Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences最新文献

Everyday decision-making is broader than the types commonly studied in the laboratory. For example, food preference or gambling tasks lack many essential elements of decisions frequently faced by animals and humans alike. Those often require self-organization and temporally extended behaviours, resulting in sequential dependencies, a need to adjust for changing environments and an ability to balance behavioural flexibility with consistent decision-making strategies. Here, we highlight how behavioural modes help achieve adaptive decision-making and distinguish between different sequential behaviours, reasons for changing mode and mechanisms for mode shifts and maintenance. We highlight the potential role of emotions as a mechanism for mode changes and an ability to prioritize different behavioural strategies. We suggest changes in experimental design and analyses that could help understand brain and behaviour in more self-organized contexts, which will be crucial for a better understanding of real-world decision-making and prefrontal cortex function.

Digital technology use (i.e. digital activity) has been proposed to contribute to a decline in adolescents’ mental health. We present a new model of how risky digital activity may increase depressed mood via reciprocal pathways, creating negative developmental cycles. Specifically, we hypothesize that risky digital activity increases depressed mood by evoking frequent and persistent negative affective (e.g. anger) and cognitive reactions (e.g. “I feel stupid”). These effects, we postulate, are compounded when depressed mood further increases both risky digital activity and negative affective and cognitive reactions to it. The model also proposes that these negative impacts of risky digital activity can be mitigated by actively managing it and/or the reactions it evokes. All pathways are hypothesized to be moderated by nondigital factors.

This article reviews the prevalence of stress and explores resilience factors in children and adolescents with specific learning disabilities (SLDs). We show that the increased stress and emotional challenges faced by this group are likely due to societal pressures and stigma. Recent findings on neuroendocrine changes in this population are discussed, suggesting a predisposition to psychiatric disorders. This review advocates for a societal shift toward the neurodiversity paradigm, which recognizes SLDs as natural variations in brain function, emphasizing individual strengths and promoting a more inclusive approach that values cognitive diversity. Such advocacy is likely important to combat stress and stigma in those with SLDs. This article also reviews recent work identifying resilience-promoting factors, such as perception of self and peer/teacher relationships, for enhancing emotional well-being and mental health for children and adolescents with SLDs.

In this narrative review, we summarise key findings from 38 human neuroimaging studies of resilience to stress and trauma, the majority of which have utilised structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging methods. Although prior research focused on overall differences between healthy controls and survivors of adversity, more recent studies have revealed neural markers unique to those who not only survived a potentially traumatic event but also maintained or regained their mental health following the event, thereby displaying a level of resilience. Such markers allow us to understand resilience at the level of the brain, to predict responses to adversity, and to measure outcomes of therapeutic interventions. The current body of evidence points to brain regions known to be affected by stress and trauma, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC; including the inferior and middle frontal gyri, dorsolateral and ventromedial PFC), anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala, which implicates them as markers of resilience. Further research is needed to identify additional neural substrates of adversity and resilience, to confirm known markers, and to determine their full implications for mental health and recovery.

In recent years, research in animals has increasingly focused on understanding the role of precise neural timing in inducing synaptic plasticity (the strengthening or weakening of synaptic connections). Human episodic memory is thought to depend on such plasticity. Animal studies have provided valuable insights into mechanisms such as spike-timing-dependent plasticity and theta-phase-dependent plasticity, highlighting the importance of coordinated timing between neural inputs for synaptic changes to occur. Building upon these findings, recent studies employing rhythmic sensory stimulation and electromagnetic stimulation in humans have attempted to link these mechanisms to episodic memory formation. These studies have revealed that memory consolidation relies on the precise co-ordination of timing between neural inputs, particularly in the gamma and theta frequency ranges. This body of work represents a crucial bridge between our understanding of cellular-level mechanisms in animal models and the complex processes underlying human memory.

Meaning in life (MIL) and its positive effect on resilience have received increased attention; however, the underlying mechanism of this relationship remains unclear. Additionally, a few recent studies have provided preliminary evidence of the promotional role of resilience on MIL. This study reviews recent empirical research on the relationship between MIL and resilience, both of which are positive resources for managing stress. The underlying mechanisms for their beneficial relationship are discussed from the perspectives of self-regulation and meaning-making. Finally, this study proposes a framework that highlights the upward spiral between MIL and resilience and discusses implications for future research.

Individual variability in response to stress highlights the importance of behavioral profiling to unveil changes specific to resilience. Emphasizing distinct mechanisms, this review reveals resilience as an active coping response that differs from the unexposed healthy population. Individual differences add complexity to stress-related outcomes and are essential for tailoring effective interventions. The data highlight resilience promotion through maintaining blood–brain barrier integrity and modulating inflammatory responses. Epigenetic findings implicate multiple processes, such as immune function, cell proliferation, and synaptic transmission. Disruptions in neuronal excitation and inhibition equilibrium significantly impact the resilience-vulnerability balance. Understanding the neural circuit interplay and sex-specific responses offers a comprehensive perspective on the multifaceted nature of resilience and provides potential avenues for preventive and therapeutic strategies.

The review examined disease-specific Electroencephalography frequency–power abnormalities and their relationship with compromised insight in patients with schizophrenia (SZ). Furthermore, we aimed to shed light on neural oscillatory activity parameters that predict altered self-awareness states in SZ. Reduced connectivity within anterior default mode network (DMN) seems to underlie excessive resting frontal alpha power and is consistently linked to compromised prefrontal cortex region activity and to disruptions in regulating the storage of sensory information in SZ spectrum disorders. Increased power within slow and fast wave oscillations in SZ is likely to result in distorted perceptions of self-agency. Alterations in frontal midline theta and frontal gamma power are related to poor insight of mental illness. Overall, the review concludes that increasing prefrontal cortex excitability using focalized noninvasive brain stimulation treatments can improve insight and self-agency perception and may suppress pathological gamma synchrony in SZ.

Stress resilience refers to the positive adaptation under stress. Both negative and positive childhood experiences are associated with resilience. This narrow review summarizes evidence to illustrate the association between childhood experience and resilience. Then, we propose an integrated framework for outlining the connecting mechanisms between childhood experience and resilience, including the stress response system supported by hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, stress coping skills, and stress coping resources. Within this framework, we also address potential interventions based on improving childhood experiences, modulating the stress response system, enhancing coping skills, and enriching coping resources. Finally, we provide insights into resilience measurement and training, as well as research gaps.

Patients with addictive disorders (encompassing substance and behavioral addictions) often behave in ways that have been described as rigid and inflexible. This behavioral profile has been proposed to be explained by impairments in cognitive and behavioral flexibility that are shared by all addictive disorders. To evaluate this assertion, we reviewed the literature to determine similarities and differences in the performance of patients with either substance-related or behavioral addictions on well-established paradigms of cognitive and behavioral flexibility. Contrary to the widely-held view, we found that different addictive disorders have contrasting profiles of cognitive and behavioral inflexibility, suggesting that inflexible behavior — though conceptually similar in all addictive disorders — appears to be underpinned by different neuropsychological processes.