@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{HilgerHaegeZedleretal.2023, author = {Hilger, Kirsten and H{\"a}ge, Anne-Sophie and Zedler, Christina and Jost, Michael and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Virtual reality to understand pain-associated approach behaviour: a proof-of-concept study}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {13}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-023-40789-z}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-357817}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Pain-associated approach and avoidance behaviours are critically involved in the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Empirical research suggests a key role of operant learning mechanisms, and first experimental paradigms were developed for their investigation within a controlled laboratory setting. We introduce a new Virtual Reality paradigm to the study of pain-related behaviour and investigate pain experiences on multiple dimensions. The paradigm evaluates the effects of three-tiered heat-pain stimuli applied contingent versus non-contingent with three types of arm movements in naturalistic virtual sceneries. Behaviour, self-reported pain-related fear, pain expectancy and electrodermal activity were assessed in 42 healthy participants during an acquisition phase (contingent movement-pain association) and a modification phase (no contingent movement-pain association). Pain-associated approach behaviour, as measured by arm movements followed by a severe heat stimulus, quickly decreased in-line with the arm movement-pain contingency. Slower effects were observed in fear of movement-related pain and pain expectancy ratings. During the subsequent modification phase, the removal of the pain contingencies modified all three indices. In both phases, skin conductance responses resemble the pattern observed for approach behaviour, while skin conductance levels equal the pattern observed for the self-ratings. Our findings highlight a fast reduction in approach behaviour in the face of acute pain and inform about accompanying psychological and physiological processes. We discuss strength and limitations of our paradigm for future investigations with the ultimate goal of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms involved in chronic pain development, maintenance, and its therapy.}, language = {en} } @article{GromerKiserPauli2021, author = {Gromer, Daniel and Kiser, Dominik P. and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Thigmotaxis in a virtual human open field test}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {11}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-85678-5}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259850}, pages = {6670}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Animal models are used to study neurobiological mechanisms in mental disorders. Although there has been significant progress in the understanding of neurobiological underpinnings of threat-related behaviors and anxiety, little progress was made with regard to new or improved treatments for mental disorders. A possible reason for this lack of success is the unknown predictive and cross-species translational validity of animal models used in preclinical studies. Re-translational approaches, therefore, seek to establish cross-species translational validity by identifying behavioral operations shared across species. To this end, we implemented a human open field test in virtual reality and measured behavioral indices derived from animal studies in three experiments (N=31, N=30, and N=80). In addition, we investigated the associations between anxious traits and such behaviors. Results indicated a strong similarity in behavior across species, i.e., participants in our study-like rodents in animal studies-preferred to stay in the outer region of the open field, as indexed by multiple behavioral parameters. However, correlational analyses did not clearly indicate that these behaviors were a function of anxious traits of participants. We conclude that the realized virtual open field test is able to elicit thigmotaxis and thus demonstrates cross-species validity of this aspect of the test. Modulatory effects of anxiety on human open field behavior should be examined further by incorporating possible threats in the virtual scenario and/or by examining participants with higher anxiety levels or anxiety disorder patients.}, language = {en} } @article{BiehlEhlisMuelleretal.2013, author = {Biehl, Stefanie C. and Ehlis, Ann-Christine and M{\"u}ller, Laura D. and Niklaus, Andrea and Pauli, Paul and Herrmann, Martin J.}, title = {The impact of task relevance and degree of distraction on stimulus processing}, series = {BMC Neuroscience}, journal = {BMC Neuroscience}, doi = {10.1186/1471-2202-14-107}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97271}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Background The impact of task relevance on event-related potential amplitudes of early visual processing was previously demonstrated. Study designs, however, differ greatly, not allowing simultaneous investigation of how both degree of distraction and task relevance influence processing variations. In our study, we combined different features of previous tasks. We used a modified 1-back task in which task relevant and task irrelevant stimuli were alternately presented. The task irrelevant stimuli could be from the same or from a different category as the task relevant stimuli, thereby producing high and low distracting task irrelevant stimuli. In addition, the paradigm comprised a passive viewing condition. Thus, our paradigm enabled us to compare the processing of task relevant stimuli, task irrelevant stimuli with differing degrees of distraction, and passively viewed stimuli. EEG data from twenty participants was collected and mean P100 and N170 amplitudes were analyzed. Furthermore, a potential connection of stimulus processing and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was investigated. Results Our results show a modulation of peak N170 amplitudes by task relevance. N170 amplitudes to task relevant stimuli were significantly higher than to high distracting task irrelevant or passively viewed stimuli. In addition, amplitudes to low distracting task irrelevant stimuli were significantly higher than to high distracting stimuli. N170 amplitudes to passively viewed stimuli were not significantly different from either kind of task irrelevant stimuli. Participants with more symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity showed decreased N170 amplitudes across all task conditions. On a behavioral level, lower N170 enhancement efficiency was significantly correlated with false alarm responses. Conclusions Our results point to a processing enhancement of task relevant stimuli. Unlike P100 amplitudes, N170 amplitudes were strongly influenced by enhancement and enhancement efficiency seemed to have direct behavioral consequences. These findings have potential implications for models of clinical disorders affecting selective attention, especially ADHD.}, language = {en} } @article{HeinGamerGalletal.2021, author = {Hein, Grit and Gamer, Matthias and Gall, Dominik and Gr{\"u}ndahl, Marthe and Domschke, Katharina and Andreatta, Marta and Wieser, Matthias J. and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Social cognitive factors outweigh negative emotionality in predicting COVID-19 related safety behaviors}, series = {Preventive Medicine Reports}, volume = {24}, journal = {Preventive Medicine Reports}, doi = {10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101559}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265008}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Emotion-motivation models propose that behaviors, including health behaviors, should be predicted by the same variables that also predict negative affect since emotional reactions should induce a motivation to avoid threatening situations. In contrast, social cognitive models propose that safety behaviors are predicted by a different set of variables that mainly reflect cognitive and socio-structural aspects. Here, we directly tested these opposing hypotheses in young adults (N = 4134) in the context of COVID-19-related safety behaviors to prevent infections. In each participant, we collected measures of negative affect as well as cognitive and socio-structural variables during the lockdown in the first infection wave in Germany. We found a negative effect of the pandemic on emotional responses. However, this was not the main predictor for young adults' willingness to comply with COVID-19-related safety measures. Instead, individual differences in compliance were mainly predicted by cognitive and socio-structural variables. These results were confirmed in an independent data set. This study shows that individuals scoring high on negative affect during the pandemic are not necessarily more likely to comply with safety regulations. Instead, political measures should focus on cognitive interventions and the societal relevance of the health issue. These findings provide important insights into the basis of health-related concerns and feelings as well as behavioral adaptations.}, language = {en} } @article{LangePauli2019, author = {Lange, Bastian and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Social anxiety changes the way we move—A social approach-avoidance task in a virtual reality CAVE system}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {14}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {12}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0226805}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-200528}, pages = {e0226805}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Investigating approach-avoidance behavior regarding affective stimuli is important in broadening the understanding of one of the most common psychiatric disorders, social anxiety disorder. Many studies in this field rely on approach-avoidance tasks, which mainly assess hand movements, or interpersonal distance measures, which return inconsistent results and lack ecological validity. Therefore, the present study introduces a virtual reality task, looking at avoidance parameters (movement time and speed, distance to social stimulus, gaze behavior) during whole-body movements. These complex movements represent the most ecologically valid form of approach and avoidance behavior. These are at the core of complex and natural social behavior. With this newly developed task, the present study examined whether high socially anxious individuals differ in avoidance behavior when bypassing another person, here virtual humans with neutral and angry facial expressions. Results showed that virtual bystanders displaying angry facial expressions were generally avoided by all participants. In addition, high socially anxious participants generally displayed enhanced avoidance behavior towards virtual people, but no specifically exaggerated avoidance behavior towards virtual people with a negative facial expression. The newly developed virtual reality task proved to be an ecological valid tool for research on complex approach-avoidance behavior in social situations. The first results revealed that whole body approach-avoidance behavior relative to passive bystanders is modulated by their emotional facial expressions and that social anxiety generally amplifies such avoidance.}, language = {en} } @article{BraunEvdokimovFranketal.2022, author = {Braun, Alexandra and Evdokimov, Dimitar and Frank, Johanna and Pauli, Paul and Wabel, Thomas and {\"U}{\c{c}}eyler, Nurcan and Sommer, Claudia}, title = {Relevance of Religiosity for Coping Strategies and Disability in Patients with Fibromyalgia Syndrome}, series = {Journal of Religion and Health}, volume = {61}, journal = {Journal of Religion and Health}, number = {1}, issn = {1573-6571}, doi = {10.1007/s10943-020-01177-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269135}, pages = {524-539}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Coping strategies are essential for the outcome of chronic pain. This study evaluated religiosity in a cohort of patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), its effect on pain and other symptoms, on coping and FMS-related disability. A total of 102 FMS patients were recruited who filled in questionnaires, a subgroup of 42 patients participated in a face-to-face interview, and data were evaluated by correlation and regression analyses. Few patients were traditionally religious, but the majority believed in a higher existence and described their spirituality as "transcendence conviction". The coping strategy "praying-hoping" and the ASP dimension "religious orientation" (r = 0.5, P < 0.05) showed a significant relationship independent of the grade of religiosity (P < 0.05). A high grade of belief in a higher existence was negatively associated with the choice of ignoring as coping strategy (r = - 0.4, P < 0.05). Mood and affect-related variables had the highest impact on disability (b = 0.5, P < 0.05). In this cohort, the grade of religiosity played a role in the choice of coping strategies, but had no effects on health and mood outcome.}, language = {en} } @article{GenheimerAndreattaAsanetal.2017, author = {Genheimer, Hannah and Andreatta, Marta and Asan, Esther and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Reinstatement of contextual conditioned anxiety in virtual reality and the effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in humans}, series = {Scientific Reports}, volume = {7}, journal = {Scientific Reports}, number = {17886}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-017-18183-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-169892}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Since exposure therapy for anxiety disorders incorporates extinction of contextual anxiety, relapses may be due to reinstatement processes. Animal research demonstrated more stable extinction memory and less anxiety relapse due to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). We report a valid human three-day context conditioning, extinction and return of anxiety protocol, which we used to examine effects of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS). Seventy-five healthy participants received electric stimuli (unconditioned stimuli, US) during acquisition (Day1) when guided through one virtual office (anxiety context, CTX+) but never in another (safety context, CTX-). During extinction (Day2), participants received tVNS, sham, or no stimulation and revisited both contexts without US delivery. On Day3, participants received three USs for reinstatement followed by a test phase. Successful acquisition, i.e. startle potentiation, lower valence, higher arousal, anxiety and contingency ratings in CTX+ versus CTX-, the disappearance of these effects during extinction, and successful reinstatement indicate validity of this paradigm. Interestingly, we found generalized reinstatement in startle responses and differential reinstatement in valence ratings. Altogether, our protocol serves as valid conditioning paradigm. Reinstatement effects indicate different anxiety networks underlying physiological versus verbal responses. However, tVNS did neither affect extinction nor reinstatement, which asks for validation and improvement of the stimulation protocol.}, language = {en} } @article{HerzogAndreattaSchneideretal.2021, author = {Herzog, Katharina and Andreatta, Marta and Schneider, Kristina and Schiele, Miriam A. and Domschke, Katharina and Romanos, Marcel and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Reducing Generalization of Conditioned Fear: Beneficial Impact of Fear Relevance and Feedback in Discrimination Training}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, volume = {12}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2021.665711}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239970}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Anxiety patients over-generalize fear, possibly because of an incapacity to discriminate threat and safety signals. Discrimination trainings are promising approaches for reducing such fear over-generalization. Here we investigated the efficacy of a fear-relevant vs. a fear-irrelevant discrimination training on fear generalization and whether the effects are increased with feedback during training. Eighty participants underwent two fear acquisition blocks, during which one face (conditioned stimulus, CS+), but not another face (CS-), was associated with a female scream (unconditioned stimulus, US). During two generalization blocks, both CSs plus four morphs (generalization stimuli, GS1-GS4) were presented. Between these generalization blocks, half of the participants underwent a fear-relevant discrimination training (discrimination between CS+ and the other faces) with or without feedback and the other half a fear-irrelevant discrimination training (discrimination between the width of lines) with or without feedback. US expectancy, arousal, valence ratings, and skin conductance responses (SCR) indicated successful fear acquisition. Importantly, fear-relevant vs. fear-irrelevant discrimination trainings and feedback vs. no feedback reduced generalization as reflected in US expectancy ratings independently from one another. No effects of training condition were found for arousal and valence ratings or SCR. In summary, this is a first indication that fear-relevant discrimination training and feedback can improve the discrimination between threat and safety signals in healthy individuals, at least for learning-related evaluations, but not evaluations of valence or (physiological) arousal.}, language = {en} } @article{WuPuAllenetal.2012, author = {Wu, Lingdan and Pu, Jie and Allen, John J. B. and Pauli, Paul}, title = {Recognition of facial expressions in individuals with elevated levels of depressive symptoms: an eye-movement study}, series = {Depression Research and Treatment}, volume = {2012}, journal = {Depression Research and Treatment}, number = {249030}, doi = {10.1155/2012/249030}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-123153}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Previous studies consistently reported abnormal recognition of facial expressions in depression. However, it is still not clear whether this abnormality is due to an enhanced or impaired ability to recognize facial expressions, and what underlying cognitive systems are involved. The present study aimed to examine how individuals with elevated levels of depressive symptoms differ from controls on facial expression recognition and to assess attention and information processing using eye tracking. Forty participants (18 with elevated depressive symptoms) were instructed to label facial expressions depicting one of seven emotions. Results showed that the high-depression group, in comparison with the low-depression group, recognized facial expressions faster and with comparable accuracy. Furthermore, the high-depression group demonstrated greater leftwards attention bias which has been argued to be an indicator of hyperactivation of right hemisphere during facial expression recognition.}, language = {en} }