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Background: The significance of selection and accelerated perception of self-related sensory information is an established phenomenon termed the self-bias effect. Self-related motor information is utilised by self-other monitoring processes like implicit measures of a sense of agency. Intentional binding is one such process that focuses on the temporal shift between a voluntary action and the sensory consequence. Recently, it was discovered that self-related information from visual stimuli could also affect retrospective intentional binding. Considering the importance of the left temporoparietal junction (l-TPJ) in self-other monitoring, we explored its causal role by modulating its activity with high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS). We predicted increased self-associated saliency and intentional binding from anodal HD-tDCS to l-TPJ compared to baseline and cathodal stimulation conditions. Methods: Fifteen healthy right-handed participants performed two computerized tasks: sound-label matching and intentional binding tasks. Behavioural data were collected at baseline and following randomly ordered anodal and cathodal HD-tDCS of l-TPJ. Anodal and cathodal HD-tDCS were administered to all the participants in two different sessions and were separated by at least 72 hours.Results: Strong self-bias effect was observed in all conditions. We didn’t note a retrospective intentional binding effect between self-associated and other-associated sounds in any of the conditions. HD-tDCS indicates a dual and crucial role of l-TPJ in general mismatch detection and other-associated stimulus representation in the self-bias effect.Conclusion: The results suggest a diverse role of l-TPJ in self-reference networks and general mismatch detection.

Current knowledge about functional connectivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is based on small-scale studies, limiting the generalizability of results. Moreover, the majority of studies have focused only on predefined regions or functional networks rather than connectivity throughout the entire brain. Here, we investigated differences in resting-state functional connectivity between OCD patients and healthy controls (HC) using mega-analysis of data from 1,024 OCD patients and 1,028 HC from 28 independent samples of the ENIGMA-OCD consortium. We assessed group differences in whole-brain functional connectivity at both the regional and network level, and investigated whether functional connectivity could serve as biomarker to identify patient status at the individual level using machine learning analysis. The mega-analyses revealed widespread abnormalities in functional connectivity in OCD, with global hypo-connectivity (Cohen’s d: -0.27 to -0.13) and few hyper-connections, mainly with the thalamus (Cohen’s d: 0.19 to 0.22). Most hypo-connections were located within the sensorimotor network and no fronto-striatal abnormalities were found. Overall, classification performances were poor, with area-under-the-receiver-operating-characteristic curve (AUC) scores ranging between 0.567 and 0.673, with better classification for medicated (AUC=0.702) than unmedicated (AUC=0.608) patients versus healthy controls. These findings provide partial support for existing pathophysiological models of OCD and highlight the important role of the sensorimotor network in OCD. However, resting-state connectivity does not so far provide an accurate biomarker for identifying patients at the individual level.

Microstructural alterations in cortico-subcortical connections are thought to be present in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). However, prior studies have yielded inconsistent findings, perhaps because small sample sizes provided insufficient power to detect subtle abnormalities. Here we investigated microstructural white matter alterations and their relation to clinical features in the largest dataset of adult and pediatric OCD to date. We analyzed diffusion tensor imaging metrics from 700 adult patients and 645 adult controls, as well as 174 pediatric patients and 144 pediatric controls across 19 sites participating in the ENIGMA OCD Working Group, in a cross-sectional case-control magnetic resonance study. We extracted measures of fractional anisotropy (FA) as main outcome, and mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity as secondary outcomes for 25 white matter regions. We meta-analyzed patient-control group differences (Cohen’s d) across sites, after adjusting for age and sex, and investigated associations with clinical characteristics. Adult OCD patients showed significant FA reduction in the sagittal stratum (d = −0.21, z = −3.21, p = 0.001) and posterior thalamic radiation (d = −0.26, z = −4.57, p z = 2.71, p = 0.006), longer duration of illness (z = −2.086, p = 0.036), and a higher percentage of medicated patients in the cohorts studied (z = −1.98, p = 0.047). No significant association with symptom severity was found. Pediatric OCD patients did not show any detectable microstructural abnormalities compared to controls. Our findings of microstructural alterations in projection and association fibers to posterior brain regions in OCD are consistent with models emphasizing deficits in connectivity as an important feature of this disorder.

The implications of income and expenses volatility in terms of financial practices have been widely documented, demonstrating the critical role of money management in the survival of vulnerable households. The gender of this, however, is a neglected dimension. Based on data collected in South India combining ethnography and Financial Diaries, with 8 households followed for 9 months and data disaggregated by sex, this paper discusses the methodological and theoretical implications of a gender analysis of income volatility, its management and its burden. In our context of study characterized by dynamic processes of financialisation, low and volatile incomes give to credit a prominent place in budget management strategies, both from the side of inflows and outflows. Economic volatility tends to blur the boundaries between expense, saving, credit and income; and these shifts in turn question the categories of recipient, (female) money manager or (male) breadwinner. While women tend to earn low incomes, they borrow a substantial part of household debts: and accounting for these practices alters sometimes drastically the vision of their role as breadwinners that could stem from their sole earnings. Besides, beyond borrowing, women are predominantly the ones who shoulder the responsibility for debt settlement, a task that requires skills, time, and the involvement in all a range of secondary activities aiming at ensuring repayment capacity and creditworthiness. The burden of economic volatility appears thereby to be gendered, strengthening women's unpaid domestic duties through this "labour of the debt''., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

International audience; In the Indian water policy, Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is considered as one of the best supply side water management options to face groundwater depletion. It is expected to optimize the resource as well as attain environmental sustainability and meet water demands and social justice. It is also expected to be implemented with a paradigmatic shift in water management. From policy to practices, at the local level, numerous recharge structures exist, are built or planned and reveal controversial implementation. With a socio-historical approach, our paper analyses the trajectory of MAR implementation in the Pondicherry Region (South India). Through interviews and observations, the trajectories of two local projects are scrutinized, The Tank Rehabilitation Programs in Pondicherry district and a recharge shaft in Kiliyanur. Stakeholders' strategies and values regarding MAR are analysed and how local appropriation leads to adaptation and diversion. Finally, there is no paradigmatic shift going with MAR implementation. Instead, MAR is shown as a consensual policy because it is a possible compromise between groundwater conservation, optimization of the resource, satisfaction of the users and social justice, but controversial positions and oppositions should be acknowledged within implementation. The paper discusses opposed conceptions of MAR: participatory vs. expert driven, demand vs. supply driven and traditional vs. modern.

The demonetisation that took place in India in November 2016 caused an unprecedented shock. Among its other objectives, the measure was championed as an efficient means to promote a less-cash economy, in order to formalise economic transactions and boost social protection. This paper draws on ground-breaking data from rural South India to voice serious reservations over those stated goals. In the short run, the importance of cash in the Indian economy resulted in this measure strongly affecting employment, daily financial practices, and social network use for over three months. People came to rely more strongly on their networks to sustain their economic and social activities. Demonetisation has not fought, but has largely strengthened the informal economy. It has also probably further marginalised those without supportive networks. In a context such as India, where state social protection is weak and governmental schemes are notoriously subject to patronage and clientelistic networks, dense networks of supportive relatives, friends and patrons remain key for safeguarding daily life and the future. It can only be counterproductive to eliminate such arrangements without offering alternative protection. With cashless policies flourishing in various parts of the world, we believe our findings have major implications, seriously questioning their merit, especially among the most marginalised segments of the population.