Early visual areas seem not to be processing visual input in a neutral or passive way; rather, their activation seems to be the result of anticipatory, task-driven processes, constituting an active engagement with the environment

The Anticipatory and Task-Driven Nature of Visual Perception. Sebo Uithol, Katherine L Bryant, Ivan Toni, Rogier B Mars. Cerebral Cortex, bhab163, September 7 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab163

Abstract: Humans have a remarkable capacity to arrange and rearrange perceptual input according to different categorizations. This begs the question whether the categorization is exclusively a higher visual or amodal process, or whether categorization processes influence early visual areas as well. To investigate this we scanned healthy participants in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner during a conceptual decision task in which participants had to answer questions about upcoming images of animals. Early visual cortices (V1 and V2) contained information about the current visual input, about the granularity of the forthcoming categorical decision, as well as perceptual expectations about the upcoming visual stimulus. The middle temporal gyrus, the anterior temporal lobe, and the inferior frontal gyrus were also involved in the categorization process, constituting an attention and control network that modulates perceptual processing. These findings provide further evidence that early visual processes are driven by conceptual expectations and task demands.

Keywords: visual Categorization, MVPA, FMRI, conceptual knowledge

Discussion

We have shown that the nature of a stimulus (dogs or frogs) can be decoded from the fMRI data, primarily in left and right V1 and V2, and the right fusiform gyrus. Interestingly, the decoding accuracy was strongly dependent on the viewing task. Decoding image perception following superordinate-level questions was significantly less than following basic-level questions. This suggests that the activation in early visual areas is not solely driven by perceptual input, but a combination of the input and task properties, in line with “active vision” theories. This stronger decoding accuracy may be partly driven by the occurrence of more concrete predictions upon basic-level questions, but not entirely, since the cortical surface from which we can decode frogs and dogs is much larger than the cortical surface from which we can validate predictions.

Previous work shows that task properties (i.e., physical vs. semantic judgments) have an impact on the processing of object stimuli at several cortical sites, including ventral temporal and prefrontal regions (Harel et al. 2014). It has been shown that the usability of a presented object (e.g., tool vs. nontool) affects the occipitotemporal cortex differently (Bracci et al. 2017). Similarly, Nastase et al. (2017) found differences in brain response for a taxonomic versus an ethological judgment task in multiple brain regions, including occipital areas. These studies all found task-dependent processing of visual information, but only outside the primary visual areas. We, however, did find task dependence activation in primary visual areas. This may be due to the fact that our study has fewer categories (i.e., only 2 categories in 2 different tasks), compared to previous studies, which enhances statistical power drastically.

We speculated that prefrontal areas, specifically inferior frontal gyrus would be involved in modulating the activity in both temporal and visual areas. Indeed, these areas all seem to contain information about the task and stimulus identity, as reflected in above-chance decoding accuracy in Analyses 1 and 3.

The primate is an inherently visual animal, which is reflected in its elaborate visual system, including the so-called dorsal parietal and ventral temporal streams. It has been argued that the ventral, temporal stream evolved to allow an ever more abstract processing of the visual stimulus, which might provide the basis for our categorization behavior (Murray et al. 2019). In the ape and human lineages, this ability is more developed and possibly expanded to multisensory information (Bryant et al. 2019). As such, we expected that a network of prefrontal, temporal, and visual areas would underlie our capacity to use conceptual knowledge to process visual input. The anterior temporal cortex and the middle temporal gyrus, both bimodal association areas, are known to be involved in categorical decisions (Patterson et al. 2007). Indeed, it was possible to decode the level of abstraction of the required processing of the stimulus ventral anterior temporal cortex and middle temporal gyrus. The middle temporal gyrus result is particularly interesting, as it is close to the part of the temporal cortex that has most expanded and reorganized in the human, compared to the macaque, brain (Mars et al. 2018; Van Essen and Dierker 2007). The level of abstraction of the question itself could be decoded in a much larger set of cortical areas, including the inferior frontal cortex. Interestingly, these frontal and temporal areas are connected by specific sets of white matter fibers (i.e., the arcutate fasciculus and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus), some of which are particularly extended in the human lineage (Eichert et al. 2020). Our results suggest the involvement of these systems in tuning early visual processing for efficient task processing.

These results are in line with the framing of perception as a dynamic and task-driven process, tailored to the current needs of the cognitive system. Enactivist theories argue that cognition is not the representation of a pregiven world by a pregiven mind, but rather the enactment of a world and a mind on the basis of a history of the variety of actions that a being in the world performs. Within this view, perceptual capacities are embedded in a more encompassing biological, psychological, and cultural context (Varela et al. 1991). This active engagement with the environment is also suggested by more recent theoretical approaches to cognition (Hutto and Myin 2013; Myin and Degenaar 2014).

In line with this, we show that the early visual areas are tuned to those features in the environment that are relevant for the task at hand. The finding that left inferior frontal cortex shows significantly different activation patterns for basic-level and superordinate level judgment tasks suggests that the control this area exerts is not confined to behavioral control, but control over perceptual processing as well (Higo et al. 2011). This could also explain the absence of a univariate effect in our comparison of basic-level and superordinate-level trials. When perception is not a neutral process, but sense-making from the start, it would be equally task-driven in both conditions.

The finding of a behavioral difference suggests that the 2 decision processes (basic vs. superordinate) are not equally difficult. Superordinate categories are assumed to be less restricted in terms of visual input (e.g., the category “mammal” shows greater variance than the category “dog”). This increased difficulty is reflected by an increase in reaction time in the behavioral task. At the same time, the increased difficulty is reflected in a decrease of the cortical area from which the perceptual input could be decoded. Together with the fact that the increased difficulty is not reflected in gross brain activation (univariate BOLD result) during the viewing epoch of the imaging task, this suggests that the cortical areas are qually strongly but differently in nature involved in both tasks.

For efficient processing it is likely that task-dependent tuning to perceptual features primes the visual system before the actual perception. Indeed we have found evidence for expectations of upcoming stimuli in V1 and V2. A classifier trained on contrasting dog from frog questions was able to contrast dog from frog images as well. This anticipation surpasses low-level features such as lines and orientation, as different images were used per animal. This finding of modulation of V1 is in line with a recent reports showing that processes in V1 are biased by semantic categories (Ester et al. 2019) as well as action intentions (Gallivan et al. 2011). The finding of stimulus anticipation in V1 is in line with predictive coding accounts that recently have gained attention (Clark 2013; Rao and Ballard 1999). The influence of the level of the question we showed in V1 and V2 could partly be attributed to the presence of a concrete expectation of a dog or a frog in basic-level trials and the absence of such an expectation in superordinate trials, yet the cluster was far more extensive in the “levels” analysis compared with the anticipation analysis.

One could argue that the decreased decoding accuracy in superordinate trials is a consequence of differences in viewing behavior. Since participants were allowed to explore the presented image freely, it could be that viewing behavior in the superordinate condition was more variable. We did not collect eye-tracking data in order to quantify this potential difference, but the absence of a univariate results and the fact that the average difference in reaction time during the behavioral experiment between the 2 conditions was only 50 ms (note that the average saccades lasts 150–200 ms (Palmer 1999)), suggest that the contribution of differences in viewing behavior to the decoding effect is likely to be limited. Additionally, if indeed viewing behavior would play a role, one would expect this difference to be largest in the retinotopically organized occipital areas (e.g., V1). To the contrary, in our results, above-chance decoding is “preserved” in V1 and V2, and absent in more complex visual areas.

We cross-decoded questions and images, and questions and the gray screen between images and questions in order to check the nature of the anticipation present in early visual areas. The fact that we could not cross-validate questions and gray screens, but we could cross-validate questions and images suggests that the anticipation is a more complex phenomenon than mere sustained activity, and points toward more dynamical explanations (see for instance Wolff et al. 2017 for an example of such a model for working memory).

In all, these findings suggest that early visual areas are not processing visual input in a neutral or passive way. Rather their activation seems to be the result of anticipatory, task-driven processes, constituting an active engagement with the environment. These findings could have profound consequences for our understanding of how concepts are processed by the brain. Apparently, a frog-as-a-frog is processed differently than a frog-as-an-amphibian. Even the activity in the left temporal pole, which has been suggested to accommodate task-independent concept representations (Patterson et al. 2007), shows task-dependent modulation in our study. Our findings are thus more in line with classical pragmatists (Sellars 1963) and more recent enactivist (Hutto and Myin 2013) theories that suggests that the identity of a concept is (partly) grounded in the way a concept is used. This could provide a highly speculative, but interesting new explanation for the reported dependence of conceptual knowledge on perceptual systems (Barsalou et al. 2003): concepts can be seen as perceptual capacities, driven by parietal and prefrontal control processes, rather than internal representations. When concepts are much more use-based, as hypothesized, the question moves from how concepts are represented (Patterson et al. 2007), to how concepts acquire the stable character that they have in their (communicative) use. Part of the stability may be dependent on invariant structures outside of the brain, for instance in social practice or other behavioral patterns.

Diversity as a source of division requires taking seriously cultural differences & investing in resources to help facilitate common language and common culture that reduce coordination and communication costs while keeping diversity

Muthukrishna, M., Sep 2021. The Ties that Bind Us. LSE Public Policy Review, 2(1), p.3. http://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.35

Abstract: This paper reviews the evolutionary literature on cooperation and the mechanisms proposed to explain the differences we see in the scale, breadth, and intensity of cooperation across societies, over history, and among behavioural domains. The most well-studied mechanisms that help societies sustain cooperation include kinship, reciprocity, reputation, signalling, norms, informal and formal institutions, and the competition between stable equilibria sustained by these mechanisms. I apply each of these mechanisms to the problem of reciprocity across the lifecycle. I then discuss how these same ties also tear us apart and what policies might help tie us back together.

JEL Codes: A12, A13, C71, J14, J18, Z1

Keywords: altruism, cooperation, evolution, norms, institutions

4. Conclusion: Tying Us Back Together

Returning to the topic at hand, reciprocity across the lifecycle may ultimately depend on levels of production and the division of consumption between workers and pensioners, as Nick Barr explains in his paper in this issue. But both production and attitudes towards this decision are shaped by the ties that bind us, the ties that tear us apart, and the competition between cultural-groups of different norms and institutions. Policy decisions can shape these norms, and there are guiding lessons from this literature.

4.1. Increasing the sense of “we”

The sense of “we” becomes weaker when society is fractured along ethnic, religious, and cultural lines. Immigration brings diversity that is a fuel for both innovation and economic growth, but it can also be a source of division and cooperation at subnational scales. Resolving this paradox of diversity [41] requires taking seriously cultural differences, measuring them [4], sustainably managing migration (or investing in infrastructure to reduce competition over resources), and investing in resources to help facilitate common language and common culture that reduce coordination and communication costs while retaining cultural diversity. There are difficult practical and ethical challenges in attempting to resolve the trade-offs diversity poses, but new innovations in simply measuring diversity along different dimensions is a first step toward tackling these challenges.

4.2. Moving from burden to benefit

Reinstating the traditional role of the retired as carers, if not also as sources of information, may also offer a model to move public perception from burden to benefit. Intergenerational care home-cum-childcare centers, such as South West London’s Nightingale House, offer a potential model [42] with reported benefits for both children and the elderly.

4.3. Reducing perceptions of zero-sum

Perceptions of zero-sumness can create a reality through psychological traps. If we assume that the world is more zero-sum, or that others are not trustworthy, it can be difficult to reach that next cooperative threshold or to take advantages of the present positive-sum opportunities. This in turn can lead to anti-social competitive behaviour. As research on the Joy of Destruction (JoD) game shows, people are more likely to engage in destructive competition versus productive competition [37, 38, 43, 44, 45]. In this game, people are presented with an opportunity to harm another player at some cost to themselves with no other interaction between the two parties. For example, taking £40 away from another player at a cost of £20 to themselves. Participants living in Namibia have shown a higher willingness to voluntarily harm themselves to cause greater harm to another than those living in Ukraine, while within Namibia, those in low rainfall regions compared to high rainfall regions show the same tendency to embrace harm, provided more harm is done to another. It has been argued that this is a function of zero-sum contexts where relative status can be maintained more easily by harming others than by working hard to access a scarce resource. Cultural evolution and behavioural science offer tools for shaping public perception under times of resource stress and slowed growth [8].

From 2020... When two sexually dimorphic androgen dependent facial traits are judged in concert, ornamental (facial hair) rather than structural masculine facial features (bones) underpin men’s intra-sexual judgments of formidability

Multivariate Intra-Sexual Selection on Men’s Perceptions of Male Facial Morphology. Valeriya Mefodeva, Morgan J. Sidari, Holly Chau, Brett Fitzsimmons, Gabrielle Antoine, Tessa R. Clarkson, Samuel Pearson, Anthony J. Lee & Barnaby J. W. Dixson. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology volume 6, pages143–169, Mar 17 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40750-020-00128-2

Abstract

Objectives: Intra-sexual selection has shaped the evolution of sexually dimorphic traits in males of many primates, including humans. In men, sexual dimorphism in craniofacial shape (i.e. facial masculinity) and facial hair have both been shown to communicate aspects of social and physical dominance intra-sexually. However, less attention has been given to how variation in physical and social dominance among receivers impacts on perceptions of facial masculinity and beards as intra-sexual signals of formidability.

Methods: In the current study, male participants (N = 951) rated male faces varying in masculinity and beardedness when judging masculinity, dominance and aggressiveness. These participants also responded to scales measuring their psychological dominance, sexual jealousy, status seeking, and masculine morphology (facial masculinity, facial hair, and height).

Results: Beardedness exerted strong effects over clean-shaven faces on ratings of masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness. Trait ratings of masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness rose linearly with increasing craniofacial masculinity. The significant facial masculinity × facial hair interaction suggests that beardedness caused strong effects on all trait ratings over clean-shaven faces at every level of facial masculinity. Participants with full beards also reported higher scores on dominance and assertiveness scales. Participants high in dominance and assertiveness also gave higher ratings for dominance, but not masculinity or aggressiveness, to bearded over clean-shaven faces. Participants low in intra-sexual jealousy rated clean-shaven and/or feminised faces as less dominant, less masculine, and less aggressive.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that facial hair enhances perceptions of masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness above ratings of facial masculinity, potentially by augmenting masculine craniofacial features. Individual differences in intra-sexual dominance showed associations with judgments of facial hair but not facial masculinity. Our study demonstrates that when two sexually dimorphic androgen dependent facial traits are judged in concert, ornamental rather than structural masculine facial features underpin men’s intra-sexual judgments of formidability.

Discussion

A growing body of research implicates intra-sexual selection in shaping the evolution of men’s secondary sexual traits, dominance, and status seeking (Lukaszewski et al. 2016; Puts 2010; Rosenfield et al. 2020). The current study reports men’s ratings of masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness for male faces increased linearly with craniofacial masculinity, being lowest for the least masculine faces and highest for the most masculine faces. Beards were also judged as more masculine, dominant, and aggressive than clean-shaven faces. However, the effects of craniofacial masculinity on judgments of male faces were dwarfed by the effect of facial hair, such that ratings for masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness were higher at each level of facial masculinity for bearded compared to clean-shaven faces. Our findings replicate previous studies reporting that beards exert stronger effects than facial masculinity on judgments of men’s masculinity and dominance (Dixson et al. 2017c; Sherlock et al. 2017). As an example of the size of these effects, we report significantly higher ratings (all ps < .001) for bearded faces with very feminine facial shape over the most masculine clean-shaven faces for ratings of masculinity (d = .61), dominance (d = .45), and aggressiveness (d = .38), highlighting that facial hair potentially enhances male intra-sexual formidability through amplifying underlying masculine craniofacial features such as jaw width, facial length and width.

Converging evidence demonstrates that men’s facial masculinity predicts men’s intra-sexual formidability (Puts 2010; Sell et al. 2012). Men with more masculine faces have greater upper body strength (Fink et al. 2007; Windhager et al. 2011), fighting ability (Třebický et al. 2013, 2015, 2018; Zilioli et al. 2015), and higher mating success (Hill et al. 2013; Kordsmeyer et al. 2018) than less facially masculine men. The degree to which men are sensitive to other men’s secondary sexual traits, including facial masculinity, when assessing their dominance may vary due to their own physical and psychological dominance (Puts 2010; Sell et al. 2012; Watkins et al. 2010a, b). In the current study, we did not find that men high in social dominance (Hypothesis 1) or status seeking (Hypothesis 3) were less sensitive to facial masculinity when ranking male facial masculinity, dominance, or aggressiveness than less dominant men (Watkins et al. 2010b). We also tested whether men’s physical masculinity was negatively associated with their judgments of facial masculinity (Hypothesis 7). Thus, height is positively associated with men’s social dominance (Puts 2010), aggressiveness (Archer 2009), and fighting ability (Sell et al. 2012). While we found that height was negatively associated with judgments of male masculinised and feminised faces for ratings of masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness, the significant interaction was driven by lower ratings for feminised rather than masculinised faces. This provides partial support that taller men are less sensitive to cues of facial dominance in male faces, but does not directly replicate past findings that height is negatively associated with dominance judgments for male facial masculinity (Watkins et al. 2010a). We also found that participants with higher self-reported facial masculinity gave higher ratings of dominance, masculinity, and aggressiveness. However, there were no associations between self-reported facial masculinity and self-reported social dominance, assertiveness, or success and dedication on men’s judgments of male facial masculinity.

Facially masculine men report more open sociosexualities (Boothroyd et al. 2008), greater interest in short-term relationships (Arnocky et al. 2018), having more short-term partners (Rhodes et al. 2005), and greater likelihood of poaching other men’s partners (Rhodes et al. 2013). Thus, men with more masculine faces and better developed secondary sexual characters may be less jealous of masculine looking men than their less masculine contemporaries. Indeed, previous research has shown that men’s height is negatively associated with their self-reported intra-sexual jealousy (Buunk et al. 2008). While we also found that taller men reported lower intra-sexual jealousy (r = −.279), we did not find that taller, more facially masculine, or bearded men were less jealous of facial masculinity in male faces. Instead, participants reporting lower intra-sexual jealousy rated clean-shaven and less masculine faces as less masculine, dominant, and aggressive than masculine or bearded faces. This could simply reflect that men attribute lower threat in mating contexts to less masculine and physically formidable looking men. However, with regards men’s intra-sexual jealousy and judgments of beardedness, to our knowledge the only study measuring associations between women’s sexual openness and attractiveness ratings of male facial hair reported a positive association between female sexual openness and preferences for beards (Stower et al. 2019). At present, there are no published data relating beardedness to men’s sociosexuality and whether the decision to wear facial hair is a reflection of men’s sociosexual attitudes is an important question for future research.

Compared to the body of research on intra-sexual selection and judgments of male facial masculinity, fewer studies have assessed individual differences in men’s dominance and their judgments of male beardedness. Past research has shown that bearded men reported higher aggressive sexism scores than clean-shaven men in the U.S.A and India (Oldmeadow and Dixson 2016), but not Sweden (Hellmer and Stenson 2016; Hellmer et al. 2018). Men with facial hair report feeling more masculine (Wood 1986) and had higher serum androgens (Knussman and Christiansen 1988) than men favouring a clean-shaven appearance. In the current study, self-reported beardedness was positively associated with self-perceived facial masculinity (r = .158) and self-reported dominance (r = .119). Participants who reported higher scores on dominance and assertiveness personality scales also gave significantly higher masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness ratings to bearded but not clean-shaven faces compared to participants lower in dominance and assertiveness. These findings complement growing evidence that beards enhance intra-sexual communication of masculine social dominance (Craig et al. 2019; Dixson and Vasey 2012; Dixson et al. 2017c) and provide the first evidence that facial hair is positively associated with male self-perceived social dominance. Importantly, this correlation cannot determine whether socially dominant men choose to grow their beards or whether keeping a beard augments men’s self-reported social dominance due to positive social feedback from peers. There is some evidence that bearded men have higher mating success when sex ratios are more male-biased (Barber 2001) and that beards (and female preferences for them) are more common in larger cities, with low average incomes and high life expectancies (Dixson et al. 2017a). Future research exploring the causal effects of men’s grooming decisions on social dominance and mating success would be valuable.

Comparative research among nonhuman animals can shed light on the roles of facial masculinity and beards in intra-sexual communication. Researchers working on nonhuman animals distinguish between the role of male weaponry and ornamentation in intra-sexual competition, such that weapons are employed during direct physical confrontations whereas ornaments communicate status and dominance without necessarily being associated with physical formidability (McCullough et al. 2016). Weapons involved in direct competition and fights are rarely false signals of male quality (Berglund et al. 1996) and may augment attractiveness to females when selecting for males bearing direct benefits (Wong and Candolin 2005). Our results failed to support several past studies that found associations between men’s intra-sexual competitiveness and judgments of male facial masculinity. This was surprising as masculine facial structure is positively associated with men’s upper body strength (Fink et al. 2007; Windhager et al. 2011), muscularity (Holzleitner and Perrett 2016), stature (Zaidi et al. 2019) and fighting ability (Třebický et al. 2015; Zilioli et al. 2015). Mixed martial arts fighters with more masculine facial features are more often winners than less facially masculine fighters (Třebický et al. 2015; Zilioli et al. 2015) and fighters with greater anaerobic fitness are rated as better fighters (Třebický et al. 2018). Our results may have differed had we included more interactive behavioural paradigms rather than comparisons of self-report measures of dominance. For example, recent research in which men were assigned to compete in either violent or non-violent video games revealed that men who competed in violent video games were slower to retreat from a hypothetical physical confrontation with a masculine looking male, and were slower to recognise threatening facial expressions than participants in competing in non-violent video games (Denson et al. 2020). It may be beneficial to repeat our studies using more interactive experimental approaches to test whether psychologically and physically masculine men are less sensitive to masculine traits.

In contrast to sexually selected weapons, ornaments can communicate dominance without being directly involved in combat (McCullough et al. 2016). For example, in mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) male dominance rank, success in male-male dyadic contests, and number of females in the social group is positively associated with cranial adipose crest size and back breadth (Wright et al. 2019). In some cases, weaponry may not reliably communicate physical formidability (Berglund et al. 1996). Thus, in male fiddler crabs (Uca mjoebergi) claw size is associated with attractiveness, resource holding, and in assessing fighting ability between rival males (Reaney et al. 2008). However, when males lose their claws during fights or due to predation the regrown claws are of similar size to their original claws but less robust, yet rival males are unable to discern weapon quality and overestimate their opponents fighting ability (Lailvaux et al. 2009). Similarly, male slender crayfish (Cherax dispar) with larger claws successfully dominate males with small claws despite any positive association between their claw size and muscle development (Wilson et al. 2009). Beardedness is possibly the most sexually dimorphic of men’s secondary sexual characters (Dixson et al. 2005; Grueter et al. 2015) and enhances ratings of age, masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness by enlarging the size of the jaw (Dixson et al. 2017c), the midface (Sherlock et al. 2017) and the saliency of agonistic expressions (Dixson and Vasey 2012; Craig et al. 2019). However, facial hair is unlikely to reflect aspects of male fighting ability (Dixson et al. 2018a) and may serve to enhance perceptions of masculinity, dominance, and aggressiveness to curtail intra-sexual conflicts from escalating into costly physical contests. Future research investigating whether bearded men are more successful than their clean-shaven counterparts in social rather than physical forms of intra-sexual competition would be valuable. Presently, our study provides some support for a role of intra-sexual selection in men’s judgments of male facial masculinity and reports the first data on individual differences in men’s judgments of male facial hair, which suggest beards are intra-sexually selected badges of status.

Among middle-aged adults, greater television viewing in early to mid-adulthood was associated with lower gray matter volume; future studies are needed to better elucidate causality and directionality

Long-term television viewing patterns and gray matter brain volume in midlife. Ryan J. Dougherty, Tina D. Hoang, Lenore J. Launer, David R. Jacobs, Stephen Sidney & Kristine Yaffe. Brain Imaging and Behavior, Sep 6 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11682-021-00534-4

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether long-term television viewing patterns, a common sedentary behavior, in early to mid-adulthood is associated with gray matter brain volume in midlife and if this is independent of physical activity. We evaluated 599 participants (51% female, 44% black, mean age 30.3 ± 3.5 at baseline and 50.2 ± 3.5 years at follow-up and MRI) from the prospective Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. We assessed television patterns with repeated interviewer-administered questionnaire spanning 20 years. Structural MRI (3T) measures of frontal cortex, entorhinal cortex, hippocampal, and total gray matter volumes were assessed at midlife. Over the 20 years, participants reported viewing an average of 2.5 ± 1.7 h of television per day (range: 0–10 h). After multivariable adjustment, greater television viewing was negatively associated with gray matter volume in the frontal (β = − 0.77; p = 0.01) and entorhinal cortex (β = − 23.83; p = 0.05) as well as total gray matter (β = − 2.09; p = 0.003) but not hippocampus. These results remained unchanged after additional adjustment for physical activity. For each one standard deviation increase in television viewing, the difference in gray matter volume z-score was approximately 0.06 less for each of the three regions (p < 0.05). Among middle-aged adults, greater television viewing in early to mid-adulthood was associated with lower gray matter volume. Sedentariness or other facets of television viewing may be important for brain aging even in middle age.

Frequent commenters on Facebook are more likely to be interested in politics & to have more polarized opinions; also, people who comment on articles in the real world use more toxic language on average than the public as a whole

The Distorting Prism of Social Media: How Self-Selection and Exposure to Incivility Fuel Online Comment Toxicity. Jin Woo Kim, Andrew Guess, Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler. Journal of Communication, jqab034, September 3 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab034

Abstract: Though prior studies have analyzed the textual characteristics of online comments about politics, less is known about how selection into commenting behavior and exposure to other people’s comments changes the tone and content of political discourse. This article makes three contributions. First, we show that frequent commenters on Facebook are more likely to be interested in politics, to have more polarized opinions, and to use toxic language in comments in an elicitation task. Second, we find that people who comment on articles in the real world use more toxic language on average than the public as a whole; levels of toxicity in comments scraped from media outlet Facebook pages greatly exceed what is observed in comments we elicit on the same articles from a nationally representative sample. Finally, we demonstrate experimentally that exposure to toxic language in comments increases the toxicity of subsequent comments.

Social media: Most of recent rigorous studies found weak average associations with well-/ill-being that were close to zero

Valkenburg, Patti M. 2021. “The Effects of Social Media Use on Adult Well-being and Ill-being: What We Know and What We Need to Know.” PsyArXiv. September 6. doi:10.31234/osf.io/nxq8j

Abstract: Research into the impact of social media use (SMU) on well-being (e.g., happiness) and ill-being (e.g., depression) has exploded in the past years. From 2019 to August 2021, 26 reviews have been published: nine meta-analyses, nine systematic reviews, and eight narrative reviews that together included hundreds of empirical studies. The aim of this umbrella review was to synthesize the results of these reviews. Even though the meta-analyses were largely based on the same evidence, they yielded inconsistent effect sizes, especially for time spent on SM, active SMU, and passive SMU. This umbrella review explains why these effects sizes disagree, summarizes the gaps in the literature, and ends with some important recommendations for future reviews and empirical research.

Dating violence victimization disparities across sexual orientation of a population-based sample of adolescents

Petit, M.-P., Blais, M., & Hébert, M. (2021). Dating violence victimization disparities across sexual orientation of a population-based sample of adolescents: An adverse childhood experiences perspective. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, Sep 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000518

Abstract: Sexual minority youth are more vulnerable to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and several associated negative consequences. It remains unknown whether such vulnerability explain their excess risk for teen dating violence victimization (TDVV) documented previously. It is also unclear whether risk and protective factors associated with TDVV in the general adolescent population are also shared by sexual minority youth. Using longitudinal data from a representative sample of Quebec adolescents in a relationship (n = 4,515), the current study aimed to (a) test whether the differential exposure to risk factors account for TDVV disparities, and (b) to determine whether established TDVV correlates vary by sexual attraction and lifetime sexual partners’ gender. Multilevel models revealed that participants with multigender sexual attraction or sexual partners were at increased risk for TDVV and nearly all risk factors examined, including ACEs, compared with different-gender and, to a lesser extent, same-gender peers. The association between sexual orientation and TDVV remained significant when ACEs were added, but not when all other risk and protective factors were accounted for. The patterns of risk and protection factors related to TDVV greatly differed across sexual orientation. The only common correlate of TDVV across groups was TDV perpetration. ACEs were associated with TDVV across all sexual orientation groups, but not after adjusting for other risk and protective factors. These findings suggest that negative consequences of ACEs better explain TDVV disparities than ACEs alone. Trauma-informed interventions aiming at building resilience among youth, especially among multigender groups, might support dating violence prevention. 

Taking the HITRAN database of gaseous absorption spectra as a source of analysis: Climate sensitivity to future increases in CO2 concentration is about 0.50K, including positive feedback effects of H2O, & climate sensitivities to CH4 & N2O are almost undetectable

David Coe, Walter Fabinski, Gerhard Wiegleb, The Impact of CO2, H2O and Other “Greenhouse Gases” on Equilibrium Earth Temperatures, International Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Vol. 5, No. 2, 2021, pp. 29-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ijaos.20210502.12

Abstract: It has long been accepted that the “greenhouse effect”, where the atmosphere readily transmits short wavelength incoming solar radiation but selectively absorbs long wavelength outgoing radiation emitted by the earth, is responsible for warming the earth from the 255K effective earth temperature, without atmospheric warming, to the current average temperature of 288K. It is also widely accepted that the two main atmospheric greenhouse gases are H2O and CO2. What is surprising is the wide variation in the estimated warming potential of CO2, the gas held responsible for the modern concept of climate change. Estimates published by the IPCC for climate sensitivity to a doubling of CO2 concentration vary from 1.5 to 4.5°C based upon a plethora of scientific papers attempting to analyse the complexities of atmospheric thermodynamics to determine their results. The aim of this paper is to simplify the method of achieving a figure for climate sensitivity not only for CO2, but also CH4 and N2O, which are also considered to be strong greenhouse gases, by determining just how atmospheric absorption has resulted in the current 33K warming and then extrapolating that result to calculate the expected warming due to future increases of greenhouse gas concentrations. The HITRAN database of gaseous absorption spectra enables the absorption of earth radiation at its current temperature of 288K to be accurately determined for each individual atmospheric constituent and also for the combined absorption of the atmosphere as a whole. From this data it is concluded that H2O is responsible for 29.4K of the 33K warming, with CO2 contributing 3.3K and CH4 and N2O combined just 0.3K. Climate sensitivity to future increases in CO2 concentration is calculated to be 0.50K, including the positive feedback effects of H2O, while climate sensitivities to CH4 and N2O are almost undetectable at 0.06K and 0.08K respectively. This result strongly suggests that increasing levels of CO2 will not lead to significant changes in earth temperature and that increases in CH4 and N2O will have very little discernable impact.

Keywords: Carbon Dioxide, Climate Sensitivity, Greenhouse Effect, Climate Change

5. Other Considerations

5.1. The Impact of Clouds

The obvious impact of clouds is to increase the reflectivity of the earth thus reducing the level of incoming solar radiance I0 which will have a cooling influence on the earth. However, this paper is concerned with the effects of retained IR emissions from the earth. Cloud cover will not affect the absorbance of atmospheric greenhouse gases, but it will impact upon the total energy absorbed and possibly upon the energy retention factor “n”, in ways that would be difficult to quantify. However, by using the current average earth condition, which includes cloud, as a calibration point to determine an effective value for ”n” consistent with the mean earth temperature of 288K, the current average impact of cloud has, in effect, already been taken into account. This however does not, in itself, identify what this impact is. The structure of clouds is diverse and complex. It is close to impossible to derive a set of equations to describe the formation, structure and impact of clouds on the retention of absorbed energy and hence the radiative balance of the earth. This paper has so far relied upon the extensive HITRAN spectral database, basic physics and simple mathematics to determine values for climate sensitivity. Any attempts to estimate the further impact of cloud would be based upon speculation only and would not be appropriate for this paper.

5.2. Effect of Recently Increased Atmospheric CO2

It is of some interest to calculate the increase in temperature that has occurred due to the increase in atmospheric CO2 levels from the 280ppm prior at the start of the industrial revolution to the current 420ppm registered at the Mona [Mauna!] Loa Observatory. (K. W. Thoning et. al. 2019) [17]. The HITRAN calculations show that atmospheric absorptivity has increased from 0.727 to 0.730 due to the increase of 140ppm CO2, resulting in a temperature increase of 0.24Kelvin. This is, therefore, the full extent of anthropogenic global warming to date.

6. Conclusions

In order to satisfy radiative equilibrium at the “top of the atmosphere” (TOA) at an average earth temperature of 288Kelvin, only 61.5% of the earth’s radiated energy should be transmitted through to space, leaving 38.5% to be absorbed and retained by the atmosphere/earth. Use of the HITRAN data base of gaseous absorption spectra shows the current atmospheric absorption to be 73.0% of total radiative emissions of which 52.74% must be retained by the earth/atmosphere to satisfy the current TOA equilibrium. This is a simple expression of the current earth temperature equilibrium. The 38.5% retained radiation absorption comprises 35.3% attributed to H2O, 3.0% to CO2 and a mere 0.2% to CH4 and N2O combined. From this it follows that the 33Kelvin warming of the earth from 255Kelvin, widely accepted as the zero-atmosphere earth temperature, to the current average temperature of 288Kelvin, is a 29.4K increase attributed to H2O, 3.3K to CO2 and 0.3K to CH4 and N2O combined. H2O is by far the dominant greenhouse gas, and its atmospheric concentration is determined solely by atmospheric temperature. Furthermore, the strength of the H2O infra-red absorption bands is such that the radiation within those bands is quickly absorbed in the lower atmosphere resulting in further increases in H2O concentrations having little further effect upon atmospheric absorption and hence earth temperatures. An increase in average Relative Humidity of 1% will result in a temperature increase of 0.03Kelvin. By comparison CO2 is a bit player. It however does possess strong spectral absorption bands which, like H2O, absorb most of the radiated energy, within those bands, in the lower atmosphere. It also suffers the big disadvantage that most of its absorption bands are overlapped by those of H2O thus reducing greatly its effectiveness. In fact, the climate sensitivity to a doubling of CO2 from 400ppm to 800ppm is calculated to be 0.45 Kelvin. This increases to 0.50 Kelvin when feedback effects are taken into account. This figure is significantly lower than the IPCC claims of 1.5 to 4.5 Kelvin. The contribution of CH4 and N2O is miniscule. Not only have they contributed a mere 0.3Kelvin to current earth temperatures, their climate sensitivities to a doubling of their present atmospheric concentrations are 0.06 and 0.08 Kelvin respectively. As with CO2 their absorption spectra are largely overlapped by the H2O spectra again substantially reducing their impact. It is often claimed that a major contributor to global warming is the positive feedback effect of H2O. As the atmosphere warms, the atmospheric concentration of H2O also increases, resulting in a further increase in temperature suggesting that a tipping point might eventually be reached where runaway temperatures are experienced. The calculations in this paper show that this is simply not the case. There is indeed a positive feedback effect due to the presence of H2O, but this is limited to a multiplying effect of 1.183 to any temperature increase. For example, it increases the CO2 climate sensitivity from 0.45K to 0.53K. A further feedback, however, is caused by a reduction in atmospheric absorptivity as the spectral radiance of the earth’s emitted energy increases with temperature, with peak emissions moving slightly towards lower radiation wavelengths. This causes a negative feedback with a temperature multiplier of 0.9894. This results in a total feedback multiplier of 1.124, reducing the effective CO2 climate sensitivity from 0.53 to 0.50 Kelvin. Feedback effects play a minor role in the warming of the earth. There is, and never can be, a tipping point. As the concentrations of greenhouse gases increase, the temperature sensitivity to those increases becomes smaller and smaller. The earth’s atmosphere is a near perfect example of a stable system. It is also possible to attribute the impact of the increase in CO2 concentrations from the pre-industrial levels of 280ppm to the current 420ppm to an increase in earth mean temperature of just 0.24Kelvin, a figure entirely consistent with the calculated climate sensitivity of 0.50 Kelvin. The atmosphere, mainly due to the beneficial characteristics and impact of H2O absorption spectra, proves to be a highly stable moderator of global temperatures. There is no impending climate emergency and CO2 is not the control parameter of global temperatures, that accolade falls to H2O. CO2 is simply the supporter of life on this planet as a result of the miracle of photosynthesis.

Reduced Emotional Intelligence in Children Aged 9–10 caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

Reduced Emotional Intelligence in Children Aged 9–10 caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown. Katya Martín-Requejo, Sandra Santiago-Ramajo. Mind, Brain, and Education, September 3 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12297

Abstract: It is necessary to know the influence of the current pandemic situation on children's emotional intelligence (EI). Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the difference in 34 Spanish children's EI (aged 9–10) caused by the lockdown. EI was measured with the BarOn Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EQ-i:YV). Results have revealed a reduction in EI, specifically on intrapersonal, interpersonal, and adaptability scales (all p < .01). Thus, the study highlights the negative influence of lockdown situation on children's EI and considering the impact this may have at a cognitive, social, or academic level, it would be convenient to promote its development at school.

DISCUSSION

This study has revealed a reduction in EI and intrapersonal, interpersonal, and adaptability scales. This pandemic situation is having a negative impact on children's emotions (Berasategi et al., 2020; Kontoangelos et al., 2020; Liu, Huang, Shi, & Lu, 2020) and this study shows that this, in turn, negatively impacts on children's EI. Because children are more vulnerable to negative effects in adverse situations, it could explain the observed reduction (Yan Jiao et al., 2020). Therefore, these authors highlight that the prolonged situation they have had to deal with during the lockdown has increased negative emotions, favoring the reduction of EI. In contrast to previous studies (Berasategi et al., 2020; Kontoangelos et al., 2020; Liang et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020a; Wang et al., 2020b), stress management has shown a slight improvement but no significant difference. These results could indicate that children have had to assess the stressful situation and make a cognitive effort to try to minimize its emotional impact (Echavarría, 2012).

Low levels of EI decrease well-being and academic performance (Extremera-Pacheco & Fernández-Berrocal, 2004), which highlights the need to enhance EI development in all children affected by this pandemic situation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop personal resources and transversal skills that allow for an effective confrontation of this situation (Allodola et al., 2020). The school represents a key in this process, because in addition to promoting academic development, it also influences the socioemotional development of students (Wang et al., 2020a; Wang et al., 2020b).

The main limitations of the study are the small sample size and that EQ-i:YV was applied under different conditions (because of the lockdown). Therefore, the results can only be generalized to children aged 9–10 years, so for future studies, it would be convenient to study other age groups in a larger sample and carry out data under the same conditions.

The study concludes by highlighting a decrease in children's (aged 9–10) EI and its scales (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and adaptability) after the lockdown by COVID-19. The pandemic situation, in addition to cognitive and academic aspects, is also affecting student's EI, so it would be advisable to enhance its development at school. Thus, the possible consequences that low levels of EI may have on cognitive, psychological, or academic processes could be mitigated.