Influences of heart rate feedback and autistic traits on affective mindreading.

Although mindreading is an important prerequisite for successful social interactions, the underlying mechanisms are still matter of debate. It is unclear, for example, if inferring others' and own mental states are distinct processes or are based on a common mechanism. Using an affect-induction experimental set-up with an acoustic heart rate feedback that addresses affective mindreading in self and others, we investigated if non-autistic study participants relied on similar information for self- and other-directed mindreading. We assumed that due to altered mindreading capacities in autism, mainly individuals with low autistic traits would focus on additional sensory cues, such as heart rate, to infer their own and their gambling partner's affective states. Our analyses showed that the interpretation of a heart rate signal differed in self- and other-directed mindreading trials. This effect was modulated by autistic traits suggesting that individuals with higher autistic traits might not have interpreted the heart rate feedback for gambling partner ratings and differentiated less between self- and other-directed mindreading trials. We discuss these results in the context of a common mechanism underlying self- and other-directed mindreading and hypothesize that the weighting of internal and external sensory information might contribute to how we make sense of our and others' mental states.

Doctoral researchers' mental health and PhD training satisfaction during the German COVID-19 lockdown: results from an international research sample.

Academia has been facing a mental health crisis particularly affecting early career researchers (ECRs). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented burden on the mental health of many individuals. Therefore, we cross-sectionally investigated how doctoral researchers (N = 222) evaluate their mental health status and satisfaction with their PhD training before and during the pandemic. As compared to self-reported, retrospective evaluations about the pre-pandemic state, we found decreased satisfaction with PhD training and overall well-being. The whole sample exhibited high levels of personal and work-related burnout, a fifth indicated clinically meaningful levels of depressive symptoms and almost 25% experienced severe loneliness. When exploring predictors of depression, anxiety, and burnout, we identified low satisfaction with PhD training as the most prominent predictor for poor mental health, suggesting a link between the doctoral work and their mental health status. Females vs. males and doctoral researchers in individual doctorate vs. structured PhD programs reported higher symptoms of burnout. Our study replicates previous findings of poor mental health in doctoral researchers and indicates further decreases of mental wellbeing under the influence of the pandemic. Systematic adjustments in academia are required to improve the mental health of ECRs.

Fostering socio-emotional competencies in children on the autism spectrum using a parent-assisted serious game: A multicenter randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Serious games are a promising means of fostering socio-emotional skills in children on the autism spectrum (AS). However, empathy and related constructs have not yet been addressed comprehensively and together with emotion recognition, and there is a lack of randomized controlled trials (RCT) to investigate skill maintenance and the transfer to functional behavior. METHOD: The manualized, parent-assisted serious game Zirkus Empathico (ZE) was tested against an active control group, in a six-week multicenter RCT. Eighty-two children aged 5-10 years on the AS were assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and three-month follow-up. Empathy and emotion recognition skills were defined as the primary outcomes. The secondary outcomes included measures of emotional awareness, emotion regulation, autism social symptomatology (Social Responsiveness Scale), and subjective therapy goals. RESULTS: Training effects were observed after the intervention for empathy (d = 0.71) and emotion recognition (d = 0.50), but not at follow-up. Moderate effects on emotional awareness, emotion regulation, and autism social symptomatology were indicated by the short and mid-term assessments. Parents reported treatment goal attainment and positive training transfer. CONCLUSION: While a six-week training with ZE failed to induce lasting changes in empathy and emotion recognition, it may be effective for improving emotional awareness and emotion regulation, and mitigate general autism symptomatology. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: Zirkus Empathico - Promoting socioemotional competencies in 5- to 10-year-old children with autism spectrum conditions using a computer-based training program; https://www.drks.de/; DRKS-ID: DRKS00009337; Universal Trial Number (UTN): U1111-1175-5451.

Longitudinal developmental trajectories do not follow cross-sectional age associations in hippocampal subfield and memory development.

Cross-sectional findings suggest that volumes of specific hippocampal subfields increase in middle childhood and early adolescence. In contrast, a small number of available longitudinal studies reported decreased volumes in most subfields over this age range. Further, it remains unknown whether structural changes in development are associated with corresponding gains in children's memory. Here we report cross-sectional age differences in children's hippocampal subfield volumes together with longitudinal developmental trajectories and their relationships with memory performance. In two waves, 109 participants aged 6-10 years (wave 1: MAge=7.25, wave 2: MAge=9.27) underwent high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging to assess hippocampal subfield volumes (imaging data available at both waves for 65 participants) and completed tasks assessing hippocampus dependent memory processes. We found that cross-sectional age-associations and longitudinal developmental trends in hippocampal subfield volumes were discrepant, both by subfields and in direction. Further, volumetric changes were largely unrelated to changes in memory, with the exception that increase in subiculum volume was associated with gains in spatial memory. Longitudinal and cross-sectional patterns of brain-cognition couplings were also discrepant. We discuss potential sources of these discrepancies. This study underscores that children's structural brain development and its relationship to cognition cannot be inferred from cross-sectional age comparisons.

Subtypes of Aggressive Behavior in Children with Autism in the Context of Emotion Recognition, Hostile Attribution Bias, and Dysfunctional Emotion Regulation.

The causes of aggressive behavior in children with autism are poorly understood, which limits treatment options. Therefore, this study used behavioral testing and parent reports of 60 children with autism to investigate the interplay of emotion misinterpretation and hostile attribution bias in the prediction of different aggressive behaviors. Further, the additional impact of dysfunctional emotion regulation was examined. Path analyses indicated that hostile attribution bias increased verbal and covert aggression but not physical aggression and bullying. Dysfunctional emotion regulation had an additional impact on bullying, verbal aggression, and covert aggression. Emotion recognition was positively associated with hostile attribution bias. These findings provide a first insight into a complex interplay of socio-emotional variables; longitudinal studies are needed to examine causal relationships.

Hair cortisol concentrations are associated with hippocampal subregional volumes in children.

The human hippocampus, a brain structure crucial for memory across the lifespan, is highly sensitive to adverse life events. Stress exposures during childhood have been linked to altered hippocampal structure and memory performance in adulthood. Animal studies suggest that these differences are in part driven by aberrant glucocorticoid secretion during development, with strongest effects on the CA3 region and the dentate gyrus (CA3-DG) of the hippocampus, alongside associated memory impairments. However, only few pediatric studies have examined glucocorticoid associations with hippocampal subfield volumes and their functional relevance. In 84 children (age range: 6-7 years), we assessed whether volumes of hippocampal subregions were related to cumulative glucocorticoid levels (hair cortisol), parenting stress, and performance on memory tasks known to engage the hippocampus. We found that higher hair cortisol levels were specifically related to lower CA3-DG volume. Parenting stress did not significantly correlate with hair cortisol, and there was no evidence to suggest that individual differences in hippocampal subregional volumes manifest in memory performance. Our results suggest that the CA3-DG may be the hippocampal region most closely associated with hair cortisol levels in childhood. Establishing causal pathways underlying this association and its relation to environmental stress and memory development necessitates longitudinal studies.