Artur Marchewka

Climate change is a serious threat to people and ecosystems worldwide, making it increasingly important to understand what drives pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Emotions are recognized as key drivers of PEB, with underlying appraisals that seem to shape behavioral outcomes. We conducted a preregistered study on the influence of anger, compassion, and hope on PEB. Participants (N = 1029 in Poland, N = 1010 in Norway) read emotional stories designed to elicit a specific set of climate-related appraisals or neutral stories. Subsequently, they completed two tasks designed to measure different types of PEB: an effort task (Work for Environmental Protection Task; WEPT) and a monetary donation task. We hypothesized that reading emotional (as compared to neutral) stories would increase PEB and that distinct appraisal patterns would promote different behavioral intentions. We also predicted that demographic and personal factors would moderate the relationship between emotions and PEB. Contrary to expectations, results showed no effects of emotion manipulation on either measure. Older age, however, consistently predicted higher effort and donations. We discuss potential areas for further research, including the use of validated naturalistic and immersive stimuli, prolonged exposure to interventions, momentary assessment of behaviors, and matching behavioral tasks to emotional manipulation.

Human languages are unique in their capacity to tell stories. Prior neuroimaging studies show that spoken language narrative comprehension engages a neural time-scale hierarchy, from words and sentences to narratives. Sign languages share core features with spoken languages but also have modality-specific elements such as use of hands, face and spatial position to convey meaning and mark grammar. Here, we use naturalistic fMRI to examine which aspects of the language hierarchy are speech-specific versus modality-general. Native signers (n = 20) watched a 20-minute Polish Sign Language interpretation of The Fall of the House of Usher and its progressively scrambled versions during fMRI. We show that signed narratives synchronize hierarchical neural networks, revealing a modality-invariant dissociation between frontotemporal regions, which track sentence-level structure, and the Default Mode Network tracking plot. We identify two signatures not previously reported for speech: the superior parietal cortex synchronizes at long discourse timescales, while the ventral occipital cortex responds to word- and sentence-level processing. These results reveal both universal and potentially modality-specific aspects of language neurobiology.

Addressing climate change depends on large-scale system changes, which require public advocacy. Here, we identified and tested 17 expert-crowdsourced theory-informed behavioral interventions designed to promote public, political, and financial advocacy in a large quota-matched sample of US residents (n = 31,324). The most consistently effective intervention emphasized both the collective efficacy and emotional benefits of climate action, increasing advocacy by up to 10 percentage points. This was also the top intervention among participants identifying as Democrats. Appealing to binding moral foundations, such as purity and sanctity, was also among the most effective interventions, showing positive effects even among participants identifying as Republicans. These findings provide critical insights to policymakers and practitioners aiming to galvanize the public behind collective action and advocacy on climate change with affordable and scalable interventions.

Piano training enables the study of the interplay between the auditory and motor domains in the acquisition of complex skill. Here, we uniquely combine longitudinal and cross‐sectional designs to show how the motor and auditory brain systems respond in novice pianists over a 6‐month training period. In the auditory domain, we found no differences in brain activation between novice pianists and a passive control group. In a specially designed piano task on an MRI‐compatible keyboard, we demonstrate that the time course of neuroplastic reorganization in the cortical and subcortical regions reflects the shift from spatial attention to automated movements, but depends on task demands related to bimanual coordination. Importantly, no single model of brain plasticity can fully explain the observed dynamic time courses of functional changes. Finally, we demonstrate that the increased activation in the dorsal premotor and parietal cortices in novice pianists compared to skilled musicians while performing the motor task vanishes within the first 6 months of training. These results present converging evidence that the dynamic musical‐training‐related plasticity is highly contextual, and underscore the importance of ecological designs in research on skill acquisition.

Climate change threatens human populations and ecosystems worldwide. Neuroscience research on this topic is emerging, but validated questionnaires, stimuli, and fMRI tasks remain scarce. Here, we present the CLIMATE BRAIN dataset, a multimodal collection of questionnaire, behavioral, and neuroimaging data from 160 young, healthy Polish individuals. Designed to advance research on climate emotions and pro-environmental behavior, the dataset includes individuals with moderate climate change concern. Participants read anger and hope-evoking stories about climate change and made pro-environmental decisions. The dataset includes data from (1) various questionnaire measures, including the Inventory of Climate Emotions (ICE); (2) a neuroimaging task for measuring emotional reactions to standardized Emotional Climate Change Stories (ECCS); and (3) a neuroimaging task based on Carbon Emission Task (CET) to measure climate action-taking. For technical validation, we provide image quality metrics and show the evidence for the effectiveness of the tasks consistent with prior studies. To our knowledge, the proposed multimodal dataset is currently the only publicly available resource specifically designed to investigate human brain responses to climate change.

High-level perception results from interactions between hierarchical brain systems responsive to gradually increasing feature complexities. During reading, the initial evaluation of simple visual features in the early visual cortex (EVC) is followed by orthographic and lexical computations in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOTC). While similar visual regions are engaged in tactile Braille reading in congenitally blind people, it is unclear whether the visual network maintains or reorganizes its hierarchy for reading in this population. Combining fMRI and chronometric transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), our study revealed a clear correspondence between sighted and blind individuals (both male and female) on how their occipital cortices functionally supports reading and speech processing. Using fMRI, we first observed that vOTC, but not EVC, showed an enhanced response to lexical vs nonlexical information in both groups and sensory modalities. Using TMS, we further found that, in both groups, the processing of written words and pseudowords was disrupted by the EVC stimulation at both early and late time windows. In contrast, the vOTC stimulation disrupted the processing of these written stimuli only when applied at late time windows, again in both groups. In the speech domain, we observed TMS effects only for meaningful words and only in the blind participants. Overall, our results suggest that, while the responses in the deprived visual areas might extend their functional response to other sensory modalities, the computational gradients between early and higher-order occipital regions are retained, at least for reading.

Learning tactile Braille reading leverages cross-modal plasticity, emphasizing the brain’s ability to reallocate functions across sensory domains. This neuroplasticity engages motor and somatosensory areas and reaches language and cognitive centers like the visual word form area (VWFA), even in sighted subjects following training. No study has employed a complex reading task to monitor neural activity during the first weeks of Braille training. Since neuroplasticity can occur within days, understanding neural reorganization during early learning stages is critical. Moreover, such activation was not tested in visual and tactile domains using comparable tasks. Furthermore, implicit reading has not been studied in tactile Braille. Although visual reading in the native script occurs automatically, it remains uncertain whether the same applies to tactile reading. An implicit reading task could extend the knowledge of linguistic processing in Braille. Our study involved 17 sighted adults who learned Braille for 7 months and 19 controls. The experimental group participated in 7 testing sessions (1 week before the course, on the first day, after 1 and 6 weeks, after 3 and 7 months, and after 3 month-long hiatus). Using the fMRI Lexical Decision Task, we observed increased activity within the reading network, including the inferior frontal and supramarginal gyri, 1 week into learning in tactile and visual Braille. Interestingly, VWFA activation was observed after 1 week in the visual domain but only after 6 weeks in the tactile domain. This suggests that skill level in tactile reading influences the onset of involvement of VWFA. Once this activation was achieved, the peak level of VWFA engagement remained stable, even after the follow-up. Furthermore, an implicit reading task revealed increased activity within the reading network, including the VWFA, among participants learning Braille compared to the passive controls. Possibly, implicit reading occurs during non-reading tactile tasks where the Braille alphabet is present. We showed that the VWFA activity peak occurs faster in the visual domain compared to the tactile domain. We also showed that sighted subjects can process tactile Braille implicitly. These results enrich our understanding of neural adaptation mechanisms and the interplay between sensory modalities during complex, cross-modal learning.

Climate change presents a fundamental threat to human populations and ecosystems across the globe. Neuroscience researchers have recently started developing ways to advance research on this topic. However, validated questionnaires, experimental stimuli, and fMRI tasks are still needed. Here we describe the CLIMATE BRAIN dataset, a multimodal collection of questionnaire, behavioural, and neuroimaging data related to climate change, acquired from 160 healthy individuals. In particular, it includes data from (1) various questionnaire measures, including the Inventory of Climate Emotions (ICE); (2) a neuroimaging task for measuring emotional reactions to standardized Emotional Climate Change Stories (ECCS); and (3) a neuroimaging task based on Carbon Emission Task (CET) to measure climate action-taking. For technical validation, we provide image quality metrics and show the evidence for the effectiveness of tasks consistent with prior studies. To our knowledge, the proposed dataset is currently the only publicly available resource specifically designed to investigate human brain responses to climate change.

Purpose The menopausal transition brings with it many physical, cognitive, and affective changes in a woman’s life, impacting quality of life. Whereas prior work has examined impact on general mental health and cognitive function, research on basic affective processing during menopause remains scarce. Methods Using a median-split procedure, this pre-registered study examined the impact of stronger (N = 46 women) vs. milder (N = 47 women) menopausal symptoms using a behavioural task of subjective emotion perception (embody) and a passive eye tracking viewing task of emotional faces in addition to self-report questionnaires. After 3 months, participants completed the questionnaires again to examine whether objective measures of emotion perception (eye tracking) might predict mental health at follow-up. Results As anticipated, women with stronger vs. milder menopausal symptoms reported increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, emotion regulation difficulties, and lower quality of life during both time points. While no evidence was found in the behavioural task, eye tracking data indicated blunted emotion perception in women with high menopausal symptoms, while women with low symptoms spent more time looking at happy faces relative to fearful or surprised faces. Although eye tracking or hormonal data did not predict mental health at follow-up, a higher estradiol/FSH ratio indicated a higher quality of life. Conclusions This study documented an impact of the menopausal transition and strength of menopausal symptoms in particular on objective emotion perception as well as mental health and quality of life in women suffering from stronger vs. milder menopausal symptoms. Clinical implications are discussed.