From the Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Psychosom Med. 2018 Oct;80(8):724-732. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000623.
Giving support contributes to the link between social ties and health; however, the neural mechanisms are not known. Giving support in humans may rely on neural regions implicated in parental care in animals. The current studies, therefore, assess the contribution of parental care-related neural regions to giving support in humans and, as a further theoretical test, examine whether the benefits of giving targeted support to single, identifiable individuals in need extend to giving untargeted support to larger societal causes.
For study 1 (n = 45, M (SD) age = 21.98 (3.29), 69% females), participants completed a giving support task, followed by an emotional faces task in the functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. For study 2 (n = 382, M (SD) age = 43.03 (7.28), 52% females), participants self-reported on their giving support behavior and completed an emotional faces task in the functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner.
In study 1, giving targeted (versus untargeted) support resulted in greater feelings of social connection and support effectiveness. Furthermore, greater septal area activity, a region centrally involved in parental care in animals, to giving targeted support was associated with less right amygdala activity to an emotional faces task (r = -.297, 95% confidence interval = -.547 to -.043). Study 2 replicated and extended this association to show that self-reports of giving targeted support were associated with less amygdala activity to a different emotional faces task, even when adjusting for other social factors (r = -.105, 95% confidence interval = -.200 to -.011). Giving untargeted support was not related to amygdala activity in either study.
Results highlight the unique benefits of giving targeted support and elucidate neural pathways by which giving support may lead to health.
给予支持有助于建立社会关系与健康之间的联系；然而，其神经机制尚不清楚。人类给予支持可能依赖于动物中与亲代照料相关的神经区域。因此，本研究评估了与亲代照料相关的神经区域对人类给予支持的贡献，并作为进一步的理论检验，研究了将支持有针对性地给予单个有需要的可识别个体的益处是否扩展到对更大的社会事业的无针对性支持。
在研究 1（n=45，M（SD）年龄=21.98（3.29），69%为女性）中，参与者完成了一项给予支持任务，随后在功能磁共振成像扫描仪中完成了一项情绪面孔任务。在研究 2（n=382，M（SD）年龄=43.03（7.28），52%为女性）中，参与者自我报告了他们的给予支持行为，并在功能磁共振成像扫描仪中完成了一项情绪面孔任务。
在研究 1 中，给予有针对性的（而非无针对性的）支持会产生更强的社会联系感和支持效果。此外，中隔区（动物亲代照料中核心参与的区域）活动增加与对情绪面孔任务的右杏仁核活动减少呈正相关（r=-.297，95%置信区间=-.547 至 -.043）。研究 2 复制并扩展了这一关联，表明即使在考虑其他社会因素的情况下，自我报告的有针对性的支持与对不同的情绪面孔任务的杏仁核活动减少相关（r=-.105，95%置信区间=-.200 至 -.011）。在这两项研究中，给予无针对性的支持都与杏仁核活动无关。
研究结果突出了给予有针对性支持的独特益处，并阐明了支持可能促进健康的神经途径。
