Brain and Cognition

15 January 2021

Prediction of state anxiety by machine learning applied to photoplethysmography data

David Perpetuini, Antonio Maria Chiarelli, Daniela Cardone, Chiara Filippini, Sergio Rinella, Simona Massimino, Francesco Bianco, Valentina Bucciarelli, Vincenzo Vinciguerra, Piero Fallica, Vincenzo Perciavalle, Sabina Gallina, Sabrina Conoci, Arcangelo Merla

Marco Tullio Liuzza –– A well conducted study that provides an interesting tool for scholars in the psychobiological and in the biomedical engineering filed.

13 January 2021

Reduced recognition of facial emotional expressions in global burnout and burnout depersonalization in healthcare providers

Valentina Colonnello, Luca Carnevali, Paolo Maria Russo, Cristina Ottaviani, Valeria Cremonini, Emanuele Venturi, Katia Mattarozzi

Francesco Chirico –– This paper is a very good work!

14 December 2020

Registered report: investigating a preference for certainty in conversation among autistic adults compared to dyslexic adults and the general population

Alexander C. Wilson, Dorothy V.M. Bishop

Anna Borghi –– An interesting investigation on uncertainty in inferring meanings in conversation, and on how different populations (autistic vs. non autistic adults) might experience this uncertainty.

30 November 2020

A Bayesian brain model of adaptive behavior: an application to the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task

Marco D’Alessandro, Stefan T. Radev, Andreas Voss, Luigi Lombardi

Marco Tullio Liuzza –– It is a useful application of Bayesian computation approaches to the modeling of the human behavior in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Game.

19 November 2020

Freeze-like responses to pain in humans and its modulation by social context

Kai Karos, Ann Meulders, Tine Leyssen, Johan W. Vlaeyen

G. Lorimer Moseley –– This is more than an incrememental step because it takes this interesting field of enquiry in a new direction, which may yield really important discoveries for the prevention and treatment of persisting pain problems.

19 November 2020

Oxytocin weakens self-other distinction in males during empathic responses to sadness: an event-related potentials study

Tong Yue, Ying Xu, Liming Xue, Xiting Huang

Jafri Abdullah –– ERP group

17 November 2020

A valid and reliable measure of nothing: disentangling the “Gavagai effect” in survey data

Victor B. Arias, Fernando P. Ponce, Martin Bruggeman, Noelia Flores, Cristina Jenaro

Andrew Gray –– This excellent article will, I hope, encourage researchers to be much more thoughtful when interpreting the psychometric properties of instruments, and this applies to a wide range of disciplines from public health to psychology. As the authors note, the application of statistical techniques, in themselves, cannot do our thinking for us.

17 November 2020

The neuropsychological profile of professional action video game players

Julie Justine Benoit, Eugenie Roudaia, Taylor Johnson, Trevor Love, Jocelyn Faubert

Catherine Myers –– This adds to an emerging literature on cognition and video gaming, and is one of the few studies that has attempted to contrast professional players vs. amateur gamers.

12 November 2020

Effects of personality on the developmental trajectories of academic burnout among Korean medical students

Han Chae, C. Robert Cloninger, Soo Jin Lee

Eric Bauman –– Burnout is often explored among practicing physicians, rather than students. Exploring the impetus for burnout among students provides valuable insight into developing mechanisms to address burnout proactively.

6 November 2020

No conclusive evidence that difficult general knowledge questions cause a “Google Stroop effect”. A replication study

Guido Hesselmann

Bob Patton –– A well designed replication study.