Neurophysiological and Psychological Consequences of Social Exclusion: The Effects of Cueing In-Group and Out-Group Status

Abstract Exclusion by outgroups is often attributed to external factors such as prejudice. Recently, event-related potential studies have demonstrated that subtle cues influence expectations of exclusion, altering the P3b response to inclusion or exclusion. We investigated whether a visual difference between participants and interaction partners could activate expectations of exclusion, indexed by P3b activity, and whether this difference would influence psychological responses to inclusion and exclusion. Participants played a ball-tossing game with two computer-controlled coplayers who were believed to be real. One period involved fair play inclusion while the other involved partial exclusion. Avatars represented participants, with their color matching participant skin tone, and either matching or differing from the color of coplayer avatars. This created the impression that the participant was an ingroup or outgroup member. While ingroup members elicited enhanced P3b activation when receiving the ball during exclusion, outgroup members showed this pattern for both inclusion and exclusion, suggesting that they formed robust a-priori expectations of exclusion. Self-reports indicated that while these expectations were psychologically protective during exclusion, they were detrimental during inclusion. Ultimately, this study reveals that expectations of exclusion can be formed purely based on visual group differences, regardless of the actual minority or majority status of individuals.

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Skin Conductance and Subjective Arousal in Anxiety, Depression, and Comorbidity

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000176 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 145-157 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Laina E. Rosebrock ◽

Denada Hoxha ◽

Catherine Norris ◽

John T. Cacioppo ◽

Jackie K. Gollan

Keyword(s):

Skin Conductance ◽

Comparison Group ◽

Group Differences ◽

Autonomic Arousal ◽

Emotional Picture ◽

Self Reports ◽

Picture Viewing ◽

Anxiety Depression ◽

Subjective Arousal ◽

Healthy Participants

Abstract. Skin conductance (SC), an autonomic arousal measure of the sympathetic nervous system, is a sensitive and useful index of physiological arousal. However, SC data does not always align with self-reports of arousal. SC, self-reported arousal, and their association, known as emotion coherence, may be altered with the presence of major psychiatric illness. This study investigated group differences on SC reactivity and self-reported arousal while viewing positive, negative, neutral, and threat images between participants diagnosed with major depression with and without anxiety disorders relative to a healthy comparison group. Additionally, the strength and direction of association between SC reactivity and arousal ratings (emotion coherence) was examined within groups. Unmedicated participants were recruited via online and paper advertisements around Chicago and categorized into one of four groups (Depressed: n = 35, Anxious: n = 44, Comorbid: n = 38, Healthy: n = 29). SC and affect ratings were collected during and after a standardized emotional picture viewing task. SC reactivity was significantly higher during threat images, regardless of group. During threat image presentation, increased SC reactivity occurred during the last few seconds before picture offset; for all other stimulus types, SC reactivity decreased significantly after picture offset. Anxious and comorbid participants rated emotional images as more arousing than healthy participants; there were no observed differences in arousal ratings between depressed and healthy participants. Heightened reactivity in anxiety may manifest in arousal ratings without corresponding increased SC reactivity to emotional images. Results do not suggest underlying altered psychophysiology in this sample of depressed or anxious participants.

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Response-Specific Scalp Distributions in Deception Detection and ERP Correlates of Psychopathic Personality Traits

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803.18.1.13 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 13-26 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Antoinette R. Miller ◽

J. Peter Rosenfeld

Keyword(s):

Deception Detection ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Psychopathic Personality ◽

P300 Amplitude ◽

Group Differences ◽

Post Hoc Analysis ◽

P300 Component ◽

Psychopathic Personality Inventory ◽

Post Hoc ◽

First Time

Abstract University students were screened using items from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory and divided into high (n = 13) and low (n = 11) Psychopathic Personality Trait (PPT) groups. The P300 component of the event-related potential (ERP) was recorded as each group completed a two-block autobiographical oddball task, responding honestly during the first (Phone) block, in which oddball items were participants' home phone numbers, and then feigning amnesia in response to approximately 50% of items in the second (Birthday) block in which oddball items were participants' birthdates. Bootstrapping of peak-to-peak amplitudes correctly identified 100% of low PPT and 92% of high PPT participants as having intact recognition. Both groups demonstrated malingering-related P300 amplitude reduction. For the first time, P300 amplitude and topography differences were observed between honest and deceptive responses to Birthday items. No main between-group P300 effects resulted. Post-hoc analysis revealed between-group differences in a frontally located post-P300 component. Honest responses were associated with late frontal amplitudes larger than deceptive responses at frontal sites in the low PPT group only.

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Personalized Biometrics of Physical Pain Agree with Psychophysics by Participants with Sensory over Responsivity

Journal of Personalized Medicine ◽

10.3390/jpm11020093 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 93

Author(s):

Jihye Ryu ◽

Tami Bar-Shalita ◽

Yelena Granovsky ◽

Irit Weissman-Fogel ◽

Elizabeth B. Torres

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

Brain Activity ◽

A Priori ◽

Summary Statistics ◽

Physical Pain ◽

New Methods ◽

Self Reports ◽

Theoretical Population ◽

The Moment ◽

Reported Data

The study of pain requires a balance between subjective methods that rely on self-reports and complementary objective biometrics that ascertain physical signals associated with subjective accounts. There are at present no objective scales that enable the personalized assessment of pain, as most work involving electrophysiology rely on summary statistics from a priori theoretical population assumptions. Along these lines, recent work has provided evidence of differences in pain sensations between participants with Sensory Over Responsivity (SOR) and controls. While these analyses are useful to understand pain across groups, there remains a need to quantify individual differences more precisely in a personalized manner. Here we offer new methods to characterize pain using the moment-by-moment standardized fluctuations in EEG brain activity centrally reflecting the person’s experiencing temperature-based stimulation at the periphery. This type of gross data is often disregarded as noise, yet here we show its utility to characterize the lingering sensation of discomfort raising to the level of pain, individually, for each participant. We show fundamental differences between the SOR group in relation to controls and provide an objective account of pain congruent with the subjective self-reported data. This offers the potential to build a standardized scale useful to profile pain levels in a personalized manner across the general population.

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Abstract 14655: Diffusion Neuroimaging of Adults With D-Transposition of the Great Arteries Reveal White Matter Alterations in the Connectomic Rich Club

Circulation ◽

10.1161/circ.142.suppl_3.14655 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽

Author(s):

Ai Wern Chung ◽

Borjan Gagoski ◽

Jane W Newburger ◽

P. Ellen Grant ◽

Michelle GURVITZ

Keyword(s):

White Matter ◽

Structural Integrity ◽

Circulatory Arrest ◽

A Priori ◽

Group Differences ◽

High Angular Resolution ◽

Central System ◽

Rich Club ◽

Apparent Diffusion ◽

Cortical Regions

Introduction: The population of adults with d-transposition of the great arteries (TGA) continue to grow. As this group has underlying neurocognitive impairment and longer-term neurovascular damage, advanced neuroimaging to identify markers for treatment is required. Diffusion (d)MRI tractography quantifies the structural integrity of white matter (WM) pathways in the brain - where lower FA (fractional anisotropy) and higher ADC (apparent diffusion coefficient) typify WM damage. The brain’s structural backbone is its rich club (RC), a set of highly interconnected regions established before birth and vital for effective cognitive function. Moreover, there are Feeder and Seeder subnetworks peripheral to the RC, which are thought to form later and may be more adaptive. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that adults with TGA have alterations in both the brain’s structural RC and in peripheral connections. Methods: Subjects were TGA adults from the Boston Circulatory Arrest Study (n = 25, mean age 28.46 ± 1.14yr) and Controls (n = 13, 28.35 ± 1.70). Multi-shell, high-angular resolution dMRI data were acquired and fitted with a multi-fiber model (Fig). After tractography, a connectome of the number of tracts connecting pairwise cortical regions was computed. A priori RC regions were bilateral superior frontal and parietal frontal gyri, precuneus, posterior cingulate and insular regions. Connections were grouped into subnetworks and mean FA and ADC computed. Results: Cohorts were age-matched (p=0.801, unpaired t-test). Overall, patients had lower FA and greater ADC than controls in all subnetworks. Group differences (unpaired t-tests) were significant in the RC (ADC p=0.029), Feeder subnetwork (FA p=0.041; ADC p=0.042), with trends in Seeder subnetworks (FA p=0.061; ADC p=0.062). Conclusions: Widespread WM alterations exist in adults with TGA not only in the brain’s most central system, but also connections feeding into the RC suggesting prenatal and adaptive changes.

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ERP CORE: An Open Resource for Human Event-Related Potential Research

10.31234/osf.io/4azqm ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Emily S. Kappenman ◽

Jaclyn Farrens ◽

Wendy Zhang ◽

Andrew X Stewart ◽

Steven J Luck

Keyword(s):

Data Processing ◽

Brain Activity ◽

A Priori ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Error Related Negativity ◽

Wide Range ◽

Experiment Control ◽

Related Potentials

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are noninvasive measures of human brain activity that index a range of sensory, cognitive, affective, and motor processes. Despite their broad application across basic and clinical research, there is little standardization of ERP paradigms and analysis protocols across studies. To address this, we created ERP CORE (Compendium of Open Resources and Experiments), a set of optimized paradigms, experiment control scripts, data processing pipelines, and sample data (N = 40 neurotypical young adults) for seven widely used ERP components: N170, mismatch negativity (MMN), N2pc, N400, P3, lateralized readiness potential (LRP), and error-related negativity (ERN). This resource makes it possible for researchers to 1) employ standardized ERP paradigms in their research, 2) apply carefully designed analysis pipelines and use a priori selected parameters for data processing, 3) rigorously assess the quality of their data, and 4) test new analytic techniques with standardized data from a wide range of paradigms.

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Cortical and subcortical morphology deficits in cerebral gray matter in patients with schizophrenia and not affected siblings

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.632 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (S1) ◽

pp. s249-s249

Author(s):

F. Pastoriza ◽

L. Galindo ◽

A. Mané ◽

D. Bergé ◽

N. Pujol ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Resonance ◽

Linear Model ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

A Priori ◽

Multiple Comparisons ◽

General Linear Model ◽

General Linear ◽

Group Differences ◽

Competing Interest ◽

The Brain

ObjectiveExplore the basis of cortical morphometry in patients with schizophrenia and non-affected siblings by Magnetic Resonance Structural analyzing cortical thickness.MethodsTwenty-nine patients with schizophrenia treated with atypical antipsychotics and clinically stable in the last 6 months were recruited. Twenty-three not affected siblings of patients with schizophrenia and 37 healthy volunteers were recruited. Magnetic Resonance Structural was performed. FreeSurfer the brain imaging software package for analysis of Cortical Thickness is used. In the analysis of group differences in cortical thickness (CT) with the general linear model (GLM), the P-value was established in 0003 following the Bonferroni correction to control for multiple comparisons (seven regions of interest a priori in each hemisphere).ResultsSignificant differences in cortical thickness between patients and healthy controls. Differences between groups were calculated by general linear model (GLM) with age and sex as covairables (Table 1).ConclusionsIn applying the correction for multiple comparisons, differences in bilateral-lateral orbitofrontal, medial orbitofrontal-right and left temporal transverse frontal cortex are significant. Our study replicates previous findings and provides further evidence of abnormalities in the cerebral cortex, particularly in the frontal and temporal regions, being characteristic of schizophrenia.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.AcknowledgementsL. Galindo is a Rio-Hortega-fellowship-(ISC-III; CM14/00111).

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The Social Psychology of Intergroup Toleration

Personality and Social Psychology Review ◽

10.1177/1088868316640974 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 72-96 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Maykel Verkuyten ◽

Kumar Yogeeswaran

Keyword(s):

Minority Groups ◽

Psychological Research ◽

Group Differences ◽

Psychological Consequences ◽

Social Psychological ◽

Pluralistic Societies ◽

The Social ◽

Social Psychological Research ◽

Global Increase ◽

Prejudice And Discrimination

The global increase in cultural and religious diversity has led to calls for toleration of group differences to achieve intergroup harmony. Although much social-psychological research has examined the nature of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, and its impact on targets of these biases, little research has examined the nature and impact of toleration for intergroup relations. Toleration does not require that people give up their objections to out-group norms and practices but rather mutual accommodation. Integrating research from various social sciences, we explore the nature of intergroup tolerance including its three components—objection, acceptance, and rejection—while drawing out its implications for future social-psychological research. We then explore some psychological consequences to social groups that are the object of toleration. By doing so, we consider the complex ways in which intergroup tolerance impacts both majority and minority groups and the dynamic interplay of both in pluralistic societies.

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Everyday Prospective Memory and Executive Function Deficits Associated with Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke

Journal of Addiction ◽

10.1155/2013/160486 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-7 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Thomas M. Heffernan ◽

Terence S. O'Neill

Keyword(s):

Executive Function ◽

Prospective Memory ◽

Prolonged Exposure ◽

Second Hand Smoke ◽

Group Differences ◽

Future Research ◽

Retrospective Memory ◽

Self Reports ◽

Detrimental Impact ◽

Memory Questionnaire

This study explored whether exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) has a detrimental impact upon everyday memory in two groups of non-smokers; one which reported regular exposure to SHS and one that reported never having been exposed to SHS. Thirty-four non-smokers who reported having been regularly exposed to SHS (SHS group) and 34 non-smokers who reported never having been exposed to SHS (non-SHS group) were compared on self-reports of prospective memory (PM: remembering future intentions and/or activities) and executive function (EF: those processes involved in attention, multitasking and decision-making). The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) assessed everyday PM lapses; the Executive Function Questionnaire (EFQ) assessed self-reported problems in EF; a drug-use questionnaire and a mood questionnaire were also administered. Two univariate ANCOVAs were applied to the PM and EF data, controlling for between-group differences in age, weekly alcohol use, anxiety and depression scores, and self-reported retrospective memory scores. The SHS group reported significantly more lapses on the PRMQ and more deficits on the EFQ than the non-SHS group. These findings provide new insights into PM and EF deficits associated with prolonged exposure to SHS in a group of non-smokers. Possible explanations and suggestions for future research are also considered.

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Irritancy Expectancy Alters Odor Perception: Evidence From Olfactory Event-Related Potential Research

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00754.2009 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 104 (5) ◽

pp. 2749-2756 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Patricia J. Bulsing ◽

Monique A. M. Smeets ◽

Christian Gemeinhardt ◽

Martin Laverman ◽

Benno Schuster ◽

...

Keyword(s):

A Priori ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Sensory Irritation ◽

Odor Perception ◽

Adverse Health Effects ◽

Temporal Course ◽

Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Relevant Context

The aim of the present research was to investigate the influences of cognition on temporal processing of olfactory information in a health-relevant context. We investigated whether expecting an odor to cause adverse health effects alters perception of that odor. An irritation-free odor (Study 1: H2S; Study 2: phenyl ethyl alcohol [PEA]) was presented after which participants expected to experience either adverse sensory irritation (caused by intranasal CO2 presentation) in one condition or no adverse effects in another condition, depending on a previously presented visual cue. Olfactory event-related potentials (OERPs) were measured to assess effects of expectations on the temporal course of olfactory processing. When participants expected irritancy after perceiving the odor of H2S, N1 and P3 peak amplitude and N1 latency were increased and shortened, respectively, suggesting more intense and faster processing of the odor as well as effects on salience and anticipation of sensory irritation. When the odor was PEA, only the N1 amplitude was increased. These results, obtained with OERP, provide converging evidence for comparable conclusions regarding the influence of cognition on odor perception reached with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Furthermore, the results suggest that a priori hedonic valence of an odor affects how susceptible the olfactory percept is to modulation via expectations.

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Inferring interaction partners from protein sequences

10.1101/050732 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Anne-Florence Bitbol ◽

Robert S. Dwyer ◽

Lucy J. Colwell ◽

Ned S. Wingreen

Keyword(s):

Protein Interactions ◽

Sequence Data ◽

Protein Complexes ◽

A Priori ◽

Specific Interaction ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Specific Protein ◽

Protein Protein Interactions ◽

Entropy Model ◽

Interaction Partners

Specific protein-protein interactions are crucial in the cell, both to ensure the formation and stability of multi-protein complexes, and to enable signal transduction in various pathways. Functional interactions between proteins result in coevolution between the interaction partners. Hence, the sequences of interacting partners are correlated. Here we exploit these correlations to accurately identify which proteins are specific interaction partners from sequence data alone. Our general approach, which employs a pairwise maximum entropy model to infer direct couplings between residues, has been successfully used to predict the three-dimensional structures of proteins from sequences. Building on this approach, we introduce an iterative algorithm to predict specific interaction partners from among the members of two protein families. We assess the algorithm's performance on histidine kinases and response regulators from bacterial two-component signaling systems. The algorithm proves successful without any a priori knowledge of interaction partners, yielding a striking 0.93 true positive fraction on our complete dataset, and we uncover the origin of this surprising success. Finally, we discuss how our method could be used to predict novel protein-protein interactions.

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