In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing.

http://www.elaborer.org/cours/A13/lectures/Fredrickson2001.pdf

The role of positive emotions in positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.

Attention and Effort

The emerging field of emotion regulation studies how individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. This review takes an evolutionary perspective and characterizes emotion in terms of response tendencies. Emotion regulation is denned and distinguished from coping, mood regulation, defense, and affect regulation. In the increasingly specialized discipline of psychology, the field of emotion regulation cuts across traditional boundaries and provides common ground. According to a process model of emotion regulation, emotion may be regulated at five points in the emotion generative process: (a) selection of the situation, (b) modification of the situation, (c) deployment of attention, (d) change of cognitions, and (e) modulation of responses. The field of emotion regulation promises new insights into age-old questions about how people manage their emotions.

http://www.elaborer.org/cours/A13/lectures/Gross1998.pdf

The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review.

http://apsychoserver.psychofizz.psych.arizona.edu/JJBAReprints/PSYC501A/Readings/Polich_2007_Clin_Neurophys_Review_P3s.pdf

Updating P300: An Integrative Theory of P3a and P3b

Attachment--and loss.

In this study, 20 human volunteers received a placebo and atropine doses of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 mg X 75 kg-1 in a Latin Square double blind design, and effects were monitored for 3 h postinjection. The 2.0 mg and the 4.0 mg doses resulted in significant flight simulator performance decrements beginning at 1 h postinjection with only minimal recovery by 3 h postinjection. Electrocardiogram data were used to estimate the amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) which was more sensitive than mean heart period or mean heart period variance to the effects of atropine. These parasympathetic effects were relatively rapid in onset and peaked within the first 40-min period for the 2.0 and 4.0 mg doses. The onset of performance effects were delayed 1 h 40 min for the 2.0 mg and 1 h 00 min for the 4.0 mg treatment.

Atropine Sulfate Effects on Aviator Performance and on Respiratory-Heart Period Interactions

Alcohol (0.5 g/kg bodyweight) was administered in two sessions and placebo in a third session to normal, healthy social drinkers. A control group was administered a mixer (i.e., no alcohol) for each of the three sessions. The heart rate and vagal tone index (V) response patterns were different to alcohol than to the mixer or placebo. The treatments did not differentially influence pulse transit time. The results indicated that the acute effect of a moderate dose of alcohol on the heart is parasympathetically (i.e., vagally) mediated and has no significant direct sympathetic component.

Vagal Mediation of the Effect of Alcohol on Heart Rate

Recent evidence suggests that the amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) may be a useful predictor of cognitive and affective development in high-risk infants. Stability and relations among RSA and behavioral measures were studied in healthy and sick (respiratory and/or central nervous system disorders) preterm newborns at approximately 35 and 42 weeks postconceptional age (PCA). The Hobel Neonatal Complications Factor score was used to measure the extent of neonatal illnesses potentially associated with subsequent developmental risk. At each age, an electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded for 10 min each during active sleep and social interaction. The amplitude of RSA was derived from ECG using the Porges (1986) method to estimate cardiac vagal tone (V). The study examined the relationship between neonatal RSA and simultaneous videotaped recordings of infants' focused attention, unfocused alertness, and distressed/avoidant behavior under two conditions: (a) during a standardized protocol for responsive social interaction with an examiner at 35 and 42 weeks; and (b) during an unstructured interaction session with their mothers at 42 weeks. At 35 weeks, RSA was related to neonatal behavior with an examiner. In addition, the 35-week RSA and behavioral measures were predictive of maternal and infant interaction behavior at 42 weeks. These preliminary findings suggest that an assessment protocol which includes social interaction behavior and RSA may be useful in identifying infants who are at greatest risk for developmental and relationship disturbances.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and social interaction patterns in preterm newborns

The effects of incentive on sustained attention and autonomic regulation among boys exposed in utero to opiates were studied. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an indicator of autonomic regulation, was quantified during sustained attention in 3 groups of 7- to 12-year-old boys. RSA is a component of heart rate variability controlled by cortical influences and affected by changes in demand for attention. The Gordon Diagnostic System-Distractibility Task was performed with and without monetary reward. A cartoon task and a video game were used as measures of interest. Although opiate-exposed boys did not differ in performance as a function of incentive or interest, they had a tendency to perform more poorly overall across tasks. Alcohol exposure rather than opiate exposure covaried with autonomic regulation, with greater RSA decreases being associated with more alcohol exposure. Post hoc analyses revealed that the alcohol- and opiate-exposed boys responded with these hyperreactive RSA changes along with poorer performance.

Motivation, sustained attention, and autonomic regulation in school-age boys exposed in utero to opiates and alcohol.

A polyvagal perspective clarifies the neurobiological and biobehavioral shifts that occurred during evolutionary transition from asocial reptiles to social mammals. This transition enabled mammals, unlike their reptilian ancestors, to derive a biological benefit from social interactions. This innovation enabled social behavior to function as a neuromodulator that could efficiently regulate and optimize autonomic function to support homeostatic processes. This journey is highlighted by the phylogenetic transition during which the autonomic nervous system was repurposed to suppress defensive strategies to support and express sociality. The product of this transition was an autonomic nervous system with capacities to self-calm, to spontaneous socially engage others, and to mitigate threat reactions in ourselves and others through social cues. Thus, social behavior became embedded with specific neurobiological processes that had capabilities to support homeostatic functions leading to optimized health, growth, and restoration. Polyvagal Theory emphasizes sociality as the core process in mitigating threat reactions and supporting mental and physical health.

Stephen W. Porges

Papers

Atropine Sulfate Effects on Aviator Performance and on Respiratory-Heart Period Interactions

Vagal Mediation of the Effect of Alcohol on Heart Rate

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and social interaction patterns in preterm newborns

Motivation, sustained attention, and autonomic regulation in school-age boys exposed in utero to opiates and alcohol.

Polyvagal Theory: A biobehavioral journey to sociality