Neural correlates of processing "self-conscious" vs. "basic" emotions

Influence of first-person and third-person perspectives on neural mechanisms of professional pride

Professional pride, including self-reflection and attitude toward one's own occupational group, induces individuals to behave in socially appropriate ways, and uniforms can encourage wearers to have this pride. This study was to elucidate the working pattern of professional pride by exploring neural responses when wearing uniforms and being conscious of a third-person's perspective. Twenty healthy adults who had an occupation requiring uniforms were scanned using functional MRI with a self-evaluation task consisting of 2 [uniform versus casual wear] × 2 [first-person perspective versus third-person perspective] conditions. The neural effects of clothing and perspective were analyzed and post-hoc tests were followed. The interaction effect was displayed in the bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, where uniform led to higher activity in third-person perspective than in first-person perspective, whereas casual wear led to the opposite pattern, suggesting this region may be involved in the awareness of third-person's perspective to uniform-wearing. The right dorsomedial prefrontal cortex showed functional connectivity with the right posterior superior temporal sulcus in uniform-third-person perspective compared to uniform-first-person perspective, suggesting this connection may work for processing information from third-person perspective in a uniform-wearing state. Professional pride may prioritize social information processing in third-person perspective rather than self-referential processing in first-person perspective.

Neurocircuitry of Personality Traits and Intent in Decision-Making

Even though most personality features are moderately stable throughout life, changes can be observed, which influence one's behavioral patterns. A variety of subjective assessments can be performed to track these changes; however, the subjective characteristic of these assessments may lead to questions about intentions and values. The use of neuroimaging techniques may aid the investigation of personality traits through a more objective lens, overcoming the barriers imposed by confounders. Here, neurocircuits associated with changes in personality domains were investigated to address this issue. Cortical systems involved in traits such as extraversion and neuroticism were found to share multiple components, as did traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness, with these four features revolving around the activation and structural integrity of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The attribute of openness appears scattered throughout cortical and subcortical regions, being discussed here as a possible reflection of intent, at the same time modulating and being governed by other traits. Insights on how systems operate on personality may increase comprehension on factors acting on the evolution, development, and consolidation of personality traits through life, as in neurocognitive disorders.

Pride: The Emotional Foundation of Social Rank Attainment

Pride is a self-conscious emotion, comprised of two distinct facets known as authentic and hubristic pride, and associated with a cross-culturally recognized nonverbal expression. Authentic pride involves feelings of accomplishment and confidence and promotes prosocial behaviors, whereas hubristic pride involves feelings of arrogance and conceit and promotes antisociality. Each facet of pride, we argue, contributes to a distinct means of attaining social rank: Authentic pride seems to promote prestige-a rank based on earned respect-whereas hubristic pride seems to promote dominance-a rank based on aggression and coercion. Both prestige and dominance are effective routes to power and influence in human groups, so both facets of pride are likely to be functional adaptations. Overall, the reviewed research suggests that pride is likely to be a human universal, critical for social relationships and rank attainment across human societies.

Comparing gratitude and pride: evidence from brain and behavior

Gratitude and pride are both positive emotions. Yet gratitude motivates people to help others and build up relationships, whereas pride motivates people to pursue achievements and build on self-esteem. Although these social outcomes are crucial for humans to be evolutionarily adaptive, no study so far has systematically compared gratitude and pride to understand why and how they can motivate humans differently. In this review, we compared gratitude and pride from their etymologies, cognitive prerequisites, motivational functions, and brain regions involved. By integrating the evidence from brain and behavior, we suggest that gratitude and pride share a common reward basis, yet gratitude is more related to theory of mind, while pride is more related to self-referential processing. Moreover, we proposed a cognitive neuroscientific model to explain the dynamics in gratitude and pride under a reinforcement learning framework.

The influence of pride emotion on executive function: Evidence from ERP

BACKGROUND

The current study examined the influence of positive "basic" emotions on executive function; there is limited evidence about the influence of positive "self-conscious"emotions, such as pride, on executive functions processes.

METHODS

Pride is a status-related self-conscious emotion and the present research explored the influence of pride on the subcomponents of executive function, using three experiments that adopted the digit size-parity switching, N-back, and dual choice oddball paradigms.

RESULTS

The behavioral results suggested that cognitive load and behavior inhibition effects in the pride emotion were significantly higher than the neutral emotion. The ERP results showed that the pride emotion elicited smaller P3 difference wave for the switching task and dual choice oddball task. In the N-back task, the pride emotion elicited larger N1 amplitude and smaller P2 difference wave compared to the neutral emotion. A comparison among results from the three experiments indicated that pride emotion restrains all subcomponents of executive function, though with different manifestations of the impact.

CONCLUSION

Experiencing positive emotions is typically viewed as desirable and adaptive in educational settings; however, pride as a unique positive emotion may damage people's cognitive performance, indicating that we need to be cautious when performing cognitive operations in a pride mood.

Emotion Regulation by Psychological Distance and Level of Abstraction: Two Meta-Analyses

Self-reflection is suggested to attenuate feelings, yet researchers disagree on whether adopting a distant or near perspective, or processing the experience abstractly or concretely, is more effective. Given the relationship between psychological distance and level of abstraction, we suggest the "construal-matching hypothesis": Psychological distance and abstraction differently influence emotion intensity, depending on whether the emotion's appraisal involves low-level or high-level construal. Two meta-analyses tested the effects of psychological distance (k = 230) and level-of-abstraction (k = 98) manipulations on emotional experience. A distant perspective attenuated emotional experience (g = 0.52) but with weaker effects for high-level (g = 0.29; for example, self-conscious emotions) than low-level emotions (g= 0.64; for example, basic emotions). Level of abstraction only attenuated the experience of low-level emotions (g = 0.2) and showed a reverse (nonsignificant) effect for high-level emotions (g = -0.13). These results highlight differences between distancing and level-of-abstraction manipulations and the importance of considering the type of emotion experienced in emotion regulation.

Self-Conscious Emotions and the Right Fronto-Temporal and Right Temporal Parietal Junction

For more than two decades, research focusing on both clinical and non-clinical populations has suggested a key role for specific regions in the regulation of self-conscious emotions. It is speculated that both the expression and the interpretation of self-conscious emotions are critical in humans for action planning and response, communication, learning, parenting, and most social encounters. Empathy, Guilt, Jealousy, Shame, and Pride are all categorized as self-conscious emotions, all of which are crucial components to one’s sense of self. There has been an abundance of evidence pointing to the right Fronto-Temporal involvement in the integration of cognitive processes underlying the expression of these emotions. Numerous regions within the right hemisphere have been identified including the right temporal parietal junction (rTPJ), the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL). In this review, we aim to investigate patient cases, in addition to clinical and non-clinical studies. We also aim to highlight these specific brain regions pivotal to the right hemispheric dominance observed in the neural correlates of such self-conscious emotions and provide the potential role that self-conscious emotions play in evolution.

Autonomic factors do not underlie the elevated self-disgust levels in Parkinson's disease

INTRODUCTION

Parkinson's disease (PD) is manifested along with non-motor symptoms such as impairments in basic emotion regulation, recognition and expression. Yet, self-conscious emotion (SCEs) such as self-disgust, guilt and shame are under-investigated. Our previous research indicated that Parkinson patients have elevated levels of self-reported and induced self-disgust. However, the cause of that elevation-whether lower level biophysiological factors, or higher level cognitive factors, is unknown.

METHODS

To explore the former, we analysed Skin Conductance Response (SCR, measuring sympathetic activity) amplitude and high frequency Heart Rate Variability (HRV, measuring parasympathetic activity) across two emotion induction paradigms, one involving narrations of personal experiences of self-disgust, shame and guilt, and one targeting self-disgust selectively via images of the self. Both paradigms had a neutral condition.

RESULTS

Photo paradigm elicited significant changes in physiological responses in patients relative to controls-higher percentages of HRV in the high frequency range but lower SCR amplitudes, with patients to present lower responses compared to controls. In the narration paradigm, only guilt condition elicited significant SCR differences between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Consequently, lower level biophysiological factors are unlikely to cause elevated self-disgust levels in Parkinson's disease, which by implication suggests that higher level cognitive factors may be responsible.

Roles of the MPFC and insula in impression management under social observation

People often engage in impression management by presenting themselves and others as socially desirable. However, specific behavioral manifestations and underlying neural mechanisms of impression management remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the neural mechanism of impression management during self- and friend-evaluation. Only participants assigned to the observation (OBS) group, not the control (CON) group, were informed that their responses would be monitored. They answered how well positive and negative trait adjectives described themselves or their friends. The behavioral results showed that the OBS group was more likely to reject negative traits for self-evaluation and to accept positive traits for friend-evaluation. An independent study revealed that demoting negative traits for oneself and promoting positive traits for a friend helps manage one’s impression. In parallel with the behavioral results, in the OBS vs the CON group, the rostromedial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC) and anterior insula (AI) activity showed a greater increase as the negativity of negatively valenced adjectives increased during self-evaluation and also showed a greater increase as the positivity of positively valenced adjectives increased during friend-evaluation. The present study suggests that rmPFC and AI are critically involved in impression management, promoting socially desirable target evaluations under social observation.

Higher Trait Levels of Guilt may Protect Against Gambling, Whereas Higher State Levels Lead to Riskier Behaviour

Research on the role of affect in problem gambling remains scarce to date, although it has been proposed that trait-levels of negative self-conscious emotions (SCEs) could be potential risk factors. We report two studies investigating the relationship between negative SCEs, gambling, and risky behavior. In the first study, we investigated shame, guilt and self-disgust in a group of problem-gamblers and control non-gamblers. In the second study, we investigated if experimentally manipulating state levels of guilt, using a narration-induction paradigm, in students with different levels of gambling behavior, would influence their behavior in the Balloon Analog Risk Task. We found that problem gamblers had significantly lower trait-levels of guilt when we adjusted for the influence of depression and anxiety symptoms (p = .008). Problem gamblers also exhibited lower levels of shame, but this difference seemed to be driven by guilt. Lower levels of guilt were significantly associated with higher levels of trait impulsivity (p = .004). In the second study, gamblers had higher state levels of guilt than non-gamblers at the outset, and the narration paradigm successfully induced guilt (p = .001). After the guilt induction, the group of gamblers had significantly less risky behaviour (lower number of pumps) than the group of non-gamblers (p = .021). However, this was primarily driven by an increase in risky behaviour in the non-gamblers (p = .006). Thus, overall our findings suggest that higher trait levels of guilt may act as a protective factor for gambling, whereas high state levels of guilt lead to riskier behaviour but only in people who are not gamblers.

Shame on the brain: Neural correlates of moral injury event recall in posttraumatic stress disorder

BACKGROUND

Moral injury (MI) is consistently associated with adverse mental health outcomes, including the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidality.

METHODS

We investigated neural activation patterns associated with MI event recall using functional magnetic resonance imaging in participants with military and public safety-related PTSD, relative to civilian MI-exposed controls.

RESULTS

MI recall in the PTSD as compared to control group was associated with increased neural activation among salience network nodes involved in viscerosensory processing and hyperarousal (right posterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; dACC), regions involved in defensive responding (left postcentral gyrus), and areas responsible for top-down cognitive control of emotions (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; dlPFC). Within the PTSD group, measures of state and trait shame correlated negatively with activity among default mode network regions associated with self-related processing and moral cognition (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; dmPFC) and salience network regions associated with viscerosensory processing (left posterior insula), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that MI event processing is altered in military and public safety-related PTSD, relative to MI-exposed controls. Here, it appears probable that as individuals with PTSD recall their MI event, they experience a surge of blame-related processing of bodily sensations within salience network regions, including the right posterior insula and the dACC, which in turn, prompt regulatory strategies at the level of the left dlPFC aimed at increasing cognitive control and inhibiting emotional affect. These results are consistent with previous findings showing enhanced sensory processing and altered top-down control in PTSD samples during autobiographical memory recall.

Neural dynamics of pride and shame in social context: an approach with event-related brain electrical potentials

The neural underpinnings of social emotions such as pride and shame are largely unknown. The present study aims to add evidence by exploiting the advantage of event-related brain electrical potentials (ERP) to examine the neural processes as they unfold over time. For this purpose, a dot-estimation task was adapted to explore these emotions as elicited in a simulated social context. Pride prompted an early negativity seemingly originated in medial parietal regions (precuneus) and possibly reflecting social comparison processes in successful trials. This was followed by a late positivity originated in medial frontal regions, probably reflecting the verification of singularly successful trials. Shame, in turn, elicited an early negativity apparently originated in the cuneus, probably related to mental imagery of the social situation. It was followed by a late positivity mainly originated in the same regions as the early negativity for pride, then conceivably reflecting social comparison processes, in this occasion in unsuccessful trials. None of these fluctuations correlated with self-reported feelings of either emotion, suggesting that they instead relate to social cognitive computations necessary to achieve them. The present results provide a dynamic depiction of neural mechanisms underlying these social emotions, probing the necessity to study them using an integrated approach with different techniques.

Is disgust in obsessive-compulsive disorder mediated by fear of pathogens?

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) tend to report higher levels of disgust, but not much is known about factors that might underlie this relationship. The present study was motivated by the behavioral immune theory, which suggests that disgust has evolved as a protective reaction to potential presence of disease agents in the immediate environment. We examined the relationships between the intensity of experienced physical disgust, perceived vulnerability to disease, and OCD symptoms. The intensity of experienced disgust was assessed with a recent procedure whereby participants rate how disgusted they feel in response to color versus black-and-white pictures that evoke physical disgust. In addition to this procedure, participants (N = 403) completed measures of perceived vulnerability to disease, OCD symptoms, depression and anxiety. OCD symptoms were positively related to the physical disgust evoked by the pictures, and this relationship was mediated by reported emotional discomfort in contexts that connote a potential for pathogen transmission. Replicating previous findings, color pictures were rated as more disgusting than black-and-white pictures overall, and this effect was especially pronounced among people with higher OCD tendencies. These results suggest that, consistent with behavioral immune theory, disgust in OCD is a basic, concrete emotion that is at least partly mediated by fear of pathogens.

Differential effects of abstract and concrete processing on the reactivity of basic and self-conscious emotions

The present research examines the influence of different processing modes (abstract vs. concrete) on the intensity of negative basic emotions (anger, fear) and self-conscious emotions (guilt, shame). We suggest that the cognitive appraisals underlying self-conscious emotions are relatively more abstract and less concrete than the appraisals underlying basic emotions. Consequently, we predicted that abstract processing would increase the intensity of self-conscious emotions and decrease the intensity of basic emotions, whereas concrete processing would increase the intensity of basic emotions and decrease the intensity of self-conscious emotions. We tested this prediction in four experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, concrete processing led to more intense anger than abstract processing, and abstract processing led to more intense guilt than concrete processing. In Experiment 3a, concrete processing increased the intensity of fear, and in Experiment 3b, concrete processing decreased the intensity of shame. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the emotion's underlying appraisals when reflecting on one's emotional experience.

Self-esteem and cultural worldview buffer mortality salience effects on responses to self-face: Distinct neural mediators

Terror management theory proposes cultural worldview and self-esteem as two buffers against death anxiety. The neural mediators of these buffering effects, however, have not been fully understood. The present work investigated neural mediation mechanisms between self-esteem/cultural trait (self-construal) and mortality salience (MS) effects on self-face processing. We found that MS (vs. NA) priming eliminated self-face advantage in behavioral judgments of face-orientation in low self-esteem individuals and reduced self-face advantage in behavioral judgments of facial-familiarity in individuals with high interdependent self-construals. Our functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results showed that, following MS priming, insular activities mediated the relationship between self-esteem and self-face advantage in face-orientation judgments, whereas dorsal medial prefrontal activity mediated the relationship between interdependent self-construal and self-face advantage in face-familiarity judgments. Our findings suggest that distinct neural mechanisms are engaged in mediating the relationships between self-esteem/cultural trait and MS effects on the emotional and cognitive processes of self-relevant information.

Neural responses to intention and benefit appraisal are critical in distinguishing gratitude and joy

Gratitude and joy are critical for promoting well-being. However, the differences between the two emotions and corresponding neural correlates are not understood. Here we addressed these issues by eliciting the two emotions using the same stimuli in an fMRI task. In this help reception task, participants imagined them in a situation where they need financial aid. Critically, we manipulated the benefactor's intention to provide help and the value of the benefit. Behaviorally, gratitude was stronger than joy when the benefactor-intention was strong and the benefit-value was low compared to other conditions. In parallel, gratitude activated mentalizing-related (e.g. precuneus) and reward-related regions (e.g. putamen) more strongly than joy in corresponding conditions compared to others. Moreover, gratitude was more negatively (or less positively) encoded in the region associated with mentalizing (i.e. the left superior temporal gyrus) than joy. Multivariate pattern analysis further demonstrated that the modulation patterns of benefactor-intention and benefit-value in mentalizing-related (e.g. precuneus, temporo-parietal junction) and reward-related regions (e.g. putamen, perigenual anterior cingulate/ventromedial prefrontal cortex) could distinguish the two emotions. The findings suggest that benefactor-intention and benefit-value appraisal and their neural correlates are critical in distinguishing gratitude and joy. Direct implications for gratitude interventions were discussed.

Stability or Plasticity? - A Hierarchical Allostatic Regulation Model of Medial Prefrontal Cortex Function for Social Valuation

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has long been recognized as the key component of the neurocircuitry involved in various social as well as non-social behaviors, however, little is known regarding the organizing principle of distinctive subregions in the mPFC that integrates a wide range of mPFC functions. The present study proposes a hierarchical model of mPFC functionality, where three functionally dissociable subregions, namely, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), rostromedial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC), and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), are differentially involved in computing values of decision-making. According to this model, the mPFC subregions interact with each other in such a way that more dorsal regions utilize additional external sensory information from environment to predict and prevent conflicts occurring in more ventral regions tuned to internal bodily signals, thereby exerting the hierarchically organized allostatic regulatory control over homeostatic reflexes. This model also emphasizes the role of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) in arbitrating the transitions between different thalamo-cortical loops, detecting conflicts between competing options for decision-making, and in shifting flexibly between decision modes. The hierarchical architecture of the mPFC working in conjunction with the TRN may play a key role in adjusting the internal (bodily) needs to suit the constraints of external (environmental) variables better, thus effectively addressing the stability-plasticity dilemma.

Internal control beliefs shape positive affect and associated neural dynamics during outcome valuation

Experiencing events as controllable is essential for human well-being. Based on classic psychological theory, we test how internal control beliefs impact the affective valuation of task outcomes, neural dynamics and ensuing behavioral preferences. In three consecutive studies we show that dynamics in positive affect increase, with a qualitative shift towards self-evaluative pride, when agents believe they caused a given outcome. We demonstrate that these outcomes engage brain networks processing self-referential information in the cortical midline. Here, activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex tracks outcome valence regarding both success as well as internal control, and covaries with positive affect in response to outcomes. These affective dynamics also relate to increased functional coupling between the ventral striatum and cortical midline structures. Finally, we show that pride predicts preferences for control, even at monetary costs. Our investigations extend recent models of positive affect and well-being, and emphasize that control beliefs drive intrinsic motivation.

Human affect is shaped in part by whether desirable states are achieved under personal control. Here, the authors show that control beliefs affect happiness and pride, and how those effects relate to neural responses in the prefrontal cortex and behavioral preferences for exerting control.

Symbolic threat affects negative self-conscious emotions

Self-conscious emotions are a distinct category of emotional responses that are rooted in social contexts. Previous findings suggest that negative self-conscious emotions might be elicited by a specific social factor, that is, symbolic intergroup threat. The present study tested the hypothesis that this is true, with three experiments conducted in the Chinese-context. In particular, the Mandarin words for shame (羞愧), guilt (内疚) and loss of face (丢脸) were examined. Symbolic threats were manipulated in all three experiments, with participants randomly divided into a symbolic threat condition and a control condition in each experiment. As expected, participants in the symbolic threat condition always reported more negative self-conscious emotions compared to participants in the control condition. These results suggest that symbolic intergroup threat can lead to self-conscious emotions as well as basic emotions, as was demonstrated by previous research.

Vicarious Embarrassment or "Fremdscham": Overendorsement in Frontotemporal Dementia

OBJECTIVE

The experience of embarrassment signals violations in social norms, and impairment in this social emotion may underlie much of the social dysfunction in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The authors investigated whether impaired self-awareness of embarrassment may distinguish patients with bvFTD early in the course of disease from healthy control subjects (HCs).

METHODS

Self-reported embarrassment was examined among 18 patients with early bvFTD and 23 HCs by using the 36-item Embarrassability Scale, which includes items of situations eliciting embarrassment for oneself ("self-embarrassment") and embarrassment for others ("vicarious embarrassment"). The two study groups were also compared with the Social Norms Questionnaire (SNQ). The analyses included correlations of SNQ results (total score, violations or "break" errors, and overendorsement of social rules or "overadhere" errors) with Embarrassability Scale scores.

RESULTS

Patients with bvFTD did not differ from HCs on total or self-embarrassment scores but did have significantly higher vicarious embarrassment scores. Unlike in the HC group, reports of vicarious embarrassment did not differ from reports of self-embarrassment among patients in the bvFTD group. The Embarrassability Score further correlated with overadherence to norms on the SNQ.

CONCLUSIONS

In the presence of social dysfunction and emotional blunting, these findings suggest that patients with bvFTD rely on their own perspective for a rule-based application of social norms in reporting vicarious embarrassment. The assessment of reports of embarrassment for others may indicate an early and previously unrecognized clinical measure for detecting bvFTD.

Influence of emotional complexity on the neural substrates of affective theory of mind

Affective theory of mind (ToM) depends on both the decoding of emotional expressions and the reasoning on emotional mental states from social situations. While previous studies characterized the neural substrates underlying these processes, it remains unclear whether the nature of the emotional state inferred from others can influence the brain activation associated with affective ToM. In the present study, we focused on two types of emotions: basic emotions (BEs) (e.g., anger and surprise), which are innate and universal and self‐conscious emotions (e.g., pride and embarrassment), which correspond to a special class of emotions involving the self and including a representation of one's relative reactions to internal and external standards. Specifically, we used an ecological functional MRI paradigm, on 21 healthy young subjects, to compare brain activations during the decoding of and the reasoning on others' self‐conscious, basic and neutral mental states. Our results showed that compared to neutral states, the inference of self‐conscious and basic emotional states from others elicited more activation in several core regions of affective ToM. Direct comparisons between emotional conditions revealed more activation for self‐conscious than BEs in the right temporoparietal junction during the reasoning process and in left middle occipital regions during the decoding process. Further analyses using a localizer task showed that the extrastriate body area was more recruited for decoding others' self‐conscious versus BEs, which emphasize the importance of body clues to properly infer these emotions. Using an original task allowing for an ecological assessment of the affective ToM, these results demonstrate that the complexity of the emotion inferred to others can influence the recruitment of ToM network. This study also validates the use of our task as an ecological tool to assess the affective ToM, constituting an avenue for the characterization of ToM impairments in neurological conditions.

The neural correlates of thought-action fusion in healthy adults: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

BACKGROUND

Thought-action fusion (TAF) represents an individual's belief that a thought is like action. Inflated TAF has been considered a central mechanism for developing obsessive thoughts. However, the neural mechanisms underlying TAF are yet unknown.

METHODS

We recruited 32 healthy men to participate in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Whereas inside the 3T MRI scanner, participants were asked to read negative statements describing the expectation of bad events associated with close persons (CPs condition) or neutral persons (NPs condition). They also completed the assessment of TAF and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms.

RESULTS

Both CP and NP conditions commonly activated the lingual gyrus, caudate nucleus, precuneus, and several areas of the frontal cortex. Importantly, many of these regions were positively correlated with measures of OC symptoms, especially for the CP condition. The CP condition showed higher activation in the insula and temporal gyrus than the NP condition. In contrast, the NP condition evoked higher activation in regions associated with mentalizing, such as the medial prefrontal cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex than the CP condition.

CONCLUSIONS

We introduced and validated a TAF-induction paradigm suitable for fMRI studies and characterized the neural circuits engaged during this paradigm. Further studies using this task may help us to better understand how dysfunctions in TAF neural processing may contribute to psychiatric conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Experiences of self-conscious emotions in temporal lobe epilepsy

Self-conscious emotions (SCEs) with a negative valence (such as shame and guilt) or a positive valence (such as pride) are moral emotions that emerge from self-reflection and self-evaluation processes in social contexts. In some neurologic and psychiatric disorders, experiences of SCEs are dysregulated. The objectives of the present study were to (i) evaluate whether patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) experience SCEs in the same way as nonclinical (control) participants and (ii) probe the relationships between experiences of SCEs on the one hand and the psychological symptoms frequently diagnosed in patients with TLE (anxiety and depression), the patients' clinical characteristics, and their functional outcomes in everyday life on the other. Sixty-one patients with TLE and 61 matched controls completed a self-questionnaire (the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)) that enabled us to evaluate the extent to which they experienced shame, guilt, and pride. Demographic data, cognitive data, the severity of anxiety symptoms, and the severity of depressive symptoms were recorded for all participants. In patients with TLE, data of clinical characteristics and quality of life were also evaluated. Relative to controls, patients with TLE were more likely to experience negative-valence SCEs to a higher extent and positive SCEs to a lesser extent. The patients who experienced negative-valence SCEs to a higher extent (rather than to a lesser extent) had a higher frequency of seizures, more severe anxiety and depressive symptoms, and a greater prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders. Furthermore, patients who experienced positive-valence SCEs to a lesser extent (rather than to a higher extent) displayed a higher level of anxiety. Lastly, differences in experiences of SCEs by patients with TLE were associated with a lower quality of life. In conclusion, experiences of SCEs can be dysregulated in patients with TLE. This dysregulation is linked to the patients' clinical and psychological symptoms and quality of life. In this context, SCEs might be a target of interest in the management of epilepsy.

Deficits in physiological and self-conscious emotional response to errors in hoarding disorder

Hoarding disorder (HD) has been hypothesized to arise from deficits in error monitoring and abnormalities in emotional processing, but the relationship between error monitoring and emotional processing has not been examined. We examined measures of self-report, as well as behavioral, physiological, and facial responses to errors during a Stop-Change Task. 25 participants with HD and 32 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Participants reported on number of errors committed and pre/post emotional response to errors. Skin conductance response (SCR) during correct and error commission trials was examined. Facial expression during task performance was coded for self-conscious and negative emotions. HD and HC participants had significantly different error rates but comparable error correction and post-error slowing. SCR was significantly lower for HD during error commission than for HC. During error trials, HD participants showed a significant deficit in displays of self-conscious emotions compared to HC. Self-reported emotions were increased in HD, with more negative and self-conscious emotion reported than was reported for HC participants. These findings suggest that hypoactive emotional responding at a physiological level may play a role in how errors are processed in individuals with HD.

The Two-Systems Account of Theory of Mind: Testing the Links to Social- Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities

According to the two-systems account of theory of mind (ToM), understanding mental states of others involves both fast social-perceptual processes, as well as slower, reflexive cognitive operations (Frith and Frith, 2008; Apperly and Butterfill, 2009). To test the respective roles of specific abilities in either of these processes we administered 15 experimental procedures to a large sample of 343 participants, testing ability in face recognition and holistic perception, language, and reasoning. ToM was measured by a set of tasks requiring ability to track and to infer complex emotional and mental states of others from faces, eyes, spoken language, and prosody. We used structural equation modeling to test the relative strengths of a social-perceptual (face processing related) and reflexive-cognitive (language and reasoning related) path in predicting ToM ability. The two paths accounted for 58% of ToM variance, thus validating a general two-systems framework. Testing specific predictor paths revealed language and face recognition as strong and significant predictors of ToM. For reasoning, there were neither direct nor mediated effects, albeit reasoning was strongly associated with language. Holistic face perception also failed to show a direct link with ToM ability, while there was a mediated effect via face recognition. These results highlight the respective roles of face recognition and language for the social brain, and contribute closer empirical specification of the general two-systems account.

Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations During Resting State Differentially Predicts Authentic and Hubristic Pride

OBJECTIVE

Pride is an important, self-conscious emotion composed of two distinct conceptual facets: arrogant, egotistic "hubristic pride," and pro-social, achievement-oriented "authentic pride." However, little is known about the neural basis of the two facets of pride. Here, we investigated the association between spontaneous brain activity and these two facets of pride in resting state.

METHOD

We measured 276 participants on authentic and hubristic pride. The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) was used to identify pride-related regions.

RESULTS

The results revealed individual differences in authentic pride were associated with the fALFF in the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG), which has been implicated in social processing. In contrast, individual differences in hubristic pride were associated with the fALFF in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), which have been implicated in self-referential and reward processing.

CONCLUSIONS

Together, our results provide initial evidence for the distinct neural substrates for authentic and hubristic pride.

The alienation of affection toward parents and influential factors in Chinese left-behind children

OBJECTIVE

Although alienation toward parents is important for children (for current mental health status or later interpersonal relationships in adulthood), it is undervalued and even lacks a standardized tool of assessment. Moreover, the large number of left-behind children in China is a cause of public concern. However, their experienced alienation toward their parents remains unclear, which may be important for early detection or intervention for behavioral problems in this population. Hence, the current study aimed to develop an alienation inventory for children and then use it to investigate the experienced alienation toward parents in Chinese left-behind children.

METHODS

Two studies were carried out. Study 1 was designed to develop a standard inventory of alienation toward parents (IAP). In study 2, 8361 children and adolescents (6704 of them were left-behind status) of the Chongqing area, aged between 8 and 19 years old, were recruited for investigation. All participants were surveyed with a standard sociodemographic questionnaire, children's cognitive style questionnaire, children's depression inventory, adolescent self-rating life events checklist, and newly built IAP in study 1.

RESULTS

In study 1, we developed a two-component (communication and emotional distance) and 18-item (9 items for maternal or paternal form, respectively) IAP questionnaire. In study 2, exploratory factor analysis indicated an expected two-factor structure of IAP, which was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients showed a good reliability (0.887 and 0.821 for maternal and paternal form, respectively). Children with absent mother experienced the highest alienation toward parents. Boys as well as children aged 8-10 years old experienced higher alienation toward parents. Poor communication with parents (sparse or no connection), level of left-behind condition (parents divorced, been far away from parents), and psychosocial vulnerability (stressful life events, negative cognitive style) were risk factors of alienation toward parents.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study develops a two-factor (communication and emotional distance) IAP, which offers a reliable tool to assess experienced alienation of affection toward parents in children aged between 8 and 19 years old. Our result is the first investigation of experienced alienation and potential influential factors in Chinese left-behind children. The findings that children with absent mother experience higher alienation toward parents, as well as three recognized risk factors for alienation of affection toward parents (poor communication with absent parents, worse left-behind condition, and psychosocial vulnerability), give valuable guidance for parents who intend to leave or who are already leaving as well as for government policymaking.