International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
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Int J Psychophysiol · Aug 2012
Why do you smile at me while I'm in pain? --Pain selectively modulates voluntary facial muscle responses to happy faces.
It has been well documented that emotional stimuli modulate pain perception, but little is known about the reverse influence pain may have on emotion processing. According to the motivational priming theory, pain should facilitate the processing of unpleasant and hamper the processing of pleasant affective stimuli. To this end, we investigated the influence of tonic pain on the processing of happy and angry faces in 30 healthy participants. ⋯ However, pain did not affect muscle responses to angry faces and explicit valence and arousal ratings. Thus, pain seems to selectively influence the responses to happy faces, which may result from a slowed processing of incongruent information (happy/pain). That happy faces are processed differently during pain may bear important implications for social interactions during acute and possibly even chronic pain states.
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Int J Psychophysiol · Jun 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialInvestigating the affective component of pain: no startle modulation by tonic heat pain in startle responsive individuals.
Experimental tonic pain has been assumed to equal clinical pain by triggering sizeable affective responses. A psycho-physiological indicator of defensive affective-motivational responses is the startle reflex. However, earlier studies have not provided unequivocal evidence for a potentiation of the startle reflex during tonic contact heat pain. ⋯ Our findings indicate that tonic heat pain does not trigger defensive affective-motivational responses as measured by the startle reflex when it is applied in a predictable and thus non-threatening fashion. Future research should investigate the effects of manipulations of threat on startle responses to painful stimulation.
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Int J Psychophysiol · May 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialPreexposure to (un)predictable shock modulates discriminative fear learning between cue and context: an investigation of the interaction between fear and anxiety.
It has been suggested that prior experiences with unpredictable/uncontrollable stressors facilitate subsequent fear learning and the development of anxiety disorders. However, animal research documents that preexposure to unpredictable stressors (USs) impede later fear conditioning with that US. These differential predictions were tested in a human experimental model of clinical anxiety. ⋯ Fear responding was assessed through startle modulation and online shock-expectancy ratings. Results showed retarded fear learning in the unpredictable groups compared to the predictable group. We argue that prior experiences of unpredictability may still contribute to the development of clinical anxiety, by impeding adaptive fear learning and perpetuating the perception of unpredictability/uncontrollability.
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Int J Psychophysiol · Apr 2012
Test-retest reliability of regional electroencephalogram (EEG) and cardiovascular measures in social anxiety disorder (SAD).
Although the search for psychophysiological manifestations of social anxiety has a rich history, there appear to be no published reports examining the reliability of continuous electrocortical measures that putatively index stress vulnerability and stress reactivity in socially anxious individuals. We examined the 1-week test-retest reliability of regional electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha asymmetry and power, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), heart period, and heart period variability measures at rest and during anticipation of an impromptu speech in 26 adults diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD). ⋯ These results are similar to patterns observed in nonclinical samples and appear to provide the first documented evidence of test-retest reliability of psychophysiological measures that index central nervous system activity in socially anxious individuals. These findings also provide support for the notion that resting frontal EEG asymmetry and RSA constitute relatively stable individual differences in this clinical population.
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Int J Psychophysiol · Apr 2012
Adrenal hormone response and psychophysiological correlates under psychosocial stress in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome.
In this study, we investigated levels and relative ratios of adrenal hormones (including cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], and DHEA-sulfate [DHEA-S]) and their psychophysiological correlates under acute psychosocial stress in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). ⋯ The present study indicates that individuals with IBS had lower DHEA-S levels, and that their stressful cognitive appraisals under acute psychosocial stress caused the effects of cortisol to dominate. This adrenal hormone response may be involved in exacerbating abdominal symptoms in individuals with IBS.