At 20.5% the objective response rate was slightly lower than previously reported. However, >20% of patients experienced long-term disease control at >1 year. In general, patients with late diagnosis of advanced disease and low tumor burden might especially benefit from mitotane monotherapy, whereas patients with early advanced disease and high tumor burden are probably better candidates for combined therapy of mitotane and cytotoxic drugs.

The slope of the amplitude/stimulus intensity function (ASF) of sensory evoked potentials was found to be related to ‘action-oriented’ personality traits like ‘sensation seeking’, ‘extraversion’, and ‘impulsivity’. We studied the ASF slope of the auditory evoked N1/P2 component as well as short-term ASF slope changes and their relationship to a German personality inventory (Freiburger Persönlichkeits-Inventar) in 33 healthy subjects. The ASF slope correlated negatively with ‘life contentment’ and positively with ‘stress’ in the first run. Stronger associations, however, were noted between slope changes within one test session and personality. Subjects scoring high on the second-order factor ‘aggressive excitability’ were characterized by a slope decrease from the first to the second run, following a 20-min interval. This finding of personality-dependent test-retest changes of the ASF slope stresses the importance of monitoring the duration of the recording when studying ASF slopes and offers an explanation for inconsistencies in the literature concerning cross-modal correlations in visual and auditory ASF slopes. The hypothesis is proposed that the serotonergic system, which has been related to ‘action-oriented’ personality, is involved in the modulation of the intensity dependence of the auditory evoked N1/P2 component.

Initial studies suggest that agentic extraversion and executive functions (EF) are associated, because they share influences of individual differences in the dopamine (DA) system. However, it is unclear whether previously reported associations are specific to certain EFs (e.g., to updating or shifting) or due to shared variance among EF tasks. We investigated the DA-related relationship between agentic extraversion and two EF tasks in a placebo-controlled between-group design with the DA D2 receptor blocker sulpiride (200 mg) in 92 female volunteers. Our goals were to investigate whether (1) there is an association between agentic extraversion and EFs measured with two different tasks (3-back and switching), (2) this association is sensitive to a pharmacological manipulation of DA, and (3) the effects can be ascribed to shared or specific task variance. We observed the expected interaction between drug condition and agentic extraversion for both tasks in a multivariate multiple linear regression model, which supports the DA theory of extraversion. Subsequent univariate analyses revealed a highly similar interaction effect between drug condition and agentic extraversion on two of three performance measures and this effect was somewhat attenuated when we controlled for shared task variance. This pattern matches the interpretation that the association between agentic extraversion and both tasks is partly due to DA-based processes shared among the tasks. Our results, although limited by the low reliability of the switching task, suggest that variance components and measurement difficulties of EF tasks should be considered when investigating personality-related individual differences in EFs.

The position of complex problem solving (CPS) abilities in the nomological net of cognitive abilities is yet to be fully understood. During CPS, problem solvers have to interact with the task in a way in which learning ability might be beneficial for successful task completion. By investigating the relationship between learning ability and CPS, while accounting for interactions between complex system characteristics and person characteristics, this paper aims to understand the role of learning processes in CPS more closely. In a sample of N = 241 participants, we performed a preregistered analysis to investigate the relationship between knowledge acquisition performance in a CPS test (MicroDYN) and learning test performance (ADAFI) with a multilevel modelling approach across 10 CPS systems with various characteristics. In line with our expectations, we replicated previous findings on a relationship between learning test and MicroDYN performance and found this relationship to be more pronounced in systems with (vs. without) autonomous changes. Further system and person characteristics also showed effects as expected, with better performance in systems with lower complexity, with more experience with the task, and with more strategic exploration behaviour. Our results provide further evidence for the notion that learning is an important component for the successful completion of CPS tasks.