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The stomach-derived hormone ghrelin motivates food search and stimulates food consumption, with highest plasma concentrations before a meal and lowest shortly after. However, ghrelin also appears to affect the value of non-food rewards such as interaction with rat conspecifics, and monetary rewards in humans. The present pre-registered study investigated how nutritional state and ghrelin concentrations are related to the subjective and neural responses to social and non-social rewards.In a cross-over feed-and-fast design, 67 healthy volunteers (20 women) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a hungry state and after a meal with repeated plasma ghrelin measurements. In task 1, participants received social rewards in the form of approving expert feedback, or non-social computer reward. In task 2, participants rated the pleasantness of compliments and neutral statements.Nutritional state and ghrelin concentrations did not affect the response to social reward in task 1. In contrast, ventromedial prefrontal cortical activation to non-social rewards was reduced when the meal strongly suppressed ghrelin. In task 2, fasting increased activation in the right ventral striatum during all statements, but ghrelin concentrations were neither associated with brain activation nor with experienced pleasantness. Complementary Bayesian analyses provided moderate evidence for a lack of correlation between ghrelin concentrations and behavioral and neural responses to social rewards, but moderate evidence for an association between ghrelin and non-social rewards.This suggests that ghrelin’s influence may be restricted to non-social rewards. Social rewards implemented via social recognition and affirmation may be too abstract and complex to be susceptible to ghrelin’s influence. In contrast, the non-social reward was associated with the expectation of a material object that was handed out after the experiment. This may indicate that ghrelin might be involved in anticipatory rather than consummatory phases of reward.

Two event-related brain potential (ERP) components elicited during feedback processing are the frontocentral feedback-related negativity (FRN), followed by the posterior P300. According to the Error-Related Reinforcement Learning Theory (Holroyd & Coles, 2002), the FRN amplitude is largest when the outcome is negative and unexpected. Complementing this, studies on the subsequent P300 have often reported larger amplitudes for positive than negative outcomes. In an influential ERP study, Hajcak et al., (2005) manipulated outcome valence and expectancy in a guessing task. However, they found that the FRN component was larger for negative (no-reward) than positive (reward) outcomes, irrespective of expectancy. Conversely, the P300 component was larger for unexpected than expected outcomes, irrespective of valence. These results were at odds with prominent theories and extant literature. Here, we aim to replicate these results within the #EEGManyLabs project (Pavlov et al., 2021). Across thirteen labs we will not only undertake a close replication, but test the robustness of these effects to analytical choices (e.g. quantification of ERPs) and supplement the findings with Bayesian multilevel linear models to test for the reported absence of the effects.

The regulation of motor resonance processes in daily life is indispensable. The automatic imitation task is an experimental model of those daily-life motor resonance processes. Recent research suggests that both self-other distinction and cognitive control processes may be involved in interference control during automatic imitation. Yet, we lack a clear understanding of the chronological sequence of interacting processes. To this end, this study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the time course underlying interference control during automatic imitation. We moreover aimed to extend previous results by investigating its modulation by social context. Cognitive conflict/action monitoring was assessed with the N2, in an exploratory manner the N450, and the CRN components. The Pre-Motor Positivity (PMP), associated with movement initiation, was suggested as a possible correlate of the successful resolution of self-other distinction. The cognitive control/action monitoring ERP components were influenced by the social context manipulation and partly by congruency, while PMP amplitudes were only sensitive to congruency. In addition, the exploratorily investigated N450 component predicted response times on incongruent relative to congruent trials in the different social contexts. This suggested that cognitive control/action monitoring processes, reflected in the N450, are guiding behavioral outcomes. Overall, interference control may primarily be guided by processes of cognitive control/action monitoring, whilst being modulated by social context demands.

Energy deprivation as well as hormones that regulate appetite and eating can influence olfactory function. This study investigated olfactory sensitivity for a food-related and a non-food odour prior to and after a meal, and its relationship to the energy-regulating hormones ghrelin and adiponectin.The olfactory sensitivity for orange and rose (PEA) odour in healthy, normal-weight volunteers (19 women, 45 men, 1 undisclosed individual) was not affected by the consumption of a meal. Olfactory sensitivity was not associated with concentrations of circulating ghrelin. However, olfactory sensitivity was higher for women than for men, indicating better olfactory performance. This difference between women and men was related to concentrations of plasma adiponectin, an adipose-specific hormone.Adiponectin may thus explain why sex differences in olfactory sensitivity emerge, and may also account for some of the inconsistencies in previous findings on sex differences. Our findings add to the limited literature on the impact of stomach and adipose tissue-derived hormones on olfactory sensitivity. Further studies are needed to establish a causal link between circulating adiponectin and a sex difference in olfactory sensitivity.

Pain habituation is associated with a decrease of activation in brain areas related to pain perception. However, little is known about the specificity of these decreases to pain, as habituation has also been described for other responses like spinal reflexes and other sensory responses. Thus, it might be hypothesized that previously reported reductions in activation are not specifically related to pain habituation. For this reason, we performed a 3 T fMRI study using either painful or non-painful electrical stimulation via an electrode attached to the back of the left hand. Contrasting painful vs. non-painful stimulation revealed significant activation clusters in regions well-known to be related to pain processing, such as bilateral anterior and posterior insula, primary/secondary sensory cortices (S1/S2) and anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC). Importantly, our results show distinct habituation patterns for painful (in aMCC) and non-painful (contralateral claustrum) stimulation, while similar habituation for both types of stimulation was identified in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and contralateral S2. Our findings thus distinguish a general habituation in somatosensory processing (S2) and reduced attention (IFG) from specific pain and non-pain related habituation effects where pain-specific habituation effects within the aMCC highlight a change in affective pain perception.

INTRODUCTION The importance of the amygdala - medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) network during processing of emotional stimuli, emotional faces in particular, is well established. This premise is supported by converging evidence from animal models, human neuroanatomical results, and neuroimaging studies. However, there is missing evidence from human brain connectivity studies that the OFC and no other prefrontal brain areas such as the DLPFC or VLPFC are responsible for amygdala regulation in the functional context of emotional face stimuli. METHODS Dynamic causal modeling of ultra-high field functional MRI data acquired at 7 Tesla in 38 healthy subjects and a well-established paradigm for emotional face processing were used to assess the central role of the OFC in order to provide empirical validation for the assumed network architecture. RESULTS Using Bayesian model selection, it is demonstrated that indeed the OFC, and not the VLPFC and the DLPFC, down regulates amygdala activation during the emotion discrimination task. Additionally, Bayesian model averaging group results were rigorously tested using bootstrapping, further corroborating these findings and providing an estimator for robustness and optimal sample sizes. DISCUSSION While it is true that VLPFC and DLPFC are relevant for the processing of emotional faces and are connected to the OFC, the OFC appears to be a central hub for prefrontal-amygdala interaction.

We recently demonstrated a processing advantage of social versus nonsocial feedback stimuli in a western sample by assessing phase-locked neural responses. The current study extended our previous findings to another cultural sample (Chinese) to further test whether non-phase-locked neural oscillations also exhibit the social feedback processing advantage. Fifty-three Chinese volunteers performed a time estimation task with social and nonsocial feedback stimuli (matched for complexity) while electroencephalogram was recorded. Almost entirely replicating our previous results, feedback ERPs showed a processing advantage for social compared with nonsocial stimuli. Importantly, non-phase-locked oscillations also revealed this pattern. Frontal midline theta (FMΘ) oscillations differentiated between negative and positive feedback to a larger extent in response to social compared with nonsocial feedback. The current findings imply a rather universal effect of social stimulus characteristics during feedback processing and further corroborate the notion of social content as a distinct stimulus category.

Pain habituation is associated with a decrease of activation in brain areas related to pain perception. However, little is known about the specificity of these decreases to pain, as habituation has also been described for other responses like spinal reflexes and other sensory responses. Thus, it might be hypothesized that previously reported reductions in activation are not specifically related to pain habituation. For this reason, we performed a 3T fMRI study using either painful or non-painful electrical stimulation via an electrode attached to the back of the left hand. Contrasting painful vs. non-painful stimulation revealed significant activation clusters in regions well-known to be related to pain processing, such as bilateral anterior and posterior insula, primary/secondary sensory cortices (S1/S2) and anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC). Importantly, our results show distinct habituation patterns for painful (in aMCC) and non-painful (contralateral claustrum) stimulation, while similar habituation for both types of stimulation was identified in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and contralateral S2. Our findings thus distinguish a general habituation in somatosensory processing (S2) and reduced attention (IFG) from specific pain and non-pain related habituation effects where pain-specific habituation effects within the aMCC highlight a change in affective pain perception.

Non-medical prescription opioid use (NMPOU) is at the heart of the opioid epidemic in the United States. Although chronic opioid use is commonly accompanied by deficits in social functioning, little is known about the impact of chronic NMPOU on social cognitive functions. Social neuroscience models suggest that empathy activates similar or even equivalent neural structures as those underpinning the first-hand experience in that emotional state (e.g., pain). Therefore, we measured subjective and psychophysiological responses during an empathy-for-pain task in 23 individuals with NMPOU, objectively confirmed by hair and urine testing, and compared them with 29 opioid-naive healthy controls. NMPOU individuals showed lower other-related and self-related unpleasantness ratings when seeing others in pain than controls. No differences between the control and NMPOU group were found in skin conductance responses and heart rate variability (HRV) assessed by root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) in response to the task. However, RMSSD-HRV was strongly negatively correlated with self-related unpleasantness and craving in the NMPOU group. A subsequent mediation analysis showed a total effect of RMSSD-HRV on self-related unpleasantness with no mediation of craving. This indicates that stronger emotion regulation indexed by high RMSSD-HRV might have downregulating effects on sharing others' pain in NMPOU individuals but not in healthy controls, which was further accompanied by decreased ratings of personal distress and empathetic concern. These results contribute to a better understanding of social functioning in chronic opioid users, suggesting adequate emotion regulation and empathy trainings as therapeutic targets for future interventions of opioid use disorders and long-term pain treatment with opioids.

While opioid addiction has reached pandemic proportions, we still lack a good understanding of how the administration of opioids interacts with cognitive functions. Error processing – the ability to detect erroneous actions and correct one’s behaviour afterwards - is one such cognitive function that might be susceptible to opioidergic influences. Errors are hypothesised to induce aversive negative arousal, while opioids have been suggested to reduce aversive arousal induced by unpleasant and stressful stimuli. Thus, this study investigated whether the acute administration of an opioid would affect error processing.In a double-blind between-subject study, 42 male volunteers were recruited and received either 0.2 mg buprenorphine (a partial µ-opioid receptor agonist and κ-opioid receptor antagonist) or a placebo pill before they performed a stimulus-response task provoking errors. Electroencephalograms (EEG) were recorded while participants performed the task.We observed no group differences in terms of reaction times, error rates, and affective state ratings during the task between buprenorphine and control participants. Additional measures of adaptive control, however, showed interfering effects of buprenorphine administration. On the neural level, decreased Pe (Error Positivity) amplitudes were found in buprenorphine compared to control participants following error commission. Further, frontal delta oscillations were decreased in the buprenorphine group after all responses. Our neural results jointly demonstrate a general reduction in error processing in those participants who received an opioid before task completion, thereby suggesting that opioids might have indeed the potential to dampen motivational error signals. Importantly, the effects of the opioid were evident in more elaborate error processing stages, thereby impacting on processes of conscious error appraisal and evidence accumulation.

Social interaction is important for survival in most social species including humans. To ensure social activities, individuals experience reward from social interaction, generating a powerfully reinforcing process. Here we hypothesized that reward from social interaction in a juvenile male rat pair may be enhanced by ghrelin, a circulating hormone that has been shown to enhance reward from other natural (e.g. food, sex) as well as artificial reinforcers (e.g. alcohol and other drugs of abuse). To this end, we assessed the impact of ghrelin and a ghrelin antagonist on preference for a chamber previously paired to the presence of a social partner in a conditioned place preference paradigm. We found that ghrelin increased and a ghrelin antagonist decreased preference for social interaction, but only in the heavier partner in a social pair. In addition, we found that administered ghrelin induced a positive association between preference for social interaction and body weight difference within socially interacting pairs, where larger ghrelin treated rats preferred social interaction, whereas smaller ghrelin treated rats avoided it, which raises the question if ghrelin could have a role in implementing social hierarchies in rats. In summary, we conclude that ghrelin signaling increases the reward from social interaction in a manner that reflects the degree of divergence in body weight between the social pair.

Preferential processing of threat-related information is a robust finding in anxiety disorders. The observation that attentional biases are also present in healthy individuals suggests factors other than clinical symptoms to play a role. Using a dot-probe paradigm while event-related potentials were recorded in 59 healthy adults, we investigated whether temperament and gender, both related to individual variation in anxiety levels, influence attentional processing. All participants showed protective attentional biases in terms of enhanced attention engagement with positive information, indexed by larger N1 amplitudes in positive compared to negative conditions. Taking gender differences into account, we observed that women showed enhanced attention engagement with negative compared to neutral information, indicated by larger P2 amplitudes in congruent than in incongruent negative conditions. Attentional processing was influenced by the temperament traits negative affect and effortful control. Our results emphasize that gender and temperament modulate attentional biases in healthy adults.

Psychopathic offenders have a high propensity to violate social norms, as indicated for instance by their widespread lying and cheating behaviour. The reasons for their norm violations are not well understood, though, as they are able to recognise norms in a given situation and also punish norm violators. In this study, we investigated whether psychopathic offenders would violate fairness norms during a repeated trust game because of increased profit-maximising concerns. We measured back-transfer decisions in the repeated trust game, and affective arousal by means of skin conductance responses (SCR) in violent offenders with varying degrees of psychopathy, and non-offenders with low-trait psychopathy. Psychopathy in offenders was measured with the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R). In the task, a participant and an interaction partner entrusted each other money for multiple rounds with the goal to earn as much money as possible. Fairness norm violations were positively associated with Factor 2 scores (the lifestyle/anti-social psychopathy subscale) of the PCL-R, but this was not accompanied by clear profit-maximising behaviour. In addition, anticipatory arousal to self-advantageous decisions was higher in all offenders, independent of their degree of psychopathy, compared with non-offenders. The results of our study widen our understanding of social decision-making in psychopathy. They also suggest treatment possibilities in offenders scoring high on Factor 2, targeting empathic concern and related prosocial intentions to overcome norm-violating behaviour.

Reinforcement learning - to adjust behaviors in response to feedback regarding reward and punishment - is pivotal to our survival. The present work investigated whether and how reinforcement learning is affected by thoughts of mortality that endanger one's survival. We recorded electroencephalographic while adults performed a probabilistic learning task that required a forced-choice between two visual patterns for monetary reward for different beneficiaries (i.e., self, stranger, or no one) followed by reward or no-reward feedback. We found that verbal reminders of mortality (vs. negative emotion) enlarged an early positive component (P1) at the occipital electrodes but decreased a late positive potential (LPP) at the frontocentral electrodes in response to learning stimuli. While no-reward feedback relative to reward feedback stimuli elicited a feedback-related negativity (FRN) and increased non-phase locked theta band (4-8 Hz) activity at the frontocentral electrodes during reward learning for all beneficiaries, verbal reminders of mortality (vs. negative emotion) significantly reduced the FRN amplitude but failed to modulate the theta band activity. These results suggest that mortality salience enhances early attentional processing but dampens late cognitive evaluation of the learning stimuli during reinforcement learning. Moreover, mortality salience decreases the neural sensitivity to feedback signaling the absence of monetary reward.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been hypothesized to lead to impairments in empathy. Previous cross-sectional studies did not disentangle effects of MDD itself and antidepressant treatment. In this first longitudinal neuroimaging study on empathy in depression, 29 patients with MDD participated in two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions before and after 3 months of antidepressant therapy. We compared their responses to an empathy for pain task to a group of healthy controls (N = 35). All participants provided self-report ratings targeting cognitive (perspective taking) and affective (unpleasant affect) aspects of empathy. To control for general effects on processing of negative affective states, participants additionally underwent an electrical pain task. Before treatment, we found no differences in empathic responses between controls and patients with MDD. After treatment, patients showed significant decreases in both affective empathy and activity of three a priori selected brain regions associated with empathy for pain. Decreases in affective empathy were moreover correlated with symptom improvement. Moreover, functional connectivity during the empathy task between areas associated with affective (anterior insula) and cognitive (precuneus) empathy decreased between sessions in the MDD group. Neither cognitive empathy nor responses to painful electrical shocks were changed after treatment. These findings contradict previous cross-sectional reports of empathy deficits in acute MDD. Rather, they suggest that antidepressant treatment reduces the aversive responses triggered by exposure to the suffering of others. Importantly, this cannot be explained by a general blunting of negative affect, as treatment did not change self-experienced pain.

This study investigated neural processes underlying automatic imitation and its modulation by ethnically diverse hand stimuli (Black, White) using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Automatic imitation relies on motor stimulus-response compatibility (SRC), i.e., response conflict caused by motoric (in)congruency between task-irrelevant hand stimuli and the required response. Our novel task aimed to separate two distinct neuro-cognitive processing stages of automatic imitation and its modulation by ethnicity: the stage of stimulus processing (i.e. perception), comprising presentation of stimulus ethnicity and SRC, and the stage of response execution (i.e. action). Effects of ethnicity were observed in ERPs of different stages of stimulus processing - during presentation of ethnicity (LPP) and SRC (N190, P3). ERPs at response execution, Pre-Motion Positivity (PMP) and Reafferent Potential (RAP), were only sensitive to congruency. The N190 results may index visual self-other distinction, while the neural timecourse of P3 and PMP variation could reflect a dynamical decision process linking perception to action, with motor initiation reflected in the PMP component. The PMP might further index motor-related self-other distinction regardless of ethnicity. Importantly, overt motor execution was not influenced by ethnically diverse stimuli, which suggests generalizability of the automatic imitation effect across ethnicities.

This study investigated the impact of criterion-based vs. social reference frames on behavioural and neural correlates of performance monitoring while taking individual differences in control beliefs into account. We conducted two experiments administering a time estimation task in which feedback was either delivered pertaining to participants’ own performance (nonsocial/criterion-based reference) or to the performance of a reference group of previous participants (social reference). In Experiment 1, 34 male volunteers participated. To test generalizability of the observed results to both sexes/genders, we recruited 36 female volunteers for Experiment 2. P2 and P300 amplitudes were generally larger in social than in nonsocial reference trials in the male participants of Experiment 1. ΔFRN amplitudes were larger for social compared to non-social reference trials in Experiment 1. No effects of reference frame were found in the female sample of Experiment 2. Rather, P2 and ΔFRN effects showed opposing patterns for nonsocial versus social reference frames. However, stronger internal control beliefs were accompanied by larger FRN amplitudes of negative social reference trials in both samples, suggesting generalizable effects independent of sex/gender. Enhanced P2 and ΔFRN amplitudes for social versus nonsocial reference trials suggest enhanced attentional capture and higher saliency of socially framed feedback in male participants only. In both sexes/genders, however, the social reference frame possibly challenges internal control beliefs and by this enhances performance monitoring. Our results demonstrate the complex interplay of trait variables and reference frames during performance monitoring influencing our daily lives-reference frames are omnipresent in education and one’s working environment.

Recent research suggests that not only the dopamine neurotransmitter system but also the endogenous opioid system is involved in performance monitoring and the generation of prediction error signals. Heightened performance monitoring is also associated with psychopathology such as internalizing disorders. Therefore, the current study investigated the potential link between the functional opioid peptide prodynorphin (PDYN) 68bp VNTR genetic polymorphism and neuronal correlates of performance monitoring.To this end, 47 healthy participants genotyped for this polymorphism, related to high-, intermediate-, and low-expression levels of PDYN, performed a choice-reaction task while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. On the behavioural level, no differences between the three PDYN groups could be observed. EEG data, however, showed significant differences. High PDYN expression individuals showed heightened neural error processing indicated by higher ERN amplitudes, compared to intermediate and low expression individuals. Later stages of error processing, indexed by late Pe amplitudes, and stimulus-driven conflict processing, indexed by N2 amplitudes, were not affected by PDYN genotype.The current results corroborate the notion of an indirect effect of endogenous opioids on performance monitoring, probably mediated by the mesencephalic dopamine system. Overall, enhanced ERN amplitudes suggest a hyper-active performance monitoring system in high PDYN expression individuals, and this might also be an indicator of a higher risk for internalizing disorders.

The current study investigated whether or not the physical aspect of stimulus size has an effect on neuronal correlates of feedback processing. A time estimation task was administered applying three different feedback stimulus categories: small, middle, and large size stimuli. Apart from early visual ERPs such as P1 and N1 components, later feedback processing stages were also affected by the size of feedback stimuli. In particular, small size stimuli compared to middle and large size ones led to diminished amplitudes in both FRN and P300 components, despite intact discrimination between negative and positive outcomes in these two ERPs. In contrast, time estimation performance was not influenced by feedback size. The current results indicate that small size feedback stimuli were perceived as less salient and hence were processed less deeply than the others. This suggests that future feedback studies could manipulate feedback salience simply by presenting differently sized feedback stimuli, at least when the focus lies on FRN and P300 amplitude variation.

This study investigated affective and cognitive empathic processes in incarcerated violent offenders with lower and higher psychopathic traits and healthy controls. Participants witnessed painful expressions of others displayed on video clips. Skin conductance responses (SCR) were recorded to assess autonomic emotional arousal, and various empathy ratings were used as measures of self-reported vicarious responses. Reduced SCRs occurred during the observation of pain in others in lower and higher psychopathic-trait participants alike, compared to controls. Despite these diminished autonomic responses indicating reduced vicarious responses, only inmates with higher psychopathic traits provided empathy ratings comparable to those of the controls. These findings indicate that violent offenders display reduced autonomic arousal in response to distress cues of others, irrespective of psychopathy. However, only higher psychopathic-trait offenders were able to provide self-report in a way that let them appear to be as empathic as controls-enabling them to know, yet not to feel, what others feel.

Recent research emphasizes the importance of social factors during performance monitoring. Thus, the current study investigated the impact of social stimuli -such as communicative gestures- on feedback processing. Moreover, it addressed a shortcoming of previous studies, which failed to consider stimulus complexity as potential confounding factor. Twenty-four volunteers performed a time estimation task while their electroencephalogram was recorded. Either social complex, social non-complex, non-social complex, or non-social non-complex stimuli were used to provide performance feedback. No effects of social dimension or complexity were found for task performance. In contrast, Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) and P300 amplitudes were sensitive to both factors, with larger FRN and P300 amplitudes after social compared to non-social stimuli, and larger FRN amplitudes after complex positive than non-complex positive stimuli. P2 amplitudes were solely sensitive to feedback valence and social dimension. Subjectively, social complex stimuli were rated as more motivating than non-social complex ones. Independently of each other, social dimension and visual complexity influenced amplitude variation during performance monitoring. Social stimuli seem to be perceived as more salient, which is corroborated by P2, FRN and P300 results, as well as by subjective ratings. This could be explained due to their given relevance during every day social interactions.

Objectives: Anticipatory processes prepare the organism for upcoming experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate neural responses related to anticipation and processing of painful stimuli occurring with different levels of uncertainty. Experimental design: Twenty-five participants (13 females) took part in an electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment at separate times. A visual cue announced the occurrence of an electrical painful or nonpainful stimulus, delivered with certainty or uncertainty (50% chance), at some point during the following 15 s. Principal observations: During the first 2 s of the anticipation phase, a strong effect of uncertainty was reflected in a pronounced frontal stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) and increased fMRI activation in higher visual processing areas. In the last 2 s before stimulus delivery, we observed stimulus-specific preparatory processes indicated by a centroparietal SPN and posterior insula activation that was most pronounced for the certain pain condition. Uncertain anticipation was associated with attentional control processes. During stimulation, the results revealed that unexpected painful stimuli produced the strongest activation in the affective pain processing network and a more pronounced offset-P2. Conclusions: Our results reflect that during early anticipation uncertainty is strongly associated with affective mechanisms and seems to be a more salient event compared to certain anticipation. During the last 2 s before stimulation, attentional control mechanisms are initiated related to the increased salience of uncertainty. Furthermore, stimulus-specific preparatory mechanisms during certain anticipation also shaped the response to stimulation, underlining the adaptive value of stimulus-targeted preparatory activity which is less likely when facing an uncertain event. Hum Brain Mapp 36:744–755, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The anticipation of favourable or unfavourable events is a key component in our daily life. However, the temporal dynamics of anticipation processes in relation to brain activation are still not fully understood. A modified version of the monetary incentive delay task was administered during separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalogram (EEG) sessions in the same 25 participants to assess anticipatory processes with a multi-modal neuroimaging set-up. During fMRI, gain and loss anticipation were both associated with heightened activation in ventral striatum and reward-related areas. EEG revealed most pronounced P300 amplitudes for gain anticipation, whereas CNV amplitudes distinguished neutral from gain and loss anticipation. Importantly, P300, but not CNV amplitudes, were correlated to neural activation in the ventral striatum for both gain and loss anticipation. Larger P300 amplitudes indicated higher ventral striatum blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response. Early stimulus evaluation processes indexed by EEG seem to be positively related to higher activation levels in the ventral striatum, indexed by fMRI, which are usually associated with reward processing. The current results, however, point towards a more general motivational mechanism processing salient stimuli during anticipation., Highlights • Monetary incentive delay task was assessed in separate EEG and fMRI sessions. • Both gain and loss anticipation activated well known reward-related areas. • P300 amplitude differentiated reward cue from non-reward cues. • P300 amplitudes positively correlated with BOLD response in the ventral striatum. • Ventral striatum activation associated with general motivational processes.

Progressing from 3T to 7 T functional MRI enables marked improvements of human brain imaging in vivo. Although direct comparisons demonstrated advantages concerning blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal response and spatial specificity, these mostly focused on single brain regions with rather simple tasks. Considering that physiological noise also increases with higher field strength, it is not entirely clear whether the advantages of 7T translate equally to the entire brain during tasks which elicit more complex neuronal processing. Therefore, we investigated the difference between 3T and 7 T in response to transcutaneous electrical painful and non-painful stimulation in 22 healthy subjects. For painful stimuli vs. baseline, stronger activations were observed at 7 T in several brain regions including the insula and supplementary motor area, but not the secondary somatosensory cortex (p

Sensitivity towards threat is a robust finding in anxious individuals. The dot probe task is one of the most commonly used experimental paradigms to study attentional biases in anxiety. However, previous research relied mostly on extreme group comparisons, suffered from small sample size and sex imbalance, and did not investigate sex differences or attentional biases toward facial emotional expressions other than anger and happiness. We present data of a large community sample showing that high-anxious women exhibit an expected attentional bias towards angry faces, whereas high-anxious men exhibit a bias towards happy faces. We discuss our findings with regard to the generalizability of previous research and the need for further studies.

Expectancy and certainty regarding an outcome are important factors during performance monitoring. However, the separate contributions of expected and unexpected uncertainty on different measures of performance monitoring, including feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P300 components, are not well established. The current study investigated their relationship to fearless-dominance, a personality construct described by high social potency and low anxiety. Accurately predicting environmental outcomes in certain and uncertain situations might be a prerequisite of social potency, therefore it may be associated with increased performance monitoring and its ERP correlates. Consequently, expected-uncertain and unexpected-uncertain feedback (by violating previously learned certain and expected feedback) was introduced in addition to expected-certain feedback in healthy individuals during a probabilistic gambling task. In both FRN and P300 components, difference waves were more pronounced for unexpected-uncertain and expected-uncertain compared to expected-certain feedback. Moreover, more fearless-dominant individuals showed diminished feedback processing specifically in expected-uncertain trials, but concurrently enhanced attentional processing in expected-certain trials. These findings indicate adaptive and situation-appropriate utilization of performance monitoring resources in individuals with more pronounced fearless-dominance personality traits. The results indicate that a precise differentiation of expected and unexpected uncertainty in fearless-dominant individuals is mandatory in order to better understand the underlying personality construct and related behavior.

The feedback-related negativity (FRN) has been hypothesized to be most sensitive to unexpected negative feedback. The present study investigated feedback expectancy and valence using a probabilistic gambling paradigm where subjects encountered expected or unexpected positive and negative feedback outcomes. In line with previous studies, FRN amplitude reflected a negative reward prediction error, but to a minor extent also a positive reward prediction error. Moreover, the P300 amplitude was largest after unexpected feedback, irrespective of valence. We propose to interpret the FRN in terms of a reinforcement learning signal which is detecting mismatch between internal and external representations indexed by the ACC to extract motivationally salient outcomes.

International audience; Cardiac autonomic neuropathy in type 2 dibetes mellitus (T2DM) patients is frequent and associated with high cardiovascular mortality. Heart rate variability (HRV) is the gold standard to measure cardiac autonomic neuropathy. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta–analysis to evaluate the impact of T2DM on HRV parameters.MethodsThe PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase and Science Direct databases were searched on 1st October 2017 using the keywords “diabetes” AND (“heart rate variability” OR “HRV”). Included articles had to report HRV parameters in T2DM patients and healthy controls measured during 24 hours with a Holter–electrocardiogram. Measurements of HRV retieved were: RR–intervals (or Normal to Normal intervals—NN), standard deviation of RR intervals (SDNN), percetange of adjacent NN intervals differing by more than 50 milliseconds (pNN50), square root of the mean squared difference of successive RR intervals (RMSSD), total power, Low Frequency (LF), High Frequency (HF) and LF/HF ratio, as per Task Force recommendations.ResultsWe included twenty-five case-control studies with 2,932 patients: 1,356 with T2DM and 1,576 healthy controls. T2DM patients had significantly (P

The on-going (self-)monitoring of our behaviour is inextricably intertwined with the surrounding social context. In this study, we investigated whether a minimal group paradigm assigning individuals to arbitrary group categories is powerful enough to induce changes in behavioural, psychophysiological and event-related potential correlates of performance monitoring. Following arbitrary group assignment based on ostensible task performance and a group identification task, 22 volunteers performed a flanker-task during both in-group and out-group contexts, while electroencephalography was performed. More errors were committed in the out-group compared with the in-group context. Error-related negativity amplitudes were larger for in-group compared with out-group errors. However, subsequent processing reflected in late Pe amplitudes and stimulus-driven conflict reflected in N2 amplitudes were not affected by the group context. Heart rate deceleration (during both correct and incorrect trials) tended to be more pronounced during the out-group compared with the in-group context. This surprising observation was corroborated by subjective ratings of performance satisfaction, in which participants reported higher satisfaction with their out-group performance. This study identified specific stimulus evaluation processes to be affected by a minimal group manipulation and demonstrated thereby transient top-down effects of a social context manipulation on performance monitoring.

Background Attentional biases such as faster attentional orienting toward negative information were consistently replicated in high-anxious and depressive individuals, but findings in healthy individuals are inconsistent so far. Methods Using a dot-probe paradigm, we investigated whether temperament traits and gender, which are linked to (sub)clinical symptoms and attentional processing, influenced attentional biases in healthy adults. Results All participants showed protective attentional biases in terms of orienting their attention away from negative information. In both genders higher values of negative affect were compensated with stronger attentional engagement with positive stimuli. This effect was more pronounced in men than in women. Effortful control fulfilled its regulative function in terms of stronger avoidance of negative stimuli only among men. Limitations Reaction times after probe detection provide only a snapshot of attention and allow only for an indirect assessment of visual attention. Future research should emphasize methods that allow for continuous monitoring of attention allocation, therefore results of the present study await replication in psychophysiological or eye-tracking studies. Conclusion Our results highlight the importance of considering influencing factors such as gender and temperament traits for attentional biases in healthy adults.

The current study investigated whether or not the physical aspect of stimulus size has an effect on neuronal correlates of feedback processing. A time estimation task was administered applying three different feedback stimulus categories: small, middle, and large size stimuli. Apart from early visual ERPs such as P1 and N1 components, later feedback processing stages were also affected by the size of feedback stimuli. In particular, small size stimuli compared to middle and large size ones led to diminished amplitudes in both FRN and P300 components, despite intact discrimination between negative and positive outcomes in these two ERPs. In contrast, time estimation performance was not influenced by feedback size. The current results indicate that small size feedback stimuli were perceived as less salient and hence were processed less deeply than the others. This suggests that future feedback studies could manipulate feedback salience simply by presenting differently sized feedback stimuli, at least when the focus lies on FRN and P300 amplitude variation.

The present study investigated whether the same visual stimulus indicating zero-value feedback (€0) elicits feedback-related negativity (FRN) variation, depending on whether the outcomes correspond with expectations or not. Thirty-one volunteers performed a monetary incentive delay (MID) task while EEG was recorded. FRN amplitudes were comparable and more negative when zero-value outcome deviated from expectations than with expected gain or loss, supporting theories emphasising the impact of unexpectedness and salience on FRN amplitudes. Surprisingly, expected zero-value outcomes elicited the most negative FRNs. However, source localisation showed that such outcomes evoked less activation in cingulate areas than unexpected zero-value outcomes. Our study illustrates the context dependency of identical zero-value feedback stimuli. Moreover, the results indicate that the incentive cues in the MID task evoke different reward prediction error signals. These prediction signals differ in FRN amplitude and neuronal sources, and have to be considered in the design and interpretation of future studies.

Objectives: Anticipatory processes prepare the organism for upcoming experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate neural responses related to anticipation and processing of painful stimuli occurring with different levels of uncertainty. Experimental design: Twenty‐five participants (13 females) took part in an electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment at separate times. A visual cue announced the occurrence of an electrical painful or nonpainful stimulus, delivered with certainty or uncertainty (50% chance), at some point during the following 15 s. Principal observations: During the first 2 s of the anticipation phase, a strong effect of uncertainty was reflected in a pronounced frontal stimulus‐preceding negativity (SPN) and increased fMRI activation in higher visual processing areas. In the last 2 s before stimulus delivery, we observed stimulus‐specific preparatory processes indicated by a centroparietal SPN and posterior insula activation that was most pronounced for the certain pain condition. Uncertain anticipation was associated with attentional control processes. During stimulation, the results revealed that unexpected painful stimuli produced the strongest activation in the affective pain processing network and a more pronounced offset‐P2. Conclusions: Our results reflect that during early anticipation uncertainty is strongly associated with affective mechanisms and seems to be a more salient event compared to certain anticipation. During the last 2 s before stimulation, attentional control mechanisms are initiated related to the increased salience of uncertainty. Furthermore, stimulus‐specific preparatory mechanisms during certain anticipation also shaped the response to stimulation, underlining the adaptive value of stimulus‐targeted preparatory activity which is less likely when facing an uncertain event. Hum Brain Mapp 36:744–755, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Highlights • ERP responses to feedback stimuli with explicit or assigned valence information were investigated with blocked or randomized trial presentation modes. • Only P3b, but not feedback-related negativity amplitudes were affected by feedback type for both presentation modes. • Results suggest using blocked design when using different types of feedback stimuli., Objective Electrophysiological studies on feedback processing typically use a wide range of feedback stimuli which might not always be comparable. The current study investigated whether two indicators of feedback processing – feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3b – differ for feedback stimuli with explicit (facial expressions) or assigned valence information (symbols). In addition, we assessed whether presenting feedback in either a trial-by-trial or a block-wise fashion affected these ERPs. Methods EEG was recorded in three experiments while participants performed a time estimation task and received two different types of performance feedback. Results Only P3b amplitudes varied consistently in response to feedback type for both presentation types. Moreover, the blocked feedback type presentation yielded more distinct FRN peaks, higher effect sizes, and a significant relation between FRN amplitudes and behavioral task performance measures. Conclusion Both stimulus type and presentation mode may provoke systematic changes in feedback-related ERPs. The current findings point at important potential confounds that need to be controlled for when designing FRN or P3b studies. Significance Studies investigating P3b amplitudes using mixed types of stimuli have to be interpreted with caution. Furthermore, we suggest implementing a blocked presentation format when presenting different feedback types within the same experiment.

The feedback-related negativity (FRN) has been hypothesized to be most sensitive to unexpected negative feedback. The present study investigated feedback expectancy and valence using a probabilistic gambling paradigm where subjects encountered expected or unexpected positive and negative feedback outcomes. In line with previous studies, FRN amplitude reflected a negative reward prediction error, but to a minor extent also a positive reward prediction error. Moreover, the P300 amplitude was largest after unexpected feedback, irrespective of valence. We propose to interpret the FRN in terms of a reinforcement learning signal which is detecting mismatch between internal and external representations indexed by the ACC to extract motivationally salient outcomes.