773 research outputs found
Spontaneous blink rate as an index of attention and emotion during film clips viewing
Spontaneous blinking is a non-invasive indicator known to reflect dopaminergic influence over frontal cortex and attention allocation in perceptual tasks. 38 participants watched eighteen short film clips (2 min), designed to elicit specific affective states, and arranged in six different emotional categories, while their eye movements were recorded from the vertical electroculogram. The largest blink rate inhibition, reflecting greater attention allocation to the movie, was observed during the presentation of Erotic clips, excerpts on wilderness depicting beautiful landscapes (Scenery), as well as clips showing crying characters (Compassion). Instead, the minimum blink rate inhibition was found for Fear clips, which induced a defensive response with stimulus rejection. Blink rate across time evidenced how Compassion clips elicited early inhibition while Sadness clips induced a slower, later inhibition. Correlation analyses also revealed a negative correlation (r < -0.40) between total blink rate recorded during Erotic and Compassion clips and self-reported interest. Overall, the main variable explaining blink rate was emotional Valence. Results suggest that blink modulation is related with the motivational relevance and biological significance of the stimuli, tracking their differential recruitment of attentional resources. Furthermore, they provide a solid background for studying the emotion-attention patterns and their deficits also in clinical samples (e.g., neurological and psychiatric patients) using spontaneous blinking as a not-interfering psychophysiological measure
Greater general startle reflex is associated with greater anxiety levels: a correlational study on 111 young women
Startle eyeblink reflex is a valid non-invasive tool for studying attention, emotion and
psychiatric disorders. In the absence of any experimental manipulation, the general (or
baseline) startle reflex shows a high inter-individual variability, which is often considered
task-irrelevant and therefore normalized across participants. Unlike the above view, we
hypothesized that greater general startle magnitude is related to participants\u2019 higher
anxiety level. 111 healthy young women, after completing the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
(STAI), were randomly administered 10 acoustic white noise probes (50 ms, 100 dBA
acoustic level) while integrated EMG from left and right orbicularis oculi was recorded.
Results showed that participants with greater state anxiety levels exhibited larger startle
reflex magnitude from the left eye (r109 = 0.23, p < 0.05). Furthermore, individuals who
perceived the acoustic probe as more aversive reported the largest anxiety scores (r109
= 0.28, p < 0.05) and had the largest eyeblinks, especially in the left eye (r109 = 0.34,
p < 0.001). Results suggest that general startle may represent a valid tool for studying the
neural excitability underlying anxiety and emotional dysfunction in neurological and mental
disorders
Posture used in fMRI-PET elicits reduced cortical activity and altered hemispheric asymmetry with respect to sitting position: An EEG resting state study
Horizontal body position is a posture typically adopted for sleeping or during brain imaging recording in both neuroscience experiments and diagnostic situations. Recent literature showed how this position and similar ones with head down are associated to reduced plasticity, impaired pain and emotional responses. The present study aimed at further understanding the decrease of cortical activity associated with horizontal body position by measuring high-frequency EEG bands \u2013 typically associated with high-level cognitive activation \u2013 in a resting state experimental condition. To this end, two groups of 16 female students were randomly assigned to either sitting control (SC) or 2-h horizontal Bed Rest condition (hBR) while EEG was recorded from 38 scalp recording sites. The hBR group underwent several body transitions, from sitting to supine, and from supine to sitting. Results revealed a clear effect of horizontal posture: the hBR group showed, compared to its baseline and to SC, reduced High-Beta and Gamma EEG band amplitudes throughout the 2-h of hBR condition. In addition, before and after the supine condition, hBR group as well as SC exhibited a greater left vs. right frontal activation in both EEG bands while, on the contrary, the supine position induced a bilateral and reduced activation in hBR participants. The cortical sources significantly more active in SC compared with hBR participants included the left Inferior Frontal Gyrus and left Insula. Results are discussed in relation to the differences among neuroimaging methods (e.g., fMRI, EEG, NIRS), which can be partially explained by posture-induced neural network changes
Brain plasticity in aphasic patients: Intra- and inter-hemispheric reorganisation of the whole linguistic network probed by N150 and N350 components
The present study examined linguistic plastic reorganization of language through Evoked Potentials
in a group of 17 non-fluent aphasic patients who had suffered left perisylvian focal lesions, and
showed a good linguistic recovery. Language reorganisation was probed with three linguistic
tasks (Phonological, Semantic, Orthographic), the early word recognition potential (N150) and the
later phonological-related component (N350). Results showed the typical left-lateralised posterior
N150 in healthy controls (source: left Fusiform Gyrus), that was bilateral (Semantic) or right sided
(Phonological task) in patients (sources: right Inferior/Middle Temporal and Fusiform Gyri). As regards
N350, controls revealed different intra- and inter-hemispheric linguistic activation across linguistic
tasks, whereas patients exhibited greater activity in left intact sites, anterior and posterior to the
damaged area, in all tasks (sources: Superior Frontal Gyri). A comprehensive neurofunctional model
is presented, describing how complete intra- and inter-hemispheric reorganisation of the linguistic
networks occurs after aphasic damage in the strategically dominant left perisylvian linguistic centres
Sex differences in emotional evaluation of film clips: interaction with five high arousal emotional categories
The present study aimed to investigate gender differences in the emotional evaluation of 18
film clips divided into six categories: Erotic, Scenery, Neutral, Sadness, Compassion, and
Fear. 41 female and 40 male students rated all clips for valence-pleasantness, arousal,
level of elicited distress, anxiety, jittery feelings, excitation, and embarrassment. Analysis of
positive films revealed higher levels of arousal, pleasantness, and excitation to the Scenery
clips in both genders, but lower pleasantness and greater embarrassment in women compared
to men to Erotic clips. Concerning unpleasant stimuli, unlike men, women reported
more unpleasantness to the Compassion, Sadness, and Fear compared to the Neutral clips
and rated them also as more arousing than did men. They further differentiated the films by
perceiving greater arousal to Fear than to Compassion clips. Women rated the Sadness
and Fear clips with greater Distress and Jittery feelings than men did. Correlation analysis
between arousal and the other emotional scales revealed that, although men looked less
aroused than women to all unpleasant clips, they also showed a larger variance in their
emotional responses as indicated by the high number of correlations and their relatively
greater extent, an outcome pointing to a masked larger sensitivity of part of male sample to
emotional clips. We propose a new perspective in which gender difference in emotional
responses can be better evidenced by means of film clips selected and clustered in more
homogeneous categories, controlled for arousal levels, as well as evaluated through a number
of emotion focused adjectives
The influence of affective factors on time perception
Several studies have suggested that both affective valence and arousal affect the perception of time. How-ever, in previous experiments these two affective dimensions were not systematically controlled. In the present study, a set of emotional slides rated for valence and arousal (International Affective Picture System) were projected to two groups of subjects for 2, 4 and 6 sec. One group estimated the duration on an analog scale and a second group reproduced the interval by pushing a button. Heart rate and skin conductance responses were also recorded. A highly significant valence by arousal interaction affected duration judg-ments. For low arousal stimuli, the duration of negative slides was judged relatively shorter than the duration of positive slides. For high arousal stimuli, the duration of negative slides was judged longer than the dura-tion of positive slides. These results are interpreted within a model of action tendency, in which the level of arousal controls two different motivational mechanisms, one emotional and the other attentional
E-MOVIE - Experimental MOVies for Induction of Emotions in Neuroscience: an innovative film database with normative data and sex differences.
The need for a validated set of emotional clips to elicit emotions in more ecological experiments is increasing. Here we present the validation of a new database of emotional films, named E-MOVIE, which includes, in this first validation phase, 39 excerpts arranged in six categories, three negative (Fear, Sadness and Compassion), two positive (Erotic and Scenery) and a Neutral category. Notably, Compassion and Scenery are new in the field as they were not included in other databases. The clips in E-MOVIE are characterized by homogenous durations of approximately two minutes, which make them suitable for psychophysiological research. In order to study the affective profile prompted by each category 174 participants (112 women) rated the movies on multiple dimensions, namely valence and arousal, intensity and discreteness of the induction of one of the six basic emotions and, finally, intensity of the experience of the emotional states defined by a series of emotional adjectives. Erotic clips were effective in the elicitation of a positive emotional state, characterized by high levels of arousal and excitement. On the other hand, Fear clips (selected without blood to avoid disgust reaction) prompted an affect characterized by high arousal, low valence and high levels of reported fear and anxiety. Women reported greater unpleasantness, distress, anxiety and jittery than men to the three negative categories. Compassion clips, characterized by the depiction of crying characters, were able to induce an affective state dominated by sadness and feeling touched, consistent with an empathic reaction to emotional sufferance. Sadness clips, instead, elicited an affective state characterized by sadness together with distress and angst. We also demonstrated that clips depicting natural environments (i.e. Scenery) prompted in the viewer a surprised, inspired affective state, characterized by high valence and arousal (especially in males), a result which suggests that their past categorization as neutral stimuli was inaccurate and problematic
Neurocognitive evidence for mental imagery-driven hypoalgesic and hyperalgesic pain regulation
Mental imagery has the potential to influence perception by directly altering sensory, cognitive, and affective
brain activity associated with imagined content. While it is well established that mental imagery can both
exacerbate and alleviate acute and chronic pain, it is currently unknown how imagery mechanisms regulate
pain perception. For example, studies to date have been unable to determine whether imagery effects depend
upon a general redirection of attention away from pain or focused attentional mechanisms. To address these issues,
we recorded subjective, behavioral and ERP responses using 64-channel EEG while healthy human participants
applied a mental imagery strategy to decrease or increase pain sensations. When imagining a glove
covering the forearm, participants reported decreased perceived intensity and unpleasantness, classified fewer
high-intensity stimuli as painful, and showed a more conservative response bias. In contrast, when imagining a
lesion on the forearm, participants reported increased pain intensity and unpleasantness, classified more lowintensity
stimuli as painful, and displayed a more liberal response bias. Using a mass-univariate approach,we further
showed differential modulation of the N2 potentials across conditions, with inhibition and facilitation respectively
increasing and decreasing N2 amplitudes between 122 and 180 ms. Within this time window,
source localization associated inhibiting vs. facilitating pain with neural activity in cortical regions involved in
cognitive inhibitory control and in the retrieval of semantic information (i.e., right inferior frontal and temporal
regions). In contrast, the main sources of neural activity associatedwith facilitating vs. inhibiting pain were identified
in cortical regions typically implicated in salience processing and emotion regulation (i.e., left insular,
inferior-middle frontal, supplementary motor and precentral regions). Overall, these findings suggest that the
content of a mental image directly alters pain-related decision and evaluative processing to flexibly produce
hypoalgesic and hyperalgesic outcomes
Attitude Issues on the Huygens Probe: Balloon Dropped Mock up Role in Determining Reconstruction Strategies During Descent in Lower Atmosphere
As part of the collaboration with Italian Space Agency on HASI instrument for Huygens mission, University of Padova has been conducting since 2001 scientific activity on Stratospheric Balloon Launches from the Trapani base in Sicily. The most recent boomerang flight in July 2003 has successfully flown a mock up of the Huygens probe hosting spares of flight scientific units and extra housekeeping and scientific sensors on a parachuted descent from 33 kilometre altitude. This work presents the studies conducted on attitude reconstruction of the probe, as well as the utilisation of iterative extended Kalman filtering in investigating vanes induced spin rate and in providing a baseline for the performance evaluation of Huygens accelerometers operations. Finally some possible contributions on the reconstruction of the lower part of Titan descent for Huygens probe are suggested based on the confrontation of sensor data for 2003 flight
Online search trends and word-related emotional response during COVID- 19 lockdown in Italy: a cross-sectional online study
Background. The strong and long lockdown adopted by the Italian government to limit COVID-19 spreading represents the first threat-related mass isolation in history that can be studied in depth by scientists to understand individuals' emotional response to a pandemic.
Methods. We investigated the effects on individuals' mental wellbeing of this long-term isolation by means of an online survey on 71 Italian volunteers. They completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and Fear of COVID-19 Scale and judged valence, arousal, and dominance of words either related or unrelated to COVID-19, as identified by Google search trends.
Results. Emotional judgments changes from normative data varied depending on word type and individuals' emotional state, revealing early signals of individuals' mental distress to COVID-19 confinement. All individuals judged COVID-19-related words to be less positive and dominant. However, individuals with more negative feelings and COVID-19 fear also judged COVID-19-unrelated words to be less positive and dominant. Moreover, arousal ratings increased for all words among individuals with more negative feelings and COVID-19 fear but decreased among individuals with less negative feelings and COVID-19 fear.
Discussion. Our results show a rich picture of emotional reactions of Italians to tight and 2-month long confinement, identifying early signals of mental health distress. They are an alert to the need for intervention strategies and psychological assessment of individuals potentially needing mental health support following the COVID-19 situation
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