Emotion, physiology, and expression in old age

Emotion-specific autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity was studied in 20 elderly people (age 71-83 years, M = 77) who followed muscle-by-muscle instructions for constructing facial prototypes of emotional expressions and relived past emotional experiences. Results indicated that (a) patterns of emotion-specific ANS activity produced by these tasks closely resembled those found in other studies with younger Ss, (b) the magnitude of change in ANS measures was smaller in older than in younger Ss, (c) patterns of emotion-specific ANS activity showed generality across the 2 modes of elicitation, (d) emotion self-reports and spontaneous production of emotional facial expressions that occurred during relived emotional memories were comparable with those found in younger Ss, (e) elderly men and women did not differ in emotional physiology or facial expression, and (f) elderly women reported experiencing more intense emotions when reliving emotional memories than did elderly men.     

神经及内分泌系统对社会支持缓冲应激的调节机制

应激是生活中不可避免的事件,过度应激也是许多疾病发生的诱因。应激会引起一系列生理反应,包括激活自主神经系统及神经内分泌系统,表现为自主神经系统(ANS)和下丘脑–垂体–肾上腺(HPA)活动的增加。社会支持通过改变或抑制应激相关脑区的活动,缓冲了应激引起的ANS和HPA轴活动,使机体快速恢复到应激前水平,避免应激引起的内稳定失衡对机体的伤害。     

Feeling good: autonomic nervous system responding in five positive emotions

Although dozens of studies have examined the autonomic nervous system (ANS) aspects of negative emotions, less is known about ANS responding in positive emotion. An evolutionary framework was used to define five positive emotions in terms of fitness-enhancing function, and to guide hypotheses regarding autonomic responding. In a repeated measures design, participants viewed sets of visual images eliciting these positive emotions (anticipatory enthusiasm, attachment love, nurturant love, amusement, and awe) plus an emotionally neutral state. Peripheral measures of sympathetic and vagal parasympathetic activation were assessed. Results indicated that the emotion conditions were characterized by qualitatively distinct profiles of autonomic activation, suggesting the existence of multiple, physiologically distinct positive emotions.     

Facial expressions of emotion: a cognitive neuroscience perspective

Facial expressions are one example of emotional behavior that illustrate the importance of emotions to both basic survival and social interaction. Basic facial responses to stimuli such as sweet and bitter taste are important for species fitness and governed by simple rules. Even at this basic level, facial responses have communicative value to other species members. During evolution simple facial responses were extended for use in more complex nonverbal communications; the responses are labile. The perception and production of facial expressions are cognitive processes and numerous subcortical and cortical areas contribute to these operations. We suggest that no specific emotion center exists over and above cognitive systems in the brain, and that emotion should not be divorced from cognition.     

Autonomic arousal and relational aggression in heterosexual dating couples

This study investigated the association between romantic relational aggression and autonomic nervous system (ANS) arousal in the context of heterosexual dating couples (N = 115 couples). Results indicated that romantic relational aggression was associated with low resting sympathetic arousal, high resting parasympathetic arousal, and exaggerated fight or flight responses to a conflict discussion (sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal). However, ANS activity was more strongly associated with romantic relational aggression in the context of low‐quality romantic relationships, and sympathetic activity was more strongly associated with aggression among females, whereas parasympathetic activity was more strongly associated with aggression among males. Results indicate that psychophysiological functioning may serve as a risk factor for the perpetration of relational aggression against romantic partners.     

The cognitive control of emotion

The capacity to control emotion is important for human adaptation. Questions about the neural bases of emotion regulation have recently taken on new importance, as functional imaging studies in humans have permitted direct investigation of control strategies that draw upon higher cognitive processes difficult to study in nonhumans. Such studies have examined (1) controlling attention to, and (2) cognitively changing the meaning of, emotionally evocative stimuli. These two forms of emotion regulation depend upon interactions between prefrontal and cingulate control systems and cortical and subcortical emotion-generative systems. Taken together, the results suggest a functional architecture for the cognitive control of emotion that dovetails with findings from other human and nonhuman research on emotion.     

Observation of action and autonomic nervous system responses

Observing somebody performing an action has been shown to elicit neuronal activity in the premotor cortex. This paper investigated physiological effect of observing an effortful action at the peripheral level. As Autonomic Nervous System responses reflect central nervous system processes such as movement planning and programming, it was expected that observing an action would elicit a pattern of ANS responses matching those recorded during actual movement. 12 male subjects, ages 23 to 28 years (M = 25.5, SD = 1.9), were selected as they were experienced in weight lifting. They were asked to observe a squat movement followed by returning to the upright position under 3 different conditions: (i) observation of actual movement performed by somebody else, (ii) observation of a video of the subject himself (first-person video), and (iii) observation of a video of somebody else performing the same movement (third-person video). Moreover, each movement was observed when performed at 50% and 90% of each participant's personal best mark (% of the highest weight which could be lifted). Three ANS parameters were continuously recorded: skin resistance, temperature and heart rate. ANS responses varied as a function of movement intensity: autonomic responses recorded during movement observation at 90% were significantly higher and longer than those recorded during movement observation at 50%. Thus, autonomic responses were linked to the amount of observed effort. Conversely, no difference was found among the three conditions of observation. ANS responses from observation of actual movement were shown to resemble those recorded under the two conditions of video observation.     

Cortical maps for hearing and egocentric selection for self-organization

The auditory cortex of the mustached bat shows complex multiple frequency maps, because cortical neurons in several areas are tuned to particular combinations of signal elements. Different types of combination-sensitive neurons form computational maps in which information-bearing parameters for echolocation (biosonar) are represented systematically. Neuronal response properties and multiple-frequency and computational maps were considered to be created solely by divergent-convergent interactions of neurons in the 'ascending' system. However, we have found that the 'corticofugal' system also plays an important role. Neurons in an iso-best frequency (or echo delay) 'minicolumn' of the auditory cortex augment the auditory responses of subcortical neurons tuned to that frequency (or echo delay) and sharpen their tuning. At the same time, they reduce the response and shift the tuning of subcortical neurons tuned to other frequencies (or echo delays) away from the best frequency (or delay) of the cortical neurons. Cortical neurons mediate a highly focused positive feedback, incorporated with widespread lateral inhibition, via corticofugal projections. This 'egocentric selection' is expected to play an important role in self-organizing the central auditory system.     

A psychophysiological model of emotion space

Despite a wide variety of emotions that can be subjectively experienced, the emotion space has consistently revealed a low dimensionality. The search for corresponding somato-visceral response patterns has been only moderately successful. The authors suggest a solution based on an assumed parallelism between emotion coding and color coding. According to the color detection model proposed by Sokolov and co-workers, neurons responsible for color detection are triggered by a combination of excitations in a limited number of input cells. Similarly, a limited number of input channels may feed complex emotion detectors being located on a hypersphere in a four-dimensional emotion space, the three angles of which correspond to emotional tone, intensity, and saturation, in parallel to hue, lightness, and saturation in color perception. The existence of such a four-dimensional emotion space in the subjective domain is shown by using schematic facial expressions as stimuli. A neurophysiological model is provided in which reticular, hypothalamic, and limbic structures constitute input channels of an emotion detecting system, thus acting as the first layer of emotion predetectors. Hypothalamic neurons with differential sensitivity for various transmitters may elicit a subsequent selective activation in a second layer of predetectors at the thalamic level. The latter are suggested to trigger emotion detectors located in cortical areas, the action of which should be revealed by measures of central nervous system activity. Preliminary results from evoked potential studies show that switching between schematic faces that express different emotions may be used as an objective measure for establishing a psychophysiological emotion space.     

Emotional attention modulates microsaccadic rate and direction

Involuntary microsaccades and voluntary saccades reflect human brain activities during attention and cognitive tasks. Our eye movements can also betray our emotional state. However, the effects of attention to emotion on microsaccadic activity remain unknown. The present study was conducted in healthy volunteers to investigate the effects of devoting attention to exogenous emotional stimuli on microsaccadic response, with change in pupil size as an index of sympathetic nervous system activity. Event-related responses to unpleasant images significantly inhibited the rate of microsaccade appearance and altered pupil size (Experiment 1). Additionally, microsaccadic responses to covert orienting of attention to emotional stimuli appeared significantly in the anti-direction to a target, with a fast reaction time (Experiment 2). Therefore, we concluded that attentional shifts induced by exogenous emotional stimuli can modulate microsaccadic activities. Future studies of the interaction between miniature eye movements and emotion may be beneficial in the assessment of pathophysiological responses in mental disorders.     

A psychophysiological model of emotion space.

Despite a wide variety of emotions that can be subjectively experienced, the emotion space has consistently revealed a low dimensionality. The search for corresponding somato-visceral response patterns has been only moderately successful. The authors suggest a solution based on an assumed parallelism between emotion coding and color coding. According to the color detection model proposed by Sokolov and co-workers, neurons responsible for color detection are triggered by a combination of excitations in a limited number of input cells. Similarly, a limited number of input channels may feed complex emotion detectors being located on a hypersphere in a four-dimensional emotion space, the three angles of which correspond to emotional tone, intensity, and saturation, in parallel to hue, lightness, and saturation in color perception. The existence of such a four-dimensional emotion space in the subjective domain is shown by using schematic facial expressions as stimuli. A neurophysiological model is provided in which reticular, hypothalamic, and limbic structures constitute input channels of an emotion detecting system, thus acting as the first layer of emotion predetectors. Hypothalamic neurons with differential sensitivity for various transmitters may elicit a subsequent selective activation in a second layer of predetectors at the thalamic level. The latter are suggested to trigger emotion detectors located in cortical areas, the action of which should be revealed by measures of central nervous system activity. Preliminary results from evoked potential studies show that switching between schematic faces that express different emotions may be used as an objective measure for establishing a psychophysiological emotion space.     

情绪自主神经特异性研究及进展

研究者们已发现情绪之间存在某些可靠的自主神经差异,至少对某些情绪来说,其自主神经反应是特异的。但是已经获得的实验结果还远远不够用于确定最后的特异性情绪自主神经反应模式。而且,自主神经活动的潜在成分和模式并没有得到穷尽。情绪生理特异性研究应该扩展到多个外周系统以及中枢神经系统。     

Alcohol Affects Emotion Through Cognition

Determining how cognition and emotion interact is pivotal to an understanding of human behavior and its disorders. Available data suggest that changes in emotional reactivity and behavior associated with drinking are intertwined with alcohol's effects on cognitive processing. In the study reported here, we demonstrated that alcohol dampens anticipatory fear and response inhibition in human participants not by directly suppressing subcortical emotion centers, as posited by traditional tension-reduction theories, but instead by impairing cognitive-processing capacity. During intoxication, reductions in fear response (assessed via startle potentiation) occurred only under dual-stimulus conditions, and coincided with reduced attentional processing of threat cues as evidenced by brain response (assessed via P3 event-related potentials). The results are consistent with higher cortical mediation of alcohol's effects on fear, and illustrate more broadly how disruption of a cognitive process can lead to alterations in emotional reactivity and adaptive behavior.     

Affective Arousal During Blaming in Couple Therapy: Combining Analyses of Verbal Discourse and Physiological Responses in Two Case Studies

Blaming one’s partner is common in couple therapy and such moral comment often evokes affective arousal. How people attune to each other as whole embodied beings is a current focus of interest in psychotherapy research. This study contributes to the literature by looking at attunement during critical moments in therapy interaction. Responses to blaming in verbal dialogue and at the level of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) were investigated in two couple therapy cases with a client couple and two therapists. Video-recorded couple therapy sessions were analyzed using discursive psychology and a narrative approach. The use of positioning, a discourse analytic tool, was also studied. ANS responses of the participants, including the therapists, were measured as electrodermal activity. The findings demonstrate how identity blaming, i.e. positioning the other person in ways counter to their preferred identity narrative, was accompanied by increased electrodermal activity in most participants. In the two cases studied, blaming centered on the themes of loyalty, trust and parenting. It is argued that identity blaming in these thematic domains increases the arousal level of the partners, since disloyalty, unfaithfulness and irresponsible parenting threaten the stability of the relationship.     

Prolegomenon to the structure of emotion: Gleanings from neuropsychology

Abstract

This article presents a model of the structure of emotion developed primarily from a consideration of neuropsychological evidence and behavioural data which have bearing on neuropsychological theories. Valence is first considered and highlighted as a defining characteristic of emotion. Next, the use of facial behaviour and autonomic nervous system patterns as defining characteristics of discrete emotions is questioned on empirical and conceptual grounds. The regulation of emotion is considered and proposed to affect the very structure of emotion itself. If there is an invariant pattern of biological activity across different instantiations of the same emotion, it is likely to be found in higher-order associative networks of central nervous system activity, the very same networks that subserve goal-directed behaviour and other cognitive functions. Drawing upon evolutionary considerations, it is argued that what is basic about emotion are the dimensions of approach and withdrawal. The nature of the linkage between such action tendencies and emotion is discussed.     

Infant Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Activity during Baseline,Stress and Recovery: Interactions with Prenatal Adversity Predict Physical Aggression in Toddlerhood

Exposure to prenatal adversity is associated with aggression later in life. Individual differences in autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning, specifically nonreciprocal activation of the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems, increase susceptibility to aggression, especially in the context of adversity. Previous work examining interactions between early adversity and ANS functioning in infancy is scarce and has not examined interaction between PNS and SNS. This study examined whether the PNS and SNS moderate the relation between cumulative prenatal risk and early physical aggression in 124 children (57% male). Cumulative risk (e.g., maternal psychiatric disorder, substance (ab)use, and social adversity) was assessed during pregnancy. Parasympathetic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and sympathetic pre-ejection period (PEP) at baseline, in response to and during recovery from emotional challenge were measured at 6 months. Physical aggression and non-physical aggression/oppositional behavior were measured at 30 months. The results showed that cumulative prenatal risk predicted elevated physical aggression and non-physical aggression/oppositional behavior in toddlerhood; however, the effects on physical aggression were moderated by PNS and SNS functioning. Specifically, the effects of cumulative risk on physical aggression were particularly evident in children characterized by low baseline PNS activity and/or by nonreciprocal activity of the PNS and SNS, characterized by decreased activity (i.e., coinhibition) or increased activity (i.e., coactivation) of both systems at baseline and/or in response to emotional challenge. These findings extend our understanding of the interaction between perinatal risk and infant ANS functioning on developmental outcome.     

The role of neuroimaging in the discovery of processing stages a review

In this contribution we show how neuroimaging methods can augment behavioural methods to discover processing stages. Event Related Brain Potentials (ERPs), Brain Electrical Source Analysis (BESA) and regional changes in cerebral blood flow (rCBF) do not necessarily require behavioural responses. With the aid of rCBF we are able to discover several cortical and subcortical brain systems (processors) active in selective attention and memory search tasks. BESA describes cortical activity with high temporal resolution in terms of a limited number of neural generators within these brain systems. The combination of behavioural methods and neuroimaging provides a picture of the functional architecture of the brain. The review is organized around three processors: the Visual, Cognitive and Manual Motor Processors.     

Autonomic and skeletal muscle responses to nonelectrical cutaneous stimulation

Cutaneous stimulation has had a long history as a method of pain control. While there is general agreement that modern techniques such as electrical stimulation and massage often provide relief from acute pain and may in some cases significantly affect chronic pain, the mechanism by which these techniques affect pain remains unclear. Significant attention has been focused on the effects of stimulation on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) along with the increasing evidence of important ANS modulation of nociceptive activity throughout the pain pathway. However, inconsistent results on the presence and direction of ANS changes from cutaneous stimulation characterize the recent literature. The present study investigated a nonelectrical cutaneous stimulation device, the Dermapoints Massageroller, as well as an active placebo massage. The results indicate that the Dermapoints Massageroller has both general effects associated with simple skin stimulation (such as increased skin temperature), as well as specific effects from increased stimulation by the toothed design of the roller. These specific effects include decreased muscle tension (at least for some muscle sites) and increased sympathetic activation. The results are consistent with a model of activation of Pacinian receptors as a possible mechanism for the antinociceptive properties of cutaneous stimulation.     

Autonomic Nervous System Recovery and Psychopathology

Abstract

A theory of avoidance learning with regard to the autonomic nervous system (ANS) for psychopathology is suggested. In schizophrenia, avoidance learning is facilitated, with an ANS which responds 1/ quickly and to a great extent, and 2/ an abnormally quick rate of recovery. The avoidance learning deficit in asocial behaviour is characterized by a hyporeactive ANS and a slow recovery rate. The reinforcement value in relation to recovery rate is discussed, and also that recovery rate of ANS may be inherited.