Cuijpers and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis to answer the question whether psychotherapies (primarily CBT) for depression have comparable outcomes in all age groups across the life span

The Age of Depression and Its Treatments. Stefan G. Hofmann. JAMA Psychiatry, March 18, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0158

Full text, references, etc., at the DOI above.

Depression is a serious and common mental health problem. Although a number of psychological and pharmacological treatments are available for this serious psychiatric condition, there is still a lot of room for improvement. As is true for virtually all mental disorders, the most common and comparatively most effective form of psychological treatment for depression is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).1

To advance and understand the treatments for this disorder, it is important to know when, how, and for whom a treatment works. In line with such a personalized approach to therapy, in this issue of JAMA Psychiatry, Cuijpers and colleagues2 conducted a meta-analysis to answer the question whether psychotherapies (primarily CBT) for depression have comparable outcomes in all age groups across the life span. Based on a meta-analytic review of 366 randomized clinical trials, this study found that treatments were less effective in children and adolescents compared with adults. The authors called for better psychological treatments in children and adolescents.

What might account for the observed results? What factors might have accounted for these findings aside from age? If age was in fact the primary reason for the results, why is psychotherapy in children and adolescents less effective? Is it possible that depression in children and adolescents is more severe and treatment resistant than the other age groups? These are the questions I will address in this commentary.

As is true for all meta-analyses, decisions have to be made that might have influenced the results. The study2 allowed different treatment formats, including individual sessions, group therapy, telephone consultations, and guided self-help treatments through the internet. It is quite reasonable to assume that the treatment formats are not used to the same extent by all age groups. Children are unlikely to use self-help guides, and very young children and older adults might be less likely to use the internet for their treatments than young adults, for example. We also know that some of these treatment formats are not as effective as others. Self-help guides, for example, may not be as effective as face-to-face treatments. This difference in treatment use might be an alternative explanation for the pattern of results.

There is also a well-known age-by-sex difference in the prevalence of depression.3 Until age 13 years, depression is equally common among boys and girls. After that age, depression becomes a lot more common in women and girls than men and boys. Therefore, any differences in the treatments between different age groups could also be attributable to differences in sex proportions between these groups. Similar arguments could be made for differences in socioeconomic status, social support, and even culture.

Finally, the number of studies included in the various age-group categories differ dramatically, with 242 studies examining middle-aged adults and only 13 studies examining children and 10 studies examining older adults.2 Not surprisingly, the 95% CI was a lot smaller for the treatment effect size for studies of the middle-aged adults compared with the treatment effect sizes of studies of the children and older adults. This may have also contributed to the pattern of results. Meta-analyses are powerful tools that need to be handled with great care.

Assuming that the findings2 are not explained by an artifact of some other variable, such as treatment use or sex, what could the results mean? Is it possible that depression is not the same disorder for all age groups? The DSM-5 distinguishes major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, substance/medication-induced depressive disorder, depressive disorder due to another medical condition, other specified depressive disorder, and unspecified depressive disorder. For all of these categories, age is a factor, and children with mood disorders have posed a number of diagnostic challenges. Perhaps one of the most controversial issues during the development of the DSM-5 was the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children. To attempt to avoid the overdiagnosis of and treatment for bipolar disorder in children, the DSM-5 created a new diagnosis: disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. This diagnosis typically describes children 12 years or younger who show persistent irritability and frequent episodes of extreme behavioral dyscontrol.

There are other obvious age-associated differences in mood disorders. Children are much less likely to use substances of abuse than adults. Yet, we know that a large number of substances of abuse, such as some prescribed medications, as well as several medical conditions, can be associated with depressionlike phenomena. This fact is recognized in the diagnoses of substance/medication-induced depressive disorder and depressive disorder due to another medical condition. These patients will obviously require an intervention that also addresses the substance or medication to effectively target the depression. It is unclear how many patients in the meta-analysis met criteria for a substance-associated depression. Those patients were unlikely to be children.

The DSM-5 recognizes that in children and adolescents, the mood may be irritable and cranky rather than sad.4 A more chronic form of depression is diagnosed when the mood disturbance continues for at least 2 years in adults but only 1 year in children. Age further defines different subtypes of dysthymia, based on whether the onset is early (before age 21 years) or late (after age 21 years). These differences in age at onset and time course are fairly arbitrary, but they emphasize the importance of age when making a diagnosis.

Of particular relevance in the context of the study is the onset specifier. This specifier was in large part the result of studies conducted by Akiskal,5 who proposed that early-onset dysthymia is a low-grade characterological form of depression that develops gradually, whereas late-life dysthymia is an acute and more severe form of the disorder.

Although the early-onset vs late-onset specifier was not included for major depressive disorder, it has been suggested that a similar distinction should also be made for this disorder.6 Accordingly, early-onset chronic major depression might be a more severe form and associated with greater comorbidities than the late-onset subtype. This would explain why treatments are less effective in early-onset subtype of the disorder and therefore also in children and adolescents.

It is unclear why age appears to distinguish different forms of depressive states. It is quite possible that hormonal changes, and especially the influence of estrogen and testosterone on brain function and development among girls around puberty, might explain some of the results.7 Other possible explanations might be associated with the physical changes that occur during sexual maturity and the associated social conflicts and stress around gender roles.3 Whatever the reason, age (and sex) is a critical factor that needs to be considered for the diagnosis and treatment of depression. It is quite possible that we are dealing with different disorders, depending on the age and sex of the patient.8 Therefore, the same treatment might not be equally effective for all individuals at all ages. This questions the idea that depression is a monolithic entity and supports the call for a paradigm shift toward precision medicine in psychiatry.

Women rate sin stocks as less morally appropriate investment propositions and feel considerably less comfortable investing in controversial (but not conventional) stocks; sex differences are substantial

Niszczota, Paweł, and Michal Bialek. 2020. “Women Oppose Sin Stocks More Than Men Do.” PsyArXiv. March 18. doi:10.31234/osf.io/7a4cq

Abstract: We experimentally test whether men and women differ in their propensity to hold morally controversial (“sin”) stocks. Participants (N = 335) were recruited via Mechanical Turk and rated the moral appropriateness and level of comfort resulting from holding controversial and conventional stocks. Results show that women rate sin stocks as less morally appropriate investment propositions and feel considerably less comfortable investing in controversial (but not conventional) stocks. Sex differences in sin stock tolerance were substantial (d = .60) and remained significant after accounting for differences in investment knowledge and risk tolerance. We propose differences in deontological inclinations in men and women as a likely explanation for the observed effect, and discuss two important outcomes of these differences.

Does having children increase environmental concern? Testing parenthood effects with longitudinal data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study

Does having children increase environmental concern? Testing parenthood effects with longitudinal data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study. Taciano L. Milfont ,Wouter Poortinga,Chris G. Sibley. PLOS , March 18, 2020https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230361

Abstract: Having children is a transformative experience and may change the way people think about the future. Parents invest time, energy and resources to ensure the survival and reproductive success of offspring. Having children may also induce environmental concerns and investments in actions aimed at guaranteeing the quality of natural resources available to offspring. However, there is limited empirical support for this parenthood effect, and little is known about how environmental attitudes and behaviour change over time following the birth of a child. This pre-registered study uses data from the first seven waves (2009–2015) of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study—a longitudinal national probability study of social attitudes, personality, and health outcomes—with multilevel interrupted time series analysis. Respondents’ belief in the reality and causes of climate change, sacrifices to standard of living to protect the environment, and changes in daily routine to protect the environment did not change significantly following the birth of a child; and nor were there changes in the underlying trends of attitudes or pre-birth anticipation effects. The study further found no gender differences in the attitudinal effects of childbirth. Additional exploratory analyses suggest that becoming a parent for the first time may increase beliefs in the reality of climate change but does not appear to change other environmental attitudes. Overall, our findings provide little empirical evidence for parenthood effects on environmentalism.

Discussion

Past correlational research has demonstrated that greater levels of pro-environmental engagement is associated with generativity and legacy concerns [16, 18], and higher levels of future thinking and endorsement of other-focused personal values [20, 21]. Experimental studies have also shown that priming individuals to envision their everyday life in the future [19], or to describe what they want to be remembered for by future generations [18] led to an increase in pro-environmental engagement. One logical extension of these findings showing an effect of other-focus and future-focus on environmental protection is to examine whether becoming a parent would influence one’s pro-environmental engagement. Parental investment in offspring should include considerations of the availability and quality of the natural environmental necessary for the survival and reproductive success of offspring.

Despite the theoretical and intuitive appeal of parenthood effects on environmentalism, a recent longitudinal study testing whether parenthood would increase pro-environmental engagement did not provide empirical support [22]. In the present study, we employed a distinct longitudinal dataset to test the hypothesis over up to six years. Across six dependent variables, we did not observe a single significant attitudinal effect related to the birth of a child. That is, we did not find any change in pro-environmental tendencies from before to after the birth of a child, and there were no changes in the underlying trends in pro-environmental tendencies either. In addition, the study found no gender differences in the attitudinal effects of childbirth. That is, null results in mean-level and slope-level effects were found for both mothers and fathers. Additional exploratory analyses suggest that becoming a parent for the first time may increase beliefs in the reality of climate change, but no effects were found for the other five environmental measures; and these effects for new parents must be interpreted with caution, as they were rendered non-significant when correcting for multiple comparisons.

Our findings provide little empirical evidence for parenthood effects on environmentalism, supporting the findings observed by Thomas and colleagues [22]. Together, analyses of two large, high-quality longitudinal datasets explicitly testing whether having children increase pro-environmental engagement do not seem to confirm intuitive predictions of parenthood effects. However, there are still a number of methodological and theoretical considerations to be kept in mind when interpreting the results.

Testing for parenthood effects as outlined in this paper requires a properly-sized longitudinal dataset of sufficient length. While the NZAVS is a high-quality longitudinal dataset with a large sample size (the sample contains over 23,000 unique individuals and more than 78,000 measurement occasions), there were only a limited number of childbirths, in particular of firstborns (of the 1,522 childbirths, around 400 were firstborns). That may not be sufficient to detect what are most likely modest effects. Another consideration is the age of mothers and fathers. The median age of women giving birth to a child is 30 in New Zealand and range between 13 and 53 [35]. The average age fathers is slightly higher (33 years), and around one in 100 babies has a father aged 50 years or over [36]. The average age of our sample is relatively high (i.e., 43.5 years at the time of Wave 1), meaning that many women in the sample are beyond childbearing age.

In addition, while the dataset included multiple waves of data collection and therefore was able to not only detect sudden mean-level but also more gradual slope-level changes before and after childbirth, the analyses were constricted to a six-year period. It is possible that the effect of parenthood on pro-environmental engagement is delayed over a longer period, and that (even) more measurement points are required to detect effects. Environmental attitudes and behaviour following childbirth may also have a U-shaped pattern. Initially, the impact of childbirth on environmental engagement may be negative because of pressures of looking after a young child, which then is followed by an increase in pro-environmental intentions/behaviour to ensure an environmental legacy is left for offspring. Indeed, Thomas et al. [22] observed detrimental effects of having a new-born child in the frequency of three behaviours (i.e., ‘wear more clothes instead of more heating’, ‘use public transport instead of car’ and ‘carshare with others’) that are harder to perform when parenting efforts takes precedent over other concerns. As discussed by Thomas et al. in relation to other findings [12, 23, 37], the pressing concerns of new parents is to dedicate time, resources and energy for the immediate health and wellbeing of offspring, which should outweigh broader and longer-term concerns regarding environmental sustainability. It is possible that parental investment would start to include environmental considerations once the more immediate pressures of parenthood subside, and more measurement points are needed to capture longer-term patterns than were available in this study. Non-linear and delayed effects associated with having are a distinct possibility, as argued here, and should therefore be tested as part of future research using longitudinal datasets of sufficient length.

Major life events that are planned or at least can be anticipated may produce effects in preparation for the event. Indeed, childbirth has been associated with a number of anticipatory psychological and behavioural effects [24, 26, 27, 38]. Anticipatory effects may bias the findings and can be missed with an insufficient number of pre-event measurements. In this study we modelled anticipatory effects in environmental attitudes and self-reported behavioural changes. Limited evidence was found for pre-birth changes, although there was a small but significant negative effect in reported changes in people’s daily environmental routines. This may indicate that possible negative changes in environmental habits may already be initiated in advance of the birth of a child. These anticipatory effects need to be studied in more detail because they may dampen or mask changes that new parents may make in response to the birth of a child.

Another reason for the absence of parenthood effects in this study may be that they only occur in specific groups. For example, Thomas and colleagues [22] found that parents with already high environmental concern show a small increase in the desire to act more sustainably after the birth of their first child. In the current paper we examined possible moderators, such as gender and parenthood status (i.e., whether participants already had a child or not), but there are other socio-demographic, psychological, and situational factors to consider. It is possible that, for example, socio-economic status and (pre-existing) environmental values may moderate potential parenthood effects. Economic circumstances may prevent new parents from making pro-environmental changes, and effects may be the most pronounced for those who are already concerned about the environment, and climate change in particular. Future research could study this in more detail, although other analytical techniques may be needed to study moderation effects as noted below.

In relation to the previous point, parenthood effects on environmentalism is based on the idea that the birth of a child enhances a parent’s legacy motivation. This is a yet untested assumption, mainly because legacy motivation measures have not been available in longitudinal datasets. Previous research has shown that a motivation to leave a positive legacy can be leveraged to increase engagement with climate change and other environmental problems [18], but it is still unclear whether this is also happening in response to having a child. There has been a call to understand environmentally relevant behaviour from a multilevel perspective to examine individual and contextual factors [39], and we extend this call by employing a multilevel analysis to examine changes over the life course. We believe theorising in the field will benefit from datasets that allows examination of developmental trajectories of environmental attitudes and behaviour and how they change as a result of major life events and transitions.

In this study we used a multilevel interrupted time series approach to study abrupt and more gradual changes before and after childbirth. This design is increasingly used in public health intervention [30] and life transition [24] research, as it allows the explicit modelling of the time-dependent nature of outcomes. Our study illustrates the implementation of this analytical strategy in the environmental domain, and previous studies have also used interrupted time series analysis to evaluate intervention outcomes of “natural experiments” with environmental consequences [40, 41]. As with any analytical technique there are limitations. Life transitions are usually associated with a number of changes, and those who experience a transition may be different from those who do not. Parenthood is usually planned in advance, and previous studies have shown that people without children and parents-to-be differ in socio-economic, social, and psychological characteristics (e.g., in personality see [42, 43]). While we were able to control for anticipation effects and for the socio-demographic variables of gender, age, ethnicity and socio-economic deprivation, biases may still occur due to selection effects. Not all participants may have the same propensity to have a child in a particular period, and this may produce or obscure an effect [43, 44].

Different techniques can be used to control for potential selection effects. A propensity score matching approach [44] can be used to match prospective parents with non-parents that have similar baseline characteristics. Balancing characteristics that determine the propensity to experience a specific event or an intervention has become widespread in life transition research to avoid biased treatment effects [5, 24, 27, 45, 46]. It would be necessary to explore propensity effects with further moderation analyses and to increase confidence in the evidence so far that there are no changes in environmental attitudes and behaviour following childbirth.

In conclusion, we examined whether the birth of a new chid increased climate change beliefs and pro-environmental attitudes and behavioural intentions of parents. Overall, our longitudinal analysis shows no mean-level or rate-change effects in the environmental measures examined, disconfirming predictions of parenthood effect on environmentalism. There were no changes observed in either mothers or fathers, similarly disconfirming gender or ‘parental role’ interpretations of possible parenthood effects [1]. While there was a small effect indicating that becoming a parent for the first time may increase beliefs in the reality of climate change, these effects should be considered preliminary given the exploratory nature of those analyses and the fact this becomes statistically non-significant when correcting for multiple comparison. The study contributes to theoretical and methodological advances in environmental decision-making research but should be expanded upon with further analyses to address uncertainties about the specific temporal pattern of effects and potential selection and anticipation effects in becoming a parent. We hope possible parenthood effects on environmentally relevant variables continue to be explored in future studies.

#TheDress is perceived by some people as black and blue while others perceive it as white and gold. We have previously shown that the first encounter with #TheDress strongly biases its perception

How stable is perception in #TheDress and #TheShoe? Leila Drissi-Daoudi et al. Vision Research, Volume 169, April 2020, Pages 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2020.01.007

Abstract: #TheDress is perceived by some people as black and blue while others perceive it as white and gold. We have previously shown that the first encounter with #TheDress strongly biases its perception. This percept remained stable during the experiment, suggesting a role of one-shot learning. #TheShoe is another image that elicits similar bimodal color percepts. Here, we investigated how percepts change over time in both #TheShoe and #TheDress. First, we show that the important role of one-shot learning, which we found for #TheDress extends to #TheShoe. Similarly to our previous results with the dress, hiding large parts of the image with occluders biased the percept of the shoe. The percept did not change for the majority of observers when the occluders were removed. Second, we investigated if and how percepts switch over a time course of 14 days. We found that although some observers experienced percept switches, the percept was largely stable for most observers.

Keywords: #TheDress#TheShoeContextual processingOne-shot learningPerceptual dynamics

Increase in health anxiety in university student samples 1985-2017; the annual percentage of Internet users was not predictive of mean health anxiety

Three decades of increase in health anxiety: Systematic review and meta-analysis of birth cohort changes in university student samples from 1985 to 2017. Amanda Kosic et al.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102208

Highlights
• It is hypothesised that health anxiety has increased over the past decades.
• We reviewed birth cohort health anxiety in university student samples 1985–2017.
• Student mean score on the Illness Attitudes Scales (IAS) increased by 4.61 points
• The annual percentage of Internet users was not predictive of mean health anxiety.
• Findings were robust, at least with regard to undergraduate samples.

Abstract: Health anxiety can be defined as a multifaceted trait that is primarily characterised by a fear of, or preoccupation with, serious illness. Whereas low levels of health anxiety can be helpful, clinically significant levels are associated with personal suffering and substantial societal costs. As general anxiety is probably on the rise, and the Internet has increased access to health-related information, it is commonly speculated that health anxiety has increased over the past decades. We tested this hypothesis based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of birth cohort mean health anxiety in Western university student samples from 1985 to 2017. Sixty-eight studies with 22 413 student participants were included. The primary analysis indicated that the mean score on the Illness Attitudes Scales had increased by 4.61 points (95 % CI: 1.02, 8.20) from 1985 to 2017. The percentage of general population Internet users in the study year of data collection was not predictive of student mean health anxiety. In conclusion, this study corroborates the hypothesis of an increase in health anxiety, at least in the student population, over the past decades. However, this increase could not be linked to the introduction of the Internet.

Keywords: Birth cohortCross-temporal meta-analysisGenerationsHealth anxietyHypochondriasisStudents

Outgroup members are not thought to experience all secondary emotions less intensely; rather, they are thought to experience prosocial emotions less intensely but antisocial emotions more intensely

Enock, Florence, Steven Tipper, and Harriet Over. 2020. “No Convincing Evidence That Outgroup Members Are Dehumanised: Revisiting Trait and Emotion Attribution in Intergroup Bias.” PsyArXiv. March 18. doi:10.31234/osf.io/hm82y

Abstract: We challenge the prevalent claim that outgroup members are dehumanised. In study 1, we conducted a systematic content analysis of historical documents from Nazi Germany and showed that, even in these supposedly prototypical cases of extreme dehumanisation, victims are described in ways that only make sense when applied to humans. In studies 2a-c, we test Haslam’s influential dual model of dehumanisation. We show that outgroup members are thought to possess positive human attributes to a lesser extent but negative human attributes to a greater extent. In study 3, we test Leyens’ prominent infrahumanisation model and demonstrate that, contrary to a body of previous work, outgroup members are not thought to experience all secondary emotions less intensely. Rather, they are thought to experience prosocial emotions less intensely but antisocial emotions more intensely. In a final study, we question the hypothesised relationship between dehumanisation and modulation of prosocial behaviour. We demonstrate that describing someone in uniquely human terms can actually reduce prosociality towards them when those terms are antisocial. Taken together, these studies cast doubt on the claim that representing others as ‘less human’ holds explanatory power in the study of intergroup bias.

Possible Fiscal Policies for Rare, Unanticipated, and Severe Viral Outbreaks

Possible Fiscal Policies for Rare, Unanticipated, and Severe Viral Outbreaks. Bill Dupor. St Louis Fed, Mar 17 2020. https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/economic-synopses/2020/03/17/possible-fiscal-policies-for-rare-unanticipated-and-severe-viral-outbreaks

Consumer spending in restaurants, travel, leisure, hospitality, and some retail trade sectors is falling because of precautions taken by businesses, households, and governments to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Social distancing and similar actions are reducing demand in some sectors.

The proper fiscal policy response in this situation is not necessarily to try to replace or stimulate that demand, given that the fall in demand is a natural byproduct of the caution.1 Rather, the proper policy response may look different from conventional stabilization policy. This essay asks: What should guide a fiscal authority in conducting macroeconomic policy in the event of a severe viral outbreak?

Below I describe some potential fiscal policies that may be appropriate. Two economic principles and one operational principle motivate these potential recommendations.

First, incentivize behavior to align with recognized public health objectives during the outbreak.

Second, avoid concentrating the individual financial burden of the outbreak or the policy response to the outbreak.

Third, implement these fiscal policies as quickly as possible, subject to some efficiency considerations.

At this point, experts are evaluating a wide range of scenarios for the trajectory of the virus in the United States. Some of these scenarios involve a substantial toll on Americans' health. If coordinated macroeconomic policies could help to slow the rate of transmission—by an amount that would reduce overloading U.S. hospitals and help buy time to find a vaccine—so that some of the negative health effects were reduced, this would be a major return on the federal dollars invested in such a program. The pay-off would be in addition to some of the standard business cycle mitigation that motivates standard fiscal interventions.

I describe a $197.1 billion proposal with the above issues in mind. Because some observers have advocated for tax rebates in response to COVID-19, and these could prove useful, I also add this component as an option. It increases the overall size of the fiscal intervention to nearly $350 billion.2 For comparison, the 2009 Recovery Act had a budget impact of about $815 billion.3

It is well understood that fiscal policy operates with a lag. Parts of a proposal such as the one outlined below might take several weeks to a few months to undergo CBO assessment and budget projections, the federal legislative process, and coordination between state, local, and federal officials to implement those fiscal policies. If the planning process were started now, legislators would have the option to vote for or against federal authorizations depending on whether the policies were deemed necessary up to the moment before a final vote was taken.

Younger adults were self-biased, choosing to work more at higher effort levels for themselves, exerting less force into prosocial work; older people were more willing to put in effort for others

Lockwood, Patricia, Ayat Abdurahman, Anthony Gabay, Daniel Drew, Marin Tamm, Masud Husain, and Matthew A. J. Apps. 2020. “Ageing Increases Prosocial Motivation for Effort.” PsyArXiv. March 18. doi:10.31234/osf.io/8c5ra

Abstract: Social cohesion relies on prosociality in increasingly ageing populations. Helping others requires effort, yet how willing people are to exert effort to benefit ourselves and other people, and whether such behaviours shift across the lifespan, is poorly understood. Using computational modelling we tested the willingness to exert effort into self or other benefitting acts in younger (age 18-36) and older adults (55-84, total n=187). Participants chose whether to work and exert effort, (between 30-70% of maximum grip strength) for rewards (2-10 credits) accrued for themselves or prosocially for another. Younger adults were self-biased, choosing to work more at higher effort levels for themselves, but also superficial, exerting less force into prosocial work. Strikingly, compared to younger adults, older people were more willing to put in effort for others and exerted equal force for self and other. Increased prosociality in older people has important implications for human behaviour and societal structure.

Adults demonstrating lower personal on-line risk perceptions and higher third-person perceptions of risk than their adolescent counterparts

Asymmetrical third-person effects on the perceptions of online risk and harm among adolescents and adults. Sarah L. Buglass et al. Behaviour & Information Technology, Mar 17 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2020.1742380

ABSTRACT: Although research has identified a range of opportunities, risks, and harms related to online social networking, the public debate on online risks follows a set pattern by which members of older age groups (parents, regulators) hold a picture of members of younger age groups (teenagers, digital natives) at a uniformly high level of risk. Perceptions of online risk, however, are prone to third-person effects in which individuals perceive risks to be more apparent in others than themselves. This study investigated third-person effects across age groups to further our understanding of the set positions found in current public debate. Multivariate analysis was used to compare adolescent and adult users’ personal and third-person perceptions of common psycho-social risks associated with social networking engagement in a sample of 506 UK-based Facebook users (53% male; 13–77 years). Results indicated that rates of exposure to online vulnerabilities were similar for both age groups. However, differences in adult and adolescent perceptions of risk highlighted apparent mismatches between reported exposure to risk and an individual’s perceptions, with adults demonstrating lower personal perceptions and higher third-person perceptions of risk than their adolescent counterparts. The research considers the implications of risk perception on an individual’s online vulnerability.

KEYWORDS: Facebook, risk perception, online vulnerability, third-person effect, adolescent users, online networking

Women in same-sex couples spend more time together, both alone and in total, than individuals in different-sex arrangements and men in same-sex couples, regardless of parenthood status

Same-Sex Couples’ Shared Time in the United States. Katie R. Genadek, Sarah M. Flood & Joan Garcia Roman. Demography (2020). Mar 17, https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-020-00861-z.

Abstract: This study examines and compares shared time for same-sex and different-sex coresident couples using large, nationally representative data from the 2003–2016 American Time Use Survey (ATUS). We compare the total time that same-sex couples and different-sex couples spend together; for parents, the time they spend together with children; and for both parents and nonparents, the time they spend together with no one else present and the time they spend with others (excluding children). After we control for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the couples, women in same-sex couples spend more time together, both alone and in total, than individuals in different-sex arrangements and men in same-sex couples, regardless of parenthood status. Women in same-sex relationships also spend a larger percentage of their total available time together than other couples, and the difference in time is not limited to any specific activity.

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In countries with high levels of gender inequality, women often walk faster than men in public places.

Rolf Degen summarizing: Although people tend to forego larger future rewards in order to gain immediate pleasure, they sometimes willingly cherish the delay

Deliberating trade-offs with the future. Adam Bulley & Daniel L. Schacter. Nature Human Behaviour volume 4, pages238–247(2020), Mar 17. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0834-9

Abstract: Many fundamental choices in life are intertemporal: they involve trade-offs between sooner and later outcomes. In recent years there has been a surge of interest into how people make intertemporal decisions, given that such decisions are ubiquitous in everyday life and central in domains from substance use to climate change action. While it is clear that people make decisions according to rules, intuitions and habits, they also commonly deliberate over their options, thinking through potential outcomes and reflecting on their own preferences. In this Perspective, we bring to bear recent research into the higher-order capacities that underpin deliberation—particularly those that enable people to think about the future (prospection) and their own thinking (metacognition)—to shed light on intertemporal decision-making. We show how a greater appreciation for these mechanisms of deliberation promises to advance our understanding of intertemporal decision-making and unify a wide range of otherwise disparate choice phenomena.

How do teenagers perceive their intelligence? Narcissism, intellect, well-being and gender as correlates of self-assessed intelligence among adolescents

How do teenagers perceive their intelligence? Narcissism, intellect, well-being and gender as correlates of self-assessed intelligence among adolescents. Marcin Zajenkowski. Personality and Individual Differences, March 17 2020, 109978. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109978

Abstract: Self-assessed intelligence (SAI) and its correlates have been extensively studied in adults. However, our understanding of how younger people perceive intelligence is limited. The current study aimed to fill this gap by investigating how SAI is associated with objective intelligence, gender, personality traits, and well-being in a sample (N = 428) of high-school students. The results revealed that SAI was not correlated with objectively measured intelligence (Raven's test); however, it was associated with other constructs. First, there were gender differences, i.e. boys' self-estimates of their intelligence were higher than that of girls. Furthermore, SAI was strongly related to grandiose narcissism and moderately related to the personality trait intellect. Additionally, high SAI was associated with high levels of well-being. Finally, SAI accounted for the link between narcissism and well-being as well as that between intellect and well-being. The lack of correlation between SAI and IQ score is consistent with previous findings suggesting that the conception of intelligence in adolescence differs from academic definitions of cognitive ability. On the other hand, the strong association between SAI and narcissism suggests that the concept of intelligence might primarily be a manifestation of boldness and a narcissistic attitude in adolescence.

4. Discussion

The current study examined how self-assessed intelligence is associated with objective intelligence, gender, personality traits, and well-being in a group of high-school students. The results indicated that most of the SAI-related effects observed previously in adults can also be found in adolescents. However, the most important difference was a lack of correlation between self-assessed and objectively assessed intelligence, given that prior meta-analytic investigation has shown these two constructs to moderately overlap in adult populations (Freund & Kasten, 2012). Moreover, previous studies have also found a positive relation between objective cognitive abilities and self-assessed abilities in children and adolescents (Chamorro-Premuzic et al., 2010; Gold & Kuhn, 2017; Spinath et al., 2006). However, as mentioned above, in these latter studies the participants were asked to self-rate more narrow abilities rather than general intelligence. Additionally, the study by Gold and Kuhn (2017) included a slightly older sample than the one tested here. It should also be acknowledged that in the present research a non-verbal IQ test measuring fluid intelligence was used. According to the aforementioned findings, a mature conception of intelligence as abstract thinking and problem solving with both verbal and non-verbal material is formed later, e.g. around college time (Chen et al., 1988; Nicholls et al., 1986). It is possible then, that our participants' understanding of intelligence differed from adult conceptions of intelligence. Consequently, they may not have considered the skills required to succeed in Raven's test to be key characteristics of intelligence.

Despite the null correlation with objective intelligence, SAI displayed a pattern of associations with other variables. Specifically, boys self-rated their intelligence higher than girls self-rated theirs, whereas there was no gender difference in objective intelligence. Adult males similarly self-rate their intelligence higher than females self-rate theirs, despite negligible gender differences in objective general intelligence (Szymanowicz & Furnham, 2011). This effect has been described as the “male hubris, female humility” effect (Furnham, 2001). Specifically, it has been proposed that people view intelligence as male-normative and that gender differences in perceived intelligence may stem from the differential socialization of males (encouraged to be bold) and females (encouraged to be submissive) (Furnham, 2001). Studies investigating estimations by individuals' family members support this view. Typically, male family members (grandfathers, fathers, and brothers) are perceived to have higher general intelligence than that of their female counterparts (e.g. Furnham & Rawles, 1995). Moreover, parents tend to rate their sons' IQ as being higher than that of their daughters (Furnham & Gasson, 1998; Furnham, Reeves, & Budhani, 2002). The current results suggest that this effect occurs relatively early and might already be observed among 16-year olds. However, further research is required to establish the exact developmental stage at which gender differences in perceived intelligence are formed. For instance, in a study by Furnham and Budhani (2002) involving only a slightly younger sample (mean age 15.40 years, SD = 0.95) than the one used here, there were no gender differences in self-assessed general intelligence even though male self-estimations were higher than females' on more narrow abilities, i.e. spatial and mathematical ones.

In the present sample, SAI was associated with two personality traits: narcissism and intellect. Furthermore, narcissism explained the highest amount of variance in SAI. This result is in line with recent findings showing narcissism to be the strongest correlate of SAI among personality traits (Howard & Cogswell, 2018; Zajenkowski et al., 2019). The finding is interesting given that narcissism is essentially unrelated to objective IQ (Zajenkowski et al., 2019). Grandiose narcissism is a trait primarily defined by egocentrism, pronounced feelings of importance and entitlement (Campbell & Foster, 2007). People with high grandiose narcissism desire agentic attributes, such as dominance, sense of control, and social status (Campbell & Foster, 2007). Because intelligence is a key asset for the attainment of such attributes, narcissistic individuals are highly concerned with their intelligence (Zajenkowski et al., 2019). It has been shown that positive self-views in the domain of intelligence help them to maintain positive feelings (Zajenkowski et al., 2019). Additionally, narcissistic individuals view intelligence as a crucial factor that influences mainly interpersonal success, i.e. popularity among peers, social status, and relationship satisfaction (Zajenkowski et al., 2019). Thus, intelligence appears to be an important resource in gaining other people's admiration. The current results extend previous findings by showing that the concept of intelligence is an important building block of the narcissistic self-concept in young people. Even though the concept of intelligence is not fully formed in adolescence, it is already linked with a narcissistic attitude. This finding suggests that in people's minds the two phenomena, i.e. thinking positively about one's intelligence and narcissistic grandiosity, go together and that their coexistence occurs at a relatively early developmental stage.

In the present study, SAI was also positively associated with the trait intellect, which is consistent with other research on adults (e.g. Zajenkowski & Matthews, 2019). However, in contrast with previous studies (DeYoung, Quilty, Peterson, & Gray, 2014; Zajenkowski et al., 2019), intellect was unrelated to objective intelligence. According to DeYoung and colleagues (2014), intellect is part of a broader trait of openness/intellect and reflects intellectual engagement with semantic and abstract information, enjoyment of cognitive activity, and one's perceived cognitive abilities. Thus, to some extent intellect overlaps with self-assessed abilities. However, it also contains a more specific element related to intellectual curiosity. Zajenkowski et al. (2019) suggested that this element might differentiate narcissism from intellect in their relations with SAI. This view was supported by the finding that individuals with high intellect report high motivation and concentration on IQ tests, whereas highly narcissistic people do not genuinely engage with demanding cognitive tests (Zajenkowski et al., 2019). Thus, intellect seems to partially reflect a non-narcissistic attitude towards SAI that might be linked with cognitive engagement.

Another important finding of the current study concerns the positive link between SAI and well-being. The authors of a recent meta-analysis of SAI correlates have suggested that SAI could be regarded as a specific form of self-efficacy (Howard & Cogswell, 2018). Because modern jobs and work success rely on cognitive competence, intelligence has become a highly valued characteristic in society and one's self-worth is becoming increasingly dependent on one's intellectual abilities. This line of reasoning may also be relevant to the school environment, where the evaluation of cognitive performance is an essential part of the education system. Thus, SAI appears to play a central role in modern society and because of that may have an influence on self-esteem and well-being. Certainly, the present study indicates that the concept of intelligence is an important source of life satisfaction among high-school students. Additionally, SAI also accounted for the associations between narcissism and well-being and between intellect and well-being. The mechanisms underlying both findings might be different. Specifically, intellect, high intelligence might facilitate cognitive engagement and because of that be a source of pleasant feelings. In case of narcissism, it has been shown that grandiose narcissists pursue agentic goals such as high social status and believe that intelligence is a key attribute in attaining such goals (Zajenkowski et al., 2019). Therefore, intelligence inflated self-views enable grandiose narcissists to experience positive feelings. It is possible that high cognitive ability is linked to the sense of agency and social position already among adolescent narcissists and because of that, it increases their well-being. This hypothesis could be further examine by investigating how narcissistic students are perceived by their peers. Specifically, it would be interesting to explore whether one's popularity depends on how other students evaluate his/her intelligence.

The present study is not free of limitations. First, it used only one measure of objective intelligence. Future research should therefore include a wider range of IQ tests capturing other aspects of cognitive ability (e.g. verbal) to deepen our knowledge of adolescents' insight into their intelligence. In a similar vein, the measurement of SAI could be extended to include more narrow abilities. Previous studies on SAI using a multiple intelligence measures approach have produced interesting and more nuanced findings on adolescents (Furnham & Budhani, 2002). Finally, the current study had more female than male participants; future samples should be more balanced in terms of gender.

Bilateral neural interactions, excitatory & inhibitory, are present across the motor network during unimanual movements; an increase in task difficulty requires more efficient communication between hemispheres

Are unimanual movements bilateral? Sabrina Chettouf et al. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 113, June 2020, Pages 39-50, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.03.002

Highlights
• Bilateral neural interactions, excitatory and inhibitory, are present across the motor network during unimanual movements.
• An increase in task difficulty requires more efficient communication between hemispheres.
• Anatomical properties of transcallosal fiber tracts enable essential interhemispheric information exchange.
• Left (pre)motor areas play a key role in complex motor tasks.

Abstract: Motor control is a fundamental challenge for the central nervous system. In this review, we show that unimanual movements involve bi-hemispheric activation patterns that resemble the bilateral neural activation typically observed for bimanual movements. For unimanual movements, the activation patterns in the ipsilateral hemisphere arguably entail processes that serve to suppress interhemispheric cross-talk through transcallosal tracts. Improper suppression may cause involuntary muscle co-activation and as such it comes as no surprise that these processes depend on the motor task. Identifying the detailed contributions of local and global excitatory and inhibitory cortical processes to this suppression calls for integrating findings from various behavioral paradigms and imaging modalities. Doing so systematically highlights that lateralized activity in left (pre)motor cortex modulates with task complexity, independently of the type of task and the end-effector involved. Despite this lateralization, however, our review supports the idea of bi-hemispheric cortical activation being a fundamental mode of upper extremity motor control.

Keywords: UnimanualInterhemisphericMotor cortexMotor coordinationCorpus callosumBilateral activationElectroencephalography (EEG)Magnetoencephalography (MEG)Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)Structural MRI

4. Discussion

The question whether unimanual movements have a bilateral neural representation comes with quite some history. For many years it has been considered textbook knowledge that movement execution with one hand is characterized by largely – if not entirely – contralateral activation in the brain. This idea dates back to the nineteenth century and is based on early studies on animal brains and/or human pathology using invasive electrical stimulation (Jackson et al., 1870; Schiff, 1859). Gustav Fritsch together with Eduard Hitzig (1870) and, independently, David Ferrier (1873) stimulated the cortex surface of different (anesthetized) mammals and evoked movements in different parts of the contralateral side of the body. These studies allowed researchers to identify ordered motor maps within this contralateral hemisphere, in particular by Clinton Woolsey and Wilder Penfield in non-human mammals and in humans, respectively (Penfield and Boldrey, 1937; Woolsey and Fairman, 1946). In fact, Penfield and Boldrey (1937) identified the human motor homunculus just anterior to central sulcus (M1), i.e. the representation of body parts in brain areas containing an ensemble of neurons that, when activated, result in motor output. Especially in finely controlled limb muscles (fingers, hands, arms, legs), but also in the tongue, are these areas relatively large. These seminal studies were followed by studies on the SMA, where muscle activation on the contralateral side of the body could be evoked through electrical stimulation, much like stimulation of M1 (Woolsey, 1952).

4.1. Crossed and uncrossed fibers

By now, pyramidal tracts are the best-studied efferent pathways of the cortical motor system (Davidoff, 1990; Nyberg‐Hansen and Rinvik, 1963; Woolsey et al., 1972). Most of these tracts are bilaterally symmetrical and the bulk of fibers cross over to the opposite side at the pyramidal decussation – figures vary between about 70%–90% that undergo this crossing but the majority of studies tend towards higher percentages though this depends on the end-effector under study. For example, primates’ hand and finger muscles seem to have more uncrossed fibers (Al Masri, 2011; Hong et al., 2010; Nathan et al., 1990)). The remaining fibers (∼10-30 %) do not cross before they reach the spinal cord (Carson, 2005). The presence of these non-crossing fibers underlies the appealing idea that the ipsilateral hemisphere is involved in movements not only at the contralateral side of the body, but also at the ipsilateral side as extensively outlined here. An example for a possible model including ipsilateral control, i.e. an alternative to the combination of interhemispheric excitation and intrahemispheric inhibition, is shown in Fig. 1, panel A. Interestingly, in a very recent paper Bundy and Leuthardt (2019) discussed the functional role of the ipsilateral hemisphere in motor control. They argued that the descending pathways primarily elicit movements and speculated about how the interaction through the CC may facilitate unimanual movements. And, they concluded that a balance between the excitatory and inhibitory function of interhemispheric interactions is mandatory for proper motor function. Our systematic review confirms these suggestions but also highlights that the story is not that simple. Our reading of the literature has identified three key findings that seem to underlie the hypothesized excitatory and inhibitory bilateral neural interactions, namely (a) the increase in task complexity of the unimanual task under investigation requires more efficient communication between hemispheres, (b) the anatomical properties of transcallosal fiber tracts enable this interhemispheric information exchange, and (c) the left (pre)motor areas play a key role when performing more complex motor tasks, irrespective of whether the left or right hand is being used.

In Fig. 1, we also depict another alternative, namely possible inhibitory cortico-cortical projections from S1 to M1 within a hemisphere (panel C). We added this model because of culminating evidence for synchronized or fine-tuned interactions between the periphery and S1 via feedback afferent pathways (see, e.g., Baker (2007) and references therein). Discussing this and other related animal studies in more detail is, however, beyond the scope of the current review.

4.2. Bilateral interaction

When executing a unimanual movement the human motor network shows consistent bilateral activation. This finding has been confirmed with all neuroimaging modalities reviewed here. It hence seems likely that inhibitory and faciliatory processes are needed to suppress the outflow of activity in the ipsilateral hemisphere to avoid bimanual motor (co-) activation.

TMS studies have revealed both an increase and a decrease in IHI. These conflicting IHI patterns might be explained by differences in experimental settings, especially the type of conditioning stimuli. The intensity of the stimuli could be adjusted to compensate for the increased MEP amplitude induced at the stimulus side because of the unimanual movements (Nelson et al., 2009; Sattler et al., 2012) and may hence yield a reduced IHI. By contrast, when conditioning stimuli are not adjusted to compensate for the stimulus-induced increase in MEP amplitude, IHI may increase (Hinder et al., 2010a, b; Liang et al., 2014; Uehara et al., 2014; Vercauteren et al., 2008). According to Brocke et al. (2008) these inhibitory processes are accompanied by measurable changes in the local neurovascular signal. As we summarized, unimanual movements are associated with BOLD activation in the contralateral and deactivation in the ipsilateral sensorimotor cortices. It has been suggested that this deactivation in the ipsilateral hemisphere could be caused by transcallosal inhibition involving GABAergic interneurons (Matsumura et al., 1992), an idea that might deserve future exploration.

BOLD changes of bilateral premotor areas seem strongly correlated with each other, as well as with the changes in M1 contralateral to the moving hand. This agrees with EEG and MEG assessments that revealed a decrease in both alpha and beta power, and an increase in coherence between bilateral premotor and sensorimotor cortices when performing unimanual movements. This bilateral coupling becomes more pronounced with increasing task complexity. There, symmetry appears broken in that left PM is especially active during both left- and right-hand complex movements. This is particularly interesting in view of the so-called ‘motor dominance theory’ that suggests that the left hemisphere is more capable than the right one to support motor activity; it hence might always be involved in motor execution, be that with the right or the left hand (Callaert et al., 2011; Ziemann and Hallett, 2001).

4.3. Task dependency

The direction and location of both inhibition and facilitation appears to depend on the motor task that is performed. Overall, an experimentally induced increase in task complexity, in particularly an increase in motor timing requirements, seems to be accompanied with more (efficient) communication between hemispheres. For unimanual movements we envision the following scenario when task complexity increases: Inhibition of the ipsilateral hemisphere likely increases, while inhibition of the contralateral hemisphere likely reverses into facilitation when the motor task becomes more challenging. Several research groups forwarded the idea that activation patterns of complex motor control operate at a ‘high level’ (Donoghue and Sanes, 1994; Gerloff et al., 1998a; Hummel et al., 2003; Manganotti et al., 1998; Sadato et al., 1996), but this level remains ill defined. Hummel et al. (2003) suggested that a task-complexity related increase in ipsilateral activation is not caused by motor memory load but by processing increasingly difficult transitions between movements. Interestingly, however, task-dependent activations, both excitatory and inhibitory, are not restricted to bilateral M1s, but are also present in other parts of the motor network, in particular in SMA and PM (Andres and Gerloff, 1999). The role of SMA in the preparation and performance of sequential movements has been demonstrated by, e.g., Gerloff et al. (1997), where stimulation with rTMS over SMA induced errors in motor performance in the more complex sequences. And, the role of left PM has been discussed above.

4.4. Outlook

4.4.1. Multimodal approaches

As highlighted in the Introduction, the CC is the main gateway for interhemispheric communication. A positive correlation was reported between the callosal thickness of the CC and the hand performance of the (right) dominant hand, but not of the (left) non-dominant hand (Kurth et al., 2013; Sehm et al., 2016). According to the aforementioned motor dominance theory one might speculate that this pattern of results will also be observed with left-handed participants. One could then assume that the left hemisphere is more involved in the support of motor activity and that the thickness of the CC is mainly related to the passage from left to right M1.

Stronger structural connectivity (higher FA) is associated with the reduction of unwanted mirror movements. Likewise, age-related atrophy implies weaker structural connectivity yielding stronger functional connectivity and poorer performance (Fling et al., 2012; Langan et al., 2010; Sullivan et al., 2010).

Earlier work investigated whether the CC exerts an inhibitory or excitatory role in the interhemispheric communication and concluded that there is evidence in the literature for both outcomes, although most studies support the excitatory function of the CC in interhemispheric communication (Bloom and Hynd, 2005; Carson, 2005; van der Knaap and van der Ham, 2011). As likewise hypothesized in the introduction, if transcallosal pathways are primarily excitatory and if the motor network shows (almost) symmetric, bilateral activation patterns while moving unimanually, then this indicates some type of intrahemispheric inhibition mediated through intrahemispheric pathways probably involving the premotor areas (Daffertshofer et al., 2005; Stinear and Byblow, 2002).

Combining the findings of multimodal approaches to study unimanual movements may help indeed to better understand how the brain enables the fine-tuned motor coordination that we are capable of. Still, several questions concerning the control of unilateral hand movements remain unanswered. Based on this review, we suggest that future research should investigate the role of the left hemisphere in greater detail, in particular the left PM. There is some evidence that this area plays a key role in the control of unimanual movements, but more research is needed, specifically with both left- and right-handed participants, to confirm this.

Only a few studies linked structural and functional connectivity in one experiment while performing unimanual movements (cf. Supplementary Material S2, Table 5). This is unfortunate because – as we outlined here – unimanual movements are likely to rely on the interhemispheric cross-talk through transcallosal tracts. We do suggest to intensify the research that combines different modalities as this may be key to unravel all the factors involved in unimanual motor control.

4.4.2. Integrating other populations

Our main aim was to specify the determinants and functional role of the often reported, bilateral activation patterns in the cortex during normal unimanual motor control in healthy humans. For this review we only included non-invasive studies, since invasive approaches may alter the normally functioning brain and, by this, the normal control of unimanual behavior. Yet, there is much to learn by combining our finding with the plenitude of studies in non-human primates, let alone studies on impaired motor control as observed in, e.g., stroke patients. For instance, Grefkes and Ward (2014) identified that lesions in M1 can lead to proportional changes in ventral PM activity. In fact, they argued that inactivation of either ipsi- or contralateral M1 or contralateral ventral PM deteriorates hand function recovery post stroke (there experimentally induced macaque monkeys). Interestingly, studies on partly hemiparetic stroke patients revealed unimanual movement of the affected (contralesional) side to display clearly bilateral neural activity. While this may indicate the ‘emergence’ of ipsilateral control to compensate motor impairment post stroke, one has to realize that motor learning of the non-affected side can limit the recovery of the affected one (Boddington and Reynolds, 2017; Dodd et al., 2017), which arguably speaks for a (dis-)balance of interhemispheric excitation versus intrahemispheric inhibition (Grefkes and Ward, 2014; Koch et al., 2016), as advocated here.

Biochemichemistry & behavioral decision-making in flies: When consensus of neurons in a network is reached, the network is pushed chemically, transforming deliberation into an all-or-nothing output

Biochemical computation underlying behavioral decision-making. Stephen C Thornquist, Maximilian J Pitsch, Charlotte S Auth, Michael A. Crickmore. bioRxiv Mar 15 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.14.992057

Abstract: Computations in the brain are broadly assumed to emerge from patterns of fast electrical activity. Challenging this view, we show that a male fly's decision to persist in mating, even through a potentially lethal threat, hinges on biochemical computations that enable processing over minutes to hours. Each neuron in a recurrent network measuring time into mating contains slightly different internal molecular estimates of elapsed time. Protein Kinase A (PKA) activity contrasts this internal measurement with input from the other neurons to represent evidence that the network's goal has been achieved. When consensus is reached, PKA pushes the network toward a large-scale and synchronized burst of calcium influx, which we call an eruption. The eruption functions like an action potential at the level of the network, transforming deliberation within the network into an all-or-nothing output, after which the male will no longer sacrifice his life to continue mating. We detail the continuous transformation between interwoven molecular and electrical information over long timescales in this system, showing how biochemical activity, invisible to most large scale recording techniques, is the key computational currency directing a life-or-death decision.

Predictions drive neural representations of visual events ahead of incoming sensory information

Predictions drive neural representations of visual events ahead of incoming sensory information. Tessel Blom, Daniel Feuerriegel, Philippa Johnson, Stefan Bode, and Hinze Hogendoorn. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 16, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917777117

Significance: Visual information takes time to travel from the retina and through the visual system, such that the sensory information available to the brain lags behind events in the present moment. Prediction has long been considered a fundamental principle in neuroscience. Using time-resolved EEG decoding, we show that predictive mechanisms are sufficient to activate sensory-like neural representations of anticipated future events, and that these representations are activated before the arrival of afferent sensory information. This reveals that predictive neural mechanisms might allow the visual system to overcome its neural processing delays and interact with our environment in real time.

Abstract: The transmission of sensory information through the visual system takes time. As a result of these delays, the visual information available to the brain always lags behind the timing of events in the present moment. Compensating for these delays is crucial for functioning within dynamic environments, since interacting with a moving object (e.g., catching a ball) requires real-time localization of the object. One way the brain might achieve this is via prediction of anticipated events. Using time-resolved decoding of electroencephalographic (EEG) data, we demonstrate that the visual system represents the anticipated future position of a moving object, showing that predictive mechanisms activate the same neural representations as afferent sensory input. Importantly, this activation is evident before sensory input corresponding to the stimulus position is able to arrive. Finally, we demonstrate that, when predicted events do not eventuate, sensory information arrives too late to prevent the visual system from representing what was expected but never presented. Taken together, we demonstrate how the visual system can implement predictive mechanisms to preactivate sensory representations, and argue that this might allow it to compensate for its own temporal constraints, allowing us to interact with dynamic visual environments in real time.

Keywords: predictionneural delaystime-resolved decodingvisual system

Per capita meat consumption in Switzerland has been rather consistent for decades, although the percentage of vegetarians has risen to 14 per cent according to a recent survey

Mann, S. and Necula, R. (2020), "Are vegetarianism and veganism just half the story? Empirical insights from Switzerland", British Food Journal, Mar 2020. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2019-0499

Abstract
Purpose: Per capita meat consumption in Switzerland has been rather consistent for decades, although the percentage of vegetarians has risen to 14 per cent according to a recent survey. This study tries to resolve this apparent contradiction

Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on household consumption data from Switzerland and focuses on the distribution of consumption rather than on average amounts, using descriptive statistics and a mixed-effects model which explains the coefficient of variation between single consumer consumption amounts.

Findings: Vegetarianism and veganism are not only overestimated through surveys but also associated with a segment of the population that is consuming increasing amounts of meat. This dual development leads to a stable per capita meat consumption.

Originality/value: Our results indicate that greater scientific attention should be paid to this segment of heavy meat eaters.