The Effects of Romantic Love on Mentalizing Abilities

The impact of romantic relationships on deception detection: Exploring the gender differences and the mediating role of mentalizing

In evolution, romantic relationships serve as the foundation for breeding and producing offspring. The ability to detect deception in these relationships can safeguard the investment and cultivation of descendants, leading to greater chances of survival and reproduction. However, barely any research has been carried out within this domain. The current study investigated the preliminary relationship between romantic relationships, mentalizing ability, and deception detection ability through an empirical experiment. Participants were primed by their romantic experiences and neutral experiences, and then went through a Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RTM) task and the deception detecting task for real person crime-type videos. Results showed that romantic relationships can improve participants' emotion recognition ability toward negative emotions, and females performed better in the deception detection task than males did. Most importantly, romantic relationships can improve participants' deception detection ability through the mediator of mentalizing ability. Though gender difference was not statistically significant in the RTM task, the results lay a solid foundation for further investigation into females' mentalizing ability and disclose the evolutionary meaning of romantic relationships.

The Impact of Social Cognition on the Real-Life of People with Epilepsy

Background. Previous research has demonstrated the impairment of social cognition (SC) in people with epilepsy. It is associated with worse social functioning and quality of life; however, the influence on real-life outcomes is unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate how SC is associated with epilepsy variables and real-life outcomes (education, employment and relationships) among patients with epilepsy (PWE). Methods. Eighty-one PWE completed tasks of theory of mind (ToM) (faux pas recognition (FPRT) and Happé Strange Stories test (HST)) and emotion recognition (ER) (Reading of the Mind in the Eyes (RMET)). Variables reflecting their education, employment and relationship status were treated as endpoints in search of association with SC. Data from a matched group (n = 30) of healthy controls (HCs) were used for comparison of ToM abilities. Results. ToM scores were lower among PWE as compared to HCs (U = 1816.0, p < 0.0001 (HST), U = 1564.5, p = 0.020 (FPRT)). All SC tests were associated with the level of education (OR = 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.09 to 1.36 (RMET), OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.02 to 1.40 (HST), OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.87 to 1.00 (FPRT)). The results of ToM and ER testing were not associated with employment (χ² = 33.423, p < 0.0001) if adjusted for the level of education (B = 0.804, OR = 2.23 (95% CI = 1.33 to 3.76), p = 0.002). SC abilities did not differ between PWE who were single and those in a relationship (U = 858.5, p = 0.541 (HST)), t= −1.236, p = 0.220 (RMET), U = 909.5, p = 0.271 (FPRT)). Conclusion. Better social cognition skills are linked to a higher level of education among PWE. SC probably has less influence on professional achievements and interpersonal relationships.

Self-partner inclusion predicts performance of romantically involved individuals in a body-scaled action-anticipation task

Previous research has shown that romantic relationships can lead to the cognitive inclusion of a romantic partner into one's own self-representation, resulting in blurred boundaries between self and intimate other. Recent work suggests that this self-other integration process encompasses the two dimensions of the self-the conceptual and the bodily self. In line with this, it has been proposed that romantic love is associated with cognitive states that blur or reduce the saliency of self-boundaries in the bodily domain. The present study tested this hypothesis by investigating the influence of the self-other integration process in romantic love on passability judgments of door-like apertures, an action-anticipation task that rests on the representation of bodily boundaries. Romantically involved and single participants estimated whether they could pass through apertures of different widths. Moreover, inclusion of romantic partner in the self was assessed using the Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale. The pattern of correlation and the ratio between participants' shoulder width and aperture judgments did not differ between romantically involved participants and singles. However, our results revealed that in romantically involved participants, the relationship between individuals' shoulder width and aperture judgements was moderated by IOS scores. A greater inclusion of romantic partner in the self was associated with a weaker prediction of aperture judgment by participants' shoulder width. A similar moderating effect of the intensity of romantic feelings (as measured by the passionate love scale) on shoulder width-aperture judgment relationship was found. IOS scores, but not romantic feelings, also moderated aperture judgments made for another individual (third person perspective). Together, these findings are consistent with the view that inclusion of romantic partner in the self triggers cognitive states affecting self-boundaries in the bodily domain.

Romantic love affects emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli: An EEG/ERP study using a love induction task

The aim of the present study was to investigate (a) the neural correlates of a love induction task (LIT) including listening to love-related songs and thinking about the romantic relationship, and (b) the effects of romantic love on the emotional processing of love-unrelated stimuli during a passive viewing task. The EEG was recorded in two groups of university students: people in love (Love Group, LG, N = 22, 19 F) and people not in love (Control Group, CG, N = 20, 15 F). The LIT induced higher pleasantness and arousal in the LG than in the CG, as well as higher alpha activity in occipital-right electrodes, suggesting active mental imagery and internal focused attention. During the picture viewing task, the LG displayed larger N1 amplitudes than the CG in response to unpleasant pictures, and lower amplitudes of the late positive potential to both pleasant and unpleasant pictures at frontal sites. Overall, these results suggest an early attentional modulation of the neural responses to unpleasant, mood-incongruent cues, followed by an implicit emotional down-regulation of arousing stimuli, which might have important implications for everyday attitudes and behaviors.

Altered brain network organization in romantic love as measured with resting-state fMRI and graph theory

Romantic love is a complex state that has been seen as similar to addiction. Previous task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that being in love is closely associated with functional brain changes in the reward and motivation system. However, romantic love-related functional connectivity network organization in resting-state fMRI has yet to be elucidated. To that end, here we used resting-state fMRI and graph theory to compare whole-brain functional network topology between an "in-love" group (n = 34, 16 females, currently in love and in a romantic relationship) and a "single" group (n = 32, 14 females, never in love and not in a romantic relationship). Compared to the single group, we found lower network segregation in the love group (i.e., lower small-worldness, mean clustering coefficient, and modularity), and these metrics were negatively associated with scores on the Passionate Love Scale (PLS) (an index of intense passionate/romantic love). Additionally, the love group displayed altered connectivity degree (reflecting the importance of a node): decreased degree in left angular gyrus and left medial orbitofrontal cortex, but increased degree in left fusiform gyrus. Furthermore, local efficiency or degree of these regions was significantly correlated to PLS scores. Taken together, results showed decreased overall brain functional segregation but enhanced emotional-social processing in romantic lovers. These findings provide the first evidence of love-related brain network organization changes and suggest similar but different brain network alterations between romantic love and addiction, providing new insights on the neural systems underlying romantic love.

Neural basis of romantic partners' decisions about participation in leisure activity

Leisure activity is one of key ingredients for individual happiness and life satisfaction. Enjoying leisure activity with one’s partner can increase marital satisfaction. This study aimed to identify the neural basis of making decisions on participation in a leisure activity with one’s romantic partner as well as the relationship between leisure activity and satisfaction with life. Thirty-seven soon-to-be married heterosexual couples were participated in functional MRI while deciding participation in specific leisure activities in the individual, partner, with-friend, and with-partner conditions. We constructed analysis of variance models and investigated couple characteristics such as personality similarity, leisure activity matching rate, and spatial similarity in the bilateral frontoparietal network. The results showed decreased activity in the bilateral hippocampus during the task in the with-partner condition. Individual leisure activity was correlated with quality of life in males, whereas participation in leisure activity might require more cognitive loading on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in females. The leisure activity matching rate was correlated with courtship period, personality similarity, and spatial similarity of the right frontoparietal network during the task. These findings suggest that although there are different activation pattern in making decisions on leisure activity between romantic couples, spatial similarity of the partner’s social brain networks may be a marker that predicts how well the couple enjoys leisure activity together. In addition, our couples’ data analysis provides a scientific basis for the saying that romantic couples become more similar the longer they are together.

Attached at the lips: The influence of romantic kissing motives and romantic attachment styles on relationship satisfaction

Although romantic kissing is an important part of relationship functioning, little research has focused on motives for romantic kissing and how they may relate to other aspects of romantic relationships. To understand how romantic kissing impacts romantic relationship functioning, the current study assessed the relationship between romantic attachment, romantic kissing motives, and relationship satisfaction. Overall, it was hypothesized that (a) those reporting more sexual/explicit kissing motives and fewer goal attainment/insecurity motives would report higher relationship satisfaction, (b) those reporting a more secure attachment style would report higher relationship satisfaction, and (c) the relationship between romantic kissing motives and relationship satisfaction would vary according to one’s romantic attachment styles. Results from a hierarchical linear regression with 286 adults, all of whom were currently in romantic relationships, revealed that sexual/relational (β = 0.25) and goal attainment/insecurity kissing motives (β = -0.35) predicted relationship satisfaction. However, the impact of kissing motives on relationship satisfaction varied according to one’s romantic attachment. Specifically, the influence of sexual/relational motives was only significant for avoidantly attached individuals, whereas the influence of goal attainment/insecurity motives was significant for avoidantly and anxiously attachment individuals. Overall, this suggests that sexual/explicit romantic kissing motives serve to enhance the relationships of insecurely attached individuals, but not securely attached individuals. Furthermore, goal attainment/insecure motives had a negative effect on the relationship satisfaction of insecurely attached individuals, but not securely attached individuals. This study has important implications for both practitioners working with romantic couples and researchers studying romantic relationships.

Romantic Love Is Associated with Enhanced Inhibitory Control in an Emotional Stop-Signal Task

Purpose: This study explored whether romantic lovers differ in emotion-related inhibitory control capacity from those who are single.

Methods: 88 healthy undergraduate college students participated in the study. Half were currently in love and in a romantic relationship (love group, LG), and half were single and had never been in a romantic relationship (single group, SG). Based on duration of romantic relationship (i.e., love duration), the LG were further divided into two subgroups: “early stage love” and “longer periods of love”. All participants completed an emotional Stop Signal Task, consisting of a variety of human face stimuli displaying either sad or neutral affect.

Results: Results found that relative to SG, lovers showed greater inhibitory control [shorter stop-signal reaction time (SSRT)] during negative emotion condition trials. Furthermore, in early stages of love, SSRT for negative emotion condition trials was significantly shorter compared to that in “longer periods of love” or SG individuals, with no significant differences between the two latter groups.

Conclusion: Compared with individuals who were single, early stage lovers showed greater capacity for inhibiting action during presentation of negative emotional stimuli. Within a greater social context, greater inhibitory control capacity during early stages of love may be related to the successful formation of romantic relationships, particularly to the ability to persevere in goal-directed action despite negative emotional contexts such as that of sadness.