Biological Psychology最新文献

{"title":"The role of task-irrelevant configural and featural face processing in the selective attention to gaze","authors":"Enguang Chen ,&nbsp;Chengdong Liu ,&nbsp;Xinyue Zhang,&nbsp;Kuan Wang,&nbsp;Hailing Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109060","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109060","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In face processing theories, it is commonly proposed that structural and social information of faces are processed through different pathways. Recent research suggests that the type of face processing (i.e., configural/featural) can influence how social information is processed. However, the influence of face processing type on the perception of gaze, a crucial social cue, remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate how task-irrelevant face processing influences attentional selection to gaze. Using a visual search paradigm, the study examined participants' ability to detect direct and averted gaze in arrays of configural or featural faces. The rectangular array was adopted in Experiment 1 and the diamond array was adopted in Experiment 2. Behavioral results of two experiments showed that detecting averted gaze among direct gazes was more efficient than the reverse, particularly in featural faces. The ERP findings showed that task-irrelevant face processing types influence attention selection to gaze in a rectangular array (Experiment 1), but not in a diamond array (Experiment 2). Averted gaze captures more attention than direct gaze in both configural and featural processing when presented in the right visual field, while direct gaze in featural processing exhibits more attentional suppression than averted gaze in the left visual field. Overall, this study underscores the dynamic interplay of different types of information during face perception.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 109060"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144192486","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":"Electrophysiological evidence for flexible adjustments in cognitive control depending on feedback’s contingency","authors":"Jintao Xing ,&nbsp;Gilles Pourtois ,&nbsp;Qian Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109059","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109059","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cognitive control is a fundamental ability that enables to detect and resolve conflict. However, this ability is not encapsulated but liable to learning and motivational factors. Among them, previous studies have shown that the contingency created between conflict and performance by means of feedback, as well as its actual motivational value, influenced the behavioral manifestations of cognitive control. In this EEG study, we sought to shed light on the brain mechanisms underlying this modulation. To this end, fifty-eight participants performed the confound-minimized Stroop task wherein either congruent (i.e., no-conflict) or incongruent trials (i.e., conflict) were selectively reinforced by a performance feedback at the block level. Moreover, this feedback was either negative or neutral. At the behavioral results, we replicated previous results showing that conflict adaptation slightly improved when congruent trials were reinforced, while the reinforcement of incongruent trials led to a reduction of the congruency effect instead. Interestingly, at the EEG level, we found that this dissociation was captured by different event-related potentials (ERPs, as well as frontal alpha), but not mid-frontal theta (MFT), which was increased by conflict and performance feedback throughout. When incongruent trials were reinforced by the feedback, mostly the stimulus-locked N450 and the preceding occipital P1 component changed. In comparison, when congruent trials were selectively reinforced, the feedback-locked P3 component was altered. These findings suggest that depending on the specific contingency created between conflict and performance feedback, either stimulus or feedback-locked brain processes guide the implementation of cognitive control.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"199 ","pages":"Article 109059"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144188468","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":"Differences in pupil size during self-reported experiences of disgust, sadness, fear, anger, and happiness","authors":"Kate McCulloch ,&nbsp;Edwin S. Dalmaijer ,&nbsp;Gerulf Rieger ,&nbsp;Rick O’Gorman","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109044","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109044","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous research has found pupil dilation associated with stimuli pre-assigned as positive and negative in their emotional valence; however, it is not yet clear how self-rated experiences of specific emotions may correlate with differences in pupil size. Using a novel methodology across two studies, 200 participants were presented with emotionally engaging images and sounds and then rated the extent to which they felt happy, sad, angry, fearful, and disgusted in response to these. Data were analyzed using linear mixed effects models to examine whether the participant’s own emotion ratings predict pupil size. In 2 studies using standardized images and sounds, and varied 30-s audio clips, in trials with higher self-reported disgust and sadness there was a consistent relationship with pupil dilation. Disgust was most often the strongest predictor of pupil dilation. This effect emerged ∼2 s after stimulus onset and remained present throughout stimulus presentation. Happiness had a weaker effect on pupil dilation and fear was associated with a late pupillary response. Anger was associated with pupil constriction, but only in Study 2. The present approach finds the most consistent relationship between pupil dilation and self-rated disgust and sadness, compared to other negative emotions. The findings thus suggest that measures of pupil size warrant further investigation as a potential indicative psychophysiological correlate of self-reported emotions, with implications for distinguishing negative emotions, such as disgust from anger.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109044"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143928208","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":"Event-related potentials, heart period, and brain-heart responses during a threat of shock oddball task: Replicability and 6-month-reliability","authors":"Kathrin Gerpheide ,&nbsp;Philipp Bierwirth ,&nbsp;Sarah-Louise Unterschemmann ,&nbsp;Christian Panitz ,&nbsp;James J. Gross ,&nbsp;Erik M. Mueller","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In a previous study (Gerpheide et al., 2024), we observed that unpredictable threat modulated event-related potentials (N1 and P2, but not P3) and heart responses during an oddball task as well as the communication between brain and heart as measured with cardio-electroencephalographic covariance tracing (CECT). Individual differences in brain, heart, and brain-heart responses to threat may provide biological markers for threat-related personality traits and psychopathology. However, to serve as psychophysiological markers the observed phenomena need to be replicable and individual differences in these phenomena must be reliably assessed and be temporally stable. To address this issue, N = 60 participants of our previous study completed the same auditory oddball paradigm with threat of shock vs. safe contexts 6 months after the initial study. With regard to replicability, all experimental effects that were observed during the first time were also significant 6-months later. With regard to reliability, amplitudes of original ERP waveforms, evoked HP changes and one CECT component showed substantial split-half and test-retest correlations. Moreover, difference scores (threat minus safe) for the P2 and N1 also showed substantial split-half (.55 &lt; r &lt; .72) and test-retest correlations (.41 &lt; r &lt; .67) indicating that individual differences in brain responses to threat vs. safety can be reliably assessed and show moderate stability. Taken together, ERP, HP and CECT thus provide replicable and relatively reliable measures in the context of unpredictable threat and may be helpful for better understanding key mechanisms of and individual differences in threat processing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109040"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143993005","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":"Insular functional connectivity in autistic and non-autistic development","authors":"Alisa R. Zoltowski ,&nbsp;Michelle D. Failla ,&nbsp;Fiona Wu ,&nbsp;Caitlin A. Convery ,&nbsp;Brianna Lewis ,&nbsp;Neil D. Woodward ,&nbsp;Baxter P. Rogers ,&nbsp;Carissa J. Cascio","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109043","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109043","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>There is evidence for altered interoceptive processing in individuals diagnosed with autism, compared to non-autistic individuals. At a neural level, functional and structural connectivity of interoceptive cortices may differ in autism, though developmental patterns of these differences are unclear as well as how these patterns may vary by subregion within the insular cortex. To better understand the roles of autism, age, and subregion in interoceptive connectivity patterns, we used a cross-sectional approach to examine interoceptive functional connectivity across individuals spanning a wide age range.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>N = 59 autistic individuals (ages 7–54) and N = 71 non-autistic individuals (ages 7–51) completed a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. From these scans, we analyzed seed-based functional connectivity of insula subregions (posterior, middle, and anterior) by hemisphere. We analyzed associations with age, group, and interoceptive self-reported experiences, as measured in a subset of individuals who completed the Body Perception Questionnaire.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>We found that with age, primary interoceptive cortex showed decreased functional coupling with subcortical regions such as the thalamus and increased coupling with multimodal parietal regions. Functional connectivity within key interoceptive areas was decreased in those with increased reported body awareness. Differences between the autistic and non-autistic groups were minimal, with a single finding of heightened connectivity in autism between left posterior insula and lateral occipital cortex.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These findings shed light on potential developmental shifts in how interoceptive processing is balanced between lower-order and higher-order areas. Further, they provide background for how autistic patterns of interoceptive processing may be considered relative to age.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109043"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143937788","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":"Neuroticism and ethical risk perception among employees: Neurostructural correlates in the left precuneus","authors":"Han Ren ,&nbsp;Xinfei Tang ,&nbsp;Zhengqiang Zhong ,&nbsp;Song Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109045","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109045","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Prior research using psychometric measures has yielded mixed results regarding the relationship between neuroticism and ethical risk-taking. Considering the pivotal role of ethical risk perception in influencing both ethical risk-taking and broader organizational outcomes, it is essential to explore its connection with neuroticism and the neural mechanisms underlying this link. This study employed voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural MRI data to investigate the neural correlates of ethical risk perception, measured by gray matter volume (GMV), and its association with neuroticism in a sample of 214 healthy, full-time employees. Whole-brain regression analysis revealed a negative correlation between ethical risk perception and GMV in the left precuneus. Mediation analysis further identified GMV in the left precuneus as a mediator in the relationship between neuroticism and ethical risk perception, controlling for demographic factors, total GMV, and the other traits within the Big Five personality model. These findings offer valuable insights into the neurostructural underpinnings of ethical risk perception and highlight the critical role of GMV in the left precuneus in linking neuroticism with ethical risk perception, enhancing our understanding of the neural mechanisms driving risk decision-making in the ethical domain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109045"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143937725","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":"Task-irrelevant features can be ignored in feature-based encoding","authors":"Yao Fu,&nbsp;Heming Gao,&nbsp;Jingyan Jing,&nbsp;Mingming Qi","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109049","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109049","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study aimed to explore whether individuals could selectively remember task-relevant features while ignoring task-irrelevant features for given items. Participants were initially asked to remember the task-relevant feature of one (low load), two (medium load), or four (high load) items, while ignoring their task-irrelevant features. Participants were required to make responses to the target in the subsequent search task, while being presented with distractors that contained either task-irrelevant or task-relevant features. No features matched with the studied items in the neutral trials. The items’ color was manipulated as a task-relevant feature in Experiment 1, while their shape was designated as a task-irrelevant feature. Conversely, the items’ shape was manipulated as a task-relevant feature in Experiment 2, and their color was designated as task-irrelevant. The event-related potentials evoked by the visual search task were also examined. The results showed that, in both experiments, 1) The response time showed no differences between task-irrelevant trials and neutral trials among different load conditions, suggesting that the task-irrelevant distractors may not slow down the target searching. 2) The magnitude of the target-elicited N2pc was similar between the neutral and the task-irrelevant trials among different load conditions, indicating that the task-irrelevant distractor received no attention and had no effect on the target processing. The results indicated that the task-irrelevant features were suppressed or completely disregarded.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109049"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144086786","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":"Test anxiety shapes theta band activity linked to elevated working memory load during the encoding phase","authors":"Hua Wei ,&nbsp;Jiali Sun ,&nbsp;Fangfang Long","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109047","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109047","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Test anxiety is a prevalent issue among students, recognized for its disruptive impact on working memory through the depletion of attentional control resources; however, its precise effect on the underlying processes of working memory remains insufficiently understood. This study investigated the impact of test anxiety on neural oscillatory patterns during a Sternberg working memory task with three levels of cognitive load (2, 4 and 8 letters), using EEG. Participants with high test anxiety (HTA) and low test anxiety (LTA) were compared. Results showed that under the 4-letter condition, HTA individuals exhibited reduced involvement of top-down attentional control compared to LTA individuals, characterized by decreased theta activity during the encoding phase. For LTA individuals, theta activity increased with cognitive load from 2 to 4 letters during the encoding phase but plateaued beyond 4 letters, while HTA individuals showed no significant theta modulation across loads. These findings highlighted the nuanced effect of test anxiety on working memory neural dynamics under varying cognitive loads. This study showed that test anxiety reduced theta band activity during the working memory encoding phase under medium load due to insufficient attentional control; and the cognitive load effect on theta band activity during the encoding phase was influenced by test anxiety level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109047"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143946762","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":"Differentiation of executive functions during adolescence: Converging evidence from behavioral, genetic and neural data","authors":"Ruochen Yin ,&nbsp;Xinrui Wang ,&nbsp;Xiaoyu Zhao ,&nbsp;Chuansheng Chen ,&nbsp;Qi Dong ,&nbsp;Qiang Wang ,&nbsp;Yuan Fang ,&nbsp;Chunhui Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109058","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109058","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Executive functions (EF) have been found to differentiate from a single component to three distinct components (i.e., updating, shifting, and inhibition) during development. However, there is still much debate regarding when such differentiation takes place and biological evidence is needed. Here we used the longitudinal and multimodality data from the ABCD study to address this question at two age groups (9–10 and 13–14). Three tasks (i.e., List, Card and Flanker tasks) were used to represent the three EF components respectively at baseline, and two tasks (Flanker and List) at 4th year follow up. Genes associated with each task were identified by whole genome and transcriptome association analyses and were then used for genetic similarity calculation; structural and functional brain indices related to each task were identified and used to assess neural similarity. We found that at baseline (9–10 years old), the three EF components were behaviorally highly inter-correlated and were associated with many of the same genes and the same brain regions. Four years later, the follow-up data (with Flanker and List tasks only) still showed significant but smaller behavioral/genetic/neural similarity. This study is the first to chart the path of EF differentiation during adolescence by combining behavioral, genetic, and neural data, and this approach may be relevant to the study of development of other cognitive abilities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109058"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144133167","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 role of tactile sense as an early indicator of cognitive decline in aging","authors":"Nereida Ibarra-Castaneda ,&nbsp;Adriana Gonzalez-De-la-Cerda ,&nbsp;Oscar Gonzalez-Perez","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109048","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109048","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mild cognitive deterioration, or minor cognitive impairment, is characterized by a decline in mental abilities without affecting daily functional independence; at the neurobiological level, the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus are often the first affected. Recent research highlights the role of the hippocampus in tactile processing, with the loss of tactile skills appearing as early signs of impairment. The relationship between tactile deterioration and cognitive decline may be attributed to neurodegenerative aging processes involving neuronal plasticity and synaptic density alterations, affecting both sensory and cognitive systems. Consequently, loss of tactile information could serve as an early indicator of cognitive decline, enabling timely interventions to delay the onset of dementia. Encouraging physical activities involving tactile feedback may further support cognitive health and overall well-being in older adults.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"198 ","pages":"Article 109048"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143946763","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}