Comparison of multiple methods of assessing parental emotion language discourse and their effects on Preschooler’s emotion understanding

The current study explored the influence of three methods of parental emotion discourse (structured story-telling, reminiscing, and picture book) and their relation to preschoolers’ emotion understanding. Thirty-seven families participated in the study. Analyses showed that the structured story-telling method produced more emotion words, was high in unique emotion words, and was high for both emotion labelling and explanations. All three methods showed some potential to predict preschooler’s emotion understanding. Structured story-telling was best at predicting role-taking, while reminiscing and the picture book both were better at predicting situation knowledge. Additional studies are needed to further explore the influence of different methods of assessing emotion discourse to enhance validity and reliability of research in this field.     

Recall of emotional and neutral words and paragraphs in traumatic brain injury

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in verbal recall deficits and impaired processing of emotion encoded in facial appearance, prosody and the linguistic content of messages. Emotion facilitates memory (emotional memory advantage) for non-brain injured (NBI) individuals but the impact of emotion on verbal recall for linguistically encoded stimuli in TBI has not been explored.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of stimulus emotional content on verbal recall of words and paragraphs in TBI compared to NBI individuals.

Methods and procedures: Six 10-item lists, each with five emotional and five neutral words, and six paragraphs (three emotional, three neutral) were counterbalanced and presented in random order to 20 individuals with TBI and 44 NBI. The number of words from lists and the number of content units from paragraphs were compared for the two groups.

Outcomes and results: The NBI participants recalled more words from the lists and content units from the paragraphs than the individuals with TBI. Both groups recalled significantly more emotional than neutral words. NBI but not TBI participants had significantly greater recall for information in paragraphs with emotional content.

Conclusions: Participants with TBI showed impaired recall of words and paragraph content. Emotion facilitated word and paragraph content recall for neurotypical individuals but emotional memory advantage was limited to words for the TBI participants.     

Ictal and enduring interictal disturbances in emotional behaviour in an animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy

Unilateral microinjections of kainic acid (4.7 nmol) were made into the dorsal hippocampus of 17 unanaesthetized freely moving cats. These injections provoked an acute period of intense seizure activity (first 48–72 h) which in 10 cats was followed by a chronic period of recurrent spontaneous complex partial seizures persisting for as long as the cats were studied (up to 4 months). During the chronic epileptic period 8 of these 10 cats demonstrated both ictal and interictal emotional behaviour disturbances. The ictal events included behaviour similar to a ‘defensive rage’ reaction. Interictally, each of the cats demonstrated an emotional lability. That is, although they behaved in a normal manner if handled affectionately, any mild provocation triggered an explosive defensive rage reaction. As well, the thresholds for electrical brain stimulation induced defensive rage were lowered. That the interictal emotional behaviour disturbances were related to the presence of an active epileptogenic process was suggested by the finding that during periods when no spontaneous seizures were observed for several days, the cats reverted to a less emotionally reactive state and the thresholds for stimulation-induced defense reactions returned to baseline. The results indicate that epileptogenic lesions of the temporal lobe alone can induce an enduring disturbance of emotional behaviour. They support the view that emotional disturbances in patients with epilepsy may sometimes result from pathophysiological mechanisms related to the epileptogenic process, and further suggest that such emotional disturbances might be reversed or prevented if the epileptic seizures could be controlled.     

Mood state and cerebral metabolism in persons with age-associated memory impairment

People undergoing medical procedures sometimes experience feelings that may influence the results. In this study, we explore the relationship between changes in mood state self-ratings and cerebral glucose metabolism during positron emission tomography (PET) in persons with age-associated memory impairment (mean age 59.4±9.8 years). Brain regions of interest involved in both mood and memory were examined. Mood ratings of increased boredom correlated significantly with mesial temporal and parietal asymmetry and decreased parietal metabolism. Mood ratings of increased fatigue correlated with basal ganglia asymmetry and the right basal ganglia and left mesial temporal metabolism. These findings suggest that subjective mood state changes during PET may influence metabolism in brain regions implicated in emotion and memory function in people with age-related memory complaints.     

The human amygdala and the emotional evaluation of sensory stimuli

A wealth of animal data implicates the amygdala in aspects of emotional processing. In recent years, functional neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have begun to refine our understanding of the functions of the amygdala in humans. This literature offers insights into the types of stimuli that engage the amygdala and the functional consequences that result from this engagement. Specific conclusions and hypotheses include: (1) the amygdala activates during exposure to aversive stimuli from multiple sensory modalities; (2) the amygdala responds to positively valenced stimuli, but these responses are less consistent than those induced by aversive stimuli; (3) amygdala responses are modulated by the arousal level, hedonic strength or current motivational value of stimuli; (4) amygdala responses are subject to rapid habituation; (5) the temporal characteristics of amygdala responses vary across stimulus categories and subject populations; (6) emotionally valenced stimuli need not reach conscious awareness to engage amygdala processing; (7) conscious hedonic appraisals do not require amygdala activation; (8) activation of the amygdala is associated with modulation of motor readiness, autonomic functions, and cognitive processes including attention and memory; (9) amygdala activations do not conform to traditional models of the lateralization of emotion; and (10) the extent and laterality of amygdala activations are related to factors including psychiatric status, gender and personality. The strengths and weakness of these hypotheses and conclusions are discussed with reference to the animal literature.     

基于多生理信号的情绪初步识别

以生理信号分析为主,表情行为观察和情绪主观感受评价为辅,对多名被试的情绪进行识别.60名大学女生接受恐惧-快乐-轻松的情绪诱发,有效数据55名,对应每个情绪片段,根据信号标记以及GSR微分,截取1min的生理信号进行处理和分析,应用SPSS对各生理参数进行情绪的单因素方差分析,然后采用逐步多类判别法,提取特征参数以识别情绪.结果表明HR、HRV、R波、T波各生理参数对情绪较敏感;提取出HFP,HR max,PNN50,LF/HF,Ratio,LFP,Mean NN 7个特征参数,构建情绪判别函数Fuction1,Fuction2和Z1、Z2,Z3;轻松的判别正确率为88.0%,快乐的为92.0%,恐惧的为80.0%,总体判别正确率为86.7%.以生理信号分析为主,辅助表情行为观察和情绪主观感受报告,是一种有效的情绪识别方法,所得数据客观、准确,提高了情绪识别率.     

双性化对大学生主观幸福感的影响

目的揭示双性化对大学生主观幸福感的影响。方法采用性别角色量表和主观幸福感量表对4所不同类型院校大学生的性别角色取向及主观幸福感进行了测评。结果大部分学生的性别角色趋于双性化,但男女同学趋于双性化的程度有所不同,男女大学生不同的男性化和女性化程度对主观幸福感的影响也不同。结论不论男女,男性化取向的大学生在生活满意度和总体幸福感上的得分高一些;对男生而言,双性化取向的男生在情感维度上的得分高一些;对女生而言,男性化水平高的女生在情感维度上的得分高一些。     

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

Psychophysiology is just as closely related to internal medicine as it is to psychiatry. “Psychological variable” has two distinct meanings: a) an external sensory stimulus, or b) an organismic state described in psychological language. “Psychological” and “Physical” are names of two different languages. There is no such thing as a non-physical illness. Asking whether emotions cause diseases, or diseases cause emotions, leads to many difficulties and is unprofitable. It is far more useful to ask about stimulus-response relationships. There are more kinds of specificity relations in psychophysiology and psychosomatic medicine than are usually recognized, and the usual specificity statements in psychosomatic medicine are not concerned with I-R or S-R specificity. There are many problems in medicine which psychophysiology could help to solve.     

Amphetamine injections into the nucleus accumbens affect neither acquisition/expression of conditioned fear nor baseline startle response

The acoustic startle response is enhanced during states of fear and attenuated during pleasant ones. Our question was whether pharmacological stimulation of the reward system disrupts the learning and retrieval of conditioned fear as measured by fear-potentiated startle. We therefore injected the dopamine agonist amphetamine into the nucleus accumbens (NAC) immediately before either acquisition or expression of conditioned fear and measured the effect of these injections on fear-potentiated startle and baseline startle response. This study clearly showed that amphetamine injections into the NAC had no effect on baseline startle amplitude and acquisition/expression of conditioned fear. In contrast, amphetamine injections into the nucleus accumbens clearly enhanced spontaneous motor activity. These results suggest that dopamine within the NAC is not involved in modulation of fear-potentiated startle and baseline startle.     

大学生成就动机与情绪和行为问题的关系

目的：探讨大学生成就动机与情绪和行为问题的关系。方法：采用成就动机、自尊、特质焦虑、抑郁、孤独四个量表及问题行为问卷对403名大学生进行测查。结果：（1）大学生追求成功动机显著高于避免失败动机。②追求成功动机与自尊呈显著正相关．与焦虑、抑郁、孤独及外显问题行为呈显著负相关．避免失败动机与自尊等变量的相关模式与追求成功动机相反。（3）追求成功型大学生存自尊上的得分显著高于避免失败型，而在焦虑、抑郁、孤独及外显问题行为上的得分显著低于避免失败型。结论：大学生成功动机与情绪和行为问题存在较密切关系。