Age-based stereotype threat effects: From the laboratory to the clinical setting.

Age-Based Stereotype Threat (ABST) adversely affects older adults' memory performance by inducing anxiety and interfering thoughts related to negative stereotypes about aging and memory decline. While well-documented in laboratory settings, the relevance of ABST in real-life clinical contexts remains underexplored. This narrative review examines the effects of ABST and its implications for cognitive aging, emphasizing the importance of addressing ABST in clinical settings.

Affiliation in times of pandemics: Determinants and consequences.

Affiliation is a basic human need, especially during difficult times. To what extent did the need to affiliate limit our capacity to abide by health guidelines, in particular regarding social distancing, during the COVID-19 pandemic? We investigated this issue using questionnaire data from two samples of the French population collected during the first French lockdown (April-May 2020). We found that in men, higher social comparison orientation (sensitivity to the needs of others and inclination to help) and higher perceived threat increased the frequency of reported affiliative activities.

Experience and memory of time and emotions two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this French longitudinal study, we assessed judgment of the passage of time in current life and the predictors of this judgment 2 years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., at a time when there was no lockdown and no protective measures.

Joint action with human and robotic co-actors: Self-other integration is immune to the perceived humanness of the interacting partner.

When performing a joint action task, we automatically represent the action and/or task constraints of the co-actor with whom we are interacting. Current models suggest that, not only physical similarity, but also abstract, conceptual features shared between self and the interacting partner play a key role in the emergence of joint action effects. Across two experiments, we investigated the influence of the perceived humanness of a robotic agent on the extent to which we integrate the action of that agent into our own action/task representation, as indexed by the Joint Simon Effect (JSE).

Microglial phagocytosis dysfunction in stroke is driven by energy depletion and induction of autophagy.

Microglial phagocytosis of apoptotic debris prevents buildup damage of neighbor neurons and inflammatory responses. Whereas microglia are very competent phagocytes under physiological conditions, we report their dysfunction in mouse and preclinical monkey models of stroke (macaques and marmosets) by transient occlusion of the medial cerebral artery (tMCAo). By analyzing recently published bulk and single cell RNA sequencing databases, we show that the phagocytosis dysfunction was not explained by transcriptional changes.

Affective experiences during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and posttraumatic growth: A 1-year longitudinal study in France.

Background: The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in major restrictions on daily life that are undeniably detrimental to individual wellbeing. Nevertheless, there may be positive psychological changes over the longer term, particularly in the form of posttraumatic growth (PTG).

Methods: A total of 1075 individuals representative of the French population took part in an online survey during the first lockdown (T1: March to May 2020) and 1 year later (T2).

Solvent-Diluent Interaction-Mediated Solvation Structure of Localized High-Concentration Electrolytes.

The latest developments of localized high-concentration electrolytes (LHCEs) shed light on stabilizing the high-energy-density lithium (Li) metal batteries. It is generally considered that the nonsolvating diluents introduced into the LHCEs improve the viscosity and wettability of high-concentration electrolytes (HCEs) without changing their inner solvation structures, thus maintaining the highly coordinated contact ion pairs (CIPs) and ionic aggregates (AGGs) of the precursor HCEs with limited free solvent numbers and high Coulombic efficiency (CE) of Li metal anodes. Herein, we show an unexpected effect of the diluent amount on the solvation structures of the LHCEs: as the diluent amount increases, the proportions of free solvent molecules and CIPs rise up simultaneously.

Peer presence and familiarity as key factors to reduce cocaine intake in both rats and humans: an effect mediated by the subthalamic nucleus.

Rationale: Stimulant use, including cocaine, often occurs in a social context whose influence is important to understand to decrease intake and reduce associated harms. Although the importance of social influence in the context of drug addiction is known, there is a need for studies assessing its neurobiological substrate and for translational research.

Objectives: Here, we explored the influence of peer presence and familiarity on cocaine intake and its neurobiological basis.

Computer-assisted instruction versus inquiry-based learning: The importance of working memory capacity.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led millions of students worldwide to intensify their use of digital education. This massive change is not reflected by the scant scientific research on the effectiveness of methods relying on digital learning compared to other innovative and more popular methods involving face-to-face interactions. Here, we tested the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in Science and Technology compared to inquiry-based learning (IBL), another modern method which, however, requires students to interact with each other in the classroom.

Socio-Emotional Competencies and School Performance in Adolescence: What Role for School Adjustment?

There is growing evidence in the literature of positive relationships between socio-emotional competencies and school performance. Several hypotheses have been used to explain how these variables may be related to school performance. In this paper, we explored the role of various school adjustment variables in the relationship between interpersonal socio-emotional competencies and school grades, using a weighted network approach.

The Persistence of Slowed Time Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Two Longitudinal Studies in France.

The home confinement imposed on people to fight the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the flow of time by disrupting daily life, making them feel that time was passing slowly. The aim of this longitudinal study was to evaluate the evolution over time of this subjective experience of time and its significant predictors (boredom, decreased happiness, life rhythm, and sleep quality). Twso samples of French participants were followed up: the first for several weeks during the first lockdown (April 2020) and then 1year later (April 2021; Study 1), and the second during the first lockdown (April 2020) and then 6months (November 2020) and 1year later (April 2021; Study 2).

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Vulnerable People Suffering from Depression: Two Studies on Adults in France.

This study investigated the difficulties experienced by people suffering from depression in coping with the stressful context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown. Two large samples of the French population were classified on the basis of their depressive symptoms and completed an online questionnaire on their emotions and their behaviors during the lockdown. Results showed that, compared to participants with no or mild mental health-related symptoms, participants with moderate to severe depressive symptoms suffered from greater psychological effects of the pandemic and the lockdown (fear, anxiety, sadness, sleep quality, loss of daily routine).

Effectiveness and safety of azithromycin 1.5% eye drops for mass treatment of active trachoma in a highly endemic district in Cameroon.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of azithromycin 1.5% eye drops under field conditions to reduce active trachoma in a highly endemic district in Cameroon. This is a follow-up of an initial report published in 2010.

Time and Covid-19 stress in the lockdown situation: Time free, «Dying» of boredom and sadness.

A lockdown of people has been used as an efficient public health measure to fight against the exponential spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and allows the health system to manage the number of patients. The aim of this study (clinicaltrials.gov NCT00430818) was to evaluate the impact of both perceived stress aroused by Covid-19 and of emotions triggered by the lockdown situation on the individual experience of time.

Nanostructured Carbon-Nitrogen-Sulfur-Nickel Networks Derived From Polyaniline as Bifunctional Catalysts for Water Splitting.

The development of reliable production routes for sustainable hydrogen (H), which is an essential feedstock for industrial processes and energy carrier for fuel cells, is needed. It appears to be an unavoidable alternative to significantly reduce the dependence on conventional energy sources based on fossil fuels without increasing the atmospheric CO levels. Among the different power-to-X scenarios to access high purity H, the electrochemical approach based on electrolysis looks to be a promising sustainable solution at both the small and large industrial scales.

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing.

As life expectancy increases, aging has become a major health challenge, resulting in a huge effort to better discriminate between normal and pathological cognitive decline. It is thus essential that cognitive tests and their administration are as fair as possible. However, an important source of bias during cognitive testing comes from negative aging stereotypes that can impair the memory performance of older adults and inflate age differences on cognitive tasks.

Microglia Actively Remodel Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis through the Phagocytosis Secretome.

During adult hippocampal neurogenesis, most newborn cells undergo apoptosis and are rapidly phagocytosed by resident microglia to prevent the spillover of intracellular contents. Here, we propose that phagocytosis is not merely passive corpse removal but has an active role in maintaining neurogenesis. First, we found that neurogenesis was disrupted in male and female mice chronically deficient for two phagocytosis pathways: the purinergic receptor P2Y12, and the tyrosine kinases of the TAM family Mer tyrosine kinase (MerTK)/Axl.

Ageing stereotypes and prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AGING): study protocol for an ongoing randomised clinical study.

Introduction: The number of older people diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), the prodromal state of Alzheimer's disease (AD), is increasing worldwide. However, some patients with aMCI never convert to the AD type of dementia, with some remaining stable and others reverting to normal. This overdiagnosis bias has been largely overlooked and gone unexplained.

An international survey of perceptions of the 2014 FIFA World Cup: National levels of corruption as a context for perceptions of institutional corruption.

We conducted a survey about the 2014 FIFA World Cup that measured attitudes about FIFA, players, and officials in 18 languages with 4600 respondents from 29 countries. Sixty percent of respondents perceived FIFA officials as being dishonest, and people from countries with less institutional corruption and stronger rule of law perceived FIFA officials as being more corrupt and less competent running the tournament than people from countries with more corruption and weaker rule of law. In contrast, respondents evaluated players as skilled and honest and match officials as competent and honest.

Committees with implicit biases promote fewer women when they do not believe gender bias exists.

Whether gender bias contributes to women's under-representation in scientific fields is still controversial. Past research is limited by relying on explicit questionnaire ratings in mock-hiring scenarios, thereby ignoring the potential role of implicit gender bias in the real world. We examine the interactive effect of explicit and implicit gender biases on promotion decisions made by scientific evaluation committees representing the whole scientific spectrum in the course of an annual nationwide competition for elite research positions.

Attentional allocation to task-irrelevant fearful faces is not automatic: experimental evidence for the conditional hypothesis of emotional selection.

A growing body of research indicates that attentional biases toward emotional stimuli are not automatic, but may depend on the relevance of emotion to the top-down search goals of the observer. To determine whether and how this relevance factor modulates attentional allocation to irrelevant fearful faces, four spatial cueing tasks were designed, in which the goal-relevance of completely task-irrelevant (neutral or fearful) cue faces was systematically manipulated by changing the target defining feature. No attentional capture by cue faces (be they neutral or fearful) was observed when the cue faces were completely goal-irrelevant.

Does social context impact metacognition? Evidence from stereotype threat in a visual search task.

While recent studies have emphasized the role of metacognitive judgments in social interactions, whether social context might reciprocally impact individuals' metacognition remains an open question. It has been proposed that such might be the case in situations involving stereotype threat. Here, we provide the first empirical test of this hypothesis.

National Stereotypes and Robots' Perception: The "Made in" Effect.

In the near future, the human social environment worldwide might be populated by humanoid robots. The way we perceive these new social agents could depend on basic social psychological processes such as social categorization. Recent results indicate that humans can make use of social stereotypes when faced with robots based on their characterization as "male" or "female" and a perception of their group membership.