Shared striatal activity in decisions to satisfy curiosity and hunger at the risk of electric shocks

Curiosity is often portrayed as a desirable feature of human faculty. However, curiosity may come at a cost that sometimes puts people in a harmful situation. Here, with a set of behavioural and neuroimaging experiments using stimuli that strongly trigger curiosity (e.g., magic tricks), we examined the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying the motivational effect of curiosity. We consistently demonstrated that across different samples, people were indeed willing to gamble, subjecting themselves to physical risks (i.e. electric shocks) in order to satisfy their curiosity for trivial knowledge that carries no apparent instrumental value. Also, this influence of curiosity shares common neural mechanisms with that of extrinsic incentives (i.e. hunger for food). In particular, we showed that acceptance (compared to rejection) of curiosity/incentive-driven gambles was accompanied by enhanced activity in the ventral striatum (when curiosity was elicited), which extended into the dorsal striatum (when participants made a decision)

Impact of half-day clinical training in outpatient psychiatry on perception of mental illness by postgraduate interns

Aim: Lack of contact with patients with mental illness may contribute to mental health stigma. We conducted a half-day training program in the outpatient psychiatry clinic of a rural general hospital for postgraduate interns in Nagasaki University Hospital. Our study investigated the effectiveness of this program in reducing stigma toward mental illness. It also examined the association between an intern’s perception of mental illness and their consideration of psychiatry as a career.Methods: Participants were 12 interns at Nagasaki University Hospital who competed a pre- and post- training questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed perceptions of mental illness using a semantic differential scale and measured consideration of psychiatry as a career on a 7 point Likert scale. Paired t-tests were used to compare mean pre- and post-training scores on the semantic differential scale. Pearson’s correlation was used to examine associations between semantic differential scores and consideration of psychiatry as a career.Results: Post-training scores were higher than pre-training scores on the items “warm” (P = 0.003), “clean” (P = 0.009), “bright” (P = 0.001), and “calm” (P = 0.003) as associated with mental illness. Consideration of psychiatry as a career significantly correlated with post-training score on “warm” (r = 0.587, P = 0.045).Conclusion: Interns can develop positive perceptions of mental illness after a half-day training program in a psychiatry outpatient clinic. Perceptions of mental illness as “warm” after training correlated with consideration of psychiatry as a career

Clinical Outcomes and Genetic Analyses of Restrictive Cardiomyopathy in Children

BACKGROUND: Restrictive cardiomyopathy in children is rare and outcomes are very poor. However, little information is available concerning genotype-outcome correlations. METHODS: We analyzed the clinical characteristics and genetic testing, including whole exome sequencing, of 28 pediatric restrictive cardiomyopathy patients who were diagnosed from 1998 to 2021 at Osaka University Hospital in Japan. RESULTS: The median age at diagnosis (interquartile range) was 6 (2.25-8.5) years. Eighteen patients received heart transplantations and 5 patients were on the waiting list. One patient died while waiting for transplantation. Pathologic or likely-pathogenic variants were identified in 14 of the 28 (50%) patients, including heterozygous TNNI3 missense variants in 8 patients. TNNT2, MYL2, and FLNC missense variants were also identified. No significant differences in clinical manifestations and hemodynamic parameters between positive and negative pathogenic variants were detected. However, 2- and 5-year survival rates were significantly lower in patients with pathogenic variants (50% and 22%) compared with survival in patients without pathogenic variants (62% and 54%; P=0.0496, log-rank test). No significant differences were detected in the ratio of patients diagnosed at nationwide school heart disease screening program between positive and negative pathogenic variants. Patients diagnosed by school screening showed better transplant-free survival compared with patients diagnosed by heart failure symptoms (P=0.0027 in log-rank test). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, 50% of pediatric restrictive cardiomyopathy patients had pathogenic or likely-pathogenic gene variants, and TNNI3 missense variants were the most frequent. Patients with pathogenic variants showed significantly lower transplant-free survival compared with patients without pathogenic variants.Ishida H., Narita J., Ishii R., et al. Clinical Outcomes and Genetic Analyses of Restrictive Cardiomyopathy in Children. Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine 16, 382 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCGEN.122.004054

Pathogenic Roles of Cardiac Fibroblasts in Pediatric Dilated Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a major cause of heart failure in children. Despite intensive genetic analyses, pathogenic gene variants have not been identified in most patients with DCM, which suggests that cardiomyocytes are not solely responsible for DCM. Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) are the most abundant cell type in the heart. They have several roles in maintaining cardiac function; however, the pathological role of CFs in DCM remains unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Four primary cultured CF cell lines were established from pediatric patients with DCM and compared with 3 CF lines from healthy controls. There were no significant differences in cellular proliferation, adhesion, migration, ap-optosis, or myofibroblast activation between DCM CFs compared with healthy CFs. Atomic force microscopy revealed that cellular stiffness, fluidity, and viscosity were not significantly changed in DCM CFs. However, when DCM CFs were cocultured with healthy cardiomyocytes, they deteriorated the contractile and diastolic functions of cardiomyocytes. RNA sequencing revealed markedly different comprehensive gene expression profiles in DCM CFs compared with healthy CFs. Several hu-moral factors and the extracellular matrix were significantly upregulated or downregulated in DCM CFs. The pathway analysis revealed that extracellular matrix receptor interactions, focal adhesion signaling, Hippo signaling, and transforming growth factor-β signaling pathways were significantly affected in DCM CFs. In contrast, single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that there was no specific subpopulation in the DCM CFs that contributed to the alterations in gene expression. CONCLUSIONS: Although cellular physiological behavior was not altered in DCM CFs, they deteriorated the contractile and diastolic functions of healthy cardiomyocytes through humoral factors and direct cell–cell contact.Tsuru H., Yoshihara C., Suginobe H., et al. Pathogenic Roles of Cardiac Fibroblasts in Pediatric Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Journal of the American Heart Association 12, e029676 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.123.029676

Subjective achievement from psychiatry rotation in the Japanese postgraduate residency system: a longitudinal questionnaire study

Background: Psychiatry rotation has been mandatory in the Japanese postgraduate residency system since 2020. Some psychiatry-related competency items are stipulated as mandatory for residents. The current study aimed to clarify whether psychiatry rotation affected residents’ subjective achievement of these competency items.Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted among postgraduate residents who completed a rotation in the psychiatry department at Nagasaki University Hospital across two academic years (2020–2021). The survey was administered at the start and at the end of the psychiatry rotation. Residents evaluated their subjective understanding and confidence regarding initiating treatment for these competency items using a six-point Likert scale. The average scores for each item were compared between pre-rotation and post-rotation.Results: In total, 99 residents (91.7%) responded to this survey. Residents had significantly higher scores at postrotation compared with pre-rotation in all psychiatry-related competency items in both subjective understanding and confidence in initiating treatment. Additionally, strong effect sizes were found for many items.Conclusion: Residents improved learning about psychiatry-related competency items through psychiatry rotation. This finding suggests that it is reasonable for psychiatry rotation to be mandatory in the current Japanese postgraduate residency system. The importance of psychiatry is likely to increase in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the future. It is necessary to continuously update educational strategies to meet changing social needs over time. As this study was conducted at a single institution, a multi-center study is needed to expand the current findings

陰謀論信念に影響を与える個人要因に対する熟慮的思考の調整機能の検討

コロナ禍により，陰謀論に対する世界的な関心が高まり，その結果，心理学分野での研究も増加している。先行研究では，熟慮的思考が陰謀論信念を抑制することが示されてきたが，本研究の目的は，不安や社会階層といった他の個人要因の影響を調整する機能が熟慮的思考にあるかを検討することである。本研究ではオンライン調査を実施し，日本のオンライン調査登録者937人のデータを分析した。その結果，課題遂行成績で測定された場合でも自己報告で測定された場合でも，熟慮的思考は陰謀論信念を抑制する効果があることが頑健に示されたが，熟慮的思考の調整効果はほとんど認められなった。すなわち，熟慮的思考と様々な個人要因との交互作用はほとんど有意ではなかった。これらの結果は，熟慮的思考が陰謀論信念を促進する個人要因の効果をさらに増幅させることはほとんどないことを示唆しており，熟慮的思考を養うことは陰謀論信念を減少させる上で効果的な対策であることを示している

人々がマスクを着用する理由とは ――国内研究の追試とリサーチクエスチョンの検証――

Wearing masks is an easy and effective way to prevent infection by COVID-19. In Japan, two studies investigated the reasons why people wear a mask; however, the results were inconsistent. Therefore, the present study reexamined the association between mask wearing and the reasons given for doing so, focusing on the differences in and problems of item wording. The results of both studies were found to be almost reproducible, and there were few problems regarding item wording. Furthermore, it was found that people wear a mask to prevent themselves and others from infection and to conform to other people wearing a mask. We suggest that inconsistencies in the results were due to differences in item wording, and discuss how future research should be conducted

Solving the type-order free rider problem in a public goods game:an experiment using a leader support system

Punishment of non-cooperators—free riders—can lead to high cooperation in public goods games (PGG). However, second-order free riders, who do not pay punishment costs, reduce the effectiveness of punishment. Here we introduce a “leader support system,” in which one group leader can freely punish group followers using capital pooled through the support of group followers. In our experiment, participants engage in three stages repeatedly: a PGG stage in which followers decide to cooperate for their group; a support stage in which followers decide whether to support the leader; and a punishment stage in which the leader can punish any follower. We compare a support-present condition with a no-support condition, in which there is an external source for the leader’s punishment. The results show that punishment occurs more frequently in the support-present condition than the no-support condition. Within the former, both higher cooperation and higher support for a leader are achieved under linkage-type leaders—who punish both non-cooperators and non-supporters. In addition, linkage-type leaders themselves earn higher profits than other leader types because they withdraw more support. This means that leaders who effectively punish followers could increase their own benefits and the second-order free rider problem would be solved