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Extraversion is comprised of agentic and affiliative components, which are characterized by distinct positive emotional states of positive activation and warmth-affection, respectively. This study examined these positive emotions using the International Affective Picture System, a standardized set of pictures used to induce emotion. Compared to response to neutral pictures, the following target emotions were induced: (1) affiliative pictures induced warmth-affection and pleasantness, (2) agentic pictures induced positive activation, pleasantness, and arousal, (3) high arousal nonagentic pictures induced pleasantness and arousal, and (4) low arousal nonaffiliative pictures induced pleasantness. As previously demonstrated (Morrone, J. V., Depue, R. A., Scherer, A. J., & White, T. L. (2000). Film-induced incentive motivation and positive activation in relation to agentic and affiliative components of extraversion. Personality and Individual Differences, 29(2), 199–216; Morrone-Strupinsky, J. V. & Depue, R. A. (2004). Differential relation of two distinct, film-induced positive emotional states to affiliative and agentic extraversion. Personality and Individual Differences, 36(5), 1109–1126), agentic picture-induced positive affective ratings were significantly related to a trait measure of social potency, but not to other extraversion scales. The results support a multicomponent conceptualization of the extraversion trait, where agentic and affiliative components are associated with distinctive positive emotional experience.

The analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data has typically relied on univariate methods to identify areas of brain activity related to cognitive and behavioral task performance. We investigated the ability of multivariate network analysis using a modified form of principal component analysis, the Scaled Subprofile Model (SSM), applied to single-subject fMRI data to identify patterns of interactions among brain regions over time during an anatomically well-characterized simple motor task. We hypothesized that each subject would exhibit correlated patterns of brain activation in several regions known to participate in the regulation of movement including the contralateral motor cortex and the ipsilateral cerebellum. EPI BOLD images were acquired in six healthy participants as they performed a visually and auditorally paced finger opposition task. SSM analysis was applied to the fMR time series on a single-subject basis. Linear combinations of the major principal components that predicted the expected hemodynamic response to the order of experimental conditions were identified for each participant. These combinations of SSM patterns were highly associated with the expected hemodynamic response, an indicator of local neuronal activity, in each participant (0.84/= R(2)/= 0.97, all P's0.0001). As predicted, the combined pattern in each subject was characterized most prominently by relatively increased activations in contralateral sensorimotor cortex and ipsilateral cerebellum. Additionally, all subjects showed areas of relatively decreased activation in the ipsilateral sensorimotor cortex and contralateral cerebellum. The application of network analysis methods, such as SSM, to single-subject fMRI data can identify patterns of task-specific, functionally interacting brain areas in individual subjects. This approach may help identify individual differences in the task-related functional connectivity, track changes in task-related patterns of activity within or between fMRI sessions, and provide a method to identify individual differences in response to treatment.

Extraversion is comprised of two major components, referred to as agency and affiliation, which are characterized by two different types of positive emotional states of incentive motivation–positive activation and warmth–affection, respectively (Depue & Collins, 1999). In response to the lack of film material targeting these different positive emotional states, a set of films was previously developed that significantly induces a state of incentive motivation–positive activation (Morrone, Depue, Scherer, & White, 2000). In the present study, due to a paucity of methods that specifically induce warmth and affection, dynamic film material was developed that activates such subjective experience. Affiliative film-induced increases in warmth and affection ratings were significantly related to a trait measure of affiliative extraversion [Tellegen's MPQ Social Closeness scale (r=0.39, P

Recently we argued that a core process underlying the trait of extraversion is positive incentive motivation, an association that particularly characterizes the agentic as opposed to the affiliative component of extraversion (Depue & Collins, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22 , 1–79, 1999). Due to a paucity of methods that specifically induce incentive motivation–positive activation (as opposed to solely amusement and pleasantness), this study developed dynamic film material that activates such subjective experience. Moreover, the films represent three levels of magnitude of induced incentive motivation–positive activation, ranging from minimal to moderate to strong. Therefore, individual differences in film-induced positive activation could be expressed as a stimulus intensity–response function via the slope of positive activation ratings across the range of incentive magnitudes. Film-induced reactivity in positive activation, as opposed to pre-film basal positive activation, was preferentially related to extraversion. Moreover, the slope of post-film positive activation across films, reflecting a stimulus intensity–response function, was more robustly related to overall estimates of extraversion ( r =0.34, p r =0.32, p r =0.18, p =0.09) component of extraversion. The findings suggest that a unitary concept of extraversion may be incorrect, and that further research is necessary to characterize the nature of agentic and affiliative components of the trait. The film method reported herein provides one means of investigating the incentive motivation–positive activation nature of extraversion.

Emotion is information about the extent to which goals are being met in interaction with the environment. Keywords: emotion; brain; amygdala; consciousness; neuroimaging

It is accepted that pharmacological treatment of recent-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) in order to reset sinus rhythm restoration, if effective and safe, is doubtless the favourite approach, since it is preferred by patients over electrical cardioversion. Nonetheless, it must be remembered that the placebo effect is very consistent (> 50% at 12–24 h) for AF duration of 48 h or less. Also, class I and class III antiarrhythmic drugs are not equivalent, and should be used according to their electrophysiological and pharmacokinetic properties and to their effect on cardiac inotropism, which must be strictly connected to the clinical condition of the patient. Pharmacological treatment can be carried out either intravenously or per os; and the availability of orally administered drugs has made it possible for some AF patients to treat themselves at home. There are three main factors that must be taken into consideration in choosing the appropriate drug for AF cardioversion: the duration of the arrhythmia, the clinical context in which it takes place, and the ventricular function. AF duration is also the most important factor influencing the possibility of sinus rhythm restoration. The present review discusses two types of AF: AF of less than 48-h duration and AF of more than 48-h duration. According to the guidelines of the American College of Chest Physicians, in AF of < 48-h duration, antithrombotic treatment can be avoided due to a low thromboembolic risk linked with cardioversion (< 1%) [1].

Because little is known about the human trait of affiliation, we provide a novel neurobehavioral model of affiliative bonding. Discussion is organized around processes of reward and memory formation that occur during approach and consummatory phases of affiliation. Appetitive and consummatory reward processes are mediated independently by the activity of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA)-nucleus accumbens shell (NAS) pathway and the central corticolimbic projections of the u-opiate system of the medial basal arcuate nucleus, respectively, although these two projection systems functionally interact across time. We next explicate the manner in which DA and glutamate interact in both the VTA and NAS to form incentive-encoded contextual memory ensembles that are predictive of reward derived from affiliative objects. Affiliative stimuli, in particular, are incorporated within contextual ensembles predictive of affiliative reward via: (a) the binding of affiliative stimuli in the rostral circuit of the medial extended amygdala and subsequent transmission to the NAS shell; (b) affiliative stimulus-induced opiate potentiation of DA processes in the VTA and NAS; and (c) permissive or facilitatory effects of gonadal steroids, oxytocin (in interaction with DA), and vasopressin on (i) sensory, perceptual, and attentional processing of affiliative stimuli and (ii) formation of social memories. Among these various processes, we propose that the capacity to experience affiliative reward via opiate functioning has a disproportionate weight in determining individual differences in affiliation. We delineate sources of these individual differences, and provide the first human data that support an association between opiate functioning and variation in trait affiliation.

commentary on our target article centers around six main topics: (1) strategies in modeling the neurobehavioral foundation of human behavioral traits; (2) clarification of the construct of affiliation; (3) developmental aspects of affiliative bonding; (4) modeling disorders of affiliative reward; (5) serotonin and affiliative behavior; and (6) neural considerations. after an initial important research update in section r1, our response is organized around these topics in the following six sections, r2 to r7.

For patients undergoing cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter (AF1) the risk of thromboembolism ranged from 1.6% up to 7% in casecontrol series [1–4]. In uncontrolled and nonrandomized studies, anticoagulation decreases the risk of an embolic event after cardioversion to less than 1.6% [3–5].

In a review about atrial flutter, published in 1992, in the section concerning anticoagulant therapy, Olshansky et al. [1] concluded as follows: “A consensus has not yet been reached about the need for anticoagulation in patients with atrial flutter. It is not possible to make a rational judgement about the need for anticoagulation for patients with atrial flutter based on present data”.

The indisputed advantages of the pharmacological cardioversion of recent onset atrial fibrillation (good and at times high efficacy, action rapid and often during drug infusion, very good patient compliance, no need for hospitalization) have stimulated the interest of several authors to test both the efficacy of antiarrhythmic drugs and the possible preferential indications for each of them. In our opinion, there are three main factors that must be taken into consideration in choosing the kind of drug for atrial fibrillation (AF) cardioversion: 1) arrhythmia duration, 2) the clinical context in which it takes place, 3) ventricular function.

The clinical use of class IC antiarrhythmic drugs and amiodarone during the last 10 years has represented a great achievement in the restoration of the sinus rhythm during atrial fibrillation (AF) of recent onset. In fact, the advantages of the pharmacologic treatment depend not only on the effectiveness of these drugs (quinidine, a very old drug, has also shown an effectiveness in the range of 30% – 91%), but much more on the velocity of the sinus rhythm restoration, often during the intravenous infusion of the drug. This avoids patient hospitalization. The drugs mainly employed in the treatment of AF are 1A and 1C antiarrhythmic agents, amiodarone, and sometimes verapamil, beta-blocking agents, and digoxin. Clinical practice suggests that the appropriate drug be chosen in each individual situation. However, before discussing the different clinical situations in which AF may occur, we must emphasize that to our knowledge no homogeneous, controlled, and randomized studies in large groups of patients that suggest the correct way of treating this arrhythmia have been performed. In fact, in all the studies patients the group were heterogenous as far as the etiology of heart disease and the duration of AF were different. In our opinion, however, it is possible to suggest some guidelines about the clinical use of different drugs in different patients using our knowledge of the electrophysiologic and hemodynamic properties of drugs, their effectiveness, and side effects occurring in clinical practice. Regarding cardioversion, if we take into account anticoagulant prophylaxis, it is useful to divide AF in-to AF of recent onset (less than 3 days) and prolonged AF (more than 3 days). In fact, according to the College of Chest Physicians (1), AF with a duration longer than 3 days needs to be treated with anticoagulant drugs for at least 3 weeks before cardioversion. Therefore, this practice identifies two groups of patients with AF: the first group can be treated within 3 days, and the second cannot be treated before 3 weeks. It is well known that AF duration is the main factor conditioning the probability of sinus rhythm restoration (2). As we now have several drugs whose effectiveness may be different according to AF duration, it follows that AF duration is one of the main factors determining the choice of drug.

This corrects the article on p. 365 in vol. 48, PMID: 29737640., (Copyright © 2018. The Korean Society of Cardiology.)