Manas K. Mandal

Emotional processing in schizophrenia across cultures: standardized measures of discrimination and experience

Schizophrenia appears quite similar across a range of cultures. However, variability has been noted, and understanding the variant and invariant features of the disorder is necessary for elucidating its biological and environmental basis. Evidence of prominent emotion processing deficits in schizophrenia, including perceptual and experiential aspects, led us to extend the paradigm of standardized measures cross-culturally. We assessed performance of American, German, and Indian patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls on standardized emotion discrimination and experience (mood induction) procedures using happy, sad, and neutral facial expressions of Caucasian actors. Participants were 80 Americans (40 patients; 40 controls), 48 Germans (24 patients; 24 controls), and 58 Indians (29 patients; 29 controls). Face discrimination performance was impaired across patient groups, but was most impaired in those of Indian origin. Lower performance was also found in Indian controls, relative to their American and German counterparts. Mood induction produced weaker effects in all patient groups relative to their respective controls. The results supported the feasibility of cross-cultural comparisons and also emphasized the importance of poser ethnic background for facial affect identification, while poser ethnicity was less consequential for mood induction effects. Emotion processing deficits in schizophrenia may add to the clinical burden, and merit further examination.

Right Brain Damage Impairs Recognition of Negative Emotions

Patients with right or left hemisphere-damage and normal control groups were asked to judge facial emotions from photographs presented in two orientations--upright, inverted. Responses were elicited with a matching and a verbal labelling task. Normal controls were significantly superior in the judgment of facial emotions than left hemisphere-damaged patients, who in turn were significantly superior than right hemisphere-damaged patients. Negative-aroused (fear, anger) and negative-nonaroused (sadness, disgust) facial expressions were recognized with significantly greater accuracy by left hemisphere-damaged patients compared to right hemisphere-damaged patients; the group difference in performance was nonsignificant for positive (happiness, surprise) emotions.

Effects of lesion variables and emotion type on the perception of facial emotion.

The purpose of this study was to consider the effects of valence, motoric direction (i.e., approach/withdrawal), and arousal on the perception of facial emotion in patients with unilateral cortical lesions. We also examined the influence of lesion side, site, and size on emotional perception. Subjects were 30 right-hemisphere-damaged (RHD) and 30 left-hemisphere-damaged (LHD) male patients with focal lesions restricted primarily to the frontal, temporal, or parietal lobe. Patient groups were comparable on demographic and clinical neurological variables. Subjects were tested for their ability to match photographs of four facial emotional expressions: happiness, sadness, fear, and anger. Overall, RHD patients were significantly more impaired than LHD patients in perceiving facial emotion. Lesion side, but not site, was associated with motoric direction and valence dimensions. RHD patients had specific deficits relative to LHD patients in processing negative and withdrawal emotions; there were no group differences for positive/approach emotions. Lesion size was not significantly correlated with accuracy of emotional perception.

Cross-cultural alexithymia: Development and validation of a Hindi translation of the 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale

The possibility that alexithymia may be a culture-bound construct was evaluated by developing a Hindi version of the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and assessing its psychometric properties in a sample of 285 normal young adults in India. The Hindi version of the scale (TAS-20-H) showed excellent cross-language equivalence with the English version. In addition, the TAS-20-H demonstrated adequate internal consistency, good test-retest reliability, and a three-factor structure consistent with the three-factor model of the original scale.

Responses to facial emotion and psychopathology

Schizophrenics, anxious-neurotics, and nonpatient controls were asked to recognize facial affect in photographs depicting six emotions and a neutral expression. The time elapsed between presentation of the photograph and response to it was also noted. Schizophrenics were significantly less accurate at judging the expressed affect and had the largest mean response time compared to others. Preference to interact with the type of affect expressions was also analyzed. Happy and neutral expressions were chosen, while fearful and angry expressions were rejected by neurotic and control subjects. Schizophrenics were largely inconsistent in their choice.

Solid State Flexible Asymmetric Supercapacitor Based on Carbon Fiber Supported Hierarchical Co(OH)xCO3 and Ni(OH)2

Conducting flexible carbon fiber (CF) cloth was used as a substrate for the hydrothermal growth of nickel hydroxide (Ni(OH)2) and cobalt hydroxy carbonate [Co(OH)xCO3] with unique hierarchical flowery architecture and then was used as a flexible supercapacitor electrode. In a three-electrode configuration in 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte, the CF-Ni(OH)2 and CF-Co(OH)xCO3 electrode showed the maximum specific capacitance of 789 F/g and 550 F/g, respectively, at 2A/g current accompanied by outstanding cycle stability by retaining 99.9% and 99.5% specific capacitance over 1500 consecutive charge-discharge cycles at 5 A/g. However, the low cell voltage (0.4 V) restricted the respective specific energy to 4.38 and 3.05 Wh/kg at a specific power of 100 W/kg. To overcome the issue, two solid state flexible asymmetric supercapacitors were fabricated using the CF-Ni(OH)2 and CF-Co(OH)xCO3 as the anode and sonochemically deposited CNT over carbon fiber as the cathode material in PVA-KOH gel electrolyte. The as-fabricated flexible supercapacitors CF-Ni(OH)2//CF-CNT and CF-Co(OH)xCO3//CF-CNT were able to deliver high specific energy of 41.1 and 33.48 Wh/kg, respectively, at high specific power of 1.4 kW/kg accompanied by excellent cycle stability (retaining 98% and 97.6% specific capacitance, respectively, over 3000 charge-discharge cycle at 5 A/g).

Laterality of facial expressions of emotion: Universal and culture-specific influences

Recent research indicates that (a) the perception and expression of facial emotion are lateralized to a great extent in the right hemisphere, and, (b) whereas facial expressions of emotion embody universal signals, culture-specific learning moderates the expression and interpretation of these emotions. In the present article, we review the literature on laterality and universality, and propose that, although some components of facial expressions of emotion are governed biologically, others are culturally influenced. We suggest that the left side of the face is more expressive of emotions, is more uninhibited, and displays culture-specific emotional norms. The right side of face, on the other hand, is less susceptible to cultural display norms and exhibits more universal emotional signals.

Bilateral transfer of skill in left- and right-handers.

Bilateral transfer of skill as a function of speed and accuracy was examined in self-classified left-handed (n = 20) and right-handed (n = 40) subjects. Two transfer conditions (non-preferred to preferred hand, preferred to non-preferred hand) were manipulated in a mirror-drawing task and data were treated with Groups (left, right hander) × Transfer type (speed, accuracy) × Side (non-preferred to preferred hand, preferred to non-preferred hand) mixed factorial ANOVA with repeated measure in Transfer and Side factors. Percentage of bilateral transfer (First 5 trials−Last 5 trials/First 5 trials × 100) was the dependent measure. Left and right-handers did not differ in the magnitude of bilateral transfer. Bilateral transfer was greater (a) from non-preferred to preferred side as compared to the reverse, and (b) was greater with respect to speed but not with accuracy.

Lateral asymmetry in identification and expression of facial emotions

Abstract Ninety normal subjects were asked to identify, in a split-plot repeated measures design, photographs displaying facial expression of four negative emotions, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust, presented tachistoscopically. Experimental manipulations involved in visual field (left-right), hemiface composition of expression (normal representation or right-left, left-left, right-right), and task (matching labelling). A left visual field (LVF) superiority was found for identifying the facial emotions; and sad facial emotion was identified with greatest accuracy followed by fear, disgust, and anger. The main effects of facial composite and task remained nonsignificant. However, a taskwise analysis of the data revealed that normal facial representations (RL) were identified with greater accuracy than left-left (LL) or right-right (RR) facial composites in matching task.

Polyaniline-wrapped 1D CoMoO4·0.75H2O nanorods as electrode materials for supercapacitor energy storage applications

In this study, a simple and cost effective one-pot hydrothermal process has been carried out for the synthesis of 1D CoMoO4·0.75H2O nanorods. A binary composite of CoMoO4·0.75H2O/PANI has also been synthesized by the in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline with virgin CoMoO4·0.75H2O. Two types of PANI morphologies have been demonstrated: amorphous nanodimensional PANI uniformly coated on CoMoO4·0.75H2O nanorods, and interconnected hollow spheres like PANI inside the bulk material. The prepared CoMoO4·0.75H2O/PANI composite was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for the phase and formation, respectively. The surface morphology was investigated by using FESEM and TEM, which revealed the formation of the CoMoO4·0.75H2O/PANI composite. The electrochemical characterization of the pseudocapacitive CoMoO4·0.75H2O and CoMoO4·0.75H2O/PANI composites in 1 M Na2SO4 showed the highest specific capacitances of 285 F g−1 and 380 F g−1, respectively, at a current density of 1 A g−1. The cyclic stability test demonstrated the specific capacitance retention of about 90.4% after 1000 consecutive charge–discharge cycles at a constant current density of 1 A g−1, which is also higher than that of virgin CoMoO4·0.75H2O—86.3% retention of specific capacitance.