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Brain Sciences
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The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors
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The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neuropsychology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 10571

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Danilo Menicucci

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Interests: psychobiology of emotions, sleep, and consciousness
Dr. Sergio Frumento

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Interests: psychobiology of emotions; subliminal stimuli; consciousness

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Background & history of this topic:

Emerging within the long-lasting debate concerning the nature and definition of consciousness is a growing need to deepen its role in coupling emotions, motivations, and behaviors. While some authors theorize that these constructs are merely different sides of the same coin, others consider them as different ends of a continuum or as results of processes that are typically—but not necessarily—correlated: in both cases, consciousness (in both its ordinary and non-ordinary states) is thought to play a potentially different role for each construct. This debate directly affects how emotions, motivations, and behaviors are assessed and how the resulting data are interpreted and described. This leads to methodological and terminological confusion mining robustness and reliability of the resulting theoretical frameworks.

Aim and scope of the special issue:

The main aim of this Special Issue is to thus reach a deeper understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the role of consciousness (including its alteration or absence) in coupling emotions, motivations, and behaviors: practical (e.g., clinical) applications coming from this research line are of also interest.

Cutting-edge research:

Kauffman, 2015 • Emotional sentience and the nature of phenomenal experience
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2015.08.003

Alexandrov & Sams, 2005 • Emotion and consciousness: Ends of a continuum
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.08.006

Pessoa, 2018 • Understanding emotion with brain networks
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.09.005

Pessoa, 2017 • A Network Model of the Emotional Brain
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.03.002

Lang & Davis, 2006 • Emotion, motivation, and the brain: Reflex foundations in animal and human research
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(06)56001-7

Janak & Tye, 2015 • From circuits to behaviour in the amygdala
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14188

Vignemont & Singer, 2006 • The empathic brain: how, when and why?
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.08.008

LeDoux, 2014 • Coming to terms with fear
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1400335111

Taschereau-Dumouchel et al., 2018 • Towards an unconscious neural reinforcement intervention for common fears
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721572115

Smith, 2020 • Harnessing unconscious emotional learning in specific phobia
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30313-8

What kind of papers we are soliciting:

Proposals should directly or indirectly investigate the role of consciousness in coupling emotions, motivations, and behaviors. New empirical data addressing these points are welcomed, as are a novel discussions of previously published results in the form of meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and perspective articles.

Prof. Dr. Danilo Menicucci
Dr. Sergio Frumento
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • subliminal stimuli
  • exposure therapies
  • assessment techniques
  • sleep
  • altered states of consciousness
  • enteroception awareness

Published Papers (7 papers)

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12 pages, 1984 KiB  
Article
Modulating Consciousness through Awareness Training Program and Its Impacts on Psychological Stress and Age-Related Gamma Waves
by Kin Cheung (George) Lee, Junling Gao, Hang Kin Leung, Bonnie Wai Yan Wu, Adam Roberts, Thuan-Quoc Thach and Hin Hung Sik
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(1), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14010091 - 17 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1404
Abstract
Aging often leads to awareness decline and psychological stress. Meditation, a method of modulating consciousness, may help individuals improve overall awareness and increase emotional resilience toward stress. This study explored the potential influence of the Awareness Training Program (ATP), a form of consciousness [...] Read more.
Aging often leads to awareness decline and psychological stress. Meditation, a method of modulating consciousness, may help individuals improve overall awareness and increase emotional resilience toward stress. This study explored the potential influence of the Awareness Training Program (ATP), a form of consciousness modulation, on age-related brain wave changes and psychological stress in middle-aged adults. Eighty-five participants with mild stress were recruited and randomly assigned to ATP (45.00 ± 8.00 yr) or control (46.67 ± 7.80 yr) groups, matched by age and gender. Ten-minute resting-state EEG data, obtained while the participants’ eyes were closed, were collected using a 128-channel EEG system (EGI). A strong positive Pearson correlation was found between fast-wave (beta wave, 12–25 Hz; gamma wave, 25–40 Hz) EEG and age. However, after the 7-week ATP intervention, this correlation became insignificant in the ATP group. Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in stress levels, as measured by the Chinese version of the 10 item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), in the ATP group. These results suggest that ATP may help modulate age-related effects on fast brain waves, as evidenced by the reduced correlation magnitude between age and gamma waves, and lower psychological stress. This suggests that ATP, as a form of consciousness modulation, may improve stress resilience and modulate age-related gamma wave changes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors)
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14 pages, 922 KiB  
Article
Subjective and Autonomic Arousal toward Emotional Stimuli in Preadolescents with Externalizing Problems and the Role of Explicit and Implicit Emotion Regulation
by Maria Panteli, Thekla Constantinou, Andry Vrachimi-Souroulla, Kostas Fanti and Georgia Panayiotou
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(1), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14010084 - 16 Jan 2024
Viewed by 850
Abstract
Children and adolescents with externalizing problems show physiological hypo-reactivity toward affective stimuli, which may relate to their disruptive, antisocial, and thrill-seeking behaviors. This study examines differences in explicit and implicit emotion regulation between preadolescents with and without externalizing problems as well as the [...] Read more.
Children and adolescents with externalizing problems show physiological hypo-reactivity toward affective stimuli, which may relate to their disruptive, antisocial, and thrill-seeking behaviors. This study examines differences in explicit and implicit emotion regulation between preadolescents with and without externalizing problems as well as the role of emotion regulation in subjective and autonomic responses to emotional stimuli. Preadolescents showing self- and other-reported externalizing psychopathology, and a control sample, without such difficulties, participated in a passive affective picture-viewing task with neutral, fearful, joyful, and sad images, while their heart rate and heart rate variability were measured. Participants also reported on their emotion regulation difficulties using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Compared to controls, youths scoring high on externalizing problems (1) reported greater emotion regulation difficulties, especially a lack of emotional clarity and difficulty in controlling impulsive actions, (2) showed higher resting heart rate variability and a lower resting heart rate, suggestive of higher emotion/autonomic regulation ability, and (3) showed both subjective and physiological hypo-arousal to emotional pictures. Heart rate variability and, to a lesser degree difficulties in emotional clarity, modulated the effects of emotional pictures on subjective and physiological arousal. Findings suggest that interventions to improve emotion regulation and awareness may help to prevent externalizing problems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors)
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18 pages, 136010 KiB  
Article
Real and Deepfake Face Recognition: An EEG Study on Cognitive and Emotive Implications
by Pietro Tarchi, Maria Chiara Lanini, Lorenzo Frassineti and Antonio Lanatà
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(9), 1233; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13091233 - 23 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1964
Abstract
The human brain’s role in face processing (FP) and decision making for social interactions depends on recognizing faces accurately. However, the prevalence of deepfakes, AI-generated images, poses challenges in discerning real from synthetic identities. This study investigated healthy individuals’ cognitive and emotional engagement [...] Read more.
The human brain’s role in face processing (FP) and decision making for social interactions depends on recognizing faces accurately. However, the prevalence of deepfakes, AI-generated images, poses challenges in discerning real from synthetic identities. This study investigated healthy individuals’ cognitive and emotional engagement in a visual discrimination task involving real and deepfake human faces expressing positive, negative, or neutral emotions. Electroencephalographic (EEG) data were collected from 23 healthy participants using a 21-channel dry-EEG headset; power spectrum and event-related potential (ERP) analyses were performed. Results revealed statistically significant activations in specific brain areas depending on the authenticity and emotional content of the stimuli. Power spectrum analysis highlighted a right-hemisphere predominance in theta, alpha, high-beta, and gamma bands for real faces, while deepfakes mainly affected the frontal and occipital areas in the delta band. ERP analysis hinted at the possibility of discriminating between real and synthetic faces, as N250 (200–300 ms after stimulus onset) peak latency decreased when observing real faces in the right frontal (LF) and left temporo-occipital (LTO) areas, but also within emotions, as P100 (90–140 ms) peak amplitude was found higher in the right temporo-occipital (RTO) area for happy faces with respect to neutral and sad ones. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors)
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8 pages, 1068 KiB  
Article
Cognition and Consciousness Entwined
by Peter Grindrod and Martin Brennan
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(6), 872; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13060872 - 28 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1907
Abstract
We argue that cognition (information processing) and internal phenomenological sensations, including emotions, are intimately related and are not separable. We aver that phenomenological sensations are dynamical “modes” of firing behaviour that (i) exist over time and over large parts of the cortex’s neuron-to-neuron [...] Read more.
We argue that cognition (information processing) and internal phenomenological sensations, including emotions, are intimately related and are not separable. We aver that phenomenological sensations are dynamical “modes” of firing behaviour that (i) exist over time and over large parts of the cortex’s neuron-to-neuron network and (ii) are consequences of the network-of-networks architecture, coupling the individual neuronal dynamics and the necessary time delay incurred by neuron-to-neuron transmission: if you possess those system properties, then you will have the dynamical modes and, thus, the phenomenological sensations. These modes are consequences of incoming external stimuli and are competitive within the system, suppressing and locking-out one another. On the other hand, the presence of any such mode acts as a preconditioner for the immediate (dynamic) cognitive processing of information. Thus, internal phenomenological sensations, including emotions, reduce the immediate decision set (of feasible interpretations) and hence the cognitive load. For organisms with such a mental inner life, there would clearly be a large cognitive evolutionary advantage, resulting in the well-known “thinking fast, thinking slow” phenomena. We call this the entwinement hypothesis: how latent conscious phenomena arise from the dynamics of the cognitive processing load, and how these precondition the cognitive tasks immediately following. We discuss how internal dynamical modes, which are candidates for emotions down to single qualia, can be observed by reverse engineering large sets of simulations of system’s stimulated responses, either using vast supercomputers (with full 10B neuronal network analyses) or else using laptops to do the same for appropriately generalised Kuramoto models (networks of k-dimensional clocks, each representing the 10,000 neurons within a single neural column). We explain why such simplifications are appropriate. We also discuss the consequent cognitive advantages for information-processing systems exhibiting internal sensations and the exciting implications for next-generation (non-binary) computation and for AI. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors)
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14 pages, 2405 KiB  
Article
Neural Mechanisms of the Conscious and Subliminal Processing of Facial Attractiveness
by Xuejiao Hou, Junchen Shang and Shuo Tong
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(6), 855; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13060855 - 25 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1233
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the neural activity evoked by facial attractiveness in conscious and subliminal conditions. The 41 participants judged facial attractiveness in a conscious condition and a subliminal condition (backward masking paradigm). The event-related potential (ERP) analysis indicated [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the neural activity evoked by facial attractiveness in conscious and subliminal conditions. The 41 participants judged facial attractiveness in a conscious condition and a subliminal condition (backward masking paradigm). The event-related potential (ERP) analysis indicated that in the conscious condition, more attractive faces elicited a longer N1 (80–120 ms) latency than less attractive faces. Moreover, more attractive female faces elicited a larger late positive component (LPC) (350–550 ms) amplitude than less attractive female faces. In the subliminal condition, more attractive faces elicited a longer P1 (140–180 ms) latency than less attractive faces. The present study demonstrated that more attractive faces evoked different early-stage ERPs from that evoked by less attractive faces in both conscious and subliminal conditions. However, the processing of facial attractiveness is obviously weakened in the subliminal condition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors)
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12 pages, 643 KiB  
Perspective
Do Individual Differences in Perception Affect Awareness of Climate Change?
by Enrico Cipriani, Sergio Frumento, Simone Grassini, Angelo Gemignani and Danilo Menicucci
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(3), 266; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14030266 - 09 Mar 2024
Viewed by 867
Abstract
One significant obstacle to gaining a widespread awareness of the ongoing climate change is the nature of its manifestations in relation to our perception: climate change effects are gradual, distributed, and sometimes seemingly contradictory. These features result in a lag in collective climate [...] Read more.
One significant obstacle to gaining a widespread awareness of the ongoing climate change is the nature of its manifestations in relation to our perception: climate change effects are gradual, distributed, and sometimes seemingly contradictory. These features result in a lag in collective climate action and sometimes foster climate skepticism and climate denial. While the literature on climate change perception and belief has thoroughly explored its sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects, research on the potential contribution of psychophysiological factors remains scarce. In this perspective paper, we outline evidence and arguments for the involvement of psychophysiological systems such as thermoception, hygroreception, and interoception in modulating climate change awareness. We discuss psychophysiological mechanisms of climate change awareness in animals and humans, as well as possible sources of individual variance in climate change perception. We conclude by suggesting novel research questions which would be worthwhile to pursue in future studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors)
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23 pages, 18351 KiB  
Perspective
The Projective Consciousness Model: Projective Geometry at the Core of Consciousness and the Integration of Perception, Imagination, Motivation, Emotion, Social Cognition and Action
by David Rudrauf, Grégoire Sergeant-Perthuis, Yvain Tisserand, Germain Poloudenny, Kenneth Williford and Michel-Ange Amorim
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(10), 1435; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13101435 - 09 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1216
Abstract
Consciousness has been described as acting as a global workspace that integrates perception, imagination, emotion and action programming for adaptive decision making. The mechanisms of this workspace and their relationships to the phenomenology of consciousness need to be further specified. Much research in [...] Read more.
Consciousness has been described as acting as a global workspace that integrates perception, imagination, emotion and action programming for adaptive decision making. The mechanisms of this workspace and their relationships to the phenomenology of consciousness need to be further specified. Much research in this area has focused on the neural correlates of consciousness, but, arguably, computational modeling can better be used toward this aim. According to the Projective Consciousness Model (PCM), consciousness is structured as a viewpoint-organized, internal space, relying on 3D projective geometry and governed by the action of the Projective Group as part of a process of active inference. The geometry induces a group-structured subjective perspective on an encoded world model, enabling adaptive perspective taking in agents. Here, we review and discuss the PCM. We emphasize the role of projective mechanisms in perception and the appraisal of affective and epistemic values as tied to the motivation of action, under an optimization process of Free Energy minimization, or more generally stochastic optimal control. We discuss how these mechanisms enable us to model and simulate group-structured drives in the context of social cognition and to understand the mechanisms underpinning empathy, emotion expression and regulation, and approach–avoidance behaviors. We review previous results, drawing on applications in robotics and virtual humans. We briefly discuss future axes of research relating to applications of the model to simulation- and model-based behavioral science, geometrically structured artificial neural networks, the relevance of the approach for explainable AI and human–machine interactions, and the study of the neural correlates of consciousness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Consciousness in Coupling Emotions, Motivations, and Behaviors)
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