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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.
Angstverhalten bei der Panikstörung mit Agoraphobie wird hauptsächlich unter dem Aspekt des „safety seekings“ betrachtet. Kontrovers diskutiert wird, ob diese Verhaltensweisen für eine erfolgreiche Behandlung abgebaut werden sollen. Es wurde bisher kaum nach der ethologischen Bedeutung bestimmter Verhaltensweisen unter Angst gefragt. Dies ist erstaunlich, weil die Panikstörung mit Agoraphobie häufig als gesteigerte Form extraterritorialer Angst gesehen wird. Extraterritoriale Angst tritt typischerweise bei Tieren auf, wenn sie ihr vertrautes Gebiet verlassen. Im Tiermodell liegen zahlreiche ethoexperimentelle Paradigmen vor, mit denen man das natürliche Angstverhalten von Tieren untersucht. Letztlich klärt man am Tiermodell aber Fragestellungen, die am Menschen nicht umsetzbar sind. Die experimentelle Untersuchung menschlichen Angstverhaltens unter ethologischer Perspektive erfordert eine Situation, die solches Verhalten ethisch unbedenklich auslöst und geeignete messbare Parameter liefert. Der Open-Field Test als bekanntes Paradigma aus der Tierforschung erfüllt diese Voraussetzungen. Es war Ziel des Promotionsvorhabens, in einem realen Open-Field Test bei Agoraphobiepatien-ten und hochängstlichen Probanden Thigmotaxis als ethologisches Angstverhalten nachzuweisen und mit dem Verhalten einer Kontrollgruppe bzw. niedrigängstlichen Personen zu vergleichen (Studie I). Thigmotaxis ist eine Bewegungstendenz entlang des Randes und wird im Tiermodell als Index für Angst benutzt. Es sollte die Frage geklärt werden, ob agoraphobes Verhalten evolutionär verankert werden kann. Ziel von Studie II war die Untersuchung der Wege in einer typischen Alltagstopographie. Dazu wurden Unterschiede im Raum-Zeit-Verhalten von Agora-phobiepatienten vs. Kontrollgruppe, sowie hoch- vs. niedrigängstlichen Probanden beim Gehen durch die Stadt verglichen. Die Aufzeichnung des Raum-Zeit-Verhaltens erfolgte in beiden Studien per GPS-Tracking. Studie I zeigte an insgesamt 69 Studienteilnehmern, dass Angstverhalten mit ethologischer Bedeutung bei Menschen im Open-Field Test eindeutig messbar ist. Agoraphobiepatienten zeigten während der Exploration eines ungefährlichen freien Fußballfeldes deutlich mehr Thigmotaxis und Vermeidung der Mitte als die Kontrollgruppe. Hochängstliche im Vergleich zu niedrigängstlichen gesunden Probanden zeigten dies ebenfalls. So konnte die Vermutung unterstützt werden, dass die Agoraphobie möglicherweise eine evolutionäre Entsprechung in der tierischen Extraterritorialangst hat. Die Befunde sprechen auch für eine gemeinsame Prädisposition zu Sicherheitsverhalten bei pathologischer Angst und hoher Ängstlichkeit. Die Bedeutung gemeinsamer Verhaltensdispositionen bei klinischen und nicht-klinischen Gruppen kann im Hinblick auf gemeinsame Endophänotypen für die neuronale Angstverarbeitung diskutiert werden. Zuletzt konnte mit dem Open-Field Test ein aus der Tierforschung bekanntes ethoexperimentelles Paradigma auf den Menschen übertragen werden, was die Gültigkeit des Tiermodells unterstützt. Studie II lieferte Unterschiede in den Wegen der Agoraphobiepatienten vs. Kontrollpersonen bei der Passage des Marktplatzes. Die Patienten überquerten den Marktplatz seltener als die Kon-trollgruppe, und tangierten ihn häufiger am Rand. Die Daten konnten in korrelativen Zusammenhang mit der Vermeidung der Mitte im Open-Field Test gebracht werden. Dies deutet auf eine starke Auswirkung der agoraphoben Symptomatik auf das Raum-Zeit-Verhalten in unterschiedlichen Situationen hin. Im Weiteren zeigte Studie II, dass sich GPS Tracking als Assessment-Methode in der klinischen Psychologie eignet. Bei den hoch-und niedrigängstlichen Probanden fand sich bei der Passage des Marktplatzes kein Unterschied, aber der weitere Streckenverlauf lieferte Hinweise darauf, dass bei hoher Ängstlichkeit die Navigation entlang häufig zurückgelegter Strecken bevorzugt werden könnte. Schlussfolgerung des explorativen Vorgehens bei Studie II ist, dass es sich lohnt, den Zusammenhang zwischen Emotion und Navigation in komplexer Umgebung weiter zu untersuchen
Renewal of fear is one form of relapse that occurs after successful therapy, resulting from an encounter with a feared object in a context different from the context of the exposure therapy. According to Bouton (1994), the return of fear, provoked by context change, indicates that the fear was not erased in the first place. More importantly, the return of fear indicates that during the exposure session a new association was learned that connected the feared object with “no fear”; yet, as Bouton further argues, this association is context dependent. Such dependence could explain effects like renewal. In a new context, the therapeutic association will not be expressed and thus will no longer inhibit the fear. The assumption that an association is context dependent has been tested and showed robust results (Balooch & Neumann, 2011; Siavash Bandarian Balooch, Neumann, & Boschen, 2012; Culver, Stoyanova, & Craske, 2011; Kim & Richardson, 2009; Neumann & Kitlertsirivatana, 2010). Research for the treatment of anxiety disorders, aiming to reduce fear and, more importantly, prevent relapse, is flourishing. There are several exposure protocols currently under investigation: multiple contexts exposure (MCE), which aims at reducing the return of fear due to renewal (e.g., Balooch & Neumann, 2011); prolonged exposure (PE), which aims at strengthening the inhibitory association during the extinction learning (e.g., Thomas, Vurbic, & Novak, 2009); and reconsolidation update (RU), which aims at “updating” the reconsolidation process by briefly exposing the CS+ before the actual extinction takes place (Schiller et al., 2010). So far, however, few clinical studies conducted on humans have investigated these novel treatment protocols, and as far as I know none has investigated the mechanisms of action behind these protocols with a human clinical sample. The present thesis has three main goals. The first is to demonstrate that exposure therapy in multiple contexts reduces the likelihood of renewal. The second is to examine the mechanisms contributing to the effect of MCE and the third is to shed light on the concept of context in the framework of the conditioning and extinction paradigm. To this end, three studies were conducted. The first study investigated the effect of MCE on renewal, the second and third studies examined working mechanisms of MCE. In the first study thirty spider-phobic participants were exposed four times to a virtual spider. The exposure trials were conducted either in one single context or in four different contexts. Finally, all participants completed both a virtual renewal test, with the virtual spider presented in a novel virtual context, and an in vivo behavioral avoidance test with a real spider. This study successfully demonstrated the efficacy of MCE on reducing renewal. Study 2 investigated the working mechanisms behind MCE by utilizing a differential conditioning paradigm and conducting the extinction in multiple contexts, targeting similar renewal attenuation as achieved in study 1. This was followed by two tests that attempted to reveal extinction-relevant associations like ones causing context inhibitory effects. This study had three main hypotheses: (1) The extinction context is associated with the exposure, and thus operates as a safety signal at some point during the extinction; it will therefore compete with the safety learning of the CS, leading to a decreased extinction effect on the CS if the extinction is conducted in only one context. (2) The elements (e.g., room color, furniture) of the extinction context are connected to the therapeutic association and therefore should serve as reminders of the extinction, causing a stronger fear inhibition when presented during a test. (3) Therapy process factors, according to emotional processing theory, determine the renewal effect (e.g., initial fear activation, and within-session and between-session activation are correlated with the strength of renewal). In this study, however, no differences between the groups at the renewal phase were observed, presumably because the extinction was too strong to enable a renewal of fear at the test phase conducted immediately following the extinction. This hence rendered the two inhibitory tests useless. Study 3 aimed at defining the concept of context in the conditioning and exposure framework. Study 3 utilized the phenomenon known as generalization decrement, whereby a conditioned response is reduced due to change in the environment. This allowed context similarity to be quantified. After an acquisition phase in one context, participants were tested in one of three contexts, two of which differed in only one dimension (configuration of objects vs. features). The third group was tested in the same context and served as control group. The goal was to show that both configuration and features play an important role in the definition of context. There was, however, no significant statistical difference between the groups at the test phases, likely because of context novelty effects (participants exposed to a new context following extinction in another context expected a second extinction phase, and thus demonstrated greater fear than expected in all three groups).
Why are you looking like that? How the context influences evaluation and processing of human faces
(2013)
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.
Diese Arbeit beschreibt die Entwicklung und Anwendung einer simulationsgestützten Methode zur Kompetenzfeststellung von Triebfahrzeugführern (Tf) der Deutschen Bahn AG unter Anwendung eines Verhaltensmarkersystems. Diese Methode wurde als ein erweitertes Konzept zur Bewertung eines Tf im Rahmen einer jährlich stattfindenden Überwachungsfahrt entwickelt. Diese Überwachungsfahrt besteht aus einer etwa 45-minütigen Prüfungsfahrt, mit deren Hilfe die Handlungssicherheit eines Tf erhöht sowie dessen Leistung und Leistungsfähigkeit beschrieben und bewertet wird. Die Überwachungsfahrt wird von geschulten Instruktoren durchgeführt. Während der Simulatorfahrt werden unregelmäßige Ereignisse eingespielt, die der Tf unter Anwendung der vorgeschriebenen Sollverhaltensweisen bewältigen muss. Ziel ist es, keinen sicherheitsrelevanten Mangel zu verursachen. Grundlage des eingeführten Verhaltensmarkersystems ist ein Datenkonzept, das auf den in den Regelwerken beschriebenen Fahrtereignissen und den entsprechenden Sollverhaltensweisen beruht. Die Überwachungsfahrt wird aus diesen Einzelereignissen zusammengestellt und somit entspricht auch das während der Überwachung zu zeigende Verhalten dem in den Regelwerken beschriebenen Sollverhalten. Um Abweichungen vom vorgeschriebenen Verhalten besser erkennen und bewerten zu können, werden sog. Verhaltensmarker eingeführt. Hierbei handelt es sich um objektive und nachprüfbare Indikatoren, die etwas über den Grad der Erfüllung des Sollverhaltens Auskunft geben. Zentral für die Bewertung sind somit die Erfassung möglicher Sollverhaltensabweichungen und die Frage nach der Festlegung der Schwere dieser Abweichung im Sinne eines Fehlers. Um Art und Stärke der Abweichungen vom Sollverhalten wurden objektive Fahrdaten aus dem Simulator herangezogen. Zusätzlich wurde ein standardisiertes Beobachtungsverfahren für die Instruktoren entwickelt. In einem zweiten Schritt wurden die über beide Verfahren erfassten Abweichungen vom Sollverhalten auf der Basis von Expertenurteilen entsprechend der potentiellen Auswirkungen gewichtet. Diese Gewichtung reicht in drei Stufen von leichten Fehlern bis hin zu sicherheitsrelevanten Mängeln. Für alle in den Überwachungsfahrten vorkommenden Sollverhaltensweisen wurden mögliche Abweichungen erhoben und in einer Fehlertabelle den Fehlerkategorien „gering“, „mittelschwer“ und „sicherheitsrelevant“ zugeordnet. Die so gewichtete Fehlerbetrachtung führt zu einer Gesamtbewertung des Tf und zu einer detaillierten Analyse seiner Stärken und Schwächen. Insgesamt wurden 1033 Überwachungsfahrten von den Instruktoren auf einem projektspezifischen Bogen protokolliert. Über die an den Simulatoren vorhandenen Datenschnittstellen wurden 1314 Überwachungsfahrten aufgezeichnet. Diese Datenquellen wurden integriert und ausgewertet. Als übergeordnetes Ergebnis lässt sich festhalten, dass die Anwendung der in dieser Arbeit entwickelten Methode nachweislich die Qualität und Genauigkeit der Bewertung verbessern konnte. Die Verhaltensmarker ermöglichen eine differenziertere Bewertung des Leistungsstands eines Tf. So ist es nicht nur möglich, sicherheitskritisches Verhalten („roter Bereich“) und ein optimales, fehlerfreies Verhalten („grüner Bereich“) festzustellen, sondern auch Aussagen über den „gelben Bereich“ dazwischen zu treffen (z.B. Mängel, die in anderen Situationen sicherheitskritisch sein können).
The aim of this study was both to investigate the influence of cognitive control on unconscious processing, and to investigate the influence of unconscious processing on cognitive control. At first, different mechanisms and accounts to explain unconscious priming are presented. Here, perceptual and motor processes, as well as stimulus-response learning, semantic categorization, and the action trigger account as theories to explain motor priming are discussed. Then, the issue of the potential limits of unconscious processing is presented. Findings that indicate that active current intentions and expertise modulate unconscious processing are illustrated. Subsequently, results that imply an influence of unconsciously presented stimuli that goes beyond motor processes are discussed, with a special focus on inhibition processes, orienting of attention, task set activation, and conflict adaptation. Then I present the results of my own empirical work. Experiment 1 shows that the effective processing of unconsciously presented stimuli depends on expertise, even when potentially confounding difference between the expert and novice groups are controlled. The results of Experiments 2 and 3 indicate that the intention to use particular stimuli is a crucial factor for the effectiveness of these stimuli when they are presented unconsciously. Additionally, these findings show that shifts of attention can be triggered by centrally presented masked arrow cues. Experiments 4 and 5 broaden these results to cue stimuli that are not inherently associated with a spatial meaning. The finding corroborate that typically endogenously controlled shifts of attention can also be induced by unconscious stimuli. Experiments 6 and 7 demonstrate that even a central cognitive control process like task set activation is not contingent on conscious awareness, but can in contrast be triggered through unconscious stimulation. Finally, these results are integrated and I discuss how the concept of cognitive control and the limits of unconscious processing may have to be reconsidered. Furthermore, potential future research possibilities in this field are presented.
The perception of pain can be modulated by a variety of factors such as biological/pharmacological treatments as well as potent cognitive and emotional manipulations. Placebo and nocebo effects are among the most prominent examples for such manipulations. Placebo and nocebo manipulations cause reliable psychological and physiological changes, although the administered agent or treatment is inert. The present dissertation aimed at investigating the role of cognitive and emotional influences in the generation of placebo and nocebo effects on pain perception. In addition, the feasibility of solely psychological placebo manipulations to alter the perception of pain was tested.
Two commonly discussed preconditions for the generation of placebo and nocebo effects are prior experiences (i.e., past encounter of drug effects) and expectations (i.e., positive or negative attitudes towards an intervention). So far, research on placebo and nocebo effects relied on the administration of sham interventions, which resembled medical treatments like inert pills, creams or injections. However, such experimental procedures deal with confounds due to earlier experiences and expectations resulting from the individual’s history with medical interventions. Accordingly, the implementation of a placebo manipulation that is completely new to an individual, seems necessary to disentangle the contribution of experience and expectation for the induction of placebo and nocebo effects.
To this end, in Experiment 1 the level of experience and expectation regarding a placebo-nocebo treatment was stepwise manipulated across three different experimental groups. To avoid any resemblances to earlier experiences and individual expectations, a mere psychological placebo-nocebo treatment was chosen that was new to all participants. They were instructed that visual black and white stripe patterns had been found to reliably alter the perception of pain. One group of participants received only the placebo-nocebo instruction (expectation), a second group experienced a placebo-nocebo treatment within a conditioning phase (experience) but no instruction, and a third group received the combination of both that is a placebo-nocebo instruction and a placebo-nocebo conditioning (experience + expectation).
It was shown that only the experience + expectation group revealed significantly higher pain ratings and physiological responses during nocebo, compared to placebo trials of the succeeding test phase. These findings demonstrate that the induction of a mere psychological placebo-nocebo effect on pain is in principle possible. Most important, results indicate that such effects most likely rely on both, a positive treatment experience, due to the encounter of an effective intervention (placebo conditioning), and a positive expectation about the intervention (placebo instruction).Besides experience and expectation, the current mood state has been shown to modulate pain and to impact the induction of placebo and nocebo effects. In this vein it has been demonstrated that placebo effects come along with positive affect, while nocebo effects often occur together with elevated feelings of anxiety. To clarify the interaction of emotions and placebo-nocebo manipulations on pain perception, in Experiment 2 the paradigm of Experiment 1 was modified. Instead of black and white stripe patterns, positive and negative emotional pictures were presented, which either cued pain increase (nocebo) or pain decrease (placebo). Two experimental groups were compared, which differed with regard to the instructed contingency of positive pictures serving as placebo and negative pictures serving as nocebo cues or vice versa (congruent vs. incongruent). Results indicate that the differentiation of placebo and nocebo trials (behaviorally and physiologically) was more pronounced for the congruent compared to the incongruent group. However, in the incongruent group, affective pain ratings were also significantly higher for nocebo (positive pictures) than placebo (negative pictures) trials, similar to the congruent group. These findings demonstrate that a placebo-nocebo manipulation is capable to dampen and even reverse the originally pain augmenting effect of negative emotions.
The results of Experiment 2 were further corroborated in Experiment 3, when the design was adapted to the fMRI scanner, and again a congruent and an incongruent experimental group were compared. Behavioral, physiological and neurophysiological markers of pain processing revealed a differentiation between nocebo and placebo conditions that was present irrespective of the experimental group. In addition, the fMRI analysis revealed an increased engagement of prefrontal areas for the incongruent group only, supposedly reflecting the reinterpretation or appraisal process when positive pictures were cueing negative outcomes.
Taken together, the results of the present studies showed (a) that it is possible to induce a placebo-nocebo effect on pain solely by a psychological manipulation, (b) that both, prior experiences and positive expectation, are necessary preconditions for this placebo-nocebo effect, (c) that the impact of negative emotion on pain can be dampened and even reversed by placebo-nocebo manipulations, and (d) that most likely a cognitive top-down process is crucial for the induction of (psychological) placebo-nocebo effects.
These results significantly enhance our understanding of psychological mechanisms involved in the induction of placebo-nocebo effects. Further, a fruitful foundation for future studies is provided, which will need to determine the contributions of primarily nocebo or placebo responses mediating the effects as demonstrated in the present studies. In a long-term perspective, the present findings may also help to exploit placebo effects and prevent from nocebo effect in clinical contexts by further elucidating crucial psychological factors that contribute to the placebo and nocebo response.
This study examined the impact of three clinical psychological variables (non-pathological levels of depression and anxiety, as well as experimentally manipulated mood) on fat and taste perception in healthy subjects. After a baseline orosensory evaluation, ‘sad’, ‘happy’ and ‘neutral’ video clips were presented to induce corresponding moods in eighty participants. Following mood manipulation, subjects rated five different oral stimuli, appearing sweet, umami, sour, bitter, fatty, which were delivered at five different concentrations each. Depression levels were assessed with Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) and anxiety levels were assessed via the Spielberger’s STAI-trait and state questionnaire. Overall, subjects were able to track the concentrations of the stimuli correctly, yet depression level affected taste ratings. First, depression scores were positively correlated with sucrose ratings. Second, subjects with depression scores above the sample median rated sucrose and quinine as more intense after mood induction (positive, negative and neutral). Third and most important, the group with enhanced depression scores did not rate low and high fat stimuli differently after positive or negative mood induction, whereas, during baseline or during the non-emotional neutral condition they rated the fat intensity as increasing with concentration. Consistent with others’ prior observations we also found that sweet and bitter stimuli at baseline were rated as more intense by participants with higher anxiety scores and that after positive and negative mood induction, citric acid was rated as stronger tasting compared to baseline. The observation that subjects with mild subclinical depression rated low and high fat stimuli similarly when in positive or negative mood is novel and likely has potential implications for unhealthy eating patterns. This deficit may foster unconscious eating of fatty foods in sub-clinical mildly depressed populations.
The serotonin (5-HT) and neuropeptide S (NPS) systems are discussed as important genetic modulators of fear and sustained anxiety contributing to the etiology of anxiety disorders. Sustained anxiety is a crucial characteristic of most anxiety disorders which likely develops through contextual fear conditioning. This study investigated if and how genetic alterations of the 5-HT and the NPS systems as well as their interaction modulate contextual fear conditioning; specifically, function polymorphic variants in the genes coding for the 5-HT transporter (5HTT) and the NPS receptor (NPSR1) were studied. A large group of healthy volunteers was therefore stratified for 5HTTLPR (S+ vs. LL carriers) and NPSR1 rs324981 (T+ vs. AA carriers) polymorphisms resulting in four genotype groups (S+/T+, S+/AA, LL/T+, LL/AA) of 20 participants each. All participants underwent contextual fear conditioning and extinction using a virtual reality (VR) paradigm. During acquisition, one virtual office room (anxiety context, CXT+) was paired with an unpredictable electric stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US), whereas another virtual office room was not paired with any US (safety context, CXT−). During extinction no US was administered. Anxiety responses were quantified by fear-potentiated startle and ratings. Most importantly, we found a gene × gene interaction on fear-potentiated startle. Only carriers of both risk alleles (S+/T+) exhibited higher startle responses in CXT+ compared to CXT−. In contrast, anxiety ratings were only influenced by the NPSR1 polymorphism with AA carriers showing higher anxiety ratings in CXT+ as compared to CXT−. Our results speak in favor of a two level account of fear conditioning with diverging effects on implicit vs. explicit fear responses. Enhanced contextual fear conditioning as reflected in potentiated startle responses may be an endophenotype for anxiety disorders.
Fahr- und Verkehrssimulation sind neben Studien mit realen Fahrzeugen die gängigen Methoden der empirischen Verkehrswissenschaft. Während sich die Fahrsimulation mit dem Erleben und Verhalten von Fahrern beschäftigt, untersucht die Verkehrssimulation das gesamte Verkehrssystem. Der Bereich zwischen diesen Polen „Fahrer“ und „Verkehr“, in dem Fahrer aufeinander treffen und miteinander interagieren, ist angesichts der Bedeutung sozialer Prozesse für das Erleben und Verhalten ein wichtiger Aspekt. Allerdings wurde dieser Bereich in der Verkehrswissenschaft bisher nur unzureichend abgebildet. Auch in der Fahr- und Verkehrssimulation wurde dieser Aspekt bislang weitgehend vernachlässigt.
Um diese Lücke zu schließen, wurde mit der Pulksimulation eine neue Versuchsumgebung entwickelt. Sie besteht aus miteinander vernetzten Fahrsimulatoren und ermöglicht es, Interaktionsfragestellungen zu untersuchen. Jedoch bringt die Anwendung der Pulksimulation neue Anforderungen an den Untersucher mit sich, die bei der Fahr- bzw. Verkehrssimulation nicht notwendig sind und für die Pulksimulation neu entwickelt werden müssen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist, diese Methode zur Untersuchung verkehrspsychologischer Fragestellungen weiterzuentwickeln, zu prüfen und zu etablieren.
In ersten Untersuchungsansätzen werden in acht Teilstudien die grundlegenden methodischen Besonderheiten der Pulksimulation am Beispiel des Folgefahrens und des Kreuzens betrachtet. Hierbei wird auch stets der Vergleich zu den bisher genutzten Versuchsumgebungen Einzelfahrsimulation und Verkehrssimulation gezogen. Folgende Fragstellungen wurden im Rahmen dessen beantwortet:
(1) Wie unterscheidet sich eine Pulkfahrt von einer Einzelfahrt?
(2) Welchen Einfluss haben nachfolgende Fahrzeuge im Pulk?
(3) Welche Effekte haben Positionierungen im Pulk?
(4) Wie unterscheiden sich reale Fahrer und Modelle im Pulk?
(5) Wie wirkt sich die Einführung einer Nebenaufgabe auf den Pulk aus?
(6) Wie wirken sich verschiedene Abstandsinstruktionen aus?
(7) Mit welchen Parametern kann der Pulk beschrieben werden?
(8) Wie kann das Verhalten des Pulks an Kreuzungen untersucht werden?
Schließlich werden zwei Anwendungsbeispiele der Pulksimulation zu aktuell relevanten Themen aufgezeigt. In der ersten Untersuchung wird ein Gefahrenwarner evaluiert, der vor Bremsungen vorausfahrender Fahrzeuge warnt. Während Fahrer direkt hinter dem bremsenden Fahrzeug vom System nicht profitieren, steigt der Nutzen des Systems mit zunehmender Positionierung im Pulk an.
In einer zweiten Studie wird ein Ampelphasenassistent untersucht. Dieser informiert den Fahrer während der Annäherung an eine Ampel über die optimale Geschwindigkeit, mit der diese Ampel ohne Halt bei Grün durchfahren werden kann. Um die Auswirkungen des Systems auf den nicht-assistierten Umgebungsverkehr bestimmen zu können, werden verschiedene Ausstattungsraten innerhalb des Pulks eingeführt. Mit diesem Untersuchungsansatz können gleichzeitig Effekte des Systems auf die assistierten Fahrer (z. B. Befolgungsverhalten), die nicht-assistierten Fahrer (z. B. Ärger) sowie das Verkehrssystem (z. B. Verkehrsfluss) bestimmt werden. Der Ampelphasenassistent resultiert in einem ökonomischeren Fahrverhalten der assistierten Fahrer, erhöht aber gleichzeitig in gemischten Ausstattungsraten den Ärger der nicht-assistierten Fahrer im Verkehrssystem. Erst bei Vollausstattung entwickelt sich dieser negative Effekt zurück.
Die in den Anwendungsbeispielen berichteten Phänomene sind durch Untersuchungen in einer Einzelfahrsimulation oder Verkehrssimulation nicht beobachtbar. Insbesondere für die Untersuchung von Fragen, in denen soziale Interaktionen mit anderen Fahrern eine Rolle spielen, zeichnet sich die Pulksimulation in besonderer Weise aus. Hierfür liefert die Anwendung in der Pulksimulation zusätzliche Informationen und zeigt somit, dass die Pulksimulation das Methodeninventar in der Verkehrswissenschaft effektiv ergänzt. Sie stellt zum einen eine Erweiterung der Fahrsimulation um den Faktor „Verkehr“ und zum anderen eine Erweiterung der Verkehrssimulation um den Faktor „Mensch“ dar und wird so zu einem zentralen Bindeglied beider Versuchsumgebungen.
Darüber hinaus erlaubt die Pulksimulation die Modellierung von Interaktionsverhalten im Straßenverkehr, was bisher nicht bzw. nur unter größtem Aufwand realisierbar war. Hierdurch können die Modelle der Fahr- und Verkehrssimulation weiterentwickelt werden.
Mit den in dieser Arbeit neu entworfenen Parametern werden Kenngrößen zur Verfügung gestellt, die Variationen bezüglich Quer- und Längsführung auch auf Ebene des Pulks abbilden können. Weitere neu entwickelte Parameter sind in der Lage, Interaktionen über den Zeitverlauf zu beschreiben. Diese Parameter sind notwendig für den Einsatz der Pulksimulation in zukünftigen Untersuchungen.
Zusammenfassend wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit die Methodik der Pulksimulation für den gesamten Anwendungsprozess von der Fragestellung bis hin zur Interpretation der Ergebnisse weiterentwickelt. Der Mehrwert dieser Methode wurde an aktuellen und bisher nicht untersuchbaren Fragestellungen belegt und somit die Validität der Pulksimulation gestärkt. Die vorgestellten Untersuchungen zeigen das große Potenzial der Pulksimulation zur Bearbeitung von Fragen, die auf der Interaktion verschiedener Verkehrsteilnehmer basieren. Hierdurch wird erstmals die Möglichkeit geschaffen, soziale Interaktionen über den Zeitverlauf in die Fahrermodelle der Verkehrssimulation zu integrieren. Damit ist der Brückenschlag von der Fahr- zur Verkehrssimulation gelungen.
In social interaction, the facial expression of an opponent contains information that may influence the interaction. We asked whether facial expression affects decision-making in the ultimatum game. In this two-person game, the proposer divides a sum of money into two parts, one for each player, and then the responder decides whether to accept the offer or reject it. Rejection means that neither player gets any money. Results of a large-sample study support our hypothesis that offers from proposers with a smiling facial expression are more often accepted, compared to a neutral facial expression. Moreover, we found lower acceptance rates for offers from proposers with an angry facial expression.
The psychology of eating
(2013)
In our current obesogenic environment, exposure to visual food-cues can easily lead to craving and overeating because short-term, pleasurable effects of food intake dominate over the anticipated long-term adverse effects such as weight gain and associated health problems. Here we contrasted these two conditions during food-cue presentation while acquiring event-related potentials (ERPs) and subjective craving ratings. Female participants (n = 25) were presented with either high-calorie (HC) or low-calorie (LC) food images under instructions to imagine either immediate (NOW) or long-term effects (LATER) of consumption. On subjective ratings for HC foods, the LATER perspective reduced cravings as compared to the NOW perspective. For LC foods, by contrast, craving increased under the LATER perspective. Early ERPs (occipital N1, 150-200 ms) were sensitive to food type but not to perspective. Late ERPs (late positive potential, LPP, 350-550 ms) were larger in the HC-LATER condition than in all other conditions, possibly indicating that a cognitive focus on negative long-term consequences induced negative arousal. This enhancement for HC-LATER attenuated to the level of the LC conditions during the later slow wave (550-3000 ms), but amplitude in the HC-NOW condition was larger than in all other conditions, possibly due to a delayed appetitive response. Across all conditions, LPP amplitudes were positively correlated with self-reported emotional eating. In sum, results reveal that regulation effects are secondary to an early attentional analysis of food type and dynamically evolve over time. Adopting a long-term perspective on eating might promote a healthier food choice across a range of food types.
Background
Positive associations have been found between quality of life, emotion regulation strategies, and heart rate variability (HRV) in people without intellectual disabilities. However, emotion regulation and HRV have rarely been investigated in people with intellectual disabilities. Assessment of subjectively reported quality of life and emotion regulation strategies in this population is even more difficult when participants are also visually impaired.
Methods
Subjective and objective quality of life, emotion regulation strategies, and HRV at rest were measured in a sample of people with intellectual disabilities and concomitant impaired vision (N = 35). Heart rate was recorded during a 10 min resting period. For the assessment of quality of life and emotion regulation, custom made tactile versions of questionnaire-based instruments were used that enabled participants to grasp response categories.
Results
The combined use of reappraisal and suppression as emotion regulation strategies was associated with higher HRV and quality of life. HRV was associated with objective quality of life only. Emotion regulation strategies partially mediated the relationship between HRV and quality of life.
Conclusions
Results replicate findings about associations between quality of life, emotion regulation, and HRV and extend them to individuals with intellectual disabilities. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that quality of life and emotion regulation could be assessed in such populations even with concomitant impaired vision with modified tactile versions of established questionnaires. HRV may be used as a physiological index to evaluate physical and affective conditions in this population.
Das Wissen über Kognition oder metakognitives Wissen ist seit den 1970er Jahren Gegenstand der entwicklungspsychologischen Forschung. Besonders umfangreich wurde Entwicklung und Bedeutung des metakognitiven Wissens im Kontext der Gedächtnisentwicklung vom Vorschul- bis ins Grundschulalter untersucht. Das metakognitive Wissen im Inhaltsbereich der mathematischen Informationsverarbeitung ist – trotz elaborierter theoretischer Modelle über Struktur und Inhalt – empirisch weitgehend unerschlossen. Die vorliegende Studie wurde durchgeführt, um systematisch zu untersuchen, wie sich das mathematische metakognitive Wissen in der Sekundarstufe entwickelt, welche Faktoren für individuelle Unterschiede in der Entwicklung verantwortlich sind und in welchem Zusammenhang die metakognitive Wissensentwicklung mit der parallel verlaufenden Entwicklung mathematischer Kompetenzen steht. Zur Klärung der Fragestellungen wurden vier Messzeitpunkte einer breiter angelegten Längsschnittuntersuchung ausgewertet. Der dabei beobachtete Zeitraum umfasste die fünfte und sechste Jahrgangsstufe. Die Stichprobe bestand aus 928 Schülern der Schularten Gymnasium, Realschule und Hauptschule. Die Messinstrumente zur Erfassung der Entwicklungsveränderungen im mathematischen metakognitiven Wissen und der Mathematikleistung wurden auf Grundlage der item response theory konstruiert und mittels vertikalem linking fortlaufend an den Entwicklungsstand der Stichprobe angepasst. Zusätzlich wurden kognitive (Intelligenz und Arbeitsgedächtniskapazität), motivationale (mathematisches Interesse und Selbstkonzept) und sozioökonomische Merkmale (sozioökonomischer Status der Herkunftsfamilie) der Schüler erhoben. Die Lesekompetenz wurde als Methodenfaktor kontrolliert. Entwicklungsunterschiede und -veränderungen im metakognitiven Wissen wurde mit Hilfe von latenten Wachstumskurvenmodellen untersucht. Im beobachteten Zeitraum zeigte sich eine stetige Zunahme des metakognitiven Wissens. Allerdings verlief die Entwicklungsveränderung nicht linear, sondern verlangsamte sich im Verlauf der sechsten Jahrgangsstufe. Individuelle Unterschiede in Ausprägung und Veränderung des metakognitiven Wissens wurden durch kognitive und sozioökonomische Schülermerkmale vorhergesagt. Die motivationalen Merkmale wirkten sich demgegenüber nicht auf den Entwicklungsprozess aus. Geschlechtsunterschiede zeigten sich im Entwicklungsverlauf als Schereneffekt zugunsten der Mädchen. Unterschiede zwischen den Schülern der drei Schularten erreichten bereits zum Eintritt in die Sekundarstufe Signifikanz. Zudem gewannen Gymnasiasten und Hauptschüler im Entwicklungsverlauf stärker an metakognitivem Wissen hinzu als Realschüler. Explorative Mischverteilungsanalysen in der Stichprobe ergaben drei latente Entwicklungsklassen mit jeweils charakteristischem Veränderungsverlauf. Die Klassenzuweisung wurde von der besuchten Schulart sowie kognitiven und sozioökonomischen Schülermerkmalen vorhergesagt. Die Entwicklungsprozesse im mathematischen metakognitiven Wissen und der mathematischen Leistung standen in einem substanziellen, wechselseitigen Zusammenhang. Geschlechts- und Schulartunterschiede blieben ebenso wie die korrelativen Zusammenhänge zwischen den Entwicklungsprozessen auch nach Kontrolle der individuellen Unterschiede in kognitiven, motivationalen und sozioökonomischen Merkmalen erhalten. Die Befunde bestätigen die konstruktivistischen Entwicklungsannahmen der gedächtnispsychologisch geprägten Grundlagenforschung zum metakognitiven Wissen. Zudem wird mit der Untersuchung des mathematischen metakognitiven Wissens in der Sekundarstufe der traditionelle Forschungsfokus inhaltlich erweitert. Das im Rahmen der Studie konstruierte Instrument zur Erfassung des mathematischen metakognitiven Wissens ermöglicht die Untersuchung weiterer, bislang offener Fragen auf dem Gebiet der metakognitiven Entwicklung.
Introduction
There is mounting evidence for the influence of emotional content on working memory performance. This is particularly important in light of the emotion processing that needs to take place when emotional content interferes with executive functions. In this study, we used emotional words of different valence but with similar arousal levels in an n-back task.
Methods
We examined the effects on activation in the prefrontal cortex by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and on the late positive potential (LPP). FNIRS and LPP data were examined in 30 healthy subjects.
Results
Behavioral results show an influence of valence on the error rate depending on the difficulty of the task: more errors were made when the valence was negative and the task difficult. Brain activation was dependent both on the difficulty of the task and on the valence: negative valence of a word diminished the increase in activation, whereas positive valence did not influence the increase in activation, while difficulty levels increased. The LPP also differentiated between the different valences, and in addition was influenced by the task difficulty, the more difficult the task, the less differentiation could be observed.
Conclusions
Summarized, this study shows the influence of valence on a verbal working memory task. When a word contained a negative valence, the emotional content seemed to take precedence in contrast to words containing a positive valence. Working memory and emotion processing sites seemed to overlap and compete for resources even when words are carriers of the emotional content.
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 naïve 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.
This paper describes a case study with a patient in the classic locked-in state, who currently has no means of independent communication. Following a user-centered approach, we investigated event-related potentials (ERP) elicited in different modalities for use in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Such systems could provide her with an alternative communication channel. To investigate the most viable modality for achieving BCI based communication, classic oddball paradigms (1 rare and 1 frequent stimulus, ratio 1:5) in the visual, auditory and tactile modality were conducted (2 runs per modality). Classifiers were built on one run and tested offline on another run (and vice versa). In these paradigms, the tactile modality was clearly superior to other modalities, displaying high offline accuracy even when classification was performed on single trials only. Consequently, we tested the tactile paradigm online and the patient successfully selected targets without any error. Furthermore, we investigated use of the visual or tactile modality for different BCI systems with more than two selection options. In the visual modality, several BCI paradigms were tested offline. Neither matrix-based nor so-called gaze-independent paradigms constituted a means of control. These results may thus question the gaze-independence of current gaze-independent approaches to BCI. A tactile four-choice BCI resulted in high offline classification accuracies. Yet, online use raised various issues. Although performance was clearly above chance, practical daily life use appeared unlikely when compared to other communication approaches (e.g., partner scanning). Our results emphasize the need for user-centered design in BCI development including identification of the best stimulus modality for a particular user. Finally, the paper discusses feasibility of EEG-based BCI systems for patients in classic locked-in state and compares BCI to other AT solutions that we also tested during the study.