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The search for neural correlates of emotional consciousness has gained momentum in the last decades. Nonetheless, disagreements concerning the mechanisms that determine the experiential qualities of emotional consciousness—the "what is it like" to feel an emotion—as well as on their neural correlates have far-reaching consequences on how researchers study and measure emotion, sometimes leading to seemingly irresolvable impasses. The current paper lays out in a balanced way the viewpoint of both cognitive and precognitive approaches to emotional consciousness on the basis of commonalities and differences between the claims of some relevant theories of emotions. We examine the sufficiency of the existing evidence in support of the proposed theories of emotional consciousness by going through the methodological specificity of the study of emotional consciousness and its unique challenges and highlighting what can and cannot be imported by advances in research on perceptual consciousness. We propose that there are three key experimental contrasts that are each equally necessary in the search for the neural correlates of emotional consciousness and each contrast alone coming with its own limitations. We conclude by acknowledging some of the most promising avenues in the field, which may help go beyond the current limitations and collaboratively piece together the puzzle of emotional consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thanks to the current advances in the software analysis of facial expressions, there is a burgeoning interest in understanding emotional facial expressions observed during the retrieval of autobiographical memories. This review describes the research on facial expressions during autobiographical retrieval showing distinct emotional facial expressions according to the characteristics of retrieved memoires. More specifically, this research demonstrates that the retrieval of emotional memories can trigger corresponding emotional facial expressions (e.g. positive memories may trigger positive facial expressions). Also, this study demonstrates the variations of facial expressions according to specificity, self-relevance, or past versus future direction of memory construction. Besides linking research on facial expressions during autobiographical retrieval to cognitive and affective characteristics of autobiographical memory in general, this review positions this research within the broader context research on the physiologic characteristics of autobiographical retrieval. We also provide several perspectives for clinical studies to investigate facial expressions in populations with deficits in autobiographical memory (e.g. whether autobiographical overgenerality in neurologic and psychiatric populations may trigger few emotional facial expressions). In sum, this review paper demonstrates how the evaluation of facial expressions during autobiographical retrieval may help understand the functioning and dysfunctioning of autobiographical memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permeating across societies and cultures, music is a companion to millions across the globe. Despite being an abstract art form, music affects all of us deeply, encouraging us in periods of difficulty, comforting us in moments of sadness and celebrating with us in times of joy. In recent years, neuroscientists have recognized that listening to and producing music involves a tantalizing mix of practically every human cognitive function. Thus, music has emerged as an invaluable tool to study varying aspects of the human brain such as auditory and motor perception and learning, attention, memory, and emotion. In this paper, we will discuss the different attributes of music and the neural structures associated with them. We will also highlight some recent work in our laboratory at the National Brain Research Centre in India on emotions associated with Hindustani rāga music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the ethical implications of assessments of decision-making capacity, adequate definitions and appropriate assessment criteria are essential, especially with regard to clinical practice in psychiatry. Currently applied standards have been criticized for emphasizing exclusively cognitive abilities. In particular, the present paper questions the adequacy of the current reasoning criterion. Referring to dual-process models of decision making, it is argued that the reasoning standard embraces only one side of the duality that is rational deliberation, and fails to take proper account of intuitive decision making. An outline of intuition's potency in health care decisions informs the present account of why the current reasoning standard fails to take adequate accoun: of patients' decision-making preferences and of major deficits in intuitive reasoning. Toward a more comprehensive understanding, a possible reconceptualization of reasoning as the ability to decision-related self-reflection is advanced, and implications for evaluation, challenges, and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals exposed to elevated noise levels experience heightened emotional intensity, leading to increased cognitive disruption and a higher likelihood of accidents. This study seeks to investigate the impact of noise exposure on human cognitive performance, and the moderating role of emotion. Twelve healthy male college-age students underwent exposure to three noise conditions, each characterized by different sound pressure levels and sharpness. Each condition included an initial acoustic/thermal adaption period lasting approximately 40 min, followed by intermittent questionnaire tests and a battery of computerized cognitive tests. Statistical analysis revealed that reducing noise levels proved advantageous, enhancing perceived sound quality, positive emotions, and auditory perception abilities, while concurrently reducing false alerts and accelerating execution speed. Many of these effects were found to be counteracted by elevated sharpness. Correlation analyses and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results suggested that human emotions mediate the relationship between noise exposure and cognitive performance. The potential underlying mechanism suggests that negative feelings towards noise contribute to poor emotional states, subsequently influencing cognitive processes and impairing executive function. The outcomes of this study provide valuable insights into the mechanism of noise exposure and its effects on human cognition and subjective perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the idea that multiplicity of viewpoint is the norm in discourse ( Mey, 1999; Verhagen, 2005; Dancygier, 2012b ), this paper presents an analysis of viewpoint in radio narratives in terms of Mental Spaces and Conceptual Integration Theory (MSCIT). More specifically, it studies the linguistic and cognitive strategies used by narrators of late night call-in radio programmes to disclose intimate experiences; that is, the strategies used to solve the tension between the need to share their traumatic experiences and the need to protect themselves from strangers, between what they want to say and how they can say it within this specific medial setting. A thorough integration of MSCIT theoretical and analytical tools, based on the notion of mixed viewpoint discourse ( Dancygier, 2012b; Dancygier and Vandelanotte, 2016 ), helps to better understand the fragmented and complex structure of the text under study, the idiosyncratic features of the communicative medium, as well as how the narrator manages to turn an individual, intimate experience into a global story shared by the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variation in the language experience of bilinguals has consequences for cognitive and affective processes. In the current study, we examined how bilingual experience influences the relationship between language and emotion in English among a group of Spanish–English heritage bilinguals on an emotion–memory task. Participants rated the emotionality of English taboo, negative and neutral words and then completed an unexpected recognition test. To account for language experience, data were gathered on the participants' language dominance and proficiency. Results showed emotion–memory effects in the Spanish–English heritage bilinguals' English (the societal language): taboo words were recognized significantly better than neutral words, while the emotionality of negative words carried over and significantly affected the recognition of preceding neutral words. Furthermore, such effects were modulated by language dominance scores with more pronounced emotion–memory effects in more English-dominant bilinguals. The findings contribute to a growing body of evidence showing that emotions are not necessarily restricted to the first acquired home language. Critically, for heritage speakers, there is often a shift in language dominance from the home language to the societal language. The present study demonstrates that the effects of emotion on memory are seen in the acquired societal language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenge and threat reflect two distinct psychophysiological approaches to motivated performance situations. Challenge is related to superior performance in a range of tasks compared to threat, thus methods to promote challenge are valuable. In this paper we manipulate challenge and threat cardiovascular reactivity using only resource appraisals, without altering perceived task demands between challenge and threat conditions. Study 1 used a competitive throwing task and Study 2 used a physically demanding climbing task. In both studies challenge task instructions led to challenge cardiovascular reactivity and threat task instructions led to threat cardiovascular reactivity. In Study 1, participants who received challenge instructions performed better than participants who received threat instructions. In Study 2, attendance at the climbing task did not differ across groups. The findings have implications for stress management in terms of focusing on manipulating appraisals of upcoming tasks by promoting self-efficacy and perceived control and focusing on approach goals. Future research could more reliably assess the influence of similar task instructions on performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Emotion or stress can jeopardize decision-making relevance and cognitive functioning. In this paper we examine plan continuation error (PCE), an erroneous behavior defined as a “failure to revise a flight plan despite emerging evidence that suggests it is no longer safe” (Orasanu et al., 2001). Our hypothesis is that negative emotional consequences attached to the go-around decision provoke a temporary impairment of the decision-making process and favor PCE. We investigated this hypothesis with a simplified landing task in which two possible contributors to those emotions, namely the uncertainty of a decision outcome and the reward/punishment, associated to the outcome were manipulated. A behavioral experiment (n =12) and a second one (n =6) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were conducted. Behavioral results of both studies showed the effectiveness of the financial incentive to bias decision making toward a more risky and less rational behavior from a safety point of view. Neuroimaging data showed that the PCE behavior was underpinned by the contribution of brain circuitry of emotion and reward during the decision-making process. Taken together, behavioral and fMRI result support the hypothesis that PCE can be provoked by a temporary impairment of rational decision-making due to the negative emotional consequences attached with the go-around. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reptiles and amphibians have been neglected in research on cognition, emotions, sociality, need for enriched and stimulating environments, and other topics that have been greatly emphasized in work on mammals and birds. This is also evident in the historic lack of enriching captive environments to reduce boredom and encourage natural behavior and psychological well-being. This paper provides those responsible for the care of reptiles and amphibians a brief overview of concepts, methods, and sample findings on behavioral complexity and the role of controlled deprivation in captive herpetological collections. Most work has been done on reptiles, however, and so they are emphasized. Amphibians and reptiles, though not admitting of easy anthropomorphism, do show many traits common in birds and mammals including sophisticated communication, problem solving, parental care, play, and complex sociality. Zoos and aquariums are important resources to study many aspects of these often exotic, rare, and fascinating animals, and rich research opportunities await those willing to study them and apply the wide range of methods and technology now available. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The term somatization has generated confusion since it was originally formulated. This conceptual difficulty leads to limitations in the development of diagnostic processes, in advancing the theoretical knowledge, and the establishment of a significantly effective treatment. Given the various multi-causal factors such as environmental, genetic, biological and psychosocial, the emotional processes or cognitive-emotional processes could provide an emotional-integrative factor that has been little studied. This paper reviews the latest research on the processes that integrate cognition and emotion associated with somatization, using a search for articles in English and Spanish on MEDLINE and Dialnet from 2002 to 2012, with the search terms "somatization", "emotion" and "mental process". It has been studied processes such as emotional recognition, attentional processes, cognitive reappraisal, expectation and the mediation of negative affectivity inter alia. Neurophysiological research highlights the activity of the prefrontal areas, the amygdala and cingulate cortex in subjects with somatization, suggesting a deficit in emotional regulation processes that modulates the Central Nervous System. Finally, the relevance of some treatment approaches are speculated and some lines of cognitive-emotional processes research in somatization are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal socialization researchers have largely ignored the importance of emotion in the legal socialization process and engagement in crime. The purpose of the current study was to argue the potential importance of moral emotions (e.g., guilt) in legal socialization and take a preliminary step to integrate an emotion component into an existing model. The current study investigated whether the moral emotion of guilt, using both proneness and anticipatory measures, would predict rule‐violating behavior (RVB) as part of the integrated cognitive legal socialization model. The study used survey data from 474 participants who were part of a longitudinal study of adolescent rule‐violating behavior. Results showed that guilt proneness functioned as a predictor of RVB in parallel with legal reasoning, while anticipatory guilt served as a mediator in parallel with normative attitude mediators. Enforcement status (i.e., feeling people should be punished for committing RVB) mediated the relation between guilt proneness and RVB, while normative status (i.e., approval for engaging in RVB) and anticipatory guilt mediated the relation between legal reasoning and RVB. These findings help to advance legal socialization by demonstrating the unique contribution of emotion in legal socialization theory and provide a foundation for future research in this area. The implications for the role of emotion in both the integrated cognitive legal socialization model and the procedural justice legal socialization model and future directions for further inquiry are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjective feelings are a central feature of human life. We defined the organization and determinants of a feeling space involving 100 core feelings that ranged from cognitive and affective processes to somatic sensations and common illnesses. The feeling space was determined by a combination of basic dimension rating, similarity mapping, bodily sensation mapping, and neuroimaging metaanalysis. A total of 1,026 participants took part in online surveys where we assessed (i) for each feeling, the intensity of four hypothesized basic dimensions (mental experience, bodily sensation, emotion, and controllability), (ii) subjectively experienced similarity of the 100 feelings, and (iii) topography of bodily sensations associated with each feeling. Neural similarity between a subset of the feeling states was derived from the NeuroSynth meta-analysis database based on the data from 9,821 brain-imaging studies. All feelings were emotionally valenced and the saliency of bodily sensations correlated with the saliency of mental experiences associated with each feeling. Nonlinear dimensionality reduction revealed five feeling clusters: positive emotions, negative emotions, cognitive processes, somatic states and illnesses, and homeostatic states. Organization of the feeling space was best explained by basic dimensions of emotional valence, mental experiences, and bodily sensations. Subjectively felt similarity of feelings was associated with basic feeling dimensions and the topography of the corresponding bodily sensations. These findings reveal a map of subjective feelings that are categorical, emotional, and embodied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both scholars and practitioners acknowledge that the major factors explaining behavior are cognition, emotion, and context. However, existing theories tend to only focus on a combination of two. Furthermore, not all models are rooted in a specific theory of mind. Finally, there is no consistent definition of ‘mind.’ To address these issues, we review the major models explaining behavior. We then describe the Theory of Analysis of Demand (TAD), an interactionist (individual-context) model of functioning of mind that thoroughly addresses the conjoint interplay of cognition, emotion, and context. A key concept of the TAD is emotional symbolization, the process of relating one’s experiences of the external context with an inevitable emotional reaction. By considering an intersection among cognition, emotion, and context, TAD fills the gap in the existing literature and expands our understanding of behavior. Moreover, we describe the TAD intervention methodology, Individual-Setting of intervention-Organization technique, which explores an individual’s demand for intervention and the underlying emotion-, cognition-, and context-related categories (i.e., emotional symbolization) that prompt the request. Last, we discuss the potential benefits and boundary conditions of the TAD to integrate existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is evidence of a detrimental effect of emotion on reasoning. Recent studies suggest that this relationship is mediated by working memory, a function closely associated with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Relying on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), the present research explores the possibility that anodal stimulation of the dlPFC has the potential to prevent the effect of emotion on analytical reasoning. Thirty-four participants took part in a lab experiment and were tested twice: one session using offline anodal stimulation (with a 2 mA current stimulation applied to the left dlPFC for 20 min), one session using a control (sham) stimulation. In each session, participants solved syllogistic reasoning problems featuring neutral and emotionally negative contents. Results showed that anodal stimulation diminished the deleterious effect of emotion on syllogistic reasoning, but only for a subclass of problems: problems where the conclusion was logically valid. We discuss our results in the light of the reasoning literature as well as the apparent variability of tDCS effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I join the growing ranks of theorists who reject the terms of traditional debates about the nature of emotion, debates that have long focused on the question of whether emotions should be understood as either cognitive or somatic kinds of states. Here, I propose and defend a way of incorporating both into a single theory, which I label the “Integrated Representational Theory” of emotion (IRT). In Section 2 I begin to construct the theory, defining and explaining emotions in terms of three pieces of content: representations of (1) the emoter’s body, (2) something in the world, and (3) a relevance relation between the objects of these first two pieces of content. I describe four general advantages I think the IRT offers. Finally, in Section 3, I elucidate and defend my account by contrasting it with another, similar proposal: Barlassina and Newen’s Impure Somatic Theory. In so doing, I explain two additional advantages of my view: first, it supports a unified explanation of all types of emotional response; and second, it offers the best framework for explaining how the representational contents of an emotion are integrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageing is associated with declines in several cognitive abilities including working memory (WM). The goal of the present study was to assess whether emotional information could reduce the age gap in the quantity and quality (precision) of representations in visual WM. Young and older adults completed a serial image recognition (SIR) task and a colour-image binding (CIB) task. Results of the SIR task showed worse performance for negative than neutral and positive images within the older group, hence enlarging the age gap in WM. In the CIB task, recall precision was lower in the old than young adults, showing an ageing decline in the quality of WM representations. Positive images tended to improve precision, but this boost was similar for both age groups. In sum, emotional content did not reduce the age gap in visual WM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To succeed in self-regulation, people need to believe that it is possible to change behaviour and they also need to use effective means to enable such a change. We propose that this also applies to emotion regulation. In two studies, we found that people were most successful in emotion regulation, the more they believed emotions can be controlled and the more they used an effective emotion regulation strategy – namely, cognitive reappraisal. Cognitive reappraisal moderated the link between beliefs about the controllability of emotion and success in emotion regulation, when reappraisal was measured as a trait (Study 1) or manipulated (Study 2). Such moderation was found when examining the regulation of disgust elicited by emotion-inducing films (Study 1), and the regulation of anger elicited by real political events (Study 2). We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice in emotion regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between emotion and attention has fascinated researchers for decades. Many previous studies have used eye-tracking, ERP, MEG, and fMRI to explore this issue but have reached different conclusions: some researchers hold that emotion cognition is an automatic process and independent of attention, while some others believed that emotion cognition is modulated by attentional resources and is a type of controlled processing. The present research aimed to investigate this controversy, and we hypothesized that the attentional dependence of emotion cognition is variable with the competing task. Eye-tracking technology and a dual-task paradigm were adopted, and subjects' attention was manipulated to fixate at the central task to investigate whether subjects could detect the emotional faces presented in the peripheral area with a decrease or near-absence of attention. The results revealed that when the peripheral task was emotional face discrimination but the central attention-demanding task was different, subjects performed well in the peripheral task, which means that emotional information can be processed in parallel with other stimuli, and there may be a specific channel in the human brain for processing emotional information. However, when the central and peripheral tasks were both emotional face discrimination, subjects could not perform well in the peripheral task, indicating that the processing of emotional information required attentional resources and that it is a type of controlled processing. Therefore, we concluded that the attentional dependence of emotion cognition varied with the competing task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Broaden-and-Build Theory states that positive emotions broaden cognition and therefore build personal resources. However, missing theoretical precision regarding the interaction of the cognitive processes involved offers a variety of possible explanations for the mechanisms of broadening and building. In Experiment 1 we tested the causality assumption which states that positive emotions first broaden visual attention which in turn leads to broadened cognition. We examined the effects of a broadened, narrowed or neutral attentional scope of 72 subjects (30 men) on their momentary thought-action repertoire. Results showed that there were no significant differences between groups regarding the breadth or the content of the thought-action repertoire. In Experiment 2 we studied the non-causality hypothesis which assumes a non-causal relationship between cognitive processes. We did so by investigating the effects of negative, neutral, and positive affect on the visual attentional scope of 85 subjects (41 men) in Experiment 2a, as well as on the thought-action repertoire of 85 participants (42 men) in Experiment 2b. Results revealed an attentional broadening effect in Experiment 2a but no differences between groups concerning the breadth of the thought-action repertoire in Experiment 2b. However, a theory driven content analysis showed that positive affect promoted social actions. Thus, our results favor the non-causality assumption. Moreover, results indicate that positive emotions do not target personal resources in general but rather resources associated with social behavior. In conclusion, we argue that the Broadenand- Build Theory should be refined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trypophobia refers to disgust for a cluster of objects, and is considered an extension of disgust for dangerous objects. Furthermore, trypophobic images possess certain spatial properties that can induce perceptually unpleasant states (i.e., visual discomfort). We examined whether trypophobia is associated with disgust sensitivity, empathic traits, and visual discomfort. Japanese adults ( n = 126) completed four scales: the Trypophobia Questionnaire, which measures trypophobia proneness; the Disgust Scale-Revised, which measures disgust sensitivity; the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, which measures empathic traits; and the Visual Discomfort Scale, which measures proneness to visual discomfort. Trypophobia proneness was found to be predicted by Core disgust sensitivity (i.e., threat of disease), Personal Distress (i.e., the empathic trait of self-oriented emotional distress), and proneness to visual discomfort. We suggest a number of potential factors relating to individual differences in trypophobia and the possible cognitive and perceptual mechanisms underlying trypophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a Web ontology for modeling and representation of the emotional, cognitive and motivational state of online learners, interacting with university systems for distance or blended education. The ontology is understood as a way to provide the required mechanisms to model reality and associate it to emotional responses, but without committing to a particular way of organizing these emotional responses. Knowledge representation for the contributed ontology is performed by using Web Ontology Language (OWL), a semantic web language designed to represent rich and complex knowledge about things, groups of things, and relations between things. OWL is a computational logic-based language such that computer programs can exploit knowledge expressed in OWL and also facilitates sharing and reusing knowledge using the global infrastructure of theWeb. The proposed ontology has been tested in the field of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to check if it is capable of representing emotions and motivation of the students in this context of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis that word representations are emotionally impoverished in a second language (L2) has variable support. However, this hypothesis has only been tested using tasks that present words in isolation or that require laboratory-specific decisions. Here, we recorded eye movements for 34 bilinguals who read sentences in their L2 with no goal other than comprehension, and compared them to 43 first language readers taken from our prior study. Positive words were read more quickly than neutral words in the L2 across first-pass reading time measures. However, this emotional advantage was absent for negative words for the earliest measures. Moreover, negative words but not positive words were influenced by concreteness, frequency and L2 proficiency in a manner similar to neutral words. Taken together, the findings suggest that only negative words are at risk of emotional disembodiment during L2 reading, perhaps because a positivity bias in L2 experiences ensures that positive words are emotionally grounded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The error-related negativity (ERN) currently appears as a physiological measure in relation to three Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) constructs: Cognitive Control, Sustained Threat, and Reward Learning. We propose a conceptual model in which variance in the ERN reflects individual differences in the degree to which errors are evaluated as threatening. We also discuss evidence for the placement of the ERN in the 'Sustained Threat' construct, as well as evidence that the ERN may more specifically reflect sensitivity to endogenous threat. Following this, we present data from a sample of 515 adolescent females demonstrating a larger ERN in relation to self-reported checking behaviors, but only in older adolescents, suggesting that sensitivity to internal threat and the ERN-checking relationship may follow a developmental course as adolescents develop behavioral control. In contrast, depressive symptoms were linked to a smaller ERN, and this association was invariant with respect to age. Collectively, these data suggest that the magnitude of the ERN is sensitive both to specific anxiety-related processes and depression, in opposing directions that may reflect variation in internal threat sensitivity. We discuss directions for future research, as well as ways in which findings for the ERN complement and challenge aspects of the current RDoC matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the laboratory, studies have shown an inconsistent pattern of whether, and how, mood may affect cognitive functions indicating both mood-related enhancement as well as decline. Surprisingly, little is known about whether there are similar effects in everyday life. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate possible mood effects on memory and executive control in a real-life situation. Mood effects were examined in the context of winning in a sports competition. Sixty-one male handball players were tested with an extensive cognitive test battery (comprising memory and executive control) both after winning a match and after training as neutral baseline. Mood differed significantly between the two testing situations, while physiological arousal and motivation were comparable. Results showed lowered performance after the win compared with training in selected cognitive measures. Specifically, short-term and episodic memory performance was poorer following a win, whereas executive control performance was unaffected by condition. Differences in memory disappeared when emotional states after the match were entered as covariates into the initial analyses. Thus, findings suggest mood-related impairments in memory, but not in executive control processes after a positive real-life event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the moderating impact of the personality construct alexithymia on the ability of younger and older adults to control the recall of negative and neutral material. We conducted two experiments using the directed forgetting paradigm with younger and older adults. Participants studied negative (Experiment 1) or neutral (Experiment 2) words. Participants were instructed to forget the first half and remember the second half of an entire list of words. Overall, we found that alexithymia impairs the ability of both younger and older adults to cognitively control negative material (through both recall and inhibition). The “externally oriented thinking” factor of alexithymia appears to play a particularly pertinent role in terms of inhibiting negative material. Furthermore, older adults recalled fewer sought after negative items, but this was not evident in terms of inhibition. In contrast, only age (older adults) negatively impacted the recall of sought after neutral items. Interestingly, alexithymia had the opposite effect: the “difficulty in identifying emotions” factor of alexithymia was associated with an increased recall of neutral items. We discuss these results in terms of alexithymia and its impact on cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examined whether positive and negative affect motivates verbal and spatial working memory processes, respectively, which have implications for the expenditure of mental effort. We argue that when emotion promotes cognitive tendencies that are goal incompatible with task demands, greater cognitive effort is required to perform well. We sought to investigate whether this increase in cognitive effort impairs behavioural control over a broad domain of self-control tasks. Moreover, we predicted that individuals with higher behavioural inhibition system (BIS) sensitivities would report more negative affect within the goal incompatible conditions because such individuals report higher negative affect during cognitive challenge. Positive or negative affective states were induced followed by completing a verbal or spatial 2-back working memory task. All participants then completed one of three self-control tasks. Overall, we observed that conditions of emotion and working memory incompatibility (positive/spatial and negative/verbal) performed worse on the self-control tasks, and within the incompatible conditions individuals with higher BIS sensitivities reported more negative affect at the end of the study. The combination of findings suggests that emotion and working memory compatibility reduces cognitive effort and impairs behavioural control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although poorer cognitive performance has been found to be associated with anxiety, it remains unclear whether neurocognitive function affects biased cognitive processing toward emotional information. We investigated whether general cognitive function evaluated with a standard neuropsychological test predicts biased cognition, focusing on attentional bias toward threat. Methods: One hundred and five healthy young adults completed a dot-probe task measuring attentional bias and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) measuring general cognitive function, which consists of five domains: immediate memory, visuospatial/constructional, language, attention, and delayed memory. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between attentional bias and cognitive function. Results: The attentional domain was the best predictor of attentional bias toward threat (β = -0.26, p = 0.006).Within the attentional domain, digit symbol coding was negatively correlated with attentional bias (r = -0.28, p = 0.005). Conclusions: The present study provides the first evidence that general attentional ability, which was assessed with a standard neuropsychological test, affects attentional bias toward threatening information. Individual cognitive profiles might be important for the measurement and modification of cognitive biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship among cardiovascular responses indicative of challenge and threat states, self-efficacy, perceived control, and emotions before an upcoming competition. Using a repeated-measures design, 48 collegiate athletes talked about an upcoming competition (sport-specific speech task) and the topic of friendship (control speech task), whilst cardiovascular responses (heart rate, preejection period, cardiac output, and total peripheral resistance) were collected and self-report measures of self-efficacy, perceived control, and emotions completed. Findings showed that participants with a physiological threat response reported higher levels of self-efficacy and excitement. Further, none of the other emotions or the cognitive appraisals of challenge and threat predicted cardiovascular patterns indicative of either a challenge or threat state. Thus, cardiovascular responses and self-report measures of self-efficacy, perceived control, and emotions did not correlate in the manner predicted by the theory of challenge and threat states in athletes. This finding may reflect methodological aspects, or that perhaps highly efficacious individuals believe they can perform well and so the task itself is more threatening because failure would indicate under-performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on the effects of graphic warnings related to excessive gambling. It is based upon a theoretical model derived from both the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). We focus on video lottery terminal (VLT), one of the most hazardous format in the gaming industry. Our cohort consisted of 103 actual gamblers who reported previous gambling activity on VLT's on a regular basis. We assess the effectiveness of graphic warnings vs. text-only warnings and the effectiveness of two major arguments (i.e., family vs. financial disruption). A 2 × 2 factorial design was used to test the direct and combined effects of two variables (i.e., warning content and presence vs. absence of a graphic). It was found that the presence of a graphic enhances both cognitive appraisal and fear, and has positive effects on the Depth of Information Processing. In addition, graphic content combined with family disruptions is more effective for changing attitudes and complying with the warning than other combinations of the manipulated variables. It is proposed that ELM and PMT complement each other to explain the effects of warnings. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is widespread belief that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are “emotionally detached” from others. This comprehensive review examines the empirical evidence for this assumption, addressing three critical questions: (1) Are emotion-processing impairmentsuniversalin ASD? (2) Are theyspecific, or can they be explained by deficits in other domains? (3) Is the emotion processing profile seen in ASDuniqueto these conditions? Upon review of the literature (over 200 studies), we conclude that: (1) emotion-processing impairments might not be universal in ASD, as suggested by variability across participants and across emotion-processing tasks; (2) emotion-processing impairments might not be specific to ASD, as domain-general processes appear to account for some of these impairments; and (3) the specific pattern of emotion-processing strengths and weaknesses observed in ASD, involving difficulties with processing social versus non-social, and complex versus simple emotional information (with impairments more consistently reported on implicit than explicit emotion-processing tasks), appears to be unique to ASD. The emotion-processing profile observed in ASD might be best understood as resulting from heterogeneous vulnerabilities in different components of an “emotional communication system” that, in typical development, emerges from the interplay between domain-general cognitive, social and affective processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now widely accepted that in addition to motor coordination, the cerebellum is also involved in the modulation of cognitive and affective processes. Despite alcoholic cerebellar degeneration (ACD) being the most common form of cerebellar disorder, little systematic investigation of cerebellar-mediated cognitive and affective deficits has occurred in chronic alcoholics. Forty-nine chronic alcoholics and 29 healthy control participants underwent testing of cognitive and affective function, along with measurement of cerebellar ataxia using the International Cooperative Ataxia Rating Scale (Trouillas et al., Journal of the Neurological Sciences 145:205-11, ). The alcoholic group demonstrated significantly poorer performance as compared to the control group in a number of domains, including visuospatial and language skills, psychomotor speed, new learning and memory, executive functioning, and emotional regulation and affect processing. There were no differences between the alcoholic and control groups in immediate attention and working memory abilities. Years of heavy drinking and total period of abstinence were found to be the best predictors of cognitive and emotional function in the alcoholic group. After accounting for alcohol chronicity, there was still a relationship between the degree of clinical signs of ACD and some areas of cognitive and emotional functioning, including language, executive functioning, processing speed and affect processing. The results suggest that some of the cognitive and affective deficits observed in chronic alcoholics may be mediated, at least in part, by cerebellar dysfunction. These findings add support to the theory of disruption to bidirectional cerebro-cerebellar circuitry underlying cognitive and affective deficits in chronic alcoholics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affective startle modulation in the electromyographic (EMG), auditory startle evoked potentials, and visually evoked potentials (VEPs) were assessed while subjects evaluated pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral adjectives. Acoustic startle probes were presented at random time points 2.5–4.0 s after word onset. The visual P2 and P3 potentials were generally larger during processing of emotional than of neutral adjectives. In contrast, the late positive component was enhanced and was correlated with larger EMG startle responses and auditory startle evoked potential P3 amplitudes for pleasant words only. During internal cognitive activity, the startle reflex represents a measure of ”processing interrupt.” Thus the startle tone interrupted processing of particularly pleasant adjectives and caused re-alerting to environmental stimuli. Specific effects for pleasant material may arise from a ”positivity offset,” favoring responses to pleasant material at lower arousal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

- Few studies include associations of emotions, or of individual differences in emotionality, to academic competence, and there are virtually no empirical data on when or why relations exist (or do not exist). The few studies of emotion and achievement have largely focused on anxiety, but there has been scant theoretical and empirical attention devoted to the treatment of other emotions. It is suggested that considering the moderated and indirect effects of students' emotions on their academic functioning may provide an understanding of whether and under what circumstances emotions are related to achievement. This article briefly reviews findings linking situational and dispositional negative or positive emotions to academic achievement and suggests that researchers can learn much about relations between emotions and achievement by considering the potential moderating role of effortful control, as well as considering the mediating roles that cognitive processes, motivational mechanisms, and classroom relationships play in linking emotions and achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]