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The concept of ‘aspiration-raising’ has been ubiquitous in the discussion of differential rates of participation in higher education in England for many years. Potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds are constructed as setting their sights too low and therefore not considering higher education or ignoring elite universities that they could access. However, it is increasingly understood that aspiration-raising is unable to explain patterns of participation and that it risks ‘blaming the victim’ by failing to appreciate the structural constraints forged through their sociocultural context. The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative lens in the form of ‘possible selves’. This is drawn from the discipline of psychology and aims to explain how we all conceive and develop visions of ourselves in future states. These images create a motivational impetus for actions in the present in order to achieve a like-to-be self—or evade a like-to-avoid self. Notably, the theory takes specific account of the individual’s expectations and the importance of having a clear pathway towards a long-term destination. This paper provides an overview of the foundational theory and empirical evidence for a general readership, before presenting a new conceptual model focused on access to higher education. This is then used to explore the principles that might underpin interventions to support participation from disadvantaged groups within highly stratified systems, as well as suggesting a new policy agenda and priorities for future research.

Aesthetic experiences of nature are associated with beneficial psychological and behavioural outcomes. We investigated in a laboratory study whether an individual’s level of connectedness to nature is associated with their aesthetic sensitivity to images of natural scenes, and whether the amount of attention allocated to the images mediated this association. Participants ( N = 82) viewed 14 photographs depicting natural scenes and evaluated them on three aesthetic dimensions and completed the Connectedness to Nature (CN) and Openness to Experience (OtE) scales. CN positively predicted pleasure, beauty and aesthetic emotion, independently of OtE. The amount of attention participants paid to the images mediated the relationship between connectedness to nature and aesthetic pleasure, and connectedness to nature and beauty ratings. These findings extend our understanding by showing that attention is an important mechanism through which nature connectedness influences aesthetic responses of pleasantness and beauty in response to natural scenes. The findings have real-world implications as appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of nature is associated with a number of beneficial psychological outcomes.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder with a long latent phase and currently no disease-modifying treatments. Reliable predictive biomarkers that could transform efforts to develop neuroprotective treatments remain to be identified. Using UK Biobank, we investigated the predictive value of accelerometry in identifying prodromal Parkinson’s disease in the general population and compared this digital biomarker with models based on genetics, lifestyle, blood biochemistry or prodromal symptoms data. Machine learning models trained using accelerometry data achieved better test performance in distinguishing both clinically diagnosed Parkinson’s disease ( n  = 153) (area under precision recall curve (AUPRC) 0.14 ± 0.04) and prodromal Parkinson’s disease ( n  = 113) up to 7 years pre-diagnosis (AUPRC 0.07 ± 0.03) from the general population ( n  = 33,009) compared with all other modalities tested (genetics: AUPRC = 0.01 ± 0.00, P  = 2.2 × 10 −3 ; lifestyle: AUPRC = 0.03 ± 0.04, P  = 2.5 × 10 −3 ; blood biochemistry: AUPRC = 0.01 ± 0.00, P  = 4.1 × 10 −3 ; prodromal signs: AUPRC = 0.01 ± 0.00, P  = 3.6 × 10 −3 ). Accelerometry is a potentially important, low-cost screening tool for determining people at risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and identifying participants for clinical trials of neuroprotective treatments. UK Biobank moement tracking data show increased performance as compared to symptoms and genetic and lifestyle factors in identifying prodromal Parkinson’s disease in the general population.

This work investigates whether the unique low thermal expansion property of Invar (64Fe–36Ni) is retained after processing using the additive manufacturing process selective laser melting (SLM). Using this process, near-full-density components (99.96%) were formed by melting thin (20 μm) layers of powdered Invar (15–45 μm particle size). The mechanical properties of SLM Invar were comparable to that of cold-drawn Invar36 ® ; however, the thermal coefficient of expansion was observed to be a lower value and negative up until 100 °C. This negative value was attributed to residual stress in the as-deposited parts. The low thermal expansion property of Invar was still maintained when processed using a non-conventional layer-based additive manufacturing technique.

Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms in multiple sclerosis (MS), with a major impact on patients’ quality of life. Currently, treatment proceeds by trial and error with limited success, probably due to the presence of multiple different underlying mechanisms. Recent neuroscientific advances offer the potential to develop tools for differentiating these mechanisms in individual patients and ultimately provide a principled basis for treatment selection. However, development of these tools for differential diagnosis will require guidance by pathophysiological and cognitive theories that propose mechanisms which can be assessed in individual patients. This article provides an overview of contemporary pathophysiological theories of fatigue in MS and discusses how the mechanisms they propose may become measurable with emerging technologies and thus lay a foundation for future personalised treatments.

Although compulsive sexual behaviour (CSB) has been conceptualized as a \"behavioural\" addiction and common or overlapping neural circuits may govern the processing of natural and drug rewards, little is known regarding the responses to sexually explicit materials in individuals with and without CSB. Here, the processing of cues of varying sexual content was assessed in individuals with and without CSB, focusing on neural regions identified in prior studies of drug-cue reactivity. 19 CSB subjects and 19 healthy volunteers were assessed using functional MRI comparing sexually explicit videos with non-sexual exciting videos. Ratings of sexual desire and liking were obtained. Relative to healthy volunteers, CSB subjects had greater desire but similar liking scores in response to the sexually explicit videos. Exposure to sexually explicit cues in CSB compared to non-CSB subjects was associated with activation of the dorsal anterior cingulate, ventral striatum and amygdala. Functional connectivity of the dorsal anterior cingulate-ventral striatum-amygdala network was associated with subjective sexual desire (but not liking) to a greater degree in CSB relative to non-CSB subjects. The dissociation between desire or wanting and liking is consistent with theories of incentive motivation underlying CSB as in drug addictions. Neural differences in the processing of sexual-cue reactivity were identified in CSB subjects in regions previously implicated in drug-cue reactivity studies. The greater engagement of corticostriatal limbic circuitry in CSB following exposure to sexual cues suggests neural mechanisms underlying CSB and potential biological targets for interventions.

The pedagogical urge to decolonise student thinking has been at the heart of the drive to embed Indigenous knowledge in universities throughout the western world. Despite ongoing efforts in the Pacific, North America and South Africa, there is little in the way of explicit curriculum scholarship informing approaches to the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges in higher education. Some universities are currently developing policy directed at embedding an Indigenous cultural capability in curriculum. The capability is commonly conceptualised in terms of three main pedagogical approaches: teaching knowledge about Indigenous people, promoting empathy with others and decolonising one’s own knowledge and values through reflexivity. The paper highlights how higher education curriculum as representational practice remains largely unproblematised in the application of these three approaches. Two key contributions are presented. The first proposes an understanding of reflexivity as an unconscious enactment of a common world. The second lies in the proposition that narrative is more than a practice of knowing about others, it is a means of bringing people together through the creation of an interdependent life. We draw specifically on Butler’s understanding of the performativity of face-to-face narrative as a means of understanding how narrative can be leveraged in university curriculum to support a vision of enhanced social cohesion.

Artifact removal in resting state fMRI (rfMRI) data remains a serious challenge, with even subtle head motion undermining reliability and reproducibility. Here we compared some of the most popular single-echo de-noising methods-regression of Motion parameters, White matter and Cerebrospinal fluid signals (MWC method), FMRIB's ICA-based X-noiseifier (FIX) and ICA-based Automatic Removal Of Motion Artifacts (ICA-AROMA)-with a multi-echo approach (ME-ICA) that exploits the linear dependency of BOLD on the echo time. Data were acquired using a clinical scanner and included 30 young, healthy participants (minimal head motion) and 30 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder patients (greater head motion). De-noising effectiveness was assessed in terms of data quality after each cleanup procedure, ability to uncouple BOLD signal and motion and preservation of default mode network (DMN) functional connectivity. Most cleaning methods showed a positive impact on data quality. However, based on the investigated metrics, ME-ICA was the most robust. It minimized the impact of motion on FC even for high motion participants and preserved DMN functional connectivity structure. The high-quality results obtained using ME-ICA suggest that using a multi-echo EPI sequence, reliable rfMRI data can be obtained in a clinical setting.

The subjective experience of fatigue impairs an individual's ability to sustain physical endurance performance. However, precise understanding of the specific role perceived fatigue plays in the central regulation of performance remains unclear. Here, we examined whether the subjective intensity of a perceived state of fatigue, pre-induced through prior upper body activity, differentially impacted performance and altered perceived effort and affect experienced during a sustained, isometric contraction in lower body. We also explored whether (cardiac) interoception predicted the intensity of experienced perceptual and affective responses and moderated the relationships between constructs during physical activity. Using a repeated-measures study design, thirty male participants completed three experimental conditions, with the intensity of a pre-induced state of fatigue manipulated to evoke moderate (MOD), severe (SEV) and minimal (control; CON) intensity of perceptions prior to performance of the sustained contraction. Performance of the sustained contraction was significantly impaired under a perceived state of fatigue, with reductions of 10% and 14% observed in the MOD and SEV conditions, respectively. Performance impairment was accompanied by greater perceived effort and more negative affective valence reported during the contraction. However, effects were limited to comparisons to CON, with no difference evident between the two experimental trials (i.e. MOD vs. SEV). Individuals' awareness of their accuracy in judging resting heartbeats was shown to predict the subjective intensity of fatigue experienced during the endurance task. However, interoception did not moderate the relationships evident between fatigue and both perceived effort and affective valence. A perceived state of fatigue limits endurance performance, influencing both how effortful activity is perceived to be and the affective experience of activity. Though awareness of interoceptive representations of bodily states may be important to the subjective experience of fatigue, interoception does not modulate the relationships between perceived fatigue and other perceptual (i.e. effort) and affective constructs.