Emotional valence and arousal affect reading in an interactive way: neuroimaging evidence for an approach-withdrawal framework

A growing body of literature shows that the emotional content of verbal material affects reading, wherein emotional words are given processing priority compared to neutral words. Human emotions can be conceptualised within a two-dimensional model comprised of emotional valence and arousal (intensity). These variables are at least in part distinct, but recent studies report interactive effects during implicit emotion processing and relate these to stimulus-evoked approach-withdrawal tendencies. The aim of the present study was to explore how valence and arousal interact at the neural level, during implicit emotion word processing. The emotional attributes of written word stimuli were orthogonally manipulated based on behavioural ratings from a corpus of emotion words. Stimuli were presented during an fMRI experiment while 16 participants performed a lexical decision task, which did not require explicit evaluation of a word's emotional content. Results showed greater neural activation within right insular cortex in response to stimuli evoking conflicting approach-withdrawal tendencies (i.e., positive high-arousal and negative low-arousal words) compared to stimuli evoking congruent approach vs. withdrawal tendencies (i.e., positive low-arousal and negative high-arousal words). Further, a significant cluster of activation in the left extra-striate cortex was found in response to emotional than neutral words, suggesting enhanced perceptual processing of emotionally salient stimuli. These findings support an interactive two-dimensional approach to the study of emotion word recognition and suggest that the integration of valence and arousal dimensions recruits a brain region associated with interoception, emotional awareness and sympathetic functions

Rhythmic Relating : Bidirectional support for social timing in autism therapies

We propose Rhythmic Relating for autism: a system of supports for friends, therapists, parents, and educators; a system which aims to augment bidirectional communication and complement existing therapeutic approaches. We begin by summarizing the developmental significance of social timing and the social-motor-synchrony challenges observed in early autism. Meta-analyses conclude the early primacy of such challenges, yet cite the lack of focused therapies. We identify core relational parameters in support of social-motor-synchrony and systematize these using the communicative musicality constructs: pulse; quality; and narrative. Rhythmic Relating aims to augment the clarity, contiguity, and pulse-beat of spontaneous behavior by recruiting rhythmic supports (cues, accents, turbulence) and relatable vitality; facilitating the predictive flow and just-ahead-in-time planning needed for good-enough social timing. From here, we describe possibilities for playful therapeutic interaction, small-step co-regulation, and layered sensorimotor integration. Lastly, we include several clinical case examples demonstrating the use of Rhythmic Relating within four different therapeutic approaches (Dance Movement Therapy, Improvisational Music Therapy, Play Therapy, and Musical Interaction Therapy). These clinical case examples are introduced here and several more are included in the Supplementary Material (Examples of Rhythmic Relating in Practice). A suite of pilot intervention studies is proposed to assess the efficacy of combining Rhythmic Relating with different therapeutic approaches in playful work with individuals with autism. Further experimental hypotheses are outlined, designed to clarify the significance of certain key features of the Rhythmic Relating approach

Visual complexity and affect: ratings reflect more than meets the eye

Pictorial stimuli can vary on many dimensions, several aspects of which are captured by the term ‘visual complexity.’ Visual complexity can be described as, “a picture of a few objects, colors, or structures would be less complex than a very colorful picture of many objects that is composed of several components.” Prior studies have reported a relationship between affect and visual complexity, where complex pictures are rated as more pleasant and arousing. However, a relationship in the opposite direction, an effect of affect on visual complexity, is also possible; emotional arousal and valence are known to influence selective attention and visual processing. In a series of experiments, we found that ratings of visual complexity correlated with affective ratings, and independently also with computational measures of visual complexity. These computational measures did not correlate with affect, suggesting that complexity ratings are separately related to distinct factors. We investigated the relationship between affect and ratings of visual complexity, finding an ‘arousal-complexity bias’ to be a robust phenomenon. Moreover, we found this bias could be attenuated when explicitly indicated but did not correlate with inter-individual difference measures of affective processing, and was largely unrelated to cognitive and eyetracking measures. Taken together, the arousal-complexity bias seems to be caused by a relationship between arousal and visual processing as it has been described for the greater vividness of arousing pictures. The described arousal-complexity bias is also of relevance from an experimental perspective because visual complexity is often considered a variable to control for when using pictorial stimuli

Picture this:A review of research relating to narrative processing by moving image versus language

Reading fiction for pleasure is robustly correlated with improved cognitive attainment and other benefits. It is also in decline among young people in developed nations, in part because of competition from moving image fiction. We review existing research on the differences between reading or hearing verbal fiction and watching moving image fiction, as well as looking more broadly at research on image or text interactions and visual versus verbal processing. We conclude that verbal narrative generates more diverse responses than moving image narrative. We note that reading and viewing narrative are different tasks, with different cognitive loads. Viewing moving image narrative mostly involves visual processing with some working memory engagement, whereas reading narrative involves verbal processing, visual imagery, and personal memory (Xu et al., 2005). Attempts to compare the two by creating equivalent stimuli and task demands face a number of challenges. We discuss the difficulties of such comparative approaches. We then investigate the possibility of identifying lower level processing mechanisms that might distinguish cognition of the two media and propose internal scene construction and working memory as foci for future research. Although many of the sources we draw on concentrate on English-speaking participants in European or North American settings, we also cover material relating to speakers of Dutch, German, Hebrew, and Japanese in their respective countries, and studies of a remote Turkish mountain community

Psychologische Prozesse und neuronale Korrelate

The overall aim of the present dissertation project was to investigate how responses to emotional information are modulated by the presentation medium. While many studies have used different types of stimulus materials to study emotion processing, so far only few studies have focused on media-specific affective processes. Models of media reception have, however, recently integrated psychological theories and theories from literary and film studies. They thereby provide useful frameworks for understanding affective and aesthetic responses to media stimuli. Based on these models, this dissertation project focuses on three basic questions: Are emotional responses domain- specific and are pictorial stimuli emotionally more powerful than verbal material? What are the psychological processes and neural mechanisms underlying the dynamic unfolding of emotional responses in movies? What are modulating factors of processing emotional information in different media types? To capture differences between verbal and pictorial materials, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was designed, which in contrast to previous studies, controlled the perceptual complexity of the material. The main results are 1) comparable valence effects for words and pictures, when controlled for complexity; 2) interactions of valence and modality in mainly perceptual and language brain regions; and 3) stronger valence effects for complex photos compared to pictograms in frontal emotion processing regions. A second fMRI study was designed to investigate the dynamic unfolding of emotional responses in movies. Its main results are 1) continuous sadness ratings show time-variable responses with sadness peaks toward the predicted emotional scene climax; 2) dynamic movie context modulates activations in anterior and posterior cortical midline regions and their coupling with posterior sensory and subcortical reward areas. The third literature-based study aimed at discussing modulating factors of emotional media reception. It summarizes results of emotion processing in different media types, and relates them to current theories of emotion. It finally discusses them in the context of media reception models and argues for a crucial role of immersive processes for emotional responses to different media types. The results of this dissertation confirm that different media stimuli, symbolic verbal as well as more realistic, multimodal stimuli can have powerful emotion effects. The dissertation describes media-specific emotional responses that support experience-based neural representations of emotions. It further emphasizes the relevance of interactions of cortical midline, posterior sensory and subcortical reward networks in the dynamic processing of emotional information in audiovisual stimuli. Finally, it discusses the crucial role of immersive processes and its underlying mechanisms in emotional media reception.Das Hauptziel dieses Dissertationsprojektes liegt darin zu untersuchen, wie Reaktionen auf emotionale Informationen durch das Präsentationsmedium moduliert werden. Während viele Studien unterschiedliche Stimulusmaterialien verwendet haben, um Emotionsverarbeitungsprozesse zu untersuchen, haben sich bisher nur wenige gezielt mit medien-spezifischen affektiven Prozessen auseinander gesetzt. Aktuelle Modelle der Medienrezeption verknüpfen psychologische Theorien mit Theorien der Literatur- und Filmwissenschaften und liefern damit den nötigen Rahmen zum Verständnis von affektiven und aesthetischen Reaktionen auf Medienstimuli. Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Modelle, fokussiert sich dieses Dissertationsprojekt auf drei Grundfragen: Sind emotionale Reaktionen domänenspezifisch und sind bildliche Stimuli emotional wirkungsvoller als verbales Stimulusmaterial? Was sind die psychologischen Prozesse und neuronalen Mechanismen, die der dynamischen Entwicklung emotionaler Reaktionen in Filmen zugrunde liegen? Was sind modulierende Faktoren der Verarbeitung emotionaler Informationen in unterschiedlichen Medien? Um Unterschiede in der Verarbeitung von bildlichem und verbalem Material zu untersuchen, wurde eine funktionale Magnetresonanztomographie (fMRT)-Studie entwickelt, in welcher, im Unterschied zu bisherigen Studien, die perzeptuelle Komplexität des Materials kontrolliert wurde. Die Hauptergebnisse sind 1) vergleichbare Valenzeffekte für Wörter und Bilder, wenn sie für Komplexität kontrolliert werden; 2) Interaktionen von Valenz und Modalität in vor allem perzeptuellen und Sprachregionen; 3) stärkere Valenzeffekte für komplexe Fotos im Vergleich zu Piktogrammen in frontalen emotionalen Hirnregionen. Eine zweite fMRT-Studie wurde entworfen, um die dynamische Entfaltung emotionaler Reaktionen auf Filme zu untersuchen. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse sind 1) kontinuierliche Traurigkeitsbeurteilungen zeigen zeitlich variable Reaktionen mit emotionalen Gipfeln im Bereich der vorhergesagten emotionalen Szenenklimaxe; 2) dynamischer Filmkontext moduliert Aktivierungen in anterioren und posterioren kortikalen Mittellinienregionen und deren Verbindung mit posterioren, sensorischen und subkortikalen Belohnungsarealen. Die dritte literaturbasierte Studie hatte das Ziel, modulierende Faktoren der emotionalen Medienrezeption zu diskutieren. Sie fasst Ergebnisse der Emotionsverarbeitung in verschiedenen Medien zusammen, setzt diese in Relation zu Theorien der Medienrezeption und argumentiert für eine kritische Rolle von Immersionsprozessen bei der Verarbeitung emotionaler Informationen in verschiedenen Medien. Die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation bestätigen, dass unterschiedliche Medienstimuli, symbolisch verbale als auch realistischere, multimodale Stimuli eine starke emotionale Wirkung haben können. Die Arbeit beschreibt medienspezifische Reaktionen, welche eine erfahrungsbasierte Repräsentation von Emotionen unterstützen. Weiterhin hebt sie die Bedeutung von Interaktionen kortikaler Mittellinienregionen mit posterioren sensorischen Regionen und subkortikalen Belonungsarealen in der dynamischen Verarbeitung sozio-emotionaler Informationen in audiovisuellen Materialien hervor. Schlussendlich diskutiert sie die bedeutsame Rolle von Immersionsprozessen und deren zugrundeliegenden Mechanismen in der emotionalen Medienrezeption

Biochemical and Electron Microscopic Studies of the Streptomyces reticuli Cellulase (Avicelase) in Its Mycelium-Associated and Extracellular Forms

Streptomyces reticuli is able to grow efficiently with crystalline cellulose (Avicel) as the sole carbon source. Cultivation in the presence of the nonionic detergent Tween 80 at a concentration of 0.1% led to a 10-fold increase in extracellular cellulolytic activity. Under these conditions, one single 82-kDa cellulase (Avicelase) capable of degrading crystalline and soluble cellulose as well as cellodextrins and p-nitrophenylcellobioside was purified to apparent homogeneity by a procedure which consisted of two consecutive anion-exchange chromatographies followed by chromatofocusing. Aggregation, which was a major problem during protein purification, could be avoided by including Triton X-100 at a concentration of 0.1% in every chromatographic step. The Avicelase was identified in extracellular and mycelium-associated forms, the latter of which could be released efficiently by nonionic detergents. In addition, a 42-kDa truncated form retaining cellulolytic activity was identified which had been generated from the 82-kDa enzyme by a protease. Antibodies raised against the mycelium-associated Avicelase reacted with the 42-kDa derivative and the extracellular form. The mycelial association of the enzyme was confirmed by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopies

Emotional picture and word processing: an FMRI study on effects of stimulus complexity.

Neuroscientific investigations regarding aspects of emotional experiences usually focus on one stimulus modality (e.g., pictorial or verbal). Similarities and differences in the processing between the different modalities have rarely been studied directly. The comparison of verbal and pictorial emotional stimuli often reveals a processing advantage of emotional pictures in terms of larger or more pronounced emotion effects evoked by pictorial stimuli. In this study, we examined whether this picture advantage refers to general processing differences or whether it might partly be attributed to differences in visual complexity between pictures and words. We first developed a new stimulus database comprising valence and arousal ratings for more than 200 concrete objects representable in different modalities including different levels of complexity: words, phrases, pictograms, and photographs. Using fMRI we then studied the neural correlates of the processing of these emotional stimuli in a valence judgment task, in which the stimulus material was controlled for differences in emotional arousal. No superiority for the pictorial stimuli was found in terms of emotional information processing with differences between modalities being revealed mainly in perceptual processing regions. While visual complexity might partly account for previously found differences in emotional stimulus processing, the main existing processing differences are probably due to enhanced processing in modality specific perceptual regions. We would suggest that both pictures and words elicit emotional responses with no general superiority for either stimulus modality, while emotional responses to pictures are modulated by perceptual stimulus features, such as picture complexity