Biological Psychology最新文献

{"title":"Is mind wandering reflected in microsaccade dynamics?","authors":"Matteo Valsecchi ,&nbsp;Mario Dalmaso ,&nbsp;Luigi Castelli ,&nbsp;Eleonora Baldini ,&nbsp;Giovanni Galfano","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109109","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109109","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mind wandering is a state in which our mental processes are directed towards task-unrelated thoughts. This phenomenon has been shown to underlie attentional lapses and represents a common experience in everyday life. Previous studies have found an association between mind wandering and eye-related indices. In the present study, we addressed for the first time whether the rate of microsaccades—miniaturised saccades that we spontaneously produce during prolonged fixation—is sensitive to the occurrence of mind wandering. Participants performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task, a go/no-go task highly vulnerable to mind wandering. The analyses focused on possible differences in microsaccade rate emerging from the comparison of time intervals preceding commission errors and time intervals preceding correct target withholds, under the assumption that a commission error would reflect a mind wandering episode. The results showed that microsaccadic rate was consistently reduced in time windows preceding a target trial in which participants produced a commission error as compared to when they correctly inhibited the tendency to manually respond. Cluster-based analyses established that this pattern was robust. Because microsaccades are known to occur involuntarily and a reduction in their frequency has been associated with higher mental effort, the present findings provide new insights as regards the relevance of mind wandering and lend support to the idea that during mind wandering our mind is far from being idle and is absorbed and committed to effortful activities instead.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109109"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144859963","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":"Words or appearance? The impact of verbal behaviour and facial attraction on first impression","authors":"Shan Gao ,&nbsp;Qian Li ,&nbsp;Chen He ,&nbsp;Xiaojie Yan ,&nbsp;Yihao Yin","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109107","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109107","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In social interactions, verbal and nonverbal information often work together to form an impression of a person. Here, we turn to the interplay between verbal behaviour and facial attractiveness, addressing how these social signals co-act in modulating person judgment and concurrent neural activity. Male and female participants viewed same-sex or opposite-sex faces (attractive and average-looking) randomly paired with verbal evaluations (praise, criticism, and neutral) and rated the likeability of the individuals depicted in the face images. Results showed that, as compared to neutral descriptions, praise increased likeability and criticism diminished it. Attractive individuals were rated more likeable than average-looking ones. This attractiveness advantage was significantly reduced when faces were paired with criticism relative to praise or neutral descriptions, while it was not significantly enhanced by praise relative to neutral descriptions. Electrophysiologically, criticism elicited larger LPC responses than neutral descriptions, assigned to either attractive or average-looking faces. Differently, praise enhanced the LPC only when assigned to attractive faces but not to average-looking faces. Concurrently, the LPC amplitudes were larger following attractive relative to average-looking individuals providing praise but not criticism or neutral descriptions. This praise-specific attraction-dependent LPC response was associated with likeability ratings for praising “beauties”. In addition, the interaction between verbal behaviour and facial attraction varied across participant and face sex. Overall, our findings provide behavioural and neural evidence for different but interactive roles of verbal and nonverbal information in social interactions and shed light on the facilitation of favorable person impressions in everyday life.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109107"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144852464","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":"Time-domain and time-frequency neural responses to monetary and social rewards across three different tasks","authors":"Connor Lawhead ,&nbsp;Autumn Kujawa ,&nbsp;Daniel N. Klein ,&nbsp;Brady D. Nelson","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109103","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109103","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The neural response to reward is often examined during monetary reward tasks. However, there is a growing interest in examining other types of reward (e.g., social reward) that require modifications to task design. It is important to understand the impact of task design and reward type on the neural response to reward, particularly for efforts to examine the specificity of a specific type of reward in relation to psychopathology. The present study involved 303 18-year-olds (49.5 % female) who completed the monetary Doors task and two social tasks: a social version of the Doors task and Island Getaway. We recorded electroencephalography during the tasks to measure the time-domain reward positivity (RewP) and time-frequency delta and theta activity. Results indicated that all three tasks elicited the RewP, greater delta activity to favorable outcomes (monetary win, social like/acceptance), and greater theta activity to unfavorable outcomes (monetary loss, social dislike/rejection). For all three measures, the neural response was positively correlated across all three tasks, but the correlation was stronger for the tasks that were more similar in trial structure compared to reward type. The present study suggests that different monetary and social reward tasks can elicit similar neural responses to reward, but similarities in task design and reward type can impact correlation in neural response to reward across tasks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109103"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144852462","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":"Neural correlates of familiar face recognition: Evidence in support of a serial model","authors":"Milena M. Bojdo,&nbsp;Deni Zakriev,&nbsp;Maya Schipper,&nbsp;Maria Ciocan,&nbsp;Linda H. Lidborg,&nbsp;Holger Wiese","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109102","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109102","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Face recognition models typically assume a basically serial architecture, in which (i) perceptual representations are generated and then compared to (ii) stored long-term face representations, which in turn allow access to (iii) domain-general person representations. However, recent developments seem to question this architecture. Here, we utilised the high temporal resolution of event-related brain potentials (ERP) to examine potentially separable processing stages during face and person recognition. In Experiment 1, we observed a clearly enhanced N170 for contrast negative faces, a manipulation known to disrupt face perception. Importantly, ERP familiarity effects, with more negative amplitudes for personally familiar relative to unfamiliar faces at occipito-temporal channels, were observed in a subsequent time window, starting 200 ms after stimulus onset. In Experiment 2, familiar and unfamiliar target faces were preceded by name primes of either the same or a different person. While familiarity effects were again evident from 200 ms onwards, identity-congruent names increased the effect in a subsequent 300–400 ms time window. Together, these findings demonstrate separate processing stages representing perceptual (N170), facial long-term (app. 200–300 ms), and domain-general (app. 300–400 ms) representations, in line with classic models of face recognition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109102"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144831385","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":"Sex differences in mesolimbic effective connectivity: Money versus funny compensation during service recovery","authors":"Chen-Ya Wang ,&nbsp;Tai-Li Chou ,&nbsp;Yu-Chen Chan","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109104","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109104","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sex-based differences in service recovery —the actions taken by firms to address service failures —remain largely unexplored, particularly regarding their underlying neural mechanisms. This research investigates how men and women differ in mesolimbic network connectivity—specifically between the nucleus accumbens (NAc), amygdala, and midbrain—when exposed to various compensation strategies. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and dynamic causal modeling with parametric empirical Bayes (DCM-PEB) analysis to measure effective connectivity across four service recovery scenarios: monetary compensation with humor (MH), monetary compensation with apology (MA), humor-only (H), and apology-only (CON). The results revealed sex-specific effective connectivity, with monetary compensation engaging the NAc and non-monetary compensation involving the amygdala differently in men and women. Women exhibited stronger midbrain-to-NAc connectivity in the MH condition, suggesting that humor enhances their perception of monetary reward. In contrast, men showed stronger midbrain-to-NAc connectivity in the MA condition, indicating that apologies more effectively engage their reward-related circuits. Additionally, men displayed stronger amygdala-to-midbrain connectivity in the humor-related conditions (H, MH), while women exhibited stronger connectivity in the humor-only condition (H), reflecting sex-specific emotional processing strategies. Notably, men exhibited enhanced NAc-to-amygdala connectivity in both apology-based (MA, CON) and non-monetary conditions (H, CON), reflecting consistent integration of reward and emotional processing. These findings provide neural evidence of sex-based differences in service recovery. Future research could examine cultural and individual differences in humor perception, apology effectiveness, and compensation sensitivity to further refine personalized service recovery approaches based on sex-specific neural mechanisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109104"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144849708","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":"Revealing the brain signal complexity underlying superior putting performance in expert golfers: A multiscale entropy study with supplemental connectivity analyses","authors":"Ting-Yu Chueh ,&nbsp;Jia-Hao Wu ,&nbsp;Rodolphe J. Gentili ,&nbsp;Tsung-Min Hung","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109098","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109098","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aimed to investigate brain signal complexity associated with superior putting performance in expert golfers. Fifty expert golfers (handicap = −2.8 ± 3) each performed 60 putts at a distance of 10 feet. Putting performance was categorized as either a successful or unsuccessful putt (SP vs. UP), based on whether the ball was holed. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during the motor preparatory period (−2 to 0 s) preceding swing onset. Multiscale Entropy (MSE) analysis was employed to quantify EEG signal complexity across six electrode sites: Fz, Cz, Pz, Oz, T3, and T4. Results revealed significantly higher neural complexity for SP compared to UP at Pz (scales 12, 15–17, 19, 21–25) and Oz (scales 20, 22, 25), but significantly lower complexity at T3 (scales 20, 23, and 24). These findings suggest that the involvement of long-timescale integrative processes of visuospatial regions, alongside reduced neural complexity in verbal-analytic regions may characterize optimal putting performance states. Supplemental cortical connectivity analyses further support the MSE findings, demonstrating that superior putting performance was associated with reduced cortical–cortical communication between T3 and midline regions (i.e., Fz, Cz, and Pz). The present findings advance previous EEG research by moving beyond traditional linear analytic methods and align with the psychomotor efficiency hypothesis, which proposes that superior cognitive-motor performance is supported by more refined neural states that enhance task-relevant processing while minimizing interference from task-irrelevant activity. This study suggests that MSE may serve as a valuable neural indicator of the mechanisms underlying optimal cognitive-motor performance in precision sports.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109098"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144838620","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":"Quantifying consciousness through intrinsic probability density function","authors":"Norden E. Huang ,&nbsp;Wei-Shuai Yuan ,&nbsp;Albert C. Yang ,&nbsp;Terry B.J. Kuo ,&nbsp;Wen-Xi Tang ,&nbsp;Helen Kang ,&nbsp;Max Wagner ,&nbsp;Wei-Kuang Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109101","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109101","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Consciousness remains a multifaceted phenomenon that is difficult to be measured by traditional quantification methods. Here we propose the intrinsic probability density function (iPDF) as a quantitative method to evaluate the dynamic inter-cortical interactions that underlie conscious states. First, the method utilizes empirical mode decomposition to derive intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) from EEG signals. Then, the method generates scale-dependent probability density functions for successive partial sums of IMFs that can capture subtle variations in neural modulation patterns. We tested the iPDF analysis across various consciousness states such as general anesthesia, distinct sleep stages (wakefulness, REM, and deep sleep), sensory conditions (eyes open versus eyes closed), and between dementia patients and healthy subjects. Our findings reveal that active neural interactions or modulations during wakefulness and REM sleep are characterized by super-Gaussian iPDF patterns. By contrast, the reduced interactions observed in anesthesia and deep sleep yield near-Gaussian iPDF profiles. We also present a classification model built on iPDF features that achieved an accuracy of approximately 87 % in distinguishing dementia patients from health controls, demonstrating the iPDF as a potential biomarker in clinical screening. This study supports the idea that consciousness emerges from complex, scale-dependent neural processes and presents a robust, quantitative framework that may enhance both our theoretical understanding and practical assessment of various states of consciousness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109101"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144805281","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":"Variability in threat processing is related to endogenous butyrate levels in healthy men","authors":"Boushra Dalile ,&nbsp;Lukas Van Oudenhove ,&nbsp;Kristin Verbeke ,&nbsp;Bram Vervliet","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109097","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109097","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The gut microbiota and its metabolites have been implicated in anxiety-like behavior in preclinical models. Recent correlational evidence in humans has linked fear learning with the abundance of specific bacterial taxa, suggesting that bacterial metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) may act as gut-brain signaling mediators. Using a human fear conditioning paradigm, we initially analyzed data from 146 healthy male participants and found that interindividual differences in the circulating SCFA butyrate—but not acetate or propionate—were associated with physiological threat-safety discrimination during fear acquisition, as measured by skin conductance responses. However, a replication analysis in an independent sample of 71 participants found no such association. A post-hoc pooled analysis across all participants (N = 217) suggested that butyrate was linked with the magnitude of threat-safety discrimination, but only in individuals with at least minimal physiological discrimination (n = 165). These preliminary correlational findings require further confirmation, including causal investigations into butyrate’s potential epigenetic role in modulating memory- and plasticity-related genes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109097"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144786007","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":"Resolving transient neurophysiological signals and their interactions with adaptive time-frequency analysis","authors":"Wen-Sheng Chang ,&nbsp;Wei-Kuang Liang ,&nbsp;Norden E. Huang ,&nbsp;Kien Trong Nguyen ,&nbsp;Chi-Hung Juan","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109099","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109099","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research of neural oscillations has shifted from studying individual frequency components to within-cycle modulation and interactions between components. Deciphering these complexities requires advanced methodological approaches capable of accurately capturing the dynamical nature of biological signals. Conventional methods such as event-related potentials and time-frequency spectral analyses assume stationarity, linearity, and additive processes, overlooking nonlinear and nonstationary features of brain activity. Cognitive insights from traditional techniques are therefore limited, potentially misrepresenting how transient oscillatory events contribute to cognition. Critical issues inherited from analytical methods include: First, predefined frequency bands obscure inter-individual and task-dependent variations, including shifts in individual alpha frequency. Second, focus on sinusoidal waveforms neglects functional relevance of nonsinusoidal oscillatory shapes encoding critical physiological information. Third, Fourier-based methods assume linear superposition of oscillations, but multiplicative interactions are prevalent in natural systems. Therefore, Fourier methods may overlook critical nonlinear interactions and misinterpret underlying mechanisms. To address these limitations, we propose Holo-Hilbert Spectral Analysis (HHSA) as a unified framework for analyzing neurophysiological signals. This approach utilizes empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to extract intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) directly from data. By applying additional EMD to envelope and instantaneous frequency functions, researchers can quantify energy from multiplicative and phase-based processes. The approach offers three advantages: First, IMF extraction provides objective signal analysis adapting to individual characteristics without predetermined frequency boundaries. Second, waveform shape and nonlinearity can be described with frequency modulation spectrum. Third, signal envelope modulation can be quantified using amplitude modulation spectrum, helping identify potential cross-frequency couplings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109099"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144796205","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 ,&nbsp;Karan Chugani ,&nbsp;Claire Braboszcz ,&nbsp;Eleni Kroupi ,&nbsp;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}