Intolerance of uncertainty and neural measures of anticipation and reactivity for affective stimuli.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a transdiagnostic construct referring to the aversive interpretation of contexts characterized by uncertainty. Indeed, there is a growing body of research examining individual differences in IU and how these are associated with emotional anticipation and reactivity during periods of certainty and uncertainty, however, how these associations are reflected via neurophysiological indices remain understudied and poorly understood. The present study examined the relationship between self-reported IU and neurophysiological measures of emotional anticipation and reactivity, namely stimulus preceding negativity (SPN) and late positive potential (LPP), and self-report measures of emotional experiences.

Effects of prepulse format and lead interval on the assessment of automatic and attention-modulated prepulse inhibition.

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response can index automatic and attention-modulated aspects of sensorimotor gating. Automatic sensorimotor gating is typically assessed by a no-task PPI protocol in which participants are presented with discrete white noise prepulse and startle stimuli over continuous background broadband noise at brief short-lead intervals (e.g.

Attention allocation to subliminally presented affective faces in high and low social anxiety.

Attention bias to affective stimuli, particularly threatening stimuli, has been well documented, with attention bias to affective faces often reported in populations with social anxiety (SA). However, inconsistencies exist in the literature regarding the direction of the bias, with some studies reporting a bias to attend toward social threat, and others reporting a bias to avoid social threat. This variability in the attention bias literature could be related to fluctuations in how attentional resources are allocated toward social stimuli over time.

Flashing a smile: Startle eyeblink modulation by masked affective faces.

Affective faces are important stimuli with relevance to healthy and abnormal social and affective information processing. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of brief presentations of affective faces on attention and emotional state across the time course of stimulus processing, as indexed by startle eyeblink response modulation. Healthy adults were presented with happy, neutral, and disgusted male and female faces that were backward masked by neutral faces.

The effects of multiphasic prepulses on automatic and attention-modulated prepulse inhibition.

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) is widely viewed as an operational measure of sensorimotor gating. Previous research has shown that sensorimotor gating can occur automatically and also can be influenced by selective attention. The present research investigated the relationship of the transient detection response (TDR) with automatic and attention-modulated PPI using a novel "multiphasic" prepulse stimulus.

Anterior cingulate cortex involvement in subclinical social anxiety.

We demonstrated differential activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) between subjects with high and low social anxiety in response to angry versus neutral faces. Activation in the ACC distinguished between facial expressions in the low, but not the high, anxious group. The ACC's role in threat processing is discussed.

The time course of face processing: startle eyeblink response modulation by face gender and expression.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of both facial expression and face gender on startle eyeblink response patterns at varying lead intervals (300, 800, and 3500ms) indicative of attentional and emotional processes. We aimed to determine whether responses to affective faces map onto the Defense Cascade Model (Lang et al., 1997) to better understand the stages of processing during affective face viewing.

Publication recommendations for electrodermal measurements.

This committee was appointed by the SPR Board to provide recommendations for publishing data on electrodermal activity (EDA). They are intended to be a stand-alone source for newcomers and experienced users. A short outline of principles for electrodermal measurement is given, and recommendations from an earlier report (Fowles et al.

Self-report and startle-based measures of emotional reactions to body image cues as predictors of Drive for Thinness and Body Dissatisfaction in female college students.

The purpose was to compare self-report and psychophysiological assessment techniques in the measurement of emotional response to body image cues. Female college students (n=53; % Caucasian=53.6; M body mass index=26.

Startle as an objective measure of distress related to teasing and body image.

Objective: The startle reflex was used to assess negative emotion in response to body image cues in persons with and without body-related teasing histories.

Method: Fifty-three female college students viewed photos of themselves both unaltered and morphed to look heavier and thinner. Participants with a teasing history were compared to participants without a teasing history on self-report measures and the affect modulated startle paradigm when viewing the photos.

Documenting a transfusion: how well is it done?

Background: Current practice in transfusion medicine promotes clear documentation of transfusion-related events including the fact that the patient has been informed of the related risks and benefits.

Study Design And Methods: A retrospective review of 1005 patient charts was carried out to determine documentation.

Results: Most patients were from general surgery (10.

Task switching after stroke.

Background And Purpose: Task switching is a cognitive skill that may be compromised after brain damage. The purposes of this study were to examine task-switching abilities in the subacute phase after stroke, to determine whether a switching task under endogenous or internal control is more difficult than a switching task under exogenous or cued control, and to determine whether deficits in switching attenuate in the first few months after stroke.

Subjects: The participants in this study were 46 adults with stroke and 38 adults without stroke.

Infrared reflectance as an alternative to EMG for measuring prepulse inhibition of startle eyeblink.

The "gold standard" measure of the human startle eyeblink response is the ocular electromyogram (EMG). However, EMG measurement is not always feasible, as with special populations or during functional neuroimaging. We evaluated an alternative, nonelectrical, noncontact measure that uses infrared (IR) light reflected from the eye.

Committee report: Guidelines for human startle eyeblink electromyographic studies.

The human startle response is a sensitive, noninvasive measure of central nervous system activity that is currently used in a wide variety of research and clinical settings. In this article, we raise methodological issues and present recommendations for optimal methods of startle blink electromyographic (EMG) response elicitation, recording, quantification, and reporting. It is hoped that this report will foster more methodological validity and reliability in research using the startle response, as well as increase the detail with which relevant methodology is reported in publications using this measure.

Selective and nonselective attention effects on prepulse inhibition of startle: a comparison of task and no-task protocols.

The effects of selective and nonselective attentional processes on prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response were examined by assessing PPI under intermixed task and no-task conditions. Results for the task condition revealed that greater PPI was produced by an attended than an ignored prepulse at a lead interval of 120 ms (marginally significant in the early trial block and significant in the late trial block), indicating an effect of selective attention at this lead interval. Comparisons between the task and no-task conditions revealed significantly greater PPI in the task than no-task condition at a 60-ms lead interval, during early and late trial blocks, indicating a nonselective attention effect at this lead interval.

Effects of practice and unpredictable distractors on planning and executing aiming after stroke.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine practice effects on the planning and execution of an aiming movement after right versus left stroke. A secondary purpose was to investigate the effects of a distractor that appeared randomly on motor performance after stroke. Right-hand dominant individuals, 15 with right stroke (right-sided brain damage), 16 with left stroke, and 30 without stroke, performed aiming movements to targets.

Attentional abilities and functional outcomes following stroke.

Although stroke affects cognitive functioning as well as motor functioning, research on cognitive consequences has lagged behind that focused on motor function. The evidence that is accruing suggests that cognitive function is importantly related to successful rehabilitation. The present study examined two aspects of attentional functioning (divided attention and switching attention) in older adult stroke survivors and healthy older adults.

Sensory processing in schizophrenia: missing and avoiding information.

The possible coexistence of supersensitivity and overinhibition (Schizophrenia: Origins, Processes, Treatment and Outcome (1993) 335-350) in schizophrenia was studied using the Adult Sensory Profile as a measure of Dunn's (Infants Young Children 9 (1997) 23-25) model of sensory processing. The quadrant model describes sensory sensitivity, sensation avoiding, low registration and sensation seeking as behavioral responses to sensation. Individuals with schizophrenia (N = 27), bipolar disorder (N = 30) and mentally healthy controls (N = 29) were compared using the Adult Sensory Profile.