Playing With Fear: A Field Study in Recreational Horror

Insight of autonomic dysfunction in CLN3 disease: a study on episodes resembling paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity (PSH)

BACKGROUND

Recurrent non-epileptic episodes resembling paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity (PSH) have been observed in adolescents with Juvenile Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (CLN3-disease) and a possible association to an autonomic dysfunction has been suggested. The objective of the present study was to investigate the dynamics of the autonomic activity up to, during, and in the time after individual attacks. We include all seven suitable CLN3 patients in Denmark ≥ 15 years of age. HRV parameters were assessed from continuous heart rate monitoring during seven consecutive days and a particular focus of HRV parameters was obtained in close temporal context to clinically recurrent PSH-like episodes. In addition, the likelihood of PSH was assessed by caregiver's description and by video documentation.

RESULTS

Respectively eight and five episodes were recorded in two patients (18 and 20 years of age). The episodes were all safely superior to the cut off values of the clinical assessment score to be considered PSH-like episodes. During all 13 episodes, HRV revealed a statistically significant decrease in root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) and standard deviation of the Poincaré-Plot interval (SD1) in the minutes prior to the clinical onset of the episodes, both indicating a sudden decrease in parasympathetic activity in advance of the onset. The reduced activity remained low during the episodes, and 15-30 min following the attack cessation, the parasympathetic activity had returned to pre-attacks levels. The sympathetic HRV parameters were unchanged resulting in a sympathetic overactivity during the episodes. In a third participant (32 years of age), in whom severity of PSH-like episodes had been gradually reduced during the last years, five episodes were registered. A similar temporally related reduction of the parasympathetic activity was found, but because the sympathetic activity decreased as well, no sympathetic dominance developed, which most reasonable is the reason to the clinically reduced expression of the episodes.

CONCLUSION

The documented transient withdrawal of parasympathetic activity leading to a paroxysmal unbalanced sympathetic hyperactivity most probably accounts for the PSH-like episodes occurring in post-adolescent CLN3 patients. The findings shed new light on both aetiology and possible preventative and therapeutic measures.

Play in Cognitive Development: From Rational Constructivism to Predictive Processing

It is widely believed that play and curiosity are key ingredients as children develop models of the world. There is also an emerging consensus that children are Bayesian learners who combine their structured prior beliefs with estimations of the likelihood of new evidence to infer the most probable model of the world. An influential school of thought within developmental psychology, rational constructivism, combines these two ideas to propose that children learn intuitive theories of how the world works in part by engaging in play activities that allow them to gather new information for testing their theories. There are still, however, at least two pieces missing from rational constructivist theories of development. First, rational constructivism has so far devoted little attention to explaining why children's preferred form of learning, play, feels so fun, enjoyable, and rewarding. Rational constructivism may suggest that children are curious and like to play because reducing uncertainty and learning better theories of the causal workings of the world is enjoyable. What remains unclear, however, is why reducing uncertainty in play is interesting, fun, and joyful, while doing so in other forms of learning can be frustrating or boring. Second, rational constructivism may have overlooked how children, during play, will take control of and manipulate their environment, sometimes in an effort to create ideal niches for surprise-extraction, sometimes for developing strategies for making the world fit with their predictions. These missing elements from rational constructivism can be provided by understanding the contribution of play to development in terms of predictive processing, an influential framework in cognitive neuroscience that models many of the brain's cognitive functions as processes of model-based, probabilistic prediction.

Why do people engage with the suffering of strangers? Exploring epistemic, eudaimonic, social, and affective motives

Reading violent stories or watching a war documentary are examples in which people voluntarily engage with the suffering of others whom they do not know. Using a mixed-methods approach, we investigated why people make these decisions, while also mapping the characteristics of strangers' suffering to gain a rich understanding. In Study 1 (N = 247), participants described situations of suffering and their reasons to engage with it. Using qualitative thematic analysis, we developed a typology of the stranger (who), the situation (what), the source (how), and the reason(s) for engaging with the situation (why). We categorised the motives into four overarching themes - epistemic, eudaimonic, social, and affective - reflecting diversity in the perceived functionality of engaging with a stranger's suffering. Next, we tested the robustness of the identified motives in a quantitative study. In Study 2, participants (N = 250) recalled a situation in which they engaged with the suffering of a stranger and indicated their endorsement with a variety of possible motives. Largely mirroring Study 1, Study 2 participants engaged to acquire knowledge, for personal and social utility, and to feel positive and negative emotions. We discuss implications for understanding the exploration of human suffering as a motivated phenomenon.

Explorations in Creepiness: Tolerance for Ambiguity and Susceptibility to "Not Just Right Experiences" Predict the Ease of Getting "Creeped Out"

This study was designed to explore the role played by ambiguity in the experience of creepiness, as well as the relevance of personality traits for predicting individual differences in susceptibility to getting "creeped out," In an online study, a mixed sample of 278 college undergraduates and adults (60 males, 206 females, 12 nonbinary or chose not to report; Mean age = 31.43, range 18-68) recruited through social network platforms filled out scales measuring their tolerance for ambiguity and their susceptibility to having "Not Just Right Experiences." They then rated 25 images (12 normal, 13 prejudged to be creepy or confusing) on creepiness and several other adjective dimensions. The findings indicated that individuals who were less tolerant of ambiguity and those highly susceptible to not just right experiences perceived ambiguous or creepy persons, places, and objects to be more creepy, confusing and disturbing. Both measures were negatively related to time spent looking at confusing or creepy images, and females were generally more easily creeped out by creepy and confusing images than were males. The results support the conclusion that current models of creepiness are correct; the emotional experience of getting "creeped out" does indeed appear to be triggered by the need to resolve ambiguity.

Music as an Evolved Tool for Socio-Affective Fiction

The question of why music evolved has been contemplated and debated for centuries across multiple disciplines. While many theories have been posited, they still do not fully answer the question of why humans began making music. Adding to the effort to solve this mystery, we propose the socio-affective fiction (SAF) hypothesis. Humans have a unique biological need for emotion regulation strengthening. Simulated emotional situations, like dreams, can help address that need. Immersion is key for such simulations to successfully exercise people's emotions. Therefore, we propose that music evolved as a signal for SAF to increase the immersive potential of storytelling and thereby better exercise people's emotions. In this review, we outline the SAF hypothesis and present cross-disciplinary evidence.

First They Scream, Then They Laugh: The Cognitive Intersections of Humor and Fear

On the surface, fear and humor seem like polar opposite states of mind, yet throughout our lives they continually interact. In this paper, we synthesize neurobiological, psychological, and evolutionary research on fear and humor, arguing that the two are deeply connected. The evolutionary origins of humor reside in play, a medium through which animals benignly explore situations and practice strategies, such as fight or flight, which would normally be accompanied by fear. Cognitively, humor retains the structure of play. Adopting a view of humor as requiring two appraisals, a violation appraisal and a benign appraisal, we describe how fear-inducing stimuli can be rendered benignly humorous through contextual cues, psychological distance, reframing, and cognitive reappraisal. The antagonistic relationship between humor and fear in terms of their neurochemistry and physiological effects in turn makes humor ideal for managing fear in many circumstances. We review five real-world examples of humor and fear intersecting, presenting new data in support of our account along the way. Finally, we discuss the possible therapeutic relevance of the deep connection between humor and fear.

The role of excitement and enjoyment through subjective evaluation of horror film scenes

The popularity of the horror genre is constantly increasing and still has not reached its peak. As a recreational activity, people watch horror movies in pursuit of excitement and enjoyment. However, we still do not know what traits make people seek out this type of increase in arousal (excitement) and why they find it desirable (enjoyment). Consequently, in this study, we sought to identify observer-related factors that allows consumption of horror content as a recreational activity. Participants (N = 558) answered questions about movie-watching habits, completed measures of cognitive emotion regulation, sensation seeking, paranormal beliefs, morbid curiosity, disgust sensitivity, and rated short scenes from horror movies on dimensions of excitement, enjoyment, disgust, fearfulness, and realness. Our findings suggest that the predictors of excitement and enjoyment are slightly different. Perceived disgust negatively affected enjoyment but did not influence to excitement. Further, both excitement and enjoyment were positively predicted by fearfulness and realness ratings of the scenes, and morbid curiosity. Paranormal beliefs, sensation seeking, disgust sensitivity, anxiety, and emotion regulation strategies were not associated with excitement and enjoyment. Future studies should make a distinction between excitement and enjoyment as they are equally important factors with slightly different backgrounds in recreational fear.

Surfing uncertainty with screams: predictive processing, error dynamics and horror films

Despite tremendous efforts in psychology, neuroscience and media and cultural studies, it is still something of a mystery why humans are attracted to fictional content that is horrifying, disgusting or otherwise aversive. While the psychological benefits of horror films, stories, video games, etc. has recently been demonstrated empirically, current theories emphasizing the negative and positive consequences of this engagement often contradict one another. Here, we suggest the predictive processing framework may provide a unifying account of horror content engagement that provides clear and testable hypotheses, and explains why a 'sweet spot' of fear and fun exists in horror entertainment. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.

A Broad View on Robot Self-Defense: Rapid Scoping Review and Cultural Comparison

With power comes responsibility: as robots become more advanced and prevalent, the role they will play in human society becomes increasingly important. Given that violence is an important problem, the question emerges if robots could defend people, even if doing so might cause harm to someone. The current study explores the broad context of how people perceive the acceptability of such robot self-defense (RSD) in terms of (1) theory, via a rapid scoping review, and (2) public opinion in two countries. As a result, we summarize and discuss: increasing usage of robots capable of wielding force by law enforcement and military, negativity toward robots, ethics and legal questions (including differences to the well-known trolley problem), control in the presence of potential failures, and practical capabilities that such robots might require. Furthermore, a survey was conducted, indicating that participants accepted the idea of RSD, with some cultural differences. We believe that, while substantial obstacles will need to be overcome to realize RSD, society stands to gain from exploring its possibilities over the longer term, toward supporting human well-being in difficult times.

Physiological arousal guides situational appraisals and metacognitive recall for naturalistic experiences

As individuals navigate the world, they are bound to have emotionally intense experiences. These events not only influence momentary physiological and affective responses, but may also have a powerful impact on one's memory for their emotional experience. In this research, we used the naturalistic context of a haunted house to examine how physiological arousal is associated with metacognitive emotional memory (i.e., the extent to which an individual remembers having experienced a certain emotion). Participants first navigated the haunted house while heart rate and explicit situational appraisals were recorded, and then recalled specific events from the haunted house and the intensity of these affective events approximately one week later. We found that heart rate predicted both the intensity of reported scariness in the haunted house and meta-cognitive memory of affect during recall. Critically, we found evidence for malleability in metacognitive emotional memory based on how the event was initially labeled. Individuals tended to recall events that they explicitly labeled as fear-evoking as being more intense than they reported at the time of the event. We found the opposite relationship for events that they labeled as not fear-evoking. Taken together, this indicates that there are strong relationships between physiological arousal and emotional experiences in naturalistic contexts, but that affective labeling can modulate the relationship between these features when reflecting on the emotionality of that experience in memory.

Etiology of anxious and fearful behavior in juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (CLN3 disease)

Background

Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (JNCL, CLN3) is a childhood-onset neurodegenerative disease with prominent symptoms comprising a pediatric dementia syndrome. As in adult dementia, behavioral symptoms like mood disturbances and anxiety are common. In contrast to in adult dementia, however, the anxious behavioral symptoms increase during the terminal phase of JNCL disease. In the present study, the current understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of anxiety and anxious behavior in general is addressed as will a discussion of the mechanism of the anxious behavior seen in young JNCL patients. Based on developmental behavioral points of view, known neurobiological mechanisms, and the clinical presentation of the anxious behavior, a theory of its etiology is described.

Result and discussion

During the terminal phase, the cognitive developmental age of JNCL patients is below 2 years. At this stage of mental development individuals act primarily from a concrete world of consciousness and do not have the cognitive ability to encounter a normal anxiety response. Instead, they experience the evolutionary basic emotion of fear, and as the episodes typically are provoked when the adolescent JNCL patient is exposed to either loud sounds, is lifted from the ground, or separated from the mother/known caregiver, the fear can best be perceived as the developmental natural fear-response that appears in children 0-2 years of age. The efferent pathways of the neural fear circuits are mediated through autonomic, neuroendocrine, and skeletal-motor responses. The autonomic activation occurs early, is mediated through the sympathetic and parasympathetic neural systems, and as JNCL patients beyond puberty have an autonomic imbalance with a significant sympathetic hyperactivity, the activation of the autonomic nervous system results in a disproportionate high sympathetic activity resulting in tachycardia, tachypnea, excessive sweating, hyperthermia, and an increased atypical muscle activity. The episodes are thus phenotypically similar to what is seen as Paroxysmal Sympathetic Hyperactivity (PSH) following an acute traumatic brain injury. As in PSH, treatment is difficult and so far, no consensus of a treatment algorithm exists. Use of sedative and analgesic medication and minimizing or avoiding provocative stimuli may partly reduce the frequency and intensity of the attacks. Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation might be an option worth to investigate rebalancing the sympathetic-parasympathetic disproportion.

Motives Linking Subclinical Psychopathy and Benign Masochism to Recreational Drug use

As the use of some psychoactive substances continues to be a global health risk, it is important to understand why people use them. We compared the predictive power of psychopathy and masochism with regard to lifetime recreational drug use and tested the underlying motives in a sample of 415 US-based adults. Psychopathy predicted use of illicit drugs, cannabis, and nicotine, while masochism predicted cannabis, alcohol, and caffeine use. Both traits were related to most motives, but the motives differentially predicted substance use. Expansion motivation was the sole motive for illicit drug use, whereas cannabis was predicted mainly by expansion and enhancement. Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine were used to escape daily worries, and alcohol was further used for social reasons. Benign masochism is a newly identified predictor of popular drug use. Future research could investigate masochism and expansion motivation as predictors of potentially harmful substance use.

Do we enjoy what we sense and perceive? A dissociation between aesthetic appreciation and basic perception of environmental objects or events

This integrative review rearticulates the notion of human aesthetics by critically appraising the conventional definitions, offerring a new, more comprehensive definition, and identifying the fundamental components associated with it. It intends to advance holistic understanding of the notion by differentiating aesthetic perception from basic perceptual recognition, and by characterizing these concepts from the perspective of information processing in both visual and nonvisual modalities. To this end, we analyze the dissociative nature of information processing in the brain, introducing a novel local-global integrative model that differentiates aesthetic processing from basic perceptual processing. This model builds on the current state of the art in visual aesthetics as well as newer propositions about nonvisual aesthetics. This model comprises two analytic channels: aesthetics-only channel and perception-to-aesthetics channel. The aesthetics-only channel primarily involves restricted local processing for quality or richness (e.g., attractiveness, beauty/prettiness, elegance, sublimeness, catchiness, hedonic value) analysis, whereas the perception-to-aesthetics channel involves global/extended local processing for basic feature analysis, followed by restricted local processing for quality or richness analysis. We contend that aesthetic processing operates independently of basic perceptual processing, but not independently of cognitive processing. We further conjecture that there might be a common faculty, labeled as aesthetic cognition faculty, in the human brain for all sensory aesthetics albeit other parts of the brain can also be activated because of basic sensory processing prior to aesthetic processing, particularly during the operation of the second channel. This generalized model can account not only for simple and pure aesthetic experiences but for partial and complex aesthetic experiences as well.

Specificity in the Study of Mixed Emotions: A Theoretical Framework

Research on mixed emotions is yet to consider emotion-specificity, the idea that same-valenced emotions have distinctive characteristics and functions. We review two decades of research on mixed emotions, focusing on evidence for the occurrence of mixed emotions and the effects of mixed emotions on downstream outcomes. We then propose a novel theoretical framework of mixed-emotion-specificity with three foundational tenets: (a) Mixed emotions are distinguishable from single-valenced emotions and other mixed emotions based on their emotion-appraisal relationships; (b) Mixed emotions can further be characterized by four patterns that describe relationships between simultaneous appraisals or appraisals that are unique to mixed emotions; and (c) Carryover effects occur only on outcomes that are associated with the appraisal characteristics of mixed emotion. We outline how mixed-emotion-specific effects can be predicted based on the appraisal tendency framework. Temporal dynamics, the application of mixed-emotion-specificity to individual difference research, methodological issues, and future directions are also discussed.

Physiological Responses to a Haunted-House Threat Experience: Distinct Tonic and Phasic Effects

Threats elicit physiological responses, the frequency and intensity of which have implications for survival. Ethical and practical limitations on human laboratory manipulations present barriers to studying immersive threat. Furthermore, few investigations have examined group effects and concordance with subjective emotional experiences to threat. The current preregistered study measured electrodermal activity in 156 adults while they participated in small groups in a 30-min haunted-house experience involving various immersive threats. Results revealed positive associations between (a) friends and tonic arousal, (b) unexpected attacks and phasic activity (frequency and amplitude), (c) subjective fear and phasic frequency, and (d) dissociable sensitization effects linked to baseline orienting response. Findings demonstrate the relevance of (a) social dynamics (friends vs. strangers) for tonic arousal and (b) subjective fear and threat predictability for phasic arousal.

The Paradox of Pleasurable Fear

Why do some people enjoy being afraid? A recent study by Andersen et al. found an inverted U-shaped relationship between fear and enjoyment, consistent with the theory that the pursuit of pleasurable fear is a form of play.