Sex hormones predict the sensory strength and vividness of mental imagery

Attention: a descriptive taxonomy

The term attention has been used to mean so many different things that some have despaired of it being useful at all. This paper is devoted to bringing a modicum of order to the chaos through the time-honored device of categorization. The chief purpose of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive descriptive taxonomy of the nuanced ways the term attention may be employed. It is presented in table form, followed by elucidations and illustrations of each of its items. But first, I offer reasons why a taxonomy of attention is needed and explore some of its possible benefits. After presenting the taxonomy, I sketch by way of example how it might be applied to two interesting questions: is the umbrella term attention still useful?; and, what is it that ties the subdefinitions of attention together yet distinguishes them from other kinds of cognition?

Social attention, memory, and memory-guided orienting change across the menstrual cycle

Numerous studies have shown that perception of emotion and emotional memory vary across the menstrual cycle. However, most of these studies used stimuli that contained not only emotional but also social elements. Importantly, the social cognitive abilities of individuals are as crucial as emotional abilities for danger avoidance and recruitment of allies. Therefore, the issue that natural hormonal fluctuations may affect emotion processing should be revisited. To investigate whether the effects of the menstrual cycle are emotion-specific or can also be attributed to social information processing, the present study examined social attention across the menstrual cycle in three tasks-visual search, memory, and memory-guided orienting-with a combination of behavioral and eye-tracking measures. We used images of people standing upright with neutral emotion as social distractors and everyday objects with physical properties matched as non-social distractors. Thirty-six healthy women without hormone use and with stable menstrual cycles of 26 - 30 days participated in the three tasks in the late follicular phase (FP) and mid-luteal phase (LP), respectively. During visual search, participants were asked to search for targets accompanied by social or non-social distractors in complex scenes. Social attentional bias, as evidenced by longer search times and shorter gaze behaviors for targets with social distractors, was found in the FP but not in the LP. In the following memory task, memory accuracy for targets was higher in the FP than in the LP, and the memory for targets with social distractors was more precise in both phases. Finally, in the orienting task, targets in social scenes were detected more slowly than in non-social scenes in LP. Taken together, these findings point to the interplay between social attention, memory, and memory-oriented attention and reveal the distinct processing pathways for social information in the FP and LP. The underlying mechanisms from an evolutionary perspective and from behavioral and neural basis were discussed.

The Cycling Brain in the Workplace: Does Workload Modulate the Menstrual Cycle Effect on Cognition?

Recent decades have witnessed increased research efforts to clarify how the menstrual cycle influence females’ cognitive and emotional functions. Despite noticeable progress, the research field faces the challenges of inconsistency and low generalizability of research findings. Females of reproductive ages are a heterogeneous population. Generalizing the results of female undergraduates to women in the workplace might be problematic. Furthermore, the critical cognitive processes for daily life and work deserve additional research efforts for improved ecological validity. Thus, this study investigates cognitive performance across the menstrual cycle using a sample of young nurses with similar duties. We developed a mini-computerized cognitive battery to assess four mental skills critical for nursing work: cognitive flexibility, divided attention, response inhibition, and working memory. Participants completed the cognitive battery at menses, late-follicular, and mid-luteal phases. In addition, they were classified into low- and high workload groups according to their subjective workload ratings. Our results demonstrate a general mid-luteal cognitive advantage. Besides, this study reveals preliminary evidence that workload modulates the menstrual cycle effect on cognition. Only females of low workload manifest the mid-luteal cognitive advantage on divided attention and response inhibition, implying that a suitable workload threshold might be necessary for regular neuro-steroid interactions. Thus, this study advocates the significance of research focusing on the cycling brain under workloads.

The pupillary light response as a physiological index of aphantasia, sensory and phenomenological imagery strength

The pupillary light response is an important automatic physiological response which optimizes light reaching the retina. Recent work has shown that the pupil also adjusts in response to illusory brightness and a range of cognitive functions, however, it remains unclear what exactly drives these endogenous changes. Here, we show that the imagery pupillary light response correlates with objective measures of sensory imagery strength. Further, the trial-by-trial phenomenological vividness of visual imagery is tracked by the imagery pupillary light response. We also demonstrated that a group of individuals without visual imagery (aphantasia) do not show any significant evidence of an imagery pupillary light response, however they do show perceptual pupil light responses and pupil dilation with larger cognitive load. Our results provide evidence that the pupillary light response indexes the sensory strength of visual imagery. This work also provides the first physiological validation of aphantasia.

Individual differences in mental imagery in different modalities and levels of intentionality

Mental imagery is a highly common component of everyday cognitive functioning. While substantial progress is being made in clarifying this fundamental human function, much is still unclear or unknown. A more comprehensive account of mental imagery aspects would be gained by examining individual differences in age, sex, and background experience in an activity and their association with imagery in different modalities and intentionality levels. The current online study combined multiple imagery self-report measures in a sample (n = 279) with a substantial age range (18-65 years), aiming to identify whether age, sex, or background experience in sports, music, or video games were associated with aspects of imagery in the visual, auditory, or motor stimulus modality and voluntary or involuntary intentionality level. The findings show weak positive associations between age and increased vividness of voluntary auditory imagery and decreased involuntary musical imagery frequency, weak associations between being female and more vivid visual imagery, and relations of greater music and video game experience with higher involuntary musical imagery frequency. Moreover, all imagery stimulus modalities were associated with each other, for both intentionality levels, except involuntary musical imagery frequency, which was only related to higher voluntary auditory imagery vividness. These results replicate previous research but also contribute new insights, showing that individual differences in age, sex, and background experience are associated with various aspects of imagery such as modality, intentionality, vividness, and frequency. The study's findings can inform the growing domain of applications of mental imagery to clinical and pedagogical settings.

Alpha neural oscillation of females in the luteal phase is sensitive to high risk during sequential risk decisions

Risk taking is a non-negligible component in decision-making. Previous behavioral studies have demonstrated that female's risk decisions vary along with their menstrual cycle phases. However, little is known how females' neural processes of risk stimuli change in different menstrual cycle phases. To address this, the present study adopted a sequential economic risk-taking task and EEG technique. Thirty eligible female participants completed the task twice with EEG recordings, once in the late follicular phase and once in the midluteal phase, separately. We found that the risk stimuli induced an evident frontal N1 in the early time window of 90-180 ms. The results on N1 showed no significant difference between two phases for low- and medium-risk stimuli; whereas, for high-risk stimuli, females in midluteal phase exhibited a significantly larger N1 than that in late follicular phase. Further, by exploiting time-frequency transformation, we observed a pronounced low alpha (∼8 Hz) activity in frontal area from stimuli onset to 175 ms. The results indicated that, only for high-risk stimuli, the alpha power was significantly greater in midluteal phase than that in late follicular phase. Our neural results demonstrated a stronger early neural response to high-risk stimuli of females in midluteal phase, which suggests women are more sensitive to high risk in midluteal than in late follicular phase.

Gender identity better than sex explains individual differences in episodic and semantic components of autobiographical memory: An fMRI study

Advances in the literature of sex-related differences in autobiographical memory increasingly tend to highlight the importance of psychosocial factors such as gender identity, which may explain these differences better than sex as a biological factor. To date, however, none of these behavioral studies have investigated this hypothesis using neuroimaging. The purpose of this fMRI study is to examine for the first time sex and gender identity-related differences in episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in healthy participants (M=19, W=18). No sex-related differences were found; however, sex-related effects of masculine and feminine gender identity were identified in men and women independently. These results confirm the hypothesis that differences in episodic and semantic autobiographical memory are best explained by gender but are an interaction between biological sex and gender identity and extend these findings to the field of neuroimaging. We discuss the importance of hormonal factors to be taken into consideration in the future.

Gender- and Sex-Based Contributors to Sex Differences in PTSD

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Sex differences in PTSD are well-established with a 2:1 sex ratio favouring women. Less well-established is the basis of such differences. The purpose of this review is to explore recent research examining potential gender- and sex-based contributors to sex differences in PTSD.

RECENT FINDINGS

We identified 19 studies published since 2015. Masculinity is inconclusively associated with PTSD, but masculine ideals and masculine gender role stress are positively associated with PTSD. Among the sex-related factors, testosterone, oestradiol, progesterone, and ALLO/5α-progesterone ratio are believed to be involved in the development of PTSD. These factors likely affect PTSD risk directly and through epigenetic mechanisms. Findings suggest that gender and sex have multiple ways of affecting PTSD, including gender roles, genetic predisposition, and hormonal influences. These factors work together to put women at a particular risk of developing PTSD. By conducting more research, we may improve prediction, prevention, and treatment of PTSD.

Translational studies of estradiol and progesterone in fear and PTSD

Translational models of fear have greatly informed our understanding of PTSD and its underlying fear circuitry. One of the most replicated findings in the field is the two-fold higher PTSD incidence in females compared to males. While sociocultural factors play a role, the most robust biological influencers to date are gonadal hormones, such as estradiol and progesterone, which fluctuate across the menstrual cycle. Among studies that account for these hormones, most do so in isolation or collect both and only report one. Variation in study findings suggests that the ratio between these two hormones (the P/E ratio) may be an important and missing variable to further understand gonadal hormone influences on fear. Here we review cross-species examinations of fear and PTSD, within the contexts of estradiol and progesterone as well as P/E ratios that were calculated based on extant literature. We then provide recommendations for best practices in assay methods and reporting to improve research on the P/E ratio in fear and PTSD. Ultimately, greater understanding of this important variable will advance efforts to characterize gonadal hormone influences on fear learning processes in humans and animals.

Imagery Ability and Imagery Perspective Preference: A Study of Their Relationship and Age- and Gender-Related Changes

This study examined if imagery ability (i.e., vividness and temporal congruence between imagined and executed knee extensions) and imagery perspective preference were affected by ageing and gender. Ninety-four participants, 31 young, 43 intermediate, and 20 older adults completed the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire-2 and a knee extension temporal congruence test to reflect on their imagery ability and an imagery perspective preference test. Male participants had a better imagery ability than the female participants (F (4, 85) = 2.84, p = .029, η² = .118). However, significant age-related changes in imagery ability were not found in the three age groups. Change in imagery perspective preference with a trend towards an external imagery perspective was observed with ageing (F (3, 89) = 3.16, p = .028, η² = .096) but not between male and female. The results suggest that imagery ability may be preserved with ageing. As individuals age, their preference for using an imagery perspective shifts from a more internal to a more external perspective. This understanding is important when designing future imagery research and real-life application or clinical intervention.

Inhibitors and facilitators of compassion-focused imagery in personality disorder

BACKGROUND

Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) has potential to benefit clients with a personality disorder (PD), given the inflated levels of shame and self-criticism in this population. However, clinical observation indicates that clients with PD may find techniques from this approach challenging.

AIMS

The aim of this study is to trial one aspect of CFT, compassion-focused imagery (CFI), with this population, and identify factors that predict clients' ability to generate CFI and experience self-compassion during the task, including type of CFI exercise and, second, to establish whether CFI outcomes increase with practice.

METHOD

In Study 1, 53 participants with a diagnosis of PD completed measures of self-compassion, self-reassurance, shame, self-criticism, fear of self-compassion, affect, anxious and avoidant attachment, and mental imagery abilities. Participants were assigned to trial CFI from memory (n = 25) or from imagination (n = 28), then rated their image's vividness, its compassionate traits, and ease of experiencing compassion. A negative mood manipulation was carried out, and CFI tasks and outcome measures were repeated. For Study 2, self-compassion and self-criticism were measured before and after 1 week of daily CFI practice.

RESULTS

Study 1 found that negative mood and low mental imagery ability are significant inhibitors to generating compassionate images and affect. The 2 CFI exercises were equally effective. Study 2 suffered from high attrition, but regular practice was associated with significant improvement in self-compassion (though not self-criticism).

CONCLUSIONS

CFI appears to be effective in improving self-compassion for some clients. However, it is less effective in the presence of negative affect. Clients with low mental imagery ability may benefit more from alternative CFT techniques.

Gender Differences in Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms after a Terrorist Attack: A Network Approach

Background: Posttraumatic stress symptoms are more prevalent in women than in men. To improve our understanding of gender differences in PTSD, detailed knowledge about the underlying symptom networks and gender specific symptom profiles is needed. Objective: We aimed to describe the gender differences in levels of individual posttraumatic stress symptoms after a terrorist attack, as well as identify possible gender differences in associations between posttraumatic stress symptoms. Method: This study used survey data from ministerial employees directly (n = 190) and indirectly (n = 1,615) exposed to the 2011 Oslo bombing. Data was collected approximately 10 months after the event. In order to investigate gender differences in levels of symptoms, we used bootstrapped means and standard deviations. Network analyses were conducted to identify gender differences in the associations between posttraumatic stress symptoms. Results: Women reported higher levels of all symptoms, and the strongest effect sizes were found for symptoms of re-experiencing, and anxious and dysphoric arousal. Among individuals with considerable levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms, women reported higher levels of physiological cue activity and exaggerated startle response. No significant gender differences in the networks of posttraumatic stress were found. Conclusions: The present results find no indication that the gender difference in prevalence of PTSD can be explained by differences in associations between symptoms. In order to determine if this finding can be applied to other participants and circumstances, future studies should seek to replicate this study in both community and clinical samples.

Early visual processing is enhanced in the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed an early attentional bias in processing unpleasant emotional images in women. Recent neuroimaging data suggests there are significant differences in cortical emotional processing according to menstrual phase. This study examined the impact of menstrual phase on visual emotional processing in women compared to men. ERPs were recorded from 28 early follicular women, 29 midluteal women, and 27 men while they completed a passive viewing task of neutral and low- and high- arousing pleasant and unpleasant images. There was a significant effect of menstrual phase in early visual processing, as midluteal women displayed significantly greater P1 amplitude at occipital regions to all visual images compared to men. Both midluteal and early follicular women displayed larger N1 amplitudes than men (although this only reached significance for the midluteal group) to the visual images. No sex or menstrual phase differences were apparent in later N2, P3, or LPP. A condition effect demonstrated greater P3 and LPP amplitude to highly-arousing unpleasant images relative to all other stimuli conditions. These results indicate that women have greater early automatic visual processing compared to men, and suggests that this effect is particularly strong in women in the midluteal phase at the earliest stage of visual attention processing. Our findings highlight the importance of considering menstrual phase when examining sex differences in the cortical processing of visual stimuli.