Relief is commonly characterized as a sustained, low-arousal positive state; yet this static view obscures the dynamic temporal structure that emerges at stimulus termination. This study investigated the self-reported and neural dynamics of relief in 30 healthy adults using an offset-locked paradigm. Continuous self-reports and high-temporal-resolution electroencephalography (EEG) were recorded during the comparison of abrupt stimulus offsets with transient intensity modulations and sustained stimulation of aversive auditory stimuli. Stimulus offsets elicited the steepest self-reported rate of change and uniquely sustained shifts in affective state. At the neural level, the change in stimulation evoked a clear N1–P2 complex, with P2 mean amplitude (200–280 ms) larger than in the sustained condition at central and medial frontal sites. This early response did not distinguish transient modulation from complete termination and is therefore best characterized as a response to acoustic change rather than to relief itself; alpha-band amplitude over longer post-change windows showed no reliable condition differences. Together, these findings provide psychophysiological evidence that relief is better characterized as a discrete, offset-locked emotional event than as a passive return to affective baseline, and suggest that the detection of stimulus change may be dissociable from the affective evaluation that follows it. These findings offer new directions for affect dynamics research and challenge static conceptualizations of relief within dimensional models of emotion.
Individuals with higher trait anxiety report more anticipatory anxiety prior to stressful events. In general, experiences of acute stressful events are associated with increases in both actual physiological arousal (i.e., heart rate) and perceptions of physiological arousal (i.e., perceived heart rate changes). However, whether trait anxiety is associated with anticipatory anxiety which in turn is associated with subsequent alterations in perceived and actual physiological arousal during stress has not yet been explored. Young adults (N = 421, 62.7% Female) completed a standardized acute psychological stress task. Participants reported their anticipatory cognitive and somatic anxiety intensity levels after the task instructions but before beginning the stress task. Immediately after the stress task, participants reported their perceived stressor-evoked physiological arousal intensity. Participants also completed a measure of trait anxiety. Heart rate was measured continuously via electrocardiogram during baseline and the stress task. Higher trait anxiety was associated with increased levels of anticipatory cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety intensity, and cognitive and somatic anticipatory anxiety intensity, in turn, were associated with greater perceived physiological arousal. In contrast, anticipatory anxiety intensity was not associated with actual heart rate reactivity. Results demonstrated that individuals with elevated trait anxiety experienced more anxious anticipation of a stressor, which relates to a potential discrepancy in perceptions verses actual cardiac responses to the stressor.
Wakeful rest and sleep are both known to support memory retention. However, it remains unclear whether the benefits of wakeful rest are comparable to those of an equivalent period of sleep. To address this question, this study examined whether wakeful rest and sleep produce comparable behavioral effects and electrophysiological activity patterns. Ninety participants completed an incidental picture-encoding task and were then assigned to one of three 20-min delay conditions: wakeful rest, gameplay, or napping. After the delay, all participants completed an old/new recognition test that included lure pictures resembling previously encoded items. EEG was recorded during recognition. Behavioral results showed better general item memory after wakeful rest and napping than after gameplay, with no significant difference between the wakeful rest group (RG) and the nap group (NG). Bayesian equivalence testing provided moderate evidence in favor of comparable memory performance between the RG and NG. ERP analyses revealed similar FN400 and LPC patterns in both groups. Moreover, multivariate pattern analysis indicated broadly comparable old versus new decoding performance between the RG and NG, and cross-state decoding suggested that classification-relevant neural activity patterns were partially generalizable across the two groups. Overall, over a short post-encoding interval, general recognition memory retention following wakeful rest was comparable to that observed following a light nap.
