Negative Emotional Conditions Research Articles

The Influence of Emotional Awareness on Time Perception: Evidence From Event-Related Potentials

Prior studies found that participants overestimated both negative and positive emotional stimuli, compared with neutral emotion. This phenomenon can be explained by the “arousal mechanism.” Participants demonstrated individual differences in emotion perception. In other words, high emotional awareness resulted in high emotional arousal, and vice versa. This study extended existing findings by exploring the influence of emotional awareness on time perception in a temporal generalization task, while recording electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. The findings revealed that in the positive emotion condition, the high emotional awareness group made more overestimations, compared with the low emotional awareness group. However, no difference was observed in the neutral or negative emotion conditions. Moreover, the event-related potential (ERP) results showed that in the positive emotion condition, the high awareness group elicited larger vertex positive potential (VPP) amplitudes, compared with that of the low awareness group. However, no such differences were observed in the neutral and negative emotion conditions. Moreover, the contingent negative variation (CNV) (200–300, 300–490 ms) component showed that in the positive emotion, the amplitudes of the high awareness group were larger than that of the low awareness group; however, they did not show differences in the neutral condition. The findings of this study suggest that high emotional awareness produces higher physiological arousal; moreover, when participants were required to estimate the time duration of emotional pictures, they tended to make higher time overestimation. Thus, our results support the relationship between emotional awareness and time perception.

The Immediate and Lasting Effect of Emotion Regulation in Adolescents: An ERP Study.

The immediate effect is an important index of the outcomes of emotion regulation. However, in daily life, whether the effect of emotion regulation lasts and the lasting mechanism have been examined less. The present research focused on the relationships between the immediate and lasting effect of the emotion regulation of adolescents. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from 51 adolescents (31 boys and 20 girls, Mage = 12.82) during online emotion regulation using the Reactivity and Regulation-Image Task (phase 1) and re-presentation of emotional stimuli after a period of time (phase 2). Event-related potentials (ERPs) related to emotion regulation, such as N2, P3, and the late positive potential (LPP), were examined in the two phases. The results showed that: (1) In both of the two phases, in negative emotion conditions, the amplitudes of P3 and LPP 300–600 of no-regulation conditions were significantly higher than those in reappraisal conditions. However, there was no significant difference under neutral conditions; (2) The amplitudes of P3, N2, and LPP 300–600 during emotion regulation in phase 1 positively predicted the amplitudes of P3, N2, and LPP300–600 in phase 2 in different experimental conditions. Results from the regression analysis implied that the immediate effect of online emotion regulation may predict the lasting effect when adolescents face the same emotions again. In addition, our findings provide neurological evidence that the use of cognitive reappraisal could effectively help adolescents to reduce the recruitment of cognitive resources when they regulate negative emotions and when they face those negative emotions again.

Age-related differences in how negative emotions influence arithmetic performance

ABSTRACT In this study, we investigated the role of negative emotions on arithmetic and whether this role changes with aging during adulthood. Young and older adults were asked to verify one-digit addition problems (Experiment 1) and to estimate the results of two-digit multiplication problems (Experiment 2). In both experiments, easier and harder problems were displayed superimposed on emotionally neutral (e.g. mushrooms) or emotionally negative (e.g. a corpse) pictures. In both simple and complex arithmetic, young and older adults obtained poorer arithmetic performance under negative emotion conditions, especially while solving harder problems. Most interesting, deleterious effects of negative emotions on arithmetic performance were larger in young than in older adults. These findings have important implications for further our understanding of the role of negative emotions in the domain of arithmetic and age-related differences in this role.

Mental Health and Physical Activity in Health-Related University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to increased negative emotional states among students. Physical activity is known to have positive impacts on mental health and well-being. However, due to the closure of gyms and other recreational facilities as a restrictive measure, students’ physical activity levels may decrease. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms and physical activity among health-related students during the second partial COVID-19 lockdown. The study included 823 students from the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health of the University of Osijek in Croatia. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and the Godin-Shephard Leisure Time Questionnaire for Physical Activity (GSLTPAQ) questionnaires were used to assess the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms as well as physical activity. Two-thirds (59.2%) of students in health-related fields were insufficiently active, while the prevalence of depression (50.8%), anxiety (50.9%), and stress (49.9%) symptoms were high. Also, female respondents had significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress than their male counterparts. Graduate students had higher levels of all three negative emotional states, but only anxiety levels were significant. This study shows that students in health-related fields had reduced physical activity and a high prevalence of negative emotional conditions (depression, anxiety, and stress) during the second partial lockdown. The resulting symptoms were mostly of mild intensity; however, we consider this a significant mental health issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, it is crucial to control and support students’ mental health, especially in more affected female individuals, in order to reduce the pandemic’s negative impact.

Mixed Emotions, but Not Positive or Negative Emotions, Facilitate Legitimate Virus-Prevention Behaviors and Eudaimonic Outcomes in the Emergence of the COVID-19 Crisis.

We report four studies (N=1419) examining emotional reactions from March to April 2020, when COVID-19 exhibited exponentially increasing infections and fatalities. Specifically, we examined associations between emotions with self-reported intentions to enact virus-prevention behaviors that protect oneself from COVID-19 and eudaimonic functioning. Study 1A, 1B, and Study 2 provided naturalistic evidence that mixed emotions predicted legitimate virus-prevention behaviors and eudaimonic functioning in the USA and Singapore, and Study 2 also supported receptivity as a mediator. Finally, Study 3 provided experimental evidence that mixed emotions causally increased legitimate virus-prevention behaviors relative to neutral, positive emotion, and negative emotion conditions, whereas eudaimonic functioning was increased only relative to the neutral condition. Across all studies, positive and negative emotions were unrelated to legitimate virus-prevention behaviors, while relationships with eudaimonic functioning were inconsistent. While self-reported measures do not represent actual behaviors, the findings suggest a potential role for mixed emotions in pandemic-related outcomes.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00045-x.

The Tactile-Visual Conflict Processing and Its Modulation by Tactile-Induced Emotional States: An Event-Related Potential Study.

This experiment used event-related potentials (ERPs) to study the tactile-visual information conflict processing in a tactile-visual pairing task and its modulation by tactile-induced emotional states. Eighteen participants were asked to indicate whether the tactile sensation on their body matched or did not match the expected tactile sensation associated with the object depicted in an image. The type of tactile-visual stimuli (matched vs. mismatched) and the valence of tactile-induced emotional states (positive vs. negative) were manipulated following a 2 × 2 factorial design. Electrophysiological analyses revealed a mismatched minus matched negative difference component between 420 and 620 ms after stimulus onset in the negative tactile-induced emotional state condition. This ND420-620 component was considered as a sign of the cross-modal conflict processing during the processing of incongruent tactile-visual information. In contrast, no significant mismatched minus matched negative difference component was found in the positive tactile-induced emotional state condition. Together, these results support the hypothesis that a positive emotional state induced by a positive tactile stimulation improves tactile-visual conflict processing abilities.

The momentary benefits of positive events for individuals with elevated social anxiety.

Understanding how individuals with varying levels of social anxiety respond to daily positive events is important. Psychological processes that increase positive emotions are being widely used as strategies to not only enhance well-being but also reduce the symptoms and impairment tied to negative emotional dispositions and conditions, including excessive social anxiety. At present, it is unclear whether and how levels of social anxiety impact the psychological benefits derived from momentary positive events. We used ecological momentary assessment to examine the impact of trait social anxiety on momentary changes in emotions, sense of belonging, and social approach versus avoidance motivation following positive events in daily life. Over the course of a week, people with elevated social anxiety experienced greater momentary anxiety and social avoidance motivation and lower momentary happiness and sense of belonging on average. Despite these impairments, individuals with elevated social anxiety experienced greater psychological benefits-in the form of reduced anxiety and motivation to avoid social situations, and an increased sense of belonging-following positive events during the past hour that were rated as particularly intense. This pattern of findings was not specific to social anxiety, with evidence of similar effects for other forms of internalizing psychopathology (general anxiety and depression). These observations detail circumstances in which individuals with social anxiety, and other emotional disturbances, can thrive-creating potentially important targets for intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding Emotional State on Female Correctional Officers in Java, Indonesia

Abstract Correctional institution has employees who are tasked with guarding inmates. High-risk job tasks that have to be faced by correctional officer can potentially affect the emotional state, moreover, if the officer is female gender. Based on the background, the study was aimed to know about the emotional state on female correctional officers. The research method used was clinical exploration by conducting in-depth interviews on 30 female correctional officers in Bandung and Semarang. The results can be concluded that the emotions experienced by the subjects in the study are mostly negative emotions. Negative emotions of anger, sadness, guilty, and anxiety is felt almost entirely by the 26 subject and only 4 subjects have positive emotional state, namely happiness and pride. From the data, there were 23 subjects who did positive emotion regulation, consist of 4 subjects who indeed were subjects who had positive emotional state and 19 subjects who initially had negative emotional state but were able to regulate emotions well. 19 of the 26 subjects who experienced negative emotional conditions tried to regulate positive emotions so that they could do a good job. Positive emotional regulations have been done by 23 subjects are positive reappraisal, refocus on planning, positive refocusing, and acceptance. The emotional regulation strategy used by 7 subjects was negative strategies, such as blaming other, self-blaming, and rumination or focus on thought. Keywords : Emotions at work, Correctional officer, Female.

Happiness reconstruction through Islamic guidelines in blinds in The Muslim Blinds of Indonesia (ITMI) Central Java

<p class="AbstrakAGC">Blind experience various psychological conditions that need attention, such as feeling inferior, hopeless, and useless so that it affects the level of happiness. The main purpose of this study is to determine the process of reconstruction of happiness in blind people through Islamic guidance. This research uses a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach; the process of data analysis uses the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis technique. The subjects of the study were the blind who were members of ITMI (Indonesian Moslem Blind Association) and actively in Islamic guidance. The process of selecting subjects uses a purposive sampling method. The results showed that Islamic guidance had a positive influence in the process of reconstructing the happiness of the blind. Various processes of cognition and affection can be explored well during the process of Islamic guidance. The process of reconstructing happiness in the blind people goes through six stages, beginning with the stage of negative emotional conditions such as despair and anxiety, feeling isolated from the social environment, and then undertaking the process of finding meaning in life and reconstructing happiness.</p>

Spatiotemporal dynamics of working memory under the influence of emotions based on EEG

Objective. Previous studies have reported that working memory (WM) may be affected by emotions and that the effect may exist in different stages of WM. However, at present it remains controversial whether emotions inhibit or facilitate WM, and how the mechanism of dynamic information transmission in the brain during WM is affected by emotions. Approach. In this study, we used a video database to induce three emotions (negative, neutral, and positive) and adopted a change detection paradigm based on electroencephalography. Event-related potential (ERP) analysis, event-related spectral perturbation analysis, source location analysis based on the dipole localization method and the distributed source localization method, and effective connectivity analysis were performed. Main results. Both behavioral and ERP results suggest that positive emotions have no significant effect on WM capacity, while negative emotions could facilitate WM capacity. Furthermore, the effective connectivity results based on two source location methods suggest that the long-range connectivity between the frontal and posterior areas can reflect the influence of positive and negative emotions on the WM network, in which the connectivity under the positive emotion condition occurs in the earlier period of WM maintenance, while the connectivity under the negative emotion condition occurs in the later period of WM maintenance. Significance. The consistency of the behavioral, ERP, and effective connectivity results suggests that under the negative emotion condition, the top-down attention modulation between the frontoparietal area and posterior area could promote the most relevant information storage during WM maintenance.

Analysis of EEG signals in children with autism spectrum disorder under positive and negative emotional stimuli

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD, hereafter autism) is a neurodevelopmental disorder. The symptoms of autism, including the core features of social interaction and language communication disorders, repetitive stereotyped behaviors, and limited narrow interest, are most obvious in children 2−3 years old. Research also shows that childhood is the most critical period for autism diagnosis and behavioral intervention. Because emotional recognition ability is of great importance to individual social development, the emotional recognition defect of children with autism has an extremely negative impact on their social interaction ability, thus hindering their social development. Related studies indicate that, under different emotional stimuli, the occipital and temporal lobes of children with autism show a lower activation state, which affects the development of their social cognitive and emotional recognition abilities. An objective evaluation of the development of autistic children’s brain function using an electroencephalogram (EEG) is feasible. This paper analyses testees’ electroencephalograms of several encephalic regions, including frontal, temporal and occipital lobes, along with their emotional performance metrics and cognitive level to investigate the difference in autistic children and typically developing children’s performance and electroencephalograms while they are being induced by videos designed to produce positive or negative emotions. Based on the emotional performance indicators obtained from brainwave power spectrums and cognitive questions, we analyzed the children’s performance under two emotional stimuli. The experiment recruited 80 children, 40 autistic and 40 typically developing children. We processed the power spectrum analysis of testees’ electroencephalograms through fast Fourier transform and explored the effects between the different groups. Our results show that autistic children’s electroencephalograms generally show very high power in the low frequency range (delta, theta) and high frequency range (beta, gamma) but low power in the alpha band. Moreover, different encephalic regions show different features of the power spectrum. By comparing the testees’ emotional performance metrics based on their electroencephalograms’ power spectrums, as well as cognitive levels based on answering questions under two kinds of emotional stimulation, we found that autistic children’s emotional changes are far less than those of typically developing children. In addition, autistic children’s cognition of six aspects, such as emotional and spatial cognition, are both lower than that of typically developing children. Furthermore, under positive emotion conditions, they show more interest and higher engagement, and their correct rate of answering cognition questions is higher than under negative emotion conditions. This research provides an objective basis for intervention training that aims to improve autistic children’s emotional cognitive levels.

Asymmetries in social touch—motor and emotional biases on lateral preferences in embracing, cradling and kissing

ABSTRACT In human social interaction, affective touch plays an integral role to communicate intentions and emotions. Three of the most important forms of social touch are embracing, cradling and kissing. These behaviours have been demonstrated to be lateralized, but the underlying mechanisms are still not well understood. Both motor and emotive biases have been suggested to affect laterality of social touch. We aimed to systematically investigate how motor preferences and emotive biases influence the lateralization of embracing, cradling and kissing within the same sample. Participants performed all three forms of social touch in neutral, positive and negative emotional conditions. Like a previous study, we found a rightward bias for embracing that was modulated by both motor preferences and the emotional content of the situation. Kissing and cradling were not influenced by motor preferences. In general, a negative emotional connotation of the situation led to a reduction of lateral biases in social touch, independent of the individual direction.

Negative emotional state slows down movement speed: behavioral and neural evidence.

BackgroundAthletic performance is affected by emotional state. Athletes may underperform in competition due to poor emotion regulation. Movement speed plays an important role in many competition events. Flexible control of movement speed is critical for effective athletic performance. Although behavioral evidence showed that negative emotion can influence movement speed, the nature of the relationship remains controversial. Thus, the present study investigated how negative emotion affects movement speed and the neural mechanism underlying the interaction between emotion processing and movement control.MethodsThe present study combined electroencephalography (EEG) technology with a cued-action task to investigate the effect of negative emotion on movement speed. In total, 21 undergraduate students were recruited for this study. Participants were asked to perform six consecutive action tasks after viewing an emotional picture. Pictures were presented in two blocks (one negative and one neutral). After the participants completed a set of tasks (neutral of negative), they were subjected to complete a 9-point self-assessment manikin scale. Participants underwent EEG while performing the tasks.ResultsAt the behavior level, there was a significant main effect of emotional valence on movement speed, with participants exhibiting significantly slower movements in the negative emotional condition than in the neutral condition. EEG data showed increased theta oscillation and larger P1 amplitude in response to negative than to neural images suggesting that more cognitive resources were required to process negative than neutral images. EEG data also showed a larger late CNV area in the neutral condition than in the negative condition, which suggested that there was a significant decrease in brain activation during action tasks in negative emotional condition than in the neural. While the early CNV did not reveal a significant main effect of emotional valence.ConclusionThe present results indicate that a negative emotion can slow movement, which is largely due to negative emotional processing consuming more resources than non-emotional processing and this interference effect mainly occurred in the late movement preparation phase.

How do you feel? Preverbal infants match negative emotions to events.

There is extensive disagreement as to whether preverbal infants have conceptual categories for different emotions (e.g., anger vs. disgust). In addition, few studies have examined whether infants have conceptual categories of emotions within the same dimension of valence and arousal (e.g., high arousal, negative emotions). The current experiments explore one aspect of infants' ability to form conceptual categories of emotions: event-emotion matching. Three experiments investigated whether infants match different negative emotions to specific events. In Experiment 1, 14- and 18-month-olds were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 negative emotion conditions (Anger, Fear, or Disgust). Infants were familiarized with an Emoter interacting with objects in an anger-eliciting event (Unmet Goal) and a disgust-eliciting event (New Food). After each event, the Emoter expressed an emotion that was either congruent or incongruent with the event. Infants matched unmet goals to the expression of anger. However, neither age matched the expression of disgust to an event involving exposure to new food. To probe whether this was a design artifact, a revised New Food event and a fear-congruent event (Strange Toy) were created for Experiment 2. Infants matched the expression of disgust to the new food event, but they did not match fear to an event involving an unfamiliar object. Experiment 3 replicated the disgust findings from Experiment 2 in a sample of 14-month-olds. However, the anger findings from Experiment 1 did not replicate. Taken together, these results suggest that preverbal infants are beginning to form specific matches between some negative emotional expressions and events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Event-related Current Density Reveals Dissociable Effects of Arousal and Valence on Emotional Picture Processing.

BackgroundThe processing of emotional visual stimulation involves the processing of emotional and visuoperceptual information. It is not completely revealed how the valence and arousal affect these two aspects. The objective was to investigate the effects of valence and arousal on spatiotemporal characteristics of cortical information processing using distributed source imaging of event-related current density (ERCD).MethodsElectroencephalograms (64 channels) were recorded from 19 healthy men while presenting affective pictures. Distributed source localization analysis was adopted to obtain the spatiotemporal pattern of ERCD on cortical surface in response to emotional visual stimulation. A nonparametric cluster-based permutation test was used to find meaningful time and space without prior knowledge.ResultsSignificant changes of ERCD in 400–800 ms among positive, negative, and neutral emotional conditions were found in left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and right inferior temporal cortex (ITC). In the PCC, the stimuli with higher arousal levels showed more negative ERCD than neutral stimuli. In the ITC, the ERCD for negative stimuli was significantly more negative than those of positive and neutral ones.ConclusionArousal and valence had strong influence on memory encoding and visual analysis at late period. The location and time showing significant change in neural activity according to arousal and valence would provide valuable information for understanding the changes of cortical function by neuropsychiatric disorders.

Psychometric properties of the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21)

Depression, anxiety and stress are recognised as global public health problems especially in developing countries. Early detection of these disorders is essential to provide psychological interventions for individuals experiencing these negative emotional conditions. This study determined the Nigerian psychometric properties for the 21-item version of the depression, anxiety and stress scale among a sample of medical students. Two hundred and forty medical students from the Lagos State University College of Medicine, Lagos, Nigeria completed the depression anxiety and stress scale, state trait anxiety inventory and self-rating depression scale. The reliability, discriminative, concurrent and convergent properties were determined. The reliability of DASS-21 showed that it has excellent Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.81, 0.89 and 0.78 for the subscales of depressive, anxiety and stress respectively. It was found to have excellent internal consistency, discriminative, concurrent and convergent validities. The depression and anxiety subscales of DASS-21 had good correlations with self-rating depression scale and state trait anxiety inventory. The DASS-21 was found to have commendable psychometric properties. It is reliable, valid and easy to administer. Its utility by clinicians will enhance the diagnoses of depression, anxiety and stress among university students. Keywords: DASS-21, depression, anxiety, Stress, psychometric properties, Lagos, Nigeria

Monetary incentives at retrieval promote recognition of involuntarily learned emotional information.

Previous studies have suggested that the effects of reward on memory processes are affected by certain factors, but it remains unclear whether the effects of reward at retrieval on recognition processes are influenced by emotion. The event-related potential was used to investigate the combined effect of reward and emotion on memory retrieval and its neural mechanism. The behavioral results indicated that the reward at retrieval improved recognition performance under positive and negative emotional conditions. The event-related potential results indicated that there were significant interactions between the reward and emotion in the average amplitude during recognition, and the significant reward effects from the frontal to parietal brain areas appeared at 130-800 ms for positive pictures and at 190-800 ms for negative pictures, but there were no significant reward effects of neutral pictures; the reward effect of positive items appeared relatively earlier, starting at 130 ms, and that of negative pictures began at 190 ms. These results indicate that monetary incentives at retrieval promote recognition of involuntarily learned emotional information.

The effect of emotion on articulation rate in persistence and recovery of childhood stuttering

PurposeThis study investigated the possible association of emotional processes and articulation rate in pre-school age children who stutter and persist (persisting), children who stutter and recover (recovered) and children who do not stutter (nonstuttering). MethodsThe participants were ten persisting, ten recovered, and ten nonstuttering children between the ages of 3–5 years; who were classified as persisting, recovered, or nonstuttering approximately 2–2.5 years after the experimental testing took place. The children were exposed to three emotionally-arousing video clips (baseline, positive and negative) and produced a narrative based on a text-free storybook following each video clip. From the audio-recordings of these narratives, individual utterances were transcribed and articulation rates were calculated. ResultsResults indicated that persisting children exhibited significantly slower articulation rates following the negative emotion condition, unlike recovered and nonstuttering children whose articulation rates were not affected by either of the two emotion-inducing conditions. Moreover, all stuttering children displayed faster rates during fluent compared to stuttered speech; however, the recovered children were significantly faster than the persisting children during fluent speech. ConclusionNegative emotion plays a detrimental role on the speech-motor control processes of children who persist, whereas children who eventually recover seem to exhibit a relatively more stable and mature speech-motor system. This suggests that complex interactions between speech-motor and emotional processes are at play in stuttering recovery and persistency; and articulation rates following negative emotion or during stuttered versus fluent speech might be considered as potential factors to prospectively predict persistence and recovery from stuttering.

Positive Emotion Facilitates Cognitive Flexibility: An fMRI Study.

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch rapidly between multiple goals. By using a task-switching paradigm, the present study investigated how positive emotion affected cognitive flexibility and the underlying neural mechanisms. After viewing pictures of different emotional valence (positive, negative, or neutral), participants discriminated whether a target digit in a specific color was odd or even. After a series of trials, the color of target stimuli was changed, i.e., the switch condition. Switch costs were measured by the increase of reaction times (RTs) in the switch trials compared to those in the repeat trials. Behavior results indicated that switch costs significantly decreased in the positive emotional condition, and increased in the negative emotional condition, compared with those in the neutral condition. Imaging data revealed enhanced activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in switch trials than those in repeat trials. Moreover, the interaction between emotion (positive, negative, neutral) and trial type (repeat vs. switch) was significant. For switch trials, the activation of dACC decreased significantly in the positive condition, while increased significantly in the negative condition compared to neutral condition. By contrast, for repeat trials, no significant difference was observed for the activation of dACC among three emotional conditions. Our results showed that positive emotions could increase the cognitive flexibility and reduce the conflict by decreasing the activation of dACC.

Unemotional Design: An Alternative Approach to Sustainable Design

Conspicuous consumption of products is problematic for the development of a sustainable relationship to cultural and natural resources. Drawing on an emotional design approach, this study explores emotional conditions involved in the buying phase of socially visible products used in a typically expressive consumption activity. Through an extreme character approach, impulsive and compulsive buying is explored to expose principal and generic emotional conditions in the drive for new design products. The study demonstrates a range of primary negative emotional conditions or emotional fluctuations related to anxiety, mood, and self-esteem in the buying of appearance-related products. In conclusion, to achieve a more sustainable consumer relationship with fashion-conditioned material goods, the study reveals a need for unemotional design to acquire emotional detachment, rather than design to acquire emotional attachment.