The Relation Between Subjective and Objective Measures of Visual Awareness: Current Evidence, Attempt of a Synthesis and Future Research Directions.

Within the realm of consciousness research, different methods of measuring the content of visual awareness are used: On the one hand, subjective measures require a report of sensory experiences related to a stimulus. On the other hand, objective measures rely on the observer's performance to accurately detect or discriminate the stimulus. The most appropriate measure of awareness is currently debated. To contribute to this debate, we review findings on the relation between subjective and objective measures of awareness. Although subjective measures sometimes lag behind objective measures, a substantial number of studies demonstrates a convergence of measures. Based on the reviewed studies, we identify five aspects relevant for achieving a convergence of measures. Future research could then identify and empirically test the boundary conditions, under which a convergence or divergence of subjective and measures of awareness is observed.

Group differences in OXT methylation between patients with Major Depressive Disorder and healthy controls: A pre-registered replication study.

Depression is linked to stress which leaves traces in the epigenetic signature of genes. The oxytocin system is implicated in allostatic processes promoting adaption to environmental stressors. Interactions of the oxytocin system with the environment, e.g., methylation of the gene coding for oxytocin (OXT), are candidates for the investigation of the biological underpinnings of depression. Recently, we found hypomethylation of OXT in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) compared to healthy controls (HC). Since the replicability of findings is a key point of criticism in (epi­)genetic research, we aimed to confirm our previous findings in a pre-registered study (data was stored in a database prior to pre-registration) within a new sample of n = 85 patients with MDD and n = 85 HC. We investigated OXT DNA-methylation in peripheral blood samples, stressful life events and depression severity. In accordance with our previous study, we found hypomethylation of OXT in patients with MDD compared to HC. Methylation was not associated with stressful life events. Patients reported significantly more stressful life events compared to HC. Our study revealed that hypomethylation of OXT can be demonstrated in a reproducible fashion and provides further evidence for the involvement of the oxytocin system in depression.

Experiential grounding of abstract concepts: Processing of abstract mental state concepts engages brain regions involved in mentalizing, automatic speech, and lip movements.

concepts like mental state concepts lack a physical referent, which can be directly perceived. Classical theories therefore claim that abstract concepts require amodal representations detached from experiential brain systems. However, grounded cognition approaches suggest an involvement of modal experiential brain regions in the processing of abstract concepts. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the relation of the processing of abstract mental state concepts to modal experiential brain systems in a fine-grained fashion. Participants performed lexical decisions on abstract mental state as well as on verbal association concepts as control category. Experiential brain systems related to the processing of mental states, generating verbal associations, automatic speech as well as hand and lip movements were determined by corresponding localizer tasks. Processing of abstract mental state concepts neuroanatomically overlapped with activity patterns associated with processing of mental states, generating verbal associations, automatic speech and lip movements. Hence, mental state concepts activate the mentalizing brain network, complemented by perceptual-motor brain regions involved in simulation of visual or action features associated with social interactions, linguistic brain regions as well as face-motor brain regions recruited for articulation. The present results provide compelling evidence for the rich grounding of abstract mental state concepts in experiential brain systems related to mentalizing, verbal communication and mouth action.

Dynamics of task preparation processes revealed by effect course analysis on response times and error rates.

Cuing or executing a task impacts processing pathways for task-relevant information. While there is ample evidence that processing associated with task execution changes with practice, such evidence regarding cue-induced task preparation is scarce. Here we explored practice-related changes of processing pathways by task cuing in order to assess the plasticity of task preparation. We first developed and validated a new method for the study of practice-related changes, the effect course analysis. The effect course analysis is a model-free, non-parametric method designed to reveal effect changes within an experimental session on a continuous time scale. Then we applied this method to a new study in which cued task sets were supposed to remain activated during assessment of task-relevant pathways, as potential task execution was postponed at the end of the trial. The results showed that, with little practice, task cuing amplified task-relevant pathways, whereas this effect vanished with practice, suggesting that practice prompts fundamental changes of how task cues are used for task preparation. Hence, if one cannot be certain that cognitive processing is stationary, investigating the time course of experimental effects appears to be crucial to determine how cognitive processing is influenced by practice.

Subjective and objective measures of visual awareness converge.

Within consciousness research, the most appropriate assessment of visual awareness is matter of a controversial debate: Subjective measures rely on introspections of the observer related to perceptual experiences, whereas objective measures are based on performance of the observer to accurately detect or discriminate the stimulus in question across a series of trials. In the present study, we compared subjective and objective awareness measurements across different stimulus feature and contrast levels using a temporal two-alternative forced choice task. This task has the advantage to provide an objective psychophysical performance measurement, while minimizing biases from unconscious processing. Thresholds based on subjective ratings with the Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS) and on performance accuracy were determined for detection (stimulus presence) and discrimination (letter case) tasks at high and low stimulus contrast. We found a comparable pattern of thresholds across tasks and contrasts for objective and subjective measurements of awareness. These findings suggest that objective performance measures based on accuracy and subjective ratings of the visual experience can provide similar information on the feature-content of a percept. The observed similarity of thresholds validates psychophysical and subjective approaches to awareness as providing converging and thus most likely veridical measures of awareness.

Conceptual representations in the default, control and attention networks are task-dependent and cross-modal.

Conceptual knowledge is central to human cognition. Neuroimaging studies suggest that conceptual processing involves modality-specific and multimodal brain regions in a task-dependent fashion. However, it remains unclear (1) to what extent conceptual feature representations are also modulated by the task, (2) whether conceptual representations in multimodal regions are indeed cross-modal, and (3) how the conceptual system relates to the large-scale functional brain networks. To address these issues, we conducted multivariate pattern analyses on fMRI data. 40 participants performed three tasks-lexical decision, sound judgment, and action judgment-on written words. We found that (1) conceptual feature representations are strongly modulated by the task, (2) conceptual representations in several multimodal regions are cross-modal, and (3) conceptual feature retrieval involves the default, frontoparietal control, and dorsal attention networks. Conceptual representations in these large-scale networks are task-dependent and cross-modal. Our findings support theories that assume conceptual processing to rely on a flexible, multi-level architecture.

Association between parental separation, childhood trauma, neuroticism, and depression: a case control study.

Background: Parental separation has been suggested to be associated with depression development in offspring. The new family constellation subsequent to separation could be associated with elevated scores of childhood trauma, shaping more emotionally instable personalities. This could ultimately be a risk factor for mood disorders and particularly the development of depression in life. Methods: To test this hypothesis, we investigated the associations between parental separation, childhood trauma (CTQ) and personality (NEO-FFI) in a sample of N = 119 patients diagnosed with depression and N = 119 age and sex matched healthy controls. Results: While parental separation was associated with elevated scores of childhood trauma, there was no association between parental separation and Neuroticism. Furthermore, in a logistic regression analysis, Neuroticism and childhood trauma were found to be significant predictors for depression diagnosis (yes/no), but not parental separation (yes/no). Conclusion: Parental separation might be associated with depression only indirectly via childhood trauma. Childhood trauma or Neuroticism seem more directly related to the development of depression. However, it is worthwhile to install prevention programs helping parents and children to cope with parental separation in order to minimize the impact of separation and associated stressors.

Electrophysiological correlates of response time outliers: Outlier related potentials.

In response time (RT) research, RTs which largely deviate from the RT distribution are considered "outliers". Outliers are typically excluded from RT analysis building upon the implicit assumption that cognitive processing is distorted in outlier trials. The present study aims to test this assumption by comparing cognitive processing indexed by event-related potentials (ERP) of trials with outliers and valid trials in two different tasks. To this end, we compared stimulus- and response-locked ERPs for outliers identified by nine different methods with valid trials, using cluster-based permutation tests. Consistently across outlier exclusion methods and tasks, the late positive complex (P3) associated with response-related processes was reduced in outliers. Analyses of response-locked ERPs related this P3 attenuation to a slower and temporally more extended increase of the P3, possibly indexing reduced evidence accumulation speed in outliers. P3 peak amplitude in response-locked ERPs was similar between outliers and valid trials, suggesting that the absolute amount of evidence required for a response remained comparable. Furthermore, in addition to these more general ERP correlates of outliers, the contingent negative variation (CNV) ERP component was reduced in outliers as a function of preparatory demands of the task. Hence, electrophysiological correlates, and thus cognitive processing, are altered in outliers compared to valid trials. In order to avoid distortion of observed ERP differences between conditions, the RT outlier distribution should be considered for the analysis of ERPs in combined ERP and RT studies.

The relationship between parenting behavior and the personality of kindergarten children.

According to Cloninger's biosocial model of personality touching upon temperament and character, personality development is a lifelong adaptive process that begins in early childhood. Similarly, theories of parenting behavior and attachment predict that associations between personality and parenting behavior should be found in young children. The present study therefore had the goal to investigate, whether associations between parenting behavior and personality in terms of Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions previously found in adolescence and adults can already be observed in kindergarten children. This study assessed personality in a sample of 324 kindergarten children (169 girls/155 boys) aged 3-6 years (M age = 4.59, SD = 0.90). Parents rated their children's temperament and character using the JTCI 3-6 R questionnaire, which has been specifically developed to measure personality dimensions in three to six-year-olds according to Cloninger's model. Character traits (especially Self-Transcendence), which reach mature levels in adults, may not be reliably assessed in three-year-old children. Parenting behavior was documented using the DEAPQ-EL-GS self-report questionnaire measuring the parenting behavior dimensions Responsiveness and Demandingness. Correlation analyses revealed that responsive parenting behavior was positively related to the personality dimensions Reward Dependence, Self-Directedness, and Self-Transcendence. Demanding parenting behavior was positively related to the personality dimension Novelty Seeking, but negatively related to the personality dimensions Persistence, Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness. Although the cross-sectional design of our study prevents unequivocal conclusions about the causal direction of these associations, our results highlight possible differential consequences of responsive vs. demanding parenting behavior for personality development in children in line with theories of parenting behavior and attachment. Our results thus advance earlier work in adolescents and adults, by showing that parenting behavior influences the development of the child's personality according to Cloninger's biosocial model already in three to six-year-olds.

Assessing subjective prime awareness on a trial-by-trial basis interferes with masked semantic priming effects.

Ratings of perceptual experience on a trial-by-trial basis are increasingly used in masked priming studies to assess prime awareness. It is argued that such subjective ratings more adequately capture the content of phenomenal consciousness compared to the standard objective psychophysical measures obtained in a session after the priming experiment. However, the concurrent implementation of the ratings within the priming experiment might alter magnitude and processes underlying semantic priming, because participants try to identify the masked prime. In the present study, we therefore compared masked semantic priming effects assessed within the classical sequential procedure, in which prime identification is psychophysically assessed after the priming experiment, with those obtained in a condition, in which prime awareness is rated within the priming experiment. Two groups of participants performed a lexical decision task (LDT) on targets preceded by masked primes of 20, 40, or 60 ms durations, to induce the variability of prime awareness. One group additionally rated prime visibility trials-wise using the Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS), whereas the other group only performed the LDT. Analysis of reaction times (RTs) as well as drift diffusion modeling revealed general priming effects on RT and drift rate only in the PAS-absent group. In the PAS-present group, residual priming effects on RT and the non-decisional component t0 were obtained for trials with rated prime awareness. This shows that assessing subjective perceptual experience on a trial-by-trial basis heavily interferes with semantic processes underlying masked priming, presumably due to attentional demands associated with concurrent prime identification. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Factors related to the development of executive functions: A cumulative dopamine genetic score and environmental factors predict performance of kindergarten children in a go/nogo task.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed at investigating the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in predicting executive function in children aged four to six years. METHODS: Response inhibition as index of EF was assessed in 197 children using a go/nogo task. A cumulative dopamine (DA) genetic score was calculated, indexing predisposition of low DA activity. Dimensions of parenting behavior and parental education were assessed. RESULTS: Parental education was positively related to accuracy in nogo trials. An interaction between the cumulative genetic score and the parenting dimension Responsiveness predicted go RT indicating that children with a high cumulative genetic score and high parental responsiveness exhibited a careful response mode. CONCLUSION: The development of EF in kindergarten children is related to parental education as well as to an interaction between the molecular-genetics of the DA system and parenting behavior.

Meta-analytic evidence for a novel hierarchical model of conceptual processing.

Conceptual knowledge plays a pivotal role in human cognition. Grounded cognition theories propose that concepts consist of perceptual-motor features represented in modality-specific perceptual-motor cortices. However, it is unclear whether conceptual processing consistently engages modality-specific areas. Here, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis across 212 neuroimaging experiments on conceptual processing related to 7 perceptual-motor modalities (action, sound, visual shape, motion, color, olfaction-gustation, and emotion). We found that conceptual processing consistently engages brain regions also activated during real perceptual-motor experience of the same modalities. In addition, we identified multimodal convergence zones that are recruited for multiple modalities. In particular, the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) are engaged for three modalities: action, motion, and sound. These "trimodal" regions are surrounded by "bimodal" regions engaged for two modalities. Our findings support a novel model of the conceptual system, according to which conceptual processing relies on a hierarchical neural architecture from modality-specific to multimodal areas up to an amodal hub.

Academic training increases grounding of scientific concepts in experiential brain systems.

Scientific concepts typically transcendent our sensory experiences. Traditional approaches to science education therefore assume a shift towards amodal or verbal knowledge representations during academic training. Grounded cognition approaches, in contrast, predict a maintenance of grounding of the concepts in experiential brain networks or even an increase. To test these competing approaches, the present study investigated the semantic content of scientific psychological concepts and identified the corresponding neural circuits using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in undergraduate psychology students (beginners) and in graduated psychologists (advanced learners). During fMRI scanning, participants were presented with words denoting scientific psychological concepts within a lexical decision task (e.g. "conditioning", "habituation"). The individual semantic property content of each concept was related to brain activity during abstract concept processing. In both beginners and advanced learners, visual and motor properties activated brain regions also involved in perception and action, while mental state properties increased activity in brain regions also recruited by emotional-social scene observation. Only in advanced learners, social constellation properties elicited brain activity overlapping with emotional-social scene observation. In line with grounded cognition approaches, the present results highlight the importance of experiential information for constituting the meaning of abstract scientific concepts during the course of academic training.

Task cue influences on lexical decision performance and masked semantic priming effects: The role of cue-task compatibility.

Recent research demonstrated that mere presentation of a task cue influences subsequent unconscious semantic priming by attentional sensitization of related processing pathways. The direction of this influence depended on task-set dominance. Dominant task sets with a compatible cue-task mapping were supposed to be rapidly suppressed, while weak task sets showed more sustainable activation. Building on this research, we manipulated cue-task compatibility as instance of task-set dominance in two experiments and tested how masked semantic priming was influenced by actually performing the cued task (induction-task trials) or by mere cue presentation (task cue-only trials). In induction-task trials, the results of earlier research were replicated; semantic priming was larger following a semantic induction task compared to a perceptual induction task. In task cue-only trials, priming effects were reversed compared to induction-task trials in both experiments. Priming was larger for a perceptual compared to a semantic task set in task cue-only trials, indicating suppression of task sets following mere cue presentation in preparation for the upcoming lexical decision task. This notion of an inhibition of task sets after mere cue presentation was further supported by switching-related costs and changes of task-set implementation throughout the experiment. The absence of a moderator role of cue-task compatibility for task cue effects on priming in the present study suggests that the precise time course of task-set activation and inhibition in response to task cues as a function of cue-task compatibility might depend on specific experimental settings.

Cumulative Genetic Score of DRD2 Polymorphisms Is Associated with Impulsivity and Masked Semantic Priming.

Individual differences in the magnitude of semantic priming effects are associated with executive functions (EF). Striatal dopamine has been shown to be associated with EF as well as impulsivity and could therefore be associated with differences in the magnitude of semantic priming. We investigated n = 155 individuals in an unmasked as well as in a masked semantic priming paradigm. We additionally assessed self-reported impulsivity and a cumulative genetic score (CGS) comprising six polymorphisms that have been found to be functionally relevant for the expression of the DRD2 gene. We found a significantly negative association between the DRD2 CGS and reaction time priming in the masked semantic priming paradigm. In addition, the DRD2 CGS was positively associated with self-reported impulsivity. Our findings complement previous research by showing a role of the DRD2 gene for masked semantic priming. Therefore, the investigation of genes within the dopamine system might improve our understanding of the genetic basis of impulsivity and semantic processing. Thus, the DRD2 CGS is of interest for clinical as well as experimental psychological research.

Primary emotions as predictors for fear of COVID-19 in former inpatients with Major Depressive Disorder and healthy control participants.

INTRODUCTION: There are reports of an increase in depressive symptoms and fear during the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular in patients with depression. This study investigates factors related to fear of COVID-19 in former inpatients suffering from depression and healthy controls by assessing variables typically associated with depression and anxiety disorders, i.e. stressful life events (SLEs), the primary emotions SADNESS, PLAY and SEEKING as well as dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies with respect to suppression and reappraisal. METHODS: Data of n = 44 former inpatients suffering from depression and n = 49 healthy controls were collected. The study had a longitudinal design with two measurement points. Before the pandemic, SLEs, primary emotions, emotion regulation and depression severity were assessed. During the pandemic, COVID-19 associated stressors and life events, emotion regulation, depression severity and fear of COVID-19 were assessed. RESULTS: Fear of COVID-19 and depression severity during the pandemic were significantly higher in former inpatients than in healthy controls. Depression diagnosis, SLEs and depression severity before the pandemic were significant positive predictors of fear of COVID-19. The primary emotion PLAY was a significant negative predictor of fear of COVID-19. Depression severity did not change significantly in healthy controls. CONCLUSION: The results show that risk factors for depression might be risk factors for high fear of COVID-19. In addition, a playful personality could help preventing mental stress in pandemic situations. Thus, positivity based interventions could counteract elevated fear scores during a pandemic.

Differential temporo-spatial pattern of electrical brain activity during the processing of abstract concepts related to mental states and verbal associations.

Refined grounded cognition accounts propose that abstract concepts might be grounded in brain circuits involved in mentalizing. In the present event-related potential (ERP) study, we compared the time course of neural processing in response to semantically predefined abstract mental states and verbal association concepts during a lexical decision task. In addition to scalp ERPs, source estimates of underlying volume brain activity were determined to reveal spatio-temporal clusters of greater electrical brain activity to abstract mental state vs. verbal association concepts, and vice versa. Source estimates suggested early (onset 194 ms), but short-lived enhanced activity (offset 210 ms) to verbal association concepts in left occipital regions. Increased occipital activity might reflect retrieval of visual word form or access to visual conceptual features of associated words. Increased estimated source activity to mental state concepts was obtained in visuo-motor (superior parietal, pre- and postcentral areas) and mentalizing networks (lateral and medial prefrontal areas, insula, precuneus, temporo-parietal junction) with an onset of 212 ms, which extended to later time windows. The time course data indicated two processing phases: An initial conceptual access phase, in which linguistic and modal brain circuits rapidly process features depending on their relevance, and a later conceptual elaboration phase, in which elaborative processing within feature-specific networks further refines the concept. This study confirms the proposal that abstract concepts are based on representations in distinct neural circuits depending on their semantic feature content. The present research also highlights the importance of investigating sets of abstract concepts with a defined semantic content.

Time course of brain activity during the processing of motor- and vision-related abstract concepts: flexibility and task dependency.

Grounded cognition theories assume that conceptual processing depends on modality-specific brain systems in a context-dependent fashion. Although the relation of abstract concepts to modality-specific systems is less obvious than for concrete concepts, recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies indicated a foundation of abstract concepts in vision and action. However, due to their poor temporal resolution, neuroimaging studies cannot determine whether sensorimotor activity reflects rapid access to conceptual information or later conceptual processes. The present study therefore assessed the time course of abstract concept processing using event-related potentials (ERPs) and compared ERP responses to abstract concepts with a strong relation to vision or action. We tested whether possible ERP effects to abstract word categories would emerge in early or in later time windows and whether these effects would depend on the depth of the conceptual task. In Experiment 1, a shallow lexical decision task, early feature-specific effects starting at 178 ms were revealed, but later effects beyond 300 ms were also observed. In Experiment 2, a deep conceptual decision task, feature-specific effects with an onset of 22 ms were obtained, but effects again extended beyond 300 ms. In congruency with earlier neuroimaging work, the present feature-specific ERP effects suggest a grounding of abstract concepts in modal brain systems. The presence of early and late feature-specific effects indicates that sensorimotor activity observed in neuroimaging experiments may reflect both rapid conceptual and later post-conceptual processing. Results furthermore suggest that a deep conceptual task accelerates access to conceptual sensorimotor features, thereby demonstrating conceptual flexibility.

Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity Modulate Electrophysiological Correlates of Semantic Negative Priming From Single Words.

In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were registered during a semantic negative priming (NP) task in participants with higher and lower working memory capacity (WMC). On each trial participants had to actively ignore a briefly presented single prime word, which was followed either immediately or after a delay by a mask. Thereafter, either a semantically related or an unrelated target word was presented, to which participants made a semantic categorization judgment. The ignored prime produced a behavioral semantic NP in delayed (but not in immediate) masking trials, and only for participants with a higher-WMC. Both masking type and WMC also modulated ERP priming effects. When the ignored prime was immediately followed by a mask (which impeded its conscious identification) a reliable N400 modulation was found irrespective of participants' WMC. However, when the mask onset following the prime was delayed (thus allowing its conscious identification), an attenuation of a late positive ERP (LPC) was observed in related compared to unrelated trials, but only in the higher-WMC group showing reliable behavioral NP. The present findings demonstrate for the first time that individual differences in WMC modulate both behavioral measures and electrophysiological correlates of semantic NP.

Neural signatures of bullying experience and social rejection in teenagers.

Relational bullying in schools is one of the most frequent forms of violence and can have severe negative health impact, e.g. depression. Social exclusion is the most prominent form of relational bullying that can be operationalized experimentally. The present study used MR-based perfusion imaging (pCASL) to investigate the neural signatures of social exclusion and its relationship with individually different extent of previous bullying experience. Twenty-four teenagers reporting bullying experience at different extent were scanned during a virtual ball-tossing (Cyberball game). Our findings showed that social exclusion (relative to social inclusion) activated frontal brain areas: sub- and perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (sg/pgACC), left inferior frontal cortex (IFG), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Positive relationship between exclusion-specific signal increase and individually different extents of prior bullying experience was for the first time observed in left IFG and sgACC. This suggests that more frequent prior experience has conditioned greater mentalizing and/or rumination, in order to cope with the situation. While this interpretation remains speculative, the present data show that the experience of being bullied partly sensitizes the neural substrate relevant for the processing of social exclusion.