We can’t help but think of ourselves: A simultaneous EEG and EMG study on the automaticity of Self-referential emotion processing

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event We can’t help but think of ourselves: A simultaneous EEG and EMG study on the automaticity of Self-referential emotion processing Aimee L. Mavratzakis1, 2*, Cornelia Herbert3 and Peter Walla1, 2 1 University of Newcastle, Australia 2 Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Newcastle, Australia 3 University of Wuerzburg, Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Germany Background: The ability to recognise our own and others emotions has become a fundamental aspect of current emotion research, with focus having been on either the neural correlates or the behavioural correlates. The aim of the current study was to combine these approaches to determine how Self- versus Other-referential information influences the ‘input’ stage of emotion processing (neural activity), compared to the ‘output’ stage, when behavioural responses are elicited, including spontaneous facial muscle activity. Method: EEG and facial EMG activity were recorded simultaneously for 18 participants while they passively viewed negative, positive and neutral emotional pictures during three blocks of referential instructions. Each participant imagined themself, an unknown person or no one, experiencing the emotional scenario, with the priming words ‘You’, ‘Him’ or ‘None’ presented before each picture for the respective block of instructions. Participants rated each picture for emotional valence and arousal immediately after each 5 second presentation. In addition, emotion awareness was recorded using the TAS-20 Alexithymia questionnaire. Results: Neural activity (the ‘input stage’) revealed a significantly greater Late Positive Potential over the central-parietal cortex when participants were not imagining anyone experiencing the scenario. As expected, corrugator Supercilii (CS) muscle activity (the ‘output stage’) increased significantly between 500-1000ms post-stimulus onset during negative picture presentations regardless of referential task and level of emotion awareness. Surprisingly though, CS activity was greatest during the ‘No one’ task and lowest during the ‘Self’ task across the entire first second of picture viewing. Even more important however, was the finding that the degree of CS activation during referential tasks was strongly dependent on emotion awareness. Low emotion awareness evoked significantly stronger CS activity compared to high emotion awareness, and this effect was even more pronounced during the ‘No one’ task. Discussion: The results are discussed in terms of how higher cognitive processes interact with and modulate automatic or basic affective processes, as well as how these interactions may influence behavioural expressions of emotion. Keywords: emotion, self-awareness, EEG, EMG, affective processing Conference: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013. Presentation Type: Oral Topic: Emotion and Social Citation: Mavratzakis AL, Herbert C and Walla P (2013). We can’t help but think of ourselves: A simultaneous EEG and EMG study on the automaticity of Self-referential emotion processing. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00177 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 15 Oct 2013; Published Online: 25 Nov 2013. * Correspondence: Miss. Aimee L Mavratzakis, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, Aimee.Mavratzakis@uon.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Aimee L Mavratzakis Cornelia Herbert Peter Walla Google Aimee L Mavratzakis Cornelia Herbert Peter Walla Google Scholar Aimee L Mavratzakis Cornelia Herbert Peter Walla PubMed Aimee L Mavratzakis Cornelia Herbert Peter Walla Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.