Skin conductance is a commonly used physiological measure during psychology experiments, such as during fear conditioning. Methods for scoring skin conductance responses (SCRs) are highly heterogeneous, though most researchers agree that manually inspected scores provide the highest quality data when compared to most available fully automated scoring methods. However, manual scoring is extremely time-consuming. We developed a semi-automated scoring program that reduces the time required to process SCR data at a level of quality akin to manual scoring. In contrast to all previous scoring programs, our program enables scoring of first interval response (FIR), second interval response (SIR), and third interval response (TIR) SCRs. Using interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), Bland-Altman plots and Pareto analysis, we show here that our method is highly reliable and produces data that are almost identical to data that are manually scored and scored using LEDALAB. This software is very easy to use and is freely available to download and modify. We expect that this software will be helpful in reducing the time required to produce high quality FIR, SIR, and TIR skin conductance data for psychology researchers around the world.

Interoception, the perception of visceral sensations, is key for several survival functions, including those related to feeding behavior. Sensations of hunger and satiety are mediated by gastric signals transmitted via the vagus nerve to the Nucleus of Solitary Tract. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been shown to modulate brain-viscera communication and to impact interoceptive processing in the cardiac domain. Yet, its effect on gastric interoception remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate taVNS' modulatory effects on gastric interoception using the Water Load Test-II (WLT-II) and its impact on food-related dispositions through a disposition and willingness to eat task (DWET). Participants underwent active or sham taVNS while performing the WLT-II and DWET. Results showed no significant difference in gastric interoceptive accuracy and amount of water ingested between taVNS groups. However, we found a significant reduction in food liking after the fullness phase of the WLT-II in the active (vs sham) taVNS group, suggesting an influence of vagal activation in the inhibition of food enjoyment when satiated. These findings suggest that, while taVNS may not directly enhance gastric interoceptive accuracy at a conscious level, it influences food-related dispositions, likely by modulating the processing of gastric signals. Further research exploring the intricate relationship between vagal modulation, interoceptive abilities and eating behaviors is warranted to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and, possibly, develop targeted interventions for eating disorders.

Stimuli encountered in the environment are continuously evaluated according to their affective stimulus significance. Numerous event-related potential studies have shown that the early posterior negativity (EPN) and the late positive potential (LPP) are larger for high than low arousing emotional pictures. The group approach has been recently extended to the study of the individual case. Usually, many exemplars are used to represent an emotion category. Determining how many pictures are needed to reliably assess affective stimulus evaluation processes at the individual level is crucial when moving toward the goal of exploring idiosyncratic emotional stimuli. Accordingly, in the present study (N = 16), singular images displaying erotic, neutral, and mutilation content were shown 800 times while dense sensor EEG was recorded. At the group level, enhanced EPN and LPP amplitudes for high compared to low arousing stimuli emerged. At the single subject level, significantly larger amplitudes to the erotic than neutral image were observed in 15 out of 16 tests for the EPN and LPP components. Regarding the mutilation image, 15 participants showed a significant EPN effect, while the LPP effect was only found in 10 cases. Notably, emotional modulation of the EPN and LPP was stable over time. The present study contributes to the development of experimental designs tailored to the needs of the case-by-case approach. Since the process of affective stimulus evaluation is considered as a process common-to-all, the use of a singular stimulus exemplar may prove useful to investigate the idiosyncratic nature of emotion.

In everyday conversation, bilingual individuals switch between their languages not only in reaction to monolinguals with different language profiles but also voluntarily and naturally. However, whether and how various switching contexts dynamically modulate domain-general cognitive control is still unclear. Using a cross-task paradigm in which a flanker task was interleaved with a language-switching task trial-by-trial, the present study examined the performance of unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals on a flanker task in forced, voluntary, and natural switching contexts. The cross-domain interaction on the P3 component revealed an atypical flanker effect in forced switching contexts only, and the P3 amplitude of incongruent trials in forced switching contexts was smaller than in both natural and voluntary switching contexts. Furthermore, robust brain-brain and brain-behavior relationships between language control and domain-general control emerged in the forced switching context only. Altogether, our findings support the dynamic adaptation of language control to cognitive control and highlight the importance of different types of switching contexts.

Motivation is considered a crucial factor in determining emotion regulation choice (ER choice). Our previous study revealed that increased motivation led to a preference for distraction over reappraisal due to the narrowed attention, yet neural underpinnings supporting this phenomenon remain unclear. In this study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether motivation influences ER choice by early attention processing (P2) or late resource engagement (LPP). EEG activities were recorded for the pictorial contexts varying in motivational intensity and direction, while participants (N = 68) were required to decide which strategy from the two options they would use to regulate their emotions. Consistent with previous studies, the results indicated that individuals chose more distraction over reappraisal in high-withdrawal motivated contexts while a reversed pattern was observed in low-withdrawal motivated contexts. Moreover, high-intensity motivated emotional contexts result in enhanced P2 and LPP. Further analysis indicates that only frontal P2 and the early LPP mediate the effect of motivational intensity on ER choice. These findings suggest that heightened motivation leads to a preference for distraction over reappraisal during emotion regulation due to the greater occupation of attentional resources.

Recent years have raised questions about the effectiveness of attentional bias modification (ABM) in individuals with social anxiety. In the current study, we employed a novel training method-ABM-positive-search training-to modify attentional bias in socially anxious individuals. The attentional bias was measured using the dot-probe task, and brain electrical activity was recorded. The ABM-positive-search group was instructed to search for a happy face in a 3 × 3 visual array. The placebo control group was asked to find out whether the only male from the female or the only female from the male. In terms of behavioral indicators, the results showed a significant reduction in the variability of trial level-bias score (TL-BS) in the ABM-positive-search group post-training. However, there was no significant change observed in the placebo control group. The electrophysiological results were consistent with the behavioral findings. To be specific, both groups displayed the N2pc effect in response to threatening faces before the training. After training, the N2pc effect disappeared in the ABM-positive search group, while it remained in the placebo control group. In conclusion, ABM-positive-search training can effectively modify the attentional bias of socially anxious individuals, and cognitive control plays an important role in this process.

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) aims to extract concealed crime-related knowledge using physiological measures. In the present study, we propose a new variant of the CIT that contains a continuously moving stimulus. A total of 81 participants were either informed or not about the specific location of an upcoming terrorist attack. The CIT consisted of a map with a superimposed moving dot, combined with measurements of respiration and electrodermal activity. The results revealed both respiratory suppression and an increase in skin conductance when the moving dot passed the target location only in informed participants. These findings showed that this new variant of the CIT can differentiate between groups of informed and uninformed individuals and an exploratory analysis revealed it can help narrow down a search area.

Visual search is guided by mental representations of target-defining features (attentional templates) that are activated in a preparatory fashion. It remains unknown how many templates can be maintained concurrently, and what kind of costs are associated with multiple-template versus single-template search. Here, we compared the operation of attentional templates during three-color and single-color search tasks. Preparatory template activation processes were tracked by measuring N2pc components to task-irrelevant singleton color probes that appeared in rapid succession during the interval between search displays. These probes attract attention (as indexed by an N2pc) if the corresponding color template is active at the time when the probe appears. In a three-color search task where target identity was fully predictable (Experiment 1), only probes that matched the upcoming target color triggered N2pcs, demonstrating that only a single target template was activated. When three possible color targets appeared randomly and unpredictably (Experiment 2), probes that matched any of these colors triggered N2pcs, demonstrating that all three templates were activated concurrently. However, relative to a single-color search task, clear costs emerged in this three-color task for attentional guidance toward search targets and for search performance. These costs appear to be linked to inhibitory interactions between simultaneously active search templates. These findings show that while at least three target templates can be maintained in parallel, multiple-template search is still subject to capacity limitations which affect both template-guided attentional guidance and the subsequent selective processing of search targets.

The effectiveness of imagery rescripting (IR) in reducing psychological symptoms associated with aversive memories has been confirmed across various disorders. To better understand the neural mechanisms underlying IR, we assessed the immediate and lasting effects and their associations with imagery tendency by using unpleasant pictures depicting child maltreatment within a population with childhood maltreatment (CM) history. Participants (n = 68) were instructed to engage in two experimental phases while electroencephalogram was recorded. In the rescripting phase, participants viewed neutral or unpleasant pictures and then either imagined the same pictures or rescripted unpleasant ones to assess immediate effect. In the re-exposure phase, participants passively viewed all pictures without instruction to assess lasting effect. Participants rated their subjective valence and imagery vividness in the rescripting phase or intensity of negative feelings in the re-exposure phase. IR led to an attenuation of the late positive potential (LPP) amplitude in the late time window (2000-6000 ms at parietal-occipital electrodes) and a decrease in self-reported unpleasantness during the rescripting phase. After 5-min interval, unpleasant pictures with rescripted history elicited smaller LPP (400-1500 ms at centro-parietal electrodes) and negative feelings than those with imagery history in the re-exposure phase. The higher habitual use of imagery was associated with a greater reduction in late LPP during the rescripting phase and full-time range LPP during the re-exposure phase. The current findings suggest that IR has an immediate effect and a lasting effect on subjective and neural response in the CM population. Individuals with higher imagery tendency are likely to profit more from IR.

Developmental, resting electroencephalography (EEG) is gaining rapid popularity with implementation in large-scale studies as well as a recent WHO report naming resting EEG as a gold standard measure of brain health. With an increased interest in resting EEG as a potential biomarker for neurocognition, it is paramount that resting EEG findings are reliable and reproducible. One of the major threats to replicability and reproducibility stems from variations in preprocessing and analysis. One of the primary challenges facing the field of developmental EEG is that it can be challenging to acquire data from infants and children, which commonly makes data cleaning and analysis difficult and unstandardized. The goal of the present manuscript is to take a state of the field of the methods experts in resting EEG report they would use to clean and analyze a hypothetical data set. Here we report on the responses of 66 self-identified experts in developmental psychophysiology, none of which submitted identical preregistrations. As expected, there were areas of more and less consensus, but ultimately, we believe our findings highlight opportunities for core methodological work and field-level efforts to establish consensus.

There is considerable evidence documenting associations between tobacco smoking, including initiation, maintenance, and relapse of addiction, with diminished cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. However, less is known about how smokers respond to repeated stress across time. The current study examined patterns of cardiovascular reactivity and adaptation to recurrent stress among 24-h abstinence smokers, smokers who continued to smoke at their normal rate, and non-smokers. Smokers were randomly assigned to one of two groups; ad libitum (n = 42), or 24 h abstinence (n = 61); non-smokers (n = 43) provided comparative referencing. Across the two laboratory sessions, participants (n = 149) were asked to complete a modified version of the trier social stress test, while monitoring systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate activity. Results showed that while non-smokers had elevated cardiovascular reactivity to begin with, they showed a greater capacity to habituate to recurrent stress across sessions. The data also suggest that smokers displayed lower cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress and showed little habituation to repeated stress. In adjusted models, smokers exhibited less systolic blood pressure habituation to stress. This response profile in smokers may be a potential mechanism that leads to further cardiotoxic effects on health.

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of social comparison on risk-taking behaviors and the neural underpinnings within a competitive context. Participants who thought they were playing against a stranger in a gambling task were actually playing against a programmed computer. Eighty-eight college students were assigned to one of three comparison conditions (downward, upward, and parallel) by varying the probability of gain. Behavioral results showed that disadvantage led to increased risk-taking. Event-related potential data analyses showed, in the parallel comparison condition, a significantly larger Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) was induced by the self's safe decision than the risky decision and by loss rather than gain. However, in the upward and downward comparison conditions, larger FRN emerged solely in response to the loss of risky rather than safe decisions. On the P3 component, participants in the upward comparison condition showed no significant difference in response to their gain or loss, while the other two conditions did. The highest P3 amplitude, delta/theta power, and aperiodic activity were found in the closely matched condition. Finally, in the downward comparison condition, a stronger delta/theta power was correlated with a less risky decision. Overall, the findings indicate that parity heightens emotional arousal and engages more cognitive resources.

Pupil size is a non-invasive index for autonomic arousal mediated by the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. While pupil size and its derivative (velocity) are increasingly used as indicators of arousal, limited research has investigated the relationships between pupil size and other well-known autonomic responses. Here, we simultaneously recorded pupillometry, heart rate, skin conductance, pulse wave amplitude, and respiration signals during an emotional face-word Stroop task, in which task-evoked (phasic) pupil dilation correlates with LC-NE responsivity. We hypothesized that emotional conflict and valence would affect pupil and other autonomic responses, and trial-by-trial correlations between pupil and other autonomic responses would be observed during both tonic and phasic epochs. Larger pupil dilations, higher pupil size derivative, and lower heart rates were observed in the incongruent condition compared to the congruent condition. Additionally, following incongruent trials, the congruency effect was reduced, and arousal levels indexed by previous-trial pupil dilation were correlated with subsequent reaction times. Furthermore, linear mixed models revealed that larger pupil dilations correlated with higher heart rates, higher skin conductance responses, higher respiration amplitudes, and lower pulse wave amplitudes on a trial-by-trial basis. Similar effects were seen between positive and negative valence conditions. Moreover, tonic pupil size before stimulus presentation significantly correlated with all other tonic autonomic responses, whereas tonic pupil size derivative correlated with heart rates and skin conductance responses. These results demonstrate a trial-by-trial relationship between pupil dynamics and other autonomic responses, highlighting pupil size as an effective real-time index for autonomic arousal during emotional conflict and valence processing.

This study investigates the proposed mechanism of mindfulness, its impact on body awareness and interoception, and its potential benefits for mental and physical health. Using psychophysical assessments, we compared 31 expert meditators with 33 matched controls (non-meditators who engage in regular reading, more than 5 h per week) in terms of somatosensory accuracy with a somatosensory signal detection task (SSDT) and interoceptive sensibility via self-report measures. We hypothesized that meditators would demonstrate superior somatosensory accuracy, indicative of heightened body awareness, potentially linked to increased alpha modulation in the somatosensory cortex, as observed via electroencephalography (EEG). In the SSDT, participants attempted to detect near-threshold tactile stimuli presented with a non-informative light in half of the trials. Contrary to our expectations, the findings showed that meditators had a lower decision threshold rather than higher accuracy. EEG results corroborated earlier research, indicating reduced prestimulus alpha power in meditators, suggesting enhanced alpha modulation. Furthermore, a trial-by-trial analysis revealed a negative correlation between prestimulus alpha activity and tactile perception. Compared to controls, meditators also reported greater interoceptive sensibility, less emotional suppression, and fewer difficulties in describing feelings. These findings may imply that enhanced tactile perception is associated with lower prestimulus alpha activity by reducing sensory filtering in the somatosensory cortex, thus increasing response rates without necessarily improving accuracy among meditators.

This study aimed to explore the physiological dynamics of cognitive stress in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and design a multiparametric model for objectively measuring severity of depression. Physiological signal recordings from 40 MDD patients and 40 healthy controls were collected in a baseline stage, in a stress-inducing stage using two cognitive tests, and in the recovery period. Several features were extracted from electrocardiography, photoplethysmography, electrodermal activity, respiration, and temperature. Differences between values of these features under different conditions were used as indexes of autonomic reactivity and recovery. Finally, a linear model was designed to assess MDD severity, using the Beck Depression Inventory scores as the outcome variable. The performance of this model was assessed using the MDD condition as the response variable. General physiological hyporeactivity and poor recovery from stress predict depression severity across all physiological signals except for respiration. The model to predict depression severity included gender, body mass index, cognitive scores, and mean heart rate recovery, and achieved an accuracy of 78%, a sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 59%. There is an observed correlation between the behavior of the autonomic nervous system, assessed through physiological signals analysis, and depression severity. Our findings demonstrated that decreased autonomic reactivity and recovery are linked with an increased level of depression. Quantifying the stress response together with a cognitive evaluation and personalization variables may facilitate a more precise diagnosis and monitoring of depression, enabling the tailoring of therapeutic interventions to individual patient needs.

Across childhood, emotion perception from facial expressions has traditionally been studied with event-related potentials (ERP). Here, we explored the novel fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) electroencephalography (EEG) approach to provide information about how brief changes in facial expressions are processed implicitly in young children's brains. Utilizing two FPVS tasks for the first time in preschoolers, we examined brain responses to (1) the discrimination of brief changes in facial expressions at maximum intensity and (2) thresholds for discrimination of gradual increasing facial expression intensities. Within a stream of neutral faces at 6 Hz, happy and angry faces were embedded with a frequency of 1.2 Hz. Additionally, children performed an emotion recognition task (ERT). Data were collected in the context of a training study for socio-emotional competencies with typically developing children (N = 74; 5.1[0.9] years; 34 females). FPVS data were collected post-training, where training was included as a controlling factor. Across FPVS tasks, we detected robust expression change responses, particularly with larger responses for happy versus angry faces in the maximum intensity task. ERT results paralleled neural findings with faster reaction times and higher accuracy rates for happy versus angry faces. For gradual increases in emotional intensity, we found linear increases in responses across emotions. The majority of the sample showed a significant expression change at 60% intensity. With its implicit nature, short duration, and robustness of individual responses, our results highlight the potential of FPVS in comparison to classical ERP methods to study neural mechanisms of emotion perception in preschool samples.

In music ensemble performance, perception-action coupling enables the processing of auditory feedback from oneself and other players. However, improvised actions may affect this coupling differently from predetermined actions. This study used two-person EEG to examine how pianists responded to altered pitch feedback to their own or their partner's actions while they alternated scores or improvised melodies. Feedback-related negativity (FRN) response for self-action was greater in scored than improvised conditions, indicating the enhanced action encoding by playing the score. However, subsequent P3a and P3b responses for self-action were not different across score and improvisation. Further, the P3b response was greater when the two pianists exchanged similar types of melodies (i.e., both improvised or both scores) compared with different types of melodies, suggesting that later cognitive processes may be associated with the task relevance or level of jointness. The presence of the FRN and P3 complex in self-generated improvised action points to the dynamic nature of performance monitoring even without preconceived action plans. In contrast, the FRN and P3 complex in partner-generated improvised actions were subdued compared to the baseline, likely due to the unpredictable nature of the improvised actions of others. Finally, we found a tendency that higher trait empathy was associated with smaller self-action FRN, possibly implying musicians' prioritization of joint goals. Overall, our results suggest that improvisation in a musical turn-taking task may be distinct from score-playing for the earlier processes of performance monitoring, whereas later processes might involve updating a joint representation of the musical context.

Using heart rate (HR) measurements to detect mental stress in naturalistic settings is hampered by the physiological impact of hemodynamic and metabolic demands. Correcting HR for these demands can help isolate fluctuations in HR associated with psychosocial stress responses, a concept termed additional heart rate (aHR). This study examined whether adding predictors for posture, activity type, and lagged movement intensity for the prolonged impact of physical activity (PA) improved aHR estimation across various manipulations of mental stress, posture, and PA in a controlled laboratory environment (n = 197). Accelerometer signals were used to obtain the movement intensity and to classify posture and activity type. Posture, activity type, and lagged movement intensity each led to a significant improvement in HR estimation, as measured by adjusted R and root mean squared error. However, HR was overestimated during quiet sitting. The aHR, computed as the difference between observed and predicted HR, generally underestimated observed task-baseline reactivity but was sensitive to individual differences in reactivity to mental stressors. Between-subject correlations of aHR with task-baseline reactivity ranged from 0.62 to 0.93 across conditions. On a within-subject level, the ability of aHR to differentiate between exposure to physical stress and mental stress was limited (recall = 0.32, precision = 0.31), but better than that of observed HR (recall = 0.02, precision = 0.02). Future research should explore the potential of this novel aHR estimation method in differentiating physical and mental demands on HR in daily life, and its predictive value for health outcomes.

Brain functional modular organization changes with age. Considering the brain as a dynamic system, recent studies have suggested that time-varying connectivity provides more information on brain functions. However, the spontaneous reconfiguration of modular brain structures over time during aging remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the age-related dynamic modular reconfiguration using resting-state functional MRI data (615 participants, aged 18-88 years) from Cam-CAN. We employed a graph-based modularity analysis to investigate modular variability and the transition of nodes from one module to another in modular brain networks across the adult lifespan. Results showed that modular structure exhibits both linear and nonlinear age-related trends. The modular variability is higher in early and late adulthood, with higher modular variability in the association networks and lower modular variability in the primary networks. In addition, the whole-brain transition matrix showed that the times of transition from other networks to the dorsal attention network were the largest. Furthermore, the modular structure was closely related to the number of cognitive components and memory-related cognitive performance, suggesting a potential contribution to flexibility cognitive function. Our findings highlighted the notable dynamic characteristics in large-scale brain networks across the adult lifespan, which enhanced our understanding of the neural substrate in various cognitions during aging. These findings also provided further evidence that dedifferentiation and compensation are the outcomes of functional brain interactions.

Judging the emotional nature of a scene requires us to deliberately integrate pieces of evidence with varying intensities of emotion. Our existing knowledge about emotion-related perceptual decision-making is largely based on paradigms using single stimulus and, when involving multiple stimuli, rapid decisions. Consequently, it remains unclear how we sample and integrate multiple pieces of emotional evidence deliberately to form an overall judgment. Findings from non-emotion rapid decision-making studies show humans down-sample and downweight extreme evidence. However, deliberate decision-making may rely on a different attention mode than in rapid decision-making; and extreme emotional stimuli are inherently salient. Given these critical differences, it is imperative to directly examine the deliberate decision-making process about multiple emotional stimuli. In the current study, human participants (N = 33) viewed arrays of faces with expressions ranging from extremely fearful to extremely happy freely with their eye movement tracked. They then decided whether the faces were more fearful or happier on average. In contrast to conclusions drawn from non-emotion and rapid decision-making studies, eye movement measures revealed that participants attentionally sampled extreme emotional evidence more than less extreme evidence. Computational modeling results indicated that even though participants exhibited biased attention distribution, they weighted various emotional evidence equally. These findings provide novel insights into how people sample and integrate multiple pieces of emotional evidence, contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of emotion-related decision-making, and shed light on the mechanisms of pathological affective decisions.

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is the subject of exploration as an adjunct treatment for neurological disorders such as epilepsy, chronic migraine, pain, and depression. A non-invasive form of VNS is transcutaneous auricular VNS (taVNS). Combining animal models and positron emission tomography (PET) may lead to a better understanding of the elusive mechanisms of taVNS. We evaluated the acute effect of electrical stimulation of the left vagus nerve via the ear on brain synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) as a measure of presynaptic density and glucose metabolism in naïve rats. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were imaged with [C]UCB-J (n = 11) or [F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([F]FDG) PET (n = 13) on two separate days, (1) at baseline, and (2) after acute unilateral left taVNS or sham stimulation (30 min). We calculated the regional volume of distribution (V) for [C]UCB-J and standard uptake values (SUV) for [F]FDG. We observed regional reductions of [C]UCB-J binding in response to taVNS ranging from 36% to 59%. The changes in taVNS compared to baseline were significantly larger than those induced by sham stimulation. The differences were observed bilaterally in the frontal cortex, striatum, and midbrain. The [F]FDG PET uptake remained unchanged following acute taVNS or sham stimulation compared to baseline values. This proof-of-concept study shows for the first time that acute taVNS for 30 min can modulate in vivo synaptic SV2A density in cortical and subcortical regions of healthy rats. Preclinical disease models and PET ligands of different targets can be a powerful combination to assess the therapeutic potential of taVNS.

Saccadic eye movements, a critical aspect of real-world visual behavior, are preceded by an initial accumulation of visual information followed by the selection of a single location to move one's eyes. However, it is currently unclear how each of these stages uniquely affects saccadic timing. In this study, participants searched for a contour integration target while EEG was used to measure posterior cortical activity between search display onset and first saccade initiation. The goal was to determine whether saccade timing could be attributed to differences in early ERP amplitudes, with the P1 reflecting the magnitude of early perceptual information accumulation and the N1 reflecting the strength of selection leading to the saccadic decision. EOG was used to measure saccade timing, and trials were divided into fast, middle, and slow bins. The N1 response was smallest in the slow saccade tertile, relative to both the fast and middle tertiles, suggesting weak selection. In contrast, the P1 response was largest for this same slow saccadic tertile relative to the middle saccadic tertile, suggesting vigorous information accumulation. Therefore, delays in saccadic behavior may occur when the visual system is overwhelmed with visual input, thus increasing the time to reach a saccadic decision. These findings reconcile models of eye movement behavior which often prioritize either the impact of information accrual or selection, rather than regarding both as an integrated whole.

Specific phobia represents an anxiety disorder category characterized by intense fear generated by specific stimuli. Among specific phobias, small animal phobia (SAP) denotes a particular condition that has been poorly investigated in the neuroscientific literature. Moreover, the few previous studies on this topic have mostly employed univariate analyses, with limited and unbalanced samples, leading to inconsistent results. To overcome these limitations, and to characterize the neural underpinnings of SAP, this study aims to develop a classification model of individuals with SAP based on gray matter features, by using a machine learning method known as the binary support vector machine. Moreover, the contribution of specific structural macro-networks, such as the default mode, the salience, the executive, and the affective networks, in separating phobic subjects from controls was assessed. Thirty-two subjects with SAP and 90 matched healthy controls were tested to this aim. At a whole-brain level, we found a significant predictive model including brain structures related to emotional regulation, cognitive control, and sensory integration, such as the cerebellum, the temporal pole, the frontal cortex, temporal lobes, the amygdala and the thalamus. Instead, when considering macro-networks analysis, we found the Default, the Affective, and partially the Central Executive and the Sensorimotor networks, to significantly outperform the other networks in classifying SAP individuals. In conclusion, this study expands knowledge about the neural basis of SAP, proposing new research directions and potential diagnostic strategies.

Flexible updating of information in Visual Working Memory (VWM) is crucial to deal with its limited capacity. Previous research has shown that the removal of no longer relevant information takes some time to complete. Here, we sought to study the time course of such removal by tracking the accompanying drop in load through behavioral and neurophysiological measures. In the first experimental session, participants completed a visuospatial retro-cue task in which the Cue-Target Interval (CTI) was manipulated. The performance revealed that it takes about half a second to make full use of the retro-cue. In a second session, we sought to study the dynamics of load-related electroencephalographic (EEG) signals to track the removal of information. We applied Multivariate Pattern Analysis (MVPA) to EEG data from the same task. Right after encoding, results replicated previous research using MVPA to decode load. However, especially after the retro-cue, results suggested that classifiers were mainly sensitive to a selection component, and not so much to load per se. Additionally, visual cue variations, as well as eye movements that accompany load manipulations can also contribute to decoding. These findings advise caution when using MVPA to decode VWM load, as classifiers may be sensitive to confounding operations.

Black adults' prior exposure to racial discrimination may be associated with their acute parasympathetic reactivity to and recovery from a new race-related stressor. Existing analytical approaches to investigating this link obscure nuances in the timing, magnitude, and patterns of these acute parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) responses. In a re-analysis of a prior study, we utilize an hidden Markov model (HMM) approach to examine how prior experiences of racial discrimination are associated with intraindividual patterns of (1) physiological states of PNS activity and (2) patterns of and variability in transitions between these physiological states. Participants (N = 118) were Black young adults (range 18-29 years; M = 19.67, SD = 2.04) who completed an online survey to index prior racial discrimination exposure, followed by an in-person lab visit during which their PNS activity in response to a race-related stress task was measured via electrocardiogram and converted into respiratory sinus arrhythmia. HMMs indicated evidence for two states: baseline and a second state representing a significant reduction in respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Most participants (93.22%) demonstrated a blunted response to the task, indicating that they did not transition from baseline during the procedure. Prior racial discrimination was not associated with HMM states or state transition parameters. Blunted physiological responses may be an important area of future investigation that could inform early life course mental and physical health screenings.

This study investigates the cortical correlates of motor response control and monitoring, using the Theory of Event Coding (TEC) as a framework to investigate signals related to low-level sensory processing of motor reafference and high-level response monitoring, including verification of response outcomes with the internal model. We used a visuomotor paradigm with two targets at different distances from the participant. For the recorded movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs), we analyzed their different components and assessed the movement phases during which they are active. Residual iteration decomposition (RIDE) and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) were used for this analysis. Using RIDE, we separated MRCPs into signals related to different parallel processes of visuomotor transformation: stimulus processing (S-cluster), motor response preparation and execution (R-cluster), and intermediate processes (C-cluster). We revealed sequential activation in the R-cluster, with execution-related negative components and positive contralateral peaks reflecting reafference processing. We also identified the motor post-imperative negative variation within the R-cluster, highlighting the response outcome evaluation process included in the action file. Our findings extend the understanding of C-cluster signals, typically associated with stimulus-response mapping, by demonstrating C-activation from the preparatory stages through to response termination, highlighting its participation in action monitoring. In addition, we highlighted the ability of MVPA to identify movement-related attribute encoding: where statistical analysis showed independence of stimulus processing activity from movement distance, MVPA revealed distance-related differences in the S-cluster within a time window aligned with the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). This highlights the importance of integrating RIDE and MVPA to uncover the intricate neural dynamics of motor control, sensory integration, and response monitoring.