Maturation of prefrontal input to dorsal raphe increases behavioral persistence in mice

The ability to persist towards a desired objective is a fundamental aspect of behavioral control whose impairment is implicated in several behavioral disorders. One of the prominent features of behavioral persistence is that its maturation occurs relatively late in development. This is presumed to echo the developmental time course of a corresponding circuit within late-maturing parts of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, but the specific identity of the responsible circuits is unknown. Here, we describe the maturation of the projection from layer 5 neurons of the prefrontal cortex to the dorsal raphe nucleus in mice. We show using pathway-specific optogenetic stimulation that this connection undergoes a dramatic increase in synaptic potency between postnatal weeks 3 and 8, corresponding to the transition from juvenile to adult. We then show that this period corresponds to an increase in the behavioral persistence that mice exhibit in a foraging task. Finally, we use genetic targeting to selectively ablate this pathway in adulthood and show that mice revert to a behavioral phenotype similar to juveniles. These results suggest that the prefrontal to dorsal raphe pathway is a critical anatomical and functional substrate of the development and manifestation of behavioral control.

Domain-General and Math-Specific Self-Perceptions of Perseverance as Predictors of Behavioral Math Persistence

Three studies examine a novel pathway by which the perseverance component of the personality trait grit might predict college students’ behavioral persistence when solving challenging math problems. Specifically, we focus on the intervening role of what we refer to as math-specific self- perceptions of perseverance, which captures students’ perceived tendency and ability to persevere on challenging math problems. Across studies, we found that this math-specific construct was correlated with behavioral math persistence, whereas the domain-general perseverance component of grit was not. Despite there being no correlation between one’s general perceptions of perseverance and behavioral persistence on math problems, we consistently found significant indirect effects of general perceptions through math-specific perceptions of perseverance. That is, in all three studies, grittier students viewed themselves as more capable of persevering on challenging math problems, which ultimately predicted their behavioral persistence at a later time point.

Show Me the Money: A Systematic Exploration of Manipulations, Moderators, and Mechanisms of Priming Effects

A major challenge for accumulating knowledge in psychology is the variation in methods and participant populations across studies in a single domain. We offer a systematic approach to addressing this challenge and implement it in the domain of money priming. In three preregistered experiments ( N = 4,649), participants were exposed to one of a number of money manipulations before completing self-report measures of money activation (Study 1); engaging in a behavioral-persistence task (Study 3); completing self-report measures of subjective wealth, self-sufficiency, and communion-agency (Studies 1–3); and completing demographic questions (Studies 1–3). Four of the five manipulations we tested activated the concept of money, but, contrary to what we expected based on the preponderance of the published literature, no manipulation consistently affected any dependent measure. Moderation by sociodemographic characteristics was sparse and inconsistent across studies. We discuss implications for theories of money priming and explain how our approach can complement recent efforts to build a reproducible, cumulative psychological science.