scholarly journals Does emotion processing require attention? The effects of fear conditioning and perceptual load.

Emotion ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 822-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Yates ◽  
Chris Ashwin ◽  
Elaine Fox
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arielle Baskin–Sommers ◽  
John Joseph Curtin ◽  
Joseph P. Newman

AbstractThe behavior of psychopathic individuals is thought to reflect a core fear deficit that prevents these individuals from appreciating the consequences of their choices and actions. However, growing evidence suggests that psychopathy-related emotion deficits are moderated by attention and, thus, may not reflect a reduced capacity for emotion responding. The present study attempts to reconcile this attention perspective with one of the most cited findings in psychopathy, which reports emotion-modulated startle deficits among psychopathic individuals during picture viewing. In this study, we evaluate the potential effects of a putative attention bottleneck on the emotion processing of psychopathic offenders during picture viewing by manipulating picture familiarity and examining emotion-modulated startle and late positive potential (LPP). As predicted, psychopathic individuals displayed the classic deficit in emotion-modulated startle during novel pictures, but they showed no deficit in emotion-modulated startle during familiar pictures. Conversely, results for LPP responses revealed psychopathy-related differences during familiar pictures and no psychopathy-related differences during novel pictures. Important differences related to the two Factors of psychopathy are also discussed. Overall, the results of this study not only highlight the differential importance of perceptual load on emotion processing in psychopathy, but also raise interesting questions about the varied effects of attention on psychopathy-related emotion deficits.


Author(s):  
Justine Niemczyk ◽  
Monika Equit ◽  
Katja Rieck ◽  
Mathias Rubly ◽  
Catharina Wagner ◽  
...  

Abstract. Objective: Daytime urinary incontinence (DUI) is common in childhood. The aim of the study was to neurophysiologically analyse the central emotion processing in children with DUI. Method: In 20 children with DUI (mean age 8.1 years, 55 % male) and 20 controls (mean age 9.1 years, 75 % male) visual event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded after presenting emotionally valent (80 neutral, 40 positive, and 40 negative) pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) as an oddball-paradigm. All children received a full organic and psychiatric assessment. Results: Children with DUI did not differ significantly from controls regarding responses to emotional pictures in the frontal, central, and parietal regions and in the time intervals 250–450 ms, 450–650 ms, and 650–850 ms after stimulus onset. The patient group had more psychological symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities than the control group. Conclusions: EEG responses to emotional stimuli are not altered in children with DUI. Central emotion processing does not play a major role in DUI. Further research, including a larger sample size, a more homogeneous patient group (regarding subtype of DUI) or brain imaging techniques, could reveal more about the central processing in DUI.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Baumann ◽  
Miriam A. Schiele ◽  
Martin J. Herrmann ◽  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Peter Zwanzger ◽  
...  

Abstract. Conditioning and generalization of fear are assumed to play central roles in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. Here we investigate the influence of a psychometric anxiety-specific factor on these two processes, thus try to identify a potential risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders. To this end, 126 healthy participants were examined with questionnaires assessing symptoms of anxiety and depression and with a fear conditioning and generalization paradigm. A principal component analysis of the questionnaire data identified two factors representing the constructs anxiety and depression. Variations in fear conditioning and fear generalization were solely associated with the anxiety factor characterized by anxiety sensitivity and agoraphobic cognitions; high-anxious individuals exhibited stronger fear responses (arousal) during conditioning and stronger generalization effects for valence and UCS-expectancy ratings. Thus, the revealed psychometric factor “anxiety” was associated with enhanced fear generalization, an assumed risk factor for anxiety disorders. These results ask for replication with a longitudinal design allowing to examine their predictive validity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Jan Richter

Abstract. As the criticism of the definition of the phenotype (i.e., clinical diagnosis) represents the major focus of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative, it is somewhat surprising that discussions have not yet focused more on specific conceptual and procedural considerations of the suggested RDoC constructs, sub-constructs, and associated paradigms. We argue that we need more precise thinking as well as a conceptual and methodological discussion of RDoC domains and constructs, their interrelationships as well as their experimental operationalization and nomenclature. The present work is intended to start such a debate using fear conditioning as an example. Thereby, we aim to provide thought-provoking impulses on the role of fear conditioning in the age of RDoC as well as conceptual and methodological considerations and suggestions to guide RDoC-based fear conditioning research in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 460-470
Author(s):  
Claudia C. Pinizzotto ◽  
Nicholas A. Heroux ◽  
Colin J. Horgan ◽  
Mark E. Stanton

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