@article{AndreattaPauli2015,
  author    = {Andreatta, Marta and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {Appetitive vs. aversive conditioning in humans},
  series = {Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience},
  volume    = {9},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience},
  number    = {128},
  doi       = {10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00128},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-148614},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {In classical conditioning, an initially neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) becomes associated with a biologically salient event (unconditioned stimulus, US), which might be pain (aversive conditioning) or food (appetitive conditioning). After a few associations, the CS is able to initiate either defensive or consummatory responses, respectively. Contrary to aversive conditioning, appetitive conditioning is rarely investigated in humans, although its importance for normal and pathological behaviors (e.g., obesity, addiction) is undeniable. The present study intents to translate animal findings on appetitive conditioning to humans using food as an US. Thirty-three participants were investigated between 8 and 10 am without breakfast in order to assure that they felt hungry. During two acquisition phases, one geometrical shape (avCS+) predicted an aversive US (painful electric shock), another shape (appCS+) predicted an appetitive US (chocolate or salty pretzel according to the participants' preference), and a third shape (CS) predicted neither US. In a extinction phase, these three shapes plus a novel shape (NEW) were presented again without US delivery. Valence and arousal ratings as well as startle and skin conductance (SCR) responses were collected as learning indices. We found successful aversive and appetitive conditioning. On the one hand, the avCS+ was rated as more negative and more arousing than the CS and induced startle potentiation and enhanced SCR. On the other hand, the appCS+ was rated more positive than the CS and induced startle attenuation and larger SCR. In summary, we successfully confirmed animal findings in (hungry) humans by demonstrating appetitive learning and normal aversive learning.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{TopolinskiStrack2015,
  author    = {Topolinski, Sascha and Strack, Fritz},
  title     = {Corrugator activity confirms immediate negative affect in surprise},
  series = {Frontiers in Psychology},
  volume    = {6},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Psychology},
  number    = {134},
  doi       = {10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00134},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-144068},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The emotion of surprise entails a complex of immediate responses, such as cognitive interruption, attention allocation to, and more systematic processing of the surprising stimulus. All these processes serve the ultimate function to increase processing depth and thus cognitively master the surprising stimulus. The present account introduces phasic negative affect as the underlying mechanism responsible for this switch in operating mode. Surprising stimuli are schema discrepant and thus entail cognitive disfluency, which elicits immediate negative affect. This affect in turn works like a phasic cognitive tuning switching the current processing mode from more automatic and heuristic to more systematic and reflective processing. Directly testing the initial elicitation of negative affect by surprising events, the present experiment presented high and low surprising neutral trivia statements to N = 28 participants while assessing their spontaneous facial expressions via facial electromyography. High compared to low surprising trivia elicited higher corrugator activity, indicative of negative affect and mental effort, while leaving zygomaticus (positive affect) and frontalis (cultural surprise expression) activity unaffected. Future research shall investigate the mediating role of negative affect in eliciting surprise-related outcomes.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Erlbeck2015,
  author    = {Erlbeck, Helena},
  title     = {The event-related potentials Mismatch Negativity, P300, and N400: Effects of attentional modulation and application in patients with disorders of consciousness},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121041},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The present work comprises four studies dealing with the investigation of the auditory event-related potentials (ERP) Mismatch Negativity (MMN), P300, and N400 under different attentional instructions, and with their application in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) to assess residual cognitive functioning. In guided interviews (study 1), practitioners working with DOC patients stated their general interest in and an objective need for the complementation of current diagnostic procedures by reliable and valid ERP-based methods. Subsequently, in study 2, simple oddball and semantic paradigms were applied to 19 behaviorally non-responsive DOC patients revealing the presence of at least one ERP in eight patients investigated. In the third and fourth study, specific attentional effects on ERPs were investigated in healthy participants to define optimal instructions and stimulus parameters. In study 3, MMN and N400 amplitudes were assessed in 18 participants, and in study 4, MMN and P300 amplitudes were assessed in 32 participants. Both studies included an ignore task (attention on simultaneous visual stimuli), a passive task, and a focused task and revealed distinct attentional effects on P300 and N400 with largest amplitudes in the focused task, smaller ones in the passive task and no ERP in the ignore task. An MMN was elicited in all tasks, but still, amplitudes differed as a function of task. In addition, study 4 included oddball paradigms comprising several deviants in different dimensions. Higher amplitudes were found in this multifeature paradigm compared to traditional oddball paradigms and larger amplitudes were elicited by deviants highly different from standards. It is concluded that ERPs represent a promising tool to complement clinical assessment of DOC patients. Application of ERP paradigms should include focused instructions, especially when using semantic material. Furthermore, multifeature paradigms have been proven especially useful eliciting large amplitudes and allowing for the investigation of several dimensions of deviants at the same time.},
  subject      = {Bewusstseinsst{\"o}rung},
  language  = {en}
}