Emotion regulation of social exclusion: a cross-cultural study

Social exclusion is harmful to basic human needs. Emotion regulation represents a potential coping strategy. As culture can influence how people react and regulate their emotions, this study examined whether emotional reaction and regulation in response to social exclusion differ between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. A total of 80 college students, half White (n = 40, recruited in Manchester, UK) and half East Asian (n = 40, recruited in Shenzhen, China) viewed social exclusion pictures expressed by same-race or other-race characters. Both groups of participants viewed these pictures under no-reappraisal (passive viewing) and reappraisal (reinterpretation) conditions. Participants rated their vicarious negative emotional experience after each picture presentation. Results showed that both White and East Asian participants expressed greater negative emotion and showed stronger emotion regulation effects when facing own-race social exclusion, i.e., the “own-race bias”. In addition, White participants were more capable of regulating the negative emotions elicited by social exclusion compared to East Asian participants. Findings highlight the importance of considering the role of culture in emotional reaction to and emotion regulation of social exclusion, which may help the development of appropriate interventions across diverse populations.

MIGRAINOUS VERTIGO. An APPROACH

Background: Migraine and vertigo are highly prevalent; their simultaneous presentation is frequent and may require a different diagnostic approach than that used for migraine and vertigo separately. Migraine vertigo is recognized as a defined entity within the IHS classification of headaches. Methods: We reviewed the principal manifestations of peripheral and central affection (brainstem) that explain this clinical picture presentation, reviewed the general characteristics, epidemiology, semiology, treatment and prognosis. Results: The symptomatology suggest that the pathophysiology occurs as a vascular problem with aseptic inflammation and also affects the posterior territory. Although the condition's evolution is usually favorable, its dramatic presentation requires a detailed diagnostic approach (clinical and image), although the treatment does not differ from migraine's general management. Conclusion: The vestibular migraine or Migrainous Vertigo is an already defined entity, although the treatment is similar to the migraine with and without aura.

The effects of the order of picture presentation on the subjective emotional evaluation of pictures

In the last twenty years, a great number of studies on subjective emotional evaluation of affective pictures have been published. However, it is well-known that the order of presentation may entail sequential effects, which is the perception of a previous stimulus that may influence the next stimulus's perception. Our study examines whether the order of picture presentation influences the subjective evaluation of their affective valence and arousal. The results showed some influence of the order of presentation on affective valence: unpleasant pictures at the end were less unpleasant than unpleasant pictures at the beginning, and the neutral picture, when presented after unpleasant pictures, was more pleasant than when presented after pleasant pictures. No effect of presentation order on arousal was found. These findings suggest that several picture presentation orders should be used in future experiments on emotions to avoid possible effects of the order on affective valence.

Emotion and Brain Oscillations: High Arousal is Associated with Decreases in Alpha- and Lower Beta-Band Power

The study of brain oscillations associated with emotional picture processing has revealed conflicting findings. Although many studies observed a decrease in power in the alpha- and lower beta band, some studies observed an increase. Accordingly, the main aim of the present research series was to further elucidate whether emotional stimulus processing is related to an increase or decrease in alpha/beta power. In Study 1, participants (N = 16) viewed briefly presented (150 ms) high-arousing erotic and low-arousing people pictures. Picture presentation included a passive viewing condition and an active picture categorization task. Study 2 (N = 16) replicated Study 1 with negative valence stimuli (mutilations). In Study 3 (N = 18), stimulus materials of Study 1 and 2 were used. The main finding is that high-arousing pictures (erotica and mutilations) are associated with a decrease of power in the alpha/beta band across studies and task conditions. The effect peaked in occipitoparietal sensors between 400 and 800 ms after stimulus onset. Furthermore, a late (>1000 ms) alpha/beta power increase to mutilation pictures was observed, possibly reflecting top–down inhibitory control processes. Overall, these findings suggest that brain oscillations in the alpha/beta-band may serve as a useful measure of emotional stimulus processing.

No Difference in Trait-Level Attentional Bias Between Daily and Non-Daily Smokers

Objective: Daily and non-daily smokers display fundamentally different smoking habits and motives. However, both smoking groups find it difficult to quit smoking long-term. One factor associated with addictive behaviour is attentional bias, but previous research in daily and non-daily smokers found inconsistent results. Method: Using an online sample, we compared daily (n = 106) and non-daily (n = 60) smokers in their attentional bias towards smoking pictures. Participants completed a visual probe task with two picture presentation times: 200ms and 500ms. Results: We expected non-daily smokers to display greater attentional bias than daily smokers, but the results did not support this. In confirmatory analyses, there were no significant effects of interest, and in exploratory analyses, equivalence testing showed the effects were statistically equivalent to zero. Conclusions: The results can be interpreted in line with contemporary theories of attentional bias where there are unlikely to be stable trait-level differences between smoking groups. Future research in attentional bias should focus on state-level differences to focus on how smoking cues are being evaluated in the moment.

Attention for Speaking: Prestimulus Motor-cortical Alpha Power Predicts Picture Naming Latencies

There is a range of variability in the speed with which a single speaker will produce the same word from one instance to another. Individual differences studies have shown that the speed of production and the ability to maintain attention are related. This study investigated whether fluctuations in production latencies can be explained by spontaneous fluctuations in speakers' attention just prior to initiating speech planning. A relationship between individuals' incidental attentional state and response performance is well attested in visual perception, with lower prestimulus alpha power associated with faster manual responses. Alpha is thought to have an inhibitory function: Low alpha power suggests less inhibition of a specific brain region, whereas high alpha power suggests more inhibition. Does the same relationship hold for cognitively demanding tasks such as word production? In this study, participants named pictures while EEG was recorded, with alpha power taken to index an individual's momentary attentional state. Participants' level of alpha power just prior to picture presentation and just prior to speech onset predicted subsequent naming latencies. Specifically, higher alpha power in the motor system resulted in faster speech initiation. Our results suggest that one index of a lapse of attention during speaking is reduced inhibition of motor-cortical regions: Decreased motor-cortical alpha power indicates reduced inhibition of this area while early stages of production planning unfold, which leads to increased interference from motor-cortical signals and longer naming latencies. This study shows that the language production system is not impermeable to the influence of attention.

Synchronized presentation of a language task to the electrical stimulation of cortical regions during speech mapping in an awake surgery

Intraoperative speech mapping is performed to preserve language function during tumour resections that involve eloquent cortical areas. For this technique the synchronization of the picture presentation to the patient with the electrical stimulation of the cortex is of major importance. During the operative routine images are manually presented by a psychologist or neurologist to the patient and have to be coordinated with the neurosurgeon stimulating the cortex by a neurostimulator, operated by an engineer. To increase the efficiency of this procedure and to minimize the time needed to localize functional cortical areas, images should appear automatically with electrical stimulation. To achieve this synchronization, the potential combination of an existing neurostimulator with commercially available software for image display was studied. A trigger signal was created to induce the presentation of a series of line drawings showing different objects. The software to control the neurostimulator and the software for image displaying were installed on two different computers. A cable was developed to transfer the trigger signal from the neurostimulator to the computer used for picture presentation. It was shown that it is possible to induce the image display via the neurostimulator using square-wave pulses of 5 V and a width of 10 ms. Thus, we present a system that enables the automated picture presentation synchronized to the electrical stimulation of cortical regions.