Jovanova Mia, Stanoi Ovidia, Scholz Christin, Doré Bruce, Cosme Danielle, Kang Yoona, Cooper Nicole, Boyd Zachary M, Bassett Dani S, Mucha Peter J, Lydon-Staley David M, Ochsner Kevin N, Falk Emily B
School of Medicine, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 24;15(1):26914. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-05846-9.
Conversations shape future behaviors, particularly among young adults. However, young adults vary widely in their susceptibility to peer influence. What neural processes relate to this susceptibility? We examined whether activity in brain regions associated with social rewards and making sense of others' minds relates to a common health behavior-drinking, following conversations about alcohol. We studied ten social groups of college students (N = 104 students; 4760 total observations) across two university campuses. We collected whole-brain fMRI data while participants viewed photographs of peers with whom they tended to drink at varying frequencies. Next, using ecological momentary assessment, we tracked alcohol conversations and drinking twice daily for 28 days. On average, talking about alcohol was associated with a higher likelihood of next-day drinking. Controlling for baseline drinking, participants who responded more strongly to peers with whom they drank alcohol more frequently-in brain regions associated with social rewards and mentalizing-showed a stronger, positive association between alcohol conversations and next-day drinking. Conversely, stronger neural responses to peers with whom they drank less frequently decoupled associations between alcohol conversations and next-day drinking. We conceptually replicate prior findings linking conversations and drinking in an observational, longitudinal setting and provide new evidence that neural responses to peers moderate links between alcohol conversations and drinking behavior among young adults.
对话塑造未来行为，在年轻人中尤为如此。然而，年轻人受同龄人影响的易感性差异很大。哪些神经过程与这种易感性有关？我们研究了与社会奖励和理解他人想法相关的脑区活动是否与一种常见的健康行为——饮酒有关，研究过程是跟踪关于酒精的对话。我们在两个大学校园里对10个大学生社会群体（N = 104名学生；共4760次观察）进行了研究。当参与者观看他们倾向于以不同频率一起饮酒的同龄人的照片时，我们收集了全脑功能磁共振成像数据。接下来，我们使用生态瞬时评估，在28天内每天两次跟踪酒精对话和饮酒情况。平均而言，谈论酒精与次日饮酒的可能性更高有关。在控制基线饮酒量的情况下，在与社会奖励和心理化相关的脑区中，对饮酒频率更高的同龄人反应更强的参与者，酒精对话与次日饮酒之间呈现出更强的正相关。相反，对饮酒频率较低的同龄人更强的神经反应则削弱了酒精对话与次日饮酒之间的关联。我们在一个观察性的纵向研究中从概念上重复了之前将对话与饮酒联系起来的研究结果，并提供了新的证据，即对同龄人的神经反应调节了年轻人中酒精对话与饮酒行为之间的联系。
