The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat

Stegmann, Yannik; Andreatta, Marta; Wieser, Matthias J.

doi:10.1111/psyp.14208

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…For heart rate, R‐waves were automatically detected, manually checked and converted into continuous heart rate (HR;in beats per minute, bpm) with Brain Vision Analyzer software (BrainProducts, Munich, Germany). For each condition, the HR was averaged for the heat pain stimulation plus 4 s and baseline‐corrected by subtracting a baseline of 1 s before the onset of the auditory input (Stegmann et al., 2023).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social support of virtual characters reduces pain perception

Neumann,

Andreatta,

Pauli

et al. 2023

European Journal of Pain

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BackgroundPsychosocial factors, such as social support, can reduce pain. Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful tool to decrease pain, but social factors in VR‐based pain analgesia have rarely been studied. Specifically, it is unclear whether social support by virtual characters can reduce pain and whether the perceived control behind virtual characters (agency) and varying degrees of social cues impact pain perception.MethodsHealthy participants (N = 97) received heat pain stimulation while undergoing four within‐subject conditions in immersive VR: (1) virtual character with a low number of social cues (virtual figure) provided verbal support, (2) virtual character with a high number of social cues (virtual human) provided verbal support, (3) no social support (hearing neutral words), (4) no social support. Perceived agency of the virtual characters served as between‐subjects factor. Participants in the avatar group were led to believe that another participant controlled the virtual characters. Participants in the agent group were told they interacted with a computer. However, in both conditions, virtual characters were computer‐controlled. Pain ratings, psychophysiological measurements and presence ratings were recorded.ResultsVirtual social support decreased pain intensity and pain unpleasantness ratings but had no impact on electrodermal activity nor heart rate. A virtual character with a high number of social cues led to lower pain unpleasantness and higher feelings of presence. Agency had no significant impact.ConclusionsVirtual characters providing social support can reduce pain independent of perceived agency. A more human visual appearance can have beneficial effects on social pain modulation by virtual characters.SignificanceSocial influences are important factors in pain modulation. The current study demonstrated analgesic effects through verbal support provided by virtual characters and investigated modulating factors. A more human appearance of a virtual character resulted in a higher reduction of pain unpleasantness. Importantly, agency of the virtual characters had no impact. Given the increasing use of digital health interventions, the findings suggest a positive impact of virtual characters for digital pain treatments.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social support of virtual characters reduces pain perception

Neumann,

Andreatta,

Pauli

et al. 2023

European Journal of Pain

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“…This inadequacy in political messaging stems from its limitations, as it typically does not evoke the intense, primal fear associated with immediate, "fight-or-flight" scenarios. Instead, political messages tend to induce anxiety-a persistent sense of apprehension and hypervigilance in situations where a threat might exist, as detailed by Stegmann et al (2023). Political science often focuses on this concept of anxiety, as outlined by Albertson and Gadarian (2015), describing it as a prolonged reaction to uncertain or ambiguous threats.…”

Section: From Fear To Hostility: the Psychological And Political Dime...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although fear and anxiety represent distinct emotional experiences for the recipient, we use fear as an umbrella term for the current purpose. 2 Given a psychological association in which anxiety can stem from fear, coupled with a preference 1 Usually conceptualized in exclusive models, accumulating evidence points to additive if not interactive models rather than exclusive models of fear and anxiety indicating facilitated defensive behavior (Stegmann et al, 2023).…”

Section: From Fear To Hostility: the Psychological And Political Dime...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“You are doomed!" Crisis-specific and Dynamic Use of Fear Speech in Protest and Extremist Radical Social Movements

Greipl,

Hohner,

Schulze

et al. 2024

JQD

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Social media messages can elicit emotional reactions and mobilize users. Strategic utilization of emotionally charged messages, particularly those inducing fear, potentially nurtures a climate of threat and hostility online. Coined fear speech (FS), such communication deliberately portrays certain entities as imminently harmful and drives the perception of a threat, especially when the topic is already crisis-laden. Despite the notion that FS and the resulting climate of threat can serve as a justification for radical attitudes and behavior toward outgroups, research on the prevalence, nature, and context of FS is still scarce. The current paper aims to close this gap and provides a definition of FS, its theoretical foundations, and a starting point for (automatically) detecting FS on social media. The paper presents the results of a manual as well as an automated content analysis of three broadly categorized actor types within a larger radical German Telegram messaging sphere (2.9 million posts). With a rather conservative classification approach, we analyzed the prevalence and distribution of FS for more than five years in relation to six crisis-specific topics. A substantial proportion between 21% and 34% within the observed communication of radical/extremist actors was classified as FS. Additionally, the relative amount of FS was found to increase with the overall posting frequency. This underscores FS's potential as an indicator for radicalization dynamics and crisis escalation.

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“…The unconditioned stimuli (US) consisted of a 150 ms aversive electrical pulse train (three 2 ms pulses, separated by 48 ms) and were delivered to the left lower arm through surface bar electrodes consisting of two stainless-steel disks of 9 mm diameter and 30 mm spacing by a constant current stimulator (Digitimer DS7A, Digitmer Ltd., Welwyn Garden City, UK) in both laboratories. Similar to our previous work (Stegmann, Andreatta, & Wieser, 2022), US intensities were individually adjusted, using a staircase-procedure consisting of two ascending and descending series of electrical stimuli until a perceived US unpleasantness of 6 (University of Würzburg) or 4 (University of Florida) on a scale from 0 = "not painful at all" to 10 = "very painful" was achieved.…”

Section: Stimuli and Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrocortical responses in anticipation of avoidable and inevitable threats: a multisite study

Stegmann,

Teigeler,

Mirifar

et al. 2024

Preprint

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When faced with danger, human beings respond with a repertoire of defensive behaviors, including freezing and active avoidance. Previous research has revealed a pattern of physiological responses, characterized by heart rate bradycardia, reduced visual exploration, and heightened sympathetic arousal in reaction to avoidable threats, suggesting a state of attentive immobility in humans. However, the electrocortical underpinnings of these behaviors remain largely unexplored. To investigate the visuocortical components of attentive immobility, we recorded occipital alpha activity, along with eye-movements and autonomic responses, while participants awaited either an avoidable, inevitable, or no threat. To test the robustness and generalizability of our findings, we collected data from a total of 101 participants at two laboratories. Across sites, we observed an enhanced suppression of occipital alpha activity during avoidable threats, in contrast to inevitable or no threat trials, particularly towards the end of the trial that prompted avoidance responses. This response pattern coincided with heart rate bradycardia, centralization of gaze and increased sympathetic arousal. Furthermore, our findings expand on previous research by revealing that the amount of alpha suppression, along with centralization of gaze, and heart rate changes, predict the speed of motor response times. Collectively, these findings indicate that when individuals encounter avoidable threats, they enter a state of attentive immobility, which enhances perceptual processing and facilitates action preparation. This state appears to reflect freezing-like behavior in humans.

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The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat

Cited by 3 publications

References 104 publications

Social support of virtual characters reduces pain perception

Social support of virtual characters reduces pain perception

“You are doomed!" Crisis-specific and Dynamic Use of Fear Speech in Protest and Extremist Radical Social Movements

Electrocortical responses in anticipation of avoidable and inevitable threats: a multisite study

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