A friend in need is a friend indeed: Acute tandem rope skipping enhances inter-brain synchrony of socially avoidant individuals

Team-based physical activity (PA) can improve social cognition; however, few studies have investigated the neurobiological mechanism underlying this benefit. Accordingly, a hyper-scanning protocol aimed to determine whether the interbrain synchrony (IBS) is influenced by an acute bout of team-based PA (i.e., tandem rope skipping). Specifically, we had socially avoidant participants (SOA, N=15 dyads) and their age-matched controls (CO, N=16 dyads) performed a computer-based cooperative task while EEG was recorded before and after two different experimental conditions (i.e., 30-min of team-based PA versus sitting). Phase locking value (PLV) was used to measure IBS. Results showed improved frontal gamma band IBS after the team-based PA compared to sitting when participants received successful feedback in the task (Mskipping = 0.016, Msittting = -0.009, p = 0.082, ηp2 = 0.387). The CO group showed a larger change in frontal and central gamma band IBS when provided failure feedback in the task (Mskipping = 0.017, Msittting = -0.009, p = 0.075, ηp2 = 0.313). Thus, results suggest that socially avoidant individuals may benefit from team-based PA via improved interbrain synchrony. Moreover, our findings deepen our understanding of the neurobiological mechanism by which team-based PA may improve social cognition among individuals with or without social avoidance.

How Socially Avoidant Emerging Adults Process Social Feedback during Human-to-Human Interaction after Social Rejection: An Event-Related Potential Study

Social avoidance refers to active non-participation in social activities, which is detrimental to healthy interpersonal interaction for emerging adults. Social rejection is a kind of negative social evaluation from others making people feel social pain. However, how socially avoidant emerging adults process social feedback information after experiencing social rejection has received less attention. The current study aimed to explore the differences in social interaction feedback processing after social rejection between a socially avoidant group (n = 16) and a comparison group (n = 16) in a human-to-human interaction context. Computer game tasks with two types of interaction (cooperation and competition) were used to record the event-related potentials when receiving social interaction feedback in two conditions (social rejection and control condition). The results showed that (1) the socially avoidant group had lower reward positivity amplitudes than the comparison group when receiving social feedback; (2) the socially avoidant group presented larger P300 amplitudes in the social rejection condition than in the control condition, but the comparison group did not; and (3) social rejection evoked more negative N1 amplitudes in the socially avoidant and comparison groups. The findings suggest that socially avoidant emerging adults may have flaws in reward sensitivity during interpersonal interaction, and they might also exert more attentional and emotional resources to social feedback after social rejection.

Effects of emotional content on social inhibition of gaze in live social and non-social situations

In real-life interactions, it is crucial that humans adequately respond to others' emotional expressions. Emotion perception so far has mainly been studied in highly controlled laboratory tasks. However, recent research suggests that attention and gaze behaviour significantly differ between watching a person on a controlled laboratory screen compared to in real world interactions. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate effects of emotional expression on participants' gaze in social and non-social situations. We compared looking behaviour towards a confederate showing positive, neutral or negative facial expressions between live social and non-social waiting room situations. Participants looked more often and longer to the confederate on the screen, than when physically present in the room. Expressions displayed by the confederate and individual traits (social anxiety and autistic traits) of participants did not reliably relate to gaze behaviour. Indications of covert attention also occurred more often and longer during the non-social, than during the social condition. Findings indicate that social norm is a strong factor modulating gaze behaviour in social contexts. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on September 13, 2021. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16628290 .

Using Theories of Behavior Change to Develop Interventions for Healthy Aging

Healthy aging requires people to adopt and maintain beneficial behaviors in all stages of the life span. Supporting behavior change, including via the motivation to make and maintain those changes, is therefore important for the promotion of healthy aging. The aim of this overview is to introduce theoretical frameworks from the psychology of motivation that lend themselves to the development of effective interventions promoting behavior change conducive to healthy aging. We discuss theoretical frameworks referring to the determinants, properties, and functionality of goals aimed at behavior change, and consider the implications of the various theories for designing interventions to support healthy aging. We first consider theories that focus on beliefs and attitudes as determinants of goals, then we address theories that focus on the structure and content as important properties of goals, and, finally, we examine theories drawing on conscious and nonconscious processes underlying the functionality of these goals. We will present if-then planning and mental contrasting, as well as nudging and boosting, that is, novel strategies of behavior change that support the creation of scalable interventions for healthy aging across the life span. Against this background, new perspectives emerge for modern, state-of-the-art, and individually tailored interventions with the aim of enhancing older people's healthy living.

Only irrelevant angry, but not happy, expressions facilitate the response inhibition

It has been debated that arousal rather than valence modulates the response-inhibition process. The processing of irrelevant information of happy and angry faces interacts with attention differently. In the present study, arousal-matched irrelevant happy and angry faces were used as stop-signals in the stop-signal paradigm. Participants were required to respond to go-signals (discriminate between X or O). Occasionally, a stop-signal was presented where participants were required to withhold their motor response. Results indicate a significant effect of emotion on response inhibition, which suggests that valence of a stop-signal modulates inhibitory control. More specifically, we found that only irrelevant angry, but not happy, expressions facilitate the response inhibition process. These results have theoretical implications for understanding the nature of emotions and its interaction with cognitive control functions.

Interdependence of Approach and Avoidance Goals in Romantic Couples Over Days and Months

OBJECTIVES

Despite the centrality of people's approach goals (i.e., approach toward positive outcomes) and avoidance goals (i.e., avoidance of negative outcomes) in romantic relationships, little is known about the interdependence of approach and avoidance relationship goals between partners. Assuming that short-term, state-level goals accumulate into general goal tendencies, the present research tested whether partners' daily (i.e., state level) and aggregated daily (i.e., trait level) approach and avoidance goals are mutually predictive in the short term (after one day) and the long term (after 10-12 months). In addition, we explored whether goal interdependence unfolds differently across adulthood and in relationships of different duration.

METHOD

Approach and avoidance goals were assessed daily on two 14-day measurement-burst occasions that were conducted 10-12 months apart. The sample consisted of N = 456 female-male couples (age: M = 33.6, SD = 13.8 years; relationship duration: M = 9.6, SD = 10.7 years).

RESULTS

We observed significant short- and long-term partner effects in the prediction of couple members' approach and avoidance goals. These partner effects were restricted to trait level and they did not emerge at the state level. Almost all effects were independent of age and relationship duration.

DISCUSSION

The present research underscores the importance of disentangling state- and trait-level goal tendencies when investigating the interdependence of approach and avoidance goals within romantic relationships.