PhD Talks: Cognition and Emotion

Presentation 1: Negotiating complexity under threat: evidence from a virtual environment, Aaron Laycock

Individuals living and working in dangerous settings make complex decisions amidst serious threats. To increase the application of research in this area, it is vital that we study threat naturalistically. Doing so requires experimental paradigms that present threatening stimuli to participants, not in isolation, but as part of an emotive and interactive experience. Here, I discuss the findings of a recent project where we embedded a complex decision-making task within an immersive virtual environment. Over two studies (n= 171), we demonstrate that, as with the traditional tasks, participants learned to make advantageous decisions over time and that their behaviour can be described by reinforcement-learning based computational models. To better understand the effect of threat on performance, we created threatening and neutral versions of the environment. This allowed us to make threat integral to the task. That is, threat was not a mere distraction, as is typical in many studies on threat, but was conceptually related to the task. In the threat condition, participants performed worse, taking longer to improve from baseline and scoring lower through the final trials. Computational modelling revealed that participants in the threat condition were more responsive to short term rewards and less likely to perseverate on a given choice. These findings suggest that when threat is integral to decision-making, individuals make more erratic choices and focus on short term gains. Further, they demonstrate the utility of virtual environments for making threat integral to cognitive tasks.

Presentation 2: When seeing human is believing human: An adaptation of Milgram’s Cyranoids, Scarlett Syme

AI has become ubiquitous in recent years with little understanding of how it fits into our moral world. Research has demonstrated that individuals may come to perceive mind in these machines, prompting concerns surrounding risks from misinformation to human extinction. The present study adapted Milgram’s cyranoid method to investigate such concerns. In Study 1, confederates acted as cyranoids - intermediaries who, unbeknownst to participants, relayed human- or AI-generated dialogue - in real-time video call conversations. Explicit judgements of whether their conversational partner was human or AI, perceptions of agency, consciousness and experience (ACE), and implicit harm prevention was measured. In Study 2, cyranoids pre-recorded human- or AI-generated answers to ice-breaker questions, which were presented in an online experiment. Explicit measures were the same as in Study 1, and participants further completed the dictator game. Both appearance and content affected mind perception and moral behaviour (harm prevention and dictator game). Critically, appearance was heavily relied upon to distinguish humans from AIs. These findings suggest that AI minds can pass for human when attached to human appearance, and that this can invite moral concern.

Presentation 3: Updating, Shifting and Eye-Blink Rate in Aging: A Comparison of Multiple Sclerosis Patients and Healthy Aging (online), Evgeniadou Nena

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) and a leading cause of disability in young adults. Cognitive impairment affects 45–70% of MS patients, with deficits in executive functions (EF), information processing speed, memory, attention, and visuospatial perception. Dopaminergic dysfunction has been implicated in MS-related cognitive decline, but research on dopamine biomarkers remains limited. Eye-blink rate (EBR), an indirect marker of dopamine activity, has not been extensively studied in MS beyond startle eyeblink modulation. This study aims to assess EBR as a potential marker of dopamine imbalance in MS and examine EF performance, particularly shifting and updating.
A total of 50 participants (25 MS aging patients and 25 healthy aging controls) were recruited. Cognitive assessment included Trail making test Part B (TMTB) as a shifting component, and Symblos Digit Modalities, Digit Span Backwards and Verbal Fluency as updating components. EBR was recorder using the Neurosky device. Statistical analyses included Independent T-test and one way ANOVA. A significant difference in EBR was found between MS and healthy controls (F(1,48) = 4.747, p = 0.034), supporting the hypothesis of dopamine imbalance in MS. Additionally, MS patients performed significantly worse on TMTB (F(1,48) = 4.531, p = 0.038), indicating shifting deficits. No significant group differences were observed in updating performance. These findings highlight dopamine dysregulation in MS, as evidenced by altered EBR, and confirm previous reports of executive dysfunction, particularly shifting deficits.

Presentation 4:  The neural mechanism behind ASMR, Josephine Flockton

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a pleasant tingling sensation elicited by certain auditory stimuli, felt across the scalp and neck by millions of people worldwide. Despite its burgeoning popularity on media sharing platforms like YouTube, and its reported benefits to listeners in alleviating anxiety, sleep issues, and even chronic pain, little is understood about the mechanism behind the phenomenon or its therapeutic potential. This study aimed to use a combination of electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to elucidate the neural correlates of the response in the brain through time-frequency analyses and source-space localization, to collect EEG data in response to ASMR coded stimuli versus controls and during reported experiences of the tingling sensation itself, alongside MEG analysis to resolve activity to specific brain regions for the first time in this research area. Work is ongoing but initial EEG and MEG results align to suggest that ASMR generally elicits mild relaxation (significant alpha and beta band activity compared to a control condition) but intensifies into broader sensorimotor and integrative network engagement (significant beta and gamma band activity compared to a control condition) during reported peak tingling episodes. Next, source localisation is needed to reveal where in the brain this activity occurs and provide mechanistic insights necessary to develop therapeutic tools that could involve ASMR in future. So far results appear to further our current understanding of the experience's temporal profile and key frequency bands of interest by combining neuroimaging techniques, and begins to shape a theoretical framework to explain what happens in the brain and where during ASMR.