Interoception, a process wherein the nervous system senses, interprets, and integrates signals originating from within the body to provide a moment-by-moment mapping of the body’s internal state across conscious and unconscious levels, is crucial for maintaining homeostasis. The interoceptive system exhibits a unique rhythm, and the disruption of this rhythm is a prominent feature of different mental disorders. Therefore, the role of interoception in mental health has gained increased attention from researchers. In this paper, we review the physiological and psychological mechanisms of interoceptive rhythm, and then summarize the empirical evidence on the interaction between interoceptive rhythm and mental health. Finally, we propose an integrative theory grounded in the free energy framework and predictive coding model, which provides a testable framework to quantify the potential mechanism through which interoceptive rhythm affects mental health.

Breathing is closely related to emotion regulation, as breathing patterns can reflect emotional states and breathing training have a positive impact on emotional regulation. Despite the increasing public interest in breathing training as an important method for emotion regulation in recent years, there is still a lack of systematic discussion on how breathing affects brain function and, consequently, emotions. In response, this paper delves into the interactive mechanisms between breathing and the brain and their neural circuits, with emphasis on elucidating the coupling relationship between breathing and emotion-related brain networks to clarify the neural basis of how breathing influences emotions. Based on these mechanisms, we also introduce mainstream breathing training modalities, their interactive mechanisms with the brain, and their roles in different types of emotional interventions. In summary, this paper aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between breathing, the brain, and emotions, and provide new insights into emotion intervention techniques based on breathing training.

Interoception is generally defined as the processing that perceives, integrates, and interprets signals from various viscera. In recent years, the relationship between physical activity and interoception has received considerable attention. Changes in interoception help individuals to monitor multimodal signals in terms of physical activity, modulate exercise intensity, and influence emotional experience. In addition, physical activity also influences the onset of interoception, on the one hand by altering the afferents of physiological signals to achieve bottom-up regulation, and on the other hand physical activity is also influenced by attention, which regulates perceptual processes in a top-down manner. This paper summarizes the potential physiological mechanism of the interaction between physical activity and interoception, and refines the theoretical model of bidirectional physical activity - interoception loop. Optimizing the interoceptive ability of healthy people through appropriate interventions including physical activity, and repairing the interoceptive function of interoceptively impaired patients are beneficial to their health behavior and disease management. Future research should further deepen the theoretical mechanisms and develop physical activity-based interventions to optimise individuals’ interoception, taking into account influences such as individual differences.

This paper, grounded in the framework of embodied cognition, integrates predictive coding theory and the Bayesian brain hypothesis to systematically review the pathways and predictive mechanisms through which mind-body regulation training influences interoception. At the physiological level, the respiratory patterns involved in mind-body regulation training may enhance parasympathetic nervous system activity, promoting homeostasis. Psychologically, through components such as attention awareness and acceptance practices, mind-body regulation training engages in the processing of interoceptive attention and modulates the predictive coding model of interoception via direct effects on the autonomic nervous system. Neurobiologically, mind-body regulation training may alter interoceptive capacity by reshaping the structure and function of insular cortex-related neural circuits. The overall regulatory mechanism of mind-body training may be related to a shift from active inference to perceptual inference, leading to reduced prediction error and enhanced interoception. This paper further proposes a “physiological-neural-psychological” cross-level model to elucidate how mind-body training achieves multidimensional integration of the interoceptive system through predictive coding mechanisms, outlining potential directions for future research.

The literal meanings of constituents in Chinese idioms typically cannot be directly combined to derive their figurative meaning. Whether the literal meanings of the constituents are activated during idiom processing remains unclear. To explore this issue, 78 constituent words of idioms were embedded into both literal and idiomatic contexts. The boundary paradigm was used to manipulate the preview of constituent words (correct, semantic related, or semantic unrelated preview). Eye movements of 78 participants were recorded with an SR Research EyeLink 1000Plus eye tracker. The results on the constituent words showed a significant semantic preview benefit during first-pass reading, with shorter fixation times under semantically related previews compared to semantically unrelated previews, regardless of context. Moreover, in idiomatic contexts, the semantic preview effect was significant under relatively high semantic transparency, but not for those with relatively low semantic transparency. Our findings indicate the literal meanings of constituent words are activated during idiom processing which is modulated by semantic transparency, in line with the hybrid models.

The visual form perception hypothesis proposes that visual form perception, as a type of domain-general cognitive factor, is the common cognitive basis of abilities of both language and mathematics. This hypothesis has been confirmed in ideograms represented by Chinese, but whether it can be extended to phonetic scripts is unclear. This current study measured the unique contribution of visual form perception (measured by arrow form judgement test) to Chinese, English and mathematical abilities (measured by Chinese sentence completion test, English sentence completion test, and arithmetic computation) of Chinese primary school students. The results showed that after controlling for age, gender, intelligence and processing speed, visual form perception played an independent role in all three abilities. The results indicate that visual form perception is the common cognitive basis of both ideographic and phonographic languages, and further improve the scope of the role of visual form perception in language processing.

The present study was divided into two experiments using a continuous cue-matching task paradigm to separate cue change from task switching, to examine the effect of cue matching on task switching, and to examine whether prolonged CTI had an effect on pure switching costs. The experimental results showed that in the cue-matching condition, task switching was associated with longer reaction times and lower accuracy rates than task repetition, that is, the typical switching cost; in the cue-mismatch condition, the reaction time switching cost disappeared and the accuracy rate switching cost reversed. The disappearance and reversal of the conversion cost may stem from cognitive conflicts arising from inconsistent cue and task processing results, which suggests that individuals may combine cues and tasks in cue-task switching as a whole with hierarchical correlations.

Using eye-tracking technology, this study aimed to explore whether the reduced attention to social scenes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) stems from threat perception induced by others’ eye gaze in the scene or a lack of social motivation. A total of 22 children with ASD and 22 mental age-matched typically developing (TD) children participated in the study. By viewing paired presentations of social and non-social stimuli, the study compared the gaze patterns of ASD children toward different social scenes. The social scenes included first-person perspective and third-person perspective images, that is, the first-person perspective referred to images where models made direct eye contact with ASD children, while the third-person perspective referred to images where models gazed at each other, with ASD children in an observer role. The results showed that: 1) from the third-person perspective, ASD children’s dwell time on human scenes was significantly longer than that on object scenes, and their dwell time on human scenes was significantly longer than that from the first-person perspective; 2) from the third-person perspective, ASD children’s dwell time on humans was longer than that of TD children. These findings support the eye gaze threat hypothesis and provide guidance for educational interventions.

In the context of Chinese “Double Reduction” policy, enhancing students’ social-emotional competence and alleviating academic burnout have become key issues in the field of education. To explore the bidirectional predictive relationship between these two factors and whether gender moderated the relationship, this study conducted three waves of follow-up surveys with 740 seventh-grade students and analyzed the data using the cross-lagged model. The results showed that: 1) Social-emotional competence gradually declined over time, while academic burnout gradually increased, with boys’ social-emotional competence being significantly higher than that of girls. 2) There was a significant bidirectional negative predictive effect between social-emotional competence and academic burnout. 3) Gender differences existed in the mutual predictive effects between social-emotional competence and academic burnout: a bidirectional predictive effect was observed among boys, whereas only a unidirectional predictive effect of academic burnout on social-emotional competence was found among girls. This study reveals the bidirectional predictive relationship between social-emotional competence and academic burnout among middle school students and gender differences in the relationship. The findings suggest that educational practice should focus on cultivating students’ social-emotional competence to alleviate academic burnout, while paying attention to gender differences.

Based on the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, this study investigated the relationship between core self-evaluations and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents, with a focus on the mediating role of insomnia severity and the moderating role of parental autonomy support. A total of 4,760 middle and high school students were recruited and completed a battery of well-validated scales, including the Adolescent Self-Harm Scale, Core Self-Evaluations Scale, Insomnia Severity Index, and Parental Autonomy Support Scale. The results demonstrated that: 1) core self-evaluations negatively predicted NSSI; 2) insomnia severity mediated the relationship between core self-evaluations and NSSI; and 3) parental autonomy support moderated the direct path, the second stage of the mediation pathway, and the overall indirect effect. These findings provide evidence-based guidance for developing tailored intervention strategies to address self-injury among adolescents.

Grounded in the framework of basic psychological needs theory, this study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine profiles of psychological need satisfaction and frustration and their associations with prosocial and antisocial behaviors among adolescent student-athletes. A total of 1,148 middle school athletes completed the questionnaire. The results showed that: LPA identified three distinct psychological need profiles, that is, high satisfaction - low frustration, moderate satisfaction - slightly lower frustration, and moderate satisfaction - moderate frustration. Significant differences in prosocial and antisocial behaviors were observed across these profiles. Notably, these profiles and their associations with prosocial and antisocial behaviors were unaffected by demographic variables. These findings highlight the critical role of psychological need satisfaction in promoting prosocial behavior and underscore the practical significance of reducing need frustration in preventing antisocial behavior among adolescent student-athletes.

Health wish rumors mislead individuals by providing false health improvement solutions, inducing unrealistic expectations, and fostering trust in related products. Despite corrective interventions, the continued influence effect (CIE) of such misinformation may persist in the context of fear appeals. To address this issue, this study employed behavioral experiments and eye-tracking techniques to examine the effectiveness of multiple correction methods (efficacy degradation, detailed explanation, and combined correction; Experiment 1) and the eye movement characteristics of efficacy degradation (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 revealed that under fear appeals, health wish rumors exhibit CIE, also increasing the purchase intention for related products. Efficacy degradation, detailed explanation, and combined correction were identified as effective intervention strategies for addressing the CIE of health wish rumors within fear appeal contexts, with no significant differences in effectiveness between efficacy degradation and combined correction. Experiment 2 demonstrated that, compared to simple negation, efficacy degradation enhances the integration of corrective information and reduces cognitive load during the encoding and retrieval stages of corrective information processing. This study provides a theoretical foundation for mitigating the CIE of health wish rumors in fear appeal contexts and offers practical implications for public health rumors debunking.

Based on the intergroup sensitivity effect, this study experimentally investigated the influence of negative evaluative sources on online collective aggression, as well as the roles of group anger and positive online contact. A negative emotion scale, a group anger scale, and an employee evaluation paradigm were employed to conduct scenario-based experiments with participants. The results revealed that: 1) negative out-group evaluations in the online environment were more likely to elicit online collective aggression behaviors among Internet users compared to negative in-group evaluations; 2) group anger mediated the relationship between sources of negative evaluations and online collective aggression behaviors; 3) positive online contact not only moderated the direct relationship between sources of negative evaluations and online collective aggression behaviors but also moderated the first half of the mediating path of group anger. This study constructed a moderated mediation model, which holds theoretical and practical significance for the governance of online collective aggression and the maintenance of a healthy and positive online ecology.

This study examined the impact of betrayal trauma on trust levels and explored the moderating role of perceived social mindfulness in trust behavior and its subsequent repair. Experiment 1 employed a trust game and social mindfulness paradigm to assess whether perceived social mindfulness enhances trust behavior. Experiment 2 utilized a trust violation paradigm to investigate its influence on trust repair. The results showed that: 1) individuals with high betrayal trauma exhibited significantly lower trust behavior compared to those with low betrayal trauma; 2) perceived social mindfulness not only improved trust behavior but also facilitated trust repair, with this effect being particularly pronounced among high betrayal trauma individuals. These findings underscore the enduring detrimental effects of betrayal trauma on interpersonal trust, while highlighting targeted social mindfulness interventions as a promising avenue for trust rehabilitation, especially in trauma-affected populations.

This study aimed to explore the spillover effect of pro-environmental behaviors reminding and its underlying psychological mechanisms. Through three experiments, the research investigated whether reminders of low-difficulty behaviors could nudge the implementation of high-difficulty pro-environmental behaviors. The results indicated that reminding individuals to engage in low-difficulty pro-environmental behaviors significantly promotes their involvement in high-difficulty behaviors, and this effect is mediated by enhanced environmental self-efficacy and environmental self-identity. Additionally, environmental collective efficacy plays an optimizing role in this spillover effect. The conclusion suggests that reminders of simple, easy-to-implement pro-environmental behaviors can stimulate broader environmental actions.

To examine the relationship between kindergarten teachers’ social-emotional competence and burnout, and to explore the chain-mediated role of psychological empowerment and positive coping styles in it, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 681 kindergarten teachers in Beijing by using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey, Emotional Intelligence Scale, Psychological Empowerment Scale, and Positive Coping Subscale. The results showed that: 1) social-emotional competence was significantly and negatively related to burnout; social-emotional competence was significantly and positively related to psychological empowerment and positive coping styles; psychological empowerment and positive coping styles were significantly and negatively related to burnout; and psychological empowerment was significantly and positively related to positive coping styles. 2) Psychological empowerment and positive coping styles respectively played a partial mediating role between social-emotional competence and burnout. 3) Psychological empowerment and positive coping styles as chain mediators between social-emotional competence and burnout.

As a foundational psychological construct, teachers’ professional identity(TPI) empowers pre-service teachers to fulfill future instructional roles. Through a cross-sectional survey of 2,633 pre-service teachers from Chinese local comprehensive universities, this study explored demographic variations and developmental mechanisms in TPI. The results showed that: 1) participants reported moderately high levels of TPI; 2) significant differences in TPI emerged across gender, academic year, and major; 3) learning engagement and teacher self-efficacy each served as partial mediators between enrollment motivation and TPI; and 4) these two factors further formed a serial mediation pathway linking enrollment motivation to TPI. By delineating these developmental pathways, the research offers evidence-based insights for enhancing teacher education programs.