The Intention to Conceal Does Not Always Affect Time Perception

The display duration of stimuli is overestimated due to the increase in phasic arousal induced by the stimuli or high levels of background arousal. A previous study demonstrated that display duration of items (2 s) was overestimated when a participant attempted to conceal one of the items so as not to be detected in the concealed information test (CIT). As the time perception remained the same between the item to be concealed and the other items, the overestimation was thought to be due to the high level of background arousal under the conceal condition. Duration of 2 s may be too long to examine the phasic arousal effect induced by the concealed item. The present study conducted three online experiments with shorter durations, that is, each of three items was presented with duration of 1, 0.5, and 2 s in Experiments 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The participants were instructed to conceal one of the three items under the conceal condition and did not conceal any item in the innocent condition. The difference in time perception between the conceal and innocent conditions or between items under the conceal condition was observed in none of the three experiments. The result indicates that temporal overestimation does not occur when a participant is only concealing an object. Rather, temporal overestimation would occur only when the level of background arousal is amplified by the concealment.

Comparison of Dexmedetomidine and Etomidate on Intraoperative Wake-Up Equality, Hemodynamics, and Cerebral Protection in Operation of the Brain Functional Area

In recent years, with the increasing incidence of brain functional area tumors, the clinical application of functional area tumor resection has become extremely urgent. Intraoperative wake-up is an important auxiliary method of this operation, which can effectively reduce the damage of the brain function area caused by the operation and anesthesia itself while playing the role of auxiliary function area and tumor positioning. However, the intraoperative wake-up requires a higher anesthesia effect, so higher requirements are put forward for the choice of anesthetic drugs. Based on hemodynamic and serum molecular observations, this study found that dexmedetomidine- and etomidate-assisted anesthesia were used for intraoperative wake-up in brain functional area surgery, both of which could maintain hemodynamic stability. In addition, the arousal effect and brain protection of dexmedetomidine were better than those of etomidate, and the incidence of adverse reactions was lower during the arousal period. This can provide relevant reference for clinical improvement of the anesthesia effect and surgical safety of intraoperative wake-up.

Negative Emotion Arousal and Altruism Promoting of Online Public Stigmatization on COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has had a profound impact on society. Stigma is a common phenomenon in the prevalence and spread of infectious diseases. In the crisis caused by the pandemic, widespread public stigma has influenced social groups. This study explores the negative emotions arousal effect from online public stigmatization during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on social cooperation. We constructed a model based on the literature and tested it on a sample of 313 participants from the group being stigmatized. The results demonstrate: (1) relevance and stigma perception promote negative emotions, including anxiety, anger, and grief; (2) the arousal of anger and grief leads to a rise in the altruistic tendency within the stigmatized group; and (3) stigmatization-induced negative emotions have a complete mediating effect between perceived relevance and altruistic tendency, as well as perceived stigma and altruistic tendency. For a country and nation, external stigma will promote the group becoming more united and mutual help. One wish to pass the buck but end up helping others unintentionally. We should not simply blame others, including countries, regions, and groups under the outbreak of COVID-19, and everyone should be cautious with the words and actions in the Internet public sphere.

The Thresholds of Greening Unit Serving Set as an Arousal Task Based on EEG and Eye Movement

Monotony is the most prominent characteristic feature of the prairie highway. Monotony can cause a decrease in the level of arousal, leading to lower vigilant. This study sets the greening unit as an arousal task to withstand the monotony and examines the different landscapes’ effects on EEG(electroencephalo-graph) and eye movement for drivers. 26 participants took part in a simulated driving experiment. Three scenes correspond to other greening units, respectively, one set as the control group without greening. The results show that the greening unit will improve driver vigilance and external eye movement control preponderance. The type of eye movement and [(alpha + theta) / beta] performance optimal arousal is immediate but discontinuous; The type of eye movement and alpha sample entropy show different spatial patterns of landscapes have different effective lengths. In conclusion,(1) Landscape（Fully open with triangular shape） provides superior arousal effect；(2)The greening unit length threshold corresponding to the optimal arousal level of drivers is 666 m; (3)The alpha sample entropy of less than 0.234 can be identified as the threshold of effect greening length

D-Amphetamine Rapidly Reverses Dexmedetomidine-Induced Unconsciousness in Rats

D-amphetamine induces emergence from sevoflurane and propofol anesthesia in rats. Dexmedetomidine is an α2-adrenoreceptor agonist that is commonly used for procedural sedation, whereas ketamine is an anesthetic that acts primarily by inhibiting NMDA-type glutamate receptors. These drugs have different molecular mechanisms of action from propofol and volatile anesthetics that enhance inhibitory neurotransmission mediated by GABAA receptors. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that d-amphetamine accelerates recovery of consciousness after dexmedetomidine and ketamine. Sixteen rats (Eight males, eight females) were used in a randomized, blinded, crossover experimental design and all drugs were administered intravenously. Six additional rats with pre-implanted electrodes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were used to analyze changes in neurophysiology. After dexmedetomidine, d-amphetamine dramatically decreased mean time to emergence compared to saline (saline:112.8 ± 37.2 min; d-amphetamine:1.8 ± 0.6 min, p < 0.0001). This arousal effect was abolished by pre-administration of the D1/D5 dopamine receptor antagonist, SCH-23390. After ketamine, d-amphetamine did not significantly accelerate time to emergence compared to saline (saline:19.7 ± 18.0 min; d-amphetamine:20.3 ± 16.5 min, p = 1.00). Prefrontal cortex local field potential recordings revealed that d-amphetamine broadly decreased spectral power at frequencies <25 Hz and restored an awake-like pattern after dexmedetomidine. However, d-amphetamine did not produce significant spectral changes after ketamine. The duration of unconsciousness was significantly longer in females for both dexmedetomidine and ketamine. In conclusion, d-amphetamine rapidly restores consciousness following dexmedetomidine, but not ketamine. Dexmedetomidine reversal by d-amphetamine is inhibited by SCH-23390, suggesting that the arousal effect is mediated by D1 and/or D5 receptors. These findings suggest that d-amphetamine may be clinically useful as a reversal agent for dexmedetomidine.

Strong Emotional Arousal (Effect) As A Criminal Law Norm

This scientific article will address strong emotional arousal as the norm in criminal law. It also analyzes the views and opinions of scholars in this regard and provides relevant recommendations for improving the theory of criminal law.

The Arousal Effect of Exclusionary and Inclusionary Situations on Social Affiliation Motivation and Its Subsequent Influence on Prosocial Behavior

Given the negative costs of exclusion and the relevance of belongingness for humans, the experience of exclusion influences social affiliation motivation, which in turn is a relevant predictor of prosocial behavior. Skin conductance is a typical measure of the arousal elicited by emotions. Hence, we argued that both inclusion and exclusion will increase skin conductance level due to the increase of either positive affect or anger affects, respectively. Moreover, we argued that emotional arousal is also related to social affiliation motivation and prosocial behavior. A total of 48 students were randomly allocated to either an inclusionary or exclusionary condition and their skin conductance levels were recorded during an experiment in which they completed an online questionnaire and played the game “Cyberball.” Results indicated that (a) individuals who perceived high exclusion felt angrier than individuals perceiving high inclusion, who feel positive affect; (b) no differences were evidenced in terms of skin conductance between exclusion and inclusion situations; (c) over-aroused individuals were less motivated to affiliate; and (d) individuals with lower affiliation motivation behaved in a less prosocial way. The results were congruent to the argument that behaving prosocially may be a way to gain the desired affiliation.

Facial responses during listening predict authenticity judgments of vocal emotions

The ability to recognize the emotions of others is a crucial skill. In the visual modality, sensorimotor mechanisms provide an important route for emotion recognition. Perceiving facial expressions often evokes activity in facial muscles and in motor and somatosensory systems, and this activity relates to performance in emotion tasks. It remains unclear, however, whether and how similar mechanisms extend to audition. To address this issue, we examined facial electromyographic and electrodermal responses to nonverbal vocalizations that varied in emotional authenticity. Participants (N = 100) passively listened to laughs and cries that could reflect a genuine or a posed emotion. Bayesian mixed models indicated that listening to laughter evoked stronger facial responses than listening to crying. These responses were sensitive to emotional authenticity. Genuine laughs evoked more activity than posed laughs in the zygomaticus and orbicularis, muscles typically associated with positive affect. We also found that activity in the orbicularis and corrugator related to performance in a subsequent authenticity detection task. Stronger responses in the orbicularis predicted improved recognition of genuine laughs. Stronger responses in the corrugator, a muscle associated with negative affect, predicted improved recognition of posed laughs. Moreover, genuine laughs elicited stronger skin conductance responses than posed laughs. This arousal effect did not predict task performance, though. For crying, physiological responses were not associated with authenticity judgments. Altogether, these findings indicate that emotional authenticity affects peripheral nervous system responses to vocalizations. They point to a role of sensorimotor mechanisms in the evaluation of authenticity in the auditory modality.

Looking, liking and locating: an experimental aesthetics of orienting

Memory for object location has been extensively studied, but little is known about the role of subjective evaluation of objects. We investigated how aesthetic experience could incidentally modulate memory of location. 96 participants (86 tested at science festivals, 10 at the laboratory) visited a virtual museum, not knowing they would later be tested on spatial memory. Afterwards, they reported how much they liked each painting, and located it on the museum map. Participants remembered better the location of paintings that created strong aesthetic experiences, whether positive or negative, suggesting an arousal effect. Liking a painting increased the ability to recall on which wall the painting was hung. Since recalling the wall requires recalling heading direction, this finding suggests positive aesthetic experience enhances first-person spatial representations. Aesthetic experience of stimuli can shape the cognitive map. These results may have implications for museum design.