Science posts

See science posts on page 63 below.

    • 2014
    • Woo-Young Ahn et al
    • Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors of Political Ideology
    • Political ideologies summarize dimensions of life that define how a person organizes their public and private behavior, including their attitudes associated with sex, family, education, and personal autonomy [ 1, 2 ]. Despite the abstract nature of such sensibilities, fundamental features of political ideology have been found to be deeply connected to basic biological mechanisms [ 3–7 ] that may serve to defend against environmental challenges like contamination and physical threat [ 8–12 ]. These results invite the provocative claim that neural responses to nonpolitical stimuli (like contaminated food or physical threats) should be highly predictive of abstract political opinions (like attitudes toward gun control and abortion) [ 13 ]. We applied a machine-learning method to fMRI data to test the hypotheses that brain responses to emotionally evocative images predict individual scores on a standard political ideology assay. Disgusting images, especially those related to animal-remin..
    • 2014
    • Manuel G. CalvoDavid Beltrán
    • Brain lateralization of holistic versus analytic processing of emotional facial expressions
    • This study investigated the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the role of the eye and the mouth regions in the recognition of facial happiness, anger, and surprise. To this end, face stimuli were shown in three formats (whole face, upper half visible, and lower half visible) and behavioral categorization, computational modeling, and ERP (event-related potentials) measures were combined. N170 (150–180 ms post-stimulus; right hemisphere) and EPN (early posterior negativity; 200–300 ms; mainly, right hemisphere) were modulated by expression of whole faces, but not by separate halves. This suggests that expression encoding (N170) and emotional assessment (EPN) require holistic processing, mainly in the right hemisphere. In contrast, the mouth region of happy faces enhanced left temporo-occipital activity (150–180 ms), and also the LPC (late positive complex; centro-parietal) activity (350–450 ms) earlier than the angry eyes (450–600 ms) or other face regions. Relatedly, computational ..
    • 2012
    • John T. Jost, David M. Amodio
    • Political ideology as motivated social cognition: Behavioral and neuroscientific evidence
    • Ideology is a potent motivational force; human beings are capable of committing atrocities (as well as acts of generosity and courage) and sacrificing even their own lives for the sake of abstract belief systems. In this article, we summarize the major tenets of a model of political ideology as motivated social cognition (Jost et al. in Psychol Bull 129:339–375, 2003a, Psychol Bull 129:389–393, 2003b, Person Soc Psychol Bull 33:989–1007, 2007), focusing on epistemic, existential, and relational motives and their implications for left-right (or liberal-conservative) political orientation. We review behavioral evidence indicating that chronically and temporarily activated needs to reduce uncertainty, ambiguity, threat, and disgust are positively associated with conservatism (or negatively associated with liberalism). Studies from neuroscience and genetics suggest that right- (vs. left-) wing orientation is associated with greater neural sensitivity to threat and larger amygdala volume,..
    • 2009
    • Emrah Düzel
    • NOvelty-related Motivation of Anticipation and exploration by Dopamine (NOMAD): Implications for healthy aging
    • Studies in humans and animals show that dopaminergic neuromodulation originating from the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA) of the midbrain enhances hippocampal synaptic plasticity for novel events and has a motivationally energizing effect on actions through striatal mechanisms. In this review, we discuss how these mechanisms of dopaminergic neuromodulation connect to the behavioural and functional consequences that age-related structural degeneration of the SN/VTA exerts on declarative memory. We propose a framework called ‘NOvelty-related Motivation of Anticipation and exploration by Dopamine’ (NOMAD) which captures existing links between novelty, dopamine, long-term memory, plasticity, energization and their relation to aging. We propose that maximizing the use of this mechanism by maintaining mobility and exploration of novel environments could be a potential mechanism to slow age-related decline of memory.
    • 1999
    • Richard A. Depue et al
    • Neurobiology of the structure of personality: Dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion
    • Extraversion has two central characteristics: (1) interpersonal engagement, which consists of affiliation (enjoying and valuing close interpersonal bonds, being warm and affectionate) and agency (being socially dominant, enjoying leadership roles, being assertive, being exhibitionistic, and having a sense of potency in accomplishing goals) and (2) impulsivity, which emerges from the interaction of extraversion and a second, independent trait (constraint). Agency is a more general motivational disposition that includes dominance, ambition, mastery, efficacy, and achievement. Positive affect (a combination of positive feelings and motivation) is closely associated with extraversion. Extraversion is accordingly based on positive incentive motivation. Parallels between extraversion (particularly its agency component) and a mammalian behavioral approach system based on positive incentive motivation implicate a neuroanatomical network and modulatory neurotransmitters in the processing o..
    • 2010
    • Philip J. Corr
    • Automatic and controlled processes in behavioural control: Implications for personality psychology
    • This paper highlights a number of unresolved theoretical issues that, it is argued, continue to impede the construction of a viable model of behavioural control in personality psychology. It is contended that, in order to integrate motivation, emotion, cognition and conscious experience within a coherent framework, two major issues need to be recognised: (a) the relationship between automatic (reflexive) and controlled (reflective) processing and (b) the lateness of controlled processing (including the generation of conscious awareness)—phenomenally, such processing seems to ‘control’ behaviour, but experimentally it can be shown to postdate the behaviour it represents. The implications of these two major issues are outlined, centred on the need to integrate theoretical perspectives within personality psychology, as well as the greater unification of personality psychology with general psychology. A model of behavioural control is sketched, formulated around the concept of the behavi..
    • 2007
    • Marika Paaver et al
    • Platelet MAO activity and the 5-HTT gene promoter polymorphism are associated with impulsivity and cognitive style in visual information processing
    • Rationale Low capacity of the central serotonergic system has been associated with impulsive behaviour. Both low platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity and the short (S) allele of the serotonin transporter gene promoter region polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) are proposed to be markers of less efficient serotonergic functioning. Objectives The effect of the two markers for serotonin system efficiency on performance in a visual comparison task (VCT) and self-reported impulsiveness (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, BIS-11) were investigated in healthy adolescents participating in the Estonian Children Personality Behaviour and Health Study. Possible confounding effect of general cognitive abilities on the performance in VCT was controlled for. Results Low platelet MAO activity and carrying of the S allele of 5-HTTLPR were both associated with higher error-rate and more impulsive performance in VCT. Platelet MAO activity and 5-HTTLPR S allele had a significant interactive effect on sel..
    • 2009
    • Charles S. Carver et al
    • Two-Mode Models of Self-Regulation as a Tool for Conceptualizing Effects of the Serotonin System in Normal Behavior and Diverse Disorders
    • The serotonin system is a collection of neural pathways whose overall level of functioning (from low to high) relates to diverse kinds of psychological and behavioral variability. Individual differences in serotonergic function are important both in personality and in vulnerability to psychological disorders. These disorders range widely—from impulsive aggression to depression. One way to understand such diverse reflections of differences in serotonergic function is by viewing serotonergic function through the lens of two-mode (or dual-process) models of self-regulation. Such theories posit a lower-order system that responds quickly to associative cues of the moment and a higher-order system that responds reflectively and planfully. Low serotonergic function appears to enhance influence of the lower-order system. This often yields impulsive reactivity. Why, then, does low serotonergic function also relate to depression, which is characterized by lethargy and unresponsiveness? The ans..
    • 2011
    • Lee Pergamin-Hight et al
    • Variations in the Promoter Region of the Serotonin Transporter Gene and Biased Attention for Emotional Information: A Meta-Analysis
    • Selective attention to negative information has been strongly implicated in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and offered as a potential intermediate phenotype for anxiety disorders. Attention biases have been studied in relation to a polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) offering equivocal findings. The present meta-analysis tested whether the extant published data support the notion that variation in the 5-HTTLPR genotype modulates selective attention to negative information. Methods Eleven relevant samples from 10 published articles were identified through a systematic literature search (total n = 807). Relevant attention bias and 5-HTTLPR data were extracted based on specific coding rules, and Cohen's d effect size index was used to calculate all outcome measures. Publication bias was assessed using various methods. Results Carriers of the low (SS, SLG, LGLG) transmission efficacy genotype display attentional vigilance towa..
    • 2010
    • Philip J. Corr
    • Anxiety: Splitting the phenomenological atom
    • Anxiety is one of the most studied constructs in psychology and one of the most prevalent features seen in clinical disorder, presented either as the defining symptom (e.g., generalised anxiety disorder) or comorbid with other disorders. But despite considerable work directed towards the elucidation of its neuropsychological bases, its adaptive value in everyday life, and its possible evolutionary roots, significant problems remain in the development of an adequate integrative model of its multidimensional nature. To address this problem, this paper argues for a closer integration of biological, cognitive, behavioural and experiential systems, including the functions of higher-level controlled systems: it is the interplay of these systems that lead to the construction of the phenomenological angst of anxiety that is represented in consciousness. A summary is provided of a recently formulated model centred around the well-known behavioural inhibition system (BIS), which takes equal ac..