Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images.

One of the most important human social skills is the ability to recognize faces. Humans recognize familiar faces easily, and can learn to identify unfamiliar faces from repeatedly presented images. Sheep are social animals that can recognize other sheep as well as familiar humans. Little is known, however, about their holistic face-processing abilities. In this study, we trained eight sheep (Ovis aries) to recognize the faces of four celebrities from photographic portraits displayed on computer screens. After training, the sheep chose the 'learned-familiar' faces rather than the unfamiliar faces significantly above chance. We then tested whether the sheep could recognize the four celebrity faces if they were presented in different perspectives. This ability has previously been shown only in humans. Sheep successfully recognized the four celebrity faces from tilted images. Interestingly, there was a drop in performance with the tilted images (from 79.22 ± 7.5% to 66.5 ± 4.1%) of a magnitude similar to that seen when humans perform this task. Finally, we asked whether sheep could recognize a very familiar handler from photographs. Sheep identified the handler in 71.8 ± 2.3% of the trials without pretraining. Together these data show that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and non-human primates

Abnormal reward prediction error signalling in antipsychotic naïve individuals with first episode psychosis or clinical risk for psychosis

Ongoing research suggests preliminary, though not entirely consistent, evidence of neural abnormalities in signalling prediction errors in schizophrenia. Supporting theories suggest mechanistic links between the disruption of these processes and the generation of psychotic symptoms. However, it is unknown at what stage in psychosis these impairments in prediction error signalling develop. One major confound in prior studies is the use of medicated patients with strongly varying disease durations. Our study aims to investigate the involvement of the meso-cortico-striatal circuitry during reward prediction error signalling in earliest stages of psychosis. We studied patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) and help-seeking individuals at-risk for psychosis due to subthreshold prodromal psychotic symptoms. Patients with either FEP (n=14), or at-risk for developing psychosis (n=30), and healthy volunteers (n=39) performed a reinforcement learning task during fMRI scanning. ANOVA revealed significant (p<0.05 family-wise error corrected) prediction error signalling differences between groups in the dopaminergic midbrain and right middle frontal gyrus (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, DLPFC). FEP patients showed disrupted reward prediction error signalling compared to controls in both regions. At-risk patients showed intermediate activation in the midbrain that significantly differed from controls and from FEP patients, but DLPFC activation that did not differ from controls. Our study confirms that FEP patients have abnormal meso-cortical signalling of reward prediction errors, whilst reward prediction error dysfunction in the at-risk patients appears to show a more nuanced pattern of activation with a degree of midbrain impairment but preserved cortical function

Subjective Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Schizotypy and General Mental Health in Germany and the United Kingdom, for Independent Samples in May and in October 2020.

Studies reported a strong impact on mental health during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in March-June, 2020. In this study, we assessed the impact of the pandemic on mental health in general and on schizotypal traits in two independent general population samples of the United Kingdom (May sample N: 239, October sample N: 126; participation at both timepoints: 21) and in two independent general population samples of Germany (May sample N: 543, October sample N: 401; participation at both timepoints: 100) using online surveys. Whereas general psychological symptoms (global symptom index, GSI) and percentage of responders above clinical cut-off for further psychological investigation were higher in the May sample compared to the October sample, schizotypy scores (Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire) were higher in the October sample. We investigated potential associations, using general linear regression models (GLM). For schizotypy scores, we found that loneliness, use of drugs, and financial burden were more strongly corrected with schizotypy in the October compared to the May sample. We identified similar associations for GSI, as for schizotypy scores, in the May and October samples. We furthermore found that living in the United Kingdom was related to higher schizotypal scores or GSI. However, individual estimates of the GLM are highly comparable between the two countries. In conclusion, this study shows that while the general psychological impact is lower in the October than the May sample, potentially showing a normative response to an exceptional situation; schizotypy scores are higher at the second timepoint, which may be due to a stronger impact of estimates of loneliness, drug use, and financial burden. The ongoing, exceptional circumstances within this pandemic might increase the risk for developing psychosis in some individuals. The development of general psychological symptoms and schizotypy scores over time requires further attention and investigation

The impact of spectral basis set composition on estimated levels of cingulate glutamate and its associations with different personality traits

Background: 1H-MRS is increasingly used in basic and clinical research to explain brain function and alterations respectively. In psychosis research it is now one of the main tools to investigate imbalances in the glutamatergic system. Interestingly, however, the findings are extremely variable even within patients of similar disease states. One reason may be the variability in analysis strategies, despite suggestions for standardization. Therefore, our study aimed to investigate the extent to which the basis set configuration– which metabolites are included in the basis set used for analysis– would affect the spectral fit and estimated glutamate (Glu) concentrations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and whether any changes in levels of glutamate would be associated with psychotic-like experiences and autistic traits. Methods: To ensure comparability, we utilized five different exemplar basis sets, used in research, and two different analysis tools, r-based spant applying the ABfit method and Osprey using the LCModel. Results: Our findings revealed that the types of metabolites included in the basis set significantly affected the glutamate concentration. We observed that three basis sets led to more consistent results across different concentration types (i.e., absolute Glu in mol/kg, Glx (glutamate + glutamine), Glu/tCr), spectral fit and quality measurements. Interestingly, all three basis sets included phosphocreatine. Importantly, our findings also revealed that glutamate levels were differently associated with both schizotypal and autistic traits depending on basis set configuration and analysis tool, with the same three basis sets showing more consistent results. Conclusions: Our study highlights that scientific results may be significantly altered depending on the choices of metabolites included in the basis set, and with that emphasizes the importance of carefully selecting the configuration of the basis set to ensure accurate and consistent results, when using MR spectroscopy. Overall, our study points out the need for standardized analysis pipelines and reporting

Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images.

© 2017 The Authors. One of the most important human social skills is the ability to recognize faces. Humans recognize familiar faces easily, and can learn to identify unfamiliar faces from repeatedly presented images. Sheep are social animals that can recognize other sheep as well as familiar humans. Little is known, however, about their holistic face-processing abilities. In this study, we trained eight sheep (Ovis aries) to recognize the faces of four celebrities from photographic portraits displayed on computer screens. After training, the sheep chose the ‘learned-familiar’ faces rather than the unfamiliar faces significantly above chance. We then tested whether the sheep could recognize the four celebrity faces if they were presented in different perspectives. This ability has previously been shown only in humans. Sheep successfully recognized the four celebrity faces from tilted images. Interestingly, there was a drop in performance with the tilted images (from 79.22±7.5% to 66.5±4.1%) of a magnitude similar to that seen when humans perform this task. Finally, we asked whether sheep could recognize a very familiar handler from photographs. Sheep identified the handler in 71.8±2.3% of the trials without pretraining. Together these data show that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and non-human primates

OBJETIVAÇÃO DE UM CURRÍCULO DE EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA: ENTRE O PRESCRITO E O VIVIDO

O presente estudo busca compreender a construção diária de um currículo de Educação Física, analisando os referenciais e documentos teórico-metodológicos com os quais um professor participante ativo de um processo de revisão curricular lida/mobiliza em seu dia a dia para a objetivação do currículo em ação, quais os condicionantes externos e internos influenciaram as escolhas e as formas desse sujeito perceber, explicar e descrever a organização e o trato pedagógico conferido aos conteúdos desse componente curricular no seu contexto educacional de trabalho. Referencia suas análises numa abordagem sociológica sobre a construção do currículo de Educação Física e opta pela perspectiva qualitativa, apoiando-se na etnometodologia. Utiliza a abordagem interpretativa, exprimindo um caminho metodológico que confere centralidade às ações do sujeito no processo investigado. Os instrumentos de coleta de dados foram: a observação de caráter participante, as entrevistas e a análise de documentos. Investiga os espaços de discussão coletiva, a sistematização dos documentos, as propostas, as ações e as aulas da professora colaboradora. Constata a influência de condicionantes externos e internos que tanto, potencializam a autoria e autonomia da professora colaboradora na construção diária do currículo vivido de Educação Física, quanto geram tensões, lutas e conflitos. As análises evidenciam que as escolhas da professora na construção do projeto pedagógico para á área de Educação Física pautam-se numa perspectiva que considera as vivências e experiências dos alunos, bem como a realidade da comunidade onde atua

Auditory Predictions and Prediction Errors in Response to Self-Initiated Vowels.

It has been suggested that speech production is accomplished by an internal forward model, reducing processing activity directed to self-produced speech in the auditory cortex. The current study uses an established N1-suppression paradigm comparing self- and externally initiated natural speech sounds to answer two questions: (1) Are forward predictions generated to process complex speech sounds, such as vowels, initiated via a button press? (2) Are prediction errors regarding self-initiated deviant vowels reflected in the corresponding ERP components? Results confirm an N1-suppression in response to self-initiated speech sounds. Furthermore, our results suggest that predictions leading to the N1-suppression effect are specific, as self-initiated deviant vowels do not elicit an N1-suppression effect. Rather, self-initiated deviant vowels elicit an enhanced N2b and P3a compared to externally generated deviants, externally generated standard, or self-initiated standards, again confirming prediction specificity. Results show that prediction errors are salient in self-initiated auditory speech sounds, which may lead to more efficient error correction in speech production

Influence of prior beliefs on perception in early psychosis: Effects of illness stage and hierarchical level of belief.

Alterations in the balance between prior expectations and sensory evidence may account for faulty perceptions and inferences leading to psychosis. However, uncertainties remain about the nature of altered prior expectations and the degree to which they vary with the emergence of psychosis. We explored how expectations arising at two different levels-cognitive and perceptual-influenced processing of sensory information and whether relative influences of higher- and lower-level priors differed across people with prodromal symptoms and those with psychotic illness. In two complementary auditory perception experiments, 91 participants (30 with first-episode psychosis, 29 at clinical risk for psychosis, and 32 controls) were required to decipher a phoneme within ambiguous auditory input. Expectations were generated in two ways: an accompanying visual input of lip movements observed during auditory presentation or through written presentation of a phoneme provided prior to auditory presentation. We determined how these different types of information shaped auditory perceptual experience, how this was altered across the prodromal and established phases of psychosis, and how this relates to cingulate glutamate levels assessed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The psychosis group relied more on high-level cognitive priors compared to both healthy controls and those at clinical risk for psychosis and relied more on low-level perceptual priors than the clinical risk group. The risk group was marginally less reliant on low-level perceptual priors than controls. The results are consistent with previous theory that influences of prior expectations in perceptions in psychosis differ according to level of prior and illness phase. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).Wellcome Trus

Action selection in early stages of psychosis: an active inference approach

BACKGROUND: To interact successfully with their environment, humans need to build a model to make sense of noisy and ambiguous inputs. An inaccurate model, as suggested to be the case for people with psychosis, disturbs optimal action selection. Recent computational models, such as active inference, have emphasized the importance of action selection, treating it as a key part of the inferential process. Based on an active inference framework, we sought to evaluate previous knowledge and belief precision in an action-based task, given that alterations in these parameters have been linked to the development of psychotic symptoms. We further sought to determine whether task performance and modelling parameters would be suitable for classification of patients and controls. METHODS: Twenty-three individuals with an at-risk mental state, 26 patients with first-episode psychosis and 31 controls completed a probabilistic task in which action choice (go/no-go) was dissociated from outcome valence (gain or loss). We evaluated group differences in performance and active inference model parameters and performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses to assess group classification. RESULTS: We found reduced overall performance in patients with psychosis. Active inference modelling revealed that patients showed increased forgetting, reduced confidence in policy selection and less optimal general choice behaviour, with poorer action-state associations. Importantly, ROC analysis showed fair-to-good classification performance for all groups, when combining modelling parameters and performance measures. LIMITATIONS: The sample size is moderate. CONCLUSION: Active inference modelling of this task provides further explanation for dysfunctional mechanisms underlying decision-making in psychosis and may be relevant for future research on the development of biomarkers for early identification of psychosis