Neurophysiological patterns associated with blunted emotional face processing and withdrawal tendencies in young children exposed to intimate partner violence

Neurophysiological Differences in Auditory Threat Processing in Young Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: a Pilot Study

Threat reactivity is a mechanism linking children's exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and mental health outcomes. Most studies focus on visual threats, with few examining auditory threat-a salient aspect of IPV exposure. This pilot study examines auditory threats in IPV-exposed children with event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited during an auditory affective oddball task. Children (N = 37, ages 4-7) were presented with four auditory cues: (1) standard cues with neutral prosody (dada; 70% of trials), (2) deviant or oddball cues with neutral prosody (baba; 10% of trials), (3) happy prosody deviant cues (dada; 10% of trials), and (4) angry prosody deviant cues (dada; 10% of trails). We analyzed the P3, an ERP index of emotionally salient or novel stimuli occurring 250-350 ms post-stimulus onset. Compared to non-exposed children, IPV-exposed children had smaller mean differences between P3 amplitudes than angry and standard cues, suggesting an altered appraisal and blunted emotional response to auditory threat. This blunted response was significantly associated with mother-reported child posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. These findings provide preliminary evidence of neurophysiological distinctions in auditory threat processing in children exposed to IPV, underscoring the need for further research examining auditory threat.

The role of the target language culture on Arabic learners' fondness for Arabic poetry

As an important carrier of culture, poetry plays a significant role in deepening language learners' understanding of the target language culture as well as enhancing their language skills; however, the effect of the target language culture on language learners' enjoyment of poetry remains unclear. The study served as an attempt to shed light on the point of whether the target language culture has different effects on high- and low-level Chinese Arabic learners' fondness for Arabic poetry with the use of pictures related to Arabic culture and those not related to Arabic culture. In the current study, 40 Arabic learners (20 high-level and 20 low-level) scored the Arabic poem line based on their fondness for it after viewing two kinds of picture with electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. Frontal alpha asymmetry index as a correlate of approach and avoidance related motivation measured by EEG power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) was calculated for examining whether the behavioral results of Arabic learners' fondness for poetry are in line with the results of changes in the related EEG components. Behavioral results illustrated that low-level subjects showed significantly less liking for Arabic poetry after viewing pictures related to Arabic culture compared to those not related to Arabic culture. The high-level subjects did not show a significant difference in the level of liking for Arabic poetry between the two cases. FAA results demonstrated that low-level subjects presented a significant avoidance-related responses to Arabic poetry after viewing pictures related to Arabic culture in comparison to viewing pictures not related to Arabic culture; while the FAA values did not differ significantly between the two cases in high-level subjects, which is in line with behavioral results. The findings of this research can benefit teachers in motivating students to learn poetry in foreign language curriculum and also contribute to the literature on the effect of target language culture on language learners' enjoyment of poetry.

Deactivating attachment strategies associate with early processing of facial emotion and familiarity in middle childhood: an ERP study

Neurophysiological evidence suggests associations between attachment and the neural processing of emotion expressions. This study asks whether this relationship is also evident in middle childhood, and how it is affected by facial familiarity. Attachment strategies (deactivation, hyperactivation) were assessed in 51 children (9 - 11 years)  using a story stem completion task. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during children's passive viewing of mother and stranger emotional faces (angry/happy). At the stage of facial information encoding (N250), attachment deactivation was associated with a pattern pointing to increased vigilance towards angry faces. Further, the attention-driven LPP was increased to happy mother faces as highly salient stimuli overall, but not in children scoring high on deactivation. These children did not discriminate between mothers' facial emotions and showed a general attentional withdrawal from facial stimuli. While our results on attachment deactivation support a two-stage processing model, no effect of hyperactivation was found.