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Scientific evidence regularly guides policy decisions1, with behavioural science increasingly part of this process2. In April 2020, an influential paper3 proposed 19 policy recommendations (claims) detailing how evidence from behavioural science could contribute to efforts to reduce impacts and end the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we assess 747 pandemic-related research articles that empirically investigated those claims. We report the scale of evidence and whether evidence supports them to indicate applicability for policymaking. Two independent teams, involving 72 reviewers, found evidence for 18 of 19 claims, with both teams finding evidence supporting 16 (89%) of those 18 claims. The strongest evidence supported claims that anticipated culture, polarization and misinformation would be associated with policy effectiveness. Claims suggesting trusted leaders and positive social norms increased adherence to behavioural interventions also had strong empirical support, as did appealing to social consensus or bipartisan agreement. Targeted language in messaging yielded mixed effects and there were no effects for highlighting individual benefits or protecting others. No available evidence existed to assess any distinct differences in effects between using the terms physical distancing and social distancing. Analysis of 463 papers containing data showed generally large samples; 418 involved human participants with a mean of 16,848 (median of 1,699). That statistical power underscored improved suitability of behavioural science research for informing policy decisions. Furthermore, by implementing a standardized approach to evidence selection and synthesis, we amplify broader implications for advancing scientific evidence in policy formulation and prioritization.

Fear and anxiety play a central role in mammalian life, and there is considerable interest in clarifying their nature, identifying their biological underpinnings, and determining their consequences for health and disease. Here we provide a roundtable discussion on the nature and biological bases of fear- and anxiety-related states, traits, and disorders. The discussants include scientists familiar with a wide variety of populations and a broad spectrum of techniques. The goal of the roundtable was to take stock of the state of the science and provide a roadmap to the next generation of fear and anxiety research. Much of the discussion centered on the key challenges facing the field, the most fruitful avenues for future research, and emerging opportunities for accelerating discovery, with implications for scientists, funders, and other stakeholders. Understanding fear and anxiety is a matter of practical importance. Anxiety disorders are a leading burden on public health and existing treatments are far from curative, underscoring the urgency of developing a deeper understanding of the factors governing threat-related emotions.

The movements an organism makes provide insights into its internal states and motives. This principle is the foundation of the new field of computational ethology, which links rich automatic measurements of natural behaviors to motivational states and neural activity. Computational ethology has proven transformative for animal behavioral neuroscience. This success raises the question of whether rich automatic measurements of behavior can similarly drive progress in human neuroscience and psychology. New technologies for capturing and analyzing complex behaviors in real and virtual environments enable us to probe the human brain during naturalistic dynamic interactions with the environment that so far were beyond experimental investigation. Inspired by nonhuman computational ethology, we explore how these new tools can be used to test important questions in human neuroscience. We argue that application of this methodology will help human neuroscience and psychology extend limited behavioral measurements such as reaction time and accuracy, permit novel insights into how the human brain produces behavior, and ultimately reduce the growing measurement gap between human and animal neuroscience.

There is disagreement on how best to define and investigate fear. Nature Neuroscience asked Dean Mobbs to lead experts from the fields of human and animal affective neuroscience to discuss their viewpoints on how to define fear and how to move forward with the study of fear.

Naturalistic observations show that animals pre-empt danger by moving to locations that increase their success in avoiding future threats. To test this in humans, we created a spatial margin of safety (MOS) decision task that quantifies pre-emptive avoidance by measuring the distance subjects place themselves to safety when facing different threats whose attack locations vary in predictability. Behavioral results show that human participants place themselves closer to safe locations when facing threats that attack in spatial locations with more outliers. Using both univariate and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) on fMRI data collected during a 2 h session on participants of both sexes, we demonstrate a dissociable role for the vmPFC in MOS-related decision-making. MVPA results revealed that the posterior vmPFC encoded for more unpredictable threats with univariate analyses showing a functional coupling with the amygdala and hippocampus. Conversely, the anterior vmPFC was more active for the more predictable attacks and showed coupling with the striatum. Our findings converge in showing that during pre-emptive danger, the anterior vmPFC may provide a safety signal, possibly via foreseeable outcomes, while the posterior vmPFC drives unpredictable danger signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern decision neuroscience offers a powerful and broad account of human behaviour using computational techniques that link psychological and neuroscientific approaches to the ways that individuals can generate near-optimal choices in complex controlled environments. However, until recently, relatively little attention has been paid to the extent to which the structure of experimental environments relates to natural scenarios, and the survival problems that individuals have evolved to solve. This situation not only risks leaving decision-theoretic accounts ungrounded but also makes various aspects of the solutions, such as hard-wired or Pavlovian policies, difficult to interpret in the natural world. Here, we suggest importing concepts, paradigms and approaches from the fields of ethology and behavioural ecology, which concentrate on the contextual and functional correlates of decisions made about foraging and escape and address these lacunae.

Comparative research suggests that the hypothalamus is critical in switching between survival behaviors, yet it is unclear if this is the case in humans. Here, we investigate the role of the human hypothalamus in survival switching by introducing a paradigm where volunteers switch between hunting and escape in response to encounters with a virtual predator or prey. Given the small size and low tissue contrast of the hypothalamus, we used deep learning-based segmentation to identify the individual-specific hypothalamus and its subnuclei as well as an imaging sequence optimized for hypothalamic signal acquisition. Across 2 experiments, we employed computational models with identical structures to explain internal movement generation processes associated with hunting and escaping. Despite the shared structure, the models exhibited significantly different parameter values where escaping or hunting were accurately decodable just by computing the parameters of internal movement generation processes. In experiment 2, multi-voxel pattern analyses (MVPA) showed that the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and periaqueductal gray encode switching of survival behaviors while not encoding simple motor switching outside of the survival context. Furthermore, multi-voxel connectivity analyses revealed a network including the hypothalamus as encoding survival switching and how the hypothalamus is connected to other regions in this network. Finally, model-based fMRI analyses showed that a strong hypothalamic multi-voxel pattern of switching is predictive of optimal behavioral coordination after switching, especially when this signal was synchronized with the multi-voxel pattern of switching in the amygdala. Our study is the first to identify the role of the human hypothalamus in switching between survival behaviors and action organization after switching. Studies in animal models suggest that the hypothalamus is critical for modulating the switch between survival behaviors. In this study, neuroimaging combined with computational modeling shows that the hypothalamus also modulates switching between survival actions in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveFragile X (FraX) syndrome is caused by mutations of the FraX mental retardation-1 gene-a gene responsible for producing FraX mental retardation protein. The neurocognitive phenotype associated with FraX in female subjects includes increased risk for emotional disorders including social anxiety, depression, and attention deficit. Here, the authors investigated the neurobiological systems underlying emotion attribution in female subjects with FraX syndrome.MethodWhile undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging, 10 high-functioning female subjects with FraX syndrome and 10 typically developing (TD) female subjects were presented with photographs of happy, sad, and neutral faces and instructed to determine the facial emotion.ResultsNo significant group differences were found for the recognition of happy faces, although the FraX group showed a trend toward a significant difference for the recognition of sad faces and significantly poorer recognition of neutral faces. Controlling for between-group differences in IQ and performance accuracy, the TD group had greater activation than the FraX group in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) for neutral faces compared with scrambled faces and the caudate for sad faces compared with scrambled faces (but not for sad faces compared with neutral faces). In the FraX group, FraX mental retardation protein levels positively correlated with activation in the dorsal ACC for neutral, happy, and sad faces when independently compared with scrambled faces. Significantly greater negative correlation between IQ and insula activation for neutral faces relative to scrambled faces was observed in the FraX group compared with the TD group. Significantly greater positive correlation between IQ and ACC activation for neutral faces relative to scrambled faces was observed in the TD group compared with the FraX group.ConclusionsAlthough emotion recognition is generally spared in FraX syndrome, the emotion circuit (i.e., ACC, caudate, insula) that modulates emotional responses to facial stimuli may be disrupted.

This article presents the argument by the authors regarding the article of Uttal (2004), which lays forth several, rightly justified, caveats in the pursuit of elucidating the neural basis of higher cognitive functions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Adding to the onslaught of criticism from cellular physiologists, Uttal's central tenet is that the increased utilization of this new technology may be "ill advised," and should be replaced with more effort and time being directed towards a "revitalized behaviorism." The authors contend that it is not the methodology of fMRI itself but the "application" of fMRI to unravel more intangible cognitive phenomena that is ill advised. Specifically, they believe that Uttal has mistakenly disregarded the potential role that fMRI research could make in the advancement of behavioral science.

With recent investigation beginning to reveal the cortical and subcortical neuroanatomical correlates of humor appreciation, the present event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study was designed to elucidate sex-specific recruitment of these humor related networks. Twenty healthy subjects (10 females) underwent fMRI scanning while subjectively rating 70 verbal and nonverbal achromatic cartoons as funny or unfunny. Data were analyzed by comparing blood oxygenation-level-dependent signal activation during funny and unfunny stimuli. Males and females share an extensive humor-response strategy as indicated by recruitment of similar brain regions: both activate the temporal-occipital junction and temporal pole, structures implicated in semantic knowledge and juxtaposition, and the inferior frontal gyrus, likely to be involved in language processing. Females, however, activate the left prefrontal cortex more than males, suggesting a greater degree of executive processing and language-based decoding. Females also exhibit greater activation of mesolimbic regions, including the nucleus accumbens, implying greater reward network response and possibly less reward expectation. These results indicate sex-specific differences in neural response to humor with implications for sex-based disparities in the integration of cognition and emotion. executive function | male/female | reward | functional MRI

Previous research and theory suggest that two stable personality dimensions, extroversion and neuroticism, differentially influence emotional reactivity to a variety of pleasurable phenomena. Here, we use event-related functional MRI to address the putative neural and behavioral associations between humor appreciation and the personality dimensions of introversion-extroversion and emotional stability-neuroticism. Our analysis showed extroversion to positively correlate with humor-driven blood oxygenation level-dependent signal in discrete regions of the right orbital frontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral temporal cortices. Introversion correlated with increased activation in several regions, most prominently the bilateral amygdala. Although neuroticism did not positively correlate with any whole-brain activation, emotional stability (i.e., the inverse of neuroticism) correlated with increased activation in the mesocortical-mesolimbic reward circuitry encompassing the right orbital frontal cortex, caudate, and nucleus accumbens. Our findings tie together existing neurobiological studies of humor appreciation and are compatible with the notion that personality style plays a fundamental role in the neurobiological systems subserving humor appreciation. laughter | emotion | extroversion | neuroticism | functional MRI