TY  - JOUR
A1  - Albrecht, Jessica
A1  - Kopietz, Rainer
A1  - Linn, Jennifer
A1  - Sakar, Vehbi
A1  - Anzinger, Andrea
A1  - Schreder, Tatjana
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Brückmann, Hartmut-Josef
A1  - Kobal, Gerd
A1  - Wiesmann, Martin
T1  - Activation of olfactory and trigeminal cortical areas following stimulation of the nasal mucosa with low concentrations of S(-)-nicotine vapor : an fMRI study on chemosensory perception
N2  - Applied to the nasal mucosa in low concentrations, nicotine vapor evokes odorous sensations (mediated by the olfactory system) whereas at higher concentrations nicotine vapor additionally produces burning and stinging sensations in the nose (mediated by the trigeminal system). The objective of this study was to determine whether intranasal stimulation with suprathreshold concentrations of S(-)-nicotine vapor causes brain activation in olfactory cortical areas or if trigeminal cortical areas are also activated. Individual olfactory detection thresholds for S(-)-nicotine were determined in 19 healthy occasional smokers using a computer-controlled air-dilution olfactometer. Functional magnetic resonance images were acquired using a 1.5T MR scanner with applications of nicotine in concentrations at or just above the individual"s olfactory detection threshold. Subjects reliably perceived the stimuli as being odorous. Accordingly, activation of brain areas known to be involved in processing of olfactory stimuli was identified. Although most of the subjects never or only rarely observed a burning or painful sensation in the nose, brain areas associated with the processing of painful stimuli were activated in all subjects. This indicates that the olfactory and trigeminal systems are activated during perception of nicotine and it is not possible to completely separate olfactory from trigeminal effects by lowering the concentration of the applied nicotine. In conclusion, even at low concentrations that do not consistently lead to painful sensations, intranasally applied nicotine activates both the olfactory and the trigeminal system.
Y1  - 2009
UR  - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/109668555
SN  - 1065-9471
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Gramann, Klaus
T1  - Attenuated modulation of brain activity accompanies emotion regulation deficits in alexithymia
JF  - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research
N2  - The personality trait alexithymia has been associated with deficits in emotion regulation; nevertheless, experimental investigations on this research question are sparse. We investigated reappraisal as one emotion regulation strategy in 44 healthy participants with high (HDA) versus low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. High density EEG and spatiotemporal current density reconstruction were used to characterize the time course of emotion regulation and to identify brain regions involved. Main results were that reappraisal was accompanied by reduced arousal and significant amplitude reduction of P3 and slow wave in the LDA group only. In contrast to the LDA group, reappraisal was not associated with an increase of activation in fusiform gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus in the HDA group. We demonstrate profound deficits in emotion regulation, which might contribute to everyday problems of social functioning in alexithymia.
KW  - Alexithymia
KW  - Emotion regulation
KW  - Reappraisal
KW  - Evoked potentials
KW  - Current source density reconstruction
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01348.x
SN  - 0048-5772
VL  - 49
IS  - 5
SP  - 651
EP  - 658
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Wankner, Sarah
A1  - Dietel, Anja
A1  - Wachsmuth, Cornelia
A1  - Henningsen, Peter
A1  - Sack, Martin
T1  - Autonomic imbalance is associated with reduced facial recognition in somatoform disorders
JF  - Journal of psychosomatic research
N2  - Objectives: Somatoform disorders are characterized by the presence of multiple somatic symptoms. While the accuracy of perceiving bodily signal (interoceptive awareness) is only sparely investigated in somatoform disorders, recent research has associated autonomic imbalance with cognitive and emotional difficulties in stress-related diseases. This study aimed to investigate how sympathovagal reactivity interacts with performance in recognizing emotions in faces (facial recognition task).
 Methods: Using a facial recognition and appraisal task, skin conductance levels (SCLs), heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were assessed in 26 somatoform patients and compared to healthy controls. Interoceptive awareness was assessed by a heartbeat detection task.
 Results: We found evidence for a sympathovagal imbalance in somatoform disorders characterized by low parasympathetic reactivity during emotional tasks and increased sympathetic activation during baseline. Somatoform patients exhibited a reduced recognition performance for neutral and sad emotional expressions only. Possible confounding variables such as alexithymia, anxiety or depression were taken into account. Interoceptive awareness was reduced in somatoform patients.
 Conclusions: Our data demonstrate an imbalance in sympathovagal activation in somatoform disorders associated with decreased parasympathetic activation. This might account for difficulties in processing of sad and neutral facial expressions in somatoform patients which might be a pathogenic mechanism for increased everyday vulnerability.
KW  - Somatoform disorder
KW  - Interoceptive awareness
KW  - Facial recognition
KW  - Autonomic response
KW  - Heart rate variability
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2011.03.012
SN  - 0022-3999
VL  - 71
IS  - 4
SP  - 232
EP  - 239
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Dietel, Anja
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Wankner, Sarah
A1  - Wachsmuth, Cornelia
A1  - Henningsen, Peter
A1  - Sack, Martin
T1  - Blunted autonomic reactivity and increased pain tolerance in somatoform patients
JF  - Pain : journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain
N2  - Somatoform disorders are characterized by the presence of multiple somatic symptoms. Patients often experience different pain syndromes, and recent research suggests that sympathovagal balance is disturbed in somatoform patients, which could be related to alteration in pain sensitivity. This study analyzed how proposed sympathovagal imbalance interacts with objective pain assessment and the imagination of pain in somatoform disorders. Twenty-one patients (4 men) with diagnosed multisomatoform disorder were included in the study and matched to healthy control subjects. Autonomic measures and heart rate variability were assessed during baseline; pain perception was assessed by means of a pressure algometer and pain imagination. We found evidence for a sympathovagal imbalance in somatoform disorders characterized by low parasympathetic activation and high sympathetic activation during all conditions. Additionally, somatoform patients had reduced pain tolerance. Vagal withdrawal during pain assessment was more pronounced for healthy control subjects and correlated positively with assessed pain tolerance. During imagination somatoform, patients reported higher pain unpleasantness and higher pain intensity as compared to control subjects. We conclude that our data demonstrate an imbalance in sympathovagal activation and a hyposensitivity to pain tolerance stimuli in somatoform disorders. Parasympathetic reactivity might form crucial information when judging pain-associated affective-motivational components. Our results might be attributable to a deficient detection of visceral signals and might be a pathogenetic mechanism for the development of emotional difficulties and increased everyday vulnerability in somatoform patients.
KW  - Autonomic
KW  - Heart rate variability
KW  - Pain threshold
KW  - Pain tolerance
KW  - Response
KW  - Somatoform disorder
KW  - Sympathovagal balance
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2011.05.024
SN  - 0304-3959
VL  - 152
IS  - 9
SP  - 2157
EP  - 2164
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Koch, Anne
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
T1  - Cardiac sensitivity in children: Sex differences and its relationship to parameters of emotional processing
JF  - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research
N2  - In adults, the level of ability to perceive one's own body signals plays an important role for many concepts of emotional experience as demonstrated for emotion processing or emotion regulation. Representative data on perception of body signals and its emotional correlates in children is lacking. Therefore, the present study investigated the cardiac sensitivity of 1,350 children between 6 and 11 years of age in a heartbeat perception task. Our main findings demonstrated the distribution of cardiac sensitivity in children as well as associations with interpersonal emotional intelligence and adaptability. Furthermore, independent of body mass index, boys showed a significantly higher cardiac sensitivity than girls. We conclude that cardiac sensitivity in children appears to show weaker but similar characteristics and relations to emotional parameters as found in adults, so that a dynamic developmental process can be assumed.
KW  - Children
KW  - Emotional intelligence
KW  - Heartbeat perception
KW  - Heart rate variability
KW  - Interoceptive sensitivity
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12233
SN  - 0048-5772
SN  - 1469-8986
VL  - 51
IS  - 9
SP  - 932
EP  - 941
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Schubö, Anna
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Matthias, Ellen
A1  - Schandry, Rainer
T1  - Deficits in early emotional reactivity in alexithymia
N2  - Abstract Alexithymia is characterized by a difficulty in identifying and describing one"s emotions. This study addressed the question of whether alexithymic tendencies are related to limited affective reactivity to briefly presented emotional stimuli. Skin conductance responses were assessed and backward masking was used to minimize elaborated processing of emotional pictures. Results indicated that alexithymic tendencies are associated with smaller electrodermal responses to briefly presented negative pictures. These effects were driven by difficulties in identifying and communicating emotions whereas externally orientated thinking was unrelated to affective reactivity. We conclude that there is an early processing deficit in response to negative stimuli in participants with high scores in alexithymia. Differences in the early emotional reactivity to arousing material could contribute to difficulties in emotional processes related to alexithymia.
Y1  - 2008
UR  - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issn?DESCRIPTOR=PRINTISSN&VALUE=0048-5772
SN  - 0048-5772
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Werner, Natalie S.
A1  - Duschek, Stefan
A1  - Schandry, Rainer
A1  - Matthias, Ellen
A1  - Traut-Mattausch, Eva
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
T1  - Differential effects of alexithymia subscales on autonomic reactivity and anxiety during social stress
JF  - Journal of psychosomatic research
N2  - Objectives: Alexithymia is characterized by a difficulty in identifying and describing one's emotions. Recent research has associated differential effects of the alexithymia facets to hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis markers during stress. This study aimed to analyze how the facets of alexithymia interact with autonomic reactivity as well as self- and observer-rated anxiety during a social stress task. Methods: With the use of a public-speaking paradigm, skin conductance levels (SCLs) and heart rate (HR) during the defined periods of baseline, preparation, stress, and recovery were assessed in 60 volunteers (42 females, mean age 22.8) categorized as having either high (HDA) or low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. Results: We found smaller SCLs during preparation and speech in the HDA group. Regression analyses indicated that only the alexithymia facet "difficulty in describing feelings" (DDF) was associated with smaller electrodermal responses. In the HDA group, self- and observer-rated anxiety was higher in the HDA than in the LDA group, which was attributable to higher scores in the subscales "difficulty in identifying feelings" (DIF) and "externally oriented thinking" (EOT). Conclusions: Our data support and specify the decoupling hypothesis of alexithymia by showing that the facets of alexithymia are differentially related to autonomic reactivity as well as self- and observer-rated anxiety during social stress.
KW  - Alexithymia
KW  - Autonomic response
KW  - Social stress
KW  - Skin conductance
KW  - Anxiety
KW  - Social performance
KW  - Decoupling hypothesis
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2010.12.003
SN  - 0022-3999
VL  - 70
IS  - 6
SP  - 525
EP  - 533
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Traut-Mattausch, Eva
A1  - Schandry, Rainer
T1  - Differential effects of anxiety and depression on interoceptive accuracy
N2  - BACKGROUND: Feedback from the body is assumed to be altered in depression. Nevertheless, empirical studies investigating this assumed relationship remain sparse. This study aimed to examine interrelations between the ability to perceive heartbeats accurately (interoceptive awareness), depressive symptoms, and anxiety in healthy participants. METHODS: A well-validated heartbeat perception task to measure interoceptive awareness together with two questionnaires indexing anxiety and depression were administered to 119 participants. RESULTS: As main results we observed a negative correlation between heartbeat perception and depression. Only when focussing on high anxiety levels this negative correlation coefficient between depression and interoception remained significant. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the possible relationship between depressive symptoms and interoceptive awareness and may have further implications for theoretical models of anxiety disorders and their treatment. Further research is required to examine the potential consequences of altering interoceptive awareness in healthy subjects in relation to depression and anxiety.
Y1  - 2009
UR  - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/38924
SN  - 1091-4269
ER  - 
TY  - CHAP
A1  - Nowozin, Claudia
A1  - Wahnschaffe, A.
A1  - Fay, Doris
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Kunz, D.
T1  - Does bright light interfere with fear learning?
T2  - Journal of sleep research : official journal of the European Sleep Research Society
Y1  - 2014
SN  - 0962-1105
SN  - 1365-2869
VL  - 23
SP  - 102
EP  - 102
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Herbert, Cornelia
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Weimer, Katja
A1  - Enck, Paul
A1  - Sauer, Helene
A1  - Zipfel, Stephan
T1  - Effects of short-term food deprivation on interoceptive awareness, feelings and autonomic cardiac activity
JF  - Biological psychology
N2  - The perception of internal bodily signals (interoception) plays a relevant role for emotion processing and feelings. This study investigated changes of interoceptive awareness and cardiac autonomic activity induced by short-term food deprivation and its relationship to hunger and affective experience. 20 healthy women were exposed to 24 h of food deprivation in a controlled setting. Interoceptive awareness was assessed by using a heartbeat tracking task. Felt hunger, cardiac autonomic activity, mood and subjective appraisal of interoceptive sensations were assessed before and after fasting. Results show that short-term fasting intensifies interoceptive awareness, not restricted to food cues, via changes of autonomic cardiac and/or cardiodynamic activity. The increase of interoceptive awareness was positively related to felt hunger. Additionally, the results demonstrate the role of cardiac vagal activity as a potential index of emotion related self-regulation, for hunger, mood and the affective appraisal of interoceptive signals during acute fasting.
KW  - Interoceptive awareness
KW  - Hunger
KW  - Autonomic activity
KW  - Food deprivation
KW  - Self-regulation
KW  - Eating disorders
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.09.004
SN  - 0301-0511
VL  - 89
IS  - 1
SP  - 71
EP  - 79
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Herbert, Cornelia
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Weimer, Katja
A1  - Sauer, Helene
A1  - Enck, Paul
A1  - Zipfel, Stephan
T1  - Effects of short-term food deprivation on interoceptive awareness, feelings and autonomic cardiac activity : implications for eating disorders
N2  - Poster session abstracts. Poster 9
Y1  - 2010
UR  - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issn?DESCRIPTOR=PRINTISSN&VALUE=0048-5772
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01111.x
SN  - 0048-5772
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kühnpast, Nicole
A1  - Gramann, Klaus
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
T1  - Electrophysiologic evidence for multilevel deficits in emotional face processing in patients with Bulimia Nervosa
JF  - Psychosomatic medicine
N2  - Background: Empirical evidence suggests substantial deficits regarding emotion recognition in bulimia nervosa (BN). The aim of the current study was to investigate electrophysiologic evidence for deficits in emotional face processing in patients with BN. Methods: Event-related potentials were recorded from 13 women with BN and 13 matched healthy controls while viewing neutral, happy, fearful, and angry facial expressions. Participants' recognition performance for emotional faces was tested in a subsequent categorization task. In addition, the degree of alexithymia, depression, and anxiety were assessed via questionnaires. Results: Categorization of emotional faces was hampered in BN (p = .01). Amplitudes of event-related potentials differed during emotional face processing: face-specific N170 amplitudes were less pronounced for angry faces in patients with BN (mean [M] [standard deviation {SD}] = 1.46 [0.56] mu V versus M [SD] = -1.23 [0.61] mu V, p = .02). In contrast, P3 amplitudes were more pronounced in patients with BN as compared with controls (M [SD] = 2.64 [0.46] mu V versus M [SD] = 1.25 [0.39] mu V, p = .04), independent of emotional expression. Conclusions: The study provides novel electrophysiologic data showing that emotional faces are processed differently in patients with BN as compared with healthy controls. We suggest that deficits in early automatic emotion classification in BN are followed by an increased allocation of attentional resources to compensate for those deficits. These findings might contribute to a better understanding of the impaired social functioning in BN.
KW  - eating disorders
KW  - bulimia nervosa
KW  - EEG
KW  - emotions
KW  - face recognition
KW  - N170
KW  - N2
KW  - P3
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e31825ca15a
SN  - 0033-3174
VL  - 74
IS  - 7
SP  - 736
EP  - 744
PB  - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
CY  - Philadelphia
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mai, Sandra
A1  - Gramann, Klaus
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Friederich, Hans-Christoph
A1  - Warschburger, Petra
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
T1  - Electrophysiological evidence for an attentional bias in processing body stimuli in bulimia nervosa
JF  - Biological psychology
N2  - Empirical evidence suggests abnormalities in the processing of body stimuli in bulimia nervosa (BN). This study investigated central markers of processing body stimuli by means of event-related potentials in BN. EEG was recorded from 20 women with BN and 20 matched healthy controls while watching and evaluating underweight, normal and overweight female body pictures. Bulimics evaluated underweight bodies as less unpleasant and overweight bodies as bigger and more arousing. A higher P2 to overweight stimuli occurred in BN only. In contrast to controls, no N2 increase to underweight bodies was observed in BN. P3 was modulated by stimulus category only in healthy controls; late slow waves to underweight bodies were more pronounced in both groups. P2 amplitudes to overweight stimuli were correlated with drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction. We present novel support for altered perceptual and cognitive-affective processing of body images in BN on the subjective and electrophysiological level. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KW  - Bulimia nervosa
KW  - Body image
KW  - Body stimuli
KW  - ERP
KW  - P2
KW  - Slow positive wave
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.03.013
SN  - 0301-0511
SN  - 1873-6246
VL  - 108
SP  - 105
EP  - 114
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Gramann, Klaus
T1  - Electrophysiological evidence of early processing deficits in alexithymia
JF  - Biological psychology
N2  - Alexithymia describes difficulties to identify and describe one's emotions. Previous research focused on difficulties associated with the later processing stages of appraisal in alexithymia. We tested whether early processing deficits are apparent in alexithymic persons and whether these abnormalities contribute to later processing difficulties. 20 participants were selected and identified as either having high (HDA) or low (LDA) degrees of alexithymia. IAPS pictures were presented while EEG was recorded. For HDA subjects processing of emotional pictures was accompanied by reduced P1 amplitudes most pronounced for pleasant and neutral pictures. In response to unpleasant pictures the P3 amplitudes were reduced. These amplitude modulations were predicted only by one alexithymia facet. P1 amplitudes systematically covaried with P3 amplitudes supporting the assumption that deficits in early emotional processing contribute to later processing deficits.
KW  - Evoked potentials
KW  - Emotions
KW  - Alexithymia
KW  - Perceived arousal
KW  - Unpleasant stimuli
KW  - IAPS
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.016
SN  - 0301-0511
VL  - 87
IS  - 1
SP  - 113
EP  - 121
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Schandry, Rainer
T1  - Emotional processing and emotional memory are modulated by interoceptive awareness
N2  - The ability to perceive interoceptive signals plays a central role in many theories of emotions. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between interoceptive awareness and the conscious processing and memory of emotional information. Heart-rate changes were recorded during baseline and affective picture presentation in two groups of participants, differing in cardiac awareness. After a 60-minute break, a recognition task was conducted. Statistical analyses revealed significantly stronger heart-rate deceleration to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli in participants with high interoceptive awareness. In the subsequent picture recognition task, participants with high interoceptive awareness demonstrated a superior recall of pleasant and unpleasant pictures, while no differences were found between interoceptive awareness groups for pictures of neutral content. Our results demonstrate a strong relationship between the perception of cardiac signals and both the processing as well as the recognition of emotional stimuli. High interoceptive awareness was related to increased physiological responses to emotional stimuli and is therefore an important mediating variable when investigating cardiovascular reactivity both in healthy subjects as well as in clinical populations.
Y1  - 2008
UR  - http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=journal&issn=0269-9931
SN  - 0269-9931
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Fuestoes, Juergen
A1  - Weimer, Katja
A1  - Enck, Paul
A1  - Zipfel, Stephan
T1  - Food deprivation sensitizes pain perception
JF  - International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
N2  - While food deprivation has known effects on sympathovagal balance, little is known about hunger's influence on the perception of pain. Since autonomic activities influence many cognitive and emotional processes, this suggests that food deprivation should interact with the perception of pain. This study analyzed the possible effects of short-term food deprivation on pain sensitivity in healthy female participants. This study was comprised of 32 healthy female participants who underwent a 48-hr inpatient hospital investigation. Prior to testing, heart rate and heart rate variability were assessed. After a standardized breakfast, day 1 measurements were taken. Food intake was then not allowed again until the following evening for 22 participants (experimental group), while 12 participants were served standard meals (control group). Pain threshold and tolerance were assessed at 10:00 a. m. on both days using a pressure algometer. Additionally pain experience was examined. Food deprivation significantly reduced pain thresholds and tolerance scores in the experimental group. Additionally, the sympathovagal balance changed, characterized by a decrease in parasympathetic activation. Higher vagal withdrawal after food deprivation was associated with higher pain sensitivity in the experimental group. Furthermore, perceived unpleasantness and pain intensity increased for threshold and tolerance stimuli in the experimental group. We conclude that short-term food deprivation sensitized pain perception in healthy females. An imbalance in sympathovagal activation evoked by food deprivation accounted for this effect. Our results might be a pathogenic mechanism for the development of emotional difficulties associated with disturbed eating behavior.
KW  - short-term food deprivation
KW  - pain threshold
KW  - pain tolerance
KW  - sympathovagal balance
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1027/0269-8803/a000062
SN  - 0269-8803
VL  - 26
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Hogrefe
CY  - Göttingen
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Gottwald, Janna M.
A1  - Elsner, Birgit
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
T1  - Good is up-spatial metaphors in action observation
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Positive objects or actions are associated with physical highness, whereas negative objects or actions are related to physical lowness. Previous research suggests that metaphorical connection ("good is up" or "bad is down") between spatial experience and evaluation of objects is grounded in actual experience with the body. Prior studies investigated effects of spatial metaphors with respect to verticality of either static objects or self-performed actions. By presenting videos of object placements, the current three experiments combined vertically-located stimuli with observation of vertically-directed actions. As expected, participants' ratings of emotionally-neutral objects were systematically influenced by the observed vertical positioning, that is, ratings were more positive for objects that were observed being placed up as compared to down. Moreover, effects were slightly more pronounced for "bad is down," because only the observed downward, but not the upward, action led to different ratings as compared to a medium-positioned action. Last, some ratings were even affected by observing only the upward/downward action, without seeing the final vertical placement of the object. Thus, both, a combination of observing a vertically-directed action and seeing a vertically-located object, and observing a vertically-directed action alone, affected participants' evaluation of emotional valence of the involved object. The present findings expand the relevance of spatial metaphors to action observation, thereby giving new impetus to embodied-cognition research.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 422 
KW  - embodied cognition
KW  - spatial metaphors
KW  - emotional valence
KW  - action observation
KW  - action perception
Y1  - 2018
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406281
IS  - 422
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gottwald, Janna M.
A1  - Elsner, Birgit
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
T1  - Good is up-spatial metaphors in action observation
JF  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - Positive objects or actions are associated with physical highness, whereas negative objects or actions are related to physical lowness. Previous research suggests that metaphorical connection ("good is up" or "bad is down") between spatial experience and evaluation of objects is grounded in actual experience with the body. Prior studies investigated effects of spatial metaphors with respect to verticality of either static objects or self-performed actions. By presenting videos of object placements, the current three experiments combined vertically-located stimuli with observation of vertically-directed actions. As expected, participants' ratings of emotionally-neutral objects were systematically influenced by the observed vertical positioning, that is, ratings were more positive for objects that were observed being placed up as compared to down. Moreover, effects were slightly more pronounced for "bad is down," because only the observed downward, but not the upward, action led to different ratings as compared to a medium-positioned action. Last, some ratings were even affected by observing only the upward/downward action, without seeing the final vertical placement of the object. Thus, both, a combination of observing a vertically-directed action and seeing a vertically-located object, and observing a vertically-directed action alone, affected participants' evaluation of emotional valence of the involved object. The present findings expand the relevance of spatial metaphors to action observation, thereby giving new impetus to embodied-cognition research.
KW  - embodied cognition
KW  - spatial metaphors
KW  - emotional valence
KW  - action observation
KW  - action perception
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01605
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 6
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Yeldesbay, Azamat
A1  - Pikovskij, Arkadij
A1  - Rosenblum, Michael
T1  - How much time has passed? Ask your heart
JF  - Frontiers in neurorobotics
N2  - Internal signals like one's heartbeats are centrally processed via specific pathways and both their neural representations as well as their conscious perception (interoception) provide key information for many cognitive processes. Recent empirical findings propose that neural processes in the insular cortex, which are related to bodily signals, might constitute a neurophysiological mechanism for the encoding of duration. Nevertheless, the exact nature of such a proposed relationship remains unclear. We aimed to address this question by searching for the effects of cardiac rhythm on time perception by the use of a duration reproduction paradigm. Time intervals used were of 0.5, 2, 3, 7, 10, 14, 25, and 40s length. In a framework of synchronization hypothesis, measures of phase locking between the cardiac cycle and start/stop signals of the reproduction task were calculated to quantify this relationship. The main result is that marginally significant synchronization indices (Sls) between the heart cycle and the time reproduction responses for the time intervals of 2, 3, 10, 14, and 25s length were obtained, while results were not significant for durations of 0.5, 7, and 40s length. On the single participant level, several subjects exhibited some synchrony between the heart cycle and the time reproduction responses, most pronounced for the time interval of 25s (8 out of 23 participants for 20% quantile). Better time reproduction accuracy was not related with larger degree of phase locking, but with greater vagal control of the heart. A higher interoceptive sensitivity (IS) was associated with a higher synchronization index (SI) for the 2s time interval only. We conclude that information obtained from the cardiac cycle is relevant for the encoding and reproduction of time in the time span of 2-25s. Sympathovagal tone as well as interoceptive processes mediate the accuracy of time estimation.
KW  - time interval reproduction
KW  - synchronization
KW  - heart cycle
KW  - interoception
KW  - interoceptive sensitivity
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2014.00015
SN  - 1662-5218
VL  - 8
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pollatos, Olga
A1  - Herbert, Beate M.
A1  - Schandry, Rainer
A1  - Gramann, Klaus
T1  - Impaired central processing of emotional faces in anorexia nervosa
N2  - OBJECTIVES: To elucidate the potential relationship between classification of emotional faces and impaired central processing in eating disorders and to investigate the potential mediatory role of alexithymia and depression in this relationship. METHODS: Visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) to emotional faces and classification performance were assessed in 12 anorexic females and matched healthy controls. RESULTS: Patients with anorexia nervosa showed no modulation of emotional face processing and displayed significantly increased N200 amplitudes in response to all emotional categories and decreased VEPs in response to unpleasant emotional faces in the P300 time range as compared with healthy controls. They also made more mistakes in emotional face recognition, in particular, for neutral, sad, and disgusted content. CONCLUSIONS: There are marked differences in evoked potentials and emotion recognition performances of patients with anorexia nervosa and controls in facial processing. Differences in brain dynamics might contribute to difficulties in the correct recognition of facially expressed emotions, deficits in social functioning, and in turn the maintenance of eating disorders.
Y1  - 2008
SN  - 0033-3174
ER  -