scholarly journals Neurobiological Bases of Social Networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengfei Han ◽  
Gaofang Jiang ◽  
Haoshuang Luo ◽  
Yongcong Shao
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Dopamine Receptor ◽  
Functional Properties ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
The Brain

A social network is a web that integrates multiple levels of interindividual social relationships and has direct associations with an individual’s health and well-being. Previous research has mainly focused on how brain and social network structures (structural properties) act on each other and on how the brain supports the spread of ideas and behaviors within social networks (functional properties). The structure of the social network is correlated with activity in the amygdala, which links decoding and interpreting social signals and social values. The structure also relies on the mentalizing network, which is central to an individual’s ability to infer the mental states of others. Network functional properties depend on multilayer brain-social networks, indicating that information transmission is supported by the default mode system, the valuation system, and the mentalizing system. From the perspective of neuroendocrinology, overwhelming evidence shows that variations in oxytocin, β-endorphin and dopamine receptor genes, including oxytocin receptor (OXTR), mu opioid receptor 1 (OPRM1) and dopamine receptor 2 (DRD2), predict an individual’s social network structure, whereas oxytocin also contributes to improved transmission of emotional and behavioral information from person to person. Overall, previous studies have comprehensively revealed the effects of the brain, endocrine system, and genes on social networks. Future studies are required to determine the effects of cognitive abilities, such as memory, on social networks, the characteristics and neural mechanism of social networks in mental illness and how social networks change over time through the use of longitudinal methods.

Comparing the social networks of service users with long term mental health needs living in community with those in a general adult in-patient unit

2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402110175
Author(s):  
Roberto Rusca ◽  
Ike-Foster Onwuchekwa ◽  
Catherine Kinane ◽  
Douglas MacInnes
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Patient Group ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
The Social

Background: Relationships are vital to recovery however, there is uncertainty whether users have different types of social networks in different mental health settings and how these networks may impact on users’ wellbeing. Aims: To compare the social networks of people with long-term mental illness in the community with those of people in a general adult in-patient unit. Method: A sample of general adult in-patients with enduring mental health problems, aged between 18 and 65, was compared with a similar sample attending a general adult psychiatric clinic. A cross-sectional survey collected demographic data and information about participants’ social networks. Participants also completed the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale to examine well-being and the Significant Others Scale to explore their social network support. Results: The study recruited 53 participants (25 living in the community and 28 current in-patients) with 339 named as important members of their social networks. Both groups recorded low numbers in their social networks though the community sample had a significantly greater number of social contacts (7.4 vs. 5.4), more monthly contacts with members of their network and significantly higher levels of social media use. The in-patient group reported greater levels of emotional and practical support from their network. Conclusions: People with serious and enduring mental health problems living in the community had a significantly greater number of people in their social network than those who were in-patients while the in-patient group reported greater levels of emotional and practical support from their network. Recommendations for future work have been made.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF OFFLINE AND ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS ON LONELINESS AND MENTAL HEALTH AMONG ITALIAN OLDER PEOPLE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S529-S529
Author(s):  
Daniele Zaccaria ◽  
Georgia Casanova ◽  
Antonio Guaita
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Older People ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Causal Impact

Abstract In the last decades the study of older people and social networks has been at the core of gerontology research. The literature underlines the positive health effects of traditional and online social connections and also the social networks’s positive impact on cognitive performance, mental health and quality of life. Aging in a Networked Society is a randomized controlled study aimed at investigating causal impact of traditional face-to-face social networks and online social networks (e.g. Social Network Sites) on older people’ health, cognitive functions and well-being. A social experiment, based on a pre-existing longitudinal study (InveCe - Brain Aging in Abbiategrasso) has involved 180 older people born from 1935 to 1939 living in Abbiategrasso, a municipality near Milan. We analyse effects on health and well-being of smartphones and Facebook use (compared to engagement in a more traditional face-to-face activity), exploiting the research potential of past waves of InveCe study, which collected information concerning physical, cognitive and mental health using international validate scale, blood samples, genetic markers and information on social networks and socio-demographic characteristics of all participants. Results of statistical analysis show that poor social relations and high level of perceived loneliness (measured by Lubben Scale and UCLA Loneliness scale) affect negatively physical and mental outcomes. We also found that gender and marital status mediate the relationship between loneliness and mental wellbeing, while education has not significant effect. Moreover, trial results underline the causal impact of ICT use (smartphones, internet, social network sites) on self-perceived loneliness and cognitive and physical health.

scholarly journals EXPANDING SOCIAL TIES AS A GOAL IN LATER LIFE: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORK CHARACTERISTICS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S175-S175
Author(s):  
Danielle Oleskiewicz ◽  
Karen Rook
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Support Provision ◽  
Network Characteristics ◽  
Network Composition

Abstract Older adults often winnow their social ties to focus on emotionally rewarding ties (Charles & Carstensen, 2010). Some older adults, however, have small social networks that preclude much winnowing or aversive social ties from which disengagement is difficult. These individuals might be motivated to expand, rather than contract, their social ties. The current study sought to extend knowledge regarding potential links between social network characteristics and older adults’ interest, effort, and success in creating new social ties. We expected that small social networks and negative social ties might motivate interest and effort directed toward forming new social ties but that positive social ties might foster success in efforts to form new ties. In-person interviews were conducted with participants (N = 351, Mean age = 74.16) in a larger study of older adults’ social networks and well-being. The interviews assessed participants’ social networks, as well as their interest, effort, and success in making new social ties. Participants’ social network composition, rather than size, was associated with greater motivation to establish new social ties. Negative social ties were associated with greater interest and effort directed toward forming new social ties. Positive social ties were related to greater success (due, in part, to their support provision) and, unexpectedly, were also related to greater interest and effort directed toward forming new ties. Older adults sometimes seek to expand, rather than contract, their social ties, and characteristics of their social networks appear to play a role in fueling and influencing the success of such efforts.

scholarly journals INTEREST GROUP SESSION—DISASTERS AND OLDER ADULTS: HARNESSING THE POWER OF SOCIAL NETWORKS DURING DISASTERS TO FACILITATE PREPARATION AND RECOVERY

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S390-S390
Author(s):  
Judith Robertson R Phillips ◽  
Katie E Cherry
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Assisted Living ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Voluntary Organizations ◽  
Formal Groups ◽  
Psychological Recovery ◽  
Relief Efforts

Abstract With the increasing occurrences of disasters throughout the world, researchers, communities, and organizations have become interested in how the use of social networks during and after a disaster can ease the psychological recovery of older adults who are affected by traumatic disaster events such as hurricanes and wildfires. This symposium will focus on the power of social networks and highlight the importance of preparedness, informal and formal groups, and interventions to assist recovery of older adults. First, Dr. Judith Phillips will present data on how informal and formal social network groups affected the psychological well-being of older adults who experienced exposure to multiple wildfires. Second, Dr. Denise Eldemire-Shearer will address how both formal and informal social network groups in Jamaica are informed and mobilized to provide support to older adults on the island during hurricanes and other water-related disasters. Third, Dr. Lisa Brown will introduce the Skills for Psychological Recovery intervention and provide an overview and modifications needed when using with older adults; she will also demonstrate an exercise. Fourth, Dr. Debra Dobbs will present themes examining the role of community engagement in hurricane preparedness which were gathered from focus groups and interviews with assisted living administrators in Florida. Lastly, Dr. Mary Helen McSweeney-Feld will address how voluntary organizations active during disasters aid older adults with disaster relief efforts. Together these presenters will provide evidence of the power of various social networks that will lessen the vulnerability of older adults after disasters.

scholarly journals Self-other representation in the social brain reflects social connection

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea L. Courtney ◽  
Meghan L. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Connection ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Brain

Social connection is critical to well-being, yet how the brain reflects our attachment to other people remains largely unknown. We combined univariate and multivariate brain imaging analyses to assess whether and how the brain organizes representations of others based on how connected they are to our own identity. During an fMRI scan, participants (N=43) completed a self- and other-reflection task for 16 targets: the self, five close others, five acquaintances, and five celebrities. In addition, they reported their subjective closeness to each target and their own trait loneliness. We examined neural responses to the self and others in a brain region that has been associated with self-representation (medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC) and across the whole brain. The structure of self-other representation in the MPFC and across the social brain appeared to cluster targets into three social categories: the self, social network members (including close others and acquaintances), and celebrities. Moreover, both univariate activation in MPFC and multivariate self-other similarity in MPFC and across the social brain increased with subjective self-other closeness ratings. Critically, participants who were less socially connected (i.e. lonelier) showed altered self-other mapping in social brain regions. Most notably, in MPFC, loneliness was associated with reduced representational similarity between the self and others. The social brain apparently maintains information about broad social categories as well as closeness to the self. Moreover, these results point to the possibility that feelings of chronic social disconnection may be mirrored by a ‘lonelier’ neural self-representation.Significance StatementSocial connection is critical to well-being, yet how the brain reflects our attachment to people remains unclear. We found that the social brain stratifies neural representations of people based on our subjective connection to them, separately clustering people who are and are not in our social network. Moreover, the people we feel closest to are represented most closely to ourselves. Finally, lonelier individuals also appeared to have a ‘lonelier’ neural self-representation in the MPFC, as loneliness attenuated the closeness between self and other neural representations in this region. The social brain appears to map our interpersonal ties, and alterations in this map may help explain why lonely individuals endorse statements such as ‘people are around me but not with me’.

scholarly journals Social Network and Healthy Ageing among Elderly in Helping Hearts Old Age Home, Coimbatore

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12S) ◽  
pp. 571-576
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

In the current times, the research cites that elderly definitely need social networks to aid in their mental and physical well being. The previous researches have indicated familyfocused, friend-focused, and restricted types as the types of social networks available. Social network include social interaction and social communication. It is the need of the hour to study about the social network of the elderly population because many of them are left with nobody and loneliness is one of the important factor not to mention about desertion by their loved ones since they are no longer productive individuals. The heterogeneity of social networks is pathway to successful and healthy ageing. Healthy ageing is about using opportunities so that they can have social participation and lead a good quality of life. Elderly need not be burdensome individuals in the society instead they can be involved in lot of activities which contribute to them ageing gracefully. The research studies state that rural elderly have more chances of social participation that they find more meaning in life which is a contributing factor for healthy ageing. The present study aims to find out the relationship between social network and healthy ageing.

scholarly journals Variation in the β-endorphin, oxytocin, and dopamine receptor genes is associated with different dimensions of human sociality

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (20) ◽  
pp. 5300-5305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eiluned Pearce ◽  
Rafael Wlodarski ◽  
Anna Machin ◽  
Robin I. M. Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Dopamine Receptor ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Reproductive Fitness ◽  
Dyadic Relationships ◽  
Social Domain ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Dopamine Receptor Genes

There is growing evidence that the number and quality of social relationships have substantial impacts on health, well-being, and longevity, and, at least in animals, on reproductive fitness. Although it is widely recognized that these outcomes are mediated by a number of neuropeptides, the roles these play remain debated. We suggest that an overemphasis on one neuropeptide (oxytocin), combined with a failure to distinguish between different social domains, has obscured the complexity involved. We use variation in 33 SNPs for the receptor genes for six well-known social neuropeptides in relation to three separate domains of sociality (social disposition, dyadic relationships, and social networks) to show that three neuropeptides (β-endorphin, oxytocin, and dopamine) play particularly important roles, with each being associated predominantly with a different social domain. However, endorphins and dopamine have a much wider compass than oxytocin (whose effects are confined to romantic/reproductive relationships and often do not survive control for other neuropeptides). In contrast, vasopressin, serotonin, and testosterone play only limited roles.

scholarly journals Brain circuits signaling the absence of emotion in body language

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (34) ◽  
pp. 20868-20873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arseny A. Sokolov ◽  
Peter Zeidman ◽  
Michael Erb ◽  
Frank E. Pollick ◽  
Andreas J. Fallgatter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Body Language ◽  
Emotional Expressions ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Adaptive Social Behavior ◽  
The Right ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
The Brain

Adaptive social behavior and mental well-being depend on not only recognizing emotional expressions but also, inferring the absence of emotion. While the neurobiology underwriting the perception of emotions is well studied, the mechanisms for detecting a lack of emotional content in social signals remain largely unknown. Here, using cutting-edge analyses of effective brain connectivity, we uncover the brain networks differentiating neutral and emotional body language. The data indicate greater activation of the right amygdala and midline cerebellar vermis to nonemotional as opposed to emotional body language. Most important, the effective connectivity between the amygdala and insula predicts people’s ability to recognize the absence of emotion. These conclusions extend substantially current concepts of emotion perception by suggesting engagement of limbic effective connectivity in recognizing the lack of emotion in body language reading. Furthermore, the outcome may advance the understanding of overly emotional interpretation of social signals in depression or schizophrenia by providing the missing link between body language reading and limbic pathways. The study thus opens an avenue for multidisciplinary research on social cognition and the underlying cerebrocerebellar networks, ranging from animal models to patients with neuropsychiatric conditions.

scholarly journals Failure to Share Reality and its Consequences for Self-Concept Clarity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alysson Light ◽  
Matthew Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Motives ◽  
Shared Reality ◽  
Network Diversity ◽  
The World

Shared Reality Theory argues that people are motivated to perceive the world in similar ways to people around them to fulfill epistemic and relational motives. However, most research on shared reality has focused on dyads. Taking a broader perspective, disagreement with members of one’s social networks may threaten shared reality, with downstream consequences for confidence in core cognitive structures, including the self-concept. In four studies, we manipulated (Study 1) and measured (Studies 2-4) perceived disagreement within an individual’s social network. Results revealed that, especially when epistemic and social motives were high, disagreeing with or perceiving disagreement in one’s social network was associated with lower self-concept clarity, which mediated negative consequences for well-being. Comparing network disagreement to network diversity, we found that disagreement better explained effects on self- concept clarity. These results suggest that one’s broader social network can impact attempts to share reality, with consequences for the self and well-being.

scholarly journals Neural and social correlates of attitudinal brokerage: using the complete social networks of two entire villages

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1944) ◽  
pp. 20202866
Author(s):  
Yoosik Youm ◽  
Junsol Kim ◽  
Seyul Kwak ◽  
Jeanyung Chey
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
External Validation ◽  
Gender Role Attitudes ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Brain

To avoid polarization and maintain small-worldness in society, people who act as attitudinal brokers are critical. These people maintain social ties with people who have dissimilar and even incompatible attitudes. Based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging ( n = 139) and the complete social networks from two Korean villages ( n = 1508), we investigated the individual-level neural capacity and social-level structural opportunity for attitudinal brokerage regarding gender role attitudes. First, using a connectome-based predictive model, we successfully identified the brain functional connectivity that predicts attitudinal diversity of respondents' social network members. Brain regions that contributed most to the prediction included mentalizing regions known to be recruited in reading and understanding others’ belief states. This result was corroborated by leave-one-out cross-validation, fivefold cross-validation and external validation where the brain connectivity identified in one village was used to predict the attitudinal diversity in another independent village. Second, the association between functional connectivity and attitudinal diversity of social network members was contingent on a specific position in a social network, namely, the structural brokerage position where people have ties with two people who are not otherwise connected.

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