Acute stress promotes brain network integration and reduces state transition variability.

Despite the prevalence of stress, how brains reconfigure their multilevel, hierarchical functional organization in response to acute stress remains unclear. We examined changes in brain networks after social stress using whole-brain resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) by extending our recently published nested-spectral partition method, which quantified the functional balance between network segregation and integration. Acute stress was found to shift the brain into a more integrated and less segregated state, especially in frontal-temporal regions. Stress also stabilized brain states by reducing the variability of dynamic transition between segregated and integrated states. Transition frequency was associated with the change of cortisol, and transition variability was correlated with cognitive control. Our results show that brain networks tend to be more integrated and less variable after acute stress, possibly to enable efficient coping.

Neural mechanisms underpinning metacognitive shifts driven by non-informative predictions.

Humans constantly make predictions and such predictions allow us to prepare for future events. Yet, such benefits may come with drawbacks as premature predictions may potentially bias subsequent judgments. Here we examined how prediction influences our perceptual decisions and subsequent confidence judgments, on scenarios where the predictions were arbitrary and independent of the identity of the upcoming stimuli. We defined them as invalid and non-informative predictions. Behavioral results showed that, such non-informative predictions biased perceptual decisions in favor of the predicted choice, and such prediction-induced perceptual bias further increased the metacognitive efficiency. The functional MRI results showed that activities in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) encoded the response consistency between predictions and perceptual decisions. Activity in mPFC predicted the strength of this congruency bias across individuals. Moreover, the parametric encoding of confidence in putamen was modulated by prediction-choice consistency, such that activity in putamen was negatively correlated with confidence rating after inconsistent responses. These findings suggest that predictions, while made arbitrarily, orchestrate the neural representations of choice and confidence judgment.

The neural representation of metacognition in preferential decision-making.

Humans regularly assess the quality of their judgements, which helps them adjust their behaviours. Metacognition is the ability to accurately evaluate one's own judgements, and it is assessed by comparing objective task performance with subjective confidence report in perceptual decisions. However, for preferential decisions, assessing metacognition in preference-based decisions is difficult because it depends on subjective goals rather than the objective criterion. Here, we develop a new index that integrates choice, reaction time, and confidence report to quantify trial-by-trial metacognitive sensitivity in preference judgements. We found that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and the right anterior insular were more activated when participants made bad metacognitive evaluations. Our study suggests a crucial role of the dmPFC-insula network in representing online metacognitive sensitivity in preferential decisions.

24-Hour movement behaviors and executive functions in preschoolers: A compositional and isotemporal reallocation analysis.

This cross-sectional study explored the relationship between 24-hour movement behaviors and executive function (EF) in preschool children. A total of 426 Han Chinese preschoolers (231 males; 3.8 ± 0.6 years old) from Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China were selected from October 2021 to December 2021. Accelerometers were used to measure physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB), while sleep duration was obtained via a parent-report questionnaire. Components of EF (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory) were assessed using computerized behavioral tasks. The daily composition was significantly associated with inhibitory control and working memory. Inhibitory control improvements were linked to the addition of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) at the expense of SB and sleep. The reallocation between MVPA, SB, sleep, and light physical activity yielded a significant association with working memory.

Not all discounts are created equal: Regional activity and brain networks in temporal and effort discounting.

Reward outcomes associated with costs like time delay and effort investment are generally discounted in decision-making. Standard economic models predict rewards associated with different types of costs are devalued in a similar manner. However, our review of rodent lesion studies indicated partial dissociations between brain regions supporting temporal- and effort-based decision-making. Another debate is whether options involving low and high costs are processed in different brain substrates (dual-system) or in the same regions (single-system). This research addressed these issues using coordinate-based, connectivity-based, and activation network-based meta-analyses to identify overlapping and separable neural systems supporting temporal (39 studies) and effort (20 studies) discounting. Coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation and resting-state connectivity analyses showed immediate-small reward and delayed-large reward choices engaged distinct regions with unique connectivity profiles, but their activation network mapping was found to engage the default mode network. For effort discounting, salience and sensorimotor networks supported low-effort choices, while the frontoparietal network supported high-effort choices. There was little overlap between the temporal and effort networks. Our findings underscore the importance of differentiating different types of costs in decision-making and understanding discounting at both regional and network levels.

Cognitive and neural bases of visual-context-guided decision-making.

Humans adjust their behavioral strategies based on feedback, a process that may depend on intrinsic preferences and contextual factors such as visual salience. In this study, we hypothesized that decision-making based on visual salience is influenced by habitual and goal-directed processes, which can be evidenced by changes in attention and subjective valuation systems. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of studies to investigate the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying visual salience-driven decision-making. We first established the baseline behavioral strategy without salience in Experiment 1 (n = 21). We then highlighted the utility or performance dimension of the chosen outcome using colors in Experiment 2 (n = 30). We demonstrated that the difference in staying frequency increased along the salient dimension, confirming a salience effect. Furthermore, the salience effect was abolished when directional information was removed in Experiment 3 (n = 28), suggesting that the salience effect is feedback-specific. To generalize our findings, we replicated the feedback-specific salience effects using eye-tracking and text emphasis. The fixation differences between the chosen and unchosen values were enhanced along the feedback-specific salient dimension in Experiment 4 (n = 48) but unchanged after removing feedback-specific information in Experiment 5 (n = 32). Moreover, the staying frequency was correlated with fixation properties, confirming that salience guides attention deployment. Lastly, our neuroimaging study (Experiment 6, n = 25) showed that the striatum subregions encoded salience-based outcome evaluation, while the vmPFC encoded salience-based behavioral adjustments. The connectivity of the vmPFC-ventral striatum accounted for individual differences in utility-driven, whereas the vmPFC-dmPFC for performance-driven behavioral adjustments. Together, our results provide a neurocognitive account of how task-irrelevant visual salience drives decision-making by involving attention and the frontal-striatal valuation systems. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Humans may use the current outcome to make behavior adjustments. How this occurs may depend on stable individual preferences and contextual factors, such as visual salience. Under the hypothesis that visual salience determines attention and subsequently modulates subjective valuation, we investigated the underlying behavioral and neural bases of visual-context-guided outcome evaluation and behavioral adjustments. Our findings suggest that the reward system is orchestrated by visual context and highlight the critical role of attention and the frontal-striatal neural circuit in visual-context-guided decision-making that may involve habitual and goal-directed processes.

The road not taken: Common and distinct neural correlates of regret and relief.

Humans anticipate and evaluate both obtained and counterfactual outcomes - outcomes that could have been had an alternate decision been taken - and experience associated emotions of regret and relief. Although many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have examined the neural correlates of these emotions, there is substantial heterogeneity in their results. We conducted coordinate-based ALE and network-based ANM meta-analysis of fMRI studies of experienced regret and relief to examine commonalities and differences in their neural correlates. Regionally, we observed that the experience of both regret and relief was associated with greater activation in the right ventral striatum (VS), which is implicated in tracking reward prediction error. At the network level, regret and relief shared the reward-sensitive mesocorticolimbic network with preferential activation of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) for regret processing and medial cingulate cortex (MCC) for relief processing. Our research identified shared and separable brain systems subserving regret and relief experience, which may inform the treatment of regret-related mood disorders.

Perceptual and semantic same-different processing under subliminal conditions.

Although other types of subliminal integrative processing are widely refuted by recent studies, subliminal same-different processing (SSDP) remains unchallenged to this day. Using shapes, categorical images, and Chinese characters as stimuli, the current study assessed whether SSDP can occur on a perceptual and semantic basis. Although some significant results were found, the effects are much weaker than previous studies, with Bayes factors suggesting that these effects are not reliable. It is therefore concluded that substantiating claims of SSDP requires more reliable evidence than currently available.

Moral characteristics predicting COVID-19 vaccination.

OBJECTIVE: The current study aims to assess, for the first time, whether vaccination is predicted by different behavioral and cognitive aspects of moral decision-making. BACKGROUND: Studies linking moral factors to vaccination have largely examined whether vaccination decisions can be explained by individual differences in the endorsement of various principles and norms central to deontology-based arguments in vaccination ethics. However, these studies have overlooked whether individuals prioritize norms over other considerations when making decisions, such as maximizing consequences (utilitarianism). METHOD: In a sample of 1492 participants, the current study assessed whether vaccination is explained by individual differences in three aspects of moral decision-making (consequence sensitivity, norm sensitivity, and action tendency), while also considering ethics position (idealism, relativism) and moral identity. RESULTS: Supportive vaccination (vaccine uptake accompanied by a positive attitude toward vaccines) was associated with utilitarianism (increased consequence sensitivity) and increased tolerance to risks and harm toward others. Meanwhile, although those in the non-vaccinated group was associated with higher harm sensitivities, they neither supported nor received the COVID vaccines (when vaccines prevent harm from infection). CONCLUSION: Pro-vaccination messages may be made more effective by addressing perceptions of harms associated with vaccines and infections, respectively.

A spontaneous neural replay account for involuntary autobiographical memories and déjà vu experiences.

Barzykowski and Moulin argue both involuntary autobiographical memories and déjà vu experiences rely on the same involuntary memory retrieval processes but their underlying neurological basis remains unclear. We propose spontaneous neural replay in the default mode network (DMN) and hippocampus as the basis for involuntary autobiographical memories, whereas for déjà vu experiences such transient activation is limited to the DMN.

Behavioral and neural representation of expected reward and risk.

When faced with uncertainty, individuals' value-based decisions are influenced by the expected rewards and risks. Understanding how reward and risk are processed and integrated at the behavioral and neural levels is essential for building up utility theories. Using a modified monetary incentive delay task in which the mean of two possible outcomes (expected reward) and the standard deviation (SD) of the possible outcomes (risk) were parametrically manipulated and orthogonalized, we measured eye movements, response times (RTs), and brain activity when participants seek to secure a reward. We found that RTs varied as a function of the mean but not the SD of the potential reward, suggesting that expected rewards are the main driver of RTs. Moreover, the difference between gazes focused on high vs. low value rewards became smaller when the magnitude of the potential reward (mean of possible outcomes) was larger and when risk (SD of possible outcomes) became smaller, highlighting that reward and risk have different effects on attention deployment. Processing the mean reward activated the striatum. The positive striatal connectivity to the amygdala and negative striatal connectivity to the superior frontal gyrus were correlated with individuals' sensitivity to the expected reward. In contrast, processing risk activated the anterior insula. Its positive connectivity to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and negative connectivity to the anterior midcingulate cortex were correlated with individual differences in risk sensitivity, further suggesting the functional dissociation of reward and risk at the neural level. Our findings, based on several different measures, delineate the distinct representations of reward and risk in non-decision contexts and provide insight into how these utility parameters modulate attention, motivation, and brain networks.

Blunted reward prediction error signals in internet gaming disorder.

BACKGROUND: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is a type of behavioural addictions. One of the key features of addiction is the excessive exposure to addictive objectives (e.g. drugs) reduces the sensitivity of the brain reward system to daily rewards (e.g. money). This is thought to be mediated via the signals expressed as dopaminergic reward prediction error (RPE). Emerging evidence highlights blunted RPE signals in drug addictions. However, no study has examined whether IGD also involves alterations in RPE signals that are observed in other types of addictions. METHODS: To fill this gap, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 45 IGD and 42 healthy controls (HCs) during a reward-related prediction-error task and utilised a psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis to characterise the underlying neural correlates of RPE and related functional connectivity. RESULTS: Relative to HCs, IGD individuals showed impaired reinforcement learning, blunted RPE signals in multiple regions of the brain reward system, including the right caudate, left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Moreover, the PPI analysis revealed a pattern of hyperconnectivity between the right caudate, right putamen, bilateral DLPFC, and right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) in the IGD group. Finally, linear regression suggested that the connection between the right DLPFC and right dACC could significantly predict the variation of RPE signals in the left OFC. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight disrupted RPE signalling and hyperconnectivity between regions of the brain reward system in IGD. Reinforcement learning deficits may be crucial underlying characteristics of IGD pathophysiology.

Novel Ti3C2Tx MXene nanozyme with manageable catalytic activity and application to electrochemical biosensor.

In this work, Ti3C2Tx MXene was identified as efficient nanozyme with area-dependent electrocatalytic activity in oxidation of phenolic compounds, which originated from the strong adsorption effect between the phenolic hydroxyl group and the oxygen atom on the surface of Ti3C2Tx MXene flake. On the basis of the novel electrocatalytic activity, Ti3C2Tx MXene was combined with alkaline phosphatase to construct a novel cascading catalytic amplification strategy using 1-naphthyl phosphate (1-NPP) as substrate, thereby realizing efficient electrochemical signal amplification. Taking advantage of the novel cascading catalytic amplification strategy, an electrochemical biosensor was fabricated for BCR/ABL fusion gene detection, which achieved excellent sensitivity with linear range from 0.2 fM to 20 nM and limit of detection down to 0.05 fM. This biosensor provided a promising tool for ultrasensitive fusion gene detection in early diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia. Moreover, the manageable catalytic activity of MXene broke a path for developing nanozymes, which possessed enormous application potential in not only electrochemical analysis but also the extensive fields including organic synthesis, pollutant disposal and so on.

The neural underpinnings of allocentric thinking in a novel signaling task.

The ability to adopt the perspectives of others is fundamental to effective communication in social interactions. However, the neural correlates of allocentric thinking in communicative signaling remain unclear. We adapted a novel signaling task in which the signaler was given the target word and must choose a one-word signal to help the receiver guess the target. Behavioral results suggest that speakers can use allocentric thinking to choose signals that are salient from the perspective of the receiver rather than their own point of view. At the neural level, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data reveal that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), ventral striatum, and temporal-parietal junction are more activated when signalers engage in allocentric than egocentric thinking. Moreover, functional connectivity between the mPFC and ventral striatum predicted individuals' perspective-taking ability during successful communication. These findings reveal that neural representations in the mPFC-striatum network support perspective-taking in complex social decision making, providing a new perspective on how the brain arbitrates between allocentric thinking and egocentric thinking in communication and social coordination.

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't: Neural processing of risk and ambiguity.

Risk and ambiguity are inherent in virtually all human decision-making. Risk refers to a situation in which we know the precise probability of potential outcomes of each option, whereas ambiguity refers to a situation in which outcome probabilities are not known. A large body of research has shown that individuals prefer known risks to ambiguity, a phenomenon known as ambiguity aversion. One heated debate concerns whether risky and ambiguous decisions rely on the same or distinct neural circuits. In the current meta-analyses, we integrated the results of neuroimaging research on decision-making under risk (n = 69) and ambiguity (n = 31). Our results showed that both processing of risk and ambiguity showed convergence in anterior insula, indicating a key role of anterior insula in encoding uncertainty. Risk additionally engaged dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and ventral striatum, whereas ambiguity specifically recruited the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and right anterior insula. Our findings demonstrate overlapping and distinct neural substrates underlying different types of uncertainty, guiding future neuroimaging research on risk-taking and ambiguity aversion.

Distinct neural networks subserve placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia.

Neural networks involved in placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia processes have been widely investigated with neuroimaging methods. However, few studies have directly compared these two processes and it remains unclear whether common or distinct neural circuits are involved. To address this issue, we implemented a coordinate-based meta-analysis and compared neural representations of placebo analgesia (30 studies; 205 foci; 677 subjects) and nocebo hyperalgesia (22 studies; 301 foci; 401 subjects). Contrast analyses confirmed placebo-specific concordance in the right ventral striatum, and nocebo-specific concordance in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), left posterior insula and left parietal operculum during combined pain anticipation and administration stages. Importantly, no overlapping regions were found for these two processes in conjunction analyses, even when the threshold was low. Meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analyses on key regions further confirmed the distinct brain networks underlying placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia. Together, these findings indicate that the placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia processes involve distinct neural circuits, which supports the view that the two phenomena may operate via different neuropsychological processes.

Neural correlates of recursive thinking during interpersonal strategic interactions.

To navigate the complex social world, individuals need to represent others' mental states to think strategically and predict their next move. Strategic mentalizing can be classified into different levels of theory of mind according to its order of mental state attribution of other people's beliefs, desires, intentions, and so forth. For example, reasoning people's beliefs about simple world facts is the first-order attribution while going further to reason people's beliefs about the minds of others is the second-order attribution. The neural substrates that support such high-order recursive reasoning in strategic interpersonal interactions are still unclear. Here, using a sequential-move interactional game together with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we showed that recursive reasoning engaged the frontal-subcortical regions. At the stimulus stage, the ventral striatum was more activated in high-order reasoning as compared with low-order reasoning. At the decision stage, high-order reasoning activated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and other mentalizing regions. Moreover, functional connectivity between the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and the insula/hippocampus was positively correlated with individual differences in high-order social reasoning. This work delineates the neural correlates of high-order recursive thinking in strategic games and highlights the key role of the interplay between mPFC and subcortical regions in advanced social decision-making.

Abnormal prediction error processing in schizophrenia and depression.

To make adaptive decisions under uncertainty, individuals need to actively monitor the discrepancy between expected outcomes and actual outcomes, known as prediction errors. Reward-based learning deficits have been shown in both depression and schizophrenia patients. For this study, we compiled studies that investigated prediction error processing in depression and schizophrenia patients and performed a series of meta-analyses. In both groups, positive t-maps of prediction error tend to yield striatum activity across studies. The analysis of negative t-maps of prediction error revealed two large clusters within the right superior and inferior frontal lobes in schizophrenia and the medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral insula in depression. The concordant posterior cingulate activity was observed in both patient groups, more prominent in the depression group and absent in the healthy control group. These findings suggest a possible role in dopamine-rich areas associated with the encoding of prediction errors in depression and schizophrenia.

Functional and Structural Brain Correlates of Socioeconomic Status.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a multidimensional construct that includes not only measures of material wealth, but also education, social prestige, and neighborhood quality. Socioeconomic correlates between wealth and cognitive functions have been well established in behavioral studies. However, functional and structural brain correlates of SES remain unclear. Here, we sought to uncover the most likely neural regions to be affected by low SES, specifically associated with age. Using effect size-seed-based d Mapping, we compiled studies that examined individuals with low SES and performed functional magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry meta-analyses. The results revealed that as from early to late age, individuals exposed to low SES are less likely to have sustained executive network activity yet a greater likelihood to enhanced activity within reward-related regions. A similar activity was shown for gray matter volume across early to older age. These findings provide the first quantitative integration of neuroimaging results pertaining to the neural basis of SES. Hypoactivation of the executive network and hyperactivation of the reward network in low SES individuals may support the scarcity hypothesis and animal models of the effects of early adversity.

Neural representation of prediction error signals in substance users.

Abnormal decision making can result in detrimental outcomes of clinical importance, and decision making is strongly linked to neural prediction error signalling. Activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses were used to examine the neural correlates of prediction error signals of individuals taking different types of substances and healthy controls with contrast and conjunction analyses. Twenty-eight studies were included in the meta-analysis, representing 424 substance users' individuals and 834 healthy control individuals. Robust brain activity associated with prediction error signals in substance users was found for the bilateral striatum and insula. Healthy control subjects also activated bilateral striatum, midbrain, right insula and right medial-inferior frontal gyrus. Compared with healthy controls, substance users showed blunted activity in the bilateral putamen, right medial-inferior frontal gyrus and insula. The current meta-analysis of cross-sectional findings investigated neural prediction error signals in substance users. PE abnormalities in substance users might be related to poor decision making. In conclusion, the present study helps identify the pathophysiological underpinnings of maladaptive decision making in substance users.