Temporal Dynamics Of Emotions Research Articles

Mathematically Modeling Anhedonia in Schizophrenia: A Stochastic Dynamical Systems Approach.

Anhedonia, traditionally defined as a diminished capacity for pleasure, is a core symptom of schizophrenia (SZ). However, modern empirical evidence indicates that hedonic capacity may be intact in SZ and anhedonia may be better conceptualized as an abnormality in the temporal dynamics of emotion. To test this theory, the current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine whether abnormalities in one aspect of the temporal dynamics of emotion, sustained reward responsiveness, were associated with anhedonia. Two experiments were conducted in outpatients diagnosed with SZ (n = 28; n = 102) and healthy controls (n = 28; n = 71) who completed EMA reports of emotional experience at multiple time points in the day over the course of several days. Markov chain analyses were applied to the EMA data to evaluate stochastic dynamic changes in emotional states to determine processes underlying failures in sustained reward responsiveness. In both studies, Markov models indicated that SZ had deficits in the ability to sustain positive emotion over time, which resulted from failures in augmentation (ie, the ability to maintain or increase the intensity of positive emotion from time t to t+1) and diminution (ie, when emotions at time t+1 are opposite in valence from emotions at time t, resulting in a decrease in the intensity of positive emotion over time). Furthermore, in both studies, augmentation deficits were associated with anhedonia. These computational findings clarify how abnormalities in the temporal dynamics of emotion contribute to anhedonia.

Student Emotions in Conversation-Based Assessments

Students can experience a variety of emotions while completing assessments. Some emotions can get in the way of students performing their best (e.g., anxiety, frustration), whereas other emotions can facilitate student performance (e.g., engagement). Many new, non-traditional assessments, such as automated conversation-based assessments (CBA), are designed with the intention to create a test-taking experience that maximizes beneficial emotions for students and minimizes detrimental emotions. However, there is a paucity of research on students’ actual emotional experiences during these non-traditional assessments. Across two studies, we investigated students’ moment-to-moment emotions during two CBAs that differed on construct (science inquiry, mathematical reasoning) and environment (virtual world, chat box). We found a similar set of emotions to frequently occur across the two studies and came to the preliminary conclusion that students have a generally positive experience with CBAs and that boredom, confusion, curiosity, delight, engagement/flow, frustration, happiness/enjoyment, hope, and pride are the prevalent emotions in CBAs. The temporal dynamics of emotions as well as the emotion-performance relationship were also investigated across the two studies. Lastly, we discuss how these findings can inform the development of emotion-sensitive CBAs that can facilitate students being able to perform to the best of their ability.

Neural predictors of emotional inertia in daily life.

Assessing emotional dynamics in the brain offers insight into the fundamental neural and psychological mechanisms underlying emotion. One such dynamic is emotional inertia—the influence of one’s emotional state at one time point on one’s emotional state at a subsequent time point. Emotion inertia reflects emotional rigidity and poor emotion regulation as evidenced by its relationship to depression and neuroticism. In this study, we assessed changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) from before to after an emotional task and used these changes to predict stress, positive and negative emotional inertia in daily life events. Cerebral blood flow changes in the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) predicted decreased non-specific emotional inertia, suggesting that the lPFC may feature a general inhibitory mechanism responsible for limiting the impact that an emotional state from one event has on the emotional state of a subsequent event. CBF changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and lateral occipital cortex were associated with positive emotional inertia and negative/stress inertia, respectively. These data advance the blossoming literature on the temporal dynamics of emotion in the brain and on the use of neural indices to predict mental health-relevant behavior in daily life.

187. Modeling Anhedonia in Schizophrenia: A Stochastic Dynamical Systems Approach

Background: Anhedonia, traditionally defined as a diminished capacity to experience pleasure, has long been considered a core feature of schizophrenia. However, modern evidence indicates that anhedonia is better considered a reduction in the frequency of approach behavior than diminished intensity of pleasure when engaged in activities. The current study used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to examine whether schizophrenia patients display abnormalities in the temporal dynamics of emotion that prevent fully intense in-the-moment positive emotions from translating into approach behavior. Methods: Participants included 28 outpatients with schizophrenia and 28 healthy controls who completed prospective, retrospective, and in-the moment EMA reports of emotional experience at multiple time points in the day, over the course of 6 days. Mathematical models, including network analysis and Markov chain analysis, were applied to the EMA data to evaluate stochastic dynamic changes in emotional states to determine mechanisms underlying failures to sustain positive emotion across time. Results: Results indicated no group differences for intensity of in-the-moment, retrospective, or prospective reports of positive emotion. However, mathematical models indicated that SZ had deficits in the ability to sustain positive emotion over time, which resulted from failures in augmentation (i.e., the ability to maintain or increase the intensity of positive emotion from time t to t+1) and blunting (i.e., when emotions at time t+1 are opposite in valence from emotions at time t, resulting in a decrease in the intensity of positive emotion over time) that predicted reductions in approach behavior. Conclusion: Findings suggest that abnormalities in the temporal dynamics of emotion are central features of schizophrenia that predict reduced approach behavior, providing a novel mechanistic account of anhedonia as it occurs in the real world.

The arousing and cathartic effects of popular heartbreak songs as revealed in the physiological responses of listeners

Songs that convey sorrowful emotions enjoy widespread popularity. The expressions and effects of negative emotions vary considerably across cultures and musical forms. This study explores the physiological responses to five popular “heartbreak” songs, focusing on the relationships between the temporal dynamics of emotion and the verse-chorus form. Listeners’ skin conductance and finger temperature were used to infer levels of arousal and relaxation, and the analysis of these time-series data was guided by a priori knowledge of the musical form. We found that two particular time periods in these songs, the passage preceding the chorus and the entrance of the chorus, evoked significant skin conductance responses. Given that the chorus is usually the most favorite element of a popular song, these two responses may reflect the elevated arousal associated with the feelings of “wanting” and “liking”, respectively. Moreover, the average finger temperature exhibited a U-shaped curve across each song. The significant decreases of finger temperature within the first part of songs revealed an accumulation of negative emotions in listeners, whereas the significant increases of finger temperature within the second part may reflect a release, resolution, or regulation of negative emotions. Our findings shed new light on the rewarding nature of the chorus and the cathartic effects associated with the verse-chorus form of heartbreak songs.

Temporal and spatial neural dynamics in the perception of basic emotions from complex scenes

The different temporal dynamics of emotions are critical to understand their evolutionary role in the regulation of interactions with the surrounding environment. Here, we investigated the temporal dynamics underlying the perception of four basic emotions from complex scenes varying in valence and arousal (fear, disgust, happiness and sadness) with the millisecond time resolution of Electroencephalography (EEG). Event-related potentials were computed and each emotion showed a specific temporal profile, as revealed by distinct time segments of significant differences from the neutral scenes. Fear perception elicited significant activity at the earliest time segments, followed by disgust, happiness and sadness. Moreover, fear, disgust and happiness were characterized by two time segments of significant activity, whereas sadness showed only one long-latency time segment of activity. Multidimensional scaling was used to assess the correspondence between neural temporal dynamics and the subjective experience elicited by the four emotions in a subsequent behavioral task. We found a high coherence between these two classes of data, indicating that psychological categories defining emotions have a close correspondence at the brain level in terms of neural temporal dynamics. Finally, we localized the brain regions of time-dependent activity for each emotion and time segment with the low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography. Fear and disgust showed widely distributed activations, predominantly in the right hemisphere. Happiness activated a number of areas mostly in the left hemisphere, whereas sadness showed a limited number of active areas at late latency. The present findings indicate that the neural signature of basic emotions can emerge as the byproduct of dynamic spatiotemporal brain networks as investigated with millisecond-range resolution, rather than in time-independent areas involved uniquely in the processing one specific emotion.

Temporal dynamics of emotions within a workday

The purpose of this study was to examine how positive and negative emotions fluctuate over time within one workday and to investigate the moderating effects of neuroticism and job satisfaction. Data were obtained from 201 Seoul citizens in Korea using the Day Reconstruction Method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004). Data revealed that negative emotions increased over time; positive emotions did not show such a pattern. Job satisfaction correlated positively with average positive emotions and negatively with average negative emotions. Neuroticism correlated significantly and in opposite directions with average positive and negative emotions, but did not correlate significantly with the variability of emotions within a work day. Additionally, neuroticism had a significant moderating effect on the changing pattern of negative (but not positive) emotions over time, such that the negative emotions of workers with high levels of neuroticism increased more sharply than the negative emotions of workers with low levels of neuroticism. Contrary to expectation, job satisfaction did not moderate the pattern of positive or negative emotions at work. Changing patterns of negative emotions may be predictive of occupational accidents and diurnal patterns of positive emotions may be predictive of optimal concentration and efficiency at work. These patterns may also have implications for when we administer surveys in the workplace, when a boss should share bad news with his/her employees.

Temporal Dynamics of Emotions Within a Workday: The Moderating Effect of Neuroticism

본 연구의 목적은 긍정 및 부정 정서가 하루 근무 일 동안에 어떻게 변화하는 지, 그리고 그러한 변화에서의 신경증과 직무만족의 조절 효과를 조사하는 것이었다. 일상재구성법(DRM)을 사용하여 201명의 서울 시민으로부터 수집된 자료를 분석하였으며, 분석 결과, 부정 정서는 하루 중 근무 시간이 지남에 따라 증가하는 형태를 보였으나 긍정 정서는 그러한 형태를 보이지 않았다. 직무만족은 긍정 정서의 평균과는 정적으로 관련되었으나, 부정 정서와는 부적으로 관련되었으며, 신경증은 그 반대의 관련성을 보였다. 또한 신경증은 부정 정서의 시간에 따른 변화 형태에 있어 조절 효과를 보였는데, 즉, 고 신경증 근로자들의 부정 정서는 저 신경증 근로자들보다 더 가파르게 증가하는 형태를 보였다. 그러나 예상과는 달리 직무만족은 긍정 및 부정 정서의 변화 형태에 있어 그러한 조절효과를 보이지 않았다. 본 연구의 결과 중 하루 중 부정 정서의 변화 형태는 최적의 집중 시간이나 효율성, 그리고 안전사고 등의 예방 등의 측면에서 다양한 시사점을 제공한다.

Investigating Emotion with Music

This article briefly reviews the few functional imaging studies conducted so far on the investigation of emotion with music. Basically, these studies showed involvement of limbic and paralimbic cerebral structures (such as amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, temporal poles, insula, ventral striatum, orbitofronal, as well as cingulate cortex) during the processing of music with emotional valence (such as pleasant or unpleasant). The second part of this article highlights the role of unexpected musical events for the elicitation of emotional responses. Recent studies suggest that music-syntactically irregular chords elicit changes in electrodermal activity, and that such chords activate orbital frontolateral cortex, as well as the amygdala (that is, brain structures that have been implicated in emotion processing). The third part of this article mentions findings on the temporal dynamics of emotion (that is, changes in the physiological correlates of emotion processing over time). This issue has so far been mainly neglected in the functional imaging (and psychophysiological) literature.

Investigating emotion with music: An fMRI study

The present study used pleasant and unpleasant music to evoke emotion and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine neural correlates of emotion processing. Unpleasant (permanently dissonant) music contrasted with pleasant (consonant) music showed activations of amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and temporal poles. These structures have previously been implicated in the emotional processing of stimuli with (negative) emotional valence; the present data show that a cerebral network comprising these structures can be activated during the perception of auditory (musical) information. Pleasant (contrasted to unpleasant) music showed activations of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, inferior Brodmann's area (BA) 44, BA 45, and BA 46), the anterior superior insula, the ventral striatum, Heschl's gyrus, and the Rolandic operculum. IFG activations appear to reflect processes of music-syntactic analysis and working memory operations. Activations of Rolandic opercular areas possibly reflect the activation of mirror-function mechanisms during the perception of the pleasant tunes. Rolandic operculum, anterior superior insula, and ventral striatum may form a motor-related circuitry that serves the formation of (premotor) representations for vocal sound production during the perception of pleasant auditory information. In all of the mentioned structures, except the hippocampus, activations increased over time during the presentation of the musical stimuli, indicating that the effects of emotion processing have temporal dynamics; the temporal dynamics of emotion have so far mainly been neglected in the functional imaging literature.