Age-related behavioral resilience in smartphone touchscreen interaction dynamics.

We experience a life that is full of ups and downs. The ability to bounce back after adverse life events such as the loss of a loved one or serious illness declines with age, and such isolated events can even trigger accelerated aging. How humans respond to common day-to-day perturbations is less clear. Here, we infer the aging status from smartphone behavior by using a decision tree regression model trained to accurately estimate the chronological age based on the dynamics of touchscreen interactions. Individuals (N = 280, 21 to 87 y of age) expressed smartphone behavior that appeared younger on certain days and older on other days through the observation period that lasted up to ~4 y. We captured the essence of these fluctuations by leveraging the mathematical concept of critical transitions and tipping points in complex systems. In most individuals, we find one or more alternative stable aging states separated by tipping points. The older the individual, the lower the resilience to forces that push the behavior across the tipping point into an older state. Traditional accounts of aging based on sparse longitudinal data spanning decades suggest a gradual behavioral decline with age. Taken together with our current results, we propose that the gradual age-related changes are interleaved with more complex dynamics at shorter timescales where the same individual may navigate distinct behavioral aging states from one day to the next. Real-world behavioral data modeled as a complex system can transform how we view and study aging.

Corrigendum: The interplay between quality of life and resilience factors in later life: a network analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.752564.].

Improving goal striving and resilience in older adults through a personalized metacognitive self-help intervention: a protocol paper.

BACKGROUND: Successful aging is often linked to individual's ability to demonstrate resilience: the maintenance or quick recovery of functional ability, well-being, and quality of life despite losses or adversity. A crucial element of resilience is behavioral adaptability, which refers to the adaptive changes in behavior in accordance with internal or external demands. Age-related degradation of executive functions can, however, lead to volition problems that compromise flexible adjustment of behavior. In contrast, the reliance on habitual control has been shown to remain relatively intact in later life and may therefore provide an expedient route to goal attainment among older adults. In the current study, we examine whether a metacognitive self-help intervention (MCSI), aimed at facilitating goal striving through the gradual automatization of efficient routines, could effectively support behavioral adaptability in favor of resilience among older adults with and without (sub-clinical) mental health problems. METHODS: This metacognitive strategy draws on principles from health and social psychology, as well as clinical psychology, and incorporates elements of established behavioral change and activation techniques from both fields. Additionally, the intervention will be tailored to personal needs and challenges, recognizing the significant diversity that exist among aging individuals. DISCUSSION: Despite some challenges that may limit the generalizability of the results, our MCSI program offers a promising means to empower older adults with tools and strategies to take control of their goals and challenges. This can promote autonomy and independent functioning, and thereby contribute to adaptability and resilience in later life. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Pre-registered, partly retrospectively. This study was pre-registered before the major part of the data was collected, created, and realized. Only a small part of the data of some participants (comprising the baseline and other pre-intervention measures), and the full dataset of the first few participants, was collected prior to registration, but it was not accessed yet. See: https://osf.io/5b9xz.

Prepotent response inhibition in autism: Not an inhibitory deficit?

Research outcomes on prepotent response inhibition in neurodevelopmental conditions during adulthood seem inconsistent, especially in autism. To gain further insight in these inconsistencies, the current study investigates inhibitory performance, as well as task strategies such as adaptive behavior during inhibitory tasks in autistic adults. As Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is often co-occurring in autism and associated with differences in both inhibition and adaptation, the role of ADHD symptoms is explored. Additionally, prior research is extended to middle- and late-adulthood, and the role of cognitive aging is assessed. Hundred-and-five autistic adults and 139 non-autistic adults (age: 20-80 yrs) were compared on a Go-NoGo task. No significant group differences in inhibitory difficulties (commission errors) or adaptation (post error slowing) were observed, and both did not relate significantly to ADHD symptoms. However, when controlling for reaction time autistic individuals made significantly more inhibitory errors than non-autistic individuals, yet the effect size was modest (Cohen's d = .27). Exploratory analyses showed that adaption significantly related to inhibition in non-autistic individuals only, possibly hinting at altered adaptive behavior during inhibitory tasks in autistic adults. ADHD symptoms related to response variability in the autism group only. Furthermore, task strategy changed with older age in both groups, with slower and more cautious responses at older age. Taken together, although minor differences may exist, autistic and non-autistic people show largely similar patterns of inhibitory behavior throughout adulthood. Differences in task timing and strategy seem relevant for future longitudinal studies on cognitive aging across neurodevelopmental conditions.

Addiction as a brain disease? A meta-regression comparison of error-related brain potentials between addiction and neurological diseases.

The notion that addiction is a "brain disorder" is widespread. However, there is a lack of evidence on the degree of disorder in terms of error processing in addiction. The present meta-analysis aimed at shedding light on this by comparing error-processes with populations with well-recognized brain disorders. We included 17 addiction and 32 neurological disorder studies that compared error-related negativity (ERN) or error positivity (Pe) amplitudes/latencies between experimental and healthy-control groups. Meta-regression analyses were performed for the intergroup comparison and other moderators. Both diagnoses were accompanied by a diminished ERN amplitude, although the degree of impairment was marginally larger in neurological disorders. Neurological disorders presented shorter ERN latencies than addiction when compared with controls. The two groups did not differ in Pe amplitude/latency. Except for a reduced ERN amplitude found along with aging, no other moderator contributed significantly to divergent findings about these four ERP indexes. The results support the brain disease model of addiction, while stressing the importance of quantifying the degrees of brain dysfunctions as a next step.

Corrigendum: Small steps for mankind: Modeling the emergence of cumulative culture from joint active inference communication.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2022.944986.].

Assessing the degree of urbanisation using a single-item self-report measure: a validation study.

The differential impact of rural versus urban residence on mental health remains a controversial topic that requires more in-depth investigations. This calls for a valid and easy measure to assess the degree of urbanisation. The purpose of the present study was to determine the utility of a single-item self-report measure (SIDU) as a tool to classify areas along the rural-urban continuum. The validity of the SIDU was assessed by comparing its scores (1-7) to a commonly used objective surrogate measure of the degree of urbanisation (i.e. surrounding address density, SAD) in two independent older adult samples (A: N = 36, 65+; B: N = 121, 55+). SIDU scores approximated SAD scores, with r = .77 to 0.82, (A), and r = .79 to 0.83 (B). A SIDU threshold score of 6 most accurately distinguished extremely urbanised areas from other areas. Altogether, our findings suggest that SIDU scores could be used as proxy of SAD. Since self-report leaves room for the consideration of additional aspects that confer an urban settlement, this single-item scale may be even more comprehensive, and circumvents the collection and handling of highly sensitive location data when the primary goal is solely to distinguish urbanisation subgroups.

Mitigating the Harmful Impact of Ageism among Older Individuals: The Buffering Role of Resilience Factors.

Frequent exposure to ageism has significant repercussions on the quality of life and mental well-being/health of older adults. Resilience may play a crucial role in mitigating these effects. The current study aimed to investigate the potential buffering roles of two types of coping variables-behavioral coping and a positive appraisal style-in older adults (N = 2000, aged 55-93). Confirming previous findings, higher levels of perceived negative ageism (PNA) were associated with diminished quality of life and mental well-being, increased depression and loneliness. However, individuals that tend to employ behavioral coping strategies when confronted with challenging/stressful situations showed a weaker relationship between PNA and quality of life, mental well-being, and depression. Embracing a positive appraisal style attenuated the negative impact of PNA on feelings of depression and loneliness. Interestingly, younger older adults appeared to benefit the most from these resilience factors. Despite considerable inter-individual variability, encouraging the utilization of behavioral coping strategies and nurturing a positive appraisal style could serve as effective approaches to mitigate the detrimental effects of PNA.

Towards Conceptual Clarification of Proactive Inhibitory Control: A Review.

The aim of this selective review paper is to clarify potential confusion when referring to the term proactive inhibitory control. Illustrated by a concise overview of the literature, we propose defining reactive inhibition as the mechanism underlying stopping an action. On a stop trial, the stop signal initiates the stopping process that races against the ongoing action-related process that is triggered by the go signal. Whichever processes finishes first determines the behavioral outcome of the race. That is, stopping is either successful or unsuccessful in that trial. Conversely, we propose using the term proactive inhibition to explicitly indicate preparatory processes engaged to bias the outcome of the race between stopping and going. More specifically, these proactive processes include either pre-amping the reactive inhibition system (biasing the efficiency of the stopping process) or presetting the action system (biasing the efficiency of the go process). We believe that this distinction helps meaningful comparisons between various outcome measures of proactive inhibitory control that are reported in the literature and extends to experimental research paradigms other than the stop task.

A neglected pioneer of psychology: Otto Selz's contribution to the psychology of thinking and the dispute with Gestalt psychologists in Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Psychologische Forschung was primarily an outlet for researchers from the school of Gestalt psychology. Otto Selz, whose views were closer to those adopted in the cognitive/information-processing revolution in psychology that began in the 1950s, never published in Psychologische Forschung. However, his work was the subject of a negative evaluation in the journal in a book review by Wilhelm Benary, which was followed by critical assessments published elsewhere by Selz and Karl Bühler of a chapter of Kurt Koffka's. A lengthy rebuttal from Koffka then appeared in Psychologische Forschung. In the present paper, we describe Selz's system and Benary's assessment of it. We then explain the relevant aspects of Koffka's book chapter (in: Dessoir M (ed) Die Philosophie in ihren Einzelgebieten. Ullstein, Berlin, 1925) and the strong critiques of it by Bühler and Selz in 1926, followed by details of Koffka's (Psychol Forsch 9:163-183, 1927) response. This part of the history of psychology is of significance to contemporary psychology on several levels. We have embedded this episode against the historical backdrop of Selz's life and tragic end.

The Subjective Experience of Ageism: The Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ).

Ageism as perceived by older individuals has been recognized as a potential risk factor for physical and mental health. We aimed to develop a comprehensive scale that can quantify perceived ageism among aging individuals (55+), including both positive and negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminations. This effort resulted in an 8-item Perceived Ageism Questionnaire (PAQ-8), with good psychometric properties and a two-factor structure distinguishing a positive (3 items) and negative (5 items) subscale (Analysis 1; n = 500). This dimensionality was confirmed in a separate cross-validation sample (Analysis 2; n = 500). The subscales' correlation patterns with individuals' self-perceptions of aging and mental health variables (i.e., quality of life, mental well-being, depression, anxiety, loneliness and perceived stress) accorded with theoretical hypotheses and existing knowledge of the concept of ageism. The PAQ-8 can help to gather more standardized data of the level, role and impact of perceived ageism.

Horizons in Human Aging Neuroscience: From Normal Neural Aging to Mental (Fr)Agility.

While aging is an important risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, age-related cognitive decline can also manifest without apparent neurodegenerative changes. In this review, we discuss molecular, cellular, and network changes that occur during normal aging in the absence of neurodegenerative disease. Emerging findings reveal that these changes include metabolic alterations, oxidative stress, DNA damage, inflammation, calcium dyshomeostasis, and several other hallmarks of age-related neural changes that do not act on their own, but are often interconnected and together may underlie age-related alterations in brain plasticity and cognitive function. Importantly, age-related cognitive decline may not be reduced to a single neurobiological cause, but should instead be considered in terms of a densely connected system that underlies age-related cognitive alterations. We speculate that a decline in one hallmark of neural aging may trigger a decline in other, otherwise thus far stable subsystems, thereby triggering a cascade that may at some point also incur a decline of cognitive functions and mental well-being. Beyond studying the effects of these factors in isolation, considerable insight may be gained by studying the larger picture that entails a representative collection of such factors and their interactions, ranging from molecules to neural networks. Finally, we discuss some potential interventions that may help to prevent these alterations, thereby reducing cognitive decline and mental fragility, and enhancing mental well-being, and healthy aging.

Psychological Coping and Behavioral Adjustment Among Older Adults in Times of COVID-19: Exploring the Protective Role of Working Memory and Habit Propensity.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, well-being, and behavior is likely influenced by individual characteristics that determine one's capacity for resilience. In this exploratory study, we examined whether individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity and habit propensity (HP), measured before the outbreak, could predict variation in subsequent psychological coping efficacy (as operationalized by measures of depression, mental well-being, perceived stress, and loneliness) and behavioral adjustment (by evaluating compliance and self-reported automaticity of four COVID-19 guidelines) among Dutch older adults (n = 36) during the pandemic (measured April 25 to May 6, 2020). While we found elevated levels of depression and emotional loneliness, overall mental well-being, and perceived stress were not affected by the pandemic. Contrary to our expectations, we found no robust evidence for a protective role of WM in predicting these outcomes, although our findings hint at a positive relationship with perceived change in mental well-being. Interestingly, WM and HP were found to affect the self-reported automaticity levels of adherence to behavioral COVID-19 guidelines (i.e., washing hands, physical distancing), where a strong HP appeared beneficial when deliberate resources were less available (e.g., low WM capacity). These novel and preliminary findings offer new potential avenues for investigating individual differences in resilience in times of major life events or challenges. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10804-022-09404-9.

Effects of tDCS on the attentional blink revisited: A statistical evaluation of a replication attempt.

The attentional blink (AB) phenomenon reveals a bottleneck of human information processing: the second of two targets is often missed when they are presented in rapid succession among distractors. In our previous work, we showed that the size of the AB can be changed by applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) (London & Slagter, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 33, 756-68, 2021). Although AB size at the group level remained unchanged, the effects of anodal and cathodal tDCS were negatively correlated: if a given individual's AB size decreased from baseline during anodal tDCS, their AB size would increase during cathodal tDCS, and vice versa. Here, we attempted to replicate this finding. We found no group effects of tDCS, as in the original study, but we no longer found a significant negative correlation. We present a series of statistical measures of replication success, all of which confirm that both studies are not in agreement. First, the correlation here is significantly smaller than a conservative estimate of the original correlation. Second, the difference between the correlations is greater than expected due to sampling error, and our data are more consistent with a zero-effect than with the original estimate. Finally, the overall effect when combining both studies is small and not significant. Our findings thus indicate that the effects of lDPLFC-tDCS on the AB are less substantial than observed in our initial study. Although this should be quite a common scenario, null findings can be difficult to interpret and are still under-represented in the brain stimulation and cognitive neuroscience literatures. An important auxiliary goal of this paper is therefore to provide a tutorial for other researchers, to maximize the evidential value from null findings.

Small steps for mankind: Modeling the emergence of cumulative culture from joint active inference communication.

Although the increase in the use of dynamical modeling in the literature on cultural evolution makes current models more mathematically sophisticated, these models have yet to be tested or validated. This paper provides a testable deep active inference formulation of social behavior and accompanying simulations of cumulative culture in two steps: First, we cast cultural transmission as a bi-directional process of communication that induces a generalized synchrony (operationalized as a particular convergence) between the belief states of interlocutors. Second, we cast social or cultural exchange as a process of active inference by equipping agents with the choice of who to engage in communication with. This induces trade-offs between confirmation of current beliefs and exploration of the social environment. We find that cumulative culture emerges from belief updating (i.e., active inference and learning) in the form of a joint minimization of uncertainty. The emergent cultural equilibria are characterized by a segregation into groups, whose belief systems are actively sustained by selective, uncertainty minimizing, dyadic exchanges. The nature of these equilibria depends sensitively on the precision afforded by various probabilistic mappings in each individual's generative model of their encultured niche.

The Interplay Between Quality of Life and Resilience Factors in Later Life: A Network Analysis.

Age-related challenges and transitions can have considerable social, psychological, and physical consequences that may lead to significant changes in quality of life (QoL). As such, maintaining high levels of QoL in later life may crucially depend on the ability to demonstrate resilience (i.e., successful adaptation to late-life challenges). The current study set out to explore the interplay between several resilience factors, and how these contribute to the realization and maintenance of (different facets of) QoL. Based on the previous work, we identified behavioral coping, positive appraisal, self-management ability, and physical activity as key resilience factors. Their interplay with (various facets of) QoL, as measured with the WHOQOL-OLD, was established through network analysis. In a sample of community-dwelling older adults (55+; N=1,392), we found that QoL was most strongly (and directly) related to positive appraisal style and self-management ability. Among those, taking care of multifunctional resources (i.e., yielding various benefits at the same time) seemed to be crucial. It connected directly to "satisfaction with past, present, and future activities," a key facet of QoL with strong interconnections to other QoL facets. Our analysis also identified resilience factor(s) with the potential to promote QoL when targeted by training, intervention, or other experimental manipulation. The appropriate set of resilience factors to manipulate may depend on the goal and/or facet of QoL that one aims to improve.

Understanding neural signals of post-decisional performance monitoring: An integrative review.

Performance monitoring is a key cognitive function, allowing to detect mistakes and adapt future behavior. Post-decisional neural signals have been identified that are sensitive to decision accuracy, decision confidence and subsequent adaptation. Here, we review recent work that supports an understanding of late error/confidence signals in terms of the computational process of post-decisional evidence accumulation. We argue that the error positivity, a positive-going centro-parietal potential measured through scalp electrophysiology, reflects the post-decisional evidence accumulation process itself, which follows a boundary crossing event corresponding to initial decision commitment. This proposal provides a powerful explanation for both the morphological characteristics of the signal and its relation to various expressions of performance monitoring. Moreover, it suggests that the error positivity -a signal with thus far unique properties in cognitive neuroscience - can be leveraged to furnish key new insights into the inputs to, adaptation, and consequences of the post-decisional accumulation process.

Sex-dependent prefrontal cortex activation in regular cocaine users: A working memory functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Although two thirds of patients with a cocaine use disorder (CUD) are female, little is known about sex differences in the (neuro)pathology of CUD. The aim of this explorative study was to investigate sex-dependent differences in prefrontal cortex (PFC) functioning during a working memory (WM) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task in regular cocaine users (CUs), as PFC deficits are implicated in the shift from recreational cocaine use to CUD. Neural activation was measured using fMRI during a standard WM task (n-back task) in 27 male and 28 female CUs and in 26 male and 28 female non-cocaine users (non-CUs). Although there were no main or interaction effects of sex and group on n-back task performance, WM-related (2-back > 0-back) PFC functioning was significantly moderated by sex and group: female compared with male CUs displayed higher WM-related activation of the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), whereas female compared with male non-CUs displayed lower WM-related MFG activation. Additionally, WM-related activation of the inferior frontal gyrus, insula, and putamen was negatively associated with cocaine use severity in female but not male CUs. These data support the hypothesis of sex-dependent PFC differences in CUs and speculatively suggest that PFC deficits may be more strongly implicated in the development, continuation, and possibly treatment of CUD in females. Most importantly, the current data stress the importance of studying both males and females in psychiatry research as not doing so could greatly bias our knowledge of CUD and other psychiatric disorders.

Deep-brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus improves overriding motor actions in Parkinson's disease.

Findings from previous research using the classic stop-signal task indicate that the subthalamic nucleus (STN) plays an important role in the ability to inhibit motor actions. Here we extend these findings using a stop-change task that requires voluntary action override to stop an ongoing motor response and change to an alternative response. Sixteen patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) and 16 healthy control participants (HC) performed the stop-change task. PD patients completed the task when deep-brain stimulation (DBS) of the STN was turned on and when it was turned off. Behavioral results indicated that going, stopping, and changing latencies were shortened significantly among PD patients during STN DBS, the former two reductions replicating findings from previous DBS studies using the classic stop-signal task. The shortened go latencies observed among PD patients fell within the control range. In contrast, stopping latencies among PD patients, although reduced significantly, continued to be significantly longer than those of the HC. Like go latencies, stop-change latencies were reduced sufficiently among PD patients for them to fall within the control range, a novel finding. In conclusion, STN DBS produced a general, but differential, improvement in the ability of PD patients to override motor actions. Going, stopping, and stop-change latencies were all shortened, but only going and stop-change latencies were normalized.