Processing Of Emotional Words Research Articles

Perceptual and electroencephalographic registration of masked emotional words in defensiveness: An exploratory study

This study measured perceptual and electroencephalographic responses to masked pleasant, unpleasant, neutral and sexual words in participants scoring as high defensive ( N = 22) or low defensive ( N = 30) on the EPQ-L. Six words of each category were presented in random order in ascending durations between 50.1 ms random letter masks. A word identification task designed to elicit impression management (i.e. by requiring participants to say sexual words aloud), preceded a word detection task designed to assess perceptual sensitivity (i.e. by having subjects quietly choose from among words from the same category). Sexual words appeared to elicit impression management, which did not differ between groups. Patterns of detection accuracies for the various emotional word categories differed for high and low defensive participants in a manner consistent with individual differences in unconscious processing of emotional words. Parallel differences emerged in patterns of electroencephalographic α (8–13 Hz) decreases in response to the words, with unconscious effects having a posterior topography.

Hypofrontality remits with schizophrenic recovery

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are characterised by deficits in understanding and expressing emotions and are frequently accompanied by alexithymia, a difficulty in understanding and expressing emotion words. Words are differentially represented in the brain according to their semantic category and these difficulties in ASC predict reduced activation to emotion-related words in limbic structures crucial for affective processing. Semantic theories view ‘emotion actions’ as critical for learning the semantic relationship between a word and the emotion it describes, such that emotion words typically activate the cortical motor systems involved in expressing emotion actions such as facial expressions. As ASC are also characterised by motor deficits and atypical brain structure and function in these regions, motor structures would also be expected to show reduced activation during emotion-semantic processing. Here we used event-related fMRI to compare passive processing of emotion words in comparison to abstract verbs and animal names in typically-developing controls and individuals with ASC. Relatively reduced brain activation in ASC for emotion words, but not matched control words, was found in motor areas and cingulate cortex specifically. The degree of activation evoked by emotion words in the motor system was also associated with the extent of autistic traits as revealed by the Autism Spectrum Quotient. We suggest that hypoactivation of motor and limbic regions for emotion word processing may underlie difficulties in processing emotional language in ASC. The role that sensorimotor systems and their connections might play in the affective and social-communication difficulties in ASC is discussed.

A brain imaging (single photon emission computerized tomography) study of semantic and affective processing in psychopaths

Psychopaths have been described as human predators who use charm, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own needs. Underlying their propensity to violate social norms and expectations is a profound lack of empathy, guilt, or remorse, affective processes that have long resisted scientific investigation. Using brain imaging technology we found that psychopaths differed from nonpsychopaths in the pattern of relative cerebral blood flow during processing of emotional words. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that there are anomalies in the way psychopaths process semantic and affective information.

Hemisphere asymmetry and the processing of emotional words in anxiety

High- and low-trait anxious subjects participated in a divided visual field emotional Stroop task. Subjects identified the colour of unilaterally presented threat-related, positive and neutral words. The high- and low-trait groups differed in terms of their accuracy scores but not in their reaction times. Analysis of the accuracy data revealed that the high-trait group exhibited right hemisphere interference for emotional relative to neutral trials whereas the low-trait showed right hemisphere interference for threat-related trials only. The idea that the right hemisphere is differentially specialised for the processing of emotional information was supported.

A cognitive dysfunction in anxiety and its amelioration by effective treatment with SSRIs

There is extensive research suggesting an abnormal selective attention to threat in anxiety disorders. We assessed the processing of emotional cognitions of physical anxiety, psycho-social fears, depression and positive affect in a cohort of 15 patients with active anxiety disorder (mostly panic) in comparison with a group of 15 depressed patients and 15 recovered panic patients after treatment with antidepressants (all selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) and an age- and sex-matched normal control group. Anxious patients showed delayed processing of emotional words (both negative and positive) compared with depressed patients. The successfully treated group showed no such interference and their responses were indistinguishable from controls. It would therefore appear that anxious patients (panic and generalized anxiety disorder) are affected primarily (but not exclusively) by themes of self-harm and psycho-social fears, and that this cognitive dysfunction in pathological anxiety is a state rather than trait feature of the condition, which is responsive to pharmacological intervention.

Perception of emotional words

Two studies examined the contribution of both hemispheres to the processing of emotional and non-emotional words. These real words and nonsence words were presented to the right and left visual fields simultaneously. Males and females were required to indicate whether or not any of the words were real English ones. The results revealed that emotionally positive and negative words show a RVF superiority (Experiment 1). Both emotional and non-emotional words also showed a RVF advantage (Experiment 2).