1
|
Adamczyk AK, Wyczesany M, Roelofs K, van Peer JM. Reappraisal is less effective than distraction in downregulation of neural responses to physical threats-An event-related potential investigation. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14316. [PMID: 37162260 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2022] [Revised: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Evolutionary threats (ETs), such as predatory animals and heights, elicit stronger fear responses and are more often the subject of specific phobias, as compared to modern threats (MTs, such as guns and motorcycles). Since processing of ET depends on lower-order, phylogenetically conserved neural fear circuits, it may be less susceptible to higher-order (vs. simpler) cognitive emotion regulation. Given the relevance for treatment of specific phobias, we tested this hypothesis in an ERP study. Sixty-one female participants passively watched high- and low-threat pictures of evolutionary (snakes, lizards) and modern (guns, water-guns) origin, and downregulated responses to the high-threat pictures (snakes and guns) using either cognitive reappraisal or a simpler cognitive distraction strategy. ET elicited stronger early (EPN) and sustained (LPP) attention processing compared to MT. Both strategies successfully downregulated subjective and LPP (but not EPN) responses compared to passive watching. Although reappraisal was more effective subjectively, distraction downregulated the LPP earlier and stronger than reappraisal, irrespective of the threat type. These findings provide novel evidence that neural responses to physical threat might be less susceptible to cognitive emotion regulation via higher-order (reappraisal) versus simpler (distraction) strategies, irrespective of the evolutionary or modern relevance of threat. Combining both strategies could be beneficial for the emotion regulation-enhancing interventions for specific phobias. Distraction could be used during initial exposure, to reduce immediate emotion responding and help endure the contact with the feared stimulus, whereas reappraisal could be used subsequently, when emotions are less intense, to change maladaptive thoughts about the stimulus for future encounters.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka K Adamczyk
- Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Psychophysiology Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Miroslaw Wyczesany
- Psychophysiology Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Karin Roelofs
- Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Affective Neuroscience, Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Jacobien M van Peer
- Experimental Psychopathology and Treatment, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Yuan Y, Liu J, Wu Z, Zhou G, Sommer W, Yue Z. Does Eye Gaze Uniquely Trigger Spatial Orienting to Socially Relevant Information? A Behavioral and ERP Study. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12091133. [PMID: 36138869 PMCID: PMC9497197 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12091133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2022] [Revised: 08/16/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Using behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures, the present study examined whether eye gaze triggers a unique form of attentional orienting toward threat-relevant targets. A threatening or neutral target was presented after a non-predictive gaze or an arrow cue. In Experiment 1, reaction times indicated that eye gaze and arrow cues triggered different attention orienting towards threatening targets, which was confirmed by target-elicited P3b latency in Experiment 2. Specifically, for targets preceded by arrow and gaze cues, P3b peak latency was shorter for neutral targets than threatening targets. However, the latency differences were significantly smaller for gaze cues than for arrow cues. Moreover, target-elicited N2 amplitude indicated a significantly stronger cue validity effect of eye gaze than that of arrows. These findings suggest that eye gaze uniquely triggers spatial attention orienting to socially threatening information.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yichen Yuan
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Jinqun Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Zehua Wu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Guomei Zhou
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Werner Sommer
- Institut für Psychologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China
- Correspondence: (W.S.); (Z.Y.)
| | - Zhenzhu Yue
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China
- Correspondence: (W.S.); (Z.Y.)
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Kleine-Borgmann J, Schmidt K, Scharmach K, Zunhammer M, Elsenbruch S, Bingel U, Forkmann K. Does pain modality play a role in the interruptive function of acute visceral compared with somatic pain? Pain 2022; 163:735-744. [PMID: 34338242 PMCID: PMC8929302 DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Revised: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
ABSTRACT Acute pain captures attentional resources and interferes with ongoing cognitive processes, including memory encoding. Despite broad clinical implications of this interruptive function of pain for the pathophysiology and treatment of chronic pain conditions, existing knowledge exclusively relies on studies using somatic pain models. Visceral pain is highly prevalent and seems to be more salient and threatening, suggesting that the interruptive function of pain may be higher in acute visceral compared with somatic pain. Implementing rectal distensions as a clinically relevant experimental model of visceral pain along with thermal cutaneous pain for the somatic modality, we herein examined the impact of pain modality on visual processing and memory performance in a visual encoding and recognition task and explored the modulatory role of pain-related fear and expectation in 30 healthy participants. Despite careful and dynamically adjusted matching of stimulus intensities to perceived pain unpleasantness over the course of trials, we observed greater impairment of cognition performance for the visceral modality with a medium effect size. Task performance was not modulated by expectations or by pain-related fear. Hence, even at matched unpleasantness levels, acute visceral pain is capable of interfering with memory encoding, and this impact seems to be relatively independent of pain-related cognitions or emotions, at least in healthy individuals. These results likely underestimate the detrimental effect of chronic pain on cognitive performance, which may be particularly pronounced in acute and chronic visceral pain.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Julian Kleine-Borgmann
- Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Neurology, University Medicine Essen, Germany
- Translational Pain Research Unit, University Medicine Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Katharina Schmidt
- Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Neurology, University Medicine Essen, Germany
- Translational Pain Research Unit, University Medicine Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Katrin Scharmach
- Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Neurology, University Medicine Essen, Germany
| | - Matthias Zunhammer
- Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Neurology, University Medicine Essen, Germany
| | - Sigrid Elsenbruch
- Translational Pain Research Unit, University Medicine Essen, Essen, Germany
- Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Ulrike Bingel
- Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Neurology, University Medicine Essen, Germany
- Translational Pain Research Unit, University Medicine Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Katarina Forkmann
- Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Neurology, University Medicine Essen, Germany
- Translational Pain Research Unit, University Medicine Essen, Essen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Wang X, Jin J, Liu W, Liu Z, Yin T. Emotional processing of sadness and disgust evoked by disaster scenes. Brain Behav 2021; 11:e2421. [PMID: 34807520 PMCID: PMC8671793 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2020] [Revised: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Disaster scenes produce long-term negative feelings in those who experience them. Previous studies have focused on mitigating disaster impacts through directed forgetting or conscious suppression. However, the initial emotional processing of disaster scenes is not fully understood, hindering the comprehension of long-term disaster impacts. This study aims to investigate how pictures of disaster scenes evoking disgust and sadness are processed via cortical electrical activity. METHODS Pictures of grief and mutilation from disasters were used to evoke sadness and disgust, respectively. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to quantify the intensity and time-course of emotional processing. RESULTS The information processing of emotional pictures was stronger than neutral pictures, represented by greater declines of alpha ERD. In the posterior ERP components of N1 and EPN, amplitudes for emotional pictures were larger than those for neutral pictures, which reflected the effects of arousal on visual perception. In the anterior ERP components of P2, P3, and LPP, disgust pictures showed higher attention attraction and enhanced encoding memory processing. CONCLUSIONS Disgust disaster scenarios induced long-term prominent LPP, which may correspond with the long-term negative impacts of the disaster.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xin Wang
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China
| | - Jingna Jin
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China
| | - Wenbo Liu
- Sinovation (Beijing) Medical Technology Co., Ltd
| | - Zhipeng Liu
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China
| | - Tao Yin
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China.,Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Miller RK, Martin FH. Dynamic versus static indicators of threat: N2 and LPC modulation index attack intent and biological relevance during an affective Flanker task. Int J Psychophysiol 2020; 158:158-171. [PMID: 33075433 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2020] [Revised: 08/02/2020] [Accepted: 08/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Biological relevance may influence the neural response towards images which depict attack intent. In the present study, images featuring reptiles and firearms were employed as target and flanking stimuli in a modified version of the affective Flanker task. Forty-two participants (21 male) completed the modified Flanker task as EEG was recorded. Congruency effects in reaction times were more consistently observed for arrays with firearm targets than for arrays with reptile targets. Arrays with neutral targets (i.e., water pistols, turtles) evoked more negative mean N2 (250-400 ms) amplitudes than those with attack targets (i.e., attacking snakes, aimed handguns), while arrays with aimed handgun targets elicited more positive mean activity for the late positive component (LPC; 450-650 ms) compared to arrays with water pistol or reptile targets. Congruency effects were also found in N2 activity for arrays with firearm targets and reptile Flankers. In addition, LPC amplitude for incongruent arrays with attack targets and neutral Flankers was reduced compared to congruent attack arrays. These findings suggest that biological relevance influences interference processing (the N2) and intersects with attack intent during the later stages of picture processing (the LPC).
Collapse
|