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Sustained attention, a key cognitive skill that improves during childhood and adolescence, tends to be worse in some emotional and behavioural disorders. Sustained attention is typically studied in non-affective task contexts; here, we used a novel task to index performance in affective versus neutral contexts across adolescence (N = 465; ages 11–18). We asked whether: (i) performance would be worse in negative versus neutral task contexts; (ii) performance would improve with age; (iii) affective interference would be greater in younger adolescents; (iv) adolescents at risk for depression and higher in anxiety would show overall worse performance; and (v) would show differential performance in negative contexts. Results indicated that participants performed more poorly in negative contexts and showed age-related performance improvements. Those at risk of depression performed more poorly than those at lower risk. However, there was no difference between groups as a result of affective context. For anxiety there was no difference in performance as a function of severity. However, those with higher anxiety showed less variance in their reaction times to negative stimuli than those with lower anxiety. One interpretation is that moderate levels of emotional arousal associated with anxiety make individuals less susceptible to the distracting effects of negative stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is concern that a growing number of individuals, especially adolescents, are diagnosing themselves with mental disorders. However, there has been limited empirical research into this phenomenon: why it might happen, what the costs and benefits might be, and what the implications are for anyone who is experiencing distress. To address this, this study used reflexive thematic analysis to explore attitudes toward self-diagnosis of mental disorders as expressed on the discussion website Reddit. From 1195 user comments, five themes were generated: (1) There is tension over who is the expert in diagnosis ; (2) Self-diagnosis is a route to self-understanding in an inaccessible system ; (3) Teenagers on social media are the problem ; (4) Self-diagnosis can become self-fulfilling , and (5) Now no one is believed . Together, these themes highlight that there is considerable anger, derision, and criticism targeted toward people who self-diagnose with mental disorders, and that this is particularly targeted toward adolescents who self-diagnose on or as a result of social media. The findings have important implications for understanding how to support and validate people, particularly adolescents, who (sometimes accurately) use diagnostic language to express how they are feeling., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

People exhibit marked individual variation in their ability to exercise cognitive control in affectively charged situations. Affective control is typically assessed in laboratory settings by comparing performance in carefully constructed executive tasks performed in both affectively neutral and affectively charged contexts. There is some evidence that affective control undergoes significant improvement throughout adolescence, though it is unclear how adolescents deemed at risk of developing depression exercise affective control despite poor affective control being identified as a contributing factor to ongoing mental ill health in adulthood. The present study therefore investigated affective control in a large ( n = 425) sample of adolescents (aged 11-18 years) collected from 2016 to 2018. A simultaneous visuospatial search and written storage working memory (WM) capacity task was carried out to examine affective control, using affectively neutral and affectively negative social images as the task-irrelevant distractors. Overall, WM capacity increased as a function of age across both affective conditions. Moreover, we report a significant difference between affective conditions, with WM capacity slightly lower during trials with affectively negative social scenes, relative to neutral. Performance in each condition and the performance "cost" for completing the task in negative relative to neutral conditions was not modulated by depressive symptoms. Furthermore, age did not predict performance cost, irrespective of depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that WM capacity is relatively robust against socioaffective contexts and mood in adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescence is a sensitive period for categorical self-concept development, which affects the ability to take others' perspectives, which might differ from one's own, and how self-related information is memorized. Little is known about whether these two processes are related in adolescence. The current study recruited 97 male participants aged 11-35 years. Using a self-referential memory task, we found that younger participants were less prone to recognize previously seen town-related adjectives, compared to self-related adjectives. However, this age-related reduction in recognition bias was unrelated to accurate memory performance. Using the Director task to assess perspective taking, we found an age-related decrease in egocentric biases in perspective taking from adolescence to early adulthood (i.e., perspective taking abilities improved with age). However, there was no evidence that these two processes were related. Overall, our findings suggest that male adolescents display parallel but independent age-related changes in self-referential biases in memory and perspective taking., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Reward processing undergoes marked changes in adolescence, with social interactions representing a powerful source of reward. Reward processing is also an important factor in the development of social anxiety disorder, a condition that most commonly first appears in adolescence. This study investigated the relationship between age, social reward processing and social anxiety in a cross-sectional sample of female participants (N = 80) aged 13-34. Participants performed two versions of a probabilistic reward anticipation task, in which a speeded response could result in different probabilities of receiving either social or monetary rewarding feedback. Participants also completed self-report assessments of social reward value, trait anxiety and social anxiety symptoms. At high reward probabilities, performance on both reward tasks showed a quadratic effect of age, with the fastest responses at around 22-24 years. A similar quadratic effect was found for subjective liking ratings of both reward stimuli, although these were not associated with performance. Social anxiety was not associated with a subjective liking of the rewards but did predict performance on both tasks at all reward probabilities. Age-related variation in reward processing was not accounted for by age-related variation in social anxiety symptoms, suggesting that, while both social anxiety and age were associated with variation in reward processing, their effects were largely independent. Together, these findings provide evidence that social reward processing continues to develop across adolescence and that individual differences in social anxiety should be considered when considering reward sensitivity during this period., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04551-y., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s) 2023.)

Social interactions like group inclusion, receiving praise, or treating others kindly can be motivating and enjoyable. Social reward sensitivity, including motivation and enjoyment, varies between individuals. In early childhood, this variation may relate to differences in social experience and development. Social reward questionnaires have been developed to measure individual differences in social enjoyment for adolescents and adults, but no early childhood measure currently exists. Here, we describe the development and validation of the parent/caregiver report Social Reward Questionnaire-Early Childhood (SRQ-EC) for children aged 3-7 years. The SRQ-EC was developed to quantify both wanting (motivation) and liking (enjoyment) of social rewards, which were considered in separate factor models. For wanting and liking models, exploratory ( N = 126) and confirmatory ( N = 344) factor analyses identified that three subscales best represented early childhood social reward sensitivity, which were: Sociability (large groups), Admiration (praise and positive attention), and Prosocial Interactions and Compliance (kindness and rule following). SRQ-EC subscales were internally consistent (ω = 0.76-0.91, α = 0.75-0.88, mean interitem correlations = 0.38-0.60) with high test-retest reliability over 2-weeks ( r = 0.66-0.85, all p < .001). Subscales differentially associated with other social behavior and personality measures, suggesting construct validity. SRQ-EC subscale scores further showed differential and significant associations with autistic-like traits in nonautistic children. These results suggest that SRQ-EC subscale scores are reliable for assessing social reward sensitivity during early childhood, which could offer key developmental insight regarding interindividual variation in early social behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Mindfulness training programmes have shown to encourage prosocial behaviours and reduce antisocial tendencies in adolescents. However, less is known about whether training affects susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence. The current study investigated the effect of mindfulness training (compared with an active control) on self-reported prosocial and antisocial tendencies and susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence. 465 adolescents aged 11-16 years were randomly allocated to one of two training programmes. Pre- and post-training, participants completed a social influence task. Self-reported likelihood of engaging in prosocial and antisocial behaviours did not change post-training, and regardless of training group, participants showed a higher propensity for prosocial influence than for antisocial influence. Finally, participants were less influenced by antisocial ratings following both training programmes., (© 2022 The Authors. Infant and Child Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Multiple in vitro models were utilised to evaluate the biofilm management capabilities of seven commercially-available wound dressings, varying in composition and antibacterial ingredients, to reduce common aerobic, anaerobic, and multispecies biofilms. The Center for Disease Control bioreactor was used to evaluate single species Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) 24 and 48 hours biofilms, as well as a multispecies biofilm consisting of these two organisms in addition to Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis). As wound biofilms often exist in hypoxic wound environments, a direct contact anaerobic model system was used to evaluate efficacy on Bacteroides fragilis (B. fragilis). Biofilm control was evaluated against P. aeruginosa in the drip flow bioreactor model, where a constant flow of proteinaceous media is used to create a more challenging and wound-like model. The results demonstrated that biofilm management capabilities varied amongst wound dressings. Two dressings, a controlled-release iodine foam dressing and a silver nanocrystalline dressing, showed potent >4 log reductions in recovered organisms compared with untreated controls in all biofilm models evaluated. The effectiveness of other dressings to manage bioburden varied between dressing, test organism, and model system. A silver foam dressing showed moderate biofilm control in some models. However, biofilm exposure to methylene blue and gentian violet-containing foam dressings showed negligible log reductions in all in vitro biofilm methods examined. The data outlined in this in vitro study support the use of the iodine foam dressing for wounds with infection and biofilm., (© 2022 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc (3M) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Previous research suggests that mindfulness training (MT) appears effective at improving mental health in young people. MT is proposed to work through improving executive control in affectively laden contexts. However, it is unclear whether MT improves such control in young people. MT appears to mitigate mental health difficulties during periods of stress, but any mitigating effects against COVID-related difficulties remain unexamined., Objective: To evaluate whether MT (intervention) versus psychoeducation (Psy-Ed; control), implemented in after-school classes: (1) Improves affective executive control; and/or (2) Mitigates negative mental health impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: A parallel randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted (Registration: https://osf.io/d6y9q/; Funding: Wellcome (WT104908/Z/14/Z, WT107496/Z/15/Z)). 460 students aged 11-16 years were recruited and randomised 1:1 to either MT (N=235) or Psy-Ed (N=225) and assessed preintervention and postintervention on experimental tasks and self-report inventories of affective executive control. The RCT was then extended to evaluate protective functions of MT on mental health assessed after the first UK COVID-19 lockdown., Findings: Results provided no evidence that the version of MT used here improved affective executive control after training or mitigated negative consequences on mental health of the COVID-19 pandemic relative to Psy-Ed. No adverse events were reported., Conclusions: There is no evidence that MT improves affective control or downstream mental health of young people during stressful periods., Clinical Implications: We need to identify interventions that can enhance affective control and thereby young people's mental health., Competing Interests: Competing interests: WK is the Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre and receives royalties for several books on mindfulness. JMGW is former Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre and receives royalties for several books on mindfulness., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)

Treatment of chronic wounds that are at risk of infection, or that are infected, require the use of antimicrobial dressings, most often those that contain silver. Silver exerts its antimicrobial effects by binding to multiple cellular components and, as such, bacterial resistance to it is low; however, molecular silver resistance has been documented and is attributed to the presence of the sil operon or changes in genes encoding porin and efflux pump expression. The aim of this study was to evaluate spontaneous silver resistance development in common opportunistic pathogens, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and Enterococcus cloacae, as well as resistance development when exposed to subtherapeutic concentrations over a prolonged period. Furthermore, following silver resistance development, cross-resistance to several classes of antibiotics was evaluated. Following exposure of the strains to silver sulfadiazine (SSD) at two times and four times minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), the mutation rate was <1010 colony forming unit (CFU)/mL. Serial passage of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa in subinhibitory concentrations of SSD selected for no resistant mutants. The SSD MIC of E. cloacae increased past the solubility limit of SSD at serial passage 17. MIC testing of this isolate showed a >2048-fold increase in MIC to silver in comparison to the parent strain. MIC testing of the serial passage isolates demonstrated no cross-resistance to antibiotics from six different classes. Overall, the results of this study show resistance development to silver is low and, if it does occur, it does not confer resistance to several antibiotic classes. However, as this study was carried out with a small number of strains, a study with a larger panel of strains and sequencing of the strains to determine the exact mechanism of resistance would be needed to investigate the threat of silver resistance further.

Background: After aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), thrombus forms over the cerebral cortex and releases hemoglobin. When extracellular, hemoglobin is toxic to neurones. High local hemoglobin concentration overwhelms the clearance capacity of macrophages expressing the hemoglobin-haptoglobin scavenger receptor CD163. We hypothesized that iron is deposited in the cortex after SAH and would associate with outcome., Methods: Two complementary cross-sectional studies were conducted. Postmortem brain tissue from 39 SAH (mean postictal interval of 9 days) and 22 control cases was studied with Perls' staining for iron and immunolabeling for CD163, ADAM17 (a disintegrin and metallopeptidase domain 17), CD68, and Iba1 (ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1). In parallel, to study the persistence of cortical iron and its relationship to clinical outcome, we conducted a susceptibility-weighted imaging study of 21 SAH patients 6 months postictus and 10 control individuals., Results: In brain tissue from patients dying soon after SAH, the distribution of iron deposition followed a gradient that diminished with distance from the brain surface. Iron was located intracellularly (mainly in macrophages, and occasionally in microglia, neurones, and glial cells) and extracellularly. Microglial activation and motility markers were increased after SAH, with a similar inward diminishing gradient. In controls, there was a positive correlation between CD163 and iron, which was lost after SAH. In SAH survivors, iron-sensitive imaging 6 months post-SAH confirmed persistence of cortical iron, related to the size and location of the blood clot immediately after SAH, and associated with cognitive outcome., Conclusions: After SAH, iron deposits in the cortical gray matter in a pattern that reflects proximity to the brain surface and thrombus and is related to cognitive outcome. These observations support therapeutic manoeuvres which prevent the permeation of hemoglobin into the cortex after SAH.

Lockdowns and school closures deprive adolescents of typical social interactions. In this NeuroView, we explore how the quality of existing peer relationships might moderate-both positively and negatively-the impact of these restrictions on adolescent mental health, and we highlight the importance of individual differences., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests S.J.B.’s recent and current relevant committees and consultancies are The Times Education Commission (2021–), the Rethinking Assessment advisory group (2020–), chair of the Royal Society of Biology Education and Science Policy committee (2018–2021), school governor (2017–), and expert witness for Just for Kids Law (2017–)., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Paranoia is the exaggerated belief that harm will occur and is intended by others. Although commonly framed in terms of attributing malicious intent to others, recent work has explored how paranoia also affects social decision-making, using economic games. Previous work found that paranoia is associated with decreased cooperation and increased punishment in the Dictator Game (where cooperating and punishing involve paying a cost to respectively increase or decrease a partner's income). These findings suggest that paranoia might be associated with variation in subjective reward from positive and/or negative social decision-making, a possibility we explore using a preregistered experiment with U.S.-based participants (n = 2,004). Paranoia was associated with increased self-reported enjoyment of negative social interactions and decreased self-reported enjoyment of prosocial interactions. More paranoid participants attributed stronger harmful intent to a partner. Harmful intent attributions and the enjoyment of negative social interactions positively predicted the tendency to pay to punish the partner. Cooperation was positively associated with the tendency to enjoy prosocial interactions and increased with participant age. There was no main effect of paranoia on tendency to cooperate in this setting. We discuss these findings in light of previous research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Biofilm formation in wounds can lead to increased inflammation, infection and delayed wound healing. Additionally, biofilms show increased recalcitrance to antimicrobials compared to their planktonic counterparts making them difficult to manage and treat. Biofilms are frequently polymicrobial, consisting of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, as well as fungi and yeasts. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a concentrated surfactant gel with antibacterial preservative agents (CSG) against wound relevant opportunistic pathogens, including an aerobic biofilm, anaerobic biofilm and multispecies biofilm. The CSG was added to a 48 h anaerobic biofilm of Bacteroides fragilis, a 24 h multispecies biofilm of Acinetobacter baumannii, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis and a 24 h biofilm of Pseudomonas aeruginosa grown in an in vitro wound relevant environment. Following a contact time of 24 h with the CSG, the bacterial cell density of the biofilms was reduced by 2-4 log in comparison to an untreated control. The results demonstrate the ability of the CSG to disrupt wound relevant biofilms and support the use of the CSG in the clinic to treat wounds caused by biofilm related infections.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in the widespread implementation of social distancing measures. Adhering to social distancing may be particularly challenging for adolescents, for whom interaction with peers is especially important. We argue that young people's capacity to encourage each other to observe social distancing rules should be harnessed., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate if a poloxamer-based concentrated surfactant gel (CSG), containing antibacterial preservative agents, had the ability to reduce the levels of biofilm extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), specifically proteins and extracellular DNA (eDNA), as these are found to be the most immunogenic, within an in vitro biofilm., Materials and Methods: A 24-hour biofilm of P. aeruginosa ATCC 15442 was grown in a 12-well plate and treated for 24 hours with a CSG coated onto Multisorb® (BSN Medical Limited, Hull, United Kingdom). EPS were extracted from each sample using 1M sodium chloride. Protein and DNA in EPS extractions was determined quantitatively using the Pierce™ Coomassie (Bradford) protein assay kit and a microplate SYTO 9™ (ThermoFisher Scientific, Paisley, United Kingdom) fluorescent assay, respectively. Protein and DNA was also determined qualitatively using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM)., Results: Following 24-hour growth of P. aeruginosa ATCC 15442 biofilm, 7.38mg/mL protein was isolated from the extracted EPS in the untreated control. In comparison, the protein concentration found in the extracted EPS from biofilms treated with a CSG was 6.39mg/mL, showing a 13.4% reduction. Following 24-hour growth of P. aeruginosa ATCC 15442 biofilm, 11.71mg/mL eDNA was isolated from the extracted EPS in the untreated control. In comparison, the eDNA concentration found in the extracted EPS from biofilms treated with a CSG was 0.65mg/mL, showing a 94.5% reduction. Following statistical analysis of the data, the decrease in protein isolated following CSG treatment was within error; however, the decrease in eDNA isolated was statistically significant, showing the ability of the CSG to break up biofilm EPS in vitro. Using confocal laser microscopy and staining techniques, a large quantity of protein and eDNA could be observed in samples from the untreated control. In comparison, a reduction in EPS protein and eDNA was observed in samples that had been treated with a CSG., Conclusion: The data presented here potentially shows the ability of a CSG to reduce components of the P. aeruginosa biofilm EPS. The reduction in eDNA following CSG treatment may contribute to the dispersal of the biofilm, potentially increasing the susceptibility of it to antimicrobials, and should be explored further.

Adolescence is a sensitive period for socio-cultural processing and a vast literature has established that adolescents are exceptionally attuned to the social context. Theoretical accounts posit that the social reward of social interactions plays a large role in adolescent sensitivity to the social context. Yet, to date it is unclear how sensitivity to social reward develops across adolescence and young adulthood and whether there are gender differences. The present cross-sectional study ( N = 271 participants, age 11-28 years) examined age and gender effects in self-reported sensitivity to different types of social rewards. In order to achieve this aim, the Dutch Social Reward Questionnaire for Adolescents was validated. Findings revealed that each type of social reward was characterized by distinct age and gender effects. Feeling rewarded by gaining positive attention from others showed a peak in late adolescence, while enjoying positive reciprocal relationships with others showed a linear increase with age. Enjoying cruel behavior toward others decreased with age for girls, while boys showed no changes with age and reported higher levels across ages. Reward from giving others control showed a mid-adolescent dip, while enjoying group interactions did not show any changes with age. Taken together, the results imply that the social reward of social interactions is a nuanced and complex construct, which encompasses multiple components that show unique effects with age and gender. These findings enable us to gain further traction on the ubiquitous effects of the social context on decision-making in adolescent's lives.

Background: Mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) are an increasingly popular way of attempting to improve the behavioural, cognitive and mental health outcomes of children and adolescents, though there is a suggestion that enthusiasm has moved ahead of the evidence base. Most evaluations of MBIs are either uncontrolled or nonrandomized trials. This meta-analysis aims to establish the efficacy of MBIs for children and adolescents in studies that have adopted a randomized, controlled trial (RCT) design., Methods: A systematic literature search of RCTs of MBIs was conducted up to October 2017. Thirty-three independent studies including 3,666 children and adolescents were included in random effects meta-analyses with outcome measures categorized into cognitive, behavioural and emotional factors. Separate random effects meta-analyses were completed for the seventeen studies (n = 1,762) that used an RCT design with an active control condition., Results: Across all RCTs we found significant positive effects of MBIs, relative to controls, for the outcome categories of Mindfulness, Executive Functioning, Attention, Depression, Anxiety/Stress and Negative Behaviours, with small effect sizes (Cohen's d), ranging from .16 to .30. However, when considering only those RCTs with active control groups, significant benefits of an MBI were restricted to the outcomes of Mindfulness (d = .42), Depression (d = .47) and Anxiety/Stress (d = .18) only., Conclusions: This meta-analysis reinforces the efficacy of using MBIs for improving the mental health and wellbeing of youth as assessed using the gold standard RCT methodology. Future RCT evaluations should incorporate scaled-up definitive trial designs to further evaluate the robustness of MBIs in youth, with an embedded focus on mechanisms of action., (© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Background: Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) survivors experience significant neurological disability, some of which is under-recognized by neurovascular clinical teams. We set out to objectively determine the occurrence of hearing impairment after SAH, characterize its peripheral and/or central origin, and investigate likely pathological correlates., Methods: In a case-control study ( n  = 41), participants were asked about new onset hearing difficulty 3 months post-SAH, compared with pre-SAH. Formal audiological assessment included otoscopy, pure tone audiometry, a questionnaire identifying symptoms of peripheral hearing loss and/or auditory processing disorder, and a test of speech understanding in noise. A separate cohort ( n  = 21) underwent quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) of the auditory cortex 6 months after SAH, for correlation with hearing difficulty., Results: Twenty three percent of SAH patients reported hearing difficulty that was new in onset post-SAH. SAH patients had poorer pure tone thresholds compared to controls. The proportion of patients with peripheral hearing loss as defined by the World Health Organization and British Audiological Society was however not increased, compared to controls. All SAH patients experienced symptoms of auditory processing disorder post-SAH, with speech-in-noise test scores significantly worse versus controls. Iron deposition in the auditory cortex was higher in patients reporting hearing difficulty versus those who did not., Conclusion: This study firmly establishes hearing impairment as a frequent clinical feature after SAH. It primarily consists of an auditory processing disorder, mechanistically linked to iron deposition in the auditory cortex. Neurovascular teams should inquire about hearing, and refer SAH patients for audiological assessment and management., Competing Interests: Nothing to report.

Social influence occurs when an individual's thoughts or behaviours are affected by other people. There are significant age effects on susceptibility to social influence, typically a decline from childhood to adulthood. Most research has focused on negative aspects of social influence, such as peer influence on risky behaviour, particularly in adolescence. The current study investigated the impact of social influence on the reporting of prosocial behaviour (any act intended to help another person). In this study, 755 participants aged 8-59 completed a computerized task in which they rated how likely they would be to engage in a prosocial behaviour. Afterwards, they were told the average rating (in fact fictitious) that other participants had given to the same question, and then were asked to rate the same behaviour again. We found that participants' age affected the extent to which they were influenced by other people: children (8-11 years), young adolescents (12-14 years) and mid-adolescents (15-18 years) all significantly changed their ratings, while young adults (19-25 years) and adults (26-59 years) did not. Across the three youngest age groups, children showed the most susceptibility to prosocial influence, changing their reporting of prosocial behaviour the most. The study provides evidence that younger people's increased susceptibility to social influence can have positive outcomes., (© 2018 The Authors. Developmental Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Humans are better at integrating desirable information into their beliefs than undesirable information. This asymmetry poses an evolutionary puzzle, as it can lead to an underestimation of risk and thus failure to take precautionary action. Here, we suggest a mechanism that can speak to this conundrum. In particular, we show that the bias vanishes in response to perceived threat in the environment. We report that an improvement in participants' tendency to incorporate bad news into their beliefs is associated with physiological arousal in response to threat indexed by galvanic skin response and self-reported anxiety. This pattern of results was observed in a controlled laboratory setting (Experiment I), where perceived threat was manipulated, and in firefighters on duty (Experiment II), where it naturally varied. Such flexibility in how individuals integrate information may enhance the likelihood of responding to warnings with caution in environments rife with threat, while maintaining a positivity bias otherwise, a strategy that can increase well-being. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The human tendency to be overly optimistic has mystified scholars and lay people for decades: How could biased beliefs have been selected over unbiased beliefs? Scholars have suggested that although the optimism bias can lead to negative outcomes, including financial collapse and war, it can also facilitate health and productivity. Here, we demonstrate that a mechanism generating the optimism bias, namely asymmetric information integration, evaporates under threat. Such flexibility could result in enhanced caution in dangerous environments while supporting an optimism bias otherwise, potentially increasing well-being., (Copyright © 2018 Garrett et al.)

Functional outcome after subarachnoid haemorrhage has traditionally been assessed using scales developed for other neurological conditions. The modified Rankin score and Glasgow Outcome Scale are most commonly used. Employment of these scales in subarachnoid haemorrhage is hampered by well recognized limitations. We set out to develop and validate a new condition-specific subarachnoid haemorrhage outcome tool (SAHOT). Items addressing diverse aspects of the impact of subarachnoid haemorrhage were collected during focus groups involving patients, next-of-kin and multidisciplinary professionals involved in subarachnoid haemorrhage management. After a series of iterative revisions, the resultant questionnaire was applied to patients and their next-of-kin at 1, 3 and 6 months post-subarachnoid haemorrhage. Rasch methodology was used to finalize the structure of the questionnaire and explore the extent to which SAHOT scores met Rasch-based criteria of successful measurement. The SAHOT was further assessed using traditional scale evaluation techniques, and validated in a second separate subarachnoid haemorrhage patient cohort. The final SAHOT included 56 items dealing with cognitive, physical, and behavioural/psychological consequences of subarachnoid haemorrhage. Rasch analysis indicated the scale successfully measured functional outcome post-subarachnoid haemorrhage. Three item scoring categories produced the best scale performance. There was no evidence of differential item functioning between patients and next-of-kin. The SAHOT was found to be acceptable, have good convergent and divergent validity, good discrimination and excellent responsiveness. It was successfully validated in a second subarachnoid haemorrhage patient cohort. The SAHOT offers the first subarachnoid haemorrhage-specific scientifically robust outcome measure with potential utility in neurovascular clinical services and research studies.

Adolescence is a period of social, psychological and biological development. During adolescence, relationships with others become more complex, peer relationships are paramount and social cognition develops substantially. These psychosocial changes are paralleled by structural and functional changes in the brain. Existing research in adolescent neurocognitive development has focused largely on averages, but this obscures meaningful individual variation in development. In this Perspective, we propose that the field should now move toward studying individual differences. We start by discussing individual variation in structural and functional brain development. To illustrate the importance of considering individual differences in development, we consider three sources of variation that contribute to neurocognitive processing: socioeconomic status, culture and peer environment. To assess individual differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories, large-scale longitudinal datasets are required. Future developmental neuroimaging studies should attempt to characterize individual differences to move toward a more nuanced understanding of neurocognitive changes during adolescence.

Adolescents are particularly susceptible to social influence. Here, we investigated the effect of social influence on risk perception in 590 participants aged eight to fifty-nine-years tested in the United Kingdom. Participants rated the riskiness of everyday situations, were then informed about the rating of these situations from a (fictitious) social-influence group consisting of teenagers or adults, and then re-evaluated the situation. Our first aim was to attempt to replicate our previous finding that young adolescents are influenced more by teenagers than by adults. Second, we investigated the social-influence effect when the social-influence group's rating was more, or less, risky than the participants' own risk rating. Younger participants were more strongly influenced by teenagers than by adults, but only when teenagers rated a situation as more risky than did participants. This suggests that stereotypical characteristics of the social-influence group - risk-prone teenagers - interact with social influence on risk perception., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

During adolescence, social interactions are a potent source of reward. However, no measure of social reward value exists for this age group. In this study, we adapted the adult Social Reward Questionnaire, which we had previously developed and validated, for use with adolescents. Participants aged 11-16 ( n  = 568; 50% male) completed the Social Reward Questionnaire-Adolescent Version (SRQ-A), alongside measures of personality traits-five-factor model (FFM) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits-for construct validity purposes. A confirmatory factor analysis of the SRQ-A supported a five-factor structure (Comparative Fit Index = 0.90; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.07), equating to five questionnaire subscales: enjoyment of Admiration, Negative Social Potency, Passivity, Prosocial Interactions and Sociability. Associations with FFM and CU traits were in line with what is seen for adult samples, providing support for the meaning of SRQ-A subscales in adolescents. In particular, adolescents with high levels of CU traits showed an 'inverted' pattern of social reward, in which being cruel is enjoyable and being kind is not. Gender invariance was also assessed and was partially supported. The SRQ-A is a valid, reliable measure of individual differences in social reward in adolescents., Competing Interests: We have no competing interests.