Ancient Plasmodium genomes shed light on the history of human malaria.

Malaria-causing protozoa of the genus Plasmodium have exerted one of the strongest selective pressures on the human genome, and resistance alleles provide biomolecular footprints that outline the historical reach of these species1. Nevertheless, debate persists over when and how malaria parasites emerged as human pathogens and spread around the globe1,2. To address these questions, we generated high-coverage ancient mitochondrial and nuclear genome-wide data from P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae from 16 countries spanning around 5,500 years of human history. We identified P. vivax and P. falciparum across geographically disparate regions of Eurasia from as early as the fourth and first millennia BCE, respectively; for P. vivax, this evidence pre-dates textual references by several millennia3. Genomic analysis supports distinct disease histories for P. falciparum and P. vivax in the Americas: similarities between now-eliminated European and peri-contact South American strains indicate that European colonizers were the source of American P. vivax, whereas the trans-Atlantic slave trade probably introduced P. falciparum into the Americas. Our data underscore the role of cross-cultural contacts in the dissemination of malaria, laying the biomolecular foundation for future palaeo-epidemiological research into the impact of Plasmodium parasites on human history. Finally, our unexpected discovery of P. falciparum in the high-altitude Himalayas provides a rare case study in which individual mobility can be inferred from infection status, adding to our knowledge of cross-cultural connectivity in the region nearly three millennia ago.

Be curious: Strategic curiosity drives creativity.

Ivancovsky et al. provide a compelling argument for the role of curiosity in creative thinking. We argue that (a) trait-like curiosity is necessary to engage in creative actions and (b) state-like curiosity might be effectively and strategically induced during interventions. Thus, we posit that curiosity works in an agentic and strategic way in strengthening creativity.

Olfactory perception relates to food neophobia in adolescence.

OBJECTIVES: Food neophobia is a rejection or avoidance of novel food products. Despite the adaptive importance of this behavior, it exerts a negative influence on dietary habits and preferences. Sensory sensitivity relates to food neophobia and among specific sensory modalities, olfaction seems to be an obvious candidate for a correlate of this behavior as odor perception largely affects food intake and enjoyment. However, research on olfactory perception and food neophobia is scarce, and despite some promising results, the full picture of their association still awaits discovery. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between food neophobia and olfaction in adolescents, a group that has not been included in the previous studies investigating this association. METHODS: We tested the olfactory perception-food neophobia relationship in 510 adolescents 15 to 17 y of age using a food neophobia questionnaire, a psychophysical odor identification test, a self-assessment of odor sensitivity, an odor significance questionnaire, and through odor pleasantness assessments. RESULTS: We observed significant correlations between food neophobia and all included measures of olfactory perception. CONCLUSION: The overall regression model suggested that self-assessed sensitivity and odor awareness were the most influential, olfaction-related predictors of food neophobia in adolescents.

Evaluation of the Polish version of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale in parents of typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders.

BACKGROUND: Parental self-efficacy describes parents' self-perceived competence in fulfilling their roles. The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC) is one of the most commonly used self-report instruments, allowing for parental self-efficacy measurement. METHODS: This paper summarizes the results of three studies (total N = 2088) conducted to examine factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability and criterion validity of the Polish version of PSOC (PSOC-PL). The studies were carried out among parents (mothers and fathers) of typically developing 14- and 15-year-olds (Study 1, n = 1404) as well as among parents of typically developing children aged 6-16 (Study 2, n = 248), parents of typically developing children and children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (Study 3, n = 436, ages ranged from 6 to 13). RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis (Study 1) demonstrated an acceptable fit of the theorized two-factor model, with theorized Satisfaction and Efficacy factors. The subscales' internal consistencies were satisfactory across all studies (Studies 1-3), and PSOC's test-retest reliability (Study 2) over a 3-week interval was very high. Parents of children with developmental disorders (Study 3) reported lower efficacy than parents of typically developing children. CONCLUSIONS: The results of these three studies attest that the Polish version of PSOC is a reliable and valid measure of parental self-efficacy beliefs.

Sensory compensation beliefs among blind and sighted individuals.

The process of neural and behavioral reorganization following sensory loss is known as sensory compensation. Typically, it is believed that sensory loss is followed by increased acuity of the intact modalities. Indeed, many studies compared blind and sighted individuals' sensitivity of the intact sensory modalities. Yet, it remains poorly understood whether sensory compensation is reflected in the lay beliefs of those, whom it concerns. We examined whether blind and sighted individuals believe that their lack of vision is compensated by increased sensitivity of the intact senses. Study 1 (n = 63) aimed to compare the ratings of sensory sensitivity made by blind and sighted people. Participants rated the sensory sensitivity of a blind population in four modalities (i.e., olfaction, audition, gustation, touch) and compared it to the sensory sensitivity of a sighted population. In Study 2 (n = 191) participants rated their own sensory sensitivity in four modalities. Each participant referred to (1) people of the same sensory status and (2) people of the opposite sensory status. The level of global self-esteem was controlled to verify self-enhancing nature of these beliefs. The results of both studies showed that the beliefs about sensory compensation are shared by blind and sighted participants on group and on individual levels. The self-enhancement underpinning of these beliefs was most pronounced in gustatory sensitivity assessment. Psychological and medical consequences of sensory compensation beliefs are discussed.

How Is Intelligence Test Performance Associated with Creative Achievement? A Meta-Analysis.

This paper presents a meta-analysis of the links between intelligence test scores and creative achievement. A three-level meta-analysis of 117 correlation coefficients from 30 studies found a correlation of r = .16 (95% CI: .12, .19), closely mirroring previous meta-analytic findings. The estimated effects were stronger for overall creative achievement and achievement in scientific domains than for correlations between intelligence scores and creative achievement in the arts and everyday creativity. No signs of publication bias were found. We discuss theoretical implications and provide recommendations for future studies.

The Relationship between Intelligence and Divergent Thinking-A Meta-Analytic Update.

This paper provides a meta-analytic update on the relationship between intelligence and divergent thinking (DT), as research on this topic has increased, and methods have diversified since Kim's meta-analysis in 2005. A three-level meta-analysis was used to analyze 849 correlation coefficients from 112 studies with an overall N = 34,610. The overall effect showed a significant positive correlation of r = .25. This increase of the correlation as compared to Kim's prior meta-analytic findings could be attributed to the correction of attenuation because a difference between effect sizes prior-Kim vs. post-Kim was non-significant. Different moderators such as scoring methods, instructional settings, intelligence facets, and task modality were tested together with theoretically relevant interactions between some of these factors. These moderation analyses showed that the intelligence-DT relationship can be higher (up to r = .31-.37) when employing test-like assessments coupled with be-creative instructions, and considering DT originality scores. The facet of intelligence (g vs. gf vs. gc) did not affect the correlation between intelligence and DT. Furthermore, we found two significant sample characteristics: (a) average sample age was positively associated with the intelligence-DT correlation, and (b) the intelligence-DT correlation decreased for samples with increasing percentages of females in the samples. Finally, inter-moderator correlations were checked to take potential confounding into account, and also publication bias was assessed. This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive picture of current research and possible research gaps. Theoretical implications, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed.

Affective Interpersonal Touch in Close Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Perspective.

Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and youngest child during the week preceding the study. We then examined a range of hypothesized individual-level factors (sex, age, parasitic history, conservatism, religiosity, and preferred interpersonal distance) and cultural-level factors (regional temperature, parasite stress, regional conservatism, collectivism, and religiosity) in predicting these affective-touching behaviors. Our results indicate that affective touch was most prevalent in relationships with partners and children, and its diversity was relatively higher in warmer, less conservative, and religious countries, and among younger, female, and liberal people. This research allows for a broad and integrated view of the bases of cross-cultural variability in affective touch.

Creative Lockdown? A Daily Diary Study of Creative Activity During Pandemics.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is influencing our lives in an enormous and unprecedented way. Here, we explore COVID-19-lockdown's consequences for creative activity. To this end, we relied on two extensive diary studies. The first, held on March 2019 (pre-pandemic), involved 78 students who reported their emotions and creativity over 2 weeks (927 observations). The second, conducted on March 2020 (during the pandemic and lockdown), involved 235 students who reported on their emotions, creativity, and the intensity of thinking and talking about COVID-19 over a month (5,904 observations). We found that compared with 2019, during the lockdown, students engaged slightly yet statistically significantly more in creative activities. An analysis of diaries collected during the pandemic also showed that the days when students spent more time discussing or searching for information about COVID-19 were characterized by a higher creative activity yet also mixed emotions. We discuss potential explanations of these unexpected results along with future study directions.

Universality of the Triangular Theory of Love: Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Triangular Love Scale in 25 Countries.

The Triangular Theory of Love (measured with Sternberg's Triangular Love Scale - STLS) is a prominent theoretical concept in empirical research on love. To expand the culturally homogeneous body of previous psychometric research regarding the STLS, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural study with the use of this scale. In total, we examined more than 11,000 respondents, but as a result of applied exclusion criteria, the final analyses were based on a sample of 7332 participants from 25 countries (from all inhabited continents). We tested configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance, all of which confirmed the cultural universality of the theoretical construct of love analyzed in our study. We also observed that levels of love components differ depending on relationship duration, following the dynamics suggested in the Triangular Theory of Love. Supplementary files with all our data, including results on love intensity across different countries along with STLS versions adapted in a few dozen languages, will further enable more extensive research on the Triangular Theory of Love.

The non-invasive evaluation of heart function in patients with an acute myocardial infarction: The role of impedance cardiography.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to analyze hemodynamic changes in patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at an early stage of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and at 1-month follow-up. METHODS: Patients with AMI (n = 27) who underwent PCI were analyzed using impedance cardiography (ICG). ICG data were collected continuously (beat by beat) during the whole PCI procedure and thereafter at every 60 s for the next 24 h. Blood pressure was taken every 10 min and stored for analysis. Additionally the following parameters were measured: cardiac index (CI), stroke volume index (SVi), left cardiac work index (LCWi), contractility index (CTi), ventricular ejection time (VET), systemic vascular resistance index (SVRi), thoracic fluid content index (TFCi) and heart rate (HR). RESULTS: In the first 24 h after PCI all the contractility parameters including CI, SVi, LCWi, CTi and VET significantly decreased, whereas HR, SVRi and TFCi increased compared to baseline. All of the parameters examined got normalized at 1 month. The CI, SVi, LCWi, CTi, SVRi did not significantly differ from baseline, however the HR and VET were significantly lower compared to first day after PCI CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac performance deteriorates early after PCI and normalizes after 1 month in patients with an AMI. ICG is useful for hemodynamic monitoring of AMI patients during and after invasive therapy.

Parents' Creative Self-Concept and Creative Activity as Predictors of Family Lifestyle.

Family rules, routines, and resources shape children's creativity. However, little is known about how parents' creative self-concepts and creative activity are related to the lifestyle adults create in their families. Family lifestyle might be operationalized as referring to domain-general dimensions of family social functioning (cohesion, flexibility, communication, and family satisfaction) and domain-specific factors related to creativity, namely, family climate for creativity (encouragement to experience novelty and varieties, encouragement to nonconformism, support of perseverance in creative efforts, encouragement to fantasize). To explore the link between parents' creativity-related characteristics and family lifestyle, 303 Polish parents (57% mothers) of children aged between 6 and 10 (M = 7.99; SD = 1.38) reported on their creative self-concept (creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity), creative activity, overall family lifestyle, and climate for creativity in their families. We found that parents' creative self-concept and their creative activity predict support for creativity in the family and more general balanced and satisfying family relationships. We discuss these findings, point new paths for future research, and suggest possible interventions to strengthen families as creativity-fostering environments.

Who is the Most Stressed During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Data From 26 Countries and Areas.

BACKGROUND: To limit the rapid spread of COVID-19, countries have asked their citizens to stay at home. As a result, demographic and cultural factors related to home life have become especially relevant to predict population well-being during isolation. This pre-registered worldwide study analyses the relationship between the number of adults and children in a household, marital status, age, gender, education level, COVID-19 severity, individualism-collectivism, and perceived stress. METHODS: We used the COVIDiSTRESS Global Survey data of 53,524 online participants from 26 countries and areas. The data were collected between 30 March and 6 April 2020. RESULTS: Higher levels of stress were associated with younger age, being a woman, lower level of education, being single, staying with more children, and living in a country or area with a more severe COVID-19 situation. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that certain people may be more susceptible to experience elevated levels of stress. Our findings highlight the need for public health to be attentive to both the physical and the psychological well-being of these groups.

Does thinking about coronavirus impact insight and analytical reasoning?

Stress and threats have been shown to influence our cognition and performance. In a preregistered online experiment (N = 446), we examined whether thinking about the ongoing covid-19 pandemic influences creative (insight problem solving) and analytic thinking. We found no support for our a-priori hypothesized effect (decrease in insight problem solving and no change in analytical thinking), however, several unpredicted results emerged. Exploratory analyses revealed that both types of thinking were harmed, yet only in men. Interestingly, the effect of exposure on thinking about covid-19 was indirect and led to careless task completion - again, only in men. We discuss these intriguing results and propose potential explanations along with future studies directions.

Subjective Happiness Among Polish and Hadza People.

Life satisfaction and happiness were broadly studied in Western populations, whereas evidence from traditional societies remains surprisingly scarce. We collected data on the happiness from 145 Hadza, and compared it with data obtained from 156 Poles, representing Westernized society. Participants were asked to answer four simple questions from Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999). Results indicate that Hadza report a higher level of happiness with their lives than do Polish people. Our findings also show that sex was not related to happiness in both populations, while age was a negative predictor of happiness, but only among Poles. Therefore, we hypothesize that positive perception of aging in societies may increase their actual happiness.

Does the "incentive hope" hypothesis explain food-wasting behavior among humans? Yes and no.

In this commentary, we discuss how the "incentive hope" hypothesis explains differences in food-wasting behaviors among humans. We stress that the role of relevant ecological characteristics should be taken into consideration together with the incentive hope hypothesis: population mobility, animal domestication, and food-wasting visibility.

Sex Differences in Human Olfaction: A Meta-Analysis.

Although the view that women's olfactory abilities outperform men's is taken for granted, some studies involving large samples suggested that male and female olfactory abilities are actually similar. To address this discrepancy, we conducted a meta-analysis of existing studies on olfaction, targeting possible sex differences. The analyzed sample comprised n = 8 848 (5 065 women and 3 783 men) for olfactory threshold (as measured with the Sniffin Sticks Test; SST), n = 8 067 (4 496 women and 3 571 men) for discrimination (SST), n = 13 670 (7 501 women and 6 169 men) for identification (SST), and a total sample of n = 7 154 (3 866 women and 3 288 men) for works using University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). We conducted separate meta-analyses for each aspect of olfaction: identification, discrimination and threshold. The results of our meta-analysis indicate that women generally outperform men in olfactory abilities. What is more, they do so in every aspect of olfaction analyzed in the current study. However, the effect sizes were weak and ranged between g = 0.08 and g = 0.30. We discuss our findings in the context of factors that potentially shape sex differences in olfaction. Nevertheless, although our findings seem to confirm the "common knowledge" on female olfactory superiority, it needs to be emphasized that the effect sizes we observed were notably small.

Olfactory perception and blindness: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Anecdotal reports suggest that blind people might develop supra-normal olfactory abilities. However, scientific evidence shows a mixed pattern of findings. Inconsistent observations are reported for both sensory-driven olfactory tasks (e.g., odor threshold) and higher-order olfactory functions (e.g., odor identification). To quantify the evidence systematically, we conducted a review and meta-analysis. Studies were included if they examined olfactory function (i.e., odor threshold, odor discrimination, free odor identification, or cued odor identification) in blind compared with a sighted control group. Articles were identified through computerized literature search. A total of 18 studies focused on olfactory threshold (n = 1227: 590 blind and 637 sighted individuals), 14 studies targeted discrimination (n = 940: 455 blind and 485 sighted), 14 studies measured cued identification (n = 968: 468 blind and 500 sighted), and 7 studies (n = 443: 224 blind and 219 sighted individuals) assessed free identification. Overall, there were no differences in effect sizes between the blind and sighted individuals after correcting the results for publication bias. We additionally conducted an exploratory analysis targeting the role played by three moderators of interests: participants' age, the proportion of women versus men in each of the studies included into meta-analysis and onset of blindness (early blind vs. late-blind). However, none of the moderators affected the observed results. To conclude, blindness seems not to affect cued/free odor identification, odor discrimination or odor thresholds.