Social Network Characteristics and Their Associations With Stress in Older Adults: Closure and Balance in a Population-Based Sample

OBJECTIVES

Integration into social networks reduces stress during adverse life events and improves coping with disability in late life. The aim was to investigate whether social network closure (frequent contact among ties) and balance (positive contact among ties) are associated with perceived stress. We expect lowest stress for older adults with highly closed and balanced networks.

METHOD

Panel data on self-reported egocentric networks stem from the population-based Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study. Five waves were collected between 2002 and 2006, with 708 observations from 160 participants aged 50-68 years at baseline. Data include information on the participants' social relationships, that is, interaction frequency and relationship quality, for ego-alter ties and alter-alter ties, and participants' perceived stress. The analytical strategy used fixed- and random-effects models.

RESULTS

Participants reporting the highest number of balanced relationships (positive ties among alters) experience least stress. This effect holds independently of sociodemographic confounders, loneliness, and network size.

DISCUSSION

The absence of a stress-reducing effect from network closure suggests that balance matters more. Future research would benefit from considering balance when examining the characteristics of social networks that impinge on mental health outcomes in older adults.

Phenome-wide investigation of health outcomes associated with genetic predisposition to loneliness

Humans are social animals that experience intense suffering when they perceive a lack of social connection. Modern societies are experiencing an epidemic of loneliness. Although the experience of loneliness is universally human, some people report experiencing greater loneliness than others. Loneliness is more strongly associated with mortality than obesity, emphasizing the need to understand the nature of the relationship between loneliness and health. Although it is intuitive that circumstantial factors such as marital status and age influence loneliness, there is also compelling evidence of a genetic predisposition toward loneliness. To better understand the genetic architecture of loneliness and its relationship with associated outcomes, we extended the genome-wide association study meta-analysis of loneliness to 511 280 subjects, and detect 19 significant genetic variants from 16 loci, including four novel loci, as well as 58 significantly associated genes. We investigated the genetic overlap with a wide range of physical and mental health traits by computing genetic correlations and by building loneliness polygenic scores in an independent sample of 18 498 individuals with EHR data to conduct a PheWAS with. A genetic predisposition toward loneliness was associated with cardiovascular, psychiatric, and metabolic disorders and triglycerides and high-density lipoproteins. Mendelian randomization analyses showed evidence of a causal, increasing, the effect of both BMI and body fat on loneliness. Our results provide a framework for future studies of the genetic basis of loneliness and its relationship to mental and physical health.

Anthropomorphizing without Social Cues Requires the Basolateral Amygdala

Anthropomorphism, the attribution of distinctively human mental characteristics to nonhuman animals and objects, illustrates the human propensity for extending social cognition beyond typical social targets. Yet, its processing components remain challenging to study because they are typically all engaged simultaneously. Across one pilot study and one focal study, we tested three rare people with basolateral amygdala lesions to dissociate two specific processing components: those triggered by attention to social cues (e.g., seeing a face) and those triggered by endogenous semantic knowledge (e.g., imbuing a machine with animacy). A pilot study demonstrated that, like neurologically intact control group participants, the three amygdala-damaged participants produced anthropomorphic descriptions for highly socially salient stimuli but not for stimuli lacking clear social cues. A focal study found that the three amygdala participants could anthropomorphize animate and living entities normally, but anthropomorphized inanimate stimuli less than control participants. Our findings suggest that the amygdala contributes to how we anthropomorphize stimuli that are not explicitly social.

To what extent is psychological resilience protective or ameliorative: Exploring the effects of deployment on the mental health of combat medics

Exposure to a major traumatic stressor increases the odds of negative mental health and maladaptive behavioral outcomes not only for victims but also for 1st responders and health care professionals who are exposed to the aftermath. This study investigates the extent to which psychological resilience acts as either a Protective (i.e., vaccine-like) or an Ameliorative (i.e., antibiotic-like) factor to reduce the deleterious mental health outcomes associated with exposure to a major stressor. To do so, this pilot study focused on the understudied population of military combat medics, who are exposed to both stressors associated with direct combat and with providing intense battlefield trauma care. Military combat medics who were identified as having deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan shortly after baseline measurements of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and aggressive behavioral tendencies and returned from deployment prior to the follow-up assessment (protective model) were compared to those who returned from deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan shortly before the baseline measurements and were not deployed again prior to the follow-up assessments (ameliorative model). Data were collected on combat experiences to equate the stressor for these 2 samples, and a propensity score matching technique was used to ensure that the 2 samples were similar. The findings provide support for both the protective and the ameliorative models of psychological resilience. Results are discussed in terms of the potential benefits of resilience in mental health programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Genetic Contributions to Loneliness and Their Relevance to the Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness

Loneliness is a negative and distressing emotional state that arises from a discrepancy between one's desired and achieved levels of social connectedness. The evolutionary theory of loneliness (ETL) posits that experiencing loneliness is an inherited adaptation that signals that salutary social relations are endangered or damaged and prompts people to reconnect to significant others. The basic tenets of the ETL has led researchers to examine the genetic underpinnings of loneliness. The current review provides an updated overview of genetic studies on loneliness and discusses the importance of genetic research for the ETL. The most recent studies suggest that the many genes that contribute to a small degree to differences in loneliness partially overlap with genes that contribute to neuroticism, but not with depression. In addition, the genetic studies discussed in this review show that genes are unlikely to have a direct effect on loneliness. Instead, environmental factors determine in a dynamic fashion how genes that contribute to loneliness are expressed. Future research on epigenetic processes, such as DNA methylation, can further elucidate the dynamic interplay between genes and the environment and how this interplay contributes to loneliness.

Loneliness predicts a preference for larger interpersonal distance within intimate space

Loneliness is thought to serve as an adaptive signal indicating the need to repair or replace salutary social connections. Accordingly, loneliness may influence preferences for interpersonal distance. If loneliness simply motivates a desire to socially reconnect, then loneliness may be associated with a preference for smaller interpersonal distances. According to the evolutionary model of loneliness, however, loneliness also signals an inadequacy of mutual aid and protection, augmenting self-preservation motives. If loneliness both increases the motivation to reconnect and increases the motivation for self-protection, then the resulting approach-avoidance conflict should produce a preference for larger interpersonal distance, at least within intimate (i.e., proximal) space. Here, we report two survey-based studies of participants’ preferences for interpersonal distance to distinguish between these competing hypotheses. In Study 1 (N = 175), loneliness predicted preferences for larger interpersonal distance within intimate space net gender, objective social isolation, anxiety, depressive symptomatology, and marital status. In Study 2 (N = 405), we replicated these results, and mediation analyses indicated that measures of social closeness could not adequately explain our findings. These studies provide compelling evidence that loneliness predicts preferences for larger interpersonal distance within intimate space, consistent with predictions from the evolutionary model of loneliness.

Associations between loneliness and personality are mostly driven by a genetic association with Neuroticism

OBJECTIVE

Loneliness is an aversive response to a discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships and correlates with personality. We investigate the relationship of loneliness and personality in twin family and molecular genetic data.

METHOD

Phenotypic correlations between loneliness and the Big Five personality traits were estimated in 29,625 adults, and in a group with genome-wide genotype data (N = 4,222), genetic correlations were obtained. We explored whether genetic correlations may reflect causal relationships by investigating within monozygotic twin pair differences (N_pairs  = 2,662), by longitudinal within-subject changes in personality and loneliness (N = 4,260-9,238 longitudinal comparisons), and by longitudinal cross-lagged panel analyses (N = 15,628). Finally, we tested whether genetic correlations were due to cross-trait assortative mating (N_{spouse pairs}  = 4,436).

RESULTS

The strongest correlations with loneliness were observed for Neuroticism (r = .55) and Extraversion (r = -.33). Only Neuroticism showed a high correlation with loneliness independent of other personality traits (r = .50), so follow-up analyses focused on Neuroticism. The genetic correlation between loneliness and Neuroticism from genotyped variants was .71; a significant reciprocal causal relationship and nonsignificant cross-trait assortative mating imply that this is at least partly due to mediated pleiotropy.

CONCLUSIONS

We show that the relationship between loneliness and personality is largely explained by its relationship with Neuroticism, which is substantially genetic in nature.

Predicting loneliness with polygenic scores of social, psychological and psychiatric traits

Loneliness is a heritable trait that accompanies multiple disorders. The association between loneliness and mental health indices may partly be due to inherited biological factors. We constructed polygenic scores for 27 traits related to behavior, cognition and mental health and tested their prediction for self-reported loneliness in a population-based sample of 8798 Dutch individuals. Polygenic scores for major depressive disorder (MDD), schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were significantly associated with loneliness. Of the Big Five personality dimensions, polygenic scores for neuroticism and conscientiousness also significantly predicted loneliness, as did the polygenic scores for subjective well-being, tiredness and self-rated health. When including all polygenic scores simultaneously into one model, only 2 major depression polygenic scores remained as significant predictors of loneliness. When controlling only for these 2 MDD polygenic scores, only neuroticism and schizophrenia remain significant. The total variation explained by all polygenic scores collectively was 1.7%. The association between the propensity to feel lonely and the susceptibility to psychiatric disorders thus pointed to a shared genetic etiology. The predictive power of polygenic scores will increase as the power of the genome-wide association studies on which they are based increases and may lead to clinically useful polygenic scores that can inform on the genetic predisposition to loneliness and mental health.

Skin Conductance and Subjective Arousal in Anxiety, Depression, and Comorbidity

Abstract. Skin conductance (SC), an autonomic arousal measure of the sympathetic nervous system, is a sensitive and useful index of physiological arousal. However, SC data does not always align with self-reports of arousal. SC, self-reported arousal, and their association, known as emotion coherence, may be altered with the presence of major psychiatric illness. This study investigated group differences on SC reactivity and self-reported arousal while viewing positive, negative, neutral, and threat images between participants diagnosed with major depression with and without anxiety disorders relative to a healthy comparison group. Additionally, the strength and direction of association between SC reactivity and arousal ratings (emotion coherence) was examined within groups. Unmedicated participants were recruited via online and paper advertisements around Chicago and categorized into one of four groups (Depressed: n = 35, Anxious: n = 44, Comorbid: n = 38, Healthy: n = 29). SC and affect ratings were collected during and after a standardized emotional picture viewing task. SC reactivity was significantly higher during threat images, regardless of group. During threat image presentation, increased SC reactivity occurred during the last few seconds before picture offset; for all other stimulus types, SC reactivity decreased significantly after picture offset. Anxious and comorbid participants rated emotional images as more arousing than healthy participants; there were no observed differences in arousal ratings between depressed and healthy participants. Heightened reactivity in anxiety may manifest in arousal ratings without corresponding increased SC reactivity to emotional images. Results do not suggest underlying altered psychophysiology in this sample of depressed or anxious participants.

Loneliness and Social Internet Use: Pathways to Reconnection in a Digital World?

With the rise of online social networking, social relationships are increasingly developed and maintained in a digital domain. Drawing conclusions about the impact of the digital world on loneliness is difficult because there are contradictory findings, and cross-sectional studies dominate the literature, making causation difficult to establish. In this review, we present our theoretical model and propose that there is a bidirectional and dynamic relationship between loneliness and social Internet use. When the Internet is used as a way station on the route to enhancing existing relationships and forging new social connections, it is a useful tool for reducing loneliness. But when social technologies are used to escape the social world and withdraw from the “social pain” of interaction, feelings of loneliness are increased. We propose that loneliness is also a determinant of how people interact with the digital world. Lonely people express a preference for using the Internet for social interaction and are more likely to use the Internet in a way that displaces time spent in offline social activities. This suggests that lonely people may need support with their social Internet use so that they employ it in a way that enhances existing friendships and/or to forge new ones.

Reciprocal Influences Between Loneliness and Self-Centeredness: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis in a Population-Based Sample of African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian Adults

Loneliness has been posited to increase the motivation to repair or replace deficient social relationships and, seemingly paradoxically, to increase the implicit motivation for self-preservation. In the current research, we report a cross-lagged panel analysis of 10 waves of longitudinal data ( N = 229) on loneliness and self-centeredness (as gauged by Feeney and Collins's measure of chronic self-focus) in a representative sample of middle-aged and older adults. As predicted by the proposition that loneliness increases the implicit motivation for self-preservation, loneliness in the current year predicts self-centeredness in the subsequent year beyond what is explained by current-year demographic variables, self-centeredness, depressive symptomatology, and overall negative mood. Analyses also show that self-centeredness in the current year (net covariates) predicts loneliness in the subsequent year, a reciprocal relationship that could potentially contribute to the maintenance of loneliness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Unobservable Facial Actions and Emotion

Surface electromyographic recordings in humans were first made less than 70 years ago, and the electromyographic study of covert facial actions during affect and emotion has less than a 20-year history. Despite the relative youth of facial electromyography, its use in combination with autonomic measures and comprehensive overt facial action coding systems has provided a sensitive and effective armamentarium for investigating emotion and affect-laden information processing. Research over the past decade has demonstrated that facial electromyographic activity varies as a function of the intensity, valence, and sociality of emotional stimuli and shows that facial electromyographic activity is slightly different in deliberately manipulated and spontaneous expressions of emotion. The multiply determined nature of facial actions and expressions, however, has limited the inferences that can be made about the psychological significance of facial electromyographic responses. These limitations have begun to recede in recent years as a result of advances in the psychometric properties of facial electromyographic measurements, the quantification of electromyographic waveforms and patterns, the conjoint measurement of facial electromyographic and electro-cortical activity, the conceptualization of psychophysiological relations, and the formalization of psychophysiological inference.

Strengthening introductory psychology: A new model for teaching the introductory course

Introductory psychology (Intro Psych) is one of the most popular and frequently taught courses on college campuses, yet educators in psychology have limited knowledge about what is covered in classes around the nation or the extent to which class content reflects the current scope of the discipline. There is no explicit model to guide course content selection for the intro course, which poses substantial challenges for instructors. This article proposes a new model for teaching the intro course that integrates (a) scientific foundations, (b) 5 major domains or pillars of knowledge (biological, cognitive, developmental, social and personality, and mental and physical health), and (c) cross-cutting themes relevant to all domains (cultural and social diversity, ethics, variations in human functioning, and applications; American Psychological Association, 2014). We advocate for national assessment of the course, a similar introductory course for majors and nonmajors, the inclusion of experiential or laboratory components, and additional training resources for instructors of the intro course. Given the exponential growth of psychological knowledge and applications during the past decades, we caution against attempting to provide exhaustive coverage of all topic areas of psychology in a one-semester course. We conclude by discussing the challenges that lie ahead for the discipline of psychology as it launches this new model for Intro Psych.

Psychobiology and Social Psychology: Past, Present, and Future

Social psychology and psychobiology have a rich historicalconnection, although over the last half century these two disciplineshave seemingly become estranged. To a significant extent, that alienation arose from an archaic and nonviable model of behavioral biology that retarded the development of both disciplines. With the emergence of modern biological perspectives, this impediment no longer limits fruitful collaborations among social psychologists and psychobiologists. Indeed, some of the most exciting contemporary developments are emerging from the areas of social neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and behavioral neuroscience. We review the history of links between social psychology and psychobiology, the factors that led to the segregation of these subdisciplines, and the modern biological perspectives that provide the basis for reintegration of these disciplines.

A Short Scale for Measuring Loneliness in Large Surveys: Results From Two Population-Based Studies

Most studies of social relationships in later life focus on the amount of social contact, not on individuals' perceptions of social isolation. However, loneliness is likely to be an important aspect of aging. A major limiting factor in studying loneliness has been the lack of a measure suitable for large-scale social surveys. This article describes a short loneliness scale developed specifically for use on a telephone survey. The scale has three items and a simplified set of response categories but appears to measure overall loneliness quite well. The authors also document the relationship between loneliness and several commonly used measures of objective social isolation. As expected, they find that objective and subjective isolation are related. However, the relationship is relatively modest, indicating that the quantitative and qualitative aspects of social relationships are distinct. This result suggests the importance of studying both dimensions of social relationships in the aging process.

Dynamic spatiotemporal brain analyses of the visual checkerboard task: Similarities and differences between passive and active viewing conditions

We introduce a new analytic technique for the microsegmentation of high-density EEG to identify the discrete brain microstates evoked by the visual reversal checkerboard task. To test the sensitivity of the present analytic approach to differences in evoked brain microstates across experimental conditions, subjects were instructed to (a) passively view the reversals of the checkerboard (passive viewing condition), or (b) actively search for a target stimulus that may appear at the fixation point, and they were offered a monetary reward if they correctly detected the stimulus (active viewing condition). Results revealed that, within the first 168 ms of a checkerboard presentation, the same four brain microstates were evoked in the passive and active viewing conditions, whereas the brain microstates evoked after 168 ms differed between these two conditions, with more brain microstates elicited in the active than in the passive viewing condition. Additionally, distinctions were found in the active condition between a change in a scalp configuration that reflects a change in microstate and a change in scalp configuration that reflects a change in the level of activation of the same microstate. Finally, the bootstrapping procedure identified that two microstates lacked robustness even though statistical significance thresholds were met, suggesting these microstates should be replicated prior to placing weight on their generalizability across individuals. These results illustrate the utility of the analytic approach and provide new information about the spatiotemporal dynamics of the brain states underlying passive and active viewing in the visual checkerboard task.

Centenary of William James's Principles of Psychology

William James's views on the science of psychology were as provocative as his observations of psychological and behavioral phenomena. His perspective on psychology as a natural science is reviewed briefly, the concept of "levels" is defined, and several emerging principles illustrating the importance of multilevel integrative research on mind-brain relationships are described. These emerging principles, which are not derived from, but would be at home in, James's Principles of Psychology, are the principle of multiple determinism, the corollary of proximity, the principle of nonadditive determinism, and the principle of reciprocal causation. These principles illustrate how the understanding of social psychological phenomena can inform and be informed by the study of both environmental (situational) and organismic (biological) factors.

The Influence of Motor Processes on Attitudes Toward Novel Versus Familiar Semantic Stimuli

Recent research has suggested that the motor processes elicited by upper arm isometric flexion and extension can subtly influence attitudes. Specifically, ideographs evaluatively categorized while performing isometric upper arm flexion were subsequently preferred to ideographs evaluatively categorized while performing isometric upper arm extension. The present research sought to replicate this attitudinal effect with semantic stimuli and to examine a theoretical boundary condition posited by the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Subjects categorized either neutral words or pronounceable nonwords while adopting the isometric positions. Results indicated that motor processes influenced subsequent attitudes toward stimuli with few associations (i.e., nonwords) more than toward stimuli with many associations in memory (i.e., familiar words). These results are consistent with a growing literature on the possible influence of nondeclarative (e.g., procedural) knowledge on attitudes.

Attitudes to the Right: Evaluative Processing is Associated with Lateralized Late Positive Event-Related Brain Potentials

The authors recently developed a paradigm to investigate the evaluative categorization stage of attitudes using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The present series of studies extended this approach by analyzing the spatial topography of the ERP over the lateral scalp region to address complementary questions regarding the nature of operations underlying the evaluative categorization stage of attitude processing. Consistent with the hypothesis that evaluative categorizations engage mechanisms associated with hedonic or global language processing, results revealed that the standardized amplitudes of the late positive potential of the ERP during evaluative categorizations were larger over the right than the left scalp region, whereas nonevaluative categorizations were associated with a symmetrically distributed ERP across the left and right scalp regions.

Sex Differences in Influenceability

Sex differences in influenceability have emerged in the past when discrepant advocacies w ere accompanied by greater expertise in the subject matter by men or Women. Similarly we found that when men and women were asked if they agreed with another person's inaccurate (attitude-discrepant) evaluation, resistance was greater when prior knowledge was high. However, men agreed less than women, regardless of prior knowledge, when the other person's evaluation Was a(curate (attitude-congruent). These results suggest that for attitude-congruent advocacies, gender role influences socially' acceptable levels of agreeableness. Agreement with attitude-discrepant advocacies, however, appears to be more content-based.

Tracking the Timecourse of Social Perception: The Effects of Racial Cues on Event-Related Brain Potentials

Event-related potentials were used to track social perception processes associated with viewing faces of racial ingroup and outgroup members. Activity associated with three distinct processes was detected. First, peaking at approximately 170 ms, faces were distinguished from nonface stimuli. Second, peaking at approximately 250 ms, ingroup members were differentiated from outgroup members, with a larger component suggesting greater attention to ingroup members. This effect may reflect the spontaneous application of a deeper level of processing to ingroup members. Third, peaking at approximately 520 ms, evaluative differentiation of ingroup and outgroup members occurred, with greater ingroup bias displayed by those with higher levels of prejudice on an explicit measure. Together, the results demonstrate the promise of using neural processes to track the presence, timing, and degree of activation of components relevant to social perception, prejudice, and stereotyping.

Effects of Forwarning of Persuasive Intent and Involvement on Cognitive Responses and Persuasion

College undergraduates were either warned or not warned of the persuasive intent of a communication which was either of direct or only indirect personal relevance to them. Consistent with the hypothesis based on reactance theory (Brehm, 1966), the inhibiting effect of the forewarning (i.e., reduced persuasion, increased counterargumentation, and reduced favorable thoughts) was greater under high than low involvement conditions.

The Effects of Recipient Posture on Persuasion

Two experiments were conducted to explore the relationship between the body posture of a message recipient and susceptibility to persuasive influence. In Experiment 1, recipients who were reclining comfortably during exposure to a counterattitudinal message showed more agreement with the message than recipients who were standing during exposure. In Experiment 2, posture (standing or reclining) and the quality of the arguments employed in the counterattitudinal message (cogent or specious) were varied in an effort to assess competing theoretical accounts of the posture effect. An interaction between posture and message quality emerged on the measure of postmessage agreement. Reclining subjects were differentially persuaded by the strong and weak arguments, but standing subjects were not. This pattern of results is consistent with the view that reclining recipients engage in more message-relevant thinking than standing recipients.

Microexpressive Facial Actions as a Function of Affective Stimuli: Replication and Extension

The effects of communicative intent and stimulus affectivity on facial electromyogrqphic (EMG) activity were investigated. Subjects viewed slides of pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant social or nature scenes under no instruction, inhibit-expression instructions, and amplify-expression instructions. Results revealed that facial EMG activity was highest in the amplify and lowest in the inhibit condition; EMG activity over the corrugator supercilii region varied as a function of the affective valence of the stimuli regardless of instructional condition; and facial EMG activity did not differ when subjects were exposed to slides of nature versus social scenes that were matched for rated pleasantness. These results suggest that facial efference can be altered by both affective and communicative processes even when it is too subtle to produce a socially perceptible facial expression.

Eliciting Affect Using the International Affective Picture System: Trajectories through Evaluative Space

Most bipolar models of affective processing in social psychology assume that positive and negative valent processes are represented along a single continuum that rangesfrom very positive to very negative. Recent research has raised the possibility, however, that the motivational systems for positive/approach and negative/defensive valent processing (positivity and negativity, respectively) are separable. In this article, the authors use unipolar positivity, negativity, and ambivalence ratings and bipolar valence, dominance, and arousal ratings of 472 slides from the International Affective Picture System to examine several aspects of the bivariate model of evaluative space. Analysis confirmed a positivity offset and negativity bias in the activation functions of the valent systems as wel as multiple modes of evaluative activation (e.g., reciprocal, uncoupled positivity, uncoupled negativity). Together, these data suggest that the bipolar structure of affective processes should be tested rather than assumed.

Aging and Loneliness

Levels of loneliness are relatively stable across most of adult life, but correlates of loneliness show age differences. We review evidence of age differences in associations between loneliness and individual differences in health behaviors, stress exposure, physiological stress responses, appraisal and coping, and restorative processes. The effects of each of these pathways endow loneliness with the capacity to accelerate the rate of physiological decline with age. Additional research across the lifespan is required to understand the nature of accrued loneliness effects on health behavior and physiology in the short and long term.

The Affect System

The affect system refers to the functional components involved in appetitive and aversive information processing. We review evidence suggesting that affect is not a unitary faculty but rather is composed of a number of distinct processes. Physical limitations constrain behavioral expressions and incline behavioral predispositions toward a bipolar (good-bad, approach-withdraw) organization, but this organization appears to be the consequence of multiple operations, including the activation of positivity (appetition) and the activation of negativity (aversion), at earlier affective-processing stages. The partial segregation of positive and negative affective processing afforded evolution the opportunity to sculpt distinctive activation functions for these affective components and allows their coactivation. Coactivation, in turn, cultivates the exploration of novel environments and the pursuit of seemingly hospitable events while fostering vigilance for and rapid retreats from hostile developments.

The Anatomy of Loneliness

Loneliness is a potent but little understood risk factor for broad-based morbidity and mortality. We review five social neurobehavioral mechanisms that may account for this association. The evidence suggests that different mechanisms explain short-term and long-term effects, and that the long-term effects operate through multiple pathways. Implications for the design of interventions are discussed.

The Influence of Facial Feedback on Race Bias

Two studies were conducted to examine whether facial feedback can modulate implicit racial bias as assessed by the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Participants were surreptitiously induced to smile through holding a pencil in their mouth while viewing photographs of unfamiliar Black or White males or performed no somatic configuration while viewing the photographs (Study 1 only). All participants then completed the IAT with no facial manipulation. Results revealed a spreading attitude effect, with significantly less racial bias against Blacks among participants surreptitiously induced to smile during prior viewing of Black faces than among participants surreptitiously induced to smile during prior viewing of White faces.

If Attitudes Affect How Stimuli Are Processed, Should They Not Affect the Event-Related Brain Potential?

In Experiment 1, subjects completed an attitude survey to identify items toward which they held positive and negative attitudes. Subsequently, subjects were instructed to count the number of positive (or negative) stimuli in a series. Each series contained six attitude stimuli from a given semantic category (e.g., fruits), and the structure of the series was varied so that positive and negative stimuli, as indexed by subjects' idiosyncratic attitudes, were evaluatively consistent or inconsistent within the series. In Experiment 2, subjects were exposed to personality traits that were positive or negative in series of six. Again, the structure of the series was varied so that positive and negative traits were evaluatively consistent or inconsistent within the series. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that although the event-related brain potential did not differ as a function of stimulus valence per se, evaluatively inconsistent, in contrast to consistent, stimuli evoked a larger amplitude late P300-like positive component that was maximal over the centroparietal region.

Electrocortical Differentiation of Evaluative and Nonevaluative Categorizations

The evaluative categorizations that underlie affective and attitudinal judgments have often been equated with non-evaluative categorizations despite the central importance of evaluative processes for survival In the present experiment, a late positive potential (LPP) of the event-related brain potential elicited when participants evaluatively categorized food items as positive or nonpositive was compared with the LPP elicited when participants semantically (i e, nonevaluatively) categorized food items as vegetable or nonvegetable Results revealed that evaluative categorizations evoked an LPP that was relatively larger over the right than the left scalp regions compared with the LPP evoked by nonevaluative categorizations This finding provides evidence regarding the differences in neural and cognitive processes involved in evaluative and nonevaluative categorizations

The genetics of loneliness: linking evolutionary theory to genome-wide genetics, epigenetics, and social science

As a complex trait, loneliness is likely to be influenced by the interplay of numerous genetic and environmental factors. Studies in behavioral genetics indicate that loneliness has a sizable degree of heritability. Candidate-gene and gene-expression studies have pointed to several genes related to neurotransmitters and the immune system. The notion that these genes are related to loneliness is compatible with the basic tenets of the evolutionary theory of loneliness. Research on gene-environment interactions indicates that social-environmental factors (e.g., low social support) may have a more pronounced effect and lead to higher levels of loneliness if individuals carry the sensitive variant of these candidate genes. Currently, there is no extant research on loneliness based on genome-wide association studies, gene-environment-interaction studies, or studies in epigenetics. Such studies would allow researchers to identify networks of genes that contribute to loneliness. The contribution of genetics to loneliness research will become stronger when genome-wide genetics and epigenetics are integrated and used along with well-established methods in psychology to analyze the complex process of gene-environment interplay.

Perceived interpersonal synchrony increases empathy: Insights from autism spectrum disorder

This study investigated the effect of unilateral interpersonal synchrony on empathy in two simple leader-follower finger tapping communication tasks in individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In unilateral synchronization, one individual within a dyad (the follower) unilaterally adjusts his or her movements to entrain to the movements of the other (the leader). Perceived synchrony, i.e., being followed by a synchronous virtual partner when leading an interaction, increased subjective cognitive empathy (understanding other's mental states) towards the virtual follower in participants without, but not those with ASD. In the ASD group, the degree of produced synchrony, i.e., entrainment to the virtual leader when following in an interaction, was associated with higher cognitive empathy performance as measured with external objective tasks. These results point to a mediating role for interpersonal synchronization in cognitive empathy, a mechanism that seems attenuated, yet not absent, in ASD.

Dynamic spatiotemporal brain analyses using high-performance electrical neuroimaging, Part II: A step-by-step tutorial

Our recently published analytic toolbox (Cacioppo et al., 2014), running under MATLAB environment and Brainstorm, offered a theoretical framework and set of validation studies for the automatic detection of event-related changes in the global pattern and global field power of electrical brain activity. Here, we provide a step-by-step tutorial of this toolbox along with a detailed description of analytical plans (aka the Chicago Electrical Neuroimaging Analytics, CENA) for the statistical analysis of brain microstate configuration and global field power in within and between-subject designs. Available CENA functions include: (1) a difference wave function; (2) a high-performance microsegmentation suite (HPMS), which consists of three specific analytic tools: (i) a root mean square error (RMSE) metric for identifying stable states and transition states across discrete event-related brain microstates; (ii) a similarity metric based on cosine distance in n dimensional sensor space to determine whether template maps for successive brain microstates differ in configuration of brain activity, and (iii) global field power (GFP) metrics for identifying changes in the overall level of activation of the brain; (3) a bootstrapping function for assessing the extent to which the solutions identified in the HPMS are robust (reliable, generalizable) and for empirically deriving additional experimental hypotheses; and (4) step-by-step procedures for performing a priori contrasts for data analysis. CENA is freely available for brain data spatiotemporal analyses at https://hpenlaboratory.uchicago.edu/page/cena, with sample data, user tutorial videos, and documentation.

Demystifying the Neuroscience of Love

Scholars from different disciplines have investigated the nature of love for centuries. It has been only in the past century that social psychologists have begun to scientifically investigate the complexity of love in comparison with other emotions (Hatfield & Rapson, 2009, for review). We laud Lamy (2016) for his thoughtful intentions to pursue this long-lasting tradition and extend his goal to better understand the definition and neural bases of love by focusing on recent scientific evidence from social psychology and neuroscience. The better is our understanding of love, the greater is our respect for its significant role in mental and physical health.

How fMRI Can Inform Cognitive Theories

How can functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) advance cognitive theory? Some have argued that fMRI can do little beyond localizing brain regions that carry out certain cognitive functions (and may not even be able to do that). However, in this article, we argue that fMRI can inform theories of cognition by helping to answer at least four distinct kinds of questions. Which mental functions are performed in brain regions specialized for just that function (and which are performed in more general-purpose brain machinery)? When fMRI markers of a particular Mental Process X are found, is Mental Process X engaged when people perform Task Y? How distinct are the representations of different stimulus classes? Do specific pairs of tasks engage common or distinct processing mechanisms? Thus, fMRI data can be used to address theoretical debates that have nothing to do with where in the brain a particular process is carried out.

Social Neuroscience: Progress and Implications for Mental Health

Social neuroscience is a new, interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behavior. Social neuroscience capitalizes on biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social behavior, and it uses social and behavioral constructs and data to inform and refine theories of neural organization and function. We focus here on the progress and potential of social neuroscience in the area of mental health. Research in social neuroscience has grown dramatically in recent years. Among the most active areas of research we found are brain-imaging studies in normal children and adults; animal models of social behavior; studies of stroke patients; imaging studies of psychiatric patients; and research on social determinants of peripheral neural, neuroendocrine, and immunological processes. We also found that these areas of research are proceeding along largely independent trajectories. Our goals in this article are to review the development of this field, examine some currently promising approaches, identify obstacles and opportunities for future advances and integration, and consider how this research can inform work on the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.

Loneliness across phylogeny and a call for comparative studies and animal models

Loneliness typically refers to the feelings of distress and dysphoria resulting from a discrepancy between a person's desired and achieved levels of social relations, and there is now considerable evidence that loneliness is a risk factor for poor psychological and physical health. Loneliness has traditionally been conceptualized as a uniquely human phenomenon. However, over millions of years of evolution, efficient and manifold neural, hormonal, and molecular mechanisms have evolved for promoting companionship and mutual protection/assistance and for organizing adaptive responses when there is a significant discrepancy between the preferred and realized levels of social connection. We review evidence suggesting that loneliness is not a uniquely human phenomenon, but, instead, as a scientific construct, it represents a generally adaptive predisposition that can be found across phylogeny. Central to this argument is the premise that the brain is the key organ of social connections and processes. Comparative studies and animal models, particularly when integrated with human studies, have much to contribute to the understanding of loneliness and its underlying principles, mechanisms, consequences, and potential treatments.