonstrate preference-value consistency. There were no significant differences for decisional conflict and knowledge. Results suggest that the promotion of affective processing may hinder value-consistent decision making, while deliberative processing may enhance decisional satisfaction. This investigation of the effect of affective and deliberative processes in DA-supported decision making has implications for the design and use of DAs. DA effectiveness may be enhanced by incorporating a simple instruction to focus on the details of the information. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Kisspeptin modulates sexual and emotional brain processing in humans.

PubMed

Comninos, Alexander N; Wall, Matthew B; Demetriou, Lysia; Shah, Amar J; Clarke, Sophie A; Narayanaswamy, Shakunthala; Nesbitt, Alexander; Izzi-Engbeaya, Chioma; Prague, Julia K; Abbara, Ali; Ratnasabapathy, Risheka; Salem, Victoria; Nijher, Gurjinder M; Jayasena, Channa N; Tanner, Mark; Bassett, Paul; Mehta, Amrish; Rabiner, Eugenii A; Hönigsperger, Christoph; Silva, Meire Ribeiro; Brandtzaeg, Ole Kristian; Lundanes, Elsa; Wilson, Steven Ray; Brown, Rachel C; Thomas, Sarah A; Bloom, Stephen R; Dhillo, Waljit S

2017-02-01

Sex, emotion, and reproduction are fundamental and tightly entwined aspects of human behavior. At a population level in humans, both the desire for sexual stimulation and the desire to bond with a partner are important precursors to reproduction. However, the relationships between these processes are incompletely understood. The limbic brain system has key roles in sexual and emotional behaviors, and is a likely candidate system for the integration of behavior with the hormonal reproductive axis. We investigated the effects of kisspeptin, a recently identified key reproductive hormone, on limbic brain activity and behavior. Using a combination of functional neuroimaging and hormonal and psychometric analyses, we compared the effects of kisspeptin versus vehicle administration in 29 healthy heterosexual young men. We demonstrated that kisspeptin administration enhanced limbic brain activity specifically in response to sexual and couple-bonding stimuli. Furthermore, kisspeptin's enhancement of limbic brain structures correlated with psychometric measures of reward, drive, mood, and sexual aversion, providing functional significance. In addition, kisspeptin administration attenuated negative mood. Collectively, our data provide evidence of an undescribed role for kisspeptin in integrating sexual and emotional brain processing with reproduction in humans. These results have important implications for our understanding of reproductive biology and are highly relevant to the current pharmacological development of kisspeptin as a potential therapeutic agent for patients with common disorders of reproductive function. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Wellcome Trust (Ref 080268), and the Medical Research Council (MRC).

A comparison of the effects of a beta-adrenergic blocker and a benzodiazepine upon the recognition of human facial expressions.

PubMed

Zangara, Andrea; Blair, R J R; Curran, H Valerie

2002-08-01

Accumulating evidence from neuropsychological and neuroimaging research suggests that facial expressions are processed by at least partially separable neurocognitive systems. Recent evidence implies that the processing of different facial expressions may also be dissociable pharmacologically by GABAergic and noradrenergic compounds, although no study has directly compared the two types of drugs. The present study therefore directly compared the effects of a benzodiazepine with those of a beta-adrenergic blocker on the ability to recognise emotional expressions. A double-blind, independent group design was used with 45 volunteers to compare the effects of diazepam (15 mg) and metoprolol (50 mg) with matched placebo. Participants were presented with morphed facial expression stimuli and asked to identify which of the six basic emotions (sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear and surprise) were portrayed. Control measures of mood, pulse rate and word recall were also taken. Diazepam selectively impaired participants' ability to recognise expressions of both anger and fear but not other emotional expressions. Errors were mainly mistaking fear for surprise and disgust for anger. Metoprolol did not significantly affect facial expression recognition. These findings are interpreted as providing further support for the suggestion that there are dissociable systems responsible for processing emotional expressions. The results may have implications for understanding why 'paradoxical' aggression is sometimes elicited by benzodiazepines and for extending our psychological understanding of the anxiolytic effects of these drugs.

Aberrant interference of auditory negative words on attention in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Iwashiro, Norichika; Yahata, Noriaki; Kawamuro, Yu; Kasai, Kiyoto; Yamasue, Hidenori

2013-01-01

Previous research suggests that deficits in attention-emotion interaction are implicated in schizophrenia symptoms. Although disruption in auditory processing is crucial in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, deficits in interaction between emotional processing of auditorily presented language stimuli and auditory attention have not yet been clarified. To address this issue, the current study used a dichotic listening task to examine 22 patients with schizophrenia and 24 age-, sex-, parental socioeconomic background-, handedness-, dexterous ear-, and intelligence quotient-matched healthy controls. The participants completed a word recognition task on the attended side in which a word with emotionally valenced content (negative/positive/neutral) was presented to one ear and a different neutral word was presented to the other ear. Participants selectively attended to either ear. In the control subjects, presentation of negative but not positive word stimuli provoked a significantly prolonged reaction time compared with presentation of neutral word stimuli. This interference effect for negative words existed whether or not subjects directed attention to the negative words. This interference effect was significantly smaller in the patients with schizophrenia than in the healthy controls. Furthermore, the smaller interference effect was significantly correlated with severe positive symptoms and delusional behavior in the patients with schizophrenia. The present findings suggest that aberrant interaction between semantic processing of negative emotional content and auditory attention plays a role in production of positive symptoms in schizophrenia. (224 words).

Implicit processing of heroin and emotional cues in abstinent heroin users: early and late event-related potential effects.

PubMed

Yang, Ling; Zhang, Jianxun; Zhao, Xin

2015-05-01

The abnormal cognitive processing of drug cues is a core characteristic of drug dependence. Previous research has suggested that the late positive potential (LPP) of heroin users is increased by heroin-related stimuli because of the attention-grabbing nature of such stimuli. The present research used a modified emotional Stroop (eStroop) task to examine whether there was an early posterior negativity (EPN) modulation to heroin cues compared with emotional or neutral stimuli in heroin dependent subjects. Fifteen former heroin users and 15 matched controls performed the eStroop task, which was composed of positive, negative, heroin-related, and neutral pictures with superimposed color squares. Participants responded to the color of the square and not to the picture while behavioral data and event-related potentials were recorded. There were no significant differences of EPN amplitudes to emotional and neutral stimuli between heroin users and controls. However, heroin users displayed increased EPN modulation for heroin cues, whereas this modulation was absent in controls. Drug-related cues acquire motivational salience and automatically capture the attention of heroin users at early processing stages, even when engaged in a non-drug-related task. The EPN to heroin cues could represent a novel electrophysiological index with clinical implications for selecting abstinent drug users who are at increased risk of relapse or to evaluate treatment interventions.

Implications of the Marketization of Higher Education for Social Emotional Development in Schools: A Personal View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Paul

2014-01-01

This essay discusses the institutional dysfunction that has resulted from the misguided belief that a market forces approach leads to the improvement of teaching quality and learning outcomes. Because the market forces approach is based on a simplistic input-output model that pays scant attention to teaching and learning processes, it is an…

Elementary School Teachers' Beliefs and Emotions: Implications for School Counselors and Counselor Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, Jeffrey M.; Dowden, Angel R.

2012-01-01

An understanding of teacher beliefs and emotions is invaluable for school counselors developing comprehensive counseling programs. This study explored the relationships among elementary school teachers' beliefs and emotions. Teachers (n = 42) completed surveys related to efficacy beliefs, irrational beliefs, and emotions. Significant relationships…

Preschoolers' Understanding of Parents' Emotions: Implications for Emotional Competence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denham, Susanne A.; And Others

This study investigated preschoolers' understanding of three parental emotions: happiness, sadness, and anger. The study also examined relationships of these understandings to preschoolers' emotional competence. Subjects, 70 children with a mean age of 55 months, were presented with a dollhouse and were encouraged to imagine that the dollhouse…

Dopamine dynamics during emotional cognitive processing: Implications of the specific actions of clozapine compared with haloperidol.

PubMed

Kawano, Masahiko; Oshibuchi, Hidehiro; Kawano, Takaaki; Muraoka, Hiroyuki; Tsutsumi, Takahiro; Yamada, Makiko; Inada, Ken; Ishigooka, Jun

2016-06-15

Clozapine has improved efficacy relative to typical antipsychotics in schizophrenia treatment, particularly regarding emotional symptoms. However, the mechanisms underlying its therapeutic benefits remain unclear. Using a methamphetamine-sensitised rat model, we measured changes in dopamine levels in the amygdalae in response to a fear-conditioned cue, serving as a biochemical marker of emotional cognitive processing disruption in psychosis, for analysing the biochemical mechanisms associated with the clinical benefits of clozapine. We also compared how clozapine and haloperidol affected basal dopamine levels and phasic dopamine release in response to the fear-conditioned cue. Extracellular dopamine was collected from the amygdalae of freely moving rats via microdialysis and was analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Clozapine or haloperidol was injected during microdialysis, followed by exposure to the fear-conditioned cue. We analysed the ratio of change in dopamine levels from baseline. Haloperidol treatment increased the baseline dopamine levels in both non-sensitised and sensitised rats. Conversely, clozapine only increased the basal dopamine levels in the non-sensitised rats, but not in the sensitised rats. Although both antipsychotics attenuated phasic dopamine release in both the non-sensitised and sensitised rats, the attenuation extent was greater for clozapine than for haloperidol under both dopaminergic conditions. Our findings indicate that stabilized dopamine release in the amygdalae is a common therapeutic mechanism of antipsychotic action during emotional processing. However, the specific dopaminergic state-dependent action of clozapine on both basal dopamine levels and stress-induced dopamine release may be the underlying mechanism for its superior clinical effect on emotional cognitive processing in patients with schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social attention in children with epilepsy.

PubMed

Lunn, Judith; Donovan, Tim; Litchfield, Damien; Lewis, Charlie; Davies, Robert; Crawford, Trevor

2017-04-01

Children with epilepsy may be vulnerable to impaired social attention given the increased risk of neurobehavioural comorbidities. Social attentional orienting and the potential modulatory role of attentional control on the perceptual processing of gaze and emotion cues have not been examined in childhood onset epilepsies. Social attention mechanisms were investigated in patients with epilepsy (n=25) aged 8-18years old and performance compared to healthy controls (n=30). Dynamic gaze and emotion facial stimuli were integrated into an antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm. The time to orient attention and execute a horizontal saccade toward (prosaccade) or away (antisaccade) from a peripheral target measured processing speed of social signals under conditions of low or high attentional control. Patients with epilepsy had impaired processing speed compared to healthy controls under conditions of high attentional control only when gaze and emotions were combined meaningfully to signal motivational intent of approach (happy or anger with a direct gaze) or avoidance (fear or sad with an averted gaze). Group differences were larger in older adolescent patients. Analyses of the discrete gaze emotion combinations found independent effects of epilepsy-related, cognitive and behavioural problems. A delayed disengagement from fearful gaze was also found under low attentional control that was linked to epilepsy developmental factors and was similarly observed in patients with higher reported anxiety problems. Overall, findings indicate increased perceptual processing of developmentally relevant social motivations during increased cognitive control, and the possibility of a persistent fear-related attentional bias. This was not limited to patients with chronic epilepsy, lower IQ or reported behavioural problems and has implications for social and emotional development in individuals with childhood onset epilepsies beyond remission. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Decision Making and Cancer

PubMed Central

Reyna, Valerie F.; Nelson, Wendy L.; Han, Paul K.; Pignone, Michael P.

2014-01-01

We review decision-making along the cancer continuum in the contemporary context of informed and shared decision making, in which patients are encouraged to take a more active role in their health care. We discuss challenges to achieving informed and shared decision making, including cognitive limitations and emotional factors, but argue that understanding the mechanisms of decision making offers hope for improving decision support. Theoretical approaches to decision making that explain cognition, emotion, and their interaction are described, including classical psychophysical approaches, dual-process approaches that focus on conflicts between emotion versus cognition (or reason), and modern integrative approaches such as fuzzy-trace theory. In contrast to the earlier emphasis on rote use of numerical detail, modern approaches emphasize understanding the bottom-line gist of options (which encompasses emotion and other influences on meaning) and retrieving relevant social and moral values to apply to those gist representations. Finally, research on interventions to support better decision making in clinical settings is reviewed, drawing out implications for future research on decision making and cancer. PMID:25730718

Ready to rumble: how team personality composition and task conflict interact to improve performance.

PubMed

Bradley, Bret H; Klotz, Anthony C; Postlethwaite, Bennett E; Brown, Kenneth G

2013-03-01

Although prior work has proposed a number of conditions under which task conflict in teams may improve performance, composition variables have been left unexplored. Given the effects of personality traits on team processes and outcomes demonstrated in prior work, investigating whether specific personality compositions influence the effect of task conflict on team performance is critical to researchers' understanding of conflict in teams. Our results indicate that team-level averages of both openness to experience and emotional stability function as moderators of the relationship between task conflict and team performance. Specifically, task conflict had a positive impact on performance in teams with high levels of openness or emotional stability; in contrast, task conflict had a negative impact on performance in teams with low levels of openness or emotional stability. Thus, when task conflict emerges, teams composed of members who are open minded or emotionally stable are best able to leverage conflict to improve performance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

'You do not cross them': Hierarchy and emotion in doctors' narratives of power relations in specialist training.

PubMed

Crowe, Sophie; Clarke, Nicholas; Brugha, Ruairi

2017-08-01

Studies of medical education often focus on experiences and socialisation processes among undergraduate students, with fewer examining emotionality among postgraduate trainees. This article explores the relationship between power and emotion, questioning how affective relations between senior and junior doctors are patterned on the hierarchical structure of medicine. The study employs qualitative methods of in-depth, face-to-face and telephone interviews with fifty doctors at initial and advanced stages of specialist postgraduate training in teaching hospitals across Ireland, conducted between May and July, 2015. The study found that respect for hierarchy, anger and fear, intimidation, and disillusion were key themes in participants' narratives of relationships with senior staff who oversaw their postgraduate training. The implications of these emotional subjectivities for quality of training, patient care and willingness of junior doctors to pursue careers in Ireland, are discussed and recommendations and areas for further research proposed. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Sensitivity to musical emotion is influenced by tonal structure in congenital amusia.

PubMed

Jiang, Cunmei; Liu, Fang; Wong, Patrick C M

2017-08-08

Emotional communication in music depends on multiple attributes including psychoacoustic features and tonal system information, the latter of which is unique to music. The present study investigated whether congenital amusia, a lifelong disorder of musical processing, impacts sensitivity to musical emotion elicited by timbre and tonal system information. Twenty-six amusics and 26 matched controls made tension judgments on Western (familiar) and Indian (unfamiliar) melodies played on piano and sitar. Like controls, amusics used timbre cues to judge musical tension in Western and Indian melodies. While controls assigned significantly lower tension ratings to Western melodies compared to Indian melodies, thus showing a tonal familiarity effect on tension ratings, amusics provided comparable tension ratings for Western and Indian melodies on both timbres. Furthermore, amusics rated Western melodies as more tense compared to controls, as they relied less on tonality cues than controls in rating tension for Western melodies. The implications of these findings in terms of emotional responses to music are discussed.

Income and children's behavioral functioning: a sequential mediation analysis.

PubMed

Shelleby, Elizabeth C; Votruba-Drzal, Elizabeth; Shaw, Daniel S; Dishion, Thomas J; Wilson, Melvin N; Gardner, Frances

2014-12-01

Children from low-income households tend to exhibit higher levels of conduct problems and emotional problems, yet the pathways linking economic disadvantage to children's behavioral functioning are not well understood. This study uses data from the Early Steps Multisite (ESM) project (N = 731) to investigate associations between family income in early childhood and children's conduct problems and emotional problems in middle childhood. The study explores whether the associations from income to child conduct problems and emotional problems operate through maternal depressive symptoms and 3 family risk factors in early childhood-harsh parenting, parenting hassles, and chaos in the home environment. Results of a sequential mediation model revealed significant indirect effects of family income on children's conduct problems operating through maternal depressive symptoms and parenting hassles and indirect effects of family income on children's emotional problems operating through maternal depressive symptoms, chaos in the home environment, and parenting hassles. Implications of these findings for understanding processes through which income influences child functioning are discussed.

Individual differences in processing emotional images after reading disgusting and neutral sentences.

PubMed

Hartigan, Alex; Richards, Anne

2017-11-21

The present study examined the extent to which Event Related Potentials (ERPs) evoked by disgusting, threatening and neutral photographic images were influenced by disgust propensity, disgust sensitivity and attentional control following exposure to disgusting information. Emotional cognition was manipulated by instructing participants to remember either disgusting or neutral sentences; participants in both groups then viewed emotional images while ERPs were recorded. Disgust propensity was associated with a reduced Late Positive Potential (LPP) gap between threatening and neutral stimuli (an effect driven by a rise in the LPP for neutral images) but only amongst individuals who were exposed to disgusting sentences. The typical LPP increase for disgust over neutral was reduced by attentional shifting capacity but only for individuals who were not previously exposed to disgust. There was also a persistent occipital shifted late positivity that was enhanced for disgust for the entire LPP window and was independent of exposure. Results suggest that emotion specific ERP effects can emerge within the broad unpleasant emotional category in conjunction with individual differences and prior emotional exposure. These results have important implications for the ways in which the perception of emotion is impacted by short term cognitive influences and longer term individual differences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Child, parent, and parent-child emotion narratives: implications for developmental psychopathology.

PubMed

Oppenheim, David

2006-01-01

Studies using narratives with children and parents offer ways to study affective meaning-making processes that are central in many theories of developmental psychopathology. This paper reviews theory regarding affective meaning making, and argues that narratives are particularly suited to examine such processes. The review of narrative studies and methods is organized into three sections according to the focus on child, parent, and parent-child narratives. Within each focus three levels of analysis are considered: (a) narrative organization and coherence, (b) narrative content, and (c) the behavior/interactions of the narrator(s). The implications of this research for developmental psychopathology and clinical work are discussed with an emphasis on parent-child jointly constructed narratives as the meeting point of individual child and parent narratives.

Working models of attachment to parents and partners: implications for emotional behavior between partners.

PubMed

Mehta, Neera; Cowan, Philip A; Cowan, Carolyn P

2009-12-01

This study examined whether working models of attachment are associated with observed positive emotion, sadness, and anger during marital conflict. Individuals (n = 176) from a longitudinal study of families participated in the current cross-sectional study. Narrative interviews assessed the unique and combined contribution of attachment representations based on parents (adult attachment) and partner (couple attachment). The influence of partner's attachment, depression symptoms, and sex of participant was also examined. Hierarchical linear models demonstrated that one's couple attachment security predicts one's observed positive emotion, whereas the partner's couple attachment security predicts one's observed negative emotion. Partner's depression symptoms moderated the effects of partner's couple attachment. Adult attachment was not related to observed emotional behavior between partners. These findings have important clinical implications for individual, couple, and family therapy.

Measuring Emotional Intelligence Enhances the Psychological Evaluation of Chronic Pain.

PubMed

Doherty, Eva M; Walsh, Rosemary; Andrews, Leanne; McPherson, Susan

2017-12-01

The assessment of emotional factors, in addition to other psychosocial factors, has been recommended as a means of identifying individuals with chronic pain who may not respond to certain pain treatments. Systematic reviews of the evidence regarding the prediction of responsiveness to a treatment called the spinal cord stimulator (SCS) have yielded inconclusive results. Emotional intelligence is a term which refers to the ability to identify and manage emotions in oneself and others and has been shown to be inversely associated with emotional distress and acute pain. This study aims to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, chronic pain, and the more established psychosocial factors usually used for SCS evaluations by clinical psychologists in medical settings. A sample of 112 patients with chronic pain on an acute hospital waiting list for SCS procedures in a pain medicine service were recruited. Psychological measures were completed including: a novel measure of emotional intelligence; usual measures of emotional distress and catastrophizing; and a numerical rating scale designed to assess pain intensity, pain-related distress, and interference. As predicted, findings revealed significant associations between most of the measures analyzed and current pain intensity. When entered into a simultaneous regression analysis, emotional intelligence scores remained the only significant predictor of current pain intensity. There are potential clinical, ethical, and organizational implications of emotional intelligence processes partially predicting pain in patients on a waiting list for a medical procedure. These results may offer new insight, understanding, and evaluation targets for clinical psychologists in the field of pain management.

Associations between maternal negative affect and adolescent's neural response to peer evaluation.

PubMed

Tan, Patricia Z; Lee, Kyung Hwa; Dahl, Ronald E; Nelson, Eric E; Stroud, Laura J; Siegle, Greg J; Morgan, Judith K; Silk, Jennifer S

2014-04-01

Parenting is often implicated as a potential source of individual differences in youths' emotional information processing. The present study examined whether parental affect is related to an important aspect of adolescent emotional development, response to peer evaluation. Specifically, we examined relations between maternal negative affect, observed during parent-adolescent discussion of an adolescent-nominated concern with which s/he wants parental support, and adolescent neural responses to peer evaluation in 40 emotionally healthy and depressed adolescents. We focused on a network of ventral brain regions involved in affective processing of social information: the amygdala, anterior insula, nucleus accumbens, and subgenual anterior cingulate, as well as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Maternal negative affect was not associated with adolescent neural response to peer rejection. However, longer durations of maternal negative affect were associated with decreased responsivity to peer acceptance in the amygdala, left anterior insula, subgenual anterior cingulate, and left nucleus accumbens. These findings provide some of the first evidence that maternal negative affect is associated with adolescents' neural processing of social rewards. Findings also suggest that maternal negative affect could contribute to alterations in affective processing, specifically, dampening the saliency and/or reward of peer interactions during adolescence. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The poetics of mourning and faith-based intervention in maladaptive grieving processes in Ethiopia.

PubMed

Hussein, Jeylan Wolyie

2018-08-01

The paper is an inquiry into the poetics of mourning and faith-based intervention in maladaptive grieving processes in Ethiopia. The paper discusses the ways that loss is signified and analyzes the meanings of ethnocultural and psychospiritual practices employed to deal with maladaptive grief processes and their psychological and emotional after-effects. Hermeneutics provided the methodological framework and informed the analysis. The thesis of the paper is that the poetics of mourning and faith-based social interventions are interactionally based meaning making processes. The paper indicates the limitations of the study and their implications for further inquiry.

Dissociable prefrontal brain systems for attention and emotion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamasaki, Hiroshi; Labar, Kevin S.; McCarthy, Gregory

2002-08-01

The prefrontal cortex has been implicated in a variety of attentional, executive, and mnemonic mental operations, yet its functional organization is still highly debated. The present study used functional MRI to determine whether attentional and emotional functions are segregated into dissociable prefrontal networks in the human brain. Subjects discriminated infrequent and irregularly presented attentional targets (circles) from frequent standards (squares) while novel distracting scenes, parametrically varied for emotional arousal, were intermittently presented. Targets differentially activated middle frontal gyrus, posterior parietal cortex, and posterior cingulate gyrus. Novel distracters activated inferior frontal gyrus, amygdala, and fusiform gyrus, with significantly stronger activation evoked by the emotional scenes. The anterior cingulate gyrus was the only brain region with equivalent responses to attentional and emotional stimuli. These results show that attentional and emotional functions are segregated into parallel dorsal and ventral streams that extend into prefrontal cortex and are integrated in the anterior cingulate. These findings may have implications for understanding the neural dynamics underlying emotional distractibility on attentional tasks in affective disorders. novelty | prefrontal cortex | amygdala | cingulate gyrus

Does a Culture of Happiness Increase Rumination Over Failure?

PubMed

McGuirk, Lucy; Kuppens, Peter; Kingston, Rosemary; Bastian, Brock

2017-07-17

Promoting happiness within society is good for health, but could the overpromotion of happiness have a downside? Across 2 studies, we investigate 2 emotion norms associated with an emphasis on happiness-the importance of (a) seeking positive emotion, and (b) avoiding negative emotion-and whether these norms have implications for how people respond to, and seek to regulate, their negative emotional experiences. In Study 1, we used an experimental design to show that emphasizing the importance of happiness increased rumination in response to failure. In Study 2, we drew on cross-sectional evidence to investigate the other side of this equation, finding that emphasizing the importance of not experiencing negative emotional states (e.g., depression and anxiety) was also associated with increased rumination, and that this had downstream consequences for well-being. Together, the findings suggest that the overpromotion of happiness, and, in turn, the felt social pressure not to experience negative emotional states, has implications for maladaptive responses to negative emotional experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of self-directed and other-directed introspection and emotional valence on activation of the rostral prefrontal cortex during aesthetic experience.

PubMed

Kreplin, Ute; Fairclough, Stephen H

2015-05-01

The medial area of the rostral prefrontal cortex (rPFC) has been implicated in self-relevant processing, autobiographical memory and emotional processing, including the processing of pleasure during aesthetic experiences. The goal of this study was to investigate changes in rPFC activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in response to affective stimuli viewed in a self-relevant or other-relevant context. Positive and negative images were displayed to 20 participants under two viewing conditions where participants were asked to think of their own emotions (self) or think about the emotions of the artist who created the work (other). The results revealed an increase of HbO when participants viewed images during the other-condition compared to the self-condition. It was concluded that viewing stimuli from the perspective of another was associated with an increase of cognitive demand. The analysis of deoxygenated haemoglobin (HHb) at right hemispheric areas revealed that activation of the rPFC during the other-condition was specific to the negative images. When images were viewed from the perspective of the self, activation of the rPFC significantly increased at the right-medial area of the rPFC for positive images. Our findings indicate that the influence of valence on rPFC activation during aesthetic experience is contingent on the context of the viewing experience and there is a bias towards positive emotion when images are viewed from the context of the self. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contextual and perceptual brain processes underlying moral cognition: a quantitative meta-analysis of moral reasoning and moral emotions.

PubMed

Sevinc, Gunes; Spreng, R Nathan

2014-01-01

Human morality has been investigated using a variety of tasks ranging from judgments of hypothetical dilemmas to viewing morally salient stimuli. These experiments have provided insight into neural correlates of moral judgments and emotions, yet these approaches reveal important differences in moral cognition. Moral reasoning tasks require active deliberation while moral emotion tasks involve the perception of stimuli with moral implications. We examined convergent and divergent brain activity associated with these experimental paradigms taking a quantitative meta-analytic approach. A systematic search of the literature yielded 40 studies. Studies involving explicit decisions in a moral situation were categorized as active (n = 22); studies evoking moral emotions were categorized as passive (n = 18). We conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimation to determine reliable patterns of brain activity. Results revealed a convergent pattern of reliable brain activity for both task categories in regions of the default network, consistent with the social and contextual information processes supported by this brain network. Active tasks revealed more reliable activity in the temporoparietal junction, angular gyrus and temporal pole. Active tasks demand deliberative reasoning and may disproportionately involve the retrieval of social knowledge from memory, mental state attribution, and construction of the context through associative processes. In contrast, passive tasks reliably engaged regions associated with visual and emotional information processing, including lingual gyrus and the amygdala. A laterality effect was observed in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, with active tasks engaging the left, and passive tasks engaging the right. While overlapping activity patterns suggest a shared neural network for both tasks, differential activity suggests that processing of moral input is affected by task demands. The results provide novel insight into distinct features of moral cognition, including the generation of moral context through associative processes and the perceptual detection of moral salience.

Contextual and Perceptual Brain Processes Underlying Moral Cognition: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis of Moral Reasoning and Moral Emotions

PubMed Central

Sevinc, Gunes; Spreng, R. Nathan

2014-01-01

Background and Objectives Human morality has been investigated using a variety of tasks ranging from judgments of hypothetical dilemmas to viewing morally salient stimuli. These experiments have provided insight into neural correlates of moral judgments and emotions, yet these approaches reveal important differences in moral cognition. Moral reasoning tasks require active deliberation while moral emotion tasks involve the perception of stimuli with moral implications. We examined convergent and divergent brain activity associated with these experimental paradigms taking a quantitative meta-analytic approach. Data Source A systematic search of the literature yielded 40 studies. Studies involving explicit decisions in a moral situation were categorized as active (n = 22); studies evoking moral emotions were categorized as passive (n = 18). We conducted a coordinate-based meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimation to determine reliable patterns of brain activity. Results & Conclusions Results revealed a convergent pattern of reliable brain activity for both task categories in regions of the default network, consistent with the social and contextual information processes supported by this brain network. Active tasks revealed more reliable activity in the temporoparietal junction, angular gyrus and temporal pole. Active tasks demand deliberative reasoning and may disproportionately involve the retrieval of social knowledge from memory, mental state attribution, and construction of the context through associative processes. In contrast, passive tasks reliably engaged regions associated with visual and emotional information processing, including lingual gyrus and the amygdala. A laterality effect was observed in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, with active tasks engaging the left, and passive tasks engaging the right. While overlapping activity patterns suggest a shared neural network for both tasks, differential activity suggests that processing of moral input is affected by task demands. The results provide novel insight into distinct features of moral cognition, including the generation of moral context through associative processes and the perceptual detection of moral salience. PMID:24503959

Children and violence: the role of children's regulation in the marital aggression-child adjustment link.

PubMed

Cummings, E Mark; El-Sheikh, Mona; Kouros, Chrystyna D; Buckhalt, Joseph A

2009-03-01

Exposure to marital psychological and physical abuse has been established as a risk factor for children's socio-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems. Understanding the processes by which children develop symptoms of psychopathology and deficits in cognitive functioning in the context of marital aggression is imperative for developing efficient and effective treatment programs for children and families, and has far-reaching mental health implications. The present paper outlines our research program, Child Regulation and Exposure to Marital Aggression, which focuses on children's emotional and physiological reactivity and regulation as pathways in the marital aggression-child development link. Findings from our research program, which highlight the importance of children's regulatory processes for understanding children's adjustment in contexts of intimate partner violence, are presented, and future directions in this line of inquiry are outlined.

Oxytocin and Social Adaptation: Insights from Neuroimaging Studies of Healthy and Clinical Populations.

PubMed

Ma, Yina; Shamay-Tsoory, Simone; Han, Shihui; Zink, Caroline F

2016-02-01

Adaptation to the social environment is critical for human survival. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), implicated in social cognition and emotions pivotal to sociality and well-being, is a promising pharmacological target for social and emotional dysfunction. We suggest here that the multifaceted role of OT in socio-affective processes improves the capability for social adaptation. We review OT effects on socio-affective processes, with a focus on OT-neuroimaging studies, to elucidate neuropsychological mechanisms through which OT promotes social adaptation. We also review OT-neuroimaging studies of individuals with social deficits and suggest that OT ameliorates impaired social adaptation by normalizing hyper- or hypo-brain activity. The social adaption model (SAM) provides an integrative understanding of discrepant OT effects and the modulations of OT action by personal milieu and context. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neuronal generator patterns at scalp elicited by lateralized aversive pictures reveal consecutive stages of motivated attention

PubMed Central

Kayser, Jürgen; Tenke, Craig E.; Abraham, Karen S.; Alschuler, Daniel M.; Alvarenga, Jorge E.; Skipper, Jamie; Warner, Virginia; Bruder, Gerard E.; Weissman, Myrna M.

2016-01-01

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have provided evidence for an allocation of attentional resources to enhance perceptual processing of motivationally salient stimuli. Emotional modulation affects several consecutive components associated with stages of affective-cognitive processing, beginning as early as 100-200 ms after stimulus onset. In agreement with the notion that the right parietotemporal region is critically involved during the perception of arousing affective stimuli, some ERP studies have reported asymmetric emotional ERP effects. However, it is difficult to separate emotional from non-emotional effects because differences in stimulus content unrelated to affective salience or task demands may also be associated with lateralized function or promote cognitive processing. Other concerns pertain to the operational definition and statistical independence of ERP component measures, their dependence on an EEG reference, and spatial smearing due to volume conduction, all of which impede the identification of distinct scalp activation patterns associated with affective processing. Building on prior research using a visual half-field paradigm with highly-controlled emotional stimuli (pictures of cosmetic surgery patients showing disordered [negative] or healed [neutral] facial areas before or after treatment), 72-channel ERPs recorded from 152 individuals (age 13-68 years; 81 female) were transformed into reference-free current source density (CSD) waveforms and submitted to temporal principal components analysis (PCA) to identify their underlying neuronal generator patterns. Using both nonparametric randomization tests and repeated measures ANOVA, robust effects of emotional content were found over parietooccipital regions for CSD factors corresponding to N2 sink (212 ms peak latency), P3 source (385 ms) and a late centroparietal source (630 ms), all indicative of greater positivity for negative than neutral stimuli. For the N2 sink, emotional effects were right-lateralized and modulated by hemifield, with larger amplitude and asymmetry for left hemifield (right hemisphere) presentations. For all three factors, more positive amplitudes at parietooccipital sites were associated with increased ratings of negative valence and greater arousal. Distributed inverse solutions of the CSD-PCA-based emotional effects implicated a sequence of maximal activations in right occipitotemporal cortex, bilateral posterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral inferior temporal cortex. These findings are consistent with hierarchical activations of the ventral visual pathway reflecting subsequent processing stages in response to motivationally salient stimuli. PMID:27263509

Neuronal generator patterns at scalp elicited by lateralized aversive pictures reveal consecutive stages of motivated attention.

PubMed

Kayser, Jürgen; Tenke, Craig E; Abraham, Karen S; Alschuler, Daniel M; Alvarenga, Jorge E; Skipper, Jamie; Warner, Virginia; Bruder, Gerard E; Weissman, Myrna M

2016-11-15

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have provided evidence for an allocation of attentional resources to enhance perceptual processing of motivationally salient stimuli. Emotional modulation affects several consecutive components associated with stages of affective-cognitive processing, beginning as early as 100-200ms after stimulus onset. In agreement with the notion that the right parietotemporal region is critically involved during the perception of arousing affective stimuli, some ERP studies have reported asymmetric emotional ERP effects. However, it is difficult to separate emotional from non-emotional effects because differences in stimulus content unrelated to affective salience or task demands may also be associated with lateralized function or promote cognitive processing. Other concerns pertain to the operational definition and statistical independence of ERP component measures, their dependence on an EEG reference, and spatial smearing due to volume conduction, all of which impede the identification of distinct scalp activation patterns associated with affective processing. Building on prior research using a visual half-field paradigm with highly controlled emotional stimuli (pictures of cosmetic surgery patients showing disordered [negative] or healed [neutral] facial areas before or after treatment), 72-channel ERPs recorded from 152 individuals (ages 13-68years; 81 female) were transformed into reference-free current source density (CSD) waveforms and submitted to temporal principal components analysis (PCA) to identify their underlying neuronal generator patterns. Using both nonparametric randomization tests and repeated measures ANOVA, robust effects of emotional content were found over parietooccipital regions for CSD factors corresponding to N2 sink (212ms peak latency), P3 source (385ms) and a late centroparietal source (630ms), all indicative of greater positivity for negative than neutral stimuli. For the N2 sink, emotional effects were right-lateralized and modulated by hemifield, with larger amplitude and asymmetry for left hemifield (right hemisphere) presentations. For all three factors, more positive amplitudes at parietooccipital sites were associated with increased ratings of negative valence and greater arousal. Distributed inverse solutions of the CSD-PCA-based emotional effects implicated a sequence of maximal activations in right occipitotemporal cortex, bilateral posterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral inferior temporal cortex. These findings are consistent with hierarchical activations of the ventral visual pathway reflecting subsequent processing stages in response to motivationally salient stimuli. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotional intelligence: a review of the literature with specific focus on empirical and epistemological perspectives.

PubMed

Akerjordet, Kristin; Severinsson, Elisabeth

2007-08-01

The aim of this literature review was to evaluate and discuss previous research on emotional intelligence with specific focus on empirical and epistemological perspectives. The concept of emotional intelligence is derived from extensive research and theory about thoughts, feelings and abilities that, prior to 1990, were considered to be unrelated phenomena. Today, emotional intelligence attracts growing interest worldwide, contributing to critical reflection as well as to various educational, health and occupational outcomes. Systematic review. The findings revealed that the epistemological tradition of natural science is the most frequently used and that, therefore, few articles related to humanistic sciences or philosophical perspectives were found. There is no agreement as to whether emotional intelligence is an individual ability, non-cognitive skill, capability or competence. One important finding is that, regardless of the theoretical framework used, researchers agree that emotional intelligence embraces emotional awareness in relation to self and others, professional efficiency and emotional management. There have been some interesting theoretical frameworks that relate emotional intelligence to stress and mental health within different contexts. Emotional learning and maturation processes, i.e. personal growth and development in the area of emotional intelligence, are central to professional competence. There is no doubt that the research on emotional intelligence is scarce and still at the developmental stage. Clinical questions pertaining to the nursing profession should be developed with focus on personal qualities of relevance to nursing practice. Different approaches are needed in order to further expand the theoretical, empirical and philosophical foundation of this important and enigmatic concept. Emotional intelligence may have implications for health promotion and quality of working life within nursing. Emotional intelligence seems to lead to more positive attitudes, greater adaptability, improved relationships and increased orientation towards positive values.

The role of family expressed emotion and perceived social support in predicting addiction relapse.

PubMed

Atadokht, Akbar; Hajloo, Nader; Karimi, Masoud; Narimani, Mohammad

2015-03-01

Emotional conditions governing the family and patients' perceived social support play important roles in the treatment or relapse process of the chronic disease. The current study aimed to investigate the role of family expressed emotion and perceived social support in prediction of addiction relapse. The descriptive-correlation method was used in the current study. The study population consisted of the individuals referred to the addiction treatment centers in Ardabil from October 2013 to January 2014. The subjects (n = 80) were randomly selected using cluster sampling method. To collect data, expressed emotion test by Cole and Kazaryan, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were used, and the obtained data was analyzed using the Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analyses. Results showed a positive relationship between family expressed emotions and the frequency of relapse (r = 0.26, P = 0.011) and a significant negative relationship between perceived social support and the frequency of relapse (r = -0.34, P = 0.001). Multiple regression analysis also showed that perceived social support from family and the family expressed emotions significantly explained 12% of the total variance of relapse frequency. These results have implications for addicted people, their families and professionals working in addiction centers to use the emotional potential of families especially their expressed emotions and the perceived social support of addicts to increase the success rate of addiction treatment.

Reflecting on imagery: a clinical perspective and overview of the special issue of memory on mental imagery and memory in psychopathology.

PubMed

Hackmann, Ann; Holmes, Emily A

2004-07-01

The authors provide an overview of the papers in the special issue of Memory on mental imagery and memory in psychopathology. The papers address emotional, intrusive mental imagery across a range of psychological disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), agoraphobia, body dysmorphic disorder, mood disorders, and psychosis. They include work on information processing issues including modelling cravings, conditioning, and aversions, as well as imagery qualities such as vividness and emotionality. The overview aims to place the articles in a broader context and draw out some exciting implications of this novel work. It provides a clinical context to the recent growth in this area from a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) perspective. We begin with PTSD, and consider links to imagery in other disorders. The clinical implications stemming from this empirical work and from autobiographical memory theory are discussed. These include consideration of a variety of techniques for eliminating troublesome imagery, and creating healthy, realistic alternatives.

Pubertal development of the understanding of social emotions: Implications for education

PubMed Central

Burnett, Stephanie; Thompson, Stephanie; Bird, Geoffrey; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

2011-01-01

Recent developmental cognitive neuroscience research has supported the notion that puberty and adolescence are periods of profound socio-emotional development. The current study was designed to investigate whether the onset of puberty marks an increase in the awareness of complex, or “mixed,” emotions. Eighty-three female participants (aged 9–16 years) were divided into three groups according to a self-report measure of puberty stage (early-, mid- and post-puberty). Participants were presented with emotional scenarios, and used four linear scales to rate their emotional response to each scenario. Scenarios were designed to evoke social emotions (embarrassment or guilt) or basic emotions (anger or fear), where social emotions are defined as those which require the representation of others' mental states. We measured the relative complexity or “mixedness” of emotional responses, that is, the degree to which participants reported feeling more than one emotion for a given scenario. We found that mixed emotion reporting increased between early- and post-puberty for social emotion scenarios, and showed no relationship with age, whereas there was no change in mixed emotion reporting for basic emotion scenarios across age or puberty groups. This suggests that the awareness of mixed emotions develops during the course of puberty, and that this development is specific to social emotions. Results are discussed in the context of brain development across puberty and adolescence, with speculation regarding the potential implications for education. PMID:22211052

Musical Understanding, Musical Works, and Emotional Expression: Implications for Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, David J.

2005-01-01

What do musicians, critics, and listeners mean when they use emotion-words to describe a piece of instrumental music? How can "pure" musical sounds "express" emotions such as joyfulness, sadness, anguish, optimism, and anger? Sounds are not living organisms; sounds cannot feel emotions. Yet many people around the world believe they hear emotions…

A further extension of the Extended Parallel Process Model (E-EPPM): implications of cognitive appraisal theory of emotion and dispositional coping style.

PubMed

So, Jiyeon

2013-01-01

For two decades, the extended parallel process model (EPPM; Witte, 1992 ) has been one of the most widely used theoretical frameworks in health risk communication. The model has gained much popularity because it recognizes that, ironically, preceding fear appeal models do not incorporate the concept of fear as a legitimate and central part of them. As a remedy to this situation, the EPPM aims at "putting the fear back into fear appeals" ( Witte, 1992 , p. 330). Despite this attempt, however, this article argues that the EPPM still does not fully capture the essence of fear as an emotion. Specifically, drawing upon Lazarus's (1991 ) cognitive appraisal theory of emotion and the concept of dispositional coping style ( Miller, 1995 ), this article seeks to further extend the EPPM. The revised EPPM incorporates a more comprehensive perspective on risk perceptions as a construct involving both cognitive and affective aspects (i.e., fear and anxiety) and integrates the concept of monitoring and blunting coping style as a moderator of further information seeking regarding a given risk topic.

Social Vision: Functional Forecasting and the Integration of Compound Social Cues

PubMed Central

Adams, Reginald B.; Kveraga, Kestutis

2017-01-01

For decades the study of social perception was largely compartmentalized by type of social cue: race, gender, emotion, eye gaze, body language, facial expression etc. This was partly due to good scientific practice (e.g., controlling for extraneous variability), and partly due to assumptions that each type of social cue was functionally distinct from others. Herein, we present a functional forecast approach to understanding compound social cue processing that emphasizes the importance of shared social affordances across various cues (see too Adams, Franklin, Nelson, & Stevenson, 2010; Adams & Nelson, 2011; Weisbuch & Adams, 2012). We review the traditional theories of emotion and face processing that argued for dissociable and noninteracting pathways (e.g., for specific emotional expressions, gaze, identity cues), as well as more recent evidence for combinatorial processing of social cues. We argue here that early, and presumably reflexive, visual integration of such cues is necessary for adaptive behavioral responding to others. In support of this claim, we review contemporary work that reveals a flexible visual system, one that readily incorporates meaningful contextual influences in even nonsocial visual processing, thereby establishing the functional and neuroanatomical bases necessary for compound social cue integration. Finally, we explicate three likely mechanisms driving such integration. Together, this work implicates a role for cognitive penetrability in visual perceptual abilities that have often been (and in some cases still are) ascribed to direct encapsulated perceptual processes. PMID:29242738

A new approach to assessing affect and the emotional implications of personal genomic testing for common disease risk

PubMed Central

O'Neill, Suzanne C.; Tercyak, Kenneth P.; Baytop, Chanza; Alford, Sharon Hensley; McBride, Colleen M.

2015-01-01

Aims Personal genomic testing (PGT) for common disease risk is becoming increasingly frequent, but little is known about people's array of emotional reactions to learning their genomic risk profiles and the psychological harms/benefits of PGT. We conducted a study of post-PGT affect, including positive, neutral, and negative states that may arise after testing. Methods Two hundred twenty-eight healthy adults received PGT for common disease variants and completed a semi-structured research interview within two weeks of disclosure. Study participants reported how PGT results made them feel in their own words. Using an iterative coding process, responses were organized into three broad affective categories (Negative, Neutral, and Positive affect). Results Neutral affect was the most prevalent response (53.9%), followed by Positive affect (26.9%) and Negative affect (19.2%). We found no differences by gender, race or education. Conclusions While <20% of participants reported negative affect in response to learning their genomic risk profile for common disease, a majority experience either neutral or positive emotions. These findings contribute to the growing evidence that PGT does not impose significant psychological harms. Moreover, they point to a need to better link theories and assessments in both emotional and cognitive processing to capitalize on PGT information for healthy behavior change. PMID:25612474

Moral motivation based on multiple developmental structures: an exploration of cognitive and emotional dynamics.

PubMed

Kaplan, Ulas; Tivnan, Terrence

2014-01-01

Intrapersonal variability and multiplicity in the complexity of moral motivation were examined from Dynamic Systems and Self-Determination Theory perspectives. L. Kohlberg's (1969) stages of moral development are reconceptualized as soft-assembled and dynamically transformable process structures of motivation that may operate simultaneously within person in different degrees. Moral motivation is conceptualized as the real-time process of self-organization of cognitive and emotional dynamics out of which moral judgment and action emerge. A detailed inquiry into intrapersonal variation in moral motivation is carried out based on the differential operation of multiple motivational structures. A total of 74 high school students and 97 college students participated in the study by completing a new questionnaire, involving 3 different hypothetical moral judgments. As hypothesized, findings revealed significant multiplicity in the within-person operation of developmental stage structures, and intrapersonal variability in the degrees to which stages were used. Developmental patterns were found in terms of different distributions of multiple stages between high school and college samples, as well as the association between age and overall motivation scores. Differential relations of specific emotions to moral motivation revealed and confirmed the value of differentiating multiple emotions. Implications of the present theoretical perspective and the findings for understanding the complexity of moral judgment and motivation are discussed.

Relation between social information processing and intimate partner violence in dating couples.

PubMed

Setchell, Sarah; Fritz, Patti Timmons; Glasgow, Jillian

2017-07-01

We used couple-level data to predict physical acts of intimate partner violence (IPV) from self-reported negative emotions and social information-processing (SIP) abilities among 100 dating couples (n = 200; mean age = 21.45 years). Participants read a series of hypothetical conflict situation vignettes and responded to questionnaires to assess negative emotions and various facets of SIP including attributions for partner behavior, generation of response alternatives, and response selection. We conducted a series of negative binomial mixed-model regressions based on the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006, Dyadic data analysis. New York, NY: Guilford Press). There were significant results for the response generation and negative emotion models. Participants who generated fewer coping response alternatives were at greater risk of victimization (actor effect). Women were at greater risk of victimization if they had partners who generated fewer coping response alternatives (sex by partner interaction effect). Generation of less competent coping response alternatives predicted greater risk of perpetration among men, whereas generation of more competent coping response alternatives predicted greater risk of victimization among women (sex by actor interaction effects). Two significant actor by partner interaction effects were found for the negative emotion models. Participants who reported discrepant levels of negative emotions from their partners were at greatest risk of perpetration. Participants who reported high levels of negative emotions were at greatest risk of victimization if they had partners who reported low levels of negative emotions. This research has implications for researchers and clinicians interested in addressing the problem of IPV. Aggr. Behav. 43:329-341, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of an Integrated Science and Societal Implication Intervention on Promoting Adolescents' Positive Thinking and Emotional Perceptions in Learning Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hong, Zuway R.; Lin, Huann-Shyang; Lawrenz, Frances P.

2012-01-01

The goal of this study was to test the effectiveness of integrating science and societal implication on adolescents' positive thinking and emotional perceptions about learning science. Twenty-five eighth-grade Taiwanese adolescents (9 boys and 16 girls) volunteered to participate in a 12-week intervention and formed the experimental group.…

Cognitive avoidance of intrusive memories: recall vantage perspective and associations with depression.

PubMed

Williams, Alishia D; Moulds, Michelle L

2007-06-01

Although recent research demonstrates that intrusive memories represent an overlapping cognitive feature of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there is still a general paucity of research investigating the prevalence and maintenance of intrusive memories in depression. The current study investigated the association between a range of cognitive avoidant mechanisms that characterize PTSD samples (i.e., suppression, rumination, emotional detachment, and an observer vantage perspective) and intrusive memories of negative autobiographical events in relation to dysphoria. Hypotheses were based on the proposition that employment of these cognitive mechanisms would hinder the emotional processing of the negative event, thus contributing to the maintenance of intrusions. Results supported an association between negative intrusive memories, dysphoria, and avoidant mechanisms. Significant differences were also found between field and observer memories and measures of emotional detachment and rumination. Implications relating to intrusive memory maintenance and treatment approaches are discussed.

Longitudinal Pathways between Political Violence and Child Adjustment: The Role of Emotional Security about the Community in Northern Ireland

PubMed Central

Cummings, E. Mark; Merrilees, Christine E.; Schermerhorn, Alice C.; Goeke-Morey, Marcie C.; Shirlow, Peter; Cairns, Ed

2013-01-01

Links between political violence and children’s adjustment problems are well-documented. However, the mechanisms by which political tension and sectarian violence relate to children’s well-being and development are little understood. This study longitudinally examined children’s emotional security about community violence as a possible regulatory process in relations between community discord and children’s adjustment problems. Families were selected from 18 working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Participants (695 mothers and children, M=12.17, SD=1.82) were interviewed in their homes over three consecutive years. Findings supported the notion that politically-motivated community violence has distinctive effects on children’s externalizing and internalizing problems through the mechanism of increasing children’s emotional insecurity about community. Implications are considered for understanding relations between political violence and child adjustment from a social ecological perspective. PMID:20838875

Aligning Research and Policy on Social-Emotional and Academic Competence for Young Children

PubMed Central

Nadeem, Erum; Maslak, Kristi; Chacko, Anil; Hoagwood, Kimberly Eaton

2014-01-01

Research Findings The purpose of this article is to describe current education policies as they relate to the promotion of social, emotional, and academic (SEA) development and competence for young children. Academic and social–emotional competencies are described and conceptualized as developmentally linked, reciprocal processes that should be supported by education in an integrated, holistic manner. Practice or Policy The article reviews major public policies and national initiatives that have implications for the education of young children (e.g., Head Start, No Child Left Behind, IDEA) and highlights opportunities within these policies to promote programs that can support SEA competencies, as well as the limitations of these policies. The article also includes a review of the limitations of existing resources available to educators to identify evidence-based programs that support SEA competencies and concludes with recommendations for better alignment between research and policy to support SEA competencies. PMID:25632216

Uplifting Fear Appeals: Considering the Role of Hope in Fear-Based Persuasive Messages.

PubMed

Nabi, Robin L; Myrick, Jessica Gall

2018-01-09

Fear appeal research has focused, understandably, on fear as the primary emotion motivating attitude and behavior change. However, while the threat component of fear appeals associates with fear responses, a fear appeals' efficacy component likely associates with a different emotional experience: hope. Drawing from appraisal theories of emotion in particular, this article theorizes about the role of hope in fear appeals, testing hypotheses with two existing data sets collected within the context of sun safety messages. In both studies, significant interactions between hope and self-efficacy emerged to predict behavioral intentions. Notable main effects for hope also emerged, though with less consistency. Further, these effects persisted despite controlling for the four cognitions typically considered central to fear appeal effectiveness. These results, consistent across two samples, support the claim that feelings of hope in response to fear appeals contribute to their persuasive success. Implications for developing a recursive model of fear appeal processing are discussed.

Individual differences in emotional memory: adult attachment and long-term memory for child sexual abuse.

PubMed

Edelstein, Robin S; Ghetti, Simona; Quas, Jodi A; Goodman, Gail S; Alexander, Kristen Weede; Redlich, Allison D; Cordón, Ingrid M

2005-11-01

In the present study, attachment-related differences in long-term memory for a highly emotional life event, child sexual abuse (CSA), were investigated. Participants were 102 documented CSA victims whose cases were referred for prosecution approximately 14 years earlier. Consistent with the proposal that avoidant individuals defensively regulate the processing of potentially distressing information (Bowlby, 1980), attachment avoidance was negatively associated with memory for particularly severe CSA incidents. This finding was not mediated by the extent to which participants reported talking about the abuse after it occurred, although post abuse discussion did enhance long-term memory. In addition, accuracy was positively associated with maternal support following the abuse and extent of CSA-related legal involvement. Attachment anxiety was unrelated to memory accuracy, regardless of abuse severity. Implications of the findings for theories of avoidant defensive strategies and emotional memory are discussed.

Interpersonal Effects of Suffering in Older Adult Caregiving Relationships

PubMed Central

Monin, Joan K.; Schulz, Richard

2009-01-01

Examining the interpersonal effects of suffering in the context of family caregiving is an important step to a broader understanding of how exposure to suffering affects humans. In this review article, we first describe existing evidence that being exposed to the suffering of a care recipient (conceptualized as psychological distress, physical symptoms, and existential/spiritual distress) directly influences caregivers’ emotional experiences. Drawing from past theory and research, we propose that caregivers experience similar, complementary, and/or defensive emotions in response to care recipient suffering through mechanisms such as cognitive empathy, mimicry, and conditioned learning, placing caregivers at risk for psychological and physical morbidity. We then describe how gender, relationship closeness, caregiving efficacy, and individual differences in emotion regulation moderate these processes. Finally, we provide directions for future research to deepen our understanding of interpersonal phenomena among older adults, and we discuss implications for clinical interventions to alleviate the suffering of both caregivers and care recipients. PMID:19739924

Distinct neural systems underlying reduced emotional enhancement for positive and negative stimuli in early Alzheimer's disease

PubMed Central

Mistridis, Panagiota; Taylor, Kirsten I.; Kissler, Johanna M.; Monsch, Andreas U.; Kressig, Reto W.; Kivisaari, Sasa L.

2014-01-01

Emotional information is typically better remembered than neutral content, and previous studies suggest that this effect is subserved particularly by the amygdala together with its interactions with the hippocampus. However, it is not known whether amygdala damage affects emotional memory performance at immediate and delayed recall, and whether its involvement is modulated by stimulus valence. Moreover, it is unclear to what extent more distributed neocortical regions involved in e.g., autobiographical memory, also contribute to emotional processing. We investigated these questions in a group of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), which affects the amygdala, hippocampus and neocortical regions. Healthy controls (n = 14), patients with AD (n = 15) and its putative prodrome amnestic mild cognitive impairment (n = 11) completed a memory task consisting of immediate and delayed free recall of a list of positive, negative and neutral words. Memory performance was related to brain integrity in region of interest and whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analyses. In the brain-behavioral analyses, the left amygdala volume predicted the immediate recall of both positive and negative material, whereas at delay, left and right amygdala volumes were associated with performance with positive and negative words, respectively. Whole-brain analyses revealed additional associations between left angular gyrus integrity and the immediate recall of positive words as well as between the orbitofrontal cortex and the delayed recall of negative words. These results indicate that emotional memory impairments in AD may be underpinned by damage to regions implicated in emotional processing as well as frontoparietal regions, which may exert their influence via autobiographical memories and organizational strategies. PMID:24478669

The Cognitive Side of M1

PubMed Central

Tomasino, Barbara; Gremese, Michele

2016-01-01

The primary motor cortex (M1) is traditionally implicated in voluntary movement control. In order to test the hypothesis that there is a functional topography of M1 activation in studies where it has been implicated in higher cognitive tasks we performed activation-likelihood-estimation (ALE) meta-analyses of functional neuroimaging experiments reporting M1 activation in relation to six cognitive functional categories for which there was a sufficient number of studies to include, namely motor imagery, working memory, mental rotation, social/emotion/empathy, language, and auditory processing. The six categories activated different sub-sectors of M1, either bilaterally or lateralized to one hemisphere. Notably, the activations found in the M1 of the left or right hemisphere detected in our study were unlikely due to button presses. In fact, all contrasts were selected in order to eliminate M1 activation due to activity related to the finger button press. In addition, we identified the M1 sub-region of Area 4a commonly activated by 4/6 categories, namely motor imagery and working memory, emotion/empathy, and language. Overall, our findings lend support to the idea that there is a functional topography of M1 activation in studies where it has been found activated in higher cognitive tasks and that the left Area 4a can be involved in a number of cognitive processes, likely as a product of implicit mental simulation processing. PMID:27378891

The Role of Teacher Emotions in Change: Experiences, Patterns and Implications for Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saunders, Rebecca

2013-01-01

Research literature in the field of teacher emotions and change broadly accepts that behaviour and cognition are inseparable from perception and emotion. Despite this, educational reform efforts tend to focus predominantly on changing individual behaviours and beliefs and largely neglect or at best pay token attention to the emotional dimensions…