Overweight adults are more impulsive than normal weight adults: Evidence from ERPs during a chocolate-related delayed discounting task

Individuals' Food Preferences can be Influenced by the Music Styles: An ERP Study

Studies have shown that a cross-modal association between listening to music and eating. This study aims to explore the influence of music style on individuals' food preferences and provide evidence for understanding multi-sensory research. Twenty-seven participants participated in the experiment which consisted of two parts. First, participants completed basic demographic information, followed by a food choice task after exposure to four different music styles: classical, jazz, rap, and rock, with ERP data recorded simultaneously. The behavioral results showed that participants selected more high-calorie foods after exposure to jazz and rock music compared to low-calorie foods. Additionally, during jazz and rock music, participants selected more high-calorie foods, while they favored low-calorie foods during classical music. The ERP results showed that the N1 amplitudes were smallest during the food choice task following the classical music and greatest during the food choice task following the rock music, while the N450 amplitudes were smallest during the food choice task following the jazz music. P2 amplitudes were smallest during the food choice task following the rock music and greatest during the food choice task following the classical music, and P3 amplitudes during the food choice task following jazz music were the greatest. The aforementioned ERP differences were observed irrespective of food choices. However, we did not find a significant interaction between foods (high and low-calorie) and music. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between body satisfaction and P3 amplitudes for classical, jazz, and rock music, with BMI negatively correlated with body satisfaction. This study provides innovative practical perspectives for healthy eating.

Adiposity influences intraindividual variability in behavioral and neuroelectric indices of attentional inhibition

While overweight or obesity are thought to affect over 70% of the US population, the effects of adiposity on neurocognitive efficiency and stability remain unclear. Intra-individual variability or trial-to-trial variability (IIV) could provide insights into the influence of adiposity on neurophysiological stability. However, previous work examining the association between adiposity and IIV of cognitive outcomes is limited. Thus, this study examined the association between whole-body fat (%BF) and central tendency and IIV metrics of behavioral performance and event-related potentials. Adults (n = 320; 19-64 yrs) completed the Flanker task to assess attentional inhibition with concurrent electroencephalogram recordings to examine the N2 and P3b components. In addition to central tendency outcomes typically reported (i.e., mean accuracy and reaction time [RT]), dispersion outcomes (e.g., standard deviation [SD] of RT, P3b latency, N2 latency, etc.) were also extracted. Upon controlling for age and sex, %BF was inversely associated with (congruent: β = -.18, p = .016; incongruent: β = -.23, p < .001) accuracy. Increasing %BF was related to greater RT SD (congruent: β = .13, p = .032; incongruent: β = .23, p < .001). Furthermore, increased %BF was associated with slower P3b latencies (congruent: β = .21, p = .003; incongruent: β = .18, p = .010), and greater incongruent N2 (β = .16, p = .017) and P3b (β = .16, p = .025) latency SD. These findings suggest adiposity exerts a generalized negative influence on attentional inhibition for both measures of central tendency and dispersion across behavioral and neuroelectric indices.

Effect of food stimuli presentation on restrained eater's food choice: An ERP study

Restrained eaters are individuals who consciously follow a limited food intake diet to lose or maintain body weight. With the rising numbers of obesity cases, retrained eating has became more prevalent as more people adopt it to cope with obesity. The dual conflict theory states that restrained eaters often encounter conflicting choices of food pleasure and weight management. The present study investigated the difference in food choice regarding different presentations of the weight management goal. The study hypothesized difference in successful and unsuccessful restrained eaters' food choice when presented with the conflicting food/weight maintenance stimuli. A total of 49 college students participated in the study and the N2, P3 and LPP event-related potentials (ERPs) were investigated during a food choice task. Results showed that the reaction time in unsuccessful restrained eaters (UREs) were greater than successful restrained eaters (SREs). The ERP results showed that SREs exhibited smaller N2 and greater P3 amplitudes than UREs, however, we did not find a difference in LPP amplitudes between the two groups. The findings suggest that the UREs demonstrated greater sensitivity and smaller inhibition to food cues, while we do not have supports for a difference in motivational and emotional salience. This is the first study that investigated the food choice of SREs and UREs when faced with different presentations of conflicting goals, which enriches the theoretical model and provides neural correlates evidence for future studies.

Connectivity-based neuromarker for children's inhibitory control ability and its relevance to body mass index

Preserving a normal body mass index (BMI) is crucial for the healthy growth and development of children. As a core aspect of executive functions, inhibitory control plays a pivotal role in maintaining a normal BMI, which is key to preventing issues of childhood obesity. By studying individual variations in inhibitory control performance and its associated connectivity-based neuromarker in a sample of primary school students (N = 64; 9-12 yr), we aimed to unravel the pathway through which inhibitory control impacts children's BMI. Utilizing resting-state functional MRI scans and a connectivity-based psychometric prediction framework, we found that enhanced inhibitory control abilities were primarily associated with increased functional connectivity in brain structures vital to executive functions, such as the superior frontal lobule, superior parietal lobule, and posterior cingulate cortex. Conversely, inhibitory control abilities displayed a negative relationship with functional connectivity originating from reward-related brain structures, such as the orbital frontal and ventral medial prefrontal lobes. Furthermore, we revealed that both inhibitory control and its corresponding neuromarker can moderate the association between food-related delayed gratification and BMI in children. However, only the neuromarker of inhibitory control maintained its moderating effect on children's future BMI, as determined in the follow-up after one year. Overall, our findings shed light on the potential mechanisms of how inhibitory control in children impacts BMI, highlighting the utility of the connectivity-based neuromarker of inhibitory control in the context of childhood obesity.

Effects of mindfulness-based music listening on conflict control in young adults with insomnia disorder: behavioral and event-related potential evidence

Introduction

Insomnia Disorder (ID) has become the second most prevalent mental disorder, with significant negative effects on daytime cognitive functions. Previous studies suggested that mindfulness-based music listening (MBML) can effectively improve conflict control and attentional processing in healthy adults. However, the behavioral and neurophysiological characteristics of MBML in young adults with ID remain unclear.

Methods

To explore the behavioral and neurophysiological characteristics of MBML in regulating negative emotions among young Chinese adults with ID, 60 young adults with ID were asked to complete an emotion-word Stroop task under three mood states while recording event-related potentials (ERPs).

Results

Task and questionnaire results showed that (1) negative emotion induced by the negative simulated video significantly suppressed the attentional processing of emotional faces and words in the conflict control task among young people with ID, (2) MBML reduced cognitive and physical arousal levels, enhanced positive mood, and improved attentional control abilities in young adults with ID. The ERP results showed that a greater N3 effect and the smaller P3 and late positive component (LPC) effects reflected that MBML effectively regulated negative emotions induced by the negative simulated video and attentional processing abilities for conflict control in young adults with ID.

Discussion

Maintaining mindfulness while listening to music may enhance positive emotional experiences and improve cognitive ability, and exhibit larger N3 effects and smaller P3 and LPC effects in the electrophysiology mechanism, with a reduction in the hyperarousal level in young adults with insomnia disorders.

Electrophysiological indexes of ingroup bias in a group Stroop task: Evidence from an event-related potential study

Although cognitive system assigns higher attentional resources to ingroup information than outgroup information, but it is unclear whether the ingroup bias can be measured by the processes that are related to allocation of attentional resources to ingroup information. Thus, a group Stroop task was developed to study the issues combining with event-related potential (ERP) technique in this study. Specifically, 34 subjects (17 female, mean age = 20.76 ± 1.26) were firstly divided into blue or red group (17 subjects for each group); then they were asked to categorize four words of Stroop task into "our team" or "other team" based on the ink color (blue/red) of the words whose meaning were also red/blue. The behavioral results showed that outgroup ink color processing was interfered by ingroup word meaning, but the ingroup ink color processing was less/not interfered by outgroup word meaning. The ERP results showed that the amplitude of frontal N100 was enhanced when more attentional resources were automatically captured by ingroup information in early stage than outgroup information; P2/N2 amplitude was reduced or enhanced when outgroup information processing was interfered by ingroup information; enhanced P3b amplitude reflected that attention could be more easily allocated to ingroup information than outgroup information based on target. This study implied a novel direction to study the neural basis of ingroup bias by investigating the roles of ingroup bias in assigning attentional resources to group information.

Electrophysiological Characteristics of Inhibitive Control for Adults with Different Physiological or Psychological Obesity

Individuals exhibiting high scores on the fatness subscale of the negative-physical-self scale (NPSS-F) are characterized by heightened preoccupation with body fat accompanied by negative body image perceptions, often leading to excessive dieting behaviors. This demographic constitutes a considerable segment of the populace in China, even among those who are not obese. Nonetheless, scant empirical inquiries have delved into the behavioral and neurophysiological profiles of individuals possessing a healthy body mass index (BMI) alongside elevated NPSS-F scores. This study employed an experimental paradigm integrating go/no-go and one-back tasks to assess inhibitory control and working memory capacities concerning food-related stimuli across three adult cohorts: those with normal weight and low NPSS-F scores, those with normal weight and high NPSS-F scores, and individuals classified as obese. Experimental stimuli comprised high- and low-caloric-food pictures with concurrent electroencephalogram (EEG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG) recordings. Individuals characterized by high NPSS-F scores and normal weight exhibited distinctive electrophysiological responses compared to the other two cohorts, evident in event-related potential (ERP) components, theta and alpha band oscillations, and heart rate variability (HRV) patterns. In essence, the findings underscore alterations in electrophysiological reactivity among individuals possessing high NPSS-F scores and a healthy BMI in the context of food-related stimuli, underscoring the necessity for increased attention to this demographic alongside individuals affected by obesity.

The Neural Correlates of Food Preference among Music Kinds

The calorie and taste choices of food have been shown to be related to the external environment, including music. Previous studies have mostly focused on manipulating basic auditory parameters, with few scholars exploring the impact of complex musical parameters on food selection. This study explored the effects of different kinds of music (classical, rock, jazz, and hip-hop) on food liking based on the calories (high and low) and taste (sweet and salty) using event-related potentials (ERPs). Twenty-four participants (8 males, 16 females) were recruited from Southwest University, China to participate in the food liking task using a Likert seven-point rating and simultaneously recording EEG signals (N2, P2, N3, and LPC). This study used repeated-measures analyses of covariances and found that the score of the high-calorie foods was greater than that of the low-calorie foods. Additionally, results revealed that the score in classical music was greatest for sweet foods, while there was no difference among music kinds in the salty foods. The ERP results showed that P2 amplitudes were greater for sweet foods than those for the salty foods. N2 amplitudes for the salty foods were greater than those for the sweet foods during rock music; in addition, N2 amplitudes during hip-hop music were greatest for sweet foods. However, N2 amplitudes during rock music were the greatest for salty foods. The results also revealed that N2 amplitudes during hip-hop music were greater than those during jazz music. This study provides unique operational insights for businesses.

Parents, but not their children, demonstrate greater delay discounting with resource scarcity

BACKGROUND

Individuals with obesity tend to discount the future (delay discounting), focusing on immediate gratification. Delay discounting is reliably related to indicators of economic scarcity (i.e., insufficient resources), including lower income and decreased educational attainment in adults. It is unclear whether the impact of these factors experienced by parents also influence child delay discounting between the ages of 8 and 12-years in families with obesity.

METHODS

The relationship between indices of family income and delay discounting was studied in 452 families with parents and 6-12-year-old children with obesity. Differences in the relationships between parent economic, educational and Medicaid status, and parent and child delay discounting were tested.

RESULTS

Results showed lower parent income (p = 0.019) and Medicaid status (p = 0.021) were differentially related to greater parent but not child delay discounting among systematic responders.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest differences in how indicators of scarcity influence delay discounting for parents and children, indicating that adults with scarce resources may be shaped to focus on immediate needs instead of long-term goals. It is possible that parents can reduce the impact of economic scarcity on their children during preadolescent years. These findings suggest a need for policy change to alleviate the burden of scarce conditions and intervention to modify delay discounting rate and to improve health-related choices and to address weight disparities.

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves attentional control in chronically stressed adults

Introduction

Chronic stress is a long-term condition that negatively affects cognitive ability and mental health. Individuals who experience chronic stress show poor attentional control. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) modulates executive function domains. Therefore, it is beneficial to investigate whether tDCS of the DLPFC could improve attentional control and relieve stress in chronically stressed individuals.

Methods

We assess the event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with attentional control in individuals with chronic stress after the tDCS intervention. Forty individuals were randomly assigned to either the anodal tDCS group, which received 5 sessions of the 20 min tDCS over the DLPFC (2 mA; n = 20), or the sham tDCS (n = 20). Participants' stress levels, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and state affects were assessed and compared before and after the intervention. The ERP was collected through electroencephalography (EEG) technology during an attentional network test.

Results

After the anodal tDCS, we found a significant decrease in the perceived stress scale (PSS) scores (from an average score of 35.05 to 27.75), p = 0.01 as well as the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores, p = 0.002. Better performance in the attentional network test, a significant reduction in the N2 amplitudes, and an enhancement in the P3 amplitudes (both cues and targets) were also found in the anodal tDCS group.

Discussion

Our study findings suggest that tDCS to the left DLPFC could effectively relieve chronic stress, potentially reflected by increased attentional control.

Young Adults with Negative Body Image at Fatness Subscale Are More Restrained Than Normal Adults during a Chocolate Discounting Task

Research has confirmed that people with obesity exhibit special responses to food stimuli when it comes to food-related decision tasks. However, it is unclear whether the phenomenon exists in people who feel mentally obese, even though they are not obese. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioral and neural correlations of food-related decision-making between young adults with negative body image at fatness subscale and a control group, so as to explore the differences in executive functioning between them. We used a time-delayed discounting task (DDT) and recruited 13 young female adults in each group to participate in the electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment. The number of selections for low immediate rewards and high delayed rewards was used as a performance indicator for DDT. Behavioral results showed a significant interaction effect between selection types and groups, where more delayed rewards and shorter immediate rewards were selected in the group with negative body image at fatness subscale than in the control group. Statistical correlations between body mass index (BMI) and selection times were found in the control group, but this phenomenon did not occur in the experimental group. The event-related potentials found that the P100 of young adults with a negative body image at fatness subscale was greater than those in the control group. P200 showed a significant interaction effect between groups, electrodes, and selection types. N200 and N450 in delayed rewards were more negative than in immediate rewards for both groups. These findings suggest that young adults with negative body image at fatness subscale are more restrained than young adults in the control group when choosing chocolates. Moreover, individuals with negative body image at fatness subscale might be more sensitive to food stimuli than individuals in the control group, because their P100 amplitude was significantly larger than that of individuals in the control group when exposed to food-related stimuli.

High-Calorie Food-Cues Impair Conflict Control: EEG Evidence from a Food-Related Stroop Task

Long-term excessive intake of high-calorie foods might lead to cognitive impairments and overweight or obesity. The current study aimed to examine the effects of high-calorie foods on the behavioral and neurological correlates of food-related conflict control ability. A food-related Stroop task, which asked the participants to respond to the food images and ignore the calorie information, were employed. A total of 61 individuals were recruited and who completed the food-related Stroop task with event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants exhibited a slower reaction time and lower accuracy in high-calorie food stimuli than that in low-calorie food stimuli. The ERP results exhibited a reduction in N2 amplitudes when responding to high-calorie food stimuli compared to when responding to low-calorie food stimuli. In addition, time-frequency analysis revealed that theta power induced by low-calorie food stimuli was significantly greater than that of high-calorie food stimuli. The findings indicated that high-calorie foods impair food-related conflict control. The present study expands on the previous studies of the neural correlates of food cues and provides new insights into the processing and resolving of conflicting information for eating behavior and weight control.

"Free won't" of food in overweight and normal-weight adults: Comparison of neurocognitive correlates of intentional and reactive inhibitions

Food-related inhibition plays a critical role in the manifestation of overweight. Previous research has focused exclusively on stimulus-driven (reactive) inhibition, which is different from intentional inhibition that refers to an internally generated decision to "stop". This study investigated the food-related neurophysiological correlates of intentional and reactive inhibitions in overweight and normal-weight adults. We compared 35 overweight participants (OWs) and 34 normal-weight participants (NWs) on performance and electroencephalography-based measures during a food-related go/no-go/choose task. In this task, participants made reactive responses to an instructed go/no-go target or made intentional choices whether to execute or inhibit a keypress when presented with a free-choice target. Our results mainly showed, 1) for group-difference, N2a amplitudes of OWs were less negative than that of NWs in the intentional trials; 2) for source difference, N2a amplitudes were less negative in reactive condition than in intentional condition uniquely in OWs. Moreover, comparison across intentional responses revealed that P2 amplitudes in no-go trials were lower than in go trials. Additionally, a greater body mass index correlated with lower intentional no-go-P2 and reactive go/no-go-P2 amplitudes. These findings suggest that overweight is associated with deficits in food-related intentional inhibition, which is segregated from reactive inhibition. The individual differences in premotor inhibition during free-choice situations might provide an explanation for overeating behaviors in overweight adults' daily life. Further, our results refine the ERP marker of intentional inhibition from N2 to N2a, which could be an essential neural mechanism underlying the "free won't" of food in OWs.

Mindfulness Meditation Improves Musical Aesthetic Emotion Processing in Young Adults

This study explored the behavioral and neural correlates of mindfulness meditation improvement in musical aesthetic emotion processing (MAEP) in young adults, using the revised across-modal priming paradigm. Sixty-two participants were selected from 652 college students who assessed their mindfulness traits using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). According to the 27% ratio of the high and low total scores, participants were divided into two subgroups: high trait group (n = 31) and low trait group (n = 31). Participants underwent facial recognition and emotional arousal tasks while listening to music, and simultaneously recorded event-related potentials (ERPs). The N400, P3, and late positive component (LPC) were investigated. The behavioral results showed that mindfulness meditation improved executive control abilities in emotional face processing and effectively regulated the emotional arousal of repeated listening to familiar music among young adults. These improvements were associated with positive changes in key neural signatures of facial recognition (smaller P3 and larger LPC effects) and emotional arousal (smaller N400 and larger LPC effects). Our results show that P3, N400, and LPC are important neural markers for the improvement of executive control and regulating emotional arousal in musical aesthetic emotion processing, providing new evidence for exploring attention training and emotional processing. We revised the affecting priming paradigm and E-prime 3.0 procedure to fulfill the simultaneous measurement of music listening and experimental tasks and provide a new experimental paradigm to simultaneously detect the behavioral and neural correlates of mindfulness-based musical aesthetic processing.

Neural responses to rapidly selecting color names with different novelty

It is well known that different names of color can lead to distinct attractions to people. To study the neural mechanism underlying this phenomenon, an implicit association test task was designed for color names, in which participants were required to select the possible meanings of a Greek phrase from two color names (in Chinese). The behavioral results showed that the participants were more likely to select novel names for long Greek phrases and dates names for short Greek phrases. The EEG results showed that the mean amplitude of N1 was greater for selections of novel color names than selections of dates names for Greek phrases. Meanwhile, the mean amplitude of N3 for novel color names was more negative than that of dates color names. Significant interaction effect of N3 was also found for the four kinds of selections between Greek phrases and Chinese color names. Moreover, a frontal-positive and occipital-negative distribution for scalp topography of N1 was found, while the scalp topography of N3 was opposite as frontal-negative and occipital-positive distribution, suggesting the importance of visual cortex for perception of the color names and prefrontal cortex for integration and decision of selection. In summary, the results here indicated that colors with novel names could easily attract people's attention than colors with dates names, which might shed light on the usage of color names in real life.

Intertemporal preference reversals are associated with early activation of insula and sustained preferential processing of immediate rewards in visual cortex

Decision makers tend to give magnified significance to immediately available rewards which leads to intertemporal preference reversals, which is a form of self-control failure. The objective of the present study was to understand the cognitive and neural underpinnings of this phenomenon using event-related potentials (ERP) and their source localization using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis (sLORETA). Twenty-four participants performed a money choice task, where they made choices between a smaller-sooner and a larger-later reward, which included trials with and without an immediately available option, while their electroencephalography (EEG) activity was recorded. Trials with and without immediacy were identical except that the latter involved a front-end delay added to both the rewards. Results showed that presence of immediacy made the choices significantly more impulsive. Presence of immediate reward elicited larger visual P2 and late positive potential (LPP), indicating enhanced capture of automatic and sustained attention respectively, and smaller N2, indicative of diminished engagement of cognitive control processes. Source localization revealed increased activity in the visual cortex in the presence of immediacy, signifying higher valuation. Higher activation of areas of insula during P2-suggesting increased awareness of visceral signals-predicted larger impulsive preference reversals. The results suggest that presence of immediate reward biases the choice very early during the decision making process by precipitating visceral states that triggers approach behaviour, and highlight the need to adopt strategies like precommitment to counter the effect.

The Neural Markers of Self-Caught and Probe-Caught Mind Wandering: An ERP Study

Mind-wandering (MW) is a common phenomenon, defined as task-unrelated thoughts. This study is based on event-related potentials (ERPs), using modified sustained attention to response task (modified SART, mSART) to discuss the neural patterns of different types of MW. In the current study, we defined the MW realized by participants as self-caught MW, and the MW measurement acquired by probes as probe-caught MW. The behavioral results showed that the reaction times (RTs) during self-caught MW were greater than those during non-self-caught MW. The ERP results showed that during self-caught MW, the mean amplitudes of N1 decreased significantly, indicating that the participants’ attention had deviated from the current task. The increase in the mean amplitudes of P2 during self-caught MW indicated lower vigilance. We also found that the mean amplitudes of N300 reduced during self-caught MW, which indicated that cognitive control or monitoring might be affected by self-caught MW. The average amplitudes of P300 were significantly lower during probe-caught MW than during on-task, indicating the impact on high-level cognitive processing. In addition, the amplitudes of N1, P2, and N300 in anterior regions were greater than those in posterior regions. P300 amplitudes during probe-caught MW in the right hemisphere were greater than those of the left hemisphere. In summary, our research results demonstrated that alertness and cognitive processing decreased during both self-caught MW and probe-caught MW. ERPs were statistically different under the conditions of self-caught MW and probe-caught MW. The current study provided new insights into the relationship between MW and neural markers. It was the first study exploring the ERP correlates between self-caught MW and probe-caught MW based on mSART.

Alteration of regional heterogeneity and functional connectivity for obese undergraduates: evidence from resting-state fMRI

Obesity was found to be related with the changes of brain functions in human beings. There were several brain areas that were verified to be correlated with the obesity, including the parietal cortex, frontal cortex and so on. However, the cortical regions found from different studies were discrepant due to the different ages, gender distribution and satiation degree of participants. We found that the regional homogeneity of right angular gyrus were smaller in obese undergraduates than that in normal-weight undergraduates. Moreover, functional connectivity of the left middle temporal cortex and the right angular gyrus were found to be smaller in obese group than that in normal-weight group by setting the right angular gyrus as seed region. In addition, multiple regression analysis suggested that the right superior frontal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus were significantly correlated with their body mass index for normal-weight undergraduates, but no significant correlation was found for obese group. In summary, these findings indicated the functional changes of the cortex in obese undergraduates, which might be significant for providing imaging-based biomarkers for intervention and therapy of obesity.

The Effect of Social Distance on Intertemporal Choice of Reward Processing: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Social factors can affect the processing of intertemporal choice, but the influence of social distance on the rewarding process of intertemporal choice is unclear. Therefore, by designing a novel cognitive resource competition paradigm for undifferentiated intertemporal choice, this article aims to explore the influence of social distance on intertemporal choice reward processing at the electrophysiological level. It was found that compared with the stranger condition, P3a is greater in the friend condition, which means social distance is evaluated in the early stage. In addition, different brain regions in the early stages are taking charge of processing the soon-but-small (SS) and later-but-lager (LL) reward in intertemporal choice. There is an interaction effect between social distance (friend vs. stranger) and intertemporal choice (SS reward vs. LL reward) on P3b. Under friend conditions, the P3b induced by LL reward is more positive than SS reward. Under the condition of choosing the LL reward, the P3b induced by friend is more positive than stranger. This result shows that in the latter stage of reward processing, the evaluation process of time discounting is less sensitive in LL reward for friend caused by lack of cognitive resources which is occupied when dealing with social distance in advance, and thus the degree of time discount was reduced. These findings demonstrate that P3b is the key index of time discounting and immediate and delayed rewards are valued in different brain regions.

Regulation of Mindfulness-Based Music Listening on Negative Emotions Related to COVID-19: An ERP Study

The current study aimed to explore the behavioral and neural correlates of mindfulness-based music listening regulation of induced negative emotions related to COVID-19 using the face-word Stroop task. Eighty-five young adults visited the laboratory and were randomly assigned to three groups: a calm music group (CMG: n = 28), a happy music group (HMG: n = 30), and a sad music group (SMG: n = 27). Negative emotions were induced in all participants using a COVID-19 video, followed by the music intervention condition. Participants underwent the face-word Stroop tasks during which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The N2, N3, P3, and late positive component (LPC) were investigated. The results showed that calm music and happy music effectively regulate young adults' induced negative emotions, while young adults experienced more negative emotions when listening to sad music; the negative mood states at the post-induction phase inhibited the reaction of conflict control in face-word Stroop tasks, which manifested as lower accuracy (ACC) and slower reaction times (RTs). ERP results showed negative mood states elicited greater N2, N3, and LPC amplitudes and smaller P3 amplitudes. Further studies are needed to develop intervention strategies to enhance emotion regulation related to COVID-19 for other groups.

Impact of Chronic Stress on Attention Control: Evidence from Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Analyses

Chronic stress affects brain function, so assessing its hazards is important for mental health. To overcome the limitations of behavioral data, we combined behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) in an attention network task. This task allowed us to differentiate between three specific aspects of attention: alerting, orienting, and execution. Forty-one participants under chronic stress and 31 non-stressed participants were enrolled. On the performance level, the chronically stressed group showed a significantly slower task response and lower accuracy. Concerning ERP measures, smaller cue-N1, cue-N2, and larger cue-P3 amplitudes were found in the stressed group, indicating that this group was less able to assign attention to effective information, i.e., they made inefficient use of cues and had difficulty in maintaining alerting. In addition, the stressed group showed larger target-N2 amplitudes, indicating that this group needed to allocate more cognitive resources to deal with the conflict targets task. Subgroup analysis revealed lower target-P3 amplitudes in the stressed than in the non-stressed group. Group differences associated with the attention networks were found at the ERP level. In the stressed group, excessive depletion of resources led to changes in attention control. In this study, we examined the effects of chronic stress on individual executive function from a neurological perspective. The results may benefit the development of interventions to improve executive function in chronically stressed individuals.

Psychiatric Aspects of Obesity: A Narrative Review of Pathophysiology and Psychopathology

In the last decades, obesity has become a major concern for clinical and public health. Despite the variety of available treatments, the outcomes remain—by and large—still unsatisfactory, owing to high rates of nonresponse and relapse. Interestingly, obesity is being associated with a growing surge of neuropsychiatric problems, certainly related to the pathogenesis of this condition, and likely to be of great consequence as for its treatment and prognosis. In a neurobiologic direction, a sturdy body of evidence has recently shown that the immune–metabolic–endocrine dyscrasias, notoriously attached to excess body weight/adiposity, affect and impair the morpho-functional integrity of the brain, thus possibly contributing to neuroprogressive/degenerative processes and behavioral deviances. Likewise, in a neuropsychiatric perspective, obesity displays complex associations with mood disorders and affective temperamental dimensions (namely cyclothymia), eating disorders characterized by overeating/binge-eating behaviors, ADHD-related executive dysfunctions, emotional dysregulation and motivational–addictive disturbances. With this review, we attempt to provide the clinician a synoptic, yet exhaustive, tool for a more conscious approach to that subset of this condition, which could be reasonably termed “psychiatric” obesity.