When detecting a threat, humans and other animals engage in defensive behaviors and supporting physiological adjustments that vary with threat imminence and potential response options. In the present study, we shed light on the dynamics of defensive behaviors and associated physiological adjustments in humans using multiple psychophysiological and brain measures. When participants were exposed to a dynamically approaching, uncontrollable threat, attentive freezing was augmented, as indicated by an increase in skin conductance, fear bradycardia, and potentiation of the startle reflex. In contrast, when participants had the opportunity to actively avoid the approaching threat, attention switched to response preparation, as indicated by an inhibition of the startle magnitude and by a sharp drop of the probe-elicited P3 component of the evoked brain potentials. These new findings on the dynamics of defensive behaviors form an important intersection between animal and human research and have important implications for understanding fear and anxiety-related disorders.

Symmetry is an important cue for the aesthetic judgment of beauty. Using a binary forced-choice format in a cued mixed design, Jacobsen and Höfel (2003) compared aesthetic judgments of beauty and symmetry judgments of novel graphic patterns. A late posterior sustained negativity elicited by symmetric patterns was observed in the symmetry judgment condition, but not in the beauty judgement condition. Therefore, this negativity appeared to be mainly driven by the task.In a series of studies, Bertamini, Makin, and colleagues observed a comparable sustained posterior negativity (SPN) to symmetric stimuli, mainly taken to reflect obligatory symmetry processing independent of task requirements. We reanalyzed the data by Jacobsen and Höfel (2003) using similar parameters for data analysis as Bertamini, Makin, and colleagues to examine these apparent differences. The reanalysis confirmed both a task-driven effect on the posterior sustained negativity/SPN to symmetric patterns in the symmetry judgment condition and a strong symmetry-driven SPN to symmetric patterns. Differences between the references used for analyses of the electroencephalogram (EEG) had an effect. Based on the reanalysis, the Jacobsen and Höfel (2003) data also fit well with Bertamini’s, Makin’s, and colleagues’ account of obligatory symmetry processing.

Research investigating the effects of carbohydrate (CHO) mouth rinsing on neurocognitive functions is currently limited and has yielded inconsistent results. In this study, we employed the event-related potential (ERP) electroencephalography technique to investigate the effect of CHO mouth rinsing on electrophysiological correlates of visuospatial attention. Using a double-blind, non-nutritive sweetener (NNS)-controlled, within-subjects design, 53 young adults performed a standard cognitive task (modified Simon task) on two separate days in a fasted state (16 h). Intermittently, mouth rinsing was performed either with a CHO (glucose, 18%, 30 mL) or an NNS solution (aspartame, 0.05%, 30 mL). Results revealed that relative to NNS, electrophysiological correlates of both more bottom-up controlled visuospatial attention (N1_pc-ERP component) were decreased in response to CHO rinsing. In contrast, compared to NNS, more top-down controlled visuospatial attention (N2_pc-ERP component) was increased after CHO rinsing. Behavioral performance, however, was not affected by mouth rinsing. Our findings suggest that orosensory signals can impact neurocognitive processes of visuospatial attention in a fasted state. This may suggest a central mechanism underlying the ergogenic effects of carbohydrate mouth rinsing on endurance performance could involve modulations of attentional factors. Methodologically, our study underlines that understanding the effects of carbohydrate mouth rinsing at the central level may require combining neuroscientific methods and manipulations of nutritional states.

In neuroimaging research, efforts to enhance replication and reproducibility have increased the focus on improving transparency, particularly in the complex data analysis processes. We conducted a multi-lab collaborative study involving 38 international teams that analyzed two functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) datasets. These teams tested seven group-level and forty individual-level hypotheses, and they submitted detailed reports on their analysis pipelines and testing outcomes. The results showed significant variability in hypothesis testing outcomes due to differences in analytical approaches. There was greater consensus in group-level analyses compared to individual-level analyses. Factors such as the pruning method, hemodynamic response function model and estimation, and statistical analysis space partly account for the variability in hypothesis testing outcomes. Additionally, we have found higher similarity in hypothesis testing outcomes across the researchers who reported higher confidence in their analysis skills. This study underscores the importance of complying with best practices in fNIRS analysis methodologies and the need for standardized analysis protocols to improve reliability and credibility.