Left Cerebellar Lesions may be Associated with an Increase in Spatial Neglect-like Symptoms

Each cerebellar hemisphere projects to the contralateral cerebral hemisphere. Previous research suggests a lateralization of cognitive functions in the cerebellum that mirrors the cerebral cortex, with attention/visuospatial functions represented in the left cerebellar hemisphere, and language functions in the right cerebellar hemisphere. Although there is good evidence supporting the role of the right cerebellum with language functions, the evidence supporting the notion that attention and visuospatial functions are left lateralized is less clear. Given that spatial neglect is one of the most common disorders arising from right cortical damage, we reasoned that damage to the left cerebellum would result in increased spatial neglect-like symptoms, without necessarily leading to an official diagnosis of spatial neglect. To examine this disconnection hypothesis, we analyzed neglect screening data (line bisection, cancellation, figure copying) from 20 patients with isolated unilateral cerebellar stroke. Results indicated that left cerebellar patients (n = 9) missed significantly more targets on the left side of cancellation tasks compared to a normative sample. No significant effects were observed for right cerebellar patients (n = 11). A lesion overlap analysis indicated that Crus II (78% overlap), and lobules VII and IX (66% overlap) were the regions most commonly damaged in left cerebellar patients. Our results are consistent with the notion that the left cerebellum may be important for attention and visuospatial functions. Given the poor prognosis typically associated with neglect, we suggest that screening for neglect symptoms, and visuospatial deficits more generally, may be important for tailoring rehabilitative efforts to help maximize recovery in cerebellar patients.

Disentangling boredom from depression using the phenomenology and content of involuntary autobiographical memories

Recurrent involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) are memories retrieved unintentionally and repetitively. We examined whether the phenomenology and content of recurrent IAMs could differentiate boredom and depression, both of which are characterized by affective dysregulation and spontaneous thought. Participants (n = 2484) described their most frequent IAM and rated its phenomenological properties (e.g., valence). Structural topic modeling, a method of unsupervised machine learning, identified coherent content within the described memories. Boredom proneness was positively correlated with depressive symptoms, and both boredom proneness and depressive symptoms were correlated with more negative recurrent IAMs. Boredom proneness predicted less vivid recurrent IAMs, whereas depressive symptoms predicted more vivid, negative, and emotionally intense ones. Memory content also diverged: topics such as relationship conflicts were positively predicted by depressive symptoms, but negatively predicted by boredom proneness. Phenomenology and content in recurrent IAMs can effectively disambiguate boredom proneness from depressive symptoms in a large sample of undergraduate students from a racially diverse university.

Exploring EEG resting state as a function of boredom proneness in pre-adolescents and adolescents

Boredom is a prominent experience commonly reported in school settings and associated with poor academic achievement. Little is known, however, about the age-related trajectory of boredom. Here we examined self-reported ratings of boredom in a cross-sectional sample of 8 to 15-year olds (n = 185) as a function of resting state EEG. Results indicated that reports of boredom in school rose as a function of age. Resting state EEG showed a decrease in theta power with age perhaps reflective of increased control. While no effects were evident in beta and alpha bands, we did observe an interaction between boredom and age for frontal asymmetry such that for those higher in boredom, the asymmetry increased with age. Finally, for theta to beta ratios there were main effects of age (i.e., a decrease in theta/beta ratio with age) and boredom such that those higher in boredom had higher theta/beta ratios over frontal and central brain areas. The results are discussed in the context of prior work on school-related boredom and provide several important avenues for further research.

In search of boredom: beyond a functional account

Boredom has been characterized as a crisis of meaning, a failure of attention, and a call to action. Yet as a self-regulatory signal writ-large, we are still left with the question of what makes any given boredom episode meaningless, disengaging, or a prompt to act. We propose that boredom is an affective signal that we have deviated from an optimal ('Goldilocks') zone of cognitive engagement. Such deviations may be due to a perceived lack of meaning, arise as a consequence of struggles we are experiencing in attending to a task, or be interpreted as a blunt call to find something different to engage with. Thus, the key to understanding boredom lies in its role in keeping us cognitively engaged.

Morphology of the prefrontal cortex predicts body composition in early adolescence: cognitive mediators and environmental moderators in the ABCD Study

Morphological features of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in late childhood and early adolescence may provide important clues as to the developmental etiology of clinical conditions such as obesity. Body composition measurements and structural brain imaging were performed on 11 226 youth at baseline (age 9 or 10 years) and follow-up (age 11 or 12 years). Baseline morphological features of the lateral PFC were examined as predictors of body composition. Findings revealed reliable associations between middle frontal gyrus volume, thickness and surface area and multiple indices of body composition. These findings were consistent across both time points and remained significant after covariate adjustment. Cortical thicknesses of the inferior frontal gyrus and lateral orbitofrontal cortex were also reliable predictors. Morphology effects on body composition were mediated by performance on a non-verbal reasoning task. Modest but reliable moderation effects were observed with respect to environmental self-regulatory demand after controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, income and methodological variables. Overall findings suggest that PFC morphology is a reliable predictor of body composition in early adolescence, as mediated through select cognitive functions and partially moderated by environmental characteristics.

Morphometry of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex is associated with eating dispositions in early adolescence: findings from a large population-based study

Early adolescence is a critical period for eating behaviors as children gain autonomy around food choice and peer influences increase in potency. From a neurodevelopmental perspective, significant structural changes take place in the prefrontal cortex during this time, including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which is involved in socially contextualized decision-making. We examined the morphological features of the OFC in relation to food choice in a sample of 10 309 early adolescent children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study. Structural parameters of the OFC and insula were examined for relationships with two important aspects of food choice: limiting the consumption of fast/fried food and maximizing the consumption of nutritious foods. Raw, partially adjusted and fully adjusted models were evaluated. Findings revealed that a larger surface area of the lateral OFC was associated with higher odds of limiting fast/fried food consumption in raw [odds ratio (OR) = 1.07, confidence interval (CI): 1.02, 1.12, P = 0.002, PFDR = 0.012], partially adjusted (OR = 1.11, CI: 1.03, 1.19, P = 0.004, PFDR = 0.024) and fully adjusted models (OR = 1.11, CI: 1.03, 1.19, P = 0.006, PFDR = 0.036). In contrast, a larger insula volume was associated with lower odds of maximizing healthy foods in raw (OR = 0.94, CI: 0.91, 0.97, P <0.001, PFDR = 0.003) and partially adjusted (OR = 0.93, CI: 0.88, 0.98, P = 0.008, PFDR = 0.048) models. These findings refine our understanding of the OFC as a network node implicated in socially mediated eating behaviors.

Boredom in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The past two and half years have been witness to an extraordinary global pandemic with obvious and devastating health outcomes [...].

Boredom Proneness and Rule-Breaking: A Persistent Relation One Year into the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research conducted within the first year of the pandemic demonstrated that boredom prone individuals were more likely to break rules (e.g., social distancing) aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. It is of interest whether this relation persisted deeper into the pandemic, given that initial results may have reflected the extraordinary nature of the early stages of the pandemic on one hand, or more stable dispositions on the other. Therefore, in the Summer of 2021, we administered an online survey to investigate whether boredom proneness predicted COVID-19 rule-breaking over one year into the pandemic (and approximately one year after the earlier studies). We found that boredom prone individuals remained more likely to engage in COVID-19 rule-breaking. Our results suggest that a trait disposition towards boredom exerts a persistent, long-term influence on behaviour, one that is detrimental to personal well-being during the pandemic. Adherence to public health measures might be improved by encouraging individuals to find adaptive ways of coping with boredom.

Boredom and Media Multitasking

Media multitasking entails simultaneously engaging in multiple tasks when at least one of the tasks involves media (e.g., online activities and streaming videos). Across two studies, we investigated one potential trigger of media multitasking, state boredom, and its relation to media multitasking. To this end, we manipulated participants' levels of state boredom using video mood inductions prior to administering an attention-demanding 2-back task during which participants could media multitask by playing a task-irrelevant video. We also examined whether trait boredom proneness was associated media multitasking. We found no direct evidence that state boredom leads to media multitasking. However, trait boredom proneness correlated with greater amounts of media multitasking in Experiment 1, but not in Experiment 2. Surprisingly, in both experiments, post-task ratings of state boredom were equivalent across conditions, alerting us to the short-lived effects of video mood inductions and the boring nature of cognitive tasks.

Perceptions of Control Influence Feelings of Boredom

Conditions of low and high perceived control often lead to boredom, albeit for different reasons. Whereas, high perceived control may be experienced as boring because the situation lacks challenge, low perceived control may be experienced as boring because the situation precludes effective engagement. In two experiments we test this proposed quadratic relationship. In the first experiment we had participants play different versions of the children's game "rock-paper-scissors" in which they arbitrarily won (intended to maximize feelings of control) or lost (to induce feelings of low control). Despite having only dichotomous conditions, participants reported experiencing a broad range of levels of perceived control. Consistent with our predictions, boredom was highest at low and high levels of perceived control (i.e., a quadratic relation between perceived control and felt boredom). Experiment 2 tested the notion that the mere prospect of gaining control may mitigate boredom. Participants given to believe (erroneously) that they could gain control over the game of rock, paper, scissors were less bored than those who believed there was no possibility of winning at greater than chance levels. This suggests that beliefs concerning prospective control, rather than a given level of perceived control per se, may predict engagement and boredom.

Boredom proneness, political orientation and adherence to social-distancing in the pandemic

Research recently showed that boredom proneness was associated with increased social distancing rule-breaking in a sample collected early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we explore data collected early in the pandemic to examine what factors might drive this relation. We focus on political affiliation. Given the functional account of boredom as a call to action, we hypothesized that this urge to act may drive individuals towards outlets replete with symbolic value (e.g., ideology, identity). In addition, given the politicization of some social distancing rules (e.g., mask wearing), we explored whether those who adhere to strong political ideologies—particularly conservative ideologies—would be more likely to rule-break. Moderation analyses indicated that boredom proneness and social (but not fiscal) conservatism were indeed predictive of rule-breaking. These results highlight the need for both clear messaging emphasizing the strength of communal identity and action (i.e., that “We are all in this together”) and for interventions that emphasize shared collective values in contexts that appeal directly to social conservatives.

Boredom proneness is associated with noisy decision-making, not risk-taking

Previous research shows that individuals who tend to get bored frequently and intensely—the highly boredom prone—are more likely to engage in risky behaviors. However, these studies are based largely on self-reports. Here we address this gap and suggest that noisy decision-making (DM) is a potential driver for this relationship between boredom proneness and risk-taking. In Study 1, eighty-six participants completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) while EEG was recorded. We found blunted feedback processing with higher boredom proneness, as indexed by reduced feedback-P3 amplitudes. Risk taking, as indexed by the BART, was not higher in the highly boredom prone. In Study 2a (N = 404) we directly tested the noisy DM hypothesis in an online sample using a binary choice task, and found that with higher boredom proneness, participants were more likely to alternate between choices on a trial-to-trial basis, but were not more likely to choose the risky alternative. These findings were replicated in a new sample (Study 2b), and extended to the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Study 3). In the IGT we found increased choice switching and reduced feedback sensitivity with higher boredom proneness. Once again, higher risk taking as indexed by the IGT was not evident in the highly boredom prone. Overall, our findings suggest that boredom proneness is associated with noisy decision-making (i.e., a tendency to alternate more between choice options regardless of risk level), and not risk-seeking per se. That is, the highly boredom prone are not necessarily attracted to risks, but rather, may be insensitive to risks due to reduced feedback sensitivity.

Behavioral and electroencephalographic evidence for reduced attentional control and performance monitoring in boredom

Boredom, the unfulfilled desire to be engaged in a satisfying mental activity, is an aversive state characterized by poor self-regulation. There is ample evidence that both state and trait boredom are associated with failures of attention in both experimental and everyday settings. The neural correlates of boredom, however, remain underexplored. We recorded electroencephalographic signal from 83 participants during a resting state and while performing a go/no-go task. We found a negative correlation between trait boredom proneness and power in the alpha and theta bands during the resting state. Furthermore, higher levels of task-induced boredom were associated with reduced amplitudes for the P3 and error-related negativity event-related potentials. Increased commission error rates were also associated with higher levels of task-induced boredom. We conclude that state and trait boredom are associated with inadequate engagement of attentional resources.

Cerebellar lesions disrupt spatial and temporal visual attention

The current study represents the first comprehensive examination of spatial, temporal and sustained attention following cerebellar damage. Results indicated that, compared to controls, cerebellar damage resulted in a larger cueing effect at the longest SOA - possibly reflecting a slowed the onset of inhibition of return (IOR) during a reflexive covert attention task, and reduced the ability to detect successive targets during an attentional blink task. However, there was little evidence to support the notion that cerebellar damage disrupted voluntary covert attention or the sustained attention to response task (SART). Lesion overlay data and supplementary voxel-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM) analyses indicated that impaired performance on the reflexive covert attention and attentional blink tasks were related to damage to Crus II of the left posterior cerebellum. In addition, subsequent analyses indicated our results are not due to either general motor impairments or to damage to the deep cerebellar nuclei. Collectively these data demonstrate, for the first time, that the same cerebellar regions may be involved in both spatial and temporal visual attention.

A Primer on the Role of Boredom in Self-Controlled Sports and Exercise Behavior

Self-control is critical for successful participation and performance in sports and therefore has attracted considerable research interest. Yet, knowledge about self-control remains surprisingly incomplete and inconsistent. Here, we draw attention to boredom as an experience that likely plays an important role in sports and exercise (e.g., exercise can be perceived as boring but can also be used to alleviate boredom). Specifically, we argue that studying boredom in the context of sports and exercise will also advance our understanding of self-control as a reward-based choice. We demonstrate this by discussing evidence for links between self-control and boredom and by highlighting the role boredom plays for guiding goal-directed behavior. As such, boredom is likely to interact with self-control in affecting sports performance and exercise participation. We close by highlighting several promising routes for integrating self-control and boredom research in the context of sports performance and exercise behavior.

Boredom in the COVID-19 pandemic: Trait boredom proneness, the desire to act, and rule-breaking

The state of boredom presents a conundrum: When bored, we want to engage with an activity, but we don't want to engage with whatever is currently available. This conflict is exacerbated when external factors impose restrictions on the range of behaviors we can engage in, which is precisely the scenario we are currently facing, at a global level, during this period of social isolation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data from 924 North American participants (530 Male, Mean age = 37.7 years) using the internet-based Mturk platform to examine the relation between self-reports of boredom proneness (using the Short Boredom-Proneness Scale) and individual responses to questions about compliance with social-distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our sample replicated recent findings in boredom research, including a negative correlation between boredom proneness and self-control. We also provide novel evidence that highly boredom prone people have been more likely to break the rules of social isolation in a variety of ways (e.g., fewer hours spent in social isolation, poor adherence to social distancing as evidenced by increased likelihood of holding a social gathering and coming into proximity with more people than recommended). We further demonstrated that boredom proneness substantially mediates the association between self-control and rule-breaking. These results indicate that boredom proneness is a critical factor to consider when encouraging adherence to social isolation.

Blindsight

For over a century, research has demonstrated that damage to primary visual cortex does not eliminate all capacity for visual processing in the brain. From Riddoch's (1917) early demonstration of intact motion processing for blind field stimuli, to the iconic work of Weiskrantz et al. (1974) showing reliable spatial localization, it is clear that secondary visual pathways that bypass V1 carry information to the visual brain that in turn influences behavior. In this chapter, we briefly outline the history and phenomena associated with blindsight, before discussing the nature of the secondary visual pathways that support residual visual processing in the absence of V1. We finish with some speculation as to the functional characteristics of these secondary pathways.

Boredom Proneness and Self-Control as Unique Risk Factors in Achievement Settings

The state of boredom arises when we have the desire to be engaged in goal pursuit, but for whatever reason we cannot fulfil that desire. Boredom proneness is characterized by both frequent and intense feelings of boredom and is an enduring individual difference trait associated with a raft of negative outcomes. There has been some work in educational settings, but relatively little is known about the consequences of boredom proneness for learning. Here we explored the unique contributions of boredom proneness, self-control and self-esteem to undergraduate self-reported higher grade point average (GPA). Within educational settings, prior research has shown self-control and self-esteem to be associated with better academic performance. In contrast, boredom proneness is associated with lower levels of self-control and self-esteem. Our analyses replicate those previous findings showing that self-control acts as a positive predictor of GPA. Importantly, we further demonstrated, for the first time, that boredom proneness has a unique contribution to GPA over and above the contribution of self-control, such that as boredom proneness increases, GPA decreases. We discuss potential mechanisms through which boredom proneness may influence academic performance.

Rich environments, dull experiences: how environment can exacerbate the effect of constraint on the experience of boredom

We examined the hypothesis that boredom is likely to occur when opportunity costs are high; that is, when there is a high potential value of engaging in activities other than the researcher-assigned activity. To this end, participants were either placed in a room with many possible affordances (e.g. a laptop, puzzle, etc.; affordances condition; n = 121), or they were ushered into an empty room (control condition; n = 107). In both conditions participants were instructed to entertain themselves with only their thoughts (hence, participants in the affordances condition were to refrain from engaging with the available options). As predicted, participants in the affordances condition reported higher levels of boredom compared with those in the control condition. Results suggest that under some conditions, environments that afford alternative activities may be more boring than those that are void of such activities.

Representational drawing following brain injury

Research has shown that damage to either the left or right hemisphere can lead to deficits in visuoconstructional skills including drawing and figure copying. Nevertheless, research would suggest that the nature of the deficits arising from left and right brain injury are distinct in nature if not severity, with the right hemisphere, and parietal cortex specifically, seen as critical for obtaining accurate spatial relations and the left hemisphere important for effective organisation (i.e., executive function). Much of this work on drawing and figure copying following brain damage has rested on qualitative assessments or crude marking scales with descriptive anchors for what constitutes good or poor performance. We employed quantitative analyses of drawings developed to assess accuracy in novice and expert artists. We analyzed drawings of a cube and a star in 50 patients (23, left brain damaged: LBD; 27 right brain damaged: RBD) who had suffered strokes. Our analysis was sensitive to the presence of neglect on the cube (i.e., missing left sided details) with voxel-wise lesion symptom mapping (VLSM) highlighting involvement of expected brain regions (superior temporal and supramarginal gyri). With left-sided omissions removed from analyses, we failed to find any difference between LBD and RBD patients. While the presence of left neglect appeared to exaggerate errors, this was only significant for errors of scale and proportion for the star drawing. VLSM of the distinct error domains demonstrated white matter involvement (and a minor contribution from the right insula) with respect to scale errors of the cube only. Finally, blinded judgements of hemisphere of lesion based on qualitative assessment of the drawings were no better than chance. These results suggest that figure copying is a complex task relying on large scale neural networks involving both hemispheres. Clearly, models of visuoconstructional capacity that emphasise right hemisphere dominance are not entirely accurate.

Statistical Learning Impairments as a Consequence of Stroke

Statistical learning is the implicit learning of the contingencies between sequential stimuli, typically from mere exposure. It is present from infancy onward, and plays a role in functions from language learning to selective attention. Despite these observations, there are few data on whether statistical learning capacity changes with age or after brain injury. In order to examine how brain injury affects the ability to learn and update statistical representations, we had young control and healthy elder participants, as well as participants with either left or right brain injury, perform an auditory statistical learning task. Participants listened to two languages with made-up words that were defined by the transition probability between syllables. Following passive listening, learning was assessed with a two-alternative forced choice test for the most familiar word. As in previous studies, we found that young controls have a learning capacity limitation for statistical learning; a second language is less well learned than the first, and this statistical learning capacity limit is attenuated with age. Additionally, we found that brain damaged patients, whether with left or right hemispheric damage, showed impaired statistical learning. This impairment was not explained by aphasia or cognitive deficits. As statistical learning is a critical skill for daily life, a better appreciation of the nature of this impairment will improve our understanding of the cognitive effects of brain injury and could lead to new rehabilitation strategies.

A Failure to Launch: Regulatory Modes and Boredom Proneness

Boredom is a ubiquitous human experience characterized as a state of wanting but failing to engage with the world. Individuals prone to the experience of boredom demonstrate lower levels of self-control which may be at the heart of their failures to engage in goal-directed, meaningful behaviors. Here we develop the hypothesis that distinct self-regulatory profiles, which in turn differentially influence modes of goal pursuit, are at the heart of boredom proneness. Two specific regulatory modes are addressed: Locomotion, the desire to 'just do it,' an action oriented mode of goal-pursuit, and Assessment, the desire to 'do the right thing,' an evaluative orientation toward goal pursuit. We present data from a series of seven large samples of undergraduates showing that boredom proneness is negatively correlated with Locomotion, as though getting on with things acts as a prophylactic against boredom. This 'failure to launch' that we suggest is prevalent in the highly boredom prone individual, could be due to an inability to appropriately discriminate value (i.e., everything is tarred with the same gray brush), an unwillingness to put in the required effort to engage, or simply a failure to get started. In contrast, boredom proneness was consistently positively correlated with the Assessment mode of self-regulation. We suggest that this association reflects a kind of rumination that hampers satisfying goal pursuit.

Updating impairments and the failure to explore new hypotheses following right brain damage

We have shown recently that damage to the right hemisphere impairs the ability to update mental models when evidence suggests an old model is no longer appropriate. We argue that this deficit is generic in the sense that it crosses multiple cognitive and perceptual domains. Here, we examined the nature of this updating impairment to determine more precisely the underlying mechanisms. We had right (RBD, N = 12) and left brain damaged (LBD, N = 10) patients perform versions of our picture-morphing task in which pictures gradually morph from one object (e.g., shark) to another (e.g., plane). Performance was contrasted against two groups of healthy older controls, one matched on age (HCO-age-matched, N = 9) and another matched on general level of cognitive ability (HCO-cognitively-matched, N = 9). We replicated our earlier findings showing that RBD patients took longer than LBD patients and HCOs to report seeing the second object in a sequence of morphing images. The groups did not differ when exposed to a morphing sequence a second time, or when responding to ambiguous images outside the morphing context. This indicates that RBD patients have little difficulty alternating between known representations or labeling ambiguous images. Instead, the difficulty lies in generating alternate hypotheses for ambiguous information. Lesion overlay analyses, although speculative given the sample size, are consistent with our fMRI work in healthy individuals in implicating the anterior insular cortex as critical for updating mental models.

The neural systems for perceptual updating

In a constantly changing environment we must adapt to both abrupt and gradual changes to incoming information. Previously, we demonstrated that a distributed network (including the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex) was active when participants updated their initial representations (e.g., it's a cat) in a gradually morphing picture task (e.g., now it's a rabbit; Stöttinger et al., 2015). To shed light on whether these activations reflect the proactive decisions to update or perceptual uncertainty, we introduced two additional conditions. By presenting picture morphs twice we controlled for uncertainty in perceptual decision making. Inducing an abrupt shift in a third condition allowed us to differentiate between a proactive decision in uncertainty-driven updating and a reactive decision in surprise-based updating. We replicated our earlier result, showing the robustness of the effect. In addition, we found activation in the anterior insula (bilaterally) and the mid frontal area/ACC in all three conditions, indicative of the importance of these areas in updating of all kinds. When participants were naïve as to the identity of the second object, we found higher activations in the mid-cingulate cortex and cuneus - areas typically associated with task difficulty, in addition to higher activations in the right TPJ most likely reflecting the shift to a new perspective. Activations associated with the proactive decision to update to a new interpretation were found in a network including the dorsal ACC known to be involved in exploration and the endogenous decision to switch to a new interpretation. These findings suggest a general network commonly engaged in all types of perceptual decision making supported by additional networks associated with perceptual uncertainty or updating provoked by either proactive or reactive decision making.

Adapting to change: The role of the right hemisphere in mental model building and updating

We recently proposed that the right hemisphere plays a crucial role in the processes underlying mental model building and updating. Here, we review the evidence we and others have garnered to support this novel account of right hemisphere function. We begin by presenting evidence from patient work that suggests a critical role for the right hemisphere in the ability to learn from the statistics in the environment (model building) and adapt to environmental change (model updating). We then provide a review of neuroimaging research that highlights a network of brain regions involved in mental model updating. Next, we outline specific roles for particular regions within the network such that the anterior insula is purported to maintain the current model of the environment, the medial prefrontal cortex determines when to explore new or alternative models, and the inferior parietal lobule represents salient and surprising information with respect to the current model. We conclude by proposing some future directions that address some of the outstanding questions in the field of mental model building and updating. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cognitive and affective predictors of boredom proneness

Boredom proneness has been linked to various forms of cognitive and affective dysregulation including poor self-control and mind-wandering (MW), as well as depression and aggression. As such, understanding boredom and the associated cognitive and affective components of the experience, represents an important first step in combatting the consequences of boredom for psychological well-being. We surveyed 1928 undergraduate students on measures of boredom proneness, self-control, MW, depression and aggression to investigate how these constructs were related. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that self-control operated as a strong negative predictor of boredom proneness. Finally, when controlling for age and self-control, we observed large decreases in the magnitudes of the relationships between boredom proneness and our other measures of interest. Together, these results imply a strong relationship between boredom proneness and cognitive and affective dysregulation, and show that individual levels of self-control can account for the lion's share of variance in the relationships between boredom, cognition, and affect.

A Short Boredom Proneness Scale

It has been evident for some time that the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS), a commonly used measure of trait boredom, does not constitute a single scale. Factor analytic studies have identified anything from two to seven factors, prompting Vodanovich and colleagues to propose an alternative two factor, short form version Boredom Proneness Scale-Short Form (BPS-SR). The present study further investigates the factor structure and validity of both the BPS and the BPS-SR. The two-factor solution obtained for the BPS-SR appears to be an artifact of item wording of reverse-scored items. These same items may also have contributed to the earlier complexity and inconsistency of results for the full BPS. An eight-item scale of only consistently worded items (i.e., those not requiring reverse scoring) was developed. This new scale demonstrated unidimensionality and the scale score had good internal consistency and construct validity comparable to the original BPS score.

Exploring the relationship between boredom proneness and self-control in traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Characterized as an agitated state in which the individual is motivated to engage in their environment but all attempts to do so fail to satisfy, boredom represents a disengaged attentional state that is associated with negative affect and poor self-control. There have been anecdotal reports of increased levels of boredom post-traumatic brain injury (TBI). For the first time, we provide objective evidence that TBI patients do indeed experience higher levels of boredom proneness. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the presence and severity of head injury were a significant positive predictor of levels of boredom proneness and a negative predictor of self-control. As with healthy controls, TBI patients showed a strong negative correlation between boredom proneness and self-control-those with lower levels of self-control exhibited higher levels of boredom proneness. This was despite the fact that our TBI patients reported higher overall levels of self-control (probably concomitant with their older mean age). The TBI patients also showed strong positive correlations between boredom proneness and measures of physical aggression and anger. Together, this suggests that patients with TBI may be more susceptible to increased levels of boredom proneness and other negative affective states that arise as a consequence of failures of self-control.

Behavioral Goals Constrain the Selection of Visual Information

Although there is agreement that attentional processes are limited, the necessary conditions for such limitation have not been determined. We investigated whether behavioral goals are sufficient to constrain the selection of visual information. In two tasks, subjects were presented with targets and distractors that varied on two dimensions (e.g., color and letter). In separate conditions, the subjects' goal was to identify only one dimension of the target while ignoring the second dimension and ignoring the distractors. In both tasks, peripheral distractors interfered with target selection only when the targets and distractors differed on the goal-relevant dimension. When the goal was changed, the pattern of interference from the same stimuli was reversed, so that distractors affected target selection only according to the new goal. These results suggest that behavioral goals constrain the selection of visual information to a greater extent than the physical characteristics of the visual information.

A cortical network that marks the moment when conscious representations are updated

In order to survive in a complex, noisy and constantly changing environment we need to categorize the world (e.g., Is this food edible or poisonous?) and we need to update our interpretations when things change. How does our brain update when object categories change from one to the next? We investigated the neural correlates associated with this updating process. We used event-related fMRI while people viewed a sequence of images that morphed from one object (e.g., a plane) to another (e.g., a shark). All participants were naïve as to the identity of the second object. The point at which participants 'saw' the second object was unpredictable and uncontaminated by any dramatic or salient change to the images themselves. The moment when subjective perceptual representations changed activated a circumscribed network including the anterior insula, medial and inferior frontal regions and inferior parietal cortex. In a setting where neither the timing nor nature of the visual transition was predictable, this restricted cortical network signals the time of updating a perceptual representation. The anterior insula and mid-frontal regions (including the ACC) were activated not only at the actual time when change was reported, but also immediately before, suggesting that these areas are also involved in processing alternative options after a mismatch has been detected.

Updating representations of temporal intervals

Effectively engaging with the world depends on accurate representations of the regularities that make up that world-what we call mental models. The success of any mental model depends on the ability to adapt to changes-to 'update' the model. In prior work, we have shown that damage to the right hemisphere of the brain impairs the ability to update mental models across a range of tasks. Given the disparate nature of the tasks we have employed in this prior work (i.e. statistical learning, language acquisition, position priming, perceptual ambiguity, strategic game play), we propose that a cognitive module important for updating mental representations should be generic, in the sense that it is invoked across multiple cognitive and perceptual domains. To date, the majority of our tasks have been visual in nature. Given the ubiquity and import of temporal information in sensory experience, we examined the ability to build and update mental models of time. We had healthy individuals complete a temporal prediction task in which intervals were initially drawn from one temporal range before an unannounced switch to a different range of intervals. Separate groups had the second range of intervals switch to one that contained either longer or shorter intervals than the first range. Both groups showed significant positive correlations between perceptual and prediction accuracy. While each group updated mental models of temporal intervals, those exposed to shorter intervals did so more efficiently. Our results support the notion of generic capacity to update regularities in the environment-in this instance based on temporal information. The task developed here is well suited to investigations in neurological patients and in neuroimaging settings.

A self-regulatory approach to understanding boredom proneness

We investigated the relationship between self-regulation and two types of boredom proneness (perceived lack of internal stimulation, perceived lack of external stimulation) using a variety of measures of self-regulation. These included a general measure of self-control, measures of both regulatory focus (i.e., promotion or a sensitivity to gains/non-gains vs. prevention or a sensitivity to losses/non-losses) and regulatory mode (i.e., assessment or the tendency to compare means and goals vs. locomotion or the tendency to initiate and maintain commitment to action), and measures of cognitive flexibility (i.e., a perceived sense of control and the tendency to seek alternative solutions). Results identified a unique set of factors related to each boredom proneness component. Trait self-control and prevention focus were associated with lower boredom propensity due to a lack of external stimulation. Locomotion and the tendency to seek alternatives were associated with lower boredom propensity due to a lack of internal stimulation. These findings suggest that effective goal pursuit is associated with reduced likelihood of experiencing boredom.

Control over the strength of connections between modules: a double dissociation between stimulus format and task revealed by Granger causality mapping in fMRI

Drawing on theoretical and computational work with the localist dual route reading model and results from behavioral studies, Besner et al. (2011) proposed that the ability to perform tasks that require overriding stimulus-specific defaults (e.g., semantics when naming Arabic numerals, and phonology when evaluating the parity of number words) necessitate the ability to modulate the strength of connections between cognitive modules for lexical representation, semantics, and phonology on a task- and stimulus-specific basis. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate this account by assessing changes in functional connectivity while participants performed tasks that did and did not require such stimulus-task default overrides. The occipital region showing the greatest modulation of BOLD signal strength for the two stimulus types was used as the seed region for Granger causality mapping (GCM). Our GCM analysis revealed a region of rostromedial frontal cortex with a crossover interaction. When participants performed tasks that required overriding stimulus type defaults (i.e., parity judgments of number words and naming Arabic numerals) functional connectivity between the occipital region and rostromedial frontal cortex was present. Statistically significant functional connectivity was absent when the tasks were the default for the stimulus type (i.e., parity judgments of Arabic numerals and reading number words). This frontal region (BA 10) has previously been shown to be involved in goal-directed behavior and maintenance of a specific task set. We conclude that overriding stimulus-task defaults requires a modulation of connection strengths between cognitive modules and that the override mechanism predicted from cognitive theory is instantiated by frontal modulation of neural activity of brain regions specialized for sensory processing.

Modelling the differential effects of prisms on perception and action in neglect

Damage to the right parietal cortex often leads to a syndrome known as unilateral neglect in which the patient fails to attend or respond to stimuli in left space. Recent work attempting to rehabilitate the disorder has made use of rightward-shifting prisms that displace visual input further rightward. After a brief period of adaptation to prisms, many of the symptoms of neglect show improvements that can last for hours or longer, depending on the adaptation procedure. Recent work has shown, however, that differential effects of prisms can be observed on actions (which are typically improved) and perceptual biases (which often remain unchanged). Here, we present a computational model capable of explaining some basic symptoms of neglect (line bisection behaviour), the effects of prism adaptation in both healthy controls and neglect patients and the observed dissociation between action and perception following prisms. The results of our simulations support recent contentions that prisms primarily influence behaviours normally thought to be controlled by the dorsal stream.

Examining the influence of working memory on updating mental models

The ability to accurately build and update mental representations of our environment depends on our ability to integrate information over a variety of time scales and detect changes in the regularity of events. As such, the cognitive mechanisms that support model building and updating are likely to interact with those involved in working memory (WM). To examine this, we performed three experiments that manipulated WM demands concurrently with the need to attend to regularities in other stimulus properties (i.e., location and shape). That is, participants completed a prediction task while simultaneously performing an n-back WM task with either no load or a moderate load. The distribution of target locations (Experiment 1) or shapes (Experiments 2 and 3) included some level of probabilistic regularity, which, unbeknown to participants, changed abruptly within each block. Moderate WM load hampered the ability to benefit from target regularities and to adapt to changes in those regularities (i.e., the prediction task). This was most pronounced when both prediction and WM requirements shared the same target feature. Our results show that representational updating depends on free WM resources in a domain-specific fashion.

Sequential decisions: a computational comparison of observational and reinforcement accounts

Right brain damaged patients show impairments in sequential decision making tasks for which healthy people do not show any difficulty. We hypothesized that this difficulty could be due to the failure of right brain damage patients to develop well-matched models of the world. Our motivation is the idea that to navigate uncertainty, humans use models of the world to direct the decisions they make when interacting with their environment. The better the model is, the better their decisions are. To explore the model building and updating process in humans and the basis for impairment after brain injury, we used a computational model of non-stationary sequence learning. RELPH (Reinforcement and Entropy Learned Pruned Hypothesis space) was able to qualitatively and quantitatively reproduce the results of left and right brain damaged patient groups and healthy controls playing a sequential version of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Our results suggests that, in general, humans employ a sub-optimal reinforcement based learning method rather than an objectively better statistical learning approach, and that differences between right brain damaged and healthy control groups can be explained by different exploration policies, rather than qualitatively different learning mechanisms.

The effects of prior learned strategies on updating an opponent's strategy in the rock, paper, scissors game

To explore how model building adapts to changing environments, we had participants play "rock-paper-scissors" against a computer that played a frequency bias or a player-dependent bias and then switched. Participants demonstrated their use of prior experience in how quickly they recognized and exploited changes in the computer's play strategy; in general, the more similar the strategies, the more efficient the updating. These findings inform our understanding of previously reported updating impairments in right-brain damaged patients.

Learning what from where: Effects of spatial regularity on nonspatial sequence learning and updating

The current study examined the influence of redundant stimulus features on our ability to build and update representations of our environment. We hypothesized that our ability to process redundant spatial features would speed our ability to adapt to changing nonspatial regularities. Using a computerized version of the children's game "rock-paper-scissors", undergraduates were instructed to win as often as possible against a computer opponent. The computer's plays were repeating sequences of five choices that were presented either with spatial regularity (i.e., "rock" would always appear on the left, "paper" in the middle, and "scissors" on the right) or without spatial regularity (i.e., the items were equally likely to appear in any of the three locations). Once participants learned a sequence, the computer switched to a different sequence without participants being informed that a switch had occurred. Redundant spatial regularity improved a participant's ability both to learn sequences of plays and to update their plays to reflect new computer sequences. Our results suggest that our perceptual system is sensitive to redundant spatial stimulus features and that this information can improve learning and updating.