Facial EMG Responses to Emotional Expressions Are Related to Emotion Perception Ability

Although most people can identify facial expressions of emotions well, they still differ in this ability. According to embodied simulation theories understanding emotions of others is fostered by involuntarily mimicking the perceived expressions, causing a “reactivation” of the corresponding mental state. Some studies suggest automatic facial mimicry during expression viewing; however, findings on the relationship between mimicry and emotion perception abilities are equivocal. The present study investigated individual differences in emotion perception and its relationship to facial muscle responses - recorded with electromyogram (EMG) - in response to emotional facial expressions. N° = °269 participants completed multiple tasks measuring face and emotion perception. EMG recordings were taken from a subsample (N° = °110) in an independent emotion classification task of short videos displaying six emotions. Confirmatory factor analyses of the m. corrugator supercilii in response to angry, happy, sad, and neutral expressions showed that individual differences in corrugator activity can be separated into a general response to all faces and an emotion-related response. Structural equation modeling revealed a substantial relationship between the emotion-related response and emotion perception ability, providing evidence for the role of facial muscle activation in emotion perception from an individual differences perspective.     

Cardiovascular Effects of Acute Positive Emotional Arousal

Since there are several popular beliefs about putative health benefits of amusement which are empirically substantiated poorly about putative health benefits of amusement, the immediate cardiovascular effects of amusement were studied in detail. Cardiovascular activity was studied while participants were viewing humorous films, relative to a control condition involving no amusement. High-resolution measures of heart rate, heart rate variability, continuous blood pressure, and respiration were recorded, and the phase synchronization among the variables was analyzed, which provides information on the coordinated behavior of response systems. Viewing humorous films had cardiovascular effects indicating heightened sympathetic arousal, if they elicited intense amusement. No effects were observed for variables indicating parasympathetic input to the heart. The observed effects associated with amusement were not driven by changes in the respiration. The suppression of positive affect expressions did not produce any additional activation. The transient cardiovascular effects of amusement do not correspond to beneficial correlates of a habitual positive affect disposition reported in the literature, demonstrating that it would be erroneous to argue from the long-term effects of a positive affect disposition to the effects of a single amusing event.     

Retinal Inputs to the Thalamus Are Selectively Gated by Arousal

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The Goals and Effects of Music Listening and Their Relationship to the Strength of Music Preference

Individual differences in the strength of music preference are among the most intricate psychological phenomena. While one person gets by very well without music, another person needs to listen to music every day and spends a lot of temporal and financial resources on listening to music, attending concerts, or buying concert tickets. Where do these differences come from? The hypothesis presented in this article is that the strength of music preference is mainly informed by the functions that music fulfills in people’s lives (e.g., to regulate emotions, moods, or physiological arousal; to promote self-awareness; to foster social relatedness). Data were collected with a diary study, in which 121 respondents documented the goals they tried to attain and the effects that actually occurred for up to 5 music-listening episodes per day for 10 successive days. As expected, listeners reporting more intense experience of the functional use of music in the past (1) had a stronger intention to listen to music to attain specific goals in specific situations and (2) showed a larger overall strength of music preference. It is concluded that the functional effectiveness of music listening should be incorporated in existing models and frameworks of music preference to produce better predictions of interindividual differences in the strength of music preference. The predictability of musical style/genre preferences is also discussed with regard to the present results.     

Expression of Emotional Arousal in Two Different Piglet Call Types

Humans as well as many animal species reveal their emotional state in their voice. Vocal features show strikingly similar correlation patterns with emotional states across mammalian species, suggesting that the vocal expression of emotion follows highly conserved signalling rules. To fully understand the principles of emotional signalling in mammals it is, however, necessary to also account for any inconsistencies in the way that they are acoustically encoded. Here we investigate whether the expression of emotions differs between call types produced by the same species. We compare the acoustic structure of two common piglet calls—the scream (a distress call) and the grunt (a contact call)—across three levels of arousal in a negative situation. We find that while the central frequency of calls increases with arousal in both call types, the amplitude and tonal quality (harmonic-to-noise ratio) show contrasting patterns: as arousal increased, the intensity also increased in screams, but not in grunts, while the harmonicity increased in screams but decreased in grunts. Our results suggest that the expression of arousal depends on the function and acoustic specificity of the call type. The fact that more vocal features varied with arousal in scream calls than in grunts is consistent with the idea that distress calls have evolved to convey information about emotional arousal.     

Intercentral Relations of the Human EEG during Listening to Music

Different musical styles and intensities produce characteristic patterns of changes in the correlation of neocortical biopotentials. Classical music of three intensities and rock music of medium and high intensities were shown to produce asymmetry in the pattern of coherence (Coh) of the cortical activity of listeners: intrahemispheric Coh in the right hemisphere increased, while a decrease in the EEG synchronization prevailed in the left hemisphere. A focus of Coh integration, most pronounced for the γ frequencies, was formed during listening to both classical and rock music (except rock music of a low intensity). Listening to rock music of a low intensity substantially increased the probability of a decrease in intra- and interhemispheric Coh in both hemispheres, which was pronounced in all frequency bands. Listening to rock music changed interhemispheric Coh in a greater percent of cases than listening to classical music.__________Translated from Fiziologiya Cheloveka, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2005, pp. 27–32.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Sakharov, Davydov, Pavlygina.     

Sex Differences in Emotional Evaluation of Film Clips: Interaction with Five High Arousal Emotional Categories

The present study aimed to investigate gender differences in the emotional evaluation of 18 film clips divided into six categories: Erotic, Scenery, Neutral, Sadness, Compassion, and Fear. 41 female and 40 male students rated all clips for valence-pleasantness, arousal, level of elicited distress, anxiety, jittery feelings, excitation, and embarrassment. Analysis of positive films revealed higher levels of arousal, pleasantness, and excitation to the Scenery clips in both genders, but lower pleasantness and greater embarrassment in women compared to men to Erotic clips. Concerning unpleasant stimuli, unlike men, women reported more unpleasantness to the Compassion, Sadness, and Fear compared to the Neutral clips and rated them also as more arousing than did men. They further differentiated the films by perceiving greater arousal to Fear than to Compassion clips. Women rated the Sadness and Fear clips with greater Distress and Jittery feelings than men did. Correlation analysis between arousal and the other emotional scales revealed that, although men looked less aroused than women to all unpleasant clips, they also showed a larger variance in their emotional responses as indicated by the high number of correlations and their relatively greater extent, an outcome pointing to a masked larger sensitivity of part of male sample to emotional clips. We propose a new perspective in which gender difference in emotional responses can be better evidenced by means of film clips selected and clustered in more homogeneous categories, controlled for arousal levels, as well as evaluated through a number of emotion focused adjectives.     

Segregation and Integration of Auditory Streams when Listening to Multi-Part Music

In our daily lives, auditory stream segregation allows us to differentiate concurrent sound sources and to make sense of the scene we are experiencing. However, a combination of segregation and the concurrent integration of auditory streams is necessary in order to analyze the relationship between streams and thus perceive a coherent auditory scene. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigates the relative role and neural underpinnings of these listening strategies in multi-part musical stimuli. We compare a real human performance of a piano duet and a synthetic stimulus of the same duet in a prioritized integrative attention paradigm that required the simultaneous segregation and integration of auditory streams. In so doing, we manipulate the degree to which the attended part of the duet led either structurally (attend melody vs. attend accompaniment) or temporally (asynchronies vs. no asynchronies between parts), and thus the relative contributions of integration and segregation used to make an assessment of the leader-follower relationship. We show that perceptually the relationship between parts is biased towards the conventional structural hierarchy in western music in which the melody generally dominates (leads) the accompaniment. Moreover, the assessment varies as a function of both cognitive load, as shown through difficulty ratings and the interaction of the temporal and the structural relationship factors. Neurally, we see that the temporal relationship between parts, as one important cue for stream segregation, revealed distinct neural activity in the planum temporale. By contrast, integration used when listening to both the temporally separated performance stimulus and the temporally fused synthetic stimulus resulted in activation of the intraparietal sulcus. These results support the hypothesis that the planum temporale and IPS are key structures underlying the mechanisms of segregation and integration of auditory streams, respectively.     

Electrophysiological and Autonomic Indicators of Human Emotional Response to Dynamic Color Music

A study was made of the perception of dynamic color music. When pleasant and unpleasant combinations of color patterns and music were presented to subjects in series, the combination presented first moderated the response to the second combination. The neutralizing effect was greater when the first combination was pleasant.     

Aspects of Voluntary and Involuntary Emotional Reactions in Man

1. Self-induced sensory impressions in man associated with anticipated painful stimuli call forth very pronounced changes in heart rhythm, GSR, and EEG frequency spectrum, even if no painful stimulus follows. This state is most readily attained by persons specially trained on the basis of the principles developed by K. S. Stanislavskii (Ershov [1], Simonov [5]).     

Modifications of EEG Related to Repeated Realizations of the Emotional Stroop Task

Multichannel recording of EEG in 11 subjects, who were three times subjected to the emotional Stroop task (in the presence of words with negative emotional loading, neutral words, and inhibitory verbal stimuli), demonstrated that the spectral power of the high-frequency subcomponent of the alpha-rhythm in the left hemisphere increased sequentially under these conditions. Modifications of EEG, in general, were indicative of noticeable transformation of informational flows related to the learning effect and decrease of the cognitive “pressure” due to habituation to the effects of emotionally neutral and inhibitory verbal stimuli. Data related to the EEG pattern agree with the results of measurements of a behavioral index (decrease in the time of sensorimotor reaction).     

Testosterone Is Inversely Related to Brain Activity during Emotional Inhibition in Schizophrenia

Sex steroids affect cognitive function as well as emotion processing and regulation. They may also play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, the effects of sex steroids on cognition and emotion-related brain activation in schizophrenia are poorly understood. Our aim was to determine the extent to which circulating testosterone relates to brain activation in men with schizophrenia compared to healthy men during cognitive-emotional processing. We assessed brain activation in 18 men with schizophrenia and 22 age-matched healthy men during an emotional go/no-go task using fMRI and measured total serum testosterone levels on the same morning. We performed an ROI analysis to assess the relationship between serum testosterone and brain activation, focusing on cortical regions involved the emotional go/no-go task. Slower RT and reduced accuracy was observed when participants responded to neutral stimuli, while inhibiting responses to negative stimuli. Healthy men showed a robust increase in activation of the middle frontal gyrus when inhibiting responses to negative stimuli, but there was no significant association between activation and serum testosterone level in healthy men. Men with schizophrenia showed a less pronounced increase in activation when inhibiting responses to negative stimuli; however, they did show a strong inverse association between serum testosterone level and activation of the bilateral middle frontal gyrus and left insula. Additionally, increased accuracy during inhibition of response to negative words was associated with both higher serum testosterone levels and decreased activation of the middle frontal gyrus in men with schizophrenia only. We conclude that endogenous hormone levels, even within the normal range, may play an enhanced modulatory role in determining the neural and behavioural response during cognitive-emotional processing in schizophrenia.     

Wavelet-synchrony of Brain Evoked Responses during Listening to Naturalistic Stimuli in the Prognosis of Consciousness Recovery (Study 1: Wavelet-synchrony during Listening to Instrumental Music)

The features and prognostic value of wavelet-synchrony of evoked responses during the listening to realistic stimuli (music) were revealed in the study. Musical passages were selected according the patients’ preferences by their relations consultation. Wavelet-connections were calculated for each melody in the range from 0 to 1000 ms from stimuli. Total 22 examinees in 12 patients being in unconsciousness state were carried out. Resting state values of wavelet-connectivity were poorer in vegetative patients in comparison to healthy subjects regardless of consciousness recovery degree in future while wavelet-connections in mutism were higher in comparison to healthy subjects. Absolute value of wavelet-synchrony was lower than in norm. In patients with compete consciousness recovery in the future the maximal values of wavelet-synchrony were revealed in the temporal-occipital area while in patients who in the future have been revealed in the lesser degree the maximal values of wavelet-synchrony are shown in frontal-central areas. In chronic unconsciousness patients during the listening to instrumental music the maximal wavelet-connections values were determined in the right frontal area.     

BAIAP2 Is Related to Emotional Modulation of Human Memory Strength

Memory performance is the result of many distinct mental processes, such as memory encoding, forgetting, and modulation of memory strength by emotional arousal. These processes, which are subserved by partly distinct molecular profiles, are not always amenable to direct observation. Therefore, computational models can be used to make inferences about specific mental processes and to study their genetic underpinnings. Here we combined a computational model-based analysis of memory-related processes with high density genetic information derived from a genome-wide study in healthy young adults. After identifying the best-fitting model for a verbal memory task and estimating the best-fitting individual cognitive parameters, we found a common variant in the gene encoding the brain-specific angiogenesis inhibitor 1-associated protein 2 (BAIAP2) that was related to the model parameter reflecting modulation of verbal memory strength by negative valence. We also observed an association between the same genetic variant and a similar emotional modulation phenotype in a different population performing a picture memory task. Furthermore, using functional neuroimaging we found robust genotype-dependent differences in activity of the parahippocampal cortex that were specifically related to successful memory encoding of negative versus neutral information. Finally, we analyzed cortical gene expression data of 193 deceased subjects and detected significant BAIAP2 genotype-dependent differences in BAIAP2 mRNA levels. Our findings suggest that model-based dissociation of specific cognitive parameters can improve the understanding of genetic underpinnings of human learning and memory.     

Listening to Music during Warming-Up Counteracts the Negative Effects of Ramadan Observance on Short-Term Maximal Performance

Aim

The aim of the present study was to examine whether listening to music during warming-up might influence short-term maximal performance (STMP), cognitive anxiety, self-confidence, and enjoyment during Ramadan, and whether these affects might predict STMP.

Methods

Nine male physical education students (age: 21 ± 1.1 years; height: 1.8 ± 0.04 m; body mass: 83 ± 5 kg) volunteered to participate in the present study. A within-subjects design consisted of four experimental sessions: Two sessions occurred one week before Ramadan and two others took place during Ramadan. They were scheduled at 5 p.m. and were conducted as follows: After a 10-minute warm-up either with or without listening to music, each participant performed a 5-m multiple shuttle run test, after which he was asked to answer items intended to assess his affective state during the experimental task.

Results

Our findings revealed that STMP was lower during Ramadan than before Ramadan in the no-music condition. Additionally, it was found that STMP was higher in the music condition than in the no-music condition during Ramadan, and that STMP measured before Ramadan did not differ from that measured during Ramadan in the music condition. Regarding affects, the findings revealed that enjoyment was lower during Ramadan than before Ramadan in the music condition, and that cognitive anxiety was lower in the music condition than in the no-music condition before Ramadan. Self-confidence was not influenced by the experimental conditions.

Conclusion

This study showed that listening to music during warming-up not only would be beneficial for STMP in Ramadan fasters, but also would counteract the negative effects of Ramadan observance on STMP.