Thinking Style Moderates the Impact of the Classroom Environment on Language Creativity.

The classroom environment significantly affects the development of creativity. This study examined the impact of the classroom environment on students' creativity and the moderating role of thinking styles in this relationship. For this study, we recruited 451 students from six secondary schools. Data were collected using the Chinese Language Creativity Test, Classroom Environment Inventory, and Thinking Styles Inventory. Hierarchical regression analysis examined the moderating effect of thinking styles on the relationship between the classroom environment and creativity. The results showed that peer relationships in the classroom environment negatively influence students' fluency and originality in creativity. At the same time, teachers' evaluation and teaching methods positively affect the fluency of creativity. Thinking styles moderated the impact of the classroom environment on language creativity. This study identified four different moderating effects: the thinking styles matching the classroom environment can enhance language creativity, whereas the mismatched ones hinder it. However, matching would limit language creativity for individuals with creative thinking styles (e.g., legislative and anarchic thinking styles), while a mismatch can boost creative performance. The findings help educators understand students' creativity with different thinking styles in various classroom environments and provide individualized and effective strategies for optimizing educational environments and enhancing language creativity.

Brain-to-brain synchrony during dyadic action co-representation under acute stress: evidence from fNIRS-based hyperscanning.

Unexpected acute stressors may affect our co-representation with other co-actors when completing the joint tasks. The present study adopted the emergent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning method to explore the brain-to-brain synchrony when implementing the Joint Simon Task under acute stress induced in the laboratory. The behavioral results reported that the joint Simon effect (JSE) was found in both the stress group and the control group, but the joint Simon effect in the stress group was significantly lessened than the joint Simon effect in the control group, demonstrating that when completing the joint action task in the state of acute stress, women's ability to distinguishing self- from other-related mental representations was improved, and the strength of women's action co-representation was diminished. The fNIRS results showed that when completing the joint Simon task in the state of the acute stress, the brain-to-brain synchrony at the r-TPJ in the stress group was significantly higher than that in the control group, demonstrating that the increased brain-to-brain synchrony at the TPJ may be served as the critical brain-to-brain neural mechanism underlying the joint action task under acute stress.

Limosilactobacillus reuteri and caffeoylquinic acid synergistically promote adipose browning and ameliorate obesity-associated disorders.

OBJECTIVE: High intake of caffeoylquinic acid (CQA)-rich dietary supplements, such as green coffee bean extracts, offers health-promoting effects on maintaining metabolic homeostasis. Similar to many active herbal ingredients with high pharmacological activities but low bioavailability, CQA has been reported as a promising thermogenic agent with anti-obesity properties, which contrasts with its poor oral absorption. Intestinal tract is the first site of CQA exposure and gut microbes might react quickly to CQA. Thus, it is of interest to explore the role of gut microbiome and microbial metabolites in the beneficial effects of CQA on obesity-related disorders. RESULTS: Oral CQA supplementation effectively enhanced energy expenditure by activating browning of adipose and thus ameliorated obesity-related metabolic dysfunctions in high fat diet-induced obese (DIO) mice. Here, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed that CQA treatment remodeled the gut microbiota to promote its anti-obesity actions, as confirmed by antibiotic treatment and fecal microbiota transplantation. CQA enriched the gut commensal species Limosilactobacillus reuteri (L. reuteri) and stimulated the production of short-chain fatty acids, especially propionate. Mono-colonization of L. reuteri or low-dose CQA treatment did not reduce adiposity in DIO mice, while their combination elicited an enhanced thermogenic response, indicating the synergistic effects of CQA and L. reuteri on obesity. Exogenous propionate supplementation mimicked the anti-obesity effects of CQA alone or when combined with L. reuteri, which was ablated by the monocarboxylate transporter (MCT) inhibitor 7ACC1 or MCT1 disruption in inguinal white adipose tissues to block propionate transport. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate a functional axis among L. reuteri, propionate, and beige fat tissue in the anti-obesity action of CQA through the regulation of thermogenesis. These findings provide mechanistic insights into the therapeutic use of herbal ingredients with poor bioavailability via their interaction with the gut microbiota. Video Abstract.

Discovery of 9,11-Seco-Cholesterol Derivatives as Novel FXR Antagonists.

The farnesoid X receptor (FXR) plays an important role in the regulation of bile acid, lipid, and glucose homeostasis. Recent findings have shown that the inhibition of FXR is beneficial to improvement of related metabolic diseases and cholestasis. In the present work, 9,11-seco-cholesterol derivatives were designed and synthesized by cleaving the C ring of cholesterol and were identified as novel structures of FXR antagonists. Compound 9a displayed the best FXR antagonistic activity at the cellular level (IC50 = 4.6 µM) and decreased the expression of the target genes of FXR in vivo.