The power of friendship: The developmental significance of friendships from a neuroscience perspective

There is a party in my head and no one is invited: Resting-state electrocortical activity and solitude

OBJECTIVE

What are the motivational underpinnings of solitude? We know from self-report studies that increases in solitude are associated with drops in approach motivation and rises in avoidance motivation, but only when solitude is experienced as non-self-determined (i.e., non-autonomous). However, the extent to which individual differences in solitude relate to neurophysiological markers of approach-avoidance motivation derived from resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) is unknown. These markers are Frontal Alpha Asymmetry, beta suppression, and midline Posterior versus Frontal EEG Theta Activity.

METHOD

We assessed the relation among individual differences in the reasons for solitude (i.e., preference for solitude, motivation for solitude), approach-avoidance motivation, and resting-state EEG markers of approach-avoidance motivation (N = 115).

RESULTS

General preference for solitude was negatively related to approach motivation, observed in both self-reported measures and EEG markers of approach motivation. Self-determined solitude was positively related to both self-reported approach motivation and avoidance motivation in the social domain (i.e., friendship). Non-self-determined solitude was positively associated with self-reported avoidance motivation.

CONCLUSION

This research was a preliminary attempt to address the neurophysiological underpinnings of solitude in the context of motivation.

Neural correlates of vicarious reward processing and peer victimization experiences in late childhood

This preregistered study examined the neural correlates of vicarious reward processing and subsequent trust behavior in relation to experiences of victimization averaged over two years in late childhood. This study used a sample of children with prospective longitudinal data on peer victimization over the past two years (nbehavioral = 83, 49.4 % girls, Mage = 10.6 years, nfmri = 62). Participants played an fMRI vicarious reward task in which they could win or lose money for themselves and two other peers. The two other peers were experimentally manipulated to either include or exclude the participant in a Cyberball task prior to the task. Additionally, trust in the two peers was assessed using a one-shot trust game. Results revealed ventral striatum activation when winning (versus losing) for oneself, and activation in the dmPFC, vmPFC and precuneus when playing for excluders rather than for oneself. Victimization predicted decreased ventral striatum activation during personal rewards, and increased activation in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex when playing for excluders rather than for oneself. Finally, averaged victimization was associated with increased differentiation in trust toward the including and excluding peers. Together, these findings contribute to our understanding of the social cognitions and behaviors of victims of bullying.

Mental health and mental health problems among users of AAC: a scoping review

Functional communication is crucial for mental health and for coping with mental health problems. People with disabilities are at increased risk of mental health problems, and people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) are reported to be at greater risk of depression and anxiety than people without impairments. This scoping review summarizes existing knowledge about the mental health and mental health problems of people who use AAC. The review includes nine publications, published between 2001 and 2022. These mainly report on adults and elderly people who use AAC. Four of the nine publications included people who use AAC due to acquired impairments. None of the studies reported the prevalence of mental health problems and only a few addressed factors of positive mental health. The results indicate a shortage of theoretical accounts for most of the publications included, and the publications are not built on each other. The scarcity of knowledge is discussed in relation to the idea that the need for communicative support is a need based on communicative functioning rather than any diagnostic category and thus not visible in much of the health literature based on diagnostic categories. Several implications for practice and research are suggested.

The Role of World Beliefs in Loneliness: Implications for Daily Social Interaction and Persistence of Loneliness Over Time

INTRODUCTION

Lonely people often crave social connection, but their social interactions fall short of fulfilling their needs. Although loneliness has been associated with negative views of the world, it is not clear whether these world beliefs contribute to the unfulfilling social interaction patterns that sustain loneliness. This research examined the role of world beliefs in explaining the effects of loneliness on daily frequency and quality of interaction, and the implications for sustained loneliness over time.

METHODS

Both members of romantic couples (N = 472) completed measures of loneliness, world beliefs, and daily social interactions with weak and strong ties over 2 weeks (daily N = 6411) and completed a follow-up assessment of loneliness a year later.

RESULTS

Relative to those who felt connected, lonely people believed the world was worse, dangerous, dull, and did not need them. Loneliness also indirectly predicted reduced quality and quantity of social interaction via negative, dull, and not needed world beliefs. In turn, the quality of interactions with strong ties predicted maintained loneliness a year later. However, dangerous world beliefs predicted better interactions with close relationship partners.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that the negative subjective worlds inhabited by lonely people may partially explain why lonely people have unfulfilling social interactions that tend to sustain their loneliness.

The Impact of Social Media Use on Sleep and Mental Health in Youth: a Scoping Review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Social media use (SMU) and other internet-based technologies are ubiquitous in today's interconnected society, with young people being among the commonest users. Previous literature tends to support that SMU is associated with poor sleep and mental health issues in youth, despite some conflicting findings. In this scoping review, we summarized relevant studies published within the past 3 years, highlighted the impacts of SMU on sleep and mental health in youth, while also examined the possible underlying mechanisms involved. Future direction and intervention on rational use of SMU was discussed.

RECENT FINDINGS

Both cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort studies demonstrated the negative impacts of SMU on sleep and mental health, with preliminary evidence indicating potential benefits especially during the COVID period at which social restriction was common. However, the limited longitudinal research has hindered the establishment of directionality and causality in the association among SMU, sleep, and mental health. Recent studies have made advances with a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of SMU on sleep and mental health in youth, which is of public health importance and will contribute to improving sleep and mental health outcomes while promoting rational and beneficial SMU. Future research should include the implementation of cohort studies with representative samples to investigate the directionality and causality of the complex relationships among SMU, sleep, and mental health; the use of validated questionnaires and objective measurements; and the design of randomized controlled interventional trials to reduce overall and problematic SMU that will ultimately enhance sleep and mental health outcomes in youth.

Biopsychosocial contexts influence adult cognitive function concurrently and longitudinally

Background

Cognitive aging is a complex process that impacts human behavior. Identifying the factors that preserve cognitive functioning is a public health priority, given that 20% of the US population will be at least 65 years old in the next decade. Biopsychosocial determinants of cognitive decline across the lifespan are often examined as ecological factors that independently moderate cognitive aging, despite the known complexity surrounding these relationships.

Objective

We aimed to address this gap by exploring the synergistic and simultaneous relationship between risk and protective factors on cognitive functioning.

Method

Using the MIDUS study datasets, we examined the relationships among physiological markers, friendship quality, and global cognition functioning, concurrently and longitudinally over ten years. Our participants included 929 healthy (417 men, 512 women) adults (average age at Time 1: 54.6 ± 11.6 years). Exploratory analyses examining the effects of racial minority status were also conducted.

Results

Cross-sectionally, age, and friendship quality moderated the relationship between vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vm-HRV) and cognition such that younger adults with greater friendship quality had a negative relationship between vm-HRV and cognitive performance; our unexpected finding suggests the heart-brain relationship is sensitive to the biopsychosocial environment. Longitudinally, higher IL-6 levels at Time 1 predicted poorer cognitive performance a decade later, but only among those with greater levels of friendship quality, especially for white-identifying individuals.

Conclusions

The relationships among physiological risk factors, social protective factors and cognitive functioning appear to be temporally different during mid-adulthood. Given many of the whole sample findings were not replicated within the racial minority subgroup, we suggest that these relationships should be examined in a larger and more diverse racial minority sample to determine whether this study lacked the power necessary to detect a relationship or if the relationships are in fact different by racial minority sub-group. In addition, future research should overcome the study's reliance on healthy adults and self-report measures of friendship quality by including adults with pre-existing cognitive impairments, and employing more real-time measures of friendship quality, such as daily diary or ecological momentary assessment.

Risks and rewards in adolescent decision-making

Adolescent decision-making has been characterized as risky, and a heightened reward sensitivity may be one of the aspects contributing to riskier choice-behavior. Previous studies have targeted reward-sensitivity in adolescence and the neurobiological mechanisms of reward processing in the adolescent brain. In recent examples, researchers aim to disentangle the contributions of risk- and reward-sensitivity to adolescent risk-taking. Here, we discuss recent findings of adolescent's risk preferences and the associated neural mechanisms. We highlight potential frameworks that target individual differences in risk preferences in an effort to understand adolescent risk-taking, and with an ultimate goal of leveraging undesirable levels of risk taking.

Evaluating the efficacy of a school-based Finnish Gutsy Go programme in enhancing adolescents' positive mental health, experience of social inclusion, and social competence

Background: The Finnish Gutsy Go programme is a positive youth development intervention designed to enhance adolescents' psychosocial well-being by enabling eighth-grade students to develop and execute good deeds within the community.Objective: This study aimed to explore the effect of the Gutsy Go programme on adolescents' positive mental health, experience of social inclusion, and social competence using a quasi-experimental study design.Methods: Data were collected with electronic questionnaires at baseline (n = 236 programme participants and n = 303 controls) and follow-up two weeks after the programme (n = 126, 54.2% programme participants and n = 103, 34.1% controls). Analyses included paired samples t-tests and mixed ANOVA analyses.Results: A statistically significant intragroup change across time was detected in the level of cooperation skills among programme participants (t(127) = -2.460, p = 0.015) but not among controls (t(102) = 1.088, p = 0.279). Statistically significant main effects were found for the intervention group on the experience of social inclusion (F(1, 1) = 9.34, p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.040), cooperation skills (F(1,1) = 5.28, p = 0.020, ηp2 = 0.020), and empathy (F(1,1) = 6.44, p = 0.010, ηp2 = 0.030) across time.Conclusion: The Gutsy Go programme could be beneficial in improving adolescents' experience of social inclusion, cooperation skills, and empathy. More studies are needed to address the effects of the programme more firmly.