Emotional Reactivity, Negative Affect, and Executive Functioning: Does Physiology Matter?

Emotional reactivity reflects the activation, intensity, and duration of an emotional event. Although it is well-established that emotional reactivity has negative implications on psychological functioning, studies have demonstrated that high emotional reactivity enhances executive functioning performance when in negative mood states. The underlying mechanisms that elicit these benefits remain less understood. The current study investigated the relationship between negative affect and executive functioning by examining the role of emotional reactivity through self-report questionnaires and objective physiological skin conductance measures. Participants completed a task of working memory embedded with emotional images, while electrodermal activity was recorded. Based on previous research, we predicted that individuals with high emotional reactivity would perform better on the working memory task when in a negative mood state compared to low-reactive individuals. At the physiological level, we hypothesized that high-reactive individuals would demonstrate higher phasic peaks to emotionally-laden content compared to low-reactive individuals. We also predicted that the underlying mechanism that would lead high-reactive individuals to experience better behavioural performance on the task would be a more rapid physiological habituation to the negative condition, as they would shift attention from the negative images back to the working memory task more quickly. Results indicated that high-reactive individuals actually performed worse in the negative condition compared to low-reactive individuals. Moreover, emotional reactivity did not predict skin conductance magnitudes. Finally, individuals with high emotional reactivity habituated to the negative condition more quickly than individuals with low-reactivity; however, more rapid habituation did not improve behavioural performance on the working memory task. We outline the implications of this work and provide suggestions for future research

Are Boredom Prone Individuals Creative and Curious About Their Environment?

After controlling for overall personality characteristics, boredom proneness did not predict creativity, but did positively predict people’s motivation to seek out novel experiences and find answers to things they do not understand. Thus, future work should explore how to use these relationships to help individuals respond effectively to the experience of boredom.Knowledge Mobilization at York - York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services for faculty, graduate students, community and government seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. This summary has been supported by the Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation at York and project funding from SSHRC and CIHR. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

Apathy associated with neurocognitive disorders: Recent progress and future directions

© 2016 the Alzheimer\u27s Association Introduction Apathy is common in neurocognitive disorders (NCDs) such as Alzheimer\u27s disease and mild cognitive impairment. Although the definition of apathy is inconsistent in the literature, apathy is primarily defined as a loss of motivation and decreased interest in daily activities. Methods The Alzheimer\u27s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer\u27s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) Neuropsychiatric Syndromes Professional Interest Area (NPS-PIA) Apathy workgroup reviewed the latest research regarding apathy in NCDs. Results Progress has recently been made in three areas relevant to apathy: (1) phenomenology, including the use of diagnostic criteria and novel instruments for measurement, (2) neurobiology, including neuroimaging, neuropathological and biomarker correlates, and (3) interventions, including pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic, and noninvasive neuromodulatory approaches. Discussion Recent progress confirms that apathy has a significant impact on those with major NCD and those with mild NCDs. As such, it is an important target for research and intervention