Differential interactions between identity and emotional expression in own and other-race faces: effects of familiarity revealed through redundancy gains.

We examined relations between the processing of facial identity and emotion in own- and other-race faces, using a fully crossed design with participants from 3 different ethnicities. The benefits of redundant identity and emotion signals were evaluated and formally tested in relation to models of independent and coactive feature processing and measures of processing capacity for the different types of stimuli. There was evidence for coactive processing of identity and emotion that was linked to super capacity for own-race but not for other-race faces. In addition, the size of the redundancy gain for other-race faces varied with the amount of social contact participants had with individuals from the other race. The data demonstrate qualitative differences in the processing of facial identity and emotion cues in own and other races. The results also demonstrate that the level of integration of identity and emotion cues in faces may be determined by life experience and exposure to individuals of different ethnicities

Intertwining personal and reward relevance: evidence from the drift diffusion model

In their seminal paper ‘Is our self nothing but reward’, Northoff and Hayes (Biol Psychiatry 69(11):1019–1025, Northoff, Hayes, Biological Psychiatry 69(11):1019–1025, 2011) proposed three models of the relationship between self and reward and opened a continuing debate about how these different fields can be linked. To date, none of the proposed models received strong empirical support. The present study tested common and distinct effects of personal relevance and reward values by de-componenting different stages of perceptual decision making using a drift-diffusion approach. We employed a recently developed associative matching paradigm where participants (N = 40) formed mental associations between five geometric shapes and five labels referring personal relevance in the personal task, or five shape-label pairings with different reward values in the reward task and then performed a matching task by indicating whether a displayed shape-label pairing was correct or incorrect. We found that common effects of personal relevance and monetary reward were manifested in the facilitation of behavioural performance for high personal relevance and high reward value as socially important signals. The differential effects between personal and monetary relevance reflected non-decisional time in a perceptual decision process, and task-specific prioritization of stimuli. Our findings support the parallel processing model (Northoff & Hayes, Biol Psychiatry 69(11):1019–1025, Northoff, Hayes, Biological Psychiatry 69(11):1019–1025, 2011) and suggest that self-specific processing occurs in parallel with high reward processing. Limitations and further directions are discussed

Финансовая валютизация экономики Беларуси

Многие малые страны ощутили влияние на экономику такого противоречивого феномена, как долларизация и его производной валютизации. В работе рассматриваются формы, аспекты регулирования и текущее состояние валютизации в Беларуси

Social contacts and loneliness affect the own age bias for emotional faces

Individuals are better at recognizing faces of their own age group (Own Age Bias) but it is unclear whether this bias occurs also for emotional faces and to what extent is affected by loneliness. Young individuals (N = 235) completed an age categorization task on faces of young and old individuals showing neutral, happy, and angry expressions. After a filler task, they categorized as seen or novel the original set of faces intermixed with a new set. Findings showed an Own Age Bias for novel young faces but no evidence that emotion eliminates it. Recognition accuracy was better for emotional faces, but the two factors did not interact. Importantly, low loneliness was linked to an Own Age Bias for novel happy faces. These findings are discussed in the context of current theoretical accounts of the Own Age Bias and of the effects of loneliness on attention and memory

Exploring the relationship between perceived loneliness and subjective cognitive decline in older individuals.

OBJECTIVE: Loneliness has been associated to a greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older individuals. However, evidence on whether this association also exists for older individuals who complain of cognitive problems is limited. We conducted a survey to examine the association between subjective cognitive decline in the working memory domain, perceived loneliness, depression, anxiety, and stress in older individuals with different profiles. METHODS: A total of 302 healthy, old individuals completed 3 questionnaires to assess subjective cognitive problems in attention, executive functions, storage, depression, anxiety, stress, and perceived loneliness. RESULTS: We conducted a cluster analysis and 3 clusters of individuals with different profiles emerged. Individuals with greater subjective cognitive problems (cluster 1) in the attention and storage domains, reported higher perceived loneliness and stress but not depression. In contrast, individuals with the least subjective cognitive problems (cluster 3) in the storage domain, reported lower perceived loneliness. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with higher subjective cognitive decline also report higher levels of perceived loneliness but not more depression than their peers. However, this correlation is present only for individuals with mild subjective cognitive decline (cluster 2). The implications for future research and interventions are discussed

Illness Perception Mediates the Relationship Between the Severity of Symptoms and Perceived Health Status in Patients With Behçet Disease

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychological representations of illness, perceived health status, and self-assessment of symptom severity in patients with Behçet disease, a rare long-term incurable condition with unclear etiology. Methods: Using cross-sectional survey design, data on self-administered questionnaires on illness perception, health status, symptoms severity, and demographic characteristics were collected from 273 patients with Behçet disease (age range, 18–65 years). The data were subjected to mediation analysis to test whether cognitive and emotional components of illness perception mediate the relationship between the severity of symptoms and heath status. Results: The results support our hypotheses that cognitive components of illness perception (perceived consequences and identity of the illness) mediate the link between symptom activity and pain, whereas emotional components of the illness (emotional representations about the illness) mediate the relationship between disease activity and perceived energy level. Conclusions: The robustness of these mediation effects suggests potential directions for clinical psychologists and health care practitioners in developing support programs. We supplement our study with Open Access database containing information about type ofmedication, comorbidmood disorder, and detailed measurement of the severity of BD symptoms for sharing and accumulating multidisciplinary knowledge aiming to support the development of interventions. Addressing psychological aspects of BD will help to manage complex patients effectively

Post-traumatic stress disorder and depressive symptoms following a Herdsmen attack: The role of life meaning in mediating trait mindfulness

It is well established that mindfulness is beneficial in decreasing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms, but the explanatory pathway and processes through which this happens are still not clear. The present study investigated two mediation models that explored the psychological process of presence of meaning in life as a mechanism connecting mindfulness to reduced PTSD and depressive symptoms in survivors of a violent attack. A sample of 577 survivors of the Fulani herdsmen attack completed relevant self-report measures and the bootstrap method was used to test the models for direct, indirect and total effects. Results revealed that mindfulness was negatively associated to PTSD symptoms, and that this association was fully mediated by the ability to find meaning in life. Mindfulness was also indirectly associated to depression through a greater sense of meaning in life. The findings of this study suggest that the presence of meaning in life is the pathway through which mindfulness alleviates PTSD and depression symptoms, and could therefore serve as an intervention target to decrease such negative outcomes in trauma survivors

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ ФЕНОТИПИЧЕСКОЙ СТРУКТУРЫ ПОПУЛЯЦИЙ КОЛОРАДСКОГО ЖУКА (LEPTINOTARSA DECEMLINEATA SAY) В УСЛОВИЯХ ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ СТРЕССОВ

The phenomorphic distribution of pronotum cover spot pattern of Colorado potato beetle (Lepinortarsa decemlineata Say) imago in the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Moldova is studied. The genetic heterogeneity of the Belarusian andMoldavian phytophage populations is determined. The dominance of No.1, 3 and 6 phenomorphs in the Colorado potato beetle populations based on the imago pronotum cover spot pattern (15.4–25.3 % of all individuals) is determined, the phenomorphsNo.7, 8 and 9 are rare (the frequency of occurrence up to 3.0 %). It is determined that on the territory of Moldova in the population of Colorado potato beetle phenomorphs No. 3 and 6 dominate by imago front back figure, by frequency of occurrence 15.0–17.8 % and 38.4–40.2 % from all the individuals, respectively, the phenomorphs No.7 (1.8–2.1 %) and No.8 (1.8–2.3 %) are rare. It is determined that the Belarusian population belongs to the northern and central ecotypes, the Moldavian one – to the southeast ecotype. The phenotypic structure diversity under the ecological stress conditions is shown. The populations diagnosis according to pyrethroid chemical group preparations resistance is specified by the morphotypic method. The frequency of occurrence of sensitive, tolerant, resistant and highly resistant pest populations in different geographical regions of the phytophage habitat is revealed. In Belarus the sensitive populations were present in 17.1 %, in Moldova – in 47.8 %, the resistant populations – 43.9 and 21.7 %, respectively. Highly resistant populations were discovered in insignificant number and were met at the same level: in Belarus – 4.9 %, in Moldova – 4.3 %. The results obtained will allow to substantiate the development of ecologized potato protection system from the Colorado potato beetle using entomopathogenic microorganisms and biologically active substances of plant origin, that would prevent resistance of the Colorado potato beetle to chemical insecticides. Acknowledgments. The study is performed with financial support of the Belarusian Republican Foundation of Fundamental Researches within the frameworks of project No. Б13МЛД-008.Изучено распределение феноморф рисунка центральной части переднеспинки у имаго колорадского жука (Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say), обитающего в Республике Беларусь и Республике Молдова. Установлена генотипическая разнокачественность белорусской и молдавской популяций фитофага. В популяциях колорадского жукав Беларуси доминировали феноморфы № 1, 3 и 6 по рисунку переднеспинки имаго (15,4–25,3 % всех особей), редкими являлись феноморфы № 7, 8 и 9 (частота встречаемости до 3,0 %). В популяции колорадского жука в Молдове доминировали феноморфы № 3 и 6 по рисунку переднеспинки имаго с частотой встречаемости 15,0–17,8 и 38,4–40,2 % от всех особей соответственно, редкими являлись феноморфы № 7 (1,8–2,1 %) и № 8 (1,8–2,3 %). Выявлена принадлежность белорусской популяции к северному и центральному экотипам, молдавской популяции – к юго-восточному экотипу. Показана изменчивость фенотипической структуры под влиянием экологических стрессов. Проведено диагностирование популяций по резистентности к инсектицидным препаратам из класса пиретроидов с помощью морфотипического метода. Выявлена частота встречаемости чувствительных, толерантных, резистентных и высокорезистентных популяций вредителя в различных географических регионах обитания фитофага. В Беларуси чувствительные популяции встречались в 17,1 % случаев, в Молдове – в 47,8 %, резистентные популяции – 43,9 и 21,7 % случаев соответственно. Высокорезистентные популяции были обнаружены в незначительном количестве и встречались на одинаковом уровне: в Беларуси – 4,9 %, Молдове – 4,3 %. Полученные результаты позволят обосновать разработку экологизированной системы защиты картофеля от колорадского жука с использованием энтомопатогенных микроорганизмов и биологически активных веществ растительного происхождения, что будет препятствовать формированию резистентности колорадского жука к химических инсектицидам. Благодарности. Работа выполнена при финансовой поддержке Белорусского республиканского фонда фундаментальных исследований в рамках проекта № Б13МЛД-008

Intertwining personal and reward relevance: evidence from the drift-diffusion model.

In their seminal paper 'Is our self nothing but reward', Northoff and Hayes (Biol Psychiatry 69(11):1019-1025, Northoff, Hayes, Biological Psychiatry 69(11):1019-1025, 2011) proposed three models of the relationship between self and reward and opened a continuing debate about how these different fields can be linked. To date, none of the proposed models received strong empirical support. The present study tested common and distinct effects of personal relevance and reward values by de-componenting different stages of perceptual decision making using a drift-diffusion approach. We employed a recently developed associative matching paradigm where participants (N = 40) formed mental associations between five geometric shapes and five labels referring personal relevance in the personal task, or five shape-label pairings with different reward values in the reward task and then performed a matching task by indicating whether a displayed shape-label pairing was correct or incorrect. We found that common effects of personal relevance and monetary reward were manifested in the facilitation of behavioural performance for high personal relevance and high reward value as socially important signals. The differential effects between personal and monetary relevance reflected non-decisional time in a perceptual decision process, and task-specific prioritization of stimuli. Our findings support the parallel processing model (Northoff & Hayes, Biol Psychiatry 69(11):1019-1025, Northoff, Hayes, Biological Psychiatry 69(11):1019-1025, 2011) and suggest that self-specific processing occurs in parallel with high reward processing. Limitations and further directions are discussed