Leroy Lowe - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Leroy Lowe
In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there ha... more In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there has been substantial research on incorporating some affective categories into linguistic analysis (e.g. sentiment, and to a lesser extent, emotion), the more diverse category of human feelings has thus far not been investigated. We surveyed the extensive interdisciplinary literature around feelings to construct a working definition of what constitutes a feeling and propose 9 broad categories of feeling. We identified potential feeling words based on their pointwise mutual information with morphological variants of the word `feel' in the Google n-gram corpus, and present a manual annotation exercise where 317 WordNet senses of one hundred of these words were categorised as `not a feeling' or as one of the 9 proposed categories of feeling. We then proceeded to annotate 11386 WordNet senses of all these words to create WordNet-feelings, a new affective dataset that identifies 3664 wor...
Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environmen... more Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environment: focus on the cancer hallmark of tumor angiogenesis
ArXiv, 2018
In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there ha... more In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there has been substantial research on incorporating some affective categories into linguistic analysis (e.g. sentiment, and to a lesser extent, emotion), the more diverse category of human feelings has thus far not been investigated. We surveyed the extensive interdisciplinary literature around feelings to construct a working definition of what constitutes a feeling and propose 9 broad categories of feeling. We identified potential feeling words based on their pointwise mutual information with morphological variants of the word `feel' in the Google n-gram corpus, and present a manual annotation exercise where 317 WordNet senses of one hundred of these words were categorised as `not a feeling' or as one of the 9 proposed categories of feeling. We then proceeded to annotate 11386 WordNet senses of all these words to create WordNet-feelings, a new affective dataset that identifies 3664 wor...
Environmental Health Perspectives
Background: People are exposed to numerous chemicals throughout their lifetimes. Many of these ch... more Background: People are exposed to numerous chemicals throughout their lifetimes. Many of these chemicals display one or more of the key characteristics of carcinogens or interact with processes described in the hallmarks of cancer. Therefore, evaluating the effects of chemical mixtures on cancer development is an important pursuit. Challenges involved in designing research studies to evaluate the joint action of chemicals on cancer risk include the time taken to perform the experiments because of the long latency and choosing an appropriate experimental design. Objectives: The objectives of this work are to present the case for developing a research program on mixtures of environmental chemicals and cancer risk and describe recommended approaches. Methods: A working group comprising the coauthors focused attention on the design of mixtures studies to inform cancer risk assessment as part of a larger effort to refine the key characteristics of carcinogens and explore their application. Working group members reviewed the key characteristics of carcinogens, hallmarks of cancer, and mixtures research for other disease end points. The group discussed options for developing tractable projects to evaluate the joint effects of environmental chemicals on cancer development. Results and Discussion: Three approaches for developing a research program to evaluate the effects of mixtures on cancer development were proposed: a chemical screening approach, a transgenic model-based approach, and a disease-centered approach. Advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8525
Both genetic and environmental factors can play a role in an individual’s cancer susceptibility, ... more Both genetic and environmental factors can play a role in an individual’s cancer susceptibility, and lifestyle-related factors have been a primary focus of our prevention efforts for several decades. However, advances in our understanding of cancer causation have resulted in additional concerns being raised about exposures to chronic, low-level exposures to combinations of chemicals. In this project, a large multinational task force comprised of twelve teams was organized to review 11 hallmark phenotypes of cancer and identify priority target sites for disruption in each area. Prototypical chemical disruptors for all targets were then identified, and dose-response information was gathered. Evidence of low-dose effects for each chemical was noted and cross-hallmark effects for all targets and chemicals were documented. In total, 85 examples of chemicals were reviewed for actions on key pathways/mechanisms related to carcinogenesis. Only 15% (13/85) were found to have evidence of a do...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
Reviews on Environmental Health
In 2013, 60 scientists, representing a larger group of 174 scientists from 26 nations, met in Hal... more In 2013, 60 scientists, representing a larger group of 174 scientists from 26 nations, met in Halifax, Nova Scotia to consider whether – using published research – it was logical to anticipate that a mixture of chemicals, each thought to be non-carcinogenic, might act together in that mixture as a virtual carcinogen. The group identified 89 such chemicals, each one affecting one or more Hallmark(s) – collectively covering all Hallmarks of Cancer – confirming the possibility that a chemical mixture could induce all the Hallmarks and function as a virtual carcinogen, thereby supporting the concern that chemical safety research that does not evaluate mixtures, is incomplete. Based on these observations, the Halifax Project developed the Low-Dose Carcinogenesis Hypothesis which posits “…that low-dose exposures to [mixtures of] disruptive chemicals that are not individually carcinogenic may be capable of instigating and/or enabling carcinogenesis.” Although testing all possible combinati...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Our research team was asked to consider the relationship of the neuroscience of sensorimotor cont... more Our research team was asked to consider the relationship of the neuroscience of sensorimotor control to the language of emotions and feelings. Actions are the principal means for the communication of emotions and feelings in both humans and other animals, and the allostatic mechanisms controlling action also apply to the regulation of emotional states by the self and others. We consider how motor control of hierarchically organised, feedback-based, goal-directed action has evolved in humans, within a context of consciousness, appraisal and cultural learning, to serve emotions and feelings. In our linguistic analysis, we found that many emotion and feelings words could be assigned to stages in the sensorimotor learning process, but the assignment was often arbitrary. The embodied nature of emotional communication means that action words are frequently used, but that the meanings or senses of the word depend on its contextual use, just as the relationship of an action to an emotion is also contextually dependent.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduce... more Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduced walking speed, and slumped posture. Ancient subcortical circuitry provides a neuroanatomical foundation, extending from dorsal periaqueductal grey to subgenual anterior cingulate, the latter of which is now a treatment target in disorders of sadness. Electrophysiological studies further emphasize a role for reduced left relative to right
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
The role of peripheral physiology in the experience of emotion has been debated since the 19th ce... more The role of peripheral physiology in the experience of emotion has been debated since the 19th century following the seminal proposal by William James that somatic responses to stimuli determine subjective emotion. Subsequent views have integrated the forebrain's ability to initiate, represent and simulate such physiological events. Modern affective neuroscience envisions an interacting network of "bottom-up" and "top-down" signaling in which the peripheral (PNS) and central nervous systems both receive and generate the experience of emotion. "Feelings" serves as a term for the perception of these physical changes whether emanating from actual somatic events or from the brain's representation of such. "Interoception" has come to represent the brain's receipt and representation of these actual and "virtual" somatic changes that may or may not enter conscious awareness but, nonetheless, influence feelings. Such information can originate from diverse sources including endocrine, immune and gastrointestinal systems as well as the PNS. We here examine physiological feelings from diverse perspectives including current and historical theories, evolution, neuroanatomy and physiology, development, regulatory processes, pathology and linguistics.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
fekerD usnne nd fr¤ sherD enneEuthrin nd fnnisterD ott nd fens(D woustf nd glmEfirlingD hestny nd... more fekerD usnne nd fr¤ sherD enneEuthrin nd fnnisterD ott nd fens(D woustf nd glmEfirlingD hestny nd ghnD ymond gFuF nd ierolD uoms nd illingsenD hnEwikel nd perdenziD gmille nd rnsonD tmie vF nd to0lyD wteus nd vidhrD xvdeep uF nd voweD veroy tF nd wrtinD voren tF nd wusserD iri hF nd xollErussongD wihel nd ylinoD homs wF nd intos vooD osrio nd ngD i @PHIWA 9he role of hedonis in the rumn e'etomeF9D xeurosiene ioehviorl reviewsFD IHP F ppF PPIEPRIF
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Arousing information is oriented toward automatically and benefits from rapid processing. Priorit... more Arousing information is oriented toward automatically and benefits from rapid processing. Prioritization of processing (Pessoa, 2005) Arousing information is more likely to be prioritized for processing than neutral information. Cue-Utilization Hypothesis (Easterbrook, 1959) As emotional arousal increases, there is a restriction in the range of cues that are used or attended. Encoding and post-encoding Post-Stimulus Elaboration (Christianson, 1992) Arousing information is elaborated and rehearsed. Memory Trade-Offs; Weapon-Focus Effect (Barrett, 2006; Loftus et al., 1987) Some aspects of an arousing event are remembered well, at the expense of other aspects. Arousal Biased Competition (Mather and Sutherland, 2011) Arousal creates a "winner-take-more" state, biasing processing toward the information that gains high priority via bottom-up or top-down influences. Mediation Theory of Emotional Memory Enhancement (Talmi, 2013) Arousal re-allocates attentional and organizational resources. Emotional Binding (Yonelinas and Ritchey, 2015) Item-emotion binding by amygdala leads to slower forgetting than item-context binding by hippocampus. Storage Memory Modulation (McGaugh, 2000) Arousal activates the amygdala and engages adrenergic and cortisol systems to promote memory storage. Retrieval Response Bias (Dougal and Rotello, 2007) Arousal causes individuals to be more liberal in endorsing a memory. Subjective Sense of Recollection (Phelps and Sharot, 2008) Amygdala engagement during retrieval biases individuals to experience a sense of recollection.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths among women aged 40-55 in the ... more Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths among women aged 40-55 in the United States and currently affects more than one in ten women worldwide. It is also one of the most diagnosed cancers in women both in wealthy and poor countries. Fortunately, the mortality rate from breast cancer has decreased in recent years due to increased emphasis on early detection and more effective treatments in White population. Although the mortality rates have declined in some ethnic populations, the overall cancer incidence among African American and Hispanic populations has continued to grow. The goal of the present review article was to highlight similarities and differences in breast cancer morbidity and mortality rates primarily among African American women compared to White women in the United States. To reach our goal, we conducted a search of articles in journals with a primary focus on minority health, and authors who had published articles on racial/ethnic disparity related to breast cancer patients. A systematic search of original research was conducted using MEDLINE, PUBMED and Google Scholar databases. We found that racial/ethnic disparities in breast cancer may be attributed to a large number of clinical and non-clinical risk factors including lack of medical coverage, barriers to early detection and screening, more advanced stage of disease at diagnosis among minorities, and unequal access to improvements in cancer treatment. Many African American women have frequent unknown or unstaged breast cancers than White women. These risk factors may explain the differences in breast cancer treatment and survival rate between African American women and White women. New strategies and approaches are needed to promote breast cancer prevention, improve survival rate, reduce breast cancer mortality, and ultimately improve the health outcomes of racial/ethnic minorities.
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Jan 20, 2016
In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there ha... more In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there has been substantial research on incorporating some affective categories into linguistic analysis (e.g. sentiment, and to a lesser extent, emotion), the more diverse category of human feelings has thus far not been investigated. We surveyed the extensive interdisciplinary literature around feelings to construct a working definition of what constitutes a feeling and propose 9 broad categories of feeling. We identified potential feeling words based on their pointwise mutual information with morphological variants of the word `feel' in the Google n-gram corpus, and present a manual annotation exercise where 317 WordNet senses of one hundred of these words were categorised as `not a feeling' or as one of the 9 proposed categories of feeling. We then proceeded to annotate 11386 WordNet senses of all these words to create WordNet-feelings, a new affective dataset that identifies 3664 wor...
Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environmen... more Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environment: focus on the cancer hallmark of tumor angiogenesis
ArXiv, 2018
In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there ha... more In this article, we present the first in depth linguistic study of human feelings. While there has been substantial research on incorporating some affective categories into linguistic analysis (e.g. sentiment, and to a lesser extent, emotion), the more diverse category of human feelings has thus far not been investigated. We surveyed the extensive interdisciplinary literature around feelings to construct a working definition of what constitutes a feeling and propose 9 broad categories of feeling. We identified potential feeling words based on their pointwise mutual information with morphological variants of the word `feel' in the Google n-gram corpus, and present a manual annotation exercise where 317 WordNet senses of one hundred of these words were categorised as `not a feeling' or as one of the 9 proposed categories of feeling. We then proceeded to annotate 11386 WordNet senses of all these words to create WordNet-feelings, a new affective dataset that identifies 3664 wor...
Environmental Health Perspectives
Background: People are exposed to numerous chemicals throughout their lifetimes. Many of these ch... more Background: People are exposed to numerous chemicals throughout their lifetimes. Many of these chemicals display one or more of the key characteristics of carcinogens or interact with processes described in the hallmarks of cancer. Therefore, evaluating the effects of chemical mixtures on cancer development is an important pursuit. Challenges involved in designing research studies to evaluate the joint action of chemicals on cancer risk include the time taken to perform the experiments because of the long latency and choosing an appropriate experimental design. Objectives: The objectives of this work are to present the case for developing a research program on mixtures of environmental chemicals and cancer risk and describe recommended approaches. Methods: A working group comprising the coauthors focused attention on the design of mixtures studies to inform cancer risk assessment as part of a larger effort to refine the key characteristics of carcinogens and explore their application. Working group members reviewed the key characteristics of carcinogens, hallmarks of cancer, and mixtures research for other disease end points. The group discussed options for developing tractable projects to evaluate the joint effects of environmental chemicals on cancer development. Results and Discussion: Three approaches for developing a research program to evaluate the effects of mixtures on cancer development were proposed: a chemical screening approach, a transgenic model-based approach, and a disease-centered approach. Advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8525
Both genetic and environmental factors can play a role in an individual’s cancer susceptibility, ... more Both genetic and environmental factors can play a role in an individual’s cancer susceptibility, and lifestyle-related factors have been a primary focus of our prevention efforts for several decades. However, advances in our understanding of cancer causation have resulted in additional concerns being raised about exposures to chronic, low-level exposures to combinations of chemicals. In this project, a large multinational task force comprised of twelve teams was organized to review 11 hallmark phenotypes of cancer and identify priority target sites for disruption in each area. Prototypical chemical disruptors for all targets were then identified, and dose-response information was gathered. Evidence of low-dose effects for each chemical was noted and cross-hallmark effects for all targets and chemicals were documented. In total, 85 examples of chemicals were reviewed for actions on key pathways/mechanisms related to carcinogenesis. Only 15% (13/85) were found to have evidence of a do...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
Reviews on Environmental Health
In 2013, 60 scientists, representing a larger group of 174 scientists from 26 nations, met in Hal... more In 2013, 60 scientists, representing a larger group of 174 scientists from 26 nations, met in Halifax, Nova Scotia to consider whether – using published research – it was logical to anticipate that a mixture of chemicals, each thought to be non-carcinogenic, might act together in that mixture as a virtual carcinogen. The group identified 89 such chemicals, each one affecting one or more Hallmark(s) – collectively covering all Hallmarks of Cancer – confirming the possibility that a chemical mixture could induce all the Hallmarks and function as a virtual carcinogen, thereby supporting the concern that chemical safety research that does not evaluate mixtures, is incomplete. Based on these observations, the Halifax Project developed the Low-Dose Carcinogenesis Hypothesis which posits “…that low-dose exposures to [mixtures of] disruptive chemicals that are not individually carcinogenic may be capable of instigating and/or enabling carcinogenesis.” Although testing all possible combinati...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Our research team was asked to consider the relationship of the neuroscience of sensorimotor cont... more Our research team was asked to consider the relationship of the neuroscience of sensorimotor control to the language of emotions and feelings. Actions are the principal means for the communication of emotions and feelings in both humans and other animals, and the allostatic mechanisms controlling action also apply to the regulation of emotional states by the self and others. We consider how motor control of hierarchically organised, feedback-based, goal-directed action has evolved in humans, within a context of consciousness, appraisal and cultural learning, to serve emotions and feelings. In our linguistic analysis, we found that many emotion and feelings words could be assigned to stages in the sensorimotor learning process, but the assignment was often arbitrary. The embodied nature of emotional communication means that action words are frequently used, but that the meanings or senses of the word depend on its contextual use, just as the relationship of an action to an emotion is also contextually dependent.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduce... more Sadness is typically characterized by raised inner eyebrows, lowered corners of the mouth, reduced walking speed, and slumped posture. Ancient subcortical circuitry provides a neuroanatomical foundation, extending from dorsal periaqueductal grey to subgenual anterior cingulate, the latter of which is now a treatment target in disorders of sadness. Electrophysiological studies further emphasize a role for reduced left relative to right
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
The role of peripheral physiology in the experience of emotion has been debated since the 19th ce... more The role of peripheral physiology in the experience of emotion has been debated since the 19th century following the seminal proposal by William James that somatic responses to stimuli determine subjective emotion. Subsequent views have integrated the forebrain's ability to initiate, represent and simulate such physiological events. Modern affective neuroscience envisions an interacting network of "bottom-up" and "top-down" signaling in which the peripheral (PNS) and central nervous systems both receive and generate the experience of emotion. "Feelings" serves as a term for the perception of these physical changes whether emanating from actual somatic events or from the brain's representation of such. "Interoception" has come to represent the brain's receipt and representation of these actual and "virtual" somatic changes that may or may not enter conscious awareness but, nonetheless, influence feelings. Such information can originate from diverse sources including endocrine, immune and gastrointestinal systems as well as the PNS. We here examine physiological feelings from diverse perspectives including current and historical theories, evolution, neuroanatomy and physiology, development, regulatory processes, pathology and linguistics.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
fekerD usnne nd fr¤ sherD enneEuthrin nd fnnisterD ott nd fens(D woustf nd glmEfirlingD hestny nd... more fekerD usnne nd fr¤ sherD enneEuthrin nd fnnisterD ott nd fens(D woustf nd glmEfirlingD hestny nd ghnD ymond gFuF nd ierolD uoms nd illingsenD hnEwikel nd perdenziD gmille nd rnsonD tmie vF nd to0lyD wteus nd vidhrD xvdeep uF nd voweD veroy tF nd wrtinD voren tF nd wusserD iri hF nd xollErussongD wihel nd ylinoD homs wF nd intos vooD osrio nd ngD i @PHIWA 9he role of hedonis in the rumn e'etomeF9D xeurosiene ioehviorl reviewsFD IHP F ppF PPIEPRIF
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Arousing information is oriented toward automatically and benefits from rapid processing. Priorit... more Arousing information is oriented toward automatically and benefits from rapid processing. Prioritization of processing (Pessoa, 2005) Arousing information is more likely to be prioritized for processing than neutral information. Cue-Utilization Hypothesis (Easterbrook, 1959) As emotional arousal increases, there is a restriction in the range of cues that are used or attended. Encoding and post-encoding Post-Stimulus Elaboration (Christianson, 1992) Arousing information is elaborated and rehearsed. Memory Trade-Offs; Weapon-Focus Effect (Barrett, 2006; Loftus et al., 1987) Some aspects of an arousing event are remembered well, at the expense of other aspects. Arousal Biased Competition (Mather and Sutherland, 2011) Arousal creates a "winner-take-more" state, biasing processing toward the information that gains high priority via bottom-up or top-down influences. Mediation Theory of Emotional Memory Enhancement (Talmi, 2013) Arousal re-allocates attentional and organizational resources. Emotional Binding (Yonelinas and Ritchey, 2015) Item-emotion binding by amygdala leads to slower forgetting than item-context binding by hippocampus. Storage Memory Modulation (McGaugh, 2000) Arousal activates the amygdala and engages adrenergic and cortisol systems to promote memory storage. Retrieval Response Bias (Dougal and Rotello, 2007) Arousal causes individuals to be more liberal in endorsing a memory. Subjective Sense of Recollection (Phelps and Sharot, 2008) Amygdala engagement during retrieval biases individuals to experience a sense of recollection.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths among women aged 40-55 in the ... more Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths among women aged 40-55 in the United States and currently affects more than one in ten women worldwide. It is also one of the most diagnosed cancers in women both in wealthy and poor countries. Fortunately, the mortality rate from breast cancer has decreased in recent years due to increased emphasis on early detection and more effective treatments in White population. Although the mortality rates have declined in some ethnic populations, the overall cancer incidence among African American and Hispanic populations has continued to grow. The goal of the present review article was to highlight similarities and differences in breast cancer morbidity and mortality rates primarily among African American women compared to White women in the United States. To reach our goal, we conducted a search of articles in journals with a primary focus on minority health, and authors who had published articles on racial/ethnic disparity related to breast cancer patients. A systematic search of original research was conducted using MEDLINE, PUBMED and Google Scholar databases. We found that racial/ethnic disparities in breast cancer may be attributed to a large number of clinical and non-clinical risk factors including lack of medical coverage, barriers to early detection and screening, more advanced stage of disease at diagnosis among minorities, and unequal access to improvements in cancer treatment. Many African American women have frequent unknown or unstaged breast cancers than White women. These risk factors may explain the differences in breast cancer treatment and survival rate between African American women and White women. New strategies and approaches are needed to promote breast cancer prevention, improve survival rate, reduce breast cancer mortality, and ultimately improve the health outcomes of racial/ethnic minorities.
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Jan 20, 2016