Introduction:The ability to recognize emotional facial expressions relies on brain functional networks, particularly in the right hemisphere, and is impaired in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Given that this ability involves brain networks operating within hundreds of milliseconds, we tested the hypothesis of abnormalities in event-related spectral electroencephalographic coherence, with a focus on the right versus left hemispheres in these patients. Methods:Event-related theta (4-7 Hz) magnitude-squared coherence was calculated for both intra-hemispheric (frontal-temporal, frontal-parietal, central-temporal, and related pairs) and inter-hemispheric homologous electrode pairs (F3-F4, C3-C4, T7-T8, TP7-TP8, P3-P4, O1-O2). We enrolled 25 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, 15 Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment, 25 Alzheimer's disease patients with dementia, and 16 Parkinson's disease patients with dementia, along with 25 healthy elderly as controls. Participants were presented with three different facial expressions (angry, happy, and neutral) 60 times each in a pseudo-random order. Results:Theta (4-7 Hz) spectral coherence was higher in the right than the left hemisphere across all groups, with Parkinson's disease patients exhibiting the lowest values. Moreover, interhemispheric theta coherence was lower in Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia compared to the amnestic mild cognitive impairment and healthy elderly groups. Discussion:These findings indicate that cortical functional connectivity related to emotional facial expression processing is more disrupted in Parkinson's disease than in Alzheimer's disease, at both mild cognitive impairment and dementia stages. This disruption affects not only the right hemisphere but also interhemispheric connectivity. Finally, it would occur at theta frequencies.

Alexithymia, a difficulty in processing and expressing emotions, is associated with socio-emotional challenges and altered autonomic responses. This raises the question of whether cognitive (CA) and affective (AA) alexithymia can be differentiated based on parasympathetic and sympathetic indices. This study explores the reactivity of CA and AA individuals to social and non-social emotional stimuli. Participants, categorized as non-alexithymic (NA), CA, or AA based on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire, completed assessments on empathy, social phobia, depression, and anxiety. They viewed images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), varying in emotional (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant) and social (with humans, without humans) content, and evaluated them at the end of the experiment. Heart rate variability (HRV) and facial infrared thermal imaging (fITI) were recorded during image presentation. Psychometric analysis revealed higher social phobia avoidance and depression scores in CA compared to AA, and higher trait anxiety in CA compared to both AA and NA. CA and NA participants scored higher on empathic personal distress than AA. At the autonomic level, NA participants exhibited increased HF-HRV and decreased LF-HRV in response to emotional social stimuli, whereas CA and AA groups displayed no HRV modulation. Thermal responses revealed decreased nose temperature for non-social stimuli in CA, while AA showed the opposite pattern. HRV and fITI measures highlight distinct autonomic reactivity to socio-emotional stimulation and thus effectively differentiate cognitive and affective alexithymia. These physiological findings reinforce the psychometric distinction between CA and AA, suggesting tailored interventions for alexithymic disorders.

Prior studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) suggest preserved recognition of positive emotions despite deficits for negative ones, but this dissociation may reflect methodological limitations (valence-asymmetry: positive-valence being limited to happiness/joy in basic-emotion sets). This study tested whether emotion-recognition deficits in MS are valence-specific or more generalized using dynamic stimuli and reduced valence-asymmetry, assessed across two sensory modalities. Exploratory analyses also examined cognitive status and correlations with cognitive/affective measures. Fifty relapsing-remitting persons with MS (pwMS) and 50 matched controls completed an emotion-recognition task involving dynamic audio and video stimuli. The task assessed recognition of all six basic emotions and 14 complex emotions. Cognitive and affective measures were collected; exploratory analyses examined cognitive status and associations with these variables. PwMS showed significantly lower recognition accuracy across multiple emotions compared to controls. In the video condition, group differences were stronger for negative emotions (OR = .62, p = .001), whereas no significant group difference was observed for positive emotions. Only a single significant deficit (anger: OR = .52, p = .027) was found in the audio condition. Video subgroup analyses indicated reduced recognition in cognitively impaired pwMS for selected items, whereas pwMS without cognitive impairment did not differ significantly from controls. Findings support a predominant vulnerability for negative emotion-recognition in MS. In the absence of a significant group-level difference, the frequently reported preservation of positive emotion-recognition cannot be attributed to methodological artefacts alone. More broadly, individual patient characteristics, including cognitive functioning, may contribute to heterogeneity in emotion-recognition performance in MS.

Abstract Resting heart rate variability (HRV) is considered a marker of individuals’ capacity to adapt to environmental demands, although direct empirical evidence remains limited. This study examined whether resting HRV predicts subjective and cardiac reactivity to stress, psychological distress, and emotional regulation (ER) strategies. Eighty-five healthy young adults completed distress (DASS) and cognitive ER (CERQ) scales before undergoing a virtual reality–adapted Trier Social Stress Test. Heart rate (HR), HRV indexed by RMSSD, skin conductance, and subjective stress were recorded across baseline, stress, and recovery. As expected, tasks elicited subjective and autonomic stress responses, and higher resting RMSSD predicted greater RMSSD reactivity and recovery. Contrary to our hypothesis, Bayesian analyses provided evidence for the absence of association between resting RMSSD and HR reactivity and recovery, subjective stress reactivity, psychological distress, and ER strategies. Overall, our findings challenge the view of resting HRV as a reliable index of adaptive capacity to acute stress or of vulnerability to psychological distress. Instead, resting HRV interpretation should be restricted to a predictor of the degree to which the vagal system can modulate cardiac activity. Furthermore, resting HRV’s health relevance is likely more tied to long-term cardiovascular vulnerability in the context of repeated or chronic stress.

BACKGROUND:Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system, often accompanied by anxiety and depression exacerbating physical symptoms and reducing quality of life. OBJECTIVES:Given the central role of the autonomic nervous system in emotional reactivity and regulation, this meta-analytic review examined whether people with MS (PwMS) show altered autonomic responses to emotional or stress-related stimuli compared to controls. METHODS:Fourteen studies were included exploring autonomic signals, such as heart rate (HR) variability (HRV), blood pressure, electrodermal activity, and pupil response, during emotional or psychological stress. Quantitative analyses focused on HR, HRV and blood pressure. RESULTS:Between-group analysis (PwMS vs. controls, k = 6) revealed a large reduction in stress-induced autonomic responses in PwMS (d = -1.21), suggesting a blunted physiological response. Qualitative analysis from other autonomic indices confirmed this alteration. Within-group analysis in PwMS showed a moderate increase in autonomic responsiveness (d = 0.71, p = .079), though non-significant, suggesting residual but reduced reactivity. CONCLUSIONS:Overall, these results reveal attenuated autonomic responses to psychological stress in MS, possibly linked to central lesions affecting stress-regulation networks, and support autonomic reactivity as a potential physiological marker of emotional and functional impairment in MS.

AimThis study aims to identify different levels of empathy and emotional regulation along adolescent years and their relationship with cooperative behavior.MethodsEighty healthy males were divided into four age groups: 20 Early Adolescents, 20 Middle Adolescents, 20 Late Adolescents and 20 Adults. Participants responded to empathic and emotional regulation scales, then were assigned to an unknown partner to perform the prisoner’s dilemma paradigm.ResultsThe statistical analyses allowed to distinguish the groups on the basis of the components making up the two scales: scores on the Perspective Taking component were higher for Adults and Late Adolescents participants than for Middle Adolescents and Early Adolescents groups (p < 0.05); scores on the Personal Distress component were higher for Early Adolescents group than for Late Adolescents and Middle Adolescents groups (p < 0.05); scores on the Difficulties engaging in goal directed behavior component were higher for Middle Adolescents and Early Adolescents groups than for Adults group (p < 0.05). We observed differences between groups (p < 0.001) with higher number of cooperation responses in Adults compared to Middle Adolescents (p < 0.05) and Early Adolescents groups (p < 0.001).DiscussionThese findings suggest that the cooperative behavior changes during the different stages of adolescence seem to be related to the development of empathy and emotional regulation components.

Recognized as a transdiagnostic factor, emotion regulation (ER) is increasingly embedded into conceptualizations of psychopathology development and maintenance, emerging as a core component of treatment methodologies. Therefore, the incorporation of ER into various facets of affective sciences, including theoretical frameworks, experimental paradigms, assessment methods, and intervention strategies, raises new challenges, particularly regarding the measurement of ER. In the evaluation and understanding of complex, multifaceted processes like ER, the combination of different assessment methods encompassing diverse units of analysis across multiple domains encompassing cerebral, physiological, and behavioral measures can prove particularly interesting. Among these approaches, the concurrent recording of electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrodermal activity (EDA) emerges as a promising strategy, enabling a more holistic exploration of the ER process at both central and peripheral levels. This brief paper aims to explore current literature concerning the utilization of EEG and EDA in the investigation of ER and to bring arguments supporting their simultaneous recording in order to gain a better understanding of ER processes.

Attention bias modification training aims to alter attentional deployment to symptom-relevant emotionally salient stimuli. Such training has therapeutic applications in the management of disorders including anxiety, depression, addiction and chronic pain. In emotional reactions, attentional biases interact with autonomically-mediated changes in bodily arousal putatively underpinning affective feeling states. Here we examined the impact of attention bias modification training on behavioral and autonomic reactivity. Fifty-eight participants were divided into two groups. A training group (TR) received attention bias modification training to enhance attention to pleasant visual information, while a control group (CT) performed a procedure that did not modify attentional bias. After training, participants performed an evaluation task in which pairs of emotional and neutral images (unpleasant-neutral, pleasant-neutral, neutral-neutral) were presented, while behavioral (eye movements) and autonomic (skin conductance; heart rate) responses were recorded. At the behavioral level, trained participants were faster to orientate attention to pleasant images, and slower to orientate to unpleasant images. At the autonomic level, trained participants showed attenuated skin conductance responses to unpleasant images, while stronger skin conductance responses were generally associated with higher anxiety. These data argue for the use of attentional training to address both the attentional and the physiological sides of emotional responses, appropriate for anxious and depressive symptomatology, characterized by atypical attentional deployment and autonomic reactivity.

The corpus callosum (CC) is the major commissure interconnecting the two hemispheres and is particularly affected in multiple sclerosis (MS). In the present review, we aimed to investigate the role played by callosal damages in the pathogenesis of MS-related dysfunctions and examine whether a model of callosal disconnection syndrome is a valid model for MS. For this purpose, we will first review structural and functional evidence of callosal pathology in MS. Second, we will account for the potential role of CC abnormalities in MS-related dysfunctions. Finally, we will report data concurring with a "multiple disconnection hypothesis" that has been proposed to explain those dysfunctions, and we will examine evidence pointing toward MS as a "callosal disconnection syndrome." We will end by discussing the contribution of this interpretation to the understanding of MS and MS-related deficits.

The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed health facilities and presented healthcare workers (HCWs) with a new infectious disease threat. In addition to a sanitary crisis, Brazil still had to face major political, economic, and social challenges. This study aimed to investigate mental health outcomes in frontline HCWs in different regions of the country and at different epidemic times. We also sought to identify the main risk factors associated with these outcomes.A cross-sectional online survey using respondent-driven sampling was conducted to recruit physicians (n = 584), nurses (n = 997), and nurse technicians (n = 524) in 4 regions of Brazil (North, Northeast, Southeast, and South) from August 2020 to July 2021. We used standardized instruments to screen for common mental disorders (CMD)(SRQ-20), alcohol misuse (AUDIT-C), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)(PCL-5). Gile's successive sampling estimator was used to produce weighted estimates. We created a three-cluster data set for each HCW category and developed a hierarchical regression model with three levels: individual characteristics; workplace-related aspects; COVID-19 personal experience. The impact of the epidemic moment on the outcomes was also studied.The prevalence of probable CMD was 26.8–36.9%, alcohol misuse 8.7–13.6%, depression 16.4–21.2%, anxiety 10.8–14.2%, and PTSD 5.9–8.0%. We found a stronger association between mental health outcomes and the following factors: history of psychiatric disorders, female gender, and clinical comorbidities (level 1); work overload and family isolation (level 2); sick leave (level 3). Epidemic variables, such as the number of deaths and trend of deaths by COVID-19, had almost no impact on the outcomes.An alarmingly high prevalence of depression and anxiety was found in Brazilian frontline HCWs. Individual factors were the most strongly associated with mental health outcomes. These findings indicate the need to develop programs that provide emotional support, identify professionals at risk and refer them to specialized treatment when necessary.

Sex differences in cognition and their underlying brain mechanisms have attracted increasing attention. Brain electrical activity (EEG) represents a reliable, high-temporal resolution approach to assessing the neural correlates of ongoing cognitive activity. The aim of the present work was to provide a comprehensive review of the literature regarding sex differences in brain electrical activity during cognitive processing, and their potential relation to behavioral performance. The cognitive domains addressed are perception, attention, language, visuospatial reasoning, and the executive functions. Overall, the literature reviewed shows sex differences in brain electrical activity during cognitive processing. Differences were observed in such EEG characteristics as hemispheric specialization, scalp topography, amplitudes of event-related potential components, temporal dynamics, and connectivity patterns. While these between-sex differences varied across the cognitive domains analyzed, there were consistent results for visuospatial reasoning and language. Regarding the relationships between behavioral manifestations of cognitive functions and underlying brain dynamics, further research is required to draw reasonable conclusions, since many of the EEG studies reviewed did not assess behavioral differences. Future research must contemplate several confounding factors, such as the precise characteristics of the experimental tasks employed, the phases of the menstrual cycle, individual traits, subjective stimuli saliency, and the interaction of brain development with educational and sociocultural factors. Despite these concerns, the present review contributes to supporting a broad debate that aims to optimize cognitive and behavioral abilities in order to improve teaching strategies and learning skills and thus expand the potentialities of each sex.