Browsing by Subject "emotion"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Category fluency in psychometric schizotypy: How altering emotional valence and cognitive load affects performance
    (Taylor & Francis, 2015) Minor, Kyle S.; Luther, Lauren; Auster, Tracey L.; Marggraf, Matthew P.; Cohen, Alex S.; Department of Psychology, School of Science
    Introduction. In clinical high-risk populations, category fluency deficits are associated with conversion to psychosis. However, their utility as clinical risk markers is unclear in psychometric schizotypy, a group experiencing schizophrenia-like traits that is at putative high risk for psychosis. Methods. We examined whether introducing affective or cognitive load, two important stress vulnerability markers, altered category fluency performance in schizotypy (n = 42) and non-schizotypy (n = 38) groups. To investigate this question, we developed an experimental paradigm where all participants were administered category fluency tests across baseline, pleasant valence, unpleasant valence, and cognitive load conditions. Results. Compared to the non-schizotypy group, those with schizotypy performed significantly worse in pleasant and unpleasant valence conditions, but not cognitive load or baseline fluency tests. Conclusions. This study demonstrated the role of affect – but not cognitive load – on category fluency in psychometric schizotypy, as group differences only emerged once affective load was introduced. One explanation for this finding is that semantic memory may be unimpaired under normal conditions in psychometric schizotypy, but may be compromised once affective load is presented. Future studies should examine whether fluency deficits – particularly when affect is induced – predict future conversion to psychosis in psychometric schizotypy cohorts.
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    Empathic Responses to Affective Film Clips Following Brain Injury and the Association with Emotion Recognition Accuracy
    (Elsevier, 2018) Neumann, Dawn; Zupan, Barbra; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
    Objective To compare empathic responses to affective film clips in participants with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Healthy controls (HCs), and examine associations with affect recognition. Design Cross sectional study using a quasi-experimental design. Setting Multi-site study conducted at a post-acute rehabilitation facility in the USA and a University in Canada. Participants A convenience sample of 60 adults with moderate to severe TBI and 60 HCs, frequency matched for age and sex. Average time post-injury was 14 years (range: .5-37) Main Outcome Measures Participants were shown affective film clips and asked to report how the main character in the clip felt and how they personally felt in response to the clip. Empathic responses were operationalized as participants feeling the same emotion they identified the character to be feeling. Results Participants with TBI had lower emotion recognition scores (p=.007) and fewer empathic responses than HCs (67% vs. 79%; p<.001). Participants with TBI accurately identified and empathically responded to characters’ emotions less frequently (65%) than HCs (78%). Participants with TBI had poorer recognition scores and fewer empathic responses to sad and fearful clips compared to HCs. Affect recognition was associated with empathic responses in both groups (p<.001). When participants with TBI accurately recognized characters’ emotions, they had an empathic response 71% of the time, which was more than double their empathic responses for incorrectly identified emotions. Conclusions Participants with TBI were less likely to recognize and respond empathically to others’ expressions of sadness and fear, which has implications for interpersonal interactions and relationships. This is the first study in the TBI population to demonstrate a direct association between an affect stimulus and an empathic response.
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    Feasibility of an emotion regulation intervention for patients in cardiac rehabilitation
    (2021) Wierenga, Kelly L.; Fresco, David M.; Alder, Megan L.; Moore, Shirley M.
    Cardiac rehabilitation is important to improve physical activity and reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors among people who have experienced a major cardiac event. However, poor emotion regulation can make it difficult to change cardiovascular risk factors. The purpose of this paper was to assess the feasibility of the Regulating Emotions to improve Nutrition Exercise and reduce Stress (RENEwS) intervention, an education program aimed at improving emotion regulation strategies among patients in cardiac rehabilitation. Fourteen cardiac rehabilitation patients (mean age 61 years) enrolled in 5 weekly RENEwS sessions. Qualitative analysis of participants’ comments was used to assess eight elements of feasibility. Fifty-seven percent of participants completed the intervention. Participants thought the intervention was feasible, with strengths in the areas of acceptability, demand, adaptation, integration, and implementation. Other comments regarding practicality, expansion, and perceived efficacy provide guidance for intervention refinement.
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    Negative Attribution Bias and Anger After Traumatic Brain Injury
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2017-05) Neumann, Dawn; Malec, James F.; Hammond, Flora M.; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
    Objectives: Negative attributions pertain to judgments of intent, hostility, and blame regarding others' behaviors. This study compared negative attributions made by people with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI) and examined the degree to which these negative attributions predicted angry ratings in response to situations. Setting: Outpatient rehabilitation hospital. Participants: Forty-six adults with moderate to severe TBI and 49 healthy controls. Design: Cross-sectional study using a quasi-experimental research design. Main Measures: In response to hypothetical scenarios, participants rated how irritated and angry they would be, and how intentional, hostile, and blameworthy they perceived characters' behaviors. There were 3 scenario types differentiated by the portrayal of characters' actions: benign, ambiguous, or hostile. All scenarios theoretically resulted in unpleasant outcomes for participants. Results: Participants with TBI had significantly higher ratings for feeling “irritated” and “angry” and attributions of “intent,” “hostility,” and “blame” compared with healthy controls for all scenario types. Negative attribution ratings accounted for 72.4% and 65.3% of the anger rating variance for participants with and without TBI, respectively. Conclusion: People with TBI may have negative attribution bias, in which they disproportionately judge the intent, hostility, and blameworthiness of others' behaviors. These attributions contributed to their ratings of feeling angry. This suggests that participants with TBI who have anger problems should be evaluated for this bias, and anger treatments should possibly aim to alter negative attributions. However, before implementing clinical practice changes, there is a need for replication with larger samples, and further investigation of the characteristics associated with negative attribution bias.
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    Neurobiological mechanisms associated with facial affect recognition deficits after traumatic brain injury
    (Springer, 2015-06) Neumann, Dawn; McDonald, Brenna C.; West, John; Keiski, Michelle A.; Wang, Yang; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, IU School of Medicine
    The neurobiological mechanisms that underlie facial affect recognition deficits after traumatic brain injury (TBI) have not yet been identified. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), study aims were to 1) determine if there are differences in brain activation during facial affect processing in people with TBI who have facial affect recognition impairments (TBI-I) relative to people with TBI and healthy controls who do not have facial affect recognition impairments (TBI-N and HC, respectively); and 2) identify relationships between neural activity and facial affect recognition performance. A facial affect recognition screening task performed outside the scanner was used to determine group classification; TBI patients who performed greater than one standard deviation below normal performance scores were classified as TBI-I, while TBI patients with normal scores were classified as TBI-N. An fMRI facial recognition paradigm was then performed within the 3T environment. Results from 35 participants are reported (TBI-I = 11, TBI-N = 12, and HC = 12). For the fMRI task, TBI-I and TBI-N groups scored significantly lower than the HC group. Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals for facial affect recognition compared to a baseline condition of viewing a scrambled face, revealed lower neural activation in the right fusiform gyrus (FG) in the TBI-I group than the HC group. Right fusiform gyrus activity correlated with accuracy on the facial affect recognition tasks (both within and outside the scanner). Decreased FG activity suggests facial affect recognition deficits after TBI may be the result of impaired holistic face processing. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.