@article{GlotzbachMuehlbergerGschwendtneretal.2011,
  author    = {Glotzbach, Evelyn and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Gschwendtner, Kathrin and Fallgatter, Andreas J and Pauli, Paul and Herrmann, Martin J},
  title     = {Prefrontal Brain Activation During Emotional Processing: A Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy Study (fNIRS)},
  series = {The Open Neuroimaging Journal},
  volume    = {5},
  journal   = {The Open Neuroimaging Journal},
  doi       = {10.2174/1874440001105010033},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-141714},
  pages     = {33-39},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {The limbic system and especially the amygdala have been identified as key structures in emotion induction and regulation. Recently research has additionally focused on the influence of prefrontal areas on emotion processing in the limbic system and the amygdala. Results from fMRI studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved not only in emotion induction but also in emotion regulation. However, studies using fNIRS only report prefrontal brain activation during emotion induction. So far it lacks the attempt to compare emotion induction and emotion regulation with regard to prefrontal activation measured with fNIRS, to exclude the possibility that the reported prefrontal brain activation in fNIRS studies are mainly caused by automatic emotion regulation processes. Therefore this work tried to distinguish emotion induction from regulation via fNIRS of the prefrontal cortex. 20 healthy women viewed neutral pictures as a baseline condition, fearful pictures as induction condition and reappraised fearful pictures as regulation condition in randomized order. As predicted, the view-fearful condition led to higher arousal ratings than the view-neutral condition with the reappraise-fearful condition in between. For the fNIRS results the induction condition showed an activation of the bilateral PFC compared to the baseline condition (viewing neutral). The regulation condition showed an activation only of the left PFC compared to the baseline condition, although the direct comparison between induction and regulation condition revealed no significant difference in brain activation. Therefore our study underscores the results of previous fNIRS studies showing prefrontal brain activation during emotion induction and rejects the hypothesis that this prefrontal brain activation might only be a result of automatic emotion regulation processes.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{GerdesWieserMuehlbergeretal.2010,
  author    = {Gerdes, Antje B. M. and Wieser, Matthias J. and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Weyers, Peter and Alpers, Georg W. and Plichta, Michael M. and Breuer, Felix and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {Brain activations to emotional pictures are differentially associated with valence and arousal ratings},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-68153},
  year      = {2010},
  abstract  = {Several studies have investigated the neural responses triggered by emotional pictures, but the specificity of the involved structures such as the amygdala or the ventral striatum is still under debate. Furthermore, only few studies examined the association of stimuli's valence and arousal and the underlying brain responses. Therefore, we investigated brain responses with functional magnetic resonance imaging of 17 healthy participants to pleasant and unpleasant affective pictures and afterwards assessed ratings of valence and arousal. As expected, unpleasant pictures strongly activated the right and left amygdala, the right hippocampus, and the medial occipital lobe, whereas pleasant pictures elicited significant activations in left occipital regions, and in parts of the medial temporal lobe. The direct comparison of unpleasant and pleasant pictures, which were comparable in arousal clearly indicated stronger amygdala activation in response to the unpleasant pictures. Most important, correlational analyses revealed on the one hand that the arousal of unpleasant pictures was significantly associated with activations in the right amygdala and the left caudate body. On the other hand, valence of pleasant pictures was significantly correlated with activations in the right caudate head, extending to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings support the notion that the amygdala is primarily involved in processing of unpleasant stimuli, particularly to more arousing unpleasant stimuli. Reward-related structures like the caudate and NAcc primarily respond to pleasant stimuli, the stronger the more positive the valence of these stimuli is.},
  subject      = {Psychologie},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WieserGerdesReichertsetal.2014,
  author    = {Wieser, Matthias J. and Gerdes, Antje B. M. and Reicherts, Philipp and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {Mutual influences of pain and emotional face processing},
  series = {Frontiers in Psychology},
  volume    = {5},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Psychology},
  issn      = {1664-1078},
  doi       = {10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01160},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-118446},
  pages     = {1160},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {The perception of unpleasant stimuli enhances whereas the perception of pleasant stimuli decreases pain perception. In contrast, the effects of pain on the processing of emotional stimuli are much less known. Especially given the recent interest in facial expressions of pain as a special category of emotional stimuli, a main topic in this research line is the mutual influence of pain and facial expression processing. Therefore, in this mini-review we selectively summarize research on the effects of emotional stimuli on pain, but more extensively turn to the opposite direction namely how pain influences concurrent processing of affective stimuli such as facial expressions. Based on the motivational priming theory one may hypothesize that the perception of pain enhances the processing of unpleasant stimuli and decreases the processing of pleasant stimuli. This review reveals that the literature is only partly consistent with this assumption: pain reduces the processing of pleasant pictures and happy facial expressions, but does not - or only partly - affect processing of unpleasant pictures. However, it was demonstrated that pain selectively enhances the processing of facial expressions if these are pain-related (i.e., facial expressions of pain). Extending a mere affective modulation theory, the latter results suggest pain-specific effects which may be explained by the perception-action model of empathy. Together, these results underscore the important mutual influence of pain and emotional face processing.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ConzelmannReifJacobetal.2012,
  author    = {Conzelmann, Annette and Reif, Andreas and Jacob, Christian and Weyers, Peter and Lesch, Klaus-Peter and Lutz, Beat and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {A polymorphism in the gene of the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme FAAH (FAAH C385A) is associated with emotional-motivational reactivity},
  series = {Psychopharmacology},
  volume    = {224},
  journal   = {Psychopharmacology},
  number    = {4},
  doi       = {10.1007/s00213-012-2785-y},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126845},
  pages     = {573-579},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {RATIONALE: The endocannabinoid (eCB) system is implicated in several psychiatric disorders. Investigating emotional-motivational dysfunctions as underlying mechanisms, a study in humans revealed that in the C385A polymorphism of the fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the degrading enzyme of the eCB anandamide (AEA), A carriers, who are characterized by increased signaling of AEA as compared to C/C carriers, exhibited reduced brain reactivity towards unpleasant faces and enhanced reactivity towards reward. However, the association of eCB system with emotional-motivational reactivity is complex and bidirectional due to upcoming compensatory processes. OBJECTIVES: Therefore, we further investigated the relationship of the FAAH polymorphism and emotional-motivational reactivity in humans. METHODS: We assessed the affect-modulated startle, and ratings of valence and arousal in response to higher arousing pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures in 67 FAAH C385A C/C carriers and 45 A carriers. RESULTS: Contrarily to the previous functional MRI study, A carriers compared to C/C carriers exhibited an increased startle potentiation and therefore emotional responsiveness towards unpleasant picture stimuli and reduced startle inhibition indicating reduced emotional reactivity in response to pleasant pictures, while both groups did not differ in ratings of arousal and valence. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings emphasize the bidirectionality and thorough examination of the eCB system's impact on emotional reactivity as a central endophenotype underlying various psychiatric disorders.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{StippekohlWinklerWalteretal.2012,
  author    = {Stippekohl, Bastian and Winkler, Markus H. and Walter, Bertram and Kagerer, Sabine and Mucha, Ronald F. and Pauli, Paul and Vaitl, Dieter and Stark, Rudolf},
  title     = {Neural Responses to Smoking Stimuli Are Influenced by Smokers' Attitudes towards Their Own Smoking Behaviour},
  series = {PLoS One},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {PLoS One},
  number    = {11},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0046782},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-124393},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {An important feature of addiction is the high drug craving that may promote the continuation of consumption. Environmental stimuli classically conditioned to drug-intake have a strong motivational power for addicts and can elicit craving. However, addicts differ in the attitudes towards their own consumption behavior: some are content with drug taking (consonant users) whereas others are discontent (dissonant users). Such differences may be important for clinical practice because the experience of dissonance might enhance the likelihood to consider treatment. This fMRI study investigated in smokers whether these different attitudes influence subjective and neural responses to smoking stimuli. Based on self-characterization, smokers were divided into consonant and dissonant smokers. These two groups were presented smoking stimuli and neutral stimuli. Former studies have suggested differences in the impact of smoking stimuli depending on the temporal stage of the smoking ritual they are associated with. Therefore, we used stimuli associated with the beginning (BEGIN-smoking-stimuli) and stimuli associated with the terminal stage (END-smoking-stimuli) of the smoking ritual as distinct stimulus categories. Stimulus ratings did not differ between both groups. Brain data showed that BEGIN-smoking-stimuli led to enhanced mesolimbic responses (amygdala, hippocampus, insula) in dissonant compared to consonant smokers. In response to END-smoking-stimuli, dissonant smokers showed reduced mesocortical responses (orbitofrontal cortex, subcallosal cortex) compared to consonant smokers. These results suggest that smoking stimuli with a high incentive value (BEGIN-smoking-stimuli) are more appetitive for dissonant than consonant smokers at least on the neural level. To the contrary, smoking stimuli with low incentive value (END-smoking-stimuli) seem to be less appetitive for dissonant smokers than consonant smokers. These differences might be one reason why dissonant smokers experience difficulties in translating their attitudes into an actual behavior change.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchwarzWieserGerdesetal.2013,
  author    = {Schwarz, Katharina A. and Wieser, Matthias J. and Gerdes, Antje B. M. and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {Why are you looking like that? How the context influences evaluation and processing of human faces},
  series = {Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience},
  volume    = {8},
  journal   = {Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience},
  number    = {4},
  doi       = {10.1093/scan/nss013},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-132126},
  pages     = {438-445},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Perception and evaluation of facial expressions are known to be heavily modulated by emotional features of contextual information. Such contextual effects, however, might also be driven by non-emotional aspects of contextual information, an interaction of emotional and non-emotional factors, and by the observers' inherent traits. Therefore, we sought to assess whether contextual information about self-reference in addition to information about valence influences the evaluation and neural processing of neutral faces. Furthermore, we investigated whether social anxiety moderates these effects. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, participants viewed neutral facial expressions preceded by a contextual sentence conveying either positive or negative evaluations about the participant or about somebody else. Contextual influences were reflected in rating and fMRI measures, with strong effects of self-reference on brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and right fusiform gyrus. Additionally, social anxiety strongly affected the response to faces conveying negative, self-related evaluations as revealed by the participants' rating patterns and brain activity in cortical midline structures and regions of interest in the left and right middle frontal gyrus. These results suggest that face perception and processing are highly individual processes influenced by emotional and non-emotional aspects of contextual information and further modulated by individual personality traits.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KlaukeWinterGajewskaetal.2012,
  author    = {Klauke, Benedikt and Winter, Bernward and Gajewska, Agnes and Zwanzger, Peter and Reif, Andreas and Herrmann, Martin J. and Dlugos, Andrea and Warrings, Bodo and Jacob, Christian and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Arolt, Volker and Pauli, Paul and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Domschke, Katharina},
  title     = {Affect-Modulated Startle: Interactive Influence of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Val158Met Genotype and Childhood Trauma},
  series = {PLoS One},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {PLoS One},
  number    = {6},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0039709},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-132184},
  pages     = {e39709},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {The etiology of emotion-related disorders such as anxiety or affective disorders is considered to be complex with an interaction of biological and environmental factors. Particular evidence has accumulated for alterations in the dopaminergic and noradrenergic system - partly conferred by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene variation - for the adenosinergic system as well as for early life trauma to constitute risk factors for those conditions. Applying a multi-level approach, in a sample of 95 healthy adults, we investigated effects of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism, caffeine as an adenosine A2A receptor antagonist (300 mg in a placebo-controlled intervention design) and childhood maltreatment (CTQ) as well as their interaction on the affect-modulated startle response as a neurobiologically founded defensive reflex potentially related to fear- and distress-related disorders. COMT val/val genotype significantly increased startle magnitude in response to unpleasant stimuli, while met/met homozygotes showed a blunted startle response to aversive pictures. Furthermore, significant gene-environment interaction of COMT Val158Met genotype with CTQ was discerned with more maltreatment being associated with higher startle potentiation in val/val subjects but not in met carriers. No main effect of or interaction effects with caffeine were observed. Results indicate a main as well as a GxE effect of the COMT Val158Met variant and childhood maltreatment on the affect-modulated startle reflex, supporting a complex pathogenetic model of the affect-modulated startle reflex as a basic neurobiological defensive reflex potentially related to anxiety and affective disorders.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{AndreattaMuehlbergerGlotzbachSchoonetal.2013,
  author    = {Andreatta, Marta and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Glotzbach-Schoon, Evelyn and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {Pain predictability reverses valence ratings of a relief-associated stimulus},
  series = {Front in Systems Neuroscience},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {Front in Systems Neuroscience},
  number    = {53},
  doi       = {10.3389/fnsys.2013.00053},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-129275},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Relief from pain is positively valenced and entails reward-like properties. Notably, stimuli that became associated with pain relief elicit reward-like implicit responses too, but are explicitly evaluated by humans as aversive. Since the unpredictability of pain makes pain more aversive, this study examined the hypotheses that the predictability of pain also modulates the valence of relief-associated stimuli. In two studies, we presented one conditioned stimulus \((_{FORWARD}CS+)\) before a painful unconditioned stimulus (US), another stimulus \((_{BACKWARD}CS+)\) after the painful US, and a third stimulus (CS-) was never associated with the US. In Study 1, \(_{FORWARD}CS+\) predicted half of the USs while the other half was delivered unwarned and followed by \(_{BACKWARD}CS+\). In Study 2, all USs were predicted by \(_{FORWARD}CS+\) and followed by \(_{BACKWARD}CS+\). In Study 1 both \(_{FORWARD}CS+\) and \(_{BACKWARD}CS+\) were rated as negatively valenced and high arousing after conditioning, while \(_{BACKWARD}CS+\) in Study 2 acquired positive valence and low arousal. Startle amplitude was significantly attenuated to \(_{BACKWARD}CS+\) compared to \(_{FORWARD}CS+\) in Study 2, but did not differ among CSs in Study 1. In summary, predictability of aversive events reverses the explicit valence of a relief-associated stimulus.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{EwaldGlotzbachSchoonGerdesetal.2014,
  author    = {Ewald, Heike and Glotzbach-Schoon, Evelyn and Gerdes, Antje B. M. and Andreatta, Marta and M{\"u}ller, Mathias and M{\"u}hlberger, Andreas and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {Delay and trace fear conditioning in a complex virtual learning environment - neural substrates of extinction},
  series = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience},
  volume    = {8},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience},
  number    = {323},
  issn      = {1662-5161},
  doi       = {10.3389/fnhum.2014.00323},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-116230},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Extinction is an important mechanism to inhibit initially acquired fear responses. There is growing evidence that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) inhibits the amygdala and therefore plays an important role in the extinction of delay fear conditioning. To our knowledge, there is no evidence on the role of the prefrontal cortex in the extinction of trace conditioning up to now. Thus, we compared brain structures involved in the extinction of human delay and trace fear conditioning in a between-subjects-design in an fMRI study. Participants were passively guided through a virtual environment during learning and extinction of conditioned fear. Two different lights served as conditioned stimuli (CS); as unconditioned stimulus (US) a mildly painful electric stimulus was delivered. In the delay conditioning group (DCG) the US was administered with offset of one light (CS+), whereas in the trace conditioning group (TCG) the US was presented 4s after CS+ offset. Both groups showed insular and striatal activation during early extinction, but differed in their prefrontal activation. The vmPFC was mainly activated in the DCG, whereas the TCG showed activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) during extinction. These results point to different extinction processes in delay and trace conditioning. VmPFC activation during extinction of delay conditioning might reflect the inhibition of the fear response. In contrast, dlPFC activation during extinction of trace conditioning may reflect modulation of working memory processes which are involved in bridging the trace interval and hold information in short term memory.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{PohlKundeGanzetal.2014,
  author    = {Pohl, Carsten and Kunde, Wilfried and Ganz, Thomas and Conzelmann, Annette and Pauli, Paul and Kiesel, Andrea},
  title     = {Gaming to see: action video gaming is associated with enhanced processing of masked stimuli},
  doi       = {10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00070},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-112681},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Recent research revealed that action video game players outperform non-players in a wide range of attentional, perceptual and cognitive tasks. Here we tested if expertise in action video games is related to differences regarding the potential of shortly presented stimuli to bias behavior. In a response priming paradigm, participants classified four animal pictures functioning as targets as being smaller or larger than a reference frame. Before each target, one of the same four animal pictures was presented as a masked prime to influence participants' responses in a congruent or incongruent way. Masked primes induced congruence effects, that is, faster responses for congruent compared to incongruent conditions, indicating processing of hardly visible primes. Results also suggested that action video game players showed a larger congruence effect than non-players for 20 ms primes, whereas there was no group difference for 60 ms primes. In addition, there was a tendency for action video game players to detect masked primes for some prime durations better than non-players. Thus, action video game expertise may be accompanied by faster and more efficient processing of shortly presented visual stimuli.},
  language  = {en}
}