Background: Neuropathic pain (NP) is characterized as pain arising from lesions of the somatosensory nervous system. However, NP-like features have been found in several chronic secondary musculoskeletal (MSK) pain conditions in the absence of detectable lesion or damage to the somatosensory pathways. Emerging evidence has demonstrated associations between NP-like symptoms and altered neural activity within brain regions implicated in sensory perception and affective-emotional processing of pain with consistent findings of abnormal activity in the right insula (RIns) cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Electroencephalography neurofeedback (EEG-NF) is a brain-computer interface biofeedback technique that allows individuals to self-regulate the real-time cortical brain activities of the regions of interest.

Understanding how prepared teachers are to use technology to enhance their teaching can assist researchers to support them better, yet the theoretical basis for understanding teachers' self-beliefs is in need of stronger empirical support. The first objective of this study was to replicate and extend prior research that empirically tested portions of the technology acceptance model (TAM) amongst pre-service teachers. The second objective was to empirically test an alternative set of antecedents of behavioural intentions to use technology based on the expectancy–value theory (EVT). Four theoretical models were tested using structural equation modelling with a sample of pre-service teachers (N = 249). Results provide support for the TAM and the extended TAM models, however, no support was found for the combined EVT and TAM models. We discuss the implications to promote teacher integration of technology in the classroom by creating facilitating conditions.

Conservation science needs more high-quality impact evaluations, especially ones that explore mechanisms of success or failure. Randomized control trials (RCTs) provide particularly robust evidence of the effectiveness of interventions (although they have been criticized as reductionist and unable to provide insights into mechanisms), but there have been few such experiments investigating conservation at the landscape scale. We explored the impact of Watershared, an incentive-based conservation program in the Bolivian Andes, with one of the few RCTs of landscape-scale conservation in existence. There is strong interest in such incentive-based conservation approaches as some argue they can avoid negative social impacts sometimes associated with protected areas. We focused on social and environmental outcomes based on responses from a household survey in 129 communities randomly allocated to control or treatment (conducted both at the baseline in 2010 and repeated in 2015–2016). We controlled for incomplete program uptake by combining standard RCT analysis with matching methods and investigated mechanisms by exploring intermediate and ultimate outcomes according to the underlying theory of change. Previous analyses, focused on single biophysical outcomes, showed that over its first 5 years Watershared did not slow deforestation or improve water quality at the landscape scale. We found that Watershared influenced some outcomes measured using the survey, but the effects were complex, and some were unexpected. We thus demonstrated how RCTs can provide insights into the pathways of impact, as well as whether an intervention has impact. This paper, one of the first registered reports in conservation science, demonstrates how preregistration can help make complex research designs more transparent, avoid cherry picking, and reduce publication bias.

In collaboration with the Authority for the Financial Markets in the Netherlands, we manipulate the content of official letters that instruct financial intermediaries to submit a mandatory self-assessment. As part of the Registered Report Process, we submitted our hypotheses, experimental procedure, and planned statistical analyses before data collection. We predicted that a request indicating a supportive regulatory attitude has a positive effect on reporting quality on average. We also predicted this effect to be stronger for small firms and for firms with a long-term orientation, and to become negative for firms with a short-term orientation. Planned analyses show that a supportive letter reduced reporting quality unless firms had a long-term orientation, supporting the moderating influence of time horizon, but providing no support for the expected average effect or for moderation by firm size.

We use experimental markets to examine whether providing consulting services to a non-audit client impacts audit quality. Our paper directly addresses concerns raised by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that the largest public accounting firms’ growth in their consulting practices threatens audit quality. We conduct an experiment proposed using a registration-based editorial process. We compare a baseline where the auditor does not provide consulting services to conditions where auditors provide consulting to audit clients or where auditors only provide consulting services to non-audit clients. Our unique design provides evidence on whether providing consulting to non-audit clients strengthens the salience of a client-cooperative social norm that reduces audit quality. We do not find differences in audit quality by condition in our planned analysis, however we find greater variation in audit quality in the conditions where auditors provide consulting services compared to the baseline. In unplanned analyses, our results suggest providing consulting services increases auditor cooperation with managers, increasing audit quality when managers prefer high audit quality and decreasing audit quality when managers prefer low audit quality.

In response to the increasing use of computer programs to process firm disclosures, this registered report develops a new measure of “scriptability” that reflects computerized, rather than human, information processing costs. We validate our measure using SEC filing-derived data from prior research and identify firm and disclosure characteristics related to it. In our planned hypothesis tests, we find some evidence that the speed of the market response to filings increases with scriptability, but find little evidence that scriptability affects the incidence and speed of news dissemination by Dow Jones. In additional analyses, we find that scriptability exhibits both positive and negative associations with changes in information asymmetry between market participants, depending on the filing, trading window, and measure examined. We also find little evidence that XBRL interacts with scriptability in a meaningful way. Overall, our study broadens our understanding of information processing costs and provides opportunities for new avenues of research.

We investigate executive employment gaps (hereafter, gaps) between the appointment of an external CEO at a public firm and the individual's prior executive position at a public company. These gaps cannot be reliably obtained from common databases. We hand-collect data for externally hired CEOs at public companies from 1992 to 2014. These CEOs represent approximately 40% of the 5,095 CEO successions and have a mean gap of 1.9 years. The gap increases to 3.2 years for the subset of new hires with a gap. We hypothesize that labor market frictions and executive skill sets contribute to the existence and length of these gaps. Using theories from labor economics, we predict (equilibrium) associations between two measures of “fit” (executive compensation and long-term match quality) and gaps (both existence and length). Finally, we provide descriptive evidence on what executives do (e.g., sit on boards, work for private consulting companies, or consume leisure) during their gaps. This project was subject to and published through a registered report process. Any tests that were not included in the accepted proposal are marked as unplanned analyses.

The position of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA), contrary to its right-wing counterpart, has long been contested within the psychological literature. Efforts to examine the nature of LWA have recently been revived. This research has, however, (1) been done exclusively in Western, liberal societies without any legacy of LWA ideas and (2) mostly ignored the economic axis of political beliefs. Previous operationalizations thus might capture only a specific constellation of LWA attitudes that are not universally representative. In this registered report, across three studies (total N = 1213), we developed a new reconceptualized LWA scale—the SLAV scale—and assessed its validity. The SLAV scale showed good factorial validity (with four interrelated but distinct domains of Anticapitalist Sentiment, Anticonventionalism, Antihierarhical aggression, and Censorship of right-wing ideas) and related expectedly to previous operationalizations of LWA. Moreover, we found expected correlations of SLAV domains to variables of political and social beliefs, and cognitive style. The one key exception is that the relations of SLAV to RWA and ideologically neutral authoritarianism were predominantly negative or non-significant. We consider the implications of our findings for research on authoritarianism in general, as well as how our results illustrate the need to reexamine the label of LWA.

Problem statement: Human-driven biodiversity loss continues worldwide, despite knowledge of its drivers. This has serious implications not only for nature but also for the resources and services biodiversity provides to humans, such as climate regulation and food provision. Small-scale conservation interventions aim to mitigate these issues in people's local environments and can engender a sense of agency and nature connectedness. However, we lack consensus about their effectiveness as studies of local-scale actions often find divergent effects on biodiversity. Furthermore, we do not know which conservation interventions are most effective in different spatial or taxonomic contexts. Methods: We aim to systematically review the evidence from peer-reviewed and grey literature on local-scale conservation interventions. We have designed a flexible, modular protocol allowing us to add further data in the future. We will initially make predictions about the impact of these interventions in English contexts, but the method is designed to be applicable globally. We will generate a series of datasets, each containing evidence about different interventions and their impact on species' abundance and diversity. We will use meta-analysis to estimate these interventions' impact on biodiversity. Depending on the data retrieved, we may also be able to investigate nuances such as which interventions work best for specific contexts or organisms, or whether impacts vary over time. We would do this using additional variables and/or data subsets. In publishing this protocol, and in using the most up-to-date, rigorous methods, we aim to mitigate potential biases arising from either the data or methodology. In the first instance, we will complete a meta-analysis of interventions involving increasing floral availability; however, this protocol will also be used for guiding future meta-analyses incorporating additional interventions. Practical implications: Our findings could be used to inform local-scale conservation management and conservation policy. The results of our initial application of this protocol will be used to inform conservation interventions in schools and colleges in England as part of the UK government's National Education Nature Park project. The collated data set will be made available for use by others wishing to investigate the impacts of local-scale conservation interventions in their own contexts.

Using an experiment to rule out reverse causality, we examine whether a small investment in a company's stock leads investors to purchase more of the company's products and adopt other views and preferences that benefit the company. We preregister our research methods, hypotheses, and supplemental analyses via the Journal of Accounting Research’s registration-based editorial process. We find little evidence consistent with these hypotheses for the average investor in our sample using our planned univariate hypothesis tests, and planned Bayesian parameter estimation shows substantial downward belief revision for more optimistic ex ante expectations of the treatment effects. In planned supplemental analyses, however, we do find that the effects of ownership on product purchase behavior and on regulatory preferences are intuitively stronger for certain subgroups of investors—namely, for investors who are most likely to purchase the types of products offered by the company and for investors who are most likely to vote on political matters. The results contribute to our understanding of the benefits of direct stock ownership and are informative to public company managers and directors.

Asch’s seminal research on “Forming Impressions of Personality” (1946) has widely been cited as providing evidence for a primacy-of-warmth effect, suggesting that warmth-related judgments have a st...

Aims and objectives The aim of the study was to test the association between subthreshold depression and self-care behaviours in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) attending a tertiary healthcare service. Background Suboptimal adherence to self-care behaviours is associated with poor glycaemic control. The estimated point prevalence of subthreshold depression in people with T2D is 17%. Two previous studies have examined the association between subthreshold depression and self-care behaviours in T2D, reported observations were inconsistent. Design A cross-sectional observational study. Methods We surveyed adults with T2D attending a tertiary healthcare facility in Nepal. Self-care behaviours and subthreshold depression were assessed using the Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, respectively. We used linear and logistic regression to test the association of subthreshold depression with total and individual self-care behaviours. Our reporting complies with STROBE reporting guideline for observational research. Results Just over a third (37%) of the participants had subthreshold depression. People with subthreshold depression had slightly lower total diabetes self-care score compared to those with no depression. More than half of participants with subthreshold depression had suboptimal adherence to diet, physical activity and foot care. Subthreshold depression was associated with total self-care score (B = −0.27, 95% CI: −0.54, −0.01). In addition, association between subthreshold depression and diet adherence was observed (AOR = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.15, 0.44). Conclusions Subthreshold depression is associated with decreased adherence to self-care behaviour in people with T2D. Identification and treatment of subthreshold depression in T2D may lead to better adherence to diabetes self-care behaviours. Relevance to clinical practice The recognition and treatment of subthreshold depression warrants further investigation as a strategy to improve the adherence to self-care behaviours.

Objectives Patients' expectations for antibiotics are among the strongest predictors of clinicians' decisions to overprescribe antibiotics. In this registered report, we used a signal detection theory framework to investigate the experimental effects of the communication interventions that family physicians can use to reduce patients' diagnostic uncertainty, and consequently, their antibiotic expectations. Methods UK participants (N = 769) read hypothetical consultations for respiratory tract infections and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: standard information (control), recommended information about the nature of the illness and antibiotic efficacy (recommended communication) or recommended information accompanied by point-of-care test results (recommended communication and CRP). Using a multilevel Bayesian probit regression, we estimated both decision bias (criterion) and sensitivity (d-prime). Results Aligned with our bias hypotheses, participants displayed a more liberal antibiotic bias in the control condition compared to both the recommended communication (Δc = −1.34, 95% CI [−1.57, −1.11]) and the recommended communication and CRP (Δc = −1.73, 95% CI [−1.99, −1.48]) conditions. They also showed greater liberal bias in the recommended communication condition compared to the recommended communication and CRP condition (Δc = −0.39, 95% CI [−0.65, 0.13]). Aligned with our sensitivity hypotheses, participants displayed significantly higher sensitivity in both the recommended communication (Δd' = 2.34, 95% CI [1.92, 2.79]) and the recommended communication and CRP (Δd' = 2.49, 95% CI [2.08, 2.95]) conditions compared to control. Conclusions Simple, evidence-based communication strategies—particularly when combined with diagnostic test results—can reduce antibiotic expectations, offering practical tools for clinicians to support appropriate prescribing.

Prior work suggests that awareness of stereotypes about a person’s in-group can affect a person’s behavior and performance when they complete a stereotype-relevant task, a phenomenon called stereotype susceptibility (Shih, Pittinsky, & Ambady, 1999). In a preregistered confirmatory design, we found that priming Asian women with social identities associated with math stereotypes did not influence their performance on a subsequent mathematics exam, and hypothesized moderators did not account for the effect. The conditions necessary to obtain the original results are not yet fully understood.

Background: Globally, TB programs have enhanced efforts to improve case detection, treatment initiation and monitoring of treatment outcomes. However, there is less attention on reducing the number of presumptive TB patients that never get tested for TB or the confirmed ones that never start treatment in endemic areas, such as Uganda. These losses slow down progress towards attaining the 2035 End TB goals. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends mobile health (mHealth) interventions such as short message services (SMS), phone calls, mobile phone applications and digital monitoring devices to improve universal health coverage. To our knowledge, there is limited evidence on whether these mHealth interventions can increase linkage to care for presumptive TB patients, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Objective: We propose a trial (MILEAGE4TB) whose aim is to assess the effect of SMS reminders, phone call reminders and transport incentives on improving linkage to care of presumptive TB patients in Uganda. Methods: This will be a five-arm individually randomised controlled trial among presumptive TB patients aged 18 years and above, who are referred for Xpert MTB/RIF testing. Participants will be randomized (2:2:2:1:1) to: (i) standard of care (ii) SMS only (iii) phone call only (iv) SMS and a transport incentive (v) phone call and a transport incentive. An estimated sample size of 2389 participants will be considered. Participants will be followed up for 30 days to see if they tested for TB and collected their results. Those who test positive for TB, will be followed for 14 days to measure treatment initiation. Analysis will be by intention to treat. Modified Poisson regression models will be used to estimate the effects of the interventions on completion of TB diagnosis and treatment initiation. Results: Results from this trial are not yet available. Recruitment of participants commenced on 14th August 2023. As of 28th December 2024, a total of 2355 participants (98.6%) were recruited. Results are expected once all study activities are complete in June 2025. Conclusions: This randomized controlled trial will provide insights on use of mHealth interventions to improve linkage to care of presumptive TB patients. Clinical Trial: The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, Number:NCT05964842.

The neural substrates of religious belief and experience are an intriguing though contentious topic. In the past decades, discussion has focused on the potential philosophical and theological implications of a so-called ‘God-spot’. At the same time the relatively few studies that have been conducted on the neurocognitive mechanisms involved in religion suffer from several methodological problems, such as inconsistency in the definition of religion and low sample sizes. Here we have the unique opportunity to establish the relation between validated measures of religiosity and gray matter volume in a large sample of participants (N = 224). In this registered report we propose to conduct a confirmatory Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) analysis to test three central hypotheses, according to which (1) an increased endorsement of religious beliefs is associated with a reduced volume of the orbitoprefrontal cortex, (2) an increased prevalence of mystical experiences is associated with reduced volume of the hippocampus and the right middle temporal gyrus, (3) increased religiosity and prevalence of mystical experiences is associated with volume changes of the bilateral inferior parietal lobe. The analysis plan, the processing pipeline and all analysis scripts will be made available online on the OSF. The ultimate aim of this study is to more clearly establish the relation between structural characteristics of the brain and religiosity and mystical experiences.

Children's early print and screen media experiences at home shape language and literacy development, but screen media can displace reading and vary by socioeconomic status (SES). This study examines how family stressors (economic strain, parent psychological distress, inter-relational stress) and protective factors (parent activity involvement, parenting self-efficacy, perceived parental impact, social support and external childcare) influence children's print and screen media experiences in lowerSES families. This study uses data from 222 mothers to child dyads (46% Black, 38% White) from the longitudinal SMALL Talk project, focusing on families experiencing poverty. Data were collected at children's age 40–44 months via interviews and online surveys. Findings will inform how family contexts can promote or hinder positive print and screen media engagement to support child development and school readiness.

Depressive disorders often show recurrent courses that cannot be sufficiently prevented by existing therapeutic protocols. In other affective disorders, recurrence has been linked to three mechanisms –spontaneous recovery, accelerated new/relearning, and reinstatement– which are related to the preservation of disorder-related memory traces even through successful extinction-based interventions. Reconsolidation-interference protocols aim to directly alter such traces by reactivating and destabilizing them before intervention. While this approach has shown benefits in fear, craving, and trauma-related symptoms, its application to depression remains untested. To our knowledge, this study provides the first experimental evidence of its utility in depression-like states. Sixty participants took part in a three-day, three-group, double-blind randomized controlled trial. On day one, helplessness was induced using a modified unsolvable anagram task. On day two, participants were randomized into three groups undergoing different interventions while completing another cognitive demanding task: (1) extinction, where participants experienced success from start to finish; (2) reconsolidation, where participants briefly reexperienced failure before succeeding; or (3) reactivation, where failure repeated. On day three, the helplessness task was presented again to evaluate susceptibility for recurrence across conditions. Behavioral, self-report, and EEG data were collected. Across test days, participants showed reduced motivation and performance, attributing failure to personal ability, confirming successful helplessness induction. However, interventions at day two produced no robust group differences on behavioral, self-report, or EEG measures. Exploratory analyses suggested that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels may have mediated outcomes. Findings do not confirm reconsolidation-based behavioral interference as effective for depression-like helplessness. Nonetheless, exploratory results highlight BDNF as a potential mediator, warranting further study on its role in postretrieval extinction effects in depression.

Introduction Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates are lower among immigrant populations in the United States (US) than the general population. Immigrant communities face structural barriers that disincentivize their engagement from CRC screening. A growing body of literature has evaluated the effects of interventions aimed at increasing CRC screening engagement among various immigrant groups, but there has not yet been a systematic synthesis of this literature. Objective This review will systematically evaluate quantitative studies assessing the effects of interventions designed to increase CRC screening rates among immigrant populations residing in the US. Methods We will conduct a comprehensive search of English language peer-reviewed and grey literature using specific keywords and database-specific structured vocabulary on interventions to improve CRC screening rates among immigrants published in 7 databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library (Wiley), CINAHL (EBSCO), ClinicalTrials.gov, Embase (Ovid), Scopus (Elsevier), and Web of Science) from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2024. All studies will be imported into Covidence. Two reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts, and full-texts for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Pilot screenings and consensus discussions will ensure accuracy and agreement in study selection and data extraction. Iterative data extraction of eligible studies will include critical appraisal using the Risk of Bias 2 (ROB2) for randomized controlled trials, while other study designs will be appraised with the risk of bias in nonrandomized studies of interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Data synthesis will disaggregate pooled effect estimates by ethnicity, to the extent possible. The study protocol was pre-registered in International Prospective Register of Systematic reviews (PROSPERO): CRD42023488183. Expected outputs This systematic review aims to generate an exhaustive summary of the evidence base, including a description of the intervention methods and settings, target populations, recruitment and retention strategies, partnerships and collaborations, and reported outcomes. The results will provide actionable recommendations for public health practitioners, healthcare providers, and policymakers developing tailored interventions and policies aimed at improving CRC screening uptake among diverse immigrant populations in the US.

BACKGROUND: The development of colorectal neoplasia (precancerous lesions and colorectal cancer [CRC]) is linked to both non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors among average CRC risk populations. However, no longitudinal studies have assessed non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors and colorectal neoplasia risk among above-average risk CRC populations that require regular surveillance colonoscopy. Therefore, this research project will establish a large-scale colonoscopy surveillance dataset that collects lifestyle and clinical data at multiple time points to assess the effect of lifestyle changes over time on colorectal neoplasia risk. METHODS: A prospective follow-up study will be conducted among patients who are enrolled in a South Australian colonoscopy surveillance programme. About 21,000 patients will be invited to take self-reported surveys. Existing programme clinical data will be combined with annual prospectively collected survey data for three consecutive years. Surveys will capture changes in lifestyle patterns over time, including diet, physical activity, sleep quality, smoking habits, and alcohol consumption data at several time points using validated tools. Linear and generalised linear mixed effects models and joint modelling will be used to model continuous, categorical, and a combination of longitudinal and survival data on lifestyle scores and colorectal neoplasia risk, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study will be the first to investigate how changes in lifestyle patterns over time influence the development of early precancerous lesions and invasive cancer. Inclusion of high-risk lifestyle factors when recommending colonoscopy surveillance intervals could provide an improved, personalised CRC prevention strategy to reduce colorectal neoplasia incidence and colonoscopy workload in those at above-average risk of developing CRC.

Abstract Background Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a highly prevalent condition. People with knee OA often have other co-morbidities such as obesity. Exercise is advocated in all clinical guidelines for the management of knee OA. It is often undertaken as a home-based program, initially prescribed by a physiotherapist or other qualified health care provider. However, adherence to home-based exercise is often poor, limiting its ability to meaningfully change clinical symptoms of pain and/or physical function. While the efficacy of short message services (SMS) to promote adherence to a range of health behaviours has been demonstrated, its ability to promote home exercise adherence in people with knee OA has not been specifically evaluated. Hence, this trial is investigating whether the addition of an SMS intervention to support adherence to prescribed home-based exercise is more effective than no SMS on self-reported measures of exercise adherence. Methods We are conducting a two-arm parallel-design, assessor-and participant-blinded randomised controlled trial (ADHERE) in people with knee OA and obesity. The trial is enrolling participants exiting from another randomised controlled trial, the TARGET trial, where participants are prescribed a 12-week home-based exercise program (either weight bearing functional exercise or non-weight bearing quadriceps strengthening exercise) for their knee by a physiotherapist and seen five times over the 12 weeks for monitoring and supervision. Following completion of outcome measures for the TARGET trial, participants are immediately enrolled into the ADHERE trial. Participants are asked to continue their prescribed home exercise program unsupervised three times a week for 24-weeks and are randomly allocated to receive a behaviour change theory-informed SMS intervention to support home exercise adherence or to have no SMS intervention. Outcomes are measured at baseline and 24-weeks. Primary outcomes are self-reported adherence measures. Secondary outcomes include self-reported measures of knee pain, physical function, quality-of-life, physical activity, self-efficacy, kinesiophobia, pain catastrophising, participant-perceived global change and an additional adherence measure. Discussion Findings will provide new information into the potential of SMS to improve longer-term exercise adherence and ultimately enhance exercise outcomes in knee OA. Trial registration Prospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry. Reference: ACTR N12617001243303 Date/version: August 2019/two

Interpersonal violence is a leading cause of death and disability globally, has immediate and long-term impacts on individuals’ health and wellbeing, and impacts global health care expenditures and national economies. A public health approach to violence prevention is crucial, and addressing risk factors is a key priority. Global research has demonstrated that childhood adversity increases risk of a range of poor outcomes across the lifecourse. This study examined the association between being a victim of child abuse and the risk of physical assault (PA), intimate partner violence (IPV), and sexual violence (SV) victimisation in adulthood.

This pre-registered report explores the safe-haven properties of sovereign currencies under the threat of rare disaster risk. Specifically, it address…

Women are widely assumed to be more talkative than men. Disconfirming this assumption, Mehl et al. (2007) provided the first empirical evidence that men and women do not differ significantly in daily word use, speaking about 16,000 words per day each. However, concerns were raised that their sample was too small to yield precise and generalizable estimates, and too age- and context-homogeneous to permit inferences beyond college students. This project replicates and extends the previous study of binary gender differences in daily word use to address these concerns. Pooling data for 2,197 participants (>5-fold the original sample size) from 22 samples (631,030 ambient audio recordings), it updates the estimates of women and men’s daily word use and evaluates the magnitude of their difference. It further explores the extent to which age (as a marker of developmental processes) and experienced stress (as a marker of biobehavioral coping processes) moderate this difference. Finally, it compares the general, age-, and stress-related gender-difference estimates for objectively-observed talkativeness (i.e., EAR-sampled daily word use) to the gender-difference estimates that emerge when looking at subjectively-rated talkativeness (i.e., self-reports of the respective Big Five Inventory item).

Background: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and cervical vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) are both FDA approved for the treatment of major depression, while transauricular VNS (taVNS) remains an experimental treatment for depression. VNS stimulates the temporary release of neurotransmitters that promote plasticity, such as acetylcholine and norepinephrine, across the cortex. Theoretically, synchronizing rTMS with VNS could enhance neuroplasticity, potentially providing an additive effect in the treatment of depression. Methods: Our goal is to determine the safety and efficacy of simultaneous VNS and rTMS treatment in patients with treatment-resistant depression. 24 participants with treatment-resistant depression will receive 12 sessions of VNS and sham theta burst rTMS, 12 sessions of unsynchronized VNS and theta burst rTMS (600 pulses per session at 90% resting motor threshold), and 12 sessions of synchronized VNS and rTMS (600 pulses per session at 90% resting motor threshold) in a randomized order. Subjects receive VNS cutaneously through transauricular stimulation if they are new to VNS, or through cervically implanted VNS devices in those who already have a device. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9 and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) scores are gathered before, during, and up to one month after the trial. Conclusion: To date 4 participants with moderate to severe treatment resistant depression have completed the study. Preliminary findings suggest that combining the two methods is safe and feasible, and 12 sessions of synchronized VNS and rTMS are more effective at acutely reducing depressive symptoms.

Creative thinking is the ability to produce responses that are both original and useful. Like other complex thinking processes, creative thinking draws on higher-order cognitive resources. The impacts of feedback, cognitive load, and self-efficacy on traditional complex thinking activities are well documented; however, little is known about how these factors influence creative thinking, which is unique in its requirement of originality. We investigated the impacts of social comparison performance feedback and creative self-efficacy on cognitive load during two creative thinking (divergent thinking) tasks. Higher creative self-efficacy was associated with lower cognitive load during creative thinking. Positive feedback was associated with lower cognitive load compared to negative feedback. Higher cognitive load negatively impacted creative thinking performance, and the impacts of creative self-efficacy and performance feedback on creative thinking were partially mediated by cognitive load. Implications for providing feedback to students during creative thinking tasks are discussed.

Female role models in video games are rare, and if they are present, they are often heavily sexualized. Objectification theory suggests that exposure to sexualized media characters increases self-objectification and decreases body satisfaction in female users. This study investigated the effect of playing a video game with a sexualized versus a nonsexualized character on women's experiences of self-objectification and body satisfaction. We further studied the effect of character personalization as a core feature of video games on the relation between sexualized avatars, self-objectification and body satisfaction. N = 262 female participants reported state self-objectification and body satisfaction after 30 min of playing the video game The Sims 4 with a sexualized or nonsexualized avatar that was either generic or personalized to look like the participant. We predicted that controlling for trait self-objectification, playing the game with a sexualized character would increase state self-objectification, especially in the personalized condition. Regarding the effect of character sexualization on body satisfaction, competing hypotheses based on priming vs. the Proteus effect were tested, considering character personalization and enjoyment of sexualization as moderators and controlling for trait body satisfaction. The current study did not find evidence for the proposed hypotheses. The findings are discussed in terms of the relevance of objectification theory in explaining effects of sexualized models in interactive media.

Recent findings demonstrated readers' sensitivity to the distinction between consonant and vowel letters. Especially, the way consonants and vowels are organised within written words determines their perceptual structure. The present work attempted to overcome two limitations of previous studies by examining the neurophysiological correlates of this perceptual structure through magnetoencephalography (MEG). One aim was to establish that the extraction of vowel-centred units takes place during early stages of processing. The second objective was to confirm that the vowel-centred structure pertains to the word recognition system and may constitute one level in a hierarchy of neural detectors coding orthographic strings. Participants performed a cross-case matching task in which they had to judge pairs of stimuli as identical or different. The critical manipulation concerned pairs obtained by transposing two letters, so that the vowel-centred structure was either preserved (FOUVERT-fovuert, two vowel letter clusters) or modified (BOUVRET-bovuret). Mismatches were detected faster when the structure was modified. This effect was associated with a significant difference in evoked neuromagnetic fields extending from 129 to 239 msec after the stimulation. Source localization indicated a significant effect in the visual word form area around 200 msec. The results confirm the hypothesis that the vowel-centred structure is extracted during the early phases of letter string processing and that it is encoded in left fusiform regions devoted to visual word recognition.

It has often been suggested that visual illusions affect perception but not actions such as grasping, as predicted by the “two-visual-systems” hypothesis of Milner and Goodale (1995, The Visual Brain in Action, Oxford University press). However, at least for the Ebbinghaus illusion, relevant studies seem to reveal a consistent illusion effect on grasping (Franz & Gegenfurtner, 2008. Grasping visual illusions: consistent data and no dissociation. Cognitive Neuropsychology). Two interpretations are possible: either grasping is not immune to illusions (arguing against dissociable processing mechanisms for vision-for-perception and vision-for-action), or some other factors modulate grasping in ways that mimic a vision-for perception effect in actions. It has been suggested that one such factor may be obstacle avoidance (Haffenden Schiff & Goodale, 2001. The dissociation between perception and action in the Ebbinghaus illusion: nonillusory effects of pictorial cues on grasp. Current Biology, 11, 177–181). In four different labs (total N = 144), we conducted an exact replication of previous studies suggesting obstacle avoidance mechanisms, implementing conditions that tested grasping as well as multiple perceptual tasks. This replication was supplemented by additional conditions to obtain more conclusive results. Our results confirm that grasping is affected by the Ebbinghaus illusion and demonstrate that this effect cannot be explained by obstacle avoidance.

In this study, we propose a pre-registered replication of the research conducted by ten Brinke & Porter (2012). Their study identified four behavioural cues to deception that could distinguish deceptive murderers from genuinely distressed relatives, pleading for the safe return of a missing person, with a high degree of accuracy. By replicating this research using a new sample, we aim to assess the generalizability of these findings and provide further insights into the reliability of behavioral cues in distinguishing between deceptive and genuine pleaders.

According to the Two-Factor theory of delusional belief (see e.g. Coltheart at al., 2011), there exists a cognitive system dedicated to the generation, evaluation, and acceptance or rejection of beliefs. Studies of the neuropsychology of delusion provide evidence that this system is neurally realized in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC). Furthermore, we have shown that convincing analogues of many specific delusional beliefs can be created in nonclinical subjects by hypnotic suggestion and we think of hypnosis as having the effect of temporarily interfering with the operation of the belief system, which allows acceptance of the delusional suggestions. If the belief system does depend on rDLPFC, then disrupting the activity of that region of the brain by the application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) will increase hypnotizability. Dienes and Hutton (2013) have reported such an experiment except that it was left DLPFC to which rTMS was applied. An effect on a subjective measure of hypnotizability was observed, but whether there was an effect on an objective measure could not be determined. We report two experiments. The first was an exact replication of the Dienes and Hutton experiment; here we found no effect of rTMS to lDLPFC on any hypnotic measure. Our second experiment used rTMS applied to right rather then left DLPFC. This right-sided stimulation enhanced hypnotizability (when hypnotic response was measured objectively), as predicted by our hypothesis. These results imply a role for rDLPFC in the cognitive process of belief evaluation, as is proposed in our two-factor theory of delusion. They are also consistent with a conception of the acceptance of a hypnotic suggestion as involving suspension of disbelief.

There are two general views regarding the organization of object knowledge. The feature-based view assumes that object knowledge is grounded in a widely distributed neural network in terms of sensory/function features (e.g., Warrington & Shallice, 1984), while the category-based view assumes in addition that object knowledge is organized by taxonomic and thematic categories (e.g., Schwartz et al., 2011). Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) adaptation paradigm, we compared predictions from the feature- and category-based views by examining the neural substrates recruited as subjects read word pairs that were identical, taxonomically related, thematically related or unrelated while controlling for the function features involved across the two categories. We improved upon previous study designs and employed an fMRI adaptation task, obtaining results overall consistent with both the category-based and feature-based views. Consistent with the category-based view, we observed for both hypothesized regions of interest (ROI) and exploratory (whole-brain analyses) reduced activity in the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) for taxonomically related versus unrelated word pairs, and for the exploratory analysis only, reduced activity in the right ATL. In addition, the exploratory analyses revealed reduced activity in the left temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) for thematically related versus unrelated word pairs. Consistent with the feature-based view, we found in the exploratory analyses that activity reduced in the bilateral precentral gyri (i.e., function regions) including part of premotor cortex as the function relatedness ratings increased. However, we did not find a relationship between adaptation effects in the bilateral ATLs and left TPJ and corresponding ratings of taxonomic/thematic relationships suggesting that the adaptation effects may potentially not reflect aspects of taxonomy that have been traditionally assumed. Together, our findings indicate that both feature and category information are important for the organization of object knowledge although the exact nature of those organization principles is an important question for future research.

The generation of gamma-band (>30 Hz) cortical activity is thought to depend on the reciprocal connections of excitatory glutamatergic principal cells with inhibitory GABAergic interneurons. Both in vitro and in vivo animal studies have shown that blockade of glutamatergic α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors reduces the amplitude of gamma-band activity. In this registered report, we hypothesised that similar effects would be observed in humans following administration of perampanel, a first in class AMPA antagonist, used in the treatment of epilepsy. In a single-blind placebo-controlled crossover study, 20 healthy male participants completed two study days. On one day participants were given a 6 mg dose of perampanel and on the other an inactive placebo. magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings of brain activity were taken before and two hours after drug administration, with activity in the visual cortex probed using a stimulation protocol known to induce gamma-band activity in the primary visual cortex. As hypothesised, our results indicated a decrease in gamma-band amplitudes following perampanel administration. The decreases in gamma-band amplitudes observed were temporally restricted to the early time-period of stimulus presentation (up to 400 msec) with no significant effects observed on early evoked responses or alpha rhythms. This suggests that the early time-window of induced visual gamma-band activity, thought to reflect input to the visual cortex from the lateral geniculate nucleus, is most sensitive to AMPA blocking drugs.

We investigated whether internal models of the relationship between lip movements and corresponding speech sounds [Auditory-Visual (AV) speech] could be updated via experience. AV associations were indexed by early and late event related potentials (ERPs) and by oscillatory power and phase locking. Different AV experience was produced via a context manipulation. Participants were presented with valid (the conventional pairing) and invalid AV speech items in either a ‘reliable’ context (80% AVvalid items) or an ‘unreliable’ context (80% AVinvalid items). The results showed that for the reliable context, there was N1 facilitation for AV compared to auditory only speech. This N1 facilitation was not affected by AV validity. Later ERPs showed a difference in amplitude between valid and invalid AV speech and there was significant enhancement of power for valid versus invalid AV speech. These response patterns did not change over the context manipulation, suggesting that the internal models of AV speech were not updated by experience. The results also showed that the facilitation of N1 responses did not vary as a function of the salience of visual speech (as previously reported); in post-hoc analyses, it appeared instead that N1 facilitation varied according to the relative time of the acoustic onset, suggesting for AV events N1 may be more sensitive to the relationship of AV timing than form.

The prominent sensory recruitment model argues that visual working memory (WM) is maintained via representations in the same early visual cortex brain regions that initially encode sensory stimuli, either in the identical neural populations as perceptual representations or in distinct neural populations. While recent research seems to reject the former (strong) sensory recruitment model, the latter (flexible) account remains plausible. Moreover, this flexibility could explain a recent result of high theoretical impact (Harrison & Bays, The Journal of Neuroscience, 38 (12), 3116-3123, 2018) – a failure to observe interactions between items held in visual WM – that has been taken to reject the sensory recruitment model. Harrison and Bays (The Journal of Neuroscience, 38 (12), 3116-3123, 2018) tested the sensory recruitment model by comparing the precision of memoranda in radially and tangentially oriented memory arrays. Because perceptual visual crowding effects are greater in radial than tangential arrays, they reasoned that a failure to observe such anisotropy in WM would reject the sensory recruitment model. In the present Registered Report or Replication, we replicated their study with greater sensitivity and extended their task by controlling a potential strategic confound. Specifically, participants might remap memory items to new locations, reducing interactions between proximal memoranda. To combat remapping, we cued participants to report either a memory item or its precise location – with this report cue presented only after a memory maintenance period. Our results suggest that, similar to visual perceptual crowding, location-bound visual memoranda interact with one another when remapping is prevented. Thus, our results support at least a flexible form of the sensory recruitment model.

There is considerable variability in the degree to which individuals rely on their peers to make decisions. Although theoretical models predict that environmental risks shift the cost–benefit trade-off associated with social information use, this idea has received little empirical support. Here we aim to test the effect of childhood environmental adversity on humans' susceptibility to follow others’ opinion in the context of a standard face evaluation task. Results collected in a pilot study involving 121 adult participants tested online showed that susceptibility to social influence and childhood environmental adversity are positively associated. Computational analyses further confirmed that this effect is not explained by the fact that participants exposed to early adversity produce noisier decisions overall but that they are indeed more likely to follow the group's opinion. To test the robustness of these findings, a pre-registered direct replication using an optimal sample size was run. The results obtained from 262 participants in the pre-registered study did not reveal a significant association between childhood adversity and task performance but the meta-analysis ran on both the pilot and the pre-registered study replicated the initial finding. This work provides experimental evidence for an association between individuals' past ecology and their susceptibility to social influence.

Many studies have documented framing effects in economic games. These studies, however, have tended to use minimal framing cues (e.g. a single sentence labelling the frame), and the frames did not involve unambiguous offer expectations. Results often did not differ substantially from those in the unframed games. Here we test the hypothesis that, in contrast to the modal offer in the unframed ultimatum game (UG) (e.g. 60% to the proposer and 40% to the responder), offers in a UG explicitly framed either as a currency exchange or a windfall will closely conform to expectations for the frame and diverge substantially from the modal offer. Participants recruited from MTurk were randomized into one of two conditions. In the control condition, participants played a standard UG. In the treatment conditions, players were provided a vignette explicitly describing the frame with their roles: some were customers and bankers in a currency exchange, and others were in a windfall scenario. We predicted (i) that modal offers in the currency exchange would involve an asymmetric split where greater than 80% went to customers and less than 20% went to bankers, and (ii) that variation in windfall offers would converge onto a 50–50 split with significantly less variation than the control condition. Our first prediction was confirmed with substantial effect sizes (d = 1.09 and d = −2.04), whereas we found no evidence for our second prediction. The first result provides further evidence that it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about economic decision-making from decontextualized games.

Recent theories suggest that familiar faces have a robust representation in memory because they have been encountered over a wide variety of contexts and image changes (e.g. lighting, viewpoint and expression). By contrast, unfamiliar faces are encountered only once, and so they do not benefit from such richness of experience and are represented based on image-specific details. In this registered report, we used a repeat detection task to test whether familiar faces are recognized better than unfamiliar faces across image changes. Participants viewed a stream of more than 1000 celebrity face images for 0.5 s each, any of which might be repeated at a later point and has to be detected. Some participants saw the same image at repeats, while others saw a different image of the same face. A post-experimental familiarity check allowed us to determine which celebrities were and were not familiar to each participant. We had three predictions: (i) detection would be better for familiar than unfamiliar faces, (ii) detection would be better across same rather than different images, and (iii) detection of familiar faces would be comparable across same and different images, but detection of unfamiliar faces would be poorer across different images. We obtained support for the first two predictions but not the last. Instead, we found that repeat detection of faces, regardless of familiarity, was poorer across different images. Our study suggests that the robustness of familiar face recognition may have limits, and that under some conditions, familiar face recognition can be just as influenced by image changes as unfamiliar face recognition.

Having a sense of meaning in life (MIL) has been acknowledged as a catalyst to psychological flourishing. As such, understanding ways to promote MIL represents a worthy goal for those interested in bolstering positive outcomes. This study sought to replicate the findings of Heintzelman, Trent & King (2013 Psychol. Sci. 24, 991–998 (doi:10.1177/0956797612465878)), who found that MIL could be influenced by external stimulation. Their findings suggest that exposure to coherent stimuli produces significantly higher MIL scores than exposure to incoherent stimuli. Using materials and methodology provided by the corresponding author of the original paper, this study attempted to directly test this manipulation under conditions with increased statistical power. All tests, however, failed to replicate. Possible explanations for these discrepant findings are discussed, and potential future directions for this area of the literature are proposed.

The neurophysiological and behavioral correlates of action-related language processing have been debated for long time. A precursor in this field was the study by Buccino et al. (2005) combining transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and behavioral measures (reaction times, RTs) to study the effect of listening to hand- and foot-related sentences. In the TMS experiment, the authors showed a decrease of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) recorded from hand muscles when processing hand-related verbs as compared to foot-related verbs. Similarly, MEPs recorded from leg muscles decreased when participants processed foot-related as compared to hand-related verbs. In the behavioral experiment, using the same stimuli and a semantic decision task the authors found slower RTs when the participants used the body effector (hand or foot) involved in the actual execution of the action expressed by the presented verb to give their motor responses. These findings were interpreted as an interference effect due to a simultaneous involvement of the motor system in both a language and a motor task. Our replication aimed to enlarge the sample size and replicate the findings with higher statistical power. The TMS experiment showed a significant modulation of hand MEPs, but in the sense of a motor facilitation when processing hand-related verbs. On the contrary, the behavioral experiment did not show significant results. The results are discussed within the general debate on the time-course of the modulation of motor cortex during implicit and explicit language processing and in relation to the studies on action observation/understanding.

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