Does alcohol affect emotional face processing via interoceptive pathways?

Background: Our brain uses interoceptive signals from the body to shape how we perceive emotions in others; however, whether interoceptive signals can be manipulated to alter emotional perceptions is unknown. Alcohol has acute effects both on emotional processing and on the physiological substrates supporting interoception. In this registered report, we examine whether alcohol administration triggers physiological changes that alter interoceptive signals and manipulate emotional face processing. Such knowledge will broaden understanding of the mechanisms by which alcohol affects emotional face processing.Methods: Participants (n=36) will be administered an alcohol or placebo beverage. Cardiovascular physiology will be recorded before and after administration. Participants will complete two behavioral tasks in which they view emotional faces presented in synchrony with different phases of the cardiac cycle (i.e., systole, diastole). This manipulation creates an index of how interoceptive signals amplify emotional face processing. Hypotheses: We hypothesize that, compared to placebo, alcohol administration will disrupt the cardiac amplification of emotional face processing. We further explore whether this disruption depends on the nature and magnitude of changes in cardiovascular physiology after alcohol administration.

Download Full-text

Autistic traits and emotional face processing

10.31234/osf.io/4q7us ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Ciara Greene ◽

Esther Suess ◽

Yazeed Kelly

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

Face Processing ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Autistic Traits ◽

Processing Strategies ◽

Emotional Face Processing ◽

Neutral Face ◽

Gaze Behaviour ◽

Emotional Face

Atypical emotional face processing strategies have been observed in people with autism, and it has been suggested that these may extend in milder form to the general population. The relationship between autistic traits (AT) and gaze behaviour was investigated in a neurotypical adult sample who viewed three videos featuring a happy, fearful and neutral face. Eye-tracking data showed that participants looked longer at the faces (relative to the background) in the emotional conditions than in the neutral condition. As predicted, participants spent more time looking at the eyes during the fearful relative to the happy condition, and more time looking at the mouth during the happy condition. AT did not influence viewing patterns, time to first fixation or number of early fixations in any of the videos. We conclude that AT in the general population does not affect visual processing of emotional faces. More complex social scenes may be needed to reveal a relationship between AT and emotional processing.

Download Full-text

Serotonergic neurotransmission in emotional processing: New evidence from long-term recreational poly-drug ecstasy use

Journal of Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1177/0269881116662633 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 30 (12) ◽

pp. 1296-1304 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Helle Ruff Laursen ◽

Susanne Henningsson ◽

Julian Macoveanu ◽

Terry L Jernigan ◽

Hartwig R Siebner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Face Processing ◽

Emotional Processing ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Serotonin Depletion ◽

Serotonergic Neurotransmission ◽

Emotional Face Processing ◽

Amygdala Activity ◽

Angry Face ◽

Emotional Face

The brain’s serotonergic system plays a crucial role in the processing of emotional stimuli, and several studies have shown that a reduced serotonergic neurotransmission is associated with an increase in amygdala activity during emotional face processing. Prolonged recreational use of ecstasy (3,4-methylene-dioxymethamphetamine [MDMA]) induces alterations in serotonergic neurotransmission that are comparable to those observed in a depleted state. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated the responsiveness of the amygdala to emotional face stimuli in recreational ecstasy users as a model of long-term serotonin depletion. Fourteen ecstasy users and 12 non-using controls underwent fMRI to measure the regional neural activity elicited in the amygdala by male or female faces expressing anger, disgust, fear, sadness, or no emotion. During fMRI, participants made a sex judgement on each face stimulus. Positron emission tomography with 11C-DASB was additionally performed to assess serotonin transporter (SERT) binding in the brain. In the ecstasy users, SERT binding correlated negatively with amygdala activity, and accumulated lifetime intake of ecstasy tablets was associated with an increase in amygdala activity during angry face processing. Conversely, time since the last ecstasy intake was associated with a trend toward a decrease in amygdala activity during angry and sad face processing. These results indicate that the effects of long-term serotonin depletion resulting from ecstasy use are dose-dependent, affecting the functional neural basis of emotional face processing.

Download Full-text