Attention Restraint, Working Memory Capacity, and Mind Wandering: Do Emotional Valence or Intentionality Matter?

Attention restraint appears to mediate the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and mind wandering (Kane et al., 2016). Prior work has identifed two dimensions of mind wandering—emotional valence and intentionality. However, less is known about how WMC and attention restraint correlate with these dimensions. Te current study examined the relationship between WMC, attention restraint, and mind wandering by emotional valence and intentionality. A confrmatory factor analysis demonstrated that WMC and attention restraint were strongly correlated, but only attention restraint was related to overall mind wandering, consistent with prior fndings. However, when examining the emotional valence of mind wandering, attention restraint and WMC were related to negatively and positively valenced, but not neutral, mind wandering. Attention restraint was also related to intentional but not unintentional mind wandering. Tese results suggest that WMC and attention restraint predict some, but not all, types of mind wandering

Social and Affective Neuroscience of Everyday Human Interaction

This Open Access book presents the current state of the art knowledge on social and affective neuroscience based on empirical findings. This volume is divided into several sections first guiding the reader through important theoretical topics within affective neuroscience, social neuroscience and moral emotions, and clinical neuroscience. Each chapter addresses everyday social interactions and various aspects of social interactions from a different angle taking the reader on a diverse journey. The last section of the book is of methodological nature. Basic information is presented for the reader to learn about common methodologies used in neuroscience alongside advanced input to deepen the understanding and usability of these methods in social and affective neuroscience for more experienced readers

Psychological Engagement in Choice and Judgment Under Risk and Uncertainty

Theories of choice and judgment assume that agents behave rationally, choose the higher expected value option, and evaluate the choice consistently (Expected Utility Theory, Von Neumann, & Morgenstern, 1947). However, researchers in decision-making showed that human behaviour is different in choice and judgement tasks (Slovic & Lichtenstein, 1968; 1971; 1973). In this research, we propose that psychological engagement and control deprivation predict behavioural inconsistencies and utilitarian performance with judgment and choice. Moreover, we explore the influences of engagement and control deprivation on agent’s behaviours, while manipulating content of utility (Kusev et al., 2011, Hertwig & Gigerenzer 1999, Tversky & Khaneman, 1996) and decision reward (Kusev et al, 2013, Shafir et al., 2002)

Social and Affective Neuroscience of Everyday Human Interaction

This Open Access book presents the current state of the art knowledge on social and affective neuroscience based on empirical findings. This volume is divided into several sections first guiding the reader through important theoretical topics within affective neuroscience, social neuroscience and moral emotions, and clinical neuroscience. Each chapter addresses everyday social interactions and various aspects of social interactions from a different angle taking the reader on a diverse journey. The last section of the book is of methodological nature. Basic information is presented for the reader to learn about common methodologies used in neuroscience alongside advanced input to deepen the understanding and usability of these methods in social and affective neuroscience for more experienced readers

Neuroimaging the consciousness of self: Review, and conceptual-methodological framework

We review neuroimaging research investigating self-referential processing (SRP), that is, how we respond to stimuli that reference ourselves, prefaced by a lexical-thematic analysis of words indicative of “self-feelings”. We consider SRP as occurring verbally (V-SRP) and non-verbally (NV-SRP), both in the controlled, “top-down” form of introspective and interoceptive tasks, respectively, as well as in the “bottom-up” spontaneous or automatic form of “mind wandering” and “body wandering” that occurs during resting state. Our review leads us to outline a conceptual and methodological framework for future SRP research that we briefly apply toward understanding certain psychological and neurological disorders symptomatically associated with abnormal SRP. Our discussion is partly guided by William James’ original writings on the consciousness of self

Les effets émotionnels de la musique de fond sur l’attention sélective d’adultes

Essai présenté à la Faculté des arts et des sciences en vue de l'obtention du grade de doctorat en psychologie option neuropsychologie clinique (D.Psy).Les activités du quotidien peuvent souvent être effectuées en écoutant de la musique, ce qui pourrait influencer la capacité cognitive permettant de sélectionner les stimuli pertinents tout en ignorant les distracteurs (attention sélective). Des études antérieures ont établi que le niveau d’activation de la musique (p. ex. son caractère relaxant vs stimulant) aurait l’habileté de moduler l’humeur, ce qui pourrait affecter les performances cognitives. Le but de ce projet était d’explorer l’effet de l’écoute de musique de fond relaxante et stimulante sur les capacités d’attention sélective. À cet effet, 46 adultes en bonne santé ont réalisé une tâche de type Stroop dans différents environnements sonores : musique relaxante, bruits associés aux musiques relaxantes, musique stimulante, bruits associés aux musiques stimulantes, silence. Les résultats ont montré que le temps de réponse pour les essais incongruents et congruents et la mesure d’interférence du Stroop sont similaires dans toutes les conditions. De façon intéressante, les résultats ont révélé un taux d’erreur plus élevé pour les essais congruents lors de l’écoute de bruits associés à la musique relaxante par rapport à la musique relaxante. Une tendance similaire est également présente entre les bruits associés à la musique stimulante et la musique relaxante. Dans l’ensemble, ces résultats suggèrent que le silence et la musique de fond ont des effets sur les capacités d’attention sélective de l’adulte, alors que le bruit semble avoir un effet néfaste, spécifiquement lorsque la tâche est cognitivement plus facile. En conclusion, le type d’environnement sonore semble être un facteur qui peut affecter la performance des tâches cognitives plus que le niveau d’activation.The daily activities can often be performed while listening to music, which could influence the ability to select relevant stimuli while ignoring distractors. Previous studies have established that music’s arousal (e.g., relaxing/stimulating) have the ability to modulate mood and affect the performance of cognitive tasks. The aim of this research was to explore the effect of relaxing and stimulating background music on selective attention. To this aim, 46 healthy adults performed a Stroop task in different sound environments: relaxing music, noise-matched relaxing music, stimulating music, noise-matched stimulating music, and silence. Results showed that response time for incongruent and congruent trials and the Stroop interference effect are similar across conditions. Interestingly, results revealed more error rate for congruent trials in noise-matched relaxing music as compared to relaxing music, and a similar tendency between noise-matched stimulating music and relaxing music. Taken together, these results suggest that silence and background music have similar effects on adult’s selective attention capacities, and noise seems to have a detrimental impact, specifically when the task is cognitively easier. In conclusion, the type of sound environment seems to be a factor that can affect cognitive tasks performance more than arousal

A coordinate-based meta-analysis of music-evoked emotions

Since the publication of the first neuroscience study investigating emotion with music about two decades ago, the number of functional neuroimaging studies published on this topic has increased each year. This research interest is in part due to the ubiquity of music across cultures, and to music's power to evoke a diverse range of intensely felt emotions. To support a better understanding of the brain correlates of music-evoked emotions this article reports a coordinate-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies (n = 47 studies with n = 944 subjects). The studies employed a range of diverse experimental approaches (e.g., using music to evoke joy, sadness, fear, tension, frissons, surprise, unpleasantness, or feelings of beauty). The results of an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) indicate large clusters in a range of structures, including amygdala, anterior hippocampus, auditory cortex, and numerous structures of the reward network (ventral and dorsal striatum, anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex). The results underline the rewarding nature of music, the role of the auditory cortex as an emotional hub, and the role of the hippocampus in attachment-related emotions and social bonding.publishedVersio

Facial EMG – Investigating the Interplay of Facial Muscles and Emotions

This chapter provides information about facial electromyography (EMG) as a method of investigating emotions and affect, including examples of application and methods for analysis. This chapter begins with a short introduction to emotion theory followed by an operationalisation of facial emotional expressions as an underlying requirement for their study using facial EMG. This chapter ends by providing practical information on the use of facial EMG