Pre‐frontal‐insular‐cerebellar modifications correlate with disgust feeling blunting after subthalamic stimulation: A positron emission tomography study in Parkinson's disease

Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) has recently advanced our understanding of the major role played by this basal ganglion in human emotion. Research indicates that STN DBS can induce modifications in all components of emotion, and neuroimaging studies have shown that the metabolic modifications correlated with these emotional disturbances following surgery are both task‐ and sensory input‐dependent. Nevertheless, to date, these modifications have not been confirmed for all emotional components, notably subjective emotional experience, or feelings. To identify the neural network underlying the modification of feelings following STN DBS, we assessed 16 patients with Parkinson's disease before and after surgery, using both subjective assessments of emotional experience and ¹⁸[F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (¹⁸FDG‐PET). The patients viewed six film excerpts intended to elicit happy, angry, fearful, sad, disgusted, and neutral feelings, and they self‐rated the intensity of these feelings. After DBS, there was a significant reduction in the intensity of the disgust feeling. Correlations were observed between decreased disgust experience and cerebral glucose metabolism (FDG uptake) in the bilateral pre‐frontal cortices (orbitofrontal, dorsolateral, and inferior frontal gyri), bilateral insula, and right cerebellum. We suggest that the STN contributes to the synchronization process underlying the emergence of feelings.     

Depersonalization disorder: a functional neuroanatomical perspective

Clinical reports of depersonalization suggest that attenuated emotional experience is a central feature of the condition. Patients typically complain of emotional numbness and some patients ascribe their feelings of unreality to a lack of affective "colouring" in things perceived. Recent neuroimaging and psychophysiological studies support these assumptions as they show both attenuated autonomic responses in depersonalization, and decreased activity within neural regions important for the generation of affective responses to emotive stimuli. Furthermore, findings from neuroimaging studies indicate increased prefrontal cortical activity in depersonalised patients, particularly within regions associated with contextualization and appraisal of emotionally-salient information rather than mood induction per se. Taken together, these finding suggest that symptoms of depersonalization, and in particular emotional numbing, may be related to a reversal of normal patterns of autonomic and neural response to emotive stimuli.     

Machiavellian emotion regulation in a cognitive reappraisal task: An fMRI study

Affective coldness is one of the main features of Machiavellianism. Recent studies have revealed that Machiavellians are emotionally detached and that this “affective blunting” is associated with intense feelings, emotional instability, negative emotions, and difficulty in enduring distress. We used brain-imaging techniques to investigate emotion regulation in Machiavellianism at a neuropsychological level. We used situations in which participants were required to demonstrate emotional flexibility to explore the controversy surrounding the fact that Machiavellianism is associated with both cold-mindedness and emotional instability. Participants performed a reappraisal task in which emotionally evocative pictures (from the International Affective Picture System) were presented in different contexts (negative, positive, and neutral). They were asked to interpret a scenario according to its title and to reinterpret it according to another context created by a new title (e.g., negatively labeled pictures shifted to positively labeled ones). During task performance, Machiavellians showed increased activation of brain regions associated with emotion generation—for example, the amygdala and insula. This indicates that Machiavellian individuals are able to be involved emotionally in social situations. Increased activation in the temporal and parahippocampal regions during reappraisal suggests that Machiavellians use semantic–perceptual processes to construct alternative interpretations of the same situation and have enhanced memory for emotional stimuli. Furthermore, they seem to possess an intense awareness that leads them to shift attention from external to internal information to detect environmental changes. These cognitive processes may enable them to adjust their behavior quickly. This study supports the flexibility hypothesis of Machiavellianism and suggests that Machiavellians’ approach to emotion regulation is linked to their rational mode of thinking.     

Alternative Explanations of Emotional Numbing of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Examination of Hyperarousal and Experiential Avoidance

The mechanisms that underlie the emotional numbing symptoms associated with PTSD are not well understood. Studies of Vietnam combat veterans have demonstrated that hyperarousal symptoms predict emotional numbing symptoms more strongly than do other symptoms of PTSD. This study sought to extend these findings through the self-report of 170 female sexual assault survivors. The study also examined whether the relationship between hyperarousal and emotional numbing symptoms was the result of the relationship of each of these to another variable, the tendency to engage in experiential avoidance. Results were consistent with and extended previous findings. Hyperarousal symptoms were also found to predict emotional numbing symptoms above and beyond experiential avoidance, as well as all other symptoms of PTSD.     

A 9/11 parent support group

This article describes how the author brought together a group of parents who had lost adult children in the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack. It chronicles the group's progress at different stages with special emphasis given to the first year. The author addresses the importance of encouraging member-to-member dialogue and bonding, as a means of reducing the symptoms of social isolation, emotional numbing, and intrusive imagery. The powerful grip of induced feelings on the leader and the importance of a consultant to manage this are highlighted as well as the complexity of ending such a group.     

共情对亲社会行为的影响及神经基础

亲社会行为是指那些使他人获益的行为,这类行为具有重要的进化意义和现实意义。作为影响亲社会行为的重要因素,共情在认知神经科学领域得到了广泛研究。脑岛等脑区的激活与消极情绪体验有关,是情绪共情的神经基础,利于产生亲社会行为动机;颞顶联合区等脑区参与对他人意图的理解,是认知共情的神经基础,利于个体选择有效方式帮助别人。女性在共情时激活额下回等与情绪有关的脑区,而男性在共情时激活颞顶联合区等与认知有关的脑区,这为男女个体在亲社会行为表现上的差异提供了新证据。未来研究应完善与亲社会行为有关的脑区功能的解释,综合多种影响因素,结合病理学研究考察共情对亲社会行为的影响及神经基础。     

Emotional memory and perception of emotional faces in patients suffering from depersonalization disorder

Previous work has shown that patients with depersonalization disorder (DPD) have reduced physiological responses to emotional stimuli, which may be related to subjective emotional numbing. This study investigated two aspects of affective processing in 13 patients with DPD according to the DSM‐IV criteria and healthy controls: the perception of emotional facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) and memory for emotional stimuli. Results revealed a specific lack of sensitivity to facial expression of anger in patients, but normal enhancement of memory for peripheral aspects of arousing emotional material. The results are consistent with altered processing of threat‐related stimuli but intact consolidation processes, at least when the stimuli involved are potently arousing.     

Brain-imaging studies of posttraumatic stress disorder

Brain-imaging studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have rapidly increased in recent years. Structural studies have identified potential smaller volumes of the hippocampus of traumatized and/or PTSD subjects. Functional activation studies have implicated hyperactive or altered functioning of brain regions, such as the amygdala and the insula, and a failure to engage emotional regulatory structures, such as the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex. Recent neurochemical investigations have suggested that neuromodulatory systems (eg, gamma-aminobutyric acid, micro-opioid) may underlie these aberrant brain activation patterns. This article reviews the literature on structural, functional, and neurochemical brain-imaging studies of PTSD.     

情绪感染理论研究述评

情绪是一种具有组织性, 深刻内涵, 并且持续变化的心理状态。人们可以通过捕捉他人的情绪来感知周边人的情感变化, 这一交互过程被称为情绪感染。当前关于情绪感染形成机制的理论假设主要包括模仿-回馈机制、联想-学习机制、语言调节联想机制、认知机制、直接诱导机制等, 其中模仿-回馈机制得到了大多数学者们的接受。在情绪感染的形成过程中, 个体差异性、性别、文化构成了主要的调节变量, 它们影响着个体情绪感染的强度变化。近年来, 情绪感染理论研究从个体情绪感染的机制研究转向群体内部个体间的情绪感染交互作用研究, 循环效应被用于解释成员间的情绪感染过程。在未来的研究中, 应注意以下方面：1)个体差异性对情绪感染的感知程度的系统研究; 2)群体成员间的情绪感染机制研究, 特别是群体负面情绪的交互作用研究; 3)情绪感染理论在服务管理等人员交互性强的行业内的实践应用问题。     

Emotion regulation through execution,observation, and imagery of emotional movements

According to Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, emotions are generated by conveying the current state of the body to the brain through interoceptive and proprioceptive afferent input. The resulting brain activation patterns represent unconscious emotions and correlate with subjective feelings. This proposition implies a corollary that the deliberate control of motor behavior could regulate feelings. We tested this possibility, hypothesizing that engaging in movements associated with a certain emotion would enhance that emotion and/or the corresponding valence. Furthermore, because motor imagery and observation are thought to activate the same mirror-neuron network engaged during motor execution, they might also activate the same emotional processing circuits, leading to similar emotional effects. Therefore, we measured the effects of motor execution, motor imagery and observation of whole-body dynamic expressions of emotions (happiness, sadness, fear) on affective state. All three tasks enhanced the corresponding affective state, indicating their potential to regulate emotions.     

Dispositional happiness and affective forecasting: General or specific effect?

Recent findings suggest that dispositional traits can influence personal affective forecasting. In this study, we investigated the relationship between dispositional happiness and affective prediction about academic performance among undergraduate students. Participants were asked to predict their emotional reactions on a 7-point Likert scale in regard to an important exam’s result two months prior obtaining their results. All the participants were contacted by SMS (Short Text Message) 8 h after the results were available and were requested to rate their actual emotional feelings on the same scale. According to their scores on the subjective happiness scale, participants were assigned into ‘happy’ and ‘unhappy’ groups. Results show no emotional prediction differences between the two groups for extreme results (i.e. good and bad results). In contrast, happy participants predicted less negative emotional feelings than unhappy ones for moderate results. No differences appear for the emotional feelings assessed the day they received their exam’s scores. These findings support the idea that dispositional happiness is related to emotional prediction and, more particularly, indicate that happiness induces more positive feelings concerning moderate future events, but not for extreme ones. This study suggests that happiness induces a positive view about emotional coping for future intermediate accomplishments only and not a positive view of the future in general.     

The neural basis of illusory gustatory sensations: two rare cases of lexical-gustatory synaesthesia

Lexical-gustatory synaesthesia is a rare phenomenon in which the individual experiences flavour sensations when they read, hear, or imagine words. In this study, we provide insight into the neural basis of this form of synaesthesia using functional neuroimaging. Words known to evoke pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant synaesthetic tastes and synaesthetically tasteless words were presented to two lexical-gustatory synaesthetes, during fMRI scanning. Ten non-synaesthetic participants were also scanned on the same list of words. The synaesthetic brain displayed a different pattern of activity to words when compared to the non-synaesthetes, with insula activation related to viewing words that elicited tastes that have an associated emotional valence (i.e., pleasant or unpleasant tastes). The subjective intensity of the synaesthesia was correlated with activity in the medial parietal lobes (precuneus/retrosplenial cortex), which are implicated in polymodal imagery and self-directed thought. This region has also previously been activated in studies of lexical-colour synaesthesia, suggesting its role may not be limited to the type of synaesthesia explored here.     

Deployment dynamics of hypnotic anger modulation

To understand the role that attention plays in the deployment timeline of hypnotic anger modulation, we composed an Attentional Blink paradigm where the first and second targets were faces, expressing neutral or angry emotions. We then suppressed the salience of angry faces through a “hypnotic numbing” suggestion. We found that hypnotic suggestion only attenuated the emotional salience of the second target (T2). By implementing drift-diffusion decision modelling, we also found that hypnotic suggestion mainly affected decision thresholds. These findings suggest that hypnotic numbing resulted from belated changes in response strategy. Interestingly, a contrast against non-hypnotized participants revealed that the numbing suggestion had the instruction-like feature of incorporating emotional valence into the attentional task-set. Together, our results portray hypnotic anger modulation as a two-tiered process: first, hypnotic suggestion alters the attentional task-set; second, provided processing and response preparation are not interrupted, a hypnotizability-dependent response based on said altered task-set is produced through late cognitive control strategies.     

Hypnotically induced emotional numbing: a real-simulating analysis

This study compared 20 real, hypnotized and 20 simulating, unhypnotized participants who were administered a hypnotic induction and then presented with emotionally distressing and neutral visual images. Half were administered a hypnotic suggestion for emotional numbing. Reals and simulators who received the emotional numbing suggestion reported comparably less responsivity to distressing stimuli than others. Whereas emotionally numb reals displayed little change in electromyographic (EMG) activity during the distressing stimuli, simulators displayed marked reduction in EMG activity. Reals (not simulators) displayed a dissociation between their affective response and awareness of the negative content of the stimuli following the numbing suggestion.     

公平行为的认知神经机制

大量研究采用最后通牒博弈发现人们愿意牺牲自身利益来维护公平,普遍具有不公平厌恶倾向。本文基于行为博弈任务对个体处于不同角色时的公平行为,从神经学层面做出新的解释,并对现存理论模型做了梳理。脑成像的研究发现,公平行为的相关脑区主要有负责情绪加工的脑岛和与认知控制相关的背外侧前额叶,内侧眶额皮层。前脑岛激活越大,个体拒绝不公平方案的可能性越大,而腹外侧前额叶可以调节前脑岛的活动,使个体采取更理性的方式,接受不公平分配方案。另外,睾酮素和催产素作为神经调节的激素,可以对公平行为起到调节作用,睾酮素通过抑制内侧眶额皮层的激活,增加对不公平方案的拒绝率,相反,催产素可以降低个体对于不公平方案的拒绝率,并增加个体的公平行为。     

Functional neuroimaging studies of human emotions

Neuroimaging studies with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging have begun to describe the functional neuroanatomy of human emotion. Taken separately, specific studies vary in task dimensions and in type(s) of emotion studied, and are limited by statistical power and sensitivity. By examining findings across studies in a meta-analysis, we sought to determine if common or segregated patterns of activations exist in different emotions and across various emotional tasks. We surveyed over 55 positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging activation studies, which investigated emotion in healthy subjects. This paper will review observations in several regions of interest in limbic (eg, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex) and paralimbic (eg, medial prefrontal cortex, insula) brain regions in emotional responding.     

Assessment of Anger Terms in Hebrew: A Gender Comparison

Appraisal of anger terms is based on past experience recollections, social norms, and gender roles. The objectives of this study were to find combinations of emotional components presented by a new composite variable that will exhibit differences between genders and differentiate between anger terms in Hebrew. The sample was comprised of forty students, Hebrew native speakers who participated in a web based study. Participants were asked to rate eight anger terms in Hebrew on a number of features that comprised five emotional components: subjective feelings states body reactions, expressions, action tendencies, and cognitive evaluations. A two-factor between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted. A simplified multivariate composite, defined as subjective experience minus regulation, explained 10% of the gender difference. Another simplified composite, which combines the additive effect of the subjective experience and the actions that accompany this emotional state, explained 14% of difference between the anger terms. The findings are discussed with respect to appraisal theory and social constructivist conceptualization.     

“When I say I'm depressed,it's like anger.” An exploration of the emotional landscape of climate change concern in Norway and its psychological,social and political implications

Climate anxiety discourse focuses predominantly on individualised and potentially mentally disturbing aspects of emotional responses to the awareness of climate change which can silence the mobilising charge of strong emotions in response to climate change. We critically examine this perspective and explore the range, context, and perceived effects of emotional responses to climate change based on 33 in-depth interviews with people self-identified as highly concerned about this issue in the context of oil-wealthy Norway. Thematic analysis revealed that lived emotional experience of concern about climate change is characterised by a complex palette of co-occurring and dynamically linked emotions reported in relation to 16 evocative themes. We analyse the perceived effects of these emotions focusing on five areas: participants' mood and wellbeing, concerns about existing and hypothetical children, feelings of alienation, responsibility for the climate situation, and positive experience in the context of climate change. We discuss the psychological, social and political implications of participants' emotional experience, considering the Norwegian context, and we conclude that it goes beyond potentially debilitating and paralysing feelings, and includes politically charged moral anger and collective guilt, as well as love for nature, and a sense of community around collective climate action.