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This study investigated sex differences in performance and neuronal activity in a mental rotation task with abstract and embodied figures. Fifty-eight participants (26 females and 32 males) completed a chronometric mental rotation task with cube figures, human figures, and body postures. The results are straightforward: depending on angular disparity, participants had a faster reaction time and a higher accuracy rate for embodied stimuli compared to cube figures. The electroencephalogram (EEG) activity pattern showed a higher negative amplitude modulation in the frontal electrodes for females compared to males during the late (400-600 ms) time interval. From 200 to 400 ms after stimulus onset, there was a different activation pattern in the parietal and central electrodes, whereas frontal electrodes did not show differences between embodied and abstract stimuli. From 400 to 600 ms after stimulus onset, there was a different pattern in the central and frontal electrodes but not in the parietal areas for embodied figures in compared to cube figures. Concluding, even though there were no sex differences in the behavioral data, the EEG data did show alterations at the late time interval. Thus, the disparate results regarding sex differences that depend on the type of analysis (behavioral versus neurophysiological) should be more thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, the difference in processing embodied stimuli in an object-based mental rotation task could be confirmed in EEG activity pattern for the first time.

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Objectives The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a brief body-focused meditation on body ownership, while considering interoceptive abilities, dissociative experiences, mood, trait mindfulness, and meditation experience. Method The sample consisted of 111 healthy students who participated in a randomized controlled trial and either listened to a 20-min meditation or audio-book reading. Before and after the intervention, the rubber hand illusion and a heartbeat detection task were completed. The rubber hand illusion consisted of a synchronous and an asynchronous condition and the illusion intensity was measured using a questionnaire and by assessing the proprioceptive drift. In the heartbeat detection task, participants were instructed to count their heartbeats, so interoceptive accuracy of their counting, confidence in their own abilities (interoceptive sensibility), and the correspondence between both measures (interoceptive awareness) could be determined. Results The intervention type had no effect on mood and interoceptive abilities. Independent of intervention type, valence increased, arousal decreased, and interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility improved over time. Additionally, trait mindfulness and interoceptive accuracy were negatively related to the subjective rubber hand illusion intensity. There was not a mere effect of the intervention on the rubber hand illusion, but an interaction of synchrony, time, group, and interoceptive awareness was found for both measures, showing that only participants with high interoceptive awareness experienced a weaker illusion following the meditation. Conclusions We concluded that meta-awareness of interoceptive abilities may help protecting oneself against manipulations of the body boundaries. Preregistration Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/6dvh5).

The coronavirus pandemic has a high impact on mental health, as for example, anxiety. It was the main goal of this study to investigate if rumination and worry mediate the possible relation of self-compassion and fear of the future in females and males of three European and three Middle Eastern countries during the coronavirus pandemic. 2765 men and women participated and answered questions regarding their fear of the future on the one hand and completed the reflectionrumination questionnaire, the Penn-state worry questionnaire, and the selfcompassion scale. The results of a mediation analysis demonstrated a relation between self-compassion and fear of the future, which was mediated by worry but not by rumination, independent of gender and country. Furthermore, the fear of the future variable was predicted by different factors in each country. The only clear difference between the participants of the European and the Middle Eastern countries was that women show more fear of the future only in the European countries but not in the Middle Eastern countries. However, there were also differences between the three European and the three Middle Eastern countries. The results ABOUT THE AUTHOR Prof. Dr. Petra Jansen studied biological and social anthropology, psychology and mathematics at the Johannes-Gutenberg University of Mainz. She obtained her PHD and her habilitation in Experimental Psychology at the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and Düsseldorf on the investigation on spatial knowledge acquisition in children and adults using virtual environments. Since 2008 she is the head of the department of sport science in Regensburg. She teaches lectures in the course of studies "Applied Movement Science" and "Motion and Mindfulness". Her research focuses on the relation of motor and cognitive and emotional processes, gender difference, embodiment, mindfulness and sport psychology in general.