Implicit processing of the eyes and mouth: Evidence from human electrophysiology

The current study examined the time course of implicit processing of distinct facial features and the associate event-related potential (ERP) components. To this end, we used a masked priming paradigm to investigate implicit processing of the eyes and mouth in upright and inverted faces, using a prime duration of 33 ms. Two types of prime-target pairs were used: 1. congruent (e.g., open eyes only in both prime and target or open mouth only in both prime and target); 2. incongruent (e.g., open mouth only in prime and open eyes only in target or open eyes only in prime and open mouth only in target). The identity of the faces changed between prime and target. Participants pressed a button when the target face had the eyes open and another button when the target face had the mouth open. The behavioral results showed faster RTs for the eyes in upright faces than the eyes in inverted faces, the mouth in upright and inverted faces. Moreover they also revealed a congruent priming effect for the mouth in upright faces. The ERP findings showed a face orientation effect across all ERP components studied (P1, N1, N170, P2, N2, P3) starting at about 80 ms, and a congruency/priming effect on late components (P2, N2, P3), starting at about 150 ms. Crucially, the results showed that the orientation effect was driven by the eye region (N170, P2) and that the congruency effect started earlier (P2) for the eyes than for the mouth (N2). These findings mark the time course of the processing of internal facial features and provide further evidence that the eyes are automatically processed and that they are very salient facial features that strongly affect the amplitude, latency, and distribution of neural responses to faces

A First Step toward the Understanding of Implicit Learning of Hazard Anticipation in Inexperienced Road Users Through a Moped-Riding Simulator

Hazard perception is considered one of the most important abilities in road safety. Several efforts have been devoted to investigating how it improves with experience and can be trained. Recently, research has focused on the implicit aspects of hazard detection, reaction, and anticipation. In the present study, we attempted to understand how the ability to anticipate hazards develops during training with a moped-riding simulator: the Honda Riding Trainer (HRT). Several studies have already validated the HRT as a tool to enhance adolescents\u2019 hazard perception and riding abilities. In the present study, as an index of hazard anticipation, we used skin conductance response (SCR), which has been demonstrated to be linked to affective/implicit appraisal of risk. We administered to a group of inexperienced road users five road courses two times a week apart. In each course, participants had to deal with eight hazard scenes (except one course that included only seven hazard scenes). Participants had to ride along the HRT courses, facing the potentially hazardous situations, following traffic rules, and trying to avoid accidents. During the task, we measured SCR and monitored driving performance. The main results show that learning to ride the simulator leads to both a reduction in the number of accidents and anticipation of the somatic response related to hazard detection, as proven by the reduction of SCR onset recorded in the second session. The finding that the SCR signaling the impending hazard appears earlier when the already encountered hazard situations are faced anew suggests that training with the simulator acts on the somatic activation associated with the experience of risky situations, improving its effectiveness in detecting hazards in advance so as to avoid accidents. This represents the starting point for future investigations into the process of generalization of learning acquired in new virtual situations and in real-road situations

Daytime REM sleep affects emotional experience but not decision choices in moral dilemmas

Moral decision-making depends on the interaction between automatic emotional responses and rational cognitive control. A natural emotional regulator state seems to be sleep, in particular rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We tested the impact of daytime sleep, either with or without REM, on moral decision. Sixty participants were presented with 12 sacrificial (6 Footbridge-and 6 Trolley-type) and 8 everyday-type moral dilemmas at 9 AM and at 5 PM. In sacrificial dilemmas, participants had to decide whether or not to kill one person to save more people (utilitarian choice), and to judge how morally acceptable the proposed choice was. In everyday-type dilemmas, participants had to decide whether to endorse moral violations involving dishonest behavior. At 12 PM, 40 participants took a 120-min nap (17 with REM and 23 with NREM only) while 20 participants remained awake. Mixed-model analysis revealed that participants judged the utilitarian choice as less morally acceptable in the afternoon, irrespective of sleep. We also observed a negative association between theta activity during REM and increased self-rated unpleasantness during moral decisions. Nevertheless, moral decision did not change across the day and between groups. These results suggest that although both time and REM sleep may affect the evaluation of a moral situation, these factors did not ultimately impact the individual moral choices

Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression

Only a few studies investigated whether animal phobics exhibit attentional biases in contexts where no phobic stimuli are present. Among these, recent studies provided evidence for a bias toward facial expressions of fear and disgust in animal phobics. Such findings may be due to the fact that these expressions could signal the presence of a phobic object in the surroundings. To test this hypothesis and further investigate attentional biases for emotional faces in animal phobics, we conducted an experiment using a gaze-cuing paradigm in which participants\u2019 attention was driven by the task-irrelevant gaze of a centrally presented face. We employed dynamic negative facial expressions of disgust, fear and anger and found an enhanced gaze-cuing effect in snake phobics as compared to controls, irrespective of facial expression. These results provide evidence of a general hypervigilance in animal phobics in the absence of phobic stimuli, and indicate that research on specific phobias should not be limited to symptom provocation paradigms

The Fate of Emotional Memories Over a Week: Does Sleep Play Any Role?

Although there is a wide consensus on how sleep processes declarative memories, how sleep affects emotional memories remains elusive. Moreover, studies assessing the long-term effect of sleep on emotional memory consolidation are scarce. Studies testing subclinical populations characterized by REM abnormalities are also lacking. Here we aimed to (i) investigate the fate of emotional memories and the potential unbinding (or preservation) between content and affective tone over time (i.e., 1 week), (ii) explore the role of seven nights of sleep (recorded via actigraphy) in emotional memory consolidation, and (iii) assess whether participants with self-reported mild-moderate depressive symptoms forget less emotional information compared to participants with low depression symptoms. We found that, although at the immediate recognition session emotional information was forgotten more than neutral information, a week later it was forgotten less than neutral information. This effect was observed both in participants with low and mild-moderate depressive symptoms. We also observed an increase in valence rating over time for negative pictures, whereas perceived arousal diminished a week later for both types of stimuli (unpleasant and neutral); an initial decrease was already observable at the immediate recognition session. Interestingly, we observed a negative association between sleep efficiency across the week and change in memory discrimination for unpleasant pictures over time, i.e., participants who slept worse were the ones who forgot less emotional information. Our results suggest that emotional memories are resistant to forgetting, particularly when sleep is disrupted, and they are not affected by non-clinical depression symptomatology

How can on-road hazard perception and anticipation be improved? Evidence from the body

The present research is aimed at investigating processes associated with learning how to drive safely. We were particularly interested in implicit mechanisms related to the automatic processing system involved in decision making in risky situations (Slovic et al., 2007). The operation of this system is directly linked to experiential and emotional reactions and can be monitored by measuring psychophysiological variables, such as skin conductance responses (SCRs). We focused specifically on the generalization of previously acquired skills to new and never before encountered road scenarios. To that end, we compared the SCRs of two groups of participants engaged, respectively, in two distinctive modes of moped-riding training. The active group proceeded actively, via moped, through several simulated courses, whereas the passive group watched video of the courses performed by the former group and identified hazards. Results indicate that the active group not only demonstrated improved performance in the second session, which involved the same simulated courses, but also showed generalization to new scenes in the third session. Moreover, SCRs to risky scenes, although present in both groups, were detectable in a higher proportion in the active group, paralleling the degree of risk confronted as the training progressed. Finally, the anticipatory ability demonstrated previously (and replicated in the present study), which was evident in the repeated performance of a given scenario, did not seem to generalize to the new scenarios confronted in the last session

The Fate of Emotional Memories Over a Week: Does Sleep Play Any Role?

Although there is a wide consensus on how sleep processes declarative memories, how sleep affects emotional memories remains elusive. Moreover, studies assessing the long-term effect of sleep on emotional memory consolidation are scarce. Studies testing subclinical populations characterized by REM abnormalities are also lacking. Here we aimed to (i) investigate the fate of emotional memories and the potential unbinding (or preservation) between content and affective tone over time (i.e., 1 week), (ii) explore the role of seven nights of sleep (recorded via actigraphy) in emotional memory consolidation, and (iii) assess whether participants with self-reported mild-moderate depressive symptoms forget less emotional information compared to participants with low depression symptoms. We found that, although at the immediate recognition session emotional information was forgotten more than neutral information, a week later it was forgotten less than neutral information. This effect was observed both in participants with low and mild-moderate depressive symptoms. We also observed an increase in valence rating over time for negative pictures, whereas perceived arousal diminished a week later for both types of stimuli (unpleasant and neutral); an initial decrease was already observable at the immediate recognition session. Interestingly, we observed a negative association between sleep efficiency across the week and change in memory discrimination for unpleasant pictures over time, i.e., participants who slept worse were the ones who forgot less emotional information. Our results suggest that emotional memories are resistant to forgetting, particularly when sleep is disrupted, and they are not affected by non-clinical depression symptomatology

Coping Strategies and Distress in Patients and Caregivers Dealing with Neurocognitive Disorders

Background and Aims: Quality of life (QoL) is described as the individual’s perception of life in relation to the cultural context and value system in which they live, and their objectives, expectations and interests. The aim of the present study is to investigate the perceptions of QoL on the part of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or mild dementia and on the part of their caregivers, by examining how they are influenced by factors such as anosognosia, coping strategies, perceived stress and caregiver burden. Methods: QoL was assessed in a sample of 30 patients with MCI or mild dementia and their caregivers using the QoL-AD. Other variables were measured with the AQ-D, PSS-10, COPE-NVI-25 and CBI instruments. We also assessed patients’ levels of cognitive impairment with the MMSE. Results: Patients’ QoL ratings were significantly higher than those of their respective caregivers. Patients’ perceptions of QoL were predicted by their caregiver’s avoidance coping strategy (β = -0.591, p < 0.01), whereas the caregivers’ perceptions of QoL were predicted by their perceived stress levels (β = -0.567, p < 0.01), the patient’s transcendent orientation (β = -0.369, p < 0.05) and the caregiver’s positive attitude coping strategy (β = 0.312, p < 0.05). Conclusions: This study shows that perception of QoL is mostly influenced by coping strategies and perceived stress, and that caregivers’ dysfunctional coping strategies can affect patients’ perceptions of QoL. Our data also highlight the crucial role of the caregiver in the treatment of neurocognitive disorders

A Retrospective Comparative Study in Patients With Cocaine Use Disorder Comorbid With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Undergoing an rTMS Protocol Treatment

Background: Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with high comorbidity with other psychiatric diseases, including cocaine use disorder (CocUD). Given the common fronto-striatal dysfunction, ADHD patients often use cocaine as self-medication for ameliorating symptoms by increasing striatal dopamine release. Yet, comorbidity with ADHD is related to poor treatment outcomes. CocUD has been treated with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), but no studies investigated the outcomes in patients comorbid with ADHD. Methods: Twenty-two ADHD/CocUD and 208 CocUD-only participants received a high-frequency (15 Hz) rTMS treatment stimulating the left-DLPFC. We investigated whether both groups of patients shared similar demographic and clinical characteristics at baseline. Then, we monitored the effect of treatment testing for potential differences between groups. Results: At baseline demographic, toxicology and clinical features were not different between the two groups except for global severity index (GSI from SCL-90): patients of ADHD/CocUD group reported higher general symptomatology compared to the CocUD-only group. Concerning the effect of treatment, both groups significantly improved over time regarding cocaine use, craving, and other negative affect symptoms. No differences were observed between groups. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing the demographic characterization and rTMS clinical improvements of patients with a dual diagnosis of ADHD and CocUD against CocUD-only patients. Cocaine use and common self-reported withdrawal/abstinence symptoms appear to benefit from rTMS treatment with no differences between groups. Future studies are needed to further investigate these preliminary results

Genetically-Driven Enhancement of Dopaminergic Transmission Affects Moral Acceptability in Females but Not in Males: A Pilot Study

Moral behavior has been a key topic of debate for philosophy and psychology for a long time. In recent years, thanks to the development of novel methodologies in cognitive sciences, the question of how we make moral choices has expanded to the study of neurobiological correlates that subtend the mental processes involved in moral behavior. For instance, in vivo brain imaging studies have shown that distinct patterns of brain neural activity, associated with emotional response and cognitive processes, are involved in moral judgment. Moreover, while it is well-known that responses to the same moral dilemmas differ across individuals, to what extent this variability may be rooted in genetics still remains to be understood. As dopamine is a key modulator of neural processes underlying executive functions, we questioned whether genetic polymorphisms associated with decision-making and dopaminergic neurotransmission modulation would contribute to the observed variability in moral judgment. To this aim, we genotyped five genetic variants of the dopaminergic pathway [rs1800955 in the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene, DRD4 48 bp variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR), solute carrier family 6 member 3 (SLC6A3) 40 bp VNTR, rs4680 in the catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) gene, and rs1800497 in the ankyrin repeat and kinase domain containing 1 (ANKK1) gene] in 200 subjects, who were requested to answer 56 moral dilemmas. As these variants are all located in genes belonging to the dopaminergic pathway, they were combined in multilocus genetic profiles for the association analysis. While no individual variant showed any significant effects on moral dilemma responses, the multilocus genetic profile analysis revealed a significant gender-specific influence on human moral acceptability. Specifically, those genotype combinations that improve dopaminergic signaling selectively increased moral acceptability in females, by making their responses to moral dilemmas more similar to those provided by males. As females usually give more emotionally-based answers and engage the “emotional brain” more than males, our results, though preliminary and therefore in need of replication in independent samples, suggest that this increase in dopamine availability enhances the cognitive and reduces the emotional components of moral decision-making in females, thus favoring a more rationally-driven decision process