Measures Of Arousal Research Articles

Neurocognitive and behavioral development in young children (1-7 years) with sex chromosome trisomy.

Investigating sex chromosome trisomies (SCTs) may help in understanding neurodevelopmental pathways underlying the risk for neurobehavioral problems and psychopathology. Knowledge about the neurobehavioral phenotype is needed to improve clinical care and early intervention for children with SCT. This is especially relevant considering the increasing number of early diagnosed children with the recent introduction of noninvasive prenatal screening. The TRIXY Early Childhood Study is a longitudinal study designed to identify early neurodevelopmental risks in children with SCT, aged 1-7 years. This review summarizes the results from the TRIXY Early Childhood Study, focusing on early behavioral symptoms in areas of autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and communication disorders, and underlying neurocognitive mechanisms in domains of language, emotion regulation, executive functioning, and social cognition. Behavioral symptoms were assessed through structured behavior observation and parental questionnaires. Neurocognition was measured using performance tests, eyetracking, and psychophysiological measures of arousal. In total, 209 children aged 1-7 years were included: 107 children with SCT (33 XXX, 50 XXY, and 24 XYY) and 102 age-matched population controls. Study outcomes showed early behavioral symptoms in young children with SCT, and neurocognitive vulnerabilities, already from an early age onward. Neurobehavioral and neurocognitive difficulties tended to become more pronounced with increasing age and were rather robust, independent of specific karyotype, pre/postnatal diagnosis, or ascertainment strategy. A more longitudinal perspective on neurodevelopmental 'at-risk' pathways is warranted, also including studies assessing the effectiveness of targeted early interventions. Neurocognitive markers that signal differences in neurodevelopment may prove to be helpful in this. Focusing on early development of language, social cognition, emotion regulation, and executive functioning may help in uncovering early essential mechanisms of (later) neurobehavioral outcome, allowing for more targeted support and early intervention.

On the relationship between EEG spectral analysis and pre-sleep cognitive arousal in insomnia disorder: towards an integrated model of cognitive and cortical arousal.

According to the hyperarousal model, insomnia is characterised by increased arousal in the cortical, cognitive, and physiological domains. However, the interaction between these arousal domains is poorly understood. The present observational case-control study aimed to investigate cortical arousal during the night, pre-sleep cognitive arousal and the relationship between these two domains. A total of 109 patients with insomnia disorder (ID) and 109 age-and gender matched healthy controls were investigated on two sleep laboratory nights. Electroencephalographic (EEG) spectral power during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep was analysed as a measure of cortical arousal. In addition, patients completed the Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS), which consists of two subscales, one for cognitive arousal (PSAS-CA) and one for self-reported somatic arousal (PSAS-SA). The relationship between the subscale scores and EEG spectral power was calculated by multi- and univariate analyses of variance. During NREM and REM sleep, patients with ID showed significantly increased spectral power in the EEG gamma band. In addition, patients with ID showed significantly increased scores on both subscales of the PSAS. The PSAS-CA score was significantly associated with increased NREM and REM gamma power, whereas PSAS-SA was associated with decreases in NREM and REM gamma power. Consistent with our hypothesis, patients with ID showed increased cortical and cognitive arousal. Moreover, there was an association between these two arousal domains, which may indicate that cortical arousal during the night is (at least in part) elicited by pre-sleep worry and rumination.

Is REM Density a Measure of Arousal during Sleep?

Rapid eye movements (REMs), an expression of REM sleep phasic activity, occur against a stable background of cortical desynchronization and the absence of axial tone. The significance of REMs during the sleep period was initially attributed to the mental content of dreams, linking the REMs to the dream scenario. Although fascinating, the so-called "scanning hypothesis" has not been supported by consistent evidence, and thus an alternative hypothesis is necessary to understand REMs significance during sleep. Some data suggest that the frequency of REMs during the REM sleep period, known as REM density, might be related to sleep depth or arousal during sleep. REM density increases across the night concomitantly with the progressive reduction in sleep pressure, and consistently it is higher at the circadian time when arousal appears to be higher, and it is decreased in those conditions, such as after sleep deprivation, which produce increased sleep pressure. REM density is also increased in major affective disorders, and it has been suggested either as a risk factor to develop the illness or as a predictive index of response to drug treatment. Disfunction of the neurotransmitter systems involved in arousal mechanisms and wake/sleep control might underlie the altered REM density described in depression. Understanding of the REM density mechanisms could help to untangle functional significance and regulation of REM sleep. Following the seminal idea of Aserinsky that REM density is an index of sleep satiety, it may also provide a sensitive measure of sleep homeostasis in addition to, or even as an alternative to, the consolidated analysis of slow wave activity. REM density can also be utilized to explore those mechanisms which end sleep, and considered a physiological marker which indicate during sleep the "time to wake".

Effects of Kisspeptin on Sexual Brain Processing and Penile Tumescence in Men With Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder

The human physiological sexual response is crucial for reward, satisfaction, and reproduction. Disruption of the associated neurophysiological pathways predisposes to low sexual desire; the most prevalent psychological form is hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), which affects 8% of men but currently has no effective pharmacological treatment options. The reproductive neuropeptide kisspeptin offers a putative therapeutic target, owing to emerging understanding of its role in reproductive behavior. To determine the physiological, behavioral, neural, and hormonal effects of kisspeptin administration in men with HSDD. This double-blind, 2-way crossover, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial was performed at a single academic research center in the UK. Eligible participants were right-handed heterosexual men with HSDD. Physiological, behavioral, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and hormonal analyses were used to investigate the clinical and mechanistic effects of kisspeptin administration in response to visual sexual stimuli (short and long video tasks). The trial was conducted between January 11 and September 15, 2021, and data analysis was performed between October and November 2021. Participants attended 2 study visits at least 7 days apart, in balanced random order, for intravenous infusion of kisspeptin-54 (1 nmol/kg/h) for 75 minutes or for administration of a rate-matched placebo. Changes in (1) brain activity on whole-brain analysis, as determined by fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent activity in response to visual sexual stimuli during kisspeptin administration compared with placebo, (2) physiological sexual arousal (penile tumescence), and (3) behavioral measures of sexual desire and arousal. Of the 37 men randomized, 32 completed the trial. Participants had a mean (SD) age of 37.9 (8.6) years and a mean (SD) body mass index of 24.9 (5.4). On viewing sexual videos, kisspeptin significantly modulated brain activity in key structures of the sexual-processing network on whole-brain analysis compared with placebo (mean absolute change [Cohen d] = 0.81 [95% CI, 0.41-1.21]; P = .003). Furthermore, improvements in several secondary analyses were observed, including significant increases in penile tumescence in response to sexual stimuli (by up to 56% more than placebo; mean difference = 0.28 units [95% CI, 0.04-0.52 units]; P = .02) and behavioral measures of sexual desire-most notably, increased happiness about sex (mean difference = 0.63 points [95% CI, 0.10-1.15 points]; P = .02). Collectively, this randomized clinical trial provides the first evidence to date showing that kisspeptin administration substantially modulates sexual brain processing in men with HSDD, with associated increases in penile tumescence and behavioral measures of sexual desire and arousal. These data suggest that kisspeptin has potential as the first pharmacological treatment for men with low sexual desire. isrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN17271094.

Sympathetic Arousal Detection in Horses Using Electrodermal Activity.

The continuous monitoring of stress, pain, and discomfort is key to providing a good quality of life for horses. The available tools based on observation are subjective and do not allow continuous monitoring. Given the link between emotions and sympathetic autonomic arousal, heart rate and heart rate variability are widely used for the non-invasive assessment of stress and pain in humans and horses. However, recent advances in pain and stress monitoring are increasingly using electrodermal activity (EDA), as it is a more sensitive and specific measure of sympathetic arousal than heart rate variability. In this study, for the first time, we have collected EDA signals from horses and tested the feasibility of the technique for the assessment of sympathetic arousal. Fifteen horses (six geldings, nine mares, aged 13.11 ± 5.4 years) underwent a long-lasting stimulus (Feeding test) and a short-lasting stimulus (umbrella Startle test) to elicit sympathetic arousal. The protocol was approved by the University of Connecticut. We found that EDA was sensitive to both stimuli. Our results show that EDA can capture sympathetic activation in horses and is a promising tool for non-invasive continuous monitoring of stress, pain, and discomfort in horses.

Session quality and impact in psychotherapy with American Indian clients.

The quality and impact of psychotherapy sessions are primary concerns in service delivery. However, no published investigations of quality or impact of psychotherapy sessions with American Indian (AI) patients could be found in the scientific literature. We sought to demonstrate that collecting such data is feasible as well as to inform the development of evidence-based practices and cultural adaptations. To this end, we asked psychotherapists treating AIs in outpatient psychotherapy within an urban community clinic to rate the quality and impact of sessions delivered to their clients. Eight psychotherapists self-reported session quality and impact with the Session Evaluation Questionnaire, Form 5 (SEQ-5; Stiles, 1980, 1984) immediately following service delivery to 112 separate, consecutive clients. Session quality was assessed with measures of depth and smoothness. Post-session impact was assessed with measures of positivity and emotional arousal. Overall, sessions were rated as equally deep, but smoother, more positive, and less emotionally arousing in comparison to a sample of experienced university-based psychotherapists (Cummings et al., 1993). However, sessions provided by AI psychotherapists were rated as deeper, less positive, and more emotionally arousing than sessions provided by White psychotherapists. Replicating this study in a larger sample and including client as well as observer ratings will help to move this nascent line of research forward. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Interfaces of Dialogue: A Mixed Methods Approach to Investigating Intersubjectivity in Dyadic Improvisations

Music therapy provides a complex and dynamic environment and as such offers space for the emergence of nonverbal dialogue. We aimed to capture the relational, musical, and physiological aspects of intersubjectivity emerging during dyadic piano improvisations between music therapists and adult participants in a non-clinical feasibility study. Various data from 17 partner improvisations with adult participants and music therapists were collected, including audio, video, and MIDI recordings, physiological (ECG and EDA) measures, questionnaires, and semi-structured debriefing interviews. Parts of these data sets served for a mixed methods analysis to show (1) how instances of intersubjectivity were experienced by therapists and participants (drawing on interview data), (2) how their shared experiences were supported by coordination and contrast at the level of musical features (drawing on musical data), (3) how physiological arousal was compared between an initial resting baseline and the improvisation, and (4) how patterns in the event related electrodermal activity data related to qualities of intersubjectivity and musical interaction in an example of two case studies. In conclusion, intersubjectivity was characterized by overlapping experiences of relational qualities and complex patterns of musical interaction, including contrasting elements of convergence (in pitch contour) and divergence (key velocity and timing). Further, the case studies showed how differently-interpreted experiences can emerge from a homogenous musical structure, and how stronger intersubjectivity may be associated with more active experiential phenomena such as disruption or reciprocity (versus relaxation or security). Additionally, our findings highlight the complexity of musical interaction as an enactive process. Bringing together multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives enhanced a shared understanding of how subjective experiences that arise during dyadic improvisations relate to measures of musical coordination and physiological arousal. The complex mixed methods design proves to be feasible and, as a consequence, can be transferred to clinical settings in the future.

Vocally-Encoded Emotional Arousal as a Marker of Callous-Unemotional Traits in a Sample of Justice-Involved Adolescents.

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with severe and persistent juvenile offending. CU traits are also associated with dampened emotional arousal, which suggests that fundamental frequency (f0), a measure of vocally-encoded emotional arousal, may serve as an accessible psychophysiological marker of CU traits in youth. This study investigated the associations between f0 range measured during an emotionally evocative task, CU traits, and emotion dysregulation in a mixed-gender sample of 168 justice-involved youth. For boys, after controlling for covariates, wider f0 range-indicating greater emotional arousal-was negatively associated with CU traits and positively associated with emotion dysregulation. For girls, no significant associations with f0 range emerged; however, CU traits were positively associated with emotion dysregulation. Findings suggest that f0 range may serve as a valid indicator of CU traits in JJ-involved boys, and that detained boys and girls with high CU traits are characterized by different profiles of emotion dysregulation.

The role of opioid transmission in music-induced pleasure.

Studies conducted in rodents indicate a crucial role of the opioid circuit in mediating objective hedonic reactions to primary rewards. However, it remains unclear whether opioid transmission is also essential to experience pleasure with more abstract rewards, such as music. We addressed this question using a double-blind within-subject pharmacological design in which opioid levels were up- and downregulated by administering an opioid agonist (oxycodone) and antagonist (naltrexone), respectively, before healthy participants (n = 21) listened to music. Participants also performed a monetary incentive delay (MID) task to control for the effectiveness of the treatment and the specificity of the effects. Our results revealed that the pharmacological intervention did not modulate subjective reports of pleasure, nor the occurrence of chills. On the contrary, psychophysiological (objective) measures of emotional arousal, such as skin conductance responses (SCRs), were bidirectionally modulated in both the music and MID tasks. This modulation specifically occurred during reward consumption, with greater pleasure-related SCR following oxycodone than naltrexone. These findings indicate that opioid transmission does not modulate subjective evaluations but rather affects objective reward-related psychophysiological responses. These findings raise new caveats about the role of the opioidergic system in the modulation of pleasure for more abstract or cognitive forms of rewarding experiences, such as music.

Influence of underground mining with explosives on a hibernating bat population

AbstractBats arouse from hibernation both naturally and in response to disturbances. Frequent bat arousals can decrease survival due to increased energetic costs. An active sand mine in west‐central Wisconsin hosted over 52,000 hibernating bats of 4 species in inactive tunnels, and regularly blasted with explosives to remove sand. We collected environmental and acoustic data at this mine during two hibernation seasons (November 1 through February 28 in 2013–2014 and 2014–2015) to examine the effect of blasting on echolocation calls (bat activity), a measure of bat arousal from hibernation. We used total bat activity recorded 7 h before and 7 h after blast time as the response variable, assigned it to a binary category and used that as a fixed effect. We used explosive charge per delay (kg), number of blasts per day, number of consecutive blast days, barometric pressure, temperature, and hibernation season as fixed effects. We used generalized linear mixed models with a negative binomial distribution and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) for model selection. The BIC‐optimal model did not include any of the variables associated with blasting, but included activity timing, temperature, barometric pressure, and season as fixed effects, of which all were significant. Blasting did not influence bat activity significantly in this mine.

Behavioral and physiological response to inequity in bonobos (Pan paniscus).

Inequity aversion (IA), the affective, cognitive, and behavioral response to inequitable outcomes, allows individuals to avoid exploitation and therefore stabilizes cooperation. The presence of IA varies across animal species, which has stimulated research to investigate factors that might explain this variation, and to investigate underlying affective responses. Among great apes, IA is most often studied in chimpanzees. Here, we investigate IA in bonobos, a reputedly tolerant and cooperative species for which few IA studies are available. We describe how bonobos respond to receiving less preferred rewards than a partner in a token exchange task. We show that bonobos respond to receiving less preferred rewards by refusing tokens and rewards, and by leaving the experimental area. Bonobos never refused a trial when receiving preferred rewards, and thus showed no advantageous IA. We also investigate the variability in the disadvantageous IA response on a dyadic level, because the level of IA is expected to vary, depending on characteristics of the dyad. Like in humans and chimpanzees, we show that the tolerance towards inequity was higher in bonobo dyads with more valuable relationships. To study the affective component of IA, we included behavioral and physiological measures of arousal: a displacement behavior (rough self-scratching) and changes in salivary cortisol levels. Both measures of arousal showed large variability, and while analyses on rough self-scratching showed no significant effects, salivary cortisol levels seemed to be lower in subjects that received less than their partner, but higher in subjects that received more than their partner, albeit that both were not significantly different from the equity condition. This suggests that although overcompensated bonobos showed no behavioral response, they might be more aroused. Our data support the cooperation hypothesis on an interspecific and intraspecific level. They show inequity aversion in bonobos, a reputedly cooperative species, and suggest that the variability in IA in bonobos can be explained by their socioecology. Most successful cooperative interactions happen between mothers and their sons and among closely bonded females. The limited need to monitor the partners'investment within these dyads can result in a higher tolerance towards inequity. We therefore suggest future studies to consider relevant socioecological characteristics of the species when designing and analyzing IA studies.

Music Listening, Emotion, and Cognition in Older Adults.

Using the arousal and mood hypothesis as a theoretical framework, we examined whether community-dwelling older adults (N = 132) exhibited cognitive benefits after listening to music. Participants listened to shorter (≈2.5 min) or longer (≈8 min) excerpts from recordings of happy- or sad-sounding music or from a spoken-word recording. Before and after listening, they completed tasks measuring visuospatial working memory (WM), cognitive flexibility and speed, verbal fluency, and mathematical ability, as well as measures of arousal and mood. In general, older adults improved from pre- to post-test on the cognitive tasks. For the test of WM, the increase was greater for participants who heard happy-sounding music compared to those in the other two groups. The happy-sounding group also exhibited larger increases in arousal and mood, although improvements in mood were evident only for the long-duration condition. At the individual level, however, improvements in WM were unrelated to changes in arousal or mood. In short, the results were partially consistent with the arousal and mood hypothesis. For older adults, listening to happy-sounding music may optimize arousal levels and mood, and improve performance on some cognitive tasks (i.e., WM), even though there is no direct link between changes in arousal/mood and changes in WM.

Symptoms of sleep disordered breathing: Association with the apnea-hypopnea index and somatic arousal

We investigated the association of typical symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea with a measure of daytime somatic arousal and with the apnea-hypopnea index. We extended the finding of an association between sleepiness, fatigue and somatic arousal previously reported in a US sleep apnea population to a German sleep apnea population (n = 374) and to other typical sleep apnea symptoms, insomnia, anxiety, daytime alertness and non-restorative sleep.Somatic arousal was measured using the body sensation questionnaire (BSQ). Correlations of apnea-hypopnea index and BSQ were computed with values of polysomnographic variables derived from overnight sleep studies and with severity of OSA symptoms.Apnea-hypopnea index and BSQ scores showed only a small negative correlation with each other; each correlated independently with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale score. Controlling for BSQ score, the apnea-hypopnea index was found to affect sleepiness only when it exceeded 50/h.Severity of all other sleep apnea symptoms did not increase with increasing apnea-hypopnea index. In contrast, severity of all symptoms of sleep apnea increased consistently with increasing BSQ scores. Thus, autonomic stress associated with obstructive sleep apnea may be the driving force behind sleep apnea symptoms rather than the sleep fragmentation associated with obstructive sleep apnea severity (apnea-hypopnea index).These findings support previously reported correlations by Gold and associates between the levels of somatic arousal, sleepiness and fatigue. Using the apnea-hypopnea index and BSQ together renders a more comprehensive assessment of sleep apnea than apnea-hypopnea index alone, which appears to impact only on sleepiness and only when it exceeds 50/h. More work is needed to elucidate the source of the chronic stress, which appears to arise endogenously in affected individuals, likely as a function of sleep disordered breathing, such as snoring/inspiratory flow limitation.

OR17-5 Kisspeptin Increases Penile Tumescence and Sexual Brain Processing in Men with Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder

Abstract Background Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) is associated with dysfunctional brain activation in regions governing sexual responses, resulting in a deficiency or absence of sexual desire with marked distress. It is of major clinical importance given it affects 8% of men with detrimental effects on quality of life, interpersonal relationships and fertility, but so far has no licensed treatment options. The reproductive neuropeptide kisspeptin offers a putative therapeutic target owing to its emerging role in modulating reproductive behaviour in animal models and healthy men. However, there are no studies examining its effects in HSDD. To address this, we performed the first clinical study of kisspeptin in men with HSDD. Methods We examined the effects of kisspeptin administration (vs placebo) on brain activity during short and long erotic video tasks using functional MRI in 32 men with HSDD (mean ±SEM age 37.9 ±1.5 y, BMI 24.9 ±1.0 kg/m2). The short video task used 20-second segments of erotic video with non-erotic video as control. During the long video task, participants viewed a continuous eight-minute erotic video. To provide functional and behavioural relevance for the associated fMRI brain responses during the long erotic video, simultaneous penile tumescence and subjective level of arousal were recorded. Participants also completed psychometric and behavioural questionnaires. Standard analysis methods were used for fMRI data from the short videos task, and the long videos task used regressors derived from the subjective arousal and penile tumescence data. The statistical threshold used for both was Z=2.3, p < 0.05 (cluster-corrected). Results In response to visual erotic stimuli, kisspeptin administration significantly increased penile tumescence during the long video task compared to placebo, with kisspeptin increasing penile tumescence by 56% at six-minutes (p=0.002). In addition, kisspeptin increased participant-reported happiness about sex (p=0.02). During both video tasks, kisspeptin significantly modulated brain activity compared to placebo in key structures of the sexual-processing network, providing a mechanistic pathway for the increases in physiological and behavioural measures. In response to short erotic videos, kisspeptin enhanced left middle frontal gyrus and left anterior cingulate activity, and decreased activity in bilateral parahippocampus (all p<0.05). During the long video task, kisspeptin enhanced right fusiform gyrus and bilateral visual cortex activity, and decreased left frontal pole, right posterior cingulate and bilateral precuneus activity (all <0.05). Additionally, we observed positive correlations between the effects of kisspeptin on aforementioned brain activity and psychometric parameters of sexual desire and arousal (all p<0.01). Conclusion Collectively, we demonstrate for the first time that kisspeptin administration in men with HSDD increases penile tumescence and psychometric measures of sexual desire and arousal by modulating sexual brain processing. Taken together, our data suggest that kisspeptin-based therapeutics may offer a novel, effective and much-needed clinical strategy for men with HSDD. Presentation: Sunday, June 12, 2022 12:00 p.m. - 12:15 p.m.

The influence of opioid blockage on the sexual response cycle: A randomized placebo-controlled experiment with relevance for the treatment of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD)

The use of opioid antagonists is discussed as a feasible and tolerable treatment of Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD). However, little is known about the influence of opioid blockage on relevant physiological functions such as sexual arousal, pain perception as well as disgust sensitivity during the sexual response cycle (SRC). Healthy participants (N = 64, n = 32 women) were invited to the laboratory twice using a double-blind, randomized cross-over design, with an interval of four weeks between sessions. Participants were randomly subjected to an SRC condition (including an erotic audio play and masturbation to orgasm) and a control condition. Participants received either naltrexone (50 mg, n = 32) or placebo at both sessions. Self-reported sexual arousal and physiological measures of arousal as well as pain perception, odor disgust sensitivity, and prolactin levels were assessed along the SRC. Naltrexone increased prolactin levels and blunted the orgasm-induced prolactin rise. Naltrexone also reduced self-reported sexual arousal throughout the sexual response cycle and blunted respiration rate during masturbation. However, naltrexone did not affect other markers of physiological arousal, pressure pain ratings and odor disgust sensitivity. These findings suggest that naltrexone has an acute negative effect on sexual arousal. Since prolactin levels mediate sexual satiation, we propose that a prolactin-induced increase in sexual satiation could explain the positive effects reported for naltrexone in the treatment of CSBD.

Do Hexad User Types Matter? Effects of (Non-) Personalized Gamification on Task Performance and User Experience in an Image Tagging Task

The perception of gamification elements differs across users, which is why personalizing gamified systems is important. Past research showed that the Hexad user types model is particularly suitable for this purpose by demonstrating correlations between user types and gamification elements. However, previous studies were mostly survey-based, i.e. relied on participants' rating of gamification elements based on e.g. textual descriptions or storyboards. Thus, the question whether personalization based on Hexad user types provides benefits in implemented gameful systems was neglected. We contribute to this by investigating the effects of (contra-) tailoring the set of gamification elements to a user's Hexad type on performance and user experience, assessed with survey and physiological measures, in an image tagging context. In a lab study (N=29), we found that gamification increases performance and affects psychophysiological measures of arousal. Moreover, we demonstrate that personalization increases enjoyment, positively-valenced affective experiences and participants' absorption in the task at hand.

Electrodermal Activity of Preschool-Age Children Who Stutter During a Child-Friendly Stroop Paradigm.

The aim of the study was to assess whether emotional reactivity, indexed by a distinct physiological measure of sympathetic activation, differs between preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) and preschool-age children who do not stutter (CWNS) during a child-friendly Stroop task (i.e., day-night task). Additionally, researchers aimed to assess whether the Stroop task, compared to a control task, was a significant physiological stressor. Fifteen preschool-age CWS and 22 preschool-age CWNS were asked to perform a day-night Stroop task in order to elicit psychophysiological reactivity, indexed by electrodermal response (EDR) occurrence frequency and EDR amplitude. Physiological measurements were recorded during pretask baselines, performance of the day-night Stroop task, and performance of a speech-language control task. Findings based on EDR measures did not support the hypothesis that the child-friendly day-night Stroop task is an effective stressor as compared to a control task based on measures of physiological arousal in preschool-age children. The CWS and CWNS did not significantly differ in their EDR measures relative to the control task or Stroop task (p > .05). However, CWS, compared to CWNS, exhibited significantly greater EDR amplitudes during the control task baseline (p < .05) and the Stroop task baseline (p < .05). Overall, these findings may suggest that a predisposition to heightened levels of sympathetic activity prior to tasks in preschool-age CWS is important to consider with regard to the nature of developmental stuttering.

More than a feeling: Scalp EEG and eye signals in conscious tactile perception

Understanding the neural basis of consciousness is a fundamental goal of neuroscience, and sensory perception is often used as a proxy for consciousness in empirical studies. However, most studies rely on reported perception of visual stimuli. Here we present behavior, high density scalp EEG and eye metric recordings collected simultaneously during a novel tactile threshold perception task. We found significant N80, N140 and P300 event related potentials in perceived trials and in perceived versus not perceived trials. Significance was limited to a P100 and P300 in not perceived trials. We also found an increase in pupil diameter and blink rate and a decrease in microsaccade rate following perceived relative to not perceived tactile stimuli. These findings support the use of eye metrics as a measure of physiological arousal associated with conscious perception. Eye metrics may also represent a novel path toward the creation of tactile no-report tasks in the future.

Associations between locus coeruleus MRI contrast and physiological responses to acute stress in younger and older adults

Acute stress activates the brain’s locus coeruleus (LC)-noradrenaline system. Recent studies indicate that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based measure of LC structure is associated with better cognitive outcomes in later life. Yet despite the LC’s documented role in promoting physiological arousal during acute stress, no studies have examined whether MRI-assessed LC structure is related to arousal responses to acute stress. In this study, 102 younger and 51 older adults completed an acute stress induction task while we assessed multiple measures of physiological arousal (heart rate, breathing rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, sympathetic tone, and heart rate variability, HRV). We used turbo spin echo MRI scans to quantify LC MRI contrast as a measure of LC structure. We applied univariate and multivariate approaches to assess how LC MRI contrast was associated with arousal at rest and during acute stress reactivity and recovery. In older participants, having higher caudal LC MRI contrast was associated with greater stress-related increases in systolic blood pressure and decreases in HRV, as well as lower HRV during recovery from acute stress. These results suggest that having higher caudal LC MRI contrast in older adulthood is associated with more pronounced physiological responses to acute stress. Further work is needed to confirm these patterns in larger samples of older adults.

Sensitivity of Electrodermal Activity Features for Driver Arousal Measurement in Cognitive Load: The Application in Automated Driving Systems

Driver’s under-arousal occurred in automated driving systems (ADS) impairs takeover safety. This study aims to determine electrodermal activity (EDA) features’ importance for driver’s arousal quantification. A car-following simulator study was conducted with participants concurrently executing four levels of cognitive tasks, triggering four levels of arousal. Participants’ skin conductance (SC) data were collected and decomposed into tonic (skin conductance level, SCL) and phasic (skin conductance response, SCR) components. Seventeen features extracted from SC, SCL and SCR were compared. As a result, SCR-relevant features showed higher significance and larger effect size than SC and SCL features in response to cognitive load, which suggests the phasic component dominates changes in EDA under varying cognitive load. Moreover, the SCR rate TTP.nSCRs, identified by <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.03 ~\mu \text{S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> thresholds, attained the largest effect size among all features for driver’s arousal measurement. A varying time windows (TW) analysis showed that TTP.nSCRs was the most suggested arousal metric when TW was over 20 s, whereas the sum of SCRs amplitudes TTP.AmpSum was preferred when TW was less than 20 s. For driver’s arousal quantification with multi-features, the top five suggested features were TTP.nSCRs, SC_Rate5, CDA.SCR (or CDA.ISCR), CDA.AmpSum, and TTP.AmpSum. Although male drivers showed higher values of EDA features than female drivers, the sensitivity of the proposed EDA features stands across gender and individuals. This study promotes an improved understanding of EDA changes in human cognitive process. The sensitive EDA features proposed could be used from uni- or multi-modalities in driver state management and takeover-safety prediction for ADS.