Can understanding reward help illuminate anhedonia?

Purpose of review: The goal of this paper is to examine how reward processing might help us understand the symptom of anhedonia. Recent findings: There are extensive reviews exploring the relationship between responses to rewarding stimuli and depression. These often include a discussion on anhedonia and how this might be underpinned in particular by dysfunctional reward processing. However, there is no specific consensus on whether studies to date have adequately examined the various sub-components of reward processing or how these might relate in turn to various aspects of anhedonia symptoms. Summary: The approach to understanding the symptom of anhedonia should be to examine all the sub-components of reward processing at the subjective and objective behavioural and neural level, with well validated tasks that can be replicated. Investigating real life experiences of anhedonia and how theses might be predicted by objective lab measures is also needed in future research

Anti-infectives in Drug Delivery-Overcoming the Gram-Negative Bacterial Cell Envelope.

Infectious diseases are becoming a major menace to the state of health worldwide, with difficulties in effective treatment especially of nosocomial infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria being increasingly reported. Inadequate permeation of anti-infectives into or across the Gram-negative bacterial cell envelope, due to its intrinsic barrier function as well as barrier enhancement mediated by resistance mechanisms, can be identified as one of the major reasons for insufficient therapeutic effects. Several in vitro, in silico, and in cellulo models are currently employed to increase the knowledge of anti-infective transport processes into or across the bacterial cell envelope; however, all such models exhibit drawbacks or have limitations with respect to the information they are able to provide. Thus, new approaches which allow for more comprehensive characterization of anti-infective permeation processes (and as such, would be usable as screening methods in early drug discovery and development) are desperately needed. Furthermore, delivery methods or technologies capable of enhancing anti-infective permeation into or across the bacterial cell envelope are required. In this respect, particle-based carrier systems have already been shown to provide the opportunity to overcome compound-related difficulties and allow for targeted delivery. In addition, formulations combining efflux pump inhibitors or antimicrobial peptides with anti-infectives show promise in the restoration of antibiotic activity in resistant bacterial strains. Despite considerable progress in this field however, the design of carriers to specifically enhance transport across the bacterial envelope or to target difficult-to-treat (e.g., intracellular) infections remains an urgently needed area of improvement. What follows is a summary and evaluation of the state of the art of both bacterial permeation models and advanced anti-infective formulation strategies, together with an outlook for future directions in these fields

Engineering thermosensitive liposome-nanoparticle hybrids loaded with doxorubicin for heat-triggered drug release

The engineering of responsive multifunctional delivery systems that combine therapeutic and diagnostic (theranostic) capabilities holds great promise and interest. We describe the design of thermosensitive liposome-nanoparticle (NP) hybrids that can modulate drug release in response to external heating stimulus. These hybrid systems were successfully engineered by the incorporation of gold, silver, and iron oxide NPs into the lipid bilayer of lysolipid-containing thermosensitive liposomes (LTSL). Structural characterization of LTSL-NP hybrids using cryo-EM and AFM revealed the incorporation of metallic NPs into the lipid membranes without compromising doxorubicin loading and retention capability. The presence of metallic NPs in the lipid bilayer reinforced bilayer retention and offered a nanoparticle concentration-dependent modulation of drug release in response to external heating. In conclusion, LTSL-NP hybrids represent a promising versatile platform based on LTSL liposomes that could further utilize the properties of the embedded NPs for multifunctional theranostic applications

Antimicrobial nanoparticle for the treatment of bacterial infection

Liposomes are spherical lipid vesicles with bilayered membrane structure, which have been recognized as one of the most widely used carriers for delivering a myriad of pharmaceuticals. Liposomes can carry both hydrophilic and hydrophobic agents with high efficiency and protect them from undesired effects of external conditions. However, the applications of liposomes are usually limited by their instability during storage. They are inclined to fuse with one another immediately after preparation, resulting in undesired mixing, increase in size, and payload loss. To overcome this limitation, this dissertation will focus on the technology to stabilize liposomes during storage and destabilize at specific conditions in order to allow controllable therapeutic release, as well as demonstrate their application to treat one of the bacterial infection diseases, acne vulgaris. The first area of this research is stimuli-responsive liposomes development, where the liposomes are stabilized by introducing gold nanoparticles to adsorb to their surface. As a result, the liposomes are prevented from fusing with one another and undesirable payload release during storage or physiological environments. Moreover, therapeutic is controllably released depending on environment conditions, such as acidic pH and bacterial virulence factor. In case of acid- responsive liposomes, the bound gold nanoparticles can effectively prevent liposomes from fusing with one another at neutral pH value, while at acidic environment (e.g. pH< 5), the gold particle stabilizers will fall off from the liposomes, thereby reinstalling the fusion activity of liposomes. The fusion activity of the stabilized liposomes is found to be 25% at pH=7, in contrast to 80% at pH=4. Another stimulus that can activate drug release from liposomes is virulence factor released from bacteria themselves, such as bacterial toxin. When nanoparticle- stabilized liposomes encounter with bacteria that secrete toxin, the toxin will insert into the liposome membranes and form pores, through which the encapsulated therapeutic agents are released. The released drugs subsequently impose antimicrobial effects on the toxin-secreting bacteria. It was observed that in the presence of toxin- secreting bacteria, 100% of the encapsulated antibiotics were released from the gold nanoparticle-stabilized liposomes and bacterial growth was effectively inhibited by the released antibiotics in 24 h. The second area is to demonstrate an application of the invented technology to treat acne vulgaris by delivering therapeutics to the acne -causing bacteria, named Propionibacterium acnes (P.acnes). First, lauric acid (LA), an antimicrobial with strong activity against P. acnes, is encapsulated in liposomes (LipoLA), which is shown to effectively kill the bacteria by fusion with the bacterial membrane, resulting in a direct insertion of LA molecules to the membrane and destruction of its surface structure in vitro and in vivo. The system is then further improved by the acid-responsive technology based on the fact that the acne lesions on human skin are typically acidic. Demonstrated by fluorescent and antimicrobial experiments, the bound gold nanoparticles effectively prevent LipoLA from fusing with one another at neutral pH value. However, at acidic condition, the gold particles detach from LipoLA surface, allowing the fusion with P.acnes membrane and lauric acid delivery, resulting in a complete killing effect. The stimuli-responsive liposomes presented here provide a new, safe, and effective approach to treat bacterial infections. They can be broadly applied to treat a variety of infections caused by bacteria that reside in acidic environment and secrete pore-forming toxin

Executive control- and reward-related neural processes associated with the opportunity to engage in voluntary dishonest moral decision making

© 2015, Psychonomic Society, Inc.Research has begun to examine the neurocognitive processes underlying voluntary moral decision making, which involves engaging in honest or dishonest behavior in a setting in which the individual is free to make his or her own moral decisions. Employing event-related potentials, we measured executive control-related and reward-related neural processes during an incentivized coin-guessing task in which participants had the opportunity to voluntarily engage in dishonest behavior, by overreporting their wins to maximize earnings. We report four primary findings: First, the opportunity to deceive recruited executive control processes involving conflict monitoring and conflict resolution, as evidenced by a higher N2 and a smaller P3. Second, processing the outcome of the coin flips engaged reward-related processes, as evidenced by a larger medial feedback negativity (MFN) for incorrect (loss) than for correct (win) guesses, reflecting a reward prediction error signal. Third, elevated executive control-related neural activity reflecting conflict resolution (i.e., an attenuated executive control P3) predicted a greater likelihood of engaging in overall deceptive behavior. Finally, whereas elevated reward-related neural activity (the reward P3) was associated with a greater likelihood of engaging in overall deceptive behavior, an elevated reward prediction error signal (MFN difference score) predicted increased trial-by-trial moral behavioral adjustment (i.e., a greater likelihood to overreport wins following a previous honest loss than following a previous honest win trial). Collectively, these findings suggest that both executive control- and reward-related neural processes are implicated in moral decision making.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Effect of Coating and Some Treatments on the Quality of 'Ponkan' Mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) Fruit

'椪柑'有著特殊甜味和香氣，在台灣和中國南方是重要柑桔類作物，其豐產特性能為農民帶來高收入。本試驗使用五種包覆性材料及八種處理，分別是wax 100X、gibberellic acid 100 ppm、gibberellic acid 1000 ppm、sugar ester 500X、Sugar ester 250X、chitosan 100X、chitosan 50X 及 chlorine dioxide 100X，對照組為蒸餾水。包覆性材料之保護機制不同，如chitosan和wax是形成半透膜；sugar ester和chlorine dioxide具有消毒和殺菌特性；gibberellic acid 和chitosan可以誘導或抑制果實內部之生化反應。上述包覆性材料處理方式皆是將果實浸泡5分鐘。在外銷試驗中，果實保存在1℃中2週後移到12℃中7天，最後放在25℃下回溫3天。在長期貯運試驗中，果實保存在15℃中3個月，每隔1個月移出一批在25℃下回溫3天再進行調查。結果顯示，以chitosan 50X 處理之'椪柑'果實的失重率、寒害、L*、C*、h*、a*值、可滴定酸、可溶性固形物等較佳，但對於防止果實腐敗方面則效果差。gibberellic acid 100 ppm的結果僅次於chitosan 50X，在果梗掉落率、C*、h* 和a*值方面結果較佳，但gibberellic acid 100 ppm及1000 ppm處理的果實寒害較嚴重。以sugar ester 500X處理在失重率、寒害、h*、a*結果較佳，但sugar ester 250X在可滴定酸、L*、C*、a*和b*值效果則較差。以chlorine dioxide 100X 處理之果實在出口試驗和長期貯運試驗中的採後壽命和品質皆下降。另外，在所有試驗中，wax處理對果實之採後品質均無顯著影響。'Ponkan' mandarin is considered as an important citrus crop in Taiwan and south China, since it obtains sweet and aromatic specialty. Besides, farmers pleasantly gain profit from its price and high productivity. There are 5 coating materials and 8 treatments to be investigated, including the wax 100X, the gibberellic acid 100 ppm, the gibberellic acid 1000 ppm, the sugar ester 500X, the sugar ester 250X, the chitosan 100X, the chitosan 50X, the chlorine dioxide 100X, and the water as the control. Material's mechanisms are very diverse, such as the chitosan and the wax form permeable layer, the sugar ester and chlorine dioxide acquire sanitization and cleansing property, the gibberellic acid and chitosan induce or suppress the regulating chemical within the fruit. Those coating materials were applied as dipping method, which the fruits were dipped in their solution for 5 minutes. There are two different purposes of experiment. For the exporting experiment, the fruit materials were stored under low temperature as low as 1 ˚C for 2 weeks, then moved to 12 ˚C for 7 days, then finally moved to 25 ˚C for 3 days. For the long-storage experiment, the fruit materials were stored at 15 ˚C consistently for 3 months, while each month samples were moved for another investigation at 25˚C storage for 3 days. The best coating material for both experiments were the chitosan 50X, which provided the positive results on the weight loss, chilling injury L*, C*, h*, a* coloration values, TA, and TSS but had one negative result on the decay. The the gibberellic acid 100 ppm provided the second best results on the long-storage experiment on the results of the pedicel drop, C*, h*, and a* coloration value, but for the exporting experiment both concentrations of the gibberellic acid provided severe chilling injury to the 'Ponkan' mandarin. For the sugar ester, it only provided the positive result on the exporting experiment in the result of weight loss, chilling injury, h*, a* coloration values, at 500X, but on the long-storage experiment it provided the negative results on the TA, L*, C*, a*, and b* coloration values, at 250X. The chlorine dioxide worsened the 'Ponkan' mandarin postharvest life and quality on both experiments. Whereas, the wax's results were not statistically distinct on any experiment.Contents 中文摘要, i Summary, ii Contents, iii List of Figures, vi List of Tables, x Chapter 1: Introduction, 1 Chapter 2: Literature review, 3 2.1 Citrus fruit ('Ponkan' mandarin), 3 2.2 Coating materials, 5 2.2.1 Chitosan, 5 2.2.2 Sugar Ester, 5 2.2.3 Gibberellic acid (GA or GA3), 7 2.2.4 Chlorine Dioxide, 8 2.2.5 Wax, 8 2.3 Coating technique, 10 2.3.1 Edible coating, 10 2.4 Attribute indicators, 11 2.4.1 The total soluble solids and the titratable adidity, 11 2.4.1.1 Acidity, 12 2.4.1.2 The total soluble solids, as ˚Brix, 12 2.4.2 Chilling injury, 12 2.4.3 Coloration, 14 Chapter 3: Material and methods, 16 3.1. Treatments, 16 3.1.1. Coating Prodedures, 16 3.1.2 Experiment 1, the experiment for exporting, 17 3.1.3 Experiment 2, the experiment for long-storage, 18 3.2 Investigations, 19 3.2.1 Appearance and quality entire investigations, 19 3.2.2 Weight loss, 20 3.2.3 Chilling injury and decay index score, 21 3.2.4 Color attributes, 22 3.2.5. Pedicel Drop, 23 3.2.6. Total soluble solids and Titratable acidity, 23 3.3. Statistic analysis, 25 Chapter 4: Result, 26 4.1. The experiment for exporting,26 4.1.1 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the weight loss of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 26 4.1.2 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the chilling injury of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, by the index score, 28 4.1.3 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the peel coloration of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 31 4.1.3.1 Lightness (L*) coloration value, 31 4.1.3.2 Chroma (C*) coloration value, 32 4.1.3.3 Hue (h*) coloration value, 32 4.1.3.4 Redness and greenness (a*) coloration value, 33 4.1.3.5 Yellowness and blueness (b*) coloration value, 34 4.1.4 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the Total soluble solid content (TSS) of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 41 4.1.5 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the Titratable acidity, as citric acid, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 44 4.2 The experiment for long storage, 46 4.2.1 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the weight loss of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 46 4.2.2 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the decay of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, by the index score, 49 4.2.3 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the peel coloration of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 51 4.2.3.1 Lightness (L*) coloration value, 51 4.2.3.2 Chroma (C*) coloration value, 52 4.2.3.3 Hue (h*) coloration value, 53 4.2.3.4 Redness and greenness (a*) coloration value, 54 4.2.3.5 Yellowness and blueness (b*) coloration value, 55 4.2.4 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the titratable acidity, as citric acid, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 62 4.2.5 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the total soluble solid content (TSS) of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 65 4.2.6 Effect of 8 coating treatments on the pedicel drop of the 'Ponkan' mandarin, 67 Chapter 5: Discussion, 70 Chapter 6: Conclusion, 75 Reference, 77 List of Figures 2.1. The citrus family tree, Source; David Karp, University of California Riverside, 4 2.2.1. Molecular Structure of cellulose, chitin, and chitosan (Luo & Wang, 2013), 5 2.2.2. Structures of the carbohydrate fatty acid esters, (Ferrer et al., 2005), 6 2.2.3. Senescence delaying system, providing from gibberellic acid, 7 2.2.4. Chlorine Dioxide protein denaturation mechanism, (svsaqua inc., n.d.), 8 2.2.5. An apple's surface shows the long chain lipid of wax, which is extremely hydrophobic (Washington State University, n.d.), 9 2.3.1B. Main materials for fruits and vegetables coating application, (Mahajan et al. 2014), 10 2.4.2. The mechanism of the chilling injury, (Lyons, 1973; Raison & Lyons, 1986), 13 2.4.3. The picture explanations of 5 color values applied on this research, (source: Phil Cruse co.), 15 3.1.1. The 8 dipping treatments and a control, for both experiments, for exporting, and for long-storage, 17 3.1.2. The diagram of the experiment 1 procedure, for the purpose of exporting, 18 3.1.3. The diagram of the experiment 2 procedure, for the purpose of long-storage, 19 3.2.1 The entire investigations on this research, 20 3.2.2. The laboratory weighing machine, Mettler Toledo PB3002, for weighing the ponkan whole fruits, 20 3.2.3 The examples of the chilling injury fruits (upper set) and the decay fruits (lower set), from score 1 to score 5, from the least severe to the least, 21 3.2.4 The spectrophotometer, Mini scan XE plus colorimeter (Hunter Associates Lab II, Preston VA), for the peel coloration, 22 3.2.6A. The digital refratometer, model of Atago PAL-1 (Atago Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), for measuring the total soluble solids, 24 3.2.6B. The digital calibrator from Electronic Burettes, the model of brand digital buret III, for measuring the titratable acidity, 24 4.1.1A Weight loss percentage of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C storage for 14 days, 27 4.1.1B Weight loss percentage of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C storage for 14 days and 12 C for 7 days consecutively, 27 4.1.1C Weight loss percentage of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 ˚C storage for 14 days, 12 C for 7 days, and 25 C for 3 days consecutively, 28 4.1.2A Chilling injury index score of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1˚C storage for 14 days, 29 4.1.2B Chilling injury index score of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C storage for 14 days and 12 C for 7 days consecutively, 30 4.1.2C Chilling injury index score of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1˚ C storage for 14 days, 12 C for 7 days, and 25 C˚ for 3 days consecutively, 30 4.1.2D The severe chilling injury occurrence in the gibberellic acid 1000X, comparing to the best treatment for controlling chilling injury, the chitosan 50X, 31 4.1.3A Coloration and appearance of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1˚C storage for 14 days, 40 4.1.3B Coloration and appearance of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1˚C storage for 14 days, and 25 C˚ for 3 days consecutively, 40 4.1.3C Coloration and appearance of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1˚C storage for 14 days, 12 C˚ for 7 days, and 25 C˚ for 3 days consecutively, 41 4.1.4A Total soluble solids content, as Brix˚, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C˚ storage for 14 days, 42 4.1.4B Total soluble solids content, as Brix˚, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C˚ storage for 14 days, and 12 C˚ for 7 days, consecutively, 43 4.1.4C Total soluble solids content, as Brix˚, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C storage for 14 days, 12 C for 7 days, and 25 ˚C for 3 days, consecutively, 43 4.1.5A Titratable acidity, as citric acid percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C˚ storage for 14 days, 45 4.1.5B Titratable acidity, as citric acid percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C˚ storage for 14 days, and 12 C˚ for 7 days, consecutively, 45 4.1.5C Titratable acidity, as citric acid percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 1 C storage for 14 days, 12 C for 7 days, and 25 ˚C for 3 days, consecutively, 46 4.2.1A Weight loss, as percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarins storing at 15 C for 30 days then were moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 47 4.2.1B Weight loss, as percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarins storing at 15 C˚ for 60 days then were moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 48 4.2.1C Weight loss, as percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarins storing at 15 C for 90 days then were moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 48 4.2.2A Decay occurrence, as index score, of the 'Ponkan' mandarins storing at 15 C˚ for 30 days then were moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 50 4.2.2B Decay occurrence, as index score, of the 'Ponkan' mandarins storing at 15 C˚ for 60 days then were moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 50 4.2.2C Decay occurrence, as index score, of the 'Ponkan' mandarins storing at 15 C˚ for 90 days then were moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 51 4.2.3A Coloration and appearance of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 30 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 61 4.2.3B Coloration and appearance of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 60 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 61 4.2.3C Coloration and appearance of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 90 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 62 4.2.4A Titratable acidity, as citric acid percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 30 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 63 4.2.4B Titratable acidity, as citric acid percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 60 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 64 4.2.4C Titratable acidity, as citric acid percentage, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 90 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 64 4.2.5A Total soluble solids content, as Brix˚, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 30 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 66 4.2.5B Total soluble solids content, as Brix˚, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 60 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 66 4.2.5C Total soluble solids content, as Brix˚, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 C˚ storage for 90 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 67 4.2.6A Pedicel drop percentage of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15˚C storage for 30 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 68 4.2.6B Pedicel drop percentage of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15˚C storage for 60 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 69 4.2.6C Pedicel drop percentage of the 'Ponkan' mandarin at 15 ˚C storage for 90 days then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days, 69 List of Tables 2.3.1 Main benefits of edible coatings, (Corbo et al., 2015), 11 4.1.3.1 The Lightness (L*) coloration value of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 3 investigation times and temperature, 14th day (at 1˚C), 21th day (at 1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days), 24th day (1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days + 25˚C for 3 days), for the exporting purpose experiment, 35 4.1.3.2 The chroma (C*) coloration value of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 3 investigation times and temperature, 14th day (at 1˚C), 21th day (at 1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days), 24th day (1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days + 25˚C for 3 days), for the exporting purpose experiment, 36 4.1.3.3 The hue (h*) coloration value of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 3 investigation times and temperature, 14th day (at 1˚C), 21th day (at 1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days), 24th day (1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days + 25˚C for 3 days), for the exporting purpose experiment, 37 4.1.3.4 The a* coloration value, the redness or greenness value, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 3 investigation times and temperature, 14th day (at 1˚C), 21th day (at 1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days), 24th day (1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days + 25˚C for 3 days), for the exporting purpose experiment, 38 4.1.3.5 The b* coloration value, the yellowness and blueness value, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 3 investigation times and temperature, 14th day (at 1˚C), 21th day (at 1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days), 24th day (1˚C for 14 days + 12˚C for 7 days + 25˚C for 3 days), for the exporting purpose experiment, 39 4.2.3.1 The Lightness (L*) value of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 6 investigation times, 15 ˚C for 30 days (30th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (30+3th day), at 15˚C for 60 days (60th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (60+3th day), at 15 ˚C for 90 days (90th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (90+3th day), for the long-storage purpose experiment, 56 4.2.3.2 The chroma (C*) coloration value of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 6 investigation times, 15 ˚C for 30 days (30th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (30+3th day), at 15˚C for 60 days (60th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (60+3th day), at 15 ˚C for 90 days (90th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (90+3th day), for the long-storage purpose experiment, 57 4.2.3.3 The hue (h*) coloration value of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 6 investigation times, 15 ˚C for 30 days (30th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (30+3th day), at 15˚C for 60 days (60th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (60+3th day), at 15 ˚C for 90 days (90th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (90+3th day), for the long-storage purpose experiment, 58 4.2.3.4 The a* coloration value, the redness or greenness value, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 6 investigation times, 15 ˚C for 30 days (30th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (30+3th day), at 15˚C for 60 days (60th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (60+3th day), at 15 ˚C for 90 days (90th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (90+3th day), for the long-storage purpose experiment, 59 4.2.3.5 The b* coloration value, the yellowness and blueness value, of the 'Ponkan' mandarin storing at 6 investigation times, 15 ˚C for 30 days (30th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (30+3th day), at 15˚C for 60 days (60th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (60+3th day), at 15 ˚C for 90 days (90th day), then moved to 25˚C for another 3 days (90+3th day), for the long-storage purpose experiment, 6

N200 and P300 as orthogonal and integrable indicators of distinct awareness and recognition processes in memory detection

In an event-related potential (ERP)-based concealed information test (CIT), we investigated the effect of manipulated awareness of concealed information on the ERPs. Participants either committed a mock crime or not (guilty vs. innocent) before the CIT, and received feedback regarding either specific (high awareness) or general (low awareness) task performance during the CIT. We found that awareness and recognition of the crime-relevant information differentially influenced the frontal-central N200 and parietal P300: Probe elicited a larger N200 than irrelevant only when guilty participants were in the high awareness condition, whereas the P300 was mainly responsive to information recognition. No N200-P300 correlation was found, allowing for a combined measure of both yielding the highest detection efficiency in the high awareness group (AUC=91). Finally, a color-naming Stroop task following the CIT revealed that guilty participants showed larger interference effects than innocent participants, suggesting that the former expended more attentional resources during the CIT. © 2013 Society for Psychophysiological Research.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Reappraisal and suppression emotion-regulation tendencies differentially predict reward-responsivity and psychological well-being

Individuals who suppress their emotions experience less positive emotions, worse relationships, and a reduced quality of life whereas those who tend to reappraise show an opposite pattern. Despite this divergent pattern, few have asked how the use of these emotion-regulation strategies relates to reward responsivity. We predicted that elevated suppression would be associated with blunted reward responsivity, whereas reappraisal would be associated with elevated reward responsivity. To test this hypothesis, participants completed a measure of individual differences in emotion-regulation strategies, measures of self-reported reward responsivity, and then a reward time-estimation task (Kotani et al., 2003) while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Results revealed that individual differences in cognitive reappraisal were unrelated to self-report measures of reward responsivity, whereas suppression was associated with blunted reward responsivity. At the neural level, reappraisal was associated with greater attention to the rewarding cues, as indexed by the P300 event-related potential (ERP) component, whereas suppression was related to blunted reward anticipation, as indexed by the stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) ERP component. Suppression prospectively predicted worse psychological well-being 2.5 years later and blunted neural reward anticipation partially explained this association. Taken together with past research, these results suggest reappraisal tendencies may lead to better outcomes due, in part, to enhanced reward responsivity, whereas the negative consequences of suppression may be associated with blunted reward responsivity

Hypomania and depression associated with distinct neural activity for immediate and future rewards

Bipolar spectrum and unipolar depressive disorders have been associated with distinct and opposite profiles of reward‐related neural activity. These opposite profiles may reflect a differential preexisting vulnerability for both types of disorders. In support, recent ERP studies find that, following reward feedback, a larger reward positivity (RewP) is associated with greater vulnerability for bipolar spectrum disorders, whereas a smaller RewP is associated with greater vulnerability for depression. However, prior studies have investigated only immediate rewards and have not examined dimensions of both bipolar disorder and unipolar depression within the same sample. The present study is the first to investigate feedback‐related ERP correlates of proneness to hypomania and unipolar depressive tendencies within the same sample and to expand our scope to include future rewards. Participants completed a modified time estimation task where the same monetary reward was available immediately or at one of five different future dates. Results revealed proneness to hypomania and unipolar depressive tendencies were related to an elevated and blunted RewP, respectively, but only following immediate rewards (i.e., today). Following rewards in the distant future (e.g., 8 months), proneness to hypomania and depressive tendencies were associated with elevated and blunted amplitudes for the P3, respectively, a subsequent ERP component reflecting motivational salience during extended feedback processing. Furthermore, these opposing profiles were independent of, and significantly different from, one another. These results suggest that feedback‐related ERPs following immediate and future rewards are candidate biomarkers that can physiologically separate vulnerability for bipolar spectrum from unipolar depressive disorders

The role of negativity bias in political judgment : a cultural neuroscience perspective

Hibbing et al. provide a comprehensive overview of how being susceptible to heightened sensitivity to threat may lead to conservative ideologies. Yet, an emerging literature in social and cultural neuroscience shows the importance of genetic and cultural factors on negativity biases. Promising avenues for future investigation may include examining the bidirectional relationship of conservatism across multiple levels of analysis.Published versio