The N400 effect captures nuances in implicit political preferences.

We conducted a study in San Antonio, Texas, in the weeks preceding the 2022 state Governor election to determine if implicit or explicit measures of political preference could predict voter behavior. We adapted an established event-related potential (ERP) paradigm showing political statements to participants one word at the time where the last word made the statement pro-Republican or pro-Democratic. Our sample of college students included decided and undecided voters, and was reflective of the demographic make-up of south-central Texas.

How the manner in which data is visualized affects and corrects (mis)perceptions of political polarization.

While the mechanisms underlying polarization are complex, scholars have consistently found a pervasive overestimation of perceptions of polarization to be a contributing factor. We argue that one mitigation strategy that can work at scale to address such misperceptions might be relatively straightforward: better data visualizations of cross-party attitudes on key issues. In a large-scale (N = 6603), international replication, we find that mode of presentation-or the manner in which data are visually presented-plays a significant role in moderating perceptions of polarization, even for longstanding, divisive issues for which partisans would likely hold strong prior beliefs.

Behavioral science should start by assuming people are reasonable.

Should policymaking assume humans are irrational? Using empirical, theoretical, and philosophical arguments, we suggest a more useful frame is that human behavior is reasonable. Through identifying goals and systemic factors shaping behavior, we suggest that assuming people are reasonable enables behavioral science to be more effective in shaping public policy.

Illusory Essences: A Bias Holding Back Theorizing in Psychological Science.

The reliance in psychology on verbal definitions means that psychological research is unusually moored to how humans think and communicate about categories. Psychological concepts (e.g.

Gross tumour volume delineation in anal cancer on T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted MRI - Reproducibility between radiologists and radiation oncologists and impact of reader experience level and DWI image quality.

Purpose: To assess how gross tumour volume (GTV) delineation in anal cancer is affected by interobserver variations between radiologists and radiation oncologists, expertise level, and use of T2-weighted MRI (T2W-MRI) vs. diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and to explore effects of DWI quality.

Methods And Materials: We retrospectively analyzed the MRIs (T2W-MRI and b800-DWI) of 25 anal cancer patients.

Punishing the individual or the group for norm violation.

It has recently been proposed that a key motivation for joining groups is the protection from consequences of negative behaviours, such as norm violations. Here we empirically test this claim by investigating whether cooperative decisions and the punishment of associated fairness-based norm violations are different in individuals vs. collectives in economic games.

Is information theory, or the assumptions that surround it, holding back neuroscience?

The challenges raised in this article are not with information theory per se, but the assumptions surrounding it. Neuroscience isn't sufficiently critical about the appropriate 'receiver' or 'channel', focuses on decoding 'parts', and often relies on a flawed 'veridicality' assumption. If these problematic assumptions were questioned, information theory could be better directed to help us understand how the brain works.

Gross Tumor Delineation in Esophageal Cancer on MRI Compared With F-FDG-PET/CT.

Purpose: Current delineation of the gross tumor volume (GTV) in esophageal cancer relies on computed tomography (CT) and combination with F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET). There is increasing interest in integrating magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in radiation treatment, which can potentially obviate CT- or FDG-PET/CT-based delineation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of target delineation on T2-weighted (T2W) MRI and T2W including diffusion-weighted MRI (T2W + DW-MRI) compared with current-practice FDG-PET/CT.

Predicting and implications of target volume changes of brain metastases during fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery.

Objective: To study the impact of target volume changes in brain metastases during fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery (fSRS) and identify patients that benefit from MRI guidance.

Material And Methods: For 15 patients (18 lesions) receiving fSRS only (fSRS) and 19 patients (20 lesions) receiving fSRS postoperatively (fSRS), a treatment planning MRI (MR0) and repeated MRI during treatment (MR1) were acquired. The impact of target volume changes on the target coverage was analyzed by evaluating the planned dose distribution (based on MR0) on the planning target volume (PTV) during treatment as defined on MR1.

What Underlies Political Polarization? A Manifesto for Computational Political Psychology.

Polarization is one of the biggest societal challenges of our time, yet its drivers are poorly understood. Here we propose a novel approach - computational political psychology - which uses behavioral tasks in combination with formal computational models to identify candidate cognitive processes underpinning susceptibility to polarized beliefs about political and societal issues.

Synergic Interactions Between Hepatic Stellate Cells and Uveal Melanoma in Metastatic Growth.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a malignant intraocular tumor that spreads to the liver in half of the cases. Since hepatic cells could play a role in the therapeutic resistance of metastatic UM, the purpose of our study was to investigate the pro-invasive role of hepatic stellate cells (HSteCs) in metastatic UM at the micro- and macro-metastatic stages. We first performed an immunostaining with the alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) to localize activated HSteCs in UM liver macro-metastases from four patients.

The Leuven Embedded Figures Test (L-EFT): measuring perception, intelligence or executive function?

Performance on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) has been interpreted as a reflection of local/global perceptual style, weak central coherence and/or field independence, as well as a measure of intelligence and executive function. The variable ways in which EFT findings have been interpreted demonstrate that the construct validity of this measure is unclear. In order to address this lack of clarity, we investigated to what extent performance on a new Embedded Figures Test (L-EFT) correlated with measures of intelligence, executive functions and estimates of local/global perceptual styles.

Connection-based and object-based grouping in multiple-object tracking: A developmental study.

Developmental research on Gestalt laws has previously revealed that, even as young as infancy, we are bound to group visual elements into unitary structures in accordance with a variety of organizational principles. Here, we focus on the developmental trajectory of both connection-based and object-based grouping, and investigate their impact on object formation in participants, aged 9-21 years old (N = 113), using a multiple-object tracking paradigm. Results reveal a main effect of both age and grouping type, indicating that 9- to 21-year-olds are sensitive to both connection-based and object-based grouping interference, and tracking ability increases with age.

Superior Disembedding in Children with ASD: New Tests Using Abstract, Meaningful, and 3D Contexts.

Since its initial development, the embedded figures test (EFT) has been used extensively to measure local-global perceptual style. However, little is known about the perceptual factors that influence target detection. The current study aimed to investigate disembedding in children with and without ASD, aged 8-15 years, using the newly developed, stimulus-controlled L-EFT, M-EFT and D-EFT.

Causal events enter awareness faster than non-causal events.

Philosophers have long argued that causality cannot be directly observed but requires a conscious inference (Hume, 1967). Albert Michotte however developed numerous visual phenomena in which people seemed to perceive causality akin to primary visual properties like colour or motion (Michotte, 1946). Michotte claimed that the perception of causality did not require a conscious, deliberate inference but, working over 70 years ago, he did not have access to the experimental methods to test this claim.

Developing the Leuven Embedded Figures Test (L-EFT): testing the stimulus features that influence embedding.

Background: The Embedded Figures Test (EFT, developed by Witkin and colleagues (1971)) has been used extensively in research on individual differences, particularly in the study of autism spectrum disorder. The EFT was originally conceptualized as a measure of field (in)dependence, but in recent years performance on the EFT has been interpreted as a measure of local versus global perceptual style. Although many have used the EFT to measure perceptual style, relatively few have focused on understanding the stimulus features that cause a shape to become embedded.

Significant tumor shift in patients treated with stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastasis.

Introduction: Linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for brain metastases may be influenced by the time interval between treatment preparation and delivery, related to risk of anatomical changes. We studied tumor position shifts and its relations to peritumoral volume edema changes over time, as seen on MRI.

Methods: Twenty-six patients who underwent SRS for brain metastases in our institution were included.

Do wholes become more than the sum of their parts in the rodent (Rattus Norvegicus) visual system? A test case with the configural superiority effect.

The rodent has been used to model various aspects of the human visual system, but it is unclear to what extent human visual perception can be modelled in the rodent. Research suggests rodents can perform invariant object recognition tasks in a manner comparable to humans. There is further evidence that rodents also make use of certain grouping cues, but when performing a shape discrimination they have a tendency to rely much more on local image cues than human participants.

Clinical outcome in patients treated with simultaneous integrated boost - intensity modulated radiation therapy (SIB-IMRT) with and without concurrent chemotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal.

Background and purpose To retrospectively evaluate locoregional control (LRC), survival and toxicity in anal cancer patients treated with simultaneous integrated boost - intensity modulated radiation therapy (SIB-IMRT) ± concurrent chemotherapy. Methods and materials Patients with squamous cell anal carcinoma stage T1(≥1 cm)-4, N0-3, M0-1 were included. All patients were treated with SIB-IMRT to a total dose of 59.

Faces in commonly experienced configurations enter awareness faster due to their curvature relative to fixation.

The extent to which perceptually suppressed face stimuli are still processed has been extensively studied using the continuous flash suppression paradigm (CFS). Studies that rely on breaking CFS (b-CFS), in which the time it takes for an initially suppressed stimulus to become detectable is measured, have provided evidence for relatively complex processing of invisible face stimuli. In contrast, adaptation and neuroimaging studies have shown that perceptually suppressed faces are only processed for a limited set of features, such as its general shape.

Is neuroimaging measuring information in the brain?

Psychology moved beyond the stimulus response mapping of behaviorism by adopting an information processing framework. This shift from behavioral to cognitive science was partly inspired by work demonstrating that the concept of information could be defined and quantified (Shannon, 1948). This transition developed further from cognitive science into cognitive neuroscience, in an attempt to measure information in the brain.

No evidence for surface organization in Kanizsa configurations during continuous flash suppression.

Does one need to be aware of a visual stimulus for it to be perceptually organized into a coherent whole? The answer to this question regarding the interplay between Gestalts and visual awareness remains unclear. Using interocular suppression as the paradigm for rendering stimuli invisible, conflicting evidence has been obtained as to whether the traditional Kanizsa surface is constructed during interocular suppression. While Sobel and Blake (2003) and Harris, Schwarzkopf, Song, Bahrami, and Rees (2011) failed to find evidence for this, Wang, Weng, and He (2012) showed that standard configurations of Kanizsa pacmen would break interocular suppression faster than their rotated counterparts.

Suppressed visual looming stimuli are not integrated with auditory looming signals: Evidence from continuous flash suppression.

Previous studies using binocular rivalry have shown that signals in a modality other than the visual can bias dominance durations depending on their congruency with the rivaling stimuli. More recently, studies using continuous flash suppression (CFS) have reported that multisensory integration influences how long visual stimuli remain suppressed. In this study, using CFS, we examined whether the contrast thresholds for detecting visual looming stimuli are influenced by a congruent auditory stimulus.