2002-2016: Binge drinking decreased substantially among US adolescents across time, age, gender, and race/ethnicity; alcohol abstention increased among US adolescents over the past 15 years

Trends in binge drinking and alcohol abstention among adolescents in the US, 2002-2016. Trenette Clark Goings et al. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, May 8 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.02.034

Highlights
•    Binge drinking decreased substantially among US adolescents across time
•    Binge drinking decreased across age, gender, and race/ethnicity
•    Alcohol abstention increased among US adolescents over the past 15 years

Abstract
Background: Binge drinking accounts for several adverse health, social, legal, and academic outcomes among adolescents. Understanding trends and correlates of binge drinking and alcohol abstention has important implications for policy and programs and was the aim of this study. The current study examined trends in adolescent binge drinking and alcohol abstention by age, gender, and race/ethnicity over a 15-year period.

Methods: Respondents between the ages of 12 and 17 years who participated in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) between 2002 and 2016 were included in the sample of 258,309. Measures included binge drinking, alcohol abstention, and co-morbid factors (e.g., marijuana, other illicit drugs), and demographic factors.

Results: Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the significance of trend changes by sub-groups while controlling for co-morbid and demographic factors. Findings indicated that binge drinking decreased substantially among adolescents in the US over the last 15 years. This decrease was shown among all age, gender, and racial/ethnic groups. In 2002, Year 1 of the study, 26% of 17-year-olds reported past-month binge drinking; in 2016, past-month binge drinking dropped to 12%. Findings also indicated comparable increases in the proportion of youth reporting abstention from alcohol consumption across all subgroups. Black youth reported substantially lower levels of binge alcohol use and higher levels of abstention, although the gap between Black, Hispanic and White youth narrowed substantially between 2002 and 2016.

Conclusion: Study findings are consistent with those of other research showing declines in problem alcohol- use behavior among youth.

Voice of Authority: Professionals Lower Their Vocal Frequencies When Giving Expert Advice

Voice of Authority: Professionals Lower Their Vocal Frequencies When Giving Expert Advice. Piotr Sorokowski et al. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, May 7 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10919-019-00307-0

Abstract: Acoustic analysis and playback studies have greatly advanced our understanding of between-individual differences in nonverbal communication. Yet, researchers have only recently begun to investigate within-individual variation in the voice, particularly how people modulate key vocal parameters across various social contexts, with most of this research focusing on mating contexts. Here, we investigated whether men and women modulate the frequency components of their voices in a professional context, and how this voice modulation affects listeners’ assessments of the speakers’ competence and authority. Research assistants engaged scientists working as faculty members at various universities in two types of speech conditions: (1) Control speech, wherein the subjects were asked how to get to the administrative offices on that given campus; and (2) Authority speech, wherein the same subjects were asked to provide commentary for a radio program for young scholars titled, “How to become a scientist, and is it worth it?”. Our results show that male (n = 27) and female (n = 24) faculty members lowered their mean voice pitch (measured as fundamental frequency, F0) and vocal tract resonances (measured as formant position, Pf) when asked to provide their expert opinion compared to when giving directions. Notably, women lowered their mean voice pitch more than did men (by 33 Hz vs. 14 Hz) when giving expert advice. The results of a playback experiment further indicated that foreign-speaking listeners judged the voices of faculty members as relatively more competent and more authoritative based on authority speech than control speech, indicating that the observed nonverbal voice modulation effectively altered listeners’ perceptions. Our results support the prediction that people modulate their voices in social contexts in ways that are likely to elicit favorable social appraisals.

Keywords: Authority Fundamental frequency Voice pitch Formant frequencies Voice modulation

Spouses' Faces Are Similar but Do Not Become More Similar with Time

Tea-mangkornpan, Pin Pin, and Michal Kosinski. 2019. “Spouses' Faces Are Similar but Do Not Become More Similar with Time.” PsyArXiv. May 8. doi:10.31234/osf.io/d7hpj

Abstract: The convergence in physical appearance hypothesis posits that long-term partners’ faces become more similar with time as a function of the shared environment, diet, and synchronized facial expressions. While this hypothesis has been widely disseminated in psychological literature, it is supported by a single study of 12 married couples. Here, we examine this hypothesis using the facial images of 517 couples taken at the beginning of their marriage and 20 or more years later. Their facial similarity is estimated using two independent methods: human judgments and a facial recognition algorithm. The results show that while spouses’ faces tend to be similar at marriage, they do not converge over time. In fact, they become slightly less similar. These findings bring facial appearance in line with other personal characteristics—such as personality, intelligence, interests, attitudes, values, and well-being—through which spouses show initial similarity but no convergence over time.

Is Technology Widening the Gender Gap? Female workers are at a significantly higher risk for displacement by automation than male workers; probability of automation is lower for younger cohorts of women, and for managers

Is Technology Widening the Gender Gap? Automation and the Future of Female Employment. Mariya Brussevich, Era Dabla-Norris, Salma Khalid. IMF Working Paper No. 19/91, May 2019. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/06/Is-Technology-Widening-the-Gender-Gap-Automation-and-the-Future-of-Female-Employment-46684

Summary: Using individual level data on task composition at work for 30 advanced and emerging economies, we find that women, on average, perform more routine tasks than men's tasks that are more prone to automation. To quantify the impact on jobs, we relate data on task composition at work to occupation level estimates of probability of automation, controlling for a rich set of individual characteristics (e.g., education, age, literacy and numeracy skills). Our results indicate that female workers are at a significantly higher risk for displacement by automation than male workers, with 11 percent of the female workforce at high risk of being automated given the current state of technology, albeit with significant cross-country heterogeneity. The probability of automation is lower for younger cohorts of women, and for those in managerial positions.

Can Successful Schools Replicate? It seems they can: Replication charter schools generate large achievement gains on par with those produced by their parent campuses; highly standardized practices in place seem crucial

Can Successful Schools Replicate? Scaling Up Boston's Charter School Sector. Sarah Cohodes, Elizabeth Setren, Christopher R. Walters. NBER Working Paper No. 25796, May 2019. https://www.nber.org/papers/w25796

Abstract: Can schools that boost student outcomes reproduce their success at new campuses? We study a policy reform that allowed effective charter schools in Boston, Massachusetts to replicate their school models at new locations. Estimates based on randomized admission lotteries show that replication charter schools generate large achievement gains on par with those produced by their parent campuses. The average effectiveness of Boston’s charter middle school sector increased after the reform despite a doubling of charter market share. An exploration of mechanisms shows that Boston charter schools reduce the returns to teacher experience and compress the distribution of teacher effectiveness, suggesting the highly standardized practices in place at charter schools may facilitate replicability.

Decreased female fidelity alters male behavior in a feral horse population; the stallions engage in more frequent contests, in more escalated contests, and spend more time vigilant

Decreased female fidelity alters male behavior in a feral horse population managed with immunocontraception. Maggie M. Jones, Cassandra M. V. Nuñez. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 214, May 2019, Pages 34-41, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2019.03.005

Highlights
•    Stallions experiencing increased female turnover engage in more frequent contests.
•    These stallions engage in more escalated contests and spend more time vigilant.
•    Habitat visibility but not female turnover influenced male-female aggression.
•    Home range overlap also influenced male-male interactions.
•    Immunocontraception management indirectly affects stallion behavior.

Abstract: In social species like the feral horse (Equus caballus), changes in individual behavior are likely to affect associated animals. On Shackleford Banks, North Carolina, USA, mares treated with the contraceptive agent porcine zona pellucida (PZP) demonstrate decreased fidelity to their band stallions. Here, we assess the effects of such decreased mare fidelity on male behavior and address potential interactions with habitat visibility, a component of the environment shown to significantly affect feral horse behavior. We compared the frequency and escalation of male-male contests, rates of aggressive and reproductive behaviors directed toward females, and the percentage of time spent vigilant among males experiencing varying levels of mare group changing behavior. We found that regardless of habitat visibility, males experiencing more female group changes engaged in contests at a higher rate (P = 0.003) and escalation (P = 0.029) and spent more time vigilant (P = 0.014) than males experiencing fewer group changes. However, while visibility had a positive effect on aggression directed by stallions toward mares (P = 0.013), female group changing behavior did not influence male-female aggressive or reproductive behaviors (P > 0.1), showing that decreases in mare fidelity altered male-male but not male-female interactions. These results have important implications for feral horse management; PZP-contracepted mares demonstrating prolonged decreases in stallion fidelity may have a disproportionate effect on male behavior. Moreover, our results shed light on the relative influences of female behavior and environmental factors like habitat visibility on male behavior. Such findings can ultimately improve our understanding of how the social and physical environments interact to shape male-male and male-female interactions.

Smokers self-directing their investment trade more frequently, exhibit more biases & achieve lower portfolio returns; those aware of their limited levels of self-control delegate decision making to professional advisors & fund managers

Smoking hot portfolios? self-control and investor decisions. Charline Uhr, Steffen Meyer, Andreas Hackethal. Goethe Universitat's SAFE working paper series; No. 245, March 2019. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3347625

Self-control failure is among the major pathologies (Baumeister et al. (1994)) affecting individual investment decisions which has hardly been measurable in empirical research. We use cigarette addiction identified from checking account transactions to proxy for low self-control and compare over 5,000 smokers to 14,000 nonsmokers. Smokers self-directing their investment trade more frequently, exhibit more biases and achieve lower portfolio returns. We also find that smokers, some of which might be aware of their limited levels of self-control, exhibit a higher propensity than nonsmokers to delegate decision making to professional advisors and fund managers. We document that such precommitments work successfully.


Check alsoWho trades cryptocurrencies, how do they trade it, and how do they perform? Evidence from brokerage accounts. Tim Hasso, Matthias Pelster, Bastian Breitmayer. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, May 7 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/05/men-are-more-likely-to-engage-in.html

Neural correlates of trait-like well-being (i.e., the propensity to live according to one’s true nature): Activation & volume of anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, superior temporal gyrus, & thalamus

The neural correlates of well-being: A systematic review of the human neuroimaging and neuropsychological literature. Marcie L. King. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, May 6 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-019-00720-4

Abstract: What it means to be well and to achieve well-being is fundamental to the human condition. Scholars of many disciplines have attempted to define well-being and to investigate the behavioral and neural correlates of well-being. Despite many decades of inquiry into well-being, much remains unknown. The study of well-being has evolved over time, shifting in focus and methodology. Many recent investigations into well-being have taken a neuroscientific approach to try to bolster understanding of this complex construct. A growing body of literature has directly examined the association between well-being and the brain. The current review synthesizes the extant literature regarding the neural correlates of trait-like well-being (i.e., the propensity to live according to one’s true nature). Although reported associations between well-being and the brain varied, some notable patterns were evidenced in the literature. In particular, the strongest and most consistent association emerged between well-being and the anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, patterns of association between well-being and the orbitofrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, superior temporal gyrus, and thalamus emerged. These regions largely comprise the salience and default mode networks, suggesting a possible relationship between well-being and brain networks involved in the integration of relevant and significant stimuli. Various methodological concerns are addressed and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Well-being Neural correlates Neuroimaging

Men are more likely to engage in cryptocurrency trading, trade more frequently, and more speculative, respectively; as a result, men realize lower returns than women

Who trades cryptocurrencies, how do they trade it, and how do they perform? Evidence from brokerage accounts. Tim Hasso, Matthias Pelster, Bastian Breitmayer. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, May 7 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbef.2019.04.009

Abstract: We investigate the demographic characteristics, trading patterns, and performance of 465.926 brokerage accounts with respect to cryptocurrency trading. We find that cryptocurrency trading became increasingly popular across individuals of all different groups of age, gender, and trading patterns. Yet, men are more likely to engage in cryptocurrency trading, trade more frequently, and more speculative, respectively. As a result, men realize lower returns. Furthermore, we find that investors vary their trading patterns across different asset classes.

Social media’s enduring effect on adolescent life satisfaction

Social media’s enduring effect on adolescent life satisfaction. Amy Orben, Tobias Dienlin, and Andrew K. Przybylski. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 6, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902058116

Abstract: In this study, we used large-scale representative panel data to disentangle the between-person and within-person relations linking adolescent social media use and well-being. We found that social media use is not, in and of itself, a strong predictor of life satisfaction across the adolescent population. Instead, social media effects are nuanced, small at best, reciprocal over time, gender specific, and contingent on analytic methods.

Keywords: social mediaadolescentslife satisfactionlongitudinalrandom-intercept cross-lagged panel models

Does the increasing amount of time adolescents devote to social media negatively affect their satisfaction with life? Set against the rapid pace of technological innovation, this simple question has grown into a pressing concern for scientists, caregivers, and policymakers. Research, however, has not kept pace (1). Focused on cross-sectional relations, scientists have few means of parsing longitudinal effects from artifacts introduced by common statistical modeling methodologies (2). Furthermore, the volume of data under analysis, paired with unchecked analytical flexibility, enables selective research reporting, biasing the literature toward statistically significant effects (3, 4). Nevertheless, trivial trends are routinely overinterpreted by those under increasing pressure to rapidly craft evidence-based policies.

Our understanding of social media effects is predominately shaped by analyses of cross-sectional associations between social media use measures and self-reported youth outcomes. Studies highlight modest negative correlations (3), but many of their conclusions are problematic. It is not tenable to assume that observations of between-person associations—comparing different people at the same time point—translate into within-person effects—tracking an individual, and what affects them, over time (2). Drawing this flawed inference risks misinforming the public or shaping policy on the basis of unsuitable evidence.

To disentangle between-person associations from within-person effects, we analyzed an eight-wave, large-scale, and nationally representative panel dataset (Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, 2009–2016) using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (2). We adopted a specification curve analysis framework (3, 5)—a computational method which minimizes the risk that a specific profile of analytical decisions yields false-positive results. In place of a single model, we tested a wide range of theoretically grounded analysis options [data is available on the UK data service (6); code is available on the Open Science Framework (7)]. The University of Essex Ethics Committee has approved all data collection on Understanding Society main study and innovation panel waves, including asking consent for all data linkages except to health records not used in this study.

While 12,672 10- to 15-y-olds took part, the precise number of participants for any analysis varied by age and whether full or imputed data were used (range, n = 539 to 5,492; median, n = 1,699). Variables included (i) a social media use measure: “How many hours do you spend chatting or interacting with friends through a social website like [Bebo, Facebook, Myspace] on a normal school day?” (5-point scale); (ii) six statements reflecting different life satisfaction domains (7-point visual analog scale); and (iii) seven child-, caregiver-, and household-level control variables used in prior work (3). We report standardized coefficients for all 2,268 distinct analysis options considered.

We first examined between-person associations (Fig. 1, Left), addressing the question Do adolescents using more social media show different levels of life satisfaction compared with adolescents using less? Across all operationalizations, the median cross-sectional correlation was negative (ψ = −0.13), an effect judged as small by behavioral scientists (8). Next, we examined the within-person effects of social media use on life satisfaction (Fig. 1, Center) and of life satisfaction on social media use (Fig. 1, Right), asking the questions Does an adolescent using social media more than they do on average drive subsequent changes in life satisfaction? and To what extent is the relation reciprocal? Both median longitudinal effects were trivial in size (social media predicting life satisfaction, β = −0.05; life satisfaction predicting social media use, β = −0.02).

Who is susceptible in three false memory tasks? No one type of person seems especially prone, or especially resilient, to the ubiquity of memory distortion

Who is susceptible in three false memory tasks? Rebecca M. Nichols & Elizabeth F. Loftus. Memory, May 2 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1611862

ABSTRACT: Decades of research show that people are susceptible to developing false memories. But if they do so in one task, are they likely to do so in a different one? The answer: “No”. In the current research, a large number of participants took part in three well-established false memory paradigms (a misinformation task, the Deese-Roediger-McDermott [DRM] list learning paradigm, and an imagination inflation exercise) as well as completed several individual difference measures. Results indicate that many correlations between false memory variables in all three inter-paradigm comparisons are null, though some small, positive, significant correlations emerged. Moreover, very few individual difference variables significantly correlated with false memories, and any significant correlations were rather small. It seems likely, therefore, that there is no false memory “trait”. In other words, no one type of person seems especially prone, or especially resilient, to the ubiquity of memory distortion.

KEYWORDS: False memory, memory distortion, misinformation, DRM, imagination inflation, individual differences, false memory susceptibility

Is the Global Prevalence Rate of Adult Mental Illness Increasing over Time? No, the prevalence increase of adult mental illness is small, mainly related to demographic changes

Richter, Dirk, Abbie Wall, Ashley Bruen, and Richard Whittington. 2019. “Is the Global Prevalence Rate of Adult Mental Illness Increasing over Time? Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Repeated Cross-sectional Population Surveys.” PsyArXiv. May 6. psyarxiv.com/5a7ye

Abstract
Objectives: The question whether mental illness prevalence rates are increasing is a controversially debated topic. Epidemiological articles and review publications that look into this research issue are often compromised by methodological problems. The present study aimed at using a meta-analysis technique that is usually applied for the analysis of intervention studies to achieve more transparency and statistical precision.

Methods: We searched Pubmed, PsycInfo, CINAHL, Google Scholar and reference lists for repeated cross-sectional population studies on prevalence rates of adult mental illness based on ICD- or DSM-based diagnoses, symptom scales and distress scales that used the same methodological approach at least twice in the same geographical region. The study is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42018090959).

Results: We included 44 samples from 42 publications, representing 1,035,697 primary observations for the first time point and 783,897 primary observations for the second and last time point. Controlling for a hierarchical data structure, we found an overall global prevalence increase odds ratio of 1.179 (95%-CI: 1.065 – 1.305). A multivariate meta-regression suggested relevant associations with methodological characteristics of included studies.

Conclusions: We conclude that the prevalence increase of adult mental illness is small and we assume that this increase is mainly related to demographic changes.

Crime can be successfully reduced by changing the situational environment that potential victims and offenders face: They report the first experimental evidence on the effect of street lighting on crime

Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City. Aaron Chalfin, Benjamin Hansen, Jason Lerner, Lucie Parker. NBER Working Paper No. 25798, May 2019. https://www.nber.org/papers/w25798

Abstract: This paper offers experimental evidence that crime can be successfully reduced by changing the situational environment that potential victims and offenders face. We focus on a ubiquitous but surprisingly understudied feature of the urban landscape – street lighting – and report the first experimental evidence on the effect of street lighting on crime. Through a unique public partnership in New York City, temporary streetlights were randomly allocated to public housing developments from March through August 2016. We find evidence that communities that were assigned more lighting experienced sizable reductions in crime. After accounting for potential spatial spillovers, we find that the provision of street lights led, at a minimum, to a 36 percent reduction in nighttime outdoor index crimes.

As experiences of pleasure & displeasure, hedonics are omnipresent in daily life; as core processes, they accompany emotions, motivation, bodily states, &c; optimal hedonic functioning seems the basis of well-being & aesthetic experiences

The Role of Hedonics in the Human Affectome. Susanne Becker et al. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, May 6 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.05.003

Highlights
•    As experiences of pleasure and displeasure, hedonics are omnipresent in daily life.
•    As core processes, hedonics accompany emotions, motivation, bodily states, etc.
•    Orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens appear to be hedonic brain hubs.
•    Several mental illnesses are characterized by altered hedonic experiences.
•    Optimal hedonic functioning seems the basis of well-being and aesthetic experiences.

Abstract: Experiencing pleasure and displeasure is a fundamental part of life. Hedonics guide behavior, affect decision-making, induce learning, and much more. As the positive and negative valence of feelings, hedonics are core processes that accompany emotion, motivation, and bodily states. Here, the affective neuroscience of pleasure and displeasure that has largely focused on the investigation of reward and pain processing, is reviewed. We describe the neurobiological systems of hedonics and factors that modulate hedonic experiences (e.g., cognition, learning, sensory input). Further, we review maladaptive and adaptive pleasure and displeasure functions in mental disorders and well-being, as well as the experience of aesthetics. As a centerpiece of the Human Affectome Project, language used to express pleasure and displeasure was also analyzed, and showed that most of these analyzed words overlap with expressions of emotions, actions, and bodily states. Our review shows that hedonics are typically investigated as processes that accompany other functions, but the mechanisms of hedonics (as core processes) have not been fully elucidated.

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2.2.1.1 Animal work
Early investigations of the functional neuroanatomy of pleasure and reward in mammals stemmed from the seminal work by Olds and Milner (Olds & Milner, 1954). A series of pioneering experiments showed that rodents tend to increase instrumental lever-pressing to deliver brief, direct intracranial electrical stimulation of septal nuclei. Interestingly, rodents and other non human animals would maintain this type of self-stimulation for hours, working until reaching complete physical exhaustion (Olds, 1958). This work led to the popular description of the neurotransmitter dopamine as the ‘happy hormone’.

However, subsequent electrophysiological and voltammetric assessments as well as microdialysis clearly show that dopamine does not drive the hedonic experience of reward (liking), but rather the motivation to obtain such reward (wanting), that is the instrumental behavior of reward-driven actions (Berridge & Kringelbach, 2015; Wise, 1978). Strong causal evidence for this idea has emerged from rodent studies, including pharmacologically blocking of dopamine receptors or using genetic knockdown mutations in rodents. When dopamine is depleted or dopamine neurons destroyed, reward related instrumental behavior significantly decreases with animals becoming oblivious to previously rewarding stimuli (Baik, 2013; Schultz, 1998). In contrast, hyperdopaminergic mice with dopamine transporter knockdown mutations exhibit largely enhanced acquisition and greater incentive performance for rewards (Pecina et al., 2003). These studies show that phasic release of dopamine specifically acts as a signal of incentive salience, which underlies reinforcement learning (Salamone & Correa, 2012; Schultz, 2013).  Such dopaminergic functions have been related to the mesocorticolimbic circuitry: Microinjections to pharmacologically stimulate dopaminergic neurons in specific sub-regions of the nucleus accumbens (NA) selectively enhance wanting with no effects on liking. However, microinjections to stimulate opioidergic neurons increase the hedonic impact of sucrose reward and wanting responses, likely caused by opioid-induced dopamine release (Johnson & North, 1992). Importantly, different populations of neurons in the ventral pallidum (as part of the mesocorticolimbic circuitry) track specifically the pharmacologically induced enhancements of hedonic and motivational signals (Smith et al., 2011).

The double dissociation of the neural systems underlying wanting and liking has been confirmed many times (Laurent et al., 2012), leading to the concept that positive hedonic responses (liking) are specifically mediated in the brain by endogenous opioids in ‘hedonic hot-spots’ (Pecina et al., 2006). The existence of such hedonic hot-spots has been confirmed in the NA, ventral pallidum, and parabrachial nucleus of the pons (Berridge & Kringelbach, 2015).  In addition, some evidence suggests further hot-spots in the insula and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC; Castro & Berridge, 2017).

Hedonic hot-spots in the brain might be important not only to generate the feeling of pleasure, but also to maintain a certain level of pleasure. In line with this assumption, damage to hedonic hot-spots in the ventral pallidum can transform pleasure into displeasure, illustrating that there is no clear-cut border between neurobiological mechanisms of pleasure and displeasure but rather many intersections. For example sweet sucrose taste, normally inducing strong liking responses, elicits negative and disgust reactions in rats after the damage of a hedonic hot-spot in the ventral pallidum (Ho & Berridge, 2014). In addition to hot-spots that might be essential in maintaining a certain pleasure level, ‘cold spots’ have been found in the NA, ventral pallidum, OFC, and insula. In such cold-spots, opioidergic stimulation suppresses liking responses, which in hot spots causes a stark increase in liking responses (Castro & Berridge, 2014, 2017). A balanced interplay between cold- and hot-spots within the same brain regions such as the NA, ventral pallidum, OFC, and insula may allow for a sophisticated control of positive and negative hedonic responses (see ‘affective keyboard’ in Section 2.2.3). In line with such an assumed sophisticated control, it has to be noted that hedonic hot- and cold-spots are not to be hardwired in the brain. Depending, for example, on external factors creating stressful or pleasant, relaxed environments, the coding of valence can change in such hot-spots from positive to negative and vice versa (Berridge, 2019). Such phenomena have been observed in the NA (Richard & Berridge, 2011) and amygdala (Flandreau et al., 2012; Warlow et al., 2017), likely contributing to a fine-tuned control of hedonic responses dependent on environmental factors.

2.2.1.2. Human work

Confirming results from animal research, a brain network termed the ‘reward circuit’ has been described in human research, which includes the cortico-ventral basal ganglia system, including the ventral striatum (VS) and midbrain (i.e., the ventral tegmental area; Gottfried, 2011; Richards et al., 2013).  Within the reward circuit, reward-linked information is processed across a circuit that involves glutamatergic projections from the OFC and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), as well as dopaminergic projections from the midbrain into the VS (Richards et al., 2013).

However, as previously described, reward cannot be equated with pleasure, given that reward processing comprises wanting and liking (Berridge et al., 2009; Reynolds & Berridge, 2008). Further, reward processing is modulated by subjective value and utility, which is formed by individual needs, desires, homeostatic states, and situational influences (Rangel et al., 2008). As such, pleasure as a core process is most closely related to ‘liking’ expressed during reward consumption. During such reward consumption, human neuroimaging studies have consistently noted a central role of the VS (including the NA) corresponding to results from animal research. The VS is consistently activated during the anticipation and consumption of reward (Liu et al., 2011).  Interestingly, the VS is also activated during the imagery of pleasant experiences, including drug use in substance abusers, pleasant sexual encounters, and athletic success (Costa et al., 2010). Despite a vast literature emphasizing that the VS is implicated in the processing of hedonic aspects of reward in humans, this brain area has not been well parcellated into functional sub-regions (primarily because of limited resolution in human neuroimaging).  Nevertheless, using an anatomical definition of the core and shell of the NA, one study successfully described differential encoding of the valence of reward and pain in separable structural and functional brain networks with sources in the core and shell of the NA (Baliki et al., 2013). This finding again highlights the overlaps of pleasure and displeasure systems, rendering the separated investigation of pleasure and displeasure functions somewhat artificial.

In addition to the VS, the OFC has received much attention in human research on reward and hedonic experiences (Berridge & Kringelbach, 2015).  Much of the current knowledge on the functions of the OFC in hedonic experiences is based on human neuroimaging, because the translation from animal work has proven to be challenging because of differences in the prefrontal cortex (PFC; Wallis, 2011). The OFC has been described in numerous human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies to represent the subjective value of rewarding stimuli (Grabenhorst & Rolls, 2011). More specifically, the OFC has been described as the first stage of cortical processing, in which the value and pleasure of reward are explicitly represented. With its many reciprocal anatomical connections to other brain regions important in reward processing, the OFC is in an optimal position to distribute information on subjective value and pleasure in order to optimize different behavioral strategies. For example, the OFC is well connected to the ACC, insular cortex, somatosensory areas, amygdala, and striatum (Carmichael & Price, 1995; Cavada et al., 2000; Mufson & Mesulam, 1982).

Besides the VS and the OFC, multiple other brain regions are involved in reward processing, including the caudate, putamen, thalamus, amygdala, anterior insula, ACC, posterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and sub-regions of the PFC other than the OFC (Liu et al., 2011). Reward involves processing of complex stimuli that involve many more components beyond wanting and liking, such as attention, arousal, evaluation, memory, learning, decision-making, etc.

In addition to higher-level cortical representations, pleasure also appears to be coded at very low levels of peripheral sensory processing. As an illustration, hedonic representations of smells are already present in peripheral sensory cells. There are differences in electrical activity of the human olfactory epithelium in response to pleasant vs. unpleasant odors (Lapid et al., 2011).  Further, responses to the hedonic valence of odors involve differential activation of the autonomic nervous system (e.g., fluctuations in heart rate and skin conductance; Joussain et al., 2017). Together with the above-described results on central processing of pleasure, these findings highlight that extensive neurobiological systems are implicated in the processing of positive hedonic feelings including peripheral and autonomic components. In line with findings from the animal work, it can be assumed that environmental factors such as perceived stress affect these neurobiological systems leading to plastic changes (Juarez & Han, 2016; Li, 2013) and thus a sophisticated control of hedonic feelings adapted to situational factors.

2.2.2 Displeasure and pain—from animal models to human models

After the Protestant Reformation allowed some usury degree, the Jews lost the money lending advantages in regions that became Protestant & entered into competition with the Christian majority, leading to an increase in anti-Semitism

Becker, Sascha O. and Luigi Pascali. 2019. "Religion, Division of Labor, and Conflict: Anti-semitism in Germany over 600 Years." American Economic Review, 109(5):1764-1804. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20170279

Abstract: We study the role of economic incentives in shaping the coexistence of Jews, Catholics, and Protestants, using novel data from Germany for 1,000+ cities. The Catholic usury ban and higher literacy rates gave Jews a specific advantage in the moneylending sector. Following the Protestant Reformation (1517), the Jews lost these advantages in regions that became Protestant. We show (i) a change in the geography of anti-Semitism with persecutions of Jews and anti-Jewish publications becoming more common in Protestant areas relative to Catholic areas; (ii) a more pronounced change in cities where Jews had already established themselves as moneylenders. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that, following the Protestant Reformation, Jews living in Protestant regions were exposed to competition with the Christian majority, especially in moneylending, leading to an increase in anti-Semitism.


Religion, Division of Labor, and Conflict: Anti-semitism in Germany over 600 Years