The relationship between quality of sleep and emotional empathy.
Sleep loss is known to severely disturb individuals’ mood and emotion processing. Here, we tested the hypothesis that quality of sleep is predictive of individuals’ performance on a task evaluating emotional empathy. We tested 34 healthy undergraduate students [19 males, mean (SD) age = 21.82 (3.26) years; mean (SD) education = 14.98 (1.91) years] recruited through the University of Calgary research participation system. We collected objective (actigraphy) and subjective (questionnaires and self-reports) sleep measures to characterize individuals’ sleep quality, and asked participants to solve a computerized emotiona...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Vagally mediated heart rate variability promotes the perception of paradoxical pain.
Self-regulation mechanisms are governed by prefrontal inhibitory processes and play a crucial role in the modulation of pain. In the present study the thermal grill paradigm was used to investigate the association of vagally mediated resting heart rate variability, a psychophysiological marker of trait self-regulatory capacity, with paradoxical pain sensations induced by non-noxious stimulation. This thermal grill illusion is only perceived by part of the tested individuals. The mechanisms underlying the observed interindividual differences in paradoxical pain sensitivity are largely unknown. During the experimental task, ...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Adolescent antisocial behavior explained by combining stress-related parameters.
Many stress-related parameters have been associated with antisocial behavior, including low cortisol awakening responses (CAR), as well as low cortisol and alpha-amylase reactivity to stress. These parameters reflect different, yet interrelated components of the stress system, yet it remains to be determined whether they exert joint or independent effects. Therefore, this study examined them in concert, as this may offer a better explanation of the psychophysiological mechanism’s underlying antisocial behavior. Antisocial behavior was assessed through self-report by 197 general population boys and girls (Mage = 17.31, SD...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The allocation of attention in change detection and change blindness.
Visual change detection often fails when observers’ attention is distracted by some other visual disruptions in the environment that occur simultaneously with the change. This phenomenon is called change blindness. It has been claimed that selective attention is necessary for successful change detection. In the current experiment, two mechanisms of attention allocation in such a task were investigated. First, the number of distracting stimuli was varied to distract observers’ attention and, second, possible change positions were highlighted to allow observers to better focus on potential change locations. The N2pc comp...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Parasympathetic concomitants of habitual, spontaneous, and instructed emotional suppression.
The neurovisceral integration model proposes that different forms of self-regulation, including the emotional suppression, are characterized by the activation of neural network whose workings are also reflected in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). However, most of the previous studies failed to observe theoretically expected increases in RSA during emotional suppression. Even when such effects were observed, it was not clear whether they resulted from specific task demands, a decrease in muscle activity, or they were the consequence of more specific self-control processes. We investigated the relation between habitual or...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Psychophysiological assessment of social stress in natural and laboratory situations: Using the experience sampling method and additional heart rate measures.
Experience sampling and psychophysiological ambulant assessment methods were employed to compare reactions to social stress using a laboratory stressor (The Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]) or a corresponding real-life condition (seminar presentation). Stress reactions were assessed by self-report as well as additional heart rate (AHR, i.e., heart rate increases corrected for physical activity and initial values) and were compared to a control condition in each group. Twenty-five participants gave a talk in a university seminar course and twenty-two participants took part in the TSST. The TSST elicited a greater overall ph...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Parasympathetic concomitants of habitual, spontaneous, and instructed emotional suppression.
The neurovisceral integration model proposes that different forms of self-regulation, including the emotional suppression, are characterized by the activation of neural network whose workings are also reflected in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). However, most of the previous studies failed to observe theoretically expected increases in RSA during emotional suppression. Even when such effects were observed, it was not clear whether they resulted from specific task demands, a decrease in muscle activity, or they were the consequence of more specific self-control processes. We investigated the relation between habitual or...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Gra čanin, Asmir; Kardum, Igor; Hudek-Knežević, Jasna Source Type: research
Psychophysiological assessment of social stress in natural and laboratory situations: Using the experience sampling method and additional heart rate measures.
Experience sampling and psychophysiological ambulant assessment methods were employed to compare reactions to social stress using a laboratory stressor (The Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]) or a corresponding real-life condition (seminar presentation). Stress reactions were assessed by self-report as well as additional heart rate (AHR, i.e., heart rate increases corrected for physical activity and initial values) and were compared to a control condition in each group. Twenty-five participants gave a talk in a university seminar course and twenty-two participants took part in the TSST. The TSST elicited a greater overall ph...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 15, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Loeffler, Simone N.; Hennig, Juergen; Peper, Martin Source Type: research
Skin conductance and subjective arousal in anxiety, depression, and comorbidity: Implications for affective reactivity.
This study investigated group differences on SC reactivity and self-reported arousal while viewing positive, negative, neutral, and threat images between participants diagnosed with major depression with and without anxiety disorders relative to a healthy comparison group. Additionally, the strength and direction of association between SC reactivity and arousal ratings (emotion coherence) was examined within groups. Unmedicated participants were recruited via online and paper advertisements around Chicago and categorized into one of four groups (Depressed: n = 35, Anxious: n = 44, Comorbid: n = 38, Healthy: n = 29). SC and...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 8, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The effects of nicotine and nicotine abstinence on stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity: Do habitual and light/intermittent cigarette smokers differ?
The effects of 12 hr nicotine administration and abstinence on stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity were assessed within Light/Intermittent cigarette smokers and Habitual cigarette smokers. One hundred thirty-two male smokers (66 Habitual, 66 Light/Intermittent) were assigned to a Nicotine (21 mg) or Placebo patch condition. Cardiovascular reactivity was assessed during Baseline, a 6-min mental arithmetic task (Paced Auditory Serial Arithmetic Task) and a 5-min mirror-tracing task (Star Mirror Tracing Task). Within the Nicotine condition, Light/Intermittent smokers showed greater cardiac output (CO) increases, smaller ...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 8, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The P3 parietal-to-frontal shift relates to age-related slowing in a selective attention task.
In this study we aimed to investigate how the parietal-to-frontal shift with aging relates to selective attention. Fourteen young and 26 older healthy adults performed a color Flanker task under three conditions (incongruent, congruent, neutral) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured. The P3 was analyzed for the electrode positions Pz, Cz, and Fz as an indicator of the parietal-to-frontal shift. Further, behavioral performance and other ERP components (P1 and N1 at electrodes O1 and O2; N2 at electrodes Fz and Cz) were investigated. First young and older adults were compared. Older adults had longer response tim...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 8, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Brief report on the psychophysiological effects of a yoga intervention for chronic stress: Preliminary findings.
This paper evaluates the results of a longitudinal investigation of the potential benefits of yoga in a nonclinical sample of chronically stressed women (N = 116). Women undertook a twice weekly, hour-long yoga class for a period of 2 months, measuring psychological and physical indicators of health periodically. Changes in both areas were compared against a wait-list control group. The reported energy expenditure between groups was estimated to be similar, which suggests that the control group engaged in physical activities other than yoga. Of the six psychological outcomes measured, we found improvements in three. Specif...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Harkess, Kaitlin N.; Delfabbro, Paul; Mortimer, Jane; Hannaford, Zara; Cohen-Woods, Sarah Source Type: research
Differences in pre-attentive processes of sound intensity change between high- and low-sensation seekers: A mismatch negativity study.
This study recorded the mismatch negativity (MMN) to intensity increments and decrements in a repetitive tone in high- and low-sensation seekers. It was found that the MMN amplitude for intensity-decrement deviants was larger in high- than low-sensation seekers. However, with regard to deviant-increment stimulation, the difference between the two groups was not significant. Consequently, the sensitivity of high-sensitivity seekers to pre-attentively detect a decrease in sound intensity is higher than that of low-sensation seekers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Journal of Psychophysiology)
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: He, Siqi; Chai, Yao; He, Jinbo; Guo, Yongyu; N äätänen, Risto Source Type: research
Test-retest reliability of pediatric heart rate variability: A meta-analysis.
The objective was to conduct a meta-analysis of the test-retest reliability of time- and frequency-domain HRV measures from infancy to adolescence. Electronic searches (PubMed, PsycINFO; January 1970 –December 2014) identified studies with nonclinical samples aged ≤ 18 years; ≥ 2 baseline HRV recordings separated by ≥ 1 day; and sufficient data for effect size computation. Forty-nine studies (N = 5,170) met inclusion criteria. Methodological variables coded included factors relevant to s tudy protocol, sample characteristics, electrocardiogram (ECG) signal acquisition and preprocessing, and HRV analytical decisions...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Weiner, Oren M.; McGrath, Jennifer J. Source Type: research
