Differential development of selectivity for faces and bodies in the fusiform gyrus

Viewing faces or bodies activates category‐selective areas of visual cortex, including the fusiform face area (FFA), fusiform body area (FBA), and extrastriate body area (EBA). Here, using fMRI, we investigate the development of these areas, focusing on the right FFA and FBA. Despite the overlap of functionally defined FFA and FBA (54%–75% overlap), we found that these regions developed along different trajectories. With age (7–32 years old), the FFA gradually increased in size and selectivity, and was significantly larger and more face‐selective in adults than children. By contrast, the size and selectivity of the FBA did not correlate with age, and were equivalent in children and adults. Whereas in adults the FFA and FBA were comparable in size, in children the FBA was on average 70% larger than the FFA. These findings suggest that, in children, the fusiform gyrus is predominantly selective for bodies, with commensurate face‐selective responses apparent later in development. Moreover, differences in the development of the FFA and FBA indicate that overlapping functional brain areas, supported by the same anatomical structure, can develop along different trajectories.     

In Search of the Trinity: A Dilemma for Parfit’s Conciliatory Project

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - I outline a dilemma for Derek Parfit’s project to vindicate moral realism. In On What Matters, Parfit argues that the best versions of three of the main...     

Childhood intelligence and adult health: The mediating roles of education and socioeconomic status

The longitudinal relation between childhood intelligence and various health outcomes in adulthood is now well-established. One mediational model that accounts for this relation proposes that intelligence has cumulative indirect effects on adult health via subsequent educational attainment and adult socioeconomic status (SES). The aim of the present study was to examine whether and the extent to which educational attainment and SES mediate the impact of childhood intelligence on three dimensions of adult health in Luxembourg, a country with high-quality universal public health care. We used data from 745 participants in the Luxembourgish MAGRIP study. At the age of 12, participants completed a comprehensive intelligence test. At the age of 52, they reported their educational careers, SES, and functional, subjective, and physical health status. Using structural equation modeling, we investigated the direct and indirect effects (via educational attainment and adult SES) of childhood intelligence on adult health. We found that higher childhood intelligence predicted better functional, subjective, and physical health in adulthood. These effects were entirely mediated via educational attainment and SES. The mediational processes differed depending on the health dimension under investigation: Whereas SES was crucial in mediating the effect of intelligence on functional and subjective health, educational attainment was crucial in mediating the effect on physical health. These findings held up when considering adult intelligence and were similar for women and men. Our results suggest that even excellent public health care cannot fully offset the cumulative effects of childhood intelligence on adult health. Further studies are needed to investigate the relative importance of different mediators in the intelligence–health relation while including a broader set of objective health measures.     

Physical distancing during the COVID-19 crisis: The roles of threat and moralization

One reason why the COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge to public health is that individuals struggled to adhere to virus protective behaviors, such as physical distancing. To aid understanding why people engaged in distancing practices, we investigated the role of threat perceptions and the moralization of physical distancing. We collected longitudinal data from 340 US citizens across five measurement waves from April 2020 to June 2021. Results showed that individuals who perceived COVID-19 as more threatening, and those who more strongly moralized physical distancing, were more likely to engage in physical distancing behavior. Moreover, the effect of threat perceptions on physical distancing behavior was mediated by moralization of physical distancing. These results provide new insights into the adherence to physical distancing behaviors during pandemics and underscore the importance of moralization in shaping behavior.     

Fantasized recipient-donor relationships following lung transplantations: a qualitative case analysis based on patient narratives

The present study examines the relationships between lung transplant recipients and their unknown, deceased donors. Out of 20 semi-structured interviews, eight narratives, by three female and three male recipients respectively, were identified in which the figure of the donor played a role. These narratives were examined using JAKOB, a qualitative research tool that analyses relational configurations and diagnoses psychodynamic conflicts. Analysis revealed a broad range of varying themes and relationships with equally varying wish and fear themes. All the narrators dealt either explicitly or implicitly with whether and how they are connected to their donors. In five narratives, specific personality traits were attributed to the figure of the donor; in four narratives, latent feelings of guilt concerning the donor's death were expressed. Indeed, the figure of the donor was not always perceived as an independent person, separate from the narrator's self: in two cases, the donor appears as part of the recipient's self, while in another case, the donor is presented as a transitional object for the recipient. The findings of the narrative analysis are discussed within a theoretical model of psychical organ integration.     

How do targets,nontargets, and scene context influence real-world object detection?

Humans excel at finding objects in complex natural scenes, but the features that guide this behaviour have proved elusive. We used computational modeling to measure the contributions of target, nontarget, and coarse scene features towards object detection in humans. In separate experiments, participants detected cars or people in a large set of natural scenes. For each scene, we extracted target-associated features, annotated the presence of nontarget objects (e.g., parking meter, traffic light), and extracted coarse scene structure from the blurred image. These scene-specific values were then used to model human reaction times for each novel scene. As expected, target features were the strongest predictor of detection times in both tasks. Interestingly, target detection time was additionally facilitated by coarse scene features but not by nontarget objects. In contrast, nontarget objects predicted target-absent responses in both person and car tasks, with contributions from target features in the person task. In most cases, features that speeded up detection tended to slow down rejection. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that humans show systematic variations in object detection that can be understood using computational modeling.     

Loss aversion and inhibition in dynamical models of multialternative choice

The roles of loss aversion and inhibition among alternatives are examined in models of the similarity, compromise, and attraction effects that arise in choices among 3 alternatives differing on 2 attributes. R. M. Roe, J. R. Busemeyer, and J. T. Townsend (2001) have proposed a linear model in which effects previously attributed to loss aversion (A. Tversky & D. Kahneman, 1991) arise from attention switching between attributes and similarity-dependent inhibitory interactions among alternatives. However, there are several reasons to maintain loss aversion in a theory of choice. In view of this, an alternative theory is proposed, integrating loss aversion and attention switching into a nonlinear model (M. Usher & J. L. McClelland, 2001) that relies on inhibition independent of similarity among alternatives. The model accounts for the 3 effects and makes testable predictions contrasting with those of the Roe et al. (2001) model.