TY - JOUR A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Junge, Martin A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Lischke, Alexander T1 - Heartfelt memories BT - Cardiac vagal tone correlates with increased memory for untrustworthy faces JF - Emotion : a new journal from the American Psychological Association N2 - During social interactions, we rapidly judge others’ trustworthiness on basis of their facial characteristics. Face-based trustworthiness judgments may not only affect our current but also our future interactions because we seem to be more inclined to remember untrustworthy than trustworthy faces. Memory formation of salient stimuli like untrustworthy faces may be modulated by the interplay between the autonomic and central nervous system, which can be indexed by changes in vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV). To test this assumption, we investigated whether differences in HRV would be associated with differences in memory formation of untrustworthy faces in a sample of healthy participants (n = 34, all female). Untrustworthy faces were remembered more accurately than trustworthy faces, albeit only by participants with high and not low HRV. Across participants, increased memory accuracy for untrustworthy faces was associated with increased HRV. We discuss these findings in the context of neurobiological theories regarding the interplay between the autonomic and central nervous system during the regulation of autonomic, emotional and cognitive processes. (PsycInfo Database Record KW - trustworthiness KW - face memory KW - heart rate variability KW - amygdala KW - prefrontal cortex Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000396 SN - 1528-3542 SN - 1931-1516 VL - 19 IS - 1 SP - 178 EP - 182 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lischke, Alexander A1 - Junge, Martin A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - Enhanced processing of untrustworthiness in natural faces with neutral expressions JF - Emotion : a new journal from the American Psychological Association N2 - During social interactions, individuals rapidly and automatically judge others’ trustworthiness on the basis of subtle facial cues. To investigate the behavioral and neural correlates of these judgments, we conducted 2 studies: 1 study for the construction and evaluation of a set of natural faces differing in trustworthiness (Study 1: n = 30) and another study for the investigation of event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to this set of natural faces (Study 2: n = 30). Participants of both studies provided highly reliable and nearly identical trustworthiness ratings for the selected faces, supporting the notion that the discrimination of trustworthy and untrustworthy faces depends on distinct facial cues. These cues appear to be processed in an automatic and bottom-up-driven fashion because the free viewing of these faces was sufficient to elicit trustworthiness-related differences in late positive potentials (LPPs) as indicated by larger amplitudes to untrustworthy as compared with trustworthy faces. Taken together, these findings suggest that natural faces contain distinct cues that are automatically and rapidly processed to facilitate the discrimination of untrustworthy and trustworthy faces across various contexts, presumably by enhancing the elaborative processing of untrustworthy as compared with trustworthy faces. ( KW - face perception KW - emotion KW - trustworthiness KW - event-related potentials KW - amygdala Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000318 SN - 1528-3542 SN - 1931-1516 VL - 18 IS - 2 SP - 181 EP - 189 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Loew, Andreas A1 - Hamm, Carmen A1 - Struck, Anne-Marie A1 - Kirschbaum, Clemens A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Cognitive functioning and emotion processing in breast cancer survivors and controls: An ERP pilot study JF - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research N2 - Diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer is a very emotionally aversive and stressful life event, which can lead to impaired cognitive functioning and mental health. Breast cancer survivors responding with repressive emotion regulation strategies often show less adaptive coping and adverse outcomes. We investigated cognitive functioning and neural correlates of emotion processing using ERPs. Self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and fatigue, as well as hair cortisol as an index of chronic stress, were assessed. Twenty breast cancer survivors (BCS) and 31 carefully matched healthy controls participated in the study. After neuropsychological testing and subjective assessments, participants viewed 30 neutral, 30 unpleasant, and 30 pleasant pictures, and ERPs were recorded. Recognition memory was tested 1 week later. BCS reported stronger complaints about cognitive impairments and more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Moreover, they showed elevated hair cortisol levels. Except for verbal memory, cognitive functioning was predominantly in the normative range. Recognition memory performance was decreased in cancer survivors, especially for emotional contents. In ERPs, survivors showed smaller late positive potential amplitudes for unpleasant pictures relative to controls in a later time window, which may indicate less elaborative processing of this material. Taken together, we found cognitive impairments in BCS in verbal memory, impaired emotional picture memory accuracy, and reduced neural activity when breast cancer survivors were confronted with unpleasant materials. Further studies and larger sample sizes, however, are needed to evaluate the relationship between altered emotion processing and reduced memory in BCS in order to develop new treatment strategies. KW - attention KW - breast cancer survivors KW - emotion KW - ERPs KW - memory KW - neuropsychology Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12874 SN - 0048-5772 SN - 1469-8986 VL - 54 SP - 1209 EP - 1222 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Loew, Andreas A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Lotze, Martin A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Active avoidance and attentive freezing in the face of approaching threat JF - NeuroImage : a journal of brain function N2 - Defensive behaviors in animals and humans vary dynamically with increasing proximity of a threat and depending upon the behavioral repertoire at hand. The current study investigated physiological and behavioral adjustments and associated brain activation when participants were exposed to dynamically approaching threat that was either inevitable or could be avoided by motor action. When the approaching threat was inevitable, attentive freezing was observed as indicated by fear bradycardia, startle potentiation, and a dynamic increase in activation of the anterior insula and the periaqueductal grey. In preparation for active avoidance a switch in defensive behavior was observed characterized by startle inhibition and heart rate acceleration along with potentiated activation of the amygdala and the periaqueductal grey. Importantly, the modulation of defensive behavior according to threat imminence and the behavioral option at hand was associated with activity changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings improve our understanding of brain mechanisms guiding human behavior during approaching threat depending on available resources. KW - Defensive response patterns KW - Active avoidance KW - Freezing KW - Psychophysiology KW - fMRI Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.06.054 SN - 1053-8119 SN - 1095-9572 VL - 158 SP - 196 EP - 204 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Low, Andreas A1 - Struck, Anne-Marie A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - DOES AGE INFLUENCE BRAIN POTENTIALS DURING AFFECTIVE PICTURE PROCESSING IN MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN? T2 - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research Y1 - 2017 SN - 0048-5772 SN - 1469-8986 VL - 54 SP - S40 EP - S40 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pahnke, Rike A1 - Mau-Möller, Anett A1 - Junge, Martin A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Lischke, Alexander T1 - Oral Contraceptives Impair Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Women JF - Frontiers in neuroscience N2 - Despite the widespread use of oral contraceptives (OCs), remarkably little is known about the effects of OCs on emotion, cognition, and behavior. However, coincidental findings suggest that OCs impair the ability to recognize others’ emotional expressions, which may have serious consequences in interpersonal contexts. To further investigate the effects of OCs on emotion recognition, we tested whether women who were using OCs (n = 42) would be less accurate in the recognition of complex emotional expressions than women who were not using OCs (n = 53). In addition, we explored whether these differences in emotion recognition would depend on women’s menstrual cycle phase. We found that women with OC use were indeed less accurate in the recognition of complex expressions than women without OC use, in particular during the processing of expressions that were difficult to recognize. These differences in emotion recognition did not depend on women’s menstrual cycle phase. Our findings, thus, suggest that OCs impair women’s emotion recognition, which should be taken into account when informing women about the side-effects of OC use. KW - oral contraceptives KW - menstrual cycle KW - estrogen KW - progesterone KW - emotion recognition KW - social cognition Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.01041 SN - 1662-453X VL - 12 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Szeska, Christoph A1 - Richter, Jan A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Promoting long-term inhibition of human fear responses by non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation during extinction training JF - Scientific reports N2 - Inhibiting fear-related thoughts and defensive behaviors when they are no longer appropriate to the situation is a prerequisite for flexible and adaptive responding to changing environments. Such inhibition of defensive systems is mediated by ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), limbic basolateral amygdala (BLA), and brain stem locus-coeruleus noradrenergic system (LC-NAs). Non-invasive, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) has shown to activate this circuit. Using a multiple-day single-cue fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, we investigated long-term effects of tVNS on inhibition of low-level amygdala modulated fear potentiated startle and cognitive risk assessments. We found that administration of tVNS during extinction training facilitated inhibition of fear potentiated startle responses and cognitive risk assessments, resulting in facilitated formation, consolidation and long-term recall of extinction memory, and prevention of the return of fear. These findings might indicate new ways to increase the efficacy of exposure-based treatments of anxiety disorders. KW - Amygdala KW - Autonomic nervous system KW - Electromyography – EMG KW - Extinction KW - Fear conditioning Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58412-w SN - 2045-2322 VL - 10 IS - 1 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ventura-Bort, Carlos A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Genheimer, Hannah A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - Effects of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) on the P300 and Alpha-Amylase Level BT - A Pilot Study T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Recent research suggests that the P3b may be closely related to the activation of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. To further study the potential association, we applied a novel technique, the non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), which is speculated to increase noradrenaline levels. Using a within-subject cross-over design, 20 healthy participants received continuous tVNS and sham stimulation on two consecutive days (stimulation counterbalanced across participants) while performing a visual oddball task. During stimulation, oval non-targets (standard), normal-head (easy) and rotated-head (difficult) targets, as well as novel stimuli (scenes) were presented. As an indirect marker of noradrenergic activation we also collected salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) before and after stimulation. Results showed larger P3b amplitudes for target, relative to standard stimuli, irrespective of stimulation condition. Exploratory post hoc analyses, however, revealed that, in comparison to standard stimuli, easy (but not difficult) targets produced larger P3b (but not P3a) amplitudes during active tVNS, compared to sham stimulation. For sAA levels, although main analyses did not show differential effects of stimulation, direct testing revealed that tVNS (but not sham stimulation) increased sAA levels after stimulation. Additionally, larger differences between tVNS and sham stimulation in P3b magnitudes for easy targets were associated with larger increase in sAA levels after tVNS, but not after sham stimulation. Despite preliminary evidence for a modulatory influence of tVNS on the P3b, which may be partly mediated by activation of the noradrenergic system, additional research in this field is clearly warranted. Future studies need to clarify whether tVNS also facilitates other processes, such as learning and memory, and whether tVNS can be used as therapeutic tool. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 473 KW - EEG KW - P300 KW - tVNS KW - norepinephrine KW - locus coeruleus KW - salivary alpha-amylase Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-419259 IS - 473 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Dolcos, Florin A1 - Katsumi, Yuta A1 - Moore, Matthew A1 - Berggren, Nick A1 - de Gelder, Beatrice A1 - Derakshan, Nazanin A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Koster, Ernst H. W. A1 - Ladouceur, Cecile D. A1 - Okon-Singer, Hadas A1 - Ventura-Bort, Carlos A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions BT - From perception, learning, and memory to social cognition, individual differences, and training interventions T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Due to their ability to capture attention, emotional stimuli tend to benefit from enhanced perceptual processing, which can be helpful when such stimuli are task-relevant but hindering when they are task-irrelevant. Altered emotion-attention interactions have been associated with symptoms of affective disturbances, and emerging research focuses on improving emotion-attention interactions to prevent or treat affective disorders. In line with the Human Affectome Project's emphasis on linguistic components, we also analyzed the language used to describe attention-related aspects of emotion, and highlighted terms related to domains such as conscious awareness, motivational effects of attention, social attention, and emotion regulation. These terms were discussed within a broader review of available evidence regarding the neural correlates of (1) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Perception, (2) Emotion-Attention Interactions in Learning and Memory, (3) Individual Differences in Emotion-Attention Interactions, and (4) Training and Interventions to Optimize Emotion-Attention Interactions. This comprehensive approach enabled an integrative overview of the current knowledge regarding the mechanisms of emotion-attention interactions at multiple levels of analysis, and identification of emerging directions for future investigations. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 862 KW - emotion KW - attention KW - perception KW - learning and memory KW - individual differences KW - training interventions KW - psychophysiology KW - neuroimaging KW - affective neuroscience KW - health and well-being KW - linguistics Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-516213 SN - 1866-8364 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ventura-Bort, Carlos A1 - Dolcos, Florin A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - Item and source memory for emotional associates is mediated by different retrieval processes JF - Neuropsychologia : an international journal in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience N2 - Recent event-related potential (ERP) data showed that neutral objects encoded in emotional background pictures were better remembered than objects encoded in neutral contexts, when recognition memory was tested one week later. In the present study, we investigated whether this long-term memory advantage for items is also associated with correct memory for contextual source details. Furthermore, we were interested in the possibly dissociable contribution of familiarity and recollection processes (using a Remember/Know procedure). The results revealed that item memory performance was mainly driven by the subjective experience of familiarity, irrespective of whether the objects were previously encoded in emotional or neutral contexts. Correct source memory for the associated background picture, however, was driven by recollection and enhanced when the content was emotional. In ERPs, correctly recognized old objects evoked frontal ERP Old/New effects (300-500 ms), irrespective of context category. As in our previous study (Ventura-Bort et al., 2016b), retrieval for objects from emotional contexts was associated with larger parietal Old/New differences (600-800 ms), indicating stronger involvement of recollection. Thus, the results suggest a stronger contribution of recollection-based retrieval to item and contextual background source memory for neutral information associated with an emotional event. KW - event-related potentials KW - emotion KW - source memory KW - remember/know KW - old/new KW - effect Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.12.015 SN - 0028-3932 SN - 1873-3514 VL - 145 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER -