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Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly gaining importance as a valuable methodical tool for psychological research. The greatest benefit of using VR is generating rich, complex and vivid, but still highly controllable settings. As VR has been found to elicit lifelike psychophysiological and emotional responses, we examined by means of a height exposure whether VR resembles physical reality to the necessary degree to constitute a suitable framework for investigating real-life behavior in a controlled experimental context. As hypothesized, participants behaved in VR exactly as would be appropriate in a real environment: Being exposed to great height, participants walked significantly slower across a virtual steel girder construction protruding from a high-rise building as compared to participants who traversed the very same construction on the ground level. In the height condition, this realistic behavior could be predicted on basis of the participants' trait anxiety. Aligned with the behavioral responses, they showed realistic psychophysiological responses, i.e., an elevated heart rate when exposed to height. Interestingly, participants of the height condition reported a greater sense of presence, which indicates that emotions have an elevating effect on presence. As a conclusion, our findings provide further evidence that VR evokes lifelike responses at both behavioral and psychophysiological level and therefore increases ecological validity of psychological experiments.

Caregiving touch has been shown to be essential for the growth and development of human infants. However, the physiological and behavioral mechanisms that underpin infants' sensitivity to pleasant touch are still poorly understood. In human adults, a subclass of unmyelinated peripheral nerve fibers has been shown to respond preferentially to medium-velocity soft brushing. It has been theorized that this privileged pathway for pleasant touch is used for close affiliative interactions with conspecific individuals, especially between caregivers and infants. To test whether human infants are sensitive to pleasant touch, we examined arousal (heart rate) and attentional engagement (gaze shifts and duration of looks) to varying velocities of brushing (slow, medium, and fast) in 9-month-old infants. Our results provide physiological and behavioral evidence that sensitivity to pleasant touch emerges early in development and therefore plays an important role in regulating human social interactions.

Interdependent cultures (such as the Chinese) and independent cultures (such as the German) differ in their attitude towards harmony that is more valued in interdependent cultures. Interdependent and independent cultures also differ in their appreciation of anger--an emotion that implies the disruption of harmony. The present study investigated if interdependent and independent cultures foster distinct brain activity associated with empathic processing of familiar angry, familiar neutral, and unfamiliar neutral faces. Using functional MRI, we scanned Chinese and German healthy subjects during an intentional empathy task, a control task (the evaluation of skin color), and a baseline condition. The subject groups were matched with regard to age, gender, and education. Behaviorally, Chinese subjects described themselves as significantly more interdependent compared to German subjects. The contrast 'intentional empathy for familiar angry'>'baseline' revealed several regions, including the left inferior frontal cortex, the left supplementary motor area, and the left insula, that showed comparable hemodynamic responses in both groups. However, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex had stronger hemodynamic responses in Chinese subjects in the contrast 'intentional empathy for familiar angry'>'baseline'. Germans, in contrast, showed stronger hemodynamic responses in the right temporo-parietal junction, right inferior and superior temporal gyrus, and left middle insula for the same contrast. Hemodynamic responses in the latter three brain regions correlated with interdependences scores over all subjects. Our results suggest that enhanced emotion regulation during empathy with anger in the interdependent lifestyle is mediated by the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Increased tolerance towards the expression of anger in the independent lifestyle, in contrast, is associated with increased activity of the right inferior and superior temporal gyrus and the left middle insula., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The study's objectives were to characterize the concerns and self-treating efforts of men seeking medical treatment for male pattern hair loss (MPHL) and to describe their expectations and actual experiences of a physician consultation., Methods: The online survey in six countries (United States, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, and Korea) involved 604 men (25-49 years old) self-identifying with MPHL., Results: Approximately 75% of the study's treatment-seeking men were concerned, very concerned, or extremely concerned about their hair loss; 96% were at least somewhat concerned. This high level of concern translated into multiple information-seeking actions (53.9% reported two or three actions; 24.6% reported four or five actions) and multiple self-treatments prior to physician consultation. Only 16% of the sample had not tried any treatment. Many treatment-motivated men with MPHL were uncomfortable (21%) or only moderately comfortable (37%) consulting with a physician and delayed this consultation. Factors motivating men with MPHL to consult a physician included a concern about worsening hair loss (82%), a desire to benefit from physicians' treatment expertise (85%) or physician-prescribed products (75%), and dissatisfaction with non-prescription products (73%). Expectations for the physician's treatment actions were met less often than was desired, resulting in dissatisfaction among one-fourth of the men. Dissatisfaction stemmed from lack of specific treatment recommendations (66%), unanswered questions (54%), and a perception that the doctor was uncomfortable or uninterested in discussing their hair loss (52%). Potential study limitations included self-identification of MPHL, reliance on respondents' recall, and a lack of verification of professed future physician consultations., Conclusions: The typical man seeking MPHL treatment has significant concerns about the condition and has already engaged in considerable efforts to obtain information and to self-treat. Individualized consideration of attitudes, concerns, self-treating efforts, and expectations is crucial for effective management of men seeking medical treatment for MPHL.