Corrigendum: The effects of executive functions on language control during Chinese-English emotional word code-switching

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1087513.].

Autonomous sensory Meridian response as a physically felt signature of positive and negative emotions

Introduction

Current research on Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) assumes that ASMR is always accompanied by contentment, and it is distinct from frisson due to positive emotions. Thus, research investigations tend to limit their scope to solely focusing on the sensation of relaxation that ASMR induces. This study explores whether it is possible to have a different emotional experience and still perceive ASMR, testing the theory of ASMR as an amplifier of pre-existing emotion instead of a determination of positive affect.

Methods

The emotional arousal and valence, and mood changes of 180 ASMR-capable and incapable individuals were analysed using questionnaires after altering the affective interpretation associated with auditory ASMR (tapping) with visual priming to examine whether the primed emotion (fearful, relaxing, or neutral) could be amplified.

Results

It was found that an ASMR response occurred in all priming conditions, including the fear priming group. No significant difference was found in the emotional outcome or mood of the neutral and relaxing priming groups. Upon comparison with ASMR-incapable individuals, both the relaxing and neutral priming groups demonstrated the same affect, but greater potent for ASMR-capable. Individuals who appraised ASMR after visual fear priming demonstrated a significant decrease in positive emotional valence and increased arousal.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that ASMR occurs in both positive and negative emotional situations, suppressing contentment induction if ASMR stimuli are interpreted negatively and amplifying contentment when interpreted positively. While more research is needed, the results highlight that ASMR and frisson might describe the same phenomenon, both a physically felt signature of emotion. Therapeutic usage of ASMR should carefully select appropriate stimuli that emphasise contentment to avoid potential health risks associated with negative emotions until a further understanding of ASMR's affective parameters has been established.

Early childhood memories of individuals convicted of sexual offences

This study used innovative transdisciplinary methods to describe the nature and extent of early childhood memories recalled by 84 adults convicted of sexual offences. The timing of the memories, level of detail recalled and way memories were recollected were largely consistent with extant memory research. One important finding, however, was that more than 30% of our participants recalled particularly traumatic and distressing childhood experiences - a much higher proportion than previously observed in nonoffending samples. The extent to which these memories laid the foundation for subsequent emotional content and feature in the evolution of cognitive schemata is not yet well understood. With that in mind, we consider the implications of our findings for the event centrality in self-narratives. We recommend the inclusion of treatment modalities that maximise as yet unrecognised and undervalued narrative inclinations and story-telling abilities of a complicated population of individuals with rich lived experience that stands to benefit greatly from such approaches.

Facial Expression Recognition of Emotional Situations in Mild and Moderate Alzheimer's Disease

Background: Recognizing emotional situations may be impaired in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Purpose: We examined differences in the comprehension of an emotional situation in healthy older controls (HOC) and individuals with mild and moderate AD. Research Design: cross-sectional study. Study Sample: We assessed a convenience sample of 115 participants in 3 contexts: understanding the situation, ability to name the congruent emotion, and choice of the correct face in 4 emotional situations (sadness, surprise, anger, happiness). Data Colection: Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for comparison between groups separated by CDR 1 and 2. Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests were also used for comparison between groups separated by CDR 0, 1, and 2, with a pairwise comparisons analysis. Results: We found that the ability to understand, name, and choose the proper emotion is not linked and depends on the portrayed emotion. Conclusions: The findings suggest an interaction between emotional processing and cognitive functioning. Therefore, knowledge of an emotional condition and the connection to a specific facial choice most likely involve 2 degraded areas of knowledge, resulting in even higher odds of inaccuracy.

Are valence and arousal related to the development of amodal representations of words? A computational study

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the amodal (semantic) development of words and two popular emotional norms (emotional valence and arousal) in English and Spanish languages. To do so, we combined the strengths of semantics from vector space models (vector length, semantic diversity, and word maturity measures), and feature-based models of emotions. First, we generated a common vector space representing the meaning of words at different developmental stages (five and four developmental stages for English and Spanish, respectively) using the Word Maturity methodology to align different vector spaces. Second, we analyzed the amodal development of words through mixed-effects models with crossed random effects for words and variables using a continuous time metric. Third, the emotional norms were included as covariates in the statistical models. We evaluated more than 23,000 words, whose emotional norms were available for more than 10,000 words, in each language separately. Results showed a curve of amodal development with an increasing linear effect and a small quadratic deceleration. A relevant influence on the amodal development of words was found only for emotional valence (not for arousal), suggesting that positive words have an earlier amodal development and a less pronounced semantic change across early lifespan.

Is Deceitful Autobiographical Memory Really Forgotten?

Autobiographical memory for deceitful events is said to be forgotten over time to reduce guilt and stress. People who engage in deceitful behavior continue to do so because they are able to stretch their memories to match their moral outlook. In this study, the authors wanted to see if participants who engage in deceitful behavior will change their behavior if they are reminded of their previous misdeeds and compare it with reminding them of past moral behavior and any neutral event. We also studied how the experience, or phenomenology of remembering, differs between immoral and moral memories. In Experiment 1, we found evidence to suggest that reminding deceptive autobiographical memory does not reduce deceptive behavior. In Experiment 2, we found evidence to suggest phenomenological characteristics of Immoral and moral memories are not significantly different from each other but they are both significantly different from that of neutral memory. This contradicts established results in the field. It is interesting to note that only emotional valence is significantly different between immoral and moral memory.

The dual effect of background music on creativity: perspectives of music preference and cognitive interference

Music, an influential environmental factor, significantly shapes cognitive processing and everyday experiences, thus rendering its effects on creativity a dynamic topic within the field of cognitive science. However, debates continue about whether music bolsters, obstructs, or exerts a dual influence on individual creativity. Among the points of contention is the impact of contrasting musical emotions-both positive and negative-on creative tasks. In this study, we focused on traditional Chinese music, drawn from a culture known for its 'preference for sadness,' as our selected emotional stimulus and background music. This choice, underrepresented in previous research, was based on its uniqueness. We examined the effects of differing music genres (including vocal and instrumental), each characterized by a distinct emotional valence (positive or negative), on performance in the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). To conduct this study, we utilized an affective arousal paradigm, with a quiet background serving as a neutral control setting. A total of 114 participants were randomly assigned to three distinct groups after completing a music preference questionnaire: instrumental, vocal, and silent. Our findings showed that when compared to a quiet environment, both instrumental and vocal music as background stimuli significantly affected AUT performance. Notably, music with a negative emotional charge bolstered individual originality in creative performance. These results lend support to the dual role of background music in creativity, with instrumental music appearing to enhance creativity through factors such as emotional arousal, cognitive interference, music preference, and psychological restoration. This study challenges conventional understanding that only positive background music boosts creativity and provides empirical validation for the two-path model (positive and negative) of emotional influence on creativity.

Themes of trust, identity, intimacy, and generativity in important autobiographical memories: Associations with life periods and life satisfaction

INTRODUCTION

Guided by Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, the present study investigated whether themes of trust, identity, intimacy, and generativity are represented in older adults' most important autobiographical memories. Furthermore, we tested whether these themes are associated with certain life periods and whether having important memories (i.e., life story) that reflect developmental themes and are evaluated as positive is associated with life satisfaction.

METHODS

One hundred and twelve (59.8% female) older adults (61-92 years, M = 70.96, SD = 6.81) reported up to 15 important autobiographical memories. Participants rated each memory according to the themes of trust/mistrust, identity/confusion, intimacy/isolation, and generativity/stagnation.

RESULTS

Using multilevel multinomial logistic regression, we found childhood memories to be associated with trust, memories from participants' youth with identity and intimacy, and adulthood memories with intimacy and generativity. Moreover, participants who rated their autobiographical memories (i.e., life story) as high in reflecting themes and, at the same time, perceived their memories as more positive showed higher levels of life satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

Important autobiographical memories reflect how an individual became the person of today. They refer to age-related themes of psychosocial development and are associated with a person's life satisfaction if they are also considered as emotionally more positive.

Voice hearing as a social barometer: Benevolent persuasion, ancestral spirits, and politics in the voices of psychosis in Shanghai, China

The comparative study of voice hearing is in its early stages. This approach is important due to the observation that the content of voices differs across different settings, which suggests that voice hearing may respond to cultural invitation and, ultimately, to learning. Our interview-based study found that persons diagnosed with schizophrenia in China (Shanghai), compared to those diagnosed with schizophrenia in the United States, Ghana, and India, reported voices that were strikingly concerned with politics. Compared to participants in the United States in particular, voices seemed to be experienced more relationally: Shanghai participants reported voices notable for a sense of benevolent persuasion rather than harsh command, and knew the identities of their voices more so than in the United States. The voices were striking as well for their religious content, despite the previous prohibition of religion in China. Our findings further support the hypothesis that voice hearing seems to be shaped by context, and we observe that this shaping may affect not only conceptual content but the emotional valence of the experience.

Differentiating the DF effect in episodic memory: evaluating the contribution of the procedures of collaborative memory

Existing research has demonstrated a significant directed forgetting (DF) effect in memory. However, it remains unclear whether this phenomenon would occur in the context of interpersonal collaboration. Additionally, the contribution of emotional valence to the DF effect in item memory and source memory (which are subtypes of episodic memory) also needs to be explored. To address these issues, we conducted two experiments that combined the collaborative memory paradigm with the item-method procedure of DF. In both experiments, positive, neutral, or negative words were presented as stimuli, each followed by an R/F cue during encoding. We conducted two recalls, labeled Recall 1 and Recall 2, which consisted of both memory tasks. Recall 1 was performed either individually or collaboratively, whereas Recall 2 was done individually. Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 adopted the free-flowing procedure and the turn-taking procedure of collaborative memory, respectively. We obtained three implications from our current findings. (a) The occurrence of the DF effect in item memory was found regardless of the procedure of collaborative memory, and it was insensitive to the emotional valence of words or to whether participants had collaborated or not. These patterns demonstrate that both the mechanisms of elaborative rehearsal and active suppression/encoding blocking were engaged across words of different emotional valences and in nominal and collaborative circumstances. (b) In source memory, the DF effect showed different patterns in ongoing and post-collaborative memory, which underpins the dual-process models. (c) The amplitude of the DF effect was sensitive to the interaction of emotional valence by the status of collaboration, and the impact of collaboration differed between the two experiments, offering telling evidence of different aspects of the retrieval strategy disruption hypothesis (RSDH). Directions for identifying more influential factors are put forward.

Narratives about Cancer: What Metaphors can tell us about Depressive Symptoms in Breast Cancer Patients

Metaphors are pervasive in cancer discourse. However, little is known about how metaphor use develops over time within the same patient, and how metaphor use and its content relate to the mental health of the patient. Here, we analyzed metaphor use in personal essays written by breast cancer patients shortly after the time of diagnosis and nine months later, in relation to their depressive symptoms at both time points. Results show that metaphor use can provide important insight into a patient's current mental state. Specifically, patients who had no change in their depressive symptom levels used metaphors more densely after nine months. In addition, metaphor valence in the later essay was associated with depressive symptoms at study entry and nine months after. Lastly, we observed a shift in metaphor reference pattern for different symptom trajectories, such that those who recovered from initially elevated depressive symptoms used fewer self-referencing metaphors and more cancer-referencing metaphors in their later essay. Our work suggests that metaphor use reflects how a patient is coping with their diagnosis.

Comparison between the Effects of Acute Physical and Psychosocial Stress on Feedback-Based Learning

Stress modulates feedback-based learning, a process that has been implicated in declining mental function in aging and mental disorders. While acute physical and psychosocial stressors have been used interchangeably in studies on feedback-based learning, the two types of stressors involve distinct physiological and psychological processes. Whether the two types of stressors differentially influence feedback processing remains unclear. The present study compared the effects of physical and psychosocial stressors on feedback-based learning. Ninety-six subjects (Mage = 19.11 years; 50 female) completed either a cold pressor task (CPT) or mental arithmetic task (MAT), as the physical or psychosocial stressor, while electrocardiography and blood pressure were measured to assess cardiovascular stress reactivity (CVR). Self-ratings on the emotional valence of the stressors were also obtained. A probabilistic learning task was given prior to and after the stressors. Accuracy in selecting positive (Go accuracy) and avoiding negative stimuli (No-go accuracy) were recorded as learning outcomes. Repeated measures ANOVA and multiple regressions were used to compare the effects of two stressors and examine the effects of CVR and valence on the learning outcomes. The results showed that although the effects of CPT and MAT on feedback processing were not different, CVR and valence influenced Go and No-go accuracy, respectively. The results suggest that stress-modulated feedback-based learning involves multiple pathways and underscore the link between CVR and reward sensitivity. The findings have clinical implications and may contribute to a better understanding of human behavioral systems.

Sensitivity of late ERP old/new effects in source memory to self-referential encoding focus and stimulus emotionality

In episodic memory, the old/new effect, the contrast of the waveforms elicited by the correctly recognized studied items and the correctly rejected novel items, has been broadly concerned. However, the contribution of self-referential encoding to the old/new effect in source memory (i.e., source-SRE), is far from clarification; further, it remains unclear whether the contribution is susceptible to the factor of stimulus emotionality. To address these issues, adopting the event-related potential (ERP) technique, this study applied words of three types of emotional valences (positive, neutral, vs. negative) in the self-focus vs. external-focus encoding tasks. In the course of the test, four ERP old/new effects were identified: (a) the familiarity- and recollection-reflected mid-frontal effect (FN400) and late positive component (LPC) were both independent of source-SRE and stimulus emotionality; (b) the reconstruction-driven late posterior negativity (LPN) exhibited an adverse pattern of source-SRE and was susceptible to the emotional valence by encoding focus; and (c) the right frontal old/new effect (RFE), reflecting post-retrieval process, exhibited a source-SRE in emotional words. These effects provide compelling evidence for the influences of both stimulus valence and encoding focus on SRE in source memory, especially during the late processes. Further directions considering more perspectives are put forward.

Emotional arousal and valence in patients with fibromyalgia: a pilot study

The pathogenesis of pain in fibromyalgia is still not completely understood. A disrupted emotional modulation could affect the physiology of nociception and contributes to an altered perception of pain. The aim of this study was to test the role of emotional arousal and valence in pain susceptibility in fibromyalgia using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) paradigm and the Fibromyalgia Severity Scale (FSS). The study focused on comparing emotional arousal and valence between patients with fibromyalgia and the control group. The secondary objective was to examine the correlation between emotional indices and scores on the FSS and the duration of the disease. The 20 patients with fibromyalgia enrolled showed a higher mean arousal score for all the stimuli, including a higher score for unpleasant and socially unpleasant stimuli. The valence scores for social-relevant stimuli were also higher. Increased arousal to unpleasant and socially unpleasant images and increased valence of them correlated with the duration of the disease and the severity of symptoms and could reflect impairment in social cognition and marked sensitivity to pain in interaction with central nociceptive dysregulation.

Neurons innervating both the central amygdala and the ventral tegmental area encode different emotional valences

Mammals are frequently exposed to various environmental stimuli, and to determine whether to approach or avoid these stimuli, the brain must assign emotional valence to them. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the neural circuitry mechanisms involved in the mammalian brain's processing of emotional valence. Although the central amygdala (CeA) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) individually encode different or even opposing emotional valences, it is unclear whether there are common upstream input neurons that innervate and control both these regions, and it is interesting to know what emotional valences of these common upstream neurons. In this study, we identify three major brain regions containing neurons that project to both the CeA and the VTA, including the posterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (pBNST), the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg), and the anterior part of the basomedial amygdala (BMA). We discover that these neural populations encode distinct emotional valences. Activating neurons in the pBNST produces positive valence, enabling mice to overcome their innate avoidance behavior. Conversely, activating neurons in the PPTg produces negative valence and induces anxiety-like behaviors in mice. Neuronal activity in the BMA, on the other hand, does not influence valence processing. Thus, our study has discovered three neural populations that project to both the CeA and the VTA and has revealed the distinct emotional valences these populations encode. These results provide new insights into the neurological mechanisms involved in emotional regulation.

Higher judgements of learning for emotional words: processing fluency or memory beliefs?

Previous research has shown that emotionally-valenced words are given higher judgements of learning (JOLs) than are neutral words. The current study examined potential explanations for this emotional salience effect on JOLs. Experiment 1 replicated the basic emotionality/JOL effect. In Experiments 2A and 2B, we used pre-study JOLs and assessed memory beliefs qualitatively, finding that, on average, participants believed that positive and negative words were more memorable than neutral words. Experiment 3 utilised a lexical decision task, resulting in lower reaction times (RTs) for positive words than for neutral words, but equivalent RTs for negative and neutral words, suggesting that processing fluency may partially account for higher JOLs for positive words, but not for negative words. Finally, we conducted a series of moderation analyses in Experiment 4 which assessed the relative contributions of fluency and beliefs to JOLs by measuring both factors in the same participants, showing that RTs made no significant contribution to JOLs for either positive or negative words. Our findings suggest that although positive words may be more fluently processed than neutral words, memory beliefs are the primary factor underlying higher JOLs for both positive and negative words.

Interference effect of food and emotional stimuli in Stroop-like tasks for children and adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome

Interference effect of food and emotional stimuli in Stroop-like tasks for children and adults with Prader-Willi Syndrome. The aim of this work was to study the way items related to food or emotion are processed by a population known to have difficulties with dietary restriction, namely individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). Given the presence of intellectual disability (ID) in PWS, our experiments were designed to examine whether these difficulties were specific to PWS or linked with their ID. Two modified Stroop tasks (i.e., a food version and an emotional version) were administered to seventy-four children (aged between 6 and 16 years old) divided into three groups (one with PWS, one with ID matched on age and Intellectual Quotient (IQ), and one healthy group matched on age) and to eighty-four adults (aged between 18 and 48 years old) distributed in the same three groups. For both tasks, a picture version was used for the children and a word version for the adults. For the food Stroop task, (Experiment 1), materials were composed of low or high-caloric food items and stimuli not related to food. The results show a food Stroop effect for children and adults with PWS that was absent in the group of healthy participants. Moreover, a food Stroop effect was also significant for adults with ID. For the emotional Stroop task (Experiment 2), materials were composed of negative, positive and neutral stimuli. The emotional Stroop effect was also obtained for children and adults with PWS as well as for the healthy group, but not for the age- and IQ-matched group. For the PWS groups, results show a preservation to process positive pictures for children and difficulties to process negative stimuli for both age-groups. These results suggest that people with PWS have difficulties in disengaging their attention when food stimuli are present in their environment and poorer abilities to process negative ones. These difficulties endure in adulthood.

Benefits and Detriments of Social Collaborative Memory in Turn-Taking and Directed Forgetting

Collaborative recall by groups of people can evoke both memory detriments (e.g., collaborative inhibition) and benefits (e.g., error pruning and post-collaborative memory benefit). Yet, it remains indeterminate whether these effects are due to the emotional valence of stimuli and/or the specific subtypes of episodic memory tested (i.e., item memory and source memory), and whether they are related to the research procedure of directed forgetting (DF). We introduced item-method DF into collaborative memory research using a turn-taking procedure. The to-be-recalled words were studied in different emotional valences and were followed by either an R or F cue, which, respectively, instructed participants to remember or forget the words presented. We conducted two recall sessions (Recall 1 and Recall 2) that included the two subtypes of episodic memory. Recall 1 was performed either individually or collaboratively, while Recall 2 was always performed individually. We observed three major findings: (a) a collaborative memory decrement - collaborative inhibition - was minimally affected in both item memory and source memory tasks by either the emotional valence of the stimuli or the DF cue; (b) a collaborative memory benefit - error pruning of item memory - persisted within both ongoing and post-collaboration, while error pruning of source memory only presented in ongoing collaboration, thus demonstrating the relevance of dual-process models that differentiate automatic familiarity and effortful recollection processes; and (c) there was no post-collaborative memory benefit, indicating the importance of the type of collaborative procedure. We discuss these results in terms of various theories, including the retrieval strategy disruption hypothesis (RSDH) which asserts that memory strategies tend to be disrupted in collaboration but are facilitated within post-collaboration. Also, we describe the implications of these results and directions for exploring other influential factors in future research.

The binding of negative emotional stimuli with spatial information in working memory: A possible role for the episodic buffer

Introduction

Remembering where negative events occur has undeniable adaptive value, however, how these memories are formed remains elusive. We investigated the role of working memory subcomponents in binding emotional and visuo-spatial information using an emotional version of the object relocation task (EORT).

Methods

After displaying black rectangles simultaneously, emotional pictures (from the International Affective Pictures System) appeared sequentially over each rectangle. Participants repositioned the rectangles as accurately as possible after all stimuli had disappeared. During the EORT encoding phase, a verbal trail task was administered concurrently to selectively interfere with the central executive (CE). The immediate post-encoding administration of an object feature-report task was used to interfere with the episodic buffer (EB).

Results

Only the EB-interfering task prevented the emotion-enhancing effect of negative pictures. The latter effect was not observed with a concurrent executive task.

Discussion

Overall, our findings suggest that pre-attentive automatic processes are primarily involved in binding emotional and visuo-spatial information in the EB.

Acquiring religious words: dialogical and individual construction of a word's meaning

By the age of eight, there is a significant increase in abstract words in the child's lexicon. A crucial contribution can be seen in the linguistic input, i.e. the way how abstract words are presented by caregivers by means of linguistic perspectivation and emotionalization. Following an interactionist way, we were interested in how the semantics of abstract words is constructed by child and caregiver in duet. We focused on a subset of abstract words and studied the acquisition of meaning of the religious concept mercy. We expected religious words to be emotionally anchored and presented with perspectivation, both contributing to learning. Exploring the dialogic constructions, we investigated eight 7- to 8-year olds and their parents during dialogic reading and studied their strategies focusing on the linguistic means of emotionalization and perspectivation in contextualizing the word. In a subsequent test, we analysed these means used by the children and assessed their individual understanding of mercy. Our analyses indicate that during reading, the enrichment of semantics by emotionalization was related between child and caregiver, whereas cross-situationally, a simultaneous enrichment of emotionalization and perspectivation was present. Moreover, the children demonstrated a conceptual understanding of mercy in religious contexts, but not in secular contexts. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.

The effects of executive functions on language control during Chinese-English emotional word code-switching

Executive functions (EFs) have great impact on language control indexed by language switch costs during production-based language switching. Yet, how they influence language control during comprehension-based language switching between embodied first language (L1, Chinese) emotional words and less embodied second language (L2, English) emotional words is less understood. Employing an emotional priming paradigm, this study recruited Chinese-English bilinguals as participants, and used emotional faces and words as experimental materials to explore the effects of cool [i.e., inhibitory control ability, IC ability] and hot (i.e., emotional valence and emotional congruency) EFs on language switch costs (i.e., language control) during Chinese-English emotional word comprehension. The results showed larger language switch costs in the emotional congruent condition relative to emotional conflict condition, larger Chinese switch costs than English switch costs, and larger language switch costs for negative over positive emotional words in the emotional congruent condition. In addition, high-IC participants showed larger English switch costs for negative emotional words compared with low-IC participants. These results indicated that hot EF and the embodiment of language had an impact on both language control and the modulation of cool EF on language control, and that the components of hot EFs interacted and jointly affected language control during language switching.

The left prefrontal cortex determines relevance at encoding and governs episodic memory formation

The role hemispheric lateralization in the prefrontal cortex plays for episodic memory formation in general, and for emotionally valenced information in particular, is debated. In a randomized, double-blind, and sham-controlled design, healthy young participants (n = 254) performed 2 runs of encoding to categorize the perceptual, semantic, or emotionally valenced (positive or negative) features of words followed by a free recall and a recognition task. To resolve competing hypotheses about the contribution of each hemisphere, we modulated left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity using transcranial direct current stimulation during encoding (1 mA, 20 min). With stimulation of the left DLPFC, but not the right DLPFC, encoding and free recall performance improved particularly for words that were processed semantically. In addition, enhancing left DLPFC activity increased memory formation for positive content while reducing that for negative content. In contrast, promoting right DLPFC activity increased memory formation for negative content. The left DLPFC assesses semantic properties of new memory content at encoding and thus influences how successful new episodic memories are established. Hemispheric laterlization-more active left DLPFC and less active right DLPFC-at the encoding stage shifts the formation of memory traces in favor of positively valenced content.

Gender Differences in Emotional Valence and Social Media Content Engagement Behaviors in Pandemic Diaries: An Analysis Based on Microblog Texts

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are individualized, which means that our emotions and behaviors would experience changes of different degrees. These changes have led to subtle connections within the social media context. This study concentrates on pandemic diaries posted on microblog sites during the lockdown period in China and explores the association between gender, emotional valence in diaries, and social media content engagement behaviors. Through computational methods, this study found that males and females tended to present significantly different emotional valence and social media content engagement behaviors. A negative correlation existed between emotional valence and comment behavior in female diary texts. Moreover, the pandemic proximity had a moderating effect on emotional valence and social media content engagement behaviors. This article attempts to explain the emotional and behavioral characteristics related to social media diaries and express concerns for the emotional health of disadvantaged blog users in the severely affected area during the pandemic.

Distinct Effects of Anxiety and Depression on Updating Emotional Information in Working Memory

Anxiety and depression have been shown to negatively influence the processing of emotional information in working memory. However, most studies have examined anxiety-related or depression-related working memory deficits independently, without considering their high co-morbidity. We tested the effects of emotional valence on working memory performance among healthy young adults with varying levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Ninety young adults aged between 18-24 (51 female) completed an emotional 2-back task in which positive, negative, and neutral images were presented. Multi-level modeling was used to examine anxiety and depressive symptoms as predictors of response accuracy and latency across the three emotional valence conditions. The results showed that participants responded to negative images with the highest accuracy and to positive images with the lowest accuracy. Both negative and positive images elicited slower responses than neutral images. Importantly, we found that more severe anxiety symptoms predicted a smaller difference in response accuracy between negative and neutral stimuli, whereas more severe depressive symptoms predicted a larger updating reaction time difference between positive and neutral stimuli. These findings demonstrated the uniquely anxiety-related deficits in processing negative contents and the uniquely depression-related deficits in updating positive contents in working memory, thus highlighting the necessity of novel cognitive bias modification interventions targeting the anxiety-specific and depression-specific deficits in working memory.

Influences of Emotional Information on Response Inhibition in Gaming Disorder: Behavioral and ERP Evidence from Go/Nogo Task

BACKGROUND

Gaming disorder (GD) may impair executive functions such as response inhibition. According to the tripartite neurocognitive model, the interoceptive system generates a state of craving that exacerbates the dysfunction of GD. We speculate that emotional information may play an important role in the mechanism, which leads to impaired response inhibition in people with GD.

METHODS

A three-factor mixed experimental design was adopted in this go/nogo task. The between-subject factor was group (GD or control group), and the within-subject factors were two types of emotional information, task relevance (related or unrelated) and emotional valence (negative or positive).

RESULTS

The GD group had lower nogo accuracies than the control group in the task-unrelated condition and also in the negative condition. Parallelly, the GD group showed faster reactions and lower accuracy in the go trials than the control group under task-unrelated negative conditions. At the neural level, the GD group had smaller amplitudes of nogo-N2 and larger amplitudes of nogo-P3 than the control group in the task-unrelated condition.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings prove the hypothesis of this study that emotional information could be a factor leading to impaired response inhibition in GD individuals. The response inhibition abilities of GD are weakened when processing task-unrelated or negative information, which may be caused by failure of behavioral inhibition and weakened conflict control, resulting in more cognitive resources to complete response suppression under specific conditions. This study provides evidence for weaker response inhibition in GD individuals from the perspective of cognitive-emotional interaction and provides more detailed information for interventions for GD.

Anticipatory Stress Increases Deontological Inclinations: The Mediating Role of Emotional Valence

Previous studies have explored the differences in moral judgments under normal situations and acute stress using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The present study examined whether anticipatory stress (i.e., induced by an anticipated speech) could elicit similar effects and further explored the mediation of emotional responses between acute stress and moral judgments with a process-dissociation approach. Fifty-three undergraduate students (20 males and 33 females) were randomly assigned to the stress and control groups. In the first stage, they were instructed to prepare a public speech (the stress group) or just recall events during the previous vacation (the control group). In the second stage, they reported emotional valence and arousal for each moral dilemma in a set of 12 moral dilemmas, followed by judgments on moral acceptability of the agent's action. The manipulation check confirmed that anticipatory stress was reliably induced, as indicated in both self-reported and physiological data. The traditional dilemma analysis revealed that participants in the stress group would make fewer utilitarian judgments than those in the control group. The process dissociation (PD) analyses further revealed that the stress group exhibited higher deontological inclinations than the control group, but no significant differences in utilitarian inclinations. Emotional valence played a mediating role in the association between stress and deontological inclinations. To sum up, our study extended the investigation of the relationship between acute stress and moral judgment to anticipatory stress, clarified its distinct impact on deontological and utilitarian inclinations, and revealed the mediating effect of emotional valence.

Induced feelings of external influence during instructed imaginations in healthy subjects

The psychopathological phenomenon of delusions of influence comprises variable disturbances of the self-environment-border leading to the feeling of external influence on thoughts, feelings, impulses or behaviors. Delusions of influence are a hallmark in psychotic illness, but nevertheless, attenuated forms can also appear in healthy individuals. Here we present a newly developed paradigm to induce and assess feelings of external influence during instructed imaginations in healthy individuals. In the current study, we asked 60 healthy individuals to visually imagine different objects. To induce feelings of external influence, we applied one of three different physical setups (low-amplitude transcranial direct current stimulation, eye contact, or skin-to-skin hand touch), and informed the participants whether or not an external influence was attempted during the respective trial. The physical setup (setup vs. no setup, Z = -3.847, p < 0.001, r = 0.497) as well as the information given to the participants (confirmation vs. negation, Z = -5.218, p < 0.001, r = 0.674) alone were able to modulate the feeling of external influence in all three interventions. The impact of information (whether influence was attempted or not attempted) significantly exceeded the impact of the physical setup on the ratings of experienced external influence (Z = -2.394, p = 0.016, r = 0.310). Moreover, the response latency correlated with the estimated feeling of external influence (r _S = 0.392, p = 0.002). Additional analyses addressed the influence of the emotional content of imagined objects and examined the intensity and emotional valence of the imaginations. Further supplemental analyses correlated external influence estimation of the participants with other psychopathological measures (trait markers for supernatural beliefs, proneness to hallucinations, and delusions and attributional style). In conclusion, this study endorses a quantitative model of psychopathological characteristics, in this case feelings of external influence that can be induced by external cues.

Comparing Emotional Valence Scores of Twitter Posts from Manual Coding and Machine Learning Algorithms to Gain Insights to Refine Interventions for Family Caregivers of Persons with Dementia

We randomly extracted Korean-language Tweets mentioning dementia/Alzheimer's disease (n= 12,413) from November 28 to December 9, 2020. We independently applied three machine learning algorithms (Afinn, Syuzhet, and Bing) using natural language processing (NLP) techniques and qualitative manual scoring to assign emotional valence scores to Tweets. We then compared the means and distributions of the four emotional valence scores. Visual examination of the graphs produced indicated that each method exhibited unique patterns. The aggregated mean emotional valence scores from the NLP methods were mostly neutral, vs. slightly negative for manual coding (Afinn 0.029, 95% CI [-0.019, 0.077]; Syuzhet 0.266, [0.236, 0.295]; Bing -0.271, [-0.289, -0.252]; manual coding -1.601, [-1.632, -1.569]). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no statistically significant differences among the four means after normalization. These findings suggest that the application of NLP can be fairly effective in extracting emotional valence scores from Korean-language Twitter content to gain insights regarding family caregiving for a person with dementia.

Aesthetic Preference for Negatively-Valenced Artworks Remains Stable in Pathological Aging: A Comparison Between Cognitively Impaired Patients With Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Controls

Background

Despite severe cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD), aesthetic preferences in AD patients seem to retain some stability over time, similarly to healthy controls. However, the underlying mechanisms of aesthetic preference stability in AD remain unclear. We therefore aimed to study the role of emotional valence of stimuli for stability of aesthetic preferences in patients with AD compared to cognitively unimpaired elderly adults.

Methods

Fifteen AD patients (Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score 12–26) without visual impairment and/or psychiatric disorder, as well as 15 healthy controls without cognitive impairment (MMSE ≥ 27) matched in age, sex, art interest and highest level of education were included in this study. All participants were asked to rank-order eight artworks per stimulus category (positive, negative, neutral in emotional valence) according to their preference twice with a 2-week span in-between. Based on these two rankings a preference change score was calculated. In order to assess explicit recognition memory of the artworks in the second testing session, four artworks of each stimulus category used in the preference ranking task were presented together with a content-matched distractor artwork painted by the same artist. Participants had to indicate which of the stimuli they had seen 2 weeks previously.

Results

AD patients [MMSE (M) = 18.9 ± 3.6; Age (M) = 85.4 ± 6.9; 33.3% male] had no explicit recognition memory of the artworks (recognition at chance level), whereas healthy controls [MMSE (M) = 27.7 ± 1.4; Age (M) = 84.3 ± 6.7; 33.3% male] correctly recognized 85% of stimuli after 2 weeks. AD patients had equally stable preferences compared to the control group for negative artworks, but less stable preferences for positive and neutral images (Bonferroni-corrected significance levels; p < 0.017).

Conclusion

Even in cognitively impaired AD patients, aesthetic preference for negatively-valenced artworks remains relatively stable. Our study provides novel evidence that AD patients may have a somewhat preserved implicit valence system for negative compared to neutral or positive visual information, especially in the domain of aesthetics. However, more studies need to further uncover the details of the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms of preference stability in pathological aging.

From core schemas about the self and others to voice phenomenology: Anxiety and depression affect voice hearers differently

OBJECTIVES

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) occur as a symptom in various mental disorders, and show different phenomenological aspects, depending on their underlying psychopathology. Anxiety and depression, which are known to be involved in the development of AVHs, are suggested to amplify a vicious cycle in which negative interpretations of daily experiences feed into the formation of negative core schemas about the self and others. However, the way in which these variables interrelate is still unknown. Therefore, our aim was to determine the specific roles of anxiety and depression in the relationship between core schemas and emotional aspects of AVHs for three groups (non-clinical voice hearers, affective voice hearers and non-affective voice hearers).

METHODS

Positive and negative core schemas of the self and others were tested as predictors of emotional distress due to AVHs, examining anxiety and depression separately as potential mediators.

RESULTS

Results showed full mediating effects of depression in non-affective voice hearers in the relationship between negative core schemas and AVH distress, but not in affective voice hearers. Anxiety was not a mediator in any of the groups.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest different emotional mechanisms depending on the underlying psychopathology.

Why Do We "Like" on WeChat Moments: The Effects of Personality Traits and Content Characteristics

To probe the motivational roles of hedonic gratification and social gratification in giving “Like” feedback on social media, we developed a set of novel pictures to simulate WeChat Moments. We subsequently examined how the personality trait of extraversion and stimulus content characteristics (e.g., emotional valence, personal relevance) influenced “Liking” behavior. A 2 (extraversion: extrovert group vs. introvert group) × 3 (emotional valence: positive vs. neutral vs. negative) × 2 (personal relevance: personally relevant vs. personally irrelevant)-mixed experimental design was applied to data obtained from 56 WeChat Moments users. These participants included 28 individuals with the highest extraversion scale scores (the extrovert group), and 28 individuals with the lowest extraversion scale scores (the introvert group), according to the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Briefly, participants observed pictures on an interface similar to that of WeChat Moments and were given the option to “Like” each picture. “Like” rates and response time were then compared across groups and conditions by applying a mixed-design analysis of variance. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to explore relationships between the “Like” rates under each condition and the scores for each personality trait. Compared with the neutral pictures, the positive and negative pictures were “Liked” more and less frequently, respectively (F_{2, 108} = 46.22, p < 0.001). Compared with the poster-unrelated pictures, the personally related pictures were “Liked” more frequently (F_{1, 54} = 19.54, p < 0.001). In the extrovert group, the frequency of “Likes” given to unrelated negative content positively associated with neuroticism (r = 0.42, p = 0.025) and negatively associated with conscientiousness (r = −0.46, p = 0.014). No correlations were observed in the introvert group. Compared with not giving “Like” feedback, participants gave “Likes” to positive and negative pictures more quickly (p = 0.035) and slowly (p < 0.001), respectively.These results support the hypothesis that hedonic gratification and social gratification motivate “Like” feedback for positive content and personally related content, respectively. “Liking” behavior was not affected by extraversion, but was related to neuroticism and conscientiousness. Content-related differences in time intervals for giving “Like” feedback in this study suggest that people do not hesitate to give “Like” feedback to positive content on WeChat Moments, yet linger in deciding to give “Like” feedback to negative content.

Gamma Band Oscillations Reflect Sensory and Affective Dimensions of Pain

Pain is a multidimensional process, which can be modulated by emotions; however, the mechanisms underlying this modulation are unknown. We used pictures with different emotional valence (negative, positive, and neutral) as primes and applied electrical painful stimuli as targets to healthy participants. We assessed pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings and recorded electroencephalograms (EEGs). We found that pain unpleasantness and not pain intensity ratings were modulated by emotion, with increased ratings for negative and decreased ratings for positive pictures. We also found two consecutive gamma band oscillations (GBOs) related to pain processing from time frequency analyses of the EEG signals. The early GBO had a cortical distribution contralateral to the painful stimulus and its amplitude was positively correlated with intensity and unpleasantness ratings, but not with prime valence. The late GBO had a centroparietal distribution and its amplitude was larger for negative compared to neutral and positive pictures. The emotional modulation effect (negative vs. positive) of the late GBO amplitude was positively correlated with pain unpleasantness. The early GBO might reflect the overall pain perception, possibly involving the thalamocortical circuit, while the late GBO might be related to the affective dimension of pain and top-down-related processes.

Negative valence of hallucinatory voices as predictor of cortical glutamatergic metabolite levels in schizophrenia patients

OBJECTIVES

Negative emotional valence of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) in schizophrenia can be a source of distress and is considered a strong predictor of illness severity. Previous studies have found glutamate to mediate AVH severity in frontal and temporal brain regions, however, they do not specifically address emotional valence of AVH. The role of glutamate for the experience of negative- versus positive emotional valence of AVH is therefore unknown and was investigated in the current study.

METHODS

Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), 37 schizophrenia patients had Glx (glutamate+glutamine) measured in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), and additionally in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the right STG, or in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Self-reported emotional valence in AVH was measured with the Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire (BAVQ-R).

RESULTS

Results from linear mixed models showed that negative emotional valence was associated with reduced Glx levels across all four measured brain regions in the frontal and temporal lobe. More specifically, voices that were experienced to be omnipotent (p = 0.04) and that the patients attempted to resist (p = 0.04) were related to lower Glx levels. Follow-up analysis of the latter showed that voices that evoked emotional resistance (i.e., fear, sadness, anger), rather than behavioral resistance, was a significant predictor of reduced glutamate (p = 0.02).

CONCLUSION

The findings could indicate aberrant glutamatergic signaling, or increased NMDA-receptor hypoactivity in patients who experience their voices to be more emotionally negative. Overall, the study provides support for the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia.

The Association Between Dissemination and Characteristics of Pro-/Anti-COVID-19 Vaccine Messages on Twitter: Application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model

Background

Messages on one's stance toward vaccination on microblogging sites may affect the reader's decision on whether to receive a vaccine. Understanding the dissemination of provaccine and antivaccine messages relating to COVID-19 on social media is crucial; however, studies on this topic have remained limited.

Objective

This study applies the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to explore the characteristics of vaccine stance messages that may appeal to Twitter users. First, we examined the associations between the characteristics of vaccine stance tweets and the likelihood and number of retweets. Second, we identified the relative importance of the central and peripheral routes in decision-making on sharing a message.

Methods

English-language tweets from the United States that contained provaccine and antivaccine hashtags (N=150,338) were analyzed between April 26 and August 26, 2021. Logistic and generalized negative binomial regressions were conducted to predict retweet outcomes. The content-related central-route predictors were measured using the numbers of hashtags and mentions, emotional valence, emotional intensity, and concreteness. The content-unrelated peripheral-route predictors were measured using the numbers of likes and followers and whether the source was a verified user.

Results

Content-related characteristics played a prominent role in shaping decisions regarding whether to retweet antivaccine messages. Particularly, positive valence (incidence rate ratio [IRR]=1.32, P=.03) and concreteness (odds ratio [OR]=1.17, P=.01) were associated with higher numbers and likelihood of retweets of antivaccine messages, respectively; emotional intensity (subjectivity) was associated with fewer retweets of antivaccine messages (OR=0.78, P=.03; IRR=0.80, P=.04). However, these factors had either no or only small effects on the sharing of provaccine tweets. Retweets of provaccine messages were primarily determined by content-unrelated characteristics, such as the numbers of likes (OR=2.55, IRR=2.24, P<.001) and followers (OR=1.31, IRR=1.28, P<.001).

Conclusions

The dissemination of antivaccine messages is associated with both content-related and content-unrelated characteristics. By contrast, the dissemination of provaccine messages is primarily driven by content-unrelated characteristics. These findings signify the importance of leveraging the peripheral route to promote the dissemination of provaccine messages. Because antivaccine tweets with positive emotions, objective content, and concrete words are more likely to be disseminated, policymakers should pay attention to antivaccine messages with such characteristics.

How suspense and surprise enhance subsequent memory: the case of the 2016 United States Presidential Election

We examined whether the retroactive enhancement effect - i.e., improved memory accuracy for event details occurring before a surprising moment - would be present in participants' memory for details in their private lives following a surprising and suspenseful public event. To equate event type across participants, we selected when they first learned the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential Election. Participants self-divided into those who viewed the outcome as positive, negative, or neutral, while we experimentally divided them into those whose memory was assessed 6 or 12 months post-election. We assessed their accuracy for details surrounding the election and their phenomenological experience of learning the outcome, including emotional tension, our operationalisation of suspense. We found participants' memory characteristics were strongly related to their level of tension and shock, irrespective of valence. We also observed uniformly high accuracy regarding details about the weather participants experienced in their ZIP codes on election day. While these results intimated about the presence of retroactive enhancement, Experiment 2 examined the effect more directly by comparing participants' memory for the 2016 Election with two other politically-relevant events that provoked less tense reactions. The results revealed retroactive enhancement is dependent upon experiencing a surprising moment amidst a suspenseful event.

Emotional Valence Affects Word Retrieval During Verb Fluency Tasks in Alzheimer's Dementia

Individuals with amnestic Alzheimer's disease (AD) often demonstrate preserved emotional processing skills despite the neurodegenerative disease that affects their limbic system. Emotional valence encompasses the encoding and retrieval of memory and it also affects word retrieval in healthy populations, but it remains unclear whether these effects are preserved in individuals with amnestic AD. Previous studies used a variety of encoding procedures and different retrieval methods that resulted in mixed findings. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to investigate whether emotional enhancement of memory effects is observed in an experimental condition where the memory encoding process is not required, namely verb (action) fluency tasks. Seventeen participants who were cognitively healthy older adults (CHOA) and 15 participants with amnestic AD were asked to complete verb fluency tasks, and the relative degree of emotional valence observed in their responses was compared between the two groups. A neuropsychological test battery was administered to determine the participants' cognitive and linguistic profiles, and correlational analyses were conducted to delineate relationships between emotional valence, verbal memory, and learning abilities. The results indicated that the participants with amnestic AD produced words with higher emotional valence (i.e., more pleasant words) compared to CHOA during action fluency testing. In addition, the degree of emotional valence in the words was negatively correlated with verbal memory and learning skills, showing that those with poorer memory skills tend to retrieve words with higher emotional valence. The findings are consistent with those previous studies that stressed that individuals with AD have preserved emotional enhancement of memory effects and may benefit from them for retrieval of information, which may offer some insight into the development of novel rehabilitative strategies for this population.

The Effect of Task-Irrelevant Emotional Valence on Limited Attentional Resources During Deception: An ERPs Study

Deception is a complex and cognitively draining dyadic process that simultaneously involves cognitive and emotional processes, both of which demand/capture attentional resources. However, few studies have investigated the allocation of attentional resources between cognitive and emotional processes during deception. The current study presented facial expressions of different valences to 36 participants. While an electroencephalogram was recording, they were asked to make either truthful or deceptive gender judgments according to preceding cues. The results showed that deceptive responses induced smaller P300 amplitudes than did truthful responses. Task-irrelevant negative emotional information (TiN) elicited larger P300 amplitudes than did task-irrelevant positive emotional information (TiP). Furthermore, the results showed that TiN elicited larger LPP amplitudes than did TiP in deceptive responses, but not in truthful ones. The results suggested that attentional resources were directed away to deception-related cognitive processes and TiN, but not TiP, was consistently able to compete for and obtain attentional resources during deception. The results indicated that TiN could disrupt with deception and may facilitate deception detection.

Interaction between emotional context-guided shifting and cognitive shifting: Introduction of a novel task

Aim: Task shifting is considered as a critical component of cognitive flexibility that underlies the ability to flexibly switch between tasks. It is measured by performance-based tasks, where participants have to select/ignore simple target stimuli such as letters, numbers, or words according to certain rules. However, in everyday life individuals need to manage and shift between more complex, often emotionally charged stimuli. Previous paradigms developed to measure affective flexibility are based on the task where the focus is to shift between emotional and non-emotional stimuli, instead of the flexible shift between emotional valences. In view of this, the aim of the present study was to develop the Emotional Shifting Task, a novel paradigm that is created with the purpose of assessing emotional flexibility abilities by means of a novel valence-specific shifting design. Furthermore, scientific discussion regarding the relationship between cognitive and emotional flexibility abilities, a connection that is rarely addressed in the literature would be addressed. Method: In the present paper, task shifting was assessed by means of the Task Switching Task while the Emotional Shifting Task method evaluated emotional flexibility abilities in an online setting. Results: The results revealed a significant, positive relationship between task shifting and emotional shifting from positive to negative images only. Furthermore, when fast and slow performers on TST were distinguished results showed that fast performers on TST were also faster on EST shift conditions in general, but not on EST non-shift condition. Conclusion: These findings indicate that cognitive and emotional flexibility abilities may be interrelated. Our results seem to indicate a connection between the two shifting abilities. (Neuropsychopharmacol Hung 2021; 23(2): 319-330).

Viewing time and facial trustworthiness perception: Giving it a second thought may not work for older adults

Older adults tend to rate unfamiliar faces higher on trustworthiness than do their younger counterparts. Although the saying goes "look before you leap", it is still unknown whether such a strategy could also apply to facial trustworthiness perception, and our understanding of the time course in facial trustworthiness perception also remains unclear. Here, we have argued that a cognitive controlled process suggested by "socioemotional selectivity theory" could potentially lead to such biased trustworthiness perception. Two experiments were conducted to test the association between viewing time and trustworthiness perception. The first study used hierarchical linear modeling in a sample of younger (N = 30, M_age  = 20.53, SD = 1.61, 50% female) and older (N = 30, M_age  = 63.27, SD = 3.14, 43% female) adults, and found that viewing time and trustworthiness evaluation were positively associated. Using the same stimuli, our second study further manipulated viewing time by two levels (500 ms vs. 3000 ms) and compared younger (N = 28, M_age  = 23.93, SD = 2.68, 50% female) and older (N = 30, M_age  = 64.47, SD = 4.32, 50% female) adults' facial trustworthiness evaluation. As expected, a significant three-way interaction revealed that viewing time only impacted older adults' facial trustworthiness evaluation, and only when given shorter viewing time did older adults show similar facial trustworthiness ratings as younger adults. The present study is the first to directly investigate the relationship between older adults' viewing time on unfamiliar faces and their perception of facial trustworthiness. Findings suggested that a second thought in facial perception may not benefit older adults' trustworthiness evaluation.

Time Unpacking Effect on Intertemporal Decision-Making: Does the Effect Change With Choice Valence?

People often feel that a period of time becomes longer when it is described in more detail or cut into more segments, which is known as the time unpacking effect. The current study aims to unveil how time unpacking manipulation impacts intertemporal decision making and whether the gain-loss valence of choices moderates such impacts. We recruited 87 college students (54 female) and randomly assigned them to the experimental conditions to complete a series of intertemporal choice tasks. The subjective values of the delayed choices were calculated for each participant and then analyzed. The results showed that participants perceived longer time delays and higher subjective values on the delayed gains (but not losses) in the time unpacking conditions than in the time packing conditions. These results suggest that time unpacking manipulation not only impacts time perception but also other factors, which in turn, influence the valuation of delayed outcomes and thereby intertemporal choices. The results are discussed in comparison to previous studies to highlight the complexity of the mechanism underlying the effect of time unpacking on intertemporal decision making.

Re-Thinking the Mediating Role of Emotional Valence and Arousal between Personal Factors and Occupational Safety Attention Levels

Emotions strongly affect occupational safety attention and public health; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We investigated the mediation mechanisms of emotional valence and arousal on safety attention using real time data. In all, 70 Chinese workers performed 8400 trials of hazard recognition tasks according to a pre-designed experiment. Their emotional and safety attention levels were recorded based on their facial expressions and eye movements, and the mediating mechanics of emotional valence and arousal were examined through a hierarchical regression. The study results show that: (1) emotional valence and arousal significantly and positively affect safety attention; (2) risk tolerance and personality significantly affect emotional valence and arousal but do not significantly affect safety attention; and (3) emotional valence and arousal significantly mediate safety attention levels and personal factors. From a theoretical viewpoint, this study corroborates the mediating role of emotion on occupational safety attention and personal factors by highlighting valence and arousal. Practically, managers can develop more specific training methods tailored to the results that pertain to workers' higher emotional resilience for better occupational safety performance and health.

Social Behavior Is Modulated by Valence-Encoding mPFC-Amygdala Sub-circuitry

The prefrontal cortex and amygdala are anatomical substrates linked to both social information and emotional valence processing, but it is not known whether sub-circuits in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that project to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) are recruited and functionally contribute to social approach-avoidance behavior. Using retrograde labeling of mPFC projections to the BLA, we find that BLA-projecting neurons in the infralimbic cortex (IL) are preferentially activated in response to a social cue as compared with BLA-projecting neurons in the prelimbic cortex (PL). Chemogenetic interrogation of these sub-circuits shows that activation of PL-BLA or inhibition of IL-BLA circuits impairs social behavior. Sustained closed-loop optogenetic activation of PL-BLA circuitry induces social impairment, corresponding to a negative emotional state as revealed by real-time place preference behavioral avoidance. Reactivation of foot shock-responsive PL-BLA circuitry impairs social behavior. Altogether, these data suggest a circuit-level mechanism by which valence-encoding mPFC-BLA sub-circuits shape social approach-avoidance behavior.

Huang et al. investigate a circuit involving two brain regions important for both social and emotional processing. Activation of descending projections to the basolateral amygdala from the prelimbic cortex abolishes social preference and produces behavioral avoidance. Reactivation of negative stimulus-responsive neurons in this circuit abolishes social preference.

Investigating Arousal, Saccade Preparation, and Global Luminance Effects on Microsaccade Behavior

Microsaccades, small saccadic eye movements occurring during fixation, have been suggested to be modulated by various sensory, cognitive, and affective processes relating to arousal. Although the modulation of fatigue-related arousal on microsaccade behavior has previously been characterized, the influence of other aspects of arousal, such as emotional arousal, is less understood. Moreover, microsaccades are modulated by cognitive processes (e.g., voluntary saccade preparation) that could also be linked to arousal. To investigate the influence of emotional arousal, saccade preparation, and global luminance levels on microsaccade behavior, emotional auditory stimuli were presented prior to the onset of a fixation cue whose color indicated to look either at the peripheral stimulus (pro-saccade) or in the opposite direction of the stimulus (anti-saccade). Microsaccade behavior was found to be significantly modulated by saccade preparation and global luminance level, but not emotional arousal. In the pro- and anti-saccade task, microsaccade rate was lower during anti-saccade preparation as compared to pro-saccade preparation, though microsaccade dynamics were comparable during both trial types. Our results reveal a differential role of arousal linked to emotion, fatigue, saccade preparation, and global luminance level on microsaccade behavior.

The modulation of object-based attentional selection by facial expressions

Human beings can show preferentially attentional bias to different facial expressions. However, it is unclear whether the modulation of selective attention by facial expressions is based on the face itself (object-based attention) or its location (space-based attention). This study aimed to test this problem by using faces with different emotional valences in the two-rectangle paradigm across three experiments. We found that there was no significant difference in space-based effect among the positive, neutral, and negative conditions. However, the object-based effect was larger for the negative condition than for the neutral and positive ones, because of its slower reaction times for the invalid different-object trials. The results indicated that the object-based attentional selection was modulated by facial expressions, and that faces expressing negative emotions hamper the disengagement of attention from the whole object (i.e., the face), instead of the certain location. Our study can further add support to the attentional prioritisation hypothesis over attentional spreading hypothesis.

People who overvalue appearance selectively attend to descriptors of the attractiveness ideal: Findings from an emotional Stroop task

OBJECTIVE

Attentional biases to stimuli related to stigmatized appearance are theorized to stem from appearance overvaluation, but little research has examined this link. As well, little research has examined whether appearance overvaluation is associated with biases toward stimuli that describe the attractiveness ideal. We addressed these gaps in the literature using the emotional Stroop task and tested whether appearance overvaluation is associated with an attentional bias for words that describe stigmatized appearance (e.g., fat, ugly, shabby), the attractiveness ideal (e.g., thin, beautiful, fashionable), or both.

METHOD AND RESULTS

In Study 1, a community sample of people (N = 86) completed measures of appearance overvaluation, body dissatisfaction, and body mass index (BMI) followed by an emotional Stroop task. Appearance overvaluation was associated with an attentional bias for attractiveness ideal words-not stigmatized appearance words. Results remained significant when controlling for participants' body dissatisfaction, BMI, and gender. Study 2 (N = 316) replicated these findings. Finally, an integrative data analysis that pooled the data of Studies 1 and 2 (N = 402) provided additional support for our general hypothesis that people who overvalue appearance display an attentional bias to stimuli related to the attractiveness ideal.

DISCUSSION

The results show a robust association between appearance overvaluation and selective attention for attractiveness ideal stimuli. Results are discussed in reference to theory and research on information processing in eating disorders. We also call for research to examine information processing of stimuli related to the attractiveness ideal among people with eating disorders and who place high importance on appearance for self-definition.

Inside the Interaction: Contact With Familiar Humans Modulates Heart Rate Variability in Horses

A human–animal relationship can be developed through subsequent interactions, affected by the positive or negative emotional valence of the proceeding one. Horses implement a process of categorization to classify humans with whom they interact as positive, negative, or neutral stimuli by evaluating the kind of approach and the nature of the contact. In these terms, human–animal interactions are emotionally charged events, eliciting specific emotional states in both subjects involved. Although the human–horse relationship has been mainly investigated through behavioral analysis, physiological indicators are needed for a more objective assessment of the emotional responses. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a commonly used autonomic nervous system (ANS) correlate estimating the sympathovagal balance as a psychophysiological marker of emotion regulation in horses. We have assumed that long-term positive relationships with humans may have a positive and immediate impact on the emotional arousal of the horse, detectable, via ANS activity, during the interaction. We analyzed horses' heartbeat dynamics during their interaction with either familiar or unfamiliar handlers, applying a standardized experimental protocol consisting of three different conditions shifting from the absence of interaction to physical contact. The ANS signals were monitored through an innovative non-invasive wearable system, not interfering with the unconscious emotional response of the animal. We demonstrated that horses appeared to feel more relaxed while physically interacting (e.g., grooming on the right side) with some familiar handlers compared to the same task performed by someone unfamiliar. The shift of the sympathovagal balance toward a vagal predominance suggests that the horses experienced a decrease in stress response as a function not only of the handler's familiarity but also of the type of interaction they are experiencing. These results constitute the objective evidence of horses' capacity to individually recognize a familiar person, adding the crucial role of familiarity with the handler as a paramount component of human–animal interaction. Our rigorous methodological approach may provide a significant contribution to various fields such as animal welfare while further investigating the emotional side of the human–animal relationships.

Image Valence Modulates the Processing of Low-Resolution Affective Natural Scenes

In natural vision, noisy and distorted visual inputs often change our perceptual strategy in scene perception. However, it is unclear the extent to which the affective meaning embedded in the degraded natural scenes modulates our scene understanding and associated eye movements. In this eye-tracking experiment by presenting natural scene images with different categories and levels of emotional valence (high-positive, medium-positive, neutral/low-positive, medium-negative, and high-negative), we systematically investigated human participants' perceptual sensitivity (image valence categorization and arousal rating) and image-viewing gaze behaviour to the changes of image resolution. Our analysis revealed that reducing image resolution led to decreased valence recognition and arousal rating, decreased number of fixations in image-viewing but increased individual fixation duration, and stronger central fixation bias. Furthermore, these distortion effects were modulated by the scene valence with less deterioration impact on the valence categorization of negatively valenced scenes and on the gaze behaviour in viewing of high emotionally charged (high-positive and high-negative) scenes. It seems that our visual system shows a valence-modulated susceptibility to the image distortions in scene perception.

Neurophysiologic evidence for increased retrieval suppression among negative ruminators

INTRODUCTION

Events (e.g., seeing a familiar face) may initiate retrieval of associated information (e.g., person's name), but not all cue-initiated memory retrieval is welcome (e.g., trauma). Retrieval suppression refers to the ability to halt unwanted retrieval, and any erosion of memory associations in response to repeatedly excluding a memory from consciousness. The current study sought to examine event-related potential (ERP, averaged scalp electrical recordings) correlates of inhibitory cognitive control of memory retrieval and any linkage of such control to ruminative memory styles.

METHODS

Participants (N = 23) first learned face-picture pairings. ERPs were then recorded as they viewed face cues while either bringing the associated picture to mind (think trial), or not allowing the associated picture to come to mind (no-think trial).

RESULTS

Emotional valence of learned pictures (negative versus neutral) modulated a posterior (P1, 100-150 ms) ERP associated with attention to the face cue. Memory strategy (think versus no-think) modulated a frontal (P3, 350-450 ms) associated with alerting of the need to control retrieval. Both valence and strategy worked in combination to modulate a late posterior (LC, 450-550 ms) ERP associated with successful memory retrieval. Brooding, a negative form of rumination, was found to be positively correlated with the LC ERP.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest early separation of emotional and strategic control of retrieval, but later combined control over access to working memory. Moreover, the positive correlation of brooding and the LC suggest that individuals who are high in application of perseverative strategies to memory retrieval will show greater modulation of the retrieval-related LC ERP.

Emotion-induced attentional bias: does it modulate the spatial Simon effect?

Schlaghecken, F., Blagrove, E., Mantantzis, K., Maylor, E. A., & Watson, D. G. [(2017). Look on the bright side: Positivity bias modulates interference effects in the Simon task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(6), 763-770] found larger spatial Simon effects for happy than sad faces. Unexpectedly, this enhancement was also observed for nonvalenced objects requiring the same response as happy faces. We examined whether the increase of the spatial Simon effect is location- or object-based. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants pressed a left/right key in response to a happy/sad face or a left-/right-pointing arrow. These stimuli appeared on the left/right side of fixation, with location being task-irrelevant. Consistent with Schlaghecken et al., the spatial Simon effect was numerically larger for happy than sad faces regardless of whether faces and arrows were presented in different blocks (Experiment 1) or intermixed within blocks (Experiment 2). However, the spatial Simon effect for arrows was not modulated by the faces' emotional valence. Similar findings were observed with pointing hands in Experiment 3. Our results imply that attentional bias is associated with specific objects (e.g. faces) not locations.

Neuroergonomic Assessment of Hot Beverage Preparation and Consumption: An EEG and EDA Study

Neuroergonomics is an emerging field that investigates the human brain about behavioral performance in natural environments and everyday settings. This study investigated the body and brain activity correlates of a typical daily activity, hot beverage preparation, and consumption in a realistic office environment where participants performed natural daily tasks. Using wearable, battery operated and wireless Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors, neural and physiological responses were measured in untethered, freely moving participants who prepared hot beverages using two different machines (a market leader and follower as determined by annual US sales). They later consumed the drinks they had prepared in three blocks. Emotional valence was estimated using frontal asymmetry in EEG alpha band power and emotional arousal was estimated from EDA tonic and phasic activity. Results from 26 participants showed that the market-leading coffee machine was more efficient to use based on self-reports, behavioral performance measures, and there were significant within-subject differences in valence between the two machine use. Moreover, the market leader user interface led to greater self-reported product preference, which was further supported by significant differences in measured arousal and valence (EDA and EEG, respectively) during coffee production and consumption. This is the first study that uses a multimodal and comprehensive assessment of coffee machine use and beverage consumption in a naturalistic work environment. Approaches described in this study can be adapted in the future to other task-specific machine usability and consumer neuroscience studies.