•We determined if humans are able to identify sick individuals solely from biological motion.•Video clips and point-light displays of experimentally-induced sick individuals were used.•Untrained ...raters were able to identify sick individuals from video clips and point-light displays.•Sickness detection was predicted by the changes in gait parameters induced by inflammation.•Sick people are likely to be detected, and thus avoided, by others from a distance.
Identification of sick conspecifics allows for avoidance of infectious threats, and is therefore an important behavioral defense against diseases. Here, we investigated if humans can identify sick individuals solely from biological motion and posture (using point-light displays). Additionally, we sought to determine which movements and sickness parameters would predict such detection. We collected video clips and derived point-light displays (one stride presented in a loop) of sick walkers (injected with lipopolysaccharide at 2.0 ng/kg body weight) and the same walkers when healthy (injected with saline). We then presented these displays to two groups, one group classified each walker as sick or healthy (study 1, n = 106), and the other group scored the walkers’ health on a visual analogue scale (study 2, n = 106). The raters were able to identify sick individuals above chance, and rated sick walkers as having worse health, both from observing video clips and point-light displays. Furthermore, both sickness detection and worse apparent health were predicted by inflammation-induced increase in rigidity and slower walking, but not other cues. Altogether, these findings indicate that biological motion can serve as a sickness cue, possibly allowing humans to identify sick conspecifics from a distance, and thereby allowing for disease avoidance.
Despite increasing knowledge of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) across the life span, there is still little research on adults' own experiences of being diagnosed with ADHD. The aim ...of the present study was to explore and describe patients' experiences and perceptions of being diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood. The study can be seen as an attempt to validate the diagnosis from a patient perspective.
Twenty-one adults diagnosed with ADHD were individually interviewed. The interviews were open-ended and exploratory, analysed with a qualitative phenomenographical approach, and the results were described in categories.
Positive experiences were dominant, but there was a complex intra- and inter-individual variation of experiences. Descriptions focused on the diagnosis, on identity, and on life. The diagnosis was described as explaining a previously inexplicable life history, but was also questioned, both as a phenomenon and in relation to the individual (the diagnosis in focus). It was experienced as providing self-knowledge and increased value, but could also cause devaluation and concern about identity (identity in focus). It meant help to achieve a better life, but was also perceived to restrict possibilities and cause disappointment over lack of professional help. It could lead to a wish for an earlier diagnosis that could have spared suffering, as well as to a changed view of the participants' relatives (life in focus). All but one of the interviewees expressed important positive consequences of being diagnosed with ADHD. About half of them acknowledged negative aspects of being diagnosed, but none regretted going through the neuropsychiatric evaluation.
From a patient perspective, there are major positive consequences of being diagnosed with ADHD, compared to the undiagnosed situation. Knowledge of the individual's combination of experiences is important for professionals, as these experiences can affect well-being and interfere with treatment. Negative experiences in particular might need to be addressed in the treatment work.
•We assessed the effect of acute inflammation on cognitive reappraisal of emotions.•Inflammation led to more success in down-regulating emotions to unpleasant stimuli.•Participants had more ...difficulty to down-regulate disgust vs general negative stimuli.
Even though dysfunctional emotion regulation is prominent in depression and a link between depression and inflammation is well established, there is little knowledge about how inflammation affects the regulation of emotions. The aim of this pilot study was to explore the effect of experimentally induced inflammation on the cognitive reappraisal of emotions, and to assess domain specificity by comparing success in regulation of emotions towards two unpleasant stimuli classes (general negative stimuli and disgust stimuli). In a between-subject design, ten healthy participants were injected with an intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide (2 ng/kg body weight) and eleven were injected with saline. Participants performed a cognitive reappraisal task, in which they had to down-regulate or up-regulate their emotions towards general negative stimuli and disgust stimuli, 5–6 h post-injection. Contrary to our hypotheses, participants injected with lipopolysaccharide reported greater success in down-regulating emotional responses towards unpleasant stimuli as compared to the saline group. In addition, both groups were poorer at down-regulating emotions towards disgust stimuli as compared to general negative stimuli. The current pilot study indicates that cognitive reappraisal of emotions is affected during experimental endotoxemia, and suggests that disgust stimuli might be difficult to reappraise.
Abstract
Effective climate policy that addresses carbon dioxide emissions is essential to minimizing and addressing the impacts of ocean acidification (OA). Here we present a framework to assess the ...readiness of OA policy, using coral reefs as a focal system. Six dimensions encompass comprehensive preparation by ecosystems and societies for the impacts of OA and other anthropogenic hazards: (1) climate protection measures, (2) OA literacy, (3) area-based management, (4) research and development, (5) adaptive capacity of dependent sectors, and (6) policy coherence. We define standardized indicators, identify leading countries, and evaluate the case study of Australia, the country with the largest coral reef system. The framework provides a rubric for a government unit to self- assess strengths and weaknesses in policy preparedness and to prioritize future endeavors.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess ...the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals—fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care—might have been affected. To address this question, we gathered data on fundamental social motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries, N = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female; Mage = 24.43, SD = 7.91; mid-pandemic wave: 29 countries, N = 6917; 2249 male, 4218 female; Mage = 28.59, SD = 11.31). Samples include data collected online (e.g., Prolific, MTurk), at universities, and via community sampling. We found that Disease Avoidance motivation was substantially higher during the pandemic, and that most of the other fundamental social motives showed small, yet significant, differences across waves. Most sensibly, concern with caring for one's children was higher during the pandemic, and concerns with Mate Seeking and Status were lower. Earlier findings showing the prioritization of family motives over mating motives (and even over Disease Avoidance motives) were replicated during the pandemic. Finally, well-being remained positively associated with family-related motives and negatively associated with mating motives during the pandemic, as in the pre-pandemic samples. Our results provide further evidence for the robust primacy of family-related motivations even during this unique disruption of social life.
Abstract
How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy ...of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives—self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care—are high in fitness relevance and everyday salience, yet understudied cross-culturally. Here, we gathered data on these motives in 42 countries (
N
= 15,915) in two cross-sectional waves, including 19 countries (
N
= 10,907) for which data were gathered in both waves. Wave 1 was collected from mid-2016 through late 2019 (32 countries,
N
= 8,998; 3,302 male, 5,585 female;
M
age
= 24.43,
SD
= 7.91). Wave 2 was collected from April through November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic (29 countries,
N
= 6,917; 2,249 male, 4,218 female;
M
age
= 28.59,
SD
= 11.31). These data can be used to assess differences and similarities in people’s fundamental social motives both across and within cultures, at different time points, and in relation to other commonly studied cultural indicators and outcomes.
A successful integrated ocean acidification (OA) observing network must include 1) scientists and technicians from a range of disciplines (from physics to chemistry to biology to technology ...development) and across the globe; 2) government, private, and intergovernmental support; 3) regional cohorts working together on regionally specific issues; 4) publicly accessible data from the open ocean to coastal to estuarine systems; 5) close integration with other networks focusing on related measurements or issues including the social and economic consequences of OA; and 6) observation-based informational products useful for decision making such as management of fisheries and aquaculture. The Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON), a key player in this vision, seeks to expand and enhance geographic extent and availability of coastal and open ocean observing data to ultimately inform adaptive measures and policy action, especially in support of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. GOA-ON works to empower and support regional collaborative networks such as the Latin American Ocean Acidification Network, supports new scientists entering the field with training, mentorship, and equipment, refines approaches for tracking biological impacts, and stimulates development of lower-cost methodology and technologies allowing for wider participation of scientists. GOA-ON seeks to collaborate with and complement work done by other observing networks such as those focused on carbon flux into the ocean, tracking of carbon and oxygen in the ocean, observing biological diversity, and determining short- and long-term variability in these and other ocean parameters through space and time.
As living carbonate-based structures, coral reefs are highly vulnerable to ocean acidification. The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the largest continuous coral reef system in the world. Its economic, ...social, and icon assets are valued at AU$56 billion (Deloitte Access Economics, 2017), owing to its vast biodiversity and services related to commercial and recreational fisheries, shoreline protection, and reef-related tourism and recreation. Ocean acidification poses a significant risk to these ecological and socioeconomic services, threatening not only the structural foundation of the GBR but the livelihoods of reef-dependent sectors of society. To assess the vulnerabilities of the GBR to ocean acidification, we review the characteristics of the GBR and the current valuation and factors affecting potential losses across three major areas of socioeconomic concern: fisheries, shoreline protection, and reef-related tourism and recreation. We then discuss potential solutions, both conventional and unconventional, for mitigating ocean acidification impacts on the GBR and propose a suite of actions that would help assess and increase the region’s preparedness for the effects of ocean acidification.
Objective: To compare telephone interview screening for child psychiatric/neuropsychiatric disorders using the inventory of Autism-Tics, Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and other ...Comorbidities (A-TAC) with results from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Background: The A-TAC is a parent telephone interview focusing on autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and co-existing problems, developed for lay interviewers. Subjects and methods: A-TAC telephone interviews and CBCL questionnaires were obtained from parents of 106 Swedish twin pairs aged 9 and 12 years. Results: Correlations between A-TAC modules and CBCL scales aimed at measuring similar concepts were generally significant albeit modest, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.30 through 0.55. Conclusion: The A-TAC has convergent validity with the CBCL in several problem areas, but the A-TAC also provides more detailed and specific assessments of ASD symptoms and related neuropsychiatric problems.
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