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Childhood trauma has been shown to contribute to low self-concept, potentially affecting trauma survivors' perception of social evaluations from others. However, there is little evidence for the association between traumatic experience in childhood and adult processing of evaluative verbal cues related to self. Therefore, the present study aimed to address whether and how cognitive and affective responses to self-referential praise and criticism would vary with different forms of childhood trauma. We engaged undergraduates and postgraduates in completing the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and an evaluation task in which participants rated self-related praising and criticizing sentences for pleasantness and truthfulness. These ratings and CTQ scores were subjected to correlation and regression analyses. Positive correlations were found between the pleasantness ratings for criticism and the scores of the CTQ full scale (

BackgroundTo determine whether depressive symptoms in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients were associated with altered resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) or voxel-based morphology in brain regions involved in emotional regulation and associated with depression.MethodsIn the present study, we examined 79 patients (57 males; age range = 17–70 years, M ± s.d. = 38 ± 16.13; BDI-II, M ± s.d. = 9.84 ± 8.67) with TBI. We used structural MRI and resting-state fMRI to examine whether there was a relationship between depression, as measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and the voxel-based morphology or functional connectivity in regions previously identified as involved in emotional regulation in patients following TBI. Patients were at least 4 months post-TBI (M ± s.d. = 15.13 ± 11.67 months) and the severity of the injury included mild to severe cases [Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), M ± s.d. = 6.87 ± 3.31].ResultsOur results showed that BDI-II scores were unrelated to voxel-based morphology in the examined regions. We found a positive association between depression scores and rs-fc between limbic regions and cognitive control regions. Conversely, there was a negative association between depression scores and rs-fc between limbic and frontal regions involved in emotion regulation.ConclusionThese findings lead to a better understanding of the exact mechanisms that contribute to depression following TBI and better inform treatment decisions.

Highlights • fMRI affective GO/NOGO tasks differentiates depression (MDD) from anxiety (GAD). • MDD but not GAD showed impaired inhibitory control on the behavioral level. • MDD exhibited decreased engagement of posterior frontal/mid-cingulate regions. • The neural alterations were specific for MDD and inhibition in negative contexts. • GAD showed intact inhibition and enhanced dlPFC activity relative to MDD., Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) are highly debilitating and often co-morbid disorders. The disorders exhibit partly overlapping dysregulations on the behavioral and neurofunctional level. The determination of disorder-specific behavioral and neurofunctional dysregulations may therefore promote neuro-mechanistic and diagnostic specificity. In order to determine disorder-specific alterations in the domain of emotion-cognition interactions the present study examined emotional context-specific inhibitory control in treatment-naïve MDD (n = 37) and GAD (n = 35) patients and healthy controls (n = 35). On the behavioral level MDD but not GAD exhibited impaired inhibitory control irrespective of emotional context. On the neural level, MDD-specific attenuated recruitment of inferior/medial parietal, posterior frontal, and mid-cingulate regions during inhibitory control were found during the negative context. GAD exhibited a stronger engagement of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex relative to MDD. Overall the findings from the present study suggest disorder- and emotional context-specific behavioral and neurofunctional inhibitory control dysregulations in major depression and may point to a depression-specific neuropathological and diagnostic marker.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) are highly prevalent and debilitating disorders. The high overlap on the symptomatic and neurobiological level led to ongoing debates about their diagnostic and neurobiological uniqueness. The present study aims to identify common and disorder-specific neuropathological mechanisms and treatment targets in MDD and GAD. The present study combined categorial and dimensional disorder models with a fully data-driven intrinsic network level analysis (Intrinsic Connectivity Contrast, ICC) to resting state fMRI data acquired in 108 partn = 35 and n = 38 unmedicated patients with first-episode GAD, MDD respectively and n=35 healthy controls). Convergent evidence from categorical and dimensional analyses revealed MDD-specific decreased whole-brain connectivity profiles of the medial prefrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while GAD was specifically characterized by decreased whole-brain connectivity profiles of the putamen and decreased communication of this region with the amygdala. Together, findings from the present data-driven analysis suggest that intrinsic communication of frontal regions engaged in executive functions and emotion regulation represent depression-specific neurofunctional markers and treatment targets whereas dysregulated intrinsic communication of the striato-amygdala system engaged in reinforcement-based and emotional learning processes represent GAD-specific markers and a promising treatment target.

The physical mechanism driving the γ–α phase transition of face-centre-cubic (fcc) cerium (Ce) remains controversial until now. In this work, high-quality single crystalline fcc–Ce thin films were grown on Graphene/6H-SiC(0001) substrate, and explored by XRD and ARPES measurement. XRD spectra showed a clear γ–α phase transition at Tγ−α ≈ 50 K, which is retarded by strain effect from substrate comparing with Tγ−α (about 140 K) of the bulk Ce metal. However, APRES spectra did not show any signature of α-phase emerging in the surface-layer from 300 to 17 K, which implied that α-phase might form at the bulk-layer of our Ce thin films. Besides, an evident Kondo dip near Fermi energy was observed in the APRES spectrum at 80 K, indicting the formation of Kondo singlet states in γ–Ce. Furthermore, the DFT + DMFT calculations were performed to simulate the electronic structures and the theoretical spectral functions agreed well with the experimental ARPES spectra. In γ–Ce, the behavior of the self-energy’s imaginary part at low frequency not only confirmed that the Kondo singlet states emerged at TKS ≥ 80 K, but also implied that they became coherent states at a lower characteristic temperature (Tcoh ~40 K) due to the indirect RKKY interaction among f–f electrons. Besides, Tcoh from the theoretical simulation was close to Tγ−α from the XRD spectra. These issues suggested that the Kondo scenario might play an important role in the γ–α phase transition of cerium thin films.

Background: Major Depressive (MDD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) are highly debilitating and often co-morbid disorders. The disorders exhibit partly overlapping dysregulations on the behavioral and neurofunctional level, and the determination of disorder-specific alterations may promote neuro-mechanistic and diagnostic specificity. Methods: In order to determine disorder-specific alterations in the domain of emotion-cognition interactions the present study examined emotional context-specific inhibitory control in treatment-naive, first-episode MDD (n = 37) and GAD (n = 35) patients and healthy controls (n = 35) by employing a validated affective go/no-go fMRI paradigm. Findings: On the behavioral level MDD but not GAD patients exhibited impaired inhibitory control irrespective of emotional context. On the neural level, no alterations were observed during the positive context, yet specifically MDD patients demonstrated attenuated recruitment of a broad bilateral network encompassing inferior/medial parietal, posterior frontal, and mid-cingulate regions during inhibitory control in the negative context. GAD patients exhibited a stronger engagement of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex relative to MDD patients and within the GAD group better inhibitory control in negative contexts was associated with higher recruitment of this region. Interpretation: Findings from the present study suggest disorder- and emotional context-specific behavioral and neurofunctional deficits in inhibitory control in MDD in negative emotional contexts and may point to a depression-specific neuropathological and diagnostic marker. In contrast, GAD patients may maintain intact inhibitory performance via compensatory recruitment of prefrontal regulatory regions. Funding Statement: This study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0701400) and Science & Technology Department of Sichuan Province, China (2017JY0031, JD). Declaration of Interests: There are no conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the local ethics committee at the UESTC and adhered to the latest revision of the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent and agreement to experimental procedures was obtained from all participants before enrollment.

Al diffusion in V play an important part in the formation of aluminide coatings on the surfaces of V alloy, which could be affected by alloying elements, such as Ti and Cr. In order to elucidate the effects of Ti and Cr on Al diffusion in V, firstly the interactions and diffusion of Al/Ti/Cr in V were investigated by means of DFT calculations coupled with LST/QST method. Then, the structures with Al-Vac-Ti/Cr complexes in bcc V were constructed and the most stable configurations were determined. Finally, the migration barriers for Al in V in presence of Ti or Cr atoms were calculated. It is shown that Ti and Al atoms attract the vacancy and Ti-vacancy binding is more energetically favorable. On the other hand, Cr slightly repels from vacancy. Due to the strong attraction between Ti and vacancy, the migration barriers of Al increase when Ti atoms are in the vicinity, which means the diffusion of Al in V is significantly hampered by Ti atoms, and no obvious impact of Cr atoms on Al diffusion in V is found.

Aluminum (Al) coatings, which are found to be dendrites, have been deposited on uranium (U) substrate in ionic liquid via galvanic displacement. Interestingly, a dense Al nano-layer has formed between the Al dendrites and the U substrate. In this work, the growth mechanism of the Al coating has been investigated by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, and electrochemical measurements: the galvanic reaction sees the oxidation of U from the substrate while Al2Cl7− are reduced on its surface, driven by the electrochemical potential difference between Al and U. Furthermore, we have found that the Al nano-layer passivates the uranium surface, which is proved to be the rate limiting step in the galvanic deposition process; the observation of the interface morphology evolution process indicates that this Al nano-layer grows in a three-dimensional mode. This work demonstrates a convenient approach to deposit dense Al nano-layer on U, without any external power source.

Major depression disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorder are both prevalent and debilitating. High rates of comorbidity between MDD and social anxiety disorder (SAD) suggest common pathological pathways, including aberrant neural processing of interpersonal signals. In patient populations, the determination of common and distinct neurofunctional markers of MDD and SAD is often hampered by confounding factors, such as generally elevated anxiety levels and disorder-specific brain structural alterations. This study employed a dimensional disorder approach to map neurofunctional markers associated with levels of depression and social anxiety symptoms in a cohort of 91 healthy subjects using an emotional face processing paradigm. Examining linear associations between levels of depression and social anxiety, while controlling for trait anxiety revealed that both were associated with exaggerated dorsal striatal reactivity to fearful and sad expression faces respectively. Exploratory analysis revealed that depression scores were positively correlated with dorsal striatal functional connectivity during processing of fearful faces, whereas those of social anxiety showed a negative association during processing of sad faces. No linear relationships between levels of depression and social anxiety were observed during a facial-identity matching task or with brain structure. Together, the present findings indicate that dorsal striatal neurofunctional alterations might underlie aberrant interpersonal processing associated with both increased levels of depression and social anxiety.

Romantic jealousy is a complex social emotion combining the different primary emotions of anger, fear and sadness. Previous evidence has suggested the involvement of fronto-striatal dopaminergic circuitry in clinical pathological jealousy, although little is known about overlaps with the neural representation of primary emotions involved in non-morbid jealousy. In the current study, 85 healthy subjects underwent fMRI during resting state and an emotional face recognition paradigm. A total of 150 faces (happy, angry, fearful, sad, neutral) were presented and subjects were required to identify the expression and rate its intensity. Trait romantic jealousy was assessed using the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale. Behavioral results showed that only intensity ratings of angry faces were positively associated with subjects’ jealousy scores. During processing of angry versus neutral expression faces, subjects with higher jealousy scores exhibited greater activation in the right thalamus, insula, fusiform gyrus and hippocampus, left dorsal striatum and superior parietal lobule and bilateral cerebellum and inferior frontal gyrus after controlling for trait aggression and sex. Functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and caudate was also increased. No associations with resting state functional connectivity were found. Overall, the present study demonstrates an association between romantic jealousy and increased intensity ratings of angry faces as well as in activity and functional connectivity of dorsal striatal-inferior frontal circuitry. Thus, increased emotional responsivity to social threat and enhanced activity in limbic regions and dopaminergic fronto-striatal circuitry may be features of both non-morbid and pathological jealousy.

CaF2-type UNxOy layers prepared by the nitriding of depleted uranium metal exhibit good oxidation resistance; however, the mechanism is still lacking. This study examined the effect of O on extrinsic point defects in UN2 using density functional calculations. The calculations reveal that N vacancy easily forms in CaF2-type UN2, and O atom lowers the formation energy of N vacancy. By gradually replacing N atoms with O atoms, a series of U–N–O ternary compounds with various N:O ratios, which are not only energetically stable but also mechanically stable within both GGA and GGA+U frameworks, have been found. Additionally, full U–N bonding states contributes more to stabilize the crystal system than the partial U–O bonding states. Collectively, these calculations predict the existence of U–N–O ternary compounds, some of which cannot be distinguished from UN2 by regular X-ray diffraction. Present calculations show that the oxidation resistance of UNxOy layers may be related to U–N–O ternary compounds with various N:O ratios, and suggest further comparative exploration of the adsorption and diffusion of O atoms on the surface of typical ternary compounds, UN2 and UN.

Facilitation of social attraction and bonding by the evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide oxytocin is well-established in female mammals. However, accumulating behavioral evidence suggests that oxytocin may have evolved sex-specific functional roles in the domain of human social cognition. A critical question is how oxytocin differentially modulates neural processing of social information in men and women, leading to divergent behavioral responses. Here we show that intranasal oxytocin treatment produces sex- and valence-dependent increases in amygdala activation when women view individuals identified as praising others but in men those who criticize them. Women subsequently show increased liking for the faces of these individuals, whereas in men it is reduced. Thus, oxytocin may act differentially via the amygdala to enhance the salience of positive social attributes in women but negative ones in men. We hypothesize that oxytocin may have evolved different but complementary roles to help ensure successful reproduction by encouraging mothers to promote a prosocial rearing environment for offspring and fathers to protect against antisocial influences.

Single crystals of UFe0.6Sb2 grown by Sb flux method have been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity and specific heat. UFe0.6Sb2 crystallizes in the tetragonal HfCuSi2-type structure (space group P4/nmm). UFe0.6Sb2 undergoes a ferromagnetic transition at TC = 28 K with an easy axis along the c-axis. The resistivity resembles heavy fermion semiconducting-like behavior and implies three pseudogaps are formed in both directions. One pseudogap formed in the range of 9–30 K originates from states of impurity due to the partial occupancies of the Fe sites, and it can be closed by applying high magnetic field. The magnetic field, however, has little effects on the other two pseudogaps. A large electronic specific heat coefficient γ = 233 mJ/mol·K2 reveals this compound is a strong electron correlation material.

Film samples of α-U 2 N 3 were prepared. The stoichiometry and crystal structure of the samples were identified to be α-U 2 N 3 by AES and XRD separately. U 4f peaks in XPS spectra are obvious asymmetry, indicating that α-U 2 N 3 has some metallic bonding character. The U 5f electrons are in localized state, which produces a strong and sharp peak near the Fermi level. The theoretical results from first principles calculations are in good agreement with the XPS data. Compared with UN, the valence charge of U atoms in α-U 2 N 3 is higher, and the covalent property between U–N atoms is more evident. However, in XPS spectra no distinct shift of N 1s peaks is observed between the two nitrides.

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) may act either to increase or blur the distinction between self and other and thereby promote either more selfish or altruistic behaviors. To attempt to distinguish between these two possibilities we performed a double-blind, between-subject, placebo-controlled design study to investigate the effect of intranasal OXT on self and other (mother, classmate, or stranger) trait judgments in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results showed that OXT reduced response times for making both self and other judgments, but also reduced the accuracy of their subsequent recall, thereby abolishing the normal self-bias observed in this task. OXT also abolished the positive correlation between response and self-esteem scale scores seen in the PLC group, suggesting that its effects were strongest in individuals with higher levels of self-esteem. A whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis revealed that OXT also reduced responses during both self and other trait judgments in the dorsal (dmPFC) and ventral (vmPFC) medial prefrontal cortex. A subsequent region of interest analysis revealed that behavioral performance and self-esteem scale scores were associated with dmPFC activation and its functional connectivity with the anterior cingulate and between the vmPFC and posterior cingulate. Thus overall, while OXT may improve speed of decision making in self -vs. other trait judgments it also blunts the normal bias towards remembering self-attributes and reduces mPFC responses and connectivity with other cortical midline regions involved in self-processing. This is consistent with the view that OXT can reduce self-centered behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2512-2527, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We report on the facile, reliable fabrication of novel magnetic cucurbit[6]uril/graphene oxide (CB[6]/GO/Fe3O4) composite by using an in-situ co-precipitation method, for which the formation process and possible formation mechanism were also investigated. Moreover, the composite was used as an adsorbent for the removal of uranium(VI) from aqueous solution. Herein, GO nanosheets were chosen as a substrate to immobilize CB[6] and Fe3O4. During the co-precipitation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles on surface of GO nanosheets, CB[6] molecules was fixed through hydrogen bonding simultaneously. The as-prepared composite exhibited a high efficiency of magnetic separability, competitive adsorption performance and acceptable reusability and stability for U(VI) removal, indicating a potential application in uranium-bearing wastewater treatment.

We have successfully synthesized single crystals of UAu0.8Sb2 using a flux method and present a comprehensive study of its physical properties by measuring the magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity and specific heat. Evidence for at least three magnetic phases is observed in the field-temperature phase diagram of UAu0.8Sb2. In zero field, the system undergoes an antiferromagnetic transition at 71 K, and upon further cooling it passes through another antiferromagnetic phase with a ferromagnetic component, before reaching a ferromagnetic ground state. A complex magnetic field-temperature phase diagram is obtained for fields along the easy c-axis, where the antiferromagnetic order eventually becomes polarized upon applying a magnetic field.

The electronic structure of the Kondo lattice CeIn3 has been studied by on-resonant angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. A weakly dispersive quasiparticle band has been observed directly with an energy dispersion of 4 meV by photoemission, implying the existence of weak hybridization between the f electrons and conduction electrons. The hybridization is further confirmed by the formation of the hybridization gap revealed by temperature-dependent scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Moreover, we find the hybridization strength in CeIn3 is much weaker than that in the more two-dimensional compounds CeCoIn5 and CeIrIn5. Our results may be essential for the complete microscopic understanding of this important compound and the related heavy-fermion systems.

Ferromagnetism and the Kondo effect are crucial for 3d electrons to become spin-separated and heavy at the same time., Searching for heavy fermion (HF) states in non–f-electron systems becomes an interesting issue, especially in the presence of magnetism, and can help explain the physics of complex compounds. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, physical properties measurements, and the first-principles calculations, we observe the HF state in a 3d-electron van der Waals ferromagnet, Fe3GeTe2. Upon entering the ferromagnetic state, a massive spectral weight transfer occurs, which results from the exchange splitting. Meanwhile, the Fermi surface volume and effective electron mass are both enhanced. When the temperature drops below a characteristic temperature T*, heavy electrons gradually emerge with further enhanced effective electron mass. The coexistence of ferromagnetism and HF state can be well interpreted by the dual properties (itinerant and localized) of 3d electrons. This work expands the limit of ferromagnetic HF materials from f- to d-electron systems and illustrates the positive correlation between ferromagnetism and HF state in the 3d-electron material, which is quite different from the f-electron systems.

Modified Ba 0.67 Sr 0.33 TiO 3 (BST) thin films were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO 2 /Si substrates using RF magnetron sputtering. By optimizing the deposition temperature ( T d ), the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of BST films were improved. The onset of crystallization of the BST films was observed at about 600 °C, beyond which there was an increase in grain size with further increasing T d up to 700 °C. The better crystallized film deposited at 700 °C with a thickness of 670 nm shows a polycrystalline and dense structure, a dielectric constant ( e r )=953.40 (at 100 kHz), and a remanent polarization (2 P r )=23.87 μC/cm 2 . The dielectric tunability at 1 MHz increases as T d increases, and reaches the highest value of 55.40% for an applied field of 770 kV/cm at the highest T d of 700 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electric performance analysis also indicate that the deposition temperature during growth strongly affects the microstructure of BST films. This in turn influences the dielectric, ferroelectric and tunable behavior of BST films.

In male Caucasian subjects, learning is facilitated by receipt of social compared with non-social feedback, and the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) facilitates this effect. In this study, we have first shown a cultural difference in that male Chinese subjects actually perform significantly worse in the same reinforcement associated learning task with social (emotional faces) compared with non-social feedback. Nevertheless, in two independent double-blind placebo (PLC) controlled between-subject design experiments we found OXT still selectively facilitated learning with social feedback. Similar to Caucasian subjects this OXT effect was strongest with feedback using female rather than male faces. One experiment performed in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging showed that during the response, but not feedback phase of the task, OXT selectively increased activity in the amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and putamen during the social feedback condition, and functional connectivity between the amygdala and insula and caudate. Therefore, OXT may be increasing the salience and reward value of anticipated social feedback. In the PLC group, response times and state anxiety scores during social feedback were associated with signal changes in these same regions but not in the OXT group. OXT may therefore have also facilitated learning by reducing anxiety in the social feedback condition. Overall our results provide the first evidence for cultural differences in social facilitation of learning per se, but a similar selective enhancement of learning with social feedback under OXT. This effect of OXT may be associated with enhanced responses and functional connectivity in emotional memory and reward processing regions.

Glow plasma nitriding is a simple and economical surface treatment method, and this technology was used to prepare nitride layer on the surface of uranium metal with thickness of several microns. The composition and structure of the nitride layer were analyzed by AES and XRD, indicating that this modified layer is nitrogen-rich uranium nitride, which should be written as UN2−x. TEM images show the nitride layer is composed of nano-sized grains, with compact structure. And XPS analysis indicates there is uranium with abnormal low valence existing in the nitride. After the treated uranium storage in air for a long time, oxygen just entered the surface several nanometers, showing the nitride layer has excellent oxidation resistance. The mechanism of nitride layer formation and low valence uranium appearance is discussed.

Language plays an important role in romantic attachment. However, it is unclear whether the structure and topic of language use might influence potential mate choice. We investigated 124 female students’ preference for compliments paid by males incorporating either literal or metaphoric (conventional/novel) language and targeting their appearance or possessions (house) throughout their menstrual cycle. Male faces paired with novel metaphorical compliments were rated as more attractive by women than those paired with literal ones. Compliments targeting appearance increased male attractiveness more than possessions. Interestingly, compliments on appearance using novel metaphors were preferred by women in a relationship during the fertile phase but by single women during the luteal phase. A similar pattern of altered face attraction ratings was subsequently shown by subjects in the absence of the verbal compliments and even though they were unable to recognize the faces. Thus the maintained attraction bias for faces previously associated with figurative language compliments appears to be unconscious. Overall this study provides the first evidence that women find men who typically use novel metaphorical language to compliment appearance more attractive than those using prosaic language or complimenting possessions. The evolutionary significance for such a language use bias in mate selection is discussed.

Although oxytocin has been shown to enhance trust behavior, to date no study has directly established whether oxytocin can modulate the effect of repair strategies on restoring damaged trust. In the current double-blind, between-subjects, placebo-controlled design study, two repair strategies were used to examine the effect of intranasal oxytocin administration on modulating trust restoration in a revised trust game. The results showed that although oxytocin had no overall effect on modulating trust restoration, it did have a significant gender specific effect. Female subjects showed less evidence for trust repair in the oxytocin compared with the placebo treatment group. This suggests that oxytocin may make female subjects exhibit more punitive behavior towards partners who violate their trust and less sensitive to repair strategies provided by them. Interestingly, this gender specific effect was more evident in the context of attempted trust repair using financial compensation. However, it also extended to both apology alone and no compensation conditions, but not to the fair one, in females exhibiting high trait forgiveness. Thus females with a more forgiving attitude towards betrayal may actually be more likely to punish betrayal following oxytocin treatment.

In line with animal models indicating sexually dimorphic effects of oxytocin (OXT) on social-emotional processing, a growing number of OXT-administration studies in humans have also reported sex-dependent effects during social information processing. To explore whether sex-dependent effects already occur during early, subliminal, processing stages the present pharmacological fMRI-study combined the intranasal-application of either OXT or placebo (n = 86–43 males) with a backward-masking emotional face paradigm. Results showed that while OXT suppressed inferior frontal gyrus, dorsal anterior cingulate and anterior insula responses to threatening face stimuli in men it increased them in women. In women increased anterior cingulate reactivity during subliminal threat processing was also positively associated with trait anxiety. On the network level, sex-dependent effects were observed on amygdala, anterior cingulate and inferior frontal gyrus functional connectivity that were mainly driven by reduced coupling in women following OXT. Our findings demonstrate that OXT produces sex-dependent effects even at the early stages of social-emotional processing, and suggest that while it attenuates neural responses to threatening social stimuli in men it increases them in women. Thus in a therapeutic context OXT may potentially produce different effects on anxiety disorders in men and women.

Previous studies have indicated that gait rhythm fluctuations are useful for characterizing certain pathologies of neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson's disease (PD). However, no previous study has investigated the properties of frequency range distributions of gait rhythms. Therefore, in our study, empirical mode decomposition was implemented for decomposing the time series of gait rhythms into intrinsic mode functions from the high-frequency component to the low-frequency component sequentially. Then, Kendall's coefficient of concordance and the ratio for energy change for different IMFs were calculated, which were denoted as W and $R_{E}$ , respectively. Results revealed that the frequency distributions of gait rhythms in patients with neurodegenerative diseases are less homogeneous than healthy subjects, and the gait rhythms of the patients contain much more high-frequency components. In addition, parameters of W and $R_{E}$ can significantly differentiate among the four groups of subjects (HD, ALS, PD, and healthy subjects) (with the minimum p -value of 0.0000493). Finally, five representative classifiers were utilized in order to evaluate the possible capabilities of W and $R_{E}$ to distinguish the patients with neurodegenerative diseases from the healthy subjects. This achieved maximum area under the curve values of 0.949, 0.900, and 0.934 for PD, HD, and ALS detection, respectively. In sum, our study suggests that gait rhythm features extracted in the frequency domain should be given consideration seriously in the future neurodegenerative disease characterization and intervention.

We show the three-dimensional electronic structure of the Kondo lattice CeIn3 using soft x-ray angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy in the paramagnetic state. For the first time, we have directly observed the three-dimensional topology of the Fermi surface of CeIn3 by photoemission. The Fermi surface has a complicated hole pocket centred at the Γ-Z line and an elliptical electron pocket centred at the R point of the Brillouin zone. Polarization and photon-energy dependent photoemission results both indicate the nearly localized nature of the 4f electrons in CeIn3, consistent with the theoretical prediction by means of the combination of density functional theory and single-site dynamical mean-field theory. Those results illustrate that the f electrons of CeIn3, which is the parent material of CeMIn5 compounds, are closer to the localized description than the layered CeMIn5 compounds.

We find infant faces highly attractive as a result of specific features which Konrad Lorenz termed “Kindchenschema” or “baby schema,” and this is considered to be an important adaptive trait for promoting protective and caregiving behaviors in adults, thereby increasing the chances of infant survival. This review first examines the behavioral support for this effect and physical and behavioral factors which can influence it. It then provides details of the increasing number of neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies investigating the neural circuitry underlying this baby schema effect in parents and non-parents of both sexes. Next it considers potential hormonal contributions to the baby schema effect in both sexes and the neural effects associated with reduced responses to infant cues in post-partum depression, anxiety and drug taking. Overall the findings reviewed reveal a very extensive neural circuitry involved in our perception of cuteness in infant faces, with enhanced activation compared to adult faces being found in brain regions involved in face perception, attention, emotion, empathy, memory, reward and attachment, theory of mind and also control of motor responses. Both mothers and fathers also show evidence for enhanced responses in these same neural systems when viewing their own as opposed to another child. Furthermore, responses to infant cues in many of these neural systems are reduced in mothers with post-partum depression or anxiety or have taken addictive drugs throughout pregnancy. In general reproductively active women tend to rate infant faces as cuter than men, which may reflect both heightened attention to relevant cues and a stronger activation in their brain reward circuitry. Perception of infant cuteness may also be influenced by reproductive hormones with the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin being most strongly associated to date with increased attention and attraction to infant cues in both sexes.

There is evidence for both neurotoxic and neuroprotective roles of nitric oxide (NO) in the brain and changes in the expression of the neuronal isoform of NO synthase (nNOS) gene occur during aging. The current studies have investigated potential support for either a neurotoxic or neuroprotective role of NO derived from nNOS in the context of aging by comparing olfactory learning and locomotor function in young compared to old nNOS knockout (nNOS(-/-)) and wildtype control mice. Tasks involving social recognition and olfactory conditioning paradigms showed that old nNOS(-/-) animals had improved retention of learning compared to similar aged wildtype controls. Young nNOS(-/-) animals showed superior reversal learning to wildtypes in a conditioned learning task, although their performance was weakened with age. Interestingly, whereas young nNOS(-/-) animals were impaired in long term memory for social odors compared to wildtype controls, in old animals this pattern was reversed, possibly indicating beneficial compensatory changes influencing olfactory memory may occur during aging in nNOS(-/-) animals. Possibly such compensatory changes may have involved increased NO from other NOS isoforms since the memory deficit in young nNOS(-/-) animals could be rescued by the NO-donor, molsidomine. Both nNOS(-/-) and wildtype animals showed an age-associated decline in locomotor activity although young nNOS(-/-) animals were significantly more active than wildtypes, possibly due to an increased interest in novelty. Overall our findings suggest that lack of NO release via nNOS may protect animals to some extent against age-associated cognitive decline in memory tasks typically involving olfactory and hippocampal regions, but not against declines in reversal learning or locomotor activity.

The neuropeptide oxytocin enhances in-group favoritism and ethnocentrism in males. However, whether such effects also occur in women and extend to national symbols and companies/consumer products is unclear. In a between-subject, double-blind placebo controlled experiment we have investigated the effect of intranasal oxytocin on likeability and arousal ratings given by 51 adult Chinese males and females for pictures depicting people or national symbols/consumer products from both strong and weak in-groups (China and Taiwan) and corresponding out-groups (Japan and South Korea). To assess duration of treatment effects subjects were also re-tested after one week. Results showed that although oxytocin selectively increased the bias for overall liking for Chinese social stimuli and the national flag, it had no effect on the similar bias towards other Chinese cultural symbols, companies and consumer products. This enhanced bias was maintained one week after treatment. No overall oxytocin effects were found for Taiwanese, Japanese or South Korean pictures. Our findings show for the first time that oxytocin increases liking for a nation’s society and flag in both men and women, but not that for other cultural symbols or companies/consumer products.

Humans cross-culturally find infant faces both cute and highly likeable. Their so-called "baby schema" features have clear adaptive value by likely serving as an innate releasing mechanism that elicits caretaking behaviors from adults. However, we do not know whether experience with young children during social development might act to further facilitate this. Here we investigated the potential impact of having siblings on adult likeability judgments of children's faces. In this study, 73 adult men and women (40 with siblings and 33 without) were shown 148 different face pictures of young children (1 month to 6.5 years) and judged them for likeability. Results showed that both groups found faces of infants (7 months) as equally likeable. However, for faces more than 7 months of age, whereas the no-sibling group showed a reduced liking for faces with increasing age, the sibling group found faces of all ages as equally likeable. Furthermore, for adults with siblings, the closer in age they were to their siblings, the stronger their likeability was for young children's faces. Our results are the first to show that having siblings can extend the influence of baby schema to children as well as infants.