1
|
Piejka A, Thayer JF, Okruszek Ł. The association between perceived social functioning and heart rate variability is mediated by subclinical depressive symptomatology and moderated by gender. Psychophysiology 2024:e14622. [PMID: 38807291 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2024] [Revised: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 05/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024]
Abstract
Chronic loneliness and low perceived social support have been recognized as risk factors for both mental and cardiovascular disorders. It has been proposed that their link to psychophysiological problems may involve changes in parasympathetic activity. However, the exact underlying psychopathological mechanisms and the moderating effects of gender are still not thoroughly examined. Thus, the present study investigated associations between perceived social functioning and resting vagal tone in the context of potential cognitive and subclinical mediators and gender differences. Three hundred twenty-five young adults (aged 18-35, 180 women) underwent an electrocardiogram measurement of 6-minute resting heart rate variability (HRV). They also completed questionnaires assessing loneliness, perceived social support, social cognitive biases, depressive and social anxiety symptoms, and general mental health. In men, HRV was significantly and negatively associated with poorer perceived social functioning, depressive symptoms, and self-reported social cognitive biases, while in women, there was a quadratic link between HRV and depressive symptoms and HRV and general mental health. Moderated mediation analysis revealed that depressive symptoms fully mediated the relationship between perceived social functioning and HRV in men. The results suggest that decreased resting vagal tone in lonely individuals is linked to depressive symptomatology rather than to specific social cognitive biases and that this association is significant only in men.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aleksandra Piejka
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Julian F Thayer
- Department of Psychological Science, 4201 Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway, University of California, Irvine, California, USA
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
| | - Łukasz Okruszek
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Piejka A, Wiśniewska M, Okruszek Ł. Threatened by others or by everything? The effects of momentary and trait loneliness on daily appraisals of social company and being alone in young adults. Appl Psychol Health Well Being 2024; 16:553-575. [PMID: 37921977 DOI: 10.1111/aphw.12504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 10/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/05/2023]
Abstract
Theoretical accounts of loneliness suggest that it may lead to psychopathological consequences by increasing the perception of social threat. However, it is unclear whether the real-life effects of both trait and state loneliness are specific to social situations. To answer this question, two experience sampling studies were conducted with prestratified samples of young adults (18-35) with moderate (Study 1, N = 64) or low and high (Study 2, N = 103) levels of loneliness. Participants were asked to report their emotional states and appraisals of social and nonsocial situations. Multilevel modelling of momentary and time-lagged associations revealed that trait loneliness was associated with less positive (Study 1) and more negative (Study 2) company appraisals. Importantly, in Study 2, trait loneliness was also related to less positive and more negative appraisals of being alone. Momentary loneliness was related to less positive and more negative appraisals of both types and predicted negative social appraisals over time in both studies. In Study 2, time-lagged interaction effects on social appraisals were found between the two levels. The results suggest that in highly lonely individuals, both levels of loneliness may lead to a general negativity bias and have a synergistic effect.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aleksandra Piejka
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Marcelina Wiśniewska
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Łukasz Okruszek
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Lin WH, Chiao C. Adverse childhood experience and young adult's problematic Internet use: The role of hostility and loneliness. CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT 2024; 149:106624. [PMID: 38227984 DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106624] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2023] [Revised: 11/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Few studies have explored the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and problematic Internet use (PIU) during young adulthood. Moreover, even fewer studies have explored the roles of loneliness (social and emotional) and hostility in this relationship. METHODS This study used data from the Taiwan Youth Project (2011-2017). The analytical sample included 1885 participants (mean age = 31.3 years). PIU was measured using the short form of Chen's Internet Addiction Scale (2017). ACEs were assessed at the baseline of the adolescent phase (mean age = 14.3 years); this indicator has undergone recent revision. Hostility (three items from the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised) and loneliness (six items from the De Jong Gierveld scale) were measured in 2011 and 2014, respectively. RESULTS ACEs were associated with hostility and loneliness (emotional and social). Additionally, hostility (β = 0.62, p < .01) and emotional loneliness (β = 0.44, p < .01) were significantly associated with PIU. Most mediating paths (e.g., ACE → hostility → PIU) were significant, based on the bootstrapping results. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that ACEs have a long-term shadow effect on PIU in young adults. ACEs show an indirect association with PIU through both hostility and loneliness, as well as involving the relationship between them.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wen-Hsu Lin
- Institute of Health and Welfare, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
| | - Chi Chiao
- Institute of Health and Welfare, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Pabst A, Gautier M, Maurage P. Hostile attributional biases in severe alcohol use disorder: replication, gender specificity, and mechanistic insights. Alcohol Alcohol 2024; 59:agae010. [PMID: 38458649 DOI: 10.1093/alcalc/agae010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2023] [Revised: 01/10/2024] [Accepted: 02/02/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024] Open
Abstract
AIMS Despite their importance in the emergence and persistence of severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD), social cognition impairments remain understudied in this population. Hostile attributional biases (HAB), a key component of social cognition, may be involved in interpersonal problems and SAUD maintenance. However, current evidence for HAB in SAUD is highly preliminary, as it relies on a single study based on a small sample and on a task that cannot dissociate increased hostile from reduced benign attributions. We therefore used an improved methodology to further characterize this bias and disentangle underlying mechanisms. In addition, we explored potential gender differences. METHOD A total of 56 patients (28 women) diagnosed with SAUD and 66 (27 women) demographically matched controls completed the Word-Sentence Association Paradigm-Hostility, which provides a valid, spontaneous, and relatively implicit assessment of both hostile and benign social attributions related to ambiguous situations. They also completed self-report measures of psychopathology and interpersonal problems. RESULTS At the group-level, patients with SAUD presented higher HAB than controls, without group differences for benign attributions. Gender analyses revealed that this effect selectively emerged in men with SAUD. Further, patients' benign attributions did not differ from their hostile attributions. Finally, HAB (not benign attributions) were associated with interpersonal problems and state anxiety in patients. CONCLUSIONS The association between SAUD and HAB at the group level is genuine and replicable across samples and tasks. This association may further selectively emerge in men. Our results also confirm the functional significance of HAB in SAUD, and point to potential mechanisms and clinical recommendations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Pabst
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Mado Gautier
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Pierre Maurage
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Science Research Institute, UCLouvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Okruszek Ł, Jarkiewicz M, Piejka A, Chrustowicz M, Krawczyk M, Schudy A, Harvey PD, Penn DL, Ludwig K, Green MF, Pinkham AE. Loneliness is associated with mentalizing and emotion recognition abilities in schizophrenia, but only in a cluster of patients with social cognitive deficits. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2024; 30:27-34. [PMID: 37154103 DOI: 10.1017/s1355617723000206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Loneliness is a concern for patients with schizophrenia. However, the correlates of loneliness in patients with schizophrenia are unclear; thus, the aim of the study is to investigate neuro- and social cognitive mechanisms associated with loneliness in individuals with schizophrenia. METHOD Data from clinical, neurocognitive, and social cognitive assessments were pooled from two cross-national samples (Poland/USA) to examine potential predictors of loneliness in 147 patients with schizophrenia and 103 healthy controls overall. Furthermore, the relationship between social cognition and loneliness was explored in clusters of patients with schizophrenia differing in social cognitive capacity. RESULTS Patients reported higher levels of loneliness than healthy controls. Loneliness was linked to increased negative and affective symptoms in patients. A negative association between loneliness and mentalizing and emotion recognition abilities was found in the patients with social-cognitive impairments, but not in those who performed at normative levels. CONCLUSIONS We have elucidated a novel mechanism which may explain previous inconsistent findings regarding the correlates of loneliness in individuals with schizophrenia.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ł Okruszek
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - M Jarkiewicz
- Third Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland
| | - A Piejka
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - M Chrustowicz
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - M Krawczyk
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - A Schudy
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - P D Harvey
- University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami VA Healthcare System, Miami, FL, USA
| | - D L Penn
- Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- School of Psychology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - K Ludwig
- Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - M F Green
- Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, VA Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - A E Pinkham
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Mąka S, Chrustowicz M, Okruszek Ł. Can we dissociate hypervigilance to social threats from altered perceptual decision-making processes in lonely individuals? An exploration with Drift Diffusion Modeling and event-related potentials. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14406. [PMID: 37547994 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Revised: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023]
Abstract
It has been hypothesized that lonely individuals demonstrate hypervigilance toward social threats. However, recent studies have raised doubts about the reliability of tasks commonly used to measure attentional biases toward threats. Two alternative approaches have been suggested to overcome the limitations of traditional analysis of attentional bias. First, the neurophysiological indicators of orienting to threats were shown to have superior psychometric characteristics compared to overt measures of behavioral performance. The second approach involves utilizing computational modeling to isolate latent components corresponding to specific cognitive mechanisms from observable data. To test the usefulness of these approaches in loneliness research, we analyzed behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) data from 26 lonely and 26 non-lonely participants who performed a dot-probe task using a computational modeling approach. We applied the Drift Diffusion Model (DDM) and extracted N2pc-an event-related potential that serves as an indicator of spatial attention. No evidence for social threat hypervigilance has been found in DDM parameters nor in N2pc characteristics in the current study. However, we did observe decreased drift rate and increased variability in drift rate between trials within the lonely group, indicating reduced efficiency in perceptual decision-making among lonely individuals. These effects were not detected using standard behavioral measures used in the dot-probe paradigm. Given that DDM indicators were sensitive to differences in perceptual discrimination between the two groups, even when no overt differences were found in standard behavioral measures, it may be postulated that computational approaches offer a more comprehensive understanding of cognitive processes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Szymon Mąka
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Marta Chrustowicz
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Łukasz Okruszek
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Duan Y, Jiang S, Yin Z, Wang S, Gao J, Yang M, Chen C, Fu H, Wang C. Association of social isolation and cognitive performance: a longitudinal study using a four-wave nationwide survey. BMC Public Health 2023; 23:1409. [PMID: 37481576 PMCID: PMC10362697 DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-16274-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2023] [Accepted: 07/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND This study aimed to examine the bidirectional relationship between social isolation and cognitive performance among Chinese middle-aged and older adults. METHODS We used four waves of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. A latent growth model (LGM) was applied to examine the association between social isolation and cognitive performance across different characteristics. RESULTS In the analysis, we ultimately included 9,367 participants after excluding respondents with missing key variables. Social isolation and cognitive performance showed significant differences across time. After adjusting for the confounders, there was a significant association between higher social isolation and poor cognitive performance (β = -1.38, p < 0.001), and higher levels of social isolation resulted in a more pronounced decline in cognition over time (β = 0.17, p < 0.001). Additionally, the path coefficient between the initial level of cognition at baseline and the slope of social isolation was - 0.07 (p < 0.001) and 0.01 (p = 0.021), respectively. For the correlation between slopes, our study found that females' cognition scores were more susceptible to social isolation (β = - 2.78, p < 0.001). Similarly, regarding cognition scores, the influence of social isolation was greater among people with education below the primary level (β = - 2.89, p = 0.002) or a greater number of chronic diseases (β = - 2.56, p = 0.001). CONCLUSION Our findings support the bidirectional association between social isolation and cognition. Specifically, higher baseline social isolation and its rate of increase over time contribute to an intensification of cognitive decline at follow-up. Besides, poorer cognitive performance predicted higher social isolation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yanran Duan
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Shuai Jiang
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Zhao Yin
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Sufan Wang
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Jinghong Gao
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Mengyu Yang
- Zhengzhou University School of Public Health, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Changying Chen
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Hang Fu
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China.
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China.
| | - Chengzeng Wang
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 450000, 1 Jianshe Road, Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China.
- Institute for Hospital Management of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, China.
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Okruszek Ł, Chrustowicz M, Jarkiewicz M, Krawczyk M, Manera V, Piejka A, Schudy A, Wiśniewska M, Wysokiński A. Mentalizing abilities mediate the impact of the basic social perception on negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. J Psychiatr Res 2022; 155:85-89. [PMID: 35995018 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.07.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2022] [Revised: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 07/30/2022] [Indexed: 10/31/2022]
Abstract
Social cognitive deficits are currently considered as one of the main predictors of clinical symptoms and functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia. Multiple studies have suggested that a two-factor solution (low-level vs. high-level) best describes the structure of social cognitive processes in patients. While higher-order processes have been repeatedly linked to negative symptoms, no such association was found for lower-level processes. Thus, the aim of the current study is to examine whether the association between basic social perception processes and symptoms in patients with schizophrenia is mediated by mentalizing abilities. One hundred thirty-nine patients have completed basic social perception (Communicative Interactions Database task CID-12) and mentalizing (Reading the Mind in the Eyes task) tasks. In line with our hypothesis, we have observed full mediation of the effects of basic social perception abilities on negative symptoms via mentalizing abilities in patients. This effect suggests that, similarly as in the case of positive symptoms, a hierarchical nature of social cognitive processes should be considered while investigating negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ł Okruszek
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.
| | - M Chrustowicz
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
| | | | - M Krawczyk
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
| | | | - A Piejka
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
| | - A Schudy
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Poland
| | - M Wiśniewska
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
| | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Affective Neuroscience of Loneliness: Potential Mechanisms underlying the Association between Perceived Social Isolation, Health, and Well-Being. JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY AND BRAIN SCIENCE 2022; 7:e220011. [PMID: 36778655 PMCID: PMC9910279 DOI: 10.20900/jpbs.20220011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Loneliness, or the subjective feeling of social isolation, is an important social determinant of health. Loneliness is associated with poor physical health, including higher rates of cardiovascular disease and dementia, faster cognitive decline, and increased risk of mortality, as well as disruptions in mental health, including higher levels of depression, anxiety, and negative affect. Theoretical accounts suggest loneliness is a complex cognitive and emotional state characterized by increased levels of inflammation and affective disruptions. This review examines affective neuroscience research on social isolation in animals and loneliness in humans to better understand the relationship between perceptions of social isolation and the brain. Loneliness associated increases in inflammation and neural changes consistent with increased sensitivity to social threat and disrupted emotion regulation suggest interventions targeting maladaptive social cognitions may be especially effective. Work in animal models suggests the neural changes associated with social isolation may be reversible. Therefore, ameliorating loneliness may be an actionable social determinant of health target. However, more research is needed to understand how loneliness impacts healthy aging, explore the role of inflammation as a potential mechanism in humans, and determine the best time to deliver interventions to improve physical health, mental health, and well-being across a diverse array of populations.
Collapse
|