Socioemotional Perception Research Articles

Pregnant women exhibit decreased trigeminal sensitivity.

Chemosensory function in pregnant women is far from being fully understood due to the lack of data and inconsistencies between the results of self-reports and objective studies. In the present study in pregnant and non-pregnant women (npregnant=14, nnon-pregnant=13), we measured EEG-derived electrophysiological response measures supported by psychophysical olfactory and trigeminal tests. Results indicate that the olfactory event-related potential amplitudes or latencies of the P1, N1, and P2 components remain unchanged in pregnant women. In accordance with these findings, no difference was observed between pregnant and non-pregnant women in psychophysical olfactory tests. However, pregnant women displayed a lower degree of sensitivity to trigeminal stimuli compared to non-pregnant controls, which was also reflected in the electrophysiological responses to trigeminal stimuli. Counterintuitive as they may seem, our findings demonstrate a "flattening" of chemosomatosensory responses. Psychological processes occurring during pregnancy, such as changes in socioemotional perception of odors resulting from the diminished stress response, may provide a background to these results. Overall, the present results indicate the absence of major differences between non-pregnant and pregnant women in terms of measured olfactory function though chemosomatosensory function of the pregnant women appears to be decreased.

Teaching the whole child requires the whole teacher: Embedding socioemotional perceptions and dispositions into a culturally responsive teacher preparation program

This teacher education program aims to develop high quality teachers through development of empathy and culturally responsive pedagogy, impacting teachers’ dispositions toward students who are different from themselves. Participants included 17 undergraduate education students enrolled in a community engaged teacher education program. One-on-one interviews captured participants’ experiences and beliefs over time, related to teaching children in an urban setting. Qualitative themes emerged and shifted in frequency over the course of the semester. These included deficit perspective, knowledge of the “other,” dominant culture as a lens, best practices, asset perspective, and characteristics of high quality versus highly qualified. As teacher candidates experienced individual interactions with students, families, and community members, they developed empathy and shifted from a deficit perspective toward an asset perspective. Simultaneously, teacher candidates combined socioemotional skills with instructional best practices. Practical strategies are suggested to prepare teacher candidates to learn about themselves, their students, and to develop allies.

Emotional well-being and social reinforcement as predictors of motivation and academic expectations

Nowadays there is a tendency to highlight the significant contribution of students' socio-emotional perceptions about academic motivation and expectations in Higher Education. This study aims to analyze the relationships among emotional well-being, desire for social reinforcement, intrinsic motivation, the perceived value of the task, and academic expectations. To do this, 455 university students from the Spanish educational system filled out an online questionnaire. The application of a Structural Equation Model (SEM) underscores the fact that emotional well-being and the desire for social reinforcement have a positive effect on intrinsic motivation for learning. In turn, this motivation has been a significant predictor of the perceived value of homework and academic expectations. In addition, various mediating effects are observed to influence high academic expectations. These results highlight the need for emotional care and social reinforcement in initial university training programs.

Subjective responses to emotional body odors and common odors in autism-spectrum disorders

IntroductionAutism-spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by deficits in social domains, associated with abnormal socioemotional perception. Although olfaction provides access to socioemotional cues, little is known about the perception of emotional odors considering their social meaning in ASD.ObjectivesTo investigate the subjective responses to emotional body odors (BOs) versus non-social, common odors (COs) in ASD.MethodsEleven ASD and 49 typically developed (TD) adults were asked to smell negative, positive, and neutral BOs (axillary sweat from healthy individuals exposed to fearful, happy, and neutral film-clips) and COs, and to rate each odor on perceived pleasantness, intensity, familiarity and arousal. Odors were presented for 5 sec. Analyses were performed with linear mixed-effect models with fixed factors (group × odor type × valence) and covariates (e.g., age; intensity for arousal/familiarity; familiarity for pleasantness). Post-hoc comparisons were Bonferroni-corrected.ResultsOdors were perceived as significantly more intense (p=.044) and pleasant (p<.001) in ASD than TD. Distinct response patterns were found in ASD and TD. First, positive BOs and COs were similarly arousing and pleasant in ASD (p>.05), but not in TD (p<.001). Second, positive and neutral COs were equally arousing, familiar and pleasant in ASD (p>.05), but not in TD (p<.001). No differences were observed between BOs in ASD and TD (p>.05).ConclusionsASD is associated with abnormal subjective responses to emotional odors, which could contribute to the social communication difficulties characterizing ASD. Since emotional BOs elicit psychological responses in others, analyses on subjective and automatic responses will allow a better understanding of the role of olfaction in ASD.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Female top performers in higher education STEM and humanities: socio-emotional perceptions and digital learning-related characteristics during COVID-19

In Germany, the 2020 summer semester was substantially influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an empirical study, we focus on female top performing students in STEM and the humanities. Of particular interest was whether the measures associated with the pandemic constitute a risk-factor for a re-traditionalization of gender roles. Before lectures or courses began, students at a full-scale university were invited to participate in an online survey. We investigated four research questions: 1) Are women underrepresented in our sample among the top performers in STEM and the humanities? Are there gender differences among top performers with regard to (2) digital readiness, (3) socio-emotional and (4) learning related variables? The sample of the study consisted of 2,849 higher education STEM and humanities students. The study took place as an online survey. In the week before the start of the official lecture period, all students enrolled at the university were invited to take part via an e-mail correspondence from the Vice President of Education (survey access link). Participation in the survey took place via the Questback platform and was activated for 10 days. The cut-off point for the ability level was set at the 95th percentile of previous university achievements. To test Q1, we performed a hierarchical loglinear analysis with posthoc Chi² tests. In research questions Q2 - Q4 two-way ANOVAs were used to test the effects of gender and subject. Results indicate equal shares of female and male students among the top performers, with women overrepresented in the humanities and men overrepresented in STEM relative to their proportion of the student population. The analysis of socio-emotional and learning-related factors showed risk factors for high performing female students such as lower self-efficacy, but no major emotional vulnerability. Overall, the data suggest that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, female top performers had still been able to compensate for the risk factors.

Digital readiness and its effects on higher education students’ socio-emotional perceptions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

The current study investigated how ready higher education students were for emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how this influenced their socio-emotional perceptions. Results of N = 1,826 higher education students indicate that they seem to be ready for digital learning. A k-means cluster analysis revealed two groups of students that significantly differed with respect to their readiness for digital learning (in terms of technology equipment availability, prior experiences with e-learning, and skills for digital learning). Finally, students’ socio-emotional perceptions, that is, stress-related emotions (worries, tension, joy, and overload) as well as social and emotional loneliness significantly differed due to cluster membership. Hence, the study points a need for support of higher education students in successfully coping with the challenges of emergency remote studying.

A latent class analysis of multifaceted economic experience and socioemotional well-being of children of immigrants.

Developmental studies have consistently argued for consideration of contextual influences on children's socioemotional well-being. This is particularly true among children of immigrants, who have highly diverse social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten, this study disentangled the variation of socioemotional well-being among children of immigrants in the United States by looking at country of origin and their multifaceted economic experiences. The study first examined the economic lives of children of immigrants by conducting a latent class analysis with 3 dimensions-depth, duration, and income volatility from kindergarten to fifth grade. It further investigated how multifaceted economic experiences shaped the socioemotional perceptions of children of immigrants by considering country of origin. Findings from this study support both the immigrant risk and immigrant paradox perspectives, depending on country of origin, patterns of economic experiences, and the examined socioemotional domain. Children of immigrants generally perceived themselves to have a worse locus of control, self-concept, and internalizing symptoms at eighth grade than their peers of native-born parents. After considering the economic circumstances of these families, the picture was no longer straightforward. Children of South East Asian and East Asian origins reported worse socioemotional well-being than their White peers of native-born parents in chronic near-poor circumstances. Otherwise, most children of immigrants fared as well as their White children of native-born parents under similar economic conditions. Findings underscore the importance of country of origin and economic experiences in accounting for the variations of socioemotional well-being among children of immigrants. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of a Summer Field Experience in Fostering STEM Students' Socioemotional Perceptions and Social Justice Awareness as Preparation for a Science Teaching Career

Author(s): Liu, Amy; Toma, Shannon; Levis-Fitzgerald, Marc; Russell, Arlene A. | Abstract: This study aims to better understand the role that teacher exploration programs play in supporting science teacher education recruitment and retention in ways that are consistent with social justice goals. Utilizing reflective and descriptive journal data from 126 STEM undergraduate students engaged in an intensive and immersive four-day internship that took place in summer 2015 and summer 2016, this study examines how a well-integrated field experience prepares students to consider a possible future science teaching career in high needs schools. Findings indicate that students who participated in this summer field experience program developed classroom pedagogical knowledge and skills, as well as heightened interpersonal, socioemotional understanding with respect to students. As preparation for the possibility of entering a social-justice focused credential teaching program, the internships also exposed the STEM undergraduates to high-need schools, fostered interns' social justice awareness, and provided an opportunity for them to reflect experientially – in terms of their own educational privileges and from their field time in the classrooms – on educational inequities confronting schools and students. These experiences allowed the STEM interns to more deeply appreciate the importance of connecting with students and developing positive and constructive relationships with them, a valuable foundation for those who may choose to pursue a formal social-justice oriented teacher education program.

Background Odors Modulate N170 ERP Component and Perception of Emotional Facial Stimuli.

Successful social interaction relies on the accurate decoding of other peoples’ emotional signals, and their contextual integration. However, little is known about how contextual odors may lead to modulation of cortical processing in response to facial expressions. We investigated how unpleasant and pleasant contextual background odors affected emotion perception and cortical event-related potential (ERP) responses to pictures of faces expressing happy, neutral and disgusted facial expressions. Faces were, regardless of expression, rated more positively in the pleasant odor condition and more negatively in the unpleasant odor condition. Faces were overall rated as more emotionally arousing in the presence of an odor, irrespective of its valence. Contextual odors also interacted with facial expressions, such that happy faces were rated as especially non-arousing in the unpleasant odor condition. The early, face-sensitive N170 ERP component also displayed an interaction effect. Here, disgusted faces were affected by the odor context such that the N170 revealed a relatively larger negativity in the context of a pleasant odor compared with an unpleasant odor. There were no odor effects on the responses to faces in other measured ERP components (P1, VPP, P2, and LPP). These results suggest that odors bias socioemotional perception early stages of the visual processing stream. However, effects may vary across emotional expressions and measurements.

Neural correlates of socio-emotional perception in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

BackgroundSocial impairments are described as a common feature of the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS). However, the neural correlates underlying these impairments are largely unknown in this population. In this study, we investigated neural substrates of socio-emotional perception.MethodsWe used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore neural activity in individuals with 22q11DS and healthy controls during the visualization of stimuli varying in social (social or non-social) or emotional (positive or negative valence) content.ResultsNeural hyporesponsiveness in regions of the default mode network (inferior parietal lobule, precuneus, posterior and anterior cingulate cortex and frontal regions) in response to social versus non-social images was found in the 22q11DS population compared to controls. A similar pattern of activation for positive and negative emotional processing was observed in the two groups. No correlation between neural activation and social functioning was observed in patients with the 22q11DS. Finally, no social × valence interaction impairment was found in patients.ConclusionsOur results indicate atypical neural correlates of social perception in 22q11DS that appear to be independent of valence processing. Abnormalities in the social perception network may lead to social impairments observed in 22q11DS individuals.

Steady-state visual evoked potentials as a research tool in social affective neuroscience.

Like many other primates, humans place a high premium on social information transmission and processing. One important aspect of this information concerns the emotional state of other individuals, conveyed by distinct visual cues such as facial expressions, overt actions, or by cues extracted from the situational context. A rich body of theoretical and empirical work has demonstrated that these socioemotional cues are processed by the human visual system in a prioritized fashion, in the service of optimizing social behavior. Furthermore, socioemotional perception is highly dependent on situational contexts and previous experience. Here, we review current issues in this area of research and discuss the utility of the steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) technique for addressing key empirical questions. Methodological advantages and caveats are discussed with particular regard to quantifying time-varying competition among multiple perceptual objects, trial-by-trial analysis of visual cortical activation, functional connectivity, and the control of low-level stimulus features. Studies on facial expression and emotional scene processing are summarized, with an emphasis on viewing faces and other social cues in emotional contexts, or when competing with each other. Further, because the ssVEP technique can be readily accommodated to studying the viewing of complex scenes with multiple elements, it enables researchers to advance theoretical models of socioemotional perception, based on complex, quasinaturalistic viewing situations.

A combined clinical, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical study of adults with high functioning autism

Introduction. Three hypotheses concerning associations between neuroanatomical abnormalities, neuropsychological impairments, and the behavioural manifestations of autism were investigated. The primary hypothesis was that the social interaction impairments diagnostic of autism are associated with deficits of socioemotional perception and abnormalities of the amygdala. One subsidiary hypothesis was that the learning and language impairments that occur in less able individuals with autism are associated with impaired memory, and with abnormalities of hippocampal regions. A second subsidiary hypothesis was that the repetitive behaviour diagnostic of autism is associated with executive deficits and with abnormalities of the prefrontal cortex. Associations between the neuroanatomical regions investigated were also examined.Methods. Ten adult males with high functioning autism (HFA) were compared with 10 healthy controls matched for age, sex, verbal and nonverbal ability. Hypothesis-driven structural MRI and neuropsychological tests were used to collect neuroanatomical and neuropsychological data on all subjects. A version of the Wing Autism Diagnostic Interview Checklist was used to collect clinical data on the HFA subjects.Results. Strong convergent evidence in support of the amygdala hypothesis was obtained, and preliminary support for the hippocampal/parahippocampal hypothesis. No clear evidence was obtained in support of the prefrontal hypothesis. Patterns of associations amongst volume measures within and between medial temporal and prefrontal regions suggest stronger within-region and weaker between-region associations in the HFA group compared with controls.Conclusions. These findings are discussed in terms of a model of autism in which selective abnormalities of the amygdala and hippocampus (in all cases) and of the parahippocampal gyrus (in lower functioning cases) are implicated, and in which a disruption of coordinated limbic and prefrontal activity may be critical.