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Zusammenfassung: Der niedrige Frauenanteil in Informatik ist Anlass für die vorliegende Studie. Hierbei sollen erstmalig in Deutschland mögliche Besonderheiten speziell im Promotionsprozess von Informatikerinnen und Informatikern untersucht werden. Dazu nahmen 690 Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden an einer online-Befragung teil, von denen 254 Personen die Befragung zu unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten abbrachen. Die Auswertung basiert auf den 436 Personen (113 Doktorandinnen, 320 Doktoranden, 3 divers), die bis zum Schluss Fragen beantworteten (Alter: M = 30.74 Jahre, SD = 4.16). Die Hauptziele der Studie sind zum einen ein Geschlechtervergleich in den untersuchten Merkmalen der Befragten (Berufliche Motive, Geschlechtsrollenselbstkonzept, berufliche Selbstwirksamkeit, soziale Unterstützung) und im wahrgenommenen Verlauf der Promotion (Themenfindung, Zufriedenheit mit Betreuung, geschätzte Zeitdauer der Promotion, wahrgenommene Belastungen). Zum zweiten wird untersucht, ob im Verlauf der Promotion Schwierigkeiten auftraten, die zu einer Krise führten. Erwartet werden geringe Geschlechterunterschiede und deutliche Unterschiede zwischen Personen mit und ohne erlebte Krise. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Erwartungen. Es finden sich keine bis geringe Geschlechterunterschiede in den untersuchten Variablen, was mit der vorliegenden Literatur übereinstimmt. Demgegenüber finden sich mittlere bis große Unterschiede zwischen Personen mit und ohne erlebte Krise. Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden, die eine Krise erlebten, berichten häufiger von Abbruchgedanken, schätzen ihre berufliche Selbstwirksamkeit signifikant niedriger ein, sind unzufriedener mit der Betreuung, brauchen länger für ihre Dissertation und schätzen die erfragten psychischen Belastungen signifikant höher ein als die ohne Krise. Diese Ergebnisse werden im Hinblick auf vorliegende Literatur zur psychischen Belastung von Promovendinnen und Promovenden diskutiert und es werden Vorschläge für eine verbesserte Betreuung und Unterstützung an Universitäten gemacht.

I defend the idea that there are universal fictions, and that the Routley-Deutsch-Kapsner way of generating them – namely, with a story including deliberately and explicitly the proposition Everything is true – is still the best one. I reconstruct Wildman and Folde’s Finean criticisms to universal fictions a la Routley-Deutsch-Kapsner based on the idea that the universal quantifier in such fictions may not target the intended range of quantification, that is, all propositions. I show that Wildman and Folde’s argument does not succeed, for they fail to show that every universal sentence has to be understood as involving a restricted quantifier.

Several measurement models have been proposed for data from the continuous-reproduction paradigm for studying visual working memory: The original mixture model (Zhang & Luck, 2008) and its extension (Bays, Catalao, & Husain, 2009); the interference measurement model (Oberauer, Stoneking, Wabersich, & Lin, 2017), and the target confusability competition model (Schurgin, Wixted, & Brady, 2020). This article describes a space of possible measurement models in which all existing models can be placed. The space is defined by three dimensions: (1) The choice of a activation function (von-Mises or Laplace), the choice of a response-selection function (variants of Luce’s choice rule or of signal detection theory), and whether or not memory precision is assumed to be a constant over manipulations affecting memory. A factorial combination of these three variables generates all possible models in the model space. Fitting all models to eight data sets revealed a new model as empirically most adequate, which combines a von-Mises activation function with a signal-detection response-selection rule. The precision parameter can be treated as a constant across many experimental manipulations, though it might vary with manipulations not yet explored. All modelling code and the raw data modelled are available on the OSF: osf.io/zwprv

Enjoying great popularity in decision theory, epistemology, and philosophy of science, Bayesianism as understood here is fundamentally concerned with epistemically ideal rationality. It assumes a tight connection between evidential probability and ideally rational credence, and usually interprets evidential probability in terms of such credence. Timothy Williamson challenges Bayesianism by arguing that evidential probabilities cannot be adequately interpreted as the credences of an ideal agent. From this and his assumption that evidential probabilities cannot be interpreted as the actual credences of human agents either, he concludes that no interpretation of evidential probabilities in terms of credence is adequate. I argue to the contrary. My overarching aim is to show on behalf of Bayesians how one can still interpret evidential probabilities in terms of ideally rational credence and how one can maintain a tight connection between evidential probabilities and ideally rational credence even if the former cannot be interpreted in terms of the latter. By achieving this aim I illuminate the limits and prospects of Bayesianism.

In-home assessment of everyday activities over many months to years may be useful in predicting cognitive decline in older adulthood. This study examined whether a comparatively brief data collection period (3 months) may yield similar diagnostic information. A total of 91 community-dwelling older adults without dementia underwent baseline neuropsychological testing and completed weekly computer-based surveys assessing health-related events/activities. A subset of participants wore fitness tracker watches assessing daily sleep and physical activity patterns, used a sensor-instrumented pillbox, and had their computer use frequency recorded on a daily basis. Similar patterns in computer use, sleep and medication use were noted in comparison to prior literature with more extensive data collection periods. Greater computer use and sleep, as well as self-reported pain and independence, were also linked to better cognition. These activities and symptoms may be useful correlates of cognitive function even when assessed over a relatively brief monitoring period.

Introduction The authors tested the hypothesis that the EEG feature generalized polyspike train (GPT) is associated with drug-resistant idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE). Methods The authors conducted a single-center case-control study of patients with IGE who had outpatient EEGs performed between 2016 and 2020. The authors classified patients as drug-resistant or drug-responsive based on clinical review and in a masked manner reviewed EEG data for the presence and timing of GPT (a burst of generalized rhythmic spikes lasting less than 1 second) and other EEG features. A relationship between GPT and drug resistance was tested before and after controlling for EEG duration. The EEG duration needed to observe GPT was also calculated. Results One hundred three patients were included (70% drug-responsive and 30% drug-resistant patients). Generalized polyspike train was more prevalent in drug-resistant IGE (odds ratio, 3.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-11.4; P = 0.02). This finding persisted when controlling for EEG duration both with stratification and with survival analysis. A median of 6.5 hours (interquartile range, 0.5-12.7 hours) of EEG recording was required to capture the first occurrence of GPT. Conclusions The findings support the hypothesis that GPT is associated with drug-resistant IGE. Prolonged EEG recording is required to identify this feature. Thus, >24-hour EEG recording early in the evaluation of patients with IGE may facilitate prognostication.

Background Individualized and reliable biomarkers are crucial for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, lack of accessibility and neurobiological correlation are the main obstacles to their clinical application. Machine learning algorithms can effectively identify personalized biomarkers based on the prominent symptoms of AD. Methods Episodic memory–related magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features of 143 patients with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were identified using a multivariate relevance vector regression algorithm. The support vector machine classification model was constructed using these MRI features and verified in 2 independent datasets (N = 994). The neurobiological basis was also investigated based on cognitive assessments, neuropathologic biomarkers of cerebrospinal fluid, and positron emission tomography images of amyloid-β plaques. Results The combination of gray matter volume and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation MRI features accurately predicted episodic memory impairment in individual patients with amnesic MCI (r = .638) when measured using an episodic memory assessment panel. The MRI features that contributed to episodic memory prediction were primarily distributed across the default mode network and limbic network. The classification model based on these features distinguished patients with AD from normal control subjects with more than 86% accuracy. Furthermore, most identified episodic memory–related regions showed significantly different amyloid-β positron emission tomography measurements among the AD, MCI, and normal control groups. Moreover, the classification outputs significantly correlated with cognitive assessment scores and cerebrospinal fluid pathological biomarkers' levels in the MCI and AD groups. Conclusions Neuroimaging features can reflect individual episodic memory function and serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers of AD.

Background The rs1344706 single nucleotide polymorphism in the ZNF804A gene has been associated with risk for psychosis in multiple genome-wide association studies, yet mechanisms underlying this association are not known. Given preclinical work suggesting an impact of ZNF804A on dopamine receptor gene transcription and clinical studies establishing dopaminergic dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia, we hypothesized that the ZNF804A risk single nucleotide polymorphism would be associated with variation in dopamine receptor availability in the human brain. Methods In this study, 72 healthy individuals genotyped for rs1344706 completed both [18F]fallypride and [11C]NNC-112 positron emission tomography scans to measure D2/D3 and D1 receptor availability, respectively. Genetic effects on estimates of binding potential for each ligand were tested first with canonical subject-specific striatal regions of interest analyses, followed by exploratory whole-brain voxelwise analyses to test for more localized striatal signals and for extrastriatal effects. Results Region of interest analyses revealed significantly less D2/D3 receptor availability in risk-allele homozygotes (TT) compared with non-risk allele carriers (G-allele carrier group: TG and GG) in the associative striatum and sensorimotor striatum, but no significant differences in striatal D1 receptor availability. Conclusions These data suggest that ZNF804A genotype may be meaningfully linked to dopaminergic function in the human brain. The results also may provide information to guide future studies of ZNF804A-related mechanisms of schizophrenia risk.

While we instantaneously recognize a face as attractive, it is much harder to explain what exactly defines personal attraction. This suggests that attraction depends on implicit processing of complex, culturally and individually defined features. Generative adversarial neural networks (GANs), which learn to mimic complex data distributions, can potentially model subjective preferences unconstrained by pre-defined model parameterization. Here, we present generative brain-computer interfaces (GBCI), coupling GANs with brain-computer interfaces. GBCI first presents a selection of images and captures personalized attractiveness reactions toward the images via electroencephalography. These reactions are then used to control a GAN model, finding a representation that matches the features constituting an attractive image for an individual. We conducted an experiment (N=30) to validate GBCI using a face-generating GAN and producing images that are hypothesized to be individually attractive. In double-blind evaluation of the GBCI-produced images against matched controls, we found GBCI yielded highly accurate results. Thus, the use of EEG responses to control a GAN presents a valid tool for interactive information-generation. Furthermore, the GBCI-derived images visually replicated known effects from social neuroscience, suggesting that the individually responsive, generative nature of GBCI provides a powerful, new tool in mapping individual differences and visualizing cognitive-affective processing.

The negative effects of stereotyping arising from a victim’s acceptance and internalisation of stereotype identities are well-known. As stereotypes are created and maintained in discourse, understanding how targets of stereotyping employ discursive resources to resist the constraining structures of stereotypic identities imposed upon them can provide insight into the process of stereotyping and contribute to efforts to reduce the threat of stereotyping. We examined the strategies used by targets of stereotyping in contesting stereotypic representations of their social group through the mobilisation of a range of discourse strategies when presented with stereotyping attacks on the group. The findings revealed that stereotypes are subtle in nature and may not be easily recognised and hence, difficult to resist. Participants employed a number of discourse strategies to repair their fragmented self and group identities. However, in their attempt to maintain identity coherence, they ended up using stereotyping discourses themselves to devalue the perceived outgroup as well as subgroups they created within their own social group. The study highlights the complexity of stereotyping and its self-perpetuating character, and sheds light on the difficulty faced by targets of stereotyping discourse in reconciling their identities through intense discursive and identity work.

Compared with the widely studied negative emotions in which different classes are easy to distinguish, nowadays less attention is paid to the recognition of positive emotions that are not fully independent. In this paper, we propose to recognize multiple positive emotions by analyzing brain activities and explore the neural representation of different positive emotions. Thirty-seven participants volunteered to participate in our study, in which their brain activities were recorded when watching five selected film clips. First, 150 well-known power features extracted from Electroencephalography (EEG) signals and 105 multimedia content analysis features were collected as the pool of candidate features. Second, based on the collected features, we propose to use a linear model and a nonlinear model to predict the percentage of five positive emotions. Then, percentage values were converted to ranking numbers and Kendall rank correlation coefficients were calculated. Our results showed that (1) ensemble of regressor chains using LSTM as unit regressor obtained both the best regression results and the best Kendall rank correlation coefficient on EEG features merely, and (2) top features from alpha frequency bands of EEG signals could represent different positive emotions. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of selective EEG features on recognizing different positive emotions.

Affective factors have been associated with an array of driving behaviors. However, the mechanism by which emotion influences driving behaviors remains largely unknown. In the present study, a probabilistic approach for characterizing the emotional influence on driving behavioral decision-making was proposed. Firstly, a series of experiments were designed to obtain the human-vehicle-environment data when the drivers, whose emotional states were effectively induced, were driving a vehicle in the car-following scene. Next, a Bayesian Network (BN) was developed to model the causal relationships between driving behavioral tendency, driver's emotion and other indicators related to vehicle driving. Finally, the driver's different tendencies in driving behavior caused by emotional factors were analyzed through calculating the probability distribution of driving behavioral tendency under different emotional conditions in the BN. The research results are not only beneficial to improve the accuracy of driving behavior identification and prediction which is of great significance for vehicle active safety, but also have a potential promoting effect on human-computer harmonious interaction of vehicle system.

Background Atypical arousal regulation may explain slower mean reaction time (MRT) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder compared with typical development. The locus coeruleus–norepinephrine system (LC-NE) underlies arousal regulation and adapts its activity to the utility of a task. LC-NE tonic and phasic activity are indexed by baseline pupil size (BPS) and stimulus-evoked pupillary response (SEPR). Methods The study assessed pupillometry in ASD (n = 31, 3 female/28 male), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (n = 28, 3 female/25 male), and typically developing control subjects (n = 31, 16 female/15 male) during a visuospatial reaction-time task that manipulates arousal by conditions with low and high task utility. We estimated linear mixed models of BPS, SEPR, and MRT in a per-trial analysis to investigate arousal regulation of task performance. Results Slower MRT occurred in the ASD group compared with the typically developing control group during low-utility conditions while controlling for dimensional ASD and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. In low-utility conditions, BPS and SEPR were inversely related and both were associated with faster MRT. Increased ASD symptoms across groups were associated with higher BPS during low-utility conditions. Changes in BPS and SEPR between task-utility conditions were smaller in the ASD group. Conclusions Slower visuospatial task performance in ASD is specific to low task utility. Arousal was associated with task performance and showed altered activity in ASD. Increased BPS during low-utility conditions suggested increased LC-NE tonic activity as an ASD symptom marker in children. Smaller changes in BPS and SEPR in ASD indicated attenuated LC-NE activity adaptation in response to high-utility conditions. Slower performance and atypical arousal regulation are probably associated with attenuated LC-NE activity adaptation.

Resume Objectif L’emergence de nouvelles formes d’expression psychopathologiques s’associe a des signifiants et des pratiques psychotherapiques originaux. Nous proposons de reflechir dans ce travail aux sources de ces evolutions sociales et culturelles en faisant l’hypothese qu’il existe un facteur sous-jacent qui aide a les rendre intelligibles. Nous supposons ainsi que ces evolutions sont la consequence de la disparition progressive d’une pensee de la complexite dialectique – le « noyau rationnel de la dialectique » – du fait d’un empirisme hyper-reductionniste largement influence par la pensee anglo-saxonne moderne. Methode et resultat Apres avoir decrit les particularites de ces courants de pensee et leur influence reciproque, aussi bien en psychologie qu’en economie, nous abordons les consequences de cette hypothese en soutenant l’idee que, contrairement a l’ideologie et aux discours qui sous-tendent ces evolutions, celles-ci ne sont guere un progres dans le champ du soin psychique mais qu’elles temoignent en realite d’une certaine regression intellectuelle et scientifique. Quelques detours du cote du neoliberalisme, de la pulsion de mort et du desir chez l’etre humain mettront en perspectives ces reflexions. Conclusion Nous proposons en conclusion quelques reperes relatifs a cet effondrement du modele dialectique sous l’effet de l’empirisme reductionniste en soulignant le role de la psychologie et celui qu’elle pourrait prendre afin de favoriser la qualite des soins prodigues aux patients selon une perspective sociale et anthropologique plus globale.

Item does not contain fulltext The purpose of this study was to describe the development and preliminary testing of a new scale assessing knowledge about melanoma risk factors and early detection/secondary prevention. Data was drawn from a longitudinal study assessing barriers and facilitators of skin self- examination among patients diagnosed with melanoma. For the current analysis, 191 patients who completed the new 9-item Knowledge About Melanoma Early Detection Scale and other study measures were included. Exploratory factor analysis with were conducted, which identified a robust scale comprised of 6 items with factor loadings ranging from .56 to .81. Higher scores on the Knowledge About Melanoma Early Detection Scale were associated with younger age and more positive attitudes about melanoma prevention, but not with biological sex, education, melanoma stage, or past self-administered and physician-provided skin checks. Further studies are needed to replicate these findings and to further establish the predictive validity of this scale and its usefulness for health research. 9 p.

How do we inferentially unify separately acquired empirical information into a single comprehensive picture of the lives of persistent particulars? This paper argues that hidden in such inferences is a Fregean puzzle that can only be solved by individuating our demonstratives thoughts in terms of object-dependent Fregean Senses. I begin by characterizing some constraints on a non-skeptical account of our inferential unification of empirical information. I then go on to show that traditional Fregean views of Sense cannot explain the rationality of such inferences; the consequence of which would be widespread skepticism concerning fundamental aspects of our empirical worldview. I show how the theory of object-dependent Senses can account for the rationality of the puzzling inferences. Lastly, I consider the alternative that we abandon a Fregean explanation of the rationality of inferences. While not fully dismissing that option, I briefly raise, what I take to be, a daunting challenge that uniquely faces non-Fregean views of rational inference.

Humans and chimpanzees differ in their cognitive abilities, in particular, in social-cognitive processing; however, the underlying neural mechanisms are still unknown. Based on the theory of predictive coding, we hypothesize that crucial differences in cognitive processing might arise from aberrant reliance on predictions. We test this hypothesis using a recurrent neural network that integrates sensory information with predictions based on the rules of Bayesian inference. Altering a network parameter, we vary how strongly the network relies on its predictions during development. Our model qualitatively replicates findings from a behavioral study on the drawing ability of human children and chimpanzees. Moderate parameter values replicate the ability of human children to complete drawings by adding missing elements. With weak reliance on predictions, the model’s behavior is similar to chimpanzees’ behaviors: trained networks can follow existing lines but fail to complete drawings. Furthermore, with a strong reliance on predictions, networks learn more abstract representations of drawings and confuse different trained patterns. An analysis of the internal network representations reveals that an aberrant reliance on predictions affects the formation of attractors in the network. Thus, appropriate reliance on their own predictions in humans may be crucial for developing abstract representations and acquiring cognitive skills.

The received view of computation is methodologically bifurcated: it offers different accounts of computation in the mathematical and physical cases. But little in the way of argument has been given for this approach. This paper rectifies the situation by arguing that the alternative, a unified account, is untenable. Furthermore, once these issues are brought into sharper relief we can see that work remains to be done to illuminate the relationship between physical and mathematical computation.

Resume Le present article comprend l’anorexie mentale comme une strategie visant a se produire soi-meme, en modelant le corps d’une maniere determinee, afin d’obtenir une reconnaissance intersubjective. Il s’agirait plus precisement d’une strategie permettant de systematiser la reussite de trois objectifs caracteristiques de l’existence sociale moderne ou les individus sont appeles a se realiser au moyen de leurs propres ressources, en s’emancipant de toute tutelle. Soumis a l’injonction d’etre « quelqu’un », et d’accomplir une performance individuelle remarquee, le sujet anorexique serait singulierement sensible aux risques d’echec constitutifs de ces deux ideaux sociaux. Ainsi, 1) la maigreur permettrait au sujet anorexique de faire l’economie de la question de son identite, en produisant a travers le corps maigre un type d’identite plutot qu’une veritable subjectivite. Effrayee a l’idee de ne pas parvenir a cerner les frontieres et facultes du « soi », la personne anorexique se retrancherait derriere le type d’identite que suggere une apparence tres amincie. 2) Travaillant sur son corps, le sujet anorexique echapperait aux aleas des formes conventionnelles de travail et d’accomplissement de soi, en choisissant un materiau – son propre corps – sur lequel il a un pouvoir immediat et qui a priori ne met a l’epreuve que sa volonte, en supprimant tout alea exterieur immaitrisable. 3) Conscient des representations sociales dont la maigreur est investie, le sujet anorexique controlerait le genre de jugement porte sur lui par les autres : il echapperait ainsi au risque, normalement structurel, de ne pas etre reconnu par les autres sujets conscients, ou d’etre incompris d’eux.

Aging into later life is often accompanied by social disconnection, anxiety, and sadness. Negative emotions are self-focused states with detrimental effects on aging and longevity. Awe-a positive emotion elicited when in the presence of vast things not immediately understood-reduces self-focus, promotes social connection, and fosters prosocial actions by encouraging a "small self." We investigated the emotional benefits of a novel "awe walk" intervention in healthy older adults. Sixty participants took weekly 15-min outdoor walks for 8 weeks; participants were randomly assigned to an awe walk group, which oriented them to experience awe during their walks, or to a control walk group. Participants took photographs of themselves during each walk and rated their emotional experience. Each day, they reported on their daily emotional experience outside of the walk context. Participants also completed pre- and postintervention measures of anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction. Compared with participants who took control walks, those who took awe walks experienced greater awe during their walks and exhibited an increasingly "small self" in their photographs over time. They reported greater joy and prosocial positive emotions during their walks and displayed increasing smile intensity over the study. Outside of the walk context, participants who took awe walks reported greater increases in daily prosocial positive emotions and greater decreases in daily distress over time. Postintervention anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction did not change from baseline in either group. These results suggest cultivating awe enhances positive emotions that foster social connection and diminishes negative emotions that hasten decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sexual and gender minority (SGM)-identifying adolescents are particularly vulnerable to negative psychological outcomes, including engagement in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). However, little is known about why these relationships exist. We used experimental methods to test the psychological mediation framework in an online sample of 328 adolescents who reported female sex at birth and a range of sexual and gender identities. Participants reported on depressive symptoms, self-criticism (both self-report and implicit), NSSI, and discrimination. They also completed a discrimination-based mood induction to test emotional reactivity. At baseline, SGM participants reported higher levels of implicit and self-reported self-criticism, depressive symptoms, discrimination, and higher rates of NSSI compared with cisgender, heterosexual participants (ps < .03). Following the discrimination induction, SGM-identifying participants exhibited larger emotional reactivity compared with cisgender heterosexual participants, as measured by change in negative mood, F(1, 326) = 7.33, p = .01, ηp2 = .02, and state self-criticism, F(1, 326) = 4.67, p = .03, ηp2 = .014, but not implicit affect toward the self. This effect was associated with baseline depressive symptoms, self-criticism, NSSI history, and discrimination. Post hoc analyses revealed that participants who tended to reframe experiences of discrimination as opportunities for growth exhibited attenuated emotional reactivity to the induction; findings remained significant after adjusting for SGM status and event severity (ps < .001). Results indicate that adolescents identifying as SGM may experience elevated psychological distress compared with their cisgender heterosexual peers and that stigma-related stressors may increase emotion dysregulation and maladaptive cognitive styles, paralleling previously proposed psychological mediation models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

‘Touch’, and the return of the body to digital music-making in general, has taken on a central importance in electronic instrument design and theory in recent decades. ‘Touch’ and lack thereof has been considered central to the challenge of a ‘disconnect’ between musicians’ bodily actions and digital instruments, and as a solution to it that instruments ‘of the future’ can provide. But ‘touch’ is not a universal quantity; it is a construction that varies widely in its application and invocation, across academic and commercial contexts of instrument design. This article examines the complex history of the contemporary concern with ‘touch’, and its role in the framing and reception of instruments such as ROLI’s Seaboard, JazzMutant’s Lemur, Sensel’s Morph and the Joué. With reference to writings on embodied cognition, the recent material turn in the humanities and to Mills and Sterne’s concept of dismediation it seeks to historicise, interrogate, and denaturalise ‘touch’ within instrument design and its surrounding discourse.

Surprised facial expressions, which are ambiguous in valence, are interpreted more positively by older adults than by younger adults. To evaluate the processes that contribute to this age difference, we varied the spatial frequency of the surprised-face stimuli. Replicating prior results, we found that older adults rated the unfiltered surprised faces more positively than did younger adults. However, valence ratings were affected by spatial frequency. When the surprised faces were presented in a low-spatial-frequency band, it biased the participants to rate them negatively. Even though this occurred for both the younger and older adults, the older adults’ ratings of the low-spatial-frequency faces were still more positive than that of the younger adults. This suggests that there is an age-related reduction in the default negativity of interpretations. Evidence for additional processes comes from analyses of the high-spatial-frequency faces. Although older adults, as a whole, rated the high-spatial frequency faces to be more positive than the younger adults, this effect was eliminated for the subset of older adults with poor high-spatial-frequency perception abilities. We suggest that this is because these older adults needed to use top-down cognitive resources to compensate for the decrease in bottom-up input, and this cognitive load interfered with their ability to increase the positivity of their ratings for the difficult-to-perceive faces. Thus, older adults’ more positive interpretations of surprised faces can be attributed to age-related reduction in default negativity and also to older adults’ use of cognitively-effortful top-down regulatory processes that serve to increase positivity.

The present experiments employed an emotion misattribution procedure to investigate if, and to what extent, emotional pictures are automatically processed on an emotion-specific level. We employed emotional pictures from the International Affective Picture System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2008) depicting joy-, anger-, fear-, and sadness-related contents as prime stimuli in the four-category emotion misattribution procedure (Rohr, Degner, & Wentura, 2015). Pictures were presented briefly and masked to avoid intentional responding. The pattern of results across all experiments provides evidence for an unfolding of emotion specificity along with the degree of visibility of primes. When presentation duration allowed for relatively good prime visibility (40 ms; Experiment 1), we observed emotion-specific misattribution effects for each prime category. With shorter prime presentation reducing prime visibility (30 ms; Experiment 2a and 2b), misattribution effects became less specific: While anger-related emotional scenes were clearly differentiated from fear and sadness-associated scenes, the latter two were not differentiated from one another. This pattern cannot be explained by simple semantic processing, but fits to an early appraisal of the coping ability associated with the emotion triggered by the pictorial content highlighting that specific, emotion-related processes are involved at the very early stages of emotional information processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The brain uses temporal structure in the environment, like rhythm in music and speech, to predict the timing of events, thereby optimizing their processing and perception. Temporal expectations can be grounded in different aspects of the input structure, such as a regular beat or a predictable pattern. One influential account posits that a generic mechanism underlies beat-based and pattern-based expectations, namely, entrainment of low-frequency neural oscillations to rhythmic input, whereas other accounts assume different underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we addressed this outstanding issue by examining EEG activity and behavioral responses during silent periods following rhythmic auditory sequences. We measured responses outlasting the rhythms both to avoid confounding the EEG analyses with evoked responses, and to directly test whether beat-based and pattern-based expectations persist beyond stimulation, as predicted by entrainment theories. To properly disentangle beat-based and pattern-based expectations, which often occur simultaneously, we used non-isochronous rhythms with a beat, a predictable pattern, or random timing. In Experiment 1 (n = 32), beat-based expectations affected behavioral ratings of probe events for two beat-cycles after the end of the rhythm. The effects of pattern-based expectations reflected expectations for one interval. In Experiment 2 (n = 27), using EEG, we found enhanced spectral power at the beat frequency for beat-based sequences both during listening and silence. For pattern-based sequences, enhanced power at a pattern-specific frequency was present during listening, but not silence. Moreover, we found a difference in the evoked signal following pattern-based and beat-based sequences. Finally, we show how multivariate pattern decoding and multiscale entropy—measures sensitive to non-oscillatory components of the signal—can be used to probe temporal expectations. Together, our results suggest that the input structure used to form temporal expectations may affect the associated neural mechanisms. We suggest climbing activity and low-frequency oscillations may be differentially associated with pattern-based and beat-based expectations.

Rapid individual cognitive phenotyping holds the potential to revolutionize domains as wide-ranging as personalized learning, employment practices, and precision psychiatry. Going beyond limitations imposed by traditional lab-based experiments, new efforts have been underway towards greater ecological validity and participant diversity to capture the full range of individual differences in cognitive abilities and behaviors across the general population. Building on this, we developed Skill Lab, a novel game-based tool that simultaneously assesses a broad suite of cognitive abilities while providing an engaging narrative. Skill Lab consists of six mini-games as well as 14 established cognitive ability tasks. Using a popular citizen science platform (N = 10725), we conducted a comprehensive validation in the wild of a game-based cognitive assessment suite. Based on the game and validation task data, we constructed reliable models to simultaneously predict eight cognitive abilities based on the users' in-game behavior. Follow-'-up validation tests revealed that the models can discriminate nuances contained within each separate cognitive ability as well as capture a shared main factor of generalized cognitive ability. Our game-based measures are five times faster to complete than the equivalent task-based measures and replicate previous findings on the decline of certain cognitive abilities with age in our large cross-sectional population sample (N = 6369). Taken together, our results demonstrate the feasibility of rapid in-the-wild systematic assessment of cognitive abilities as a promising first step towards population-scale benchmarking and individualized mental health diagnostics., 24 pages, 8 figures, and 4 tables. Supplementary Information: osf.io/pnw5z//

The human action observation network (AON) encompasses brain areas consistently engaged when we observe other's actions. Although the core nodes of the AON are present from childhood, it is not known to what extent they are sensitive to different action features during development. Because social cognitive abilities continue to mature during adolescence, the AON response to socially-oriented actions, but not to object-related actions, may differ in adolescents and adults. To test this hypothesis, we scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) male and female typically-developing teenagers (n= 28; 13 females) and adults (n= 25; 14 females) while they passively watched videos of manual actions varying along two dimensions: sociality (i.e., directed toward another person or not) and transitivity (i.e., involving an object or not). We found that action observation recruited the same fronto-parietal and occipito-temporal regions in adults and adolescents. The modulation of voxel-wise activity according to the social or transitive nature of the action was similar in both groups of participants. Multivariate pattern analysis, however, revealed that decoding accuracies in intraparietal sulcus (IPS)/superior parietal lobe (SPL) for both sociality and transitivity were lower for adolescents compared with adults. In addition, in the lateral occipital temporal cortex (LOTC), generalization of decoding across the orthogonal dimension was lower for sociality only in adolescents. These findings indicate that the representation of the content of others' actions, and in particular their social dimension, in the adolescent AON is still not as robust as in adults.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe activity of the action observation network (AON) in the human brain is modulated according to the purpose of the observed action, in particular the extent to which it involves interaction with an object or with another person. How this conceptual representation of actions is implemented during development is largely unknown. Here, using multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, we discovered that, while the action observation network is in place in adolescence, the fine-grain organization of its posterior regions is less robust than in adults to decode the abstract social dimensions of an action. This finding highlights the late maturation of social processing in the human brain.

Dance has become an important topic for research in empirical aesthetics, social and motor cognition, and as an intervention for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders. Despite the growing scientific interest in dance, no standardised psychometric instrument exists to assess people’s dance experience. Here, we introduce the Goldsmiths Dance Sophistication Index (Gold-DSI), a 26-item questionnaire to measure individual differences in participatory and observational dance experience on a continuous scale. The Gold-DSI was developed in three stages: In the first stage a set of 76 items was generated by adapting questions from the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Müllensiefen et al., 2014), and as part of a stakeholder workshop using a grounded theory approach. The second stage focused on item reduction. Using a large-scale online survey (N=424) , hierarchical factor analysis was used to fit a model comprising of one general and six secondary factors (28 items in total). In stage three, six new items were added to specifically capture individual differences in dance observation. We then collected data from two samples for final model estimation (N=127) and evaluation (N=190). The final version of the Gold-DSI comprises 26 items; 20 items relate to one general factor that captures experience in dance participation. This includes four secondary factors: Body Awareness, Social Dancing, Urge to Dance, and Dance Training. A further six items separately measure experience in dance observation. In sum, the Gold-DSI provides a brief, standardised and continuous assessment of doing, watching and knowing about dance.

Background Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by both internalizing (anxiety) and externalizing (compulsivity) symptoms. Currently, little is known about their interrelationships and their relative contributions to disease heterogeneity. Our goal is to resolve affective and cognitive symptom heterogeneity related to internalized and externalized symptom dimensions by determining subtypes of children with OCD symptoms, and to identify any corresponding neural differences. Methods A total of 1269 children with OCD symptoms screened using the Child Behavior Checklist Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom scale and 3987 matched control subjects were obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Consensus hierarchical clustering was used to cluster children with OCD symptoms into distinct subtypes. Ten neurocognitive task scores and 20 Child Behavior Checklist syndrome scales were used to characterize cognitive/behavioral differences. Gray matter volume, fractional anisotropy of major white matter fiber tracts, and functional connectivity among networks were used in case-control studies. Results We identified two subgroups with contrasting patterns in internalized and externalized dimensions. Group 1 showed compulsive thoughts and repeated acts but relatively low anxiety symptoms, whereas group 2 exhibited higher anxiety and perfectionism and relatively low repetitive behavior. Only group 1 had significant cognitive impairments and gray matter volume reductions in the bilateral inferior parietal lobe, precentral gyrus, and precuneus gyrus, and had white matter tract fractional anisotropy reductions in the corticostriatal fasciculus. Conclusions Children with OCD symptoms are heterogeneous at the level of symptom clustering and its underlying neural basis. Two subgroups represent distinct patterns of externalizing and internalizing symptoms, suggesting that anxiety is not its major predisposing factor. These results may have implications for the nosology and treatment of preteenage OCD.

BACKGROUND: Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by hypersociability, heightened auditory sensitivities, attention deficits, and strong musical interests despite differences in musical skills. Behavioral studies report individuals with WS exhibit variable beat and rhythm perception skills. METHODS: We sought to investigate the neural basis of beat tracking in individuals with WS using electroencephalography (EEG). Twenty-seven adults with WS and sixteen age-matched typically developing control subjects passively listened to musical rhythms with accents on either the first or second tone of the repeating pattern, leading to distinct beat percepts. RESULTS: Consistent with the role of beta and gamma oscillations in rhythm processing, individuals with WS and typically developing control subjects showed strong evoked neural activity in both beta (13-30 Hz) and gamma (31-55 Hz) frequency bands in response to beat onsets. This neural response was somewhat more distributed across the scalp for individuals with WS. Compared with typically developing control subjects, individuals with WS exhibited significantly greater amplitude of auditory evoked potentials (P1-N1-P2 complex) and modulations in evoked alpha (8-12 Hz) activity, reflective of sensory and attentional processes, compared to typically developing control subjects. Individuals with WS also exhibited markedly stable neural responses over the course of the experiment, and these were significantly more stable than those of controls. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide neurophysiological evidence for dynamic beat tracking in WS and coincide with the atypical auditory phenotype and attentional difficulties seen in this population.

This article reports on a mixed methods study that investigated the extent to which written corrective feedback (WCF) contributes to L2 learners’ acquisition of regular past tense in English and the cognitive processes that underpin the corrective feedback provided. The study adopted a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design and involved 113 intermediate-level Chinese learners of English who were assigned to four conditions: indirect WCF, direct WCF, metalinguistic WCF, and control. A picture description task and a grammaticality judgement test were used to measure gains in the target structure. To explore how learners process feedback, nine learners, three from each treatment group, were selected to produce think aloud protocols. The study found that all three types of WCF had a positive effect on the picture description task, though none of them had a clear impact on the grammaticality judgement test. In addition, indirect WCF was found to have an advantage over direct and metalinguistic WCF on the delayed posttest, when compared to the control group. Think aloud data suggested that indirect WCF induced deeper cognitive processes than the other two kinds of feedback, which may account for the superiority of indirect WCF.

A range of studies have sought to understand why people’s compliance with social distancing varied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent theory suggests that pathogen avoidance behavior is based not only on perceived risk but on a trade-off between the perceived costs of pathogen exposure and the perceived benefits of social contact. We hypothesized that compliance with social distancing may therefore be explained by a trade-off between pathogen avoidance and various social motives such as mate-seeking. Two studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that social distancing was positively associated with disease avoidance motives but negatively associated with social motives, especially mating motives. These associations remained after controlling for predictors identified by previous research, including risk perception and personality. Findings indicate that people who are more interested in seeking new romantic partners (e.g., young men) may be less inclined to socially distance and be more at risk of pathogen transmission.

Recent experiments reveal that 6- to 12-month-old infants can learn probabilities and reason with them. In this work, we present a novel computational system called Neural Probability Learner and Sampler (NPLS) that learns and reasons with probabilities, providing a computationally sufficient mechanism to explain infant probabilistic learning and inference. In 24 computer simulations, NPLS simulations show how probability distributions can emerge naturally from neural-network learning of event sequences, providing a novel explanation of infant probabilistic learning and reasoning. Three mathematical proofs show how and why NPLS simulates the infant results so accurately. The results are situated in relation to seven other active research lines. This work provides an effective way to integrate Bayesian and neural-network approaches to cognition., To be published in Psychological Review

Smoothly curved objects elicit feelings of pleasantness, and tend to be preferred over angular objects. Furthermore, individual differences (i.e., art expertise, openness to experience, holistic thinking), and the complexity of the stimuli are known to moderate the effect. We extended the study of individual differences to two theoretically-relevant groups. Study 1 compared liking for curvature in individuals with autism and a matched neurotypical control group (for age, gender and IQ). Because preference for curvature depends on both sensory (visuospatial) and affective input, for which individuals with autism exhibit anomalies, we hypothesized a difference in preference for curved stimuli between the two groups. Study 2 examined preference for curvature in a group of quasi-expert students of design. Because working architects and designers tend to regard curved interior spaces as beautiful, we hypothesized to replicate this effect within quasi-experts as well, thereby extending the effect across levels of expertise. Using an identical methodology across both studies, we administered abstract stimuli consisting of irregular polygons (angular vs. curved) and patterns of coloured lines (angular vs. curved), as well as concrete stimuli consisting of images of interior spaces. Preference for curvature was confirmed with abstract stimuli in all three groups. For interior design, the curvature effect diminished in magnitude, and this was especially evident in individuals with autism. Interestingly, quasi-experts preferred rectilinear over curvilinear interiors. We discuss the results in relation to the impact of individual differences and expertise on preference for curvature, and their implication for design studies in ecologically valid settings.

Abstract. People tend to simultaneously accept mutually exclusive beliefs. If they are generally prone to tolerate inconsistencies, irrespective of their content, we say they are prone to doublethink. We developed a measure to capture individual differences in this tendency and demonstrated its construct and predictive validity across two studies. In Study 1, participants ( N = 240) filled in the doublethink scale, the rational/intuitive inventory, and three measures of conspiratorial beliefs (conspiracy mentality, belief in specific and contradictory conspiracies). Doublethink was meaningfully related to all measured variables and was predictive of all conspiratorial beliefs over and above rational/intuitive thinking styles. In Study 2 ( N = 149), we included the need for cognition and preference for consistency in the predictor set alongside doublethink, while the criterion set remained the same. Once again, doublethink related in an expected way to other measured variables and was predictive of belief in conspiracy theories after accounting for the effects of need for cognition and preference for consistency. We discuss the properties of the scale and how it relates to other consistency measures, and offer two ways to conceptualize doublethink: as a lack of metacognitive ability to spot inconsistencies or as a thinking style that easily accommodates inconsistent beliefs.

An interesting aspect of love and sex (and other types of interactions) with robots is that human beings often treat robots as animate and express emotions towards them. In this paper, we discuss two interpretations of why people experience emotions towards robots and tend to treat them as animate: naturalistic and antinaturalistic. We first provide a set of examples that illustrate human beings considering robots animate and experiencing emotions towards them. We then identify, reconstruct and compare naturalist and antinaturalist accounts of these attitudes and point out the functions and limitations of these accounts. Finally, we argue that in the case of emotional and ‘animating’ human–robot interactions, naturalist and antinaturalist accounts should be – as they most often are – considered complementary rather than competitive or contradictory.

The ability to consider the future is critical to many human behaviors. Individuals who consider future outcomes of their actions are more likely to report using emotion regulation strategies that have enduring effects on feelings. However, there has been little examination of how variation in short- and long-term motives across events predicts emotion regulation strategy use. We examined the roles of both interindividual and intraindividual variation in short- and long-term motives in emotion regulation in daily life, while controlling for hedonic and instrumental motives. In a daily diary study (Study 1) and a mobile application study (Study 2), participants (N = 107 and N = 98) reported on their short- and long-term motives for regulation and their use of multiple emotion regulation strategies across multiple negative events. Across both studies, momentary long-term motives were predictive of several strategies, including problem-solving and reappraisal, both of which are associated with more positive mental health outcomes in the long-term. The results suggest that people's long-term motives vary across contexts and relate to the implementation of different regulatory strategies, and that these associations are at least partially independent of the role of hedonic and instrumental motives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Background Psychiatric diagnosis and treatment have historically taken a symptom-based approach, with less attention on identifying underlying symptom-producing mechanisms. Recent efforts have illuminated the extent to which different underlying circuitry can produce phenotypically similar symptomatology (e.g., psychosis in bipolar disorder vs. schizophrenia). Computational modeling makes it possible to identify and mathematically differentiate behaviorally unobservable, specific reinforcement learning differences in patients with schizophrenia versus other disorders, likely owing to a higher reliance on prediction error–driven learning associated with basal ganglia and underreliance on explicit value representations associated with orbitofrontal cortex. Methods We used a well-established probabilistic reinforcement learning task to replicate those findings in individuals with schizophrenia both on (n = 120) and off (n = 44) antipsychotic medications and included a patient comparison group of bipolar patients with psychosis (n = 60) and healthy control subjects (n = 72). Results Using accuracy, there was a main effect of group (F3,279 = 7.87, p Conclusions Both medicated and unmedicated patients showed overreliance on prediction error–driven learning as well as significantly higher noise and value-related memory decay, compared with the healthy control subjects and the patients with bipolar disorder. Additionally, the computational model parameters capturing these processes can significantly improve patient/control classification, potentially providing useful diagnosis insight.

Objective Previous literature documented the traumatic consequences of exposure to disasters on psychological functioning, but little attention has been paid to the intergenerational transmission of the memory of disasters. We explored long-term effects on the memory of the Vajont dam disaster in Northeast Italy that claimed 1,910 lives in 1963. Method We collected data from 52 two-generation families in which the first generations were born before the disaster and the second generations after. The families were divided into an experimental group whose first generation survived the disaster and a control group whose first generation had moved there afterward. The interviews included an open-ended narrative on the memory of the disaster. We coded free narratives focusing on the richness of the memories (i.e., length, causes, core, aftermath), analyzing negative emotions and salience of the natural and psychological domains. Results We applied generalized linear mixed models. The richness of the memories, including references to negative emotions, diminished with lower exposure and with intergenerational transmission. Moreover, the participants built a shared representation of the disaster that did not markedly differ across exposure or generation. The reported causes were attributed more to the natural rather than the human domain; the consequences more to the psychological compared to the material domain. Conclusions Our findings highlight the processes through which collective memories of historical traumatic events are built over the long term and the way a collective identity develops to bear the burden of highly dramatic events and to transmit intergenerational lessons from the past. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This study seeks to uncover the effects of source and repetition on the illusory truth effect and the dissemination of fake news on social media with an online experiment. This study found that in a personalized source system where trustworthy traditional news sources and personal contacts converged on social media, repetition has a big influence on the trustworthiness of news source and balance of news story. Although most people intend to share real news stories with balance, the illusory truth effect causes mis-judgement, which makes fake news more likely to go viral than real news. The multi-group SEM analysis of the two groups – without source and with source – showed that readers in the no source group rated the effect of repetition on news evaluation as more significant than the with source group. The findings suggest that the effect of source has diminished in the evaluation of news quality. However, sharers on social media are becoming more influential.

I examine several alleged grounds of the principle of sufficient reason in Leibniz’s philosophy. These include the nature of a requisite and a sufficient condition, the nature of truth, and the nature of harmony. I argue that Leibniz does not ground the PSR in any of these ways. Instead, he is committed to a value-based grounds of the PSR: God creates the best possible world, and the fact that the PSR obtains in this world contributes to it being the best. I conclude by considering some objections to this way of grounding the PSR.

Background Smoking behavior during the first 24 hours of a quit attempt is a significant predictor of longer-term abstinence, yet little is known about the neurobiology of early tobacco abstinence. Specifically, the effects of acute tobacco deprivation and reinstatement on brain function—particularly at the level of large-scale network dynamics and assessed across the entire brain—remain incompletely understood. To address this gap, this study used a mixed within- and between-subjects design to assess the effects of smoking status (yes/no smoker) and state (deprived vs. satiated) on whole-brain patterns of intrinsic connectivity. Methods Participants included 42 tobacco smokers who underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging following overnight abstinence (deprived state) and following smoking reinstatement (satiated state, randomized order across participants). Sixty healthy control nonsmokers underwent a single resting-state scan using the same acquisition parameters. Functional connectivity data were analyzed using both a canonical network-of-interest approach and a whole-brain, data-driven approach, i.e., intrinsic connectivity distribution. Results Network-of-interest–based analyses indicated decreased functional connectivity within frontoparietal and salience networks among smokers relative to nonsmokers as well as effects of smoking state on default mode connectivity. In addition, intrinsic connectivity distribution analyses identified novel between-group differences in subcortical-cerebellar and corticocerebellar networks that were largely smoking state dependent. Conclusions These data demonstrate the importance of considering smoking state and the utility of using both theory- and data-driven analysis approaches. These data provide much-needed insight into the functional neurobiology of early abstinence, which may be used in the development of novel treatments.

The relations between self and others are fluid and constantly changing but exert a profound influence on our identity and emotional experiences. Indeed, human emotions are frequently and intensely social, and the people with whom we interact can alter our momentary mood. But does emotional "contagion" extend over prolonged periods of hours to days, and, if so, how does it propagate through interconnected groups? Answering this question is empirically challenging, because mood similarity in connected individuals can arise through multiple mechanisms (social influence, social selection, and shared external causation), making causal inferences hard to draw. We address this challenge using temporally high-resolution, longitudinal data from 2 independent, bounded social networks during periods of high communal activity and low external contact. Adolescent study participants (N = 79) completed daily mood (n = 4,724) and social interaction (n = 1,775) ratings during residential performance tours of classical music lasting 5 to 7 days. Analyses using statistical network models show that in both networks, adolescent musicians became reciprocally more similar in mood to their interaction partners. The observed contagion effect was greater for negative than for positive mood. That is, although one may catch a friend's bad mood, the friend may feel less negative in the process. These results suggest a mechanism for emotional buffering and the cost of social support. We found no evidence for social selection based on mood. Indeed, participants were remarkably tolerant of their peers' mood fluctuations and showed no evidence of altering their patterns of social interaction accordingly. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Objectives Emerging evidence implicates atypical plasticity in the neurophysiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Specifically, autistic people demonstrated hyperplasticity in response to theta-burst stimulation (TBS). We hypothesized that autistic adults would display hyperplasticity to TBS and that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) – which potentiates brain inhibitory mechanisms – would ‘stabilize’ hyperplasticity. Methods Using a randomized, cross-over design, plasticity was assessed using TBS in the left motor cortex (M1) in 31 autistic adults and 30 sex-, intelligence quotient-, and age-matched controls. Autistic adults (n = 29) were further randomized (1:1) to receive a single session of active (n = 14) or sham (n = 15) rTMS (6000 pulses at 20 Hz) over left M1 and plasticity was reassessed on the next day following rTMS. Results Both long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) were significantly increased in the ASD group, indicating hyperplasticity. Active, but not sham rTMS, attenuated LTD in autistic adults. Conclusions We provided further evidence for the presence of brain hyperplasticity in ASD. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show preliminary evidence that an excessive LTD in ASD can be ‘stabilized’ using rTMS. Such ‘stabilizing’ effect of rTMS on LTP was not observed, likely due to small sample size or a more specific ‘attenuating’ effect of rTMS on LTD, compared to LTP. Significance These findings indicate atypical brain inhibitory mechanisms behind hyperplasticity in ASD. Utilizing a larger sample, future replication studies could investigate therapeutic opportunities of ‘mechanism-driven’ rTMS.

Objective To investigate whether epileptiform discharge burden can identify those at risk for delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Methods Retrospective analysis of 113 moderate to severe grade SAH patients who had continuous EEG (cEEG) recordings during their hospitalization. We calculated the burden of epileptiform discharges (ED), measured as number of ED per hour. Results We find that many SAH patients have an increase in ED burden during the first 3–10 days following rupture, the major risk period for DCI. However, those who develop DCI have a significantly higher hourly burden from days 3.5–6 after SAH vs. those who do not. ED burden is higher in DCI patients when assessed in relation to the onset of DCI (area under the receiver operator curve 0.72). Finally, specific trends of ED burden over time, assessed by group-based trajectory analysis, also help stratify DCI risk. Conclusions These results suggest that ED burden is a useful parameter for identifying those at higher risk of developing DCI after SAH. The higher burden rate associated with DCI supports the theory of metabolic supply-demand mismatch which contributes to this complication. Significance ED burden is a novel biomarker for predicting those at high risk of DCI.

The ability to recognize others' emotions is critical for social interactions. It is widely assumed that recognizing facial expressions predominantly determines perceived categorical emotion, and contextual information only coarsely modulates or disambiguates interpreted faces. Using a novel method, inferential emotion tracking, we isolated and quantified the contribution of visual context versus face and body information in dynamic emotion recognition. Even when faces and bodies were blurred out in muted videos, observers inferred the emotion of invisible characters accurately and in high agreement based solely on visual context. Our results further show that the presence of visual context can override interpreted emotion categories from face and body information. Strikingly, we find that visual context determines perceived emotion nearly as much and as often as face and body information does. Visual context is an essential and indispensable element of emotion recognition: Without context, observers can misperceive a person's emotion over time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The gut microbiota has been suggested to influence neurodevelopment in rodents. Preliminary human studies have associated fecal microbiota composition with features of emotional and cognitive development as well as differences in thalamus-amygdala connectivity. Currently, microbiota-gut-brain axis studies cover heterogenous set of infant and child brain developmental phenotypes, while microbiota associations with more fine-grained aspects of brain development remain largely unknown. Here (N = 122, 53% boys), we investigated the associations between infant fecal microbiota composition and infant attention to emotional faces, as bias for faces is strong in infancy and deviations in early processing of emotional facial expressions may influence the trajectories of social-emotional development. The fecal microbiota composition was assessed at 2.5 months of age and analyzed with 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Attention to emotional faces was assessed with an age-appropriate face-distractor paradigm, using neutral, happy, fearful, and scrambled faces and salient distractors, at 8 months of age. We observed an association between a lower abundance of Bifidobacterium and a higher abundance of Clostridium with an increased "fear bias," that is, attention toward fearful versus happy/neutral faces. This data suggests an association between early microbiota and later fear bias, a well-established infant phenotype of emotionally directed attention. However, the clinical significance or causality of our findings remains to be assessed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The responsivity principle is a vital element in the risk-need-responsivity model. The working alliance is a good illustration of the intention of this responsivity principle. In this study, we examine the influence of the working alliance (WAMCI) between 199 offenders and probation officers on recidivism. Data for this longitudinal study originate from adult probation services in the Netherlands. The association between the working alliance factors and recidivism was analyzed using a Cox regression. Offenders who reported more Trust in the relationship with their Probation Officer after 9 months community supervision showed less recidivism in the subsequent 4-year follow-up period. This association remained significant when controlled for criminal history, age, gender, ethnicity, family status, employment and addiction problems. Offenders who reported more reactance showed significantly more recidivism in the follow-up period, but this association was accounted for criminal history variables. These results can be regarded as an extension of the responsivity principle; a trusting relationship may be needed to create a space in which the client becomes engaged in a changing process.

Recent findings suggest that moral outrage signals trustworthiness to others, and such perceptions play a uniquely important role in identifying social opportunities. We conducted four studies (N = 870) investigating how displays of moral outrage are perceived in the specific context of mating. Results indicated participants, particularly women, found prospective mates describing outrage-signaling activism to be more desirable for long-term mating (Study 1), and this perception of desirability was similarly inferred among same-sex raters (Study 2). We further replicated findings in Study 1, while additionally considering the basis of women's attraction toward outraged behavior through candidate mediators (Studies 3). Although we found consistent evidence for the desirability of an ostensibly outraged target, Study 4 finally identified a boundary condition on the desirability of outrage, wherein mere expression of outrage (without activism) was insufficient to bolster attraction. We frame results from complementary perspectives of trust signaling and sexual strategies theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).