This study aimed to investigate affective modulation of eye blink startle by aversive visceral stimulation. Startle blink EMG responses were measured in 31 healthy participants receiving painful, intermittent balloon distentions in the distal esophagus during 4 blocks (positive, negative, neutral or no pictures), and compared with startles during 3 'safe' blocks without esophageal stimulations (positive, negative or neutral emotional pictures). Women showed enhanced startle during blocks with distentions (as compared with 'safe' blocks), both when the balloon was in inflated and deflated states, suggesting that fear and/or expectations may have played a role. Men's startle did not differ between distention and non-distention blocks. In this particular study context affective picture viewing did not further impose any effect on startle eye blink responses. The current results may contribute to a better understanding of emotional reactions to aversive interoceptive stimulation.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.07.009DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

eye blink
8
positive negative
8
negative neutral
8
'safe' blocks
8
startle
6
blocks
5
startle responding
4
responding context
4
context visceral
4
visceral pain
4

Similar Publications

Shifting dynamics of Sino-American competition in multi-aligned Middle East.

Heliyon

January 2025

Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, 54770, Pakistan.

The Middle East (ME) is one of the most volatile regions of the world where things can change in the blink of an eye. China, once an ordinary energy customer showing hardly any interest in the politics of the ME, has turned itself into a crucial player in rapidly transforming geopolitical landscape of the ME. The increasing footprints of China in the ME pose challenges to the US interests in the region.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

VPT: Video portraits transformer for realistic talking face generation.

Neural Netw

January 2025

School of Automation Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, China. Electronic address:

Talking face generation is a promising approach within various domains, such as digital assistants, video editing, and virtual video conferences. Previous works with audio-driven talking faces focused primarily on the synchronization between audio and video. However, existing methods still have certain limitations in synthesizing photo-realistic video with high identity preservation, audiovisual synchronization, and facial details like blink movements.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Blink completeness and rate in dry eye disease: An investigator-masked, prospective registry-based, cross-sectional, prognostic study.

Cont Lens Anterior Eye

January 2025

Department of Ophthalmology, Aotearoa New Zealand National Eye Centre, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. Electronic address:

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic ability of blink rate and the proportion of incomplete blinking to predict dry eye disease diagnosis, as defined by the TFOS DEWS II criteria.

Methods: A total of 453 community residents (282 females, 171 males; mean ± SD age, 37 ± 19 years) were recruited in an investigator-masked, prospective registry-based, cross-sectional, prognostic study. Dry eye symptomology, tear film quality, and ocular surface characteristics were assessed in a single clinical session, and blink parameters evaluated by an independent masked observer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Noncanonical sentence structures pose comprehension challenges because they require increased cognitive demand. Prosody may partially alleviate this cognitive load. These findings largely stem from behavioral studies, yet physiological measures may reveal additional insights into how cognition is deployed to parse sentences.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Driving involves complex coordination that deteriorates with age, affecting cognitive and motor functions.
  • A study compared blink behavior and neural responses in younger and older adults during reactive and proactive driving tasks, revealing that younger participants had shorter blink durations and more efficient neural processing.
  • Functional connectivity analysis indicated that younger adults exhibit stronger network integration in various brain areas, while older adults showed signs of compensatory mechanisms in attention networks, suggesting adaptability in response to cognitive demands.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!