Cognitive Processing Of Emotional Information Research Articles

Effects of Approach–Avoidance Swiping Interactions on the Valence Estimation Using Tablet AAT

Bodily activity may influence subjects’ cognitive processing against embodied cognition. Approaching positive objects and avoiding negative ones facilitate the cognitive processing of emotional information by enhancing valence estimation. The effect may be termed the “Approaching positive and Avoiding negative Compatibility Effect (AACE)”. Implicit approach–avoidance behavior towards stimuli can be measured using the Approach–Avoidance Task (AAT). We recently expanded a touchscreen tablet AAT which seems a more flexible tool for measuring approach–avoidance effects on the valence estimation. In addition, the impact of emotional information on physical behavior might vary depending on the level of arousal. Therefore, we here integrated affective arousal with the AACE to investigate the change of valence estimations of emotional pictures with different (high/low) arousal levels before and after swiping them (toward/away) directly by hand on a touchscreen tablet. Eighty participants evaluated the valence of 40 emotional pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) twice, first after watching them and second after swiping them, either toward or away from their bodies. As hypothesized, the results are consistent with the AACE, that is, swiping positive pictures toward the body or swiping negative ones away on the touchscreen tablet directly by hand led to a positive change in their valence estimation. Additionally, the change of the valence estimation was significantly enlarged when approaching emotional pictures with higher affective arousal. However, this higher arousal effect was not found when swiping pictures away. We argue that the effect of affective arousal and valence on approach–avoidance behavior seems to be separated. The approaching movement (toward) was more susceptible to the higher arousal of the stimuli, while the avoidance movement (away) was more sensitive to the valence. Furthermore, the touchscreen tablet AAT seems efficient and can reliably measure known approach–avoidance behavior toward cognitive processing testing both in the laboratory and in the field.

PRESCHOOLER'S EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT

The article considers the development of emotional intelligence in preschool children. The aim of the study is a theoretical analysis of the formation of emotional intelligence in preschool children, the development of emotional intelligence under the guidance of adults. Today, kindergartens provide education on the intellectual development of the child. And this leads to deformation of the emotional sphere of preschool children. Today, the relationship between children and parents is characterized by a lack of emotional communication. This causes emotional deafness in children. That is, the inability to feel, lack of reaction to the emotional state of another person. It is also a suppression of emotions that develops in a child due to the indifference of loved ones. Due to such changes in the education of preschool children, the problem of developing the emotional intelligence of preschool children is especially significant and relevant. The following methods were used in the research process: general scientific (systematization and generalization), comparative, prognostic method and prognostic method. The article presents an analytical review of theoretical approaches to the definition of "emotional intelligence". It is generalized that the emotional intelligence of a preschooler is an integral property of the individual, which reflects the child's cognitive ability to understand emotions and manage them through cognitive processing of emotional information. Emotional intelligence ensures the psychological well-being of the individual and the success of social interaction. In preschool, the child's emotional experience expands and enriches. An emotional attitude to oneself, other people and the surrounding reality in general is formed. This is reflected in the characteristics of the child's emotional behavior in the process of social interaction and communication with other children and adults. Researchers are also attracted by the question of the preconditions for the formation of emotional intelligence of preschool children. The structure of emotional intelligence is revealed. It is noted that emotional intelligence develops in the process of life and experience of the child – in the family, through play, painting, art, literature, self-observation and reflection. Each preschooler should have his own way. It is important to choose the method that is most effective for a particular individual. The authors identify effective methods and techniques for the development of emotional intelligence of preschool children.

EEG time–frequency analysis reveals blunted tendency to approach and increased processing of unpleasant stimuli in dysphoria

To date, affective and cognitive processing of emotional information in individuals with depressive symptoms have been examined through peripheral psychophysiological measures, event-related potentials, and time–frequency analysis of oscillatory activity. However, electrocortical correlates of emotional and cognitive processing of affective content in depression have not been fully understood. Time–frequency analysis of electroencephalographic activity allows disentangling the brain's parallel processing of information. The present study employed a time–frequency approach to simultaneously examine affective disposition and cognitive processing during the viewing of emotional stimuli in dysphoria. Time–frequency event-related changes were examined during the viewing of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures in 24 individuals with dysphoria and 24 controls. Affective disposition was indexed by delta and alpha power, while theta power was employed as a correlate of cognitive elaboration of the stimuli. Cluster-based statistics revealed a centro-parietal reduction in delta power for pleasant stimuli in individuals with dysphoria relative to controls. Also, dysphoria was characterized by an early fronto-central increase in theta power for unpleasant stimuli relative to neutral and pleasant ones. Comparatively, controls were characterized by a late fronto-central and occipital reduction in theta power for unpleasant stimuli relative to neutral and pleasant. The present study granted novel insights on the interrelated facets of affective elaboration in dysphoria, mainly characterized by a hypoactivation of the approach-related motivational system and a sustained facilitated cognitive processing of unpleasant stimuli.

Cognitive processing of emotional information during menstrual phases in women with and without postpartum depression: differential sensitivity to changes in gonadal steroids.

Gonadal steroids (GSs) have been repeatedly shown to play a central role in the onset of postpartum depression (PPD). The underlying mechanisms, however, are only partially understood. We investigated the relationship between cognitive processing of emotional information and naturally occurring hormonal fluctuations in women with and without previous PPD. Euthymic, parous women, with a history (hPPD, n=32) and without a history (nhPPD, n=43) of PPD, were assessed during late-follicular and late-luteal phases. Participants were administered cognitive tasks assessing attention (dot-probe; emotional Stroop), evaluation (self-referential encoding) and incidental recall, and self-report measures. Menstrual-phase-specific differences were found between late-follicular vs. late-luteal phases among hPPD only, with depression-associated patterns observed in the late-luteal phase on the self-referential encoding and incidental recall task and emotional Stroop task, but not on the dot-probe task. No main effect for menstrual phase was found on any of the tasks or questionnaires, apart from the brooding component of rumination. Women with hPPD demonstrate a differential bias in cognitive processing of emotional information that is menstrual phase dependent, and did not correspond to similar difference in mood symptoms. These biases may reflect sensitivity to gonadal steroid fluctuations that are associated with PPD.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНА КОНЦЕПЦІЯ РОЗВИТКУ ЕМОЦІЙНОГО ІНТЕЛЕКТУ ОСОБИСТОСТІ В ОНТОГЕНЕЗІ

У статті обґрунтовано концептуальні основи розвитку емоційного інтелекту в онтогенезі, визначено теоретико-методологічні підходи, які дають змогу створити цілісне уявлення про сутність емоційного інтелекту людини з точки зору: системного підходу (природа, структура, функції, психологічні механізми розвитку, форми і рівні розвитку в онтогенезі); суб’єктно-діяльнісного підходу (через характеристику основних структурних компонентів діяльності – мотиваційного, змістового, операційного та результативного; визначення сенситивного періоду – найбільш сприятливого для розвитку емоційного інтелекту; аналіз особливостей його прояву в суб’єкта діяльності); особистісно-орієнтованого підходу (через прояв індивідуально-психологічних особливостей розвитку емоційного інтелекту); компетентнісного підходу (шляхом розвитку і формування емоційної компетентності молодших школярів, учителів початкових класів, шкільних психологів, батьків учнів).Визначено, що емоційний інтелект є інтегральною властивістю особистості, яка відображає пізнавальну здатність людини до розуміння емоцій та управління ними шляхом когнітивної обробки емоційної інформації та забезпечує психологічне благополуччя особистості й успішність соціальної взаємодії. Відповідно до рівнів психічного відображення (сенсорно-перцептивного, когнітивного, особистісного, суб’єктного, духовного) виокремлено форми (емоційний інтелект як властивість: індивіда, суб’єкта діяльності, особистості, суб’єкта життєтворчості, суб’єкта життєдіяльності), психологічні механізми (ідентифікація, наслідування, емоційне зараження, рефлексія, емоційна децентрація, емоційна саморегуляція, антиципація, емпатія), критерії та рівні розвитку емоційного інтелекту в онтогенезі (психофізіологічний, когнітивний, соціопсихологічний, креативно-суб’єктний, екзистенційно-духовний). На основі результатів емпіричного дослідження здійснено порівняльний аналіз особливостей розвитку емоційного інтелекту в старшому дошкільному, молодшому шкільному і підлітковому віці. Доведено, що молодший шкільний вік є сенситивним періодом розвитку емоційного інтелекту.

Mapping Dynamic Interactions Among Cognitive Biases in Depression

Depression is theorized to be caused in part by biased cognitive processing of emotional information. Yet, prior research has adopted a reductionist approach that does not characterize how biases in cognitive processes such as attention and memory work together to confer risk for this complex multifactorial disorder. Grounded in affective and cognitive science, we highlight four mechanisms to understand how attention biases, working memory difficulties, and long-term memory biases interact and contribute to depression. We review evidence for each mechanism and highlight time- and context-dependent dynamics. We outline methodological considerations and recommendations for research in this area. We conclude with directions to advance the understanding of depression risk, cognitive training interventions, and transdiagnostic properties of cognitive biases and their interactions.

Attention Dynamics During Emotion Recognition by Deaf and Hearing Individuals.

The enhancement hypothesis suggests that deaf individuals are more vigilant to visual emotional cues than hearing individuals. The present eye-tracking study examined ambient-focal visual attention when encoding affect from dynamically changing emotional facial expressions. Deaf (n = 17) and hearing (n = 17) individuals watched emotional facial expressions that in 10-s animations morphed from a neutral expression to one of happiness, sadness, or anger. The task was to recognize emotion as quickly as possible. Deaf participants tended to be faster than hearing participants in affect recognition, but the groups did not differ in accuracy. In general, happy faces were more accurately and more quickly recognized than faces expressing anger or sadness. Both groups demonstrated longer average fixation duration when recognizing happiness in comparison to anger and sadness. Deaf individuals directed their first fixations less often to the mouth region than the hearing group. During the last stages of emotion recognition, deaf participants exhibited more focal viewing of happy faces than negative faces. This pattern was not observed among hearing individuals. The analysis of visual gaze dynamics, switching between ambient and focal attention, was useful in studying the depth of cognitive processing of emotional information among deaf and hearing individuals.

A neuroimaging study of emotion-cognition interaction in schizophrenia: the effect of ziprasidone treatment.

Functional and structural brain changes associated with the cognitive processing of emotional visual stimuli were assessed in schizophrenic patients after 16weeks of antipsychotic treatment with ziprasidone. Forty-five adults aged 18 to 40 were recruited: 15 schizophrenia patients (DSM-IV criteria) treated with ziprasidone (mean daily dose=120mg), 15 patients treated with other antipsychotics, and 15 healthy controls who did not receive any medication. Functional and structural neuroimaging data were acquired at baseline and 16weeks after treatment initiation. In each session, participants selected stimuli, taken from standardized sets, based on their emotional valence. After ziprasidone treatment, several prefrontal regions, typically involved in cognitive control (anterior cingulate and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices), were significantly activated in patients in response to positive versus negative stimuli. This effect was greater whenever they had to select negative compared to positive stimuli, indicating an asymmetric effect of cognitive treatment of emotionally laden information. No such changes were observed for patients under other antipsychotics. In addition, there was an increase in the brain volume commonly recruited by healthy controls and patients under ziprasidone, in response to cognitive processing of emotional information. The structural analysis showed no significant changes in the density of gray and white matter in ziprasidone-treated patients compared to patients receiving other antipsychotic treatments. Our results suggest that functional changes in brain activity after ziprasidone medication precede structural and clinical manifestations, as markers that the treatment is efficient in restoring the functionality of prefrontal circuits involved in processing emotionally laden information in schizophrenia.

Anodal tDCS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulates cognitive processing of emotional information as a function of trait rumination in healthy volunteers

Healthy individuals reporting higher (as compared to lower) levels of trait rumination recruit more neural activity in dorso-cortical regions (mostly in the right hemisphere) when inhibiting negative information, possibly to compensate their difficulty to disengage from it. In the present study, we investigated whether these latter neural correlates are causally implicated in cognitive control in these individuals. We administered the Cued Emotional Control Task, a measure of cognitive control indexed by cognitive costs for inhibiting versus providing a habitual response for emotional information, in thirty-five healthy volunteers reporting a broad range of trait rumination levels. Participants completed the task after receiving both real and sham-placebo (counterbalanced order) anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Results reveal that the tDCS induced effects on cognitive costs for emotional information were associated with individual differences in trait rumination: the higher the trait rumination level, the less cognitive costs following real neuromodulation of the right DLPFC. Interestingly, these effects were observed for both positive and negative stimuli, and not only negative information as hypothesized. Overall, the data suggest that the right DLPFC is causally involved in the alteration of cognitive control in healthy individuals who tend to ruminate, possibly by helping them to disengage from emotional material.

Childhood Abuse Is Related to Working Memory Impairment for Positive Emotion in Female University Students

Childhood abuse is an important risk factor for depression, anxiety disorders, and substance use later in life. One possible mechanism underlying this association could be deficits in cognitive processing of emotional information. This study tested the impact of distracting emotional information on working memory performance in 21 young women with a history of sexual and physical abuse during childhood/adolescence (mean age = 20.0), and compared their performance to 17 individuals reporting nonabuse-related childhood stress (mean age = 19.6) and a control group of 17 women without a history of childhood stress (mean age = 20.0). During the most difficult distractor condition, working memory accuracy for positive versus neutral incidental emotional stimuli was reduced in women reporting a history of abuse relative to both control groups (with and without nonabuse-related childhood stress). The current results reveal aberrant responses to positive stimuli and are consistent with the notion of persistent influence of childhood abuse on processes critical for emotional well-being and emotion control.

Antipsychotic treatment with ziprasidone restores cognitive processing of emotional information in prefrontal cortex in patients with schizophrenia

Antipsychotic treatment with ziprasidone restores cognitive processing of emotional information in prefrontal cortex in patients with schizophrenia

Erythropoietin modulates neural and cognitive processing of emotional information in biomarker models of antidepressant drug action in depressed patients

Erythropoietin (Epo) has neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects, and may be a novel therapeutic agent in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. We have demonstrated antidepressant-like effects of Epo on the neural and cognitive processing of facial expressions in healthy volunteers. The current study investigates the effects of Epo on the neural and cognitive response to emotional facial expressions in depressed patients. Nineteen acutely depressed patients were randomized to receive Epo (40,000 IU) or saline intravenously in a double-blind, parallel-group design. On day 3, we assessed neuronal responses to fearful and happy faces using functional magnetic resonance imaging and measured facial expression recognition after the scan. Epo reduced neural response to fearful vs. happy faces in the amygdala and hippocampus, and to fearful faces vs. baseline in superior temporal and occipitoparietal regions 3 days after administration in acutely depressed patients. This was accompanied by a specific reduction in the recognition of fear in Epo-treated patients after the scan similar to the effects on face recognition seen with antidepressant drug treatment. The present findings are similar to the effects of conventional antidepressants in acutely depressed patients and opposite to hypervigilance to negative facial expressions in depression. This highlights a potential antidepressant mechanism and warrants further investigation of Epo as a new candidate compound for treatment of depression.

Cognitive neuropsychology of alexithymia: Implications for personality typology

Introduction. We examine the cognitive neuroscience of the five components of the alexithymia syndrome, and propose a classification of alexithymia types based on psychobiological traits. Method. Literature review. Results. The following neural structures have been shown to be prominent in emotional function: right and left hemisphere, corpus callosum, anterior commissure, anterior cingulate, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insular cortex. The specific relevance of these structures to alexithymia is discussed. Conclusions. The following conclusions and/or propositions are presented: The right hemisphere produces a global, nonverbal overview of emotional information; the left hemisphere seems dedicated to analysing emotions and higher explicit emotional cognitions. Both orbitoprefrontal cortices are important in affective aspects of alexithymia, while right temporal cortex is involved in cognitive aspects. Two subparts of anterior cingulate fulfil functions in the affective and cognitive dimensions of alexithymia. The amygdalae are involved in both cognitive and affective aspects. All structures mentioned can modulate one another. The role of interhemispheric information transfer via the corpus callosum and the anterior commissure is also discussed. The evidence that that cognitive processing of emotional information inhibits affective processing of such information is discussed in terms of its implications for a theory of alexithymia subtypes.

Epigenetics: The Science of Change

For nearly a century after the term “epigenetics” first surfaced on the printed page, researchers, physicians, and others poked around in the dark crevices of the gene, trying to untangle the clues that suggested gene function could be altered by more than just changes in sequence. Today, a wide variety of illnesses, behaviors, and other health indicators already have some level of evidence linking them with epigenetic mechanisms, including cancers of almost all types, cognitive dysfunction, and respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, autoimmune, and neurobehavioral illnesses. Known or suspected drivers behind epigenetic processes include many agents, including heavy metals, pesticides, diesel exhaust, tobacco smoke, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, hormones, radioactivity, viruses, bacteria, and basic nutrients. In the past five years, and especially in the past year or two, several groundbreaking studies have focused fresh attention on epigenetics. Interest has been enhanced as it has become clear that understanding epigenetics and epigenomics—the genomewide distribution of epigenetic changes—will be essential in work related to many other topics requiring a thorough understanding of all aspects of genetics, such as stem cells, cloning, aging, synthetic biology, species conservation, evolution, and agriculture.

Cognitive Processing of Emotional Information in Depression, Panic, and Somatoform Disorder.

Emotional Stroop tasks (subliminal/supraliminal exposures), implicit memory tasks (tachistoscopic word identification), and explicit memory tasks (free recall after incidental learning) with 4 word types (physical threat, positive, negative, and neutral words) were administered to patients with major depressive disorder (n=30), panic disorder (n=33), somatoform disorder (n=25), and healthy control participants (n=33). On the Stroop task, panic patients showed subliminal interferences for physical threat and negative words, depressive patients showed supraliminal interferences for negative words, and somatoform patients showed supraliminal interferences for physical threat words. No patient groups demonstrated implicit memory biases. On the explicit memory task, depressive and panic patients showed memory biases for negative words; somatoform patients showed biases for physical threat words.

Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory: comparing the separable and joint subsystems.

This study compared the applicability of the separable subsystems hypothesis and the joint subsystems hypothesis of Gray's reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) in understanding the processing of pleasant and unpleasant emotional stimuli. In all 132 participants completed questionnaires covering trait impulsivity and anxiety, and reward expectancy and punishment expectancy. Following this, participants were tested individually on three tasks measuring processing of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral information. One task involved processing the valence of words. The second involved free recall of these words, and the third task involved developing stories based on emotionally ambiguous statements. The findings were mixed, with the results for the word processing and free recall tasks being consistent with the separable subsystems hypothesis, and the results for the story completion task being consistent with the joint subsystems hypothesis. The implications of task characteristics in relation to the RST and cognitive processing of emotional information are discussed.

Dynamics of cognitive processing in the human hippocampus by neuromagnetic and neurochemical assessments

Various features of cognitive processing have been studied using event-related electric potentials and magnetoencephalography (MEG), as well as neuroimaging. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a unique, noninvasive approach of measuring cellular metabolism that reflects the static metabolic state. The present study is the first to show noninvasively the dynamic neurophysiological and metabolic changes that occur during cognitive processing in vivo in the human hippocampus, as measured by MEG and spin-echo dynamic 1H-MRS time-locked to the onset of the stimulus. The stimuli consisted of unpleasant and pleasant pictures of faces of human or primate babies. The event-related synchronization of θ activity and levels of creatine/phosphocreatine and choline-containing compounds relative to the respective level in the resting condition increased significantly, more in the right hippocampus than in the left, during the target discrimination task and also more in the right hippocampus in response to the unpleasant target picture than the pleasant one. These results suggest that excitatory postsynaptic metabolism in the hippocampus, especially in the right hippocampus, is involved in discriminative and cognitive processing of emotional information. This newly devised method combining event-related MEG with MRS can be used to noninvasively elucidate the dynamic features of neurophysiology and neurochemical metabolism and represents a promising approach toward improving our understanding of brain pathophysiology.

Personality traits of the behavioural approach and inhibition systems: associations with processing of emotional stimuli

This study examined the relationships of the traits associated with Gray's behavioural approach system (BAS) and behavioural inhibition system (BIS) with cognitive processing of emotional information. Initially, participants completed questionnaires covering trait impulsivity and anxiety, and BAS and BIS sensitivities. They were then tested individually. After completing a questionnaire of current positive and negative moods, they completed three tasks measuring processing of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral information. Consistent with Gray’s theory, the results showed that impulsivity and BAS sensitivity were associated with the processing of pleasant information, while anxiety and BIS sensitivity were associated with the processing of unpleasant information. These findings imply that Gray’s BAS–BIS theory can be extended to cognitive processing of emotional information.

Personality, mood, and cognitive processing of emotional information: three conceptual frameworks.

This article reviews evidence for the roles that mood states and personality traits play in the processing of emotion-congruent information across different cognitive tasks. Evidence is reviewed for 3 emotion-congruency frameworks, each summarizing a different route to emotional processing: the traditional approach, a moderation approach, and a mediation approach. Most of the traditional literature includes studies that examine the effects of moods and traits on emotional processing separately; these studies have yielded some inconsistent findings. The moderation and mediation approaches offer potential solutions to the lack of consistency obtained in the traditional literature by allowing for the combined effects of personality traits and mood states on the processing of emotional information. The moderation approach suggests that mood states interact with individual differences in emotion-relevant personality traits to influence emotion-congruent processing. The mediation approach suggests that personality traits predispose individuals to certain mood states, which then influence emotional processing. These approaches provide a framework for understanding the literature and a starting point for future research on emotion-congruent processing.

Personality, mood, and cognitive processing of emotional information: Three conceptual frameworks.

Personality, mood, and cognitive processing of emotional information: Three conceptual frameworks.