Emotional Imagery and Text Driven Scripts
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Graduate
Major
Clinical Psychology
2nd Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Sophomore
2nd Student Major
Psychology
2nd Student Minor
Biology
3rd Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Junior
3rd Student Major
Psychology
3rd Student Minor
Non-Profit Leadership
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
David Herring, PhD.
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Emotional imagery is an elicitation technique commonly used to induce emotions. Surprisingly, little is known about the central nervous system correlates involved in emotional imagery, despite its clinical utility. Emotional imagery has a wide variety of clinical uses, including therapeutic treatments for anxiety spectrum disorders (e.g., exposure therapy). From a time-domain perspective, there is some support for the idea that a specific brainwave tied to stimulus events (e.g., a cue to continue imagining) called the late positive potential (LPP) of the event-related potential (ERP), may be indicative of emotional modulation during imagery tasks. Additionally, from a frequency-domain perspective, increased levels of alpha band activity (8-12 Hz) occur during these emotional imagery tasks as well, which may be indicative of deeper inhibition processes. This study seeks to extend these bodies of literature by using text driven scripts to examine whether the LPPs are larger for emotionally charged scripts (e.g., pleasant vs. unpleasant) as compared to neutral ones, whether the LPPs are related to emotional arousal levels, and how alpha activity is affected by these emotional scripts. Participants imagined text-driven scripts and rated script pleasantness and arousal while electroencephalographic data were recorded. These data will be analyzed to determine the relationship between these emotional scripts, LPPs, and alpha activity. These results will help understand these phenomena as they relate to text-driven scripts and provide the groundwork for later research on the pathophysiology of social anxiety.
Fall Scholars Week 2019 Event
Psychology: Projects In-Progress
Emotional Imagery and Text Driven Scripts
Emotional imagery is an elicitation technique commonly used to induce emotions. Surprisingly, little is known about the central nervous system correlates involved in emotional imagery, despite its clinical utility. Emotional imagery has a wide variety of clinical uses, including therapeutic treatments for anxiety spectrum disorders (e.g., exposure therapy). From a time-domain perspective, there is some support for the idea that a specific brainwave tied to stimulus events (e.g., a cue to continue imagining) called the late positive potential (LPP) of the event-related potential (ERP), may be indicative of emotional modulation during imagery tasks. Additionally, from a frequency-domain perspective, increased levels of alpha band activity (8-12 Hz) occur during these emotional imagery tasks as well, which may be indicative of deeper inhibition processes. This study seeks to extend these bodies of literature by using text driven scripts to examine whether the LPPs are larger for emotionally charged scripts (e.g., pleasant vs. unpleasant) as compared to neutral ones, whether the LPPs are related to emotional arousal levels, and how alpha activity is affected by these emotional scripts. Participants imagined text-driven scripts and rated script pleasantness and arousal while electroencephalographic data were recorded. These data will be analyzed to determine the relationship between these emotional scripts, LPPs, and alpha activity. These results will help understand these phenomena as they relate to text-driven scripts and provide the groundwork for later research on the pathophysiology of social anxiety.