Does unfairness evoke anger or disgust? A quantitative neurofunctional dissection based on 25 years of neuroimaging.

Over the last decades, the traditional 'Homo economicus' model has been increasingly challenged by converging evidence highlighting the critical impact of emotions on decision-making. A classic example is the perception of unfairness in the Ultimatum Game, where humans willingly sacrifice personal gains to punish fairness norm violators. While emotional mechanisms underlying such costly punishment are widely acknowledged, the distinct contributions of moral emotions, particularly anger and disgust, remain debated, partly due to methodological limitations in conventional experiments.

Oxytocin Reduces Subjective Fear in Naturalistic Social Contexts via Enhancing Top-Down Middle Cingulate Amygdala Regulation and Brain-Wide Fear Representations.

Accumulating evidence from animal and human studies suggests a fear-regulating potential of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), yet the clinical translation into novel interventions for pathological fear requires a behavioral and neurofunctional characterization under close-to-real-life conditions. Here, we combined a naturalistic fMRI-design that elicited strong and immersive fear experience in social and non-social contexts with a preregistered between-subjects randomized double-blind placebo-controlled intranasal OT trial (24 IU, n  =  67 healthy men). OT selectively reduced subjective fear in social contexts but not in non-social contexts.

A neurofunctional signature of affective arousal generalizes across valence domains and distinguishes subjective experience from autonomic reactivity.

Arousal is fundamental for affective experience and, together with valence, defines the core affective space. Precise brain models of affective arousal are lacking, leading to continuing debates of whether the neural systems generalize across valence domains and are separable from those underlying autonomic arousal or wakefulness. Here, we combine naturalistic fMRI with predictive modeling to develop a brain affective arousal signature (BAAS, discovery-validation design, n = 60, 36).

State shyness enhances recruitment of social processing regions while reducing communication of prefrontal regulatory regions.

State shyness is characterized by a swift and intense emotional response to social stressors, playing a crucial role in shaping the dynamic neural processes in social interactions. However, its underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Using a novel shyness-induction paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated brain activation and connectivity patterns associated with state shyness in 41 healthy adults (25 females; Mage = 21.

Testosterone and emotion expression shape social interactions in defection-cooperation conflicts.

Emotions and hormones such as testosterone crucially shape social interactions, including cooperation. However, whether testosterone regulates the impact of emotional expressions in defection versus cooperation conflicts remains elusive. The present study determined the effects of single-dose testosterone administration on cooperative behavior and emotional expression in the prisoner's dilemma game (PDG).

Understanding human brain function in real-world environments.

Functional MRI is invaluable in understanding brain function, but findings are often of limited real-world relevance. Neuroimaging in more naturalistic environments could reveal crucial insights into how the brain processes cognition, emotional experiences, and social interactions in daily life.

Multilevel brain functional connectivity and task-based representations explaining heterogeneity in major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a devastating mental disorder characterized by considerable clinical and biological heterogeneity. While comparable clinical symptoms may represent a common pathological endpoint, it is conceivable that distinct neurophysiological mechanisms underlie their manifestation. In this study, both static and model-based dynamic functional connectivity were employed as predictive variables in the normative model to map multilevel functional developmental trajectories and determined clusters of distinguishable MDD subgroups in a large multi-site resting fMRI dataset of 2428 participants (healthy controls: N = 1128; MDD: N = 1300).

A visual generalization gradient of conceptual stimuli based on fear acquisition in visual and auditory modalities.

This study investigates crossmodal fear generalization, testing whether conditioned fear spreads between different sensory modalities. Participants in the unimodal group were presented with visual stimuli-images of a sparrow (CS+) and a laptop (CS-)-while the crossmodal group received auditory stimuli-sparrow calls (CS+) and keyboard typing sounds (CS-). During the generalization phase, both groups were presented with conceptually similar visual stimuli (GSs) with varying similarity to the CS+ (e.

How a Topological Mindset May Offer Extra Control During Mapping and Ablation of Left-Sided Reentrant Atrial Tachycardia.

Background: Reentry (macro or localized) is historically described as multiple pathways that are separated by barriers (either anatomic or functional) and involve active and passive loops (identified by electro-anatomic and entrainment mapping, EAM/ETM). Some reentrant atrial tachycardia (AT) cases are characterized by challenging activation patterns and unexpected ablation responses. A recent translational study, focusing on topology (TOP) and the role of boundaries, suggests that thinking topology within EAM/ETM might offer extra control during mapping and ablation of reentrant AT.

Regional and whole-brain neurofunctional alterations during pain empathic processing of physical but not affective pain in migraine patients.

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that migraine patients present abnormal brain responses to salient sensory and emotional stimuli. However, it is still unclear whether this is a generalized or domain-specific phenomenon. Employing a well-validated fMRI paradigm, we investigated pain empathic reactivity across two domains: observation of physical pain (noxious stimulation) and affective pain (facial expressions).

Will our social brain inherently shape and be shaped by interactions with AI?

Social-specific brain circuits enable rapid understanding and affiliation in interpersonal interactions. These evolutionarily and experience-shaped mechanisms will influence-and be influenced by-interactions with conversational AI agents (chatbots, avatars). This NeuroView explores fundamental circuits, computations, and societal implications.

Prospective Evaluation of Superior Vena Cava Isolation as an Adjunct to Pulmonary Vein Re-Isolation During Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Repeat Procedures.

Background: The superior vena cava (SVC) is a prominent non-pulmonary vein trigger of atrial fibrillation (AF). Its isolation has been shown to be effective in paroxysmal AF (PAF) originating from SVC.

Objective: In this study, focusing on repeat procedures for recurrent PAF post-PVI, we aimed to evaluate the added value of empirical SVC isolation to PV antral re-isolation, when at least one PV reconnection is demonstrated.

A functional anatomical shift from the lateral frontal pole to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in emotion action control underpins elevated levels of anxiety: partial replication and generalization of Bramson ., 2023.

Background: Emotion control represents a promising intervention target for mental disorders. In a recent study Bramson et al. (2023) demonstrate a functional-anatomical shift from the lateral frontal pole (FPl) to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in anxious individuals during emotional action control.

Dysfunctional mesocorticolimbic circuitry in cluster headache.

Background: This study aimed to identify mesocorticolimbic functional abnormalities in cluster headache (CH) patients, disentangling the roles of chronification and affective symptoms.

Methods: Using the monetary incentive delay fMRI task to directly engage these pathways, we investigated functional alterations in key regions of this network in chronic (n = 23) and episodic CH patients (n = 49) compared to a control group (n = 32). After processing the fMRI data, we extracted beta values from selected regions and for contrasts of interest and entered them into logistic regression models adjusted for potential confounders (such as depressive and anxiety symptoms and smoking habit) to test their association with the diagnoses (chronic CH and control subjects, episodic CH and control subjects).

Self-navigating the "Island of Reil": a systematic review of real-time fMRI neurofeedback training of insula activity.

Real-time fMRI (rtfMRI) neurofeedback (NF) is a novel noninvasive technique that permits individuals to voluntarily control brain activity. The crucial role of the insula in emotional and salience processing makes it one of the most commonly targeted regions in previous rtfMRI studies. To provide an overview of progress in the field, the present review identified 25 rtfMRI insula studies and systematically reviewed key characteristics and findings in these studies.

Neural, cognitive and psychopathological signatures of a prosocial or delinquent peer environment during early adolescence.

Adolescence is a critical period for brain development, yet the impact of peer environments on brain structure, cognition, and psychopathology remains poorly understood. Here, we capitalized on data from 7806 adolescents (age = 12.02 ± 0.

Genetic influence and neural pathways underlying the dose-response relationships between wearable-measured physical activity and mental health in adolescence.

Adolescence is a critical period marked by significant physical and neurocognitive development as well as increased vulnerability to mental health issues. While the benefits of physical activity (PA) on adult mental health (MH) are well-established, the dose-response relationships and underlying neurobiological mechanisms in adolescents remain elusive. This study investigated the dose-response relationships between wearable-measured PA and MH outcomes in over 7000 adolescents (11-12 years) from the ABCD study through linear and nonlinear modeling.

Radiofrequency-aided venous ethanol vs optimized radiofrequency for primary and repeat ablation of left ventricular summit arrhythmias: A propensity score-matched comparison.

Background: Radiofrequency (RF) ablation of left ventricular summit arrhythmias (LVSAs) is challenging and may fail due to the anatomical inaccessibility of the substrate. Coronary venous ethanol ablation (CVEA) has been suggested as an alternative ablation strategy for drug- and RF-refractory LVSA.

Objective: This study compared venous ethanol with or without adjunctive RF (CVEA ± RF) vs optimized RF (ORF) for primary or repeat ablation of LVSA.

Routine CT Diagnostics Cause Dose-Dependent Gene Expression Changes in Peripheral Blood Cells.

The increasing use of computed tomography (CT) has led to a rise in cumulative radiation dose due to medical imaging, raising concerns about potential long-term adverse effects. Large-scale epidemiological studies indicate a higher tumor incidence associated with CT examinations, but the underlying biological mechanisms remain largely unexplained. To gain further insights into the cellular response triggered by routine CT diagnostics, we investigated CT-induced changes of gene expression in peripheral blood cells using whole transcriptome sequencing.

Enhanced disgust generalization in obsessive-compulsive disorder is related to insula and putamen hyperactivity.

Background: Compulsive cleaning is a characteristic symptom of a particular subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is often accompanied by intense disgust. While overgeneralization of threat is a key factor in the development of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, previous studies have primarily focused on fear generalization and have rarely examined disgust generalization. A systematic determination of the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying disgust generalization in individuals with contamination concern is crucial for enhancing our understanding of OCD.

The power of pain: The temporal-spatial dynamics of empathy induced by body gestures and facial expressions.

Two non-verbal pain representations, body gestures and facial expressions, can communicate pain to others and elicit our own empathic responses. However, the specific impact of these representations on neural responses of empathy, particularly in terms of temporal and spatial neural mechanisms, remains unclear. To address this issue, the present study developed a kinetic pain empathy paradigm comprising short animated videos depicting a protagonist's "real life" pain and no-pain experiences through body gestures and facial expressions.

Neural Patterns of Social Pain in the Brain-Wide Representations Across Social Contexts.

Empathy can be elicited by physiological pain, as well as in social contexts. Although physiological and different social contexts induce a strong subjective experience of empathy, the general and context-specific neural representations remain elusive. Here, it is combined fMRI with multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to establish neurofunctional models for social pain triggered by observing social exclusion and separation naturistic stimuli.

Operant light self-administration in mice and its relevance to digital technology-based disorders.

Behavioral addictions share symptomatological features with substance addiction. From the associative learning perspective, these characteristics include excessive and unregulated self-administration of sensory and other reinforcers, potentially reflecting the transition from goal-directed actions (action → outcome associations) to habitual responses (stimulus → response associations). In laboratory mice, light stimulation at an optimal intensity possesses some incentive properties and a brief light pulse represents an effective reinforcer for persistent operant responding.