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Neuropsychologia Sep 2020Aim of the present study was to investigate the neurophysiologic correlates of the conscious and not conscious perception of faces (presented for 14, 40, 80 ms) with...
Aim of the present study was to investigate the neurophysiologic correlates of the conscious and not conscious perception of faces (presented for 14, 40, 80 ms) with happy and sad emotional valence. Electroencephalographic data of 22 participants during a report-based visual task were recorded. Both happy and sad faces presented for 14 ms showed a longer N170 latency compared to the faces presented for 40 and 80 ms. A shorter latency of early components (before N170) was found in the right hemisphere and a longer latency in the left one in response to the happy faces presented for 14 ms compared to those presented for longer times. The faces presented for 14 ms, declared as consciously perceived, evoked a higher brain response compared to those declared as not perceived. Parietal and cingulate brain areas showed a lower intensity of the brain response to the consciously perceived faces in the early components. Happy faces showed a greater brain response when consciously detected, while the sad faces induced a greater brain response when not consciously detected. The findings suggest that the N170 may be the epiphenomenon of an earlier consciously detection. Moreover, these preliminary results seem to support a main role of parietal and cingulate brain areas into not conscious perception.
Topics: Consciousness; Electroencephalography; Emotions; Evoked Potentials; Facial Expression; Facial Recognition; Female; Happiness; Humans; Male; Sadness; Young Adult
PubMed: 32652090
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107554 -
Infancy : the Official Journal of the... Mar 2022While preschoolers consistently produce and use labels for happy and sad emotional states, labels for other emotional states (e.g., disgust) emerge much later in...
While preschoolers consistently produce and use labels for happy and sad emotional states, labels for other emotional states (e.g., disgust) emerge much later in development. One explanation for these differences may lie in how parents first talk about these emotions with their children in infancy and toddlerhood. The current study examined parent talk about different emotions (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) in a book-sharing task with their 12- to 24-month-old infants. Parental talk on each emotion page was coded for both quantity and quality of emotion talk. We found that, rather than labeling or asking questions about disgust emotional states, parents instead elaborated on and asked questions about the context of disgust pictures. In contrast, parents frequently labeled happy and sad emotional states and behaviors. Parental use of causal questions related to infants' productive emotion vocabularies. These different narrative styles may partly explain why older children acquire emotion labels for "happy" and "sad" much earlier than "disgust."
Topics: Adolescent; Books; Child; Child, Preschool; Emotions; Happiness; Humans; Infant; Parents; Sadness
PubMed: 34862845
DOI: 10.1111/infa.12448 -
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Sep 2022Here, we test three often proposed hypotheses about socioeconomic status (SES), affect, and the brain, for which evidence is mixed or lacking. The first hypothesis, that... (Review)
Review
Here, we test three often proposed hypotheses about socioeconomic status (SES), affect, and the brain, for which evidence is mixed or lacking. The first hypothesis, that negative affect is more common at lower levels of SES, has ample evidence from studies of psychiatric symptoms but is tested for the first time here across multiple measures of negative emotions in healthy young adults. The second hypothesis is actually a set of hypotheses, that SES is associated with three structural and functional properties of the amygdala. Third, and most important for the affective neuroscience of SES, is the hypothesis that SES differences in the amygdala are responsible for the affective differences. Despite the intuitive appeal of this hypothesis, it has rarely been tested and has never been confirmed. Here, we review the literature for evidence on each of these hypotheses and find in a number of cases that the evidence is weak or nonexistant. We then subject each hypothesis to a new empirical test with a large sample of healthy young adults. We confirm that negative affect is more common at lower levels of SES and we find a positive relation between SES and amygdala volume. However, evidence is weak on the relation of SES to functional properties of amygdala. Finally, the tendency toward negative affect in lower SES individuals cannot be accounted for by the structural or functional characteristics of the amygdala measured here.
Topics: Amygdala; Anger; Fear; Humans; Sadness; Social Class; Young Adult
PubMed: 35900864
DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01892 -
Journal of Psychiatric Research Jan 2021Sadness is a common symptom in the general population. We tested the hypothesis that sadness is an intermediate state on a continuum from well-being to major depressive...
OBJECTIVE
Sadness is a common symptom in the general population. We tested the hypothesis that sadness is an intermediate state on a continuum from well-being to major depressive disorder (MDD).
METHODS
Using data from The National Epidemiologic Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions III (NESARC-III), a large and representative US population sample, we assessed the prevalence of sadness, its sociodemographic and clinical correlates, using three non-overlapping groups: (i) non-depressed sad participants, (ii) non-sad non-depressed participants and (iii) depressed participants. We estimated sensitivity and specificity of sadness.
RESULTS
Sadness was frequent in the general population 34.3%), and present in almost all participants with MDD (99.6%). Sad (N = 4593) and MDD participants (N = 4593) and 7889 respectively) shared common sociodemographic characteristics. Compared to controls, sad and MDD participants presented more psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, substance use, psychotic, eating and personality disorders. Sadness was an intermediate state, sad individuals reporting more psychiatric disorders than controls, but less than participants with MDD. Sadness demonstrated a very high sensitivity (99.6%), with a good specificity (83.8%) for MDD.
LIMITATIONS
The NESARC assessed sadness over lifetime, which may involve memorization bias.
CONCLUSION
Our study confirms the existence of a depressive continuum. Sadness is frequent in general population, and shares correlates with MDD. We have also shown a continuum where sadness is an intermediate state between well-being and psychiatric disorders. With high sensitivity and specificity, sadness appears as a clear MDD prodrome and at-risk state, and may be a symptom of a transdiagnostic distress process.
Topics: Anxiety Disorders; Comorbidity; Depressive Disorder, Major; Humans; Prevalence; Sadness
PubMed: 33038566
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.10.004 -
Journal of Affective Disorders Jan 2021
Topics: Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major; Humans; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Sadness
PubMed: 33007630
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.083 -
Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral... Feb 2021Individuals with a predisposition to empathize engage with sad music in a compelling way, experiencing overall more pleasurable emotions. However, the neural mechanisms...
Individuals with a predisposition to empathize engage with sad music in a compelling way, experiencing overall more pleasurable emotions. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these music-related experiences in empathic individuals are unknown. The present study tested whether dispositional empathy modulates neural responses to sad compared with happy music. Twenty-four participants underwent fMRI while listening to 4-min blocks of music evoking sadness or happiness. Using voxel-wise regression, we found a positive correlation between trait empathy (with scores assessed by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and eigenvector centrality values in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), including the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). We then performed a functional connectivity (FC) analysis to detect network nodes showing stronger FC with the vmPFC/mOFC during the presentation of sad versus happy music. By doing so, we identified a "music-empathy" network (vmPFC/mOFC, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, primary visual cortex, bilateral claustrum and putamen, and cerebellum) that is spontaneously recruited while listening to sad music and includes brain regions that support the coding of compassion, mentalizing, and visual mental imagery. Importantly, our findings extend the current understanding of empathic behaviors to the musical domain and pinpoint sad music as an effective stimulus to be employed in social neuroscience research.
Topics: Brain; Empathy; Happiness; Humans; Music; Sadness
PubMed: 33474716
DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00861-x -
Frontiers in Psychology 2021In addition to probabilities of monetary gains and losses, personality traits, socio-economic factors, and specific contexts such as emotions and framing influence...
In addition to probabilities of monetary gains and losses, personality traits, socio-economic factors, and specific contexts such as emotions and framing influence financial risk taking. Here, we investigated the effects of joyful, neutral, and sad mood states on participants' risk-taking behaviour in a simple task with safe and risky options. We also analysed the effect of framing on risk taking. In different trials, a safe option was framed in terms of either financial gains or losses. Moreover, we investigated the effects of emotional contagion and sensation-seeking personality traits on risk taking in this task. We did not observe a significant effect of induced moods on risk taking. Sad mood resulted in a slight non-significant trend of risk aversion compared to a neutral mood. Our results partially replicate previous findings regarding the presence of the framing effect. As a novel finding, we observed that participants with a low emotional contagion score demonstrated increased risk aversion during a sad mood and a similar trend at the edge of significance was present in high sensation seekers. Overall, our results highlight the importance of taking into account personality traits of experimental participants in financial risk-taking studies.
PubMed: 35069386
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.796016 -
Journal of Affective Disorders Sep 2021Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are used widely in research on cognitive vulnerability to depression. Although empirical evidence supports certain MIPs as effective,... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
BACKGROUND
Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are used widely in research on cognitive vulnerability to depression. Although empirical evidence supports certain MIPs as effective, little research has evaluated whether MIP-induced sad moods are sufficiently persistent. This study aimed to determine (1) how long an MIP-induced mood lasts according to commonly used operational definitions and (2) whether these findings vary according to the type of MIP used.
METHODS
Four-hundred-and-one undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of three commonly used sad MIPs (music, memory, music+memory) or to one of three matched neutral MIPs. Mood was repeatedly measured immediately prior to and following the MIP.
RESULTS
Results did not support the widely held belief that commonly used MIPs induce a sufficient and persistent sad mood. The memory-related MIPs induced the most persistent sad mood. Based on the majority of operational definitions, however, induced mood effects did not last longer than 4 min, regardless of MIP type.
LIMITATIONS
Future studies should examine additional factors that may have affected the trajectories observed in the current study (e.g., task completed in between mood measurements) and in vulnerable (e.g., past-depressed) populations.
CONCLUSIONS
This study constitutes an important first step in validating the use of MIPs in cognitive vulnerability research and provides researchers with important information on future study designs. More important, the study raises doubt about the validity of various conclusions drawn from some MIP studies and calls into question the theoretical conceptualizations of depression that are based on potentially biased results and a possibly incomplete literature.
Topics: Affect; Cognition; Emotions; Humans; Music; Students
PubMed: 34139405
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.05.047 -
PloS One 2023Taking part in a cancer clinical trial often represents a source of psychological distress and emotional activation among patients and their caregivers. Nowadays, social...
BACKGROUND
Taking part in a cancer clinical trial often represents a source of psychological distress and emotional activation among patients and their caregivers. Nowadays, social media platforms provide a space for these groups to freely express and share their emotional experiences.
AIMS
We aimed to reveal the most prevalent basic and complex emotions and sentiments in the posts of the patients and caregivers contemplating clinical trials on Reddit. Additionally, we aimed to categorize the types of users and posts.
METHODS
With the use of keywords referring to clinical trials, we searched for public posts on the subreddit 'cancer'. R studio v. 4.1.2 (2021-11-01) and NRC Emotion Lexicon was used for analysis. Following the theoretical framework of Plutchik's wheel of emotions, the analysis included: 8 basic emotions (anger, fear, anticipation, trust, surprise, sadness, joy, and disgust) and 4 types of complex emotions (primary, secondary, tertiary, and opposite dyads). We utilized the package 'PyPlutchik' to visualize the emotion wheels in Python 3.10.5.
RESULTS
A total of 241 posts were included in the final database. User types (129 patients, 112 caregivers) and post types (142 expressed shared experience, 77 expressed advice, and 85 conveyed both) were identified. Both positive (N = 2557, M = .68) and negative (N = 2154, M = .57) sentiments were high. The most prevalent basic emotions were: fear (N = 1702, M = .45), sadness (N = 1494, M = .40), trust (N = 1470, M = .44), and anticipation (N = 1376, M = .37). The prevalence of complex/dyadic emotions and their interpretation is further discussed.
CONCLUSION
In this contribution, we identified and discussed prevalent emotions such as fear, sadness, optimism, hope, despair, and outrage that mirror the psychological state of users and affect the medical choices they make. The insights gained in our study contribute to the understanding of the barriers and reinforcers to participation in trials and can improve the ability of healthcare professionals to assist patients when confronted with this choice.
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Anger; Fear; Disgust; Sadness; Neoplasms
PubMed: 37093865
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284268 -
Journal of Vision Nov 2023What role do the emotions of subject and object play in judging the beauty of images and music? Eighty-one participants rated perceived beauty, liking, perceived...
What role do the emotions of subject and object play in judging the beauty of images and music? Eighty-one participants rated perceived beauty, liking, perceived happiness, and perceived sadness of 24 songs, 12 art images, and 12 nature photographs. Stimulus presentation was brief (2 seconds) or prolonged (20 seconds). The stimuli were presented in two blocks, and participants took the Positive and Negative Affect Score (PANAS) mood questionnaire before and after each block. They viewed a mood induction video between blocks either to increase their happiness or sadness or to maintain their mood. Using linear mixed-effects models, we found that perceived object happiness predicts an increase in image and song beauty regardless of duration. The effect of perceived object sadness on beauty, however, is stronger for songs than images and stronger for prolonged than brief durations. Subject emotion affects brief song beauty minimally and prolonged song beauty substantially. Whereas past studies of beauty and emotion emphasized sad music, here we analyze both happiness and sadness, both subject and object emotion, and both images and music. We conclude that the interactions between emotion and beauty are different for images and music and are strongly moderated by duration.
Topics: Humans; Music; Emotions; Happiness; Linear Models; Time Factors
PubMed: 37971770
DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.13.6