Distinct neural bases of visual art- and music-induced aesthetic experiences.

Aesthetic experiences are characterized by a conscious, emotionally and hedonically rewarding perceptions of a stimulus's aesthetic qualities and are thought to arise from a unique combination of cognitive and affective processes. To pinpoint neural correlates of aesthetic experiences, in the present study, we performed a series of meta-analyses based on the existing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies of art appreciation in visual art (34 experiments, 692 participants) and music (34 experiments, 718 participants). The Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) analyses showed that the frontal pole (FP), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were commonly activated in visual-art-induced aesthetic experiences, whilst bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) and striatal areas were commonly activated in music appreciation.

Attention allocation in foreign language reading anxiety during lexical processing - An ERP study with cue-target paradigm.

Extensive behavioral and pedagogical studies emphasize the negative impact of foreign language reading anxiety on foreign language reading. This study investigated whether foreign language reading anxiety is correlated with dysregulation of attentional allocation while foreign language reading. We used event-related potential (ERP) indices as biomarkers to examine attention allocation between groups with high foreign language reading anxiety (HFLRA) and low foreign language reading anxiety (LFLRA) using a cue-target paradigm under conditions that posed high (valid condition) or low (invalid condition) expectations on target location.

Dynamic interaction between the cerebrum and the cerebellum during visual word processing.

Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between the cerebellum and reading. Yet, the specific contribution of the cerebellum to reading and its interaction with the cerebrum remain elusive. To address these issues, we combined dynamic brain state analysis with large-scale network analysis to examine the imaging data gathered from the reading tasks (i.

Increased sensitivity to social hierarchy during social competition versus cooperation.

Social hierarchy is a typical feature of social organization. The ability to quickly recognize social hierarchy information is crucial for adapting to social contexts. Here, we adopted fast periodic visual stimulation with electroencephalography to assess the neural responses to social hierarchy during social competition and cooperation, respectively.

Oscillatory mechanisms of intrinsic human brain networks.

Non-invasive neuroimaging has revealed specific network-based resting-state dynamics in the human brain, yet the underlying neurophysiological mechanism remains unclear. We employed intracranial electroencephalography to characterize local field potentials within the default mode network (DMN), frontoparietal network (FPN), and salience network (SN) in 42 participants. We identified stronger within-network phase coherence at low frequencies (θ and α band) within the DMN, and at high frequencies (γ band) within the FPN.

The Neurocomputational Mechanism Underlying Decision-Making on Unfairness to Self and Others.

Fairness is a fundamental value in human societies, with individuals concerned about unfairness both to themselves and to others. Nevertheless, an enduring debate focuses on whether self-unfairness and other-unfairness elicit shared or distinct neuropsychological processes. To address this, we combined a three-person ultimatum game with computational modeling and advanced neuroimaging analysis techniques to unravel the behavioral, cognitive, and neural patterns underlying unfairness to self and others.

Psychological and Brain Responses to Artificial Intelligence's Violation of Community Ethics.

Human moral reactions to artificial intelligence (AI) agents' behavior constitute an important aspect of modern-day human-AI relationships. Although previous studies have mainly focused on autonomy ethics, this study investigates how individuals judge AI agents' violations of community ethics (including betrayals and subversions) compared with human violations. Participants' behavioral responses, event-related potentials (ERPs), and individual differences were assessed.

Dynamic Organization of Large-scale Functional Brain Networks Supports Interactions Between Emotion and Executive Control.

Emotion and executive control are often conceptualized as two distinct modes of human brain functioning. Little, however, is known about how the dynamic organization of large-scale functional brain networks that support flexible emotion processing and executive control, especially their interactions. The amygdala and prefrontal systems have long been thought to play crucial roles in these processes.

Brain development mediates the relationship between self-reported poor parental monitoring and adolescent anxiety.

Adolescence is the peak period for the onset of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Brain networks of cognitive and affective control in adolescents are not well developed when their exposure to external stimuli suddenly increases.Reasonable parental monitoring is especially important during this period.

Neurocomputational Substrates Underlying the Effect of Identifiability on Third-Party Punishment.

The identifiable target effect refers to the preference for helping identified victims and punishing identifiable perpetrators compared with equivalent but unidentifiable counterparts. The identifiable target effect is often attributed to the heightened moral emotions evoked by identified targets. However, the specific neurocognitive processes that mediate and/or modulate this effect remain largely unknown.

Differential effects of generalized anxiety and separation anxiety on brain structural development during adolescence.

Excessive anxiety is highly prevalent during childhood and adolescence, with detrimental effects on somatic and mental health, and quality of life. Although structural abnormalities in the brain have been found in people with anxiety disorders, whether anxiety affects the brain development of children and adolescents remains unknown. Here, we applied a multivariate approach to two single-site MRI datasets consisting of 733 and 775 participants aged 5-18 years.

Emotional autobiographical memory retrieval in time domain.

Autobiographical memory (AM) is an important psychological phenomenon that has significance for self-development and mental health. The psychological mechanisms of emotional AM retrieval and their association with individual emotional symptoms remain largely unclear in the literature. For this purpose, the current study provided cue words to elicit emotional AMs.

Explaining reversal learning deficits in anxiety with electrophysiological evidence.

Reversal learning is a crucial aspect of behavioral flexibility that plays a significant role in environmental adaptation and development. While previous studies have established a link between anxiety and impaired reversal learning ability, the underlying mechanisms behind this association remain unclear. This study employed a probabilistic reversal learning task with electroencephalographic recording to investigate these mechanisms.

Reading anxiety modulates the functional connectivity of the reading-related network during adult reading.

Researchers have studied cognitive and linguistic skills in predicting reading abilities, but the impact of affective factors such as anxiety on reading at the neurobiological level is not well understood. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural correlates of reading anxiety in adult readers performing a semantic judgment task. The results showed that reading anxiety was significantly correlated with response time but not with accuracy.

Gene transcriptional expression of cortical thinning during childhood and adolescence.

The cognitive and behavioral development of children and adolescents is closely related to the maturation of brain morphology. Although the trajectory of brain development has been depicted in detail, the underlying biological mechanism of normal cortical morphological development in childhood and adolescence remains unclear. By combining the Allen Human Brain Atlas dataset with two single-site magnetic resonance imaging data including 427 and 733 subjects from China and the United States, respectively, we performed partial least squares regression and enrichment analysis to explore the relationship between the gene transcriptional expression and the development of cortical thickness in childhood and adolescence.

Threat-induced anxiety and selfishness in resource sharing: Behavioral and neural evidence.

In real life, it is not unusual that we face potential threats (i.e., physical stimuli and environments that may cause harm or danger) with other individuals together, yet it remains largely unknown how threat-induced anxious feelings influence prosocial behaviors such as resource sharing.

Event-related potentials in response to early terminated and completed sequential decision-making.

The process of outcome evaluation effectively navigates subsequent choices in humans. However, it is largely unclear how people evaluate decision outcomes in a sequential scenario, as well as the neural mechanisms underlying this process. To address this research gap, the study employed a sequential decision task in which participants were required to make a series of choices in each trial, with the option to terminate their choices.

Resource scarcity aggravates ingroup bias: Neural mechanisms and cross-scenario validation.

Previous studies examining the relationship between ingroup bias and resource scarcity have produced heterogeneous findings, possibly due to their focus on the allocation of positive resources (e.g. money).

Altered functional coupling between the cerebellum and cerebrum in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Cognitive processing relies on the functional coupling between the cerebrum and cerebellum. However, it remains unclear how the 2 collaborate in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients. With functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques, we compared cerebrocerebellar functional connectivity during the resting state (rsFC) between the aMCI and healthy control (HC) groups.

Brain Systems Underlying Fundamental Motivations of Human Social Conformity.

From birth to adulthood, we often align our behaviors, attitudes, and opinions with a majority, a phenomenon known as social conformity. A seminal framework has proposed that conformity behaviors are mainly driven by three fundamental motives: a desire to gain more information to be accurate, to obtain social approval from others, and to maintain a favorable self-concept. Despite extensive interest in neuroimaging investigation of social conformity, the relationship between brain systems and these fundamental motivations has yet to be established.

Prefrontal control of social influence in risk decision making.

To optimize our decisions, we may change our mind by utilizing social information. Here, we examined how changes of mind were modulated by Social Misalignment Sensitivity (SMS), egocentric tendency, and decision preferences in a decision-making paradigm including both risk and social information. Combining functional magnetic resonance imaging with computational modeling, we showed that both SMS and egocentric tendency modulated changes of mind under the influence of social information.

Resting-state functional connectivity of social brain regions predicts motivated dishonesty.

Motivated dishonesty is a typical social behavior varying from person to person. Resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) is capable of identifying unique patterns from functional connectivity (FC) between brain regions. Recent work has built a link between brain networks in resting state to dishonesty in Western participants.

Perceptive and affective impairments in emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia.

Alexithymia is characterized by impairments in emotion processing, frequently linked to facial expressions of emotion. The eye-region conveys information necessary for emotion processing. It has been demonstrated that alexithymia is associated with reduced attention to the eyes, but little is known regarding the cognitive and electrophysiological mechanisms underlying emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia.