Valence versus motivation: The different impact of emotion on space- and object-based attention.

Numerous studies have indicated that both the broaden-and-build model and the motivational dimensional model emphasize the impact of emotion on spatial attention by altering the attentional scope. However, no prior research has investigated the impact of emotional valence and motivational intensity on spatial attention within the same paradigm. Furthermore, object-based attention, characterized by distinct neural mechanisms from space-based attention and also susceptible to attentional scope, represents a major pattern of selective attention. Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether and how emotional valence and motivation play a role in object-based attentional selection. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore these areas. Using a two-rectangle paradigm, Experiment 1 found that motivational intensity modulated space-based effects, whereas emotional valence modulated object-based effects. Experiment 2 used a traditional spatial cueing paradigm to further study the stability of modulating effect of motivation intensity on space-based attention, yielding results consistent with those of Experiment 1. The present study indicated that the broaden-and-build model and motivational dimensional model were not either one or the other, but both played a role in object- and space-based attention. This study provides crucial empirical evidence for theoretical complementation and integration of emotional attention.

The role of individual differences in emotional word recognition: Insights from a large-scale lexical decision study.

This work presents a large lexical decision mega-study in Spanish, with 918 participants and 7500 words, focusing on emotional content and individual differences. The main objective was to investigate how emotional valence and arousal influence word recognition, controlling for a large number of confounding variables. In addition, as a unique contribution, the study examined the modulation of these effects by individual differences. Results indicated a significant effect of valence and arousal on lexical decision times, with an interaction between these variables. A linear effect of valence was observed, with slower recognition times for negative words and faster recognition times for positive words. In addition, arousal showed opposite effects in positive and negative words. Importantly, the effect of emotional variables was affected by personality traits (extroversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience), age and gender, challenging the 'one-size-fits-all' interpretation of emotional word processing. All data collected in the study is available to the research community: https://osf.io/cbtqy . This includes data from each participant (RTs, errors and individual differences scores), as well as values of concreteness (n = 1690), familiarity (n = 1693) and age of acquisition (n = 2171) of the words collected exclusively for this study. This is a useful resource for researchers interested not only in emotional word processing, but also in lexical processing in general and the influence of individual differences.

Norms for 718 Persian Words in Emotional Dimensions, Animacy, and Familiarity.

Research frequently uses words as stimuli to assess cognitive and psychological processes. However, various attributes of these words, such as their semantic and emotional aspects, could potentially confound study results if not properly controlled. This study aims to establish a reliable foundation for the semantic and emotional aspects of words for research in Persian. To this end, the present study provided norms for 718 Persian nouns in arousal, valence, familiarity, and animacy dimensions. The words were selected from a previous English dataset (Warriner et al. in Behav Res Methods 45(4):1191-1207, 2013), translated into Persian, and rated by a total of 463 native Persian-speaking participants. The ratings were obtained through an online questionnaire using a 9-point Likert scale for emotional dimensions (i.e., valence and arousal) and a 5-point Likert scale for semantic dimensions (i.e., familiarity and animacy). The reliability of the ratings was measured using the split-half method, and the result indicated a high consistency of ratings in all dimensions. To assess the relationship between the emotional and semantic dimensions, Pearson correlation coefficient was conducted. Gender differences were investigated through the Mann-Whitney U test, and significant differences were observed in all dimensions. These results are compared with findings from previous studies that were conducted in various languages.

Sensing emotional valence and arousal dynamics through automated facial action unit analysis.

Information about the concordance between dynamic emotional experiences and objective signals is practically useful. Previous studies have shown that valence dynamics can be estimated by recording electrical activity from the muscles in the brows and cheeks. However, whether facial actions based on video data and analyzed without electrodes can be used for sensing emotion dynamics remains unknown. We investigated this issue by recording video of participants' faces and obtaining dynamic valence and arousal ratings while they observed emotional films. Action units (AUs) 04 (i.e., brow lowering) and 12 (i.e., lip-corner pulling), detected through an automated analysis of the video data, were negatively and positively correlated with dynamic ratings of subjective valence, respectively. Several other AUs were also correlated with dynamic valence or arousal ratings. Random forest regression modeling, interpreted using the SHapley Additive exPlanation tool, revealed non-linear associations between the AUs and dynamic ratings of valence or arousal. These results suggest that an automated analysis of facial expression video data can be used to estimate dynamic emotional states, which could be applied in various fields including mental health diagnosis, security monitoring, and education.

Does emotional valence affect cognitive performance and neurophysiological response during decision making? A preliminary study.

This study investigated the impact of the emotional valence of external situations (EVES) on cognitive performance and electrophysiological (EEG) responses during decision-making. 26 healthy adults underwent a modified version of the Trier social stress test, performing five interview-style discourses. Each discourse entailed preparing a speech under increasingly stressful conditions. Participants were also exposed to gradually increasing EVES (i.e., an examining committee displaying progressively more negative-connoted emotional facial expressions). In addition, after each speech, participants completed an arithmetic task to test how emotional manipulation affected cognitive performance. Behavioral data (preparation times) and EEG data (frequency bands) were collected to assess stress regulation, stress resilience, and cognitive performance. The results indicate that EVES significantly influenced stress regulation and resilience, as reflected in the behavioral data. Neurophysiological findings showed increased parietal lobe activity (P4) in the theta and delta bands with rising emotional valence, plateauing from the preparation of the second discourse onward. This suggests enhanced emotional processing and attentional demands. However, gamma band activity decreased in P4 during the preparations for the two discourses following the first, indicating a shift of cognitive resources from higher cognitive functions to emotional processing. This highlights the cognitive cost of maintaining performance and stress regulation under emotionally charged conditions. Such findings suggest that emotional valence modulates cognitive performance and that specific neural mechanisms are involved in managing stress responses. The findings underscore the complex relationship between emotion, cognition, and neural mechanisms, offering valuable insights for stress regulation and resilience, and enhancing performance under pressure.

The dark and bright side of the numbers: how emotions influence mental number line accuracy and bias.

The traditional view of cognition as detached from emotions is recently being questioned. This study aimed to investigate the influence of emotional valence on the accuracy and bias in the representation of numbers on the mental number line (MNL). The study included 164 participants who were randomly assigned into two groups with induced positive and negative emotional valence using matched arousal film clips. Participants performed a computerised number-to-position (CNP) task to estimate the position of numbers on a horizontal line. The results showed that participants in the positive valence group exhibited a rightward bias, while those in the negative valence group showed an opposite pattern. The analysis of mean absolute error revealed that the negative valence group had higher error rates compared to the positive valence group. Furthermore, the MNL estimation pattern analysis indicated that a two-cycle cyclic power model (CPM) best explained the data for both groups. These findings suggest that emotional valence influences the spatial representation of numbers on the MNL and affects accuracy in numerical estimations. Our findings are finally discussed in terms of body-specificity and the Brain's Asymmetric Frequency Tuning (BAFT) theories. The study provides new insights into the interplay between emotions and numerical cognition.

Exploring the evocative qualities of masks' visual imagery and their associations with adversity and trauma.

Introduction: Studies suggest a relationship between the emotional evocativeness of visual imagery and viewer responses, however, there is limited understanding of these associations, especially as they relate to viewers' personal experiences of adversities. Methods: In this exploratory study, we examined the relationship between the visual content of mask images and viewers' responses. In an online survey 699 participants (of n = 1,010 total initial participants) rated 98 masks based on valence, arousal, and personal relevance and completed the Life Events Checklist. The masks included those created by service members (SMs) with traumatic brain injury (TBI), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depicting physical, psychological, and moral injuries and matched neutral masks created by creative arts therapists and arts in health scholars. Findings: The findings indicated that responses to mask image content (traumatic versus neutral) were associated with viewers' personal history of adversity and trauma. Specifically, images representing injury/trauma provoked stronger reactions on valence and arousal than neutral images. Moreover, participants with personal histories of trauma had heightened emotional responses to distressing imagery. Discussion: These findings have implications for art therapists as well as for clinical and general populations in that these results highlight the potential impact of distressing imagery particularly for individuals with personal histories of experiencing or witnessing traumatic events.

Further unpacking individual differences in mind wandering: The role of emotional valence and awareness.

Previous work has established a link between executive attention ability and mind wandering propensity, these studies typically collapse thought reports into a single category of task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs). We have shown that these TUTs can be differentiated by the emotional valence of their content. Awareness of TUTs might also be an important to consider, yet little work has been done on this front. The current study conceptually replicated and extended previous work by investigating the relationship between individual differences in executive attention, emotional valence and awareness of TUTs. Latent variable models indicated that Executive Attention was differentially correlated with emotional valence TUTs. However, only Attention Control was related to frequency of mind wandering with awareness. Intra-individual analyses indicated that negatively valenced TUTs and TUTs that occurred without awareness were associated with worse performance. Considering different dimensions of TUTs can provide a more complete picture of individual differences in mind wandering.

Positive and negative facial valence perception are modulated differently by eccentricity in the parafovea: Replication from KDEF to NimStim.

While perceiving the emotional state of others may be crucial for our behavior even when this information is present outside of central vision, emotion perception studies typically focus on central visual field. We have recently investigated emotional valence (pleasantness) perception across the parafovea (≤ 4°) and found that for briefly presented (200 ms) emotional face images (from the established KDEF image-set), positive (happy) valence was the least affected by eccentricity (distance from the central visual field) and negative (fearful) valence the most. Furthermore, we found that performance at 2° predicted performance at 4°. Here we tested (n = 37) whether these effects replicate with face stimuli of different identities from a different well-established image-set (NimStim). All our prior findings replicated and eccentricity-based modulation magnitude was smaller with NimStim (~ 16.6% accuracy reduction at 4°) than with KDEF stimuli (~ 27.3% reduction). Our current investigations support our earlier findings that for briefly presented parafoveal stimuli, positive and negative valence perception are differently affected by eccentricity and may be dissociated. Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of investigating emotions beyond central vision and demonstrate commonalities and differences across different image sets in the parafovea, emphasizing the contribution of replication studies to substantiate our knowledge about perceptual mechanisms.

Contradictory findings in the study of emotional false memory: a review on the inadvisability of controlling valence and arousal.

Emotional false memories are the erroneous recollection of events accompanied by an emotional experience. In high-risk domains like psychotherapy and the legal system, emotional false memories are of particular importance. Despite the systematic research conducted on emotional false memories in recent years, findings remain contradictory. Some studies have suggested that negative emotion reduces false memories, while others have suggested that negative emotion increases false memories. Research has mainly employed words and pictures as experimental stimuli, and studies using both types of memory stimuli are reviewed here. From this examination, it emerged that the main reasons for contradictory findings are as follows: (1) different materials have varying effects on inducing false memories, with pictures demonstrating a memory advantage compared to words; (2) recall and recognition tests have been used interchangeably, leading to different false-memory effects depending on the memory test employed; and (3) different studies have adopted different levels of control over valence and arousal when manipulating emotional variables. Future studies should distinguish between the use of different memory materials, examine specific differences in recall and recognition tests, and measure the impact of specific emotions on false memory beyond the dimensions of valence and arousal.

Beyond faces: the contribution of the amygdala to visual processing in the macaque brain.

The amygdala is present in a diverse range of vertebrate species, such as lizards, rodents, and primates; however, its structure and connectivity differs across species. The increased connections to visual sensory areas in primate species suggests that understanding the visual selectivity of the amygdala in detail is critical to revealing the principles underlying its function in primate cognition. Therefore, we designed a high-resolution, contrast-agent enhanced, event-related fMRI experiment, and scanned 3 adult rhesus macaques, while they viewed 96 naturalistic stimuli. Half of these stimuli were social (defined by the presence of a conspecific), the other half were nonsocial. We also nested manipulations of emotional valence (positive, neutral, and negative) and visual category (faces, nonfaces, animate, and inanimate) within the stimulus set. The results reveal widespread effects of emotional valence, with the amygdala responding more on average to inanimate objects and animals than faces, bodies, or social agents in this experimental context. These findings suggest that the amygdala makes a contribution to primate vision that goes beyond an auxiliary role in face or social perception. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of stimulus selection and experimental design when probing the function of the amygdala and other visually responsive brain regions.

Corrigendum: The effects of executive functions on language control during Chinese-English emotional word code-switching.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1087513.].

The greatest loss of unpleasant smells may be related to the risk of more severe PD symptoms.

Background: Limited research has explored the relationship between the valence of olfactory dysfunction and PD clinical symptoms. This study aimed to investigate correlations between the emotional valence of olfactory impairment and different domains of PD symptoms. Methods: PD patients who fulfilled the clinically probable PD diagnostic criteria of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society Clinical Diagnostic Criteria for Parkinson's Disease were recruited from the Center for Parkinson and Movement Disorders at Taichung Veterans General Hospital between October 2016 and April 2022. Demographic data and serial clinical assessments were collected, including the traditional Chinese version of the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT-TC) and Movement Disorder Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). Thirty-five odors from the UPSIT-TC were classified into neutral, pleasant or unpleasant groups. Group comparisons, correlation analyses, and linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between olfactory impairment of UPSIT-TC odors, considering emotional valence, and MDS-UPDRS subscores across various domains. Results: A total of 176 PD patients were recruited for analysis. Patients in the predominantly neutral/unpleasant odor impairment groups had higher MDS-UPDRS part III scores compared to those in the predominantly pleasant odor impairment group (pleasant vs. neutral vs. unpleasant odor impairment groups: 26.79 ± 13.59 vs. 35.33 ± 16.36 vs. 31.57 ± 12.37, p = 0.009). This trend was also noted in MDS-UPDRS rigidity, bradykinesia, and akinetic-rigid subscores (p = 0.003, p = 0.012, and p = 0.001, respectively). Correlation analysis revealed a weak but significant correlation between rigidity/akinetic-rigid subscores and misidentification numbers for neutral/unpleasant odors (all p < 0.05), with age, gender, LEDD, and disease duration as covariates. All significances were retained in the linear regression analysis. Conclusion: Our results emphasize the link between olfactory impairment of specific emotional valence, neutral/unpleasant odors, and PD severity, particularly with respect to akinetic-rigid symptoms. A concise olfactory test that focuses on both neutral and unpleasant odors may offer deeper insights into PD symptoms.

Autonomous sensory Meridian response as a physically felt signature of positive and negative emotions.

Introduction: Current research on Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) assumes that ASMR is always accompanied by contentment, and it is distinct from frisson due to positive emotions. Thus, research investigations tend to limit their scope to solely focusing on the sensation of relaxation that ASMR induces. This study explores whether it is possible to have a different emotional experience and still perceive ASMR, testing the theory of ASMR as an amplifier of pre-existing emotion instead of a determination of positive affect. Methods: The emotional arousal and valence, and mood changes of 180 ASMR-capable and incapable individuals were analysed using questionnaires after altering the affective interpretation associated with auditory ASMR (tapping) with visual priming to examine whether the primed emotion (fearful, relaxing, or neutral) could be amplified. Results: It was found that an ASMR response occurred in all priming conditions, including the fear priming group. No significant difference was found in the emotional outcome or mood of the neutral and relaxing priming groups. Upon comparison with ASMR-incapable individuals, both the relaxing and neutral priming groups demonstrated the same affect, but greater potent for ASMR-capable. Individuals who appraised ASMR after visual fear priming demonstrated a significant decrease in positive emotional valence and increased arousal. Conclusion: The findings suggest that ASMR occurs in both positive and negative emotional situations, suppressing contentment induction if ASMR stimuli are interpreted negatively and amplifying contentment when interpreted positively. While more research is needed, the results highlight that ASMR and frisson might describe the same phenomenon, both a physically felt signature of emotion. Therapeutic usage of ASMR should carefully select appropriate stimuli that emphasise contentment to avoid potential health risks associated with negative emotions until a further understanding of ASMR's affective parameters has been established.

The organization of the semantic network as reflected by the neural correlates of six semantic dimensions.

Multiple sensory-motor and non-sensory-motor dimensions have been proposed for semantic representation, but it remains unclear how the semantic system is organized along them in the human brain. Using naturalistic fMRI data and large-scale semantic ratings, we investigated the overlaps and dissociations between the neural correlates of six semantic dimensions: vision, motor, socialness, emotion, space, and time. Our findings revealed a more complex semantic atlas than what is predicted by current neurobiological models of semantic representation. Brain regions that are selectively sensitive to specific semantic dimensions were found both within and outside the brain networks assumed to represent multimodal general and/or abstract semantics. Overlaps between the neural correlates of different semantic dimensions were mainly found inside the default mode network, concentrated in the left anterior superior temporal gyrus and angular gyrus, which have been proposed as two connector hubs that bridge the multimodal experiential semantic system and the language-supported semantic system.

Early childhood memories of individuals convicted of sexual offences.

This study used innovative transdisciplinary methods to describe the nature and extent of early childhood memories recalled by 84 adults convicted of sexual offences. The timing of the memories, level of detail recalled and way memories were recollected were largely consistent with extant memory research. One important finding, however, was that more than 30% of our participants recalled particularly traumatic and distressing childhood experiences - a much higher proportion than previously observed in nonoffending samples. The extent to which these memories laid the foundation for subsequent emotional content and feature in the evolution of cognitive schemata is not yet well understood. With that in mind, we consider the implications of our findings for the event centrality in self-narratives. We recommend the inclusion of treatment modalities that maximise as yet unrecognised and undervalued narrative inclinations and story-telling abilities of a complicated population of individuals with rich lived experience that stands to benefit greatly from such approaches.

Effect of Emotional Valence on Emotion Recognition in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This study investigated how emotional valence of a perceived emotional state impacted performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task (RMET) in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) controls. Valence of items on the RMET, Adult (RMET-A) and Child (RMET-C) versions, was first classified in a survey of 113 medical students. Adolescents with ASD (N = 33) and TD adolescents (N = 30) were administered both RMET versions. Individuals with ASD made more errors than TD controls on positive and negative, but not neutral, valence items. The difference in performance was accentuated on the RMET-A compared to the RMET-C. Both emotional valence and complexity of language contribute to RMET performance in individuals with ASD.

UPSIT subitems may predict motor progression in Parkinson's disease.

Background: The relationship between hyposmia and motor progression is controversial in Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate whether preserved identification of Chinese-validated University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) odors could predict PD motor progression. Methods: PD patients with two consecutive clinical visits while taking medication were recruited. Based on mean changes in Movement Disorder Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part 3 score and levodopa equivalent daily dosage, the participants were categorized into rapid progression, medium progression, and slow progression groups. Odors associated with the risk of PD motor progression were identified by calculating the odds ratios of UPSIT item identification between the rapid and slow progression groups. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis of these odors was conducted to determine an optimal threshold for rapid motor progression. Results: A total of 117 PD patients were screened for group classification. Preserved identification of neutral/pleasant odors including banana, peach, magnolia, and baby powder was significantly correlated with rapid motor progression. The risk of rapid progression increased with more detected risk odors. Detection of ≥1.5 risk odors could differentiate rapid progression from slow progression with a sensitivity of 85.7%, specificity of 45.8%, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.687. Conclusion: Preserved identification of neutral/pleasant odors may help to predict PD motor progression, and detection of ≥1.5 UPSIT motor progression risk odors could improve the predictive power. In PD patients with a similar level of motor disability during initial screening, preserved pleasant/neutral odor identification may imply relatively better cortical odor discriminative function, which may suggest the body-first (caudo-rostral) subtype with faster disease progression.

Are valence and arousal related to the development of amodal representations of words? A computational study.

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the amodal (semantic) development of words and two popular emotional norms (emotional valence and arousal) in English and Spanish languages. To do so, we combined the strengths of semantics from vector space models (vector length, semantic diversity, and word maturity measures), and feature-based models of emotions. First, we generated a common vector space representing the meaning of words at different developmental stages (five and four developmental stages for English and Spanish, respectively) using the Word Maturity methodology to align different vector spaces. Second, we analyzed the amodal development of words through mixed-effects models with crossed random effects for words and variables using a continuous time metric. Third, the emotional norms were included as covariates in the statistical models. We evaluated more than 23,000 words, whose emotional norms were available for more than 10,000 words, in each language separately. Results showed a curve of amodal development with an increasing linear effect and a small quadratic deceleration. A relevant influence on the amodal development of words was found only for emotional valence (not for arousal), suggesting that positive words have an earlier amodal development and a less pronounced semantic change across early lifespan.

Is Deceitful Autobiographical Memory Really Forgotten?

Autobiographical memory for deceitful events is said to be forgotten over time to reduce guilt and stress. People who engage in deceitful behavior continue to do so because they are able to stretch their memories to match their moral outlook. In this study, the authors wanted to see if participants who engage in deceitful behavior will change their behavior if they are reminded of their previous misdeeds and compare it with reminding them of past moral behavior and any neutral event. We also studied how the experience, or phenomenology of remembering, differs between immoral and moral memories. In Experiment 1, we found evidence to suggest that reminding deceptive autobiographical memory does not reduce deceptive behavior. In Experiment 2, we found evidence to suggest phenomenological characteristics of Immoral and moral memories are not significantly different from each other but they are both significantly different from that of neutral memory. This contradicts established results in the field. It is interesting to note that only emotional valence is significantly different between immoral and moral memory.