Manipulation Of Imagery Research Articles

Targeting negative flashforward imagery in speech anxiety with a visuospatial dual-task: Do attenuated flashforwards lead to less anxiety and avoidance?

Background and objectivesIt has been proposed that negative mental imagery plays an important role in the persistence of social fears. Experiencing vivid and distressing ‘flashforward’ images of a potential social catastrophe appears to be of relevance in speech anxiety. To clarify the role of these images, the current experimental study tested if reducing the vividness and distressing properties of recurring negative flashforward images subsequently reduces anxiety and avoidance tendencies regarding a speech. Methods: Participants were female undergraduates high in speech anxiety (N = 134) who joined our study online. In the experimental condition, we used a visuospatial dual-task to reduce the vividness and distress of flashforward imagery. Primary outcomes were participants' self-reported anxiety and avoidance ratings in anticipation of and during an actual speech. As a secondary outcome, we used observer ratings of participants' anxiety during the speech. Results: Participants reported moderate to high frequency and interference of their vivid and distressing flashforward images in daily life. The dual-task resulted in reductions in image vividness and distress. However, we found no differences between conditions in anxiety and avoidance ratings before and during the speech. Limitations: The imagery manipulation effect was moderate to small. Moreover, we included a subclinical sample. Conclusions: Reducing negative flashforward imagery vividness and distress with a visuospatial dual-task did not directly lead to less anxiety and avoidance tendencies related to a later speech. Thus, findings provided no support for the hypothesis that experiencing highly vivid and distressing flashforward images causally contributes to social fears.

‘Once upon a Midsommar…’: Nature, nationalism and the Swedish folkloresque

This article examines Ari folk horror film, Midsommar, in the context of Swedish ethnonationalist ideologies and their connections to environmental and cultural preservation. Reading the film through Michael Dylan Foster and Jeffrey A. Tolbert’s concept of the folkloresque, I draw correlations between its structural, fairy tale framing and manipulation of folkloric imagery in order to interrogate its deliberate representations of cultural and historical inauthenticity. Further, this article analyses Midsommar’s transnational milieu and its narrative emphasis on the ambiguous traditions and rituals of the rural Swedish commune, the Hårga, to argue that the film gestures towards a nostalgic appropriation of folkloric culture which highlights the ethnonationalist, anti-immigrant agenda of the far-right in Sweden. Midsommar thus provides a generative space for illuminating the complex relationship between folk tradition, nature and ethnic homogeneity at the intersections of environmental preservation and Scandinavian/American politics.

Assessing the delivering of iMAgery-focused therapy for PSychosis (iMAPS) via telehealth.

To examine the feasibility and acceptability of a novel telehealth (video-conferencing software and telephone calls) imagery-based therapeutic intervention for people experiencing persecutory delusions. Utilising a multiple baseline case series design and exploring imagery-focused therapy for psychosis (iMAPS). A non-concurrent A-B multiple baseline design was used. Participants experiencing persecutory delusions and self-reporting a psychosis or schizophrenia-spectrum diagnosis were recruited through online adverts. On completion of assessments, participants were randomly assigned to multiple baseline assessments, of between three and five sessions. Six therapy sessions followed, consisting of imagery formulation, safe-place imagery creation, compassionate imagery, imagery manipulation and rescripting. Participants completed pre- and post-measures and sessional measures via an online survey software or in semi-structured interviews. Two weeks post-intervention, a final measure was completed exploring any potential adverse effects of psychotherapy. Five female participants completed all baseline and therapeutic sessions, suggesting the therapy was and mode of delivery was feasible and acceptable. Results indicate strong effect sizes across PANSS positive subscale and mood, as well as participants reporting a clinically significant change in at least one measure, for example, PSYRATS. All participants reported a reduction in the realness and compelling nature of distressing imagery. Results suggest delivering a telehealth imagery-focused therapy is acceptable and feasibly delivered via telehealth. A control group and blinding of assessments would strengthen the methodological limitations present.

Mental rotation and schizotypal personality traits: A Bayesian approach.

People diagnosed with schizophrenia exhibit mental rotation differences, suggesting that clinical levels of positive symptoms, such as psychotic hallucinations, are related to disruptions in their monitoring and manipulation of mental representations. According to the psychosis continuum, findings in people with a high level of schizotypal personality traits are expected to be qualitatively similar, but research concerning this topic is scarce. A spared mental imagery manipulation in this population only could suggest that this ability might be a possible protective factor, or that the emergence of clinical-level positive symptoms could be paired with disruptions in this capacity. To explore this issue, 205 undergraduate students (122 women) completed a novel mental rotation task identifying the stimulus that was a 90, 180, or 270° rotation of a black circle with colored portions and were assessed with the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. Men performed better in most conditions. No relationship was detected between schizotypal personality traits and accuracy in the task. These results do not support that mental imagery manipulation disruptions may be related to schizotypal personality traits in non-clinical populations. Thus, they might instead be associated with the onset of psychosis disorders as mental representation handling is hindered. However, additional research is required including the general population, as well as those with higher levels of psychotic symptoms and psychosis disorders. Future research could also focus on working memory processes related to mental representation manipulations of different sensory modalities such as auditory mental representations and their relationship with schizotypal personality traits and clinical populations.

Coherence Analysis of EEG during Motor Imagery and BCI Manipulation

Coherence Analysis of EEG during Motor Imagery and BCI Manipulation

Architecture of Monumentality: A Critical Analysis of In-Game Representations of Washington, D.C.

In recent decades, video games have become a billion-dollar industry, serving as a ubiquitous interactive media. With significant technological advancements in graphics and performance, their fidelity in the representation of the built environment has improved the immersive experience, leading to increased impact on the player’s understanding of the architectural identity of places. Video games reference urban conditions to contextualise narratives yet are able to provide an additional dimension of navigability and interactivity within these virtual spaces. As a result, this medium has a considerable influence on the players’ awareness of and engagement with architectural and urban environments. The digital representation of spatial conditions becomes a substantial component of level design, with titles often relying on tropes and iconography associated with particular cities to contextualise virtual environments. Due to globalisation, Washington D.C. has become universally recognised as the epicentre of Western politics, housing many iconic architectures that shape their distinctive urban environments. Numerous video games take advantage of this recognizability and significance by siting their narratives within the city’s iconic urban and cultural identity. This paper examines the potential influence of in-game caricatures of architectural space on identity and urban memory within the global collective consciousness. By analysing the portrayal of Washington D.C. within prevalent video games; the paper examines their approach and use of urban context within the gameplay. Engaging several game modalities, including alternative histories, post-apocalyptic futures, espionage, and vehicular exploration, this paper presents trends of representation predominant within individual game categories. Through the assessment of the aforementioned titles, abstraction of the urbanscape, celebrity of architectural landmarks, contextualisation through prominent architectures, and ironic manipulation of architectural imagery emerge methods of falsification of the urban context. This paper concludes with a discussion of the impact of in-game representations of cities on the public’s perception and understanding of architectural and urban space.

Association of executive function capacity with gait motor imagery ability and PFC activity: An fNIRS study

Individual differences exist in gait motor imagery ability. However, little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms. We previously conducted a study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which showed that participants who overestimated mental walking times to a greater degree exhibited greater activation in the right prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC is implicated in executive functions (EFs), including working memory (WM). Thus, this study investigated whether individual differences in EF capacity are associated with gait motor imagery ability and PFC activity. Thirty volunteers participated (mean age: 21.7 ± 1.8 years) in the study. Their EF capacity was assessed by the Trail Making Test - Part B (TMT-B). We measured the accuracy of gait motor imagery and PFC activity during mental walking using fNIRS, while changing task difficulty by varying the path width. The results showed that the overestimation of mental walking time over actual walking time and right PFC activity increased with an increase in the TMT-B times. These results suggest that the EF capacity, including WM, is strongly associated with gait motor imagery ability and right PFC activity. The brain network that includes the right PFC may play an important role in the maintenance and manipulation of gait motor imagery.

Imagine Your Crossed Hands as Uncrossed: Visual Imagery Impacts the Crossed-Hands Deficit.

Successful interaction with our environment requires accurate tactile localization. Although we seem to localize tactile stimuli effortlessly, the processes underlying this ability are complex. This is evidenced by the crossed-hands deficit, in which tactile localization performance suffers when the hands are crossed. The deficit results from the conflict between an internal reference frame, based in somatotopic coordinates, and an external reference frame, based in external spatial coordinates. Previous evidence in favour of the integration model employed manipulations to the external reference frame (e.g., blindfolding participants), which reduced the deficit by reducing conflict between the two reference frames. The present study extends this finding by asking blindfolded participants to visually imagine their crossed arms as uncrossed. This imagery manipulation further decreased the magnitude of the crossed-hands deficit by bringing information in the two reference frames into alignment. This imagery manipulation differentially affected males and females, which was consistent with the previously observed sex difference in this effect: females tend to show a larger crossed-hands deficit than males and females were more impacted by the imagery manipulation. Results are discussed in terms of the integration model of the crossed-hands deficit.

Mental Imagery as an Emotional Amplifier in Bipolar Disorder

Vivid, emotional future-oriented mental imagery (future simulation) contributes to bipolar mood instability. Targeting such imagery may improve mood instability. We investigated neural correlates of heightened perceptual and emotional negative future imagery in individuals with a bipolar disorder spectrum (BPDS), and an experimental manipulation of such imagery during fMRI.

Acute impact of self-guided mental imagery on craving in cocaine use disorder: a mixed-methods analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

A quantitative-qualitative 'mixed-methods' analysis of data collected for a randomized controlled trial that was stopped prematurely. UK National Health Service addictions treatment clinic and outpatient clinical research facility (laboratory). Adults with CUD. The original target sample was 120. All participants enrolled at the point the original trial was stopped were included (38 enrolled, 31 completed study). Personalized (3-minute) cue-exposure (handling cocaine paraphernalia and watching video of drug preparation), immediately followed by a single 5-minute, audio-recorded, self-guided and verbally described imagery task with random assignment to one of four conditions: two mental imagery memory re-experiences (positive image before initiation to cocaine use or a negative image of a 'worst time' adverse cocaine use episode) or two future simulations (positive theme of recovery from CUD or negative theme of worsened CUD). Task transcripts were rated for imagery detail using five dimensions using a six-point scale of imagery detail (ID) (total score=0-25) and thematically coded. The outcome measure was cocaine craving using the Craving Experiences Questionnaire-strengths version (CEQ-S11; score=0-110) reported at baseline, arrival at the laboratory, and immediately after the cue-exposure and mental imagery tasks. A mixed-effects, longitudinal, restricted linear regression, with the past-positive imagery condition as referent, showed main effects of reduced craving after the imagery task (b=-29.2, 95% confidence interval (CI)=-45.3 to -13.1, P-value <0.001) and increased craving for the future-negative task (b=14.2, 95% CI=0.1-28.4, P-value 0.049). There was a future-negative task by post-imagery craving interaction (b=28.1, 95% CI=0.1-56.1, P-value 0.049). A theory-driven, deductive/inductive qualitative analysis of the transcripts revealed six major themes: sensory characteristics, CUD vicious cycle, self-care, emotions and appraisals, social role and CUD recovery. Positively themed simulations included interpersonal connections and rewarding activity; negative images included personal adversity, with appraisals of self-criticism and hopelessness. Transcripts with more imagery detail were not associated with significantly greater reductions in craving in the positive or negative imagery task (r =-0.32, 95% CI=-0.69 to 0.13 and r=0.06, 95% CI=-0.58 to 0.53, respectively). In people with cocaine use disorder, after cue-exposure, a self-guided imagery task with positive themes reduced craving, whereas mental imagery simulating worsened cocaine use disorder did not appear to.

Do you feel like me or not? This is the question: manipulation of emotional imagery modulates affective priming

Mood congruity and affective priming have been used to study the effects of affective phenomena on perception. Manipulation of mood is appropriate for investigations of long-term effects while affective priming is limited to short intervals (approximately 300ms) between a prime and target. However, studying the influence of real-world rapidly changing emotional episodes on perception may fall between the cracks of these methods. This may be caused, inter alia, because emotional episodes are distinguished from mood experiences on one hand, but often last for longer than roughly 300ms on the other. Thus, it is unclear what experimental approach should be taken to investigate congruency effects triggered by emotional episodes. The present study used a new variation of the evaluation decision task (EDT) combined with a script-driven imagery procedure to investigate a possible congruency relationship between the evaluator's emotional experience at a given time and observable emotional markers of others. We used 180 9-word script-driven imageries as varying valence primes (negative, positive, neutral) and asked participants to imagine themselves in the situation described in the scripts. At the last stage of a trial, all participants were asked to evaluate the mood-positive or negative-of a target face of a child in a photograph. We manipulated the reading interval (4000ms and 1350ms) and the subsequent blank interval (300ms, 5000ms, and unlimited) until target onset. Prime and target valence were congruent or incongruent. Significant congruency effects were found for both short and long reading intervals and blank intervals. However, in longer blank intervals only the interference effect reached significance. Furthermore, the interference effect was found to be significant mainly in trials beginning with a negative script.

Mental Imagery as an Emotional Amplifier in Bipolar Disorder

Vivid, emotional future-oriented mental imagery (future simulation) contributes to bipolar mood instability. Targeting such imagery may improve mood instability. We investigated neural correlates of heightened perceptual and emotional negative future imagery in individuals with a bipolar disorder spectrum (BPDS), and an experimental manipulation of such imagery during fMRI.

Manipulation ability of internal representation in patients with euthymic bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia using a mental rotation task.

A growing body of literature has suggested that effective emotion regulation is influenced by cognitive function. Maintenance and manipulation of internal representations occur in working memory (WM), and impairments of WM have been reported in patients with bipolar disorder. We examined the manipulation ability of internal representations in WM using mental rotation (MR) tasks, and compared the task performances of euthymic bipolar I disorder patients to those of schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. In this study, 20 euthymic bipolar I disorder patients, 20 schizophrenia patients, and 38 healthy controls were recruited. People and letter MR tasks were employed to evaluate the ability of WM manipulation. Compared to healthy controls, euthymic bipolar I disorder patients showed substantially higher error rates of people MR task and slower responses in both people and letter MR tasks. Schizophrenia patients showed no difference in error rate and response time in MR tasks compared to healthy controls; however, they showed significantly slower responses in people MR task compared to controls. MR task performance was not different between euthymic bipolar and schizophrenia patients. Our study results indicate that manipulation of internal representation, especially in the egocentric MR, is impaired in bipolar disorder even in the emotionally-stable state. We speculate that impaired imagery manipulation might be related to alterations in empathic ability, susceptibility of mental imagery, and emotion regulation strategies observed in bipolar disorder.

Emotional Mental Imagery Abnormalities in Monozygotic Twins With, at High-Risk of, and Without Affective Disorders: Present in Affected Twins in Remission but Absent in High-Risk Twins.

Background: Mental imagery abnormalities feature across affective disorders including bipolar disorder (BD) and unipolar depression (UD). Maladaptive emotional imagery has been proposed as a maintenance factor for affective symptomatology and a target for mechanism-driven psychological treatment developments. Where imagery abnormalities feature beyond acute affective episodes, further opportunities for innovation arise beyond treatments, such as for tertiary/relapse prevention (e.g., in remitted individuals) or primary prevention (e.g., in non-affected but at-risk individuals). The aim of our study was to investigate for the first time the presence of possible mental imagery abnormalities in affected individuals in remission and at-risk individuals for affective disorders using a familial risk design. Methods: A population-based cohort of monozygotic twins was recruited through linkage between the Danish national registries (N=204). Participants were grouped as: affected (remitted BD/UD; n = 115); high-risk (co-twin with history of BD/UD; n = 49), or low-risk (no co-twin history of BD/UD; n = 40). Twins completed mental imagery measures spanning key subjective domains (spontaneous imagery use and emotional imagery) and cognitive domains (imagery inspection and imagery manipulation). Results: Affected twins in remission reported enhanced emotional mental imagery compared to both low- and high-risk twins. This was characterized by greater impact of i) intrusive prospective imagery (Impact of Future Events Scale) and ii) deliberately-generated prospective imagery of negative scenarios (Prospective Imagery Task). There were no significant differences in these key measures between affected BD and UD twins in remission. Additionally, low- and high-risk twins did not significantly differ on these emotional imagery measures. There were also no significant differences between the three groups on non-emotional measures including spontaneous imagery use and cognitive stages of imagery. Conclusions: Abnormalities in emotional prospective imagery are present in monozygotic twins with affective disorders in remission—despite preserved cognitive stages of imagery—but absent in unaffected high-risk twins, and thus do not appear to index familial risk (i.e., unlikely to qualify as “endophenotypes”). Elevated emotional prospective imagery represents a promising treatment/prevention target in affective disorders.

The Rise of Autobiographical Medical Poetry and the Medical Humanities. Johanna Emeney. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2018. Pp. 263.

<i>The Rise of Autobiographical Medical Poetry and the Medical Humanities</i>. Johanna Emeney. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2018. Pp. 263.

Why successful performance in imagery tasks does not require the manipulation of mental imagery

Why successful performance in imagery tasks does not require the manipulation of mental imagery

The neural correlates of ideation in product design engineering practitioners

In product design engineering (PDE), ideation involves the generation of technical behaviours and physical structures to address specific functional requirements. This differs from generic creative ideation tasks, which emphasise functional and technical considerations less. To advance knowledge about the neural basis of PDE ideation, we present the first fMRI study on professional product design engineers practising in industry. We aimed to explore brain activation during ideation, and compare activation in open-ended and constrained tasks. Imagery manipulation tasks were contrasted with ideation tasks in a sample of 29 PDE professionals. The key findings were: (1) PDE ideation is associated with greater activity in left cingulate gyrus; (2) there were no significant differences between open-ended and constrained tasks; and (3) a preliminary association with activity in the right superior temporal gyrus was also observed. The results are consistent with existing fMRI work on generic creative ideation, suggesting that PDE ideation may share a number of similarities at the neural level. Future work includes: functional connectivity analysis of open-ended and constrained ideation to further investigate potential differences; investigating the effects of aspects of design expertise/training on processing; and the use of novelty measures directly linked to the designer’s internal processing in fMRI analysis.

Palaeo-Channel Bisecting Puri Town, Odisha:Vestige of the Lost River ‘Saradha’?

Puri, an ancient town located on the Odisha (Orissa) coast in eastern India, is associated with the 12th century CE Jagannath Temple. Many ancient and historical texts mention a mythical river named Saradha that flowed across the present Grand Road ( Badadanda ) between the Jagannath and Gundicha temples in Puri, dividing the town into two parts. This study traces the trail of a palaeo-channel beyond and within the heart of Puri town through an integrated study of geology, satellite imagery and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey. Various satellite imagery manipulation techniques – band combination, NDVI, MNDWI, linear spectral unmixing algorithm, density slice and spatial profiling – indicate the existence of water components along with vegetation bands, and the presence of a sinusoidal palaeo-channel trace with a V-shaped topographic outline. This is interpreted to represent the remnants of an extinct river valley. GPR survey also suggests that a subsurface river valley, about 128 m wide, existed across parts of the Grand Road. A large, sinusoidal water body near the sea beach at Puri, may represent the last remains of the dried-up channel. Integration of all these features suggests that a river once existed between Jagannath and Gundicha temples in Puri town. The constructed palaeo-channel trail may be that of the lost Saradha river described in ancient texts. The study develops a sequential methodology for identifying palaeo-channels even in urbanized localities like Puri.

Barbara Hammer’s History Lessons as a documentary utopia

This article is devoted to the third part of Barbara Hammer’s documentary trilogy, History Lessons. The author analyzes and interprets the form and message of this post-queer essay, with the aim of describing its formula in relation to the mockumentary and found-footage film conventions. She goes back to the pioneer of found footage in the history of world cinema, Esfir Shub, and the position of women in production culture. She refers to Hammer’s debut film, Dyketactics (1974), to describe Hammer’s artistic and political tactic, consisting of intercepting images of women, rooted in visual history, and the subversive quotation of these images against the idea and context of the original. Dyketactics in History Lessons is about quoting archival materials from the genres of documentary, popular science and pornography with the aim of writing the history of the lives of lesbians in the US from the period before the Stonewall riots, where there is very little coverage of the story. The falsifying of archival materials through the editing manipulation of imagery and sound paradoxically uncovers not so much the truth about the lives of lesbians, as what seems to be hidden in images created with a completely different aim than telling the herstory of American women of various orientations and races.

Solon and the Rhetoric of Stasis

This article considers how Solon recasts the traditional imagery of warfare and violence in order to bolster his persona as a “reconciler” (cf. Ath. Pol. 5.1–2) and peacemaker. Beginning with the fragments of his Salamis, I examine Solon’s skilled use of persona and emotion, building on the elegiac tradition of martial exhortation. Turning to fr. 4, I trace one of its most striking features, namely, the way it applies the language of epic warfare to stasis, and so suggests that the dichotomies of war versus peace, and enemy versus self, do not work in contemporary Athens. The manipulation of epic language and war imagery to support Solon’s role as reconciler is equally evident in fr. 5, and communicates Solon’s role as an outstanding and impartial protector, whose achievement has been to save the Athenians from unjust (i.e., internal) violence. In fr. 36, one of the most fascinating surviving examples of the political use of iambus in the archaic period, Solon foregrounds the damage to Athenian society caused by greed, debt, and enslavement for it and presents his unbiased reforms as having prevented civil war. By adapting epic imagery, Solon emphasizes his unfair treatment as an outsider, as he, the saviour of his community, is cast in the role of an antisocial animal. Finally, in fr. 37, Solon’s imagery is geared to arguing that the current conflict is best resolved not by violence but by peaceful agreement, a symbol of reconciliation embodied in Solon himself. Throughout my discussion, I focus on how Solon uses two strategies in particular to communicate the importance of his role: the first is the way he applies military language and metaphors to political situations and relationships in order to highlight the evils of stasis; the second is the way he recasts traditional imagery of warfare and violence to highlight his efforts, and his success, as a “reconciler” (διαλλακτής) of the warring parties.