Canine Curiosity: What We Do and Don’t Know, and What Human Infants Could Teach Us

The phenomenon of domesticated dogs looking to humans for information is ubiquitous, yet infrequently observed among other interspecies interactions. Dogs’ inclination to solicit information from humans is in large part a result of the two species’ shared social evolution and niche. Perhaps a more compelling aspect of this relationship is how dogs respond in the face of unexpected, uncertain, and/or novel cues from humans, from whom they frequently solicit information. The influence of human presence on canines’ curiosity about and engagement with their immediate environment is understudied, in part due to challenges in study design. SomeS of these challenges are common to working with and learning from babies of our own species. And, as dogs have developed many mental processes and behaviors similar to preverbal human infants, illuminating strategies for understanding curiosity in babies may prove useful in learning more about how dogs experience the world, with and without people

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

ManyBabies4: Infants' Social Evaluations

In this project we investigate a fundamental aspect of human nature: evaluating others’ actions as praiseworthy or blameworthy. We do so in a closely coordinated, multi-laboratory, standardized study aimed at replicating the helping/hindering finding reported by (Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, 2007). Using a video-taped version of the original puppet show, labs from around the world will collect data from infants between the ages of 5.5 and 10.5 months

Fairness informs social decision making in infancy.

The ability to reason about fairness plays a defining role in the development of morality. Thus, researchers have long been interested in understanding when and how a sensitivity to fairness first develops. Here, we examined infants' ability to use fairness information in selecting social partners. Using a novel experimental paradigm that combined pre-recorded stimuli with an active behavioral measure, we tested whether infants preferred to socially engage with an individual they had previously seen behave fairly or unfairly. After viewing an individual distribute goods to third parties either equally (i.e., 3:3 distribution) or unequally (i.e., 5:1 distribution), both 13- and 17-month-old infants selectively chose to engage in a social interaction with (i.e., take a toy from) an individual who distributed resources equally. The use of a novel paradigm to assess infants' fairness preferences demonstrates that infants' previously established fairness preferences extend across different, more demanding paradigms, and may therefore be more enduring in nature. Together, these findings provide new insights into the nature of infants' fairness representations, and fill in key gaps in the developmental timeline of infants' ability to use fairness information in their consideration of potential social partners. In sum, these findings build on previous research by demonstrating that infants not only hold an expectation that resources should be distributed fairly, they also preferentially interact with those who have previously done so. The early-emerging ability to both reason about and use fairness information may play an influential role in the development of complex prosocial behaviors related to morality more broadly

Children and Adults Exhibit a Common Vertical Attention Bias for Object Tops and Scene Bottoms

Adults have a vertical attention bias (VAB) that directs their focus toward object tops and scene bottoms. This is consistent with focusing attention on the informative aspects and affordances of the environment, and generally favoring a downward gaze. The smaller size of children, combined with their relatively limited interactions with objects and scenes, could lead them to have diminished bias that only gradually develops. Alternatively, an early coupling of attention to action space could lead to VAB similar to adults. The current study investigates the developmental timeline of VAB, comparing 4-7 year olds to adults. Participants (N=50 children; 53 adults) observed naturalistic photographic triptychs (48 objects, 52 scenes, all online). They made similarity judgments comparing a test figure to two flanking figures containing either the same top or same bottom. We found that (a) children and adults exhibit a common VAB for object tops and scene bottoms; and (b) the adult bias is stronger than children’s. Exploratory analyses revealed the same age trend within children, with VAB increasing with age, and asymptoting at the adult level at age 8. This demonstrates that despite age and body size differences that could make the environment for young children relatively disparate from adults, their perceptual system is already attuned to their individual interactive action space, but with some continuing residual development. The findings support that, like adults, young children focus their attention on their action space and body level affordances, where they interact more with tops of objects and bottoms of scenes

Distribution event stimuli.

<p>A still frame from the videos of a fair distribution event (A) and an unfair distribution event (B). All individuals appearing in all photographic figures are members of the research team and have consented to have their images used here.</p

Test phase event stimuli.

<p>The distributors showed identical toys to the participant before appearing to drop the toys into the real containers underneath each video. Prior to the event, unbeknownst to the infant, the experimenter placed the toys from the video in the containers, creating the illusion that the actors on screen had dropped physical toys into the containers. Infants were then prompted to approach one of the two containers.</p

Fairness preferences.

<p>Percentage of infants who chose to interact with the fair, over the unfair, distributor. Infants across both age groups selected the fair distributor at rates above chance (i.e., .50).</p