ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9302-1721
Current Organisation
University of Tasmania
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.PSYNEUEN.2015.08.022
Abstract: Event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed an early attentional bias in processing unpleasant emotional images in women. Recent neuroimaging data suggests there are significant differences in cortical emotional processing according to menstrual phase. This study examined the impact of menstrual phase on visual emotional processing in women compared to men. ERPs were recorded from 28 early follicular women, 29 midluteal women, and 27 men while they completed a passive viewing task of neutral and low- and high- arousing pleasant and unpleasant images. There was a significant effect of menstrual phase in early visual processing, as midluteal women displayed significantly greater P1 litude at occipital regions to all visual images compared to men. Both midluteal and early follicular women displayed larger N1 litudes than men (although this only reached significance for the midluteal group) to the visual images. No sex or menstrual phase differences were apparent in later N2, P3, or LPP. A condition effect demonstrated greater P3 and LPP litude to highly-arousing unpleasant images relative to all other stimuli conditions. These results indicate that women have greater early automatic visual processing compared to men, and suggests that this effect is particularly strong in women in the midluteal phase at the earliest stage of visual attention processing. Our findings highlight the importance of considering menstrual phase when examining sex differences in the cortical processing of visual stimuli.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-06-2017
DOI: 10.3758/S13415-017-0520-1
Abstract: Emotion regulation deficits have been implicated in anxiety and depressive disorders, and these internalising disorders are more prevalent in women than men. Few electrophysiological studies have investigated sex differences in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation controlling for menstrual phase. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 28 early follicular women, 29 midluteal women, and 27 men who completed an emotion regulation task. A novel finding of increased N2 litude during suppression was found for midluteal women compared with men. These findings suggest midluteal women may be significantly less able to suppress cortical processing of negative stimuli compared to men. This ERP finding was complemented by behavioral ratings data which revealed that while both early follicular and midluteal women reported more distress than men, midluteal women also reported greater effort when suppressing their responses than men. P1 and N1 components were increased in midluteal women compared to men regardless of instructional set, suggesting greater early attentional processing. No sex or menstrual phase differences were apparent in P3 or LPP. This study underscores the importance of considering menstrual phase when examining sex differences in the cortical processing of emotion regulation and demonstrates that midluteal women may have deficits in down-regulating their neural and behavioural responses.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 25-04-2018
DOI: 10.1017/S1352465818000267
Abstract: Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common and chronic mental health condition. Given the significant prevalence and impairment caused by SAD, it is important to investigate novel ways to improve the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for SAD. One approach may be to provide CBT in an accelerated fashion, which involves multiple sessions per week. Such accelerated treatments have been shown to be effective in other anxiety disorders, but in SAD this accelerated treatment has only been studied in a group treatment format. Aims: The aim of this study was to provide a preliminary investigation of the efficacy of in idual accelerated CBT (aCBT) in the treatment of SAD. Method: The studied utilized an open trial design. Seventeen participants commenced the treatment, which consisted of 12 sessions delivered over 4 weeks. Results: The results indicated that participants obtained moderate to large effect sizes on measures of SAD at post-treatment (range d = 0.76–0.92) and 3-month follow-up (range d = 1.31–1.79). In addition, at post-treatment, 59% of participants no longer met criteria for SAD, and this number increased to 71% at 3-month follow-up. Conclusions: The results provide preliminary evidence to suggest that in idual aCBT may be an important treatment option for in iduals with SAD.
No related grants have been discovered for Val Ranson.