Social-emotional Processing Research Articles

Effects of exogenous testosterone application on network connectivity within emotion regulation systems

Studies with steroid hormones underlined the vital role of testosterone on social-emotional processing. However, there is still a lack of studies investigating whether testosterone modulates network connectivity during resting-state. Here, we tested how the exogenous application of testosterone would affect functional connectivity between regions implicated in emotion regulation. In total, 96 male participants underwent resting-state fMRI scanning. Before the measurement, half of the subjects received 5 g TestimTM gel (containing 50 mg testosterone) and the other half a corresponding amount of placebo gel. Seeds for the connectivity analysis were meta-analytically defined. First, all regions associated with emotion regulation were chosen via Neurosynth (data driven). Among those, specific seeds were selected and categorized based on the neural model of emotion regulation by Etkin and colleagues (Etkin et al., 2015) (theory-guided). Resting-state connectivity analysis revealed decreased connectivity between the right DLPFC and the right amygdala as well as between the VMPFC and the left IPL for the testosterone group compared to the placebo group. A complementary dynamic causal modeling (DCM) analysis on findings from the resting-state connectivity analysis underlined a bidirectional coupling which was decreased close to zero by testosterone administration. Our results demonstrate that testosterone administration disrupts resting-state connectivity within fronto-subcortical and fronto-parietal circuits. The findings suggest that even without a specific task (e.g. challenge, reward processing) testosterone modulates brain networks important for social-emotional processing.

Beyond perceptual development: Infant responding to social categories.

A body of research is reviewed that has investigated how infants respond to social category information in faces based on differential experience. Whereas some aspects of behavioral performance (visual preference, discrimination, and scanning) are consistent with traditional models of perceptual development (induction, maintenance, and attunement), other aspects (category formation, association with valence, and selective learning) suggest the need for an account that links perceptual with social-emotional processing. We also consider how responding to social categories in infancy may anticipate subsequent responding to these categories in childhood and adulthood.

Distinct and similar patterns of emotional development in adolescents and young adults.

Adolescence is a developmental period of increased sensitivity to social emotional cues, but it is less known whether young adults demonstrate similar social emotional sensitivity. The current study tested variation in reaction times to emotional face cues during different phases of emotional development. Ex‐Gaussian parameters mu, sigma, and tau were computed, in addition to mean, median and standard deviation (SD) in reaction times (RT) during an emotional go/nogo‐paradigm with fearful, happy, and calm facial expressions in 377 participants, 6–30 years of age. Across development, mean RT showed slowing to fearful facial expressions relative to both calm and happy facial cues, but mu revealed that this pattern was specific to adolescence. In young adulthood, increased variability to fearful expressions relative to both happy and calm ones was captured by SD and tau. The findings that adolescents had longer response latencies to fearful faces, whereas young adults demonstrated greater response variability to fearful faces, together reflect how social emotional processing continues to evolve from adolescence into early adulthood. The findings suggest that young adulthood is also a vulnerable period for processing social emotional cues that ultimately may be important to better understand why different psychopathologies emerge in early adulthood.

Physiological regulation and social-emotional processing in female carriers of the FMR1 premutation

The FMR1 gene is associated with a wide range of clinical and cognitive phenotypes, ranging from intellectual disability and autism symptoms in fragile X syndrome (caused by the FMR1 full mutation), to a more varied, and still poorly understood range of clinical and cognitive phenotypes among carriers of the gene in its premutation state. Because the FMR1 premutation is relatively common among women (as high as 1 in 150), investigations of its phenotypic impact could have broad implications for understanding gene-behavior relationships underlying complex human traits, with potential clinical implications. This study investigated physiological regulation measured by pupillary responses, along with fixation patterns while viewing facial expressions among women who carry the FMR1 premutation (PM group; n = 47), to examine whether the FMR1 gene may relate to physiological regulation, social-emotional functioning, and social language skills (where subclinical differences have been previously reported among PM carriers that resemble those documented in autism-related conditions). Relative to controls (n = 25), the PM group demonstrated atypical pupillary responses and fixation patterns, controlling for IQ. In the PM group, pupillary response and fixation patterns were related to social cognition, social language abilities, and FMR1-related variation. Results indicate a pattern of atypical attention allocation among women who carry the FMR1 PM that could reflect different emotion-processing strategies mediated by autonomic dysregulation and the FMR1 gene. These findings lend insight into the FMR1 gene's potential contributions to complex human traits such as social emotional processing and social language.

Getting it: A predictive processing approach to irony comprehension

On many occasions, irony is used to communicate emotions, to criticise or to tease other people. Irony comprehension consists in identifying an utterance as ironical and detecting its implied meaning. Existing research has investigated irony comprehension as a pragma-linguistic phenomenon, which has led to several theoretical accounts and interesting empirical results. However, given that irony comprehension is situated in a social context and has the purpose to communicate the mental states of the speaker/writer indirectly, it is reasonable to assume that social cognition and emotional processes play an important role. Until very recently, this has been largely overlooked by research in the field. Furthermore, an overarching framework that can integrate theoretical insights and empirical data on the component processes of irony comprehension is still lacking. The purpose of this paper is to help close this gap. The positive proposal is that the predictive processing framework provides the theoretical resources and conceptual tools to describe relevant aspects of irony comprehension. According to predictive processing, perception, action, cognition, and emotion can be described as a continuous attempt to minimise prediction error. Irony comprehension, I will show, can be depicted as a special case of prediction error minimisation. The neuro-functional mechanism postulated by predictive processing is apt to account for the realisation of the pragma-linguistic, social, and emotional processes that jointly give rise to irony comprehension. The emerging perspective can elucidate why and how people comprehend ironical utterances.

I’ll make you an offer you can refuse: How socially sensitive is the MFN?

ABSTRACTMedial frontal negativity (MFN) is an event-related potential thought to originate in the anterior cingulate cortex. It is evoked by outcomes being worse than expected, such as when presented with unfair economic proposals during the Ultimatum Game (UG). This could mean the MFN indexes a social-emotional response, as commonly suggested in accounts that relate it to a violation of a social norm of fairness. To examine the link between MFN and norm violation, we designed an EEG experiment with participants acting as representatives in an UG. Participants responded either as themselves, or as representatives of two charities. Of these, a norm-compatible charity conformed to the participant’s values, while the norm-incompatible charity contrasted to them. The behavioral results showed that norm-incompatible representation reversed behavior, with almost all fair offers being declined. The MFN, however, was unaffected by the norm representation, with unfair offers consistently evoking MFNs across conditions. We furthermore replicated the curious finding that unexpectedly generous offers evoke as much MFN as unfair offers. Thus, the MFN is not nearly as sensitive to higher-order social-emotional processes as commonly assumed. Instead, the perceived inequality that drives the MFN likely reflects a rational, probabilistic process.

Differences in the Late Positive Potential and P300 to Emotional Faces in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Despite evidence suggesting differences in early event-related potential (ERP) responses to social emotional stimuli, little is known about later stage ERP contributions to social emotional processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Adults with and without ASD completed a facial emotion recognition task involving stimuli that varied by emotional intensity while electroencephalograms were recorded. Principal components analysis was used to examine P300 and late positive potential (LPP) modulation by emotional intensity. Results indicated that greater ASD symptomatology evinced heightened P300 to high relative to low intensity faces, then heightened LPP to low relative to high intensity faces. Findings suggest that adults with greater ASD symptomatology may demonstrate a lag in engagement in elaborative processing of low intensity faces.

Effect of propionic acid on the morphology of the amygdala in adolescent male rats and their behavior

Autism spectrum disorder is a group of life-long developmental syndromes, characterized by stereotypic behavior, restricted, communication deficits, cognitive and social impairments. Autism spectrum disorder is heritable state, provided by the mutations of well-conserved genes; however, it has been increasingly accepted, that most of such states are the result of complex interaction between individual’s genetic profile and the environment that he/she is exposed to. Gut microbiota plays one of the central roles in the etiology of autism. Propionic acid is one of the most abundant short-chain fatty acids, made by enteric bacteria. Propionic acid has many positive functions and acts as the main mediator between nutrition, gut microbiota and brain physiology. However, increased level of propionic acid is associated with various neurological pathologies, including autism. It is proposed that some types of autism might be partially related with alterations in propionic acid metabolism. The amygdala, the main component of social brain, via its large interconnections with fronto-limbic neural system, plays one of the key roles in social communications, emotional memory and emotional processing. Social behavior is a hot topic in autism research. As to anxiety, it is not the main characteristics of ASD, but represents one of the most common its co morbidities. Several theoretical reasons compatible with amygdala dysfunction have been suggested to account for socio-emotional disturbances in autism.In the present study, using adolescent male Wistar rats, the effect of acute administration of low dose of propionic acid on social behavior, anxiety-like behavior and the structure/ultrastructure of central nucleus of amygdale was described. In addition to qualitative analysis, on electron microscopic level the quantitative analysis of some parameters of synapses was performed. Behavior was assessed 2, 24 and 48 hours after treatment. The results revealed that even single and relatively low dose of propionic acid is sufficient to produce fast and relatively long lasting (48 h after treatment) decrease of social motivation, whereas asocial motivation and emotional sphere remain unaffected. Morphological analyses of propionic acid-treated brain revealed the reduced neuron number and the increase of the number of glial cells. Electron microscopically, in some neurons the signs of apoptosis and chromatolysis were detected. Glial alterations were more common. Particularly, the activation of astrocytes and microglia were often observed. Pericapillary glia was the most changed. Neuronal, glial and presynaptic mitochondria showed substantial structural diversities, mainly in terms of size and form. Total number of the area of presynaptic profile was significantly decreased. Some axons were moderately demyelinated.In general, the data indicate that even low dose of propionic acid produces in adolescent rodents immediate changes in social behavior, and structural/ultrastructural alterations in amygdala. Ultrastructural alterations may reflect moderate modifications in functional networks of social brain.

Emotion Regulation of Hippocampus Using Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback in Healthy Human.

Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback (rtfMRI-NF) is a prospective tool to enhance the emotion regulation capability of participants and to alleviate their emotional disorders. The hippocampus is a key brain region in the emotional brain network and plays a significant role in social cognition and emotion processing in the brain. However, few studies have focused on the emotion NF of the hippocampus. This study investigated the feasibility of NF training of healthy participants to self-regulate the activation of the hippocampus and assessed the effect of rtfMRI-NF on the hippocampus before and after training. Twenty-six right-handed healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to the experimental group receiving hippocampal rtfMRI-NF (n = 13) and the control group (CG) receiving rtfMRI-NF from the intraparietal sulcus rtfMRI-NF (n = 13) and completed a total of four NF runs. The hippocampus and the intraparietal sulcus were defined based on the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) standard template, and NF signal was measured as a percent signal change relative to the baseline obtained by averaging the fMRI signal for the preceding 20 s long rest block. NF signal (percent signal change) was updated every 2 s and was displayed on the screen. The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and regional homogeneity values was calculated to evaluate the effects of NF on spontaneous neural activity in resting-state fMRI. A standard general linear model (GLM) analysis was separately conducted for each fMRI NF run. Results showed that the activation of hippocampus increased after four NF training runs. The hippocampal activity of the experiment group participants was higher than that of the CG. They also showed elevated hippocampal activity and the greater amygdala–hippocampus connectivity. The anterior temporal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, hippocampus, and amygdala of brain regions associated with emotional processing were activated during training. We presented a proof-of-concept study using rtfMRI-NF for hippocampus up-regulation in the recall of positive autobiographical memories. The current study may provide a new method to regulate our emotions and can potentially be applied to the clinical treatment of emotional disorders.

White matter alterations in adult with autism spectrum disorder evaluated using diffusion kurtosis imaging

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is related to impairment in various white matter (WM) pathways. Utility of the recently developed two-compartment model of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) to analyse axial diffusivity of WM is restricted by several limitations. The present study aims to validate the utility of model-free DKI in the evaluation of WM alterations in ASD and analyse the potential relationship between DKI-evident WM alterations and personality scales. Overall, 15 participants with ASD and 15 neurotypical (NT) controls were scanned on a 3T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner, and scores for autism quotient (AQ), systemising quotient (SQ) and empathising quotient (EQ) were obtained for both groups. Multishell diffusion-weighted MR data were acquired using two b-values (1000 and 2000s/mm2). Differences in mean kurtosis (MK), radial kurtosis (RK) and axial kurtosis (AK) between the groups were evaluated using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). Finally, the relationships between the kurtosis indices and personality quotients were examined. The ASD group demonstrated significantly lower AK in the body and splenium of corpus callosum than the NT group; however, no other significant differences were identified. Negative correlations were found between AK and AQ or SQ, predominantly in WM areas related to social-emotional processing such as uncinate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculi. Model-free DKI and its indices may represent a novel, objective method for detecting the disease severity and WM alterations in patients with ASD.

Polygenic Score of Subjective Well-Being Is Associated with the Brain Morphology in Superior Temporal Gyrus and Insula

Subjective well-being (SWB) is closely related to our physical and mental health. Existing studies show that neural or genetic basis underpins individual difference in SWB. Moreover, researchers have found high enrichment of SWB-related mutations in the central nervous system, but the relationship between the genetic architecture of SWB and brain morphology has not been explored. Considering the polygenic nature of SWB, in this study, we aim to establish a measure of additive genetic effect on SWB and explore its relationship to the brain anatomical structure. Based on the results of genome-wide association study (GWAS) on SWB, the polygenic scores (PGSs) of SWB at eight different thresholds were calculated in a large Chinese sample (N = 585). Then, we analyzed the associations between the PGSs of SWB and cortical thickness (CT) or gray matter volume (GMV) measured from 3.0-T structural imaging data. In whole-brain analyses, we found that a higher PGS was significantly associated with increased CT in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) and GMV in the right insula, both of which are involved in social cognition and emotional processing. More importantly, these findings were repeatable at some different thresholds. The results may suggest that the brain morphology of right STG and insula is partly regulated by SWB-related genetic factors.

Reduced safety processing during aversive social conditioning in psychosis and clinical risk.

Social impairment occurs across the psychosis spectrum, but its pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Here we tested the hypothesis that reduced differential responses (aversive vs. neutral) in neural circuitry underpinning aversive conditioning of social stimuli characterizes the psychosis spectrum. Participants age 10-30 included a healthy control group (HC, analyzed n = 36) and a psychosis spectrum group (PSY, n = 71), including 49 at clinical risk for psychosis and 22 with a frank psychotic disorder. 3T fMRI utilized a passive aversive conditioning paradigm, with neutral faces as conditioned stimuli (CS) and a scream as the unconditioned stimulus. fMRI conditioning was indexed as the activation difference between aversive and neutral trials. Analysis focused on amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and anterior insula, regions previously implicated in aversive and social-emotional processing. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex activated more to neutral than aversive CS; this "safety effect" was driven by HC and reduced in PSY, and correlated with subjective emotional ratings following conditioning. Insula showed the expected aversive conditioning effect, and although no group differences were found, its activation in PSY correlated with anxiety severity. Unexpectedly, amygdala did not show aversive conditioning; its activation trended greater for neutral than aversive CS, and did not differ significantly based on group or symptom severity. We conclude that abnormalities in social aversive conditioning are present across the psychosis spectrum including clinical risk, linked to a failure of safety processing. Aversive and safety learning provide translational paradigms yielding insight into pathophysiology of psychosis risk, and providing potential targets for therapeutic and preventative interventions.

The Role of Brain/Behavioral Systems and Emotional Processing in Predicting Social Anxiety of Students

Background: Social anxiety disorders are among disorders that decrease the academic performance of students and cause emotional and behavioral problems. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of brain/behavioral systems and emotional processing in predicting social anxiety of students. Methods: This research was descriptive and correlational. The research population included all 5th grade male students of Ardabil city during years 2016 to 2017, among which 123 students were selected by the multi-stage cluster sampling method. Data collection was done through brain/behavioral systems scale, emotional processing, and social anxiety questionnaire. For data analysis, the researchers used Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis. Results: The results showed mean (and standard deviation) of BAS, BIS, and FFS for emotional processing and social anxiety among students under study was 77.26 (2.76), 79.78 (57), 82.93 (3.25), 114.21 (22.84), and 32.41 (14.22), respectively. Also, the results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between behavioral activation system (BAS) and students’ social anxiety (P < 0.001). Also, a significant positive relationship was found between behavioral inhibition system and fight-or-flight system with students social anxiety (P < 0.001). In addition, there was a negative correlation between social anxiety and emotional processing. Results of regression analysis showed that 46% of the variance in social anxiety of students was significantly explained by brain/behavioral systems and emotional processing variables. Conclusions: Based on these results, it could be said that the relationship between individual differences, emotional processes, and brain behavioral processes can be an important factor in dealing with anxiety.

Linking social motivation with social skill: The role of emotion dysregulation in autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with pervasive social deficits as well as marked emotion dysregulation across the life span. Decreased social motivation accounts in part for social difficulties, but factors moderating its influence are not fully understood. In this paper, we (a) characterize social and emotional functioning among children and adolescents with ASD, (b) explore contributions of social motivation and emotion dysregulation to social skill, and (c) consider biological sex and intellectual functioning as moderators of these associations. In a sample of 2,079 children and adolescents with ASD from the Simons Simplex Collection, we document direct effects of social motivation, internalizing symptoms, aggression, attention problems, irritability, and self-injurious behavior on children's social skills. Furthermore, dysregulation in several domains moderated the association between social motivation and social skill, suggesting a blunting effect on social motivation in the context of emotional difficulties. Moreover, when considering only individuals with intellectual skills in the average range or higher, biological sex further moderated these associations. Findings add to our understanding of social-emotional processes in ASD, suggest emotion dysregulation as a target of intervention in the service of social skill improvements, and build on efforts to understand sources of individual difference that contribute to heterogeneity among individuals with ASD.

Training gains and transfer effects after mnemonic strategy training in mild cognitive impairment: A fMRI study

Prior work has revealed that mnemonic strategy training (MST) can enhance memory for specific content and engages regions in the frontoparietal cognitive control network. Evidence of transfer to novel content is less clear. Here, we provide secondary analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired during a randomized controlled trial that compared MST to an active education control condition in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI). In the trial, thirty participants with a-MCI were randomized to the education program (EP) or MST, where they learned to apply the technique to face-name associations during four intervening hour long training sessions. Participants underwent pre- and post-training fMRI scans, during which they encoded both the trained (i.e., those used during the four training sessions) and untrained (‘novel’) face-name associations. The primary cognitive outcome measures revealed significantly improved memory for both trained and novel stimuli – effects supporting near transfer of MST. Relative to pre-training, there were significant and highly similar increases in activation for both trained and novel stimuli, especially in regions associated with the frontoparietal cognitive control network bilaterally, but also in temporal areas related to social cognition and emotional processing. Critically, this pattern of activation was notably different from the EP group. Thus, the changes in activation were consistent with the strategies trained and, combined with the cognitively-based near transfer effects, suggest that MST focused on face-name association enhances performance by engaging cognitive control and social/emotional processing. Finally, our data indicated that our MST is a relevant and efficient intervention to a-MCI.

Affective Neural Mechanisms of a Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention.

Behavioral evidence suggests that parenting-focused mindfulness interventions can improve parenting practices and enhance family wellbeing, potentially operating through altered emotional processing in parents. However, the mechanisms through which parent mindfulness interventions achieve their positive benefits have not yet been empirically tested, knowledge which is key to refine and maximize intervention effects. Thus, as part of a randomized controlled trial, the present study examined the affective mechanisms of an 8-week parenting-focused mindfulness intervention, the Parenting Mindfully (PM) intervention, versus a minimal-intervention parent education control. Twenty highly stressed mothers of adolescents completed pre- and post-intervention behavioral and fMRI sessions, in which mothers completed a parent-adolescent conflict interaction, fMRI emotion task, and fMRI resting state scan. Mothers reported on their mindful parenting, and maternal emotional reactivity to the parent-adolescent conflict task was assessed via observed emotion expression, self-reported negative emotion, and salivary cortisol reactivity. Results indicated that the PM intervention increased brain responsivity in left posterior insula in response to negative affective stimuli, and altered resting state functional connectivity in regions involved in self-reference, behavioral regulation, and social-emotional processing. Changes in mothers' brain function and connectivity were associated with increased mindful parenting and decreased emotional reactivity to the parent-adolescent conflict task. Findings suggest that mindfulness-based changes in maternal emotional awareness at the neurobiological level are associated with decreased emotional reactivity in parenting interactions, illuminating potential neurobiological targets for future parent-focused intervention.

Psychometric Evaluation of Social Cognitive Measures for Adults with Autism.

Although social cognition is frequently identified as a target in clinical trials and psychosocial interventions for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), these efforts are hampered by a lack of consensus and validation of social cognitive measures. The current study provides psychometric evaluation of 11 frequently used measures encompassing different subdomains of social cognition. Adults with autism (N = 103) and typically developing controls (N = 95) completed 11 commonly used social cognitive tasks spanning the domains of emotion processing, social perception, and mentalizing/theory of mind. We examined each measure's internal reliability and sensitivity to group differences, how performance related to general intellectual ability, and alignment of measures with a proposed two‐factor structure of social cognition in ASD. Controls outperformed the ASD group on 8 of the 11 social cognitive tasks, with the largest group differences occurring on two mentalizing measures, The awareness of social inference task (TASIT) and hinting task. In ASD, all tasks demonstrated strong internal consistency and avoided ceiling and floor effects. Social cognitive performance was also related to, but not redundant with, intellectual functioning. We also found support for a two‐factor structure of social cognition, with basic social perception and emotional processing aligning into a lower‐order social perception factor, while mentalizing tasks aligned into a higher‐order social appraisal factor. In sum, eight tasks showed adequate to strong psychometric properties. The psychometric data, effect size estimates, and correlations between measures reported here can be used for study planning for social cognitive interventions in autism. Autism Research 2019, 12: 766–778. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Lay SummaryWe examined 11 tasks that measure how adults with autism perceive and interpret social information. Eight of the tasks were reliable and showed lower performance in adults with autism compared to typically‐developing controls. Task performance was related to but distinguishable from IQ. These measures evaluated here may be useful in assessing the effectiveness of interventions and treatments to improve social abilities in adults with autism.

Cytoprotective and antioxidant effects of lithium pyruvate in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with alcoholism

Opioids interact with systems processing pain and social stimuli. Both systems are crucial for responding to strains of everyday life and both are linked to relapse risk in opioid-dependent patients. The investigation of those systems seems essential to better understand opioid addiction as a whole. 17 patients on opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) and 21 healthy individuals underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) social ball-tossing (Cyberball) paradigm simulating social inclusion and exclusion. In addition, painful and non-painful temperature stimuli were applied, in order to test pain sensitivity. Patients on OMT showed reduced pain sensitivity. Subjective pain was higher after social exclusion compared to social inclusion trials. In comparison to healthy controls, OMT patients felt less included and more excluded during inclusion and control conditions, and equally excluded during the social exclusion condition. Feelings of exclusion during the inclusion trials were associated with higher scores on the childhood trauma questionnaire. Across all conditions, OMT patients demonstrated decreased fMRI activation in the bilateral superior and middle occipital and bilateral cunei, the lingual gyri, as well as in the left fusiform gyrus (whole brain FWE-corrected). Comparing social exclusion and inclusion conditions, healthy individuals showed significant activation in brain areas related to social feedback and emotion processing, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, the insula and fusiform gyrus, whereas OMT patients showed no difference across conditions. As negative social affect is a potential trigger for relapse, patients might benefit from therapeutic strategies that enhance social integration.

C.04.03 Clinical phenotypes of treatment resistance in schizophrenia

Opioids interact with systems processing pain and social stimuli. Both systems are crucial for responding to strains of everyday life and both are linked to relapse risk in opioid-dependent patients. The investigation of those systems seems essential to better understand opioid addiction as a whole. 17 patients on opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) and 21 healthy individuals underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) social ball-tossing (Cyberball) paradigm simulating social inclusion and exclusion. In addition, painful and non-painful temperature stimuli were applied, in order to test pain sensitivity. Patients on OMT showed reduced pain sensitivity. Subjective pain was higher after social exclusion compared to social inclusion trials. In comparison to healthy controls, OMT patients felt less included and more excluded during inclusion and control conditions, and equally excluded during the social exclusion condition. Feelings of exclusion during the inclusion trials were associated with higher scores on the childhood trauma questionnaire. Across all conditions, OMT patients demonstrated decreased fMRI activation in the bilateral superior and middle occipital and bilateral cunei, the lingual gyri, as well as in the left fusiform gyrus (whole brain FWE-corrected). Comparing social exclusion and inclusion conditions, healthy individuals showed significant activation in brain areas related to social feedback and emotion processing, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, the insula and fusiform gyrus, whereas OMT patients showed no difference across conditions. As negative social affect is a potential trigger for relapse, patients might benefit from therapeutic strategies that enhance social integration.

The effect of traumatic brain injury on social decision making

Patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) can present difficulties in making decisions of a social nature. Such difficulties condition complicate their personal relationships. To assess social decision-making in a sample of patients with moderate and severe TBI, and to empirically contrast if, as Ochsner's social-emotional processing model proposes, the ability to recognize and respond to socio-affective stimuli is related to the ability to regulate sensitive responses to the context based on the proposed assessment tests. Twenty-one patients with a moderate and severe TBI (experimental group) matched by gender, age and years of education with 24 healthy subjects (control group). Social decision making was measured through the Social Decision Making Test (SDMT), and the ability to recognize and respond to socio-affective stimuli through the Pictures of Facial Affect (PoFA) test. Statistically significant differences in the SDMT were obtained between the experimental group and the control group. Regarding PoFA, the performance of the control group was also significantly better than that of the experimental group. However, no relationship was observed between the performance in the SDMT and the PoFA for any of the groups. The SDMT seems to be a sensitive test to detect alterations in social decision making in patients with moderate or severe TBI. No relationship was observed between the results in the SDMT and the PoFA.