Influencia de variables cognitivas en el Iowa Gambling Task

The objective of this work was to analyze the influence of cognitive and personality variables in the Decision Making (DM) construct, evaluated by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). For this propose, a battery of neuropsychological tests was applied to 116 individuals of both genders between 18 and 35 years olds. The results showed that the IGT performance was not associated to the cognitive variables evaluated, only it has been found moderated relationship between working memory and DM. These outcomes suggest that DM seems to be an independent construct of the “cool” cognitive functions and could be influenced for the emotional or motivational aspects related to “hot” cognitive process. Finally, the DM process seems to be more associated to the ability to avoid punishment than the capacity of evaluate long term benefits.El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la influencia de variables cognitivas y rasgos de personalidad en la Toma de Decisiones (TD), medidos a través del Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), para lo cual, se aplicó una batería de pruebas neuropsicológicas a 116 individuos de ambos sexos entre 18 y 35 años. Los resultados indican que el desempeño en el IGT no pudo ser asociado a las variables cognitivas evaluadas, sólo se encontraron relaciones moderadas entre la memoria de trabajo y la TD en aquellos individuos que se desempeñaron de manera ventajosa en este juego. Así, la TD aparecería como un constructo independiente de las funciones cognitivas “frías” y podría verse influido por aspectos emocionales o motivacionales relacionados al procesamiento cognitivo “caliente”. Por último, el proceso de TD parece vincularse más a la habilidad para evitar castigos que a la capacidad de evaluar beneficios a largo plazo

The Neural Basis of Decision-Making and Reward Processing in Adults with Euthymic Bipolar Disorder or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BD) share DSM-IV criteria in adults and cause problems in decision-making. Nevertheless, no previous report has assessed a decision-making task that includes the examination of the neural correlates of reward and gambling in adults with ADHD and those with BD

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

Parental Behavior Models Prosocial Behavior in Face-to-Face Interactions with their School-age Children

This study examined whether kinship and nurture imperatives affect adults and school-age children’s prosocial cooperative behaviors. Members of the same family (i.e., parents and children, couples, and siblings) and non-kin participants (i.e., adults and children) were asked to play a face-to-face iterated version of the prisoner’s dilemma that emphasized competition. Results showed that parents consistently cooperate with their children and partners and forgive their children’s betrayals. Conversely, adults playing with non-kin children compete with them. All children seek individual gains regardless of who they are playing with. Taken together these results suggests that kin and nurture imperatives have different developmental trajectories in how they affect parental and children behavior. While non-kin adults and children’s behavior responds to immediate goals such as winning the game, parents continue to nurture their offspring by modeling prosocial behaviors that promote mutual over individual gains throughout their childhood

Decisions and mechanisms of intergroup bias in children’s third-party punishment

Children tend to punish norm transgressions, even when they are mere external observers—a phenomenon known as Third-Party Punishment (TPP). This behavior is influenced by intergroup bias, as children unevenly punish ingroup and outgroup members. Here, we explored the influence of intergroup bias in TPP decisions in children between six and 11 years of age (N=124) using costly versus non-costly decisions while measuring response times as a proxy of the mechanisms underlying intergroup bias in TPP. Our results showed that children exhibited two types of intergroup biases: (i) an ingroup policing bias, as they preferentially punished selfish behavior from ingroup members, and (ii) an ingroup protectionism bias, as they were more willing to punish selfishness directed at ingroup members than outgroup members. We observed different developmental trajectories and mechanisms associated with these biases. First, while ingroup protectionism was present in all children, ingroup policing decreases with age and it was absent in children between 10 and 11 years of age. Second, both intergroup biases were associated with deliberative/conflictive processes. These results shed light on the mechanisms that underlie the development of intergroup bias in TPP decisions

Schadenfreude is higher in real-life situations compared to hypothetical scenarios.

Schadenfreude (i.e., the pleasure derived from another's misfortune) has been widely studied by having participants imagine how they would feel in hypothetical scenarios describing another person's pain or misfortune. However, research on affective forecasting shows that self-judgments of emotions are inaccurate in hypothetical situations. Here we show a study in which we first presented a hypothetical schadenfreude situation and few months later, due to an exceptional circumstance, the situation turned out to happen in reality. This fortuitous circumstance allowed us to compare people's imagined emotional reactions with their actual feelings. Results showed that schadenfreude was higher in the real situation than in the hypothetical one. More importantly, participants used different proxies to predict their emotional reaction: while out-group dislike served as a proxy of schadenfreude in both types of scenario, the degree of in-group identification also increased schadenfreude in those who had experienced the real event, arguably a mechanism to promote positive self-evaluation. These results highlight the importance of assessing schadenfreude in the heat of the moment

Do social descriptive norms about generosity change children’s sharing decisions and beliefs?

Children construct their social preferences and behaviors based on their social interactions and beliefs about others’ behavior. Most studies that evaluate the influence of social norms on children’s sharing behavior has focused on sharing decisions, while no previous study has evaluated whether norms about generosity could change beliefs about others’ sharing behavior. In the current study, 4–10-year-old children (N = 101) played two dictator games; one as baseline and the other after being exposed to either a generous or a selfish descriptive norm. Our results showed that, after being exposed to descriptive norms, all children changed their beliefs about others’ sharing behavior. However, these norms did not influence children’s sharing decisions. These results suggest that children´s beliefs about sharing behavior could be more malleable than their actual sharing decisions. These insights might help to design interventions aimed to change beliefs and, in turn, model prosocial behaviors in children

The interplay between sharing behavior and beliefs about others in children during dictator games

Previous studies in adults demonstrated that beliefs and sharing decisions in social scenarios are closely related. However, to date, little is known about the development of this relationship in children. By using a modified dictator game, we assessed shQ2Q1Revista Internacional - IndexadaA1S

Digital, mathematical and cognitive training: Evidence from a randomized trial

In this paper, we experimentally evaluate a cognitive training tool that aims to improve children’s mathematical ability through technology in rural primary schools in Argentina. We conducted a large cluster-randomized trial: schools in the treatment group used an app to train mathematical skills, while schools in the control group received a literacy book. We tested the math skills of 1,304 children in the 2nd through 6th grades from 80 rural schools and applied three cognitive tests: digit-span (working memory), face-perception (attention to objects), and block design (visuospatial reasoning), directly before and after the 10-week intervention period. In schools that received the treatment, we found no improvement in the digit-span or face-perception tests, but significant and positive effects in visuospatial reasoning and mathematical abilities. The improvement among students from treatment schools was 54 percentage points higher in math skills and 42 percentage points higher in visuospatial abilities than the gains by students in control schools. This study suggests this intervention is a feasible and effective way of enhancing the mathematical and cognitive abilities of children in rural areas