Loneliness has been suggested to be linked to increased bottom-up appraisal processes of social threat coupled with top-down emotion regulation mechanisms. We have recently found a partial confirmation for such mechanisms in our large scale study (Mąka et al., in press), thus, in this preregistered double-blind study, we tested the effects of noninvasive brain stimulation over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) on emotional response and regulation in lonely individuals. 120 individuals received active (2 mA) or sham transcranial direct current stimulation over the left or right dlPFC in separate sessions. Participants were asked to passively watch negative or neutral stimuli or to reinterpret negative stimuli to decrease their affective response. Overt behavioral responses (valence and arousal self-response) and covert physiological markers (event-related potentials) of the affective response in each group were analyzed separately for stimuli with and without social content. Active dlPFC stimulation enhanced neural modulation during the reappraisal of social stimuli, as reflected in a larger difference in late positive potential between reappraised and passively viewed negative images. However, the valence rating difference between these conditions suggested less effective reappraisal under active stimulation. Anodal stimulation of the left dlPFC selectively decreased self-reported emotional reactivity during the passive viewing of social stimuli in highly lonely individuals. However, this effect occurred without corresponding changes in ERP markers. These results confirm that loneliness may primarily impair the self-monitoring of affective responses rather than that of regulatory mechanisms. Furthermore, targeted non-invasive brain stimulation of dlPFC can alleviate loneliness-related difficulties in this domain.

Depression constitutes a major global public health burden, with university students exhibiting a disproportionately high prevalence of depressive symptoms. Although Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has demonstrated efficacy in alleviating depressive symptomatology, its underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain incompletely understood. This randomized controlled trial investigated neural activity changes and functional connectivity alterations of MBSR's depression-reducing effects in university students using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Forty-two healthy university students were randomly assigned to either an 8-week MBSR intervention or a control group. Clinical outcomes were assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21, and rs-fMRI data were acquired to examine regional brain activity and functional connectivity. Results demonstrated that MBSR participants exhibited greater improvements in depression scores compared to the control group. Neuroimaging analyses indicated that MBSR intervention led to reduced Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations (ALFF), fractional ALFF, and Regional Homogeneity in the right middle cingulate cortex (MCC). Furthermore, seed-based functional connectivity analysis demonstrated decreased connectivity between the right MCC and regions involved in emotional regulation and self-referential processing, including the left hippocampus and bilateral precuneus, in the MBSR group relative to controls. Furthermore, changes in MCC-hippocampus and MCC-precuneus functional connectivity were negatively correlated with improvements in depression scores. These findings provide novel evidence that MBSR promotes adaptive neural reorganization, characterized by reduced activity and altered functional connectivity within the MCC-centric emotional regulation network, providing mechanistic insight into for its depression-reducing effects in subclinical populations and supporting the neural efficiency hypothesis.

Psychosocial stress and sleep disturbances are common during pregnancy and can contribute to heightened hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, potentially impacting maternal and fetal health. Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) provide a measure of cumulative circulating cortisol over a period of months and serve as a marker of HPA-axis activity. Yet the interplay between psychosocial stress, sleep quality, and HCC during pregnancy remains unclear.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, marked by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Its symptoms in adulthood may be predominantly inattentive, and attention deficiency can impact external and internal attentional processes. Despite evidence indicating that processing of internal sensory information, interoception, may be impacted in ADHD, this has yet to be fully assessed. Fifty-seven typically developed adults and 30 with an ADHD diagnosis underwent assessment of interoceptive abilities incorporating behavioural and self-reported measures of interoception accuracy (i.e., how accurately body signals can be perceived) and attention (attention focused on interoception). Psychophysiological measurements using the heartbeat counting task (HCT) were used to assess behavioural accuracy, confidence ratings, and interoceptive insight (the relationship between behavioural accuracy and confidence ratings). Additionally, questionnaires assessed self-report accuracy and self-report attention. An analysis of covariance for each component of interoceptive abilities was performed to examine group differences. Individuals with ADHD displayed lower behavioural accuracy, confidence ratings, and self-report accuracy than those without ADHD after controlling for ethnicity, age, autistic traits, alexithymia, depression, or social functioning. Ethnicity, age, and depression also had significant effects on distinct interoceptive abilities. These findings suggest interoceptive impairment maybe a feature of ADHD even after controlling for potentially confounding variables. However, these results should be interpreted cautiously due to the limitations of the study, such as the narrow age group and small sample size. More research is needed, utilising a broad range of techniques to confirm differences in interoceptive dimensions in ADHD and their potential impact.

Yawning is widely observed in daily life. But its function has largely remained less explored. In the current study, we examined how yawning exposure affected threat detection in human adults and its potential mechanisms. We recruited 96 participants and manipulated the yawning exposure by letting participants viewing yawn videos or listening to yawn audios. Then they were asked to complete a threat-detection task as well as measures of subjective sleepiness and theory of mind (ToM). Results revealed that yawning exposure significantly enhanced both the speed and accuracy of detecting snakes from frogs but not vice versa in the visual modality (yawning videos exposure). In contrast, within the auditory modality (yawning audios exposure), yawning exposure also improved detection accuracy (rather than reaction time) for non-threatening frogs, indicating a possible modality-dependent pattern rather than a universal threat-specific enhancement. Besides, individual differences in ToM capacity likely played a role in the relationship between yawning exposure and threat detection: participants with higher ToM scores exhibited greater sensitivity in identifying snakes under the yawning condition, suggesting that the ability to infer others' mental states might be critical for interpreting the informational content of yawning. Furthermore, yawning exposure increased subjective sleepiness and the increase in subjective sleepiness did not correlate with threat detection performance, indicating that the observed effects likely arise from domain-specific cognitive processes rather than generalized arousal modulation. These findings provided support for the communicative function of yawning and underscored the interplay between evolved nonverbal signals and modern cognitive capacities like ToM.

The primary aims of the current study were to (1) examine the association between perceptions of social strain from a spouse/partner, other family members and friends, and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress, and (2) to identify if the association between perceived social strain and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress was mediated via self-esteem. A sample of 659 participants completed measures assessing social strain from a spouse/partner, from other family members and from friends, and completed a standardized cardiovascular reactivity protocol consisting of resting baseline and stressor phase (mental arithmetic and Stroop). Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and heart rate (HR) were monitored throughout the baseline and stressor phases. Greater social strain from family members and from friends were significantly associated with blunted blood pressure reactivity to acute psychological stress. Moreover, diminished self-esteem significantly mediated the association between social strain from all sources and both cardiovascular and psychological responses to acute stress. Results for the association between social strain and cardiovascular reactivity appeared to remain largely robust in follow-up analyses adjusting for perceived social support from various sources. However, after adjusting for depressive symptoms, both the direct and mediating effects of self-esteem on cardiovascular reactivity became non-significant. The direct association between social strain from family members on diminished blood pressure reactivity withstood adjustment for depression. These findings indicate a potential mechanistic pathway that may facilitate the association between social strain and adverse physical health outcomes.

Sustained attention is essential for effective cognitive performance in daily life, yet it remains challenging to monitor continuously in real time. This study examined whether pupil-based physiological markers - specifically task-evoked pupil dilation (TEPD) and baseline pupil size (BPS) - reflect fluctuations in sustained attention and alertness during a prolonged auditory continuous performance task (A-CPT). In two experiments (total N = 54), participants listened to a stream of spoken syllables and responded to a predefined target while their pupil size was continuously recorded. Intra-individual variability in reaction time served as an index of sustained attention, with higher variability reflecting poorer sustained attention. Across both experiments, a consistent positive linear relationship was found between TEPD and intra-individual varability: smaller TEPD values were associated with greater response consistency, indicating higher sustained attention. Additionally, TEPD was positively correlated with self-reported ADHD symptoms across participants, and contributed to their prediction above and beyond the behavioral task performance. This suggests that TEPD reflects inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms across neurotypical individuals. In contrast, BPS showed a less consistent relationship with sustained attention: while it was positively associated with intra-individual varability in one experiment, this effect did not replicate in the second. These findings suggest that pupil size can serve as a continuous, implicit marker of sustained attention and a predictor of ADHD symptoms. By capturing moment-to-moment fluctuations in attentional state, pupil size offers a promising, non-invasive index of attention in real-world listening environments.

The neural power spectrum contains both periodic and aperiodic 1/f-like activity. Aperiodic activity is functionally significant, reflecting the excitation-inhibition balance within the nervous system. Without proper parameterization, aperiodic activity can confound oscillatory power, leading to misinterpretations of physiological phenomena. While target load's impact on aperiodic activity has been studied, its modulation by distractor load is less understood. Our study used a parameterization algorithm to separate periodic alpha oscillations from aperiodic activity, examining their relationship with target and distractor items during working memory. We found that periodic alpha activity increased with target load, a change not evident with traditional analysis. The aperiodic exponent was modulated by both target and distractor loads, but in opposite directions, highlighting their differential impact on excitation-inhibition balance. An exploratory analysis showed no modulatory role of working memory capacity on these neural indicators. Our findings emphasize the importance of distinguishing periodic and aperiodic activity in working memory research. They provide empirical support for the dynamic regulation of the neuronal excitation/inhibition balance by target and distractor items. Future research should focus on the functional significance of these individual components for a deeper understanding of brain function.

Attention is presented in Posner's model as supported by alerting, orienting, and executive brain networks, each predominantly modulated by norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine, respectively. The Functional Ensemble of Temperament (FET) model posits that the same neurotransmitters also underlie three core temperamental domains: maintenance of behaviour, behavioural orientation, and speed of integration. Here, we aimed to investigate the overlap between attentional networks and temperament dimensions. Moreover, we checked whether inter-individual differences in temperament are associated with behavioural and neurophysiological modulations of attentional function. Eighty-nine healthy adults (M=35, F=54) completed the Attention Network Test (ANT) while pupillary responses were recorded. Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (STQ-77) was also administered. Temperamental effects on behavioural performance were assessed through linear mixed-effects models and hierarchical linear regressions, while overall and trait-dependent pupillary activity was analysed using cluster-based permutation tests. Individuals with lower ergonicity and cognitive integration abilities exhibited a more pronounced incongruency effect on manual reaction times. Lower scores in temperamental traits belonging to the orientation dimension resulted in reduced accuracy in incongruent trials. Within the cue-target interval, individuals with a high level of neuroticism exhibited sustained pupil dilation. During the same interval, anticipatory dilation was found in individuals with lower probabilistic reasoning, reduced ability to engage in prolonged socio-verbal activities, and high inhibitory control. These findings support a temperament-based modulation of both behavioural and physiological correlates of attention, accounting for inter-individual differences. By integrating cognitive and autonomic measures, our study provides novel insight into how stable individual traits shape dynamic attentional control.

The present study examines the impact of a sport-specific training program based on virtual reality (VR) in young semi-elitè soccer players on cognitive performance and on anticipatory brain functions using the event-related potential (ERP) method. In this randomized control trial, the participants were divided into two groups: a control group, which followed a standard soccer training program, and an experimental group, which followed the same training but underwent an additional VR training session once a week. Results indicated that after eight weeks of training, the experimental group only showed a notable enhancement of anticipatory brain activity in the prefrontal cortex as evidenced by a 40 % increase in the prefrontal negativity (pN) ERP component. The motor preparatory activity in the premotor cortex indexed by the Bereitschaftspotential (BP) component was comparable between groups before the training and larger in the experimental group after it. Furthermore, the experimental group only showed enhanced cognitive performance improving response speed and accuracy in a discrimination response task. These findings indicate that using VR protocol in conventional soccer training may enhance cognitive anticipatory brain processing underlying top-down cognitive functions. This likely boosted cognitive performance. In conclusion, we confirmed the potential of immersive technologies to facilitate the integration of cognitive training in sports.

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) lowers depression and anxiety in clinical populations, but its preventive utility in alleviating subthreshold depression and anxiety symptoms or perceived stress in the general population is uncertain. In this single-blinded randomized controlled trial 70 participants (28 men; M 49,33 years, 18-75 age range) were allocated to four groups: early active or sham tVNS and late active or sham tVNS to explore outcome changes between the preintervention and postintervention in active and sham groups, changes after active and sham stimulation ended in the early groups, or outcomes during waiting time in the late groups. Early intervention and sham groups received daily 4 h tVNS between Day 0 and 13, while late intervention and sham groups received tVNS between day 14 and 28. Active tVNS was delivered via transcutaneous electrical stimulation on the left tragus and sham tVNS was applied on the left earlobe. Affective symptoms and stress were measured with questionnaires. Effects of active tVNS stimulation were superior to sham stimulation in early phase groups, but not in late phase groups, for anxiety symptoms and perceived stress, with no superior effects of tVNS against sham detected for depressive symptoms. Our study tentatively indicates that tVNS application could be scaled-up to a population level to potentially mitigate stress vulnerability and higher anxiety, which are often prevalent in older adults and increased in the ageing process.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is the heart period variability observed in synchrony with respiration. RSA amplitude is widely used in psychophysiological research to non-invasively index cardiac vagal activity. However, RSA measures are significantly affected by respiratory behavior, even in the absence of changes in cardiac vagal activity. Fifty-to-sixty percent of the variation in RSA can be attributed to respiration rate and tidal volume. This poses a notable challenge for ambulatory RSA measurement where respiratory behavior cannot be experimentally controlled and can show substantial variation. This pre-registered two-day ambulatory study (https://osf.io/57es4) compared four approaches to control for respiratory influences on RSA, to make an empirical recommendation on how to best capture cardiac vagal activity in daily life. We evaluated how well the RSA metric of each approach predicted (1) Minute-to-minute heart period, assumed to be predominantly governed by cardiac vagal activity, and (2) Perceived stress, positive affect, negative affect, and safety-states expected to elicit fluctuations in cardiac vagal activity- at smartphone prompts. The tidal volume-normalized RSA approach was optimal, explaining 1.47 times as much within-individual variance in heart period as that explained by uncontrolled-RSA. The need to use respiratory-controlled RSA was further highlighted by results on safety. Perceived safety was associated with uncontrolled-RSA (p = .033) but not with any of the controlled-RSA metrics. This relationship was driven by higher respiration rate co-occurring with lower safety. We recommend using tidal volume-normalized RSA in ambulatory research to avoid reporting spurious within-individual correlations between psychological states and cardiac vagal activity.

Cognitive adaptivity-the capacity to adjust behavior in response to changing demands-is central to human functioning. The metacontrol framework describes this adaptivity as a dynamic balance between persistence (goal-directed stability) and flexibility (openness to change). Recent research links individual metacontrol biases to the aperiodic exponent of EEG activity, which reflects the brain's excitation/inhibition balance. Higher exponents indicate persistence-related control, while lower exponents reflect flexibility-oriented processing. This study investigated whether aperiodic EEG markers predict coping preferences-assimilative (persistence-based) vs. accommodative (flexibility-based)-in a large sample of Chinese university students. We used structural equation modeling to compare a trait-based model based on resting-state EEG with a task-based model that included dynamic EEG indices reflecting situational challenge. The task-based model offered stronger predictive power. Two EEG markers-rest-to-task exponent change and within-trial exponent change-formed a latent metacontrol factor. This factor negatively predicted assimilative coping (measured via a resilience scale) and positively predicted accommodative coping (measured via a culturally validated dialectical thinking scale). These opposite effects align with the theoretical distinction between the two coping styles. These findings suggest that dynamic shifts in aperiodic activity provide a sensitive neural marker of the control states that shape coping behavior and resilience.

Interoceptive accuracy (IAc), assessed using the heartbeat counting task (HCT), increased after a heartbeat perception training (HBPT) and a post-learning stressor (i.e., the socially-evaluated cold pressor test; SECPT), suggesting facilitation of interoceptive perceptual learning after stress. Here we investigated whether this effect is due to undergoing HBPT or repeatedly performing the HCT, and if this effect is also observable in the heartbeat discrimination task (HDT). Healthy adults (N = 96, 80 women; 18 - 41 years; university students and staff, local community), were randomly assigned to one of four groups, two of which received HBPT, either followed by SECPT or a control condition (HBPT+stress / HBPT-stress, respectively). The other two groups completed an exteroceptive perceptual learning paradigm (visual perception task; VPT), followed by the SECPT or the control condition (VPT+stress / VPT-stress). We assessed IAc using the HCT and the HDT before (T1), 30 min (T2) and 24 h after the SECPT / control intervention (T3). The SECPT induced increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, salivary cortisol, as well as of self-reported stress and pain. IAc in the HCT increased from T1 to T2 and to T3 in the HBPT+stress group only, whereas no effect was observed for IAc based on the HDT. Regression analyses indicated that lower cortisol responsiveness to the SECPT was associated with a larger increase in HCT based IAc over the 24 h interval (T2 to T3), suggesting that stronger cortisol responses inhibits overnight consolidation in interoceptive perceptual learning.

Response expectancies are expectations referring to changes in voluntarily not controllable internal states, such as mood, body sensations, and peripheral physiology. The current study investigated whether response expectancies can predict experiential and actual and perceived physiological responses to slow stroking of the hairy skin, also called affective touch. 94 young individuals participated in the preregistered within-subject experiment. Participants' mood state and spontaneous expectations with respect to pleasantness of the skin sensation, change in mood state, heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin temperature were assessed before (1) paying attention to the skin, and receiving (2) fast (30 cm/sec) and (3) slow (3-4 cm/sec) stroking for two minutes in a randomized order. Experienced skin sensation, mood state, and perceived physiological changes were measured after the stimulation sessions; actual physiological changes were recorded throughout the experiment. Expectations predicted pleasantness of skin sensation, changes of mood state, and perceived changes for all three physiological modalities in the slow stroking condition. However, expected and perceived physiological changes were unrelated to actual changes. Pleasantness of skin sensation showed a positive association with improvement in mood state. In conclusion, response expectancies can predict experiential changes but not actual physiological changes evoked by slow stroking.

The P3 is a psychophysiological marker of visual recognition, being related to object detection, memory encoding, and action selection. Yet computing the similarity of a presented stimulus to a represented target is an ill-defined task for stimuli such as faces, given the plenitude of potentially relevant features. We previously proposed that current neural networks can define stimuli both at their objective, physical and subjective, cognitive levels, and thus compute similarity. This similarity - or perception/representation distance inverse - linearly predicted P3 amplitude in a face identity recognition task. However, this left open whether the distance-P3 relation reflected top-down task-related recognition or bottom-up family-resemblance repetition effects. We therefore revisited the paradigm but included precisely matched presentations of foils: task-irrelevant images sampled and presented at target-matched distances. The results showed that an early binary differentiation between targets and other images occurred at the N170 latency while for the P3, a clear effect of distance was found: the larger the distance, the smaller the P3. The effects of target-relevance were clearly dissociable from the effect of perceiving foils, which did not affect the N170 at all, and showed only a minor, binary effect on the P3, unrelated to the specific distance. Taken together, we argue that keeping a target in visual working memory involves an early, top-down mechanism, which evaluates the evidence for making a perceptual decision. This mechanism is followed soon after by a more passive, bottom-up process, which updates both the probability and representation of stimulus identities.

Disinhibition, defined as the loss of dietary control in response to emotional distress or external food cues despite sustained restraint efforts, is a major contributor to weight gain and eating pathology among restrained eaters. Previous studies have associated altered functional connectivity between the reward and inhibition networks with disinhibited eating, however, the directional architecture of these interactions during resting state remains unclear. This study employed spectral Dynamic Causal Modeling (spDCM) to examine directional influences between the reward and inhibition networks in 83 restrained eaters divided into high- and low-disinhibition groups. Results revealed that individuals with high disinhibition exhibited reduced inhibitory modulation from a key node of the reward network (right mOFC) to nodes within the inhibition network (dlPFC and IPLs), alongside disrupted intra-network connectivity within the inhibition network, characterized by hemispheric asymmetry. These findings suggest that altered resting-state directional interactions between the reward and inhibition networks may impair cognitive control and increase susceptibility to disinhibited eating. The results provide a mechanistic basis for developing targeted interventions, such as neuromodulation or cognitive training, to improve dietary self-regulation.

To better understand the relationship between DNA methylation summary measures and childhood behavioral and emotional problems, this scoping review synthesizes current research on the associations between DNA methylation and internalizing or externalizing traits or behaviors in children and adolescents. By identifying which psychological phenotypes are most consistently linked to DNA methylation summary measures and contextualizing research practices, this review highlights key methodological trends and gaps in the literature. Future research should include diverse and representative samples to enhance the generalizability and robustness of findings. Careful control for genetic ancestry, potential confounders, and adoption of standardized methodologies are important for improving the precision and interpretability of results. Additionally, a comprehensive examination of literature employing alternative DNA methylation methodologies, including epigenome-wide studies and pathway-based analytical approaches oriented toward mechanistic investigation, would afford greater insight into the interplay between DNAm and internalizing and externalizing symptomatology.

Visual distraction often disrupts auditory working memory, but it remains unclear whether semantic and non-semantic distractors interfere through similar or distinct neural mechanisms. This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the neural dynamics of semantic and non-semantic visual distractors during an auditory working memory task. Thirty nine healthy adults performed a paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) while exposed to either semantic (digits) or non-semantic (abstract symbols) visual distractors. Behavioral results showed that both distractor types impaired accuracy, with semantic distractors producing longer reaction times and higher omission rates. ERP analyses revealed that both distractor types elicited enhanced P200 amplitudes and prolonged N200 and P300 latencies, reflecting shared early attentional capture and delayed stimulus evaluation. Semantic distractors further induced stronger N200 negativity at frontal sites and shortened P200 latencies, suggesting rapid semantic access and increased conflict detection demands, whereas only non-semantic distractors reduced P300 amplitudes, indicating reactive resource reallocation. Importantly, greater reductions in P300 amplitude were associated with slower responses in the semantic distractor condition. These findings demonstrate that semantic and non-semantic distractors engage partially overlapping but functionally distinct neural processes, emphasizing the importance of distractor content and processing stage in models of cross-modal cognitive control.

While most prior research has emphasized the role of saliency in attentional capture and suppression, it has largely overlooked learning experience-an equally critical factor. Yet, the relative contributions of saliency and learning experience may jointly shape attentional priority. In this study, we investigate whether the learning experience can enable suppression of attentional capture by abrupt onsets, thereby testing the applicability of Signal Suppression Theory to such stimuli. To this end, event-related potential (ERP) techniques were employed to examine changes in N2pc (indicating attentional capture) and P (reflecting suppression) across the learning process. Participants completed four repeated visual search tasks over three days to establish implicit learning. Behaviorally, the interference effect caused by abrupt onsets persisted both before and after learning, although it was significantly reduced with increased learning experience. In contrast, color singletons were suppressed to baseline levels pre-learning and below baseline post-learning. Electrophysiological results revealed that the N2pc amplitude elicited by targets increased after learning, whereas the N2pc to distractors remained unchanged. Furthermore, the late P elicited by abrupt onsets decreased following learning, while the P associated with color singletons was unaffected by learning. Taken together, these findings suggest that top-down implicit learning does not fully eliminate but attenuates the processing of highly salient distractors, indicating that Signal Suppression Theory is not applicable to abrupt onsets. This study demonstrates that suppression through implicit learning primarily arises from enhanced target-related attentional capture and reduced late-stage suppression of distractors.