Physiology of Risk-Taking and Risk Management in Realistic Decision-Making Scenarios.

Decisions under risk are a particular case of decisional skills taking place in complex and mostly unpredictable situations, where affective connotation of deciding is highly relevant. We aimed at investigating decisional processes under risk by outlining individual risk-taking (RT) and risk management (RM) attitudes via realistic decision-making and, in keeping with the risk-as-feeling hypothesis, at exploring implicit physiological correlates of such processes. 35 participants were presented with realistic situations where they had to make decisions by choosing between alternatives connoted by different levels of riskiness. Concurrently, autonomic physiological activation (cardiovascular and electrodermal activity) was recorded. Data analysis highlighted that: (i) participants showed higher propensity towards risk management than risk-taking; (ii) the propensity towards both risk taking and risk management was significantly determined by physiological markers of autonomic activity; and (iii) risk taking and risk management indices showed associations with different autonomic measures, respectively heart rate and skin conductance metrics.

Can Professionals Resist Cognitive Bias Elicited by the Visual System? Reversed Semantic Prime Effect and Decision Making in the Workplace: Reaction Times and Accuracy.

Information that comes from the environment reaches the brain-and-body system via sensory inputs that can operate outside of conscious awareness and influence decision processes in different ways. Specifically, decision-making processes can be influenced by various forms of implicit bias derived from individual-related factors (e.g., individual differences in decision-making style) and/or stimulus-related information, such as visual input. However, the relationship between these subjective and objective factors of decision making has not been investigated previously in professionals with varying seniority. This study explored the relationship between decision-making style and cognitive bias resistance in professionals compared with a group of newcomers in organisations. A visual "picture-picture" semantic priming task was proposed to the participants. The task was based on primes and probes' category membership (animals vs. objects), and after an animal prime stimulus presentation, the probe can be either five objects (incongruent condition) or five objects and an animal (congruent condition). Behavioural (i.e., accuracy-ACC, and reaction times-RTs) and self-report data (through the General Decision-Making Scale administration) were collected. RTs represent an indirect measure of the workload and cognitive effort required by the task, as they represent the time it takes the nervous system to receive and integrate incoming sensory information, inducing the body to react. For both groups, the same level of ACC in both conditions and higher RTs in the incongruent condition were found. Interestingly, for the group of professionals, the GDMS-dependent decision-making style negatively correlates with ACC and positively correlates with RTs in the congruent condition. These findings suggest that, under the incongruent decision condition, the resistance to cognitive bias requires the same level of cognitive effort, regardless of seniority. However, with advancing seniority, in the group of professionals, it has been demonstrated that a dependent decision-making style is associated with lower resistance to cognitive bias, especially in conditions that require simpler decisions. Whether this result depends on age or work experience needs to be disentangled from future studies.

Sensorimotor Simulation's Influence on Stress: EEG and Autonomic Responses in Digital Interviews.

This study explored the role of sensorimotor simulation in modulating the stress response in individuals exposed to stressful digital simulated interviews. Participants were assigned to two different versions of a Digital Social Stress Test: a simulated version with a dynamic-realistic examining committee (Dyn-DSST) and a version with a static examining committee (Stat-DSST). During interview preparation, behavioral indices reflecting stress regulation and resistance, response times, and electroencephalographic (EEG) and autonomic indices were collected. Higher regulation scores were found for the Stat-DSST group compared to the Dyn-DSST group, probably induced by the presence of limited external sensory input in time and space, perceived as less stressful. The EEG results revealed a distinct contribution of the low- and high-frequency bands for both groups. Dyn-DSST required greater cognitive regulation effort due to the presence of a continuous flow of information, which can enhance sensory and motor activation in the brain. The SCR increased in the Dyn-DSST group compared to the Stat-DSST group, reflecting greater emotional involvement in the Dyn-DSST group and reduced sensory stimulation in the static version. In conclusion, the results suggest that sensorimotor simulation impacts the stress response differently in dynamic interviews compared to static ones, with distinct profiles based on behavioral, EEG, and autonomic measures.

Decisional brain of lawyers at the workplace. A neurolaw pilot study.

This pilot study investigated legal and non-legal professionals' decision process during a typical working day. During self-evaluated highly relevant decisions (rated through a daily diary), the two groups were asked to wear the Muse™ Headband to record their electrophysiological (EEG) activity in terms of frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha and beta). EEG cognitive findings displayed a generally increased beta power in the anterior frontal region (mainly in the right than left) for both groups during highly relevant decisions. Significantly results were also found for the legal professionals' group, for which a decrease of alpha power was found in the left compared to right frontal cortex. Furthermore, a decreased alpha power and increased delta and theta power in the right compared to left Temporo-Parietal Junction was observed in the legal professionals when taking highly relevant decisions. This pilot study suggested a specific EEG pattern for legal professionals while taking highly relevant decisions.

Impact of public health communication for prevention and personal resilience at the time of crisis. A pilot study with psychophysiological and self-report measures.

Health communication promotes public and individual health. Psychophysiological indices can unveil the unconscious emotional variables that influence audience's representations of these communications. This study explored emotional and cognitive responses to health communications using implicit (psychophysiological) and explicit (self-report) measurements. Twelve communications (health prevention, personal health, public health, Covid-19) were shown to N = 19 participants, while psychophysiological (i.e. Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability (HRV), skin conductance level and response (SCL and SCR)) and self-report (Semantic Differential and Self-Assessment Mannikin (SAM)) data were collected. Higher arousal and physiological engagement (SCL) were observed for health prevention, public and personal health communications. Lower HRV values were found for health prevention compared to crisis communication (Covid-19 stimuli), suggesting higher emotional reactions and concern for the first topic. Self-report results confirmed psychophysiological findings. Overall, using public health communication activates objective indicators about emotional reactions that have important implications for the effectiveness of the communication itself.

Inter-brain entrainment (IBE) during interoception. A multimodal EEG-fNIRS coherence-based hyperscanning approach.

This work examined the impact of interoceptive manipulation and the presence of a shared goal on inter-brain entrainment (IBE) during a motor synchronization task. A multimodal functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy - Electroencephalogram (fNIRS-EEG) system-based hyperscanning approach was applied to 13 dyads performing the motor synchrony task during an interoceptive (focus on the breath) and control condition. Additionally, two version of the motor task-one with and one without a clearly defined common goal-were presented to participants to emphasize the task's collaborative purpose. The multimodal approach was exploited to record the electrophysiological (EEG) cortical oscillation and hemodynamic (oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb) levels. Results revealed significant correlations between EEG delta, theta, and alpha band and hemodynamic oxy-Hb in the left compared to right hemisphere for the interoceptive confronted with the control condition. This significant EEG/fNIRS IBE correlation was also found for delta and theta band whereas the task was presented with an explicit shared goal confronted with the no-social version. In addition to separate functional connectivity EEG and fNIRS analysis, this study proposed a novel analysis pipeline including statistical tests for examining the coherence between functional connectivity EEG-fNIRS signals within couples. Besides proposing methodological advancements on EEG-fNIRS signals hyperscanning analysis, this research demonstrated that, in dyads undertaking a motor synchronization task, both the interoceptive attention to respiration and an explicit joint intention activate left anterior regions.

Neurophysiological and Autonomic Correlates of Metacognitive Control of and Resistance to Distractors in Ecological Setting: A Pilot Study.

In organisational contexts, professionals are required to decide dynamically and prioritise unexpected external inputs deriving from multiple sources. In the present study, we applied a multimethodological neuroscientific approach to investigate the ability to resist and control ecological distractors during decision-making and to explore whether a specific behavioural, neurophysiological (i.e., delta, theta, alpha and beta EEG band), or autonomic (i.e., heart rate-HR, and skin conductance response-SCR) pattern is correlated with specific personality profiles, collected with the 10-item Big Five Inventory. Twenty-four participants performed a novel Resistance to Ecological Distractors (RED) task aimed at exploring the ability to resist and control distractors and the level of coherence and awareness of behaviour (metacognition ability), while neurophysiological and autonomic measures were collected. The behavioural results highlighted that effectiveness in performance did not require self-control and metacognition behaviour and that being proficient in metacognition can have an impact on performance. Moreover, it was shown that the ability to resist ecological distractors is related to a specific autonomic profile (HR and SCR decrease) and that the neurophysiological and autonomic activations during task execution correlate with specific personality profiles. The agreeableness profile was negatively correlated with the EEG theta band and positively with the EEG beta band, the conscientiousness profile was negatively correlated with the EEG alpha band, and the extroversion profile was positively correlated with the EEG beta band. Taken together, these findings describe and disentangle the hidden relationship that lies beneath individuals' decision to inhibit or activate intentionally a specific behaviour, such as responding, or not, to an external stimulus, in ecological conditions.

Social Interoception and Autonomic System Reactivity during Synchronization Behavior.

BACKGROUND: Within the social interoception field, little is known about the impact of interoception on autonomic system reactivity during synchronization tasks. The impact of social framing manipulation and Interoceptive Attentiveness (IA; defined as concentrated attention on the breath for a specific time interval) on autonomic responses during interpersonal synchronization was investigated in this research. METHODS: Under two experimental interoceptive conditions-the concentration and no focus on the breath condition-participants completed two synchronization tasks. A social framing was given to participants by informing them that they needed to complete the tasks in unison to improve their collaboration abilities. Autonomic responses (electrodermal activity and cardiovascular indices) were collected throughout task performance. RESULTS: Two orders of results were observed: high cognitive engagement was detected during the focus on the breath condition and for the social frame. This effect was specifically observed for the motor compared to the linguistic synchronization task. Meanwhile, a potential lack of emotional control was observed in the no focus on the breath condition when the synchronization tasks were not socially framed. CONCLUSIONS: Such results encourage the use of the hyperscanning paradigm to deepen the impact of IA in real-time and ecological interpersonal synchronization dynamics.

Can professionals "keep the tiller straight" in organizations? Resistance to reframing and decoy alternatives in workplace decision-making.

So far, little is known about the ability to contrast contextual bias as a protective factor in an ever-changing organizational environment. This study assessed whether professionals with different seniority can resist the reframing and the decoy effect under decision-making conditions and whether decision-making styles can predict the resistance to such covert influence tactics. To reach this aim, two groups of professionals divided into senior and junior professionals performed two novel tasks, a Resistance to Reframe Task (RRT) and a Resistance to Alternatives Task (RAT), which, by including ecological scenarios that represent typical decision situations that could arise in the company, can measure the resistance to such covert influence tactics. Decision-making styles were measured through the General Decision-Making Style (GDMS) and the Maximization Scale (MS). Results showed that all professionals were able to resist more to the reframing (at the RRT) than the decoy alternatives (RAT), without any difference between groups. In addition, higher GDMS-dependent subscale scores predict lower RRT scores, especially in the group of senior professionals. However, in the group of junior professionals, the GDMS-dependent subscale and MS high standards subscale predicted lower RAT scores. To conclude, this study showed that professionals know how to "keep the tiller straight" in organizations, especially when facing reframing conditions, rather than decoy alternatives; however, the predominance of dependent decision-making styles (for both senior and junior professionals) and the tendency to hold high standards in decisions (mainly for juniors) could undermine their resistance capacity and make them vulnerable to these covert influence tactics.

EEG Correlates of Moral Decision-Making: Effect of Choices and Offers Types.

Background: Moral decision-making consists of a complex process requiring individuals to evaluate potential consequences of personal and social decisions, including applied organizational contexts.Methods: This research aims to investigate the behavioral (offer responses and reaction times, RTs) and electrophysiological (EEG) correlates underlying moral decision-making during three different choice conditions (professional fit, company fit, and social fit) and offers (fair, unfair, and neutral).Results: An increase of delta and theta frontal activity (related to emotional behavior and processes) and beta frontal and central activity (linked to cognitive and attentional processes) was found. A left beta, delta, and theta frontal activity was observed for fair offers in professional fit conditions, while increased right frontal delta and theta activity was found in response to unfair offers in company fit conditions. Also, an increase of left delta and theta parietal activity for unfair offers in social fit condition was detected. Finally, higher accepted responses were found for fair and neutral offers in professional and social fit conditions, with increased RTs for unfair offers suggesting decisions' cognitive load and complexity.Conclusions: By revealing a greater involvement of left and right frontal areas in decision-making processes based on choices and offers, personal interest evaluations and emotional values, and of parietal areas in more prosocial and altruistic moral behavior, current findings provide information about the neural and behavioral correlates underlying company moral behavior.

The Human Affectome.

Over the last decades, theoretical perspectives in the interdisciplinary field of the affective sciences have proliferated rather than converged due to differing assumptions about what human affective phenomena are and how they work. These metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions, shaped by academic context and values, have dictated affective constructs and operationalizations. However, an assumption about the purpose of affective phenomena can guide us to a common set of metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions. In this capstone paper, we home in on a nested teleological principle for human affective phenomena in order to synthesize metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions. Under this framework, human affective phenomena can collectively be considered algorithms that either adjust based on the human comfort zone (affective concerns) or monitor those adaptive processes (affective features). This teleologically-grounded framework offers a principled agenda and launchpad for both organizing existing perspectives and generating new ones. Ultimately, we hope the Human Affectome brings us a step closer to not only an integrated understanding of human affective phenomena, but an integrated field for affective research.

What Is the Relationship between Metacognition and Mental Effort in Executive Functions? The Contribution of Neurophysiology.

Prolonged cognitive effort can be considered one of the core determinants of mental fatigue and may negatively affect the efficacy and efficiency of cognitive performance. Metacognition-understood as a multi-componential set of skills concerning awareness and control of one's own cognition-might reduce such negative outcomes. This study aimed to explore the relation between metacognitive skills, neurocognitive performance, and the level of mental effort as mirrored by electrophysiological (EEG) markers of cognitive load and task demand. A challenging cognitive task was used to prompt and collect metacognition reports, performance data (accuracy and response times-RTs), and physiological markers of mental effort (task-related changes of spectral power for standard EEG frequency bands) via wearable EEG. Data analysis highlighted that different aspects of metacognitive skills are associated with performance as measured by, respectively, accuracy and RTs. Furthermore, specific aspects of metacognitive skills were found to be consistently correlated with EEG markers of cognitive effort, regardless of increasing task demands. Finally, behavioral metrics mirroring the efficiency of information processing were found to be associated with different EEG markers of cognitive effort depending on the low or high demand imposed by the task.

Self-Awareness of Goals Task (SAGT) and Planning Skills: The Neuroscience of Decision Making.

A goal's self-awareness and the planning to achieve it drive decision makers. Through a neuroscientific approach, this study explores the self-awareness of goals by analyzing the explicit and implicit processes linked to the ability to self-represent goals and sort them via an implicit dominant key. Thirty-five professionals performed a novel and ecological decision-making task, the Self-Awareness of Goals Task (SAGT), aimed at exploring the (i) self-representation of the decision-making goals of a typical working day; (ii) self-representation of how these goals were performed in order of priority; (iii) temporal sequence; and (iv) in terms of their efficacy. Electrophysiological (i.e., alpha, beta, and gamma band), autonomic, behavioral, and self-report data (General Decision Making Style and Big Five Inventory) are collected. Higher self-awareness of goals by time as well as efficacy and the greater activation of alpha, beta, and gamma bands in the temporoparietal brain area were found. Correlations reported positive associations between the self-awareness of goals via a time and dependent decision-making style and a conscientious personality, but also between the self-awareness of goals via an efficacy and rational decision-making style. The results obtained in this study suggest that the SAGT could activate recursive thinking in the examinee and grasp individual differences in self-representation and aware identification of decision-making goals.

Autonomic synchrony induced by hyperscanning interoception during interpersonal synchronization tasks.

According to previous research, people influence each other's emotional states during social interactions via resonance mechanisms and coordinated autonomic rhythms. However, no previous studies tested if the manipulation of the interoceptive focus (focused attention on the breath for a given time interval) in hyperscanning during synchronized tasks may have an impact on autonomic synchrony. Thus, this study aims to assess the psychophysiological synchrony through autonomic measures recording during dyadic linguistic and motor synchronization tasks performed in two distinct interoceptive conditions: the focus and no focus on the breath condition. 26 participants coupled in 13 dyads were recruited. Individuals' autonomic measures [electrodermal: skin conductance level and response (SCL, SCR); cardiovascular indices: heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV)] was continuously monitored during the experiment and correlational coefficients were computed to analyze dyads physiological synchrony. Inter-subject analysis revealed higher synchrony for HR, HRV, SCL, and SCR values in the focus compared to no focus condition during the motor synchronization task and in general more for motor than linguistic task. Higher synchrony was also found for HR, SCL, and SCR values during focus than no focus condition in linguistic task. Overall, evidence suggests that the manipulation of the interoceptive focus has an impact on the autonomic synchrony during distinct synchronization tasks and for different autonomic measures. Such findings encourage the use of hyperscanning paradigms to assess the effect of breath awareness practices on autonomic synchrony in ecological and real-time conditions involving synchronization.

Neurofeedback as neuroempowerment technique for affective regulation and interoceptive awareness in adolescence: preliminary considerations applied to a psychogenic pseudosyncope case.

Revisions of classical models of acute stress response spectrum and defence cascade process might represent a valuable background for the interpretation of the link between affective reactions, traumatic experiences, and Psychogenic pseudosyncope (PPS) events in childhood and across the lifespan. Indeed, associations between subjective emotional life, early exposure to distressing and/or traumatic events, and PPS have fuelled a debate on potential causes of occurrence and recurrence of such a peculiar clinical manifestation. At the same time, such background suggests that empowering stress management and affective regulation skills could be the target for neurorehabilitation interventions aiming at reducing the severity of symptomatology and/or improving awareness and management of pseudosyncopal spells. Specifically, neuro/biofeedback-based empowerment of self-regulation skills, associated to an increased interoceptive increased awareness, could be a promising complement to classical psychological therapies. Starting from the presentation of a paediatric PPS clinical case, the present work discusses the relevance of assessing affective appraisal and autonomic reactivity in individuals suffering from PPS episodes and introduces a novel potential neuroempowerment protocol aimed at improving self-regulation and stress management skills in adolescence based on a combined neurofeedback and embodied-awareness intervention. By capitalizing available evidence of the effects of neuromodulation and embodied practices on self-awareness/regulation across the life-span, the proposed protocol is based on neurofeedback-supported affective management training, as well as both contemplative and informal awareness exercises devised to be appealing and challenging even for younger patients.

Primacy Effect of Dynamic Multi-Sensory Covid ADV Influences Cognitive and Emotional EEG Responses.

Advertising uses sounds and dynamic images to provide visual, auditory, and tactile experiences, and to make the audience feel like the protagonist. During COVID-19, companies modified their communication by including pandemic references, but without penalizing multisensorial advertising. This study investigated how dynamic and emotional COVID-19-related advertising affects consumer cognitive and emotional responses. Nineteen participants, divided into two groups, watched three COVID-19-related and three non-COVID-19-related advertisements in two different orders (Order 1: COVID-19 and non-COVID-19; Order 2: non-COVID-19 and COVID-19), while electrophysiological data were collected. EEG showed theta activation in frontal and temporo-central areas when comparing Order 2 to Order 1, interpreted as cognitive control over salient emotional stimuli. An increase in alpha activity in parieto-occipital area was found in Order 2 compared to Order 1, suggesting an index of cognitive engagement. Higher beta activity in frontal area was observed for COVID-19 stimuli in Order 1 compared to Order 2, which can be defined as an indicator of high cognitive impact. Order 1 showed a greater beta activation in parieto-occipital area for non-COVID-19 stimuli compared to Order 2, as an index of reaction for painful images. This work suggests that order of exposure, more than advertising content, affects electrophysiological consumer responses, leading to a primacy effect.

Implicit IAT Measures and Neurophysiological fNIRS Markers in Response to High-Engagement Advertising.

Self-report measures partially explain consumers' purchasing choices, which are inextricably linked to cognitive, affective processes and implicit drives. These aspects, which occur outside of awareness and tacitly affect the way consumers make decisions, could be explored by exploiting neuroscientific technology. The study investigates implicit behavioural and neurovascular responses to emotionally arousing and high-engagement advertisements (COVID-19 content). High-engagement advertisements and control stimuli were shown in two experimental sessions that were counterbalanced across participants. During each session, hemodynamic variations were recorded with functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a neurophysiological marker for emotional processing. The implicit association task (IAT) was administered to investigate the implicit attitude. An increase in the concentration of oxygenated haemoglobin (O2Hb) was found for the high-engagement advertising when this category of stimuli was seen first. Specular results were found for deoxygenated haemoglobin (HHb) data. The IAT reported higher values for highly engaging stimuli. Increased activity within the PFC suggests that highly engaging content may be effective in generating emotional arousal and increasing attention when presented before other stimuli, which is consistent with the higher IAT scores, indicating more favourable implicit attitudes. This evidence suggests that the effectiveness of highly engaging advertising-related messages may be constrained by the order of advertisement administration.

Electrophysiology of interoception: Parietal posterior area supports social synchronization.

The effect of explicit interoception manipulation on electrophysiological (EEG) patterns concurrent with an interpersonal motor synchronization task with a social purpose was investigated in this study. Thirty healthy individuals executed a task involving behavioral motor synchronization with a social framing in both focus (conceived as the focus on the breath for a specific time interval) and no focus conditions. During the task, a 15 active electrodes electroencephalogram was used to record the following frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, and beta band) from the frontal, temporo-central, and parieto-occipital regions of interest (ROIs). According to the results, for all the frequency bands significant higher mean values were found in the focus compared to no focus condition in the parieto-occipital ROI. On the whole, the current work conveys that when a motor synchronization task is executed and the person concurrently pays attention to his/her body correlates, EEG brain activity is empowered and boosted in posterior areas at the basis of attention to visceral signals, but also interpersonal action coordination. This evidence could have potentially interesting implications because it suggests the importance of modern breath-work during all conditions that require a social motor joint task, such as physiotherapy exercises or synchronized sports.