Piejka Aleksandra, Wiśniewska Marcelina, Thayer Julian F, Okruszek Łukasz
Social Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.
Department of Psychological Science, 4201 Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway, University of California, Irvine, United States of America; Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, United States of America.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2021 Jun;164:112-120. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.03.002. Epub 2021 Mar 19.
Perceived social isolation, or loneliness, has been repeatedly linked to numerous adverse health outcomes. Much effort has been directed towards elucidating the mechanisms underlying its effects on the cardiovascular system, which may explain the deleterious effects on morbidity and mortality. It has been previously suggested that perceived social isolation can impair effective parasympathetic regulation and physiological adjustment to the demands of the social environment. Thus, the present study aimed at investigating the causal impact of an induction of loneliness on vagal activity during social stimuli processing. In the study, participants (N = 119) were led to anticipate either a future filled with satisfying relationships (Future Belong) or a lonely life (Future Alone). Then, they were asked to complete an implicit emotion regulation task while their cardiovascular activity was recorded. In the Future Belong group, a pattern of vagal suppression was observed between the resting period and task completion, which was followed by vagal recovery during the post-task resting period. However, in the Future Alone group, a change from the baseline HRV was observed only at the beginning of the task, but not during its consecutive stages. Moreover, in participants who believed in the given FA feedback, the initial vagal suppression was absent. These findings provide evidence that even a brief induction of loneliness can result in a blunted vagal suppression during social information processing. It can be hypothesized that the lack of the ability to regulate vagal activity while processing social cues may potentially underlie problems with social engagement and self-control.
感知到的社会孤立，即孤独感，已多次被证明与众多不良健康后果相关。人们付出了很多努力来阐明其对心血管系统产生影响的潜在机制，这或许可以解释其对发病率和死亡率的有害影响。此前有研究表明，感知到的社会孤立会损害副交感神经的有效调节以及对社会环境需求的生理适应。因此，本研究旨在探究诱发孤独感对社交刺激处理过程中迷走神经活动的因果影响。在该研究中，参与者（N = 119）被引导去预期要么是充满令人满意关系的未来（未来有归属），要么是孤独的生活（未来孤独）。然后，他们被要求完成一项内隐情绪调节任务，同时记录其心血管活动。在未来有归属组中，在静息期和任务完成之间观察到迷走神经抑制模式，随后在任务后静息期出现迷走神经恢复。然而，在未来孤独组中，仅在任务开始时观察到与基线心率变异性的变化，而在后续阶段未观察到。此外，在相信给定的未来孤独反馈的参与者中，初始的迷走神经抑制不存在。这些发现提供了证据，即即使是短暂诱发孤独感也会导致在社交信息处理过程中迷走神经抑制减弱。可以推测，在处理社交线索时缺乏调节迷走神经活动的能力可能是社交参与和自我控制问题的潜在原因。
