Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
School of Public Health, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2023 Apr 13;18(1). doi: 10.1093/scan/nsad020.
The goal of this study was to examine the relation between real-world socio-emotional measures and neural activation to parental criticism, a salient form of social threat for adolescents. This work could help us understand why heightened neural reactivity to social threat consistently emerges as a risk factor for internalizing psychopathology in youth. We predicted that youth with higher reactivity to parental criticism (vs neutral comments) in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), amygdala and anterior insula would experience (i) less happiness in daily positive interpersonal situations and (ii) more sadness and anger in daily negative interpersonal situations. Participants (44 youth aged 11-16 years with a history of anxiety) completed a 10-day ecological momentary assessment protocol and a neuroimaging task in which they listened to audio clips of their parents' criticism and neutral comments. Mixed-effects models tested associations between neural activation to critical (vs neutral) feedback and emotions in interpersonal situations. Youth who exhibited higher activation in the sgACC to parental criticism reported less happiness during daily positive interpersonal situations. No significant neural predictors of negative emotions (e.g. sadness and anger) emerged. These findings provide evidence of real-world correlates of neural reactivity to social threat that may have important clinical implications.
本研究旨在探讨真实世界中的社会情感测量指标与神经激活之间的关系，父母批评是青少年面临的一种显著的社会威胁形式。这项工作可以帮助我们理解为什么青少年对社会威胁的神经反应增强会一直成为其内化精神病理学的风险因素。我们预测，在前扣带回皮质（sgACC）、杏仁核和前岛叶中对父母批评（与中性评论相比）反应更强的年轻人会经历：（i）在日常积极的人际情境中幸福感较低；（ii）在日常消极的人际情境中悲伤感和愤怒感更强。参与者（44 名 11-16 岁有焦虑病史的年轻人）完成了为期 10 天的生态瞬时评估方案和神经影像学任务，他们在该任务中听了父母批评和中性评论的音频片段。混合效应模型检验了对批评性（与中性）反馈的神经激活与人际情境中情绪之间的关联。对父母批评的 sgACC 反应更强的年轻人报告说，在日常积极的人际情境中幸福感较低。没有出现与负面情绪（如悲伤和愤怒）相关的显著神经预测因子。这些发现为社会威胁的神经反应的现实世界相关性提供了证据，这可能具有重要的临床意义。
