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Silva F, Garrido MI, Soares SC. The effect of anxiety and its interplay with social cues when perceiving aggressive behaviours. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2024:17470218241258209. [PMID: 38785293 DOI: 10.1177/17470218241258209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Contextual cues and emotional states carry expectations and biases that are used to attribute meaning to what we see. In addition, emotional states, such as anxiety, shape our visual systems, increasing overall, and particularly threat-related, sensitivity. It remains unclear, however, how anxiety interacts with additional cues when categorising sensory input. This is especially important in social scenarios where ambiguous gestures are commonplace, thus requiring the integration of cues for a proper interpretation. To this end, we decided to assess how states of anxiety might bias the perception of potentially aggressive social interactions, and how external cues are incorporated in this process. Participants (N = 71) were tasked with signalling the presence of aggression in ambiguous social interactions. Simultaneously, an observer (facial expression) reacted (by showing an emotional expression) to this interaction. Importantly, participants performed this task under safety and threat of shock conditions. Decision measures and eye-tracking data were collected. Our results showed that threat of shock did not affect sensitivity nor criterion when detecting aggressive interactions. The same pattern was observed for response times. Drift diffusion modelling analysis, however, suggested quicker evidence accumulation when under threat. Finally, dwell times over the observer were higher when under threat, indicating a possible association between anxiety states and a bias towards potentially threat-related indicators. Future probing into this topic remains a necessity to better explain the current findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fábio Silva
- William James Center for Research, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Marta I Garrido
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Vic, Australia
- Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Vic, Australia
| | - Sandra C Soares
- William James Center for Research, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
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Silva F, Ribeiro S, Silva S, Garrido MI, Soares SC. Exploring the use of visual predictions in social scenarios while under anticipatory threat. Sci Rep 2024; 14:10913. [PMID: 38740937 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61682-3] [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: 02/23/2024] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
One of the less recognized effects of anxiety lies in perception alterations caused by how one weighs both sensory evidence and contextual cues. Here, we investigated how anxiety affects our ability to use social cues to anticipate the others' actions. We adapted a paradigm to assess expectations in social scenarios, whereby participants were asked to identify the presence of agents therein, while supported by contextual cues from another agent. Participants (N = 66) underwent this task under safe and threat-of-shock conditions. We extracted both criterion and sensitivity measures as well as gaze data. Our analysis showed that whilst the type of action had the expected effect, threat-of-shock had no effect over criterion and sensitivity. Although showing similar dwell times, gaze exploration of the contextual cue was associated with shorter fixation durations whilst participants were under threat. Our findings suggest that anxiety does not appear to influence the use of expectations in social scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fábio Silva
- William James Center for Research, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Sérgio Ribeiro
- Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Samuel Silva
- IEETA, DETI, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Marta I Garrido
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Sandra C Soares
- William James Center for Research, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
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Liu H, Tang E, Guan C, Li J, Zheng J, Zhou D, Shen M, Chen H. Not socially blind: Unimpaired perception of social interaction in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2024; 264:448-450. [PMID: 38262311 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2023.12.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/25/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Huiying Liu
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China
| | - Enze Tang
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China
| | - Chenxiao Guan
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China
| | - Jian Li
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China
| | - Jiewei Zheng
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China
| | | | - Mowei Shen
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China.
| | - Hui Chen
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, China.
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Two Means Together? Effects of Response Bias and Sensitivity on Communicative Action Detection. JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2022; 46:281-298. [PMID: 35431380 PMCID: PMC9005026 DOI: 10.1007/s10919-022-00398-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Numerous lines of research suggest that communicative dyadic actions elicit preferential processing and more accurate detection compared to similar but individual actions. However, it is unclear whether the presence of the second agent provides additional cues that allow for more accurate discriminability between communicative and individual intentions or whether it lowers the threshold for perceiving third-party encounters as interactive. We performed a series of studies comparing the recognition of communicative actions from single and dyadic displays in healthy individuals. A decreased response threshold for communicative actions was observed for dyadic vs. single-agent animations across all three studies, providing evidence for the dyadic communicative bias. Furthermore, consistent with the facilitated recognition hypothesis, congruent response to a communicative gesture increased the ability to accurately interpret the actions. In line with dual-process theory, we propose that both mechanisms may be perceived as complementary rather than competitive and affect different stages of stimuli processing.
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Roodenrys S, Barkus E, Woolrych TJ, Miller LM, Favelle SK. The intentionality bias in schizotypy: a social matter. Cogn Neuropsychiatry 2021; 26:55-72. [PMID: 33403932 DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2020.1865894] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION We aimed to investigate the association between schizotypy and intentionality bias, the tendency to interpret ambiguous actions as being intentional, for social and non-social actions separately. This bias contributes to interpersonal difficulties, and has been associated with psychotic symptoms, such as delusions. However, results have been inconsistent for an association between putative psychosis proneness, schizotypy, and intentionality bias. Further, the multidimensional nature of schizotypy has not been considered. Agreeableness was measured to examine the specificity of the relationship, and inhibition to examine its potential role as a mediator. METHODS Two online studies are reported (n = 280 and n = 163) in which participants made intentionality judgements about ambiguous actions described in sentences. They also completed questionnaire measures of schizotypy and agreeableness, and inhibitory efficiency (a sentence completion task). RESULTS Schizotypy was associated with perceiving ambiguous actions as intentional, particularly in social contexts, after controlling for agreeableness. The association with social intentionality was stronger for schizotypy subscales capturing paranoia and unusual beliefs. Inhibitory efficiency as not a significant predictor of intentionality bias. CONCLUSION These finding suggest intentionality biases for social and non-social events are distinguishable. In relation to schizotypy, social situations appear to generate perceptions of intentionality. Intentionality bias represents a phenotypic cognitive risk for psychosis which should be further investigated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven Roodenrys
- School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Emma Barkus
- School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Tracey J Woolrych
- School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Leonie M Miller
- School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Simone K Favelle
- School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
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Zillekens IC, Brandi ML, Lahnakoski JM, Koul A, Manera V, Becchio C, Schilbach L. Increased functional coupling of the left amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex during the perception of communicative point-light stimuli. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2019; 14:97-107. [PMID: 30481356 PMCID: PMC6318468 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsy105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2018] [Accepted: 11/21/2018] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Interpersonal predictive coding (IPPC) describes the behavioral phenomenon whereby seeing a communicative rather than an individual action helps to discern a masked second agent. As little is known, yet, about the neural correlates of IPPC, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in a group of 27 healthy participants using point-light displays of moving agents embedded in distractors. We discovered that seeing communicative compared to individual actions was associated with higher activation of right superior frontal gyrus, whereas the reversed contrast elicited increased neural activation in an action observation network that was activated during all trials. Our findings, therefore, potentially indicate the formation of action predictions and a reduced demand for executive control in response to communicative actions. Further, in a regression analysis, we revealed that increased perceptual sensitivity was associated with a deactivation of the left amygdala during the perceptual task. A consecutive psychophysiological interaction analysis showed increased connectivity of the amygdala with medial prefrontal cortex in the context of communicative compared to individual actions. Thus, whereas increased amygdala signaling might interfere with task-relevant processes, increased co-activation of the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex in a communicative context might represent the integration of mentalizing computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Imme C Zillekens
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.,International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
| | - Marie-Luise Brandi
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
| | - Juha M Lahnakoski
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
| | - Atesh Koul
- Cognition, Motion and Neuroscience Unit, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy
| | | | - Cristina Becchio
- Cognition, Motion and Neuroscience Unit, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy.,Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Leonhard Schilbach
- Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.,International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
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Okruszek Ł. It Is Not Just in Faces! Processing of Emotion and Intention from Biological Motion in Psychiatric Disorders. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:48. [PMID: 29472852 PMCID: PMC5809469 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2017] [Accepted: 01/26/2018] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Social neuroscience offers a wide range of techniques that may be applied to study the social cognitive deficits that may underlie reduced social functioning—a common feature across many psychiatric disorders. At the same time, a significant proportion of research in this area has been conducted using paradigms that utilize static displays of faces or eyes. The use of point-light displays (PLDs) offers a viable alternative for studying recognition of emotion or intention inference while minimizing the amount of information presented to participants. This mini-review aims to summarize studies that have used PLD to study emotion and intention processing in schizophrenia (SCZ), affective disorders, anxiety and personality disorders, eating disorders and neurodegenerative disorders. Two main conclusions can be drawn from the reviewed studies: first, the social cognitive problems found in most of the psychiatric samples using PLD were of smaller magnitude than those found in studies presenting social information using faces or voices. Second, even though the information presented in PLDs is extremely limited, presentation of these types of stimuli is sufficient to elicit the disorder-specific, social cognitive biases (e.g., mood-congruent bias in depression, increased threat perception in anxious individuals, aberrant body size perception in eating disorders) documented using other methodologies. Taken together, these findings suggest that point-light stimuli may be a useful method of studying social information processing in psychiatry. At the same time, some limitations of using this methodology are also outlined.
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Affiliation(s)
- Łukasz Okruszek
- Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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