Emotional attention: effects of emotion and gaze direction on overt orienting of visual attention

In the present study we considered the two factors that have been advocated for playing a role in emotional attention: perception of gaze direction and facial expression of emotions. Participants performed an oculomotor task in which they had to make a saccade towards one of the two lateral targets, depending on the colour of the fixation dot which appeared at the centre of the computer screen. At different time intervals (stimulus onset asynchronies, SOAs: 50,100,150 ms) following the onset of the dot, a picture of a human face (gazing either to the right or to the left) was presented at the centre of the screen. The gaze direction of the face could be congruent or incongruent with respect to the location of the target, and the expression could be neutral or angry. In Experiment 1 the facial expressions were presented randomly in a single block, whereas in Experiment 2 they were shown in separate blocks. Latencies for correct saccades and percentage of errors (saccade direction errors) were considered in the analyses. Results showed that incongruent trials determined a significantly higher percentage of saccade direction errors with respect to congruent trials, thus confirming that gaze direction, even when task-irrelevant, interferes with the accuracy of the observer’s oculomotor behaviour. The angry expression was found to hold attention for a longer time with respect to the neutral one, producing delayed saccade latencies. This was particularly evident at 100 ms SOA and for incongruent trials. Emotional faces may then exert a modulatory effect on overt attention mechanisms.     

A New View of Language, Emotion and the Brain

Linguistic theory since the Cognitive Revolution has followed one of the premises of that revolution by largely sidelining the issue of emotions and concentrating on those aspects of language that are more strictly cognitive. However, during the last two decades research in cognitive science, especially in neuropsychology, has begun to fill in the gaps left by the exclusion of emotions from cognitive research. This article proposes a model for applying the fruits of this new research in emotion to our understanding of language itself. Building on Karl Pribram`s integrated model of emotions and motivations, the presentation it offers a propositional explanation for how the emotions may have contributed to the emergence of symbolic formation and, ultimately, to every aspect of language from lexis to literature.

Negative self-focused cognitions mediate the effect of trait social anxiety on state anxiety

The cognitive model of social anxiety predicts that negative self-focused cognitions increase anxiety when anticipating social threat. To test this prediction, 36 individuals were asked to anticipate and perform a public-speaking task. During anticipation, negative self-focused cognitions or relaxation were experimentally induced while self-reported anxiety, autonomic arousal (heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance level), and acoustic eye-blink startle response were assessed. As predicted, negative self-focused cognitions mediated the effects of trait social anxiety on self-reported anxiety and heart rate variability during negative anticipation. Furthermore, trait social anxiety predicted increased startle amplitudes. These findings support a central assumption of the cognitive model of social anxiety.     

Understanding the relationship between emotional and behavioral dysregulation: emotional cascades

Recent research suggests that many dysregulated behaviors, such as binge-eating and non-suicidal self-injury, often occur during times of emotional distress. These behaviors also appear to decrease negative affect. Why is it, however, that individuals engage in these behaviors to reduce emotional distress rather than taking a shower or talking to a friend? This study proposes the role of emotional cascades, an emotional phenomenon that occurs when an individual intensely ruminates on negative affect, thus increasing the magnitude of that negative affect to the point that an individual engages in a dysregulated behavior in order to distract from that rumination. The purpose of these studies was to examine the relationship between rumination and dysregulated behaviors, and in doing so determine if there is some support for the emotional cascade model of behavioral dysregulation. Using two different studies we were able to demonstrate that rumination is associated with some dysregulated behaviors, both cross-sectionally using structural equation modeling, and temporally using a two time-point method.     

Differential time-dependent effects of emotion on recollective experience and memory for contextual information

Emotion has been suggested to slow forgetting via a mechanism that enhances memory consolidation. Here, we investigate whether this time dependent process influences the subjective experience of recollection as well as the ability to retrieve specific contextual details of the study event. To do so we examined recognition for emotional and neutral pictures at two retention intervals and collected remember/know reports and reports about the task that had been performed with the item during encoding. Recollective experience was enhanced for emotional compared to neutral photos after a 24-h delay, but not immediately after encoding. In contrast, memory for the task performed during encoding did not differ between emotional and neutral photos at either time point. The findings indicate that emotion slows the effects of forgetting on the recollective experience associated with studied events, without necessarily slowing the forgetting of specific contextual details of those events.     

Transdiagnostic emotion regulation processes in bipolar disorder and insomnia

Research and treatment have traditionally adopted a 'disorder-focused' approach by targeting one specific disorder, aiming to understanding its cause, maintenance and treatment. The aim of the present study was to contribute to the burgeoning interest in examining common, or 'transdiagnostic,' processes across disorders. Three candidate transdiagnostic processes involved in emotion regulation - rumination, worry, and automatic negative thoughts - were examined in euthymic bipolar I disorder (n=21) and insomnia (n=19), and a non-clinical control group (n=20). Rumination and worry were endorsed to a larger degree by the bipolar and insomnia groups compared to the control group. However, while the bipolar group had more negative automatic thoughts than the control group, there were no significant differences in negative automatic thoughts between the bipolar and insomnia groups or the insomnia and control groups. These results suggested that rumination and worry, but not negative automatic thoughts, might be common across bipolar disorder and insomnia. However, these findings no longer remained significant when current symptoms of anxiety and depression were controlled for. Prospective and experimental studies are needed to test the extent to which these processes contribute to the etiology or maintenance of insomnia and bipolar disorder.     

Cross-modal interactions in the experience of musical performances: physiological correlates

This experiment was conducted to investigate cross-modal interactions in the emotional experience of music listeners. Previous research showed that visual information present in a musical performance is rich in expressive content, and moderates the subjective emotional experience of a participant listening and/or observing musical stimuli [Vines, B. W., Krumhansl, C. L., Wanderley, M. M., & Levitin, D. J. (2006). Cross-modal interactions in the perception of musical performance. Cognition, 101, 80--113.]. The goal of this follow-up experiment was to replicate this cross-modal interaction by investigating the objective, physiological aspect of emotional response to music measuring electrodermal activity. The scaled average of electrodermal amplitude for visual-auditory presentation was found to be significantly higher than the sum of the reactions when the music was presented in visual only (VO) and auditory only (AO) conditions, suggesting the presence of an emergent property created by bimodal interaction. Functional data analysis revealed that electrodermal activity generally followed the same contour across modalities of presentation, except during rests (silent parts of the performance) when the visual information took on particular salience. Finally, electrodermal activity and subjective tension judgments were found to be most highly correlated in the audio-visual (AV) condition than in the unimodal conditions. The present study provides converging evidence for the importance of seeing musical performances, and preliminary evidence for the utility of electrodermal activity as an objective measure in studies of continuous music-elicited emotions.     

Physiology and functioning: Parents' vagal tone, emotion socialization, and children's emotion knowledge

This study examined relationships among parents’ physiological regulation, their emotion socialization behaviors, and their children’s emotion knowledge. Parents’ resting cardiac vagal tone was measured, and parents provided information regarding their socialization behaviors and family emotional expressiveness. Their 4- or 5-year-old children (N = 42) participated in a laboratory session in which their knowledge of emotional facial expressions and situations was tested and their own resting vagal tone was monitored. Results showed that parents’ vagal tone was related to their socialization behaviors, and several parent socialization variables were related to their children’s emotion knowledge. These findings suggest that parents’ physiological regulation may affect the emotional development of their children by influencing their parenting behaviors.     

The face of chauvinism: How prejudice expectations shape perceptions of facial affect

Are individuals who chronically expect to be treated prejudicially biased toward perceiving rejecting emotions in the faces of out-group others? In two studies, participants watched a series of computer-generated movies showing animated faces morphing from expressions of rejection (i.e., contempt and anger) to acceptance, and indicated when the initial expression of rejection changed. We also assessed stigma consciousness. Study 1 tested the connection between gender-based stigma consciousness and perceptions of contempt in male vs. female faces among female participants. Study 2 examined this connection for both men and women and for perceptions of contempt as well as anger. Results show that prejudice expectations lead individuals to interpret out-group faces as more rejecting than in-group faces, but only for female perceivers, and not for males. Further, our results suggest that prejudice expectations affect perceptions of contempt, but not anger. These results are discussed in relation to intergroup relations and emotion.     

On Happiness: A Minimalist Perspective on a Complex Neural Circuitry and its Psychosocial Constructs

To the human race, Happiness is surely the most coveted of emotions, yet the science behind it is almost as elusive as how to attain and maintain it. An attempt to understand the basis of happiness and its components, in addition to other positive experiences, including mirth and laughter, is a formidable task. Happiness is a separate entity and is not the absence or the opposite of sadness. It deserves its own field of study. It is impermeable to money and transient pleasurable overshoots. This paper is an open invitation to explore the domain of Happiness, review its neuroanatomical and psychosocial constructs and live in its blissful unawareness.