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Food information has a high reward value for human beings, and may be more so for those who are overweight or obese. Stimuli with high reward value may be particularly conspicuous, demanding our attention even when we are attending to something else. Yet, the nature and neural signals of potential biased processing of food information remains unclear. Moreover, despite decades of research, a reliable measure of food information processing remains elusive, making it a methodological bottleneck in obesity and disordered eating research. To address the nature of biased attention processing, we ask 1) how attention is biased toward two cardinal properties of food information, namely, healthfulness and tastiness, even though the food information is irrelevant to the task at hand; and 2) whether and how such processing might be dependent on the demandingness of the central task (i.e., perceptual load). In our previous study which has been preregistered, we recruited 32 participants and measured their responses to infrequent visual food information embedded in streams of other visual objects in EEG, specifically, by using a variant of steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), oddball fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS). The infrequent food objects (i.e., oddballs) are one of four different combinations in different trials based on healthfulness and tastiness: 1) high healthfulness and high tastiness; 1) high healthfulness and low tastiness; 3) low healthfulness and high tastiness; and 4) low healthfulness and low tastiness. The perceptual load of the central task is either low (detection of a certain color of letters) or high (detection of certain combinations of color and identity of letters). In this study, the results demonstrated robust and reliable implicit categorization of food information at the individual level for all 32 participants, with the effect not modulated by perceptual load or tastiness (but might be by healthfulness). Since oddball FPVS is a novel paradigm applied to studying food information processing, it would be critical to replicate the findings in order to develop FPVS as a reliable measure of food information processing as well as apply this tool to obesity or other clinical sample with eating disorders. In particular, the modulating effect of healthfulness observed was not salient and requires further evidence. Furthermore, the lack of modulation by tastiness and perceptual load also warrants replication. Therefore, we plan to conduct a replication study with the same paradigm and sample size to validate our previous findings.

Perceptual decision making is an action to choose an option among a list of available choices, typically from two choices over a short time period (e.g. recognising if a traffic light is red or green during driving). Computational, neural, cognitive and behavioural theories have merged to describe that this dynamic behaviour of perceptual decision making is a consequence of competitions between accumulating sensory evidence of available stimuli (e.g. gradually recognising that a traffic light is red because perceptual information of red light reaches a decisional threshold earlier than that of green light) [for a review, see 1-4]. Similar processes have been described by those theories in a voluntary condition where one is given a full control to decide to choose one stimulus over a list of available options (or even given a choice to choose none), competing between accumulating voluntary decisions within one's mind, which is referred to as an intentional (and also referred to as a voluntary) decision making [e.g. 5-7]. In our first study, we used the perceptual decision making task of the Serial Reaction Time Task or SRTT with an involuntary (i.e. choosing a highlighted cue while avoiding three other unhighlighted cues) and a voluntary or freely-selectable (i.e. choosing one cue among all of four highlighted cues) conditions. This study demonstrated that the voluntary condition showed larger RT improvement on tapping a keyboard key spatially corresponding to a visual cue presented on a computer screen after a series of the tapping training than in the involuntary condition. This indicates that cognitive processes of choosing a choice through one’s mind alone leads to faster learning in such perceptual decision making task than inducing an action through perceiving a highlighted cue that guides which key to choose. Based on the initial finding, our second study reduced a number of free choices from fully selectable four options to two freely available and two inhibiting options in the voluntary condition. In this new study setting, participants’ reaction time became slower at the beginning of training, but the voluntary condition still showed larger RT improvement across repetitions of training than in the involuntary condition. In addition to that, we set one of the two freely selectable choices following a same sequential pattern as the fixed sequence pattern in the involuntary condition. This design increased a likelihood of choosing the free choice more frequently and speeded up participants’ reaction time faster than the other free choice. This suggests that trained or familiar sequential pattern leads to a preferred or biased choice within such intentional decision making task, and participants’ reaction speed might be boosted by skipping the additional decision making processes of inhibiting an action to certain choices and directly moving into the decision processes of choosing a choice underlying the trained sequential pattern in the involuntary condition. The finding in the second study raises a new question: how important are the trained sequential pattern (i.e. trained sequential pattern in the involuntary or fully fixed sequential condition) and participants’ intentional choices (i.e. choices among free choices in the voluntary condition) in this dynamic decision making task? Specifically, which factor produces a stronger effect on the dynamic decision making task? Do those effects interact each other (e.g. effects are additive or competitive)? Do those effects link to and predict subsequent decision making patterns? If so, which factor leads to a better link and prediction? Is the link/prediction better when combined, or separated? Here, our third study aims to examine these questions, by assigning the two free choice - two inhibiting choice setting to all trials. In this new study design, the fully fixed sequential condition (i.e. previously classified as an involuntary condition) follows a fixed sequential pattern with a pair of two freely selectable choices so that participants will learn a fixed sequential pattern of pairs, but they also need to make a further intentional decision between the two choices. We will test if the trained pattern of pairs of two free choices or participants’ intentional choices between the pair lead to a better performance (e.g. faster RTs or accuracy) individually or their effects are interactive. Also, we will examine if these effects link to and predict subsequent decision making patterns.

Stage 1 IPA at PCI RR

Perceptual decision making is an action to choose an option among a list of available choices, typically from two choices over a short time period (e.g. recognising if a traffic light is red or green during driving). Computational, neural, cognitive and behavioral theories have merged to describe that this dynamic behavior of perceptual decision making is a consequence of competitions between accumulating sensory evidence of available stimuli (e.g. gradually recognising that a traffic light is red because perceptual information of red light reaches a decisional threshold earlier than that of green light) [for a review, see 1-4]. Similar processes have been described by those theories in a voluntary condition where one is given a full control to decide one stimulus over a list of available options (or even given a choice to choose none), competing between voluntary decisions within one's mind, which is referred to as an intentional (and also referred to as a voluntary) decision making [e.g. 5-7]. In this study, we plan to utilise a modified version of the Serial Reaction Time Task or SRTT, where an involuntary (i.e. choosing a highlighted cue) and a voluntary or freely-selectable (i.e. choosing a cue among highlighted cues) conditions exist in a perceptual decision making task of tapping keyboard keys spatially corresponding to visual cues presented on a computer screen. Here we aim to examine how the coexistence of the involuntary and the voluntary conditions interacts with performance of the perceptual decision making task. [See the "Other" section for references.]

The unveiling of Optimus, the Tesla Bot, has raised concerns about the potential risks associated with humanoid robots. However, Tesla has yet to reveal how Optimus will interact with humans. This paper advocates for the integration of chatbots, based on large language models, into Optimus to facilitate human interaction. The paper argues that human brains operate as pattern recognition systems and that emotions serve as control algorithms that enable social coexistence. The current state of chatbot interactions is discussed, highlighting their emphasis on realism and practicality, rather than amicable social living. The paper elucidates the role of emotions in the brain, specifically the use of fear and compassion as fail-safe controls for communal living. Fear and compassion have been instrumental in preventing deadly conflicts, allowing billions of humans to coexist peacefully. This paper proposes that the chatbots utilized by Optimus prioritize emotional control to align with human values and objectives.

In the current study, we plan to validate two versions of a toddler-friendly language localizer in adults using fMRI.

This preregistration describes additional analyses to characterize our LIT tasks in adults using naturalistic and experimental fMRI analytic approaches.

Condititioned pain modulation study using pressure pain and simultaneous brain and spinal cord imaging

Investigating whether intake of energydrinks (caffeine with/without sugar) affects cognitive effort, paradigm used: COGED

Most of our daily life behaviours are affected by culture and regional differences in behaviours are often guided by local cultural factors. The rising field of cultural neuroscience points towards the complex effects of culture on the neurobiological underpinnings of behaviour, including substance use and abuse. While there is substantial evidence that cognitive processes play a role in substance use disorder and that cultural factors could influence both behaviour and brain processes, no research has been conducted to assess how cultural factors play a role in the cognitive processes underlying substance use. In this study we assessed the association between WM performance and related brain activity and how cultural attitudes towards cannabis use affect these associations in (near-)daily cannabis users from Texas (TX-US) and the Netherlands (NL).

The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, increasing economic inequality, and climate change are all placing people under immense pressure, and mental health issues are increasing worldwide. There is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the factors that can protect and promote mental health. Mood disorders, cognitive decline, and physical health interact with each other, resulting in disabilities that place major economic burdens on the medical system. The population of individuals over the age of 80 years is increasing worldwide and this will lead to increases in the demand for health and social care for the elderly. Longitudinal data have suggested that mood disorders, such as depression, may be a prodrome of dementia and may account for mortality. Research into the neurocognitive factors underlying psychopathology is, therefore, urgently required to decrease the burden of cognitive decline and mood disorders on society and to favor healthy aging. The overall objective of this project is to examine how aging affects valence and ambiguity processing and whether psychopathology later in life modulates the effect of age on ambiguity processing.

Real-time fMRI neurofeedback is a method in which a person receives feedback about their neural activation with the help of fMRI, and should learn to control this activation consciously. We have developed a novel paradigm to deliver neurofeedback in which a virtual environment serves as a feedback modality. This feedback is presented through a virtual environment in which the participants see a greem meadow with trees in the background. This environment changes depending on the brain activity: it gets brighter (the sun rises) and flowers grow and bloom. In other words, the higher the brain activity in the target brain region, the brigher the environment and more flowers bloom. We want to examine the efficacy of this neurofeedback task by comparing three different conditions. In a double-blind, randomised study, the participants will reveice feedback from the target region (experimental condition), a control region (active control condition), or sham feedback. To evaluate efficacy of this paradigm we are using the following psychometric measures in our study. These will be assessed before the neurofeedback training. Questionnaires marked with a star (*) will be reassessed at 4 and 12 weeks after the neurofeedback. - *Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) - *Essener Trauma Inventory (ETI) - *Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) - *WHO Quality of Life - Brief version (WHOQOL-BREF) - *Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) - Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) - Internal External Locus of Control-4 (IE-4) - *Appetitive and Facilitative Aggression Scale (AFAS) - Facilitative aggression subscale

People’s ability to question and resist immoral orders is a fundamental aspect of individual autonomy and of democratic societies. To wit: the history of nations is plagued by horrendous acts of obedience that have caused wars and the loss of countless lives. But today, experimental research on neuro-cognitive processes that prevent an individual from being coerced into causing pain to others is almost completely inexistent. Since Milgram’s studies which mostly investigated psychological and contextual components which make an individual to obey or disobey immoral orders (Haslam et al., 2014), some studies have tried to understand how obedience to authority impacts several neuro-cognitive processes (Caspar et al., 2016, 2021; Caspar, Ioumpa, et al., 2020; Caspar, Lo Bue, et al., 2020). Yet, the neuro-cognitive processes supporting resistance to immoral orders have almost not been investigated. The major reasons to explain this lack of research were the ethical issues associated with Milgram’s studies, the difficulty to adapt Milgram’s protocol to imaging studies, and the difficulty to develop an experimental set-up to make participants disobey. By using a new protocol developed by Caspar (Caspar, 2021) addressing these issues, in the present fMRI study we will explore the neural signature of disobedience to immoral orders received by an experimenter in civilians and a military population. Based on previous studies (Caspar et al., 2021; Caspar, Ioumpa, et al., 2020), we will particularly focus on two key neuro-cognitive processes which have been proposed to be involved in (prosocial) disobedience: the sense of agency (SoA) and empathy for pain. In an exploratory fashion, we will also target other neuro-cognitive processes such as the interpersonal feeling of guilt and cognitive conflict.

Exploring the neurocognitive correlates of arithmetic can complement traditional behavioral studies and contribute to our knowledge about the underlying mechanisms. However, due to methodological restrictions, neuroimaging studies usually use single-digit rather than multi-digit arithmetic as well as simplified paradigms (yes/no) instead of open response formats. Thus, the neurocognitive underpinnings of multi-digit arithmetic have been rarely addressed in research so far. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) enables the implementation of ecologically valid production paradigms in arithmetic. In this fNIRS study, we aim to investigate whether the difficulty of multi-digit arithmetic is mainly processed in domain-general frontal areas or also in domain-specific parietal areas. A minimum required sample size of N = 50 adults is estimated for the study. During fNIRS measurements, arithmetic tasks will be conducted including addition with 0, 1 or 2 carry operations and subtraction with 0, 1 or 2 borrow operations. Additionally, working memory, arithmetic fluency, state and trait math anxiety, test anxiety, math self-concept, and math motivation will be assessed.

This study utilized resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy imaging data to examine functional connectivity and topological changes in the prefrontal-motor network before and after exercise intervention.

The project aims to gain new knowledge about neural factors associated with psychosis risk and to compare the role of these factors for groups of individuals with genetic risk for psychosis and individuals with clinical risk for psychosis.

The objective of this scoping review is to explore the knowledge regarding the effects of olfactory stimuli and the emotional processing network in brain imaging studies, to outline possible gaps in the current literature and described the methodology used.

In this study, we use an immersive virtual reality (VR) paradigm, in which we manipulate the visual feedback of a motor action to alter Sense of Agency (SoA). In the virtual environment, participants are instructed to perform a reaching movement towards an object in space (a butterfly). In 25% of trials, the movement of the virtual hand matches the movement of the participant's real hand. In the remaining trials, temporal sensorimotor conflicts (time delays) are introduced in different magnitudes (50,100,150,200 milliseconds) between participants' real hand and the virtual hand they view. Following each trial, the participant has to answer two questions: (1) "Did the movement you have seen and the movement you have made matched in time?" reflecting the "Agency question"; (2) "How confident are you?" reflecting their confidence judgments regarding each Agency question. Additionally, we record the following physiological signals: Pupilometery (pupil diameter), Oculomotion (gaze direction) and hand kinematics. Our goal is to evaluate how much information the above mentioned physiological signals hold regarding the detection of sensorimotor conflicts, as well as regarding subjective judgments of Agency. We aim to decipher the relationship between the implicit and explicit components in forming SoA. We conducted an exploratory experiment (N=35) in which we evaluated this novel data. Following analyses, we drew conclusions and turned them into hypotheses in this replication study.

Here we examine whether the adult semantic and perceptual states defined from patterns of activation evoked during our attention localizer are (1) also engaged during semantic and episodic memory retrieval, and (2) are consistent across groups of children, adolescents, and adults.

We are writing a scoping review with the goal to explore multiple visual functions, as part of the sensory system, required for specific reading skills; and to map, characterize and categorize aspects in the terminologies for reading difficulties (pathological-dyslexia vs no pathological-delay), which seem to be unclear and not yet reviewed. The emerging field of educational neuropsychology, which explains how to improve performance by improving sensory and motor systems interaction and care during child development (and after 6 years old) to stimulate brain processes to improve reading, learning and other academic and cognitive outcomes. We aim to include any language studies on typical healthy primary school children, on the association of optometric visual functions and reading; and reading difficulties (reading disorder, dyslexia, learning disorders).

In this fork of the Masking confidence boost project, we outline a new experiment with the exact same format as the last, but using a 'high level' task instead of a low level task. The outline of the previous experiment is left below. The only change is in the stimuli: the contrast of the irises will not be manipulated, but the direction of gaze will. Nine gaze directions will be tested, from 7 degrees to the left to 7 degrees to the right, in steps of 1.75 degrees.

Today, the problem of obesity and overweight is one of the most important health problems with a growing rate in different societies. Obesity means abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that can lead to complications and serious risks related to people's health. The problem of obesity has increased dramatically today, so that according to the statistics of the World Health Organization in 2017, more than 4 million people die annually as a result of being overweight or obese. Therefore, any factor that can play a role in controlling or reducing this growing global problem can also be effective in reducing the death rate by controlling or improving obesity-related diseases such as blood pressure, diabetes, fatty liver, and types of stroke. . Many factors play a role in the occurrence of obesity and overweight, some of which are acquired and some are hereditary. Today, attention to cognitive-behavioral factors and the role of the brain in the occurrence of obesity has been highly paid attention by researchers. It can be said that one of the important cognitive-behavioral factors in the occurrence of overweight is risky decisions in obese people. Decision-making is an integral part of overeating. For example, a person choosing between a chocolate cake or a plate of vegetables must decide which one to choose and then consume. On the other hand, studies conducted in recent years show that the intestinal microbial flora of obese people can play an important role in the occurrence of overweight. Recent studies have shown that non-invasive brain stimulation can cause changes in the intestinal microbiota of people. Considering the two-way communication of the pathways involved in the gut-brain microbiome axis, we want to see how much direct transcranial stimulation can affect risky decision-making, self-control and impulsivity in obese people? Can transcranial direct stimulation improve decision-making related to food choices (healthy food choices) as much as probiotic supplements? We expect that transcranial direct stimulation and probiotic supplementation can both improve decision-making (decrease risky and impulsive decisions) and increase self-control in overweight people.

This is a follow up experiment on the Reverse Hierarchy project. Previous findings suggest an interaction between the time from stimulus offset to response cue on confidence efficiency. This Experiment will test the timing effect within subjects and compare between high- and low-level tasks between subject groups. The task design is the same as the 'no-mask' condition from the project 'Masking metacognitive boost', and the short response cue duration tested in 'Fork of Applying the Reverse Hierarchy to metacognition'.

Stage 1 IPA at PCI RR

This is a follow up experiment on the Reverse Hierarchy project. Previous findings suggest an interaction between the time from stimulus offset to response cue on confidence efficiency, depending on whether observers were making a ‘high-level’ or a ‘low-level’ perceptual decision. This Experiment will attempt to replicate the effect with different stimuli: participants will make a high-level perceptual decision about the walking direction of biological motion stimuli (leftward or rightward of direct) or a low-level perceptual decision about the rotation of two dots at the centre of the biological motion stimulus (leftward or rightward rotation). The task design is the same as the project “Testing the effect of response cue timing on high- and low-level metacognition”. Two groups of participants will be recruited to test the effect of high- vs low-level perceptual decision between subjects. The effect of time from stimulus offset to response cue will be tested within subjects.

In the current study we use fNIRS to investigate neural underpinnings of cognitive and affective empathy in 3-to-5-year-olds.

Scoping review for collating and summarizing all published evidence about the effect of Virtual Reality (VR) training interventions on upper limb motor performance in children with Developmental coordination disorder (DCD).

Children have an expectation of a stable environment and consistent caregiving. Deviations in the expectable environment can have negative consequences for emotional and behavioral outcomes (Baram et al., 2012; Change et al., 2019). In addition, unpredictability is thought to have impacts on stress sensitive brain systems, including those that are important for the development of learning and memory (Glynn & Baram, 2019). In a previous set of analyses, we explored how unpredictability, in a child’s caregiving and family financial well-being, relates to white matter microstructure of fronto-limbic tracts that are also important to learning and memory (i.e., cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, and fornix). We found that age interacted with unpredictability to predict white matter microstructure, such that there was accelerated development of these tracts in children experiencing higher levels of unpredictability. In the next set of analyses, we aim to assess how unpredictability and white matter microstructure (mean diffusivity (MD), fractional anisotropy (FA)) relate to functional maturity of hippocampus, a region included in these tracts, during a naturalistic viewing task. We aim to assess whether more mature and organized white matter tracts constrain or enhance the hippocampal activity and whether this relation is impacted by experience (i.e., unpredictability). Few studies have assessed how stress impacts both structure and function of the brain or how unpredictability impacts interactions between structure and function. Assessing both structure and function together allows for a more thorough understanding of how children’s experiences ultimately influence behavioral outcomes. References: Baram, T. Z., Davis, E. P., Obenaus, A., Sandman, C. A., Small, S. L., Solodkin, A., & Stern, H. (2012). Fragmentation and Unpredictability of Early-Life Experience in Mental Disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 169(9), 907–915. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.11091347 Chang, L., Lu, H. J., Lansford, J. E., Skinner, A. T., Bornstein, M. H., Steinberg, L., Dodge, K. A., Chen, B. B., Tian, Q., Bacchini, D., Deater-Deckard, K., Pastorelli, C., Alampay, L. P., Sorbring, E., Al-Hassan, S. M., Oburu, P., Malone, P. S., Di Giunta, L., Tirado, L. M. U., & Tapanya, S. (20181203). Environmental harshness and unpredictability, life history, and social and academic behavior of adolescents in nine countries. Developmental Psychology, 55(4), 890. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000655 Glynn, L. M., & Baram, T. Z. (2019). The Influence of Unpredictable, Fragmented Parental Signals on the Developing Brain. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 53, 100736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2019.01.002

Apart from language, our gaze is arguably the most important means of communication. Where we look lets others know what we are interested in and allows them to join our focus of attention. In several studies our group investigated the neuronal basis of gaze following behavior in humans and macaques and described theGaze following patchin the posterior temporal cortex as being of central importance for this function. To our knowledge, this makes it the most promising candidate for Simon Baron-Cohen’sEye-Direction-Detector, an integral part of his influentialMindreading System.With the latter, Baron-Cohen proposed a network ofdomain-specificneurocognitive modules that are necessary to establish aTheory of Mind- the attribution of mental states to others. The tenet of domain-specificity requires that the EDD processes only and exclusively eye-like stimuli with their typical contrast and movement properties. In the present fMRI study, we aim to critically test if the GFP fulfills this criterion. Specifically, we will test if it is equivalent to or different from the visual motion processing areas located in the same part of the brain. Since our experiments capture the full-behavioral relevance of gaze-following behavior and are specifically designed to reveal an EED our results will provide strong support or rejection of a central property Baron-Cohen’s Mindreading-System –domain specificity.

Knowledge of fraction magnitude is a crucial learning milestone. However, previous work has documented that individuals, both school-aged children and educated adults, tend to struggle considerably when completing fraction tasks. Given this finding, it becomes relevant to turn to the instructional tools used to teach fractions in schools to better understand this difficulty. Traditionally, area/pie models have been the predominant instructional tools used to teach fractions. However, there has been a growing shift in recent years to utilize the number line as the primary instructional tool, as previous work has suggested that this may facilitate better learning outcomes. However, while behavioural work has highlighted the potential for number lines to be a more effective fraction instructional tool, currently there is very little known regarding how fraction models are processed on the neural level. Brain imaging has the potential to better explain the mechanisms underlying the processing of fractions represented using different formats. Thus, the present study aims to use functional brain MRI methods to examine the neural activity of adult participants in response to fractions presented in number line and area/pie model formats.

The perception of signals from the visceral organs of our body is known as interoception (Cameron, 2001; Craig, 2002; Vaitl, 1996). Individual differences in this ability have been linked to a range of psychological processes, including emotions (Cannon, 1987; Critchley & Garfinkel, 2017; James, 1884), decision-making (Dunn et al., 2010), time perception (Pollatos et al., 2014) and others. Interoception is also thought to be related to a variety of psychiatric diseases, including eating disorders (Berner et al., 2018; Khalsa et al., 2015), anxiety disorders (Ewing et al., 2017; Paulus & Stein, 2010) and others (Ceunen et al., 2016; Khalsa et al., 2018). Over the past 40 years, different tasks for evaluating interoception have been created, one of the most commonly used being the heartbeat counting task (HCT) introduced in 1978 by Dake & Anderson and popularized by Schandry (Brener & Ring, 2016; Dale & Anderson, 1978; Schandry, 1981). There have, however, been some studies criticizing the reliability and validity of the HCT. Such critics argue that the task involves non-interoceptive processes, such as estimation and guessing, rather than measuring interoception itself. They also argue that it detects a systematic under-reporting of heartbeats (Desmedt et al., 2018; Murphy, Brewer, et al., 2018; Murphy, Millgate, et al., 2018; Ring & Brener, 2018; Zamariola et al., 2018). As a result of these criticisms, different attempts to modify HCT have been applied (Ainley et al., 2014; Hart et al., 2013; Murphy, Catmur, et al., 2018). Nonetheless, the situation regarding the validity of the HCT remains unclear (Brener & Ring, 2016; Tsakiris et al., 2019). Given this methodological uncertainty, there are at least two potentially important questions regarding the HCT that require investigation. The first of these is whether the people can perform the task accurately without having a chance to familiarise themselves with it. It may be the case that initial attempts to do the task do not accurately reflect the true ability of individuals and that some practice is required. No studies have, however, been conducted to evaluate changes in interoceptive accuracy derived from HCT after multiple repetitions of the task. Some studies have tried to improve interoceptive accuracy itself by repeating the task multiple times but these have not focused on how performance changes across the different repetitions (Garfinkel et al., 2015; Grigg & Ashton, 1982; Hantas et al., 1984; Hart et al., 2013; Katkin et al., 1982; Schaefer et al., 2014; Wittkamp et al., 2018). This leaves open the important question of how much practice is required to achieve a stable “true” interoceptive accuracy value for an individual. Similarly, it leaves open the question of how much individual variability there is in the amount of practice needed to reach this stable point. Answers to both these questions are important for obtaining optimal estimates of interoceptive accuracy with the HCT in future. A second methodological question is whether HCT performance reflects interoceptive awareness per se or if it instead reflects generalised propensities for the reporting of ambiguous stimuli. This is an important distinction as a key assumption for the interpretation of the HCT is that individual performance in it reflects psychological processes that are specific to detection of the heartbeat. We must note, however, that the heartbeat is a low intensity stimulus that is difficult to perceive. Coupled with the described tendency to under-report beats (Desmedt et al., 2018), we can see a similarity to other perceptually difficult stimuli, such as visual stimuli presented at threshold. As such, an alternative interpretation of individual differences in HCT performance would be that it reflects a generalised likelihood to under-report ambiguous stimuli to a greater or lesser degree, regardless of stimulus domain. If that were the case then the interpretation of HCT performance as an indicator of interoceptive accuracy per se would not be valid. Testing whether reporting performance generalises within individuals across stimulus domains is thus a vital methodological step.

Cognitive maps are essential for human cognition. Despite growing interest, the nature of these maps remains elusive (e.g., Euclidean vs. non-Euclidean). We propose that the nature of cognitive maps could be revealed by studying how people adapt and build a map of a novel spherical environment when they can no longer rely on a familiar 2D Euclidean mapping system. In this study, participants will learn spatial layouts and perform a path integration task on both planar and spherical surfaces, using immersive virtual reality. We will examine whether participants construct a volumetric 3D map, allowing optimal path planning in both environments, or simpler Euclidean planar maps, which would predict large direction errors for long path planning and systematic biases in path integration on the sphere.

To date only a handful of studies from different groups have investigated effects of pain-modulating substances on social capabilities (see e.g., Hartmann et al., 2022; Mischkowski et al., 2016; Rütgen et al., 2015). These mainly involve placebo treatments and suggest a positive relationship between one’s own pain and emotion processing, and resulting reactions towards other people’s pain, and provide causal evidence for the theory of shared representations (Decety & Grèzes, 2006; Lamm & Majdandžić, 2015 for reviews), on the levels of behaviour, event-related potentials (Rütgen, Seidel, Riečanský, et al., 2015), fMRI (Rütgen, Seidel, Silani, et al., 2015) and neurochemistry (Rütgen et al., 2018, 2021). These studies provided evidence that a reduction of first-hand pain (via placebo analgesia) causally decreases empathy for pain. Studies on such transfer effects for prosocial behavior are even more rare (e.g., Hartmann et al., 2022). However, a systematic and comprehensive overview and summary of these studies is still missing. This review intends to close this gap by providing an overview over existing work, and also provide an outlook on future research directions. We aim to identify how directly interfering with the perception of pain in oneself affects our abilities to perceive, process and react to positive and negative emotions (including pain) in other individuals. We will include studies where 1) one’s own pain processing was directly modulated via real treatments, e.g., opioidergic and non-opioidergic pharmacological substances, but also via sham treatments and positive/negative expectations (i.e. placebo analgesia and nocebo hyperalgesia); and 2) the effects of these manipulations on social emotions and behavior (e.g., empathy, prosocial behaviour) were measured.

This document serves to preregister the scoping review protocol for "The use of performance feedback and reward to enhance upper limb motor behavior and recovery post-stroke: a scoping review"

This is a collaborative study between the Medical Optics Group at ICFO (Barcelona, Spain) and the Speech Acquisition and Perception (SAP) Group at UPF (Barcelona, Spain).

The study aims to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying psychedelic experiences by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity in individuals under the influence of psychedelics. This study will provide insights into the neural correlates of psychedelic-induced changes in consciousness and help to better understand the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for mental health conditions.

This study analyzes the interactions between sex, calorie restriction, and nicotine on anxiety-associated behavior in rodents.