A Novel Approach to Assessing the Jumping to Conclusions bias: Evidence of Validity from the Real-Life Paradigm.

The Jumping to Conclusions bias (JTC), characterized by hasty decision-making with insufficient information, is associated with delusion development. The beads task, a standard measure for JTC, assesses information-gathering behaviour but may yield inconsistent results due to comprehension difficulties and limited engagement. To address these shortcomings, we developed the Real-Life Paradigm -two novel tasks simulating social scenarios, tested alongside the beads task under three experimental conditions (baseline, time pressure and cost-benefit), along with measures of psychotic experiences, emotional states, and task appraisal.

Could an evaluative conditioning intervention ameliorate paranoid beliefs? Self-reported and neurophysiological evidence from a brief intervention focused on improving self-esteem.

Introduction: Much research on the treatment of paranoia has involved cognitive-behavioural interventions that address explicit social cognition processes. However, much of human cognition is preverbal or implicit, raising the possibility that such social judgements are implicated in paranoia. One type of implicit social cognition that has been investigated concerning paranoia is implicit self-esteem with some evidence that it may be possible to change implicit self-esteem using techniques based on conditioning theory.

Differentiation and Growth-Arrest-Related lncRNA (): Initial Characterization in Human Smooth Muscle and Fibroblast Cells.

Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) can transition between a quiescent contractile or "differentiated" phenotype and a "proliferative-dedifferentiated" phenotype in response to environmental cues, similar to what in occurs in the wound healing process observed in fibroblasts. When dysregulated, these processes contribute to the development of various lung and cardiovascular diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as key modulators of SMC differentiation and phenotypic changes.