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Several previous studies have interfered with the observer’s facial mimicry during a variety of facial expression recognition tasks providing evidence in favor of the role of facial mimicry and sensorimotor activity in emotion processing. In this theoretical context, a particularly intriguing facet has been neglected, namely whether blocking facial mimicry modulates conscious perception of facial expressions of emotions. To address this issue, we used a binocular rivalry paradigm, in which two dissimilar stimuli presented to the two eyes alternatingly dominate conscious perception. On each trial, female participants (N = 32) were exposed to a rivalrous pair of a neutral and a happy expression of the same individual through anaglyph glasses in two conditions: in one, they could freely use their facial mimicry, in the other they had to keep a chopstick between their lips, constraining the mobility of the zygomatic muscle and producing ‘noise’ for sensorimotor simulation. We found that blocking facial mimicry affected the perceptual dominance in terms of cumulative time favoring neutral faces, but it did not change the time before the first dominance was established. Taken together, our results open a door to future investigation of the intersection between sensorimotor simulation models and conscious perception of emotional facial expressions.

People use their previous experience to predict future affective events. Since we live in ever-changing environments, affective predictions must generalize from past contexts (from which they may be implicitly learned) to new, potentially ambiguous contexts. This study investigated how past (un)certain relationships influence subjective experience following new ambiguous cues, and whether past relationships can be learned implicitly. Two S1-S2 paradigms were employed as learning and test phases in two experiments. S1s were colored circles, S2s negative or neutral affective pictures. Participants (Experiment 1 N = 121, Experiment 2 N = 116) were assigned to the certain (CG) or uncertain group (UG), and they were presented with 100% (CG) or 50% (UG) S1-S2 congruency during an uninstructed (Experiment 1) or implicit (Experiment 2) learning phase. During the test phase both groups were presented with a new 75% S1-S2 paradigm, and ambiguous (Experiment 1) or unambiguous (Experiment 2) S1s. Participants were asked to rate the expected valence of upcoming S2s (expectancy ratings), or their experienced valence and arousal (valence and arousal ratings). In Experiment 1 ambiguous cues elicited less negative expectancy ratings, and less unpleasant valence ratings, independently of prior experience. In Experiment 2, both groups showed similar expectancies, predicting upcoming pictures’ valence according to the 75% contingencies of the test phase. Overall, we found that in the presence of ambiguous cues subjective affective experience is dampened, and that implicit previous experience does not emerge at the subjective level by significantly shaping reported affective experience.

The dynamic and context-appropriate shift between maintaining and updating goal-relevant information in working memory (WM) is believed to be governed by a fronto-striatal gating system. This system regulates the entry of information into WM, by deciding which information should be allowed in and which information should be prevented from entering WM. Prior research suggests that acute stress may impact WM functioning and associated cortical and subcortical regions. However, it remains unclear which specific component processes of WM are affected by acute stress. Here we used the reference-back paradigm to disentangle potential effects of acute stress on WM maintenance, updating, gate opening, and gate closing processes. Ninety-six participants completed the task twice: once at baseline and again while undergoing either a stress or control manipulation, in a between-subjects design. While no stress effects emerged for reaction times, acute stress detrimentally impacted accuracy on trials requiring WM maintenance. Drift diffusion modeling revealed that acute stress reduced overall drift rates (information processing speed), with larger group differences on maintenance trials. No effects emerged for response caution. To contextualize our findings, we conducted a meta-analysis (42 studies, 2008 participants, 210 effects). WM tasks were categorized by key demands: maintenance only, maintenance + overcoming competition, and maintenance + updating. The meta-analysis revealed impaired accuracy in tasks requiring both maintenance and updating, like the reference-back paradigm in our own study, but not tasks without updating demands. Collectively, our findings suggest that acute stress impacts response accuracy but not speed, and only in tasks with both maintenance and updating demands.

Death anxiety (DA), apprehension when thinking about death, has long been associated with distress. Studies have suggested that DA may transdiagnostically contribute to mental disorders. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis, aiming to estimate the relationship between DA and distress or symptoms of mental disorders. The included studies reported the correlation between DA and distress or symptoms of mental disorders, across general population and clinical samples, using previously validated measures for all outcomes. PsychInfo and the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection (via EBSCO), Embase, and Medline (via PubMed) were systematically searched up to 30 October 2023. Study quality was evaluated with the Study Quality Assessment Tools (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute). A total of 129 studies were included, reporting on 158 independent samples, for a total of 34,147 participants. Most studies were rated as poor quality. The findings indicated consistently positive associations between DA and distress outcomes (general anxiety: r  = 0.42, P  < 0.001; depression: r  = 0.41, P  < 0.001; distress: r  = 0.36, P  < 0.001). Heterogeneity was substantial, and prediction intervals crossed zero for all outcomes, except for anxiety and distress. We found no moderation by DA measure, sample type or the proportion of women in the sample. However, the association was stronger ( t (35.37) = −2.055, P  = 0.047) when medical conditions were present ( r  = 0.48, P  < 0.001) than when they were absent ( r  = 0.37, P  < 0.001). There was evidence of small-study effects, indicating possible publication bias. DA should be investigated in longitudinal studies across diverse samples of patients to clarify its contribution to psychopathology. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the relationship between death anxiety and distress or symptoms of mental disorders. The findings suggest consistently positive associations between death anxiety and distress outcomes.