Heterogeneity of smartphone impact on everyday life and its relationship with personality and psychopathology: A latent profile analysis.

BACKGROUND: The relationships between problematic smartphone use and psychological factors have been extensively investigated. However, previous studies generally used variable-centered approaches, which hinder an examination of the heterogeneity of smartphone impact on everyday life. OBJECTIVE: In the present study, we capitalized on latent profile analysis to identify various classes of smartphone owners based on the impact associated with smartphone use (e.g., unregulated usage, preference for smartphone-mediated social relationships) and to compare these classes in terms of established psychological risk factors for problematic smartphone use. METHOD: We surveyed 934 young adults with validated psychometric questionnaires to assess the impact of smartphones, psychopathological symptoms, self-esteem and impulsivity traits. RESULTS: Smartphone users fall into four latent profiles: users with low smartphone impact, users with average smartphone impact, problematic smartphone users, and users favoring online interactions. Individuals distributed in the problematic smartphone user profile were characterized by heightened psychopathological symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive tendencies) and impulsivity traits. Moreover, users who preferred online interactions exhibited the highest symptoms of social anxiety and the lowest levels of self-esteem. CONCLUSIONS: These findings further demonstrate the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of the impact of smartphone use, calling for tailored prevention and intervention strategies.

Tracing 20 years of research on problematic use of the internet and social media: Theoretical models, assessment tools, and an agenda for future work.

Over the past two decades, there has been increasing interest in the impact of internet use and growing concern about whether problematic use of the internet (PUI) constitutes an addiction. Despite the growing number of studies investigating PUI and PUI subtypes, its conceptualization and inclusion in a classification system have not been possible yet. Several models aimed at inspiring clinical research and practice have proposed possible mechanisms involved in PUI and problematic use of social media, and multiple self-report instruments have been consequentially developed. The diversity of theoretical models and instruments currently hinders standardized assessment procedures across studies and, in turn, their comparability. The purpose of the present overview is to highlight the current conceptualization and assessment of both PUI and problematic use of social media, in order to critically discuss the existing fragmentation in the field and the need to achieve conceptual convergence. Two suggestions for future directions are also provided, i.e., define diagnostic criteria by bottom-up and top-down processes and develop a psychobiological hypothesis including the description of higher-order mechanisms involved in PUI and not other psychopathological conditions (e.g., the multiple available internet-related cues and outcomes that may lead to parallel forms of associative learning; probabilities of obtaining internet-related reinforcements; and intrinsic motivation processes).

Response inhibition in problematic social network sites use: an ERP study.

Given the current literature debate on whether or not Problematic Social Network Sites Use (PSNSU) can be considered a behavioral addiction, the present study was designed to test whether, similarly to addictive behaviors, PSNSU is characterized by a deficit in inhibitory control in emotional and addiction-related contexts. Twenty-two problematic Facebook users and 23 nonproblematic users were recruited based on their score on the Problematic Facebook Use Scale. The event-related potentials were recorded during an emotional Go/Nogo Task, including Facebook-related, unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral pictures. The amplitudes of the Nogo-N2 and the Nogo-P3 were computed as measures of the detection of response conflict and response inhibition, respectively. Reaction times and accuracy also were measured. The results showed that problematic users were less accurate on both Go and Nogo trials than nonproblematic users, irrespective of picture content. For problematic users only, the Nogo-P3 amplitude was lower to Facebook-related, pleasant, and neutral than to unpleasant stimuli, suggesting less efficient inhibition with natural and Facebook-related rewards. Of note, all participants were slower to respond to Facebook-related and pleasant Go trials compared with unpleasant and neutral pictures. Consistently, the Nogo-N2 amplitude was larger to Facebook-related than all other picture contents in both groups. Overall, the findings suggest that PSNSU is associated with reduced inhibitory control. These results should be considered in the debate about the neural correlates of PSNSU, suggesting more similarities than differences between PSNSU and addictive behaviors.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Compound headedness in the mental lexicon: an event-related potential study.

Compound words in Romance languages may have the head either in the initial or in the final position. In the present event-related potential (ERP) study, we address the hypothesis that Italian compounds are processed differently according to their head position and that this is mostly due to the perceived change in the canonical order of syntactic elements. Compound stimuli (head-initial, head-final, or exocentric) were visually displayed in two presentation modes, as whole words or separated into their constituents, in the context of a lexical decision task. Behavioural results showed an increased split cost in head-final and exocentric compounds as compared to head-initial compounds. ERP results showed an enhanced left anterior negativity (LAN) for head-final and exocentric compounds as compared to head-initial compounds, regardless of the presentation mode. Results suggest that the analogy with syntactic order may influence the internal structure of a compound and, as a consequence, its processing, but other characteristics (such as the grammatical properties of constituents) may affect the processing itself.

How previous experience shapes future affective subjective ratings: A follow-up study investigating implicit learning and cue ambiguity.

People use their previous experience to predict future affective events. Since we live in ever-changing environments, affective predictions must generalize from past contexts (from which they may be implicitly learned) to new, potentially ambiguous contexts. This study investigated how past (un)certain relationships influence subjective experience following new ambiguous cues, and whether past relationships can be learned implicitly. Two S1-S2 paradigms were employed as learning and test phases in two experiments. S1s were colored circles, S2s negative or neutral affective pictures. Participants (Experiment 1 N = 121, Experiment 2 N = 116) were assigned to the certain (CG) or uncertain group (UG), and they were presented with 100% (CG) or 50% (UG) S1-S2 congruency during an uninstructed (Experiment 1) or implicit (Experiment 2) learning phase. During the test phase both groups were presented with a new 75% S1-S2 paradigm, and ambiguous (Experiment 1) or unambiguous (Experiment 2) S1s. Participants were asked to rate the expected valence of upcoming S2s (expectancy ratings), or their experienced valence and arousal (valence and arousal ratings). In Experiment 1 ambiguous cues elicited less negative expectancy ratings, and less unpleasant valence ratings, independently of prior experience. In Experiment 2, both groups showed similar expectancies, predicting upcoming pictures' valence according to the 75% contingencies of the test phase. Overall, we found that in the presence of ambiguous cues subjective affective experience is dampened, and that implicit previous experience does not emerge at the subjective level by significantly shaping reported affective experience.

Parenting stress and externalizing behavior symptoms in children: the impact of emotional reactivity.

This study investigated whether the parenting stress-child externalizing behavior link is moderated by children's emotional reactivity, as indexed by skin conductance responses (SCRs). Participants were 61 children aged 9-12 years and their mothers. Mothers completed measures of parenting stress and their children's externalizing symptoms; children also reported on their externalizing behavior. Children's SCRs were assessed during the viewing of standardized pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures. Cluster analysis on SCRs identified two groups, labeled Lower SCRs and Higher SCRs. Regression analyses indicated that among children with lower SCRs, those exposed to increased parenting stress reported more externalizing symptoms, whereas those who experienced low parenting stress reported similar rates of externalizing problems as children with higher SCRs. No effect of parenting stress emerged for children with higher SCRs. Findings suggest that higher parenting stress renders children with lower, as opposed to higher, SCRs to emotional stimuli more vulnerable to externalizing problems.

Using Social Media for Social Motives Moderates the Relationship between Post-Traumatic Symptoms during a COVID-19-Related Lockdown and Improvement of Distress after Lockdown.

Previous research reported inconsistent results on the relationship between social media (SM) use and psychological well-being, suggesting the importance of assessing possible moderators, e.g., motives for SM use. However, no longitudinal study has yet investigated whether, among people who use SM, specific motives for using SM may represent protective/risk factors for the development of psychological distress, especially after a stressful event. Our longitudinal study aimed at assessing the moderating role of motives for using SM (i.e., coping, conformity, enhancement, social motives) in the relationship between COVID-19 pandemic-related post-traumatic stress symptoms during the lockdown and changes in general distress after lockdown. At Time 1 (during the first lockdown in Italy), 660 participants responded to an online survey, reporting their post-traumatic symptoms, motives for using SM, and general distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress symptoms). At Time 2 (three months later, following lockdown), 117 participants volunteered to continue with the follow-up survey assessing general distress symptoms again. Results showed that among those who had experienced more severe post-traumatic symptoms at Time 1, using SM for social motives was associated with more improvement of general distress symptoms. No evidence was found of moderating effects of other motives for SM use. The findings suggest that social connections may have helped to cope with stress during forced confinement, and that SM use may be beneficial for mental health when motivated by maintaining social interactions.

Problematic social media use is statistically predicted by using social media for coping motives and by positive reinforcement processes in individuals with high COVID-19-related stress levels.

It is important to understand the relationship between stress and problematic use of social media (PUSM). However, no study to our knowledge has yet investigated the longitudinal relationship between perceived stress and PUSM via positive and negative reinforcement processes. The present study investigated relationships between COVID-19-pandemic-related stress and PUSM and possible moderating effects of motives for using social media (positive and/or negative reinforcement) during and following a COVID-19-pandemic-related lockdown. Six-hundred-and-sixty participants initially completed a survey including self-report measures of PUSM, COVID-19-pandemic-related stress, and motives for using social media (i.e., for negative reinforcement involving coping and conformity or positive reinforcements involving enhancement and social motives). During the COVID-19 outbreak recovery period, 117 participants again completed the survey. Bayesian analyses revealed that PUSM was associated with higher COVID-19-pandemic-related stress levels and use of social media for coping, conformity, and enhancement purposes. Longitudinally, PUSM symptom worsening was associated with increased use of social media for coping motives regardless of levels of perceived stress. Use of social media for conformity and enhancement purposes moderated relationships between stress levels during lockdown and PUSM symptoms worsening after lockdown. Our findings corroborate the hypothesis that negative reinforcement processes may be key factors in PUSM symptom worsening regardless of perceived stress. Concurrently, high levels of stress may worsen PUSM through positive reinforcement processes.

Emotion regulation strategies differentially modulate neural activity across affective prediction stages: An HD-EEG investigation.

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies can influence how affective predictions are constructed by the brain (generation stage) to prearrange action (implementation stage) and update internal models according to incoming stimuli (updating stage). However, neurocomputational mechanisms by which this is achieved are unclear. We investigated through high-density EEG if different ER strategies (expressive suppression vs. cognitive reappraisal) predicted event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain source activity across affective prediction stages, as a function of contextual uncertainty. An S1-S2 paradigm with emotional faces and pictures as S1s and S2s was presented to 36 undergraduates. Contextual uncertainty was manipulated across three blocks with 100, 75, or 50% S1-S2 affective congruency. The effects of ER strategies, as assessed through the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, on ERP and brain source activity were tested for each prediction stage through linear mixed-effects models. No ER strategy affected prediction generation. During implementation, in the 75% block, a higher tendency to suppress emotions predicted higher activity in the left supplementary motor area at 1,500-2,000 ms post-stimulus, and smaller amplitude of the Contingent Negative Variation at 2,000-2,500 ms. During updating, in the 75% block, a higher tendency to cognitively reappraise emotions predicted larger P2, Late Positive Potential, and right orbitofrontal cortex activity. These results suggest that both ER strategies interact with the levels of contextual uncertainty by differently modulating ERPs and source activity, and that different strategies are deployed in a moderately predictive context, supporting the efficient updating of affective predictive models only in the context in which model updating occurs.

Unbalanced functional connectivity at rest affects the ERP correlates of affective prediction in high intolerance of uncertainty individuals: A high density EEG investigation.

In a recent study we outlined the link between Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) and the neural correlates of affective predictions, as constructed by the brain (generation stage) to prepare to relevant stimuli (implementation stage), and update predictive models according to incoming stimuli (updating stage). In this study we further explored whether the brain's functional organization at rest can modulate neural activity elicited within an emotional S1-S2 paradigm as a function of IU and uncertainty of S1-S2 contingencies. We computed resting state functional connectivity (RS-FC) from a 3-min resting period recorded with high density EEG, and we tested whether RS graph theory nodal measures (i.e., strength, clustering coefficient, betweenness centrality) predicted in-task ERP modulation as a function of IU. We found that RS-FC differently predicted in-task ERPs within the generation and updating stages. Higher IU levels were associated to altered RS-FC patterns within both domain-specific (i.e., right superior temporal sulcus) and domain-general regions (i.e., right orbitofrontal cortex), predictive of a reduced modulation of in-task ERPs in the generation and updating stages. This is presumably ascribable to an unbalancing between synchronization and integration within these regions, which may disrupt the exchange of information between top-down and bottom-up pathways. This altered RS-FC pattern may in turn result in the construction of less efficient affective predictions and a reduced ability to deal with contextual uncertainty in individuals high in IU.

Neurofeedback training for tourette syndrome: an uncontrolled single case study.

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (TS) is characterized by motor and vocal tic manifestations, often accompanied by behavioral, cognitive and affective dysfunctions. Electroencephalography of patients with TS has revealed reduced Sensorimotor Rhythm (SMR) and excessive fronto-central Theta activity, that presumably underlie motor and cognitive disturbances in TS. Some evidence exists that neurofeedback (NFB) training aimed at enhancing SMR amplitude is effective for reducing tics. The present report is an uncontrolled single case study where a NFB training protocol, involving combined SMR uptraining/Theta downtraining was delivered to a 17-year-old male with TS. After sixteen SMR-Theta sessions, six additional sessions were administered with SMR uptraining alone. SMR increase was better obtained when SMR uptraining was administered alone, whereas Theta decrease was observed after both trainings. The patient showed a reduction of tics and affective symptoms, and improvement of cognitive performance after both trainings. Overall, these findings suggest that Theta decrease might account for some clinical effects seen in conjunction with SMR uptraining. Future studies should clarify the feasibility of NFB protocols for patients with TS beyond SMR uptraining alone.

The Relationship Between Affective and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Internet Use Disorder.

We investigated the relationships and diagnostic power of symptoms associated with affective disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and drug addictions on Internet use disorder. Moreover, we tested whether Internet use disorder is characterized by a specific network of symptoms. One-hundred-and-four young adults (78 women) were assessed in laboratory using self-report measures of Internet addiction, alcohol use disorder, cannabis abuse, depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, impulsiveness, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Only hoarding, obsessing, and depression symptoms were positively linked to Internet use disorder severity, with hoarding having greater power and accuracy than other obsessive-compulsive and affective symptoms. Only individuals with mild-moderate Internet use disorder were characterized by a network of strong and positive associations of affective and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. These findings may encourage future longitudinal studies aimed at identifying potential clinical criteria for the diagnosis of Internet use disorder and treatment targets.

Motivated attention to stimuli related to social networking sites: A cue-reactivity study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: It has been argued that similar to addictive behaviors, problematic Social Network sites use (PSNSU) is characterized by sensitized reward processing and cue-reactivity. However, no study to our knowledge has yet investigated cue-reactivity in PSNSU. The present study aims at investigating cue-reactivity to Social Network sites (i.e., Facebook)-related visual cues in individuals identified as problematic vs. non-problematic Facebook users by the Problematic Facebook Use Scale. METHODS: The Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the passive viewing of Facebook-related, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures in 27 problematic and 26 non-problematic users. Moreover, craving for Facebook usage was collected using a Likert scale. RESULTS: Despite problematic users were more likely to endorse higher craving than non-problematic ones, Facebook-related cues elicited larger ERP positivity (400-600 ms) than neutral, and comparable to unpleasant stimuli, in all Facebook users. Only in problematic users we found larger positivity (600-800 ms) to pleasant than unpleasant cues and higher craving to be related with lower later positivity (800-1,000 ms) to pleasant and unpleasant cues. DISCUSSION: Regardless of whether Facebook usage is problematic or non-problematic, Facebook-related cues seem to be motivationally relevant stimuli that capture attentional resources in the earlier stages of "motivated" attentional allocation. Moreover, our results support the view that in higher-craving problematic users, reduced abilities to experience emotions would be the result of defective emotion regulation processes that allow craving states to capture more motivational/attentional resources at the expense of other emotional states.

Dealing with uncertainty: A high-density EEG investigation on how intolerance of uncertainty affects emotional predictions.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) can influence emotional predictions, constructed by the brain (generation stage) to prearrange action (implementation stage), and update internal models according to incoming stimuli (updating stage). However, neurocomputational mechanisms by which IU affects emotional predictions are unclear. This high-density EEG study investigated if IU predicted event-related potentials (ERPs) and brain sources activity developing along the stages of emotional predictions, as a function of contextual uncertainty. Thirty-six undergraduates underwent a S1-S2 paradigm, with emotional faces and pictures as S1s and S2s, respectively. Contextual uncertainty was manipulated across three blocks, each with 100%, 75%, or 50% S1-S2 emotional congruency. ERPs, brain sources and their relationship with IU scores were analyzed for each stage. IU did not affect prediction generation. During prediction implementation, higher IU predicted larger Contingent Negative Variation in the 75% block, and lower left anterior cingulate cortex and supplementary motor area activations. During prediction updating, as IU increased P2 to positive S2s decreased, along with P2 and Late Positive Potential in the 75% block, and right orbito-frontal cortex activity to emotional S2s. IU was therefore associated with altered uncertainty assessment and heightened attention deployment during implementation, and to uncertainty avoidance, reduced attention to safety cues and disrupted access to emotion regulation strategies during prediction updating.

A test of the pathway model of problematic smartphone use.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has been described as a growing public health issue. In the current study, we aimed to provide a unique and comprehensive test of the pathway model of PSU. This model posits three distinct developmental pathways leading to PSU: (1) the excessive reassurance pathway, (2) the impulsive pathway and (3) the extraversion pathway. METHODS: Undergraduate students (n = 795, 69.8% female, mean age = 23.80 years, sd = 3.02) completed online self-report measures of PSU (addictive use, antisocial use and dangerous use) and the psychological features (personality traits and psychopathological symptoms) underlying the three pathways. RESULTS: Bayesian analyses revealed that addictive use is mainly driven by the excessive reassurance pathway and the impulsive pathway, for which candidate etiopathological factors include heightened negative urgency, a hyperactive behavioural inhibition system and symptoms of social anxiety. Dangerous and antisocial use are mainly driven by the impulsive pathway and the extraversion pathway, for which candidate etiopathological factors include specific impulsivity components (lack of premeditation and sensation seeking) and primary psychopathy (inclination to lie, lack of remorse, callousness and manipulativeness). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The present study constitutes the first comprehensive test of the pathway model of PSU. We provide robust and original results regarding the psychological dimensions associated with each of the postulated pathways of PSU, which should be taken into account when considering regulation of smartphone use or tailoring prevention protocols to reduce problematic usage patterns.

Attention and affect in dysphoria: Insights from startle reflex modulation and cardiac deceleration.

The present study investigated the interplay between attention and affective disposition during emotional processing in dysphoria. Attentional and affective startle modulation and cardiac deceleration were assessed during the viewing of emotional pictures in 38 individuals with dysphoria and in 52 controls. Startle probes during picture viewing were presented at 300, 1500, 3500, 4500 ms after picture onset. Whereas controls showed the expected startle potentiation to unpleasant stimuli as compared to neutral and pleasant ones, individuals with dysphoria did not show any significant increase in startle reflex amplitude in response to unpleasant stimuli. Of note, startle potentiation during the viewing of unpleasant stimuli was significantly attenuated in the group with dysphoria relative to controls. Conversely, no significant effect concerning attentional startle modulation was noted. However, whereas individuals with dysphoria showed a prolonged cardiac deceleration when viewing unpleasant compared to neutral stimuli, the same effect was observed in controls only in the initial stage of stimuli processing. This study suggests that dysphoria is characterized by underactivation of the defensive motivational system and by prolonged attentional allocation to unpleasant stimuli. The assessment of affective startle modulation and cardiac deceleration is a valuable paradigm for unraveling dysfunctions in affective disposition and attention in dysphoria.