Measures Of Emotional Reactivity Research Articles

A cross-modal component of alexithymia and its relationship with performance in a social cognition task battery

BackgroundThe personality trait alexithymia describes an altered emotional awareness that is associated with a range of social impairments and constitutes a transdiagnostic risk factor for various psychopathologies. Despite the characteristic interoceptive deficits in alexithymia, it is predominantly assessed via self-reports. This can result in unreliable measurements and arguably contributes to the prevailing uncertainty regarding its components, including constricted imaginal processes and emotional reactivity. MethodsThe current study employed an interview and two validated questionnaires to derive a shared component of multi-modally assessed alexithymia in a German non-clinical sample (n = 78) via prinicipal component analysis. This component was used as a predictor for performance in four behavioural social cognition tasks. The relative importance of this predictor against related variables was assessed via dominance analysis. ResultsThe identified component reflected cognitive alexithymia. Higher cognitive alexithymia scores were associated with less affective distress in an ostracizing task. Dominance analysis revealed the dominance of competing autism traits relative to cognitive alexithymia and competing predictors empathy, depression, and anxiety, in predicting affective distress. LimitationsEmotional reactivity was only assessed via self-report and no implicit measures of alexithymia were employed. Due to the low reliability of the self-report measure, no measure of emotional reactivity could be included in the principal component analysis. ConclusionsOur results provide compelling evidence that cognitive interoceptive deficits are at the core of alexithymia across assessment modalities. Behavioural data suggest that these deficits result in diminished emotional sensitivity to high-pressure social situations, which may cause a lack of behavioural adaptation.

Links between television exposure and toddler dysregulation: Does culture matter?

Television exposure in early childhood has increased, with concerns raised regarding adverse effects on social-emotional development, and emerging self-regulation in particular. The present study addressed television exposure (i.e., amount of time watching TV) and its associations with toddler behavioral/emotional dysregulation, examining potential differences across 14 cultures. The sample consisted of an average of 60 toddlers from each of the 14 countries from the Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium (JETTC; Gartstein & Putnam, 2018). Analyses were conducted relying on the multi-level modeling framework (MLM), accounting for between- and within-culture variability, and examining the extent to which TV exposure contributions were universal vs. variable across sites. Effects of time watching TV were evaluated in relation to temperament reactivity and regulation, as well as measures of emotional reactivity, attention difficulties, and aggression. Results indicated that more time spent watching TV was associated with higher ratings on Negative Emotionality, emotional reactivity, aggression, and attention problems, as well as lower levels of soothability. However, links between TV exposure and both attention problems and soothability varied significantly between cultures. Taken together, results demonstrate that increased time spent watching television was generally associated with dysregulation, although effects were not consistently uniform, but rather varied as a function of culturally-dependent contextual factors.

Reduced Emotional Reactivity in Breast Cancer Survivors with Chronic Neuropathic Pain Following Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): an fMRI Pilot Investigation

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program on emotional reactivity among a sample of breast cancer survivors with chronic neuropathic pain (CNP). Twenty-one women were randomly assigned to a MBSR treatment group (n = 11) or a waitlist control group (n = 10) following medical review. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants were imaged before and after the MBSR program while completing the emotional Stroop task as a measure of emotional reactivity. The treatment group showed significantly less blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) activity post-MBSR across several brain regions involved in pain processing and visual attention. This included regions in the left somatosensory cortex, left precuneus, and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Although emotional reactivity was the primary outcome, pain severity and interference from the Brief Pain Inventory were also assessed at both time points. Pain interference was significantly reduced following MBSR for the intervention group only. These preliminary findings show that MBSR training has a marked impact on neural correlates of pain processing and attention, lending support to MBSR as a viable adjunctive treatment option for breast cancer survivors living with CNP. However, further research, with a larger sample size, is warranted.

Somatic symptoms in children who have a parent with cancer: A systematic review.

This systematic review explored the occurrence and types of somatic symptoms in children (0-20years) who have experienced parental cancer. We complemented a systematic literature search from PubMed and PsycInfo with a reference search. We identified 1,694 articles, which were independently screened by two authors; they further evaluated potentially relevant papers for quality and extracted the data. We found nine relevant studies (10 publications) on altogether 672 children with a parent who had cancer; four studies included a control group. The studies typically focused on children's psychosocial reactions on parental cancer rather than somatic complaints, so symptom prevalence cannot be reliably summarized. Several studies were small, and the types of somatic symptoms were only specified in five studies. Somatic symptoms were reported as a measure of emotional reactions in the remaining four studies. Three studies provided longitudinal data. The main types of specific symptoms reported were eating problems, pain, sleeping troubles, and bed-wetting. Children of cancer patients tended to show an increase of unspecified somatic symptoms and pain, but evidence was inconsistent. There was a tendency that somatic complaints were associated with increased emotional distress in the children. The material did not allow for separate analysis by age group or bereavement status. Children in families with parental cancer may present with somatic complaints, but the prevalence and significance is not possible to estimate due to very sparse research in this area. Health professionals or counselling providers should not overlook this possible sign of distress. Qualitative studies report significant health anxiety in these children; this may represent a specific topic for counselling in this population. Targeted studies are needed to evaluate the prevalence and significance of somatic symptoms, and especially vulnerable groups need to be identified.

Couples in Love

Counselors may be unaware of the physiological underpinnings of couple relationships. Understanding emotions as physiological responses resulting from autonomic arousal, we measured couples’ heart rate across a series of typical conversations. Forty-nine heterosexual and one lesbian couple completed measures of emotional reactivity and dyadic adjustment. We used pulse oximetry to record individual heart rate through three 5-min conversations. Using multilevel dyadic growth models, we found emotional arousal and reactivity-predicted heart rate among women, and greater relationship length predicted heart rate among men. We additionally found couples synchronous with respect to relationship satisfaction and emotional reactivity but not to physiological responsivity. This study contributes to counselors’ understanding of women’s physiological reactivity, male responses in longer relationships, and how to support couples when there is potential for relationship conflict.

The influence of a probiotic supplementation on memory in quail suggests a role of gut microbiota on cognitive abilities in birds

The gut microbiota is involved in host behaviour and memory in mammals. Consequently, it may also influence emotional behaviour and memory in birds.Quail from two genetic lines with different fearfulness (LTI: long tonic immobility, n=37; STI: short tonic immobility, n=32) were either or not supplemented with a probiotic (Pediococcus acidilactici) from hatching. Emotional reactivity was measured in a tonic immobility test (d6 and 7 of age) and two open-field tests (d13–15; d22–24). Memory was measured in a test rewarded with mealworms, where quail had to remember the cups previously visited (d34–36). Quail endured a 5-days stress period from days 17 to 21 to help revealing the potentially beneficial effect of the probiotic.As expected, STI quail were less fearful compared to the LTI quail (p<0.05). Probiotic supplementation had no effect on most measures of emotional reactivity (p>0.05), except in the tonic immobility test where supplemented STI quail had lower immobility duration (p=0.0001). Regarding the memory test, the two lines had similar performances. Quail fed with probiotics made fewer errors (p=0.040). There was no significant correlation between traits of emotional reactivity and of memory.In conclusion, the supplementation with Pediococcus acidilactici as a probiotic, affected a specific trait of emotional reactivity in STI quail, and improved memory in both lines, whichstrengthens the idea that the influence of gut microbiota on the host behaviour and memory seen in mammals is shared by birds.

Emotion regulation to idiographic stimuli: Testing the Autobiographical Emotion Regulation Task

Mounting evidence suggests that the ability to regulate emotion is crucial for psychological well-being. However, one important limitation of prior emotion regulation studies is that they rely on standardized stimuli low in personal relevance. To address this limitation, the current study employed a novel event-related potential (ERP) paradigm designed to investigate the late positive potential (LPP) as a measure of emotional reactivity and regulation to idiographic stimuli in 49 young adults. The Autobiographical Emotion Regulation Task (AERT) is a word-viewing task in which participants identify neutral and emotionally-charged autobiographical memories and generate keywords unique to each memory. First, participants are instructed to simply view the keywords. Then, participants are presented with keywords from negative memories and are either instructed to react normally (react condition), or to use cognitive reappraisal to decrease negative emotion (reappraise condition). Results indicate that the LPP was potentiated when initially viewing keywords for negative compared to neutral memories. Furthermore, the LPP was reduced during reappraise compared to react trials, demonstrating successful down-regulation of neural activity to negative idiographic stimuli. These findings suggest that the AERT is a feasible and effective probe of emotion regulation to idiographic stimuli.

Prediction and perception: Defensive startle modulation.

Previous research indicates that predictive cues can dampen subsequent defensive reactions. The present study investigated whether effects of cuing are specific to aversive stimuli, using modulation of the blink startle reflex as a measure of emotional reactivity. Participants viewed pictures depicting violence, romance/erotica, or mundane content. On half of all trials, a cue (color) predicted the content of the upcoming picture; on the remaining trials, scenes were presented without a cue. Acoustic startle probes were presented during picture viewing on trials with predictive cues and trials without a cue. Replicating previous studies, blink reflexes elicited when viewing violent pictures that had not been preceded by a cue were potentiated compared to uncued mundane scenes, and reflexes were attenuated when viewing scenes of erotica/romance that had not been cued. On the other hand, reflex potentiation when viewing scenes of violence (relative to mundane scenes) was eliminated when these pictures were preceded by a predictive cue, whereas scenes of romance prompted reliable reflex attenuation regardless of whether pictures were cued or not. Taken together, the data suggest that cuing elicits an anticipatory coping process that is specific to aversive stimuli.

Emotional reactivity and regulation associated with fluent and stuttered utterances of preschool-age children who stutter

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to assess the relation between emotional reactivity and regulation associated with fluent and stuttered utterances of preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) and those who do not (CWNS). ParticipantsParticipants were eight 3 to 6-year old CWS and eight CWNS of comparable age and gender. MethodsParticipants were exposed to three emotion-inducing overheard conversations—neutral, angry and happy—and produced a narrative following each overheard conversation. From audio-video recordings of these narratives, coded behavioral analysis of participants’ negative and positive affect and emotion regulation associated with stuttered and fluent utterances was conducted. ResultsResults indicated that CWS were significantly more likely to exhibit emotion regulation attempts prior to and during their fluent utterances following the happy as compared to the negative condition, whereas CWNS displayed the opposite pattern. Within-group assessment indicated that CWS were significantly more likely to display negative emotion prior to and during their stuttered than fluent utterances, particularly following the positive overheard conversation. ConclusionsAfter exposure to emotional-inducing overheard conversations, changes in preschool-age CWS's emotion and emotion regulatory attempts were associated with the fluency of their utterances.Learning outcomes: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) describe various measures of emotional reactivity and regulation, including parent-based reports and behavioral coding, and how they may contribute to childhood stuttering; (2) explain emotional differences between the stuttered and fluent utterances of CWS and CWNS; and (3) discuss how emotions may contribute to CWS’ instances of stuttering.

Affect intensity measure in bipolar disorders: A multidimensional approach

BackgroundEmotional dysregulation, characterized by high levels of both arousal and intensity of emotional responses, is a core feature of bipolar disorders (BDs). In non-clinical populations, the 40-item Affect Intensity Measure (AIM) can be used to assess the different dimensions of emotional reactivity. MethodsWe analyzed the factor structure of the AIM in a sample of 310 euthymic patients with BD using Principal Component Analysis and examined associations between AIM sub-scale scores and demographic and illness characteristics. ResultsThe French translation of the AIM demonstrated good reliability. A four-factor solution similar to that reported in non-clinical samples (Positive Affectivity, Unpeacefulness [lack of Serenity], Negative Reactivity, Negative Intensity), explained 47% of the total variance. Age and gender were associated with Unpeacefulness and Negative reactivity respectively. ‘Unpeacefulness’ was also positively associated with psychotic symptoms at onset (p=0.0006), but negatively associated with co-morbid substance misuse (p=0.008). Negative Intensity was positively associated with social phobia (p=0.0005). LimitationsWe cannot definitively exclude a lack of statistical power to classify all AIM items. Euthymia was carefully defined, but a degree of ‘contamination’ of the self-reported levels of emotion reactivity may occur because of subsyndromal BD symptoms. It was not feasible to control for the possible impact of on-going treatments. ConclusionsThe AIM scale appears to be a useful measure of emotional reactivity and intensity in a clinical sample of patients with BD, suggesting it can be used in addition to other markers of BD characteristics and sub-types.

Valence Weighting as a Predictor of Emotional Reactivity to a Stressful Situation

Individuals who have a more adverse reaction to stressful situations are at heightened risk for developing emotional disorders. The current studies aimed to demonstrate that valence biases in attitude generalization relate to individuals' emotional reactivity following a stressful task. Participants played a computer game in which they had to learn whether previously unknown stimuli (i.e., beans) produced positive or negative outcomes. They then had to classify novel stimuli, which varied in resemblance to those employed in the game, as either positive or negative. Attitude generalization, i.e., the extent to which participants weight resemblance to a positive versus negative, is critical to the classification of these novel stimuli, which provided the basis for indexing valence weighting. Participants then completed a stressful anagram task, in which they had three minutes to solve as many anagrams as possible. Half the anagrams were difficult, and half were insoluble, thus creating a failure experience. Mood was assessed before and after the task as a measure of emotional reactivity. In two studies, we observed that for participants initially in a good mood, the extent to which negative attitudes generalized more extensively than positive attitudes was predictive of greater emotional reactivity to the stressful anagram task.

The Role of Emotional Reactivity, Self‐regulation, and Puberty in Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors

This study was designed to examine the roles of emotional reactivity, self-regulation, and pubertal timing in prosocial behaviors during adolescence. Participants were 850 sixth graders (50% female, Mean age = 11.03, SD = .17) who were followed up at age 15. In hierarchical regression models, measures of emotional reactivity, self-regulation, pubertal timing and their interactions were used to predict (concurrently and over time) adolescents' prosocial behaviors in the home and with peers. Overall, the findings provide evidence for pubertal and temperament based predictors of prosocial behaviors expressed in different contexts. Self-regulation was positively related to both forms of prosocial behavior, concurrently and longitudinally. Emotional reactivity showed moderately consistent effects, showing negative concurrent relations to prosocial behavior with peers and negative longitudinal relations (four years later) to prosocial behavior at home. Some curvilinear effects of temperament on prosocial behaviors were also found. Effects of pubertal timing were found to interact with gender, such that boys who were early maturers showed the highest levels of prosocial behavior at home concurrently. Discussion focuses on the role of temperament-based mechanisms in the expression of prosocial behaviors in different contexts in adolescence.

Emotional Responses to Information and Warning Sounds

Two studies examined emotional reactions to warning and information sounds. Study 1 showed that warning sounds designed to convey four levels of warning could be differentiated with self-report measures of emotional reactions. Study 2 validated this finding with physiological measures of emotion. Results are discussed in relation to creation of warning and information sounds and methods for assessing the effectiveness of such sounds.

The anger–distress model of temper tantrums: associations with emotional reactivity and emotional competence

AbstractThe goals of this investigation were (a) to assess the structural validity of the anger–distress model of temper tantrums, and (b) to examine the associations among temper tantrums, emotional reactivity and emotional competence in a community sample of preschoolers. A parent‐report measure, the Temper Tantrum Grid, was used to measure the frequency of common tantrum behaviours. Laboratory and parent‐report measures of emotional reactivity and emotional competence were administered. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the proposal that anger and distress are separate but overlapping tantrum processes. Correlation analyses showed that temper tantrum anger and distress were related to emotional reactivity and emotional competence. There was no evidence to support the notion that emotional competence moderated the effect of emotional reactivity on temper tantrums. In contrast, emotional competence was a significant mediator of the association between emotional reactivity and temper tantrums. Overall, the results support the anger–distress model of temper tantrums. The findings suggest that children's temper tantrums are systematically related to the overall organization of emotion and behaviour in preschool children. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Emotion Regulation and the Anxiety Disorders: An Integrative Review.

The construct of emotion regulation has been increasingly investigated in the last decade, and this work has important implications for advancing anxiety disorder theory. This paper reviews research demonstrating that: 1) emotion (i.e., fear and anxiety) and emotion regulation are distinct, non-redundant, constructs that can be differentiated at the conceptual, behavioral, and neural levels of analysis; 2) emotion regulation can augment or diminish fear, depending on the emotion regulation strategy employed; and 3) measures of emotion regulation explain incremental variance in anxiety disorder symptoms above and beyond the variance explained by measures of emotional reactivity. The authors propose a model by which emotion regulation may function in the etiology of anxiety disorders. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Deficient NRG1-ERBB signaling alters social approach: relevance to genetic mouse models of schizophrenia

Growth factor Neuregulin 1 (NRG1) plays an essential role in development and organization of the cerebral cortex. NRG1 and its receptors, ERBB3 and ERBB4, have been implicated in genetic susceptibility for schizophrenia. Disease symptoms include asociality and altered social interaction. To investigate the role of NRG1-ERBB signaling in social behavior, mice heterozygous for an Nrg1 null allele (Nrg1+/−), and mice with conditional ablation of Erbb3 or Erbb4 in the central nervous system, were evaluated for sociability and social novelty preference in a three-chambered choice task. Results showed that deficiencies in NRG1 or ERBB3 significantly enhanced sociability. All of the mutant groups demonstrated a lack of social novelty preference, in contrast to their respective wild-type controls. Effects of NRG1, ERBB3, or ERBB4 deficiency on social behavior could not be attributed to general changes in anxiety-like behavior, activity, or loss of olfactory ability. Nrg1+/− pups did not exhibit changes in isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations, a measure of emotional reactivity. Overall, these findings provide evidence that social behavior is mediated by NRG1-ERBB signaling.

The effect of personality dimensions on subjective and objective measures of emotional reactivity

The effect of personality dimensions on subjective and objective measures of emotional reactivity

An interpretation of experimental conformity through physiological measures

However co-operative the subject, and however ingenious the experimenter, the difficulty of obtaining exact measures of emotional reactions remains one of the most trying problems in experimental psychology. This paper reports on the use of physiological measures in a standard psychological experiment as one way out of the difficulty.

Role of the amygdala in decisions under ambiguity and decisions under risk: Evidence from patients with Urbach-Wiethe disease

Various neuropsychological studies have shown that decision-making deficits can occur in a wide range of patients with brain damage or dysfunctions. Decisions under ambiguity, as measured with the Iowa Gambling Task, primarily depend on the integrity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, as well as on further brain regions such as the somatosensory cortex. However, little is known about the specific role of these structures in decisions under risk measured with tasks that offer explicit rules for gains and losses and winning probabilities, for example, the Game of Dice Task. We aimed to investigate the potential role of the amygdala for decisions under risk. For this purpose, we examined three patients with Urbach-Wiethe disease—a rare syndrome associated with selective bilateral mineralisation of the amygdalae. Neuropsychological performance was assessed with the Iowa Gambling Task (decisions under ambiguity), the Game of Dice Task (decisions under risk), and an extensive neuropsychological test battery focussing on executive functions. Furthermore, previous studies found relationships between generating skin conductance responses and deciding advantageously in the Iowa Gambling Task. Accordingly, we recorded skin conductance responses during both decision tasks as a measure of emotional reactivity. Results indicate that patients with selective amygdala damage have lower scores in both decisions under ambiguity and decisions under risk. Decisions under risk are especially compromised in patients who also demonstrate deficits in executive functioning. In both gambling tasks, patients showed reduced skin conductance responses compared to healthy comparison subjects. The results suggest that deciding advantageously under risk conditions involves both the use of feedback from previous trials, as required by decisions under ambiguity, and in addition, executive functions.

Ingestional responses to metabolic challenges in rats selectively bred for high and low saccharin intake

Rats selectively bred on the basis of saccharin intake also differ on some measures of emotional reactivity. The present studies were designed to contribute to our understanding of this association. Rats selectively bred for relatively high (HiS) versus low (LoS) saccharin intake were tested in two paradigms useful in assessing the ability to respond adaptively to internal perturbations of metabolic regulation or to external events that may produce metabolic challenges. The first study concerned slow-onset (regular insulin) and rapid-onset (2-deoxy- d-glucose [2-DG], fast-acting insulin) glucoprivation and resultant feeding behavior. LoS and HiS lines did not differ in response to saline or slow-onset challenges, but LoS rats ate less in the first half hour after rapid-onset challenges; the line differences were eliminated by pretreatment with caffeine. The second study revealed significantly higher plasma corticosterone (CORT) among LoS rats relative to HiS rats, both in the light and in the dark. Preliminary assessments after a single stressor and a single dose of dexamethasone showed, respectively, CORT elevation and suppression that was comparable in the two lines. These results add further support to the ideas that voluntary consumption of saccharin is related to the expression of classically defined emotional behaviors, and that responsiveness to diverse metabolic challenges may share a common basis, such as genetic pleiotropism.