| 1. |
- Cortes, Diana S., et al.
(author)
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Age-Related Differences in Evaluation of Social Attributes From Computer-Generated Faces of Varying Intensity
- 2019
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In: Psychology and Aging. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0882-7974 .- 1939-1498. ; 34:5, s. 686-697
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In everyday life throughout the life span, people frequently evaluate faces to obtain information crucial for social interactions. We investigated age-related differences in judgments of a wide range of social attributes based on facial appearance. Seventy-one younger and 60 older participants rated 196 computer-generated faces that systematically varied in facial features such as shape and reflectance to convey different intensity levels of seven social attributes (i.e., attractiveness, competence, dominance, extraversion, likeability, threat, and trustworthiness). Older compared to younger participants consistently gave higher attractiveness ratings to faces representing both high and low levels of attractiveness. Older participants were also less sensitive to the likeability of faces and tended to evaluate faces representing low likeability as more likable. The age groups did, however, not differ substantially in their evaluations of the other social attributes. Results are in line with previous research showing that aging is associated with preference toward positive and away from negative information and extend this positivity effect to social perception of faces.
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| 2. |
- Cortes, Diana S., et al.
(author)
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Increased dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity to negative emotion displays in men but not in women
- 2019
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In: Program.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The neuropeptide oxytocin plays a prominentrole in social and emotional cognition. Findings suggest that exogenous intranasal oxytocin administration facilitates emotion recognition in humans, but individual and contextual differences may have moderating effects. A major caveat in this line of work is that it is predominantly based on young males, which limits current knowledge and potential for generalizability across gender. To uncover potential gender effects, the present study included younger and older men and women. Utilizing a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects study design, we investigated the effects of a single-dose of 40 IUs intranasal oxytocin administration on emotion recognition of dynamic positive and negative stimuli in 32 men (mean age 45.78, sd. 22.87) and 39 women (mean 47.87, sd. 47.87), 40 minutes prior to MRI scanning. Preliminary analyses show that oxytocin induced brain activity reductions during exposure to negative (relative to positive) stimuli in women, while increasing brain activity in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex in men. We speculate that the effects of oxytocin on emotion recognition may possibly be related to emotion regulation and mentalization processes, and that oxytocin is related to potential sex-differences in these processes. The results also raise concern that previous oxytocin literature on emotion recognition may be biased as there appears to be gender-differential effects of oxytocin on brain activity across adulthood that have been underestimated. In the next stage of the present study, we will investigate the interaction effects among treatment, sex, age, and presentation modality.
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| 3. |
- Döllinger, Lillian, et al.
(author)
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Effectively training emotion recognition accuracy : The evaluation of two systematic training programs
- 2019
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study presents findings about the effectiveness of two computerized training-programs for emotion recognition accuracy that were evaluated in a double-blind randomized controlled study with repeated measures design. Both trainings are effective in training emotion recognition accuracy. The trainings and results are presented in detail and practical implications are discussed.
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| 4. |
- Döllinger, Lillian, et al.
(author)
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The effectiveness of a dynamic multimodal emotion recognition accuracy training program
- 2019
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In: Program. ; , s. 165-165
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background: Computerized trainings for emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) have shown to be successful, however, are often lacking external validity. The use of still pictures, the focus on the face, and limited response sets limit generalizability of findings. Further, trainings often use between-subjectsdesigns and short time intervals between, or same items for ERA training and outcome measure. In response, we developed and evaluated a multi-modal ERA training in a randomized controlled trial.Method: Seventy-two undergraduate students (M=24.7, SD=7.69, 75% women) signed up for the study; 68 completed all measurements. They were randomly assigned to the multimodal ERA training or one of two control conditions. The ERA outcome measure (ERAM; Laukka et al., 2015) assesses 12 emotions separately in three modalities (audio, video, audio-video) using 72 dynamic stimuli. The multimodal training consisted and immediate and extensive feedback using different items. The last training session and the ERA outcome measurement lay approximately one week apart.Results and Conclusions: A repeated-measures ANOVA with baseline as covariate showed a main effect of training on the ERAM, F(2/63) = 8.04, p < .001, ηp2 = .20. Bonferroni-corrected posthoc tests revealed the change for the multimodal training was significantly superior to the control conditions (p=.001; p=.003). Detailed results per modality and descriptive statistics will be presented. Due to its multimodal and dynamic nature, delay between training and outcome measure and use of different items, the multimodal training is a promising tool for training ERA in different contexts, like clinical settings, assessment procedures or law enforcement training.
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| 5. |
- Ebner, Natalie, et al.
(author)
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Neuroplasticity and cognitive benefits associated with chronic intranasal oxytocin administration in aging
- 2019
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Oxytocin (OT) is a crucial chemical modulator of social behavior, and intranasal OT administration has potential as treatment for social deficits. Considerably less is known about OT’s effects on non-social cognition, a functional domain of particular relevance in aging. Brain mechanisms underlying OT’s benefits are not well understood but recent animal work suggests that repeated OT administration induces brain changes. To test this neuroplastic role of OT on the human brain and its potential for cognitive improvement in aging, we conducted a randomized double-blind study in older men (> 56 years), with 34 participants self-administering either 24 IUs OT or placebo (P) twice daily. Before and after 4-weeks intranasal administration, participants underwent MRI and processing speed assessment. Using voxel-based morphometry, gray matter (GM) volume was measured on T1-weighted anatomical images. Age, education, physical health, and image quality served as covariates and family-wise error rate determined statistical significance in regions of interest. Analyses were performed without awareness of the assigned treatment labels. Significant interactions between treatment (OT vs. P) and time (pre- vs. post-intervention) on GM volume for left amygdala, hippocampus, and putamen suggested increased regional GM volume following OT but not P. Further, OT-induced enlargement in putamen was associated with improved processing speed, while there was no brain−behavior correlation in the P group. These findings support the notion that amygdala, hippocampus, and putamen are key targets of OT’s neuroplastic potential on the human brain and chronic OT administration may constitute a potential treatment in counteracting cognitive decline in aging.
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| 6. |
- Fischer, Håkan, et al.
(author)
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Divergent effects of oxytocin in men and women : Increased dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity to negative emotion displays in men but not in women
- 2019
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The neuropeptide oxytocin plays a prominent role in social and emotional cognition. Findings suggest that intranasal oxytocin administration facilitates emotion recognition in humans, but individual and contextual differences may have moderating effects. A major caveat in this line of work is its predominant focus on young males, which limits current knowledge and generalizability across gender. To uncover potential gender effects, the present study included 32 men (mean age 45.78, sd. 22.87) and 39 women (mean 47.87, sd. 22.59). Utilizing a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design, participants self-administered a single-dose of 40 IUs intranasal oxytocin 40 minutes prior to completion of a dynamic emotion recognition task in the MRI scanning. The task paradigm used positive and negative stimuli from the Geneva Multimodal Emotion Portrayals Core Set. Preliminary analyses show that oxytocin induced dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) activity reductions during exposure to negative (relative to positive) stimuli in women, while dmPCF activity was increased under this condition in men. We observed no effect of sex in the behavioral data, however, the results show a similar trend as in brain data. We speculate that the effects of oxytocin on brain activity during emotion recognition may be related to emotion-regulatory and mentalization processes. The observed gender-differential modulatory role of oxytocin raises concern of a bias in the previous oxytocin literature on emotion recognition and associated brain activity by neglecting women in the examination. Next, we will determine the role of age effects on gender-bytreatment interactions, as well as consider modality of the emotion stimulus presentation.
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| 7. |
- Gerhardsson, Andreas, et al.
(author)
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Effect of sleep deprivation on emotional working memory
- 2019
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In: Journal of Sleep Research. - : Wiley. - 0962-1105 .- 1365-2869. ; 28:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The emotional dysregulation and impaired working memory found after sleep loss can have severe implications for our daily functioning. Considering the intertwined relationship between emotion and cognition in stimuli processing, there could be further implications of sleep deprivation in high‐complex emotional situations. Although studied separately, this interaction between emotion and cognitive processes has been neglected in sleep research. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of 1 night of sleep deprivation on emotional working memory. Sixty‐one healthy participants (mean age: 23.4 years) were either sleep deprived for 1 night (n = 30) or had a normal night’s sleep (n = 31). They performed an N‐back task with two levels of working memory load (1‐back and 3‐back) using positive, neutral and negative picture scenes. Sleep deprivation, compared with full night sleep, impaired emotional working memory accuracy, but not reaction times. The sleep‐deprived participants, but not the controls, responded faster to positive than to negative and neutral pictures. The effect of sleep deprivation was similar for both high and low working memory loads. The results showed that although detrimental in terms of accuracy, sleep deprivation did not impair working memory speed. In fact, our findings indicate that positive stimuli may facilitate working memory processing speed after sleep deprivation.
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| 8. |
- Gerhardsson, Andreas, et al.
(author)
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Positivity Effect and Working Memory Performance Remains Intact in Older Adults After Sleep Deprivation
- 2019
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In: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Older adults perform better in tasks which include positive stimuli, referred to as the positivity effect. However, recent research suggests that the positivity effect could be attenuated when additional challenges such as stress or cognitive demands are introduced. Moreover, it is well established that older adults are relatively resilient to many of the adverse effects of sleep deprivation. Our aim was to investigate if the positivity effect in older adults is affected by one night of total sleep deprivation using an emotional working memory task.Methods: A healthy sample of 48 older adults (60-72 years) was either sleep deprived for one night (n = 24) or had a normal night's sleep (n = 24). They performed an emotional working memory n-back (n = 1 and 3) task containing positive, negative and neutral pictures.Results: Performance in terms of accuracy and reaction times was best for positive stimuli and worst for negative stimuli. This positivity effect was not altered by sleep deprivation. Results also showed that, despite significantly increased sleepiness, there was no effect of sleep deprivation on working memory performance. A working memory load x valence interaction on the reaction times revealed that the beneficial effect of positive stimuli was only present in the 1-back condition.Conclusion: While the positivity effect and general working memory abilities in older adults are intact after one night of sleep deprivation, increased cognitive demand attenuates the positivity effect on working memory speed.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Horta, Marilyn, et al.
(author)
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Oxytocin alters patterns of brain activity and amygdalar connectivity by age during dynamic facial emotion identification
- 2019
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In: Neurobiology of Aging. - : Elsevier. - 0197-4580 .- 1558-1497. ; 78, s. 42-51
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aging is associated with increased difficulty in facial emotion identification, possibly due to age-related network change. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) facilitates emotion identification, but this is understudied in aging. To determine the effects of OT on dynamic facial emotion identification across adulthood, 46 young and 48 older participants self-administered intranasal OT or a placebo in a randomized, double-blind procedure. Older participants were slower and less accurate in identifying emotions. Although there was no behavioral treatment effect, partial least squares analysis supported treatment effects on brain patterns during emotion identification that varied by age and emotion. For young participants, OT altered the processing of sadness and happiness, whereas for older participants, OT only affected the processing of sadness (15.3% covariance, p = 0.004). Furthermore, seed partial least squares analysis showed that older participants in the OT group recruited a large-scale amygdalar network that was positively correlated for anger, fear, and happiness, whereas older participants in the placebo group recruited a smaller, negatively correlated network (7% covariance, p = 0.002). Advancing the literature, these findings show that OT alters brain activity and amygdalar connectivity by age and emotion.
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