85 research outputs found
Interactions between reward motivation and emotional processing
No full textMuch of the past research on how reward motivation and emotional information influence brain and behavior has been conducted separately. Recently, a few behavioral and brain imaging studies have investigated how reward and emotional information co-jointly impact brain and behavior. The present chapter reviews findings from this recent line of work to summarize our current knowledge about the influence of reward expectancy on brain and behavior in the context of emotional information. The available findings suggest that behaviorally reward counteracts the adverse impact of potent emotional distractors on task performance. Additionally, brain findings suggest that the ventral striatum plays an active role in upregulating attentional control processes to limit the influence of emotional distractors. Overall, task relevance seems to play an important role in shaping interactions between reward and emotional processing. We conclude by outlining a few open questions for future research
Attentional capture by simultaneous pleasant and unpleasant emotional distractors
No full textBoth high-arousal pleasant and unpleasant task-irrelevant stimuli capture attention and divert processing away from the main task leading to impaired behavioral performance in concurrent tasks. Most studies have separately investigated interference effects of unpleasant and pleasant stimuli on behavior. Thus, little is known about how pleasant and unpleasant task-irrelevant stimuli influence behavior simultaneously. In the present study, we investigated this question during a visual-letter search task. We tested two alternative hypotheses about the influence of simultaneous pleasant and unpleasant task-irrelevant stimuli on task performance. If behavior is purely determined by the intensity of the distractor stimuli (independent of valence), then we would expect the interference effect of simultaneous pleasant and unpleasant distractors to be similar to the influence of two pleasant or two unpleasant distractor stimuli. In contrast, because of opponent interactions between appetitive and aversive motivational systems, the interference effect of simultaneous pleasant and unpleasant stimuli might be weakened. We found that the interference effect of a compound pleasant-plus-unpleasant stimulus was greater than that of a neutral-plus-emotional stimulus and similar to that of two pleasant or two unpleasant stimuli. These results suggest that at the level of behavior, the influence of joint pleasant and unpleasant task-irrelevant stimuli during perception is mainly determined by the intensity of the stimuli, and independent of their valence
Effects of COVID-19 stress, proximity, and adverse childhood experiences on healthcare workers’ mental health
No full textPast research has shown that healthcare workers (HCWs) experience high levels of psychological distress during epidemics and pandemics, resulting in cascading effects that have led to chronically understaffed hospitals and healthcare centers. Due to the nature of their responsibilities and workplace stress, HCWs are among vulnerable groups especially during global health crises. During COVID-19 many healthcare workers reported greater symptoms of anxiety, depression, and COVID-19 related worries. Furthermore, adverse childhood experiences increase vulnerability for psychological conditions, especially during pandemics. This study sets out to (1) investigate the moderating effects of adverse childhood experiences on healthcare workers’ COVID-19 related stressors and depression/anxiety symptoms, and (2) investigate the moderating effects of adverse childhood experiences on proximity to the COVID-19 virus and depression/anxiety symptoms. Participants included 438 employed HCWs recruited from academic medical centers and smaller healthcare agencies in northcentral Florida between October to December 2020. Mean age of participants was 38.23 (SD = 11.5) with most of the HCWs being white (72.1%), non-Hispanic (86.8%) and female (82%). Healthcare workers completed several online questionnaires, including the Adverse Childhood Experiences scale, Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, a COVID-19 specific worries scale, and a Social Proximity to COVID-19 scale. Healthcare workers experiencing specific COVID-19 worries reported experiencing anxiety and depressive symptoms. A significant positive interaction was seen between childhood adverse experiences globally and COVID-19 worries on anxiety symptoms. A significant positive interaction was observed between childhood maltreatment specifically and COVID-19 worries on depressive symptoms. Additionally, a positive interaction effect was seen between childhood adverse experiences and COVID-19 social proximity for both depression symptoms and anxiety symptoms. Findings from the present study indicate that adverse childhood experiences strengthen the relationship between COVID-19 worry/proximity and negative psychological symptoms. Vulnerable populations such as individuals who have experienced ACEs could benefit from targeted and specific interventions to cope with the collective trauma experienced globally due to COVID-19. As COVID-19 becomes endemic, hospital leadership and authorities should continue addressing COVID-19 worries and HCWs’ psychological symptoms through mental health support and organizational interventions
L'affidabilità diagnostica della citologia preparatoria nella patologia nodulare tiroidea: confronto con la diagnosi istologica intraoperatoria e con quella definitiva
No full textCyclin D1 and Cyclin E expression in malignant thyroid cells and in human thyroid carcinomas.
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Electron trapping in amorphous Al2O3
No full textThe electron trapping in MOS capacitors with amorphous Al2O3 as an insulating layer was studied through pulsed capacitance-voltage technique. A positive shift of the voltage value corresponding to a constant capacitance (VC) was observed. The dependences of the voltage instability with the applied bias and the charging time were investigated. Two different contributions could be distinguished: a hysteresis phenomenon observed on each measurement cycle, and a permanent accumulated VC-shift to which each measurement cycle contributes. A physical model based on tunneling transitions between the substrate and defects within the oxide was implemented. From the fitting procedure within the energy range covered in our measurements (1.7-2.7 eV below the conduction band edge), the trap density was found to decrease exponentially with trap energy depth from 3.0 × 1020 cm-3eV-1 to 9.6 × 1018 cm-3eV-1, with a uniform spatial distribution within the first 2 nm from the semiconductor interface for the hysteresis traps.Fil: Sambuco Salomone, Lucas Ignacio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física de Dispositivos Microelectrónica; ArgentinaFil: Campabadal, F.. Instituto de Microelectronica de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Faigon, Adrián Néstor. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Departamento de Física. Laboratorio de Física de Dispositivos Microelectrónica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Tecnologías y Ciencias de la Ingeniería "Hilario Fernández Long"; Argentin
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