Denial, Attention-Seeking, and Posting Online While Intoxicated: Three Key Predictors of Collegiate Sadfishing.

Sadfishing, or the exaggeration of one's emotional state online to generate sympathy, is a maladaptive behavior that can negatively affect mental health. A better understanding of the characteristics of individuals who sadfish could inform tailored interventions to decrease sadfishing and improve quality of life. However, to date, the phenomenon of sadfishing remains understudied. Thus, the current project was designed to identify some of the key psychological and behavioral characteristics that may be associated with sadfishing. Undergraduate college students (N = 374) recruited from introductory psychology courses at a large, Hispanic-serving institution completed an anonymous online survey assessing sadfishing and other online behaviors, psychological characteristics (coping, stress, resilience, and social support), and alcohol use. Both univariate and multivariate statistical analyses were conducted. Results of the binary logistic regression analysis found that students who reported using denial as a coping strategy (p = 0.005), who endorsed the attention-seeking behaviors associated with histrionic personality disorder (p = 0.021), and who used social media while intoxicated (p = 0.017) were most likely to report sadfishing. This study furthers our knowledge of the maladaptive online behavior of sadfishing and identifies several key predictors that could become targets for tailored interventions. In particular, our results highlight the importance of coping skills training for individuals who sadfish.

Women who pre-game: A study of stress and alcohol use in female collegiate predrinkers.

Introduction: This study examined the relationship between stress and pre-gaming (i.e., drinking prior to going out to an event) in female college students. Methods: Thirty-four female college students were grouped as pre-gamers or non-pre-gamers based on self-reported drinking patterns. They completed surveys about alcohol use and mental health and provided a set of salivary cortisol samples upon waking, 30 min later, and at 10am on the same day. Results: Pre-gamers and non-pre-gamers did not differ on demographics or psychosocial variables. Pre-gamers reported riskier drinking overall and had greater endorsement of social, coping, and enhancement drinking motives. Pre-gamers also had lower cortisol levels 30 min after waking and exhibited attenuated CAR. Conclusions: Female collegiate pre-gamers may differ from their peers not only in terms of alcohol consumption and drinking motives, but also on attenuated CAR, a physiological biomarker associated with stress dysregulation and vulnerability to addictive behaviors.

Blackouts and hangover experiences among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White college students.

Blackouts and hangovers may negatively impact college students' health and productivity. However, few studies have considered the impact of cultural differences on students' individual experiences with blackouts and hangovers. To address this issue, the current study explored the potential relationships of shame and resilience with Hispanic (n = 381) and non-Hispanic White (NHW, n = 332) students' self-reported blackouts and hangover experiences. Students completed an online survey measuring shame, resilience, presence of lifetime blackout experiences preceding a hangover, and past-year hangover severity. Analyses included separate path models examining shame and resilience, and the interaction between shame and resilience with Hispanic ethnicity in relation to blackouts and hangover experiences. Significant pathways emerged between resilience, but not shame, and blackouts and hangover experiences. A subscale of resilience reflecting personal competence and tenacity was related to greater likelihood of reporting blackouts and greater hangover severity for Hispanics but not NHW students. Conversely, a dimension of resilience characterized by trusting one's instincts and tolerance of negative affect was related to a lower likelihood of reporting a blackout preceding a hangover for Hispanics but not NHW students. Finally, a resilience subscale associated with spiritual influences was positively related to blackouts in the participant population as a whole. These results reinforce the notion that resilience is an important target for intervention and prevention of hazardous drinking, but reveal that it may have both positive and negative effects in college students, which may differ by ethnicity.

Alcohol Preferences and Event-Related Potentials to Alcohol Images in College Students.

OBJECTIVE: Research on attentional biases to alcohol images has used heterogeneous sets of stimuli (e.g., an isolated beer can or a group of people drinking). However, alcoholic beverage preferences play an important part in determining an individual's alcohol use pattern and may influence attentional biases, especially for inexperienced drinkers. The current study examined whether alcoholic beverage preferences affect event-related potential (ERP) indices of cue reactivity to different types of alcohol images (e.g., beer, wine, and distilled spirits) in heavy episodic drinkers. METHOD: ERPs were recorded in 14 heavy episodic drinkers (7 male) who completed a Go/No-Go task using preferred and nonpreferred alcohol images with nonalcoholic beverage images as controls. RESULTS: Larger N2 amplitudes for preferred alcohol images were observed relative to control images and to nonpreferred alcohol images, indicating increased attentional capture by preferred beverages. P3 amplitudes and latencies were not sensitive to preferences, but latencies were delayed and amplitudes were enhanced on No-Go trials (i.e., trials requiring response inhibition). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that alcoholic beverage preference is a factor influencing alcohol cue reactivity in heavy-episodic-drinking college students. This information has methodological significance and may also be applied to improve treatment and prevention programs that focus on attentional bias modification and inhibitory control training.

Attentional blink to alcohol cues in binge drinkers versus non-binge drinkers.

Previous studies have shown alcohol-related attentional biases in social drinkers; however, the temporal dynamics of these biases are not well understood. The current study examined this issue in 94 participants (27 male) categorized as binge drinkers (BD) or non-binge drinkers (NBD). Two versions of an alcohol-related attentional blink (AB) paradigm were used: one with words and one with images. It was predicted that BDs (versus NBDs) would exhibit reduced AB for alcohol cues, which would be enhanced for the pictorial version of the task (versus words). The relationships between AB and alcohol craving, quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, symptoms of alcohol use disorder, and family history of alcohol use disorder (AUD) were also examined. While an AB was observed for both alcohol and non-alcohol targets in the NBD group, no AB was found for alcohol targets in the BD group. Furthermore, the magnitude of the AB was related to drinking, such that higher self-reported hazardous drinking was associated with smaller ABs to alcohol-related targets. However, AB was not related to craving or family history of AUD. These results suggest that alcohol-related stimuli are processed more efficiently by BDs, especially those with hazardous alcohol consumption patterns. These results may inform treatment and prevention efforts targeting binge drinkers.

Factors that Influence Autism Knowledge in Hispanic Cultures: a Pilot Study.

Although the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is rising, Hispanic children are diagnosed at a disproportionately lower rate compared to other ethnic and racial groups. Lack of ASD knowledge in the Hispanic community may contribute to this disparity. The study objective was to determine whether sociocultural and environmental factors linked to ASD diagnostic disparities were related to Hispanic parents' ASD knowledge. A 60-item survey assessing demographic information, acculturation, religiosity, social support, and ASD knowledge was administered to 64 Hispanic patients (84 % female; 76 % uninsured; 82 % Catholic) visiting a southwest clinic. Socioeconomic status (SES), social support, language of questionnaire, spiritual attribution of child diagnosis, and religious importance predicted ASD knowledge, accounting for 43 % of variance. Results contribute to understanding how sociocultural and environmental factors influence ASD knowledge within at-risk Hispanic individuals, which can be used to improve information dissemination and ultimately reduce disparity in ASD services.

Stress-induced change in serum BDNF is related to quantitative family history of alcohol use disorder and age at first alcohol use.

Previous research in animal models suggests that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in stress-modulated alcohol consumption. However, relatively few studies have investigated this issue in humans, and results of existing studies have been heterogeneous. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the within-subjects effect of acute stress (timed math plus cold pressor) on serum BDNF levels (ΔBDNF: post- minus pre-stress) in healthy social drinkers (N=68, 20 male). A secondary aim was to explore which heritable and environmental factors in our limited sample might exert the greatest influences on ΔBDNF. Importantly, presence versus absence of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265), which has often been discounted in studies of human serum BDNF, was included as a between-subjects control variable in all statistical analyses. Our results indicated that acute stress decreased serum BDNF. Further, multiple regression analyses revealed that quantitative family history of alcohol use disorder (qFH) and age at first alcohol use together accounted for 15% of the variance in ΔBDNF. Thus, the influences of qFH and age at first alcohol use may explain some of the heterogeneity that exists in previous studies of human serum BDNF. These results parallel findings in animal models and suggest that stress-related changes in serum BDNF are influenced by both heritable (qFH) and environmental (early alcohol consumption) factors.

Stress, Immune Function and Collegiate Holiday Drinking: A Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Social aspects of collegiate holiday drinking have been studied frequently, but physiological consequences are often overlooked. This study examined self-reported stress, endocrine and immune indicators in students at an American university before and after their week-long spring break (SB) holiday. METHODS: Participants (n = 27; 9 males) provided saliva samples and completed surveys pre- and post-SB. Based on their cortisol reaction to SB, participants were grouped as cortisol nonresponders (CNR; n = 14) or increasers (CI; n = 13). Groups were matched on demographics, baseline alcohol use, family history of alcoholism, and SB plans. Differences over time and between groups were examined for α-amylase, quantity/frequency of alcohol use (quantity/frequency index, QFI) and the immunoglobulin A (IgA) to albumin ratio (IgA:albumin). RESULTS: α-Amylase decreased over time. A time × group interaction was noted for QFI, in which CNRs increased drinking over SB, but CIs did not. Time and time × group effects occurred for IgA:albumin. CIs decreased IgA:albumin over SB, whereas CNRs did not. Pre-SB QFI and pre-/post-SB QFI changes were correlated with changes in IgA:albumin. CONCLUSION: These findings support previously published relationships between blunted cortisol responses and risk for problem drinking, as well as elevated cortisol and decreased immune response. These data also highlight the importance of physiological measures in the study of collegiate holiday drinking.

Individual and gender differences in subjective and objective indices of pain: gender, fear of pain, pain catastrophizing and cardiovascular reactivity.

According to fear-avoidance models of pain perception, heightened fear of pain may increase disruptive effects of pain; however, the extent to which this affects self-reported pain severity versus physiological indices of pain is not well delineated. The current study examined self-report measures and physiological indices of pain during a cold pressor (CP) task. Individual differences in fear of pain and pain catastrophizing were also assessed via questionnaire. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the extent to which individual differences associated with fear and catastrophizing in response to pain influences subjective and physiological measures of pain. A secondary aim was to examine gender differences associated with response to pain. Average subjective pain ratings were higher for females than males. In contrast, males exhibited higher systolic and diastolic reactivity in response to the CP task relative to females, as well as failure to fully recover to baseline levels. Follow-up correlational analyses revealed that subjective pain ratings were positively associated with fear of pain in both sexes, but were not associated with cardiovascular indices. These results suggest that fear of pain and pain catastrophizing do not influence cardiovascular responses to induced pain. Further research is necessary in order to determine whether these gender differences in blood pressure and heart rate response profiles are due to biological or psychosocial influences. Results support the notion that fear of pain increases subjective pain ratings, but does not influence cardiovascular responses during CP pain-induction.

Acute stress and event-related potential correlates of attention to alcohol images in social drinkers.

OBJECTIVE: The use of alcohol to cope with stress is a major health concern, yet the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the effects of stress on alcohol-related cognition are not well understood. This study examined changes in event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by alcohol-related images before and after a stressor compared with a control condition. METHOD: Social drinkers (N = 75; 38 male) were assigned to one of two target subgroups for completion of an oddball task: (a) to detect alcohol targets while ignoring household object distracters and frequently presented nonsense shapes or (b) to detect object targets while ignoring alcohol distracters and nonsense shapes. ERPs were recorded before and after one of two conditions: a stressor or a nonstressful control task. RESULTS: N200 latency and amplitude changes were modulated by stress. Similarly, stress reduced P300 latencies beyond practice effects. For P300 amplitude, the target subgroup interacted with the condition such that the standard "oddball" effect was observed in the control condition but was absent in the stress condition, suggesting that stress may have interfered with the participants' cognitive efficiency, or the ability to ignore task-irrelevant stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that stress influences the early stages of alcohol-related processing, an effect that may be particularly apparent in ERP latencies. These findings have implications for understanding the neural mechanisms involved with stress and alcohol cue reactivity.

Neurocognitive mechanisms of gaze-expression interactions in face processing and social attention.

The face conveys a rich source of non-verbal information used during social communication. While research has revealed how specific facial channels such as emotional expression are processed, little is known about the prioritization and integration of multiple cues in the face during dyadic exchanges. Classic models of face perception have emphasized the segregation of dynamic vs. static facial features along independent information processing pathways. Here we review recent behavioral and neuroscientific evidence suggesting that within the dynamic stream, concurrent changes in eye gaze and emotional expression can yield early independent effects on face judgments and covert shifts of visuospatial attention. These effects are partially segregated within initial visual afferent processing volleys, but are subsequently integrated in limbic regions such as the amygdala or via reentrant visual processing volleys. This spatiotemporal pattern may help to resolve otherwise perplexing discrepancies across behavioral studies of emotional influences on gaze-directed attentional cueing. Theoretical explanations of gaze-expression interactions are discussed, with special consideration of speed-of-processing (discriminability) and contextual (ambiguity) accounts. Future research in this area promises to reveal the mental chronometry of face processing and interpersonal attention, with implications for understanding how social referencing develops in infancy and is impaired in autism and other disorders of social cognition.

Construct Validation of Mexican Empathy Scale Yields a Unique Mexican Factor / Validación de constructo de la escala mexicana de empatía

An empathy scale developed in Mexico (Diaz-Loving, Andrade -Palos & Nadelsticher-Mitrani, 1986) was translated and validated in a U.S. sample. The Mexican and Davis' Interpersonal Reactivity Scales shared conceptually similar constructs. However, there were differences. In particular, a unique Mexican factor, Empatía Cognoscitiva and which we called Prescience had not been identified in empathy scales. It appeared to measure empathic accuracy, an individual's purported knowledge of others' feelings and moods. In a second study, we tested individuals' sensitivity in detecting subtle changes in emotional expressions, and found that individuals who scored highly in this characteristic were not necessarily more accurate at detecting emotions, but took significantly more time to look at fearful and angry faces. The results of a third study suggest that this was not due to enhanced attentional capture by negative emotional faces. In a final study, we found that purported accuracy was based on self-presentational concerns. Validation of this factor provides a clearer understanding of its cognitive and motivational properties and future uses.

Una escala de empatía desarrollada en México (Díaz-Loving, Andrade-Palos & Nadelsticher-Mitrani, 1986) fue traducida y validada en una muestra americana. La escala mexicana y la Escala de Reactividad Interpersonal de Davis compartieron constructos conceptualmente similares. Sin embargo, se presentaron algunas diferencias. En particular, un factor único mexicano, Empatía Cognoscitiva, al cual se le llamó Anticipación (Prescience, en inglés), no había sido identificado en escalas de empatía. Este factor parece medir precisión empática, un conocimiento individual que implica conocimiento sobre los sentimientos y estados de ánimo de los demás. En un segundo estudio, se probó la sensibilidad individual en la detección de cambios sutiles en expresiones emocionales, y se encontró que individuos que puntúan alto en esta característica no fueron necesariamente más precisos en la detección de emociones, pero que les toma más tiempo el atender caras con expresiones temerosas y enojadas. Los resultados de un tercer estudio sugieren que esto no se debe a la captura atencional facilitada por caras emocionales negativas. En un estudio final, se encontró que la precisión implicada se basó en preocupaciones auto-presentadas. La validación de este factor provee un mejor entendimiento de sus propiedades cognoscitivas y motivacionales así como usos futuros.

Emotionally meaningful targets enhance orienting triggered by a fearful gazing face.

Studies investigating the effect of emotional expression on spatial orienting to a gazed-at location have produced mixed results. The present study investigated the role of affective context in the integration of emotion processing and gaze-triggered orienting. In three experiments, a face gazed nonpredictively to the left or right, and then its expression became fearful or happy. Participants identified (Experiments 1 and 2) or detected (Experiment 3) a peripheral target presented 225 or 525 ms after the gaze cue onset. In Experiments 1 and 3 the targets were either threatening (a snarling dog) or nonthreatening (a smiling baby); in Experiment 2 the targets were neutral. With emotionally-valenced targets, the gaze-cuing effect was larger when the face was fearful compared to happy--but only with the longer cue-target interval. With neutral targets, there was no interaction between gaze and expression. Our results indicate that a meaningful context optimizes attentional integration of gaze and expression information.

Body mass index moderates gaze orienting biases and pupil diameter to high and low calorie food images.

The primary goal of this study was to examine eye gaze behavior to different kinds of food images in individuals differing in BMI status. Eye-tracking methods were used to examine gaze and pupil responses while normal weight and overweight women freely viewed pairs of different food images: high calorie sweet foods, high calorie savory foods, and low calorie foods. Self-report measures of hunger, state and trait cravings, and restrained eating were also obtained. Results revealed orienting biases to low calorie foods and decreases in pupil diameter to high calorie sweet foods relative to low calorie foods in the overweight group. Groups did not differ in the average amount of time spent gazing at the different image types. Furthermore, increased state cravings were associated with larger pupil diameters to high calorie savory foods, especially in individuals with lower BMIs. In contrast, restrained eating scores were associated with a decreased orienting bias to high calorie sweet foods in the high BMI group. In conclusion, BMI status appears to influence gaze parameters that are less susceptible to cognitive control. Results suggest that overweight individuals, especially those who diet, have negative implicit attitudes toward high calorie foods, especially sweets.

Event-related potentials reveal temporal staging of dynamic facial expression and gaze shift effects on attentional orienting.

Multiple sources of information from the face guide attention during social interaction. The present study modified the Posner cueing paradigm to investigate how dynamic changes in emotional expression and eye gaze in faces affect the neural processing of subsequent target stimuli. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants viewed centrally presented face displays in which gaze direction (left, direct, right) and facial expression (fearful, neutral) covaried in a fully crossed design. Gaze direction was not predictive of peripheral target location. ERP analysis revealed several sequential effects, including: (1) an early enhancement of target processing following fearful faces (P1); (2) an interaction between expression and gaze (N1), with enhanced target processing following fearful faces with rightward gaze; and (3) an interaction between gaze and target location (P3), with enhanced processing for invalidly cued left visual field targets. Behaviorally, participants responded faster to targets following fearful faces and targets presented in the right visual field, in concordance with the P1 and N1 effects, respectively. The findings indicate that two nonverbal social cues-facial expression and gaze direction-modulate attentional orienting across different temporal stages of processing. Results have implications for understanding the mental chronometry of shared attention and social referencing.

Implicit and explicit attitudes to high- and low-calorie food in females with different BMI status.

The study compared implicit and explicit attitudes to three types of foods (high-calorie non-sweet HCNS, high-calorie sweet HCS and low-calorie LC) among females varying in BMI status. Eight three participants completed an affective priming task (implicit attitudes), followed by explicit rating of food images. The results of ANOVA showed a significant difference in implicit attitudes to different types of food, F(3,246)=3.90, p<.01 and the difference among BMI groups (F(6, 213)=2.15, p<.05). The implicit attitudes to HCS were positive in the healthy-weight and overweight groups but negative in obese; the reversed pattern was revealed in attitudes to HCNS. All groups showed negative implicit attitudes to LC foods. The ANOVA performed on explicit ratings revealed a significant effect of food type (F(3,213)=22.54, p<001) but no interaction between food type and BMI status. All participants rated HCNS significantly lower than HCS and LC foods. Our results indicate dissociation in implicit and explicit attitudes to foods among BMI groups, especially in attitudes to HCNS and HCS foods.

Development of emotional facial recognition in late childhood and adolescence.

The ability to interpret emotions in facial expressions is crucial for social functioning across the lifespan. Facial expression recognition develops rapidly during infancy and improves with age during the preschool years. However, the developmental trajectory from late childhood to adulthood is less clear. We tested older children, adolescents and adults on a two-alternative forced-choice discrimination task using morphed faces that varied in emotional content. Actors appeared to pose expressions that changed incrementally along three progressions: neutral-to-fear, neutral-to-anger, and fear-to-anger. Across all three morph types, adults displayed more sensitivity to subtle changes in emotional expression than children and adolescents. Fear morphs and fear-to-anger blends showed a linear developmental trajectory, whereas anger morphs showed a quadratic trend, increasing sharply from adolescents to adults. The results provide evidence for late developmental changes in emotional expression recognition with some specificity in the time course for distinct emotions.

Garner interference reveals dependencies between emotional expression and gaze in face perception.

The relationship between facial expression and gaze processing was investigated with the Garner selective attention paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants performed expression judgments without interference from gaze, but expression interfered with gaze judgments. Experiment 2 replicated these results across different emotions. In both experiments, expression judgments occurred faster than gaze judgments, suggesting that expression was processed before gaze could interfere. In Experiments 3 and 4, the difficulty of the emotion discrimination was increased in two different ways. In both cases, gaze interfered with emotion judgments and vice versa. Furthermore, increasing the difficulty of the emotion discrimination resulted in gaze and expression interactions. Results indicate that expression and gaze interactions are modulated by discriminability. Whereas expression generally interferes with gaze judgments, gaze direction modulates expression processing only when facial emotion is difficult to discriminate.

Happy and fearful emotion in cues and targets modulate event-related potential indices of gaze-directed attentional orienting.

The goal of the present study was to characterize the effects of valence in facial cues and object targets on event-related potential (ERPs) indices of gaze-directed orienting. Participants were shown faces at fixation that concurrently displayed dynamic gaze shifts and expression changes from neutral to fearful or happy emotions. Emotionally-salient target objects subsequently appeared in the periphery and were spatially congruent or incongruent with the gaze direction. ERPs were time-locked to target presentation. Three sequential ERP components were modulated by happy emotion, indicating a progression from an expression effect to a gaze-by-expression interaction to a target emotion effect. These effects included larger P1 amplitude over contralateral occipital sites for targets following happy faces, larger centrally distributed N1 amplitude for targets following happy faces with leftward gaze, and faster P3 latency for positive targets. In addition, parietally distributed P3 amplitude was reduced for validly cued targets following fearful expressions. Results are consistent with accounts of attentional broadening and motivational approach by happy emotion, and facilitation of spatially directed attention in the presence of fearful cues. The findings have implications for understanding how socioemotional signals in faces interact with each other and with emotional features of objects in the environment to alter attentional processes.

Quantifying deficits in the perception of fear and anger in morphed facial expressions after bilateral amygdala damage.

Amygdala damage has been associated with impairments in perceiving facial expressions of fear. However, deficits in perceiving other emotions, such as anger, and deficits in perceiving emotion blends have not been definitively established. One possibility is that methods used to index expression perception are susceptible to heuristic use, which may obscure impairments. To examine this, we adapted a task used to examine categorical perception of morphed facial expressions [Etcoff, N. L., & Magee, J. J. (1992). Categorical perception of facial expressions. Cognition, 44(3), 227-240]. In one version of the task, expressions were categorized with unlimited time constraints. In the other, expressions were presented with limited exposure durations to tap more automatic aspects of processing. Three morph progressions were employed: neutral to anger, neutral to fear, and fear to anger. Both tasks were administered to a participant with bilateral amygdala damage (S.P.), age- and education-matched controls, and young controls. The second task was also administered to unilateral temporal lobectomy patients. In the first version, S.P. showed impairments relative to normal controls on the neutral-to-anger and fear-to-anger morphs, but not on the neutral-to-fear morph. However, reaction times suggested that speed-accuracy tradeoffs could account for results. In the second version, S.P. showed impairments on all morph types relative to all other subject groups. A third experiment showed that this deficit did not extend to the perception of morphed identities. These results imply that when heuristics use is discouraged on tasks utilizing subtle emotion transitions, deficits in the perception of anger and anger/fear blends, as well as fear, are evident with bilateral amygdala damage.