Abstract:

Psychophysical experiments were conducted in the UK, Taiwan, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, and Iran to assess colour emotion for two-colour combinations using semantic scales warm/cool, heavy/ light, active/passive, and like/dislike. A total of 223 observers participated, each presented with 190 colour pairs as the stimuli, shown individually on a cathode ray tube display. The results show consistent responses across cultures only for warm/cool, heavy/light, and active/passive. The like/dislike scale, however, showed some differences between the observer groups, in particular between the Argentinian responses and those obtained from the other observers. Factor analysis reveals that the Argentinian observers preferred passive colour pairs to active ones more than the other observers. In addition to the cultural difference in like/dislike, the experimental results show some effects of gender, professional background (design vs. nondesign), and age. Female observers were found to prefer colour pairs with high-lightness or lowchroma values more than their male counterparts. Observers with a design background liked low-chroma colour pairs or those containing colours of similar hue more than nondesign observers. Older observers liked colour pairs with high-lightness or high-chroma values more than young observers did. Based on the findings, a two-level theory of colour emotion is proposed, in which warm/cool, heavy/light, and active/passive are identified as the reactive-level responses and like/dislike the reflective-level response.

Author affiliation: Ou, Li Chen. University of Leeds; Reino Unido

Author affiliation: Luo, M. Ronnier. University of Leeds; Reino Unido

Author affiliation: Sun, Pei Li. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology; República de China

Author affiliation: Hu, Neng Chung. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology; República de China

Author affiliation: Chen, Hung Shing. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology; República de China

Author affiliation: Guan, Shing Sheng. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology; República de China

Author affiliation: Woodcock, Andrée. Coventry University; Reino Unido

Author affiliation: Caivano, Jose Luis Ricardo. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

Author affiliation: Huertas, Rafael. Universidad de Granada; España

Author affiliation: Treméau, Alain. Université Jean Monnet; Francia

Author affiliation: Billger, Monica. Chalmers University Of Technology; Suecia

Author affiliation: Izadan, Hossein. Isfahan University of Technology; Irán

Author affiliation: Ritcher, Klaus. Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung; Alemania

Abstract:

Moral decision-making involves complex social cognitive processes which are known to be altered in patients with schizophrenia and first-degree relatives. Traditional philosophical views on human moral behavior have distinguished between utilitarian views (which emphasize outcomes) and deontological approaches (defining what is right to do according to certain norms). Since emotions have been sug- gested to play a determining role in moral behavior, we hypothesized patients with schizophrenia and unaffected siblings would make more utilitarian choices and show faulty activation of brain areas con- cerned with emotion regulation during such tasks. Unexpectedly, all participants (n 1⁄4 13 per group) made the same proportion of utilitarian and deontological decisions. Brain activation common to all groups induced by moral decisions included two circumscribed portions of right ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, adding to previous evidence on a right prosencephalic cognitive network involved in ethical decisions. However, brain activation induced by moral decisions was different in healthy persons, schizophrenia patients, and nonpsychotic siblings in regards to areas directly concerned with emotion processing. These results seem to underscore the role of acquired norms in moral de- cisions, a frequently overlooked concept in the neurobiological characterization of human ethical behavior, and add to previous evidence of abnormal social cognitive processing in schizophrenia.

Author affiliation: de Achaval, Delfina. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina;

Author affiliation: Villarreal, Mirta Fabiana. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina;

Author affiliation: Salles, Arleen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina; Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas; Argentina;

Author affiliation: Bertomeu, Maria Julia. Centro de Investigaciones Filosóficas; Argentina;

Author affiliation: Costanzo, Elsa Y.. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina;

Author affiliation: Goldschmidt, Micaela Giuliana. Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina;

Author affiliation: Castro, Mariana Nair. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Laboratorio de Neurociencias; Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina; Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina;

Author affiliation: Van Der Poel, Iris. Nijmegen Medical Centre. Radboud University; Países Bajos;

Author affiliation: Nemeroff, Charles B.. University of Miami. Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Estados Unidos de América;

Author affiliation: Guinjoan, Salvador Martín. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Laboratorio de Neurociencias; Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina; Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia; Argentina;

Abstract:

This study?s aim was to apply permutation entropy (PE) and permutation min-entropy (PME) over an RR interval time series to quantify the changes in cardiac activity among multiple emotional states. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were recorded under six emotional states (neutral, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) in 60 healthy subjects at a rate of 1000 Hz. For each emotional state, ECGs were recorded for 5 min and the RR interval time series was extracted from these ECGs. The obtained results confirm that PE and PME increase significantly during the emotional states of happiness, sadness, anger, and disgust. Both symbolic quantifiers also increase but not in a significant way for the emotional state of fear. Moreover, it is found that PME is more sensitive than PE for discriminating non-neutral from neutral emotional states.

Author affiliation: Xia, Yirong. Shandong University; China

Author affiliation: Yang, Licai. Shandong University; China

Author affiliation: Zunino, Luciano José. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas; Argentina

Author affiliation: Shi, Hongyu. Shandong University; China

Author affiliation: Zhuang, Yuan. Shandong University; China

Author affiliation: Liu, Chengyu. Southeast University; China

Abstract:

Risky decision-making seems to be markedly disrupted in patients with chronic pain, probably due to the high cost that impose pain and negative mood on executive control functions. Patients' behavioral performance on decision-making tasks such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is characterized by selecting cards more frequently from disadvantageous than from advantageous decks, and by switching often between competing responses in comparison with healthy controls (HCs). In the present study, we developed a simple heuristic model to simulate individuals' choice behavior by varying the level of decision randomness and the importance given to gains and losses. The findings revealed that the model was able to differentiate the behavioral performance of patients with chronic pain and HCs at the group, as well as at the individual level. The best fit of the model in patients with chronic pain was yielded when decisions were not based on previous choices and when gains were considered more relevant than losses. By contrast, the best account of the available data in HCs was obtained when decisions were based on previous experiences and losses loomed larger than gains. In conclusion, our model seems to provide useful information to measure each individual participant extensively, and to deal with the data on a participant-by-participant basis.

Author affiliation: Hess, Leonardo Emanuel. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; Argentina

Author affiliation: Haimovici, Ariel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

Author affiliation: Muñoz, Miguel Angel. Universidad de las Islas Baleares; España. Universidad de Granada; España

Author affiliation: Montoya, Pedro. Universidad de las Islas Baleares; España

Abstract:

Heightened neural responsiveness of alcoholics to alcohol cues and social emotion may impede sobriety. To test mesocorticolimbic network responsivity, 10 (8 men) alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients sober for 3 weeks to 10 months and 11 (8 men) controls underwent fMRI whilst viewing pictures of alcohol and non-alcohol beverages and of emotional faces (happy, sad, angry). AUD and controls showed similarities in mesocorticolimbic activity: both groups activated fusiform for emotional faces and hippocampal and pallidum regions during alcohol picture processing. In AUD, less fusiform activity to emotional faces and more pallidum activity to alcohol pictures were associated with longer sobriety. Using graph theory-based network efficiency measures to specify the role of the mesocorticolimbic network nodes for emotion and reward in sober AUD revealed that the left hippocampus was less efficiently connected with the other task-activated network regions in AUD than controls when viewing emotional faces, while the pallidum was more efficiently connected when viewing alcohol beverages. Together our findings identified lower occipito-temporal sensitivity to emotional faces and enhanced striatal sensitivity to alcohol stimuli in AUD than controls. Considering the role of the striatum in encoding reward, its activation enhancement with longer sobriety may reflect adaptive neural changes in the first year of drinking cessation and mesocorticolimbic system vulnerability for encoding emotional salience and reward potentially affecting executive control ability and relapse propensity during abstinence.

Author affiliation: Alba Ferrara, Lucia M. Fundación de Lucha Contra Los Trastornos Neurologicos y Psiquiatricos En Minorias. Instituto San Lazaro de Neurociencias. Unidad de Resonancia Magnetica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

Author affiliation: Müller Oehring, E. M.. University of Stanford; Estados Unidos

Author affiliation: Sullivan, E. V.. University of Stanford; Estados Unidos

Author affiliation: Pfefferbaum, A.. Stanford Research Institute; Estados Unidos

Author affiliation: Schulte, T.. Stanford Research Institute; Estados Unidos

Abstract:

Background. Psychological constructionist models like the Conceptual Act Theory (CAT) postulate that complex states such as emotions are composed of basic psychological ingredients that are more clearly respected by the brain than basic emotions. The objective of this study was the construction and initial validation of Emotion Knowledge measures from the CAT frame by means of an invariant measurement approach, the Rasch Model (RM). Psychological distance theory was used to inform item generation. Methods. Three EK testsemotion vocabulary (EV), close emotional situations (CES) and far emotional situations (FES)were constructed and tested with the RM in a community sample of 100 females and 100 males (age range: 18-65), both separately and conjointly. Results. It was corroborated that data-RM fit was sufficient. Then, the effect of type of test and emotion on Rasch-modelled item difficulty was tested. Significant effects of emotion on EK item difficulty were found, but the only statistically significant difference was that between "happiness" and the remaining emotions; neither type of test, nor interaction effects on EK item difficulty were statistically significant. The testing of gender differences was carried out after corroborating that differential item functioning (DIF) would not be a plausible alternative hypothesis for the results. No statistically significant sex-related differences were found out in EV, CES, FES, or total EK. However, the sign of d indicate that female participants were consistently better than male ones, a result that will be of interest for future meta-analyses. Discussion. The three EK tests are ready to be used as components of a higher-level measurement process.

Author affiliation: Delgado, Ana R.. Universidad de Salamanca; España

Author affiliation: Prieto, Gerardo. Universidad de Salamanca; España

Author affiliation: Burin, Debora Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Psicología; Argentina

Abstract:

The ability to reappraise the emotional impact of events is related to long-term mental health. Self-focused reappraisal (REAPPself), i.e., reducing the personal relevance of the negative events, has been previously associated with neural activity in regions near right medial prefrontal cortex, but rarely investigated among brain-damaged individuals. Thus, we aimed to examine the REAPPself ability of brain-damaged patients and healthy controls considering structural atrophies and gray matter intensities, respectively. Twenty patients with well-defined cortex lesions due to an acquired circumscribed tumor or cyst and 23 healthy controls performed a REAPPself task, in which they had to either observe negative stimuli or decrease emotional responding by REAPPself. Next, they rated the impact of negative arousal and valence. REAPPself ability scores were calculated by subtracting the negative picture ratings after applying REAPPself from the ratings of the observing condition. The scores of the patients were included in a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) analysis to identify deficit related areas (ROI). Then, a ROI group-wise comparison was performed. Additionally, a whole-brain voxel-based-morphometry (VBM) analysis was run, in which healthy participant's REAPPself ability scores were correlated with gray matter intensities. Results showed that (1) regions in the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), comprising the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA9) and the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA32), were associated with patient's impaired down-regulation of arousal, (2) a lesion in the depicted ROI occasioned significant REAPPself impairments, (3) REAPPself ability of controls was linked with increased gray matter intensities in the ROI regions. Our findings show for the first time that the neural integrity and the structural volume of right SFG regions (BA9/32) might be indispensable for REAPPself. Implications for neurofeedback research are discussed.

Author affiliation: Falquez, Rosalux. University of Heidelberg; Alemania

Author affiliation: Couto, Juan Blas Marcos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina

Author affiliation: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina

Author affiliation: Freitag, Martin T.. German Cancer Research Center; Alemania

Author affiliation: Berger, Moritz. German Cancer Research Center; Alemania

Author affiliation: Arens, Elisabeth A.. University of Heidelberg; Alemania

Author affiliation: Lang, Simone. University of Heidelberg; Alemania

Author affiliation: Barnow, Sven. University of Heidelberg; Alemania

Abstract:

Pictures of facial expressions of emotion are used in a wide range of experiments. The last decade has seen an increase in the number of studies presenting local sets of emotion stimuli. However, only a few existing sets contain pictures of Latin Americans, despite the growing attention emotion research is receiving in this region. Here we present the development and validation of the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Expresiones de Emociones Faciales (UNCEEF), a Facial Action Coding System (FACS)-verified set of pictures of Argentineans expressing the six basic emotions, plus neutral expressions. FACS scores, recognition rates, Hu scores, and discrimination indices are reported. Evidence of convergent validity was obtained using the Pictures of Facial Affect in an Argentine sample. However, recognition accuracy was greater for UNCEEF. The importance of local sets of emotion pictures is discussed.

Author affiliation: Vaiman, Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología. Laboratorio de Psicología Cognitiva; Argentina

Author affiliation: Wagner, Mónica Anna. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología. Laboratorio de Psicología Cognitiva; Argentina

Author affiliation: Caicedo Cavagnis, Estefanía Elena. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología. Laboratorio de Psicología Cognitiva; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

Author affiliation: Pereno, German Leandro. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología. Laboratorio de Psicología Cognitiva; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

Abstract:

Eavesdropping involves the acquisition of information from third-party interactions, and can serve as an indirect mean to attribute reputation to individuals. There is evidence on eavesdropping in dogs according to which they can develop a preference for people based on their cooperativeness towards others. In this study, we tested dogs´ eavesdropping abilities one step further: we made them choose between cooperative demonstrators (the donors) who subjects observed interacting with a person asking for food (the beggar); here, the only difference between donors was not in their behavior but in whether the beggar reacted positively or negatively (through verbal and gestural means) to them. In fact, dogs preferred to approach the donor towards which the beggar reacted positively. Besides, in two other groups, we showed that neither the beggar´s body gestures nor the verbal component of the interaction on their own were sufficient to affect the dogs´ preferences. We also ran two further groups to test for the possibility of dogs´ choices being driven by local enhancement, but we did not find evidence of systematic place preferences. We conclude that dogs´ abilities to track reputation are more sophisticated than previously thought and may rely on multiple cues. We relate these findings to dogs´ phylogenetic domestication process and their ontogenetic reliance on humans to access valuable resources.

Author affiliation: Freidin, Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiarida. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Centro de Recursos Naturales Renovables de la Zona Semiarida; Argentina

Author affiliation: Putrino, Natalia Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; Argentina

Author affiliation: D'orazio, Maria Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; Argentina

Author affiliation: Bentosela, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas; Argentina

Abstract:

The insular cortex (IC) is considered a rich hub for context-sensitive emotions/social cognition. Patients with focal IC stroke provide unique opportunities to study socio-emotional processes. Nevertheless, Couto et al. (2013b) have recently reported controversial results regarding IC involvement in emotion and social cognition. Similarly, patients with similar lesions show high functional variability, ranging from almost totally preserved to strongly impaired behavior. Critical evidence suggests that the variability of these patients in the above domains can be explained by enhanced neuroplasticity, compensatory processes, and functional remapping after stroke. Therefore, socio-emotional processes would depend on long-distance connections between the IC and frontotemporal regions. We propose that predictive coding and effective connectivity represent a novel approach to explore functional connectivity and assess compensatory, contralateral, and subsidiary network differences among focal stroke patients. This approach would help explain why socio-emotional performance is so variable within this population.

Author affiliation: Limongi, Roberto. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile

Author affiliation: Tomio, Ailin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina

Author affiliation: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Australian Research Council; Australia