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JAMA Network Open May 2024Free video-sharing platforms (VSPs) make up a high proportion of children's daily screen use. Many VSPs make algorithmic recommendations, appearing as thumbnail images...
IMPORTANCE
Free video-sharing platforms (VSPs) make up a high proportion of children's daily screen use. Many VSPs make algorithmic recommendations, appearing as thumbnail images from the video, which content creators use to advertise their video content.
OBJECTIVE
To explore how VSP thumbnails use attention-capture designs to encourage engagement with content and to test whether VSP algorithmic recommendations offer more problematic thumbnail features over time.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
In this cross-sectional study conducted in January 2022, researchers mimicked the search behavior of children on a popular VSP by randomly clicking on recommended videos in order to test whether thumbnail designs changed over 20 sequential video engagements. A digital, footprint-free data collection setting was created by using a new computer and wireless internet router. Data were collected from YouTube via an internet browser not logged into a user account. Data analysis occurred from April to December 2022.
EXPOSURES
Manual searches using 12 top-searched terms popular with school-aged children were conducted. Researchers captured the video thumbnails recommended at the end of each video and randomly clicked subsequent videos for 20 sequential engagements.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Thumbnail content codes were developed through iterative review of screenshots by a multidisciplinary research team and applied by trained coders (reliability, κ >.70). The prevalence of problematic thumbnail content and change in prevalence over 20 engagements was calculated using the Cochran-Armitage trend test.
RESULTS
A total of 2880 video thumbnails were analyzed and 6 features were coded, including visual loudness; drama and intrigue; lavish excess and wish fulfillment; creepy, bizarre, and disturbing; violence, peril, and pranks; and gender stereotypes. A high proportion contained problematic features including the creepy, bizarre, and disturbing feature (1283 thumbnails [44.6%]), violence, peril, and pranks feature (1170 thumbnails [40.6%]), and gender stereotypes feature (525 thumbnails [18.2%]). Other features included attention-capture designs such as the visual loudness feature (2278 thumbnails [79.1%]), drama and intrigue feature (2636 thumbnails [91.5%]) and lavish excess and wish fulfillment feature (1286 thumbnails [44.7%]). Contrary to the hypotheses, problematic feature prevalence did not increase over time, but the gender stereotypes feature increased with more engagement in the recommendations feed (P for trend < .001).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
In this study of video recommendations for search terms popular with children, thumbnails contained problematic and attention-capturing designs including violent, stereotyped, and frightening themes. Research is needed to understand how children respond to thumbnail designs and whether such designs influence the quality of content children consume.
Topics: Humans; Cross-Sectional Studies; Child; Male; Female; Algorithms; Video Recording; Social Media; Screen Time; Adolescent
PubMed: 38809550
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.13855 -
Yonago Acta Medica May 2024Self-injurious, stereotyped, and aggressive/destructive behaviors exhibited by individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders are called...
Self-injurious, stereotyped, and aggressive/destructive behaviors exhibited by individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders are called challenging behaviors (CBs). Severe CBs often require long-term treatment involving psychosocial approaches based on behavioral interventions and/or medication. A boy with severe CB enrolled in a special needs school, with diagnoses of autism and intellectual disability, was the client of the study. This case report describes the long-term outcomes of eight years of continuous school consultation. The student's severe CB improved with environmental adjustments in the classroom, unified teacher involvement, instruction of leisure and communication skills, and medication. Long-term research on changes in CBs through school consultation is limited, and this case report provides important insights into the development of effective educational programs and curricula for severe CBs in school-aged children.
PubMed: 38803589
DOI: 10.33160/yam.2024.05.006 -
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) May 2024Pain experience increases individuals' perception and contagion of others' pain, but whether pain experience affects individuals' affiliative or antagonistic responses...
Pain experience increases individuals' perception and contagion of others' pain, but whether pain experience affects individuals' affiliative or antagonistic responses to others' pain is largely unknown. Additionally, the neural mechanisms underlying how pain experience modulates individuals' responses to others' pain remain unclear. In this study, we explored the effects of pain experience on individuals' responses to others' pain and the underlying neural mechanisms. By comparing locomotion, social, exploration, stereotyped, and anxiety-like behaviors of mice without any pain experience (naïve observers) and mice with a similar pain experience (experienced observers) when they observed the pain-free demonstrator with intraperitoneal injection of normal saline and the painful demonstrator with intraperitoneal injection of acetic acid, we found that pain experience of the observers led to decreased social avoidance to the painful demonstrator. Through whole-brain c-Fos quantification, we discovered that pain experience altered neuronal activity and enhanced functional connectivity in the mouse brain. The analysis of complex network and graph theory exhibited that functional connectivity networks and activated hub regions were altered by pain experience. Together, these findings reveal that neuronal activity and functional connectivity networks are involved in the modulation of individuals' responses to others' pain by pain experience.
Topics: Animals; Mice; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; Male; Pain; Brain; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Social Behavior; Avoidance Learning; Neural Pathways
PubMed: 38798004
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhae207 -
BioRxiv : the Preprint Server For... May 2024The gustatory cortex (GC) plays a pivotal role in taste perception, with neural ensemble responses reflecting taste quality and influencing behavior. Recent work,...
The gustatory cortex (GC) plays a pivotal role in taste perception, with neural ensemble responses reflecting taste quality and influencing behavior. Recent work, however, has shown that GC taste responses change across sessions of novel taste exposure in taste-naïve rats. Here, we use single-trial analyses to explore changes in the cortical taste-code on the scale of individual trials. Contrary to the traditional view of taste perception as innate, our findings suggest rapid, experience-dependent changes in GC responses during initial taste exposure trials. Specifically, we find that early responses to novel taste are less "stereotyped" and encode taste identity less reliably compared to later responses. These changes underscore the dynamic nature of sensory processing and provides novel insights into the real-time dynamics of sensory processing across novel-taste familiarization.
PubMed: 38766243
DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.08.593234 -
The Journal of Experimental Biology Jun 2024Myxine limosa is a burrowing species of hagfish that occurs in the western North Atlantic in areas with muddy substrate and at depths generally greater than...
Myxine limosa is a burrowing species of hagfish that occurs in the western North Atlantic in areas with muddy substrate and at depths generally greater than 100 meters. Burrowing of M. limosa has been observed from submersibles, but little is known about the behavior of these animals within the substrate or the biomechanical mechanisms involved. Here, we investigated burrowing in M. limosa by observing individuals as they burrowed through transparent gelatin. A photoelastic setup using crossed polarizers allowed us to visualize stress development in the gelatin as the hagfish moved through it. We found that M. limosa created U-shaped burrows in gelatin using a stereotyped, two-phase burrowing behavior. In the first ('thrash') phase, hagfish drove their head and their anterior body into the substrate using vigorous sinusoidal swimming movements, with their head moving side-to-side. In the second ('wriggle') phase, swimming movements ceased, with propulsion coming exclusively from the anterior, submerged portion of body. The wriggle phase involved side-to-side head movements and movements of the submerged part of the body that resembled the internal concertina strategy used by caecilians and uropeltid snakes. The entire burrowing process took on average 7.6 min to complete and ended with the hagfish's head protruding from the substrate and the rest of its body generally concealed. Understanding the burrowing activities of hagfishes could lead to improved understanding of sediment turnover in marine benthic habitats, new insights into the reproductive behavior of hagfishes, or even inspiration for the design of burrowing robots.
Topics: Animals; Hagfishes; Biomechanical Phenomena; Behavior, Animal; Swimming; Gelatin
PubMed: 38757152
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.247544 -
Neurocase Feb 2024We report a patient with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia who developed agraphia, irritability, perseverative and stereotyped behavior, and dietary changes....
We report a patient with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia who developed agraphia, irritability, perseverative and stereotyped behavior, and dietary changes. MRI revealed bilateral frontal convexity atrophy. Neuropsychological examination showed fluent aphasia with perseverative allographic agraphia, mild semantic impairment, and dysexecutive syndrome. Allographic agraphia featured unidirectional conversion from (cursive form of Japanese phonograms) and (Japanese morphograms) to (square form of Japanese phonograms), as opposed to mutual (bidirectional) conversion between and in parieto-occipital gyri lesions. Furthermore, all letters of the word were converted and this whole-word conversion may be characteristic of perseverative behavior in frontotemporal dementia.
Topics: Humans; Frontotemporal Dementia; Agraphia; Male; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Frontal Lobe; Atrophy
PubMed: 38752838
DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2024.2353936 -
Current Biology : CB May 2024Relatively little is known about how peripheral nervous systems (PNSs) contribute to the patterning of behavior in which their role transcends the simple execution of...
Relatively little is known about how peripheral nervous systems (PNSs) contribute to the patterning of behavior in which their role transcends the simple execution of central motor commands or mediation of reflexes. We sought to draw inferences to this end in the aeolid nudibranch Berghia stephanieae, which generates a rapid, dramatic defense behavior, "bristling." This behavior involves the coordinated movement of cerata, dozens of venomous appendages emerging from the animal's mantle. Our investigations revealed that bristling constitutes a stereotyped but non-reflexive two-stage behavior: an initial adduction of proximate cerata to sting the offending stimulus (stage 1) followed by a coordinated radial extension of remaining cerata to create a pincushion-like defensive screen around the animal (stage 2). In decerebrated specimens, stage 1 bristling was preserved, while stage 2 bristling was replaced by slower, uncoordinated ceratal movements. We conclude from these observations that, first, the animal's PNS and central nervous system (CNS) mediate stages 1 and 2 of bristling, respectively; second, the behavior propagates through the body utilizing both peripheral- and central-origin nerve networks that support different signaling kinetics; and third, the former network inhibits the latter in the body region being stimulated. These findings extend our understanding of the PNS' computational capacity and provide insight into a neuroethological scheme in which the CNS and PNS both independently and interactively pattern different aspects of non-reflexive behavior.
Topics: Animals; Central Nervous System; Peripheral Nervous System; Behavior, Animal; Invertebrates
PubMed: 38718797
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.038 -
Scientific Reports May 2024Neurexins (Nrxns) are critical for synapse organization and their mutations have been documented in autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. We recently...
Neurexins (Nrxns) are critical for synapse organization and their mutations have been documented in autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. We recently reported that conditional deletion of Nrxn2, under the control of Emx1Cre promoter, predominately expressed in the neocortex and hippocampus (Emx1-Nrxn2 cKO mice) induced stereotyped patterns of behavior in mice, suggesting behavioral inflexibility. In this study, we investigated the effects of Nrxn2 deletion through two different conditional approaches targeting presynaptic cortical neurons projecting to dorsomedial striatum on the flexibility between goal-directed and habitual actions in response to devaluation of action-outcome (A-O) contingencies in an instrumental learning paradigm or upon reversal of A-O contingencies in a water T-maze paradigm. Nrxn2 deletion through both the conditional approaches induced an inability of mice to discriminate between goal-directed and habitual action strategies in their response to devaluation of A-O contingency. Emx1-Nrxn2 cKO mice exhibited reversal learning deficits, indicating their inability to adopt new action strategies. Overall, our studies showed that Nrxn2 deletion through two distinct conditional deletion approaches impaired flexibility in response to alterations in A-O contingencies. These investigations can lay the foundation for identification of novel genetic factors underlying behavioral inflexibility.
Topics: Animals; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Nerve Tissue Proteins; Behavior, Animal; Male; Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules; Gene Deletion; Maze Learning; Reversal Learning; Homeodomain Proteins; Hippocampus; Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal; Conditioning, Operant; Transcription Factors
PubMed: 38702381
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-60760-w -
Psychophysiology Jul 2024Given experience in cluttered but stable visual environments, our eye-movements form stereotyped routines that sample task-relevant locations, while not mixing-up...
Given experience in cluttered but stable visual environments, our eye-movements form stereotyped routines that sample task-relevant locations, while not mixing-up routines between similar task-settings. Both dopamine signaling and mindfulness have been posited as factors that influence the formation of such routines, yet quantification of their impact remains to be tested in healthy humans. Over two sessions, participants searched through grids of doors to find hidden targets, using a gaze-contingent display. Within each session, door scenes appeared in either one of two colors, with each color signaling a differing set of likely target locations. We derived measures for how well target locations were learned (target-accuracy), how routine were sets of eye-movements (stereotypy), and the extent of interference between the two scenes (setting-accuracy). Participants completed two sessions, where they were administered either levodopa (dopamine precursor) or placebo (vitamin C), under double-blind counterbalanced conditions. Dopamine and trait mindfulness (assessed by questionnaire) interacted to influence both target-accuracy and stereotypy. Increasing dopamine improved accuracy and reduced stereotypy for high mindfulness scorers, but induced the opposite pattern for low mindfulness scorers. Dopamine also disrupted setting-accuracy invariant to mindfulness. Our findings show that mindfulness modulates the impact of dopamine on the target-accuracy and stereotypy of eye-movement routines, whereas increasing dopamine promotes interference between task-settings, regardless of mindfulness. These findings provide a link between non-human and human models regarding the influence of dopamine on the formation of task-relevant eye-movement routines and provide novel insights into behavior-trait factors that modulate the use of experience when building adaptive repertoires.
Topics: Humans; Mindfulness; Male; Female; Adult; Young Adult; Dopamine; Levodopa; Double-Blind Method; Eye Movements; Visual Perception; Dopamine Agents; Attention; Psychomotor Performance
PubMed: 38679809
DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14571 -
Hormones and Behavior Jun 2024Sex/gender differences in personality associated with gender stereotyped behavior are widely studied in psychology yet remain a subject of ongoing debate. Exposure to...
Sex/gender differences in personality associated with gender stereotyped behavior are widely studied in psychology yet remain a subject of ongoing debate. Exposure to testosterone during developmental periods is considered to be a primary mediator of many sex/gender differences in behavior. Extensions of this research has led to both lay beliefs and initial research about individual differences in basal testosterone in adulthood relating to "masculine" personality. In this study, we explored the relationships between testosterone, gender identity, and gender stereotyped personality attributes in a sample of over 400 university students (65 % female assigned at birth). Participants provided ratings of their self-perceived masculinity and femininity, resulting in a continuous measure of gender identity, and a set of agentic and communal personality attributes. A saliva sample was also provided for assay of basal testosterone. Results showed no compelling evidence that basal testosterone correlates with gender-stereotyped personality attributes or explains the relationship between sex/gender identity and these attributes, across, within, or covarying out sex assigned at birth. Contributing to a more gender diverse approach to assessing sex/gender relationships with personality and testosterone, our continuous measure of self-perceived masculinity and femininity predicted additional variance in personality beyond binary sex and showed some preliminary but weak relationships with testosterone. Results from this study cast doubt on the activational testosterone-masculinity hypothesis for explaining sex differences in gender stereotyped traits and within-sex/gender variation in attributes associated with agency and communality.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Testosterone; Personality; Gender Identity; Young Adult; Adult; Stereotyping; Adolescent; Masculinity; Saliva; Femininity; Self Concept; Sex Characteristics
PubMed: 38652981
DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2024.105540