Biology subjects

Fehr, E.

Publications and source records attributed to Fehr, E..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Oxytocin increases trust in humans with a low disposition to trust

In recent years, increasing skepticism regarding oxytocins (OT) influence on social behavior arose. Low power, HARKing (hypothesizing after the results are known), and replication failures have clouded the field. Here, we directly address these concerns with a high-powered, preregistered study that offers robust evidence for a causal effect of OT on trust among individuals with a low disposition to trust. We recruited 359 low-trusting individuals who participated in a trust game under strict anonymity conditions. Results show that OT administration significantly increased trusting behavior by roughly 15%, with consistent effects across regression models with and without controls for personality traits. A pooled data analysis incorporating a previous sample (n=219) of low-trusting individuals further strengthens this conclusion, yielding a statistically significant 16.9% increase in trust. Crucially, no interaction effect was found between OT and the degree of dispositional trust, suggesting OTs effect is uniform across the low-trusting spectrum. These findings present a strong case for OTs selective trust-enhancing role. By isolating OTs impact within a well-defined subpopulation and experimental context, this study provides a critical pivot in the debate over neurobiological mechanisms of trust.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

A causal role for the right frontal eye fields in value comparison

Recent studies have suggested close functional links between visual attention and decision making. This suggests that the corresponding mechanisms may interface in brain regions known to be crucial for guiding visual attention - such as the frontal eye field (FEF). Here, we combined brain stimulation, eye tracking and computational approaches to explore this possibility. We show that inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the right FEF has a causal impact on decision-making, reducing the effect of gaze dwell time on choice while also increasing reaction times. We computationally characterize this putative mechanism by using the attentional drift diffusion model (aDDM), which reveals that FEF inhibition reduces the relative discounting of the non-fixated option in the comparison process. Our findings establish an important causal role of the right FEF in choice, elucidate the underlying mechanism, and provide support for one of the key causal hypotheses associated with the aDDM.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2020

Intra-individual variability in task performance after cognitive training is associated with long-term outcomes in children

The benefits and mechanistic effects of working memory training in children are the subject of much research and debate. The cumulative evidence indicates that training can alter brain structure and function in the short term and have lasting effects on behaviour. We show that five weeks of working memory training led to greater activity in prefrontal and striatal brain regions, better accuracy, and reduced intra-individual variability in response times. The reduction in intra-individual variability can be explained by changes to the evidence accumulation rates and thresholds in a sequential sampling decision model. Critically, intra-individual variability was more closely associated with academic skills and mental health 6-12 months after the end of training than task accuracy. These results indicate that intra-individual variability may be a useful way to quantify the immediate impact of cognitive training interventions and predict the future emergence of academic and socioemotional skills.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

The Neural Circuitry Of Emotion-Induced Distortions Of Trust

Aversive emotions are likely to be a key source of irrational human decision-making but still little is known about the underlying neural circuitry. Here, we show that aversive emotions distort trust decisions and cause significant changes in the associated neural circuitry. They reduce trust and suppress trust-specific activity in left temporoparietal junction (TPJ). In addition, aversive emotions reduce the functional connectivity between TPJ and emotion-related regions such as the amygdala. We also find that the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) plays a key role in mediating the impact of aversive emotions on brain-behavior relationships. Functional connectivity of right pSTS with left TPJ not only predicts mean trust taking in the absence of negative emotions, but aversive emotions also largely remove this association between TPJ-pSTS connectivity and behavioral trust. These findings may be useful for a better understanding of the neural circuitry of affective distortions and may thus help identify the neural bases of psychiatric diseases that are associated with emotion-related psychological and behavioral dysfunctions.

neuroscience↗