Being liked activates primary reward and midline self-related brain regions

The Effects of Social Feedback Through the "Like" Feature on Brain Activity: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Problematic social media (SM) use is a growing concern, particularly among adolescents who are drawn to these platforms for social interactions important to their age group. SM dependence is characterized by excessive, uncontrolled usage that impairs personal, social, and professional aspects. Despite the ongoing debate over recognizing SM addiction as a distinct diagnostic category, the impact of social feedback, particularly through the "like" button, on brain activity remains under scrutiny.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review aims to study the neural correlates of online social feedback, focusing on the effects of the "like" feedback on brain activity using fMRI and EEG.

METHODS

The review followed the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA).

RESULTS

The review included 11 studies with 504 participants, identifying key brain structures such as the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and ventral striatum involved in reward processing. Positive feedback ("likes") activates areas like the nucleus accumbens (NACC), vmPFC, and amygdala, with NACC correlating with increased SM use intensity. Negative feedback activates the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Behavioral data indicates that positive feedback influences subsequent social interactions.

CONCLUSIONS

The review highlights disparities in the literature regarding the neural response to social feedback, emphasizing the need for further research to clarify the roles of sex, personality traits, and the person giving feedback. Overall, understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of SM engagement is essential for developing effective interventions to prevent or address the negative effects of excessive SM use.

Youths' sensitivity to social media feedback: A computational account

While it is often argued that continuous exposure to social feedback is specifically challenging for the hypersensitive developing brain, empirical evidence is lacking. Across three studies, we reveal the developmental differences and computational mechanisms that underlie the social media engagement and feedback processing of adolescents and adults. First, using a reinforcement learning model on a large Instagram trace dataset (N = 16,613, 1.6+ million posts), we show that adolescents are more sensitive to social feedback than adults. Second, in an experimental study (N = 194), we show that adolescents' mood is affected more strongly by a reduction in likes than adults. Last, in a neuroimaging study (N = 96), we show that social media feedback sensitivity is related to individual differences in subcortical-limbic brain volumes of emerging adults. Together, these findings highlight the need for digital competence programs to help youth manage the constant feedback they encounter on social media platforms.

Considering information-sharing motives to reduce misinformation

Misinformation has risen in recent years, negatively affecting domains ranging from politics to health. To curb the spread of misinformation it is useful to consider why, how, and when people decide to share information. Here we suggest that information-sharing decisions are value-based choices, in which sharers strive to maximize rewards and minimize losses to themselves and/or others. These outcomes can be tangible, in the form of monetary rewards or losses, or intangible, in the form of social feedback. On social media platforms these rewards and losses are not clearly tied to the accuracy of information shared. Thus, sharers have little incentive to avoid disseminating misinformation. Based on this framework, we propose ways to nudge sharers to prioritize accuracy during information-sharing.

Neural correlates of the experience of ugliness

Previous studies have shown that the experience of beauty is dependent upon the co-activity of field A1 of the medial frontal cortex and sensory areas. This leaves us with the question of ugliness; are the same neural mechanisms involved in this experience, including neural activity patterns, or are different mechanisms at play? This question arises because ugliness, although often regarded as the opposite of beauty, could possibly be a distinct aesthetic category. Subjects were asked to rate faces according to how ugly they found them to be while their brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. There was moderate agreement in the experience of ugliness of faces among subjects. Univariate parametric analyses did not reveal any brain regions with increasing activity as the declared intensity of the experience of ugliness increased. In contrast, increasing activity appeared in the striatum and posterior medial orbitofrontal cortex with decreasing levels of ugliness. As with studies on facial beauty, representational similarity analysis revealed distinct neural activity patterns with the experience of facial ugliness in sensory areas relevant for face processing and in the medial orbitofrontal cortex. Thus, similar neural mechanisms appear to be involved in the experience of facial beauty and ugliness, the difference being the level and distribution of activity within the neural network. This suggests that ugliness and beauty are on the same aesthetic continuum.

Annual Research Review: Puberty and the development of anhedonia - considering childhood adversity and inflammation

Anhedonia, or diminished pleasure and motivation, is a symptom of severe mental illness (e.g., depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia) that emerges during adolescence. Anhedonia is a pernicious symptom that is related to social impairments, treatment resistance, and suicide. As the mechanisms of anhedonia are postulated to include the frontostriatal circuitry and the dopamine neuromodulatory system, the development and plasticity of these systems during the vulnerable period of adolescence, as well as their sensitivity to pubertal hormones, suggest that pubertal maturation could play a role in the development of anhedonia. This review takes a developmental perspective, considering the possibility that anhedonia emerges in the context of pubertal maturation and adolescent development, with childhood adversity and chronic inflammation influencing neural reward systems to accelerate anhedonia's progression. Here, we review the relevant extant literature on the components of this model and suggest directions for future research.

Brain imaging studies of emotional well-being: a scoping review

This scoping review provides an overview of previous empirical studies that used brain imaging techniques to investigate the neural correlates of emotional well-being (EWB). We compiled evidence on this topic into one accessible and usable document as a foundation for future research into the relationship between EWB and the brain. PRISMA 2020 guidelines were followed. We located relevant articles by searching five electronic databases with 95 studies meeting our inclusion criteria. We explored EWB measures, brain imaging modalities, research designs, populations studied, and approaches that are currently in use to characterize and understand EWB across the literature. Of the key concepts related to EWB, the vast majority of studies investigated positive affect and life satisfaction, followed by sense of meaning, goal pursuit, and quality of life. The majority of studies used functional MRI, followed by EEG and event-related potential-based EEG to study the neural basis of EWB (predominantly experienced affect, affective perception, reward, and emotion regulation). It is notable that positive affect and life satisfaction have been studied significantly more often than the other three aspects of EWB (i.e., sense of meaning, goal pursuit, and quality of life). Our findings suggest that future studies should investigate EWB in more diverse samples, especially in children, individuals with clinical disorders, and individuals from various geographic locations. Future directions and theoretical implications are discussed, including the need for more longitudinal studies with ecologically valid measures that incorporate multi-level approaches allowing researchers to better investigate and evaluate the relationships among behavioral, environmental, and neural factors.

Systematic review registration

https://osf.io/t9cf6/.

Transitioning from childhood into adolescence: A comprehensive longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging study on prosocial behavior and social inclusion

Acting prosocially and feeling socially included are important factors for developing social relations. However, little is known about the development of neural trajectories of prosocial behavior and social inclusion in the transition from middle childhood to early adolescence. In this pre-registered study, we investigated the development of prosocial behavior, social inclusion, and their neural mechanisms in a three-wave longitudinal design (ages 7-13 years; NT1 = 512; NT2 = 456; NT3 = 336). We used the Prosocial Cyberball Game, a ball tossing game in which one player is excluded, to measure prosocial compensating behavior. Prosocial compensating behavior showed a linear developmental increase, similar to parent-reported prosocial behavior, whereas parent-reported empathy showed a quadratic trajectory with highest levels in late childhood. On a neural level we found a peak in ventral striatum activity during prosocial compensating behavior. Neural activity during social inclusion showed quadratic age effects in anterior cingulate cortex, insula, striatum, and precuneus, and a linear increase in temporo-parietal junction. Finally, changes in prosocial compensating behavior were negatively associated with changes in ventral striatum and mPFC activity during social inclusion, indicating an important co-occurrence between development in brain and social behavior. Together these findings shed a light on the mechanisms underlying social development from childhood into adolescence.

Economic and social values in the brain: evidence from lesions to the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Making good economic and social decisions is essential for individual and social welfare. Decades of research have provided compelling evidence that damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is associated with dramatic personality changes and impairments in economic and social decision-making. However, whether the vmPFC subserves a unified mechanism in the social and non-social domains remains unclear. When choosing between economic options, the vmPFC is thought to guide decision by encoding value signals that reflect the motivational relevance of the options on a common scale. A recent framework, the "extended common neural currency" hypothesis, suggests that the vmPFC may also assign values to social factors and principles, thereby guiding social decision-making. Although neural value signals have been observed in the vmPFC in both social and non-social studies, it is yet to be determined whether they have a causal influence on behavior or merely correlate with decision-making. In this review, we assess whether lesion studies of patients with vmPFC damage offer evidence for such a causal role of the vmPFC in shaping economic and social behavior.

Exploring global trends and future directions in advertising research: A focus on consumer behavior

This study aims to select the physiological and neurophysiological studies utilized in advertising and to address the fragmented comprehension of consumers' mental responses to advertising held by marketers and advertisers. To fill the gap, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework was employed to select relevant articles, and bibliometric analysis was conducted to determine global trends and advancements in advertising and neuromarketing. The study selected and analyzed forty-one papers from the Web of Science (WoS) database from 2009-2020. The results indicated that Spain, particularly the Complutense University of Madrid, was the most productive country and institution, respectively, with 11 and 3 articles. The journal Frontiers in Psychology was the most prolific, with eight articles. The article "Neuromarketing: The New Science of Consumer Behavior" had the most citations (152 T.Cs). Additionally, the researchers discovered that the inferior frontal and middle temporal gyri were associated with pleasant and unpleasant emotions, respectively, while the right superior temporal and right middle frontal gyrus was connected to high and low arousal. Furthermore, the right prefrontal cortex (PFC) and left PFC were linked to withdrawal and approach behaviors. In terms of the reward system, the ventral striatum played a critical role, while the orbitofrontal cortex and ventromedial PFC were connected to perception. As far as we know, this is the first paper that focused on the global academic trends and developments of neurophysiological and physiological instruments used in advertising in the new millennium, emphasizing the significance of intrinsic and extrinsic emotional processes, endogenous and exogenous attentional processes, memory, reward, motivational attitude, and perception in advertising campaigns.

On the relationship between the social brain, social connectedness, and wellbeing

The emergence of social neuroscience in the past two decades has offered a useful neurocognitive framework for understanding human social behavior. Of importance, social neuroscience research aimed to provide mechanistic explanations for the established link between wellbeing and social behavioral phenomena-particularly those reflective of social connectedness. Here, we provide an overview of the relevant literature focusing on recent work using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In general, fMRI research demonstrated that aspects of social connectedness that are known to either positively (e.g., social acceptance) or negatively (e.g., social isolation) impact wellbeing also modulated the activity of subcortical reward system accordingly. Similar modulatory influence was found for the activity of other brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex, which are typically regarded as components of the "social brain" that support a wide range of functions related to social cognition and behavior. Elucidating such individual differences in brain activity may shed light onto the neural underpinnings of the link between social connectedness and wellbeing.

Physical Effort Exertion for Peer Feedback Reveals Evolving Social Motivations From Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Peer relationships and social belonging are particularly important during adolescence. Using a willingness-to-work paradigm to quantify incentive motivation, we examined whether evaluative information holds unique value for adolescents. Participants (N = 102; 12-23 years old) rated peers, predicted how peers rated them, and exerted physical effort to view each peer's rating. We measured grip force, speed, and opt-out behavior to examine the motivational value of peer feedback, relative to money in a control condition, and to assess how peer desirability and participants' expectations modulated motivated effort across age. Overall, when compared with adolescents, adults were relatively less motivated for feedback than money. Whereas adults exerted less force and speed for feedback when expecting rejection, adolescents exerted greater force and speed when expecting to be more strongly liked or disliked. These findings suggest that the transition into adulthood is accompanied by a self-protective focus, whereas adolescents are motivated to consume highly informative feedback, even if negative.

Hostility bias or sadness bias in excluded individuals: does anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of right VLPFC vs. left DLPFC have a mitigating effect?

Exclusion has multiple adverse effects on individual's well-being. It induces anger and hostile cognitions leading to aggressive behavior. The purpose of this study was to test whether exclusion would affect recognition of anger on ambivalent faces of the excluders. We hypothesized that exclusion would elicit more anger encoding (hostility bias) than inclusion, but this effect would be mitigated by anodal tDCS of right VLPFC or left DLPFC-regions engaged in negative affect regulation. Participants (N = 96) were recognizing emotions (anger, sadness, happiness) on ambiguous faces of individuals who-as they were told-liked them or not. Results showed that exclusion induced more sadness bias. tDCS to VLPFC decreased anger and increased sadness recognition on excluders' faces compared with includers' faces, expressing a mixture of these two emotions. Additionally, stimulation to VLPFC and DLPFC decreased latencies for faces expressing sadness (sad-angry and happy-sad) but increased for happy-angry faces. Stimulation to VLPFC also increased reaction time to excluders faces while stimulation of DLPFC decreased reaction latency to includers faces. Results were discussed with the reference to the form of exclusion, motivational mechanism affected by disliking but also to lateralization (valence vs. arousal theory) and cortical regions engaged in encoding sadness after a threat to belonging.

Adolescent Brain Development and Contextual Influences: A Decade in Review

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by substantial psychological, biological, and neurobiological changes. This review discusses the past decade of research on the adolescent brain, as based on the overarching framework that development is a dynamic process both within the individual and between the individual and external inputs. As such, this review focuses on research showing that the development of the brain is influenced by multiple ongoing and dynamic elements. It highlights the implications this body of work on behavioral development and offers areas of opportunity for future research in the coming decade.

Tracking temporal response dynamics in the ventral striatum during social feedback in anorexia nervosa: A functional magnetic resonance imaging exploratory study

OBJECTIVE

Research suggests abnormalities in reward-based processes in anorexia nervosa (AN). However, few studies have explored if such alterations might be associated with different temporal activation patterns. This study aims to characterize alterations in time-dependent processes in the ventral striatum (VS) during social feedback in AN using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

METHOD

Twenty women with restrictive-subtype AN and 20 age-matched healthy controls (HC) underwent a social judgment experimental fMRI task. Temporal VS hemodynamic responses were extracted in SPM for each participant and each social condition (acceptance/rejection).

RESULTS

Compared with age-matched HC, patients with AN showed a significant time by group interaction of peak VS response throughout the task, with a progressive blunting of peak activation responses, accompanied by a progressive increase in baseline activity levels over time.

DISCUSSION

The results suggest an attenuated response pattern to repetitive social rejection in the VS in patients with AN, together with a difficulty in returning to baseline. The information obtained from this study will guide future, design-specific studies to further explore alterations temporal dynamics.

Seven computations of the social brain

The social environment presents the human brain with the most complex information processing demands. The computations that the brain must perform occur in parallel, combine social and nonsocial cues, produce verbal and nonverbal signals and involve multiple cognitive systems, including memory, attention, emotion and learning. This occurs dynamically and at timescales ranging from milliseconds to years. Here, we propose that during social interactions, seven core operations interact to underwrite coherent social functioning; these operations accumulate evidence efficiently-from multiple modalities-when inferring what to do next. We deconstruct the social brain and outline the key components entailed for successful human-social interaction. These include (i) social perception; (ii) social inferences, such as mentalizing; (iii) social learning; (iv) social signaling through verbal and nonverbal cues; (v) social drives (e.g. how to increase one's status); (vi) determining the social identity of agents, including oneself and (vii) minimizing uncertainty within the current social context by integrating sensory signals and inferences. We argue that while it is important to examine these distinct aspects of social inference, to understand the true nature of the human social brain, we must also explain how the brain integrates information from the social world.

Vicarious praise and pain: parental neural responses to social feedback about their adolescent child

Social feedback, such as praise or critique, profoundly impacts our mood and social interactions. It is unknown, however, how parents experience praise and critique about their child and whether their mood and neural responses to such ‘vicarious’ social feedback are modulated by parents’ perceptions of their child. Parents (n = 60) received positive, intermediate and negative feedback words (i.e. personality characteristics) about their adolescent child during a magnetic resonance imaging scan. After each word, parents indicated their mood. After positive feedback their mood improved and activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus increased. Negative feedback worsened parents’ mood, especially when perceived as inapplicable to their child, and increased activity in anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and precuneus. Parents who generally viewed their child more positively showed amplified mood responses to both positive and negative feedback and increased activity in dorsal striatum, inferior frontal gyrus and insula in response to negative feedback. These findings suggest that vicarious feedback has similar effects and engages similar brain regions as observed during feedback about the self and illustrates this is dependent on parents’ beliefs of their child’s qualities and flaws. Potential implications for parent–child dynamics and children’s own self-views are discussed.

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.

Social reward processing: A biomarker for predicting psychosis risk?

The desire to obtain social rewards (e.g. positive feedback) features prominently in our lives and relationships, and is relevant to understanding psychopathology - where behavior is often impaired. Investigating social rewards within the psychosis-spectrum offers an especially useful opportunity, given the high rates of impaired social functioning and social isolation. The goal of this study was to investigate hedonic experience associated with social reward processing as a potential biomarker for psychosis risk. This study used a task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm in adolescents at clinical high-risk for the development of psychosis (CHR, n = 19) and healthy unaffected peers (healthy controls - HC, n = 20). Regional activation and connectivity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum were examined in response to receiving positive social feedback relative to an ambiguous feedback condition. Expectations of impaired hedonic processes in CHR youth were generally not supported, as there were no group differences in neural response or task-based connectivity. Although interesting relationships were found linking neural reward response and connectivity with social, anticipatory, and consummatory anhedonia in the CHR group, results are difficult to interpret in light of task limitations. We discuss potential implications for future study designs that seek to investigate social reward processing as a biomarker for psychosis risk.

Getting Fewer "Likes" Than Others on Social Media Elicits Emotional Distress Among Victimized Adolescents

Three studies examined the effects of receiving fewer signs of positive feedback than others on social media. In Study 1, adolescents (N = 613, Mage  = 14.3 years) who were randomly assigned to receive few (vs. many) likes during a standardized social media interaction felt more strongly rejected, and reported more negative affect and more negative thoughts about themselves. In Study 2 (N = 145), negative responses to receiving fewer likes were associated with greater depressive symptoms reported day-to-day and at the end of the school year. Study 3 (N = 579) replicated Study 1's main effect of receiving fewer likes and showed that adolescents who already experienced peer victimization at school were the most vulnerable. The findings raise the possibility that technology which makes it easier for adolescents to compare their social status online-even when there is no chance to share explicitly negative comments-could be a risk factor that accelerates the onset of internalizing symptoms among vulnerable youth.

Common neural responses to romantic rejection and acceptance in healthy adults

Although romantic rejection and acceptance have a strong impact on mood in adults, their neural response patterns are relatively unexplored. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural responses to romantic rejection and acceptance in 36 healthy men and women, ages 18-53 years. Activations during rejection showed extensive anatomical overlap with activations during acceptance in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and anterior insula (AI). In an analysis of sex differences, men and women did not differ in behavioral responses; however, men showed greater activation to romantic rejection and acceptance in the left vlPFC and AI compared to women. The vlPFC and AI may play a role in social cognition, tuned to detect the intentions and feelings of others whether they are positive or negative. In the context of romantic rejection and acceptance, this activation may signal the intent of others who are desired by the individual, leading to changes in mood, self-esteem, and social motivation.

Oxytocin facilitates valence-dependent valuation of social evaluation of the self

People are eager to know the self in other’s eyes even with personal costs. However, what drives people costly to know evaluations remains unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis of placing subjective value on knowing social evaluations. To quantify the subjective value, we developed a pay-to-know choice task where individuals trade off profits against knowing social evaluations. Individuals computed independent unknown aversion towards positive and negative social evaluations and placed higher values on knowing social evaluation on positive than negative aspects. Such a valence-dependent valuation of social evaluation was facilitated by oxytocin, a neuropeptide linked to feedback learning and valuation processes, by decreasing values of negative social evaluation. Moreover, individuals scoring high in depression undervalued positive social evaluation, which was normalized by oxytocin. We reveal the psychological and computational processes underlying self-image formation/update and suggest a role of oxytocin in normalizing hypo-valuation of positive social evaluation in depression.

Danyang Wang and Yina Ma measure the amount of money participants are willing to forgo for the opportunity to access social or non-social evaluations of the self. They show that subjective values on knowing social evaluation is valence-dependent whereas that on non-social evaluation is valence-insensitive. Moreover, oxytocin contributes to valence-dependent valuation on social evaluation.

Adolescent gender differences in neural reactivity to a friend's positive affect and real-world positive experiences in social contexts

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Males reported more recent happy occasions with class/teammates than females.

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Males activated fusiform gyrus more than females while viewing unfamiliar peers.

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Striatum functional connectivity mediated gender differences in social behavior.

Peers become increasingly important during adolescence, with emerging gender differences in peer relationships associated with distinct behavioral and emotional outcomes. Males tend to socialize in larger peer groups with competitive interactions, whereas females engage in longer bouts of dyadic interaction with more intimacy. To examine gender differences in neural response to ecologically valid displays of positive affect and future social interactions, 52 adolescents (14–18 years old; female = 30) completed a social reward functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task with videos of a same-gender best friend (BF) or unfamiliar peer (UP) expressing positive (versus neutral) affect. Participants completed ecological momentary assessment of social experiences for two 5-day intervals. Compared with females, males more often reported that their happiest experience in the past hour occurred with class/teammates. Females and males displayed greater fusiform gyrus (FG) activation during BF and UP conditions, respectively (p_voxel<0.0001, p_cluster<0.05, family-wise error). Compared with males, females exhibited greater nucleus accumbens (NAcc)-precuneus functional connectivity to BF Positive> UP Positive. An exploratory analysis indicated that the association of male gender with a greater proportion of positive experiences with class/teammates was statistically mediated by greater NAcc-precuneus functional connectivity. Gender differences in positive social experiences may be associated with reward and social cognition networks.

The role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in automatic formation of impression and reflected impression

Previous neuroimaging studies demonstrated that ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity reflects how much an individual positively views each person (impression). Here, we investigated whether the degree to which individuals think others positively view them (reflected impression) is similarly tracked by activity in the vmPFC by using fMRI and speed-dating events. We also examined whether activity of the vmPFC in response to the faces of others would predict the impression formed through direct interactions with them. The task consisted of three sessions: pre-speed-dating fMRI, speed-dating events, and post-speed-dating fMRI (not reported here). During the pre-speed-dating fMRI, each participant passively viewed the faces of others whom they would meet in the subsequent speed-dating events. After the fMRI, they rated the impression and reflected impression of each face. During the speed-dating events, the participants had 3-min conversations with partners whose faces were presented during the fMRI task, and they were asked to choose the partners whom they preferred at the end of the events. The results revealed that the value of both the impression and reflected impression were automatically represented in the vmPFC. However, the impression fully mediated the link between the reflected impression and vmPFC activity. These results highlight a close link between reflected appraisal and impression formation and provide important insights into neural and psychological models of how the reflected impression is formed in the human brain.

Neurocomputational mechanisms underpinning aberrant social learning in young adults with low self-esteem

Low self-esteem is a risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders. From a cognitive perspective a negative self-image can be maintained through aberrant learning about self-worth derived from social feedback. We previously showed that neural teaching signals that represent the difference between expected and actual social feedback (i.e., social prediction errors) drive fluctuations in self-worth. Here, we used model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to characterize learning from social prediction errors in 61 participants drawn from a population-based sample (n = 2402) who were recruited on the basis of being in the bottom or top 10% of self-esteem scores. Participants performed a social evaluation task during fMRI scanning, which entailed predicting whether other people liked them as well as the repeated provision of reported feelings of self-worth. Computational modeling results showed that low self-esteem participants had persistent expectations that others would dislike them, and a reduced propensity to update these expectations in response to social prediction errors. Low self-esteem subjects also displayed an enhanced volatility in reported feelings of self-worth, and this was linked to an increased tendency for social prediction errors to determine momentary self-worth. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that individual differences in self-esteem related to several interconnected psychiatric symptoms organized around a single dimension of interpersonal vulnerability. Such interpersonal vulnerability was associated with an attenuated social value signal in ventromedial prefrontal cortex when making predictions about being liked, and enhanced dorsal prefrontal cortex activity upon receipt of social feedback. We suggest these computational signatures of low self-esteem and their associated neural underpinnings might represent vulnerability for development of psychiatric disorder.

An Applied Contextual Model for Promoting Self-Regulation Enactment Across Development: Implications for Prevention, Public Health and Future Research

This theoretical paper presents a public health approach for promoting self-regulation across development that is based in cross-disciplinary theory and research. The self-regulation promotion model includes three key approaches that are each dependent on the relationship that children and youth have with caregivers: teaching self-regulation skills, building supportive environments, and providing co-regulation. This model extends the science of self-regulation insofar as it: (1) focuses on promoting wellbeing (not only reducing risks) across domains of functioning, (2) addresses self-regulation intervention across childhood and through young adulthood, (3) integrates multiple theories and applies them to intervention in meaningful ways, and (4) identifies specific strategies that can be used in natural developmental contexts and that address the social ecological environment as well as the individual child. We describe seven key principles that support the model including a description of self-regulation processes and implications for promoting self-regulation at each developmental stage. We end with broad implications for intervention, highlighting the relevance of the self-regulation promotion model for practitioners, policy makers, and prevention researchers.

Subjective Beliefs About Trust and Reciprocity Activate an Expected Reward Signal in the Ventral Striatum

There is overwhelming evidence that the evaluation of both reward decisions and their associated outcomes are closely linked with bilateral activation of the ventral striatum, with these insights stemming from tasks such as the monetary incentive delay task for lotteries and multiround Trust Games for social settings. The essential element in these tasks is an externally provided cue associated with specific gains/trustworthy partners and losses/non-trustworthy partners. However, in reality people typically use their own beliefs to guide their decision-making and assess the likelihood of positive or and negative outcomes. As when participants assess the relationship between cues and rewards, individuals should anticipate rewards in correspondence to their beliefs, i.e., the higher the belief of obtaining a reward in the future, the higher the anticipation of reward. In this study, we use decision-makers’ own, naturally occurring, beliefs about both social and non-social contexts to examine the subsequent outcome of their choices. We hypothesize that mechanisms of belief-mediated reward processing are mediated by neural activation in the ventral striatum. An essential feature of our design is the elicitation of individuals’ beliefs prior to the decision-making task itself. Furthermore, our incentivized, non-deceptive, decision-making task distinguishes between social – implemented by a Trust Game – and non-social sources, as well as risk and ambiguity as underlying types of uncertainty. Our main result shows that individual beliefs regarding reciprocity likelihoods in both the Trust Game and the lottery influence the amount invested. Subsequently, only the investment amount in the Trust Game parametrically modulates anticipatory reward and outcome evaluation in the ventral striatum. This study demonstrates a first approach at using participants’ subjective sets of beliefs to examine reward processing. We discuss its potential promise, outline some limitations, and propose follow-up studies to extend the current approach.

Adolescents' neural response to social reward and real-world emotional closeness and positive affect

Feeling emotionally close to others during social interactions is a ubiquitous and meaningful experience that can elicit positive affect. The present study integrates functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to investigate whether neural response to social reward (1) is related to the experience of emotional closeness and (2) moderates the association between emotional closeness and positive affect during and following social interactions. In this study, 34 typically developing adolescents (ages 14-18 years) completed a social-reward fMRI task, a monetary-reward fMRI task, and a 2-week EMA protocol regarding their social and affective experiences. Adolescents with greater right posterior superior temporal sulcus/temporoparietal junction (pSTS/TPJ) response to social reward reported greater mean momentary emotional closeness. Neural response to social reward in the right pSTS/TPJ moderated how strongly momentary emotional closeness was associated with both concurrent positive affect and future peak happiness, but in different ways. Although emotional closeness had a significant positive association with concurrent positive affect among adolescents at both high and low right pSTS/TPJ response based on a follow-up simple slopes test, this association was stronger for adolescents with low right pSTS/TPJ response. In contrast, emotional closeness had a significant positive association with future peak happiness among adolescents with high right pSTS/TPJ response, but not among those with low right pSTS/TPJ response. These findings demonstrate the importance of neural response to social reward in key social processing regions for everyday experiences of emotional closeness and positive affect in the context of social interactions.

Complementary Neural Circuits for Divergent Effects of Oxytocin: Social Approach Versus Social Anxiety

Oxytocin (OT) is widely known for promoting social interactions, but there is growing appreciation that it can sometimes induce avoidance of social contexts. The social salience hypothesis posed an innovative solution to these apparently opposing actions by proposing that OT enhances the salience of both positive and negative social interactions. The mesolimbic dopamine system was put forth as a likely system to evaluate social salience owing to its well-described role in motivation. Evidence from several sources supports the premise that OT acting within the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area facilitates social reward and approach behavior. However, in aversive social contexts, additional pathways play critical roles in mediating the effects of OT. Recent data indicate that OT acts in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis to induce avoidance of potentially dangerous social contexts. Here, we review evidence for neural circuits mediating the effects of OT in appetitive and aversive social contexts. Specifically, we propose that distinct but potentially overlapping circuits mediate OT-dependent social approach or social avoidance. We conclude that a broader and more inclusive consideration of neural circuits of social approach and avoidance is needed as the field continues to evaluate the potential of OT-based therapeutics.

Neurobiology of social reward valuation in adults with a history of anorexia nervosa

Objective

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a disorder characterized by atypical patterns of reward valuation (e.g. positive valuation of hunger). Atypical reward processing may extend into social domains. If so, such findings would be of prognostic significance as impaired social functioning predicts worse outcome. We explore neural circuits implicated in social reward processing in individuals with a history of AN who are weight-restored relative to controls and examine the effects of illness course on the experience of social value.

Method

20 weight-restored individuals with a history of AN (AN-WR) and 24 healthy control (HC) participants were assessed using fMRI tasks that tapped social reward: smiling faces and full human figures that varied in attractiveness and weight.

Results

AN-WR differed from HC in attractiveness ratings by weight (negatively correlated in AN-WR). While there were no significant differences when viewing smiling faces, viewing full figures resulted in decreased activation in regions implicated in reward valuation (the right caudate) for AN-WR and this region was negatively correlated with a sustained course of the disorder. Exploratory whole brain analyses revealed reduced activation in regions associated with social reward, self-referential processing, and cognitive reappraisal (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex, striatum, and nucleus accumbens) with sustained disorder course.

Discussion

The rewarding value of full body images decreases with a sustained disorder course. This may reflect an extension of atypical reward processing documented in AN-WR, perhaps as a function of starvation dampening visceral motivational signals; the deployment of cognitive strategies that lessen the experience of reward; and/or the nature of the stimuli themselves as provocative of eating disorder symptoms (e.g., thin bodies). These findings did not extend to smiling face stimuli. Advances in technology (e.g., virtual avatars, text messaging) may provide novel means to build relationships, including therapeutic relationships, to support improved social connections without threats to symptom provocation.

Heritability of neural reactions to social exclusion and prosocial compensation in middle childhood

Experiencing and observing social exclusion and inclusion, as well as prosocial behavior, are important aspects of social relationships in childhood. However, it is currently unknown to what extent these processes and their neural correlates differ in heritability. We investigated influences of genetics and environment on experiencing social exclusion and compensating for social exclusion of others with the Prosocial Cyberball Game using fMRI in a twin sample (aged 7-9; N = 500). Neuroimaging analyses (N = 283) revealed that experiencing possible self-exclusion resulted in activity in inferior frontal gyrus and medial prefrontal cortex, which was influenced by genetics and unique environment. Experiencing self-inclusion was associated with activity in anterior cingulate cortex, insula and striatum, but this was not significantly explained by genetics or shared environment. We found that children show prosocial compensating behavior when observing social exclusion. Prosocial compensating behavior was associated with activity in posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus, and showed unique environmental effects or measurement error at both behavioral and neural level. Together, these findings show that in children neural activation for experiencing possible self-exclusion and self-inclusion, and for displaying prosocial compensating behavior, is accounted for by unique environmental factors and measurement error, with a small genetic effect on possible self-exclusion.

What the brain 'Likes': neural correlates of providing feedback on social media

Evidence increasingly suggests that neural structures that respond to primary and secondary rewards are also implicated in the processing of social rewards. The 'Like'-a popular feature on social media-shares features with both monetary and social rewards as a means of feedback that shapes reinforcement learning. Despite the ubiquity of the Like, little is known about the neural correlates of providing this feedback to others. In this study, we mapped the neural correlates of providing Likes to others on social media. Fifty-eight adolescents and young adults completed a task in the MRI scanner designed to mimic the social photo-sharing app Instagram. We examined neural responses when participants provided positive feedback to others. The experience of providing Likes to others on social media related to activation in brain circuity implicated in reward, including the striatum and ventral tegmental area, regions also implicated in the experience of receiving Likes from others. Providing Likes was also associated with activation in brain regions involved in salience processing and executive function. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of the neural processing of social rewards, as well as the neural processes underlying social media use.

Individual differences in social desirability are associated with white-matter microstructure of the external capsule

Humans tend to present themselves in a positive light to gain social approval. This behavioral trait, termed social desirability, is important for various types of social success. Surprisingly, investigation into the neural underpinnings of social desirability has been limited and focused only on interindividual differences in dopamine receptor binding. These studies revealed reduced dopamine receptor binding in the striatum of individuals who are high in trait social desirability. Interestingly, high dopamine signaling has been associated with low white-matter integrity, irrespective of social desirability. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that a positive association exists between trait social desirability and the white-matter microstructure of the external capsule, which carries fibers to the striatum from the prefrontal cortex. To test this hypothesis, we collected diffusion tensor imaging data and examined the relationship between fractional anisotropy of the external capsule and participants' social desirability-our analysis revealed a positive association. As a second exploratory step, we examined the association between social desirability and white-matter microstructure throughout the whole brain. Our whole-brain analysis revealed associations within multiple major white-matter tracts, demonstrating that socially desirable behavior relies on connectivity between distributed brain regions.

Abnormal emotional and neural responses to romantic rejection and acceptance in depressed women

INTRODUCTION

Responding adaptively to one's social environment is a key factor predicting the course of major depressive disorder (MDD). Socially rejecting events can exacerbate, whereas socially accepting events can ameliorate depressive symptoms. The neural responses to rejection and acceptance in MDD are relatively unexplored.

METHODS

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural responses to romantic rejection and acceptance in women diagnosed with current MDD (n = 19) and a matched group of healthy controls (HCs) (n = 19). During fMRI, participants received rejecting, accepting, and neutral feedback from self-selected potential romantic partners.

RESULTS

In women with MDD but not HCs, rejection significantly increased activity in the right anterior insula relative to neutral feedback. Greater activation during rejection was found in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in MDD compared to HCs. Women with MDD reported stronger emotional responses than HCs to both rejection and acceptance. In addition, left and right nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activity mediated the relationship between trait reward responsiveness and increased ratings of feeling "happy and accepted" following acceptance in HCs, but not the MDD group.

DISCUSSION

Women with MDD were behaviorally and neurally hyperresponsive to rejection. Although both groups were behaviorally responsive to acceptance, in MDD this was dissociated from NAcc activity. These findings highlight abnormal behavioral and neural responses to social cues in MDD, with implications for disease prognosis and the development of novel and sensitive biomarkers for MDD focused on neural pathways for social-affective processing.

LIMITATIONS

Conclusions may be limited to depressed women in a romantic context.

Being right, but losing money: the role of striatum in joint decision making

Joint decision-making entails that you sometimes have to go along with the other's choice even though you disagree. In this situation, a resulting negative outcome may, however, elicit a feeling of satisfaction and an impulse to say "I told you so". Using fMRI, we investigated the neural correlates of this complex process comprised of both positive and negative outcomes. During a social visual search task, 19 participants gave their advice to a co-actor who then made the decision resulting in a mutual loss or gain. This design allowed direct comparisons of situations that resulted in the same monetary outcome but that differed with respect to the correctness of the initial advice of the participant. Increased striatal activations were found for gains compared to losses and for correct compared to incorrect advice. Importantly, ROI analyses also showed enhanced striatum activation for monetary losses that were preceded by correct compared to incorrect advices. The current study therefore suggests that reward-related neural mechanisms may be involved when being right even in situations that end in monetary losses.

Neural precursors of future liking and affective reciprocity

Why do certain group members end up liking each other more than others? How does affective reciprocity arise in human groups? The prediction of interpersonal sentiment has been a long-standing pursuit in the social sciences. We combined fMRI and longitudinal social network data to test whether newly acquainted group members' reward-related neural responses to images of one another's faces predict their future interpersonal sentiment, even many months later. Specifically, we analyze associations between relationship-specific valuation activity and relationship-specific future liking. We found that one's own future (T2) liking of a particular group member is predicted jointly by actor's initial (T1) neural valuation of partner and by that partner's initial (T1) neural valuation of actor. These actor and partner effects exhibited equivalent predictive strength and were robust when statistically controlling for each other, both individuals' initial liking, and other potential drivers of liking. Behavioral findings indicated that liking was initially unreciprocated at T1 yet became strongly reciprocated by T2. The emergence of affective reciprocity was partly explained by the reciprocal pathways linking dyad members' T1 neural data both to their own and to each other's T2 liking outcomes. These findings elucidate interpersonal brain mechanisms that define how we ultimately end up liking particular interaction partners, how group members' initially idiosyncratic sentiments become reciprocated, and more broadly, how dyads evolve. This study advances a flexible framework for researching the neural foundations of interpersonal sentiments and social relations that-conceptually, methodologically, and statistically-emphasizes group members' neural interdependence.

Heritability of aggression following social evaluation in middle childhood: An fMRI study

Middle childhood marks an important phase for developing and maintaining social relations. At the same time, this phase is marked by a gap in our knowledge of the genetic and environmental influences on brain responses to social feedback and their relation to behavioral aggression. In a large developmental twin sample (509 7‐ to 9‐year‐olds), the heritability and neural underpinnings of behavioral aggression following social evaluation were investigated, using the Social Network Aggression Task (SNAT). Participants viewed pictures of peers that gave positive, neutral, or negative feedback to the participant's profile. Next, participants could blast a loud noise toward the peer as an index of aggression. Genetic modeling revealed that aggression following negative feedback was influenced by both genetics and environmental (shared as well as unique environment). On a neural level (n = 385), the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex gyrus (ACCg) responded to both positive and negative feedback, suggesting they signal for social salience cues. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were specifically activated during negative feedback, whereas positive feedback resulted in increased activation in caudate, supplementary motor cortex (SMA), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Decreased SMA and DLPFC activation during negative feedback was associated with more aggressive behavior after negative feedback. Moreover, genetic modeling showed that 13%–14% of the variance in dorsolateral PFC activity was explained by genetics. Our results suggest that the processing of social feedback is partly explained by genetic factors, whereas shared environmental influences play a role in behavioral aggression following feedback.

Media use and brain development during adolescence

The current generation of adolescents grows up in a media-saturated world. However, it is unclear how media influences the maturational trajectories of brain regions involved in social interactions. Here we review the neural development in adolescence and show how neuroscience can provide a deeper understanding of developmental sensitivities related to adolescents' media use. We argue that adolescents are highly sensitive to acceptance and rejection through social media, and that their heightened emotional sensitivity and protracted development of reflective processing and cognitive control may make them specifically reactive to emotion-arousing media. This review illustrates how neuroscience may help understand the mutual influence of media and peers on adolescents' well-being and opinion formation.

Heightened activity in social reward networks is associated with adolescents' risky sexual behaviors

Adolescent sexual risk behavior can lead to serious health consequences, yet few investigations have addressed its neurodevelopmental mechanisms. Social neurocircuitry is postulated to underlie the development of risky sexual behavior, and response to social reward may be especially relevant. Typically developing adolescents (N=47; 18M, 29F; 16.3±1.4years; 42.5% sexual intercourse experience) completed a social reward fMRI task and reported their sexual risk behaviors (e.g., lifetime sexual partners) on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Neural response and functional connectivity to social reward were compared for adolescents with higher- and lower-risk sexual behavior. Adolescents with higher-risk sexual behaviors demonstrated increased activation in the right precuneus and the right temporoparietal junction during receipt of social reward. Adolescents with higher-risk sexual behaviors also demonstrated greater functional connectivity between the precuneus and the temporoparietal junction bilaterally, dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, and left anterior insula/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. The greater activation and functional connectivity in self-referential, social reward, and affective processing regions among higher sexual risk adolescents underscores the importance of social influence underlying sexual risk behaviors. Furthermore, results suggest an orientation towards and sensitivity to social rewards among youth engaging in higher-risk sexual behavior, perhaps as a consequence of or vulnerability to such behavior.

Differential transcriptome expression in human nucleus accumbens as a function of loneliness

Loneliness is associated with impaired mental and physical health. Studies of lonely individuals reported differential expression of inflammatory genes in peripheral leukocytes and diminished activation in brain reward regions such as nucleus accumbens, but could not address gene expression in the human brain. Here, we examined genome-wide RNA expression in post-mortem nucleus accumbens from donors (N=26) with known loneliness measures. Loneliness was associated with 1710 differentially expressed transcripts and genes from 1599 genes (DEGs; false discovery rate P<0.05, fold change ⩾|2|, controlling for confounds) previously associated with behavioral processes, neurological disease, psychological disorders, cancer, organismal injury and skeletal and muscular disorders, as well as networks of upstream RNA regulators. Furthermore, a number of DEGs were associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) genes (that was correlated with loneliness in this sample, although gene expression analyses controlled for AD diagnosis). These results identify novel targets for future mechanistic studies of gene networks in nucleus accumbens and gene regulatory mechanisms across a variety of diseases exacerbated by loneliness.

Peer Influence Via Instagram: Effects on Brain and Behavior in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Mobile social media often feature the ability to "Like" content posted by others. This study examined the effect of Likes on youths' neural and behavioral responses to photographs. High school and college students (N = 61, ages 13-21) viewed theirs and others' Instagram photographs while undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Participants more often Liked photographs that appeared to have received many (vs. few) Likes. Popular photographs elicited greater activity in multiple brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a hub of the brain's reward circuitry. NAcc responsivity increased with age for high school but not college students. When viewing images depicting risk-taking (vs. nonrisky photographs), high school students, but not college students, showed decreased activation of neural regions implicated in cognitive control.

Future Research Directions in the Positive Valence Systems: Measurement, Development, and Implications for Youth Unipolar Depression

The Positive Valence Systems (PVS) have been introduced by the National Institute of Mental Health as a domain to help organize multiple constructs focusing on reward-seeking behaviors. However, the initial working model for this domain is strongly influenced by adult constructs and measures. Thus, the present review focuses on extending the PVS into a developmental context. Specifically, the review provides some hypotheses about the structure of the PVS, how PVS components may change throughout development, how family history of depression may influence PVS development, and potential means of intervening on PVS function to reduce onsets of depression. Future research needs in each of these areas are highlighted.

Control your anger! The neural basis of aggression regulation in response to negative social feedback

Negative social feedback often generates aggressive feelings and behavior. Prior studies have investigated the neural basis of negative social feedback, but the underlying neural mechanisms of aggression regulation following negative social feedback remain largely undiscovered. In the current study, participants viewed pictures of peers with feedback (positive, neutral or negative) to the participant's personal profile. Next, participants responded to the peer feedback by pressing a button, thereby producing a loud noise toward the peer, as an index of aggression. Behavioral analyses showed that negative feedback led to more aggression (longer noise blasts). Conjunction neuroimaging analyses revealed that both positive and negative feedback were associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and bilateral insula. In addition, more activation in the right dorsal lateral PFC (dlPFC) during negative feedback vs neutral feedback was associated with shorter noise blasts in response to negative social feedback, suggesting a potential role of dlPFC in aggression regulation, or top-down control over affective impulsive actions. This study demonstrates a role of the dlPFC in the regulation of aggressive social behavior.

Abnormal Social Reward Responses in Anorexia Nervosa: An fMRI Study

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) display impaired social interactions, implicated in the development and prognosis of the disorder. Importantly, social behavior is modulated by reward-based processes, and dysfunctional at-brain-level reward responses have been involved in AN neurobiological models. However, no prior evidence exists of whether these neural alterations would be equally present in social contexts. In this study, we conducted a cross-sectional social-judgment functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of 20 restrictive-subtype AN patients and 20 matched healthy controls. Brain activity during acceptance and rejection was investigated and correlated with severity measures (Eating Disorder Inventory -EDI-2) and with personality traits of interest known to modulate social behavior (The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire). Patients showed hypoactivation of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) during social acceptance and hyperactivation of visual areas during social rejection. Ventral striatum activation during rejection was positively correlated in patients with clinical severity scores. During acceptance, activation of the frontal opercula-anterior insula and dorsomedial/dorsolateral prefrontal cortices was differentially associated with reward sensitivity between groups. These results suggest an abnormal motivational drive for social stimuli, and involve overlapping social cognition and reward systems leading to a disruption of adaptive responses in the processing of social reward. The specific association of reward-related regions with clinical and psychometric measures suggests the putative involvement of reward structures in the maintenance of pathological behaviors in AN.

Neural correlates of adolescents' viewing of parents' and peers' emotions: Associations with risk-taking behavior and risky peer affiliations

Social reorientation from parents to same-age peers is normative in adolescence, but the neural correlates of youths' socioemotional processing of parents and peers have not been explored. In the current study, 22 adolescents (average age 16.98) underwent neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging) while viewing and rating emotions shown in brief video clips featuring themselves, their parents, or an unfamiliar peer. Viewing self vs. other and parents vs. the peer activated regions in the medial prefrontal cortex, replicating prior findings that this area responds to self-relevant stimuli, including familiar and not just similar others. Viewing the peer compared with parents elicited activation in posterior 'mentalizing' structures, the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus and right temporoparietal junction, as well as the ventral striatum and bilateral amygdala and hippocampus. Relative activations in the PCC and precuneus to the peer vs. the parent were related both to reported risk-taking behavior and to affiliations with more risk-taking peers. The results suggest neural correlates of the adolescent social reorientation toward peers and away from parents that may be associated with adolescents' real-life risk-taking behaviors and social relationships.

Reflected glory and failure: the role of the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum in self vs other relevance during advice-giving outcomes

Despite the risks, people enjoy giving advice. One explanation is that giving beneficial advice can result in reflected glory, ego boosts or reputation enhancement. However, giving poor advice can be socially harmful (being perceived as incompetent or untrustworthy). In both circumstances, we have a vested interest in the advice follower's success or failure, especially when it reflects specifically on us compared with when it is diffused between multiple advisors. We examined these dynamics using an Advisor-Advisee Game, where subjects acted as an Advisor to a confederate Advisee who selected one of the three options when trying to win money: accept the subject's advice, accept the advice of a second confederate Advisor or accept both Advisors' advice. Results showed that having one's advice accepted, compared with being rejected, resulted in activity in the ventral striatum--a core reward area. Furthermore, the ventral striatum was only active when the subject's advice led to the advisee winning, and not when the advisee won based on the confederate's advice. Finally, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) was more active when the Advisee won or lost money based solely on the subject's advice compared with when the second Advisor's advice was accepted. One explanation for these findings is that the MPFC monitors self-relevant social information, while the ventral striatum is active when others accept advice and when their success leads to reflected glory.

It still hurts: altered endogenous opioid activity in the brain during social rejection and acceptance in major depressive disorder

The μ-opioid receptor (MOR) system, well known for dampening physical pain, is also hypothesized to dampen 'social pain.' We used positron emission tomography scanning with the selective MOR radioligand [(11)C]carfentanil to test the hypothesis that MOR system activation (reflecting endogenous opioid release) in response to social rejection and acceptance is altered in medication-free patients diagnosed with current major depressive disorder (MDD, n=17) compared with healthy controls (HCs, n=18). During rejection, MDD patients showed reduced endogenous opioid release in brain regions regulating stress, mood and motivation, and slower emotional recovery compared with HCs. During acceptance, only HCs showed increased social motivation, which was positively correlated with endogenous opioid release in the nucleus accumbens, a reward structure. Altered endogenous opioid activity in MDD may hinder emotional recovery from negative social interactions and decrease pleasure derived from positive interactions. Both effects may reinforce depression, trigger relapse and contribute to poor treatment outcomes.

Common and distinct neural correlates of personal and vicarious reward: A quantitative meta-analysis

Individuals experience reward not only when directly receiving positive outcomes (e.g., food or money), but also when observing others receive such outcomes. This latter phenomenon, known as vicarious reward, is a perennial topic of interest among psychologists and economists. More recently, neuroscientists have begun exploring the neuroanatomy underlying vicarious reward. Here we present a quantitative whole-brain meta-analysis of this emerging literature. We identified 25 functional neuroimaging studies that included contrasts between vicarious reward and a neutral control, and subjected these contrasts to an activation likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis. This analysis revealed a consistent pattern of activation across studies, spanning structures typically associated with the computation of value (especially ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and mentalizing (including dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and superior temporal sulcus). We further quantitatively compared this activation pattern to activation foci from a previous meta-analysis of personal reward. Conjunction analyses yielded overlapping VMPFC activity in response to personal and vicarious reward. Contrast analyses identified preferential engagement of the nucleus accumbens in response to personal as compared to vicarious reward, and in mentalizing-related structures in response to vicarious as compared to personal reward. These data shed light on the common and unique components of the reward that individuals experience directly and through their social connections.

It's all in your head - how anticipating evaluation affects the processing of emotional trait adjectives

Language has an intrinsically evaluative and communicative function. Words can serve to describe emotional traits and states in others and communicate evaluations. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we investigate how the cerebral processing of emotional trait adjectives is modulated by their perceived communicative sender in anticipation of an evaluation. 16 students were videotaped while they described themselves. They were told that a stranger would evaluate their personality based on this recording by endorsing trait adjectives. In a control condition a computer program supposedly randomly selected the adjectives. Actually, both conditions were random. A larger parietal N1 was found for adjectives in the supposedly human-generated condition. This indicates that more visual attention is allocated to the presented adjectives when putatively interacting with a human. Between 400 and 700 ms a fronto-central main effect of emotion was found. Positive, and in tendency also negative adjectives, led to a larger late positive potential (LPP) compared to neutral adjectives. A centro-parietal interaction in the LPP-window was due to larger LPP amplitudes for negative compared to neutral adjectives within the ‘human sender’ condition. Larger LPP amplitudes are related to stimulus elaboration and memory consolidation. Participants responded more to emotional content particularly when presented in a meaningful ‘human’ context. This was first observed in the early posterior negativity window (210–260 ms). But the significant interaction between sender and emotion reached only trend-level on post hoc tests. Our results specify differential effects of even implied communicative partners on emotional language processing. They show that anticipating evaluation by a communicative partner alone is sufficient to increase the relevance of particularly emotional adjectives, given a seemingly realistic interactive setting.

Increased neural response to peer rejection associated with adolescent depression and pubertal development

Sensitivity to social evaluation has been proposed as a potential marker or risk factor for depression, and has also been theorized to increase with pubertal maturation. This study utilized an ecologically valid paradigm to test the hypothesis that adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) would show altered reactivity to peer rejection and acceptance relative to healthy controls in a network of ventral brain regions implicated in affective processing of social information. A total of 48 adolescents (ages 11-17), including 21 with a current diagnosis of MDD and 27 age- and gender-matched controls, received rigged acceptance and rejection feedback from fictitious peers during a simulated online peer interaction during functional neuroimaging. MDD youth showed increased activation to rejection relative to controls in the bilateral amygdala, subgenual anterior cingulate, left anterior insula and left nucleus accumbens. MDD and healthy youth did not differ in response to acceptance. Youth more advanced in pubertal maturation also showed increased reactivity to rejection in the bilateral amygdala/parahippocampal gyrus and the caudate/subgenual anterior cingulate, and these effects remained significant when controlling for chronological age. Findings suggest that increased reactivity to peer rejection is a normative developmental process associated with pubertal development, but is particularly enhanced among youth with depression.