The Orienting Response in Healthy Aging: Novelty P3 Indicates No General Decline but Reduced Efficacy for Fast Stimulation Rates.

Automatic orienting to unexpected changes in the environment is a pre-requisite for adaptive behavior. One prominent mechanism of automatic attentional control is the Orienting Response (OR). Despite the fundamental significance of the OR in everyday life, only little is known about how the OR is affected by healthy aging.

Memory detection using fMRI - does the encoding context matter?

Recent research revealed that the presentation of crime related details during the Concealed Information Test (CIT) reliably activates a network of bilateral inferior frontal, right medial frontal and right temporal-parietal brain regions. However, the ecological validity of these findings as well as the influence of the encoding context are still unclear. To tackle these questions, three different groups of subjects participated in the current study.

Effects of emotional context on memory for details: the role of attention.

It was repeatedly demonstrated that a negative emotional context enhances memory for central details while impairing memory for peripheral information. This trade-off effect is assumed to result from attentional processes: a negative context seems to narrow attention to central information at the expense of more peripheral details, thus causing the differential effects in memory. However, this explanation has rarely been tested and previous findings were partly inconclusive.

Depersonalization disorder: disconnection of cognitive evaluation from autonomic responses to emotional stimuli.

Background: Patients with depersonalization disorder (DPD) typically complain about emotional detachment. Previous studies found reduced autonomic responsiveness to emotional stimuli for DPD patients as compared to patients with anxiety disorders. We aimed to investigate autonomic responsiveness to emotional auditory stimuli of DPD patients as compared to patient controls.

Emotional arousal modulates the encoding of crime-related details and corresponding physiological responses in the Concealed Information Test.

Previous studies demonstrated that concealed crime-related memories can be validly identified using the Concealed Information Test (CIT). However, its field applicability is still debated, and it is specifically unknown how emotional arousal during a crime would influence CIT results. In the current study, emotional arousal during a mock crime and the time delay between mock crime and CIT examination were manipulated.

Strength of memory encoding affects physiological responses in the Guilty Actions Test.

The Guilty Actions Test (GAT) is a valid and scientifically sound technique of forensic psychophysiology that allows for the detection of concealed memories. However, its application has been challenged because the results might be affected by the culprit's forgetting of crime details as well as the leakage of information to innocents. In the current study, these aspects were examined by varying the amount of time between a mock crime and the subsequent GAT, as well as by contrasting culprits with informed innocents.

fMRI-activation patterns in the detection of concealed information rely on memory-related effects.

Recent research on potential applications of fMRI in the detection of concealed knowledge primarily ascribed the reported differences in hemodynamic response patterns to deception. This interpretation is challenged by the results of the present study. Participants were required to memorize probe and target items (a banknote and a playing card, each).

Combining physiological measures in the detection of concealed information.

Meta-analytic research has confirmed that skin conductance response (SCR) measures have high validity for the detection of concealed information. Furthermore, cumulating research has provided evidence for the validity of two other autonomic measures: Heart rate (HR) and Respiration Line Length (RLL). In the present report, we compared SCR detection efficiency with HR and RLL, and investigated whether HR and RLL provide incremental validity to electrodermal responses.

Electrodermal and phasic heart rate responses in the Guilty Actions Test: comparing guilty examinees to informed and uninformed innocents.

The present mock-crime study concentrated on the validity of the Guilty Actions Test (GAT) and the role of the orienting response (OR) for differential autonomic responding. N=105 female subjects were assigned to one of three groups: a guilty group, members of which committed a mock-theft; an innocent-aware group, members of which witnessed the theft; and an innocent-unaware group. A GAT consisting of ten question sets was administered while measuring electrodermal and heart rate (HR) responses.

Covariations among fMRI, skin conductance, and behavioral data during processing of concealed information.

Imaging techniques have been used to elucidate the neural correlates that underlie deception. The scientifically best understood paradigm for the detection of deception, however, the guilty knowledge test (GKT), was rarely used in imaging studies. By transferring a GKT-paradigm to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, while additionally quantifying reaction times and skin conductance responses (SCRs), this study aimed at identifying the neural correlates of the behavioral and electrodermal response pattern typically found in GKT examinations.

Psychophysiological and vocal measures in the detection of guilty knowledge.

The Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT) and its variant, the Guilty Actions Test (GAT), are both psychophysiological questioning techniques aiming to detect guilty knowledge of suspects or witnesses in criminal and forensic cases. Using a GAT, this study examined the validity of various physiological and vocal measures for the identification of guilty and innocent participants in a mock crime paradigm. Electrodermal, respiratory, and cardiovascular measures successfully differentiated between the two groups.