Electrophysiological evidence of enhanced early attentional bias toward sexual images in individuals with tendencies toward cybersex addiction

Stroop Interference ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Sexual Stimuli ◽

Abstract Background and aims Attentional bias is a key factor in addictive behavior maintenance. However, whether attentional bias has a similar effect on cybersex addiction is unclear. We investigated differences in the attentional processing of sexually explicit images between individuals with high tendencies toward cybersex addiction (TCA) versus low tendencies using behavioral and electrophysiological indices. Methods Twenty-eight individuals with high TCA and 29 with low TCA performed an addiction Stroop task comprising sexual and neutral images in colored frames. Participants were asked to respond to the frame color and not the image contents, and behavioral and event-related potentials were recorded. Results Behaviorally, an addiction Stroop interference effect was found in the high TCA group, as shown by the longer reaction times to judge the frame colors of sexual images. Electrophysiologically, a P200 (150–220 ms) enhancement was present in response to sexual images compared with neutral ones, which was absent in the low TCA group. The event-related potential correlates with the addiction Stroop interference effect, indicating that the attentional bias underlying the addiction Stroop interference operates at an automatic level. A general, sexually related bias was found in the late positive potential (300–700 ms) amplitude, although between-group differences were insignificant. Discussion and conclusions These findings indicate that sexual stimuli grab the attentional resources of individuals with high TCA at early automatic stages of attentional processing. Increased cue reactivity to sexual stimuli may contribute to pornographic consumption and play a crucial role in sustaining problematic excessive use of online pornography.

Studying Implicit Attitudes Towards Smoking: Event-Related Potentials in the Go/NoGo Association Task

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.634994 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Tobias A. Wagner-Altendorf ◽

Arie H. van der Lugt ◽

Jane F. Banfield ◽

Jacqueline Deibel ◽

Anna Cirkel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Implicit Attitudes ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Incongruent Condition ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Cognitive System ◽

Addictive Behaviors ◽

Association Task ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Time Point

Cigarette smoking and other addictive behaviors are among the main preventable risk factors for several severe and potentially fatal diseases. It has been argued that addictive behavior is controlled by an automatic-implicit cognitive system and by a reflective-explicit cognitive system, that operate in parallel to jointly drive human behavior. The present study addresses the formation of implicit attitudes towards smoking in both smokers and non-smokers, using a Go/NoGo association task (GNAT), and behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) measures. The GNAT assesses, via quantifying participants’ reaction times, the strength of association between a target category and either pole of an evaluative dimension (positive or negative). EEG analysis is performed to determine the temporal course of the event-related potential (ERP) components underlying Go/NoGo decisions and implicit attitude formation. Both smokers and non-smokers showed prolonged reaction times to smoking-related pictures when the pictures were coupled with positive evaluative words (“incongruent condition”). This indicates negative implicit attitudes towards smoking in both groups alike at the time point of the behavioral response (600–700 ms post-stimulus). However, only the non-smokers, not the smokers, were found to show a delay of the N200 component in the incongruent condition. This is interpreted as reflecting ambivalent or even positive implicit attitudes towards smoking in the smoker group at the time point of the N200 (300–400 ms post-stimulus). Our study thus provides evidence for the hypothesis that implicit attitudes are subject to changes within several hundred milliseconds after stimulus presentation, and can be altered in the course of their formation.

Active and Passive Attentional Processing in Adolescent Suicide Attempters: An Event-Related Potential Study

Clinical EEG and Neuroscience ◽

10.1177/1550059420933086 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 29-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paniz Tavakoli ◽

Addo Boafo ◽

Emily Jerome ◽

Kenneth Campbell

Keyword(s):

Target Detection ◽

Suicidal Behavior ◽

Adolescent Suicide ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Group Differences ◽

The Novel ◽

Attentional Processing ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Adolescent Suicide Attempters

Introduction: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents. Suicidal behavior is associated with impairments in attention. Attention can be directed toward relevant events in the environment either actively, under voluntary control, or passively, by external salient events. The extent to which the risk for suicidal behavior affects active and passive attention is largely unknown. Methods: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 14 adolescents with acute suicidal behavior and 14 healthy controls performed an auditory 3-stimulus oddball task. The task consisted of standard (80%), target (10%), and novel (10%) stimuli. The participants were instructed to press a button upon presentation of the target. The novel stimuli were unexpected and irrelevant to the target detection task. Results: Accuracy of target detection was slightly but significantly reduced in the suicidal group. There were no significant differences in the amplitude of the target-N2 or -P3b between groups. There was a slight, but nonsignificant, increase in the amplitude of the novel-N2 and -P3 in the suicidal group. Conclusions: This is the first study to explore both passive and controlled aspects of attention using ERPs in adolescents with acute suicidal behavior. Although there were no significant ERP group differences, this is an important step in identifying objective markers of suicide risk among adolescents.

Attentional bias during public speaking anxiety revealed using event-related potentials

Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ◽

10.11591/ijeecs.v24.i1.pp253-259 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 253

Author(s):

Farah Shahnaz Feroz ◽

Ahmad Rifhan Salman ◽

Muhammad Hairulnizam Mat Ali ◽

Afiq Idzudden Ismail ◽

S. Indra Devi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Public Speaking ◽

Low Cost ◽

Attention Bias ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Public Speaking Anxiety ◽

Emotional Stroop ◽

Speaking Anxiety ◽

<p>Analysis of brain signals and their properties provides valuable information regarding the underlying neural deficiencies and enables the diagnosis of attention bias related to public speaking anxiety (PSA). Although 25% people around the world suffer from PSA, currently, there exists a lack of standard assessment in diagnosing the severity of attention bias in individuals with PSA. This study aims to distinguish behavioral and neural abnormalities related to attentional bias during PSA by comparing reaction time (RT) and event-related potential (ERP) correlates of high (H) PSA and low (L) PSA individuals. 12 individuals suffering from HPSA and 12 individuals with LPSA participated in the modified emotional Stroop experiment. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded with the low cost, 14-channel Emotiv Epoc+. RT showed slower responses, linked to attentional deficits in HPSA individuals. ERP results revealed the P200 emotional Stroop biomarker, found to be linked to attentional bias in HPSA, but not in LPSA individuals. These results revealed significant RT and P200 ERP abnormalities related to attentional bias in HPSA individuals using the low-cost Emotiv Epoc+.</p>

Event-Related Potential Correlates of Biased Cognitive Processing and Control in Substance Abusers: A Review

Frontiers in Biomedical Technologies ◽

10.18502/fbt.v6i1.1102 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Hassan Khajehpour ◽

Fahimeh Mohagheghian ◽

Sepideh Bakht ◽

Nasser Samadzadehaghdam ◽

Ehsan Eqlimi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Inhibitory Control ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Substance Abusers ◽

Cue Reactivity ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Error Processing ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Addiction Studies ◽

And Control

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) have been used in addiction studies to evaluate cognitive performance and craving in individuals with Substance Use Dependence (SUD). This paper reviews studies that used ERPs to investigate cue reactivity, inhibitory control and error processing in SUDs. Five abused substances are included in the investigation, i.e. alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, and methamphetamine. For each substance, the main recent findings related to the ERPs are specifically discussed, according to the latency of ERPs. The results show that individuals with SUDs allocate more attention resources to the cognitive processing of substance-related cues, indexed by increased amplitude of middle and late latency ERPs. Laboratory observations also show amplitude enlargement for early latency ERPs. SUDs reveal a deficiency in the inhibitory control and conscious error processing, indexed by attenuated N2 and Pe amplitude. The cognitive and motor inhibitory component (P3) changes show a controversial result. This study expands the findings of previous related reviews implying that substance abusers allocate more attentional resources to drug cues indexed by enlarged P3 and LPP amplitude. Regarding P3 elicited in inhibitory control tasks, there is not still convergent results, while N2 and Pe become attenuated as reported in previous reviews. The outcomes also show that the chance of relapse to substance abuse could be predicted by recording ERPs reflecting inhibitory control and error processing.

Face and Word Recognition in Patients with Left and Right Hemispheric Lesions: Evidence from Reaction Times and ERPs

Zeitschrift für Neuropsychologie ◽

10.1024//1016-264x.13.1.69 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 69-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stefan R. Schweinberger ◽

Thomas Klos ◽

Werner Sommer

Keyword(s):

Slow Wave ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Memory Search ◽

Performance Deficits ◽

Set Size ◽

Left Brain ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Abstract Words ◽

Left Brain Damage

Abstract: We recorded reaction times (RTs) and event-related potentials (ERPs) in patients with unilateral lesions during a memory search task. Participants memorized faces or abstract words, which were then recognized among new ones. The RT deficit found in patients with left brain damage (LBD) for words increased with memory set size, suggesting that their problem relates to memory search. In contrast, the RT deficit found in patients with RBD for faces was apparently related to perceptual encoding, a conclusion also supported by their reduced P100 ERP component. A late slow wave (720-1720 ms) was enhanced in patients, particularly to words in patients with LBD, and to faces in patients with RBD. Thus, the slow wave was largest in the conditions with most pronounced performance deficits, suggesting that it reflects deficit-related resource recruitment.

Consciousness of attention and expectancy as reflected in event-related potentials and reaction times.

Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition ◽

10.1037/0278-7393.16.5.902 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 16 (5) ◽

pp. 902-915 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Werner Sommer ◽

Juliana Matt ◽

Hartmut Leuthold

Keyword(s):

Reaction Times ◽

Cue Reactivity Essentials: Event-Related Potentials During Identification of Visual Alcoholic Stimuli in Social Drinkers

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ◽

10.15288/jsad.2017.79.137 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 79 (1) ◽

pp. 137-147 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Agnes M. Kroczek ◽

Florian B. Haeussinger ◽

Justin Hudak ◽

Lucy D. Vanes ◽

Andreas J. Fallgatter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cue Reactivity ◽

Social Drinkers ◽

Neural dynamics of trainee teachers' emotional conflict processing: An event-related potential study

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.8473 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 47 (7) ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Li Jin ◽

Xu Li ◽

Jiamei Lu ◽

Nianqu Chen ◽

Lin Cheng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

School Context ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

The Body ◽

Educational Context ◽

Congruent Condition ◽

Slow Potential ◽

Emotional Conflict ◽

Trainee Teachers ◽

We investigated emotional conflict in an educational context with an emotional body–word Stroop paradigm, examining whether the N450 (a late fronto-central phasic negative event-related potential signature) and slow potential (SP) effects could be evoked in trainee teachers. The N450 effect is characterized by topography and negative polarity of an incongruent minus congruent difference potential, and the SP effect has positive polarity (incongruent minus congruent difference potential). Positive and negative body language examples were obtained from pupils in an actual school context, and emotional words were selected. Compound stimuli were presented, each comprising a congruent or incongruent word displayed across a body image. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants judged body expression valence. Reaction times were longer and accuracies were lower for the incongruent compared to the congruent condition. The N450 component amplitude in the incongruent condition was more negative than in the congruent condition. Results showed a behavioral interference effect and an N450 effect for trainee teachers in this context, thus indicating that the body–word task was efficient in assessing emotional conflict in an educational context, and trainee teachers' perception of body expressions of students could be influenced by emotional signals. The findings further the understanding of emotional conflict in an educational context.

Eliciting and Recording Event Related Potentials (ERPs) in Behaviourally Unresponsive Populations: A Retrospective Commentary on Critical Factors

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11070835 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 835

Author(s):

Alexander Rokos ◽

Richard Mah ◽

Rober Boshra ◽

Amabilis Harrison ◽

Tsee Leng Choy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stimulus Presentation ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Critical Factors ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Long Latency ◽

Eeg Data ◽

Related Potentials ◽

The Relationship

A consistent limitation when designing event-related potential paradigms and interpreting results is a lack of consideration of the multivariate factors that affect their elicitation and detection in behaviorally unresponsive individuals. This paper provides a retrospective commentary on three factors that influence the presence and morphology of long-latency event-related potentials—the P3b and N400. We analyze event-related potentials derived from electroencephalographic (EEG) data collected from small groups of healthy youth and healthy elderly to illustrate the effect of paradigm strength and subject age; we analyze ERPs collected from an individual with severe traumatic brain injury to illustrate the effect of stimulus presentation speed. Based on these critical factors, we support that: (1) the strongest paradigms should be used to elicit event-related potentials in unresponsive populations; (2) interpretation of event-related potential results should account for participant age; and (3) speed of stimulus presentation should be slower in unresponsive individuals. The application of these practices when eliciting and recording event-related potentials in unresponsive individuals will help to minimize result interpretation ambiguity, increase confidence in conclusions, and advance the understanding of the relationship between long-latency event-related potentials and states of consciousness.