@article{BreilHuesteggeBoeckler2022, author = {Breil, Christina and Huestegge, Lynn and B{\"o}ckler, Anne}, title = {From eye to arrow: Attention capture by direct gaze requires more than just the eyes}, series = {Attention, Perception \& Psychophysics}, volume = {84}, journal = {Attention, Perception \& Psychophysics}, number = {1}, issn = {1943-393X}, doi = {10.3758/s13414-021-02382-2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-273206}, pages = {64-75}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Human attention is strongly attracted by direct gaze and sudden onset motion. The sudden direct-gaze effect refers to the processing advantage for targets appearing on peripheral faces that suddenly establish eye contact. Here, we investigate the necessity of social information for attention capture by (sudden onset) ostensive cues. Six experiments involving 204 participants applied (1) naturalistic faces, (2) arrows, (3) schematic eyes, (4) naturalistic eyes, or schematic facial configurations (5) without or (6) with head turn to an attention-capture paradigm. Trials started with two stimuli oriented towards the observer and two stimuli pointing into the periphery. Simultaneous to target presentation, one direct stimulus changed to averted and one averted stimulus changed to direct, yielding a 2 × 2 factorial design with direction and motion cues being absent or present. We replicated the (sudden) direct-gaze effect for photographic faces, but found no corresponding effects in Experiments 2-6. Hence, a holistic and socially meaningful facial context seems vital for attention capture by direct gaze. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The present study highlights the significance of context information for social attention. Our findings demonstrate that the direct-gaze effect, that is, the prioritization of direct gaze over averted gaze, critically relies on the presentation of a meaningful holistic and naturalistic facial context. This pattern of results is evidence in favor of early effects of surrounding social information on attention capture by direct gaze.}, language = {en} } @article{HuesteggeHerbortGoschetal.2019, author = {Huestegge, Lynn and Herbort, Oliver and Gosch, Nora and Kunde, Wilfried and Pieczykolan, Aleks}, title = {Free-choice saccades and their underlying determinants: explorations of high-level voluntary oculomotor control}, series = {Journal of Vision}, volume = {19}, journal = {Journal of Vision}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1167/19.3.14}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201493}, pages = {14}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Models of eye-movement control distinguish between different control levels, ranging from automatic (bottom-up, stimulus-driven selection) and automatized (based on well-learned routines) to voluntary (top-down, goal-driven selection, e.g., based on instructions). However, one type of voluntary control has yet only been examined in the manual and not in the oculomotor domain, namely free-choice selection among arbitrary targets, that is, targets that are of equal interest from both a bottom-up and top-down processing perspective. Here, we ask which features of targets (identity- or location-related) are used to determine such oculomotor free-choice behavior. In two experiments, participants executed a saccade to one of four peripheral targets in three different choice conditions: unconstrained free choice, constrained free choice based on target identity (color), and constrained free choice based on target location. The analysis of choice frequencies revealed that unconstrained free-choice selection closely resembled constrained choice based on target location. The results suggest that free-choice oculomotor control is mainly guided by spatial (location-based) target characteristics. We explain these results by assuming that participants tend to avoid less parsimonious recoding of target-identity representations into spatial codes, the latter being a necessary prerequisite to configure oculomotor commands.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{vonderMuehlen2018, author = {von der M{\"u}hlen, Sarah}, title = {Fostering Students' Epistemic Competences when Dealing with Scientific Literature}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-167343}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The abilities to comprehend and critically evaluate scientific texts and the various arguments stated in these texts are an important aspect of scientific literacy, but these competences are usually not formally taught to students. Previous research indicates that, although undergraduate students evaluate the claims and evidence they find in scientific documents to some extent, these evaluations usually fail to meet normative standards. In addition, students' use of source information for evaluation is often insufficient. The rise of the internet and the increased accessibility of information have yielded some additional challenges that highlight the importance of adequate training and instruction.The aim of the present work was to further examine introductory students' competences to systematically and heuristically evaluate scientific information, to identify relevant strategies that are involved in a successful evaluation, and to use this knowledge to design appropriate interventions for fostering epistemic competences in university students.To this end, a number of computer-based studies, including both quantitative and qualitative data as well as experimental designs, were developed. The first two studies were designed to specify educational needs and to reveal helpful processing strategies that are required in different tasks and situations. Two expert-novice comparisons were developed, whereby the performance of German students of psychology (novices) was compared to the performance of scientists from the domain of psychology (experts) in a number of different tasks, such as systematic plausibility evaluations of informal arguments (Study 1) or heuristic evaluations of the credibility of multiple scientific documents (Study 2). A think-aloud procedure was used to identify specific strategies that were applied in both groups during task completion, and that possibly mediated performance differences between students and scientists. In addition, relationships between different strategies and between strategy use and relevant conceptual knowledge was examined. Based on the results of the expert-novice comparisons, an intervention study, consisting of two training experiments, was constructed to foster some competences that proved to be particularly deficient in the comparisons (Study 3). Study 1 examined introductory students' abilities to accurately judge the plausibility of informal arguments according to normative standards, to recognise common argumentation fallacies, and to identify different structural components of arguments. The results from Study 1 indicate that many students, compared to scientists, lack relevant knowledge about the structure of arguments, and that normatively accurate evaluations of their plausibility seem to be challenging in this group. Often, common argumentation fallacies were not identified correctly. Importantly, these deficits were partly mediated by differences in strategy use: It was especially difficult for students to pay sufficient attention to the relationship between argument components when forming their judgements. Moreover, they frequently relied on their intuition or opinion as a criterion for evaluation, whereas scientists predominantly determined quality of arguments based on their internal consistency. In addition to students' evaluation of the plausibility of informal arguments, Study 2 examined introductory students' competences to evaluate the credibility of multiple scientific texts, and to use source characteristics for evaluation. The results show that students struggled not only to judge the plausibility of arguments correctly, but also to heuristically judge the credibility of science texts, and these deficits were fully mediated by their insufficient use of source information. In contrast, scientists were able to apply different strategies in a flexible manner. When the conditions for evaluation did not allow systematic processing (i.e. time limit), they primarily used source characteristics for their evaluations. However, when systematic evaluations were possible (i.e. no time limit), they used more sophisticated normative criteria for their evaluations, such as paying attention to the internal consistency of arguments (cf. Study 1). Results also showed that students, in contrast to experts, lacked relevant knowledge about different publication types, and this was related to their ability to correctly determine document credibility. The results from the expert-novice comparisons also suggest that the competences assessed in both tasks might develop as a result of a more fundamental form of scientific literacy and discipline expertise. Performances in all tasks were positively related. On the basis of these results, two training experiments were developed that aimed at fostering university students' competences to understand and evaluate informal arguments (Study 3). Experiment 1 describes an intervention approach in which students were familiarised with the formal structure of arguments based on Toulmin's (1958) argumentation model. The performance of the experimental group to identify the structural components of this model was compared to the performance of a control group in which speed reading skills were practiced, using a pre-post-follow-up design. Results show that the training was successful for improving the comprehension of more complex arguments and relational aspects between key components in the posttest, compared to the control group. Moreover, an interaction effect was found with study performance. High achieving students with above average grades profited the most from the training intervention. Experiment 2 showed that training in plausibility, normative criteria of argument evaluation, and argumentation fallacies improved students' abilities to evaluate the plausibility of arguments and, in addition, their competences to recognise structural components of arguments, compared to a speed-reading control group. These results have important implications for education and practice, which will be discussed in detail in this dissertation.}, subject = {Textverstehen}, language = {en} } @article{BlechertMeuleBuschetal.2014, author = {Blechert, Jens and Meule, Adrian and Busch, Niko A. and Ohla, Kathrin}, title = {Food-pics: an image database for experimental research on eating and appetite}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {5}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00617}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115987}, pages = {617}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Our current environment is characterized by the omnipresence of food cues. The sight and smell of real foods, but also graphically depictions of appetizing foods, can guide our eating behavior, for example, by eliciting food craving and influencing food choice. The relevance of visual food cues on human information processing has been demonstrated by a growing body of studies employing food images across the disciplines of psychology, medicine, and neuroscience. However, currently used food image sets vary considerably across laboratories and image characteristics (contrast, brightness, etc.) and food composition (calories, macronutrients, etc.) are often unspecified. These factors might have contributed to some of the inconsistencies of this research. To remedy this, we developed food-pics, a picture database comprising 568 food images and 315 non-food images along with detailed meta-data. A total of N = 1988 individuals with large variance in age and weight from German speaking countries and North America provided normative ratings of valence, arousal, palatability, desire to eat, recognizability and visual complexity. Furthermore, data on macronutrients (g), energy density (kcal), and physical image characteristics (color composition, contrast, brightness, size, complexity) are provided. The food-pics image database is freely available under the creative commons license with the hope that the set will facilitate standardization and comparability across studies and advance experimental research on the determinants of eating behavior. Read F}, language = {en} } @article{MeuleLutzKrawietzetal.2014, author = {Meule, Adrian and Lutz, Annika P. C. and Krawietz, Vera and St{\"u}tzer, Judith and V{\"o}gele, Claus and K{\"u}bler, Andrea}, title = {Food-cue affected motor response inhibition and self-reported dieting success: a pictorial affective shifting task}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {5}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00216}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119840}, pages = {216}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Behavioral inhibition is one of the basic facets of executive functioning and is closely related to self-regulation. Impulsive reactions, that is, low inhibitory control, have been associated with higher body mass index (BMI), binge eating, and other problem behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, pathological gambling, etc.). Nevertheless, studies which investigated the direct influence of food-cues on behavioral inhibition have been fairly inconsistent. In the current studies, we investigated food-cue affected behavioral inhibition in young women. For this purpose, we used a go/no-go task with pictorial food and neutral stimuli in which stimulus-response mapping is reversed after every other block (affective shifting task). In study 1, hungry participants showed faster reaction times to and omitted fewer food than neutral targets. Low dieting success and higher BMI were associated with behavioral disinhibition in food relative to neutral blocks. In study 2, both hungry and satiated individuals were investigated. Satiation did not influence overall task performance, but modulated associations of task performance with dieting success and self-reported impulsivity. When satiated, increased food craving during the task was associated with low dieting success, possibly indicating a preload-disinhibition effect following food intake. Food-cues elicited automatic action and approach tendencies regardless of dieting success, self-reported impulsivity, or current hunger levels. Yet, associations between dieting success, impulsivity, and behavioral food-cue responses were modulated by hunger and satiation. Future research investigating clinical samples and including other salient non-food stimuli as control category is warranted.}, language = {en} } @misc{RodriguezMartinMeule2015, author = {Rodr{\´i}guez-Mart{\´i}n, Boris C. and Meule, Adrian}, title = {Food craving: new contributions on its assessment, moderators, and consequences}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {21}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00021}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190299}, year = {2015}, abstract = {No abstract available.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Meule2014, author = {Meule, Adrian}, title = {Food craving as a central construct in the self-regulation of eating behavior}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-104597}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Background: Food craving refers to an intense desire to consume a specific kind of food of which chocolate is the most often craved one. It is this intensity and specificity that differentiates food craving from feelings of hunger. Although food craving and hunger often co-occur, an energy deficit is not a prerequisite for experiencing food craving, that is, it can also occur without being hungry. Food craving often precedes and predicts over- or binge eating which makes it a reasonable target in the treatment of eating disorders or obesity. One of the arguably most extensively validated measures for the assessment of food craving are the Food Cravings Questionnaires (FCQs), which measure food craving on a state (FCQ-S) and trait (FCQ-T) level. Specifically, the FCQ-S measures the intensity of current food craving whereas the FCQ-T measures the frequency of food craving experiences in general. The aims of the present thesis were to provide a German measure for the assessment of food craving and to investigate cognitive, behavioral, and physiological correlates of food craving. For this purpose, a German version of the FCQs was presented and its reliability and validity was evaluated. Using self-reports, relationships between trait food craving and dieting were examined. Cognitive-behavioral correlates of food craving were investigated using food-related tasks assessing executive functions. Psychophysiological correlates of food craving were investigated using event-related potentials (ERPs) in the electroencephalogram and heart rate variability (HRV). Possible intervention approaches to reduce food craving were derived from results of those studies. Methods: The FCQs were translated into German and their psychometric properties and correlates were investigated in a questionnaire-based study (articles \#1 \& \#2). The relationship between state and trait food craving with executive functioning was examined with behavioral tasks measuring working memory performance and behavioral inhibition which involved highly palatable food-cues (articles \#3 \& \#4). Electrophysiological correlates of food craving were tested with ERPs during a craving regulation task (article \#5). Finally, a pilot study on the effects of HRV-biofeedback for reducing food craving was conducted (article \#6). Results: The FCQs demonstrated high internal consistency while their factorial structure could only partially be replicated. The FCQ-T also had high retest-reliability which, expectedly, was lower for the FCQ-S. Validity of the FCQ-S was shown by positive relationships with current food deprivation and negative affect. Validity of the FCQ-T was shown by positive correlations with related constructs. Importantly, scores on the subscales of the FCQ-T were able to discriminate between non-dieters and successful and unsuccessful dieters (article \#1). Furthermore, scores on the FCQ-T mediated the relationship between rigid dietary control strategies and low dieting success (article \#2). With regard to executive functioning, high-calorie food-cues impaired working memory performance, yet this was independent of trait food craving and rarely related to state food craving (article \#3). Behavioral disinhibition in response to high-calorie food-cues was predicted by trait food craving, particularly when participants were also impulsive (article \#4). Downregulation of food craving by cognitive strategies in response to high-calorie food-cues increased early, but not later, segments of the Late Positive Potential (LPP) (article \#5). Few sessions of HRV-biofeedback reduced self-reported food cravings and eating and weight concerns in high trait food cravers (article \#6). Conclusions: The German FCQs represent sound measures with good psychometric properties for the assessment of state and trait food craving. Although state food craving increases during cognitive tasks involving highly palatable food-cues, impairment of task performance does not appear to be mediated by current food craving experiences. Instead, trait food craving is associated with low behavioral inhibition in response to high-calorie food-cues, but not with impaired working memory performance. Future studies need to examine if trait food craving and, subsequently, food-cue affected behavioral inhibition can be reduced by using food-related inhibition tasks as a training. Current food craving and ERPs in response to food-cues can easily be modulated by cognitive strategies, yet the LPP probably does not represent a direct index of food craving. Finally, HRV-biofeedback may be a useful add-on element in the treatment of disorders in which food cravings are elevated. To conclude, the current thesis provided measures for the assessment of food craving in German and showed differential relationships between state and trait food craving with self-reported dieting behavior, food-cue affected executive functioning, ERPs and HRV-biofeedback. These results provide promising starting points for interventions to reduce food craving based on (1) food-cue-related behavioral trainings of executive functions, (2) cognitive craving regulation strategies, and (3) physiological parameters such as HRV-biofeedback.}, subject = {Craving}, language = {en} } @article{MeuleGearhard2014, author = {Meule, Adrian and Gearhard, Ashley N.}, title = {Food Addiction in the Light of DSM-5}, series = {Nutrients}, volume = {6}, journal = {Nutrients}, number = {9}, issn = {2072-6643}, doi = {10.3390/nu6093653}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119279}, pages = {3653-71}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The idea that specific kind of foods may have an addiction potential and that some forms of overeating may represent an addicted behavior has been discussed for decades. In recent years, the interest in food addiction is growing and research on this topic lead to more precise definitions and assessment methods. For example, the Yale Food Addiction Scale has been developed for the measurement of addiction-like eating behavior based on the diagnostic criteria for substance dependence of the fourth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). In 2013, diagnostic criteria for substance abuse and-dependence were merged, thereby increasing the number of symptoms for substance use disorders (SUDs) in the DSM-5. Moreover, gambling disorder is now included along SUDs as a behavioral addiction. Although a plethora of review articles exist that discuss the applicability of the DSM-IV substance dependence criteria to eating behavior, the transferability of the newly added criteria to eating is unknown. Thus, the current article discusses if and how these new criteria may be translated to overeating. Furthermore, it is examined if the new SUD criteria will impact future research on food addiction, for example, if "diagnosing" food addiction should also be adapted by considering all of the new symptoms. Given the critical response to the revisions in DSM-5, we also discuss if the recent approach of Research Domain Criteria can be helpful in evaluating the concept of food addiction.}, language = {en} } @article{ReussPohlKieseletal.2011, author = {Reuss, Heiko and Pohl, Carsten and Kiesel, Andrea and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Follow the sign! Top-down contingent attentional capture of masked arrow cues}, series = {Advances in Cognitive Psychology}, volume = {7}, journal = {Advances in Cognitive Psychology}, doi = {10.2478/v10053-008-0091-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-140030}, pages = {82-91}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Arrow cues and other overlearned spatial symbols automatically orient attention according to their spatial meaning. This renders them similar to exogenous cues that occur at stimulus location. Exogenous cues trigger shifts of attention even when they are presented subliminally. Here, we investigate to what extent the mechanisms underlying the orienting of attention by exogenous cues and by arrow cues are comparable by analyzing the effects of visible and masked arrow cues on attention. In Experiment 1, we presented arrow cues with overall 50\% validity. Visible cues, but not masked cues, lead to shifts of attention. In Experiment 2, the arrow cues had an overall validity of 80\%. Now both visible and masked arrows lead to shifts of attention. This is in line with findings that subliminal exogenous cues capture attention only in a top-down contingent manner, that is, when the cues fit the observer's intentions.}, language = {en} } @article{WehrheimFaskowitzSpornsetal.2023, author = {Wehrheim, Maren H. and Faskowitz, Joshua and Sporns, Olaf and Fiebach, Christian J. and Kaschube, Matthias and Hilger, Kirsten}, title = {Few temporally distributed brain connectivity states predict human cognitive abilities}, series = {NeuroImage}, volume = {277}, journal = {NeuroImage}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120246}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-349874}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Highlights • Brain connectivity states identified by cofluctuation strength. • CMEP as new method to robustly predict human traits from brain imaging data. • Network-identifying connectivity 'events' are not predictive of cognitive ability. • Sixteen temporally independent fMRI time frames allow for significant prediction. • Neuroimaging-based assessment of cognitive ability requires sufficient scan lengths. Abstract Human functional brain connectivity can be temporally decomposed into states of high and low cofluctuation, defined as coactivation of brain regions over time. Rare states of particularly high cofluctuation have been shown to reflect fundamentals of intrinsic functional network architecture and to be highly subject-specific. However, it is unclear whether such network-defining states also contribute to individual variations in cognitive abilities - which strongly rely on the interactions among distributed brain regions. By introducing CMEP, a new eigenvector-based prediction framework, we show that as few as 16 temporally separated time frames (< 1.5\% of 10 min resting-state fMRI) can significantly predict individual differences in intelligence (N = 263, p < .001). Against previous expectations, individual's network-defining time frames of particularly high cofluctuation do not predict intelligence. Multiple functional brain networks contribute to the prediction, and all results replicate in an independent sample (N = 831). Our results suggest that although fundamentals of person-specific functional connectomes can be derived from few time frames of highest connectivity, temporally distributed information is necessary to extract information about cognitive abilities. This information is not restricted to specific connectivity states, like network-defining high-cofluctuation states, but rather reflected across the entire length of the brain connectivity time series.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sollfrank2015, author = {Sollfrank, Teresa}, title = {Feedback efficiency and training effects during alpha band modulation over the sensorimotor cortex}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-131769}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Neural oscillations can be measured by electroencephalography (EEG) and these oscillations can be characterized by their frequency, amplitude and phase. The mechanistic properties of neural oscillations and their synchronization are able to explain various aspects of many cognitive functions such as motor control, memory, attention, information transfer across brain regions, segmentation of the sensory input and perception (Arnal and Giraud, 2012). The alpha band frequency is the dominant oscillation in the human brain. This oscillatory activity is found in the scalp EEG at frequencies around 8-13 Hz in all healthy adults (Makeig et al., 2002) and considerable interest has been generated in exploring EEG alpha oscillations with regard to their role in cognitive (Klimesch et al., 1993; Hanselmayr et al., 2005), sensorimotor (Birbaumer, 2006; Sauseng et al., 2009) and physiological (Lehmann, 1971; Niedermeyer, 1997; Kiyatkin, 2010) aspects of human life. The ability to voluntarily regulate the alpha amplitude can be learned with neurofeedback training and offers the possibility to control a brain-computer interface (BCI), a muscle independent interaction channel. BCI research is predominantly focused on the signal processing, the classification and the algorithms necessary to translate brain signals into control commands than on the person interacting with the technical system. The end-user must be properly trained to be able to successfully use the BCI and factors such as task instructions, training, and especially feedback can therefore play an important role in learning to control a BCI (Neumann and K{\"u}bler, 2003; Pfurtscheller et al., 2006, 2007; Allison and Neuper, 2010; Friedrich et al., 2012; Kaufmann et al., 2013; Lotte et al., 2013). The main purpose of this thesis was to investigate how end-users can efficiently be trained to perform alpha band modulation recorded over their sensorimotor cortex. The herein presented work comprises three studies with healthy participants and participants with schizophrenia focusing on the effects of feedback and training time on cortical activation patterns and performance. In the first study, the application of a realistic visual feedback to support end-users in developing a concrete feeling of kinesthetic motor imagery was tested in 2D and 3D visualization modality during a single training session. Participants were able to elicit the typical event-related desynchronisation responses over sensorimotor cortex in both conditions but the most significant decrease in the alpha band power was obtained following the three-dimensional realistic visualization. The second study strengthen the hypothesis that an enriched visual feedback with information about the quality of the input signal supports an easier approach for motor imagery based BCI control and can help to enhance performance. Significantly better performance levels were measurable during five online training sessions in the groups with enriched feedback as compared to a conventional simple visual feedback group, without significant differences in performance between the unimodal (visual) and multimodal (auditory-visual) feedback modality. Furthermore, the last study, in which people with schizophrenia participated in multiple sessions with simple feedback, demonstrated that these patients can learn to voluntarily regulate their alpha band. Compared to the healthy group they required longer training times and could not achieve performance levels as high as the control group. Nonetheless, alpha neurofeedback training lead to a constant increase of the alpha resting power across all 20 training session. To date only little is known about the effects of feedback and training time on BCI performance and cortical activation patterns. The presented work contributes to the evidence that healthy individuals can benefit from enriched feedback: A realistic presentation can support participants in getting a concrete feeling of motor imagery and enriched feedback, which instructs participants about the quality of their input signal can give support while learning to control the BCI. This thesis demonstrates that people with schizophrenia can learn to gain control of their alpha oscillations recorded over the sensorimotor cortex when participating in sufficient training sessions. In conclusion, this thesis improved current motor imagery BCI feedback protocols and enhanced our understanding of the interplay between feedback and BCI performance.}, subject = {Neurofeedback}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Pohl2011, author = {Pohl, Carsten}, title = {Feature processing and feature integration in unconscious processing : A Study with chess novices and experts}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-67190}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The scope of the present work encompasses the influence of experience (i.e. expertise) for feature processing in unconscious information processing. In the introduction, I describe the subliminal priming paradigm, a method to examine how stimuli, we are not aware of, nonetheless influence our actions. The activation of semantic response categories, the impact of learned stimulus-response links, and the action triggering through programmed stimulus-response links are the main three hypotheses to explain unconscious response activation. Besides, the congruence of perceptual features can also influence subliminal priming. On the basis of the features location and form, I look at evidence that exists so far for perceptual priming. The second part of the introduction reviews the literature showing perceptual superiority of experts. This is illustrated exemplarily with three domains of expertise - playing action video games, which constitutes a general form of perceptual expertise, radiology, a more natural form of expertise, and expertise in the game of chess, which is seen as the Drosophila of psychology. In the empirical section, I report nine experiments that applied a subliminal check detection task. Experiment 1 shows subliminal response priming for chess experts but not for chess novices. Thus, chess experts are able to judge unconsciously presented chess configurations as checking or nonchecking. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that acquired perceptual chunks, and not the ability to integrate perceptual features unconsciously, was responsible for unconscious check detection, because experts' priming does not occur for simpler chess configurations which afforded an unfamiliar classification. With a more complex chess detection task, Experiment 3 indicates that chess experts are not able to process perceptual features in parallel or alternatively, that chess experts are not able to form specific expectations which are obviously necessary to elicit priming if many chess displays are applied. The aim of Experiment 4-9 was to further elaborate on unconscious processing of the single features location and form in novices. In Experiment 4 and 5, perceptual priming according the congruence of the single features location and form outperformed semantically-based response priming. Experiment 6 and 7 show that (in contrast to form priming) the observed location priming effect is rather robust and is also evident for an unexpected form or colour. In Experiment 8, location and form priming, which was additionally related to response priming, were directly compared to each other. Location priming was again stronger than form priming. Finally, Experiment 9 demonstrates that with the subliminal check detection task it is possible to induce response priming in novices when the confounding influences of location and form are absent. In the General discussion, I first summarized the findings. Second, I discuss possible underlying mechanisms of different subliminal perception in experts and novices. Third, I focus on subliminal perceptual priming in novices, especially on the impact of the features location and form. And finally, I discuss a framework, the action trigger account that integrates the different results of the present work.}, subject = {Bewusstsein}, language = {en} } @article{GrappEllKiermeieretal.2022, author = {Grapp, Miriam and Ell, Johanna and Kiermeier, Senta and Haun, Markus W. and K{\"u}bler, Andrea and Friederich, Hans-Christoph and Maatouk, Imad}, title = {Feasibility study of a self-guided internet-based intervention for family caregivers of patients with cancer (OAse)}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {12}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-022-21157-9}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-300537}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Despite high levels of distress, family caregivers of patients with cancer rarely seek psychosocial support and Internet-based interventions (IBIs) are a promising approach to reduce some access barriers. Therefore, we developed a self-guided IBI for family caregivers of patients with cancer (OAse), which, in addition to patients' spouses, also addresses other family members (e.g., adult children, parents). This study aimed to determine the feasibility of OAse (recruitment, dropout, adherence, participant satisfaction). Secondary outcomes were caregivers' self-efficacy, emotional state, and supportive care needs. N = 41 family caregivers participated in the study (female: 65\%), mostly spouses (71\%), followed by children (20\%), parents (7\%), and friends (2\%). Recruitment (47\%), retention (68\%), and adherence rates (76\% completed at least 4 of 6 lessons) support the feasibility of OAse. Overall, the results showed a high degree of overall participant satisfaction (96\%). There were no significant pre-post differences in secondary outcome criteria, but a trend toward improvement in managing difficult interactions/emotions (p = .06) and depression/anxiety (p = .06). Although the efficacy of the intervention remains to be investigated, our results suggest that OAse can be well implemented in caregivers' daily lives and has the potential to improve family caregivers' coping strategies.}, language = {en} } @article{MitschkeEder2021, author = {Mitschke, Vanessa and Eder, Andreas B.}, title = {Facing the enemy: Spontaneous facial reactions towards suffering opponents}, series = {Psychophysiology}, volume = {58}, journal = {Psychophysiology}, number = {8}, doi = {10.1111/psyp.13835}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259672}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The suffering of an opponent is an important social affective cue that modulates how aggressive interactions progress. To investigate the affective consequences of opponent suffering on a revenge seeking individual, two experiments (total N = 82) recorded facial muscle activity while participants observed the reaction of a provoking opponent to a (retaliatory) sound punishment in a laboratory aggression task. Opponents reacted via prerecorded videos either with facial displays of pain, sadness, or neutrality. Results indicate that participants enjoyed seeing the provocateur suffer: indexed by a coordinated muscle response featuring an increase in zygomaticus major (and orbicularis oculi muscle) activation accompanied by a decrease in corrugator supercilii activation. This positive facial reaction was only shown while a provoking opponent expressed pain. Expressions of sadness, and administration of sound blasts to nonprovoking opponents, did not modulate facial activity. Overall, the results suggest that revenge-seeking individuals enjoy observing the offender suffer, which could represent schadenfreude or satisfaction of having succeeded in the retaliation goal.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Menne2020, author = {Menne, Isabelle M.}, title = {Facing Social Robots - Emotional Reactions towards Social Robots}, edition = {1. Auflage}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, isbn = {978-3-95826-120-4}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-121-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-187131}, school = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, pages = {XXIV, 201}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Ein Army Colonel empfindet Mitleid mit einem Roboter, der versuchsweise Landminen entsch{\"a}rft und deklariert den Test als inhuman (Garreau, 2007). Roboter bekommen milit{\"a}rische Bef{\"o}rderungen, Beerdigungen und Ehrenmedaillen (Garreau, 2007; Carpenter, 2013). Ein Schildkr{\"o}tenroboter wird entwickelt, um Kindern beizubringen, Roboter gut zu behandeln (Ackermann, 2018). Der humanoide Roboter Sophia wurde erst k{\"u}rzlich Saudi-Arabischer Staatsb{\"u}rger und es gibt bereits Debatten, ob Roboter Rechte bekommen sollen (Delcker, 2018). Diese und {\"a}hnliche Entwicklungen zeigen schon jetzt die Bedeutsamkeit von Robotern und die emotionale Wirkung die diese ausl{\"o}sen. Dennoch scheinen sich diese emotionalen Reaktionen auf einer anderen Ebene abzuspielen, gemessen an Kommentaren in Internetforen. Dort ist oftmals die Rede davon, wieso jemand {\"u}berhaupt emotional auf einen Roboter reagieren kann. Tats{\"a}chlich ist es, rein rational gesehen, schwierig zu erkl{\"a}ren, warum Menschen mit einer leblosen (‚mindless') Maschine mitf{\"u}hlen sollten. Und dennoch zeugen nicht nur oben genannte Berichte, sondern auch erste wissenschaftliche Studien (z.B. Rosenthal- von der P{\"u}tten et al., 2013) von dem emotionalen Einfluss den Roboter auf Menschen haben k{\"o}nnen. Trotz der Bedeutsamkeit der Erforschung emotionaler Reaktionen auf Roboter existieren bislang wenige wissenschaftliche Studien hierzu. Tats{\"a}chlich identifizierten Kappas, Krumhuber und K{\"u}ster (2013) die systematische Analyse und Evaluation sozialer Reaktionen auf Roboter als eine der gr{\"o}ßten Herausforderungen der affektiven Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Nach Scherer (2001; 2005) bestehen Emotionen aus der Koordination und Synchronisation verschiedener Komponenten, die miteinander verkn{\"u}pft sind. Motorischer Ausdruck (Mimik), subjektives Erleben, Handlungstendenzen, physiologische und kognitive Komponenten geh{\"o}ren hierzu. Um eine Emotion vollst{\"a}ndig zu erfassen, m{\"u}ssten all diese Komponenten gemessen werden, jedoch wurde eine solch umfassende Analyse bisher noch nie durchgef{\"u}hrt (Scherer, 2005). Haupts{\"a}chlich werden Frageb{\"o}gen eingesetzt (vgl. Bethel \& Murphy, 2010), die allerdings meist nur das subjektive Erleben abfragen. Bakeman und Gottman (1997) geben sogar an, dass nur etwa 8\% der psychologischen Forschung auf Verhaltensdaten basiert, obwohl die Psychologie traditionell als das ‚Studium von Psyche und Verhalten' (American Psychological Association, 2018) definiert wird. Die Messung anderer Emotionskomponenten ist selten. Zudem sind Frageb{\"o}gen mit einer Reihe von Nachteilen behaftet (Austin, Deary, Gibson, McGregor, Dent, 1998; Fan et al., 2006; Wilcox, 2011). Bethel und Murphy (2010) als auch Arkin und Moshkina (2015) pl{\"a}dieren f{\"u}r einen Multi-Methodenansatz um ein umfassenderes Verst{\"a}ndnis von affektiven Prozessen in der Mensch-Roboter Interaktion zu erlangen. Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Dissertation ist es daher, mithilfe eines Multi-Methodenansatzes verschiedene Komponenten von Emotionen (motorischer Ausdruck, subjektive Gef{\"u}hlskomponente, Handlungstendenzen) zu erfassen und so zu einem vollst{\"a}ndigeren und tiefgreifenderem Bild emotionaler Prozesse auf Roboter beizutragen. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, wurden drei experimentelle Studien mit insgesamt 491 Teilnehmern durchgef{\"u}hrt. Mit unterschiedlichen Ebenen der „apparent reality" (Frijda, 2007) sowie Macht / Kontrolle {\"u}ber die Situation (vgl. Scherer \& Ellgring, 2007) wurde untersucht, inwiefern sich Intensit{\"a}t und Qualit{\"a}t emotionaler Reaktionen auf Roboter {\"a}ndern und welche weiteren Faktoren (Aussehen des Roboters, emotionale Expressivit{\"a}t des Roboters, Behandlung des Roboters, Autorit{\"a}tsstatus des Roboters) Einfluss aus{\"u}ben. Experiment 1 basierte auf Videos, die verschiedene Arten von Robotern (tier{\"a}hnlich, anthropomorph, maschinenartig), die entweder emotional expressiv waren oder nicht (an / aus) in verschiedenen Situationen (freundliche Behandlung des Roboters vs. Misshandlung) zeigten. Frageb{\"o}gen {\"u}ber selbstberichtete Gef{\"u}hle und die motorisch-expressive Komponente von Emotionen: Mimik (vgl. Scherer, 2005) wurden analysiert. Das Facial Action Coding System (Ekman, Friesen, \& Hager, 2002), die umfassendste und am weitesten verbreitete Methode zur objektiven Untersuchung von Mimik, wurde hierf{\"u}r verwendet. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die Probanden Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke (Action Unit [AU] 12 und AUs, die mit positiven Emotionen assoziiert sind, sowie AU 4 und AUs, die mit negativen Emotionen assoziiert sind) sowie selbstberichtete Gef{\"u}hle in {\"U}bereinstimmung mit der Valenz der in den Videos gezeigten Behandlung zeigten. Bei emotional expressiven Robotern konnten st{\"a}rkere emotionale Reaktionen beobachtet werden als bei nicht-expressiven Robotern. Der tier{\"a}hnliche Roboter Pleo erfuhr in der Misshandlungs-Bedingung am meisten Mitleid, Empathie, negative Gef{\"u}hle und Traurigkeit, gefolgt vom anthropomorphen Roboter Reeti und am wenigsten f{\"u}r den maschinenartigen Roboter Roomba. Roomba wurde am meisten Antipathie zugeschrieben. Die Ergebnisse kn{\"u}pfen an fr{\"u}here Forschungen an (z.B. Krach et al., 2008; Menne \& Schwab, 2018; Riek et al., 2009; Rosenthal-von der P{\"u}tten et al., 2013) und zeigen das Potenzial der Mimik f{\"u}r eine nat{\"u}rliche Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Experiment 2 und Experiment 3 {\"u}bertrugen die klassischen Experimente von Milgram (1963; 1974) zum Thema Gehorsam in den Kontext der Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Die Gehorsamkeitsstudien von Milgram wurden als sehr geeignet erachtet, um das Ausmaß der Empathie gegen{\"u}ber einem Roboter im Verh{\"a}ltnis zum Gehorsam gegen{\"u}ber einem Roboter zu untersuchen. Experiment 2 unterschied sich von Experiment 3 in der Ebene der „apparent reality" (Frijda, 2007): in Anlehnung an Milgram (1963) wurde eine rein text-basierte Studie (Experiment 2) einer live Mensch-Roboter Interaktion (Experiment 3) gegen{\"u}bergestellt. W{\"a}hrend die abh{\"a}ngigen Variablen von Experiment 2 aus den Selbstberichten emotionaler Gef{\"u}hle sowie Einsch{\"a}tzungen des hypothetischen Verhaltens bestand, erfasste Experiment 3 subjektive Gef{\"u}hle sowie reales Verhalten (Reaktionszeit: Dauer des Z{\"o}gerns; Gehorsamkeitsrate; Anzahl der Proteste; Mimik) der Teilnehmer. Beide Experimente untersuchten den Einfluss der Faktoren „Autorit{\"a}tsstatus" (hoch / niedrig) des Roboters, der die Befehle erteilt (Nao) und die emotionale Expressivit{\"a}t (an / aus) des Roboters, der die Strafen erh{\"a}lt (Pleo). Die subjektiven Gef{\"u}hle der Teilnehmer aus Experiment 2 unterschieden sich zwischen den Gruppen nicht. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus gaben nur wenige Teilnehmer (20.2\%) an, dass sie den „Opfer"-Roboter definitiv bestrafen w{\"u}rden. Ein {\"a}hnliches Ergebnis fand auch Milgram (1963). Das reale Verhalten von Versuchsteilnehmern in Milgrams' Labor-Experiment unterschied sich jedoch von Einsch{\"a}tzungen hypothetischen Verhaltens von Teilnehmern, denen Milgram das Experiment nur beschrieben hatte. Ebenso lassen Kommentare von Teilnehmern aus Experiment 2 darauf schließen, dass das beschriebene Szenario m{\"o}glicherweise als fiktiv eingestuft wurde und Einsch{\"a}tzungen von hypothetischem Verhalten daher kein realistisches Bild realen Verhaltens gegen{\"u}ber Roboter in einer live Interaktion zeichnen k{\"o}nnen. Daher wurde ein weiteres Experiment (Experiment 3) mit einer Live Interaktion mit einem Roboter als Autorit{\"a}tsfigur (hoher Autorit{\"a}tsstatus vs. niedriger) und einem weiteren Roboter als „Opfer" (emotional expressiv vs. nicht expressiv) durchgef{\"u}hrt. Es wurden Gruppenunterschiede in Frageb{\"o}gen {\"u}ber emotionale Reaktionen gefunden. Dem emotional expressiven Roboter wurde mehr Empathie entgegengebracht und es wurde mehr Freude und weniger Antipathie berichtet als gegen{\"u}ber einem nicht-expressiven Roboter. Außerdem konnten Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke beobachtet werden, die mit negativen Emotionen assoziiert sind w{\"a}hrend Probanden Nao's Befehl ausf{\"u}hrten und Pleo bestraften. Obwohl Probanden tendenziell l{\"a}nger z{\"o}gerten, wenn sie einen emotional expressiven Roboter bestrafen sollten und der Befehl von einem Roboter mit niedrigem Autorit{\"a}tsstatus kam, wurde dieser Unterschied nicht signifikant. Zudem waren alle bis auf einen Probanden gehorsam und bestraften Pleo, wie vom Nao Roboter befohlen. Dieses Ergebnis steht in starkem Gegensatz zu dem selbstberichteten hypothetischen Verhalten der Teilnehmer aus Experiment 2 und unterst{\"u}tzt die Annahme, dass die Einsch{\"a}tzungen von hypothetischem Verhalten in einem Mensch-Roboter-Gehorsamkeitsszenario nicht zuverl{\"a}ssig sind f{\"u}r echtes Verhalten in einer live Mensch-Roboter Interaktion. Situative Variablen, wie z.B. der Gehorsam gegen{\"u}ber Autorit{\"a}ten, sogar gegen{\"u}ber einem Roboter, scheinen st{\"a}rker zu sein als Empathie f{\"u}r einen Roboter. Dieser Befund kn{\"u}pft an andere Studien an (z.B. Bartneck \& Hu, 2008; Geiskkovitch et al., 2016; Menne, 2017; Slater et al., 2006), er{\"o}ffnet neue Erkenntnisse zum Einfluss von Robotern, zeigt aber auch auf, dass die Wahl einer Methode um Empathie f{\"u}r einen Roboter zu evozieren eine nicht triviale Angelegenheit ist (vgl. Geiskkovitch et al., 2016; vgl. Milgram, 1965). Insgesamt st{\"u}tzen die Ergebnisse die Annahme, dass die emotionalen Reaktionen auf Roboter tiefgreifend sind und sich sowohl auf der subjektiven Ebene als auch in der motorischen Komponente zeigen. Menschen reagieren emotional auf einen Roboter, der emotional expressiv ist und eher weniger wie eine Maschine aussieht. Sie empfinden Empathie und negative Gef{\"u}hle, wenn ein Roboter misshandelt wird und diese emotionalen Reaktionen spiegeln sich in der Mimik. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus unterscheiden sich die Einsch{\"a}tzungen von Menschen {\"u}ber ihr eigenes hypothetisches Verhalten von ihrem tats{\"a}chlichen Verhalten, weshalb videobasierte oder live Interaktionen zur Analyse realer Verhaltensreaktionen empfohlen wird. Die Ankunft sozialer Roboter in der Gesellschaft f{\"u}hrt zu nie dagewesenen Fragen und diese Dissertation liefert einen ersten Schritt zum Verst{\"a}ndnis dieser neuen Herausforderungen.}, subject = {Roboter}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mitschke2023, author = {Mitschke, Vanessa}, title = {Facing Enemies. Modulation of Revenge Interactions based on Opponent State Indicators of Suffering}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-29938}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-299389}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Research on revenge often treats vengeful acts as singular one-way experiences, an approach which fails to account for the social nature and functions of revenge. This dissertation aims to integrate emotional punishment reactions into dynamic revenge sequences to investigate the affective and cognitive consequences of revenge within a social interaction. Exacting revenge can evoke intense affective consequences, from feelings of guilt to the genuine enjoyment of the suffering of others. In Chapter 2, affective responses towards suffering opponents and the regulation of aggression based on the appraisal of distinct suffering indicators were investigated. Results indicate that the observation of opponent pain evokes positive affect (measured via facial muscle contractions during the observation), which is followed by a downregulation of subsequent punishment. Both, positive affective reactions and the downregulation of punishment, were only observed following pain and not sadness expressions. Empathic distress, indexed by negative affective reactions, was only present following the observation of pain in non-provoking opponents. Showcasing the modulation of empathy related processes due to provocation and competition. In Chapter 3, a significant escalation of punishment, when being confronted with Schadenfreude, was observed. Results are interpreted as supporting the assumption that opponent monitoring processes inform subsequent action selection. The observation of opponent smiles led to imitation behavior (facial mimicry), which was partially attenuated due to previous provocation. The different functions of smile mimicry in the context of the aggressive competitive setting are discussed as containing simulation aspects (to aid in opponent understanding) and as a potential mirroring of dominance gestures, to avoid submission. In an additional series of studies, which are presented in Chapter 4, changes in memory of opponent faces following vengeful encounters were measured. Based on provocation, and punishment outcomes (pain \& anger), face memory was distorted, resulting in more positive representations of opponents that expressed pain. These results are discussed as evidence of the impact of outcome appraisals in the formation of opponent representations and are theorized to aid empathy avoidance in future interactions. The comparison of desired and observed opponent states, is theorized to result in appraisals of the punishment outcomes, which evoke affective states, inform the action selection of subsequent punishments, and are integrated into the representation of the opponent in memory. Overall, the results indicate that suffering cues that are congruent with the chosen punishment action are appraised as positive, evoking an increase in positive affect. The emergence of positive affect during the observation of successful aggressive actions supports recent theories about the chronification of aggressive behavior based on reinforcement learning. To allow positive affect to emerge, affective empathic responses, such as distress, are theorized to be suppressed to facilitate the goal attainment process. The suffering of the opponent constitutes the proximate goal during revenge taking, which highlights the importance of a theoretical differentiation of proximate and ultimate goals in revenge to allow for a deeper understanding of the underlying motives of complex revenge behavior.}, subject = {Aggression}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weiland2010, author = {Weiland, Romy}, title = {Facial reactions in response to gustatory and olfactory stimuli in healthy adults, patients with eating disorders, and patients with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-51759}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2010}, abstract = {The aim of this project was to investigate whether reflex-like innate facial reactions to tastes and odors are altered in patients with eating disorders. Qualitatively different tastes and odors have been found to elicit specific facial expressions in newborns. This specificity in newborns is characterized by positive facial reactions in response to pleasant stimuli and by negative facial reactions in response to unpleasant stimuli. It is, however, unclear, whether these specific facial displays remain stable during ontogeny (1). Despite the fact that several studies had shown that taste-and odor-elicited facial reactions remain quite stable across a human's life-span, the specificity of research questions, as well as different research methods, allow only limited comparisons between studies. Moreover, the gustofacial response patterns might be altered in pathological eating behavior (2). To date, however, the question of whether dysfunctional eating behavior might alter facial activity in response to tastes and odors has not been addressed. Furthermore, changes in facial activity might be linked to deficient inhibitory facial control (3). To investigate these three research questions, facial reactions in response to tastes and odors were assessed. Facial reactions were analyzed using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS, Ekman \& Friesen, 1978; Ekman, Friesen, \& Hager, 2002) and electromyography.}, subject = {Mimik}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Likowski2011, author = {Likowski, Katja U.}, title = {Facial mimicry, valence evaluation or emotional reaction? Mechanisms underlying the modulation of congruent and incongruent facial reactions to emotional facial expressions}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-65013}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Humans have the tendency to react with congruent facial expressions when looking at an emotional face. Interestingly, recent studies revealed that several situational moderators can modulate strength and direction of these reactions. In current literature, congruent facial reactions to emotional facial expressions are usually described in terms of "facial mimicry" and interpreted as imitative behavior. Thereby, facial mimicry is understood as a process of pure motor resonance resulting from overlapping representations for the perception and the execution of a certain behavior. Motor mimicry, however, is not the only mechanism by which congruent facial reactions can occur. Numerous studies have shown that facial muscles also indicate valence evaluations. Furthermore, facial reactions are also determined by our current emotional state. These thoughts suggest that the modulation of congruent facial reactions to emotional expressions can be based on both motor and affective processes. However, a separation of motor and affective processes in facial reactions is hard to make. None of the published studies that tried that could show a clear involvement of one or the other process so far. Therefore, the aim of the present line of experiments is to shed light on the involvement of motor and affective processes in the modulation of congruent and incongruent facial reactions. Specifically, the experiments are designed to test the assumptions of a working model on mechanisms underlying the modulation of facial reactions and to examine the neuronal correlates involved in such modulations with a broad range of methods. Experiments 1 and 2 experimentally manipulate motor and affective mechanisms by using specific contexts. In the chose settings, motor process models and affective models of valence evaluations make competing predictions about resulting facial reactions. The results of Experiment 1 did not support the involvement of valence evaluations in the modulation of congruent and incongruent facial reactions to facial expressions. The results of Experiments 2a and 2b suggest that emotional reactions are the predominant determinant of facial reactions. Experiment 3 aimed at identifying the psychological mediators that indicate motor and affective mechanisms. Motor mechanisms are assessed via the psychological mediator empathy. Additionally, as a psychological mediator for clarifying the role of affective mechanisms subjective measures of the participants' current emotional state in response to the presented facial expressions were taken. Mediational analyses show that the modulation of congruent facial reactions can be explained by a decrease of state cognitive empathy. This suggests that motor processes mediate the effects of the context on congruent facial reactions. However, such a mechanism could not be observed for incongruent reactions. Instead, it was found that affective processes in terms of emotional reactions are involved in incongruent facial reactions. Additionally, the involvement of a third class of processes, namely strategic processes, was observed. Experiment 4 aimed at investigating whether a change in the strength of perception can explain the contextual modulation of facial reactions to facial expressions. According to motor process models the strength of perception is directly related to the strength of the spread of activation from perception to the execution of an action and thereby to the strength of the resulting mimicry behavior. The results suggest that motor mechanisms were involved in the modulation of congruent facial reactions by attitudes. Such an involvement of motor mechanisms could, however, not be observed for the modulation of incongruent reactions. In Experiment 5 the investigation of neuronal correlates shall be extended to the observation of involved brain areas via fMRI. The proposed brain areas depicting motor areas were prominent parts of the mirror neuron system. The regions of interest depicting areas involved in the affective processing were amygdala, insula, striatum. Furthermore, it could be shown that changes in the activity of parts of the MNS are related to the modulation of congruent facial reactions. Further on, results revealed the involvement of affective processes in the modulation of incongruent facial reactions. In sum, these results lead to a revised working model on the mechanisms underlying the modulation of facial reactions to emotional facial expressions. The results of the five experiments provide strong support for the involvement of motor mechanisms in congruent facial reactions. No evidence was found for the involvement of motor mechanisms in the occurrence or modulation of incongruent facial reactions. Furthermore, no evidence was found for the involvement of valence evaluations in the modulation of facial reactions. Instead, emotional reactions were found to be involved in the modulation of mainly incongruent facial reactions.}, subject = {Gef{\"u}hl}, language = {en} } @article{SeibtMuehlbergerLikowskietal.2015, author = {Seibt, Beate and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Likowski, Katja U. and Weyers, Peter}, title = {Facial mimicry in its social setting}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1122}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01122}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-151415}, year = {2015}, abstract = {In interpersonal encounters, individuals often exhibit changes in their own facial expressions in response to emotional expressions of another person. Such changes are often called facial mimicry. While this tendency first appeared to be an automatic tendency of the perceiver to show the same emotional expression as the sender, evidence is now accumulating that situation, person, and relationship jointly determine whether and for which emotions such congruent facial behavior is shown. We review the evidence regarding the moderating influence of such factors on facial mimicry with a focus on understanding the meaning of facial responses to emotional expressions in a particular constellation. From this, we derive recommendations for a research agenda with a stronger focus on the most common forms of encounters, actual interactions with known others, and on assessing potential mediators of facial mimicry. We conclude that facial mimicry is modulated by many factors: attention deployment and sensitivity, detection of valence, emotional feelings, and social motivations. We posit that these are the more proximal causes of changes in facial mimicry due to changes in its social setting.}, language = {en} } @article{LikowskiMuehlbergerGerdesetal.2012, author = {Likowski, Katja U. and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Gerdes, Antje B. M. and Wieser, Mattias J. and Pauli, Paul and Weyers, Peter}, title = {Facial mimicry and the mirror neuron system: simultaneous acquisition of facial electromyography and functional magnetic resonance imaging}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-75813}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Numerous studies have shown that humans automatically react with congruent facial reactions, i.e., facial mimicry, when seeing a vis-{\´a}-vis' facial expressions. The current experiment is the first investigating the neuronal structures responsible for differences in the occurrence of such facial mimicry reactions by simultaneously measuring BOLD and facial EMG in an MRI scanner. Therefore, 20 female students viewed emotional facial expressions (happy, sad, and angry) of male and female avatar characters. During picture presentation, the BOLD signal as well as M. zygomaticus major and M. corrugator supercilii activity were recorded simultaneously. Results show prototypical patterns of facial mimicry after correction for MR-related artifacts: enhanced M. zygomaticus major activity in response to happy and enhanced M. corrugator supercilii activity in response to sad and angry expressions. Regression analyses show that these congruent facial reactions correlate significantly with activations in the IFG, SMA, and cerebellum. Stronger zygomaticus reactions to happy faces were further associated to increased activities in the caudate, MTG, and PCC. Corrugator reactions to angry expressions were further correlated with the hippocampus, insula, and STS. Results are discussed in relation to core and extended models of the mirror neuron system (MNS).}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @article{Ellgring1989, author = {Ellgring, Johann Heinrich}, title = {Facial expression as a behavioral indicator of emotional states}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-58753}, year = {1989}, abstract = {This article gives an overview of possibilities for the assessment offacial behavior. With regard to validity, results from a longitudinal study of 36 depressed patients and nine controls as weil as often schizophrenic patients and their relatives will be referred to. These results are used to illustrate the following principles which have to be taken into account when studying facial behavior: a) communication strongly facilitates facial expression, b) activation of facial behavior follows the "principle of least effort", and c) the principle of individual specificity applies to the association of nonverbal behavior and mood states. Making allowance for these principles has, among others, consequences a) for situations or conditions under which to asses behavior (specifically conditions of communication), b) for data analysis (e.g., dealing with frequent and rare events), and c) for empirical or experimental strategies (e.g., aggregation of single-case longitudinal comparisons). From the results on facial behavior during depression it can be concluded that the nonverbal reaction tendencies of endogenous and neurotic depressed patients differ. Moreover, the differential behavioral pattems observed cast doubt on the assumption of a homogeneity of affects in depression. Taking into account the conditions which govern it, facial behavior has proved to be a valid and, especially, a differential indicator for pathoIogic affective states and their changes. Given the fact that a psychiatric illness generally incorporates emotional problems it is more than surprising that little attention has been paid to the systematic study of emotional behavior. Some of the reasons for this will be clarified in the following.}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @misc{WieserBrosch2012, author = {Wieser, Mattias J. and Brosch, Tobias}, title = {Faces in context: A review and systematization of contextual influences on affective face processing}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-76351}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Facial expressions are of eminent importance for social interaction as they convey information about other individuals' emotions and social intentions. According to the predominant "basic emotion" approach, the perception of emotion in faces is based on the rapid, auto- matic categorization of prototypical, universal expressions. Consequently, the perception of facial expressions has typically been investigated using isolated, de-contextualized, static pictures of facial expressions that maximize the distinction between categories. However, in everyday life, an individual's face is not perceived in isolation, but almost always appears within a situational context, which may arise from other people, the physical environment surrounding the face, as well as multichannel information from the sender. Furthermore, situational context may be provided by the perceiver, including already present social infor- mation gained from affective learning and implicit processing biases such as race bias.Thus, the perception of facial expressions is presumably always influenced by contextual vari- ables. In this comprehensive review, we aim at (1) systematizing the contextual variables that may influence the perception of facial expressions and (2) summarizing experimental paradigms and findings that have been used to investigate these influences. The studies reviewed here demonstrate that perception and neural processing of facial expressions are substantially modified by contextual information, including verbal, visual, and auditory information presented together with the face as well as knowledge or processing biases already present in the observer. These findings further challenge the assumption of auto- matic, hardwired categorical emotion extraction mechanisms predicted by basic emotion theories. Taking into account a recent model on face processing, we discuss where and when these different contextual influences may take place, thus outlining potential avenues in future research.}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @article{GrussWieserSchweinbergeretal.2012, author = {Gruss, L. Forest and Wieser, Matthias J. and Schweinberger, Stefan R. and Keil, Andreas}, title = {Face-evoked steady-state visual potentials: effects of presentation rate and face inversion}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, number = {316}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2012.00316}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-134399}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Face processing can be explored using electrophysiological methods. Research with event-related potentials has demonstrated the so-called face inversion effect, in which the N170 component is enhanced in amplitude and latency to inverted, compared to upright, faces. The present study explored the extent to which repetitive lower-level visual cortical engagement, reflected in flicker steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs), shows similar amplitude enhancement to face inversion. We also asked if inversion-related ssVEP modulation would be dependent on the stimulation rate at which upright and inverted faces were flickered. To this end, multiple tagging frequencies were used (5, 10, 15, and 20 Hz) across two studies (n=21, n=18). Results showed that amplitude enhancement of the ssVEP for inverted faces was found solely at higher stimulation frequencies (15 and 20 Hz). By contrast, lower frequency ssVEPs did not show this inversion effect. These findings suggest that stimulation frequency affects the sensitivity of ssVEPs to face inversion.}, language = {en} } @article{GutzeitWellerMuthetal.2024, author = {Gutzeit, Julian and Weller, Lisa and Muth, Felicitas and K{\"u}rten, Jens and Huestegge, Lynn}, title = {Eye did this! Sense of agency in eye movements}, series = {Acta Psychologica}, volume = {243}, journal = {Acta Psychologica}, doi = {10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104121}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-349819}, year = {2024}, abstract = {This study investigates the sense of agency (SoA) for saccades with implicit and explicit agency measures. In two eye tracking experiments, participants moved their eyes towards on-screen stimuli that subsequently changed color. Participants then either reproduced the temporal interval between saccade and color-change (Experiment 1) or reported the time points of these events with an auditory Libet clock (Experiment 2) to measure temporal binding effects as implicit indices of SoA. Participants were either made to believe to exert control over the color change or not (agency manipulation). Explicit ratings indicated that the manipulation of causal beliefs and hence agency was successful. However, temporal binding was only evident for caused effects, and only when a sufficiently sensitive procedure was used (auditory Libet clock). This suggests a feebler connection between temporal binding and SoA than previously proposed. The results also provide evidence for a relatively fast acquisition of sense of agency for previously never experienced types of action-effect associations. This indicates that the underlying processes of action control may be rooted in more intricate and adaptable cognitive models than previously thought. Oculomotor SoA as addressed in the present study presumably represents an important cognitive foundation of gaze-based social interaction (social sense of agency) or gaze-based human-machine interaction scenarios. Public significance statement: In this study, sense of agency for eye movements in the non-social domain is investigated in detail, using both explicit and implicit measures. Therefore, it offers novel and specific insights into comprehending sense of agency concerning effects induced by eye movements, as well as broader insights into agency pertaining to entirely newly acquired types of action-effect associations. Oculomotor sense of agency presumably represents an important cognitive foundation of gaze-based social interaction (social agency) or gaze-based human-machine interaction scenarios. Due to peculiarities of the oculomotor domain such as the varying degree of volitional control, eye movements could provide new information regarding more general theories of sense of agency in future research.}, language = {en} } @article{SchneiderBjorklund1992, author = {Schneider, Wolfgang and Bjorklund, David F.}, title = {Expertise, aptitude, and strategic remembering}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-62175}, year = {1992}, abstract = {Second- and fourth-grade children were classified according to their knowledge of soccer (experts vs. novices) and IQ (high vs. low), and given 2 sort-recall tasks. One task included items related to the game of soccer and the other included items from familiar natural language categories. Previous research has shown that expertise in a snbject can compensate for low levels of performance on text comprehension tasks. Our results, the flrst examing the effects of both expertise and intelligence on a strategic memory task, were that soccer expert children recalled more items on the soccer list bnt not on the nonsoccer list than soccer novice children. However, soccer expertise did not modify a significant effect of IQ level, with high-IQ children recalling more than low-IQ children for all contrasts. Interest in soccer was found to be related to expertise but did not contribute to differences in memory performance. The results demonstrate that the knowledge base plays an important role in children's memory, but that domain knowledge cannot fully eliminate the effects of IQ on sort-recall tasks using domain-related materials. That is, although rich domain knowledge seemed to compensate for low aptitude, in that low-aptitude experts performed at the level of high-aptitude novices, its effects were not strong enough to eliminate performance differences between highand low-aptitude soccer experts.}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Klinke2022, author = {Klinke, Christopher Matthias}, title = {Experimental investigation of the effect of distal stress induction on threat conditioning in humans}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-22556}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-225562}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Stress constitutes a major risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders, such as PTSD and anxiety disorders, by shifting the brain into a state of sensitization and makes it more vulnerable when being exposed to further aversive events. This was experimentally in-vestigated in rodents by examining the effect of a distal stress induction on threat conditioning, where stress impaired extinction learning and caused spontaneous recovery. However, this effect has never been experimentally investigated in humans, so far. Thus, the aim of this dissertation was to investigate the effect of distal stress on threat conditioning in humans. Therefore, two subsequent studies were conducted. For both studies, the threat conditioning paradigm comprised threat acquisition, extinction learning, and re-extinction. In the threat acquisition phase, two geometrical shapes were used as conditioned stimulus (CS), from which one (CS+) was paired with a painful electric stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US), but not the other one (CS-). During extinction learning 24 h later and re-extinction seventeen days later, CSs were again presented but without any US delivery. In Study 1, 69 participants underwent either a stress (socially evaluated cold pressor test; SECPT) or sham protocol 10 days prior to threat conditioning. Furthermore, context effects were examined by placing the stress protocol in the same context (context-A stress, and sham group) or a different context (context-B stress group) than conditioning. Results revealed that the context-A, but not context-B, stress group displayed impaired safety learning (i.e. potenti-ation towards CS-) for startle response during threat acquisition. Moreover, the same stress group showed impaired threat extinction, evident in sustained CS discrimination in valence and arousal ratings during extinction learning, and memory recall. In sum, distal stress on the one hand impaired safety learning during threat conditioning on a level of startle response. On the other hand, stress impaired threat extinction on a level of ratings. Noteworthy, the effect of distal stress was only found when the stressor was placed in the same context as later threat learning. Hence, suggesting that the combination of stressor and stressor-associated context exerted the effect on threat extinction. In Study 2, it was examined if distal stress induction could also have an impact on threat and extinction processes without the necessity of context association. Therefore, the same stress (n = 45) or sham protocol (n = 44) as in Study 1 was conducted in a different context than and 24 h prior to a threat conditioning paradigm. Similar to Study 1, weakened extinction learning was found in fear ratings for the stress (vs. sham) group, which was indicated by persistent CS+/CS- differentiation after the first block of extinction trials. Alterations in safety learning towards the CS- during threat acquisition were only supported by significant correlations between stress measures on the stress day and conditioned startle response of the CS- during acquisition. Taken together, in two subsequent studies this dissertation provided first evidence of impaired threat extinction after distal stress induction in humans. Furthermore, impairments in safety learning, as can be observed in PTSD, were additionally demonstrated. Interestingly, the effects were boosted and more profound when associating the stressor to the later learning context. These results have clinical implications as they can be translated to the notion that prior stress exposure makes an individual more vulnerable for later aversive events.}, subject = {Stress}, language = {en} } @article{EderDignath2019, author = {Eder, Andreas B. and Dignath, David}, title = {Expected value of control and the motivational control of habitual action}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1812}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01812}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-195703}, year = {2019}, abstract = {A hallmark of habitual actions is that, once they are established, they become insensitive to changes in the values of action outcomes. In this article, we review empirical research that examined effects of posttraining changes in outcome values in outcome-selective Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) tasks. This review suggests that cue-instigated action tendencies in these tasks are not affected by weak and/or incomplete revaluation procedures (e.g., selective satiety) and substantially disrupted by a strong and complete devaluation of reinforcers. In a second part, we discuss two alternative models of a motivational control of habitual action: a default-interventionist framework and expected value of control theory. It is argued that the default-interventionist framework cannot solve the problem of an infinite regress (i.e., what controls the controller?). In contrast, expected value of control can explain control of habitual actions with local computations and feedback loops without (implicit) references to control homunculi. It is argued that insensitivity to changes in action outcomes is not an intrinsic design feature of habits but, rather, a function of the cognitive system that controls habitual action tendencies.}, language = {en} } @article{GrevingRichter2018, author = {Greving, Sven and Richter, Tobias}, title = {Examining the testing effect in university teaching: retrievability and question format matter}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {9}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02412}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190802}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Review of learned material is crucial for the learning process. One approach that promises to increase the effectiveness of reviewing during learning is to answer questions about the learning content rather than restudying the material (testing effect). This effect is well established in lab experiments. However, existing research in educational contexts has often combined testing with additional didactical measures that hampers the interpretation of testing effects. We aimed to examine the testing effect in its pure form by implementing a minimal intervention design in a university lecture (N = 92). The last 10 min of each lecture session were used for reviewing the lecture content by either answering short-answer questions, multiple-choice questions, or reading summarizing statements about core lecture content. Three unannounced criterial tests measured the retention of learning content at different times (1, 12, and 23 weeks after the last lecture). A positive testing effect emerged for short-answer questions that targeted information that participants could retrieve from memory. This effect was independent of the time of test. The results indicated no testing effect for multiple-choice testing. These results suggest that short-answer testing but not multiple-choice testing may benefit learning in higher education contexts.}, language = {en} } @article{WittkowskiScheuchenpflug2021, author = {Wittkowski, Joachim and Scheuchenpflug, Rainer}, title = {Evidence on the Conceptual Distinctness of Normal Grief From Depression}, series = {European Journal of Health Psychology}, volume = {28}, journal = {European Journal of Health Psychology}, number = {3}, issn = {2512-8442}, doi = {10.1027/2512-8442/a000077}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236531}, pages = {101-110}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Background: The distinctness of grief from depression has been the subject of a long scholarly debate, even influencing definitions of diagnostic criteria. Aims: This study aims at clarifying the issue by a multifaceted analysis of data from a large German sample. Method: A community sample of 406 bereaved persons answered the Wuerzburg Grief Inventory (WGI), a multidimensional grief questionnaire designed to measure normal grief in the German language, and the General Depression Scale - Short Version (GDS-S), a self-report depression scale. Data were analyzed by factor analysis to identify structural (dis-)similarities of the constructs, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify the influence of the factors relationship to the deceased, type of death, and time since loss on grief measures and depression scores. Results: Factor analysis clustered items referring to grief-related impairments and depression into one factor, items referring to other dimensions of grief on separate factors, however. Relationship to the deceased influenced the grief measures impairments and nearness to the deceased, but not depression scores if controlled for impairments. Type of death showed specific effects on grief scores, but not on depression scores. Time since loss influenced grief scores, but not depression scores. Limitations: The analysis is based on a self-selected community sample of grieving persons, self-report measures, and in part, on cross-sectional data. Conclusion: Factor analysis and objective data show a clear distinction of dimensions of grief and depression. The human experience of grief contains a sense of nearness to the lost person, feelings of guilt, and positive aspects of the loss experience in addition to components resembling depression.}, language = {en} } @article{LuleKueblerLudolph2019, author = {Lul{\´e}, Doroth{\´e}e and K{\"u}bler, Andrea and Ludolph, Albert C.}, title = {Ethical principles in patient-centered medical care to support quality of life in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis}, series = {Frontiers in Neurology}, volume = {10}, journal = {Frontiers in Neurology}, issn = {1664-2295}, doi = {10.3389/fneur.2019.00259}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196239}, year = {2019}, abstract = {It is one of the primary goals of medical care to secure good quality of life (QoL) while prolonging survival. This is a major challenge in severe medical conditions with a prognosis such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Further, the definition of QoL and the question whether survival in this severe condition is compatible with a good QoL is a matter of subjective and culture-specific debate. Some people without neurodegenerative conditions believe that physical decline is incompatible with satisfactory QoL. Current data provide extensive evidence that psychosocial adaptation in ALS is possible, indicated by a satisfactory QoL. Thus, there is no fatalistic link of loss of QoL when physical health declines. There are intrinsic and extrinsic factors that have been shown to successfully facilitate and secure QoL in ALS which will be reviewed in the following article following the four ethical principles (1) Beneficence, (2) Non-maleficence, (3) Autonomy and (4) Justice, which are regarded as key elements of patient centered medical care according to Beauchamp and Childress. This is a JPND-funded work to summarize findings of the project NEEDSinALS (www.NEEDSinALS.com) which highlights subjective perspectives and preferences in medical decision making in ALS.}, language = {en} } @misc{OPUS4-37154, title = {Erratum: M. S. Pasqualini / M. Macht / H. Ellgring, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for People with Parkinson's Disease and Caregivers https://doi.org/10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-227-0}, publisher = {W{\"u}rzburg University Press}, address = {W{\"u}rzburg}, doi = {10.25972/WUP-37154}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-371543}, pages = {1}, year = {2024}, abstract = {Erratum for M. S. Pasqualini / M. Macht / H. Ellgring, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for People with Parkinson's Disease and Caregivers (W{\"u}rzburg, 2024). https://doi.org/10.25972/WUP-978-3-95826-227-0}, language = {en} } @article{RodriguesWeissHewigetal.2021, author = {Rodrigues, Johannes and Weiß, Martin and Hewig, Johannes and Allen, John J. B.}, title = {EPOS: EEG Processing Open-Source Scripts}, series = {Frontiers in Neuroscience}, volume = {15}, journal = {Frontiers in Neuroscience}, issn = {1662-453X}, doi = {10.3389/fnins.2021.660449}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-240221}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Background: Since the replication crisis, standardization has become even more important in psychological science and neuroscience. As a result, many methods are being reconsidered, and researchers' degrees of freedom in these methods are being discussed as a potential source of inconsistencies across studies. New Method: With the aim of addressing these subjectivity issues, we have been working on a tutorial-like EEG (pre-)processing pipeline to achieve an automated method based on the semi-automated analysis proposed by Delorme and Makeig. Results: Two scripts are presented and explained step-by-step to perform basic, informed ERP and frequency-domain analyses, including data export to statistical programs and visual representations of the data. The open-source software EEGlab in MATLAB is used as the data handling platform, but scripts based on code provided by Mike Cohen (2014) are also included. Comparison with existing methods: This accompanying tutorial-like article explains and shows how the processing of our automated pipeline affects the data and addresses, especially beginners in EEG-analysis, as other (pre)-processing chains are mostly targeting rather informed users in specialized areas or only parts of a complete procedure. In this context, we compared our pipeline with a selection of existing approaches. Conclusion: The need for standardization and replication is evident, yet it is equally important to control the plausibility of the suggested solution by data exploration. Here, we provide the community with a tool to enhance the understanding and capability of EEG-analysis. We aim to contribute to comprehensive and reliable analyses for neuro-scientific research.}, language = {en} } @article{MartensBenschHalderetal.2014, author = {Martens, Suzanne and Bensch, Michael and Halder, Sebastian and Hill, Jeremy and Nijboer, Femke and Ramos-Murguialday, Ander and Schoelkopf, Bernhard and Birbaumer, Niels and Gharabaghi, Alireza}, title = {Epidural electrocorticography for monitoring of arousal in locked-in state}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2014.00861}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-114863}, pages = {861}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Electroencephalography (EEG) often fails to assess both the level (i.e., arousal) and the content (i.e., awareness) of pathologically altered consciousness in patients without motor responsiveness. This might be related to a decline of awareness, to episodes of low arousal and disturbed sleep patterns, and/or to distorting and attenuating effects of the skull and intermediate tissue on the recorded brain signals. Novel approaches are required to overcome these limitations. We introduced epidural electrocorticography (ECoG) for monitoring of cortical physiology in a late-stage amytrophic lateral sclerosis patient in completely locked-in state (CLIS) Despite long-term application for a period of six months, no implant related complications occurred. Recordings from the left frontal cortex were sufficient to identify three arousal states. Spectral analysis of the intrinsic oscillatory activity enabled us to extract state-dependent dominant frequencies at <4, similar to 7 and similar to 20 Hz, representing sleep-like periods, and phases of low and elevated arousal, respectively. In the absence of other biomarkers, ECoG proved to be a reliable tool for monitoring circadian rhythmicity, i.e., avoiding interference with the patient when he was sleeping and exploiting time windows of responsiveness. Moreover, the effects of interventions addressing the patient's arousal, e.g., amantadine medication, could be evaluated objectively on the basis of physiological markers, even in the absence of behavioral parameters. Epidural ECoG constitutes a feasible trade-off between surgical risk and quality of recorded brain signals to gain information on the patient's present level of arousal. This approach enables us to optimize the timing of interactions and medical interventions, all of which should take place when the patient is in a phase of high arousal. Furthermore, avoiding low responsiveness periods will facilitate measures to implement alternative communication pathways involving brain-computer interfaces (BCI).}, language = {en} } @article{LiesnerKunde2021, author = {Liesner, Marvin and Kunde, Wilfried}, title = {Environment-Related and Body-Related Components of the Minimal Self}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {12}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712559}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250007}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Perceptual changes that an agent produces by efferent activity can become part of the agent's minimal self. Yet, in human agents, efferent activities produce perceptual changes in various sensory modalities and in various temporal and spatial proximities. Some of these changes occur at the "biological" body, and they are to some extent conveyed by "private" sensory signals, whereas other changes occur in the environment of that biological body and are conveyed by "public" sensory signals. We discuss commonalties and differences of these signals for generating selfhood. We argue that despite considerable functional overlap of these sensory signals in generating self-experience, there are reasons to tell them apart in theorizing and empirical research about development of the self.}, language = {en} } @article{WoelkSuetterlinKochetal.2014, author = {W{\"o}lk, Julian and S{\"u}tterlin, Stefan and Koch, Stefan and V{\"o}gele, Claus and Schulz, Stefan M.}, title = {Enhanced cardiac perception predicts impaired performance in the Iowa Gambling Task in patients with panic disorder}, series = {Brain and Behavior}, volume = {4}, journal = {Brain and Behavior}, number = {2}, issn = {2162-3279}, doi = {10.1002/brb3.206}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119865}, pages = {238-46}, year = {2014}, abstract = {OBJECTIVE: Somatic marker theory predicts that somatic cues serve intuitive decision making; however, cardiovascular symptoms are threat cues for patients with panic disorder (PD). Therefore, enhanced cardiac perception may aid intuitive decision making only in healthy individuals, but impair intuitive decision making in PD patients. METHODS: PD patients and age-and sex-matched volunteers without a psychiatric diagnosis (n=17, respectively) completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) as a measure of intuitive decision making. Interindividual differences in cardiac perception were assessed with a common mental-tracking task. RESULTS: In line with our hypothesis, we found a pattern of opposing associations (Fisher's Z=1.78, P=0.04) of high cardiac perception with improved IGT-performance in matched control-participants (r=0.36, n=14) but impaired IGT-performance in PD patients (r=-0.38, n=13). CONCLUSION: Interoceptive skills, typically assumed to aid intuitive decision making, can have the opposite effect in PD patients who experience interoceptive cues as threatening, and tend to avoid them. This may explain why PD patients frequently have problems with decision making in everyday life. Screening of cardiac perception may help identifying patients who benefit from specifically tailored interventions.}, language = {en} } @article{HoltfrerichSchwarzSprengeretal.2016, author = {Holtfrerich, Sarah K. C. and Schwarz, Katharina A. and Sprenger, Christian and Reimers, Luise and Diekhof, Esther K.}, title = {Endogenous Testosterone and Exogenous Oxytocin Modulate Attentional Processing of Infant Faces}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {11}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0166617}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-166783}, pages = {e0166617}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Evidence indicates that hormones modulate the intensity of maternal care. Oxytocin is known for its positive influence on maternal behavior and its important role for childbirth. In contrast, testosterone promotes egocentric choices and reduces empathy. Further, testosterone decreases during parenthood which could be an adaptation to increased parental investment. The present study investigated the interaction between testosterone and oxytocin in attentional control and their influence on attention to baby schema in women. Higher endogenous testosterone was expected to decrease selective attention to child portraits in a face-in-the-crowd-paradigm, while oxytocin was expected to counteract this effect. As predicted, women with higher salivary testosterone were slower in orienting attention to infant targets in the context of adult distractors. Interestingly, reaction times to infant and adult stimuli decreased after oxytocin administration, but only in women with high endogenous testosterone. These results suggest that oxytocin may counteract the adverse effects of testosterone on a central aspect of social behavior and maternal caretaking.}, language = {en} } @article{HoltfrerichPfisterElGammaletal.2018, author = {Holtfrerich, Sarah K. C. and Pfister, Roland and El Gammal, Alexander T. and Bellon, Eugen and Diekhof, Esther K.}, title = {Endogenous testosterone and exogenous oxytocin influence the response to baby schema in the female brain}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {8}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-26020-4}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-322285}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Nurturing behavior may be critically influenced by the interplay of different hormones. The neuropeptide oxytocin is known to promote maternal behavior and its reduction has been associated with postpartum depression risk and child neglect. Contrariwise, the observed decrease in testosterone level during early parenthood may benefit caretaking behavior, whereas increased testosterone may reduce attention to infants. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the interactive influence of testosterone and oxytocin on selective attention to and neural processing of the baby schema (BS). 57 nulliparous women performed a target detection task with human faces with varying degree of BS following double-blinded placebo-controlled oxytocin administration in a between-subjects design. Our results support the idea that oxytocin enhances attention to the BS. Oxytocin had a positive effect on activation of the inferior frontal junction during identification of infant targets with a high degree of BS that were presented among adult distractors. Further, activation of the putamen was positively correlated with selective attention to the BS, but only in women with high endogenous testosterone who received oxytocin. These findings provide initial evidence for the neural mechanism by which oxytocin may counteract the negative effects of testosterone in the modulation of nurturing behavior.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Herbort2008, author = {Herbort, Oliver}, title = {Encoding Redundancy for Task-dependent Optimal Control : A Neural Network Model of Human Reaching}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-26032}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2008}, abstract = {The human motor system is adaptive in two senses. It adapts to the properties of the body to enable effective control. It also adapts to different situational requirements and constraints. This thesis proposes a new neural network model of both kinds of adaptivity for the motor cortical control of human reaching movements, called SURE_REACH (sensorimotor unsupervised learning redundancy resolving control architecture). In this neural network approach, the kinematic and sensorimotor redundancy of a three-joint planar arm is encoded in task-independent internal models by an unsupervised learning scheme. Before a movement is executed, the neural networks prepare a movement plan from the task-independent internal models, which flexibly incorporates external, task-specific constraints. The movement plan is then implemented by proprioceptive or visual closed-loop control. This structure enables SURE_REACH to reach hand targets while incorporating task-specific contraints, for example adhering to kinematic constraints, anticipating the demands of subsequent movements, avoiding obstacles, or reducing the motion of impaired joints. Besides this functionality, the model accounts for temporal aspects of human reaching movements or for data from priming experiments. Additionally, the neural network structure reflects properties of motor cortical networks like interdependent population encoded body space representations, recurrent connectivity, or associative learning schemes. This thesis introduces and describes the new model, relates it to current computational models, evaluates its functionality, relates it to human behavior and neurophysiology, and finally discusses potential extensions as well as the validity of the model. In conclusion, the proposed model grounds highly flexible task-dependent behavior in a neural network framework and unsupervised sensorimotor learning.}, subject = {Bewegungssteuerung}, language = {en} } @article{KleihKuebler2013, author = {Kleih, Sonja C. and K{\"u}bler, Andrea}, title = {Empathy, motivation, and P300-BCI performance}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {7}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, number = {642}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2013.00642}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-130559}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Motivation moderately influences brain-computer interface (BCI) performance in healthy subjects when monetary reward is used to manipulate extrinsic motivation. However, the motivation of severely paralyzed patients, who are potentially in need for BCI, could mainly be internal and thus, an intrinsic motivator may be more powerful. Also healthy subjects who participate in BCI studies could be internally motivated as they may wish to contribute to research and thus extrinsic motivation by monetary reward would be less important than the content of the study. In this respect, motivation could be defined as "motivation-to-help." The aim of this study was to investigate, whether subjects with high motivation for helping and who are highly empathic would perform better with a BCI controlled by event-related potentials (P300-BCI). We included N = 20 healthy young participants na{\"i}ve to BCI and grouped them according to their motivation for participating in a BCI study in a low and highly motivated group. Motivation was further manipulated with interesting or boring presentations about BCI and the possibility to help patients. Motivation for helping did neither influence BCI performance nor the P300 amplitude. Post hoc, subjects were re-grouped according to their ability for perspective taking. We found significantly higher P300 amplitudes on parietal electrodes in participants with a low ability for perspective taking and therefore, lower empathy, as compared to participants with higher empathy. The lack of an effect of motivation on BCI performance contradicts previous findings and thus, requires further investigation. We speculate that subjects with higher empathy who are good perspective takers with regards to patients in potential need of BCI, may be more emotionally involved and therefore, less able to allocate attention on the BCI task at hand.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Andreatta2010, author = {Andreatta, Marta}, title = {Emotional reactions after event learning : a Rift between Implicit and Explicit Conditioned Valence in Humans Pain Relief Lerning}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-55715}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Organismen vermeiden Gefahren und streben nach Belohnungen, um zu {\"u}berleben. Klassische Konditionierung ist ein einfaches Model, das erkl{\"a}rt, wie Tiere und Menschen Ereignisse in Verbindung bringen. Dieses Lernen erm{\"o}glicht Lebewesen Gefahr oder Belohnung direkt vorherzusehen. Normalerweise besteht das Konditionierungsparadigma aus der Pr{\"a}sentation eines neutralen Stimulus zusammen mit einem biologisch bedeutsamen Event (der unkonditionierte Stimulus - US). Aufgrund dieser Assoziation erwirbt der neutrale Stimulus affektive Eigenschaften und wird dann konditionierter Stimulus (CS+) genannt. Wenn der CS+ mit Schmerz w{\"a}hrend der Trainingsphase assoziiert wird, leitet er eine defensive Reaktion, wie z.B. Vermeidung ein. Wenn der CS+ mit einer Belohnung assoziiert wird, leitet er eine appetitive Reaktion, wie z.B. Ann{\"a}herungsreaktionen ein. Interessanterweise haben Tierstudien gezeigt, dass ein konditionierter Stimulus vermieden wurde, wenn er einem aversiven US in der Trainingsphase vorausgegangen war (CS+US; Vorw{\"a}rtskonditionierung). Das deutet darauf hin, dass der CS+ aversive Eigenschaften erlangt hat. Jedoch f{\"u}hrte ein konditionierter Stimulus zu einer Ann{\"a}herung, wenn er in der Trainingsphase auf einen aversiven US folgt (US CS+; R{\"u}ckw{\"a}rtskonditionierung). Das deutet darauf hin, dass der CS+ appetitive Eigenschaften erlangt hat. Kann das Event Timing sowohl aversive als auch appetitive konditionierten Reaktionen auch bei Menschen ausl{\"o}sen, die zu Kognitionen bez{\"u}glich der Assoziationen f{\"a}hig sind? Um diese Fragestellung zu beantworten, wurden vier Studien durchgef{\"u}hrt. Die Studien hatten den gleichen Ablauf, variiert wurde nur die Zeit zwischen CS+ und US (das Interstimulusintervall - ISI - ist als das Zeitintervall zwischen dem Onset des CS+ und dem Onset des US definiert). W{\"a}hrend der Akquisitionsphase (Konditionierung) wurden, zwei einfache geometrische Figuren als konditionierte Stimuli dargeboten. Eine geometrische Figur (der CS+) war immer mit einem leichten schmerzhaften elektrischen Reiz (der aversive US) assoziiert; die andere Figur (der CS-) war nie mit dem elektrischen Reiz assoziiert. In einem between-subjects Design wurde entweder eine Vorw{\"a}rtskonditionierung oder eine R{\"u}ckw{\"a}rtskonditionierung durchgef{\"u}hrt. W{\"a}hrend der Testsphase (Extinktion) wurden CS+ und CS- pr{\"a}sentiert sowie zus{\"a}tzlich eine neue neutrale geometrische Figur pr{\"a}sentiert, die als Kontrollstimulus fungierte; der US wurde in dieser Phase nie dargeboten. Vor und nach der Konditionierung wurden die Probanden sowohl bez{\"u}glich der Valenz (bzw. Unangenehmheit und Angenehmheit) als auch der Erregung (bzw. Ruhe und Aufregung) hinsichtlich der geometrischen Figuren befragt. In der ersten Studie wurde der Schreckreflex (Startle Reflex) als Maß f{\"u}r die implizite Valenz der Stimuli gemessen. Der Schreckreflex ist eine defensive Urreaktion, die aus einem Muskelzucken des Gesichts und des K{\"o}rpers besteht. Dieser Reflex ist durch pl{\"o}tzliche und intensive visuelle, taktile oder akustische Reize evoziert. Einerseits war die Amplitude des Startles bei der Anwesenheit des vorw{\"a}rts CS+ potenziert und das deutet daraufhin, dass der CS+ eine implizite negative Valenz nach der Vorw{\"a}rtskonditionierung erworben hat. Anderseits war die Amplitude des Startles bei der Anwesenheit des r{\"u}ckw{\"a}rts CS+ abgeschw{\"a}cht, was darauf hin deutet, dass der CS+ nach der R{\"u}ckw{\"a}rtskonditionierung eine implizite positive Valenz erworben hat. In der zweiten Studie wurde die oxygenierte Bloodsresponse (BOLD) mit funktioneller Magnetresonanztomographie (fMRI) erhoben, um neuronale Korrelate des Event-Timings zu erfassen. Eine st{\"a}rkere Aktivierung wurde in der Amygdala in Erwiderung auf den vorw{\"a}rts CS+ und im Striatum in Erwiderung auf den r{\"u}ckw{\"a}rts CS+ gefunden. Zum Einen entspricht dies einer Aktivierung des Defensive Motivational Systems, da die Amygdala eine wichtige Rolle beim Angstexpression und Angstakquisition hat. Deshalb wurde der vorw{\"a}rts CS+ als aversiv betrachtet. Zum Anderen entspricht dies einer Aktivierung des Appetitive Motivational System, da das Striatum eine wichtige Rolle bei Belohnung hat. Deshalb wurde der r{\"u}ckw{\"a}rts CS+ als appetitiv betrachtet. In der dritten Studie wurden Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse beim Event-Timing n{\"a}her beleuchtet, indem steady-state visuelle evozierte Potentiale (ssVEP) gemessen wurden. Sowohl der vorw{\"a}rts CS+ als auch der r{\"u}ckw{\"a}rts CS+ zog Aufmerksamkeit auf sich. Dennoch war die Amplitude der ssVEP großer w{\"a}hrend der letzen Sekunden des vorw{\"a}rts CS+, d.h. direkt vor dem aversiven US. Die Amplitude der ssVEP war aber gr{\"o}ßer w{\"a}hrend der ersten Sekunden des r{\"u}ckw{\"a}rts CS+, d.h. kurz nach dem aversiven US. Vermutlich wird die Aufmerksamkeit auf den hinsichtlich des aversiven US informativsten Teil des CS+. Alle Probanden der drei Studien haben den vorw{\"a}rts CS+ und den r{\"u}ckw{\"a}rts CS+ negativer und erregender als den Kontrollstimulus beurteilt. Daher werden die expliziten Ratings vom Event-Timing nicht beeinflusst. Bemerkenswert ist die Dissoziation zwischen den subjektiven Ratings und den physiologischen Reaktionen. Nach der Dual-Prozess Theorie werden die Verhaltensreaktionen des Menschen von zwei Systemen determiniert: einem impulsiv impliziten System, das auf assoziativen Prinzipien beruht, und einem reflektiv expliziten System, das auf der Kenntnis {\"u}ber Fakten und Werte basiert. Wichtig ist, dass die zwei Systeme auf synergetische oder antagonistische Weise agieren k{\"o}nnen. Folglich k{\"o}nnte es sein, dass das impulsive und das reflektive System nach der R{\"u}ckw{\"a}rtskonditionierung antagonistisch arbeiten. Zusammen deuten die vorliegenden Studien daraufhin, dass Event-Timing eine Bestrafung in eine Belohnung umwandeln kann, aber die Probanden erleben den Stimulus assoziiert mit einem aversiven Event als negativ. Diese Dissoziation k{\"o}nnte zum Verst{\"a}ndnis der psychiatrischen St{\"o}rungen wie z.B. Angstst{\"o}rungen oder Drogenabh{\"a}ngigkeit beitragen.}, subject = {Gef{\"u}hl}, language = {en} } @article{GerdesWieserAlpers2014, author = {Gerdes, Antje B. M. and Wieser, Matthias J. and Alpers, Georg W.}, title = {Emotional pictures and sounds: a review of multimodal interactions of emotion cues in multiple domains}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {5}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01351}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-114548}, pages = {1351}, year = {2014}, abstract = {In everyday life, multiple sensory channels jointly trigger emotional experiences and one channel may alter processing in another channel. For example, seeing an emotional facial expression and hearing the voice's emotional tone will jointly create the emotional experience. This example, where auditory and visual input is related to social communication, has gained considerable attention by researchers. However, interactions of visual and auditory emotional information are not limited to social communication but can extend to much broader contexts including human, animal, and environmental cues. In this article, we review current research on audiovisual emotion processing beyond face-voice stimuli to develop a broader perspective on multimodal interactions in emotion processing. We argue that current concepts of multimodality should be extended in considering an ecologically valid variety of stimuli in audiovisual emotion processing. Therefore, we provide an overview of studies in which emotional sounds and interactions with complex pictures of scenes were investigated. In addition to behavioral studies, we focus on neuroimaging, electro- and peripher-physiological findings. Furthermore, we integrate these findings and identify similarities or differences. We conclude with suggestions for future research.}, language = {en} } @article{MavratzakisHerbertWalla2016, author = {Mavratzakis, Aimee and Herbert, Cornelia and Walla, Peter}, title = {Emotional facial expressions evoke faster orienting responses, but weaker emotional responses at neural and behavioural levels compared to scenes: a simultaneous EEG and facial EMG study}, series = {NeuroImage}, volume = {124}, journal = {NeuroImage}, number = {Part A}, doi = {10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.09.065}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-191535}, pages = {931-946}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In the current study, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded simultaneously with facial electromyography (fEMG) to determine whether emotional faces and emotional scenes are processed differently at the neural level. In addition, it was investigated whether these differences can be observed at the behavioural level via spontaneous facial muscle activity. Emotional content of the stimuli did not affect early P1 activity. Emotional faces elicited enhanced amplitudes of the face-sensitive N170 component, while its counterpart, the scene-related N100, was not sensitive to emotional content of scenes. At 220-280 ms, the early posterior negativity (EPN) was enhanced only slightly for fearful as compared to neutral or happy faces. However, its amplitudes were significantly enhanced during processing of scenes with positive content, particularly over the right hemisphere. Scenes of positive content also elicited enhanced spontaneous zygomatic activity from 500-750 ms onwards, while happy faces elicited no such changes. Contrastingly, both fearful faces and negative scenes elicited enhanced spontaneous corrugator activity at 500-750 ms after stimulus onset. However, relative to baseline EMG changes occurred earlier for faces (250 ms) than for scenes (500 ms) whereas for scenes activity changes were more pronounced over the whole viewing period. Taking into account all effects, the data suggests that emotional facial expressions evoke faster attentional orienting, but weaker affective neural activity and emotional behavioural responses compared to emotional scenes.}, language = {en} } @article{WuWinklerWieseretal.2015, author = {Wu, Lingdan and Winkler, Markus H. and Wieser, Matthias J. and Andreatta, Marta and Li, Yonghui and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Emotion regulation in heavy smokers: experiential, expressive and physiological consequences of cognitive reappraisal}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, number = {1555}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01555}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-145225}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Emotion regulation dysfunctions are assumed to contribute to the development of tobacco addiction and relapses among smokers attempting to quit. To further examine this hypothesis, the present study compared heavy smokers with non-smokers (NS) in a reappraisal task. Specifically, we investigated whether non-deprived smokers (NDS) and deprived smokers (DS) differ from non-smokers in cognitive emotion regulation and whether there is an association between the outcome of emotion regulation and the cigarette craving. Sixty-five participants (23 non-smokers, 22 NDS, and 20 DS) were instructed to down-regulate emotions by reappraising negative or positive pictorial scenarios. Self-ratings of valence, arousal, and cigarette craving as well as facial electromyography and electroencephalograph activities were measured. Ratings, facial electromyography, and electroencephalograph data indicated that both NDS and DS performed comparably to nonsmokers in regulating emotional responses via reappraisal, irrespective of the valence of pictorial stimuli. Interestingly, changes in cigarette craving were positively associated with regulation of emotional arousal irrespective of emotional valence. These results suggest that heavy smokers are capable to regulate emotion via deliberate reappraisal and smokers' cigarette craving is associated with emotional arousal rather than emotional valence. This study provides preliminary support for the therapeutic use of reappraisal to replace maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies in nicotine addicts.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wu2013, author = {Wu, Lingdan}, title = {Emotion Regulation in Addicted Smokers}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-85471}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Background: Nicotine addiction is the most prevalent type of drug addiction that has been described as a cycle of spiraling dysregulation of the brain reward systems. Imaging studies have shown that nicotine addiction is associated with abnormal function in prefrontal brain regions that are important for cognitive emotion regulation. It was assumed that addicts may perform less well than healthy nonsmokers in cognitive emotion regulation tasks. The primary aims of this thesis were to investigate emotional responses to natural rewards among smokers and nonsmokers and to determine whether smokers differ from nonsmokers in cognitive regulation of positive and negative emotions. To address these aims, two forms of appraisal paradigms (i.e., appraisal frame and reappraisal) were applied to compare changes in emotional responses of smokers with that of nonsmokers as a function of appraisal strategies. Experiment 1: The aim of the first experiment was to evaluate whether and how appraisal frames preceding positive and negative picture stimuli affect emotional experience and facial expression of individuals. Twenty participants were exposed to 125 pairs of auditory appraisal frames (either neutral or emotional) followed by picture stimuli reflecting five conditions: unpleasant-negative, unpleasant-neutral, pleasant-positive, pleasant-neutral and neutral-neutral. Ratings of valence and arousal as well as facial EMG activity over the corrugator supercilii and the zygomaticus major were measured simultaneously. The results indicated that appraisal frames could alter both subjective emotional experience and facial expressions, irrespective of the valence of the pictorial stimuli. These results suggest and support that appraisal frame is an efficient paradigm in regulation of multi-level emotional responses. 8 Experiment 2: The second experiment applied the appraisal frame paradigm to investigate how smokers differ from nonsmokers on cognitive emotion regulation. Sixty participants (22 nonsmokers, 19 nondeprived smokers and 19 12-h deprived smokers) completed emotion regulation tasks as described in Experiment 1 while emotional responses were concurrently recorded as reflected by self-ratings and psychophysiological measures (i.e., facial EMG and EEG). The results indicated that there was no group difference on emotional responses to natural rewards. Moreover, nondeprived smokers and deprived smokers performed as well as nonsmokers on the emotion regulation task. The lack of group differences in multiple emotional responses (i.e., self-reports, facial EMG activity and brain EEG activity) suggests that nicotine addicts have no deficit in cognitive emotion regulation of natural rewards via appraisal frames. Experiment 3: The third experiment aimed to further evaluate smokers' emotion regulation ability by comparing performances of smokers and nonsmokers in a more challenging cognitive task (i.e., reappraisal task). Sixty-five participants (23 nonsmokers, 22 nondeprived smokers and 20 12-h deprived smokers) were instructed to regulate emotions by imagining that the depicted negative or positive scenario would become less negative or less positive over time, respectively. The results showed that nondeprived smokers and deprived smokers responded similarly to emotional pictures and performed as well as nonsmokers in down-regulating positive and negative emotions via the reappraisal strategy. These results indicated that nicotine addicts do not have deficit in emotion regulation using cognitive appraisal strategies. In sum, the three studies consistently revealed that addicted smokers were capable to regulate emotions via appraisal strategies. This thesis establishes the groundwork for therapeutic use of appraisal instructions to cope with potential self-regulation failures in nicotine addicts.}, subject = {Gef{\"u}hl}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Stegmann2021, author = {Stegmann, Yannik}, title = {Electrocortical mechanisms of sustained attention during the acquisition and interaction of conditioned fear and anxiety}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-23770}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-237700}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Adapting defensive behavior to the characteristics of a threatening situation is a fundamental function of the brain. Particularly, threat imminence plays a major role for the organization of defensive responses. Acute threat prompts phasic physiological responses, which are usually associated with an intense feeling of fear. In contrast, diffuse and potentially threatening situations elicit a sustained state of anxious apprehension. Detection of the threatening stimulus defines the key event in this framework, initiating the transition from potential to acute threat. Consequently, attention to threat is crucial for supporting defensive behavior. The functions of attention are finely tuned to the characteristics of a threatening situation. Potential threat is associated with hypervigilance, in order to facilitate threat detection. Once a threatening stimulus has been identified, attention is selectively focused on the source of danger. Even though the concepts of selective attention and hypervigilance to threat are well established, evidence for their neural correlates remain scarce. Therefore, a major goal of this thesis is to elucidate the neural correlates of selective attention to acute threat and hypervigilance during potential threat. A second aim of this thesis is to provide a mechanistic account for the interaction of fear and anxiety. While contemporary models view fear and anxiety as mutually exclusive, recent findings for the neural networks of fear and anxiety suggest potential interactions. In four studies, aversive cue conditioning was used to induce acute threat, while context conditioning served as a laboratory model of potential threat. To quantify neural correlates of selective attention and hypervigilance, steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) were measured as an index of visuocortical responding. Study 1 compared visuocortical responses to acute and potential threat for high versus low trait-anxious individuals. All individuals demonstrated enhanced electrocortical responses to the central cue in the acute threat condition, suggesting evidence for the neural correlate of selective attention. However, only low anxious individuals revealed facilitated processing of the contexts in the potential threat condition, reflecting a neural correlate of hypervigilance. High anxious individuals did not discriminate among contexts. These findings contribute to the notion of aberrational processing of potential threat for high anxious individuals. Study 2 and 3 realized orthogonal combinations of cue and context conditioning to investigate potential interactions of fear and anxiety. In contrast to Study 1 and 2, Study 3 used verbal instructions to induce potentially threatening contexts. Besides ssVEPs, threat ratings and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded as efferent indices of defensive responding. None of these studies found further evidence for the neural correlates of hypervigilance and selective attention. However, results for ratings and SCRs revealed additive effects of fear and anxiety, suggesting that fear and anxiety are not mutually exclusive, but interact linearly to organize and facilitate defensive behavior. Study 4 tested ssVEPs to more ecologically valid forms of context conditioning, using flickering video stimuli of virtual offices to establish context representations. Contrary to expectations, results revealed decreased visuocortical responses during sustained presentations of anxiety compared to neutral contexts. A disruption of ssVEP signals eventually suggests interferences by continuously changing video streams which are enhanced as a function of motivational relevance. In summary, this thesis provided evidence for the neural correlates of attention only for isolated forms of fear and anxiety, but not for their interaction. In contrast, an additive interaction model of fear and anxiety for measures of defensive responding offers a new perspective on the topography of defensive behavior.}, subject = {Furcht}, language = {en} } @article{WoloshynPressleySchneider1992, author = {Woloshyn, Vera E. and Pressley, Michael and Schneider, Wolfgang}, title = {Elaborative interrogation as a function of prior knowledge}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-62187}, year = {1992}, abstract = {No abstract available}, subject = {Psychologie}, language = {en} } @article{PittigHeinigGoerigketal.2021, author = {Pittig, Andre and Heinig, Ingmar and Goerigk, Stephan and Thiel, Freya and Hummel, Katrin and Scholl, Lucie and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Pauli, Paul and Domschke, Katharina and Lueken, Ulrike and Fydrich, Thomas and Fehm, Lydia and Plag, Jens and Str{\"o}hle, Andreas and Kircher, Tilo and Straube, Benjamin and Rief, Winfried and Koelkebeck, Katja and Arolt, Volker and Dannlowski, Udo and Margraf, J{\"u}rgen and Totzeck, Christina and Schneider, Silvia and Neudeck, Peter and Craske, Michelle G. and Hollandt, Maike and Richter, Jan and Hamm, Alfons and Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich}, title = {Efficacy of temporally intensified exposure for anxiety disorders: A multicenter randomized clinical trial}, series = {Depression and Anxiety}, volume = {38}, journal = {Depression and Anxiety}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1002/da.23204}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-257331}, pages = {1169-1181}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Background The need to optimize exposure treatments for anxiety disorders may be addressed by temporally intensified exposure sessions. Effects on symptom reduction and public health benefits should be examined across different anxiety disorders with comorbid conditions. Methods This multicenter randomized controlled trial compared two variants of prediction error-based exposure therapy (PeEx) in various anxiety disorders (both 12 sessions + 2 booster sessions, 100 min/session): temporally intensified exposure (PeEx-I) with exposure sessions condensed to 2 weeks (n = 358) and standard nonintensified exposure (PeEx-S) with weekly exposure sessions (n = 368). Primary outcomes were anxiety symptoms (pre, post, and 6-months follow-up). Secondary outcomes were global severity (across sessions), quality of life, disability days, and comorbid depression. Results Both treatments resulted in substantial improvements at post (PeEx-I: d\(_{within}\) = 1.50, PeEx-S: d\(_{within}\) = 1.78) and follow-up (PeEx-I: d\(_{within}\) = 2.34; PeEx-S: d\(_{within}\) = 2.03). Both groups showed formally equivalent symptom reduction at post and follow-up. However, time until response during treatment was 32\% shorter in PeEx-I (median = 68 days) than PeEx-S (108 days; TR\(_{PeEx-I}\)-I = 0.68). Interestingly, drop-out rates were lower during intensified exposure. PeEx-I was also superior in reducing disability days and improving quality of life at follow-up without increasing relapse. Conclusions Both treatment variants focusing on the transdiagnostic exposure-based violation of threat beliefs were effective in reducing symptom severity and disability in severe anxiety disorders. Temporally intensified exposure resulted in faster treatment response with substantial public health benefits and lower drop-out during the exposure phase, without higher relapse. Clinicians can expect better or at least comparable outcomes when delivering exposure in a temporally intensified manner.}, language = {en} } @article{LeopoldBauerBechdolfetal.2020, author = {Leopold, Karolina and Bauer, Michael and Bechdolf, Andreas and Correll, Christoph U. and Holtmann, Martin and Juckel, Georg and Lambert, Martin and Meyer, Thomas D. and Pfeiffer, Steffi and Kittel-Schneider, Sarah and Reif, Andreas and Stamm, Thomas J. and Rottmann-Wolf, Maren and Mathiebe, Josephine and Kellmann, Eva L. and Ritter, Philipp and Kr{\"u}ger-{\"O}zg{\"u}rdal, Seza and Karow, Anne and Sondergeld, Lene-Marie and Roessner, Veit and Sauer, Cathrin and Pfennig, Andrea}, title = {Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral group therapy in patients at risk for serious mental illness presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms: Results from a prespecified interim analysis of a multicenter, randomized, controlled study}, series = {Bipolar Disorders}, volume = {22}, journal = {Bipolar Disorders}, number = {5}, doi = {10.1111/bdi.12894}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-215469}, pages = {517 -- 529}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Objective Most patients with bipolar disorders (BD) exhibit prodromal symptoms before a first (hypo)manic episode. Patients with clinically significant symptoms fulfilling at-risk criteria for serious mental illness (SMI) require effective and safe treatment. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) has shown promising results in early stages of BD and in patients at high risk for psychosis. We aimed to investigate whether group CBT can improve symptoms and functional deficits in young patients at risk for SMI presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms. Method In a multicenter, randomized, controlled trial, patients at clinical risk for SMI presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms aged 15-30 years were randomized to 14 weeks of at-risk for BD-specific group CBT or unstructured group meetings. Primary efficacy endpoints were differences in affective symptomatology and psychosocial functioning at 14 weeks. At-risk status was defined as a combination of subthreshold bipolar symptomatology, reduction of psychosocial functioning and a family history for (schizo)affective disorders. A prespecified interim analysis was conducted at 75\% of the targeted sample. Results Of 128 screened participants, 75 were randomized to group CBT (n = 38, completers = 65.8\%) vs unstructured group meetings (n = 37, completers = 78.4\%). Affective symptomatology and psychosocial functioning improved significantly at week 14 (P < .001) and during 6 months (P < .001) in both groups, without significant between-group differences. Findings are limited by the interim character of the analysis, the use of not fully validated early detection interviews, a newly adapted intervention manual, and the substantial drop-outs. Conclusions Results suggest that young patients at-risk for SMI presenting with subthreshold bipolar symptoms benefit from early group sessions. The degree of specificity and psychotherapeutic interaction needed requires clarification.}, language = {en} } @article{BrychHaendelRiechelmannetal.2021, author = {Brych, Mareike and H{\"a}ndel, Barbara F. and Riechelmann, Eva and Pieczykolan, Aleksandra and Huestegge, Lynn}, title = {Effects of vocal demands on pupil dilation}, series = {Psychophysiology}, volume = {58}, journal = {Psychophysiology}, number = {2}, doi = {10.1111/psyp.13729}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-224425}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Pupil dilation is known to be affected by a variety of factors, including physical (e.g., light) and cognitive sources of influence (e.g., mental load due to working memory demands, stimulus/response competition etc.). In the present experiment, we tested the extent to which vocal demands (speaking) can affect pupil dilation. Based on corresponding preliminary evidence found in a reanalysis of an existing data set from our lab, we setup a new experiment that systematically investigated vocal response-related effects compared to mere jaw/lip movement and button press responses. Conditions changed on a trial-by-trial basis while participants were instructed to keep fixating a central cross on a screen throughout. In line with our prediction (and previous observation), speaking caused the pupils to dilate strongest, followed by nonvocal movements and finally a baseline condition without any vocal or muscular demands. An additional analysis of blink rates showed no difference in blink frequency between vocal and baseline conditions, but different blink dynamics. Finally, simultaneously recorded electromyographic activity showed that muscle activity may contribute to some (but not all) aspects of the observed effects on pupil size. The results are discussed in the context of other recent research indicating effects of perceived (instead of executed) vocal action on pupil dynamics.}, language = {en} } @article{VenturaBortWirknerGenheimeretal.2018, author = {Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Wirkner, Janine and Genheimer, Hannah and Wendt, Julia and Hamm, Alfons O. and Weymar, Mathias}, title = {Effects of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) on the P300 and Alpha-Amylase Level: A Pilot Study}, series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, volume = {12}, journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience}, number = {202}, issn = {1662-5161}, doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2018.00202}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196129}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Recent research suggests that the P3b may be closely related to the activation of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. To further study the potential association, we applied a novel technique, the non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), which is speculated to increase noradrenaline levels. Using a within-subject cross-over design, 20 healthy participants received continuous tVNS and sham stimulation on two consecutive days (stimulation counterbalanced across participants) while performing a visual oddball task. During stimulation, oval non-targets (standard), normal-head (easy) and rotated-head (difficult) targets, as well as novel stimuli (scenes) were presented. As an indirect marker of noradrenergic activation we also collected salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) before and after stimulation. Results showed larger P3b amplitudes for target, relative to standard stimuli, irrespective of stimulation condition. Exploratory post hoc analyses, however, revealed that, in comparison to standard stimuli, easy (but not difficult) targets produced larger P3b (but not P3a) amplitudes during active tVNS, compared to sham stimulation. For sAA levels, although main analyses did not show differential effects of stimulation, direct testing revealed that tVNS (but not sham stimulation) increased sAA levels after stimulation. Additionally, larger differences between tVNS and sham stimulation in P3b magnitudes for easy targets were associated with larger increase in sAA levels after tVNS, but not after sham stimulation. Despite preliminary evidence for a modulatory influence of tVNS on the P3b, which may be partly mediated by activation of the noradrenergic system, additional research in this field is clearly warranted. Future studies need to clarify whether tVNS also facilitates other processes, such as learning and memory, and whether tVNS can be used as therapeutic tool.}, language = {en} }