1
|
Schwartz PJ. Freud's 1926 conjecture is confirmed: evidence from the dorsal periaqueductal gray in mice that human psychological defense against internal instinctual threat evolved from animal motor defense against external predatory threat. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1427816. [PMID: 39380762 PMCID: PMC11458385 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1427816] [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: 05/07/2024] [Accepted: 09/05/2024] [Indexed: 10/10/2024] Open
Abstract
In 1926, Freud famously conjectured that the human ego defense of repression against an internal instinctual threat evolved from the animal motor defense of flight from an external predatory threat. Studies over the past 50 years mainly in rodents have investigated the neurobiology of the fight-or-flight reflex to external threats, which activates the emergency alarm system in the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG), the malfunction of which appears likely in panic and post-traumatic stress disorders, but perhaps also in some "non-emergent" conditions like social anxiety and "hysterical" conversion disorder. Computational neuroscience studies in mice by Reis and colleagues have revealed unprecedented insights into the dPAG-related neural mechanisms underlying these evolutionarily honed emergency vertebrate defensive functions (e.g., explore, risk assessment, escape, freeze). A psychoanalytic interpretation of the Reis studies demonstrates that Freud's 1926 conjecture is confirmed, and that internal instinctual threats alone can also set off the dPAG emergency alarm system, which is regulated by 5-HT1A and CRF-1 receptors. Consistent with current psychoanalytic and neurobiologic theories of panic, several other of the primitive components of the dPAG alarm system may also have relevance for understanding of the unconscious determinants of impaired object relationships (e.g., avoidance distance). These dPAG findings reveal (1) a process of "evolution in situ," whereby a more sophisticated dPAG ego defense is seen evolving out of a more primitive dPAG motor defense, (2) a dPAG location for the phylogenetically ancient kernel of Freud's Ego and Id, and (3) a Conscious Id theory that has been conclusively invalidated.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Paul J. Schwartz
- Section on Ego Mechanics, Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute, Cincinnati, OH, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Costa RM. Silence between words: Is solitude important for relatedness? PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2024; 287:153-190. [PMID: 39097352 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2024.05.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/05/2024]
Abstract
Chronic loneliness is a risk factor for physical and health problems, in part due to dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system. In contrast, temporary moments of positive solitude (passing good times alone and not feeling lonely) appear to have positive effects on mental health, social life, and creativity, and seems to be a buffer against loneliness. Herein, three ways of how solitude may have positive effects on health and relatedness are discussed, namely effects on enhancement of mind-wandering, interoceptive awareness, and spirituality. Solitude may facilitate (1) activation of the default mode network (DMN) underlying mind-wandering including daydreaming about other people; (2) activation of brain areas supporting interoceptive awareness; (3) deactivation of prefrontal cortex, or deactivation and decreased connectivity of the DMN, giving raise to susceptibility to spiritual experiences. The capacity to handle and enjoy solitude is a developmental process that may be difficult for many persons. Craving for social connections and external stimulation with digital technologies (e.g., internet, smartphones, social media) might be interfering with the development of the capacity for solitude and thereby increasing loneliness; this might be partly due to impaired interoceptive awareness and impaired functional mind-wandering (common in solitude). Congruently, overuse of digital technologies was associated with reduced activity, and reduced gray matter volume and density, in brain areas supporting interoceptive awareness, as well as with decreased connectivity of the DMN supporting creative insights. Solitude has been a relatively dismissed topic in neuroscience and health sciences, but a growing number of studies is highlighting its importance for well-being.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rui Miguel Costa
- William James Center for Research, Ispa-Instituto Universitário, Lisbon, Portugal.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Hilmerich C, Hofmann MJ, Briesemeister BB. Anxiety and curiosity in hierarchical models of neural emotion processing-A mini review. Front Hum Neurosci 2024; 18:1384020. [PMID: 38962147 PMCID: PMC11220156 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2024.1384020] [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: 02/08/2024] [Accepted: 06/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Traditionally, two fundamentally different theoretical approaches have been used in emotion research to model (human) emotions: discrete emotion theories and dimensional approaches. More recent neurophysiological models like the hierarchical emotion theory suggest that both should be integrated. The aim of this review is to provide neurocognitive evidence for this perspective with a particular focus on experimental studies manipulating anxiety and/or curiosity. We searched for evidence that the neuronal correlates of discrete and dimensional emotional systems are tightly connected. Our review suggests that the ACC (anterior cingulate cortex) responds to both, anxiety, and curiosity. While amygdala activation has been primarily observed for anxiety, at least the NAcc (nucleus accumbens) responds to both, anxiety and curiosity. When these two areas closely collaborate, as indicated by strong connectivity, this may indicate emotion regulation, particularly when the situation is not predictable.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christin Hilmerich
- Department of Psychology, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
- Department of Psychology, IU International University, Erfurt, Germany
| | - Markus J. Hofmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
| | - Benny B. Briesemeister
- Department of Psychology, IU International University, Erfurt, Germany
- Deloitte Neuroscience Institute, Deloitte Consulting GmbH, Berlin, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Clarici A, Bulfon M, Radin Y, Panksepp J. Neuromodulation of safety and surprise in the early stages of infant development: affective homeostatic regulation in bodily and mental functions. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1395247. [PMID: 38903479 PMCID: PMC11187996 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1395247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2024] [Accepted: 05/22/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Developing a sense of internal safety and security depends mainly on others: numerous neuromodulators play a significant role in the homeostatic process, regulating the importance of proximity to a caregiver and experiencing feelings that enable us to regulate our interdependence with our conspecifics since birth. This array of neurofunctional structures have been called the SEPARATION DISTRESS system (now more commonly known as the PANIC/ GRIEF system). This emotional system is mainly involved in the production of depressive symptoms. The disruption of this essential emotional balance leads to the onset of feelings of panic followed by depression. We will focus on the neuropeptides that play a crucial role in social approach behavior in mammals, which enhance prosocial behavior and facilitate the consolidation of social bonds. We propose that most prosocial behaviors are regulated through the specific neuromodulators acting on salient intersubjective stimuli, reflecting an increased sense of inner confidence (safety) in social relationships. This review considers the neurofunctional link between the feelings that may ultimately be at the base of a sense of inner safety and the central neuromodulatory systems. This link may shed light on the clinical implications for the development of early mother-infant bonding and the depressive clinical consequences when this bond is disrupted, such as in post-partum depression, depressive feelings connected to, addiction, neurofunctional disorders, and psychological trauma.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Clarici
- Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, Cattinara Hospital, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Matteo Bulfon
- Department of Pediatrics, Institute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy
| | - Yvonne Radin
- Department of Pediatrics, Institute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste, Italy
| | - Jaak Panksepp
- College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Kalinichenko L, Kornhuber J, Sinning S, Haase J, Müller CP. Serotonin Signaling through Lipid Membranes. ACS Chem Neurosci 2024; 15:1298-1320. [PMID: 38499042 PMCID: PMC10995955 DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.3c00823] [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: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 02/22/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Serotonin (5-HT) is a vital modulatory neurotransmitter responsible for regulating most behaviors in the brain. An inefficient 5-HT synaptic function is often linked to various mental disorders. Primarily, membrane proteins controlling the expression and activity of 5-HT synthesis, storage, release, receptor activation, and inactivation are critical to 5-HT signaling in synaptic and extra-synaptic sites. Moreover, these signals represent information transmission across membranes. Although the lipid membrane environment is often viewed as fairly stable, emerging research suggests significant functional lipid-protein interactions with many synaptic 5-HT proteins. These protein-lipid interactions extend to almost all the primary lipid classes that form the plasma membrane. Collectively, these lipid classes and lipid-protein interactions affect 5-HT synaptic efficacy at the synapse. The highly dynamic lipid composition of synaptic membranes suggests that these lipids and their interactions with proteins may contribute to the plasticity of the 5-HT synapse. Therefore, this broader protein-lipid model of the 5-HT synapse necessitates a reconsideration of 5-HT's role in various associated mental disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Liubov
S. Kalinichenko
- Department
of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University
Clinic, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Johannes Kornhuber
- Department
of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University
Clinic, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Steffen Sinning
- Department
of Forensic Medicine, Aarhus University, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark
| | - Jana Haase
- School
of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Christian P. Müller
- Department
of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University
Clinic, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen, Germany
- Institute
of Psychopharmacology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical
Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 69047, Mannheim, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Mills-Finnerty C, Staggs H, Bittoni C, Wise N. Affective neuroscience: applications for sexual medicine research and clinical practice. Sex Med Rev 2024; 12:127-141. [PMID: 38281754 DOI: 10.1093/sxmrev/qead048] [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: 11/02/2022] [Revised: 10/03/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 01/30/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Affective neuroscience is the study of the brain substrates of emotional, embodied experiences. Affective neuroscience theory (ANT) is based on experimental evidence that all mammals are hardwired with 7 primary subcortical emotional operating systems, or "core emotions," that have overlapping but distinct circuits buried in the deep, ancient parts of the brain. Imbalances in the 7 core emotions can affect multiple aspects of the individual's psychosocial well-being (eg, depression, anxiety, substance abuse). Here, we propose that core emotions can also influence sexual function and, specifically, that imbalances in core emotions are the bridge connecting psychiatric symptoms (eg, anhedonia) to sexual dysfunction (eg, anorgasmia). OBJECTIVES In this targeted review and commentary, we outline potential connections between ANT and sexual medicine research and clinical practice. We summarize ANT by defining the 3-level BrainMind and core emotions; examining how they relate to personality, behavior, and mental health; and determining the implications for sexual health research and clinical practice. METHODS A targeted literature review was conducted. Case studies were adapted from client files and clinician interviews and then anonymized. RESULTS We propose a novel organizational schema for implementing affective balance therapies for sexual dysfunction, which integrate psychoeducational, somatic, and cognitive therapeutic approaches under the ANT framework. We provide 3 patient case studies (anorgasmia, hypersexuality, spinal cord injury) outlining the implementation of this approach and patient outcomes. CONCLUSION ANT has practical translational applications in sexual health research and clinical practice. By integrating our understanding of the role of core emotions in human sexuality, clinicians can better tailor treatments to address sexual dysfunction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Colleen Mills-Finnerty
- Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Care, Palo Alto Veterans Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States
| | - Halee Staggs
- Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Care, Palo Alto Veterans Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States
| | - Celeste Bittoni
- Department of Psychology, University of Padova, Padova 2 35122, Italy
| | - Nan Wise
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102, United States
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Biddell H, Solms M, Slagter H, Laukkonen R. Arousal coherence, uncertainty, and well-being: an active inference account. Neurosci Conscious 2024; 2024:niae011. [PMID: 38504827 PMCID: PMC10949961 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niae011] [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: 08/02/2023] [Revised: 02/14/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Here we build on recent findings which show that greater alignment between our subjective experiences (how we feel) and physiological states (measurable changes in our body) plays a pivotal role in the overall psychological well-being. Specifically, we propose that the alignment or 'coherence' between affective arousal (e.g. how excited we 'feel') and autonomic arousal (e.g. heart rate or pupil dilation) may be key for maintaining up-to-date uncertainty representations in dynamic environments. Drawing on recent advances in interoceptive and affective inference, we also propose that arousal coherence reflects interoceptive integration, facilitates adaptive belief updating, and impacts our capacity to adapt to changes in uncertainty, with downstream consequences to well-being. We also highlight the role of meta-awareness of arousal, a third level of inference, which may permit conscious awareness, learning about, and intentional regulation of lower-order sources of arousal. Practices emphasizing meta-awareness of arousal (like meditation) may therefore elicit some of their known benefits via improved arousal coherence. We suggest that arousal coherence is also likely to be associated with markers of adaptive functioning (like emotional awareness and self-regulatory capacities) and discuss mind-body practices that may increase coherence.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Biddell
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Mark Solms
- Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Western Cape 7701, South Africa
| | - Heleen Slagter
- Department of Applied and Experimental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
- Institute for Brain and Behaviour, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam 1081 HV, The Netherlands
| | - Ruben Laukkonen
- School of Psychology, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, QLD 4225, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Delval I, Fernández-Bolaños M, Izar P. Towards an Integrated Concept of Personality in Human and Nonhuman Animals. Integr Psychol Behav Sci 2024; 58:271-302. [PMID: 37059965 PMCID: PMC10104772 DOI: 10.1007/s12124-023-09759-y] [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] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023]
Abstract
Every individual has an idiosyncratic way of feeling, thinking and behaving, which is relatively stable across time and situations. Usually known as Personality, today this phenomenon is recognized in many species, including arthropods, fish, avian or mammals. From an evolutionary perspective, research has shown that personality differences are manifest in distinctive forms of dealing with selective pressures, with consequences for fitness. Despite these facts, the study of personality in animals other than humans is relatively new. Only two decades ago, consistent behavioral individual differences were considered 'noise' around an optimal strategy for behavioral ecologists. Also, psychologists were not interested in animal personality as a consequence of the fear of anthropomorphization and the erroneous belief that humans are unique in nature. Fortunately, this misconception seems already overcome but there are still conceptual issues preventing a unified concept of personality. Throughout this review, we first explore the etymological origins of personality and other terminological issues. We further revise the historical course of the study of personality in humans and other animals, from the perspectives of Psychology and Behavioral Ecology, on the basis of the most used approach, the trait theory. We present the study of nonhuman primates as a paradigmatic example in between both frameworks. Finally, we discuss about the necessity of a unified science of personality.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Irene Delval
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo (IP-USP). Av. Prof. Mello Moraes 1721, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-030, Brazil.
| | - Marcelo Fernández-Bolaños
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo (IP-USP). Av. Prof. Mello Moraes 1721, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-030, Brazil
| | - Patrícia Izar
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo (IP-USP). Av. Prof. Mello Moraes 1721, São Paulo, SP, CEP 05508-030, Brazil
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Żochowska A, Nowicka A. Subjectively salient faces differ from emotional faces: ERP evidence. Sci Rep 2024; 14:3634. [PMID: 38351111 PMCID: PMC10864357 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54215-5] [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: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The self-face is processed differently than emotional faces. A question arises whether other highly familiar and subjectively significant non-self faces (e.g. partner's face) are also differentiated from emotional faces. The aim of this event-related potential (ERP) study was to investigate the neural correlates of personally-relevant faces (the self and a close-other's) as well as emotionally positive (happy) and neutral faces. Participants were tasked with the simple detection of faces. Amplitudes of N170 were more negative in the right than in the left hemisphere and were not modulated by type of face. A similar pattern of N2 and P3 results for the self-face and close-other's face was observed: they were associated with decreased N2 and increased P3 relative to happy and neutral faces. However, the self-face was preferentially processed also when compared to a close-other's face as revealed by lower N2 and higher P3 amplitudes. Nonparametric cluster-based permutation tests showed an analogous pattern of results: significant clusters for the self-face compared with all other faces (close-other's, happy, neutral) and for close-other's face compared to happy and neutral faces. In summary, the self-face prioritization was observed, as indicated by significant differences between one's own face and all other faces. Crucially, both types of personally-relevant faces differed from happy faces. These findings point to the pivotal role of subjective evaluation of the saliency factor.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Żochowska
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Anna Nowicka
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland.
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Koppang H, Wenstøp S, Pineda JA. Neural perspectives on morality due to beguiling mechanisms. Front Psychol 2024; 14:1151155. [PMID: 38362524 PMCID: PMC10867578 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1151155] [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: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2024] Open
Abstract
We consider deception an example of behavior that challenges traditional explanations of moral behavior. Beguiling mechanisms, by which we mean deceptiveness with charming seduction for diversion, subtly influence moral sensitivity and judgment in moral dilemma situations. The duality of beguiling mechanisms is important to grasp, including how they relate to the ambiguity of situations. Further, we view moral behavior as quasi-adaptive, affectively based, and reliant on the processes of social cognition, arising out of a set of domain-general primitive predispositions that aggregate to produce moral "mindsets" and increasingly complex moral actions. Building on recent theoretical developments, contend that morality involves a complex heterarchical-hierarchical neurological architecture, where activity is dynamically and contextually dependent, as well as dependent on evolved brain structures and early life year socialization. We contribute to conceptualizing moral behavior from an integrated modern neural perspective. This provides a balance between moral decisions as situational, emotional, and genetically completed non-conscious processes, and the more traditional view of conscious reasoning. Beguiling mechanisms illustrate an integrative model of morality, consistent with emerging insights from affective and cognitive neuroscience.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Søren Wenstøp
- Department of Economics, Innovation and Society, Østfold University College, Halden, Østfold, Norway
| | - Jaime A. Pineda
- University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Portnova GV, Podlepich VV, Skorokhodov IV. Patients With Better Outcome Have Higher ERP Response to Emotional Auditory Stimuli. J Clin Neurophysiol 2023; 40:634-640. [PMID: 37931164 DOI: 10.1097/wnp.0000000000000938] [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: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Accuracy of outcome prognosis is one of the most important tasks of coma arousal therapy. Reactions toward sensory stimuli are the most significant predictor of conscience and cognitive functions restoration after a brain injury. A paradigm that includes ERP registration has the advantage of detailed stimuli processing visualization. The authors aimed to investigate perception and distinguishing of emotionally significant sounds (crying and laughter) in coma patients with different consciousness restoration prognosis. METHODS EEG was recorded in 24 comatose patients with different outcomes (scored with Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended) and 32 healthy volunteers. The authors presented sounds of crying and laughter. ERPs for sound stimulation were calculated. RESULTS An analysis of the correlation of ERP components and Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended score was performed. P200 (r = 0.6, P = 0.0014) and N200 amplitudes (r = -0.56, P = 0.0037) for emotional sounds correlated with the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended score. The significant differences of P300 and N400 amplitudes corresponded to differences of response between sounds of crying and laughter in subjects of the control group. Unlike the control group, comatose participants with good outcome produced similar electrical activity toward pleasant and unpleasant emotional stimuli. CONCLUSIONS Comatose patients with good outcome produced more prominent ERP for emotional sounds. Even the good outcome participants were unable to distinguish emotional sounds of different moods, which indicate the preservation of solely robust mechanisms of sound processing. N200 and P200 amplitudes for emotional stimuli correlated significantly with outcome prognosis in coma patients.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Galina V Portnova
- Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
| | - Vitaliy V Podlepich
- Federal State Autonomous Institution N. N. Burdenko National Medical Research Center of Neurosurgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation
| | - Ivan V Skorokhodov
- Rehabilitation Center for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders "OUR SUNNY WORLD" (Non-Government, Non-Profit Organization), Moscow, Russia; and
- Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, Moscow, Russia
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Del Giudice M. A general motivational architecture for human and animal personality. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 144:104967. [PMID: 36410556 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2022] [Revised: 11/06/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
To achieve integration in the study of personality, researchers need to model the motivational processes that give rise to stable individual differences in behavior, cognition, and emotion. The missing link in current approaches is a motivational architecture-a description of the core set of mechanisms that underlie motivation, plus a functional account of their operating logic and inter-relations. This paper presents the initial version of such an architecture, the General Architecture of Motivation (GAM). The GAM offers a common language for individual differences in humans and other animals, and a conceptual toolkit for building species-specific models of personality. The paper describes the main components of the GAM and their interplay, and examines the contribution of these components to the emergence of individual differences. The final section discusses how the GAM can be used to construct explicit functional models of personality, and presents a roadmap for future research.
Collapse
|
13
|
Brienza L, Zennaro A, Vitolo E, Andò A. Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) and clinical implications: A systematic review. J Affect Disord 2023; 320:178-195. [PMID: 36174784 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2022] [Revised: 08/29/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Affective neuroscience (AN) theory assumes the existence of seven basic emotional systems (i.e., SEEKING, ANGER, FEAR, CARE, LUST, SADNESS, PLAY) that are common to all mammals and evolutionarily determined to be tools for survival and, in general, for fitness. Based on the AN approach, the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) questionnaire was developed to examine individual differences in the defined basic emotional systems. The current systematic review aims to examine the use of ANPS in clinical contexts attempting to define those behavioral elements associated with underlying stable personality traits. METHODS The systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA statements. PubMed and PsycInfo were used for research literature from March 2003 to November 2021. RESULTS Forty-four studies including ANPS were identified from 1763 studies reviewed. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria. LIMITATIONS The review comprised some papers with incomplete psychological assessments (e.g., lack of other measures in addition to the ANPS) and missing information (e.g., on the [sub]samples), which may affect the generalizability of findings. CONCLUSION Specific endophenotypes and/or patterns of emotional/motivational systems were found for several mental disorders. Specifically, endophenotypes emerged for the Depressive and Autism Spectrum Disorders, Borderline and Avoidant Personality Disorders, type I and II Bipolar Disorders, and the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The endophenotypes can provide useful reflective elements for both psychodiagnosis and intervention. Overall, the current study may represent an attempt to contribute to the understanding of the basic emotional systems involved in the psychopathological manifestations identified by AN.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Enrico Vitolo
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Agata Andò
- Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Sindermann C, Kannen C, Montag C. Linking primary emotional traits to ideological attitudes and personal value types. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0279885. [PMID: 36595556 PMCID: PMC9810181 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2022] [Accepted: 12/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The present study aimed at investigating associations of both ideological attitudes and personal value types with the personality traits derived from the Affective Neuroscience Theory (ANT). For that, data of N = 626 (n = 403 men, n = 220 women, n = 3 identifying as neither a man nor a woman) participants of an online survey in the German language were analyzed. Relations of primary emotional traits derived from the ANT with Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and personal value types, such as the higher-order value type dimensions "Conservation-Openness to Change" and "Self-Enhancement-Self-Transcendence", were examined by means of correlational analyses and structural equation modeling. Results revealed among others relations between low SEEKING, high ANGER and high RWA. Low CARE and high ANGER were associated with high SDO. Moreover, FEAR was related to the higher-order value type dimension ranging from Conservation to Openness to Change. ANGER was associated with the higher-order value type dimension ranging from Self-Enhancement to Self-Transcendence. The present results do not only expand knowledge on the personality traits associated with ideological attitudes and personal value types. Beyond this, considering the neuroanatomical, functional, and neurochemical correlates of the primary emotional traits SEEKING, ANGER, CARE, and FEAR, the present results may provide a roadmap for forthcoming studies aiming at examining biological correlates of ideological attitudes and personal value types, such as those works in the field of political neuroscience.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cornelia Sindermann
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
- Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Christopher Kannen
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Margariti MM, Vlachos II. The concept of psychotic arousal and its relevance to abnormal subjective experiences in schizophrenia. A hypothesis for the formation of primary delusions. Med Hypotheses 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2022.110915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
|
16
|
Kovács G, van Dijke A, Leontjevas R, Enders-Slegers MJ. The Relevance of Internal Working Models of Self and Others for Equine-Assisted Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:10803. [PMID: 36078534 PMCID: PMC9518159 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191710803] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2022] [Revised: 08/25/2022] [Accepted: 08/26/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Attachment characteristics play a key role in mental health and in understanding mental disorders. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the role the attachment characteristics can play in treatment effects in adult patients with intrapsychic and interpersonal problems who underwent Equine-assisted Short-term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (ESTPP). In the first part of the study, we compared the effects of ESTPP to treatment-as-usual from a previous dataset regarding psychological dysfunction. For this, an explorative experimental non-randomized pre-treatment and 1-year post-treatment design was used. A mixed model revealed a significant decline in psychological dysfunction for both conditions, with no significant difference between the two. In the second part of the study, we examined the course of ESTPP effects over the period of 1 year when controlled for attachment styles and, subsequently, for internal working models of self and others. To this end, measurements were taken at baseline, 2 months waiting time, one-week intensive module, 6 months, and one year after the start of the treatment. Mixed models accounted for repeated measures showed significant improvements in psychological dysfunction, remoralization, and depression for ESTPP patients over time. The study implies that models of self and others may be used to predict the course of effects, which is relevant in determining what works for whom. In particularly, duration and intensity of therapy and a focus on the Model of Self seem relevant for shaping a more personalized treatment. ESTPP seems beneficial for patients with low pre-treatment attachment security.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Géza Kovács
- Department of Psychology, Open University of the Netherlands, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands
- SPEL Psychologen Putten, 3881 NE Putten, The Netherlands
| | - Annemiek van Dijke
- PsyQ I-Psy Brijder The Netherlands, Leiden University Medical Centre, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Roeslan Leontjevas
- Department of Psychology, Open University of the Netherlands, 6419 AT Heerlen, The Netherlands
| | | |
Collapse
|
17
|
Leconstant C, Spitz E. Integrative Model of Human-Animal Interactions: A One Health-One Welfare Systemic Approach to Studying HAI. Front Vet Sci 2022; 9:656833. [PMID: 35968006 PMCID: PMC9372562 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2022.656833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The Integrative Model of Human-Animal Interactions (IMHAI) described herewith provides a conceptual framework for the study of interspecies interactions and aims to model the primary emotional processes involved in human-animal interactions. This model was developed from theoretical inputs from three fundamental disciplines for understanding interspecies interactions: neuroscience, psychology and ethology, with the objective of providing a transdisciplinary approach on which field professionals and researchers can build and collaborate. Seminal works in affective neuroscience offer a common basis between humans and animals and, as such, can be applied to the study of interspecies interactions from a One Health-One Welfare perspective. On the one hand, Jaak Panksepp's research revealed that primary/basic emotions originate in the deep subcortical regions of the brain and are shared by all mammals, including humans. On the other hand, several works in the field of neuroscience show that the basic physiological state is largely determined by the perception of safety. Thus, emotional expression reflects the state of an individual's permanent adaptation to ever-changing environmental demands. Based on this evidence and over 5 years of action research using grounded theory, alternating between research and practice, the IMHAI proposes a systemic approach to the study of primary-process emotional affects during interspecies social interactions, through the processes of emotional transfer, embodied communication and interactive emotional regulation. IMHAI aims to generate new hypotheses and predictions on affective behavior and interspecies communication. Application of such a model should promote risk prevention and the establishment of positive links between humans and animals thereby contributing to their respective wellbeing.
Collapse
|
18
|
Riters LV, Polzin BJ, Maksimoski AN, Stevenson SA, Alger SJ. Birdsong and the Neural Regulation of Positive Emotion. Front Psychol 2022; 13:903857. [PMID: 35814050 PMCID: PMC9258629 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Birds are not commonly admired for emotional expression, and when they are, the focus is typically on negative states; yet vocal behavior is considered a direct reflection of an individual's emotional state. Given that over 4000 species of songbird produce learned, complex, context-specific vocalizations, we make the case that songbirds are conspicuously broadcasting distinct positive emotional states and that hearing songs can also induce positive states in other birds. Studies are reviewed that demonstrate that that the production of sexually motivated song reflects an emotional state of anticipatory reward-seeking (i.e., mate-seeking), while outside the mating context song in gregarious flocks reflects a state of intrinsic reward. Studies are also reviewed that demonstrate that hearing song induces states of positive anticipation and reward. This review brings together numerous studies that highlight a potentially important role for the songbird nucleus accumbens, a region nearly synonymous with reward in mammals, in positive emotional states that underlie singing behavior and responses to song. It is proposed that the nucleus accumbens is part of an evolutionarily conserved circuitry that contributes context-dependently to positive emotional states that motivate and reward singing behavior and responses to song. Neural mechanisms that underlie basic emotions appear to be conserved and similar across vertebrates. Thus, these findings in songbirds have the potential to provide insights into interventions that can restore positive social interactions disrupted by mental health disorders in humans.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lauren V. Riters
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Brandon J. Polzin
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Alyse N. Maksimoski
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Sharon A. Stevenson
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Sarah J. Alger
- Department of Biology, University of Wisconsin—Stevens Point, Stevens Point, WI, United States
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Müller CP. Serotonin and Consciousness-A Reappraisal. Behav Brain Res 2022; 432:113970. [PMID: 35716774 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.113970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Revised: 06/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
The serotonergic system of the brain is a major modulator of behaviour. Here we describe a re-appraisal of its function for consciousness based on anatomical, functional and pharmacological data. For a better understanding, the current model of consciousness is expanded. Two parallel streams of conscious flow are distinguished. A flow of conscious content and an affective consciousness flow. While conscious content flow has its functional equivalent in the activity of higher cortico-cortical and cortico-thalamic networks, affective conscious flow originates in segregated deeper brain structures for single emotions. It is hypothesized that single emotional networks converge on serotonergic and other modulatory transmitter neurons in the brainstem where a bound percept of an affective conscious flow is formed. This is then dispersed to cortical and thalamic networks, where it is time locked with conscious content flow at the level of these networks. Serotonin acts in concert with other modulatory systems of the brain stem with some possible specialization on single emotions. Together, these systems signal a bound percept of affective conscious flow. Dysfunctions in the serotonergic system may not only give rise to behavioural and somatic symptoms, but also essentially affect the coupling of conscious affective flow with conscious content flow, leading to the affect-stained subjective side of mental disorders like anxiety, depression, or schizophrenia. The present model is an attempt to integrate the growing insights into serotonergic system function. However, it is acknowledged, that several key claims are still at a heuristic level that need further empirical support.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christian P Müller
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Clinic, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen, Germany; Centre for Drug Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia.
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Rozgonjuk D, Davis KL, Sindermann C, Montag C. The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales: Linking the adjective and statement-based inventories with the Big Five Inventory in English and German-speaking samples. PERSONALITY NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 4:e7. [PMID: 35434503 PMCID: PMC8988172 DOI: 10.1017/pen.2021.6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Revised: 10/23/2021] [Accepted: 11/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Jaak Panksepp's Affective Neuroscience Theory is of high relevance not only for a better understanding of affective brain disorders but also in personality research. To make Panksepp's theory more accessible for psychologists and psychiatrists, Davis, Panksepp, and Normansell (2003) developed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS). These scales assess the manifestation of the primary emotional traits in humans based on a personality trait approach. Given their putative foundation in old subcortical areas in the brain, these primary emotional traits (assessed via the ANPS) could represent the evolutionarily oldest manifestations of personality (but this notion is still a matter of a debate). However, the ANPS inventories were based on using contextual items (e.g., about specific attitudes, behaviors, and feelings in specific situations). Recently, an adjective-based ANPS (ANPS-Adjective Ratings or ANPS-AR) was developed for a less context-dependent and more efficient assessment of Panksepp's primary emotional systems in humans for use by both individuals and independent observer raters. The present work introduces the first German version of the ANPS-AR. Moreover, the current work investigates the original and ANPS-AR versions of the ANPS and their associations with the Big Five personality traits in two independent English- and German-speaking samples. The results show that the ANPS measures are very similarly correlated with the Big Five personality traits across different samples and scales. This work replicates the previous findings in an English version, and demonstrates the reliability and validity of the adjective-based German ANPS-AR.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dmitri Rozgonjuk
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
- Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | | | | | - Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
The effect of unexpected rewards on decision making in cuttlefish. Sci Rep 2022; 12:2514. [PMID: 35169192 PMCID: PMC8847567 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06443-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite numerous studies demonstrating the cognitive ability of cephalopods, there is currently no study showing an emotion-like behavior in this group of animals. To examine whether cuttlefish have different internal states, we developed a behavioral paradigm to assess if prior surprised events are able to alter the choice made by cuttlefish. By presenting unexpected food rewards to cuttlefish before the test, we investigated whether the reaction time of choosing between two shrimps, an intuitive response toward the prey without previous learning, at three different levels of discriminative tests (easy, difficult, and ambiguous), are different compared to the one without an unexpected reward. This behavioral paradigm serves to demonstrate whether cuttlefish are aware of ambiguous situations, and their choice outcome and reaction time are dependent of their internal states. The results show that the response latency was significantly shortened in the difficult and ambiguous tests when choosing from two shrimps that are either moderately different in size or similar sizes, respectively, when cuttlefish have received unexpected rewards before the test. These results were compared with tests during which the cuttlefish did not receive any reward in advance. Furthermore, this shortening of latency did not result in a difference in choice outcome during the difficult and ambiguous tests. Interestingly, even when cuttlefish have obtained the expected food rewards or simply made tentacular strike without prey capture each time before test, these prior experiences were sufficient to shorten the response latency in the difficult and ambiguous tests. However, different from the result of unexpected rewards, food consumption alone or prey capture failure did affect the choice outcome during the simple and difficult tests. Taken together, our findings suggest that pre-test treatments of unexpected and expected rewards or simply unsuccessful visual attack seem to induce cuttlefish to adopt different foraging behaviors. This context dependent decision making suggests that cuttlefish’s foraging strategies are influenced by the previously surprised event and their internal states. It also shows a speed-accuracy tradeoff in difficult and ambiguous situations when foraging for prey. This observation may lead to a future investigation of the presence of emotional state in cephalopods.
Collapse
|
22
|
Flores Mosri D. Affective Neuroscience Contributions to the Treatment of Addiction: The Role of Social Instincts, Pleasure and SEEKING. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:761744. [PMID: 34887789 PMCID: PMC8649919 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.761744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Addiction is an illness prevalent in the worldwide population that entails multiple health risks. Because of the nature of addictive disorders, users of drugs seldom look for treatment and when they do, availability can be difficult to access. Permanence in treatment and its outcomes vary from case to case. Most models work from a multidisciplinary approach that tackles several dimensions of addictive disorders. However, the different etiological factors claim for a personalized treatment to enhance opportunities for better results. Problems in relationships with others play an important role in the etiology and the recovery process of addiction. This paper focuses on the social-environmental causes of addiction based on an affective neuroscience approach that attempts to integrate the interplay between social instincts, pleasure, and the SEEKING system in addiction. To advance toward better treatment strategies, it is pertinent to understand the limitations of the current multidisciplinary models. Acknowledging the social nature of the human brain may help to identify the quality of different types of traumatic early life experiences in drug users and how to address them in what may become a neuropsychoanalytic treatment of addiction.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Flores Mosri
- Department of Psychology, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Neuropsychoanalysis, Universidad Intercontinental, Mexico City, Mexico
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Ciaunica A, Safron A, Delafield-Butt J. Back to square one: the bodily roots of conscious experiences in early life. Neurosci Conscious 2021; 2021:niab037. [PMID: 38633139 PMCID: PMC11021924 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niab037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2021] [Revised: 09/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 04/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Most theoretical and empirical discussions about the nature of consciousness are typically couched in a way that endorses a tacit adult-centric and vision-based perspective. This paper defends the idea that consciousness science may be put on a fruitful track for its next phase by examining the nature of subjective experiences through a bottom-up developmental lens. We draw attention to the intrinsic link between consciousness, experiences and experiencing subjects, which are first and foremost embodied and situated organisms essentially concerned with self-preservation within a precarious environment. Our paper suggests that in order to understand what consciousness 'is', one should first tackle the fundamental question: how do embodied experiences 'arise' from square one? We then highlight one key yet overlooked aspect of human consciousness studies, namely that the earliest and closest environment of an embodied experiencing subject is the body of another human experiencing subject. We present evidence speaking in favour of fairly sophisticated forms of early sensorimotor integration of bodily signals and self-generated actions already being established in utero. We conclude that these primitive and fundamentally relational and co-embodied roots of our early experiences may have a crucial impact on the way human beings consciously experience the self, body and the world across their lifespan.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Ciaunica
- Centre for Philosophy of Science (CFCUL), University of Lisbon, Lisbon 1749-016, Portugal
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
| | - Adam Safron
- Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Lindley Hall, 150 S Woodlawn Ave, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
- Cognitive Science Program, 1001 E. 10th St. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
| | - Jonathan Delafield-Butt
- Laboratory for Innovation in Autism, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1QE, UK
- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0LT, UK
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Redaelli V, Bosi A, Luzi F, Cappella P, Zerbi P, Ludwig N, Di Lernia D, Roughan JV, Porcu L, Soranna D, Parati G, Calvillo L. Neuroinflammation, body temperature and behavioural changes in CD1 male mice undergoing acute restraint stress: An exploratory study. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0259938. [PMID: 34780550 PMCID: PMC8592432 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Accepted: 11/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Animal models used to study pathologies requiring rehabilitation therapy, such as cardiovascular and neurologic disorders or oncologic disease, must be as refined and translationally relevant as possible. Sometimes, however, experimental procedures such as those involving restraint may generate undesired effects which may act as a source of bias. However, the extent to which potentially confounding effects derive from such routine procedures is currently unknown. Our study was therefore aimed at exploring possible undesirable effects of acute restraint stress, whereby animals were exposed to a brightly lit enclosed chamber (R&L) similar to those that are commonly used for substance injection. We hypothesised that this would induce a range of unwanted physiological alterations [such as neuroinflammatory response and changes in body weight and in brown adipose tissue (BAT)] and behavioural modification, and that these might be mitigated via the use of non-aversive handling methods: Tunnel Handling (NAH-T) and Mechanoceptive Handling (NAH-M)) as compared to standard Tail Handling (TH). METHODS Two indicators of physiological alterations and three potentially stress sensitive behavioural parameters were assessed. Physiological alterations were recorded via body weight changes and assessing the temperature of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) using infra-red thermography (IRT), and at the end of the experiment we determined the concentration of cytokines CXCL12 and CCL2 in bone marrow (BM) and activated microglia in the brain. Nest complexity scoring, automated home-cage behaviour analysis (HCS) and Elevated Plus Maze testing (EPM) were used to detect any behavioural alterations. Recordings were made before and after a 15-minute period of R&L in groups of mice handled via TH, NAH-T or NAH-M. RESULTS BAT temperature significantly decreased in all handling groups following R&L regardless of handling method. There was a difference, at the limit of significance (p = 0.06), in CXCL12 BM content among groups. CXCL12 content in BM of NAH-T animals was similar to that found in Sentinels, the less stressed group of animals. After R&L, mice undergoing NAH-T and NAH-M showed improved body-weight maintenance compared to those exposed to TH. Mice handled via NAH-M spent a significantly longer time on the open arms of the EPM. The HCS results showed that in all mice, regardless of handling method, R&L resulted in a significant reduction in walking and rearing, but not in total distance travelled. All mice also groomed more. No difference among the groups was found in Nest Score, in CCL2 BM content or in brain activated microglia. CONCLUSIONS Stress induced by a common restraint procedure caused metabolic and behavioural changes that might increase the risk of unexpected bias. In particular, the significant decrease in BAT temperature could affect the important metabolic pathways controlled by this tissue. R&L lowered the normal frequency of walking and rearing, increased grooming and probably carried a risk of low-grade neuro-inflammation. Some of the observed alterations can be mitigated by Non-aversive handlings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Veronica Redaelli
- Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences–One Health Unit, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Alice Bosi
- Department of Cardiovascular, Neural and Metabolic Sciences, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Luca Hospital, Milan, Italy
| | - Fabio Luzi
- Department of Biomedical, Surgical and Dental Sciences–One Health Unit, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Pietro Zerbi
- Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Cliniche "L. Sacco", Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Nicola Ludwig
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
| | - Daniele Di Lernia
- Humane Technology Lab, Dipartimento di psicologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
| | - John Vincent Roughan
- Institute of Neuroscience, Comparative Biology Centre, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Luca Porcu
- Laboratory of Methodology for Clinical Research, Oncology Department, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - Davide Soranna
- Biostatistics Unit, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, Milan, Italy
| | - Gianfranco Parati
- Department of Cardiovascular, Neural and Metabolic Sciences, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Luca Hospital, Milan, Italy
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Laura Calvillo
- Department of Cardiovascular, Neural and Metabolic Sciences, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Luca Hospital, Milan, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Liang F, Feng R, Gu S, Jiang S, Zhang X, Li N, Xu M, Tang Y, Wang F. Neurotransmitters and Electrophysiological Changes Might Work as Biomarkers for Diagnosing Affective Disorders. DISEASE MARKERS 2021; 2021:9116502. [PMID: 34589159 PMCID: PMC8476281 DOI: 10.1155/2021/9116502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Affective disorders are the leading causes of human disability worldwide; however, the diagnosis is still hard to define, because emotion is the least study subjects in psychology. Recent emotional studies suggest that human emotions are developed from basic emotions, which are evolved for fundamental human lives. Even though most psychologists agree upon the idea that there are some basic emotions, there is little agreement on how many emotions are basic, which emotions are basic, and why they are basic. In our previous papers, we suggested that there are three basic emotions: joy, fear, and disgust. These basic emotions depend on the peptides and monoamines: dopamine-joy (peptides-reward), norepinephrine-fear (anger), and serotonin-disgust (sadness). Further tests with event-related potentials (ERP) found that joy, fear, and disgust showed the fastest response compared with other emotions, suggesting that they are fast automatic responses, which confirmed that these three emotions are prototypical emotions. Other basic emotions, anger and sadness, are due to object induced behaviors instead of sensation of object, so they developed secondary to prototypical emotions. Thus, we concluded that only joy, fear, and disgust are prototypical emotions, which can mix into other emotions, like the primary colors. In all, the neural substrates for all emotions, including the affections, are possibly monoamine neuromodulators: joy-dopamine (peptides), fear (anger)-norepinephrine, and disgust-serotonin. We hope these basic emotional studies will offer some neural mechanisms for emotional processing and shed lights on the diagnosis of affective disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fei Liang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, China
| | - Rou Feng
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, China
| | - Simeng Gu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, China
- Department of Psychology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China
- Department of Neurology, Lianyungang Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Lianyungang, China
| | - Shan Jiang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, China
| | - Xia Zhang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, China
| | - Naling Li
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, China
| | - Minghong Xu
- Department of Neurology, Lianyungang Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Lianyungang, China
| | - Yiyuan Tang
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
| | - Fushun Wang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610000, China
- Department of Neurology, Lianyungang Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Lianyungang, China
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Flores Mosri D. Clinical Applications of Neuropsychoanalysis: Hypotheses Toward an Integrative Model. Front Psychol 2021; 12:718372. [PMID: 34566799 PMCID: PMC8458959 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuropsychoanalysis has been established as a field based on the dialog between psychoanalysis and the neurosciences. Freud was a neurologist for 20 years and used the neuroscientific knowledge of his time as the foundation of his metapsychology. Psychoanalysis has predominantly relied on its own method to develop techniques for the different psychoanalytic treatments. It rarely uses contributions from fields outside psychoanalysis that could enrich its understanding of the mind. Neuropsychoanalysis has informed and revised several topics in psychoanalysis, for example consciousness and the unconscious, dreams, and affect amongst many others. Clear clinical applications of neuropsychoanalysis can be appreciated in the work with neurological patients. However, a constant question from clinicians is whether neuropsychoanalytic findings can contribute to psychoanalytic treatments with non-neurological patients. This paper explores clinical applications of neuropsychoanalysis mainly based on affective neuroscience to propose an analysis of emotions that may contribute to the gradual development of a neuropsychoanalytically informed psychotherapy. The task of integrating neuroscientific knowledge into psychoanalytic technique is still considered a challenge of accentuated complexity, but it is at the same time a necessary and promising endeavor that aims at improving the quality of the treatments available for human suffering and psychopathology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Flores Mosri
- Department of Psychology, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Neuropsychoanalysis, Universidad Intercontinental, Mexico City, Mexico
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Rozgonjuk D, Davis KL, Montag C. The Roles of Primary Emotional Systems and Need Satisfaction in Problematic Internet and Smartphone Use: A Network Perspective. Front Psychol 2021; 12:709805. [PMID: 34531797 PMCID: PMC8438112 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.709805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Problematic Internet and smartphone use (PIU and PSU, respectively) have received significant attention over the past years. In the current work, we studied the associations between PIU and PSU, primary emotional systems, and need satisfaction. The effective sample comprised 399 people who responded to scales measuring these variables. Bivariate correlation analysis showed that both PSU and PIU were positively associated with negative primary emotion traits (FEAR, ANGER, SADNESS) as well as lower scores on most of the need satisfaction factors. Network analysis showed that while PIU and PSU have a strong association with each other, in general, there were not many significant correlations between PSU, PIU, and other variables in the network. The associations being present were rather weak. Network analysis showed that PSU was positively associated with FEAR, ANGER, PLAY primary emotional systems. Both PSU and PIU had a negative association with safety and security and physiological needs satisfaction. Moreover, PSU had a positive link with belongingness need satisfaction, while higher PIU was associated with lower esteem and self-actualization need satisfaction. Addressing those unmet needs may be helpful in reducing problematic technology use, but further research testing this would be necessary.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dmitri Rozgonjuk
- Department of Molecular Psychology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
- Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | | | - Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Horses show individual level lateralisation when inspecting an unfamiliar and unexpected stimulus. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0255688. [PMID: 34351986 PMCID: PMC8341651 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255688] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals must attend to a diverse array of stimuli in their environments. The emotional valence and salience of a stimulus can affect how this information is processed in the brain. Many species preferentially attend to negatively valent stimuli using the sensory organs on the left side of their body and hence the right hemisphere of their brain. Here, we investigated the lateralisation of visual attention to the rapid appearance of a stimulus (an inflated balloon) designed to induce an avoidance reaction and a negatively valent emotional state in 77 Italian saddle horses. Horses’ eyes are laterally positioned on the head, and each eye projects primarily to the contralateral hemisphere, allowing eye use to be a proxy for preferential processing in one hemisphere of the brain. We predicted that horses would inspect the novel and unexpected stimulus with their left eye and hence right hemisphere. We found that horses primarily inspected the balloon with one eye, and most horses had a preferred eye to do so, however, we did not find a population level tendency for this to be the left or the right eye. The strength of this preference tended to decrease over time, with the horses using their non-preferred eye to inspect the balloon increasingly as the trial progressed. Our results confirm a lateralised eye use tendency when viewing negatively emotionally valent stimuli in horses, in agreement with previous findings. However, there was not any alignment of lateralisation at the group level in our sample, suggesting that the expression of lateralisation in horses depends on the sample population and testing context.
Collapse
|
29
|
Żochowska A, Nowicka MM, Wójcik MJ, Nowicka A. Self-face and emotional faces-are they alike? Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:593-607. [PMID: 33595078 PMCID: PMC8218856 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab020] [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: 08/28/2020] [Revised: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The image of one’s own face is a particularly distinctive feature of the self. The
self-face differs from other faces not only in respect of its familiarity but also in
respect of its subjective emotional significance and saliency. The current study aimed at
elucidating similarities/dissimilarities between processing of one’s own face and
emotional faces: happy faces (based on the self-positive bias) and fearful faces (because
of their high perceptual saliency, a feature shared with self-face). Electroencephalogram
data were collected in the group of 30 participants who performed a simple detection task.
Event-related potential analyses indicated significantly increased P3 and late positive
potential amplitudes to the self-face in comparison to all other faces: fearful, happy and
neutral. Permutation tests confirmed the differences between the self-face and all three
types of other faces for numerous electrode sites and in broad time windows.
Representational similarity analysis, in turn, revealed distinct processing of the
self-face and did not provide any evidence in favour of similarities between the self-face
and emotional (either negative or positive) faces. These findings strongly suggest that
the self-face processing do not resemble those of emotional faces, thus implying that
prioritized self-referential processing is driven by the subjective relevance of one’s own
face.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Żochowska
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences,voivodeship mazowieckie,Warsaw 02-093, Poland
| | - Maria M Nowicka
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences,voivodeship mazowieckie,Warsaw 02-093, Poland
| | - Michał J Wójcik
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford,Oxfordshire, Oxford OX2 6GG,UK
| | - Anna Nowicka
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences,voivodeship mazowieckie,Warsaw 02-093, Poland
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Yager J. Infective Messages: Definitions, Processes, and Implications for Trauma, Identities, Internal Conflicts, Psychotherapy, and Research. J Nerv Ment Dis 2021; 209:474-480. [PMID: 33782250 DOI: 10.1097/nmd.0000000000001321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Throughout life, individuals are bombarded by countless emotion-generating messages. Certain of these messages, for example, some insults, admonitions, rejections, challenges, or insightful declarations, can be viewed as "infective." Infective messages shock, puncture, adhere, disturb, and generate discernable host responses that assimilate, accommodate, or repel the intruding messages. Messages originating in one's own mind can stimulate psychological equivalents of autoimmune responses. Sometimes, these messages produce enduring psychological changes. Infective messages may traumatize, organize, or therapize. The aims of this article are to consider how infective messages a) relate to their messengers (vectors), structural characteristics, and recipient (host) factors; b) might contribute to trauma, personal identity formation, psychological conflicts, and emotional self-regulatory and cognitive heuristics; c) might inform the conduct of psychotherapy; and d) suggest future research. METHODS Clinical observations were augmented with selective literature reviews. These sources contributed to perspectives regarding how certain messages might become infective; contribute to trauma, complex aspects of identity formation, and inner conflict; and inform the conduct of psychotherapy. RESULTS Infective messages are commonly characterized by short, cogent communications emanating from credible sources that fall on vulnerable recipients' receptive, dispositional feeling states. These infective stimuli trigger reactive and defensive emotions and associated behaviors reflecting responses to significant threats or benefits relative to the individual's deepest needs, motivations, and values. Defensive overreactions may occur in response to messages to which individuals have been previously sensitized. Infective message contents appear to assimilate into constantly evolving, dynamic autobiographical brain maps consisting of highly specific neuronal networks that range from the brainstem through limbic structures to multiple cortical areas. Autobiographical maps built from message-injected contents may transform, akin to the incorporation of retroviruses or prions, to encode personal identities as aspects of the self. Contrasting maps may exist semi-independently of one another, continuously evolving, interacting, combining, dividing, conflicting, and contending with one another for attention. Achieving attentional awareness, such maps help structure how individuals conceptualize and communicate about their encoded traumas, diverse identities, and the conflicts among them. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS During psychotherapy, aftereffects of traumatizing infective messages might be detoxified by deconstructing, desensitizing, and processing messages' precise words and emotional envelopes in relation to contexts in which they were delivered, and the individual's inner dispositions at moments of impact. Carefully crafted, timely interpretations can be therapeutically infective, generating enduring positive impacts. Future studies using an assortment of approaches can test these perspectives.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Joel Yager
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Han ME, Park SY, Oh SO. Large-scale functional brain networks for consciousness. Anat Cell Biol 2021; 54:152-164. [PMID: 33967030 PMCID: PMC8225483 DOI: 10.5115/acb.20.305] [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: 11/24/2020] [Revised: 01/14/2021] [Accepted: 01/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
The generation and maintenance of consciousness are fundamental but difficult subjects in the fields of psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, and medicine. However, recent developments in neuro-imaging techniques coupled with network analysis have greatly advanced our understanding of consciousness. The present review focuses on large-scale functional brain networks based on neuro-imaging data to explain the awareness (contents) and wakefulness of consciousness. Despite limitations, neuroimaging data suggests brain maps for important psychological and cognitive processes such as attention, language, self-referential, emotion, motivation, social behavior, and wakefulness. We considered a review of these advancements would provide new insights into research on the neural correlates of consciousness.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Myoung-Eun Han
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea
- Gene & Cell Therapy Research Center for Vessel-Associated Diseases, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea
| | - Si-Young Park
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea
- Gene & Cell Therapy Research Center for Vessel-Associated Diseases, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea
| | - Sae-Ock Oh
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea
- Gene & Cell Therapy Research Center for Vessel-Associated Diseases, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Baroni M, Frumento S, Cesari V, Gemignani A, Menicucci D, Rutigliano G. Unconscious processing of subliminal stimuli in panic disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 128:136-151. [PMID: 34139247 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.06.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2020] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Attentional biases to threat exist in panic disorder (PD), probably related to altered subliminal processing. We systematically reviewed studies investigating subliminal processing in PD. Studies were retrieved from MEDLINE and Scopus®. We meta-analytically compared PD (n = 167) and healthy controls (HC, n = 165) for processing of masked panic-related and neutral words. We also compared subliminal and supraliminal presentations of panic-related words relative to neutral words within PD subjects and HC. We found a significantly enhanced Stroop interference to masked panic-related words in PD vs HC (Hedges' g = 0.60, p = 0.03; Q = 14.83, I2 = 66.3 %, p = 0.01). While both PD subjects and HC tended to be slower to respond to supraliminal threat words than to neutral words, PD subjects only showed a marginally significant slower response to subliminal panic-related words vs neutral words. Findings remain inconclusive regarding comparison to other mental disorders, neural correlates, and the effect of psychotherapy. Even if possibly flawed by methodological weaknesses, our findings support the existence of a sensitivity to subliminal threat cues in PD, which could be targeted to improve treatment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marina Baroni
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, via Savi, 10, 56126, Pisa, Italy; Institute of Clinical Physiology (IFC), National Research Council, via Giuseppe Moruzzi, 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy
| | - Sergio Frumento
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, via Savi, 10, 56126, Pisa, Italy
| | - Valentina Cesari
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, via Savi, 10, 56126, Pisa, Italy
| | - Angelo Gemignani
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, via Savi, 10, 56126, Pisa, Italy
| | - Danilo Menicucci
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, via Savi, 10, 56126, Pisa, Italy.
| | - Grazia Rutigliano
- Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, via Savi, 10, 56126, Pisa, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Allritz M, McEwen ES, Call J. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show subtle signs of uncertainty when choices are more difficult. Cognition 2021; 214:104766. [PMID: 34051422 PMCID: PMC8346948 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104766] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Revised: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Humans can tell when they find a task difficult. Subtle uncertainty behaviors like changes in motor speed and muscle tension precede and affect these experiences. Theories of animal metacognition likewise stress the importance of endogenous signals of uncertainty as cues that motivate metacognitive behaviors. However, while researchers have investigated second-order behaviors like information seeking and declining difficult trials in nonhuman animals, they have devoted little attention to the behaviors that express the cognitive conflict that gives rise to such behaviors in the first place. Here we explored whether three chimpanzees would, like humans, show hand wavering more when faced with more difficult choices in a touch screen transitive inference task. While accuracy was very high across all conditions, all chimpanzees wavered more frequently in trials that were objectively more difficult, demonstrating a signature behavior which accompanies experiences of difficulty in humans. This lends plausibility to the idea that feelings of uncertainty, like other emotions, can be studied in nonhuman animals. We propose to routinely assess uncertainty behaviors to inform models of procedural metacognition in nonhuman animals.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthias Allritz
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, UK; Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig D-04103, Germany.
| | - Emma Suvi McEwen
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, UK; Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig D-04103, Germany
| | - Josep Call
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, UK; Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig D-04103, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Gilpin G, Gain J, Lipinska G. The physiological signature of sadness: A comparison between text, film and virtual reality. Brain Cogn 2021; 152:105734. [PMID: 34023614 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2021.105734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 04/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Studies focused on the ubiquitous emotion of sadness demonstrate substantial variability in physiological responses during sadness elicitation, with no consensus regarding the physiological pattern of sadness. Variability in findings could be attributed to (a) the use of different induction techniques across studies or (b) the existence of subtypes of sadness with distinct physiological activation patterns. Typically, studies have used text and film to elicit sadness. However, virtual reality (VR) confers advantages over more traditional methods by allowing individuals a subjective sense of "being there" or presence. We compared participants' physiological responses to the same narrative presented via VR, Film and Story (n = 20 each) and collected their subjective responses to the stimuli. Results confirmed that participants in all conditions experienced the discrete emotion of sadness. Moreover, participants in the VR condition experienced the highest degree of presence. Regarding psychophysiological responses, participants in the VR condition had the lowest degree of baseline-adjusted parasympathetic activation in comparison to participants in the Film condition. Furthermore, while participants in the VR group showed diminished baseline-adjusted respiration rate and parasympathetic activation with an increase in presence, the opposite pattern was true for participants in the other conditions. The data suggest that the VR condition may elicit an activating pattern of sadness; whereas Film and Story conditions may elicit a deactivating pattern of sadness. Our results have implications for research using the discrete model of emotion, highlighting that different emotion elicitation techniques may result in differing expressions of what is considered a unitary emotion.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Gina Gilpin
- Applied Cognitive Science and Experimental Neuropsychology Team (ACSENT), Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
| | - James Gain
- Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Gosia Lipinska
- Applied Cognitive Science and Experimental Neuropsychology Team (ACSENT), Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Subcortical gray matter volumes in asthma: associations with asthma duration, control, and anxiety. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 14:2341-2350. [PMID: 31501976 PMCID: PMC8116327 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-019-00188-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Asthma as a chronic inflammatory disease can be expected to affect central nervous system structures but little is known about subcortical structures in asthma and their potential association with illness-specific outcomes and anxiety. A total of 40 young adults (20 with asthma and 20 gender- and age-matched controls) underwent high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scan, viewed short distressing film clips, and filled in questionnaires about anxious and depressed mood, as well as asthma history, control, and catastrophizing thoughts about asthma, for those with asthma. The structural scans were processed in FSL's FIRST program to delineate subcortical structures of interest: amygdala, hippocampus, putamen, pallidum, caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens, and thalamus. Findings showed no general reduction in subcortical gray matter volumes in asthma compared to controls. Asthma duration, asthma control, and catastrophizing of asthma and asthma attacks were negatively associated with volumes of putamen and pallidum, and to a weaker extent thalamus and amygdala, while controlling for gender, age, and corticosteroid inhaler use. In addition, stronger anxiety in response to distressing films was associated with lower volume of the pallidum, whereas general anxious and depressed mood was unrelated to subcortical structures. Thus, although there are no subcortical structural differences between young adults with asthma and healthy controls, longer asthma history, suboptimal management, and illness-related anxiety are reflected in lower gray matter volumes of subcortical structures, further emphasizing the importance of maintaining optimal asthma control.
Collapse
|
36
|
Montag C, Elhai JD, Davis KL. A comprehensive review of studies using the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales in the psychological and psychiatric sciences. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 125:160-167. [PMID: 33609568 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.02.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2020] [Revised: 07/14/2020] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Jaak Panksepp's Affective Neuroscience Theory (ANT) belongs to the most prominent emotion theories in the psychological and psychiatric sciences. ANT proposes the existence of seven primary emotional systems deeply anchored in the mammalian brain. These emotional/motivational systems have been shaped by evolutionary processes and function as tools for survival in mammalian species. The systems are called SEEKING, LUST, CARE, and PLAY, as well as ANGER, FEAR, and SADNESS. Panksepp carved out these emotional systems via means of deep brain stimulation, brain lesion and pharmacological manipulation studies. Davis et al. (2003) designed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) against the background of findings from ANT. This self-report inventory is meant to enable researchers to assess individual differences in primary emotional systems. Seventeen years have passed since the first version of the ANPS has been published. Therefore, we now provide a comprehensive overview on studies using the ANPS including work from personality science, psychiatry and the neurosciences.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, BW, 89081, Germany.
| | - Jon D Elhai
- Department of Psychology, and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 43606, United States.
| | - Kenneth L Davis
- Pegasus International, Greensboro, NC, 27408, United States.
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
Sindermann C, Sariyska R, Elhai JD, Montag C. Molecular genetics of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides involved in Internet use disorders including first insights on a potential role of hypothalamus' oxytocin hormone. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2021; 182:389-400. [PMID: 34266607 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-819973-2.00026-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
This chapter covers the phenomenon of Internet use disorders (IUDs) and putative associations with different neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems. Genes coding for such messengers can be seen as an important starting point in the complicated quest to understand human behavior including new phenomena such as IUDs. Therefore, a special focus of this chapter will lie on individual differences in molecular genetic underpinnings of neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems and their associations with individual differences in tendencies towards IUDs. By shedding light on these associations, putative predisposing molecular genetic factors for the emergence and maintenance of IUDs can be carved out. Therefore, first an introduction to IUDs and a model that can guide research on putative associations of IUDs with different specific neurotransmitters and neuropeptides will be presented. Subsequently, twin studies on the heritability of IUDs are reviewed. Finally, studies on differences in molecular genetic predispositions and their associations with differences in IUDs will be presented and discussed, including targets related to the dopaminergic and serotonergic system as well as the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin. The chapter closes with a conclusion about what is already known and what needs to be investigated in future studies to gain further insights into putative associations between molecular genetic markers and IUDs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Rayna Sariyska
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - Jon D Elhai
- Departments of Psychology and of Psychiatry, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, United States
| | - Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
38
|
Wild boar behaviour during live-trap capture in a corral-style trap: implications for animal welfare. Acta Vet Scand 2020; 62:59. [PMID: 33168032 PMCID: PMC7654165 DOI: 10.1186/s13028-020-00557-9] [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] [Received: 06/18/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Wildlife traps are used in many countries without evaluation of their effect on animal welfare. Trap-capture of wild animals should minimise negative effects on animal welfare, irrespective of whether the animals are trapped for hunting, research, or management purposes. Live-trap capture of wild boar (Sus scrofa) followed by killing inside the trap by gunshot is a recently introduced but disputed hunting method in Sweden. Approval of trap constructions is based on gross necropsy findings of 20 trapped and shot wild boars. For improved animal welfare evaluation, our aim was to study wild boar behaviour during live-trapping in a 16 m2 square corral-style trap. Behavioural assessments were conducted after filming 12 capture events of in total 38 wild boars (five adults, 20 subadults, 13 piglets). Selected behavioural traits were compared with pathological changes (trap-related lesions) found at necropsy of the 20 subadults, to determine if these variables were useful proxies of capture-induced stress in wild boar. Results The wild boars spent less time resting in the evening than in the night and morning. Using Friedman’s ANOVA, there was an overall difference in the time spent foraging. However, we only found a difference between the evening and morning in the Wilcoxon matched pairs test after the Sequential Bonferroni correction, where the wild boars spent more time foraging in the evening than in the morning. Single captured individuals showed more escape behaviours and reacted more strongly to external stimuli than individuals captured in a group. It was more common for animals to charge against the mesh walls of the trap upon human approach compared to upon initial capture when the trap door closed. Trap-related pathological findings due to trauma were documented in 13 of the 20 subadults that were necropsied. Behavioural alterations indicative of capture-induced stress (e.g. charging into the trap walls) were documented in trapped wild boars with no or minor physical injuries (e.g. skin abrasions, subcutaneous haemorrhage). Conclusions Behavioural assessment provided valuable information for determination of capture-induced stress in wild boar when evaluating live-trapping in a corral-style trap, whereas pathological evaluation through necropsy did not fully reflect the animal welfare aspects of live-trapping. We emphasize the inclusion of species-specific behavioural data assessment for evaluation of capture-related stress during live-trapping and for testing of new trap constructions before approval.
Collapse
|
39
|
Montag C, Ebstein RP, Jawinski P, Markett S. Molecular genetics in psychology and personality neuroscience: On candidate genes, genome wide scans, and new research strategies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 118:163-174. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.06.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2019] [Revised: 06/11/2020] [Accepted: 06/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
|
40
|
Affiliation(s)
- Nitin Sekar
- Wildlife and Habitats Division, WWF-India, New Delhi, India.
| | | |
Collapse
|
41
|
Wernicke J, Zhang Y, Felten A, Du J, Yao S, Kou J, Chen Y, Kendrick KM, Becker B, Reuter M, Montag C. Blood oxytocin levels are not associated with ADHD tendencies and emotionality in healthy adults. Neurosci Lett 2020; 738:135312. [PMID: 32827574 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2020.135312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2020] [Revised: 08/02/2020] [Accepted: 08/15/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) regulates social and emotional behaviour. Core symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) include social and emotional dysfunctions potentially associated with lower endogenous OT levels. A dimensional approach was employed to examine relationships between plasma OT levels, ADHD tendencies, and emotionality in a healthy adult sample. Moreover, we aimed at replication of results regarding ADHD tendencies and emotionality from our previous work. Subjects were N = 110 healthy Chinese males (Mage: 22.01 ± 2.02 years). Variables of interest were plasma OT levels, individual variations in ADHD tendencies assessed via the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale Symptom Checklist (ASRS), and positive and negative emotionality assessed via primary emotional traits of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS). Hypotheses were tested by means of (partial) Spearman and Pearson correlations. Plasma OT levels were neither related to ADHD tendencies, nor to primary emotional traits. ADHD tendencies were significantly related to higher negative emotionality (correlation coefficients: r= .35 to r = .47) and lower positive emotionality (correlation coefficients: r= -.42 to r = -.36). The absence of associations between plasma OT levels and ADHD tendencies, primary emotional traits, and emotionality might be explained by the lack of robust associations between peripheral and central OT levels. Results regarding ADHD tendencies and emotionality replicate previous findings, emphasizing that (sub-clinically) elevated ADHD tendencies associate with dysregulated emotionality. Future studies examining the role of endogenous OT in ADHD should explore the generalizability of the present findings to women and patients with ADHD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Wernicke
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
| | - Yingying Zhang
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Andrea Felten
- Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Jun Du
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Shuxia Yao
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Juan Kou
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuanshu Chen
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Keith M Kendrick
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Martin Reuter
- Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Center for Economics & Neuroscience (CENs), Laboratory of Neurogenetics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany; The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Sutil-Martín DL, Rienda-Gómez JJ. The Influence of Unconscious Perceptual Processing on Decision-Making: A New Perspective From Cognitive Neuroscience Applied to Generation Z. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1728. [PMID: 32903621 PMCID: PMC7438726 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2020] [Accepted: 06/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive neuroscience and its applied developments have revolutionized marketing. With advances in neuroscientific techniques, marketing has needed to refocus toward understanding issues like the area of the brain that should be stimulated to transform the consumer’s intention to purchase into a real decision, how information is processed when making a decision, and how personality traits affect the purchase decision. Neuroscience has opened the door to the consumer’s brain. For many years, scientists have investigated the role of subliminal messages in marketing, with their findings generating a significant controversy. Many have shown that making sound decisions based on intuition rather than conscious reasoning is more common than previously thought. In fact, many studies have shown that sound intuitive decision-making depends on the association of the subliminal messages of a given situation with the limbic brain structures formed. Scientists have concluded that the brain does not consciously need to know contextual information to learn the value of this information and make the necessary linkages to make productive decisions. In this study, we consider whether unconscious perceptual processing influences decision-making and explore the influence of aspects of personality that are related to unconscious processing, such as the degree of neuroticism, extroversion, and gender of the individual, applied to the demographic cohort Generation Z, distinguishing between whether the stimuli are verbal or pictorial. The backward masking visual paradigm has been used to assess unconscious perceptual processing. To test these processes, a set of ANOVA models and logistic regressions were run where the dependent variable is whether the people perceived the stimuli or not and the independent variables were gender, the form of the stimuli (pictorial or verbal), and the personality traits extroversion, introversion, and neuroticism. The results suggest that verbal stimuli work better than pictorial stimuli, although a possible explanation is that the pictures require modification to be more effective. In the case of verbal stimuli, gender and level of neuroticism are found to be important variables that influence unconscious perceptual decision-making processes. Specifically, a female with a high level of neuroticism shows greater permeability in its unconscious perceptual processes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Juan José Rienda-Gómez
- Department of Financial Economics and Accounting and Modern Language, Rey Juan Carlos University, Móstoles, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Montag C, Sindermann C, Lester D, Davis KL. Linking individual differences in satisfaction with each of Maslow's needs to the Big Five personality traits and Panksepp's primary emotional systems. Heliyon 2020; 6:e04325. [PMID: 32743084 PMCID: PMC7387820 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2019] [Revised: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 06/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is one of the most impactful theories in motivation psychology and personality science. Therefore, it is surprising that studies linking individual differences in a person's current satisfaction with each of Maslow's needs to the Big Five personality traits are rare. In the present study of 850 participants, associations between the Need Satisfaction Inventory and the Big Five personality traits were examined for the first time. In addition, the administration of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales provided an evolutionary framework for the present research. Individual differences in the Need Satisfaction Inventory were assessed, but participants were also asked about the current importance of each of Maslow's needs in their lives. This latter approach to viewing Maslow's needs (general rated importance of each need in the life of a person) showed strong deviations from Maslow's proposed order in the classic pyramid depicting the hierarchy of needs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - Cornelia Sindermann
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - David Lester
- Stockton University, Galloway, NJ 08205-9441, USA
| | | |
Collapse
|
44
|
McNaughton N. Personality neuroscience and psychopathology: should we start with biology and look for neural-level factors? PERSONALITY NEUROSCIENCE 2020; 3:e4. [PMID: 32524065 PMCID: PMC7253689 DOI: 10.1017/pen.2020.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2019] [Revised: 02/26/2020] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
"Personality is an abstraction used to explain consistency and coherency in an individual's pattern of affects, cognitions, desires and behaviors [ABCDs]" (Revelle, 2007, p. 37). But personality research currently provides more a taxonomy of patterns than theories of fundamental causes. Psychiatric disorders can be viewed as involving extremes of personality but are diagnosed via symptom patterns not biological causes. Such surface-level taxonomic description is necessary for science, but consistent predictive explanation requires causal theory. Personality constructs, and especially their clinical extremes, should predict variation in ABCD patterns, with parsimony requiring the lowest effective causal level of explanation. But, even biologically inspired personality theories currently use an intuitive language-based approach for scale development that lacks biological anchors. I argue that teleonomic "purpose" explains the organisation and outputs of conserved brain emotion systems, where high activation is adaptive in specific situations but is otherwise maladaptive. Simple modulators of whole-system sensitivity evolved because the requisite adaptive level can vary across people and time. Sensitivity to a modulator is an abstract predictive personality factor that operates at the neural level but provides a causal explanation of both coherence and occasional apparent incoherence in ABCD variation. Neuromodulators impact all levels of the "personality hierarchy" from metatraits to aspects: stability appears altered by serotonergic drugs, neuroticism by ketamine and trait anxiety by simple anxiolytic drugs. Here, the tools of psychiatry transfer to personality research and imply both interaction between levels and oblique factor mappings to ABCD. On this view, much psychopathology reflects extremes of neural-level personality factors, and we can view much pharmacotherapy as temporarily altering personality. So, particularly for personality factors linked to basic emotions and their disorders, I think we should start with evolutionary biology and look directly at conserved neural-level modulators for our explanatory personality constructs and only invoke higher order, emergent, explanations when neural-level explanation fails.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Neil McNaughton
- Department of Psychology, Brain Health Research Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| |
Collapse
|
45
|
Sanwald S, Montag C, Kiefer M. Depressive Emotionality Moderates the Influence of the BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism on Executive Functions and on Unconscious Semantic Priming. J Mol Neurosci 2020; 70:699-712. [PMID: 32002751 PMCID: PMC7152588 DOI: 10.1007/s12031-020-01479-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2019] [Accepted: 01/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/17/2023]
Abstract
Automatic semantic processing can be assessed using semantic priming paradigms. Individual differences in semantic priming have been associated with differences in executive functions. The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met (substitution of valine (Val) to methionine (Met) at codon 66) polymorphism has been shown to be associated with executive functions as well as depression. Depression-associated variables such as depressed mood also moderated the relationship between BDNF Val66Met and executive functions in previous work. In this study, we therefore aimed at investigating whether BDNF Val66Met genotype modulates masked and unmasked semantic priming as well as executive functions and whether sadness is a moderator of these associations. We collected data of N = 155 participants measuring reaction times (RTs) as well as error rates (ERs) in masked and unmasked semantic priming paradigms using a lexical decision task. We assessed the primary emotion of SADNESS using the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) and working memory using digit span forward and backward tasks. Met+ carriers showed reduced RT priming and increased ER priming in the masked priming paradigm. Even though there was no direct association between BDNF Val66Met and executive functions, SADNESS significantly moderated the association between BDNF Val66Met and executive functions as well as masked RT priming. We suggest that Met+ individuals with low depressive tendencies have not only superior EF, but also a faster and more superficial processing style, compared with Val/Val homozygotes. However, in Met+ individuals, cognitive functioning exhibits a greater vulnerability to depressed emotionality compared with Val/Val homozygotes. Our study thus demonstrates how emotional and molecular genetic factors exert an interacting influence on higher-level cognition.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Simon Sanwald
- Department of Psychiatry, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
| | - Christian Montag
- Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - Markus Kiefer
- Department of Psychiatry, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Neuropsychiatric aspects of Parkinson disease psychopharmacology: Insights from circuit dynamics. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2020; 165:83-121. [PMID: 31727232 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-444-64012-3.00007-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with a complex pathophysiology characterized by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra. Persons with PD experience several motoric and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Neuropsychiatric features of PD include depression, anxiety, psychosis, impulse control disorders, and apathy. In this chapter, we will utilize the National Institutes of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) to frame and integrate observations from two prevailing disease constructions: neurotransmitter anomalies and circuit physiology. When there is available evidence, we posit how unified translational observations may have clinical relevance and postulate importance outside of PD. Finally, we review the limited evidence available for pharmacologic management of these symptoms.
Collapse
|
47
|
Arias JA, Williams C, Raghvani R, Aghajani M, Baez S, Belzung C, Booij L, Busatto G, Chiarella J, Fu CH, Ibanez A, Liddell BJ, Lowe L, Penninx BWJH, Rosa P, Kemp AH. The neuroscience of sadness: A multidisciplinary synthesis and collaborative review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 111:199-228. [PMID: 32001274 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2018] [Revised: 12/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/05/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduced walking speed, and slumped posture. Ancient subcortical circuitry provides a neuroanatomical foundation, extending from dorsal periaqueductal grey to subgenual anterior cingulate, the latter of which is now a treatment target in disorders of sadness. Electrophysiological studies further emphasize a role for reduced left relative to right frontal asymmetry in sadness, underpinning interest in the transcranial stimulation of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as an antidepressant target. Neuroimaging studies - including meta-analyses - indicate that sadness is associated with reduced cortical activation, which may contribute to reduced parasympathetic inhibitory control over medullary cardioacceleratory circuits. Reduced cardiac control may - in part - contribute to epidemiological reports of reduced life expectancy in affective disorders, effects equivalent to heavy smoking. We suggest that the field may be moving toward a theoretical consensus, in which different models relating to basic emotion theory and psychological constructionism may be considered as complementary, working at different levels of the phylogenetic hierarchy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Juan A Arias
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, United Kingdom; Department of Statistics, Mathematical Analysis, and Operational Research, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Claire Williams
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, United Kingdom
| | - Rashmi Raghvani
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, United Kingdom
| | - Moji Aghajani
- Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, Location VUMC, GGZ InGeest Research & Innovation, Amsterdam Neuroscience, the Netherlands
| | | | | | - Linda Booij
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University Montreal, Canada; CHU Sainte-Justine, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
| | | | - Julian Chiarella
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University Montreal, Canada; CHU Sainte-Justine, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada
| | - Cynthia Hy Fu
- School of Psychology, University of East London, United Kingdom; Centre for Affective Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, United Kingdom
| | - Agustin Ibanez
- Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile; Universidad Autonoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia; Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Australian Research Council (ARC), New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Leroy Lowe
- Neuroqualia (NGO), Turo, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Brenda W J H Penninx
- Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC, Location VUMC, GGZ InGeest Research & Innovation, Amsterdam Neuroscience, the Netherlands
| | - Pedro Rosa
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
| | - Andrew H Kemp
- Department of Psychology, Swansea University, United Kingdom; Department of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Discipline of Psychiatry, and School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Scalabrini A, Mucci C, Angeletti LL, Northoff G. The Self and its World: A Neuro-Ecological and Temporo-Spatial Account of Existential Fear. CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHIATRY 2020; 17:46-58. [PMID: 34908967 PMCID: PMC8629082 DOI: 10.36131/clinicalnpsych20200203] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2020] [Accepted: 04/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The current international crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong psychological impact on our subjectivities. We are constantly threatened by the danger of i) being infected, ii) infecting other people, and (iii) by the loss of social relation. Departing from these premises, we here aim to investigate the psychological and neurodynamics of this complex phenomenon. First, we discuss about recent psychological and neuronal findings on fear and its disorders, related to an unbalanced intero-exteroceptive processing and emotional regulation. Secondly we move to the psychological and neuronal dynamics of self and others characterized by a temporo-spatial alignment with the world. Due to the neural overlap of emotion and self and the deep-reaching neuro-ecological layers of self, emotional feelings like fear and anxiety cannot be detached and dissociated from the world; they signify the world–brain relation, and, more specifically, our self-other relation. The deepest neuro-ecological and neuro-social layers of self are threatened by the loss of subjectivity, which is manifest in our loss of body and thus the fear of dying, and the loss of intersubjectivity that surfaces in our fear of infecting others, which reflect the intimate anchorage of the self with the world. In our opinion the pandemic of COVID-19 deeply affect our sense of self and its spatio-temporal neuronal dynamics providing the prerequisites for the manifestation of fear and existential anxiety, thus disrupting the brain-world relation with significant repercussions on our psyche and on our daily lives.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Scalabrini
- Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences (DiSPuTer), G. d'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 33, 66100 Chieti (CH), Italy
| | - Clara Mucci
- Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences (DiSPuTer), G. d'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 33, 66100 Chieti (CH), Italy
| | - Lorenzo Lucherini Angeletti
- Psychiatry Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Largo G. Alessandro Brambilla 3, 50134, Florence, Italy
| | - Georg Northoff
- The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research & University of Ottawa. Brain and Mind Research Institute, Centre for Neural Dynamics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, 145 Carling Avenue, Rm. 6435, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Z 7K4.,Mental Health Centre, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Tianmu Road 305, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310013, China.,Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University, Tianmu Road 305, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310013, China.,TMU Research Centre for Brain and Consciousness, Shuang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, No. 250 Wu-Xing Street, 11031 Taipei, Taiwan.,Graduate Institute of Humanities in Medicine, Taipei Medical University, No. 250 Wu-Xing Street, 11031 Taipei, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
49
|
Markett S, Jawinski P, Kirsch P, Gerchen MF. Specific and segregated changes to the functional connectome evoked by the processing of emotional faces: A task-based connectome study. Sci Rep 2020; 10:4822. [PMID: 32179856 PMCID: PMC7076018 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-61522-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2019] [Accepted: 02/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The functional connectome is organized into several separable intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) that are thought to be the building blocks of the mind. However, it is currently not well understood how these networks are engaged by emotionally salient information, and how such engagement fits into emotion theories. The current study assessed how ICNs respond during the processing of angry and fearful faces in a large sample (N = 843) and examined how connectivity changes relate to the ICNs. All ICNs were modulated by emotional faces and showed functional interactions, a finding which is in line with the "theory of constructed emotions" that assumes that basic emotion do not arise from separable ICNs but from their interplay. We further identified a set of brain regions whose connectivity changes during the tasks suggest a special role as "affective hubs" in the brain. While hubs were located in all ICNs, we observed high selectivity for the amygdala within the subcortical network, a finding which also fits into "primary emotion" theory. The topology of hubs corresponded closely to a set of brain regions that has been implicated in anxiety disorders, pointing towards a clinical relevance of the present findings. The present data are the most comprehensive mapping of connectome-wide changes in functionally connectivity evoked by an affective processing task thus far and support two competing views on how emotions are represented in the brain, suggesting that the connectome paradigm might help with unifying the two ideas.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Peter Kirsch
- Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Heidelberg/Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Martin F Gerchen
- Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Heidelberg/Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
50
|
Olsson IAS, J Nicol C, Niemi SM, Sandøe P. From Unpleasant to Unbearable-Why and How to Implement an Upper Limit to Pain And Other Forms of Suffering in Research with Animals. ILAR J 2020; 60:404-414. [PMID: 31996924 DOI: 10.1093/ilar/ilz018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2018] [Revised: 08/01/2019] [Accepted: 09/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The focus of this paper is the requirement that the use of live animals in experiments and in vivo assays should never be allowed if those uses involve severe suffering. This requirement was first implemented in Danish legislation, was later adopted by the European Union, and has had limited uptake in North America. Animal suffering can arise from exposure to a wide range of different external and internal events that threaten biological or social functions, while the severity of suffering may be influenced by the animals' perceptions of their own situation and the degree of control they are able to exert. Severe suffering is more than an incremental increase in negative state(s) but involves a qualitative shift whereby the normal mechanisms to contain or keep negative states at arm's length no longer function. The result of severe suffering will be a loss of the ability of cope. The idea of putting a cap on severe suffering may be justified from multiple ethical perspectives. In most, if not all, cases it is possible to avoid imposing severe suffering on animals during experiments without giving up the potential benefits of finding new ways to cure, prevent, or alleviate serious human diseases and generate other important knowledge. From this it follows that there is a strong ethical case to favor a regulatory ban on animal experiments involving severe suffering.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- I Anna S Olsson
- Laboratory Animal Science Group, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Christine J Nicol
- Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, UK
| | - Steven M Niemi
- Animal Law and Policy Program, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Peter Sandøe
- Department of Food and Resource Economics, and Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|