text:
|By Adine Deford
Article Rating:
|June 16, 2014 10:00 AM EDT
In the wake of the end of support of Windows XP and the almost immediate exploitation with the IE vulnerability, focus has turned to the next big End of Support (EOS) event which is for Windows Server 2003. To help companies prepare to navigate large migration projects of WS 2003 AppZero and Microsoft teamed up last week in a webinar entitled "How to Solve the Challenge of WS2003." You can view the slides and recording here (registration required).
The first big takeaway was "now is the time to act." Customer feedback around XP migrations is that it is important to start planning early. With time running out between now and next summer (the end of support for WS2003) it's important to have a migration plan. Many of the enterprise projects we at AppZero are seeing have a duration of eight months or more (depending on the number of servers) from the start date of the program. And, there can be additional months of planning and preparation ahead of the start, especially for those moving more than one thousand servers.
Just how big is the security risk of not moving off WS 2003 and onto a supported platform? In 2013, Microsoft released 37 critical updates for WS 2003. After end of support, there will be none. With the one, post EOS fix for Windows XP, there are those who feel the issue has less urgency. This is not the case. Microsoft has said there will be no post-EOS patches for WS 2003.
The second big takeaway is that you need to understand all of the important factors in a migration project. Separate research studies from Microsoft and AppZero showed that:
- 74% of IT Datacenter Managers (ITDM) are aware of the WS 2003 EOS date¹
- 57% of Microsoft customers are still running WS 2003²
- 94% of those running WS 2003 intend to migrate, but only 24% are ready to do so²
- 40% not sure of upgrade path²
- 35% intend to move to the cloud as part of their migration²
¹ MSFT Customer Survey 12/2013 (400 NA & Canada ENT & UMM ITDMs)
² AppZero Survey 12/2013 (150 Fortune 1000 IT professionals)
In addition to security risks, there are also business and compliance issues which must be taken into account once WS 2003 reaches end of support. For example, PCI compliance demands that your ecommerce site runs on a supported platform, meaning that if you need to process credit card information, you will be uncertified and out of compliance and therefore unable to conduct business.
The WS 2003 EOS event is causing enterprises a number of concerns including:
- Incompatibilities of applications
- Hardware & software refresh costs
- Changing a stable environment
- Security breaches not being covered
- Compliance audits
- Disrupting the business
Enterprises that have already begun planning for innovation have reported the following benefits:
- Cloud adoption (cheaper, faster, better)
- Maintain peace of mind of running a secure & proven infrastructure
- New capabilities of the Cloud OS
- Simplify control & management by consolidating HW
- Business alignment elevates strategic relevance of IT
Enterprises that are farther along in the process are reporting the benefits of upgrading and modernizing including:
- Cost Savings - Enterprises are able to reduce their capital expenses through virtualization and Cloud OS.
- Simplicity - Enterprises are able to simplify their IT management across on premise and Cloud; and make their infrastructure more agile with Windows Server/System Center.
- Peace of Mind - Enterprises can rely on enterprise-grade security on premises and in the Cloud.
The third takeaway is that you need a well-documented execution plan and process for your migration project. Many System Integrators with migration practices have their own methodology (as does Microsoft and AppZero), but most have in common, four basic steps:
- Discover
- Assess
- Target
- Migrate
During the Discover Phase you undergo an application inventory to determine which applications you are currently running. You then move into the Assessment Phase, where you rank the applications by type, criticality and risk. This is also a good opportunity to determine which apps can be retired. The third phase is when you determine the Target destination for each of the apps in your inventory that you will move forward. And finally, you reach the Migrate Phase, which is where AppZero's application modernization tool comes in. This phase is where you migrate your applications to their assigned destination target.
Although WS 2003 EOS is a large and complex event for IT, it is also an opportunity to create a strategic plan for moving your datacenter forward. By capitalizing on that opportunity you can automate, simplify and modernize your infrastructure and reduce your operating costs. AppZero is here to help. If you would like a demonstration of the latest release of AppZero or have questions about creating a migration plan, please contact us now. Register here if you'd like to view the recorded webinar and slides.
AppZero will be demonstrating the newest release of the application modernization tool, AppZero V6, this week at Cloud Expo. If you're planning to visit Cloud Expo, stop by booth #425 and see a demo - you can get a cool t-shirt too. If you need a free pass to attend the expo, you can get one here: bit.ly/1tMnVi
The Internet of Things will challenge the status quo of how IT and development organizations operate. Or will it? Certainly the fog layer of IoT requires special insights about data ontology, security and transactional integrity. But the developmental challenges are the same: People, Process and Platform. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Craig Sproule, CEO of Metavine, demonstrated how to move beyond today's coding paradigm and shared the must-have mindsets for removing complexity from the develo...
Jul. 30, 2016 03:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,638
SYS-CON Events announced today that MangoApps will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. MangoApps provides modern company intranets and team collaboration software, allowing workers to stay connected and productive from anywhere in the world and from any device.
Jul. 30, 2016 02:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,486
The IETF draft standard for M2M certificates is a security solution specifically designed for the demanding needs of IoT/M2M applications. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Brian Romansky, VP of Strategic Technology at TrustPoint Innovation, explained how M2M certificates can efficiently enable confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity on highly constrained devices.
Jul. 30, 2016 02:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,184
"delaPlex Software provides software outsourcing services. We have a hybrid model where we have onshore developers and project managers that we can place anywhere in the U.S. or in Europe," explained Manish Sachdeva, CEO at delaPlex Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 30, 2016 02:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,685
Keeping pace with advancements in software delivery processes and tooling is taxing even for the most proficient organizations. Point tools, platforms, open source and the increasing adoption of private and public cloud services requires strong engineering rigor – all in the face of developer demands to use the tools of choice. As Agile has settled in as a mainstream practice, now DevOps has emerged as the next wave to improve software delivery speed and output. To make DevOps work, organization...
Jul. 30, 2016 12:30 AM EDT Reads: 2,337
Predictive analytics tools monitor, report, and troubleshoot in order to make proactive decisions about the health, performance, and utilization of storage. Most enterprises combine cloud and on-premise storage, resulting in blended environments of physical, virtual, cloud, and other platforms, which justifies more sophisticated storage analytics. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Peter McCallum, Vice President of Datacenter Solutions at FalconStor, discussed using predictive analytics to mon...
Jul. 30, 2016 12:30 AM EDT Reads: 2,130
The IoT is changing the way enterprises conduct business. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Eric Hoffman, Vice President at EastBanc Technologies, discussed how businesses can gain an edge over competitors by empowering consumers to take control through IoT. He cited examples such as a Washington, D.C.-based sports club that leveraged IoT and the cloud to develop a comprehensive booking system. He also highlighted how IoT can revitalize and restore outdated business models, making them profitable ...
Jul. 29, 2016 10:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,076
SYS-CON Events announced today that Isomorphic Software will exhibit at DevOps Summit at 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Isomorphic Software provides the SmartClient HTML5/AJAX platform, the most advanced technology for building rich, cutting-edge enterprise web applications for desktop and mobile. SmartClient combines the productivity and performance of traditional desktop software with the simp...
Jul. 29, 2016 10:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,289
"When you think about the data center today, there's constant evolution, The evolution of the data center and the needs of the consumer of technology change, and they change constantly," stated Matt Kalmenson, VP of Sales, Service and Cloud Providers at Veeam Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 29, 2016 09:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,500
Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with the 19th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world and ThingsExpo Silicon Valley Call for Papers is now open.
Jul. 29, 2016 08:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,749
We all know the latest numbers: Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from last year, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. We're rapidly approaching a data production of 40 zettabytes a day – more than we can every physically store, and exabytes and yottabytes are just around the corner. For many that's a good sign, as data has been proven to equal money – IF it's ingested, integrated, and analyzed fast enough. Without real-ti...
Jul. 29, 2016 07:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,186
Actian Corporation has announced the latest version of the Actian Vector in Hadoop (VectorH) database, generally available at the end of July. VectorH is based on the same query engine that powers Actian Vector, which recently doubled the TPC-H benchmark record for non-clustered systems at the 3000GB scale factor (see tpc.org/3323). The ability to easily ingest information from different data sources and rapidly develop queries to make better business decisions is becoming increasingly importan...
Jul. 29, 2016 06:15 PM EDT Reads: 962
SYS-CON Events announced today that 910Telecom will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Housed in the classic Denver Gas & Electric Building, 910 15th St., 910Telecom is a carrier-neutral telecom hotel located in the heart of Denver. Adjacent to CenturyLink, AT&T, and Denver Main, 910Telecom offers connectivity to all major carriers, Internet service providers, Internet backbones and ...
Jul. 29, 2016 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 937
Big Data, cloud, analytics, contextual information, wearable tech, sensors, mobility, and WebRTC: together, these advances have created a perfect storm of technologies that are disrupting and transforming classic communications models and ecosystems. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Erik Perotti, Senior Manager of New Ventures on Plantronics' Innovation team, provided an overview of this technological shift, including associated business and consumer communications impacts, and opportunities it ...
Jul. 29, 2016 05:15 PM EDT Reads: 400
Cloud analytics is dramatically altering business intelligence. Some businesses will capitalize on these promising new technologies and gain key insights that'll help them gain competitive advantage. And others won't. Whether you're a business leader, an IT manager, or an analyst, we want to help you and the people you need to influence with a free copy of "Cloud Analytics for Dummies," the essential guide to this explosive new space for business intelligence.
Jul. 29, 2016 05:15 PM EDT Reads: 988


text:
Airport Express can charge iPod
Reader Chris Whittier has discovered that the Apple Airport Express can charge the iPod.
"After seeing some people asking about it, I just randomly plugged my iPod mini into the Airport Express to see what happens (the USB port of course). Surprisingly enough, the Express CHARGES the iPod. So to answer that question, you CAN charge your iPod using the Airport Express (which negates my need to tote an extra power charger when traveling.)
Now if Apple could only have a way to pass through the Audio to the Express from the iPod when it's plugged in, that would be a killer little firmware update."
Editor's Note: This likely applies only to USB-chargeable iPods (4G and Mini). The 3G does not charge via USB.
Related Stories
- Leaked photos appear to show Apple EarPods with Lightning connector
- Cirrus Logic releases development kit for Lightning headphones
- Incipio to acquire Skullcandy
- Jawbone not leaving wearables business, CEO says
- Apple adds Accessibility section to its online store
- Bowers & Wilkins acquired by EVA Automation
Recent News
- Apple to sell limited-edition Olympic Apple Watch bands exclusively in Brazil
- Report: iPhone 7 will include Lightning adapter instead of Lightning EarPods
- Edward Snowden designing device to prevent iPhone wiretapping
- Report: Apple Car team running into challenges, launch may slip to 2021
- Corning announces Gorilla Glass 5
- Apple under fire for providing refurbished replacements under AppleCare+
- Report: Apple acquires cloud music provider Omnifone? [Update: No]
- Apple releases second iOS 10 public beta
- India clears the way for Apple to open retail stores
- Apple Pay launches in Hong Kong
Recent Reviews
- Netatmo Tags for Welcome Smart Home Camera
- iDevices Socket HomeKit-enabled Light Adapter
- Koogeek Wi-Fi SmartPlug for Apple HomeKit
- Marbotic Smart Letters for iPad
- Ecoxgear Sol Jam Bluetooth Speaker
- Gumdrop Cases DropTech Case + Hand Strap for 9.7" iPad Pro
- Braven BRV-1M Bluetooth Speaker
- Braven BRV-Blade Bluetooth Speaker
- Invoxia Voice Bridge
- Incase Keyboard Case for iPad Air 2
Recent Articles
- Inside the betas: iOS 10 Photos gets Advanced Computer Vision
- Inside the betas: iOS 10 Music app delivers 'clarity and simplicity'
- Inside the betas: iOS 10 Maps gets a major redesign
- Inside the betas: iOS 10 shakes up the user experience
- Inside the betas: watchOS 3 promises a real speed boost
- Inside the betas: A sneak peek at what's new in tvOS 10
- Filling the Gap: A look at third-party HomeKit apps
- Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of tvOS 9.2
- Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iOS 9.3
- Opinion: Why Apple needs a dedicated HomeKit app

subset: commoncrawl


text:
PS Vita Slim US release date set as 6 May, part of Borderlands 2 bundle
The new, slimmer version of the PS Vita will be released in the US on 6 May as part of a package that includes the portable version of Borderlands 2.
It will mark the first time the PS Vita Slim will be available in the States. It has 1GB of internal storage, so you don't require a Vita memory card to be able to play physical copies of games, unlike the original Vita. However, an 8GB memory card is included in the pack for good measure.
READ: Sony PS Vita Slim review
Naturally, a copy of Borderlands 2 will be included in the $199.99 price tag, which will also be released separately a week later, on 11 May, for those who already own the portable console.
The Vita version of the much-lauded first-person shooter will come with six DLC packs, including the add-on campaigns Captain Scarlet and Her Pirate's Booty and Mr Torgue's Campaign of Carnage. The game will also be cross-save compatible with the PS3 version, so you can pick up and play on whether you are at home or on your travels.
READ: Borderlands 2 review
Pokemon Go future features revealed
Pokemon Go Gym tips: How to battle, train and win
Pokemon Go finally launches in Japan, France, Hong Kong
Pokemon Go server problems: Why does the game keep stopping?
- Pokemon Go finally launches in Japan, France, Hong Kong
- You can now preorder Razer's OSVR HDK 2 virtual-reality headset
- How Xbox One backwards compatibility works: The Xbox 360 games list and more
- Nintendo's new console available to order, but it's not what you expected
- 5 best indie games coming to Xbox One you must download
- Best games coming in 2016: All the latest PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, PC and PS VR trailers
- Xbox One S out in two weeks: Coming 2 August for pre-orders
- Xbox One S preview: Thinner, better PS4 beater
- Xbox One S vs Xbox One: What's the difference?
- Xbox One S: Release date, specs and everything you need to know
- Pokemon Go: How to raise your XP level, power up and evolve your Pokemon
- Pokemon Go Gym tips: How to battle, train and win
- What is Prisma and how does it work? Explaining the Android and iOS app
- Help! Pokemon Go isn't working: How to fix common Pokemon Go problems
- BlackBerry DTEK50 vs BlackBerry Priv: What's the difference?


text:
Switch to hdmi and now none of my resolutions work. please help
Last response: in Graphics Cards
Related resources
- 1 HDMI in 2 HDMI out - Forum
- HDMI SWITCH - Forum
- HDMI Output from video card - Forum
- Lost trying to get HDMI to work - Forum
- HDMI switch and Denon AVR-4806 question. - Forum
Related resources
- HDMI splitter/switch - would this be possible? Forum
- I will have multiple long HDMI runs - should I buy the better cable? Forum
- DVI to HDMI? Forum
- Help Forum
- HDMI Issue. Forum
- My hdmi cable won't work solution
- HELP!!I cannot connect my Sharp TV to my PC with HDMI cable Forum
- Easiest way to switch HDMI pc to tv Forum
- Hdmi not working with LCD TV please help Forum
- Black Screen on switch user HDMI related Forum
- Cannot connect my Pc to my HDTV using a hdmi cable *need help badly* Forum
- DVI-D to HDMI Issues??? Please Help! Forum
- Connecting pc to tv hdmi cable lose icons Forum
- Is HDMI worth it? Forum
- How to switch between displays (HDMI and DVI) on ASUS M4A785-M Forum
- More resources


text:
Tips for building my Own Laptop.....
Last response: in Laptop General Discussion
Related resources
- Laptop - Forum
- Buying a laptop, appreciate any tips or advice. - Forum
- Is there anything bad with this Dell laptop purchase? - Forum
- Building my first laptop - Forum
- Building my own laptop - Forum
Related resources
- Building a laptop. (600-700 usd) Forum
- Building a laptop. Forum
- Need help building a laptop Forum
- Building my own laptop? Forum
- Building Laptops Forum
- Building a Laptop Forum
- Building a laptop? Forum
- How complicated is building a gaming laptop Forum
- Your thoughts on building a laptop Forum
- Ghz on a laptop Forum
- Laptop For $750 Forum
- Laptop $300-@500 Forum
- How to choose a laptop? Forum
- Looking for a $500 laptop with i3 or i5 Forum
- Which laptop is a better deal Forum
- More resources


text:
Steve Buscemi, Tim Blake Nelson, John Cho, Peter Dinklage, Sarah Silverman, Romany Malco in Saint John Of Las Vegas
Star Trek Beyond: Trailer 3
Suicide Squad: Trailer 2
Ice Age: Collision Course: Trailer 3
The Secret Life of Pets: Trailer 2
Lights Out: Trailer 2
Movies.com, the ultimate source for everything movies, is your destination for new movie trailers, reviews, photos, times, tickets + more! Stay in the know with the latest movie news and cast interviews at Movies.com.
Copyright © 2016 FANDANGO MOVIES.


text:
Top Definition
a place of learning often accompanied by hokie interactive devises and kiosks
Troy McClure: Welcome to the Knowledgeum, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such automated information kiosks as "Welcome to Springfield Airport" and "Where's Nordstrom?" ...
by las April 13, 2008
Trending Now
Can you define these popular missing words?
A museum dedicated to knowledge. Appears in Springfield in The Simpsons episode "This Little Wiggy" (s09e18).
Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to touch a star, or which of the Three Stooges had the biggest brain? Find out at the knowledgeum!
by JW52242 January 21, 2010


text:
Unexpected novel sounds capture one's attention, even when irrelevant to the task pursued (e.g., playing video game). This often comes at a cost to the task (e.g., slower responding). The neural basis for this behavioral distraction effect is not well understood and is subject of this study. Our approach was motivated by findings from cuing paradigms suggesting a link between modulations in oscillatory activity and voluntary attention shifts. The current study tested whether oscillatory activity is also modulated by a task-irrelevant auditory distractor, reflecting a neural signature of an involuntary shift of attention and accounting for the impaired task performance. We reanalyzed magnetoencephalographic data collected via an auditory-visual distraction paradigm in which a task-relevant visual stimulus was preceded by a task-irrelevant sound on each trial. In 87.5% this was a regular sound (Standard); in 12.5% this was a novel sound (Distractor). We compared nonphase locked oscillatory activity in a time window prior to the visual target as a function of the experimental manipulation (Distractor, Standard). We found low power in the pretarget time window for Distractors compared to Standards in the alpha and beta frequency bands. Importantly, individual alpha power correlated with response speed on a trial-by-trial basis for the Distractor only. Sources were localized to the occipital cortex, and also to the parietal and supratemporal cortices. These findings support our hypothesis that the distractor-related alpha power modulation indexes an involuntary shift of attention which accounts for the impaired task performance.
According to dual-process models, recognition memory depends on two neurocognitive mechanisms: familiarity, which has been linked to the frontal N400 (FN400) effect in studies using ERPs, and recollection, which is reflected by changes in the late positive complex (LPC). Recently, there has been some debate over the relationship between FN400 familiarity effects and N400 semantic effects. According to one view, these effects are one and the same. Proponents of this view have suggested that the frontal distribution of the FN400 could be due to stimulus concreteness: recognition memory experiments commonly use highly imageable or concrete words (or pictures), which elicit semantic ERPs with a frontal distribution. In the present study, we tested this claim using a recognition memory paradigm in which subjects memorized concrete and abstract nouns; half of the words changed font color between study and test. FN400 and LPC old/new effects were observed for abstract as well as concrete words, and were stronger over right hemisphere electrodes for concrete words. However, there was no difference in anteriority of the FN400 effect for the two word types. These findings challenge the notion that the frontal distribution of the FN400 old/new effect is fully explained by stimulus concreteness.
It has been hypothesized that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a hub in the network that mediates appetitive responses whereas the amygdala is thought to mediate both aversive and appetitive processing. Both structures may facilitate adaptive responses to emotional challenge by linking perception, attention, memory, and motor circuits. We provide an initial exploration of these hypotheses by recording simultaneous EEG-fMRI in eleven participants viewing affective pictures. MPFC- and amygdala-seeded functional connectivity maps were generated by applying the beta-series correlation method. The mPFC-seeded correlation map encompassed visual regions, sensorimotor areas, prefrontal cortex, and medial temporal lobe structures, exclusively for pleasant content. For the amygdala-seeded correlation map, a similar set of distributed brain areas appeared in the unpleasant-neutral contrast, with the addition of structures such as the insula and thalamus. A substantially sparser network was recruited for the pleasant-neutral contrast. Using the late positive potential (LPP) to index the intensity of emotional engagement, functional connectivity was found to be stronger in trials with larger LPP. These results demonstrate that mPFC-mediated functional interactions are engaged specifically during appetitive processing, whereas the amygdala is coupled to distinct sets of brain regions during both aversive and appetitive processing. The strength of these interactions varies as a function of the intensity of emotional engagement.
Clinical and theoretical models suggest deficient volitional initiation of action in schizophrenia patients. Recent research provided an experimental model of testing this assumption using saccade tasks. However, inconsistent findings necessitate a specification of conditions on which the deficit may occur. The present study sought to detect mechanisms that may contribute to poor performance. Sixteen schizophrenia patients and 16 healthy control participants performed visually guided and two types of volitional saccade tasks. All tasks varied as to whether the initial fixation stimulus disappeared (fixation stimulus offset) or continued during saccade initiation, and whether a direction cue allowed motor preparation of the specific saccade. Saccade latencies of the two groups were differentially affected by task type, fixation stimulus offset, and cueing, suggesting abnormal volitional saccade generation, fixation release, and motor preparation in schizophrenia. However, substantial performance deficits may only occur if all affected processes are required in a task.
The effect of cardiac cycle time on attentional selection was investigated in an experiment in which participants classified target letters in a visual selection task. Stimulus onsets were aligned to the R wave of the electrocardiogram and stimuli presented either during the ventricular systole or diastole. Selection efficiency was operationalized as difference in target selection performance under conditions of homogeneous and heterogeneous distractors. Differences in performance (i.e., the impact selection difficulty had on the ability to select the target) were attenuated for stimuli presented during the ventricular systole compared to the diastole. Increased baroafferent signal transmission during the systole appears to reduce interference of highly distracting stimuli on visual selection efficiency.
According to the attentional control theory (ACT) proposed by Eysenck and colleagues, anxiety interferes with cognitive processing by prioritizing bottom-up attentional processes over top-down attentional processes, leading to competition for access to limited resources in working memory, particularly the central executive (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, ). However, previous research using the n-back working memory task suggests that working memory load also reduces state anxiety. Assuming that similar mechanisms underlie the effect of anxiety on cognition, and the effect of cognition on anxiety, one possible implication of the ACT would suggest that the reduction of state anxiety with increasing working memory load is driven by activation of central executive attentional control processes. We tested this hypothesis using the Sternberg working memory paradigm, where maintenance processes can be isolated from central executive processes (Altamura et al., ; Sternberg, ). Consistent with the n-back results, subjects showed decreased state anxiety during the maintenance period of high-load trials relative to low-load trials, suggesting that maintenance processes alone are sufficient to achieve this state anxiety reduction. Given that the Sternberg task does not require central executive engagement, these results are not consistent with an implication of the ACT where the cognition/anxiety relationship and anxiety/cognition relationship are mediated by similar central executive mechanisms. Instead, we propose an extension of the ACT such that engaging working memory maintenance suppresses state anxiety in a load-dependent manner. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the efficacy of this effect may moderate the effect of trait anxiety on cognition.
Resting blood pressure (BP) shows a negative relationship with pain sensitivity (BP-related hypoalgesia). In chronic pain conditions, this relationship is inverted. The precise mechanisms responsible for the inversion are unknown. Using a tonic pain protocol, we report findings closely resembling this inversion in healthy participants. Resting BP and state measures of anxiety and mood were assessed from 33 participants (21 female). Participants then immersed their dominant hand in painfully hot water (47 °C) for five trials of 1-min duration, with 30-s intertrial intervals. Throughout the trials, participants continually registered their pain. After a 35-min intermission, the trial sequence was repeated. A disassociation of the negative relationship of resting systolic BP (as per Trial 1) was found using hierarchical linear modeling (p < .001, R2 = .07). The disassociation unfolds over each consecutive trial, with an increasingly positive relationship. In Sequence 2, the initially negative relationship is almost completely absent. Furthermore, the association of BP and pain was found to be moderated by anxiety, such that only persons with low anxiety exhibited BP hypoalgesia. Our findings expand the existing literature by incorporating anxiety as a moderator of BP hypoalgesia. Furthermore, the protocol emulates the changing relationship between BP and pain observed in chronic pain patients. The protocol has potential as a model for chronic pain; however, future research should determine if similar physiological systems are involved. The finding holds potential diagnostic or prognostic relevance for certain clinical pain conditions, especially those involving dysfunction of the descending modulation of pain.
The present study aimed to investigate whether or not the evaluative processing of action feedback can be modulated by temporal prediction. For this purpose, we examined the effects of the predictability of the timing of action feedback on an ERP effect that indexed the evaluative processing of action feedback, that is, an ERP effect that has been interpreted as a feedback-related negativity (FRN) elicited by "bad" action feedback or a reward positivity (RewP) elicited by "good" action feedback. In two types of experimental blocks, the participants performed a gambling task in which they chose one of two cards and received an action feedback that indicated monetary gain or loss. In fixed blocks, the time interval between the participant's choice and the onset of the action feedback was fixed at 0, 500, or 1,000 ms in separate blocks; thus, the timing of action feedback was predictable. In mixed blocks, the time interval was randomly chosen from the same three intervals with equal probability; thus, the timing was less predictable. The results showed that the FRN/RewP was smaller in mixed than fixed blocks for the 0-ms interval trial, whereas there was no difference between the two block types for the 500-ms and 1,000-ms interval trials. Interestingly, the smaller FRN/RewP was due to the modulation of gain ERPs rather than loss ERPs. These results suggest that temporal prediction can modulate the evaluative processing of action feedback, and particularly good feedback, such as that which indicates monetary gain.
Exaggerated conditioned fear responses and impaired extinction along with amygdala overactivation have been observed in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These fear responses might be triggered by cues related to the trauma through higher-order conditioning, where reminders of the trauma may serve as unconditioned stimuli (US) and could maintain the fear response. We compared arousal, valence, and US expectancy ratings and BOLD brain responses using fMRI in 14 traumatized persons with PTSD and 14 without PTSD (NPTSD) and 13 matched healthy controls (HC) in a differential aversive conditioning paradigm. The US were trauma-specific pictures for the PTSD and NPTSD group and equally aversive and arousing for the HC; the conditioned stimuli (CS) were graphic displays. During conditioning, the PTSD patients compared to the NPTSD and HC indicated higher arousal to the conditioned stimulus that was paired with the trauma picture (CS+) compared to the unpaired (CS−), increased dissociation during acquisition and extinction, and failure to extinguish the CS/US-association compared to NPTSD. During early and late acquisition, the PTSD patients showed a significantly lower amygdala activation to CS+ versus CS− and a negative interaction between activation in the amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), while NPTSD and HC displayed a negative interaction between amygdala and medial PFC. These findings suggest maladaptive anticipatory coping with trauma-related stimuli in patients with PTSD, indicated by enhanced conditioning, with related abnormal amygdala reactivity and connectivity, and delayed extinction.
Memory impairment is a frequent complaint in insomniacs; however, it is not consistently demonstrated. It is unknown whether memory impairment in insomniacs involves neuroendocrine dysfunction. The participants in this study were selected from the clinical setting and included 21 patients with chronic insomnia disorder (CID), 25 patients with insomnia and comorbid depressive disorder (CDD), and 20 control participants without insomnia. We evaluated spatial working and reference memory, object working and reference memory, and object recognition memory using the Nine Box Maze Test. We also evaluated serum neuroendocrine hormone levels. Compared to the controls, the CID patients made significantly more errors in spatial working and object recognition memory (p < .05), whereas the CDD patients performed poorly in all the assessed memory types (p < .05). In addition, the CID patients had higher levels (mean difference [95% CI]) of corticotrophin-releasing hormone, cortisol (31.98 [23.97, 39.98] μg/l), total triiodothyronine (667.58 [505.71, 829.45] μg/l), and total thyroxine (41.49 [33.23, 49.74] μg/l) (p < .05), and lower levels of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (-35.93 [-38.83, -33.02] ng/l), gonadotropin-releasing hormone (-4.50 [-5.02, -3.98] ng/l) (p < .05), and adrenocorticotropic hormone compared to the CDD patients. After controlling for confounding variables, the partial correlation analysis revealed that the levels of cortisol positively correlated with the errors in object working memory (r = .534, p = .033) and negatively correlated with the errors in object recognition memory (r = -.659, p = .006) in the CID patients. The results suggest that the CID patients had selective memory impairment, which may be mediated by increased cortisol levels.
Brain regions in the default mode network (DMN) display greater functional connectivity at rest or during self-referential processing than during goal-directed tasks. The present study assessed resting-state connectivity as a function of anxious apprehension and anxious arousal, independent of depressive symptoms, in order to understand how these dimensions disrupt cognition. Whole-brain, seed-based analyses indicated differences between anxious apprehension and anxious arousal in DMN functional connectivity. Lower connectivity associated with higher anxious apprehension suggests decreased adaptive, inner-focused thought processes, whereas higher connectivity at higher levels of anxious arousal may reflect elevated monitoring of physiological responses to threat. These findings further the conceptualization of anxious apprehension and anxious arousal as distinct psychological dimensions with distinct neural instantiations.
The experience of anger during a depressive episode has recently been identified as a poor prognostic indicator of illness course. Given the clinical implications of anger in major depressive disorder (MDD), understanding the mechanisms involved in anger reactivity and persistence is critical for improved intervention. Biological processes involved in emotion regulation during stress, such as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), may play a role in maintaining negative moods. Clinically depressed (MDD; n = 49) and nondepressed (non-MDD; n = 50) individuals were challenged with a stressful computer task shown to increase anger, while RSA (high frequency range 0.15–0.4 Hz) was collected. RSA predicted future anger, but was unrelated to current anger. That is, across participants, low baseline RSA predicted anger reactivity during the task, and in depressed individuals, those with low RSA during the task had a greater likelihood of anger persistence during a recovery period. These results suggest that low RSA may be a psychophysiological process involved in anger regulation in depression. Low RSA may contribute to sustained illness course by diminishing the repair of angry moods.
The habituation of the acoustic startle reflex (ASR) was examined concerning individual differences in sensitivity to punishment (PUN) and sensitivity to reward (REW), within the general framework of the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality. Two hypotheses derived from the RST were evaluated: the separable subsystems hypothesis and the joint subsystems hypothesis. In addition, we examined the direction of the relationship of PUN and REW with the habituation of the ASR. A habituation segment of electromyography recordings of the orbicularis oculi was assessed with an unconditional latent curve model. In accordance with the RST hypotheses, the relationship of PUN and REW on the habituation process was assessed with two conditional latent curve models. There was higher support for the separable subsystems hypothesis. In addition, PUN and REW related with the habituation trajectory of the ASR in the expected directions. Higher levels of PUN and lower levels of REW related with a slower habituation of the ASR, whereas lower levels of PUN and higher levels of REW related with a faster habituation of the ASR.
We introduce a new analytic technique for the microsegmentation of high-density EEG to identify the discrete brain microstates evoked by the visual reversal checkerboard task. To test the sensitivity of the present analytic approach to differences in evoked brain microstates across experimental conditions, subjects were instructed to (a) passively view the reversals of the checkerboard (passive viewing condition), or (b) actively search for a target stimulus that may appear at the fixation point, and they were offered a monetary reward if they correctly detected the stimulus (active viewing condition). Results revealed that, within the first 168 ms of a checkerboard presentation, the same four brain microstates were evoked in the passive and active viewing conditions, whereas the brain microstates evoked after 168 ms differed between these two conditions, with more brain microstates elicited in the active than in the passive viewing condition. Additionally, distinctions were found in the active condition between a change in a scalp configuration that reflects a change in microstate and a change in scalp configuration that reflects a change in the level of activation of the same microstate. Finally, the bootstrapping procedure identified that two microstates lacked robustness even though statistical significance thresholds were met, suggesting these microstates should be replicated prior to placing weight on their generalizability across individuals. These results illustrate the utility of the analytic approach and provide new information about the spatiotemporal dynamics of the brain states underlying passive and active viewing in the visual checkerboard task.
Environmental information available to our senses is incomplete and to varying degrees ambiguous. It has to be disambiguated in order to construct stable and reliable percepts. Ambiguous figures are artificial examples where perception is maximally unstable and alternates between possible interpretations. Tiny low-level changes can disambiguate an ambiguous figure and thus stabilize percepts. The present study compares ERPs evoked by ambiguous stimuli and disambiguated stimulus variants across three visual categories: geometry (Necker cube), motion (stroboscopic alternative motion stimulus, SAM) and semantics (Boring's old/young woman). We found that (a) disambiguated stimulus variants cause stable percepts and evoke two huge positive ERP excursions (Cohen's effect sizes 1–2), (b) the amplitudes of these ERP effects are inversely related to the degree of stimulus ambiguity, and (c) this pattern of results is consistent across all three tested visual categories. This generality across visual categories points to mechanisms at a very abstract (cognitive) level of processing. We discuss our results in the context of a high-level Bayesian inference unit that evaluates the reliability of perceptual processing results, given a priori incomplete, ambiguous sensory information. The ERP components may reflect the outcome of this reliability estimation.
Motor learning is associated with a decrease in frontal control-related brain activity and increase of central and parietal motor-related activity. Contextual interference (CI), manipulated typically by blocked versus randomized training schedules, affects motor learning, resulting in inferior performance during training but in superior performance during retention and transfer. The CI effect is often explained by increased processing demands under high CI training. Consistently, in the motor preparation phase, the activity of control- and attention-related brain areas is increased under high CI. Here, we investigated the effect of CI on learning-related changes in ERPs during motor preparation. Participants learned throwing at virtual targets and were tested for retention in the target condition 1 week later. The frontal P3 component decreased with learning during the first session and across sessions. In addition, there was a trend for a stronger reduction of P3 during retention after high CI training. Both initial and late contingent negative variation (iCNV and lCNV) amplitudes decreased with learning and showed a significantly stronger reduction under high CI. We conclude that CI modulates the interplay of cognitive and motor processes in the preparatory phase of motor learning and that a stronger involvement of cognitive processes during high CI training accounts for differential effects of CI on ERP indicators of motor preparation during retention.
Recent studies demonstrate that veterans exhibit higher suicide risk compared with the general U.S. population. A prior suicide attempt is a well-documented predictor of suicide death. Despite increased attention to clinical risk factors of suicide and efforts to develop psychosocial interventions to reduce suicide risk, the underlying biological factors that confer this risk are not well understood. This study examined affect-modulated startle (AMS) during a series of intermixed unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant pictures in a sample of 108 demographically-matched veterans at low (passive ideators: n = 26) and high risk (active ideators: n = 29; single attempters: n = 28; and multiple attempters: n = 25) for suicide based on the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. An exploratory aim involved a longitudinal component in a subset of the high-risk sample that went on to participate in a randomized 6-month clinical trial. We investigated whether baseline AMS predicts a subsequent suicide attempt at 12-month follow-up. Compared with the other three groups, multiple attempters showed greater startle potentiation during unpleasant pictures and deficient overall startle habituation from early to later trials. The groups did not differ in startle during neutral or pleasant pictures, or self-reported picture valence. Greater startle during unpleasant pictures was associated with greater emotion dysregulation as measured by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and a future suicide attempt assessed prospectively at 12-month follow-up. These findings suggest that startle potentiation during unpleasant pictures in multiple-suicide attempters is a promising psychophysiological biomarker of suicide risk and underscore the clinical importance of targeting emotion dysregulation in the treatment of patients at-risk for suicide.
We present results from two experiments, in which subjects watched continuous videos of a professional magician repeatedly performing a maneuver in which a ball could "magically" appear under a cup. In all cases, subjects were asked to predict whether the ball would appear under the cup or not, while scalp EEG recordings were performed. Both experiments elicited strong and consistent behavioral and neural responses. In the first experiment, we used two blocks of videos with different probabilities of the ball appearing in the cup and found that, first, based on the behavioral responses, the subjects could track this probability change; and second, the different probabilities modulated the neural responses. In the second experiment, we introduced a control condition in which the magician performed the maneuver under the table, out of subjects' view. Comparing the two conditions (i.e., performing the maneuver within or out of the subjects' view), we found that, first, the magic trick dramatically biased the subjects' behavioral responses; and second, the two conditions led to differential neural responses, in spite of the fact that the stimulus triggering the evoked responses (seeing the ball in the cup) was exactly the same. Altogether, our results show how new insights into sensory and cognitive processing can be obtained using adapted magic tricks. Moreover, the approach of analyzing responses to continuous video presentations offers a more ecological setting compared to classic evoked potential paradigms, which are typically based on presenting static images flashed at the center of the screen.
Incidental emotions, which are irrelevant to the current decision, play a significant role in the decision-making process. In this study, to investigate the influence of incidental emotions on behavioral, psychological, and electrophysiological responses in the process of decision making, participants were required to perform a monetary gambling task. During the selection stage, an emotional picture, which was chosen from the Chinese Affective Picture System and fell into one of three categories: negative, neutral, and positive, was presented between two alternatives (small/large amount of bet). The pictures were provided to induce incidental emotions. ERPs and self-rating emotional experiences to outcome feedback were recorded during the task. Behavioral results showed that positive incidental emotions elicited risk preference, but emotional experiences to outcome feedback were not influenced by incidental emotions. The feedback-related negativity amplitudes were larger in the positive emotion condition than in the negative and neutral emotion conditions for small outcomes (including wins and losses), whereas there was no difference between the three conditions for large outcomes. In addition, the amplitudes of P3 were reduced overall in the negative emotion condition. We suggest that incidental emotions have modulated both the option assessment stage (manifested in behavioral choices) and the outcome evaluation stage (manifested in ERP amplitudes) of decision making unconsciously (indicated by unchanged subjective emotional experiences). The current findings have expanded our understanding of the role of incidental emotion in decision making.
Clinical trials in sleep disorders report substantial improvement in symptoms in their placebo groups. Behavioral conditioning is one of the underlying mechanisms of the placebo response. However, we do not know whether, and if so, the extent to which sleep architecture is influenced by behavioral conditioning, similarly to other physiological responses (i.e., those in the immune system). We therefore applied a conditioning paradigm to 39 healthy adults pairing a novel-tasting drink (conditioned stimulus, CS) with the REM sleep suppressing tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline as unconditioned stimulus during the acquisition phase. Subsequent sole presentation of the CS (together with a placebo pill) in an evocation night led to significantly more REM sleep in the amitriptyline group. Instead of the expected REM sleep suppression in the evocation night, we observed more REM sleep, indicating a rebound that interferes with the conditioned response.
The brain mechanisms by which music-related interventions ameliorate fatigue-related symptoms during the execution of fatiguing motor tasks are hitherto under-researched. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of music on brain electrical activity and psychophysiological measures during the execution of an isometric fatiguing ankle-dorsiflexion task performed until the point of volitional exhaustion. Nineteen healthy participants performed two fatigue tests at 40% of maximal voluntary contraction while listening to music or in silence. Electrical activity in the brain was assessed by use of a 64-channel EEG. The results indicated that music downregulated theta waves in the frontal, central, and parietal regions of the brain during exercise. Music also induced a partial attentional switching from associative thoughts to task-unrelated factors (dissociative thoughts) during exercise, which led to improvements in task performance. Moreover, participants experienced a more positive affective state while performing the isometric task under the influence of music.
The Concealed Information Test (CIT) is a psychophysiological technique that allows for detecting crime-related knowledge. Usually, autonomic response measures are used for this purpose, but ocular measures have also been proposed recently. Prior studies reported heterogeneous results for the usage of countermeasures (CM) to corrupt the CIT's validity, depending on the CM technique and the dependent measure. The current study systematically compared the application of physical and mental CM on autonomic and ocular measures during the CIT. Sixty participants committed a mock crime and were assigned to one of three guilty conditions: standard guilty (without CM), physical CM, or mental CM. An additional group of 20 innocents was investigated with the same CIT to calculate validity estimates. Electrodermal responses were more vulnerable for CM usage compared to heart rate and respiration, and physical CM were more effective than mental CM. Independent of CM usage, a combined score of autonomic responses enabled a valid differentiation between guilty and innocent examinees. Fixations and blinks also allowed for detecting crime-related knowledge, but these measures were more affected by CM application than autonomic responses. The current study delivered further evidence that CM differentially impact physiological and ocular responses in the CIT. Whereas individual data channels were strongly affected by CM usage, a combination of different response measures yielded a relatively stable differentiation of guilty and innocent examinees when mental CM were used. These findings are especially relevant for field applications and might inspire future studies to detect or prevent CM usage in CIT examinations.
Theta oscillations in the EEG have been linked to several ERPs that are elicited during performance-monitoring tasks, including the error-related negativity (ERN), no-go N2, and the feedback-related negativity (FRN). We used a novel paradigm to isolate independent components (ICs) in single subjects' (n = 27) EEG accounting for a medial frontal negativity (MFN) to response cue stimuli that signal a potential change in future response demands. Medial frontal projecting ICs that were sensitive to these response cues also described the ERNs, no-go N2s, and, to a lesser extent, the FRNs, that were elicited in letter flanker, go/no-go, and time-estimation tasks, respectively. In addition, percentile bootstrap tests using trimmed means indicated that the medial frontal ICs show an increase in theta activity during the ERN, no-go N2, and FRN across tasks and within individuals. Our results provide an important validation of previous studies by showing that increases in medial frontal theta to cognitively challenging events in multiple paradigms is a reliable effect within individuals and can be elicited by basic stimulus cues that signal the potential need to adjust response control. Thus, medial frontal theta reflects a neural response common to all MFN paradigms and characterizes the general process of controlling attention without the need to induce error commission, inhibited responses, or to present negative feedback.
Successful speech perception in complex auditory scenes with multiple competing speakers requires spatial segregation of auditory streams into perceptually distinct and coherent auditory objects and focusing of attention toward the speaker of interest. Here, we focused on the neural basis of this remarkable capacity of the human auditory system and investigated the spatiotemporal sequence of neural activity within the cortical network engaged in solving the "cocktail-party" problem. Twenty-eight subjects localized a target word in the presence of three competing sound sources. The analysis of the ERPs revealed an anterior contralateral subcomponent of the N2 (N2ac), computed as the difference waveform for targets to the left minus targets to the right. The N2ac peaked at about 500 ms after stimulus onset, and its amplitude was correlated with better localization performance. Cortical source localization for the contrast of left versus right targets at the time of the N2ac revealed a maximum in the region around left superior frontal sulcus and frontal eye field, both of which are known to be involved in processing of auditory spatial information. In addition, a posterior-contralateral late positive subcomponent (LPCpc) occurred at a latency of about 700 ms. Both these subcomponents are potential correlates of allocation of spatial attention to the target under cocktail-party conditions.
Threat demands fast and adaptive reactions that are manifested at the physiological, behavioral, and phenomenological level and are responsive to the direction of threat and its severity for the individual. Here, we investigated the effects of threat directed toward or away from the observer on motor corticospinal excitability and explicit recognition. Sixteen healthy right-handed volunteers completed a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) task and a separate three-alternative forced-choice emotion recognition task. Single-pulse TMS to the left primary motor cortex was applied to measure motor evoked potentials from the right abductor pollicis brevis in response to dynamic angry, fearful, and neutral bodily expressions with blurred faces directed toward or away from the observer. Results showed that motor corticospinal excitability increased independent of direction of anger compared with fear and neutral. In contrast, anger was better recognized when directed toward the observer compared with when directed away from the observer, while the opposite pattern was found for fear. The present results provide evidence for the differential effects of threat direction on explicit recognition and motor corticospinal excitability. In the face of threat, motor corticospinal excitability increases independently of the direction of anger, indicative of the importance of more automatic reactions to threat.
Understanding the effects of acute exercise on executive function in prepubescent children may be important for the enhancement of school performance. This study assessed the effect of an acute bout of continuous (CONT) or intermittent (INT), moderate-intensity treadmill exercise on executive function in young children. Twenty healthy children, mean (SD); age: 8.8 (0.8) years; height: 140 (9) cm; weight: 36 (11) kg; boys: n = 9, performed a graded-exercise test to determine maximal oxygen uptake, and two 15-min submaximal bouts of treadmill exercise; protocols were either CONT or INT. During CONT, participants ran at 90% of gas exchange threshold. During INT, participants performed six consecutive 2.5 min blocks of exercise, which were designed to reflect children's typical activity patterns, comprising 45 s at a heavy intensity, 33 s at a moderate intensity, 10 s at a severe intensity, and 62 s at a low intensity. Participants performed the Stroop task before the submaximal exercise bouts and after, at 1-, 15-, and 30-min intervals. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measured cerebral perfusion and oxygenation. Regardless of condition, Stroop performance was improved at 1 min after compared to before, 54.9 (9.8) s versus 57.9 (11) s, respectively, p < .01, and improvements were maintained until 30 min after. NIRS (oxyhemoglobin, total hemoglobin) explained a significant amount of variance in the change in Stroop performance for INT only (49%, p < .05). An acute bout of exercise, of either an intermittent or continuous nature, improves executive function in children, and effects are maintained for ≤ 30 min following exercise cessation. Accordingly, it is recommended that children should engage in physical activity during periods of school recess.
A brief 10-min time delay between an initial and subsequent exposure to extinction trials has been found to impair memory reconsolidation in fear-conditioned rodents and humans, providing a potential means to reduce fearfulness in anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present study used videos of biologically prepared, conditioned stimuli (tarantulas) to test the efficacy of delayed extinction in blocking reconsolidation of conditioned fear in healthy young adults. Strong differential conditioning, measured by skin conductance, was observed among a screened subset of participants during acquisition. However, the delayed-extinction intervention failed to reduce reactivity to the conditioned stimulus paired with the extinction delay. These results are partially consistent with other recent, mixed findings and point to a need for testing other candidate interventions designed to interfere with the reconsolidation process.
The self-referential encoding task (SRET)—an implicit measure of self-schema—has been used widely to probe cognitive biases associated with depression, including among adolescents. However, research testing the stability of behavioral and electrocortical effects is sparse. Therefore, the current study sought to evaluate the stability of behavioral markers and ERPs elicited from the SRET over time in healthy, female adolescents (n = 31). At baseline, participants were administered a diagnostic interview and a self-report measure of depression severity. In addition, they completed the SRET while 128-channel ERP data were recorded to examine early (P1) and late (late positive potential [LPP]) ERPs. Three months later, participants were readministered the depression self-report measure and the SRET in conjunction with ERPs. Results revealed that healthy adolescents endorsed, recalled, and recognized more positive and fewer negative words at each assessment, and these effects were stable over time (rs = .44–.83). Similarly, they reported a faster reaction time when endorsing self-relevant positive words, as opposed to negative words, at both the initial and follow-up assessment (r = .82). Second, ERP responses, specifically potentiated P1 and late LPP positivity to positive versus negative words, were consistent over time (rs = .56–.83), and the internal reliability of ERPs were robust at each time point (rs = .52–.80). As a whole, these medium-to-large effects suggest that the SRET is a reliable behavioral and neural probe of self-referential processing.
Lip-read speech suppresses and speeds up the auditory N1 and P2 peaks, but these effects are not always observed or reported. Here, the robustness of lip-read-induced N1/P2 suppression and facilitation in phonetically congruent audiovisual speech was assessed by analyzing peak values that were taken from published plots and individual data. To determine whether adhering to the additive model of AV integration (i.e., A+V ≠ AV, or AV−V ≠ A) is critical for correct characterization of lip-read-induced effects on the N1 and P2, auditory data was compared to AV and to AV−V. On average, the N1 and P2 were consistently suppressed and sped up by lip-read information, with no indication that AV integration effects were significantly modulated by whether or not V was subtracted from AV. To assess the possibility that variability in observed N1/P2 amplitudes and latencies may explain why N1/P2 suppression and facilitation are not always found, additional correlations between peak values and size of the AV integration effects were computed. These analyses showed that N1/P2 peak values correlated with the size of AV integration effects. However, it also became apparent that a portion of the AV integration effects was characterized by lip-read-induced peak enhancements and delays rather than suppressions and facilitations, which, for the individual data, seemed related to particularly small/early A-only peaks and large/late AV(−V) peaks.
Stress analysis by FLIR (forward-looking infrared) evaluation (SAFE) has been demonstrated to monitor sweat pore activation (SPA) as a novel surrogate measure of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in a normal population. SNS responses to a series of 15 1-s, 82 dB, white noise bursts were measured by skin conductance (SC) and SAFE monitoring of SPA on the fingers (FiP) and face (FaP) in 10 participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 16 trauma-exposed participants without PTSD (Mage = 48.92 ± 12.00 years; 26.9% female). Within participants, SC and FiP responses across trials were strongly correlated (r = .92, p < .001). Correlations between SC and FaP (r = .76, p = .001) and between FiP and FaP (r = .47, p = .005) were smaller. The habituation of SNS responses across the 15 trials was substantial (SC: d = −2.97; FiP: d = −2.34; FaP: d = −1.02). There was a strong correlation between habituation effects for SC and FiP (r = .76, p < .001), but not for SC and FaP (r = .15, p = .45) or FiP and FaP (r = .29, p = .16). Participants with PTSD showed larger SNS responses to the first loud noise than those without PTSD. PTSD reexperiencing symptoms assessed by the PTSD Checklist on the day of testing were associated with the SNS responses to the first loud noise measured by SC (d = 1.19) and FiP (d = .99), but not FaP (d = .10). This study confirms convergence of SAFE and SC as valid measures of SNS activity. SAFE FiP and SC responses were highly predictive of self-rated PTSD reexperiencing symptoms. SAFE may offer an attractive alternative for applications in PTSD and similar populations.
Several methods that are promising for studying the neurophysiology of fear conditioning (e.g., EEG, MEG) require a high number of trials to achieve an adequate signal-to-noise ratio. While electric shock and white noise burst are among the most commonly used unconditioned stimuli (US) in conventional fear conditioning studies with few trials, it is unknown whether these stimuli are equally well suited for paradigms with many trials. Here, N = 32 participants underwent a 260-trial differential fear conditioning and extinction paradigm with a 240-trial recall test 24 h later and neutral faces as conditioned stimuli. In a between-subjects design, either white noise bursts (n = 16) or electric shocks (n = 16) served as US, and intensities were determined using the most common procedure for each US (i.e., a fixed 95 dB noise burst and a work-up procedure for electric shocks, respectively). In addition to differing US types, groups also differed in closely linked US-associated characteristics (e.g., calibration methods, stimulus intensities, timing). Subjective ratings (arousal/valence), skin conductance, and evoked heart period changes (i.e., fear bradycardia) indicated more reliable, extinction-resistant, and stable conditioning in the white noise burst versus electric shock group. In fear conditioning experiments where many trials are presented, white noise burst should serve as US.
The cardiovascular response to contamination-related disgust was proposed to be under parasympathetic or parasympathetic-sympathetic cardiac control. However, findings of physiological disgust responses are inconsistent, possibly due to effects of the emotion induction context and single cardiovascular changes being part of larger cardiovascular regulation patterns. Therefore, we induced an emotionally neutral state and core and contamination disgust in female participants in two induction contexts (auditory script, film clip). Dependent variables were emotion self-reports and 10 cardiovascular factors derived from 23 cardiovascular variables. We found elevated disgust ratings in both induction contexts. On the cardiovascular level, we observed consistent increases in a factor indicating vagal cardiac control in both contexts and changes in factors indicating sympathetic activation that were bound to the respective context. These findings support the notion of a parasympathetic dominance of the contamination-related disgust response and underpin the importance of incorporating the induction context in the study of cardiovascular responses to disgust.
Personality traits relate to risk for psychopathology and can inform predictions about treatment outcome. In an effort to obtain a comprehensive index of personality, informant reports of personality are sometimes obtained in addition to self-reports of personality. However, there is limited research comparing the validity of self- and informant reports of personality, particularly among those with internalizing psychopathology. This is important given that informants may provide an additional (and perhaps different) perspective on individuals' personality. The present study therefore compared how both reports of positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) relate to psychophysiological and subjective measures of emotional responding to positive and negative stimuli. Given that our sample (n = 117) included individuals with no history of psychopathology, as well as individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and/or panic disorder (PD), we were also able to explore whether these internalizing diagnoses moderated the association between personality reports and measures of emotional responding. Informant-reported PA predicted physiological responses to positive stimuli (but not negative). Informant-reported NA predicted physiological responses to negative stimuli (but not positive). Self-reported personality did not predict physiological responding, but did predict subjectively measured emotional responding (NA for negative responding, PA for positive responding). Diagnoses of internalizing psychopathology (PD or MDD) did not moderate these associations. Results suggest self- and informant reports of personality may each provide valid indices of an individual's emotional response tendencies, but predict different aspects of those tendencies.
The present study investigated whether engaging in a mindful breathing exercise would affect EEG oscillatory activity associated with self-monitoring processes, based on the notion that mindfulness enhances attentional awareness. Participants were assigned to either an audio exercise in mindful breathing or an audio control condition, and then completed a Stroop task while EEG was recorded. The primary EEG measure of interest was error-related alpha suppression (ERAS), an index of self-monitoring in which alpha power is reduced, suggesting mental engagement, following errors compared to correct responses. Participants in the mindful-breathing condition showed increased alpha power during the listening exercise and enhanced ERAS during the subsequent Stroop task. These results indicate enhanced error-monitoring among those in the mindful-breathing group.
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is an automatic and preattentive process, whereby a weak stimulus attenuates responding to a sudden and intense startle stimulus. PPI is a measure of sensorimotor filtering, which is conceptualized as a mechanism that facilitates processing of an initial stimulus and is protective from interruption by a later response. Impaired PPI has been found in (a) healthy women during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, and (b) individuals with types of psychopathology characterized by difficulty suppressing and filtering sensory, motor, or cognitive information. In the current study, 47 trauma-exposed women with or without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) completed a PPI session during two different phases of the menstrual cycle: the early follicular phase, when estradiol and progesterone are both low, and the midluteal phase, when estradiol and progesterone are both high. Startle stimuli were 100 dB white noise bursts presented for 50 ms, and prepulses were 70 dB white noise bursts presented for 20 ms that preceded the startle stimuli by 120 ms. Women with PTSD showed deficits in PPI relative to the healthy trauma-exposed participants. Menstrual phase had no effect on PPI. These results provide empirical support for individuals with PTSD having difficulty with sensorimotor filtering. The potential utility of PPI as a Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) phenotype is discussed.
In prior studies, we have used a conditional linkage between rare deviations in a regular sound pattern to determine if the auditory system can use the first deviation to anticipate the probable features of the second deviation (i.e., make a conditional inference). This study was designed to test two hypotheses about why the mismatch negativity (MMN) to a duration deviant sound seems more susceptible to conditional inference effects. The MMNs to duration and frequency glide deviant sounds were significantly smaller when their occurrence was conditionally linked to the identity of a prior deviant as opposed to when they occurred randomly in a sequence. Results provide support for the learned conditional inference interpretation of reduced MMN size to linked deviants. We discuss alternate explanations and conclude that conditional inference studies could provide insight into the dynamics of probability-based prediction in the auditory system.
The majority of studies investigating risky decision making focus on the high-conflict condition, and very few consider the low-conflict condition in which there is either a very high or a very low probability of risk. Even though the high-risk condition and low-risk condition are both considered low-conflict decision scenarios and both behavioral outcomes are highly predictable, these conditions still differ in terms of the probabilities of reward and punishment. In the following study, we investigated both behavioral and electrophysiological correlates associated with high- and low-risk conditions within the low-conflict scenario, as well as high-conflict condition, in a modified gambling game. The behavioral results showed that, within the low-conflict scenario, the participants took more time to make the decision in the high-risk condition compared to the low-risk condition. The event-related potentials (ERP) data showed that, during the decision making, the high-risk condition evoked a more negative ERP deflection than did the low-risk condition in the time window of 300–500 ms (N400), which had a frontocentral focus of scalp distribution. The results suggested that the high-risk condition was associated with a higher conflict between the participants' "motivationally based" tendency to want to receive cards and the task instructions, which stated that the face value of the first two cards will strongly predict a low probability of success. It was further speculated that the N400 in the present study might be associated with anticipation of negative rewards, which was functionally equivalent to the FRN (feedback-related negativity) to negative outcomes.
Single-trial analysis is particularly useful for assessing cognitive processes that are intrinsically dynamic, such as learning. Studying these processes with fMRI is problematic, as the low signal-to-noise ratio of fMRI requires the averaging over multiple trials, obscuring trial-by-trial changes in neural activation. The superior sensitivity of multivoxel pattern analysis over univariate analyses has opened up new possibilities for single-trial analysis, but this may require different fMRI designs. Here, we measured fMRI and pupil dilation responses during discriminant aversive conditioning, to assess associative learning in a trial-by-trial manner. The impact of design choices was examined by varying trial spacing and trial order in a series of five experiments (total n = 66), while keeping stimulus duration constant (4.5 s). Our outcome measure was the change in similarity between neural response patterns related to two consecutive presentations of the same stimulus (within-stimulus) and between patterns related to pairs of different stimuli (between-stimulus) that shared a specific outcome (electric stimulation vs. no consequence). This trial-by-trial similarity analysis revealed clear single-trial learning curves in conditions with intermediate (8.1–12.6 s) and long (16.5–18.4 s) intervals, with effects being strongest in designs with long intervals and counterbalanced stimulus presentation. No learning curves were observed in designs with shorter intervals (1.6–6.1 s), indicating that rapid event-related designs—at present, the most common designs in fMRI research—are not suited for single-trial pattern analysis. These findings emphasize the importance of deciding on the type of analysis prior to data collection.
Maximizing infant attention to stimulus presentation during an EEG or ERP experiment is important for making valid inferences about the neural correlates of infant cognition. The present study examined the effects of stimulus presentation interstimulus interval (ISI) on behavioral and physiological indices of infant attention including infants' fixation to visual presentation, the amount of heart rate (HR) change during sustained attention, and ERP components. This study compared an ISI that is typically used in infant EEG/ERP studies (e.g., 1,500–2,000 ms) with two shorter durations (400–600 ms and 600–1,000 ms). Thirty-six infants were tested cross-sectionally at 3, 4.5, and 6 months. It was found that using the short (400–600 ms) and medium (600–1,000 ms) ISIs resulted in more visually fixated trials and reduced frequency of fixation disengagement per experimental block. We also found larger HR changes during sustained attention to both of the shorter ISIs compared with the long ISI, and larger ERP responses when using the medium ISI compared to using the short and long ISIs. These data suggest that utilizing an optimal ISI (e.g., 600–1,000 ms), which increases the presentation complexity and provides sufficient time for information processing, can promote infant engagement and sustained attention during stimulus presentation.
The error-related negativity (ERN) is a neural measure of error processing that has been implicated as a neurobehavioral trait and has transdiagnostic links with psychopathology. Few studies, however, have contextualized this traitlike component with regard to dimensions of personality that, as intermediate constructs, may aid in contextualizing links with psychopathology. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to examine the interrelationships between error monitoring and dimensions of personality within a large adult sample (N = 208). Building on previous research, we found that the ERN relates to a combination of negative affect, impulsivity, and conscientiousness. At low levels of conscientiousness, negative urgency (i.e., impulsivity in the context of negative affect) predicted an increased ERN; at high levels of conscientiousness, the effect of negative urgency was not significant. This relationship was driven specifically by the conscientiousness facets of competence, order, and deliberation. Links between personality measures and error positivity amplitude were weaker and nonsignificant. Post-error slowing was also related to conscientiousness, as well as a different facet of impulsivity: lack of perseverance. These findings suggest that, in the general population, error processing is modulated by the joint combination of negative affect, impulsivity, and conscientiousness (i.e., the profile across traits), perhaps more so than any one dimension alone. This work may inform future research concerning aberrant error processing in clinical populations.
Recent studies have linked variability in near-threshold stimulus detection to fluctuations in the prestimulus EEG alpha power (α, ∼8–12 Hz). Typically, these studies rely on hit rate as a measure of detection performance and show that detection is enhanced when α power is low compared to when it is high. However, hit rates are determined by both sensitivity to the stimulus and the placement of the response criterion. Here, we investigated the relationships between prestimulus α power and variability in these two measures on a single-trial basis. We confirm earlier reports that detection is inversely related to power in the individual α-frequency band. However, our results show a stronger relationship between α power and response criterion than with sensitivity. Higher α power was related to a more conservative response criterion (i.e., more "no" responses). A response criterion that varies depending on α power might help to optimize performance in an excited state and protect against false positives in a relatively disengaged state.
Face recognition relies on both configural and featural processing. Previous research has shown that P1 is sensitive to configural face processing, but it is unclear whether any component is sensitive to featural face processing; moreover, if there is such a component, its temporal sequence relative to P1 is unknown. Thus, to avoid confounding physical stimuli differences between configural and featural face processing on ERP components, a spatial attention paradigm was employed by instructing participants to attend an image stream (faces and houses) or an alphanumeric character stream. The interaction between attention and face processing type on P1 and P2 components indicates different mechanisms of configural and featural face processing as a function of spatial attention. The steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) results clearly demonstrated that participants could selectively attend to different streams of information. Importantly, configural face processing elicited a larger posterior P1 (approximately 128 ms) than featural face processing, whereas P2 (approximately 248 ms) was greater for featural than for configural face processing under attended condition. The interaction between attention and face processing type (configural vs. featural) on P1 and P2 components indicates that there are different mechanisms of configural and featural face processing operating as functions of spatial attention. While the P1 result confirms previous findings separating configural and featural face processing, the newly observed P2 finding in the present study extends this separation to a double dissociation. Therefore, configural and featural face processing are modulated differently by spatial attention, and configural face processing precedes featural face processing.
Recent theoretical models underline reward sensitivity as a potential endophenotype for major depressive disorder. Neural and behavioral evidence reveals depression is associated with reduced reward sensitivity. However, reward dysfunction is not unique to depression, as it is also common across disorders of poor impulse control. We examined the interrelationships of depression (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale [DASS-21]) and impulsivity (UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale) with reward sensitivity among a large, representative sample (N = 260). ERPs were recorded to isolate two neural indicators of consummatory reward processing: initial evaluation of rewards in the 250–350 ms time window postonset of feedback (reward positivity [RewP]), and salience to monetary outcomes (P3). Significant interactions were observed between depression and impulsivity facets across these two stages of reward processing: depression and positive urgency predicted RewP amplitude to reward outcomes (win vs. loss); depression and one other impulsivity trait, (lack of) premeditation, predicted P3 amplitude to monetary outcomes. Conversely, high symptoms of depression were related to three biobehavioral profiles: (1) blunted RewP in conjunction with high positive urgency, (2) combination of blunted RewP and low (lack of) premeditation, and (3) blunted P3 to monetary wins/losses, in conjunction with low (lack of) premeditation. Findings illustrate that reward-related dysfunctions may be optimally conceptualized when examining the interactions between dimensions of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.
The reward positivity is a component of the human ERP elicited by feedback stimuli in trial-and-error learning and guessing tasks. A prominent theory holds that the reward positivity reflects a reward prediction error signal that is sensitive to outcome valence, being larger for unexpected positive events relative to unexpected negative events (Holroyd & Coles, 2002). Although the theory has found substantial empirical support, most of these studies have utilized either monetary or performance feedback to test the hypothesis. However, in apparent contradiction to the theory, a recent study found that unexpected physical punishments also elicit the reward positivity (Talmi, Atkinson, & El-Deredy, 2013). The authors of this report argued that the reward positivity reflects a salience prediction error rather than a reward prediction error. To investigate this finding further, in the present study participants navigated a virtual T maze and received feedback on each trial under two conditions. In a reward condition, the feedback indicated that they would either receive a monetary reward or not and in a punishment condition the feedback indicated that they would receive a small shock or not. We found that the feedback stimuli elicited a typical reward positivity in the reward condition and an apparently delayed reward positivity in the punishment condition. Importantly, this signal was more positive to the stimuli that predicted the omission of a possible punishment relative to stimuli that predicted a forthcoming punishment, which is inconsistent with the salience hypothesis.
Improved understanding of fear inhibition processes can inform the etiology and treatment of anxiety disorders. Safety signals can reduce fear to threat, but precise mechanisms remain unclear. Safety signals may acquire attentional salience and affective properties (e.g., relief) independent of the threat; alternatively, safety signals may only hold affective value in the presence of simultaneous threat. To clarify such mechanisms, an experimental paradigm assessed independent processing of threat and safety cues. Participants viewed a series of red and green words from two semantic categories. Shocks were administered following red words (cue+). No shocks followed green words (cue-). Words from one category were defined as safety signals (SS); no shocks were administered on cue+ trials. Words from the other (control) category did not provide information regarding shock administration. Threat (cue+ vs. cue-) and safety (SS+ vs. SS-) were fully crossed. Startle response and ERPs were recorded. Startle response was increased during cue+ versus cue-. Safety signals reduced startle response during cue+, but had no effect on startle response during cue-. ERP analyses (PD130 and P3) suggested that participants parsed threat and safety signal information in parallel. Motivated attention was not associated with safety signals in the absence of threat. Overall, these results confirm that fear can be reduced by safety signals. Furthermore, safety signals do not appear to hold inherent hedonic salience independent of their effect during threat. Instead, safety signals appear to enable participants to engage in effective top-down emotion regulatory processes.
Two experiments were performed to investigate the principles by which emotional stimuli are classified on the dimensions of valence and arousal. In Experiment 1, a large sample of healthy participants rated emotional stimuli according to both broad dimensions. Hierarchical cluster analyses performed on these ratings revealed that stimuli were clustered according to their semantic content at the beginning of the agglomerative process. Example semantic themes include food, violence, nudes, death, and objects. Importantly, this pattern occurred in a parallel fashion for ratings on both dimensions. In Experiment 2, we investigated if the same semantic clusters were differentiated at the neurophysiological level. Intracerebral EEG was recorded from 18 patients with intractable epilepsy who viewed the same set of stimuli. Not only did electrocortical responses differentiate between these data-defined semantic clusters, they converged with the behavioral measurements to highlight the importance of categories associated with survival and reproduction. These findings provide strong evidence that the semantic content of affective material influences their classification along the broad dimensions of valence and arousal, and this principle of categorization exerts an effect on the evoked emotional response. Future studies should consider data-driven techniques rather than normative ratings to identify more specific, semantically related emotional images.
The pupil has been shown to be sensitive to the emotional content of stimuli. We examined this phenomenon by comparing fearful and neutral images carefully matched in the domains of luminance, image contrast, image color, and complexity of content. The pupil was more dilated after viewing affective pictures, and this effect was (a) shown to be independent of the presentation time of the images (from 100–3,000 ms), (b) not diminished by repeated presentations of the images, and (c) not affected by actively naming the emotion of the stimuli in comparison to passive viewing. Our results show that the emotional modulation of the pupil is present over a range of variables that typically vary from study to study (image duration, number of trials, free viewing vs. task), and encourages the use of pupillometry as a measure of emotional processing in populations where alternative techniques may not be appropriate.
Greater left frontal activation appears to be a measure of appetitive reactivity for desired stimuli, such as alcohol cues. However, inconsistencies in past research examining frontal asymmetry to appetitive stimuli suggest that individual differences strongly influence frontal asymmetry to appetitive stimuli. Because core personality systems of approach, avoidance, and supervisory control play a fundamental role in directing alcohol behavior, the current study sought to determine which core system would influence asymmetric frontal activation to alcohol cues. Results revealed that greater trait impulsivity (reduced functioning of the supervisory control system) is related to greater relative left frontal activation in response to alcohol cues. Approach motivation and avoidance motivation were unrelated to greater relative left frontal activation in response to alcohol cues. These results suggest that decreased activation of the supervisory control system (increased trait impulsivity) is responsible for appetitive reactivity to alcohol cues.
Preejection period (PEP) is a common measure of sympathetic nervous system activation in psychophysiological research, which makes it important to measure reliably for as many participants as possible. PEP is typically calculated as the interval between the onset or peak of the electrocardiogram Q wave and the impedance cardiography B point, but the Q wave can lack clear definition and even its peak is not visible for all participants. We thus investigated the feasibility of using the electrocardiogram R wave peak (Rpeak) instead of Q because it can be consistently identified with ease and precision. Across four samples (total N = 408), young adult participants completed a variety of minimally metabolically demanding laboratory tasks after a resting baseline. Results consistently supported a close relationship between absolute levels of the Rpeak-B interval and PEP (accounting for approximately 90% of the variance at baseline and 89% during task performance, on average), but for reactivity values, Rpeak-B was practically indistinguishable from PEP (accounting for over 98% of the variance, on average). Given that using Rpeak rather than the onset or peak of Q saves time, eliminates potential subjectivity, and can be applied to more participants (i.e., those without a visible Q wave), findings suggest that Rpeak-B likely provides an adequate estimate of PEP when absolute levels are of interest and clearly does so for within-person changes.
The current study provides a comprehensive evaluation of critical psychometric properties of commonly used psychophysiology laboratory tasks/measures within the NIMH RDoC. Participants (N = 128) completed the no-shock, predictable shock, unpredictable shock (NPU) task, affective picture viewing task, and resting state task at two study visits separated by 1 week. We examined potentiation/modulation scores in NPU (predictable or unpredictable shock vs. no-shock) and affective picture viewing tasks (pleasant or unpleasant vs. neutral pictures) for startle and corrugator responses with two commonly used quantification methods. We quantified startle potentiation/modulation scores with raw and standardized responses. We quantified corrugator potentiation/modulation in the time and frequency domains. We quantified general startle reactivity in the resting state task as the mean raw startle response during the task. For these three tasks, two measures, and two quantification methods, we evaluated effect size robustness and stability, internal consistency (i.e., split-half reliability), and 1-week temporal stability. The psychometric properties of startle potentiation in the NPU task were good, but concerns were noted for corrugator potentiation in this task. Some concerns also were noted for the psychometric properties of both startle and corrugator modulation in the affective picture viewing task, in particular, for pleasant picture modulation. Psychometric properties of general startle reactivity in the resting state task were good. Some salient differences in the psychometric properties of the NPU and affective picture viewing tasks were observed within and across quantification methods.
Older adults are more likely than younger adults to experience stress when confronted with cognitive challenges. However, little is known about individual differences that might explain why some older adults exhibit stronger stress responses than others. We examined the interplay of two social-cognitive factors to explain older adults' cortisol reactivity: (1) subjective social status, and (2) essentialist beliefs about cognitive aging. We hypothesized that, depending on whether older adults believe that aging-related cognitive decline is inevitable versus modifiable, low subjective social status should lead to stronger or weaker cortisol reactivity. Using longitudinal data, we assessed the impact of cognitive challenges on stress reactivity in a sample of older adults (N = 389; 61–86 years). As predicted, regression analyses confirmed that 44 min after cognitively challenging tasks, older adults exhibited a significantly different cortisol reactivity depending on their subjective social status and their essentialist beliefs about cognitive aging. Specifically, older adults with low subjective social status and high essentialist beliefs showed a significantly elevated cortisol reactivity. We discuss the role of essentialist beliefs about cognitive aging to predict when and why high versus low subjective social status leads to stress responses in older adults.
A long history of research in psychology has studied the consequences of when individuals face a group that unanimously disagrees with them. However, relatively little research has attempted to understand individuals' internal reactions to such disagreement while it is experienced. Psychophysiological measures are particularly well suited for this purpose. We used the perspective of the biopsychosocial model of challenge/threat to test whether and under what circumstances expressing one's political opinion to a disagreeing group led to a cardiovascular threat response (high total peripheral resistance, low cardiac output). We hypothesized that, when participants were provided with a goal to fit in with the group, a disagreeing group would elicit cardiovascular responses consistent with greater threat than an agreeing group, but that this effect would disappear if not reverse when participants were provided with a goal to express their individuality. Results supported hypotheses and further revealed a divergence between cardiovascular responses and conformity behavior, such that a disagreeing group fostered conformity regardless of goal condition. These findings suggest that (a) facing the prospect of a disagreeing group need not necessarily result in the negative experience of threat (reflecting evaluating low resources/high demands), and (b) conformity behavior can mask a range of internal states.
Much research indicates men show a greater concordance between subjective and genital sexual arousal than do women. We investigated the relationship between subjective sexual arousal and brain activation in men and women. Subjective sexual arousal and auditory N1 and P3b ERP amplitudes were measured while 38 participants viewed erotic and non-erotic films. Most notably, there was a significant correlation between N1 amplitude and sexual arousal in men; for women, there was a significant correlation between the P3b amplitude and sexual arousal. ERP amplitudes were inversely associated with reported arousal, suggesting that sexual arousal interferes with early tone processing for men, and with later tone processing for women. Lastly, for women, pornography/erotica consumption was negatively correlated with P3b amplitudes, suggesting that women who consume more pornography/erotica may also show greater attention to erotic films.
Numerous studies have documented an inverse relationship between blood pressure and sensitivity to experimental nociceptive stimulation. The present study aimed to investigate possible associations between blood pressure and the occurrence and intensity of paradoxical pain induced by the thermal grill paradigm. Thirty-one healthy subjects were stimulated three times for 1 min with the nonnoxious temperatures of 15°C and 41°C set at the interlaced cold and warm bars of a water bath-driven thermal grill. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded concomitantly. On account of previous observations of an association between the sensitivity of the cardiac baroreflex and pain perception, this parameter was additionally obtained. Numerical rating scales were used to quantify subjective pain intensity and pain unpleasantness; subjects were classified as responders and nonresponders to thermal grill stimulation based on pain intensity ratings. Responders exhibited lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure than nonresponders, and inverse linear associations arose between blood pressure and pain intensity and unpleasantness. Baroreflex sensitivity was unrelated to pain ratings. The findings confirmed the hypothesis of a blood pressure dependence of paradoxical pain and support the notion that the cardiovascular and pain regulatory systems interact not only in the processing of pain elicited by noxious input, but also in nonnoxiously generated illusive pain. While this finding is not consistent with the assumption of an involvement of the baroreflex system in mediating the observed interaction, psychological traits and neurochemical factors are alternatively considered.