Revisiting consciousness: Distinguishing between states of conscious focused attention and mind wandering with EEG.

Fluctuating between external conscious processing and mind wandering is inherent to the human condition. Past research showed that in tasks requiring sustained attention, mind wandering episodes in which attention is directed internally constrain conscious processing of external stimuli. Conversely, conscious processing of internal stimuli is enhanced during mind wandering. To investigate this, we developed and administered a visuomotor tracking task in which participants were instructed to track the path of a stimulus on a screen with a mouse while responding to rare targets. Prior to reports of mind wandering we found the following: The P3 event-related potential component for targets, indicative of conscious stimulus processing, was attenuated at electrodes Cz and Pz. Moreover, alpha power, indicative of internal mental states, increased globally. Theta power increased along the centroparietal area, and beta decreased along right frontal and right centroparietal areas. Interestingly, trait mind wandering was positively correlated with delta power and gamma power, but negatively correlated with the theta-beta ratio. These results demonstrate that mind wandering is characterized by distinct neural signatures at both a state and trait level.

Psychophysiological Reactivity in Couples During a Marital Interaction Task.

The ability to regulate our own physiological arousal when dealing with the emotional expression of our partner is crucial for satisfactory and stable intimate relationships. In previous physiological studies of marital interactions, researchers have found greater levels of psychophysiological arousal for members of the couple in conflictual interactions in comparison with positive interactions. Past researchers have established that intense and prolonged autonomic and neuroendocrine arousal during marital conflict can have negative consequences for mental and physical health. In this study we examined the physiological reactivity, as measured by skin conductance level, heart rate and cortisol levels, from both partners during a couple's interaction task consisting of a structured conversation about positive and negative aspects of their relationship. Participants were thirty-two heterosexual couples (N = 64) in a committed monogamous relationship with a minimum duration of one year. We found higher heart rate and cortisol levels during negative interaction condition when compared with the positive condition. Skin conductance was higher in the positive interaction condition, when compared with the negative interaction condition. In addition, we found a significant negative association between heart rate variability and autonomic arousal evoked by the interaction task. The implications of these findings for the effects of marital strain on health as well as for the design of risk-reducing interventions, namely biofeedback are discussed.

Hemispheric asymmetries in subcortical visual and auditory relay structures in congenital deafness.

Neuroplasticity - the capacity of the brain to change as a response to internal and external pressures - has been studied from a number of different perspectives. Perhaps one of the most powerful models is the study of populations that have been congenitally deprived of a sense. It has been shown that the right Auditory Cortex (AC) of congenitally deaf humans is neuroplastically modified in order to represent visual properties of a stimulus. One unresolved question is how this visual information is routed to the AC of congenitally deaf individuals. Here, we performed volumetric analysis of subcortical auditory and visual brains regions - namely the thalamus (along with three thalamic nuclei: the pulvinar, the lateral geniculate nucleus and the medial geniculate nucleus), and the inferior and superior colliculi - in deaf and hearing participants in order to identify which structures may be responsible for relaying visual information toward the altered AC. Because there is a hemispheric asymmetry in the neuroplastic changes observed in the AC of the congenitally deaf, we reasoned that subcortical structures that also showed a similar asymmetry in their total volume could have been enlisted in the effort of relaying visual information to the neuroplastically altered right AC. We show that for deaf, but not for hearing individuals, the right thalamus, right lateral geniculate nucleus and right inferior colliculus are larger than their left counterparts. These results suggest that these subcortical structures may be responsible for rerouting visual information to the AC in congenital deafness.

Sensory-based and higher-order operations contribute to abnormal emotional prosody processing in schizophrenia: an electrophysiological investigation.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is characterized by deficits in emotional prosody (EP) perception. However, it is not clear which stages of processing prosody are abnormal and whether the presence of semantic content contributes to the abnormality. This study aimed to examine event-related potential (ERP) correlates of EP processing in 15 chronic schizophrenia individuals and 15 healthy controls. METHOD: A total of 114 sentences with neutral semantic content [sentences with semantic content (SSC) condition] were generated by a female speaker (38 with happy, 38 with angry, and 38 with neutral intonation). The same sentences were synthesized and presented in the 'pure prosody' sentences (PPS) condition where semantic content was unintelligible. RESULTS: Group differences were observed for N100 and P200 amplitude: patients were characterized by more negative N100 for SSC, and more positive P200 for angry and happy SSC and happy PPS. Correlations were found between delusions and P200 amplitude for happy SSC and PPS. Higher error rates in the recognition of EP were also observed in schizophrenia: higher error rates in neutral SSC were associated with reduced N100, and higher error rates in angry SSC were associated with reduced P200. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that abnormalities in prosody processing occur at the three stages of EP processing, and are enhanced in SSC. Correlations between P200 amplitude for happy prosody and delusions suggest a role that abnormalities in the processing of emotionally salient acoustic cues may play in schizophrenia symptomatology. Correlations between ERP and behavioral data point to a relationship between early sensory abnormalities and prosody recognition in schizophrenia.

[Comparative analysis of attributional style and self-esteem in a sample of depressed patients and normal control subjects]. / Análisis comparativo del estilo atribucional y de la autoestima en una muestra de pacientes depresivos y sujetos control normales.

INTRODUCTION: The present study assesses the role of attributions and self-esteem in depressive states. In depression, attributions can become central biased coping mechanisms that guide individual behavior. METHODS: Self-esteem and attribution bias was assessed in 40 depressed and 80 normal controls. RESULTS: Results of this investigation show that depressed patients made more internal attributions to negative events, and more external attributions for positive events than their normal counterparts, confirming an exaggerated attributional bias. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that depressed patients tend to blame themselves for their mistakes. Depressed patients made more stable and global attributions for negative events than for positive events, as opposed to what happens with the normal controls, making us believe that this bias will be maintained in time, and will eventually generalize to other life areas. This kind of study seems useful to develop efficient treatment programs and evaluation tools of depression.

Análisis comparativo del estilo atribucional y de la autoestima en una muestra de pacientes depresivos y sujetos control normales / Comparative analysis of attributional style and self-esteem in a simple of depressed patients and normal control subjects

Introducción. En la presente investigación se ha analizado el papel de desempeñan la variable atribucional y la autoestima en estados depresivos. El estudio atribucional es de capital importancia en la dinámica de la personalidad, ya que las atribuciones causales son mecanismos sesgados de afrontamiento que guían la conducta del sujeto. Métodos. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación se ha evaluado la autoestima y los sesgos atribucionales en una muestra de 40 pacientes depresivos y se ha comparado con 80 sujetos control normales. Resultados. Los resultados de esta investigación muestran que los pacientes depresivos realizaron atribuciones más internas para los eventos negativos que el grupo control normal y atribuciones más externas que los normales para los sucesos positivos, presentando un exagerado sesgo atribucional. Conclusiones. Estos datos nos sugieren que los pacientes depresivos tienden a culparse a sí mismos de sus fallos. Los pacientes depresivos realizaron atribuciones más estables y globales para los hechos negativos que para los positivos en comparación con los sujetos normales, considerando que dicha situación negativa se mantendrá en el tiempo y se globalizará a otras áreas de su vida. Este tipo de estudios resultan de utilidad para el desarrollo de programas eficaces de tratamiento y de instrumentos de evaluación de la depresión (AU)

Introduction. The present study assesses the role of attribution and self esteem in depressive states. In depression, attributions can become central biased coping mechanism that guide individual behavior. Methods. Self-esteem and attribution bias was assessed in 40 depressed and 80 normal controls. Results. Results of this investigation show that depressed patients made more internal attributions to negative events and more external attributions for positive events than their normal counterparts, confirming an exaggerated attributional bias. Conclusions. The results suggest that depressed patients tend to blame themselves for their mistakes. Depressed patients made more stable and global attributions for negative events than for positive events, as opposed to what happens with the normal controls, making us believe that this bias will be maintained in time, and will eventually generalize to other life areas. This kind of study seems useful to develop efficient treatment programs and evaluation tools of depression (AU)

Cognitive narrative psychotherapy: research foundations.

There has been an increased interest in the study of language processes in psychotherapy. More recently, research and theoretical formulations of the therapeutic process suggested that we must move from the microscopic study of verbal modes to a macroscopic approach in which these modes are organized into narratives. Narratives are conceived, in this perspective, as the basic instruments for meaning making. In this article the research on narrative processes in psychotherapy is reviewed and discussed in terms of its implications for the theory and practice of cognitive narrative psychotherapy. Additionally some of the main data coming from research projects on cognitive narrative psychotherapy are presented.

The effects of unconscious presentation of information on therapist conceptualizations, intentions, and responses.

This article presents a study of the effects of tachistoscopic presentation of affective words on subjects' conceptualizations, intentions, and responses to a simulated client. The participants, 36 counseling students, were assigned randomly to one of the following treatments: subliminal presentation of negative emotional concepts; subliminal presentation of positive emotional concepts; supraliminal presentation of positive emotional concepts. After the tachistoscopic presentations, all subjects were exposed to a simulated client, whom they were asked to evaluate, respond to, and report the cognitive intentions that guided their responses. Significant effects were found in the subliminal presentation of positive emotional concepts on subjects' conceptualizations, intentions, and responses. Some significant effects also were found for the supraliminal presentation, but only for the client evaluation measure.