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Abstract In a retrospective study, 54 patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TRD) completed a free-viewing task in which they had to freely explore pairs of faces (an emotional face (happy or sad) opposite to a neutral face). Attentional bias to emotional faces was calculated for early and sustained attention. We observed a significant negative correlation between depression severity as measured by the 10-item Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and sustained attention to happy faces. In addition, we observed a positive correlation between depression severity and sustained attention to sad faces. No significant correlation between depression severity and early attention was found for either happy or sad faces. Although conclusions from the current study are limited by the lack of comparison with a control group, the eye-tracking free-viewing task appears to be a relevant, accessible and easy-to-use tool for measuring depression severity through emotional attentional biases in TRD.

In a retrospective study, 54 patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TRD) completed a free-viewing task in which they had to freely explore pairs of faces (an emotional face (happy or sad) opposite to a neutral face). Attentional bias to emotional faces was calculated for early and sustained attention. We observed a significant negative correlation between depression severity as measured by the 10-item Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and sustained attention to happy faces. In addition, we observed a positive correlation between depression severity and sustained attention to sad faces. No significant correlation between depression severity and early attention was found for either happy or sad faces. Although conclusions from the current study are limited by the lack of comparison with a control group, the eye-tracking free-viewing task appears to be a relevant, accessible and easy-to-use tool for measuring depression severity through emotional attentional biases in TRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial Intentions are not expanding as anticipated. In the growing economy, it is difficult to make any rational decision with the available information. The study focuses on understanding the impact of Cognitive and Emotional Bias on student's Entrepreneurial Intention. The primary data was gathered from 370 students from different higher educational institutions in India. PLS-SEM was used to explore the impact of cognitive and emotional bias on entrepreneurial intention among the students. Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) was used to rank the results obtained from SEM based on the normalized importance. The results from the SEM and MLP ascertain that cognitive bias has more impact on EI. The attributes of cognitive bias overconfidence, loss aversion, and representativeness influence the students' entrepreneurial intention. The study found that cognitive and emotional biases help individuals make more informed decisions, assess opportunities realistically, and enhance their overall entrepreneurial intention. The study on Entrepreneurial Intention has a practical implication for higher educational institutions and policymakers. Firstly, this study helps higher education institutions plan their curriculum, specifically addressing cognitive biases, emotional biases, and decision-making in entrepreneurial contexts. Secondly helps the policymakers develop a framework to overcome the cognitive and emotional challenges associated with entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is theorized to be connected to social interactions and feelings of belongingness. Those with suicide-related cognitions (SRCs) demonstrate attentional bias toward negative or suicide-related words, which can lead to increased feelings of rejection or alienation. As social interactions employ both verbal and nonverbal cues, there exists a gap in understanding how perception of emotional expressions can contribute to the development or exacerbation of suicidal ideation. The current sample (N = 114, 60.5 % female, 74.6 % white) completed the Suicide Cognitions Scale-Revised (SCS-R) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to assess SRCs and depression severity. The Emotional Bias Task (EBT) was used to assess emotional response latency. Multiple regression analyses on EBT results showed that endorsement of SRCs and depression severity were not associated with any particular emotional response bias. However, presence of SRCs showed an association with longer latencies to identify ambiguous emotional expressions, even when controlling for depressive symptoms and age Measures were self-completed online. Relative homogeneity of the sample and cross-sectional design limits interpretation of the results. Those with more severe SRCs take longer to recognize positive, nonverbal cues. Irregular processing of positive emotional stimuli combined with bias toward negative verbal cues could worsen feelings of rejection or alienation in social interactions, therefore increasing risk of developing SI. This suggests that interventions focusing on allocation of attentional resources to process positive social cues may be beneficial for those with SRCs to reduce severity and risk of suicide. • Suicide-related cognitions were not associated with an emotional bias. • Higher SRCs were related to longer latency recognizing positive and negative emotional faces. • Longer latency remains after accounting for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNLABELLED: Aging is accompanied by deterioration in both working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM), yet whether these changes are related is not understood. Sleep plays a role in the formation of LTM in young adults, but the findings in older adults are not as clear. The types of memories we store also shift with age as young adults preserve a higher proportion of negative experiences when compared to older adults. The reason for this age-related change in emotional memory bias is also not clear; however, some studies have suggested that WM changes across aging may be an important factor. In the current study, we examined performance in WM and emotional LTM in younger and older adults. We added a daytime nap in half the subjects to examine a possible role of sleep on emotional LTM. In the morning, 93 younger (18-39) and 121 older (60-85) adults completed a WM task. Subjects also encoded neutral or negative word pairs and provided valence and arousal ratings for each pair. After half the subjects took a daytime nap, LTM was examined, and valence and arousal ratings were reassessed. Results indicate that older adults showed worse recognition for negative word pairs compared with neutral, as well as decreased negative valence ratings in the afternoon. This decrease in emotional reactivity was correlated with better LTM performance. In contrast, younger adults performed better on the negative compared to neutral word pairs, with no change in emotional reactivity and no association between emotional reactivity and LTM. In addition, WM was positively related to LTM in younger, but not in older adults. Lastly, no differences were shown across sleep, regardless of age. Our findings suggest that the emotional memory bias may be associated with the emotional saliency of the information in older adults, and with WM capacity in younger adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00134-5.

Previous studies have reported the "emotional congruency effect (ECE)" in cross-modal emotion processing, claiming that multimodal congruent emotional signals will enhance the emotion processing, yet few studies have shown how this effect is dynamically processed over time and whether it is achieved in the same way across language and cultural backgrounds. We adopted the eye-tracking technique to investigate whether and how the audio emotional signal influences the visual processing of emotional faces according to ECE. We explored this issue by asking thirty-two native Mandarin speakers to scan a visual array of four types of emotional faces while listening to the affective prosody matching one of the four emotions. To eliminate the potential confounding from lexico-semantic information, the affective prosody is pronounced in meaningless di-syllable clusters. Results of the experiment indicate that (1) participants paid more attention to happy faces at first glance and their attention shifted to angry and sad faces over time. (2) Consistent with findings in English-speaking settings, ECE appeared in Mandarin-speaking settings, but took effect earlier in happy faces and persisted in all emotions as the unfolding of the signal. Based on the results, we conclude that the processing time differs across emotion types and therefore ECE takes effect in different temporal points according to the emotion type. Finally, we suggest that language and cultural experience may shape the processing time of different emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study systematically explores the patterns and connections in the behavioural bias and investment decisions of the existing literature in the Scopus database published between 2007 and 2022. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue. Findings – In the article it was determined which contributed documents were the most significant in this particular subject area along with the citations, publications and nations that were associated with them. The bibliographic coupling offered more in-depth insights into the papers by organizing them into distinct groups. The pattern of the publications has been brought to light, and the connection between different types of literature has provided insight into the path that future studies should take. Research limitations/implications – This study considered only articles from the Scopus database. Future studies can be based on papers that have been published in other databases. Originality/value – The outcome of this study provides valuable insights into the intellectual structure and biases of investors and adds value to existing knowledge. This review provides a road map for the future trend of research on behavioural bias and investment decisions.

A growing number of studies have shown that impaired visibility caused by particulate matter pollution influences emotional wellbeing. However, evidence is still scant on how this effect varies across individuals and over repetitive visual exposure in a controlled environment. Herein, we designed a lab-based experiment (41 subjects, 6 blocks) where participants were presented with real-scene images of 12 different PM2.5 concentrations in each block. Emotional valence (negative to positive) and arousal (calm to excited) were self-rated by participants per image, and the response time for each rating was recorded. We find that as pollution level increases from 10 to 260 µg/m3, valence scores decrease, whereas arousal scores decline first and then bounce back, following a U-shaped trend. When air quality deteriorates, individual variability decreases in hedonic valence but increases in arousal. Over blocks, repetitive visual exposure increases valence at a moderate pollution level but aggravates negative emotions in severely polluted conditions (> 150 µg/m3). Finally, we find females, people who are slow in making responses, and those who are highly aroused by clean air tend to express more negative responses (so-called negativity bias) to ambient pollution than their respective counterparts. These results provide deeper insights into individual-level emotional responses to dirty air in a controlled environment. Although the findings in our pilot study should only be directly applied to the conditions assessed herein, we introduce a framework that can be replicated in different regions to assess the impact of air pollution on local emotional wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the common neurodevelopment disorders. Children with ADHD typically have difficulties with emotional regulation. Previous studies have investigated the assessment for underlying emotional biases using the visual probe task. However, one of the significant limitations of the visual probe task is that it is demanding and repetitive over time. Previous studies have examined the use of gamification methods in addressing the limitations of the emotional bias visual probe task. There has also been increased recognition of the potential of participatory action research methods and how it could help to make the conceptualized interventions more relevant. Objective: The primary aim of this study was to collate health care professionals’ perspectives on the limitations of the existing visual probe task and to determine if gamification elements were viable to be incorporated into an emotional bias modification task. Methods: A co-design workshop was conducted. Health care professionals from the Department of Development Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore, were invited to participate. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions, a web-based workshop was conducted. There were 3 main phases in the workshops. First, participants were asked to identify limitations and suggest potential methods to overcome some of the identified limitations. Second, participants were shown examples of existing gaming interventions in published literature and commercial stores. They were also asked to comment on the advantages and limitations of these interventions. Finally, participants were asked if gamification techniques would be appropriate. Results: Overall, 4 health care professionals consented and participated. Several limitations were identified regarding the conventional emotional bias intervention. These included the nature of the task parameters, included stimulus set, and factors that could have an impact on the accuracy of responding to the task. After examining the existing ADHD games, participants raised concerns about the evidence base of some of the apps. They articulated that any developed ADHD game ought to identify the specific skill set that was targeted clearly. Regarding gamification strategies, participants preferred economic and performance-based gamification approaches. Conclusions: This study has managed to elucidate health care professionals’ perspectives toward refining a conventional emotional bias intervention for children with ADHD. In view of the repetitiveness of the conventional task, the suggested gamification techniques might help in influencing task adherence and reduce the attrition rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigate effect of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on emotional biases. • Within-subject design with each participant receiving active and sham stimulation. • Vagus nerve stimulation reduced bias towards sad faces in dot-probe task. • Stimulation also reduced bias towards happy faces, indicating emotional blunting. • Vagal signalling in healthy humans has capacity to influence emotional processing. The vagus nerve is a key physical constituent of the gut–brain axis. Increasing attention has recently been paid to the role that the gut, and the microorganisms inhabiting it, play in emotion and cognition. Animal studies have revealed the importance of the vagus nerve in mediating communication between the gut microbiome and the central nervous system, resulting in changes in emotional behaviour. This has renewed interest in understanding the role of vagal signalling in human emotion, particularly since human studies have also shown that alterations in gut microbiome composition can affect emotion. While stimulating the vagus nerve can help treat some cases of severe depression, here we investigate whether vagal afferent signalling can influence emotional processing in healthy subjects. We use the dot-probe task to determine the effect of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on attentional biases towards emotional stimuli in 42 volunteers. Participants received both active and sham treatments using a within-subject design. We show that transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation reduces the emotional bias towards faces expressing sadness and happiness, indicating a decrease in emotional reactivity. While our novel findings reveal the effect that vagal signalling can have on emotional biases in healthy subjects, future studies should seek to develop our understanding of the ways in which the microbiome interacts with, and stimulates, the vagus nerve. Since we find a reduction in emotional bias, most notably towards sadness, this may partly account for the effective use of vagus nerve stimulation in treatment-resistant depression. While its clinical application currently involves surgical stimulation, our results support the potential benefit of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation as a non-invasive, intermittent adjunctive therapy for patients with depression, given its frequent association with emotional biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prehospital clinical decision-making is a complex, evolving skill. Typically, there are multiple possible diagnoses and several potential treatment pathways to be considered, and usually prehospital clinicians have to base their decisions on imperfect information. Biases will inevitably compete to influence clinicians as they attempt to weigh the probabilities of diagnoses, degrees of certainty and permissible risks in their decision-making process. With experience, as intuition and tacit knowledge develop, paramedics will depend less on explicit knowledge and algorithm-based decision-making tools. Paramedics must strive to strike the right balance between the intuitive and analytical aspects of clinical decision-making, while maintaining an awareness of the human factors that will influence them in this process if optimal clinical decisions and therefore patient outcomes are to be achieved. This case study illustrates complex decision-making in the prehospital setting, with a focus on the influence of bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been numerous studies investigating the dynamics of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) development. However, this research topic still offers several interesting research gaps to be explored. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to test the effects of entrepreneurial orientation and asymmetric information that affect MSME entrepreneurs’ emotional biases, as well as the relationships between these variables and MSME’s financing and performance. Our research objects are MSMEs located in four urban villages in Salatiga City, Central Java that engage in various business sectors, such as the food and beverage, the service industry, the groceryw, and the horticulture sector. We analyze the research data with the Partial Least Square (PLS) software. The research results reveal that entrepreneurial orientation and asymmetric information positively influence MSME entrepreneurs’ emotional bias. Meanwhile, emotional bias has a significantly positive influence on financing. Finally, we also find that financing positively affects MSMEs’ performance. In sum, our study demonstrates the importance of the behavioral aspect (emotional bias) in explaining MSMEs’ performance through its indirect impact through financing.

Purpose of the article: The aim of the article is a critical analysis of the views of various authors who have linked their research activities to the topic of behavioural finance, behavioural biases, and risk perceptions in financial markets. Methodology/methods: Qualitative data were aggregated through the method of a systematic review with limits set. A total of 23 papers and publications were located and reviewed. In the paper, the author used logical methods of secondary research such as analysis and synthesis, i.e. the division of the object of research into individual elements and, conversely, the monitoring of connections between individual components (Hendl, 2005). Scientific aim: The scientific benefit is a detailed comprehensive overview of biases that can affect investors' behaviour and risk perception, and a demonstration of risk understanding approaches. The report can serve as a basis for further research and scientific work. Each topic is given the perspective of different authors, which supports the objectivity of the conclusions. Findings: Based on a literature review by multiple authors, the author defined the main behavioural biases. Some of the authors categorise or classify individual biases according to whether they are based on feelings or facts, or according to whether they are heuristics, i.e. mental abbreviations for solving a problem, or cognitive bias, which may be the result of erroneous heuristics. Furthermore, the author found that investor's demographic characteristics, such as age, marital status or education, have a direct impact on his behaviour. The concept of risk can be understood as a state of ignorance of the decision maker, as a variance of possible outcomes, as a danger of negative deviation or as a danger of wrong decision. The perception of risk can be divided to "Risk capacity" - ability to take a risk, and "Risk appetite" - the amount of risk an investor is willing to take in order to gain a reward. Conclusions: The author conducted research of secondary sources, such as of publications and scientific articles dealing with issues of behavioural finance and risk perception. The connection between major behavioural biases and risk perception, and the connection between socio-demographic characteristics and the level of influence of individual investor behavioural biases have been described. All the factors have been found to affect individual investors' perceptions of information to the extent that some individuals perceive the same information differently when making decisions based solely on financial disclosure and make different decisions based on that. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Money illusion refers to the tendency of the individuals’ decisions to be influenced by the nominal amount of money. It is a persistent phenomenon even for high ability people such as professional investors, and causes considerable aggregate nominal inertia. However, it has not been well discussed why they suffer from money illusion even though they are able to distinguish the nominal and real value. In this paper, we focus on numerical ability and investigate its relation to the tendency to suffer from money illusion. We show subjects two alternative funds (one fund has a higher nominal value and the other fund has a higher real value) and asked which one is preferable. Subsequently, they evaluated the attractiveness of each fund with a scale from 0 to 10. Results show that high numeracy generally helps to distinguish the nominal and real value. However, when high numeracy individuals consider well-being, their decision is strongly affected by nominal value. Additionally, even though the high numeracy subjects were able to distinguish the nominal and real value, they evaluate the attractiveness of the fund with the high real value significantly lower than the fund with the high nominal value. Those behavioral tendencies prominently appeared when the nominal values are shown by the balance of assets. The contradictory behaviors of high numeracy individuals may be largely involved in the integral emotions which accompanying with the nominal value.

Purpose: This paper aims to identify psychological factors that influence people to be involved in Ponzi and pyramid schemes. Design/methodology/approach: A psychological approach to finance or behavioural finance is applied in this research because of the assumption that human beings are not always rational. The sample consisted of 98 investors in 11 cities in Indonesia who were or had invested in an investment program with a Ponzi or pyramid scheme. The snowball sampling technique was applied. Findings: The conclusion is that optimism (emotional bias), confirmation bias, representativeness bias, framing bias and overconfidence (cognitive bias) positively influenced investment decisions related to Ponzi and pyramid schemes. Originality/value: The novelty aspect of this research is the implementation of a behavioural finance perspective to answer and express the fascinating phenomenon of Ponzi and pyramid investment schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Stimulus arousal, stimulus type and task setting play important roles in emotional bias. • Increased stimulus arousal enlarges negativity bias. • Scenic stimulus leads to negativity bias while verbal stimulus results in positivity offset. • Explicit relative to implicit emotion task increases negativity bias. Emotional bias, which describes human's asymmetric processing of emotional stimuli, consists of negativity bias (Increased response to negative over positive stimuli) and positivity offset (the reversed phenomenon). Previous studies suggest that stimulus arousal (high/low), stimulus type (scenic/verbal), cultural background (Eastern/Western), and task setting (explicit/implicit) may modulate emotional bias, but with inconclusive findings. To address how the profile of emotional bias varies with these factors, a meta-analysis of emotional P3 event-related potential amplitudes was performed. Forty-nine effect sizes from 38 studies involving 1263 subjects were calculated using Hedges' g. The results highlight significant moderators of arousal, stimulus type, and task setting. Specifically, high-arousal stimuli enhance negativity bias relative to low-arousal stimuli; scenic stimulus leads to a negativity bias while verbal stimulus is linked with a positivity offset; explicit emotion tasks lead to negativity bias, whereas implicit emotion tasks do not exhibit emotional bias. These results indicate that emotional bias is labile depending on stimulus arousal, stimulus type and task setting. The implication of these findings for emotion regulation is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interesting factor explaining recurrence risk in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) may be neuropsychological functioning, i.e., processing of emotional stimuli/information. Negatively biased processing of emotional stimuli/information has been found in both acute and (inconclusively) remitted states of MDD, and may be causally related to recurrence of depression. We aimed to investigate self-referent, memory and interpretation biases in recurrently depressed patients in remission and relate these biases to recurrence. We included 69 remitted recurrent MDD-patients (rrMDD-patients), 35–65 years, with ≥2 episodes, voluntarily free of antidepressant maintenance therapy for at least 4 weeks. We tested self-referent biases with an emotional categorization task, bias in emotional memory by free recall of the emotion categorization task 15 min after completing it, and interpretation bias with a facial expression recognition task. We compared these participants with 43 never-depressed controls matched for age, sex and intelligence. We followed the rrMDD-patients for 2.5 years and assessed recurrent depressive episodes by structured interview. The rrMDD-patients showed biases toward emotionally negative stimuli, faster responses to negative self-relevant characteristics in the emotional categorization, better recognition of sad faces, worse recognition of neutral faces with more misclassifications as angry or disgusting faces and less misclassifications as neutral faces (0.001 < p < 0.05). Of these, the number of misclassifications as angry and the overall performance in the emotional memory task were significantly associated with the time to recurrence (p ≤ 0.04), independent of residual symptoms and number of previous episodes. In a support vector machine data-driven model, prediction of recurrence-status could best be achieved (relative to observed recurrence-rate) with demographic and childhood adversity parameters (accuracy 78.1%; 1-sided p = 0.002); neuropsychological tests could not improve this prediction. Our data suggests a persisting (mood-incongruent) emotional bias when patients with recurrent depression are in remission. Moreover, these persisting biases might be mechanistically important for recurrence and prevention thereof.

An interesting factor explaining recurrence risk in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) may be neuropsychological functioning, i.e., processing of emotional stimuli/information. Negatively biased processing of emotional stimuli/information has been found in both acute and (inconclusively) remitted states of MDD, and may be causally related to recurrence of depression. We aimed to investigate self-referent, memory and interpretation biases in recurrently depressed patients in remission and relate these biases to recurrence. We included 69 remitted recurrent MDD-patients (rrMDD-patients), 35–65 years, with ≥2 episodes, voluntarily free of antidepressant maintenance therapy for at least 4 weeks. We tested self-referent biases with an emotional categorization task, bias in emotional memory by free recall of the emotion categorization task 15 min after completing it, and interpretation bias with a facial expression recognition task. We compared these participants with 43 never-depressed controls matched for age, sex and intelligence. We followed the rrMDD-patients for 2.5 years and assessed recurrent depressive episodes by structured interview. The rrMDD-patients showed biases toward emotionally negative stimuli, faster responses to negative self-relevant characteristics in the emotional categorization, better recognition of sad faces, worse recognition of neutral faces with more misclassifications as angry or disgusting faces and less misclassifications as neutral faces (0.001 < p < 0.05). Of these, the number of misclassifications as angry and the overall performance in the emotional memory task were significantly associated with the time to recurrence (p ≤ 0.04), independent of residual symptoms and number of previous episodes. In a support vector machine data-driven model, prediction of recurrence-status could best be achieved (relative to observed recurrence-rate) with demographic and childhood adversity parameters (accuracy 78.1%; 1-sided p = 0.002); neuropsychological tests could not improve this prediction. Our data suggests a persisting (mood-incongruent) emotional bias when patients with recurrent depression are in remission. Moreover, these persisting biases might be mechanistically important for recurrence and prevention thereof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and their treatments, particularly immunosuppressive drugs, increase risk of infections and cancers. However, by promoting mucosal healing, these agents should reduce risks of infections related to intestinal lesions, malnutrition, intravenous devices, and IBD surgeries and reduce risk of cancers associated with chronic mucosal inflammation—although there are few data to support this concept. Corticosteroids increase the risk of vascular thromboembolic events, yet other immunosuppressive drugs that induce deep remission from IBD could decrease the incidence of cardiovascular events attributable to systemic inflammation and IBD-related hospitalizations and/or surgeries. The nature and magnitude of the risks of infections and cancers vary with immunosuppressive drug class and patient sex and age. For example, thiopurines increase risk of viral infections that might be fatal in young patients, whereas tumor necrosis factor antagonists increase risk of bacterial and intracellular infections that can be fatal in patients of any age, but particularly in older patients. The ability of drugs to prevent IBD-associated colorectal cancer varies with IBD location and duration. Models to assess the benefit:risk ratio of long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs for patients with IBD should be adapted based on patients' age, sex, and IBD phenotype, to properly guide patient management. The decision-making process should begin with a clear explanation of treatment risks and then integrate the patient's emotional perception of risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The 4–6 week lag in subjective response to antidepressants results in long delays when identifying effective treatments. • Antidepressants change measures of emotional cognition after only 1 week of treatment. • We show that emotional cognition and subjective symptoms at 1 week can predict later clinical response in primary care patients with depression. • We show that the these measures are feasible and acceptable in a primary care setting. • It may be possible to use these measures to guide the prescription of antidepressants in a primary care setting. Abstract Antidepressants must be taken for weeks before response can be assessed with many patients not responding to the first medication prescribed. This often results in long delays before effective treatment is started. Antidepressants induce changes in the processing of emotional stimuli early in the course of treatment. In the current study we assessed whether changes in emotional processing and subjective symptoms over the first week of antidepressant treatment predicted clinical response after 4–8 weeks of treatment. Such a predictive test may shorten the time taken to initiate effective treatment in depressed patients. Seventy-four depressed primary care patients completed measures of emotional bias and subjective symptoms before starting antidepressant treatment and then again 1 week later. Response to treatment was assessed after 4–6 weeks. The performance of classifiers based on these measures was assessed using a leave-one-out validation procedure with the best classifier then tested in an independent sample from a second study of 239 patients. The combination of a facial emotion recognition task and subjective symptoms predicted response with 77% accuracy in the training sample and 60% accuracy in the independent study, significantly better than possible using baseline response rates. The face based measure of emotional bias provided good quality data with high acceptability ratings. Changes in emotional processing can provide a sensitive early measure of antidepressant efficacy for individual patients. Early treatment induced changes in emotional processing may be used to guide antidepressant therapy and reduce the time taken for depressed patients to return to good mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing field of behavioral economics (BE) has revolutionized the way we look at economic behavior at micro and macro levels. Importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) appeals for analysis of decisions made regarding it to be assessed from expanding view of BE. This research provides overview of previous studies and focuses on the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) as representative of emerging markets to investigate motivations for investing into this country by temporarily present foreign companies. Empirical analysis was based on the questionnaire that was disseminated among foreign investors to B&H. Questionnaire contained motivations for investing in B&H, where examined motivation factors were divided in two groups; namely irrational and rational ones. Choice of methodology was narrowed due to moderate sample size, but consisting of quality the sample members. In order to analyze data, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used. By regressing two groups of predictors on annual amount of foreign investments to B&H, it was shown that the highest motivation for investing was business instinct.

Abstract Rationale. Although vaccines are an invaluable weapon in combatting diseases, they are often surrounded by controversy. Vaccine controversies usually arise with the claims of some parents or doctors who link vaccines to harmful outcomes. These controversies often negatively affect vaccination coverage. Objectives This experiment simulated a vaccine controversy to understand which content features of vaccination-related information are well transmitted and how this transmission affects vaccine intention. Method All participants (N = 64) read two conflicting views (pro- and anti-) about a fictional vaccine ('dipherpox vaccine'). These conflicting views were held by a parent and a doctor, whose views varied across conditions. This information was transmitted along linear chains of four participants who recalled it and the product of their recall was passed to the next participant within their chain. They also responded whether they would vaccinate or not. Results The experience-based view held by the parent was better transmitted than the medical-based view held by the doctor, while the pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine views were similarly transmitted. Despite all the participants having neutral or positive attitudes towards vaccines in general, 39.1% of them decided not to vaccinate. Nevertheless, vaccination attitude was the strongest predictor of vaccination intention. The less positive participants' attitudes were towards vaccines in general, the less likely they were to vaccinate against dipherpox after exposure to the controversy. Conclusion The results suggest that vaccination campaigns may be made more effective by including personal experiences of the negative consequences of non-vaccination. Highlights • Anti-vaccination messages are not better transmitted than pro-vaccination messages. • Emotional information is better transmitted than medical information about vaccines. • Exposure to vaccination controversies makes fence-sitters more likely not to vaccinate. • Doctors' anti-vaccination claims are especially influential on vaccination decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Negative neurocognitive bias is a core feature of depression that is reversed by antidepressant drug treatment. However, it is unclear whether modulation of neurocognitive bias is a common mechanism of distinct biological treatments. This randomized controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging study explored the effects of a single electroconvulsive therapy session on self-referent emotional processing. Methods: Twenty-nine patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder were randomized to one active or sham electroconvulsive therapy session at the beginning of their electroconvulsive therapy course in a double-blind, betweengroups design. The following day, patients were given a self-referential emotional word categorization test and a free recall test. This was followed by an incidental word recognition task during whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3T. Mood was assessed at baseline, on the functional magnetic resonance imaging day, and after 6 electroconvulsive therapy sessions. Data were complete and analyzed for 25 patients (electroconvulsive therapy: n = 14, sham: n = 11). The functional magnetic resonance imaging data were analyzed using the FMRIB Software Library randomize algorithm, and the Threshold- Free Cluster Enhancement method was used to identify significant clusters (corrected at P < .05). Results: A single electroconvulsive therapy session had no effect on hippocampal activity during retrieval of emotional words. However, electroconvulsive therapy reduced the retrieval-specific neural response for positive words in the left frontopolar cortex. This effect occurred in the absence of differences between groups in behavioral performance or mood symptoms. Conclusions: The observed effect of electroconvulsive therapy on prefrontal response may reflect early facilitation of memory for positive self-referent information, which could contribute to improvements in depressive symptoms including feelings of self-worth with repeated treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affect recognition deficits found in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the lifespan may bias the development of cognitive control processes implicated in the pathophysiology of the disorder. This study aimed to determine the mechanism through which facial expressions influence cognitive control in young adults diagnosed with ADHD in childhood. Fourteen probands with childhood ADHD and 14 comparison subjects with no history of ADHD were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a face emotion go/no-go task. Event-related analyses contrasted activation and functional connectivity for cognitive control collapsed over face valence and tested for variations in activation for response execution and inhibition as a function of face valence. Probands with childhood ADHD made fewer correct responses and inhibitions overall than comparison subjects, but demonstrated comparable effects of face emotion on response execution and inhibition. The two groups showed similar frontotemporal activation for cognitive control collapsed across face valence, but differed in the functional connectivity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, with fewer interactions with the subgenual cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and putamen in probands than in comparison subjects. Further, valence-dependent activation for response execution was seen in the amygdala, ventral striatum, subgenual cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex in comparison subjects but not in probands. The findings point to functional anomalies in limbic networks for both the valence-dependent biasing of cognitive control and the valence-independent cognitive control of face emotion processing in probands with childhood ADHD. This limbic dysfunction could impact cognitive control in emotional contexts and may contribute to the social and emotional problems associated with ADHD.

In healthy people, a preference in attention maintenance and memory for words with emotional valence comparing to neutral words has been shown. The pattern of emotional stimuli processing may be different in people with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and it may be sensitive to the presence of depressive symptoms. In order to explore these possibilities, we applied the emotional spatial cueing attentional task and the free recall memory task to participants (N = 39) with MTLE and compared them with healthy controls. We hypothesized that the pattern of maintaining attention and remembering emotional words is different in people with MTLE. Current literature indicates that this pattern will change from positive bias in the controls, though no emotional bias in the participants with MTLE without depression (MTLE − d), and in this work we examined this pattern in the participants with MTLE with depressive symptoms (MTLE + d). Our results show that in both attention and memory, control subjects exhibit positive emotional bias, the subjects with MTLE − d show nonemotional bias and the subjects with MTLE + d have bias away from positive words. Participants with MTLE + d maintained attention for positive words shorter than others. Participants with MTLE + d had worse recall for positive words than the participants with MTLE − d and for all words when compared to controls. We found that faster attention disengagement from positive words and worse memory for positive words is associated with elevated levels of depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is contradictory evidence regarding negative memory biases in major depressive disorder (MDD) and whether these persist into remission, which would suggest their role as vulnerability traits rather than correlates of mood state. Early life stress (ELS), common in patients with psychiatric disorders, has independently been associated with memory biases, and confounds MDD versus control group comparisons. Furthermore, in most studies negative biases could have resulted from executive impairments rather than memory difficulties per se. Methods To investigate whether memory biases are relevant to MDD vulnerability and how they are influenced by ELS, we developed an associative recognition memory task for temporo-spatial contexts of social actions with low executive demands, which were matched across conditions (self-blame, other-blame, self-praise, other-praise). We included fifty-three medication-free remitted MDD (25 with ELS, 28 without) and 24 healthy control (HC) participants without ELS. Results Only MDD patients with ELS showed a reduced bias (accuracy/speed ratio) towards memory for positive vs. negative materials when compared with MDD without ELS and with HC participants; attenuated positive biases correlated with number of past major depressive episodes, but not current symptoms. There were no biases towards self-blaming or self-praising memories. Conclusions This demonstrates that reduced positive biases in associative memory were specific to MDD patients with ELS rather than a general feature of MDD, and were associated with lifetime recurrence risk which may reflect a scarring effect. If replicated, our results would call for stratifying MDD patients by history of ELS when assessing and treating emotional memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beyond previous research topics assessing physiological or psychological effects of an indoor environment, the present study aims to investigate the effect of thermal sensations on people's emotional responses. For achieving this purpose, chamber experiments were conducted based on three different temperatures (PMV −2, 0, +2), and results were obtained from 139 participants' brain wave data. The emotional process depending on indoor temperature was not significant; however, that depending on subjective thermal sensations were statistically significant. Since participants felt same indoor thermal condition differently, the physical indoor temperature itself had no direct significant influence to their emotions. Positivity bias was observed when participants felt neutral and slightly warm, and negativity bias was observed in all other cases. This study supports the notion that the thermal environment affects occupants' emotional responses through subjective thermal sensations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that children and parents provide different reports of children’s victimization, with children often reporting more victimization. However, the reason for this differential reporting is unclear. This study explored two types of social biases (emotion recognition and perceived impairment) in parents and children as possible reasons underlying differential reporting. Six- to 10-year-old children and one of their parents were tested in a lab. Testing included subjective measures of parent alexithymic traits, child perceived impairment from victimization, and child- and parent-reported frequency of children’s peer victimization and internalizing and externalizing difficulties. Parents and children also completed an objective measure of emotion recognition. Both types of social bias significantly predicted reports of children’s peer victimization frequency as well as internalizing and externalizing difficulties, as rated by parents and children. Moreover, child perceived impairment bias, rather than parent emotion bias, best predicted differential reporting of peer victimization. Finally, a significant interaction demonstrated that the influence of child perceived impairment bias on differential reporting was most salient in the presence of parent emotion bias. This underscores the importance of expanding interventions for victimized youth to include the restructuring of social biases.