1,721,168 research outputs found
Danger is in the eyes of the beholder: The effect of visible and invisible affective faces on the judgment of social interactions
No full textPrevious studies demonstrated that observation of facial expressions can modulate threat detection while looking at neutral or emotion-related scenes. Similarly, stimuli presented outside conscious awareness could influence social judgments of neutral novel stimuli. The two-fold aim of this study was: i) to evaluate whether observation of seen emotional faces could affect the judgment of social interactions without contextual cues (visible prime condition), and ii) whether this effect could also emerge when the emotional faces were made not visible by means of continuous flash suppression (invisible prime condition). We found that both seen and unseen faces are able to affect the judgment of ambiguous social interactions although this effect was particularly evident when affective faces were clearly visible. The present findings supported the idea that both conscious and unconscious processing of emotional faces have an important role in modulating perceivers' affective state and their judgment of social interactions
Direct-Indirect Hybrid Strategy for Optimal Powered Descent and Landing
Full text linkA hybrid algorithm to solve optimal control problems is discussed in the present paper, and applied to the powered descent guidance (PDG) problem. A reference solution is first obtained via a convex direct solver, and is then used as guess for the primal-dual boundary value problem associated with the initial problem. In this context, a covector mapping theorem is used to map the multipliers of the direct solution to the corresponding discrete costates of the indirect method. Collocation based on hp pseudospectral scheme is employed for the direct step, while single shooting for the indirect step. A switching-detection technique further equips the shooting. Furthermore, a state-of-the-art purely indirect algorithm is outlined: such approach merges the same single shooting approach with a homotopic continuation. The proposed methods are applied to the pinpoint landing formulation of the PDG, framed in a 3-D environment. Results are finally outlined, comparing the proposed hybrid strategy to the purely indirect approach. The outcome highlights the gain in computational times for the hybrid optimization technique over the fully homotopic scheme, demonstrating the validity of the former for landing trajectory optimization purposes
Memory biases in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. A systematic review and metanalysis.
No full text: Several studies demonstrated that individuals are more likely to remember emotional than neutral information; this phenomenon is known as emotional enhancement of memory (EEM). Adults generally tend to remember negative information more efficiently than neutral or positive items. In contrast, healthy elders seem to show an opposite bias for positive information, but results are inconsistent, also because during aging, elaboration of emotional information could change as a consequence of cognitive impairment. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we conducted literature search of studies investigating emotion memory biases in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) on PubMed, Scopus and PsycINFO databases following PRISMA guidelines. The findings showed that emotional memory biases are still present despite the presence of cognitive impairment, both in MCI and at least in early stages of AD. However, the direction of emotion memory biases is not consistent across studies. These results suggest that patients with cognitive impairment might still benefit from EEM and help to define targets of intervention for cognitive rehabilitation in pathological aging
The psychological side of intimate partner violence: A preliminary study on the psycho-physiological correlates in victims women
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The effect of bicephalic stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on the attentional bias for threat: A transcranial direct current stimulation study
No full textPrevious stimulation studies demonstrated that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved in threat processing. According to a model of emotional processing, an unbalance between the two DLPFCs, with a hyperactivation of right frontal areas, is involved in the processing of negative emotions and genesis of anxiety. In the present study, we investigated the role of the right and left DLPFC in threat processing in healthy women who also completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). We simultaneously modulated the activity of the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex by applying bicephalic transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) before participants completed a modified version of the classic Posner task using threatening and nonthreatening stimuli as spatial cues. Anodal stimulation on the right DLPFC with a simultaneous cathodal stimulation over the left side induced a disengagement bias in individuals with low STAI scores and a facilitation bias in individuals with high STAI scores. Anodal stimulation on the left DLPFC with the simultaneous cathodal stimulation over the right side did not affect threat processing. The findings of the present study provided specific support to the hypothesis that unbalanced activation between left and right hemispheres with enhanced activation of the right DLPFC is critical in early top-down threat processing in healthy individuals
IL RUOLO DELLA rTPJ NELLA PRESA DI DECISIONE SOCIALE: EVIDENZE DA UNO STUDIO TMS
No full textINTRODUZIONE: Diversi fattori neurali e cognitivi sono implicati nella presa di decisione sociale così come misurata attraverso il Mini-Ultimatum Game (Mini-UG; Falk et al., 2003), tra cui l’attivazione della giunzione temporo-parietale destra (rTPJ) e processi di mentalizzazione (Güroğlu et al., 2010). Questo studio approfondisce il contributo causale della rTPJ nel ruolo di rispondente nel Mini-UG, utilizzando la stimolazione magnetica transcranica ripetitiva (rTMS). METODO: Ventisei partecipanti sani di sesso femminile (19-27 anni) hanno completato il Mini-UG nel ruolo di rispondente; questo paradigma consente di valutare la presa di decisione in diverse condizioni di intenzionalità. Attraverso una storia di copertura i partecipanti erano informati di giocare con un proponente reale (in realtà uno script preimpostato); il grado di fiducia nella storia veniva misurato attraverso un’intervista conclusiva su scala Likert. Ogni trial prevedeva un’offerta iniqua contrapposta a una di tre possibili alternative, tra cui una anch’essa iniqua (no-alternative trial). Compito del rispondente era accettare o rifiutare l’offerta ricevuta. La stimolazione rTMS della rTPJ (vs Vertex, di controllo) era alternata tra quattro blocchi sperimentali. RISULTATI: Nei partecipanti che hanno creduto alla storia di copertura (“believers”; n=19) si è riscontrato un aumento dei rifiuti nei no-alternative trials durante stimolazione della rTPJ rispetto al Vertex; nei “non-believers” (n=7) i rifiuti restavano elevati durante entrambe le stimolazioni. CONCLUSIONE: Il maggiore numero di rifiuti dei no-alternative trials in seguito a stimolazione della rTPJ è compatibile con l’interferenza con processi di mentalizzazione, fornendo dati a supporto di una relazione tra correlati neurali e fattori cognitivi nelle decisioni sociali
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