Professor Peter Walla

Background: The evaluation of evidence, which frequently takes the form of scientific evidence, necessitates the input of experts in relevant fields. The results are presented as expert opinions or expert evaluations, which are generally accepted as a reliable representation of the facts. A further issue that remains unresolved though is the process of evaluating the expertise and knowledge of an expert in the first instance. In general, earned certificates, grades and other objective criteria are typically regarded as representative documentation to substantiate an expert status. However, there is a possibility that these may not always be sufficiently representative. Objectives: The goal of the present study was to provide evidence that the neural processing of law-relevant and law-irrelevant terms varies significantly between participants who have received training in the field of law (experts) and those who have not (novices). Methods: To this end, changes in brain activity were recorded via electroencephalography (EEG) during visual presentations of terms belonging to five different categories (fake right, democracy, filler word, basic right and rule of law). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were subsequently averaged for each category and subjected to statistical analysis. Results: The results clearly demonstrate that participants trained in law processed fake rights and filler words in a similar manner. Furthermore, both of these conditions elicited different levels of brain activity compared to all law-relevant terms. This was not the case in participants who had not received legal training. The brains of untrained participants processed all five term categories in a strikingly similar manner. In light of prior knowledge regarding language processing, the primary focus was on two distinct electrode locations: one in the left posterior region, and the other in the left frontal region. In both locations, the most prominent differences in brain activity elicited by the aforementioned term categories in law-trained participants occurred approximately 450 milliseconds after stimulus onset. The results were further corroborated by a repeated-measures ANOVA and subsequent t-tests, which also demonstrated the absence of this effect in law-untrained participants. Conclusions: The findings of this study provide empirical evidence that brain activity measurements, in particular ERPs, can be used to distinguish between experts trained in a specific field of expertise and novices in that field. Such findings have the potential to facilitate objective assessments of expertise, enabling comparisons between experts and novices that extend beyond traditional criteria such as qualifications and experience. Instead, individuals can be evaluated based on their cognitive processes, as observed through brain activity.

This study represents a follow-up event-related potential (ERP) analysis of a prior investigation. The previous results showed that participants had most negative-tending ERPs in the mid-frontal brain region during exposure to neutral emotion pictures (compared to negative and positive pictures) while being accompanied by a significant other person (social presence condition). The present analysis aimed at investigating potential sex differences related to this phenomenon. Female and male participants' brain activity data from the previous study were analyzed separately for one representative mid-frontal electrode location selected on the basis of having the highest significance level. As a result, only female participants showed significantly more negative-tending potentials in response to neutral pictures, compared to both other emotion categories (positive and negative) in the social presence condition. This was not found in male participants. The respective ERP effect was most dominant at 838 ms post stimulus onset, which is slightly later than the effect found in the prior study. However, this result is interpreted as evidence that the general effect from the prior study can be understood as a largely female phenomenon. In line with the prior study, the present results are interpreted as a predominantly female activation in the mid-frontal brain region in response to neutral picture stimuli while being accompanied by a significant other person (social presence condition). Although only speculative, this would align with previous studies demonstrating sex-related hormonal and structural differences in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). In general, ACC activation has been associated with an integrative weighting function in ambiguous social settings, which makes sense given the ambiguous nature of neutral pictures in combination with a social presence condition.

Especially for young people, influencers and other celebrities followed on social media evoke affective closeness that in their young minds seems real even though it is fake. Such fake friendships are potentially problematic because of their felt reality on the consumer side while lacking any inversely felt true closeness. The question arises if the unilateral friendship of a social media user is equal or at least similar to real reciprocal friendship. Instead of asking social media users for explicit responses (conscious deliberation), the present exploratory study aimed to answer this question with the help of brain imaging technology. Thirty young participants were first invited to provide individual lists including (i) twenty names of their most followed and loved influencers or other celebrities (fake friend names), (ii) twenty names of loved real friends and relatives (real friend names) as well as (iii) twenty names they do not feel any closeness to (no friend names). They then came to the Freud CanBeLab (Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience and Behavior Lab) where they were shown their selected names in a random sequence (two rounds), while their brain activities were recorded via electroencephalography (EEG) and later calculated into event-related potentials (ERPs). We found short (ca. 100 ms) left frontal brain activity starting at around 250 ms post-stimulus to process real friend and no friend names similarly, while both ERPs differed from those elicited by fake friend names. This is followed by a longer effect (ca. 400 ms), where left and right frontal and temporoparietal ERPs also differed between fake and real friend names, but at this later processing stage, no friend names elicited similar brain activities to fake friend names in those regions. In general, real friend names elicited the most negative going brain potentials (interpreted as highest brain activation levels). These exploratory findings represent objective empirical evidence that the human brain clearly distinguishes between influencers or other celebrities and close people out of real life even though subjective feelings of closeness and trust can be similar. In summary, brain imaging shows there is nothing like a real friend. The findings of this study might be seen as a starting point for future studies using ERPs to investigate social media impact and topics such as fake friendship.

The present study addresses the question of whether explicit, survey-type measures of attitude differ in sensitivity when compared to implicit, non-conscious measures of attitude in the context of attitude changes in response to evaluative conditioning (EC). In the frame of a pre-test, participants rated 300 brand names on a Likert-type scale, the results of which were then used to create personalised lists of neutral brands. After this initial online component, the participants were exposed to one, five, and ten rounds of EC (during three separate sessions), during which half of the brands were paired with pleasant audio excerpts (positive EC) and the remainder were paired with unpleasant audio excerpts (negative EC). Following each conditioning round, the participants rated the brand names again, whilst changes in the brain's electrical activity in response to the brands were recorded via electroencephalography (EEG). After having rated the brand names, the participants also completed two implicit association tests (IAT; one for each of the neutral conditions). The results revealed that self-reported, explicit responses of brand names remained unchanged despite having been conditioned. Similarly, the IAT did not reveal any declines in reaction time. In contrast, the EEG data appeared to not only be sensitive to initial brand ratings, but also the conditioning effects of initially neutral brands. Respective neurophysiological effects were found at frontal electrode locations AF3 and AF4 for a 1 s-long time window starting at 400 ms after stimulus onset. Furthermore, the EEG revealed that changes in brand attitude are more susceptible to the effects of negative conditioning than positive conditioning. Given the rather small sample size, any generalizability seems vague, but the present results provide scientific evidence that EEG could indeed be a valuable additional method to investigate EC effects. The results of this study support the notion of utilising a multidimensional approach, inclusive of neuroscience, to understanding consumer attitudes instead of solely relying on self-report measures. In the end, the brain knows more than it admits to consciousness and language, which is why objective methods should always be included in any study.

It remains an unsolved conundrum how social presence affects the neural processes involved in adaptive situation-specific decision-making mechanisms. To investigate this question, brain potential changes via electroencephalography (EEG) and skin conductance responses (SCR) were taken within this study, while participants were exposed to pre-rated pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures, which they had to rate in terms of their perceived arousal. Crucially, they had to¿in respective runs¿do this alone and in the presence of a significant other. Contrasting respective event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed significantly more negative going potentials peaking at 708 ms post stimulus onset at mid-frontal electrode locations (around FPz and AFz), when participants were exposed to neutral pictures while in the presence of a significant other. SCR results demonstrate higher states of arousal in the presence of a significant other regardless of picture emotion category. Self-reported arousal turned out to be highest in response to neutral pictures within the significant other condition, whereas in the alone condition in response to the pleasant pictures. In light of existing literature on social aspects and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the ERP finding in the significant other condition, while rating emotionally neutral pictures, is interpreted as reflecting heightened ACC activation, which is supported by electrode locations showing significant brain activity differences as well as by source localization results. Neutral pictures are inherently ambiguous, and the current results indicate the presence of another person to change the way one processes, perceives, and acts on them. This is in support for theories proposing the ACC to be part of a larger signal-specification network that gauges relevant stimuli for adequate execution of control.

The self is an increasingly central topic in current neuroscience. Understanding the neural processes that are involved in self-referential processing and functioning may also be crucial to understanding consciousness. The current short communication goes beyond the typical concept that the self is singular, as has been assumed from neuroanatomical descriptions of the self by fMRI and PET studies. Long ago, theoretically, the idea of multiple aspects of the human self-arose, highlighting a dynamic organizational structure, but an increasing number of electrophysiological brain imaging studies, searching for the temporal dynamics of self-referential brain processes, now has empirical evidence supporting their existence. This short communication focuses on the theoretical idea of a dynamic self and provides first preliminary empirical evidence, including results from own studies of the authors, in support of, and highlights the serial dynamics of the human self, suggesting a primitive Me1 and an elaborate Me2 (a non-personal and a personal self). By focusing on the temporal dimension of the self, we propose that multiple aspects of the self can be distinguished based on their temporal sequence. A multiple aspects Self Theory (MAST) is proposed. This model is meant as a theoretical framework for future studies providing further support.

The aim of this study was to investigate how a female face is perceived in terms of its attractiveness, dominance, health, femininity-masculinity, and maturity in direct relation to the body fat percentage (BFP) conveyed by the face. To compare how young adults (ages 18 to 35) respond to different levels of body fat percentage both subjectively and objectively we collected survey ratings and electroencephalography (EEG) data across five different levels of BFP from 40 participants. We adapted the experimental design from a prior behavioral study and used calibrated and morphed female face images of five different BFP levels. The results of the survey are in consensus with the previous study and assessed to be a successful replication. From the EEG data, event-related potentials (ERPs) were extracted from one electrode location (right occipitotemporal brain region) known to be particularly sensitive to face-stimuli. We found statistically significant differences in the amplitudes of the P200 component (194 ms post stimulus onset) between the thickest face and all four other BFP conditions, and in the amplitudes of the N300 component (274 ms post stimulus onset) between the average face and three other BFP conditions. As expected, there were no significant differences among the N170 amplitudes of all five BFP conditions since this ERP component simply reflects the processing of faces in general. From these results, we can infer that holistic face encoding characterized by the N170 component in the right occipitotemporal area is followed by serial evaluative processes, whose categorical and qualitative matrix and spatiotemporal dynamics should be further explored in future studies, especially in relation to the social constructs that were focused on in this study.

As we are often inundated with images of violence and pornography in modern times with the aid of mobile devices and unrestricted online access and content, the non-conscious effect of such exposure is an area of concern. To date, many clinicians and researchers in behavioral sciences rely on conscious responses from their clients to determine affective content. In doing so, they overlook the effect the non-conscious has on an individual's emotions. The present study aimed to examine variations in conscious and non-conscious responses to emotion-inducing images following varying amounts of exposure to violent and pornographic images. Eighteen participants who self-reported as being low pornography users were presented with emotion-inducing images after no exposure (Session 1), after one round of exposure to 50 pornographic and 50 violent images (Session 2) and after a further nine rounds of exposure to 50 pornographic and 50 violent images (Session 3). Sessions were temporally separated by at least 2¿days while startle reflex modulation (SRM) and scalp-recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to determine non-conscious emotion-related responses to pre-evaluated emotion pictures. Explicit valence and arousal ratings were assessed for each of those emotion pictures to determine conscious emotion effects potentially changing as a function of increasing controlled exposure to pornographic and violent visual material. Conscious explicit ratings and SRM amplitudes revealed no significant difference between the sessions. However, frontal ERP analysis revealed significant changes between processing of "violent" and "unpleasant" images at later ERP time windows, further supporting the growing body of research which shows that relying on self-report data does not result in a full understanding of emotional responses.

Evaluative conditioning (EC) effects on established liked and disliked brands were measured via self report, startle reflex modulation (SRM), heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SC), and the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Baseline measures were compared with measures taken after 1, 6, and 16 conditioning procedures. The aim was to determine how the different measures are differently sensitive to EC effects. Although self-report indicated conditioning effects already after 1 conditioning procedure and in both directions, the authors believe this to be an artifact due to a regression to the mean effect and thus reject this finding. Similarly, HR and SC did not show any sensitivity to conditioning effects. However, SRM and the IAT revealed significant conditioning effects, but more than 1 conditioning procedure were needed to cause changes. Most importantly, SRM, the only implicit measure of raw affective processing (subcortical), did show a significant EC effect after six conditioning procedures, but only in case of disliked brands turning into more liked brands. Because implicit measures are assumed to be more sensitive to deep subcortical affective processing it is concluded that this level of affective processing is more easily influenced by evaluative conditioning than higher order (cortical) processing levels. The findings are discussed in terms of different aspects of brand attitude (affective and cognitive) that seem to be differently affected by EC. Implications for marketers and advertisers are suggested.

There is little knowledge about the attitudes toward unconventional options among psychology students. The present study aimed to investigate different factors that may take part in influencing their attitudes toward expressive therapies. The study focused on gender and nationality differences, the relationship between attitude, knowledge, and behavior, and the effects of the personality trait openness to experience. An Internet-based survey with 156 American and 262 Hungarian students showed almost 80% positive attitude that was found to be related to perceived knowledge and willingness to engage in further training or future use of these therapies. Openness to experience strongly correlated with a more positive attitude. While culture did not influence the level of attitude, gender was a significant predictor in both nationality groups, with women being more positive toward expressive therapy. In the Hungarian sample, the number of years spent in education could be identified as a predictor for the level of knowledge.

In the current study, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded simultaneously with facial electromyography (fEMG) to determine whether emotional faces and emotional scenes are processed differently at the neural level. In addition, it was investigated whether these differences can be observed at the behavioural level via spontaneous facial muscle activity. Emotional content of the stimuli did not affect early P1 activity. Emotional faces elicited enhanced amplitudes of the face-sensitive N170 component, while its counterpart, the scene-related N100, was not sensitive to emotional content of scenes. At 220-280. ms, the early posterior negativity (EPN) was enhanced only slightly for fearful as compared to neutral or happy faces. However, its amplitudes were significantly enhanced during processing of scenes with positive content, particularly over the right hemisphere. Scenes of positive content also elicited enhanced spontaneous zygomatic activity from 500-750. ms onwards, while happy faces elicited no such changes. Contrastingly, both fearful faces and negative scenes elicited enhanced spontaneous corrugator activity at 500-750. ms after stimulus onset. However, relative to baseline EMG changes occurred earlier for faces (250. ms) than for scenes (500. ms) whereas for scenes activity changes were more pronounced over the whole viewing period. Taking into account all effects, the data suggests that emotional facial expressions evoke faster attentional orienting, but weaker affective neural activity and emotional behavioural responses compared to emotional scenes.

Evolution provided us with the important feature of affective information processing, which is designed to detect potentially harmful and appetitive sources in a dynamic environment. Transferred into the modern world of consumption research, we are interested in studying this particular approach versus avoidance behavior. We call it affective information processing which is the underlying basis of all emotions and a significant part of attitudes relevant to consumption. This paper provides conceptual and measurement-related reflections on our understanding of attitudes and emotions relevant to consumption.

Anecdotal reports suggest that Transcendental Meditation (TM) may be helpful for some children and young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In this perspective piece, we present six carefully evaluated individuals with diagnosed ASDs, who appear to have benefitted from TM, and offer some thoughts as to how this technique might help such individuals.

Studies using a cued gazing paradigm show that attention is reflexively shifted to the gazed-at location. However, there is disagreement as to the factors modulating attention orienting due to gaze cueing. In a series of three experiments, we investigated the role of the emotional expression of the cue (Exp. 1, 2 and 3), cue-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) (Exp. 2 and 3) and emotional valence of the target (Exp. 3) in the participants' ability to attend to the target. Experiments 1 and 3 were discrimination tasks. Participants had to differentiate between two neutral targets in Exp. 1 and between two emotionally laden targets (a "square" and a "circle" associated with positive or negative emotions) in Experiment 3. In Experiment 2, participants had to detect a single target presented at different time intervals. The results suggest that attention is oriented towards gazed locations regardless of the accompanying emotional expression, SOA and emotion target association. Thus, eye gaze-mediated attention shifts in normal healthy adults seem to be unaffected by the experimental manipulations studied herein.

Huperzine A, a selective inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, was recently demonstrated to exert an antagonist effect on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in rat cerebral cortex. In the present study, the effects of six cholinesterase inhibitors, e.g. huperzine A, huperzine B, tacrine, donepezil (E2020), physostigmine and galanthamine on [3H]dizocilpine (MK-801) binding to synaptic membrane of rat cerebral cortex were compared. Their IC50 values (mean ± SD) were 36.9±12.1, 316.8±93.2, 33.2±3.7, 135.0±15.1, 50.4±7.4, and 3344±295 µM, respectively. The rank order of potency is tacrine ~ huperzine A>physostigmine>donepezil>huperzine B>>galanthamine. There is no correlation between their activities to inhibit [3H]MK-801 binding and to inhibit acetylcholinesterase (r=+0.563, P=0.245). The results suggest that most cholinesterase inhibitors available exhibit an antagonist effect on NMDA receptor in rat cerebral cortex in addition to their inhibitory effect on acetylcholinesterase. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.