Neutral Images Research Articles

How do fundamental emotion beliefs affect the rapid emotional processing? An ERP study

Beliefs about whether emotions are good or bad, controllable or uncontrollable are two fundamental emotion beliefs. Studies have confirmed the link between the two beliefs and emotional responses, but how emotion beliefs affect the process from emotional stimulus perception to emotion generation and automatic regulation is unclear. Answering this question helps to understand the role of emotion beliefs in emotional dysfunction and dysregulation and can provide a basis for effective emotion regulation. Therefore, the current study used event-related potential (ERP) measures to examine the time course and neural mechanisms by which emotional beliefs influence the processing of emotional pictures. One hundred participants were divided into four groups (25 per group) according to controllable or uncontrollable beliefs about emotions and good or bad beliefs about negative emotions, and viewed emotional negative and neutral pictures. Results showed that P2 was more positive in participants with emotion controllable vs. uncontrollable belief. The early posterior negativity (EPN) was more negative for unpleasant than neutral images in participants with emotion good and controllable beliefs as well as with bad and uncontrollable beliefs. On late positive potential (LPP), middle LPP (500-1000ms) was more positive in emotion good vs. bad belief holders and the late LPP (1000-2000 ms) was more positive for negative than neutral images in emotion uncontrollable belief holders. The findings suggest that fundamental emotion beliefs can affect individuals' early attention and late meaning evaluation towards unpleasant stimuli. Furthermore, they provide insight into altered beliefs about emotion in people with emotion dysfunction or dysregulation.

Features of event-related potentials during retrieval of episodic memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease.

To provide a rigorous comparison between patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD) and healthy elderly, as well as to assess the value of electroencephalography (EEG) in terms of early diagnosis, we conducted a neutral image recognition memory task involving individuals with positive biomarkers including β amyloid deposition, pathologic tau or neurodegeneration. The task involving study and test blocks was designed to evaluate participants' recognition memory. Electroencephalogram was recorded synchronously to elicit event-related potentials in patients with MCI-AD and healthy control subjects. We further analyzed differences between groups or conditions in terms of behavioral performance, time domain, and time-frequency domain. The MCI-AD cohort showed a slower response time to old/new images and had low accuracy regarding behavioral performance. The amplitude of the late positive complex for the old/new effects was significantly suppressed in the MCI-AD cohort when compared with that in the HC cohort. The amplitude of the late old/new effects was correlated with the Auditory Verbal Learning Test recognition score in all participants. The time-frequency domain analysis revealed that correct recognition of old items elicited a decrease in beta power, mainly limited to the HC cohort. Moreover, the combination of behavioral (processing speed and accuracy) and electrophysiological (average amplitude and relative power of delta band) measures contributes to classifying patients with MCI-AD from healthy elderly people. Changes of old/new effects, accuracy and response time are sensitive to the impairment of recognition memory in patients with MCI-AD and have moderate value in predicting the incipient stage of AD.

The Difference in Brain Processing Between Animate and Inanimate Beings in Moral Violation: An Electrophysiological Evidence

INTRODUCTION: Moral violation is known to elicit negative moral emotions and is associated with the electroencephalography (EEG)-derived P300 wave. However, the neural basis of moral categorisation (immoral behaviors towards animate beings or inanimate beings) has yet to be explored in moral psychology, which may increase knowledge and further understanding of brain function for the rehabilitation process. Thus our study aims to investigate the difference in brain processes between animate and inanimate moral violations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-six participants (mean age of 24 years old) were involved in the experimental observation that was held in the Neuroscience Laboratory. In the event-related potential (ERP) session, EEG-derived P300 data were recorded while participants viewed a random series of 200 trials of visual stimuli that were distributed according to the odd-ball paradigm. The trials consisted of three image categories (15% of immoral behaviour toward animate beings, 15% of immoral behaviour to non-animate beings, and 70% of neutral images). Participants also pressed the buttons numbered ‘1’ or ‘2’ while responding to animate beings and inanimate beings, respectively. RESULTS: When compared to neutral images and nonanimate objects, the brain regions that were activated with immoral behavior toward animate beings had the biggest P300 amplitude with stronger neural activation in the temporal and occipital regions. CONCLUSION: Immoral behaviour towards animate beings is associated with greater neural cognition, as reflected by the activation in most brain regions. This discovery contributes to a better understanding of the moral foundation. It could be applied in determining the abnormal pattern of brain function and as a baseline reference to be used in the medical rehabilitation field.

Decision-making for concurrent reward and threat is differentially modulated by trauma exposure and PTSD symptom severity

Trauma exposure, particularly interpersonal violence (IPV) traumas, are significant risk factors for development of mental health disorders, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies attempting to disentangle mechanisms by which trauma confers risk and maintenance of PTSD have often investigated threat or reward learning in isolation. However, real-world decision-making often involves navigating concurrent and conflicting probabilities for threat and reward. We sought to understand how threat and reward learning interact to impact decision-making, and how these processes are modulated by trauma exposure and PTSD symptom severity. 429 adult participants with a range of trauma exposure and symptom severities completed an online version of the two stage Markov task, where participants make a series of decisions towards the goal of obtaining a reward, that embedded an intermediate threat or neutral image along the sequence of decisions to be made. This task design afforded the possibility to differentiate between threat avoidance vs diminished reward learning in the presence of threat, and whether these two processes reflect model-based vs model-free decision-making. Results demonstrated that trauma exposure severity, particularly IPV exposure, was associated with impairment in model-based learning for reward independent of threat, as well as with model-based threat avoidance. PTSD symptom severity was associated with diminished model-based learning for reward in the presence of threat, consistent with a threat-induced impairment in cognitively-demanding strategies for reward learning, but no evidence of heightened threat avoidance. These results highlight the complex interactions between threat and reward learning as a function of trauma exposure and PTSD symptom severity. Findings have potential implications for treatment augmentation and suggest a need for continued research.

To Look or Not to Look: Instagram’s Sensitive-Content Screens Do Not Deter Vulnerable People From Viewing Negative Content

By blurring sensitive images and providing a warning, Instagram’s sensitive-content screens seek to assist users—particularly vulnerable users—in making informed decisions about what content to approach or avoid. Yet, prior research found most people (∼85%) chose to uncover a single screened negative image (Bridgland, Bellet, et al., 2022). Here, we extended on and addressed shortcomings of this previous research. Across two studies, we presented participants with a series of sensitive-content screens covering negative content that appeared among neutral and positive images; participants could choose to uncover screens (or not). We found most participants opted to uncover the first screen they came across, and many continued to uncover screens over a series of images. We also found no evidence suggesting vulnerable people (e.g., people with higher rates of depression) are more likely to avoid sensitive content: people similarly uncovered sensitive-content screens irrespective of their vulnerabilities. Thus, sensitive-content screens may be ineffective in deterring people from exposing themselves to sensitive content. Additionally, avoidance behavior, information seeking behavior, negative affect driven behavior, and positive affect driven behavior appeared to underpin participants’ decisions to uncover screened content.

Effect of Taste-Induced Mood on ERP and Emotional Assessment of Images.

Tastes affect the body and our emotions. We used tasteless, sweet, and bitter stimuli to induce participants' moods, and we examined the effect of mood on an emotional evaluation of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant images using event-related potentials, N2, N400, and late positive potential (LPP), which reflect emotional evaluation in the brain. The results indicated that mood valence was most positive for sweetness and most negative for bitterness. Moreover, there was no significant mood effect on subjective valence ratings of emotional images. Furthermore, the N2 amplitude, which is related to the early semantic processing of preceding stimuli, was unaffected by the taste induced mood. In contrast, we found that the N400 amplitude, which is related to the mismatch of emotional valence between stimuli, increased significantly for unpleasant images when participants were in a positive rather than negative mood state. Also, the LPP amplitude, which is related to the emotional valence of images, showed only the main effect of the images' emotional valence. The N2's results suggest that the early semantic processing of taste stimuli might have had a negligible impact on emotional evaluation because taste stimuli minimize semantic processing that accompanies mood induction. In contrast, the N400 reflected the effects of the induced mood, and the LPP reflected the impact of the valence of emotional images. The use of taste stimuli to induce mood revealed different brain processing of taste-induced mood effects on emotional evaluation, including N2's involvement in semantic processing, N400's involvement in matching emotions between mood and stimuli, and LPP's involvement in subjective evaluations of stimuli.

Emotional processing and positive affect after acute exercise in healthy older adults.

The well-elucidated improvement of mood immediately after exercise in older adults presumably involves adaptations in emotion-processing brain networks. However, little is known about effects of acute exercise on appetitive and aversive emotion-related network recruitment in older adults. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of acute exercise, compared to a seated rest control condition, on pleasant and unpleasant emotion-related regional activation in healthy older adults. Functional MRI data were acquired from 32 active older adults during blocked presentations of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant images from the International Affective Pictures System. fMRI data were collected after participants completed 30 min of moderate to vigorous intensity cycling or seated rest, performed in a counterbalanced order across separate days in a within-subject design. The findings suggest three ways that emotional processing in the brain may be different immediately after exercise (relative to immediately after rest): First, reduced demands on emotional regulation during pleasant emotional processing as indicated by lower precuneus activation for pleasant stimuli; second, reduced processing of negative emotional stimuli in visual association areas as indicated by lower activation for unpleasant stimuli in the bilateral fusiform and ITG; third, an increased recruitment in activation associated with regulating/inhibiting unpleasant emotional processing in the bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), angular gyri, supramarginal gyri, left cerebellar crus I/II and a portion of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Overall, these findings support that acute exercise in active older adults alters activation in key emotional processing and regulating brain regions.

The role of emotional cues in event-based prospective memory

ObjectiveProspective memory (PM) refers to the ability to perform expected actions in the future. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of stimuli with emotional content on the prospective memory, with particular attention to different age groups. MethodsStarting from an experimental paradigm used in a previous study (by Cona et al., 2015), we evaluated whether emotional cues (positive, negative, or neutral images) did influence a prospective memory task based on the event during the performance of an ongoing n-back task in three different age groups. ResultsA difference emerged between the three investigated groups indicating that positive emotional cues were remembered better than negative and neutral ones. In addition, older subjects resulted slower than others in responding to stimuli and showed the tendency to make more errors in the prospective memory task. ConclusionsAs hypothesized, a difference in the performance of the task appears as due to age. In general, the younger participants take the test more accurately (i.e., with fewer errors). This could be explained because the prospective memory deteriorates with increasing age. Behavioral results do not yet allow us to answer the research question on the role of emotional material in prospective memory; more research is needed to clarify these issues.

The Predictive Role of the Posterior Cerebellum in the Processing of Dynamic Emotions.

Recent studies have bolstered the important role of the cerebellum in high-level socio-affective functions. In particular, neuroscientific evidence shows that the posterior cerebellum is involved in social cognition and emotion processing, presumably through its involvement in temporal processing and in predicting the outcomes of social sequences. We used cerebellar transcranial random noise stimulation (ctRNS) targeting the posterior cerebellum to affect the performance of 32 healthy participants during an emotion discrimination task, including both static and dynamic facial expressions (i.e., transitioning from a static neutral image to a happy/sad emotion). ctRNS, compared to the sham condition, significantly reduced the participants' accuracy to discriminate static sad facial expressions, but it increased participants' accuracy to discriminate dynamic sad facial expressions. No effects emerged with happy faces. These findings may suggest the existence of two different circuits in the posterior cerebellum for the processing of negative emotional stimuli: a first-time-independent mechanism which can be selectively disrupted by ctRNS, and a second time-dependent mechanism of predictive "sequence detection"which can be selectively enhanced by ctRNS. This latter mechanism might be included among the cerebellar operational models constantly engaged in the rapid adjustment of social predictions based on dynamic behavioral information inherent to others' actions. We speculate that it might be one of the basic principles underlying the understanding of other individuals' social and emotional behaviors during interactions.

Emotional distraction and facilitation across sense and time.

Emotional stimuli can disrupt or enhance task performance according to factors that are presently poorly understood. One potentially important determinant is the sensory modality involved. In unimodal visual paradigms (visual task-irrelevant stimuli during a visual task) emotional stimuli frequently produce distraction effects; however, the effects across modalities appear more complex and may also depend on factors related to stimulus timing. It is entirely unclear how task-irrelevant visual stimuli impact auditory task performance in cross-modal paradigms. This project explored task performance as a function of sensory modality, emotional valence, and stimulus timing. In Study 1, participants (N = 50) completed a visual stimulus detection task in the presence of task-irrelevant negative and neutral images and sounds. Accuracy was disrupted in the presence of visual but not auditory emotional stimuli, particularly when the target and task-irrelevant stimulus appeared simultaneously. In Study 2, participants (N = 38) completed an equivalent auditory stimulus detection task. In sharp contrast to the effects observed with visual targets, response times and accuracy were enhanced in the presence of auditory emotional stimuli at the first timepoint but disrupted at later timepoints. However, there was no effect of task-irrelevant visual stimuli on auditory task performance. These findings demonstrate the importance of both sensory modality and timing in determining how emotional stimuli affect task performance and lay the groundwork for future studies examining the interaction between emotional and attentional processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Use of the P300 event-related potential component to index transcranial direct current stimulation effects in drug users

Drug use causes significant social and financial problems and these are exacerbated by difficulties in stopping use and subsequent maintenance of abstinence. There is also difficulty in identifying the beneficial treatment for an individual, made more problematic given the high drop-out rates in treatment programs. Here, the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the amplitude of the P300 event-related potential component, previously suggested to be indicative of successful remission, was measured in recently abstinent amphetamine users. This component was collected during a Posner cuing task which was presented to this group and to control (non-user) participants, using task cues of neutral and drug-related images. The abstinent drug users were divided into two groups, one of which received tDCS daily for five days, with the cathode over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the anode over the right DLPFC, and one receiving sham stimulation over the same time period. Behavioral performance and P300 amplitudes were measured before and after the period of tDCS delivery. Control participants were tested with the same time-schedule of task presentation but without administration of tDCS. Drug users initially showed a larger cost of invalid cues on task performance compared to control (non-drug user) participants and this was reduced following delivery of tDCS. Additionally, tDCS resulted in increased amplitude of the P300 component, significantly so for neutral cues, with the resulting pattern being more similar to that of the non-users. This provides a good basis for further investigation of both the utility of tDCS in modulation of cognition in addict groups, and to investigate the effects of modulating the P300 component on remission rates, a relationship that seems to be the case for this measure without use of tDCS modulation. Importantly, this study also provides a further addiction group showing P300 amplitude modulation as a result of tDCS administration.

Episodic memory through a social and emotional lens.

Negative emotion enhances item memory but may reduce associative memory. Social information may also enhance memory, yet how social and emotional cues combine to affect memory for focal and surrounding details is unknown. Gender differences may also exist, but whether women and men encode and remember negative and social information differently is unclear. This study examines how social information contributes to or interacts with emotion to influence item and associative memory, and whether gender plays a role in how social and/or emotional information is recognized. Discovery and replication samples (N = 706) were recruited. Stimuli included (1) images with varying social and emotional content categorized into four conditions: negative social, negative nonsocial, neutral social, neutral nonsocial and (2) neutral images of objects paired with target stimuli to assess associative memory. Participants viewed the image pairings (Encoding). Twenty-four hours later, item and associative recognition memory were tested. Item recognition memory was better for negative vs. neutral and social vs. nonsocial images. By contrast, associative recognition memory was worse for negative vs. neutral, but better for social vs. nonsocial images. Finally, women demonstrated similar item memory performance compared to men but better associative recognition memory performance overall compared to men. Emotional and social cues impart distinct effects on how we form holistic episodic memories, highlighting the importance of considering these critical factors when striving to understand how and what we remember. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Age-related reduction in trait anxiety: Behavioral and neural evidence of automaticity in negative facial emotion processing

Trait anxiety diminishes with age, which may result from age-related decline in registering salient emotional stimuli and/or enhancement in emotion regulation. We tested the hypotheses in 88 adults 21 to 85 years of age and studied with fMRI of the Hariri task. Age-related decline in stimulus registration would manifest in delayed reaction time (RT) and diminished saliency circuit activity in response to emotional vs. neutral stimuli. Enhanced control of negative emotions would manifest in diminished limbic/emotional circuit and higher prefrontal cortical (PFC) responses to negative emotion. The results showed that anxiety was negatively correlated with age. Age was associated with faster RT and diminished activation of the medial PFC, in the area of the dorsal and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (dACC/rACC) – a hub of the saliency circuit – during matching of negative but not positive vs. neutral emotional faces. A slope test confirmed the differences in the regressions. Further, age was not associated with activation of the PFC in whole-brain regression or in region-of-interest analysis of the dorsolateral PFC, an area identified from meta-analyses of the emotion regulation literature. Together, the findings fail to support either hypothesis; rather, the findings suggest age-related automaticity in processing negative emotions as a potential mechanism of diminished anxiety. Automaticity results in faster RT and diminished anterior cingulate activity in response to negative but not positive emotional stimuli. In support, analyses of psychophysiological interaction demonstrated higher dACC/rACC connectivity with the default mode network, which has been implicated in automaticity in information processing. As age increased, individuals demonstrated faster RT with higher connectivity during matching of negative vs. neutral images. Automaticity in negative emotion processing needs to be investigated as a mechanism of age-related reduction in anxiety.

0055 Effect of acute sleep restriction on sleep physiology and emotional imagery memory in schizophrenia

Abstract Introduction Cognitive dysfunction in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) represents a major determinant of poor functioning and may arise in part due to deficits in sleep quality that have been reported in in this population. In the current project, we investigate the effect of acute sleep restriction on a sleep-dependent emotional memory task. Methods Six individuals with medication-controlled SZ encoded consensus-rated emotionally valent and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System in the evening before 2 counterbalanced, polysomnographically-recorded nights containing either ad libitum sleep (~11pm to 7am) or sleep restriction (SR) to 4 hours between 3 and 7 am. Image recall occurred within 1 hour of wake time. We compared memory performance for negative emotional/neutral memory and PSG measures across the two sleep conditions with paired signed-rank tests. Results Mean age was 38 years and 50% were women. Acute sleep restriction resulted in reduced total sleep time (Adlib: median 372 min. (interquartile-range 53) vs SR: 209 (16) min., p=0.03), including reduction in duration of N1 (Ad lib: 44 min. (44) vs. SR: 29 min. (33), p=0.03), N2 (Ad lib: 158 min. (86) vs. SR: 60 min. (33), p=0.03) and REM sleep (Ad lib: 18 min. (5) vs. SR: 13 min. (13), p=0.03). We did not observe differences in N3 duration, sleep efficiency, and arousal index. Measures of breathing such as AHI4%, AHI3A, and SpO2 nadir were not significantly different between conditions. Compared to SR, the false alarm rate for emotional images was increased in ad lib sleep (n=6, p=0.03) with no difference in false alarm rate for neutral images (p=0.19). Correct rejection rate for emotional images was increased in SR compared to ad lib sleep (p=0.03) with no difference in neutral images (p=0.19). No other change was observed in accuracy of recall for emotional or neutral, miss rate for emotional or neutral and d-prime for emotional or neutral images. Conclusion In subjects with SZ, unrestricted sleep was associated with a greater false alarm rate for emotional, but not neutral scenes, suggesting a deficit in veridical memory or generalization of emotionally encoded information. Support (if any) R21MH126357, R01AG066870, R01AG056682, K24HL109156, AASMF Focus award/AARG-D

0363 Sound vs. Sight: A Modality-Specific Preliminary Investigation of Sleep-Related Attentional Bias in Older Adults

Abstract Introduction Increased attention to sleep-related stimuli (i.e., “sleep-related attentional bias”) may contribute to the persistence of insomnia symptoms. Despite high prevalence of insomnia disorder in older adults, studies investigating this phenomenon in this population are lacking. Additionally, it is unclear whether this bias occurs only for visual stimuli or more broadly, such as for auditory stimuli. This study examined whether auditory and visual sleep-related attentional bias differed as a function of insomnia disorder in older adults. Methods Sixty-one older adults (Mage=68.2±5.9; 41 women/) with (n=22) and without (n=39) insomnia (met DSM-5 criteria plus reported 6+nights/14 of >30 mins sleep onset latency or wake after sleep onset on daily diaries) completed modified Posner Cueing and Dot Probe tasks. Task cues included sleep-related auditory (e.g., alarm clocks, snoring), visual (e.g., clocks set to bedtimes, person awake in bed) and non-sleep (auditory: pure tones; visual: neutral images from the International Affective Picture system) stimuli. For Posner, valid [non-cued reaction time (RT) minus validly-cued RT] and invalid (non-cued RT minus invalidly-cued RT) sleep and non-sleep related visual and auditory cueing effects were calculated. For Dot Probe, valid (non-sleep/neutral cued RT minus sleep-related validly-cued RT) and invalid (non-sleep/neutral cued RT minus sleep-related invalidly-cued RT) visual cueing effects were computed. Independent t-tests examined whether auditory/visual mean cueing effects for sleep and non-sleep stimuli differed by insomnia status. Results Posner valid auditory sleep-related cueing effects were larger (p=.04) for those with insomnia (104.6±47.6ms) vs. without (80.7±57.3ms). Valid auditory non-sleep related cueing effects were also larger (p=.001) for insomnia (118.9±48.8ms) vs. without (67.9±77.2ms). For Dot Probe, there was a trending difference (p=.07) between visual sleep-related valid cueing effects for insomnia (14.7ms±6.7ms) vs. without (-1.8ms±7.1ms). Conclusion Preliminary findings suggest older adults with insomnia experience larger visual sleep-related attentional bias than those without insomnia. Further, greater auditory attentional bias in insomnia may reflect general auditory cortex hypervigilance. Aging adults with insomnia may benefit from stimulus desensitization towards insomnia triggers across sensory modalities to potentially facilitate sleep. Support (if any) This research project was made possible by an award (PI:Curtis) from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation, a foundation of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Autistic traits shape neuronal oscillations during emotion perception under attentional load modulation

Emotional content is particularly salient, but situational factors such as cognitive load may disturb the attentional prioritization towards affective stimuli and interfere with their processing. In this study, 31 autistic and 31 typically developed children volunteered to assess their perception of affective prosodies via event-related spectral perturbations of neuronal oscillations recorded by electroencephalography under attentional load modulations induced by Multiple Object Tracking or neutral images. Although intermediate load optimized emotion processing by typically developed children, load and emotion did not interplay in children with autism. Results also outlined impaired emotional integration emphasized in theta, alpha and beta oscillations at early and late stages, and lower attentional ability indexed by the tracking capacity. Furthermore, both tracking capacity and neuronal patterns of emotion perception during task were predicted by daily-life autistic behaviors. These findings highlight that intermediate load may encourage emotion processing in typically developed children. However, autism aligns with impaired affective processing and selective attention, both insensitive to load modulations. Results were discussed within a Bayesian perspective that suggests atypical updating in precision between sensations and hidden states, towards poor contextual evaluations. For the first time, implicit emotion perception assessed by neuronal markers was integrated with environmental demands to characterize autism.

Neural reactivity to threat impacts the association between bullying victimization and suicide risk in youth

Bullying victimization is a risk factor for suicidal ideation, suicide behaviors, and death by suicide in youth. However, not all victims of bullying report suicidal thoughts and behaviors, suggesting that there may be certain subgroups who are at high risk for suicide. Neuroimaging studies suggest that individual differences in neurobiological threat reactivity may contribute to increased vulnerability to suicide, particularly in the context of repeated exposure to bullying. The purpose of the present study was to examine the unique and interactive effects of past-year bullying victimization and neural reactivity to threat on suicide risk in youth. Ninety-one youth (ages 16–19) completed self-report measures of past-year bullying victimization and current suicide risk. Participants also completed a task designed to probe neural reactivity to threat. Specifically, participants passively viewed negative or neutral images during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Bilateral anterior insula (AIC) and amygdala (AMYG) reactivity to threat/negative images (>neutral images) was used to capture threat sensitivity. Greater bullying victimization was associated with increased suicide risk. There was also a bullying by AIC reactivity interaction such that among individuals with high AIC reactivity, greater bullying was associated with increased suicide risk. Among individuals with low AIC reactivity, there was no association between bullying and suicide risk. Results suggest that youth with increased AIC reactivity to threat may be particularly vulnerable to suicide in the context of bullying. These individuals may represent a high-risk group for subsequent suicide behavior and AIC function may be a promising objective prevention target.

Exploring effects of response biases in affect induction procedures.

This study examined whether self-reports or ratings of experienced affect, often used as manipulation checks on the efficacy of affect induction procedures (AIPs), reflect genuine changes in affective states rather than response biases arising from demand characteristics or social desirability effects. In a between-participants design, participants were exposed to positive, negative and neutral images with valence-congruent music or sound to induce happy, sad and neutral mood. Half of the participants had to actively appraise each image whereas the other half viewed images passively. We hypothesised that if ratings of affective valence are subject to response biases then they should reflect the target mood in the same way for active appraisal and passive exposure as participants encountered the same affective stimuli in both conditions. We also tested whether the AIP resulted in mood-congruent changes in facial expressions analysed by FaceReader to see whether behavioural indicators corroborate the self-reports. The results showed that while participants' ratings reflected the induced target valence, the difference between positive and negative AIP was significantly attenuated in the active appraisal condition, suggesting that self-reports of mood experienced after the AIP are not entirely a reflection of response biases. However, there were no effects of the AIP on FaceReader valence scores, in line with theories questioning the existence of cross-culturally and inter-individually universal behavioural indicators of affective states. Efficacy of AIPs is therefore best checked using self-reports.

Walk the plank! Using mobile electroencephalography to investigate emotional lateralization of immersive fear in virtual reality.

Most studies on emotion processing induce emotions through images or films. However, this method lacks ecological validity, limiting generalization to real-life emotion processing. More realistic paradigms using virtual reality (VR) may be better suited to investigate authentic emotional states and their neuronal correlates. This pre-registered study examines the neuronal underpinnings of naturalistic fear, measured using mobile electroencephalography (EEG). Seventy-five healthy participants walked across a virtual plank which extended from the side of a skyscraper-either 80 storeys up (the negative condition) or at street level (the neutral condition). Subjective ratings showed that the negative condition induced feelings of fear. Following the VR experience, participants passively viewed negative and neutral images from the international affective picture system (IAPS) outside of VR. We compared frontal alpha asymmetry between the plank and IAPS task and across valence of the conditions. Asymmetry indices in the plank task revealed greater right-hemispheric lateralization during the negative VR condition, relative to the neutral VR condition and to IAPS viewing. Within the IAPS task, no significant asymmetries were detected. In summary, our findings indicate that immersive technologies such as VR can advance emotion research by providing more ecologically valid ways to induce emotion.

Peer-elicited alcohol craving in adolescents and emerging adults: Bridging the laboratory and natural environment.

Although peers figure prominently in developmental models of alcohol use, our understanding of the influence of peer social context in cue reactivity paradigms with adolescents and emerging adults in the human laboratory and the natural environment is limited. This study tested associations between alcohol craving among youth in the human laboratory using alcohol-related images, with and without peers, and in the natural environment using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Data for this preregistered secondary analysis were collected prior to randomization in two medication trials (N=115). Participants completed an image cue exposure paradigm at the baseline laboratory session followed by approximately 7 days of EMA. In the laboratory, model-based mean comparisons from multilevel models (MLMs) showed that all drinking images elicited greater craving than neutral images. No differences were observed across the three image categories containing alcohol. Image category by age interactions demonstrated that, compared to older youth, younger youth displayed lower craving in response to neutral versus social drinking context with peers images and older, compared to younger, youth displayed higher craving in response to nonsocial drinking images versus social drinking contexts with peers images. In the natural environment, craving was greatest when youth were in the presence of alcohol-using peers and alcohol-related cues, regardless of age. Laboratory craving to alcohol images was positively associated with craving in the natural environment. For youth, peers are a salient social context associated with increased craving, particularly in the natural environment. Laboratory cue reactivity to alcohol images predicted real-world craving, further supporting the ecological validity of this paradigm in youth.