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Body posture as a measure of emotional valence in young children: a preregistered validation study

Introduction: Objective measures of emotional valence in young children are rare, but recent work has employed motion depth sensor imaging to measure young children's emotional expression via changes in their body posture. This method efficiently captures children's emotional valence, moving beyond self-reports or caregiver reports, and avoiding extensive manual coding, e.g., of children's facial expressions. Moreover, it can be flexibly and non-invasively used in interactive study paradigms, thus offering an advantage over other physiological measures of emotional valence. Method: Here, we discuss the merits of studying body posture in developmental research and showcase its use in six studies. To this end, we provide a comprehensive validation in which we map the measures of children's posture onto the constructs of emotional valence and arousal. Using body posture data aggregated from six studies (N = 466; Mage = 5.08; range: 2 years, 5 months to 6 years, 2 months; 220 girls), coders rated children's expressed emotional valence and arousal, and provided a discrete emotion label for each child. Results: Emotional valence was positively associated with children's change in chest height and chest expansion: children with more upright upper-body postures were rated as expressing a more positive emotional valence whereas the relation between emotional arousal and changes in body posture was weak. Discussion: These data add to existing evidence that changes in body posture reliably reflect emotional valence. They thus provide an empirical foundation to conduct research on children's spontaneously expressed emotional valence using the automated and efficient tool of body posture analysis.

Dendritic computation for rule-based flexible categorization

Reliability and Validity of the Oxford Visual Perception Screen in Sub-Acute Adult Stroke Survivors

The Mini-Oxford Cognitive Screen (Mini-OCS): a very brief cognitive screen for use in chronic stroke

Accuracy of the Oxford Visual Perception Screen

Modeling social cohesion with coupled oscillators: Synchrony and fragmentation

Maintaining cohesion is a fundamental challenge in group-living species, where individuals must balance their own activity schedules with the demands of social interactions. In this paper, we model group dynamics using a network of semi-coupled oscillators to investigate how differences in activity schedules impact social cohesion and fragmentation. By introducing parameters for social “stickiness” (interaction strength) and activity synchronization, we simulate group behavior across varying conditions. Our findings reveal that, mathematically, cohesive groups can fragment when individual schedules diverge beyond critical thresholds, and that increasing social stickiness mitigates this effect. We explore these dynamics in the context of group size, subgroup formation, and coupling parameters, drawing parallels to network cohesion and fragmentation in human and artificial social systems. These results highlight the role of synchronization in maintaining stable social structures and suggest future avenues for empirical validation and application in broader social network contexts.

The curious transference of sensations in the ‘mismatched-palm’ rubber hand illusion

We describe a disconcerting illusion. The participant looks at the palm of a left rubber hand being touched while receiving synchronous touch on the back of their own hidden right hand. Despite postural incongruence, mismatching handedness and touch being at a different location on the viewed and hidden hands, participants experience the illusion of ownership of the rubber hand and the illusion of feeling touch on the rubber hand. The robustness of the rubber hand illusion to seemingly profound incongruencies is explained with reference to Riemer et al.’s four basic principles for successful embodiment.

Self-control has a social role in primates, but not in other mammals or birds

Human color constancy in cast shadows

Microstructural Properties of the Cerebellar Peduncles in Children With Developmental Language Disorder.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) struggle to learn their native language for no apparent reason. While research on the neurobiological underpinnings of the disorder has focused on the role of corticostriatal systems, little is known about the role of the cerebellum in DLD. Corticocerebellar circuits might be involved in the disorder as they contribute to complex sensorimotor skill learning, including the acquisition of spoken language. Here, we used diffusion-weighted imaging data from 77 typically developing and 54 children with DLD and performed probabilistic tractography to identify the cerebellum's white matter tracts: the inferior, middle, and superior cerebellar peduncles. Children with DLD showed lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the inferior cerebellar peduncles (ICP), fiber tracts that carry motor and sensory input via the inferior olive to the cerebellum. Lower FA in DLD was driven by lower axial diffusivity. Probing this further with more sophisticated modeling of diffusion data, we found higher orientation dispersion but no difference in neurite density in the ICP of children with DLD. Reduced FA is therefore unlikely to be reflecting microstructural differences in myelination, rather the organization of axons in these pathways is disrupted. ICP microstructure was not associated with language or motor coordination performance in our sample. We also found no differences in the middle and superior peduncles, the main pathways connecting the cerebellum with the cortex. To conclude, it is not corticocerebellar but atypical olivocerebellar white matter connections that characterize DLD and suggest the involvement of the olivocerebellar system in speech and language acquisition and development.

Pseudo-Social Cognition and Paranoia

The effectiveness of positive psychology-based interventions in prisons on well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Positive psychology-based interventions (PPIs) have shown promising evidence for improving psychological well-being in a variety of contexts and are consistent with calls for strengths-based interventions in correctional settings. While these interventions have been tested in prison settings, no study has empircally assessed effectiveness of PPIs for improving psychological well-being in prisons. In this study, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of PPIs on psychological well-being in prisons. 9 studies (4 RCTs) were included, representing 662 participants. We found large, significant effects on psychological well-being in comparison with control arms (Hedge’s g = 0.76). Additionally, we found large, significant within-group effects (Hedge’s g = 0.66) on psychological well-being. The overall quality of included studies was poor, however, limiting the certainty of these findings. Our findings indicate that positive psychology-based interventions can significantly improve psychological well-being in prison settings.

Learning from the input: a corpus-based investigation of Chinese classifiers in children’s books and child-directed speech

The diatonic sound of scent imagery

This research investigates crossmodal correspondences between auditory stimuli, specifically musical modes, and olfactory mental imagery, represented by fragrance families. Building on the emerging literature on crossmodal correspondences, this research explores different mechanisms that might help to explain these crossmodal correspondences such as their shared connotative meaning and identity-based meaning. The first study evaluated the fragrance families and subfamilies and musical modes and assessed potential mechanisms behind these associations. The second study examined the associations between the musical modes and fragrance families and subfamilies through a matching task. The results revealed consistent matches between different musical modes and corresponding fragrance families and subfamilies, indicating a crossmodal association between auditory and olfactory mental imagery. What is more, major modes were perceived as brighter and less intense, and were more liked than minor modes, with floral and fresh fragrances similarly rated as brighter and more liked than oriental and woody fragrances. These results suggest that crossmodal correspondences between auditory and olfactory stimuli are influenced by brightness, intensity, and hedonic factors. Understanding such crossmodal associations can potentially benefit various fields, including marketing, product design, and those interested in creating multisensory experiences.

Book Review: What’s That Smell? A Philosophy of the Olfactory by Simon Hajdini HajdiniSimon (2024). What’s That Smell? A Philosophy of the Olfactory. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 216 pp. $29.95 (paperback), ISBN-9780262547567.

Language and economic behaviour: Future tense use causes less not more temporal discounting

Previous studies have found cross-cultural correlations between linguistic obligations for talking about future events and economic decisions like saving money. The hypothesis is that a grammatical obligation to use the future tense (e.g. will) causes speakers to perceive future rewards as temporally distal and therefore less valuable (“temporal discounting”). However, no studies have tested whether speakers actually temporally discount as a function of the extent to which they use the future tense. We present two studies which use a novel language-elicitation paradigm to do this, involving speakers of English (which obliges the future tense) and Dutch (which does not). We used mediation analysis to test how language-level differences in the grammatical obligation to use the future tense impact economic decisions via individual language use habits. However, we found that English speakers who habitually make greater use of the future tense actually discount less, not more. These results suggest obligatory future tense use is not responsible for previously-reported cross-cultural correlations. Instead, we suggest that a better explanation involves modal notions of certainty (the probability of an event occurring) rather than temporal distance (when an event will occur). Future tenses express high certainty, which makes the correct prediction that obligatory tense marking should cause less discounting. In contrast, the cross-cultural differences may be driven by variation in other aspects of future time reference, such as low-certainty modal terminology (e.g. may, might).

Research assistants' experiences recruiting patients with psychosis into clinical trials: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES: Treatments for patients diagnosed with psychosis need to be improved. Clinical trials are an important way of assessing the efficacy of new treatments. However, recruiting patients into trials is challenging. This study sought to better understand the reasons for this from the perspective of research assistants. DESIGN: A qualitative study underpinned by a critical realist ontology and contextualist epistemology. METHODS: Research assistants who had recruited patients with psychosis into trials, primarily of psychological interventions, were interviewed. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify themes. RESULTS: Overarching themes representing four types of factors influencing recruitment of patients with psychosis into clinical trials were generated: patient, clinical team, research team, and NHS infrastructure. Patients largely wished to take part in trials but needed time to build trust with research assistants. Clinical teams held the power in suggesting patients for trials; therefore, it was essential for research teams to build strong relationships with clinical staff. Research teams recruiting into trials benefited from lived experience expertise, support systems, and institutional knowledge. A key NHS infrastructure factor was that mental health staff had limited time to consider trials for their patients. CONCLUSIONS: Trial participation needs to be made more accessible to patients with psychosis, who often want to take part but lack opportunities. Methods of increasing accessibility could include identifying and addressing barriers to referral from clinical teams, employing multiple recruitment strategies, and flexible appointment formats. Qualitative research with clinical teams and patients will also help in developing the understanding of barriers to recruitment.

Relationship of plasma biomarkers to digital cognitive tests in Alzheimer's disease.

INTRODUCTION: A major limitation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research is the lack of the ability to measure cognitive performance at scale-robustly, remotely, and frequently. Currently, there are no established online digital platforms validated against plasma biomarkers of AD. METHODS: We used a novel web-based platform that assessed different cognitive functions in AD patients (N = 46) and elderly controls (N = 53) who were also evaluated for plasma biomarkers (amyloid beta 42/40 ratio, phosphorylated tau ([p-tau]181, glial fibrillary acidic protein, neurofilament light chain). Their cognitive performance was compared to a second, larger group of elderly controls (N = 352). RESULTS: Patients with AD were significantly impaired across all digital cognitive tests, with performance correlating with plasma biomarker levels, particularly p-tau181. The combination of p-tau181 and the single best-performing digital test achieved high accuracy in group classification. DISCUSSION: These findings show how online testing can now be deployed in patients with AD to measure cognitive function effectively and related to blood biomarkers of the disease. HIGHLIGHTS: This is the first study comparing online digital testing to plasma biomarkers.Alzheimer's disease patients and two independent cohorts of elderly controls were assessed.Cognitive performance correlated with plasma biomarkers, particularly phosphorylated tau (p-tau)181.Glial fibrillary acidic protein and neurofilament light chain, and less so the amyloid beta 42/40 ratio, were also associated with performance.The best cognitive metric performed at par to p-tau181 in group classification.

On the relationships between apathy, depression and anhedonia

Generalization of auditory expertise in audio engineers and instrumental musicians.

From auditory perception to general cognition, the ability to play a musical instrument has been associated with skills both related and unrelated to music. However, it is unclear if these effects are bound to the specific characteristics of musical instrument training, as little attention has been paid to other populations such as audio engineers and designers whose auditory expertise may match or surpass that of musicians in specific auditory tasks or more naturalistic acoustic scenarios. We explored this possibility by comparing students of audio engineering (n = 20) to matched conservatory-trained instrumentalists (n = 24) and to naive controls (n = 20) on measures of auditory discrimination, auditory scene analysis, and speech in noise perception. We found that audio engineers and performing musicians had generally lower psychophysical thresholds than controls, with pitch perception showing the largest effect size. Compared to controls, audio engineers could better memorise and recall auditory scenes composed of non-musical sounds, whereas instrumental musicians performed best in a sustained selective attention task with two competing streams of tones. Finally, in a diotic speech-in-babble task, musicians showed lower signal-to-noise-ratio thresholds than both controls and engineers; however, a follow-up online study did not replicate this musician advantage. We also observed differences in personality that might account for group-based self-selection biases. Overall, we showed that investigating a wider range of forms of auditory expertise can help us corroborate (or challenge) the specificity of the advantages previously associated with musical instrument training.