Ferran Balada

• Professor (Full) at Autonomous University of Barcelona

This study investigated prefrontal cortex activity during the viewing and evaluation of pictures depicting scenarios with varying levels of danger, with a focus on the modulatory effects of personality traits and decision-making styles. The study sample included 120 male participants (44.4 ± 12.9 years) and 87 female participants (38.9 ± 10.5 years...

The literature has described how different and independent personality profiles (pathways or motives) lead to the same outcome: alcohol misuse. In addition, decision-making styles could also play a role in understanding alcohol misuse better, although the evidence is much more scarce compared to personality traits. The present paper aims to test ho...

This study compares the Melbourne Decision-Making Questionnaire (MDMQ) and the General Decision-Making Style questionnaire (GDMS), two of the most widely used decision-making questionnaires in the literature, in a large age- and sex-weighted general population sample of 714 men (45.7%) and 848 women (54.3%) between 18 and 90 years old. The objectiv...

Background: Road safety improvement is a governmental priority due to driver-caused accidents. Driving style variation affects safety, with emotional regulation being pivotal. However, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies show inconsistent prefrontal cortex activity during emotion processing. This study examines prefrontal cortex r...

Background: Road safety improvement is a governmental priority due to driver-caused accidents. Driving styles variation affects safety, with emotional regulation being pivotal. However, functional Near-Infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies show inconsistent prefrontal cortex activity during emotion processing. This study examines prefrontal cortex...

This study compares the Melbourne Decision-Making Questionnaire (MDMQ) and the General Decision-Making Style (GDMS), two of the most widely used decision-making questionnaires in the literature, in a large age- and sex-weighted general population sample of 714 men (45.7%) and 848 women (54.3%) between 18 and 90 years old. The objective was to evalu...

This study compares the Melbourne Decision-Making Questionnaire (MDMQ) and the General Decision-Making Style (GDMS), two of the most widely used decision-making questionnaires in the literature, in a large age- and sex-weighted general population sample of 714 men (45.7%) and 848 women (54.3%) between 18 and 90 years old. The objective was to evalu...

Background This study was designed to examine the prevalence and relationships between the Internet gaming disorder (IGD) behaviors, suggested by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), and personality traits. Participants and procedure A sample community of 1,548 subjects, 707 men and 841 women, with a mean age of 40.90...

This study was designed to examine the relationships among the impulsivity construct as a personality trait, the dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), and testosterone in a sample of 120 healthy middle-aged males (Mage = 44.39; SD = 12.88). The sum of the three BIS-11 scales, the SR, and the five UPPS-P scales correlated with DHEA-S 0.23 (p < 0....

The current manuscript presents the convergence of the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP-BQ), using its short form the DAPP-90, and the Five-Factor Personality Inventory for International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the FFiCD, in the context of the five-factor personality model and the categorical approach of personalit...

This study was designed to examine the relationships among the impulsivity construct as a personality trait, the dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), and testosterone in a sample of 120 healthy middle-aged males. (Mage = 44.39; SD = 12.88). The sum of the three BIS-11 scales, the SR and the five UPPS-P scales correlated with DHEA-S .23 (p < .00...

The cross-cultural factor invariance of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) structure, and its relationships with the HEXACO personality model were analyzed in a large Spanish community sample. The effect of age, gender, and social position on the observed relationships was also investigated. The four-factor structure of the HSQ was largely invari...

The present study was planned to study the relationships between age, personality (according to Zuckerman’s and Gray’s psychobiological models) and decision-making styles in relation to risky driving behaviors. The participants were habitual drivers, 538 (54.3%) men and 453 (45.7%) women, with a mean age around 45 years and mainly of middle socioec...

This study focused on inspecting the relationship between impulsivity traits, salivary dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) concentrations, and moderate alcohol consumption in healthy subjects. In previous studies, impulsivity has been related to alcohol consumption and androgens. Limited research has focused on the sulfated form of DHEA-S and a...

Available data indicate that the frequency of Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) has been increasing over the years. Although there is some debate as to whether or not this behavior corresponds to true addiction, comorbidity has been found with problematic outcomes typically related to traditional addictions. Thus, there is interest in better underst...

This study explores the relationship between decision-making style, as measured by the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, and personality based on alternative five-factor model along with effect of age, sex and social position on such styles. A large sample of community and undergraduate students (n = 1,562; Mage = 40.03, SD = 18.43) was anal...

VII Jornada de la Asociación Iberoamericana para la Investigación de las Diferencias Individuales (AIIDI). Castellón, 4-5 de novembre, 2020. Spain.

VII Jornada de la Asociación Iberoamericana para la Investigación de las Diferencias Individuales (AIIDI). Castellón, 4-5 de novembre, 2020.

VII Jornada de la Asociación Iberoamericana para la Investigación de las Diferencias Individuales (AIIDI). Castellón, 4-5 de novembre, 2020.

This research studies the relationship between Alexithymia, behavioural, biometric, biochemical and cardiovascular risk in clinical and healthy samples. There were 602 participants (mean age of 52.82 ± 10.59) divided into two groups. The first was made up of 202 patients (165 males and 37 females) who had suffered a cardiovascular disease (CVD), wh...

The Prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been highly related to executive functions such as working memory (WM). This study assesses the activity of the PFC in performing the Sternberg WM task (ST) with three levels of difficulty (easy, medium and hard) using the near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technique. Participants were 43 young and healthy right-hand...

This study re-explores the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MetS), according to IDF and NCEP criteria, and personality and psychopathological variables. We studied trait anger, type A behavior, type D personality, alexithymia, Zuckerman's personality dimensions, anxiety, somatization, depression, and hostility. The sample was 410 males (M a...

The current research was designed to assess possible differences in the emotional content of pleasant and unpleasant face emoji using acoustically evoked eyeblink startle reflex response. Stimuli were selected from Emojipedia Webpage. First, we assessed these stimuli with a previous independent sample of 190 undergraduate students (46 males and 144...

The aim of this study was to explore the prefrontal cortex response to emotional salient stimuli in subjects with high scores in Neuroticism (and low in Sensation Seeking) or high scores in Sensation Seeking (and low in Neuroticism) personality traits, -called now Neuroticism and Sensation Seeking groups-. For this purpose, we selected 24 females (...

INTRODUCTION: The Near Infrared Functional Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a suitable technique for measuring activations in the Prefrontal Cortex (CPF) through changes in the hemoglobin oxygenation. Previous studies showed how the CPF is involved in the processing of emotional stimuli. The emotional processing is also related to different personality fact...

The modulation of the eyeblink component of the acoustic startle reflex (ASR) has been used to study human motivation, attention, and emotion towards affective stimuli of different valence. However, sex and individual differences in personality have been rather overlooked concerning the change in the ASR to brief affective sequences. In this study,...

Neuroticism and Sensation Seeking are part of temperament that contribute to later personality. Both traits are related with internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders. Neuroticism and Sensation Seeking are also associated with different genetic polymorphisms in several studies. In this research, we evaluated the...

The development of information and communication technologies has stimulated a variety of data and informational resources about human behavior. This is contributing toward collaborative efforts in the formalization and systematization of an overwhelming volume of scientific information. Several tools are helpful for this endeavor, among which the...

The goal was to study the individual contribution of a set of independent genetic markers previously associated to human personality. According to our hypothesis, a multilocusanalysis would create a better predictive panel, allowing us to explain a significantly higher proportion of the variance of the genetic component of the two personality dimen...

Men and women affective reactions differ in accordance with emotional stimuli. Men are more reactive to pleasant pictures whereas women are more reactive to unpleasant pictures (Bradley et al., 2001; Gard et al., 2007). Individual differences in personality have also been related with the habituation of the startle reflex (Blanch et al., 2014) and...

The expression of emotion in the face-to-face interaction depends of the non verbal cues. These cues or signals are not present in text-based computer mediated communication. The emoji play a role as emotional substitutes in non-verbal communication, which suggests facial expressions, and therefore can improve the emotional information [1]. Ganster...

The habituation of the acoustic startle reflex (ASR) was examined concerning individual differences in sensitivity to punishment (PUN) and sensitivity to reward (REW), within the general framework of the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality. Two hypotheses derived from the RST were evaluated: the separable subsystems hypothesis and...

This study has been designed to evaluate and replicate the psychometric properties of the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Psychopathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ) and the DAPP-BQ short form (DAPP-SF) in a large Spanish general population sample. Additionally, we have generated a reduced form called DAPP-90, using a strategy based on a st...

The present study analyses the relationship between Anxiety and Impulsivity personality factors and emotions, by controlling for country and sex effects in a sample of Spanish and Swiss university students. Emotions were assessed through the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) of pictures (valence/ arousal) using the Self-Assessment Manik...

The magnitude and habituation of startle reflex responses have been used to evaluate the excitability of the neural structures involved in this psychophysiological response. We analyzed the magnitude and habituation responses to startle reflex probes in 112 women. Results confirmed the modulation of eyeblink reflex by affective valence for arousing...

The present study aimed to replicate the previous relationship between the Zuckerman personality model and the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ) and to evaluate the contribution of the facets and factors from Zuckerman's new instrument Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) versus the...

This work describes an experiment about startle reflex and individual differences in personality with the application of the Presentation and AcqKnowledge software. First, Presentation was useful for the design of the display and timing of a set of pictures from the IAPS (International Affective Picture System) that modulated the elicitation of the...

Thyroid hormones are essential for normal brain development and very important in the normal functioning of the brain. Thyroid hormones action in the adult brain has not been widely studied. The effects of adult hyperthyroidism are not as well understood as adult hypothyroidism, mainly in hippocampal granular cells. The purpose of the present study...

This study investigates the effect of thyroid hormones on the morphology of hippocampal neurons in adult rats. Hypo- and hyperthyroidism were induced by adding 0.02% methimazole and 1% l-thyroxine, in drinking water from 40 days of age, respectively. When the rats were 89 days old their brains were removed and stained by a modified Golgi method and...

Previous studies have documented a decrease in the ability of neonatal hypothyroid animals to learn and habituate to maze tests, and an increase in spontaneous activity. However, there is little information about the effects of perinatal (i.e., prenatal and postnatal) hypothyroidism on behaviour. The present study was designed to assess whether per...

Thyroid hormone is essential for proper development of the mammalian CNS. Previous studies have documented a decrease in the ability of neonatal hypothyroid animals to learn and to habituate to maze tests and an increase in spontaneous activity. However, there is little information about the effects of perinatal (i.e. perinatal and postnatal) hypot...

The aim of the present study was to determine the influence of thyroid function on the activity and exploratory behaviour of male Wistar rats. Dysthyroidism was induced by adding drugs to their drinking water from the ninth day of gestation. This method is not as stressful as daily thyroxine injections or thyroidectomy, and therefore did not affect...

The aim of the present study was to determine the influence of thyroid hormones on the anxiety of male Wistar rats. Dysthyroidism was induced by adding 20 mg of methimazole (100 ml) to their drinking water or by adding 0.3 mg of L-thyroxine (100 ml) to their drinking water from the ninth day of gestation. After weaning, the drugs were administered...

The effects of age on active and passive social interaction were studied in Wistar rats using the social interaction test (S.I.T.). Individual behaviors such as ambulation, rearing, and defecation were also studied. Despite the widespread use of the S.I.T. in anxiety research, the effects of age on the S.I.T. have not been studied thoroughly. Male...

Several studies have shown the relevance of the neuroendocrinological system in the development and function of the nervous system. In order to observe the influence of thyroid hormones during development on the behaviour of adult rats we induced dysthyroid states during the perinatal period. Results indicate that some behaviours are more susceptib...

Recent studies have shown different relationships between hormones and personality in humans, including a relationship between prolactin levels and impulsivity. The aim of the present work was to study the relationships between basal levels of prolactin and some measures of activity and emotional reactivity in rats. One of the most consistent resul...

The present study focused on exploring the relationship between a number of personality measures (Sensation Seeking Scale, SSS; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI; and Susceptibility to Punishment Scale, SP) and some parameters of the pituitary-gonadal axis (FSH, LH and 17 beta-estradiol). The study was carried out with a group of 37 female volunt...

This work is a review about psychoendocrinologic aspects of aggressive behavior. We have considered two approaches, the classical view focused on hormonal influences in the regulation of aggression and the most recent view which accounts for the influences of aggressive behavior and social status on hormonal secretion. In this review we differentia...

The present study explores the relationships among a number of personality measures (the Sensation-Seeking Scale, SSS; the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Susceptibility to Punishment Scale) and some parameters of the pituitary-thyroid axis. The study was carried out on a group of 37 physically and mentally fit female volunteers, none of who...