Core, social and moral disgust are bounded: A review on behavioral and neural bases of repugnance in clinical disorders

Are older adults less generous? Age differences in emotion-related social decision making

In social interaction, age-related differences in emotional processing may lead to varied social decision making between young and older adults. However, previous studies of social decision making have paid less attention to the interactants' emotions, leaving age differences and underlying neural mechanisms unexplored. To address this gap, the present study combined functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, employing a modified dictator game task with recipients displaying either neutral or sad facial expressions. Behavioral results indicated that although older adults' overall allocations did not differ significantly from those of young adults, older adults' allocations showing a decrease in emotion-related generosity compared to young adults. Using representational similarity analysis, we found that older adults showed reduced neural representations of recipients' emotions and gray matter volume in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (ACC), right insula, and left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) compared to young adults. More importantly, mediation analyses indicated that age influenced allocations not only through serial mediation of neural representations of the right insula and left DMPFC, but also through serial mediation of the mean gray matter volume of the right ACC and left DMPFC. This study identifies the potential neural pathways through which age affects emotion-related social decision making, advancing our understanding of older adults' social interaction behavior that they may not be less generous unless confronted with individuals with specific emotions.

A neurofunctional signature of subjective disgust generalizes to oral distaste and socio-moral contexts

While disgust originates in the hard-wired mammalian distaste response, the conscious experience of disgust in humans strongly depends on subjective appraisal and may even extend to socio-moral contexts. Here, in a series of studies, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging with machine-learning-based predictive modelling to establish a comprehensive neurobiological model of subjective disgust. The developed neurofunctional signature accurately predicted momentary self-reported subjective disgust across discovery (n = 78) and pre-registered validation (n = 30) cohorts and generalized across core disgust (n = 34 and n = 26), gustatory distaste (n = 30) and socio-moral (unfair offers; n = 43) contexts. Disgust experience was encoded in distributed cortical and subcortical systems, and exhibited distinct and shared neural representations with subjective fear or negative affect in interoceptive-emotional awareness and conscious appraisal systems, while the signatures most accurately predicted the respective target experience. We provide an accurate functional magnetic resonance imaging signature for disgust with a high potential to resolve ongoing evolutionary debates.

Activation Likelihood Estimation Neuroimaging Meta-Analysis: a Powerful Tool for Emotion Research

Over the past two decades, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the primary tool for exploring neural correlates of emotion. To enhance the reliability of results in understanding the complex nature of emotional experiences, researchers combine findings from multiple fMRI studies using coordinate-based meta-analysis (CBMA). As one of the most widely employed CBMA methods worldwide, activation likelihood estimation (ALE) is of great importance in affective neuroscience and neuropsychology. This comprehensive review provides an introductory guide for implementing the ALE method in emotion research, outlining the experimental steps involved. By presenting a case study about the emotion of disgust, with regard to both its core and social processing, we offer insightful commentary as to how ALE can enable researchers to produce consistent results and, consequently, fruitfully investigate the neural mechanisms underpinning emotions, facilitating further progress in this field.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Treating Fear of Contamination Disorders: A Systematic Review of Healthy and Clinical Populations

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET), particularly immersive Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (iVRET), has gained attraction as an innovative approach in exposure therapy (ET), notably for some anxiety disorders with a fear of contamination component, such as spider phobia (SP) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This systematic work investigates iVRET's effectiveness in modulating disgust emotion-a shared aberrant feature across these disorders. Recent reviews have evaluated VRET's efficacy against in vivo ET. However, emerging evidence also highlights iVRET's potential in diminishing atypical disgust and related avoidance behaviors, expanding beyond traditional fear-focused outcomes. Our systematic synthesis, adhering to PRISMA guidelines, aims to fill this gap by assessing iVRET's efficacy in regulating disgust emotion within both clinical and at-risk populations, identified through standardized questionnaires and subjective disgust ratings. This research analyzes data from eight studies on clinical populations and five on healthy populations, offering an insight into iVRET's potential to mitigate the aberrant disgust response, a common transdiagnostic feature in varied psychopathologies. The findings support iVRET's clinical relevance in disgust management, providing evidence for a broader therapeutic application of iVRET and pointing out the need for more focused and complete investigations in this emergent field.

The avBNSTGABA-VTA and avBNSTGABA-DRN pathways are respectively involved in the regulation of anxiety-like behaviors in parkinsonian rats

The anteroventral bed nucleus of stria terminalis (avBNST) is a key brain region which involves negative emotional states, such as anxiety. The most neurons in the avBNST are GABAergic, and it sends GABAergic projections to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), respectively. The VTA and DRN contain dopaminergic and serotonergic cell groups in the midbrain which regulate anxiety-like behaviors. However, it is unclear the role of GABAergic projections from the avBNST to the VTA and the DRN in the regulation of anxiety-like behaviors, particularly in Parkinson's disease (PD)-related anxiety. In the present study, unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions of the substantia nigra pars compacta in rats induced anxiety-like behaviors, and decreased level of dopamine (DA) in the basolateral amygdala (BLA). Chemogenetic activation of avBNSTGABA-VTA or avBNSTGABA-DRN pathway induced anxiety-like behaviors and decreased DA or 5-HT release in the BLA in sham and 6-OHDA rats, while inhibition of avBNSTGABA-VTA or avBNSTGABA-DRN pathway produced anxiolytic-like effects and increased level of DA or 5-HT in the BLA. These findings suggest that avBNST inhibitory projections directly regulate dopaminergic neurons in the VTA and serotonergic neurons in the DRN, and the avBNSTGABA-VTA and avBNSTGABA-DRN pathways respectively exert impacts on PD-related anxiety-like behaviors.

Important roles of linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid in regulating cognitive impairment and neuropsychiatric issues in metabolic-related dementia

Metabolic syndrome (MetS), which is characterized by insulin resistance, high blood glucose, obesity, and dyslipidemia, is known to increase the risk of dementia accompanied by memory loss and depression. The direct pathways and specific mechanisms in the central nervous system (CNS) for addressing fatty acid imbalances in MetS have not yet been fully elucidated. Among polyunsaturated acids, linoleic acid (LA, n6-PUFA) and α-linolenic acid (ALA, n3-PUFA), which are two essential fatty acids that should be provided by food sources (e.g., vegetable oils and seeds), have been reported to regulate various cellular mechanisms including apoptosis, inflammatory responses, mitochondrial biogenesis, and insulin signaling. Furthermore, inadequate intake of LA and ALA is reported to be involved in neuropathology and neuropsychiatric diseases as well as imbalanced metabolic conditions. Herein, we review the roles of LA and ALA on metabolic-related dementia focusing on insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, synaptic plasticity, cognitive function, and neuropsychiatric issues. This review suggests that LA and ALA are important fatty acids for concurrent treatment of both MetS and neurological problems.

Social cognition in hyperkinetic movement disorders: a systematic review

Numerous lines of research indicate that our social brain involves a network of cortical and subcortical brain regions that are responsible for sensing and controlling body movements. However, it remains unclear whether movement disorders have a systematic impact on social cognition. To address this question, we conducted a systematic review examining the influence of hyperkinetic movement disorders (including Huntington disease, Tourette syndrome, dystonia, and essential tremor) on social cognition. Following the PRISMA guidelines and registering the protocol in the PROSPERO database (CRD42022327459), we analyzed 50 published studies focusing on theory of mind (ToM), social perception, and empathy. The results from these studies provide evidence of impairments in ToM and social perception in all hyperkinetic movement disorders, particularly during the recognition of negative emotions. Additionally, individuals with Huntington's Disease and Tourette syndrome exhibit empathy disorders. These findings support the functional role of subcortical structures (such as the basal ganglia and cerebellum), which are primarily responsible for movement disorders, in deficits related to social cognition.

Interoceptive and Affective Alterations in Body Integrity Dysphoria: An Online Self-Reporting Study

INTRODUCTION

Body integrity dysphoria (BID) is a rare condition in which individuals experience a long-lasting desire to achieve a specific physical disability. In this study, we tested the hypothesis of interoceptive and affective abnormalities in BID, in line with the evidence of structural and functional alteration of the interoceptive-affective neural system in these individuals.

METHOD

Our study involved 68 participants with BID (mean age: 35.6, SD: 16.4). Among these participants, 47 expressed a desire for amputation, 14 desired paralysis, 3 sought sensory deprivation, and 3 desired a combination of these forms. For comparisons, we recruited a control group of 79 participants (mean age: 35.2, SD: 15.8). We administered assessment measures to investigate alexithymia level (TAS-20), disgust sensitivity (DS-R), interoceptive awareness (MAIA-2), and (affective and cognitive) empathy (QCAE). We also administered the Short Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE) to identify psychiatric comorbidities. Subgroups with low O-LIFE scores (BID = 31; controls = 43) and subgroups with high O-LIFE scores (BID = 37; controls = 36) were derived through a median-split procedure.

RESULTS

Within the BID low O-LIFE group, we found reduced interoceptive sensibility, reduced disgust sensitivity, and increased difficulty in identifying feelings, which refers to a dimension of the alexithymia trait. Within the BID high O-LIFE group, we observed a reduced disgust sensitivity and interoceptive sensibility, accompanied by a diminished score in cognitive empathy.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that BID can be associated with altered interoceptive and affective processing.

Disgust Processing and Potential Relationships with Behaviors in Autism

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

While there are reports of differences in emotion processing in autism, it is less understood whether the emotion of disgust, in particular, plays a significant role in these effects. Here, we review literature on potential disgust processing differences in autism and its possible associations with autistic traits.

RECENT FINDINGS

In autism, there is evidence for differences in physical disgust processing, pica behaviors, attention away from other's disgust facial expressions, and differences in neural activity related to disgust processing. In typically developing individuals, disgust processing is related to moral processing, but modulated by individual differences in interoception and alexithymia. Autistic individuals may experience atypical disgust, which may lead to difficulty avoiding contaminants and affect socio-emotional processing. In autism, such outcomes may lead to increased occurrences of illness, contribute to gastrointestinal issues, diminish vicarious learning of disgust expression and behaviors, and potentially contribute to differences in processes related to moral reasoning, though further research is needed.

Little Evidence for the Role of Disgust Sensitivity in Implicit Disgust to Images of White People Engaged in Injecting Drug Use (IDU)

Background: Previous research has shown that People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) are subject to public stigma, which affects access to, and provision and quality of, treatment and support services. Less is known about the socio-cognitive processes that support the development and maintenance of public stigma toward PWID. The present study investigated the role of disgust sensitivity in implicit disgust to injecting drug use. Methods: 126 participants took part in an online Implicit Association Task (IAT) measuring implicit disgust to pictorial stimuli of injecting drug use or medical injecting. Participants also completed The Disgust Scale Revised, Injecting Phobia Scale (Short Form), Attitudes to People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) scale and a substance use inventory. Results: Average IAT score was negative indicating significantly higher implicit disgust to injecting drug use. Hierarchical linear regression found that injecting phobia predicted implicit disgust to injecting drug use. Questionnaire measures of disgust did not predict implicit disgust. While animal reminder disgust and injecting phobia were significantly correlated with each other, animal reminder disgust did not predict implicit disgust scores. Conclusions: On the basis of our findings, stigma toward PWID may not be a result of feelings of disgust toward injecting drug use. We discuss findings in the context of the underlying cortical processes supporting implicit and explicit representations of disgust. Future research should seek to investigate neurophysiological evidence for disgust to and stigmatization of injecting drug use and the potential role of domains of disgust in this.

The Role of Serotonin in Fear Learning and Memory: A Systematic Review of Human Studies

Fear is characterized by distinct behavioral and physiological responses that are essential for the survival of the human species. Fear conditioning (FC) serves as a valuable model for studying the acquisition, extinction, and expression of fear. The serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) system is known to play a significant role in emotional and motivational aspects of human behavior, including fear learning and expression. Accumulating evidence from both animal and human studies suggests that brain regions involved in FC, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex, possess a high density of 5-HT receptors, implicating the crucial involvement of serotonin in aversive learning. Additionally, studies exploring serotonin gene polymorphisms have indicated their potential influence on FC. Therefore, the objective of this work was to review the existing evidence linking 5-HT with fear learning and memory in humans. Through a comprehensive screening of the PubMed and Web of Science databases, 29 relevant studies were included in the final review. These studies investigated the relationship between serotonin and fear learning using drug manipulations or by studying 5-HT-related gene polymorphisms. The results suggest that elevated levels of 5-HT enhance aversive learning, indicating that the modulation of serotonin 5-HT2A receptors regulates the expression of fear responses in humans. Understanding the role of this neurochemical messenger in associative aversive learning can provide insights into psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among others.

Gut-Brain Interaction Disorders and Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathological Asset, Disgust, and Gastrointestinal Symptoms

BACKGROUND

Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are very common in subjects with eating disorders (EDs). This study aimed to (a) investigate the prevalence of gut-brain interaction disorders (DGBIs) in anorexia nervosa (AN) patients, according to ROME IV criteria; and (b) explore AN psychopathological assets and disgust that might impact GI symptoms.

METHODS

Thirty-eight female patients consecutively diagnosed with untreated AN (age 19.32 ± 5.59) in an outpatient clinic devoted to EDs underwent Eating Disorder Inventory-3 (EDI-3), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Social Phobia Anxiety Scale (SPAS), Body Uneasiness Test (BUT), and Disgust Scale (DS) questionnaires. The presence of DGBIs was evaluated and GI symptoms were assessed using a standardized intensity-frequency questionnaire.

RESULTS

A total of 94.7% of our sample met the diagnostic criteria for functional dyspepsia (FD), of which 88.8% presented the postprandial distress syndrome (PDS) subtype and 41.6% presented the epigastric pain syndrome (EPS) subtype. In addition, 52.6% of the sample met the diagnostic criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), while for functional constipation (FC), prevalence reached 7.9%. All participants presented a pathological score on the disgust scale. Significant correlations were found between several GI symptoms and psychopathological asset and disgust.

CONCLUSIONS

AN is a multifactorial disorder. It is necessary to implement studies with an integrated approach, taking into account DGBIs, as well as to monitor the emotional-cognitive structure that acts as a factor in maintaining the disorder.

Evidence of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia

Evidence suggests that incidental modulation of affective states affects the ability to keep track of time. Alexithymia represents an ideal condition to further address the emotion-time processing link, as it refers to a trait characterized by a deficit of affective processing. 31 healthy participants completed an online version of the TAS-20 scale, which measures alexithymia, and a time reproduction task of visual stimuli related to positive (i.e., happiness) and negative (i.e., anger) facial expressions. Results documented a positive correlation between TAS-20 score and the variability in reproducing sub-second durations of the anger expression stimuli We also found an overestimation of sub-second durations of non-affective expressions in borderline/alexithymic participants. Finally, in line with the literature, we confirmed the overall tendency to overestimate the duration of anger expression stimuli. These findings, which can be interpreted in terms of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia, expand previous investigations linking this personality trait with abnormal processing of negative emotions. The evidence that alexithymia predicts the reproduction variability of sub-second durations of negative affective stimuli corroborates previous neuroimaging studies documenting cerebellar deficits in these individuals.

Individual differences in harm-related moral values are associated with functional integration of large-scale brain networks of emotional regulation

Emotions affects moral judgements, and controlled cognitive processes regulate those emotional responses during moral decision making. However, the neurobiological basis of this interaction is unclear. We used a graph theory measurement called participation coefficient ('PC') to quantify the resting-state functional connectivity within and between four meta-analytic groupings (MAGs) associated with emotion generation and regulation, to test whether that measurement predicts individual differences in moral foundations-based values. We found that the PC of one of the MAGs (MAG2) was positively correlated with one of the five recognized moral foundations-the one based on harm avoidance. We also found that increased inter-module connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and middle temporal gyrus with other nodes in the four MAGs was likewise associated with higher endorsement of the Harm foundation. These results suggest that individuals' sensitivity to harm is associated with functional integration of large-scale brain networks of emotional regulation. These findings add to our knowledge of how individual variations in our moral values could be reflected by intrinsic brain network organization and deepen our understanding of the relationship between emotion and cognition during evaluations of moral values.

Exploring the role of the self in disgust-related psychopathologies

While clinical research on disgust relies on nonclinical research, the framework of disgust as an immune mechanism is not as central in clinical research. The immune framework for disgust may be integrated into clinical research by acknowledging the role of the self as the critical element protected by the immune system. In this review, we offer the premise that at the center of all disgust-related behaviors, thoughts, and cognitions is an attempt to protect the self (i.e., "disgust is self-centered" or DISC). We offer evidence in support of DISC and explore the relevance of DISC to clinical research for several disgust-related psychopathologies (obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, anorexia nervosa, and self-disgust). We then offer future directions for DISC research into disgust-related psychopathologies.

Disgust as a transdiagnostic index of mental illness: A narrative review of clinical populations

Disgust is a basic emotion of rejection, providing an ancestral defensive mechanism against illness. Based on research that documents altered experiences of disgust across several psychopathological conditions, we conducted a narrative review to address the hypothesis that altered disgust may serve as a transdiagnostic index of mental illness. Our synthesis of the literature from past decades suggests that, compared to healthy populations, patients with mental disorders exhibit abnormal processing of disgust in at least one of the analyzed dimensions. We also outline evidence of alterations in brain areas relevant to disgust processing, such as the insula and the interconnected limbic network. Overall, we provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that altered disgust processing may serve as a transdiagnostic index of mental illness.

Emotional working memory training improves cognitive inhibitory abilities in individuals with borderline personality trait: A randomized parallel-group trial

BACKGROUND

Cognitive inhibition impairment is one of the causes of impulsive behaviors in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study aimed to investigate the effect of emotional working memory training (EWMT) on cognitive inhibition in individuals with a clinically significant borderline personality trait.

METHODS

In a randomized, parallel-group trial, 40 individuals with borderline personality trait, were selected out of 1000 screened individuals and were randomly assigned to the experimental (N = 20) and waiting-list control (N = 20) groups based on the score on the Borderline Personality Scale and the follow-up Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders. The experimental group underwent 10 sessions of EWMT and the control group did not receive any intervention (waiting list). Participants completed the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) and Go/No-Go task Before and after the intervention.

RESULTS

EWMT significantly reduced reaction time of incongruent trials in the SCWT and commission errors in the Go/No-Go task after the intervention only in the experimental group. Furthermore, the interference score in SCWT and commission error rate at the post-intervention time were significantly lower for the experimental vs the waitlist group.

LIMITATIONS

The single-blind design and absence of follow-up measures.

CONCLUSIONS

EWMT can improve cognitive inhibition in individuals with borderline personality trait and could be used for therapeutic purposes of impulsivity behavior in BPD.

Effects of emotional valence and intensity on cognitive and affective empathy after insula lesions

The insula plays a central role in empathy. However, the complex structure of cognitive (CE) and affective empathy (AE) deficits following insular damage is not fully understood. In the present study, patients with insular lesions (n = 20) and demographically matched healthy controls (n = 24) viewed ecologically valid videos that varied in terms of valence and emotional intensity. The videos showed a person (target) narrating a personal life event. In CE conditions, subjects continuously rated the affective state of the target, while in AE conditions, they continuously rated their own affect. Mean squared error (MSE) assessed deviations between subject and target ratings. Patients differed from controls only in negative, low-intensity AE, rating their own affective state less negative than the target. This deficit was not related to trait empathy, neuropsychological or clinical parameters, or laterality of lesion. Empathic functions may be widely spared after insular damage in a naturalistic, dynamic setting, potentially due to the intact interpretation of social context by residual networks outside the lesion. The particular role of the insula in AE for negative states may evolve specifically in situations that bear higher uncertainty pointing to a threshold role of the insula in online ratings of AE.

Enhanced fear acquisition in individuals with evening chronotype. A virtual reality fear conditioning/extinction study

Circadian rhythms have received increasing attention within the context of mental disorders. Evening chronotype has been associated with enhanced risk to develop anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The classical fear conditioning paradigm is a powerful tool to reveal key mechanisms of anxiety and PTSD. We used this paradigm to study the neurocognitive basis of the association between chronotype and fear responses in healthy humans. 20 participants with evening chronotype and 20 controls (i.e., intermediate chronotype) completed a 2-day Pavlovian fear learning and extinction virtual reality task. Participants received fear conditioning, and extinction learning on day 1. Extinction memory recall was tested on day 2. To address interactions between chronotype and time of day of the fear conditioning, and extinction performance, half of the participants were tested in the morning, and the other half in the evening. Skin conductance response (SCR) and subjective fear ratings were measured as primary outcomes. Chronotype was established via the morningness-eveningness questionnaire (MEQ). We found an overall higher SCR for fear acquisition in participants with the evening chronotype profile, compared to controls. Moreover, the higher the MEQ scores -indicative of less eveningness - the lower the SCR was. No effects of chronotype were found for extinction and extinction recall. The higher vulnerability of the evening chronotype for anxiety and related disorders may thus be explained by enhanced fear acquisition of this group.

Effects of Core Disgust and Moral Disgust on Moral Judgment: An Event-Related Potential Study

Core disgust is elicited by physical or chemical stimuli, while moral disgust is evoked by abstract violations of moral norms. Although previous studies have pointed out these two types of disgust can affect behavior and spatial dimensions of moral judgment, less is known about how moral and core disgust affect the temporal neural processing of moral judgment. In addition, whether moral and core disgust are only related to purity-based moral judgment or all kinds of moral judgment is still controversial. This study aimed to explore how core and moral disgust affect the neural processing of purity-based moral judgment by using affective priming and moral judgment tasks. The behavioral results showed that the severity of moral violation of non-purity ones is higher than purity ones. The event-related potentials (ERP) results mainly revealed that earlier P2 and N2 components, which represent the automatic moral processes, can differentiate neutral and two types of disgust rather than differentiating moral domain, while the later N450, frontal, and parietal LPP components, which represent the conflict detection and, later, cognitive processing can differentiate the purity and non-purity ones rather than differentiating priming type. Moreover, core and moral disgust priming mainly differed in the purity-based moral processing indexed by parietal LPP. Our findings confirmed that the disgusting effect on moral judgments can be explained within the framework of dual-process and social intuitionist models, suggesting that emotions, including core and moral disgust, played an essential role in the automatic intuition process. The later parietal LPP results strongly supported that core disgust only affected the purity-based moral judgment, fitting the primary purity hypothesis well. We show how these theories can provide novel insights into the temporal mechanisms of moral judgment.

A brief measure of disgust propensity

In the context of large-scale surveys, pre-screening or longitudinal studies, researchers may be faced with the choice of using a brief measure of disgust propensity (DP: the general tendency to respond with the emotion of disgust to any given situation) or using no measure at all. The goal of the present study was to develop and validate such a short scale based on the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Disgust Propensity (QADP); Schienle et al., 2002). The participants (n = 1367; 80% female; mean age = 28 years) completed the QADP, and scales on disgust sensitivity and self-disgust. Brain structural data and disgust rating data were available for subsets of the total sample. Factor analysis revealed a five-factor structure of the QADP. A total of 10 items (two items for each factor) with the highest item-total correlations were selected. The resulting five-factor QADP (Cronbach’s alpha = .76) covers a broad range of disgust domains. The short QADP is correlated with the original questionnaire (r = .90), disgust sensitivity, disgust ratings for gustatory, olfactory and visual disgust elicitors, and volume in the insular cortex (a brain region involved in disgust processing). For future investigations, the QADP_brief can be a useful tool for assessing DP with high time efficiency.

Can we rewire criminal mind via non-invasive brain stimulation of prefrontal cortex? Insights from clinical, forensic and social cognition studies

Non-compliance with social and legal norms and regulations represents a high burden for society. Social cognition deficits are frequently called into question to explain criminal violence and rule violations in individuals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (APD), borderline personality disorder (BPD), and psychopathy. In this article, we proposed to consider the potential benefits of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) to rehabilitate forensic population. We focused on the effects of NIBS of the prefrontal cortex, which is central in social cognition, in modulating aggression and impulsivity in clinical disorders, as well as in forensic population. We also addressed the effect of NIBS on empathy, and theory of mind in non-clinical and/or prison population. The reviewed data provide promising evidence on the beneficial effect of NIBS on aggression/impulsivity dyscontrol and social cognitive functions, suggesting its relevance in promoting reintegration of criminals into society.

Disgust and Self-Disgust in Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Disgust and self-disgust are aversive emotions which are often encountered in people with eating disorders. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of disgust and self-disgust in people with eating disorders using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The systematic review of the literature revealed 52 original research papers. There was substantial heterogeneity regarding the research question and outcomes. However, we found 5 articles on disgust elicited by food images, 10 studies on generic disgust sensitivity, and 4 studies on self-disgust, and we proceeded to a meta-analytic approach on these studies. We found that women with eating disorders have significantly higher momentary disgust feelings in response to food images (1.32; 95% CI 1.05, 1.59), higher generic disgust sensitivity (0.49; 95% CI 0.24, 0.71), and higher self-disgust (1.90; 95% CI 1.51, 2.29) compared with healthy controls. These findings indicate the potential clinical relevance of disgust and self-disgust in the treatment of eating disorders.

Neuropsychopharmacology of Emerging Drugs of Abuse: meta- and para-Halogen-Ring-Substituted α-PVP (“flakka”) Derivatives

Changes in the molecular structure of synthetic cathinones has led to an increase in the number of novel emerging drugs in the illicit drug market at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, little is known about the neuropsychopharmacology of recently emerged halogen-substituted α-PVP derivatives. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of para- and meta-halogen (F-, Cl-, and Br-) substitutions on the in vitro, in silico, and in vivo effects of α-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (α-PVP) derivatives. HEK293 cells expressing the human dopamine or serotonin transporter (hDAT and hSERT) were used for the uptake inhibition and transporter affinity assays. Molecular docking was used to model the interaction mechanism against DAT. Swiss CD-1 mice were used for the horizontal locomotor activity, open field test, and conditioned place preference paradigm. All compounds demonstrated potent DA uptake inhibition and higher DAT selectivity than cocaine. Meta-substituted cathinones showed higher DAT/SERT ratios than their para- analogs, which correlates with an increased psychostimulant effect in vivo and with different meta- and para-in silico interactions at DAT. Moreover, all compounds induced rewarding and acute anxiogenic effects in mice. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates the role of meta- and para-halogen substitutions in the mechanism of action and provides the first evidence of the rewarding and anxiety-like properties of halogenated α-PVP derivatives.

Common and distinct neurofunctional representations of core and social disgust in the brain: Coordinate-based and network meta-analyses

Disgust represents a multifaceted defensive-avoidance response. On the behavioral level, the response includes withdrawal and a disgust-specific facial expression. While both serve the avoidance of pathogens, the latter additionally transmits social-communicative information. Given that common and distinct brain representation of the primary defensive-avoidance response (core disgust) and encoding of the social-communicative signal (social disgust) remain debated, we employed neuroimaging meta-analyses to (1) determine brain systems generally engaged in disgust processing, and (2) segregate common and distinct brain systems for core and social disgust. Disgust processing, in general, engaged a bilateral network encompassing the insula, amygdala, occipital and prefrontal regions. Core disgust evoked stronger reactivity in left-lateralized threat detection and defensive response network including amygdala, occipital and frontal regions, while social disgust engaged a right-lateralized superior temporal-frontal network engaged in social cognition. Anterior insula, inferior frontal and fusiform regions were commonly engaged during core and social disgust, suggesting a shared neurofunctional basis. We demonstrate a common and distinct neural basis of primary disgust responses and encoding of associated social-communicative signals.

Neuroethics: what the study of brain disorders can tell about moral behavior

The growing interest in the study of morality has led to the birth of a new discipline in the field of moral philosophy called Neuroethics, a multidisciplinary approach that aims to combine philosophy and neuroscience. In this editorial, we explored the relevance of clinical models affected by neurological/psychiatric disorders to learn more about mechanisms sub-serving ethical behaviour at neural and cognitive level.

Less than human: dehumanisation of people who use heroin

Purpose

Stigma reduction is an important public health challenge because of the large morbidity and mortality associated with some forms of substance use. Extreme stigma can lead to dehumanisation of target groups, who are ascribed with lesser humanity. The authors examined whether there was blatant and subtle dehumanisation of people who use heroin, and if these were associated with levels of support for non-discriminatory drug policy.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional online study using a UK convenience sample (n = 307 [75.2% female, mean age 28.6 ± 12.2 years]) was conducted. Participants completed assessments of blatant (Ascent of Humans [AoH] scale) and subtle (an emotion attribution task) dehumanisation and a bespoke measure assessing support for non-discriminatory drug policies. Other measures controlled for stigma towards people who use drugs (PWUD) and moral disgust.

Findings

There was greater blatant dehumanisation of people who used heroin compared to the general population and other potentially stigmatised reference groups, including people who use cannabis. The authors also found evidence of subtle dehumanisation, and people who used heroin were rated as being less likely to feel uniquely human emotions, less likely to feel positive emotions and more likely to feel negative emotions. Blatant dehumanisation was associated with significantly lower probability of support for non-discriminatory drug policy.

Social implications

Dehumanisation may present significant challenges for stigma reduction initiatives and in fostering public support for drug policy and treatment. Denial of the humanity of this group could be used to justify discriminatory policies or relative deprioritisation of support services in funding decisions. Activities that seek to “rehumanise” PWUD, including social inclusion, and encouraging compassionate media representations that portray the lived experiences of substance use may be useful areas of future work.

Originality/value

This is the first study to investigate blatant and subtle dehumanisation of people who use heroin, and how this relates to public support for drug policy.

Open-plan office noise is stressful: multimodal stress detection in a simulated work environment

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019)-induced changes in the workplace present a timely opportunity for human resource management practitioners to consider and remediate the deleterious effects of noise, a commonly cited complaint of employees working in open-plan office (OPO) environments. While self-reports suggest that OPO noise is perceived as a stressor, there is little experimental research comprehensively investigating the effects of noise on employees in terms of their cognitive performance, physiological indicators of stress, and affect. Employing a simulated office setting, we compared the effects of a typical OPO auditory environment to a quieter private office auditory environment on a range of objective and subjective measures of well-being and performance. While OPO noise did not reduce immediate cognitive task performance compared to the quieter environment, it did reduce psychological well-being as evidenced by self-reports of mood, facial expressions of emotion, and physiological indicators of stress in the form of heartrate and skin conductivity. Our research highlights the importance of using a multimodal approach to assess the impact of workplace stressors such as noise. Such an approach will allow HR practitioners to make data-driven recommendations about the design and modification of workspaces to minimize negative effects and support employee well-being.

How Self-Control Predicts Moral Decision Making: An Exploratory Study on Healthy Participants

Research on moral reasoning calls into question self-control, which encompasses impulsivity, compulsivity, and inhibitory control. However, a thorough investigation exploring how these three dimensions can affect moral reasoning in response to different scenarios is unavailable. We addressed this topic by testing the predictive role of these three dimensions of self-control on appraisals for ethical violations related with different types of scenarios. Overall, our results suggest that all three dimensions of self-control are involved in moral reasoning, depending on the type of appraisal and provided moral scenarios.

Infection threat shapes our social instincts

We social animals must balance the need to avoid infections with the need to interact with conspecifics. To that end we have evolved, alongside our physiological immune system, a suite of behaviors devised to deal with potentially contagious individuals. Focusing mostly on humans, the current review describes the design and biological innards of this behavioral immune system, laying out how infection threat shapes sociality and sociality shapes infection threat. The paper shows how the danger of contagion is detected and posted to the brain; how it affects individuals’ mate choice and sex life; why it strengthens ties within groups but severs those between them, leading to hostility toward anyone who looks, smells, or behaves unusually; and how it permeates the foundation of our moral and political views. This system was already in place when agriculture and animal domestication set off a massive increase in our population density, personal connections, and interaction with other species, amplifying enormously the spread of disease. Alas, pandemics such as COVID-19 not only are a disaster for public health, but, by rousing millions of behavioral immune systems, could prove a threat to harmonious cohabitation too.

Long-term modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Efforts to exclude past experiences from conscious awareness can lead to forgetting. Memory suppression is central to affective disorders, but we still do not really know whether emotions, including their physiological causes, are also impacted by this process in normal functioning individuals. In two studies, we measured the after-effects of suppressing negative memories on cardiac response in healthy participants. Results of Study 1 revealed that efficient control of memories was associated with long-term inhibition of the cardiac deceleration that is normally induced by disgusting stimuli. Attempts to suppress sad memories, by contrast, aggravated the cardiac response, an effect that was closely related to the inability to forget this specific material. In Study 2, electroencephalography revealed a reduction in power in the theta (3-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz) and low-beta (13-20 Hz) bands during the suppression of unwanted memories, compared with their voluntary recall. Interestingly, however, the reduction of power in the theta frequency band during memory control was related to a subsequent inhibition of the cardiac response. These results provide a neurophysiological basis for the influence of memory control mechanisms on the cardiac system, opening up new avenues and questions for treating intrusive memories using motivated forgetting.

Time Processing, Interoception, and Insula Activation: A Mini-Review on Clinical Disorders

Time processing is a multifaceted skill crucial for managing different aspects of life. In the current work, we explored the relationship between interoception and time processing by examining research on clinical models. We investigated whether time processing deficits are associated with dysfunction of the interoceptive system and/or insular cortex activity, which is crucial in decoding internal body signaling. Furthermore, we explored whether insular activation predicts the subjective experience of time (i.e., the subjective duration of a target stimulus to be timed). Overall, our work suggests that alteration of the interoceptive system could be a common psychophysiological hallmark of mental disorders affected by time processing deficits.

Lateralized Deficits of Disgust Processing After Insula-Basal Ganglia Damage

A growing body of evidence suggests a role of the insular cortex (IC) and the basal ganglia (BG) in the experience, expression, and recognition of disgust. However, human lesion research, probing this structure-function link, has yielded rather disparate findings in single cases of unilateral and bilateral damage to these areas. Comparative group approaches are needed to elucidate whether disgust-related deficits specifically follow damage to the IC-BG system, or whether there might be a differential hemispheric contribution to disgust processing. We examined emotional processing by means of a comprehensive emotional test battery in four patients with left- and four patients with right-hemispheric lesions to the IC-BG system as well as in 19 healthy controls. While single tests did not provide clear-cut separations of patient groups, composite scores indicated selective group effects for disgust. Importantly, left-lesioned patients presented attenuated disgust composites, while right-lesioned patients showed increased disgust composites, as compared to each other and controls. These findings propose a left-hemispheric basis of disgust, potentially due to asymmetrical representations of autonomic information in the human forebrain. The present study provides the first behavioral evidence of hemispheric lateralization of a specific emotion in the human brain, and contributes to neurobiological models of disgust.

Indignation for moral violations suppresses the tongue motor cortex: preliminary TMS evidence

We commonly label moral violations in terms of ‘disgust’, yet it remains unclear whether metaphorical expressions linking disgust and morality are genuinely shared at the cognitive/neural level. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we provide new insights into this debate by measuring motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) from the tongue generated by TMS over the tongue primary motor area (tM1) in a small group of healthy participants presented with vignettes of moral transgressions and non-moral vignettes. We tested whether moral indignation, felt while evaluating moral vignettes, affected tM1 excitability. Vignettes exerted a variable influence on MEPs with no net effect of the moral category. However, in accordance with our recent study documenting reduced tM1 excitability during exposure to pictures of disgusting foods or facial expressions of distaste, we found that the vignettes of highly disapproved moral violations reduced tM1 excitability. Moreover, tM1 excitability and moral indignation were linearly correlated: the higher the moral indignation, the lower the tM1 excitability. Respective changes in MEPs were not observed in a non-oral control muscle, suggesting a selective decrease of tM1 excitability. These preliminary findings provide neurophysiological evidence supporting the hypothesis that morality might have originated from the more primitive experience of oral distaste.

Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011)

Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz’s (2011) influential experiment demonstrated that gustatory disgust triggers a heightened sense of moral wrongness. We report a large-scale multisite direct replication of this study conducted by labs in the Collaborative Replications and Education Project. Subjects in each sample were randomly assigned to one of three beverage conditions: bitter (disgusting), control (neutral), or sweet. Then, subjects made a series of judgments about the moral wrongness of the behavior depicted in six vignettes. In the original study ( N = 57), drinking the bitter beverage led to higher ratings of moral wrongness than did drinking the control or sweet beverage; a contrast between the bitter condition and the other two conditions was significant among conservative ( n = 19) but not liberal ( n = 25) subjects. In the current project, random-effects meta-analyses across all subjects ( N = 1,137, k = 11 studies), conservative subjects ( n = 142, k = 5), and liberal subjects ( n = 635, k = 9) revealed standardized overall effect sizes across replications that were smaller than reported in the original study. Some were in the opposite of the predicted direction; all had 95% confidence intervals containing zero, and all were smaller than the effect size the original authors could have meaningfully detected. Results of linear mixed-effects regressions revealed that drinking the bitter beverage led to higher ratings of moral wrongness than did drinking the control beverage but not the sweet beverage. Bayes factor tests revealed greater relative support for the null than for the replication hypothesis. The overall pattern provides little to no support for the theory that physical disgust via taste perception harshens judgments of moral wrongness.

Blocking facial mimicry affects recognition of facial and body expressions

Facial mimicry is commonly defined as the tendency to imitate-at a sub-threshold level-facial expressions of other individuals. Numerous studies support a role of facial mimicry in recognizing others' emotions. However, the underlying functional mechanism is unclear. A prominent hypothesis considers facial mimicry as based on an action-perception loop, leading to the prediction that facial mimicry should be observed only when processing others' facial expressions. Nevertheless, previous studies have also detected facial mimicry during observation of emotional bodily expressions. An emergent alternative hypothesis is that facial mimicry overtly reflects the simulation of an "emotion", rather than the reproduction of a specific observed motor pattern. In the present study, we tested whether blocking mimicry ("Bite") on the lower face disrupted recognition of happy expressions conveyed by either facial or body expressions. In Experiment 1, we tested participants' ability to identify happy, fearful and neutral expressions in the Bite condition and in two control conditions. In Experiment 2, to ensure that such a manipulation selectively affects emotion recognition, we tested participants' ability to recognize emotional expressions, as well as the actors' gender, under the Bite condition and a control condition. Finally, we investigated the relationship between dispositional empathy and emotion recognition under the condition of blocked mimicry. Our findings demonstrated that blocking mimicry on the lower face hindered recognition of happy facial and body expressions, while the recognition of neutral and fearful expressions was not affected by the mimicry manipulation. The mimicry manipulation did not affect the gender discrimination task. Furthermore, the impairment of happy expression recognition correlated with empathic traits. These results support the role of facial mimicry in emotion recognition and suggest that facial mimicry reflects a global sensorimotor simulation of others' emotions rather than a muscle-specific reproduction of an observed motor expression.

Disgust and fear: common emotions between eating and phobic disorders

Eating disorders (ED) are prevalent mental illnesses composed mainly of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders. Anxiety disorders are another set of mental illnesses, with phobic disorder (PD) being the most prevalent disorder. ED and PD are highly comorbid. The aim of this study is to assess, in 131 individuals attending an outpatient clinic for different health issues, the level of fear related to situations generating avoidance such as in social anxiety and specific phobias according to the fear questionnaire (FQ), the level of disgust according to the disgust scale (DS-R) and the vulnerability towards ED according to the SCOFF scale to demonstrate that high levels of both fear and disgust increase the vulnerability towards ED. The study demonstrated that the level of disgust increased when fear increases (r = 0.377, p < 0.001 for the first part of the FQ; r = 0.225, p = 0.01 for the second part of the FQ). Moreover, individuals with vulnerability towards having an ED presented a higher level of disgust than individuals without this vulnerability (p = 0.009). Furthermore, individuals with vulnerability towards ED have a higher level of anxiety related to PD subtypes (p = 0.008 for agoraphobia; p = 0.001 for injection/blood phobia) as well as to social anxiety (p = 0.01), independently from having a depressive or another anxiety disorder. In the multivariate analysis, a history of psychiatric consultation has been the only significantly different parameter between individuals with or without vulnerability towards ED (p = 0.0439). Accordingly, fear and disgust are negative emotions that seem to be clinically associated which better explains the comorbidity of ED with PD. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III. Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case-control analytic studies, preferably from more than one center or research group.

The Effect of Trait and State Disgust on Fear of God and Sin

There is a growing literature suggesting disgust plays a major role in religiosity. However, the relationships between specific domains of disgust sensitivity and general religious fundamentalism or religious scrupulosity remains unknown and a lack of experimental data prevents the drawing of causal inferences about the potential effects of disgust on religiosity. Two studies are reported that examined the relationship between specific types of disgust sensitivity (i.e., pathogen, sexual, and moral disgust) and specific religious beliefs (i.e., fear of sin and fear of God). In the first study it was found that sexual disgust and pathogen disgust were significantly correlated with fear of sin and fear of God, respectively. In the second study the experimental induction of disgust led to greater fear of sin but not to the fear of God. These findings suggest that pathogen and sexual disgust sensitivities may serve as effective mechanisms for inflated scrupulosity. Taken together the outcomes from both studies converge on a greater understanding of the ‘Human Behavioral Immune System’ model that can account for social behavior with the evolution of adaptive benefit and perhaps more importantly highlights the possible drivers of specific religious behavior.

Contextual knowledge provided by a movie biases implicit perception of the protagonist

We are constantly categorizing other people as belonging to our in-group (‘one of us’) or out-group (‘one of them’). Such grouping occurs fast and automatically and can be based on others’ visible characteristics such as skin color or clothing style. Here we studied neural underpinnings of implicit social grouping not often visible on the face, male sexual orientation. A total of 14 homosexuals and 15 heterosexual males were scanned in functional magnetic resonance imaging while watching a movie about a homosexual man, whose face was also presented subliminally before (subjects did not know about the character’s sexual orientation) and after the movie. We discovered significantly stronger activation to the man’s face after seeing the movie in homosexual but not heterosexual subjects in medial prefrontal cortex, frontal pole, anterior cingulate cortex, right temporal parietal junction and bilateral superior frontal gyrus. In previous research, these brain areas have been connected to social perception, self-referential thinking, empathy, theory of mind and in-group perception. In line with previous studies showing biased perception of in-/out-group faces to be context dependent, our novel approach further demonstrates how complex contextual knowledge gained under naturalistic viewing can bias implicit social perception.

Antidepressant treatment, not depression, leads to reductions in behavioral and neural responses to pain empathy

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been hypothesized to lead to impairments in empathy. Previous cross-sectional studies did not disentangle effects of MDD itself and antidepressant treatment. In this first longitudinal neuroimaging study on empathy in depression, 29 patients with MDD participated in two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions before and after 3 months of antidepressant therapy. We compared their responses to an empathy for pain task to a group of healthy controls (N = 35). All participants provided self-report ratings targeting cognitive (perspective taking) and affective (unpleasant affect) aspects of empathy. To control for general effects on processing of negative affective states, participants additionally underwent an electrical pain task. Before treatment, we found no differences in empathic responses between controls and patients with MDD. After treatment, patients showed significant decreases in both affective empathy and activity of three a priori selected brain regions associated with empathy for pain. Decreases in affective empathy were moreover correlated with symptom improvement. Moreover, functional connectivity during the empathy task between areas associated with affective (anterior insula) and cognitive (precuneus) empathy decreased between sessions in the MDD group. Neither cognitive empathy nor responses to painful electrical shocks were changed after treatment. These findings contradict previous cross-sectional reports of empathy deficits in acute MDD. Rather, they suggest that antidepressant treatment reduces the aversive responses triggered by exposure to the suffering of others. Importantly, this cannot be explained by a general blunting of negative affect, as treatment did not change self-experienced pain.

Time is overestimated in obesity: A cohort study

Food addiction and high impulsivity are common traits in obesity. In accordance with the evidence that time is overestimated in patients with a history of impulsivity and/or drug addiction, we tested the hypothesis that duration is overestimated in obesity. A total of 92 obese participants and 182 healthy controls completed a timing task of visual stimuli. In line with our prediction, obese participants overestimated the duration of the displayed visual stimuli than controls. Our result has potential clinical implications in the field of obesity, as it suggests a potential contribution of this cognitive dysfunction in the emergence and maintenance of obesity-related behaviour.

Body Odor Disgust Sensitivity Predicts Moral Harshness Toward Moral Violations of Purity

Detecting pathogen threats and avoiding disease is fundamental to human survival. The behavioral immune system (BIS) framework outlines a set of psychological functions that may have evolved for this purpose. Disgust is a core emotion that plays a pivotal role in the BIS, as it activates the behavioral avoidance motives that prevent people from being in contact with pathogens. To date, there has been little agreement on how disgust sensitivity might underlie moral judgments. Here, we investigated moral violations of "purity" (assumed to elicit disgust) and violations of "harm" (assumed to elicit anger). We hypothesized that individual differences in BIS-related traits would be associated with greater disgust (vs. anger) reactivity to, and greater condemnation of Purity (vs. Harm) violations. The study was pre-registered (https://osf.io/57nm8/). Participants (N = 632) rated scenarios concerning moral wrongness or inappropriateness and regarding disgust and anger. To measure individual differences in the activation of the BIS, we used our recently developed Body Odor Disgust Scale (BODS), a BIS-related trait measure that assesses individual differences in feeling disgusted by body odors. In line with our predictions, we found that scores on the BODS relate more strongly to affective reactions to Purity, as compared to Harm, violations. In addition, BODS relates more strongly to Moral condemnation than to perceived Inappropriateness of an action, and to the condemnation of Purity violations as compared to Harm violations. These results suggest that the BIS is involved in moral judgment, although to some extent this role seems to be specific for violations of "moral purity," a response that might be rooted in disease avoidance. Data and scripts to analyze the data are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) repository: https://osf.io/tk4x5/. Planned analyses are available at https://osf.io/x6g3u/.