2023-jul-entries

source/_posts/alameda2023.md

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+---
+title: Alameda et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Staying in control: characterising the mechanisms underlying cognitive control in high and low arousal states'
+date: 2023/04/17
+authors:
+- Alameda, Clara
+- Avancini, Chiara
+- Sanabria, Daniel
+- Bekinschtein, Tristan A
+- Canales-Johnson, Andrés
+- Ciria, Luis F
+journal: bioRxiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.17.536548
+data_url: https://osf.io/uvq3m/
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+AbstractThroughout the day, humans show natural fluctuations in arousal that impact cognitive function. To study the behavioural dynamics of cognitive control during high and low arousal states, healthy participants performed an auditory conflict task during high-intensity physical exercise (N= 39) or drowsiness (N= 33). In line with the pre-registered hypothesis, conflict and conflict adaptation effects were preserved during both altered arousal states. Overall task performance was markedly poorer during low arousal, but not for high arousal. Modelling behavioural dynamics with drift-diffusion analyses revealed evidence accumulation and non-decision time decelerated, and decisional boundaries became wider during low arousal, whereas high arousal was unexpectedly associated with a decrease in the interference of task-irrelevant information processing. These findings show how arousal differentially modulates cognitive control at both sides of normal alertness, and further validates drowsiness and physical exercise as key experimental models to disentangle the interaction between physiological fluctuations on cognitive dynamics.Statement of RelevanceThe variability in arousal and alertness that we naturally experience in our everyday activities is rarely considered in cognitive neuroscience frameworks. Here, we presented a Simon task where the word “left” or “right” was heard through the participant’s right or left ear while either exercising at high-intensity or falling asleep, in order to map the behavioural dynamics of cognitive control on both sides of the arousal spectrum. We disentangled different elements involved in decision-making with computational modelling analyses. While basic effects of conflict in cognitive control were preserved regardless of the arousal state, high and low arousal seem to differentially impact decision-making processes. These results emphasise that naturally inducing drowsiness and physical exercise can provide a suitable model to test the resilience of decision-making processes when challenged by arousal and show the resilience of cognitive control mechanisms in face of physiological fluctuations.

source/_posts/arato2023.md

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+---
+title: Arato et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Eye movements reflect active statistical learning'
+date: 2023/04/21
+authors:
+- Arato, Jozsef
+- Rothkopf, Constantin A
+- Fiser, Jozsef
+journal: PsyArXiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/msxhd
+data_url: https://osf.io/bzngs/
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+What is the link between eye movements and sensory learning? Although some theories have argued for an automatic interaction between what we know and where we look that continuously modulates human information gathering behavior during both implicit and explicit learning, there exists limited experimental evidence supporting such an ongoing interplay. To address this issue, we used a visual statistical learning paradigm combined with a gaze contingent stimulus presentation and manipulated the explicitness of the task to explore how learning and eye movements interact. During both implicit exploration and explicit visual learning of unknown composite visual scenes, spatial eye movement patterns systematically and gradually changed in accordance with the underlying statistical structure of the scenes. Moreover, the degree of change was directly correlated with the amount and type of knowledge the observers acquired. Our results provide the first evidence for an ongoing and specific bidirectional interaction between hitherto accumulated knowledge and eye movements during both implicit and explicit visual statistical learning, in line with theoretical accounts of active learning.

source/_posts/banca2023.md

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+---
+title: Banca et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Action-sequence learning, habits and automaticity in obsessive-compulsive disorder'
+date: 2023/02/24
+authors:
+- Banca, Paula
+- Ruiz, Maria Herrojo
+- Gonzalez-Zalba, Miguel Fernando
+- Biria, Marjan
+- Marzuki, Aleya A
+- Piercy, Thomas
+- Sule, Akeem
+- Fineberg, Naomi Anne
+- Robbins, Trevor William
+journal: medRxiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.23.23286338
+data_url: https://osf.io/9xrdz/
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+AbstractEnhanced habit formation, greater automaticity and impaired goal/habit arbitration in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are key hypotheses from the goal/habit imbalance theory of compulsion which have not been directly investigated. This article tests these hypotheses using a combination of newly developed behavioral tasks. First, we trained patients with OCD and healthy controls, using a novel smartphone app, to perform chunked action sequences, previously shown to engage habit brain circuitry. The motor training was daily over one month period. There was equivalent procedural learning and attainment of habitual performance (measured with an objective criteria of automaticity) in both groups, despite greater subjective habitual tendencies in patients with OCD, self-reported via a recently developed questionnaire. We then used a combination of follow-up behavioral tasks to further assess the arbitration between previous automatic and new goal-directed action sequences. We found no evidence for impairments of goal/habit arbitration in OCD following re-evaluation based on monetary feedback, although there was a greater preference for engaging in the trained habitual sequence under certain conditions which may have derived from its intrinsic value. These findings may lead to a reformulation of the goal/habit imbalance hypothesis in OCD. Finally, OCD patients with higher compulsivity scores and habitual tendencies showed more engagement with the motor habit-training app and reported symptom alleviation, with implications for its potential use as a form of habit reversal therapy.

source/_posts/barnby2023.md

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+---
+title: Barnby et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'D2/D3 dopamine supports the precision of mental state inferences and self-relevance of joint social outcomes'
+date: 2023/05/02
+authors:
+- Barnby, J M
+- Bell, V
+- Deeley, Q
+- Mehta, M
+- Moutoussis, M
+journal: bioRxiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.02.539031
+data_url: https://github.com/josephmbarnby/Barnby_etal_2023_D2D3Modelling
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+AbstractStriatal dopamine is important to paranoid attributions, although its computational role in social inference remains elusive. We employed a simple game theoretic paradigm and computational model of intentional attributions to investigate the effects of dopamine D2/D3 antagonism on ongoing mental state inference following social outcomes. Haloperidol, compared to placebo, enhanced the impact of partner behaviour on beliefs about harmful intent, and increased learning from recent encounters. These alterations caused significant changes to model covariation and negative correlations between self-interest and harmful intent attributions. Our findings suggest haloperidol improves flexibility in model-based beliefs about others and simultaneously reduces the self-relevance of social observations. Our results may reflect the role of D2/D3 dopamine in supporting self-relevant mentalisation. Our data and model bridge theory between general and social accounts of value representation. We demonstrate initial evidence for the sensitivity of our model and short social paradigm to drug intervention and clinical dimensions, allowing distinctions between mechanisms that operate across traits and states.Graphical Abstract

source/_posts/bavard2023.md

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+---
+title: Bavard & Palminteri (2023)
+subtitle: 'The functional form of value normalization in human reinforcement learning'
+date: 2023/07/10
+authors:
+- Bavard, Sophie
+- Palminteri, Stefano
+journal: Elife
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.83891
+data_url: https://github.com/hrl-team/3options
+tags:
+- 
+---
+
+Reinforcement learning research in humans and other species indicates that rewards are represented in a context-dependent manner. More specifically, reward representations seem to be normalized as a function of the value of the alternative options. The dominant view postulates that value context-dependence is achieved via a divisive normalization rule, inspired by perceptual decision-making research. However, behavioral and neural evidence points to another plausible mechanism: range normalization. Critically, previous experimental designs were ill-suited to disentangle the divisive and the range normalization accounts, which generate similar behavioral predictions in many circumstances. To address this question, we designed a new learning task where we manipulated, across learning contexts, the number of options and the value ranges. Behavioral and computational analyses falsify the divisive normalization account and rather provide support for the range normalization rule. Together, these results shed new light on the computational mechanisms underlying context-dependence in learning and decision-making.

source/_posts/bedder2023.md

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+---
+title: Bedder et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Risk taking for potential losses but not gains increases with time of day'
+date: 2023/04/04
+authors:
+- Bedder, Rachel L
+- Vaghi, Matilde M
+- Dolan, Raymond J
+- Rutledge, Robb B
+journal: Sci. Rep.
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31738-x
+data_url: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.prr4xgxkk
+tags:
+- 
+---
+
+Humans exhibit distinct risk preferences when facing choices involving potential gains and losses. These preferences are believed to be subject to neuromodulatory influence, particularly from dopamine and serotonin. As neuromodulators manifest circadian rhythms, this suggests decision making under risk might be affected by time of day. Here, in a large subject sample collected using a smartphone application, we found that risky options with potential losses were increasingly chosen over the course of the day. We observed this result in both a within-subjects design (N = 2599) comparing risky options chosen earlier and later in the day in the same individuals, and in a between-subjects design (N = 26,720) showing our effect generalizes across ages and genders. Using computational modelling, we show this diurnal change in risk preference reflects a decrease in sensitivity to increasing losses, but no change was observed in the relative impacts of gains and losses on choice (i.e., loss aversion). Thus, our findings reveal a striking diurnal modulation in human decision making, a pattern with potential importance for real-life decisions that include voting, medical decisions, and financial investments.

source/_posts/biria2023.md

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+---
+title: Biria et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Cortical glutamate and GABA are related to compulsive behaviour in individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder and healthy controls'
+date: 2023/06/27
+authors:
+- Biria, Marjan
+- Banca, Paula
+- Healy, Máiréad P
+- Keser, Engin
+- Sawiak, Stephen J
+- Rodgers, Christopher T
+- Rua, Catarina
+- de Souza, Ana Maria Frota Lisbôa Pereira
+- Marzuki, Aleya A
+- Sule, Akeem
+- Ersche, Karen D
+- Robbins, Trevor W
+journal: Nat. Commun.
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38695-z
+data_url: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7832197
+tags:
+- 
+---
+
+There has been little analysis of neurochemical correlates of compulsive behaviour to illuminate its underlying neural mechanisms. We use 7-Tesla proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) to assess the balance of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission by measuring glutamate and GABA levels in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and supplementary motor area (SMA) of healthy volunteers and participants with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Within the SMA, trait and clinical measures of compulsive behaviour are related to glutamate levels, whereas a behavioural index of habitual control correlates with the glutamate:GABA ratio. Participants with OCD also show the latter relationship in the ACC while exhibiting elevated glutamate and lower GABA levels in that region. This study highlights SMA mechanisms of habitual control relevant to compulsive behaviour, common to the healthy sub-clinical and OCD populations. The results also demonstrate additional involvement of anterior cingulate in the balance between goal-directed and habitual responding in OCD.

source/_posts/blackwell2023.md

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+---
+title: Blackwell et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Measuring symptom-specific panic-relevant associations using single-target implicit association tests'
+date: 2023/03/09
+authors:
+- Blackwell, Simon Edward
+- Wilhelm, Frank H
+- Reinecke, Andrea
+- Margraf, Jürgen
+- Woud, Marcella Lydia
+journal: PsyArXiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2tjym
+data_url: https://osf.io/x48uh/
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+Background: According to major cognitive accounts of panic disorder, bodily sensations can lead to automatic activation of an associative fear network, potentially triggering a cascade of cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses culminating in a panic attack. However, the evidence for the automatic associations assumed by these models is mixed. This may reflect the heterogeneous nature of panic disorder, in that the relative importance of different bodily sensations and symptoms varies between individuals. The current study aimed to test this possibility via measuring the associations between three different sets of panic symptoms (cognitive, respiratory, cardiac) and scores on three symptom-specific single target implicit association tests (STIATs). Methods: A total of 226 unselected female participants aged 18-35 completed the STIATs as well as questionnaires assessing panic symptoms and related measures in a web-based study. Results: Only limited evidence was found to support the idea of specific associations between STIAT stimuli sets and their related panic symptoms. Exploratory analyses indicated that there were only associations between STIAT scores and panic-relevant questionnaires amongst those participants who had experienced a panic attack in the previous 6 months. Conclusions: The results have implications for measuring panic-relevant associations and understanding their role in panic disorder.

source/_posts/blain2022.md

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 ---
 title: Blain et al. (2022)
-subtitle: 'Observing others give & take: A computational account of bystanders' feelings and actions'
+subtitle: "Observing others give & take: A computational account of bystanders' feelings and actions"
 date: 2022/05/01
 authors:
 - Blain, Bastien

source/_posts/blankenship2023.md

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+---
+title: Blankenship & Kibbe (2023)
+subtitle: "Plan chunking expands 3-year-olds' ability to complete multiple-step plans"
+date: 2023/04/24
+authors:
+- Blankenship, Tashauna L
+- Kibbe, Melissa M
+journal: Child Dev.
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13929
+data_url: https://osf.io/dexat/?view_only=e300a8beb2654e69af22172fde519143
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+The ability to use knowledge to guide the completion of goals is a critical cognitive skill, but 3-year-olds struggle to complete goals that require multiple steps. This study asked whether 3-year-olds could benefit from "plan chunking" to complete multistep goals. Thirty-two U.S. children (range = 35.75-46.59 months; 18 girls; 9 white, 3 mixed race, 20 unknown; tested between July 2020 and April 2021) were asked to complete "treasure maps," retrieving four colored map pieces by pressing specific buttons on a "rainbow box." Children completed more of the four-step sequence correctly when the steps were presented in a way that encouraged chunking the steps into pairs. These findings suggest a potential mechanism supporting memory-guided planning abilities in early childhood.

source/_posts/bode2023.md

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+---
+title: Bode et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'Non-instrumental information-seeking is resistant to acute stress'
+date: 2023/07/05
+authors:
+- Bode, Stefan
+- Jiwa, Matthew
+- Chum, Chelsea
+- Frost, Leilani
+- Heekeren, Hauke
+- Wingenfeld, Katja
+- Deuter, Christian E
+journal: PsyArXiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cqag6
+data_url: https://osf.io/v3752/
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+Previous research has shown that people intrinsically value non-instrumental information, which cannot be used to change the outcome of events, but only provides an early resolution of uncertainty. This is true even for information about rather inconsequential events, such as the outcomes of small lotteries. Here we investigated whether participants’ willingness to pay for non-instrumental information about the outcome of simple coin-flip lotteries with guaranteed winnings was modulated by acute stress. Stress was induced using the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test (SECPT), and information-seeking choices were compared to a warm water control group. Our results neither support the hypothesis that stress decreases information-seeking by directing cognitive resources away from the relevance of the lotteries, nor the opposite hypothesis that stress increases information-seeking by driving anxiety levels up. Instead, we found that despite successful stress induction, as evidenced by increased saliva cortisol levels in the SECPT group, information valuation was remarkably stable. This finding is in line with recent findings that experimentally increased state anxiety did not modulate non-instrumental information seeking. Together, these results suggest that the aversiveness of “not knowing” is a stable cognitive state and not easily modulated by situational context, such as acute stress.

source/_posts/bognar2023.md

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+---
+title: Bognar et al. (2023)
+subtitle: 'The curve of control: Non-monotonic effects of task difficulty on cognitive control'
+date: 2023/06/06
+authors:
+- Bognar, Miklos
+- Gyurkovics, Mate
+- Aczel, Balazs
+- van Steenbergen, Henk
+journal: PsyArXiv
+paper_url: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ywup9
+data_url: https://osf.io/cysx9/
+tags:
+-
+---
+
+The U-shaped curve has long been recognized as a fundamental concept in psychological science, particularly in theories about motivational accounts and cognitive control. In this study (N=330), we empirically tested the prediction of a non-monotonic, curvilinear relationship between task difficulty and control adaptation. Drawing from Motivational Intensity Theory (MIT) and the expected value of control (EVC) framework, we hypothesized that control intensity would increase with task difficulty until a maximum tolerable level, after which it would decrease. To examine this hypothesis, we conducted two experiments utilizing Stroop-like conflict tasks, systematically manipulating the number of distractors to vary task difficulty. We assessed control adaptation and measured subjective task difficulty. Our results revealed a curvilinear pattern between perceived task difficulty and adaptation of control. The findings provide empirical support for the theoretical accounts of MIT and EVC, highlighting the nonlinear nature of the relationship between task difficulty and cognitive control.

source/_posts/cavanaugh2023.md

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+---
+title: Cavanagh & Frank (2023)
+subtitle: 'Probabilistic Selection Task (PST) + PST with Cabergoline Challenge'
+date: 2023/03/15
+authors:
+- Cavanagh, James F
+- Frank, Michael J
+data_url: https://doi.org/10.18112/openneuro.ds004532.v1.0.0
+tags:
+- eeg
+- probabilistic selection task
+sample_size: 112
+---
+
+Data from N=112 participants who completed the probabilistic selection task.