Social perceptions and the stigmatization towards fifteen mental illnesses in France: a preliminary study on the role of vital force and burden.

Introduction: This study examined social perceptions and rejection towards fifteen mental illnesses, as well as a preliminary test of the SUBAR model, that hypothesized perceptions of both vital forces and burden would be negatively and positively related to social rejection, respectively. Methods: Using an online survey with participants from France (n = 952), social rejection was assessed using a feeling thermometer and a social distance scale, while social perceptions were measured using visual analog scales. Results: A stigma map for these different disorders is drawn up, revealing the social perceptions and levels of stigmatization specific to certain mental illnesses. Controlling for relevant social perceptions (i.e., danger, warmth, competence), we found that perception of burden was positively and significantly associated to social distance and negative feeling for 73% and 67% of mental illnesses, respectively. The perception of vital force was negatively and significantly related to social distance and negative feeling for 87% and 20% of mental illnesses, respectively. The change in R2 between model 1 (i.e. perception of danger, warmth, competence) and model 2 (i.e. model 1 + perceptions of vital force and burden) significantly improved in 100% of cases for social distance and 67% of cases for negative feeling. Conclusion: These preliminary data provide support for the SUBAR model and call for further investigations to better understand the social rejection of people with mental illnesses.

Word-association norms for 1,100 French words with varying levels of concreteness.

The organisation of concepts in the mental lexicon is a widely studied research topic in experimental psychology. For instance, several studies have shown that whereas concrete concepts are organised according to semantic similarity, abstract concepts are organised according to verbal association. However, these results are not systematically replicated, mainly due to a lack of normative database especially in French. To that end, we introduce a French word-association database for 1,100 cues with varying levels of concreteness from abstract to concrete concepts. Analyses from the word-association task revealed stronger association strength for concrete concepts compared with abstract concepts. Additional results showed that cues tend to elicit responses of a similar level of concreteness. The database will be useful for investigators interested in French verbal associations for abstract and concrete concepts. The data (available on OSF https://osf.io/dhuqs/) introduce responses organised according to association strength and provides cue concreteness.

"Intervention Program Based on Self": A Proposal for Improving the Addiction Prevention Program "Unplugged" through Self-Concept.

The "Intervention Program based on Self" (IPSELF) project was created to address the gap between the acquisition of life skills during prevention programs and their application with a session for developing one's self-concept included in the European program "Unplugged". The present study evaluated its effectiveness. A total of 157 middle school students (94 girls, 63 boys, MAGE = 12.89, SD = 0.45) from three schools in France participated in this study. The participants attended one of two programs (Unplugged/IPSELF). The effectiveness of the IPSELF add-on session was measured with the Self-Concept Clarity Scale, and the differences between the two programs was measured with the prototype willingness model. Adolescents in IPSELF rated the typical nonsmoker and cannabis nonsmoker more favorably, and the typical drinker less favorably. They felt more different from the typical smoker and drinker after participation in IPSELF. More alcohol experimenters were observed in Unplugged. The knowledge gained in IPSELF appeared to help adolescents more than that gained in Unplugged to change their smoking behavior. Furthermore, IPSELF had a more beneficial effect for girls, who felt that they had gained more control over their alcohol and cannabis use than boys, whereas Unplugged had a more positive effect on boys, who gained better control over their consumption. Moreover, the girls felt that they had gained more knowledge about the substances discussed in IPSELF than in Unplugged. We therefore recommend the use of IPSELF especially with female audiences.

Does an increase in physiological indexes predict better cognitive performance: the PhyCog randomised cross-over protocol in type 2 diabetes.

INTRODUCTION: There has been a growing interest towards cognitive-training programmes to improve cognition and prevent cognitive impairment despite discrepant findings. Physical activity has been recognised in maintaining or improving cognitive ability. Based on a psychoneurophysiological approach, physiological indexes should partly determine neuronal dynamics and influence cognition as any effects of cognitive training. This study's primary aim was to examine if improved physiological indexes predict improved cognitive variables in the context of a clinical intervention programme for type 2 diabetes (T2D). METHOD AND ANALYSIS: PhyCog will be a 22-week randomised controlled trial comparing cognitive performance between three arms: (1) physical activity (1 month), a 15-day wash-out, then cognitive training (1 month), (2) cognitive training (1 month), a 15-day wash-out and physical activity (1 month), and (3) an active breathing condition (psychoeducation and resonance frequency breathing for 1 month), then a 15-day wash-out, and combined physical activity and cognitive training (1 month), allowing to determine the most effective intervention to prevent cognitive impairment associated with T2D. All participants will be observed for 3 months following the intervention. The study will include a total of 81 patients with T2D.Cognitive performance and physiological variables will be assessed at baseline (week 0-W0), during the washout (W5, 72-96 hours after week 4), at the end of the intervention (W10), and at the end of the follow-up (W22). The main variables of interest will be executive function, memory and attention. Physiological testing will involve allostatic load such as heart rate variability, microcirculation, cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels. Sociodemographic and body composition will also be a consideration. Assessors will all be blinded to outcomes. To test the primary hypothesis, the relationship between improvement in physiological variables and improvement in cognitive variables (executive, memory and attention) will be collected. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This protocol was approved by the Est III French Ethics Committee (2020-A03228-31). Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04915339.

When does vagal activity benefit to the discrimination of highly overlapping memory traces?

Distinguishing among similar events is indeed crucial to memory. In a dangerous context, this ability may be less essential, whereas in a secure context it may provide an adaptative advantage notably in social situations. Vagal activity as a marker of the individual's adaptation in social engagement contexts might predict the ability to discriminate highly similar memories in an unthreatening context. The present study aims to test the relation between vagal activity and memory discrimination by manipulating the visual distinctiveness of stimuli (high vs. low) in an ecological memory discrimination task with humanoid characters. It was expected that vagal activity support adaptive self-regulatory processes which may be needed only when the memory discrimination is challenging (low distinctiveness between true memory and lure). In a study phase, multiple realistic fictional humanoid characters performed the same action on different objects. The characters could be very similar or very distinct one to each other. Then, during a test phase, the participants had to discriminate whether a displayed character on the screen was exactly matched the one performing the given action on a specific object in the study phase (target). Vagal activity was assessed in undergraduate students (n = 40) before the study phase. Higher vagal activity predicted better memory discrimination performance specifically when the distinctiveness between the lure and target was low. These data extend previous work on vagal activity and memory suggesting that heart-brain interactions represent an adaptive psychophysiological mechanism underlying memory discrimination specifically when it is challenging in an unthreatening context.

Executive deficits in schizophrenia: mediation by processing speed and its relationships with aging.

BACKGROUND: Executive deficits are a core characteristic of schizophrenia. Yet, the origin of these impairments remains unclear as they may be caused by processing slowing. This issue is of particular interest for aging insofar as cognitive aging is also associated with a decline in executive functioning and a slowing of processing speed. As schizophrenia patients' life expectancy increases, a better understanding of the origin of older patients' cognitive deficits becomes essential so that healthcare can be adapted to suit them. This study aims to determine whether processing speed mediates how schizophrenia affects executive functions and whether these relationships are moderated by age. METHODS: Sixty-two schizophrenia patients (27 women) and 62 healthy comparison subjects matched for age (range: 18-76 years), gender and education performed neurocognitive tests to evaluate their executive functions (shifting, updating, inhibition and access) and processing speed. RESULTS: Processing speed mediated the effect of schizophrenia on the four specific executive functions, and age moderated this mediation for shifting, updating and access, but in different ways. Age moderated the effect of processing speed on shifting, the direct effect of schizophrenia on access, and both the effect of processing speed and the direct effect of schizophrenia on updating. CONCLUSIONS: This research highlights the need to evaluate processing speed routinely during therapeutic follow-up, as it is easy and simple to assess and appears to be at the heart of the cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Finally, processing speed abilities yield information about the evolution of cognition with aging in schizophrenia.

The role of perceptual and cognitive load on inattentional blindness: A systematic review and three meta-analyses.

The inattentional blindness phenomenon refers to situations in which a visible but unexpected stimulus remains consciously unnoticed by observers. This phenomenon is classically explained as the consequence of insufficient attention, because attentional resources are already engaged elsewhere or vary between individuals. However, this attentional-resources view is broad and often imprecise regarding the variety of attentional models, the different pools of resources that can be involved in attentional tasks, and the heterogeneity of the experimental paradigms. Our aim was to investigate whether a classic theoretical model of attention, namely the Load Theory, could account for a large range of empirical findings in this field by distinguishing the role of perceptual and cognitive resources in attentional selection and attentional capture by irrelevant stimuli. As this model has been mostly built on implicit measures of distractor interference, it is unclear whether its predictions also hold when explicit and subjective awareness of an unexpected stimulus is concerned. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses of inattentional blindness studies investigating the role of perceptual and/or cognitive resources. The results reveal that, in line with the perceptual account of the Load Theory, inattentional blindness significantly increases with the perceptual load of the task. However, the cognitive account of this theory is not clearly supported by the empirical findings analysed here. Furthermore, the interaction between perceptual and cognitive load on inattentional blindness remains understudied. Theoretical implications for the Load Theory are discussed, notably regarding the difference between attentional capture and subjective awareness paradigms, and further research directions are provided.

Fear of Missing Out Predicts Distraction by Social Reward Signals Displayed on a Smartphone in Difficult Driving Situations.

Smartphones are particularly likely to elicit driver distraction with obvious negative repercussions on road safety. Recent selective attention models lead to expect that smartphones might be very effective in capturing attention due to their social reward history. Hence, individual differences in terms of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) - i.e., of the apprehension of missing out on socially rewarding experiences - should play an important role in driver distraction. This factor has already been associated with self-reported estimations of greater attention paid to smartphones while driving, but the potential link between FoMO and smartphone-induced distraction has never been tested empirically. Therefore, we conducted a preliminary study to investigate whether FoMO would modulate attentional capture by reward distractors displayed on a smartphone. First, participants performed a classical visual search task in which neutral stimuli (colored circles) were associated with high or low social reward outcomes. Then, they had to detect a pedestrian or a roe deer in driving scenes with various levels of fog density. The social reward stimuli were displayed as distractors on the screen of a smartphone embedded in the pictures. The results showed a significant three-way interaction between FoMO, social reward distraction, and task difficulty. More precisely, under attention-demanding conditions (i.e., high-fog density), individual FoMO scores predicted attentional capture by social reward distractors, with longer reaction times (RTs) for high rather than low social reward distractors. These results highlight the importance to consider reward history and FoMO when investigating smartphone-based distraction. Limitations are discussed, notably regarding our sample characteristics (i.e., mainly young females) that might hamper the generalization of our findings to the overall population. Future research directions are provided.

Low-Resolution Neurocognitive Aging and Cognition: An Embodied Perspective.

Consistent with embodied cognition, a growing evidence in young adults show that sensorimotor processing is at the core of cognition. Considering that this approach predicts direct interaction between sensorimotor processing and cognition, embodied cognition may thus be particularly relevant to study aging, since this population is characterized by concomitant changes in sensorimotor and cognitive processing. The present perspective aims at showing the value and interest to explore normal aging throughout embodiment by focusing on the neurophysiological and cognitive changes occurring in aging. To this end, we report some of the neurophysiological substrates underpinning the perceptual and memory interactions in older adults, from the low and high perceptual processing to the conjunction in the medial temporal lobe. We then explore how these changes could explain more broadly the cognitive changes associated with aging in terms of losses and gains.

Intangible features extraction in the processing of abstract concepts: Evidence from picture-word priming.

Over the last decade, hypotheses ranging from linguistic symbol processing to embodiment have been formulated to account for the content and mechanisms responsible for the representation of abstract concepts. Results of recent studies have suggested that abstract concepts, just like concrete ones, can benefit from knowledge of real-world situational context, but that they can also be processed based on abstract pictures devoid of such situational features. This paper presents two semantic priming experiments to explore such mechanisms further. The first experiment replicates Kuipers, Jones, and Thierry (2018) in a cross-linguistic setting which shows that abstract concepts can be processed from abstract pictures devoid of tangible features. In the second experiment, we studied extraction mechanisms that come into play when participants are presented with abstract and concrete pictures that provide situational information to illustrate target abstract concepts. We expected this facilitatory effect to be limited to concrete picture primes. Our data analysed with both Bayesian and Frequentist tests showed however that even when presented with tangible situational information, the extraction of features still occurred for abstract pictures. We discuss the implications of this with respect to future avenues for studying the processing of abstract concepts.

Lockdown Impact on Stress, Coping Strategies, and Substance Use in Teenagers.

BACKGROUND: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the French government took many measures, the most notable of which was a national lockdown on 17 March 2020. Its effects have been widely studied, but to our knowledge, no study has sought to determine how adolescents have adapted to cope with this situation. The present study set out to explore teenagers' stress levels, coping strategies, and substance use during this period. METHODS: This paper is a cross-sectional study that rides on an existing prevention program interviewed 348 French middle school students (209 girls and 139 boys) in grade 8 (M age = 13.45; SDage = 0.54) using an online questionnaire between March 17 and May 11, 2020 (COVID-19 lockdown). The study examined the teenagers' perceived stress, coping strategies they had used, including recent use of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, during COVID-19 lockdown. RESULTS: Teenagers reported lower perceived stress during lockdown than usually, with a significant decrease for girls. Those who perceived the least social support reported the highest levels of stress. The strategies of planning, behavioral disengagement, self-distraction, positive reframing, acceptance, and religion were used more than usual, while active coping and self-blame were used less. Acceptance was the most often used strategy and a source of decreased stress during lockdown. A significant decrease in recent tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use was also observed. CONCLUSION: Changes in the use of coping strategies, withdrawal from the stressful school environment, and greater exposure to parents than to peers caused adolescents to be less stressed and to decrease their substance use during the lockdown.

Common sense model of self-regulation for understanding adherence and quality of life in type 2 diabetes with structural equation modeling.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the present study was to test the Common Sense Model of self-regulation (CSM) for its relevance for improving adherence and quality of life in type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A sample of 253 patients with type 2 diabetes was recruited. They completed questionnaires about their perceptions regarding diabetes, coping strategies, therapeutic adherence and quality of life. Their HbA1c levels were also collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to check the adequacy of our theoretical model (CSM) with the patient data. RESULTS: The final model indicated that perceptions were directly and indirectly related to health outcomes through coping strategies and adequately matched the data (χ2 / df = 561/ 220 = 2.55; RMSEA = 0.08; PCFI = 0.66; PGFI = 0.70). Moreover, the model appeared to be identical for both types of treatment (oral and injectable). CONCLUSIONS: Illness perceptions and coping strategies, or, more specifically, how patients accept disease and think they are able to manage it, significantly affect therapeutic adherence and quality of life in type 2 diabetes. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: These results pave the way for developing psychological treatments aimed at improving patient acceptance and internal resources (e.g. use of autobiographical memory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

Reward history modulates perceptual load effects.

The reward history of a stimulus can yield strong attentional selection biases. Indeed, attentional capture can be triggered by previously rewarded items which are neither salient nor relevant for the ongoing task, even when selection is clearly counter-productive to actually obtain the reward outcome. Therefore, value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) has been argued to be an automatic attention mechanism. Our study aimed at putting the VDAC automaticity directly to the test. For this purpose, the Load Theory offers a comprehensive framework where distraction is observed under low but not high perceptual load condition. Nevertheless, if VDAC is indeed automatic, distraction by reward-stimuli should be observed on both perceptual load conditions. We used a feature vs. conjunction discrimination of a go/no-go cue to manipulate perceptual load. As expected, our results revealed that perceptual load decreased interference produced by low-reward distractor. However, this effect was not significant for high-reward distractor, giving support to VDAC automaticity. We discussed our results in light of the Load Theory literature and we strongly encourage to consider reward history along with perceptual load in determining attentional capture.

Semantic similarity and associated abstractness norms for 630 French word pairs.

The representation of abstract concepts remains a challenge, justifying the need for further experimental investigation. To that end, we introduce a normative database for 630 semantically similar French word pairs and associated levels of abstractness for 1260 isolated words based on data from 900 subjects. The semantic similarity and abstractness norms were obtained in two studies using 7-point scales. The database is organised according to word-pair semantic similarity, abstractness, and associated lexical variables such as word length (in number of letters), word frequency, and other lexical variables to allow for matching of experimental material. The associated variables were obtained by cross-referencing our database with other known psycholinguistic databases including Lexique (New et al., 2004), the French Lexicon Project (Ferrand et al., 2010), Wordlex (Gimenes & New, 2016), and MEGALEX (Ferrand et al., 2018). We introduced sufficient diversity to allow researchers to select pairs with varying levels of semantic similarity and abstractness. In addition, it is possible to use these data as continuous or discrete variables. The full data are available in the supplementary materials as well as on OSF ( https://osf.io/qsd4v/ ).

Metacognitive preserved generation strategy benefits for both younger and elderly participants with schizophrenia.

Cognitive memory and introspection disturbances are considered core features of schizophrenia. Moreover, it remains unclear whether or not participants with schizophrenia are more cognitively impaired with ageing than healthy participants. The aims of this study were to use a metacognitive approach to determine whether elderly participants with schizophrenia are able to improve their memory performance using a specific generation strategy and to evaluate the memory benefits for them using this strategy. 20 younger and 20 older participants with schizophrenia and their comparison participants matched for age, gender and education learned paired associates words with either reading or generation, rated judgment of learning (JOL) and performed cued recall. Participants with schizophrenia recalled fewer words than healthy comparison participants, but they benefited more from generation, and this difference was stable with ageing. Their JOL magnitude was lower than that of healthy comparison participants, but JOL accuracy was not affected by either age or the pathology. In spite of their memory deficit, elderly and younger participants with schizophrenia benefited remarkably from the memory generation strategy. This result gives some cause for optimism as to the possibility for participants with schizophrenia to reduce memory impairment if learning conditions lead them to encode deeply.

Executive functions in schizophrenia aging: Differential effects of age within specific executive functions.

There are common cognitive and brain abnormalities in schizophrenia and healthy aging which may cumulate in schizophrenia aging. However, the course of executive deficits in late-life schizophrenia is still controversial as it remains unclear whether schizophrenia patients show accelerated aging. The use of specific models of executive functions might help to shed new lights on this issue. The aim of this study was then to determine how each of the four specific executive functions (shifting, updating, inhibition and access to long-term memory) is affected by aging in schizophrenia compared to healthy aging. 20 younger (age 18-34), 17 middle-aged (age 35-49) and 25 older (age 59-76) schizophrenia patients and 62 healthy comparison participants matched for gender, age and education performed a neurocognitive battery evaluating the four specific executive functions. Schizophrenia patients performed worse than comparison participants on shifting, updating and access, whereas inhibition appeared preserved. Age affected the four functions with increased degradation of shifting and access in schizophrenia patients, whereas updating and inhibition showed a normal decline with age. These results suggest a vulnerability of prefrontal and cingulate cortexes in schizophrenia aging. Moreover, as age affected the specific executive functions differently, remediation programs should be adapted to older patients. Models of specific executive functions are useful for understanding the complexity of cognition in schizophrenia and its course during later life so that healthcare can be adapted accordingly.

Craving Mediates the Relation Between Impulsivity and Alcohol Consumption Among University Students.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The relationship between impulsivity and craving in severe alcohol use disorders is well established, but the presence and characteristics of this link in University students are still to be established. The present study aims to better understand the relationship between impulsivity and craving in university students and to determine the influence of these variables on alcohol consumption characteristics. METHODS: A large sample of university students (N = 1055, mean age: 20.9 years; 713 women) completed an online questionnaire to evaluate alcohol use, impulsivity, and craving. RESULTS: Linear regression analysis demonstrated that the compulsive dimensions of craving (P < .001), sensation seeking (P < .001), and lack of premeditation (P < .001) constitute strong predictors of current consumption. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis determined the threshold level above which craving intensity can identify specific high-risk populations. A mediation analysis showed that craving has a partial mediator effect on the impact of impulsivity on alcohol consumption for this population (37,8%, P < .001). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The sensation seeking and lack of premeditation dimensions of impulsivity, coupled with compulsive craving, are efficient predictors of excessive alcohol consumption for university students. The partial mediator effect of craving is important in terms of characterizing the relationship between impulsivity and alcohol consumption. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: Our study centrally shows that the interaction between elevated levels of impulsivity and craving constitute a crucial risk factor for alcohol consumption in university students, and should thus constitute a target for primary prevention programs (Am J Addict 2019;00:00-00).

A multi-dimensional evaluation of craving and impulsivity among people admitted for alcohol-related problems in emergency department.

Craving and impulsivity are key psychological dimensions involved in the development and maintenance of severe alcohol-use disorders. This study proposes an integrative evaluation of craving (Visual Analogue Scale, VAS and Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale, OCDS) and impulsivity (UPPS Scale and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale) among patients admitted in emergency department for alcohol misuse. Ninety-eight patients were included. Regression analyses showed that the scores obtained at the compulsive subscale of the OCDS, at the VAS and at the Urgency subscale of impulsivity constitute the main predictors of the severity of alcohol-use disorders (indexed by the AUDIT). These results suggest that specific sub-dimensions of craving and impulsivity may play a critical and joint role in the maintenance of excessive alcohol consumption.

How can the health belief model and self-determination theory predict both influenza vaccination and vaccination intention ? A longitudinal study among university students.

Background and objective Seasonal influenza is frequent among students and often responsible for impaired academic performance and lower levels of general health. However, the vaccination rate in this population is very low. As the seasonal influenza vaccine is not compulsory in France, it is important to improve the vaccination uptake by identifying predictors of both intention and behaviour. This study investigated the effect of decisional balance, motivation and self-efficacy on vaccination acceptance using the Extended Health Belief Model (HBM) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Design and Main Outcome Measures University students were invited to fill in an online survey to answer questions about their influenza vaccination intention, and HBM and SDT constructs. A one-year longitudinal follow-up study investigated vaccination behaviour. Results Autonomous motivation and self-efficacy significantly influenced the intention to have the influenza vaccine, and vaccine behaviour at one-year follow-up. Intention predicted a significant proportion of variation (51%) in behaviour, and mediated the effect of these predictors on vaccination behaviour. Conclusion These results suggest that motivation concepts of the Self-Determination Theory can be adequately combined with the Health Belief Model to understand vaccination behaviour.

Emotional experiences one year after a traffic accident: An exploratory study of verbatim accounts of the ESPARR cohort.

The aim of this study was to characterize different possible profiles of emotional experiences of victims of traffic accident based on verbatim accounts collected one year after the accident, and to relate these profiles to various socio-demographic and health data. A hierarchical cluster analysis of the emotional lexicon was made by categorizing and quantifying the EMOTAIX© lexicon using Tropes© text analysis software. Out of the 751 selected subjects, 328 expressed one or more emotional experiences. A link appeared between quality of life (QoL), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the valence of expressed emotions. Injury severity and history distinguished two sets expressing negative-valence emotional experience. Paradoxically, a group also emerged with a large proportion of severely injured persons, associated with the expression of positive-valence emotional experiences and with domains of QoL and PTSD. The analysis of subjective data sheds light on the experience of traffic accident victims and shows a way forward for research and clinical intervention.