In our lead up to #ICA25, we are providing information about papers that received Top Paper awards from the Communication Science and Biology (CSaB) Interest Group. Each paper received exceptionally high scores from reviewers. These papers reflect outstanding scholarship in CSaB. Today’s Top Paper features Yuqian (Neil) Ni, Yuki Yuxian Lin, Robert F. Potter, & Thomas W. James’ paper: “Revisiting Negativity Bias with Numerically Symmetrical Stimuli in a Dynamic Environment: A Psychophysiology and Neuroimaging Study”. Be sure to check out the paper at #ICA25.
In a few short sentences, what is your study about?
We studied how the human body and brain respond differently to appetitive and aversive stimuli in a video game setting. The dynamic and interactive nature of our task benefits ecological validity. Additionally, with our customized game, we were able to precisely design the appetitive and aversive stimuli to be numerically symmetrical, which addresses previous concerns of appetitive and aversive stimuli often carry different intensity levels.
How did you come up with the idea for this line of research?
This line of research is guided by our deep interest in understanding humans’ approach-avoidance behaviors and the underlying neural mechanisms in dynamic environments. We were also inspired by recent innovations in communications (e.g., Lee & Eden, 2023) and neuroscience (e.g., Levitas & James, 2024) that used video games as stimuli to address this type of questions.
Anything else you would like to add?
We believe that customized video game is a powerful tool for studying human behavior and cognition because we have full control of environmental parameters, which allows us to systematically and precisely manipulate stimuli while maintaining a dynamic and engaging experience.
Tell us more about the team!
We are researchers based at three US universities: Indiana University Bloomington, University of Georgia Athens, and The Ohio State University. We love psychophysiology, neuroimaging, and video games!