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Frontal midline theta rhythm (Fmθ) appears widely distributed over medial prefrontal areas in EEG recordings, indicating focused attention. Although mental calculation is often used as an attention-demanding task, little has been reported on calculation-related activation in Fmθ experiments. In this study we used spatially filtered MEG and permutation analysis to precisely localize cortical generators of the magnetic counterpart of Fmθ, as well as other sources of oscillatory activity associated with mental calculation processing (i.e., arithmetic subtraction). Our results confirmed and extended earlier EEG/MEG studies indicating that Fmθ during mental calculation is generated in the dorsal anterior cingulate and adjacent medial prefrontal cortex. Mental subtraction was also associated with gamma event-related synchronization, as an index of activation, in right parietal regions subserving basic numerical processing and number-based spatial attention. Gamma event-related desynchronization appeared in the right lateral prefrontal cortex, likely representing a mechanism to interrupt neural activity that can interfere with the ongoing cognitive task.

Cognitive-behavioral models of social anxiety propose that self-focused attention (SFA) and other-focused attention (OFA) are central to social fear, but few studies have simultaneously investigated both in social situations. We investigated brain activity changes following manipulation of SFA and OFA during speech tasks using near-infrared spectroscopy and eye-tracking. The 39 healthy participants performed speech tasks in SFA, OFA, and control conditions. Greater oxy-Hb responses in the right frontopolar area and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for condition SFA versus control were related to the subjective measurements of SFA, and activity in the frontopolar area was positively correlated with eye movements that avoided displays of negative gestures by an audience. In the OFA condition, greater oxy-Hb responses in the left superior temporal gyrus for condition OFA versus control were related to those of OFA, although no significant eye movement pattern was observed. In sum, SFA and OFA could be captured as pretty independent attentional processes and SFA might have more effects in social fear in the present experimental setting.

ABSTRACT Purpose In research to assess emotions from biometric signals, participants are asked to evaluate the emotions they subjectively experienced to confirm whether the assumed emotions were actually elicited. However, the evaluation of emotion may influence the biometric signals related to the emotion itself. While such evaluative processes may function as a form of emotion regulation, which is known to modulate emotional experiences, the neural mechanisms and effects of evaluation itself remain unclear. Specifically, the temporal dynamics of how these evaluations affect emotion‐related brain activity in electroencephalography (EEG) have not been investigated. Based on theories of emotional processing and self‐focused attention, we hypothesized that emotion evaluations would enhance emotional processing as reflected in frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) through both immediate attentional effects and sustained self‐focused attention. Method We measured a 29‐channel EEG in 40 healthy participants who were presented with unpleasant and highly arousing images. Participants were assigned to either an experimental group that performed the task with subjective evaluation followed by without subjective evaluation, or a control group that performed the task without subjective evaluation twice. This design allowed us to examine both immediate effects of evaluation and its lasting influence on subsequent emotional processing. Finding The results revealed that FAA was significantly lower during emotional evaluation compared to conditions without subjective evaluation, particularly during stimulus processing (300–500 ms). This early modulation suggests that evaluation automatically engages attentional processes, may reflect enhanced negative emotional processing as well as the activation of behavioral inhibition system through self‐focused attention. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the emotional evaluation procedure itself can significantly alter early emotion‐related brain activity, providing insights into how self‐focused emotional evaluation engages both emotional and motivational processes. These findings suggest the need for methodological reconsiderations in EEG emotion estimation studies. Frontal alpha asymmetry, a measure of relative frontal brain activity, was significantly lower in the condition in which participants rated their own emotions compared to the condition in which they did not, when presented with unpleasant and highly arousing images. This result indicates evaluating self‐emotion amplifies emotion‐related brain activity. This study provides a cautionary note regarding the use of such evaluations in EEG emotion estimation studies.

The purpose of this study was to examine how 2 forms of self‐focused attention, self‐reflection and self‐rumination, influence career anxiety. The authors hypothesized that the association between these 2 types of self‐focused attention and career anxiety would be mediated by career adaptability on the basis of a career construction model of adaptation. The participants were 326 undergraduate students in South Korea. The results of this study supported the hypothesized mediation model by indicating significant indirect effects of self‐reflection and self‐rumination on career anxiety via career adaptability. The direct effect of self‐rumination on career anxiety was significant (B = .44, p < .01), but the direct effect of self‐reflection on career anxiety was not significant (B = –.05, p > .05). The authors discuss implications for counselors to help college students manage career anxiety by encouraging and supporting increased career adaptability. Future research to examine the cross‐cultural validity of the current findings is needed.

Affective states are closely linked to attention to internal aspects of the self (i.e., self-focused attention). We investigated how self-focused attention induced by emotional experiences affects memory for subsequently presented information. Prior to incidental encoding of affectively neutral target words, participants were induced to feel shame or anger through autobiographical recall (vs. no emotion-induction control condition). Memory for words (item memory) and their associated contextual features (source memory) were subsequently assessed. Self-focused attention, measured by the private self-consciousness scale, was highest in the shame condition, followed by the anger and then control conditions. Item memory was significantly impaired in the shame condition compared to both the anger and control conditions, and self-focused attention negatively mediated the effect of emotion condition on memory performance. Source memory did not significantly differ across the emotion conditions, and we discuss possible factors contributing to this null finding. Our findings suggest that emotion-induced self-focused attention may reduce attentional resources available for encoding task-relevant external information.

In the cognitive-behavioral model of social anxiety disorder, fear of negative evaluation by others, estimated social cost, self-focused attention, and perceived anxiety control are considered the key maintaining components in a social situation. This study examined the relationship between cognitive biases and social anxiety symptoms using a cross-sectional design. All of the 309 participants were Japanese individuals with social anxiety disorder at outpatient medical institutions. The hypothesized model’s path analysis was conducted. The models assumed that fear of negative evaluation by others affected the relationship between each cognitive bias and that biases influenced social anxiety symptoms. The best-fit model by path analysis showed that self-focused attention and perceived anxiety control have the influence on cost/probability bias and cost bias highly affected social anxiety symptoms. These results indicate cognitive biases may function to maintain social anxiety symptoms. Hence, a reduction in cost bias can be effective in improving excessive anxiety in social situation.

Increased ruminative style of thought has been well documented in borderline personality disorder (BPD); however, less is known about how the content of rumination relates to domains of BPD features. Relationships between forms of rumination and BPD features were examined in an undergraduate sample with a wide range of BPD features. Participants completed self-report measures of rumination and a free-writing task about their repetitive thought. Rumination on specific themes, including anger rumination, depressive brooding, rumination on interpersonal situations, anxious rumination, and stress-reactive rumination were significantly associated with most BPD features after controlling for general rumination. Coded writing samples suggested that BPD features are associated with repetitive thought that is negative in valence, difficult to control, prolonged, unhelpful, and unresolved. Although rumination is often described as a form of self-focused attention, BPD relationship difficulties were correlated with greater other-focus in the writing samples, which may reflect more interpersonal themes. Across both self-reports and the writing task, the BPD feature of self-destructive behavior was associated specifically with anger and hostility, suggesting this content may play a particularly important role in fueling impulsive behavior. These findings suggest that both the style and the content of repetitive thought may play a role in BPD features.

The current study investigated the mediation effect of self-focused attention on the relationship between South Korean novice counselors’ perfectionism and psychological burnout. We also examined whether cognitive emotion regulation strategies moderated the mediation effect of self-focused attention with a sample of 208 South Korean novice counselors. Moderated mediation was tested with the PROCESS 2.16.3 macro for SPSS and the index of moderated mediation. Bootstrapping analyses were used to examine the mediation effect of self-focus on the relationship between perfectionism and psychological burnout. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was also conducted to examine the moderation of emotion regulation strategies. Findings indicate that self-focused attention partially mediated the relationship between perfectionism and psychological burnout. Moreover, the indirect effect of perfectionism on psychological burnout through self-focused attention varied depending on levels of adaptive emotion regulation strategies. We present implications for counseling and suggestions for future research in an international context.

Human behaviour is encoded and decoded through language. The latter acts as a marker in conceptualising the symptomatic effect of depression and stress. Based on this premise, this study reviewed the results and findings of both qualitative and quantitative research literature on the discourse of depressive patients and which was published between 2010 to 2020. A total of 80 research articles were examined and evaluated for interpretation using the Framework of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Out of these, 25 articles were finalised for analysis and synthesis. The findings on linguistic indicators correlating to depression were interpreted based on (i) prevalent linguistic markers, (ii) the research design, (iii) the significance of the context, and (iv) the limitations of findings across studies that foil establishing the generalizability of linguistic markers. Although function and content words (first-person singular pronouns, negative emotional words) as markers are strongly associated with cognitive symptoms (self-focused attention) of depression, results across studies vary. It is observed that depressive individuals also used the third-person singular (he, she) and plural pronouns (they) while accusing others of referring to negative affect. These findings contribute to the literature on mental health by establishing a correlation between linguistic features and psychological symptoms of depression.

Premenstrual disorders, which include premenstrual dysphoric disorder and premenstrual syndrome involve cyclically occurring affective, behavioral, and physical symptoms. Despite high comorbidity rates and symptom overlap with mood and anxiety disorders, there has been a lack of research investigating psychological constructs that contribute to etiology and/or maintenance of premenstrual disorders. The current study hypothesized that self-focused attention (SFA) on emotional and somatic symptoms may contribute to premenstrual distress. Participants were 61 women, including 29 women with a premenstrual disorder (PMD subgroup) and 32 controls. Participants rated symptoms and SFA responses each day for 30 days. Findings indicated that women in the PMD group reported greater use of SFA responses to symptoms compared to the control group, and during the premenstrual compared to intermenstrual phases. SFA partially mediated the relationship between menstrual cycle phase and symptoms. The interaction between physiological menstrual cycle changes and psychological contributions provides a more comprehensive explanation for premenstrual disorders, and future research is warranted to clarify this relationship.