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Genetic studies on attention have mainly focused on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), so little systematic research has been conducted on genetic correlates of attention performance and their potential brain mechanisms among healthy individuals. The current study included a genome-wide association study (GWAS, N = 1145 healthy young adults) aimed to identify genes associated with sustained attention and an imaging genetics study (an independent sample of 483 healthy young adults) to examine any identified genes' influences on brain function. The GWAS found that TTLL11 showed genome-wide significant associations with sustained attention, with rs13298112 as the most significant SNP and the GG homozygotes showing more impulsive but also more focused responses than the A allele carriers. A retrospective examination of previously published ADHD GWAS results confirmed an un-reported, small but statistically significant effect of TTLL11 on ADHD. The imaging genetics study replicated this association and showed that the TTLL11 gene was associated with resting state activity and connectivity of the somatomoter network, and can be predicted by dorsal attention network connectivity. Specifically, the GG homozygotes showed lower brain activity, weaker brain network connectivity, and non-significant brain-attention association compared to the A allele carriers. Expression database showed that expression of this gene is enriched in the brain and that the G allele is associated with lower expression level than the A allele. These results suggest that TTLL11 may play a major role in healthy individuals' attention performance and may also contribute to the etiology of ADHD.

The ability to handle non-symbolic numerosity has been recurrently linked to mathematical abilities. The accumulated data provide a rich resource that can reflect the underlying properties (i.e., dot ratio, area, convex hull, perimeters, distance, and hash) of numerosity processing. This article reports a database of numerosity processing in the Chinese population. The database contains five independent datasets with 7459, 4902, 415, 671, 414 participants respectively. For each dataset, all data were collected in the same online computerized test, examination room, professorial tester, and using the same protocols. Computational modeling method could be used to extract the dot ratio and visual properties of numerosity from five types of dot stimuli. This database enables researchers to test the theoretical hypotheses regarding numerosity processing using a large sample population. The database can also indicate the individual difference of non-symbolic numerosity in mathematical abilities.

One central mission of cognitive neuroscience is to understand the ontology of complex cognitive functions. We addressed this question with a cognitive neurogenetic approach using a large-scale dataset of executive functions (EFs), whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity, and genetic polymorphisms. We found that the bifactor model with common and shifting-specific components not only was parsimonious but also showed maximal dissociations among the EF components at behavioral, neural, and genetic levels. In particular, the genes with enhanced expression in the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and the subcallosal cingulate gyrus (SCG) showed enrichment for the common and shifting-specific component, respectively. Finally, High-dimensional mediation models further revealed that the functional connectivity patterns significantly mediated the genetic effect on the common EF component. Our study not only reveals insights into the ontology of EFs and their neurogenetic basis, but also provides useful tools to uncover the structure of complex constructs of human cognition.

Mutual influences between anxiety and working memory (WM) have been extensively studied, and their curvilinear relationship resembles the classic Yerkes-Dodson law of arousal and performance. Given the genetic bases of both anxiety and WM, it is likely that the individual differences in the Yerkes-Dodson law of anxiety and WM may have genetic correlates. The current genome wide association study (GWAS) enrolled 1115 healthy subjects to search for genes that are potential moderators of the association between anxiety and WM. Results showed that CPNE3 rs10102229 had the strongest effect, p = 3.38E-6 at SNP level and p = 2.68E-06 at gene level. Anxiety and WM had a significant negative correlation (i.e., more anxious individuals performed worse on the WM tasks) for the TT genotype of rs10102229 (resulting in lower expression of CPNE3), whereas the correlation was positive (i.e., more anxious individuals performed better on the WM tasks) for the CC carriers. The same pattern of results was found at the gene level using gene score analysis. These effects were replicated in an independent sample (N = 330). The current study is the first to report a gene that moderates the relation between anxiety and WM and potentially provides a genetic explanation for the classic Yerkes-Dodson law.

BACKGROUND:Executive function (EF) is vital to human beings. It has been linked to many genes and family environmental factors in separate studies, but few studies have examined the potential interactions between gene(s) and environmental factor(s). The current study explored the whole genome to identify SNPs, genes, and pathways that interacted with parental warmth (PW) on EF. RESULTS:Nine EF tasks were used to measure its three components (common EF, updating, shifting) based on the model proposed by Miyake et al. (2000). We found that rs111605473, LAMP5, SLC4A7, and LRRK1 interacted significantly with PW to affect the updating component of EF, and the GSE43955 pathway interacted significantly with PW to affect the common EF component. CONCLUSIONS:The current study is the first to identify genes that interacted with PW to affect EF. Further studies are needed to reveal the underlying mechanism.

Particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) can generically have lifetimes that are long compared to SM particles at the weak scale. When produced at experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, these long-lived particles (LLPs) can decay far from the interaction vertex of the primary proton-proton collision. Such LLP signatures are distinct from those of promptly decaying particles that are targeted by the majority of searches for new physics at the LHC, often requiring customized techniques to identify, for example, significantly displaced decay vertices, tracks with atypical properties, and short track segments. Given their non-standard nature, a comprehensive overview of LLP signatures at the LHC is beneficial to ensure that possible avenues of the discovery of new physics are not overlooked. Here we report on the joint work of a community of theorists and experimentalists with the ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb experiments-as well as those working on dedicated experiments such as MoEDAL, milliQan, MATHUSLA, CODEX-b, and FASER-to survey the current state of LLP searches at the LHC, and to chart a path for the development of LLP searches into the future, both in the upcoming Run 3 and at the high-luminosity LHC. The work is organized around the current and future potential capabilities of LHC experiments to generally discover new LLPs, and takes a signature-based approach to surveying classes of models that give rise to LLPs rather than emphasizing any particular theory motivation. We develop a set of simplified models; assess the coverage of current searches; document known, often unexpected backgrounds; explore the capabilities of proposed detector upgrades; provide recommendations for the presentation of search results; and look towards the newest frontiers, namely high-multiplicity 'dark showers', highlighting opportunities for expanding the LHC reach for these signals.

Resting-state functional connectivity profiles have been increasingly shown to be important endophenotypes that are tightly linked to human cognitive functions and psychiatric diseases, yet the genetic architecture of this multidimensional trait is barely understood. Using a unique sample of 1,704 unrelated, young and healthy Chinese Han individuals, we revealed a significant heritability of functional connectivity patterns in the whole brain and several subnetworks. We further proposed a partitioned heritability analysis for multidimensional functional connectivity patterns, which revealed the common and unique enrichment patterns of the genetic contributions to brain connectivity patterns for several gene sets linked to brain functions, including the genes expressed preferentially in the central nervous system and those associated with intelligence, educational attainment, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia. These results for the first time reveal the genetic architecture of multidimensional brain connectivity patterns across different networks and advance our understanding of the complex relationship between gene sets, neural networks, and behaviors.

The purpose of this article is to review the research progress on fear of dementia， and to provide references for clinical treatment and nursing care. Fear of dementia is a widespread problem for adults， and adults with high degrees of fear were more likely to develop adverse psychological consequences， including aggravation of anxiety and depression， decreased inclination toward health-promoting behaviours， avoidance of medical treatment， and suicidal ideation. At present， domestic and foreign studies have mainly focused on the current situation and influencing factors of fear of dementia. Therefore， this article gives a review on the fear of dementia in terms of its concept， incidence， impact， influencing factors， assessment tools and intervention measures， with a view to provide a reference for the subsequent studies.

Objectives: Given the pervasiveness of emotional and behavioral deficits of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), there is a pressing need for effective interventions to address their difficulties on Facial Expression Recognition and Emotion Understanding (FER/EU). Qunatiandi, a structured, app-based intervention program that is designed for Chinese children with ASD was utilized in this study. Three young children (two girls and one boy; age M = 4.94 years) completed an 8-week one-on-one intervention in a rehabilitation center setting. It was hypothesized that the three children would show greater progress in their FER/EU. Methods: In this study, a modified multiple probe across the program phases design was used; the dependent variable was the percentage of unprompted correct receptive identification responses for FER/EU tests during instruction and probes. Data were taken during baseline, the endpoint of instruction sessions, and a maintenance stage followed by intervention termination. Results: Findings of the study revealed that all participants demonstrated significant improvements in social acuity, gains were mostly achieved on emotion distinguishing and understanding (above 80% of accuracy). A similar scoring pattern was also found in the maintenance probe phase. Conclusion: The study is one of only a few early intervention projects to improve FER/EU skills for children with ASD using an app-based intervention. The results demonstrated that children with ASD can experience increases in emotion distinguishing and understanding skills. Maintenance probe results showed that the interventional effect can be maintained for a period of time after intervention.

Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple risk loci that show strong associations with schizophrenia. However, pinpointing the potential causal genes at the reported loci remains a major challenge. Here we identify candidate causal genes for schizophrenia using an integrative genomic approach. Sherlock integrative analysis shows that ALMS1, GLT8D1, and CSNK2B are schizophrenia risk genes, which are validated using independent brain expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data and integrative analysis method (SMR). Consistently, gene expression analysis in schizophrenia cases and controls further supports the potential role of these three genes in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Finally, we show that GLT8D1 and CSNK2B knockdown promote the proliferation and inhibit the differentiation abilities of neural stem cells, and alter morphology and synaptic transmission of neurons. These convergent lines of evidence suggest that the ALMS1, CSNK2B, and GLT8D1 genes may be involved in pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

In the original version of this Article, the affiliation details for Qiushuo Shen incorrectly omitted 'Kunming College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650204, China'. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Recently, numerous studies have investigated the neurocognitive mechanism of learning words in isolation or in semantic contexts. However, emotion as an important influencing factor on novel word learning has not been fully considered in the previous studies. In addition, the effects of emotion on word learning and the underlying neural mechanism have not been systematically investigated. Sixteen participants were trained to learn novel concrete or abstract words under negative, neutral, and positive contextual emotions over 3 days; then, fMRI scanning was done during the testing sessions on day 1 and day 3. We compared the brain activations in day 1 and day 3 to investigate the role of contextual emotions in learning different types of words and the corresponding neural plasticity changes. Behaviorally, the performance of the words learned in the negative context was lower than those in the neutral and positive contexts, which indicated that contextual emotions had a significant impact on novel word learning. Correspondingly, the functional plasticity changes of the right angular gyrus (AG), bilateral insula, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) induced by word learning were modulated by the contextual emotions. The insula also was sensitive to the concreteness of the learned words. More importantly, the functional plasticity changes of the left inferior frontal gyrus (left IFG) and left fusiform gyrus (left FG) were interactively influenced by the contextual emotions and concreteness, suggesting that the contextual emotional information had a discriminable effect on different types of words in the neural mechanism level. These results demonstrate that emotional information in contexts is inevitably involved in word learning. The role of contextual emotions in brain plasticity for learning is discussed.

OBJECTIVES: Although cortical midline structures (CMS) are the most commonly identified neural foundations of self-appraisals, research is beginning to implicate the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) in more interdependent self-construals. The goal of this study was to extend this research in an understudied population by (a) examining both direct (first-person) and reflected (third-person) self-appraisals across 2 domains (social and academics), and (b) exploring individual differences in recruitment of the TPJ during reflected self-appraisals. METHOD: The neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in social and academic domains were examined in 16 Chinese young adults (8 males, 8 females; aged 18-23 years) using functional MRI. RESULTS: As expected, when making reflected self-appraisals (i.e., reporting what they believed others thought about them, regardless of domain), Chinese participants recruited both CMSs and the TPJ. Similar to previous research in East Asian and interdependent samples, CMSs and the TPJ were relatively more active during direct self-appraisals in the social than in the academic domain. We additionally found that, to the extent participants reported that reflected academic self-appraisals differed from direct academic self-appraisals, they demonstrated greater engagement of the TPJ during reflected academic self-appraisals. Exploratory cross-national comparisons with previously published data from American participants revealed that Chinese young adults engaged the TPJ relatively more during reflected self-appraisals made from peer perspectives. CONCLUSIONS: In combination with previous research, these findings increase support for a role of the TPJ in self-appraisal processes, particularly when Chinese young adults consider peer perspectives. The possible functional contributions provided by the TPJ are explored and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

BACKGROUND:Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable polygenic disorder. Recent enrichment analyses suggest that there may be true risk variants for bipolar disorder in the expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) in the brain. AIMS:We sought to assess the impact of eQTL variants on bipolar disorder risk by combining data from both bipolar disorder genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and brain eQTL. METHOD:To detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that influence expression levels of genes associated with bipolar disorder, we jointly analysed data from a bipolar disorder GWAS (7481 cases and 9250 controls) and a genome-wide brain (cortical) eQTL (193 healthy controls) using a Bayesian statistical method, with independent follow-up replications. The identified risk SNP was then further tested for association with hippocampal volume (n = 5775) and cognitive performance (n = 342) among healthy individuals. RESULTS:Integrative analysis revealed a significant association between a brain eQTL rs6088662 on chromosome 20q11.22 and bipolar disorder (log Bayes factor = 5.48; bipolar disorder P = 5.85 × 10(-5)). Follow-up studies across multiple independent samples confirmed the association of the risk SNP (rs6088662) with gene expression and bipolar disorder susceptibility (P = 3.54 × 10(-8)). Further exploratory analysis revealed that rs6088662 is also associated with hippocampal volume and cognitive performance in healthy individuals. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that 20q11.22 is likely a risk region for bipolar disorder; they also highlight the informative value of integrating functional annotation of genetic variants for gene expression in advancing our understanding of the biological basis underlying complex disorders, such as bipolar disorder.

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) genes have been found to interactively influence working memory (WM) as well as brain activation during WM tasks. However, whether the two genes have interactive effects on resting-state activities of the brain and whether these spontaneous activations correlate with WM are still unknown. This study included behavioral data from WM tasks and genetic data (COMT rs4680 and BDNF Val66Met) from 417 healthy Chinese adults and resting-state fMRI data from 298 of them. Significant interactive effects of BDNF and COMT were found for WM performance as well as for resting-state regional homogeneity (ReHo) in WM-related brain areas, including the left medial frontal gyrus (lMeFG), left superior frontal gyrus (lSFG), right superior and medial frontal gyrus (rSMFG), right medial orbitofrontal gyrus (rMOFG), right middle frontal gyrus (rMFG), precuneus, bilateral superior temporal gyrus, left superior occipital gyrus, right middle occipital gyrus, and right inferior parietal lobule. Simple effects analyses showed that compared to other genotypes, subjects with COMT-VV/BDNF-VV had higher WM and lower ReHo in all five frontal brain areas. The results supported the hypothesis that COMT and BDNF polymorphisms influence WM performance and spontaneous brain activity (i.e., ReHo).

Cooperativeness is an essential behavioral trait evolved to facilitate group living. Social and cognitive mechanisms involved in cooperation (e.g., motivation, reward encoding, action evaluation, and executive functions) are sub-served by the striatal-projected circuits, whose physical existence has been confirmed by animal studies, human postmortem studies, and in vivo human brain studies. The current study investigated the associations between Cooperativeness and fiber connectivities from the striatum to nine subcortical and cortical regions, including the amygdala, hippocampus, medial orbitofrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex/retrosplenial cortex, dorsal cingulate cortex, and rostral cingulate cortex. Results showed that Cooperativeness was negatively correlated with fiber connectivity for the cognitive control system (from the dorsal caudate to the rostral cingulate cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), but not with fiber connectivity for the social cognitive system (e.g., connectivity with the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala). These results partially supported Declerck et al.'s (2013) cognitive neural model of the role of cognitive control and social cognition in cooperation.

Currently, many equipment manufacturing enterprises in China lack effective management integration. While research on total factor productivity measurement and influencing factors exists, there is a lack of systematic research from the perspectives of different stakeholders, both inside and outside the enterprise market and government. To address this gap, this study examines the differences in demands for integrated management among enterprises of different ownership and sizes. Using the theory of value cocreation and Internet of Things technology, 273 enterprises in 16 cities in Shandong Province were sampled. The study also compares the impact of market fiscal and tax incentives on enterprise resource allocation and innovation performance, as well as the differences between "tangible and intangible" means of the market and government. The Internet of Things technology is utilized to build integrated management systems and verify the mechanisms of market incentives and government policies. Results reveal that market incentive policies have a differential effect on enterprises of different ownership and sizes, and the total factor productivity of sample enterprises is significantly and positively correlated with the strength of market incentive policy. Moreover, there are noticeable differences in the impact of government subsidy policies on enterprises of different sizes. Small and medium-sized enterprises do not respond significantly to fluctuations in government subsidy policies, while large enterprises are more sensitive to such fluctuations.

Biopolymers produced in near-surface soils by living organisms, including microbial extracellular polymeric substances and plant mucilage, offer enhanced moisture retention and protection from dry environments, lubricate roots to allow penetration through soil, and link soil grains together physically to form soil aggregates. At the aggregate scale their effects and behaviour are known and significant, but their impact on geotechnical behaviour of shallow soil bodies at the mesoscale and beyond is largely unexplored, including their response to the moisture cycling typical in vadose zone soils. In this work we explore the effects of moisture conditions, including multiple dry-wet cycles, on the shear behaviour of sand amended with xanthan gum as a model biopolymer. Drying causes a significant improvement on shear strength, even at low concentrations of biopolymer, but this is largely lost upon wetting. The extent of shear strength improvement is dependent on the moisture path taken (i.e., the wetting-drying history) and deteriorates over a number of moisture cycles. We present a conceptual model that poses redistribution of the biopolymer around the sand grains as the cause of the observed behaviour and demonstrate that biopolymers can provide a significant although transient enhancement of shear strength of sand in near-surface conditions. Key words: extracellular polymeric substances, biopolymer, sand, direct shear. Les biopolymeres produits dans les sols proches de la surface par les organismes vivants, y compris les substances polymeres extracellulaires microbiennes et le mucilage vegetal, offrent une meilleure retention de l'humidite et une protection contre les environnements secs, lubrifient les racines pour permettre la penetration dans le sol et relient physiquement les grains du sol pour former des agregats de sol. Au niveau des agregats, leurs effets et leur comportement sont connus et significatifs, mais leur impact sur le comportement geotechnique des assemblages de sol peu profonds a la meso-echelle et au-dela est largement inexplore, y compris leur reponse au cycle d'humidite typique des sols de la zone vadose. Dans ce travail, nous explorons les effets des conditions d'humidite, y compris les multiples cycles sec-humide, sur le comportement au cisaillement du sable modifie avec de la gomme de xanthane comme biopolymere modele. Le sechage entrame une amelioration significative de la resistance au cisaillement, meme a de faibles concentrations de biopolymere, mais celle-ci est largement perdue lors du mouillage. L'ampleur de l'amelioration de la resistance au cisaillement depend du cheminement de l'humidite (c'est-a-dire l'historique de mouillage-sechage) et se deteriore au cours d'un certain nombre de cycles d'humidite. Nous presentons un modele conceptuel qui pose la redistribution du biopolymere autour des grains de sable comme la cause du comportement observe, et demontrons que les biopolymeres peuvent fournirune amelioration significative bien que transitoire de la resistance au cisaillement du sable dans des conditions proches de la surface. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: substances polymeres extracellulaires, biopolymere, sable, cisaillement direct., Introduction Living organisms present in soil exude a range of biopolymers to help them overcome or adapt to environmental challenges (Brax et al. 2017; Hall-Stoodley et al. 2004). Such biopolymers [...]

The amygdala plays a critical role in emotion processing and psychiatric disorders associated with emotion dysfunction. Accumulating evidence suggests that amygdala structure is modulated by serotonin-related genes. However, there is a gap between the small contributions of single loci (less than 1%) and the reported 63-65% heritability of amygdala structure. To understand the "missing heritability," we systematically explored the contribution of serotonin genes on amygdala structure at the gene set level. The present study of 417 healthy Chinese volunteers examined 129 representative polymorphisms in genes from multiple biological mechanisms in the regulation of serotonin neurotransmission. A system-level approach using multiple regression analyses identified that nine SNPs collectively accounted for approximately 8% of the variance in amygdala volume. Permutation analyses showed that the probability of obtaining these findings by chance was low (p = 0.043, permuted for 1000 times). Findings showed that serotonin genes contribute moderately to individual differences in amygdala volume in a healthy Chinese sample. These results indicate that the system-level approach can help us to understand the genetic basis of a complex trait such as amygdala structure.

Overweight and obesity are rapidly becoming a central public health challenge around the world. Previous studies have suggested that elevated Body Mass Index (BMI) might be associated with structural changes in both gray and white matter, but this association is still not well understood. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between BMI and brain structure with a relatively large sample of young adults (N = 336) in a small age range (20 ± 1 years). Voxel-based morphometry results showed significant negative correlations between BMI and gray-matter volumes in the midcingulate cortex (MCC), left orbital frontal cortex, and left ventromedial prefrontal cortex. There was also a significant negative correlation between BMI and white matter integrity as indexed by fractional anisotropy in bilateral cingulum. Further tractography analysis showed a significant negative correlation between BMI and the number of fibers passing the MCC region. Regression analysis showed that gray matter and white matter in these regions both contributed to the variance of BMI. These results remained significant even when analysis was restricted to the subjects with normal weights. Finally, we found that decision-making ability (as assessed by the Iowa Gambling Task) mediated the association between the structure of the MCC (a region responsible for impulse control and decision making) and BMI. These results shed light on the structural neural basis of weight variations.

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is an intrinsic personality trait whose genetic and neural bases have recently been studied. The current study used a neural mediation model to explore whether resting-state brain functions mediated the effects of dopamine-related genes on SPS. 298 healthy Chinese college students (96 males, mean age = 20.42 years, SD = 0.89) were scanned with magnetic resonance imaging during resting state, genotyped for 98 loci within the dopamine system, and administered the Highly Sensitive Person Scale. We extracted a "gene score" that summarized the genetic variations representing the 10 loci that were significantly linked to SPS, and then used path analysis to search for brain regions whose resting-state data would help explain the gene-behavior association. Mediation analysis revealed that temporal homogeneity of regional spontaneous activity (ReHo) in the precuneus actually suppressed the effect of dopamine-related genes on SPS. The path model explained 16% of the variance of SPS. This study represents the first attempt at using a multi-gene voxel-based neural mediation model to explore the complex relations among genes, brain, and personality.

Hippocampal volume is a key brain structure for learning ability and memory process, and hippocampal atrophy is a recognized biological marker of Alzheimer's disease. However, the genetic bases of hippocampal volume are still unclear although it is a heritable trait. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on hippocampal volume have implicated several significantly associated genetic variants in Europeans. Here, to test the contributions of these GWASs identified genetic variants to hippocampal volume in different ethnic populations, we screened the GWAS-identified candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 3 independent healthy Asian brain imaging samples (a total of 990 subjects). The results showed that none of these single-nucleotide polymorphisms were associated with hippocampal volume in either individual or combined Asian samples. The replication results suggested a complexity of genetic architecture for hippocampal volume and potential genetic heterogeneity between different ethnic populations.