Social Cognition in Temporal and Frontal Lobe Epilepsy: Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Clinical Recommendations.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the importance of social cognitive functions to mental health and social adjustment, examination of these functions is absent in routine assessment of epilepsy patients. Thus, this review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on four major aspects of social cognition among temporal and frontal lobe epilepsy, which is a critical step toward designing new interventions. METHOD: Papers from 1990 to 2021 were reviewed and examined for inclusion in this study. After the deduplication process, a systematic review and meta-analysis of 44 and 40 articles, respectively, involving 113 people with frontal lobe epilepsy and 1482 people with temporal lobe epilepsy were conducted. RESULTS: Our results indicated that while patients with frontal or temporal lobe epilepsy have difficulties in all aspects of social cognition relative to nonclinical controls, the effect sizes were larger for theory of mind (g = .95), than for emotion recognition (g = .69) among temporal lobe epilepsy group. The frontal lobe epilepsy group exhibited significantly greater impairment in emotion recognition compared to temporal lobe. Additionally, people with right temporal lobe epilepsy (g =  1.10) performed more poorly than those with a left-sided (g = .90) seizure focus, specifically in the theory of mind domain. CONCLUSIONS: These data point to a potentially important difference in the severity of deficits within the emotion recognition and theory of mind abilities depending on the laterlization of seizure side. We also suggest a guide for the assessment of impairments in social cognition that can be integrated into multidisciplinary clinical evaluation for people with epilepsy.

In silico evaluation of the downstream effect of mutated glucagon is consistent with higher blood glucose homeostasis in Galliformes and Strigiformes.

In contrast to mammals, glucagon is reported as a much more potent blood glucose modulator in birds. Interestingly, we have found p.Thr16Ser mutation, a variation in the highly conserved glucagon hormone, in Galliformes as well as Strigiformes. To check the effect of this mutation on the receptor binding of glucagon, we predicted the ancestral glucagon receptor sequence of all available Galliformes and Strigiformes species. Subsequently, we analysed their binding to the mutated and wild type glucagon (ancestral) by molecular dynamics simulation. At first, we made a model of ancestral glucagon receptor and ancestral mutated, and wild type glucagon in the order Galliformes and Strigiformes. Then we performed molecular dynamics for each Galliformes and Strigiformes receptor as well as each glucagon peptide, respectively. The final structures were used for docking simulation of glucagon to their receptors. The results of the docking simulations showed a stronger binding affinity of mutated glucagon to glucagon receptors. Afterward, we obtained blood glucose concentrations of all available Galliformes members, as well as all available members of its only taxonomic neighbour (order Anseriformes) in superorder Galloanserae. Interestingly the p.Thr16Ser mutation could finely cluster these two orders into two groups: higher blood glucose concentration (order Galliformes, 17.64 ± 1.66 mMol/L) and lower blood glucose concentration (order Anseriformes, 11.34 ± 1.11 mMol/L). Strigiformes which carry the mutated glucagon peptide show also high blood glucose concentrations (17.40 ± 1.51 mMol/L). Therefore, the results suggest this mutation, which leads to stronger binding affinity of mutated glucagon to its receptor, may be a driving force for higher blood glucose homeostasis in the related birds.

Age-related Differences in Expression Recognition of Faces with Direct and Averted Gaze Using Dynamic Stimuli.

Background: It is still an open to what extent the ecological validity of face stimuli modulates age-related differences in the recognition of facial expression; and to what extent eye gaze direction may play a role in this process. The present study tested whether age effects in facial expression recognition, also as a function of eye gaze direction, would be less pronounced in dynamic than static face displays.Method: Healthy younger and older adults were asked to recognize emotional expressions of faces with direct or averted eye gaze presented in static and dynamic format.Results: While there were no differences between the age groups in facial expression recognition ability across emotions, when considering individual expressions, age-related differences in the recognition of angry facial expressions were attenuated for dynamic compared to static stimuli.Conclusion: Our findings suggest a moderation effect of dynamic vs. static stimulus format on age-related deficits in the identification of angry facial expressions, suggesting that older adults may be less disadvantaged when recognizing angry facial expressions in more naturalistic displays. Eye gaze direction did not further modulate this effect. Findings from this study qualify and extend previous research and theory on age-related differences in facial expression recognition and have practical impact on study design by supporting the use of dynamic faces in aging research.

Longitudinal Automatic Segmentation of Hippocampal Subfields (LASHiS) using multi-contrast MRI.

The volumetric and morphometric examination of hippocampus formation subfields in a longitudinal manner using in vivo MRI could lead to more sensitive biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders and diseases including Alzheimer's disease, as the anatomical subregions are functionally specialised. Longitudinal processing allows for increased sensitivity due to reduced confounds of inter-subject variability and higher effect-sensitivity than cross-sectional designs. We examined the performance of a new longitudinal pipeline (Longitudinal Automatic Segmentation of Hippocampus Subfields [LASHiS]) against three freely available, published approaches. LASHiS automatically segments hippocampus formation subfields by propagating labels from cross-sectionally labelled time point scans using joint-label fusion to a non-linearly realigned 'single subject template', where image segmentation occurs free of bias to any individual time point. Our pipeline measures tissue characteristics available in in vivo high-resolution MRI scans, at both clinical (3 â€‹T) and ultra-high field strength (7 â€‹T) and differs from previous longitudinal segmentation pipelines in that it leverages multi-contrast information in the segmentation process. LASHiS produces robust and reliable automatic multi-contrast segmentations of hippocampus formation subfields, as measured by higher volume similarity coefficients and Dice coefficients for test-retest reliability and robust longitudinal Bayesian Linear Mixed Effects results at 7 â€‹T, while showing sound results at 3 â€‹T. All code for this project including the automatic pipeline is available at https://github.com/CAIsr/LASHiS.

Differential physiological and biochemical responses of Quercus infectoria and Q. libani to drought and charcoal disease.

The vast oak-dominated forests of the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran currently undergo large-scale dieback driven by a combination of drought and increasing incidence of charcoal disease caused by the fungal pathogens Biscogniauxia mediterranea and Obolarina persica. Here, we explore the interactive effects between drought and charcoal disease agents on the physiology and biochemistry of Quercus infectoria and Quercus libani seedlings. The combination of pathogen attack and water limitation hampered plant development, especially in Q. libani seedlings, negatively affecting growth, biomass production, photosynthetic efficiency, and leaf water potential. An increase in markers of oxidative damage together with the upregulation of the antioxidant defense revealed that drought stress and pathogen infection led to pro-oxidative conditions in both oak species, especially in Q. libani, where larger changes in malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide occurred. The upregulation of the antioxidant system was more prominent in Q. infectoria than in Q. libani, resulting in enhanced enzyme activity and accumulation of non-enzymatic antioxidants. Fungal infection stimulated the activity of chitinase, phenylalanine ammonia lyase and ß-1,3-glucanase in Q. infectoria leaves and this response became more pronounced under water shortage. Our study highlights that drought stress greatly intensifies the effects of the charcoal disease. Moreover, our findings imply superior stress resistance of Q. infectoria conferred by a highly efficient antioxidant system, strong osmotic adjustment (through proline), and increases in resistance enzymes and secondary metabolites (phenols and flavonoids). Future investigations should focus on adult trees in their natural habitat including interactions with soil factors and other pathogens like nematodes, bacteria and other fungi. Because the present research was conducted on oak seedlings, the findings can be considered by forest nursery managers.

Age differences in the neural response to emotional distraction during working memory encoding.

Age-related declines in attention and working memory (WM) are well documented and may be worsened by the occurrence of distracting information. Emotionally valenced stimuli may have particularly strong distracting effects on cognition. We investigated age-related differences in emotional distraction using task-fMRI. WM performance in older adults was lower for emotional compared with neutral distractors, suggesting a disproportional impairment elicited by emotional task-irrelevant information. Critically, older adults were particularly distracted by task-irrelevant positive information, whereas the opposite pattern was found for younger adults. Age groups differed markedly in the brain response to emotional distractors; younger adults activated posterior cortical regions and the striatum, and older adults activated frontal regions. Also, an age by valence interaction was found for IFG and ACC, suggesting differential modulation of attention to task-relevant emotional information. These results provide new insights into age-related changes in emotional processing and the ability to resolve interference from emotional distraction.

Functional brain networks involved in gaze and emotional processing.

Eye-gaze direction plays a fundamental role in the perception of facial features and particularly the processing of emotional facial expressions. Yet, the neural underpinnings of the integration of eye gaze and emotional facial cues are not well understood. The primary aim of this study was to delineate the functional networks that subserve the recognition of emotional expressions as a function of eye gaze. Participants were asked to identify happy, angry, or neutral faces, displayed with direct or averted gaze, while their neural responses were measured with fMRI. The results showed that recognition of happy expressions, irrespective of eye-gaze direction, engaged the critical nodes of the default mode network. Recognition of angry faces, on the other hand, was gaze-dependent, engaging the critical nodes of the salience network when presented with direct gaze, but fronto-parietal areas when presented with averted gaze. Functional connectivity analysis further showed gaze-dependent engagement of a large-scale network connected to bilateral amygdala during the recognition of angry expressions. This study provides important insights into the functional connectivity between the amygdala and other critical social-cognitive brain nodes, which are essential in processing of ambiguous, potentially threatening social signals. These findings have implications for psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, which are characterized by aberrant limbic connectivity.

Age differences in brain systems supporting transient and sustained processes involved in prospective memory and working memory.

In prospective memory (PM), an intention to act in response to an external event is formed, retained, and at a later stage, when the event occurs, the relevant action is performed. PM typically shows a decline in late adulthood, which might affect functions of daily living. The neural correlates of this decline are not well understood. Here, 15 young (6 female; age range=23-30years) and 16 older adults (5 female; age range=64-74years) were scanned with fMRI to examine age-related differences in brain activation associated with event-based PM using a task that facilitated the separation of transient and sustained components of PM. We show that older adults had reduced performance in conditions with high demands on prospective and working memory, while no age-difference was observed in low-demanding tasks. Across age groups, PM task performance activated separate sets of brain regions for transient and sustained responses. Age-differences in transient activation were found in fronto-striatal and MTL regions, with young adults showing more activation than older adults. Increased activation in young, compared to older adults, was also found for sustained PM activation in the IFG. These results provide new evidence that PM relies on dissociable transient and sustained cognitive processes, and that age-related deficits in PM can be explained by an inability to recruit PM-related brain networks in old age.

Brain systems underlying attentional control and emotional distraction during working memory encoding.

Goal-directed behavior requires that cognitive operations can be protected from emotional distraction induced by task-irrelevant emotional stimuli. The brain processes involved in attending to relevant information while filtering out irrelevant information are still largely unknown. To investigate the neural and behavioral underpinnings of attending to task-relevant emotional stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli, we used fMRI to assess brain responses during attentional instructed encoding within an emotional working memory (WM) paradigm. We showed that instructed attention to emotion during WM encoding resulted in enhanced performance, by means of increased memory performance and reduced reaction time, compared to passive viewing. A similar performance benefit was also demonstrated for recognition memory performance, although for positive pictures only. Functional MRI data revealed a network of regions involved in directed attention to emotional information for both positive and negative pictures that included medial and lateral prefrontal cortices, fusiform gyrus, insula, the parahippocampal gyrus, and the amygdala. Moreover, we demonstrate that regions in the striatum, and regions associated with the default-mode network were differentially activated for emotional distraction compared to neutral distraction. Activation in a sub-set of these regions was related to individual differences in WM and recognition memory performance, thus likely contributing to performing the task at an optimal level. The present results provide initial insights into the behavioral and neural consequences of instructed attention and emotional distraction during WM encoding.

Increased functional integration of emotional control network in late adulthood.

Across the adult lifespan, there are changes in how emotions are perceived and regulated. As individuals age, there is an observed improvement in emotion regulation and overall quicker recovery from negative emotions. While previous studies have shown differences in emotion processing in late adulthood, the corresponding differences in large-scale brain networks remain largely underexplored. By utilizing large-scale datasets such as the Human Connectome Project (HCP-Aging, N=621) and Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN, N=333), we were able to investigate how emotion regulation networks' functional topography differs across the entire adult lifespan. Based on previous meta-analytic work that identified four large-scale functional brain networks involved in emotion generation and regulation, we found an increase in the functional integration of the emotional control network among older adults. Additionally, confirming through the nonlinear model, individuals around the age of 70 showed a steadier decline in integration of a network mediating emotion generation and regulation via interoception. Furthermore, the analyses revealed a negative association between age and perceived stress and loneliness that could be attributed to differences in large-scale emotion regulation networks. Our study highlights the importance of identifying topological changes in the functional emotion network architecture across the lifespan, as it allows for a better understanding of emotional aging and psychological well-being in late adulthood.

Effects of chronic intranasal oxytocin on visual attention to faces vs. natural scenes in older adults.

Aging is associated with changes in face processing, including desensitization to face cues like gaze direction and an attentional preference to faces with positive over negative emotional valence. A parallel line of research has shown that acute administration of oxytocin (OT) increases visual attention to social stimuli such as human faces. The current study examined effects of chronic OT administration among older adults on fixation duration to faces that varied in emotional expression, gaze direction, age, and sex. One hundred and twelve generally healthy older adults (aged 55-95 years) underwent a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, between-subject clinical trial in which they self-administered either OT or placebo (P) intranasally twice a day for 4 weeks. The behavioral task involved rating the trustworthiness of faces (i.e., social stimuli) and natural scenes (i.e., non-social control stimuli) during eye tracking and was conducted before and after the intervention. Fixation duration to both the faces and the natural scenes declined from pre- to post-intervention, however this decline was less pronounced among older adults in the OT compared to the P group for faces but not scenes. Further, face cues (emotional expression, gaze direction, age, sex) did not moderate the treatment effect. This study provides first evidence that chronic intranasal OT maintains salience of social cues over time in older adults, perhaps buffering effects of habituation. These findings enhance understanding of OT effects on social cognition among older adults, and would benefit from follow up with a young adult comparison group to directly speak to specificity of observed effects to older adults and reflection of the aging process.

Self-Punishment and Reward Backfill for Deep Q-Learning.

Reinforcement learning (RL) agents learn by encouraging behaviors, which maximizes their total reward, usually provided by the environment. In many environments, however, the reward is provided after a series of actions rather than each single action, leading the agent to experience ambiguity in terms of whether those actions are effective, an issue known as the credit assignment problem. In this brief, we propose two strategies inspired by behavioral psychology to enable the agent to intrinsically estimate more informative reward values for actions with no reward. The first strategy, called self-punishment (SP), discourages the agent from making mistakes that lead to undesirable terminal states. The second strategy, called the reward backfill (RB), backpropagates the rewards between two rewarded actions. We prove that, under certain assumptions and regardless of the RL algorithm used, these two strategies maintain the order of policies in the space of all possible policies in terms of their total reward and, by extension, maintain the optimal policy. Hence, our proposed strategies integrate with any RL algorithm that learns a value or action-value function through experience. We incorporated these two strategies into three popular deep RL approaches and evaluated the results on 30 Atari games. After parameter tuning, our results indicate that the proposed strategies improve the tested methods in over 65% of tested games by up to over 25 times performance improvement.

Diagnostic Value of the Optic Nerve Sheath in the Diagnosis of Increased Intracranial Pressure in Traumatic Brain Patients.

Background: Increased intracranial pressure (ICP) is a modifiable secondary injury that is associated with poor outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the ICP of TBI patients by measuring the thickness of the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD). Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 220 patients with severe TBI that referred to Khatam-al-Anbya Hospital in Zahedan in 2021. The measurement of ONSD was performed by ultrasonography. Results: The results of this study revealed that 22.7% of TBI patients had high ICP. The mean of right and left ONSD in patients with normal ICP was 3.85 ± 0.83 and 3.85 ± 0.82 mm, respectively, and was significantly lower than that of patients with abnormal ICP (high ICP) with the mean of 3.85 ± 0.82 and 6.12 ± 0.84 mm, respectively (P value <.001). In addition, the right ONSD with the cutoff point of 5.13 mm, the sensitivity of 84%, and the specificity of 95.29% and the left ONSD with the cutoff point of 5.24 mm, the sensitivity of 90%, and the specificity of 95.88% had a significant diagnostic value in the diagnosis of high ICP (P value <.05). Conclusion: The findings of the present study indicated that the measurement of ONSD is a cost-effective and minimally invasive procedure with a higher accuracy in diagnosing high ICP in TBI patients.

The Level of Serum Osmolarity at Admission in Prognosis of Nosocomial Mortality in Patients with Severe Brain Trauma.

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death among patients in developed countries. The patients' prognosis depends on the trauma-induced primary damage as well as the secondary brain damage, including electrolyte disturbances. Therefore, prevention, diagnosis, and timely treatment lead to better prognosis. Herein, the aim is to prognosticate about the mortality in patients with TBI through serum osmolarity at admission. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 141 patients with TBI were assigned through convenience sampling. The level of serum osmolarity was examined once the patients were admitted to emergency department and later, the outcome was recorded. Finally, we analyzed the relationship between osmolarity level and patient outcome in age groups. Results: The mean serum osmolarity in the age group of under 18 years, 18 to 60 years, and more than 60 years was equal to 295.3 ± 10.02 mOsm/L, 297.2 ± 6.5 mOsm/L, and 301.6 ± 7.6 mOsm/L, respectively (P-value <0.001). Osmolarity with a cut-off point of more than 298.90 and sensitivity and specificity of 70.49 and 62.86, respectively, had appropriate diagnostic value for predicting mortality in these patients (P-value <0.001). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, serum osmolarity can have an appropriate diagnostic value in predicting mortality in patients with TBI. In addition, in different age categories, the osmolarity serum in the mortality of these patients was significantly different. Therefore, due to the high importance of serum osmolarity in the mortality of patients, careful monitoring of fluid therapy status of trauma patients should be implemented to prevent the development of hyperosmolarity for the patient with irreversible outcomes.

Relationship of Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) with the Outcome of Patients with Acute Exacerbation of COPD.

Background: Mean platelet volume (MPV) reflects the platelet production rate and stimulation, while mean corpuscular volume (MCV) represents the average size of red blood cells. Considering the possibility of the relationship between red cell index changes and different severities of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as well as the uncertainty of the available results in this regard, the present study aimed at evaluating the relationship between MPV and MCV in the outcome of patients with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD). Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional analytical study, 150 patients with AECOPD that referred to the emergency department (ED) were included in the study. The severity of the disease was recorded using the GOLD classification, and the MPV and the MCV were evaluated based on the reference range of kits in the laboratory. Then, the data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The mean MPV and MCV were 9.7±8.3 and 85.9±11.5, respectively, and had no significant difference in different severities of COPD(P>0.05). Moreover, although MCV in survivals with a mean of 88.81±6.47 was higher than that of non-survivals with a mean of 85.77±11.73, and MPV in the non-survivals with a mean of 8.53±9.74 was higher than that of survivals with the mean of 8.86±0.92, this difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: Overall, the results of this study showed that the mean MPV and MCV did not have any significant relationship with AECOPD and patient outcome.

Effects of incorporating zinc oxide and graphene oxide nanoparticles on abrasion, translucency, and microhardness of flowable composite resin: In vitro.

Background: Zinc oxide (ZnO) and graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles (NPs) have antimicrobial properties. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effects of incorporating these NPs and their chemical and physical blends on abrasion, translucency, and microhardness of flowable composite resin. Materials and Methods: In the present in vitro study, flowable composite resin samples (Grandio Flow, VOCO, Germany) were evaluated in 5 groups and the sample size was 10 for each group of each experiment (n = 10) as follows: Group 1, without NPs; Group 2, with ZnO NPs; Group 3, with GO NPs; Group 4, containing a physical mixture of GO and ZnO; and Group 5, containing a chemical mixture of GO and ZnO NPs. In all the groups, 1 wt% of the NPs were incorporate into flowable composite resin. Abrasion, translucency, and microhardness of the samples were evaluated. Data were analyzed with analysis of variance, followed by post hoc Tukey's tests at the level of significance of P < 0.05. Results: In Groups 2, 4, and 5 (all the groups containing ZnO), a significant decrease in abrasion and microhardness of flowable composite resin was observed compared to the control group. Incorporation of NPs in all the groups resulted in a significant decrease in translucency compared to the control group. Conclusion: Incorporation of NPs into flowable composite resin resulted in a decrease in translucency. The microhardness was reduced in groups containing ZnO, but the abrasion was also reduced in these groups. The incorporation of GO did not significantly alter the abrasion and microhardness of the composite resin.

Clinical, histological, and histomorphometrical comparison of CenoBone® with and without plasma rich in growth factor for edentulous ridge preservation in the dental sockets.

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical, histological, and histomorphometrical outcomes of CenoBone® allograft with and without plasma rich in growth factor (PRGF) for the preservation of edentulous ridge in the dental sockets. Materials and Methods: This study is experimental clinical trial that 14 dental sockets were included the sockets required ridge preservation followed by implant placement in the premolar and molar of the mandible. After extraction of the teeth, the CenoBone® allograft and PRGF were used in the test group and CenoBone® allograft was used alone in the control group. During the first stage of surgery and 5 months later, in the second stage of surgery (implant placement), the vertical changes of the ridge were measured. Furthermore, using Core-Biopsy in the second stage of surgery, criteria of histologic and histomorphometric were determined. Data were analyzed with t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and Fisher's exact test at the level of significance of P < 0.05. Results: The mean trabecular thickness in the test group (52.18 ± 5.53) was significantly higher than that in the control group (41.53 ± 10.40) (P = 0.344). However, there were no significant differences in the mean values of vertical bone absorption, bone percentage, remaining biomaterials, inflammation, and blood vessels between the two groups. There was no case of foreign body reaction and the bone was vital in all the cases and in direct contact with the biomaterial. Conclusion: Although CenoBone® allograft with PRGF was effective in some histomorphometric factors such as trabecular thickness, it did not lead to significant clinical changes.

Neural correlates of affective empathy in aging: A multimodal imaging and multivariate approach.

Empathy is one such social-cognitive capacity that undergoes age-related change. C urrently, however, not well understood is the structural and functional neurocircuitry underlying age-related differences in empathy. This study aimed to delineate brain structural and functional networks that subserve affective empathic response in younger and older adults using a modified version of the Multifaceted Empathy Task to both positive and negative emotions. Combining multimodal neuroimaging with multivariate partial least square analysis resulted in two novel findings in older but not younger adults: (a) faster empathic responding to negative emotions was related to greater fractional anisotropy of the anterior cingulum and greater functional activity of the anterior cingulate network; (b) however, empathic responding to positive emotions was related to greater fractional anisotropy of the posterior cingulum and greater functional activity of the posterior cingulate network. Such differentiation of structural and functional networks might have critical implications for prosocial behavior and social connections among older adults.

Neural activation during emotional interference corresponds to emotion dysregulation in stressed teachers.

Teacher stress and burnout has been associated with low job satisfaction, reduced emotional wellbeing, and poor student learning outcomes. Prolonged stress is associated with emotion dysregulation and has thus become a focus of stress interventions. This study examines emotional interference effects in a group of teachers suffering from high stress and to explore how individual differences in cognitive control, emotion dysregulation, and emotion recognition related to patterns of neural activation. Forty-nine teachers suffering moderate-high stress participated in an emotional counting Stroop task while their brain activity was imaged using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants viewed general or teacher specific words of either negative or neutral valence and were required to count the number of words on screen. Behavioural and neuroimaging results suggest that teachers are able to control emotional responses to negative stimuli, as no evidence of emotional interference was detected. However, patterns of neural activation revealed early shared engagement of regions involved in cognitive reappraisal during negative task conditions and unique late engagement of the hippocampus only while counting teacher-specific negative words. Further, we identified that greater emotion dysregulation was associated with increased activation of regions involved in cognitive control processes during neutral word trials. Teachers who showed slower emotion recognition performance were also found to have greater activation in regions associated with visual and word processing, specifically during the teacher specific negative word condition of the task. Future research should explore emotion regulation strategy use in teachers and utilise temporally sensitive neuroimaging techniques to further understand these findings.

Age-Related Differences in Amygdala Activation Associated With Face Trustworthiness but No Evidence of Oxytocin Modulation.

The amygdala has been shown to be responsive to face trustworthiness. While older adults typically give higher face trustworthiness ratings than young adults, a direct link between amygdala response and age-related differences in face trustworthiness evaluation has not yet been confirmed. Additionally, there is a possible modulatory role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in face trustworthiness evaluation, but the results are mixed and effects unexplored in aging. To address these research gaps, young, and older adults were randomly assigned to oxytocin or placebo self-administration via a nasal spray before rating faces on trustworthiness while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. There was no overall age-group difference in face trustworthiness ratings, but older compared to young participants gave higher trustworthiness ratings to ambivalently untrustworthy-looking faces. In both age groups, lower face trustworthiness ratings were associated with higher left amygdala activity. A comparable negative linear association was observed in right amygdala but only among young participants. Also, in the right amygdala, lower and higher, compared to moderate, face trustworthiness ratings were associated with greater right amygdala activity (i.e., positive quadratic (U-shaped) association) for both age groups. Neither the behavioral nor the brain effects were modulated by a single dose of intranasal oxytocin administration, however. These results suggest dampened response to faces with lower trustworthiness among older compared to young adults, supporting the notion of reduced sensitivity to cues of untrustworthiness in aging. The findings also extend evidence of an age-related positivity effect to the evaluation of face trustworthiness.