Beyond faces: the contribution of the amygdala to visual processing in the macaque brain.

The amygdala is present in a diverse range of vertebrate species, such as lizards, rodents, and primates; however, its structure and connectivity differs across species. The increased connections to visual sensory areas in primate species suggests that understanding the visual selectivity of the amygdala in detail is critical to revealing the principles underlying its function in primate cognition. Therefore, we designed a high-resolution, contrast-agent enhanced, event-related fMRI experiment, and scanned 3 adult rhesus macaques, while they viewed 96 naturalistic stimuli. Half of these stimuli were social (defined by the presence of a conspecific), the other half were nonsocial. We also nested manipulations of emotional valence (positive, neutral, and negative) and visual category (faces, nonfaces, animate, and inanimate) within the stimulus set. The results reveal widespread effects of emotional valence, with the amygdala responding more on average to inanimate objects and animals than faces, bodies, or social agents in this experimental context. These findings suggest that the amygdala makes a contribution to primate vision that goes beyond an auxiliary role in face or social perception. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of stimulus selection and experimental design when probing the function of the amygdala and other visually responsive brain regions.

Self as a prior: The malleability of Bayesian multisensory integration to social salience.

Our everyday perceptual experiences are grounded in the integration of information within and across our senses. Due to this direct behavioural relevance, cross-modal integration retains a certain degree of contextual flexibility, even to social relevance. However, how social relevance modulates cross-modal integration remains unclear. To investigate possible mechanisms, Experiment 1 tested the principles of audio-visual integration for numerosity estimation by deriving a Bayesian optimal observer model with perceptual prior from empirical data to explain perceptual biases. Such perceptual priors may shift towards locations of high salience in the stimulus space. Our results showed that the tendency to over- or underestimate numerosity, expressed in the frequency and strength of fission and fusion illusions, depended on the actual event numerosity. Experiment 2 replicated the effects of social relevance on multisensory integration from Scheller & Sui, 2022 JEP:HPP, using a lower number of events, thereby favouring the opposite illusion through enhanced influences of the prior. In line with the idea that the self acts like a prior, the more frequently observed illusion (more malleable to prior influences) was modulated by self-relevance. Our findings suggest that the self can influence perception by acting like a prior in cue integration, biasing perceptual estimates towards areas of high self-relevance.

Bringing Excitement to Empirical Business Ethics Research: Thoughts on the Future of Business Ethics.

To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors-in-chief of the journal have invited the editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentaries aimed at creating dialog around the theme Bringing Excitement to Empirical Business Ethics Research (inspired by the title of the commentary by Babalola and van Gils). These editors, considering the diversity of empirical approaches in business ethics, envisage a future in which quantitative business ethics research is more bold and innovative, as well as reflexive about its techniques, and dialog between quantitative and qualitative research nourishes the enrichment of both. In their commentary, Babalola and van Gils argue that leadership research has stagnated with the use of too narrow a range of perspectives and methods and too many overlapping concepts. They propose that novel insights could be achieved by investigating the lived experience of leadership (through interviews, document analysis, archival data); by focusing on topics of concern to society; by employing different personal, philosophical, or cultural perspectives; and by turning the lens on the heroic leader (through "dark-side" and follower studies). Taking a provocative stance, Bal and Garcia-Lorenzo argue that we need radical voices in current times to enable a better understanding of the psychology underlying ethical transformations. Psychology can support business ethics by not shying away from grander ideas, going beyond the margins of "unethical behaviors harming the organization" and expanding the range of lenses used to studying behavior in context. In the arena of finance and business ethics, Guedhami, Liang, and Shailer emphasize novel data sets and innovative methods. Significantly, they stress that an understanding the intersection of finance and ethics is central to business ethics; financial equality and inclusion are persistent socio-economic and political concerns that are not always framed as ethics issues, yet relevant business policies and practices manifest ethical values. Finally, Charles Cho offers his opinion on the blurry line between the "ethical" versus "social" or "critical" aspects of accounting papers. The Journal of Business Ethics provides fertile ground for innovative, even radical, approaches to quantitative methods (see Zyphur and Pierides in J Bus Ethics 143(1):1-16, 10.1007/s10551-017-3549-8, 2017), as part of a broad goal of ethically reflecting on empirical research.

A Pluralistic Perspective on Research in Psychotherapy: Harnessing Passion, Difference and Dialogue to Promote Justice and Relevance.

The adoption of a pluralistic perspective on research design, processes of data collection and analysis and dissemination of findings, has the potential to enable psychotherapy research to make a more effective contribution to building a just society. A review of the key features of the concept of pluralism is followed by a historical analysis of the ways in which research in counselling, psychotherapy and related disciplines has moved in the direction of a pluralistic position around knowledge creation. Core principles of a pluralistic approach to research are identified and explored in the context of a critical case study of contemporary research into psychotherapy for depression, examples of pluralistically oriented research practices, and analysis of a pluralistic conceptualisation of the nature of evidence. Implications of a pluralistic perspective for research training and practice are discussed. Pluralistic inquiry that emphasises dialogue, collaboration, epistemic justice and the co-existence of multiple truths, creates opportunities for individuals, families and communities from a wide range of backgrounds to co-produce knowledge in ways that support their capacities for active citizenship and involvement in open democratic decision-making. To fulfil these possibilities, it is necessary for psychotherapy research to be oriented towards social goals that are sufficiently relevant to both researchers and co-participants to harness their passion and work together for a common good.

Pupillary Responses to Faces Are Modulated by Familiarity and Rewarding Context.

Observing familiar (known, recognisable) and socially relevant (personally important) faces elicits activation in the brain's reward circuit. Although smiling faces are often used as social rewards in research, it is firstly unclear whether familiarity and social relevance modulate the processing of faces differently, and secondly whether this processing depends on the feedback context, i.e., if it is different when smiles are delivered depending on performance or in the absence of any action (passive viewing). In this preregistered study, we compared pupillary responses to smiling faces differing in subjective familiarity and social relevance. They were displayed in a passive viewing task and in an active task (a speeded visual short-term memory task). The pupils were affected only in the active task and only by subjective familiarity. Contrary to expectations, smaller dilations were observed in response to more familiar faces. Behavioural ratings supported the superior rewarding context of the active task, with higher reward ratings for the game than the passive task. This study offers two major insights. Firstly, familiarity plays a role in the processing of social rewards, as known and unknown faces influence the autonomic responses differently. Secondly, the feedback context is crucial in reward research as positive stimuli are rewarding when they are dependent on performance.

Outlining the Orientation Toward Socially Relevant Issues in Competitive R&D Funding Instruments.

While project-based funding in public R&D investments has grown in importance in all European countries over the last two decades, there is widespread concern among decision-makers about the actual orientation of project funding instruments to promote societal well-being. The capability of public R&D investment to improve the quality of citizens' lives implies the pursuit of "relevant" social objectives related to existing or emerging problems affecting individuals' lives and society. Particularly, when referring to project-funded research, the question of "relevance" in research objectives recalls the never-ending debate over how to translate policymakers' request for producing value from public investments in research activities into "usable results". The manuscript explores, using recent data collected at European level on public R&D funding, the portfolio of research project funding policy instruments of various public research funding organizations (RFOs) in order to shed light on how and to what extent it is oriented to address socially relevant issues. The authors examine the characterization of the single project funding instruments, which are intended to incorporate the motivations and targeted goals of public action, and the RFOs that manage them. They specifically assume that the actual orientation of funding instruments, beyond the declared objectives, is influenced by some features related to their implementation operated by the RFOs, such as the importance given to specific evaluation criteria and the composition of the evaluation panels in the selection process of the funding beneficiaries.

Sociability modifies dogs' sensitivity to biological motion of different social relevance.

Preferential attention to living creatures is believed to be an intrinsic capacity of the visual system of several species, with perception of biological motion often studied and, in humans, it correlates with social cognitive performance. Although domestic dogs are exceptionally attentive to human social cues, it is unknown whether their sociability is associated with sensitivity to conspecific and heterospecific biological motion cues of different social relevance. We recorded video clips of point-light displays depicting a human or dog walking in either frontal or lateral view. In a preferential looking paradigm, dogs spontaneously viewed 16 paired point-light displays showing combinations of normal/inverted (control condition), human/dog and frontal/lateral views. Overall, dogs looked significantly longer at frontal human point-light display versus the inverted control, probably due to its clearer social/biological relevance. Dogs' sociability, assessed through owner-completed questionnaires, further revealed that low-sociability dogs preferred the lateral point-light display view, whereas high-sociability dogs preferred the frontal view. Clearly, dogs can recognize biological motion, but their preference is influenced by their sociability and the stimulus salience, implying biological motion perception may reflect aspects of dogs' social cognition.

Autonomic Reactivity to Arousing Stimuli with Social and Non-social Relevance in Alexithymia.

Emotional difficulties in alexithymia and their social consequences have been linked to alterations in autonomic nervous system. However, most of previous studies did not take into account the distinction between the affective and the cognitive dimensions of the alexithymia, leading to inconsistent results. Aim: In this study, we compared the effects of both dimensions of alexithymia on the autonomic arousal to emotional and social visual stimulations. Methods: Skin conductance responses (SCRs) to items of the International Affective Pictures System characterized by emotional (unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant), social (with humans) or non-social (without humans) content were recorded in non-alexithymic (NA), affective (AA) and cognitive alexithymic (CA) participants, selected on the basis of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire. All participants responded to questionnaires of empathy, social phobia, depression, and anxiety before the experiment and evaluated the arousal of the pictures after it. Results: Cognitive alexithymic group showed lower amplitudes of SCRs to pictures with social than without social relevance whereas the opposite pattern was observed for the NA group. Arousal emotional effects of the pictures on SCRs did not differ among groups. In addition, CA participants showed lower scores than NA in the Personal Taking sub-scale of the empathy questionnaire, while AA showed lower scores than NA in the fantasy sub-scale. The CA group showed higher social phobia, depression and anxiety scores, than the other two groups. Conclusion: This work has two original outcomes: first, affective alexithymics expressed lower empathic affective scores than other groups; second, alexithymia modulated the impact of the social relevance of the stimuli on the autonomic reactivity, this impact vanishing in affective alexithymics and reversing in cognitive alexithymics. Thus, though the groups could not be distinguished on the basis of emotional effect on SCRs, they clearly differed when the empathic characteristics and the autonomic impact of social relevance were considered. Finally, the described autonomic signature to social relevant information could contribute to elucidate the difficulty of alexithymics to deal with emotions during social transactions.

Perceptions of the Social Relevance of Science: Exploring the Implications for Gendered Patterns in Expectations of Majoring in STEM Fields.

Despite efforts to increase participation in science, technology, engineering and math fields (STEM), the role of students' perceptions of the social relevance of science in guiding their expectations to major in STEM remains largely unexplored. Though science education scholars predict that perceptions of social relevance likely matter equally for boys and girls, gender scholars suggest that these perceptions should matter more for girls than boys. Using longitudinal data from a large, urban, low-income, and predominantly minority-serving district, this study examines the potentially gendered role of perceptions of social relevance in ninth graders' expectations to major in STEM. Further, it examines these dynamics with respect to expectations to major in any STEM field as well as expectations to major in specific STEM fields. Findings largely support the perspective of gender scholars; perceptions of the social relevance of science positively and significantly predict female, but not male, students' intentions to major in STEM (vs. non-STEM fields). Subsequent analyses that look at intentions to major in specific STEM fields reveal a similar pattern, such that perceptions of relevance positively predict female students' intentions to major in the biological sciences, the physical sciences, and engineering, while male students' intentions are not similarly impacted. By contrast, positive perceptions of the relevance of science predict a modest increase in interest in computer science for both boys and girls.

Evaluación de la pertinencia social del programa de maestría Humanidades Médicas / Evaluation of the social relevance of the Master 's of Science in Medical Humanities

Un requisito para demostrar la vigencia de un programa de posgrado es la evaluación de su pertinencia social. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo describir los resultados de la evaluación de la pertinencia social del programa de maestría Humanidades Médicas. Se muestran sus características esenciales derivadas de los procesos realizados en el Centro para el Desarrollo de las Ciencias Sociales y Humanísticas en Salud; se define la pertinencia social y sus indicadores como conceptos esenciales para la evaluación de los procesos del posgrado; por último, se presenta la metodología y su aplicación en el proceso de evaluación. Se realizó triangulación metodológica de fuentes de datos provenientes de encuestas y entrevistas a profesores, maestrantes de la edición actual y de egresados; además, datos de los informes de autoevaluación y de la comisión técnica en el proceso de evaluación externa para la acreditación acaecida en marzo de 2016.

A requisite for demonstrating the validity of a postgraduate program is the assessment of its social relevance. This work aims to describe evaluative results related to the social relevance of the Masters of Science in Medical Humanities degree. The evaluation process was carried out in the Health Humanities and Social Sciences Development Centre of Camaguey. Social relevance and related indicators were defined and considered for this specific master's degree level evaluation. The methodology and its application in the evaluation process are presented. Data triangulation between surveys collected and interviews granted from faculty, current students of the Medical Humanities program, and graduates of the department was utilized. Additionally, data from self-evaluation reports and from the external evaluation technical commission for accreditation in March 2016 were considered in the data triangulation.

Pertinencia laboral y social del programa de Tecnología en Regencia de Farmacia en la región de Urabá / Work and social relevance of the Regency of Pharmacy technology program in the Urabá region

Introducción: La Universidad de Antioquia desarrolla, en el Urabá antioqueño, el programa de Tecnología en Regencia de Farmacia (TRF), orientado a formar en promoción de la salud y prevención de la enfermedad. Objetivo: Caracterizar la pertinencia social y laboral del programa de TRF en la región de Urabá, y su efecto en la promoción de la salud y prevención de la enfermedad. Materiales y métodos: Estudio descriptivo de corte trasversal, en el cual se diseñaron cuatro instrumentos, orientados a egresados, empleadores, establecimientos y comunidad de la región, para ser aplicados por estudiantes del programa en la región, durante un periodo de seis meses. Resultados: De 52 egresados encuestados, 51 eran de la región, y 48 de ellos estaban laborando, 42 en la región. Los empleadores valoraron los aportes del TRF, como bueno y excelente, en un 69.6%, 78.2% y 78.3%, para los desempeños institucional, procesos administrativos y asistenciales, respectivamente. En cuanto a la comunidad, 212 de los 369 encuestados, identificaron la existencia del TRF en farmacias/droguerías y esperan que le brinde información sobre el uso de los medicamentos. La pertinencia social fue valorada como pertinente y muy pertinente, en un 77.4%, resultado que fue similar para la pertinencia laboral. Conclusiones: El estudio identifica un alto de grado de satisfacción con las funciones del TRF en los servicios farmacéuticos y de aceptación e identificación del TRF por la comunidad. El programa de TRF es pertinente en la región, sus egresados están ubicados en la región, desempeñando funciones acordes con su formación.

Introduction: University of Antioquia develops, in the Urabá region of Antioquia (Colombia), the program of Technology in Regency of Pharmacy (TRP), aimed at training in health promotion and disease prevention. Objective: To characterize the social relevance of the TRP program in the Urabá region, and its effect in health promotion and disease prevention. Materials and methods: cross-sectional study with descriptive metodology, in which four instruments were designed and aimed at graduates, employers, institutions and community in the region, to be applied by the students of the program in the region, for a period of six months. Results: Of 52 graduates surveyed, 51 were graduates of the region, and 48 of them were working, 42 in the region. Employers valued the contributions of the TRP, as good and excellent, in a 69.6%, 78.2% and 78.3%, for institutional performance, administrative and welfare, respectively. Related to the community, 212 of the 369 respondents identified the existence of the TRP in pharmacies/drugstores and they expected that she/he would give you information about the use of drugs. The social relevance was assessed as relevant and very relevant, in a 77.4%, a result that was similar to the relevance related to work. Conclusions: The study identifies a high degree of satisfaction with the functions of the TRP in pharmaceutical services and acceptance and identification of the TRF for the community. The TRP program is relevant in the region; its graduates are working in the region, performing duties commensurate with their training.

Metodologias participativas de pesquisa e educação popular: reflexões sobre critérios de qualidade / Metodologías participativas de investigación y educación popular: reflexiones sobre criterios de calidad / Participatory research methodologies and popular education: reflections on quality criteria

O artigo, derivado da experiência de pesquisa do autor e de avaliações de trabalhos de pesquisa na educação popular, propõe a discussão de critérios de qualidade e validade das metodologias participativas, as quais, desde sua origem na América Latina, apresentam importantes afinidades com a educação popular. São discutidos, na ótica das metodologias participativas, os seguintes tópicos: a relevância social, a qualidade de descrição e de interpretação, a reflexividade coletiva, a qualidade da relação entre os sujeitos da pesquisa e a praticabilidade do conhecimento. Na conclusão, argumenta-se que a discussão sobre a qualidade da pesquisa em educação e educação popular pode contribuir para fazer frente ao produtivismo acadêmico, onde são confundidos critérios de quantidade e qualidade, a superar a dicotomização entre produtores e consumidores ou usuários de pesquisa, e para fomentar a densidade teórica da área.

El presente texto, derivado de la experiencia de investigación del autor y de otras evaluaciones de trabajos de investigación en educación popular, propone la discusión de criterios de calidad y validez de metodologias participativas, las cuales desde su origen en América Latina presentan importantes semejanzas con la educación popular. Son discutidos, a partir de la perspectiva de las metodologias participativas, los seguientes temas: relevancia social, calidad de la descripción y de interpretación, reflexividad colectiva, calidad de la relación entre los sujetos de la investigación y practicabilidad del conocimiento. En la conclusión, se argumenta que la discusión sobre la calidad de la investigación en educación y educación popular puede contribuir para enfrentar el productivismo académico, donde son confundidos criterios de cantidad y calidad, para superar la dicotimización entre productores y consumidores o usuarios de investigación y para fomentar la densidad teórica del área.

The paper, a consequence of the author’s research experience and the evaluation of research in popular education, discusses the criteria for quality and validity of participatory methodologies, which since their origin in Latin America present significant affinities with popular education. The following topics are discussed in the perspective of participatory methodologies: the social relevance; the quality of description and interpretation; the collective reflexivity; the quality of the relations among the stakeholders in the research process; and the practicability of the produced knowledge. In the conclusion it is pointed out that the discussion about the quality of research in education and popular education can contribute to confront the academic productivism, where qualitative and quantitative criteria are confused, to be able to overcome the dichotomization between producers and consumers of research, thus enhancing the area’s theoretical density.

Responsiveness to conspecific distress calls is influenced by day-roost proximity in bats (Saccopteryx bilineata).

Distress calls signal extreme physical distress, e.g. being caught by a predator. In many bat species, distress calls attract conspecifics. Because bats often occupy perennial day-roosts, they might adapt their responsiveness according to the social relevance in which distress calls are broadcast. Specifically, we hypothesized that conspecific distress calls broadcast within or in proximity to the day-roost would elicit a stronger responsiveness than distress calls broadcast at a foraging site. We analysed the distress calls and conducted playback experiments with the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata, which occupies perennial day-roosts with a stable social group composition. S. bilineata reacted significantly differently depending on the playback's location. Bats were attracted to distress call playbacks within the day-roost and in proximity to it, but showed no obvious response to distress call playbacks at a foraging site. Hence, the bats adapted their responsiveness towards distress calls depending on the social relevance in which distress calls were broadcast. Distress calls within or in proximity to the day-roost are probably perceived as a greater threat and thus have a higher behavioural relevance than distress calls at foraging sites, either because bats want to assess the predation risk or because they engage in mobbing behaviour.

Intentional action processing results from automatic bottom-up attention: An EEG-investigation into the Social Relevance Hypothesis using hypnosis.

Social stimuli grab our attention. However, it has rarely been investigated how variations in attention affect the processing of social stimuli, although the answer could help us uncover details of social cognition processes such as action understanding. In the present study, we examined how changes to bottom-up attention affects neural EEG-responses associated with intentional action processing. We induced an increase in bottom-up attention by using hypnosis. We recorded the electroencephalographic µ-wave suppression of hypnotized participants when presented with intentional actions in first and third person perspective in a video-clip paradigm. Previous studies have shown that the µ-rhythm is selectively suppressed both when executing and observing goal-directed motor actions; hence it can be used as a neural signal for intentional action processing. Our results show that neutral hypnotic trance increases µ-suppression in highly suggestible participants when they observe intentional actions. This suggests that social action processing is enhanced when bottom-up attentional processes are predominant. Our findings support the Social Relevance Hypothesis, according to which social action processing is a bottom-up driven attentional process, and can thus be altered as a function of bottom-up processing devoted to a social stimulus.

Effect of emotion on memory for words and their context.

Emotion influences various cognitive processes, such as memory. This beneficial or detrimental effect can be studied with verbal material, yet in this case a broad term of context has to be taken into account. The present work reviews recent literature and proposes that traditional differentiation between semantic and environmental context should be replaced with a novel conceptualization of hippocampus-dependent relational memory and item memory (related to the activations of cuneus and left amygdala). Additionally, instead of list-learning paradigms, words should be memorized in the context of sentences or stories for better control over their meaning. The recent evidence suggests that of particular importance for ecological validity in research paradigms is the presence of communicative and social context of verbal material related to such processes as theory of mind and brain activations in temporoparietal junction, posterior cingulate cortex, and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. We propose that studying memory of verbal material within context gives a better understanding of enhancing and impairing effects of emotion as well as of the underlying brain mechanisms.

Aproximación a la pertinencia social del posgrado de cardiología de la Universidad de Los Andes / Approach to the social relevance of the cardiology fellow of Los Andes University

El paradigma de la misión de las universidades está cambiando y se cuestiona su papel como agentes transformadores de la sociedad, a la vez que se promueve que las políticas de salud sean diseñadas sobre la base de evidencias obtenidas mediante la investigación. El presente trabajo intenta estimar la pertinencia social del posgrado de cardiología de la universidad de Los Andes, mérida, Venezuela (PCULA). Encuesta anónima realizada a los egresados del PCULA en el lapso 1978 - 2002. Treinta y un preguntas en ocho secciones. 63 de los 100 egresados llenaron la encuesta. El 84,54% seleccionó tener una actualización aceptable; sólo el 20% manifestó ejercer exclusivamente en el sector público; la mayoría consideró deficientes las condiciones para el ejercicio público; 87,30% clasificó como deficiente el entorno público y privado para la investigación; el 47,62% participaba en cardiología preventiva, sólo el 22,22% dijo haber creado a dirigir algún programa de esta índole; el 63,96% no llegaba a cinco presentaciones en congresos, el 69,84% tenía cuatro o menos publicaciones, apenas el 8,94% tenía cinco o más divulgaciones en cardiología preventiva; el 90,48% consideró aceptable el entrenamiento en el PCULA, con la excepción del obtenido en cardiología preventiva; el 69,73% catalogó de laboriosa la obtensión de trabajo como cardiólogo; el 38,10% consideró inadecuado el nivel socio-económico alcanzado; y el 64,08% realizó estudios de super-especialización. Apesar de una alta calidad, el PCULA evidencia parámetros de baja pertinencia social.

The paradigm of the mission of universities is changing and their role as agents for change in society is being questioned while, at the same time, designing health policies based on research findings is being promoted. This paper attempts to assess the social relevance of the postgraduate course in cardiology at Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela (PCULA). An anonymous survey conducted on students who graduated from the PCULA during the period 1978-2002. Thirty-one questions in eight sections. Sixty-three of the 100 graduates completed the questionnaire. Of that number, 84.54% indicated that the course’s level of refresher content was acceptable; only 20% said they practiced exclusively in the public health sector; the majority considered conditions for practicing in the public sector to be deficient; 87.3% classified the environment, in both the public and private sectors, as being deficient for engaging in research; 47.62% was involved in preventive cardiology; only 22.2% said they had created or directed a program of this type; 63.96% had given less than five papers at congresses; 69.84% had four or less publications; only 8.94% had five or more publications in preventive cardiology; 90.48% considered the training offered on the PCULA to be acceptable, except for the training in preventive cardiology; 69.73% classified obtaining work as a cardiologist as being an uphill task; 38.10% considered the socio-economic level achieved to be inadequate; and 64.08% had done “superspecialization” studies. Despite the high quality of the PCULA, evidence of parameters of low social relevance is apparent.