Shany Ofir, Gurevitch Guy, Gilam Gadi, Dunsky Netta, Reznik Balter Shira, Greental Ayam, Nutkevitch Noa, Eldar Eran, Hendler Talma
School of Psychological Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Npj Ment Health Res. 2022 Jul 8;1(1):6. doi: 10.1038/s44184-022-00006-7.
Forming positive beliefs about one's ability to perform challenging tasks, often termed self-efficacy, is fundamental to motivation and emotional well-being. Self-efficacy crucially depends on positive social feedback, yet people differ in the degree to which they integrate such feedback into self-beliefs (i.e., positive bias). While diminished positive bias of this sort is linked to mood and anxiety, the neural processes by which positive feedback on public performance enhances self-efficacy remain unclear. To address this, we conducted a behavioral and fMRI study wherein participants delivered a public speech and received fictitious positive and neutral feedback on their performance in the MRI scanner. Before and after receiving feedback, participants evaluated their actual and expected performance. We found that reduced positive bias in updating self-efficacy based on positive social feedback associated with a psychopathological dimension reflecting symptoms of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Analysis of brain encoding of social feedback showed that a positive self-efficacy update bias associated with a stronger reward-related response in the ventral striatum (VS) and stronger coupling of the VS with a temporoparietal region involved in self-processing. Together, our findings demarcate a corticostriatal circuit that promotes positive bias in self-efficacy updating based on social feedback, and highlight the centrality of such bias to emotional well-being.
形成对自己执行具有挑战性任务能力的积极信念，通常称为自我效能感，这对动机和情绪健康至关重要。自我效能感关键取决于积极的社会反馈，但人们在将此类反馈融入自我信念（即积极偏差）的程度上存在差异。虽然这种积极偏差的减少与情绪和焦虑有关，但公开表现的积极反馈增强自我效能感的神经过程仍不清楚。为了解决这个问题，我们进行了一项行为和功能磁共振成像研究，其中参与者发表了一次公开演讲，并在磁共振成像扫描仪中收到关于他们表现的虚构的积极和中性反馈。在收到反馈之前和之后，参与者评估了他们的实际表现和预期表现。我们发现，基于与反映焦虑、抑郁和低自尊症状的精神病理学维度相关的积极社会反馈来更新自我效能感时，积极偏差减少。对社会反馈的大脑编码分析表明，积极的自我效能感更新偏差与腹侧纹状体（VS）中更强的奖励相关反应以及VS与参与自我处理的颞顶区域更强的耦合有关。总之，我们的研究结果划定了一个促进基于社会反馈的自我效能感更新中积极偏差的皮质纹状体回路，并强调了这种偏差对情绪健康的核心作用。
