Institute of Psychology,Chinese Academy Of Sciences
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Empathy towards individuals of the same and different ethnicity when depicted in negative and positive contexts
No full textIndividuals can show different empathy responses towards others depending on in-group and out-group biases. The present research tested empathy biases related to ethnicity when targets were depicted in negative and positive contexts. Caucasian (n = 99) and Asian (n = 99) participants gave subjective ratings for images depicting same or other ethnicity individuals in socially-relevant negative and positive contexts. Participants rated significantly higher on all three dimensions of empathy (affect, perspective taking, and understanding) for same ethnicity targets than for other ethnicity targets. However, this bias was found only for targets depicted in negative contexts. Moreover, no ethnicity bias was found for ratings of valence, arousal, distress, and interest. The results suggest that ethnicity-related biases in empathy are present, are limited to negative contexts, and are not merely a manifestation of a more general cognitive or affective bias. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
On the automaticity of contingent capture: disruption caused by the attentional blink
No full textConverging evidence has shown that onset capture can be completely eliminated by the demands of a concurrent task and during the attentional blink. In the present study, we investigated contingent capture during the attentional blink. We found that contingent capture was attenuated, or even completely eliminated, during the "blink" time of the attentional blink. These results indicate that contingent capture requires limited attentional resources
Effects of inactivating the agranular or granular insular cortex on the acquisition of the morphine-induced conditioned place preference and naloxone-precipitated conditioned place aversion in rats
No full textRecent studies have indicated that the insula underlies affective learning. Although affective learning is well-established in the development of opiate addiction, the role of insula in this context remains unclear. To elucidate the organization of opiate-related affective learning within the insular cortex, we reversibly inactivated each of two major subdivisions of the insula in rats and tested the effects of this inactivation on the acquisition of morphine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) and conditioned place aversion (CPA) induced by naloxone-precipitated acute morphine withdrawal. Results showed that inactivation of the primary interoceptive posterior granular insula (GI), but not that of the high-order anterior agranular insula (AI), disrupted the acquisition of CPP and that both GI and AI inactivation impaired the acquisition of CPA. These data suggest that the insular cortex is involved in positive and negative affective learning related to opiate addiction. In particular, the GI appears to be critical for both forms of affective learning, whereas the AI is crucial for learning associated with negative affects induced by opiate withdrawal
Alzheimer's disease-related changes in regional spontaneous brain activity levels and inter-region interactions in the default mode network
No full textThe degree of Granger causal modeling estimated influence for a brain region was reported to predict its blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity level in the resting-state default mode network (DMN). Many brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), may alter the influence strength, activity levels, or both. Whether the relationship or prediction between these two will be affected under disease condition is unknown. In this study, the spontaneous brain activity, and inter-regional Granger causality connection were investigated over eight core DMN regions in AD patients in contrast to that in normal controls. Compared to normal control (NC), AD patients had both decreased BOLD activity level and Granger causal influence in medial prefrontal cortex and decreased activity level in inferior parietal cortex showed. However, the positive correlation between the BOLD activity level and the degree of the Granger causal modeling defined influence was found not altered by AD. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Effects of Personality on Risky Driving Behavior and Accident Involvement for Chinese Drivers
No full textObjective: Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of injury-related fatalities in China and pose the most serious threat to driving safety. Driver personality is considered as an effective predictor for risky driving behavior and accident liability. Previous studies have focused on the relationship between personality and risky driving behavior, but only a few of them have explored the effects of personality variables on accident involvement. In addition, few studies have examined the effects of personality on Chinese drivers' risky driving and accident involvement. The present study aimed to examine the effects of personality variables on Chinese drivers' unsafe driving behaviors and accident involvement. Methods: Two hundred and twenty-four Chinese drivers aged 20 to 50 were required to complete questionnaires assessing their personality traits (anger, sensation-seeking, altruism, and normlessness), risky driving behaviors (aggressive violations, ordinary violations), and accident involvement (all accidents, serious accidents, at-fault accidents). Multivariate regression analyses, adjusting for gender, age, and overall mileage, were conducted to identify the personality traits related to risky driving behaviors and accident involvement. Results: Participants' personality traits were found to be significantly correlated with both risky driving behavior and accident involvement. Specifically, the traits of anger and normlessness were effective predictors for aggressive violations. The traits of anger, sensation-seeking, normlessness, and altruism were effective predictors for ordinary violations. Moreover, altruism and normlessness were significant predictors for the total number of accidents participants had during the past 3years. Conclusions: Consistent with previous studies, the present study revealed that personality traits play an important role in predicting Chinese drivers' risky driving behaviors. In addition, Chinese drivers' personality characteristics were also associated with accident involvement. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file
BDNF and TNF-alpha polymorphisms in memory
No full textHere, we investigate the genetic basis of human memory in healthy individuals and the potential role of two polymorphisms, previously implicated in memory function. We have explored aspects of retrospective and prospective memory including semantic, short term, working and long-term memory in conjunction with brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). The memory scores for healthy individuals in the population were obtained for each memory type and the population was genotyped via restriction fragment length polymorphism for the BDNF rs6265 (Val66Met) SNP and via pyrosequencing for the TNF-alpha rs113325588 SNP. Using univariate ANOVA, a significant association of the BDNF polymorphism with visual and spatial memory retention and a significant association of the TNF-alpha polymorphism was observed with spatial memory retention. In addition, a significant interactive effect between BDNF and TNF-alpha polymorphisms was observed in spatial memory retention. In practice visual memory involves spatial information and the two memory systems work together, however our data demonstrate that individuals with the Val/Val BDNF genotype have poorer visual memory but higher spatial memory retention, indicating a level of interaction between TNF-alpha and BDNF in spatial memory retention. This is the first study to use genetic analysis to determine the interaction between BDNF and TNF-alpha in relation to memory in normal adults and provides important information regarding the effect of genetic determinants and gene interactions on human memory
Factor Structure of the CES-D and Measurement Invariance Across Gender in Mainland Chinese Adolescents
No full textObjectivesThe primary aim was to examine the depressive symptom structure of Mainland China adolescents using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). DesignExploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were simultaneously conducted to determine the structure of the CES-D in a large scale, representative adolescent samples recruited from Mainland China. Multigroup CFA (N=5059, 48% boys, mean=16.551.06) was utilized to test the factorial invariance of the depressive symptom structure, which was generated by EFA and confirmed by CFA across gender. ResultsThe CES-D can be interpreted in terms of 3 symptom dimensions. Additionally, factorial invariance of the new proposed model across gender was supported at all assuming different degrees of invariance. ConclusionMainland Chinese adolescents have specific depressive symptom structure, which is consistent across gender
New advances in the neural correlates of insight: A decade in review of the insightful brain
No full textThe first neuroimaging study of real-time brain activity during insight problem solving was conducted almost ten years ago. Many subsequent studies have used high-resolution event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the temporal dynamics and neural correlates of insight. Recent results on the neural underpinnings of insight have led researchers to propose a neural framework referred to as the "insightful brain". This putative framework represents the neural basis of the cognitive and affective processes that are involved in insight. The insightful brain may involve numerous brain regions, including the lateral prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, hippocampus, superior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, precuneus, cuneus, insula and cerebellum. Functional studies have demonstrated that the lateral prefrontal cortex is responsible for mental set shifting and breaking during insight problem solving. The cingulate cortex is involved in the cognitive conflict between new and old ideas and progress monitoring. The hippocampus, superior temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus form an integrated functional network that specializes in the formation of novel and effective associations. The effective transformation of problem representations depends on a non-verbal visuospatial information-processing network that comprises the precuneus and cuneus. The insula reflects cognitive flexibility and the emotional experience that is associated with insight. The cortical control of finger movements relies on the cerebellum
Neural representation of decision confidence
No full textDecision confidence is a person's strength of belief about the optimization or correctness of a prediction, judgment, or choice. A broad range of behavioral data focus on calibration studies, however, little is known about the mechanisms underlying decision confidence. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural activity while subjects made optional decisions by estimating the degree of confidence in perception task. Behaviorally, there was a significant increase in the accuracy of optional decisions compared with forced decisions, which proved the effectiveness of inducing the confidence estimation. Confidence process was mainly associated with activity in the superior parietal lobule, anterior cingulate cortex and superior frontal cortex. The behavioral waiving responses were predicted by a measure of neural decision confidence in the left superior parietal lobule. The activation in this region was correlated positively with the waiving rate, indicating the involvement of the representation of the decision confidence. These results suggested that the process of decision confidence might have evolved a more abstract and complicated network and involved in lots of cognitive functions. More importantly, the representation of decision confidence might be associated with the left superior parietal lobule. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
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