Non-emotional Information Research Articles

Attentional blink impairment in social anxiety disorder: Depression comorbidity matters

Background and objectivesDifficulties with attentional control have long been thought to play a key role in anxiety and depressive disorders. However, the nature and extent of attentional control difficulties in social anxiety disorder (SAD) are not yet well understood. The current study was designed to assess whether attentional control for non-emotional information is impaired in SAD when taking comorbid depression into account.. MethodsIndividuals with SAD and healthy controls (HCs) were administered an attentional blink (AB) task in which they identified number targets in a rapid serial visual presentation stream of letters. ResultsIndividuals with SAD and current comorbid depression exhibited reduced accuracy to identify a target that fell within the AB window after the presentation of a first target compared to individuals with SAD without current comorbid depression, as well as to HCs. The latter two groups did not differ from each other, and the three groups did not differ in accuracy for the second target when it was presented after the AB window. LimitationsAlthough we included two clinical groups and the sample size for the non-comorbid SAD group was large, the comorbid SAD group was relatively small. ConclusionsThese results suggest that impaired attentional control among individuals with SAD may be limited to those suffering from current comorbid depression..

Encoding of goal-relevant stimuli is strengthened by emotional arousal in memory.

Emotional information receives preferential processing, which facilitates adaptive strategies for survival. However, the presence of emotional stimuli and the arousal they induce also influence how surrounding non-emotional information is processed in memory (Mather and Sutherland, 2011). For example, seeing a highly emotional scene often leads to forgetting of what was seen right beforehand, but sometimes instead enhances memory for the preceding information. In two studies, we examined how emotional arousal affects short-term memory retention for goal-relevant information that was just seen. In Study 1, participants were asked to remember neutral objects in spatially-cued locations (i.e., goal-relevant objects determined by specific location), while ignoring objects in uncued locations. After each set of objects were shown, arousal was manipulated by playing a previously fear-conditioned tone (i.e., CS+) or a neutral tone that had not been paired with shock (CS–). In Study 1, memory for the goal-relevant neutral objects from arousing trials was enhanced compared to those from the non-arousing trials. This result suggests that emotional arousal helps to increase the impact of top-down priority (i.e., goal-relevancy) on memory encoding. Study 2 supports this conclusion by demonstrating that when the goal was to remember all objects regardless of the spatial cue, emotional arousal induced memory enhancement in a more global manner for all objects. In sum, the two studies show that the ability of arousal to enhance memory for previously encoded items depends on the goal relevance initially assigned to those items.

Early detection and late cognitive control of emotional distraction by the prefrontal cortex.

Unpleasant emotional distraction can impair the retention of non-emotional information in working memory (WM). Research links the prefrontal cortex with the successful control of such biologically relevant distractors, although the temporal changes in this brain mechanism remain unexplored. We use magnetoencephalography to investigate the temporal dynamics of the cognitive control of both unpleasant and pleasant distraction, in the millisecond (ms) scale. Behavioral results demonstrate that pleasant events do not affect WM maintenance more than neutral ones. Neuroimaging results show that prefrontal cortices are recruited for the rapid detection of emotional distraction, at early latencies of the processing (70-130 ms). Later in the processing (360-450 ms), the dorsolateral, the medial and the orbital sections of the prefrontal cortex mediate the effective control of emotional distraction. In accordance with the behavioral performance, pleasant distractors do not require higher prefrontal activity than neutral ones. These findings extend our knowledge about the brain mechanisms of coping with emotional distraction in WM. In particular, they show for the first time that overriding the attentional capture triggered by emotional distractors, while maintaining task-relevant elements in mind, is based on the early detection of such linked-to-survival information and on its later cognitive control by the prefrontal cortex.

Randomly dividing homologous samples leads to overinflated accuracies for emotion recognition

There are numerous studies measuring the brain emotional status by analyzing EEGs under the emotional stimuli that have occurred. However, they often randomly divide the homologous samples into training and testing groups, known as randomly dividing homologous samples (RDHS), despite considering the impact of the non-emotional information among them, which would inflate the recognition accuracy. This work proposed a modified method, the integrating homologous samples (IHS), where the homologous samples were either used to build a classifier, or to be tested. The results showed that the classification accuracy was much lower for the IHS than for the RDHS. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between the accuracy and the overlapping rate of the homologous samples. These findings implied that the overinflated accuracy did exist in those previous studies where the RDHS method was employed for emotion recognition. Moreover, this study performed a feature selection for the IHS condition based on the support vector machine-recursive feature elimination, after which the average accuracies were greatly improved to 85.71% and 77.18% in the picture-induced and video-induced tasks, respectively.

An audio-visual dataset of human–human interactions in stressful situations

Stressful situations are likely to occur at human operated service desks, as well as at human-computer interfaces used in public domain. Automatic surveillance can help notifying when extra assistance is needed. Human communication is inherently multimodal e.g. speech, gestures, facial expressions. It is expected that automatic surveillance systems can benefit from exploiting multimodal information. This requires automatic fusion of modalities, which is still an unsolved problem. To support the development of such systems, we present and analyze audio-visual recordings of human-human interactions at a service desk. The corpus has a high degree of realism: all interactions are freely improvised by actors based on short scenarios where only the sources of conflict were provided. The recordings can be considered as a prototype for general stressful human-human interaction. The recordings were annotated on a 5 point scale on degree of stress from the perspective of surveillance operators. The recordings are very rich in hand gestures. We find that the more stressful the situation, the higher the proportion of speech that is accompanied by gestures. Understanding the function of gestures and their relation to speech is essential for good fusion strategies. Taking speech as the basic modality, one of our research questions was, what is the role of gestures in addition to speech. Both speech and gestures can express emotion, so we say that they have an emotional function. They can also express non-emotional information, in which case we say that they have a semantic function. We learn that when speech and gestures have the same function, they are usually congruent, but intensities and clarity can vary. Most gestures in this dataset convey emotion. We identify classes of gestures in our recordings, and argue that some classes are clear indications of stressful situations © 2014 OpenInterface Association.

Rumination is characterized by valence-specific impairments in switching of attention

The ability to flexibly switch attention between emotional and non-emotional information in working memory is considered important in stress-resilience and is impaired in mood disorders. A recent theory claims that this component of attention is specifically related to ruminative thought. To further investigate this claim we report two new experiments using the internal shift task (IST). In Experiment 1 (N=27) we examined the stability of switching ability measured using the IST through examination of internal consistency (stability within the task) and test–retest-reliability (stability over time) over two weeks. Results indicate relatively high stability of switching ability measured with the IST. In Experiment 2 the IST was administered to a pre-selected undergraduate sample of high (N=20) and low ruminators (N=20). The main findings were that rumination was related to attentional switching impairments, specifically in the context of emotional information. The switching impairments were most pronounced when negative information was held in working memory. The attentional switching impairments were most strongly related to the depressive brooding component of rumination. The results of this study lend further support to the proposed link between rumination and switching abilities.

On the role of crossmodal prediction in audiovisual emotion perception

Humans rely on multiple sensory modalities to determine the emotional state of others. In fact, such multisensory perception may be one of the mechanisms explaining the ease and efficiency by which others' emotions are recognized. But how and when exactly do the different modalities interact? One aspect in multisensory perception that has received increasing interest in recent years is the concept of cross-modal prediction. In emotion perception, as in most other settings, visual information precedes the auditory information. Thereby, leading in visual information can facilitate subsequent auditory processing. While this mechanism has often been described in audiovisual speech perception, so far it has not been addressed in audiovisual emotion perception. Based on the current state of the art in (a) cross-modal prediction and (b) multisensory emotion perception research, we propose that it is essential to consider the former in order to fully understand the latter. Focusing on electroencephalographic (EEG) and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) studies, we provide a brief overview of the current research in both fields. In discussing these findings, we suggest that emotional visual information may allow more reliable predicting of auditory information compared to non-emotional visual information. In support of this hypothesis, we present a re-analysis of a previous data set that shows an inverse correlation between the N1 EEG response and the duration of visual emotional, but not non-emotional information. If the assumption that emotional content allows more reliable predicting can be corroborated in future studies, cross-modal prediction is a crucial factor in our understanding of multisensory emotion perception.

The role of consciousness in attentional control differences in trait anxiety

Trait anxiety has long been associated with impaired selective attention to task-irrelevant threat stimuli, both when threat is presented consciously and outside of awareness. However recent research has suggested broader deficits in selective attention, with poorer ability to ignore supraliminal non-emotional information in anxiety. Here, we investigated whether anxiety could equally be associated with poorer selective attention for non-emotional stimuli in a subliminal context. Participants performed a simple arrow discrimination task, where prior incompatible or compatible response primes were presented before targets either unmasked (supraliminal) or masked (subliminal). While distractor interference was evident in both conditions, trait anxiety was associated with increased task-irrelevant processing only in the supraliminal condition; group effects were eliminated when primes were masked. Our findings are in line with traditional accounts suggesting that differences in selective attention and cognitive control solely modulate conscious distractor processing.

Current Emotion Research in Behavioral Neuroscience: The Role(s) of the Amygdala

Substantial advances in our understanding of the neural bases of emotional processing have been made over the past decades. Overall, studies in humans and other animals highlight the key role of the amygdala in the detection and evaluation of stimuli with affective value. Nonetheless, contradictory findings have been reported, especially in terms of the exact role of this structure in the processing of different emotions, giving rise to different neural models of emotion. For instance, although the amygdala has traditionally been considered as exclusively involved in fear (and possibly anger), more recent work suggests that it may be important for processing other types of emotions, and even nonemotional information. A review of the main findings in this field is presented here, together with some of the hypotheses that have been put forward to interpret this literature and explain its inconsistencies.

Using an experimental medicine model to understand the antidepressant potential of the N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist memantine

There is growing interest in the role of the glutamatergic system both in depression and as a novel target for treatments. Preclinical studies suggested that the non-competitive N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonist memantine might have antidepressant properties, but a randomised controlled trial failed to support this. A healthy volunteer model of emotional processing was used to assess the neuropsychological profile of action of memantine. Healthy volunteers (n=32) were randomised to receive a single dose of memantine (10 mg) or placebo, and subsequently completed a battery of tasks measuring emotional processing, including facial expression recognition, emotional memory, dot-probe and emotion-potentiated startle tasks, as well as working and verbal memory. Memantine treated volunteers showed an increased emotion-potentiated startle, and a reduced bias for negative items in emotional recognition memory. There were no effects of the drug on any other aspect of emotional or non-emotional information processing. These results suggest that a single dose of memantine produces an early anxiogenic response in the emotion-potentiated startle similar to that seen following a single dose of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, citalopram. However, the overall profile of effects is more limited than that which might be expected in response to a conventional antidepressant.

Emotional Interference in Working Memory is Related to Rumination

Impairments in the executive control function of working memory may underlie moodcongruent attentional and memory biases in depression. Given that the capacity to control and manipulate information held in working memory has been implicated in depressive symptoms and rumination, the present study investigated shifting capacity between internal emotional and nonemotional information in working memory. For this purpose, the Internal Shift Task (IST) was administered to a sample of dysphoric (N = 20) and non-dysphoric undergraduates (N = 20). The main finding was that depressive symptoms in general were not related to impairments in shifting. Interestingly, rumination was related to internal shifting impairments that were most pronounced when negative information was held in working memory. These findings concerning the relation between rumination and shifting impairments are discussed in relation to cognitive vulnerability for depression.

Specific impairments of emotion perception in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) often results in demyelination of a network of frontal-subcortical tracts involved in processing emotional information. We investigated the effect of MS on the ability to identify emotional and nonemotional information from static and dynamic stimuli and determined whether difficulties in emotion perception related to quality of life. 32 MS and 33 control participants, matched for age and education, identified emotions and nonemotional information from static images of faces and dynamic videos of people interacting. They also completed cognitive assessment and quality of life ratings. On the static face perception tasks, participants with MS performed more poorly than healthy controls on emotion perception, t(63) = 3.30, p < .01, d = .83, but not identity perception, t(63) = 1.18, d = .30. For the dynamic tasks, the MS group were impaired on emotion perception, t(63) = 3.41, p = .001, d = .86, but not age/gender perception, t(63) = 0.15, d = .04. Ratings of social and psychological aspects of quality of life in MS were related to emotion perception scores, controlling for disease severity and duration, age, depression, and cognitive function, with r2 ranging from .17 to .24. These results indicate a specific deficit in decoding static and dynamic information about emotion in MS, as compared to nonemotional information. There were specific relationships between emotion perception problems and poor social and psychological quality of life, indicating that emotional skills should be considered when evaluating functioning in MS.

Brain dysfunctions during facial discrimination in schizophrenia: Selective association to affect decoding

Schizophrenia patients exhibit impaired facial affect perception, yet the exact nature of this impairment remains unclear. We investigated neural activity related to processing facial emotional and non-emotional information and complex images in 12 schizophrenia patients and 15 healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging. All subjects performed a facial information processing task with three conditions: matching facial emotion, matching facial identity, and matching complex visual patterns. Patients and controls showed comparable behavioral performance in all task conditions. The neural activation patterns in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls were distinctly different while processing affect-related facial information but not other non-emotional facial features. During emotion matching, orbital frontal cortex and left amydala activations were found in controls but not in patients. When comparing emotion versus identity matching, controls activated the fusiform and middle temporal gyri, left superior temporal gyrus, and right inferior and middle frontal gyrus, whereas schizophrenia patients only activated the middle and inferior frontal gyri, the frontal operculi and the right insular cortex. Our findings suggest that schizophrenia patients and healthy controls may utilize different neural networks when processing facial emotional information.

Effects of Adult Attachment and Emotional Distractors on Brain Mechanisms of Cognitive Control

Using data from 34 participants who completed an emotion-word Stroop task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the effects of adult attachment on neural activity associated with top-down cognitive control in the presence of emotional distractors. Individuals with lower levels of secure-base-script knowledge—reflected in an adult’s inability to generate narratives in which attachment-related threats are recognized, competent help is provided, and the problem is resolved—demonstrated more activity in prefrontal cortical regions associated with emotion regulation (e.g., right orbitofrontal cortex) and with top-down cognitive control (left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and superior frontal gyrus). Less efficient performance and related increases in brain activity suggest that insecure attachment involves a vulnerability to distraction by attachment-relevant emotional information and that greater cognitive control is required to attend to task-relevant, nonemotional information. These results contribute to the understanding of mechanisms through which attachment-related experiences may influence developmental adaptation.

Emotion-oriented reminiscing and children's recall of a novel event

An experimental paradigm examined the impact of elaborative, emotion- and non-emotion-focused reminiscing on 83 younger (3–4 years) and older (5–6 years) children's memory for a staged “visit to the zoo” event. Two days after participating in the narrated event, children were engaged in one of four types of reminiscing: emotion-cause (causes of the animals' emotions were described), emotion-expression (animals' emotion expressions were described), no-emotion (animals' physical characteristics were described), or minimal (control). All but the minimal condition reminisced elaboratively. Two weeks later, children who reminisced about emotions, particularly in the emotion-cause condition, recalled more emotional and non-emotional information overall than did children in the no-emotion or minimal conditions. During free recall older children recalled an equal amount in the emotion-cause and emotion-expression conditions, but younger children did not. The findings suggest that elaborative, emotional reminiscing benefits children's recall to a greater extent than does elaborative, non-emotional reminiscing.

The association between depressive symptoms and executive control impairments in response to emotional and non-emotional information

Depression has been linked with impaired executive control and specific impairments in inhibition of negative material. To date, only a few studies have examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and executive functions in response to emotional information. Using a new paradigm, the Affective Shift Task (AST), the present study examined whether depressive symptoms in general, and rumination specifically, are related to impairments in inhibition and set shifting in response to emotional and non-emotional material. The main finding was that depressive symptoms in general were not related to inhibition. Set-shifting impairments were only observed in moderate to severely depressed individuals. Interestingly, rumination was related to inhibition impairments, specifically when processing negative information, as well as impaired set shifting as reflected in a larger shift cost. These results are discussed in relation to cognitive views on vulnerability for depression.

Gaming Emotions in Social Interactions

One’s own emotions may influence someone else’s behavior in a social interaction. If one believes this, she or he has an incentive to game emotions—to strategically modify the expression of a current emotional state—in an attempt to influence her or his counterpart. In a series of three experiments, this article investigates the extent to which people (1) misrepresent a current emotional state, (2) willfully acknowledge their strategic actions, (3) choose to game emotions over nonemotional information, and (4) improve their financial well-being from emotion gaming.

Ability EI as an intelligence? Associations of the MSCEIT with performance on emotion processing and social tasks and with cognitive ability

Associations among the MSCEIT, a broad-bandwidth measure of ability emotional intelligence (EI), self-report EI, social perception ability, psychometric intelligence and performance on inspection time (IT) tasks, which assessed the speed of processing of emotional and non-emotional information were investigated in two student samples (N=99, 199). The main findings were that MSCEIT scores were unrelated to fluid ability or speed of non-emotional information processing as assessed by IT, but evidence for associations of MSCEIT scores with crystallised ability was found. Positive associations were found between MSCEIT scores, self-report EI and some emotion/social task scores. The results suggest that EI as assessed by the MSCEIT has some properties of an intelligence and is more closely related to crystallised than to fluid ability. The relatively small MSCEIT/g c correlations suggest that the MSCEIT is not a pure ability measure, although restriction of range in the samples used may also be relevant. More work, and the development of new measures, is required to determine whether performance EI has a fluid component.

Selective difficulty in recognising facial expressions of emotion in boys with ADHD

Research on emotion understanding in ADHD shows inconsistent results. This study uses control methods to investigate two questions about recognition and understanding of emotional expressions in 36 five- to eleven-year-old boys with ADHD: [1] Do they find this task more difficult than judging non-emotional information from faces, thus suggesting a specific social-cognitive impairment? [2] Are their judgements about faces impaired by general limitations on task performance, such as impulsive responding? In Part 1, 19 boys with ADHD and 19 age-matched typically developing boys matched facial expressions of emotion to situations, and did a control non-emotional face-processing task. Boys with ADHD performed more poorly than age-matches on both tasks, but found the emotion task harder than the non-emotion task. In Part 2, 17 boys with ADHD and 13 five-to six-year-old typically developing boys performed the same tasks, but with an 'inhibitory scaffolding' procedure to prevent impulsive responding. Boys with ADHD performed as well as the younger controls on the non-emotional task, but still showed impairments in the emotion task. Boys with ADHD may show poorer task performance because of general cognitive factors, but also showed selective problems in matching facial emotions to situations.

Reality monitoring and memory distortion: Effects of negative, arousing content

Although individuals often claim to vividly remember negatively arousing information, few studies have been performed to examine whether this emotional information is remembered more accurately than nonemotional information. In the present study, we investigated whether the emotional content of items modulates the accuracy with which individuals make reality-monitoring decisions. Participants (young adults, 18-35 years of age) distinguished imagined from seen words (Experiments 1 and 3A) or objects (Experiments 2 and 3B). Half of the items studied in each condition (presented and imagined) were negative and arousing, and half were neutral. The participants mistook imagined items for presented ones, but the number of reality-monitoring errors was lower for the arousing items than for the neutral items. Negative, arousing items appear to be remembered with contextual detail more frequently than are neutral items, leading memory for this emotional information to be less prone to distortion than is memory for neutral information. Thus, negative arousal can enhance not only the subjective vividness of a memory, but also a memory's accuracy.