1
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Gado S, Gamer M. Studying the influence of single social interactions on approach and avoidance behavior: A multimodal investigation in immersive virtual reality. Behav Res Methods 2025; 57:157. [PMID: 40281351 PMCID: PMC12031922 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-025-02627-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/13/2025] [Indexed: 04/29/2025]
Abstract
When studying spontaneous or learned emotional responses to social stimuli, research has traditionally relied on simplified stimuli repeatedly presented on a computer screen in standardized laboratory environments. While these studies have provided important insights into social perception and cognition, their restricted ecological validity may impede the extrapolation of findings to everyday social contexts. Here, we developed a novel immersive virtual reality scenario that permits the examination of social approach and avoidance behavior under naturalistic circumstances while at the same time maintaining full experimental control. Using a combination of a social conditioning procedure with a social approach-avoidance test, we conducted two experiments (both with N = 48 female participants) to investigate how individuals differing in trait social anxiety adapt their behavior after a single encounter with an either friendly or unfriendly virtual agent. In addition to overt approach and avoidance behavior, we acquired subjective ratings, eye-tracking data, and autonomic responses. Overall, we observed significant effects of the social conditioning procedure on autonomic responses and participants' exploration behavior. After initially increased attention, participants exhibited avoidance of social threats as indicated by a higher interpersonal distance and decreased visual attention towards the negatively conditioned virtual agent in the test phase. We found no association between hypervigilance and trait social anxiety but observed higher fear ratings and enhanced avoidance of social threats in participants with elevated anxiety levels. Altogether, this study demonstrates the potential of immersive virtual environments for examining social learning processes under conditions resembling real-life social encounters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabrina Gado
- Department of Psychology, Experimental Clinical Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Marcusstr. 9-11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Matthias Gamer
- Department of Psychology, Experimental Clinical Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Marcusstr. 9-11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany
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2
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Stegmann Y, Andreatta M, Wieser MJ. The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14208. [PMID: 36325884 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Revised: 09/06/2022] [Accepted: 10/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Fear and anxiety are crucial for adaptive responding in life-threatening situations. Whereas fear is a phasic response to an acute threat accompanied by selective attention, anxiety is characterized by a sustained feeling of apprehension and hypervigilance during situations of potential threat. In the current literature, fear and anxiety are usually considered mutually exclusive, with partially separated neural underpinnings. However, there is accumulating evidence that challenges this distinction between fear and anxiety, and simultaneous activation of fear and anxiety networks has been reported. Therefore, the current study experimentally tested potential interactions between fear and anxiety. Fifty-two healthy participants completed a differential fear conditioning paradigm followed by a test phase in which the conditioned stimuli were presented in front of threatening or neutral contextual images. To capture defense system activation, we recorded subjective (threat, US-expectancy), physiological (skin conductance, heart rate) and visuocortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials) responses to the conditioned stimuli as a function of contextual threat. Results demonstrated successful fear conditioning in all measures. In addition, threat and US-expectancy ratings, cardiac deceleration, and visuocortical activity were enhanced for fear cues presented in threatening compared with neutral contexts. These results are in line with an additive or interactive rather than an exclusive model of fear and anxiety, indicating facilitated defensive behavior to imminent danger in situations of potential threat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yannik Stegmann
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Marta Andreatta
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Matthias J Wieser
- Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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3
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Stegmann Y, Andreatta M, Pauli P, Keil A, Wieser MJ. Investigating sustained attention in contextual threat using steady‐state
VEPs
evoked by flickering video stimuli. Psychophysiology 2022; 60:e14229. [PMID: 36416714 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2022] [Revised: 10/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Anxiety is characterized by anxious anticipation and heightened vigilance to uncertain threat. However, if threat is not reliably indicated by a specific cue, the context in which threat was previously experienced becomes its best predictor, leading to anxiety. A suitable means to induce anxiety experimentally is context conditioning: In one context (CTX+), an unpredictable aversive stimulus (US) is repeatedly presented, in contrast to a second context (CTX-), in which no US is ever presented. In this EEG study, we investigated attentional mechanisms during acquisition and extinction learning in 38 participants, who underwent a context conditioning protocol. Flickering video stimuli (32 s clips depicting virtual offices representing CTX+/-) were used to evoke steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) as an index of visuocortical engagement with the contexts. Analyses of the electrocortical responses suggest a successful induction of the ssVEP signal by video presentation in flicker mode. Furthermore, we found clear indices of context conditioning and extinction learning on a subjective level, while cortical processing of the CTX+ was unexpectedly reduced during video presentation. The differences between CTX+ and CTX- diminished during extinction learning. Together, these results indicate that the dynamic sensory input of the video presentation leads to disruptions in the ssVEP signal, which is greater for motivationally significant, threatening contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yannik Stegmann
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
| | - Marta Andreatta
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
- Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam Netherlands
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
- Center for Mental Health, Medical Faculty University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
| | - Andreas Keil
- Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention University of Florida Gainesville Florida USA
| | - Matthias J. Wieser
- Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies Erasmus University Rotterdam Rotterdam Netherlands
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4
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Stegmann Y, Andreatta M, Pauli P, Wieser MJ. Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task. Sci Rep 2021; 11:15762. [PMID: 34344923 PMCID: PMC8333260 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-95200-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Threat detection plays a vital role in adapting behavior to changing environments. A fundamental function to improve threat detection is learning to differentiate between stimuli predicting danger and safety. Accordingly, aversive learning should lead to enhanced sensory discrimination of danger and safety cues. However, studies investigating the psychophysics of visual and auditory perception after aversive learning show divergent findings, and both enhanced and impaired discrimination after aversive learning have been reported. Therefore, the aim of this web-based study is to examine the impact of aversive learning on a continuous measure of visual discrimination. To this end, 205 participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm before and after completing a visual discrimination task using differently oriented grating stimuli. Participants saw either unpleasant or neutral pictures as unconditioned stimuli (US). Results demonstrated sharpened visual discrimination for the US-associated stimulus (CS+), but not for the unpaired conditioned stimuli (CS-). Importantly, this finding was irrespective of the US's valence. These findings suggest that associative learning results in increased stimulus salience, which facilitates perceptual discrimination in order to prioritize attentional deployment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yannik Stegmann
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Marcusstraße 9-11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Marta Andreatta
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Marcusstraße 9-11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Marcusstraße 9-11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany
- Center for Mental Health, Medical Faculty, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Matthias J Wieser
- Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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5
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Attentional threat biases and their role in anxiety: A neurophysiological perspective. Int J Psychophysiol 2020; 153:148-158. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.05.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2019] [Revised: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/11/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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6
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Stegmann Y, Ahrens L, Pauli P, Keil A, Wieser MJ. Social aversive generalization learning sharpens the tuning of visuocortical neurons to facial identity cues. eLife 2020; 9:55204. [PMID: 32515731 PMCID: PMC7311168 DOI: 10.7554/elife.55204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2020] [Accepted: 06/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Defensive system activation promotes heightened perception of threat signals, and excessive attention to threat signals has been discussed as a contributory factor in the etiology of anxiety disorders. However, a mechanistic account of attentional modulation during fear-relevant processes, especially during fear generalization remains elusive. To test the hypothesis that social fear generalization prompts sharpened tuning in the visuocortical representation of social threat cues, 67 healthy participants underwent differential fear conditioning, followed by a generalization test in which participants viewed faces varying in similarity with the threat-associated face. We found that generalization of social threat sharpens visuocortical tuning of social threat cues, whereas ratings of fearfulness showed generalization, linearly decreasing with decreasing similarity to the threat-associated face. Moreover, individuals who reported greater anxiety in social situations also showed heightened sharpened tuning of visuocortical neurons to facial identity cues, indicating the behavioral relevance of visuocortical tuning during generalization learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yannik Stegmann
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Lea Ahrens
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.,Center for Mental Health, Medical Faculty, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Andreas Keil
- Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States
| | - Matthias J Wieser
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.,Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
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7
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Haaker J, Maren S, Andreatta M, Merz CJ, Richter J, Richter SH, Meir Drexler S, Lange MD, Jüngling K, Nees F, Seidenbecher T, Fullana MA, Wotjak CT, Lonsdorf TB. Making translation work: Harmonizing cross-species methodology in the behavioural neuroscience of Pavlovian fear conditioning. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 107:329-345. [PMID: 31521698 PMCID: PMC7822629 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.09.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2019] [Revised: 07/08/2019] [Accepted: 09/11/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Translational neuroscience bridges insights from specific mechanisms in rodents to complex functions in humans and is key to advance our general understanding of central nervous function. A prime example of translational research is the study of cross-species mechanisms that underlie responding to learned threats, by employing Pavlovian fear conditioning protocols in rodents and humans. Hitherto, evidence for (and critique of) these cross-species comparisons in fear conditioning research was based on theoretical viewpoints. Here, we provide a perspective to substantiate these theoretical concepts with empirical considerations of cross-species methodology. This meta-research perspective is expected to foster cross-species comparability and reproducibility to ultimately facilitate successful transfer of results from basic science into clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Haaker
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Stephen Maren
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Marta Andreatta
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Education & Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
| | - Christian J Merz
- Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Germany
| | - Jan Richter
- Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology/Psychotherapy, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - S Helene Richter
- Department of Behavioural Biology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Shira Meir Drexler
- Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Germany
| | - Maren D Lange
- Institute of Physiology I, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Kay Jüngling
- Institute of Physiology I, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Frauke Nees
- Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | | | - Miquel A Fullana
- Institute of Neurosciences, Hospital Clinic, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Carsten T Wotjak
- Neuronal Plasticity Research Group, Department of Stress Neurobiology and Neurogenetics, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, 80804, Munich, Germany
| | - Tina B Lonsdorf
- Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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8
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Wood A, Martin JD, Alibali MW, Niedenthal PM. A sad thumbs up: incongruent gestures and disrupted sensorimotor activity both slow processing of facial expressions. Cogn Emot 2019; 33:1196-1209. [PMID: 30428767 PMCID: PMC6520217 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1545634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2018] [Revised: 10/28/2018] [Accepted: 11/05/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Recognising a facial expression is more difficult when the expresser's body conveys incongruent affect. Existing research has documented such interference for universally recognisable bodily expressions. However, it remains unknown whether learned, conventional gestures can interfere with facial expression processing. Study 1 participants (N = 62) viewed videos of people simultaneously producing facial expressions and hand gestures and reported the valence of either the face or hand. Responses were slower and less accurate when the face-hand pairing was incongruent compared to congruent. We hypothesised that hand gestures might exert an even stronger influence on facial expression processing when other routes to understanding the meaning of a facial expression, such as with sensorimotor simulation, are disrupted. Participants in Study 2 (N = 127) completed the same task, but the facial mobility of some participants was restricted, which disrupted face processing in prior work. The hand-face congruency effect from Study 1 was replicated. The facial mobility manipulation affected males only, and it did not moderate the congruency effect. The present work suggests the affective meaning of conventional gestures is processed automatically and can interfere with face perception, but does not suggest that perceivers rely more on gestures when sensorimotor face processing is disrupted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrienne Wood
- a Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences , Dartmouth College , Hanover , NH , USA
| | - Jared D Martin
- b Department of Psychology , University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison , WI , USA
| | - Martha W Alibali
- b Department of Psychology , University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison , WI , USA
| | - Paula M Niedenthal
- b Department of Psychology , University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison , WI , USA
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9
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The effect of trait anxiety on attentional mechanisms in combined context and cue conditioning and extinction learning. Sci Rep 2019; 9:8855. [PMID: 31222028 PMCID: PMC6586658 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-45239-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2019] [Accepted: 06/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensory processing and attention allocation are shaped by threat, but the role of trait-anxiety in sensory processing as a function of threat predictability remains incompletely understood. Therefore, we measured steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) as an index of sensory processing of predictable and unpredictable threat cues in 29 low (LA) and 29 high (HA) trait-anxious participants during a modified NPU-paradigm followed by an extinction phase. Three different contextual cues indicated safety (N), predictable (P) or unpredictable threat (U), while foreground cues signalled shocks in the P-condition only. All participants allocated increased attentional resources to the central P-threat cue, replicating previous findings. Importantly, LA individuals exhibited larger ssVEP amplitudes to contextual threat (U and P) than to contextual safety cues, while HA individuals did not differentiate among contextual cues in general. Further, HA exhibited higher aversive ratings of all contexts compared to LA. These results suggest that high trait-anxious individuals might be worse at discriminating contextual threat stimuli and accordingly overestimate the probability and aversiveness of unpredictable threat. These findings support the notion of aberrant sensory processing of unpredictable threat in anxiety disorders, as this processing pattern is already evident in individuals at risk of these disorders.
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10
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Tani H, Tada M, Maeda T, Konishi M, Umeda S, Terasawa Y, Mimura M, Takahashi T, Uchida H. Comparison of emotional processing assessed with fear conditioning by interpersonal conflicts in patients with depression and schizophrenia. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2019; 73:116-125. [PMID: 30499148 DOI: 10.1111/pcn.12805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2018] [Revised: 11/03/2018] [Accepted: 11/21/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
AIM While emotional processing is implicated in various psychiatric illnesses, its differences among diagnoses are unclear. We compared associative learning of social values in patients with depression and schizophrenia by measuring skin conductance response to interpersonal stimuli. METHODS We included 20 female outpatients each with depression and schizophrenia. They underwent Pavlovian conditioning experiments in response to a classical aversive sound, and an interpersonal stimulus that was designed to cause aversive social conditioning with actors' faces coupled with negative verbal messages. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the associations between the degree of conditioned response and the clinical characteristics of the participants. RESULTS Conditioned responses during the acquisition phase in both conditions were higher in depression compared to schizophrenia. Patients with depression successfully showed fear conditioning in both conditions, and they exhibited slower extinction in the interpersonal condition. The conditioned response during the extinction phase showed a positive association with Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Expressive Suppression score, and a negative association with the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Cognitive Reappraisal score and the use of antidepressants. Patients with schizophrenia did not become conditioned in either of the conditions. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale Negative Syndrome score was negatively associated with the degree of conditioned response during the acquisition phase in the interpersonal condition. CONCLUSION Female patients with schizophrenia, especially those who prominently demonstrated negative symptoms, suggested their intrinsic impairments in the associative learning of social context. Antidepressants and adaptive emotional regulation strategy may enhance the extinction learning of aversive social conditioning in depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hideaki Tani
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mitsuhiro Tada
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Psychiatry, Saiseikai Central Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Takaki Maeda
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mika Konishi
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Satoshi Umeda
- Department of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.,Centre for Advanced Research on Logic and Sensibility, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yuri Terasawa
- Department of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.,Centre for Advanced Research on Logic and Sensibility, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Masaru Mimura
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Takuya Takahashi
- Department of Physiology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan.,Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York, USA
| | - Hiroyuki Uchida
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.,Geriatric Psychiatry Division, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada
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11
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Kastner-Dorn AK, Andreatta M, Pauli P, Wieser MJ. Hypervigilance during anxiety and selective attention during fear: Using steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) to disentangle attention mechanisms during predictable and unpredictable threat. Cortex 2018; 106:120-131. [PMID: 29929061 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.05.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2018] [Revised: 04/25/2018] [Accepted: 05/09/2018] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Anxiety is induced by unpredictable threat, and presumably characterized by enhanced vigilance. In contrast, fear is elicited by imminent threat, and leads to phasic responses with selective attention. In order to investigate attention mechanisms and defensive responding during fear and anxiety, we employed an adaptation of the NPU-threat test and measured cortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials, ssVEPs), physiological (heart rate, HR), and subjective responses (ratings) to predictable (fear-related) and unpredictable (anxiety-related) threat in 42 healthy participants. An aversive unconditioned stimulus (US, loud noise) was 100% predicted by a cue (predictable P-cue) in one context (predictable P-context), but appeared unpredictably within a different context (unpredictable U-context, U-cue), while it was never delivered in a neutral safe context (N-cue, N- context). In response to predictable threat (P-cue), increased ssVEP amplitudes and accelerated HR were found. Both predictable and unpredictable contexts yielded increased ssVEP amplitudes compared to the safe context. Interestingly, in the unpredictable context participants showed longer-lasting visuocortical activation than in the predictable context, supporting the notion of heightened vigilance during anxiety. In parallel, HR decelerated to both threat contexts indicating fear bradycardia to these threatening contexts as compared to the safe context. These results support the idea of hypervigilance in anxiety-like situations reflected in a long-lasting facilitated processing of sensory information, in contrast to increased selective attention to specific imminent threat during fear. Thus, this study further supports the defense-cascade model with vigilance and orienting in the post-encounter phase of threat (anxiety), while selective attention and defensive mobilization in the circa-strike phase of threat (fear).
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna K Kastner-Dorn
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Marta Andreatta
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Matthias J Wieser
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Education, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
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12
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Van der Lubbe RHJ, Kuniecki M. Editorial Special Issue: Neuronus. Adv Cogn Psychol 2016; 12:150-153. [PMID: 28154611 PMCID: PMC5279853 DOI: 10.5709/acp-0194-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
This special issue of the 12th volume of Advances in Cognitive Psychology is
devoted to the Neuronus conference that took place in Kraków in 2015. In this
editorial letter, we will focus on a selection of the materials and some
follow-up research that was presented during this conference. We will also
briefly introduce the conference contributions that successfully passed an
external reviewing process.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Michał Kuniecki
- Psychophysiological Laboratory of the Jagiellonian University,
Kraków, Poland
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13
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Wiggert N, Wilhelm FH, Boger S, Georgii C, Klimesch W, Blechert J. Social Pavlovian conditioning: Short- and long-term effects and the role of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2016; 12:329-339. [PMID: 27614767 PMCID: PMC5390734 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsw128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2016] [Accepted: 08/24/2016] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Today's stressors largely arise from social interactions rather than from physical threat. However, the dominant laboratory model of emotional learning relies on physical stimuli (e.g. electric shock) whereas adequate models of social conditioning are missing, possibly due to more subtle and multilayered biobehavioral responses to such stimuli. To fill this gap, we acquired a broad set of measures during conditioning to negative social unconditioned stimuli, also taking into account long-term maintenance of conditioning and inter-individual differences. Fifty-nine healthy participants underwent a classical conditioning task with videos of actors expressing disapproving (US-neg) or neutral (US-neu) statements. Static images of the corresponding actors with a neutral facial expression served as CS+ and CS-, predicting US-neg and US-neu, respectively. Autonomic and facial-muscular measures confirmed differential unconditioned responding whereas experiential CS ratings, event-related potentials, and evoked theta oscillations confirmed differential conditioned responding. Conditioning was maintained at 1 month and 1 year follow-ups on experiential ratings, especially in individuals with elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms, documenting the efficiency of social conditioning and its clinical relevance. This novel, ecologically improved conditioning paradigm uncovered a remarkably efficient multi-layered social learning mechanism that may represent a risk factor for anxiety and depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Wiggert
- Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria,Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Frank H. Wilhelm
- Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Sabrina Boger
- Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
| | - Claudio Georgii
- Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria,Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Wolfgang Klimesch
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Jens Blechert
- Division of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria,Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
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14
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Wieser MJ, Miskovic V, Keil A. Steady-state visual evoked potentials as a research tool in social affective neuroscience. Psychophysiology 2016; 53:1763-1775. [PMID: 27699794 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.12768] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2016] [Accepted: 09/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Like many other primates, humans place a high premium on social information transmission and processing. One important aspect of this information concerns the emotional state of other individuals, conveyed by distinct visual cues such as facial expressions, overt actions, or by cues extracted from the situational context. A rich body of theoretical and empirical work has demonstrated that these socioemotional cues are processed by the human visual system in a prioritized fashion, in the service of optimizing social behavior. Furthermore, socioemotional perception is highly dependent on situational contexts and previous experience. Here, we review current issues in this area of research and discuss the utility of the steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEP) technique for addressing key empirical questions. Methodological advantages and caveats are discussed with particular regard to quantifying time-varying competition among multiple perceptual objects, trial-by-trial analysis of visual cortical activation, functional connectivity, and the control of low-level stimulus features. Studies on facial expression and emotional scene processing are summarized, with an emphasis on viewing faces and other social cues in emotional contexts, or when competing with each other. Further, because the ssVEP technique can be readily accommodated to studying the viewing of complex scenes with multiple elements, it enables researchers to advance theoretical models of socioemotional perception, based on complex, quasinaturalistic viewing situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthias J Wieser
- Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands.,Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Vladimir Miskovic
- Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, New York, USA
| | - Andreas Keil
- Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
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Wieser MJ, Reicherts P, Juravle G, von Leupoldt A. Attention mechanisms during predictable and unpredictable threat — A steady-state visual evoked potential approach. Neuroimage 2016; 139:167-175. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2015] [Revised: 05/18/2016] [Accepted: 06/14/2016] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
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Schindler S, Kissler J. Selective visual attention to emotional words: Early parallel frontal and visual activations followed by interactive effects in visual cortex. Hum Brain Mapp 2016; 37:3575-87. [PMID: 27218232 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2016] [Revised: 04/30/2016] [Accepted: 05/04/2016] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Human brains spontaneously differentiate between various emotional and neutral stimuli, including written words whose emotional quality is symbolic. In the electroencephalogram (EEG), emotional-neutral processing differences are typically reflected in the early posterior negativity (EPN, 200-300 ms) and the late positive potential (LPP, 400-700 ms). These components are also enlarged by task-driven visual attention, supporting the assumption that emotional content naturally drives attention. Still, the spatio-temporal dynamics of interactions between emotional stimulus content and task-driven attention remain to be specified. Here, we examine this issue in visual word processing. Participants attended to negative, neutral, or positive nouns while high-density EEG was recorded. Emotional content and top-down attention both amplified the EPN component in parallel. On the LPP, by contrast, emotion and attention interacted: Explicit attention to emotional words led to a substantially larger amplitude increase than did explicit attention to neutral words. Source analysis revealed early parallel effects of emotion and attention in bilateral visual cortex and a later interaction of both in right visual cortex. Distinct effects of attention were found in inferior, middle and superior frontal, paracentral, and parietal areas, as well as in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Results specify separate and shared mechanisms of emotion and attention at distinct processing stages. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3575-3587, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Schindler
- Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.,Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Johanna Kissler
- Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.,Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
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Farmer H, Carr EW, Svartdal M, Winkielman P, Hamilton AFDC. Status and Power Do Not Modulate Automatic Imitation of Intransitive Hand Movements. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0151835. [PMID: 27096167 PMCID: PMC4838218 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2015] [Accepted: 03/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The tendency to mimic the behaviour of others is affected by a variety of social factors, and it has been argued that such “mirroring” is often unconsciously deployed as a means of increasing affiliation during interpersonal interactions. However, the relationship between automatic motor imitation and status/power is currently unclear. This paper reports five experiments that investigated whether social status (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) or power (Experiments 4 and 5) had a moderating effect on automatic imitation (AI) in finger-movement tasks, using a series of different manipulations. Experiments 1 and 2 manipulated the social status of the observed person using an associative learning task. Experiment 3 manipulated social status via perceived competence at a simple computer game. Experiment 4 manipulated participants’ power (relative to the actors) in a card-choosing task. Finally, Experiment 5 primed participants using a writing task, to induce the sense of being powerful or powerless. No significant interactions were found between congruency and social status/power in any of the studies. Additionally, Bayesian hypothesis testing indicated that the null hypothesis should be favoured over the experimental hypothesis in all five studies. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for AI tasks, social effects on mimicry, and the hypothesis of mimicry as a strategic mechanism to promote affiliation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Harry Farmer
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Evan W. Carr
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 0109 La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, United States of America
| | - Marita Svartdal
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
| | - Piotr Winkielman
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 0109 La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, United States of America
- Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, ul. Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Antonia F. de C. Hamilton
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
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Peschard V, Philippot P. Social anxiety and information processing biases: An integrated theoretical perspective. Cogn Emot 2015; 30:762-77. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2015.1028335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Blechert J, Wilhelm FH, Williams H, Braams BR, Jou J, Gross JJ. Reappraisal facilitates extinction in healthy and socially anxious individuals. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2015; 46:141-50. [PMID: 25460260 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2014] [Revised: 09/26/2014] [Accepted: 10/08/2014] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) combines cognitive restructuring with exposure to feared stimuli in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Due to the complexities of cognition–emotion interactions during ongoing CBT, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, which hinders treatment optimization. METHODS We created a laboratory analogue by combining reappraisal, a key ingredient of cognitive restructuring, with Pavlovian conditioning, a key ingredient in behavioral treatments. The novel differential Pavlovian acquisition and extinction task featured social stimuli as conditioned and unconditioned stimuli under unregulated and reappraisal instructions. RESULTS Findings indicated that reappraising the conditioned stimuli attenuated acquisition (Study 1) and facilitated extinction (Study 2) of conditioned negative valence. In Study 3, highly socially anxious individuals showed deficient extinction learning relative to low socially anxious individuals but compensated for this by using reappraisal. LIMITATIONS Diagnostic status of participants was not assessed in structured clinical interviews. CONCLUSIONS Reappraisal of feared stimuli could be useful in prevention and treatment of social anxiety.
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Ahrens LM, Mühlberger A, Pauli P, Wieser MJ. Impaired visuocortical discrimination learning of socially conditioned stimuli in social anxiety. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2014; 10:929-37. [PMID: 25338634 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsu140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2014] [Accepted: 10/20/2014] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
In search of causative factors of social anxiety disorder (SAD), classical conditioning has been discussed as a potential trigger mechanism for many years. Recent findings suggest that the social relevance of the unconditioned stimulus (US) might play a major role in learning theories of SAD. Thus, this study applied a social conditioning paradigm with disorder-relevant US to examine the electrocortical correlates of affective learning. Twenty-four high socially anxious (HSA) and 23 age- and gender-matched low socially anxious (LSA) subjects were conditioned to 3 different faces flickering at a frequency of 15 Hz which were paired with auditory insults, compliments or neutral comments (US). The face-evoked electrocortical response was measured via steady-state visually evoked potentials and subjective measures of valence and arousal were obtained. Results revealed a significant interaction of social anxiety and conditioning, with LSA showing highest cortical activity to faces paired with insults and lowest activity to faces paired with compliments, while HSA did not differentiate between faces. No group differences were discovered in the affective ratings. The findings indicate a potentially impaired ability of HSA to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant social stimuli, which may constitute a perpetuating factor of SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lea M Ahrens
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany, and Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Andreas Mühlberger
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany, and Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany, and Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Matthias J Wieser
- Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany, and Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
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