Self-control plays a pivotal role in pursuing long-term goals related to health and financial well-being. While ample evidence suggests that humans are prone to occasional self-control lapses, little is known about how changes in emotional and attentional states affect the ability to maintain self-control. In two studies (N = 109 and N = 90), we used emotion recognition software to decode participants' facial expressions while manipulating their attentional and emotional states during a Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) before exerting self-control in a subsequent task.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute stress can change our cognition and emotions, but what specific consequences this has for human prosocial behaviour is unclear. Previous studies have mainly investigated prosociality with financial transfers in economic games and produced conflicting results. Yet a core feature of many types of prosocial behaviour is that they are effortful.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study aims to analyze the posterior segment of the eye in children with thalassemia major (TM) treated with chelation therapy.
Methods: Forty-four patients diagnosed with TM and 44 age- and gender-matched participants without systemic diseases were included in this cross-sectional comparative study. A complete ophthalmologic examination, including visual acuity and fundus examination, was performed on all participants.
Socioeconomic status (SES) correlates with brain structure, a relation of interest given the long-observed relations of SES to cognitive abilities and health. Yet, major questions remain open, in particular, the pattern of causality that underlies this relation. In an unprecedently large study, here, we assess genetic and environmental contributions to SES differences in neuroanatomy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeavy alcohol consumption has been associated with brain atrophy, neuronal loss, and poorer white matter fiber integrity. However, there is conflicting evidence on whether light-to-moderate alcohol consumption shows similar negative associations with brain structure. To address this, we examine the associations between alcohol intake and brain structure using multimodal imaging data from 36,678 generally healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK Biobank, controlling for numerous potential confounds.
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