Impact of perceived stress and immune status on decision-making abilities during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

The ability to make risky decisions in stressful contexts has been largely investigated in experimental settings. We examined this ability during the first months of COVID-19 pandemic, when in Italy people were exposed to a prolonged stress condition, mainly caused by a rigid lockdown. Participants among the general population completed two cognitive tasks, an Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which measures individual risk/reward decision-making tendencies, and a Go/No-Go task (GNG), to test impulsivity, together with two questionnaires, the Perceived Stress Scale and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales. The Immune Status Questionnaire was additionally administered to explore the impact of the individual health status on decision making. The effect of the questionnaires scores on task performance was examined. The results showed that higher levels of perceived stress and a more self-reported vulnerable immune status were associated, separately, with less risky/more advantageous choices in the IGT in young male participants but with more risky/less advantageous choices in older male participants. These effects were not found in female participants. Impulsivity errors in the GNG were associated with more anxiety symptoms. These findings bring attention to the necessity of taking into account decision-making processes during stressful conditions, especially in the older and more physically vulnerable male population

Effects of Successful Psychopathy on Reward-Based Decision-Making

Previous research suggests that psychopathy may be correlated with decision-making impairments in reward processing. Explanations for such a relationship may be a result of enhanced reward sensitivity, or reduced sensitivity to losses. Striatal dopamine is critical for reward-based decision-making and may be a mechanism for differential sensitivity to gains versus losses in individuals high in psychopathy. This research addressed whether psychopathy is indeed associated with deficits in decision-making due to hypersensitivity to reward, or if, instead, such deficits result from hyposensitivity to losses, and whether dopamine influences this sensitivity. Participants completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and dopamine levels were measured indirectly using spontaneous eyeblink rate. Here we show that striatal dopamine moderates the effects psychopathy on decision-making. Individuals who had higher levels of dopamine, and also reported more antisocial behavior, chose more advantageous decks. Likewise, more manipulative individuals chose more advantageous decks than less manipulative individuals. However, more manipulative individuals with higher striatal dopamine levels chose less advantageous decks on the IGT. Striatal dopamine appears to function as a buffer among individuals who engage in antisocial behavior more often, resulting in better decision-making, but was associated with detrimental IGT performance among highly manipulative individuals. Our results highlight the importance of analysis at the facet level and examining physiological factors to better understand the mechanisms underlying decision-making of psychopathic individuals

Social decision-making in highly psychopathic offenders – A systematic literature review

Despite their decisions to frequently manipulate or even callously harm others in real life, highly psychopathic individuals often exhibit judgments comparable to individuals low in psychopathy when examined experimentally. This conundrum has generated a rich body of studies exploring social decision-making in psychopathy, but no systematic review to date has identified decision-making as measured in real-world or simulated social interactions in criminal offender samples assessed for psychopathic traits. Out of 807 studies provided by database searching in August 2022, 16 studies were included in this review and revealed behavioral economic games and paradigms for the assessment of aggressive behavior as the two main approaches to dissect social decision-making in offender samples regarding psychopathy. The specific paradigms exposed the multidimensional structure of both, the psychopathy construct and social decision-making. On one side, the distinct affordances of the social tasks, such as trust, power, or reactions to unfairness and provocation shed light on the inconsistent relations of decisions in experimental situations and psychopathy. On the other side, studies analyzing decision outcomes with respect to the distinct psychopathy subcomponents revealed nuanced interference effects with the social decision tasks. The review encourages a differentiated perspective to the psychopathy construct and social decision-making processes alike

Does organic farming face distinctive livestock welfare issues? - A conceptual analysis

The recent development and growth of organic livestock farming and the related development of national and international regulations has fuelled discussions among scientists and philosophers concerning the proper conceptualisation of animal welfare. These discussions on livestock welfare in organic farming draw on the conventional discussions and disputes on animal welfare, which involve issues such as different definitions of welfare (clinical health, absence of suffering, sum of positive and negative experiences, etc.), the possibility for objective measures of animal welfare and the acceptable level of welfare. It seems clear that livestock welfare is a value-laden concept and that animal welfare science cannot be made independent of questions of values and ethics. The question investigated here is whether those values that underpin organic farming, in particular, also affect the interpretation of livestock welfare and, if so, how. While some of the issues raised in connection with organic farming are relatively uncontroversial, others are not. The introduction of organic farming values seems to introduce new criteria for what counts a good animal welfare, as well as a different ethical basis for taking moral decisions on welfare. Organic farming embodies distinctive systemic or communitarian ethical ideas and the organic values are connected to a systemic conception of nature, of agriculture, of the farm and of the animal. The new criteria of welfare are related to concepts such as naturalness, harmony, integrity and care. While the organic values overlap with those involved in the conventional discussion of animal welfare, some of them suggest a need to set new priorities and to re-conceptualise animal welfare – for example, with respect to 'naturalness', in relation to the possibilities for expression of natural behaviour and in relation to animal integrity as a concept for organismic harmony. The organic perspective also seems to suggest a wider range of solutions to welfare problems than changes in farm routines or operations on the animals. The systemic solutions include the choice and reproduction of suitable breeds, changes in the farm structure, and changes in the larger production and consumption system - including consumer perceptions and preferences. But the organic values may also call for sacrifices of individual welfare in a conventional sense in order to advance welfare from the perspective of organic farming. Whether this is good or bad cannot be decided without entering into an inquiry and discussion of the values and ethics involved

Miscommunication in the institutional context of the broadcast news interview : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This study examined the pattern and relative success of linguistic interaction in the Broadcast News Interview (BNI). BNI is modelled as a genre of institutional communication. The psychological and functional characteristics of the BNI were examined from the viewpoint of how communicative conventions that normally regulate interview performance may, at times, impede effective communication. The BNI is intended to transfer information from an expert witness to an interested, though relatively uninformed audience. The interviewer is supposed to act as both conduit and catalyst. Pragmatic properties of the interlocutors' speech as they orient themselves towards the context of the conversation was analysed in order to reveal the manner in which prior assumptions or beliefs may lead to faulty inferences. The notion of miscommunication is used to describe and explain the faults associated with processes of representing the illocutionary force of an utterance, rather than deficiencies in pronunciation or auditory sensation and perception. Opting for a qualitative analysis, an attempt was made to ground explanations in relevant theoretical models of interpersonal communication and communication failure. Results indicate that the conventions that distinguish the BNI from more mundane types of interaction impede successful communication. The study highlights that participants who wish to attain their communicative goal must be more aware of the functional procedures of the BNI and anticipate impediments to successful communication

Decision-making impairment in long term opiate users

The overall aim of this PhD thesis was to conduct a comprehensive investigation of decision-making impairment in long term opiate users, using three studies. The first study aimed to determine the extent of the decision-making impairment and to establish whether other co-morbid factors impacted on the severity of this deficit. Using meta-analysis, the results indicated that opiate use is associated with relatively severe decision-making impairment, and that co-morbid factors, such as head injury and poly-substance dependence did not significantly change the magnitude of the impairment. Furthermore, the decision-making impairment in opiate users was not mitigated by abstinence, and the duration of opiate use and the duration of abstinence did not have a significant impact on size of the impairment. The second study analysed whether the somatic marker hypothesis, an emotion-based model of decision-making, could provide an explanation for the decision-making impairment in opiate users. This empirical study found that, although decision-making was impaired in a group of long term opiate users relative to a group of healthy controls, this impairment was not due to reduced emotional responsiveness, nor an inability to form anticipatory warning signals (i.e., somatic markers), as measured by the skin conductance response. Notably, stronger somatic responses when contemplating making disadvantageous choices were associated with worse decision-making in opiate users, which does not support the predictions of the somatic marker model of decision-making. Finally, the third study analysed decision-making under conditions of risk, to determine whether the impairment in opiate users was restricted to certain types of decision-making. This empirical study found that opiate users, although impaired in decision-making under conditions of ambiguity, were not impaired on decision making tasks involving calculable risk, relative to healthy controls. This study also demonstrated that opiate users’ decisions were not driven by an increased responsiveness to reward. Together, the results of this thesis suggest that opiate users are particularly impaired in situations of decision-making under ambiguity, but not risk, and this is not due to impairment in emotional processing. This has implications for the treatment of opiate users, who may need additional training to appropriately utilise physiological signals to make adaptive decisions. The results of this thesis may therefore be used to inform treatment practice to better support opiate users during ambiguous decision-making situations in daily life

The choice of gadolinium-based contrast agents: a radiologist’s responsibility between pharmaceutical equivalence and bioethical issues

Contrast Agents (CA) are among the most commonly prescribed drugs worldwide, and are used, with a variety of techniques, to increase and intensify the differences between body tissues and to help radiologist make diagnoses in a fast and precise way. In recent decades, advancements in research have resulted in significant improvements in their composition, and have made them safer and better-tolerated by patients; this notwithstanding, although the currently available CA are generally considered to be safe, their use is not completely without risk. The use of CA faces the radiologist with economic considerations, bioethical dilemmas, and possible profiles of professional responsibility. In fact, to achieve the best results in diagnostic imaging, radiologists have to focus on making an appropriate choice of CA, in consideration of efficacy, safety and appropriateness. Moreover, besides by cost/benefit models widely introduced in health management, radiologists are also influenced by their responsibility of appropriate use for the various diagnostic tests and, finally, the choice of best CA to utilise for each individual patient. Thus, the dilemma of choosing between the best and the most cost-effective tests and procedures is occurring more frequently every day. Different variables, such as the patient, examinations, and technology available, can affect the choice of CA in terms of obtaining the highest diagnostic quality, minimum impact on higher-risk patients, and optimisation of used volumes and injection flow

Computational Cancer Biology: An Evolutionary Perspective

ISSN:1553-734XISSN:1553-735