Anticipatory and consummatory neural correlates of monetary and music rewarding stimuli.

Most of the literature on the neural bases of human reward and punishment processing has used monetary gains and losses, but less is known about the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the anticipation and consumption of other types of rewarding stimuli. In the present study, EEG was recorded from 19 participants who completed a modified version of the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task. During the task, cues providing information about potential future outcomes were presented to the participants. Then, they had to respond rapidly to a target stimulus to win money or listening to pleasant music, or to avoid losing money or listening to unpleasant music. Results revealed similar responses for monetary and music cues, with increased activity for cues indicating potential gains compared to losses. However, differences emerged in the outcome phase between money and music. Monetary outcomes showed an interaction between the type of the cue and the outcome in the Feedback Related Negativity and Fb-P3 ERPs and increased theta activity increased for negative feedbacks. In contrast, music outcomes showed significant interactions in the Fb-P3 and theta activities. These findings suggest similar neurophysiological mechanisms in processing cues for potential positive or negative outcomes in these two types of stimuli.

Disentangling effort from probability of success: Temporal dynamics of frontal midline theta in effort-based reward processing.

The ability to weigh a reward against the effort required to acquire it is critical for decision-making. However, extant experimental paradigms oftentimes confound increased effort demand with decreased reward probability, thereby obscuring neural correlates underlying these cognitive processes. To resolve this issue, we designed novel tasks that disentangled probability of success - and therefore reward probability - from effort demand. In Experiment 1, reward magnitude and effort demand were varied while reward probability was kept constant. In Experiment 2, effort demand and reward probability were varied while reward magnitude remained fixed. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data was recorded to explore how frontal midline theta (FMT; an electrophysiological index of mPFC function) and component P3 (an index of incentive salience) respond to effort demand, and reward magnitude and probability. We found no evidence that FMT tracked effort demands or net value during cue evaluation. At feedback, however, FMT power was enhanced for high compared to low effort trials, but not modulated by reward magnitude or probability. Conversely, P3 was sensitive to reward magnitude and probability at both cue and feedback phases and only integrated expended effort costs at feedback, such that P3 amplitudes continued to scale with reward magnitude and probability but were also increased for high compared to low effort reward feedback. These findings suggest that, when likelihood of success is equal, FMT power does not track net value of prospective effort-based rewards. Instead, expended cognitive effort potentiates FMT power and enhances the saliency of rewards at feedback. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The way the brain weighs rewards against the effort required to achieve them is critical for understanding motivational disorders. Current paradigms confound increased effort demand with decreased reward probability, making it difficult to disentangle neural activity associated with effort costs from those associated with reward likelihood. Here, we explored the temporal dynamics of effort-based reward (via frontal midline theta (FMT) and component P3) while participants underwent a novel paradigm that kept probability of reward constant between mental effort demand conditions. Our findings suggest that the FMT does not track net value and that expended effort enhances, instead of attenuates, the saliency of rewards.

CPE-Na-Based Hole Transport Layers for Improving the Stability in Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells: A Comprehensive Study.

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have experienced significant development in the last decades after the introduction of nonfullerene acceptor molecules with top power conversion efficiencies reported over 19% and considerable versatility, for example, with application in transparent/semitransparent and flexible photovoltaics. Yet, the optimization of the operational stability continues to be a challenge. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of the use of a conjugated polyelectrolyte polymer (CPE-Na) as a hole layer (HTL) to improve the performance and longevity of OPV cells. Two different fabrication approaches were adopted: integrating CPE-Na with PEDOT:PSS to create a composite HTL and using CPE-Na as a stand-alone bilayer deposited beneath PEDOT:PSS on the ITO substrate. These configurations were compared against a reference device employing PEDOT:PSS alone, as the HTL increased efficiency and fill factor. The instruments with CPE-Na also demonstrated increased stability in the dark and under simulated operational conditions. Device-based PEDOT:PSS as an HTL reached T80 after 2500 h while involving CPE-Na in the device kept at T90 in the same period, evidenced by a reduced degradation rate. Furthermore, the impedance spectroscopy and photoinduced transient methods suggest optimized charge transfer and reduced charge carrier recombination. These findings collectively highlight the potential of CPE-Na as a HTL optimizer material for nonfluorine OPV cells.

Neurophysiological correlates of interpersonal discrepancy and social adjustment in an interactive decision-making task in dyads.

Introduction: The pursuit of convergence and the social behavioral adjustment of conformity are fundamental cooperative behaviors that help people adjust their mental frameworks to reach a common goal. However, while social psychology has extensively studied conformity by its influence context, there is still plenty to investigate about the neural cognitive mechanisms involved in this behavior. Methods: We proposed a paradigm with two phases, a pre-activation phase to enhance cooperative tendencies and, later, a social decision-making phase in which dyads had to make a perceptual estimation in three consecutive trials and could converge in their decisions without an explicit request or reward to do so. In Study 1, 80 participants were divided in two conditions. In one condition participants did the pre-activation phase alone, while in the other condition the two participants did it with their partners and could interact freely. In Study 2, we registered the electroencephalographical (EEG) activity of 36 participants in the social decision-making phase. Results: Study 1 showed behavioral evidence of higher spontaneous convergence in participants who interacted in the pre-activation phase. Event related Potentials (ERP) recorded in Study 2 revealed signal differences in response divergence in different time intervals. Time-frequency analysis showed theta, alpha, and beta evidence related to cognitive control, attention, and reward processing associated with social convergence. Discussion: Current results support the spontaneous convergence of behavior in dyads, with increased behavioral adjustment in those participants who have previously cooperated. In addition, neurophysiological components were associated with discrepancy levels between participants, and supported the validity of the experimental paradigm to study spontaneous social behavioral adaptation in experimental settings.

Intra- and inter-brain synchrony oscillations underlying social adjustment.

Humans naturally synchronize their behavior with other people. However, although it happens almost automatically, adjusting behavior and conformity to others is a complex phenomenon whose neural mechanisms are still yet to be understood entirely. The present experiment aimed to study the oscillatory synchronization mechanisms underlying automatic dyadic convergence in an EEG hyperscanning experiment. Thirty-six people performed a cooperative decision-making task where dyads had to guess the correct position of a point on a line. A reinforcement learning algorithm was used to model different aspects of the participants' behavior and their expectations of their peers. Intra- and inter-connectivity among electrode sites were assessed using inter-site phase clustering in three main frequency bands (theta, alpha, beta) using a two-level Bayesian mixed-effects modeling approach. The results showed two oscillatory synchronization dynamics related to attention and executive functions in alpha and reinforcement learning in theta. In addition, inter-brain synchrony was mainly driven by beta oscillations. This study contributes preliminary evidence on the phase-coherence mechanism underlying inter-personal behavioral adjustment.

Neural predictors of cognitive-behavior therapy outcome in anxiety-related disorders: a meta-analysis of task-based fMRI studies.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is a well-established first-line intervention for anxiety-related disorders, including specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder/agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Several neural predictors of CBT outcome for anxiety-related disorders have been proposed, but previous results are inconsistent. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigating whole-brain predictors of CBT outcome in anxiety-related disorders (17 studies, n = 442). RESULTS: Across different tasks, we observed that brain response in a network of regions involved in salience and interoception processing, encompassing fronto-insular (the right inferior frontal gyrus-anterior insular cortex) and fronto-limbic (the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) cortices was strongly associated with a positive CBT outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that there are robust neural predictors of CBT outcome in anxiety-related disorders that may eventually lead (probably in combination with other data) to develop personalized approaches for the treatment of these mental disorders.

Significant Stability Improvement of Fullerene Organic Photovoltaics via ZnO Film Modification through the Intermittent Spray Pyrolysis Technique.

Morphological control of the layers within the bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics (BHJ-OPVs) is a key feature that governs their performance. In the present work, we demonstrate that zinc oxide-ZnO-interlayers sprayed via the intermittent spray pyrolysis technique, employing a low-concentration precursor solution, can yield inverted BHJ-OPVs as efficient as the standard reported ones using the conventional laboratory-scale spin-coating technique. However, we record a pioneer stability behavior of the fabricated inverted fullerene organic photovoltaics (iF-OPVs) with various sprayed ZnO conditions. Thus, after optimizing the sprayed ZnO interfacial layer morphology for the inverted PTB7-Th:PC70BM devices, by carefully inspecting the interdependence between the sprayed ZnO thin film morphology and the figures of merit of the optimized iF-OPVs, we conducted a distinct analysis on the optical and electronic properties of the fresh and degraded devices using external quantum efficiency measurements and impedance spectroscopy. Hence, we showed that the most proper ZnO microstructural morphology was obtained by spraying 25 running cycles (25R). Remarkably, we observed that 25R-ZnO-based iF-OPV devices showed a stunning stability behavior and maintained 85% of their initial power conversion efficiency even after 16.7 months without encapsulation in a dry nitrogen glovebox, demonstrating an excellent shelf stability. Accordingly, this approach might facilitate the scalability of inverted OPVs for industrial production visibility.

The neural basis of effort valuation: A meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.

Choosing how much effort to expend is critical for everyday decisions. While several neuroimaging studies have examined effort-based decision-making, results have been highly heterogeneous, leaving unclear which brain regions process effort-related costs and integrate them with rewards. We conducted two meta-analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to examine consistent neural correlates of effort demands (23 studies, 15 maps, 549 participants) and net value (15 studies, 11 maps, 428 participants). The pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) scaled positively with pure effort demand, whereas the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) showed the opposite effect. Moreover, regions that have been previously implicated in value integration in other cost domains, such as the vmPFC and ventral striatum, were consistently involved in signaling net value. The opposite response patterns of the pre-SMA and vmPFC imply that they are differentially involved in the representation of effort costs and value integration. These findings provide conclusive evidence that the vmPFC is a central node for net value computation and reveal potential brain targets to treat motivation-related disorders.

Language statistical learning responds to reinforcement learning principles rooted in the striatum.

Statistical learning (SL) is the ability to extract regularities from the environment. In the domain of language, this ability is fundamental in the learning of words and structural rules. In lack of reliable online measures, statistical word and rule learning have been primarily investigated using offline (post-familiarization) tests, which gives limited insights into the dynamics of SL and its neural basis. Here, we capitalize on a novel task that tracks the online SL of simple syntactic structures combined with computational modeling to show that online SL responds to reinforcement learning principles rooted in striatal function. Specifically, we demonstrate-on 2 different cohorts-that a temporal difference model, which relies on prediction errors, accounts for participants' online learning behavior. We then show that the trial-by-trial development of predictions through learning strongly correlates with activity in both ventral and dorsal striatum. Our results thus provide a detailed mechanistic account of language-related SL and an explanation for the oft-cited implication of the striatum in SL tasks. This work, therefore, bridges the long-standing gap between language learning and reinforcement learning phenomena.

Different theta connectivity patterns underlie pleasantness evoked by familiar and unfamiliar music.

Music-evoked pleasantness has been extensively reported to be modulated by familiarity. Nevertheless, while the brain temporal dynamics underlying the process of giving value to music are beginning to be understood, little is known about how familiarity might modulate the oscillatory activity associated with music-evoked pleasantness. The goal of the present experiment was to study the influence of familiarity in the relation between theta phase synchronization and music-evoked pleasantness. EEG was recorded from 22 healthy participants while they were listening to both familiar and unfamiliar music and rating the experienced degree of evoked pleasantness. By exploring interactions, we found that right fronto-temporal theta synchronization was positively associated with music-evoked pleasantness when listening to unfamiliar music. On the contrary, inter-hemispheric temporo-parietal theta synchronization was positively associated with music-evoked pleasantness when listening to familiar music. These results shed some light on the possible oscillatory mechanisms underlying fronto-temporal and temporo-parietal connectivity and their relationship with music-evoked pleasantness and familiarity.

Subphthalocyanine-Diketopyrrolopyrrole Conjugates: 3D Star-Shaped Systems as Non-Fullerene Acceptors in Polymer Solar Cells with High Open-Circuit Voltage.

Invited for this month's cover are the collaborating groups of Prof. Ángela Sastre-Santos, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Prof. Lluis F. Marsal, Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Prof. Tomás Torres, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. The cover shows a toy doll holding an umbrella which represents a non-planar, highly conjugated subphthalocyanine-diketopyrrolopyrrole hybrid molecule for non-fullerene organic solar cells. When the sun shines on the umbrella, it absorbs the light, and the doll slides down a polymeric flexible solar cell like a slide, where electrons are produced and electricity flows into the magic wand to illuminate the room. More information can be found in the Full Paper by Ángela Sastre-Santos, Lluis F. Marsal, Tomás Torres, and co-workers.

Electrophysiological underpinnings of reward processing: Are we exploiting the full potential of EEG?

Understanding how the brain processes reward is an important and complex endeavor, which has involved the use of a range of complementary neuroimaging tools, including electroencephalography (EEG). EEG has been praised for its high temporal resolution but, because the signal recorded at the scalp is a mixture of brain activities, it is often considered to have poor spatial resolution. Besides, EEG data analysis has most often relied on event-related potentials (ERPs) which cancel out non-phase locked oscillatory activity, thus limiting the functional discriminative power of EEG attainable through spectral analyses. Because these three dimensions -temporal, spatial and spectral- have been unequally leveraged in reward studies, we argue that the full potential of EEG has not been exploited. To back up our claim, we first performed a systematic survey of EEG studies assessing reward processing. Specifically, we report on the nature of the cognitive processes investigated (i.e., reward anticipation or reward outcome processing) and the methods used to collect and process the EEG data (i.e., event-related potential, time-frequency or source analyses). A total of 359 studies involving healthy subjects and the delivery of monetary rewards were surveyed. We show that reward anticipation has been overlooked (88% of studies investigated reward outcome processing, while only 24% investigated reward anticipation), and that time-frequency and source analyses (respectively reported by 19% and 12% of the studies) have not been widely adopted by the field yet, with ERPs still being the dominant methodology (92% of the studies). We argue that this focus on feedback-related ERPs provides a biased perspective on reward processing, by ignoring reward anticipation processes as well as a large part of the information contained in the EEG signal. Finally, we illustrate with selected examples how addressing these issues could benefit the field, relying on approaches combining time-frequency analyses, blind source separation and source localization.

Does It Look Good or Evil? Children's Recognition of Moral Identities in Illustrations of Characters in Stories.

Children usually use the external and physical features of characters in movies or stories as a means of categorizing them quickly as being either good or bad/evil. This categorization is probably done by means of heuristics and previous experience. However, the study of this fast processing is difficult in children. In this paper, we propose a new experimental paradigm to determine how these decisions are made. We used illustrations of characters in folk tales, whose visual representations contained features that were compatible or incompatible with the moral identity of the characters. Sixteen children between 8 and 10 years old participated in the experiment. We measured their electrodermal activity when they were listening to the story and looking at pictures of the characters. Results revealed a higher increase in skin conductance when the illustrations showed a moral condition that was incompatible with the actions of a character than when they showed one that was compatible. These results suggest that children make fast decisions about the moral identity of characters based on their physical features. They open up new possibilities in the study of the processing of moral decisions in children.

Subphthalocyanine-Diketopyrrolopyrrole Conjugates: 3D Star-Shaped Systems as Non-Fullerene Acceptors in Polymer Solar Cells with High Open-Circuit Voltage.

Four star-shaped electron acceptors (C1 -OPh, C3 -OPh, C1 -Cl and C3 -Cl) based on a subphthalocyanine core bearing three diketopyrrolopyrrole wings linked by an acetylene bridge have been synthesized. These derivatives feature two different axial substituents (i. e., 4-tert-butylphenoxy (OPh) or chlorine (Cl)) and for each of them, both the C1 and the C3 regioisomers have been investigated. The four compounds exhibit a broad absorption band in the 450-700 nm region, with bandgap values near to 2 eV. These materials were applied in the active layer of inverted bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells in combination with the donor polymer PBDB-T. Derivatives bearing the OPh axial group showed the best performances, with C1 -OPh being the most promising with a PCE of 3.27 % and a Voc as high as 1.17 V. Despite presenting the widest absorption range, the photovoltaic results obtained with C1 -Cl turned out to be the lowest (PCE=1.01 %).

Neurophysiological correlates of purchase decision-making.

Economic decisions are characterized by their uncertainty and the lack of explicit feedback that indicates the correctness of decisions at the time they are made. Nevertheless, very little is known about the neural mechanisms involved in this process. Our study sought to identify the neurophysiological correlates of purchase decision-making in situations where the optimal purchase time is not known. EEG was recorded in 24 healthy subjects while they were performing a new experimental paradigm that simulates real economic decisions. At the time of price presentation, we found an increase in the P3 Event-Related Potential and induced theta and alpha oscillatory activity when participants chose to buy compared to when they decided to wait for a better price. These results reflect the engagement of attention and executive function in purchase decision-making and might help in the understanding of brain mechanisms underlying economic decisions in uncertain scenarios.

Fluorinated Zinc and Copper Phthalocyanines as Efficient Third Components in Ternary Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells.

Fluorinated zinc and copper metallophthalocyanines MPcF48 are synthesized and incorporated as third component small molecules in ternary organic solar cells (TOSCs). To enable the high performance of TOSCs, maximizing short-circuit current density (J SC) is crucial. Ternary bulk heterojunction blends, consisting of a polymer donor PTB7-Th, fullerene acceptors PC70BM, and a third component MPcF48, are formulated to fabricate TOSCs with a device architecture of ITO/PFN/active layer/V2O5/Ag. Employing copper as metal atom substitution in the third component of TOSCs enhances J SC as a result of complementary absorption spectra in the near-infrared region. In combination with J SC enhancement, suppressed charge recombination, improved exciton dissociation and charge carrier collection efficiency, and better morphology lead to a slightly improved fill factor (FF), resulting in a 7% enhancement of PCE than those of binary OSCs. In addition to the increased PCE, the photostability of TOSCs has also been improved by the appropriate addition of CuPcF48. Detailed studies imply that metal atom substitution in phthalocyanines is an effective way to improve J SC, FF, and thus the performance and photostability of TOSCs.

Metacognition of daily self-regulation processes and personality traits in borderline personality disorder.

BACKGROUND: Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are characterized by impoverished self-regulatory mechanisms and self-image distortions. An intriguing question is to what extent BPD individuals develop accurate perceptions of their self-regulatory everyday functioning. Here, we tackle this issue evaluating their metacognitive abilities. METHODS: One hundred and forty-four participants were enrolled in the study and divided into a BPD group and a healthy Control group, with each consisting of 36 participants paired with their corresponding close relatives. We compared self-report evaluations of the participants' self-regulatory processes in daily-life activities and personality traits with external perceptions by close relatives, as a measure of metacognition. The ratings from participants and their informants were compared using an ANCOVA profile analysis. RESULTS: Self-report results showed poor self-regulation ability in the daily environment as well as extreme scores in personality-traits in the BPD group in comparison with healthy participants. Further, in the BPD group we found a clear discrepancy between the information provided by patients and their close relatives regarding the processes involved in self-regulation of daily-life activities (but not for personality traits). This discrepancy was related to their clinical status and was not observed in the healthy control group. LIMITATIONS: Analysis was based on self-report data, focusing on the difference with informants reports only. Conclusions about the direction of a possible bias on participants' self-perception are limited. CONCLUSIONS: Metacognitive deficits might play a key mediating role between the altered cognitive processes responsible for self-regulation and cognitive control and the daily-life consequences in BPD.

[Intolerance to uncertainty in autism]. / La intolerancia a la incertidumbre en el autismo.

We start from the evidence that confirms a greater vulnerability to anxiety in people with autism and to wonder to what extent the intolerance to the uncertainty mediates in that anxiety. In addition, the alterations of the predictive abilities in autism could explain the coherence between greater intolerance to uncertainty and some peculiarities inherent in autism such as patterns of restrictive and stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities, and particularities in the processing of sensory information. This information will allow us to develop interventions specifically focused on this construct for the prevention and improvement of anxiety symptoms in autism in cases that the severity of intolerance to uncertainty constitutes a significant risk factor.

Partimos de las evidencias que confirman una mayor vulnerabilidad a la ansiedad de las personas con autismo para preguntarnos en qué medida la intolerancia a la incertidumbre media en dicha ansiedad. Además, las alteraciones de las habilidades predictivas en el autismo podrían explicar la coherencia existente entre mayor intolerancia a la incertidumbre y algunas particularidades inherentes al autismo como los patrones de comportamientos, intereses y actividades restrictivos y estereotipados, y las particularidades en el procesamiento de la información sensorial. Esta información nos permitirá desarrollar intervenciones centradas específicamente en este constructo para la prevención y mejora de la sintomatología ansiosa en el autismo en los casos en los que la severidad de la intolerancia a la incer tidumbre constituya un factor de riesgo significativo.

[From autism spectrum to autism constellation]. / Del espectro autista a la constelación autista.

Research on autism and mental disorders has been unsuccessful over the past few decades, as can be inferred from the poor results related to advances in other diseases. It is concerning that, after more than a half century of research based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), no biological markers have been found to prove the validity of the DSM mental disorders. Criticisms to DSM have been focused mainly on the categorical conceptualization, false comorbidity and the polythetic nature of diagnostic criteria. The lack of validity of the DSM model requests for a change in research designs, in order to overcome the problems derived from a paradigm that has stopped to be productive. In the field of clinical practice, it is even more pressing a change of mindset in order to incorporate the heterogeneity of endophenotypes that overflows the classification of the DSM, to adopt a dimensional perspective of mental problems and to develop an alternative interpretation for comorbidity. Related to research are suggested designs based on Domain Research Criteria and a multifactorial analysis with very large samples (big data). For clinical practice it is suggested a dimensional approach based on the specificities of each person with autism.

La investigación sobre el autismo, y sobre los trastornos mentales en general, ha sido poco fructífera durante las últimas décadas, como se desprende de los escasos resultados obtenidos en comparación con los avances en otras enfermedades. Preocupa que, tras más de medio siglo de investigación basada en el Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), no se hayan encontrado marcadores biológicos que acrediten la validez de los trastornos mentales que lo configuran. Las críticas al DSM, todas ellas aplicables al autismo, se han centrado principalmente en la conceptualización categórica, en la falsa comorbilidad y en el carácter politético de los criterios diagnósticos. La falta de validez del modelo del DSM insta a un cambio en los diseños de investigación, con el fin de superar el bloqueo derivado de un paradigma que ha dejado de ser productivo. En el terreno de la práctica clínica resulta, incluso más apremiante, un cambio de mentalidad que permita: incorporar la heterogeneidad de endofenotipos que desbordan la clasificación del DSM, adoptar una perspectiva dimensional de los problemas mentales y desarrollar una interpretación alternativa de la comorbilidad Con referencia a la investigación, se proponen diseños basados en criterios de investigación por dominios (Research Domain Criteria) y en análisis multifactoriales con muestras muy grandes (big data). Por lo que respecta a práctica clínica se sugiere un enfoque dimensional basado en las especificidades de cada persona con autismo, lo cual desborda el patrón clínico del espectro.