2019-07-17, Jaitner, David, Rinas, Raven, Becker, Christoph, Niermann, Christina, Breithecker, Jennifer, Mess, Filip

Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) has been applied as core concept for understanding and promoting students’ motivation in physical education (PE) and shows considerable relevance for theoretically and empirically justifying the significance of PE. However, systematically organized reviews of empirical research on AGT are limited to physical activities without explicit PE perspective. First, we aimed to compile basic tenets of AGT and its pedagogical potential for PE. Second, to bring together key findings and discuss future research, we systematically examined the existing empirical literature that applied AGT constructs in both observational and interventional PE settings. We searched the Web of Science, Scopus, Education Source, ERIC, SPORTDiscus, Physical Education Index, PsychInfo, and PsychArticles databases to identify English-language peer-reviewed journal articles with no restriction to publication date. The review was conducted according to the PRISMA Statement. Two independent reviewers screened all studies identified for eligibility, and assessed the methodological quality as well as the risk of bias. A total of 91 studies were included for analysis. Most of the studies (70) were observational, 21 studies were intervention based. On average, the methodological quality of the included studies was moderate and the risk of bias was moderate to high. Mastery goals, mastery-approach goals, and mastery climates appear to be highly relevant for supporting multiple political and curricular PE aims such as psychological well-being, motor skill development, general sports participation, prosocial behavior, and aspects of healthy living. Achievement goal profiles combining high mastery goals, high to low performance goals, and performance-approach goals partly show desirable functions. The results provide comprehensive information for planning and shaping PE lessons based on AGT constructs that match the intended ambitions. The integration of the results into everyday school PE practice is a promising avenue for promoting students’ motivation in PE and for fulfilling the overall political and curricular aims. However, this may be challenging in PE practice, as PE teachers at least partially follow a performance-pedagogical structure, including an orientation towards agonal sports, competition, and social comparison.

2017, Becker, Christoph

Food and fluid ingestion is of primal importance for the survival of an organism. In this vein, the power of respective goal stimuli to drive motivation needs to be regulated in accordance with internal needs during anticipation and updated on a moment-to-moment basis during consumption. However, the intake of pathogenic foods can cause substantial threat to health and well-being. Thus, fast and automatic mechanisms ensure that inedible foods evoke strong reactions of disgust and that these foods are rejected accordingly. Previous studies have shown that the depletion of an organism and stimulus edibility are major contributors modulating the incentive value of natural rewards. While a large body of studies examined the effects of these internal and external factors in behavioral paradigms, much less knowledge does exist about their underlying neuronal mechanisms. Therefore, functional imaging studies were conducted to advance the understanding of natural reward processing in humans.

The first study addressed the question which neural structures are engaged in increasing the incentive value of need-relevant stimuli during anticipation. Therefore, participants were scanned twice – either in a thirst or a no-thirst state – while viewing pictures of beverages and chairs. Results revealed selectively increased BOLD responses for beverages in the aMCC, insula, and amygdala during the thirst as compared to the no- thirst state. This finding demonstrates the increased attribution of incentive value specifically for the need-relevant category during anticipation.

The second study addressed the question which neural structures are engaged in the shift of stimulus value during consummation. Therefore, participants were scanned while being in a thirsty state and, over the course of the experiment, received small amounts of water sufficient for satiation. Results revealed a linear decrease of the BOLD response in the aMCC and posterior insula in relation to water consumption. This finding demonstrates a dynamic need-state dependent representation of incentive value.

The third study addressed the question of how neural structures are engaged in the detection of food edibility during the anticipatory phase. Therefore, participants were scanned with MRI and EEG while viewing images of foods at various stages of natural decay. The MRI results revealed increased BOLD activations in the extrastriate cortex during the processing of inedible as compared to edible food items. The EEG results further extend this finding by demonstrating a fast discrimination of food edibility (< 200 ms) and an increased LPP for inedible foods. Consequently, these findings demonstrate the brains sensitivity to harmful stimuli presumably supporting the avoidance of pathogen intake.

Taken together, the findings presented in Study 1 and Study 2 demonstrate that the incentive value of goal stimuli is selectively enhanced during anticipation and dynamically adjusted on a moment-to-moment basis during consummation, i.e., adjusted accordingly in relation to the motivational significance of the stimulus. Furthermore, the findings in Study 3 demonstrate a fast discrimination in food edibility and increased attention towards these stimuli, which supports the idea of a behavioral immune system for pathogen avoidance. In sum, the results reported in the present dissertation extend existing knowledge by advancing the understanding of how neural mechanisms turn the sight of environmental stimuli into adaptive behavioral responses.

2011-09, Odenwald, Michael, Friedrich, K., Knüppel, S., Becker, Christoph, Rieker, R., Höcker, Wolfgang

Substanzkonsummuster von Einwanderern gleichen sich mit zunehmender Dauer des Aufenthaltes an die der Mehrheitsbevölkerung an. Inwieweit jedoch die Generationszugehörigkeit das Erstkonsumalter beeinflusst, wurde bislang noch nicht systematisch untersucht.
Einhundertsechzehn männliche Drogenabhängige nahmen an der Studie teil, 41 Deutsche, 48 selbst Zuwanderer und 27 Angehörige der zweiten Generation. Die individuelle Suchtlaufbahn wurde mittels des Addiction Severity Index (Europ ASI) retrospektiv erhoben. Die Nachfolgestaaten der UdSSR waren in 34 Fällen der Migrationshintergrund, die Türkei in 10, die Nachfolgestaaten des ehemaligen Jugoslawiens in 8 und Italien in 7. Russischer Migrationshintergrund war bei Zugewanderten häufiger. Im Durchschnitt waren die Probanden 30,2 Jahre alt (SD 7,8) und hatten 9,9 Jahre Schulbildung (1,5). Zum Zeitpunkt des Interviews befanden sich 37 in Entzugs-, 79 in Rehabilitationsbehandlung. Polytoxikomaner Konsum stellte bei 36 das Hauptproblem dar, Opiate bei 46, THC bei 7. Es gab keine Gruppenunterschiede hinsichtlich dieser Variablen.
Deutsche begannen im Schnitt mit 16,8 Jahren (3,8) die Hauptdroge zu konsumieren, Zuwanderer mit 20,3 (5,3) und Angehörige der 2. Generation mit 18,4 (4,6; p > .001). Deutsche und Zuwanderer unterschieden sich voneinander (p=.002); die 2. Generation unterschied sich nicht von den beiden anderen Gruppen. Dieses Bild blieb gleich auch ohne Personen mit russischem Migrationshintergrund. Zuwanderer begannen durchschnittlich 6,8 Jahre (SD 7,2) nach der Migration mit dem Konsum der Hauptsubstanz, 10% bereits vor der Migration. Im Durchschnitt dauerte es 4,4 Jahre (4,8) bis zur ersten Suchttherapie, es gab hier keine Gruppenunterschiede.
Unsere Daten sprechen für unterschiedliche Suchtkarrieren bei Migranten der ersten und zweiten Generation. Mögliche Gründe für diesen Altersunterschied sind spezifische Stressoren und Akkulturationsprozesse.

2017-05-11, Becker, Christoph, Flaisch, Tobias, Renner, Britta, Schupp, Harald T.

The cingulate cortex and insula are among the neural structures whose activations have been modulated in functional imaging studies examining discrete states of thirst and drinking to satiation. Building upon these findings, the present study aimed to identify neural structures that change their pattern of activation elicited by water held in the mouth in relation to the internal body state, i.e., proportional to continuous water consumption. Accordingly, participants in a thirsty state were scanned while receiving increments of water until satiety was reached. As expected, fluid ingestion led to a clear decrease in self-reported thirst and the pleasantness ratings of the water ingested. Furthermore, linear decreases in the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response to water ingestion were observed in the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) and right posterior insula as participants shifted towards the non-thirsty state. In addition, regions in the superior temporal gyrus (STG), supplementary motor area (SMA), superior parietal lobule (SPL), precuneus and calcarine sulcus also showed a linear decrease with increasing fluid consumption. Further analyses related single trial BOLD responses of associated regions to trial-by-trial ratings of thirst and pleasantness. Overall, the aMCC and posterior insula may be key sites of a neural network representing the motivation for drinking based on the dynamic integration of internal state and external stimuli.

2016-06-21, Becker, Christoph, Flaisch, Tobias, Renner, Britta, Schupp, Harald T.

The elicitation of disgust by the view of spoiled and rotten foods is considered as an adaptation preventing the ingestion of harmful microorganisms and pathogens. To provide an effective behavioral defense, inedible food items need to be detected automatically, i.e., in the absence of explicit processing goals, early in the processing stream, and triggering an alarm response, i.e., increased attentional capture. To examine these hypotheses, a set of stimulus material consisting of images of perishable foods (i.e., dairies, meats, fruits, and vegetables) at various stages of natural decay ranging from appetitive to disgusting was developed. In separate sessions, functional imaging and dense sensor event related potential (ERP) data were collected while participants (N D 24) viewed the stimulus materials. Functional imaging data indicated larger activations in the extrastriate visual cortex during the processing of inedible as compared to edible food items. Furthermore, ERP recordings indicated that the processing of inedible food stimuli was associated with a relative positivity over inferior occipital sensor sites already at early stages of processing (<200 ms), and subsequently, an increased late positive potential (LPP) over parieto-occipital sensor regions. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the brain’s sensitivity to visual cues of foods that are spoiled or rotten.

2009, Becker, Christoph

The aim of this study was to explore the neuronal representations that underlie the perception and recognition of visual presented food cues in black and white as well as colored form when contrasted against face, house, and their scrambled counterparts. A theoretical framework published by Mesulam (1998) was used that stated that neuronal concepts and higher order cognitive functions are represented in large scale distributed networks across the human cortex. These functions are provided by transmodal areas, which bind sensory specific properties of object classes into coherent conscious representation. The sensory representations in turn are stored in modality specific areas that represent this content with a gradient from low-level feature encoding up to abstract object encoding. Through this framework a distributed food network was defined that should be responsible for the encoding of visual food cues, the anticipation of food's tastiness, and thereward evaluation of food intake. The results revealed that faces activate the fusiform face area (FFA), prefrontal regions, and parieto-occipital cortex. On the other hand responded the parahippocampal place area (PPA) to houses. Food pictures activated the prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, inferior temporal cortex, and parieto-occipital cortex. Moreover, object categories contrasted against their scrambled counterparts confirmed the results found through the contrasts reported above. An influence of color was found in prefrontal cortex, motor cortex, cingulate cortex, parieto-occipital cortex, insula, and subcortical regions across the different contrasts. The results of this study support the assumption that visual food cues are represented in a large scale distributed network across the human cortex. In this network the inferior temporal cortex is responsible for food object encoding, the insula for the processing of food's anticipated tastiness, the orbitofrontal cortex for expected reward evaluation, prefrontal regions for action planning, the parieto-occipital cortex for spatial attention processes, and the cingulate cortex for emotional salience. Further are the activation of FFA through faces and that of the PPA through houses consistent with findings in the literature. The influence of color showed that activity within regions responsible for action planning, action execution, motivation, attention, and emotional awareness is altered.

2017, Becker, Christoph, Lauterbach, Gabriele, Spengler, Sarah, Dettweiler, Ulrich, Mess, Filip

Background: Participants in Outdoor Education Programmes (OEPs) presumably benefit from these programmes in terms of their social and personal development, academic achievement and physical activity (PA). The aim of this systematic review was to identify studies about regular compulsory school- and curriculum-based OEPs, to categorise and evaluate reported outcomes, to assess the methodological quality, and to discuss possible benefits for students. Methods: We searched online databases to identify English- and German-language peer-reviewed journal articles that reported any outcomes on a student level. Two independent reviewers screened studies identified for eligibility and assessed the methodological quality. Results: Thirteen studies were included for analysis. Most studies used a case-study design, the average number of participants was moderate (mean valued (M) = 62.17; standard deviation (SD) = 64.12), and the methodological quality was moderate on average for qualitative studies (M = 0.52; SD = 0.11), and low on average for quantitative studies (M = 0.18; SD = 0.42). Eight studies described outcomes in terms of social dimensions, seven studies in learning dimensions and four studies were subsumed under additional outcomes, i.e., PA and health. Eleven studies reported positive, one study positive as well as negative, and one study reported negative effects. PA and mental health as outcomes were underrepresented. Conclusion: Tendencies were detected that regular compulsory school- and curriculum-based OEPs can promote students in respect of social, academic, physical and psychological dimensions. Very little is known concerning students’ PA or mental health. We recommend conducting more quasi-experimental design and longitudinal studies with a greater number of participants, and a high methodological quality to further investigate these tendencies.

2015-12, Becker, Christoph, Schmälzle, Ralf, Flaisch, Tobias, Renner, Britta, Schupp, Harald T.

Depletion imposes both need and desire to drink, and potentiates the response to need-relevant cues in the environment. The present fMRI study aimed to determine which neural structures selectively increase the incentive value of need:relevant stimuli in a thirst state. Towards this end, participants were scanned twice : either in a thirst or no:thirst state : while viewing pictures of beverages and chairs. As expected, thirst led to a selective increase in self:reported pleasantness and arousal by beverages. Increased responses to beverage as compared to chair stimuli were observed in the cingulate cortex, insular cortex, and the amygdala in the thirst state, which were absent in the no:thirst condition. Enhancing the incentive value of need:relevant cues in a thirst state is a key mechanism for motivating drinking behavior. Overall, distributed regions of the motive circuitry, which are also implicated in salience processing, craving, and interoception, provide a dynamic body:state dependent representation of stimulus value.

2009, Becker, Christoph, Flaisch, Tobias, Häcker, Frank E. K., Schupp, Harald T.

Food is a fundamental stimulus category for living organisms. Building upon previous research examining domain-specific patterns of brain activity, we explored the cortical representation of food pictures. In a fMRI block study, participants (N 5 12) viewed pictures depicting highly appetizing food items (vegetable dishes, meat dishes, dessert), as well as face and house stimuli. Scrambled versions of these pictures allowed controlling for low-level physical stimulus characteristics. In a further condition, the picture materials were presented in black and white. With regard to visual-associative regions, food compared to faces and houses elicited increased BOLD activity in the occipitotemporal gyrus. In addition, food pictures elicited increased activation in the parietal cortex, cingulate cortex (medial and posterior), and frontal structures (anterior prefrontal, inferior and superior frontal). Increased activations to food stimuli in orbitofrontal, medial frontal, premotor, and insular regions appeared right-lateralized. Thus, in addition to mandatory visual representation, food stimuli engage an extensive set of neural structures implicated in the regulation of emotion, motivation, and attention processes.