Sanna Malinen

Publications (3)6.79 Total impact

• Article: Post-disaster depression and vigilance: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.

  William S Helton, Ulrike Ossowski, Sanna Malinen
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  ABSTRACT: The present study was designed to explore the relationships between post-disaster self-reports of depression, vigilance task performance, and frontal cerebral oxygenation. Forty participants (20 women) performed vigilance tasks following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. In addition to performance, we measured self-reports of depression, anxiety, and stress anchored to the initial earthquake event, and frontal cerebral activity with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Among the participants, one case may have been an outlier with extremely elevated levels of self-reported depressivity. Excluding the extreme case, there was a correlation between change in response time (response slowing) and depressivity. Including the case there was a correlation between depressivity and right hemisphere oxygenation. These results provide some support for a relationship between moderate depressivity and sustained attention difficulties.
  Experimental Brain Research 02/2013; · 2.39 Impact Factor
• Article: The effects of emotional stimuli on target detection: indirect and direct resource costs.

  Ulrike Ossowski, Sanna Malinen, William S Helton
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  ABSTRACT: The present study was designed to explore the performance costs of negative emotional stimuli in a vigilance task. Forty participants (20 women) performed a vigilance task in two conditions: one with task-irrelevant negative-arousing pictures and one with task-irrelevant neutral pictures. In addition to performance, we measured subjective state (energetic arousal, tense arousal, task-related and task-unrelated thoughts) and frontal cerebral activity with near infrared spectroscopy. Overall performance in the negative picture condition was lower than in the neutral picture condition and the negative picture condition had elevated levels of energetic arousal, tense arousal and task-related thoughts. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the impact of the negative pictures on tense arousal and task-related thoughts and the impact of the negative pictures on performance (in comparison to the neutral picture stimuli task). These results provide support for indirect cost models of negative emotional stimuli on target detection performance.
  Consciousness and Cognition 12/2011; 20(4):1649-58. · 2.31 Impact Factor
• Article: Investigating the structure of autobiographical memory using reaction times.

  Simon Kemp, Christopher D B Burt, Sanna Malinen
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  ABSTRACT: The study investigated the structure of autobiographical memory using reaction time measures. A total of 18 participants took photographs over their summer holidays and then reacted to pairs of these photographs displayed via a computer. They also subsequently sorted their photographs according to the autobiographical themes and events with which they were associated. When photographic sequence and the physical similarities in the photographs were controlled for by considering the results of "stranger" participants who were unfamiliar with the photographs, reaction times were significantly faster to pairs of photographs from the same theme or event. The results are consistent with currently held assumptions about the structure of autobiographical memory. Furthermore, the results suggest that reaction time measures may provide a valuable means by which aspects of autobiographical memory can be explored.
  Memory 08/2009; 17(5):511-7. · 2.09 Impact Factor