Multifaceted information-seeking motives in children

From an early age, children need to gather information to learn about their environment. Deciding which knowledge to pursue can be difficult because information can serve several, sometimes competing, purposes. Here, we examine the developmental trajectories of such diverse information-seeking motives. Over five experiments involving 521 children (aged 4-12), we find that school-age children integrate three key factors into their information-seeking choices: whether information reduces uncertainty, is useful in directing action, and is likely to be positive. Choices that likely reveal positive information and are useful for action emerge as early as age 4, followed by choices that reduce uncertainty (at ~age 5). Our results suggest that motives related to usefulness and uncertainty reduction become stronger with age, while the tendency to seek positive news does not show a statistically significant change throughout development. This study reveals how the relative importance of diverging, sometimes conflicting, information-seeking motives emerges throughout development

Amygdala volume and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity to social stress

The amygdala plays a central role in emotional processing and has an activating influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Structural changes in the amygdala have been associated with early adversity and, in principle, may contribute to the later emergence of emotional pathologies by influencing the way that the brain responds to stress provocation. The present study examined the relationship between amygdala volumes and cortisol secretion in response to a social stressor among young adults who were or were not exposed to maternal postnatal depression (PND) early in development (referred to as PND offspring and controls, respectively). Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) revealed that, on a sample-wide level, there was no evidence of a relationship between total amygdala volume, or the volume of the right or left hemisphere amygdala taken separately, and cortisol reactivity. Unexpectedly, for PND offspring, larger right hemisphere amygdala volume was associated with lower cortisol reactivity in response to stress, an effect that was not apparent in control offspring. We conclude that the relationship between amygdala volumes and stress reactivity may not be as clear as previous models suggested

Social Conformity in Autism.

Humans are extremely susceptible to social influence. Here, we examine whether this susceptibility is altered in autism, a condition characterized by social difficulties. Autistic participants (N = 22) and neurotypical controls (N = 22) completed a memory test of previously seen words and were then exposed to answers supposedly given by four other individuals. Autistic individuals and controls were as likely to alter their judgements to align with inaccurate responses of group members. These changes reflected both temporary judgement changes (public conformity) and long-lasting memory changes (private conformity). Both groups were more susceptible to answers believed to be from other humans than from computer algorithms. Our results suggest that autistic individuals and controls are equally susceptible to social influence when reporting their memories

Surround modulation in visual motion processing studied with the motion after effect and fMRI

Surround modulation in visual motion areas was studied with the static MAE and fMRI. Stimuli were composed of a luminance defined central motion area, with a surround that could be static during adaptation or moving. Static surround attributes (MAE Experiments 1-3) could involve colour and could change between adaptation and test. Changing surround attributes from luminance to colour or vice versa between adaptation and test reduced the MAE. Colour changes between adaptation and test caused a greater MAE reduction than luminance contrast changes. In fMRI Experiments 4-6, surround modulation was tested through BOLD activity evoked within ROIs. These were defined as motion selective areas of cortex that had some retinotopic organisation and corresponded topographically to the foveally located central part of the stimulus. Voxels directly activated by the surround were excluded from the ROIs. Width and velocity of rings defining the centre-surround stimuli either controlled for the cortical magnification factor (M-scaled) or did not.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The brain's temporal dynamics from a collective decision to individual action

Social animals constantly make decisions together. What determines if individuals will subsequently adjust their behavior to align with collective choices? Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans, we characterize a novel temporal model of brain response from the time a collective decision is made to the time an individual action is required. We reveal that whether a behavioral modification will occur is determined not necessarily by the brain's response to the initial social influence, but by how that response (specifically in the orbitofrontal cortex; OFC) is mirrored at a later time when the individual selects their own action. This result suggests that the OFC may reconstitute an initial state of collective influence when individual action is subsequently needed. Importantly, these dynamics vary across individuals as a function of trait conformity and mediate the relationship between this personality characteristic and behavioral adjustment toward the group

Visual stimuli.

<p>Panel a show static frames from the alternately expanding and contracting stimuli used in Experiment 1. Panel b shows the modified stimuli used in Experiment 2. Panel a (left) shows the central motion baseline, which was also used in both its moving and static form for defining the ROI. The central motion stimulus consisted of either 2 or 3 rings depending upon the stage of the expansion/contraction cycle. The static version consisted of a single frame from the moving version, chosen so that 3 rings were visible. Panel a (centre) shows the surround grating that was used in the definition of ROI for the purpose of excluding voxels exhibiting a direct response to peripheral motion. Panel a (right) shows how the two stimuli in Panel a were combined to produce a central motion area plus uniform or antiphase surround motion. The arrows indicate where the motion direction switched in the antiphase stimulus. Panel b presents examples of the “M scaled” stimuli used in Experiment 2. Panel b (left) shows the central motion area, as well as the dimensions of the gap and surround (where present). Panel b (middle) shows uniform surround motion with a thin static boundary imposed between the central 3 deg and the surround. For comparison, panel b (right) shows the uniform surround condition without the imposed boundary.</p

Multifaceted information-seeking motives in children

Abstract From an early age, children need to gather information to learn about their environment. Deciding which knowledge to pursue can be difficult because information can serve several, sometimes competing, purposes. Here, we examine the developmental trajectories of such diverse information-seeking motives. Over five experiments involving 521 children (aged 4–12), we find that school-age children integrate three key factors into their information-seeking choices: whether information reduces uncertainty, is useful in directing action, and is likely to be positive. Choices that likely reveal positive information and are useful for action emerge as early as age 4, followed by choices that reduce uncertainty (at ~age 5). Our results suggest that motives related to usefulness and uncertainty reduction become stronger with age, while the tendency to seek positive news does not show a statistically significant change throughout development. This study reveals how the relative importance of diverging, sometimes conflicting, information-seeking motives emerges throughout development

The mean (SD) coordinates of the functionally defined regions hMT+/V5 and V1/V2.

<p>The coordinates above and below the separation line correspond to Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 respectively.</p

Eye movement control experiment.

<p>If the efficiency of fixation differed between experimental conditions, and the pattern of differences was similar to the differences in the BOLD signal and MAE between conditions, then eye movements could form the basis of an alternative explanation of our findings. We quantified the efficiency of fixation using the standard deviation of eye position in the horizontal and vertical directions. Panel a presents the eye movement data for the visual stimuli used in Experiment 1 (“fixation point” is equivalent to the resting baseline). Panel b shows the same data for the stimuli used in Experiments 2 and 3. The efficiency of fixation was similar across conditions, and there was no systematic pattern to suggest eye movements played a role in our findings. Error bars indicate one standard error.</p

Experiment 1: the net effect of surround modulation on BOLD signal change in each of the three sets of ROI.

<p>Panel a shows signal change averaged across the full set of 79 central motion ROI when surround motion was either in phase (uniform) with central motion or in antiphase to it. Signal change is plotted relative to the signal change obtained in the central motion baseline, which is itself represented by the value 0 on the y axis. Panel b makes the same comparison for the 28 hMT+/V5 central motion ROI, and panel c shows the effect of surround modulation in the 12 V1/V2 ROI. Error bars indicate one standard error.</p