Prosocial behavior, defined as any action taken to benefit another, has maintained persistent interest in regarding its intricate relationship with loneliness and apathy. Loneliness, conceptualized...Show moreProsocial behavior, defined as any action taken to benefit another, has maintained persistent interest in regarding its intricate relationship with loneliness and apathy. Loneliness, conceptualized as a subjective feeling of social isolation is often found comorbid with apathy; one’s reduced motivation to put in effort for others’ benefit relative to one’s own benefit. Although all three variables demonstrate a relationship to one another, research remains scarce regarding their shared impact. However, findings show a positive influence of prosocial behaviors on social connections, consequently decreasing experiences of isolation as well as apathy. This investigation aims to uncover the potential mediating effect of prosocial behavior on the bidirectional relationship of loneliness and apathy. To fill the gap in the literature, assessing both models helps highlight intervention approaches aiming to effectively break the cycle – ultimately improving well-being. Higher levels of loneliness are expected to indicate higher levels of apathy, whereas prosocial behaviors may mediate and limit the negative affect. Ultimately, it is also expected higher levels of apathy lead to higher levels of loneliness, with prosocial behavior possibly mitigating this negative affect. 287 participants underwent a behavioral task assessing their prosocial tendencies, as well as questionnaires measuring their level of loneliness and apathy. Both mediation analyses revealed a significant total effect between the variables. This was indicative of a negligible mediating role of prosocial acts. These results underline the specific gaps left for future research, ranging from exploring the nuanced relationships and contextual factors involved affecting the constructs over time.Show less
Research suggests a prominent relationship between self-esteem and social evaluation, such that individuals with low self-esteem may show biased perceptions of social evaluation. This study...Show moreResearch suggests a prominent relationship between self-esteem and social evaluation, such that individuals with low self-esteem may show biased perceptions of social evaluation. This study examines interactions between self-esteem, attachment styles, and neural sensitivity to social feedback using electroencephalography (EEG). The focus was on the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) component, indicative of neural sensitivity to expectancy violations in social feedback. It was hypothesized that low self-esteem would predict greater FRN during the SELF-Profile task, with insecure attachment styles adding to the variance of this relationship. Individuals with insecure attachment styles were also predicted to underestimate proportions of acceptance feedback received during the task, with low self-esteem and an insecure attachment predicting a lower proportion of expected acceptance feedback. Eighty adolescents aged 12-to-18 years (60 females, 20 males) participated in this study. Participants completed the SELF-Profile task, involving receiving probabilistic feedback from peers on social-media-like profiles, mimicking real-word scenarios of social feedback and potential uncertainties around these interactions. Participants indicated their perception of the interaction, reporting percentages of perceived social acceptance from peers. EEG recordings were conducted throughout this task. Results demonstrated that participants with low self-esteem exhibited heightened FRN amplitudes in response to positive incongruent feedback, suggesting increased sensitivity to unexpected positive social feedback. Moreover, individuals with insecure attachment styles show trends of amplified neural reactivity to social feedback which was visible in FRN outputs. Regression analyses additionally found significant correlations between self-esteem, attachment style and overall expectation of social feedback (positive and negative), with self-esteem explaining most of the variance. These findings elucidate neural mechanisms underlying feedback processing in relation to self-esteem and attachment, suggesting that low self-esteem and insecure attachment styles influence our social feedback sensitivity and expectation. Results provide insights for clinical practice suggesting the importance of improving self-esteem when working on client difficulties in social settings through positive feedback reinforcement.Show less
The global prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to rise from 50 to 152 million cases by 2050 due to the limited availability of therapeutic and preventive strategies and ageing populations...Show moreThe global prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to rise from 50 to 152 million cases by 2050 due to the limited availability of therapeutic and preventive strategies and ageing populations. Although digital tools can address the growing gap between healthcare supply and demand, their implementation is difficult, and personal factors can influence individuals’ intention to use such tools. Thus, this study explores the relationship between various personal factors, as self-reported by healthy individuals (N = 507) who are part of a brain research registry, and their intention to use and promote using digital tools in the context of brain health and dementia. According to the hypothesis formulated for the research, higher financial scarcity, lower educational attainment, and lower employment status predict lower intention to use and promote digital tools for brain health. The study examined four distinct digital tools: (1) MijnBreincoach (a prevention tool), (2) cCog (a diagnostic tool), (3) ADappt (a patient- orchestrated care tool), and Neurokeys (a prediction tool). It was found that Neurokeys exhibited the highest score for intention to use but the lowest score for intention to promote. In addition, medium and high educational attainment predicted higher behavioral intention to use MijnBreincoach, while the most beneficial (i.e., most secure, stable, and safe) employment status predicted higher intention to promote MijnBreincoach and cCog. In conclusion, it is important to recognize differences in intention to use and promote different types of digital tools across potential users and the influence of personal characteristics on the intention to use and promote digital tools for brain health. During the development of a digital tool, it is recommended to consider which target audience would derive the greatest benefit from it and tailor it accordingly.Show less
This 3-wave study aims to examine the relationship between cognitive empathy (awareness and understanding of another’s emotion), affective empathy (experience of emotions consistent with those of...Show moreThis 3-wave study aims to examine the relationship between cognitive empathy (awareness and understanding of another’s emotion), affective empathy (experience of emotions consistent with those of the observed person), and self-perception of close friendships (one’s perception of the ability to form and maintain close friendships), both directly and indirectly through prosocial behavior (voluntary behavior intended to benefit another person) from late childhood to early adolescence. Participants were 127 adolescents aged between 10 and 14 years old who reported on their empathy, prosocial behavior, and self-perception of close friendships in three consecutive years, respectively. Simple mediation analyses revealed that cognitive and affective empathy did not have a significant positive effect on adolescents’ self-perception of close friendships two years later. Considering these findings, prosocial behavior was not found to be a mediator between adolescents’ cognitive or affective empathy and their self-perception of close friendships from late childhood to early adolescence. Moreover, cognitive and affective empathy did not significantly predict prosocial behavior one year later, whereas prosocial behavior did significantly predict the self-perception of adolescents’ close friendships one year later. These results underline the significance of developing tailored intervention programs targeting prosocial behavior to foster adolescents’ self-perception as close friends, a competence that is crucial during this developmental period considering the greater influence of peers.Show less
This study aims to investigate the effects of exercise-intensity on divergent creativity. It is hypothesized that exercise of moderate and high intensity enhance creativity more effectively than...Show moreThis study aims to investigate the effects of exercise-intensity on divergent creativity. It is hypothesized that exercise of moderate and high intensity enhance creativity more effectively than exercise of lower intensity. The study also investigates if arousal, positive high-arousal affect, and negative high-arousal affect serve as intermediary variables in this relationship. Scarce previous research has suggested a relationship between exercise-intensity and creativity, but studies comparing different exercise-intensities on creativity and potential underlying mechanisms were lacking. To address this knowledge gap, this study compares different intensities, namely low-intensity (cycling at 55% of maximum heart rate), moderate-intensity (cycling at 70% of maximum heart rate), high-intensity (cycling at 85% of maximum heart rate) and a control group, on divergent creativity (i.e., number and uniqueness of creative ideas); And looks at affect and arousal as underlying mechanisms. Happy (positive), elated (positive), upset (negative), tense (negative) and stressed (negative) are used as indicators for high-arousal affect and feelings of wakefulness and alertness as indicators for arousal. Participants in this study completed two appointments, of which the first appointment consisted of a fitness test to measure participants’ maximum heart rate. During the second appointment, participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions and their affect and arousal were measured before and after the exercise or control task. Creativity was measured after the exercise or control task was completed. A Kruskal-Wallis Test showed that participants in the moderate-intensity and high-intensity exercise did not show higher creativity. Further, macro PROCESS model 4 revealed a significant effect of moderate-intensity and high-intensity exercise on arousal in comparison to low-intensity exercise and a significant effect of moderate-intensity exercise on positive high-arousal affect, in comparison to the control group. Other than this, the model revealed that none of the mediators significantly explained a relationship between exercise-intensity and creativity. This study thus suggests that exercise-intensity does not play a significant role in creativity enhancement, nor does arousal or high-arousal affect. However, future research is needed to confirm this for other modes of exercise, regular exercise instead of acute bouts of exercise and for different individual characteristics, such as age and gender.Show less
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique showing promise in stroke rehabilitation, with evidence indicating significant enhancement in motor function of...Show moreTranscranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique showing promise in stroke rehabilitation, with evidence indicating significant enhancement in motor function of the contralateral limb following treatment. While TMS appears promising for stroke rehabilitation, there is variability in the level of improvement individuals exhibit. This variability may be attributed to oscillatory neurophysiology, which refers to the rhythmic electrical activity of the brain. Therefore, this study investigated phase-dependent changes in cortical excitability after TMS among stroke patients in affected and unaffected hemispheres. We investigated motor-evoked and TMS-evoked potentials at four phases of the ongoing motor cortical mu rhythm (trough, peak, rising, falling) in both hemispheres (affected, unaffected). Participants comprised N=11 chronic subcortical stroke patients (6 female, mean ± std age: 58 y ± 11.4) with affected lateralized upper-limb impairment. Four blocks of 150 TMS pulses were applied on each hemisphere, targeting the primary motor hotspot of the first dorsal interosseus muscle of the contralateral hand. Participants watched nature videos during stimulation to maintain consistent attention levels. Cortical excitability was assessed by analyzing motor-evoked potentials (MEP) and TMS-evoked potentials (TEP). Results showed that motor responses (measured through MEP amplitudes) were significantly larger at the trough and rising phase compared to the peak phase. No significant differences were observed between the affected and unaffected hemispheres. TEP components, the brain signals in response to TMS, did not exhibit significant phase-dependent changes. While our findings showed a nonsignificant effect of stroke severity, exploratory correlation analyses presented a positive association between higher remaining movement function and enhanced phase-dependent responses to TMS. The findings build upon previous research indicating phase-dependent changes in cortical excitability for MEPs but not for TEPs. The larger MEP amplitudes during trough and rising phases suggest that TMS can be more effective at specific points of cortical activity. Further exploration is needed to assess the efficacy of phase-specific TMS interventions in clinical settings, potentially through larger-scale clinical trials with longitudinal designs and comparative effectiveness studies, aiming to evaluate functional outcomes and determine their impact on motor recovery.Show less
Attentional bias (AB) is when certain stimuli catch attention quicker than others, which varies according to individual characteristics. The study investigated: (1) if there is an AB to or from...Show moreAttentional bias (AB) is when certain stimuli catch attention quicker than others, which varies according to individual characteristics. The study investigated: (1) if there is an AB to or from itch; (2) whether this differs between people with chronic itch and healthy controls; (3) and if there is a possible AB/stress association. This is because understanding ABs to/from itch further elucidates the experience of patients with chronic itch and possible future clinical applications. Furthermore, an explorative analysis compared two tasks measuring AB, namely the Posner cueing and dot-probe task. The two tasks, alongside a stress-questionnaire, were administered online to the participants (N=70). A (frequentist and Bayesian) RM ANOVA was done for the main analysis, and a within- subjects t-test for the explorative task-comparison. Given that the task-comparison found the two tasks differing significantly (p = 0.01 d = -0.31), the results of the two tasks were interpreted separately. Overall, indications of AB being biased away from itch stimuli was found. When the AB was contrasted between participant group (people with and without chronic itch), the Posner cueing task found no significant difference (p = 0.68, ηp 2 = 0.003) whereas the dot-probe task found an AB away from itch-stimuli in patients with chronic itch (p = 0.02, ηp 2 = 0.077). Similar pattern unfolded with the stress-association: the Posner cueing task finding that AB did not significantly differ with stress (p = 0.23, ηp 2 = 0.021). The dot-probe task did find that they significantly differed (p = 0.01, ηp 2 = 0.091) where with higher stress, the AB switched to being an AB towards itch stimuli. The discrepancy between the two tasks aligns with expectations considering that the tasks were found inequivalent - highlighting one of the strengths of this study being that the two tasks were compared. Altogether this points towards differences in what the two tasks tap into, and that the attention of people with chronic itch is biased as a function of stress. Summarizing, AB to itch differed between the two groups and was associated with stress when using dot-probe task, which did not apply to the Posner cueing task.Show less
This study investigates how perceptions of status and warmth of help-seekers affect the willingness of help-givers to offer help as well as the type of help they offer (autonomyoriented help...Show moreThis study investigates how perceptions of status and warmth of help-seekers affect the willingness of help-givers to offer help as well as the type of help they offer (autonomyoriented help/dependency-oriented help). Data were collected using a scenario approach (N = 205) in an experimental study, which simulated a debt assistance setting in a municipality. The variables Status (low/high) and Warmth (low/high) were investigated in a betweensubjects design. Participants completed an online survey on perceived warmth, status, and locus of attribution of a help-seeker and indicated their willingness to help as well as the type of help. It was hypothesized that warmth perceptions of help-seekers would influence the likeliness to help, that status perceptions would influence the locus of attributions as well as the type of help and that the effect between status and type of help would be mediated by the locus of attributions. The study did not find support for these hypotheses. However, exploratory analyses revealed a significant positive effect of both Status and Warmth on perceived competence, and significant correlations between locus of attributions and likeliness to help, autonomy and dependency-oriented help, and emotions (admiration/envy/pity) and type of help. These findings underline the role of stereotypes and biases in influencing helping behavior, emphasizing the need for further investigations of helping mechanisms.Show less
While amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are primarily defined by cognitive deficits, studies have demonstrated that motor impairments can precede cognitive...Show moreWhile amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are primarily defined by cognitive deficits, studies have demonstrated that motor impairments can precede cognitive symptoms by several years in these conditions. However, it is uncertain if the ability to learn sequences of movements is also impaired in this population. Therefore, this study investigated whether aMCI and AD affect motor sequence learning abilities, and how such abilities are related to AD biomarkers. The sample included 33 individuals with aMCI, 28 with AD, and 52 healthy controls (HCs). All groups completed a motor task consisting of performing a sequence of button presses, alternated with random blocks. Reaction time, coefficient of variation, and learning rates were obtained from the task. Participants also completed a series of cognitive tests to assess memory, visuospatial abilities, processing speed, language, and attention. Additionally, the following biomarkers for AD were assessed: amyloid beta via PET imaging, hippocampal volume via structural MRI, and number of e4 alleles via APOE genotyping. ANOVAs showed that AD participants had longer and more variable reaction times, followed by aMCI individuals, and with HCs having the shorter and more consistent reaction times. No significant differences in sequence learning rate were observed between groups. Exploratory analyses revealed that aMCI/AD had significantly slower initial learning rate than HCs. Linear regressions showed associations of slower reaction times with smaller hippocampal volume, and of higher coefficients with higher amyloid deposition. Poisson regressions revealed no significant correlations between motor sequence learning and APOEe4 allele count. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) results indicated that combining cognitive test with motor measures improves the prediction of AD biomarkers. Overall, AD and aMCI individuals showed impairments in general motor performance but relatively preserved motor sequence learning abilities, with some deficits in initial rate of learning. Moreover, statistical model comparison suggested that adding motor sequence learning measures to neuropsychological assessment tools enhanced the prediction of AD biomarkers. As such, future studies should explore the value of integrating motor sequence learning measures in the assessment and tracking of AD/aMCI.Show less
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized primarily by motor symptoms due to the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. However, non-motor symptoms such as cognitive...Show moreParkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized primarily by motor symptoms due to the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. However, non-motor symptoms such as cognitive decline are prevelant in up to 80% of PD patients. Multi-system degeneration and neurotransmitter decifiences are likely the cause. One of the systems implicated in PD-related cognitive decline is the cholinergic system but it remains unclear to what extent the system is affected and how it links to different disease stages. This retrospective cohort study explores the integrity of the cholinergic system in PD through the measurement of alpha reactivity using electroencephalography (EEG). EEG data from 191 participants, including 46 early-stage PD patients, 17 late-stage PD patients, and 128 healthy controls was analyzed. Alpha reactivity, measured as the difference in alpha power between eyes closed and eyes open conditions, was assessed via EEG. Cognition was assessed via the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). Results revealed significantly reduced alpha reactivity in PD patients compared to healthy controls. ANCOVA analyses demonstrated reductions in alpha reactivity in both early-stage and late-stage PD groups when compared to healthy controls. However, no significant reduction in alpha reactivity was found between early and late-stage PD patients. These findings provide neurophysiological evidence of a reduction in alpha reactivity in PD patients, which could indicate a cholinergic dysfunction in PD, irrespective of disease stage. This study also highlights the potential utility of alpha reactivity as a biomarker for assessing disease severity.Show less
