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Zabag R, Rinck M, Becker E, Gilboa-Schechtman E, Levy-Gigi E. Although I know it: Social anxiety is associated with a deficit in positive updating even when the cost of avoidance is Obvious. J Psychiatr Res 2024; 169:279-283. [PMID: 38065052 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.11.041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2024]
Abstract
Social anxiety (SA) is associated with difficulties in positively updating negative social information when new information and feedback about chosen options (actual decisions) are received. However, it is unclear whether this difficulty persists when hidden information regarding unchosen options is explicitly presented. The aim of the current study was to address this gap. Participants (Mturk; n = 191) completed a two-phases novel task. In the task, participants chose to approach or avoid people, represented by images of faces. During the initial (learning) phase, participants learned, in a probabilistic context, which people are associated with negative outcomes and should be avoided, and which are associated with positive outcomes and should be approached. During the subsequent updating phase, people previously associated with negative outcomes became associated with positive outcomes and vice versa. Importantly, participants received feedback not only on their approach (actual) decisions, but also on their avoidance (counter-factual) decisions (e.g., approaching this person would have been beneficial). The results revealed that even when the consequences of avoidance were explicitly presented, SA was associated with difficulty in positive updating of social information. The findings support the view that biased updating of social information is a change-resistant mechanism that may underlie the maintenance of SA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reut Zabag
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States; Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
| | - Mike Rinck
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Eni Becker
- Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Eva Gilboa-Schechtman
- Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel; Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
| | - Einat Levy-Gigi
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel; Faculty of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
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2
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Moscovitch DA, Moscovitch M, Sheldon S. Neurocognitive Model of Schema-Congruent and -Incongruent Learning in Clinical Disorders: Application to Social Anxiety and Beyond. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2023; 18:1412-1435. [PMID: 36795637 PMCID: PMC10623626 DOI: 10.1177/17456916221141351] [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] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
Negative schemas lie at the core of many common and debilitating mental disorders. Thus, intervention scientists and clinicians have long recognized the importance of designing effective interventions that target schema change. Here, we suggest that the optimal development and administration of such interventions can benefit from a framework outlining how schema change occurs in the brain. Guided by basic neuroscientific findings, we provide a memory-based neurocognitive framework for conceptualizing how schemas emerge and change over time and how they can be modified during psychological treatment of clinical disorders. We highlight the critical roles of the hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and posterior neocortex in directing schema-congruent and -incongruent learning (SCIL) in the interactive neural network that comprises the autobiographical memory system. We then use this framework, which we call the SCIL model, to derive new insights about the optimal design features of clinical interventions that aim to strengthen or weaken schema-based knowledge through the core processes of episodic mental simulation and prediction error. Finally, we examine clinical applications of the SCIL model to schema-change interventions in psychotherapy and provide cognitive-behavior therapy for social anxiety disorder as an illustrative example.
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Affiliation(s)
- David A. Moscovitch
- Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research & Treatment, University of Waterloo
| | - Morris Moscovitch
- Rotman Research Institute and Department of Psychology, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
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3
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Lin H, Bruchmann M, Straube T. Altered Putamen Activation for Social Comparison-Related Feedback in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Pilot Study. Neuropsychobiology 2023; 82:359-372. [PMID: 37717563 DOI: 10.1159/000531762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by abnormal processing of performance-related social stimuli. Previous studies have shown altered emotional experiences and activations of different sub-regions of the striatum during processing of social stimuli in patients with SAD. However, whether and to what extent social comparisons affect behavioural and neural responses to feedback stimuli in patients with SAD is unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS To address this issue, emotional ratings and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses were assessed while patients suffering from SAD and healthy controls (HC) were required to perform a choice task and received performance feedback (correct, incorrect, non-informative) that varied in relation to the performance of fictitious other participants (a few, half, or most of others had the same outcome). RESULTS Across all performance feedback conditions, fMRI analyses revealed reduced activations in bilateral putamen when feedback was assumed to be received by only a few compared to half of the other participants in patients with SAD. Nevertheless, analysis of rating data showed a similar modulation of valence and arousal ratings in patients with SAD and HC depending on social comparison-related feedback. CONCLUSIONS This suggests altered neural processing of performance feedback depending on social comparisons in patients with SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huiyan Lin
- Laboratory for Behavioral and Regional Finance, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China
- Institute of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China
| | - Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
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Beltzer ML, Daniel KE, Daros AR, Teachman BA. Examining social reinforcement learning in social anxiety. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2023; 80:101810. [PMID: 37247976 PMCID: PMC10227359 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2022.101810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 11/12/2022] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Reinforcement learning biases have been empirically linked to anhedonia in depression and theoretically linked to social anhedonia in social anxiety disorder, but little work has directly assessed how socially anxious individuals learn from social reward and punishment. METHODS N = 157 individuals high and low in social anxiety symptoms completed a social probabilistic selection task that involved selecting between pairs of neutral faces with varying probabilities of changing to a happy or angry face. Computational modeling was performed to estimate learning rates. Accuracy in choosing the more rewarding face was also analyzed. RESULTS No significant group differences were found for learning rates. Contrary to hypotheses, participants high in social anxiety showed impaired punishment learning accuracy; they were more accurate at choosing the most rewarding face than they were at avoiding the most punishing face, and their punishment learning accuracy was lower than that of participants low in social anxiety. Secondary analyses found that high (vs. low) social anxiety participants were less accurate at selecting the more rewarding face on more (vs. less) punishing face pairs. LIMITATIONS Stimuli were static, White, facial images, which lack important social cues (e.g., movement, sound) and diversity, and participants were largely non-Hispanic, White undergraduates, whose social reinforcement learning may differ from individuals at different developmental stages and those holding more marginalized identities. CONCLUSIONS Socially anxious individuals may be less accurate at learning to avoid social punishment, which may maintain negative beliefs through an interpersonal stress generation process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miranda L Beltzer
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, USA; Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, USA.
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5
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Zabag R, Azoulay R, Rinck M, Becker E, Levy-Gigi E, Gilboa-Schechtman E. You never get a chance to undo a negative first impression: Social anxiety is associated with impaired positive updating of social information. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2022.111993] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
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Bublatzky F, Schellhaas S, Paret C. Aversive anticipations modulate electrocortical correlates of decision-making and reward reversal learning, but not behavioral performance. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:908454. [PMID: 35990730 PMCID: PMC9389167 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.908454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Accepted: 07/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Predicting the consequences of one's own decisions is crucial for organizing future behavior. However, when reward contingencies vary frequently, flexible adaptation of decisions is likely to depend on the situation. We examined the effects of an instructed threat context on choice behavior (i.e., reversal learning) and its electrocortical correlates. In a probabilistic decision-making task, 30 participants had to choose between two options that were either contingent on monetary gains or losses. Reward contingencies were reversed after reaching a probabilistic threshold. Decision-making and reversal learning were examined with two contextual background colors, which were instructed as signals for threat-of-shock or safety. Self-report data confirmed the threat context as more unpleasant, arousing, and threatening relative to safety condition. However, against our expectations, behavioral performance was comparable during the threat and safety conditions (i.e., errors-to-criterion, number of reversal, error rates, and choice times). Regarding electrocortical activity, feedback processing changed throughout the visual processing stream. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) reflected expectancy-driven processing (unexpected vs. congruent losses and gains), and the threat-selective P3 component revealed non-specific discrimination of gains vs. losses. Finally, the late positive potentials (LPP) showed strongly valence-specific processing (unexpected and congruent losses vs. gains). Thus, regardless of contextual threat, early and late cortical activity reflects an attentional shift from expectation- to outcome-based feedback processing. Findings are discussed in terms of reward, threat, and reversal-learning mechanisms with implications for emotion regulation and anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Bublatzky
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Sabine Schellhaas
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Christian Paret
- Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
- Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, School of Psychological Sciences, Sagol Brain Institute, Wohl Institute for Advanced Imaging, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
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7
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Borghese F, Henckaerts P, Guy F, Perez Mayo C, Delplanque S, Schwartz S, Perogamvros L. Targeted Memory Reactivation During REM Sleep in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder. Front Psychiatry 2022; 13:904704. [PMID: 35845468 PMCID: PMC9281560 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.904704] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2022] [Accepted: 05/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by a significant amount of fear when confronted to social situations. Exposure therapy, which is based on fear extinction, does not often lead to full remission. Here, based on evidence showing that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep promotes the consolidation of extinction memory, we used targeted memory reactivation (TMR) during REM sleep to enhance extinction learning in SAD. METHODS Forty-eight subjects with SAD were randomly assigned to two groups: control or TMR group. All patients had two successive exposure therapy sessions in a virtual reality (VR) environment, where they were asked to give a public talk in front of a virtual jury. At the end of each session, and only in the TMR group (N = 24), a sound was paired to the positive feedback phase of therapy (i.e., approval of their performance), which represented the memory to be strengthened during REM sleep. All participants slept at home with a wearable headband device which automatically identified sleep stages and administered the sound during REM sleep. Participants' anxiety level was assessed using measures of parasympathetic (root mean square of successive differences between normal heartbeats, RMSSD) and sympathetic (non-specific skin conductance responses, ns-SCRs) activity, and subjective measures (Subjective Units of Distress Scale, SUDS), during the preparation phase of their talks before (T1) and after (T2) one full-night's sleep and after 1 week at home (T3). Participants also filled in a dream diary. RESULTS We observed an effect of time on subjective measures of anxiety (SUDS). We did not find any difference in the anxiety levels of the two groups after 1 week of TMR at home. Importantly, the longer the total duration of REM sleep and the more stimulations the TMR group had at home, the less anxious (increased RMSSD) these participants were. Finally, fear in dreams correlated positively with ns-SCRs and SUDS at T3 in the TMR group. CONCLUSION TMR during REM sleep did not significantly modulate the beneficial effect of therapy on subjective anxiety. Yet, our results support that REM sleep can contribute to extinction processes and substantiate strong links between emotions in dreams and waking stress levels in these patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Borghese
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Pauline Henckaerts
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Fanny Guy
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Coral Perez Mayo
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Sylvain Delplanque
- Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Sophie Schwartz
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Human Neuroscience Platform, Fondation Campus Biotech Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Lampros Perogamvros
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Human Neuroscience Platform, Fondation Campus Biotech Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Center for Sleep Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.,Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
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8
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Rapp AM, Tan PZ, Grammer JK, Gehring WJ, Miller GA, Chavira DA. Cultural group differences in the association of neural sensitivity to social feedback and social anxiety among diverse adolescents. J Psychiatr Res 2021; 143:400-408. [PMID: 34637997 PMCID: PMC8557129 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.09.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2021] [Revised: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Social anxiety disproportionately impacts individuals from certain cultural and developmental groups, namely those from Latinx and Asian American cultures and adolescents. Neural sensitivity to social feedback has been shown to vary across individuals and could contribute to this disparity by further exacerbating differences; thus, this could be an important phenomenon for understanding, preventing, and treating social anxiety. The goal of the present study was to examine the association of social anxiety with a neural correlate of feedback processing, the feedback-related negativity (FRN), and determine if there was a moderating effect of racial/ethnic group. A community sample of 104 Latinx (n = 41), Asian American (n = 24), and non-Latinx White (NLW; n = 39) adolescents (ages 13-17) completed a computerized peer feedback task while continuous electroencephalogram was recorded. Social anxiety and FRN measures were differentially associated as a function of race/ethnicity. NLW adolescents demonstrated greater FRN responses to acceptance feedback as social anxiety increased, whereas FRN responses to both rejection and acceptance feedback were related to greater social anxiety for Asian American adolescents. Notably, the Latinx group showed the greatest FRN responses yet endorsed the least amount of social anxiety, with no relation between social anxiety and FRN detected. Results highlight cultural variation in the relation between neural correlates of self-regulatory processes and social anxiety. This information could guide culturally-informed models of social anxiety that adopt a multiple units of analysis framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy M. Rapp
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 502 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90095,Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY, USA, 10032,New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY USA, 10032
| | - Patricia Z. Tan
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90024,Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, 3620 South McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90089
| | - Jennie K. Grammer
- Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 457 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90095
| | - William J. Gehring
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48109
| | - Gregory A. Miller
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 502 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90095,Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90024
| | - Denise A. Chavira
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 502 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 90095
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9
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Legaz A, Abrevaya S, Dottori M, Campo CG, Birba A, Caro MM, Aguirre J, Slachevsky A, Aranguiz R, Serrano C, Gillan CM, Leroi I, García AM, Fittipaldi S, Ibañez A. Multimodal mechanisms of human socially reinforced learning across neurodegenerative diseases. Brain 2021; 145:1052-1068. [PMID: 34529034 PMCID: PMC9128375 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2021] [Revised: 08/17/2021] [Accepted: 09/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Social feedback can selectively enhance learning in diverse domains. Relevant
neurocognitive mechanisms have been studied mainly in healthy persons, yielding
correlational findings. Neurodegenerative lesion models, coupled with multimodal
brain measures, can complement standard approaches by revealing direct
multidimensional correlates of the phenomenon. To this end, we assessed socially reinforced and non-socially reinforced learning
in 40 healthy participants as well as persons with behavioural variant
frontotemporal dementia (n = 21), Parkinson’s
disease (n = 31) and Alzheimer’s disease
(n = 20). These conditions are typified by
predominant deficits in social cognition, feedback-based learning and
associative learning, respectively, although all three domains may be partly
compromised in the other conditions. We combined a validated behavioural task
with ongoing EEG signatures of implicit learning (medial frontal negativity) and
offline MRI measures (voxel-based morphometry). In healthy participants, learning was facilitated by social feedback relative to
non-social feedback. In comparison with controls, this effect was specifically
impaired in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson’s
disease, while unspecific learning deficits (across social and non-social
conditions) were observed in Alzheimer’s disease. EEG results showed
increased medial frontal negativity in healthy controls during social feedback
and learning. Such a modulation was selectively disrupted in behavioural variant
frontotemporal dementia. Neuroanatomical results revealed extended
temporo-parietal and fronto-limbic correlates of socially reinforced learning,
with specific temporo-parietal associations in behavioural variant
frontotemporal dementia and predominantly fronto-limbic regions in
Alzheimer’s disease. In contrast, non-socially reinforced learning was
consistently linked to medial temporal/hippocampal regions. No associations with
cortical volume were found in Parkinson’s disease. Results are consistent
with core social deficits in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, subtle
disruptions in ongoing feedback-mechanisms and social processes in
Parkinson’s disease and generalized learning alterations in
Alzheimer’s disease. This multimodal approach highlights the impact of
different neurodegenerative profiles on learning and social feedback. Our findings inform a promising theoretical and clinical agenda in the fields of
social learning, socially reinforced learning and neurodegeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agustina Legaz
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina.,Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología, Córdoba, CU320, Argentina
| | - Sofía Abrevaya
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina.,Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, CONICET, Buenos Aires, C1021, Argentina
| | - Martín Dottori
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina
| | - Cecilia González Campo
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina
| | - Agustina Birba
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina
| | - Miguel Martorell Caro
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina.,Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, CONICET, Buenos Aires, C1021, Argentina
| | - Julieta Aguirre
- Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIPsi), CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, CB5000, Argentina
| | - Andrea Slachevsky
- Memory and Neuropsychiatric Clinic (CMYN) Neurology Department, Hospital delSalvador, SSMO & Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.,Gerosciences Center for Brain Health and Metabolism, Santiago, Chile.,Neuropsychology and Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory, Physiopathology Department, ICBM, Neurosciences Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Chile.,Servicio de Neurología, Departamento de Medicina, Clínica Alemana-Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile
| | | | - Cecilia Serrano
- Neurología Cognitiva, Hospital Cesar Milstein, Buenos Aires, C1221, Argentina
| | - Claire M Gillan
- Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.,Department of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Iracema Leroi
- Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Adolfo M García
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina.,Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.,Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.,Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, M5502JMA, Argentina.,Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Sol Fittipaldi
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina.,Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología, Córdoba, CU320, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibañez
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, C1011ACC, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina.,Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.,Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
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10
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Peterburs J, Albrecht C, Bellebaum C. The impact of social anxiety on feedback-based go and nogo learning. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2021; 86:110-124. [PMID: 33527222 PMCID: PMC8821493 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-021-01479-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The term “Pavlovian” bias describes the phenomenon that learning to execute a response to obtain a reward or to inhibit a response to avoid punishment is much easier than learning the reverse. The present study investigated the interplay between this learning bias and individual levels of social anxiety. Since avoidance behavior is a hallmark feature of social anxiety and high levels of social anxiety have been associated with better learning from negative feedback, it is conceivable that the Pavlovian bias is altered in individuals with high social anxiety, with a strong tendency to avoid negative feedback, especially (but not only) in a nogo context. In addition, learning may be modulated by the individual propensity to learn from positive or negative feedback, which can be assessed as a trait-like feature. A sample of 84 healthy university students completed an orthogonalized go/nogo task that decoupled action type (go/nogo) and outcome valence (win/avoid) and a probabilistic selection task based upon which the individual propensity to learn from positive and negative feedback was determined. Self-reported social anxiety and learning propensity were used as predictors in linear mixed-effect model analysis of performance accuracy in the go/nogo task. Results revealed that high socially anxious subjects with a propensity to learn better from negative feedback showed particularly pronounced learning for nogo to avoid while lacking significant learning for nogo to win as well as go to avoid. This result pattern suggests that high levels of social anxiety in concert with negative learning propensity hamper the overcoming of Pavlovian bias in a win context while facilitating response inhibition in an avoidance context. The present data confirm the robust Pavlovian bias in feedback-based learning and add to a growing body of evidence for modulation of feedback learning by individual factors, such as personality traits. Specifically, results show that social anxiety is associated with altered Pavlovian bias, and might suggest that this effect could be driven by altered basal ganglia function primarily affecting the nogo pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jutta Peterburs
- Department of Biological Psychology, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany. .,Department of Medicine, Medical Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Am Kaiserkai 1, 20457, Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Christine Albrecht
- Department of Biological Psychology, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Christian Bellebaum
- Department of Biological Psychology, Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
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11
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de Bruijn ERA, Jansen M, Overgaauw S. Enhanced error-related brain activations for mistakes that harm others: ERP evidence from a novel social performance-monitoring paradigm. Neuroimage 2020; 204:116238. [PMID: 31585173 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2019] [Revised: 07/18/2019] [Accepted: 09/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Our mistakes often have negative consequences for ourselves, but may also harm the people around us. Continuous monitoring of our performance is therefore crucial for both our own and others' well-being. Here, we investigated how modulations in responsibility for other's harm affects electrophysiological correlates of performance-monitoring, viz. the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe). Healthy participants (N = 27) performed a novel social performance-monitoring paradigm in two responsibility contexts. Mistakes made in the harmful context resulted in a negative consequence for a co-actor, i.e., hearing a loud aversive sound, while errors in the non-harmful context were followed by a soft non-aversive sound. Although participants themselves did not receive auditory feedback in either context, they did experience harmful mistakes as more distressing and reported higher effort to perform well in the harmful context. ERN amplitudes were enhanced for harmful compared to non-harmful mistakes. Pe amplitudes were unaffected. The present study shows that performing in a potentially harmful social context amplifies early automatic performance-monitoring processes and increases the impact of the resulting harmful mistakes. These outcomes not only further our theoretical knowledge of social performance monitoring, but also demonstrate a novel and useful paradigm to investigate aberrant responsibility attitudes in various clinical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen R A de Bruijn
- Leiden University, Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, the Netherlands.
| | - Myrthe Jansen
- Leiden University, Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Sandy Overgaauw
- Leiden University, Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC), Leiden, the Netherlands
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