The rosy side and the blue side of emotional brand attachment

This paper examines the rosy side (positive emotion) and the blue side (negative emotion) of brand attachment in consumer–brand relationships and their distinct motivational triggers. Adopting attachment theory, self‐determination theory, and the relationship investment model, this paper provides a richer understanding of the positivity and negativity of emotional brand attachment in terms of consequential branding outcomes. Two hierarchical constructs—autonomous and controlled motivations—are proposed and examined using partial least squares path modelling. Data were collected through a 3‐stage survey to gain 507 samples of customers' brand attachments to 9 international car brands. This research reveals that customers' positive‐side (rosy‐side) emotional brand attachments are driven by autonomous motivations including satisfying the intrinsic motivation of pursuing pleasure and fulfilling needs for self‐determination and self‐congruence in the car brand consumption context. Customers' negative‐side (blue‐side) emotional brand attachment reflects feelings of separation distress, anxiety, and sadness that are triggered by their controlled motivations in car brand consumption contexts. The results indicate that positive emotions (the rosy side) of brand attachment are a more effective predictor of brand repurchasing intentions and word‐of‐mouth behaviours than are negative emotions (the blue side) of brand attachment. This study applies Deci and Ryan's autonomous and controlled motivations to explain the positivity and negativity of consumers' emotional brand attachment in brand–consumer relationships.     

Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex 5-HT6 receptors regulate anxiety-like behavior

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) plays a very important role in decision-related and anxiety-related information processing. It has enriched 5-HT6 receptors; however, the precise role of dmPFC 5-HT6 receptors in anxiety remains to be fully investigated. In this study, we injected dmPFC with the 5-HT6 receptor agonist EMD 386088 and antagonist SB 271046 using stereotactic technology. 5-HT6 receptor activation in mice increased time spent in the center area on the open-field test, increased exploration of the open arms on the elevated plus maze test, and increased ratio on the social interaction test. 5-HT6 receptor inactivation induced the opposite effects. In brain slices, EMD 386088 decreased both spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSC) and spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSC), while SB 271046 only increased sEPSC. These effects of EMD 386088 and SB 271046 could be reversed by the GABA_A receptor antagonist bicuculline (BMI) and positive allosteric modulator clonazepam (CLZ), respectively. Our results suggest that neurotransmission in the dmPFC by 5-HT6 receptor activation and inhibition may play an important role in anxiety-like behavior, and may provide new insight into the pathological mechanism and potential target of anxiety disorders.     

Anxiety sensitivity moderates the painful effects of feeling burdensome to others

Perceived burdensomeness (PB), the perception of being a burden to others, is associated with pain and physical symptoms. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the fear of arousal-related sensations, arising from beliefs that the sensations may have adverse personal consequences (physical, cognitive, and social), may increase risk for pain responding, particularly in anxiety-provoking (e.g. socially threatening) contexts. Accordingly, individuals high in AS may have a stronger pain response when experiencing PB than those low in AS. Undergraduate participants (n = 262) completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI-3), and then were randomly assigned to re-live an experience when they were either burdensome to others (burdensome condition) or contributed equally to a group (control condition). Both social and physical self-reported pain were assessed post-manipulation. Those high in AS reported significantly higher pain ratings in the burdensome condition than the control condition; for those low in AS, pain did not change across conditions. In particular, being fearful of the physical repercussions of anxiety (AS physical concerns) while also feeling burdensome to others was associated with greater physical pain. AS may exacerbate the already painful effects of feeling burdensome to others, and may have important implications for the development of future suicide- and pain-related interventions.     

Emotionally conditioning the target-speech voice enhances recognition of the target speech under “cocktail-party” listening conditions

Under a noisy “cocktail-party” listening condition with multiple people talking, listeners can use various perceptual/cognitive unmasking cues to improve recognition of the target speech against informational speech-on-speech masking. One potential unmasking cue is the emotion expressed in a speech voice, by means of certain acoustical features. However, it was unclear whether emotionally conditioning a target-speech voice that has none of the typical acoustical features of emotions (i.e., an emotionally neutral voice) can be used by listeners for enhancing target-speech recognition under speech-on-speech masking conditions. In this study we examined the recognition of target speech against a two-talker speech masker both before and after the emotionally neutral target voice was paired with a loud female screaming sound that has a marked negative emotional valence. The results showed that recognition of the target speech (especially the first keyword in a target sentence) was significantly improved by emotionally conditioning the target speaker’s voice. Moreover, the emotional unmasking effect was independent of the unmasking effect of the perceived spatial separation between the target speech and the masker. Also, (skin conductance) electrodermal responses became stronger after emotional learning when the target speech and masker were perceptually co-located, suggesting an increase of listening efforts when the target speech was informationally masked. These results indicate that emotionally conditioning the target speaker’s voice does not change the acoustical parameters of the target-speech stimuli, but the emotionally conditioned vocal features can be used as cues for unmasking target speech.     

进行中任务加工类型对前瞻记忆TAP效应的影响

该研究采用基于双重任务的实验研究范式,采用双字词作为实验材料,考察了知觉和语义两种进行中任务加工类型对前瞻记忆TAP效应的影响。结果发现：进行中任务加工类型对前瞻记忆绩效的TAP效应有显著影响。当进行中任务为知觉加工时,前瞻记忆任务的绩效存在显著的TAP效应;当进行中任务为语义加工时,前瞻记忆任务绩效的TAP效应没有出现。     

Does midbrain urocortin 1 matter? A 15-year journey from stress (mal)adaptation to energy metabolism

This review summarizes some of the milestones of the research on the biological functions(s) of midbrain urocortin 1 (Ucn1) since its discovery 15 years ago. Detailed characterization of Ucn1 in the midbrain revealed its overall significance in food intake and regulation of homeostatic equilibrium and mood under stress. In addition, we have recently found a conspicuous alteration in midbrain Ucn1 levels in brains of depressed suicide victims. Furthermore, from the results from the genetically modified animals, a picture is emerging where corticotrophin-releasing factor promotes the initial reactions to stress, whereas Ucn1 seems to be crucial for management of the later adaptive phase. In the case of imbalance in action of these principle stress mediators, vulnerability to stress-related brain diseases is enhanced.     

Ursolic acid attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced cognitive deficits in mouse brain through suppressing p38/NF-κB mediated inflammatory pathways

Evidence indicates that systemic administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces brain inflammation, ultimately resulting in cognitive deficits. Ursolic acid (UA), a plant-derived pentacyclic triterpenoid, is well known to possess multiple biological functions, including antioxidant, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activities. In the present study, we assessed the protective effect of UA against the LPS-induced cognitive deficits in mice. We found that UA significantly improved cognitive deficits of LPS-treated mice in open field, step-through passive avoidance and Morris water maze tasks. One potential mechanism of this action was attributed to the decreased production of pro-inflammatory markers including COX-2, iNOS, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-2 and IL-6 in LPS-treated mouse brain. Mechanistically, UA markedly inhibited LPS-induced IκBα phosphorylation and degradation, NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation and p38 activation in mouse brain, but did not affect the activation of TLR4, MyD88, ERK, JNK and Akt. Taken together, these results suggest that UA may be useful for mitigating inflammation-associated brain disorders by inhibiting pro-inflammatory factors production, at least in part, through blocking the p38/NF-κB signaling pathways.     

Noise exclusion in spatial attention

Precue validity affects the performance of perceptual tasks. These spatial attention effects have been variously attributed to facilitation of processing, capacity allocation, or noise reduction. We used a new attention-plus-external (stimulus)-noise paradigm and model to identify the mechanisms of attention in cue-validity paradigms. A new phenomenon is reported: a large effect of location cue validity in an orientation identification task that specifically occurs when the stimulus is embedded in external (environmental or stimulus) noise. This result identifies the mechanism of the effect as external-noise exclusion, distinguished from stimulus enhancement that manifests itself only in noiseless stimulus environments.     

The glare effect does not give rise to a longer-lasting afterimage

The glare effect is an illusion in which a region appears self-luminous when flanked by gradients that decrease in luminance with distance from the region (Zavagno, 1999 Perception 28 835-838). This region also appears brighter than a surface of the same luminance. We investigated, using the paradigm of afterimages, whether a low-level mechanism at the level of the retina or LGN could account for this apparent brighter sensation. We first replicated the result from the literature that brighter and longer-lasting physical stimuli generate longer-lasting afterimages. We then compared the glare-effect stimuli with their counterpart controls, and found that the glare-effect stimuli did not give rise to longer-lasting afterimages. This suggests that the apparent brighter sensation of the glare effect is not due to a retinal or LGN mechanism, but must have a cortical origin.     

Motion-perception deficits and reading impairment: it's the noise, not the motion

We tested the hypothesis that deficits on sensory-processing tasks frequently associated with poor reading and dyslexia are the result of impairments in external-noise exclusion, rather than motion perception or magnocellular processing. We compared the motion-direction discrimination thresholds of adults and children with good or poor reading performance, using coherent-motion displays embedded in external noise. Both adults and children who were poor readers had higher thresholds than their respective peers in the presence of high external noise, but not in the presence of low external noise or when the signal was clearly demarcated. Adults' performance in high external noise correlated with their general reading ability, whereas children's performance correlated with their language and verbal abilities. The results support the hypothesis that noise-exclusion deficits impair reading and language development and suggest that the impact of such deficits on the development of reading skills changes with age.