Initial reflections on assessing paranoia in autism via the GPTS

Background: There are increasing concerns about poor mental health in autistic individuals, and social vigilance and threat perceptions (“paranoia”) may be one aspect of this.Methods: Autistic adults (N = 39) were recruited online. As a first step towards assessing paranoia in autism, we report item-level frequency data on one measure of paranoia (i.e. the Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale; GPTS).Results: Item-level data highlight items of particular relevance to this group, (e.g. “I have been upset by friends and colleagues judging me critically” and “I believed that certain people were not what they seemed”). These results suggest that the development of a questionnaire which can assess paranoia severity could be a useful asset.Conclusions: Further work is needed in order to provide validated assessment and effective treatments of paranoia in autism. Future studies should consider the nature and meaning of paranoia in this group, and its incorporation into mental health assessments.

Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: Collectivistic Cultures Compete More Than Individualistic Cultures

Why is there so much competition in seemingly harmonious societies? In this chapter, we connect different veins of research on cultural differences in competition. We first review cultural variation in people's attitudes about competition. Next, we discuss why and how people from different cultures compete. We argue that, in cultures that demand social harmony, people use tacit strategies to compete against others. This social vigilance is a consequence of collectivism, rather than the exception. Next, we explore how people from different cultures enter competitions and how it affects them afterwards. We end with a discussion of whether there can be versions of collectivistic societies without competition or whether this is a utopian dream.

Pubertal Androgens Reduce the Effects of Social Stress on Anxiety-related Behaviors in California Mice

Adolescence is an important developmental period during which anxiety-related behaviors differentiate in males and females. In humans anxiety prevalence increases to a greater degree in women than men after puberty, but the mechanism is unknown. We used social defeat stress to model anxiety behaviors in California mouse, a species in which aggressive females allow for comparison of social anxiety behaviors across sex. Adult female California mice show reduced social approach and increased social vigilance after exposure to stress, while these changes are weaker in males. Here we show that in juveniles, social defeat reduces social approach and increases social vigilance in both males and females. Next, we show that prepubertal castration sensitizes adult males to social defeat. However, when pubertal castration was paired with either testosterone or dihydrostesterone replacement, effects of defeat on social approach and vigilance were blunted in adult males. We also showed that effects of defeat on social behavior in juveniles were oxytocin receptor dependent, as has been described for adult females. This work highlights the importance of pubertal testosterone to the development of sex differences in anxiety behavior, and provides evidence that androgen receptors play an important role in the development of neural circuits of anxiety.

Social Vigilance of Friends and Foes in Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

In social species, such as many primate species, conspecifics can pose a threat and individuals that are socially vigilant can prevent harassment. Many previous studies have focused on the role of agonistic interactions on social vigilance. In a variety of primate species, individuals are more vigilant for aggressive or dominant group members. In contrast, only few studies have investigated whether affiliative relationships also affect social vigilance. These studies revealed that individuals with an affiliative relationship showed lower levels of vigilance towards each other. Here, we tested the differential effects of both dyadic agonism and affiliation on the level of social vigilance of group-living western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) at Apenheul Primate Park, The Netherlands. We made continuous focal observations of agonistic and affiliative interactions and we scored level of vigilance during neutral approaches of conspecifics. We found that dyads with many affiliative interactions showed lower levels of vigilance towards each other. The opposite pattern was found for agonistic experiences, but this effect was not statistically robust. In addition, the adult male and adolescent males received higher levels of social vigilance than individuals from other age-sex classes. Our results indicate that level of social vigilance was linked to affiliative and, to a lesser extent, agonistic relationships in western lowland gorillas. We suggest that future studies in both egalitarian and despotic species should investigate whether, next to aggression, affiliation also influences social vigilance.

Extrahypothalamic oxytocin neurons drive stress-induced social vigilance and avoidance

Oxytocin increases the salience of both positive and negative social contexts and it is thought that these diverse actions on behavior are mediated in part through circuit-specific action. This hypothesis is based primarily on manipulations of oxytocin receptor function, leaving open the question of whether different populations of oxytocin neurons mediate different effects on behavior. Here we inhibited oxytocin synthesis in a stress-sensitive population of oxytocin neurons specifically within the medioventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTmv). Oxytocin knockdown prevented social stress-induced increases in social vigilance and decreases in social approach. Viral tracing of BNSTmv oxytocin neurons revealed fibers in regions controlling defensive behaviors, including lateral hypothalamus, anterior hypothalamus, and anteromedial BNST (BNSTam). Oxytocin infusion into BNSTam in stress naïve mice increased social vigilance and reduced social approach. These results show that a population of extrahypothalamic oxytocin neurons plays a key role in controlling stress-induced social anxiety behaviors.

Extra-hypothalamic oxytocin neurons drive stress-induced social vigilance and avoidance

Oxytocin increases the salience of both positive and negative social contexts and it is thought that these diverse actions on behavior are mediated in part through circuit-specific action. This hypothesis is based primarily on manipulations of oxytocin receptor function, leaving open the question of whether different populations of oxytocin neurons mediate different effects on behavior. Here we inhibited oxytocin synthesis in a social stress-sensitive population of oxytocin neurons specifically within the medioventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTmv). Oxytocin knock-down prevented stress-induced increases in social vigilance and decreases in social approach. Viral tracing of BNSTmv oxytocin neurons revealed fibers in regions controlling defensive behaviors including lateral hypothalamus, anterior hypothalamus, and anteromedial BNST (BNSTam). Oxytocin infusion into BNSTam in stress naïve mice increased social vigilance and reduced social approach. These results show that a population of extra-hypothalamic oxytocin neurons play a key role in controlling stress-induced social anxiety behaviors.