Subregions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex integrate threat and protective information to meta-represent safety.

Pivotal to self-preservation is the ability to identify when we are safe and when we are in danger. Previous studies have focused on safety estimations based on the features of external threats and do not consider how the brain integrates other key factors, including estimates about our ability to protect ourselves. Here, we examine the neural systems underlying the online dynamic encoding of safety.

Linking Big Five personality traits to components of diet: A meta-analytic review.

This research synthesis sought to determine the magnitude of associations between major personality dimensions and components of diet. A comprehensive literature search identified 49 articles (584 effect sizes; 151,750 participants) that met the inclusion criteria. Pooled mean effects were computed using inverse-variance weighted random effects meta-analysis.

Adaptive Safety Coding in the Prefrontal Cortex.

Pivotal to self-preservation is the ability to identify when we are safe and when we are in danger. Previous studies have focused on safety estimations based on the features of external threats and do not consider how the brain integrates other key factors, including estimates about our ability to protect ourselves. Here we examine the neural systems underlying the online dynamic encoding of safety.

The human hypothalamus coordinates switching between different survival actions.

Comparative research suggests that the hypothalamus is critical in switching between survival behaviors, yet it is unclear if this is the case in humans. Here, we investigate the role of the human hypothalamus in survival switching by introducing a paradigm where volunteers switch between hunting and escape in response to encounters with a virtual predator or prey. Given the small size and low tissue contrast of the hypothalamus, we used deep learning-based segmentation to identify the individual-specific hypothalamus and its subnuclei as well as an imaging sequence optimized for hypothalamic signal acquisition.

Value-based neural representations predict social decision preferences.

Social decision-making is omnipresent in everyday life, carrying the potential for both positive and negative consequences for the decision-maker and those closest to them. While evidence suggests that decision-makers use value-based heuristics to guide choice behavior, very little is known about how decision-makers' representations of other agents influence social choice behavior. We used multivariate pattern expression analyses on fMRI data to understand how value-based processes shape neural representations of those affected by one's social decisions and whether value-based encoding is associated with social decision preferences.

Positive and negative emotion are associated with generalized transcriptional activation in immune cells.

Alterations in immune system gene expression have been implicated in psychopathology, but it remains unclear whether similar associations occur for intraindividual variations in emotion. The present study examined whether positive emotion and negative emotion were related to expression of pro-inflammatory and antiviral genes in circulating leukocytes from a community sample of 90 adolescents (M = 16.3 years, SD = 0.

Model-based prioritization for acquiring protection.

Protection often involves the capacity to prospectively plan the actions needed to mitigate harm. The computational architecture of decisions involving protection remains unclear, as well as whether these decisions differ from other beneficial prospective actions such as reward acquisition. Here we compare protection acquisition to reward acquisition and punishment avoidance to examine overlapping and distinct features across the three action types.

Sleep variability over a 2-week period is associated with restfulness and intrinsic limbic network connectivity in adolescents.

Study Objectives: Sleep duration and intraindividual variability in sleep duration undergo substantial changes in adolescence and impact brain and behavioral functioning. Although experimental work has linked acute sleep deprivation to heightened limbic responding and reduced regulatory control, there is limited understanding of how variability in sleep patterns might interact with sleep duration to influence adolescent functioning. This is important for optimal balancing of length and consistency of sleep.

Computational and Motivational Mechanisms of Human Social Decision Making Involving Close Others.

Every day, human beings make decisions with social consequences. These social consequences matter most when they impact those closest to us. Recent research has shown that humans exhibit reliable preferences when deciding between conflicting outcomes involving close others - for example, prioritizing the interests of one's family member over one's friend.

Physiological Responses to a Haunted-House Threat Experience: Distinct Tonic and Phasic Effects.

Threats elicit physiological responses, the frequency and intensity of which have implications for survival. Ethical and practical limitations on human laboratory manipulations present barriers to studying immersive threat. Furthermore, few investigations have examined group effects and concordance with subjective emotional experiences to threat.

Frontopolar Cortex Response to Positive Feedback Relates to Nonincentivized Task Persistence.

When individuals make decisions whether to persist at a task, their decision-making is informed by whether success is pending or accomplished. If pending, the brain facilitates behavioral persistence; if the goal is accomplished or no longer desired, the brain enables switching away from the current task. Feedback, which is known to differentially engage reward neurocircuitry, may modulate goal-directed behavior such as task persistence.

Resting parasympathetic nervous system activity is associated with greater antiviral gene expression.

Parasympathetic nervous system activity can downregulate inflammation, but it remains unclear how parasympathetic nervous system activity relates to antiviral activity. The present study examined associations between parasympathetic nervous system activity and cellular antiviral gene regulation in 90 adolescents (M = 16.28, SD = 0.

Dichotomous thinking about social groups: Learning about one group can activate opposite beliefs about another group.

Across three studies (N = 607), we examined people's use of a dichotomizing heuristic-the inference that characteristics belonging to one group do not apply to another group-when making judgments about novel social groups. Participants learned information about one group (e.g.

A Decision Architecture for Safety Computations.

Accurately estimating safety is critical to pursuing nondefensive survival behaviors. However, little attention has been paid to how the human brain computes safety. We conceptualize a model that consists of two components: (i) threat-oriented evaluations that focus on threat value, imminence, and predictability; and (ii) self-oriented evaluations that focus on the agent's experience, strategies, and ability to control the situation.

Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial that Altruism Moderates the Effect of Prosocial Acts on Adolescent Well-being.

Despite growing public and scientific interest in the positive benefits of prosociality, there has been little research on the causal effects of performing kind acts for others on psychological well-being during adolescence. Developmental changes during adolescence, such as greater perspective taking, can promote prosociality. It was hypothesized that performing kind acts for others would improve adolescent well-being (positive and negative affect, perceived stress) and increase prosocial giving.

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex response to negative tweets relates to executive functioning.

Cognitive performance can become impaired when a stimulus evokes an emotional response. Social media often elicits emotional reactions, but, despite social media's ubiquity, cognitive and neural consequences of exposure to negative online content are relatively unknown. Fifty-seven human adults (18-29 years; 38 female) who identified with at least one historically-marginalized group performed a novel 'Tweet Task'.

Neural activity moderates the association between sleep and risky driving behaviors in adolescence.

The biological, environmental, and psychosocial changes that occur in adolescence engender an increase in risk taking often linked to the high rates of motor vehicle crashes amongst young drivers. Most U.S.

Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams.

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. Here we assess the effect of this flexibility on the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging by asking 70 independent teams to analyse the same dataset, testing the same 9 ex-ante hypotheses. The flexibility of analytical approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyse the data.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Post-Election Distress Track Changes in Neural and Psychological Functioning.

The shift in political climate after the 2016 U.S. presidential election had a distressing effect on many individuals.

Neural recruitment related to threat perception differs as a function of adolescent sleep.

Detecting threat cues in the environment is an important aspect of social functioning. This is particularly true for adolescents as social threats become more salient and they navigate increasingly complex relationships outside of the family. Sleep relates to socioemotional processing throughout development, but the neurobiological relevance of sleep for threat perceptions in adolescence remains unknown.

Is social decision making for close others consistent across domains and within individuals?

Humans make decisions across a variety of social contexts. Though social decision-making research has blossomed in recent decades, surprisingly little is known about whether social decision-making preferences are consistent across different domains. We conducted an exploratory study in which participants made choices about 2 types of close others: parents and friends.

Multivoxel Pattern Analysis Reveals a Neural Phenotype for Trust Bias in Adolescents.

The extent to which individuals are inclined to judge unfamiliar others as trustworthy can have important implications for social functioning. Using multivariate pattern analysis, a neural phenotype of trust bias was identified in 48 human adolescents (ages 14-18 years, 26 female). Adolescents who exhibited more similar brain response to faces at the extremes of a trustworthy gradient were more likely to rate neutral faces as trustworthy.

Physical home environment is associated with prefrontal cortical thickness in adolescents.

Biologically embedded experiences alter developmental trajectories in ways that can influence health, learning, and/or behavior. These systematic differences in experiences may contribute to different biological outcomes as individuals grow and develop, including at the neural level. Previous studies of biologically embedded experiences on neurodevelopment have focused on large-scale institutional or economic factors (e.