Prediction of pharmacological treatment efficacy using electroencephalography-based salience network in patients with major depressive disorder.

Introduction: Recent resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) studies have consistently reported an association between aberrant functional brain networks (FBNs) and treatment-resistant traits in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, little is known about the changes in FBNs in response to external stimuli in these patients. This study investigates whether changes in the salience network (SN) could predict responsiveness to pharmacological treatment in resting-state and external stimuli conditions. Methods: Thirty-one drug-naïve patients with MDD (aged 46.61 ± 10.05, female 28) and twenty-one healthy controls (aged 43.86 ± 14.14, female 19) participated in the study. After 8 weeks of pharmacological treatment, the patients were divided into non-remitted MDD (nrMDD, n = 14) and remitted-MDD (rMDD, n = 17) groups. EEG data under three conditions (resting-state, standard, and deviant) were analyzed. The SN was constructed with three cortical regions as nodes and weighted phase-lag index as edges, across alpha, low-beta, high-beta, and gamma bands. A repeated measures analysis of the variance model was used to examine the group-by-condition interaction. Machine learning-based classification analyses were also conducted between the nrMDD and rMDD groups. Results: A notable group-by-condition interaction was observed in the high-beta band between nrMDD and rMDD. Specifically, patients with nrMDD exhibited hypoconnectivity between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and right insula (p = 0.030). The classification analysis yielded a maximum classification accuracy of 80.65%. Conclusion: Our study suggests that abnormal condition-dependent changes in the SN could serve as potential predictors of pharmacological treatment efficacy in patients with MDD.

Cognition and Ventral Attention Network Connectivity: Associations With Treatment Response in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly heterogeneous disorder, which makes it difficult to link clinical phenotypes with biomarkers to improve treatment outcomes. Findings from previous studies suggest that cognitive measures such as verbal memory or attention paired with within-ventral attention network (VAN) or salience network resting-state functional connectivity may predict treatment response among individuals with PTSD. METHODS: In a sample comprising 20 individuals with PTSD and 10 healthy control group individuals, the investigators subtyped individuals by using both discriminant function analysis and standardized norms for a single measure of memory and neuropsychological batteries of memory, attention, and executive functioning; attempted to replicate previous findings of lower within-VAN connectivity among individuals with cognitive impairment; and explored whether within-VAN connectivity paired with cognitive impairment predicted treatment outcomes. RESULTS: PTSD patients with cognitive impairment (defined by using a discriminant function analysis with verbal memory performance) had greater within-VAN resting-state functional connectivity compared with control group individuals and cognitively intact PTSD patients at a level that fell short of statistical significance (F=3.41; df=2, 21; ηp2=0.237). The interaction between verbal memory performance and within-VAN connectivity also predicted treatment-related change in PTSD symptoms at a level that also fell short of statistical significance (ß=-0.442). CONCLUSIONS: These findings somewhat support the clinical utility of identifying cognitive phenotypes within PTSD (by using discriminant function analysis and verbal memory performance) to predict treatment outcomes.

Primary Psychosis, Geriatric Depression and Cognitive Reserve: Protective Factor and Therapeutic Trajectors.

Cognitive reserve (CR) is essential in reducing natural cognitive decline. Identified in neurodegenerative pathologies, it also increasingly plays a role in the development of the symptomatic processes of numerous psychiatric pathologies. CR could help identify subgroups of elderly patients affected by primary psychosis and mood disorders and evaluate their correlation with diagnostic and therapeutic trajectories. Our observational study assessed the correlation between cognitive reserve and cognitive and psychopathological trajectories in a group of elderly inpatients in health residential centers. After two years of observation, the results indicate a correlation between cognitive reserve levels and psychopathological and cognitive trajectories. No significant variations or correlations were observed between another investigation factor, aberrant salience, and the symptoms in the above trajectories.

Impaired mitochondrial function in bipolar disorder and alcohol use disorder: a case study using 18F-BCPP-EF PET imaging of mitochondrial Complex I.

Background: With bipolar disorder (BD) having a lifetime prevalence of 4.4% and a significant portion of patients being chronically burdened by symptoms, there has been an increased focus on uncovering new targets for intervention in BD. One area that has shown early promise is the mitochondrial hypothesis. However, at the time of publication no studies have utilized positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to assess mitochondrial function in the setting of BD. Case Presentation: Our participant is a 58 year-old male with a past medical history notable for alcohol use disorder and BD (unspecified type) who underwent PET imaging with the mitochondrial complex I PET ligand 18F-BCPP-EF. The resulting images demonstrated significant overlap between areas of dysfunction identified with the 18F-BCPP-EF PET ligand and prior functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques in the setting of BD. That overlap was seen in both affective and cognitive circuits, with mitochondrial dysfunction in the fronto-limbic, ventral affective, and dorsal cognitive circuits showing particularly significant differences. Conclusions: Despite mounting evidence implicating mitochondria in BD, this study represents the first PET imaging study to investigate this mechanistic connection. There were key limitations in the form of comorbid alcohol use disorder, limited statistical power inherent to a case study, no sex matched controls, and the absence of a comprehensive psychiatric history. However, even with these limitations in mind, the significant overlap between dysfunction previously demonstrated on functional MRI and this imaging provides compelling preliminary evidence that strengthens the mechanistic link between mitochondrial dysfunction and BD.

Frequency, perceptual salience, and semantic complexity: The acquisition of possessor inflection in Northern East Cree.

This paper engages longstanding questions regarding how children acquire morphology in polysynthetic languages. It examines the roles of frequency, perceptual salience, and semantic complexity for morphemes in the acquisition of Northern East Cree possessive inflection, where prefixes and suffixes interact to encode possessors. Two studies analyze naturalistic video recordings of one adult and two children. Study 1 describes the frequency, salience, and complexity of possessor-encoding morphemes in the input. Study 2 traces the acquisition of these morphemes in child speech. Results indicate the acquisition of possessor inflection involves a combination of factors whose influences shift over time. Perceptual salience plays a key role in early noun production, but frequency later corresponds more clearly to acquisitional order for high-frequency morphemes. Complexity is hard to isolate from frequency, although neither factor clearly determines acquisitional order for low-frequency morphemes. The paper concludes by considering implications for science and potential applications for Cree communities.

Personalized Model-Driven Interventions for Decisions From Experience.

Cognitive models that represent individuals provide many benefits for understanding the full range of human behavior. One way in which individual differences emerge is through differences in knowledge. In dynamic situations, where decisions are made from experience, models built upon a theory of experiential choice (instance-based learning theory; IBLT) can provide accurate predictions of individual human learning and adaptivity to changing environments. Here, we demonstrate how an instance-based learning (IBL) cognitive model, implemented in a cognitive architecture (Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational), can be used to model an individual's decisions in a cybersecurity defense task, accounting for both population average and individual variances. The same IBL model structure with identical architectural parameters generates the full range of human behavior through stochastic memory retrieval processes operating over and contributing to unique experiences. Recurrence quantification analyses allow us to look beyond average behavior between and within individuals to sequential patterns of trial-to-trial behavior. We show how model-tracing and knowledge-tracing techniques can be used to align the model to an individual in real time to drive adaptive and personalized signaling algorithms for a cybersecurity defense system. We also present a method for introspecting into the cognitive model to gain further insight into the cognitive salience of features factored into individual decisions. The combination of techniques provides a blueprint for personalized modeling of individuals. We discuss the results and implications of this adaptive and personalized method for cybersecurity defense and more generally for intelligent artifacts tailored to individual differences in domains such as human-machine teaming.

Aberrant salience signaling in auditory processing in schizophrenia: Evidence for abnormalities in both sensory processing and emotional reactivity.

It has been long known that people with schizophrenia (SZ) have deficits in perceptual processing, including in the auditory domain. Furthermore, they often experience increased emotional responsivity and dysregulation, which further impacts overall functioning. Increased emotional responsivity to auditory stimuli is also seen in people with misophonia, a condition in which specific sounds elicit robust negative emotional responses. Given the role of emotional reactivity and dysregulation in the pathogenesis of SZ, our study investigated whether misophonia symptoms were elevated in SZ, or if people with SZ have a generalized increase in reactivity to sensory information. To explore the link between emotional reactivity to sound and more general aspects emotional reactivity and salience signaling in SZ, we used the Misophonia Questionnaire, the Sensory Processing Scale (SPS), and Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI) in 30 people with SZ and 28 demographically-matched healthy volunteers (HVs). We found that people with SZ exhibited more emotional behavior associated with misophonia symptoms (specifically, distress in relation to sound) than HVs (t56 = 4.889, p < 0.001), but did not have elevated rates of misophonia overall. Also, sensory processing abnormalities and heightened emotional responses in people with SZ were not limited to the auditory domain but, rather, extended to all sensory modalities. Our results support the idea that SZ involves dysfunction in salience signaling, regarding auditory stimuli, but that abnormalities in salience signaling in SZ are more domain-general. These results highlight the importance of interventions designed to enhance emotion regulation in patients with SZ regarding stimuli in multiple modalities.

Enhanced salience of edge frequencies in auditory pattern recognition.

Within musical scenes or textures, sounds from certain instruments capture attention more prominently than others, hinting at biases in the perception of multisource mixtures. Besides musical factors, these effects might be related to frequency biases in auditory perception. Using an auditory pattern-recognition task, we studied the existence of such frequency biases. Mixtures of pure tone melodies were presented in six frequency bands. Listeners were instructed to assess whether the target melody was part of the mixture or not, with the target melody presented either before or after the mixture. In Experiment 1, the mixture always contained melodies in five out of the six bands. In Experiment 2, the mixture contained three bands that stemmed from the lower or the higher part of the range. As expected, Experiments 1 and 2 both highlighted strong effects of presentation order, with higher accuracies for the target presented before the mixture. Notably, Experiment 1 showed that edge frequencies yielded superior accuracies compared with center frequencies. Experiment 2 corroborated this finding by yielding enhanced accuracies for edge frequencies irrespective of the absolute frequency region. Our results highlight the salience of sound elements located at spectral edges within complex musical scenes. Overall, this implies that neither the high voice superiority effect nor the insensitivity to bass instruments observed by previous research can be explained by absolute frequency biases in auditory perception.

An Investigation Into the Unconscious Influence of Mortality Salience Upon Sentencing Decisions.

This study aimed to explore if unconscious awareness of death influences the harshness of offender sentencing. According to Terror Management Theory death is anxiety-provoking, and self-esteem and a belief in a shared cultural worldview keep anxiety at bay. When these factors are challenged then death awareness increases. These dynamics could be relevant in a court setting in which judges have to make decisions regarding offenders who may have different world views and in cases that trigger the awareness of mortality. We used subliminal priming to activate the awareness of death and recorded the effect it had on decision-making against a hypothetical offender. Participants (N = 303) were recruited and randomly assigned to either an experimental mortality condition or a neutral control condition. Analysis revealed that death-related subliminal priming brought about harsher sentencing effects than the control. The results suggest that subconscious awareness of death may bias decision-making when sentencing.

Mortality salience and helping behavior amidst public crisis: cross-sectional evidence during COVID-19.

Background: As a real mortality salience, a public crisis would have a major impact on individual minds, behaviors, and lifestyles. COVID-19 provides us with a stark real-world example to understand these implications. Previous research has revealed that some individuals become more willing to help the infected at the risk of their own lives, while others become more self-centered and indifferent during COVID-19. To explain this paradoxical phenomenon, our study used two rival mediators in the relationship between mortality salience and helping behavior during COVID-19: death anxiety and death reflection. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Chinese college students (N = 684) during the pandemic. We used a parallel mediation model to explore the mediating roles of death anxiety and death reflection in the relationship between mortality salience and helping behavior during COVID-19. Results: The results of our study indicate two key findings. First, mortality salience is negatively related to helping behavior during COVID-19 via death anxiety. This suggests that individuals with higher levels of mortality salience experienced increased death anxiety, which in turn led to a decrease in helping behavior. Second, mortality salience is positively related to helping behavior during COVID-19 via death reflection. This indicates that individuals with higher levels of mortality salience engaged in deeper reflection on death, which subsequently resulted in an increase in helping behavior. Conclusion: Our study provides valuable insights into the complex relationship between mortality salience and helping behaviors in the time of public crisis, and can help lead to more positive attitudes toward public crisis events such as COVID-19.

The association between aberrant salience and psychotic experiences in general population twins, and genetic vulnerability as a modifier.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies assessing the hypothesis that the construct of 'aberrant salience' is associated with psychosis and psychotic symptoms showed conflicting results. For this reason, the association between measures to index aberrant salience and subclinical psychotic symptoms in a general population sample was analysed. In addition, genetic vulnerability was added to the analysis as a modifier to test the hypothesis that modification by genetic vulnerability may explain variability in the results. METHODS: The TwinssCan project obtained data from general population twins (N = 887). CAPE (Community Assessment of Psychic Experience) scores were used to index psychotic experiences. Aberrant salience was assessed with white noise task and ambiguous situations task. RESULTS: Measures of aberrant salience were not associated with psychotic experiences, nor was there evidence for an interaction with genetic predisposition in this association (Z = 1.08, p = 0.282). CONCLUSIONS: Various studies including the present could not replicate the association between aberrant salience and psychotic experiences in general population samples. The conflicting findings might be explained by moderation by genetic vulnerability, but results are inconsistent. If there was evidence for a main effect or interaction, this was in the positive symptom scale only. On the other hand, the association was more robust in so-called 'ultra-high risk' patients and first episode psychosis patients. Thus, this association may represent a state-dependent association, present only at the more severe end of the psychosis spectrum.

Exploring the impact of biological sex on intrinsic connectivity networks in PTSD: A data-driven approach.

INTRODUCTION: Sex as a biological variable (SABV) may help to account for the differential development and expression of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among trauma-exposed males and females. Here, we investigate the impact of SABV on PTSD-related neural alterations in resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within three core intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs): the salience network (SN), central executive network (CEN), and default mode network (DMN). METHODS: Using an independent component analysis (ICA), we compared rsFC of the SN, CEN, and DMN between males and females, with and without PTSD (n = 47 females with PTSD, n = 34 males with PTSD, n = 36 healthy control females, n = 20 healthy control males) via full factorial ANCOVAs. Additionally, linear regression analyses were conducted with clinical variables (i.e., PTSD and depression symptoms, childhood trauma scores) in order to determine intrinsic network connectivity characteristics specific to SABV. Furthermore, we utilized machine learning classification models to predict the biological sex and PTSD diagnosis of individual participants based on intrinsic network activity patterns. RESULTS: Our findings revealed differential network connectivity patterns based on SABV and PTSD diagnosis. Males with PTSD exhibited increased intra-SN (i.e., SN-anterior insula) rsFC and increased DMN-right superior parietal lobule/precuneus/superior occipital gyrus rsFC as compared to females with PTSD. There were also differential network connectivity patterns for comparisons between the PTSD and healthy control groups for males and females, separately. We did not observe significant correlations between clinical measures of interest and brain region clusters which displayed significant between group differences as a function of biological sex, thus further reinforcing that SABV analyses are likely not confounded by these variables. Furthermore, machine learning classification models accurately predicted biological sex and PTSD diagnosis among novel/unseen participants based on ICN activation patterns. CONCLUSION: This study reveals groundbreaking insights surrounding the impact of SABV on PTSD-related ICN alterations using data-driven methods. Our discoveries contribute to further defining neurobiological markers of PTSD among females and males and may offer guidance for differential sex-related treatment needs.

Deficient salience and default mode functional integration in high worry-proneness subject: a connectome-wide association study.

Worry has been conceptualized as a relatively uncontrollable chain of thought that increases the risk of mental problems, such as anxiety disorders. Here, we examined the link between individual variation in the functional connectome and worry proneness, which remains unclear. A total of 32 high worry-proneness (HWP) subjects and 25 low worry-proneness (LWP) subjects were recruited. We conducted multivariate distance-based matrix regression to identify phenotypic relationships in high-dimensional brain resting-state functional connectivity data from HWP subjects. Multiple hub regions, including key brain nodes of the salience network (SN) and default mode network (DMN), were identified in HWP subjects. Follow-up analyses revealed that a high worry-proneness score was dominated by functional connectivity between the SN and the DMN. Moreover, HWP subjects showed hypoconnectivity between the cerebellum and the SN and DMN compared with LWP subjects. This cross-sectional study could not fully measure the causal relationships between changes in functional networks and worry proneness in healthy subjects. Functional changes in the cerebellum-cortical region might affect the modulation of external stimuli processing. Together, our results provide new insight into the role of key networks, including the SN, DMN and cerebellum, in understanding the potential mechanism underlying the high worry dimension in healthy subjects.

Constructing a Conformer-Explorer Identity in Pandemic Narratives: A Qualitative Study of Chinese Emerging Adults.

Existing research indicates that social crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped young people's sense of self, but little is known about what identities emerging adults construct in their pandemic narratives. Following propositions of narrative identity and Terror Management Theory, this qualitative study investigated Chinese emerging adults' identity construction in their narratives of the national outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2022. Participants were 62 college students invited to share their pandemic experiences with reflections. Thematic analysis of the data suggests that the participants shared their pandemic experiences as a process of managing their death terror activated in the pandemic which threatened their sense of self and meanwhile motivated them to reconstruct who they are in the world. Based on their meaning-making capacities, the participants disclosed death awareness and vulnerabilities, adopted a temporal perspective in storytelling, emphasized their interpersonal and social connections, and made meaning out of the pandemic experiences to defend against death terror. As an outcome of their narration, a conformer-explorer identity was constructed in their pandemic narratives and we proposed a dialectical model to capture the dynamics of the construction. Although with limitations, this study contributes to our understanding of the functions of mortality salience on narrative identity among emerging adults in collectivist cultures during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Perceptual, Semantic, and Pragmatic Factors Affect the Derivation of Contrastive Inferences.

People derive contrastive inferences when interpreting adjectives (e.g., inferring that 'the short pencil' is being contrasted with a longer one). However, classic eye-tracking studies revealed contrastive inferences with scalar and material adjectives, but not with color adjectives. This was explained as a difference in listeners' informativity expectations, since color adjectives are often used descriptively (hence not warranting a contrastive interpretation). Here we hypothesized that, beyond these pragmatic factors, perceptual factors (i.e., the relative perceptibility of color, material and scalar contrast) and semantic factors (i.e., the difference between gradable and non-gradable properties) also affect the real-time derivation of contrastive inferences. We tested these predictions in three languages with prenominal modification (English, Hindi, and Hungarian) and found that people derive contrastive inferences for color and scalar adjectives, but not for material adjectives. In addition, the processing of scalar adjectives was more context dependent than that of color and material adjectives, confirming that pragmatic, perceptual and semantic factors affect the derivation of contrastive inferences.

Neural correlates of thought-action fusion and their associations with rumination in patients with major depressive disorder.

Thought-action fusion (TAF) is the metacognitive belief that the power of thoughts can have real-life consequences, often inducing unpleasant inner experiences and recruiting coping strategies such as rumination. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the neural correlates of TAF and their associations with rumination in depression. A total of 37 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 37 healthy controls (HCs) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging with a TAF induction task and psychological assessments. In the TAF induction task, participants were asked to read the name of a close person (CP) or neutral person (NP) in association with negative (Neg) TAF and neutral (Neu) control statements. In this study, our TAF induction task activated brain regions, including the salient and default-mode networks, in the MDD and HC groups. However, along with higher likelihood TAF and rumination, behavioral data showed less negative feelings and longer reaction times under the NegCP condition in the MDD group compared with the HC group. Furthermore, in the MDD group, significantly higher activation in the bilateral caudate nuclei, left inferior frontal gyrus/anterior insula, putamen, and inferior parietal lobule under the NegCP condition was positively correlated with TAF and reflection. These findings suggest that during the TAF task, patients with MDD may activate different brain areas associated with the maintenance of high stimulus saliency and habit formation, which are important neural correlates linking TAF and rumination in depression.

How Satisfaction Lead to Volunteer Role Identity? Revisiting Identity Salience applied to Volunteer Research.

Many studies have considered satisfaction as a necessary precursor for developing volunteer role identity (VRI). However, the mechanism involved in that relationship and whether diverse types of satisfaction from volunteering literature are part of this relationship remain unclear. We propose that satisfaction may promote the development of VRI by augmenting the identity saliency of the volunteer role. To address identity salience, we adopt a dual-concept approach, measuring the identity importance and identity invocation of the volunteer role. To investigate the hypothesis, we performed multiple general lineal mediation models employing identity importance and identity invocation as simultaneous mediators of the satisfaction-VRI relationship. A sample of 227 volunteers from different organizations completed an online questionnaire remotely. The results indicate that task satisfaction and motivational satisfaction, but not organizational satisfaction, significantly predict volunteer role identity-both directly and indirectly through the mediating roles of identity importance and identity invocation. Future work may continue investigating the paths through which satisfaction and other factors may promote volunteer role identity.

Social anxiety and weight interact with body salience to affect experiences of social exclusion.

BACKGROUND: Individuals at a higher weight experience greater victimization and exclusion by peers, and limited research suggests that the salience of one's body image may increase negative emotional reactions to social rejection. Additionally, social exclusion is related to higher levels of social anxiety (SA). We examined how body salience interacts with SA and weight to predict anxiety, self-esteem, and negative affect following social rejection. METHODS: Participants were undergraduate women (N = 186). We explored the interactive effects of SA, body mass index (BMI), and body salience (i.e., face versus body photo condition) on emotional response to exclusion in a social ostracism paradigm, Cyberball. BMI and self-reported SA were collected at baseline. One week later, participants played Cyberball and reported state affect, anxiety, and self-esteem before and after the game. RESULTS: The 3-way interaction of BMI, SA, and photo condition did not significantly predict post-exclusion state measures. Photo condition moderated the relationship between SA and post-exclusion anxiety and between BMI and post-exclusion anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Those with higher SA were particularly anxious following exclusion if their bodies were visible to others. Additionally, those with lower BMI experienced greater anxiety after exclusion when their body was visible than those with higher BMI.

Is the Term "Food Consistency" Used Consistently in Consumer Science? An Exploratory Study of Consumer Association and Conceptualization.

The post-pandemic context has changed the modes for collecting data in sensory and consumer science. The objectives of this research were to analyze consumers' associations of food consistency and to study two virtual modes of the Free Word Association test (FWA). This test was administered to 209 consumers (180 women, 29 men, 18-45 years old) asynchronously (i.e. self-administered) and synchronously (i.e. face to face interviews). The Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) was calculated, and the structure of the social representation was analyzed. Correspondence analysis showed that food consistency was a mixture of concepts related to structure, hardness and several aspects of auditory (e.g., Crunchy, Crispy), tactile (e.g. Smooth, Spreadable) and oral texture (e.g., Creamy, Gummy). Slightly consistent food was associated with something soft, liquid or semisolid, and very consistent food to something hard and resistant. Consistent food was more related to "very" than to "slightly consistent." The CSI depended on the stimulus presented (p < 0.05). Regarding the social representation structure, the central core had the highest CSI for all stimuli (CSI ≥ 0.13, p < 0.05). Consumers defined "very consistent, consistent and slightly consistent food" by naming more foods in the synchronous mode than in the asynchronous one. In the asynchronous mode, consumers took more time to complete the test. The virtual FWA test (asynchronous or synchronous) showed some differences in the associations of term consistency, due to the lack of spontaneity in the first minute. It is important to adjust the methodologies to standardize the times in both modes.