Scholarly Publications - Psychology

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11693/115528

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Open Access
MIR137 polygenic risk for schizophrenia and ephrin-regulated pathway: Role in lateral ventricles and corpus callosum volume
(Asociacion Espanola de Psicologia Conductual, 2024-04-09) Blokland, G. A. M.; Maleki, N.; Jovicich, J.; Mesholam-Gately, R. I.; Delisi, L. E.; Turner, J. A.; Shenton, M. E.; Voineskos, A. N.; Kahn, R. S.; Roffman, J. L.; Holt, D. J.; Ehrlich, S.; Kikinis, Z.; Dazzan, P.; Murray, R. M.; Lee, J.; Sim, K.; Lam, M.; de Zwarte, S. M. C.; Walton, E.; Kelly, S.; Picchioni, M. M.; Bramon, E.; Makris, N.; David, A. S.; Mondelli, V.; Reinders, A. A. T. S.; Oykhman, E.; Morris, D. W.; Gill, M.; Corvin, A. P.; Cahn, W.; Ho, N.; Liu, J.; Gollub, R. L.; Manoach, D. S.; Calhoun, V. D.; Sponheim, S. R.; Buka, S. L.; Cherkerzian, S.; Thermenos, H. W.; Dickie, E. W.; Ciufolini, S.; Marques, T. Reis; Crossley, N. A.; Purcell, S. M.; Smoller, J. W.; Van Haren, N. E. M.; Toulopoulou, Timothea; Donohoe, G.; Goldstein, J. M.; Keshavan, M. S.; Petryshen, T. L.; del Re, E. C.
Background/Objective. Enlarged lateral ventricle (LV) volume and decreased volume in the corpus callosum (CC) are hallmarks of schizophrenia (SZ). We previously showed an inverse correlation between LV and CC volumes in SZ, with global functioning decreasing with increased LV volume. This study investigates the relationship between LV volume, CC abnormalities, and the microRNA MIR137 and its regulated genes in SZ, because of MIR137 's essential role in neurodevelopment. Methods . Participants were 1224 SZ probands and 1466 unaffected controls from the GENUS Consortium. Brain MRI scans, genotype, and clinical data were harmonized across cohorts and employed in the analyses. Results. Increased LV volumes and decreased CC central, mid -anterior, and mid -posterior volumes were observed in SZ probands. The MIR137-regulated ephrin pathway was significantly associated with CC:LV ratio, explaining a significant proportion (3.42 %) of CC:LV variance, and more than for LV and CC separately. Other pathways explained variance in either CC or LV, but not both. CC:LV ratio was also positively correlated with Global Assessment of Functioning, supporting previous subsample findings. SNP -based heritability estimates were higher for CC central:LV ratio (0.79) compared to CC or LV separately. Discussion. Our results indicate that the CC:LV ratio is highly heritable, influenced in part by variation in the MIR137-regulated ephrin pathway. Findings suggest that the CC:LV ratio may be a risk indicator in SZ that correlates with global functioning.
Embargo
Promoting positive intergroup emotions toward refugees through perceived similarity, empathy, and justice sensitivity
(Elsevier Ltd, 2024-03) Gönültaş, Seçil; Ayhan, Serengeti
This study examined how perceived similarity with Syrian refugees is related to intergroup emotions in helping and victimization through empathy and justice sensitivity in children and adolescents. Data was collected from 510 Turkish middle and high school students (Mage = 13.20, SD = 1.92; aged between 10 and 18). Pride in helping refugee peers, the guilt of not being able to help refugee peers, and anger to observe the victimization of refugee peers were measured. Participants’ perceived similarity with Syrian refugees, empathy towards victimized Syrian refugee peers, and observer justice sensitivity towards refugees were evaluated through self-report measures. Parallel mediation models documented significant indirect effects of perceived similarity on three intergroup emotions via empathy and justice sensitivity. Results suggested that participants with higher perceived similarities were more likely to empathize with refugees and report higher rates of justice sensitivity towards the victimization of refugees, which in turn predicted higher feelings of pride, guilt, and anger. Although the direct effects of perceived similarity on intergroup emotions were insignificant, the total effects of perceived similarity were significant. This study contributes to the growing body of literature investigating the possible association between intergroup emotions, intergroup attitudes, and social-cognitive skills to provide insights for intervention programs to promote positive intergroup relations in schools.
Open Access
Print exposure leads to individual differences in the Turkish aorist
(Elsevier Ltd, 2024-07) Gedik, Tan Arda
Several studies have established that not all native speakers extract the same generalization for a given construction due to speaker internal or external reasons, challenging a widely held assumption in linguistics. While there is a considerable number of studies investigating individual differences in grammatical knowledge in other languages, very little is known about how L1 Turkish speakers might manifest such differences in their linguistic knowledge. This is the first study to examine individual differences in the constructional representation of the Turkish aorist in adult L1 Turkish speakers. The aorist is known to be irregular and pose acquisition problems, especially when combined with monosyllabic sonorant ending verbs. The variants of the Turkish aorist have different corpus frequencies across spoken and written modalities. The study investigates to what extent differences in print exposure would lead to differences in how L1 Turkish speakers would apply the construction to monosyllabic-sonorant ending nonce-verbs. Based on the results, people with more written language experience extracted a more sensitive rule that applies to monosyllabic-sonorant ending nonce-verbs, such that they produced more -Ir than -Ar. Contrastingly, people who read less used more -Ar (r = –0.35), and print exposure accounted for roughly 12% of the variance. Our findings are compatible with usage-based approaches and suggest that print exposure-borne differences are pervasive in linguistic knowledge, adding to the growing body of evidence that challenges the convergence hypothesis.
Embargo
Corrigendum to “natural language processing for defining linguistic features in schizophrenia: a sample from Turkish speakers” [Schizophr. Res. 266 (2024) 183–189]
(Elsevier BV, 2024-12) Çabuk, Tuğçe; Sevim, Nurullah; Mutlu, Emre; Yağcıoğlu, A. Elif Anıl; Koç, Aykut; Toulopoulou, Timothea
Open Access
Neural correlates of dynamic lightness induction
(Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, 2024-09) Malik, Amna; Boyacı, Hüseyin
The lightness of a surface depends not only on the amount of light reflected off, it but also on the context in which it is embedded. Despite a long history of research, neural correlates of context-dependent lightness perception remain a topic of ongoing debate. Here, we seek to expand on the existing literature by measuring functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses to lightness variations induced by the context. During the fMRI experiment, we presented 10 participants with a dynamic stimulus in which either the luminance of a disk or its surround is modulated at four different frequencies ranging from 1 to 8 Hz. Behaviorally, when the surround luminance is modulated at low frequencies, participants perceive an illusory change in the lightness of the disk (lightness induction). In contrast, they perceive little or no induction at higher frequencies. Using this frequency dependence and controlling for long-range responses to border contrast and luminance changes, we found that activity in the primary visual cortex (V1) correlates with lightness induction, providing further evidence for the involvement of V1 in the processing of context-dependent lightness.
Open Access
Development of the Turkish author recognition task (TART) and the Turkish vocabulary size test (TurVoST)
(Springer, 2024-08-12) Gedik, Tan Arda
This article reports the development of two novel research tools for Turkish, the Turkish Author Recognition Task (TART) and the Turkish Vocabulary Size Test (TurVoST). Such tools have been readily available for English, Spanish, Korean, Dutch and Chinese but not for Turkish. These tools help researchers to identify the print exposure levels of L1 speakers and an approximation of L1 speakers’ receptive vocabulary knowledge, respectively. Measuring print exposure is important as it is an important driver of L1 development from a usage-based perspective (e.g., Dąbrowska in Cognition 178:222–235, 2018), which influences vocabulary, gram- mar, and collocation knowledge. The findings show that the TART and TurVoST are significantly correlated at 0.47 and the TART accounts for almost 18% of the variance in vocabulary knowledge. Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) scores were found to be 0.99 and 0.74 for two tests respectively. In light of similar previous studies of various ARTs and vocabulary size tests, the TART and the TurVoST are found to be reliable research instruments with correlations and reliability scores within the range of what has been reported in the literature. Potential uses of these two instruments are discussed. All data, R codes, and research instruments are publicly avail- able at https://osf.io/u6t8m/?view_only=63cf706c381a4214950984dae5470df6.
Open Access
Correction to: Sexual horn dimorphism predicts the expression of active personality trait: males perform better only in the sexually horn dimorphic Onthophagus dung beetle
(Springer Japan KK, 2025-01-05) Kerman, Kaan; Angela, R.; Antonio, R.; Claudia, P.
In this article Table 3 caption was incorrectly given as ‘Parameter estimates of the main mixed effect models for O. ruficapillus and O. furcatus. Behavioral measures are factored as response variables and transformed prior to analysis sex, body size, and the interaction term are con sidered as fixed effects in the model. Individual identity is used as a random effect. Fixed effects are scaled for easier comparison between models. Standardized coefficients (β) are reported with 95% confidence intervals. Significant esti mates are given in bold.’ The correct caption should have read ‘Parameter estimates of the main mixed effect models for O. ruficapillus and O. furcatus. Behavioral measures are factored as response variables and transformed prior to analysis sex, body size, and the interaction term are con sidered as fixed effects in the model. Individual identity is used as a random effect. Fixed effects are scaled for easier comparison between models. Unstandardized coefficients (β) are reported with 95% confidence intervals. Significant estimates are given in bold.’ The original article has been corrected.
Open Access
A contextualized emotion perception assessment relates to personal and social well-being
(Academic Press, 2025-02) Kafetsios, Konstantinos; Hess, Ursula; Dostal, Daniel; Seitl, Martin; Hypsova, Petra; Hareli, Shlomo; Alonso-Arbiol, Itziar; Schütz, Astrid; Gruda, Dritjon; Campbell, Kelly; Chen, Bin-Bin; Held, Marco J.; Kamble, Shanmukh; Kimura, Takuma; Kirchner-Häusler, Alexander; Livi, Stefano; Mandal, Eugenia; Ochnik, Dominika; Sakman, Ezgi; Sümer, Nebi; Theodorou, Annalisa; Uskul, Ayse K.
Emotion Recognition Accuracy (ERA) is vital for social functioning and social relationships, yet empirical support for a positive link with well-being has been sparse. In three studies, we show that the Assessment of Contextualized Emotions (ACE) which distinguishes between accurately perceiving intended emotions and bias due to perceiving additional, secondary emotions, consistently predicted personal and social well-being. Across thirteen world cultures, accuracy was associated with higher well-being and life satisfaction, and bias linked to loneliness. A social interaction study in Czech Republic found accuracy (bias) was positively (negatively) associated with social well-being. The effects of accuracy and bias on well-being were partially mediated by social interaction quality in a third study. These findings further our understanding of ERA’s social functions.
Embargo
A worldwide test of the predictive validity of ideal partner preference matching
(American Psychological Association, 2025-01) Eastwick, Paul W.; Sparks, Jehan; Finkel, Eli J.; Meza, Eva M.; Adamkovic, Matus; Adu, Peter; Ai, Ting; Akintola, Aderonke A.; Al-Shawaf, Laith; Apriliawati, Denisa; Arriaga, Patricia; Aubert-Teillaud, Benjamin; Banik, Gabriel; Barzykowski, Krystian; Batres, Carlota; Baucom, Katherine J.; Beaulieu, Elizabeth Z.; Behnke, Maciej; Butcher, Natalie; Charles, Deborah Y.; Chen, Jane Minyan; Cheon, Jeong Eun; Chittham, Phakkanun; Chwilkowska, Patrycja; Cong, Chin Wen; Copping, Lee T.; Corral-Frias, Nadia S.; Adoric, Vera Cubela; Dizon, Mikaela; Du, Hongfei; Ehinmowo, Michael I.; Escribano, Daniela A.; Espinosa, Natalia M.; Exposito, Francisca; Feldman, Gilad; Freitag, Raquel; Armenta, Martha Frias; Gallyamova, Albina; Gillath, Omri; Gjoneska, Biljana; Gkinopoulos, Theofilos; Grafe, Franca; Grigoryev, Dmitry; Groyecka-Bernard, Agata; Gunaydin, Gul; Ilustrisimo, Ruby; Impett, Emily; Kacmar, Pavol; Kim, Young-Hoon; Kocur, Miroslaw; Kowal, Marta; Krishna, Maatangi; Labor, Paul Danielle; Lu, Jackson G.; Lucas, Marc Y.; Malecki, Wojciech P.; Malinakova, Klara; Meissner, Sofia; Meier, Zdenek; Misiak, Michal; Muise, Amy; Novak, Lukas; Jiaqing, O.; Ozdogru, Asil A.; Park, Haeyoung Gideon; Paruzel, Mariola; Pavlovic, Zoran; Puski, Marcell; Ribeiro, Gianni; Roberts, S. Craig; Roer, Jan P.; Ropovik, Ivan; Ross, Robert M.; Sakman, Ezgi; Salvador, Cristina E.; Selcuk, Emre; Skakoon-Sparling, Shayna; Sorokowska, Agnieszka; Sorokowski, Piotr; Spasovski, Ognen; Stanton, Sarah C. E.; Stewart, Suzanne L. K.; Swami, Viren; Szaszi, Barnabas; Takashima, Kaito; Tavel, Peter; Tejada, Julian; Tu, Eric; Tuominen, Jarno; Vaidis, David; Vally, Zahir; Vaughn, Leigh Ann; Villanueva-Moya, Laura; Wisnuwardhani, Dian; Yamada, Yuki; Yonemitsu, Fumiya; Zidkova, Radka; Zivna, Kristyna; Coles, Nicholas A.
Ideal partner preferences (i.e., ratings of the desirability of attributes like attractiveness or intelligence) are the source of numerous foundational findings in the interdisciplinary literature on human mating. Recently, research on the predictive validity of ideal partner preference matching (i.e., Do people positively evaluate partners who match vs. mismatch their ideals?) has become mired in several problems. First, articles exhibit discrepant analytic and reporting practices. Second, different findings emerge across laboratories worldwide, perhaps because they sample different relationship contexts and/or populations. This registered report-partnered with the Psychological Science Accelerator-uses a highly powered design (N = 10,358) across 43 countries and 22 languages to estimate preference-matching effect sizes. The most rigorous tests revealed significant preference-matching effects in the whole sample and for partnered and single participants separately. The "corrected pattern metric" that collapses across 35 traits revealed a zero-order effect of beta = .19 and an effect of beta = .11 when included alongside a normative preference-matching metric. Specific traits in the "level metric" (interaction) tests revealed very small (average beta = .04) effects. Effect sizes were similar for partnered participants who reported ideals before entering a relationship, and there was no consistent evidence that individual differences moderated any effects. Comparisons between stated and revealed preferences shed light on gender differences and similarities: For attractiveness, men's and (especially) women's stated preferences underestimated revealed preferences (i.e., they thought attractiveness was less important than it actually was). For earning potential, men's stated preferences underestimated-and women's stated preferences overestimated-revealed preferences. Implications for the literature on human mating are discussed.
Embargo
Feasibility, acceptability and outcomes of a contextual schema therapy-based mobile program for depressive symptoms in adults
(Elsevier BV, 2024-10) Stroian, Paula I.; David, Daniel Ovidiu; Hora, Adriana; Erenler, Berfin; Tuominen, Ella W.; Vlachantonis, Konstantinos; Žagar, Tea
Background: Given the high prevalence of depression worldwide, there is a pressing need for increasing treatment accessibility and identifying treatment modalities that can sustainably address depression. The present study aims to test the feasibility, acceptability, outcomes and mechanisms of a brief online self-help program depressive symptoms in adults (nCompass), based on Contextual Schema Therapy principles. Method: 102 participants scoring above 14 on the Beck Depression Inventory - Second Version were recruited online and randomly allocated to either the 15-day nCompass intervention or a self-administered online psychoeducation group. Participants filled in self-report measures of depression, schema coping and psychological flexibility at baseline, immediately following the intervention and at a two-week follow-up. Additionally, nCompass participants were administered an instrument measuring the acceptability of the program. Results: The nCompass intervention was overall feasible and acceptable, with most participants completing intervention and assessing it as easy to use, satisfactory and useful. Furthermore, results indicate higher creases in depression and schema coping in the nCompass group by follow-up, compared to the control group. Changes in depressive symptoms from pre-test to post-test and follow-up in the nCompass group were explained by changes in surrender coping. There were no significant differences in psychological flexibility between groups at either post-test or follow-up. Discussion: Our results highlight the nCompass program as a promising option for treating depressive symptoms in the general population.
Open Access
The aesthetic experience of interior spaces with curvilinear boundaries and various space properties in immersive and desktop-based virtual environments
(American Psychological Association, 2024-12-05) Elver Boz, Tuğce; Demirkan, Halime; Ürgen, Burcu Ayşen
The study aims to investigate participants' aesthetic experience in response to environments with curvilinear boundaries that are presented in two different virtual environments (VEs), namely immersive (IVE) and desktop-based virtual environments (DTVE). To this end, 60 participants were presented with 360 degrees 32 VE visualizations that had either horizontal or vertical curvilinear boundaries and possessed various architectural properties (size/light/texture/color) using a head-mounted display and a desktop computer. The aesthetic experience in response to these visualizations was measured in terms of the three key dimensions identified in a previous study (Elver Boz et al., 2022): familiarity, excitement, and fascination. In addition, participants' sense of presence in the two different environments was measured. The results show that familiarity and excitement dimensions were significantly higher in IVE than in DTVE, whereas the two environments did not significantly differ from each other in terms of the fascination dimension. As for the boundary types, the familiarity dimension was significantly higher in horizontal curvilinear boundaries than in vertical ones. In contrast, excitement and fascination dimensions were significantly higher in vertical curvilinear boundaries than in horizontal ones. The only dimension that showed an interaction between boundary types and the type of VE was excitement. Finally, IVE induced a higher presence feeling than DTVE. Overall, results suggest that people's aesthetic experiences toward built environments change as a function of the boundary types and the medium they are presented with these environments and that different dimensions of the aesthetic experience are affected differently by these variables.
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Learning strategies and procrastination as a function of need satisfaction and autonomous motivation: A diary study
(Wiley, 2024-09) Bakali Tahiri, Mohamed Jamal; Mouratidis, And Athanasios
Within the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), basic psychological need satisfaction predicts quality of motivation which in turn predicts study efforts. Although studies focusing on interpersonal differences have repeatedly shown this sequence of relations, only a few have examined its stability at the intra-personal level. In this diary study, we recruited 141 university students (M-age = 20.80, SD = 2.20 years) to investigate the degree of confluence among week-to-week need satisfaction, quality of motivation, learning strategies, and procrastination for four weeks. Multilevel structural equation modelling showed that need satisfaction covaried positively with autonomous motivation. In turn, week-to-week autonomous motivation predicted positively week-to-week critical thinking and effort regulation and negatively procrastination. These relations emerged even after controlling for gender, age, and study hours per week. Further, contextual autonomous motivation predicted higher mean levels of critical thinking and effort regulation and lower ones of procrastination. Interestingly, a cross-level interaction supported the sensitivity hypothesis as the negative relation between need satisfaction and controlled motivation was only true among students who were high in contextual (pre-diary assessed) controlled motivation. These findings highlight the importance of contextual motivation and the need to establish academic environments that consistently satisfy students' psychological needs, thus promoting the quality of motivation and adaptive learning strategies.
Open Access
Mixed in a world of truth and lies: list composition moderates the effects of a lie fabrication manipulation on memory and metamemory
(Sage Publications, Inc., 2024-09-14) Ünal, Belgin; Kaya, Samet; Besken, Miri
Research has shown that list composition moderates the effects of encoding manipulations on memory performance; differential memory performance is observed at distinct levels of the independent variable in mixed lists, but not in pure lists. The current study aims to investigate the effect of list composition on predicted and actual memory performance using a semantic lie fabrication manipulation. In Experiment 1, participants either told the truth or fabricated a lie in response to a set of general knowledge questions in a mixed-list design, made memory predictions for each response, and received a free recall test. Experiments 2A and 2B compared the effect of list composition by employing mixed and pure lists, respectively. The results showed that the lie fabrication led to a metacognitive illusion in mixed lists by inducing a crossed double dissociation between memory and metamemory. Participants produced higher memory performance and lower memory predictions for lies than the truth. In contrast, predicted and actual memory performance were similar for truth and lies in pure lists. These findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on list composition and have implications for situations where individuals need to maintain and remember their fabricated lies.
Open Access
Charting brain GABA and glutamate levels across psychiatric disorders by quantitative analysis of 121 1H-MRS studies
(Cambridge University Press, 2024-11-20) Zhang, Jiayuan; Toulopoulou, Timothea; Li, Qian; Niu, Lijing; Peng, Lanxin; Dai, Haowei; Chen, Keyin; Wang, Xingqin; Huang, Ruiwang; Wei, Xinhua; Zhang, Ruibin
###### Background: Psychiatric diagnosis is based on categorical diagnostic classification, yet similarities in genetics and clinical features across disorders suggest that these classifications share commonalities in neurobiology, particularly regarding neurotransmitters. Glutamate (Glu) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the brain's primary excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters, play critical roles in brain function and physiological processes. ###### Methods: We examined the levels of Glu, combined glutamate and glutamine (Glx), and GABA across psychiatric disorders by pooling data from 121 H-1-MRS studies and further divided the sample based on Axis I disorders. ###### Results: Statistically significant differences in GABA levels were found in the combined psychiatric group compared with healthy controls (Hedge's g = -0.112, p = 0.008). Further analyses based on brain regions showed that brain GABA levels significantly differed across Axis I disorders and controls in the parieto-occipital cortex (Hedge's g = 0.277, p = 0.019). Furthermore, GABA levels were reduced in affective disorders in the occipital cortex (Hedge's g = -0.468, p = 0.043). Reductions in Glx levels were found in neurodevelopmental disorders (Hedge's g = -0.287, p = 0.022). Analysis focusing on brain regions suggested that Glx levels decreased in the frontal cortex (Hedge's g = -0.226, p = 0.025), and the reduction of Glu levels in patients with affective disorders in the frontal cortex is marginally significant (Hedge's g = -0.172, p = 0.052). When analyzing the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex separately, reductions were only found in GABA levels in the former (Hedge's g = - 0.191, p = 0.009) across all disorders. ###### Conclusions: Altered glutamatergic and GABAergic metabolites were found across psychiatric disorders, indicating shared dysfunction. We found reduced GABA levels across psychiatric disorders and lower Glu levels in affective disorders. These results highlight the significance of GABA and Glu in psychiatric etiology and partially support rethinking current diagnostic categories.
Open Access
Two distinct networks for encoding goals and forms of action: an effective connectivity study
(National Academy of Sciences, 2024-06-17) Di Cesare, Giuseppe; Lombardi, Giada; Zeidman, Peter; Ürgen, Burcu Ayşen; Sciutti, Alessandra; Friston, Karl J.; Rizzolatti, Giacomo
Goal- directed actions are characterized by two main features: the content (i.e., the action goal) and the form, called vitality forms (VF) (i.e., how actions are executed). It is well another's action are mediated by a network formed by a set of parietal and frontal brain areas. In contrast, the neural bases of action forms (e.g., gentle or rude actions) have not been characterized. However, there are now studies showing that the observation and execution of actions endowed with VF activate, in addition to the parieto- frontal network, the dorso- central insula (DCI). In the present study, we established-using dynamic causal modeling (DCM)-the direction of information flow during observation and execution of actions endowed with gentle and rude VF in the human brain. Based on previous fMRI studies, the selected nodes for the DCM comprised the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the inferior parietal lobule (IPL), the premotor cortex (PM), and the DCI. Bayesian model comparison showed that, during action observation, two streams arose from pSTS: one toward IPL, concerning the action goal, and one toward DCI, concerning the action vitality forms. During action execution, two streams arose from PM: one toward IPL, concerning the action goal and one toward DCI concerning action vitality forms. This last finding opens an interesting question concerning the possibility to elicit VF in two distinct ways: cognitively (from PM to DCI) and affectively (from DCI to PM).
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Peer group norms affect adolescents' bystander social cognitions
(American Psychological Association, 2025-09-26) Gönültaş, Seçil; Argyri, Eirini K.; Yueksel, Ayse Sule; Mcguire, Luke; Palmer, Sally B.; Killen, Melanie; Rutland, Adam
This study examined the impact of peer norms on judgments and reasoning about bystander responses to the social exclusion of immigrants among 431 British early (Mage = 11.67, SD = 1.64) and late (Mage = 16.73, SD = 0.87) adolescents. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions in which ingroup and outgroup peer norms were either inclusive or exclusive. Subsequently, they read a story in which one British peer excluded an immigrant peer while another British peer challenged the exclusion. Participants rated their individual and perceived group evaluation of the challenger. Further, they were asked to evaluate how likely their peer group would be to support them if they challenged the exclusion. Results showed that only late adolescents exposed to the inclusive ingroup norm were more likely to perceive that their group would evaluate bystander challenging positively than those exposed to the exclusive norm. Late adolescents perceived higher peer support for being inclusive when the outgroup held an inclusive norm compared to early adolescents. Results suggest a developmental shift during adolescence, with reasoning and evaluations of challenging social exclusion becoming increasingly related to perceived ingroup and outgroup norms. Further, inclusive ingroup norms were indirectly associated with greater challenging through perceived group support for both age groups. Promoting inclusive peer group norms in schools can foster bystander challenging of immigrant exclusion, which in turn can help provide a safe and peaceful school environment for all youth.
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Analyzing language ability in first-episode psychosis and their unaffected siblings: a diffusion tensor imaging tract-based spatial statistics analysis study
(Elsevier Ltd, 2024-11) Çabuk, Tuğçe; Çevik, Didenur Şahin; Çakmak, Işık Batuhan; Kafalı, Helin Yilmaz; Şenol, Bedirhan; Avcı, Hanife; Oğuz, Kader Karlı; Toulopoulou, Timothea
Schizophrenia (SZ) is a highly heritable mental disorder, and language dysfunctions play a crucial role in diagnosing it. Although language-related symptoms such as disorganized speech were predicted by the polygenic risk for SZ which emphasized the common genetic liability for the disease, few studies investigated possible white matter integrity abnormalities in the language-related tracts in those at familial high-risk for SZ. Also, their results are not consistent. In this current study, we examined possible aberrations in language-related white matter tracts in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP, N = 20), their siblings (SIB, N = 20), and healthy controls (CON, N = 20) by applying whole-brain Tract-Based Spatial Statistics and region-of-interest analyses. We also assessed language ability by Thought and Language Index (TLI) using Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pictures and verbal fluency to see whether the scores of these language tests would predict the differences in these tracts. We found significant alterations in language-related tracts such as inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and uncinate fasciculus (UF) among three groups and between SIB and CON. We also proved partly their relationship with the language test as indicated by the significant correlation detected between TLI Impoverished thought/language sub-scale and ILF. We could not find any difference between FEP and CON. These results showed that the abnormalities, especially in the ILF and UF, could be important pathophysiological vulnerability indexes of schizophrenia. Further studies are required to understand better the role of language as a possible endophenotype in schizophrenia with larger samples.
Open Access
Task-modulated neural responses in scene-selective regions of the human brain
(Elsevier Ltd, 2025-02) Koç, Aysu Nur; Ürgen, Burcu Ayşen; Afacan, Yasemin
The study of scene perception is crucial to the understanding of how one interprets and interacts with their environment, and how the environment impacts various cognitive functions. The literature so far has mainly focused on the impact of low-level and categorical properties of scenes and how they are represented in the scene-selective regions in the brain, PPA, RSC, and OPA. However, higher-level scene perception and the impact of behavioral goals is a developing research area. Moreover, the selection of the stimuli has not been systematic and mainly focused on outdoor environments. In this fMRI experiment, we adopted multiple behavioral tasks, selected real-life indoor stimuli with a systematic categorization approach, and used various multivariate analysis techniques to explain the neural modulation of scene perception in the scene-selective regions of the human brain. Participants (N = 21) performed categorization and approach-avoidance tasks during fMRI scans while they were viewing scenes from built environment categories based on different affordances ((i)access and (ii)circulation elements, (iii)restrooms and (iv)eating/seating areas). ROI-based classification analysis revealed that the OPA was significantly successful in decoding scene category regardless of the task, and that the task condition affected category decoding performances of all the scene-selective regions. Model-based representational similarity analysis (RSA) revealed that the activity patterns in scene-selective regions are best explained by task. These results contribute to the literature by extending the task and stimulus content of scene perception research, and uncovering the impact of behavioral goals on the scene-selective regions of the brain.
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The link between early iconic gesture comprehension and receptive language
(John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2024-10-09) Doğan, Işıl; Özer, Demet; Aktan-Erciyes, Aslı; Furman, Reyhan; Demir-Lira, O. Ece; Özçalışkan, Şeyda; Göksun, Tilbe
Children comprehend iconic gestures relatively later than deictic gestures. Previous research with English-learning children indicated that they could comprehend iconic gestures at 26 months, a pattern whose extension to other languages is not yet known. The present study examined Turkish-learning children's iconic gesture comprehension and its relation to their receptive vocabulary knowledge. Turkish-learning children between the ages of 22- and 30-month-olds (N = 92, M = 25.6 months, SD = 1.6; 51 girls) completed a gesture comprehension task in which they were asked to choose the correct picture that matched the experimenter's speech and iconic gestures. They were also administered a standardized receptive vocabulary test. Children's performance in the gesture comprehension task increased with age, which was also related to their receptive vocabulary knowledge. When children were categorized into younger and older age groups based on the median age (i.e., 26 months-the age at which iconic gesture comprehension was present for English-learning children), only the older group performed at chance level in the task. At the same time, receptive vocabulary was positively related to gesture comprehension for younger but not older children. These findings suggest a shift in iconic gesture comprehension at around 26 months and indicate a possible link between receptive vocabulary knowledge and iconic gesture comprehension, particularly for children younger than 26 months.
Open Access
Biological motion perception in the theoretical framework of perceptual decision-making: an event-related potential study
(Elsevier Ltd, 2024-05) Oğuz, Osman Çağrı; Aydın, Berfin; Ürgen, Burcu Ayşen
Biological motion perception plays a critical role in various decisions in daily life. Failure to decide accordingly in such a perceptual task could have life-threatening consequences. Neurophysiology and computational modeling studies suggest two processes mediating perceptual decision-making. One of these signals is associated with the accumulation of sensory evidence and the other with response selection. Recent EEG studies with humans have introduced an event-related potential called Centroparietal Positive Potential (CPP) as a neural marker aligned with the sensory evidence accumulation while effectively distinguishing it from motor-related lateralized readiness potential (LRP). The present study aims to investigate the neural mechanisms of biological motion perception in the framework of perceptual decision-making, which has been overlooked before. More specifically, we examine whether CPP would track the coherence of the biological motion stimuli and could be distinguished from the LRP signal. We recorded EEG from human participants while they performed a direction discrimination task of a point-light walker stimulus embedded in various levels of noise. Our behavioral findings revealed shorter reaction times and reduced miss rates as the coherence of the stimuli increased. In addition, CPP tracked the coherence of the biological motion stimuli with a tendency to reach a common level during the response, albeit with a later onset than the previously reported results in random-dot motion paradigms. Furthermore, CPP was distinguished from the LRP signal based on its temporal profile. Overall, our results suggest that the mechanisms underlying perceptual decision-making generalize to more complex and socially significant stimuli like biological motion.