With a high surface to volume ratio, small organisms must carefully regulate their internal water status. Spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), is an invasive frugivorous insect distributed across a wide range of geographical regions that can have periods of dry and hot weather, suggesting that this species has strategies to avoid stressful environments and reduce water loss. It also survives winter as an adult fly, indicating that it has adaptations to the low air humidity of this season. To determine the importance of water stress to D. suzukii, we studied their survival in environments of low humidity, which was manipulated using Drierite, and their survival and water loss in response to desiccation. Survival of both sexes was lower in drier conditions, and while female winter morph D. suzukii had higher mortality early on, remaining flies were able to survive longer in the drier conditions than the summer morphs. A bioassay method was adapted from Enjin et al. (2016) using 48-well plates to videotape the location of flies and quantify their behavioral responses to humidity. Male and female D. suzukii avoided dry conditions within the bioassay system, but only when there was at least 25% differential between humidity extremes. This response was observed for both summer and winter morphs of D. suzukii and our results provide guidance for attempts to manipulate crop environments to reduce the economic impact of this pest.

Abstract. Event-related potentials (ERPs) capture neural responses to media stimuli with a split-second resolution, opening the door to examining how attention modulates the reception process. However, the relatively high cost and difficulty of incorporating ERP methods have prevented broader adoption. This study tested the potential of a new mobile, relatively easy-to-mount, and highly affordable device for electroencephalography (EEG) measurement – the Muse EEG system – combined with a free, open-source platform for ERP recording and analysis. Specifically, we compared ERPs with affective visual stimuli – representative of the kind of engaging content that pervades modern social media. Our results confirm that the Muse system provides robust visual ERPs, highly reliable across two samples. Although there was no difference between ERPs to moderately positive and neutral stimuli in the expected time windows (200–300 ms, 400–600 ms), an exploratory analysis provided some evidence for differential processing of positive versus neutral images at the right temporal sensor site (TP10). Additionally, a compliance-gaining manipulation in participant instructions significantly improved data quality. These results support the use of the Muse EEG system in large-scale studies examining brain responses to screen media. They also suggest an easy social influence tactic that can enhance data quality as communication neuroscience is scaled up. The availability of a mobile EEG system for 250 USD makes it possible to incorporate neuroimaging into various communication paradigms beyond visual communication.

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The current study explores the role of narrative content and non-diegetic music, as well as their interplay in the creation of film suspense. In a between-subjects design, three audience groups watched either the full version (audio–video) of a suspenseful short movie (Love Field) or a video-only version or listened to the audio track only. Audience responses were assessed with a combination of continuous response measurement (CRM) and psychophysiological measures, comprising heart rate (i.e., inter-beat interval, IBI), pulse volume amplitude (PVA), and skin conductance level (SCL). Frame-by-frame content coding was performed to identify distinct plot segments and musical moods (tense vs. relaxing) and mark the critical visual and auditory events that directed the audience’s inferences about the nature of the plot and elicited specific outcome expectations. Results showed that continuous self-report data and objective physiological measures were largely dissociated, suggesting different processing modalities. Tense music alone induced feelings of suspense (CRM) even in the absence of any clues about the story content. Overall, the audio-only version led to the highest arousal levels, as indicated by SCL and PVA, while the video-only version led to the lowest arousal levels. IBI data revealed short-term heart rate deceleration responses to salient narrative clues that could be interpreted in terms of heightened attention and cognitive resource allocation. Results are discussed in light of a multidimensional framework of tension and suspense and a terminological differentiation of both concepts.