Economic decision-making plays a paramount role in both individual and national interests. Individuals have fairness preferences in economic decision-making, but a proposer\'s moral-related information may affect fairness considerations. In prior ERP studies, researchers have suggested moral identity influences fairness preferences in the Ultimatum Game (UG), but there are discrepancies in the results. Furthermore, whether role models (individuals whom someone else looks to help decide suitable behaviors), who can modulate people\'s moral standards, can affect fairness concerns in UG is still understudied. To address the questions, we selected the moral-related statements by eliminating those with illegal information and employed the ERP technique to explore whether the interplay of the proposer\'s role model and moral-related behavior influenced fairness processing in the modified UG and the corresponding neural mechanisms. We mainly found that the aforementioned interaction effect on proposal considerations in UG could be mirrored in both rejection rates and P300 variations. The results demonstrate that the interaction between the proposer\'s role model and moral behavior can modulate fairness concerns in UG. Our current work provides new avenues for elucidating the time course of the influencing mechanism of fair distributions in complicated social environments.

BACKGROUND: Studies suggest that the components of brain-evoked potentials (EPs) may serve as biomarkers of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by participation in combat operations; however, to date, research remains fragmented, with no studies that have attempted to combine different paradigms. In addition, the mismatch negativity component has not been studied in a Russian sample of veterans with PTSD.
OBJECTIVE: To identify objective neurophysiological markers of combat-related PTSD using the method of auditory-evoked potentials in active and passive listening paradigms.
METHODS: The study included a recording of auditory EPs in an oddball paradigm in three settings: 1) directed attention to auditory stimuli, 2) passive listening while viewing a neutral video sequence, and 3) viewing a video sequence associated with a traumatic event. Combatants diagnosed with PTSD (18 people) were compared with mentally healthy civilian volunteers (22 people).
RESULTS: An increase in the latency period of the early components of auditory EP (N100 and P200), an increase in the amplitude of the P200 component to a deviant stimulus, and a decrease to a standard one in the active listening paradigm were established in the PTSD group. There were no significant differences in the parameters of the P300 component. The characteristics of mismatch negativity in the passive paradigm were revealed: an increase in the phenomenon amplitude, both when shown a video sequence associated with a traumatic event and when shown a neutral video sequence. A binary logistic regression model constructed using the selected parameters showed that the identified characteristics can potentially be considered as diagnostic markers of PTSD in combatants, as the classification accuracy stood at 87% (sensitivity - 81%, specificity - 91%).
CONCLUSIONS: Potential neurophysiological markers of PTSD are the following: the amplitude and latency of early components of auditory EPs in the paradigm of directed attention to stimuli and the amplitude of mismatch negativity during passive attention.
UNASSIGNED: Исследования показывают, что компоненты вызванных потенциалов головного мозга (ВП) могут являться биомаркерами посттравматического стрессового расстройства (ПТСР) вследствие участия в боевых действиях, однако на сегодняшний день исследования фрагментарны, не представлены исследования, сочетающие различные парадигмы. На русской выборке ветеранов с ПТСР не изучался компонент негативности рассогласования.
UNASSIGNED: Выявление объективных нейрофизиологических маркеров ПТСР вследствие участия в боевых действиях методом слуховых вызванных потенциалов в парадигмах активного и пассивного слушания.
UNASSIGNED: Исследование включало регистрацию слуховых ВП в парадигме вероятностного предъявления (oddball) в трех состояниях: 1) направленное внимание на слуховые стимулы; 2) пассивное слушание при просмотре нейтрального видеоряда; 3) при просмотре видеоряда, связанного с травматическим событием. Обследованы комбатанты с диагнозом ПТСР (18 человек) в сравнении с психически здоровыми гражданскими добровольцами (22 человека).
UNASSIGNED: В группе лиц с ПТСР обнаружено увеличение латентного периода ранних компонентов слухового ВП (N100 и Р200), увеличение амплитуды компонента Р200 на девиантный стимул и снижение на стандартный в парадигме активного слушания. Не выявлено значимых различий в показателях компонента Р300. Выявлены особенности негативности рассогласования в пассивной парадигме: увеличение амплитуды феномена как при предъявлении видеоряда, связанного с травматическим событием, так и при предъявлении нейтрального видеоряда. Построенная с использованием выделенных показателей модель бинарной логистической регрессии показала, что выявленные особенности потенциально можно рассматривать как диагностические маркеры ПТСР у комбатантов — точность классификации составила 87% (чувствительность — 81%, специфичность — 91%).
UNASSIGNED: Потенциальными нейрофизиологическими маркерами ПТСР являются амплитуда и латентный период ранних компонентов слуховых ВП в парадигме направленного внимания на стимулы, а также амплитуда негативности рассогласования при пассивном внимании.

The decision-making of soccer referees is one of the typical forms influenced by factors such as environmental pressure and individual emotions. While previous studies have explored how common factors like personal anxiety and on-field pressure affect the decisions of soccer referees, the mechanisms by which anxiety influences decision-making under pressure remain unclear. This study developed a penalty task based on real soccer match scenarios and recruited 76 experienced soccer referees. These referees were divided into two groups, high anxiety and low anxiety, based on their anxiety levels, to perform decision-making tasks under different pressure environments simulated to mimic real matches. Additionally, this research employed Event-Related Potential (ERP) technology to compare the brain signals of soccer referees with different levels of anxiety when facing foul play under various pressure environments. It was found that referees with high levels of anxiety displayed larger P300 and N400 amplitudes in a low-pressure environment (p = 0.0059, t = 2.9437). However, no significant differences in P300 and N400 amplitudes were observed between referees with high and low levels of anxiety under high-pressure conditions (p = 0.1890, t = 1.3411). This study not only reveals the complex mechanisms of anxiety in the decision-making process of referees but also emphasizes the importance of understanding and managing the psychological state of referees in competitive sports to improve the quality of their decisions. Our findings provide an empirical basis for future efforts to mitigate the impact of anxiety and optimize the decision-making process in similar high-pressure environments.

Earlier research has suggested gender differences in event-related potentials/oscillations (ERPs/EROs). Yet, the alteration in event-related oscillations (EROs) in the delta and theta frequency bands have not been explored between genders across the three age groups of adulthood, i.e., 18-50, 51-65, and >65 years. Data from 155 healthy elderly participants who underwent a neurological examination, comprehensive neuropsychological assessment (including attention, memory, executive function, language, and visuospatial skills), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from past studies were used. The delta and theta ERO powers across the age groups and between genders were compared and correlational analyses among the ERO power, age, and neuropsychological tests were performed. The results indicated that females displayed higher theta ERO responses than males in the frontal, central, and parietal regions but not in the occipital location between 18 and 50 years of adulthood. The declining theta power of EROs in women reached that of men after the age of 50 while the theta ERO power was more stable across the age groups in men. Our results imply that the cohorts must be recruited at specified age ranges across genders, and clinical trials using neurophysiological biomarkers as an intervention endpoint should take gender into account in the future.

Working memory (WM) plays an important role in daily life and is known to correlated with aerobic fitness. However, whether the relationship between aerobic fitness and WM is dependent on the stimulus modality or is associated with one or multiple subprocesses involved in WM remains unknown. Accordingly, this study utilized event-related potentials (ERPs) to comprehensively examine the encoding, preparation, and retrieval processes during verbal and spatial WM performance. Eighty-eight young adults aged 18-30years were recruited to participate in two laboratory visits on separate days. On day 1, aerobic fitness was assessed by maximum oxygen consumption (V˙O2max) during a treadmill-based graded exercise test. On day 2, participants completed verbal and spatial WM tasks while P2, contingent negative voltage (CNV), and P3 components of ERP were recorded during the encoding, preparatory, and retrieval stages of WM, respectively. Results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that V˙O2max was positively correlated with response accuracy during the high-demanding condition of spatial WM after controlling for age, sex, and self-reported physical activity. Additionally, a higher level of V˙O2max was associated with larger terminal CNV amplitude at the Cz electrode during the high-demanding condition of spatial WM. These findings suggest that aerobic fitness may have selective beneficial associations with the motor preparatory process and subsequent task performance requiring a greater amount of spatial information but not the encoding and retrieval stages nor the verbal modality of WM.

Cognitive disturbance in identifying, processing, and responding to salient or novel stimuli are typical attributes of schizophrenia (SCH), and P300 has been proven to serve as a reliable psychosis endophenotype. The instability of neural processing across trials, i.e., trial-to-trial variability (TTV), is getting increasing attention in uncovering how the SCH \"noisy\" brain organizes during cognition processes. Nevertheless, the TTV in the brain network remains unrevealed, notably how it varies in different task stages. In this study, resorting to the time-varying directed electroencephalogram (EEG) network, we investigated the time-resolved TTV of the functional organizations subserving the evoking of P300. Results revealed anomalous TTV in time-varying networks across the delta, theta, alpha, beta1, and beta2 bands of SCH. The TTV of cross-band time-varying network properties can efficiently recognize SCH (accuracy: 83.39%, sensitivity: 89.22%, and specificity: 74.55%) and evaluate the psychiatric symptoms (i.e., Hamilton\'s depression scale-24, r = 0.430, p = 0.022, RMSE = 4.891; Hamilton\'s anxiety scale-14, r = 0.377, p = 0.048, RMSE = 4.575). Our study brings new insights into probing the time-resolved functional organization of the brain, and TTV in time-varying networks may provide a powerful tool for mining the substrates accounting for SCH and diagnostic evaluation of SCH.

UNASSIGNED: Accurate classification of single-trial electroencephalogram (EEG) is crucial for EEG-based target image recognition in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) tasks. P300 is an important component of a single-trial EEG for RSVP tasks. However, single-trial EEG are usually characterized by low signal-to-noise ratio and limited sample sizes.
UNASSIGNED: Given these challenges, it is necessary to optimize existing convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to improve the performance of P300 classification. The proposed CNN model called PSAEEGNet, integrates standard convolutional layers, pyramid squeeze attention (PSA) modules, and deep convolutional layers. This approach arises the extraction of temporal and spatial features of the P300 to a finer granularity level.
UNASSIGNED: Compared with several existing single-trial EEG classification methods for RSVP tasks, the proposed model shows significantly improved performance. The mean true positive rate for PSAEEGNet is 0.7949, and the mean area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) is 0.9341 (p < 0.05).
UNASSIGNED: These results suggest that the proposed model effectively extracts features from both temporal and spatial dimensions of P300, leading to a more accurate classification of single-trial EEG during RSVP tasks. Therefore, this model has the potential to significantly enhance the performance of target recognition systems based on EEG, contributing to the advancement and practical implementation of target recognition in this field.

UNASSIGNED: Although the parietal cortex is related to consciousness, the dorsolateral prefrontal and primary motor cortices are the usual targets for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDoC). Herein, we applied parietal rTMS to patients with pDoC, to verify its neurobehavioral effects and explore a new potential rTMS target.
UNASSIGNED: Twenty-six patients with pDoC were assigned to a rTMS or sham group. The rTMS group received 10 sessions of parietal rTMS; the sham group received 10 sessions of sham stimulation. The Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) and event-related potential (ERP) were collected before and after the 10 sessions or sham sessions.
UNASSIGNED: After the 10 sessions, the rTMS group showed: a significant CRS-R score increase; ERP appearance of a P300 waveform and significantly increased Fz amplitudes; increased potentials on topographic mapping, especially in the left prefrontal cortex; and an increase in delta and theta band powers at Fz, Cz, and Pz. The sham group did not show such changes in CRS-R score or ERP results statistically.
UNASSIGNED: Parietal rTMS shows promise as a novel intervention in the recovery of consciousness in pDoC. It showed neurobehavioral enhancement of residual brain function and may promote frontal activity by enhancing frontal-parietal connections. The parietal cortex may thus be an alternative for rTMS therapy protocols.

Classic psychedelics are able to profoundly alter the state of consciousness and lead to acute experiences of ego dissolution - the blurring of the distinction between representations of self and the external world. However, whether repeated use of psychedelics is associated with more prolonged and permanent modifications to the concept of self remains to be investigated. Therefore, we conducted a preregistered, cross-sectional study in which experienced psychedelics users (15 or more lifetime experiences with psychedelics; N = 56) were compared to nonusers (N = 57) in terms of neural reactivity to a Self-name (i.e., each participant\'s own name) stimulus, which is known to robustly activate a representation of self. Two control stimuli were additionally used: an Other-name stimulus, as a passive control condition in which no reaction was required, and a Target-name stimulus, to which participants provided a manual response and which thus constituted an active control condition. Analysis of the amplitude of the P300 ERP component evoked by the Self- or Target-names revealed no difference between the psychedelics users and nonusers. However, psychedelic users exhibited increased P300 amplitude during perception of Other-names. In addition, in comparison to nonusers, psychedelics users exhibited a smaller increase in P300 amplitude when processing the task-relevant Target-names (in relation to both Self- and Other-names). Therefore, our data suggests that regular naturalistic use of psychedelics may not be related to long-term changes in the representation of self, but it might potentially affect the allocation of attentional resources to task-relevant stimuli.

Investigating the cognitive control processes and error detection mechanisms involved in risk-taking behaviors is essential for understanding risk propensity. This study investigated the relationship between risk propensity and cognitive control processes using an event-related potentials (ERP) approach. The study employed a Cued Go/Nogo paradigm to elicit ERP components related to cognitive control processes, including contingent negative variation (CNV), P300, error-related negativity (ERN), and error positivity (Pe). Healthy participants were categorized into high-risk and low-risk groups based on their performance in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). The results revealed risk-taking behavior influenced CNV amplitudes, indicating heightened response preparation and inhibition for the high-risk group. In contrast, the P300 component showed no group differences but revealed enhanced amplitudes in Nogo trials, particularly in high-risk group. Furthermore, despite the lack of difference in the Pe component, the high-risk group exhibited smaller ERN amplitudes compared to the low-risk group, suggesting reduced sensitivity to error detection. These findings imply that risk-taking behaviors may be associated with a hypoactive avoidance system rather than impaired response inhibition. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying risk propensity and cognitive control processes can contribute to the development of interventions aimed at reducing risky behaviors and promoting better decision-making.