Amsterdam School of Communication Research.
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.
Health Psychol. 2019 Jul;38(7):658-667. doi: 10.1037/hea0000732. Epub 2019 Apr 22.
Health behavior is affected by competing sources of influence like media messages and peers. In the context of alcohol consumption, college students are targeted by antidrinking media messages, but tend to have proalcohol conversations with peers. How do humans integrate competing sources of influence on daily behavior? We observed individuals under exposure to antialcohol media messages and proalcohol conversations and tested a "common neural value" account of how contradictory influences are integrated to affect behavior.
Participants were instructed to cognitively regulate responses to antidrinking media messages while undergoing fMRI at baseline. Individual differences in success in message-consistent or -derogating regulation were indexed by changes in activity within the neural valuation system (ventral striatum/VS, ventromedial prefrontal cortex/VMPFC), providing a proxy for success in finding value in message-consistent/-derogating engagement. To measure peer influence, we tracked daily drinking-related conversations and drinking behavior for 30 days using mobile electronic diaries.
Peer conversations, on average, were positive toward drinking. More positive conversations led to more future drinking, particularly for participants who showed greater neural value signals when derogating antidrinking media. Susceptibility to risky peer influence decreased with increasing success in up-regulating message-consistent neural valuation responses to antidrinking media. Neural effects were driven by VS-activity.
Results are consistent with a dynamic value integration process where contradictory influences inform a common neural value signal. Reductions in the value of a behavior (through antidrinking campaigns) may buffer against future value increases after exposure to competing influences (proalcohol peers) with important real-world consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
健康行为受到媒体信息和同龄人等竞争来源的影响。在饮酒方面，大学生是反饮酒媒体信息的目标受众，但往往与同龄人进行支持饮酒的对话。人类如何整合日常行为的竞争来源的影响？我们观察了处于反饮酒媒体信息和支持饮酒对话下的个体，并测试了一个“共同神经价值”的假设，即如何整合矛盾的影响来影响行为。
参与者在基线时接受 fMRI 扫描的同时被指示认知调节对反饮酒媒体信息的反应。通过对神经估值系统（腹侧纹状体/VS、腹内侧前额叶皮层/VMPFC）内活动的变化来衡量消息一致或不一致调节的成功，这为在消息一致/不一致的参与中找到价值的成功提供了一个指标。为了衡量同伴的影响，我们使用移动电子日记跟踪了 30 天的日常饮酒相关对话和饮酒行为。
同伴对话平均来说是支持饮酒的。更多积极的对话导致更多的未来饮酒，尤其是对于那些在贬低反饮酒媒体时表现出更大的神经价值信号的参与者。对风险同伴影响的易感性随着对反饮酒媒体的一致神经价值反应的调节成功而降低。神经效应由 VS 活动驱动。
结果与一个动态的价值整合过程一致，其中矛盾的影响为共同的神经价值信号提供信息。通过反饮酒活动降低行为的价值（通过反饮酒活动）可能会缓冲在接触到竞争影响（支持饮酒的同龄人）后未来价值的增加，这具有重要的现实意义。
