Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses.

Decades of behavioral science research have documented functional shifts in attitudes and ideological adherence in response to various challenges, but little work to date has illuminated the neural mechanisms underlying these dynamics. This paper describes how continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation may be employed to experimentally assess the causal contribution of cortical regions to threat-related ideological shifts. In the example protocol provided here, participants are exposed to a threat prime-an explicit reminder of their own inevitable death and bodily decomposition-following a downregulation of the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) or a sham stimulation. Next, disguised within a series of distracter tasks, participants' relative degree of ideological adherence is assessed-in the present example, with regard to coalitional prejudice and religious belief. Participants for whom the pMFC has been downregulated exhibit less coalitionally biased responses to an immigrant critical of the participants' national in-group, and less conviction in positive afterlife beliefs (i.e., God, angels, and heaven), despite having recently been reminded of death. These results complement prior findings that continuous theta burst stimulation of the pMFC influences social conformity and sharing and illustrate the feasibility of investigating the neural basis of high-level social cognitive shifts using transcranial magnetic stimulation

Assets at risk:menstrual cycle variation in the envisioned formidability of a potential sexual assailant reveals a component of threat assessment

Abstract Situations of potential agonistic conflict demand rapid and effective deci-sion-making. The process of threat assessment includes assessments of relative fighting capacity, assessments of the likelihood of attack, and assessments of the extent to which one′s assets are at risk. The dimensions of physical size and strength appear to serve as key parameters in a cognitive representation summarizing multiple constituents of threat assessment. Here, we examine the thesis that this same representation summa-rizes asset risk. The fitness costs of sexual assault are in part a function of conception risk, as pregnancy due to assault compromises female choice and imperils existing and subsequent male investment. Prior research indicates that women′s attitudes and behaviors vary systematically across the menstrual cycle in a manner that would have reduced the likelihood of sexual assault during periods of greatest fertility in ancestral women. If the envisioned size and strength of a potential antagonist is used to represent asset risk, and if the threat that sexual assault poses to a woman′s reproductive assets is in part a product of her fertility, then the conceptualized size and strength of a potential sexual assailant should be a function of conception risk. We find support for thi

Parental Precaution: Neurobiological Means and Adaptive Ends

Humans invest precious reproductive resources in just a few offspring, who remain vulnerable for an extended period of their lifetimes relative to other primates. Therefore, it is likely that humans evolved a rich precautionary psychology that assists in the formidable task of protecting offspring. In this review, we integrate precautionary behaviors during pregnancy and postpartum with the adaptive functions they may serve and what is known of their biological mediators, particularly brain systems motivating security and attachment. We highlight the role of reproductive hormones in (i) priming parental affiliation with young to incentivize offspring protection, (ii) focusing parental attention on cues of potential threat, and (iii) facilitating maternal defense against potentially dangerous conspecifics and predators. Throughout, we center discussion on adaptive responses to threats of disease, accident and assault as common causes of child mortality in the ancestral past

Stranger Danger: Parenthood and Child Presence Increase the Envisioned Bodily Formidability of Menacing Men

Due to altriciality and the importance of embodied capital, children’s fitness is contingent on parental investment. Injury suffered by a parent therefore degrades the parent’s fitness both by constraining reproduction and by diminishing the fitness of existing offspring. Due to the latter added cost, compared to non-parents, parents should be more cautious in hazardous situations, including potentially agonistic interactions. Prior research indicates that relative formidability is conceptualized in terms of size and strength. As erroneous under-estimation of a foe’s formidability heightens the risk of injury, parents should therefore conceptualize a potential antagonist as larger, stronger, and of more sinister intent than should non-parents; secondarily, the presence of one’s vulnerable children should exacerbate this pattern. We tested these predictions in the U.S. using reactions to an evocative vignette, administered via the Internet (Study 1), and in-person assessments of the facial photograph of a purported criminal, collected on the streets of Southern California (Study 2). As predicted, parents envisioned a potential antagonist to be more formidable than did non-parents. Significant differences between parents with children and non-parents without children in the threat that the foe was thought to pose (Study 1) were fully mediated by increases in estimated physical formidability

Sizing up Helen Nonviolent physical risk-taking enhances the envisioned bodily formidability of women.

Abstract Men are more prone than women to both commit physical violence and engage in nonviolent activities entailing the risk of injury or death. The Crazy Bastard Hypothesi

Evaluation of acoustic telemetry grids for determining aquatic animal movement and survival

1. Acoustic telemetry studies have frequently prioritized linear configurations of hydrophone receivers, such as perpendicular from shorelines or across rivers, to detect the presence of tagged aquatic animals. This approach introduces unknown bias when receivers are stationed for convenience at geographic bottlenecks (e.g. at the mouth of an embayment or between islands) as opposed to deployments following a statistical sampling design. 2. We evaluated two-dimensional acoustic receiver arrays (grids: receivers spread uniformly across space) as an alternative approach to provide estimates of survival, movement and habitat use. Performance of variably spaced receiver grids (5–25 km spacing) was evaluated by simulating (1) animal tracks as correlated random walks (speed: 0.1–0.9 m/s; turning angle SD: 5–30°); (2) variable tag transmission intervals along each track (nominal delay: 15–300 s); and (3) probability of detection of each transmission based on logistic detection range curves (midpoint: 200–1,500 m). From simulations, we quantified (i) time between successive detections on any receiver (detection time), (ii) time between successive detections on different receivers (transit time), and (iii) distance between successive detections on different receivers (transit distance). 3. In the most restrictive detection range scenario (200 m), the 95th percentile of transit time was 3.2 days at 5 km, 5.7 days at 7 km and 15.2 days at 25 km grid spacing; for the 1,500 m detection range scenario, it was 0.1 days at 5 km, 0.5 days at 7 km and 10.8 days at 25 km. These values represented upper bounds on the expected maximum time that an animal could go undetected. Comparison of the simulations with pilot studies on three fishes (walleye Sander vitreus, common carp Cyprinus carpio and channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus) from two independent large lake ecosystems (lakes Erie and Winnipeg) revealed shorter detection and transit times than what simulations predicted. 4. By spreading effort uniformly across space, grids can improve understanding of fish migration over the commonly employed receiver line approach, but at increased time cost for maintaining grids

Evaluation of acoustic telemetry grids for determining aquatic animal movement and survival

1. Acoustic telemetry studies have frequently prioritized linear configurations of hydrophone receivers, such as perpendicular from shorelines or across rivers, to detect the presence of tagged aquatic animals. This approach introduces unknown bias when receivers are stationed for convenience at geographic bottlenecks (e.g. at the mouth of an embayment or between islands) as opposed to deployments following a statistical sampling design. 2. We evaluated two-dimensional acoustic receiver arrays (grids: receivers spread uniformly across space) as an alternative approach to provide estimates of survival, movement and habitat use. Performance of variably spaced receiver grids (5–25 km spacing) was evaluated by simulating (1) animal tracks as correlated random walks (speed: 0.1–0.9 m/s; turning angle SD: 5–30°); (2) variable tag transmission intervals along each track (nominal delay: 15–300 s); and (3) probability of detection of each transmission based on logistic detection range curves (midpoint: 200–1,500 m). From simulations, we quantified (i) time between successive detections on any receiver (detection time), (ii) time between successive detections on different receivers (transit time), and (iii) distance between successive detections on different receivers (transit distance). 3. In the most restrictive detection range scenario (200 m), the 95th percentile of transit time was 3.2 days at 5 km, 5.7 days at 7 km and 15.2 days at 25 km grid spacing; for the 1,500 m detection range scenario, it was 0.1 days at 5 km, 0.5 days at 7 km and 10.8 days at 25 km. These values represented upper bounds on the expected maximum time that an animal could go undetected. Comparison of the simulations with pilot studies on three fishes (walleye Sander vitreus, common carp Cyprinus carpio and channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus) from two independent large lake ecosystems (lakes Erie and Winnipeg) revealed shorter detection and transit times than what simulations predicted. 4. By spreading effort uniformly across space, grids can improve understanding of fish migration over the commonly employed receiver line approach, but at increased time cost for maintaining grids

The Student Movement Volume 108 Issue 2: World Changers Assemble!

HUMANS Meet Pastor Taurus Montgomery, Colin Cha Uniting AULA with Sofia Oudri, Grace No World Changers Take On Changing the World, Savannah Tyler ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Bewitched: An Album for the Fall Season, Lexie Dunham Music Notes for Change Day, Aiko J. Ayala Rios Processing Through Poetry: Raw & Real, Madison Vath NEWS Being Unstoppable: AU Fall Week of Prayer, Jonathan Clough FIBA Games Spark Questions for Competing Nations Ahead of the \u2724 Summer Olympics, Andrew Francis Honors\u27 Agape Feast Starts New Year of Faith and Fellowship, Andrew Francis IDEAS A Life Worth Living, Reagan Westerman The Victoria\u27s Secret Fashion Show Returns: Is it a Marketing Tactic or Genuine Change?, Daena Holbrook PULSE AU Sports, Alyssa Caruthers More Change Day Experiences, Various Students The Strange Thing About Service, Wambui Karanja Uplifting Spaces on Campus: Reflections from Nicole Compton-Gray, Nicole Compton-Gray LAST WORD An Advertising-Free Zone, Scott Moncrieffhttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/sm-108/1001/thumbnail.jp

The Student Movement Volume 108 Issue 1: \u2723 and me: Welcome to the AU Family!

HUMANS Babbling at the Crayon Box, Anneliese Tessalee Dorm Sweet Dorm, Savannah Tyler Surviving Freshman Year 101, Colin Cha ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT AU\u27s Reception of Barbie , Amelia Stefanescu Hey, How Was Your Summer? , Nailea Soto Sewing as an Art Form: My Experience as a First-Time Formal Dressmaker, Daena Holbrook Shadow & Bone: Reentering the Grishaverse, Madison Vath NEWS Another Generation, Another Convocation, Melissa Moore Canada\u27s Fiery Struggle: The Ongoing Battle Against Wildfires, Brendan Oh Labor Day, the Writers\u27 Strikes, and Fairness, Nathaniel Miller IDEAS Antibiotic Resistance, Sumin Lee Chapel Credits: Fair or Unfair?, Corinna Bevier From Flowers to Fires: Does Climate Change Rhetoric Need to Change?, Bella Hamann Suicide Prevention Month and the Power of Support, Reagan Westerman PULSE All That and Then Summer, Lexie Dunham Food Near AU, Alyssa Caruthers Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, is There a Fairest of Them All?, Anna Rybachek Social Media Fasts, Rodney Bell II LAST WORD You Are a God Who Sees Me, Chris Ngugihttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/sm-108/1000/thumbnail.jp