[Which legal protection for the rights of aged people with cognitive disorders?] / Quelles protections juridiques pour les personnes atteintes de troubles cognitifs ?

Jacques Brel, a French-speaking Belgian popular singer, carries a fatalistic look in his song Les Vieux [The Adged] that makes echoes to the implacable judgment of Charles de Gaulle "Old age is a shipwreck". Old age is synonymous with weakening, exhaustion and even decay. This image must be overcome to face a more nuanced reality, where autonomy is favored; we must developp the care of the frailest people (accessibility of places, geriatric care, home services, medicalized material…). The law is concerned with maintaining or restoring the rights of the most vulnerable people. The presence of cognitive disorders does not necessarily deprive the person of his ability to express himself. Thus, the judge has the obligation to adjust the protective measure to the capacities of the protected person; he/she ensures that his/her opinion is respected. In order to protect without diminishing, the guardianship judge relies in particular on the detailed medical certificate but also on the hearing of the person. It would not be possible for the judge to decide on such delicate issues as home care without the most reliable and concrete information.

Expectations and disappointments relative to COVID-19 passes: results from a voluntary mixed-methods study in French-speaking Belgium.

Objectives: Belgium enacted a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pass - the 'COVID Safe Ticket' (CST) - in October 2021. This study aimed to understand the expectations and reasons given by those supporting this policy measure. Methods: This mixed methods study was based on a voluntary online survey among 9444 French-speaking residents in Belgium. Results: Most respondents were not very supportive of the CST, with only 617 respondents (7%) being pro-CST. Compared with other respondents, the pro-CST sample comprised more males, older people, people scared of COVID-19, people who had confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines, and highly educated people. A qualitative analysis was undertaken to identify the reasons why respondents supported the CST. Two lines of argument were related to personal comfort (individual protection and means of 'recovering freedom'), and two other lines were related to collective protection (controlling the pandemic and incentivizing vaccination). Pro-CST respondents also indicated some limitations of the CST. Conclusions: The expectations regarding the CST were high, diverse and not entirely rational. Some contradictions and frustration emerged from the respondents' comments. The CST may have exacerbated the social divide in society. The high expectations risk leading to comparably high levels of disappointment, resulting in potential distrust towards future public health interventions.

Neuroticism predicts national vaccination rates across 56 countries.

Quite strikingly, there is significant variation in Covid-19 vaccine coverage around the world. Some countries do not progress from around 2-3% while others are close to 100% coverage. In addition to some already known economic, health and sociodemographic predictors, the present research is interested in emotional factors that may predict a significant part of this cross-country variation. We examined the personality factor Neuroticism, which corresponds to the relatively stable tendency to experience negative emotions, anxiety and low tolerance for stress. Results confirm that gross domestic product represents around 50 percent of cross-country variation. Neuroticism added 6 to 9 percent of inter-country variation in vaccination coverage. The results are discussed in relation to the associations between Neuroticism, increased worry, greater attention to Covid-19 related information and confidence, as well as lower vaccine hesitancy.

High spatial frequencies disrupt conscious visual recognition: evidence from an attentional blink paradigm.

In this article, we tested the respective importance of low spatial frequencies (LSF) and high spatial frequencies (HSF) for conscious visual recognition of emotional stimuli by using an attentional blink paradigm. Thirty-eight participants were asked to identify and report two targets (happy faces) embedded in a rapid serial visual presentation of distractors (angry faces). During attentional blink, conscious perception of the second target (T2) is usually altered when the lag between the two targets is short (200-500 ms) but is restored at longer lags. The distractors between T1 and T2 were either non-filtered (broad spatial frequencies, BSF), low-pass filtered (LSF), or high-pass filtered (HSF). Assuming that prediction abilities could be at the root of conscious visual recognition, we expected that LSF distractors could result in a greater disturbance of T2 reporting than HSF distractors. Results showed that both LSF and HSF play a role in the emergence of exogenous consciousness in the visual system. Furthermore, HSF distractors strongly affected T1 and T2 reporting irrespective of the lag between targets, suggesting their role for facial emotion processing. We discuss these results with regards to other models of visual recognition. .

Factors Associated With COVID-19 Vaccination Among Individuals With Vaccine Hesitancy in French-Speaking Belgium.

This cross-sectional study examines why people in French-speaking regions of Belgium who initially resisted getting the COVID-19 vaccine eventually chose to get vaccinated.

When the body matches the picture: The influence of physiological arousal on subjective familiarity of novel stimuli.

Numerous studies show that bodily states shape affect and cognition. Here, we investigated whether incidental physiological arousal impacted perceived familiarity for novel images depicting real-world scenes. Participants provided familiarity ratings for a series of high- and low-arousal emotional images, once after a cycling session (to increase heart rate) and once after a relaxation session (to reduce heart rate). We observed a novel match-effect between internal (physiological) and external (stimulus) arousal sources, where participants rated highly arousing images as more familiar when bodily arousal was also high. Interestingly, the match-effect was greater in participants that scored low on self-report measures of interoception, suggesting that these individuals are less able to correctly perceive bodily changes, and thus are more likely to confuse their physiological arousal with an external source. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of interactions between the mind, body, and stimulus, especially when it comes to subjective judgments of familiarity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Is heart rate variability biofeedback useful in children and adolescents? A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered as an index of both physical and emotional health, and biofeedback aiming to increase the level of HRV has demonstrated extensive beneficial effects. Although HRV biofeedback is commonly and reliably applied in adults, the use of this technique, alone or in addition to other treatments, in children and adolescents has not been widely explored to date. METHODS: This systematic review following PRISMA guidelines covers all human studies using HRV biofeedback in children and adolescents. A literature search was conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus, and a standardized methodological quality assessment was performed. RESULTS: Results showed the efficiency of HRV biofeedback sessions with children and adolescents to reduce physical and mental health-related symptoms and enhance well-being. CONCLUSIONS: These findings underline the therapeutic value of using HRV biofeedback as a complement to more conventional behavioural and cognitive interventions to help children to manage stress and/or pain. Capitalizing on the identified strengths and shortcomings of available results, we propose research avenues as well as evidence-based clinical guidelines for using HRV biofeedback in clinical paediatric settings.

Alexithymia disrupts verbal short-term memory.

While some research has now started to suggest that there are long-term memory (LTM) deficits in alexithymia, short-term memory (STM) in alexithymia remained largely unexplored. This study investigated whether the STM trace for emotion and neutral words might also be disrupted by alexithymia. Forty-four participants were randomly assigned to Study 1 in which the to-be-memorised six-word lists were composed of words belonging to the same valence (i.e. pure lists condition, Study 1), and 44 other participants were randomly assigned to Study 2 in which six-word lists were composed of embedded neutral and emotional words (i.e. mixed lists condition). All the participants completed the Toronto-Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and a current mood states scale (PANAS). Results showed that the main effect of alexithymia was observed in the pure lists condition while no alexithymia groups effect emerged in the mixed lists condition. In the pure lists condition only correlation analyses confirmed that alexithymia significantly and negatively correlated with recall accuracy. The results are discussed with regard to the influence of alexithymia on the proposed role of (1) semantic organisation of LTM on STM performance in the pure lists condition and (2) attentional capture by emotional words in the mixed lists condition.

Schadenfreude, malicious and benign envy are associated with low body mass index in restrictive-type anorexia nervosa.

PURPOSE: According to the Cognitive-Interpersonal Maintenance Model of anorexia nervosa, social factors are involved in the maintenance and development of this disorder. Therefore, this study aimed to test whether patients with restrictive-type anorexia nervosa (AN-R) experience malicious envy (negative emotions associated with the wish that others lack their superior quality), benign envy (negative emotions associated with the desire to reach and obtain the others' superior quality) and Schadenfreude (pleasure at the misfortunes of others) with a higher intensity than healthy controls (HC). METHODS: 26 AN-R patients and 32 HC completed scenarios that aimed to induce envy and Schadenfreude and completed questionnaires measuring envy, self-esteem and social comparison. RESULTS: AN-R patients reported more benign envy than HC. Interestingly, higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with less Schadenfreude, malicious and benign envy in AN-R only. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that AN-R patients present higher motivation to evolve when facing others' superior quality (i.e., benign envy). It also underlines the importance of considering social factors in the maintenance of AN-R and the role of BMI when examining emotions related to others' fortune. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, case-control analytic study.

Alexithymia disrupts the beneficial influence of arousal on attention: Evidence from the attentional blink.

Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality construct that encompasses difficulties in identifying and describing feelings along with an externally oriented cognitive style. The influence of alexithymia and arousal on the cognitive processing of emotion is now widely demonstrated. To test the joint influence of alexithymia and arousal on attentional processes, 55 participants completed 2 blocks of attentional blink trials, one after a baseline (relaxed) session and the other after a cycling (aroused) session. The attentional blink task consists in presenting a neutral first to-be-detected target and second targets (T2) that were neutral (e.g., echo), low-arousal (i.e., emptiness), or high-arousal (e.g., murder) words and presented 213 ms after the first target. The results show that alexithymia interacted with arousal (cycling vs. baseline) and type T2, so that arousal was beneficial to detect T2 only for low-alexithymia scorers. The findings are discussed within the framework showing a decoupling between physiological arousal and subjective experience in high-alexithymia scorers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

"Passion" versus "patience": the effects of valence and arousal on constructive word recognition.

Accumulating evidence suggests that emotional information is often recognised faster than neutral information. Several studies examined the effects of valence and arousal on word recognition, but yielded partially diverging results. Here, we used two alternative versions of a constructive recognition paradigm in which a target word is hidden by a visual mask that gradually disappears, to investigate whether the emotional properties of words influence their speed of recognition. Participants were instructed either to classify the incrementally appearing word as emotional or non-emotional (semantic categorisation task) or to decide whether the appearing letter string is an existing word or not (lexical decision task). Results from both tasks revealed faster recognition times for high- compared to low-arousing words, and for positive compared to negative or neutral words. These findings indicate a recognition advantage for emotionally positive and highly arousing stimuli that persists even when visual word recognition is hampered and participants are encouraged to make more active, semantic inferences to generate the meaning of the emerging word.

Distress Response to the Failure to an Insoluble Anagrams Task: Maladaptive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Binge Drinking Students.

Background: Emotion regulation refers to the attempt to influence the latency, magnitude, and duration of an emotion, and to modify the experiential, behavioral, or physiological components of the emotional response. In situations of personal failure, individuals, and in particular those who present a tendency to self-focus, may experience intense emotional distress. Individuals who lack proper adaptive emotion regulation strategies may engage in activities leading to immediate pleasure, such as alcohol drinking, in order to escape the self-relevance of emotional experiences. This self-awareness theory of drinking has been shown explain relapses in self-focused alcohol-dependent individuals in situations of personal failure, after detoxification. Such relapses support the existence of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in alcohol dependence. As binge drinking may be considered as an early stage of alcohol-use-disorder, the aim of this study was to explore the relationship between emotional distress, self-regulation and self-consciousness in binge drinkers (BD). Methods: Fifty-five students (32 BD and 23 controls) completed different questionnaires related to the self (self-consciousness and self-regulation questionnaires) and were exposed to a situation of self-failure (insoluble anagrams). Results: The distress induced by the anagrams task was more related to self-blame, ruminations and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in BD than in controls. Emotional distress was related to less positive refocusing, refocusing on planning, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies among the control group with less public self-consciousness. Emotional distress was related to more positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, refocusing on planning, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies among control participants with higher public self-consciousness. Low self-conscious BD who experienced anagram distress used less acceptance and less refocusing on planning strategies. Conversely, high self-conscious BD used more refocusing on planning strategies when experiencing anagram distress. Conclusion: This study suggests a relationship between emotional distress and self-regulation, in BD only. Moreover, public self-consciousness appears to be a disposition that motivates non-BD to improve actions and attitudes to meet self-standards. Finally, this study suggests a minor role of self-consciousness in the relationship between self-regulation and emotional distress in BD. Finally, low private/public self-consciousness in the binge drinking group may also be related to more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.

Congruent bodily arousal promotes the constructive recognition of emotional words.

Considerable research has shown that bodily states shape affect and cognition. Here, we examined whether transient states of bodily arousal influence the categorization speed of high arousal, low arousal, and neutral words. Participants realized two blocks of a constructive recognition task, once after a cycling session (increased arousal), and once after a relaxation session (reduced arousal). Results revealed overall faster response times for high arousal compared to low arousal words, and for positive compared to negative words. Importantly, low arousal words were categorized significantly faster after the relaxation than after the cycling, suggesting that a decrease in bodily arousal promotes the recognition of stimuli matching one's current arousal state. These findings highlight the importance of the arousal dimension in emotional processing, and suggest the presence of arousal-congruency effects.

Evidence of Rapid Modulation by Social Information of Subjective, Physiological, and Neural Responses to Emotional Expressions.

Recent research suggests that conceptual or emotional factors could influence the perceptual processing of stimuli. In this article, we aimed to evaluate the effect of social information (positive, negative, or no information related to the character of the target) on subjective (perceived and felt valence and arousal), physiological (facial mimicry) as well as on neural (P100 and N170) responses to dynamic emotional facial expressions (EFE) that varied from neutral to one of the six basic emotions. Across three studies, the results showed reduced ratings of valence and arousal of EFE associated with incongruent social information (Study 1), increased electromyographical responses (Study 2), and significant modulation of P100 and N170 components (Study 3) when EFE were associated with social (positive and negative) information (vs. no information). These studies revealed that positive or negative social information reduces subjective responses to incongruent EFE and produces a similar neural and physiological boost of the early perceptual processing of EFE irrespective of their congruency. In conclusion, the article suggests that the presence of positive or negative social context modulates early physiological and neural activity preceding subsequent behavior.

Resting high frequency heart rate variability selectively predicts cooperative behavior.

This study explores whether the vagal connection between the heart and the brain is involved in prosocial behaviors. The Polyvagal Theory postulates that vagal activity underlies prosocial tendencies. Even if several results suggest that vagal activity is associated with prosocial behaviors, none of them used behavioral measures of prosociality to establish this relationship. We recorded the resting state vagal activity (reflected by High Frequency Heart Rate Variability, HF-HRV) of 48 (42 suitale for analysis) healthy human adults and measured their level of cooperation during a hawk-dove game. We also manipulated the consequence of mutual defection in the hawk-dove game (severe vs. moderate). Results show that HF-HRV is positively and linearly related to cooperation level, but only when the consequence of mutual defection is severe (compared to moderate). This supports that i) prosocial behaviors are likely to be underpinned by vagal functioning ii) physiological disposition to cooperate interacts with environmental context. We discuss these results within the theoretical framework of the Polyvagal Theory.

Live happily live in hiding (from our affect): Alexithymia Influences affect intensity and affect frequency ratings in men.

Alexithymia has been frequently studied in the context of negative affect frequency but rarely in the context of positive affect frequency or in the context of affect intensity. However, affect intensity and frequency, even if they are independent, are generally confounded due to an overlap in items wording (tapping both dimensions). The aim of the study was to examine the incremental validity of alexithymia for predicting both affect intensity and frequency, regarding positive and negative valence. Two hundred and fifty five students fulfilled measurements for alexithymia, affect intensity and affect frequency. Results showed that the factor "Difficulty identifying feelings" is related to higher positive and negative affect intensity, as well as to negative affect frequency. Men were also more sensitive to positive affect intensity and frequency if they scored higher on alexithymia. They experienced less often positive affect, but the intensity of their affect was more intense. Conversely, alexithymia did not influence women's affect intensity or affect frequency. Thus, alexithymia factors are associated with specific patterns of affect intensity and frequency, highlighting an overall deficit in the processing of emotions with contrasting patterns regarding gender.

Facial, vocal and musical emotion recognition is altered in paranoid schizophrenic patients.

Disturbed processing of emotional faces and voices is typically observed in schizophrenia. This deficit leads to impaired social cognition and interactions. In this study, we investigated whether impaired processing of emotions also affects musical stimuli, which are widely present in daily life and known for their emotional impact. Thirty schizophrenic patients and 30 matched healthy controls evaluated the emotional content of musical, vocal and facial stimuli. Schizophrenic patients are less accurate than healthy controls in recognizing emotion in music, voices and faces. Our results confirm impaired recognition of emotion in voice and face stimuli in schizophrenic patients and extend this observation to the recognition of emotion in musical stimuli.

Reduction of interference effect by low spatial frequency information priming in an emotional Stroop task.

The affective prediction hypothesis assumes that visual expectation allows fast and accurate processing of emotional stimuli. The prediction corresponds to what an object is likely to be. It therefore facilitates its identification by setting aside what the object is unlikely to be. It has then been suggested that prediction might be inevitably associated with the inhibition of irrelevant possibilities concerning the object to identify. Several studies highlighted that the facilitation of emotional perception depends on low spatial frequency (LSF) extraction. However, most of them used paradigms in which only the object to identify was present in the scene. As a consequence, there have yet been no studies investigating the efficiency of prediction in the visual perception of stimuli among irrelevant information. In this study, we designed a novel priming emotional Stroop task in which participants had to identify emotional facial expressions (EFEs) presented along with a congruent or incongruent word. To further investigate the role of early extraction of LSF information in top-down prediction during emotion recognition, the target EFE was primed with the same EFE filtered in LSF or high spatial frequency (HSF). Results reveal a reduction of the Stroop interference in the LSF compared to the HSF priming condition, which supports that visual expectation, depending on early LSF information extraction, facilitates the inhibition of irrelevant information during emotion recognition.

The body language: The spontaneous influence of congruent bodily arousal on the awareness of emotional words.

Nowadays, the idea of a reciprocal influence of physiological and psychological processes seems to be widely accepted. For instance, current theories of embodied emotion suggest that knowledge about an emotion concept involves simulations of bodily experienced emotional states relevant to the concept. In line with this framework, the present study investigated whether actual levels of physiological arousal interact with the processing of emotional words. Participants performed 2 blocks of an attentional blink task, once after a cycling session (increased arousal) and once after a relaxation session (reduced arousal). Concretely, participants were instructed to detect and report 2 target words (T1 and T2) presented among a series of nonword distractors. T1 and T2 were either neutral, high arousal, or low arousal words. Results revealed that increased physiological arousal led to improved reports of high arousal T2 words, whereas reduced physiological arousal led to improved reports of low arousal T2 words. Neutral T2 remained unaffected by the arousing conditions. These findings emphasize that actual levels of physiological arousal modulate the cognitive access to arousal (in-)congruent emotional concepts and suggest a direct grounding of emotion knowledge in our bodily systems of arousal.