Appraisal and coping predict health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: An international approach.

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on people worldwide. We conducted an international survey (n = 3646) examining the degree to which people's appraisals and coping activities around the pandemic predicted their health and well-being. We obtained subsamples from 12 countries-Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, India, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Turkey and the United States. For each, we assessed appraisals and coping strategies as well as indicators of physical and mental health and well-being. Results indicated that, despite mean-level societal differences in outcomes, the pattern of appraisals and coping strategies predicting health and well-being was consistent across countries. Use of disengagement coping (particularly behavioural disengagement and self-isolation) was associated with relatively negative outcomes. In contrast, optimistic appraisals (particularly of high accommodation-focused coping potential and the ability to meet one's physical needs), use of problem-focused coping strategies (especially problem-solving) and accommodative coping strategies (especially positive reappraisal and self-encouragement) were associated with relatively positive outcomes. Our study highlights the critical importance of considering accommodative coping in stress and coping research. It also provides important information on how people have been dealing with the pandemic, the predictors of well-being under pandemic conditions and the generality of such relations.

Electrophysiological correlates of processing own- and other-race faces.

Most adults have more experience in identifying faces of their own race than in identifying faces from another race, and thus may be considered as own-race face experts. This effect was investigated by recording and analyzing ERPs as well as induced gamma oscillations. The race modulation occurred post the stage of structural processing revealed by N170. Larger P2 component and induced gamma activity for own-race than other-race faces could be associated with more elaborate processing on the basis of configural computation due to more experience that we have for own-race faces.

Integration of conflict resolution and positive emotions: Electrophysiological evidence.

Previous studies have shown that conflict monitoring is integrated with negative emotions. However, the idea that conflict resolution facilitates positive stimuli processing has not reached a consistent conclusion. We suggested that conflict resolution was integrated with positive emotions. The present study used ERPs, took the flanker task as primes, set different durations (i.e., 600 ms and 1200 ms) between the resolution of conflicts and the presentation of targets, and chose affective words as targets to investigate the affective effect of cognitive conflict during the resolution stage. Participants' task was to react to the flanker task and then evaluate the valence of the target words. The findings of experiment1 (600 ms) and experiment2 (1200 ms) were consistent. Behavioral results showed that the conflict effect was significant, and the positive signal effect of conflict resolution was found. In ERPs results, the enhanced N2 amplitudes for incongruent primes showed a significant conflict effect. The enhanced conflict SP amplitudes for incongruent primes reflected conflict resolution. As expected, the enhanced N400 amplitudes for positive targets after incongruent primes indicated that conflict resolution facilitated positive stimuli processing. Time-frequency analyses showed that incongruent primes elicited larger theta (4-8 Hz) power than congruent primes over the frontal areas. More importantly, we found that theta (4-8 Hz) power for positive targets after incongruent primes was lower than those after congruent primes over the central areas. These findings suggested that conflict resolution facilitated positive stimulus processing, and this positive effect was a carry-over effect, which indicated that conflict resolution was integrated with positive emotions.

Reward Modulates Affective Priming Effect in Cognitive Conflict Processing: Electrophysiological Evidence.

Previous research demonstrated that cognitive conflict could induce an affective priming effect, and the stage (detection/resolution) of conflict processing led to different directions (positive/negative) of the affective priming effect. We suggested that rewards play a critical role in the affective priming effect on conflict resolution. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs), using the arrow flanker task as primes and choosing specific affective words as targets to investigate the affective priming effect induced by cognitive conflict during the resolution stage. Our question was whether rewards created a modulating effect. Participants were asked to judge the congruency of the prime stimuli and then evaluate the valence of the target words. For behavioral results, the conflict effect was significant, and the reward promoted the behavioral performance of participants. For ERP results, enhanced N2 amplitudes for incongruent primes indicated a significant conflict effect. More importantly, as expected, in the rewarded condition, the enhanced N400 amplitudes for positive targets following incongruent primes were found, indicating a positive priming effect. However, in the unrewarded condition, the reduced N400 amplitudes for positive targets following incongruent primes were found, indicating conflict resolution hindered the processing of positive stimuli. These findings suggested that cognitive conflict-induced the positive priming effect during the resolution stage and that rewards had a moderating effect on the positive priming effect.

Cognitive conflict could facilitate negative stimulus processing: evidence from trait anxiety in the flanker paradigm.

The present study used event-related potentials to investigate the affective priming effect of cognitive conflict and the influence of trait anxiety during the early stage of conflict processing. Participants with relatively high-trait or low-trait anxiety were tested using a combination of flanker task (congruent or incongruent arrows) as primes presented 200 ms before positive or negative words as targets. Behavioral results showed that response times were shorter for negative targets following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes, and vice versa, suggesting that conflicts facilitated the processing of negative targets. Event-related potential results revealed that the N2 amplitudes (280-320 ms) for incongruent stimuli were significantly more negative than those for congruent stimuli, indicating a significant conflict effect. Moreover, the N400 amplitudes (580-680 ms) for positive targets after congruent primes were significantly more negative than those after incongruent primes, but no significant difference was found in the N400 amplitudes after congruent primes and incongruent primes for negative targets, indicating that conflicts had a negative effect on the subsequent processing. In addition, in the high-trait anxiety, the N400 amplitudes for negative targets after incongruent primes were significantly more negative than those after incongruent primes, and vice versa, indicating that conflicts facilitated the processing of negative targets. These findings showed that conflicts could facilitate the processing of negative targets and be viewed as aversive signals during the early stage of conflict processing and that high-trait anxiety promoted the negative effect induced by conflicts.

The audio-visual integration effect on music emotion: Behavioral and physiological evidence.

Previous research has indicated that, compared to audio-only presentation, audio-visual congruent presentation can lead to a more intense emotional response. In the present study, we investigated the audio-visual integration effect on emotions elicited by positive or negative music and the role of visual information presentation durations. The participants were presented with audio-only condition, audio-visual congruent condition, and audio-visual incongruent condition and then required to judge the intensity of emotional experience elicited by the music. Their emotional responses to the music were measured using self-ratings and physiological aspects, including heart rate, skin temperature, EMG root mean square and prefrontal EEG. Relative to the audio-only presentation, the audio-visual congruent presentation led to a more intense emotional response. More importantly, the audio-visual integration occurred both in the positive music and in the negative music. Furthermore, the audio-visual integration effect was larger for positive music than for negative music; meanwhile the audio-visual integration effect was strongest with the visual information presented within 80s for negative music, which indicated that this integration effect was more likely to occur in the negative music. These results suggest that when the music was positive, the effect of audio-visual integration was greater. When the music was negative, the modulation effect of the presentation durations of visual information on the music-induced emotion was more significant.

Sex differences in the association between internalizing symptoms and hair cortisol level among 10-12 year-old adolescents in China.

Although numerous studies have described the relationship between HPA axis dysregulation and internalizing symptoms among adolescents, research using hair cortisol concentrations in pre- and young adolescent samples has not been reported. We investigated the association of self-reported internalizing symptoms with cortisol concertration in hair among pre- and young adolescents aged 10-12 years. Forty-six boys and 39 girls supplied a hair sample of at least 3 cm in length for an analysis of this period (3 months) cortisol excretion. Saliva cortisol reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C) also was assessed. The study found a positive association between ratings of depressive symptoms and cumulative levels of hair cortisol only in boys. Furthermore, higher ratings of anxiety symptoms were associated with lower hair cortisol concertration and lower saliva cortisol reactivity among girls. This study provides the first evidence for the notion that depressive symptoms in boys are associated with long-term cortisol concertration in hair, whereas anxiety symptoms in girls are associated with HPA-axis hypoactivity, when hair cortisol concentrations and saliva cortisol reactivity to acute stress are assessed concurrently.

Is Inhibition of Return Modulated by Involuntary Orienting of Spatial Attention: An ERP Study.

Inhibition of return (IOR) is a mechanism that indicates individuals' faster responses or higher accuracy to targets appearing in the novel location relative to the cued location. According to the "reorienting hypothesis," disengagement from the cued location is necessary for the generation of IOR. However, more and more studies have questioned this theory because of dissociation between voluntary or involuntary spatial orienting and the IOR effect. To further explore the "reorienting hypothesis" of IOR, the present experiment employed an atypical cue-target paradigm which combined a spatially non-predictive peripheral cue that was presumed to trigger IOR with a spatially non-predictive central cue that was used to reflexively trigger a shift of attention. The results showed that a significant IOR effect did not interact with automatic spatial orienting as measured in mean RTs and accuracy as well as the Nd component. These findings suggested that the IOR effect triggered by peripheral cue was independent of automatic orienting generated by a central cue. Therefore, the present study provided evidence from location task and neural aspects, which again challenged the "reorienting hypothesis" of IOR.

Inhibition of Return Is Modulated by Negative Stimuli: Evidence from Subliminal Perception.

Inhibition of return (IOR) is considered as a "blindness mechanism" that emotional stimuli have no impact on it. Most previous studies suggested that IOR was not modulated by emotional cues. However, one key question they ignored was that only supraliminal presentation of emotional stimuli was used in their experiments. The present experiment is aimed at exploring the possible interaction between the IOR effect and subliminal emotional process. We manipulated three different kinds of valence strength of negative stimuli (high negative, HN; moderate negative, MN; low negative, LN) which were presented under the subliminal perception level and an event-related potentials (ERPs) recording was adopted. The results showed that, compared to MN and HN, the IOR effect triggered by peripheral cues was more significant for LN with aspects of behavioral and electrophysiological data (a reduction P1 effect, more negative on cued trials than on uncued trials for both early posterior Nd and Nd components). This indicated that IOR can be modulated by emotionally relevant stimuli. The automatic processing that was triggered by subliminally negative stimuli of peripheral cues had an influence on the shifting of spatial attention that was triggered by IOR. These two mechanisms may occur in the perceptual stage simultaneously.

The negative priming effect in cognitive conflict processing.

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the specific physiological mechanisms underlying the negative nature of cognitive conflict and its influence on affective word evaluations. The present study used an affective priming paradigm where Stroop stimuli were presented for 200ms after which affective target words had to be evaluated as being positive or negative. Behavioral results showed that reaction times (RTs) were shorter for positive targets following congruent primes relative to incongruent primes, and for negative targets following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes. The ERP results showed that the N2 amplitude (200-300ms) for incongruent stimuli was significantly larger than for congruent stimuli in the Stroop task, which indicated a significant conflict effect. Moreover, the N400 amplitude (300-500ms) was smaller for negative words following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes, and for positive words following congruent primes relative to incongruent primes. The results demonstrated that cognitive conflict modulated both behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of subsequent emotional processing, consistent with its hypothesized registration as an aversive signal.

Different Stages, Different Signals: The Modulating Effect of Cognitive Conflict on Subsequent Processing.

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the function of signals induced by cognitive conflict during the detection stage and the resolution stage of perceptual processing. The study used a combination of the Stroop task and an affective priming task to examine the conflict priming effect when the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was 200 ms or 800 ms. Behavioral results showed that the RTs were shorter for positive targets following congruent primes relative to incongruent primes, and for negative targets following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes when the SOA was 200 ms. ERP results showed that the N2 amplitudes (200-300 ms) for incongruent stimuli were significantly larger than for congruent stimuli in the Stroop task, which indicated a significant conflict effect. Moreover, the N400 amplitudes (500-700 ms) for positive targets after congruent primes were significantly lower than those after incongruent primes when the SOA was 200 ms, which showed a significant negative priming effect. While the SOA was 800 ms, behavioral results showed that the RTs were shorter for positive targets following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes. ERP results showed that the N2 amplitudes (200-300 ms) for incongruent stimuli were significantly larger than for congruent stimuli in the Stroop task, which indicated a significant conflict effect. The N400 amplitudes (1100-1300 ms) for the negative targets after congruent primes were significantly lower than those after incongruent primes when the SOA was 800 ms, which showed a significant positive priming effect. The results demonstrated that the functions of signals induced by cognitive conflict were reversed in two different cognitive processing stages.

Emotional conflict occurs at a late stage: evidence from the paired-picture paradigm.

The present study used paired-picture paradigm, where either congruent or incongruent emotional expressions were presented side by side to measure the neural correlates underlying the processing of emotional conflict effect. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants identified whether the valences of the paired-picture were consistent or not. The results showed that incongruent and congruent picture pairs both elicited larger N2 (210-310 ms) amplitudes than neutral pairs. In contrast, the conflict picture pairs elicited a larger conflict slow potential (conflict SP, 700-1000 ms) than did the positive and neutral picture pairs. There was no significant difference in conflict SP amplitudes between incongruent and congruent picture pairs (i.e., the mean amplitudes of negative and positive picture pairs). The results demonstrated that emotional information was identified and processed during the stage from about 210 ms to 310 ms. However, the emotional conflict effect did not appear until late stage (700-1000 ms). These results supported the distributed attention theory of emotions (DATE).