Comparing experience- and description-based economic preferences across 11 countries.

Recent evidence indicates that reward value encoding in humans is highly context dependent, leading to suboptimal decisions in some cases, but whether this computational constraint on valuation is a shared feature of human cognition remains unknown. Here we studied the behaviour of n = 561 individuals from 11 countries of markedly different socioeconomic and cultural makeup. Our findings show that context sensitivity was present in all 11 countries. Suboptimal decisions generated by context manipulation were not explained by risk aversion, as estimated through a separate description-based choice task (that is, lotteries) consisting of matched decision offers. Conversely, risk aversion significantly differed across countries. Overall, our findings suggest that context-dependent reward value encoding is a feature of human cognition that remains consistently present across different countries, as opposed to description-based decision-making, which is more permeable to cultural factors.

Outcome context-dependence is not WEIRD: Comparing reinforcement- and description-based economic preferences worldwide.

Recent evidence indicates that reward value encoding in humans is highly context-dependent, leading to suboptimal decisions in some cases. But whether this computational constraint on valuation is a shared feature of human cognition remains unknown. To address this question, we studied the behavior of individuals from across 11 countries of markedly different socioeconomic and cultural makeup using an experimental approach that reliably captures context effects in reinforcement learning. Our findings show that all samples presented evidence of similar sensitivity to context. Crucially, suboptimal decisions generated by context manipulation were not explained by risk aversion, as estimated through a separate description-based choice task (i.e., lotteries) consisting of matched decision offers. Conversely, risk aversion significantly differed across countries. Overall, our findings suggest that context-dependent reward value encoding is a hardcoded feature of human cognition, while description-based decision-making is significantly sensitive to cultural factors.

Similar Cognitive Skill Impairment in Children with Upper Limb Motor Disorders Due to Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita and Obstetrical Brachial Plexus Palsy.

Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) and obstetrical brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) are motor disorders with similar symptoms (contractures and the disturbance of upper limb function). Both conditions present as flaccid paresis but differ from each other in the pathogenesis: AMC is a congenital condition, while OBPP results from trauma during childbirth. Despite this difference, these diseases are identical in terms of their manifestations and treatment programmes. We compared the cognitive skills of children with AMC and OBPP diagnoses with those of healthy children; we also compared the motor skills of impaired children with those of healthy ones. The patients in both groups significantly differed from the healthy children with regard to psychological parameters, such as 'visual memory capacity' and 'thinking'. Moreover, the two groups with children with AMC and OBPP significantly differed from each other in motor skill parameters, such as 'delayed motor development', 'general motor development', and the 'level of paresis'. Upper limb motor function in the OBPP children was less impaired compared to that of the AMC children. However, we did not find any significant differences in cognitive deficits between the AMC children and the OBPP children. This may indicate that motor impairment is more significant than the underlying cause for the development of cognitive impairment; however, the factors causing this phenomenon require further study (e.g., social environment, treatment, and rehabilitation programme).

Altered evoked responses for motor-related words in children with upper limb motor impairments.

OBJECTIVE: Obstetric brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) and amyoplasia, the classical type of arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, manifest themselves as highly limited mobility of the upper limb. At the same time, according to the embodiment cognition theories, the motor impairments might lead to the alteration of cognitive functions in OBPP/amyoplasia patients. In the current study, we examined whether OBPP/amyoplasia children exhibit altered processing of motor-related verbs. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study using clinical population and control children. Oddball series were used to elicit mismatch negativity (MMN) EEG responses. The series consisted of limb-related verbs (deviant stimuli) and matched pseudowords (standard stimuli). 27 patients and 32 control children were included in the analysis. RESULTS: We showed that MMN waveforms differed between OBPP/amyoplasia children and their control peers in the frontal and temporal electrodes when the stimuli contained hand-related verbs. In particular, the MMN peak latency in the OBPP/amyoplasia children was significantly delayed as compared with the healthy controls. At the same time, neither series with leg-related verbs nor series of pseudowords resulted in statistically significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest altered processing of hand-related verbs in OBPP/amyoplasia children with hand-related disabilities. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results contribute to the growing evidence in support of the theory of embodied cognition, which proposes that various domains of cognition are shaped by bodily interactions with the environment.

Altered Cerebral Processing of Videos in Children with Motor Dysfunction Suggests Broad Embodiment of Perceptual Cognitive Functions.

Embodied cognition theory suggests that motor dysfunctions affect cognition. We examined this hypothesis by inspecting whether cerebral processing of movies, featuring both goal-directed movements and content without humans, differ between children with congenital motor dysfunction and healthy controls. Electroencephalography was recorded from 23 healthy children and 23 children with limited or absent arm movement due to either arthrogryposis multiplex congenita or obstetric brachial plexus palsy. Each individual patient exhibited divergent neural responses, disclosed by significantly lower inter-subject correlation (ISC) of brain activity, during the videos compared to the healthy children. We failed to observe associations between this finding and the motor-related content of the various video scenes, suggesting that differences between the patients and controls reflect modulation of perceptual-cognitive processing of videos by upper-limb motor dysfunctions not limited to the watching-mirroring of motor actions. Thus, perceptual-cognitive processes in the brain seem to be more robustly embodied than has previously been thought.

"Expert persuasion" can decrease willingness to pay for sugar-containing food.

Recent studies have revealed types of eating nudges that can steer consumers toward choosing healthier options. However, most of the previously studied interventions target individual decisions and are not directed to changing consumers' underlying perception of unhealthy food. Here, we investigate how a healthy eating call-first-person narrative by a health expert-affects individuals' willingness to pay (WTP) for sugar-free and sugar-containing food products. Participants performed two blocks of a bidding task, in which they had to bid on sweets labeled either as "sugar- free" or as "sugar-containing." In-between the two blocks, half of the participants listened to a narrative by a dietary specialist emphasizing the health risks of sugar consumption, whereas the remaining participants listened to a control narrative irrelevant to food choices. We demonstrate that the health expert's narrative decreased individuals' WTP for sugar-containing food, but did not modulate their WTP for sugar- free food. Overall, our findings confirm that consumers may conform to healthy eating calls by rather devaluating unhealthy food products than by increasing the value of healthy ones. This paves the way for an avenue of innovative marketing strategies to support individuals in their food choices.

Developmental differences in the perception of naturalistic human movements.

Introduction: It is widely believed that we are more attentive towards moving versus static stimuli. However, the neural correlates underlying the perception of human movements have not been extensively investigated in ecologically valid settings, nor has the developmental aspect of this phenomenon. Here, we set forth to investigate how human limb movements displayed in naturalistic videos influence the attentional engagement of children and young adults. Methods: Thirty-nine healthy participants (4-26 years old) were presented with naturalistic videos featuring human goal-directed movements, while neural activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). Video scenes were automatically annotated as containing arm, leg or no movement, using a machine learning algorithm. The viewers' attentional engagement was quantified by the intersubject correlation of EEG responses evoked by the videos. Results: Our results demonstrate that scenes featuring limb movements, especially simultaneous arm and leg movements, elicit higher attentional engagement than scenes with no limb movement. Interestingly, this effect was found to diminish with age. Discussion: Overall, our findings extend previous work on the perception of human motion by implementing naturalistic stimuli in the experimental design and extend the list of factors influencing the viewer's engagement exerted by naturalistic videos.

Aberrant Auditory and Visual Memory Development of Children with Upper Limb Motor Disorders.

The current study aimed to compare differences in the cognitive development of children with and without upper limb motor disorders. The study involved 89 children from 3 to 15 years old; 57 children with similar upper limb motor disorders and 32 healthy children. Our results showed that motor disorders could impair cognitive functions, especially memory. In particular, we found that children between 8 and 11 years old with upper limb disorders differed significantly from their healthy peers in both auditory and visual memory scales. These results can be explained by the fact that the development of cognitive functions depends on the normal development of motor skills, and the developmental delay of motor skills affects cognitive functions. Correlation analysis did not reveal any significant relationship between other cognitive functions (attention, thinking, intelligence) and motor function. Altogether, these findings point to the need to adapt general habilitation programs for children with motor disorders, considering the cognitive impairment during their development. The evaluation of children with motor impairment is often limited to their motor dysfunction, leaving their cognitive development neglected. The current study showed the importance of cognitive issues for these children. Moreover, early intervention, particularly focused on memory, can prevent some of the accompanying difficulties in learning and daily life functioning of children with movement disorders.

Impact of Induced Moods, Sensation Seeking, and Emotional Contagion on Economic Decisions Under Risk.

In addition to probabilities of monetary gains and losses, personality traits, socio-economic factors, and specific contexts such as emotions and framing influence financial risk taking. Here, we investigated the effects of joyful, neutral, and sad mood states on participants' risk-taking behaviour in a simple task with safe and risky options. We also analysed the effect of framing on risk taking. In different trials, a safe option was framed in terms of either financial gains or losses. Moreover, we investigated the effects of emotional contagion and sensation-seeking personality traits on risk taking in this task. We did not observe a significant effect of induced moods on risk taking. Sad mood resulted in a slight non-significant trend of risk aversion compared to a neutral mood. Our results partially replicate previous findings regarding the presence of the framing effect. As a novel finding, we observed that participants with a low emotional contagion score demonstrated increased risk aversion during a sad mood and a similar trend at the edge of significance was present in high sensation seekers. Overall, our results highlight the importance of taking into account personality traits of experimental participants in financial risk-taking studies.