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van Meer F, van Steenbergen H, van Dillen LF. The effect of cognitive load on preference and intensity processing of sweet taste in the brain. Appetite 2023; 188:106630. [PMID: 37302413 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2023.106630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Distracted eating can cause overconsumption. Whereas previous work has shown that cognitive load suppresses perceived taste intensity and increases subsequent consumption, the mechanism behind distraction-induced overconsumption remains unclear. To elucidate this, we performed two event-related fMRI experiments that examined how cognitive load affects neural responses and perceived intensity and preferred intensity, respectively, to solutions varying in sweetness. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), participants tasted weak sweet and strong sweet glucose solutions and rated their intensity while we concurrently varied cognitive load using a digit-span task. In Experiment 2 (N = 22), participants tasted five different glucose concentrations under varying cognitive load and then indicated whether they wanted to keep, decrease or increase its sweetness. Participants in Experiment 1 rated strong sweet solutions as less sweet under high compared to low cognitive load, which was accompanied by attenuated activation the right middle insula and bilateral DLPFC. Psychophysiological interaction analyses showed that cognitive load moreover altered connectivity between the middle insula and nucleus accumbens and DLPFC and middle insula while tasting strong sweet solutions. In Experiment 2, cognitive load did not affect participants' preferred sweetness intensity. fMRI results revealed that cognitive load attenuated DLPFC activation for the strongest sweet solutions in the study. In conclusion, our behavioral and neuroimaging results suggest that cognitive load dampens the sensory processing of strong sweet solutions in particular, which may indicate higher competition for attentional resources for strong sweet than weak sweet solutions under high cognitive load. Implications for future research are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Floor van Meer
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands
| | - Lotte F van Dillen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Knowledge Centre for Psychology and Economic Behaviour, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
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2
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Folz J, Akdağ R, Nikolić M, van Steenbergen H, Kret ME. Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits. Sci Rep 2023; 13:9730. [PMID: 37322077 PMCID: PMC10272184 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35773-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Facial mimicry as well as the accurate assessment of one's performance when judging others' emotional expressions have been suggested to inform successful emotion recognition. Differences in the integration of these two information sources might explain alterations in the perception of others' emotions in individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder and individuals on the autism spectrum. Using a non-clinical sample (N = 57), we examined the role of social anxiety and autistic traits in the link between facial mimicry, or confidence in one's performance, and emotion recognition. While participants were presented with videos of spontaneous emotional facial expressions, we measured their facial muscle activity, asked them to label the expressions and indicate their confidence in accurately labelling the expressions. Our results showed that confidence in emotion recognition was lower with higher social anxiety traits even though actual recognition was not related to social anxiety traits. Higher autistic traits, in contrast, were associated with worse recognition, and a weakened link between facial mimicry and performance. Consequently, high social anxiety traits might not affect emotion recognition itself, but the top-down evaluation of own abilities in emotion recognition contexts. High autistic traits, in contrast, may be related to lower integration of sensorimotor simulations, which promote emotion recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Folz
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Rüya Akdağ
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Milica Nikolić
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Mariska E Kret
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Topel S, Ma I, Sleutels J, van Steenbergen H, de Bruijn ERA, van Duijvenvoorde ACK. Expecting the unexpected: a review of learning under uncertainty across development. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 2023:10.3758/s13415-023-01098-0. [PMID: 37237092 PMCID: PMC10390612 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-023-01098-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Many of our decisions take place under uncertainty. To successfully navigate the environment, individuals need to estimate the degree of uncertainty and adapt their behaviors accordingly by learning from experiences. However, uncertainty is a broad construct and distinct types of uncertainty may differentially influence our learning. We provide a semi-systematic review to illustrate cognitive and neurobiological processes involved in learning under two types of uncertainty: learning in environments with stochastic outcomes, and with volatile outcomes. We specifically reviewed studies (N = 26 studies) that included an adolescent population, because adolescence is a period in life characterized by heightened exploration and learning, as well as heightened uncertainty due to experiencing many new, often social, environments. Until now, reviews have not comprehensively compared learning under distinct types of uncertainties in this age range. Our main findings show that although the overall developmental patterns were mixed, most studies indicate that learning from stochastic outcomes, as indicated by increased accuracy in performance, improved with age. We also found that adolescents tended to have an advantage compared with adults and children when learning from volatile outcomes. We discuss potential mechanisms explaining these age-related differences and conclude by outlining future research directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Selin Topel
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Ili Ma
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Jan Sleutels
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden University, Institute for Philosophy, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Ellen R A de Bruijn
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Anna C K van Duijvenvoorde
- Leiden University, Institute of Psychology, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Bognar M, Gyurkovics M, van Steenbergen H, Aczel B. Phasic affective signals by themselves do not regulate cognitive control. Cogn Emot 2023; 37:650-665. [PMID: 37017095 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2023.2191172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Revised: 02/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/06/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive control is a set of mechanisms that help us process conflicting stimuli and maintain goal-relevant behaviour. According to the Affective Signalling Hypothesis, conflicting stimuli are aversive and thus elicit (negative) affect, moreover - to avoid aversive signals - affective and cognitive systems work together by increasing control and thus, drive conflict adaptation. Several studies have found that affective stimuli can indeed modulate conflict adaptation, however, there is currently no evidence that phasic affective states not triggered by conflict also trigger improved cognitive control. To investigate this possibility, we intermixed trials of a conflict task and trials involving the passive viewing of emotional words. We tested whether affective states induced by affective words in a given trial trigger improved cognitive control in a subsequent conflict trial. Applying Bayesian analysis, the results of four experiments supported the lack of adaptation to aversive signals, both in terms of valence and arousal. These results suggest that phasic affective states by themselves are not sufficient to elicit an increase in control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miklos Bognar
- Doctoral School of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Mate Gyurkovics
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Balazs Aczel
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary
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Folz J, Fiacchino D, Nikolić M, van Steenbergen H, Kret ME. Reading Your Emotions in My Physiology? Reliable Emotion Interpretations in Absence of a Robust Physiological Resonance. Affec Sci 2022; 3:480-497. [PMID: 35282156 PMCID: PMC8901434 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-021-00083-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2020] [Accepted: 09/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Affective states are expressed in an individual’s physical appearance, ranging from facial expressions and body postures, to indicators of physiological arousal (e.g., a blush). Confirming the claimed communicative function of these markers, humans are capable of distinguishing between a variety of discrete emotion displays. In an attempt to explain the underlying mechanism, characteristic bodily changes within the observer, including physiological arousal and mimicry, have been suggested to facilitate the interpretation of an expression. The current study aims to create a holistic picture of emotion perception by (1) using three different sources of emotional information (prototypical facial expressions, bodily expressions, and subtle facial cues) and (2) measuring changes in multiple physiological signals (facial electromyography, skin conductance level, skin temperature, and pupil size). While participants clearly discriminated between perceived emotional expressions, there was no overall 1–1 correspondence with their physiological responses. Some specific but robust effects were observed. Angry facial expressions were consistently responded to with a peak in skin conductance level. Furthermore, sad body expressions were associated with a drop in skin temperature. In addition to being the best recognized expression, viewing happy faces elicited congruent facial muscle responses, which supports the potential role of embodied simulation in emotion recognition. Lastly, tears were not only rated as highly emotional intense but also evoked a peak in skin conductance level in the observer. The absence of distinct physiological responses to other expressions could be explained by the lacking functionality of affect sharing in a non-interactive experimental context. Consequentially, emotional alignment in body and mind might especially take place in real social situations, which should be considered in future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Folz
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AK The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, 2300 RC The Netherlands
| | - Donatella Fiacchino
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AK The Netherlands
| | - Milica Nikolić
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AK The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, 2300 RC The Netherlands
- Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1018 WS The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AK The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, 2300 RC The Netherlands
| | - Mariska E. Kret
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AK The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden University, Leiden, 2300 RC The Netherlands
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Kolnes M, Gentsch K, van Steenbergen H, Uusberg A. The mystery remains: breadth of attention in Flanker and Navon tasks unaffected by affective states induced by an appraisal manipulation. Cogn Emot 2022; 36:836-854. [PMID: 35358017 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2022.2056580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Affective effects on breadth of attention have been related to aspects of different components of affective states such as the arousal and valence of affective experience and the motivational intensity of action tendency. As none of these explanations fully aligns with existing evidence, we hypothesised that affective effects on breadth of attention may arise from the appraisal component of affective states. Based on this reconceptualisation, we tested the effects of conduciveness and power appraisals on two measures of breadth of attention. In two web-based experiments, we manipulated these appraisals in a 2 × 2 design using a game-like arithmetic task where participants could (1) gain or lose rewards (goal conducive vs. obstructive) based on (2) either their action or the actions of a "robot" (high vs. low power). Breadth of attention was assessed using the flanker task (Experiment 1; n = 236) and the Navon task (Experiment 2; n = 215). We found that appraisals did not directly influence breadth of attention even though high power appraisal significantly improved the overall performance in both experiments indicating successful appraisal manipulation. We discuss ways in which these findings inform future efforts to explain the origins of affective effects on attentional breadth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Kolnes
- Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Kornelia Gentsch
- Department of Clinical Psychology und Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Andero Uusberg
- Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, Cohen Kadosh K, Westenberg PM, van der Wee NJA. Intrinsic functional connectivity in families genetically enriched for social anxiety disorder - an endophenotype study. EBioMedicine 2021; 69:103445. [PMID: 34161885 PMCID: PMC8237289 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a serious psychiatric condition with a high prevalence, and a typical onset during childhood/adolescence. The condition runs in families, but it is largely unknown which neurobiological characteristics transfer this genetic vulnerability ('endophenotypes'). Using data from the Leiden Family Lab study on SAD, including two generations of families genetically enriched for SAD, we investigated whether social anxiety (SA) co-segregated with changes in intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC), and examined heritability. METHODS Functional MRI data were acquired during resting-state in 109 individuals (56 males; mean age: 31·5, range 9·2-61·5 years). FSL's tool MELODIC was used to perform independent component analysis. Six networks of interest (default mode, dorsal attention, executive control, frontoparietal, limbic and salience) were identified at the group-level and used to generate subject-specific spatial maps. Voxel-wise regression models, with SA-level as predictor and voxel-wise iFC as candidate endophenotypes, were performed to investigate the association with SA, within masks of the networks of interest. Subsequently, heritability was estimated. FINDINGS SA co-segregated with iFC within the dorsal attention network (positive association in left middle frontal gyrus and right postcentral gyrus) and frontoparietal network (positive association within left middle temporal gyrus) (cluster-forming-threshold z>2·3, cluster-corrected extent-threshold p<0·05). Furthermore, iFC of multiple voxels within these clusters was at least moderately heritable. INTERPRETATION These findings provide initial evidence for increased iFC as candidate endophenotype of SAD, particularly within networks involved in attention. These changes might underlie attentional biases commonly present in SAD. FUNDING Leiden University Research Profile 'Health, Prevention and the Human Lifecycle'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333, ZA, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands.
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands.
| | | | - P Michiel Westenberg
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333, AK, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands.
| | - Nic J A van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333, ZA, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, the Netherlands.
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van Steenbergen H, Sauter D, Saunders B, Pourtois G. Editorial overview: Positive affect: taxonomies, mechanisms and applications. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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Paul K, Pourtois G, van Steenbergen H, Gable P, Dreisbach G. Finding a balance: modulatory effects of positive affect on attentional and cognitive control. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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Zekveld AA, van Scheepen JAM, Versfeld NJ, Kramer SE, van Steenbergen H. The Influence of Hearing Loss on Cognitive Control in an Auditory Conflict Task: Behavioral and Pupillometry Findings. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2020; 63:2483-2492. [PMID: 32610026 DOI: 10.1044/2020_jslhr-20-00107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Purpose The pupil dilation response is sensitive not only to auditory task demand but also to cognitive conflict. Conflict is induced by incompatible trials in auditory Stroop tasks in which participants have to identify the presentation location (left or right ear) of the words "left" or "right." Previous studies demonstrated that the compatibility effect is reduced if the trial is preceded by another incompatible trial (conflict adaptation). Here, we investigated the influence of hearing status on cognitive conflict and conflict adaptation in an auditory Stroop task. Method Two age-matched groups consisting of 32 normal-hearing participants (M age = 52 years, age range: 25-67 years) and 28 participants with hearing impairment (M age = 52 years, age range: 23-64 years) performed an auditory Stroop task. We assessed the effects of hearing status and stimulus compatibility on reaction times (RTs) and pupil dilation responses. We furthermore analyzed the Pearson correlation coefficients between age, degree of hearing loss, and the compatibility effects on the RT and pupil response data across all participants. Results As expected, the RTs were longer and pupil dilation was larger for incompatible relative to compatible trials. Furthermore, these effects were reduced for trials following incompatible (as compared to compatible) trials (conflict adaptation). No general effect of hearing status was observed, but the correlations suggested that higher age and a larger degree of hearing loss were associated with more interference of current incompatibility on RTs. Conclusions Conflict processing and adaptation effects were observed on the RTs and pupil dilation responses in an auditory Stroop task. No general effects of hearing status were observed, but the correlations suggested that higher age and a greater degree of hearing loss were related to reduced conflict processing ability. The current study underlines the relevance of taking into account cognitive control and conflict adaptation processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriana A Zekveld
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Ear and Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, De Boelelaan, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - J A M van Scheepen
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Ear and Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, De Boelelaan, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Niek J Versfeld
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Ear and Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, De Boelelaan, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Sophia E Kramer
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Ear and Hearing, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, De Boelelaan, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, University of Leiden, the Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, the Netherlands
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Affiliation(s)
- Gilles Pourtois
- Department of Experimental Clinical & Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
| | - Senne Braem
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Wim Notebaert
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
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13
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, van der Wee NJA, Westenberg PM. Amygdala hyperreactivity to faces conditioned with a social-evaluative meaning- a multiplex, multigenerational fMRI study on social anxiety endophenotypes. Neuroimage Clin 2020; 26:102247. [PMID: 32247196 PMCID: PMC7125356 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2019] [Revised: 03/12/2020] [Accepted: 03/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) runs in families, but the neurobiological pathways underlying the genetic susceptibility towards SAD are largely unknown. Here, we employed an endophenotype approach, and tested the hypothesis that amygdala hyperreactivity to faces conditioned with a social-evaluative meaning is a candidate SAD endophenotype. We used data from the multiplex, multigenerational Leiden Family Lab study on Social Anxiety Disorder (eight families, n = 105) and investigated amygdala activation during a social-evaluative conditioning paradigm with high ecological validity in the context of SAD. Three neutral faces were repeatedly presented in combination with socially negative, positive or neutral sentences. We focused on two endophenotype criteria: co-segregation of the candidate endophenotype with the disorder within families, and heritability. Analyses of the fMRI data were restricted to the amygdala as a region of interest, and association analyses revealed that bilateral amygdala hyperreactivity in response to the conditioned faces co-segregated with social anxiety (SA; continuous measure) within the families; we found, however, no relationship between SA and brain activation in response to more specific fMRI contrasts. Furthermore, brain activation in a small subset of voxels within these amygdala clusters was at least moderately heritable. Taken together, these findings show that amygdala engagement in response to conditioned faces with a social-evaluative meaning qualifies as a neurobiological candidate endophenotype of social anxiety. Thereby, these data shed light on the genetic vulnerability to develop SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Nic J A van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - P Michiel Westenberg
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Abstract
Conflict adaptation reflects the increase in cognitive control after previous conflict between task-relevant and task-irrelevant information. Tonic (sustained) arousal elicited by emotional words embedded in a conflict task has previously been shown to increase conflict adaptation. However, the role of phasic (transient) emotional arousal remains unclear. In Experiment 1 (N = 55), we therefore investigated the effect of phasic arousal using a colour flanker task with negative, positive, and neutral words as stimuli. We hypothesised that phasic arousal elicited in this context will increase conflict adaptation in the subsequent trial. Indeed, when the words were positive or negative as compared to neutral, we observed increased conflict adaptation. In Experiment 2 (N = 54), we examined the role of the self-relevance by presenting words with a self-related pronoun ("my") or sender-related pronoun ("his"/"her"). We expected that emotional words with high self-relevance would lead to stronger effects of emotional arousal on conflict adaptation. Confirming this hypothesis, results showed that emotional words within a self-related context again increased conflict adaptation, whereas this effect was not observed in the sender-related context. Taken together, these results are the first to show that phasic arousal elicited by emotional words increases conflict adaptation, in particular when these words have high self-relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa L Landman
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
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15
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Berger A, Mitschke V, Dignath D, Eder A, van Steenbergen H. The face of control: Corrugator supercilii tracks aversive conflict signals in the service of adaptive cognitive control. Psychophysiology 2020; 57:e13524. [PMID: 31930536 PMCID: PMC7079141 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13524] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2019] [Revised: 11/19/2019] [Accepted: 12/12/2019] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive control is the ability to monitor, evaluate, and adapt behavior in the service of long‐term goals. Recent theories have proposed that the integral negative emotions elicited by conflict are critical for the adaptive adjustment of cognitive control. However, evidence for the negative valence of conflict in cognitive control tasks mainly comes from behavioral studies that interrupted trial sequences, making it difficult to directly test the link between conflict‐induced affect and subsequent increases in cognitive control. In the present study, we therefore use online measures of valence‐sensitive electromyography (EMG) of the facial corrugator (frowning) and zygomaticus (smiling) muscles while measuring the adaptive cognitive control in a Stroop‐like task. In line with the prediction that conflict is aversive, results showed that conflict relative to non‐conflict trials led to increased activity of the corrugator muscles after correct responses, both in a flanker task (Experiment 1) and in a prime‐probe task (Experiment 2). This conflict‐induced corrugator activity effect correlated marginally with conflict‐driven increases in cognitive control in the next trial in the confound‐minimalized task used in Experiment 2. However, in the absence of performance feedback (Experiment 3), no reliable effect of conflict was observed in the facial muscle activity despite robust behavioral conflict adaptation. Taken together, our results show that facial EMG can be used as an indirect index of the temporal dynamics of conflict‐induced aversive signals and/or effortful processes in particular when performance feedback is presented, providing important new insights into the dynamic affective nature of cognitive control. Cognitive control plays a pivotal role in goal‐directed behavior. Nevertheless, it still remains elusive what mechanisms determine how cognitive control is recruited. Recent theories have proposed that negative emotions elicited by conflict help to adaptively increase the cognitive control. Although there is indeed accumulating evidence for the negative valence of conflict, no study has yet linked this directly to increased adaptive control. Using valence‐sensitive EMG measures, we here show that conflict is associated with increased activation of the corrugator (frowning) muscle and that the size of this effect predicts the size of conflict‐driven control adjustment in the next trial.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anja Berger
- Department of Psychology, Universität Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Vanessa Mitschke
- Department of Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - David Dignath
- Institute for Psychology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Andreas Eder
- Department of Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden University Institute of Psychology, Leiden, The Netherlands
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16
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Bas‐Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, Blackford JU, Tissier RLM, van der Wee NJA, Westenberg PM. Impaired neural habituation to neutral faces in families genetically enriched for social anxiety disorder. Depress Anxiety 2019; 36:1143-1153. [PMID: 31600020 PMCID: PMC6916167 DOI: 10.1002/da.22962] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Revised: 08/22/2019] [Accepted: 08/24/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is an incapacitating disorder running in families. Previous work associated social fearfulness with a failure to habituate, but the habituation response to neutral faces has, as of yet, not been investigated in patients with SAD and their family members concurrently. Here, we examined whether impaired habituation to neutral faces is a putative neurobiological endophenotype of SAD by using data from the multiplex and multigenerational Leiden Family Lab study on SAD. METHODS Participants (n = 110; age, 9.2 - 61.5 years) performed a habituation paradigm involving neutral faces, as these are strong social stimuli with an ambiguous meaning. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging data to investigate whether brain activation related to habituation was associated with the level of social anxiety within the families. Furthermore, the heritability of the neural habituation response was estimated. RESULTS Our data revealed a relationship between impaired habituation to neutral faces and social anxiety in the right hippocampus and right amygdala. In addition, our data indicated that this habituation response displayed moderate - to-moderately high heritability in the right hippocampus. CONCLUSION The present results provide support for altered habituation as a candidate SAD endophenotype; impaired neural habitation cosegregrated with the disorder within families and was heritable. These findings shed light on the genetic susceptibility to SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna M. Bas‐Hoogendam
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Department of PsychiatryLeiden University Medical CenterLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands,Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of PsychologyUniversity of LeidenLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Jennifer Urbano Blackford
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesVanderbilt University Medical CenterNashvilleTennessee,Department of Veterans Affairs Medical CenterResearch Service, Research and DevelopmentNashvilleTennessee
| | - Renaud L. M. Tissier
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - Nic J. A. van der Wee
- Department of PsychiatryLeiden University Medical CenterLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
| | - P. Michiel Westenberg
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of PsychologyLeiden UniversityLeidenThe Netherlands,Leiden Institute for Brain and CognitionLeidenThe Netherlands
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17
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Dignath D, Berger A, Spruit IM, van Steenbergen H. Temporal dynamics of error-related corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major activity: Evidence for implicit emotion regulation following errors. Int J Psychophysiol 2019; 146:208-216. [PMID: 31648024 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2019] [Revised: 08/05/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
According to feedback control models, errors are monitored and inform subsequent control adaptations. Despite these cognitive consequences, errors also have affective consequences. It has been suggested that errors elicit negative affect which might be functional for control adaptations. The present research is concerned with the temporal dynamics of error-related affect. Therefore, we ask how affective responses to errors change over time. Two experiments assessed performance in a Stroop-like task in combination with online measures of facial electromyography that index affective responses specific for muscles that are associated with the expression of negative (corrugator supercilii) and positive affect (zygomaticus major). After errors, corrugator activity first increased relative to correct trials but then decreased (below correct trials) for later time bins. Zygomaticus activity showed a concomitant inverse pattern following errors, such that an initial decrease was followed by a later increase relative to correct trials. Together, this biphasic response in both facial muscles suggests that early negative responses to errors turn into increasingly more positive ones over time. Error-triggered electromyography did marginally predict behavioral adjustments following errors at the inter-individual, but not at the intra-individual level, providing only limited evidence for a functional role of error-related affect for immediate changes in behavior. However, the dynamics of error-related electromyography points to the role of implicit emotion regulation during task performance. We propose that this process helps to maintain homeostasis of positive and negative affect which in the long term could facilitate adaptive behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Iris M Spruit
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, the Netherlands.
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18
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Langeslag SJE, van Steenbergen H. Cognitive control in romantic love: the roles of infatuation and attachment in interference and adaptive cognitive control. Cogn Emot 2019; 34:596-603. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2019.1627291] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sandra J. E. Langeslag
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri – St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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19
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, Tissier RLM, van der Wee NJA, Westenberg PM. Altered Neurobiological Processing of Unintentional Social Norm Violations: A Multiplex, Multigenerational Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study on Social Anxiety Endophenotypes. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 2019; 5:981-990. [PMID: 31031203 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2019] [Revised: 02/21/2019] [Accepted: 03/04/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) fear negative evaluation in social situations. Specifically, previous work indicated that social anxiety is associated with increased medial prefrontal cortex activation in response to unintentional social norm (SN) transgressions, accompanied by increased embarrassment ratings for such SN violations. Here, we used data from the multiplex, multigenerational LFLSAD (Leiden Family Lab study on Social Anxiety Disorder), which involved two generations of families genetically enriched for SAD, and investigated whether these neurobiological and behavioral correlates of unintentional SN processing are SAD endophenotypes. Of four endophenotype criteria, we examined two: first, the cosegregation of these characteristics with social anxiety (SA) within families of SAD probands (criterion 4), and second, the heritability of the candidate endophenotypes (criterion 3). METHODS Participants (n = 110, age range 9.0-61.5 years, eight families) performed the revised Social Norm Processing Task; functional magnetic resonance imaging data and behavioral ratings related to this paradigm were used to examine whether brain activation in response to processing unintentional SN violations and ratings of embarrassment were associated with SA levels. Next, heritability of these measurements was estimated. RESULTS As expected, voxelwise functional magnetic resonance imaging analyses revealed positive associations between SA levels and brain activation in the medial prefrontal cortex and medial temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and superior temporal sulcus, and these brain activation levels displayed moderate to moderately high heritability. Furthermore, although SA levels correlated positively with behavioral ratings of embarrassment for SN transgressions, these behavioral characteristics were not heritable. CONCLUSIONS These results show, for the first time, that brain responses in the medial prefrontal cortex and medial temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and superior temporal sulcus, related to processing unintentional SN violations, provide a neurobiological candidate endophenotype of SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | | | - Nic J A van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - P Michiel Westenberg
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
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20
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Warren CM, Tona KD, Ouwerkerk L, van Paridon J, Poletiek F, van Steenbergen H, Bosch JA, Nieuwenhuis S. The neuromodulatory and hormonal effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation as evidenced by salivary alpha amylase, salivary cortisol, pupil diameter, and the P3 event-related potential. Brain Stimul 2018; 12:635-642. [PMID: 30591360 DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2018.12.224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 80] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2018] [Revised: 12/07/2018] [Accepted: 12/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a new, non-invasive technique being investigated as an intervention for a variety of clinical disorders, including epilepsy and depression. It is thought to exert its therapeutic effect by increasing central norepinephrine (NE) activity, but the evidence supporting this notion is limited. OBJECTIVE In order to test for an impact of tVNS on psychophysiological and hormonal indices of noradrenergic function, we applied tVNS in concert with assessment of salivary alpha amylase (SAA) and cortisol, pupil size, and electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings. METHODS Across three experiments, we applied real and sham tVNS to 61 healthy participants while they performed a set of simple stimulus-discrimination tasks. Before and after the task, as well as during one break, participants provided saliva samples and had their pupil size recorded. EEG was recorded throughout the task. The target for tVNS was the cymba conchae, which is heavily innervated by the auricular branch of the vagus nerve. Sham stimulation was applied to the ear lobe. RESULTS P3 amplitude was not affected by tVNS (Experiment 1A: N = 24; Experiment 1B: N = 20; Bayes factor supporting null model = 4.53), nor was pupil size (Experiment 2: N = 16; interaction of treatment and time: p = .79). However, tVNS increased SAA (Experiments 1A and 2: N = 25) and attenuated the decline of salivary cortisol compared to sham (Experiment 2: N = 17), as indicated by significant interactions involving treatment and time (p = .023 and p = .040, respectively). CONCLUSION These findings suggest that tVNS modulates hormonal indices but not psychophysiological indices of noradrenergic function.
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Affiliation(s)
- C M Warren
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333, AK, Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, 2300, RC, Netherlands.
| | - K D Tona
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333, AK, Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, 2300, RC, Netherlands
| | - L Ouwerkerk
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333, AK, Netherlands
| | - J van Paridon
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333, AK, Netherlands; Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, 6525, XD, Netherlands
| | - F Poletiek
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333, AK, Netherlands; Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, 6525, XD, Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333, AK, Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, 2300, RC, Netherlands
| | - J A Bosch
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1018, XA, Netherlands; Mannheim Institute of Public Health, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, 68167, Germany
| | - S Nieuwenhuis
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333, AK, Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, 2300, RC, Netherlands
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21
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, Tissier RLM, Houwing-Duistermaat JJ, Westenberg PM, van der Wee NJA. Subcortical brain volumes, cortical thickness and cortical surface area in families genetically enriched for social anxiety disorder - A multiplex multigenerational neuroimaging study. EBioMedicine 2018; 36:410-428. [PMID: 30266294 PMCID: PMC6197574 DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2018.08.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2018] [Revised: 08/22/2018] [Accepted: 08/22/2018] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a disabling psychiatric condition with a genetic background. Brain alterations in gray matter (GM) related to SAD have been previously reported, but it remains to be elucidated whether GM measures are candidate endophenotypes of SAD. Endophenotypes are measurable characteristics on the causal pathway from genotype to phenotype, providing insight in genetically-based disease mechanisms. Based on a review of existing evidence, we examined whether GM characteristics meet two endophenotype criteria, using data from a unique sample of SAD-patients and their family-members of two generations. First, we investigated whether GM characteristics co-segregate with social anxiety within families genetically enriched for SAD. Secondly, heritability of the GM characteristics was estimated. METHODS Families with a genetic predisposition for SAD participated in the Leiden Family Lab study on SAD; T1-weighted MRI brain scans were acquired (n = 110, 8 families). Subcortical volumes, cortical thickness and cortical surface area were determined for a-priori determined regions of interest (ROIs). Next, associations with social anxiety and heritabilities were estimated. FINDINGS Several subcortical and cortical GM characteristics, derived from frontal, parietal and temporal ROIs, co-segregated with social anxiety within families (uncorrected p-level) and showed moderate to high heritability. INTERPRETATION These findings provide preliminary evidence that GM characteristics of multiple ROIs, which are distributed over the brain, are candidate endophenotypes of SAD. Thereby, they shed light on the genetic vulnerability for SAD. Future research is needed to confirm these results and to link them to functional brain alterations and to genetic variations underlying these GM changes. FUND: Leiden University Research Profile 'Health, Prevention and the Human Life Cycle'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Renaud L M Tissier
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | | | - P Michiel Westenberg
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Nic J A van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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22
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, Harrewijn A, Tissier RLM, van der Molen MJW, van Steenbergen H, van Vliet IM, Reichart CG, Houwing-Duistermaat JJ, Slagboom PE, van der Wee NJA, Westenberg PM. The Leiden Family Lab study on Social Anxiety Disorder: A multiplex, multigenerational family study on neurocognitive endophenotypes. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res 2018; 27:e1616. [PMID: 29700902 PMCID: PMC6001802 DOI: 10.1002/mpr.1616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2017] [Revised: 03/13/2018] [Accepted: 03/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a serious and prevalent psychiatric condition, with a heritable component. However, little is known about the characteristics that are associated with the genetic component of SAD, the so-called "endophenotypes". These endophenotypes could advance our insight in the genetic susceptibility to SAD, as they are on the pathway from genotype to phenotype. The Leiden Family Lab study on Social Anxiety Disorder (LFLSAD) is the first multiplex, multigenerational study aimed to identify neurocognitive endophenotypes of social anxiety. METHODS The LFLSAD is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach and encompasses a variety of measurements, including a clinical interview, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging and an electroencephalography experiment. Participants are family members from 2 generations, from families genetically enriched for SAD. RESULTS The sample (n = 132 participants, from 9 families) was characterized by a high prevalence of SAD, in both generations (prevalence (sub)clinical SAD: 38.3%). Furthermore, (sub)clinical SAD was positively related to self-reported social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, trait anxiety, behavioral inhibition, negative affect, and the level of depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS By the multidimensional character of the measurements and thorough characterization of the sample, the LFLSAD offers unique opportunities to investigate candidate neurocognitive endophenotypes of SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Anita Harrewijn
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Renaud L M Tissier
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Melle J W van der Molen
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Irene M van Vliet
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | | | | | - P Eline Slagboom
- Section of Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Nic J A van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - P Michiel Westenberg
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
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23
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Spruit IM, Wilderjans TF, van Steenbergen H. Heart work after errors: Behavioral adjustment following error commission involves cardiac effort. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 2018; 18:375-388. [PMID: 29464553 PMCID: PMC5889424 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-018-0576-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Posterror slowing (PES) is the observation that people respond slower on trials subsequent to error commissions than on trials subsequent to correct responses. Different accounts have been proposed to explain PES. On the one hand, it has been suggested that PES arises from an adaptive increase in cognitive control following error commission, thereby making people more cautious after making an error. On the other hand, PES has been attributed to an orienting response, indicating that attention is shifted toward the error. In the present study we tested these accounts by investigating the effects of error commission in both flanker and switch tasks on two task-evoked cardiac measures: the interbeat interval-that is, the interval between two consecutive R peaks-and the RZ interval-that is, the interval between the R peak and the Z point-as measured using electro- and impedance cardiography, respectively. These measures allowed us to measure cardiac deceleration (autonomic orienting) and cardiac effort mobilization, respectively. Our results revealed a shorter RZ interval during posterror trials, indicating increased effort mobilization following errors. In addition, we replicated earlier studies that have shown cardiac slowing during error trials. However, multilevel analyses showed that only the posterror decrease in RZ interval predicted posterror reaction times, whereas there was no positive relationship between error-related cardiac deceleration and posterror reaction times. Our results suggest that PES is related to increased cardiac effort, supporting a cognitive-control account of PES.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iris M Spruit
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg, 52 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Tom F Wilderjans
- Research Group of Methodology and Statistics, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Research Group of Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg, 52 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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24
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, Nienke Pannekoek J, Fouche JP, Lochner C, Hattingh CJ, Cremers HR, Furmark T, Månsson KN, Frick A, Engman J, Boraxbekk CJ, Carlbring P, Andersson G, Fredrikson M, Straube T, Peterburs J, Klumpp H, Phan KL, Roelofs K, Veltman DJ, van Tol MJ, Stein DJ, van der Wee NJ. Voxel-based morphometry multi-center mega-analysis of brain structure in social anxiety disorder. Neuroimage Clin 2017; 16:678-688. [PMID: 30140607 PMCID: PMC6103329 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2017.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2017] [Accepted: 08/01/2017] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent and disabling mental disorder, associated with significant psychiatric co-morbidity. Previous research on structural brain alterations associated with SAD has yielded inconsistent results concerning the direction of the changes in gray matter (GM) in various brain regions, as well as on the relationship between brain structure and SAD-symptomatology. These heterogeneous findings are possibly due to limited sample sizes. Multi-site imaging offers new opportunities to investigate SAD-related alterations in brain structure in larger samples. An international multi-center mega-analysis on the largest database of SAD structural T1-weighted 3T MRI scans to date was performed to compare GM volume of SAD-patients (n = 174) and healthy control (HC)-participants (n = 213) using voxel-based morphometry. A hypothesis-driven region of interest (ROI) approach was used, focusing on the basal ganglia, the amygdala-hippocampal complex, the prefrontal cortex, and the parietal cortex. SAD-patients had larger GM volume in the dorsal striatum when compared to HC-participants. This increase correlated positively with the severity of self-reported social anxiety symptoms. No SAD-related differences in GM volume were present in the other ROIs. Thereby, the results of this mega-analysis suggest a role for the dorsal striatum in SAD, but previously reported SAD-related changes in GM in the amygdala, hippocampus, precuneus, prefrontal cortex and parietal regions were not replicated. Our findings emphasize the importance of large sample imaging studies and the need for meta-analyses like those performed by the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium. Multi-center mega-analysis on gray matter (GM) in social anxiety disorder (SAD) Largest sample available for analysis to date: 174 SAD-patients vs 213 controls Larger GM volume in the right putamen in SAD-patients No SAD-related alterations in amygdala-hippocampal, prefrontal or parietal regions Results stress need for larger samples and meta-analyses - cf. ENIGMA Consortium
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Corresponding author at: Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - J. Nienke Pannekoek
- Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
| | - Jean-Paul Fouche
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Christine Lochner
- SU/UCT MRC Unit on Anxiety & Stress Disorders, South Africa
- Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa
| | - Coenraad J. Hattingh
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Henk R. Cremers
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Tomas Furmark
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Kristoffer N.T. Månsson
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Andreas Frick
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Jonas Engman
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Carl-Johan Boraxbekk
- Umeå Centre for Functional Brain Imaging (UFBI), Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
- Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR), Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Denmark
| | - Per Carlbring
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Gerhard Andersson
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Psychology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Mats Fredrikson
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Jutta Peterburs
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Heide Klumpp
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - K. Luan Phan
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Karin Roelofs
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Dick J. Veltman
- Department of Psychiatry, Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Marie-José van Tol
- Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Dan J. Stein
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
- SU/UCT MRC Unit on Anxiety & Stress Disorders, South Africa
| | - Nic J.A. van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
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van Steenbergen H, Warren CM, Kühn S, de Wit S, Wiers RW, Hommel B. Representational precision in visual cortex reveals outcome encoding and reward modulation during action preparation. Neuroimage 2017; 157:415-428. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2017] [Revised: 05/29/2017] [Accepted: 06/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
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van Steenbergen H, Watson P, Wiers RW, Hommel B, de Wit S. Dissociable corticostriatal circuits underlie goal-directed vs. cue-elicited habitual food seeking after satiation: evidence from a multimodal MRI study. Eur J Neurosci 2017; 46:1815-1827. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2017] [Revised: 03/28/2017] [Accepted: 04/18/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition; Leiden The Netherlands
- Institute of Psychology; Leiden University; Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK Leiden The Netherlands
| | - Poppy Watson
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition; University of Amsterdam; Amsterdam The Netherlands
- Department of Clinical Psychology; University of Amsterdam; Amsterdam The Netherlands
| | - Reinout W. Wiers
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition; University of Amsterdam; Amsterdam The Netherlands
- Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT) Lab; Department of Developmental Psychology; University of Amsterdam; Amsterdam The Netherlands
| | - Bernhard Hommel
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition; Leiden The Netherlands
- Institute of Psychology; Leiden University; Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK Leiden The Netherlands
| | - Sanne de Wit
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition; University of Amsterdam; Amsterdam The Netherlands
- Department of Clinical Psychology; University of Amsterdam; Amsterdam The Netherlands
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27
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, van Steenbergen H, Kreuk T, van der Wee NJA, Westenberg PM. How embarrassing! The behavioral and neural correlates of processing social norm violations. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0176326. [PMID: 28441460 PMCID: PMC5404760 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2016] [Accepted: 04/08/2017] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Social norms are important for human social interactions, and violations of these norms are evaluated partly on the intention of the actor. Here, we describe the revised Social Norm Processing Task (SNPT-R), a paradigm enabling the study of behavioral and neural responses to intended and unintended social norm violations among both adults and adolescents. We investigated how participants (adolescents and adults, n = 87) rate intentional and unintentional social norm violations with respect to inappropriateness and embarrassment, and we examined the brain activation patterns underlying the processing of these transgressions in an independent sample of 21 adults using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). We hypothesized to find activation within the medial prefrontal cortex, temporo-parietal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex in response to both intentional and unintentional social norm violations, with more pronounced activation for the intentional social norm violations in these regions and in the amygdala. Participants' ratings confirmed the hypothesis that the three types of stories are evaluated differently with respect to intentionality: intentional social norm violations were rated as the most inappropriate and most embarrassing. Furthermore, fMRI results showed that reading stories on intentional and unintentional social norm violations evoked activation within the frontal pole, the paracingulate gyrus and the superior frontal gyrus. In addition, processing unintentional social norm violations was associated with activation in, among others, the orbitofrontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus and superior parietal lobule, while reading intentional social norm violations was related to activation in the left amygdala. These regions have been previously implicated in thinking about one's self, thinking about others and moral reasoning. Together, these findings indicate that the SNPT-R could serve as a useful paradigm for examining social norm processing, both at the behavioral and the neural level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Tanja Kreuk
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Nic J. A. van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - P. Michiel Westenberg
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
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van Steenbergen H, Bocanegra BR. Promises and pitfalls of Web-based experimentation in the advance of replicable psychological science: A reply to Plant (2015). Behav Res Methods 2016; 48:1713-1717. [PMID: 26542973 PMCID: PMC5101252 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-015-0677-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
In a recent letter, Plant (2015) reminded us that proper calibration of our laboratory experiments is important for the progress of psychological science. Therefore, carefully controlled laboratory studies are argued to be preferred over Web-based experimentation, in which timing is usually more imprecise. Here we argue that there are many situations in which the timing of Web-based experimentation is acceptable and that online experimentation provides a very useful and promising complementary toolbox to available lab-based approaches. We discuss examples in which stimulus calibration or calibration against response criteria is necessary and situations in which this is not critical. We also discuss how online labor markets, such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk, allow researchers to acquire data in more diverse populations and to test theories along more psychological dimensions. Recent methodological advances that have produced more accurate browser-based stimulus presentation are also discussed. In our view, online experimentation is one of the most promising avenues to advance replicable psychological science in the near future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- , Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Bruno R Bocanegra
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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29
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Kuipers M, Richter M, Scheepers D, Immink MA, Sjak-Shie E, van Steenbergen H. How effortful is cognitive control? Insights from a novel method measuring single-trial evoked beta-adrenergic cardiac reactivity. Int J Psychophysiol 2016; 119:87-92. [PMID: 27737782 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.10.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2016] [Revised: 10/06/2016] [Accepted: 10/08/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The ability to adjust attentional focus to varying levels of task demands depends on the adaptive recruitment of cognitive control processes. The present study investigated for the first time whether the mobilization of cognitive control during response-conflict trials in a flanker task is associated with effort-related sympathetic activity as measured by changes in the RZ-interval at a single-trial level, thus providing an alternative to the pre-ejection period (PEP) which can only be reliably measured in ensemble-averaged data. We predicted that response conflict leads to a physiological orienting response (i.e. heart rate slowing) and increases in effort as reflected by changes in myocardial beta-adrenergic activity (i.e. decreased RZ interval). Our results indeed showed that response conflict led to cardiac deceleration and decreased RZ interval. However, the temporal overlap of the observed heart rate and RZ interval changes suggests that the effect on the latter reflects a change in cardiac pre-load (Frank-Starling mechanism). Our study was thus unable to provide evidence for the expected link between cognitive control and cardiovascular effort. However, it demonstrated that our single-trial analysis enables the assessment of transient changes in cardiac sympathetic activity, thus providing a promising tool for future studies that aim to investigate effort at a single-trial level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mithras Kuipers
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Michael Richter
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
| | - Daan Scheepers
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, The Netherlands; Social and Organizational Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Maarten A Immink
- School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Elio Sjak-Shie
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, The Netherlands; Research Support Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, The Netherlands.
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30
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Rondeel EWM, van Steenbergen H, Holland RW, van Knippenberg A. A closer look at cognitive control: differences in resource allocation during updating, inhibition and switching as revealed by pupillometry. Front Hum Neurosci 2015; 9:494. [PMID: 26441594 PMCID: PMC4564574 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2013] [Accepted: 08/26/2015] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study investigated resource allocation, as measured by pupil dilation, in tasks measuring updating (2-Back task), inhibition (Stroop task) and switching (Number Switch task). Because each cognitive control component has unique characteristics, differences in patterns of resource allocation were expected. Pupil and behavioral data from 35 participants were analyzed. In the 2-Back task (requiring correct matching of current stimulus identity at trial p with the stimulus two trials back, p −2) we found that better performance (low total of errors made in the task) was positively correlated to the mean pupil dilation during correctly responding to targets. In the Stroop task, pupil dilation on incongruent trials was higher than those on congruent trials. Incongruent vs. congruent trial pupil dilation differences were positively related to reaction time differences between incongruent and congruent trials. Furthermore, on congruent Stroop trials, pupil dilation was negatively related to reaction times, presumably because more effort allocation paid off in terms of faster responses. In addition, pupil dilation on correctly-responded-to congruent trials predicted a weaker Stroop interference effect in terms of errors, probably because pupil dilation on congruent trials were diagnostic of task motivation, resulting in better performance. In the Number Switch task we found higher pupil dilation in switch as compared to non-switch trials. On the Number Switch task, pupil dilation was not related to performance. We also explored error-related pupil dilation in all tasks. The results provide new insights in the diversity of the cognitive control components in terms of resource allocation as a function of individual differences, task difficulty and error processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eefje W M Rondeel
- Thales Research and Technology Delft, Netherlands ; Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands ; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Rob W Holland
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
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Bas-Hoogendam JM, Andela CD, van der Werff SJA, Pannekoek JN, van Steenbergen H, Meijer OC, van Buchem MA, Rombouts SARB, van der Mast RC, Biermasz NR, van der Wee NJA, Pereira AM. Altered neural processing of emotional faces in remitted Cushing's disease. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2015; 59:134-46. [PMID: 26092780 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2015] [Revised: 04/29/2015] [Accepted: 05/05/2015] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Patients with long-term remission of Cushing's disease (CD) demonstrate residual psychological complaints. At present, it is not known how previous exposure to hypercortisolism affects psychological functioning in the long-term. Earlier magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies demonstrated abnormalities of brain structure and resting-state connectivity in patients with long-term remission of CD, but no data are available on functional alterations in the brain during the performance of emotional or cognitive tasks in these patients. We performed a cross-sectional functional MRI study, investigating brain activation during emotion processing in patients with long-term remission of CD. Processing of emotional faces versus a non-emotional control condition was examined in 21 patients and 21 matched healthy controls. Analyses focused on activation and connectivity of two a priori determined regions of interest: the amygdala and the medial prefrontal-orbitofrontal cortex (mPFC-OFC). We also assessed psychological functioning, cognitive failure, and clinical disease severity. Patients showed less mPFC activation during processing of emotional faces compared to controls, whereas no differences were found in amygdala activation. An exploratory psychophysiological interaction analysis demonstrated decreased functional coupling between the ventromedial PFC and posterior cingulate cortex (a region structurally connected to the PFC) in CD-patients. The present study is the first to show alterations in brain function and task-related functional coupling in patients with long-term remission of CD relative to matched healthy controls. These alterations may, together with abnormalities in brain structure, be related to the persisting psychological morbidity in patients with CD after long-term remission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Cornelie D Andela
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Center for Endocrine Tumors, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
| | - Steven J A van der Werff
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - J Nienke Pannekoek
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands; Division of Brain Sciences, Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Onno C Meijer
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Center for Endocrine Tumors, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Mark A van Buchem
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Serge A R B Rombouts
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Roos C van der Mast
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Nienke R Biermasz
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Center for Endocrine Tumors, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Nic J A van der Wee
- Department of Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Alberto M Pereira
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands; Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Center for Endocrine Tumors, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
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van Steenbergen H, Band GPH, Hommel B. Does conflict help or hurt cognitive control? Initial evidence for an inverted U-shape relationship between perceived task difficulty and conflict adaptation. Front Psychol 2015. [PMID: 26217287 PMCID: PMC4498021 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Sequential modulation of congruency effects in conflict tasks indicates that cognitive control quickly adapts to changing task demands. We investigated in four experiments how this behavioral congruency-sequence effect relates to different levels of perceived task difficulty in a flanker and a Stroop task. In addition, online measures of pupil diameter were used as a physiological index of effort mobilization. Consistent with motivational accounts predicting that increased levels of perceived task difficulty will increase effort mobilization only up to a certain limit, reliable dynamic conflict-driven adjustment in cognitive control was only observed when task difficulty was relatively low. Instead, tasks tentatively associated with high levels of difficulty showed no or reversed conflict adaptation. Although the effects could not be linked consistently to effects in self-reported task difficulty in all experiments, regression analyses showed associations between perceived task difficulty and conflict adaptation in some of the experiments, which provides some initial evidence for an inverted U-shape relationship between perceived difficulty and adaptations in cognitive control. Furthermore, high levels of task difficulty were associated with a conflict-driven reduction in pupil dilation, suggesting that pupil dilation can be used as a physiological marker of mental overload. Our findings underscore the importance of developing models that are grounded in motivational accounts of cognitive control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Institute of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Guido P H Band
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Institute of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Bernhard Hommel
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Institute of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
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33
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Watson P, van Steenbergen H, de Wit S, Wiers RW, Hommel B. Limits of ideomotor action-outcome acquisition. Brain Res 2015; 1626:45-53. [PMID: 25704203 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.02.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2014] [Revised: 01/05/2015] [Accepted: 02/12/2015] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Ideomotor theory proposes that goal-directed action emerges from the implicit, incidental acquisition of bi-directional associations between actions and their outcomes. In line with this idea, a simple two-stage priming paradigm has provided evidence that presentation of outcomes primes previously associated actions. In the current study we compare the standard priming paradigm with two actions and two unique outcomes (Experiment 1) with two more complex, but otherwise identical versions (Experiment 2: two vs. four actions with four outcomes). Our results show stronger evidence of action-outcome learning in the simple compared to the more complex versions. We suggest that, when using the classic two-stage paradigm, action-outcome acquisition is limited to just a few action-outcome associations that can be concurrently learned-at least if learning is not supported by discriminative stimuli and outcomes are not salient or motivationally relevant. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Prediction and Attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Poppy Watson
- Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT) Lab, Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Sanne de Wit
- Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Reinout W Wiers
- Addiction Development and Psychopathology (ADAPT) Lab, Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Bernhard Hommel
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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Brown SBRE, van Steenbergen H, Kedar T, Nieuwenhuis S. Effects of arousal on cognitive control: empirical tests of the conflict-modulated Hebbian-learning hypothesis. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:23. [PMID: 24523690 PMCID: PMC3906597 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2013] [Accepted: 01/10/2014] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
An increasing number of empirical phenomena that were previously interpreted as a result of cognitive control, turn out to reflect (in part) simple associative-learning effects. A prime example is the proportion congruency effect, the finding that interference effects (such as the Stroop effect) decrease as the proportion of incongruent stimuli increases. While this was previously regarded as strong evidence for a global conflict monitoring-cognitive control loop, recent evidence has shown that the proportion congruency effect is largely item-specific and hence must be due to associative learning. The goal of our research was to test a recent hypothesis about the mechanism underlying such associative-learning effects, the conflict-modulated Hebbian-learning hypothesis, which proposes that the effect of conflict on associative learning is mediated by phasic arousal responses. In Experiment 1, we examined in detail the relationship between the item-specific proportion congruency effect and an autonomic measure of phasic arousal: task-evoked pupillary responses. In Experiment 2, we used a task-irrelevant phasic arousal manipulation and examined the effect on item-specific learning of incongruent stimulus–response associations. The results provide little evidence for the conflict-modulated Hebbian-learning hypothesis, which requires additional empirical support to remain tenable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen B R E Brown
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Tomer Kedar
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Sander Nieuwenhuis
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands ; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition Leiden, Netherlands
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van Steenbergen H, Band GPH, Hommel B, Rombouts SARB, Nieuwenhuis S. Hedonic Hotspots Regulate Cingulate-driven Adaptation to Cognitive Demands. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014; 25:1746-56. [PMID: 24451656 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bht416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Positive hedonic states are known to attenuate the impact of demanding events on our body and brain, supporting adaptive behavior in response to changes in the environment. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural mechanism of this hedonic regulation. The effect of hedonic state (as induced by funny vs. neutral cartoons) on flexible behavioral and neural adaptation to cognitive demands was assessed in a flanker task in female volunteers. Behavioral results showed that humor reduced the compensatory adjustments to cognitive demands, as observed in sequential adaptations. This modulation was also reflected in midcingulate cortex (MCC; also known as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, ACC) activation. Furthermore, hedonic context increased activation in ventral striatum (VS) and ventral pallidum (VP). These hedonic hotspots attenuated the medial prefrontal cortex response to the cognitive demands in the ACC (also known as the rostral ACC). Activity in the ACC proved predictive of subsequent behavioral adaptation. Moreover, psychophysiological interaction analyses revealed that the MCC and the ACC were functionally connected with VS and VP, respectively. These observations reveal how MCC-VS and VP-ACC interactions are involved in the detection and hedonic modulation of behavioral adaptations to cognitive demands, which supports behavioral flexibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden 2333 AK, The Netherlands
| | - Guido P H Band
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden 2333 AK, The Netherlands
| | - Bernhard Hommel
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden 2333 AK, The Netherlands
| | - Serge A R B Rombouts
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden 2333 AK, The Netherlands Leiden University Medical Center, Department of Radiology, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands
| | - Sander Nieuwenhuis
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden 2333 AK, The Netherlands
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Abstract
Cognitive demands in response conflict paradigms trigger negative affect and avoidance behavior. However, not all response conflict studies show increases in physiological indices of emotional arousal, such as pupil diameter. In contrast to earlier null-results, this study shows for the first time that small (about 0.02 mm) conflict-related pupil dilation can be observed in a Simon task when stimuli do not introduce a light reflex. Results show that response-conflict in Simon trials induces both pupil dilation and reaction-time costs. Moreover, sequential analyses reveal that pupil dilation mirrors the conflict-adaptation pattern observed in reaction time (RT). Although single-trial regression analyses indicated that pupil dilation is likely to reflect more than one process at the same time, in general our findings imply that pupil dilation can be used as an indirect marker of conflict processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition Leiden, Netherlands ; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
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Kowal MA, Hazekamp A, Colzato LS, van Steenbergen H, Hommel B. Modulation of cognitive and emotional processing by cannabidiol: the role of the anterior cingulate cortex. Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7:147. [PMID: 23616760 PMCID: PMC3629308 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2013] [Accepted: 04/04/2013] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Mikael A Kowal
- Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
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van Steenbergen H, Band GPH, Hommel B. Reward valence modulates conflict-driven attentional adaptation: electrophysiological evidence. Biol Psychol 2012; 90:234-41. [PMID: 22504294 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.03.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2011] [Revised: 03/20/2012] [Accepted: 03/21/2012] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Recent findings suggest that, relative to negative feedback, positive feedback counteracts conflict processing and subsequent attentional adaptation. Here we hypothesize that this interaction may direct adjustments in perception and action via the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We recorded EEG while participants performed an arrow flanker task with monetary gain or loss as arbitrary reward feedback between trials. As predicted, we found a reduction in conflict-driven adaptation for trials in which conflict was followed by monetary gain (vs. monetary loss), a behavioral effect accompanied by a modulation in early visual processing related to the processing of the distracters. Moreover, time-frequency analyses showed that ongoing fronto-central theta oscillations induced by previous conflict sustained longer after loss than after gain, an interaction presumably reflecting ACC modulation. These data provide a first important step toward understanding the neural mechanism underlying the affective regulation of conflict-driven behavior.
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Brown SBRE, van Steenbergen H, Band GPH, de Rover M, Nieuwenhuis S. Functional significance of the emotion-related late positive potential. Front Hum Neurosci 2012; 6:33. [PMID: 22375117 PMCID: PMC3287021 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2011] [Accepted: 02/14/2012] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The late positive potential (LPP) is an event-related potential (ERP) component over visual cortical areas that is modulated by the emotional intensity of a stimulus. However, the functional significance of this neural modulation remains elusive. We conducted two experiments in which we studied the relation between LPP amplitude, subsequent perceptual sensitivity to a non-emotional stimulus (Experiment 1) and visual cortical excitability, as reflected by P1/N1 components evoked by this stimulus (Experiment 2). During the LPP modulation elicited by unpleasant stimuli, perceptual sensitivity was not affected. In contrast, we found some evidence for a decreased N1 amplitude during the LPP modulation, a decreased P1 amplitude on trials with a relatively large LPP, and consistent negative (but non-significant) across-subject correlations between the magnitudes of the LPP modulation and corresponding changes in d-prime or P1/N1 amplitude. The results provide preliminary evidence that the LPP reflects a global inhibition of activity in visual cortex, resulting in the selective survival of activity associated with the processing of the emotional stimulus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen B R E Brown
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
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Jepma M, Verdonschot RG, van Steenbergen H, Rombouts SARB, Nieuwenhuis S. Neural mechanisms underlying the induction and relief of perceptual curiosity. Front Behav Neurosci 2012; 6:5. [PMID: 22347853 PMCID: PMC3277937 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2012.00005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2011] [Accepted: 01/30/2012] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Curiosity is one of the most basic biological drives in both animals and humans, and has been identified as a key motive for learning and discovery. Despite the importance of curiosity and related behaviors, the topic has been largely neglected in human neuroscience; hence little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying curiosity. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate what happens in our brain during the induction and subsequent relief of perceptual curiosity. Our core findings were that (1) the induction of perceptual curiosity, through the presentation of ambiguous visual input, activated the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), brain regions sensitive to conflict and arousal; (2) the relief of perceptual curiosity, through visual disambiguation, activated regions of the striatum that have been related to reward processing; and (3) the relief of perceptual curiosity was associated with hippocampal activation and enhanced incidental memory. These findings provide the first demonstration of the neural basis of human perceptual curiosity. Our results provide neurobiological support for a classic psychological theory of curiosity, which holds that curiosity is an aversive condition of increased arousal whose termination is rewarding and facilitates memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marieke Jepma
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Rinus G. Verdonschot
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden, Netherlands
- Leiden University Centre for LinguisticsLeiden, Netherlands
- Graduate School of Languages and Cultures, Nagoya UniversityNagoya, Japan
| | - Henk van Steenbergen
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Serge A. R. B. Rombouts
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden, Netherlands
- Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical CenterLeiden, Netherlands
| | - Sander Nieuwenhuis
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden UniversityLeiden, Netherlands
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)Leiden, Netherlands
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van Steenbergen H, Band GPH, Hommel B. Threat but not arousal narrows attention: evidence from pupil dilation and saccade control. Front Psychol 2011; 2:281. [PMID: 22059081 PMCID: PMC3204575 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2011] [Accepted: 10/05/2011] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
It has been shown that negative affect causes attentional narrowing. According to Easterbrook’s (1959) influential hypothesis this effect is driven by the withdrawal motivation inherent to negative emotions and might be related to increases in arousal. We investigated whether valence-unspecific increases in physiological arousal, as measured by pupil dilation, could account for attentional narrowing effects in a cognitive control task. Following the presentation of a negative, positive, or neutral picture, participants performed a saccade task with a pro-saccade versus an anti-saccade instruction. The reaction time difference between pro- and anti-saccades was used to index attentional selectivity, and while pupil diameter was used as an index of physiological arousal. Pupil dilation was observed for both negative and positive pictures, which indicates increased physiological arousal. However, increased attentional selectivity was only observed following negative pictures. Our data show that motivational intensity effects on attentional narrowing can occur independently of physiological arousal effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Leiden University Institute of Psychology, Leiden University Leiden, Netherlands
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Abstract
Cognitive conflict plays an important role in tuning cognitive control to the situation at hand. On the basis of earlier findings demonstrating emotional modulations of conflict processing, we predicted that affective states may adaptively regulate goal-directed behavior that is driven by conflict. We tested this hypothesis by measuring conflict-driven control adaptations following experimental induction of four different mood states that could be differentiated along the dimensions of arousal and pleasure. After mood states were induced, 91 subjects performed a flanker task, which provided a measure of conflict adaptation. As predicted, pleasure level affected conflict adaptation: Less pleasure was associated with more conflict-driven control. Arousal level did not influence conflict adaptation. This study suggests that affect adaptively regulates cognitive control. Implications for future research and psychopathology are discussed.
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Abstract
The conflict-adaptation effect has been observed in several executive-control tasks and is thought to reflect an increase in control, driven by experienced conflict. We hypothesized that if this adaptation originates from the aversive quality of conflict, it would be canceled out by a positive, rewarding event. Subjects performed an arrow flanker task with monetary gain or loss as arbitrary feedback between trials. As predicted, we found a reduction in conflict adaptation for trials in which conflict was followed by monetary gain. The strength of this gain-induced modulation was found to depend on subjects' motivation to pursue reward, as measured by the Behavioral Activation System Drive scale. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that the conflict-adaptation effect can be strongly reduced by reward contexts, suggesting that reward and conflict can compensate for each other's effects, probably via changes in dopamine levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henk van Steenbergen
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Leiden University Institute of Psychology
| | - Guido P.H. Band
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Leiden University Institute of Psychology
| | - Bernhard Hommel
- Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition and Leiden University Institute of Psychology
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