Predictors of risky foraging behaviour in healthy young people

During adolescence and early adulthood, learning when to avoid threats and when to pursue rewards becomes crucial. Using a risky foraging task, we investigated individual differences in this dynamic across 781 individuals aged 14-24 years who were split into a hypothesis-generating discovery sample and a hold-out confirmation sample. Sex was the most important predictor of cautious behaviour and performance. Males earned one standard deviation (or 20%) more reward than females, collected more reward when there was little to lose and reduced foraging to the same level as females when potential losses became high. Other independent predictors of cautiousness and performance were self-reported daringness, IQ and self-reported cognitive complexity. We found no evidence for an impact of age or maturation. Thus, maleness, a high IQ or self-reported cognitive complexity, and self-reported daringness predicted greater success in risky foraging, possibly due to better exploitation of low-risk opportunities in high-risk environments

From “Oh, OK” to “Ah, yes” to “Aha!”: Hyper-systemizing and the rewards of insight\ud

Hyper-systemizers are individuals displaying an unusually strong bias toward systemizing, i.e. toward explaining events and solving problems by appeal to mechanisms that do not involve intentions or agency. Hyper-systemizing in combination with deficit mentalizing ability typically presents clinically as an autistic spectrum disorder; however, the development of hyper-systemizing in combination with normal-range mentalizing ability is not well characterized. Based on a review and synthesis of clinical, observational, experimental, and neurofunctional studies, it is hypothesized that repeated episodes of insightful problem solving by systemizing result in attentional and motivational sensitization toward further systemizing via progressive and chronic deactivation of the default network. This hypothesis is distinguished from alternatives, and its correlational and causal implications are discussed. Predictions of the default-deactivation model accessible to survey-based instruments, standard cognitive measures and neurofunctional methods are outlined, and evidence pertaining to them considered

Is social decision making for close others consistent across domains and within individuals?

Humans make decisions across a variety of social contexts. Though social decision-making research has blossomed in recent decades, surprisingly little is known about whether social decision-making preferences are consistent across different domains. We conducted an exploratory study in which participants made choices about 2 types of close others: parents and friends. To elicit decision making preferences, we pit the interests in parents and friends against one another. To assess the consistency of preferences for close others, decision making was assessed in three domains-risk taking, probabilistic learning, and self-other similarity judgments. We reasoned that if social decision-making preferences are consistent across domains, participants ought to exhibit the same preference in all three domains (i.e., a parent preference, based on prior work), and individual differences in preference magnitude ought to be conserved across domains within individuals. A combination of computational modeling, random coefficient regression, and traditional statistical tests revealed a robust parent-over-friend preference in the risk taking and probabilistic learning domains but not the self-other similarity domain. Preferences for parent-over-friend in the risk-taking domain were strongly associated with similar preferences in the probabilistic learning domain but not the self-other similarity domain. These results suggest that distinct and dissociable value-based and social-cognitive computations underlie social decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Risk Starvation Contributes to Dementias and Depressions: Whiffs of Danger Are the Antidote

This paper’s objective is to use SKAT, the author’s Stages of Knowledge Ahead Theory of risk, to shed fresh light on the treatment and prevention of mental disorders. SKAT employs a broad definition of risk that allows for nice – not merely nasty – possibilities. SKAT is here shown to solve eight epidemiological puzzles left unexplained by our current theories and associated treatments for the demented and depressed. SKAT does so by enabling a decision model of mental health that puts centre stage why people (and other soft-wired animals) have brains – to make decisions under risk. To make good decisions (be healthy), brains need exercise. Brains get beneficial exercise from what the paper terms “whiffs of danger”, namely sets of risks with the characteristics that the risks are 1) tiny, 2) varied, and 3) frequent. Brains deteriorate when there are shortfalls in such risk exercise. The paper terms such shortfalls “risk starvation”. Those lacking a history of whiffs find normal mishaps too stressful and frequently become depressed. A lot of time with an inadequate amount of whiffs generates the endemic co-morbidity of becoming demented as well as depressed. Socio-economic cultural changes such as the introduction of unemployment benefits and old age pensions and increasing protection of women and children have had the beneficial effects of removing big challenges and big dangers and thus of prolonging physical longevity. But these changes also removed the tiny challenges and tiny dangers formerly faced by those sub-groups in the population identified as more prone to depressions and dementias. Unintentionally, these sub-groups thus were deprived of whiffs of danger, and suffered from risk starvation. In both drug and psychotherapeutic stress research and treatments of the depressed and demented, there should be injections of whiffs of danger to enhance the likelihood of enduring improvements. It is unkind and dangerous for people’s brains to be treated with drugs while maintaining the modern socioeconomic culture of coddling parents and coddling college / university student counsellors, coddling unemployment benefits and coddling old age pensions. These coddles need to be complemented with whiffs of danger, tiny varied chances and challenges. These whiffs of danger need to be introduced in three forms: eliciting social security recipients’ whiffs of danger in the form of little obligations to help the community; educating the poor and other sub-groups that believe closeting females at home endangers their mental health; and educating parents on the damage from overprotection. Overprotection prevents children from becoming inoculated against depression with sensible hope developed over a childhood in which they were allowed to experience numerous failures, not merely numerous successes from parents too closely engineering their environment. Research is required on the likely role of risk starvation in mental disorders other than dementias and depressions and in some physical illnesses.stress; whiffs of danger; decision; dementia; depression; risk starvation; risk; learning; hope; fear; risk-based emotions

The impact of childhood deprivation on adult neuropsychological functioning is associated with ADHD symptom persistence

Background: Institutional deprivation in early childhood is associated with neuropsychological deficits in adolescence. Using 20-year follow-up data from a unique natural experiment – the large scale adoption of children exposed to extreme deprivation in Romanian institutions in the 1980s – we examined, for the first time, whether such deficits are still present in adulthood and whether they are associated with deprivation-related symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).Methods: Adult neuropsychological functioning was assessed across five domains (inhibitory control, facial emotion recognition, decision-making, prospective memory and IQ) in 70 previously-institutionalized adoptees (mean age= 25.3, 50% female) and 22 non-deprived UK adoptees (comparison group, mean age= 24.6, 41% female). ADHD and ASD symptoms were assessed using parent-completed questionnaires.Results: Early institutionalization was associated with impaired performance on all tasks in adulthood. Prospective memory deficits persisted after controlling for IQ. ADHD and ASD symptoms were positively correlated. After controlling for ASD symptoms, ADHD symptoms remained associated with deficits in IQ, prospective memory, proactive inhibition, decision-making quality and emotionrecognition. ASD symptoms were not independently associated with neuropsychological deficits when accounting for their overlap with ADHD symptoms. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the link between childhood deprivation and adult ADHD symptoms was statistically explained by deprivation-related differences in adult IQ and prospective memory.Conclusions: These results represent some of the most compelling evidence to date of the enduring power of early, time-limited childhood adversity to impair neuropsychological functioning across the lifespan – effects that are linked specifically to deprivation-related adult ADHD symptoms

Individual Differences In Value-Based Decision-Making: Learning And Time Preference

Human decisions are strongly influenced by past experience or by the subjective values attributed to available choice options. Although decision processes show some common trends across individuals, they also vary considerably between individuals. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on two domains of decision-making, related to learning and time preference, and examines factors that explain decision-making differences between individuals. First, we focus on a form of reinforcement learning in a dynamic environment. Across three experiments, we investigated whether individual differences in learning were associated with differences in cognitive abilities, personality, and age. Participants made sequential predictions about an on-screen location in a video game. Consistent with previous work, participants showed high variability in their ability to implement normative strategies related to surprise and uncertainty. We found that higher cognitive ability, but not personality, was associated with stronger reliance on the normative factors that should govern learning. Furthermore, learning in older adults (age 60+) was less influenced by uncertainty, but also less influenced by reward, a non-normative factor that has substantial effects on learning across the lifespan. Second, we focus on delay discounting, the tendency to prefer smaller rewards delivered soon over larger rewards delivered after a delay. Delay discounting has been used as a behavioral measure of impulsivity and is associated with many undesirable real-life outcomes. Specifically, we examined how neuroanatomy is associated with individual differences in delay discounting in a large adolescent sample. Using a novel multivariate method, we identified networks where cortical thickness varied consistently across individuals and brain regions. Cortical thickness in several of these networks, including regions such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and temporal pole, was negatively associated with delay discounting. Furthermore, this brain data predicted differences beyond those typically accounted for by other cognitive variables related to delay discounting. These results suggest that cortical thickness may be a useful brain phenotype of delay discounting and carry unique information about impulsivity. Collectively, this research furthers our understanding of how cognitive abilities, brain structure and healthy aging relate to individual differences in value-based decision-making

Development of white matter microstructure and executive functions during childhood and adolescence: a review of diffusion MRI studies

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) provides indirect measures of white matter microstructure that can be used to make inferences about structural connectivity within the brain. Over the last decade, a growing literature of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have documented relationships between dMRI indices and cognitive development. In this review, we provide a brief overview of dMRI methods and how they can be used to study white matter and connectivity and review the extant literature examining the links between dMRI indices and executive functions during development. We explore the links between white matter microstructure and specific executive functions: inhibition, working memory and cognitive shifting, as well as performance on complex executive function tasks. Concordance in findings across studies are highlighted, and potential explanations for discrepancies between results, together with challenges with using dMRI in child and adolescent populations, are discussed. Finally, we explore future directions that are necessary to better understand the links between child and adolescent development of structural connectivity of the brain and executive functions

Neuroentrepreneurship : Recommendations for organizational innovation to enhance entrepreneurial activity

Entrepreneurship research faces a crossroads and a new approach is needed to better understand entrepreneurial behavior. Incorporating neuroscience to comprehend the entrepreneurial mindset seems promising. Nevertheless, the potential of neuroscience for entrepreneurship research is only slowly being realized. Based on an extensive literature review, this thesis examines the emerging role of neuroscience with respect to entrepreneurship. Referring to the model of the entrepreneurial process, this thesis investigates how entrepreneurs discover, exploit, and finally capture opportunities. In this context, explanations regarding trait, expertise, adaptation, and mindset of the entrepreneur are relevant for further examination. Moreover, decision-making in uncertain situations is analyzed. In this context, the dynamic interplay between the reflective and reflexive system is considered. Ultimately, this thesis provides recommendations for organizational innovation to enhance entrepreneurial activity

Social risk in adolescence

Adolescence, defined as 10-24 years, is a time of heightened sensitivity to the negative effects of social rejection. Avoiding social risks – decisions or actions that could lead to social rejection - may therefore be important for adolescents, for whom social status and acceptance predicts future mental and physical health. In this thesis, I describe a series of studies that investigated the relationship between social risk and adolescence. In my first study, I developed a novel self-report measure of concern for health and social risk behaviours. I assessed age-related differences in concern for health and social risk between adolescence and adulthood, and whether these were related to rejection sensitivity and depressive symptomatology. In my second study, I explored the degree to which adolescents’ engagement in health risks and illegal behaviours was related to whether or not they perceived these behaviours to increase their likability. I also investigated how this relationship is impacted by adolescents’ experience of victimisation. In my third study, I used network analysis to explore the link between sexual minority status, depression, interpersonal relationships and health risk behaviours in a large cohort study of adolescents. In my fourth study, I designed an experiment to measure the extent to which adolescents versus adults show a preference for social versus non-social stimuli within an academic diligence task. I discuss how my findings suggest adolescence to be a period of heightened sensitivity to social risk, and how this impacts decisions to engage in risk taking behaviour. I consider how my findings relate to legal and policy issues around the minimum age of criminal responsibility, joint enterprise convictions and the use of peer-led approaches for behaviour change

The Effect of Adolescent Alcohol on Dopaminergic and Gabaergic Neurotransmission in the Adult Prefrontal Cortex

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to play an important role in cognitive processes that are negatively impacted by alcohol exposure. Compared to other brain regions, the neuronal connections of the PFC undergo a critical period of reorganization and refinement during adolescence that coincides with improvements in cognitive control and decision-making. Environmental insults that occur during this period may be particularly damaging to the PFC, resulting in aberrant neurodevelopment along with long-lasting effects on cognitive functioning that negatively impacts decision-making and behavioral control. Experimentation with alcohol typically begins during adolescence when it is often consumed in excessive binge-like episodes resulting in high levels of intoxication followed by a short period of abstinence. This dissertation addresses the hypothesis that binge-like adolescent alcohol (AIE) exposure alters the development of neurotransmitter systems in the prelimbic PFC (PrL-C) and as a result, PFC-dependent cognitive functions are compromised in adulthood. First, the effect of adolescent alcohol abuse on dopaminergic neurotransmission in the adult PrL-C was examined. AIE compromised adult protein expression of the dopamine-related enzymes tyrosine hydroxylase and catechol-O-methyl transferase. Electrophysiology studies revealed a loss of D1 receptor modulation of pyramidal neuron evoked firing in adult layer V PrL-C. The next part of this dissertation focuses on the effect of AIE on development of the PrL-C GABA system. AIE produced marked reductions in GABAA receptor-mediated tonic currents in pyramidal neurons in layer V PrL-C. This effect appears to be largely mediated by developmental alterations specifically in GABAA receptors containing the δ-subunit. The dissertation concludes by assessing the effect of AIE on risky decision-making in adulthood. Furthermore, given the role of GABA in decision-making, exploratory studies sought to enhance tonic GABA currents using the novel δ-GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulator AA29504 and testing the effect of the drug on risk/reward decision-making. The results suggest that AIE did not alter risk/reward decision-making in adulthood. Moreover, AA29504 administration did not alter decision-making on the probabilistic discounting task. Taken together, this dissertation reveals that AIE exposure results in persistent deficits in both dopaminergic and GABAergic neurotransmission in the adult PrL-C that may contribute to deficits in PFC-dependent behavioral control in adulthood