The dimensionality of emotion and individual differences

This paper is a critical review of the research on the relative contribution of valence and arousal to the effect of emotion on performance. It is well accepted that emotion influences aspects of cognitive performance, but there are inconsistent results concerning the relative salience of valence and arousal. Some authors support the idea that valence, rather than arousal, is the primary contributor to this effect of emotion on performance. This review analysed the methodology used in studies supporting the primary role of valence, and this analysis revealed that the two dimensions may have been confounded. The literature suggested that arousal appears to be salient when the two dimensions are controlled. Furthermore, when an individual differences perspective was also integrated, this showed that both arousal and valence have particular relevance as they are differentially perceived by each individual. It was concluded that there is value in exploring an individual difference perspective, and that this may also account for the mixed results in the literature. This explorative study tested the relative contribution of valence and arousal to ratings of emotionality, and the potential for an individual differences approach to increase the explained variance in comparison to a group based approach was assessed. Thirty female participants were recruited from the psychology student population at Edith Cowan University. A ratings task was used, whereby participants had to rate a set of affective pictures in terms of overall emotionality, valence and arousal. The arousal hypothesis would predict that the highly arousing pictures, despite their valence, would have the biggest effect on performance. The Friedman and Wilcoxon non-parametric tests were used to analyse the data. From phase I, results indicated that both valence and arousal had a significant effect on emotionality rating p \u3c .05. However, effect sizes revealed that \u27arousal could explain 11.6% of the variance, in comparison to the 1.4% explained by valence. Phase II results revealed that an added 15% of the variance could be explained when individual differences were accounted for. These results are consistent with the arousal hypothesis, and highlight the power of an individual based design. There are many potential projects for further research, for instance, adapting the present design to investigate stimulus-limited effects on emotional perception which would then allow investigation of the relative contributions of valence and arousal across a time course

Regional, circuit and network heterogeneity of brain abnormalities in psychiatric disorders

The substantial individual heterogeneity that characterizes people with mental illness is often ignored by classical case-control research, which relies on group mean comparisons. Here we present a comprehensive, multiscale characterization of the heterogeneity of gray matter volume (GMV) differences in 1,294 cases diagnosed with one of six conditions (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia) and 1,465 matched controls. Normative models indicated that person-specific deviations from population expectations for regional GMV were highly heterogeneous, affecting the same area in <7% of people with the same diagnosis. However, these deviations were embedded within common functional circuits and networks in up to 56% of cases. The salience-ventral attention system was implicated transdiagnostically, with other systems selectively involved in depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Phenotypic differences between cases assigned the same diagnosis may thus arise from the heterogeneous localization of specific regional deviations, whereas phenotypic similarities may be attributable to the dysfunction of common functional circuits and networks

2013 Let&#039;s Read literature review

In 2012-13 the Australian Government funded the Murdoch Childrens\u27 Reserach Institute to implement a 12-month Let’s Read national early literacy campaign. Building on existing evidence-based programs, the Let’s Read campaign engaged families, professionals and communities to promote high quality early literacy environments for children from birth to 5 years. This literature review was conducted during the 2012-13 Let’s Read campaign by the Centre for Community Child Health to ensure that Let’s Read is based on the current research evidence. This literature review highlights the need to focus on the years prior to school entry (birth to 5 years) as a critical stage in a child’s journey toward literacy. It describes the evidence base linking poor literacy to lower education, employment, income and wellbeing outcomes and examines the current state of literacy in Australia. The review also provides a focus on identifying factors, activities, programs and interventions that provide the conditions and experiences necessary for all children to develop sound literacy foundations prior to school entry. Language literacy and child development This literature review highlights the enormous impact of early experiences on brain development and the complex interaction of biological and environmental factors on both language and literacy development. It examines the research that demonstrates the early years (from birth to age five years) are critical for developing the skills that form the foundation of literacy in school years and throughout adulthood. The foundations of literacy start very early in life and a child’s early literacy skills can predict later literacy and academic achievement. Why is literacy important? Literacy is one of the most important foundations for success in school and life. However, in Australia almost half of the adult population still does not have the minimum standards of literacy to meet the demands of everyday life and work (ABS, 2013). As a result, the issue of literacy development is a major source of focus and concern. Research shows that in Australia: not all children arrive at school ready to take advantage of the learning opportunities provided at school 1 in 5 children start school behind – poorly equipped to benefit from the social and learning opportunities (ABS, 2013) those who do not arrive at school with early literacy skills sometimes never catch up (Duncan et al., 2007; Chatterji, 2006; Roberts et al., 2005; Lonigan and Shanahan, 2010) currently our primary school children are some of the worst performing internationally in literacy (PIRLS, 2012).&nbsp

Individuals with problem gambling and obsessive-compulsive disorder learn through distinct reinforcement mechanisms.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and pathological gambling (PG) are accompanied by deficits in behavioural flexibility. In reinforcement learning, this inflexibility can reflect asymmetric learning from outcomes above and below expectations. In alternative frameworks, it reflects perseveration independent of learning. Here, we examine evidence for asymmetric reward-learning in OCD and PG by leveraging model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Compared with healthy controls (HC), OCD patients exhibited a lower learning rate for worse-than-expected outcomes, which was associated with the attenuated encoding of negative reward prediction errors in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the dorsal striatum. PG patients showed higher and lower learning rates for better- and worse-than-expected outcomes, respectively, accompanied by higher encoding of positive reward prediction errors in the anterior insula than HC. Perseveration did not differ considerably between the patient groups and HC. These findings elucidate the neural computations of reward-learning that are altered in OCD and PG, providing a potential account of behavioural inflexibility in those mental disorders

Transdiagnostic variations in impulsivity and compulsivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder and gambling disorder correlate with effective connectivity in cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical circuits.

Individual differences in impulsivity and compulsivity is thought to underlie vulnerability to a broad range of disorders and are closely tied to cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical function. However, whether impulsivity and compulsivity in clinical disorders is continuous with the healthy population and explains cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical dysfunction across different disorders remains unclear. Here, we characterized the relationship between cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical effective connectivity, estimated using dynamic causal modelling of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data, and dimensional phenotypes of impulsivity and compulsivity in two symptomatically distinct but phenotypically related disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and gambling disorder. 487 online participants provided data for modelling of dimensional phenotypes. These data were combined with 34 obsessive-compulsive disorder patients, 22 gambling disorder patients, and 39 healthy controls, who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Three core dimensions were identified: disinhibition, impulsivity, and compulsivity. Patients' scores on these dimensions were continuously distributed with the healthy participants, supporting a continuum model of psychopathology. Across all participants, higher disinhibition correlated with lower bottom-up connectivity in the dorsal circuit and greater bottom-up connectivity in the ventral circuit, and higher compulsivity correlated with lower bottom-up connectivity in the dorsal circuit. In patients, higher clinical severity was also linked to lower bottom-up connectivity in the dorsal circuit, but these findings were independent of phenotypic variation, demonstrating convergence towards behaviourally and clinically relevant changes in brain dynamics. Effective connectivity did not differ as a function of traditional diagnostic labels and only weak associations were observed for functional connectivity measures. Together, our results demonstrate that cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical dysfunction across obsessive-compulsive disorder and gambling disorder may be better characterized by dimensional phenotypes than diagnostic comparisons, supporting investigation of quantitative liability phenotypes

Out of sight, but not out of mind:a case study of the collaborative development of a university-wide orientation resource for online students

The global online education sector has been rising rapidly, particularly during and after the events of 2020, and is becoming mainstream much sooner than expected. Despite this, research studies report higher levels of perceived isolation, difficulties with engagement, and higher attrition rates in online compared to equivalent on-campus programs. Reasons include restrictions to the type of institutional support accessible by online students, and the lack of comprehensiveness of orientation resources. This paper describes the collaborative efforts by a cross-faculty academic team, supported by a community of practice, to create a university-wide online orientation resource—the Monash Online Learning Hub (MOLH). The development of the MOLH involved multiple phases, including an analysis of current practice, resource design and content creation, formative evaluation by staff and students, and successful integration into the university’s mainstream student orientation platform for widescale implementation. The methods adopted were varied, and involved generating both qualitative and quantitative data across multiple phases of development from online education experts at the University, that culminated in the gradual building and refinement of the MOLH. Final outcomes, implications and lessons learned are also discussed in this paper

Neural correlates of symptom severity in obsessive-compulsive disorder using magnetization transfer and diffusion tensor imaging

Recent neuroimaging studies in OCD have reported structural alterations in the brain, not limited to frontostriatal regions. While Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is typically used to interrogate WM microstructure in OCD, additional imaging metric, such as Magnetization Transfer Imaging (MTI), allows for further identification of subtle but important structural changes across both GM and WM. In this study, both MTI and DTI were utilised to investigate the structural integrity of the brain, in OCD in relation to healthy controls. 38 adult OCD patients were recruited, along with 41 age- and gender-matched controls. Structural T1, MTI and DTI data were collected. Case-control differences in Magnetization Transfer Ratio (MTR) and DTI metrics (FA, MD) were examined, along with MTR/DTI-related associations with symptom severity in patients. No significant group differences were found across MTR, FA, and MD. However, OCD symptom severity was positively correlated with MTR in a distributed network of brain regions, including the striatum, cingulate, orbitofrontal area and insula. Within the same regions, OCD symptoms were also positively correlated with FA in WM, and negatively correlated with MD in GM. These results indicate a greater degree of myelination in certain cortical and subcortical regions in the more severe cases of OCD

Health-status outcomes with invasive or conservative care in coronary disease

BACKGROUND In the ISCHEMIA trial, an invasive strategy with angiographic assessment and revascularization did not reduce clinical events among patients with stable ischemic heart disease and moderate or severe ischemia. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess angina-related health status among these patients. METHODS We assessed angina-related symptoms, function, and quality of life with the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) at randomization, at months 1.5, 3, and 6, and every 6 months thereafter in participants who had been randomly assigned to an invasive treatment strategy (2295 participants) or a conservative strategy (2322). Mixed-effects cumulative probability models within a Bayesian framework were used to estimate differences between the treatment groups. The primary outcome of this health-status analysis was the SAQ summary score (scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health status). All analyses were performed in the overall population and according to baseline angina frequency. RESULTS At baseline, 35% of patients reported having no angina in the previous month. SAQ summary scores increased in both treatment groups, with increases at 3, 12, and 36 months that were 4.1 points (95% credible interval, 3.2 to 5.0), 4.2 points (95% credible interval, 3.3 to 5.1), and 2.9 points (95% credible interval, 2.2 to 3.7) higher with the invasive strategy than with the conservative strategy. Differences were larger among participants who had more frequent angina at baseline (8.5 vs. 0.1 points at 3 months and 5.3 vs. 1.2 points at 36 months among participants with daily or weekly angina as compared with no angina). CONCLUSIONS In the overall trial population with moderate or severe ischemia, which included 35% of participants without angina at baseline, patients randomly assigned to the invasive strategy had greater improvement in angina-related health status than those assigned to the conservative strategy. The modest mean differences favoring the invasive strategy in the overall group reflected minimal differences among asymptomatic patients and larger differences among patients who had had angina at baseline

Initial invasive or conservative strategy for stable coronary disease

BACKGROUND Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, 121.8 percentage points; 95% CI, 124.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used