Cue Valence Influences the Effects of Cue Uncertainty on ERP Responses to Emotional Events

How previous experience shapes future affective subjective ratings: A follow-up study investigating implicit learning and cue ambiguity

People use their previous experience to predict future affective events. Since we live in ever-changing environments, affective predictions must generalize from past contexts (from which they may be implicitly learned) to new, potentially ambiguous contexts. This study investigated how past (un)certain relationships influence subjective experience following new ambiguous cues, and whether past relationships can be learned implicitly. Two S1-S2 paradigms were employed as learning and test phases in two experiments. S1s were colored circles, S2s negative or neutral affective pictures. Participants (Experiment 1 N = 121, Experiment 2 N = 116) were assigned to the certain (CG) or uncertain group (UG), and they were presented with 100% (CG) or 50% (UG) S1-S2 congruency during an uninstructed (Experiment 1) or implicit (Experiment 2) learning phase. During the test phase both groups were presented with a new 75% S1-S2 paradigm, and ambiguous (Experiment 1) or unambiguous (Experiment 2) S1s. Participants were asked to rate the expected valence of upcoming S2s (expectancy ratings), or their experienced valence and arousal (valence and arousal ratings). In Experiment 1 ambiguous cues elicited less negative expectancy ratings, and less unpleasant valence ratings, independently of prior experience. In Experiment 2, both groups showed similar expectancies, predicting upcoming pictures' valence according to the 75% contingencies of the test phase. Overall, we found that in the presence of ambiguous cues subjective affective experience is dampened, and that implicit previous experience does not emerge at the subjective level by significantly shaping reported affective experience.

Intolerance of uncertainty enhances generalisation of cued conditioned threat: An event-related potential study

Overgeneralisation is one of the aetiologies of anxiety disorders and is closely associated with elevated intolerance of uncertainty (IU) levels. However, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Considering the inconsistency of previous results and the high sensitivity of IU to uncertainty, the present study investigated the effect of IU on threat generalisation in predictable and unpredictable conditions. We compared self-reported unconditioned stimuli (US) expectancy and event-related potentials (ERPs) during generalisation in high IU (n = 34) and low IU (n = 35) participants. The results indicated that high IU was associated with higher US expectancy for generalisation stimuli (GS) than with low IU. At the electrophysiological level, compared to low IU, high IU showed increased P1 to ambiguous GS as well as decreased early late positive potential (LPP) to GS in unpredictable conditions, and no differential response to GS in late LPP in predictable conditions. These findings suggest that IU enhances threat generalisation and may be related to increased early automatic attention to ambiguous stimulus and inadequate late elaborate processing in a high uncertainty context. These findings might contribute to the treatment of mood disorders characterized by high IU.

Current and lasting effects of affect labeling on late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes elicited by negative events

INTRODUCTION

Labeling the emotional aspect of self-unrelated stimuli (i.e., affect labeling) is a crucial strategy for implicit emotion regulation. However, it is uncertain whether affect labeling influences event-related potential (ERP) responses (e.g., the late positive potential, LPP) to negative stimuli in comparison with control conditions in which attention is shifted to the emotional content of the stimuli (e.g., affect matching). Additionally, it is unknown whether affect labeling has a lasting effect on the processing of negative stimuli.

METHODS

Participants were required to label the emotion (negative or neutral) of target pictures with two words, to match the emotion with alternative pictures or to merely view the target pictures. Target pictures were presented again immediately after the regulation task. After all the target pictures had been labeled, matched and viewed, the pictures were re-exposed for the third time.

RESULTS

The results showed that negative pictures elicited larger late LPP responses during the affect labeling task than during other tasks. However, the LPP responses were smaller for negative pictures in the affect labeling condition than in the other conditions when target pictures were re-exposed immediately after the task. When target pictures were re-presented again long after the regulation tasks, the LPP responses were smaller for negative stimuli with a history of affect labeling than viewing, whereas this effect did not differ between the affect labeling and matching conditions.

CONCLUSION

The current findings suggest that affect labeling has current effects and, to some extent, has lasting effects on negative stimulus processing.

The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons

Previous studies have investigated whether envy, particularly malicious envy, increases feelings of schadenfreude and whether this effect is evident in both gain and loss frames. However, as a social-comparison-based emotion, schadenfreude was not investigated through social comparisons in these previous studies. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether malicious envy influences schadenfreude when schadenfreude is elicited in the context of precise and ambiguous social comparisons. To address this issue, participants in the present study were asked to play a monetary game with several other players. In the experimental condition, participants gained less or lost more than the other player; in the control condition, both the participants and the player gained little or lost much. Subsequently, the participants observed that the player encountered a misfortune, that is, gained less or lost more money than the participant. The results showed that when participants knew the exact amount of monetary gained and lost by themselves and the other player (i.e., precise social comparisons), malicious envy increased feelings of schadenfreude only in the loss frame rather than in the gain frame. More importantly, malicious envy turned out to reduce feelings of schadenfreude in both gain and loss frames, when participants did not know the exact amount (i.e., ambiguous social comparisons). The findings provide novel evidence that malicious envy does not always increase schadenfreude particularly when schadenfreude is elicited through social comparisons.

What's next? Neural correlates of emotional predictions: A high-density EEG investigation

Emotions were recently reconsidered as predictions, constructed by the brain (generation stage) to prearrange action (implementation stage), and update internal models according to incoming stimuli (updating stage). However, it is unclear how emotional predictions are shaped by stimuli predictability. This study investigated the role of stimuli predictability on emotional predictions through high-density EEG. Twenty-six undergraduates underwent a S1-S2 paradigm, with emotional faces as S1s and emotional pictures as S2s. Stimuli predictability was manipulated across three blocks, in which S1 valence was predictive of S2 in the 100%, 75%, or 50% of trials. ERPs and brain sources were analyzed for each stage. During prediction generation, a larger N170/superior temporal sulcus activity emerged to fearful faces in blocks with full (100%) and medium (75%) predictive ratios. During implementation, the random block (50%) elicited a valence-independent pre-allocation of resources, reflected by a larger CNV and activation of a wide left network. In the updating stage, emotional pictures always elicited a larger LPP, while a larger P2 to neutral stimuli and a higher activity of the orbitofrontal cortex signaled early valence-dependent and late block-dependent prediction errors. These findings provide the first evidence of how stimuli predictability shape each neurocomputational stage of emotional predictions construction.