Search

Atom interferometers allow determining inertial effects to high accuracy. Quantum-projection noise as well as systematic effects impose demands on large atomic flux as well as ultralow expansion rates. Here we report on a high-flux source of ultracold atoms with free expansion rates near the Heisenberg limit directly upon release from the trap. Our results are achieved in a time-averaged optical dipole trap and enabled through dynamic tuning of the atomic scattering length across two orders of magnitude interaction strength via magnetic Feshbach resonances. We demonstrate Bose-Einstein condensates with more than 6×104 particles after evaporative cooling for 170 ms and their subsequent release with a minimal expansion energy of 4.5 nK in one direction. Based on our results we estimate the performance of an atom interferometer and compare our source system to a high performance chip trap, as readily available for ultraprecise measurements in microgravity environments.

When we make a decision, we also estimate the probability that our choice is correct or accurate. This probability estimate is termed our degree of decision confidence. Recent work has reported event-related potential (ERP) correlates of confidence both during decision formation (the centro-parietal positivity component; CPP) and after a decision has been made (the error positivity component; Pe). However, there are several measurement confounds that complicate the interpretation of these findings. More recent studies that overcome these issues have so far produced conflicting results. To better characterise the ERP correlates of confidence we presented participants with a comparative brightness judgment task while recording electroencephalography. Participants judged which of two flickering squares (varying in luminance over time) was brighter on average. Participants then gave confidence ratings ranging from "surely incorrect" to "surely correct". To elicit a range of confidence ratings we manipulated both the mean luminance difference between the brighter and darker squares (relative evidence) and the overall luminance of both squares (absolute evidence). We found larger CPP amplitudes in trials with higher confidence ratings. This association was not simply a by-product of differences in relative evidence (which covaries with confidence) across trials. We did not identify postdecisional ERP correlates of confidence, except when they were artificially produced by pre-response ERP baselines. These results provide further evidence for neural correlates of processes that inform confidence judgments during decision formation.

Previous studies of resting electroencephalography (EEG) correlates of personality traits have conflated periodic and aperiodic sources of EEG signals. Because these are associated with different underlying neural dynamics, disentangling them can avoid measurement confounds and clarify findings. In a large sample (n = 300), we investigated how disentangling these activities impacts findings related to two research programs within personality neuroscience. In Study 1 we examined associations between Extraversion and two putative markers of reward sensitivity-Left Frontal Alpha asymmetry (LFA) and Frontal-Posterior Theta (FPT). In Study 2 we used machine learning to predict personality trait scores from resting EEG. In both studies, power within each EEG frequency bin was quantified as both total power and separate contributions of periodic and aperiodic activity. In Study 1, total power LFA and FPT correlated negatively with Extraversion (r ∼ -0.14), but there was no relation when LFA and FPT were derived only from periodic activity. In Study 2, all Big Five traits could be decoded from periodic power (r ∼ 0.20), and Agreeableness could also be decoded from total power and from aperiodic indices. Taken together, these results show how separation of periodic and aperiodic activity in resting EEG may clarify findings in personality neuroscience. Disentangling these signals allows for more reliable findings relating to periodic EEG markers of personality, and highlights novel aperiodic markers to be explored in future research.

Contemporary models of decision-making under risk focus on estimating the final value of each alternative course of action. According to such frameworks, information that has no capacity to alter a future payoff (i.e., is "non-instrumental") should have little effect on one's preference for risk. Importantly, however, recent work has shown that information, despite being non-instrumental, may nevertheless exert a striking influence on behavior. Here, we tested whether the opportunity to passively observe the sequence of events following a decision could modulate risky behavior, even if that information could not possibly influence the final result. Across three experiments, 71 individuals chose to accept or reject gambles on a five-window slot machine. If a gamble was accepted, each window was sequentially revealed prior to the outcome being declared. Critically, we informed participants about which windows would subsequently provide veridical information about the gamble outcome, should that gamble be accepted. Our analyses revealed three key findings. First, the opportunity to observe the consequences of one's choice significantly increased the likelihood of gambling, despite that information being entirely non-instrumental. Second, this effect generalized across different stakes. Finally, choices were driven predominantly by the likelihood that information could result in an earlier resolution of uncertainty. These findings demonstrate the importance of anticipatory information to decision-making under risk. More broadly, we provide strong evidence for the utility of non-instrumental information, by demonstrating its capacity to modulate primary economic decisions that should be driven by more motivationally salient variables associated with risk and reward.

An enduring question in cognitive science is how perceptually novel objects are processed. Addressing this issue has been limited by the absence of a standardised set of object-like stimuli that appear realistic, but cannot possibly have been previously encountered. To this end, we created a dataset, at the core of which are images of 400 perceptually novel objects. These stimuli were created using Generative Adversarial Networks that integrated features of everyday stimuli to produce a set of synthetic objects that appear entirely plausible, yet do not in fact exist. We curated an accompanying dataset of 400 familiar stimuli, which were matched in terms of size, contrast, luminance, and colourfulness. For each object, we quantified their key visual properties (edge density, entropy, symmetry, complexity, and spectral signatures). We also confirmed that adult observers (N = 390) perceive the novel objects to be less familiar, yet similarly engaging, relative to the familiar objects. This dataset serves as an open resource to facilitate future studies on visual perception.

Humans and other animals value information that reduces uncertainty or leads to pleasurable anticipation, even if it cannot be used to gain tangible rewards or change outcomes. In exchange, they are willing to incur significant costs, sacrifice rewards or invest effort. We investigated whether human participants were also willing to endure pain-a highly salient and aversive cost-to obtain such information. Forty participants performed a computer-based task. On each trial, they observed a coin flip, with each side associated with different monetary rewards of varying magnitude. Participants could choose to endure a painful stimulus (low, moderate or high pain) to learn the outcome of the coin flip immediately. Importantly, regardless of their choice, winnings were always earned, rendering this information non-instrumental. Results showed that agents were willing to endure pain in exchange for information, with a lower likelihood of doing so as pain levels increased. Both higher average rewards and a larger variance between the two possible rewards independently increased the willingness to accept pain. Our results show that the intrinsic value of escaping uncertainty through non-instrumental information is sufficient to offset pain experiences, suggesting a shared mechanism through which these can be directly compared.

Confirmation bias in information-search contributes to the formation of polarized echo-chambers of beliefs. However, the role of valence on information source selection remains poorly understood. In Experiment 1, participants won financial rewards depending on the outcomes of a set of lotteries. They were not shown these outcomes, but instead could choose to view a prediction of each lottery outcome made by one of two sources. Before choosing their favoured source, participants were first shown a series of example predictions made by each. The sources systematically varied in the accuracy and positivity (i.e., how often they predicted a win) of their predictions. Hierarchical Bayesian modeling indicated that both source accuracy and positivity impacted participants' choices. Importantly, those that viewed more positively-biased information believed that they had won more often and had higher confidence in those beliefs. In Experiment 2, we directly assessed the effect of positivity on the perceived credibility of a source. In each trial, participants watched a single source making a series of predictions of lottery outcomes and rated the strength of their beliefs in each source. Interestingly, positively-biased sources were not seen as more credible. Together, these findings suggest that positively-biased information is sought partly due to the desirable emotional state it induces rather than having enhanced perceived credibility. Information sought on this basis nevertheless produced consequential biased beliefs about the world-state, highlighting a potentially key role for hedonic preferences in information selection and subsequent belief formation.

When interacting with the dynamic world, the brain receives outdated sensory information, due to the time required for neural transmission and processing. In motion perception, the brain may overcome these fundamental delays through predictively encoding the position of moving objects using information from their past trajectories. In the present study, we evaluated this proposition using multivariate analysis of high temporal resolution electroencephalographic data. We tracked neural position representations of moving objects at different stages of visual processing, relative to the real-time position of the object. During early stimulus-evoked activity, position representations of moving objects were activated substantially earlier than the equivalent activity evoked by unpredictable flashes, aligning the earliest representations of moving stimuli with their real-time positions. These findings indicate that the predictability of straight trajectories enables full compensation for the neural delays accumulated early in stimulus processing, but that delays still accumulate across later stages of cortical processing.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether the visual response to flickering checkerboard patterns measured using electroencephalography (EEG) relate to excitatory or inhibitory metabolite levels measured using ultra-high (7Tesla/7T) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). BACKGROUND: Electrophysiological studies have shown altered visual cortical response amplitudes and contrast gain responses to high contrast flickering patterns in people with migraine. These contrast response anomalies have been argued to represent an imbalance between cortical inhibition and excitation, however the specific mechanism has not been elucidated. METHODS: MRS-measured metabolite levels were obtained from the occipital cortex of 18 participants with migraine and 18 non-headache controls. EEG contrast gain response functions were collected on separate days from a subset of 10 participants with migraine and 12 non-headache controls. Case-control outcome measures were statistically compared between groups both before and after checkboard exposure. RESULTS: No significant difference in GABA and glutamate levels were found between groups nor checkerboard timepoint. Glucose levels were significantly reduced after checkerboard exposure in both participant groups. There was no metabolic signature in visual cortex in response to high-contrast flickering checkboards that distinguished those with migraine and without. There was also no correlation between MRS and EEG measurements in response to the flickering checkerboard. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the mechanisms driving contrast-flickering stimulus aversion are not simplistically reflected by gross changes in metabolic activity in the primary visual cortex.

People are often cautious in delivering moral judgements of others' behaviours, as falsely accusing others of wrongdoing can be costly for social relationships. Caution might further be present when making judgements in information-dynamic environments, as contextual updates can change our minds. This study investigated the processes with which moral valence and context expectancy drive caution in moral judgements. Across two experiments, participants (N = 122) made moral judgements of others' sharing actions. Prior to judging, participants were informed whether contextual information regarding the deservingness of the recipient would follow. We found that participants slowed their moral judgements when judging negatively valenced actions and when expecting contextual updates. Using a diffusion decision model framework, these changes were explained by shifts in drift rate and decision bias (valence) and boundary setting (context), respectively. These findings demonstrate how moral decision caution can be decomposed into distinct aspects of the unfolding decision process.

Adherence to fairness norms is a core feature of moral behaviour and judgment, and is conceptually and empirically linked with basic personality dimensions. However, the specific nature of these links is poorly understood. In this study (N = 313, 68% female) we employed a novel third-party judgement paradigm, in which participants made moral judgements of various sharing actions of virtual others. This allowed us to capture individual variation in the relative importance of several fairness norms. We correlated these norm profiles with Big Five personality traits. We observed distinct associations between Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness, and Extraversion and estimates of the importance of generosity, selfishness, relative generosity, and relative selfishness norms. Comparisons of these associations at the domain- versus facet-level of personality traits suggested these relations are specific to domain-level traits. These findings are an important step to unravel the complex links between fairness norms and basic personality traits.

Ultracold potassium is an interesting candidate for quantum technology applications and fundamental research as it allows controlling intra-atomic interactions via low-field magnetic Feshbach resonances. However, the realization of high-flux sources of Bose-Einstein condensates remains challenging due to the necessity of optical trapping to use magnetic fields as free parameters. We investigate the production of all-optical K39 Bose-Einstein condensates with different scattering lengths using a Feshbach resonance near 33 G. By tuning the scattering length in a range between 75a0 and 300a0 we demonstrate a tradeoff between evaporation speed and final atom number and decrease our evaporation time by a factor of 5 while approximately doubling the evaporation flux. To this end, we are able to produce fully condensed ensembles with 5.8×104 atoms within 850-ms evaporation time at a scattering length of 232a0 and 1.6×105 atoms within 3.9s at 158a0, respectively. We deploy a numerical model to analyze the flux and atom number scaling with respect to scattering length, identify current limitations, and simulate the optimal performance of our setup. Based on our findings we describe routes towards high-flux sources of ultracold potassium for inertial sensing.

Whether people change their mind after making a perceptual judgement may depend on how confident they are in their decision. Recently, it was shown that, when making perceptual judgements about stimuli containing high levels of 'absolute evidence' (i.e., the overall magnitude of sensory evidence across choice options), people make less accurate decisions and are also slower to change their mind and correct their mistakes. Here we report two studies that investigated whether high levels of absolute evidence also lead to increased decision confidence. We used a luminance judgment task in which participants decided which of two dynamic, flickering stimuli was brighter. After making a decision, participants rated their confidence. We manipulated relative evidence (i.e., the mean luminance difference between the two stimuli) and absolute evidence (i.e., the summed luminance of the two stimuli). In the first experiment, we found that higher absolute evidence was associated with decreased decision accuracy but increased decision confidence. In the second experiment, we additionally manipulated the degree of luminance variability to assess whether the observed effects were due to differences in perceived evidence variability. We replicated the results of the first experiment but did not find substantial effects of luminance variability on confidence ratings. Our findings support the view that decisions and confidence judgements are based on partly dissociable sources of information, and suggest that decisions initially made with higher confidence may be more resistant to subsequent changes of mind.

Accurate metacognitive judgements, such as forming a confidence judgement, are crucial for goaldirected behaviour but decline with older age. Besides changes in the sensory processing of stimulus features, there might also be changes in the motoric aspects of giving responses that account for age-related changes in confidence. In order to assess the association between confidence and response parameters across the adult lifespan, we measured response times and peak forces in a four-choice flanker task with subsequent confidence judgements. In 65 healthy adults from 20 to 76 years of age, we showed divergent associations of each measure with confidence, depending on decision accuracy. Participants indicated higher confidence after faster responses in correct but not incorrect trials. They also indicated higher confidence after less forceful responses in errors but not in correct trials. Notably, these associations were age-dependent as the relationship between confidence and response time was more pronounced in older participants, while the relationship between confidence and response force decayed with age. Our results add to the notion that confidence is related to response parameters and demonstrate noteworthy changes in the observed associations across the adult lifespan. These changes potentially constitute an expression of general age-related deficits in performance monitoring or, alternatively, index a failing mechanism in the computation of confidence in older adults.

Clayson et al. (2021) describe an innovative multiverse analysis to evaluate effects of data processing choices on event-related potential (ERP) measures. Based on their results, they provide data processing recommendations for studies measuring the error-related negativity and error positivity components. We argue that, although their data-driven approach is useful for identifying how data processing choices influence ERP results, it is not sufficient for devising optimal data processing pipelines. As an example, we focus on the inappropriate use of pre-response ERP baselines in their analyses, which leads to biased error positivity amplitude measures. Results of multiverse analyses should be supplemented with further investigation into why differences in ERP results occur across data processing choices before devising general recommendations.

When localising a moving object, the brain receives outdated sensory information about its position, due to the time required for neural transmission and processing. The brain may overcome these fundamental delays through predictively encoding the position of moving objects using information from their past trajectories. In the present study, we evaluated this proposition using multivariate analysis of high temporal resolution electroencephalographic data. We tracked neural position representations of moving objects at different stages of visual processing, relative to the real-time position of the object. During early stimulus-evoked activity, position representations of moving objects were activated substantially earlier than the equivalent activity evoked by unpredictable flashes, aligning the earliest representations of moving stimuli with their real-time positions. These findings indicate that the predictability of straight trajectories enables full compensation for the neural delays accumulated early in stimulus processing, but that delays still accumulate across later stages of cortical processing.

Every decision we make is accompanied by an estimate of the probability that our decision is accurate or appropriate. This probability estimate is termed our degree of decision confidence. Recent work has uncovered event-related potential (ERP) correlates of confidence both during decision formation and after a decision has been made. However, the interpretation of these findings is complicated by methodological issues related to ERP amplitude measurement that are prevalent across existing studies. To more accurately characterise the neural correlates of confidence, we presented participants with a difficult perceptual decision task that elicited a broad range of confidence ratings. We identified a frontal ERP component within an onset prior to the behavioural response, which exhibited more positive-going amplitudes in trials with higher confidence ratings. This frontal effect also biased measures of the centro-parietal positivity (CPP) component at parietal electrodes via volume conduction. Amplitudes of the error positivity (Pe) component that followed each decision were negatively associated with confidence for trials with decision errors, but not for trials with correct decisions, with Bayes factors providing moderate evidence for the null in the latter case. We provide evidence for both pre- and post-decisional neural correlates of decision confidence that are observed in trials with correct and erroneous decisions, respectively. Our findings suggest that certainty in having made a correct response is associated with frontal activity during decision formation, whereas certainty in having committed an error is instead associated with the post-decisional Pe component. These findings also highlight the possibility that some previously reported associations between decision confidence and CPP/Pe component amplitudes may have been a consequence of ERP amplitude measurement-related confounds. Re-analysis of existing datasets may be useful to test this hypothesis more

Multivariate classification analysis for event-related potential (ERP) data is a powerful tool for predicting cognitive variables. However, classification is often restricted to categorical variables and under-utilises continuous data, such as response times, response force, or subjective ratings. An alternative approach is support vector regression (SVR), which uses single-trial data to predict continuous variables of interest. In this tutorial-style paper, we demonstrate how SVR is implemented in the Decision Decoding Toolbox (DDTBOX). To illustrate in more detail how results depend on specific toolbox settings and data features, we report results from two simulation studies resembling real EEG data, and one real ERP-data set, in which we predicted continuous variables across a range of analysis parameters. Across all studies, we demonstrate that SVR is effective for analysis windows ranging from 2 to 100 ms, and relatively unaffected by temporal averaging. Prediction is still successful when only a small number of channels encode true information, and the analysis is robust to temporal jittering of the relevant information in the signal. Our results show that SVR as implemented in DDTBOX can reliably predict continuous, more nuanced variables, which may not be well-captured by classification analysis. In sum, we demonstrate that linear SVR is a powerful tool for the investigation of single-trial EEG data in relation to continuous variables, and we provide practical guidance for users.

Empathy enables human beings to understand and share the internal states of others. Studies show that empathy for pain is higher for in-group compared to out-group members. This might be driven by attitudes and biases towards out-groups. In a between subject design, N = 621 participants filled in questionnaires measuring xenophobia and trait empathy and were presented with photos of suffering individuals either from the in-group or an out-group, which had to be rated with respect to negative affect and the willingness to help the depicted persons. Results do not show more compassion with members of the in-group in general, but a negative effect of xenophobia on state empathy in the out-group condition. Additional moderation analyses show that this effect is less evident in presence of high trait empathy scores. Our results highlight the importance of empathy trainings to attenuate the effects of xenophobic attitudes on social cohabitation in our increasingly polarized and culturally diverse societies.

Contains fulltext : 226762.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access), The ability to distinguish between commonplace and unusual sensory events is critical for efficient learning and adaptive behaviour. This has been investigated using oddball designs in which sequences of often-appearing (i.e., expected) stimuli are interspersed with rare (i.e., surprising) deviants. Resulting differences in electrophysiological responses following surprising compared to expected stimuli are known as visual mismatch responses (VMRs). VMRs are thought to index co-occurring contributions of stimulus repetition effects, expectation suppression (that occurs when one's expectations are fulfilled), and expectation violation (i.e., surprise) responses; however, these different effects have been conflated in existing oddball designs. To better isolate and quantify effects of expectation suppression and surprise, we adapted an oddball design based on Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation (FPVS) that controls for stimulus repetition effects. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) while participants (N = 48) viewed stimulation sequences in which a single face identity was periodically presented at 6 Hz. Critically, one of two different face identities (termed oddballs) appeared as every 7th image throughout the sequence. The presentation probabilities of each oddball image within a sequence varied between 10 and 90%, such that participants could form expectations about which oddball face identity was more likely to appear within each sequence. We also included 'expectation neutral' 50% probability sequences, whereby consistently biased expectations would not be formed for either oddball face identity. We found that VMRs indexed surprise responses, and effects of expectation suppression were absent. That is, ERPs were more negative-going at occipitoparietal electrodes for surprising compared to neutral oddballs, but did not differ between expected and neutral oddballs. Surprising oddball-evoked ERPs were also highly similar across the 10–40% appearance probability

Contemporary theoretical accounts of metacognition propose that action-related information is used in the computation of perceptual decision confidence. We investigated whether the amount of expended physical effort, or the 'motoric sunk cost' of a decision, influences perceptual decision confidence judgements in humans. In particular, we examined whether people feel more confident in decisions which required more effort to report. Forty-two participants performed a luminance discrimination task that involved identifying which of two flickering grayscale squares was brightest. Participants reported their choice by squeezing hand-held dynamometers. Across trials, the effort required to report a decision was varied across three levels (low, medium, high). Critically, participants were only aware of the required effort level on each trial once they had initiated their motor response, meaning that the varying effort requirements could not influence their initial decisions. Following each decision, participants rated their confidence in their choice. We found that participants were more confident in decisions that required greater effort to report. This suggests that humans are sensitive to motoric sunk costs and supports contemporary models of metacognition in which actions inform the computation of decision confidence.

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is associated with obesity and other severe negative health consequences. The present study examined the effectiveness of two types of health warning labels (HWLs) in modulating dietary choices for SSBs: specific HWLs, presenting health consequences associated with consuming SSBs, and general HWLs, presenting health consequences of an unhealthy diet and obesity. While electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded, 63 participants completed a computer-based task in which they were first randomly allocated to view either SBB-specific, general, or non-warning control HWLs. They then viewed images of a range of SSB products, varying on perceived healthiness and tastiness, and rated their willingness to consume (WTC) each one. Linear mixed-effect model analyses revealed that general and specific HWLs both decreased WTC SSBs perceived as tasty, compared to the control condition. For general HWLs, this effect was reduced for SSBs perceived to be healthy, suggesting that specific HWLs may be more effective at reducing SSB consumption. The EEG data showed that SSBs considered unhealthy elicited greater N1 amplitudes, and tasty SSBs elicited greater late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes, possibly reflecting attentional allocation and craving responses, respectively. However, no strong differences between HWL types were found. Taken together, the results suggest that graphic HWLs, both general and specific, have the potential to reduce SSB consumption, but they do not strongly modulate craving-related neural responses to SSBs.

Metacognitive accuracy describes the degree of overlap between the subjective perception of one's decision accuracy (i.e. confidence) and objectively observed performance. With older age, the need for accurate metacognitive evaluation increases; however, error detection rates typically decrease. We investigated the effect of ageing on metacognitive accuracy using event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting error detection and confidence: the error/correct negativity (Ne/c) and the error/correct positivity (Pe/c). Sixty-five healthy adults (20 to 76 years) completed a complex Flanker task and provided confidence ratings. We found that metacognitive accuracy declined with age beyond the expected decline in task performance, while the adaptive adjustment of behaviour was well preserved. Pe amplitudes following errors varied by confidence rating, but they did not mirror the reduction in metacognitive accuracy. Ne amplitudes decreased with age for low confidence errors. The results suggest that age-related difficulties in metacognitive evaluation could be related to an impaired integration of decision accuracy and confidence information processing. Ultimately, training the metacognitive evaluation of fundamental decisions in older adults might constitute a promising endeavour.

Obesity has become a significant problem word-wide and is strongly linked to poor food choices. Even in healthy individuals, taste perceptions often drive dietary decisions more strongly than healthiness. This study tested whether health and taste representations can be directly decoded from brain activity, both when explicitly considered, and when implicitly processed for decision-making. We used multivariate support vector regression for event-related potentials (as measured by the electroencephalogram) to estimate a regression model predicting ratings of tastiness and healthiness for each participant, based on their neural activity occurring in the first second of food cue processing. In Experiment 1, 37 healthy participants viewed images of various foods and explicitly rated their tastiness and healthiness. In Experiment 2, 89 healthy participants completed a similar rating task, followed by an additional experimental phase, in which they indicated their desire to consume snack foods with no explicit instruction to consider tastiness or healthiness. In Experiment 1 both attributes could be decoded, with taste information being available earlier than health. In Experiment 2, both dimensions were also decodable, and their significant decoding preceded the decoding of decisions (i.e., desire to consume the food). However, in Experiment 2, health representations were decodable earlier than taste representations. These results suggest that health information is activated in the brain during the early stages of dietary decisions, which is promising for designing obesity interventions aimed at quickly activating health awareness.

When experiencing negative emotions, individuals often reach out for social support to help regulate their emotions. In times of an acute crisis, however, close friends might not be available, and physical closeness might be impossible. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the effect of social proximity on the effectiveness of social support for regulating emotions and the underlying neural mechanisms. Participants regulated their emotions in response to negative images either alone (intrapersonal regulation), or with help of a picture and supporting sentence provided by the best friend, or by a stranger (interpersonal regulation). Regulation success was enhanced for the support of friends compared to regulating alone or with the support of strangers. This effect was accompanied by the interplay of large-scale brain networks involved in processing emotions, social cognition, and cognitive control. Interpersonal regulation appeared to be implemented by lateral prefrontal regions. The amygdala showed increased activation for strangers. The activation profile of the social cognition network suggests a role in supporting empathic and mentalizing processes. The results highlight the power of social connectedness for boosting emotion regulation ability and the different neural networks that contribute to this effect.

A recent theory proposes that the personality trait openness/intellect is underpinned by differential sensitivity to the reward value of information. This theory draws on evidence that midbrain dopamine neurons respond to unpredicted information gain, mirroring their responses to unpredicted primary rewards. Using a choice task modelled on this seminal work (Experiment 1, N = 139, 69% female), we examined the relation between openness/intellect and willingness to pay for non-instrumental information (i.e., information with no secondary utility). We also assessed whether any such relation was moderated by the dopamine D2 receptor antagonist sulpiride (Experiment 2, N = 164, 100% male). Unexpectedly, most measures of openness/intellect were unrelated to costly information preference in both experiments, and some predicted a decreased willingness to incur a cost for information. In Experiment 2, this cost-dependent association between openness/intellect and information valuation appeared in the placebo condition but not under sulpiride. In addition, participants were more willing to pay for moderately costly information under sulpiride compared to placebo, consistent with a dopaminergic basis to information valuation. Potential refinements to the information valuation theory of openness/intellect are discussed in the light of these and other emerging findings.

Mate choice copying refers to an agent copying the choice for a potential sexual/romantic partner made by a relevant model and has been observed across many species. This study investigated the neural profiles of two copying strategies in humans - acceptance and rejection copying - using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Female participants observed female models accepting, rejecting, or being undecided about (control), males as potential romantic partners before and after rating their own willingness to choose the same males. We found that observing acceptance shifted participants' own choices towards acceptance, while observing rejection shifted participants' choices towards rejection. A network of motivation-, conflict- and reinforcement learning related brain regions was activated for observing the models' decisions. The rostral anterior cingulate gyrus (rACCg) and the caudate in particular were activated more strongly when observing acceptance. Activation in the inferior parietal lobe directly scaled with the magnitude of changes in choices after observing acceptance, while activation in the ACCg also scaled with changes after observing rejection. These findings point to partly dissociable neural profiles for copying strategies that might be linked to different contributions of incentive-driven and vicarious motivation, potentially reflecting the presence or absence of internalised reward experiences.