Neural correlates of HIV risk feelings

Are You Safe or Should I Go? How Perceived Trustworthiness and Probability of a Sexual Transmittable Infection Impact Activation of the Salience Network

Functional imaging studies indicate that both the assessment of a person as untrustworthy and the assumption that a person has a sexually transmitted infection are associated with activation in regions of the salience network. However, studies are missing that combine these aspects and investigate the perceived trustworthiness of individuals previously assessed with high or low probability of a sexually transmitted infection. During fMRI measurements, 25 participants viewed photographs of people preclassified as having high or low HIV probability and judged their trustworthiness. In a postrating, stimuli were rated for trustworthiness, attractiveness, and HIV probability. Persons preclassified as HIV- in contrast to those preclassified as HIV+ were rated more trustworthy and with lower HIV probability. Activation in medial orbitofrontal cortex was higher for those rated and preclassified as HIV- than HIV+. Based on the individual ratings, but not the preclassification, there was significantly higher activation in the insula, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, and nucleus accumbens in response to untrustworthy than to trustworthy faces. Activation of the salience network occurred when a person was judged as untrustworthy, but not according to a preclassification. Activation in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, a structure associated with reward, was enhanced when a person was perceived as trustworthy and also when a person was preclassified with low HIV probability. Our findings suggest that trustworthiness and HIV- perception have consistency across samples, while the perception of risk and associated activation of the salience network has restricted cross-sample consistency.

Impressions of HIV risk online: Brain potentials while viewing online dating profiles

There is an increasing trend to use online dating to meet potential partners. Previous studies in off-line contexts indicate that people may judge the risk of sexually transmitted infections based on a person's appearance. Online dating profiles commonly present profile pictures and verbal self-descriptions. To examine the integration of verbal and visual risk information, the current event-related potential (ERP) study used a simulated dating platform in which verbal-descriptive information (low vs. high verbal risk) was presented, followed by a photograph (low vs. high visual risk). Results indicated main effects of verbal and visual risk. Specifically, high-risk compared with low-risk verbal profiles elicited a relative negative shift over occipitoparietal sensor sites between 260 ms and 408 ms. Furthermore, a sustained occipital negativity (132-500 ms) and central positivity (156-272 ms) was observed for high as compared with low visual risk profiles. There was also evidence for the integration of verbal and visual risk formation, as indicated by distinct positive ERP shift occurred between 272 ms and 428 ms over anterior temporal regions when a high-risk photograph was preceded by high-risk verbal information. This suggests that verbal-descriptive information is integrated with visual appearance early in the processing stream. The distinct response for high verbal and visual information extends the notion of an alarm function ascribed to risk perception by demonstrating integration about multiple sources. Simulating online dating platforms provides a useful tool to examine intuitive risk perception.

Visual cues that predict intuitive risk perception in the case of HIV

Field studies indicate that people may form impressions about potential partners’ HIV risk, yet lack insight into what underlies such intuitions. The present study examined which cues may give rise to the perception of riskiness. Towards this end, portrait pictures of persons that are representative of the kinds of images found on social media were evaluated by independent raters on two sets of data: First, sixty visible cues deemed relevant to person perception, and second, perceived HIV risk and trustworthiness, health, and attractiveness. Here, we report correlations between cues and perceived HIV risk, exposing cue-criterion associations that may be used to infer intuitively HIV risk. Second, we trained a multiple cue-based model to forecast perceived HIV risk through cross-validated predictive modelling. Trained models accurately predicted how ‘risky’ a person was perceived (r = 0.75) in a novel sample of portraits. Findings are discussed with respect to HIV risk stereotypes and implications regarding how to foster effective protective behaviors.

Virtually 'in the heat of the moment': insula activation in safe sex negotiation among risky men

HIV is most prevalent among men who have sex with men (MSM), and although most MSM use condoms consistently during casual sex, some take risks. To better understand the psychology of those risky decisions, we examined neural correlates of playing a virtual sexual 'hook up' game in an functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner in MSM who had, in the past 90 days, been sexually risky (N = 76) or safe (N = 31). We found that during potentially risky sexual choices, previously risky MSM had more right insula activity than previously safe MSM. Real-life sexual risk was related to trait positive and negative urgency. Insula activity that differentiated risky and safe MSM was related to trait positive and negative urgency. Future work should further examine if, and to what extent, insula activation during safe sex negotiation drives MSM's rash risky sexual decision-making.

Neural correlates of risk perception as a function of risk level: An approach to the study of risk through a daily life task

We are often required to make decisions that can have safe or risky consequences. Evaluating the risk of each possible alternative is an important step before making our final decision. The main goal of the present research was to explore the neural basis of risk perception in a naturalistic context (driving). Twenty-two drivers evaluated the perceived risk in 72 traffic situations (previously categorized by driving instructors) while brain activity was recorded using fMRI. A neural network involving attentional factors, emotional processing, stimulus-response associations, and risk aversion was related to the perception of risks. Given the nature of our task, a more prominent role was played by emotional factors (evaluation of the consequences) than cognitive factors (e.g. probabilistic calculations). Moreover, activation in the insula, inferior frontal gyrus, precentral/postcentral gyrus, inferior parietal gyrus, and temporal and occipital regions linearly increased as a function of risk level. Our findings provide a new step towards understanding the neural processing underlying risk behavior in daily life tasks, which is particularly relevant given the study context and its important practical implications for our society.

How real-life health messages engage our brains: Shared processing of effective anti-alcohol videos

Health communication via mass media is an important strategy when targeting risky drinking, but many questions remain about how health messages are processed and how they unfold their effects within receivers. Here we examine how the brains of young adults-a key target group for alcohol prevention-'tune in' to real-life health prevention messages about risky alcohol use. In a first study, a large sample of authentic public service announcements (PSAs) targeting the risks of alcohol was characterized using established measures of message effectiveness. In the main study, we used inter-subject correlation analysis of fMRI data to examine brain responses to more and less effective PSAs in a sample of young adults. We find that more effective messages command more similar responses within widespread brain regions, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, insulae and precuneus. In previous research, these regions have been related to processing narratives, emotional stimuli, self-relevance and attention towards salient stimuli. The present study thus suggests that more effective health prevention messages have greater 'neural reach', i.e. they engage the brains of audience members' more widely. This work outlines a promising strategy for assessing the effects of health communication at a neural level.

Health Risk Perception and Risk Communication

Risk perceptions are a prerequisite for protective action. Both scientists and practitioners need to understand the multifaceted nature of health risk perception and risk communication. This article reviews insights from psychophysiological research, with a focus on neuroscientific approaches that examine the biological basis of risk perception in the brain and capture the brain response to health and risk messages. Specifically, we discuss the key role of intuitive processes for personal risk perception and the difference between absolute and comparative risk. We then describe the relationship between risk perception and health behavior change and present recent work that measures responses to health prevention messages. Finally, we discuss implications for translation to public health policy and point to needs for future research. A better understanding of the biological roots of personal risk perception and how these can be addressed via risk communication informs policymakers in designing effective public health interventions.

Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying deceptive hazard evaluation: An event-related potentials investigation

Deceptive behavior is common in human social interactions. Researchers have been trying to uncover the cognitive process and neural basis underlying deception due to its theoretical and practical significance. We used Event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural correlates of deception when the participants completed a hazard judgment task. Pictures conveying or not conveying hazard information were presented to the participants who were then requested to discriminate the hazard content (safe or hazardous) and make a response corresponding to the cues (truthful or deceptive). Behavioral and electrophysiological data were recorded during the entire experiment. Results showed that deceptive responses, compared to truthful responses, were associated with longer reaction time (RT), lower accuracy, increased N2 and reduced late positive potential (LPP), suggesting a cognitively more demanding process to respond deceptively. The decrement in LPP correlated negatively with the increment in RT for deceptive relative to truthful responses, regardless of hazard content. In addition, hazardous information evoked larger N1 and P300 than safe information, reflecting an early processing bias and a later evaluative categorization process based on motivational significance, respectively. Finally, the interaction between honesty (truthful/deceptive) and safety (safe/hazardous) on accuracy and LPP indicated that deceptive responses towards safe information required more effort than deceptive responses towards hazardous information. Overall, these results demonstrate the neurocognitive substrates underlying deception about hazard information.

How Target and Perceiver Gender Affect Impressions of HIV Risk

Background

People do not use condoms consistently but instead rely on intuition to identify sexual partners high at risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The present study examined gender differences of intuitive impressions about HIV risk.

Methods

Male and female perceivers evaluated portraits of unacquainted male and female targets regarding their risk for HIV, trait characteristics (trust, responsibility, attractiveness, valence, arousal, and health), and willingness for interaction.

Results

Male targets were perceived as more risky than female targets for both perceiver genders. Furthermore, male perceivers reported higher HIV risk perception for both male and female targets than female perceivers. Multiple regression indicated gender differences in the association between person characteristics and HIV risk. In male targets, only trustworthiness predicts HIV risk. In female targets, however, HIV risk is related to trustworthiness, attractiveness, health, valence (for male perceivers), and arousal (for female perceivers).

Conclusion

The present findings characterize intuitive impressions of HIV risk and reveal differences according to both target and perceiver gender. Considering gender differences in intuitive judgments of HIV risk may help devise effective strategies by shifting the balance from feelings of risk toward a more rational mode of risk perception and the adoption of effective precautionary behaviors.