The “simulation” of the facial expression of emotions in case of short and long stimulus duration. The effect of pre-motor cortex inhibition by rTMS

Embodied cognition model states that the “simulation process” is necessary to the recognition of emotional significance of face. The present research explored the contribution of frontal motor brain components (i.e. mainly premotor area) to embodied cognition by using rTMS stimulation, to produce a temporary disruption of this specific cortical site. Secondly, short and long stimulus duration conditions were included to verify the contribution of the “simulation process” in response to overt and covert emotional stimulus comprehension. Nineteen subjects were asked to detect emotion/no emotion (anger, fear, happiness, neutral) in these two experimental conditions, by using a backward masking procedure. Five-second rTMS (1 Hz) was delivered before the stimulus onset. False alarms (Fa) and RTs increased and Hits decreased when frontal premotor brain activity was disrupted, specifically in response to anger and fear, for both long and shortduration condition. Thus, the present results highlight the main role of the frontal motor system for emotion facial expression processing.     

The amygdalostriatal and corticostriatal effective connectivity in anticipation and evaluation of facial attractiveness

Decision-making consists of several stages of information processing, including an anticipation stage and an outcome evaluation stage. Previous studies showed that the ventral striatum (VS) is pivotal to both stages, bridging motivation and action, and it works in concert with the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala. However, evidence concerning how the VS works together with the vmPFC and the amygdala came mainly from neuropathology and animal studies; little is known about the dynamics of this network in the functioning human brain. Here we used fMRI combined with dynamic causal modeling (DCM) to investigate the information flow along amygdalostriatal and corticostriatal pathways in a facial attractiveness guessing task. Specifically, we asked participants to guess whether a blurred photo of female face was attractive and to wait for a few seconds (“anticipation stage”) until an unblurred photo of feedback face, which was either attractive or unattractive, was presented (“outcome evaluation stage”). At the anticipation stage, the bilateral amygdala and VS showed higher activation for the “attractive” than for the “unattractive” guess. At the outcome evaluation stage, the vmPFC and the bilateral VS were more activated by feedback faces whose attractiveness was congruent with the initial guess than by incongruent faces; however, this effect was only significant for attractive faces, not for unattractive ones. DCM showed that at the anticipation stage, the choice-related information entered the amygdalostriatal pathway through the amygdala and was projected to the VS. At the evaluation stage, the outcome-related information entered the corticostriatal pathway through the vmPFC. Bidirectional connectivities existed between the vmPFC and VS, with the VS-to-vmPFC connectivity weakened by unattractive faces. These findings advanced our understanding of the reward circuitry by demonstrating the pattern of information flow along the amygdalostriatal and corticostriatal pathways at different stages of decision-making.     

外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为之关系：班级氛围的调节效应*

采用调查法,随机选取上海市3所普通中小学四、六、八、十年级的755名学生为被试,探讨班级氛围在外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为关系间的调节作用。结果表明：(1)男生的外化行为问题显著高于女生,其感知的班级氛围显著低于女生。而男、女生集体道德情绪与集体责任行为的性别差异不显著;(2)学生感知的班级氛围随年龄的增长先下降再上升,八年级时最低;集体道德情绪和集体责任行为随着年级的增高而呈下降趋势,小学生(四、六年级)的集体道德情绪和集体责任行为得分均比中学生(八、十年级)高,高一(十年级)学生的得分处于最低水平;(3)外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为的关系受班级氛围的调节。与消极的班级氛围相比,积极的班级氛围能够弱化外化行为问题与集体道德情绪、集体责任行为的负向关联。结果揭示了积极的班级氛围对外化行为问题学生具有一定的保护作用,有助于改善这些学生的社会适应能力。     

The relationship between mental vitality and cardiovascular health

Past measurement of vitality has included both emotional and physical components. Since aspects of physical vitality such as fatigue can be indicative of physical illness, the usefulness of existing measures of vitality to predict health is limited. This research was designed to examine the psychometric properties of a new Mental Vitality Scale and to test its associations with measures of cardiovascular health over the course of 2 years. The measure of mental vitality was administered in a two-part study using three different samples. In part 1, the reliability and validity of the scale was assessed with a student and a clinic sample. In part 2, medical data on mental and physical health were abstracted over a two-year period from 1041 patient records from a multi-specialty medical practice, and mental vitality assessed through a mailed questionnaire. The findings indicate that the Mental Vitality Scale is a valid and reliable questionnaire for measuring this construct. Mental vitality was also associated with reduced odds of several cardiovascular outcomes and prospective analyses suggest that mental vitality may serve a protective function in the development of cardiovascular disease. The results lend support for the importance of mental vitality as a construct that may be relevant for considering resilience in relation to cardiovascular disease.     

Maintaining a healthy diet: Effects of personality and self-reward versus self-punishment on commitment to and enactment of self-chosen and assigned goals

Abstract

A theory decomposing volition into four modes of central organization of executive control functions is outlined. These modes include (1) an autonomy-oriented mode (“self-regulation”) which is facilitated by challenging conditions and positive mood, (2) a self-suppressive mode oriented toward external-control (“self-control”) facilitated by negative mood and two modes associated with volitional inhibition (“state orientation”). Two experiments are reported that test predicted interactions between dispositional and situational factors in determining commitment to and actual enactment of self-chosen versus assigned activities directed at changing nutritional behavior. The results confirm the predicted disordinal interactions: The degree of commitment to and enactment of intended behavioral changes depends upon an interaction between personality (volitional styles), type of self-regulatory task (eat more healthy versus avoid unhealthy food), and instructional focus on easy versus difficult steps (Study 1) or self-reward versus self-punishment strategies (Study 2). Practical implications for designing intervention procedures according to individual personality characteristics and situational constraints are discussed.     

Individuals with Autism can Categorize Facial Expressions

The ability of high-functioning individuals with autism to perceive facial expressions categorically was studied using eight facial expression continua created via morphing software. Participants completed a delayed matching task and an identification task. Like undergraduate male participants (N = 12), performance on the identification task for participants with autism (N = 15) was predicted by performance on the delayed matching task for the angry-afraid, happy-sad, and happy-surprised continua. This result indicates a clear category boundary and suggests that individuals with autism do perceive at least some facial expressions categorically. As this result is inconsistent with findings from other studies of categorical perception in individuals with autism, possible explanations for these findings are discussed.     

Schadenfreude and just world belief

The present study tested the hypothesis that a threat of a just world belief intensifies experience of schadenfreude (i.e., pleasure at another's misfortune). The participants read scenarios which were designed to threaten or maintain their just world belief. Subsequently, they were transferred to an online magazine presenting funny stories about other peoples' failures. As presumed, the participants exposed to the threat of just world belief spent more time on reading. These results confirmed the existence of a link between just world threat and schadenfreude.     

Political intolerance: the role of intergroup threat and negative intergroup emotion

This study investigated whether the perception of intergroup threat, and intergroup emotion, are related to political intolerance. One hundred and twenty three South African undergraduate students (females?=?76%; males?=?24%; White?=?65%; Coloured?=?24%; Indian?=?8%; Chinese?=?2%; mean age =?19.8, SD?=?3.03 years) were randomly assigned to either a heightened (n?=?68) or low intergroup threat condition (n?=?55). Data on intergroup threat, intergroup emotion and political intolerance were collected utilising a questionnaire. T-test effect comparisons including multiple regression analyses were computed to determine effects of intergroup threat and negative intergroup emotion on political intolerance. Results revealed negative intergroup emotion and perceived intergroup threat to predict political intolerance. Negative intergroup emotion mediated the relationship between perceived threat and political intolerance. These findings suggest that intergroup threat may lead to the rise of negative intergroup emotion which in turn creates an environment conducive to the development of political intolerance.     

Putting the ‘heart’ back into community psychology: some South African examples

In this paper we explore the impact of emotional dynamics in the field of community psychology and the value of psychodynamic concepts in making sense of this. Emotional processes have often not been very well acknowledged or conceptualized in writing in the area of community psychology practice. This neglect is understandable given the individualizing, pathologizing and medicalizing assumptions underlying many psychological theories of emotion. Psychodynamic ideas may, however, make a useful contribution to understanding central concerns in community psychology in so far as they are able to shed light on emotional processes in groups, the political determinants of emotional response and the emotional dynamics of power, which are all central to the thinking of community psychologists. Using examples drawn from a long-term programme of consultation to community-based services in South Africa, we explore the potential of psychoanalytic understandings of emotional processes in illuminating some of the complexities and challenges faced in developing effective community partnerships and working towards the empowerment of communities.     

Love,artificiality and mass identification

How are we to understand the phenomenon of mass identification, epitomised in recent exhibitions of national feeling such as that of South Africa’s 2010 Football World Cup celebrations? Rather than focusing on the concepts of discourse and nationalism, or advancing an analysis of empirical data, this paper outlines a conceptual response to the challenge at hand, drawing on the tools of psychoanalytic theory. Three explanatory perspectives come to the fore. Firstly, such exhibitions of mass emotion might be understood as demonstrations of love, as examples of the libidinal ties that constitute and consolidate mass identification. Secondly, the marked artificiality of such displays of emotion and the fact of the ‘externality’ they entail might be seen, paradoxically, to be essential rather than inauthentic or secondary features of the displays in question. Thirdly, we might advance, via Lacan, that many of our most powerful emotions require not only recourse to the field of the inter-subjective, but reference also to the anonymous, ‘fictional’ framework of available symbolic forms.