Unconscious Emotional Processing Research Articles

Unconscious activation of negative emotional memories increases pain unpleasantness.

The influence of unconscious emotional processes on pain remains poorly understood. The present study tested whether cues to forgotten unpleasant images might amplify pain (i.e., in the absence of conscious recall). 72 healthy female adults (19 to 34 years) performed an adapted Think/No-think paradigm (T/NT) using 72 combinations of neutral face images (cues) paired with 36 neutral & 36 unpleasant images. After completion of the T/NT task, cues associated with forgotten neutral or unpleasant images were identified. Cues to either neutral or unpleasant images from the NT condition were then presented in randomized order while participants received intermediate-level thermal pain stimulation on the left hand. Ratings of both pain intensity and unpleasantness were acquired after each trial. Mean pain unpleasantness ratings were greater during presentation of cues to forgotten negative vs. neutral images (5.52 [SD = 2.06] vs. 5.23 [SD = 2.10]; p = 0.02). This pattern was also present when comparing cues to remembered negative vs. neutral images (5.62 [SD = 1.94] vs. 5.04 [SD = 1.90]; p < .001). Mean pain intensity ratings were higher for cues to negative vs. neutral images when remembered (5.48 [SD = 1.79] vs. 5.00 [SD = 1.69]; p < .001), but not when forgotten (5.27 [SD = 1.96] vs. 5.16 [SD = 1.93]; p = 0.30). Using an adapted T/NT-Pain paradigm, this study demonstrated that cues to non-recallable (but potentially unconsciously activated) negative emotional memories amplify pain unpleasantness, similar to known effects of conscious negative emotions.

Impairment of unconscious emotional processing after unilateral medial temporal structure resection

The role of the amygdala in unconscious emotional processing remains a topic of debate. Past lesion studies have indicated that amygdala damage leads to impaired electrodermal activity in response to subliminally presented emotional stimuli. However, electrodermal activity can reflect both emotional and nonemotional processes. To provide behavioral evidence highlighting the critical role of the amygdala in unconscious emotional processing, we examined patients (n = 16) who had undergone unilateral resection of medial temporal lobe structures, including the amygdala. We utilized the subliminal affective priming paradigm in conjunction with unilateral visual presentation. Fearful or happy dynamic facial expressions were presented in unilateral visual fields for 30 ms, serving as negative or positive primes. Subsequently, neutral target faces were displayed, and participants were tasked with rating the valence of these targets. Positive primes, compared to negative ones, enhanced valence ratings of the target to a greater extent when they stimulated the intact hemisphere (i.e., were presented in the contralateral visual field of the intact hemisphere) than when they stimulated the resected hemisphere (i.e., were presented in the contralateral visual field of the resected hemisphere). These results suggest that the amygdala is causally involved in unconscious emotional processing.

Unconscious emotional processing

In their opinion paper, Thomson and Coates mention that their title: “Are unconscious emotions important in product assessment? How can we access them?”, “presents several immediate challenges”. We agree, and we suggest that an interesting challenge already starts with the definition of what an unconscious emotion is. In particular, one may ask: what is unconscious in a so-called “unconscious emotion”? In this commentary, we first discuss the very construct of “unconscious emotion.” Then, we discuss this construct with respect to componential approaches to emotion, and we argue that the construct of “unconscious emotion” is subject to debate because the feeling component is typically considered as constitutive of an emotion. We conclude that it may be particularly useful for future research not to focus on “unconscious emotions” but rather on specific “unconscious emotional processes”, and how to measure them using a hypothesis-driven approach.

Hot Politics? Affective Responses to Political Rhetoric

Canonical theories of opinion formation attribute an important role to affect. But how and for whom affect matters is theoretically underdeveloped. We establish the circumplex model in political science as a theory of core affect. In this theory unconscious emotional processes vary in level (arousal, measured with skin conductance) and direction (valence, measured with facial electromyography). We theorize that knowledge, attitude extremity, and (in)congruence with political rhetoric explain variation in affective responses. In a large lab study (N = 397), participants watched video clips with left-wing or right-wing rhetoric on prominent issues. We find that people with extreme attitudes experience more arousal in response to political rhetoric and that political rhetoric incongruent with prior attitudes evokes negative affect. Moreover, we show that affective responses lead to opinion change, independent of self-reported emotions. We conclude by setting a research agenda for the alignment between affective and cognitive components of emotions and their consequences.

A study of unconscious emotional and cognitive responses to tourism images using a neuroscience method

Purpose This applied neuroscience study aims to understand how direct and unconscious emotional and cognitive responses underlie travel destination preferences. State-of-the-art neuroscience tools and methods were used, including stationary eye tracking and brain scanning electroencephalography (EEG) to assess emotional and cognitive responses to destination images and assets. To the researchers’ knowledge, this study is the first applied neuroscience study in tourism research and thus opens a new path of research and enquiry to this area. This paper is an attempt to understand specific mental processes in human tourism behaviours, and it is suggest that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism research. Design/methodology/approach To better understand consumers’ unconscious responses to possible travel destinations, a 3 × 5 factorial design was run with the factors being stimulus type (images, printed names and videos) and travel destination (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, New York and London). Eye-tracking calibration was done with a nine-point fixation test and the EEG calibration was done using functional localizer tests based on the ABM B-ALERT calibration process. This calibration procedure allows reliable tracking of emotional and cognitive responses over time. Thirty Emirati (nationals of the UAE) participants, consisting of equal numbers of males and females (15) were recruited from the UAE and signed informed consent. Each participant was positioned in front of an eye tracker and computer screen, and brain-scanning equipment was mounted; then, each participant underwent eye-tracking and neuroimaging calibration procedures. A Tobii T60XL eye tracker and an ABM X-10 EEG brain scanner, both running iMotions v5.1 in a Windows 7 environment, were used. Findings General emotional and cognitive differences were identified between the channels through which travel destinations are presented. Words about and names of travel destinations cause higher cognitive loads, which may not be surprising, given the greater associative load that words have than images. Of particular interest is the hypothesis that images evoke stronger affective responses than verbal representations. However, as previously noted (Holmes and Mathews, 2005), empirical evidence for this assumption seems surprisingly sparse. The present study and the context provided here suggest that decisions on travel destination have an unconscious component and a direct component that may drive or affect overt preference and actual choice. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this paper is that first, neuromarketing is not dependent on sample sizes; however, future studies could build on this paper to understand why there is a preference for cities. It is suggested that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism research. Originality/value Thus, tourism research may indeed be a suitable field for understanding the brain bases of complex preference formation and choice. Various researchers have found that a destination image is typically measured using cognitive, affective and behavioural components, and further stated that the cognitive image component of a destination was found to have a significant positive effect on the affective image component and overall destination image (Stylidis et al., 2017). Therefore, this research which has introduced brain scanning can be used to better understand the underlying unconscious emotional and cognitive processes that affect consumer thought and action. An understanding of what goes on in the human unconscious mind is very important for destination marketers, this can help in the integrated marketing communication process to create a destination image and brand.

ABOUT VALUE OF CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUSEMOTIONAL PROCESSES AT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Research of conscious and unconscious emotional processes at 167 patients with multiple sclerosis in a condition of remission was conducted. The conscious and unconscious alarm (according to tests Taylor and Lusher), conscious and unconscious aggression (according to Bass-darky test and Hand test) in comparison to indicators of personal scales on the Standardized multidimensional personal questionnaire and the clinical and anamnestic of data was studied. At most of patients the high level of conscious and unconscious anxiety, the increased unconscious aggression at standard values of the general conscious aggression is revealed. The correlation analysis between indicators of emotional pro- cesses of the personality and clinical and anamnestic data revealed reliable interrelation of conscious and unconscious alarm, and also a depression (according to the test of Zung) with the phenomena of personal disadaptation and disease severity while conscious and unconscious aggression (on the general indicators) such relationship was no that is important for psychological diagnostics and rehabilitation.

O27 Wavelet analysis of EEG recorded during unconscious expectation of angry vs. neutral faces in patients with major depression and healthy controls

Objectives Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) show attention bias to the negative emotional stimuli. We aimed at studying the EEG-correlates of unconscious expectation of angry human faces in MDD patients compared to healthy controls. Methods 128-channel EEG was recorded in MDD (23 female and 7 male) and in healthy volunteers (22 female and 8 male) while they categorized pictures as humans or animals. Half of the pictures were neutral and half were showing the faces of angry humans or animals. The pictures were preceded by cues (one for each category), which meaning was not explained to the participants. We performed the wavelet analysis of EEG recorded during the face expectation period: 1000–2000 ms from the cue onset. Results We found the emotional modulation (EM) in EEG rhythms during the expectation of angry vs. neutral faces in both groups. Statistical comparison of the spectral power using 2 × 2 factorial design showed that the EM differences (p Discussion The unconscious expectation of angry vs. neutral faces resulted in EM differences between the MDD and healthy controls in the right frontal and bilateral parietal areas mostly in beta range, and also in alpha and gamma. Conclusions The EEG from the parietal locations can be a better indicator for the differences between MDD and healthy controls. Significance Unconscious emotional processing in patients may become a prospective biomarker for depression.

Time-frequency analysis of EEG recorded during unconscious expectation of angry vs. neutral faces in patients with major depression and healthy controls

IntroductionThe knowledge on brain mechanisms of psychopathology can be very useful for the diagnosis and treatment of patients.ObjectivesPatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) show attention bias to the negative emotional stimuli. Automatic (unconscious) emotional processing in such patients may become a prospective biomarker for depression.AimsWe aimed at studying the EEG-correlates of unconscious expectation of angry human faces in MDD patients compared to healthy controls.Methods128-channel EEG was recorded in MDD (23 females and 7 males) and in healthy volunteers (22 females and 8 males) while they categorized pictures as humans or animals. Half of the pictures were neutral and half were showing the faces of angry humans or animals. The pictures were preceded by cues (one for each category), which meaning was not explained to the participants. We performed the wavelet analysis on EEG recorded during the face expectation period: 1000–2000 ms from the cue onset.ResultsWe found the emotional modulation (EM) in EEG rhythms during the expectation of angry vs. neutral faces in both groups. Statistical comparison of the spectral power using 2 × 2 factorial design showed that the EM differences (P &lt; 0.05) between the groups were in the left parietal locations in 9 Hz and in 16–18 Hz, in the right parietal locations in 27–28 Hz, and in the right frontal area in 30–31 Hz.ConclusionsThe unconscious expectation of angry vs. neutral faces resulted in EM differences between the MDD and healthy controls in the right frontal and bilateral parietal areas mostly in beta and gamma ranges.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Fighting apathy in Alzheimer's dementia: A brief emotional-based intervention

Lack of motivation, or apathy, is a clinically significant feature among dementia patients. The current study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a brief emotional shaping intervention developed to reduce apathy and increase willingness-to-do in Alzheimer's Dementia patients. To this end, 26 Alzheimer patients diagnosed with apathy according to the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES, Marin et al.,1991) and 26 healthy older controls performed an emotional shaping task intended to unconsciously foster willingness-to-do. Participants were randomly assigned to either a positive or a neutral conditioning situation. Results showed how the positively conditioned group was associated with improved willingness-to-do in both patients and controls compared to the neutrally conditioned group. Our findings suggest that unconscious emotional processing can be used to treat apathy symptoms and increase willingness-to-do in Alzheimer's Dementia.

Deficits of unconscious emotional processing in patients with major depression: An ERP study

BackgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with behavioral and neurobiological evidences of negative bias in unconscious emotional processing. However, little is known about the time course of this deficit. The current study aimed to explore the unconscious processing of emotional facial expressions in MDD patients by means of event-related potentials (ERPs). MethodsThe ERP responses to subliminally presented happy/neutral/sad faces were recorded in 26 medication-free patients and 26 healthy controls in a backward masking task. Three ERP components were compared between patients and controls. ResultsDetection accuracy was at chance level for both groups, suggesting that the process was performed in the absence of conscious awareness of the emotional stimuli. Robust emotion×group interactions were observed in P1, N170 and P3. Compared with the neutral faces, 1) the patients showed larger P1 for sad and smaller P1 for happy faces; however, the controls showed a completely inverse P1 pattern; 2) the controls exhibited larger N170 in the happy but not in the sad trials, whereas patients had comparable larger N170 amplitudes in sad and happy trials; 3) although both groups exhibited larger P3 for emotional faces, the patients showed a priority for sad trials while the controls showed a priority for happy trials. ConclusionOur data suggested that negative processing bias exists on the unconscious level in individuals with MDD. The ERP measures indicated that the unconscious emotional processing in MDD patients has a time course of three-stage deflection.

Unseen positive and negative affective information influences social perception in bipolar I disorder and healthy adults

Bipolar disorder is fundamentally a disorder of emotion regulation, and associated with explicit processing biases for socially relevant emotional information in human faces. Less is known, however, about whether implicit processing of this type of emotional information directly influences social perception. We thus investigated group-related differences in the influence of unconscious emotional processing on conscious person perception judgments using a continuous flash suppression task among 22 individuals with remitted bipolar I disorder (BD; AgeM=30.82, AgeSD=7.04; 68.2% female) compared with 22 healthy adults (CTL; AgeM=20.86, AgeSD=9.91; 72.2% female). Across both groups, participants rated neutral faces as more trustworthy, warm, and competent when paired with unseen happy faces as compared to unseen angry and neutral faces; participants rated neutral faces as less trustworthy, warm, and competent when paired with unseen angry as compared to neutral faces. These findings suggest that emotion-related disturbances are not explained by early automatic processing stages, and that activity in the dorsal visual stream underlying implicit emotion processing is intact in bipolar disorder. Implications for understanding the etiology of emotion disturbance in BD are discussed.

Neural signatures of conscious and unconscious emotional face processing in human infants

Human adults can process emotional information both with and without conscious awareness, and it has been suggested that the two processes rely on partly distinct brain mechanisms. However, the developmental origins of these brain processes are unknown. In the present event-related brain potential (ERP) study, we examined the brain responses of 7-month-old infants in response to subliminally (50 and 100 msec) and supraliminally (500 msec) presented happy and fearful facial expressions. Our results revealed that infants' brain responses (Pb and Nc) over central electrodes distinguished between emotions irrespective of stimulus duration, whereas the discrimination between emotions at occipital electrodes (N290 and P400) only occurred when faces were presented supraliminally (above threshold). This suggests that early in development the human brain not only discriminates between happy and fearful facial expressions irrespective of conscious perception, but also that, similar to adults, supraliminal and subliminal emotion processing relies on distinct neural processes. Our data further suggest that the processing of emotional facial expressions differs across infants depending on their behaviorally shown perceptual sensitivity. The current ERP findings suggest that distinct brain processes underpinning conscious and unconscious emotion perception emerge early in ontogeny and can therefore be seen as a key feature of human social functioning.

An fMRI study of unconscious emotional processing in cerebellum

An fMRI study of unconscious emotional processing in cerebellum

Enhanced subliminal emotional responses to dynamic facial expressions.

Emotional processing without conscious awareness plays an important role in human social interaction. Several behavioral studies reported that subliminal presentation of photographs of emotional facial expressions induces unconscious emotional processing. However, it was difficult to elicit strong and robust effects using this method. We hypothesized that dynamic presentations of facial expressions would enhance subliminal emotional effects and tested this hypothesis with two experiments. Fearful or happy facial expressions were presented dynamically or statically in either the left or the right visual field for 20 (Experiment 1) and 30 (Experiment 2) ms. Nonsense target ideographs were then presented, and participants reported their preference for them. The results consistently showed that dynamic presentations of emotional facial expressions induced more evident emotional biases toward subsequent targets than did static ones. These results indicate that dynamic presentations of emotional facial expressions induce more evident unconscious emotional processing.

Environmental judgment in early childhood and its relationship with the understanding of the concept of living beings

The evidence collected concerning the biocentric judgment that young children express when evaluating human actions on the environment leads some scholars to suggest that an essential understanding of the notion of living beings should appear earlier than previously believed.This research project aims to study that assumption. To this end, young children’s choice when they are put in situation of having to compare and choose the most negative option between environmentally harmful actions and the breaking of social conventions are examined. Afterwards, the results are categorized in relation to those obtained from the study of children’s grasp of the distinction between living beings and inanimate entities.The data is analysed according to the individuals’ age and overall, it suggests a lack of relationship between environmental judgment and the understanding of the concept of living beings. The final results are discussed in keeping with recent research in the field of moral development that underscores the role that unconscious emotional processing plays in the individual’s normative judgment.

Subliminal fear priming potentiates negative facial reactions to food pictures in women with anorexia nervosa

To investigate hedonic reactivity and the influence of unconscious emotional processes on the low sensitivity to positive reinforcement of food in anorexia nervosa (AN). AN and healthy women were exposed to palatable food pictures just after a subliminal exposure to facial expressions (happy, disgust, fear and neutral faces), either while fasting or after a standardized meal (hunger versus satiety). Both implicit [facial electromyographic (EMG) activity from zygomatic and corrugator muscles, skin conductance, heart rate, and videotaped facial behavior] and explicit (self-reported pleasure and desire) measures of affective processes were recorded. In contrast to healthy women, the AN patients did not display objective and subjective indices of pleasure to food pictures when they were in the hunger states. Pleasure to food cues (liking) was more affected than the desire to eat (wanting) in AN patients. Subliminal 'fear faces' increased corrugator muscle reactivity to food stimuli in fasting AN patients, as compared to controls. The results suggest that unconscious fear cues increase the negative appraisal of alimentary stimuli in AN patients and thus contribute to decreased energy intake.

Neural Substrates of Implicit and Explicit Emotional Processes: A Unifying Framework for Psychosomatic Medicine

There are two broad themes in psychosomatic medicine research that relate emotions to physical disease outcomes. Theme 1 holds that self-reported negative affect has deleterious effects and self-reported positive affect has salubrious effects on health. Theme 2 holds that interference with the experience or expression of negative affect has adverse health consequences. From the perspective of self-report these two traditions appear contradictory. A key thesis of this paper is that the foundational distinction in cognitive neuroscience between explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) processes, corresponding to Themes 1 and 2, respectively, provides a unifying framework that makes empirical research on unconscious emotional processes more tractable. A psychological model called "levels of emotional awareness" is presented first that places implicit and explicit emotional processes on a cognitive-developmental continuum. This model holds that the ability to become consciously aware of one's own feelings is a cognitive skill that goes through a developmental process similar to that which Piaget described for other cognitive functions. Empirical findings using the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale are presented. A parallel hierarchical model of the neural substrates of emotional awareness is presented next supported by recent neuroimaging and lesion work. The evidence presented in this review suggests that the neural substrates of implicit and explicit emotional processes are distinct, that the latter have a modulatory effect on the former, and that at the neural level Theme 1 and Theme 2 phenomena share critical similarities. The implications of this psychobiological model for research in psychosomatic medicine are discussed.

Subliminal affective priming in clinical depression and comorbid anxiety: A longitudinal investigation

In the present study, the sequential affective priming paradigm developed by Fazio et al. [Fazio, R.H., Sanbonmatsu, D.M., Powell, M.C., Kardes, F.R., 1986. On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50, 229–238.] was applied for the first time to investigate automatic cognitive bias in depressed patients. Unipolar depressed patients ( n = 22) were tested on admission and after about 7 weeks of inpatient psychotherapy. Half of the patients ( n = 11) were suffering from a comorbid anxiety disorder. Twenty-two healthy subjects served as controls. Affectively polarized prime words were presented subliminally followed by positive or negative target words, which had to be evaluated. Subjects' affective state was assessed by self-report measures. In the course of psychotherapy, patients recovered significantly. Study groups exhibited qualitatively different affective priming effects: In non-comorbid depressed patients, no affective priming was found. Instead, a highly significant main effect of prime valence emerged, indicating a Stroop-like interference of negative prime words at time 1. This negative bias was associated with depression level at time 1 and could not be found after recovery. Affective priming was observed in controls and comorbid patients, but in opposite directions. Direction and strength of affective priming was directly associated with anxiety level at both times. The affective priming paradigm provides evidence for differential group effects regarding unconscious emotional information processing.

Disorder-Specific Neuroanatomical Correlates of Attentional Bias in Obsessive-compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, and Hypochondriasis

Attentional bias to disease-relevant emotional cues is considered to be pathogenetically relevant in anxiety disorders. To investigate functional neural correlates and disease specificity of attentional bias across different anxiety disorders. A cognitive and emotional Stroop task, consisting of congruent and incongruent color words, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)-related and panic-related negative words, and neutral words, was used in 3 patient groups and a control group during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Academic outpatient department for anxiety disorders. Medication-free patients with OCD (n = 16), panic disorder (PD) (n = 15), and hypochondriasis (n = 13) and 19 controls. Voxel-wise analyses of cerebral blood flow changes for contrasts of interest (incongruent vs congruent color words, OCD-related vs neutral words, and panic-related vs neutral words) within and between groups. During incongruent vs congruent color naming, all patient groups recruited additional posterior brain regions relative to controls, but performance was impaired only in OCD. In OCD, color naming OCD-related, but not PD-related, words correlated with increased activation of frontal-striatal and temporal regions, although performance was unimpaired. In contrast, in PD, increased frontal-striatal involvement was found during color naming both OCD-related and panic-related words. In PD, color naming panic-related words was slowed and correlated with increased activation of the right amygdala and hippocampus. Patients with hypochondriasis showed a similar activation pattern to patients with PD. Our results support the hypothesis of increased distractibility for irrelevant information in patients with OCD, PD, and hypochondriasis associated with frontal-striatal and limbic involvement compared with controls. Although patients with OCD did not display an attentional bias in behavior relative to controls, there was a clear, specific neural response during color naming OCD-related words, involving mainly ventral brain regions. In contrast, generalized emotional interference effects were found in PD and hypochondriasis, involving ventral and widespread dorsal brain regions, reflecting not only unconscious emotional stimulus processing but also increased cognitive elaboration.

Extending the global workspace theory to emotion: Phenomenality without access

Recent accounts on the global workspace theory suggest that consciousness involves transient formations of functional connections in thalamo-cortico-cortical networks. The level of connectivity in these networks is argued to determine the state of consciousness. Emotions are suggested to play a role in shaping consciousness, but their involvement in the global workspace theory remains elusive. In the present study, the role of emotion in the neural workspace theory of consciousness was scrutinized by investigating, whether unconscious (masked) and conscious (unmasked) display of emotional compared to neutral facial expressions would differentially modulate EEG coherence. EEG coherence was measured by means of computing an average EEG coherence value between the frontal, parietal, and midline scalp sites. Objective awareness checks evidenced that conscious identification of the masked facial expressions was precluded. Analyses revealed reductions in EEG coherence in the lower frequency range for the masked as compared to unmasked neutral facial expressions. Crucially, a decline in EEG coherence was not observed for the emotional facial expressions. In other words, the level of EEG coherence did apparently vary as a function of awareness, but not when emotion was involved. The current finding suggests that EEG coherence is modulated by unconscious emotional processes, which extends common views on the global workspace architecture of consciousness.