Background Threat/control-override (TCO) delusional experiences have been linked to aggression in schizophrenia and may also shape threat-related social-cognitive processing. We compared facial emotion recognition and stimulus-based emotional attribution in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls, and tested whether TCO symptoms were associated with task performance, aggression, and insight. Methods Thirty male inpatients meeting DSM-5 criteria for schizophrenia and fifteen healthy controls completed a computerized task assessing recognition of five facial expressions (happiness, anger, disgust, fear, neutral) and attribution of the identified emotion’s likely cause (forced choice between a neutral vs emotion-congruent context picture). TCO symptoms were assessed with the Threat/Control-Override Questionnaire (TCOQ), aggression with the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ), and insight with the Birchwood Insight Scale (BIS). Results Compared with controls, patients showed reduced accuracy in both emotion recognition and causal attribution, with the largest deficits for anger recognition and anger attribution. Within the patient sample, higher TCO symptom levels were associated with higher self-reported aggression, primarily anger and hostility, and with poorer insight driven by reduced perceived need for treatment. In exploratory subgroup analyses (low vs high TCO), both patient subgroups showed impaired anger recognition, while additional differences emerged for fear and neutral attribution in low TCO group. Conclusions TCO symptom severity was associated with heightened aggressive affect and reduced treatment-related insight and may selectively modulate threat-relevant social-cognitive processes. In this sample, higher TCO levels were linked to differences in fear-related processing without further exacerbating anger recognition deficits, suggesting a specific association with threat vigilance rather than generalized social-cognitive impairment.

Aim: Irritability, defined as an increased propensity to experience frustration, was associated with reduced willingness to expend effort for rewards at the self-reported level. However, the effect of frustration on effort expenditure has rarely been experimentally tested in humans. To address this gap, this study introduced a frustration induction in the Effort-Doors task to elicit frustrative nonreward (FNR), a negative emotional state triggered by unexpected reward loss, and examined its effects on physical effort expenditure and feedback-related electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. We also tested whether these effects vary as a function of state and trait measures of motivation and affect. Methods: Linear mixed-effects models tested the effects of FNR induction on self-reported, behavioral, and EEG measures in young adults (N=83) completing the novel Frustrative Effort-Doors task. Models tested manipulation effects, trial-level post-feedback adjustment, and moderation by state and trait measures. Midfrontal theta power (MFθ) was extracted using multivariate spatial filtering and examined as a function of feedback (win vs. FNR), effort (low vs. high), and subsequent behavioral adjustments. Results: The frustration induction decreased self-reported state motivation and increased state frustration, arousal, and response speed. MFθ was enhanced following FNR feedback and was further modulated by state frustration, particularly during high-effort trials. Higher state frustration was associated with reduced response vigor during effort execution following FNR feedback. MFθ did not predict trial-to-trial behavioral adjustments. Discussion: These findings indicate that FNR recruits MFθ, a neural marker of cognitive control, whereas individual differences in state frustration modulates physical effort execution following unexpected reward loss.

Objectives: Irritability is a transdiagnostic symptom proposed to be characterized by heightened negative affect (i.e., frustration) and maladaptive responses to frustrative nonreward (FNR). Although FNR typically elicits adaptive behavioral adjustments, the neural mechanisms that support these adjustments and their trial-by-trial dynamics remain unexplored. Midfrontal theta power, a key marker of expectancy violation and cognitive control, is a strong candidate for indexing these mechanisms and their role in supporting adaptive responses. We investigated how fluctuations in midfrontal theta power following FNR relate to subsequent behavioral adjustments and whether these associations are moderated by individual differences in irritability and state frustration. Methods: Young adults completed a validated frustration paradigm and self-reported their irritability and state frustration. A multivariate approach was used to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of single-trial theta activity. Linear mixed-effects models tested whether trial-by-trial theta power and feedback type (win vs. FNR) predicted reaction time on the following trial. Results: Higher theta power following FNR, but not win feedback, was associated with faster reaction times on the next trial, suggesting that theta oscillations support adaptive behavioral adjustments to frustrative outcomes. Reduced theta power to FNR was linked to greater self-reported frustration, while trait irritability and state frustration did not moderate the theta-behavior association. Conclusion: Midfrontal theta power increased following FNR and predicted faster subsequent responses, highlighting its role in adaptive adjustment to unexpected reward loss. These findings enhance understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms supporting coping with frustration and suggest this process may be less effective under heightened subjective frustration.

Abstract: Introduction: Anhedonia, the diminished ability to experience pleasure, is a transdiagnostic symptom in several neuropsychiatric disorders. To comprehensively assess this symptom, the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS) measures interest, motivation, effort, and consummatory pleasure across four reward types. Aim: Using three independent samples, we aimed to validate the French version of the DARS and evaluate its psychometric properties across digital (Samples 1 and 2) and paper-based (Sample 3) formats. Methods: A total of 1,437 French-speaking participants from the general population completed the DARS alongside measures of anhedonia, depression, and behavioral inhibition/activation. Results: Factor analyses confirmed the four-factor structure of the DARS with excellent model fit indices (CFI ≥ .962, RMSEA ≤ .036) and strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .74–.93) across both formats. The French DARS showed good convergent validity, with weak-to-moderate correlations with other anhedonia and behavioral activation measures, and strong divergent validity, with weak correlations with depression. Measurement invariance across gender was established. Gender differences were found; women scored higher overall, while men scored higher on the hobbies subscale. Measurement invariance analyses supported configural and metric invariance across formats, though full invariance was not achieved due to a lack of scalar invariance. Discussion/conclusion: These findings support the French DARS as a reliable and valid tool for assessing anhedonia.

Irritability and anhedonia are two prevalent, co-occurring, and impairing symptoms of major depression that are proposed to result from dysfunctions in reward processing. While irritability is associated with heightened sensitivity to reward receipt, anhedonia is linked to blunted sensitivity to reward receipt. Given these supposed paradoxical effects on reward sensitivity, it is noteworthy that no studies have examined how both symptoms interact to affect reward sensitivity. In a community sample of young adults (N=73, Mage=21.21±2.27, 56.16% females), we evaluated the interacting effects of dimensionally assessed irritability and anhedonia symptoms on neural measures of reward and loss sensitivity during a well-established reward paradigm (the Doors task). Event-related potential and time-frequency measures were analyzed using both univariate and a multivariate method based on generalized eigendecomposition to isolate delta- and theta-band activity in response to feedback. Linear-mixed models tested the unique and interacting effects of irritability and anhedonia on EEG measures of reward sensitivity (FRN/N2, theta, and delta power). Participants with above-average irritability and anhedonia displayed larger (more negative) FRN/N2 amplitudes across feedback valence, and reduced theta power following reward feedback, whereas no associations were observed at lower symptom levels. These findings suggest that individuals with co-occurring irritability and anhedonia may perceive feedback overall (reward and loss) as more salient, while interpreting rewards as less motivationally relevant. These effects remained significant when controlling for broader depressive symptoms, gender, and income. These results provide preliminary evidence that co-occurring irritability and anhedonia jointly influence neural sensitivity to feedback, in individuals without clinical levels of symptoms. Awaiting validation in clinical samples, our results highlight the importance of considering symptom interactions to better understand reward-related mechanisms in depression.

Dyadic synchrony, defined as the coordination of emotional and behavioral signals between mother and child, is a central mechanism supporting early socioemotional development. However, predicting its emergence remains challenging because relational and psychological influences may combine in complex, context-sensitive ways that are not easily captured by traditional linear models. The present study applied a theory-guided machine learning approach to examine predictors of observed synchrony in 204 mother-child dyads (mean maternal age = 33.7 years, 89% White, 52.6%, boys mean children's age = 11.71 months), drawn from the PEACE (Perinatal Experiences and COVID-19 Effects) Study, with data collected between November 2021 and August 2022. Dyadic synchrony and affective behaviors were coded from free-play interactions using the Coding Interactive Behavior system, and psychological predictors included maternal anxiety, resilience, parenting stress, and observed affective expressions. Random Forest models were compared with linear regression, and model interpretation was supported using SHAP and ALE techniques. Linear regression showed slightly stronger predictive performance, whereas Random Forest revealed potentially meaningful non-linear and interaction-based patterns. In particular, synchrony tended to decrease under conditions reflecting imbalance between parenting stress and child positive affect, and affective mismatch showed a non-monotonic association with synchrony. These findings highlight the context-dependent nature of dyadic coordination and suggest that synchrony may emerge from configurations of stress, affect, and emotional alignment rather than from simple additive effects. More broadly, the study illustrates how interpretable machine learning can complement traditional statistical models to explore complex relational processes in early development.

Coping with stress in families is rarely an individual process and often extends beyond the couple subsystem to involve parents and children jointly. Although dyadic coping has been extensively studied, no validated instrument currently exists to assess how families cope with stress at the triadic level. The present study aimed to develop and validate the Triadic Coping Inventory (TCI), a self-report measure designed to capture coping as a coordinated, systemic process operating across parent-child dyads, the couple subsystem, and the family triad. Participants were 632 French-speaking individuals living with at least one child aged 5-14 years. Using a split-sample design, exploratory factor analyses were conducted on 60% of the sample and confirmatory factor analyses on an independent holdout subsample (40%). Results supported a multidimensional structure comprising four parent-child dyadic coping factors, four couple-level dyadic coping factors, and two family-level triadic coping factors distinguishing positive and negative triadic coping. Internal consistency was acceptable to excellent across subscales, with stronger reliability observed for family-level coordinated coping dimensions. Construct validity was supported through theoretically coherent associations with attachment insecurity, emotion regulation, individual coping strategies, and relationship satisfaction. Criterion-related validity analyses showed strong associations between triadic coping dimensions and relationship satisfaction, and incremental validity analyses demonstrated that TCI subscales explained substantial additional variance in satisfaction beyond attachment dimensions. Together, these findings support the TCI as a reliable and valid instrument for assessing triadic coping processes in families with school-age children. The TCI offers a novel tool for advancing research on family stress regulation and for informing clinical assessment and intervention targeting family-level coping dynamics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Biobehavioral synchrony is defined as a reciprocal and temporal coordination that can be observed during interpersonal interactions between two or more individuals. It can encompass facial expressions, vocalization, mutual gaze as well as other physiological measures. Synchrony has commonly been measured in interactional exchanges highlighting the relational qualities and the content of the interactions between individuals. Recent literature assessed synchrony by stress-inducing tasks or while measuring stress in individuals during interactions, to index an interaction between stress and synchrony. This study provides the first systematic review to understand which role synchrony plays within families in the context of stress. A systematic search was conducted on Scopus, PubMed and PsycNET using the following keywords to identify studies: [“synchrony” and (“stress” or “resilience”) and (“family” or “parents” or “father” or “mother” or “child” or “adolescent” or “infant”)]. A total of 55 English, peer-reviewed articles assessing biobehavioral synchrony together with stress or resilience in the family context were selected. The results show that parenting stress is associated with less synchrony. However, when all members of the family were faced with the same stressor (such as a stress inducing task), there was a reduction of stress levels and increased positive affect within the family. Dyads who had high levels of emotion regulation were shown to synchronize better with one another than those who showed emotion dysregulation or negative affect. Some findings indicate that psychopathologies, notably depression, is associated with lower levels of synchrony in dyads. Stress within the family has been shown to play a role in the interaction between synchrony levels and behavioral and emotional regulations in children. The findings highlight the extent to which synchrony may be associated with family dynamics. In this sense, synchrony may help families face stress and hardships by facilitating the transmission of resilience and helping family members be more in harmony with one another.

OBJECTIVE:Emotional experience is based, among other factors, on physiological reactivity (PR) and the awareness of this reactivity corresponding to interoception. After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), patients exhibit reduced PR and interoception, raising questions about the integrity of their emotional experience. METHOD:To examine this issue, 26 men with moderate to severe TBI (age: 37 ± 11) and 26 healthy male controls (age: 35 ± 14) watched emotional films (amusement, tenderness, anger, disgust). PR was measured via electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate variability (HRV). After each film, an emotional evaluation was completed using the Differential Emotional Scale (DES). Interoception was measured through a heartbeat counting (HBC) task and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) questionnaire. RESULTS:Compared to controls, TBI participants scored lower on the MAIA Emotional Awareness and Noticing subscales, and exhibited lower EDA and HRV during the anger and tenderness films. However, emotional evaluations and HBC task scores were similar between groups. Positive correlations were found between emotional evaluation and the MAIA scale. CONCLUSION:These results suggest a dissociation between emotional experience and PR after TBI and decreased interoceptive sensitivity. Since interoception links PR and emotional experience, exploring the impact of reduced interoception on this dissociation could improve our understanding of post-TBI emotional functioning.

Background: Maladaptive patterns of attention to emotional stimuli are a clinical feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using eye-tracking-based methodology, research points out the presence of sustained attention to threatening stimuli in individuals with PTSD. However, most eye-tracking studies in this field used free-viewing tasks on negative stimuli.Methods: PTSD patients (n = 38), trauma-exposed healthy controls (TEHC; n = 30), and non-trauma-exposed healthy controls (HC; n = 33) performed a Face in the Crowd (FiC) task. The FiC task was chosen to explore specific responses to emotional stimuli within a competitive visual environment, thus providing insights into visual search patterns. Both reaction time and gaze patterns (dwell time, scanpath length, first fixation duration, and latency) were recorded.Results: Individuals with a provisional PTSD diagnosis presented decreased dwell time on both positive and negative targets in comparison with HC and TEHC, as well as shorter scanpath length for all matrixes when no targets were present. No evidence of attentional bias was observed in the TEHC group based on reaction times or eye-tracking measures in response to positive, negative, or neutral cues.Discussion: We found an attentional avoidance pattern among PTSD patients, along with indexes of lowered perceptual threshold for all emotional information. This study allows raising the question of cognitive load on the emergence of differential attentional strategies presented by PTSD participants. We discuss the generalization of fear processes across different emotional stimuli and underscore the need for incorporating a variety of emotional stimuli in PTSD research. Antecedentes: Los patrones desadaptativos de atenci & oacute;n a est & iacute;mulos emocionales son un rasgo cl & iacute;nico del trastorno de estr & eacute;s postraum & aacute;tico (TEPT). Utilizando metodolog & iacute;a basada en eye-tracking, la investigaci & oacute;n indica la presencia de atenci & oacute;n sostenida a est & iacute;mulos amenazantes en individuos con TEPT. Sin embargo, la mayor & iacute;a de los estudios con eye-tracking en este campo han usado tareas de visi & oacute;n libre en est & iacute;mulos negativos.M & eacute;todo: Pacientes con TEPT (n = 38), controles sanos expuestos a trauma (CSET, n = 30) y controles sanos no expuestos a trauma (CS, n = 33) participaron en una tarea de Cara en la Multitud (FiC en sus siglas en ingl & eacute;s). La tarea FiC se eligi & oacute; para explorar respuestas espec & iacute;ficas a est & iacute;mulos emocionales dentro de un ambiente visual competitivo, proporcionando as & iacute; informaci & oacute;n sobre los patrones de b & uacute;squeda visual. Se grab & oacute; tiempos de reacci & oacute;n y patrones de la mirada (tiempo de permanencia, longitud de la trayectoria de exploraci & oacute;n, duraci & oacute;n de la primera fijaci & oacute;n y latencia).Resultados: Los individuos con un diagn & oacute;stico TEPT provisional presentaron tiempo de permanencia descendido tanto en los objetivos positivos como negativos en comparaci & oacute;n con los CS y los CSET, as & iacute; como una longitud de la trayectoria de exploraci & oacute;n m & aacute;s corta para todas las matrices cuando no hab & iacute;a objetivos presentes. No se observ & oacute; evidencia de sesgo atencional en el grupo CSET basado en su tiempo de reacci & oacute;n o medidas de eye-tracking en respuesta a claves positivas, negativas o neutras.Discusi & oacute;n: Encontramos un patr & oacute;n de evitaci & oacute;n atencional en los pacientes con TEPT, junto con indicadores de umbral perceptual m & aacute;s bajo para toda la informaci & oacute;n emocional. Este estudio permite plantear la pregunta de la carga cognitiva en la emergencia de estrategias atencionales diferenciales en los participantes con TEPT. Discutimos la generalizaci & oacute;n de procesos de miedo entre diferentes est & iacute;mulos emocionales y enfatizamos la necesidad de incorporar una variedad de est & iacute;mulos emocionales en la investigaci & oacute;n sobre TEPT.

Research has linked preschool children’s externalizing behaviors with increased parental stress, often through parenting behaviors and cognitions like self-efficacy. Less attention has been paid to how children’s behaviors may create cognitive biases in parents, causing them to focus on or remember negative behaviors, thus increasing stress. This study examined whether parental attention and memory biases mediate the link between child externalizing behaviors and parental stress, and explored differences between mothers and fathers. The sample included 43 heterosexual couples with children aged 3–6 years. Results showed that memory biases (but not attentional biases) mediated this relationship, particularly for fathers, who were more likely to recall their child’s negative behaviors, contributing to higher stress. No crossover effects were found between parents. These findings suggest that interventions targeting memory bias modification may be particularly beneficial for fathers, addressing cognitive schemas related to their child’s behaviors.

Synchrony has been proposed as a relevant phenomenon for investigating social neurophysiological and psychological processes, with interbrain synchrony, in particular, presumed to facilitate the functional integration of multiple brains. However, the lack of an accepted definition and a cohesive theoretical corpus that allows hypothesis-based approaches, often combined with less robust empirical methods, might hinder progress in this field. To address this, we propose a definition of interbrain synchrony and link various theoretical contributions that might justify the existence of meaningful temporal alignment between different brain activities. Furthermore, we propose a set of methods aimed at minimizing bias in the collection of evidence supporting this neural mechanism. Our approach entails extracting instantaneous phase data from Hilbert-transformed EEG time series recorded from individuals under different experimental conditions that account for the synchrony's confounding factors such as shared attention, cognitive, and motor dependencies, while also relying on simulation-based insight to refine the methodological specifics. We then propose multiple data analysis strategies, including circular statistics combined with permutation testing, the sliding technique for time-lagged dependencies, and mutual information. Finally, we present an example of a potential application within the context of cooperation in nuclear families. We believe that, by employing such methods consistently, the concept of interbrain synchrony is falsifiable. Whether this phenomenon is empirically supported or not, its investigation will contribute to advancing our understanding of the social brain.

OBJECTIVE:Interoception is crucial for emotional processing. It relies on the bidirectional connections between the insula, a crucial structure in interoception, and the frontal lobe, which is implicated in emotional experiences. Acquired frontal brain injury often leads to emotional disorders. Our goal was to explore the interoceptive profiles of patients with frontal lesions with or without insular involvement. METHOD:Given the neuroanatomical links between interoception and emotions, we conducted a systematic Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guided review of studies assessing at least one dimension of interoception in adults with acquired frontal injuries, with or without associated insular lesions. RESULTS:Seven articles were included. The review indicated that interoceptive accuracy declines after frontal injuries. The two studies that investigated interoceptive sensitivity found lower scores in patient groups. Finally, inconsistent results were found for interoceptive metacognition after frontal damage. CONCLUSIONS:This review is the first to explore interoceptive disorders after acquired frontal brain injury. The findings reveal deficits in cardiac interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensitivity following frontal damage. Inconsistent results were observed for interoceptive metacognition. Further research is needed to confirm the presence of interoceptive deficits following a frontal lesion. Additionally, the relationship between interoceptive deficits and emotional disorders, often reported after frontal brain injury, should be investigated.

Sensory processing atypicalities have been demonstrated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thermoception, a component of the somatosensory system crucial for survival, can benefit from an overview of the state-of-art in ASD. In this work, a PROSPERO registered (CRD42023412663) systematic review on thermoception in ASD is presented, following PRISMA and MOOSE guidelines. Our search encompassed databases including Pubmed, Scopus, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar (n = 1261). Included articles (n = 9) were written in English, experimental, peer-reviewed documents on thermoception in autism. As the ASD group shows hypo- (n = 3) or hypersensitivity (n = 2) or no discernible difference at times (n = 8) to either warm and/or cold innocuous stimuli, definitive conclusions are difficult to draw. Nevertheless, these aggregated results build cumulative knowledge and guide future research regarding the evaluation of thermoception in autistic individuals which could further increase their quality of life.

BACKGROUND:Anhedonia and irritability are two prevalent symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) that predict greater depression severity and poor outcomes, including suicidality. Although both symptoms have been proposed to result from paradoxical reward processing dysfunctions, the interactions between these symptoms remain unclear. Anhedonia is a multifaceted symptom reflecting impairments in multiple dimensions of reward processing (e.g., pleasure, desire, motivation, and effort) across distinct reward types (e.g., food, sensory experiences, social activities, hobbies) that may differentially interact with irritability. This study investigated the complex associations between anhedonia and irritability using network analysis. METHOD:Participants (N = 448, Mage = 33.29, SD = 14.58) reported their symptoms of irritability on the Brief Irritability Test (Holtzman et al., 2015) and anhedonia (i.e., pleasure, desire, motivation, and effort dimensions across four reward types) on the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (Rizvi et al., 2015). A regularized Gaussian Graphical Model was built to estimate the network structure between items. RESULTS:Irritability was negatively related to willingness to expand effort to obtain food/drinks (estimate = -0.18), social activities (-0.13), and hobbies (-0.12) rewards. Irritability was positively associated with a desire for food/drinks (0.12). LIMITATIONS:Only a small proportion (5.8%) of our sample was clinical and the study design was cross-sectional. CONCLUSION:A specific link between irritability and the effort dimension of the hedonic response across three reward types was identified. Investigating effort expenditure deficits with experimental paradigms may help us understand the mechanisms underlying the comorbidity between irritability and anhedonia in the context of MDD.

Interoception, which refers to the perception of body's internal state, is implicated in emotional processes and psychopathological disorders. Over the last decades, different tools have been developed to measure interoceptive accuracy, or the ability to accurately perceive physiological signals. Most of these tools have focused on cardiac interoception, but respiratory interoception has been less investigated due to the more complex and less portable equipment required. In this study, we suggest a new duration discrimination respiratory (DDR) task that does not require complex equipment. Using an adaptive staircase procedure, this task aims to determine an individual's ability to detect exhalation longer than their resting reference duration. One hundred and twenty-three healthy subjects completed the DDR task, an interoceptive task of heart rate discrimination, and filled out questionnaires on interoceptive awareness (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness), alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale [TAS]), affects (Positive and Negative Affect Scale [PANAS]), and anamnestic. Results demonstrated a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .93) of the DDR task. On average, subjects needed 99.22% (SD = 36.38) of their reference exhalation time in addition to reference exhalation to detect a prolonged exhalation. Higher self-reported fitness levels, not counting during the DDR task and lower difficulty in describing feelings (TAS subscale), predicted higher respiratory discrimination duration. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the utility of the DDR task as a valid measure of interoception.

The Attentional Control Scale (ACS) is a widely used self-reported assessment of attentional control. Due to the importance of those executive processes in the phenomenology of mood-related disorders, the ACS has been translated in multiple languages. Our purpose was to explore psychometric properties of two versions of the French ACS. In study 1, 455 participants completed the original ACS, which yielded excellent fit to a two-dimensional model (CFI = 0.972). However, as one factor contained in majority reversed coded items, this raised question about its validity. A second sample (N = 452) therefore completed a modified version of the ACS without reverse-coded items, which also yielded excellent fit to a two-dimensional model (CFI = 0.970). Finally, network analyses explored the relations between the ACS and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and resilience. Our results support the use of the French version of the ACS with items coded in a straightforward manner.