{"title":"Sex differences in resting-state fMRI functional connectivity related to humor styles","authors":"Chia-Yueh Chang , Yu-Chen Chan , I-Fei Chen , Hsueh-Chih Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.108983","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.108983","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on how functional connectivity (FC) during resting-state relates to humor styles and sex is limited. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap by analyzing resting-state fMRI data from 56 healthy participants and measuring FC. In addition, participants completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire. We found distinct FC patterns linked to humor styles that differed by sex. Men demonstrated stronger FC between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the right anterior insula (rAI), right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) and right frontal pole (rFP), and between the right rostral prefrontal cortex (rRPFC) and rIFG. These patterns were associated with aggressive and self-enhancing humor. Conversely, women exhibited stronger FC between rRPFC and the posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC), left rostral prefrontal cortex (lRPFC) and right thalamus, correlating with self-defeating and less aggressive humor. These findings suggest a neurobiological basis for sex differences in humor, indicating that men’s FC between the salience network (SN), particularly in cognitive monitoring regions, may be linked to aggressive humor. Their FC between the executive control network (ECN) and between the SN and ECN are related to self-enhancing humor and reflect an emphasis on executive function. Conversely, women’s FC between the SN and default mode network is correlated with self-defeating humor, suggesting a stronger focus on self-reflection and social relationships.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 108983"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142967327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yunlong Song , Zhengqi Sun , Fengping Luo , Bin Yu
{"title":"Loneliness is associated with diminished heart rate variability reactivity to acute social stress in younger adults","authors":"Yunlong Song , Zhengqi Sun , Fengping Luo , Bin Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108963","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108963","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Loneliness is linked to cardiovascular health, with atypical stress reactivity serving as an underlying mediator. This study aimed to investigate the association between loneliness and heart rate variability (HRV) reactivity to acute social stress in younger adults. A total of 92 participants (52 women; mean age = 22.05 ± 2.25 years; range: 17–29 years) completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), during which their electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were recorded. HRV was assessed using several measures, including the root mean square of successive differences in inter-beat intervals (RMSSD), the percentage of successive inter-beat intervals differing by more than 50 ms (pNN50), and the high-frequency component of HRV (HF-HRV). Loneliness was measured using the revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. Multiple linear regression models were fitted to examine the associations between loneliness and HRV reactivity, controlling for other covariates including age, sex, BMI, neuroticism, social network size, respiration rate and baseline HRV. In the total sample, loneliness was associated with decreased HRV reactivity, indicating a reduced ability of the autonomic nervous system to regulate cardiovascular function under stress. Sex differences were found in the association between loneliness and HRV reactivity, with women exhibiting more significant correlations. These findings suggest that diminished HRV reactivity to social stress may be a physiological mechanism through which loneliness impacts cardiovascular health.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 108963"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142815100","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}
Anne Marieke Doornweerd , Lotte Gerritsen , Estrella R. Montoya , Iris M. Engelhard , Joke M.P. Baas
{"title":"Contraceptives and conditioning: Different profiles of fear and expectancy ratings during fear conditioning and extinction according to menstrual cycle phase and hormonal contraceptive use","authors":"Anne Marieke Doornweerd , Lotte Gerritsen , Estrella R. Montoya , Iris M. Engelhard , Joke M.P. Baas","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108964","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108964","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hormonal contraceptives (HC) such as the oral contraceptive pill (OC) and the hormonal intrauterine device (IUD) have been associated with depressed mood, but research on their role in anxiety is scarce and inconsistent. In a fear acquisition and extinction paradigm, self-report fear, expectancy, and skin conductance responses (SCR) were assessed, along with sex hormone levels. Naturally cycling (NC) participants were measured during the mid-follicular and mid-luteal phases (within subjects, n = 26) and compared with OC (n = 36) and IUD (n = 25) users. IUD users and -participants in the luteal phase showed overall reduced self-reported CS+ vs CS- differentiation compared to the follicular phase and OC use (which both reflect relatively low levels of endogenous gonadal hormones). This overall reduced differentiation in self-reported fear in the luteal phase was attributed to a generalization of fear from CS+ to CS-. NC-individuals with high premenstrual syndrome (PMS) ratings had higher overall fear ratings regardless of cycle phase. For SCR, hormonal status effects were restricted to specific experimental phases during acquisition. SCR to the CS+ was higher at the end of acquisition in the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase, and in OC users during early acquisition (compared to the follicular phase) and mid acquisition (compared to the IUD group). There were no direct associations with sex hormone levels. These findings demonstrate the impact of menstrual cycle and HC use on fear learning and highlight the need for further research that considers different outcome measures across a wide array of menstrual cycle and HC-related characteristics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 108964"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142820095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To err is human: Differences in performance monitoring ERPs during interactions with human co-actors and machines","authors":"Bence Neszmélyi , Roland Pfister","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108965","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108965","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In interactive tasks, agents often aim at eliciting a certain response from their partner. Not accomplishing this goal calls for adjusting behavior on the fly. Previous research suggests that such adjustments differ when interacting with a machine or with a fellow human agent. In this study, we investigated whether such differences are also reflected in event-related potentials induced by observing human and machine errors in an interactive setting. In a four-choice reaction time task, participants performed actions that were followed by regular and irregular visual effects. In different conditions, participants were led to believe that they were interacting with another human agent or with a machine so that the irregular effects were attributed either to human errors or to machine malfunctions. We compared observed-error-related negativity (oERN) and observed-error positivity (oP<sub>E</sub>) for these two error types. The oP<sub>E</sub> was not affected by the experimental manipulation, whereas the oERN amplitude was more pronounced for machine malfunctions than for human errors. This contradicts previous findings that reported behavioral and electrophysiological responses to errors being larger when they are committed by a human agent than if they are caused by machine malfunctions. Our results might suggest that automated systems are expected to operate predictably and, as a consequence, in interactive settings, errors committed by such systems are more salient and elicit a larger prediction error signal than if the same mistake is made by a human agent.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"194 ","pages":"Article 108965"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142830467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lidia Yan Xin Panier , Juhyun Park , Jens Kreitewolf , Anna Weinberg
{"title":"Multiple risk markers for increases in depression symptoms across two years: Evidence from the reward positivity and the error-related negativity","authors":"Lidia Yan Xin Panier , Juhyun Park , Jens Kreitewolf , Anna Weinberg","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108897","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108897","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Both a blunted Reward Positivity (RewP) and Error-Related Negativity (ERN) have been associated with depression. Associations between these neural markers and depression have been observed cross-sectionally, but evidence that they can prospectively predict the development of, or increases in, symptoms of depression is more limited.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>In this study, we collected EEG data from 157 young adults at a baseline visit (T1), using the Doors and Flanker Tasks to elicit the RewP and the ERN respectively. Participants also reported on symptoms of depression at T1, and multiple times across two academic years (T2 – T8).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Using a multilevel model with the RewP and the ERN as predictors, we found that the RewP predicted future symptoms of depression, while controlling for symptoms of depression at T1, such that a blunted RewP at baseline predicted higher depressive symptoms later. In our data, however, the ERN was not a significant predictor of increases in depression symptoms.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>These findings replicate previous work showing the RewP prospectively predicted increases in depression, and further suggest the specificity of this association. Results support the utility of the RewP as a neurophysiological marker that can help clarify the etiology of depression and inform treatment planning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"193 ","pages":"Article 108897"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142570143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effects of peak flow feedback on perception of airflow limitation and medication adherence in Black and Latino children with asthma: a randomized controlled trial","authors":"Jonathan Feldman , Deepa Rastogi , Karen Warman , Denise Serebrisky , Kimberly Arcoleo","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108908","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108908","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"193 ","pages":"Article 108908"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143130649","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}
Saya Niwa , Joanneke Weerdmeester , Karolina Fila-Witecka , Omer Van den Bergh , Joanna Rymaszewska
{"title":"Feasibility of a biofeedback virtual reality-based breathing game to improve breathing habits in patients with persistent physical symptoms","authors":"Saya Niwa , Joanneke Weerdmeester , Karolina Fila-Witecka , Omer Van den Bergh , Joanna Rymaszewska","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108945","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108945","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"193 ","pages":"Article 108945"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143134588","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}