1
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Robles M, Ramos-Grille I, Hervás A, Duran-Tauleria E, Galiano-Landeira J, Wormwood JB, Falter-Wagner CM, Chanes L. Reduced stereotypicality and spared use of facial expression predictions for social evaluation in autism. Int J Clin Health Psychol 2024; 24:100440. [PMID: 38426036 PMCID: PMC10901834 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2024.100440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Background/Objective Autism has been investigated through traditional emotion recognition paradigms, merely investigating accuracy, thereby constraining how potential differences across autistic and control individuals may be observed, identified, and described. Moreover, the use of emotional facial expression information for social functioning in autism is of relevance to provide a deeper understanding of the condition. Method Adult autistic individuals (n = 34) and adult control individuals (n = 34) were assessed with a social perception behavioral paradigm exploring facial expression predictions and their impact on social evaluation. Results Autistic individuals held less stereotypical predictions than controls. Importantly, despite such differences in predictions, the use of such predictions for social evaluation did not differ significantly between groups, as autistic individuals relied on their predictions to evaluate others to the same extent as controls. Conclusions These results help to understand how autistic individuals perceive social stimuli and evaluate others, revealing a deviation from stereotypicality beyond which social evaluation strategies may be intact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Robles
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, LMU University Hospital, LMU Munich, Germany
| | - Irene Ramos-Grille
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Division of Mental Health, Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa, Terrassa, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Amaia Hervás
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Hospital Universitari Mútua de Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain
- Institut Global d'Atenció Integral del Neurodesenvolupament (IGAIN), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Enric Duran-Tauleria
- Institut Global d'Atenció Integral del Neurodesenvolupament (IGAIN), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jordi Galiano-Landeira
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | | | - Lorena Chanes
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Serra Húnter Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
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2
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Uddin MT, Zamzmi G, Canavan S. Cooperative Learning for Personalized Context-Aware Pain Assessment From Wearable Data. IEEE J Biomed Health Inform 2023; 27:5260-5271. [PMID: 37440405 DOI: 10.1109/jbhi.2023.3294903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/15/2023]
Abstract
Despite the promising performance of automated pain assessment methods, current methods suffer from performance generalization due to the lack of relatively large, diverse, and annotated pain datasets. Further, the majority of current methods do not allow responsible interaction between the model and user, and do not take different internal and external factors into consideration during the model's design and development. This article aims to provide an efficient cooperative learning framework for the lack of annotated data while facilitating responsible user communication and taking individual differences into consideration during the development of pain assessment models. Our results using body and muscle movement data, collected from wearable devices, demonstrate that the proposed framework is effective in leveraging both the human and the machine to efficiently learn and predict pain.
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3
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Grogans SE, Bliss-Moreau E, Buss KA, Clark LA, Fox AS, Keltner D, Cowen AS, Kim JJ, Kragel PA, MacLeod C, Mobbs D, Naragon-Gainey K, Fullana MA, Shackman AJ. The nature and neurobiology of fear and anxiety: State of the science and opportunities for accelerating discovery. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 151:105237. [PMID: 37209932 PMCID: PMC10330657 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Fear and anxiety play a central role in mammalian life, and there is considerable interest in clarifying their nature, identifying their biological underpinnings, and determining their consequences for health and disease. Here we provide a roundtable discussion on the nature and biological bases of fear- and anxiety-related states, traits, and disorders. The discussants include scientists familiar with a wide variety of populations and a broad spectrum of techniques. The goal of the roundtable was to take stock of the state of the science and provide a roadmap to the next generation of fear and anxiety research. Much of the discussion centered on the key challenges facing the field, the most fruitful avenues for future research, and emerging opportunities for accelerating discovery, with implications for scientists, funders, and other stakeholders. Understanding fear and anxiety is a matter of practical importance. Anxiety disorders are a leading burden on public health and existing treatments are far from curative, underscoring the urgency of developing a deeper understanding of the factors governing threat-related emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shannon E Grogans
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Eliza Bliss-Moreau
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Kristin A Buss
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 USA
| | - Lee Anna Clark
- Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
| | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Dacher Keltner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | | | - Jeansok J Kim
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Philip A Kragel
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Colin MacLeod
- Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Dean Mobbs
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA; Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Kristin Naragon-Gainey
- School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
| | - Miquel A Fullana
- Adult Psychiatry and Psychology Department, Institute of Neurosciences, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain; Imaging of Mood, and Anxiety-Related Disorders Group, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer, CIBERSAM, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
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4
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Singh M, Mehr SA. Universality, domain-specificity, and development of psychological responses to music. NATURE REVIEWS PSYCHOLOGY 2023; 2:333-346. [PMID: 38143935 PMCID: PMC10745197 DOI: 10.1038/s44159-023-00182-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023]
Abstract
Humans can find music happy, sad, fearful, or spiritual. They can be soothed by it or urged to dance. Whether these psychological responses reflect cognitive adaptations that evolved expressly for responding to music is an ongoing topic of study. In this Review, we examine three features of music-related psychological responses that help to elucidate whether the underlying cognitive systems are specialized adaptations: universality, domain-specificity, and early expression. Focusing on emotional and behavioural responses, we find evidence that the relevant psychological mechanisms are universal and arise early in development. However, the existing evidence cannot establish that these mechanisms are domain-specific. To the contrary, many findings suggest that universal psychological responses to music reflect more general properties of emotion, auditory perception, and other human cognitive capacities that evolved for non-musical purposes. Cultural evolution, driven by the tinkering of musical performers, evidently crafts music to compellingly appeal to shared psychological mechanisms, resulting in both universal patterns (such as form-function associations) and culturally idiosyncratic styles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manvir Singh
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, University of
Toulouse 1 Capitole, Toulouse, France
| | - Samuel A. Mehr
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT,
USA
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland,
New Zealand
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5
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Using the theory of constructed emotion to inform the study of cognition-emotion interactions. Psychon Bull Rev 2022; 30:489-497. [PMID: 36085235 PMCID: PMC10104913 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-022-02176-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
In this article I suggest how theories of emotion construction may inform the study of cognition-emotion interactions. To do so, I adopt the two main concepts core affect and emotions as categories: Core affect, one's current affective state, which is defined by the two dimensions pleasure and arousal, is an inherent part of any conscious experience. Specific emotions are understood as categories including highly diverse exemplars. I argue that (1) affective states can and should not be differentiated from cognitive states, and that (2) specific emotions may follow the same principles as other biological or more general categories. I review some empirical evidence in support of these ideas and show avenues for future research.
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6
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Feldman MJ, Siegel E, Barrett LF, Quigley KS, Wormwood JB. Affect and Social Judgment: The Roles of Physiological Reactivity and Interoceptive Sensitivity. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE 2022; 3:464-479. [PMID: 36046009 PMCID: PMC9382998 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-022-00114-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
Humans imbue the objects of their perception with affective meaning, a phenomenon called affective realism. The affective realism hypothesis proposes that a brain continually predicts the meaning of sensations (e.g., identifying a sound as a siren, or a visual array as a face) in part by representing the current state of the body and the immediate physiological impact that similar sensory events have entailed in the past. However, the precise contribution of physiological activity to experiences of affective realism remains unknown. In the present study, participants' peripheral physiological activity was recorded while they made social evaluative judgments of target faces displaying neutral expressions. Target faces were shown concurrent with affective images that were suppressed from reportable awareness using continuous flash suppression. Results revealed evidence of affective realism-participants judged target faces more positively when paired with suppressed positive stimuli than suppressed negative stimuli-but this effect was significantly less pronounced among individuals higher in cardiac interoceptive sensitivity. Moreover, while some modest differences in peripheral physiological activity were observed across suppressed affective stimulus conditions, physiological reactivity to affective stimuli did not directly predict social evaluative judgments. We explore the implications of these findings with respect to both theories of emotion and theories detailing a role for interoception in experiences of first-person subjectivity. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00114-9.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mallory J. Feldman
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 231 E. Cameron Ave, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 USA
| | | | - Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
- Department of Psychiatry and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA USA
| | - Karen S. Quigley
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 USA
| | - Jolie B. Wormwood
- Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824 USA
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7
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Yankouskaya A, Denholm-Smith T, Yi D, Greenshaw AJ, Cao B, Sui J. Neural Connectivity Underlying Reward and Emotion-Related Processing: Evidence From a Large-Scale Network Analysis. Front Syst Neurosci 2022; 16:833625. [PMID: 35465191 PMCID: PMC9033203 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.833625] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroimaging techniques have advanced our knowledge about neurobiological mechanisms of reward and emotion processing. It remains unclear whether reward and emotion-related processing share the same neural connection topology and how intrinsic brain functional connectivity organization changes to support emotion- and reward-related prioritized effects in decision-making. The present study addressed these challenges using a large-scale neural network analysis approach. We applied this approach to two independent functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets, where participants performed a reward value or emotion associative matching task with tight control over experimental conditions. The results revealed that interaction between the Default Mode Network, Frontoparietal, Dorsal Attention, and Salience networks engaged distinct topological structures to support the effects of reward, positive and negative emotion processing. Detailed insights into the properties of these connections are important for understanding in detail how the brain responds in the presence of emotion and reward related stimuli. We discuss the linking of reward- and emotion-related processing to emotional regulation, an important aspect of regulation of human behavior in relation to mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ala Yankouskaya
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
- *Correspondence: Ala Yankouskaya
| | - Toby Denholm-Smith
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
| | - Dewei Yi
- School of Natural and Computing Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
| | | | - Bo Cao
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Jie Sui
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
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8
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Givens J, Wilkinson BD. More than a feeling: Constructing emotion in theory and practice. JOURNAL OF COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/jcad.12437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joel Givens
- School of Education Purdue University Fort Wayne Fort Wayne IN 46805 USA
| | - Brett D. Wilkinson
- School of Education Purdue University Fort Wayne Fort Wayne IN 46805 USA
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9
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Ruba AL, Meltzoff AN, Repacholi BM. Linguistic and developmental influences on superordinate facial configuration categorization in infancy. INFANCY 2021; 26:857-876. [PMID: 34418252 PMCID: PMC8530983 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12430] [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: 03/12/2021] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Humans perceive emotions in terms of categories, such as "happiness," "sadness," and "anger." To learn these complex conceptual emotion categories, humans must first be able to perceive regularities in expressive behaviors (e.g., facial configurations) across individuals. Recent research suggests that infants spontaneously form "basic-level" categories of facial configurations (e.g., happy vs. fear), but not "superordinate" categories of facial configurations (e.g., positive vs. negative). The current studies further explore how infant age and language impact superordinate categorization of facial configurations associated with different negative emotions. Across all experiments, infants were habituated to one person displaying facial configurations associated with anger and disgust. While 10-month-olds formed a category of person identity (Experiment 1), 14-month-olds formed a category that included negative facial configurations displayed by the same person (Experiment 2). However, neither age formed the hypothesized superordinate category of negative valence. When a verbal label ("toma") was added to each of the habituation events (Experiment 3), 10-month-olds formed a category similar to 14-month-olds in Experiment 2. These findings intersect a larger conversation about the nature and development of children's emotion categories and highlight the importance of considering developmental processes, such as language learning and attentional/memory development, in the design and interpretation of infant categorization studies.
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10
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Resurrección DM, Jiménez Ó, Menor E, Ruiz-Aranda D. The Learning to Be Project: An Intervention for Spanish Students in Primary Education. Front Psychol 2021; 12:632617. [PMID: 33995186 PMCID: PMC8120317 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.632617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite the emphasis placed by most curricula in the development of social and emotional competencies in education, there seems to be a general lack of knowledge of methods that integrate strategies for assessing these competencies into existing educational practices. Previous research has shown that the development of social and emotional competencies in children has multiple benefits, as they seem to contribute to better physical and mental health, an increase in academic motivation, and the well-being and healthy social progress of children. This study aims at assessing the possible changes in children's self-esteem, socio-emotional competencies, and school-related variables after participating in the Learning to Be project (L2B) project. Methods: This quasi-experimental study included an intervention group (L2B) and a control group. The participants were 221 students in primary education (55.2% girls) between the ages of eight and 11 (M = 9.31; SD = 0.89). The L2B intervention program took place over a period of 5 months. The assessment was carried out twice, before and after the intervention through three main evaluation instruments: the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem questionnaire, the Socio-Emotional competence questionnaire (SEQ), and self-report scales for measuring school difficulties, school engagement, opinions about school, and school absence. Ten schools from different Spanish provinces participated. Results: The results indicate that those participants in the experimental group show higher self-esteem, better responsible decisions, and higher self-awareness than those in the control group. There were no other statistical differences between groups. Conclusions: The results of this work suggest that the implementation of the L2B program did not improve social and emotional competencies in primary school students. Further research related to how include formative assessment in SEL programs is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Óliver Jiménez
- Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain
| | - Esther Menor
- Department of Communication and Education, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Dos Hermanas, Spain
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11
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Vaisvaser S. The Embodied-Enactive-Interactive Brain: Bridging Neuroscience and Creative Arts Therapies. Front Psychol 2021; 12:634079. [PMID: 33995190 PMCID: PMC8121022 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.634079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2020] [Accepted: 04/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The recognition and incorporation of evidence-based neuroscientific concepts into creative arts therapeutic knowledge and practice seem valuable and advantageous for the purpose of integration and professional development. Moreover, exhilarating insights from the field of neuroscience coincide with the nature, conceptualization, goals, and methods of Creative Arts Therapies (CATs), enabling comprehensive understandings of the clinical landscape, from a translational perspective. This paper contextualizes and discusses dynamic brain functions that have been suggested to lie at the heart of intra- and inter-personal processes. Touching upon fundamental aspects of the self and self-other interaction, the state-of-the-art neuroscientific-informed views will shed light on mechanisms of the embodied, predictive and relational brain. The conceptual analysis introduces and interweaves the following contemporary perspectives of brain function: firstly, the grounding of mental activity in the lived, bodily experience will be delineated; secondly, the enactive account of internal models, or generative predictive representations, shaped by experience, will be defined and extensively deliberated; and thirdly, the interpersonal simulation and synchronization mechanisms that support empathy and mentalization will be thoroughly considered. Throughout the paper, the cross-talks between the brain and the body, within the brain through functionally connected neural networks and in the context of agent-environment dynamics, will be addressed. These communicative patterns will be elaborated on to unfold psychophysiological linkage, as well as psychopathological shifts, concluding with the neuroplastic change associated with the formulation of CATs. The manuscript suggests an integrative view of the brain-body-mind in contexts relevant to the therapeutic potential of the expressive creative arts and the main avenues by which neuroscience may ground, enlighten and enrich the clinical psychotherapeutic practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharon Vaisvaser
- School of Society and the Arts, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel
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12
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Yankouskaya A, Sui J. Self-Positivity or Self-Negativity as a Function of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11020264. [PMID: 33669682 PMCID: PMC7922957 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11020264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Revised: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Self and emotions are key motivational factors of a person strivings for health and well-being. Understanding neural mechanisms supporting the relationship between these factors bear far-reaching implications for mental health disorders. Recent work indicates a substantial overlap between self-relevant and emotion information processing and has proposed the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) as one shared neural signature. However, the precise cognitive and neural mechanisms represented by the MPFC in investigations of self- and emotion-related processing are largely unknown. Here we examined whether the neural underpinnings of self-related processing in the MPFC link to positive or negative emotions. We collected fMRI data to test the distinct and shared neural circuits of self- and emotion-related processing while participants performed personal (self, friend, or stranger) and emotion (happy, sad, or neutral) associative matching tasks. By exploiting tight control over the factors that determine the effects of self-relevance and emotions (positive: Happy vs. neutral; negative: Sad vs. neutral), our univariate analysis revealed that the ventral part of the MPFC (vmPFC), which has established involvement in self-prioritisation effects, was not recruited in the negative emotion prioritisation effect. In contrast, there were no differences in brain activity between the effects of positive emotion- and self-prioritisation. These results were replicated by both region of interest (ROI)-based analysis in the vmPFC and the seed- to voxel functional connectivity analysis between the MPFC and the rest of the brain. The results suggest that the prioritisation effects for self and positive emotions are tightly linked together, and the MPFC plays a large role in discriminating between positive and negative emotions in relation to self-relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alla Yankouskaya
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole BH12 5BB, UK
- Correspondence:
| | - Jie Sui
- The School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3FX, UK;
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13
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Abstract
Historically, research characterizing the development of emotion recognition has focused on identifying specific skills and the age periods, or milestones, at which these abilities emerge. However, advances in emotion research raise questions about whether this conceptualization accurately reflects how children learn about, understand, and respond to others’ emotions in everyday life. In this review, we propose a developmental framework for the emergence of emotion reasoning—that is, how children develop the ability to make reasonably accurate inferences and predictions about the emotion states of other people. We describe how this framework holds promise for building upon extant research. Our review suggests that use of the term emotion recognition can be misleading and imprecise, with the developmental processes of interest better characterized by the term emotion reasoning. We also highlight how the age at which children succeed on many tasks reflects myriad developmental processes. This new framing of emotional development can open new lines of inquiry about how humans learn to navigate their social worlds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley L. Ruba
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA;,
| | - Seth D. Pollak
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA;,
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14
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Mills C, Zamani A, White R, Christoff K. Out of the blue: understanding abrupt and wayward transitions in thought using probability and predictive processing. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 376:20190692. [PMID: 33308075 PMCID: PMC7741073 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0692] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Thoughts that appear to come to us ‘out of the blue’ or ‘out of nowhere’ are a familiar aspect of mental experience. Such thoughts tend to elicit feelings of surprise and spontaneity. Although we are beginning to understand the neural processes that underlie the arising of such thoughts, little is known about what accounts for their peculiar phenomenology. Here, we focus on one central aspect of this phenomenology—the experience of surprise at their occurrence, as it relates to internal probabilistic predictions regarding mental states. We introduce a distinction between two phenomenologically different types of transitions in thought content: (i) abrupt transitions, which occur at surprising times but lead to unsurprising thought content, and (ii) wayward transitions, which occur at surprising times and also lead to surprising thought content. We examine these two types of transitions using a novel approach that combines probabilistic and predictive processing concepts and principles. We employ two different probability metrics—transition and occurrence probability—to characterize and differentiate between abrupt and wayward transitions. We close by discussing some potentially beneficial ways in which these two kinds of transitions in thought content may contribute to mental function, and how they may be implemented at the neural level. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin Mills
- Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
| | - Andre Zamani
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Rebecca White
- Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
| | - Kalina Christoff
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.,Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.,Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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15
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Walle EA. Developing Emotion Research: Insights From Emotional Development. EMOTION REVIEW 2020. [DOI: 10.1177/1754073920956393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
A full understanding of emotion necessitates the bridging of disciplinary perspectives and methodological approaches. This special section uses emotional development as a foil to illustrate how such a bridge may be constructed and how studying emotional development can benefit the field as a whole. In doing so, this collection of articles points to three key principles for the study of emotion, specifically that emotions are relational, flexible, and temporally dynamic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric A. Walle
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of California – Merced, USA
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16
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Barrett L. Hypotheses about Emotional Development in the Theory of Constructed Emotion: A Response to Developmental Perspectives on How Emotions Are Made. Hum Dev 2020. [DOI: 10.1159/000508988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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