Negative Emotional Processing Research Articles

The regulatory roles of progesterone and estradiol on emotion processing in women

Emotion processing is known to interact with memory. Ovarian steroid hormones, such as progesterone and estradiol, modulate emotion processing and memory. However, it is unclear how these hormones influence brain activity when emotion processing is integrated with working memory (WM). Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the relationship between endogenous hormonal concentration and brain activity during emotion processing in the context of a WM n-back task in 74 young women using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Results show that positive emotion processing activates reward-related areas, such as the caudate and putamen, whereas negative emotion processing activates a corticolimbic network, including the amygdala and hippocampus. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence that progesterone modulates more bottom-up brain activation during both positive and negative emotion processing, whereas estradiol activates lateralized, top-down regulation. These findings provide insight on the neural correlates of emotion processing during an n-back task in young women and highlight how important it is to consider women's endogenous hormonal concentration in neurobiological and cognition research.

Facial Expression and EEG Fusion for Investigating Continuous Emotions of Deaf Subjects

Emotion recognition has received increasing attention in human-computer interaction (HCI) and psychological assessment. Compared with single modal emotion recognition, the multimodal paradigm has an outperformance because of introducing complementary information for emotion recognition. However, current research is mainly focused on normal people, the deaf subjects need to understand emotional changes in real life. In this paper, we propose a multimodal continuous emotion recognition method for deaf subjects based on facial expression and electroencephalograph (EEG) signals. Twelve emotion movie clips as stimulus were selected and annotated by ten postgraduates who majored in psychology. The EEG signals and facial expressions of deaf subjects were collected when they watched the stimulus clips. The differential entropy (DE) features of EEG were extracted by time-frequency analysis and the six facial features were extracted by facial landmark. Long short-term memory networks (LSTM) were utilized to accomplish the feature level fusion and captured the temporal dynamics of emotions. The result shows that the EEG signal is better than the dynamic emotional capture of facial expressions and deaf subjects in continuous emotion recognition. Multi-modality can compensate for the information of a single modality, which achieves a better performance. Finally, from the neural activities of deaf subjects, the result reveals that the prefrontal lobe region may be strongly related to negative emotion processing, and the lateral temporal lobe region may be strongly related to positive emotion processing.

Differential Development of Negative and Positive Emotion Processing in Adolescents

The role of face emotion processing in emotion regulation, a key aspect in adolescent depression, is unclear. Study goals were to examine a) whether adolescents perform worse when processing angry emotions vs. positive and neutral emotions; b) whether emotional “intensity” affects performance; d) the relationship between emotion processing and emotion regulation, defined as part of executive functions.

Dispositional Negative Emotionality in Childhood and Adolescence Predicts Structural Variation in the Amygdala and Caudal Anterior Cingulate During Early Adulthood: Theoretically and Empirically Based Tests.

Substantial evidence implicates the amygdala and related structures in the processing of negative emotions. Furthermore, neuroimaging evidence suggests that variations in amygdala volumes are related to trait-like individual differences in neuroticism/negative emotionality, although many questions remain about the nature of such associations. We conducted planned tests of the directional prediction that dispositional negative emotionality measured at 10-17years using parent and youth ratings on the Child and Adolescent Dispositions Scale (CADS) would predict larger volumes of the amygdala in adulthood and conducted exploratory tests of associations with other regions implicated in emotion processing. Participants were 433 twins strategically selected for neuroimaging during wave 2 from wave 1 of the Tennessee Twins Study (TTS) by oversampling on internalizing and/or externalizing psychopathology risk. Controlling for age, sex, race-ethnicity, handedness, scanner, and total brain volume, youth-rated negative emotionality positively predicted bilateral amygdala volumes after correction for multiple testing. Each unit difference of one standard deviation (SD) in negative emotionality was associated with a .12 SD unit difference in larger volumes of both amygdalae. Parent-rated negative emotionality predicted greater thickness of the left caudal/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (β = 0.28). Associations of brain structure with negative emotionality were not moderated by sex. These results are striking because dispositions assessed at 10-17years of age were predictive of grey matter volumes measured 12-13years later in adulthood. Future longitudinal studies should examine the timing of amygdala/cingulate associations with dispositional negative emotionality to determine when these associations emerge during development.

Recognition of musical emotions in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia

IntroductionMultiple investigations have revealed that patients with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) experience difficulty recognizing emotional signals in multiple processing modalities (e.g., faces, prosody). Few studies have evaluated the recognition of musical emotions in these patients. This research aims to evaluate the ability of subjects with bvFTD to recognize musical stimuli with positive and negative emotions, in comparison with healthy subjects. MethodsbvFTD (n=12) and healthy control participants (n=24) underwent a test of musical emotion recognition: 56 fragments of piano music were randomly reproduced, 14 for each of the emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, and peacefulness). ResultsIn the subjects with bvFTD, a mean of correct answers of 23.6 (42.26%) was observed in contrast to the control subjects, where the average number of correct answers was 36.3 (64.8%). Statistically significant differences were found for each of the evaluated musical emotions and in the total score on the performed test (P<.01). The within-group analysis showed greater difficulty for both groups in recognizing negative musical emotions (sadness, fear), with the subjects with bvFTD exhibiting worse performance. ConclusionsOur results indicate that the recognition of musical stimuli with positive (happiness, peacefulness) and negative (sadness, fear) emotions are compromised in patients with bvFTD. The processing of negative musical emotions is the most difficult for these individuals.

Atypical neural activation associated with implicit negative emotional facial processing in fMRI tasks in individuals with neuroticism personality traits

Neuroticism is a personality trait that reflects emotional instability and is related to negative emotions, such as sensitivity to negative information and negative appraisal. Existing studies on the neural basis of the neuroticism personality trait have focused on explicit emotion processing and neglected to acknowledge the potentially important role of implicit emotion processing, especially using an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) task with a Chinese sample. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate differences in brain activation in an implicit negative emotion processing fMRI task between individuals with high and low neuroticism scores within a Chinese sample. To this end, the revised NEO-PI-R (Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory) was used to identify 82 high-neuroticism participants and 82 low-neuroticism participants, who were then scanned during an implicit negative emotion processing fMRI task. Compared to the participants with low neuroticism scores, those with high neuroticism scores showed significantly decreased brain activation in the mPFC (medial prefrontal cortex), which plays a pivotal role in implicit emotion processing; these data might suggest that individuals with high neuroticism have deficits in implicit negative emotion processing, which may be related to their emotional instability, emotional regulation and attention-related spontaneous activity.

Socioeconomic Disparities Affect Children’s Amygdala-Prefrontal Circuitry via Stress Hormone Response

BackgroundThe socioeconomic status (SES) of a family can affect almost all aspects of a child’s life, including health and current and future achievement. The potential adverse effects of low SES on children’s emotional development are thought to result from proximal factors such as stress. The underlying neurobiological mechanisms, however, remain elusive. MethodsThe effect of SES on children’s integrative cortisol secretion and its modulations on emotion-related brain systems and connectivity were examined in children aged 6 to 12 years. In study 1, we investigated the relationship between SES and cortisol secretion in 239 children. In study 2, using resting-state and task-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging in a subsample of 50 children, we investigated how SES affects children’s amygdala-prefrontal functional organization through cortisol secretion. ResultsChildren from lower SES exhibited lower cortisol secretion, considering basal cortisol, nocturnal cortisol activity during sleep, and cortisol awakening response, which mediated higher amygdala nuclei intrinsic functional connectivity with the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). Critically, these children also exhibited higher task-evoked ventromedial PFC activity through higher intrinsic connectivity of the centromedial amygdala with the medial PFC. They also exhibited higher functional coupling of the centromedial amygdala with the dorsolateral PFC when processing negative emotions. ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that SES shapes children’s amygdala-prefrontal circuitry through stress-sensitive cortisol secretion, with the most prominent effect in the centromedial amygdala’s functional coordination with the ventromedial and dorsolateral PFC involved in processing negative emotions. Our findings provide important insight into the neurobiological etiology underlying how socioeconomic disparities shape children’s emotional development.

Altered Effective Connectivity within the Fronto-Limbic Circuitry in Response to Negative Emotional Task in Female Patients with Major Depressive Disorder.

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a mood disorder associated with disruptions in emotional control. Previous studies have investigated abnormal regional activity and connectivity within the fronto-limbic circuit. However, condition-specific connectivity changes and their association with the pathophysiology of MDD remain unexplored. This study investigated effective connectivity in the fronto-limbic circuit induced by negative emotional processing from patients with MDD. Methods: Thirty-four unmedicated female patients with MDD and 28 healthy participants underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging at 7T while viewing emotionally negative and neutral images. Brain regions whose dynamics are driven by experimental conditions were identified by using statistical parametric mapping. Effective connectivity among regions of interest was then estimated by using dynamic causal modeling. Results: Patients with MDD had lower activation of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and higher activation of the parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) than healthy controls (HC). In association with these regional changes, we found that patients with MDD did not have significant modulatory connections from the primary visual cortex (V1) to OFC, whereas those connections of HC were significantly positively modulated during negative emotional processing. Regarding the PHG activity, patients with MDD had greater modulatory connection from the V1, but reduced negative modulatory connection from the OFC, compared with healthy participants. Conclusions: These results imply that disrupted effective connectivity among regions of the OFC, PHG, and V1 may be closely associated with the impaired regulation of negative emotional processing in the female patients with MDD.

The functional neural architecture of dysfunctional reward processing in autism

Functional imaging studies have found differential neural activation patterns during reward-paradigms in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to neurotypical controls. However, publications report conflicting results on the directionality and location of these aberrant activations. We here quantitatively summarized relevant fMRI papers in the field using the anatomical likelihood estimation (ALE) algorithm.Patients with ASD consistently showed hypoactivations in the striatum across studies, mainly in the right putamen and accumbens. These regions are functionally involved in the processing of rewards and are enrolled in extensive neural networks involving limbic, cortical, thalamic and mesencephalic regions.The striatal hypo-activations found in our ALE meta-analysis, which pooled over contrasts derived from the included studies on reward-processing in ASD, highlight the role of the striatum as a key neural correlate of impaired reward processing in autism. These changes were present for studies using social and non-social stimuli alike. The involvement of these regions in extensive networks associated with the processing of both positive and negative emotion alike might hint at broader impairments of emotion processing in the disorder.

The contribution of orbitofrontal cortex to stress-related psychiatric disorders: stress induced synaptic change in the orbitofrontal-basolateral amygdala pathway

Exposure to stress induces alterations in synaptic functions, and increases the risk of stress-related psychiatric disorders, such as major depression and PTSD. To develop new treatments for stress-related psychiatric disorders, it is important to understand the effect of stress on the emotional circuits, such as prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala and other limbic regions. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC, ventral subregion of the PFC) has important roles for processing of negative emotion and has recently been highlighted as a critical region in stress-related psychiatric disorders. However, mechanisms how stress affect OFC circuit and induce psychiatric symptoms were less understood. OFC sends dense projection to the amygdala, which is one of the key nodes for processing of negative emotion. Taken together, there is a possibility that stress affects the information processing in the OFC-amygdala pathway, and it underlies stress-induced emotional alteration. In this article, we introduce our research that examined effects of stress on the excitatory synaptic transmission from OFC to the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) using optogenetic and whole-cell patch-clamp methods in mice.

The role of frontal-subcortical connectivity in the relation between coping styles and reactivity and downregulation of negative emotion

Coping styles (CS) reflect individuals' habitual use of strategies for coping with negative events in daily life. Although research into coping has not reached consistent agreement about classifying coping strategies as either inherently adaptive or maladaptive, the influence of maladaptive CS on mental health is noticeable. CS might also be related to emotion regulation and associated brain systems. Participants (N = 165) completed measurements of CS, trait emotions including trait anxiety, depressive symptoms and happiness and then performed an emotion regulation task, in conjunction with functional MRI. Individual differences in maladaptive CS use were associated with higher trait negative emotionality and higher state reactivity of negative emotion. Concurrent bilateral amygdala-right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) connectivity during passive negative stimulus processing mediated the relation between maladaptive CS and negative emotion ratings. Psychophysiological interaction analyses showed that maladaptive and adaptive CS were linked to patterns of frontal-subcortical connectivity during state emotion regulation. These results suggest that maladaptive CS might be related to negative emotion processing and weaker spontaneous regulation and indicate that maladaptive CS is a risk factor in individual mental health.

Reflection Rumination Reduces Negative Emotional Processing During Goal-Directed Behavior.

Reflection Rumination Reduces Negative Emotional Processing During Goal-Directed Behavior.

Cue-elicited functional connectivity of the periaqueductal gray and tonic cocaine craving

BackgroundWithdrawal from chronic cocaine use leads to anxiety and dysphoria that may perpetuate habitual drug use. The pain circuit is widely implicated in the processing and manifestations of negative emotions. Numerous studies have focused on characterizing reward circuit dysfunction but relatively little is known about the pain circuit response during cocaine withdrawal. MethodsHere we examined the activity and connectivity of the periaqueductal gray (PAG), a hub of the pain circuit, during cocaine cue exposure in 52 recently abstinent cocaine dependent participants (CD, 42 men). Imaging data were processed with published routines, and the results were evaluated at a corrected threshold. ResultsCD showed higher activation of the PAG and connectivity of the PAG with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) during cocaine as compared to neutral cue exposure. PAG-vmPFC connectivity was positively and negatively correlated with tonic cocaine craving, as assessed by the Cocaine Craving Questionnaire, in male and female CD, respectively, and the sex difference was confirmed by a slope test. Granger causality analyses showed that the PAG Granger caused vmPFC time series in men and the reverse was true in women, substantiating sex differences in the directional interactions of the PAG and vmPFC. ConclusionThe findings provide the first evidence in humans implicating the PAG circuit in cocaine withdrawal and cocaine craving and advance our understanding of the role of the pain circuit and negative reinforcement in sustaining habitual drug use in cocaine addiction.

Connectivity of the Frontal Cortical Oscillatory Dynamics Underlying Inhibitory Control During a Go/No-Go Task as a Predictive Biomarker in Major Depression.

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by core functional deficits in cognitive inhibition, which is crucial for emotion regulation. To assess the response to ruminative and negative mood states, it was hypothesized that MDD patients have prolonged disparities in the oscillatory dynamics of the frontal cortical regions across the life course of the disease.MethodA “go/no-go” response inhibition paradigm was tested in 31 MDD patients and 19 age-matched healthy controls after magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanning. The use of minimum norm estimates (MNE) examined the changes of inhibitory control network which included the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA), and left primary motor cortex (lM1). The power spectrum (PS) within each node and the functional connectivity (FC) between nodes were compared between two groups. Furthermore, Pearson correlation was calculated to estimate the relationship between altered FC and clinical features.ResultPS was significantly reduced in left motor and preSMA of MDD patients in both beta (13–30 Hz) and low gamma (30–50 Hz) bands. Compared to the HC group, the MDD group demonstrated higher connectivity between lM1 and preSMA in the beta band (t = 3.214, p = 0.002, FDR corrected) and showed reduced connectivity between preSMA and rIFG in the low gamma band (t = −2.612, p = 0.012, FDR corrected). The FC between lM1 and preSMA in the beta band was positively correlated with illness duration (r = 0.475, p = 0.005, FDR corrected), while the FC between preSMA and rIFG in the low gamma band was negatively correlated with illness duration (r = −0.509, p = 0.002, FDR corrected) and retardation factor scores (r = −0.288, p = 0.022, uncorrected).ConclusionIn this study, a clinical neurophysiological signature of cognitive inhibition leading to sustained negative affect as well as functional non-recovery in MDD patients is highlighted. Duration of illness (DI) plays a key role in negative emotional processing, heighten rumination, impulsivity, and disinhibition.

Negative Impact of Sadness on Response Inhibition in Females: An Explicit Emotional Stop Signal Task fMRI Study.

Response inhibition is a critical cognitive ability underlying executive control over reactions to external cues, or inner requirements. Previous studies suggest that high arousal negative emotions (e.g., anger or fear) could impair response inhibition in implicit emotional stop signal tasks (eSSTs). However, studies exploring how low arousal negative emotions (e.g., sadness) influence response inhibition remain sparse. In the current study, 20 female college students performed an explicit eSST to explore the influence of sadness on response inhibition and its neural mechanism. Participants are instructed to press a button to sad or neutral facial stimuli while inhibiting their response during the presentation of a stop signal. Results showed that compared with neutral stimuli, sad stimuli were related to increased stop signal reaction time (SSRT) (i.e., worse response inhibition). Compared with neutral condition, higher activation during sad condition was found within the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), right insula, right middle cingulate cortex (MCC), bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG), left lingual gyrus, and right motor cortex. These findings indicated that sadness, like other negative emotions, may impair response inhibition in an explicit way and highlight the explicit eSST as a new paradigm to investigate the subtle interaction between negative emotion processing and cognitive control.

The role of the MTG in negative emotional processing in young adults with autistic-like traits: A fMRI task study

BackgroundFew previous studies explored negative emotion processing in autistic-like traits people using task-based fMRI. In this study, we applied task fMRI to determine the relationship between negative emotion processing and social skill within autistic-like traits people. aimed to find which brain areas specificity play a key role in emotional processing. Methods106 of Chinese individuals measured with AQ. Then applied emotion regulation task to explore the difference in brain activation and functional connectivity in individuals with autistic traits. ResultsThe results showed increased activation in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG). The mediation analysis showed the right MTG mediates the relationship between autistic-like traits and negative emotion. Generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) analysis also suggested that the right MTG shows significant functional connectivity with the left parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) and left precuneus cortex. LimitationsOur sample are university students, there may have a bias in the sample compared to sub-average and have no differences between the gender, we will broaden the sample size and take the gender into account. We use two conditions as our focused theme, we want to use a more specific task to explore negative emotion in autistic-like traits people. ConclusionsThe results showed that the right MTG was an important brain region in individuals with autistic-like traits, and our study provides a wider discussion about autism brain activation and functional connectivity patterns and the use the MTG as a hallmark in individuals with autistic-like traits.

The prefrontal cortex conscious and unconscious response to social/emotional facial expressions involve sex, hemispheric laterality, and selective activation of the central cardiac modulation

The human prefrontal cortex (PFC) processes complex sensory information for the elaboration of social behaviors. The non-invasive neuroimaging technique near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) identifies hemodynamic changes and concentration of oxygenated (HbO2) and deoxygenated (HHb) hemoglobin in the cerebral cortex. We studied the responses detected by NIRS in the right and left PFC activation of 28 participants (n = 14 adult young females and males) while processing social/emotional facial expressions, i.e., in conscious perception of different expressions (neutral, happy, sad, angry, disgust, and fearful) and in unconscious/masked perception of negative expressions (fearful and disgust overlapped by neutral). The power spectral analysis from concomitant ECG signals revealed the sympathetic and parasympathetic modulation of cardiac responses. We found higher HbO2 values in the right PFC of females than in males during, and in the left PFC after, following the conscious perception of the happy face. In males, the left PFC increased and the right PFC decreased HbO2 while viewing the happy expression. In both sexes, HHb values were higher during the masked presentation of disgust than fearful expression, and after the masked presentation of fearful expression than during it. Higher sympathetic and lower parasympathetic activity (LF/ HF components) occurred in females when consciously and unconsciously processing negative emotions (p < 0.05 in all cases). These results demonstrate that the human PFC displays a selective activation depending on sex, hemispheric laterality, attention, time for responding to conscious and unconscious emotionally loaded stimuli with simulataneous centrally modulated cardiovascular responses.

Pictures of preterm infants elicit increased affective responses and reduced reward-motivation or perspective taking in the maternal brain

Preterm-birth increases the risk of several physical, cognitive, neuromotor, and psychosocial problems in children, and is also related to difficulties in the parent–child relationship. Research suggests that the development of early parent–child interactions in general is affected by deviations from typical infant facial characteristics, which may also be important in the case of small, preterm born infants. Therefore, we examined mothers’ (N = 22, of whom 17 had no direct experience with preterm birth) neural responses to pictures of preterm and full-term infants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also explored whether neural responses to preterm and full-term infants correlated with mothers’ self-reported tendencies to be nurturing and protective with children, and with mothers’ ratings of affection or aversion toward pictures of preterm infants. Results revealed that, compared to pictures of full-term infants, those of preterm infants elicited more activity in specific areas of the brain (dmPFC, right insula, left caudate, hippocampi, parahippocampi, and PAG), that have previously been associated with processing of negative emotions and with empathy. In addition, less activity was seen in one area of the brain (vmPFC) known to be associated with reward-motivation or mental state understanding and perspective-taking. Higher self-reported maternal nurturance was associated with increased activity to pictures of preterm infants vs full-term infants in the caudate, which might reflect approach- or reward-related processing. To conclude, neural responses to preterm infants are related to reward-motivation, mentalizing, negative emotions, and empathy. Future studies should examine whether such neural processing of preterm infant stimuli might underlie difficulties in the parent–child relationship of parents with a preterm child.

Serotonin differentially modulates the temporal dynamics of the limbic response to facial emotions in male adults with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a randomised placebo-controlled single-dose crossover trial

Emotion processing—including signals from facial expressions—is often altered in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The biological basis of this is poorly understood but may include neurochemically mediated differences in the responsivity of key ‘limbic’ regions (including amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc)). Emerging evidence also suggests that ASD may be a disorder of brain temporal dynamics. Moreover, serotonin (5-HT) has been shown to be a key regulator of both facial-emotion processing and brain dynamics, and 5-HT abnormalities have been consistently implicated in ASD. To date, however, no one has examined how 5-HT influences the dynamics of facial-emotion processing in ASD. Therefore, we compared the influence of 5-HT on the responsivity of brain dynamics during facial-emotion processing in individuals with and without ASD. Participants completed a facial-emotion processing fMRI task at least 8 days apart using a randomised double-blind crossover design. At each visit they received either a single 20-mg oral dose of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram or placebo. We found that citalopram (which increases levels of 5-HT) caused sustained activation in key limbic regions during processing of negative facial emotions in adults with ASD—but not in neurotypical adults. The neurotypical adults’ limbic response reverted more rapidly to baseline following a 5-HT-challenge. Our results suggest that serotonergic homoeostatic control of the temporal dynamics in limbic regions is altered in adults with ASD, and provide a fresh perspective on the biology of ASD.

A Double Dissociation Between Anxiety and Depression Symptom Improvement and Fusiform Coupling During Positive and Negative Emotional Face Processing

A Double Dissociation Between Anxiety and Depression Symptom Improvement and Fusiform Coupling During Positive and Negative Emotional Face Processing