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A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Cognitive, Social and Affective Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2026 | Viewed by 17430

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Dr. Pasquale La Malva

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Department of Psychology, D'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, 66100 Chieti, Italy
Interests: cognitive neuropsychology; cognitive neuroscience; memory cognitive psychology; behavioral psychology
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Emotion processing plays a fundamental role in human cognition, influencing perception, memory, decision making, and social interactions. Recent advancements in cognitive neuropsychology have provided novel insights into the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying emotion processing, highlighting the interplay between affective and cognitive functions across the lifespan.

This Special Issue of Brain Sciences aims to showcase cutting-edge research on emotion processing from neuropsychological and neuroscientific perspectives. We invite contributions exploring the neural substrates of emotions, cognitive and affective interactions, emotion regulation strategies, and their implications for mental health. Studies employing neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG), psychophysiology, behavioral paradigms, non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (e.g., TMS, tDCS), and computational approaches are particularly welcome. Research focusing on age-related differences in emotion processing, including studies involving young and older participants, is highly encouraged. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the role of executive functions in emotion regulation, emotion recognition deficits in neuropsychological disorders, the impact of emotional valence on memory and attention, and the neural bases of social emotions.

By integrating multidisciplinary perspectives, this Special Issue aims to advance our understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying emotion processing across different age groups, with potential translational applications in clinical neuropsychology and affective neuroscience.

Dr. Pasquale La Malva
Guest Editor

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Keywords

emotion processing
cognitive neuropsychology
affective neuroscience
emotion regulation
executive functions
neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG)
non-invasive brain stimulation (TMS, tDCS)
psychophysiological measures
age-related differences
translational research

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 1099 KB

Open AccessArticle

Clustering Analysis of Emotional Expression, Personality Traits, and Psychological Symptoms

by Lingping Meng, Mingzheng Li and Xiao Sun

Brain Sci. 2026, 16(4), 353; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16040353 - 25 Mar 2026

Viewed by 618

Abstract

Background: This study examined age-related differences and interrelationships among psychological symptoms, personality traits, and emotional expression styles in a community sample of 151 participants aged 10–77 years, spanning four age groups: adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults. Methods: Psychological symptoms were assessed using the SCL-90, personality traits using the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2), and emotional expression patterns were derived from facial expression recognition via a convolutional neural network (CNN) model. Kruskal–Wallis H tests were used to examine age-related differences. K-means cluster analysis was applied to identify emotional expression patterns, and logistic regression was used to construct a mental health risk screening model. Results: The young adult group (19–35 years) achieved the highest scores on the depression (M = 1.73) and anxiety (M = 1.61) dimensions, indicating a higher level of psychological distress during this life stage. Personality traits showed a significant developmental trajectory: neuroticism decreased with age (H(3) = 17.09, p < 0.001, η² = 0.11), declining from 2.69 in the young adult group to 2.17 in the older adult group; conscientiousness increased with age (H(3) = 37.39, p < 0.001, η² = 0.24), representing the most substantial age-related effect. K-means clustering identified three distinct emotional expression patterns: Cluster 1 was characterised by happiness, Cluster 2 by anger, disgust, and fear, and Cluster 3 by neutrality, sadness, and surprise. Cluster 2 exhibited the highest scores on neuroticism, anxiety, depression, and mood swings, and scored significantly higher than the other two clusters on interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, and hostility (p < 0.05). Mental health risk screening indicated that 26.5% of participants were classified as high-risk. Logistic regression analysis (AUC = 0.742) showed that neuroticism was the strongest predictor of elevated mental health risk (OR = 4.58), while extraversion (OR = 0.41) and conscientiousness (OR = 0.57) were significant protective factors. Conclusions: These findings provide exploratory evidence regarding age-related patterns of psychological symptoms and personality traits in a convenience sample and offer preliminary support for personality-based mental health risk screening. Notably, the SCL-90 was employed as a screening tool rather than for clinical diagnosis. Given the unequal age group sizes, particularly the small young adult subgroup, generalisability across the lifespan should not be assumed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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18 pages, 1337 KB

Open AccessArticle

Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Study of Emotion Concept Activation in Young Adults with High Versus Low Alexithymia Traits

by Jiafeng Jia, Minggang Zhang, Xiaoying He, Zeming Chen and Xiaochun Wang

Brain Sci. 2026, 16(3), 264; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16030264 - 26 Feb 2026

Viewed by 525

Abstract

Background: Although alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in emotional processing, the underlying mechanisms remain uncertain. We hypothesized that specific deficits in activating and using emotion concepts would be associated with impairments in higher-order emotional processing in individuals with high levels of alexithymia. Methods: To elucidate these mechanisms, 20 high-alexithymia and 17 low-alexithymia young adults (M_age = 18.38, SD_age = 0.77), identified according to the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, were included in this study to examine distinct neural and behavioral features between participants with different levels of alexithymia. Participants selected target facial expressions primed by emotion concepts from interferential faces while their event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. We modulated the clarity of emotion concepts and varied the relative working-memory load of the emotion concepts versus facial features to promote top-down or bottom-up processing. Results: Behaviorally, clear emotion concepts facilitated accurate target identification in both groups. Event-related potential results show that the high alexithymia group had reduced N400 amplitudes than the low-alexithymia group in the top-down domain processing condition (mean difference of 2.75 μV, 95% CI [0.40, 5.11], Cohen’s d = 0.54), indicating reduced cognitive resource allocation for deliberately activating emotion concepts. Conclusions: These findings suggest that individuals with high alexithymia have emotion deficits, potentially due to difficulty in the deliberate activation of emotion concepts. Our findings provide theoretical and clinical implications for affective science by highlighting a possible conceptual-processing mechanism through which alexithymia may be linked to the development and persistence of comorbid affective symptoms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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21 pages, 2019 KB

Open AccessArticle

Regular Yoga Modulates Attention Bias During the Luteal Phase in Women with Premenstrual Syndrome

by Xue Li, Danyang Li, Ying Liu, Chenglin Zhou and Xiaochun Wang

Brain Sci. 2026, 16(1), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16010036 - 26 Dec 2025

Viewed by 684

Abstract

Objectives: Women with Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) tend to exhibit an excessive attention bias toward negative stimuli during the luteal phase. This study intends to investigate the effect of regular yoga on attention bias of women with PMS during the luteal phase and explore the mechanisms underlying such changes. Methods: Sixty-four women with PMS were recruited, coded and randomly assigned to either a 12-week yoga group (n = 32) or a control group (n = 32). The dot-probe task was used to assess attention bias at baseline and 12 weeks later. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 27.0 software, with analytical methods including descriptive statistics, repeated-measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA), simple effect analysis, cluster-based permutation test and Pearson correlation analysis. The Holm–Bonferroni method was used to correct for multiple comparison errors. Results: RM-ANOVA revealed significant time × group interaction effects for attention orientation, attention disengagement, P1 component, and P3 component. Simple effect analysis indicated that, compared with the control group, the yoga group exhibited significant modulations in attention orientation (t = −7.33, p < 0.001), P1 (t = 8.94, p < 0.001), attention disengagement (t = 6.89, p < 0.001), and P3 (t = 4.42, p = 0.002) after 12 weeks of intervention. Cluster-based permutation tests demonstrated that the yoga group showed significant reductions in P1 and P3 amplitudes after 12 weeks. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that attention orientation was significantly negatively correlated with P1 amplitude, while attention disengagement was significantly positively correlated with P3 amplitude. Conclusion: Regular yoga can regulate the behavioral indicators and electroencephalographic (EEG) indicators related to attention bias and exerts a positive effect on modulating attention bias toward negative stimuli in women with PMS during the luteal phase. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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33 pages, 3619 KB

Open AccessArticle

Obesity and Insulin Resistance Alter Neural Processing of Unpleasant, but Not Pleasant, Visual Stimuli in Young Adults

by Brittany A. Larsen, Brandon S. Klinedinst, Tovah Wolf, Kelsey E. McLimans, Qian Wang, Parvin Mohammadiarvejeh, Mohammad Fili, Azizi A. Seixas and Auriel A. Willette

Brain Sci. 2026, 16(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16010003 - 19 Dec 2025

Viewed by 1406

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Obesity and insulin resistance (IR) increase the risk of mood disorders, which often manifest during young adulthood. However, neuroelectrophysiological investigations of whether adiposity and IR modify electrocortical activity and emotional processing outcomes remain underexplored, particularly in young adults. Therefore, this study used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate whether obesity and/or IR moderate the relationships between brain potentials and affective processing in younger adults. Methods: Thirty younger adults completed a passive picture-viewing task utilizing the International Affective Picture System while real-time electroencephalography was simultaneously recorded. Two event-related potentials—early posterior negativity (EPN) and late positive potential (LPP)—were quantified. Affective processing parameters included mean valence ratings and stimulus-to-response-onset reaction times in response to unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral images. Body fat percentage and Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance values were measured. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was utilized to test the interrelationships between brain potentials, adiposity, IR, and affective processing. Results: In the Negative−Neutral condition, lean and insulin-sensitive participants gave less negative valence ratings to unpleasant versus neutral images when late-window LPP amplitudes were larger, whereas this relationship was reversed in participants with obesity and absent in those with IR. Contrariwise, neither obesity nor IR moderated LPP responses to affective processing parameters in the Positive−Neutral or Negative−Positive valence conditions. Additionally, obesity and IR did not moderate the links between EPN responses and affective processing parameters in any of the valence conditions. Conclusions: Lean, insulin-sensitive young adults showed attenuated affective processing of unpleasant stimuli through stronger neural responses, whereas neural responses to pleasant stimuli did not vary across levels of body fat or IR. These preliminary findings suggest that both obesity and IR increase the vulnerability to mood disorders in young adulthood. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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27 pages, 2768 KB

Open AccessArticle

Psychophysiological and Neurobiological Responses to Deception and Emotional Stimuli: A Pilot Study on the Interplay of Personality Traits and Perceived Stress

by Andrei Teodor Bratu, Gabriela Carmen Calniceanu, Florin Zamfirache, Gabriela Narcisa Prundaru, Cristina Dumitru and Beatrice Mihaela Radu

Brain Sci. 2025, 15(12), 1252; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15121252 - 21 Nov 2025

Viewed by 1674

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Deception engages both emotional and cognitive processes, yet individual variability in these responses remains insufficiently understood. This study aimed to investigate how personality traits, perceived stress, and empathic distress shape psychophysiological and neurobiological responses during deception and emotional processing. Methods: Thirty healthy young adults completed a protocol combining a deception task with emotional stimulus exposure, while heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and electroencephalographic (EEG) activity were continuously recorded. Participants were characterized using measures of Dark Triad traits, perceived stress (PSS-10), and empathic distress. Results: The results showed increased HR and reduced HRV during deceptive responses, reflecting heightened cognitive effort and autonomic arousal. In contrast, morally or socially evaluative stimuli were associated with right-frontal EEG asymmetry, suggesting engagement of emotional regulation processes. Cluster analysis revealed distinct reactivity profiles: individuals with high stress and empathic distress exhibited amplified autonomic activation and reduced cortical inhibition, whereas those with higher Machiavellianism and psychopathy displayed attenuated HR/HRV modulation and stable EEG patterns, suggestive of emotional detachment and adaptive inhibition. These findings suggest that deception is a dynamic, context-dependent process influenced by individual personality traits and stress-regulation capacities. Conclusions: The study offers valuable insights into the psychophysiological mechanisms underlying deceptive behavior, with meaningful implications for both forensic and affective neuroscience. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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17 pages, 2812 KB

Open AccessArticle

Neural Mechanisms of Role Reversal in Improvisational Music Psychodrama: An fNIRS Hyperscanning Study

by Ying Wang, Kangzhou Peng, Yueqing Zhang, Yuan Yao, Zhen Zhang, Fupei Zhao and Maoping Zheng

Brain Sci. 2025, 15(11), 1235; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15111235 - 18 Nov 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1565

Abstract

Background: The neural mechanisms underlying role-playing and role reversal in improvisational music psychodrama remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate the specific neural correlates and behavioral associations of these processes. Methods: Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning, inter-brain synchrony (IBS) was examined in 46 dyads of participants during improvisational role-playing and role reversal tasks. Behavioral changes were assessed using a negative emotion questionnaire. Results: Behavioral results indicated a significant reduction in negative emotion scores following the intervention compared to baseline. At the neural level, the role reversal task elicited significantly stronger activation in the right frontopolar area and induced higher IBS in the right supramarginal gyrus area compared to the role-playing task. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that role reversal is associated with distinct neural activation patterns and enhanced inter-brain coordination. Coupled with the observed reduction in negative emotions, this provides empirical evidence elucidating the mechanisms underlying music psychodrama. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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18 pages, 1517 KB

Open AccessArticle

MFA-CNN: An Emotion Recognition Network Integrating 1D–2D Convolutional Neural Network and Cross-Modal Causal Features

by Jing Zhang, Anhong Wang, Suyue Li, Debiao Zhang and Xin Li

Brain Sci. 2025, 15(11), 1165; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15111165 - 29 Oct 2025

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 928

Abstract

Background/Objectives: It has become a major direction of research in affective computing to explore the brain-information-processing mechanisms based on physiological signals such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). However, existing research has mostly focused on feature- and decision-level fusion, with little investigation into the causal relationship between these two modalities. Methods: In this paper, we propose a novel emotion recognition framework for the simultaneous acquisition of EEG and fNIRS signals. This framework integrates the Granger causality (GC) method and a modality–frequency attention mechanism within a convolutional neural network backbone (MFA-CNN). First, we employed GC to quantify the causal relationships between the EEG and fNIRS signals. This revealed emotional-processing mechanisms from the perspectives of neuro-electrical activity and hemodynamic interactions. Then, we designed a 1D2D-CNN framework that fuses temporal and spatial representations and introduced the MFA module to dynamically allocate weights across modalities and frequency bands. Results: Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method outperforms strong baselines under both single-modal and multi-modal conditions, showing the effectiveness of causal features in emotion recognition. Conclusions: These findings indicate that combining GC-based cross-modal causal features with modality–frequency attention improves EEG–fNIRS-based emotion recognition and provides a more physiologically interpretable view of emotion-related brain activity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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22 pages, 1806 KB

Open AccessArticle

MAMVCL: Multi-Atlas Guided Multi-View Contrast Learning for Autism Spectrum Disorder Classification

by Zuohao Yin, Feng Xu, Yue Ma, Shuo Huang, Kai Ren and Li Zhang

Brain Sci. 2025, 15(10), 1086; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15101086 - 8 Oct 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 863

Abstract

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant neurological plasticity in early childhood, where timely interventions like behavioral therapy, language training, and social skills development can mitigate symptoms. Contributions: We introduce a novel Multi-Atlas Guided Multi-View Contrast Learning (MAMVCL) framework for ASD classification, leveraging functional connectivity (FC) matrices from multiple brain atlases to enhance diagnostic accuracy. Methodology: The MAMVCL framework integrates imaging and phenotypic data through a population graph, where node features derive from imaging data, edge indices are based on similarity scoring matrices, and edge weights reflect phenotypic similarities. Graph convolution extracts global field-of-view features. Concurrently, a Target-aware attention aggregator processes FC matrices to capture high-order brain region dependencies, yielding local field-of-view features. To ensure consistency in subject characteristics, we employ a graph contrastive learning strategy that aligns global and local feature representations. Results: Experimental results on the ABIDE-I dataset demonstrate that our model achieves an accuracy of 85.71%, outperforming most existing methods and confirming its effectiveness. Implications: The proposed model demonstrates superior performance in ASD classification, highlighting the potential of multi-atlas and multi-view learning for improving diagnostic precision and supporting early intervention strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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16 pages, 643 KB

Open AccessArticle

Cross-Cultural Biases of Emotion Perception in Music

by Marjorie G. Li, Kirk N. Olsen and William Forde Thompson

Brain Sci. 2025, 15(5), 477; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15050477 - 29 Apr 2025

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 8137

Abstract

Objectives: Emotion perception in music is shaped by cultural background, yet the extent of cultural biases remains unclear. This study investigated how Western listeners perceive emotion in music across cultures, focusing on the accuracy and intensity of emotion recognition and the musical features that predict emotion perception. Methods: White-European (Western) listeners from the UK, USA, New Zealand, and Australia (N = 100) listened to 48 ten-second excerpts of Western classical and Chinese traditional bowed-string music that were validated by experts to convey happiness, sadness, agitation, and calmness. After each excerpt, participants rated the familiarity, enjoyment, and perceived intensity of the four emotions. Musical features were computationally extracted for regression analyses. Results: Western listeners experienced Western classical music as more familiar and enjoyable than Chinese music. Happiness and sadness were recognised more accurately in Western classical music, whereas agitation was more accurately identified in Chinese music. The perceived intensity of happiness and sadness was greater for Western classical music; conversely, the perceived intensity of agitation was greater for Chinese music. Furthermore, emotion perception was influenced by both culture-shared (e.g., timbre) and culture-specific (e.g., dynamics) musical features. Conclusions: Our findings reveal clear cultural biases in the way individuals perceive and classify music, highlighting how these biases are shaped by the interaction between cultural familiarity and the emotional and structural qualities of the music. We discuss the possibility that purposeful engagement with music from diverse cultural traditions—especially in educational and therapeutic settings—may cultivate intercultural empathy and an appreciation of the values and aesthetics of other cultures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Emotion Processing and Cognitive Neuropsychology)

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