The effects of forewarning and divided attention on context retrieval in false recognition.

After studying a list of words that are semantically associated to a critical lure, participants are more likely to attribute a falsely recognised critical lure to the context of its strong than weak semantic associates. This is known as the source-strength effect. The current study investigated the roles of automatic and controlled processing in context retrieval in false recognition that is demonstrated by the source-strength effect. The results revealed that the source-strength effect was impervious to forewarning (Experiment 1) and remained intact when attentional resources at encoding were reduced (Experiment 2), suggesting that context retrieval in false recognition is based on automatic processes that are not amenable to conscious control and do not require many attentional resources. This interpretation is consistent with the associative activation theory, which proposes that context retrieval in false recognition is based on memory associations between contexts and critical lures that are automatically created when critical lures become automatically activated via spreading activation process.

Theta Signal Transfer from Parietal to Prefrontal Cortex Ignites Conscious Awareness of Implicit Knowledge during Sequence Learning.

Unconscious acquisition of sequence structure from experienced events can lead to explicit awareness of the pattern through extended practice. Although the implicit-to-explicit transition has been extensively studied in humans using the serial reaction time (SRT) task, the subtle neural activity supporting this transition remains unclear. Here, we investigated whether frequency-specific neural signal transfer contributes to this transition. A total of 208 participants (107 females) learned a sequence pattern through a multisession SRT task, allowing us to observe the transitions. Session-by-session measures of participants' awareness for sequence knowledge were conducted during the SRT task to identify the session when the transition occurred. By analyzing time course RT data using switchpoint modeling, we identified an increase in learning benefit specifically at the transition session. Electroencephalogram (EEG)/magnetoencephalogram (MEG) recordings revealed increased theta power in parietal (precuneus) regions one session before the transition (pretransition) and a prefrontal (superior frontal gyrus; SFG) one at the transition session. Phase transfer entropy (PTE) analysis confirmed that directional theta transfer from precuneus → SFG occurred at the pretransition session and its strength positively predicted learning improvement at the subsequent transition session. Furthermore, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) modulated precuneus theta power and altered transfer strength from precuneus to SFG, resulting in changes in both transition rate and learning benefit at that specific point of transition. Our brain-stimulation evidence supports a role for parietal → prefrontal theta signal transfer in igniting conscious awareness of implicitly acquired knowledge.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT There exists a pervasive phenomenon wherein individuals unconsciously acquire sequence patterns from their environment, gradually becoming aware of the underlying regularities through repeated practice. While previous studies have established the robustness of this implicit-to-explicit transition in humans, the refined neural mechanisms facilitating conscious access to implicit knowledge remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that prefrontal activity, known to be crucial for conscious awareness, is triggered by neural signal transfer originating from the posterior brain region, specifically the precuneus. By employing brain stimulation techniques, we establish a causal link between neural signal transfer and the occurrence of awareness. Our findings unveil a mechanism by which implicit knowledge becomes consciously accessible in human cognition.

Social distance of bystanders affects people's embarrassment via changing fear of negative evaluation and feelings of attachment security.

BACKGROUND: Embarrassment is a self-conscious emotion with important social functions, but it is not well understood. The perception of bystanders is considered a precondition for embarrassment, which makes it unique from other self-conscious emotions. Studies have shown that socially close bystanders can reduce individuals' embarrassment. However, whether and how the embarrassment of individuals varies with the changes in social distance between them and their bystanders remained unclear, which indicates the key characteristics of embarrassment. METHODS: The current research consists of two studies. Study 1 tested whether participants' embarrassment systematically varied with social distance by setting up three levels of social distance: close friends (i.e., short), casual friends (i.e., medium), and strangers (i.e., long), based on 159 participants. With two full mediation models, study 2 investigated whether and how the fear of negative evaluation and state attachment security mediated the influence of social distance on embarrassment based on 155 participants. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings revealed that the social distance between bystanders and protagonists systematically influenced the embarrassment of protagonists and this effect occurred via two parallel pathways, i.e., by increasing the fear of negative evaluation and by reducing state attachment security. The findings not only showed the unique role of bystander characteristics on embarrassment, but also two cognitive processes behind this unique self-conscious emotion: fearing negative evaluation and seeking attachment for security.

Event-related potential and behavioural evidence of goal-based expectations for consistent actions among group members.

PLACEHOLDER TEXT: ABSTRACT: People expect group members to act consistently. However, because actions are organized hierarchically, incorporating deep-level goals and shallow-level movements, it remains unclear what level of action is expected to be consistent among group members. We determined that these two levels of action representations can be dissociated in object-directed actions and measured the late positive potential (LPP), which indicates expectation. We found that participants identified a new agent's actions more quickly when this agent pursued a consistent goal while moving in a manner inconsistent with group members than when this agent pursued an inconsistent goal while moving in the same manner as group members. Moreover, this facilitation effect disappeared when the new agent was from a different group, revealing goal-based expectations for consistent actions among group members. The LPP amplitude during the action-expectation phase was greater for agents from the same group than for agents from a different group, suggesting that people implicitly generate clearer action expectations for group members than for other individuals. Additionally, the behavioural facilitation effect was observed when the goal of actions was clearly identifiable (i.e. performing rational actions to reach an external target) rather than when there was no clear association between actions and external targets (i.e. performing irrational actions). The LPP amplitude during the action-expectation phase was greater after observing rational actions than after observing irrational actions performed by two agents from the same group, and the expectation-related increase in LPP predicted the behavioural measurements of the facilitation effect. Hence, the behavioural and event-related potential evidence suggest that people implicitly expect group members to behave consistently according to goals rather than movements per se.

The neural correlates underlying the regulation of anticipation on regret.

Regret is a common negative emotion in daily life, and long-term immersion in regret affects mental health. Therefore, to regulate and reduce regret is of wide concern. The current fMRI study aimed to investigate whether outcome anticipation before decision-making could reduce regret and its neural correlates. In the task, participants were asked to anticipate the possible poor outcomes of subsequent decisions, such as missing rewards and meeting punishment, and then made sequential risk-taking decisions. Behavioral results showed that outcome anticipation before decision-making could decrease the intensity of regret, that is, participants felt less regret when they anticipated the outcome before decision-making (anticipation condition, Ant), compared to making sequential risk-taking decisions without any anticipation of the outcome in advance (non-anticipation condition, NAnt). Consistently, at the neural level, stronger activities of ventral striatum (VS) and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and greater VS-dmPFC functional connectivity were observed in Ant relative to NAnt. Moreover, the activity of dmPFC was negatively correlated with the intensity of regret in Ant. The current study highlighted that outcome anticipation before decision-making could regulate regret effectively, and dmPFC played a vital role in this process.

Abnormal functional connectivity in resting state contributes to the weaker emotional sensitivity to reward in depression.

INTRODUCTION: Depression is one of the most prevalent mental diseases characterized by distortions in the affective sphere. By using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) technique, the current study aimed to investigate neural mechanisms associated with emotional sensitivity to reward, which represented the variation of emotional responsiveness as the degree of reward changing in individuals with depressive symptoms. METHODS: We recruited 28 participants in elevated depressive symptoms (LD) group and 28 demographic-matched participants in low depressive symptoms (ED) group. After the rs-fMRI scan, participants were asked to complete a sequential risk-taking task, in which they might encounter both reward and loss. RESULTS: The resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) between ventral striatum (VS) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was associated with the emotional sensitivity to reward in LD group. Compared with LD group, participants in ED group showed weaker emotional sensitivity to reward and stronger rs-FC between VS and prefrontal regions. CONCLUSIONS: The current study highlighted that the functional connectivity between VS and IFG in the resting state was related to the emotional sensitivity to reward in individuals with low depressive symptoms. However, individuals with elevated depressive symptoms exhibited altered functional connectivity between VS and IFG in the resting state, which might contribute to their weaker emotional sensitivity to reward.

Maternal choices and preferences for screening strategies of gestational diabetes mellitus: A exploratory study using discrete choice experiment.

Aims: This study aimed to investigate maternal preferences for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) screening options in rural China to identify an optimal GDM screening strategy. Methods: Pregnant women at 24-28 gestational weeks were recruited from Shandong province, China. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted to elicit pregnant women's preferences for GDM screening strategy defined by five attributes: number of blood draws, out-of-pocket costs, screening waiting-time, number of hospital visits, and positive diagnosis rate. A mixed logistic model was employed to quantify maternal preferences, and to estimate the relative importance of included attributes in determining pregnant women's preferences for two routinely applied screening strategies ("one-step": 75 g oral glucose tolerance test [OGTT] and "two-step": 50 g glucose challenge-test plus 75 g OGTT). Preference heterogeneity was also investigated. Results: N = 287 participants completed the DCE survey. All five predefined attributes were associated with pregnant women's preferences. Diagnostic rate was the most influential attribute (17.5 vs. 8.0%, OR: 2.89; 95%CI: 2.10 to 3.96). When changes of the attributes of "two-step" to "one-step" strategies, women's uptake probability from full "two-step" to "one-step" significantly increased with 71.3% (95%CI: 52.2 to 90.1%), but no significant difference with the first step of "two-step" (-31.0%, 95%CI: -70.2 to 8.1%). Conclusion: Chinese pregnant women preferred the "one-step" screening strategy to the full "two-step" strategy, but were indifferent between "one-step" and the first step of "two-step" strategies.

Neural Basis of the Implicit Learning of Complex Artificial Grammar with Nonadjacent Dependencies.

The capacity for the implicit learning/processing of complex grammar with nonadjacent dependencies is an important feature of human language learning. In this fMRI study, using an implicit AGL paradigm, we explored the neural basis of the implicit learning of the nonadjacent dependency rule, disentangling from sequence-based chunk knowledge (i.e., local sequential regularities or substring) by focusing on the low chunk strength items (which were naturally less similar to training strings), based on tracking neural responses during training and test phases. After listening to and memorizing a series of strings of 10 syllables generated from nonadjacent artificial grammar in the training phase, participants implicitly acquired the knowledge of grammar and chunks. Regarding grammaticality, Broca's area was specifically related to low chunk strength grammatical strings relative to nongrammatical strings in the test phase. This region showed decreased activity with time in the training phase, and a lesser decrease in activity was associated with higher performance in grammar learning. Furthermore, Broca's area showed significantly higher strength of functional connectivity with the left superior temporal gyrus in the low chunk strength grammatical string compared with nongrammatical strings, and this functional connectivity increased with the training time. For the chunks, the performance of accurate discrimination of high chunk strength from low chunk strength nongrammatical strings was predicted by hippocampal activity in the training phase. Converging evidence from the training and test phases showed that Broca's area and its functional connectivity with the left superior temporal gyrus were engaged in the implicit learning/processing of the nonadjacent dependency rule, separating the effects of chunks.

Punishment cost affects third-parties' behavioral and neural responses to unfairness.

Third-party punishment plays a crucial role in fairness norm enforcement. The present study investigated how punishment cost would affect third-parties' behavioral and neural responses to unfairness using a modified Third-Party Dictator Game and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants acted as third-parties and decided how many monetary units (MUs) to invest to punish norm violations in two punishment cost contexts. Participants' every MU investment reduced dictators' payoff by 6 MUs in the low punishment cost context and 3 MUs in the high one. Participants' invested MUs reflected the cost they would like to pay to punish dictators while dictators' reduced MUs represented the amount of punishment they received. Behavioral results showed participants' fairness ratings were not affected by punishment cost. However, punishment amount decreased in the high punishment cost context where participants invested more MUs and spent more time for decision-making. Neurally, left anterior insula (AI) and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) showed stronger responses to unfair relative to fair allocations in both contexts. Moreover, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) was more active during unfair allocations in the high punishment cost context than in the low one and the difference of dACC activity between these two conditions was positively correlated with the difference of reaction times. Overall, the present study demonstrated that punishment cost would not affect people's fairness perception but increase the conflicts between norm enforcement and self-interest. The decision for punishment was the outcome of integrating fairness and economic considerations.

The neural mechanisms underlying the modulation of attentional deployment on emotional stability.

Emotional stability, the change of emotion response among situations, was associated with mental illness, such as depression. The current study aimed to explore the modulation of attentional deployment on emotional stability by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a sequential risk-taking task. During the task, participants were asked to open a series of boxes consecutively and decided when to stop. Each box contained a reward, except one containing a devil to zero reward in the trial. When participants stopped, both collected gains and missed chances were revealed. The attentional deployment was manipulated during the outcome feedback, i.e., inducing participants to focus on the good part (GF context) or the bad part (MF context) of the decision outcome. Besides, the Control context was also set, in which the attentional deployment was not manipulated. The behavioral results showed that the emotional stability was stronger in GF context relative to MF and Control contexts. At the neural level, with outcomes getting better, activations of ventral striatum (VS) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG) increased faster in GF context than that in MF and Control contexts. In addition, in GF context, the changing of SFG activation with outcomes getting better was associated with emotional stability. The current study highlighted that focusing on the good part of decision outcomes could enhance emotional stability effectively and SFG played a vital role in this process.

Dissociating value-based neurocomputation from subsequent selection-related activations in human decision-making.

Human decision-making requires the brain to fulfill neural computation of benefit and risk and therewith a selection between options. It remains unclear how value-based neural computation and subsequent brain activity evolve to achieve a final decision and which process is modulated by irrational factors. We adopted a sequential risk-taking task that asked participants to successively decide whether to open a box with potential reward/punishment in an eight-box trial, or not to open. With time-resolved multivariate pattern analyses, we decoded electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography responses to two successive low- and high-risk boxes before open-box action. Referencing the specificity of decoding-accuracy peak to a first-stage processing completion, we set it as the demarcation and dissociated the neural time course of decision-making into valuation and selection stages. The behavioral hierarchical drift diffusion modeling confirmed different information processing in two stages, that is, the valuation stage was related to the drift rate of evidence accumulation, while the selection stage was related to the nondecision time spent in response-producing. We further observed that medial orbitofrontal cortex participated in the valuation stage, while superior frontal gyrus engaged in the selection stage of irrational open-box decisions. Afterward, we revealed that irrational factors influenced decision-making through the selection stage rather than the valuation stage.

Evidence-Based Classification in Powerchair Football: Determining the Determinants.

The purpose of this study was to initiate the development of an evidence-based sport classification system for powerchair football, a sport that serves athletes with physical impairments. Sport classification is designed to increase participation by minimizing the impact of impairment on competition outcome, and powerchair football lacks an evidence-based system of classification which is required of Paralympic sports. A number of approaches were used to build the theoretical model of sport performance (Step 2 of the International Paralympic Committee model). Key sport activities were identified through surveys of stakeholders and underlying determinants of those key activities were identified through game and database analyses. Current findings support drive control, ball control, communication, and adjustment to the ball as key activities in powerchair football with joint-specific strength and range of motion, sensory, and neurological variables identified as underlying determinants.

Resting-state functional connectivity within orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus modulates the relationship between reflection level and risk-taking behavior in internet gaming disorder.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has become an increasing mental health issue worldwide. Previous studies indicated that IGD was related to maladaptive risk-taking behavior. However, the relationship among risk-taking behavior, reflection level, and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between brain regions in IGD individuals remains unclear. The current study combined resting-state fMRI and the Devil task to investigate this issue. The behavioral results suggested that IGD participants exhibited increased risk-taking behavior in the Devil task than healthy controls. Moreover, IGD participants' risk-taking behavior was positively correlated with their reflection level. As for fMRI results, IGD participants showed stronger rsFC between orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) than healthy controls. Additionally, the mediation analyses revealed that, among IGD participants, the rsFC between OFC and IFG fully mediated the relationship between reflection level and risk-taking behavior. Together, the current study highlighted that the altered rsFC between OFC and IFG in IGD individuals modified the relationship between their reflection level and risk-taking behavior, which might contribute to the understanding of neural mechanisms underlying risk-taking behavior in IGD individuals.

Altered neural responses to missed chance contribute to the risk-taking behaviour in individuals with Internet gaming disorder.

Missed chance is a powerful factor in shaping risk-taking behaviour. The abnormal risk-taking behaviour is an obvious feature of individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, the relationship between the neural responses to missed chance and risk-taking behaviour in IGD individuals remains unclear. In the current fMRI study, 28 IGD subjects (12 female, 23.04 ± 2.43 years old) and 26 healthy control (HC) subjects (13 female, 23.58 ± 2.67 years old) participated in fMRI scanning during performance of a sequential risk-taking task. The general linear model and the psycho-physiological interaction analyses were conducted to explore the difference in neural responses between the two groups. The results showed that IGD subjects reported more regret for the large missed chance and took more risk than HC subjects. Moreover, compared with HC subjects, IGD subjects exhibited greater activations in brain regions like ventral striatum (VS) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and stronger VS-thalamus functional connectivity for the large missed chance. Additionally, among IGD subjects, the SFG activation for the large missed chance was positively correlated with the risk-taking behaviour. Together, the results revealed the altered neural responses to missed chance contributed to the risk-taking behaviour in IGD individuals. The findings could help to clearly understand why IGD individuals continue playing online games despite the risks of widely known and could provide a new perspective for the intervention of IGD.

Effect of Electrical Impedance Tomography-Guided Early Mobilization in Patients After Major Upper Abdominal Surgery: Protocol for a Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: Pulmonary complications are common in patients after upper abdominal surgery, resulting in poor clinical outcomes and increased costs of hospitalization. Enhanced Recovery After Surgery Guidelines strongly recommend early mobilization post-operatively; however, the quality of the evidence is poor, and indicators for quantifying the effectiveness of early mobilization are lacking. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of early mobilization in patients undergoing an upper abdominal surgery using electrical impedance tomography (EIT). Specifically, we will use EIT to assess and compare the lung ventilation distribution among various regions of interest (ROI) before and after mobilization in this patient population. Additionally, we will assess the temporal differences in the distribution of ventilation in various ROI during mobilization in an effort to develop personalized activity programs for this patient population. Methods: In this prospective, single-center cohort study, we aim to recruit 50 patients after upper abdominal surgery between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. This study will use EIT to quantify the ventilation distribution among different ROI. On post-operative day 1, the nurses will assist the patient to sit on the chair beside the bed. Patient's heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, and ROI 1-4 will be recorded before the mobilization as baseline. These data will be recorded again at 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min after mobilization, and the changes in vital signs and ROI 1-4 values at each time point before and after mobilization will be compared. Ethics and Dissemination: The study protocol has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of Liaocheng Cardiac Hospital (2020036). The trial is registered at chictr.org.cn with identifier ChiCTR2100042877, registered on January 31, 2021. The results of the study will be presented at relevant national and international conferences and submitted to international peer-reviewed journals. There are no plans to communicate results specifically to participants. Important protocol modifications, such as changes to eligibility criteria, outcomes, or analyses, will be communicated to all relevant parties (including investigators, Institutional Review Board, trial participants, trial registries, journals, and regulators) as needed via email or in-person communication.

Empathy-based tolerance towards poor norm violators in third-party punishment.

Third-party punishment (TPP) plays an important role in fairness norm enforcement. This study investigated how the economic status of proposers could modulate third parties' behavioural and neural responses to unfairness. Participants played a TPP game as third parties deciding whether to punish proposers after observing the offers from proposers while behavioural and electroencephalogram (EEG) data were recorded. The proposers were of either high economic status or low economic status, and the recipients were middle class. The behavioural results indicated that participants reported decreased punishment for poor-proposed unfair offers compared to rich-proposed unfair offers, and this effect was stronger for highly unfair offers. Neurally, greater P200, a component involved in empathy processing, was observed in response to highly unfair offers (i.e. 90:10 and 80:20) proposed by the poor, suggesting that when the targets of severe punishments were poor proposers, participants showed greater empathy for poor norm violators in highly unfair trials. Taken together, these findings help to elucidate that the third-parties tend to tolerate the norm-violating behaviours conducted by the poor and provided further neuroscience evidence for the influence of economic status of proposers on TPP.

The modulation of attentional deployment on regret: an event-related potential study.

Adopting a sequential risk-taking task, this study explored the modulation of attentional deployment on regret. Attentional deployment was manipulated during outcome feedback of the task by highlighting different parts to induce participants to focus on collected gains (GF context) or missed chances (MF context). The control context without attentional deployment manipulation was also set. Behaviorally, compared to the control context, participants felt less regret in the GF context but more regret in the MF context. Event-related potential results showed that the GF context elicited stronger reward positivity and late positive potential (LPP) than the control context. Furthermore, openness (NEO Five-Factor Inventory) negatively predicted the amplitude of LPP in the GF context. Source localization indicated that the superior frontal gyrus showed stronger activation in the GF context than in the control context during the time window of LPP. These results suggested that focusing on collected gains was an effective way to repress regret and that the LPP component played a key role in this process.

The gray matter volume in superior frontal gyrus mediates the impact of reflection on emotion in Internet gaming addicts.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is becoming a prevalent mental health concern around the world. However, the relationship among brain gray matter volume (GMV), emotion induced by decision-making and the level of reflection in IGD participants has not been fully elucidated to date. The current study aimed to explore this issue by combining a sequential decision task and voxel-based morphometry. Twenty-six IGD participants and 28 demographically matched healthy controls were recruited. After collecting Rumination-Reflection questionnaire data and high-resolution T1-weighted MRI data, participants were asked to complete a sequential decision task. The results demonstrated that compared to healthy controls, IGD participants exhibited significantly decreased GMV in the superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Moreover, GMV in the SFG of IGD participants fully mediated the impact of reflection level on the emotion of loss outcome during the sequential decision task. These results indicate that IGD is associated with reduced GMV in the SFG, and this structural change in IGD contributes to a particular relationship between the level of reflection and regret emotion for loss outcome in the sequential decision task.

Evaluation of work resumption strategies after COVID-19 reopening in the Chinese city of Shenzhen: a mathematical modeling study.

OBJECTIVES: As China is facing a potential second wave of the epidemic, we reviewed and evaluated the intervention measures implemented in a major metropolitan city, Shenzhen, during the early phase of Wuhan lockdown. STUDY DESIGN: Based on the classic SEITR model and combined with population mobility, a compartmental model was constructed to simulate the transmission of COVID-19 and disease progression in the Shenzhen population. METHODS: Based on published epidemiological data on COVID-19 and population mobility data from Baidu Qianxi, we constructed a compartmental model to evaluate the impact of work and traffic resumption on the epidemic in Shenzhen in various scenarios. RESULTS: Imported cases account for most (58.6%) of the early reported cases in Shenzhen. We demonstrated that with strict inflow population control and a high level of mask usage after work resumption, various resumptions resulted in only an insignificant difference in the number of cumulative infections. Shenzhen may experience this second wave of infections approximately two weeks after the traffic resumption if the incidence risk in Hubei is high at the moment of resumption. CONCLUSION: Regardless of the work resumption strategy adopted in Shenzhen, the risk of a resurgence of COVID-19 after its reopening was limited. The strict control of imported cases and extensive use of facial masks play a key role in COVID-19 prevention.