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Brain-computer interface technology has made significant progress in the field of intelligent human-computer interaction. Among them, electroencephalography-based emotion recognition, as one of the important research directions in emotional brain-computer interaction, has received widespread attention. However, most previous studies were limited to feature extraction of global brain networks and local brain areas in the EEG spatial domain but ignored the channel-level dynamic features of EEG. To address this limitation, we proposed a Channel-Adaptive Graph Convolutional Network with Temporal Encoder (CAG-TEN). In CAG-TEN, the channel-adaptive graph convolutional module assigns a unique parameter space to each channel, focusing on channel-level dynamic features. Additionally, the temporal encoder module, inspired by the Encoders concept, is used to explore long-term temporal dependencies in EEG sequences. We conduct rigorous comparative experiments of CAG-TEN against several representative baseline models on the SEED dataset and achieve optimal performance.

Memorability is an intrinsic property of stimuli, reflecting their average likelihood of being remembered across individuals. While recent research has examined the relationship between semantic relatedness and English word memorability, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other languages, and moreover, whether emotional content contributes to word memorability. We conducted three behavioural cued-recall experiments using Chinese words and implemented computational modeling to examine semantic relatedness and emotional consistency as predictors of memorability. We found that both factors explained word memorability: words that were more semantically dissimilar were associated with higher memorability; broad emotional consistency (non-neutral cue-target pairs) and positive emotional consistency (positive-positive pairs) both had memory advantages. Our results provide new insights into Chinese word memorability, and the potential contributions of semantics and emotion.

Grief is a reaction to loss that is observed across human cultures and even in other species. While the particular expressions of grief vary significantly, universal aspects include experiences of emotional pain and frequent remembering of what was lost. Despite its prevalence, and its obvious nature, considering grief from a normative perspective is puzzling: Why do we grieve? Why is it painful? And why is it sometimes prolonged enough to be clinically impairing? Using the framework of reinforcement learning with memory replay, we offer answers to these questions and suggest, counter-intuitively, that grief may have normative value with respect to reward maximization. We additionally perform a set of simulations that identify and explore optimal grieving parameters, and use our model to account for empirical phenomena such as individual differences in human grief trajectories.

Prior research on the effects of acoustic music on stress reduction and cognitive performance has produced inconsistent results. This study investigated this relationship by conducting a within-subject experiment involving fifty five college students. The experiment involved playing acoustic music during assessment tasks and measuring changes in perceived stress levels and cognitive performance in music and non-music conditions. Results showed no significant one-way impacts of acoustic music on stress levels or cognitive performance. However, the effect of music on stress levels mediated the relationship between perceived pleasantness of the music and change in cognitive performance in response to music. Listening to liked music may reduce stress, improving performance, while disliked music may increase stress to an optimal level, facilitating performance. Thus, the effect of music on performance depends on individual perceived pleasantness of the music. This study has implications for selecting music for specific purposes, such as relaxation or cognitive enhancement.

This study introduces culture relatedness of words as a novel variable and explores its impact on emotional responses of English-Mandarin bilinguals living in the UK, where their second language (L2) is dominant. First, we conducted a norming study to identify emotive words related to participants' native (e.g., bamboo) and residential (e.g., scones) cultures. We then used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether culture relatedness affects emotional responses to words presented in L1 and L2. We were particularly interested in investigating whether the well-established emotional distance from L2 may be due to cultural distance, and whether concepts related to one's native culture in L2 may enhance affective responses. Initial evidence from ongoing data analyses seems to suggest an interaction of culture relatedness and emotional valance on affective responses. This research offers new insights into the interplay of language, culture, and emotion in bilingual contexts, examining how cultural salience modulates emotional responses.

Navigating social situations is complex due to others' hidden intentions and evolving strategies, requiring learning from past experiences. Anxiety complicates adaptation to uncertainty, especially in non-social settings. However, research on the anxiety's impact on learning within social uncertainty remains scarce. In a preregistered study (N = 190), we investigated whether individuals with higher trait anxiety struggled to adjust learning rates in a social context with stable or volatile outcomes utilizing various learning models (e.g., additive, multiplicative, betrayal). Participants engaged in a modified trust game with stable and volatile players, alongside a non-social task with slot machines. Participants showed higher learning rates in social than non-social contexts, with notably elevated social learning rates in individuals with heightened fear of negative evaluation (FNE)—a crucial trait linked to anxiety, especially social anxiety. This suggests individuals with increased FNE might be more sensitive to learning under social uncertainty.

Virtual Reality (VR) can offer insights into realistic human defensive behavior. In the present work, we sought to elucidate the interplay between feelings and actions in VR-simulated threatening scenarios. Participants (n = 30) encountered various animal threats in VR during a fruit collection task. We retrospectively assessed participants' feelings after each episode on several dimensions, namely valence, arousal, potency, surprise, and anxiety. As predictor variables, we included scenario characteristics, behavioral responses, and personality traits. Our results indicate that the primary determinants for subjective feelings except potency were ultimate survival, the availability of self-defense weapons, and the animals' behavior (attack or not). No strong determinants for potency could be found. Notably, participants' behavioral responses did not independently influence feelings reported later. These findings highlight VR's potential in expanding our understanding of subjective feelings in threatening situations. Our research suggests that behavior and feelings in defensive situations might not be closely linked.

Emotional physiological responses are altered not only by external events, but also by the emotions of the people in front of us. While these interpersonal emotional linkages are considered an important aspect of empathy, it is unclear how they relate to cognitive empathy, that is, how we perceive others' emotions. We investigated the relationship between emotional linkage and emotional cognition in an experiment in which two participants estimate each other's emotions while their heart rates were measured during a thrilling joint task using a block game. We also collected data from the two observers because, in reality, in addition to understanding the emotions of the interacting partner, it is sometimes necessary to understand the emotions of a non-interacting person from a third-person perspective. The results suggest that, for game players, their own heart rate is related to perceived partner emotion, and for observers, the degree of heart rate synchrony between observers is related to perceived player emotion. Capturing emotional cognition in a joint task requires consideration of both individual emotion and interpersonal emotional linkages.

This study investigated the effects of consonant alliteration and meter on valence, arousal, and aesthetic evaluations. In Study 1, native Japanese speakers evaluated valence, arousal, beauty, and understandability of classical Japanese poems after listening to both alliterated and non-alliterated versions. The alliterated poems were rated as slightly calmer than the non-alliterated ones, although the difference was not statistically significant. In Study 2, native Japanese speakers listened to poems that consisted of pseudowords. The poems used as stimuli were systematically made in terms of alliteration and meter. The metered poems were perceived as more preferable, calmer, and more beautiful than the non-metered ones, regardless of the presence or absence of alliteration. Additionally, the alliterated and metered poems were perceived as more exciting than non-alliterated and metered poems. These results suggest that metered poems make people feel beautiful and comfortable. It might be applicable to clinical treatment.

Background: Research on adults with ADHD has recently identified, in addition to cognitive-executive difficulties, significant impairments in emotion regulation. Objective: This study aimed to assess the efficiency of emotion regulation in adults with ADHD using three strategies: observe, reappraise, and suppress. Method: Adults with ADHD (n = 68) and without ADHD (n = 69) were exposed to neutral or negative IAPS image sets and reported their emotions while employing these strategies. Results: The ADHD group displayed significant emotion dysregulation, depressive symptoms, and anxiety compared to the non-ADHD group. Suppression of negative emotions was shown to be the mechanism by which the ADHD group achieved greater suppression efficiency, although both suppression and reappraisal were equally utilized as regulatory strategies. Conclusion: These results highlight the efficiency of suppression in controlling negative emotions in the ADHD population, while also suggesting potential for effective training in reappraisal.

Outrage has often been interpreted as a shorthand for “moral outrage,” anger upon a moral standard being violated (Batson et al., 2007). We ask whether a violation of a moral standard is necessary for producing outrage or whether other variables can also produce it. By presenting participants with a series of potentially outrage-inducing scenarios and measuring their emotional responses, we seek to identify the predictors of outrage. We find that anger and disgust are the strongest predictors of level of outrage compared to sense of threat, level of surprise, level of uncomfortableness, severity of the moral violation, and how much one values the moral being violated. Mediation analyses suggest that moral violations do not mediate the effects of anger and disgust on outrage. However, anger and disgust do mediate the effect of moral violations on outrage. Our findings suggest that moral violations elicit anger and disgust, which in turn produce feelings of outrage.

People's mental representations of complex stimuli, such as images of facial affect, are difficult to elicit. To address this challenge, methods such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo with People (MCMCP), integrate human agents into computer-based sampling algorithms. However, such methods suffer from slow convergence, making them impractical for recovering the representations of individuals. Here, we extended MCMCP by introducing an adapted Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE) with domain knowledge as an auxiliary agent, guiding the sampling process away from less useful experimental trials. To test this approach, we ran a new experiment comparing such a VAE-guided MCMCP against baseline MCMCP in terms of convergence speed and quality of recovering human representations of facial affect. Preliminary results demonstrated that most guided chains converged on an individual's facial affect representation within a single experimental session, faster than the baseline methods, and results showed the extent of individual differences in facial affect representations. Thus, VAE-guided MCMCP provides a promising framework for interfacing machine intelligence with psychological experiments to enhance our understanding of human cognition.

Success in competitive matches hinges on psychological and mental preparations, such as strategic decision and emotional control. Although relevant cognitive functions and corresponding neural activity have been reported in a simple short-term laboratory task, the contribution of neural activity to the outcome of a more complex and prolonged match-format task has not been examined. Therefore, we focused on esports players engaged in a fighting video game (FVG). We examined the association between electroencephalography results in the pre-round of FVGs and consequences of the rounds. The results showed that parietal beta and frontal alpha/gamma activities are associated with winning and losing, respectively, depending on the match's situation. Furthermore, parietal beta activity exhibited approximately 80% accuracy in win-loss predictions using machine learning. Our findings suggest that the performance of skilled video game players is influenced by psychological and mental preparations with fluctuations in neural oscillations.

Curiosity has been suggested to reflect a drive for learning and to constitute a learning opportunity signal. If rational, curiosity should incorporate the reliability of the information source: more credible sources should instill more curiosity and learning. We tested these hypotheses in a lab experiment (n = 23) and online replication (n = 64), where we randomly assigned 100 zoology trivia questions and answers to one of three different sources claimed to be .99, .90 and .75 valid, respectively. Participants rated their curiosity for each source-indicated answer, read the answers, rated their credibility, and then took a retest on the questions. We found that indicated source credibility significantly affected curiosity ratings yielding an average of .56z,.22z and -.78z, respectively. Similarly, response update (learning) increased with 87% (exp 1) and 67% (exp 2) per z-score rated credibility (both p < 10^-18). Manipulated source credibility thus influenced both curiosity and learning.

Dancers vividly express joy, grief, and other emotions through their body movements, which reflect the deliberate expression of certain emotions and also the unintentional emotions. Research has shown that the speed of performers' movements varies according to the emotions deliberately expressed. However, no study has examined the non-deliberate emotions. Therefore, this study examined dancers' unintentionally exposed emotions through their movements. Seventeen semi-professional dancers performed a neutral choreography to three music types—joy-inducing music, sadness-inducing music, and a metronome—and their performances were compared. Changes in the dancers' body movements were measured using a motion-capture system. Results showed that body movements were generally faster and more dynamic with emotion-inducing music compared to the metronome. While the speed of pelvic movements was more when they danced to joy-inducing music, arm movement was more apparent for sadness-inducing music. These findings help understand the unintentional emotion-expression dynamics in dance.

Cognitively reappraising a stressful situation—reinterpreting it to lessen its emotional impact—is effective for regulating negative emotions. When reappraising, English speakers engage in linguistic distancing, spontaneously using words that are more abstract or impersonal. Previous work showed that this pattern generalizes to Spanish but was equivocal as to whether Spanish-specific markers of psychological distance (e.g., “estar”—“to be” for temporary states) are signatures of successful emotion regulation for Spanish speakers. Here we revisited this possibility. Spanish-English bilinguals in majority Spanish-speaking countries (N = 138) transcribed their thoughts in each of their languages while responding naturally to negative images or reappraising them. Reappraisal increased the use of distance markers common to both languages as well as the use of “estar,” which was associated with reduced negative affect when reappraising. Our findings suggest that people distance their language in both cross-linguistically shared and language-specific ways when regulating their emotions.

In general, it is still unclear, to what extent, that autistic children would develop the ability to recognize facial expression by age and which basic emotion expressions are consistently difficult to learn. Moreover, what crucial processing and mechanisms would play a key role for the autistic behavior patterns in early social interaction. To answer these questions, a deep learning model is constructed to simulate the eye movement records during judging emotion expression of typical developed and autistic children. The simulation results are: 1. for older autistic models, if the gaze fixations for eyes and mouth of positive emotion is longer, it would lead to greater recognition performance; 2. in contrast, for younger autistic models, it takes longer training sessions to correctly recognize most of negative emotions as too much inferences of internal information occurred while establishing reliable prototypes of facial figures in differentiating the angry, sad, and disgusting expressions.

Autobiographical memory arises from an integration of memories with the self-model, which means that the recall of one's past needs to be congruent with one's self-model. Memories invoking self-incongruent emotions pose a particular challenge for maintaining a stable and positive self-image, which makes them a good target for research into processes of self-memory integration.Expanding on our previous research, we developed an fMRI paradigm that uses subject-specific recalls of shameful episodes from the past, compared with neural and fearful episodes as control conditions, in order to identify the neural correlates of self-incongruent episodes. To this end, we employ multivariate methods (representational similarity analysis) to compare neural activation patterns of natural images associated with the autobiographical episodes. We expect higher similarity for items associated with the incongruent (shameful) episode in areas previously connected with self-related processes.

Proficient speakers of a second language (L2) show similar processing of affective content as native speakers, but reduced magnitude, later latency, and a less differentiated emotional neural response (e.g., Hsu et al., 2015). Because language and culture are intertwined, this study examined whether cultural relevance of short stories affects immersion during reading, independent of language proficiency. Hong Kong (HK) and Mainland Chinese (MLC) readers were exposed to identical short stories featuring events and traditions related to either culture. Their level of attention, transportation and emotional engagement after each story was measured using the Story World Absorption Scale (Kuijpers et al., 2014). Preliminary results show that HK participants were significantly more immersed in HK cultural stories than in MLC stories, especially when they described modern events. Instead, MLC participants showed no difference in immersion. The results will be discussed considering historical common origins and modern stark distinction between the two cultures.

Others not only influence our behavior, but also our metacognitive evaluations of those behavior (i.e. decision confidence), even when feedback is random and uninformative. Here we ask if metacognitive ability to monitor reliability of one's decisions predicts social susceptibility. We also ask if mood (anxiety and depression) further modulates this effect. We gave 46 healthy participants a perceptual task and presented them with random social feedback (positive, negative, neutral). Participants rated their confidence in their decisions before and after feedback, and lastly had an opportunity to change their initial decisions. In a separate task we also measured their metacognitive abilities, as well as their anxiety and depression scores. Results showed metacognitive ability to increase susceptibility to random social feedback. Surprisingly for those with high levels of metacognitive ability anxiety exacerbates this effect, whereas depression suppresses it.

The counterfactual emotions of regret and relief arise from considering how the present would look had one taken an alternative past action. We investigated if 4- to 9-year-old children (N = 192) could identify others' regret and relief by watching videos of actors choosing between two boxes that concealed a better or worse prize. Each actor first looked inside the chosen box and made a happy or sad facial expression, and children were then shown the contents of that box. Critically, the actor then looked inside the non-chosen box and made either a happy or sad facial expression, and children were asked what they thought was inside. Children aged 6 years and older were able to identify that the non-chosen box concealed a better prize when the actor was sad, and a worse prize when the actor was happy. The abilities to experience and recognise counterfactual emotions may develop concurrently.

Video game competition, called esports, is an intriguing subject for the investigation of psychological skill differences between players; such skills are more weighted toward achieving optimal performance than physical skills are. We looked for differences in psychological skills between advanced and intermediate players and the kind of psychological skill that is critical for defining a player's skill level. We measured the physiological states of players in esports matches and found that the temporal heart rate pattern during competitive matches was highly correlated among advanced players, rather than among intermediate players or players of different levels. Additionally, physiological synchrony among advanced players decreased under sparring situations in which no winner or loser was determined. These results suggest that the unique superior psychological skills of advanced players are motivation control, which is characterized by the ability to maintain and demonstrate a high motivation to win.

Extensive research has documented the psychological, social, and academic predicament of first-generation college students. However, basic psychological mechanisms underlying the challenges experienced by these students have been understudied. Taking a cultural psychology perspective, the present research considers the role of emotional (mis)match as a key mechanism for explaining first-generation students lowered well-being. A sample of 344 American undergraduate students completed a survey designed to measure two aspects of emotional processing: (1) Emotional Accuracy - how accurately students perceive emotional reactions of majority-culture students (continuing-generation junior and senior students who have been socialized into college culture), and (2) Emotional Similarity -how similar students emotions are to the emotions experienced by majority-culture students. Emotional Accuracy predicted positive outcomes, in general, but was lower among first-generation students. Unexpectedly, Emotional Similarity predicted negative student outcomes. As one of the first studies addressing basic psychological mechanisms in college adjustment, these findings underscore the importance of understanding the roles that specific emotional processes play in social adjustment.

Faces are among the most important visual stimuli that humans perceive in everyday life. While extensive literature has examined emotional processing and social evaluations of faces, most studies have examined either topic using unimodal approaches. In this review, we promote the use of multimodal cognitive neuroscience approaches to study these processes, using two lines of research as examples: ambiguity in facial expressions of emotion and social trait judgment of faces. In the first set of studies, we identified an event-related potential that signals emotion ambiguity using electroencephalography and we found convergent neural responses to emotion ambiguity using functional neuroimaging and single-neuron recordings. In the second set of studies, we discuss how different neuroimaging and personality-dimensional approaches together provide new insights into social trait judgments of faces. In both sets of studies, we provide an in-depth comparison between neurotypicals and people with autism spectrum disorder. We offer a computational account for the behavioral and neural markers of the different facial processing between the two groups. Finally, we suggest new practices for studying the emotional processing and social evaluations of faces. All data discussed in the case studies of this review are publicly available.

Given the widespread use of emotional and distance framing in climate change communication, this study investigated how these strategies interact to influence perceptions and behaviors related to climate change. Guided by the Situational Theory of Problem Solving and through an experimental survey, the research revealed that fear-inducing messages led to greater recognition of problems and involvement when combined with short-term temporal frames, compared to hope-inducing messages. These findings suggest that the effects of emotional appeals are conditioned on the temporal distance of the issue highlighted in climate change communication, offering a more nuanced understanding of the differentiated effects of fear and hope appeals and practical insights for crafting persuasive messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The development of emotional and clinical communication is crucial for being a nurse. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influencing factors of emotional management and clinical communication competencies among nursing students, to inform strategies for enhancing the management and nursing care practices. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional survey. The study period was from December 1 to December 31, 2022, during which nursing students were the population of the survey. The assessments of the emotional management and clinical communication competencies of the nursing students were conducted using the validated Emotion Management Ability Questionnaire and the Clinical Communication Ability Scale, respectively. Results: A total of 356 nursing students were investigated in this study. The nursing students had moderate ability of emotional management and clinical communication. The emotional management ability was correlated with the clinical communication ability of nursing students (all p<0.05). The results of multivariate regression analysis indicated that gender, educational level and home place were the independent influencing factors on the emotional management ability in the nursing students (all p<0.05). Family structure, internship time and personality were the independent influencing factors for the clinical communication ability among the nursing students (all p<0.05). Conclusions: The competencies in emotional management and clinical communication among clinical nursing students warrant enhancement. It is imperative to implement tailored educational and training programs to optimize the development and performance of nursing students in their clinical training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial research indicates that individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) remember more negative information compared to neutral and positive information. This phenomenon is commonly attributed to attentional biases toward negative over neutral and positive information. A recent attentional resources model suggests that in MDD, negative cues not only capture attention, but also lead to deeper processing of subsequent information, irrespective of its content. This study aimed to replicate findings supporting this attentional resources model and go beyond it by investigating the effect of negative cues on encoding and retrieval processes. Forty-one participants with MDD and no comorbid diagnoses, and 42 healthy-controls completed the emotional recall task with negative or positive videos presented during encoding and retrieval stages of a neutral word-list memory test. During encoding, only the MDD group exhibited a difference between negative and positive videos, such that for negative videos memory recall was improved and for positive words it was reduced. Emotional videos had no effect when presented during retrieval. These results suggest that in MDD, encountering emotional cues not only biases retrieval processes toward recalling more negative content, but rather fundamentally alters the depth of information processing, while not leading to a broad-spectrum recruitment of cognitive resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empathy plays a fundamental role in successful social interactions. However, most tasks currently available for measuring empathy have limited ecological validity and therefore may not elicit true emotional responses in observers. To address this gap, we developed the Empathic Measure of True Emotion (EMOTE), the first emotion stimuli set to include footage of genuine positive and negative emotions unfolding in naturalistic contexts. We validated the EMOTE in a sample of 216 participants. The EMOTE demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, construct validity, and alternate forms reliability for both cognitive and affective empathy. We also found that, relative to conventional empathy measures, the EMOTE elicited stronger affective empathy ratings in observers, and the stimuli were rated higher in both genuineness and emotional intensity. Together, these findings demonstrate that the EMOTE is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive and affective empathy with enhanced ecological validity, providing a valuable new tool for measuring empathy in both clinical and research settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which neural representations of fear experience depend on or generalize across the situational context has remained unclear. We systematically manipulated variation within and across three distinct fear-evocative situations including fear of heights, spiders, and social threats. Participants (n = 21; 10 females and 11 males) viewed -20 s clips depicting spiders, heights, or social encounters and rated fear after each video. Searchlight multivoxel pattern analysis was used to identify whether and which brain regions carry information that predicts fear experience and the degree to which the fear-predictive neural codes in these areas depend on or generalize across the situations. The overwhelming majority of brain regions carrying information about fear did so in a situation-dependent manner. These findings suggest that local neural representations of fear experience are unlikely to involve a singular pattern but rather a collection of multiple heterogeneous brain states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facial expression perception is influenced by body posture, with perception biased toward the body emotion. Previous research has suggested that the magnitude of this biasing influence of body posture is driven by individual differences in the precision of facial expression representations underlying discrimination abilities, where lower precision leads to a greater influence of body posture. It is unclear however whether similar mechanisms might drive the influence of contextual cues in Autism, which is often characterised by reduced facial expression discrimination abilities. Here, we addressed this question by using online psychophysical methods to determine the precision of isolated face and body expression representations of anger and disgust, and the influence of body on facial expression perception, in autistic and non-autistic adults. Both groups showed a strong influence of body context on facial expression perception, but this influence was larger in the autistic group, mirroring their lower overall precision of facial expression representations relative to non-autistic individuals. Crucially, the magnitude of the biasing influence of body posture in both groups was related to the precision of individuals' facial expression representations. The results suggest that similar principles govern the integration of facial expression and body posture information in both autistic and non-autistic individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract\nHIGHLIGHTSBackground: Many medical students experience psychological distress from high academic demands, potentially harming their performance and mental health. Binaural beats (BB) stimulation, particularly gamma band entrainment, has been suggested to enhance neural communication, cognition, and reduce anxiety.Objective: This study aimed to determine whether 40 Hz BB could improve cognitive performance and mood in medical students.Method: Forty participants, selected based on the inclusion criteria of good health, normal hearing, and no mental illness were recruited considering factors such as all sessions availability and consent. Participants listened to BB for 15 min, three times a week, over three consecutive weeks. Electroencephalogram recordings confirmed that 40 Hz BB induced gamma neural oscillations in the brain. Emotional states were assessed using the 32-item Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) with ratings on a 5-point Likert scale, whereas cognitive function was measured with the Stroop’s test, based on reaction time in milliseconds. Pre- and post-BB comparisons and gender-related differences were analyzed using paired and unpaired t-tests or appropriate non-parametric tests.Result: Listening to BB significantly reduced negative emotions (p < 0.001), enhanced positive emotions (p < 0.001), and facilitated improvements in cognitive performance. However, the effects of BB were gender-specific, with female students showing greater improvements in ‘happiness’ and ‘calmness’, (p < 0.001), while males experienced more pronounced enhancements in cognitive performance (p < 0.001). Additionally, time-dependent effects of BB were also observed.Conclusion: 40 Hz BB appears to be an effective tool for helping students manage their challenges calmly and more efficiently.Listening to 40-Hz binaural beats increases the gamma-band activity in the brain40-Hz binaural beats help to improve mood and cognitive performanceBinaural beats-mediated effects are based on the gender and the duration of auditory stimulus.Listening to 40-Hz binaural beats increases the gamma-band activity in the brain40-Hz binaural beats help to improve mood and cognitive performanceBinaural beats-mediated effects are based on the gender and the duration of auditory stimulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stimuli encountered in the environment are continuously evaluated according to their affective stimulus significance. Numerous event‐related potential studies have shown that the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP) are larger for high than low arousing emotional pictures. The group approach has been recently extended to the study of the individual case. Usually, many exemplars are used to represent an emotion category. Determining how many pictures are needed to reliably assess affective stimulus evaluation processes at the individual level is crucial when moving toward the goal of exploring idiosyncratic emotional stimuli. Accordingly, in the present study (N = 16), singular images displaying erotic, neutral, and mutilation content were shown 800 times while dense sensor EEG was recorded. At the group level, enhanced EPN and LPP amplitudes for high compared to low arousing stimuli emerged. At the single subject level, significantly larger amplitudes to the erotic than neutral image were observed in 15 out of 16 tests for the EPN and LPP components. Regarding the mutilation image, 15 participants showed a significant EPN effect, while the LPP effect was only found in 10 cases. Notably, emotional modulation of the EPN and LPP was stable over time. The present study contributes to the development of experimental designs tailored to the needs of the case‐by‐case approach. Since the process of affective stimulus evaluation is considered as a process common‐to‐all, the use of a singular stimulus exemplar may prove useful to investigate the idiosyncratic nature of emotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies were designed to explore a major criticism of sacrificial dilemmas, namely that their potential humorous aspects may distort moral decision-making. We collected moral responses (i.e. moral judgment and choice of action) but also asked participants to rate the funniness of moral dilemmas, in order to combine humour assessment and moral responses. In addition, the emotional responses to moral dilemmas were recorded for both men and women (including emotions related to humour), and the potential effect of individuals’ need for humour was also considered. Overall, three main results were reported. Firstly, the dilemmas used in our studies were not rated as funny at all. Secondly, reading moral dilemmas increased negative emotions (i.e. sadness, disgust, guilt) and decreased positive emotions associated with humour (i.e. joy, amusement, and mirth), with gender effects since women experienced stronger negative emotions than men. Thirdly, funniness ratings of sacrificial dilemmas did not vary according to gender and need for humour. This series of studies does not report empirical evidence to support the humorous aspects of trolley-type dilemmas, but invites a more systematic examination of how sacrificial dilemmas are perceived by participants who have to produce moral responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main challenges in the process of recognizing emotion through the voice are related to the specific characteristics of an individual's sound spectrum, such as accent and speech rhythm, as well as regionalism and wide variability of spoken phrases. Despite efforts to propose emotion recognition models, providing an increase in accuracy in classifying emotion in a specialized way is an open research question. Faced with these challenges, this work proposes DEEP (DEtection of voice Emotion in Portuguese language), an architecture for detecting voice emotion based on patterns present in the sound spectrum generated by the voice of Brazilian Portuguese speakers. DEEP recognizes each emotion by using a set of specialist Convolutional Neural Networks that receive as input the features extracted from the sound spectrum. With this, DEEP aims to specialize each emotion to increase the rate of correct answers and adapt to different tones and voice conditions that may occur in everyday life. Our results show that DEEP outperforms the emotion recognition measures of other state of art techniques for all evaluated scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, to imitate human behavioral patterns have been attracting growing interest from experimental psychology. Although ChatGPT can successfully generate accurate theoretical and inferential information in several fields, its ability to exhibit a Theory of Mind (ToM) is a topic of debate and interest in literature. Impairments in ToM are considered responsible for social difficulties in many clinical conditions, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Some studies showed that ChatGPT can successfully pass classical ToM tasks, however, the response style used by LLMs to solve advanced ToM tasks, comparing their abilities with those of typical development (TD) individuals and clinical populations, has not been explored. In this preliminary study, we administered the Advanced ToM Test and the Emotion Attribution Task to ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT-4 and compared their responses with those of an ASD and TD group. Our results showed that the two LLMs had higher accuracy in understanding mental states, although ChatGPT-3.5 failed with more complex mental states. In understanding emotional states, ChatGPT-3.5 performed significantly worse than TDs but did not differ from ASDs, showing difficulty with negative emotions. ChatGPT-4 achieved higher accuracy, but difficulties with recognizing sadness and anger persisted. The style adopted by both LLMs appeared verbose, and repetitive, tending to violate Grice's maxims. This conversational style seems similar to that adopted by high-functioning ASDs. Clinical implications and potential applications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This large-scale, mixed-methods study aimed to uncover sources of learner anxiety when interacting in small groups in the language classroom. A secondary aim of the study was to examine relationships between these sources and learners' levels of small-group anxiety. Methods: Data was gathered from 1,344 learners enrolled in English classes at four universities in western Japan. Qualitative content analysis was employed to identify anxiety-inducing situations described in learner' responses, and categorize these situations based on the underlying source of anxiety. Results: The analysis revealed two primary sources of small-group anxiety: interacting with other learners and L2 communication. The most prominent interaction-related situations were interacting with new people, expressing opinions, and uncomfortable silence, while those related to L2 communication were competence and proficiency, conveying meaning and understanding others. Levels of small-group anxiety were significantly related to the source of anxiety. Learners with a high level of anxiety were twice as likely to cite interaction as the source of their anxiety than learners with a low level of anxiety. Discussion: The results suggest that interaction anxiety may be more salient than foreign language anxiety when language learners work in small groups, and that the impact of this form of social anxiety needs to be taken into consideration for learners to fully receive the benefits of group work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music listening is enjoyed across the lifespan and around the world. This has spurred many theories on the evolutionary purpose of music. The Music for Social Bonding hypothesis posits that the human capacity to make music evolved for the purpose of creating and preserving relationships between one another. Considering different time periods of music use across the lifespan, adolescence is especially a period of social reorientation away from family towards peers, characterized by new social bonds and increased prosocial behavior. This shift is accompanied by notable structural and functional changes in brain networks supporting reward processing and prosocial behavior. Reviewing the extant literature on developmental cognitive neuroscience and adolescent music use, we propose that neurocognitive changes in the reward system make adolescence an ideal developmental time window for investigating interactions between prosocial behavior and reward processing, as adolescence constitutes a time of relative increase in music reward valuation. Testing this hypothesis may clarify our understanding of developmental trajectories in music reward valuation, and offer insights into why music from adults' adolescence holds a great deal of personal significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Transformative experiences (TEs) have been conceptualized in many ways, contexts, magnitudes, and durations, but at their heart, they entail some manner of adjustment, which contributes to changing individuals' worldviews, actions, views of others and/or their own feelings, personality, and identity. Among the many elicitors identified as being able to foster TEs, an emerging body of literature has suggested that TEs might be prevalent in aesthetics or emerged from encounters with human art. Beyond denoting ordinary moments characterizing our daily lives, art and aesthetics could occasionally represent profound changes, causing shifts in our perceptions, beliefs and understanding of the world. However, in the realm of psychological inquiry, the extent to which art and aesthetics can be considered potential catalysts for transformation remains a topic of debate. Furthermore, a comprehensive identification of the key psychological components that contribute to the process of transformation before, during, and after aesthetic engagement is still missing. Aims: This systematic review endeavors to address these gaps by synthesizing literature on aesthetic transformative experiences either from the field of psychology or explicitly delving into the psychological impact of transformative experiences within the realm of art and aesthetics. It encompasses both theoretical and empirical papers to determine key aspects and psychological components that characterize TEs. Methods: Two major electronic databases were systematically searched. The review was conducted in accordance with Liberati et al. (2009) and PRISMA guidelines. All stages of the review were conducted independently by three researchers, and the protocol was published on PROSPERO (Registration no.: CRD42022298655). Results: Although 39.440 studies were identified, only 23 peer-reviewed articles were included in this review, as most studies did not explicitly delve into the long-lasting psychological impact of art and aesthetics. Discussion: The results confirm the potential of art and aesthetics as elicitors of transformation regardless of the type of artwork and the usage context. Moreover, it also identifies some psychological components necessary for transformation in the realm of art and aesthetics, including facilitating conditions/pre-expectations, cognitive discrepancy, epiphany and insight, and several after-effects on the recipient. Conclusion: The review aids in refining and enriching the concept of transformative experience, paving the way for further research and applications in various fields, including not only psychology but also education and therapeutic interventions. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ , identifier CRD42022298655. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit impaired behavior synchronization, which is associated with social deficits. Numerous studies have demonstrated that rhythm-based interventions can effectively mitigate social deficits by promoting behavioral synchronization in individuals with ASD. Therefore, a review of the current literature is warranted in this field. The objectives of this review were to explore the effects of rhythm-based interventions on overall social skills and to study the differences in the effects of rhythm-based interventions on specific social skills. Method: The databases PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Psycinfo were systematically explored until March 2024. A total of eleven research studies, encompassing 408 participants diagnosed with ASD, were incorporated into the meta-analysis. Effect sizes (Hedges' g) were computed for each comparison and amalgamated using random-effects models to evaluate the social skills of individuals with ASD. The methodological quality of each study was evaluated using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale(PEDro). Results: Overall, some valuable observations were made. Rhythm-based interventions had a medium effect on the overall social skills for ASD (Hedges's=0.681; 95%CI[0.075 to 1.286], P < 0.05). Regarding domain-specific social skills, rhythm-based interventions had a large effect on social interaction (g = 1.299,95% CI [0.508 to 2.091]), a small effect on communication (g = 0.383, 95% CI [0.033 to 0.733], P < 0.05), and a large effect on emotion (g = 1.752, 95% CI [0.294 to 3.210], P < 0.05). However, we found a favorable but non-significant effect (g = 0.125, 95% CI [-0.039 to 0.289], P > 0.05) of rhythm-based interventions on empathy. All study qualities were high (score≥6) using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale assessment. Conclusion: This result indicates the importance of rhythm in the clinical rehabilitation of individuals with ASD. We suggest adding appropriate rhythmic elements to clinical interventions, particularly for individuals with ASD who are less socially competent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Substance Use Disorder (SUD) screening tools used in current practice are designed to identify SUD once patients have begun regular dangerous drug use. While these screening tools are valuable, prevention and avoidance of SUD would save countless lives. The climbing number of deaths due to drug overdose make screening for and prevention of SUD imperative. This study addresses this care gap. The aim was to develop a simple screening tool for patients who may be prone to develop Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and/or SUD prior to addiction. It was hypothesized that participants with initially positive emotional experiences would be correlated with a future SUD diagnosis. Methods: The study involved a self-administered survey using a cross-sectional design and was carried out over one-month in the spring of 2021. Those patients who presented to the MAT clinic (SUD group) were seen in a separate area than the patients presenting for urgent care (Comparison group). Participants (N = 259) were voluntarily recruited from MAT and Urgent care: Patients receiving acute care were assigned to the Comparison (N = 126, 50.8% female, 5.7% non-white, 27.2% age < 34) and those receiving treatment for SUD were assigned to the MAT group (N =133, 40.8% female, 4.8% non-white, 36.8% ≤34). The survey questioned demographics (4 items), risk factors for AUD/SUD (6 items), information about first alcohol/opioid experiences (16 items), and factors for seeking AUD/SUD treatment and recovery (2 items). Feelings were categorized as positive (e.g., euphoria, happiness, self-confident), neutral (e.g., nothing, normal), or negative (e.g., depressed, sad, sick). Results: The MAT group felt more positive feelings with first usage of alcohol and opioids compared to the comparison group (p<.001). With first usage of opioids specifically, MAT (0.13 ± 0.04) and comparison (0.29 ± 0.07) groups differed (p <.001). Over half (55.3%), of the MAT participants reported feeling self-confident with first use of alcohol while only 29.7% of the comparison reported this (p<.001). Over three-fifths (63.7%) of the MAT group reported feeling of euphoria with the first usage of opioids compared to one-tenth (9.8%) in the comparison group (p<.001). Discussion: This retrospective cross-sectional report shows the first affective responses to substances may predict risk for future SUD and could be a prevention screening tool. Asking patients about positive feelings with first usage of alcohol/opioids could be a simple screening tool employed for prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral contagion is thought to play a significant role in social synchronization and coordination across animal taxa. While there is extensive evidence of behavioral contagion in Haplorrhines (i.e. monkeys and apes), limited research exists in Strepsirrhines (i.e. lemurs). Here, we aimed to investigate the presence of contagious yawning and scratching in two captive groups of black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata) (N = 4) and red ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra) (N = 4), and further test whether behavioral contagion is modulated by the model's social integration in the group. We conducted all occurrence sampling to examine whether individuals observing a yawning or scratching event (i.e. trigger event) were more likely to yawn or scratch in the following 2 min, as compared to individuals who did not observe it. We ran generalized linear mixed models and found that the likelihood of yawning and scratching was higher for subjects observing the trigger event than for subjects who did not observe the event, although the model's social integration had no modulating effect on the probability of showing behavioral contagion. Our findings represent the first evidence of behavioral contagion in this genus and contribute to shed light on the distribution and the possible adaptive function of this phenomenon in primates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have found long-term effects of early musical environmental enrichment in the NICU on preterm infant's development. This study examines how early music enrichment affects emotional development and effortful control abilities in 12- and 24-month-old very preterm (VPT) infants. Methods: One hundred nineteen newborns were recruited, including 83 VPTs and 36 full-term (FT) infants. The VPT infants were randomly assigned to the music intervention (44 VPT-Music) or control (39 VPT-control) groups. VPTMusic infants listened specifically designed music intervention from the 33rd week of gestation until hospital discharge. At 12 and 24 months, children were clinically evaluated using the Bayley-III Scales of Infant and Toddler Development and the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, and at 24 months, with 3 additional episodes of the Effortful Control Battery. Results and discussion: Our analysis showed that during a fear eliciting task, the VPT-Music group expressed lower level of fear reactivity and higher positive motor actions than VPT-controls and FT infants. At 24 months, the VPT-music group had lower scores for negative motor actions in the joy task, compared to both VPT-control and FT groups. In addition, both FT and VPT-music had higher scores of sustained attention compared to VPT-controls, but the contrasts were not significant. No significant effects on mental, language and motor outcomes were identified and for all three dimensions of the ECBQ. Conclusion: The present study suggests that an early music intervention in the NICU might influence preterm children's emotional processing at 12 and 24 months. Limitations and suggestions for future research are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the differences in learners' emotion, cognitive load, and cognitive performance among various scaffolding DGBLs, and the influences of emotion and cognitive load on cognitive performance when using DGBLs. Participants were 97 adult learners from some community college, randomly divided into the control group with 32 participants using non-scaffolding DGBL, the experimental group I with 34 participants using hard scaffolding DGBL, and the experimental group II with 31 participants using soft scaffolding DGBL. Results revealed: 1. positive emotion, germane cognitive load, and cognitive effectiveness and efficiency in scaffolding DGBL were significantly higher than those in non-scaffolding DGBL; negative emotion and extraneous cognitive load were significantly lower than those in non-scaffolding DGBL; 2. positive emotion in soft scaffolding DGBL was better than that in hard scaffolding DGBL, whereas there were no significant differences in negative emotion between both scaffolding DGBLs; 3. taking soft and hard scaffolding DGBLs together, positive emotion and germane cognitive load positively influenced cognitive effectiveness or efficiency; negative emotion, and intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load negatively influenced cognitive effectiveness or efficiency. Practical and theoretical suggestions were raised as references for researchers and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many agree that the more we feel that we can handle a given situation, the less afraid we are. But why? Is the situation no longer dangerous or is fear a response to more than danger? Here I analyze situations in which one reacts in cold blood to danger and argue that the formal object of fear is not the dangerous, but the unsafe. The unsafe indicates not only how the world is, but also how it can be handled. Safety, and its negative counterpart, are characterized by their duality, both evaluative (is the snake dangerous?) and agentive (is it under control?). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People quickly form consequential impressions of others' social class standing from nonverbal cues, including facial appearance. Extant research shows that perceivers judge faces that appear more positive, attractive, and healthy as higher-class, in line with stereotypes associating high class standing with happiness, attractiveness, and better wellbeing (which bear a kernel of truth). A wealth of research, moreover, demonstrates strong stereotypical associations between social class and both race and gender. The current work bridged these areas of inquiry to explore (1) intersectional biases in social class impressions from faces and (2) how associations between social class and attractiveness/health and affect can be used to shift social class impressions. Our studies found evidence of race and gender stereotypes impacting British perceivers' social class judgements, with Black (vs. White and Asian) and female (vs. male) faces judged as lower in class. Furthermore, manipulating faces' emotion expression shifted judgements of their social class, with variations in magnitude by faces' race, such that emotion expressions shifted judgements of Black faces more than White faces. Finally, manipulating faces' complexion to appear healthier/more attractive shifted social class judgements, with the magnitude of this varying by faces' and perceivers' race, suggesting a role of perceptual expertise. These findings demonstrate that stereotypes bias social class impressions and can be used to manipulate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]