@article{WirknerVenturaBortSchwabeetal.2019, author = {Wirkner, Janine and Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Schwabe, Lars and Hamm, Alfons O. and Weymar, Mathias}, title = {Chronic stress and emotion: Differential effects on attentional processing and recognition memory}, series = {Psychoneuroendocrinology}, volume = {107}, journal = {Psychoneuroendocrinology}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4530}, doi = {10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.05.008}, pages = {93 -- 97}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Previous research indicates that acute stress around the time of learning facilitates attention and memory for emotionally salient information. Despite accumulating evidence for these acute stress effects, less is known about the role of chronic stress. In the present study, we therefore tested emotional and neutral scene processing and later recognition memory in female participants using hair cortisol concentrations as a biological marker for chronic stress. Event-related potentials recorded during picture viewing indicated enhanced late positive potentials (LPPs) for emotional, relative to neutral contents. These brain potentials varied as a function of long-term hair cortisol levels: hair-cortisol levels were positively related to overall LPP amplitudes. Results from recognition memory testing one week after encoding revealed better memory for emotional relative to neutral scenes. Hair-cortisol levels, however, were related to poorer memory accuracy. Taken together, our results indicate that chronic stress enhanced attentional processing during encoding of new stimuli and impaired later recognition memory. Results are discussed with regard to putatively opposite effects of chronic stress on certain brain regions (e.g., amygdala and hippocampus).}, language = {en} } @article{VenturaBortWirknerDolcosetal.2019, author = {Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Wirkner, Janine and Dolcos, Florin and Wendt, Julia and Hamm, Alfons O. and Weymar, Mathias}, title = {Enhanced spontaneous retrieval of cues from emotional events: an ERP study}, series = {Biological psychology}, volume = {148}, journal = {Biological psychology}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0301-0511}, doi = {10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107742}, pages = {7}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Recent evidence points to enhanced episodic memory retrieval not only for emotional items but also for neutral information encoded in emotional contexts. However, prior research only tested instructed explicit recognition, and hence here we investigated whether memory retrieval is also heightened for cues from emotional contexts when retrieval is not explicitly probed. During the first session of a two-session experiment, neutral objects were presented on different background scenes varying in emotional and neutral contents. One week later, objects were presented again (with no background) intermixed with novel objects. In both sessions, participants were instructed to attentively watch the stimuli (free viewing procedure), and during the second session, ERPs were also collected to measure the ERP Old/New effect, an electrophysiological correlate of episodic memory retrieval. Analyses were performed using cluster-based permutation tests in order to identify reliable spatiotemporal ERP differences. Based on this approach, old relative to new objects, were associated with larger ERP positivity in an early (364-744 ms) and late time window (760-1148 ms) over distinct central electrode clusters. Interestingly, significant late ERP Old/New differences were only observed for objects previously encoded with emotional, but not neutral scenes (504 to 1144 ms). Because these ERP differences were observed in a non-instructed retrieval context, our results indicate that long-term, spontaneous retrieval for neutral objects, is particularly heightened if encoded within emotionally salient contextual information. These findings may assist in understanding mechanisms underlying spontaneous retrieval of emotional associates and the utility of ERPs to study maladaptive involuntary memories in trauma- and stress-related disorders.}, language = {en} } @article{VenturaBortSchnabelWendtetal.2020, author = {Ventura-Bort, Carlos and Schnabel, Ella and Wendt, Julia and Weymar, Mathias}, title = {Influence of resting heart rate variability on affect processing in different induction contexts}, series = {Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research}, volume = {57}, journal = {Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Malden}, issn = {0048-5772}, pages = {S39 -- S39}, year = {2020}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{VenturaBort2020, author = {Ventura-Bort, Carlos}, title = {Temporo-spatial dynamics of the impact of emotional contexts on visual processing and memory}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55023}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-550236}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {208}, year = {2020}, abstract = {It has frequently been observed that single emotional events are not only more efficiently processed, but also better remembered, and form longer-lasting memory traces than neutral material. However, when emotional information is perceived as a part of a complex event, such as in the context of or in relation to other events and/or source details, the modulatory effects of emotion are less clear. The present work aims to investigate how emotional, contextual source information modulates the initial encoding and subsequent long-term retrieval of associated neutral material (item memory) and contextual source details (contextual source memory). To do so, a two-task experiment was used, consisting of an incidental encoding task in which neutral objects were displayed over different contextual background scenes which varied in emotional content (unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral), and a delayed retrieval task (1 week), in which previously-encoded objects and new ones were presented. In a series of studies, behavioral indices (Studies 2, 3, and 5), event-related potentials (ERPs; Studies 1-4), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 5) were used to investigate whether emotional contexts can rapidly tune the visual processing of associated neutral information (Study 1) and modulate long-term item memory (Study 2), how different recognition memory processes (familiarity vs. recollection) contribute to these emotion effects on item and contextual source memory (Study 3), whether the emotional effects of item memory can also be observed during spontaneous retrieval (Sstudy 4), and which brain regions underpin the modulatory effects of emotional contexts on item and contextual source memory (Study 5). In Study 1, it was observed that emotional contexts by means of emotional associative learning, can rapidly alter the processing of associated neutral information. Neutral items associated with emotional contexts (i.e. emotional associates) compared to neutral ones, showed enhanced perceptual and more elaborate processing after one single pairing, as indexed by larger amplitudes in the P100 and LPP components, respectively. Study 2 showed that emotional contexts produce longer-lasting memory effects, as evidenced by better item memory performance and larger ERP Old/New differences for emotional associates. In Study 3, a mnemonic differentiation was observed between item and contextual source memory which was modulated by emotion. Item memory was driven by familiarity, independently of emotional contexts during encoding, whereas contextual source memory was driven by recollection, and better for emotional material. As in Study 2, enhancing effects of emotional contexts for item memory were observed in ERPs associated with recollection processes. Likewise, for contextual source memory, a pronounced recollection-related ERP enhancement was observed for exclusively emotional contexts. Study 4 showed that the long-term recollection enhancement of emotional contexts on item memory can be observed even when retrieval is not explicitly attempted, as measured with ERPs, suggesting that the emotion enhancing effects on memory are not related to the task embedded during recognition, but to the motivational relevance of the triggering event. In Study 5, it was observed that enhancing effects of emotional contexts on item and contextual source memory involve stronger engagement of the brain's regions which are associated with memory recollection, including areas of the medial temporal lobe, posterior parietal cortex, and prefrontal cortex. Taken together, these findings suggest that emotional contexts rapidly modulate the initial processing of associated neutral information and the subsequent, long-term item and contextual source memories. The enhanced memory effects of emotional contexts are strongly supported by recollection rather than familiarity processes, and are shown to be triggered when retrieval is both explicitly and spontaneously attempted. These results provide new insights into the modulatory role of emotional information on the visual processing and the long-term recognition memory of complex events. The present findings are integrated into the current theoretical models and future ventures are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{SegeBradleyWeymaretal.2017, author = {Sege, Christopher T. and Bradley, Margaret M. and Weymar, Mathias and Lang, Peter J.}, title = {A direct comparison of appetitive and aversive anticipation}, series = {Behavioural brain research : an international journal}, volume = {326}, journal = {Behavioural brain research : an international journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0166-4328}, doi = {10.1016/j.bbr.2017.03.005}, pages = {96 -- 102}, year = {2017}, abstract = {fMRI studies of reward find increased neural activity in ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), whereas other regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (d1PFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and anterior insula, are activated when anticipating aversive exposure. Although these data suggest differential activation during anticipation of pleasant or of unpleasant exposure, they also arise in the context of different paradigms (e.g., preparation for reward vs. threat of shock) and participants. To determine overlapping and unique regions active during emotional anticipation, we compared neural activity during anticipation of pleasant or unpleasant exposure in the same participants. Cues signalled the upcoming presentation of erotic/romantic, violent, or everyday pictures while BOLD activity during the 9-s anticipatory period was measured using fMRI. Ventral striatum and a ventral mPFC subregion were activated when anticipating pleasant, but not unpleasant or neutral, pictures, whereas activation in other regions was enhanced when anticipating appetitive or aversive scenes.}, language = {en} } @article{PatzwaldCurleyHaufetal.2018, author = {Patzwald, Christiane and Curley, Charlotte A. and Hauf, Petra and Elsner, Birgit}, title = {Differential effects of others' emotional cues on 18-month-olds' preferential reproduction of observed actions}, series = {Infant behavior \& development : an international and interdisciplinary journal}, volume = {51}, journal = {Infant behavior \& development : an international and interdisciplinary journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {New York}, issn = {0163-6383}, doi = {10.1016/j.infbeh.2018.04.002}, pages = {60 -- 70}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Infants use others' emotional signals to regulate their own object-directed behavior and action reproduction, and they typically produce more actions after having observed positive as compared to negative emotional cues. This study explored infants' understanding of the referential specificity of others' emotional cues when being confronted with two actions that are accompanied by different emotional displays. Selective action reproduction was measured after 18-month-olds (N = 42) had observed two actions directed at the same object, one of which was modeled with a positive emotional expression and the other with a negative emotional expression. Across four trials with different objects, infants' first actions matched the positively-emoted actions more often than the negatively-emoted actions. In comparison with baseline-level, infants' initial performance changed only for the positively-emoted actions, in that it increased during test. Latencies to first object-touch during test did not differ when infants reproduced the positively- or negatively-emoted actions, respectively, indicating that infants related the cues to the respective actions rather than to the object. During demonstration, infants looked relatively longer at the object than at the model's face, with no difference in positive or negative displays. Infants during their second year of life thus capture the action-related referential specificity of others' emotional cues and seem to follow positive signals more readily when actively selecting which of two actions to reproduce preferentially.}, language = {en} } @misc{Kupetz2009, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Kupetz, Maxi}, title = {Die multimodale Darstellung von Mitleid in Erz{\"a}hlaktivit{\"a}ten}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-37947}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2009}, abstract = {In dieser konversationsanalytisch-interaktionslinguistischen Arbeit werden verbale, para-verbale und nonverbale Ressourcen zur Darstellung des Affekts Mitleid im Rahmen der sozialen Aktivit{\"a}t Erz{\"a}hlung untersucht. Grundlage der Analyse sind Video- und Audiodaten deutscher Gespr{\"a}che. Es wird einerseits aufgezeigt, welche Ressourcen von Erz{\"a}hlerinnen eingesetzt werden, um affektive Reaktionen relevant zu machen (z.B. Blickverhalten, Augenbrauenbewegungen, rhetorische Mittel), andererseits wird beschrieben, welche spezifischen Ressourcen zur Darstellung von Mitleid eingesetzt werden (z.B. Interjektionen mit spezifischen Tonh{\"o}henverl{\"a}ufen, „arme/r/s + S"-Konstruktionen, Handbewegungen). Es wird zudem demonstriert, dass es sich bei der Darstellung von Mitleid um ein interaktiv hergestelltes, soziales Ph{\"a}nomen handelt. Anhand des metakommunikativen Wissens der Sprecher, das sprachlich relevant gemacht wird und somit f{\"u}r die Analyse zug{\"a}nglich ist, kann eine grundlegende soziale Regel zur Darstellung von Mitleid herausgearbeitet werden: Voraussetzung f{\"u}r Mitleid bzw. seine Darstellung ist eine spezifische Qualit{\"a}t der sozialen Beziehung zu der ‚consequential figure' (Maynard 1997). Nur wenn diese vorhanden ist bzw. interaktiv hergestellt wird, kann eine Mitleidsdarstellung in einer Erz{\"a}hlung {\"u}ber problematische Themen relevant gemacht werden und der lokalen Herstellung von sozialer N{\"a}he zwischen den Gespr{\"a}chsteilnehmern dienen.}, language = {de} } @article{KochPollatos2015, author = {Koch, Anne and Pollatos, Olga}, title = {Reduced facial emotion recognition in overweight and obese children}, series = {Journal of psychosomatic research}, volume = {79}, journal = {Journal of psychosomatic research}, number = {6}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0022-3999}, doi = {10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.06.005}, pages = {635 -- 639}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Objective: Emotional problems often co-occur in overweight or obese children. However, questions of whether emotion recognition deficits are present and how they are reflected have only been sparsely investigated to date. Methods: Therefore, the present study included 33 overweight and obese as well as 33 normal weight elementary school children between six and ten years that were matched for sex, age and socioeconomic status. Participants were shown different emotional faces of a well-validated set of stimuli on a computer screen, which they categorized and then rated on an emotional intensity level. Key measures were categorization performance along with reaction times and emotional intelligence as well as emotional eating questionnaire ratings. Results: Overweight children exhibited lower categorization accuracy as well as longer reaction times as compared to normal weight children, while no differences in intensity ratings occurred. Reaction time to neutral facial expressions was negatively related to intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence and emotional eating correlated negatively with accuracy for recognizing sad expressions. Conclusion: Facial emotion decoding difficulties seem to be of importance in overweight and obese children and deserve further consideration in terms of their exact impact on social functioning as well as on the maintenance of elevated body weight during child development. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Fritz2008, author = {Fritz, Thomas}, title = {Emotion investigated with music of variable valence : neurophysiology and cultural influence}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-29114}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Music is a powerful and reliable means to stimulate the percept of both intense pleasantness and unpleasantness in the perceiver. However, everyone's social experiences with music suggest that the same music piece may elicit a very different valence percept in different individuals. A comparison of music from different historical periods suggests that enculturation modulates the valence percept of intervals and harmonies, and thus possibly also of relatively basic feature extraction processes. Strikingly, it is still largely unknown how much the valence percept is dependent on physical properties of the stimulus and thus mediated by a universal perceptual mechanism, and how much it is dependent on cultural imprinting. The current thesis investigates the neurophysiology of the valence percept, and the modulating influence of culture on several distinguishable sub-processes of music processing, so-called functional modules of music processing, engaged in the mediation of the valence percept.}, language = {en} } @article{CzerwonHohlfeldWieseetal.2013, author = {Czerwon, Beate and Hohlfeld, Annette and Wiese, Heike and Werheid, Katja}, title = {Syntactic structural parallelisms influence processing of positive stimuli evidence from cross-modal ERP priming}, series = {International journal of psychophysiology}, volume = {87}, journal = {International journal of psychophysiology}, number = {1}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0167-8760}, doi = {10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.10.014}, pages = {28 -- 34}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Language can strongly influence the emotional state of the recipient. In contrast to the broad body of experimental and neuroscientific research on semantic information and prosodic speech, the emotional impact of grammatical structure has rarely been investigated. One reason for this might be, that measuring effects of syntactic structure involves the use of complex stimuli, for which the emotional impact of grammar is difficult to isolate. In the present experiment we examined the emotional impact of structural parallelisms, that is, repetitions of syntactic features, on the emotion-sensitive "late positive potential" (LPP) with a cross-modal priming paradigm. Primes were auditory presented nonsense sentences which included grammatical-syntactic parallelisms. Visual targets were positive, neutral, and negative faces, to be classified as emotional or non-emotional by the participants. Electrophysiology revealed diminished LPP amplitudes for positive faces following parallel primes. Thus, our findings suggest that grammatical structure creates an emotional context that facilitates processing of positive emotional information.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{anHaack2018, author = {an Haack, Jan}, title = {Market and affect in evangelical mission}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42469}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-424694}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 240}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This text is a contribution to the research on the worldwide success of evangelical Christianity and offers a new perspective on the relationship between late modern capitalism and evangelicalism. For this purpose, the utilization of affect and emotion in evangelicalism towards the mobilization of its members will be examined in order to find out what similarities to their employment in late modern capitalism can be found. Different examples from within the evangelical spectrum will be analyzed as affective economies in order to elaborate how affective mobilization is crucial for evangelicalism's worldwide success. Pivotal point of this text is the exploration of how evangelicalism is able to activate the voluntary commitment of its members, financiers, and missionaries. Gathered here are examples where both spheres—evangelicalism and late modern capitalism—overlap and reciprocate, followed by a theoretical exploration of how the findings presented support a view of evangelicalism as an inner-worldly narcissism that contributes to an assumed re-enchantment of the world.}, language = {en} }