Emotionally loaded visual stimuli have shown increased activation in visual and cortex limbic are... more Emotionally loaded visual stimuli have shown increased activation in visual and cortex limbic areas. However, differences in visual features of such images could confound these findings. In order to manipulate valence of stimuli while keeping visual features largely unchanged, we took advantage of an "expressional transfiguration" (ET) effect of faces. In addition, we used repetition effects, which enabled us to test more incisively the impact of the ET effect. Using the ET manipulation, we have shown that the activation in lateral occipital complex (LOC) was unaffected by valence attributes, but produced significant modulation of fMR adaptation. Contrary to LOC, amygdala activation was increased by ET manipulation unrelated to the adaptation. A correlation between amygdala and LOC adaptation points to a possible modulatory role of the amygdala upon visual cortex short-term plasticity.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2015
Self-relevant information is associated with facilitation of perceptual and memory processes. In ... more Self-relevant information is associated with facilitation of perceptual and memory processes. In two experiments, participants verified the number of dots within a virtual room that were visible to a given perspective, corresponding to participants’ own first-person perspectives or the third-person perspectives for self- and other-associated avatars. Perspectives were either congruent or incongruent with respect to the number of dots visible to each. In Experiment 1, we examined perspective-taking for self- and other-associated avatars relative to one another; both avatars appeared simultaneously in the virtual room, and participants made judgments based on the prompted avatar’s perspective. In Experiment 2, we examined perspective-taking for each avatar relative to the first-person perspective; only one avatar was visible in the virtual room (Self or Other, varying by trial), and participants made judgments based on their first-person view or the avatar’s perspective. Experiment 2 ...
This study examined the extent to which visual perspective-taking performance is modulated by tra... more This study examined the extent to which visual perspective-taking performance is modulated by trait-level empathy. Participants completed a third-person visual perspective-taking task in which they judged the perspectives of two simultaneously presented avatars, designated "Self" and "Other." Depending on the trial, these avatars either held the same view (i.e., congruent) or a different view (i.e., incongruent). Analyses focused on the relationship between empathy and two perspective-taking phenomena: Selection between competing perspectives (i.e., perspective-congruence effects) and prioritization of the Self avatar's perspective. Empathy was related to improved overall performance on this task and a reduced cost of selecting between conflicting perspectives (i.e., smaller perspective-congruence effects). This effect was asymmetric, with empathy (i.e., empathic concern) levels predicting reduced interference from a conflicting perspective, especially when adopting the Self (vs. Other) avatar's perspective. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of the self-other distinction and mental flexibility components of empathy.
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2015
This study investigated whether age-related sensitivity to self-relevance may benefit perspective... more This study investigated whether age-related sensitivity to self-relevance may benefit perspective-taking, despite generally poorer perspective-taking capacity in older adults. In one perceptual matching task and two visual perspective-taking paradigms, we examined age differences in sensitivity to avatars representing self and other. In the matching task, older (60-83 years) and younger (18-20 years) adults were similarly biased toward the self- versus other-associated avatar. In the perspective-taking tasks, participants viewed these avatars within a virtual room. Task-relevant perspectives were either the same (i.e., congruent) or different (i.e., incongruent). In the 3PP-3PP task, both avatars were present and participants adopted the perspective of one or the other. As in the matching task, young and old were similarly biased toward the self-associated avatar. However, age differences emerged in the 1PP-3PP task, which presented only one avatar per trial (varying between self and other), and participants responded based on their own first-person perspective or the avatar's. In summary, age modulated the ability to take perspectives primarily when participants' own first-person perspective was task-relevant. Relative to younger adults, older adults prioritised the Self (vs. Other) avatar more during initial perspective computation and the first-person (vs. third-person) perspective more when selecting between incongruent perspectives. Supplemental_Tables_1-10 Supplemental_Figure_3.tif Supplemental_Figure_2.tif Supplemental_Figure_1.tif Supplemental_Material.
Early descriptions of psychopathy emphasise fearlessness and a lack of nervousness or anxiety as ... more Early descriptions of psychopathy emphasise fearlessness and a lack of nervousness or anxiety as key characteristics of the disorder. However, conflicting evidence suggests that anxiety may be positively correlated with some aspects of the psychopathy construct. This position may seem somewhat paradoxical when considered alongside impaired processing of fear related stimuli in psychopathic personality. The aim of the current paper was to examine the distinct relations of callous, egocentric, and antisocial psychopathic traits with measures of anxiety and social anxiety in samples of non-offenders (Study 1) and violent offenders (Study 2). In Study 2 we also used an emotion recognition task to examine fearful face recognition. In Studies 1 and 2 we showed distinct and opposite significant relationships of egocentric and antisocial psychopathic traits with trait anxiety. Thus, while trait anxiety was negatively predicted by egocentric traits, it was predicted in a positive direction by antisocial traits in both samples. In Study 2 we found that callous traits were predictive of greater impairments in fearful face recognition. These findings suggest that anxiety and fear are distinguishable constructs in relation to psychopathic personality traits, and are discussed in terms of potentially separable mechanisms for these two constructs.
Psychopathic traits are linked with impairments in emotional facial expression recognition. These... more Psychopathic traits are linked with impairments in emotional facial expression recognition. These impairments may, in part, reflect reduced attention to the eyes of emotional faces. Although reduced attention to the eyes has been noted among children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits, similar findings are yet to be found in relation to psychopathic traits among adult male participants. Here we investigated the relationship of primary (selfish, uncaring) and secondary (impulsive, antisocial) psychopathic traits with attention to the eyes among adult male non-offenders during an emotion recognition task. We measured the number of fixations, and overall dwell time, on the eyes, and the mouth of male and female faces showing the six basic emotions at varying levels of intensity. We found no relationship of primary or secondary psychopathic traits with recognition accuracy. However, primary psychopathic traits were associated with a reduced number of fixations, and low...
In this critique, we review the usefulness of functional localising scans in functional MRI studi... more In this critique, we review the usefulness of functional localising scans in functional MRI studies. We consider their conceptual motivations and the implications for experimental design and inference. Functional localisers can often be viewed as acquiring data from cells that have been removed from an implicit factorial design. This perspective reveals their potentially restrictive nature. We deconstruct two examples from
ABSTRACT The use of functional localizers to constrain the analysis of functional magnetic resona... more ABSTRACT The use of functional localizers to constrain the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is becoming popular in neuroimaging. This approach entails a separate experiment to localize areas in the brain that serve to guide, constrain, or interpret results from a main experiment. The need and motivation for functional localizers are often not stated explicitly and sometimes unclear. Nevertheless, several colleagues have encountered reviewers who thought that omitting a functional localizer did not conform to good or standard practice. The purpose of this commentary is to provide a reference for people who do not want to use functional localizers and have to defend themselves against the contrary attitudes of reviewers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other&... more Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other's facial expressions of emotion. However, the extent to which similar problems can be observed among sexual offenders remains unknown. Using a computerized task, we presented sexual and violent offenders, and non-offenders, with male and female expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, morphed with neutral expressions at varying levels of intensity (10, 55, and 90% expressive). Based on signal detection theory, we used hit rates and false alarms to calculate the sensitivity index d-prime (d') and criterion (c) for each emotional expression. Overall, sexual offenders showed reduced sensitivity to emotional expressions across intensity, sex, and type of expression, compared with non-offenders, while both sexual and violent offenders showed particular reduced sensitivity to fearful expressions. We also observed specific effects for high (90%) intensity female faces, with sexual offenders showing reduced sensitivity to anger compared with non-offenders and violent offenders, and reduced sensitivity to disgust compared with non-offenders. Furthermore, both sexual and violent offenders showed impaired sensitivity to high intensity female fearful expressions compared with non-offenders. Violent offenders also showed a higher criterion for classifying moderate and high intensity male expressions as fearful, indicative of a more conservative response style, compared with angry, happy, or sad. These results suggest that both types of offender show problems in emotion recognition, and may have implications for understanding the inhibition of violent and sexually violent behaviors.
Emotionally loaded visual stimuli have shown increased activation in visual and cortex limbic are... more Emotionally loaded visual stimuli have shown increased activation in visual and cortex limbic areas. However, differences in visual features of such images could confound these findings. In order to manipulate valence of stimuli while keeping visual features largely unchanged, we took advantage of an "expressional transfiguration" (ET) effect of faces. In addition, we used repetition effects, which enabled us to test more incisively the impact of the ET effect. Using the ET manipulation, we have shown that the activation in lateral occipital complex (LOC) was unaffected by valence attributes, but produced significant modulation of fMR adaptation. Contrary to LOC, amygdala activation was increased by ET manipulation unrelated to the adaptation. A correlation between amygdala and LOC adaptation points to a possible modulatory role of the amygdala upon visual cortex short-term plasticity.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2015
Self-relevant information is associated with facilitation of perceptual and memory processes. In ... more Self-relevant information is associated with facilitation of perceptual and memory processes. In two experiments, participants verified the number of dots within a virtual room that were visible to a given perspective, corresponding to participants’ own first-person perspectives or the third-person perspectives for self- and other-associated avatars. Perspectives were either congruent or incongruent with respect to the number of dots visible to each. In Experiment 1, we examined perspective-taking for self- and other-associated avatars relative to one another; both avatars appeared simultaneously in the virtual room, and participants made judgments based on the prompted avatar’s perspective. In Experiment 2, we examined perspective-taking for each avatar relative to the first-person perspective; only one avatar was visible in the virtual room (Self or Other, varying by trial), and participants made judgments based on their first-person view or the avatar’s perspective. Experiment 2 ...
This study examined the extent to which visual perspective-taking performance is modulated by tra... more This study examined the extent to which visual perspective-taking performance is modulated by trait-level empathy. Participants completed a third-person visual perspective-taking task in which they judged the perspectives of two simultaneously presented avatars, designated "Self" and "Other." Depending on the trial, these avatars either held the same view (i.e., congruent) or a different view (i.e., incongruent). Analyses focused on the relationship between empathy and two perspective-taking phenomena: Selection between competing perspectives (i.e., perspective-congruence effects) and prioritization of the Self avatar's perspective. Empathy was related to improved overall performance on this task and a reduced cost of selecting between conflicting perspectives (i.e., smaller perspective-congruence effects). This effect was asymmetric, with empathy (i.e., empathic concern) levels predicting reduced interference from a conflicting perspective, especially when adopting the Self (vs. Other) avatar's perspective. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of the self-other distinction and mental flexibility components of empathy.
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2015
This study investigated whether age-related sensitivity to self-relevance may benefit perspective... more This study investigated whether age-related sensitivity to self-relevance may benefit perspective-taking, despite generally poorer perspective-taking capacity in older adults. In one perceptual matching task and two visual perspective-taking paradigms, we examined age differences in sensitivity to avatars representing self and other. In the matching task, older (60-83 years) and younger (18-20 years) adults were similarly biased toward the self- versus other-associated avatar. In the perspective-taking tasks, participants viewed these avatars within a virtual room. Task-relevant perspectives were either the same (i.e., congruent) or different (i.e., incongruent). In the 3PP-3PP task, both avatars were present and participants adopted the perspective of one or the other. As in the matching task, young and old were similarly biased toward the self-associated avatar. However, age differences emerged in the 1PP-3PP task, which presented only one avatar per trial (varying between self and other), and participants responded based on their own first-person perspective or the avatar's. In summary, age modulated the ability to take perspectives primarily when participants' own first-person perspective was task-relevant. Relative to younger adults, older adults prioritised the Self (vs. Other) avatar more during initial perspective computation and the first-person (vs. third-person) perspective more when selecting between incongruent perspectives. Supplemental_Tables_1-10 Supplemental_Figure_3.tif Supplemental_Figure_2.tif Supplemental_Figure_1.tif Supplemental_Material.
Early descriptions of psychopathy emphasise fearlessness and a lack of nervousness or anxiety as ... more Early descriptions of psychopathy emphasise fearlessness and a lack of nervousness or anxiety as key characteristics of the disorder. However, conflicting evidence suggests that anxiety may be positively correlated with some aspects of the psychopathy construct. This position may seem somewhat paradoxical when considered alongside impaired processing of fear related stimuli in psychopathic personality. The aim of the current paper was to examine the distinct relations of callous, egocentric, and antisocial psychopathic traits with measures of anxiety and social anxiety in samples of non-offenders (Study 1) and violent offenders (Study 2). In Study 2 we also used an emotion recognition task to examine fearful face recognition. In Studies 1 and 2 we showed distinct and opposite significant relationships of egocentric and antisocial psychopathic traits with trait anxiety. Thus, while trait anxiety was negatively predicted by egocentric traits, it was predicted in a positive direction by antisocial traits in both samples. In Study 2 we found that callous traits were predictive of greater impairments in fearful face recognition. These findings suggest that anxiety and fear are distinguishable constructs in relation to psychopathic personality traits, and are discussed in terms of potentially separable mechanisms for these two constructs.
Psychopathic traits are linked with impairments in emotional facial expression recognition. These... more Psychopathic traits are linked with impairments in emotional facial expression recognition. These impairments may, in part, reflect reduced attention to the eyes of emotional faces. Although reduced attention to the eyes has been noted among children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits, similar findings are yet to be found in relation to psychopathic traits among adult male participants. Here we investigated the relationship of primary (selfish, uncaring) and secondary (impulsive, antisocial) psychopathic traits with attention to the eyes among adult male non-offenders during an emotion recognition task. We measured the number of fixations, and overall dwell time, on the eyes, and the mouth of male and female faces showing the six basic emotions at varying levels of intensity. We found no relationship of primary or secondary psychopathic traits with recognition accuracy. However, primary psychopathic traits were associated with a reduced number of fixations, and low...
In this critique, we review the usefulness of functional localising scans in functional MRI studi... more In this critique, we review the usefulness of functional localising scans in functional MRI studies. We consider their conceptual motivations and the implications for experimental design and inference. Functional localisers can often be viewed as acquiring data from cells that have been removed from an implicit factorial design. This perspective reveals their potentially restrictive nature. We deconstruct two examples from
ABSTRACT The use of functional localizers to constrain the analysis of functional magnetic resona... more ABSTRACT The use of functional localizers to constrain the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is becoming popular in neuroimaging. This approach entails a separate experiment to localize areas in the brain that serve to guide, constrain, or interpret results from a main experiment. The need and motivation for functional localizers are often not stated explicitly and sometimes unclear. Nevertheless, several colleagues have encountered reviewers who thought that omitting a functional localizer did not conform to good or standard practice. The purpose of this commentary is to provide a reference for people who do not want to use functional localizers and have to defend themselves against the contrary attitudes of reviewers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other&... more Research with violent offenders has consistently shown impaired recognition of other's facial expressions of emotion. However, the extent to which similar problems can be observed among sexual offenders remains unknown. Using a computerized task, we presented sexual and violent offenders, and non-offenders, with male and female expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, morphed with neutral expressions at varying levels of intensity (10, 55, and 90% expressive). Based on signal detection theory, we used hit rates and false alarms to calculate the sensitivity index d-prime (d') and criterion (c) for each emotional expression. Overall, sexual offenders showed reduced sensitivity to emotional expressions across intensity, sex, and type of expression, compared with non-offenders, while both sexual and violent offenders showed particular reduced sensitivity to fearful expressions. We also observed specific effects for high (90%) intensity female faces, with sexual offenders showing reduced sensitivity to anger compared with non-offenders and violent offenders, and reduced sensitivity to disgust compared with non-offenders. Furthermore, both sexual and violent offenders showed impaired sensitivity to high intensity female fearful expressions compared with non-offenders. Violent offenders also showed a higher criterion for classifying moderate and high intensity male expressions as fearful, indicative of a more conservative response style, compared with angry, happy, or sad. These results suggest that both types of offender show problems in emotion recognition, and may have implications for understanding the inhibition of violent and sexually violent behaviors.
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Papers by Pia Rotshtein