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Voting at Home Is Associated with Lower Cortisol than Voting at the Polls

Previous research finds that voting is a socially stressful activity associated with increases in cortisol levels. Here we extend this research by investigating whether different voting modalities have differential effects on the stress response to voting. Results from a field experiment conducted during the 2012 presidential elections strongly suggest that traditional “at the polls” voting is more stressful, as measured by increases in cortisol levels, than voting at home by mail-in ballot or engaging in comparable non-political social activities. These findings imply that increased low-stress voting options such as mail-in ballots may increase political participation among individuals who are sensitive to social stressors

Women using a web‐based digital health coaching programme for stress management: stress sources, symptoms and soping strategies

Researchers have proposed and tested many theories to understand gender differences in stress experiences. However, little research has identified differences between subgroups of women in terms of stress sources, symptoms, coping strategies and help‐seeking behaviour. The purpose of this study was to examine these characteristics of women seeking help for stress management through a digital health coaching programme. We examined cross‐sectional data from 63,690 women between the ages of 18 and 59 years who participated in the stress management programme from 2001 to 2008. We divided the sample into age groups to identify developmental patterns in their stress characteristics. Work , time demands and psychological reactions to stress were consistent concerns, whereas between‐group comparisons indicated diverse stress characteristics by age group. Importantly, women at all ages reported being uncomfortable asking for help. The findings suggest that technology‐based solutions like digital health coaching may reach women who may not otherwise seek or receive help for stress management. The results also emphasize the importance of considering the unique characteristics of women when providing them stress management interventions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87059/1/smi1389.pd

Political conservatism predicts asymmetries in emotional scene memory

Variation in political ideology has been linked to differences in attention to and processing of emotional stimuli, with stronger responses to negative versus positive stimuli (negativity bias) the more politically conservative one is. As memory is enhanced by attention, such findings predict that memory for negative versus positive stimuli should similarly be enhanced the more conservative one is. The present study tests this prediction by having participants study 120 positive, negative, and neutral scenes in preparation for a subsequent memory test. On the memory test, the same 120 scenes were presented along with 120 new scenes and participants were to respond whether a scene was old or new. Results on the memory test showed that negative scenes were more likely to be remembered than positive scenes, though, this was true only for political conservatives. That is, a larger negativity bias was found the more conservative one was. The effect was sizeable, explaining 45% of the variance across subjects in the effect of emotion. These findings demonstrate that the relationship between political ideology and asymmetries in emotion processing extend to memory and, furthermore, suggest that exploring the extent to which subject variation in interactions among emotion, attention, and memory is predicted by conservatism may provide new insights into theories of political ideology

Structural Olfactory Nerve Changes in Patients Suffering from Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension

BACKGROUND: Complications of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) are usually caused by elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). In a similar way as in the optic nerve, elevated ICP could also compromise the olfactory nerve system. On the other side, there is growing evidence that an extensive lymphatic network system around the olfactory nerves could be disturbed in cerebrospinal fluid disorders like IIH. The hypothesis that patients with IIH suffer from hyposmia has been suggested in the past. However, this has not been proven in clinical studies yet. This pilot study investigates whether structural changes of the olfactory nerve system can be detected in patients with IIH. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Twenty-three patients with IIH and 23 matched controls were included. Olfactory bulb volume (OBV) and sulcus olfactorius (OS) depth were calculated by magnetic resonance techniques. While mean values of total OBV (128.7±38.4 vs. 130.0±32.6 mm(3), p=0.90) and mean OS depth (8.5±1.2 vs. 8.6±1.1 mm, p=0.91) were similar in both groups, Pearson correlation showed that patients with a shorter medical history IIH revealed a smaller OBV (r=0.53, p<0.01). In untreated symptomatic patients (n=7), the effect was greater (r=0.76, p<0.05). Patients who suffered from IIH for less than one year (n=8), total OBV was significantly smaller than in matched controls (116.6±24.3 vs. 149.3±22.2 mm(3), p=0.01). IIH patients with visual disturbances (n=21) revealed a lower OS depth than patients without (8.3±0.9 vs. 10.8±1.0 mm, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results suggest that morphological changes of the olfactory nerve system could be present in IIH patients at an early stage of disease

POSER: an oPen sOurce Simulation platform for tEaching and tRaining underwater photogrammetry

Underwater photogrammetry presents unique challenges due to the optical properties of water that, if not correctly taken into account, might affect the quality of the survey and the related 2D and 3D products. It is recognized nowadays the importance to train newcomers to underwater surveying, and extend and consolidate the knowledge of best practices for underwater data acquisition. Starting from this consideration, we propose the development of POSER, a 3D simulation framework designed to facilitate the teaching of underwater imaging principles. The project, an ISPRS Educational and Capacity Building Initiative, is built upon the open-source platform Blender, incorporating realistic modelling of the physical properties of water, including light refraction, scattering, and absorption phenomena, to simulate underwater surveying conditions. We foster a learning-by-doing approach, providing users with ready-to-use application scenarios inspired by real-life case studies. They will cover a range of application fields, from marine ecology to archaeology and subsea metrology, and allow users to address the complexities of underwater surveying practices. This paper introduces POSER to the community, presenting its educational vocation and describing its constituent components

Processing Facial Emotions: An EEG Study of the Differences between Conservatives and Liberals and Across Political Participation

Behavioral differences have been reported between conservatives and liberals when categorizing facial expressions, yet no study explores potential differences in the manner in which the two groups process facial expressions, let alone how partisanship contributes or how political engagement may vary with brain processing of facial expressions. In this context, processing refers to brain patterns following exposure to a facial expression and participants’ subsequent attention to the presented facial expressions. This thesis addresses the question of whether political temperament is associated with differences in neural processing. Research subjects participated in an emotion discrimination task while event-related potentials (ERP) were captured in order to explore the neurological processing similarities and differences between conservatives and liberals (also by accounting for partisanship), and those with varying levels of participation, in response to the facial expressions of fear, happiness, anger, disgust, and no emotion (neutral). The findings suggest that, for the P2 component, compared to liberals, conservatives process facial emotions more rapidly but only for particular categories of emotion. When including partisanship in a model, more pronounced differences emerge, with ideology emerging as a factor that captures facial processing differences irrespective of emotion. In terms of participation, those who tend to participate less have higher P1 amplitudes, indicating large cognitive resources spent to process facial information, and also tend to have higher cortisol levels. Adviser: John H. Hibbin

The Social Brain and Politics: The Effects of Social Inclinations and Stress on Political Participation

This dissertation explores the social dimensions of people that differentially predispose them to participate in politics. Politics is inherently social, yet crucial social interaction dispositions are almost entirely overlooked. This dissertation explores the degree social interaction traits shape political and social participation. I argue and test that social anxiousness and empathy are key to understanding people’s social interactions and political participation. Social anxiousness and empathy act independently and interact to change participation. These social interaction traits are studied alongside of biologically related correlates, which are related to the dispositions and likely influence political participation. Analyses indicate that empathy counteracts the negative effect of social anxiousness and the interaction between empathy and social anxiety boosts participation, which is supported across several chapters. Each simple main effect and the interaction has unique contributions to political participation; meanwhile, the Big Five personality dimensions have provided little, if any, predictive information regarding participation. In my third chapter, I examined people’s neural processing and correct identification of facial expressions relative to political participation. The P100 was examined due to its relationship to individual differences like empathy and social anxiousness. The P100 was neither related to nor predictive of political or social participation in either bivariate or multivariate models. Correct identification of negative emotions was related to social anxiousness and predictive of decreases in political participation only. Finally, in Chapter 4, voting and non-voting participation are studied. Social and physiological stress, cortisol, and political stress are examined alongside social anxiousness and empathy. The longstanding interactive effect of social anxiousness and empathy from previous chapters fades away, while internal pressures captured by the interaction of social anxiousness and cortisol create a negative, compounding effect on political participation. The implications for research are that there are several consistent and robust findings regarding empathy and social anxiety that require ongoing research. Each of the stressors plays different roles with substantially different implications for research on political participation and whether empathy can abate them

Using Technology to Improve Conservation: Virtual Environments for Testing Actionable Metrics of Scientific Methodology for Measuring Coral Recruits in the Field

As scientists, we have embraced underwater survey and design methods, often with limited time and resources to fully test each step of the work flow to understand which method provides the most robust metrics we are after. In a timely experiment, given this pandemic era of limited field research, I investigated the use of virtual corals and animation of photographic patterns to simulate real life survey methods. These methods use thousands of photographs collected in the field to reconstruct 3D corals reefs, from which we collect 2D metrics of coral growth. Being that this 3D technology is being used to collect 2D metrics, I wanted to investigate if the 3 types of current methodology used for large scale rapid assessments are appropriate for collecting 3D metrics of individual coral colonies. Furthermore, I investigated if changes in the camera angle and photo percent overlap enhanced the collection of data points for reconstructing the reef scene, and tested the accuracy (percent error) for objects reconstructed in the scene for each method. This could serve as an informative metric in the case of experimentation, giving valuation to a damaged reef, and in coral restoration design