People consistently show preferences and behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves, a... more People consistently show preferences and behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves, a phenomenon termed altruism. We investigated if perception of one's body signals-interoception-may be underlying such behaviors. We tested if participants' sensitivity to their own heartbeat predicted their decision on a choice between self-interest and altruism, and if improving this sensitivity through training would make participants more altruistic. Across these two experiments, interoceptive sensitivity predicted altruism measured through monetary generosity. Improving interoceptive sensitivity did, however, not lead to more altruistic behaviour. We conclude that there is a unique link between interoception and altruistic behaviour, likely established over an individual's history of altruistic acts, and the body responses they elicit. The findings suggest that humans might literally 'listen to their heart' to guide their altruistic behavior. Despite clear biological and economic advantages of acting in self-interest, people consistently show a range of preferences and behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves 1. We investigated potential physiological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, known as altruism. A prominent view of the nature of emotions assigns a critical role to bodily responses 2,3. The view emphasizes the notion that the bodily response to a situation comes before the feeling-and that the feeling of emotion is the perception of such a response. There is growing evidence that internal bodily states influence emotional experience 4 and greater sensitivity to internal states is associated with feeling emotions more intensely 5. Moreover, bodily responses to emotionally-loaded situations bias decisions, and the lack of detectable bodily signals impairs decision making 6,7. Conversely, improving the monitoring of bodily signals is often emphasized in meditation and emotional intelligence training, practices aimed at improving prosocial interactions 8. Interoceptive sensitivity-the accurate detection of internal bodily states-varies markedly between individuals-and continues to be linked to an ever-growing list of affective and cognitive behaviors 9 , including intuitive decision making 10. The role of interoception in prosocial decision making has recently been examined using the 'ultimatum game' in which a proposer decides how to share a given sum of money and the responder chooses whether or not to accept it 11. Presentation of own heartbeat sounds during the game affected feelings of unfairness and the number of unfair offers by proposers 12 , while delivery of painful (interoceptive) stimuli during the game caused people to make fewer fair offers 13. By contrast, in meditators, a different network of interoceptive brain areas were recruited than in controls during the game, and the meditators made more rational decisions 14. Given such links between interoceptive sensitivity, experienced emotions and decision making, it is conceivable that interoceptive sensitivity may mediate the extent to which bodily cues affect prosocial decision making.
Visual stimuli with emotional content appearing in close temporal proximity either before or afte... more Visual stimuli with emotional content appearing in close temporal proximity either before or after a target stimulus can hinder conscious perceptual processing of the target via an emotional attentional blink (EAB). This occurs for targets that appear after the emotional stimulus (forward EAB) and for those appearing before the emotional stimulus (retroactive EAB). Additionally, the traditional attentional blink (AB) occurs because detection of any target hinders detection of a subsequent target. The present study investigated the relations between these different attentional processes. Rapid sequences of landscape images were presented to thirty-one male participants with occasional landscape targets (rotated images). For the forward EAB, emotional or neutral distractor images of people were presented before the target; for the retroactive EAB, such images were also targets and presented after the landscape target. In the latter case, this design allowed investigation of the AB as ...
ADHD persists in up to 60% into adulthood, and the reasons for persistence are not fully understo... more ADHD persists in up to 60% into adulthood, and the reasons for persistence are not fully understood. The objective of this study was to characterize the neurofunctional basis of decision making in those with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD with either persistent or remitted symptoms in adulthood versus healthy control participants. Thirty-two adults diagnosed with ADHD as children were split into persistent (n = 18) or remitted (n = 14) ADHD groups. Their neural activity and neurofunctional connectivity during a probabilistic reversal learning task were compared with 32 healthy controls. Remitters showed significantly higher neural connectivity in final reversal error and probabilistic error conditions, and persisters depict higher neural connectivity in reversal errors than controls at a family-wise error (FWE) corrected whole-brain corrected threshold. Remitters may have utilized higher neural connectivity than controls to make successful decisions. Also, remitters may have utilized...
How much we desire a meal depends on both the constituent foods and how hungry we are, though not... more How much we desire a meal depends on both the constituent foods and how hungry we are, though not every meal becomes more desirable with increasing hunger. The brain therefore needs to be able to integrate hunger and meal properties to compute the correct incentive value of a meal. The present study investigated the functional role of the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex in mediating hunger and dish attractiveness. Furthermore, it explored neural responses to dish descriptions particularly susceptible to value-increase following fasting. We instructed participants to rate how much they wanted food menu items while they were either hungry or sated, and compared the rating differences in these states. Our results point to the representation of food value in the amygdala, and to an integration of attractiveness with hunger level in the orbitofrontal cortex. Dishes particularly desirable during hunger activated the thalamus and the insula. Our results specify the functions of evaluative structures in the context of food attractiveness, and point to a complex neural representation of dish qualities which contribute to state-dependent value.
The importance of cues signaling reward, threat or danger would suggest that they receive process... more The importance of cues signaling reward, threat or danger would suggest that they receive processing privileges in the neural systems underlying perception and attention. Previous research has documented enhanced processing of motivationally salient cues, and has pointed to the amygdala as a candidate neutral structure underlying the enhancements. In the current study, we examined whether the amygdala was necessary for this emotional modulation of attention to occur. Patients with unilateral amygdala lesions and matched controls completed an emotional attentional blink task in which emotional distractors impair the perception of subsequent targets. Emotional images proved more distracting across all participant groups, including those with right or left amygdala lesions. These data argue against a central role for the amygdala in mediating all types of attentional capture by emotional stimuli. * Anderson and Phelps (2001) refer to this 'breaking through' as capturing attention. To avoid confusion, we will refer to the phenomenon described in the present study, attentional capture that prevents detection of subsequent stimuli, as attentional
Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional... more Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional modulation of attention. However, a recent case-study suggests that the amygdala may not be essential for all types of emotion-attention interactions. In order to test this hypothesis, we assessed the visual-search performance of patients with unilateral amygdala lesions, matched controls, and medication-matched epilepsy patients with intact amygdalae. All participants completed a visual-search task consisting of trials in which (1) an emotional target was embedded amongst neutral distractors, (2) a neutral target was embedded amongst emotional distractors, or (3) a neutral target was embedded amongst neutral distractors. All participant groups, including those with amygdala lesions, detected emotional targets more efficiently than neutral targets. These data indicate that the amygdala is not necessary for emotionguided visual search and suggest that other mechanisms beyond the amygdala help guide attention toward threatening stimuli.
Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional... more Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional modulation of attention. However, a recent case study suggests that the amygdala may not be essential for all types of emotion-attention interactions. In order to test this hypothesis, we assessed the visual-search performance of patients with unilateral amygdala lesions, matched controls, and medication-matched epilepsy patients with intact amygdalae. All participants completed a visual-search task consisting of trials in which (1) an emotional target was embedded among neutral distractors, (2) a neutral target was embedded among emotional distractors, or (3) a neutral target was embedded among neutral distractors. All participant groups, including those with amygdala lesions, detected emotional targets more efficiently than neutral targets. These data indicate that the amygdala is not necessary for emotion-guided visual search and suggest that other mechanisms beyond the amygdala help guide attention toward threatening stimuli.
Knowing when to persevere with a plan and knowing when to ditch it and change strategy is highly ... more Knowing when to persevere with a plan and knowing when to ditch it and change strategy is highly adaptive and breaks down in several frontal and striatal disorders. Cognitive flexibility is also susceptible to tonic influences of neuromodulators (such as dopamine) and so may be influenced by everyday fluctuations in processes known to depend upon them (such as motivation). The
Making the right choice depends crucially on the accurate valuation of the available options in t... more Making the right choice depends crucially on the accurate valuation of the available options in the light of current needs and goals of an individual. Thus, the valuation of identical options can vary considerably with motivational context. The present study investigated the neural structures underlying context dependent evaluation. We instructed participants to choose from food menu items based on different criteria: on their anticipated taste or on ease of preparation. The aim of the manipulation was to assess which neural sites were activated during choice guided by incentive value, and which during choice based on a value-irrelevant criterion. To assess the impact of increased motivation, affect-guided choice and cognition-guided choice was compared during the sated and hungry states. During affective choice, we identified increased activity in structures representing primarily valuation and taste (medial prefrontal cortex, insula). During cognitive choice, structures showing increased activity included those implicated in suppression and conflict monitoring (lateral orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate). Hunger influenced choice-related activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results show that choice is associated with the use of distinct neural structures for the pursuit of different goals. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Task demands that influence scanning behaviour in one task can cause that behaviour to persist to... more Task demands that influence scanning behaviour in one task can cause that behaviour to persist to a second unrelated task (carry over). This can also affect performance on a second task (e.g., hazard perception ratings), and has been attributed to a process of attentional bias that is modulated by top-down influences (Thompson & Crundall, 2011). In a series of experiments we explored how these top-down influences impact upon carry over. In all experiments, participants searched letters that were presented horizontally, vertically, or in a random array. They were then presented with a driving scene and rated the hazardousness of the scene. Carry over of eye-movements from the letter search to the scene was observed in all experiments. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that this carry over effect influenced hazard perception accuracy. The magnitude of carry over was correlated with task switching abilities, attentional conflicting, and attentional orienting (Experiment 1), and was affected by predictability of the primary task (Experiment 2). Furthermore, direct current stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal areas affected the magnitude of the effect (Experiment 3). These results indicate that carry over is modulated by the specific ability to orient attention and disengage from this orientation. Over orienting leads to increased carry over and insufficient task switching is detrimental to task performance. As a result the current experiments provide evidence that the carry over effect is strongly influenced by attentional processes, namely orienting, inhibition, and task switching.
Retrieving category associates (e.g., FRUIT-ORANGE) may induce forgetting other category members ... more Retrieving category associates (e.g., FRUIT-ORANGE) may induce forgetting other category members (e.g., FRUIT-BANANA), a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). We designed 2 experiments to examine the role of RIF in the associative memory impairment of schizophrenia (SZ). Subjects studied 36 category-exemplar pairs, generated from 6 categories composed of 6 members each. For half of the studied category-exemplar pairs, subjects practiced retrieval by completing word stems, followed by a delayed category-cued recall on all of the practiced and unpracticed items. Experiment 1 used unrelated category exemplars-pairs (e.g., FRUIT-ORANGE, METALS-IRON), whereas experiment 2 included related category exemplar pairs (e.g., COTTON-SHIRT, LEATHER-SKIRT). SZ showed reduced associative memory but normal RIF for unrelated categories used in experiment 1. For experiment 2, SZ showed a significant decline in associative memory for related but not unrelated category-exemplars in comparison to controls. Results suggested faulty specificity/distinctiveness for encoding and retrieval, but not abnormal RIF in the associative memory disturbance of SZ. Published by Elsevier B.V.
People consistently show preferences and behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves, a... more People consistently show preferences and behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves, a phenomenon termed altruism. We investigated if perception of one's body signals-interoception-may be underlying such behaviors. We tested if participants' sensitivity to their own heartbeat predicted their decision on a choice between self-interest and altruism, and if improving this sensitivity through training would make participants more altruistic. Across these two experiments, interoceptive sensitivity predicted altruism measured through monetary generosity. Improving interoceptive sensitivity did, however, not lead to more altruistic behaviour. We conclude that there is a unique link between interoception and altruistic behaviour, likely established over an individual's history of altruistic acts, and the body responses they elicit. The findings suggest that humans might literally 'listen to their heart' to guide their altruistic behavior. Despite clear biological and economic advantages of acting in self-interest, people consistently show a range of preferences and behaviors that benefit others at a cost to themselves 1. We investigated potential physiological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, known as altruism. A prominent view of the nature of emotions assigns a critical role to bodily responses 2,3. The view emphasizes the notion that the bodily response to a situation comes before the feeling-and that the feeling of emotion is the perception of such a response. There is growing evidence that internal bodily states influence emotional experience 4 and greater sensitivity to internal states is associated with feeling emotions more intensely 5. Moreover, bodily responses to emotionally-loaded situations bias decisions, and the lack of detectable bodily signals impairs decision making 6,7. Conversely, improving the monitoring of bodily signals is often emphasized in meditation and emotional intelligence training, practices aimed at improving prosocial interactions 8. Interoceptive sensitivity-the accurate detection of internal bodily states-varies markedly between individuals-and continues to be linked to an ever-growing list of affective and cognitive behaviors 9 , including intuitive decision making 10. The role of interoception in prosocial decision making has recently been examined using the 'ultimatum game' in which a proposer decides how to share a given sum of money and the responder chooses whether or not to accept it 11. Presentation of own heartbeat sounds during the game affected feelings of unfairness and the number of unfair offers by proposers 12 , while delivery of painful (interoceptive) stimuli during the game caused people to make fewer fair offers 13. By contrast, in meditators, a different network of interoceptive brain areas were recruited than in controls during the game, and the meditators made more rational decisions 14. Given such links between interoceptive sensitivity, experienced emotions and decision making, it is conceivable that interoceptive sensitivity may mediate the extent to which bodily cues affect prosocial decision making.
Visual stimuli with emotional content appearing in close temporal proximity either before or afte... more Visual stimuli with emotional content appearing in close temporal proximity either before or after a target stimulus can hinder conscious perceptual processing of the target via an emotional attentional blink (EAB). This occurs for targets that appear after the emotional stimulus (forward EAB) and for those appearing before the emotional stimulus (retroactive EAB). Additionally, the traditional attentional blink (AB) occurs because detection of any target hinders detection of a subsequent target. The present study investigated the relations between these different attentional processes. Rapid sequences of landscape images were presented to thirty-one male participants with occasional landscape targets (rotated images). For the forward EAB, emotional or neutral distractor images of people were presented before the target; for the retroactive EAB, such images were also targets and presented after the landscape target. In the latter case, this design allowed investigation of the AB as ...
ADHD persists in up to 60% into adulthood, and the reasons for persistence are not fully understo... more ADHD persists in up to 60% into adulthood, and the reasons for persistence are not fully understood. The objective of this study was to characterize the neurofunctional basis of decision making in those with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD with either persistent or remitted symptoms in adulthood versus healthy control participants. Thirty-two adults diagnosed with ADHD as children were split into persistent (n = 18) or remitted (n = 14) ADHD groups. Their neural activity and neurofunctional connectivity during a probabilistic reversal learning task were compared with 32 healthy controls. Remitters showed significantly higher neural connectivity in final reversal error and probabilistic error conditions, and persisters depict higher neural connectivity in reversal errors than controls at a family-wise error (FWE) corrected whole-brain corrected threshold. Remitters may have utilized higher neural connectivity than controls to make successful decisions. Also, remitters may have utilized...
How much we desire a meal depends on both the constituent foods and how hungry we are, though not... more How much we desire a meal depends on both the constituent foods and how hungry we are, though not every meal becomes more desirable with increasing hunger. The brain therefore needs to be able to integrate hunger and meal properties to compute the correct incentive value of a meal. The present study investigated the functional role of the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex in mediating hunger and dish attractiveness. Furthermore, it explored neural responses to dish descriptions particularly susceptible to value-increase following fasting. We instructed participants to rate how much they wanted food menu items while they were either hungry or sated, and compared the rating differences in these states. Our results point to the representation of food value in the amygdala, and to an integration of attractiveness with hunger level in the orbitofrontal cortex. Dishes particularly desirable during hunger activated the thalamus and the insula. Our results specify the functions of evaluative structures in the context of food attractiveness, and point to a complex neural representation of dish qualities which contribute to state-dependent value.
The importance of cues signaling reward, threat or danger would suggest that they receive process... more The importance of cues signaling reward, threat or danger would suggest that they receive processing privileges in the neural systems underlying perception and attention. Previous research has documented enhanced processing of motivationally salient cues, and has pointed to the amygdala as a candidate neutral structure underlying the enhancements. In the current study, we examined whether the amygdala was necessary for this emotional modulation of attention to occur. Patients with unilateral amygdala lesions and matched controls completed an emotional attentional blink task in which emotional distractors impair the perception of subsequent targets. Emotional images proved more distracting across all participant groups, including those with right or left amygdala lesions. These data argue against a central role for the amygdala in mediating all types of attentional capture by emotional stimuli. * Anderson and Phelps (2001) refer to this 'breaking through' as capturing attention. To avoid confusion, we will refer to the phenomenon described in the present study, attentional capture that prevents detection of subsequent stimuli, as attentional
Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional... more Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional modulation of attention. However, a recent case-study suggests that the amygdala may not be essential for all types of emotion-attention interactions. In order to test this hypothesis, we assessed the visual-search performance of patients with unilateral amygdala lesions, matched controls, and medication-matched epilepsy patients with intact amygdalae. All participants completed a visual-search task consisting of trials in which (1) an emotional target was embedded amongst neutral distractors, (2) a neutral target was embedded amongst emotional distractors, or (3) a neutral target was embedded amongst neutral distractors. All participant groups, including those with amygdala lesions, detected emotional targets more efficiently than neutral targets. These data indicate that the amygdala is not necessary for emotionguided visual search and suggest that other mechanisms beyond the amygdala help guide attention toward threatening stimuli.
Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional... more Previous research has indicated that the amygdala is a critical neural substrate of the emotional modulation of attention. However, a recent case study suggests that the amygdala may not be essential for all types of emotion-attention interactions. In order to test this hypothesis, we assessed the visual-search performance of patients with unilateral amygdala lesions, matched controls, and medication-matched epilepsy patients with intact amygdalae. All participants completed a visual-search task consisting of trials in which (1) an emotional target was embedded among neutral distractors, (2) a neutral target was embedded among emotional distractors, or (3) a neutral target was embedded among neutral distractors. All participant groups, including those with amygdala lesions, detected emotional targets more efficiently than neutral targets. These data indicate that the amygdala is not necessary for emotion-guided visual search and suggest that other mechanisms beyond the amygdala help guide attention toward threatening stimuli.
Knowing when to persevere with a plan and knowing when to ditch it and change strategy is highly ... more Knowing when to persevere with a plan and knowing when to ditch it and change strategy is highly adaptive and breaks down in several frontal and striatal disorders. Cognitive flexibility is also susceptible to tonic influences of neuromodulators (such as dopamine) and so may be influenced by everyday fluctuations in processes known to depend upon them (such as motivation). The
Making the right choice depends crucially on the accurate valuation of the available options in t... more Making the right choice depends crucially on the accurate valuation of the available options in the light of current needs and goals of an individual. Thus, the valuation of identical options can vary considerably with motivational context. The present study investigated the neural structures underlying context dependent evaluation. We instructed participants to choose from food menu items based on different criteria: on their anticipated taste or on ease of preparation. The aim of the manipulation was to assess which neural sites were activated during choice guided by incentive value, and which during choice based on a value-irrelevant criterion. To assess the impact of increased motivation, affect-guided choice and cognition-guided choice was compared during the sated and hungry states. During affective choice, we identified increased activity in structures representing primarily valuation and taste (medial prefrontal cortex, insula). During cognitive choice, structures showing increased activity included those implicated in suppression and conflict monitoring (lateral orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate). Hunger influenced choice-related activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results show that choice is associated with the use of distinct neural structures for the pursuit of different goals. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Task demands that influence scanning behaviour in one task can cause that behaviour to persist to... more Task demands that influence scanning behaviour in one task can cause that behaviour to persist to a second unrelated task (carry over). This can also affect performance on a second task (e.g., hazard perception ratings), and has been attributed to a process of attentional bias that is modulated by top-down influences (Thompson & Crundall, 2011). In a series of experiments we explored how these top-down influences impact upon carry over. In all experiments, participants searched letters that were presented horizontally, vertically, or in a random array. They were then presented with a driving scene and rated the hazardousness of the scene. Carry over of eye-movements from the letter search to the scene was observed in all experiments. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that this carry over effect influenced hazard perception accuracy. The magnitude of carry over was correlated with task switching abilities, attentional conflicting, and attentional orienting (Experiment 1), and was affected by predictability of the primary task (Experiment 2). Furthermore, direct current stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal areas affected the magnitude of the effect (Experiment 3). These results indicate that carry over is modulated by the specific ability to orient attention and disengage from this orientation. Over orienting leads to increased carry over and insufficient task switching is detrimental to task performance. As a result the current experiments provide evidence that the carry over effect is strongly influenced by attentional processes, namely orienting, inhibition, and task switching.
Retrieving category associates (e.g., FRUIT-ORANGE) may induce forgetting other category members ... more Retrieving category associates (e.g., FRUIT-ORANGE) may induce forgetting other category members (e.g., FRUIT-BANANA), a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). We designed 2 experiments to examine the role of RIF in the associative memory impairment of schizophrenia (SZ). Subjects studied 36 category-exemplar pairs, generated from 6 categories composed of 6 members each. For half of the studied category-exemplar pairs, subjects practiced retrieval by completing word stems, followed by a delayed category-cued recall on all of the practiced and unpracticed items. Experiment 1 used unrelated category exemplars-pairs (e.g., FRUIT-ORANGE, METALS-IRON), whereas experiment 2 included related category exemplar pairs (e.g., COTTON-SHIRT, LEATHER-SKIRT). SZ showed reduced associative memory but normal RIF for unrelated categories used in experiment 1. For experiment 2, SZ showed a significant decline in associative memory for related but not unrelated category-exemplars in comparison to controls. Results suggested faulty specificity/distinctiveness for encoding and retrieval, but not abnormal RIF in the associative memory disturbance of SZ. Published by Elsevier B.V.
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