Abstract Individuals with elevated depressive symptoms often show impairments in positive memory processing. This randomized, double-blind study investigated whether individualized theta-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) using an OFC-oriented montage modulates mnemonic discrimination and ERP responses to positive information. Sixty-one individuals with elevated depressive symptoms received either real or sham stimulation before completing an emotional mnemonic discrimination task. Behavioral results showed that lure discrimination increased following real stimulation but not sham stimulation. EEG results showed that real stimulation modulated ERP responses during positive memory encoding and retrieval, as reflected by increased late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes during encoding and altered early retrieval-related ERP amplitudes. These findings suggest that individualized theta-tACS may influence both mnemonic discrimination performance and neural responses to positive information.
Abstract Implicit emotion regulation (IER) operates automatically and supports adaptive social–affective functioning. Although PTSD involves marked IER disturbances, the large-scale functional connectivity architecture supporting implicit emotional processing remains unclear. The Shifted Attention Emotion Appraisal Task (SEAT) offers an ecologically relevant framework for probing these processes. One hundred twenty-three adults (PTSD: n = 78; trauma-exposed controls: n = 45) completed fMRI during SEAT. Whole-brain functional connectivity multivariate pattern analysis (fc-MVPA) identified data-driven, condition-specific connectivity patterns distinguishing groups. MVPA-derived clusters were further assessed using seed-based and ROI-to-ROI analyses. fc-MVPA revealed three frontal-anchored connectivity patterns spanning frontoparietal, salience, and executive networks. Seed-based analyses centered on the right frontal pole showed increased coupling with posterior default mode and visual regions and reduced connectivity with frontal control systems. Dysconnectivity varied across regulatory stages, including frontal–occipital hyperconnectivity during threat-related attention shifts and frontal–midline hypoconnectivity during neutral appraisal. Greater re-experiencing severity was nominally associated with reduced multivariate network strength during implicit processing and appraisal; however, these associations did not survive correction for multiple comparisons and should be considered exploratory. Implicit regulation deficits in PTSD reflect distributed network dysfunction rather than localized abnormalities. Disrupted coordination among control, perceptual, and self-referential systems may limit flexible emotional responses. Integrating SEAT with fc-MVPA identifies connectivity patterns relevant to maladaptive emotional processing and advances network-level models of dysregulation in PTSD.
Abstract A century-old tradition characterizes aesthetic experiences as intense contemplative moments in which we suspend practical concerns and devote our full attention to the object at hand. In line with this tradition, recent theories suggest that aesthetic experiences involve heightened sensory processing accompanied by a suppression of motor activity. Yet, while the link between aesthetic appreciation and perceptual enhancement has received considerable attention, the role of motor inhibition remains largely unexplored. The present study addressed this gap by investigating whether the aesthetic appreciation of images can modulate behavioral and electrophysiological markers of motor inhibition. In Experiment 1, significantly slower reaction times following the observation of preferred images were found. In Experiment 2, EEG responses associated with motor preparation and execution were significantly reduced in trials involving preferred compared with non-preferred images. Time-frequency analysis revealed significantly decreased alpha power (associated with attentional engagement toward visual perception) and increased beta power (associated with inhibited motor preparation) for preferred than non-preferred images. Overall, our results provide new evidence for the existence of a relationship between aesthetic appreciation and motor inhibition and position aesthetic experience as a valuable case study for exploring the adaptive coordination of sensory and motor systems in response to environmental demands.
Childhood abuse is often transmitted intergenerationally, leaving many families trapped in cycles of abuse. Because child abuse is transmitted through social interactions, developing effective intervention targets to disrupt these cycles may require understanding the mechanisms that support processing social feedback. This study examines whether neural biases in processing positive or negative social feedback moderate the link between history of childhood abuse and current expression of harsh parenting. Using fMRI and well-matched social and monetary feedback tasks, we studied female caregivers (N = 56; 46.16 ± 7.49 years) of adolescents. In the social feedback task, activation to negative relative to positive feedback in the anterior hippocampus, putamen, amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) moderated the link between childhood abuse and harsh parenting. Specifically, abuse severity was most strongly associated with harsh parenting among individuals with greater activation to negative relative to positive feedback. No comparable effects emerged from the monetary task. These findings suggest sensitivity to social feedback, and negative feedback in particular-may promote risk for intergenerational abuse transmission.
When we think about the start of a successful close relationship, we often imagine two people independently evaluating each other. But what if how much we like someone depends on how much we think they like us? In the current study, we asked how social feedback changes how one thinks about potential romantic partners, as well as how often one thinks about them. We hypothesized that the mentalizing network would play a role in both of these processes. During an fMRI scan, participants watched dating profile videos of eight different target individuals, both before and after receiving social feedback from the target. We found that neural representations in the mentalizing network changed most in response to social feedback that was incongruent with one's initial evaluation, likely because romantic interest in another person is at least partially based on what one believes that other person is thinking. In addition, during a resting-state scan, reactivation frequency in the TPJ increased in response to congruent feedback. Considered together, these results demonstrate that the desire to be aligned with another person motivates both how and how often one thinks about that person, thus highlighting the importance of others' social evaluations in our own.
