Effects of 15-Day Head-Down Bed Rest on Emotional Time Perception

Accurate time perception is clearly essential for the successful implementation of space missions. To elucidate the effect of microgravity on time perception, we used three emotional picture stimuli: neutral, fear, and disgust, in combination with a temporal bisection task to measure 16 male participants’ time perception in 15 days of –6° head-down bed rest, which is a reliable simulation model for most physiological effects of spaceflight. We found that: (1) participants showed temporal overestimation of the fear stimuli in the middle phase (day 8), suggesting that when participants’ behavioral simulations were consistent with the action implications of the emotional stimuli, they could still elicit an overestimation of time even if the subjective arousal of the emotional stimuli was not high. (2) Participants’ temporal sensitivity tends to get worse in the bed rest phase (days 8 and 15) and better in the post-bed rest phase, especially for neutral and fear stimuli, suggesting that multiple presentations of short-term emotional stimuli may also lead to a lack of affective effects. This reduced the pacemaker rate and affected temporal perceptual sensitivity. Also, this may be related to changes in physiological factors in participants in the bed rest state, such as reduced vagal excitability. These results provide new evidence to support the theory of embodied cognition in the context of time perception in head-down bed rest and suggest important perspectives for future perception science research in special environments such as microgravity.

Simulating the best and worst of times: The powers and perils of emotional simulation

We are remarkably capable of simulating events that we have never experienced. These simulated events often paint an emotional picture to behold, such as the best and worst possible outcomes that we might face. This review synthesizes dispersed literature exploring the role of emotion in simulation. Drawing from work that suggests that simulations can influence our preferences, decision making, and prosociality, we argue for a critical role of emotion in informing the consequences of simulation. We further unpack burgeoning evidence suggesting that the effects of emotional simulation transcend the laboratory. We propose avenues by which emotional simulation can be harnessed for both personal and collective good in applied contexts. We conclude by offering important future directions.

THE EFFECTS OF SPATIAL ATTENTION AND EMOTIONS ON GLOBAL AND LOCAL PROCESSES

Present study is designed to investigate modulations in global-local processes by emotions and spatial cues. Aim was to investigate the effect of emotions on global-local bias and to examine if symbolic cues modulate these processes by simultaneously presenting the cue and emotional picture. Using the Navon (1977) figures, participants were presented with (in)congruent displays formed by the (in)congruency between the global and local features. Before presenting the displays, emotional (Experiment 1A: positive, Experiment 1B: negative) or neutral picture was presented simultaneously with global, local or neutral symbolic arrow cues, used as spatial cues to bias attention in global and local levels respectively. Participants were then asked to choose one stimulus out of three options. Chosen stimulus is expected to indicate the bias of participants. Reaction time and global-local preference measurements were analyzed. Reaction time was not modulated by any of the factors. The global/local bias measurements revealed a shift from local to global bias in the presence of negative emotion. The findings reveal information on global and local processes by adapting new methodological approach. Keywords Global and local processes, positive and negative emotions, global cue, local cue, global-local preference

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENT WHO UNDERWENT SOCIAL DISTANCING POLICIES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

COVID-19 has been declared an international public health emergency by WHO. The Indonesian government has issued a policy as a strategy for controlling COVID-19 and encourages the public to carry out social distancing. Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the mental health of adolescents, where there is an increase in negative effects and a decrease in positive influence on adolescent emotional changes. This research is a qualitative study that aims to determine the social emotional picture of adolescents who carry out social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, seen from the aspects of behavior, individuals and the environment based on the SCT Bandura theory. The design used is the Rapid Assessment Procedure (RAP) and data collection was carried out by in-depth interviews through the zoom application (video teleconference). The informants were selected by purposive sampling as many as 9 informants consisting of 6 adolescent informants aged 15-24 years and 3 accompanying informants. Data were analyzed using matrices and thematic analysis. The results showed that adolescents felt various changes in relationships with family and peers during social distancing. Social and emotional changes experienced by adolescents such as stress, symptoms of anxiety, symptoms of depression and loneliness.

0115 The Effect of Zolpidem on Sleep Dependent Emotional Memory Consolidation

Introduction Psychopharmacological treatment is widely promoted for insomnia treatment. Zolpidem (ZOL) is a GABA A agonist that depresses the central nervous that has demonstrated unexpected benefits, specifically increased sleep-dependent verbal memory via increased phase-amplitude coupling between slow oscillations and sleep spindles (Niknazar et al., 2015). Here we investigated if ZOL improved sleep-dependent emotional memory consolidation. Methods Using a within-subjects, cross-over design, we counterbalanced the administration of zolpidem (ZOL) or placebo (PBO) to 37 subjects in a double-blind study. Prior to drug or placebo administration, subjects rated their subjective physiological arousal of negative and neutral pictures. Subjects were tested on their recognition of the pictures twice, before (PM) and after (AM) a night of sleep. All subjects were monitored polysomnographically across the night. Results We analyzed emotional picture recognition using 2-by-2 ANOVA (emotion x drug condition). We found a main effect of emotional picture PM performance, such that negative pictures were remembered better than neutral pictures. There was a significant main effect of sleep on AM false alarm rate, with greater false alarms for negative than neutral pictures, a significant interaction between drug and emotion on AM dprime, and a significant interaction for the difference between AM and PM performance and drug condition. Specifically, we found memory maintenance for both emotional picture types in ZOL but negative picture memory decline in PBO. Across the night, ZOL showed greater memory performance than PBO if subjects had greater N2 SWA and N2 sigma activity (12-15Hz). Conclusion Zolpidem benefits sleep-dependent emotional memory consolidation by decreasing overnight forgetting. Further, it appears that spindle activity may play a key role in ZOL’s memory effect. Support NIH AG046646