scholarly journals Community-level racial prejudice potentiates Whites’ neural responses to out-group faces: A spatial meta-analytic approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hatzenbuehler ◽  
Katie A McLaughlin ◽  
David G Weissman ◽  
Mina Cikara
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Group Versus ◽  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Group Members

A persistent question in social neuroscience is whether the amygdala underlies racial prejudice. Despite decades of research, evidence for a stronger amygdala response to racial out-group versus in-group members has been mixed. Here, we consider a potential explanation for these conflicting results: that neural responses to racial out-group members vary systematically based on the level of racial prejudice of the surrounding community. To test this contextual sensitivity hypothesis, we conducted a spatial meta-analysis that included a comprehensive set of studies (n=22) examining neural responses to Black vs. White faces in primarily White participants. We evaluated whether community-level racial prejudice moderated neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces by aggregating individual explicit racial attitudes, obtained from Project Implicit, to the county in which each study was conducted. Multi-level kernel density analysis demonstrated that neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces was significantly higher in the right amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in communities with higher (vs. lower) levels of racial prejudice. This same pattern of neural activation was not observed for income inequality or for the percentage of the population who was Black or college-educated, indicating specificity to community-level prejudice. Our findings highlight the potential utility of spatial meta-analyses for reconciling conflicting results in the social neuroscience literature by identifying features of the broader social context that may moderate neural responses to socially relevant stimuli.

scholarly journals Neural responses for evaluating self and mother traits in adolescence depend on mother–adolescent relationships

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 481-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renske Van der Cruijsen ◽  
Renate Buisman ◽  
Kayla Green ◽  
Sabine Peters ◽  
Eveline A Crone
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Adolescent Relationships ◽  
Adolescent Relationship ◽  
Negative Relationships

Abstract An important task in adolescence is to achieve autonomy while preserving a positive relationship with parents. Previous fMRI studies showed largely overlapping activation in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) for evaluating self and close-other traits but separable activation for self and non-close other. Possibly, more similar mPFC activation reflects closeness or warmth in relationships. We investigated neural indicators of the mother–adolescent relationship in adolescents between 11 and 21 years (N = 143). Mother–adolescent relationship was measured using (i) mothers’ and adolescents’ trait evaluations about each other, (ii) observations of warmth, negativity and emotional support in mother–adolescent conversation and (iii) similarity in adolescents’ neural activation for evaluating self vs mother traits. Results showed relatively more similar mPFC activation in adolescents who evaluated their mothers’ traits more positively, suggesting that this is possibly a neural indicator of mother–adolescent relationship quality. Furthermore, mid-adolescence was characterized by more negative mother–adolescent interaction compared to early and late adolescence. This effect co-occurred with mid-adolescent peaks in dorsal striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and superior temporal sulcus activation in evaluating traits of self vs mother. These results suggest more negative relationships and stronger self-focus in mid-adolescence.

scholarly journals Alterations in neural circuits underlying emotion regulation following child maltreatment: a mechanism underlying trauma-related psychopathology

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Jenness ◽  
Matthew Peverill ◽  
Adam Bryant Miller ◽  
Charlotte Heleniak ◽  
Madeline M. Robertson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Passive Viewing

Abstract Background Disruptions in neural circuits underlying emotion regulation (ER) may be a mechanism linking child maltreatment with psychopathology. We examined the associations of maltreatment with neural responses during passive viewing of negative emotional stimuli and attempts to modulate emotional responses. We investigated whether the influence of maltreatment on neural activation during ER differed across development and whether alterations in brain function mediated the association between maltreatment and a latent general psychopathology (‘p’) factor. Methods Youth aged 8–16 years with (n = 79) and without (n = 72) exposure to maltreatment completed an ER task assessing neural responses during passive viewing of negative and neutral images and effortful attempts to regulate emotional responses to negative stimuli. P-factor scores were defined by a bi-factor model encompassing internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Results Maltreated youth had greater activation in left amygdala and salience processing regions and reduced activation in multiple regions involved in cognitive control (bilateral superior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) when viewing negative v. neutral images than youth without maltreatment exposure. Reduced neural recruitment in cognitive control regions mediated the association of maltreatment with p-factor in whole-brain analysis. Maltreated youth exhibited increasing recruitment with age in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during reappraisal while control participants exhibited decreasing recruitment with age. Findings were similar after adjusting for co-occurring neglect. Conclusions Child maltreatment influences the development of regions associated with salience processing and cognitive control during ER in ways that contribute to psychopathology.

Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 931-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nathan DeWall ◽  
Geoff MacDonald ◽  
Gregory D. Webster ◽  
Carrie L. Masten ◽  
Roy F. Baumeister ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Social Pain ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Pain, whether caused by physical injury or social rejection, is an inevitable part of life. These two types of pain—physical and social—may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect. To the extent that these pain processes overlap, acetaminophen, a physical pain suppressant that acts through central (rather than peripheral) neural mechanisms, may also reduce behavioral and neural responses to social rejection. In two experiments, participants took acetaminophen or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Doses of acetaminophen reduced reports of social pain on a daily basis (Experiment 1). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure participants’ brain activity (Experiment 2), and found that acetaminophen reduced neural responses to social rejection in brain regions previously associated with distress caused by social pain and the affective component of physical pain (dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula). Thus, acetaminophen reduces behavioral and neural responses associated with the pain of social rejection, demonstrating substantial overlap between social and physical pain.

scholarly journals Political Ideology, Trust, and Cooperation

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 797-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Balliet ◽  
Joshua M. Tybur ◽  
Junhui Wu ◽  
Christian Antonellis ◽  
Paul A. M. Van Lange
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Group Versus ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
Political Party Affiliation

Theories suggest that political ideology relates to cooperation, with conservatives being more likely to pursue selfish outcomes, and liberals more likely to pursue egalitarian outcomes. In study 1, we examine how political ideology and political party affiliation (Republican vs. Democrat) predict cooperation with a partner who self-identifies as Republican or Democrat in two samples before ( n = 362) and after ( n = 366) the 2012 US presidential election. Liberals show slightly more concern for their partners’ outcomes compared to conservatives (study 1), and in study 2 this relation is supported by a meta-analysis ( r = .15). However, in study 1, political ideology did not relate to cooperation in general. Both Republicans and Democrats extend more cooperation to their in-group relative to the out-group, and this is explained by expectations of cooperation from in-group versus out-group members. We discuss the relation between political ideology and cooperation within and between groups.

scholarly journals Increased anticipatory but decreased consummatory brain responses to food in sisters of anorexia nervosa patients

BJPsych Open ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Horndasch ◽  
Sophie O'Keefe ◽  
Anneka Lamond ◽  
Katie Brown ◽  
Ciara McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Family History ◽  
Neural Response ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Food Cues ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Increased Activity

BackgroundWe have previously shown increased anticipatory and consummatory neural responses to rewarding and aversive food stimuli in women recovered from anorexia nervosa (AN).AimsTo determine whether these differences are trait markers for AN, we examined the neural response in those with a familial history but no personal history of AN.MethodThirty-six volunteers were recruited: 15 who had a sister with anorexia nervosa (family history) and 21 control participants. Using fMRI we examined the neural response during an anticipatory phase (food cues, rewarding and aversive), an effort phase and a consummatory phase (rewarding and aversive tastes).ResultsFamily history (FH) volunteers showed increased activity in the caudate during the anticipation of both reward and aversive food and in the thalamus and amygdala during anticipation of aversive only. FH had decreased activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the pallidum and the superior frontal gyrus during taste consumption.ConclusionsIncreased neural anticipatory but decreased consummatory responses to food might be a biomarker for AN. Interventions that could normalise these differences may help to prevent disorder onset.

scholarly journals Intelligence moderates reinforcement learning: a mini-review of the neural evidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (10) ◽  
pp. 3459-3461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Neural Signal ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

Our understanding of the neural basis of reinforcement learning and intelligence, two key factors contributing to human strivings, has progressed significantly recently. However, the overlap of these two lines of research, namely, how intelligence affects neural responses during reinforcement learning, remains uninvestigated. A mini-review of three existing studies suggests that higher IQ (especially fluid IQ) may enhance the neural signal of positive prediction error in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and striatum, several brain substrates of reinforcement learning or intelligence.

scholarly journals Mood and neural responses to social rejection do not seem to be altered in resilient adolescents with a history of adversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-423
Author(s):  
Jessica Fritz ◽  
Jason Stretton ◽  
Adrian Dahl Askelund ◽  
Susanne Schweizer ◽  
Nicholas D. Walsh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Childhood Adversity ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Social Rejection ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
History Of

AbstractChildhood adversity (CA) increases the risk of subsequent mental health problems. Adolescent social support (from family and/or friends) reduces the risk of mental health problems after CA. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear, and we speculate that they are manifested on neurodevelopmental levels. Therefore, we investigated whether family and/or friendship support at ages 14 and 17 function as intermediate variables for the relationship between CA before age 11 and affective or neural responses to social rejection feedback at age 18. We studied 55 adolescents with normative mental health at age 18 (26 with CA and therefore considered “resilient”), from a longitudinal cohort. Participants underwent a Social Feedback Task in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Social rejection feedback activated the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the left anterior insula. CA did not predict affective or neural responses to social rejection at age 18. Yet, CA predicted better friendships at age 14 and age 18, when adolescents with and without CA had comparable mood levels. Thus, adolescents with CA and normative mood levels have more adolescent friendship support and seem to have normal mood and neural responses to social rejection.

Neural predictors of cognitive-behavior therapy outcome in anxiety-related disorders: a meta-analysis of task-based fMRI studies

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Maria Picó-Pérez ◽  
Miquel A. Fullana ◽  
Anton Albajes-Eizagirre ◽  
Daniel Vega ◽  
Josep Marco-Pallarés ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Behavior Therapy ◽  
Cognitive Behavior Therapy ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Cognitive Behavior ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Compulsive Disorder

Abstract Background Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is a well-established first-line intervention for anxiety-related disorders, including specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder/agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Several neural predictors of CBT outcome for anxiety-related disorders have been proposed, but previous results are inconsistent. Methods We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigating whole-brain predictors of CBT outcome in anxiety-related disorders (17 studies, n = 442). Results Across different tasks, we observed that brain response in a network of regions involved in salience and interoception processing, encompassing fronto-insular (the right inferior frontal gyrus-anterior insular cortex) and fronto-limbic (the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) cortices was strongly associated with a positive CBT outcome. Conclusions Our results suggest that there are robust neural predictors of CBT outcome in anxiety-related disorders that may eventually lead (probably in combination with other data) to develop personalized approaches for the treatment of these mental disorders.

scholarly journals Dynamic neural activity during stress signals resilient coping

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (31) ◽  
pp. 8837-8842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajita Sinha ◽  
Cheryl M. Lacadie ◽  
R. Todd Constable ◽  
Dongju Seo
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Emotional Eating ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Active Coping ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Dynamic Activity

Active coping underlies a healthy stress response, but neural processes supporting such resilient coping are not well-known. Using a brief, sustained exposure paradigm contrasting highly stressful, threatening, and violent stimuli versus nonaversive neutral visual stimuli in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we show significant subjective, physiologic, and endocrine increases and temporally related dynamically distinct patterns of neural activation in brain circuits underlying the stress response. First, stress-specific sustained increases in the amygdala, striatum, hypothalamus, midbrain, right insula, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) regions supported the stress processing and reactivity circuit. Second, dynamic neural activation during stress versus neutral runs, showing early increases followed by later reduced activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), left DLPFC, hippocampus, and left insula, suggested a stress adaptation response network. Finally, dynamic stress-specific mobilization of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VmPFC), marked by initial hypoactivity followed by increased VmPFC activation, pointed to the VmPFC as a key locus of the emotional and behavioral control network. Consistent with this finding, greater neural flexibility signals in the VmPFC during stress correlated with active coping ratings whereas lower dynamic activity in the VmPFC also predicted a higher level of maladaptive coping behaviors in real life, including binge alcohol intake, emotional eating, and frequency of arguments and fights. These findings demonstrate acute functional neuroplasticity during stress, with distinct and separable brain networks that underlie critical components of the stress response, and a specific role for VmPFC neuroflexibility in stress-resilient coping.

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