Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-03-08DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109239
Thomas Ritz, Shulan Hsieh
{"title":"Peer review, the sick patient of science: Diagnosis and editorial measures in Biological Psychology","authors":"Thomas Ritz, Shulan Hsieh","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109239","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109239","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109239"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147437988","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}
Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-03-26DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109247
Karina Van Bogart , Dave M. Almeida , John M. Felt , Jonathan Rush , Eric S. Cerino , Susan T. Charles
{"title":"Loneliness, positive social interactions, and diurnal cortisol among mid-to-later life adults in everyday life","authors":"Karina Van Bogart , Dave M. Almeida , John M. Felt , Jonathan Rush , Eric S. Cerino , Susan T. Charles","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109247","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109247","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Loneliness, the subjective feeling of social isolation, is a major public health concern linked to poor health, including stress-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease. However, less is known about how loneliness relates to biological functioning in everyday life and whether age and social interactions shape these associations. We investigated whether loneliness self-reported in everyday life related to the dynamic range of diurnal cortisol (CDR) compared to other indicators of diurnal cortisol (including the cortisol awakening response [CAR], diurnal cortisol slope [DCS], and area under the curve [AUC]). We also tested whether associations varied by age and frequency of positive social interactions. Data come from a national daily assessment study with participants ranging between 34 and 83 years old who completed 8 days of daily diary assessments (N = 626) and 4 days of salivary cortisol collection. Linear regression analyses showed that people with higher average daily loneliness had more compressed levels of CDR (<em>b</em> = −2.66, <em>SE</em> = 0.74, <em>p</em> < .001), an association that did not differ by age (<em>b</em> = −0.04, <em>SE</em> = 0.06, <em>p</em> = .46). The association between loneliness and CDR varied as a function of the number of days with positive social interactions (<em>b</em> = 0.90, <em>SE</em> = 0.18, <em>p</em> = 0.02), such that the association was smaller among people who reported more positive social interactions. No associations were found for CAR, DCS, or AUC. Findings suggest that greater loneliness in daily life is associated with reduced HPA-axis flexibility, particularly among individuals with fewer positive social interactions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109247"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147534613","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}
Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-04-04DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109257
Tess Reid , Alexandra L. Ecker , Kaitlyn McMullen , Kristen D. Petagna , Karen S. Quigley , Jolie B. Wormwood
{"title":"Investigating the (in)stability of resting baseline measures of cardiac activity","authors":"Tess Reid , Alexandra L. Ecker , Kaitlyn McMullen , Kristen D. Petagna , Karen S. Quigley , Jolie B. Wormwood","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109257","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109257","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Standard practice for collecting and analyzing cardiac activity data involves establishing a baseline of cardiac activity and assessing deviations from this baseline. However, empirical data on how these baseline measurements may vary within individuals over time and across contexts remains sparse. Here, we assess resting baseline measures of interbeat interval (IBI) and high-frequency heartrate variability (HF-HRV) for 124 participants during four separate 5-minute baseline sessions over a 6-week period. Analyses suggest that only about half of the variance in the data for each measure was attributable to between-subject differences (IBI=59.86%; HF-HRV: 51.49%) and a third or more of the variance was attributable to between-session differences (IBI: 35.93%; HF-HRV: 30.36%). Minute-to-minute variability was minimal (IBI: 4.20%; HF-HRV: 18.14%), particularly for IBI which did not change significantly over the course of the 5-minute baselines on average; HF-HRV was significantly higher in the first minute of the baseline than the others on average. Investigation of sources of person-level and session-level variability revealed that both IBI and HF-HRV were significantly higher during the first session than latter sessions, and HF-HRV was significantly higher when the baseline was collected after instead of before a 20-minute task. Older age, higher BMI, and less reported weekly exercise were also associated with lower HF-HRV at the between-subjects level. Other person- and session-level variables examined (e.g., experimenter characteristics, weather, time of day) did not significantly account for any observed variability. Methodological implications are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109257"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147629300","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}
Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-04-09DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109261
Tae Kyoung Lee, Young Youn Kim
{"title":"Enhanced LPP responses to the angry faces in individuals with a history of childhood abuse during the implicit emotion categorization task","authors":"Tae Kyoung Lee, Young Youn Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109261","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109261","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated whether neural responses to emotional facial expressions in individuals with histories of childhood abuse differ depending on whether emotional information is processed implicitly or explicitly. Participants with childhood abuse experiences (n = 23) and matched controls (n = 23) completed both an implicit gender-discrimination task and an explicit emotion-recognition task while viewing angry, neutral, and happy facial expressions, during which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The late positive potential (LPP), an index of sustained attentional engagement with emotional stimuli, was examined. We hypothesized that participants with childhood abuse experiences would show greater LPP amplitudes to angry faces than controls during the implicit task, whereas group differences would be attenuated during the explicit task. Analyses showed that, in the implicit condition, the childhood abuse group demonstrated enhanced LPP activity when viewing angry faces relative to controls. However, the enhanced LPP amplitudes observed for angry faces in the childhood abuse group during the implicit task were not replicated in the explicit condition, where the two groups exhibited similar levels of LPP activity. These results indicate that childhood abuse may amplify responsivity during implicit emotional processing, particularly for threat-relevant cues such as angry expressions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109261"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147663584","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}
Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-04-09DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109260
Lilas Haddad, Solène Kalénine, Yannick Wamain
{"title":"How affordance similarity impacts µ rhythm desynchronization during object selection","authors":"Lilas Haddad, Solène Kalénine, Yannick Wamain","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109260","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109260","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Visual scenes typically contain multiple objects, each evoking potential actions (“object affordances”). Studies demonstrated that when several objects are presented, the similarity of their affordances can slow perceptual judgments. Here, we investigated whether the cost of affordance similarity is reflected at the neural level. We aimed to better identify how and when the similarity of affordances impacts the activity of the motor neural network, through µ rhythm desynchronization. We also investigated the influence of thematic relations between objects on this phenomenon. Forty participants named a target object in 3D scenes displaying object pairs while EEG was recorded. Objects were designed to evoke either power or precision grips, with pairs varying in affordance similarity and thematic relatedness. After a preview of the scene, a cue indicated the target object to name. Modulations of µ rhythm desynchronization according to affordance similarity and thematic relations were analyzed over time. We observed reduced μ rhythm desynchronization during target selection when related objects shared similar affordances, an effect absent when objects were unrelated. These findings demonstrate that affordance similarity negatively impacts neural motor resonance during object selection, and that semantic relations modulate this effect.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109260"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147663551","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":"Perceived partner responsiveness is associated with longitudinal changes in circulating inflammatory biomarkers among caregiving mothers in midlife","authors":"Jean-Philippe Gouin , Yolanda Sánchez Carro , Ignacio Perezmontemayor Cruz , Sasha MacNeil","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109244","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109244","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Positive social relationships are linked to better health outcomes. Beyond global evaluations of relationship quality, little is known about how specific interpersonal processes may influence biological pathways promoting optimal health outcomes. Perceived partner responsiveness (PPR) is an interpersonal process through which an individual comes to believe that their romantic partner attends to and supports core aspects of their self, leading them to feel understood, validated, and cared for by their partner. The goals of this study were to assess whether PPR would be associated with changes in circulating inflammatory biomarkers over time, and whether this association would be more pronounced in the context of chronic caregiving stress among middle-aged mothers. Participants were 169 partnered mothers caregiving for an adolescent or young adult with a neurodevelopmental disorder, the higher caregiving stress group, or a typically developing adolescent or young adult, the lower caregiving stress group. In this 30-month longitudinal study, participants completed a daily diary assessment of PPR and negative spousal interactions and provided blood samples for inflammatory biomarkers analysis. Results indicated that higher PPR was associated with smaller increases in inflammation over time, over and above differences in negative spousal interactions. Although caregiving stress was associated with higher inflammation at baseline, it was not associated with change in inflammation over time. Furthermore, caregiving stress did not moderate the association between PPR and inflammation. These findings suggest that perceived partner responsiveness is a positive interpersonal process that may play a unique role in the health effects of close relationships.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109244"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147516733","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 neural correlates of grit: Frontal lobe activity in grit effort and interest","authors":"Jessica I. Fleck , Cassandra Bodner , Reet Patel , Jeanmarie Harvey , Carly Ruppert , Carlie Pascale , Nicole White","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109246","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109246","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Prior research has linked left frontal activity to well-being and right frontal activity to regulatory control, both of which relate to grit, leaving the frontal profile of grit unclear. The present study examined resting-state frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) and frontal alpha power in relation to grit, self-control, and conscientiousness in 76 young adults. Using 8–13 Hz alpha activity with average reference and following CSD transformation, we identified neural patterns for grit components and associated constructs: grit–effort and conscientiousness were associated with reduced right frontal cortical activity (F8), whereas grit–interest and self-control were linked to increased left frontal cortical activity (F3). All self-report measures were correlated with greater left-than-right cortical activity for medial frontal sites, with the strongest relationship between FAA and grit-total scores. Overall, these findings support differential neural correlates for grit–effort and grit–interest, and the need to consider the neural and behavioral correlates of the grit subscales in future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109246"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147596520","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}
Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-04-07DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109259
Holly B. Laws , Niall Bolger , Ana DiGiovanni , Dustin S. Gad , Rani Huo , Janet Truebig , Joan K. Monin
{"title":"The random dyadic interdependence model: Modeling variability in physiological covariation within dyads","authors":"Holly B. Laws , Niall Bolger , Ana DiGiovanni , Dustin S. Gad , Rani Huo , Janet Truebig , Joan K. Monin","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109259","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109259","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study demonstrates a novel modeling strategy for capturing physiological linkage in dyads using techniques newly available in the Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling framework. Leveraging repeated physiological measures data from a sample of older parent-adult child dyads (204 individuals, <em>N</em> = 102 dyads) coping with early-stage cognitive impairment, we expected a wide range of physiological interdependence. This study demonstrates the substantial heterogeneity in dyadic interdependence in several physiological measures (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate). Results provided evidence of a variable interdependence in all physiological outcomes, with a both negative and positive dyadic interdependence patterns estimated across dyads. Results provided preliminary support for the use of variable interdependence as a dependent variable. Family cohesion and open expression were found to be associated with more strongly positive interdependences in blood pressure outcomes, but not heart or respiration rates. Other predictors were not significantly associated with interdependence. One benefit of the random covariance modeling technique is its ability to simultaneously estimate a range of negative to positive interdependences in physiological data, both of which were represented in our sample of older parent-adult child dyads.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"206 ","pages":"Article 109259"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147647490","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}
Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-17DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109225
Lijun Yin, Tianqing Chen, Yifan Liu
{"title":"Beyond monetary incentives: Deception exhibits context-dependent neural patterns in the mPFC, dlPFC, and Caudate nucleus","authors":"Lijun Yin, Tianqing Chen, Yifan Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109225","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109225","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Contextual factors profoundly influence deceptive decisions. While research on deception has advanced significantly, studies have predominantly focused on deception incentivized by monetary gain. The present fMRI study employed a novel group-painting task to dissociate the neural correlates of deception across four conditions: the beneficiary (self vs. other) and the incentive type (monetary rewards vs. social-affective goals). Behaviorally, deceptive behavior reached its peak in self-serving monetary contexts. Neurally, key regions exhibited context-dependent dissociations. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) showed heightened activation and context-specific representations in the Self-Affection context, and reduced activity in frequent deceivers when making both deceptive and honest decisions. In contrast, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) was more engaged in the Self-Money context (vs. Self-Affection) and when making honest decisions, with frequent deceivers exhibiting attenuated dlPFC/caudate differentiation between lying and truth-telling trials. While the caudate nucleus lacked condition-specific activation, it selectively responded to monetary settings and outcomes in the self-serving context. Representational similarity analyses further revealed that individual differences in deception frequency and magnitude were encoded in distributed neural patterns. Together, these findings reveal deception is not a unitary process, its frequency and underlying neural circuitry are shaped by contexts. Key brain regions of deception exhibited context-dependent responding patterns, suggesting these areas, while consistently involved in (dis)honesty, may serve dissociable functional roles across contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"205 ","pages":"Article 109225"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146222124","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}
Biological PsychologyPub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-03-06DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109236
Žan Zelič , Joel Patchitt , Guy W. Fincham , Enrica L. Santarcangelo , Hugo D. Critchley
{"title":"Hypnotizability and interoception: Differential associations with accuracy, sensibility, and awareness","authors":"Žan Zelič , Joel Patchitt , Guy W. Fincham , Enrica L. Santarcangelo , Hugo D. Critchley","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109236","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2026.109236","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Prior research suggests differences in interoceptive processing across hypnotizability levels; however, the validity of previously used measures has been questioned, and how hypnotizability relates to different interoceptive dimensions remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the relationship between hypnotizability and three dimensions of interoception: accuracy (IA), sensibility (IS), and awareness (IAW). Forty-two healthy participants completed a heartbeat counting task (HCT) and a heartbeat discrimination task (HDT) to measure IA. IS was assessed using the Body Perception Questionnaire (BPQ) and mean confidence ratings provided during HCT and HDT. IAW was defined as the correspondence between IA and confidence for HCT and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for HDT. Hypnotizability was measured using the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form A. A time estimation task was introduced to evaluate its role in HCT performance. The results showed a negative association between hypnotizability and performance on both the HCT and the HDT, no significant association between hypnotizability, BPQ, and mean confidence scores, and no significant relationship between hypnotizability and either measure of IAW. No significant associations were observed within or between interoceptive dimensions. HCT scores were strongly associated with time estimation accuracy. The results replicate previous findings of lower IA in highly hypnotizable individuals but indicate that self-reported bodily vigilance and metacognitive awareness of interoceptive abilities are not related to hypnotizability. Our findings align with predictive coding views of hypnotizability, suggesting that lower IA reflects diminished sensory precision, which may facilitate stronger weighting of top-down priors over sensory evidence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"205 ","pages":"Article 109236"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147379758","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}