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Brunet NM, Marsh NK, Bean CR, Powell ZA. Trust in the police and affective evaluation of police faces: a preliminary study. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1258297. [PMID: 38022938 PMCID: PMC10666740 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1258297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction A study was conducted to investigate if an individual's trust in law enforcement affects their perception of the emotional facial expressions displayed by police officers. Methods The study invited 77 participants to rate the valence of 360 face images. Images featured individuals without headgear (condition 1), or with a baseball cap (condition 2) or police hat (condition 3) digitally added to the original photograph. The images were balanced across sex, race/ethnicity (Asian, African American, Latine, and Caucasian), and facial expression (Happy, Neutral, and Angry). After rating the facial expressions, respondents completed a survey about their attitudes toward the police. Results The results showed that, on average, valence ratings for "Angry" faces were similar across all experimental conditions. However, a closer examination revealed that faces with police hats were perceived as angrier compared to the control conditions (those with no hat and those with a baseball cap) by individuals who held negative views of the police. Conversely, participants with positive attitudes toward the police perceived faces with police hats as less angry compared to the control condition. This correlation was highly significant for angry faces (p < 0.01), and stronger in response to male faces compared to female faces but was not significant for neutral or happy faces. Discussion The study emphasizes the substantial role of attitudes in shaping social perception, particularly within the context of law enforcement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas M. Brunet
- Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, United States
| | - Natalya K. Marsh
- Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, United States
| | - Caitlin R. Bean
- Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, United States
| | - Zachary A. Powell
- School of Criminology and Criminal Justice of Criminal Justice, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, United States
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Fujihara Y, Guo K, Liu CH. Relationship between types of anxiety and the ability to recognize facial expressions. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2023; 241:104100. [PMID: 38041913 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/04/2023] Open
Abstract
This study examined whether three subtypes of anxiety (trait anxiety, state anxiety, and social anxiety) have different effects on recognition of facial expressions. One hundred and thirty-eight participants matched facial expressions of three intensity levels (20 %, 40 %, 100 %) with one of the six emotion labels ("happy", "sad", "fear", "angry", "disgust", and "surprise"). While using a conventional method of analysis we were able to replicate some significant correlations between each anxiety type and recognition performance found in the literature. However, when we used partial correlation to isolate the effect of each anxiety type, most of these correlations were no longer significant, apart from the negative correlations between Beck Anxiety Inventory and reaction time to fearful faces displayed at 40 % intensity level, and the correlations between anxiety and categorisation errors. Specifically, social anxiety was positively correlated with misidentifying a happy face as a disgust face at 40 % intensity level, and state anxiety negatively correlated with misidentifying a happy face as a sad face at 20 % intensity level. However, these partial correlation analyses became non-significant after p value adjustment for multiple comparisons. Our eye tracking data also showed that state anxiety may be associated with reduced fixations on the eye regions of low-intensity sad or fearful faces. These analyses cast doubts on some effects reported in the previous studies because they are likely to reflect a mixture of influences from highly correlated anxiety subtypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuya Fujihara
- Department of Psychology, Yasuda Women's University, Japan.
| | - Kun Guo
- School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN6 7TS, United Kingdom.
| | - Chang Hong Liu
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom.
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3
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Huc M, Bush K, Atias G, Berrigan L, Cox S, Jaworska N. Recognition of masked and unmasked facial expressions in males and females and relations with mental wellness. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1217736. [PMID: 38023041 PMCID: PMC10643509 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1217736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Background While the effects of mask wearing/facial occlusion are known to impair facial expression recognition, little is known about the role of mental wellness on facial expression recognition, as well as the influence of sex on misattribution errors (i.e., confusions between emotions). In this large study, we aimed to address the relation between facial expression recognition and loneliness, perceived stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms in male and female adults. Methods We assessed the influence of mask-wearing on facial expression recognition [i.e., accuracy and response time (RT)] via an online study in N = 469 adult males and females across Canada. Results Expectedly, recognition was impaired under masked conditions (i.e., lower accuracy, longer RTs, more misattribution errors). Females were faster and more accurate than males, with less misattribution errors. A novel finding was that people with higher perceived stress were less accurate at identifying masked fearful faces. Perceived stress influenced the relation between sex and RT to masked happy faces; males with high stress scores were slower to recognize masked happy faces, the opposite was true for females. Finally, this study was among the first to show that higher loneliness predicted shorter RT to unmasked faces. Impact Our results show that facial expression recognition is impaired by mask-wearing, and that sex and mental health features are important predictors of performance. Such insight could be detrimental in certain sectors of the population (e.g., health care or education), and inform policies being adopted in future pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Huc
- University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Katie Bush
- University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Gali Atias
- University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Lindsay Berrigan
- Department of Psychology, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
| | - Sylvia Cox
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Department of Psychology, Dawson College, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Natalia Jaworska
- University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada
- Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
- Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
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4
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Marotta A, Braga M, Fiorio M. Trait-related neural basis of attentional bias to emotions: a tDCS study. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2023; 23:1291-1302. [PMID: 37537308 PMCID: PMC10545638 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-023-01122-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/05/2023]
Abstract
Negative emotional stimuli can strongly bias attention, particularly in individuals with high levels of dispositional negative affect (NA). The current study investigated whether the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a brain region involved in the top-down regulation of emotional processing, plays a different role in controlling attention to emotions, depending on the individual NA. Sham and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was delivered over the right or left PFC while assessing attentional bias (AB) to emotions (happy, angry, sad faces) in individuals with higher and lower trait NA. When tDCS was inactive (sham), individuals with higher trait NA showed AB toward angry and away from sad faces, while individuals with lower trait NA presented with no AB. Right anodal-tDCS abolished the AB toward angry faces and induced an AB toward sad faces in individuals with higher trait NA, while no effect was found in individuals with lower trait NA. Left anodal-tDCS abolished any AB in individuals with higher trait NA and induced an AB away from happy faces in individuals with lower trait NA. These findings confirm a critical role of trait NA in AB to emotions and demonstrate a different involvement of PFC in emotional processing based on dispositional affect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela Marotta
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Via Felice Casorati, 43-37131 Verona, Italy
| | - Miriam Braga
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Via Felice Casorati, 43-37131 Verona, Italy
| | - Mirta Fiorio
- Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Via Felice Casorati, 43-37131 Verona, Italy
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K A, Prasad S, Chakrabarty M. Trait anxiety modulates the detection sensitivity of negative affect in speech: an online pilot study. Front Behav Neurosci 2023; 17:1240043. [PMID: 37744950 PMCID: PMC10512416 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1240043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Acoustic perception of emotions in speech is relevant for humans to navigate the social environment optimally. While sensory perception is known to be influenced by ambient noise, and bodily internal states (e.g., emotional arousal and anxiety), their relationship to human auditory perception is relatively less understood. In a supervised, online pilot experiment sans the artificially controlled laboratory environment, we asked if the detection sensitivity of emotions conveyed by human speech-in-noise (acoustic signals) varies between individuals with relatively lower and higher levels of subclinical trait-anxiety, respectively. In a task, participants (n = 28) accurately discriminated the target emotion conveyed by the temporally unpredictable acoustic signals (signal to noise ratio = 10 dB), which were manipulated at four levels (Happy, Neutral, Fear, and Disgust). We calculated the empirical area under the curve (a measure of acoustic signal detection sensitivity) based on signal detection theory to answer our questions. A subset of individuals with High trait-anxiety relative to Low in the above sample showed significantly lower detection sensitivities to acoustic signals of negative emotions - Disgust and Fear and significantly lower detection sensitivities to acoustic signals when averaged across all emotions. The results from this pilot study with a small but statistically relevant sample size suggest that trait-anxiety levels influence the overall acoustic detection of speech-in-noise, especially those conveying threatening/negative affect. The findings are relevant for future research on acoustic perception anomalies underlying affective traits and disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Achyuthanand K
- Department of Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
| | - Saurabh Prasad
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
| | - Mrinmoy Chakrabarty
- Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
- Centre for Design and New Media, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
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6
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Gordillo F, Arana JM, Lamas B, Pérez MÁ. Analysis of attentional biases in anxiety using 24 facial priming sequences. Cogn Process 2023; 24:339-351. [PMID: 36934379 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-023-01132-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 03/20/2023]
Abstract
The processing of emotional facial expressions helps people to adjust to the physical and social environment. Furthermore, mental disorders such as anxiety have been linked to attentional biases in the processing of this type of information. Nevertheless, there are still contradictory results that might be due to the methodology used and to individual differences in the manifestation of anxiety. Our research goal was to use 24 facial priming sequences to analyse attentional biases in the detection of facial expressions of fear, considering the levels and the ways in which individuals express anxiety. With higher levels of cognitive anxiety and general trait anxiety, those sequences that began in the upper half (vs. lower half) elicited a speedier response in the detection of fear. The results are discussed within the context of other techniques and disorders that prompt a deficit in the processing of facial information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando Gordillo
- Departamento de Psicología Básica, Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Salamanca, Avda. de La Merced, 109-131, 37005, Salamanca, Spain.
| | - José M Arana
- Departamento de Psicología Básica, Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Salamanca, Avda. de La Merced, 109-131, 37005, Salamanca, Spain
| | - Beatriz Lamas
- Departmento de Psicología, Universidad Camilo José Cela, Castillo de Alarcón nº 49, 28692-Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain
| | - Miguel Ángel Pérez
- Departmento de Psicología, Universidad Camilo José Cela, Castillo de Alarcón nº 49, 28692-Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain
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Beckenstrom AC, Coloma PM, Dawson GR, Finlayson AK, Malik A, Post A, Steiner MA, Potenza MN. Use of experimental medicine approaches for the development of novel psychiatric treatments based on orexin receptor modulation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 147:105107. [PMID: 36828161 PMCID: PMC10165155 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2022] [Revised: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/18/2023] [Indexed: 02/25/2023]
Abstract
Despite progress in understanding the pathological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders, translation from animal models into clinical use remains a significant bottleneck. Preclinical studies have implicated the orexin neuropeptide system as a potential target for psychiatric disorders through its role in regulating emotional, cognitive, and behavioral processes. Clinical studies are investigating orexin modulation in addiction and mood disorders. Here we review performance-outcome measures (POMs) arising from experimental medicine research methods which may show promise as markers of efficacy of orexin receptor modulators in humans. POMs provide objective measures of brain function, complementing patient-reported or clinician-observed symptom evaluation, and aid the translation from preclinical to clinical research. Significant challenges include the development, validation, and operationalization of these measures. We suggest that collaborative networks comprising clinical practitioners, academics, individuals working in the pharmaceutical industry, drug regulators, patients, patient advocacy groups, and other relevant stakeholders may provide infrastructure to facilitate validation of experimental medicine approaches in translational research and in the implementation of these approaches in real-world clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy C Beckenstrom
- P1vital Ltd, Manor House, Howbery Business Park, Wallingford OX10 8BA, UK.
| | - Preciosa M Coloma
- Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Hegenheimermattweg 91, Allschwil 4123, Switzerland
| | - Gerard R Dawson
- P1vital Ltd, Manor House, Howbery Business Park, Wallingford OX10 8BA, UK
| | - Ailidh K Finlayson
- P1vital Ltd, Manor House, Howbery Business Park, Wallingford OX10 8BA, UK; Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
| | - Asad Malik
- P1vital Ltd, Manor House, Howbery Business Park, Wallingford OX10 8BA, UK
| | - Anke Post
- Corlieve Therapeutics, Swiss Innovation Park, Hegenheimermattweg 167A, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland
| | | | - Marc N Potenza
- Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, 1 Church Street, Room 726, New Haven, CT 06510, USA; Connecticut Mental Health Center, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06519, USA; Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, Wethersfield, CT, USA; The Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, 100 College St, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
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8
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Non-conscious processing of fear faces: a function of the implicit self-concept of anxiety. BMC Neurosci 2023; 24:12. [PMID: 36740677 PMCID: PMC9901098 DOI: 10.1186/s12868-023-00781-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Trait anxiety refers to a stable tendency to experience fears and worries across many situations. High trait anxiety is a vulnerability factor for the development of psychopathologies. Self-reported trait anxiety appears to be associated with an automatic processing advantage for threat-related information. Self-report measures assess aspects of the explicit self-concept of anxiety. Indirect measures can tap into the implicit self-concept of anxiety. METHODS We examined automatic brain responsiveness to non-conscious threat as a function of trait anxiety using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Besides a self-report instrument, we administered the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to assess anxiety. We used a gender-decision paradigm presenting brief (17 ms) and backward-masked facial expressions depicting disgust and fear. RESULTS Explicit trait anxiety was not associated with brain responsiveness to non-conscious threat. However, a relation of the implicit self-concept of anxiety with masked fear processing in the thalamus, precentral gyrus, and lateral prefrontal cortex was observed. CONCLUSIONS We provide evidence that a measure of the implicit self-concept of anxiety is a valuable predictor of automatic neural responses to threat in cortical and subcortical areas. Hence, implicit anxiety measures could be a useful addition to explicit instruments. Our data support the notion that the thalamus may constitute an important neural substrate in biased non-conscious processing in anxiety.
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9
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Lanfranco RC, Rabagliati H, Carmel D. The importance of awareness in face processing: A critical review of interocular suppression studies. Behav Brain Res 2023; 437:114116. [PMID: 36113728 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Human faces convey essential information for understanding others' mental states and intentions. The importance of faces in social interaction has prompted suggestions that some relevant facial features such as configural information, emotional expression, and gaze direction may promote preferential access to awareness. This evidence has predominantly come from interocular suppression studies, with the most common method being the Breaking Continuous Flash Suppression (bCFS) procedure, which measures the time it takes different stimuli to overcome interocular suppression. However, the procedures employed in such studies suffer from multiple methodological limitations. For example, they are unable to disentangle detection from identification processes, their results may be confounded by participants' response bias and decision criteria, they typically use small stimulus sets, and some of their results attributed to detecting high-level facial features (e.g., emotional expression) may be confounded by differences in low-level visual features (e.g., contrast, spatial frequency). In this article, we review the evidence from the bCFS procedure on whether relevant facial features promote access to awareness, discuss the main limitations of this very popular method, and propose strategies to address these issues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renzo C Lanfranco
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Hugh Rabagliati
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - David Carmel
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
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Dyer ML, Attwood AS, Penton-Voak IS, Munafò MR. The role of state and trait anxiety in the processing of facial expressions of emotion. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022; 9:210056. [PMID: 35070339 PMCID: PMC8728173 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.210056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2021] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
State anxiety appears to influence facial emotion processing (Attwood et al. 2017 R. Soc. Open Sci. 4, 160855). We aimed to (i) replicate these findings and (ii) investigate the role of trait anxiety, in an experiment with healthy UK participants (N = 48, 50% male, 50% high trait anxiety). High and low state anxiety were induced via inhalations of 7.5% carbon dioxide enriched air and medical air, respectively. High state anxiety reduced global emotion recognition accuracy (p = 0.01, η p 2 = 0.14 ), but it did not affect interpretation bias towards perceiving anger in ambiguous angry-happy facial morphs (p = 0.18, η p 2 = 0.04 ). We found no clear evidence of a relationship between trait anxiety and global emotion recognition accuracy (p = 0.60, η p 2 = 0.01 ) or interpretation bias towards perceiving anger (p = 0.83, η p 2 = 0.01 ). However, there was greater interpretation bias towards perceiving anger (i.e. away from happiness) during heightened state anxiety, among individuals with high trait anxiety (p = 0.03, d z = 0.33). State anxiety appears to impair emotion recognition accuracy, and among individuals with high trait anxiety, it appears to increase biases towards perceiving anger (away from happiness). Trait anxiety alone does not appear to be associated with facial emotion processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maddy L. Dyer
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Angela S. Attwood
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Ian S. Penton-Voak
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK
| | - Marcus R. Munafò
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol, UK
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11
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Trait anxiety predicts amygdalar responses during direct processing of threat-related pictures. Sci Rep 2021; 11:18469. [PMID: 34531518 PMCID: PMC8446049 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-98023-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies on the associations between trait anxiety and amygdalar responses to threat stimuli have resulted in mixed findings, possibly due to sample characteristics, specific tasks, and analytical methods. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed to investigate linear or non-linear associations between trait anxiety and amygdalar responses in a sample of participants with low, medium, and high trait anxiety scores. During scanning, participants were presented with threat-related or neutral pictures and had either to solve an emotional task or an emotional-unrelated distraction task. Results showed that only during the explicit task trait anxiety was associated with right amygdalar responses to threat-related pictures as compared to neutral pictures. The best model was a cubic model with increased amygdala responses for very low and medium trait anxiety values but decreased amygdala activation for very high trait anxiety values. The findings imply a non-linear relation between trait anxiety and amygdala activation depending on task conditions.
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12
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Tindall IK, Curtis GJ, Locke V. Can anxiety and race interact to influence face-recognition accuracy? A systematic literature review. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0254477. [PMID: 34358245 PMCID: PMC8345850 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2020] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Wrongful convictions continue to occur through eyewitness misidentification. Recognising what factors, or interaction between factors, affect face-recognition is therefore imperative. Extensive research indicates that face-recognition accuracy is impacted by anxiety and by race. Limited research, however, has examined how these factors interact to potentially exacerbate face-recognition deficits. Brigham (2008) suggests that anxiety exacerbates other-race face-recognition deficits. Conversely, Attentional Control Theory predicts that anxiety exacerbates deficits for all faces. This systematic review examined existing studies investigating the possible interaction between anxiety and face-race to compare these theories. Recent studies included in this review found that both anxiety and race influence face-recognition accuracy but found no interaction. Potential moderators existing in reviewed studies, however, might have influenced their results. Separately, in some studies reviewed, anxiety induced during retrieval impacted recognition, contrasting with the conclusions of previous reviews. Recommendations for future research are given to address moderators potentially impacting results observed previously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabeau K. Tindall
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Centre for Transformative Work Design, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Guy J. Curtis
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Vance Locke
- Discipline of Psychology, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
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Karvay Y, Imbriano G, Jin J, Mohanty A, Jarcho JM. They're watching you: the impact of social evaluation and anxiety on threat-related perceptual decision-making. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 86:1174-1183. [PMID: 34143260 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01547-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2020] [Accepted: 06/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In day-to-day social interactions, we frequently use cues and contextual knowledge to make perceptual decisions regarding the presence or absence of threat in facial expressions. Such perceptual decisions are often made in socially evaluative contexts. However, the influence of such contexts on perceptual discrimination of threatening and neutral expressions has not been examined empirically. Furthermore, it is unclear how individual differences in anxiety interact with socially evaluative contexts to influence threat-related perceptual decision-making. In the present study, participants completed a 2-alternative forced choice perceptual decision-making task in which they used threatening and neutral cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral faces while being socially evaluated by purported peers or not. Perceptual sensitivity and reaction time were measured. Individual differences in state anxiety were assessed immediately after the task. In the presence of social evaluation, higher state anxiety was associated with worse perceptual sensitivity, i.e., worse discrimination of threatening and neutral faces. These findings suggest that individual differences in anxiety interact with social evaluation to impair the use of threatening cues to discriminate between threatening and neutral expressions. Such impairment in perceptual decision-making may contribute to maladaptive social behavior that often accompanies evaluative social contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yvette Karvay
- Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA.
| | | | - Jingwen Jin
- Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong & The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Aprajita Mohanty
- Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - Johanna M Jarcho
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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14
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Jeon HG, Kim C, Lee J, Lee KC. Understanding E-Commerce Consumers' Repeat Purchase Intention: The Role of Trust Transfer and the Moderating Effect of Neuroticism. Front Psychol 2021; 12:690039. [PMID: 34140923 PMCID: PMC8203814 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.690039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The dominant position of e-commerce is especially being articulated in the retailing industry once again due to several constraints that the world faces in the COVID-19 pandemic era. In this regard, this study explores the significant role of trust transfer (from offline to online) and the moderating effect of consumers’ neurotic traits in the framework of trust-satisfaction-repurchase intention in the e-commerce context based on a survey with 406 Korean e-commerce consumers. Moreover, a prediction-oriented segmentation (POS) technique combined with structural equation models (SEM) was utilized to reveal consumers’ probable hidden heterogeneous characteristics. The outcomes of the global model SEM analysis indicate that offline-online trust transference occurs in e-commerce, and the conveyed trust significantly influences satisfaction and consumers’ repeat purchase intention through satisfaction. Neuroticism also has significant positive effects on trust transfer in the global model. However, results in three subgroups generated by POS show heterogeneous characteristics that considerably differed from the global model test results. The implications from this study will be beneficial to field practitioners in the e-commerce industry in addressing the importance of trust transfer, negative neurotic traits as well as heterogeneous aspects of consumers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyeon Gyu Jeon
- SKK Business School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Cheong Kim
- SKK Business School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea.,Economics Department, Airports Council International World, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Jungwoo Lee
- SKK Business School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Kun Chang Lee
- SKK Business School, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea.,Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
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15
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Electrophysiological responses to negative evaluative person-knowledge: Effects of individual differences. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2021; 21:822-836. [PMID: 33846952 PMCID: PMC8354867 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00894-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Faces transmit rich information about a unique personal identity. Recent studies examined how negative evaluative information affects event-related potentials (ERPs), the relevance of individual differences, such as trait anxiety, neuroticism, or agreeableness, for these effects is unclear. In this preregistered study, participants (N = 80) were presented with neutral faces, either associated with highly negative or neutral biographical information. Faces were shown under three different task conditions that varied the attentional focus on face-unrelated features, perceptual face information, or emotional information. Results showed a task-independent increase of the N170 component for faces associated with negative information, while interactions occurred for the Early Posterior Negativity (EPN) and the Late Positive Potential (LPP), showing ERP differences only when paying attention to the evaluative information. Trait anxiety and neuroticism did not influence ERP differences. Low agreeableness increased EPN differences during perceptual distraction. Thus, we observed that low agreeableness leads to early increased processing of potentially hostile faces, although participants were required to attend to a face-unrelated feature.
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16
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Do you see the “face”? Individual differences in face pareidolia. JOURNAL OF PACIFIC RIM PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1017/prp.2019.27] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
People tend to see faces from non-face objects or meaningless patterns. Such illusory face perception is called face pareidolia. Previous studies have revealed an interesting fact that there are huge individual differences in face pareidolia experience among the population. Here, we review previous findings on individual differences in face pareidolia experience from four categories: sex differences, developmental factors, personality traits and neurodevelopmental factors. We further discuss underlying cognitive or neural mechanisms to explain why some perceive the objects as faces while others do not. The individual differences in face pareidolia could not only offer scientific insights on how the brain works to process face information, but also suggest potential clinical applications.
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17
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Meeker TJ, Emerson NM, Chien JH, Saffer MI, Bienvenu OJ, Korzeniewska A, Greenspan JD, Lenz FA. During vigilance to painful stimuli: slower response rate is related to high trait anxiety, whereas faster response rate is related to high state anxiety. J Neurophysiol 2021; 125:305-319. [PMID: 33326361 PMCID: PMC8087378 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00492.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2020] [Revised: 11/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
A pathological increase in vigilance, or hypervigilance, may be related to pain intensity in some clinical pain syndromes and may result from attention bias to salient stimuli mediated by anxiety. During a continuous performance task where subjects discriminated painful target stimuli from painful nontargets, we measured detected targets (hits), nondetected targets (misses), nondetected nontargets (correct rejections), and detected nontargets (false alarms). Using signal detection theory, we calculated response bias, the tendency to endorse a stimulus as a target, and discriminability, the ability to discriminate a target from nontarget. Owing to the relatively slow rate of stimulus presentation, our primary hypothesis was that sustained performance would result in a more conservative response bias reflecting a lower response rate over time on task. We found a more conservative response bias with time on task and no change in discriminability. We predicted that greater state and trait anxiety would lead to a more liberal response bias. A multivariable model provided partial support for our prediction; high trait anxiety related to a more conservative response bias (lower response rate), whereas high state anxiety related to a more liberal bias. This inverse relationship of state and trait anxiety is consistent with reports of effects of state and trait anxiety on reaction times to threatening stimuli. In sum, we report that sustained attention to painful stimuli was associated with a decrease in the tendency of the subject to respond to any stimulus over time on task, whereas the ability to discriminate target from nontarget remains unchanged.NEW & NOTEWORTHY During a series of painful stimuli requiring subjects to respond to targets, we separated response willingness from ability to discriminate targets from nontargets. Response willingness declined during the task, with no change in subjects' ability to discriminate, consistent with previous vigilance studies. High trait anxious subjects were less willing to respond and showed slower reaction times to hits than low anxious subjects. This study reveals an important role of trait anxiety in pain vigilance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy J Meeker
- Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Nichole M Emerson
- Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Jui-Hong Chien
- Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Mark I Saffer
- Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
| | | | - Anna Korzeniewska
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Joel D Greenspan
- Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
- Department of Neural and Pain Sciences and Center to Advance Chronic Pain Research, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland
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18
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Günther V, Hußlack A, Weil AS, Bujanow A, Henkelmann J, Kersting A, Quirin M, Hoffmann KT, Egloff B, Lobsien D, Suslow T. Individual differences in anxiety and automatic amygdala response to fearful faces: A replication and extension of Etkin et al. (2004). Neuroimage Clin 2020; 28:102441. [PMID: 32980596 PMCID: PMC7522800 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2020] [Revised: 08/21/2020] [Accepted: 09/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Trait anxiety refers to the stable tendency to attend to threats and experience fears and worries across many situations. According to the widely noticed, pioneering investigation by Etkin et al. (2004) trait anxiety is strongly associated with reactivity in the right basolateral amygdala to non-conscious threat. Although this observation was based on a sample of only 17 individuals, no replication effort has been reported yet. We reexamined automatic amygdala responsiveness as a function of anxiety in a large sample of 107 participants. Besides self-report instruments, we administered an indirect test to assess implicit anxiety. To assess early, automatic stages of emotion processing, we used a color-decision paradigm presenting brief (33 ms) and backward-masked fearful facial expressions. N = 56 participants were unaware of the presence of masked faces. In this subset of unaware participants, the relationship between trait anxiety and basolateral amygdala activation by fearful faces was successfully replicated in region of interest analyses. Additionally, a relation of implicit anxiety with masked fear processing in the amygdala and temporal gyrus was observed. We provide evidence that implicit measures of affect can be valuable predictors of automatic brain responsiveness and may represent useful additions to explicit measures. Our findings support a central role of amygdala reactivity to non-consciously perceived threat in understanding and predicting dispositional anxiety, i.e. the frequency of spontaneously occurring anxiety in everyday life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vivien Günther
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anja Hußlack
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anna-Sophie Weil
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anna Bujanow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Markus Quirin
- Department of Psychology, Technical University München, 80333 München, Germany; PFH Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | | | - Boris Egloff
- Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, 55122 Mainz, Germany
| | - Donald Lobsien
- Department of Neuroradiology, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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19
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Guo K, Calver L, Soornack Y, Bourke P. Valence-dependent Disruption in Processing of Facial Expressions of Emotion in Early Visual Cortex—A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:906-916. [DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01520] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Our visual inputs are often entangled with affective meanings in natural vision, implying the existence of extensive interaction between visual and emotional processing. However, little is known about the neural mechanism underlying such interaction. This exploratory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study examined the possible involvement of the early visual cortex (EVC, Area V1/V2/V3) in perceiving facial expressions of different emotional valences. Across three experiments, single-pulse TMS was delivered at different time windows (50–150 msec) after a brief 10-msec onset of face images, and participants reported the visibility and perceived emotional valence of faces. Interestingly, earlier TMS at ∼90 msec only reduced the face visibility irrespective of displayed expressions, but later TMS at ∼120 msec selectively disrupted the recognition of negative facial expressions, indicating the involvement of EVC in the processing of negative expressions at a later time window, possibly beyond the initial processing of fed-forward facial structure information. The observed TMS effect was further modulated by individuals' anxiety level. TMS at ∼110–120 msec disrupted the recognition of anger significantly more for those scoring relatively low in trait anxiety than the high scorers, suggesting that cognitive bias influences the processing of facial expressions in EVC. Taken together, it seems that EVC is involved in structural encoding of (at least) negative facial emotional valence, such as fear and anger, possibly under modulation from higher cortical areas.
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20
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Bublatzky F, Kavcıoğlu F, Guerra P, Doll S, Junghöfer M. Contextual information resolves uncertainty about ambiguous facial emotions: Behavioral and magnetoencephalographic correlates. Neuroimage 2020; 215:116814. [PMID: 32276073 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2018] [Revised: 03/17/2020] [Accepted: 04/01/2020] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Environmental conditions bias our perception of other peoples' facial emotions. This becomes quite relevant in potentially threatening situations, when a fellow's facial expression might indicate potential danger. The present study tested the prediction that a threatening environment biases the recognition of facial emotions. To this end, low- and medium-expressive happy and fearful faces (morphed to 10%, 20%, 30%, or 40% emotional) were presented within a context of instructed threat-of-shock or safety. Self-reported data revealed that instructed threat led to a biased recognition of fearful, but not happy facial expressions. Magnetoencephalographic correlates revealed spatio-temporal clusters of neural network activity associated with emotion recognition and contextual threat/safety in early to mid-latency time intervals in the left parietal cortex, bilateral prefrontal cortex, and the left temporal pole regions. Early parietal activity revealed a double dissociation of face-context information as a function of the expressive level of facial emotions: When facial expressions were difficult to recognize (low-expressive), contextual threat enhanced fear processing and contextual safety enhanced processing of subtle happy faces. However, for rather easily recognizable faces (medium-expressive) the left hemisphere (parietal cortex, PFC, and temporal pole) showed enhanced activity to happy faces during contextual threat and fearful faces during safety. Thus, contextual settings reduce the salience threshold and boost early face processing of low-expressive congruent facial emotions, whereas face-context incongruity or mismatch effects drive neural activity of easier recognizable facial emotions. These results elucidate how environmental settings help recognize facial emotions, and the brain mechanisms underlying the recognition of subtle nuances of fear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Bublatzky
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, Germany.
| | - Fatih Kavcıoğlu
- Chair of Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Germany
| | - Pedro Guerra
- Department of Personality, University of Granada, Spain
| | - Sarah Doll
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Markus Junghöfer
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany
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21
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Strnádelová B, Halamová J, Kanovský M. Identification of Primary Facial Emotions in Relation to Level of Self-Criticism. Perception 2019; 48:948-967. [PMID: 31474184 DOI: 10.1177/0301006619870399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Júlia Halamová
- Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Martin Kanovský
- Institute of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia
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22
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Kang W, Kim G, Kim H, Lee SH. The Influence of Anxiety on the Recognition of Facial Emotion Depends on the Emotion Category and Race of the Target Faces. Exp Neurobiol 2019; 28:261-269. [PMID: 31138993 PMCID: PMC6526109 DOI: 10.5607/en.2019.28.2.261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2019] [Revised: 02/26/2019] [Accepted: 02/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The recognition of emotional facial expressions is critical for our social interactions. While some prior studies have shown that a high anxiety level is associated with more sensitive recognition of emotion, there are also reports supporting that anxiety did not affect or reduce the sensitivity to the recognition of facial emotions. To reconcile these results, here we investigated whether the effect of individual anxiety on the recognition of facial emotions is dependent on the emotion category and the race of the target faces. We found that, first, there was a significant positive correlation between the individual anxiety level and the recognition sensitivity for angry faces but not for sad or happy faces. Second, while the correlation was significant for both low- and high-intensity angry faces during the recognition of the observer's own-race faces, there was significant correlation only for low-intensity angry faces during the recognition of other-race faces. Collectively, our results suggest that the influence of anxiety on the recognition of facial emotions is flexible depending on the characteristics of the target face stimuli including emotion category and race.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wonjun Kang
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea
| | - Gayoung Kim
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea
| | - Hyehyeon Kim
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea
| | - Sue-Hyun Lee
- Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea.,Program of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea
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23
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Suslow T, Hußlack A, Bujanow A, Henkelmann J, Kersting A, Hoffmann KT, Egloff B, Lobsien D, Günther V. Implicitly and explicitly assessed anxiety: No relationships with recognition of and brain response to facial emotions. Neuroscience 2019; 408:1-13. [PMID: 30953669 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.03.059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2019] [Revised: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 03/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Trait anxiety, the disposition to experience anxiety, is known to facilitate perception of threats. Trait anxious individuals seem to identify threatening stimuli such as fearful facial expressions more accurately, especially when presented under temporal constraints. In past studies on anxiety and emotion face recognition, only self-report or explicit measures of anxiety have been administered. Implicit measures represent indirect tests allowing to circumvent problems associated with self-report. In our study, we made use of implicit in addition to explicit measures to investigate the relationships of trait anxiety with recognition of and brain response to emotional faces. 75 healthy young volunteers had to identify briefly presented (67 ms) fearful, angry, happy, and neutral facial expressions masked by neutral faces while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Implicit Association Test, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory were applied as implicit and explicit measures of trait anxiety. After corrections for multiple testing, neither implicitly nor explicitly measured anxiety correlated with recognition of emotional facial expressions. Moreover, implicitly and explicitly assessed anxiety was not linked to brain response to emotional faces. Our data suggest links between discrimination accuracy and brain response to facial emotions. Activation of the caudate nucleus seems be of particular importance for recognizing fear and happiness from facial expressions. Processes of somatosensory resonance appear to be involved in identifying fear from facial expressions. The present data indicate that, regardless of assessment method, trait anxiety does not affect the recognition of fear or other emotions as has been proposed previously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstr, 10, Leipzig 04103, Germany.
| | - Anja Hußlack
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstr, 10, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Anna Bujanow
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstr, 10, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Jeanette Henkelmann
- Department of Neuroradiology, University of Leipzig, Liebigstraße 20, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstr, 10, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Karl-Titus Hoffmann
- Department of Neuroradiology, University of Leipzig, Liebigstraße 20, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Boris Egloff
- Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Binger Str. 14-16, Mainz 55122, Germany
| | - Donald Lobsien
- Department of Neuroradiology, University of Leipzig, Liebigstraße 20, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Vivien Günther
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Semmelweisstr, 10, Leipzig 04103, Germany
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24
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Saylik R, Raman E, Szameitat AJ. Sex Differences in Emotion Recognition and Working Memory Tasks. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1072. [PMID: 30008688 PMCID: PMC6034094 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2018] [Accepted: 06/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
It is proposed that emotional and cognitive functions may be differentiated based on sex. However, it is still unknown whether this assumption could be generalized for all emotional faces and working memory (WM) functions. To examine this, 50 females, and 60 males performed an emotion recognition task, consisting of a series of emotional faces as well as three working memory tasks from Cambridge Neuropsychological test battery (CANTAB); namely, spatial working memory (SWM), stocking of Cambridge (SOC), and intra/extradimensional shifts tasks (IED). The results found that females had faster response times in recognition of both positive and negative faces as compared to males. Furthermore, it was observed that while females were better on SWM task processing, males performed better on IED and four move SOC tasks, illustrating that processing of WM components may differentiate by sex. It has been concluded that emotional and cognitive functions are indeed sensitive to sex differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rahmi Saylik
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Art and Science, Mus Alparslan University, Mus, Turkey
| | - Evren Raman
- Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Brunel University London, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom
| | - Andre J Szameitat
- Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Brunel University London, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom
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25
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du Rocher AR, Pickering AD. The effects of social anxiety on emotional face discrimination and its modulation by mouth salience. Cogn Emot 2018; 33:832-839. [PMID: 29781382 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1478279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022]
Abstract
People high in social anxiety experience fear of social situations due to the likelihood of social evaluation. Whereas happy faces are generally processed very quickly, this effect is impaired by high social anxiety. Mouth regions are implicated during emotional face processing, therefore differences in mouth salience might affect how social anxiety relates to emotional face discrimination. We designed an emotional facial expression recognition task to reveal how varying levels of sub-clinical social anxiety (measured by questionnaire) related to the discrimination of happy and fearful faces, and of happy and angry faces. We also categorised the facial expressions by the salience of the mouth region (i.e. high [open mouth] vs. low [closed mouth]). In a sample of 90 participants higher social anxiety (relative to lower social anxiety) was associated with a reduced happy face reaction time advantage. However, this effect was mainly driven by the faces with less salient closed mouths. Our results are consistent with theories of anxiety that incorporate an oversensitive valence evaluation system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew R du Rocher
- a Psychology Department , Goldsmiths, University of London , London , UK
| | - Alan D Pickering
- a Psychology Department , Goldsmiths, University of London , London , UK
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26
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Duval ER, Lovelace CT, Gimmestad K, Aarant J, Filion DL. Flashing a smile: Startle eyeblink modulation by masked affective faces. Psychophysiology 2017; 55. [PMID: 28949019 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2016] [Revised: 07/09/2017] [Accepted: 08/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Affective faces are important stimuli with relevance to healthy and abnormal social and affective information processing. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of brief presentations of affective faces on attention and emotional state across the time course of stimulus processing, as indexed by startle eyeblink response modulation. Healthy adults were presented with happy, neutral, and disgusted male and female faces that were backward masked by neutral faces. Startle responses were elicited at 300, 800, and 3,500 ms following stimulus presentation to probe early and late startle eyeblink modulation, indicative of attention allocation and emotional state, respectively. Results revealed that, at 300 ms, both face expression and face gender modulated startle eyeblink response, suggesting that more attention was allocated to masked happy compared to disgusted female faces, and masked disgusted compared to neutral male faces. There were no effects of either face expression or face gender on startle modulation at 800 ms. At 3,500 ms, target face expression did not modulate startle, but male faces elicited larger startle responses than female faces, indicative of a more negative emotional state. These findings provide a systematic investigation of attention and emotion modulation by brief affective faces across the time course of stimulus processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth R Duval
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | | | - Katherine Gimmestad
- Department of Psychology, Battle Creek VA Medical Center, Battle Creek, Michigan, USA
| | - Justin Aarant
- Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
| | - Diane L Filion
- Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
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27
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Attwood AS, Easey KE, Dalili MN, Skinner AL, Woods A, Crick L, Ilett E, Penton-Voak IS, Munafò MR. State anxiety and emotional face recognition in healthy volunteers. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2017; 4:160855. [PMID: 28572987 PMCID: PMC5451788 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160855] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2016] [Accepted: 05/03/2017] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
High trait anxiety has been associated with detriments in emotional face processing. By contrast, relatively little is known about the effects of state anxiety on emotional face processing. We investigated the effects of state anxiety on recognition of emotional expressions (anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear and happiness) experimentally, using the 7.5% carbon dioxide (CO2) model to induce state anxiety, and in a large observational study. The experimental studies indicated reduced global (rather than emotion-specific) emotion recognition accuracy and increased interpretation bias (a tendency to perceive anger over happiness) when state anxiety was heightened. The observational study confirmed that higher state anxiety is associated with poorer emotion recognition, and indicated that negative effects of trait anxiety are negated when controlling for state anxiety, suggesting a mediating effect of state anxiety. These findings may have implications for anxiety disorders, which are characterized by increased frequency, intensity or duration of state anxious episodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela S. Attwood
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Kayleigh E. Easey
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Michael N. Dalili
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Andrew L. Skinner
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Andy Woods
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Lana Crick
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Elizabeth Ilett
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Ian S. Penton-Voak
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Marcus R. Munafò
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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28
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Abstract
Individuals vary in perceptual accuracy when categorising facial expressions, yet it is unclear how these individual differences in non-clinical population are related to cognitive processing stages at facial information acquisition and interpretation. We tested 104 healthy adults in a facial expression categorisation task, and correlated their categorisation accuracy with face-viewing gaze allocation and personal traits assessed with Autism Quotient, anxiety inventory and Self-Monitoring Scale. The gaze allocation had limited but emotion-specific impact on categorising expressions. Specifically, longer gaze at the eyes and nose regions were coupled with more accurate categorisation of disgust and sad expressions, respectively. Regarding trait measurements, higher autistic score was coupled with better recognition of sad but worse recognition of anger expressions, and contributed to categorisation bias towards sad expressions; whereas higher anxiety level was associated with greater categorisation accuracy across all expressions and with increased tendency of gazing at the nose region. It seems that both anxiety and autistic-like traits were associated with individual variation in expression categorisation, but this association is not necessarily mediated by variation in gaze allocation at expression-specific local facial regions. The results suggest that both facial information acquisition and interpretation capabilities contribute to individual differences in expression categorisation within non-clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Corinne Green
- a School of Psychology , University of Lincoln , Lincoln , UK
| | - Kun Guo
- a School of Psychology , University of Lincoln , Lincoln , UK
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29
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Ruf BM, Bessette KL, Pearlson GD, Stevens MC. Effect of trait anxiety on cognitive test performance in adolescents with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2016; 39:434-448. [PMID: 27690740 DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2016.1232373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety are frequently comorbid disorders associated with different types of abnormal performance on neuropsychological tests. Although some studies have shown that comorbid anxiety alters ADHD test performance, results inconsistently show both improvements and worsening of different abilities, with failures to replicate across different anxiety disorders. Alternatively, trait anxiety may reflect a more stable influence on ADHD test performance than various diagnosable anxiety disorders. METHOD To better understand the possible enhancing or deleterious effects of anxiety on ADHD cognitive impairments, this study examined the effect of individual differences in trait anxiety measured by the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) on a battery of computerized, rapid-performance tests measuring attention and impulsivity-related performance in 98 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) Combined-Subtype ADHD adolescents and 123 healthy controls. It was hypothesized that trait anxiety would attenuate response inhibition and attention deficits in ADHD. RESULTS ADHD-diagnosed adolescents with higher trait anxiety performed better on indices of sustained attention, reaction time, and motor variability, and had altered overall test-performance strategy, while response inhibition was affected in both ADHD and non-ADHD. CONCLUSIONS This study provides the first evidence that pathological levels of anxiety are not needed to see differences in ADHD neuropsychological test performance. Instead, mildly elevated trait anxiety confers a protective influence by reducing the degree of impairment seen in ADHD. These findings suggest that better performing ADHD adolescents might have optimized levels of cortical arousal, and raise new questions about how best to identify the neurobiological substrates responsible for the beneficial effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barbara M Ruf
- a Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living is the Institution , Hartford , CT , USA.,b Department of Psychiatry , Brown Alpert Medical School , Providence , RI , USA
| | - Katie L Bessette
- a Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living is the Institution , Hartford , CT , USA.,c Department of Psychology , University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA
| | - Godfrey D Pearlson
- a Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living is the Institution , Hartford , CT , USA.,d Department of Psychiatry , Yale University School of Medicine , Hartford , CT , USA
| | - Michael C Stevens
- a Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living is the Institution , Hartford , CT , USA.,d Department of Psychiatry , Yale University School of Medicine , Hartford , CT , USA.,e The Institute of Living , Hartford , CT , USA
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Berg HE, Ballard ED, Luckenbaugh DA, Nugent AC, Ionescu DF, Zarate CA. Recognition of emotional facial expressions in anxious and nonanxious depression. Compr Psychiatry 2016; 70:1-8. [PMID: 27624417 PMCID: PMC5023953 DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2016.06.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/11/2016] [Revised: 06/10/2016] [Accepted: 06/11/2016] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Anxiety and depression have each been independently associated with impairments in emotional face recognition. However, little is known about the nature of these impairments when anxiety and depression co-occur. METHODS This post-hoc analysis evaluated the relationship between anxiety status and performance on the Emotional Expression Multimorph Task within a clinical sample of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). RESULTS Participants with anxious depression (n=14) and nonanxious depression (n=14) completed the Emotional Expression Multimorph Task. Those with anxious depression required greater intensity of emotion to identify both happy (p=.01) and sad (p=.04) facial expressions than those with nonanxious depression. Severity of anxiety also correlated with greater intensity of emotion required to detect sad faces. Contrary to prediction, hypervigilance to angry and fearful facial expressions was not observed in anxious depression. LIMITATIONS The present study did not include an anxiety-only group for comparison, and did not assess state anxiety at time of administration. In addition, the extent to which the experimental task correlates with social functioning is not fully understood. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest a diminished sensitivity to happy and sad facial expressions specific to anxious depression, but not a hypervigilance toward threatening facial expressions. Further research on the nature of emotion recognition in anxiety and depression may inform improved clinical interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah E Berg
- Experimental Therapeutics & Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
| | - Elizabeth D Ballard
- Experimental Therapeutics & Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.
| | - David A Luckenbaugh
- Experimental Therapeutics & Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
| | - Allison C Nugent
- Experimental Therapeutics & Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
| | - Dawn F Ionescu
- Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Carlos A Zarate
- Experimental Therapeutics & Pathophysiology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
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Abstract
The rapid detection of emotional signals from facial expressions is fundamental for human social interaction. The personality factor of neuroticism modulates the processing of various types of emotional facial expressions; however, its effect on the detection of emotional facial expressions remains unclear. In this study, participants with high- and low-neuroticism scores performed a visual search task to detect normal expressions of anger and happiness, and their anti-expressions within a crowd of neutral expressions. Anti-expressions contained an amount of visual changes equivalent to those found in normal expressions compared to neutral expressions, but they were usually recognized as neutral expressions. Subjective emotional ratings in response to each facial expression stimulus were also obtained. Participants with high-neuroticism showed an overall delay in the detection of target facial expressions compared to participants with low-neuroticism. Additionally, the high-neuroticism group showed higher levels of arousal to facial expressions compared to the low-neuroticism group. These data suggest that neuroticism modulates the detection of emotional facial expressions in healthy participants; high levels of neuroticism delay overall detection of facial expressions and enhance emotional arousal in response to facial expressions.
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Andric S, Maric NP, Knezevic G, Mihaljevic M, Mirjanic T, Velthorst E, van Os J. Neuroticism and facial emotion recognition in healthy adults. Early Interv Psychiatry 2016; 10:160-4. [PMID: 25640035 DOI: 10.1111/eip.12212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2014] [Accepted: 11/09/2014] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
AIM The aim of the present study was to examine whether healthy individuals with higher levels of neuroticism, a robust independent predictor of psychopathology, exhibit altered facial emotion recognition performance. METHODS Facial emotion recognition accuracy was investigated in 104 healthy adults using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR). Participants' degree of neuroticism was estimated using neuroticism scales extracted from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. RESULTS A significant negative correlation between the degree of neuroticism and the percentage of correct answers on DFAR was found only for happy facial expression (significant after applying Bonferroni correction). CONCLUSIONS Altered sensitivity to the emotional context represents a useful and easy way to obtain cognitive phenotype that correlates strongly with inter-individual variations in neuroticism linked to stress vulnerability and subsequent psychopathology. Present findings could have implication in early intervention strategies and staging models in psychiatry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sanja Andric
- School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Nadja P Maric
- School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.,Clinic for Psychiatry, Clinical Centre of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Goran Knezevic
- Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | | | - Tijana Mirjanic
- Special Hospital for Psychiatric Disorders Kovin, Kovin, Serbia
| | - Eva Velthorst
- Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Centre University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, USA.,Departments of Psychiatry and Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine, New York, USA
| | - Jim van Os
- South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands.,King's Health Partners, Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
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Abstract
Trust is a key aspect of various social interactions. Correspondingly, trust has been heavily studied across different scientific disciplines. However, an integration of the diverse research and literature is still missing. Addressing this issue, we review several hundred articles on interpersonal trust among strangers and integrate them into a coherent framework, explaining trust behavior among unfamiliar agents based on an interaction between situational features and distinct personality characteristics. Understanding trust as a decision under risk, we distill 3 core components of trust behavior from the extant literature: attitudes toward risky prospects (i.e., risk aversion and loss aversion), trustworthiness expectations, and betrayal sensitivity. Each of these refers to a distinct set of causal determinants, including personality characteristics (anxiety/fear, trustworthiness, and forgiveness) which can be localized in the space defined by models of basic personality structure (e.g., the Five-Factor Model and the HEXACO model of personality). In sum, the review contributes to the understanding of trust behavior by linking and integrating the findings from various fields of trust research. Additionally, it provides fruitful directions and implications for future research.
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Intersubject variability in fearful face processing: the link between behavior and neural activation. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2015; 14:1438-53. [PMID: 24841078 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-014-0290-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Stimuli that signal threat show considerable variability in the extents to which they enhance behavior, even among healthy individuals. However, the neural underpinning of this behavioral variability is not well understood. By manipulating expectation of threat in an fMRI study of fearful versus neutral face categorization, we uncovered a network of areas underlying variability in threat processing in healthy adults. We explicitly altered expectations by presenting face images at three different expectation levels: 80 %, 50 %, and 20 %. Subjects were instructed to report as quickly and accurately as possible whether the face was fearful (signaled threat) or not. An uninformative cue preceded each face by 4 s. By taking the difference between reaction times (RTs) to fearful and neutral faces, we quantified an overall fear RT bias (i.e., faster to fearful than to neutral faces) for each subject. This bias correlated positively with late-trial fMRI activation (8 s after the face) during unexpected-fearful-face trials in bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the left subgenual cingulate cortex, and the right caudate nucleus, and correlated negatively with early-trial fMRI activation (4 s after the cue) during expected-neutral-face trials in bilateral dorsal striatum and the right ventral striatum. These results demonstrate that the variability in threat processing among healthy adults is reflected not only in behavior, but also in the magnitude of activation in medial prefrontal and striatal regions that appear to encode affective value.
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Henry JD, Moses E, Castellini J, Scott J. Mental health problems in adolescence and the interpretation of unambiguous threat. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0127167. [PMID: 26039081 PMCID: PMC4454485 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127167] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2015] [Accepted: 04/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Aberrant threat perception has been linked to paranoia, anxiety and other mental health problems, and is widely considered to be a core, transdiagnostic feature of psychopathology. However, to date there has been only limited investigation of whether mental health problems are associated with a biased interpretation of stimuli that have explicit (as opposed to ambiguous) connotations of threat. In the present study, 41 adolescents diagnosed with a mental illness and 45 demographically matched controls were asked to provide danger ratings of stimuli normatively rated as being either low or high in potential threat. All participants were also asked to complete background measures of cognitive function, mental health and wellbeing. The results indicated that the two groups did not differ in their capacity to discriminate between low and high threat stimuli, nor did they differ in the absolute level of threat that they attributed to these stimuli. However, for the control group, the overall level of threat perceived in facial stimuli was correlated with two important indices of mental health (depression and anxiety). No associations emerged in the clinical group. These data are discussed in relation to their potential implications for the role of aberrant threat perception in transdiagnostic models of mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie D. Henry
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Ernestina Moses
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Julieta Castellini
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - James Scott
- School of Medicine, The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
- Australia Metro North Mental Health, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Herston, Queensland, Australia
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Spink GL, Green TB, Jorgensen RS. Openness moderates the relationship between modern health worries and neuroticism. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Pichon S, Miendlarzewska EA, Eryilmaz H, Vuilleumier P. Cumulative activation during positive and negative events and state anxiety predicts subsequent inertia of amygdala reactivity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2014; 10:180-90. [PMID: 24603023 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsu044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Inertia, together with intensity and valence, is an important component of emotion. We tested whether positive and negative events generate lingering changes in subsequent brain responses to unrelated threat stimuli and investigated the impact of individual anxiety. We acquired fMRI data while participants watched positive or negative movie-clips and subsequently performed an unrelated task with fearful and neutral faces. We quantified changes in amygdala reactivity to fearful faces as a function of the valence of preceding movies and cumulative neural activity evoked during them. We demonstrate that amygdala responses to emotional movies spill over to subsequent processing of threat information in a valence-specific manner: negative movies enhance later amygdala activation whereas positive movies attenuate it. Critically, the magnitude of such changes is predicted by a measure of cumulative amygdala responses to the preceding positive or negative movies. These effects appear independent of overt attention, are regionally limited to amygdala, with no changes in functional connectivity. Finally, individuals with higher state anxiety displayed stronger modulation of amygdala reactivity by positive movies. These results suggest that intensity and valence of emotional events as well as anxiety levels promote local changes in amygdala sensitivity to threat, highlighting the importance of past experience in shaping future affective reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swann Pichon
- Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland, and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland, and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Ewa A Miendlarzewska
- Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland, and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Hamdi Eryilmaz
- Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland, and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland, and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Patrik Vuilleumier
- Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1211, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland, and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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