Cardiac and electro-cortical concomitants of social feedback processing in women

Willingness valued more than ability in partner choice: Insights into behavioral and ERP data

In human cooperation, people prefer to choose partners with high willingness and ability-while both are valued by partners, individuals often prioritize willingness. Two event-related potential (ERP) experiments were conducted to discern the neural processes underpinning this preference. In the first experiment, participants made a choice between two potential partners and received feedback on the selected partner's willingness to cooperate. This was followed by feedback on the partner's task performance (ability) or a gambling outcome. In contrast, the second experiment first provided feedback on ability, then presented feedback on willingness or a gambling outcome. This study revealed that a potential partner's willingness trait significantly influences individuals' emotional evaluations and monetary allocations than the ability trait. Electrophysiological data indicated that low-willingness feedback elicited a diminished feedback-related negative (FRN) and an amplified P3 compared to high-willingness feedback. In contrast, no such difference was discernible between high- and low-ability feedback. Moreover, the P3 difference from high versus low willingness was considerably more pronounced than that from gambling outcomes, whereas the difference wave between high and low ability paralleled gambling outcomes. These findings bolster the novel finding that partner willingness may provide more substantial social rewards than ability. Furthermore, this study provides the first ERP evidence of willingness and ability trait perceptions in partner choice decisions.

Repetition suppression between monetary loss and social pain

The relationship between monetary loss and pain has been a recent research focus. Prior studies found similarities in the network representation patterns of monetary loss and pain, particularly social pain. However, the neural level evidence was lacking. To address this, we conducted an ERP experiment to investigate whether there is a repetitive suppression effect of monetary loss on the neural activity of social pain, aiming to understand if they engage overlapping neuronal populations. The results revealed that FRN amplitudes showed repetitive suppression effects of monetary loss on the neural activity of social pain. Our study suggests that monetary loss and social pain share common neural bases, indicating that they might involve shared neural modules related to cognitive conflict and affective appraisal.

How and when social evaluative feedback is processed in the brain: A systematic review on ERP studies

Social evaluative feedback informs the receiver of the other's views, which may contain judgments of personality-related traits and/or the level of likability. Such kinds of social evaluative feedback are of particular importance to humans. Event-related potentials (ERPs) can directly measure where in the processing stream feedback valence, expectancy, or contextual relevance modulate information processing. This review provides an overview and systematization of studies and early, mid-latency, and late ERP effects. Early effects were inconsistently reported for all factors. Feedback valence effects are more consistently reported for specific mid-latency ERPs (Reward Positivity, RewP, and Early Posterior Negativity, EPN) and late positivities (P3 and Late Positive Potential, LPP). Unexpected feedback consistently increased the Feedback Related Negativity (FRN) and, less consistently, decreased P3 amplitudes. Contextual relevance of the sender (e.g., human vs computer sender) or self-relatedness increased mid-latency to late ERPs. Interactions between valence and other factors were less often found, arising during mid-latency stages, where most consistent interactions showed larger EPN and P3 amplitude differences for valent feedback in a more relevant context. The ERP findings highlight that social evaluative feedback is consistently differentiated during mid-latency processing stages. The review discusses the relevance of findings, possible shortcomings of different experimental designs, and open questions. Furthermore, we suggest concrete venues for future research.

Autistic traits heighten sensitivity to rejection-induced social pain

Autistic traits-subclinical forms of characteristics associated with autism spectrum disorders-are associated with poor social interactions and high risks for mental health disorders. We hypothesized that altered sensitivity to social rejection is an important contributor to psychological distress observed among individuals with high autistic traits. Experiment 1 adopted a social-judgment task and compared behavioral and neural activity in response to social rejection between participants exhibiting either high or low autistic traits (HAT and LAT, respectively). Rejection-induced hurt feelings, P3 amplitudes, and θ-oscillation magnitudes were greater in the HAT group than in the LAT group. Mediation analysis indicated that autistic traits heighten rejection-induced social pain through increasing frontal-midline θ-oscillations. Responses to nonsocial feedback in the age-judgment task were comparable, confirming that the between-group differences were specific to social negative feedback. Experiment 2 assessed the association between autistic traits, rejection sensitivity, and psychological distress among randomly recruited participants. Results showed that autistic traits affected depressive/anxious symptomatology partially through heightened rejection sensitivity. Therefore, autistic traits heighten sensitivity to rejection-induced social pain that leads to psychological distress. This finding will help facilitate the development of strategies for coping with social pain and improving mental health for individuals with high autistic traits.

Neural substrates of expectancy violation associated with social feedback in individuals with subthreshold depression

BACKGROUND

Abnormal processing of social feedback is an important contributor to social dysfunction in depression, however the exact mechanisms remain unclear. One important factor may be the extent to which social processing depends on expectations, in particular whether social feedback confirms or violates expectations.

METHODS

To answer this question, we studied behavioral and brain responses during the evaluative processing of social feedback in 25 individuals with subthreshold depression (SD) and 25 healthy controls (HCs). Participants completed a Social Judgment Task in which they first indicated expectation about whether a peer would like them or not, and then received peer's feedback indicating acceptance or rejection.

RESULTS

Individuals with SD who reported greater depressive symptoms gave fewer positive expectations. Compared to HCs, individuals with SD showed reduced activation in the medial prefrontal cortex when expecting positive feedback. They also exhibited increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex after receipt of unexpected social rejection, and reduced ventral striatum activity after receipt of unexpected social acceptance.

CONCLUSIONS

The observed alternations are specific to unexpected social feedback processing and highlight an important role of expectancy violation in the brain dysfunction of social feedback perception and evaluation in individuals at risk for depression.

Social Context and Rejection Expectations Modulate Neural and Behavioral Responses to Social Feedback

When meeting other people, some are optimistic and expect to be accepted by others, whereas others are pessimistic and expect mostly rejections. How social feedback is evaluated in situations that meet or do not meet these biases and how people differ in their response to rejection and acceptance depending on the social situation are unknown. In this study, participants experienced rejection and acceptance by peers in two different social contexts, one with high (negative context) and the other with low probability of rejection (positive context). We examined how the neural and behavioral responses to rejection are altered by this context and whether it depends on the individual's sensitivity to rejection. Behavioral results show that, on average, people maintain an optimistic bias even when mostly experiencing rejection. Importantly, personality differences in rejection sensitivity affected both prior expectations to be rejected in the paradigm and the extent to which expectations changed during the paradigm. The context also strongly modulated ERPs and theta responses to rejection and acceptance feedback. Specifically, valence effects on neural responses were enhanced in the negative context, suggesting a greater relevance to monitor social feedback in such a situation. Moreover, midfrontal theta predicted how expectations were changed in response to prediction errors, stressing a role for theta in learning from social feedback. Surprisingly, interindividual differences in rejection sensitivity did not affect neural responses to feedback. Our results stress the importance of considering the interaction between subjective expectations and the social context for behavioral and neural responses to social rejection.

Relationship Match: The Neural Underpinnings of Social Feedback in Romantic Couples

Romantic love involves an evaluative process in which couples weigh similarities and differences that facilitates pair bonding. We investigated neural attentive processes (P3) during evaluative relationship feedback within existing romantic couples using the Relationship Match Game. This paradigm included participant-driven expectations about relationship matching and relationship feedback from an expert panel of fictive peers and their romantic partner. In total, 49 couples participated who had dated less than one year. Participants showed significantly larger P3s in anticipation of feedback when they expected a mismatch, especially when supported by panel feedback. P3 amplitudes were also greater when participants received feedback from their partner congruent with their own assessment of compatibility. This was moderated by relational ambiguity, or one’s preference to keep the relationship’s status vague. We discuss how insecurity about the relationship is costly in terms of attentional resources contributing to over-alertness to cues of relationship evaluation.

Neural correlates of acceptance and rejection in online speed dating: An electroencephalography study

Pursuing dating relationships is important for many people's well-being, because it helps them fulfill the need for stable social relationships. However, the neural underpinnings of decision-making processes during the pursuit of dating interactions are unclear. In the present study, we used a novel online speed dating paradigm where participants (undergraduate students, N = 25, aged 18-25 years, 52% female) received direct information about acceptance or rejection of their various speed dates. We recorded EEG measurements during speed dating feedback anticipation and feedback processing stages to examine the stimulus preceding negativity (SPN) and feedback-related brain activity (Reward Positivity, RewP, and theta oscillatory power). The results indicated that the SPN was larger when participants anticipated interest versus disinterest from their speed dates. A larger RewP was observed when participants received interest from their speed dates. Theta power was increased when participants received rejection from their speed dates. This theta response could be source-localized to brain areas that overlap with the physical pain matrix (anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the supplementary motor area). This study demonstrates that decision-making processes-as evident in a speed date experiment-are characterized by distinct neurophysiological responses during anticipating an evaluation and processing thereof. Our results corroborate the involvement of the SPN in reward anticipation, RewP in reward processing and mid-frontal theta power in processing of negative social-evaluative feedback. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms implicated in decision-making processes when pursuing dating relationships.

Prefrontal tDCS attenuates counterfactual thinking in female individuals prone to self-critical rumination

The tendency to ruminate (i.e., repetitive negative self-referential thoughts that perpetuate depressive mood) is associated with (a) an elevated propensity to maladaptively experience counterfactual thinking (CFT) and regret, and (b) hypo-activity of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The goal of this study was to investigate whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left DLPFC, in function of self-critical rumination tendencies, momentarily reduces counterfactual thinking and regret (assessed via self-report and psychophysiological indices). Eighty healthy participants with different levels of self-critical rumination received either anodal or sham tDCS while performing a decision making task in which they were repeatedly confronted with optimal, suboptimal, and non-optimal choice outcomes. The results showed that among rumination-prone individuals, anodal (versus sham) tDCS was associated with decreased CFT and attenuated psychophysiological reactivity to the differential choice outcomes. Conversely, among low rumination-prone individuals, anodal (versus sham) tDCS was associated with increased CFT and regret, but in absence of any effects on psychophysiological reactivity. Potential working mechanisms for these differential tDCS effects are discussed. Taken together, these results provide initial converging evidence for the adaptive effects of left prefrontal tDCS on CFT and regret to personal choice outcomes among individuals prone to engage in self-critical rumination.

Acetaminophen does not affect cardiac and brain responses to social rejection but seems to attenuate behavioral adaptation in a social judgment task

The present study examined the effect of Acetaminophen on the painful experience of social rejection by examining brain, cardiac and behavioral measures reflecting different aspects of social feedback processing. Healthy students (N = 72), after ingesting either Acetaminophen or a placebo, performed a social judgment paradigm (SJP), in which they could be expectedly or unexpectedly rejected or accepted. During the task, cardiac and brain responses to different types of feedback were measured, as well as expectancies relating to the given feedback. Enhanced cardiac deceleration was found after unexpected social rejection as compared to all other conditions. Larger mean P3 amplitude was found after expected positive and negative feedback stimuli as compared to unexpected stimuli. While cardiac deceleration and P3 were not affected by Acetaminophen, behavioral responses were. While in the control group the percentage of acceptance predictions decreased over the experiment (learning from negative feedback), the Acetaminophen group did not adjust their positive prediction bias over time. The unexpected effect of Acetaminophen on prediction behavior suggests that Acetaminophen might indeed play a role in social pain perception. The normally observed social pain-based learning effect seems to disappear when participants ingest Acetaminophen, which can be interpreted as a reduced pain perception after Acetaminophen.

Neural correlates of negative expectancy and impaired social feedback processing in social anxiety

Social anxiety has been associated with abnormalities in cognitive processing in the literature, manifesting as various cognitive biases. To what extent these biases interrupt social interactions remains largely unclear. This study used the Social Judgment Paradigm that could separate the expectation and experience stages of social feedback processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in these two stages were recorded to detect the effect of social anxiety that might not be reflected by behavioral data. Participants were divided into two groups according to their social anxiety level. Participants in the high social anxiety (HSA) group were more likely to predict that they would be socially rejected by peers than did their low social anxiety (LSA) counterparts (i.e. the control group). Compared to the ERP data of the LSA group, the HSA group showed: (a) a larger P1 component to social cues (peer faces) prior to social feedback presentation, possibly indicating an attention bias; (b) a difference in feedback-related negativity amplitude between unexpected social acceptance and unexpected social rejection, possibly indicating an expectancy bias; and (c) a diminished sensitivity of the P3 amplitude to social feedback valence (be accepted/be rejected), possibly indicating an experience bias. These results could help understand the cognitive mechanisms that comprise and maintain social anxiety.

Neural responses to social acceptance predict behavioral adjustments following peer feedback in the context of a real-time social interaction task

Strong social connections are important predictors of both mental and physical health. The ability to effectively process social feedback from other people and adjust behavior accordingly is a critical part of skillfully navigating the social landscape. However, relatively few studies have considered neural systems driving these behavioral adjustments. In this study, 254 participants engaged in a peer interaction game while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. In this game, participants repeatedly "interact" with a small set of virtual peers over a series of rounds, in which they provide feedback to their peers, and receive feedback from them in turn. A reward-sensitive event-related potential called the Reward Positivity (RewP) was extracted from the EEG following positive feedback from peers, and multilevel modeling was used to examine whether the RewP moderated associations between the feedback participants received during the task and their subsequent behavior. Participants were more likely to accept coplayers who had previously voted to accept them, and to like coplayers who had voted to accept them on the same round. A larger RewP was associated with a stronger tendency to modify behavior following feedback from peers, both in terms of voting behavior and expressions of liking. These data suggest that initial neural responsiveness to reward within 300 ms of positive social feedback may guide social behaviors. Thus, this line of research represents an important step toward a more complete understanding of the ways in which neural responses to feedback are involved in human social behaviors.

The Impacts of the Presence of an Unfamiliar Dog on Emerging Adults' Physiological and Behavioral Responses Following Social Exclusion

Research indicates that non-human attachment figures may mitigate the negative consequences of social exclusion. In the current experiment, we examined how the presence of an unfamiliar companion dog in the laboratory effects physiological and behavioral reactions in female emerging adults after social exclusion compared to inclusion. Results revealed the beneficial effects of the dog: Socially excluded participants in the company of a dog showed less aggressive behavior in response to the hot sauce paradigm compared to excluded participants in the control condition. Furthermore, cardiac responses indicated mitigated perception of threat in a subsequent insult episode when a dog was present. The presence of a dog did not impact the most instantaneous, "reflexive" response to the social exclusion as revealed by characteristic cardiac changes. Together, the findings indicate that the presence of a companion dog takes effect in a later, reflective period following a social exclusion experience, which implicates relevant social elaboration and appraisal processes.

Social Feedback Valence Differentially Modulates the Reward Positivity, P300, and Late Positive Potential

Abnormal social or reward processing is associated with several mental disorders. Although most studies examining reward processing have focused on monetary rewards, recent research also has tested neural reactivity to social rewards (e.g., positive social feedback). However, the majority of these studies only include two feedback valences (e.g., acceptance, rejection). Yet, social evaluation is rarely binary (positive vs. negative) and people often give 'on the fence' or neutral evaluations of others. Processing of this type of social feedback may be ambiguous and impacted by factors such as psychopathology, self-esteem, and prior experiences of rejection. Thus, the present study probed the reward positivity (RewP), P300, and late positive potential (LPP) following acceptance, rejection, and "one the fence" [between acceptance and rejection] feedback in undergraduate students (n = 45). Results indicated that the RewP showed more positive amplitudes following acceptance compared to both rejection and "on the fence" feedback, and the RewP was larger (i.e., more positive) following rejection relative to "on the fence" feedback. In contrast, the P300 did not differ between rejection and "on the fence" feedback, and both were reduced compared to acceptance. The LPP was blunted in response to rejection relative to acceptance and "on the fence" feedback (which did not differ from each other). Exploratory analyses demonstrated that greater self-reported rejection sensitivity was associated with a reduced LPP to acceptance. Taken together, these findings suggest that the neural systems underlying the RewP, P300, and LPP may evaluate "on the fence" social feedback differently, and that individuals high on rejection sensitivity may exhibit reduced attention toward and elaborative processing of social acceptance.

Emotional feedback ameliorates older adults' feedback-induced learning

In older age, learning and feedback processing are usually impaired. This is thought to be due to impairments in the dopaminergic system and the anterior cingulate cortex. By contrast, processing of affective information seems to remain relatively intact. Recent research has also demonstrated that cognitive functioning can be influenced by affective materials or contexts and lead to an enhancement in diverse cognitive tasks. Hence, the aim of the present study was to explore, whether emotional feedback would counteract age-related learning deficits and strengthen early and later phases of feedback processing as reflected in the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3b of the event-related potential (ERP). Younger and older participants conducted a probabilistic reinforcement learning task in which the accurate responses had to be learned via feedback. In emotional trials, feedback stimuli consisted of faces with smiling and disgusted expressions, and in a non-emotional condition, positive and negative feedback was indicated by the background color of faces with neutral expressions. Our main results were that older adults showed better learning performance in the emotional feedback condition and a larger P3b after emotional than non-emotional feedback indexing heightened working memory updating after task relevant events.

Don't you want me, baby? Cardiac and electrocortical concomitants of romantic interest and rejection

Online dating has become a very popular way to find a romantic partner. In the present study, we examined whether romantic interest and rejection in such a setting would evoke differential electrocortical and cardiac responses. For this purpose a database was created, similar to a dating website, where the participants' personal information and photos were placed. Heterosexual, single participants (N = 61) evaluated the profiles of opposite-sex potential romantic partners and decided whether they would like to date this person or not. Subsequently, participants passively viewed (34 analyzable volunteers participated in the EEG session; 10 male; mean age = 20) the pictures of the potential partners together with their own judgment about the "dateability" of the potential partner, and the potential partner's judgment of the "dateability" of the participant. After viewing the pictures participants received the email addresses to contact their matches. Electrocortical and cardiac responses to these "match" or "non-match" judgments were measured. A significantly larger P3 response was found when participants received a positive evaluation as compared to negative evaluations. This is in line with an explanation in terms of reward. A significantly larger cardiac deceleration was found when participants received a negative evaluation as compared to positive evaluations, which is in line with an explanation in terms of social pain. Findings are discussed in terms of activation of different parts of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Community structure analysis of rejection sensitive personality profiles: A common neural response to social evaluative threat?

Monitoring social threat is essential for maintaining healthy social relationships, and recent studies suggest a neural alarm system that governs our response to social rejection. Frontal-midline theta (4–8 Hz) oscillatory power might act as a neural correlate of this system by being sensitive to unexpected social rejection. Here, we examined whether frontal-midline theta is modulated by individual differences in personality constructs sensitive to social disconnection. In addition, we examined the sensitivity of feedback-related brain potentials (i.e., the feedback-related negativity and P3) to social feedback. Sixty-five undergraduate female participants (mean age = 19.69 years) participated in the Social Judgment Paradigm, a fictitious peer-evaluation task in which participants provided expectancies about being liked/disliked by peer strangers. Thereafter, they received feedback signaling social acceptance/rejection. A community structure analysis was employed to delineate personality profiles in our data. Results provided evidence of two subgroups: one group scored high on attachment-related anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, whereas the other group scored high on attachment-related avoidance and low on fear of negative evaluation. In both groups, unexpected rejection feedback yielded a significant increase in theta power. The feedback-related negativity was sensitive to unexpected feedback, regardless of valence, and was largest for unexpected rejection feedback. The feedback-related P3 was significantly enhanced in response to expected social acceptance feedback. Together, these findings confirm the sensitivity of frontal midline theta oscillations to the processing of social threat, and suggest that this alleged neural alarm system behaves similarly in individuals that differ in personality constructs relevant to social evaluation.

Cultural influences on the processing of social comparison feedback signals-an ERP study

This study investigated cultural differences regarding social connectedness in association with social vs non-social comparison feedback. We performed electroencephalography in 54 Chinese and 49 Western adults while they performed a time estimation task in which response-accuracy feedback was either delivered pertaining to participants' own performance (non-social reference frame) or to the performance of a reference group (social reference frame). Trait interdependence and independence were assessed using a cultural orientations questionnaire. Applying a principal component approach, we observed divergent effects for the two cultural groups during feedback processing. In particular, Feedback-Related Negativity results indicated that non-social (vs social) reference feedback was more salient/motivating for Chinese participants, while Westerners showed the opposite pattern. The results suggest that Chinese individuals perceive a non-social context as more salient than a social comparison context, possibly due to their extensive experience of social comparisons in daily life. The reverse pattern was found in Western participants, for whom a social comparison context is less common and presumably more salient. The cultural differences in neural responses to social vs non-social feedback might be caused by culturally diverse cognitive traits, as well as by exposure to culturally defined behaviour on a systemic level-such as the education system.

Motivational Influences on Performance Monitoring and Cognitive Control Across the Adult Lifespan

Cognitive control refers to the ability to regulate cognitive processing according to the tasks at hand, especially when these are demanding. It includes maintaining and updating relevant information in working memory, inhibiting irrelevant information, and flexibly switching between tasks. Performance monitoring denotes the processing of feedback from the environment and the detection of errors or other unexpected events and signals when cognitive control needs to be exerted. These two aspects of behavioral adaptation critically rely on the integrity of the frontal lobes, which are known to show pronounced age-related performance decrements. By contrast, there is evidence that processing of rewards remains relatively intact across the adult lifespan. Hence, motivation may play an important role in modulating or even counteracting age-related changes in cognitive control functions. To answer this question, neuroscientific data can be particularly useful to uncover potential underlying mechanisms beyond behavioral outcome. The aims of this article are twofold: First, to review and systematize the extant literature on how motivational incentives can modulate performance monitoring and cognitive control in young and older adults. Second, to demonstrate that important pieces of empirical data are currently missing for the evaluation of this central question, specifically in old age. Hence, we would like to stimulate further research uncovering potential mechanisms underlying motivation-cognition interactions in young and in particular in older adults and investigating whether or not those can help to ameliorate age-related impairments.

Internal control beliefs and reference frame concurrently impact early performance monitoring ERPs

This study investigated the impact of criterion-based vs. social reference frames on behavioural and neural correlates of performance monitoring while taking individual differences in control beliefs into account. We conducted two experiments administering a time estimation task in which feedback was either delivered pertaining to participants’ own performance (nonsocial/criterion-based reference) or to the performance of a reference group of previous participants (social reference). In Experiment 1, 34 male volunteers participated. To test generalizability of the observed results to both sexes/genders, we recruited 36 female volunteers for Experiment 2. P2 and P300 amplitudes were generally larger in social than in nonsocial reference trials in the male participants of Experiment 1. ΔFRN amplitudes were larger for social compared to non-social reference trials in Experiment 1. No effects of reference frame were found in the female sample of Experiment 2. Rather, P2 and ΔFRN effects showed opposing patterns for nonsocial versus social reference frames. However, stronger internal control beliefs were accompanied by larger FRN amplitudes of negative social reference trials in both samples, suggesting generalizable effects independent of sex/gender. Enhanced P2 and ΔFRN amplitudes for social versus nonsocial reference trials suggest enhanced attentional capture and higher saliency of socially framed feedback in male participants only. In both sexes/genders, however, the social reference frame possibly challenges internal control beliefs and by this enhances performance monitoring. Our results demonstrate the complex interplay of trait variables and reference frames during performance monitoring influencing our daily lives-reference frames are omnipresent in education and one’s working environment.

Laughter as a social rejection cue: Influence of prior explicit experience of social rejection on cardiac signs of "freezing"

The study aimed at investigating the immediate cardiac effect of the sudden perception of other people's laughter after experimentally manipulating healthy participants' proneness to experience laughter as a cue of social threat. We expected that participants would show cardiac signs of freezing (i.e., sustained heart rate deceleration immediately after perception of the laughter) after prior social rejection but not or less so after prior acceptance, due to an increased bias to perceive the ambiguous social signal as a cue of social threat and rejection after rejection had been primed. Contrary to expectations, the perception of other people's laughter elicited a decelerative (freezing) response regardless of whether it was preceded by the experience of social rejection or acceptance. The response was prolonged in participants who had been accepted beforehand compared to those who had been rejected. The findings indicate that, given a relevant social context, other people's laughter can be a powerful cue of social threat and rejection also in healthy individuals. Prolonged heart rate deceleration after an ambiguous social signal may facilitate the processing of significant social information in the socially threatening situation. The study adds to the literature rendering the course of the immediate transient heart rate response a useful tool in social rejection research. Additionally, the findings suggested that in some cases the further progress of transient heart rate changes in more extended time-windows (about 30 s) may provide additional relevant information about the processing of social cues.

Will they like me? Neural and behavioral responses to social-evaluative peer feedback in socially and non-socially anxious females

The current study examined neural and behavioral responses to social-evaluative feedback processing in social anxiety. Twenty-two non-socially and 17 socially anxious females (mean age = 19.57 years) participated in a Social Judgment Paradigm in which they received peer acceptance/rejection feedback that was either congruent or incongruent with their prior predictions. Results indicated that socially anxious participants believed they would receive less social acceptance feedback than non-socially anxious participants. EEG results demonstrated that unexpected social rejection feedback elicited a significant increase in theta (4-8 Hz) power relative to other feedback conditions. This theta response was only observed in non-socially anxious individuals. Together, results corroborate cognitive-behavioral studies demonstrating a negative expectancy bias in socially anxiety with respect to social evaluation. Furthermore, the present findings highlight a functional role for theta oscillatory dynamics in processing cues that convey social-evaluative threat, and this social threat-monitoring mechanism seems less sensitive in socially anxious females.

Behavioral and EEG responses to social evaluation: A two-generation family study on social anxiety

Social anxiety disorder is an invalidating psychiatric disorder characterized by extreme fear and avoidance of one or more social situations in which patients might experience scrutiny by others. The goal of this two-generation family study was to delineate behavioral and electrocortical endophenotypes of social anxiety disorder related to social evaluation. Nine families of patients with social anxiety disorder (their spouse and children, and siblings of these patients with spouse and children) performed a social judgment paradigm in which they believed to be evaluated by peers. For each peer, participants indicated their expectation about the evaluative outcome, after which they received social acceptance or rejection feedback. Task behavior, as well as the feedback-related EEG brain potentials (N1, FRN, P3) and theta power were tested as candidate endophenotypes based on two criteria: co-segregation with social anxiety disorder within families and heritability. Results indicated that reaction time for indicating acceptance-expectations might be a candidate behavioral endophenotype of social anxiety disorder, possibly reflecting increased uncertainty or self-focused attention and vigilance during the social judgment paradigm. N1 in response to expected rejection feedback and P3 in response to acceptance feedback might be candidate electrocortical endophenotypes of social anxiety disorder, although the heritability analyses did not remain significant after correcting for multiple tests. Increased N1 possibly reflects hypervigilance to socially threatening stimuli, and increased P3 might reflect that positive feedback is more important for, and/or less expected by, participants with social anxiety disorder. Finally, increased feedback-related negativity and theta power in response to unexpected rejection feedback compared to the other conditions co-segregated with social anxiety disorder, but these EEG measures were not heritable. The candidate endophenotypes might play a new and promising role in future research on genetic mechanisms, early detection and/or prevention of social anxiety disorder.

Social dimension and complexity differentially influence brain responses during feedback processing

Recent research emphasizes the importance of social factors during performance monitoring. Thus, the current study investigated the impact of social stimuli -such as communicative gestures- on feedback processing. Moreover, it addressed a shortcoming of previous studies, which failed to consider stimulus complexity as potential confounding factor. Twenty-four volunteers performed a time estimation task while their electroencephalogram was recorded. Either social complex, social non-complex, non-social complex, or non-social non-complex stimuli were used to provide performance feedback. No effects of social dimension or complexity were found for task performance. In contrast, Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) and P300 amplitudes were sensitive to both factors, with larger FRN and P300 amplitudes after social compared to non-social stimuli, and larger FRN amplitudes after complex positive than non-complex positive stimuli. P2 amplitudes were solely sensitive to feedback valence and social dimension. Subjectively, social complex stimuli were rated as more motivating than non-social complex ones. Independently of each other, social dimension and visual complexity influenced amplitude variation during performance monitoring. Social stimuli seem to be perceived as more salient, which is corroborated by P2, FRN and P300 results, as well as by subjective ratings. This could be explained due to their given relevance during every day social interactions.

Thumbs up or thumbs down? Effects of neuroticism and depressive symptoms on psychophysiological responses to social evaluation in healthy students

The effects of neuroticism and depressive symptoms on psychophysiological responses in a social judgment task were examined in a sample of 101 healthy young adults. Participants performed a social judgment task in which they had to predict whether or not a virtual peer presented on a computer screen liked them. After the prediction, the actual judgment was shown, and behavioral, electrocortical, and cardiac responses to this judgment were measured. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) was largest after unexpected feedback. The largest P3 was found after the expected “like” judgments, and cardiac deceleration was largest following unexpected “do not like” judgments. Both the P3 and cardiac deceleration were affected by gender—that is, only males showed differential P3 responses to social judgments, and males showed stronger cardiac decelerations. Time–frequency analyses were performed to explore theta and delta oscillations. Theta oscillations were largest following unexpected outcomes and correlated with FRN amplitudes. Delta oscillations were largest following expected “like” judgments and correlated with P3 amplitudes. Self-reported trait neuroticism was significantly related to social evaluative predictions and cardiac reactivity to social feedback, but not to the electrocortical responses. That is, higher neuroticism scores were associated with a more negative prediction bias and with smaller cardiac responses to judgments for which a positive outcome was predicted. Depressive symptoms did not affect the behavioral and psychophysiological responses in this study. The results confirmed the differential sensitivities of various outcome measures to different psychological processes, but the found individual differences could only partly be ascribed to the collected subjective measures.

Social processing in early adolescence: Associations between neurophysiological, self-report, and behavioral measures

Peer relationships play a major role in adolescent development, but few methods exist for measuring social processing at the neurophysiological level. This study extends our pilot study of Island Getaway, a task for eliciting event-related potentials (ERPs) to peer feedback. We differentiated ERPs using principal components analysis (PCA) and examined associations with behavioral and self-report measures in young adolescents (N=412). PCA revealed an early negativity in the ERP enhanced for rejection feedback, followed by a series of positivities (consistent with reward positivity [RewP], P300, and late positive potential) that were enhanced for acceptance feedback. Greater self-reported task engagement correlated with a larger RewP to acceptance and lower rates of rejecting peers. Youth higher in depressive symptoms exhibited a blunted RewP to social acceptance and reported lower engagement. Results highlight ERP components sensitive to peer feedback that may inform understanding of social processes relevant to typical and atypical development.

Preliminary evidence for increased parasympathetic activity during social inclusion and exclusion in adolescents with functional abdominal pain

OBJECTIVE

Peer victimization (e.g. social exclusion) has been shown to be associated with physical health problems such as functional somatic complaints and especially symptoms of pain. To date, no study has investigated the mechanisms underlying this association in clinical pediatric samples. The aim of this study was to evaluate the parasympathetic activity during a social exclusion experience in adolescents with functional abdominal pain (FAP).

METHODS

Twenty adolecents with FAP and 21 matched healthy participants were compared regarding parameters of parasympathetic activation before, during, and after participating in the Cyberball-game, a well-established paradigm to induce social exclusion.

RESULTS

Adolescents with FAP showed an increase in parasympathetic activation during both consecutive phases of the Cyberball game (inclusion as well as exclusion condition) whereas the healthy control group remained stable. There were no differences in subjective experience of in- and exclusion between the groups.

CONCLUSION

The parasympathetic activation pattern may indicate altered processing of social stimuli in adolescents with FAP.

Why won't they sit with me? An exploratory investigation of stereotyped cues, social exclusion, and the P3b

The importance of understanding how we anticipate and prepare for being socially excluded is underscored by the numerous adverse mental and physical consequences of social rejection. In this study, we adapted a social exclusion paradigm, the Lunchroom task, to investigate the use of social context cues in the formation of social outcome expectations as indexed by the P3b, an ERP component associated with attention orientation and context updating. In this task, Black and White participants were presented with either neutral or stereotyped cues prior to being exposed to simulated inclusion versus exclusion outcome scenarios. Black participants showed evidence of (1) a significantly reduced P3b response to exclusions preceded by stereotyped cues relative to neutral cue-related exclusions and (2) a marginally significant increase in the P3b response to inclusions relative to exclusions when both were preceded by stereotyped cues. Both of these findings suggest a key role for the use of social cues in the formation of outcome expectations. In line with our hypothesis that the random intermixing of inclusion and exclusion outcomes would prevent formation of outcome expectations when coupled with the absence of self-relevant cues, no overall P3b modulations were observed among a comparison group of White participants.

Why don't you like me? Midfrontal theta power in response to unexpected peer rejection feedback

Social connectedness theory posits that the brain processes social rejection as a threat to survival. Recent electrophysiological evidence suggests that midfrontal theta (4-8Hz) oscillations in the EEG provide a window on the processing of social rejection. Here we examined midfrontal theta dynamics (power and inter-trial phase synchrony) during the processing of social evaluative feedback. We employed the Social Judgment paradigm in which 56 undergraduate women (mean age=19.67 years) were asked to communicate their expectancies about being liked vs. disliked by unknown peers. Expectancies were followed by feedback indicating social acceptance vs. rejection. Results revealed a significant increase in EEG theta power to unexpected social rejection feedback. This EEG theta response could be source-localized to brain regions typically reported during activation of the saliency network (i.e., dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, inferior frontal gyrus, frontal pole, and the supplementary motor area). Theta phase dynamics mimicked the behavior of the time-domain averaged feedback-related negativity (FRN) by showing stronger phase synchrony for feedback that was unexpected vs. expected. Theta phase, however, differed from the FRN by also displaying stronger phase synchrony in response to rejection vs. acceptance feedback. Together, this study highlights distinct roles for midfrontal theta power and phase synchrony in response to social evaluative feedback. Our findings contribute to the literature by showing that midfrontal theta oscillatory power is sensitive to social rejection but only when peer rejection is unexpected, and this theta response is governed by a widely distributed neural network implicated in saliency detection and conflict monitoring.

Unexpected Acceptance? Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder Manifest their Social Expectancy in ERPs During Social Feedback Processing

Previous studies on social anxiety have demonstrated negative-expectancy bias in social contexts. In this study, we used a paradigm that employed self-relevant positive or negative social feedback, in order to test whether this negative expectancy manifests in event-related potentials (ERPs) during social evaluation among socially anxious individuals. Behavioral data revealed that individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) showed more negative expectancy of peer acceptance both in the experiment and in daily life than did the healthy control participants. Regarding ERP results, we found a overally larger P2 for positive social feedback and also a group main effect, such that the P2 was smaller in SAD group. SAD participants demonstrated a larger feedback-related negativity (FRN) to positive feedback than to negative feedback. In addition, SAD participants showed a more positive ΔFRN (ΔFRN = negative – positive). Furthermore, acceptance expectancy in daily life correlated negatively with ΔFRN amplitude, while the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) score correlated positively with the ΔFRN amplitude. Finally, the acceptance expectancy in daily life fully mediated the relationship between the IAS and ΔFRN. These results indicated that both groups could differentiate between positive and negative social feedback in the early stage of social feedback processing (reflected on the P2). However, the SAD group exhibited a larger FRN to positive social feedback than to negative social feedback, demonstrating their dysfunction in the late stage of social feedback processing. In our opinion, such dysfunction is due to their greater negative social feedback expectancy.