Redefining the decisional components of motor responses: Evidence from lexical and object decision tasks.

Models of decision making focusing on two-alternative choices have classically described motor-response execution as a nondecisional stage that serially follows the termination of decision processes. Recent evidence, however, points toward a more continuous transition between decision and motor processes. We investigated this transition in two lexical decisions and one object decision task. By recording the electromyographic (EMG) signal associated with the muscle responsible for the manual responses (i.e., button press), we partitioned single-trial reaction times into premotor (the time elapsing from stimulus onset until the onset of the EMG burst) and motor times (the time elapsing from the onset of the EMG burst and the button press), with the latter measuring response execution. Responses were slower for pseudowords and pseudo-objects compared to words and real objects. Importantly, these effects were reliable even at the level of motor time measures. Differently, despite the reliable effect at the level of reaction times and premotor times, there was no difference in motor times between high- and low-frequency words. Although these results, in line with recent evidence, challenge a purely noncognitive characterization of motor-response execution, they further suggest that motor times may selectively capture specific decisional components, which we identify with late-occurring verification and/or control mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Relationship between depression, anxiety, stress, and SARS-CoV-2 infection: a longitudinal study.

Objectives: We aimed to (1) describe the course of the emotional burden (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress) in a general population sample during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and (2) explore the association between emotional burden and a serologically proven infection with SARS-CoV-2. Study design: This longitudinal study involved a sample of community-dwelling persons aged ≥14 years from the general population of South Tyrol (Province of Bolzano-Bozen, Northern Italy). Data were collected at two stages over a 1-year period in 2020 and 2021. Methods: Persons were invited to participate in a survey on socio-demographic, health-related and psychosocial variables (e.g., age, chronic diseases, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, DASS-21), as well as in the serological testing for of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulins. Results: In 2020, 855 (23.8%) out of 3,600 persons participated; in 2021, 305 (35.7%) out of 855 were tested again. We observed a statistically significant decrease in mean DASS-21 scores for depression, stress, and total scores between 2020 and 2021, yet not for anxiety. Persons with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2-infection between the first and second data collection exhibited increased emotional burden compared to those without SARS-CoV-2-infection. The odds of participants with a self-reported diagnosis of mental disorder for future infection with SARS-CoV-2 was almost four times higher than that of participants without mental disorders (OR:3.75; 95%CI:1.79-7.83). Conclusion: Our findings support to the hypothesis of a psycho-neuroendocrine-immune interplay in COVID-19. Further research is necessary to explore the mechanisms underlying the interplay between mental health and SARS-CoV-2 infections.