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CCBBI Talk Series

Dr. Maital Neta (University of Nebraska - Lincoln)- CCBBI Talk Series Guest Speaker
March 8, 2019
1:00PM - 2:00PM
1835 Neil Avenue, Psychology Building, Room 35

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2019-03-08 13:00:00 2019-03-08 14:00:00 CCBBI Talk Series Guest Speaker:Dr. Maital NetaUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of PsychologyTalk Title: In the face of uncertainty: Charting variability in response to emotional ambiguityAbstract: Our daily lives are saturated with affective value (e.g., a visit from a friend, the ringing of an alarm clock, a beautiful sunset, a hot cup of coffee). When we encounter new information (new people, sounds, locations, flavors), we readily sort this information into emotional valence categories: good or bad, reward or threat, approach or avoid. Facial expressions, in particular, convey rich information about another person and the environment. Some expressions are clear-cut (angry face predicts threat/avoidance), whereas others are more ambiguous, because they can readily predict both rewarding or threatening outcomes. For example, a surprised facial expression is associated with both positive (a surprise visit from an old friend) and negative (hearing that a loved one was in a car accident) information. We and others have documented a wide range of individual differences in ‘valence bias,’ or the tendency to categorize ambiguous cues (e.g., surprised faces) as having a positive or negative valence. This bias appears to represent a trait-like individual difference, as it is stable across time and across information. Interestingly, despite these individual differences, we have proposed an initial negativity hypothesis, such that ambiguous cues initially activate a negative valence representation, and that a positive representation may require a putative regulatory mechanism to override the initial negativity. In this talk, I will discuss just a few of the approaches (behavioral, neuroimaging, developmental) that we have used in the lab to examine these individual differences in valence bias and to support our initial negativity hypothesisThe CCBBI Talk Series and MRI Users Meetings foster the exchange of experience and expertise in neuroimaging among MRI users at OSU, as well as with external speakers (through the CCBBI Talk Series). The main focus is on methodological aspects of MRI research and experiment design and also serves to highlight novel approaches and topics. The meetings offer a space for a lively exchange of ideas that benefit all users, to make the best possible use of technologies available in the CCBBI.Meetings are generally held on the second Friday of every month at 1:00pm in the Psychology Building, Room 35. To receive meeting details and related MRI announcements, please complete a request form and specify that you would like to be added to the CCBBI mailing list. 1835 Neil Avenue, Psychology Building, Room 35 Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging ccbbi.service@osu.edu America/New_York public

Guest Speaker:


Dr. Maital Neta
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Psychology

Talk Title: In the face of uncertainty: Charting variability in response to emotional ambiguity

Abstract: Our daily lives are saturated with affective value (e.g., a visit from a friend, the ringing of an alarm clock, a beautiful sunset, a hot cup of coffee). When we encounter new information (new people, sounds, locations, flavors), we readily sort this information into emotional valence categories: good or bad, reward or threat, approach or avoid. Facial expressions, in particular, convey rich information about another person and the environment. Some expressions are clear-cut (angry face predicts threat/avoidance), whereas others are more ambiguous, because they can readily predict both rewarding or threatening outcomes. For example, a surprised facial expression is associated with both positive (a surprise visit from an old friend) and negative (hearing that a loved one was in a car accident) information. We and others have documented a wide range of individual differences in ‘valence bias,’ or the tendency to categorize ambiguous cues (e.g., surprised faces) as having a positive or negative valence. This bias appears to represent a trait-like individual difference, as it is stable across time and across information. Interestingly, despite these individual differences, we have proposed an initial negativity hypothesis, such that ambiguous cues initially activate a negative valence representation, and that a positive representation may require a putative regulatory mechanism to override the initial negativity. In this talk, I will discuss just a few of the approaches (behavioral, neuroimaging, developmental) that we have used in the lab to examine these individual differences in valence bias and to support our initial negativity hypothesis


The CCBBI Talk Series and MRI Users Meetings foster the exchange of experience and expertise in neuroimaging among MRI users at OSU, as well as with external speakers (through the CCBBI Talk Series). The main focus is on methodological aspects of MRI research and experiment design and also serves to highlight novel approaches and topics. The meetings offer a space for a lively exchange of ideas that benefit all users, to make the best possible use of technologies available in the CCBBI.

Meetings are generally held on the second Friday of every month at 1:00pm in the Psychology Building, Room 35. To receive meeting details and related MRI announcements, please complete a request form and specify that you would like to be added to the CCBBI mailing list.

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