Autonomous sensory Meridian response as a physically felt signature of positive and negative emotions

Introduction

Current research on Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) assumes that ASMR is always accompanied by contentment, and it is distinct from frisson due to positive emotions. Thus, research investigations tend to limit their scope to solely focusing on the sensation of relaxation that ASMR induces. This study explores whether it is possible to have a different emotional experience and still perceive ASMR, testing the theory of ASMR as an amplifier of pre-existing emotion instead of a determination of positive affect.

Methods

The emotional arousal and valence, and mood changes of 180 ASMR-capable and incapable individuals were analysed using questionnaires after altering the affective interpretation associated with auditory ASMR (tapping) with visual priming to examine whether the primed emotion (fearful, relaxing, or neutral) could be amplified.

Results

It was found that an ASMR response occurred in all priming conditions, including the fear priming group. No significant difference was found in the emotional outcome or mood of the neutral and relaxing priming groups. Upon comparison with ASMR-incapable individuals, both the relaxing and neutral priming groups demonstrated the same affect, but greater potent for ASMR-capable. Individuals who appraised ASMR after visual fear priming demonstrated a significant decrease in positive emotional valence and increased arousal.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that ASMR occurs in both positive and negative emotional situations, suppressing contentment induction if ASMR stimuli are interpreted negatively and amplifying contentment when interpreted positively. While more research is needed, the results highlight that ASMR and frisson might describe the same phenomenon, both a physically felt signature of emotion. Therapeutic usage of ASMR should carefully select appropriate stimuli that emphasise contentment to avoid potential health risks associated with negative emotions until a further understanding of ASMR's affective parameters has been established.

Emotional arousal and reflective functioning among parents participating in attachment-based family therapy for LGBTQ+ young adults and their nonaccepting parents

OBJECTIVE

Parents' rejection of their LGBTQ + young adults can have a negative impact on their young adult's psychological welfare, and on the young adult-parent relationship. Parents' ability to reflect on their child's pain and unmet needs is thought to evoke empathy and compassion, and reduce rejection. Empirical and clinical evidence suggest that parents' level of reflective functioning (RF) is impacted by their level of emotional arousal (EA). This study examined the association between parents' EA and RF within the context of attachment-based family therapy for nonaccepting parents and their LGBTQ+ young adults.

METHODS

43 therapy sessions drawn from six different cases were coded for parental RF and EA, based on 30-second segments. This generated a total of 343 observations for analyses.

RESULTS

Hierarchal linear modeling revealed that parents' level of RF was a function of their concomitant EA, with moderate levels of arousal predicting the highest RF levels.

CONCLUSION

Moderate EA may facilitate optimal parental reflective functioning. With nonaccepting parents, who typically present for treatment with high levels of maladaptive fear and shame, therapists would do well to assess their level of arousal and, when indicated, employ downregulating interventions before inviting them to reflect on their young adult's experience and needs.

Negative emotion amplifies retrieval practice effect for both task-relevant and task-irrelevant information

Selective retrieval of task-relevant information often facilitates memory retention of that information. However, it is still unclear if selective retrieval of task-relevant information can alter memory for task-irrelevant information, and the role of emotional arousal in it. In two experiments, we used emotional and neutral faces as stimuli, and participants were asked to memorise the name (who is this person?) and location (where does he/she come from?) associated with each face in initial study. Then, half of the studied faces were presented as cues, and participants were asked to retrieve the corresponding names (Experiment 1) or locations (Experiment 2). Finally, all the faces were presented and participants were asked to retrieve both the corresponding names and locations. The results of the final test showed that retrieval practice not only enhanced memory of task-relevant information but also enhanced memory of task-irrelevant information. More importantly, negative emotion amplified the retrieval practice effect overall, with a larger retrieval-induced benefit for the negative than neutral condition. These findings demonstrated an emotional arousal amplification effect on retrieval-induced enhancement effects, suggesting that the advantage of the retrieved memory representations can be amplified by emotional arousal even without explicit goals in a task setting.

Trust or Distrust: The Effect of Facial Emotion and Trustworthy Behavior on Trust Decision-Making

Based on the model of emotion as social information, this study explores the effects of facial emotions and trustworthy behavior on trust decision-making in trust game through two experiments. The present study used trust game explores the impact of players' facial emotion, arousal and trustworthy behavior on individual trust decision-making through two experiments. The results can be summed up as follows: (1) in the repeated interaction with four players, individuals invest more in trustworthy players than untrustworthy players; (2) individuals invested more in trustworthy players with happy facial emotions, while untrustworthy players with angry facial emotions received less investment. High-arousal facial emotion results in a more extreme investment by the individual; (3) when the players' facial emotion and behavior are inconsistent, the individual will judge according to the player's current behavior, rather than the facial emotion or past behavior.

Emotional arousal and valence in patients with fibromyalgia: a pilot study

The pathogenesis of pain in fibromyalgia is still not completely understood. A disrupted emotional modulation could affect the physiology of nociception and contributes to an altered perception of pain. The aim of this study was to test the role of emotional arousal and valence in pain susceptibility in fibromyalgia using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) paradigm and the Fibromyalgia Severity Scale (FSS). The study focused on comparing emotional arousal and valence between patients with fibromyalgia and the control group. The secondary objective was to examine the correlation between emotional indices and scores on the FSS and the duration of the disease. The 20 patients with fibromyalgia enrolled showed a higher mean arousal score for all the stimuli, including a higher score for unpleasant and socially unpleasant stimuli. The valence scores for social-relevant stimuli were also higher. Increased arousal to unpleasant and socially unpleasant images and increased valence of them correlated with the duration of the disease and the severity of symptoms and could reflect impairment in social cognition and marked sensitivity to pain in interaction with central nociceptive dysregulation.

Effects of emotional arousal on the neural impact and behavioral efficacy of cigarette graphic warning labels

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Graphic warning labels (GWLs) on cigarette packs have been adopted by many jurisdictions world-wide. In the United States, the introduction of GWLs has been delayed by claims that their high level of negative emotional arousal unnecessarily infringed upon the tobacco manufacturers' free speech. This study aimed to provide experimental data on the contribution of emotional arousal to GWL efficacy.

DESIGN

Observational study using long-term naturalistic exposure and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

SETTING

Research university in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 168 adult smokers.

MEASUREMENTS

For 4 weeks, participants received cigarettes in packs that carried either high-arousal or low-arousal GWLs (n = 84 versus 84). Smoking behavior, quitting-related cognitions and GWL-induced brain response were measured before and after the 4-week exposure. The amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex served as regions of interest.

FINDINGS

Compared with the high-arousal group, the low-arousal group smoked fewer cigarettes [log10 -transformed, 1.076 versus 1.019; difference = 0.056, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.027, 0.085, χ2 (1)  = 14.21, P < 0.001] and showed stronger intention to quit (2.527 versus 2.810; difference = -0.283, 95% CI = -0.468, -0.098, χ2 (1)  = 8.921, P = 0.007) and endorsement of the GWLs' textual component (4.805 versus 5.503; difference = -0.698, 95% CI = -1.016, -0.380, χ2 (1)  = 18.47, P < 0.001). High-arousal GWLs induced greater amygdala response than low-arousal GWLs (0.157 versus 0.052; difference = 0.105, 95% CI = 0.049, 0.161, χ2 (1)  = 23.52, P < 0.001), although the response to high-arousal GWLs declined over time (slope = -0.087 versus 0.016; difference = -0.103, 95% CI = -0.198, -0.009, χ2 (1)  = 6.370, P = 0.046). Greater baseline amygdala response was associated with more smoking at 4 weeks in the high-arousal group, but less smoking in the low-arousal group (slope = 0.179 versus -0.122; difference = 0.287, 95% CI = 0.076, 0.498, χ2 (1)  = 7.086, P = 0.008). Medial prefrontal response did not differ significantly between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

High-arousal cigarette graphic warning labels (GWLs) appear to be less efficacious than low-arousal GWLs. The high emotional reaction that high-arousal GWLs elicit wanes over time. Baseline amygdala response negatively predicts efficacy of high-arousal GWLs and positively predicts efficacy of low-arousal GWLs. High emotional arousal may not be required for sustained GWL efficacy.

User Experience Evaluation in Shared Interactive Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) has served the entertainment industry all the way to world-leading museums in delivering engaging experiences through multisensory virtual environments (VEs). Today, the rise of the Metaverse fuels a growing interest in leveraging this technology, bringing along an emerging need to better understand the way different dimensions of VEs, namely social and interactive, impact overall user experience (UX). This between-subject exploratory field study investigates differences in the perceived and lived experience of 28 participants engaging, either individually or in dyads, in a VR experience comprising different levels of interactivity, i.e., passive or active. A mixed methods approach combining conventional UX measures, i.e., psychometric surveys and user interviews, as well as psychophysiological measures, i.e., wearable bio- and motion sensors, allowed for a comprehensive assessment of users' immersive and affective experiences. Results pertaining to the social dimension of the experience reveal that shared VR elicits significantly more positive affect, whereas presence, immersion, flow, and state anxiety are unaffected by the copresence of a real-world partner. Results pertaining to the interactive dimension of the experience suggest that the interactivity afforded by the VE moderates the effect of copresence on users' adaptive immersion and arousal. These results support that VR can be shared with a real-world partner not only without hindering the immersive experience, but also by enhancing positive affect. Hence, in addition to offering methodological directions for future VR field research, this study provides interesting practical insights into guiding VR developers toward optimal multiuser virtual environments.

"Feeling Invisible": Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder Underestimate the Transparency of Their Emotions

The present study investigated transparency estimation, that is, the ability to estimate how observable one's emotions are, in patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) (n = 35) and healthy controls (HCs; n = 35). Participants watched emotionally evocative video clips and estimated the transparency of their own emotional experience while watching the clip. Facial expression coding software (FaceReader) quantified their objective transparency. BPD patients felt significantly less transparent than HCs, but there were no differences in objective transparency. BPD patients tended to underestimate the transparency of their emotions compared to HCs, who in turn overestimated their transparency. This suggests that BPD patients expect that others will not know how they feel, irrespective of how observable their emotions actually are. We link these findings to low emotional awareness and a history of emotional invalidation in BPD, and we discuss their impact on BPD patients' social functioning.

The role of emotion and reflection in the development of student teachers' self-efficacy when analyzing video lessons

Introduction

Teachers' self-efficacy is an important indicator of student teachers' preparedness for teaching. Interventions using video lessons are effective in increasing student teachers' self-efficacy. However, there is a lack of research on emotional and reflective processes in the context of video-based interventions.

Methods

The present study examined emotions and reflection as well as their effects on changes in self-efficacy in a video-based intervention. A total of 159 student teachers participated in the study. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups: Two groups analyzed video lessons in which group roup one received open-ended observation tasks (ig1) and group two received structured observation tasks (ig2). Participants in the control group (cg) analyzed text-based case studies with open-ended observation tasks.

Results

The results show that self-efficacy increased with medium effect size (d = 0.68) in video group two (ig2), whose members analyzed videos using structured observation tasks but not in video group one (ig1), whose members analyzed open-ended observation tasks, and in the control group. In addition, there were significant relations between positive arousal and reflection. Finally, regression analyses showed that reflection was a significant predictor for changes in self-efficacy, whereas no significant effect of emotional arousal was detected.

Discussion

In conclusion, the findings of this study indicate that video-based interventions with structured observation tasks increased self-efficacy among student teachers. Furthermore, the findings provide novel evidence on the association between reflection, self-efficacy and emotion in video-based interventions in teacher education.

Altered interaction of physiological activity and behavior affects risky decision-making in ADHD

Background

Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often associated with risky decision-making behavior. However, current research studies are often limited by the ability to adequately reflect daily behavior in a laboratory setting. Over the lifespan impairments in cognitive functions appear to improve, whereas affective functions become more severe. We assume that risk behavior in ADHD arises predominantly from deficits in affective processes. This study will therefore aim to investigate whether a dysfunction in affective pathways causes an abnormal risky decision-making (DM) behavior in adult ADHD.

Methods

Twenty-eight participants with ADHD and twenty-eight healthy controls completed a battery of questionnaires regarding clinical symptoms, self-assessment of behavior and emotional competence. Furthermore, skin conductance responses were measured during the performance in a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. A linear mixed-effects model analysis was used to analyze emotional arousal prior to a decision and after feedback display.

Results

Results showed higher emotional arousal in ADHD participants before decision-making (β = -0.12, SE = 0.05, t = -2.63, p < 0.001) and after feedback display (β = -0.14, SE = 0.05, t = -2.66, p = 0.008). Although risky behavior was greater in HC than in ADHD, we found a significant interaction effect of group and anticipatory skin conductance responses regarding the response behavior (β = 107.17, SE = 41.91, t = 2.56, p = 0.011). Post hoc analyses revealed a positive correlation between anticipatory skin conductance responses and reaction time in HC, whereas this correlation was negative in ADHD. Self-assessment results were in line with the objective measurements.

Conclusion

We found altered changes in physiological activity during a risky decision-making task. The results confirm the assumption of an aberrant relationship between bodily response and risky behavior in adult ADHD. However, further research is needed with respect to age and gender when considering physiological activities.

Pupil Dilation Reflects Emotional Arousal Via Poetic Language

We investigated pupillary responses to the world's shortest fixed verses, Japanese haiku as aesthetic poetry (AP) and senryu as comic poetry (CP), in comparison with non-poetry control stimuli (NP) comprised of slogans that had the same rhythm patterns. Native Japanese speakers without literary training listened to these stimuli while we recorded their pupil diameters. We found that participants' pupils were significantly dilated for CP compared to NP in an early time window. While AP also evoked larger dilations than NP, the latency for AP-related pupil dilation was relatively long. Thus, lay people experience quick and intense arousal in response to funny and humorous words, while aesthetic properties of words may also elicit intense but slower changes in listeners' arousal levels, presumably because they evoke more implicit and subtle emotional effects. This study is the first to provide evidence that poetic language elicits human pupillary dilation. A better understanding of the cognitive and neural substrates for the sensitive awareness of pleasures expressed via poetic language will provide insights for improving mental and physical health. Hence, pupillometry can act as a useful convenient measurement to delineate the sympathetic activation of emotional contexts via language.

Exploring the health information seeking behavior of social media users under the background of COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical study based on social cognitive theory

With the outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019, people's awareness of actively searching for health information has been growing. Coupled with the promotion of "Internet + medical and health," social media, as an important platform for health information dissemination, has become one of the important information sources for users to obtain health information. However, health information seeking behavior in public health emergencies are quite different from those in daily life. Therefore, the research question of this paper is to explore the influencing factors of health information seeking behavior of social media users in the context of COVID-19. To this end, based on the research framework of social cognition theory, this paper selects six variables to construct a structural equation modeling, including information and platform quality, experience, social support, emotional arousal, self-efficacy, and social media users' health information seeking behavior. The empirical study is carried out by collecting 219 valid questionnaires. The research results show that: (1) Information and platform quality, and use experience have a significant positive effect on emotional arousal; (2) Experience, social support, and emotional arousal have a significant positive effect on self-efficacy; (3) Emotional arousal and self-efficacy have a significant positive effect on social media users' health information seeking behavior. The research provides an important theoretical reference for social media users and operators to cope with the huge demand for health information in the post-COVID-19 era.

A Comparative Study on the Temporal Effects of 2D and VR Emotional Arousal

Previous research comparing traditional two-dimensional (2D) and virtual reality with stereoscopic vision (VR-3D) stimulations revealed that VR-3D resulted in higher levels of immersion. However, the effects of these two visual modes on emotional stimulus processing have not been thoroughly investigated, and the underlying neural processing mechanisms remain unclear. Thus, this paper introduced a cognitive psychological experiment that was conducted to investigate how these two visual modes influence emotional processing. To reduce fatigue, participants (n = 16) were randomly assigned to watch a series of 2D and VR-3D short emotional videos for two days. During their participation, electroencephalograms (EEG) were recorded simultaneously. The results showed that even in the absence of sound, visual stimuli in the VR environment significantly increased emotional arousal, especially in the frontal region, parietal region, temporal region, and occipital region. On this basis, visual evoked potential (VEP) analysis was performed. VR stimulation compared to 2D led to a larger P1 component amplitude, while VEP analysis based on the time course of the late event-related potential component revealed that, after 1200 ms, the differences across visual modes became stable and significant. Furthermore, the results also confirmed that VEP in the early stages is more sensitive to emotions and presumably there are corresponding emotion regulation mechanisms in the late stages.

Effects of severe anthropogenic disturbance on the heart rate and body temperature in free-living greylag geese (Anser anser)

Anthropogenic disturbances are a major concern for the welfare and conservation of wildlife. We recorded heart rate and body temperature of 20 free-living greylag geese in response to a major regularly re-occurring anthropogenic disturbance-New Year's Eve fireworks. Heart rate and body temperature were significantly higher in the first and second hour of the new year, compared with the same hour on the 31st of December, the average during December and the average during January. Heart rate and body temperature was not significantly affected by sex or age. From 0200 to 0300 onwards, 1st of January heart rates did not significantly differ from the other periods; however, body temperatures were significantly increased until 0300-0400. From 0400 to 0500, heart rate was not affected by any of the investigated factors, whereas body temperature was significantly increased on the 1st of January compared with the 31st of December and the December average but not compared with the January average. To conclude, our results show that New Year's Eve fireworks cause a substantial physiological response, indicative of a stress response in greylag geese, which is costly in terms of energy expenditure.

The Impact of Positive Emotional Appeals on the Green Purchase Behavior

The practice of green consumption has become a common initiative of the international community. Existing studies have shown that emotional factors have an important impact on consumer behavior, but few scholars in the field of green consumption behavior have explored the relationship between positive emotions and green purchase behavior in specific dimensions. This study creatively put forward two dimensions and four kinds of positive emotional appeals which include the cherishing appeal, the yearning appeal, the proud appeal, and the admiring appeal. Through the conceptual model analysis based on the data, the effects of different four positive emotional appeals on consumers’ perceived green value, perceived green responsibility, and green purchase behaviors were confirmed. The results indicated that the four kinds of positive emotional appeals, perceived green value, perceived green responsibility, and green purchase behavior were positively correlated. Perceived green responsibility and perceived green value have significant mediating effect on the relationship between positive emotional appeals and green purchase behaviors. Middle doctrine significantly moderates the relationship between positive emotional appeals (Cherishing VS. Yearning) and perceived green value.

Basolateral amygdala activation enhances object recognition memory by inhibiting anterior insular cortex activity

Noradrenergic activation of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) by emotional arousal enhances different forms of recognition memory via functional interactions with the insular cortex (IC). Human neuroimaging studies have revealed that the anterior IC (aIC), as part of the salience network, is dynamically regulated during arousing situations. Emotional stimulation first rapidly increases aIC activity but suppresses it in a delayed fashion. Here, we investigated in male Sprague-Dawley rats whether the BLA influence on recognition memory is associated with an increase or suppression of aIC activity during the postlearning consolidation period. We first employed anterograde and retrograde viral tracing and found that the BLA sends dense monosynaptic projections to the aIC. Memory-enhancing norepinephrine administration into the BLA following an object training experience suppressed aIC activity 1 h later, as determined by a reduced expression of the phosphorylated form of the transcription factor cAMP response element-binding (pCREB) protein and neuronal activity marker c-Fos. In contrast, the number of perisomatic γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic inhibitory synapses per pCREB-positive neuron was significantly increased, suggesting a dynamic up-regulation of GABAergic tone. In support of this possibility, pharmacological inhibition of aIC activity with a GABAergic agonist during consolidation enhanced object recognition memory. Norepinephrine administration into the BLA did not affect neuronal activity within the posterior IC, which receives sparse innervation from the BLA. The evidence that noradrenergic activation of the BLA enhances the consolidation of object recognition memory via a mechanism involving a suppression of aIC activity provides insight into the broader brain network dynamics underlying emotional regulation of memory.

Exploring the Emotional Experience During Instant Messaging Among Young Adults: An Experimental Study Incorporating Physiological Correlates of Arousal

Instant messaging (IM) is a highly diffused form of communication among younger populations, yet little is known about the emotional experience during IM. The present study aimed to investigate the emotional experience during IM by drawing on the Circumplex Model of Affect and measuring heart rate and electrodermal activity as indicators of arousal in addition to self-reported perceived emotional valence. Using an experimental design, we manipulated message latency (i.e., response after 1 min versus 7 min) and message valence (positive versus negative response). Based on data collected from 65 young adults (50% male; M_age = 23.28, SD = 3.75), we observed arousal as participants’ electrodermal activity levels increased from the time a fictitious peer started typing a response to the receipt of that response, especially in the delayed condition. Electrodermal activity levels also increased in both the positive and the negative message conditions. No changes were observed for heart rate. Participants’ self-report perceived emotional valence revealed that positive messages were evaluated as more pleasant and the peer as more available, while no difference in the self-report was found for message latency. These findings shed light on the emotional experience during IM by adding valuable insights on the physiological processes underlying the anticipation of social reward, but only during delayed IM exchange that can be observed in Human–Computer-Interaction.

The role of intimate partner violence and relationship satisfaction in couples' interpersonal emotional arousal

To inform interpersonal models of intimate partner violence (IPV), the present study examines patterns of vocally encoded emotional arousal during the conversations of mixed-gender couples who reported on the extent of physical and psychological IPV and degree of relationship satisfaction (N = 149). All couples completed two problem-solving discussions. Emotional arousal was measured continuously during each conversation using vocal fundamental frequency. Contrary to expectations, results demonstrated that trajectories of arousal differed based on gender, IPV, and relationship satisfaction. Within conversations, men demonstrated linear increases in arousal at higher levels of IPV, suggesting that men may either struggle to contain their emotions or use heightened emotional expression as a conflict strategy in relationships with more extensive IPV. Conversely, women exhibited different trajectories of arousal depending on the combinations of relationship satisfaction and couple IPV, except at higher levels of their own satisfaction. Specifically, when women reported being highly satisfied in their relationships, they demonstrated similarly shaped trajectories across all levels of IPV and men's satisfaction. Together, this suggests that women's higher relationship satisfaction may buffer their emotional expression, although this may not always be adaptive within the context of relationships with extensive IPV. Overall, this study offers insight into the dynamic interpersonal processes linked with relationship distress and IPV and implies the need for a more nuanced, interpersonal research agenda for IPV research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessing Consumer Attention and Arousal Using Eye-Tracking Technology in Virtual Retail Environment

This study aims at investigating how consumers experience the retail environment visually, thus establishing a foundation for deeper insights into visual merchandising strategies. Specifically, we experimentally recorded and analyzed the visual attention and emotional arousal of the consumers in a test setting and examined the influence of various elements as well as gender differences in the recorded consumer responses. We conducted an experiment utilizing eye-tracking and virtual reality to analyze visual attention and emotional arousal in response to spatial and design elements in an immersive retail environment. We examined real-time measures of consumer interest and emotional responses during the retail experience. Valid gaze data from 24 male and 22 female participants were used for the analysis of total dwell time (TDT), total fixation count (TFC), and average pupil diameter (APD). The visual attention and emotional arousal of consumers showed different responses to specific areas of interest according to different spatial arrangements in the sales and service areas. This study statistically analyzed gender differences in consumer responses and performed a correlation analysis between visual attention and emotional arousal. Our findings provide insight into improving the design of retail environments for target consumers and contribute to building visual merchandising strategies.

Heart rate as a measure of emotional arousal in evolutionary biology

How individuals interact with their environment and respond to changes is a key area of research in evolutionary biology. A physiological parameter that provides an instant proxy for the activation of the automatic nervous system, and can be measured relatively easily, is modulation of heart rate. Over the past four decades, heart rate has been used to assess emotional arousal in non-human animals in a variety of contexts, including social behaviour, animal cognition, animal welfare and animal personality. In this review, I summarize how measuring heart rate has provided new insights into how social animals cope with challenges in their environment. I assess the advantages and limitations of different technologies used to measure heart rate in this context, including wearable heart rate belts and implantable transmitters, and provide an overview of prospective research avenues using established and new technologies, with a special focus on implications for applied research on animal welfare. This article is part of the theme issue 'Measuring physiology in free-living animals (Part II)'.

Biological Functions of Rat Ultrasonic Vocalizations, Arousal Mechanisms, and Call Initiation

This review summarizes all reported and suspected functions of ultrasonic vocalizations in infant and adult rats. The review leads to the conclusion that all types of ultrasonic vocalizations subserving all functions are vocal expressions of emotional arousal initiated by the activity of the reticular core of the brainstem. The emotional arousal is dichotomic in nature and is initiated by two opposite-in-function ascending reticular systems that are separate from the cognitive reticular activating system. The mesolimbic cholinergic system initiates the aversive state of anxiety with concomitant emission of 22 kHz calls, while the mesolimbic dopaminergic system initiates the appetitive state of hedonia with concomitant emission of 50 kHz vocalizations. These two mutually exclusive arousal systems prepare the animal for two different behavioral outcomes. The transition from broadband infant isolation calls to the well-structured adult types of vocalizations is explained, and the social importance of adult rat vocal communication is emphasized. The association of 22 kHz and 50 kHz vocalizations with aversive and appetitive states, respectively, was utilized in numerous quantitatively measured preclinical models of physiological, psychological, neurological, neuropsychiatric, and neurodevelopmental investigations. The present review should help in understanding and the interpretation of these models in biomedical research.

The Dynamic and Fragile Nature of Eyewitness Memory Formation: Considering Stress and Attention

Eyewitnesses are often susceptible to recollection failures and memory distortions. These failures and distortions are influenced by several factors. The present review will discuss two such important factors, attention failures and stress. We argue that acute stress, often experienced by eyewitnesses and victims of crimes, directly influences attentional processes, which likely has downstream consequences for memory. Attentional failures may result in individuals missing something unusual or important in a complex visual field. Amongst eyewitnesses, this can lead to individuals missing details, even unusual or important central details, regarding the crime. Surprisingly, few studies have investigated attentional failures in eyewitness scenarios, and none have investigated the relationship between stress, attention, and witness memory. This review will discuss the impact of attentional failures, mainly those resulting from inattentional blindness, in applied contexts in order to bridge to eyewitness scenarios. In addition, we will integrate the applied literature on attentional failures with literature that examines the influences of arousal and stress on attention. We will conclude by presenting how future research may tease apart the independent contributions of arousal and stress on attentional failures and successes and how this research may inform understanding of eyewitness reliability.

Horse Preferences for Insolation, Shade or Mist Curtain in the Paddock under Heat Conditions: Cardiac and Behavioural Response Analysis

The horse's welfare and, consequently, the emotional arousal may be connected with stressful environmental conditions. This study aimed to determine whether horses show behavioural or physiological symptoms of thermal discomfort and if their behaviour and cardiac parameters are related to freely chosen insolated (IS), shaded (SH), or water sprayed (with a mist curtain (MC)) areas in a paddock under heat conditions (29-32 °C, 42.0 ± 1.5% humidity). Twelve adult horses freely moving in the paddock were studied during a 45 min solitary turnout. Six cardiac variables, locomotor, and non-locomotor activities as well as rectal temperature before and after the test were monitored with regard to the area of staying. Horses did not show clear preferences regarding the time spent in IS, SH, and MC, although preferences of particular horses differed considerably. When staying under IS and MC conditions, the horses showed a higher level of relaxation compared to SH. Horses did not exhibit symptoms of thermal discomfort while staying in the sun. Free choice between the three areas differing in environmental conditions could be a crucial factor in maintaining body temperature as well as emotional arousal at similar levels. Thus, the provision of a shade and mist curtain in paddocks seems to be reasonable.

Quantity and quality of empathic responding by autistic and non-autistic adolescent girls and boys

Empathy evokes support for the person in distress, and thus strengthening social cohesion. The question is to what extent empathic reactions can be observed in autistic adolescents and autistic girls in particular, since there is evidence that they have better social skills than boys, which might hinder their recognition as autistic. We examined 193 adolescents (autistic/non-autistic boys/girls) during an in vivo task in which the experimenter hurt herself. In line with our predictions, no group or gender differences appeared related to their attention for the event; yet autistic girls and boys showed less visible emotional arousal, indicative of less affective empathy. Autistic girls and boys reacted by comforting the experimenter equally often as their non-autistic peers, but autistic boys seemed to address the problem more often than any other group; while girls (autistic and non-autistic) more often addressed the emotion of the person in need. Our findings highlight that empathic behaviour – to some extent – seems similar between autistic and non-autistic boys and girls. However, differences exist, in terms of expressed emotional arousal and gender-specific comforting styles. Autistic girls’ higher levels of emotion-focused comforting could be explained by well-developed social skills, camouflaging, or emotional investment in relationships with others.

Atypical Emotional Electrodermal Activity in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Past studies in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) indicate atypical peripheral physiological arousal. However, the conditions under which these atypicalities arise and their link with behavioral emotional expressions and core ASD symptoms remain uncertain. Given the importance of physiological arousal in affective, learning, and cognitive processes, the current study examined changes in skin conductance level (ΔSCL) in 41 toddlers with ASD (mean age: 22.7 months, SD: 2.9) and 32 age-matched toddlers with typical development (TD) (mean age: 21.6 months, SD: 3.6) in response to probes designed to induce anger, joy, and fear emotions. The magnitude of ΔSCL was comparable during anger (P = 0.206, d = 0.30) and joy (P = 0.996, d = 0.01) conditions, but significantly lower during the fear condition (P = 0.001, d = 0.83) in toddlers with ASD compared to TD peers. In the combined samples, ΔSCL positively correlated with intensity of behavioral emotional expressivity during the anger (r[71] = 0.36, P = 0.002) and fear (r[68] = 0.32, P = 0.007) conditions, but not in the joy (r[69] = -0.15, P = 0.226) condition. Finally, ΔSCL did not associate with autism symptom severity in any emotion-eliciting condition in the ASD group. Toddlers with ASD displayed attenuated ΔSCL to situations aimed at eliciting fear, which may forecast the emergence of highly prevalent internalizing and externalizing problems in this population. The study putatively identifies ΔSCL as a dimension not associated with severity of autism but with behavioral responses in negatively emotionally challenging events and provides support for the feasibility, validity, and incipient utility of examining ΔSCL in response to emotional challenges in very young children. LAY SUMMARY: Physiological arousal was measured in toddlers with autism exposed to frustrating, pleasant, and threatening tasks. Compared to typically developing peers, toddlers with autism showed comparable arousal responses to frustrating and pleasant events, but lower responses to threatening events. Importantly, physiological arousal and behavioral expressions were aligned during frustrating and threatening events, inviting exploration of physiological arousal to measure responses to emotional challenges. Furthermore, this study advances the understanding of precursors to emotional and behavioral problems common in older children with autism. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1476-1488. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Pupillary and Microsaccadic Responses to Cognitive Effort and Emotional Arousal During Complex Decision Making

A large body of literature documents the sensitivity of pupil response to cognitive load (1)and emotional arousal (2). Recent empirical evidence also showed that microsaccade characteristics and dynamics can be modulated by mental fatigue and cognitive load (3). Very little is known about the sensitivity of microsaccadic characteristics to emotional arousal. The present paper demonstrates in a controlled experiment pupillary and microsaccadic responses to information processing during multi-attribute decision making under affective priming. Twenty-one psychology students were randomly assigned into three affective priming conditions (neutral, aversive, and erotic). Participants were tasked to make several discriminative decisions based on acquired cues. In line with the expectations, results showed microsaccadic rate inhibition and pupillary dilation depending on cognitive effort (number of acquired cues) prior to decision. These effects were moderated by affective priming. Aversivepriming strengthened pupillary and microsaccadic response to information processing effort.In general, results suggest that pupillary response is more biased by affective priming than microsaccadic rate. The results are discussed in the light of neuropsychological mechanisms of pupillary and microsaccadic behavior generation.

An experiment to assess emotional and physiological arousal and personality correlates while imagining deceit

In order to examine how personality traits, emotional arousal and physiological arousal affect deception confidence, students (N = 102) completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R) as well as stress and deception tasks while their heart rate variability was measured. Findings indicated psychoticism did not moderate how physiologically aroused participants were while viewing emotionally salient stimuli (video of a road traffic accident) or the thought of enacting deceit, although this came close to significance. However, participants (particularly males) higher in psychoticism reported less subjective distress after imagining enacting deceit than those lower on psychoticism. Extroversion had no impact on physiological arousal when viewing emotionally salient stimuli or thinking about enacting deceit. However, extroverts reported more subjective distress after thinking about enacting deceit than introverts. Also, deception confidence was not correlated to any of these variables. Future research could examine a sample higher in psychoticism and how this trait impacts deception confidence.

The Interaction of REM Fragmentation and Night-Time Arousal Modulates Sleep-Dependent Emotional Memory Consolidation

The sleep-to-forget, sleep-to-remember (SFSR) hypothesis states that the neurobiological environment provided by rapid-eye movement (REM)-rich sleep decouples the content of an emotional memory from its attendant emotional arousal. This decoupling allows divergent attenuation and enhancement effects (i.e., erosion of the memory’s emotional tone and simultaneous strengthening of its content). However, support for this proposal is mixed. An alternative account suggests there might be convergent attenuation and enhancement (i.e., elevated emotional arousal is positively coupled with enhanced emotional memory). We tested predictions emerging from the SFSR hypothesis using (a) individuals diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; n = 21), (b) trauma-exposed non-PTSD individuals (n = 19), and (c) healthy controls (n = 20). We included PTSD-diagnosed individuals because they typically experience altered REM sleep, impaired emotional memory, and heightened emotional arousal in response to threatening stimuli. Participants were assessed before and after both an 8-h period of polysomnographically monitored sleep and an 8-h period of waking activity. The assessment included exposure to negatively valenced, positively valenced, and neutral pictures before the 8-h delay, and a recognition task afterward. We measured emotional arousal by recording psychophysiological responses to the pictures, both pre- and post-delay. Results indicated no significant between-group differences in emotional memory accuracy or arousal. However, after a sleep-filled delay, pictures of all categories were recognized with equal accuracy, whereas after a wake-filled delay, negative pictures were recognized preferentially. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated that a sleep-filled delay was associated with attenuated emotional arousal to pictures of all categories, whereas a wake-filled delay was associated with a rise in emotional arousal across the day. Intriguingly, poorer recognition accuracy for valenced (but not neutral) pictures was predicted by an interaction of increased REM fragmentation and increased emotional arousal. In summary, we found some support for the SFSR hypothesis in the way it describes the REM- and arousal-based mechanisms that process emotional material. We also, however, found disconfirming evidence regarding the outcome of that process (i.e., sleep did not favor consolidation of emotional over neutral memory), and we demonstrated a convergence between attenuation of emotional arousal and weakening of emotional content relative to neutral content.

An Investigation on Bilateral Asymmetry in Electrodermal Activity

The Multiple Arousal Theory (Picard et al., 2016) was proposed to explain retrospective observations of bilateral differences in electrodermal activities occurring in threat-related high-stake situations. The theory proposes different cortical and subcortical structures to be involved in the processing of various facets of emotional states. Systematic investigations of this effect are still scarce. This study tested the prediction of bilateral electrodermal effects in a controlled laboratory environment where electrodermal activity (EDA) was recorded bilaterally during normal activity and two stress-tasks in 25 healthy volunteers. A visual search stress task with a performance-related staircase algorithm was used, ensuring intersubjectively comparable stress levels across individuals. After completion of the task, a sense of ownership of an attractive price was created and loss aversion introduced to create a high-stake situation. Confirmation of the theory should satisfy the hypothesis of a bilateral difference in EDA between the dominant and non-dominant hand, which is larger during high-stake stressors than during low-stake stressors. The bilateral difference was quantified and compared statistically between the two stress-tasks, revealing no significant difference between them nor any significant difference between the stress tasks and the period of normal activity. Subgroup analysis of only the participants with maximum self-rating of their desire to win the price (n = 7) revealed neither any significant difference between the two tasks nor between the stress-tasks and the period of normal activity. Although the theory was not confirmed by this study, eight cases suggestive of bilateral difference within the recordings were identified and are presented. Because the study is limited in using one of several possible operationalizations of the phenomenon, it is not possible to draw a general conclusion on the theory. Nevertheless, the study might contribute to a better understanding and encourage systematic review and hypothesis development regarding this new theory. Possible explanations and suggestions for future pathways to systematically investigate the Multiple Arousal Theory are discussed.

The Effect of Sex on the Electropsychological Process of Emotional Arousal Intensity

Background

Sex is a psychobiological factor that is important in the process of emotion. This study determines the effect of sex on the electropsychological process of various intensities of emotional arousal.

Methods

In the Event-related Potential (ERP) session, electroencephalographic (EEG) data was recorded for 90 participants, 60% of whom were females. The participants responded to 30 universal emotional pictures, randomly chosen from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), which were classified as invoking high, moderate, and low intensity of emotional arousal.

Results

From the analysis of variance of two-way mixed design, the interaction between sex and emotional intensity was observed in the occipital regions (O2), indexed by the amplitude of P300 and N200 components. Males exhibited higher amplitude of P300 and N200 components (in the occipital region) as responded to high and low emotional arousal stimuli than females.

Conclusion

Sex is a fundamental factor that modulates psychological states in reaction to emotional stimuli.

Quantifying Intermodal Distraction by Emotion During Math Performance: An Electrophysiological Approach

Emotionally engaging stimuli are powerful competitors for limited attention capacity. In the cognitive neuroscience laboratory, the presence of task-irrelevant emotionally arousing visual distractors prompts decreased performance and attenuated brain responses measured in concurrent visual tasks. The extent to which distraction effects occur across different sensory modalities is not yet established, however. Here, we examined the extent and time course of competition between a naturalistic distractor sound and a visual task stimulus, using dense-array electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from 20 college students. Steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) were quantified from EEG, elicited by periodically flickering vignettes displaying basic arithmetic problems - the participants' primary task. Concurrently, low-arousing and high-arousing sounds were presented, as well as auditory pink noise, used as a control. Capitalizing on the temporal dynamics of the ssVEP signal allowed us to study intermodal interference of the sounds with the processing of the visual math problems. We observed that high-arousing sounds were associated with diminished visuocortical responses and poor performance, compared to low-arousing sounds and pink noise, suggesting that emotional distraction acts across modalities. We discuss the role of sensory cortices in emotional distraction along with implications for translational research in educational neuroscience.

The semantics of emotion in false memory

The emotional valence of target information has been a centerpiece of recent false memory research, but in most experiments, it has been confounded with emotional arousal. We sought to clarify the results of such research by identifying a shared mathematical relation between valence and arousal ratings in commonly administered normed materials. That relation was then used to (a) decide whether arousal as well as valence influences false memory when they are confounded and to (b) determine whether semantic properties that are known to affect false memory covary with valence and arousal ratings. In Study 1, we identified a quadratic relation between valence and arousal ratings of words and pictures that has 2 key properties: Arousal increases more rapidly as function of negative valence than positive valence, and hence, a given level of negative valence is more arousing than the same level of positive valence. This quadratic function predicts that if arousal as well as valence affects false memory when they are confounded, false memory data must have certain fine-grained properties. In Study 2, those properties were absent from norming data for the Cornell-Cortland Emotional Word Lists, indicating that valence but not arousal affects false memory in those norms. In Study 3, we tested fuzzy-trace theory's explanation of that pattern: that valence ratings are positively related to semantic properties that are known to increase false memory, but arousal ratings are not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Intracerebral injection of R-(-)-Apomorphine into the nucleus accumbens decreased carbachol-induced 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations in rats

Rats can produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in a variety of different contexts that signal their emotional state to conspecifics. Under distress, rats can emit 22-kHz USVs, while during positive pro-social interactions rats can emit frequency-modulated (FM) 50-kHz USVs. It has been previously reported that rats with increasing emission of FM 50-kHz USVs in anticipation of rewarding electrical stimulation or positive pro-social interaction decrease the number of emitted 22-kHz USVs. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine, in a pharmacological-behavioural experiment, if the positive emotional arousal of the rat indexed by the number of emitted FM 50-kHz USVs can decrease the magnitude of a subsequent negative emotional state indexed by the emission of 22-kHz USVs. To induce a positive emotional state, an intracerebral injection of a known D₁/D₂ agonist R-(-)-apomorphine (3.0 μg/0.3 μl) into the medial nucleus accumbens shell was used, while a negative emotional state was induced by intracerebral injection of carbachol (1.0 μg/0.3 μl), a known broad-spectrum muscarinic agonist, into the anterior hypothalamic-medial preoptic area. Our results demonstrated that initiation of a positive emotional state was able to significantly decrease the magnitude of subsequently expressed negative emotional state measured by the number of emitted 22-kHz USVs. The results suggest the neurobiological substrates that initiate positive emotional state indirectly antagonize the brain regions that initiate negative emotional states.

Social Attention and Emotional Responsiveness in Young Adults With Autism

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are generally characterized by marked impairments in processing of social emotional information, but less is known about emotion processing in adults with the disorder. This study aimed to address this by collecting data on social attention (eye tracking), emotional arousal (skin conductance level, SCL), and emotional awareness (self-report) in a paradigm with social emotional video clips. Fifty-two young, intelligent adults with ASD (IQ_range = 88-130, Age_range = 18-24) and 31 typically developing (TD) ASD (IQ_range = 94-139, Age_range = 19-28) gender matched controls participated and reported on severity of autism symptoms [Social Responsiveness Scale for Adults (SRS-A)]. Results showed no group difference in social attention, while autism symptom severity was related to decreased attention to faces across participants (r = -.32). Average SCL was lower in the ASD group, but no group difference in arousal reactivity (change from baseline to emotional phases) was detected. Lower SCL during video clips was related to autism symptom severity across participants (r = -.29). ASD individuals reported lower emotional awareness. We conclude that, even though no deviations in social attention or emotional reactivity were found in ASD, an overall lower level of social attention and arousal may help explain difficulties in social functioning in ASD.

Astrocyte glycogen and lactate: New insights into learning and memory mechanisms

Memory, the ability to retain learned information, is necessary for survival. Thus far, molecular and cellular investigations of memory formation and storage have mainly focused on neuronal mechanisms. In addition to neurons, however, the brain comprises other types of cells and systems, including glia and vasculature. Accordingly, recent experimental work has begun to ask questions about the roles of non-neuronal cells in memory formation. These studies provide evidence that all types of glial cells (astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and microglia) make important contributions to the processing of encoded information and storing memories. In this review, we summarize and discuss recent findings on the critical role of astrocytes as providers of energy for the long-lasting neuronal changes that are necessary for long-term memory formation. We focus on three main findings: first, the role of glucose metabolism and the learning- and activity-dependent metabolic coupling between astrocytes and neurons in the service of long-term memory formation; second, the role of astrocytic glucose metabolism in arousal, a state that contributes to the formation of very long-lasting and detailed memories; and finally, in light of the high energy demands of the brain during early development, we will discuss the possible role of astrocytic and neuronal glucose metabolisms in the formation of early-life memories. We conclude by proposing future directions and discussing the implications of these findings for brain health and disease. Astrocyte glycogenolysis and lactate play a critical role in memory formation. Emotionally salient experiences form strong memories by recruiting astrocytic β2 adrenergic receptors and astrocyte-generated lactate. Glycogenolysis and astrocyte-neuron metabolic coupling may also play critical roles in memory formation during development, when the energy requirements of brain metabolism are at their peak.

Propranolol reduces reference-dependence in intertemporal choice

In intertemporal choices between immediate and delayed rewards, people tend to prefer immediate rewards, often even when the delayed reward is larger. This is known as temporal discounting. It has been proposed that this tendency emerges because immediate rewards are more emotionally arousing than delayed rewards. However, in our previous research, we found no evidence for this but instead found that arousal responses (indexed with pupil dilation) in intertemporal choice are context-dependent. Specifically, arousal tracks the subjective value of the more variable reward option in the paradigm, whether it is immediate or delayed. Nevertheless, people tend to choose the less variable option in the choice task. In other words, their choices are reference-dependent and depend on variance in their recent history of offers. This suggests that there may be a causal relationship between reference-dependent choice and arousal, which we investigate here by reducing arousal pharmacologically using propranolol. Here, we show that propranolol reduces reference-dependence, leading to choices that are less influenced by recent history and more internally consistent.

Humans recognize emotional arousal in vocalizations across all classes of terrestrial vertebrates: evidence for acoustic universals

Writing over a century ago, Darwin hypothesized that vocal expression of emotion dates back to our earliest terrestrial ancestors. If this hypothesis is true, we should expect to find cross-species acoustic universals in emotional vocalizations. Studies suggest that acoustic attributes of aroused vocalizations are shared across many mammalian species, and that humans can use these attributes to infer emotional content. But do these acoustic attributes extend to non-mammalian vertebrates? In this study, we asked human participants to judge the emotional content of vocalizations of nine vertebrate species representing three different biological classes-Amphibia, Reptilia (non-aves and aves) and Mammalia. We found that humans are able to identify higher levels of arousal in vocalizations across all species. This result was consistent across different language groups (English, German and Mandarin native speakers), suggesting that this ability is biologically rooted in humans. Our findings indicate that humans use multiple acoustic parameters to infer relative arousal in vocalizations for each species, but mainly rely on fundamental frequency and spectral centre of gravity to identify higher arousal vocalizations across species. These results suggest that fundamental mechanisms of vocal emotional expression are shared among vertebrates and could represent a homologous signalling system.

Emotional Arousal at Memory Encoding Enhanced P300 in the Concealed Information Test

Previous studies have reported that the concealed information test (CIT) is a reliable and powerful method for detecting information. However, the external validity of the CIT studies has not been fully proven. In particular, few studies have examined the effects of emotional arousal at memory encoding on physiological responses in the CIT. The present study investigated the influence on the CIT of the magnitude of emotional arousal at memory encoding of a mock crime, using the P300 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). In accord with the assumptions of excitation-transfer theory, we presented emotionally arousing pictures before a mock crime. Participants were randomly assigned to either a high emotional arousal group (n = 10) or a low emotional arousal group (n = 11), viewing pictures expected to arouse emotion at a high or low level, respectively. Subsequently, all participants enacted the same mock crime, in which they were instructed to stab a pillow with a sharp-edged tool (e.g., a kitchen knife or ice pick) as if harassing a mannequin lying on a bed. After the antecedent emotional experience, the P300-based CIT was conducted. Participants in the high arousal group showed significantly greater P300 amplitudes in response to a probe stimulus compared with the low arousal group. No differences were found between the groups in response to irrelevant stimuli. These results support the notion that emotional arousal influences the P300 in the CIT paradigm.

Nasal Oxytocin Treatment Biases Dogs' Visual Attention and Emotional Response toward Positive Human Facial Expressions

The neuropeptide oxytocin plays a critical role in social behavior and emotion regulation in mammals. The aim of this study was to explore how nasal oxytocin administration affects gazing behavior during emotional perception in domestic dogs. Looking patterns of dogs, as a measure of voluntary attention, were recorded during the viewing of human facial expression photographs. The pupil diameters of dogs were also measured as a physiological index of emotional arousal. In a placebo-controlled within-subjects experimental design, 43 dogs, after having received either oxytocin or placebo (saline) nasal spray treatment, were presented with pictures of unfamiliar male human faces displaying either a happy or an angry expression. We found that, depending on the facial expression, the dogs' gaze patterns were affected selectively by oxytocin treatment. After receiving oxytocin, dogs fixated less often on the eye regions of angry faces and revisited (glanced back at) more often the eye regions of smiling (happy) faces than after the placebo treatment. Furthermore, following the oxytocin treatment dogs fixated and revisited the eyes of happy faces significantly more often than the eyes of angry faces. The analysis of dogs' pupil diameters during viewing of human facial expressions indicated that oxytocin may also have a modulatory effect on dogs' emotional arousal. While subjects' pupil sizes were significantly larger when viewing angry faces than happy faces in the control (placebo treatment) condition, oxytocin treatment not only eliminated this effect but caused an opposite pupil response. Overall, these findings suggest that nasal oxytocin administration selectively changes the allocation of attention and emotional arousal in domestic dogs. Oxytocin has the potential to decrease vigilance toward threatening social stimuli and increase the salience of positive social stimuli thus making eye gaze of friendly human faces more salient for dogs. Our study provides further support for the role of the oxytocinergic system in the social perception abilities of domestic dogs. We propose that oxytocin modulates fundamental emotional processing in dogs through a mechanism that may facilitate communication between humans and dogs.

Scrutinizing the Emotional Nature of Intuitive Coherence Judgments

Dual‐system models propose that cognitive processing can occur either intuitively or deliberately. Unlike deliberate decision strategies, intuitive ones are assumed to have an emotional component attached to the decision process. We tested if intuitive decisions are indeed accompanied by an emotional response while deliberate decisions are not. Specifically, we conducted a psychophysiological study in which participants were instructed to decide either intuitively or deliberately if three simultaneously presented words were semantically coherent or incoherent (triad task). The degree of emotionality of these two decision strategies (intuitive vs. deliberate) was compared using changes in electrodermal activity (EDA) and the reaction time (RT) effect of an affective priming paradigm as primary measurements. Based on a valence‐arousal model, our results revealed that intuitive and deliberate judgments do not differ as to their emotional valence but that they do differ in emotional arousal. Most notably, sympathetic activation during intuitive judgments was significantly lower compared to sympathetic activation during deliberate judgments. Our results reflect that a relaxed state of mind—manifested in low sympathetic activity—could underlie the holistic processing that is assumed to facilitate the proliferation of semantic associations during coherence judgments. This suggests that coherence judgments made under an (instructed) intuitive decision mode have a specific psychophysiological signature and that arousal is the differentiating component between intuitive and deliberate decision strategies. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Behavioral Decision Making Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Humans identify negative (but not positive) arousal in silver fox vocalizations: implications for the adaptive value of interspecific eavesdropping

The ability to identify emotional arousal in heterospecific vocalizations may facilitate behaviors that increase survival opportunities. Crucially, this ability may orient inter-species interactions, particularly between humans and other species. Research shows that humans identify emotional arousal in vocalizations across multiple species, such as cats, dogs, and piglets. However, no previous study has addressed humans’ ability to identify emotional arousal in silver foxes. Here, we adopted low- and high-arousal calls emitted by three strains of silver fox—Tame, Aggressive, and Unselected—in response to human approach. Tame and Aggressive foxes are genetically selected for friendly and attacking behaviors toward humans, respectively. Unselected foxes show aggressive and fearful behaviors toward humans. These three strains show similar levels of emotional arousal, but different levels of emotional valence in relation to humans. This emotional information is reflected in the acoustic features of the calls. Our data suggest that humans can identify high-arousal calls of Aggressive and Unselected foxes, but not of Tame foxes. Further analyses revealed that, although within each strain different acoustic parameters affect human accuracy in identifying high-arousal calls, spectral center of gravity, harmonic-to-noise ratio, and F0 best predict humans’ ability to discriminate high-arousal calls across all strains. Furthermore, we identified in spectral center of gravity and F0 the best predictors for humans’ absolute ratings of arousal in each call. Implications for research on the adaptive value of inter-specific eavesdropping are discussed.

Cannabinoid Modulation of Memory Consolidation in Rats: Beyond the Role of Cannabinoid Receptor Subtype 1

The effects induced by exogenous manipulation of endocannabinoid neurotransmission on emotion and memory are often contradictory. Among the different factors involved, of particular interest is the binding affinity of endocannabinoids, and their analogs, for other receptor families beyond cannabinoid receptors, such as the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), and the transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV1). The aim of this study was to investigate which receptor subtype mediates cannabinoid effects on memory consolidation for emotionally arousing experiences. We tested two cannabinoid compounds with different pharmacological properties in the inhibitory avoidance task, and evaluated whether the observed effects are mediated by cannabinoid, PPARα or TRPV1 receptor activation. We found that the synthetic cannabinoid agonist WIN55,212-2 and the FAAH inhibitor URB597 both enhanced memory consolidation for inhibitory avoidance training. WIN55,212-22 effects on memory consolidation were predominantly mediated by CB1 receptor activation but CB2 receptors were involved as well. The URB597-induced memory enhancement was dependent on the activation not only of CB1 and CB2 receptors but, notwithstanding, PPAR-α and TRPV1 receptors were involved as well. Our findings drive beyond the classical hypothesis centered on the unique role of CB1 receptor activation for cannabinoid effects on memory, and reveal new insights in the neural mechanisms of memory consolidation.

The Effects of Limiting Instructions about Emotional Evidence Depend on Need for Cognition

Although limiting instructions are provided for specific evidence that may have a negative impact on jurors' decision-making, there may be individual differences in the effectiveness of the instructions. The individual predisposition towards the enjoyment of cognitive activity is called need for cognition (NFC), and individuals high in NFC tend to seek out and engage in cognitive activity spontaneously. The present study examined the influence of NFC and limiting instructions about emotional evidence on mock jurors' legal decision-making. The results showed that mock jurors who were lower in NFC were more likely to render a guilty decision than those higher in NFC, and that the tendency was more salient when the limiting instructions were presented compared with when they were not presented. Similar results were found in regard to sentencing decisions and arousal of anger. A partial mediation effect of anger was found between NFC and verdict decisions. The influence of NFC on the limiting instructions and legal decision-making as well as the effect of anger on the decision is discussed in relation to these results.

Emotional arousal when watching drama increases pain threshold and social bonding

Fiction, whether in the form of storytelling or plays, has a particular attraction for us: we repeatedly return to it and are willing to invest money and time in doing so. Why this is so is an evolutionary enigma that has been surprisingly underexplored. We hypothesize that emotionally arousing drama, in particular, triggers the same neurobiological mechanism (the endorphin system, reflected in increased pain thresholds) that underpins anthropoid primate and human social bonding. We show that, compared to subjects who watch an emotionally neutral film, subjects who watch an emotionally arousing film have increased pain thresholds and an increased sense of group bonding.

Training-Associated Emotional Arousal Shapes Endocannabinoid Modulation of Spatial Memory Retrieval in Rats

Variations in environmental aversiveness influence emotional memory processes in rats. We have previously shown that cannabinoid effects on memory are dependent on the stress level at the time of training as well as on the aversiveness of the environmental context. Here, we investigated whether the hippocampal endocannabinoid system modulates memory retrieval depending on the training-associated arousal level. Male adult Sprague Dawley rats were trained on a water maze spatial task at two different water temperatures (19°C and 25°C) to elicit either higher or lower stress levels, respectively. Rats trained under the higher stress condition had better memory and higher corticosterone concentrations than rats trained at the lower stress condition. The cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN55212-2 (10-30 ng/side), the 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) hydrolysis inhibitor JZL184 (0.1-1 μg/side), and the anandamide (AEA) hydrolysis inhibitor URB597 (10-30 ng/side) were administered bilaterally into the hippocampus 60 min before probe-trial retention testing. WIN55212-2 or JZL184, but not URB597, impaired probe-trial performances only of rats trained at the higher stressful condition. Furthermore, rats trained under higher stress levels displayed an increase in hippocampal 2-AG, but not AEA, levels at the time of retention testing and a decreased affinity of the main 2-AG-degrading enzyme for its substrate. The present findings indicate that the endocannabinoid 2-AG in the hippocampus plays a key role in the selective regulation of spatial memory retrieval of stressful experience, shedding light on the neurobiological mechanisms involved in the impact of stress effects on memory processing.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

Endogenous cannabinoids play a central role in the modulation of memory for emotional events. Here we demonstrate that the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol in the hippocampus, a brain region crucially involved in the regulation of memory processes, selectively modulates spatial memory recall of stressful experiences. Thus, our findings provide evidence that the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol is a key player in mediating the impact of stress on memory retrieval. These findings can pave the way to new potential therapeutic intervention for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, where a previous exposure to traumatic events could alter the response to traumatic memory recall leading to mental illness.

Noradrenergic activation of the basolateral amygdala enhances object recognition memory and induces chromatin remodeling in the insular cortex

It is well established that arousal-induced memory enhancement requires noradrenergic activation of the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) and modulatory influences on information storage processes in its many target regions. While this concept is well accepted, the molecular basis of such BLA effects on neural plasticity changes within other brain regions remains to be elucidated. The present study investigated whether noradrenergic activation of the BLA after object recognition training induces chromatin remodeling through histone post-translational modifications in the insular cortex (IC), a brain region that is importantly involved in object recognition memory. Male Sprague—Dawley rats were trained on an object recognition task, followed immediately by bilateral microinfusions of norepinephrine (1.0 μg) or saline administered into the BLA. Saline-treated control rats exhibited poor 24-h retention, whereas norepinephrine treatment induced robust 24-h object recognition memory. Most importantly, this memory-enhancing dose of norepinephrine induced a global reduction in the acetylation levels of histone H3 at lysine 14, H2B and H4 in the IC 1 h later, whereas it had no effect on the phosphorylation of histone H3 at serine 10 or tri-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 27. Norepinephrine administered into the BLA of non-trained control rats did not induce any changes in the histone marks investigated in this study. These findings indicate that noradrenergic activation of the BLA induces training-specific effects on chromatin remodeling mechanisms, and presumably gene transcription, in its target regions, which may contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of stress and emotional arousal effects on memory consolidation.

Pharmacology of Ultrasonic Vocalizations in adult Rats: Significance, Call Classification and Neural Substrate

Pharmacological studies of emotional arousal and initiation of emotional states in rats measured by their ultrasonic vocalizations are reviewed. It is postulated that emission of vocalizations is an inseparable feature of emotional states and it evolved from mother-infant interaction. Positive emotional states are associated with emission of 50 kHz vocalizations that could be induced by rewarding situations and dopaminergic activation of the nucleus accumbens and are mediated by D1, D2, and partially D3 dopamine receptors. Three biologically significant subtypes of 50 kHz vocalizations have been identified, all expressing positive emotional states: (1) flat calls without frequency modulation that serve as contact calls during social interactions; (2) frequencymodulated calls without trills that signal rewarding and significantly motivated situation; and (3) frequency-modulated calls with trills or trills themselves that are emitted in highly emotional situations associated with intensive affective state. Negative emotional states are associated with emission of 22 kHz vocalizations that could be induced by aversive situations, muscarinic cholinergic activation of limbic areas of medial diencephalon and forebrain, and are mediated by M2 muscarinic receptors. Two biologically significant subtypes of 22 kHz vocalizations have been identified, both expressing negative emotional sates: (1) long calls that serve as alarm calls and signal external danger; and (2) short calls that express a state of discomfort without external danger. The positive and negative states with emission of vocalizations are initiated by two ascending reticular activating subsystems: the mesolimbic dopaminergic subsystem as a specific positive arousal system, and the mesolimbic cholinergic subsystem as a specific negative arousal system.

Endogenous cannabinoid release within prefrontal-limbic pathways affects memory consolidation of emotional training

Previous studies have provided extensive evidence that administration of cannabinoid drugs after training modulates the consolidation of memory for an aversive experience. The present experiments investigated whether the memory consolidation is regulated by endogenously released cannabinoids. The experiments first examined whether the endocannabinoids anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) are released by aversive training. Inhibitory avoidance training with higher footshock intensity produced increased levels of AEA in the amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) shortly after training in comparison with levels assessed in rats trained with lower footshock intensity or unshocked controls exposed only to the training apparatus. In contrast, 2-AG levels were not significantly elevated. The additional finding that posttraining infusions of the fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor URB597, which selectively increases AEA levels at active synapses, administered into the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA), hippocampus, or mPFC enhanced memory strongly suggests that the endogenously released AEA modulates memory consolidation. Moreover, in support of the view that this emotional training-associated increase in endocannabinoid neurotransmission, and its effects on memory enhancement, depends on the integrity of functional interactions between these different brain regions, we found that disruption of BLA activity blocked the training-induced increases in AEA levels as well as the memory enhancement produced by URB597 administered into the hippocampus or mPFC. Thus, the findings provide evidence that emotionally arousing training increases AEA levels within prefrontal-limbic circuits and strongly suggest that this cannabinoid activation regulates emotional arousal effects on memory consolidation.

Insomnia disorder is associated with increased amygdala reactivity to insomnia-related stimuli

STUDY OBJECTIVES

Alterations in emotional reactivity may play a key role in the pathophysiology of insomnia disorder (ID). However, only few supporting experimental data are currently available. We evaluated in a hypothesis-driven design whether patients with ID present altered amygdale responses to emotional stimuli related and unrelated to the experience of insomnia and, because of chronic hyperarousal, less habituation of amygdala responses.

DESIGN

Case-control study.

SETTING

Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and of Radiology of the University of Freiburg Medical Center.

PARTICIPANTS

There were 22 patients with ID (15 females; 7 males; age 40.7 ± 12.6 y) and 38 healthy good sleepers (HGS, 21 females; 17 males; age 39.6 ± 8.9 y).

INTERVENTIONS

N/A.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS

In a functional magnetic resonance imaging session, five different blocks of pictures with varying emotional arousal, valence, and content (insomnia-relatedness) were presented. Pictures were presented twice to test for habituation processes. Results showed that patients with ID, compared to HGS, presented heightened amygdala responses to insomnia-related stimuli. Moreover, habituation of amygdale responses was observed only in HGS, but not in patients with ID who showed a mixed pattern of amygdala responses to the second presentation of the stimuli.

CONCLUSIONS

The results provide evidence for an insomnia-related emotional bias in patients with ID. Cognitive behavior treatment for ID could benefit from strategies dealing with the emotional charge associated with the disorder. Further studies should clarify the role of ID with respect to habituation of amygdala responses.