Smoke signals: A study of the neurophysiological reaction of smokers and non-smokers to smoking cues inserted into antismoking public service announcements

Virtual and Reality: A Neurophysiological Pilot Study of the Sarcophagus of the Spouses

Art experience is not solely the observation of artistic objects, but great relevance is also placed on the environment in which the art experience takes place, often in museums and galleries. Interestingly, in the last few years, the introduction of some forms of virtual reality (VR) in museum contexts has been increasing. This has solicited enormous research interest in investigating any eventual differences between looking at the same artifact either in a real context (e.g. a museum) and in VR. To address such a target, a neuroaesthetic study was performed in which electroencephalography (EEG) and autonomic signals (heart rate and skin conductance) were recorded during the observation of the Etruscan artifact "Sarcophagus of the Spouses", both in the museum and in a VR reproduction. Results from EEG analysis showed a higher level of the Workload Index during observation in the museum compared to VR (p = 0.04), while the Approach-Withdrawal Index highlighted increased levels during the observation in VR compared to the observation in the museum (p = 0.03). Concerning autonomic indices, the museum elicited a higher Emotional Index response than the VR (p = 0.03). Overall, preliminary results suggest a higher engagement potential of the museum compared to VR, although VR could also favour higher embodiment than the museum.

Smokers’ Self-Report and Behavioral Reactivity to Combined Personal Smoking Cues (Proximal + Environment + People): A Pilot Study

Cue reactivity (CR) among smokers exposed to smoking-related stimuli, both proximal (e.g., cigarettes, lighter) and distal (environments, people), has been well-demonstrated. Furthermore, past work has shown that combining proximal smoking cues with smoking environment cues increases cue-provoked craving and smoking behavior above that elicited by either cue type alone. In this pilot study, we examined the impact of combining three personal cues, proximal + environment + people, on subjective and behavioral cue reactivity among smokers. To further understand the impact of this method, we also tested reactivity under the conditions of both smoking satiety and deprivation. In addition, we examined the extent to which cue-induced craving predicted immediate subsequent smoking. Fifteen smokers completed six sessions, of which two focused on the intake and development of personal cues and four involved personal cue reactivity sessions: (1) deprived, smoking cue combination, (2) deprived, nonsmoking cue combination, (3) sated, smoking combination, and (4) sated, nonsmoking cue combination. Cue-provoked craving was greater and smokers were quicker to light a cigarette and smoked more during their exposure to smoking rather than nonsmoking cues and in deprived compared to sated conditions, with no interaction between these variables. While deprived, greater cue-provoked craving in response to smoking cues was correlated with a quicker latency to light a cigarette. This work supports the feasibility of presenting three personal smoking-related combinations of cues within a cue reactivity paradigm and highlights the robust reactivity that this methodology can evoke in smokers.

A Review on the Role of Affective Stimuli in Event-Related Frontal Alpha Asymmetry

Frontal alpha asymmetry refers to the difference between the right and left alpha activity over the frontal brain region. Increased activity in the left hemisphere has been linked to approach motivation and increased activity in the right hemisphere has been linked to avoidance or withdrawal. However, research on alpha asymmetry is diverse and has shown mixed results, which may partly be explained by the potency of the used stimuli to emotionally and motivationally engage participants. This review gives an overview of the types of affective stimuli utilized with the aim to identify which stimuli elicit a strong approach-avoidance effect in an affective context. We hope this contributes to better understanding of what is reflected by alpha asymmetry, and in what circumstances it may be an informative marker of emotional state. We systematically searched the literature for studies exploring event-related frontal alpha asymmetry in affective contexts. The search resulted in 61 papers, which were categorized in five stimulus categories that were expected to differ in their potency to engage participants: images & sounds, videos, real cues, games and other tasks. Studies were viewed with respect to the potency of the stimuli to evoke significant approach-avoidance effects on their own and in interaction with participant characteristics or condition. As expected, passively perceived stimuli that are multimodal or realistic, seem more potent to elicit alpha asymmetry than unimodal stimuli. Games, and other stimuli with a strong task-based component were expected to be relatively engaging but approach-avoidance effects did not seem to be much clearer than the studies using perception of videos and real cues. While multiple factors besides stimulus characteristics determine alpha asymmetry, and we did not identify a type of affective stimulus that induces alpha asymmetry highly consistently, our results indicate that strongly engaging, salient and/or personally relevant stimuli are important to induce an approach-avoidance effect.