The Effect of Performance-Based Incentive Contracts on System 1 and System 2 Processing in Affective Decision Contexts: fMRI and Behavioral Evidence

2014 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 1979-2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne M. Farrell ◽  
Joshua O. Goh ◽  
Brian J. White
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
System 2 ◽  
Fixed Wage ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Performance Based Contracts ◽  
System 1

ABSTRACT Managers may rely on emotional reactions to a setting to the detriment of economic considerations (“System 1 processing”), resulting in decisions that are costly for firms. While economic theory prescribes performance-based incentives to align goals and induce effort, psychology theory suggests that the salience of emotions is difficult to overcome without also inducing more deliberate consideration of both emotional and economic factors (“System 2 processing”). We link these perspectives by investigating whether performance-based incentives mitigate the costly influence of emotion by inducing more System 2 processing. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and traditional experiments, we investigate managers' brain activity and choices under fixed wage and performance-based contracts. Under both, brain regions associated with System 1 processing are more active when emotion is present. Relative to fixed wage contracts, performance-based contracts induce System 2 processing in emotional contexts beyond that observed absent emotion, and decrease the proportion of economically costly choices. Data Availability: Contact the authors.

Narrow and Broad Faculties in System 1 and System 2: Toward Consensus in the Debate on Modularity

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 261-279
Author(s):  
Norbert Francis
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Evolutionary Science ◽  
System 2 ◽  
And Performance ◽  
System 1 ◽  
Use Of Knowledge

Abstract Research on learning, the structure of attained knowledge, and the use of this competence in performance has repeatedly returned to longstanding proposals about how to better understand proficient use of knowledge and how humans acquire it. The following article takes up an exchange between Chiappe & Gardner (2011) and Barrett & Kurzban (2012) on the concept of modularity, one of these proposals. Despite the disagreements expressed, a careful reading of the contributions shows that they also left us with lines of discussion that will eventually sort out the relevant hypotheses and integrate findings for future research. These lines of work will contribute to a clearer understanding of an updated version of the modularity hypothesis that is also compatible with evolutionary science perspectives on learning. How might the categories of domain-specific and domain-general correspond to the distinction between competence and performance and to that of narrow faculty and broad faculty?

scholarly journals Blue Light Stimulates Cognitive Brain Activity in Visually Blind Individuals

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 2072-2085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilles Vandewalle ◽  
Olivier Collignon ◽  
Joseph T. Hull ◽  
Véronique Daneault ◽  
Geneviève Albouy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blue Light ◽  
Ganglion Cells ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Blind Individuals ◽  
The Impact

Light regulates multiple non-image-forming (or nonvisual) circadian, neuroendocrine, and neurobehavioral functions, via outputs from intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). Exposure to light directly enhances alertness and performance, so light is an important regulator of wakefulness and cognition. The roles of rods, cones, and ipRGCs in the impact of light on cognitive brain functions remain unclear, however. A small percentage of blind individuals retain non-image-forming photoreception and offer a unique opportunity to investigate light impacts in the absence of conscious vision, presumably through ipRGCs. Here, we show that three such patients were able to choose nonrandomly about the presence of light despite their complete lack of sight. Furthermore, 2 sec of blue light modified EEG activity when administered simultaneously to auditory stimulations. fMRI further showed that, during an auditory working memory task, less than a minute of blue light triggered the recruitment of supplemental prefrontal and thalamic brain regions involved in alertness and cognition regulation as well as key areas of the default mode network. These results, which have to be considered as a proof of concept, show that non-image-forming photoreception triggers some awareness for light and can have a more rapid impact on human cognition than previously understood, if brain processing is actively engaged. Furthermore, light stimulates higher cognitive brain activity, independently of vision, and engages supplemental brain areas to perform an ongoing cognitive process. To our knowledge, our results constitute the first indication that ipRGC signaling may rapidly affect fundamental cerebral organization, so that it could potentially participate to the regulation of numerous aspects of human brain function.

scholarly journals Personality influences the neural responses to viewing facial expressions of emotion

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1571) ◽  
pp. 1684-1701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Calder ◽  
Michael Ewbank ◽  
Luca Passamonti
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
System A ◽  
Amygdala Response ◽  
Correlational Approach ◽  
Facial Expressions Of Emotion ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Relationship

Cognitive research has long been aware of the relationship between individual differences in personality and performance on behavioural tasks. However, within the field of cognitive neuroscience, the way in which such differences manifest at a neural level has received relatively little attention. We review recent research addressing the relationship between personality traits and the neural response to viewing facial signals of emotion. In one section, we discuss work demonstrating the relationship between anxiety and the amygdala response to facial signals of threat. A second section considers research showing that individual differences in reward drive (behavioural activation system), a trait linked to aggression, influence the neural responsivity and connectivity between brain regions implicated in aggression when viewing facial signals of anger. Finally, we address recent criticisms of the correlational approach to fMRI analyses and conclude that when used appropriately, analyses examining the relationship between personality and brain activity provide a useful tool for understanding the neural basis of facial expression processing and emotion processing in general.

Inefficient Encoding as an Explanation for Age-Related Deficits in Recollection-Based Processing

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Friedman ◽  
Ray Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Face ◽  
Episodic Memories

A cardinal feature of aging is a decline in episodic memory (EM). Nevertheless, there is evidence that some older adults may be able to “compensate” for failures in recollection-based processing by recruiting brain regions and cognitive processes not normally recruited by the young. We review the evidence suggesting that age-related declines in EM performance and recollection-related brain activity (left-parietal EM effect; LPEM) are due to altered processing at encoding. We describe results from our laboratory on differences in encoding- and retrieval-related activity between young and older adults. We then show that, relative to the young, in older adults brain activity at encoding is reduced over a brain region believed to be crucial for successful semantic elaboration in a 400–1,400-ms interval (left inferior prefrontal cortex, LIPFC; Johnson, Nessler, & Friedman, 2013 ; Nessler, Friedman, Johnson, & Bersick, 2007 ; Nessler, Johnson, Bersick, & Friedman, 2006 ). This reduced brain activity is associated with diminished subsequent recognition-memory performance and the LPEM at retrieval. We provide evidence for this premise by demonstrating that disrupting encoding-related processes during this 400–1,400-ms interval in young adults affords causal support for the hypothesis that the reduction over LIPFC during encoding produces the hallmarks of an age-related EM deficit: normal semantic retrieval at encoding, reduced subsequent episodic recognition accuracy, free recall, and the LPEM. Finally, we show that the reduced LPEM in young adults is associated with “additional” brain activity over similar brain areas as those activated when older adults show deficient retrieval. Hence, rather than supporting the compensation hypothesis, these data are more consistent with the scaffolding hypothesis, in which the recruitment of additional cognitive processes is an adaptive response across the life span in the face of momentary increases in task demand due to poorly-encoded episodic memories.

The Influence of Cognitive and Affective Reactions to Feedback on Subsequent Goals

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remus Ilies ◽  
Timothy A. Judge ◽  
David T. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Business School ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Dispositional Measure ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Reactions To Feedback

This paper focuses on explaining how individuals set goals on multiple performance episodes, in the context of performance feedback comparing their performance on each episode with their respective goal. The proposed model was tested through a longitudinal study of 493 university students’ actual goals and performance on business school exams. Results of a structural equation model supported the proposed conceptual model in which self-efficacy and emotional reactions to feedback mediate the relationship between feedback and subsequent goals. In addition, as expected, participants’ standing on a dispositional measure of behavioral inhibition influenced the strength of their emotional reactions to negative feedback.

Comparative analysis of changes of bioelectrical activity of the brain during the neutral touch and during the performance of the myofascial release technique

2018 ◽  
pp. 46-55
Author(s):  
A. F. Belyaev ◽  
G. E. Piskunova
Keyword(s):  
Soft Tissue ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Therapeutic Touch ◽  
Bioelectrical Activity ◽  
Therapeutic Action ◽  
Osteopathic Treatment ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Multiparameter Analysis

Introduction. One of the main tools of an osteopath are soft tissue techniques, which have a number of particular qualities such as minimization of force and duration of indirect techniques with an emphasis on muscle and ligamentous structures; combination of gestures, tendency to maximal relaxation and exclusion of direct action on pathological symptoms such as tension, overtone and pain. Minimization of the force applied during the performance of soft tissue techniques often invites a question whether there are differences between the usual touch and the therapeutic touch of an osteopath.Goal of research - to reveal the changes in the bioelectrical activity of the cerebral cortex arising in the process of osteopathic treatment in order to prove its specifi city in comparison with nonspecifi c tactile stimulation (neutral touch).Materials and methods. 75 people were examined with the use of multiparameter analysis of multichannel EEG in different times. 25 patients were clinically healthy adults, whereas 50 patients had signs of somatic dysfunctions.Results. Computer encephalography permits to perceive the difference between the neutral touch and the therapeutic action. An identifi cation reaction is a response to the neutral touch (changes in brain bioelectrical activity with an increase in statistically signifi cant connections in the temporal lobes), whereas the therapeutic action provokes the state of purposeful brain activity during still point (intensifi cation of frontooccipital interactions).Conclusions. Osteopathic action causes additional tension in the processing of incoming information, which requires participation of different brain regions, including interhemispheric mechanisms associated with analysis, maintenance of attention and regulation of targeted activities.

Engaging regularly with fiction influences connectivity in cortical areas for language and mentalizing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roel M. Willems ◽  
Franziska Hartung
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Areas ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Cortical Areas ◽  
Social Abilities ◽  
Behavioral Evidence ◽  
Amount Of Reading

Behavioral evidence suggests that engaging with fiction is positively correlated with social abilities. The rationale behind this link is that engaging with fictional narratives offers a ‘training modus’ for mentalizing and empathizing. We investigated the influence of the amount of reading that participants report doing in their daily lives, on connections between brain areas while they listened to literary narratives. Participants (N=57) listened to two literary narratives while brain activation was measured with fMRI. We computed time-course correlations between brain regions, and compared the correlation values from listening to narratives to listening to reversed speech. The between-region correlations were then related to the amount of fiction that participants read in their daily lives. Our results show that amount of fiction reading is related to functional connectivity in areas known to be involved in language and mentalizing. This suggests that reading fiction influences social cognition as well as language skills.

scholarly journals Visual predictions, neural oscillations and naïve physics

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Blake W. Saurels ◽  
Wiremu Hohaia ◽  
Kielan Yarrow ◽  
Alan Johnston ◽  
Derek H. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Dynamic Environment ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Internal Models ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Alpha Band ◽  
Core Property ◽  
Ball Tracking ◽  
Band Activity

AbstractPrediction is a core function of the human visual system. Contemporary research suggests the brain builds predictive internal models of the world to facilitate interactions with our dynamic environment. Here, we wanted to examine the behavioural and neurological consequences of disrupting a core property of peoples’ internal models, using naturalistic stimuli. We had people view videos of basketball and asked them to track the moving ball and predict jump shot outcomes, all while we recorded eye movements and brain activity. To disrupt people’s predictive internal models, we inverted footage on half the trials, so dynamics were inconsistent with how movements should be shaped by gravity. When viewing upright videos people were better at predicting shot outcomes, at tracking the ball position, and they had enhanced alpha-band oscillatory activity in occipital brain regions. The advantage for predicting upright shot outcomes scaled with improvements in ball tracking and occipital alpha-band activity. Occipital alpha-band activity has been linked to selective attention and spatially-mapped inhibitions of visual brain activity. We propose that when people have a more accurate predictive model of the environment, they can more easily parse what is relevant, allowing them to better target irrelevant positions for suppression—resulting in both better predictive performance and in neural markers of inhibited information processing.

scholarly journals Resting‐State EEG Microstates Parallel Age‐Related Differences in Allocentric Spatial Working Memory Performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeline Jabès ◽  
Giuliana Klencklen ◽  
Paolo Ruggeri ◽  
Christoph M. Michel ◽  
Pamela Banta Lavenex ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Age Related

AbstractAlterations of resting-state EEG microstates have been associated with various neurological disorders and behavioral states. Interestingly, age-related differences in EEG microstate organization have also been reported, and it has been suggested that resting-state EEG activity may predict cognitive capacities in healthy individuals across the lifespan. In this exploratory study, we performed a microstate analysis of resting-state brain activity and tested allocentric spatial working memory performance in healthy adult individuals: twenty 25–30-year-olds and twenty-five 64–75-year-olds. We found a lower spatial working memory performance in older adults, as well as age-related differences in the five EEG microstate maps A, B, C, C′ and D, but especially in microstate maps C and C′. These two maps have been linked to neuronal activity in the frontal and parietal brain regions which are associated with working memory and attention, cognitive functions that have been shown to be sensitive to aging. Older adults exhibited lower global explained variance and occurrence of maps C and C′. Moreover, although there was a higher probability to transition from any map towards maps C, C′ and D in young and older adults, this probability was lower in older adults. Finally, although age-related differences in resting-state EEG microstates paralleled differences in allocentric spatial working memory performance, we found no evidence that any individual or combination of resting-state EEG microstate parameter(s) could reliably predict individual spatial working memory performance. Whether the temporal dynamics of EEG microstates may be used to assess healthy cognitive aging from resting-state brain activity requires further investigation.

scholarly journals Emotional Reactions to Music in Dementia Patients and Healthy Controls: Differential Responding Depends on the Mechanism

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 205920432110101
Author(s):  
Gonçalo T. Barradas ◽  
Patrik N. Juslin ◽  
Sergi Bermúdez i Badia
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Brain Stem ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Brain Stem Reflex

Music is frequently regarded as a unique way to connect with dementia patients. Yet little is known about how persons with dementia respond emotionally to music. Are their responses different from those of healthy listeners? If so, why? The present study makes a first attempt to tackle these issues in a Portuguese context, with a focus on psychological mechanisms. In Experiment 1, featuring 20 young and healthy adults, we found that musical excerpts which have previously been shown to activate specific emotion induction mechanisms (brain stem reflex, contagion, episodic memory, musical expectancy) in Sweden were valid and yielded predicted emotions also in Portugal, as indexed by self-reported feelings, psychophysiology, and post hoc mechanism indices. In Experiment 2, we used the same stimuli to compare the responses of 20 elderly listeners diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with those of 20 healthy listeners. We controlled for cognitive functioning (Mini-Mental State Examination) and depression (Geriatric Depression Scale). Our predictions about how mechanisms would be differentially affected by decline in brain regions associated with AD received support in that AD patients reported significantly lower levels of (a) sadness in the contagion condition, (b) happiness and nostalgia in the episodic memory condition, and (c) anxiety in the musical expectancy condition. By contrast, no significant difference in reported surprise was found in the brain stem reflex condition. Implications for musical interventions aimed at dementia are discussed, highlighting the key role that basic research may play in developing applications.

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