Cold face test-induced increases in heart rate variability are abolished by engagement in a social cognition task.
This study investigated the role of the vagus in social cognition using the cold face test (facial cooling) to stimulate the vagus nerve and increase prefrontal inhibitory control. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) was measured to index parasympathetic outflow while social cognition ability was tested using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). Healthy males (n = 25) completed the RMET under two conditions: with and without facial cooling. Results indicated that although facial cooling increased HRV at rest, there was no improvement in the RMET during the facial cooling condition. Interestingly, completing the RMET with...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 28, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Iorfino, Frank; Alvares, Gail A.; Guastella, Adam J.; Quintana, Daniel S. Source Type: research
Connectivity of superior temporal sulcus during target detection.
The aim of the current research was to study functional connectivity (FC) of the right superior temporal sulcus (rSTS) during visual target stimulus processing. This structure is presumed to be crucial in social cognition, but evidently participates in target detection as well. Twenty subjects participated in functional magnetic resonance examination for studying FC. We used psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis of data acquired during the visual oddball task. During the visual oddball task rSTS had increased connectivity bilaterally with structures involved in memory operations (mesiotemporal cortices and basal g...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 28, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Pail, Martin; Dufková, Petra; Mareček, Radek; Zelinková, Jana; Mikl, Michal; Joel Shaw, Daniel; Brázdil, Milan Source Type: research
Empathy, approach attitude, and rTMs on left DLPFC affect emotional face recognition and facial feedback (EMG).
Empathic trait (Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale [BEES]) and emotional attitude (Behavior Activation System [BAS]) were supposed to modulate emotional face recognition, based on left dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) cortex contribution. High-empathic trait (high-BEES) was compared with low-empathic trait (low-BEES), when detection performance (Accuracy Index; Response Times [RTs]) and facial activity (electromyogram, EMG, i.e., zygomatic and corrugators muscle activity) were analyzed. Moreover, the implication of the left DLPFC was tested by using low-frequency rTMS (repeated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) to induce a d...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 28, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Balconi, Michela; Canavesio, Ylenia Source Type: research
An arousal effect of colors saturation: A study of self-reported ratings and electrodermal responses.
The purpose of the experiment was to test the relationship between attributes of color, self-rated arousal, and autonomic reactions to color stimuli. Sixteen colored backgrounds of different hue, saturation, and brightness were each viewed by 64 subjects (females, Mage = 22.48) while skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. Subjective judgments relating to pleasantness (valence) and arousal were also measured. Results show that among color attributes only saturation had an effect on SCR magnitude, F(1, 63) = 6.31, p < .05, ηG2 = .01. There was also significant correlation, r(14) = .64, p < .01, between aggregated ...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 28, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Zieliński, Piotr Source Type: research
Antidepressant medication may moderate the effect of depression duration on hippocampus volume.
Hippocampus volume has been frequently, but not universally reported to be reduced in people with major depression relative to age-matched healthy controls. Among the potential reasons for this discrepancy in finding across studies is the effect of antidepressant medication. Hippocampus volume was determined by MRI (1.5 Tesla) for 10 people diagnosed with major depression for who detailed history of depression and antidepressant treatment history were known, and 10 age-matched healthy controls with no history of depression. Left, but not right, hippocampus volumes were significantly smaller in the patient group compared to...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 28, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Rogers, Mark A.; Yamasue, Hidenori; Kasai, Kiyoto Source Type: research
A preliminary study of the association among metacognition and resting state EEG in schizophrenia.
Metacognition refers to a spectrum of activities that range from the consideration of discrete mental experiences, such as a specific thought or emotion, to the synthesis of discrete perceptions into integrated representations of the self and others as unique agents in the world. Metacognitive deficits have been observed in schizophrenia and linked with a number of behavioral correlates and outcomes. Less is known however about the neural systems associated with such processes. Establishing the link between brain activity and metacognition therefore is an essential next step. Resting state electroencephalography (EEG) prov...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - September 27, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Vohs, Jenifer L.; Leonhardt, Bethany L.; Francis, Michael M.; Westfall, Daniel; Howell, Josselyn; Bolbecker, Amanda R.; O’Donnell, Brian F.; Hetrick, William P.; Lysaker, Paul H. Source Type: research
Oral immune activation by disgust and disease-related pictures.
In this study we directly compared these two inductions using specifically generated sets of images. One set was disease-related but evoked little disgust, while the other set was disgust evoking but with less disease-relatedness. These two image sets were then compared to a third set, a negative control condition. Using a wholly within-subject design, participants viewed one image set per week, and provided saliva samples, before and after each viewing occasion, which were later analyzed for innate immune markers. We found that both the disease related and disgust images, relative to the negative control images, were not ...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 10, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stevenson, Richard J.; Hodgson, Deborah; Oaten, Megan J.; Sominsky, Luba; Mahmut, Mehmet; Case, Trevor I. Source Type: research
Psychological response to sound stimuli evaluated by EEG: Joint consideration of AAE model and comfort vector model.
Abstract. Psychological responses to two kinds of sound stimuli (scary and soothing), as assessed by the Anterior Asymmetry and Emotion (AAE) and Comfort Vector (CV) models which are based on the prefrontal alpha wave, were investigated and the relation between their results is discussed. For the scary sound stimulus, subjects who showed greater withdrawal motivation (AAE) displayed a decreased pleasant state (CV), while subjects who showed higher approach motivation displayed opposite affective direction. There was a correlation between the AAE and CV models for the scary stimulus, but no correlation for the soothing stim...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 10, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Chen, Xi; Takahashi, Isao; Okita, Yoshimitsu; Hirata, Hisashi; Sugiura, Toshifumi Source Type: research
Individual differences in personality traits: Perfectionism and the brain structure.
In this study, the possible brain regions that structurally correlated with both positive and negative perfectionism were investigated. Voxel-based morphometry was used to analyze the whole brain MRI images of 49 participants, and their levels of perfectionism were also evaluated using a standard scale. The statistical analysis revealed significant correlations between negative perfectionism and the gray matter volume of the thalamus and left posterior parietal cortex (precuneus) structures. This finding suggests that differences in perfectionism between individuals may reflect structural variances in these regions of the ...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 10, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Karimizadeh, A.; Mahnam, Amin; Yazdchi, M. R.; Besharat, M. A. Source Type: research
Resting plasma lipids and cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress.
Abstract. Prior research suggests that hyperlipidemia is associated with elevated blood pressure responses to acute stress but whether lipid levels influence underlying cardiac and vascular determinants of blood pressure during stress is not known. Thus, we examined whether lipids were associated with stress-induced blood pressure responses and responses of stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR). In 19 healthy university students (15 men), blood was drawn to measure lipid levels (triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-c], high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-c],...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 10, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Austin, Anthony W.; Kushnick, Michael R.; Knutson, Michael J.; McGlynn, Mark L.; Patterson, Stephen M. Source Type: research
Different patterns of heart rate variability during acute withdrawal in alcohol dependent patients with and without comorbid anxiety and/or depression.
Abstract. The aim of the present study was to examine cardiac autonomic function during acute alcohol withdrawal (AW) in two clinical subgroups with alcohol dependence. To this end we compared 24 patients with pure alcohol dependence (Pure ALC) with 24 alcohol-dependent patients who had comorbid symptoms of anxiety and/or depression (ANX/DEP ALC) on their mean heart rate and several (spectral) measures of heart rate variability (HRV) obtained from the patients when they were withdrawn from alcohol. To elucidate the contribution of anxiety and depression to the cardiac measures we moreover compared these groups to 120 non-c...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - August 10, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Chen, Tien-Yu; Chang, Chuan-Chia; Tzeng, Nian-Sheng; Kuo, Terry B. J.; Huang, San-Yuan; Lu, Ru-Band; Chang, Hsin-An Source Type: research
Decision-making under uncertainty and demand for health insurance: A multidisciplinary study.
This study empirically estimated the role played by attitudes toward risk in insurance decision-making. Four hundred forty-five participants underwent the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) coupled with skin conductance recording and demographic/socio-economic questionnaires. The multiple regression model showed a higher probability of holding health insurance for people who are more risk seeking (bad performance at the IGT) but are adaptively able to feel the risk (normal anticipatory skin conductance responses to disadvantageous decks). The role played by traditional socio-economic explanatory variables (age and work status) was c...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - April 6, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ottaviani, Cristina; Vandone, Daniela Source Type: research
Body position influences cardiovascular disgust reactivity: A tilt table experiment.
It has been suggested that elevated trait disgust constitutes a vulnerability factor for fainting episodes. We tested the hypothesis that disgust-prone individuals are susceptible to vasovagal syncope by means of a tilt table experiment, during which 30 women were presented with disgusting pictures in a supine and a 70° upright position. The results showed that relative to disgust elicitation in the supine position, tilting reduced diastolic blood pressure during disgust elicitation, which could indicate increased risk for presyncope. Moreover, self-reported disgust proneness was positively correlated with heart rate duri...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - April 6, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Schienle, Anne; Übel, Sonja; Rössler, Andreas; Schwerdtfeger, Andreas; Karl Lackner, Helmut Source Type: research
Does rare error count in impulsivity? Difference in error-negativity.
High impulsive individuals have problems with self-monitoring and learning from their mistakes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether error processing is impaired in high trait impulsivity, and how it is modulated by the task difficulty. Adults were classified as high (n = 10) and low (n = 10) impulsive participants based on the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and they participated in a modified flanker task. The flanker trials had three levels of task difficulty manipulated by visual degradation of the stimuli. We measured RTs and ERP components (Ne, Pe) related to erroneous responses. Low impulsive participants r...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - April 6, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Takács, Ádám; Kóbor, Andrea; Honbolygó, Ferenc; Csépe, Valéria Source Type: research
Salivary α-amylase reactivity to laboratory social stress with and without acute sleep restriction.
A growing literature suggests that salivary α-amylase (sAA) may serve as a minimally invasive marker of psychophysiological stress-induced activity of the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system (SAM). Previous inconsistencies in the experimental literature relating sAA response to short sleep duration may be as a result of poor reliability of self-reported sleep time, suggesting that further examination of sAA response following verified sleep loss is required. With regard to the potential usefulness of sAA as a biomarker of psychosocial stress in the laboratory, previous research has also relied primarily on traditional ps...
Source: Journal of Psychophysiology - April 6, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: O’Leary, Éanna D.; Howard, Siobhán; Hughes, Brian M.; James, Jack E. Source Type: research
