Aisling M Costello, Siobhán Howard, Ann-Marie Creaven
{"title":"Cardiovascular Recovery from Acute Psychological Stress: Testing the Temporal Stability of Multiple Models of Recovery.","authors":"Aisling M Costello, Siobhán Howard, Ann-Marie Creaven","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109096","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>The variability in the operationalisation of cardiovascular recovery from psychological stress across studies is well-established in the field but little is done to address these issues. The aim of this study was to establish the temporal stability of multiple computations of cardiovascular recovery already documented in the literature. Secondly, the aim was to determine if temporal stability depended on how recovery was computed.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study used previously collected data from the Pittsburgh Cold Study 3 (PCS3). One-hundred and eighty-nine participants (58.7% male, two thirds Caucasian, age range; 18-55 years) completed two separate, identical, standardized stress-testing protocols (Mean = 48 days apart) and had their blood pressure and heart rate (HR) monitored throughout a baseline, stress task and recovery phase. Drawing on a multiverse framework, recovery was computed as 1) delta change score from baseline, 2) delta change score from task, 3) percent change baseline, 4) percent change task, 5) area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) and 6) area under the curve with respect to increase (AUCi).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Delta change score from task, percent change task and AUCg demonstrated the strongest temporal stability for blood pressure and HR recovery between visits.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study highlights the fragility of significant findings when multiple computations of cardiovascular recovery are considered within the multiverse framework, confirming that the status of results strongly depends on the computation of recovery that is chosen. We recommend employing multiverse analyses where feasible to confirm which computations are preferable. Where the multiverse is not feasible, we suggest using more sophisticated curve-fitting techniques like AUCg.</p>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"109096"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144769388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EEG spectral power correlates across cognitive tasks: Implications for VR, UXA, and Ergonomics","authors":"Angel David Blanco , Karan Chugani , Claire Braboszcz , Eleni Kroupi , Aureli Soria-Frisch","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109084","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109084","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study seeks to assess the applicability of EEG spectral biomarkers in application fields where cognitive characterization is required, e.g. Virtual Reality, User Experience Assessment (UXA), and Ergonomics. It aims to gauge users' cognitive states across varying task settings. We have gathered EEG data from three distinct datasets for this purpose. The first dataset encompasses EEG recordings from 36 participants under two conditions: at rest and while performing arithmetic operations. Additionally, participants were categorized as skilled or unskilled performers, making this dataset valuable for evaluating the effectiveness of different EEG features related to working memory. The second dataset comprises EEG data from 14 participants memorizing different quantities of characters (specifically, 2, 4, 6, or 8 characters) for three seconds. This dataset aims to replicate and assess how the identified biomarkers can distinguish between various levels of working memory within the same participant. The third dataset involves EEG recordings from 27 participants engaged in a 90-minute Virtual Reality (VR) driving task, wherein they needed to maintain the car within the lane amid random deviations. This dataset serves the purpose of evaluating the descriptors' capacity to differentiate between states of high and low attention, as measured by their values before lane deviations. It also facilitates an exploration of how fatigue and time-on-task impact these markers. Our findings indicate that the Theta-to-Alpha ratio (TAR) measured at midline electrodes or as the ratio of frontal theta to parietal alpha effectively characterizes cognitive effort during mental arithmetic and memory tasks. In contrast, the Theta-Alpha-to-Beta Ratio (TA2BR) measured at temporal scalp locations emerges as the most efficient descriptor for assessing heightened vigilance states, particularly in tasks requiring external attention and rapid responses, such as the VR driving task. The influence of time-on-task on descriptor reliability varied depending on participants' performance levels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109084"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144719208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The influence of punishment anticipation on inhibitory control processing in individuals with test anxiety","authors":"Yuhong Ou , Renlai Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using the event-related potential (ERP) method combined with the monetary incentive delay task and arrow Flanker Task, this study investigated the impact of varying punishment anticipation on inhibitory control processing in individuals with test anxiety. Results revealed that during the cue processing, compared to individuals with low test anxiety (LTA), individuals with high test anxiety (HTA) exhibited more negative cue-N2 and CNV amplitudes under high punishment conditions. In the inhibitory control processing, under high punishment conditions, HTA individuals showed more negative N2 amplitudes in incongruent trials compared to LTA individuals. Under no-punishment conditions, HTA individuals demonstrated more positive P3 and conflict SP amplitudes in incongruent trials. The study suggests that excessive punishment anticipation for failure consequences may constitute the mechanism underlying inhibitory control deficits in individuals with HTA. These findings provide a new perspective for understanding the inhibitory control deficits in HTA and offer foundations for targeted interventions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109086"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144704173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carolin Dudschig, Fritz Günther, Ian Grant Mackenzie
{"title":"Cognitive plausibility of count-based versus prediction-based word embeddings: A large-scale N400 study.","authors":"Carolin Dudschig, Fritz Günther, Ian Grant Mackenzie","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109079","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The N400 is a central electrophysiological event-related-potential (ERP) marker thought to reflect meaning comprehension in the human brain. Typically, the N400 is larger when a word does not fit into a specific context (e.g., I drink coffee with cream and dog). Thus, one core factor determining the N400 amplitude is thought to be the predictability of a word within its context. Here, both long-term memory associations and short-term discourse context influence the N400 amplitude. In the present study, we used the N400 as a marker to investigate the cognitive plausibility of semantic similarity measures. Specifically, we compared traditional count-based measures to modern machine learning tools such as prediction-based word embeddings to assess whether prediction-based techniques potentially encapsulate learning mechanisms that align more closely with psychological plausibility. To do so, we examined the relationship between different similarity measures (LSA, HAL and word2vec) and the N400 amplitude in a large scale re-analysis of previously published EEG data. Model comparison suggested a superiority of HAL over LSA as a predictor in explaining single-trial N400 amplitudes, and also a benefit of prediction-based methods over count-based methods. This result aligns with the notion that such models might in the future provide further insights into how the brain navigates language understanding.</p>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"109079"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144669043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The heart in attention: evidence for cardiac phase effects in alerting but not executive control","authors":"Irena Arslanova, Polly Dalton, Manos Tsakiris","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109088","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109088","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Across two experiments, we examined the role of phasic cardiac fluctuations – whether the heart contracts (systole) or relaxes (diastole) – on two attentional mechanisms: executive control (EC) and alerting. Empirical evidence for cardiac phase effects in alerting has been missing, and studies on EC have found mixed results. Thus, we disentangled how cardiac fluctuations affect alerting and EC, separately and then together, using a subset of highly validated Attentional Network Test (ANT). EC was probed by requiring participants to resolve a conflict in an incongruent flanker stimulus. The stimulus was presented either during systole or diastole (Experiment 1, n = 48). Next, in Experiment 2 (n = 45), in addition to probing EC, we also probed alerting by providing participants, on half of the trials, with a cue to warn them of the onset of the stimulus. The cue was shown either during systole or diastole. Our results demonstrated that phasic cardiac fluctuations shape the more immediate alerting response to external cues, but not the subsequent executive control over conflicting information. Specifically, a cue that was presented at a time of increased cardiac output (during systole) elicited a more pronounced alerting effect than the same cue presented during diastole. Whether the stimulus appeared during systole or diastole had no impact on EC functioning. Overall, these findings contribute to the growing body of research on the interaction between cardiac signals and cognitive processes, emphasizing the selective role of systolic and diastolic phases in influencing alerting rather than executive control.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109088"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144669045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Juan M. Chau Delgado , Matias J. Ison , Paul S. Muhle-Karbe , Mark G. Stokes , Sam Hall-McMaster , Nicholas E. Myers
{"title":"Alpha and beta oscillations mediate the effect of motivation on neural coding of cognitive flexibility","authors":"Juan M. Chau Delgado , Matias J. Ison , Paul S. Muhle-Karbe , Mark G. Stokes , Sam Hall-McMaster , Nicholas E. Myers","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109085","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109085","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cognitive flexibility is crucial for adaptive human behaviour. Prior studies have analysed the effect of reward on cognitive flexibility; however, the neural mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown. This study explores how reward influences neural oscillations and how these changes impact behavioural performance. Using time-frequency decomposition, we examined electroencephalographic data from participants engaged in rule-guided task-switching with varying reward prospects. Higher anticipated rewards lead to greater desynchronisation of alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (20–30 Hz) oscillations, which in turn correlated with improved task performance. Both alpha power and event-related potential (ERP) coding of reward independently predicted reward-based performance improvements, suggesting distinct mechanisms supporting proactive control. These findings underscore the unique contributions of neural oscillations in mediating motivational effects on cognitive flexibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109085"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144661042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tsu-Jen Ding , Hui-Yu Hsu , Chen-Yu Yao , Zai-Fu Yao
{"title":"The cognitive mechanisms of spatial perspective taking in map reading","authors":"Tsu-Jen Ding , Hui-Yu Hsu , Chen-Yu Yao , Zai-Fu Yao","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109087","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109087","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Spatial perspective taking (SPT) is a core cognitive ability essential for real-world navigation, yet the examination of dynamic integration of allocentric and egocentric reference frames using map has received limited attention. To address this gap, the present study introduces a Map-Based Self-Localization Task paired with event-related potential (ERP) techniques to examine how angular disparities and rotation directions affect SPT. High school participants (n = 38) completed 320 Map-Based Self-Localization trials. Behavioral analyses revealed that accuracy and response speed varied significantly with angular disparity, and notably, rotation direction also emerged as a critical factor, with left-turn rotations (South to West, 90°) resulting in significantly lower accuracy compared to equivalent right-turn rotations (South to East, 90°). ERP and oscillatory analyses showed that larger angular disparities elicited stronger neural activation in frontal, central, and parietal-occipital regions, evidenced by elevated delta-band power and increased P300 amplitudes. Lateralized readiness potentials further underscored the role of motor imagery in directional rotations, reinforcing an embodied cognition perspective. These results highlight both angular disparity and rotation direction as important considerations in spatial navigation research using map, with implications for SPT theory.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 109087"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144669044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sungwoo Ahn , Leonid L. Rubchinsky , Evie A. Malaia
{"title":"Distinct modes of functional neural organization in autism: Insights from dynamical systems analysis of resting-state EEG","authors":"Sungwoo Ahn , Leonid L. Rubchinsky , Evie A. Malaia","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While differences in patterns of functional connectivity and neural synchronization have been reported between individuals on the autism spectrum and neurotypical peers at various age stages, these differences appear to be subtle and may not be captured by typical quantitative measures of EEG. We used the dynamical systems approach to analyze resting-state EEG to investigate fine-grained spatiotemporal organization of brain networks in autistic and neurotypical young adults. While power spectra showed minimal group differences, autistic participants exhibited higher Lyapunov exponents (indicating less stable neural dynamics), weaker phase synchronization, and lower clustering/efficiency of functional networks during eyes-open resting state, suggesting more random and less stably connected neural dynamics in comparison to those of neurotypical peers. Closing the eyes regularized neural dynamics in autistic but not neurotypical participants, with increases in synchrony strength, transient desynchronization patterning, and functional connectivity observed in the autistic group. The results point to the distinct modes of neural dynamics organization likely reflecting cumulative developmental adaptations to sensory inputs that shape both resting-state neural activity and cognitive processing strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 109077"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144531231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Autistic and schizotypal traits influence audiovisual temporal binding window malleability following alpha-band entrainment","authors":"Gianluca Marsicano , Sara Garofalo , Luca Ronconi , Caterina Bertini","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109082","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109082","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The likelihood of integrating audiovisual (AV) information is reflected in the construct of temporal binding window (TBW), which accounts for the differing processing times across sensory regions. Wider TBWs within the autistic and schizotypal spectrums predict the degree of cognitive-perceptual and socio-communicative atypicalities. Alpha oscillations (8–13 Hz) represent an important neural mechanism for AV binding, and consequently alpha-band entrainment can shrink or expand TBWs. However, whether interindividual differences in autistic and schizotypal traits influence TBW modulations under entrainment is unexplored. Here, we used alpha-band sensory AV entrainment to explore how individual traits affect TBW malleability in neurotypical individuals (n = 113), administering rhythmic stimulations at slower (∼8.5 Hz) and faster alpha (∼12 Hz) frequencies before an AV simultaneity judgement task. Participants self-reported autistic and schizotypal traits, and a cluster analysis stratified individuals into three groups: high Cognitive-Perceptual Traits (CPT), high Socio-Affective Traits (SAT), Low Traits (LT). Results revealed that, across groups, upper alpha entrainment narrowed TBWs, enhancing AV temporal acuity. However, following lower alpha stimulation, only the CPT group exhibited wider TBWs, indicating a heightened responsiveness to entrainment stimulation, reflecting bottom-up atypical integration of sensory information into coherent models. Additionally, the typical leading sense asymmetry determining narrower TBWs for auditory-leading sequences was observed only in the LT group, suggesting that even sub-clinical cognitive-perceptual and socio-communicative atypicalities may disrupt basic aspects of cross-modal interactions. These findings suggest that socio-communicative and cognitive-perceptual anomalies associated with autistic and schizotypal traits influence low-level aspects of temporal binding across sensory modalities, including their malleability following alpha-band stimulation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 109082"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144604531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
C. Henrico Stam , Frederik M. van der Veen , Vaughn R. Steele , Ingmar H.A. Franken
{"title":"Tobacco smoking is associated with attenuated error monitoring","authors":"C. Henrico Stam , Frederik M. van der Veen , Vaughn R. Steele , Ingmar H.A. Franken","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109075","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109075","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Rationale</h3><div>Addiction is associated with neurophysiological deficits in error monitoring (EM), i.e., the continuous assessment of ongoing actions and comparing the outcomes of these actions with internal goals and standards, measured by, e.g., event-related potentials (ERPs). For tobacco smoking, the largest global substance addiction, there is no firm conclusion on the relation with EM due to a paucity of studies.</div></div><div><h3>Objectives and methods</h3><div>A relatively large gender-balanced sample (N = 92, of which 44 smoking participants) performed the Eriksen-flanker task while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. The error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe) were measured, as well as event-related oscillations (EROs) in the theta and delta frequency bands.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The results show a blunted ERN and Pe in smoking participants compared to non-smoking participants, providing evidence for attenuated error detection and salience. Reduced power in transient event-related theta and delta oscillations for smoking participants appeared to underlie the weaker ERN and Pe, respectively. There was no group difference in behavioral performance. Group differences in Pe/Pc, theta, and delta band power remained after robustness testing (i.e., 80 % reliability criterium with 18 trials in each condition).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Attenuated error monitoring was found for people who smoke tobacco, manifested as a blunted ERN and Pe, which appear to be driven by reduced bursts of theta and delta power, respectively. This shows that tobacco smoking is associated with a robust deficit in EM that has been found in other substance use disorders, and it appears to increase with dependence severity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 109075"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144499442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}