Profiles of appraisal, motivation, and coping for positive emotions.

We used a retrospective survey (N = 346) to model the patterns of appraisal, motivation, and coping that uniquely correspond with 12 positive emotions (affection/love, amusement, awe, challenge/determination, compassion, gratitude, happiness/joy, hope, interest, pride, relief, and serenity/tranquillity). Generally, we conceptually replicated previously demonstrated appraisal profiles of positive emotion while also examining how additional appraisals differentiate among positive emotions. We then uncovered the motivational goals and coping processes associated with each positive emotion. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on positive emotion.

Better together: a unified perspective on appraisal and emotion regulation.

Advances in our understanding of appraisal processes and emotion regulation have been two of the most important contributions of research on cognition and emotion in recent decades. Interestingly, however, progress in these two areas has been less mutually informative than one might expect or desire. To help remedy this situation, we provide an integration of appraisal theory and the process model of emotion regulation by describing parallel, interacting and iterative systems for emotion generation and emotion regulation. Outputs of the emotion generation system are perceived by the emotion regulation system, and emotion regulation strategies then modulate emotion by intervening at specific stages of the emotion generation system, ultimately changing appraisal dimensions. We hope that our unified perspective will encourage and guide future research at the interface of cognition and emotion.

Reappraising faces: effects on accountability appraisals, self-reported valence, and pupil diameter.

Many of our emotions arise in social contexts, as we interact with and learn about others. What is not yet clear, however, is how such emotions unfold when we either react to others or attempt to regulate our emotions. To address this issue, 30 healthy volunteers reacted to or reappraised positive or negative information that was paired with neutral faces. While they were doing this task, we assessed pupillary responses. We also asked participants to provide ratings of accountability and experienced emotion. Findings indicated that appraised accountability increased in response to emotional information, and changes in accountability were associated with commensurate changes in valence reports and increased pupil diameter. During reappraisal, accountability and emotion decreased, but pupil diameter increased. The findings highlight the importance of accountability appraisals during the generation and regulation of emotional reactions to others, while also documenting pupillary increases during emotional reactivity and regulation.

Skin-transmitted pathogens and the heebie jeebies: evidence for a subclass of disgust stimuli that evoke a qualitatively unique emotional response.

Skin-transmitted pathogens have threatened humans since ancient times. We investigated whether skin-transmitted pathogens were a subclass of disgust stimuli that evoked an emotional response that was related to, but distinct from, disgust and fear. We labelled this response "the heebie jeebies". In Study 1, coding of 76 participants' experiences of disgust, fear, and the heebie jeebies showed that the heebie jeebies was elicited by unique stimuli which produced skin-crawling sensations and an urge to protect the skin. In Experiment 2,350 participants' responses to skin-transmitted pathogen, fear-inducing, and disgust-inducing vignettes showed that the vignettes elicited sensations and urges which loaded onto heebie jeebies, fear, and disgust factors, respectively. Experiment 3 largely replicated findings from Experiment 2 using video stimuli (178 participants). Results are consistent with the notion that skin-transmitted pathogens are a subclass of disgust stimuli which motivate behaviours that are functionally consistent with disgust yet qualitatively distinct.

Does interest broaden or narrow attentional scope?

Theory proposes that interest is a positive emotion that may either broaden attention to facilitate processing of new information, or narrow attention to preserve engagement with new information. To our knowledge, no research has directly examined the effect of interest on attentional scope. Across four experiments, we show that traits associated with the propensity to experience interest-specifically, trait curiosity and internal boredom proneness-are associated with a narrower scope of attention. We also find that, instead of broadening, interest actually narrows attentional scope in comparison to a neutral state and awe. Challenging the conventional notion that all positive emotions broaden cognition and attention, our findings suggest that specific emotions influence attention in ways that extend beyond a general emotional valence effect.

Appraisal shifts during reappraisal.

How to model the processes involved in regulating emotions via reappraisal? In two studies, we tested whether reappraisal impacts emotions through shifts along appraisal dimensions. In a first experimental study, 437 students imagined reliving a recent distressing event and rated their appraisals and emotions before and after using reappraisal to feel less negative about the event. Between 19% and 49% of changes to different emotions were statistically mediated by shifts along 10 appraisal dimensions. Latent profile analyses suggested that the appraisal shifts reflected four distinct reappraisal tactics. These findings were conceptually replicated in an intensive longitudinal Study 2, where 168 participants rated their appraisals and emotions in relation to a maximum of three emotional events for 7 days, first within an hour of the event and again in the evening when they also reported on emotion regulation use (1142 observations). Between 22% and 46% of changes to different emotions accompanying reappraisal use were statistically mediated by shifts along appraisal dimensions. Appraisal shifts were less significant for unregulated and otherwise regulated emotion changes. Relative to Study 1, the latent profile analyses of Study 2 revealed two similar and four novel reappraisal tactics reflecting a broader range of events and feelings. Across both studies, all appraisal dimensions were involved in at least one tactic and no dimension in all of them, highlighting the suitability of multivariate profiles over univariate dimensions for modelling reappraisal. These findings suggest that appraisal shift profiles can be part of a useful model of cognitive processes underlying reappraisal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Complex negative emotions induced by electrical stimulation of the human hypothalamus.

BACKGROUND: Stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamic region in animals has been reported to cause attack behavior labeled as sham-rage without offering information about the internal affective state of the animal being stimulated. OBJECTIVE: To examine the causal effect of electrical stimulation near the ventromedial region of the human hypothalamus on the human subjective experience and map the electrophysiological connectivity of the hypothalamus with other brain regions. METHODS: We examined a patient (Subject S20_150) with intracranial electrodes implanted across 170 brain regions, including the hypothalamus. We combined direct electrical stimulation with tractography, cortico-cortical evoked potentials (CCEP), and functional connectivity using resting state intracranial electroencephalography (EEG). RESULTS: Recordings in the hypothalamus did not reveal any epileptic abnormalities. Electrical stimulations near the ventromedial hypothalamus induced profound shame, sadness, and fear but not rage or anger. When repeated single-pulse stimulations were delivered to the hypothalamus, significant responses were evoked in the amygdala, hippocampus, ventromedial-prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, anterior cingulate, as well as ventral-anterior and dorsal-posterior insula. The time to first peak of these evoked responses varied and earliest propagations correlated best with the measures of resting-state EEG connectivity and structural connectivity. CONCLUSION: This patient's case offers details about the affective state induced by the stimulation of the human hypothalamus and provides causal evidence relevant to current theories of emotion. The complexity of affective state induced by the stimulation of the hypothalamus and the profile of hypothalamic electrophysiological connectivity suggest that the hypothalamus and its connected structures ought to be seen as causally important for human affective experience.

Intensity of affective experience is modulated by magnitude of intracranial electrical stimulation in human orbitofrontal, cingulate and insular cortices.

The subjective and behavioral effects of intracranial electrical stimulation (iES) have been studied for decades, but there is a knowledge gap regarding the relationship between the magnitude of electric current and the type, intensity and valence of evoked subjective experiences. We report on rare iES data from 18 neurosurgical patients with implanted intracranial electrodes in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the insula (INS) and the anterior portion of cingulate cortex (ACC). ACC stimulation elicited somatic and visceral sensations, whereas OFC stimulation predominantly elicited olfactory and gustatory responses, and INS stimulation elicited a mix of effects involving somatic and visceral sensations, olfaction and gustation. Further, we found striking evidence that the magnitude of electric current delivered intracranially correlated positively with the perceived intensity of subjective experience and the evoked emotional state, a relationship observed across all three regions. Finally, we observed that the majority of reported experiences were negatively valenced and unpleasant, especially those elicited by ACC stimulation. The present study provides novel case studies from the human brain confirming that these structures contribute causally to the creation of affective states and demonstrates a direct relationship between the magnitude of electrical stimulation of these structures and the qualia of elicited subjective experience. Summary: This study provides critical knowledge about the effect of electrical charge magnitude on the intensity of human subjective experiences and emotional states. We shed light on the fundamental relationship between the electrical (physical) state of cortical tissue and the modality and intensity of human (subjective) experience. As electroceutical interventions are increasingly employed to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders, these findings highlight the importance of electrical stimulation magnitude for eliciting specific changes in human subjective experience.

Changes in subjective experience elicited by direct stimulation of the human orbitofrontal cortex.

OBJECTIVE: We applied direct cortical stimulation (DCS) to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in neurosurgical patients implanted with intracranial electrodes to probe, with high anatomic precision, the causal link between the OFC and human subjective experience. METHODS: We administered 272 instances of DCS at 172 OFC sites in 22 patients with intractable focal epilepsy (from 2011 to 2017), none of whom had seizures originating from the OFC. RESULTS: Our observations revealed a rich variety of affective, olfactory, gustatory, and somatosensory changes in the subjective domain. Elicited experiences were largely neutral or negatively valenced (e.g., aversive smells and tastes, sadness, and anger). Evidence was found for preferential left lateralization of negatively valenced experiences and strong right lateralization of neutral effects. Moreover, most of the elicited effects were observed after stimulation of OFC tissue around the transverse orbital sulcus, and none were seen in the most anterior aspects of the OFC. CONCLUSIONS: Our study yielded 3 central findings: first, a dissociation between the "silent" anterior and nonsilent middle/posterior OFC where stimulation clearly elicits changes in subjective experience; second, evidence that the OFC might play a causal role in integrating affect and multimodal sensory experiences; and third, clear evidence for left lateralization of negatively valenced effects. Our findings provide important information for clinicians treating OFC injury or planning OFC resection and scientists seeking to understand the brain basis for the integration of sensation, cognition, and affect.