How the emotional content of discourse affects language comprehension

Emotion effects on cognition have often been reported. However, only few studies investigated emotional effects on subsequent language processing, and in most cases these effects were induced by non-linguistic stimuli such as films, faces, or pictures. Here, we investigated how a paragraph of positive, negative, or neutral emotional valence affects the processing of a subsequent emotionally neutral sentence, which contained either semantic, syntactic, or no violation, respectively, by means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Behavioral data revealed strong effects of emotion; error rates and reaction times increased significantly in sentences preceded by a positive paragraph relative to negative and neutral ones. In ERPs, the N400 to semantic violations was not affected by emotion. In the syntactic experiment, however, clear emotion effects were observed on ERPs. The left anterior negativity (LAN) to syntactic violations, which was not visible in the neutral condition, was present in the negative and positive conditions. This is interpreted as reflecting modulatory effects of prior emotions on syntactic processing, which is discussed in the light of three alternative or complementary explanations based on emotion-induced cognitive styles, working memory, and arousal models. The present effects of emotion on the LAN are especially remarkable considering that syntactic processing has often been regarded as encapsulated and autonomous.     

Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction

Gathering Hopewell: Society, Ritual, and Ritual Interaction . Barbara Y. Butler. and D. Troy Case, eds. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2005. 807 pp.     

Habituation of auditory evoked potentials and emotional state

"Fast" and "slow" habituation of N1 and N1-P2 components of auditory evoked potentials was studied in healthy subjects and in depressed patients. In patients, initially more low amplitudes of N1 and N1-P2 were revealed, as well as slowing down of habituation in the beginning of stimuli series and acceleration to its end (in healthy people--the greatest habituation in the initial part of the series and amplitude increase at its end), the absence of power effect in the component N1 at reaching, in the process of habituation, of the same minimum parameters as in healthy subjects. This points to weakening of dishabituation process parallel with well expressed "slow" habituation in patients and allows to suggest at expressed negative emotions a deficit of attention processes as a result of "internal abstraction".     

Asymmetry in the relationship between finger temperature changes and emotional state in males

Eighty male college students each listened to monaural music that was intended to cause either positive-valence emotions (e.g., happiness) or negative-valence emotions (e.g., unhappiness). When the music was to the left ear, subjects' finger temperature changes during the music correlated significantly with the subjects' ratings of the valence of the emotions they experienced during the music. When the music was to the right ear, finger temperature changes were not different during positive- versus during negative-valence music, and the subjective reports did not correlate significantly with the finger temperature changes. The results are interpreted as indicating that the extent to which males' autonomic responses, such as finger temperature changes, reflect the emotional state of the subject depends upon which cerebral hemisphere is more involved in the processing of the emotion-generating stimulus. Theoretical and practical aspects of this finding are discussed.     

Asymmetry in the relationship between finger temperature changes and emotional state in males

Eighty male college students each listened to monaural music that was intended to cause either positive-valence emotions (e.g., happiness) or negative-valence emotions (e.g., unhappiness). When the music was to the left ear, subjects' finger temperature changes during the music correlated significantly with the subjects' ratings of the valence of the emotions they experienced during the music. When the music was to the right ear, finger temperature changes were not different during positive- versus during negative-valence music, and the subjective reports did not correlate significantly with the finger temperature changes. The results are interpreted as indicating that the extent to which males' autonomic responses, such as finger temperature changes, reflect the emotional state of the subject depends upon which cerebral hemisphere is more involved in the processing of the emotion-generating stimulus. Theoretical and practical aspects of this finding are discussed.     

Ritual,emotion, and sacred symbols

This paper considers religion in relation to four recurrent traits: belief systems incorporating supernatural agents and counterintuitive concepts, communal ritual, separation of the sacred and the profane, and adolescence as a preferred developmental period for religious transmission. These co-occurring traits are viewed as an adaptive complex that offers clues to the evolution of religion from its nonhuman ritual roots. We consider the critical element differentiating religious from non-human ritual to be the conditioned association of emotion and abstract symbols. We propose neurophysiological mechanisms underlying such associations and argue that the brain plasticity of human adolescence constitutes an “experience expectant” developmental period for ritual conditioning of sacred symbols. We suggest that such symbols evolved to solve an ecological problem by extending communication and coordination of social relations across time and space. Candace Alcorta is currently a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include the behavioral ecology and evolution of religion, and the interrelationship between cultural and neurophysiological systems. She is currently conducting research on adolescent religious participation, stress, and health. Richard Sosis is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut and a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His current research interests include the evolution of cooperation, utopian societies, and the behavioral ecology of religion. He has conducted fieldwork on Ifaluk Atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia and is currently pursuing various projects in Israel aimed at understanding the benefits and costs associated with religious behavior.     

Collagen transformation in organism: modern state of the problem

Collagens, which compose 1/3 of total proteins in the organism, have unique chemical structure and biological role. Current state of the investigation of these proteins biosynthesis and catabolism, role of shaperones, prolyl- and lysiloxydases, glycosyltransferases, metalloproteinases and other enzymes in collagens metabolism, as well as biological activities of collagens and their fragments have been considered in the review.     

Trait and state positive emotional experience in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis

Background

Prior meta-analyses indicated that people with schizophrenia show impairment in trait hedonic capacity but retain their state hedonic experience (valence) in laboratory-based assessments. Little is known about what is the extent of differences for state positive emotional experience (especially arousal) between people with schizophrenia and healthy controls. It is also not clear whether negative symptoms and gender effect contribute to the variance of positive affect.

Methods and Findings

The current meta-analysis examined 21 studies assessing state arousal experience, 40 studies measuring state valence experience, and 47studies assessing trait hedonic capacity in schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia demonstrated significant impairment in trait hedonic capacity (Cohen’s d = 0.81). However, patients and controls did not statistically differ in state hedonic (valence) as well as exciting (arousal) experience to positive stimuli (Cohen’s d = −0.24 to 0.06). They also reported experiencing relatively robust state aversion and calmness to positive stimuli compared with controls (Cohen’s d = 0.75, 0.56, respectively). Negative symptoms and gender contributed to the variance of findings in positive affect, especially trait hedonic capacity in schizophrenia.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that schizophrenia patients have no deficit in state positive emotional experience but impairment in “noncurrent” hedonic capacity, which may be mediated by negative symptoms and gender effect.     

Descent, Affinity, and Ritual Relations in Eastern Turkey

The available anthropological literature on ritual co-parenthood focuses mainly on the Christian world. This paper discusses and analyzes the structure and functions of kivrelik , a form of ritual co-parenthood established through the Islamic ritual of circumcision and practiced in Eastern Turkey. It explains howw kivrelik can function as either an intra-group or an inter-group integrative mechanism, or as a device to extend one's personal social network. It also discusses the complementary and supplemental uses of ritual kinship, descent, and affinity.     

Feasting, Craft Specialization, and the Ritual Mode of Production in Small-Scale Societies

Economic intensification has been documented in a diversity of small-scale societies. The existing archaeological theory concerning such intensification has tended to privilege economic and political explanations and largely ignores social action and ritual performance as motivations for economic change. In this article, 1 use both ethnographic and archaeological data to argue that ceremonial feasting and the need for socially valued goods, which are critical for ritual performance and necessary for a variety of social transactions, create the demand that underwrites and sustains economic intensification in small-scale societies. Food for large-scale feasts is acquired through the intensification of food production and procurement targeted specifically for feasting, rather than from the surplus available from routine subsistence production. Large-scale demands for socially valued goods tend to result in specialization on the production of "extraordinary" material culture, which is characterized by two modes of circulation, in networks of social obligations or as offerings in sacred locations. [Key words.craft specialization, exchange, feasting, ritual]     

Ritual, Risk, and Danger: Chain Prayers in Fiji

Rituals that defuse immediate senses of danger can perpetuate senses of powerlessness. Ambiguous language used in defensive rituals can heighten people's senses of the risks they are confronting and also compel people to perform those rituals again in the future. In this article, I illustrate this argument by examining Fijian Methodist masu sema (chain prayers), which are conducted to defuse the dangers that beset society, including curses from demonic ancestors. I argue that Fijian cultural themes of present-day human powerlessness are generated largely by competition between Methodist and chiefly authorities. "Chain prayers" are attempts to negate the power of dangerous ancestors, but in requesting God's help, ritual participants cast themselves as powerless. Verbal ambiguity in chain prayers gives "demons" lives of their own, compelling their future circulation.