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DATE: June 24, 2024 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Is evolutionary psychology a scientific revolution or an evolving paradigm?

URL: https://www.psypost.org/is-evolutionary-psychology-a-scientific-revolution-or-an-evolving-paradigm/

Some scientists argue that evolutionary psychology is revolutionary within the field of psychology. David Buss, a prominent figure in the field, suggests that evolutionary psychology has already triggered a paradigm shift, fundamentally altering how scientists view human behavior and cognition. He draws a parallel to Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shifts, which posits the emergence of a new dominant paradigm that replaces the old one marks a scientific revolution.

Other researchers suggest that the state of evolutionary psychology is contentious, and its acceptance as the dominant paradigm is not as widespread as suggested. In recent work, researcher Andrea Zagaria conducted a bibliometric analysis to assess the prevalence of evolutionary psychology relative to the socio-cultural approach (that is, the Standard Social Science Model; SSSM), to determine whether evolutionary psychology is indeed revolutionary. This study was published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology.

Zagaria sourced data from PsycInfo, a comprehensive database of psychological literature, and compared frequency of words associated with evolutionary psychology (e.g., natural selection, ethology) and SSSM (e.g., social identity, acculturation) across a variety of peer-reviewed journals between 1950-2022. The researcher selected terms based on the APA Thesaurus to ensure a broad representation of both subdisciplines. The percentage of publications related to each approach, as well as their intersection, was calculated to visualize the growth and relative prominence of each field within psychological literature over time.

Zagaria found that while the prominence of evolutionary psychology has steadily grown over the past decade, it has not surpassed SSSM. Between 1950 to 1990, evolutionary psychology-related publications were relatively stable at roughly 3% of the total psychological literature. There was a notable increase post-1990, which peaked at approximately 4% in 2005.

However, this growth has plateaued since. SSSM-related publications significantly increased between 1950 to early 2000s, with publications surging from 5% of the total literature in the 1950s to approximately 11% by 2005, stabilizing around 10% in recent years. Zagaria argues this trend shows SSSM has maintained, if not strengthened, its position as a dominant approach in psychology.

The ratio between SSSM and evolutionary psychology has steadily increased over time, with SSSM contributions, on average, being more than twice as prevalent as evolutionary psychology contributions This gap has been widening in recent years, indicating that SSSM is growing at a faster pace than evolutionary psychology.

There were few contributions that integrated both evolutionary psychology and SSSM, showing there are minimal efforts to integrate the two bodies of research–i.e., the cultural-evolutionary approach. This lack of integration further suggests that evolutionary psychology has not achieved a revolutionary status. Engaging in interdisciplinary research may help foster the integration of evolutionary perspectives in understanding human behavior.

Zagaria maintains the continued dominance of the SSSM suggests that psychology is still a pre-paradigmatic science that is characterized by competing schools of thought, rather than one unified paradigm.

A limitation of this study is the reliance on keyword-based searches, which may not fully capture the complexity of theoretical and empirical contributions to psychology.

The study, “Is Evolutionary Psychology a Scientific Revolution? A Bibliometric Analysis”, was conducted by Andrea Zagaria.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/is-evolutionary-psychology-a-scientific-revolution-or-an-evolving-paradigm/

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DATE: June 24, 2024 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Creatine nitrate and caffeine combo boost cognitive performance, study finds

URL: https://www.psypost.org/creatine-nitrate-and-caffeine-combo-boost-cognitive-performance-study-finds/

A new study published in the journal Nutrients has found that a combination of creatine nitrate and caffeine significantly enhances cognitive function more effectively than caffeine alone. However, this combination does not improve exercise performance. This research offers valuable insights for those seeking to enhance mental sharpness through dietary supplements.

Athletes and fitness enthusiasts often use dietary supplements like caffeine and creatine to boost performance. Caffeine is well-known for its ability to reduce fatigue and enhance alertness. Creatine, particularly creatine monohydrate, helps in quickly replenishing adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is crucial for short bursts of high-intensity exercise. Creatine nitrate, a newer form, is thought to offer the benefits of creatine while also enhancing nitric oxide production, which can improve blood flow and muscle oxygenation.

Despite the known benefits of these supplements individually, the effects of combining them have been less studied. Some evidence suggests potential interactions that could either amplify or diminish their benefits. In their new study, the researchers aimed to evaluate the cognitive and physical performance effects of a week-long high-dose intake of caffeine, creatine nitrate, and their combination in resistance-trained males.

“I was intrigued by the potential ergogenic and cognitive benefits of both creatine and caffeine, which are well-documented individually but less understood when combined. Given their popularity among athletes, it was important to explore whether their combination could yield synergistic benefits, particularly for enhancing physical and cognitive performance,” said study author Majid Koozehchian, an associate professor of kinesiology at Jacksonville State University.

The study took place at the Human Performance Laboratory of Jacksonville State University. Recruitment targeted resistance-trained males with at least two years of multi-joint resistance training experience. Participants were required to maintain their usual training and dietary habits and avoid new exercises or dietary changes during the study.

The final sample included 12 participants, aged 18 to 40, who met strict inclusion criteria. They had to be free of metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and other specific health conditions, and not on prescription medications. They also had to have a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9 and no known intolerance to caffeine or natural stimulants.

Participants underwent a familiarization session where they practiced the exercise tests and provided baseline health data. The study followed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, with participants cycling through four treatment phases: creatine nitrate, caffeine, their combination, and a placebo. Each phase lasted seven days, separated by a week-long washout period.

The supplements included 5 grams of creatine nitrate, 400 milligrams of caffeine, a combination of both, or a placebo of maltodextrin. These were administered 45 minutes before exercise tests. The rationale for the dosages was based on previous research showing these amounts could enhance performance and cognitive function.

Performance was assessed using bench press and leg press exercises, measuring repetitions to failure and lifting volume. The Wingate test, a 30-second cycle ergometer sprint, evaluated anaerobic performance indicators like peak power, mean power, and fatigue index.

Cognitive function was assessed using the Stroop Word–Color Test, which measures attention, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility. Participants also completed the Visual Analog Scale to rate their readiness to perform, alongside comprehensive questionnaires on sleep quality, caffeine tolerance, and side effects.

Blood samples were taken to measure various markers, including muscle and liver enzymes, and a complete blood count was performed. Heart rate and blood pressure were monitored before and after exercise.

Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, no significant improvements in exercise performance were observed. Bench press and leg press repetitions and volumes, as well as Wingate test parameters like peak power and mean power, remained unchanged across all conditions. These findings suggest that while the supplements may enhance cognitive function, they do not provide additional benefits for physical performance.

“I was surprised to find that the co-ingestion of creatine nitrate and caffeine did not significantly improve exercise performance, as we initially hypothesized. This contrasts with previous findings suggesting potential ergogenic benefits from these supplements, highlighting the complex interactions and the need for personalized approaches to supplementation.”

But the researchers found that the combination of creatine nitrate and caffeine significantly improved cognitive performance on the Stroop Word–Color Test. This enhancement was more pronounced than with caffeine alone. The combination treatment showed a medium-to-large effect size, indicating a robust impact on cognitive processing.

“The primary takeaway from our study is that while the combination of creatine nitrate and caffeine significantly improved cognitive function, particularly in tasks involving cognitive interference, it did not enhance short-term exercise performance. This suggests that athletes and individuals seeking cognitive benefits may consider this combination, but those looking solely for physical performance enhancements may not see additional benefits.”

While this study offers important insights, it has several limitations. The sample size was relatively small and limited to resistance-trained males, which may not represent broader or more diverse populations. The washout period between treatments, though practical, may have been too short to fully eliminate the effects of the previous supplement phase.

“A major caveat of our study is its relatively small sample size and the focus on male resistance-trained athletes, which may limit the generalizability of the findings,” Koozehchian noted. “Additionally, the short duration of supplementation (seven days) might not capture longer-term effects, and we did not measure peak blood levels of caffeine and nitrate, which could influence the outcomes.”

Future research could explore these supplements’ effects over longer periods and in more diverse populations. Longitudinal studies could also help in understanding how these supplements affect muscle growth, intramuscular signaling pathways, and hormonal responses over time.

“Long-term, I aim to explore the effects of these supplements over more extended periods and in more diverse populations, including different athletic and non-athletic groups and both genders,” Koozehchian explained. “Additionally, investigating the underlying mechanisms through which these supplements influence cognitive and physical performance could provide more nuanced insights.”

“I believe our findings contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting a personalized approach to supplementation. The interplay between different supplements and individual responses underscores the need for tailored strategies to optimize both cognitive and physical performance.”

The study, “The Effect of Creatine Nitrate and Caffeine Individually or Combined on Exercise Performance and Cognitive Function: A Randomized, Crossover, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial,” was authored by by Gina Mabrey, Majid S. Koozehchian, Andrew T. Newton, Alireza Naderi, Scott C. Forbes, and Monoem Haddad.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/creatine-nitrate-and-caffeine-combo-boost-cognitive-performance-study-finds/

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DATE: June 23, 2024 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: How long do men last during sex? Here is what the research says

URL: https://www.psypost.org/average-sex-time-psychology-research/

Sexual intimacy is a significant part of many people’s lives, and understanding the typical duration of sexual activity can help demystify this often private aspect of human experience. Three recent studies have provided detailed insights into the typical duration of heterosexual intercourse, with findings suggesting that the time from penetration to ejaculation varies significantly among men.

The three studies, all published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, utilized different methodologies and sample populations, yet their results offer a comprehensive view of what is considered “normal” when it comes to the duration of sex.

But why were scientists investigated this in the first place? Studies on how long sex typically lasts have been conducted to gain a better understanding of two sexual problems faced by men: premature ejaculation and delayed ejaculation.

Premature ejaculation is the most prevalent sexual complaint among men and can negatively affect the quality of life for both partners. It often leads to lowered self-esteem and sexual confidence, making it a significant concern for many couples. Delayed ejaculation, although less common, is another important issue. It involves a significant delay in reaching ejaculation, which can lead to frustration, lack of sexual fulfillment, and difficulties in procreation.

It’s important to highlight that these studies specifically examine the period from the start of penetration to ejaculation, known as ejaculation latency. This focus on penetration provides a clear, measurable endpoint that can be consistently assessed across different populations.

By excluding foreplay and other forms of sexual activity, researchers can obtain a more precise understanding of the timing related to ejaculation itself. This precision is vital for developing accurate clinical guidelines and effective treatments for both premature and delayed ejaculation.

A study published in 2023 aimed to better understand the amount of time it takes for men to ejaculate to help diagnose those who have trouble reaching orgasm. The study surveyed 1,660 men. The final sample consisted mainly of Hungarian men (77.71%) and included a significant proportion from the United States and other English-speaking countries (22.29%). The average age of participants was approximately 39 years, with a majority identifying as heterosexual.

Participants were asked to estimate the average time it took from the beginning of penile stimulation to reach orgasm during partnered sex, using a nine-point scale. The scale ranged from less than one minute to more than 25 minutes. The study tested three EL thresholds: more than 10 minutes, more than 15 minutes, and more than 20 minutes.

The study found that men without orgasmic difficulties typically ejaculated within 11 minutes during partnered sex. The analysis revealed that longer ejaculation latencies were significantly associated with greater orgasmic difficulties. Specifically, men who took more than 10 minutes to ejaculate were more likely to report significant orgasmic difficulties.

Another study, published in 2020, focused on understanding how long men typically last during sex from the perspectives of both men and their female sexual partners. The researchers recruited participants through social media platforms like Reddit and Facebook, using both unpaid and paid advertisements. Additionally, some participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. This approach resulted in a sample of 1,065 respondents, consisting of 571 men and 494 women.

Participants were asked to estimate various ejaculation latencies based on their experiences and perceptions. These included:

  1. Typical ejaculation latency: How long they believe most men last during penetrative sex.
  2. Ideal ejaculation latency: The duration they consider ideal for penetrative sex.
  3. Premature ejaculation latency: The time they think qualifies as premature ejaculation.
  4. Self-reported ejaculation latency: How long they personally last during penetrative sex.

The researchers found that both men and women estimated the typical time most men last during sex to be around 5 minutes, though there was a positive skew, resulting in average times closer to 8 minutes. The ideal duration for sex was generally longer, around 10 minutes, indicating a preference for prolonged sexual activity. For premature ejaculation, both men and women agreed on a median threshold of about 1.5 minutes, suggesting that sex lasting less than this time was considered too short.

Interestingly, there were no significant differences between men and women in their estimates of typical, ideal, and premature ejaculation times. Both genders had similar perceptions of these durations. Additionally, the study found that men with self-reported premature ejaculation estimated shorter typical and ideal durations compared to men without such issues.

The study also compared estimates from men of different sexual orientations and found no significant differences between straight, gay, and bisexual men. This consistency suggests that perceptions of ejaculation latency are similar across different groups. The number of lifetime sexual partners was found to be a factor, with those reporting more partners generally estimating longer typical and ideal durations for sex.

But the most objective evidence comes from a study published back in 2005. The study involved 500 couples from five countries: the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, and Turkey. Participants were men aged 18 years or older who had been in a stable heterosexual relationship for at least six months and engaged in regular sexual intercourse.

Participants were provided with a stopwatch and a sexual events diary. They were instructed to record the time from vaginal penetration until ejaculation for each sexual encounter over a four-week period. Either partner could operate the stopwatch, but the same person was asked to handle it consistently throughout the study. The recorded data included the date, time of day, duration of each sexual event, and whether the stopwatch was used.

The study collected data from 491 men, as some were excluded for not using the stopwatch or providing incomplete information. A total of 4,000 sexual events were timed, with a mean frequency of eight events per couple over the four weeks. The results showed that the average time from penetration to ejaculation was 5.4 minutes, with a wide range from 0.55 to 44.1 minutes.

The median ejaculation latency varied significantly between countries. For example, men in Turkey had a median latency of 3.7 minutes, while men in the United Kingdom had a median latency of 7.6 minutes. Age also played a role; younger men (18-30 years) had a longer median latency of 6.5 minutes compared to older men (over 51 years) who had a median latency of 4.3 minutes.

The study also examined the effects of circumcision and condom use on ejaculation latency. The results showed that circumcision status had minimal impact on latency except in Turkey, where all men were circumcised. The use of condoms did not significantly affect the latency either, with median values being similar for both condom users and non-users.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/average-sex-time-psychology-research/

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DATE: June 23, 2024 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Dreams of Israelis were affected by October 7 Hamas attacks, study shows

URL: https://www.psypost.org/dreams-of-israelis-were-affected-by-october-7-hamas-attacks-study-shows/

A qualitative study investigating the dreams of Israelis following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks revealed that the traumatic events significantly influenced the content of participants’ dreams. This suggests a possible disruption of the psychological mechanisms typically used for coping with stress. The findings were published in the journal Death Studies.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, the militant and political organization governing the Gaza Strip at the time, launched a surprise attack on Israel. Over the course of one day, more than 1,200 Israelis were killed, hundreds were wounded, and another 240 were abducted and taken to Gaza. The attacks included raids and the firing of thousands of missiles into Israel, impacting nearly the entire country due to its small size.

The conflict between Hamas and Israel escalated into a prolonged war, which continues today. Virtually all residents of Israel experienced the war’s horrors, whether directly through the attacks, through their friends and relatives being affected, or by participating in the ensuing conflict. These traumatic events profoundly impacted many people’s mental health, influencing their dreams.

Study author Shani Pitcho of the University of the Negev noted that when core assumptions of one’s worldview are challenged, such as in the case of traumatic events where individuals confront death, their normal mechanisms for coping against stress can be disrupted and anxiety will emerge. Usually, people hold worldviews that allow them to make them feel safe and avoid anxiety. They use their self-esteem and close relationships in the same way, relying on them to feel safe and buffer anxiety.

However, when traumatic events happen, such as those from October 7, 2023, these factors may no longer be sufficient to protect from anxiety. In some cases, this disruption may play a key role in the development of mental disorders. But is this disruption visible in the contents of dreams?

Pitcho conducted a study in which she had 242 Jewish-Israeli participants describe their dreams through a Qualtrics survey. Participants were selected to be as diverse as possible. Their ages ranged between 18 and 70 years, with the average being 43. 80% of them were female. 10% of the participants resided in close geographic proximity to the zones affected by the attack and the subsequent war, because of which they had to evacuate their homes. 12% reported losing a loved one during these events, while 23% either sustained injuries themselves or knew someone who was injured or abducted during the attack.

The survey began two weeks after the initial Hamas attacks and continued for two months. Participants provided detailed descriptions of any dreams they had since the attacks, with no requirement for the dreams to be nightmares or war-related.

A thematic analysis of the dream descriptions revealed that many dreams were about death and directly confronting mortality. Themes identified in the dreams challenged the three main factors that buffer against anxiety: worldview, self-esteem, and close relationships.

A fundamental cultural worldview is that one’s home is one’s castle, a place that is safe. Still many people dreamt dreams depicting their house as no longer safe. Their dreams depicted homes as unsafe, with intruders breaking in, an inability to escape, and a lack of protection from authorities. These dreams reflected a perceived loss of security and safety.

One’s self-esteem is important not only because it makes a person see him/herself as valuable, but also because high self-esteem makes one feel protected. In contrast to this, dreams of participants included situations where they were unable to protect themselves, had no control, failed professionally (e.g. could not remember how to do something), morally or as parents (unable to protect children). These included dreams of helplessness or unworthiness.

Close personal relationships are the third buffer against anxiety as they protect an individual against danger. Still, in these dreams, participants dreamt of their loved ones being murdered, suddenly dying, being abducted, or hurt. They dreamt of being separated from loved ones and experiencing negative emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, shame or fear.

“The paper offers a unique glimpse into the subtle effects that traumatic national events with high mortality salience can have on the human psyche. The demonstrated breach in the three psychological anxiety buffering mechanisms may reflect collective, negative feelings of shock, uncertainty, and fear, but it may also mark the beginning of a cultural change,” the researcher concluded.

“Prior to the events of October 7, the State of Israel was rocked by months of severe civil unrest that was driven by political processes that divided the country along social and religious lines. The fact that all of the study participants, irrespective of their diverse backgrounds, described similar dreams perhaps hints at the emergence of a new existential protection mechanism grounded in the therapeutic factor of universalism.”

The study sheds light on the dreams of Israelis during the 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas war. However, the collected data does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about participants’ stress levels. Additionally, the study focused on the dreams of Israeli Jews, which are not the only group affected or involved in this war. It is possible that dreams of other ethnic groups affected by the war, Palestinians, before all, were different.

The paper, “The stuff that nightmares are made of: Israeli dreams in times of the Israel-Hamas war,” was authored by Shani Pitcho.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/dreams-of-israelis-were-affected-by-october-7-hamas-attacks-study-shows/

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DATE: June 23, 2024 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: New study links oral narrative structure with reading skills in young children

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-study-links-oral-narrative-structure-with-reading-skills-in-young-children/

In a recently published study in the journal npj Science of Learning, researchers have discovered a significant relationship between the way children tell stories and their reading abilities. This research found that children who displayed more complex narrative structures in their oral stories tended to perform better on reading tests several months later. This link appears to be independent of the child’s intelligence and understanding of others’ perspectives.

Reading is fundamental to learning, serving as the basis for understanding subjects such as history, science, and geography. As children learn to read, their cognitive abilities also develop, allowing them to handle more complex language structures. Previous research suggested that the way children tell stories could indicate their cognitive development, but it was unclear how this relates to reading skills. The researchers aimed to explore this relationship in detail, hoping to identify early indicators of reading difficulties.

“Ten years ago, I started this line of study. I knew the potential of other natural language processing tools for the application on mental health, but all of them required representative corpora,” said study author Natália Bezerra Mota, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and founder of Mobile Brain.

“As it was no corpora available in Brazilian Portuguese, I’ve developed a strategy to study the structure of language, not the content, and also associated with psychopathological signs. This strategy based on graph theory is language invariant and allows the study across languages as well.”

The study included 253 children aged 5 to 8 from private schools in São Paulo, Brazil. The researchers began their study in March, at the start of the school year, and conducted subsequent assessments in April, June, August, and October.

During these sessions, children were shown three images depicting positive scenarios (a baby, a dog, and a dessert) and asked to create stories about each one. These stories were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a graph-theoretical approach. This method involved representing each word as a node and the sequence of words as directed edges, forming a word recurrence graph. The researchers focused on three main attributes of these graphs: repeated edges (RE), largest connected component (LCC), and largest strongly connected component (LSC).

In addition to the narrative tasks, the children underwent three reading performance assessments. These included an eye-tracking text reading task to measure reading speed and comprehension, a single-word reading task to assess reading fluency, and a phonological awareness task to evaluate their ability to identify and manipulate sounds in words. The combination of these assessments provided a comprehensive view of the children’s reading abilities.

Over the school year, the children’s oral narratives showed a decrease in repeated edges and an increase in the complexity of connected components (LCC and LSC). In other words, their stories contained fewer repetitions of the same word associations and demonstrated a greater variety of interconnected words, reflecting a more complex and sophisticated narrative structure. This pattern was particularly evident when comparing data from March to June and from March to October, indicating that the school environment played a crucial role in enhancing narrative complexity.

“The same dynamic change in oral narratives that occurs when a child starts to read, happened in written narratives studying historical books, since Sumeria and Ancient Egypt up to nowadays,” Mota told PsyPost.

One of the most notable findings was the predictive value of narrative complexity for reading performance. The researchers found that higher connectedness in the oral narratives collected in March and June was positively correlated with better performance in phonological awareness, reading comprehension, and word accuracy in October.

Phonological awareness refers to the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in words, which is fundamental for decoding new words. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret the meaning of the text. Word accuracy involves correctly identifying and pronouncing written words. This suggests that the way children organize their thoughts into stories can provide early indicators of their reading abilities several months later.

However, the study also found that this association did not extend to reading fluency. Reading fluency is the ability to read text smoothly and quickly with minimal errors. This indicates that while narrative complexity is linked to certain aspects of reading skills, other factors may influence reading fluency. Additionally, the study highlighted that girls generally exhibited higher connectedness in their narratives compared to boys, suggesting potential gender differences in language development.

While the findings are promising, the study has some limitations. The sample consisted of children from high socioeconomic backgrounds, which may not represent the broader population. Future research should include children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to see if the findings hold true across different groups.

“We are now designing tools to track narrative complexity on schools environment to follow language development in time to design pedagogical interventions and to track signs of mental disorders in target ages,” Mota said.

The study, “Speech connectedness predicts reading performance three months in advance: a longitudinal experiment,” was authored by Bárbara Malcorra, Marina Ribeiro, Luísa Jensen, Giovana Gomes, Tamara Meletti, and Natália Bezerra Mota.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-study-links-oral-narrative-structure-with-reading-skills-in-young-children/

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DATE: June 23, 2024 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Prenatal cannabinoid exposure appears to have a strange impact on early language development

URL: https://www.psypost.org/prenatal-cannabinoid-exposure-appears-to-have-a-strange-impact-on-early-language-development/

A recent study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics has found that infants exposed to cannabis in the womb tend to exhibit improved language development by their first birthday. This surprising finding sheds light on the impacts of prenatal cannabis exposure on one aspect of early childhood neurodevelopment. However, experts advise that women avoid cannabis use during pregnancy due to known risks and unknown long-term effects.

The medical community has been concerned about the rise in cannabis use among pregnant women, particularly with a large spike in use occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research on prenatal cannabis exposure is limited, but some studies have suggested that exposure to cannabis while in the womb could lead to neurodevelopmental issues in children, including cognitive abnormalities.

The research team, led by Maria M. Talavera-Barber from Avera Research Institute in South Dakota, embarked on this study to better understand the impact of exposure to cannabis while developing in a mother’s womb.

The researchers recruited 207 pregnant individuals and their 12-month-old infants who were part of The Safe Passage Study. This was a large prospective study that followed participants from 2007 to 2015.

Talavera-Barber and colleagues assessed the infants according to the Mullen Scale of Early Learning, a tool that assesses cognitive development in children from 2 days old to 68 months. The scale focuses on gross motor skills, fine motor skills, expressive language, receptive language, and visual reception, where higher scores indicate more comprehensive development.

Prenatal cannabis exposure was collected from the mothers through self-report. Participants were categorized based on whether the exposure to cannabis occurred early (first trimester only; 51 participants) or late (second or third trimester; 18 participants), and they were randomly matched with unexposed participants for comparison (138 participants).

The team then analyzed the data using statistical models to explore the relationship between cannabis exposure and developmental outcomes.

Unexpectedly, infants who were exposed to cannabis later in pregnancy scored higher in both expressive and receptive language areas than those who were not exposed.

Additionally, infants exposed early in pregnancy showed better gross motor skills, although there was no difference in fine motor skills and visual reception skills.

The authors concluded, “preclinical studies have shown abnormal brain connectivity in offspring exposed to cannabis affecting emotional regulation, hyperactivity, and language development. Results from this study link [prenatal cannabis exposure] to altered early language development within the first year of life. Exposed infants demonstrated increased expressive and receptive language scores at 12 months of age, which can translate to better performance in school. However, further research is needed to determine the implications of these results later in childhood.”

Notably, this study is not without its limitations. The data on cannabis use was self-reported, with a lack of information regarding frequency, mode, and quantity of cannabis use. Moreover, the study did not account for the potential postnatal exposure of infants to cannabis.

Despite the surprising findings, pregnant women should still avoid using cannabis. Cannabis use during pregnancy is associated with other health risks, such as low birth weight, premature birth, and developmental issues, including attention deficit/hyperactivity problems. The risks to the fetus from cannabis compounds, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which can cross the placenta and affect fetal brain development, are well-documented in other research.

Medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, advise against the use of cannabis during pregnancy due to the potential risks to fetal development. These guidelines are based on a broad review of available evidence, which generally supports the avoidance of cannabis use.

Given these concerns, pregnant women should err on the side of caution and avoid cannabis use to protect the overall health and development of their child. The potential benefits observed in one aspect of development do not outweigh the known and unknown risks associated with prenatal cannabis exposure.

The study, “Prenatal cannabinoid exposure and early language development”, was authored by Maria M. Talavera-Barber, Evlyn Morehead, Katherine Ziegler, Christine Hockett, and Amy J. Elliott.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/prenatal-cannabinoid-exposure-appears-to-have-a-strange-impact-on-early-language-development/

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DATE: June 23, 2024 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: New psychology research reveals the surprising cost of political ambivalence

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-research-reveals-the-surprising-cost-of-political-ambivalence/

In an era where political polarization seems to dominate conversations, expressing nuanced opinions might seem like a bridge-building strategy. However, a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology provides evidence that individuals who express ambivalence about political issues may pay a social price for their nuanced views. Those who articulate their stance with ambivalence are often perceived as less likeable, warm, and competent. This finding emerges across a range of policy topics.

Previous research had indicated that people often expect expressing ambivalence to be socially valued, especially in controversial contexts. This expectation made intuitive sense: if people see that someone recognizes arguments on both sides of an issue, they might perceive that person as thoughtful, competent, and less biased. The researchers aimed to test whether these positive expectations matched social reality.

“I think a big part of the story of political polarization is how it sidelines people with nuanced opinions and amplifies those with more extreme views. We were interested in whether everyday social dynamics might contribute to that by incentivizing expressing certain types of opinions – one-sided ones – and disincentivizing expressing others – ambivalent ones,” said study author Joseph J. Siev, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

In an initial pilot study, the researchers recruited 77 student participants and presented them with a hypothetical social scenario. In this scenario, participants were asked to imagine themselves in a new social setting where they wanted to make friends and be liked. During a conversation, a political topic such as COVID-19 mask mandates or U.S. immigration policy comes up, and the participants were asked how likely they would be to express their opinions in two ways: taking a clear, one-sided position or expressing a preference while acknowledging some arguments from the opposing side.

Participants indicated their likelihood of choosing each approach, providing insight into their expectations about how expressing ambivalence might affect their social standing. The results showed a strong preference for taking a two-sided, ambivalent stance over a one-sided position, suggesting that participants believed ambivalence would be socially beneficial.

Next, to examine the actual social consequences of expressing ambivalence on polarizing political issues, the researchers recruited 618 participants through the online platform Mechanical Turk. Participants first completed a questionnaire assessing their own positions and ambivalence regarding U.S. immigration policy, the death penalty, or COVID-19 mask mandates.

Participants were then exposed to a fictional target who expressed either a one-sided (univalent) or two-sided (ambivalent) opinion on the same issue. The targets were also designed to either agree or disagree with the participants’ overall stance. The researchers ensured that the overall position and the extremity of attitudes were constant across conditions to isolate the effect of ambivalence. Participants rated their liking for the target, along with perceptions of the target’s warmth, competence, and their interest in meeting the target.

The findings revealed that ambivalent targets were generally less liked than one-sided targets, particularly by participants who agreed with the target’s overall stance but were low in ambivalence themselves. This pattern was consistent across the different topics, with slight variations in strength.

Participants unsurprisingly preferred targets who shared their views over those who held opposing positions. However, expressing ambivalence did not make targets more likeable when they disagreed with participants’ stance.

“We thought things might balance out more, with some people liking ambivalent (vs. non-ambivalent) people less and others liking them more,” Siev told PsyPost. “We thought certain groups of participants might especially like ambivalent people: those who disagreed with the ambivalent person’s overall position on the issue, in which case ambivalence creates some common ground, and/or those who were also ambivalent themselves. But we didn’t find strong evidence for those possibilities.”

Siev and his colleagues then sought to replicate and extend the findings by manipulating the perceived polarization of a single issue: U.S. immigration reform. The researchers framed the topic in two ways: highly polarizing (immigration from Mexico) and less polarizing (immigration from Canada). They recruited 594 participants from the online platform Prolific. Participants first completed a questionnaire about their positions and ambivalence on the issue of immigration from either Mexico or Canada, based on their random assignment.

Participants were then presented with a target who agreed with their overall position on immigration but expressed either a one-sided or two-sided opinion. They rated their liking for the target, along with perceptions of warmth, competence, and interest in meeting the target.

Consistent with the previous findings, the results showed that ambivalent targets were less liked than one-sided targets, regardless of whether the issue was framed as more or less polarizing. Participants with high levels of ambivalence were more tolerant of ambivalent targets, while those with low ambivalence showed a clear preference for one-sided targets. These findings reinforced the idea that expressing ambivalence generally leads to reduced social liking, even when the issue is less polarizing.

“People pay a social price for expressing nuanced, ambivalent opinions about political issues,” Siev explained. “They are often less popular overall because members of their political ingroup like them less than they like those with more polarized, one-sided opinions. This might be part of the reason moderate opinions are underrepresented and political discourse seems so extreme.”

But as with all research, there are some caveats. The study’s participants were primarily Americans, and results may vary in different cultural contexts. The study also focused on specific political issues. Future research could examine other topics, including non-political ones, to see if the findings hold.

“It’s possible the results would differ in other cultural contexts, historical periods, or political systems,” Siev noted. “Our findings are most applicable to the contemporary U.S. and other contexts that are comparable to it in terms of politics and culture.”

As far as the long-term goals for this line of research, Siev hopes “to encourage nuanced contributions to political discourse and raise the profiles of people who express them. Part of that is figuring out how to make people more receptive to ambivalent opinions from ingroup members. Another part of that is understanding how people can use ambivalent opinions to reach across the political aisle.”

“Our paper resonates with and expands upon other recent research showing how people’s political beliefs affect whom they like and want to socialize with, and how these processes contribute to political polarization,” he added. “For example: Hussein & Wheeler (2024), people who are receptive to outgroups’ opinions pay social costs. Goldenberg et al. (2022), people prefer to interact with ingroup members with more (vs. less) extreme opinions.”

The study, “Endorsing both sides, pleasing neither: Ambivalent individuals face unexpected social costs in political conflicts,” was authored by Joseph J. Siev, Aviva Philipp-Muller, Geoffrey R.O. Durso, and, Duane T. Wegener.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-research-reveals-the-surprising-cost-of-political-ambivalence/

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DATE: June 22, 2024 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Study explores link between social media algorithms and loneliness

URL: https://www.psypost.org/study-explores-link-between-social-media-algorithms-and-loneliness/

In recent years, the pervasive influence of social media in our lives has sparked heated debates on its potential impact on mental health, particularly concerning loneliness. A new study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships explored this issue by examining how the algorithms driving social media platforms like Instagram affect feelings of loneliness among users. The findings provide evidence that perceptions of social media algorithms are linked to feelings of loneliness.

The research was motivated by the increasing prevalence of loneliness alongside the rise of social media use. Over the past decade, the U.S. has seen a steady increase in both loneliness and the use of platforms like Instagram. Some researchers argue that social media contributes to a loneliness epidemic by displacing face-to-face interactions, while others believe it provides new opportunities for connection.

The relationship between social media use and loneliness remains highly debated, with mixed findings suggesting both positive and negative effects. This study aimed to clarify this complex relationship by focusing on the role of social media algorithms, which curate content based on user engagement and are integral to the user experience on platforms like Instagram.

“Social media companies, especially Meta, make claims that their personalization algorithms are designed to aid the formation and maintenance of social relationships. My interest is understanding how personalization can promote feelings of closeness to friends and family, because the ideas personalization and personal relationships are often presented as opposites,” said study author Samuel Hardman Taylor, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

The primary goal was to investigate how users’ perceptions of social media algorithms influence their feelings of loneliness. The researchers hypothesized that users who perceive these algorithms as responsive and supportive would experience less loneliness, while those who see them as insensitive or dismissive would feel more isolated. The research was conducted in two parts: a cross-sectional study examining a broad age range of Instagram users and a longitudinal study focusing on young adults.

The first study involved 468 Instagram users, aged 19 to 68, recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were surveyed about their awareness of Instagram’s algorithms and their perceptions of how responsive these algorithms were to their needs and identity.

The researchers measured two dimensions of perceived algorithm responsiveness: perceived algorithm responsiveness and perceived algorithm insensitivity. Perceived algorithm responsiveness refers to the extent to which users feel the algorithms understand and support their goals, while perceived algorithm insensitivity indicates the degree to which users feel ignored or undermined by the algorithms.

The cross-sectional analysis revealed that higher levels of perceived algorithm insensitivity were associated with greater loneliness across all age groups. Interestingly, the relationship between perceived algorithm responsiveness and loneliness varied by age.

Among younger adults, higher perceived algorithm responsiveness was linked to lower loneliness, suggesting that supportive algorithmic curation could enhance social connectedness. Among older adults, higher perceived algorithm responsiveness was associated with increased loneliness, possibly because these users might substitute online interactions for face-to-face connections.

In the second study, 155 undergraduate students aged 18 to 29 participated in a three-wave longitudinal survey conducted over four weeks. This study aimed to explore the bidirectional relationship between algorithm perceptions and loneliness over time. Participants reported their loneliness, perceptions of algorithm responsiveness, and their engagement in different types of Instagram relational maintenance (active public interactions like commenting, active private interactions like direct messaging, and passive public interactions like browsing).

While perceptions of algorithm responsiveness did not predict future loneliness, loneliness did predict subsequent perceptions of algorithm responsiveness. Specifically, lonelier individuals tended to perceive Instagram’s algorithms as less responsive over time. This suggests that loneliness can color users’ perceptions of social media algorithms, potentially creating a feedback loop where loneliness begets more loneliness due to negative perceptions of algorithmic curation.

The researchers also found that active public and passive public relational maintenance mediated the relationship between perceived algorithm responsiveness and loneliness. Users who perceived the algorithms as supportive were more likely to engage in commenting, liking, and browsing content from their social network, which in turn was associated with lower loneliness. However, perceived algorithm insensitivity’s relationship with loneliness was not explained by relational maintenance behaviors, indicating that other factors might be at play.

“Two main takeaways from this study are (1) when people felt that Instagram’s recommendation algorithms were supporting their goals and identity, they were more likely use the platform to communicate with their friends and family, (2) however; people who were lonely reported less supportive from algorithms. Thus, loneliness may beget more loneliness because of how algorithms are perceived the user,” Taylor told PsyPost.

While the study provides valuable insights, it also has limitations. The cross-sectional nature of Study 1 makes it difficult to establish causality, and the longitudinal analysis in Study 2 was limited by a short time frame. Additionally, the reliance on self-reported data introduces the possibility of demand effects, where participants might alter their responses based on their awareness of the study’s aims.

Future research should consider longer study durations to better understand the long-term effects of algorithm perceptions on loneliness. Exploring other potential mechanisms beyond relational maintenance, such as the content of algorithmically curated interactions, could also provide deeper insights. Additionally, experimental designs could help mitigate demand effects and offer more robust conclusions.

“I’m working on building this into research on the lonely algorithm problem, which scrutinizes the claims from social media companies about the interpersonal consequences of their algorithms,” Taylor said. “My goal in this research is to identify how humans and algorithms work together to produce outcomes.”

The study, “Lonely Algorithms: A Longitudinal Investigation Into the Bidirectional Relationship Between Algorithm Responsiveness and Loneliness,” was authored by Samuel Hardman Taylor and Mina Choi.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/study-explores-link-between-social-media-algorithms-and-loneliness/

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DATE: June 22, 2024 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: New study reveals how group agreement synchronizes brain waves

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-study-reveals-how-group-agreement-synchronizes-brain-waves/

A recent neuroimaging study revealed that after a group reaches consensus, the brain waves of its members become more synchronized. In this study, participants watched ambiguous movie clips and then discussed them to reach a common understanding. The researchers found that once agreement was reached, the brain wave patterns of the group members became more alike. The study was published in Nature Communications.

Communication is one of the most basic human necessities. Communication is necessary for babies and children to fully develop their cognitive capacities. The ability to communicate and coordinate actions through communication is what made humans the dominant species of the planet. It is very difficult for humans to maintain their mental health when they are deprived of an opportunity to communicate with others for prolonged periods.

Communication with others is also a way in which humans shape their beliefs, define their identity and achieve many things necessary for daily survival. The human society is highly specialized and humans generally obtain most of their necessities through communication and exchange with others. From all this, it is clear that communication shapes our neural processes, but it remains insufficiently clear how exactly.

Study author Beau Sievers and his colleagues wanted to explore how building consensus through conversation changes the brain activity of a group. They note that all human cultures have processes that involve groups reaching a consensus through conversation. These include juries, parliaments, group decisions in organizations, but also situations where groups of friends or family members talk about how to interpret events important to them.

The study involved 49 Master of Business Administration students from a private university in the U.S., who were previously part of a research study on social networks. The participants, aged 26 to 32, included 26 women. Prior to the study, participants completed a survey mapping their social network positions, revealing their connections and relationships with others.

The participants watched video clips from major movies while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. The clips, focused on social interactions, were chosen for their ambiguity and shown without sound, removing dialogue and music cues.

Following this, participants gathered in groups of 3 to 6 to discuss the clips and reach a consensus on their interpretations. They then completed a survey reflecting this consensus. In a final session, they re-watched the clips while undergoing another fMRI scan.

The results showed that groups that reached consensus had greater similarity in their brain activities during the third session. This alignment was particularly evident in the visual and auditory sensory areas and in higher-order areas related to attention and the default mode network, such as the temporal parietal junction, angular gyrus, posterior cingulate, medial prefrontal cortex, and temporal pole.

The researchers also observed behavioral patterns during the discussions – participants perceived as having high social status spoke more and signaled disbelief in others. Their groups had unequal turn taking, but also lower levels of neural activity alignment. On the other hand, participants who held central positions in their social networks, encouraged others to speak, leading to more equal turn-taking. Such groups showed higher levels of neural alignment in the 3rd session.

“These results suggest the possibility that thinking like one’s conversation partners facilitates social connection. Previous research on personality and social network centrality points in this direction: People with high self-monitoring personalities (i.e., those who adapt their behavior to the people around them) tend to be more socially central and they become so by making friends across disconnected cliques,” the study authors concluded.

“Although we do not know how our participants became central in their social networks, it is plausible that the ability to help groups reach consensus through a combination of influence and flexibility enabled them to grow large and diverse groups of friends. It is also possible that those in central network positions for independent reasons are motivated to develop consensus-building conversation behaviors.”

The study sheds light on the neural activity changes that happen as results of group discussions. However, the observed effects were relatively small. Also, the observed changes were the result of viewing and discussing specific movie clips. It is possible that with other movie clips or with other types of contents, affected brain areas would not be the same.

The study, “Consensus-building conversation leads to neural alignment,” was authored by Beau Sievers, Christopher Welker, Uri Hasson, Adam M. Kleinbaum, and Thalia Wheatley.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-study-reveals-how-group-agreement-synchronizes-brain-waves/

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DATE: June 22, 2024 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: AI identifies key risk factors for problematic pornography use

URL: https://www.psypost.org/ai-identifies-key-risk-factors-for-problematic-pornography-use/

A new study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science has identified the most robust risk factors for problematic pornography use by analyzing 74 preexisting self-report data sets using machine learning. The findings shed light on a topic that has garnered increasing clinical and scientific attention over the past several decades.

Pornography consumption is widespread, with studies indicating that 70-94% of adults and 42-98% of adolescents have viewed pornography in the past 20 years. While many use pornography without issues, a subset of users experience problematic pornography use (PPU), characterized by uncontrollable consumption patterns leading to significant distress and functional impairment.

Estimates suggest that 1-38% of adults and 5-14% of adolescents may struggle with PPU. Understanding the risk factors for PPU is essential for developing effective prevention and treatment strategies, especially as compulsive sexual behavior disorder, which includes PPU, has been officially recognized in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases.

“PPU seems to be as prevalent as other well-established mental health issues (e.g., depression), but it has received significantly less scientific attention in the past. For example, even though we have some empirical evidence about risk and protective factors concerning PPU, our knowledge is quite limited,” study author Beáta Bőthe, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and director of the Sexuality, Technology, and Addictions Research Laboratory (STAR Lab).

“At the same time, theoretical models in our field propose that several different factors may contribute to the development of PPU, and these factors might be in interaction with each other. With the emergence of artificial intelligence-based data analytic methods (compared to traditional statistical methods), we were able to examine these complex questions and include hundreds of potential risk and protective factors in our study.”

For their study, the researchers solicited data from 98 laboratories worldwide, ultimately including 74 datasets from 16 countries. These datasets, comprising over 112,000 participants, included both published and unpublished data and assessed PPU using various validated scales such as the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale, the Cyber-Pornography Use Inventory, and the Brief Pornography Screen.

To analyze these datasets, the researchers employed random forest models, a machine learning method that builds on classification and regression trees. This method allows for the simultaneous consideration of numerous variables and their complex interactions, providing a robust way to identify key predictors of PPU.

The random forest models were applied to each dataset individually, with the PPU score as the dependent variable and various potential predictors as independent variables. The researchers then combined the results from these models using meta-analytic methods to ensure the findings were generalizable and reliable.

The most robust predictor was the frequency of pornography use. Regular consumption of pornography was found to be strongly associated with PPU, suggesting that frequent users are more likely to experience problematic patterns of use.

“Individuals who use pornography more frequently may be at a higher risk of experiencing problems with their use,” Bőthe told PsyPost. “Yet, it is important to note that high-frequency pornography use may appear without PPU in some cases (e.g., due to strong sexual desire), and self-perceived PPU may be present even with low-frequency pornography use (e.g., due to moral disapproval of pornography use). Therefore, information about someone’s pornography use frequency in itself is not enough to decide whether they have problems with their use.”

Emotional avoidance motivation was another critical predictor. Individuals who used pornography to avoid negative emotions, such as stress or anxiety, were more likely to develop PPU. This finding highlights the role of pornography as a coping mechanism for managing emotional distress.

Moral incongruence emerged as a significant predictor as well. This refers to the conflict individuals feel when their pornography use contradicts their personal values or moral beliefs. Those experiencing higher levels of moral incongruence were more likely to report PPU, indicating that internal conflicts about pornography use can contribute to problematic patterns.

Sexual shame was also identified as a key predictor. Individuals who felt ashamed of their sexual behaviors, including their use of pornography, were more likely to develop PPU. This suggests that feelings of shame and guilt can exacerbate problematic use patterns.

Stress reduction motivation was another significant predictor. Using pornography as a way to cope with stress was strongly linked to PPU. This finding underscores the importance of addressing stress and developing healthier coping mechanisms to prevent the development of problematic use.

The findings indicate that “individuals who experience more negative emotions and use pornography to regulate them may experience higher levels of PPU,” Bőthe said.

Other notable predictors included the duration of pornography use per session, fantasy-driven motivations, and feelings of guilt. General psychological factors such as anxiety and depression symptoms were also significant predictors.

Consistent with previous research, the study found that men were more likely to experience PPU compared to women. But while gender was a (statistically) significant predictor, it was a relatively weak one.

“Based on previous findings, we expected that gender would be an important predictor of PPU (i.e., this issue is usually more common among men compared to women and gender-diverse individuals),” Bőthe explained. “Yet, somewhat surprisingly, gender did not emerge as such an important predictor in this study, it was not even among the top 10 predictors. These findings highlight the importance of being inclusive in pornography research and not focusing only on the experience of men if we want to better understand this phenomenon.”

But, as with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The reliance on self-report data can introduce biases, such as recall bias, and the overrepresentation of data from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) countries limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research should strive to include more diverse populations to enhance the applicability of the results.

Additionally, the study faced considerable heterogeneity in its findings, suggesting that further exploration is needed to fully understand the factors contributing to PPU. Longitudinal studies, which follow participants over time, could provide more detailed information about how PPU develops and changes.

“We aim to widen the scope of our work and include more underserved and underrepresented groups in our studies,” Bőthe said.

The study, “Uncovering the Most Robust Predictors of Problematic Pornography Use: A Large-Scale Machine Learning Study Across 16 Countries,” was authored by Beáta Bőthe, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Sophie Bergeron, Zsombor Hermann, Krisztián Ivaskevics, Shane W. Kraus, Joshua B. Grubbs, and the Problematic Pornography Use Machine Learning Study Consortium.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/ai-identifies-key-risk-factors-for-problematic-pornography-use/

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DATE: June 22, 2024 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Scientists have discovered a previously unknown function of blinking

URL: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-have-discovered-a-previously-unknown-function-of-blinking/

Every few seconds, we blink our eyes — a simple, involuntary act. While it’s commonly understood that blinking keeps our eyes lubricated, a new study by researchers from the University of Rochester has uncovered a more intricate role: blinking also helps our brains process visual information more effectively. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study sheds light on how these brief closures of our eyes contribute to visual perception.

Humans spend about 3 to 8 percent of their waking hours with their eyes closed due to blinking. Given that blinking briefly obscures our vision, one might wonder why it occurs so frequently. Traditional explanations have highlighted its role in maintaining eye moisture and preventing dryness.

However, the frequency of blinks suggests that there might be additional functions beyond lubrication. Researchers Bin Yang, Janis Intoy, and Michele Rucci sought to explore these potential functions, particularly how blinking might influence visual processing in the brain.

Their study included twelve participants, consisting of both women and men with an average age of 22 years, all possessing normal vision. Participants were compensated for their time and kept unaware of the specific aims of the study to ensure unbiased results. The researchers conducted the study in a controlled laboratory environment, using advanced eye-tracking technology to monitor participants’ eye movements precisely.

Participants were tasked with viewing visual stimuli consisting of grating patterns, which are alternating stripes varying in spatial frequency. Spatial frequency refers to the level of detail in the pattern, with higher frequencies indicating finer details. These stimuli were displayed on a high-resolution monitor, and participants had to identify whether the gratings were tilted clockwise or counterclockwise.

The experimental design included two main conditions to isolate the effects of blinking on visual processing. In the “Stimulus-Blink” condition, participants were cued to blink during the presentation of the visual stimulus. In contrast, in the “No-Stimulus-Blink” condition, they were cued to blink before the stimulus appeared. The researchers controlled the timing and conditions of the blinks to ensure that any observed effects could be attributed to the act of blinking itself rather than other variables.

Eye movements were tracked using a Dual Purkinje Image eye-tracker, which provided high-resolution data on the position and movement of the participants’ eyes. This technology allowed the researchers to ensure that the participants were following instructions and that their blinks and eye movements were accurately recorded. Each experimental session consisted of multiple trials, and data were collected and analyzed to compare performance between the two conditions.

The researchers found that when participants blinked during the presentation of the visual stimulus, their performance in identifying the grating’s orientation improved significantly compared to when they blinked before the stimulus appeared. This improvement was evident in both the accuracy of their responses and their sensitivity to the visual details, measured by a standard discrimination sensitivity index.

The researchers hypothesized that this improvement was due to the luminance changes caused by blinks. Luminance refers to the brightness of the visual stimulus. When we blink, the temporary closure of our eyes creates abrupt changes in luminance. These changes may help reset the visual information entering the eye, thereby aiding the brain in processing the visual input more effectively.

“By modulating the visual input to the retina, blinks effectively reformat visual information, yielding luminance signals that differ drastically from those normally experienced when we look at a point in the scene,” explained Rucci, a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

To test this hypothesis further, the researchers conducted a control experiment where they simulated the effects of blinks by briefly dimming the visual stimulus. Participants’ performance improved in a similar manner to when they blinked naturally. This supported the idea that the luminance changes themselves, rather than the physical act of blinking, were responsible for the enhanced visual processing.

The study concluded that blinking during visual tasks enhances the brain’s ability to process visual information by introducing beneficial luminance changes. These findings suggest that blinks play a crucial role in visual perception beyond merely keeping our eyes moist. The results also imply that our visual system has evolved to use these brief interruptions in vision to improve our overall visual acuity and processing.

“We show that human observers benefit from blink transients as predicted from the information conveyed by these transients,” said Bin Yang, a graduate student in Rucci’s lab and the first author of the paper. “Thus, contrary to common assumption, blinks improve — rather than disrupt — visual processing, amply compensating for the loss in stimulus exposure.”

The study, “Eye blinks as a visual processing stage,” was published April 2, 2024.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-have-discovered-a-previously-unknown-function-of-blinking/

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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Murders and psychopaths exhibit heightened aggressive tendencies in a video game setting, study finds

URL: https://www.psypost.org/murders-and-psychopaths-exhibit-heightened-aggressive-tendencies-in-a-video-game-setting-study-finds/

In a study published in the International Journal of Forensic Medicine, researchers have uncovered a striking link between aggression displayed in video games and the severity of real-world crimes committed by individuals with pronounced psychopathic tendencies and those convicted of murder. This study sheds light on the potential of video games as tools to measure and understand aggressive behavior in a controlled, replicable environment.

The researchers embarked on this study to address a crucial question in criminology and forensic psychology: Can the aggressive behaviors exhibited in video game settings provide insights into the violent tendencies of individuals convicted of severe crimes, such as murder? Previous research had highlighted connections between video game aggression and less severe offenses, but the generalizability of these findings to a broader spectrum of criminals, particularly those guilty of the most heinous acts, remained uncertain.

By focusing on a sample of real-world offenders, the researchers aimed to explore whether those with pronounced psychopathic traits and those convicted of homicide would display heightened aggression in a video game-based shooting task.

The study involved 111 male participants apprehended by the Tehran Police in 2021. After admitting guilt, these individuals were interviewed by a forensic psychologist who also led the data collection process. Although the participants’ specific ages were not recorded, most appeared to be middle-aged based on visual assessments.

A variety of measures were collected to provide a comprehensive overview of the participants’ backgrounds, behaviors, and mental health status. These measures included demographic information such as gender, primary residence location (rural or urban), and educational background, as well as detailed assessments of dark personality traits, which include psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism.

Participants engaged in a video game-based shooting decision task under the direct supervision of the forensic psychologist. The task was designed to measure their aggressive tendencies in a controlled, virtual environment. The game displays various scenarios where participants must decide quickly whether to “shoot” or “not shoot.” Participants must make rapid decisions within a brief time window, usually a few seconds. If they perceive the character as a threat, they are supposed to “shoot.” If the character appears non-threatening, they should refrain from shooting.

The study found that individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits and those convicted of murder exhibited significantly heightened aggression in the video game setting compared to other criminals. Specifically, psychopathy was associated with increased aggressive tendencies, regardless of the type of crime committed. This finding supports previous research indicating that individuals with psychopathic traits are more prone to impulsive and aggressive behaviors.

Additionally, the study revealed that homicide offenders displayed greater aggressive behavior within the game compared to their criminal counterparts. This suggests that these individuals may have an inherent bias towards violent decision-making in ambiguous contexts, aligning with recent research that highlights cognitive biases in criminals.

Interestingly, the study did not find significant differences between murderers and other criminals concerning family abuse, education, mental health, criminal history, or dark personality traits, except for the number of past crimes committed. Murderers had a lower count of past crimes compared to other criminals.

Despite its valuable insights, the study has several limitations. The sample size of homicide offenders was relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. The absence of a non-criminal control group is another limitation. Although comparing murderers to other criminals provides a straightforward comparison, incorporating a demographically matched non-offender control group could offer additional valuable insights.

“In summary, our study establishes a link between real-world violent behaviors and aggression in virtual environments,” the researchers concluded. “Both criminals with pronounced psychopathic tendencies and those convicted of the gravest crimes, such as murder, demonstrated heightened aggressive behaviors in video games. Our findings extend the boundaries of conventional video game-aggression studies, underscoring the promise of video game simulations as diagnostic instruments to dissect various criminal tendencies. Pursuing research in this domain has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of criminal behavior, rehabilitation processes, and risk management.”

The study, “From crime scenes to game screens: video game aggression among criminals with psychopathic traits and those convicted of homicide,” was authored by Armand Chatard, Soghra Ebrahimi Ghavam, Alexia Delbreil, Ghina Harika-Germaneau, and Nemat Jaafari.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/murders-and-psychopaths-exhibit-heightened-aggressive-tendencies-in-a-video-game-setting-study-finds/

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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 04:36PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 04:35PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Would you be happy as a long-term single? The answer may depend on your attachment style

URL: https://www.psypost.org/would-you-be-happy-as-a-long-term-single-the-answer-may-depend-on-your-attachment-style/

Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume it’s because single people have insecurities that make it difficult for them to find a partner or maintain a relationship.

But is this true? Or can long-term single people also be secure and thriving?

Our latest research published in the Journal of Personality suggests they can. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, not everybody tends to thrive in singlehood. Our study shows a crucial factor may be a person’s attachment style.

Singlehood is on the rise

Singlehood is on the rise around the world. In Canada, single status among young adults aged 25 to 29 has increased from 32% in 1981 to 61% in 2021. The number of people living solo has increased from 1.7 million people in 1981 to 4.4 million in 2021.

People are single for many reasons: some choose to remain single, some are focusing on personal goals and aspirations, some report dating has become harder, and some become single again due to a relationship breakdown.

People may also remain single due to their attachment style. Attachment theory is a popular and well-researched model of how we form relationships with other people. An Amazon search for attachment theory returns thousands of titles. The hashtag has been viewed over 140 million times on TikTok alone.

What does attachment theory say about relationships?

Attachment theory suggests our relationships with others are shaped by our degree of “anxiety” and “avoidance”.

Attachment anxiety is a type of insecurity that leads people to feel anxious about relationships and worry about abandonment. Attachment avoidance leads people to feel uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness.

People who are lower in attachment anxiety and avoidance are considered “securely attached”, and are comfortable depending on others, and giving and receiving intimacy.

Single people are often stereotyped as being too clingy or non-committal. Research comparing single and coupled people also suggests single people have higher levels of attachment insecurities compared to people in relationships.

At the same time, evidence suggests many single people are choosing to remain single and living happy lives.

Single people represent a diverse group of secure and insecure people

In our latest research, our team of social and clinical psychologists examined single people’s attachment styles and how they related to their happiness and wellbeing.

We carried out two studies, one of 482 younger single people and the other of 400 older long-term singles. We found overall 78% were categorised as insecure, with the other 22% being secure.

Looking at our results more closely, we found four distinct subgroups of singles:

•secure singles are relatively comfortable with intimacy and closeness in relationships (22%)

•

•anxious singles question whether they are loved by others and worry about being rejected (37%)

•

•avoidant singles are uncomfortable getting close to others and prioritise their independence (23% of younger singles and 11% of older long-term singles)

•

•fearful singles have heightened anxiety about abandonment, but are simultaneously uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness (16% of younger singles and 28% of older long-term singles).

•

Insecure singles find singlehood challenging, but secure singles are thriving

Our findings also revealed these distinct subgroups of singles have distinct experiences and outcomes.

Secure singles are happy being single, have a greater number of non-romantic relationships, and better relationships with family and friends. They meet their sexual needs outside romantic relationships and feel happier with their life overall. Interestingly, this group maintains moderate interest in being in a romantic relationship in the future.

Anxious singles tend to be the most worried about being single, have lower self-esteem, feel less supported by close others and have some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction across all sub-groups.

Avoidant singles show the least interest in being in a romantic relationship and in many ways appear satisfied with singlehood. However, they also have fewer friends and close relationships, and are generally less satisfied with these relationships than secure singles. Avoidant singles also report less meaning in life and tend to be less happy compared to secure singles.

Fearful singles reported more difficulties navigating close relationships than secure singles. For instance, they were less able to regulate their emotions, and were less satisfied with the quality of their close relationships relative to secure singles. They also reported some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction across all sub-groups.

It’s not all doom and gloom

These findings should be considered alongside several relevant points. First, although most singles in our samples were insecure (78%), a sizeable number were secure and thriving (22%).

Further, simply being in a romantic relationship is not a panacea. Being in an unhappy relationship is linked to poorer life outcomes than being single.

It is also important to remember that attachment orientations are not necessarily fixed. They are open to change in response to life events.

Similarly, sensitive and responsive behaviours from close others and feeling loved and cared about by close others can soothe underlying attachment concerns and foster attachment security over time.

Our studies are some of the first to examine the diversity in attachment styles among single adults. Our findings highlight that many single people are secure and thriving, but also that more work can be done to help insecure single people feel more secure in order to foster happiness.

Christopher Pepping, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Griffith University; Geoff Macdonald, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto; Tim Cronin, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, La Trobe University, and Yuthika Girme, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/would-you-be-happy-as-a-long-term-single-the-answer-may-depend-on-your-attachment-style/

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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 03:35PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Study: Childhood trauma leads to lasting brain network changes

URL: https://www.psypost.org/study-childhood-trauma-leads-to-lasting-brain-network-changes/

A comprehensive meta-analysis reveals that childhood trauma significantly disrupts critical brain networks involved in self-focus and problem-solving. Published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, the study consolidates data from 14 previous studies to present an overarching view of how early traumatic experiences can “rewire” the brain.

The human brain undergoes rapid development during childhood, making it particularly vulnerable to external influences, including trauma. In the United Kingdom, approximately one in five individuals experiences some form of childhood maltreatment by the age of sixteen.

Previous research has highlighted the severe stress and long-lasting structural changes that trauma can inflict on a developing brain. While individual studies have shown detrimental effects on specific brain regions, there has been a lack of comprehensive analysis combining data from multiple studies to identify common patterns of brain activation associated with childhood trauma. This study aimed to fill that gap, providing a holistic view of how trauma affects neural development.

Researchers undertook a systematic approach to gather and analyze relevant studies. They searched academic databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and PsychInfo for task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies involving children with a history of trauma. From an initial pool of 1428 studies, only 14 met the stringent inclusion criteria. These criteria required studies to involve human participants under the age of 18 with documented trauma histories and to report whole-brain analysis data.

The studies included in the meta-analysis involved 582 child participants, aged between 8 and 20 years, with 285 having experienced trauma and 297 serving as healthy controls. The research team employed a novel data-driven Bayesian meta-analytic method to combine and compare the fMRI data from these studies. This approach allowed the identification of common brain activation patterns across different tasks and clinical groups, enabling a detailed analysis of how trauma rewires the brain.

The findings revealed disruptions in two critical brain networks: the default mode network (DMN) and the central executive network (CEN).

The default mode network (DMN) is associated with self-referential thoughts, memory, and emotion processing. The study found that children with trauma histories exhibited increased activation in the DMN during tasks related to emotional processing and social interactions. This hyperactivation was particularly notable during tasks involving emotionally charged words and facial expressions. Interestingly, healthy children showed greater DMN activation during memory and reward-processing tasks, suggesting that trauma may alter the typical functions of this network.

In addition to the DMN, the study highlighted disruptions in the central executive network (CEN), which is crucial for cognitive control, problem-solving, and regulating attention. Children with trauma histories demonstrated increased CEN activation during reward processing and trauma perception tasks. However, healthy controls exhibited greater CEN activation during tasks involving emotional words, faces, and social tasks. This finding indicates that trauma may lead to an imbalance in how the brain processes cognitive and emotional information.

The researchers also observed differences in the posterior insula and affective networks, which are involved in processing bodily sensations and emotional experiences. Children with trauma histories showed heightened activation in these regions during emotionally laden and social tasks, suggesting that trauma may cause the brain to allocate more resources to processing internal bodily states and emotions. This could potentially contribute to the difficulties in emotional regulation and self-perception commonly seen in individuals with trauma histories.

While this study provides significant insights, it also has limitations. Only 14 out of 1428 initially identified studies met the criteria for inclusion, indicating a need for more research in this area. Additionally, the type, severity, and timing of trauma were not controlled for, which could affect the results. The analysis also did not account for age and sex differences, which are important factors in brain development and trauma response.

Future research should aim to include a broader range of studies and consider these variables to provide a more detailed understanding of how different types and timings of trauma affect brain development. Longitudinal studies tracking brain changes over time in children with trauma histories could offer deeper insights into the developmental trajectory of these neural disruptions.

“The results of our study appear to reveal a common neurodevelopmental cognitive substrate that underlies having a trauma history during childhood,” the researchers concluded. “It suggests a potential imbalance in bodily and cognitive processes that may influence emotions, learning, memory, and problems with self-other processing.”

“Furthermore, activation patterns within the brain appear different during trauma triggering; the nontriggered brain state demonstrates evidence of activation deficits for bodily processing (interoceptive sensory processing) and self-other processing. Thus, the development and/or implementation of treatments that target interoception, affective, and self-other processing in children with trauma histories may be beneficial and should be explored in future studies.”

The study, “An FMRI Meta-Analysis of Childhood Trauma,” was authored by Rebecca Ireton, Anna Hughes, and Megan Klabunde.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/study-childhood-trauma-leads-to-lasting-brain-network-changes/

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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 02:01PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Public perceives “climate anxiety” more negatively than “worry” or “concern”

URL: https://www.psypost.org/public-perceives-climate-anxiety-more-negatively-than-worry-or-concern/

The rise of terms like climate anxiety and eco-anxiety in recent years reflects the growing concern over climate change’s emotional impact, especially among the youth. A new study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology investigated how the Norwegian public perceives and reacts to the term “climate anxiety.” The study found that people reacted more negatively to the term climate anxiety compared to worry or concern.

“I have been researching worry about climate change since 2018,” explained study author Thea Gregersen, a senior researcher at NORCE. “Around 2019, the term ‘climate anxiety’ started appearing more frequently. Since then, it has been used, in both research and media coverage, to describe everything from the percentage of young people answering that they are ‘highly worried’ about climate change in surveys, to severe clinical symptoms.”

Interestingly, it has almost exclusively been used to describe young people, at least in the media. If ‘climate anxiety’ can refer to all sorts of negative emotional reactions, how is the general population supposed to understand and react to it? I wanted to know whether using the term could have unintended consequences, especially in public communication.”

The study was conducted through the Norwegian Citizen Panel, which surveyed a representative sample of 2,040 adults from Norway. The sample consisted of an equal gender distribution and a range of age groups. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: reading a vignette that described young people as having “climate anxiety,” being “worried about climate change,” or being “concerned about the climate issue.”

Participants were then asked to rate their agreement with the statement that politicians should consider young people’s climate distress when designing new climate policies. They rated their agreement on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Additionally, participants were asked an open-ended question about their associations with the term “climate anxiety.”

The survey experiment revealed differences in support for considering young people’s climate distress in policy decisions based on the terminology used. Participants were more supportive when the distress was described as climate worry or climate concern compared to climate anxiety. Specifically, the mean support score was 5.46 for climate worry, 5.38 for climate concern, and only 4.62 for climate anxiety on a scale where higher scores indicated greater support.

Further analysis showed that political orientation and self-reported climate worry influenced these perceptions. Those on the left of the political spectrum and those who reported higher levels of climate worry were more supportive of considering young people’s climate distress in policy decisions, regardless of the term used.

However, the negative reaction to “climate anxiety” was particularly strong among younger respondents and those who reported high levels of climate worry themselves. This suggests that even those who experience significant climate distress may view the term “climate anxiety” as problematic or stigmatizing.

The open-ended responses provided additional insights. While 52% of participants described climate anxiety in neutral terms, such as fear or worry about climate change, 27% associated it with something irrational or excessive. Only 6% viewed climate anxiety as justified, while another 6% criticized the term itself as problematic or dismissive.

“The term was popularized around 2019, at the same time as the youth climate movement was ignited,” Gregersen told PsyPost. “One goal for the young climate activists, sometimes described as having ‘climate anxiety,’ was to push for increased political action. One takeaway from our study is that there is relatively high support for considering young people’s climate distress in climate policy development.

“However, we do find that using the term ‘climate anxiety,’ rather than describing young people as being worried or concerned about climate change, decreased people’s support for taking their distress into account. We also find that some people, though a minority, have quite negative associations with the term. Our study is from Norway, and one important question is whether we would find the same results in other countries.”

“I think our results illustrate that we need to be careful with the words used to describe people’s climate concerns in public communication, and that we should consider whether some terms could lead to reactance or misunderstandings,” Gregersen added. “This is especially relevant in cases where a term (climate anxiety) is mainly used to describe one specific group (young people).”

The study, “How the public understands and reacts to the term ‘climate anxiety’,” was authored by Thea Gregersen, Rouven Doran, Charles A. Ogunbode, and Gisela Böhm.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/public-perceives-climate-anxiety-more-negatively-than-worry-or-concern/

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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Neuroticism appears to play a key role in the stress-reducing effects of music

URL: https://www.psypost.org/neuroticism-appears-to-play-a-key-role-in-the-stress-reducing-effects-of-music/

A recent study of undergraduate students suggests that listening to music may help alleviate negative emotions after experiencing a stressful task. This effect appears to be more significant in individuals with low levels of neuroticism. The findings were published in Current Issues in Personality Psychology.

People turn to music for various reasons. Some use it as a way to express their emotions, while others listen to uplift their mood. Music can evoke a broad spectrum of emotions, providing an outlet for joy, sadness, excitement, or nostalgia. Additionally, it serves as a form of entertainment, offering enjoyment and relaxation during leisure time.

Many individuals also use music to boost concentration and productivity, particularly while studying or working. Music fosters social connections, bringing people together at concerts, parties, and other events. It helps individuals define and express their personal and cultural identities. Moreover, music has been shown to help reduce stress.

Study author Lap Yan and his colleagues wanted to check whether the stress-reducing effects of music are equally potent in individuals with high and in those with low neurotic tendencies. The concept of neurotic tendencies as a personality trait was first proposed by Hans Eysenck, a mid-20th century German-born British psychologists known for his work on personality theory.

In Eysenck’s theory, neuroticism is characterized by emotional instability and high anxiety. Individuals with high neuroticism frequently and easily experience negative emotions such as fear, anger, and depression, and they often react strongly to stress. In contrast, individuals with low neuroticism tend to be emotionally stable and less reactive to stress.

The study included 79 undergraduate students from Hong Kong, aged 18 to 25, with 58 females. Participants completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to assess their neurotic tendencies and were divided into high and low neuroticism groups based on their scores.

Participants then completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to assess their current emotions and had their heart rates measured. They underwent the Sing-a-Song Stress Test, a task known to induce stress, which involves singing a song. After this task, participants’ emotions and heart rates were reassessed. Following this, the researchers played Pachelbel’s Canon in D major for the participants and measured their emotions and heart rates once more.

The results indicated that both negative emotions and heart rates increased in both groups after the Sing-a-Song Stress Test. However, after listening to music, negative emotions and heart rates decreased, with levels dropping slightly below the baseline measurements taken at the start of the study. This decrease was more pronounced in the group with low neuroticism.

“Both groups of participants were found to be stressed after the SSST [Sing-a-Song Stress Test] and felt less stressful after listening to comforting music, as reflected by the variations in the NA [negative emotions] score and heart rate,” the study authors concluded.

The study makes a contribution to the scientific understanding of the links between neuroticism and reactions to mild stress. However, it should be noted that the design of the study did not include either counterbalancing or control groups. Therefore, it remains unknown whether the reduction in negative emotions after listening to music is the effect of music or simply of natural recovery from stress.

The paper, “A study on the effect of music listening on people with high neurotic tendency as evidenced by negative affective scores and physiological responses,” was authored by Lap Yan, Hiu Ting Lam, Ka Hei Brigit Au, and Muriel Lin.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/neuroticism-appears-to-play-a-key-role-in-the-stress-reducing-effects-of-music/

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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: “Instant meditation”: How floatation therapy induces relaxation and reduces anxiety

URL: https://www.psypost.org/instant-meditation-how-floatation-therapy-induces-relaxation-and-reduces-anxiety/

A recent study published in Scientific Reports has found that floatation therapy significantly enhances relaxation, reduces anxiety, and diminishes fatigue more effectively than resting on a warm waterbed. It also induces more pronounced altered states of consciousness, characterized by the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time, offering insights into how floatation therapy exerts its calming effects.

Floatation-Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy (Floatation-REST) involves floating in a tank filled with water saturated with Epsom salt, heated to skin temperature, and isolated from external stimuli such as light and sound. This environment creates a sensation of weightlessness. The tank’s unique conditions lead to a significant reduction in external sensory input, known as sensory deprivation.

Previous research has highlighted the potential of Floatation-REST in improving physical and mental health, but the mechanisms behind these benefits remain poorly understood. By comparing Floatation-REST with Bed-REST (lying on a warm waterbed in a dark, soundproof room), the researchers aimed to isolate the specific effects of the float environment and understand how it induces altered states of consciousness.

“I am interested in altered states of consciousness. Floatation-REST is a safe and easily conductible induction method,” said study author Marc Wittmann, a research fellow at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health and author of Altered States of Consciousness: Experiences Out of Time and Self.

“Through extreme changes in states of consciousness we learn about the most important subject for psychology and brain sciences: consciousness. We know that in altered states of consciousness such as in meditation, the intake of psychedelics, and Floatation-REST, the senses of the self and time, self consciousness and time consciousness, are up and down modulated.”

The study employed a within-subjects crossover design involving 50 healthy participants. Each participant underwent two conditions: 60 minutes of Floatation-REST and 60 minutes of Bed-REST (lying on a warm waterbed in a dark, soundproof room). The study was conducted over three sessions: an initial familiarization session followed by the two experimental sessions.

After the Floatation-REST sessions, participants reported significantly lower levels of anxiety, stress, and tension compared to the Bed-REST sessions. They also felt more relaxed and less fatigued. This suggests that Floatation-REST provides a more profound relaxation effect than Bed-REST, which involved similar sensory reduction but without the water immersion.

Floatation-REST induced more pronounced altered states of consciousness, including a stronger dissolution of body boundaries and greater distortion of subjective time. Participants experienced a significant blurring of the line between their bodies and the surrounding water, and many reported losing track of time or feeling that time passed differently than usual.

“We have a device that safely induces deep states of relaxation and reduces anxiety levels,” Wittmann told PsyPost. “I call Floatation-REST ‘instant meditation’ because without much practice you get into deep meditation-like states.”

Mediation analysis revealed that the dissolution of body boundaries during Floatation-REST mediated the reduction in state anxiety. This finding suggests that the blurring of body boundaries and the resulting ASC are key factors in the therapeutic effects of Floatation-REST.

“In the field of psychedelic treatment research there is the big question whether one needs the altered states trip for the healing process or whether the pharmacological substance without the ‘side effect’ of the trip would suffice,” Wittmann explained. “At least with Floatation-REST, we can show that the reduction of anxiety is dependent upon the reduction of body boundaries (interpretable as becoming one with the world).

“That is, altered states are necessary for the reduction of anxiety. The loss of body boundaries mediated the loss of anxiety, revealing a novel mechanism by which Floatation-REST exerts its anxiolytic effect.”

The researchers also found that participants with a higher capacity for absorption (the ability to become fully immersed in activities) experienced a stronger dissolution of body boundaries during Floatation-REST. This indicates that individual traits can influence the depth of ASC experienced.

“Our study demonstrates that Floatation-REST is a safe and effective means to induce certain facets of ASC among healthy individuals,” Wittmann said. “People normally pay up to 100 euros/dollars for an hour to have that experience.”

Future research could explore the effects of multiple or longer float sessions to determine if more pronounced or lasting ASC can be achieved. Additionally, investigating the therapeutic potential of Floatation-REST in clinical populations, such as individuals with anxiety disorders or body image issues, could provide further evidence of its benefits.

“We are continuing to map the Floatation-REST effects, for example, the sub-acute ‘afterglow’ effects one feels after floating and which last for minutes to hours,” Wittman said. “Moreover, we try to record brain activity during floatation, not a trívial undertaking because of the supersaturated salt water.”

The study, “Induction of altered states of consciousness during Floatation-REST is associated with the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time,” was authored by Helena Hruby, Stefan Schmidt, Justin S. Feinstein, and Marc Wittmann.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/instant-meditation-how-floatation-therapy-induces-relaxation-and-reduces-anxiety/

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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Cannabis affects cognitive and psychomotor performance differently based on usage patterns

URL: https://www.psypost.org/cannabis-affects-cognitive-and-psychomotor-performance-differently-based-on-usage-patterns/

A recent study provides insight into the acute effects of cannabis use on cognitive and psychomotor performance, particularly focusing on the differences between occasional and daily users. The findings indicate that daily users may develop a tolerance to some of the impairing effects of cannabis, while occasional users show more significant impairments in reaction time and memory tasks while high. The findings have been published in the Journal of Cannabis Research.

The researchers undertook this study due to the increasing relevance of cannabis impairment in public health, especially concerning motor vehicle crashes and workplace safety. Previous research has shown that cannabis can increase the risk of motor vehicle crashes, making it the second most frequently detected drug in fatally injured drivers in the United States. However, blood THC levels the current standard for measuring impairment have proven unreliable due to poor correlation with actual impairment and the potential for tolerance in regular users.

“I’m interested in cannabis impairment because the ability to develop tolerance to some effects of acute (very recent) use makes it a complicated topic to study,” explained study author Ashley Brooks-Russell, an associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health at CU Anschutz.

“There is growing evidence that with daily use, particularly relatively heavy daily use, that people can develop tolerance to many of the effects. But we don’t know much about how quickly one can gain and lose tolerance, and to what extent tolerance is gained. For example, if cannabis affects reaction time, which would be very important for drivel safely, can someone gain tolerance to that effect to the extent they would not necessarily be unsafe to drive after using cannabis?”

The study recruited 86 healthy adults aged 25 to 45 between October 2018 and February 2020. Participants were divided into three groups based on their cannabis use: daily users (smoking or vaping cannabis at least once a day), occasional users (using cannabis one to two days per week), and non-users (no cannabis use in the month prior to the study). Key exclusion criteria included history of drug or alcohol dependence, obesity, color blindness, pregnancy, and shift work employment.

Participants used their own cannabis products, ensuring that the study reflected real-world usage patterns. The cannabis flower products were verified to contain 15-30% THC. Participants underwent a tablet-based assessment before and after smoking cannabis to evaluate reaction time, gap acceptance (decision-making), and working memory.

The researchers found that occasional users showed a slower reaction time after cannabis use. However, daily users did not exhibit significant changes, suggesting a tolerance to the effects of cannabis on reaction time.

When it came to gap acceptance, the ability to navigate through moving vertical lines, daily users took longer to complete the task post-cannabis use but improved their accuracy. This suggests a compensatory cautiousness, possibly indicating a prioritization of accuracy over speed.

The ability to accurately replicate shapes, an assessment of working memory, declined significantly among occasional users after cannabis use. They replicated fewer shapes accurately compared to their baseline performance. Daily users did not exhibit significant changes in their working memory performance post-cannabis use. This suggests that daily users may develop a tolerance to the memory-impairing effects of cannabis.

“The largest effects that we saw were in the area of short term memory,” Brooks-Russell told PsyPost. “I suppose I expected that we would see larger effects in reaction time, with people have slowed reaction time after cannabis use, but the more complex tasks of remembering and repeating shapes that had been displayed seemed to better differentiate the cannabis drug effect.”

The findings indicate that “there may be cognitive tasks/tests that could help identify if someone is unsafe to drive or unsafe to do something at work that could impact safety (e.g., use heavy machinery),” she explained.

Future studies could focus on more controlled dosing to better understand the relationship between THC levels and impairment. Exploring other cognitive and psychomotor tasks and extending assessments to different time points post-consumption could provide a more comprehensive understanding of cannabis impairment. Additionally, expanding the demographic scope beyond healthy adults to include older adults and those with different health conditions would enhance the generalizability of findings.

“We are hoping to develop objective tools that could be used by employers or law enforcement to better detect and distinguish impairment from cannabis, rather than just if someone regularly uses cannabis but may not be impaired,” Brooks-Russell said.

The study, “Effects of acute cannabis inhalation on reaction time, decision-making, and memory using a tablet-based application,” was authored by Ashley Brooks-Russell, Julia Wrobel, Tim Brown, L. Cinnamon Bidwell, George Sam Wang, Benjamin Steinhart, Gregory Dooley, and Michael J. Kosnett.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/cannabis-affects-cognitive-and-psychomotor-performance-differently-based-on-usage-patterns/

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DATE: June 20, 2024 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Researchers identify psychological traits linked to cyborg tech adoption

URL: https://www.psypost.org/researchers-identify-psychological-traits-linked-to-cyborg-tech-adoption/

A recent study published in Personality and Individual Differences explored the factors influencing people’s willingness to adopt cyborg technologies. The researchers found that younger individuals and those with a future-oriented or present-oriented mindset are more likely to embrace cyborg products. Additionally, women showed lower levels of intention to use these technologies compared to men. The findings shed light on the demographic and psychological factors that could shape the future landscape of human-machine integration.

The rapid advancement of disruptive technologies like cyborgs and artificial intelligence tools is poised to transform various aspects of society. However, the authors of the new research noted that as these technologies integrate more deeply into daily life, a digital divide is emerging between those who embrace technological innovations and those who resist them. This divide could exacerbate social inequalities.

Cyborg technologies, which merge human and machine capabilities, include medical implants, hormone-releasing devices, and wearable technology that monitors vital signs. Understanding the demographic and psychological factors influencing the adoption of these technologies can help mitigate their disruptive impact and foster more inclusive technological integration.

“Disruptive technologies such as cyborgs and AI-Tools keep changing our lives drastically today and in the near future,” said study author Patrick Reichel, a junior professor at FOM Stuttgart and CEO of Die TRAININGSWERKSTATT GmbH. “It will impact society on a whole new level I think it is very important being up to date with such topics.”

The study involved 586 participants from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, ranging in age from 18 to 77 years. The participants, who were randomly selected through an online survey, included an equal proportion of men and women.

To gauge cyborg use intention, the researchers developed the Cyborg Use Intention Scale (CUIS). This scale included items such as “Exoskeleton attached to the body as support during physical activity,” rated on an 8-point Likert scale from “is ruled out for me” to “is definitely for me.” The CUIS was structured to capture two dimensions of cyborg use: intention to use cyborg prosthetics and intention to use cyborg body products.

In addition to measuring cyborg use intentions, the study also assessed participants’ temporal focus. Temporal focus refers to how often individuals think about the past, present, or future. This was measured using a scale adapted from previous research, featuring items like “I think about things from my past,” with responses ranging from “never” to “constantly.”

To control for potential confounding factors, the researchers collected data on participants’ existing use of cyborg and wearable technologies, as well as any physical or mental limitations that might influence their responses.

Reichel and his colleagues found that younger participants exhibited a higher intention to use cyborg products compared to their older counterparts. This trend is consistent with previous research indicating that younger individuals are generally more open to adopting new technologies.

Temporal focus was also a significant predictor of cyborg use intention. Both present and future focus were positively associated with a greater willingness to adopt cyborg technologies. Individuals who frequently think about the present or the future are more likely to appreciate the potential benefits of these innovations.

Gender differences were also observed. The researchers found that women reported lower levels of intention to use cyborg products than men. This gender disparity was partly explained by differences in temporal focus, with men showing a higher present focus.

The findings indicate that “time orientation (thinking about past, present and future) impacts the way we approach life, new technologies, embrace change and influences our attitude and behavioural intention to use disruptive and innovative technologies now and in the future,” Reichel told PsyPost.

Future research could also explore other factors that influence cyborg technology adoption, such as cultural differences, ethical considerations, and the role of trust in technology. Understanding these factors could help design interventions to increase acceptance of cyborg technologies and reduce social inequalities.

Regarding the long-term aim of this line of research, Reichel explained that he hopes to “increase knowledge about psychological determinants in the context of human-machine hybridization.”

The study, “Embracing the enhanced self now and in the future: The impact of temporal focus, age, and sex on cyborg products use intention,” was authored by Patrick Reichel, Carmen T. Bassler, and Matthias Spörrle.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/researchers-identify-psychological-traits-linked-to-cyborg-tech-adoption/

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DATE: June 20, 2024 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Scientists uncover cross-cultural regularities in songs

URL: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-uncover-cross-cultural-regularities-in-songs/

Language and music are universal aspects of human culture, yet they manifest in highly diverse forms across different societies. A recent study published in Science Advances aimed to understand the shared features and distinct differences between speech and song across cultures. The findings revealed significant cross-cultural regularities in the acoustic features of songs.

The motivation behind this study stemmed from a longstanding curiosity about the evolutionary functions of language and music. Both forms of vocal communication use rhythm and pitch, leading researchers to speculate on their possible coevolution. Despite these speculations, there has been a lack of empirical data to determine what similarities and differences exist between music and language on a global scale.

Previous studies have explored neural mechanisms and identified some universal features within music and language, but comparative analyses of their acoustic attributes, especially across diverse cultures, have been limited. The new study aimed to fill that gap by examining the acoustic features of speech and song from various cultural contexts to identify potential universal patterns and unique distinctions.

To achieve this, a diverse team of 75 researchers, representing speakers of 55 languages from across Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific, was assembled. These researchers included experts in ethnomusicology, music psychology, linguistics, and evolutionary biology. Each participant recorded themselves performing four types of vocalizations: singing a traditional song, reciting the song’s lyrics, describing the song verbally, and performing the song instrumentally.

One of the most striking results was the consistent use of higher pitches in songs compared to speech. This pattern was observed across all cultures studied, suggesting that higher pitch is a defining characteristic of musical vocalization universally.

Additionally, songs were found to have a slower temporal rate than speech. This slower pace may facilitate synchronization and social bonding, which are essential functions of music in many cultural contexts.

Another significant finding was the greater pitch stability observed in songs compared to speech. Stable pitches are a hallmark of music, and this consistency likely aids in harmonization and the creation of melodious sequences.

Interestingly, while both speech and song displayed similar timbral brightness, indicating shared vocal mechanisms, there was no significant difference in pitch interval size between the two forms of vocalization. This similarity suggests that both speech and song use pitch in comparable ways, despite their different communicative purposes.

However, the study’s initial hypothesis that pitch declination would show a significant difference between speech and song was not supported. This feature, which measures the change in pitch over time, did not vary significantly across the vocalizations, indicating that both forms might use pitch declination in similar ways, contrary to what was previously thought.

The study provides “strong evidence for cross-cultural regularities,” according to senior author Patrick Savage, the Director of the CompMusic Lab at the University of Auckland.

The similarities in timbral brightness and pitch interval size suggest underlying constraints on vocalization that apply broadly to both speech and music. On the other hand, the differences in pitch height, temporal rate, and pitch stability highlight the unique characteristics of musical vocalization, which may have evolved to fulfill specific social and communicative functions distinct from those of speech.

Savage suggested that songs are more predictably regular than speech because they serve to facilitate social bonding. This regularity in rhythm and pitch likely helps individuals harmonize and connect with one another. “Slow, regular, predictable melodies make it easier for us to sing together in large groups,” he explained. “We’re trying to shed light on the cultural and biological evolution of two systems that make us human: music and language.”

In addition to their original recordings, the researchers analyzed an alternative dataset consisting of 418 previously published recordings of adult-directed songs and speech. These recordings were collected from 209 individuals who spoke 16 different languages. This additional dataset provided a valuable opportunity to validate the study’s findings and explore whether the observed patterns held true across an even broader range of languages and cultural contexts.

The analysis of the alternative dataset confirmed many of the key findings from the original recordings. Similar to the primary dataset, songs in this collection generally used higher pitches, were slower, and exhibited more stable pitches than speech. These consistent results across two independent datasets reinforce the conclusion that these acoustic features are robust indicators of the differences between song and speech globally.

The study, “Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower and higher and use more stable pitches than speech: A Registered Report,” was authored by Yuto Ozaki, Adam Tierney, Peter Q. Pfordresher, John M. McBride, Emmanouil Benetos, Polina Proutskova, Gakuto Chiba, Fang Liu, Nori Jacoby, Suzanne C. Purdy, Patricia Opondo, W. Tecumseh Fitch, Shantala Hegde, Martín Rocamora, Rob Thorne, Florence Nweke, Dhwani P. Sadaphal, Parimal M. Sadaphal, Shafagh Hadavi, Shinya Fujii, Sangbuem Choo, Marin Naruse, Utae Ehara, Latyr Sy, Mark Lenini Parselelo, Manuel Anglada-Tort, Niels Chr. Hansen, Felix Haiduk, Ulvhild Færøvik, Violeta Magalhães, Wojciech Krzyżanowski, Olena Shcherbakova, Diana Hereld, Brenda Suyanne Barbosa, Marco Antonio Correa Varella, Mark van Tongeren, Polina Dessiatnitchenko, Su Zar Zar, Iyadh El Kahla, Olcay Muslu, Jakelin Troy, Teona Lomsadze, Dilyana Kurdova, Cristiano Tsope, Daniel Fredriksson, Aleksandar Arabadjiev, Jehoshaphat Philip Sarbah, Adwoa Arhine, Tadhg Ó Meachair, Javier Silva-Zurita, Ignacio Soto-Silva, Neddiel Elcie Muñoz Millalonco, Rytis Ambrazevičius, Psyche Loui, Andrea Ravignani, Yannick Jadoul, Pauline Larrouy-Maestri, Camila Bruder, Tutushamum Puri Teyxokawa, Urise Kuikuro, Rogerdison Natsitsabui, Nerea Bello Sagarzazu, Limor Raviv, Minyu Zeng, Shahaboddin Dabaghi Varnosfaderani, Juan Sebastián Gómez-Cañón, Kayla Kolff, Christina Vanden Bosch der Nederlanden, Meyha Chhatwal, Ryan Mark David, I. Putu Gede Setiawan, Great Lekakul, Vanessa Nina Borsan, Nozuko Nguqu, and Patrick E. Savage.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/scientists-uncover-cross-cultural-regularities-in-songs/

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DATE: June 20, 2024 at 10:02AM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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Actual article link at end of text block below.
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With cannabis legalization increasing in the United States, so too are the issues surrounding cannabis access, usage, and use disorders. State by state, take a peek at some of the issues and updates surrounding cannabis. https://t.co/jFi6i7w7L3
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Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news

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DATE: June 20, 2024 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Link between teasing, low social status, and childhood obesity highlighted in new study

URL: https://www.psypost.org/link-between-teasing-low-social-status-and-childhood-obesity-highlighted-in-new-study/

A recent study found that overweight school-age children experience more distress due to teasing from their peers, particularly those with low social status within their groups. The research was published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

Social status among children refers to their level of acceptance and popularity within their peer groups. This status is influenced by social skills, behavior, and physical characteristics. A child’s social status significantly impacts their self-esteem and peer relationships. High social status often leads to positive experiences and social support, while low social status can result in exclusion, bullying, and emotional difficulties.

Research indicates that athletic children often enjoy higher social status. Conversely, being overweight can negatively impact a child’s social standing. Children with low social status are more susceptible to teasing by their peers. When the teasing focuses on being overweight, these children are more likely to engage in emotional eating or exhibit disordered eating behaviors.

The study, led by Bobby K. Cheon and his colleagues, aimed to explore the relationships between a child’s social status, teasing experiences, body weight (measured by body mass index and fat mass index), and eating when not hungry. They hypothesized that the link between low social status, body weight, and eating when not hungry would be stronger in children who experience frequent teasing.

Participants were drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study initiated in 2015 by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The study involved 115 children aged 8 to 17 from the Washington D.C. area, with data collected annually over six years. Of these participants, 28% were overweight or obese.

Children completed assessments on their perceived social and socioeconomic status (using the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status – Youth Version), distress from teasing (using the Perception of Teasing Scale), and eating in the absence of hunger (using the 14-item Eating in the Absence of Hunger Questionnaire for Children). Parents also assessed their children’s tendency to eat when not hungry. Additionally, researchers gathered data to calculate body mass index and fat mass index.

The results revealed no significant differences in social or socioeconomic status between children who reported distress from teasing and those who did not. However, children who experienced more teasing distress tended to have higher body mass index (BMI), indicating a higher weight relative to their height. This link was particularly evident in children with low social status who experienced teasing distress.

Children with lower social status were also more likely to eat when not hungry, but this tendency was again only significant in those who experienced teasing distress.

“This analysis found a statistical interaction between SSS [subjective social status] and children’s experience of teasing distress on body composition and EAH [eating in the absence of hunger]. Low SSS was associated with greater BMI [body mass index], FMI [fat mass index], and EAH due to negative affect only when participants experienced teasing distress. Exposure to teasing distress was also independently associated with higher BMI, FMI, EAH due to negative affect, and EAH total score,” the study authors concluded.

This study highlights the complex interplay between teasing and social status in influencing eating behaviors among children. However, it is important to consider the study’s limitations, including the relatively small sample size and the inability to draw definitive cause-and-effect conclusions from the data.

The paper, “Lower subjective social status is associated with increased adiposity and self-reported eating in the absence of hunger due to negative affect among children reporting teasing distress,” was authored by Bobby K. Cheon, Meegan R. Smith, Julia M.P. Bittner, Lucy K. Loch, Hannah E. Haynes, Bess F. Bloomer, Jennifer A. Te-Vazquez, Andrea I. Bowling, Sheila M. Brady, Marian Tanofsky-Kraff, Kong Y. Chen, and Jack A. Yanovski.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/link-between-teasing-low-social-status-and-childhood-obesity-highlighted-in-new-study/

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DATE: June 20, 2024 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Psychedelics integrate sleep-like spectral brain patterns into waking consciousness, study suggests

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychedelics-integrate-sleep-like-spectral-brain-patterns-into-waking-consciousness-study-suggests/

In a recent study published in Scientific Reports, researchers have uncovered connections between the psychoactive effects of classical psychedelics and brain activity patterns that resemble those seen during sleep. The findings suggest that psychedelic substances induce a unique state that integrates waking behaviors with sleep-like brain waves.

Classical psychedelics, including compounds like 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT), are known to induce profound changes in perception, emotion, cognition, and movement. These substances, structurally similar to serotonin, have been the subject of interest due to their potential therapeutic effects and their ability to produce states similar to dreaming. However, the exact brain mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown.

“As a sleep and memory researcher, I’ve been interested in psychedelic states as waking proxies of dreaming,” said study author Sidarta Ribeiro, a full professor of neuroscience at the Brain Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, an associate researcher of the Center for Strategic Studies of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), and author of The Oracle of Night.

“We have previously found that psychedelics can induce neuroplasticity akin to that induced by sleep. This prompted our interest in assessing neural markers of slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep after the administration of 5-MeO-DMT, a potent classical psychedelic substance.”

Slow-wave sleep (SWS) is a deep stage of sleep characterized by slow, high-amplitude brain waves called delta waves. It is crucial for physical restoration, memory consolidation, and overall brain health. Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, on the other hand, is marked by low-amplitude, mixed-frequency brain activity, similar to an awake state, and is named for the quick, random movements of the eyes. REM sleep is essential for processing emotions, learning, and memory, and is when most dreaming occurs.

The researchers conducted their study using 17 adult male rats. These animals were housed under controlled conditions and subjected to a series of experimental sessions. The focus was on the acute effects of 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic compound, on brain activity.

To investigate this, the team used electrodes to record brain activity from two key areas: the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus (HP). These regions are crucial for cognition and navigation, respectively. The electrodes were carefully implanted in the rats’ brains, allowing for detailed monitoring of electrical activity.

The experimental design involved administering different doses of 5-MeO-DMT or saline (as a control) to the rats and then recording their brain activity and behaviors. The recordings were made while the rats moved freely in an arena, which provided a naturalistic setting for observing the effects of the drug.

Rats exhibited a range of altered behaviors after receiving 5-MeO-DMT. These included uncoordinated movements, periods of stillness, and stereotyped behaviors like head twitching.

The researchers found that 5-MeO-DMT induced noticeable changes in brain wave patterns, particularly in the hippocampus. Theta waves, which dominate during active behavior and REM sleep, showed a significant decrease in power after drug administration. This was not solely due to changes in the rats’ movement speeds, suggesting a direct effect of the drug on brain activity.

The researchers also found changes in gamma waves, which are associated with higher brain functions like attention and memory. Both slow and mid-gamma oscillations were affected, with a dose-dependent reduction in their power and modulation by theta waves. This indicates that 5-MeO-DMT alters the complex interplay between different brain rhythms.

Using a technique called state mapping, which plots brain activity patterns, the researchers observed that 5-MeO-DMT induced transitions between waking-like and sleep-like states. Even though the rats were awake and moving, their brain activity resembled that of sleep states, particularly slow-wave sleep (SWS) and REM sleep. This suggests that the drug creates a hybrid state combining elements of both wakefulness and sleep.

“We were quite surprised by the fact that the transition probabilities across states as defined by the brainwaves, i.e., the chance of going from one state to the other were not significantly changed after 5-MeO-DMT administration, despite the fact that the animals were very obviously awake, moving around and performing stereotyped behaviors,” Ribeiro told PsyPost.

“The take home message of our study is that rats will be overtly awake after the administration of 5-MeO-DMT, and yet their brainwaves will show the continuation of the sleep-wake cycle. We suspect that this could be the basis for the existence of psychedelic sub-states in which rats (and presumably humans) are more extroverted (waking-like) or introverted (sleep-like). Furthermore, these introverted states may come in two flavors, one more slumberish (SWS-like) and another more oneiric (REM-like).”

The findings provide new insights into the complex effects of psychedelics on the brain. Rats have a brain structure that, while simpler, shares many functional similarities with the human brain. These similarities allow researchers to draw parallels between rat and human brain function and make inferences about how psychedelics might affect human brains.

However, findings in rats may not fully translate to humans due to species-specific differences in metabolism, receptor distribution, and overall physiology. “Rats are not humans, so we cannot assess their subjective experience directly,” Ribeiro noted. He plans to “follow-up these results in human subjects, and then explore in detail the features of each of these three psychedelic substates (waking-like, SWS-like and REM-like).”

“It is time for psychedelics to be fully legalized and freely investigated,” Ribeiro added.

The study, “5‑MeO‑DMT induces sleep‑like LFP spectral signatures in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of awake rats,” was authored by Annie C. Souza, Bryan C. Souza, Arthur França, Marzieh Moradi, Nicholy C. Souza, Katarina E. Leão, Adriano B. L. Tort, Richardson N. Leão, Vítor Lopes-dos-Santos, and Sidarta Ribeiro.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychedelics-integrate-sleep-like-spectral-brain-patterns-into-waking-consciousness-study-suggests/

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DATE: June 20, 2024 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: New study connects Mediterranean diet to positive brain chemistry

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-study-connects-mediterranean-diet-to-positive-brain-chemistry/

A recent study published in Nutritional Neuroscience has shed light on the potential connection between diet quality and mental health. The study found that individuals with high adherence to a Mediterranean diet had altered brain chemistry and structure compared to those with low adherence, hinting at beneficial changes.

The researchers aimed to address a significant gap in understanding how diet influences mental health. While preclinical studies have established a link between dietary patterns and brain chemistry, these findings need to be confirmed in human studies.

Common mental disorders affect millions worldwide and pose substantial social, economic, and health burdens. Symptoms such as low mood, worry, and rumination exacerbate these issues, making it crucial to explore non-pharmacological approaches, like diet, that could help manage these conditions. The researchers hypothesized that diet quality would be associated with levels of key neurotransmitters and brain structure, which in turn could influence mental health outcomes.

“The mechanisms of action associating diet with common mental disorders are largely identified in preclinical studies but need to be fully confirmed and elucidated in human studies. We wanted to fill this gap by conducting this research,” explained study author Piril Hepsomali, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Reading.

The researchers recruited 164 participants from the Universities of Roehampton and Royal Holloway, as well as the general public in London and surrounding areas. Participants were screened using the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS), a tool designed to assess adherence to the Mediterranean diet, which is known for its high quality and health benefits. Based on their MEDAS scores, 38 participants were selected and divided into two groups: those with high adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MEDAS score &gt; 8) and those with low adherence (MEDAS score &lt; 6).

All participants completed a series of questionnaires to assess demographic variables, dietary habits, and mental health symptoms. These included the MEDAS, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS), the Ruminative Response Scale (RRS), and the EPIC Norfolk Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). These tools provided a comprehensive picture of each participant’s diet quality, mental health status, and habitual food intake.

The core of the study involved brain imaging. The researchers used a 3 Tesla Siemens Magnetom scanner to acquire structural MRI images and 1H-MRS to measure neurotransmitter levels in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This region of the brain is critical for affective disorders, making it a focal point for this study. The 1H-MRS technique allowed the researchers to quantify levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate, key neurotransmitters involved in brain excitability and inhibition.

The researchers found that participants with higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet showed higher levels of GABA and lower levels of glutamate in the mPFC compared to those with lower adherence. This finding is crucial because GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that helps to reduce neuronal excitability, whereas glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter that, in excess, can lead to neuronal damage. The balance between these neurotransmitters is essential for maintaining mental health, and an imbalance is often implicated in conditions like anxiety and depression.

In terms of brain structure, Hepsomali and her colleagues found that individuals with higher diet quality had greater gray matter volume in the right precentral gyrus, a region involved in motor control and cognitive functions. This result is consistent with previous research suggesting that better diet quality is associated with larger brain volumes, particularly in regions important for cognitive and emotional regulation.

Interestingly, the researchers did not find direct associations between diet quality and measures of depression, anxiety, or stress. However, they did observe that higher rumination scores were linked to reduced gray matter volume in the right precentral gyrus and increased glutamate levels in the mPFC. Rumination, characterized by repetitive and persistent negative thinking, is a significant cognitive symptom in many mental health disorders.

The findings provide evidence that a person’s diet “might be associated with alterations in their brain chemistry and structure, and these alterations might contribute to how good or bad they feel,” Hepsomali told PsyPost.

However, he cautioned that “this is a preliminary study, with a small sample size, so our results would benefit from replication in a larger sample. Also, this is a cross-sectional study, we could not determine cause and effect relationships. In other words, we cannot say that unhealthy diets cause alterations in the brain. It may be the case that individuals with poor mental health status, choose poor quality diets, because of these neural alterations. So further longitudinal studies are needed.”

“We would like to replicate our preliminary findings in a bigger sample, ideally while utilizing other biomarkers and assess whether adherence to healthy and/or low GLU and/or high GABA diets and/or certain nutrients may alter brain chemistry and structure and improve common mental disorder symptoms,” Hepsomali added.

The study, “Adherence to unhealthy diets is associated with altered frontal gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate concentrations and grey matter volume: preliminary findings,” was authored by Piril Hepsomali, Adele Costabile, Marieke Schoemaker, Florencia Imakulata, and Paul Allen.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-study-connects-mediterranean-diet-to-positive-brain-chemistry/

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DATE: June 19, 2024 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: MDMA found to have an interesting impact on emotional processing in the brain

URL: https://www.psypost.org/mdma-found-to-have-an-interesting-impact-on-emotional-processing-in-the-brain/

A recent study published in the European Journal of Neuroscience provides new insights into how 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy or molly, affects the brain’s processing of emotional stimuli. Researchers found that MDMA significantly altered the brain’s response to emotional faces, shedding light on the drug’s unique impact on social and emotional processing.

MDMA is known for its recreational use due to its euphoric and empathogenic effects. It is also under investigation as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when combined with psychotherapy. Despite its widespread use and therapeutic potential, the specific neural and behavioral effects of MDMA are not fully understood.

The researchers designed a double-blind study to investigate how MDMA and methamphetamine affect the brain’s response to emotional stimuli. The study involved 25 healthy adults, aged 18 to 35, who had previously used MDMA.

The participants attended three separate sessions, each spaced at least four days apart, where they received either MDMA (100 mg), methamphetamine (20 mg), or a placebo in random order. This approach ensured that neither the participants nor the researchers knew which substance was administered at each session, minimizing bias.

Before each session, participants were screened for recent drug or alcohol use, and women were tested for pregnancy. During each session, the participants took the assigned substance and, after allowing time for the drug to take effect, they were fitted with electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes to measure brain activity.

The participants then engaged in an emotional oddball task, which involved identifying human faces showing different emotions (happy, angry, neutral) interspersed with frequent cartoon faces. The EEG recorded the participants’ brain responses to these stimuli, focusing on specific event-related potentials (ERPs), which are brain responses to specific sensory, cognitive, or motor events.

The researchers found that both MDMA and methamphetamine increased participants’ subjective feelings of the drug’s effects. Participants reported higher levels of feeling the drug, liking its effects, and wanting more of the drug when they took MDMA or methamphetamine compared to the placebo. Notably, MDMA also increased feelings of friendliness, aligning with its reputation for enhancing social and emotional experiences.

In terms of brain activity, MDMA had a unique effect on the N170 ERP component, which is associated with the early processing of facial features. The N170 amplitude increased significantly in response to happy and angry faces when participants took MDMA, but not in response to neutral faces. This suggests that MDMA specifically enhances the brain’s response to emotionally salient stimuli. In contrast, methamphetamine did not affect the N170 amplitude, indicating that MDMA has a distinct impact on emotional face processing that is not shared by other stimulants.

The researchers also examined the P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN) components, which are related to attention allocation and responses to novel stimuli, respectively. Neither MDMA nor methamphetamine significantly affected these ERP components. This finding indicates that MDMA’s influence is more specific to the early visual processing of emotional stimuli rather than broader cognitive or novelty responses.

“The present findings have implications for MDMA-assisted therapy,” the researchers explained. “The increased neural response to the sensory component of viewing faces could contribute to the therapeutic alliance between patients and their therapists. By increasing attention to facial emotional cues, the drug may increase interpersonal connection in the therapeutic environment.

“MDMA may also facilitate the identification and processing of emotions, allowing patients to build trust, and engage more deeply with their emotional experiences. Further studies of this kind are needed to understand the brain mechanisms underlying the behavioural effects of MDMA and other pro-social drugs.”

The study highlights MDMA’s unique ability to enhance the brain’s early processing of emotional stimuli, distinguishing it from other stimulants like methamphetamine. But there are some caveats. The sample was homogeneous, consisting of healthy young adults with prior MDMA use, which may not generalize to other populations.

Future research should include more diverse populations, varied doses, and extended washout periods. Additionally, using more complex social and emotional tasks could provide a deeper understanding of MDMA’s effects on social behavior and cognition. Investigating long-term users of MDMA and comparing their neural responses to those of non-users could also yield valuable insights.

The study, “The 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine enhances early visual processing for salient socio-emotional stimuli,” was authored by Connor J. Haggarty, Anya K. Bershad, Mahesh K. Kumar, Royce Lee, and Harriet de Wit.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/mdma-found-to-have-an-interesting-impact-on-emotional-processing-in-the-brain/

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DATE: June 19, 2024 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Researchers find brain-behavior link in adolescents with disruptive behavior disorder

URL: https://www.psypost.org/researchers-find-brain-behavior-link-in-adolescents-with-disruptive-behavior-disorder/

A new study published in Psychological Medicine explores the relationship between brain reward sensitivity and the influence of delinquent peers on adolescents with disruptive behavior disorder. The research highlights how interactions between brain function and environmental factors may contribute to the severity of disruptive behaviors in adolescents.

Adolescents diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) exhibit a range of challenging behaviors including increased aggression, emotional instability, and risky decision-making. These behaviors have significant impacts on society, contributing to public health costs and affecting the individuals themselves, their victims, and their communities.

Despite the known issues associated with DBD, the underlying mechanisms that drive these behaviors are not fully understood. This gap in knowledge hampers the development of effective prevention and intervention strategies.

One prominent environmental factor linked to DBD is exposure to delinquent peers. Adolescents who associate with peers engaging in antisocial behavior are at higher risk of committing crimes and developing antisocial personality disorders later in life.

Previous studies suggest that the relationship between delinquent peer affiliation (DPA) and disruptive behavior could be due to two main processes: socialization effects, where delinquent peers influence the individual’s behavior, and selection effects, where individuals with a predisposition for disruptive behavior are more likely to choose delinquent peers. This study aims to examine these processes in greater detail by considering how the brain’s reward system may influence susceptibility to peer effects.

The study used data collected from a sample of adolescents with a history of disruptive behavior. Participants were originally part of a cohort of first-time offenders recruited in the Netherlands. For the current study, the researchers selected a subsample of these adolescents, focusing on those with a range of antisocial behaviors. The final sample included 126 adolescents, with the majority being male and around the age of 17.

The study measured the participants’ affiliation with delinquent peers using a self-report questionnaire that assessed both the level of peer delinquency and the degree of peer affiliation. The questionnaire provided a composite score indicating the extent of each participant’s association with delinquent peers.

To examine brain function, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participants engaged in a monetary incentive delay (MID) task. This task involves participants responding to visual cues that signal the potential to win or lose money. The task is designed to activate the brain’s reward regions, particularly the ventral striatum (VS), amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which are known to be involved in reward processing.

The researchers analyzed changes in brain activity during the anticipation and outcome phases of the MID task. They then conducted multiple regression analyses to explore the interaction between delinquent peer affiliation, reward sensitivity (as measured by brain activity), and the severity of disruptive behavior symptoms.

The study found a significant positive correlation between delinquent peer affiliation and the severity of disruptive behavior disorder symptoms. However, there was no direct correlation between reward-related neural activity and either peer affiliation or disruptive behavior on its own.

Importantly, the researchers identified a significant interaction effect between peer affiliation and reward sensitivity in the ventral striatum during the outcome phase of the reward task. Adolescents who exhibited higher neural responsiveness to rewards in the ventral striatum showed a stronger association between delinquent peer affiliation and disruptive behavior symptoms. This suggests that adolescents with heightened reward sensitivity are more influenced by their delinquent peers in terms of developing disruptive behaviors.

The study also found that this interaction effect was more pronounced in younger adolescents and in males, indicating age and sex differences in how delinquent peer influences interact with brain function to affect behavior.

While the findings provide valuable insights, the study has several limitations. The sample was predominantly male, which limits the generalizability of the results to females. Another limitation is the cross-sectional design, which precludes conclusions about causality. Longitudinal studies tracking changes in brain function and behavior over time would be valuable in establishing causal relationships and understanding the developmental trajectory of these interactions.

The study, “The association between delinquent peer affiliation and disruptive behavior interacts with functional brain correlates of reward sensitivity: a biosocial interaction study in adolescent delinquents,” was authored by Jorim J. Tielbeek, Maarten van der Hooft, Moran D. Cohn, Peter M van de Ven, Tinca JC Polderman, Dick J Veltman, Danielle Posthuma, Carlo Schuengel, Lieke van Domburgh, and Arne Popma.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/researchers-find-brain-behavior-link-in-adolescents-with-disruptive-behavior-disorder/

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DATE: June 19, 2024 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Most voters overestimated the emotional impact of 2020 presidential results, with a key exception

URL: https://www.psypost.org/most-voters-overestimated-the-emotional-impact-of-2020-presidential-results-with-a-key-exception/

People generally overestimated how intensely they would feel in the wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, according to new research published in the journal Cognition and Emotion. However, Donald Trump supporters with particularly strong negative beliefs about Joe Biden experienced more intense emotions than they had anticipated.

The United States has experienced growing hostility and polarization around political elections over the past decade. Researchers have noted that many voters perceive the election of the opposing candidate as a direct threat to themselves and the groups they care about.

In the 2020 U.S. presidential election, for instance, nearly 90% of both Trump and Biden supporters believed that the other candidate’s election would cause lasting harm to society. The new study aimed to understand the relationship between voters’ beliefs about the candidates and their anticipated and actual emotional responses to the election outcomes.

“We became interested in presidential elections in the United States because of the increasing amount of emotion expressed by voters around the outcome of these elections,” said study author Heather C. Lench, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Texas A& M University. “The news is filled with people who are angry, proud, sad, overjoyed, and afraid at election outcomes. We know emotions have a powerful influence on how people think and behave, and we were curious at what the effects might be with elections and voting.”

The researchers recruited undergraduate students from two large universities in California and Texas to participate in the study. The final sample comprised 477 participants, with 396 identifying as Biden supporters and 84 as Trump supporters.

The study utilized a longitudinal design with two online surveys: one conducted before the election and the other shortly after the election results were announced. The first survey, administered between 12 days to one day before the election, asked participants to forecast how frequently they would feel happiness, anger, and fear if either Trump or Biden won. These emotional forecasts were rated on a nine-point scale ranging from “not at all” to “constantly.” Participants also rated the extent to which they believed each candidate would either save or destroy American society on a seven-point scale.

The second survey was conducted four days after the election results were announced. Participants were asked to report how frequently they felt happiness, anger, and fear about the election outcome on that particular day, again using a nine-point scale. Additionally, they indicated how often they thought about the election result. The researchers used these responses to compare the forecasted emotions with the actual experienced emotions.

One of the primary findings was that stronger beliefs about the candidates were associated with more intense forecasts of emotion following the election. Participants who believed their preferred candidate would save society predicted higher levels of happiness if their candidate won, while those who believed the opposing candidate would destroy society forecasted greater anger and fear if that candidate won.

Voting behavior was also influenced by these emotional forecasts. The researchers found that Biden supporters were more likely to vote than Trump supporters, a difference largely accounted for by their predictions of lower happiness and higher anger if Trump won the election. This suggests that negative emotions, particularly anger, played a significant role in motivating voter turnout. This aligns with previous research indicating that anger can be a powerful motivator of political action.

“The findings showed that people were motivated to vote when they had strong views of the political candidate of their opposition party,” Lench told PsyPost. “We don’t know yet if this is unique to the particular candidates. People should be aware of how political campaigns that use emotional tactics to portray the ‘other’ candidate could affect them.”

After the election, the researchers found a general tendency among participants to overestimate the intensity of their emotional responses. This overestimation was especially pronounced among Trump supporters, who felt less anger than they had anticipated following Biden’s victory.

However, for participants with stronger beliefs about the candidates, the pattern changed. Those with strong beliefs that Biden would save or Trump would destroy society thought more frequently about the election outcome and experienced even more intense emotions than they had forecasted. This suggests that strong beliefs can amplify the emotional impact of political events, making the actual emotional experience more intense than anticipated.

“We were initially surprised that supporters of Donald Trump were less angry after the election than they thought they would be, given the media attention to protests and expressed anger afterward,” Lench explained. “This made us look deeper into the findings, and this pattern was different for people who held strong beliefs about the candidates. Those with strong beliefs were even angrier than they thought they would be after the election.”

But the study, like all research, has limitations to consider. First, the sample consisted of college students, who may have different political and social concerns compared to the general population. Additionally, the study’s focus on a single political event during a period of heightened polarization also limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research should explore similar relationships in different contexts and time periods to better understand the dynamics between beliefs, emotions, and voting behavior.

“This was a single election with a particular context, and it also used self-reported emotions,” Lench noted. “It is possible the findings are unique to this specific election or the specific candidates. It’s also possible that people misreport or misremember their emotions. We’re excited to see what happens in the next election, as the candidates of the two major parties will be the same as in past election cycles.”

The study, “Voter emotional responses and voting behaviour in the 2020 US presidential election,” was authored by Heather C. Lench, Leslie Fernandez, Noah Reed, Emily Raibley, Linda J. Levine, and Kiki Salsedo.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/most-voters-overestimated-the-emotional-impact-of-2020-presidential-results-with-a-key-exception/

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HUMAN OPERATOR

Please pay attention to sample size and demographics on this and other studies.

Sample size: 486. Ok, enough for possible statistical significance.

Only 80-some Trump supporters. Is that enough people to draw conclusions?

Then -- if I'm reading this right -- ALL students. I believe from one Texas university.

Can you generalize conclusions to the entire population? Or just students (mostly young adults)? Or, just Texas?

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DATE: June 19, 2024 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Attachment styles influence grief severity after losing a pet, study suggests

URL: https://www.psypost.org/attachment-styles-influence-grief-severity-after-losing-a-pet-study-suggests/

A recent study published in Death Studies found that individuals with an anxious attachment style experienced more severe grief after the loss of a companion animal compared to those with an avoidant attachment style, who experienced less grief. This research sheds light on how attachment styles can influence the grieving process for pet owners.

Grieving the loss of a loved one is a profound and often overwhelming experience. People typically report feelings of shock, numbness, disbelief, anger, guilt, loneliness, rumination, anxiety, and depression during this time. Fortunately, for most individuals in peaceful, modern societies, the loss of a close loved one is relatively rare.

However, many people form strong emotional bonds with their pets or companion animals. Unlike human lifespans, the lifespans of most companion animals are much shorter, meaning that pet owners often face the death of their pets multiple times in their own lives. While many will grieve the loss of their animal companions, the intensity of this grief can vary significantly from person to person.

Study author Amy D. Lykins and her colleagues wanted to assess how the attachment style of an individual modified the experience of grief after the death of a companion animal. They hypothesized that grief would lessen over time and that individuals with anxious or avoidant attachment styles would experience more severe grief.

“I’ve loved animals as long as I can remember and I’ve always cared for one or more companion animals. Of course, human lifespans are generally longer than those of our most common companion animals, so you are faced with their deaths with some frequency,” explained Lykins, an associate professor in clinical psychology at the University of New England.

“I lost a beloved companion animal in really tragic circumstances in 2014 and was really affected by it. As a clinical psychologist, I then got interested in what factors predict those long-lasting mental health impacts following companion animal death.

“In 2020, I had a student (Nick Gotsis) who was willing to work on this research with me, and after reviewing the literature, we decided to look at attachment patterns and how people continue to engage with their relationships with their animals post-death (i.e., continuing bonds). We also wanted to expand the literature to investigate animals other than cats and dogs, which is what most of the research had investigated thus far.”

Attachment styles refer to patterns of how individuals form emotional bonds and interact in relationships, influenced by early interactions with caregivers. Avoidant attachment is characterized by a tendency to distance oneself from others and suppress emotions to avoid dependency. Anxious attachment involves a strong desire for closeness and constant reassurance, often leading to fear of abandonment and high levels of anxiety in relationships.

The study involved 432 adults who had lost a companion animal in the past three years. Among the participants, 87% were women, with an average age of 42 years. Sixty percent were in committed romantic relationships. Half of the companion animals were dogs, and 27% were cats. Additionally, 66% of the participants reported that the death of their companion animal was sudden and unexpected.

Participants completed assessments of their attachment to the pet using the Pet Attachment Questionnaire, their continuing bonds with the pet using the Continuing Bonds Inventory, and the severity of their grief using the Pet Bereavement Questionnaire.

The results showed that individuals who still felt a strong bond with their deceased pet tended to experience more severe grief. Conversely, those who had lost their pet a longer time ago reported less severe grief. Individuals with an anxious attachment to their pet experienced more severe grief.

“We should recognize that many people feel deeply for the animals they care for, and that losing them can be extremely painful; this is often even more the case for people who have anxious attachment patterns to their animals,” Lykins told PsyPost. “Grief following companion animal loss often falls under the umbrella of ‘disenfranchised grief,’ where the loss doesn’t easily fit into society’s general attitude to what ‘should’ cause grief and therefore isn’t understood or accepted as valid. The exclusion of animal loss to DSM-5-TR’s new diagnosis of prolonged grief disorder should be reassessed.”

“Furthermore, our results suggest that people on the frontline of supporting people who lose a pet (e.g., veterinary staff, mental health professionals) could consider assessing people’s attachment patterns to their animals to ascertain who may be at higher risk of prolonged or severe grief and provide supports to these individuals early.”

Contrary to the researchers’ hypothesis, individuals with an avoidant attachment style reported less severe grief.

“We found the results for attachment avoidance interesting, given some previous research has shown grief severity and attachment avoidance to be positively correlated,” Lykins said. “I think that our results suggest that the negative relationship between these two variables is not likely to indicate delayed grief (as has been suggested by some researchers) given our time since death variable provided a larger span of time than many previous studies and we broke this down into months rather than years, so the variable was more specific.”

The study sheds light on the links between attachment style with a pet and the severity of grief after the pet’s death. However, it also has limitations that need to be taken into account. The participants were predominantly women, and the recruitment method may have favored individuals experiencing higher levels of grief and stronger bonds with their pets. Therefore, the results might differ in studies involving men or individuals less enthusiastic about animals.

“It would be interesting to investigate these relationships among a more diverse sample of genders,” Lykins noted. “Our study is also cross-sectional, so we can’t say anything about X causing Y. It would be good to do longitudinal research on this topic.”

“It would be interesting to see how companion animal attachment relates to animal welfare,” she added. “For instance, do people with anxious attachment make different end-of-life decisions that could potentially prolong suffering rather than electing to euthanize their animals? Or are there other differences in how people interact with their animals while alive that could have repercussions for welfare that are influenced by attachment patterns?”

The paper, “Attachment styles, continuing bonds, and grief following companion animal death,” was authored by Amy D. Lykins, Paul D. McGreevy, Bindi Bennett, Nicola K. Paul, and Nick Gotsis.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/attachment-styles-influence-grief-severity-after-losing-a-pet-study-suggests/

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DATE: June 19, 2024 at 08:02AM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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Actual article link at end of text block below.
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Transgender individuals are 4 times as likely as their cisgender peers to have a mental illness. Check out these culturally competent care strategies and tips to provide the best possible care. https://t.co/wRm74oCF3m
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@Hunterrules -- No the headline certainly will not. Don't shoot the messenger.

At least in the article they go into not misgendering, avoiding microaggressions, and the like as strategies to help.

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@hunterrules -- In fairness you did not shoot the messenger.

microaggressions: "A comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group, such as a racial minority."

For example, let's say I'm White and in a conversion. I say something about another racial group and refer to them as "those people". Well, I did not use a racial slur, but I did subtlety other them in a way considered mildly derogatory in the USA. Does that help?

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DATE: June 19, 2024 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: New psychology research shows acts of kindness predict seven types of well-being

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-research-shows-acts-of-kindness-predict-seven-types-of-well-being/

Transitioning to university is a significant life change for many students. New research, published in Social and Personality Psychology Compass, reveals that engaging in everyday acts of kindness can boost psychological well-being during this challenging period.

The transition to university can be stressful for many students. With around five million students beginning post-secondary education each year in North America, understanding how to support their well-being is essential. Previous research has shown that self-focused strategies like sleep, nutrition, exercise, and mindfulness can be beneficial. However, focusing too much on oneself can sometimes lead to rumination and negatively impact mental health.

Given this potential downside of self-focused care, the researchers aimed to investigate whether outward-focused strategies, specifically acts of kindness towards others, could provide a psychological boost. Prior studies have suggested that prosocial behavior can increase happiness and well-being, but it was unclear whether these benefits would hold during stressful life transitions.

“I started research in this area because I’m deeply interested in how people weather life transitions,” said study author Tiara Cash, a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University and founder of Crowned Vitta LLC.

“Life transitions can be an exciting but hard time for people. Big life changes are common, people move or start new jobs often. I was interested in how the life transition of beginning university might impact first year students’ well-being, and whether people who helped others during this pivotal time experience better well-being.”

The study followed 193 first-year university students over six weeks, during their first semester. These students were recruited through the Psychology Department’s participant pool in exchange for course credit. Each week, students completed surveys that assessed their well-being and documented their engagement in various daily tasks, particularly focusing on prosocial behaviors.

The researchers used a detailed checklist of 47 common prosocial actions, such as sharing notes with a classmate or holding the door open for someone. Participants reported which actions they performed each week and how many times. Well-being was measured using several validated scales, including those assessing happiness, flourishing, thriving, resilience, optimism, anxiety, and loneliness. By repeatedly surveying the same students, the researchers were able to analyze within-person variations in prosocial behavior and well-being over time.

The results of the study revealed that new students consistently engaged in prosocial behaviors throughout their first semester. On average, participants reported engaging in approximately seven different types of prosocial acts each week.

The researchers found the students reported greater happiness, thriving, flourishing, resilience, and optimism, as well as lower levels of anxiety and loneliness during weeks when they performed more acts of kindness. These findings were consistent across various measures of well-being, suggesting a robust association between prosocial behavior and psychological well-being.

“We measured personal well-being in seven different ways in our study, and I was surprised to see people reported feeling more positive on all of them in the weeks that they did more kind acts,” Cash told PsyPost.

The positive effects were observed regardless of whether the prosocial acts involved social interaction or were more solitary in nature, indicating that both types of kindness can enhance well-being.

“Helping others may be an effective, yet overlooked way to support your well-being when going through challenging times, like a life transition,” Cash said. “In retrospect, this may not be surprising. Humans are a super-social species, so being in community and helping those in your community can be one way to feel connected and find greater happiness!”

While the study provides compelling evidence linking prosocial behavior to improved well-being, it has some limitations. First, the correlational nature of the data means causality cannot be definitively established.

“We did not intervene to shape or alter behavior,” Cash noted. “As a result, we cannot say that prosocial acts cause higher well-being during life transitions. However, I am currently collecting data for a study that answers this exact question! And, the fact that the study was done over multiple weeks with consistent findings, this is a great first start to understanding how prosociality and well-being are connected during difficult times.”

The findings contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting that helping others can be a powerful strategy for enhancing personal happiness and resilience, especially during times of change and uncertainty.

“I would love for this research to be implemented in higher education and other institutions where people commonly face life transitions, such as addiction recovery, prenatal classes, and retirement communities,” Cash added. “By providing people with a chance to help others as they move to a new life stage, they may find greater well-being and community.”

The study, “Everyday acts of kindness predict greater well-being during the transition to university,” was authored by Tiara A. Cash, Lara B. Aknin, and Yuthika U. Girme.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-psychology-research-shows-acts-of-kindness-predict-seven-types-of-well-being/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: A particular smell might play an important role in Alzheimer’s treatment

URL: https://www.psypost.org/a-particular-smell-might-play-an-important-role-in-alzheimers-treatment/

Imagine a future where the smell of menthol could alleviate some of the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. This might sound like science fiction, but innovative new research is making it a potential reality.

Scientists have discovered that when mice with Alzheimer’s inhaled menthol, their cognitive abilities improved. This unexpected finding highlights a potential new avenue for treating this debilitating condition.

Alzheimer’s disease is a serious neurodegenerative disorder that gets worse over time. It is characterised by changes in the brain that result in loss of neurons and connections.

It affects everyone differently, but the most common symptoms include a gradual decline in memory, thinking and social skills, and frequent mood changes. This can affect a person’s ability to learn new things, carry out daily tasks, recognise family and friends and, eventually, live independently.

Recent figures show that 55 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. With the populations of many countries ageing rapidly, this number is only expected to rise.

There are 10 million new cases of Alzheimer’s and dementia each year – a new case every 3.2 seconds. This has led experts to estimate that over 150 million people will have the disease by 2050. At any rate, Alzheimer’s is one of the biggest challenges facing public health in the 21st century.

Fortunately, scientists are now working on so-called “disease-modifying” drugs that can slow or potentially cure Alzheimer’s. Most current treatments just manage symptoms.

Of mice and menthol

In the new study mentioned above, researchers set out to examine the interactions between the olfactory, immune and central nervous systems. In their previous study they found that repeated exposure to menthol enhanced the immune response in mice. Here, the team focused on whether it could improve their cognitive abilities as well.

During this study, mice that were genetically modified to exhibit Alzheimer’s were repeatedly exposed to menthol for six months. The researchers analysed their immune response and cognitive capacity and compared them with healthy mice. Surprisingly, mice with Alzheimer’s showed a significant improvement following short exposures to the minty-smelling substance.

Specifically, menthol helped to regulate the immune system, prevent cognitive deterioration, and improved memory and learning capabilities.

Researchers found that it lowered levels of interleukin-1 beta, a protein linked to memory problems in Alzheimer’s disease. This protein, or “cytokine” causes inflammation in the brain, which can harm cognitive function. Lowering interleukin-1 beta can help reduce this inflammation and prevent further cognitive decline.

Menthol was also found to mimic the effects of artificially reducing T-regulatory cells – immune cells that help control inflammation and keep the immune system balanced. This finding suggests a possible treatment pathway for conditions like Alzheimer’s and highlights the potential for particular smells to be used as therapies.

Previous research has established links between smells and our immune and nervous systems, and we already know that smells can influence our cognition. For example, by triggering emotions and memories.

In addition, it is now known that certain diseases related to the central nervous system – for example, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia – sometimes come with a loss of smell. While the complexities of these relationships remain unclear, this new research adds some promising data that will help us better understand them.

These results are based on initial observations of lab mice and so can’t be generalised to human Alzheimer’s patients. Not only are our brains wired differently from mice, but it is not clear how our olfactory systems or perception of odours may differ. However, until the effects of menthol are studied using a human sample, this is a crucial first step towards developing a greater understanding of how to treat the disease.

Further research is needed to investigate the link between Alzheimer’s and smell, and this could lead to some interesting techniques. For example, using smell training as a treatment for managing, or even delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s.

For now, though, this piece of research provides us with some interesting findings concerning the relationship between the immune system and brain function, and hope for those affected by this disease.

&nbsp;

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/a-particular-smell-might-play-an-important-role-in-alzheimers-treatment/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Focusing on greenery during city walks has mental health benefits

URL: https://www.psypost.org/focusing-on-greenery-during-city-walks-appears-to-have-mental-health-benefits/

In a new study published in the journal People and Nature, researchers from Bangor University and Technion Israel Institute of Technology have demonstrated that simply observing natural elements during urban walks can significantly benefit mental health. The research shows that city dwellers who pay visual attention to greenery rather than human-made structures tend to experience reduced anxiety and enhanced feelings of restoration.

Urbanization has brought about numerous advantages, such as economic growth and innovation. However, city living is often associated with chronic stress and mental fatigue, leading to conditions like depression and anxiety. Previous research has consistently highlighted the positive effects of interacting with nature, including improved mood, stress reduction, and cognitive benefits.

Despite these findings, the specific aspects of nature that contribute to these mental health benefits remained unclear. The new study aimed to fill that gap by investigating how visual attention to green elements during urban walks influences psychological well-being.

Over nine months, the researchers recruited 117 adult participants without neurological or psychiatric disorders. The participants were divided into three groups: the green group, the grey group, and the mixed group. Each group was assigned a specific focus during a 45-minute walk around the Technion campus in Haifa, Israel.

Each group followed the same route but made stops at different points, depending on their assigned focus. The green group stopped at locations with natural elements like trees and grass, the grey group stopped at spots dominated by human-made structures like buildings and roads, and the mixed group stopped at points with both natural and human-made elements. At each stopping point, participants were instructed to focus their gaze on the specified elements.

To monitor the participants’ visual attention, they were equipped with Tobii Pro 2 eye-tracking glasses. These glasses used infrared cameras to track eye movements, allowing the researchers to see exactly what the participants were looking at during their walk. Before starting the walk, participants completed surveys to assess their levels of anxiety, positive and negative emotions, and cognitive function. The researchers also measured the perceived restorativeness of the walk afterward.

Participants in the green group, who focused on greenery, experienced a significant reduction in anxiety levels after the walk. This group also reported higher levels of perceived restorativeness compared to the grey group, who focused on human-made structures. Interestingly, the mixed group also showed increased perceived restorativeness, although to a lesser extent than the green group.

In terms of emotional impact, both the green and mixed groups reported a decrease in negative affect, which includes feelings of distress and irritation, after the walk. Additionally, the green group showed a marginal increase in positive affect, indicating feelings of enthusiasm and alertness. However, there were no significant changes in cognitive performance across the groups, suggesting that the visual focus on natural elements did not influence cognitive recovery in the context of this study.

The eye-tracking data provided further insights. Participants who spent more time looking at green elements like trees, bushes, and lawns showed a greater reduction in anxiety and higher perceived restorativeness. This suggests that specific natural elements may offer more mental health benefits than others. The study also highlighted the importance of visual engagement with nature, as simply being in a natural environment was not enough; actively focusing on green elements was key to experiencing the benefits.

“This finding implies that a subtle shift in attention towards nature can substantially improve daily well-being in urban areas. Such insights are vital for urban planning, suggesting the creation of spaces that offer not just access to natural elements, but also promote engagement with nature, potentially influencing well-being and pro-conservation behaviours,” the researchers concluded.

“Understanding which natural elements confer these benefits is key to transforming cities into healthier habitats for humans and wildlife alike. Our research highlights the importance of further exploring both visual and other sensory interactions with nature in urban contexts, underscoring their significance in enhancing mental health and well-being. We also demonstrate for the first time the potential benefits of using mobile eye-tracking technology in outdoor urban environments to explore how visual intake of nature elements influences well-being, though challenges persist to effectively utilize this technology outdoors.”

The study, “The nature gaze: Eye-tracking experiment reveals well-being benefits derived from directing visual attention towards elements of nature,” was authored by Whitney Fleming, Brian Rizowy, and Assaf Shwartz.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/focusing-on-greenery-during-city-walks-appears-to-have-mental-health-benefits/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Pride displays can sway perceptions of victory in evenly matched boxing fights

URL: https://www.psypost.org/pride-displays-can-sway-perceptions-of-victory-in-evenly-matched-boxing-fights/

A new study published in the journal Cognition and Emotion has explored the impact of nonverbal displays of pride on judgments of victory in boxing matches. Researchers found that while skill takes precedence when one fighter clearly outmatches the other, displays of pride can sway perceptions of victory in evenly matched fights.

The study sought to determine whether people rely more on nonverbal cues or observed competence when forming judgments about success. To investigate this, the researchers recruited 214 participants from a university campus and public locations in Metro Vancouver, Canada.

Participants viewed 30-second video clips of professional boxing matches between Apochi versus Glanton and Taylor versus Ramirez, selected for the fighters’ similar physical appearances and the presence of nonverbal pride displays at the end of the matches.

Each participant watched two sets of videos: one with evenly matched fighters and another where one fighter had an advantage. In the advantage scenario, the more skilled fighter displayed a neutral posture, while the less-skilled fighter exhibited a pride display. The researchers used screenshots of these postures, labeling the fighters as “Fighter A” and “Fighter B” to avoid bias.

Participants were asked to judge who won the fight and to answer questions related to social influence, such as which fighter they would choose to train with or follow on social media. They also rated the skill of each fighter using a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

In scenarios where two fighters were evenly matched, the study found a notable bias towards the pride-displaying fighter. Approximately 60% of participants judged the pride-displaying fighter as the winner, despite the lack of a clear performance difference between the fighters.

This suggests that nonverbal displays of pride, characterized by raised arms, an erect posture, chest expansion, a raised chin, and a slight smile, can effectively convey an image of success and influence judgments in the absence of other distinguishing factors.

However, the influence of nonverbal pride displays diminished significantly when one fighter shows superior skill. In these uneven matches, participants overwhelmingly judged the more skilled fighter as the winner, with 61% favoring the skilled fighter over the pride-displaying one. This shift indicates that observed competence and skill take precedence over nonverbal cues when there is a clear difference in performance.

Beyond judgments of victory, the study also examined the impact of pride displays on social influence, asking participants which fighter they would prefer to train with, follow on social media, or learn about a product they were selling. In evenly matched fights, pride displays did not significantly impact these social influence measures. However, in uneven matches, the more skilled fighter was consistently favored across these measures.

For instance, 60% of participants chose the more skilled fighter as a preferred trainer, indicating that observed competence significantly enhances social influence. This finding suggests that while pride displays can create an impression of success, tangible skills are more influential in decisions related to social influence.

In summary, while pride displays can sway perceptions in evenly matched fights, observed skill ultimately prevails when one fighter has a clear advantage. These findings underscore the importance of competence in competitive settings and suggest that while nonverbal cues can be influential, they are not a substitute for demonstrated ability.

“The present research contributes to a growing body of work demonstrating that nonverbal pride influences perceptions, but it also points to important limitations,” the researchers concluded. “Although nonverbal pride affects judgements of victory in evenly matched fights when one fighter demonstrates superior skill, the more skilled fighter is judged as winning over the less-skilled proud fighter. The more skilled boxers (rather than prouder ones) also had more social influence.”

The study, “The effects of nonverbal pride and skill on judgements of victory and social influence: a boxing study,” was authored by Jason P. Martens and Lucy Doytchinova.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/pride-displays-can-sway-perceptions-of-victory-in-evenly-matched-boxing-fights/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 03:25PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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Lumateperone 42 mg as an adjunctive therapy for the treatment of major depressive disorder achieved statistically significant and clinically meaningful results in both the primary and the key secondary endpoints, according to new research. https://t.co/rWCONxsZEL
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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Can TikTok exacerbate eating disorders?

URL: https://www.psypost.org/can-tiktok-exacerbate-eating-disorders/

Recent research published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders suggests a connection between the use of TikTok, a popular video-based social media platform, and eating disorder symptoms. The study found that users who actively engage with content related to appearance and eating are more likely to exhibit symptoms of eating disorders, potentially due to the nature of the platform’s content recommendation algorithms.

Social media platforms, particularly those that are photo-based, have been consistently linked to symptoms of eating disorders. These symptoms are often attributed to the exposure to idealized body images and the ensuing comparisons users make between themselves and others.

However, most previous studies have not taken into account the dynamic and user-responsive nature of modern social media environments, particularly those driven by machine-learning algorithms. TikTok, known for its engaging short videos and personalized content suggestions, has become increasingly popular among youth. Researchers aimed to investigate whether the way TikTok’s algorithm suggests content could contribute to the development or exacerbation of eating disorder symptoms.

The researchers recruited 230 participants from the University of Western Australia, ensuring all had been using TikTok for at least four weeks. The sample consisted predominantly of women (179), with a smaller number of men (45), non-binary individuals (3), and participants who preferred not to disclose their gender (3). Participants were asked to complete several questionnaires and report their TikTok activity.

Eating Disorder Symptoms: The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire assessed participants’ eating disorder symptoms over the past 28 days, focusing on dietary restraint, eating concerns, weight concerns, and shape concerns. Higher scores indicated more severe symptoms.

Upwards Social Media Appearance Comparisons: This was measured using an adapted version of the Upward Appearance Comparison Scale, which assessed how often participants compared themselves to others on social media who they perceived to look better.

TikTok Activity: Participants accessed their TikTok data to report their screen time and details of their last 20 recommended videos. They noted whether these videos contained themes related to appearance and eating, had hashtags indicating such themes, or featured bodies perceived to be attractive. They also recorded any active engagement with these videos, such as liking, commenting, or sharing.

The researchers used statistical models to test the relationships between engagement with appearance/eating-related content, the proportion of such content in recommendations, upwards appearance comparisons, and eating disorder symptoms. They employed a serial mediation model to explore these connections.

The study found that higher engagement with appearance and eating-related content on TikTok was associated with higher proportions of similar content being recommended. This, in turn, was linked to greater frequency of upwards social media appearance comparisons, which were associated with more severe eating disorder symptoms. Specifically, the results showed significant indirect effects when the content was tagged with appearance/eating-related hashtags or featured bodies perceived as attractive by the user.

However, not all forms of content engagement showed these effects. For example, general screen time and engagement with recommended content that did not have these specific themes were not associated with eating disorder symptoms or appearance comparisons. This suggests that it is the nature of the content, rather than overall usage, that is critical in these associations.

While the findings provide valuable insights, the study has several limitations. First, it focused solely on active engagement with TikTok content and did not consider other factors, such as video watch time, that also influence the platform’s recommendations.

Additionally, the study’s cross-sectional design means it cannot establish causality or the directionality of the observed relationships. Future research should use experimental and longitudinal designs to explore these associations over time and determine whether engagement with specific types of content leads to increased eating disorder symptoms or vice versa.

“In conclusion, these findings make an important and novel contribution to the extant empirical work documenting the relationships between social media use and [eating disorder] symptoms. Findings provide preliminary support for the ways in which users’ engagement with TikTok content is related to [eating disorder] symptoms. Future work in this area is warranted, and social media platforms should be urged to create policies and practices that protect youth from these risks,” the researchers wrote.

The study, “Association between engagement with appearance and eating related TikTok content and eating disorder symptoms via recommended content and appearance comparisons,” was authored by Laura Dondzilo, Rachel F. Rodgers, and Fanny Alexandra Dietel.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/can-tiktok-exacerbate-eating-disorders/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 12:25PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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Actual article link at end of text block below.
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According to new research, antipsychotic monotherapy is not associated with a lower risk of hospitalization for severe physical health problems compared with polypharmacy when high total dosage is assessed. https://t.co/72YSn28EHO
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Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Women’s self-perceived attractiveness amplifies preferences for taller men

URL: https://www.psypost.org/womens-self-perceived-attractiveness-amplifies-preferences-for-taller-men/

Women tend to consider taller men with broader shoulders more attractive, masculine, dominant, and higher in fighting ability, according to recent research published in Evolutionary Psychological Science. However, these preferences are not uniform; they are influenced by women’s perceptions of their own mate value.

Previous research has suggested that physical traits like height and body masculinity are important indicators of a man’s genetic quality and resource acquisition potential, both of which are critical factors in mate selection. However, the researchers wanted to examine how these preferences might change under different ecological conditions and how individual differences, such as sociosexuality (interest in short-term mating) and mate value (self-perceived attractiveness), might influence these preferences.

“We were following up on a previous study by Pazhoohi et al. (2023), where we found that the interacting effects of shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR) and height affected women’s ratings of men for perceived attractiveness, masculinity, dominance, and fighting ability. Here, we ran an experiment to see if these perceptions were amplified based off cues of ecological harshness (e.g., safety, violence, resource scarcity),” said study author Ray Garza, an assistant professor of psychology at Texas A& M International University.

For their study, the researchers recruited 247 self-identified heterosexual women with an average age of 24.46 years from a predominantly Hispanic serving institution. The participants were shown a series of images depicting men with varying heights and SHRs. The heights ranged from 160 cm to 190 cm, and the SHRs were categorized as small (1.1), intermediate (1.2), and large (1.3). Each male image was positioned next to a 172 cm tall female figure, anchoring the height comparison.

To assess the impact of ecological conditions, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: safe, resource scarce, or violent. These conditions were presented through reading prompts and slideshows designed to evoke feelings of stability, economic uncertainty, or violence. After viewing the images, participants rated each man on attractiveness, masculinity, dominance, and fighting ability using a seven-point scale.

Women rated men as more attractive, masculine, dominant, and higher in fighting ability as the men’s height and SHR increased. The interaction between height and SHR was particularly noteworthy; taller men with larger SHRs received the highest ratings across all categories.

Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, ecological priming (conditions simulating resource scarcity, violence, or safety) did not significantly alter women’s ratings of men’s physical traits. This was surprising given that previous research suggested environmental factors could influence mate preferences, potentially prioritizing traits that signal the ability to provide resources or protection in harsh conditions. The study’s findings imply that preferences for height and SHR may be robust and consistent across different ecological scenarios.

“It was predicted that ecological harshness cues would amplify women’s perceptions of men, but we did not see those effects,” Garza told PsyPost. “Although women did perceive our manipulation as being effective, it did not affect the way they rated men. This may suggest that taller men with larger shoulder-to-hip ratios are preferred across all contexts due to their perceptions of being highly attractive and formidable, which are traits that some women prefer in men.”

Women’s sociosexual orientation also did not significantly influence their ratings of men’s attractiveness, masculinity, dominance, or fighting ability. This suggests that a woman’s interest in short-term versus long-term mating may not play a major role in how she perceives these physical traits.

However, women who rated themselves as more attractive tended to give higher ratings to taller men. This suggests that women with higher self-esteem or confidence in their attractiveness set higher standards for their potential partners, particularly valuing height.

The findings provide evidence “that shoulder-to-hip ratio and height are morphological traits that women consider important in men,” Garza said. “However, women’s self-perceived mate value amplifies those preferences for taller men. It is suggested that women with higher mate value are better able to compete with other women to access men that display ideal traits.”

One major limitation was the reliance on ecological priming through visual presentations and reading prompts, which may not fully capture the complexity of long-term exposure to harsh or safe environments. “Although effective for causing temporary states of uncertainty, it could be that other cues of harshness or lifetime exposure of harshness cues could affect ratings differently,” Garza noted.

The researchers also noted the importance of considering socioeconomic status and perceived resource availability in future studies. Understanding how women’s own economic stability influences their preferences for physical traits in men could offer deeper insights into the interplay between ecological conditions and mate selection.

“One long-term goal is to investigate some of the proximate mechanisms involved in mate choice, such as examining attentional processing in evaluating men,” Garza said. “For instance, do women visually evaluate men differently across conditions of ecological harshness cues? Do women with higher-mate value demonstrate increase levels of attention to formidable men? These are some long-term avenues of research that we will evaluate further.”

The study, “Examining Ecological Harshness, Sociosexuality, and Mate Value in Women’s Preferences for Men’s Height and Shoulder‑to‑Hip Ratio,” was authored by Ray Garza, Regina Gonzalez Elizondo, and Farid Pazhoohi.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/womens-self-perceived-attractiveness-amplifies-preferences-for-taller-men/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Trust in human vs AI teammates depends on team size, study finds

URL: https://www.psypost.org/trust-in-human-vs-ai-teammates-depends-on-team-size-study-finds/

Recent research from the Netherlands reveals that individuals working in two-member teams tend to report greater cognitive interpersonal trust in their human teammates compared to AI agents. However, in three-member teams, the perceived trustworthiness of human and AI members was found to be similar. This study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, provides new insights into team dynamics involving AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are computer systems designed to perform tasks traditionally requiring human intelligence, such as understanding natural language, recognizing patterns, and making decisions. These systems employ various techniques, including machine learning, where algorithms improve their performance by learning from data, and deep learning, which uses neural networks with multiple layers. These technologies allow AI to process vast amounts of information quickly and accurately, making AI useful in numerous applications.

The recent years saw great advances in the development of AI. Large language models, Ais that can use natural human language, became practical and publicly available, initiating a profound transformation of ways how humans work and how many activities are conducted. With further development of AI and transformation of the human society that ensues, it is likely that even more effective AI agents will be developed and applied in various fields of activity that used to be exclusively human in the past.

AI agents are software entities that autonomously perform tasks or make decisions based on predefined rules, learned patterns, or real-time data. These agents can operate independently or collaborate with humans and other agents to achieve specific goals. Examples include virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, autonomous vehicles, and recommendation systems used by streaming services and online retailers. Future advancements may see AI agents becoming more capable, human-like, and better adapted for seamless interactions with people.

Study authors Eleni Georganta and Anna-Sophie Ulfert wanted to explore how trustworthy humans would find AI agents employed as members of their team in an organizational setting to be. They noted that trust is essential for the work of any team, and that humans might find it harder to evaluate the trustworthiness of AI team members because typical resources for evaluating trust, such as shared experiences and familiarity are limited for AI agents.

The researchers conducted two experiments. In both, team members collaborated on an online task. The studies examined how having an AI versus a human teammate impacted perceived trustworthiness, similarity, and interpersonal trust within the team.

The first study involved 494 participants from a German university, with an average age of 24 years, and 48% were female. Participants were asked to imagine working for a smartphone company to convince the CEO to finance a new fitness app. One team member acted as a designer, and the other as a software developer. In one group, participants were told their teammate was a human, while in the other group, the teammate was presented as an AI. Participants in the role of the software developer received training to communicate like an AI.

The team meetings were divided into three sessions. After each session, participants assessed their teammate’s perceived trustworthiness (e.g., “My team member shows a great deal of integrity”), perceived similarity (e.g., “My team member and I are similar in terms of our outlook, perspective, and values”), and cognitive and affective interpersonal trust (e.g., “I can freely share my ideas, feelings, and hopes with my team member”).

The second study followed a similar design but included a third team member assigned the role of a marketing expert. This study involved 318 participants from a Dutch university and the same German university, excluding those who participated in the first study.

Results from the first study indicated that designers identified slightly less with their team when their teammate was an AI. However, there were no differences in objective team performance. Participants in the role of the software developer reported higher perceived trustworthiness, similarity, and interpersonal trust when their teammate was human.

In the second study, there were no differences in performance or trust indicators between teams with an AI member and those with all human members.

The study sheds light on the differences in perceptions of AI agents and humans in work settings. However, it should be noted that the scale and duration of interactions between participants in these experiments were limited to the task at hand, and severely constrained. This is quite different from how team members in most real-world situations interact and develop relations of trust.

The paper, “Would you trust an AI team member? Team trust in human–AI teams,” was authored by Eleni Georganta and Anna-Sophie Ulfert.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/trust-in-human-vs-ai-teammates-depends-on-team-size-study-finds/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Ultra-processed foods tied to increased stroke risk and cognitive impairment

URL: https://www.psypost.org/ultra-processed-foods-tied-to-increased-stroke-risk-and-cognitive-impairment/

Recent research published in the journal Neurology suggests that people who consume more ultra-processed foods may indeed face higher risks of cognitive impairment and stroke compared to those who eat fewer processed foods. The findings shed light on the relationship between diet and brain health.

Ultra-processed foods are characterized by their extensive industrial processing and often contain ingredients not commonly used in home cooking, such as artificial additives, preservatives, and emulsifiers. Examples of ultra-processed foods include soft drinks, chips, cookies, instant noodles, packaged snacks, processed meats like hot dogs and sausages, sugary breakfast cereals, and pre-packaged frozen meals.

Previous research has linked these foods to various health issues, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. However, the specific effects of ultra-processed foods on brain health and stroke risk have not been as thoroughly explored. Understanding these effects could inform dietary recommendations and public health policies aimed at reducing the prevalence of these conditions.

“There is substantial evidence to show that consumption of certain types of food is healthy and associated with better brain health outcomes. These include green, leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts and minimizing red meat,” said study author W. Taylor Kimberly, chief of the Division of Neurocritical Care at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

“However, there has been less known about how processing of food types is associated with brain health. Emerging evidence suggests that highly processed foods, generated in industrialized settings, is associated with metabolic, cardiovascular health outcomes. In our study, we were interested in the study the relationship between ultra-processed food intake and risk of stroke and cognitive impairment, while also taking into account the type of food intake.”

The researchers utilized data from the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) project, a large, ongoing study that examines stroke risk factors in a diverse cohort of Black and White adults aged 45 years or older in the United States. Participants were enrolled between 2003 and 2007, and those included in the analysis had no history of stroke or cognitive impairment at the study’s onset.

Participants provided detailed information about their diet using a Food Frequency Questionnaire, which categorized their food intake according to the NOVA classification system. This system divides foods into four categories based on the level of processing: unprocessed or minimally processed foods (NOVA1), processed culinary ingredients (NOVA2), processed foods (NOVA3), and ultra-processed foods (NOVA4).

To assess cognitive impairment, participants underwent memory and fluency tests, including Word List Learning, Delayed Recall, Animal Fluency, and Letter F Fluency. A participant was considered cognitively impaired if their scores were significantly lower than predicted based on a normative sample. Stroke incidents were tracked through self-reports and confirmed by reviewing medical records and neuroimaging.

The researchers also collected data on various demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors, including age, sex, race, smoking status, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, physical activity, body mass index, alcohol use, and depressive symptoms. These factors were included in the analysis to control for potential confounding variables.

The study found that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was significantly associated with an increased risk of both stroke and cognitive impairment. Specifically, each 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet was linked to a 10% increase in the risk of stroke and a 16% increase in the risk of cognitive impairment. These associations remained significant even after adjusting for various demographic and clinical factors, as well as overall dietary patterns.

Interestingly, the study also found that greater adherence to healthier dietary patterns, such as the Mediterranean, DASH, and MIND diets, was associated with a reduced risk of stroke and cognitive impairment. These diets emphasize the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and lean proteins while limiting the intake of processed and sugary foods.

The researchers noted that the adverse effects of ultra-processed foods on brain health were independent of these healthier dietary patterns. In other words, even among individuals who generally followed a healthy diet, higher consumption of ultra-processed foods still posed a significant risk.

“When thinking about brain health outcomes such as stroke and cognitive impairment, it’s important to think about what you eat and also how that food is prepared,” Kimberly told PsyPost.

While the findings of this study are compelling, there are several limitations to consider. First, the study relied on self-reported dietary data, which can be subject to inaccuracies and biases. Participants may underreport or overreport their intake of certain foods, leading to potential measurement errors.

Additionally, the observational nature of the study means that it cannot establish causality. While the study found strong associations between ultra-processed food consumption and brain health outcomes, it cannot definitively prove that ultra-processed foods cause these adverse effects.

Another important direction for future research is to investigate the potential impact of ultra-processed foods on the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is a diverse community of trillions of microorganisms living in the digestive tract that play a crucial role in digestion, immune function, and overall health.

“We’re interested in understanding how food intake impacts our gut microbiome, and in turn, how that may impact brain health,” Kimberly said.

The study, “Associations Between Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Adverse Brain Health Outcomes,” was authored by Varun M. Bhave, Carol R. Oladele, Zsuzsanna Ament, Naruchorn Kijpaisalratana, Alana C. Jones, Catharine A. Couch, Amit Patki, Ana-Lucia Garcia Guarniz, Aleena Bennett, Michael Crowe, Marguerite R. Irvin, and W. Taylor Kimberly.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/ultra-processed-foods-tied-to-increased-stroke-risk-and-cognitive-impairment/

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DATE: June 18, 2024 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: The neuroscience behind the sunk cost fallacy: Key brain region identified

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-neuroscience-behind-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-key-brain-region-identified/

How do we decide when to stick to a goal or when to abandon it for a potentially better option? Recent research published in Nature Human Behaviour has shed light on this dilemma. The study reveals that a brain region known as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a pivotal role in our tendency to remain committed to our goals.

One key motivation for the study was to bridge the gap between behavioral economics, which provides numerous examples of overcommitment, and neuroscience, which can offer insights into the brain regions and processes involved. Previous research has shown that people often stick with their chosen goals due to emotional and cognitive biases, but the specific brain mechanisms driving this behavior were not well understood. The researchers hypothesized that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) might play a central role in mediating goal commitment by influencing attention and decision-making processes.

“Economists and psychologists are often interested in describing the ways that humans are ‘irrational.’ An example of this is the ‘sunk cost bias,’ which happens when people are too unwilling to give up on a goal even when it’s failing. We were interested in investigating how these tendencies relate to processes in the brain that could actually help us function in the real world,” explained study author Eleanor Holton, a PhD student at the University of Oxford.

To explore this, the researchers utilized a two-pronged approach: functional MRI (fMRI) and studies involving patients with brain lesions. They recruited 30 participants for the fMRI study and 26 patients for the lesion study.

In the fMRI study, participants engaged in a task designed to mimic real-life decision-making scenarios. They were asked to fill virtual nets with seafood, with each net representing a goal. Participants could choose from three types of seafood (crab, octopus, and fish), each associated with different quantities displayed as bars on the screen. The challenge was to decide whether to continue adding to the current net or switch to a different one, knowing that switching would mean losing all accumulated progress in the current net.

The task was conducted in multiple phases. Initially, participants were trained outside the scanner, followed by a main session inside the fMRI scanner where they performed 300 decision trials. Afterward, they completed 100 additional trials outside the scanner with an added spatial attention task. This spatial task required participants to remember the locations of the seafood items, further examining their attention allocation.

The experimental setup ensured that the values of the seafood offers varied gradually, with occasional large shifts to simulate real-world fluctuations in goal attractiveness. This setup allowed the researchers to model different decision strategies and compare participants’ behavior against an optimal decision-making model.

Analysis of the fMRI data revealed that the vmPFC played a crucial role in tracking goal progress and guiding commitment. Activity in the vmPFC was observed both during decision-making and between decisions, suggesting that it helps maintain focus on the current goal. This was further supported by the spatial attention task results, where participants showed better memory for locations associated with their current goal compared to alternative goals.

Interestingly, the study found that participants tended to overcommit to their goals. Even when an optimal model suggested switching, participants persisted more than necessary. This bias towards persistence was linked to increased goal-oriented attention, indicating that as people progress towards a goal, their focus intensifies on completing it, making them less sensitive to attractive alternatives.

To test the causality of the vmPFC’s role in goal commitment, the researchers turned to the lesion study. Patients with damage to the vmPFC showed significantly lower persistence biases compared to other patients and healthy controls. These patients were less likely to stick to a failing goal, suggesting that the vmPFC is crucial for the observed persistence bias in healthy individuals.

“We find that particular areas of the brain are necessary for people to show sunk cost biases, which is the tendency to keep persisting with a goal even when it would be better to abandon it,” Holton told PsyPost. “Patients with damage to this brain area are more flexible about switching to better goals, but were also less focussed on the goals they selected. Although patients with brain damage did better than healthy people in this particular study, in the real world, sunk cost biases are likely to be helpful in keeping us focused on the goals we set.”

Despite these valuable insights, the study had its limitations. The sample size, particularly in the lesion study, was relatively small, which might limit the generalizability of the findings. Additionally, while the tasks were designed to simulate real-life decision-making, they were still controlled laboratory tasks.

The study opens several avenues for future research. One direction could involve exploring how individual differences in vmPFC activity influence decision-making in various contexts, such as financial investments or personal relationships. Additionally, investigating how other brain regions interact with the vmPFC during goal pursuit could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the neural basis of decision-making.

“While our work gives us some good evidence of how the brain might be able to strike the balance between persisting and abandoning goals, it will be equally important to establish any clinical relevance for psychiatric conditions such as ADHD, where people are often more likely to ‘give up’ on a current goal or OCD, where patients can be over-persistent,” Holton noted.

The study, “Goal commitment is supported by vmPFC through selective attention,” was authored by Eleanor Holton, Jan Grohn, Harry Ward, Sanjay G. Manohar, Jill X. O’Reilly, and Nils Kolling.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-neuroscience-behind-the-sunk-cost-fallacy-key-brain-region-identified/

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DATE: June 17, 2024 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

TITLE: Intriguing connection found between serotonin and fertility

URL: https://www.psypost.org/intriguing-connection-found-between-serotonin-and-fertility/

What role does the neurotransmitter serotonin play in fertility? A recent study by scientists from Nagoya University in Japan has uncovered a link between serotonin neurons, glucose availability, and reproductive health. Their findings suggest that serotonin neurons in the brain play a significant role in maintaining reproductive functions by sensing glucose levels and enhancing the release of reproductive hormones. The research was published in Scientific Reports.

Depression is linked to dysfunction in central serotonergic neurons and is known to correlate with both reproductive and metabolic disorders. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors, common treatments for depression, highlight the importance of serotonergic signaling in these processes.

However, the specific role of serotonergic neurons in coordinating reproduction and glucose metabolism remained unclear. The researchers aimed to uncover how serotonergic neurons in the brain might sense glucose levels and regulate reproductive functions. Understanding this connection could pave the way for new therapeutic approaches to treat reproductive disorders in patients with depression.

To investigate this, the researchers employed both female rats and goats, focusing on the dorsal raphe nucleus and the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, areas rich in serotonergic neurons and key regulators of reproductive hormones. They used a combination of genetic, pharmacological, and physiological techniques to unravel the connections between these neurons, glucose sensing, and reproductive hormone release.

In rats, the team used Kiss1-tdTomato heterozygous rats, which have a gene marker that allows for the identification of kisspeptin neurons, crucial for regulating reproduction. They conducted RNA sequencing to identify the types of serotonin receptors present in these neurons. The analysis revealed that the serotonin-2C receptor (5HT2CR), an excitatory receptor, was significantly expressed in the arcuate nucleus’ kisspeptin neurons.

One of the primary discoveries is the significant expression of the serotonin-2C receptor (5HT2CR) in kisspeptin neurons within the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. Kisspeptin neurons are crucial regulators of reproduction, responsible for generating pulses of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which in turn stimulates the release of luteinizing hormone (LH) necessary for reproductive processes.

The RNA sequencing and double in situ hybridization techniques used in this study confirmed that nearly half of the kisspeptin neurons expressed 5HT2CR. This finding suggests that these neurons are direct targets for serotonergic signaling, linking serotonin levels to reproductive function.

In further experiments, the researchers demonstrated that enhancing serotonergic activity in the mediobasal hypothalamus with fluoxetine, a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, could counteract the suppression of LH pulses induced by a glucoprivic state (low glucose availability) in female rats.

Normally, conditions of low glucose, induced experimentally by the administration of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG), suppress the release of LH, thereby inhibiting reproductive functions. However, fluoxetine administration restored LH pulse frequency, indicating that increased serotonin levels can mitigate the adverse effects of low glucose on reproductive hormone release.

The researchers also showed that direct glucose infusion into the dorsal raphe nucleus increased serotonin release in the mediobasal hypothalamus. This intervention also restored the frequency of LH pulses suppressed by 2DG-induced glucoprivation. These results suggest that serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe can sense glucose levels and adjust reproductive hormone release accordingly, highlighting the dual role of these neurons in managing both glucose metabolism and reproductive function.

To validate these findings in another mammalian model, the researchers conducted electrophysiological recordings in goats. They discovered that central administration of serotonin or a 5HT2CR agonist stimulated the activity of the GnRH pulse generator, leading to increased LH release. Conversely, when a 5HT2CR antagonist was administered, it blocked the serotonin-induced stimulation of GnRH pulses, further confirming the pivotal role of the serotonin-2C receptor in this regulatory process.

The findings underscore the importance of serotonergic signaling in the brain’s ability to integrate information about glucose availability and modulate reproductive functions. The study provides evidence that serotonergic neurons, through their ability to sense glucose and interact with kisspeptin neurons via 5HT2CR, play a crucial role in maintaining reproductive health, particularly in the face of metabolic challenges.

Animal models, such as the female rats and goats used in this study, provide valuable insights into biological processes that are often difficult to study directly in humans. Rats and goats, while different from humans, share fundamental aspects of their endocrine and nervous systems. The findings in these animals can thus provide a basis for understanding similar processes in humans.

But human physiology, behavior, and disease pathology are influenced by a myriad of genetic, environmental, and social factors that are not fully replicated in animal models. For example, while rats and goats can provide insights into basic physiological processes, they do not capture the full complexity of human reproductive and metabolic disorders, which can be affected by a wide range of factors including diet, lifestyle, and psychological stressors.

While animal models are crucial for initial discoveries, further research involving human subjects is necessary to validate and translate these findings into clinical practice.

The study, “Raphe glucose-sensing serotonergic neurons stimulate KNDy neurons to enhance LH pulses via 5HT2CR: rat and goat studies,” was authored by Sho Nakamura, Takuya Sasaki, Yoshihisa Uenoyama, Naoko Inoue, Marina Nakanishi, Koki Yamada, Ai Morishima, Reika Suzumura, Yuri Kitagawa, Yasuhiro Morita, Satoshi Ohkura, and Hiroko Tsukamura.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/intriguing-connection-found-between-serotonin-and-fertility/

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