Linking metacognition and mindreading: Evidence from autism and dual-task investigations

Questions of how we know our own and other minds, and whether metacognition and mindreading rely on the same processes, are longstanding in psychology and philosophy. In Experiment 1, children/adolescents with autism (who tend to show attenuated mindreading) showed significantly lower accuracy on an explicit metacognition task than neurotypical children/adolescents, but not on an allegedly metacognitive implicit one. In Experiment 2, neurotypical adults completed these tasks in a single-task condition, or a dual-task condition that required concurrent completion of a secondary task that tapped mindreading. Metacognitive accuracy was significantly diminished by the dual-mindreading-task on the explicit task, but not the implicit task. In Experiment 3, we included additional dual-tasks to rule out the possibility that any secondary task (regardless of whether it required mindreading) would diminish metacognitive accuracy. Finally, in both experiments 1 and 2, metacognitive accuracy on the explicit task, but not the implicit task, was associated significantly with performance on a measure of mindreading ability. These results suggest that explicit metacognitive tasks (used frequently to measure metacognition in humans) share metarepresentational processing resources with mindreading, whereas implicit tasks (which are claimed by some comparative psychologists to measure metacognition in non-human animals) do not

Self-Compassion, Self-Injury, and Pain

We conducted an experiment to examine self-compassion and responses to pain among undergraduate women with and without histories of self-injury. After a writing task that has been shown to increase self-compassion in a values-affirming condition relative to a neutral control condition, participants completed a self-report measure of state self-compassion and the cold pressor task. As predicted, participants with a history of self-injury reported lower trait self-compassion than those without such a history, and participants in the values-affirming condition reported significantly higher state self-compassion than those in the control condition. Moreover, participants with a history of self-injury demonstrated significantly less insensitivity to pain in the values-affirming condition than the control condition. Future research should investigate the possibility that interventions involving self-compassion and/or affirmation of values may help correct high-risk responses to pain among those who self-injure

Obesity and gambling: neurocognitive and clinical associations.

OBJECTIVE: Research on health correlates in gamblers has found an association between gambling and obesity. The neurocognitive underpinnings of impulsivity may be useful targets for understanding and ultimately treating individuals with both gambling and obesity problems. METHOD: 207 non-treatment seeking young adults (18-29 years) with subsyndromal gambling disorder were recruited from the community. Subjects were grouped according to weight ('normal weight' BMI<25, 'overweight' BMI≥25; or 'obese' BMI≥30). Measures relating to gambling behaviour and objective computerized neurocognitive measures were collected. RESULTS: Of the 207 subjects, 22 (10.6%) were obese and 49 (23.7%) were overweight. The obese gamblers consumed more nicotine (packs per day equivalent) and reported losing more money per week to gambling. Obese gamblers exhibited significant impairments in terms of reaction times for go trials on the stop-signal test (SST), quality of decision making and risk adjustment on the Cambridge Gamble Test (CGT), and sustained attention on the rapid visual information processing task (RVP). CONCLUSION: Obesity was associated with decision making and sustained attention impairments in gamblers, along with greater monetary loss due to gambling. Future work should use longitudinal designs to examine the temporal relationship between these deficits, weight, other impulsive behaviour, and functional impairment.This research was supported by a Center for Excellence in Gambling Research grant by the National Center for Responsible Gaming to Dr. Grant.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acps.1235

Verbal, Facial and Autonomic Responses to Empathy-Eliciting Film Clips by Disruptive Male Adolescents with High Versus Low Callous-Unemotional Traits

This study examined empathy-related responding in male adolescents with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD), high or low on callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Facial electromyographic (EMG) and heart rate (HR) responses were monitored during exposure to empathy-inducing film clips portraying sadness, anger or happiness. Self-reports were assessed afterward. In agreement with expectations, DBD adolescents with high CU traits showed significantly lower levels of empathic sadness than healthy controls across all response systems. Between DBD subgroups significant differences emerged at the level of autonomic (not verbal or facial) reactions to sadness, with high CU respondents showing less HR change from baseline than low CU respondents. The study also examined basal patterns of autonomic function. Resting HR was not different between groups, but resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was significantly lower in DBD adolescents with high CU traits compared to controls. Results support the notion that CU traits designate a distinct subgroup of DBD individuals

THERAPEUTIC VIDEO GAMES AND THE SIMULATION OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTION DEFICITS IN ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulty paying attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Diagnosis of ADHD rose 42% from 2003–2004 to 2011–2012. In 2011, 3.5 million children were treated with drugs. Optimizing therapy can take a year, and may not be completely effective. A clinical trial is currently being conducted of a device/drug combination using the computer game Minecraft, to determine how certain activities affect executive function, working memory, and restraint in patients diagnosed with ADHD. The human subjects’ responses are being modeled using artificial neural networks (ANNs), an artificial intelligence method that can be utilized to interpret highly complex data. We propose using ANNs to optimize drug and Minecraft therapy for individual patients based on the initial NICHQ Vanderbilt assessment scores. We are applying ANNs in the development of computational models for executive function deficiencies in ADHD. These models will then be used to develop a therapeutic video game as a drug/device combination with stimulants for the treatment of ADHD symptoms in Fragile X Syndrome. As a first step towards the design of virtual subjects with executive function deficits, computational models of the core executive functions working memory and fluid intelligence were constructed. These models were combined to create healthy control and executive function-deficient virtual subjects, who performed a Time Management task simulation that required the use of their executive functions to complete. The preliminary working memory model utilized a convolutional neural network to identify handwritten digits from the MNIST dataset, and the fluid intelligence model utilized a basic recurrent neural network to produce sequences of integers in the range 1-9 that can be multiplied together to produce the number 12. A simplified Impulsivity function was also included in the virtual subject as a first step towards the future inclusion of the core executive function inhibition

A Validation Study of the Competitive Prosocial/Aggression Continuum Task

Laboratory aggression paradigms stand out in their ability to tease apart differences between an individuals\u27 self-reported likelihood of aggressing and their observable acts of aggression. However, critics have pointed out that one limitation of laboratory aggression paradigms is that they fail to provide participants with response options other than the administration of an aversive stimulus. Thus, the goal of this project is to develop and validate the Competitive Prosocial/ Aggression Continuum Task (COMPACT), a portable competitive reaction time aggression paradigm that expands the range of available participant response sets to allow for prosocial responding by utilizing aversive and pleasant auditory stimuli as behavioral measures of aggressive and prosocial responding respectively. Scores on the COMPACT were correlated with established measures such as the Prosocial Tendencies Measure, the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Vengeance Scale, the Life History of Aggression, the Normative Beliefs about Aggression Scale, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, the Big Five Inventory, and the Gender Free Inventory of Desirable Responding to establish construct validity. Mixed results were obtained, with the COMPACT demonstrating higher construct validity for use with Caucasian populations than with African American populations

Worrying and rumination are both associated with reduced cognitive control

Persistent negative thought is a hallmark feature of both major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Despite its clinical significance, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of persistent negative thought. Recent studies suggest that reduced cognitive control might be an explanatory factor. We investigated the association between persistent negative thought and switching between internal representations in working memory, using the internal shift task (IST). The IST was administered to a group of undergraduates, classified as high-ruminators versus low-ruminators, or high-worriers versus low-worriers. Results showed that high-ruminators and high-worriers have more difficulties to switch between internal representations in working memory as opposed to low-ruminators and low-worriers. Importantly, results were only significant when the negative stimuli used in the IST reflected personally relevant worry themes for the participants. The results of this study indicate that rumination and worrying are both associated with reduced cognitive control for verbal information that is personally relevant