Galvanic Skin Response

Background: Mental health problems, particularly depression, significantly impact the working-age population and incur substantial socioeconomic costs. Electrodermal activity (EDA) and skin temperature, measurable through wearable devices, have emerged as potential biomarkers of depression. However, there is a lack of longterm observational studies in real-world settings. Methods: This 4-week observational study analyzed data from 147 office workers across 11 Japanese companies. Participants wore wearable devices during working hours for four weeks to collect EDA and skin temperature data. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and stress was assessed using the 10-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). The associations between electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and depressive/stress states were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression analysis. Results: Participants with PHQ-9 scores ≥5 showed higher median skin conductance and median tonic signal, although these differences lost statistical significance after Bonferroni correction. Logistic regression analysis revealed a negative correlation between age and both PHQ-9 and PSS-10 scores (OR=0.525, 0.646). The mean and standard deviation of skin temperature showed a positive association with depressive symptoms (OR=1.687, 1.733), while normalized EDASymp showed a negative association (OR=0.564). Conclusions: This study suggests that EDA and skin temperature, measured by wearable devices, may be associated with depressive symptoms among office workers. These physiological indicators could be utilized for mental health monitoring and early intervention in the workplace. Further validation with larger samples, and long-term follow-up studies, are warranted.

Rationale: Incentive salience theory states that acquired bias in selective attention for stimuli associated with tobacco-smoke reinforcement controls the selective performance of tobacco-seeking and tobacco-taking behaviour. Objectives: To support this theory, we assessed whether a stimulus that had acquired control of a tobaccoseeking response in a discrimination procedure would command the focus of visual attention in a subsequent test phase. Methods: Smokers received discrimination training in which an instrumental key-press response was followed by tobacco-smoke reinforcement when one visual discriminative stimulus (S+) was present, but not when another stimulus (S) was present. The skin conductance response to the S+ and S assessed whether Pavlovian conditioning to the S+ had taken place. In a subsequent test phase, the S+ and S were presented in the dot-probe task and the allocation of the focus of visual attention to these stimuli was measured. Results: Participants learned to perform the instrumental tobacco-seeking response selectively in the presence of the S+ relative to the S, and showed a greater skin conductance response to the S+ than the S. In the subsequent test phase, participants allocated the focus of visual attention to the S+ in preference to the S. Correlation analysis revealed that the visual attentional bias for the S+ was positively associated with the number of times the S+ had been paired with tobacco-smoke in training, the skin conductance response to the S+ and with subjective craving to smoke. Furthermore, increased exposure to tobacco-smoke in the natural environment was associated with reduced discrimination learning. Conclusions: These data demonstrate that discriminative stimuli that signal that tobacco-smoke reinforcement is available acquire the capacity to command selective attentional and elicit instrumental tobacco-seeking behaviour.

Discriminative stimulus properties of low doses of ethanol were evaluated in humans using established behavioural drug discrimination procedures. Twenty-Þve moderate drinkers (12 females and 13 males) were trained to discriminate placebo from 0.2 g / kg ethanol in 200 ml tonic water mixed with Tabasco sauce and drunk in portions of 50 ml every 15 s. Seventeen of the subjects (ten females and seven males) were able to reach criterion performance (at least 80 % correct responses). Generalisation responding across ethanol doses of 0 (placebo), 0.025, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 g / kg was examined the day after training using a procedure in which subjects reported the extent to which the test stimulus resembled the training dose. At the end of each generalisation session, self ratings of mood changes, physiological responses and performance in a working memory and a time estimation task were evaluated. Subjects were able to distinguish the three higher doses of ethanol from placebo. Self ratings indicated that subjects ability to distinguish ethanol from placebo was related, at the highest dose, to change of taste, but to feelings of light-headedness at the lower doses. Ethanol administration inßuenced skin conductance measurements but there was no relationship found between changes in skin conductance and the ethanol discriminative stimulus. These data suggest a di¤erence in the nature of the discriminative stimulus of ethanol between high (training) and low (generalising) doses as indicated in the subjective reports.

Different mechanisms of attention controlling learning have been proposed in appetitive and aversive conditioning. The aim of the present study was to compare attention and learning in a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm using visual stimuli of varying predictive value of either monetary reward (appetitive conditioning; 10p or 50p) or blast of white noise (aversive conditioning; 97 dB or 102 dB). Outcome values were matched across the two conditions with regard to their emotional significance. Sixty-four participants were allocated to one of the four conditions matched for age and gender. All participants underwent a discriminative learning task using pairs of visual stimuli that signalled a 100%, 50%, or 0% probability of receiving an outcome. Learning was measured using a 9-point Likert scale of expectancy of the outcome, while attention using an eyetracker device. Arousal and emotional conditioning were also evaluated. Dwell time was greatest for the full predictor in the noise groups, while in the money groups attention was greatest for the partial predictor over the other two predictors. The progression of learning was the same for both groups. These findings suggest that in aversive conditioning attention is driven by the predictive salience of the stimulus while in appetitive conditioning attention is error-driven, when emotional value of the outcome is comparable.

In the present study, we modeled the spatiotemporal evolution of human somatosensory evoked cortical potentials (SEPs) to brief median-nerve galvanic painful stimulation. SEPs were recorded (Ϫ50 to ϩ250 ms) from 12 healthy subjects following nonpainful (reference), slight painful, and moderate painful stimulations (subjective scale). Laplacian transformation of scalp SEPs reduced head volume conduction effects and annulled electric reference influence. Typical SEP components to the galvanic nonpainful stimulation were contralateral frontal P20-N30-N60-N120-P170, central P22-P40, and parietal N20-P30-P60-P120 (N ϭ negativity, P ϭ positivity, number ϭ latency in ms). These components were observed also with the painful stimulations, the N60, N120, P170 having a longer latency with the painful than nonpainful stimulations. Additional SEP components elicited by the painful stimulations were parietomedian P80 as well as central N125, P170 (cP170), and P200. These additional SEP components included the typical vertex negative-positive complex following transient painful stimulations. Latency of the SEP components exclusively elicited by painful stimulation is highly compatible with the involvement of A delta myelinated fibers/spinothalamic pathway. The topography of these components is in line with the response of both nociceptive medial and lateral systems including bilateral primary sensorimotor and anterior cingulate cortical areas. The role of attentive, affective, and motor aspects in the modulation of the reported SEP components merits investigation in future experiments.

This paper focussed on how electrophysiological autonomic data may contribute to better understand neural substrates of emotional processing. The utility of autonomic electrophysiological markers for assessing emotional and cognitive processes is presented in the context of an important bodily arousal interface. Components of general autonomic control are reviewed and relevant neural modulations of specific autonomic variables were discussed. The role of autonomic feedback on central processes is emphasized and neural influences on autonomic activities as an index of arousal dimension, the electrodermal activity (EDA), are outlined. An overview of brain mechanisms governing generation and control of EDA is presented, and the contribution of electrodermal parameters as indices of emotional activation illustrated by data related to diurnal emotional reactivity and to non consciously subjective emotionality. Conclusions highlight the role of electrical autonomic expressions as tools to explore emotional components of mind-body-mind relationships.

Variation in attachment is associated with differences in arousal to infant crying. • In secure adoptees experiential arousal and physiological arousal to infant crying are integrated. • In insecure adoptees experiential arousal and physiological arousal to infant crying are dissociated. • Insecure adoptees use a deactivating style in response to infant crying.

Variation in attachment is associated with differences in arousal to infant crying. • In secure adoptees experiential arousal and physiological arousal to infant crying are integrated. • In insecure adoptees experiential arousal and physiological arousal to infant crying are dissociated. • Insecure adoptees use a deactivating style in response to infant crying.

Absent Skin Conductance Response (SCR) in pathological gambling (PG) may relate to dopaminergic mechanisms. We recruited equal numbers of PG subjects and healthy control (HC) subjects, and then tested the claim that SCR is less conditioned by dopaminergic activity in PG subjects. During active gambling, SCR differed in PG and HC subjects (P b 0.05), but positron emission tomography revealed the same dopamine receptor availability. However, highly sensation-seeking (HS) PG subjects had lower dopamine receptor availability (P b 0.0001) in the baseline, compared to normal sensation-seeking (NS) PG subjects. We find that HS versus NS controls had the same observation of significant increase of binding potential (BP ND ) in high compared to normal sensation seekers. In both groups, PG and HC, highly sensation-seeking subjects had significant increase of receptor availability in striatum, compared to normally sensation-seeking subjects, separately (P b 0.05 and P = 0.02, respectively) and together (P b 0.0005). We conclude that SCR is less conditioned by dopaminergic activity in highly sensation-seeking subjects, regardless of PG status.

While reliable detection of illicit drug use is paramount to the field of addiction, current methods involving selfreport and urine drug screens have substantial limitations that hinder their utility. Wearable biosensors may fill a void by providing valuable objective data regarding the timing and contexts of drug use. This is a preliminary observational study of four emergency department patients receiving parenteral opioids and one individual using cocaine in a natural environment. A portable biosensor was placed on the inner wrist of each subject, to continuously measure electrodermal activity (EDA), skin temperature, and acceleration. Data were continuously recorded for at least 5 min prior to drug administration, during administration, and for at least 30 min afterward. Overall trends in biophysiometric parameters were assessed. Injection of opioids and cocaine use were associated with rises in EDA. Cocaine injection was also associated with a decrease in skin temperature. Opioid tolerance appeared to be associated with a blunted physiologic response as measured by the biosensor. Laterality may be an important factor, as magnitude of response varied between dominant and nondominant wrists in a single patient with bilateral wrist measurements. Changes in EDA and skin temperature are temporally associated with intravenous administration of opioids and cocaine; the intensity of response, however, may vary depending on history and extent of prior use.

SummaryAssessing local tissue water using tissue dielectric constant (TDC) values is useful to evaluate oedema/lymphoedema features and their change. Knowledge of anatomical site and tissue depth dependence of TDC values could extend this method’s utility. Our goal was to compare TDC values obtained at anatomically paired sites and to investigate their depth dependence. In 22 women (12 awaiting surgery for breast cancer and 10 cancer‐free control subjects), four sites (mid‐forearm, mid‐biceps, axilla and lateral thorax) on both body sides were measured with a 2·5‐mm sampling depth probe. Also, at forearm, four different probes with sampling depths of 0·5, 1·5, 2·5 and 5 mm were used. TDC values range between 1 for zero water to 78·5 for 100% water. Site comparisons showed TDC values (mean ± SD) to be largest at axilla (36·4 ± 8·9), least at biceps (21·6 ± 3·5) and not different between forearm and thorax (24·3 ± 4·0 versus 24·8 ± 5·0). Group comparisons showed slightly greater value...

This investigation extends the findings reported by Salzman and Klein (1978) concerning the skin conductance response (SCR) of the offspring of parents who had been hospitalized for a psychiatric illness. Skin conductance during rest and during experiments testing habituation and conditioning of the SCR was recorded in 7year-old (M = 42) and 10-year-old (w = 57) children. Among the 7year-olds, 11 had a parent with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, 12 had a parent with a diagnosis of affective psychosis and 19 had a nonpsychotic parent. Among the 10-year-olds, the corresponding distribution was 13 (schizophrenic), 20 (affective), and 24 (nonpsychotic). The results indicate (1) no marked tendency toward either rapid or absent habituation in the offspring of schizophrenics; (2) evidence of significantly greater conditioning among the 10-year-old offspring of schizophrenics; (3) only very weak evidence of greater responsiveness to intense stimuli among the offspring of schizophrenics; (4) no evidence of differences in SCR recovery time among the three groups of children; and (5) differences between diagnostic groups among the 10-year-old children in the pattern of tonic skin conductance levels across experiments. Differences in results between the two age groups were unexpected, but may represent either heterogeneity of diagnosis in the parents or developmental trends in electrodermal activity in the children. In sum, the results of this study produce only partial confirmation of the findings reported in the earlier investigation.

We have known for decades that social support is associated with positive health outcomes. And yet, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood. The link between social support and positive health outcomes is likely to depend on the neurophysiological regulatory mechanisms underlying reward and defensive reactions. The present study examines the hypothesis that emotional social support (love) provides safety cues that activate the appetitive reward system and simultaneously inhibit defense reactions. Using the startle probe paradigm, 54 undergraduate students (24 men) viewed black and white photographs of loved (romantic partner, father, mother, and best friend), neutral (unknown), and unpleasant (mutilated) faces. Eye-blink startle, zygomatic major activity, heart rate, and skin conductance responses to the faces, together with subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance, were obtained. Viewing loved faces induced a marked inhibition of the eye-blink startle response accompanied by a pattern of zygomatic, heart rate, skin conductance, and subjective changes indicative of an intense positive emotional response. Effects were similar for men and women, but the startle inhibition and the zygomatic response were larger in female participants. A comparison between the faces of the romantic partner and the parent who shares the partner's gender further suggests that this effect is not attributable to familiarity or arousal. We conclude that this inhibitory capacity may contribute to the health benefits associated with social support.

This pilot study investigates whether an adaptive, closed-loop AI can increase real-time physiological and behavioral coherence with a non-human animal without explicit rewards or species-specific training. We hypothesize that an AI generating non-semantic acoustic signals will achieve higher signal-physiology/motion coherence and improved heart rate variability (HRV) in dogs compared to sham, human-only, and silence baseline conditions. The within-subject, randomized, and counterbalanced design will utilize N=1-3 pet dogs. We will measure primary outcomes such as wavelet coherence between the AI's output and animal motion, as well as changes in HRV. Secondary outcomes include phase-locking value (PLV) and behavioral metrics. Given the novelty of this paradigm, a formal power analysis is not feasible. This preregistration outlines a pilot study intended to estimate effect sizes to inform a future, adequately powered study. The findings could provide a novel window into the structure of consciousness, offer new therapeutic applications, and advance our understanding of interspecies communication and adaptive AI systems.

The purpose of this study was to identify attitudes toward dating a person who stutters (PWS) held by college students. One hundred and thirty-two college students responded to a 19-item questionnaire. Survey items included questions about participants' familiarity with persons who stutter, family and/or personal history of stuttering, knowledge of stuttering behaviors, beliefs about the cause of stuttering, whether they would date a person who stutters, and factors that would influence their decision to date or not date a PWS. Results indicated that approximately 30 percent of respondents stated they would date a person who stuttered. Approximately half of the participants were unsure if they would date a PWS and would base their decision on the personality, severity of stuttering, the physical attractiveness and intelligence of the PWS. Findings suggest that at least three of the four factors cited by participants as important in their decision to date someone who stutters can, to varying degrees, be modified by the PWS (i.e., personality, stuttering severity, and appearance). These are potential treatment outcome goals for many PWS and should be explored by the client and clinician as part of the process of therapeutic change.

We have developed a Matlab TM based software package for bio-signal analysis. The software is based on modular design and can thus be easily adapted to fit on analysis of various kind of time variant or event-related bio-signals. Currently analysis programs for event-related potentials (ERP), heart-rate variability (HRV), galvanic skin responses (GSR) and quantitative EEG (qEEG) are implemented. A tool for time varying spectral analysis of bio-signals is currently under construction. By combining different analysis tools it is possible to build analyzing procedures based on the software not only for simple sense or attention related tasks but also e.g. for responses measured during complicated psychological tests.

Do physiological changes occur shortly prior to psychotic relapse in schizophrenia outpatients? We addressed this question in a group of schizophrenia outpatients by measuring changes in symptoms and changes in activation of the sympathetic nervous system, as indexed by changes in skin conductance level (SCL), on a biweekly basis for between one and two years. All six outpatients exhibited heightened SCL within two weeks prior to relapse or exacerbation, compared to SCL proceeding continued remission. These results shed light on the psychotic relapse process and are consistent with neural diathesis-stress models of schizophrenia.

The ability of electrodermal variables to predict negative symptoms and functional outcome over a 1‐year period in schizophrenia was investigated in 78 young, recent‐onset outpatients. Patients were stabilized on standardized medication and largely free of psychotic symptoms. Higher levels of both tonic (skin conductance level, nonspecific skin conductance response rate) and phasic (number of skin conductance orienting responses) activity were associated with more negative symptoms and with a combination of poorer social and occupational outcome at 1‐year follow‐up. This pattern was seen in both male and female patients, and in older and younger patients. Results are interpreted as suggesting that high levels of arousal and overreactivity to the environment may interfere with efficient cognitive processing in schizophrenia, contributing to poor outcome, and that negative symptoms might partially serve as a means of coping with overarousal.

The purpose of this study was to compare muscle tension between individuals with and without generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) during a resting state and a stressful mental arithmetic task. Methods: A total of 95 undergraduate students (68 females and 27 males; mean age=19.6, SD=3.5) completed an online survey on GAD symptoms and pathological worry, a diagnostic interview, and two laboratory tasks (resting and mental arithmetic tasks) while electromyography (EMG) signals were being recorded. Results: We found a significant main effect of condition, F(1,93) = 24.13, p<.001, and group, F(1,93) = 4.55, p=.036. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect between condition and group, F(1,93) = 5.85, p=.017. A post-hoc analysis revealed that the increase in EMG activity from the resting period, 95% CI [.002398 .003474], to the mental arithmetic task, 95% CI [.003850 .005086], was significant for the GAD group, but not for the non-GAD group. Conclusions: Individuals with and without GAD did not show significant differences in physiologically measured muscle tension at baseline. However, the GAD group showed higher levels of muscle tension during stressful situations when compared to the non-GAD group.

Postural control of upright stance was investigated in well-compensated, unilateral vestibular loss (UVL) subjects compared to age-matched control subjects. The goal was to determine how sensory weighting for postural control in UVL subjects differed from control subjects, and how sensory weighting related to UVL subjects' functional compensation, as assessed by standardized balance and dizziness questionnaires. Postural control mechanisms were identified using a model-based interpretation of medial-lateral center-of-mass body-sway evoked by support-surface rotational stimuli during eyes-closed stance. The surface-tilt stimuli consisted of continuous pseudorandom rotations presented at four different amplitudes. Parameters of a feedback control model were obtained that accounted for each subject's sway response to the surface-tilt stimuli. Sensory weighting factors quantified the relative contributions to stance control of vestibular sensory information, signaling body-sway relative to earth-vertical, and proprioceptive information, signaling body-sway relative to the surface. Results showed that UVL subjects made significantly greater use of proprioceptive, and therefore less use of vestibular, orientation information on all tests. There was relatively little overlap in the distributions of sensory weights measured in UVL and control subjects, although UVL subjects varied widely in the amount they could use their remaining vestibular function. Increased reliance on proprioceptive information by UVL subjects was associated with their balance being more disturbed by the surface-tilt perturbations than control subjects, thus indicating a deficiency of balance control even in well-compensated UVL subjects. Furthermore, there was some tendency for UVL subjects who were less able to utilize remaining vestibular information to also indicate worse functional compensation on questionnaires.

Irregular sleep patterns can adversely affect physiological functions and have been associated with increased physiological and psychological stress. Nocturnal work of physicians during 24-hour on-call shifts (OCS) disrupts the sleep/wake cycle. Chronic exposure to distress has been shown to affect cardiovascular homeostasis and to impair performance in neurocognitive and simulated clinical tasks. In a prospective cohort study, biochemical and physiological stress parameters were assessed in 11 female and 9 male physicians (median age: 32 years, range 26-42 years) before a normal working day and after a 24-hour OCS in internal medicine. In addition, various tests of attentional performance (TAP) were conducted. The levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) were significantly higher after a 24- hour OCS, while there were no significant changes in cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine levels. Heart rate variability and skin resistance increased following an OCS, although the dif...

The role of emotional processes in driving moral choices remains debated. In particular, diminished emotional processing and reduced empathy have been associated with unusual high rates of utilitarian responses in moral judgments while, to date, the effects of diminished emotional processing and empathy on moral decision-making have been only partially considered. In this study, we investigated the influence of empathy and alexithymia on behaviour and emotional responses while participants performed a moral decision task. Self-report (valence and arousal ratings) and physiological (skin conductance and heart rate) measures were collected during the task. Results showed that empathy and alexithymia shaped emotional reactions to moral decisions, but did not bias moral choices. The more empathic the participants, the more dilemmas were perceived as unpleasant and arousing, and the greater the increase in skin conductance. Conversely, alexithymia was characterized by a reduced physiological activation during moral decisions, but normal self-report ratings. Heart rate was not modulated by empathy or alexithymia. These results add new evidence to the field of moral decision showing that empathy and alexithymia modulate emotional reactions to moral decision.

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a narrowing of the spinal canal and/or the neuroforamina through which the spinal cord roots enter and exit. The symptoms of LSS usually begin over the course of several months and include neurogenic claudication. This is characterized by low back pain that radiates down one or both legs producing pain or weakness. LSS can be quite debilitating and can have a profound negative effect on one's activities of daily living and overall quality of life. Imaging studies, such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are routinely performed in the work-up of suspected LSS. In recent years, there has been much controversy over the actual clinical usefulness of these studies. When compared to electrodiagnostic studies, CT and MRI have been shown to have increased false negative and false positive rates. Electrodiagnostic studies show dynamic physiological neural function and has become a valuable tool in LSS. This information can be used to determine the location and severity of LSS, differentiate LSS from other conditions, and monitor the progression. Electrodiagnostic techniques such as somatosensory evoked potentials, dermatomal somatosensory evoked potentials (DSEPs), and paraspinal mapping (PM) increase both the sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing LSS. DSEPs provide useful information on multi-level, multiple rootlet disease. PM reflects the physiology of nerve roots and has been found to be superior to extremity needle EMG. Electrodiagnostic techniques are becoming the standard in the diagnosis and therapeutic decisions for LSS and other related diseases.Turk J Phys Med Rehab 2010;56:75-80. K Ke ey y W Wo or rd ds s: : Lumbar spinal stenosis, electrodiagnosis, low back pain, lumbar radiculopathy, paraspinal mapping Ö Öz ze et t Spinal kanalda ya da sinir köklerinin geçti¤i nöral foramenlerde daralma lomber spinal stenoz (LSS) olarak adland›r›l›r. LSS yaflam kalitesini belirgin derecede etkileyip engellili¤e neden olabilir. LSS'nin belirtileri aylar içinde ortaya ç›kar. Nörojenik klodikasyon, tek ya da her iki alt ekstremiteye yay›lan bel a¤r›s› ve güçsüzlük LSS'nin semptomlar› ara-s›nda say›labilir. LSS düflünülen olgularda bilgisayarl› tomografi (BT) ve manyetik rezonans görüntüleme (MRG) gibi yöntemler rutin olarak kul-lan›lmaktad›r. Fakat bu tetkiklerin LSS tan›s›na katk›s› ile ilgili tart›flmalar giderek artmaktad›r. Elektrodiagnostik çal›flmalarla karfl›laflt›r›ld›-¤›nda BT ve MRG'nin yalanc› negatif ve yalanc› pozitiflikleri daha fazla-d›r. Nöral fonksiyonlar›n gerçek zamanl› durumunu ortaya koyan elektrodiagnostik incelemeler LSS'de oldukça yararl›d›r. Elektrodiagnoz ay-r›ca, LSS'nin lokalizasyonu ve fliddeti konusunda bilgi verir; hastal›¤›n ay›r›c› tan›s›nda ve progresyonunun takibinde de yararl›d›r. Somatosensoriyel uyand›r›lm›fl potansiyeller, dermatomal somatosensoriyel uyan-d›r›lm›fl potansiyeller (DSEP) ve paraspinal haritalama (PH) gibi elektrodiagnostik teknikler LSS tan›s›nda duyarl›l›k ve özgüllü¤ü artt›rmak-tad›r. DSEP, birden fazla kökü ilgilendiren durumlarda yararl›d›r. PH ise sinir köklerinin fizyolojik durumunu yans›t›r ve ekstremite i¤ne EMG'sine üstün oldu¤u gösterilmifltir. Günümüzde elektrodiagnostik incelemeler LSS'nin ve iliflkili durumlar›n tan›s›nda ve tedavi seçeneklerinin belirlenmesinde standart inceleme yöntemleri haline gelmektedir. Türk Fiz T›p Rehab Derg 2010;56:75-80. A An na ah ht ta ar r K Ke el li im me el le er r: : Lomber spinal stenoz, elektrodiagnoz, bel a¤r›s›, lomber radikülopati, paraspinal haritalama

This study examines the neurological impact of violent film, within the emerging field of neurocinema. The concept of neurocinema which coined by Uri Hasson in 2002, provides a theoretical framework for investigating the intricate relationship between cinematic experiences and brain activity. Understanding this connection is crucial for elucidating how violent visual stimuli may affect neural processes. In the dynamic medium of cinema, violence is conveyed through a rich interplay of narrative, visual, and auditory elements that evoke emotional, attentional, and moral responses. This study opens a new understanding of media violence through the interdisciplinary lens of Neuroscience, specifically examining how violent films influence and impact the human brain. For this research, we've adopted and built upon existing neuroimaging-based research from the last two decades.

We studied the sudomotor skin response (SSR) in patients with Parkinson&#39;s disease with and without symptomatic hyperhidrosis. The study was carried out in 13 patients who complained of excessive sweating and in 37 patients who did not have excessive sweating. Patients were matched for age, sex, degree of impairment, duration of the disease, and number and severity of autonomic disturbances. Excessive sweating involved mainly the face, head, and trunk. The SSR was recorded from the palm of the hands to electrical stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist. We analyzed onset latency, peak to peak amplitude, and waveform. Patients with hyperhidrosis had more often absent responses (χ2 = 5.292; P = 0.021), their responses were of lower mean amplitude (analysis of variance [ANOVA]; F[2,101] = 11.678; P &lt; 0.001), and they had a reduced number of responses with a predominantly negative component (χ2 = 8.493; P = 0.004) than patients who did not complain of sweating disturbances. O...

Electrodermal signals are commonly used outcome measures in research on arousal, emotion, and habituation. Recently, we have reported on heterogeneity in skin conductance response quantification approaches and its impact on replicability. Here we provide complementary work focusing on within-approach heterogeneity of specifications for skin conductance response quantification. We focus on heterogeneity within the baseline-correction approach (BLC) which appeared as particularly heterogeneous – for instance with respect to the duration of the pre-CS baseline window, the start and end of the peak detection window. Here we systematically scrutinize the robustness of results when applying different BLC approach specifications to one pre-existing dataset (N=118) in a pre-registered study. We report high agreement between different BLC approaches for US and CS+ trials, but moderate to poor agreement for CS- trials. Furthermore, a specification curve of the main effect of CS discrimination...

Scientific work rests fundamentally upon data, their measurement, processing, analysis, illustration and interpretation. Raw data have to be processed to be ready for statistical analyses and interpretation. While these processing pipelines can be well defined and standardized, they are often characterized by substantial heterogeneity. Here, we present results from a systematic literature search on the different SCR response quantification approaches used in the literature by using fear conditioning research as a case example. Next, we applied seven of the identified approaches (trough-to-peak scoring, script-based baseline-correction, Ledalab as well as four different models implemented in the software PsPM) to two fear conditioning datasets differing in key procedural specifications (i.e., CS duration, reinforcement rate, number of trials). This can be viewed as a set of robustness analyses (i.e., same data subjected to different methods) aiming to investigate if and to what exten...

Current treatments for anxiety disorders are effective but limited by the high frequency of clinical relapse. Processes underlying relapse are thought to be experimentally modeled in fear conditioning experiments with return fear (ROF) inductions. Thereby reinstatementinduced ROF might be considered a model to study mechanisms underlying adversity-induced relapse. Previous studies have reported differential ROF (i.e. specific for the danger stimulus) but also generalized ROF (i.e. for safe and danger stimuli), but reasons for these divergent findings are not clear yet. Hence, the response pattern (i.e. differential or generalized) following reinstatement may be of importance for the prediction of risk or resilience for ROF. The aim of this study was to investigate state anxiety as a potential individual difference factor contributing to differentiability or generalization of return of fear. Thirty-six participants underwent instructed fear expression, extinction and ROF induction through reinstatement while physiological (skin conductance response, fear potentiated startle) and subjective measures of fear and US expectancy were acquired. Our data show that, as expected, high state anxious individuals show deficits in SCR discrimination between dangerous and safe cues after reinstatement induced ROF (i.e. generalization) as compared to low state anxious individuals. The ability to maintain discrimination under aversive circumstances is negatively associated with pathological anxiety and predictive of resilient responding while excessive generalization is a hallmark of anxiety disorders. Therefore, we suggest that experimentally induced ROF might prove useful in predicting relapse risk in clinical settings and might have implications for possible interventions for relapse prevention.

Stuttering is a speech disorders which intermittent interruptions of fluent articulation. Stuttering is an impairment of "Speech that is characterized by frequent repetition or prolongation of sounds or syllables or words that disrupt the rhythmic flow of speech". This study aims to know the perception of parents toward speech/fluency therapy for PWS in rural areas in Gujarat. A closed-ended questionnaire (yes/ no) consisting of 20 questions which were develop helps in gathering information in aspects of the perception of client problem, fluency therapy, and availability of therapist, the duration of therapy session, and their comfortability toward therapist, technique effectiveness, and the improvement in the therapy and implementation in daily life. Thirty parents/caregivers of stuttering clients in that the subjects are divided into two groups, that is, Group-A age range of (10-20 years) and Group-B age range of (20-30 years). These two groups are subdivided into three categories with five subjects in each category, that is, mild, moderate, and sever stuttering. The study was conducted to see the level of perception of stuttering and its therapy. Hence, the results suggested that comparison between Group-A and Group-B. In Group-A, responses were better for (mild, moderate, and severe) as compared to the Group-B (mild, moderate, and severe) responses, because as the person grows older the parents involvement that will be less due to that reason younger subjects responses were better as compared to the older subject responses.

Background: Successful emotion regulation is important for physical and psychological well-being, and a better interpersonal functioning. Emotion regulation strategies can be divided into automatic (such as extinction) and deliberative (such as reappraisal). We intended to explore to which extent the neurobiological correlates of these processes were comparable or not. Methods: We performed a meta-analysis comparing extinction and reappraisal fMRI studies, including 1074 participants from 31 extinction datasets, and 1869 participants from 62 reappraisal studies. Original brain maps were obtained from 57 studies, increasing the statistical power. We explored both the regions of differential and common activation between extinction and reappraisal. Results: Regarding Extinction > Reappraisal, differences were found in the bilateral insula, the putamen, the pons, the thalamus, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, the right pallidum, the bilateral postcentral gyrus, the midcingulate and paracingulate cortices, the inferior, middle and superior temporal gyri, and the occipital cortex, among others. In Reappraisal > Extinction, differences were found in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the bilateral ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the supplementary motor area, the left precentral gyrus, the bilateral angular and supramarginal gyri, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the precuneus, among others. Common activation in reappraisal and extinction was found in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the bilateral insula. Conclusions: Extinction was related to limbic and subcortical activations, while reappraisal was more associated with the activation of the prefronto-parietal network. However, they also shared the activation of the insula (involved in interoceptive and affective processes) and the ACC (involved in conflict processing and monitoring).

Purpose: To investigate the effect of walking on physiological stress in premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Methods: Thirty females with PMS were randomly distributed into two equal groups. Group (A) (n=15) received breathing exercises, while group (B) (n=15) received the same breathing exercises in addition to walking on a treadmill. The primary outcomes were serum cortisol levels, resting heart rate (HR) and resting respiratory rate (RR) to measure the level of physiological stress, while the secondary outcomes were daily record of severity of problems (DRSP) and abdominal pain assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS). The outcome measures were evaluated pre-treatment and after 8 weeks of treatment. Results: Comparing both groups post-treatment revealed non-significant differences in serum cortisol levels, resting HR and DRSP (P>0.05), while there were significant reductions in both resting RR and abdominal pain VAS (P<0.05) in favor of group (B). The percentages of improvement post-treatment in serum cortisol levels, resting HR, resting RR, DRSP and abdominal pain VAS were 16.05%, 2.92%, 5.19%, 29.73% and 25.84%, respectively in group (A), while they were 25.09%, 7.05%, 15.69%, 31.43% and 55.30%, respectively in group (B). Conclusion: Walking is effective in treating premenstrual syndrome through reducing resting RR and abdominal pain intensity, as well as producing greater improvement in serum cortisol levels, resting HR and severity of PMS symptoms.

Background-Whereas some studies have shown clear evidence for an augmentation effect of Dcycloserine (DCS) on exposure therapy for anxiety disorders, other studies have shown weak effects or no effect at all. Some preclinical data suggest that the DCS augmentation effect is moderated by the success of the extinction trials. Therefore, we conducted a re-analysis of existing data to examine whether the effects of DCS on clinical outcome would vary as a function of response to the exposure session (i.e. exposure success). Methods-In a clinical trial, patients with height phobia received two sessions involving 30 minutes of virtual reality exposure therapy and were randomly assigned to a pill placebo (N=14) or 50 mg of DCS (N=15) immediately after each session. Results-Mixed-effects regression analysis showed that the effects of DCS administration on clinical improvement was moderated by the level of fear experienced just prior to concluding exposure sessions. Patients receiving DCS exhibited significantly greater improvement in symptoms relative to patients who received placebo when subjective fear was low at the end of the exposure. In contrast, when end fear was still elevated, patients receiving DCS improved less compared to those receiving placebo. Conclusions-DCS appears to enhance the benefits of exposure treatment when applied after a successful session, but it seems to have detrimental effects when administered after inadequate/ unsuccessful exposures. Trial Registry-The Trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01102803).

The relationship of style of anger expression to physiological reactivity was examined in 45 nonmedicated subjects during their performance of three tasks with contrasting response demands. The primary physiological focus was on forearm muscle vascular resistance (FMVR) with forearm muscle blood flow (FMBF). digital pulse volume (DPV), digital vascular resistance (DVR), heart rate (HR), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and electrodermal frequency (EF) monitored. Family Expressed Anger, i.e. the overtness of anger expression in the subject's family of origin, was related to FMVR such that the more anger was expressed in the family of origin, the greater the vasoconstriction during Mental Arithmetic and the less the vasoconstriction during Anger Imagery. Self Expressed Anger, i.e. the degree to which others were aware when the subject was feeling angry, was related to SBP and DBP during Vigilance with a lesser degree of anger expression going with greater blood pressure increases. The meaning of these findings in relation to task appraisal and task demand is discussed.

Emotions in the context of UX are generally evaluated in regard to product appearance and sensorial experience. The use of virtual reality can be a way to study UX in consumer products. We want to evaluate if we could increase emotional responses using a virtual reality immersive system. For that purpose, we used the GAPED picture database and compared valence and arousal ratings of GAPED and those obtained using virtual reality. Results showed that arousal was higher in virtual reality for all images, and valence was negatively extreme for images of living creatures usually associated with phobias (spiders and snakes). Nonetheless being this is a pilot study, we conclude that there is a tendency for Virtual Reality to increase emotional responses.

The latest research in Spain indicates that the most advanced neuromarketing consulting companies in the sector are those that have been able to innovate in the development of their own technologies and methodologies. Despite their reduced volume of business compared to total investment in marketing and market research in our country, there are signs that suggest these companies have great potential to improve this sector, which is still to be explored. For this reason, this research straddling the ethnographic method and the theoretical-descriptive method aims to help us better understand the characteristic features of this sector by actively listening to the professional voices that lead it. Its epistemological value lies in its contribution to understanding the business culture related to the professional development of neuromarketing in our country today. The study shows that the main human resources strategy of neuromarketing consulting companies is based on the creation of multidisciplinary work teams. In addition, most of them develop data analysis software, which they can safeguard under various types of copyright, and on other occasions they manage to patent them, to later apply them to the objectives and purposes of their company. This would also explain the widespread use of certain procedures and resources by the vast majority of the consulting companies investigated. Thus, the trend in the market is the implementation of different synchronization software to the available technological and methodological resources. Others have even gone so far as to create a new technological support to incorporate methodologies already in use. Therefore, this gives them exclusivity in their services and the necessary competitive advantage over their competitors. Among other factors, these inferences about how this sector really works are very likely to be very useful in the academic field, which will constitute a further step in generating critical thinking and in expanding the frontiers of knowledge around this discipline.

Krodha is a Manasika Vikara which can be assessed by Droha done by another person. Here is an attempt made to evaluate the efficacy of Geetam and Chandra Anuloma Viloma Pranayama in the management of Krodha. Forty subjects fulfilling the diagnostic and inclusion criteria were selected and randomly assigned into two groups. Group A was treated with Geetam, and Group B were treated with Chandra Anuloma Viloma Pranayama. The effect of treatment was assessed based on symptoms of Krodha, Intermittent explosive disorder and Buss and Perry Scale. Both Geetam and Chandra Anuloma Viloma Pranayama showed a statistically significant effect on the assessment criteria. On comparison between two groups, there is no statistically significant difference between Group A and Group B. Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted i.e., There is an equivalent effect of both Geetam and Chandra Anuloma Viloma pranayama in the management of the Krodha.

This research investigates the potential contributions of neuroscience literature and techniques to marketing management, employing biosensors such as eye-tracking glasses, facial expression analysis, and galvanic skin response (GSR). By leveraging neuroscientific methods to understand consumer reactions to marketing stimuli, marketers can glean valuable insights to enhance their marketing strategies and optimize customer interactions. The study use a qualitative analysis and aims to bridge the gap between consumer neuroscience and traditional marketing practices, utilizing neuromarketing tools to decipher customer behavior.

We live in an age in which technology provides us with constant access to virtual online services. Consumption and production of an immense amount of instant data, which is becoming the basic raw material autonomously processed by artificial intelligence algorithms, open up brave new possibilities and levels of research and its application in many traditional scientific disciplines. Biometrics is one of the disciplines experiencing an unexpected renaissance, owing to the wide availability of cheap sensory technologies connected to the network. We find great untapped potential, especially in devices that allow measuring the body's physiological responses to emotional stimuli, such as heart rate (HR) and electrodermal activity (EDA), also known as galvanic skin response (GSR). Many readily available and professional wearable devices provide digital recordings of these variables. However, each of these technologies suffers from multiple shortcomings. These shortcomings stand in the way of the mass popularization of the technology, which enables, among other things, real-time monitoring and digital recording of the body's physiological reactions to emotional stimuli. In other words, creating big data that can be used for digital, automated reconstruction of certain aspects of emotionality. In our research, we have identified three main social areas where these technologies are of interest: laboratories, professionals working with the human psyche-bodyemotionality, and regular users of biofeedback devices such as wearable devices (WD). Each of these groups has specific requirements in terms of the hardware implementation of the technology, and software and measurement methodology open to users. In our emotion laboratory, we have developed a series of comprehensive solutions, Sensetio, based on a thorough analysis of the needs of all three groups of users of biofeedback technologies. We intend to obtain standardized big data sets for further thorough scientific analysis.

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe benefits of exercise in PD have been linked to enhanced dopamine (DA) transmission in the striatum.ObjectiveTo examine differences in DA release, reward signaling, and clinical features between habitual exercisers and sedentary subjects with PD.MethodsEight habitual exercisers and 9 sedentary subjects completed [11C]raclopride PET scans before and after stationary cycling to determine exercise‐induced release of endogenous DA in the dorsal striatum. Additionally, functional MRI assessed ventral striatum activation during reward anticipation. All participants completed motor (UPDRS III; finger tapping; and timed‐up‐and‐go) and nonmotor (Beck Depression Inventory; Starkstein Apathy Scale) assessments.Results[11C]Raclopride analysis before and after stationary cycling demonstrated greater DA release in the caudate nuclei of habitual exercisers compared to sedentary subjects (P &lt; 0.05). Habitual exercisers revealed greater activation of ventral striatum during t...

The ability of music to evoke activity changes in the core brain structures that underlie the experience of emotion suggests that it has the potential to be used in therapies for emotion disorders. A large volume of research has identified a network of sub-cortical brain regions underlying music-induced emotions. Additionally, separate evidence from electroencephalography (EEG) studies suggests that prefrontal asymmetry in the EEG reflects the approach-withdrawal response to music-induced emotion. However, fMRI and EEG measure quite different brain processes and we do not have a detailed understanding of the functional relationships between them in relation to music-induced emotion. We employ a joint EEG – fMRI paradigm to explore how EEG-based neural correlates of the approach-withdrawal response to music reflect activity changes in the sub-cortical emotional response network. The neural correlates examined are asymmetry in the prefrontal EEG, and the degree of disorder in that asy...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether psychotherapy with somatosensory stimulation is effective for the treatment of pain and quality of life in patients with endometriosis-related pain. METHODS: Patients with a history of endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain were randomized to either psychotherapy with somatosensory stimulation (ie, different techniques of acupuncture point stimulation) or wait-list control for 3 months, after which all patients were treated. The primary outcome was brain connectivity assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Prespecified secondary outcomes included pain on 11-point numeric rating scales (maximal and average global pain, pelvic pain, dyschezia, and dyspareunia) and physical and mental quality of life. A sample size of 30 per group was planned to compare outcomes in the treatment group and the wait-list control group. RESULTS: From March 2010 through March 2012, 67 women (mean age 35.6 years) were randomly allocated to intervention (n=35) or wait...

The semantic structure and the underlying dimensions of 176 common Dutch words used to describe various kinds of pain were studied. Seventy-seven subjects rated the intensity of the pain described by each of these words; another 53 subjects sorted the words with regard to their similarity in meaning. A unidimensional solution adequately represented the intensity ratings. The sorting data were analyzed by means of HOMALS, a program for multiple correspondence analysis. which yielded a 3-dimensional configuration differentiating evaluative/affective, sensory, temporal and spatial aspects of pain. Regression analysis showed intensity to be the main criterion for similarity within the affective/evaluative group, whereas intensity was not related to the similarities among the sensory words. Cluster analysis, using the distances in the 3-dimensional HOMALS space, yielded 32 clusters of words among which the subscales of both the original McGill Pam Questionnaire (MPQ) and the Dutch version by Vanderiet et al. 1461 could easily be identified. Since the present results were obtained in a different country and by completely different methods of data collection (i.e., similarity sortings without a priori categories), they strongly indicate the cross-cultural and cross-methodological generality of the structure of pain descriptions.

Personality is the characteristic set of an individual's behavioral and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors. The recognition of personality profiles is crucial in making human-computer interaction (HCI) applications realistic, more focused, and user friendly. The ability to recognize personality using neuroscientific data underpins the neurobiological basis of personality. This paper aims to automatically recognize personality, combining scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) and machine learning techniques. As the resting state EEG has not so far been proven efficient for predicting personality, we used EEG recordings elicited during emotion processing. This study was based on data from the AMIGOS dataset reflecting the response of 37 healthy participants. Brain networks and graph theoretical parameters were extracted from cleaned EEG signals, while each trait score was dichotomized into low-and high-level using the k-means algorithm. A feature selection algorithm was used afterwards to reduce the feature-set size to the best 10 features to describe each trait separately. Support vector machines (SVM) were finally employed to classify each instance. Our method achieved a classification accuracy of 83.8% for extraversion, 86.5% for agreeableness, 83.8% for conscientiousness, 83.8% for neuroticism, and 73% for openness.

We successfully manipulated decision confidence in a probabilistic prediction task by means of stress as induced by excessive cognitive demands. In particular, our results indicate that decisions (based on high and low, but not intermediate levels of uncertainty) made under stress (confirmed by skin conductance measures) are associated with increased confidence when outcome probabilities are incompletely known (20% residual uncertainty). A different pattern was found when outcome probabilities were completely known (0% residual uncertainty). Here, stress led to decreased decision confidence when decisions were associated with intermediate levels of uncertainty but had no effect in case of high and low levels of uncertainty. In addition we provide evidence for ambiguity-(understood as implicit-risk) assessment being impaired under stress conditions.

BACKGROUND-Trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report heightened physiological responses to a wide range of stimuli. It has been suggested that associative learning and stimulus generalization play a key role in the development of these symptoms. Some studies have found that trauma survivors with PTSD show greater physiological responses to individualized trauma reminders in the initial weeks after trauma than those without PTSD. This study investigated whether heart rate and skin conductance responses (HRR, SCR) to standardized trauma-related pictures at 1 month after the trauma predict chronic PTSD. METHOD-Survivors of motor vehicle accidents or physical assaults (N=166) watched standardized trauma-related, generally threatening and neutral pictures at 1 month post-trauma while their HRR and SCR were recorded. PTSD symptoms were assessed with structured clinical interviews at 1 and 6 months; self-reports of fear responses and dissociation during trauma were obtained soon after the trauma. RESULTS-At 1 month, trauma survivors with PTSD showed greater HRR to trauma-related pictures than those without PTSD, but not to general threat or neutral pictures. HRR to traumarelated pictures predicted PTSD severity at 1 and 6 months, and were related to fear and dissociation during trauma. SCR was not related to PTSD. CONCLUSION-HRR to standardized trauma reminders at 1 month after the trauma differentiate between trauma survivors with and without PTSD, and predict chronic PTSD. Results are consistent with a role of associative learning in PTSD and suggest that early stimulus generalization may be an indicator of risk for chronic PTSD.