Psychophysiological stress influences temporal accuracy.

Distortions of duration perception are often observed in response to highly arousing stimuli, but the exact mechanisms that evoke these variations are still under debate. Here, we investigate the effect of induced physiological arousal on time perception. Thirty-eight university students (22.89 ± 2.5; 28 females) were tested with spontaneous finger-tapping tasks and a time bisection task (with stimuli between 300 and 900 ms). Before the time bisection task, half of the participants (STRESS group) performed a stress-inducing task, i.e., the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), whereas the other participants (CONTROL group) performed a control task, the Paced Auditory Number Reading Task (PANRAT). The PASAT induced a greater heart rate, but not electrodermal, increase, as well as a more unpleasant and arousing state compared to the PANRAT. Moreover, although the two groups presented a similar performance at the finger-tapping tasks, participants in the STRESS group showed better temporal performance at the time bisection task (i.e., lower constant error) than the controls. These results indicate that psychophysiological stress may alter the subsequent perception of time.

Moral judgment, decision times and emotional salience of a new developed set of sacrificial manual driving dilemmas.

The growing interest in the subject of moral judgment in driver and autonomous vehicle behavior highlights the importance of investigating the suitability of sacrificial dilemmas as experimental tools in the context of traffic psychology. To this aim a set of validated sacrificial trolley problems and a new set of trolley-like driving dilemmas were compared through an online survey experiment, providing normative values for rates of participants' choices; decision times; evaluation of emotional valence and arousal experienced during the decision process; and ratings of the moral acceptability. Results showed that while both sets of dilemmas led to a more frequent selection of utilitarian outcomes, the driving-type dilemmas seemed to enhance faster decisions mainly based on the utilitarian moral code. No further differences were observed between the two sets, confirming the reliability of the moral dilemma tool in the investigation of moral driving behaviors. We suggest that as moral judgments and behaviors become more lifelike, the individual's moral inclination emerge more automatically and effectively. This new driving-type dilemma set may help researchers who work in traffic psychology and moral decision-making to approach the complex task of developing realistic moral scenarios more easily in the context of autonomous and nonautonomous transportation.

What's next? Neural correlates of emotional predictions: A high-density EEG investigation.

Emotions were recently reconsidered as predictions, constructed by the brain (generation stage) to prearrange action (implementation stage), and update internal models according to incoming stimuli (updating stage). However, it is unclear how emotional predictions are shaped by stimuli predictability. This study investigated the role of stimuli predictability on emotional predictions through high-density EEG. Twenty-six undergraduates underwent a S1-S2 paradigm, with emotional faces as S1s and emotional pictures as S2s. Stimuli predictability was manipulated across three blocks, in which S1 valence was predictive of S2 in the 100%, 75%, or 50% of trials. ERPs and brain sources were analyzed for each stage. During prediction generation, a larger N170/superior temporal sulcus activity emerged to fearful faces in blocks with full (100%) and medium (75%) predictive ratios. During implementation, the random block (50%) elicited a valence-independent pre-allocation of resources, reflected by a larger CNV and activation of a wide left network. In the updating stage, emotional pictures always elicited a larger LPP, while a larger P2 to neutral stimuli and a higher activity of the orbitofrontal cortex signaled early valence-dependent and late block-dependent prediction errors. These findings provide the first evidence of how stimuli predictability shape each neurocomputational stage of emotional predictions construction.

Romantic love affects emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli: An EEG/ERP study using a love induction task.

The aim of the present study was to investigate (a) the neural correlates of a love induction task (LIT) including listening to love-related songs and thinking about the romantic relationship, and (b) the effects of romantic love on the emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli during a passive viewing task. The EEG was recorded in two groups of university students: people in love (Love Group, LG, N = 22, 19 F) and people not in love (Control Group, CG, N = 20, 15 F). The LIT induced higher pleasantness and arousal in the LG than in the CG, as well as higher alpha activity in occipital-right electrodes, suggesting active mental imagery and internal focused attention. During the picture viewing task, the LG displayed larger N1 amplitudes than the CG in response to unpleasant pictures, and lower amplitudes of the late positive potential to both pleasant and unpleasant pictures at frontal sites. Overall, these results suggest an early attentional modulation of the neural responses to unpleasant, mood-incongruent cues, followed by an implicit emotional down-regulation of arousing stimuli, which might have important implications for everyday attitudes and behaviors.

Sleep quality improves during treatment with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in patients with cocaine use disorder: a retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Sleep disturbance is a prominent and common complaint in people with cocaine use disorder (CUD), either during intake or withdrawal. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has shown promise as a treatment for CUD. Thus, we evaluated the relationship between self-perceived sleep quality and cocaine use pattern variables in outpatients with CUD undergoing an rTMS protocol targeted at the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. METHODS: This is a retrospective observational study including 87 patients diagnosed with CUD according to the DSM-5 criteria. Scores in Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Cocaine Craving Questionnaire (CCQ), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and Symptoms checklist 90-Revised (outcome used: Global Severity Index, GSI) were recorded at baseline, and after 5, 30, 60, and 90 days of rTMS treatment. Cocaine use was assessed by self-report and regular urine screens. RESULTS: Sleep disturbances (PSQI scores > 5) were common in patients at baseline (mean ± SD; PSQI score baseline: 9.24 ± 3.89; PSQI > 5 in 88.5% of patients). PSQI scores significantly improved after rTMS treatment (PSQI score Day 90: 6.12 ± 3.32). Significant and consistent improvements were also seen in craving and in negative-affect symptoms compared to baseline. Considering the lack of a control group, in order to help the conceptualization of the outcomes, we compared the results to a wait-list group (n = 10). No significant improvements were observed in the wait-list group in any of the outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings support the therapeutic role of rTMS interventions for reducing cocaine use and accompanying symptoms such as sleep disturbance and negative-affect symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov.NCT03733821.

Food processing and emotion regulation in vegetarians and omnivores: An event-related potential investigation.

The present study investigated cognitive reappraisal during exposure to vegetarian and nonvegetarian food cues in food-deprived vegetarian and omnivore participants. In particular, we were interested in clarifying the motivational meaning of the foods that vegetarians avoid, as revealed by self-reported food craving, valence, and arousal, as well as by ERP measures of neural processing during passive viewing and emotional regulation. Twenty-four vegetarians and twenty-one omnivores were instructed to either passively look at the pictures (Watch) or to change the appetitive value of the food (Increase or Decrease). In vegetarians, meat and fish dishes elicited lower desire to eat, pleasantness, and arousal during each condition as compared to both omnivores and vegetarian food. In contrast with the subjective data, no group differences were observed in any of the ERP measures, suggesting that similar neural processing of food-cues occurred in vegetarians and omnivores both during passive viewing and cognitive reappraisal. Concerning the late ERP effects during cognitive reappraisal, we found an enhancement of the P300 and LPP amplitudes during the Increase and the Decrease as compared to the Watch condition and a reduction of the SW amplitude in the Decrease as compared to Watch condition. These results suggest that in a food deprivation condition it is difficult to reduce the appetitive value of food stimuli, as this cognitive strategy appears to require greater effort and a longer time to be implemented with respect to up-regulation. Overall, our findings suggest that, in vegetarians, aversion towards nonvegetarian food prevails at the subjective level and is consistent with their personal beliefs. In contrast, at the neural level, the intrinsic motivational salience of this type of food is preserved.

Cardiac autonomic activity during daytime nap in young adults.

The current study investigated both sympathetic and vagal autonomic patterns during a daytime sleep in 25 healthy adults (23.2 ± 2.4 years). Pre-ejection period (PEP; related inversely to beta-adrenergic sympathetic activity), the interval between consecutive R-waves (RR) and frequency-domain heart rate variability (HRV) were computed during pre-nap wakefulness and undisturbed sleep stages. Results showed sleep-related changes in RR and HRV measures, whereas PEP decreased significantly from pre-nap to sleep, showing no differences across sleep stages. Moreover, pre-nap PEP and HFnu (the normalized unit of the high-frequency component of HRV) were associated negatively with sleep latency and wake after sleep onset. These results indicate a marked autonomic output reduction during daytime sleep, with different stage-dependent fluctuations for sympathetic and vagal activity. Importantly, pre-nap autonomic activity seems to modulate subsequent sleep quality.

Unpleasant stimuli differentially modulate inhibitory processes in an emotional Go/NoGo task: an event-related potential study.

Threat stimuli typically elicit a psychophysiological response pattern supporting the organism's preparation for active defence. Differently, blood stimuli prompt a distinctive autonomic response pattern and sustained processing, which do not call for clear-cut mobilisation for action. However, the contribution of motor disposition in these response patterns remains unclear. One way to address this issue is to investigate whether threat and blood stimuli differentially affect the active suppression of an ongoing motor activity. Thirty-two undergraduates were presented with threat, mutilation, pleasant, and neutral pictures in an emotional Go/NoGo task. The amplitudes of the NoGo-N2 and NoGo-P3 components of the event-related potentials were analysed as indices of conflict monitoring and inhibition of motor response, respectively. Reaction times to Go trials were significantly faster for threat than for mutilations. The NoGo-N2 was significantly larger to threat than to mutilations, whereas the NoGo-P3amplitude did not differ between the two conditions. These findings suggest that threat stimuli facilitated the execution of a prepotent response and enhanced conflict monitoring when action must be withheld. In contrast, blood stimuli did not either promote action in the Go trials or increase conflict in the NoGo condition, suggesting a response pattern compatible with defensive immobility.

Sleep before and after learning promotes the consolidation of both neutral and emotional information regardless of REM presence.

Sleep may play a role in consolidating emotional memories. However, studies on the effects of REM sleep on negative vs. neutral memories have produced inconsistent evidence. Here, we assess the role of NREM and REM sleep before and after learning in promoting the consolidation of neutral and arousing pleasant and unpleasant memories. Forty-six (32 F) healthy university students were exposed to a set of pictures at 1:00PM (Session 1) and to an equivalent set at 4:45PM (Session 2). All the pictures in Session 1 and Session 2 were presented again, intermixed with new similar pictures at 5:15PM in a memory recognition task. Following Session 1, participants took a 90/120-min nap (NAP group), while 16 participants remained awake (WAKE group). Via polysomnographic recording, the NAP group was segregated into REM (N=14) and NoREM groups (N=16). Indices of memory consolidation for both stimuli presented before (discriminability of Session 1 pictures in Session 3) and after sleep (discriminability of Session 2 pictures in Session 3) were calculated. Memory consolidation for pictures presented both before and after the sleep period was higher in the NAP group as compared to the WAKE group, but no differential role of REM sleep emerged. A memory consolidation advantage was evident for neutral over pleasant (but not unpleasant) pictures. Taken together, these results indicate that a daytime nap (with or without REM sleep) facilitates consolidation of declarative memories presented before and after sleep irrespective of their valence.

Out of sight, but still in mind: electrocortical correlates of attentional capture in spider phobia as revealed by a 'dot probe' paradigm.

The current investigation focused on attentional processes in spider phobia. Twenty phobics and 20 controls performed a dot-probe task while event-related potentials were recorded. In each trial they viewed a picture pair (a spider or a generally disgust eliciting picture that was paired with a neutral picture) for either 100 or 1500 ms. After the offset a visual probe (a dot) was presented either at the previous position of the emotionally relevant or the neutral slide and participants were asked to indicate with a button press whether the dot had been presented on the left or the right side of the screen. Results revealed a modulation of the centro-parietal P300 (340-500 ms after picture onset). Amplitudes were higher when the dot replaced a spider than when it replaced a neutral picture. This was phobia-specific, as it was only present in phobics and did not appear in response to disgust pictures. Moreover, the modulation could only be shown for short presentation times. The results are interpreted to reflect motivated attention in spider phobia, if disorder-relevant and neutral pictures are shown simultaneously. As the modulation of the P300 was found after picture offset, attentional allocation seems to be persist after the phobic object is no longer present.

Evaluation of the legal consequences of action affects neural activity and emotional experience during the resolution of moral dilemmas.

In any modern society killing is regarded as a severe violation of the legal codes that is subjected to penal judgment. Therefore, it is likely that people take legal consequences into account when deciding about the hypothetical killing of one person in classic moral dilemmas, with legal concerns contributing to decision-making. In particular, by differing for the degree of intentionality and emotional salience, Footbridge- and Trolley-type dilemmas might promote differential assignment of blame and punishment while implicating the same severity of harm. The present study was aimed at comparing the neural activity, subjective emotional reactions, and behavioral choices in two groups of participants who either took (Legal group) or did not take (No Legal group) legal consequences into account when deciding on Footbridge-type and Trolley-type moral dilemmas. Stimulus- and response-locked ERPs were measured to investigate the neural activity underlying two separate phases of the decision process. No difference in behavioral choices was found between groups. However, the No Legal group reported greater overall emotional impact, associated with lower preparation for action, suggesting greater conflict between alternative motor responses representing the different decision choices. In contrast, the Legal group showed an overall dampened affective experience during decision-making associated with greater overall action readiness and intention to act, reflecting lower conflict in responding. On these bases, we suggest that in moral dilemmas legal consequences of actions provide a sort of reference point on which people can rely to support a decision, independent of dilemma type.

Heart rate variability helps tracking time more accurately.

Adequate temporal abilities are crucial for adaptive behavior. In time processing, variations in the rate of pulses' emission by the pacemaker are often reported to be an important cause of temporal errors. These variations are often associated with physiological changes, and recently it has also been proposed that physiological changes may not just vary the pulses' emission, but they can work as a timekeeper themselves. In the present study we further explore the relationship between temporal abilities with autonomic activity and interoceptive awareness in a group of thirty healthy young adults (mean age 24.18 years; SD=2.1). Using electrocardiogram, impedance cardiography and skin conductance measures, we assessed the relationship between the autonomic profile at rest and temporal abilities in two temporal tasks (time bisection and finger tapping tasks). Results showed that heart rate variability affects time perception. We observed that increased heart rate variability (HRV) was associated with higher temporal accuracy. More specifically, we found that higher vagal control was associated with lower error in producing 1-s tempo, whereas higher overall HRV was related with lower error (measured by the constant error) in the time bisection task. Our results support the idea that bodily signals may shape our perception of time.

Neural correlates of attention to emotional facial expressions in dysphoria.

The present study investigated whether dysphoric individuals have a difficulty in disengaging attention from negative stimuli and/or reduced attention to positive information. Sad, neutral and happy facial stimuli were presented in an attention-shifting task to 18 dysphoric and 18 control participants. Reaction times to neutral shapes (squares and diamonds) and the event-related potentials to emotional faces were recorded. Dysphoric individuals did not show impaired attentional disengagement from sad faces or facilitated disengagement from happy faces. Right occipital lateralisation of P100 was absent in dysphoric individuals, possibly indicating reduced attention-related sensory facilitation for faces. Frontal P200 was largest for sad faces among dysphoric individuals, whereas controls showed larger amplitude to both sad and happy as compared with neutral expressions, suggesting that dysphoric individuals deployed early attention to sad, but not happy, expressions. Importantly, the results were obtained controlling for the participants' trait anxiety. We conclude that at least under some circumstances the presence of depressive symptoms can modulate early, automatic stages of emotional processing.

Impaired off-line motor skills consolidation in young primary insomniacs.

Compelling evidence indicates that sleep can facilitate the off-line consolidation of declarative, perceptual, emotional and procedural memories. Here we assessed the sleep-related off-line consolidation of motor skills in 13 young primary insomniacs (23.31±2.5 yrs) compared to 13 healthy sleepers (24.31±1.6 yrs) using the sequential finger tapping task. During a training session insomniacs performed less correct sequences than controls. However, both groups exhibited similar on-line motor learning in the pre-sleep evening session. After a night of sleep, healthy controls improved their performance, indicating an overnight effect of sleep on motor skills consolidation. In contrast, insomniacs failed to exhibit a sleep-related enhancement in memory performance indicating impairment in the off-line motor skills consolidation process. Our results suggest that young adults with insomnia experience impaired off-line memory consolidation which seems not to be associated with reduced ability to acquire new motor information.

Pulling the lever in a hurry: the influence of impulsivity and sensitivity to reward on moral decision-making under time pressure.

BACKGROUND: Making timely moral decisions can save a life. However, literature on how moral decisions are made under time pressure reports conflicting results. Moreover, it is unclear whether and how moral choices under time pressure may be influenced by personality traits like impulsivity and sensitivity to reward and punishment. METHODS: To address these gaps, in this study we employed a moral dilemma task, manipulating decision time between participants: one group (N = 25) was subjected to time pressure (TP), with 8 s maximum time for response (including the reading time), the other (N = 28) was left free to take all the time to respond (noTP). We measured type of choice (utilitarian vs. non-utilitarian), decision times, self-reported unpleasantness and arousal during decision-making, and participants' impulsivity and BIS-BAS sensitivity. RESULTS: We found no group effect on the type of choice, suggesting that time pressure per se did not influence moral decisions. However, impulsivity affected the impact of time pressure, in that individuals with higher cognitive instability showed slower response times under no time constraint. In addition, higher sensitivity to reward predicted a higher proportion of utilitarian choices regardless of the time available for decision. CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed within the dual-process theory of moral judgement, revealing that the impact of time pressure on moral decision-making might be more complex and multifaceted than expected, potentially interacting with a specific facet of attentional impulsivity.

Moral reasoning behind the veil of ignorance: An investigation into perspective-taking accessibility in the context of autonomous vehicles.

Perspective-taking (PT) accessibility has been recognized as an important factor in affecting moral reasoning, also playing a non-trivial role in moral investigation towards autonomous vehicles (AVs). A new proposal to deepen this effect leverages the principles of the veil of ignorance (VOI), as a moral reasoning device aimed to control self-interested decisions by limiting the access to specific perspectives and to potentially biased information. Throughout two studies, we deepen the role of VOI reasoning in the moral perception of AVs, disclosing personal and contingent information progressively throughout the experiment. With the use of the moral trilemma paradigm, two different VOI conditions were operationalized, inspired by the Original Position theory by John Rawls and the Equiprobability Model by John Harsanyi. Evidence suggests a significant role of VOI reasoning in affecting moral reasoning, which seems not independent from the order in which information is revealed. Coherently, a detrimental effect of self-involvement on utilitarian behaviours was detected. These results highlight the importance of considering PT accessibility and self-involvement when investigating moral attitudes towards AVs, since it can help the intelligibility of general concerns and hesitations towards this new technology.

Relationship between cardiovascular resting state and visual attention.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular features seem to modulate performance in attention tasks. METHODS: We investigated the relationship between blood pressure, resting heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) and performance in a visuospatial attention task comparing normotensive and hypotensive young adults. CONCLUSIONS: We found an association between resting HRV and visual attention performance only in the normotensive group. In addition, we provided a further evidence of attention impairment in hypotensive individuals.

Impaired cerebral and systemic hemodynamics under cognitive load in young hypotensives: a transcranial Doppler study.

Reduced sympathetic outflow and deficits in cerebral hemodynamics have been considered as possible factors mediating the impaired cognitive performance in essential hypotension. However, the relationship between systemic blood pressure (BP), cerebral blood flow and cognitive functioning is still poorly understood. The present study was aimed at clarifying the physiological processes underlying cerebral and systemic hemodynamics in young hypotensives during cognitive engagement. Doppler sonography blood flow velocities in both middle cerebral arteries were measured from 17 hypotensives and 15 normotensives during a working memory task. Impedance cardiographic and BP measures were also recorded continuously. Lower increases in systolic and diastolic BP were observed in hypotensives. However, no evidence of lower sympathetic control was found for this group, as assessed by pre-ejection period. Flow velocity in middle cerebral arteries showed a lower increase in hypotensives throughout the task. Moreover, significant positive correlations between BP changes and blood flow velocities in middle cerebral arteries during the task were obtained for this group only, suggesting a less effective cerebral autoregulation. No difference was found between groups in task performance. Results suggest that during cognitive challenge hypotensives show impaired hemodynamic adjustments, both central and peripheral. However, such alterations do not directly affect cognitive performance, at least under moderate cognitive load.

Moral dilemmas and moral principles: when emotion and cognition unite.

Traditional studies on moral judgement used resolutions of moral dilemmas that were framed in terms of acceptability of the consequentialist action promoting a greater good, thus overlooking the deontological implications (choices cannot be justified by their consequences). Recently, some authors have suggested a parallelism between automatic, unreflective emotional responses and deontological moral judgements. In this study, we developed a novel experimental paradigm in which participants were required to choose between two resolutions of a moral dilemma (consequentialist and deontological). To assess whether emotions are engaged in each of the two resolutions, we asked participants to evaluate their emotional experience through the ratings of valence and arousal. Results showed that emotion is involved not only in deontological but also in consequentialist resolutions. Moreover, response times pointed out a different interplay between emotion and cognition in determining a conflict in the dilemma's resolution. In particular, when people were faced with trolley-like dilemmas we found that decisions leading to deontological resolutions were slower than decisions leading to consequentialist resolutions. We propose that this finding reflects the special (but not accepted) permission provided by the doctrine of the double effect for incidentally causing death for the sake of a good end.

Framing the ultimatum game: gender differences and autonomic responses.

The present study aimed at investigating whether the way offers are framed in the Ultimatum Game (UG) affects behavioral and autonomic responses in men and women. The "I give you" and "I take" expressions were used as gain and loss frames, respectively. Skin conductance and heart rate were recorded as indices of autonomic activation in response to unfair, mid-value, and fair offers. Acceptance rates were higher in men than in women under the gain frame. Moreover, men showed higher acceptance rates under the gain than under the loss frame with mid-value offers, whereas women's choices were not affected by frame. On the physiological level, men produced differential autonomic response patterns during decision-making when offers were presented under gain and loss framing. The "I take" frame, by acting as a loss frame, elicited in men the characteristic defensive response pattern that is evoked by aversive stimulation, in which increases in skin conductance are coupled with increases in heart rate. On the other hand, the "I give you" frame, by acting as a gain frame, elicited in men increases in skin conductance associated with prevailing heart rate deceleratory responses, reflecting a state of enhanced attention and orienting. In contrast, women's autonomic reactivity was not affected by frame, consistent with behavioral results. Phasic changes in heart rate were crucial in revealing differential functional significance of skin conductance responses under different frames in men, thus questioning the assumption that this autonomic measure can be used as an index of negative emotional arousal in the UG.