Affective Neuroscience Research Research Articles

Threat-conditioned contexts modulate the late positive potential to faces-A mobile EEG/virtual reality study.

In everyday life, the motivational value of faces is bound to the contexts in which faces are perceived. Electrophysiological studies have demonstrated that inherent negatively valent contexts modulate cortical face processing as assessed with ERP components. However, it is not well understood whether learned (rather than inherent) and three-dimensional aversive contexts similarly modulate the neural processing of faces. Using full immersive virtual reality (VR) and mobile EEG techniques, 25 participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm, in which one virtual room was paired with an aversive noise burst (threat context) and another with a nonaversive noise burst (safe context). Subsequently, avatars with neutral or angry facial expressions were presented in the threat and safe contexts while EEG was recorded. Analysis of the late positive potential (LPP), which presumably indicates motivational salience, revealed a significant interaction of context (threat vs. safe) and face type (neutral vs. angry). Neutral faces evoked increased LPP amplitudes in threat versus safe contexts, while angry faces evoked increased early LPP amplitudes regardless of context. In addition to indicating that threat-conditioned contexts alter the processing of ambiguous faces, the present study demonstrates the successful integration of EEG and VR with particular relevance for affective neuroscience research.

Cross Cultural Validation and Extension of the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS) in the Chinese Context: Evidence from a Spectrum Perspective.

The Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS) was designed in accordance with the recent theory and research in social affective neuroscience and to address the psychometric and conceptual limitations of other instruments assessing negative symptoms. The present study aimed to provide a large-scale validation of the CAINS in China and examine its applicability and validity evidence across the schizophrenia spectrum. Using confirmatory factor analysis, our results replicated the original findings in the US development samples that the CAINS possesses a stable 2-factor structure, namely "motivation/pleasure" and "expression". We also found significant correlations between the CAINS and other negative symptom measures. The CAINS demonstrated good discriminant validity in differentiating negative symptoms in people with schizophrenia, nonpsychotic first-degree relatives and people with social anhedonia. People with schizophrenia exhibited significantly higher CAINS subscale scores than first-degree relatives and healthy controls. In addition, first-degree relatives had higher "motivation/pleasure" scores than healthy controls. The "motivation/pleasure" subscale scores of individuals with social anhedonia were also significantly higher than healthy controls.

The Brothers Karamazov, affective neuroscience, and reconsolidation of memories

Why do Dostoevskian bodies throb, sob, and grimace in ways that seem so far from the civilized protocols of, for example, Henry James’ exhibitions of emotions? How precisely does the concept of unconscious motivation serve interpretation when complicated by neuroscientific ideas of “the body as ground reference,” of “the neural self” as a “repeatedly reconstructed biological state” that records memories. This essay explores the implications of affective neuroscience research (Panksepp, Damasio, Solms) for interpreting Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, particularly those scenes in which the characters access memories and display physical symptoms which appear subcortical.

Test-retest reliability of the prefrontal response to affective pictures based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is being increasingly applied to affective and social neuroscience research; however, the reliability of this method is still unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the test–retest reliability of the fNIRS-based prefrontal response to emotional stimuli. Twenty-six participants viewed unpleasant and neutral pictures, and were simultaneously scanned by fNIRS in two sessions three weeks apart. The reproducibility of the prefrontal activation map was evaluated at three spatial scales (mapwise, clusterwise, and channelwise) at both the group and individual levels. The influence of the time interval was also explored and comparisons were made between longer (intersession) and shorter (intrasession) time intervals. The reliabilities of the activation map at the group level for the mapwise (up to 0.88, the highest value appeared in the intersession assessment) and clusterwise scales (up to 0.91, the highest appeared in the intrasession assessment) were acceptable, indicating that fNIRS may be a reliable tool for emotion studies, especially for a group analysis and under larger spatial scales. However, it should be noted that the individual-level and the channelwise fNIRS prefrontal responses were not sufficiently stable. Future studies should investigate which factors influence reliability, as well as the validity of fNIRS used in emotion studies.

The Association between Sleep Disturbances and Depression among Firefighters: Emotion Dysregulation as an Explanatory Factor.

To investigate emotion regulation difficulties in association with self-reported insomnia symptoms, nightmares, and depression symptoms in a sample of current and retired firefighters. A total of 880 current and retired United States firefighters completed a web-based survey of firefighter behavioral health. Self-report measures included the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Insomnia Severity Index, PTSD Checklist, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. A notable portion of participants reported clinically significant depression symptoms (39.6%) and insomnia symptoms (52.7%), as well as nightmare problems (19.2%), each of which demonstrated a strong association with emotion regulation difficulties (rs = 0.56-0.80). Bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed that the indirect effects of overall emotion regulation difficulties were significant both for the relationship between insomnia and depression (95% CI: 0.385-0.566) and nightmares and depression (95% CI: 1.445-2.365). Limited access to emotion regulation strategies emerged as the strongest, significant indirect effect for both relationships (insomnia 95% CI: 0.136-0.335; nightmares 95% CI: 0.887-1.931). Findings extend previous affective neuroscience research by providing evidence that insomnia and nightmares may influence depression symptoms specifically through the pathway of explicit emotion regulation difficulties. Sleep disturbances may impair the ability to access and leverage emotion regulation strategies effectively, thus conferring risk for negative affect and depression.

Linking the overwhelming with the unbearable: Developmental trauma, dissociation, and the disconnected self.

In this article, we propose a developmental trauma model of psychopathology, grounded in convergent findings in psychoanalytic, developmental, and affective neuroscience research. We suggest that dissociation is a key variable in understanding clinical disorders that have their roots in relationally

Error‐related electromyographic activity over the corrugator supercilii is associated with neural performance monitoring

Emerging research in social and affective neuroscience has implicated a role for affect and motivation in performance monitoring and cognitive control. No study, however, has investigated whether facial electromyography (EMG) over the corrugator supercilii-a measure associated with negative affect and the exertion of effort-is related to neural performance monitoring. Here, we explored these potential relationships by simultaneously measuring the error-related negativity, error positivity (Pe), and facial EMG over the corrugator supercilii muscle during a punished, inhibitory control task. We found evidence for increased facial EMG activity over the corrugator immediately following error responses, and this activity was related to the Pe for both between- and within-subject analyses. These results are consistent with the idea that early, avoidance-motivated processes are associated with performance monitoring, and that such processes may also be related to orienting toward errors, the emergence of error awareness, or both.

The importance of incorporating neuroscientific knowledge into counselling psychology: An introduction to affective neuroscience

Content & FocusNeuroscience as a whole has seen great advancements over the last couple of decades and as such, it is becoming an increasingly important and relevant knowledgebase for counselling psychologists to incorporate into their research and practice. Affective neuroscience focuses on the emotions and affect which are both produced and perceived by the brain and mind. Jaak Panksepp, a prominent figure within affective neuroscience, has suggested that one avenue which is ripe for advancement is the development of primary process understanding. This paper discusses primary brain processes as well outlining a number of introductory ways in which affective neuroscience could contribute to counselling psychology.ConclusionsIt is suggested that counselling psychologists are well placed to contribute to affective neuroscience research. Additionally, psychiatry is well placed to benefit and add to the body of knowledge within affective neuroscience therefore the present work proposes that the time is now for greater collaboration between counselling psychologists, psychiatrists and (affective) neuroscientists, contributing and working together with the aim of increasing understanding and the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for our species’ mental health and development.

An Affective Cognitive Neuroscience-Based Approach to PTSD Psychotherapy: The TARGET Model.

Adaptations or alternative versions of cognitive psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are needed because even the most efficacious cognitive or cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies for PTSD do not retain or achieve sustained clinically significant benefits for a majority of recipients. Cognitive affective neuroscience research is reviewed which suggests that it is not just memory (or memories) of traumatic events and related core beliefs about self, the world, and relationships that are altered in PTSD but also memory (and affective information) processing A cognitive psychotherapy is described that was designed to systematically make explicit these otherwise implicit trauma-related alterations in cognitive emotion regulation and its application to the treatment of complex variants of PTSD-Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET). TARGET provides therapists and clients with (a) a neurobiologically informed strengths-based meta-model of stress-related cognitive processing in the brain and how this is altered by PTSD and (b) a practical algorithm for restoring the executive functions that are necessary to make implicit trauma-related cognitions explicit (i.e., experiential awareness) and modifiable (i.e., planful refocusing). Results of randomized clinical trial studies and quasi-experimental effectiveness evaluations of TARGET with adolescents and adults are reviewed.

Testing the effectiveness of 3D film for laboratory-based studies of emotion.

Research in psychology and affective neuroscience often relies on film as a standardized and reliable method for evoking emotion. However, clip validation is not undertaken regularly. This presents a challenge for research with adolescent and young adult samples who are exposed routinely to high-definition (HD) three-dimensional (3D) stimuli and may not respond to older, validated film clips. Studies with young people inform understanding of emotional development, dysregulated affect, and psychopathology, making it critical to assess whether technological advances improve the study of emotion. In the present study, we examine whether 3D film is more evocative than 2D using a tightly controlled within-subjects design. Participants (n = 408) viewed clips during a concurrent psychophysiological assessment. Results indicate that both 2D and 3D technology are highly effective tools for emotion elicitation. However, 3D does not add incremental benefit over 2D, even when individual differences in anxiety, emotion dysregulation, and novelty seeking are considered.

The Affective Dog and Its Rational Tale: Intuition and Attunement

Intuition—spontaneous, nondeliberative assessment—has long been indispensable in theoretical and practical philosophy alike. Recent research by psychologists and experimental philosophers has challenged our understanding of the nature and authority of moral intuitions by tracing them to “fast,” “automatic,” “button-pushing” responses of the affective system. This view of the affective system contrasts with a growing body of research in affective neuroscience which suggests that it is instead a flexible learning system that generates and updates a multidimensional evaluative landscape to guide decision and action. With this latter view in mind, I revisit some of the classic hypothetical scenarios used in experimental moral psychology.

Emotion and decision making: multiple modulatory neural circuits.

Although the prevalent view of emotion and decision making is derived from the notion that there are dual systems of emotion and reason, a modulatory relationship more accurately reflects the current research in affective neuroscience and neuroeconomics. Studies show two potential mechanisms for affect's modulation of the computation of subjective value and decisions. Incidental affective states may carry over to the assessment of subjective value and the decision, and emotional reactions to the choice may be incorporated into the value calculation. In addition, this modulatory relationship is reciprocal: Changing emotion can change choices. This research suggests that the neural mechanisms mediating the relation between affect and choice vary depending on which affective component is engaged and which decision variables are assessed. We suggest that a detailed and nuanced understanding of emotion and decision making requires characterizing the multiple modulatory neural circuits underlying the different means by which emotion and affect can influence choices.

Reward function: a promising but (still) underexamined dimension in developmental psychopathology.

The goal of this Special Section is to explore the ways that investigation of reward function can shed light on the development and pathophysiology of psychopathology. Reward function provides a promising starting point for clinical affective neuroscience research because, thanks to the extensive literature on the neural mechanisms of addiction, the functional neuroanatomy, cellular mechanisms, and genetic contributions to reward circuitry have been well delineated (see Russo & Nestler, 2013, for details).

Introduction to the special issue on reliability and replication in cognitive and affective neuroscience research

Researchers in many areas of psychology and neuroscience have grown concerned with what has been referred to as a of replication and reliability in the field. These con- cerns have cut across a broad range of disciplines and have been raised in both the biomedical (Ioannidis, 2005, 2011)and psychological (Pashler & Harris, 2012; Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn, 2011) sciences. A number of reasons have been put forth for these concerns about replication, including con- flicts of interest (Bakker & Wicherts, 2011; Ioannidis, 2011), misaligned incentives, questionable research practices (John, Loewenstein, & Prelec, 2012) that result in what has been referred to as p-hacking (Simmons et al., 2011), and ubiq- uitous low power (Button et al., 2013). Such problems lead to the publication of inflated effect sizes (Masicampo & Lalande, 2012; Vul & Pashler, 2012) and produce a higher incidence of false positives.One could read this emerging literature and walk away disheartened by the state of many scientific fields-and per- haps of science in general. Alternatively, one could take this as an opportunity to step back and develop new procedures and methods for tackling at least some of the problems contribut- ing to the crisis of replication, whether real or perceived. That is what is attempted in this special issue of Cognitive, Affec- tive, & Behavioral Neuroscience, with a specific emphasis on studies that use functional neuroimaging to understand the neural mechanisms that support a range of cognitive and affective processes. The articles in this special issue fall into three general categories: (1) research into the importance and influence of methods choices and reporting; (2) assessments of reliability and novel approaches to statistical analysis; and (3) studies of power, sample size, and the importance of both false positives and false negatives.In terms of methodological concerns, it is important to note that studies using functional neuroimaging methods to cognitive and affective processes need to be concerned with all of the same issues that apply to any behavioral of a psychological process. As Plant et al. describe in their article in this issue, concerns about the timing of stimulus presenta- tion and response collection in studies of psychological pro- cesses may contribute to replication difficulties, and these authors suggest some ways to assess this possibility and potentially correct it. In addition, studies in cognitive and affective neuroscience are subject to the same concerns about transparency in the reporting of methods as are behavioral studies, including all of the problematic behaviors that Simmons and others have suggested lead to spurious rejection of the null hypothesis (Simmons et al., 2011). These concerns led Simmons and colleagues to propose that all authors be required to include the following 21-word phrase in their Method sections: We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations and all measures in the study (Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn, 2012). Although the inclusion of such a statement has yet to be widely adopted by journals, it highlights the critical issue of transparency in method reporting. One of the major concerns in the field of functional neuroimaging-whether reporting functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), event-related potentials (ERP), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), or other techniques-is the plethora of analysis choices that a researcher can make, and the influence that these different choices clearly have on the results. Poldrack outlined this concern in his earlier work and suggested guidelines for reporting method choices that could influence outcomes (Poldrack et al., 2008). In another prior work, Carp (2012) reviewed and summarized the failure of many researchers to follow these guidelines or to report on key methodological details that could influence replication. …

Top-down modulation of attention by emotion

Due to their evolutionary salience, threat-related stimuli, such as snakes, spiders, and angry faces constitute a special class of stimuli believed to capture attention in an involuntary, bottom-up manner. Most research in affective neuroscience has focused on unraveling neural pathways that support this “automatic” capture of attention by emotional stimuli (Vuilleumier and Driver, 2007). However, it is well known that in addition to stimulus-driven bottom-up factors (Itti and Koch, 2001), attention is guided by goal-driven, top-down factors (Hopfinger et al., 2000) such as anticipated locations and features of upcoming targets (Moran and Desimone, 1985; Treue and Martinez Trujillo, 1999). In real life, we often utilize emotional information endogenously to guide our attention, for example, when looking for cars while crossing a street or for a restaurant when hungry. These anticipatory search behaviors, aimed at detecting sources of potential threat or reward are deployed in a wide range of habitats from the savannah to social gatherings. Below, we review behavioral and neural data that highlight the importance of emotional factors in top-down voluntary guidance of attention. Based on these findings, we espouse a shift in emphasis from examining emotional factors as primarily impacting attention in a bottom-up manner to examining them in an endogenous, voluntary role wherein emotional information is strategically utilized to guide perception and attention. Cognitive behavioral formulations of anxiety have proposed an important role for threat-related schemata in the development and maintenance of anxiety (Beck, 1976; Mogg et al., 1989). In light of this, research examining the role of expectation and anticipatory attention toward threat will contribute not only to a more comprehensive understanding of normal emotion-attention interactions but also to our understanding of the development and maintenance of anxiety.

Continuities in Emotion Lateralization in Human and Non-Human Primates

Where hemispheric lateralization was once considered an exclusively human trait, it is increasingly recognized that hemispheric asymmetries are evident throughout the animal kingdom. Emotion is a prime example of a lateralized function: given its vital role in promoting adaptive behavior and hence survival, a growing body of research in affective neuroscience is working to illuminate the cortical bases of emotion processing. Presuming that human and non-human primates evolved from a shared ancestor, one would anticipate evidence of organizational continuity in the neural substrate supporting emotion processing. This paper thus reviews research examining the patterns of lateralization for the expression and perception of facial emotion in non-human primates, aiming to determine whether the patterns of hemispheric asymmetry that characterize the human brain are similarly evident in other primate species. As such, this review seeks to enhance understanding of the evolution of hemispheric specialization for emotion, using emotion lateralization in non-human primates as a window through which to view emotion lateralization in humans.

Affect‐specific modulation of the N1m to shock‐conditioned tones: magnetoencephalographic correlates

Despite its fundamental relevance for representing the emotional world surrounding us, human affective neuroscience research has widely neglected the auditory system, at least in comparison to the visual domain. Here, we have investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of human affective auditory processing using time-sensitive whole-head magnetoencephalography. A novel and highly challenging affective associative learning procedure, 'MultiCS conditioning', involving multiple conditioned stimuli (CS) per affective category, was adopted to test whether previous findings from intramodal conditioning of multiple click-tones with an equal number of auditory emotional scenes (Bröckelmann et al., 2011 J. Neurosci., 31, 7801) would generalise to crossmodal conditioning of multiple click-tones with an electric shock as single aversive somatosensory unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Event-related magnetic fields were recorded in response to 40 click-tones before and after four contingent pairings of 20 CS with a shock and the other half remaining unpaired. In line with previous findings from intramodal MultiCS conditioning we found an affect-specific modulation of the auditory N1m component 100-150 ms post-stimulus within a distributed frontal-temporal-parietal neural network. Increased activation for shock-associated tones was lateralised to right-hemispheric regions, whereas unpaired safety-signalling tones were preferentially processed in the left hemisphere. Participants did not show explicit awareness of the contingent CS-UCS relationship, yet behavioural conditioning effects were indicated on an indirect measure of stimulus valence. Our findings imply converging evidence for a rapid and highly differentiating affect-specific modulation of the auditory N1m after intramodal as well crossmodal MultiCS conditioning and a correspondence of the modulating impact of emotional attention on early affective processing in vision and audition.

A new approach of personality and psychiatric disorders: a short version of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales.

BackgroundThe Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) is an instrument designed to assess endophenotypes related to activity in the core emotional systems that have emerged from affective neuroscience research. It operationalizes six emotional endophenotypes with empirical evidence derived from ethology, neural analyses and pharmacology: PLAYFULNESS/joy, SEEKING/interest, CARING/nurturance, ANGER/rage, FEAR/anxiety, and SADNESS/separation distress. We aimed to provide a short version of this questionnaire (ANPS-S).Methodology/Principal FindingsWe used a sample of 830 young French adults which was randomly split into two subsamples. The first subsample was used to select the items for the short scales. The second subsample and an additional sample of 431 Canadian adults served to evaluate the psychometric properties of the short instrument. The ANPS-S was similar to the long version regarding intercorrelations between the scales and gender differences. The ANPS-S had satisfactory psychometric properties, including factorial structure, unidimensionality of all scales, and internal consistency. The scores from the short version were highly correlated with the scores from the long version.Conclusions/SignificanceThe short ANPS proves to be a promising instrument to assess endophenotypes for psychiatrically relevant science.

Attention biases, anxiety, and development: toward or away from threats or rewards?

Research on attention provides a promising framework for studying anxiety pathophysiology and treatment. The study of attention biases appears particularly pertinent to developmental research, as attention affects learning and has down-stream effects on behavior. This review summarizes recent findings about attention orienting in anxiety, drawing on findings in recent developmental psychopathology and affective neuroscience research. These findings generate specific insights about both development and therapeutics. The review goes beyond a traditional focus on biased processing of threats and considers biased processing of rewards. Building on this work, we then turn to the treatment of pediatric anxiety, where manipulation of attention to threat and/or reward may serve a therapeutic role as a component of Attention Bias Modification Therapy.

The NIMH Child Emotional Faces Picture Set (NIMH‐ChEFS): a new set of children's facial emotion stimuli

With the emergence of new technologies, there has been an explosion of basic and clinical research on the affective and cognitive neuroscience of face processing and emotion perception. Adult emotional face stimuli are commonly used in these studies. For developmental research, there is a need for a validated set of child emotional faces. This paper describes the development of the National Institute of Mental Health Child Emotional Faces Picture Set (NIMH-ChEFS), a relatively large stimulus set with high quality, color images of the emotional faces of children. The set includes 482 photographs of fearful, angry, happy, sad and neutral child faces with two gaze conditions: direct and averted gaze. In this paper we describe the development of the NIMH-ChEFS and data on the set's validity based on ratings by 20 healthy adult raters. Agreement between the a priori emotion designation and the raters' labels was high and comparable with values reported for commonly used adult picture sets. Intensity, representativeness, and composite "goodness" ratings are also presented to guide researchers in their choice of specific stimuli for their studies. These data should give researchers confidence in the NIMH-ChEFS's validity for use in affective and social neuroscience research.