Social Signals Research Articles

Affective priming of body and facial expressions in Parkinson's disease.

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often experience impairments in emotion processing. Previous literature has highlighted deficits in facial expression recognition and body movement processing, including social signals. However, to date, the integration of facial and bodily expressions has been investigated in healthy populations, but not in individuals with PD. The present study assessed the reciprocal influence between facial and body emotion recognition by using subliminal priming paradigms in a sample of PD patients and in healthy controls (HC). Participants completed both a Face-Body and a Body-Face priming task, in which facial or body expressions subliminally primed the discrimination of body or face emotions, respectively. Recognition of face and body emotions was also assessed. The results revealed that the discrimination of fearful and happy body expressions was not modulated by the previous congruent, incongruent, or neutral face in PD patients, whereas a significant Face-Body priming effect was observed in HC. In contrast, body emotion did not significantly prime face expression discrimination in either group. These findings suggest an impairment in the automatic integration of emotional information from faces and bodies in PD, which may hinder the detection of mismatches between emotional information from different cues.

Social behavior in South American electric fishes: Linking neuroendocrine Regulation, signal Plasticity, and reproductive strategies.

Social behavior in South American electric fishes: Linking neuroendocrine Regulation, signal Plasticity, and reproductive strategies.

Estimating the impacts of calorie labels in fast-food settings using a novel comparison: Comparing California drive-through and in-store purchases.

Estimating the impacts of calorie labels in fast-food settings using a novel comparison: Comparing California drive-through and in-store purchases.

Škorpion by Josip Kulundžić in the context of Croatian expressionism

The paper Škorpion by Josip Kulundžić in the context of Croatian expressionism will present a dramatic text Škorpion in the context of Croatian expressionism. Along with the dramatic text Ponoć, it is considered to be Kulundžić’s most significant dramatic work in terms of aesthetics and quality. Škorpion witnesses a strong expressionist genre and stylistic dramatic determination, while on the other hand it continues to implement the author’s, also specific, expressionist poetic framework. An overview of the most important features and characteristics of Croatian expressionism, the origin and duration of expressionist poetics within the corpus of Croatian literature, and the fundamental characteristics and basic elements of Croatian dramatic expressionism will be presented. Expressionist poetics dominated Croatian literary creativity until the mid-twen-ties of the 20th century and remained present until the end of that decade and in that period Josip Kulundžić was the most fruitfull expressionistic writer. The paper will provide a brief overview of the poetic principles of dramatic writing of Josip Kulundžić as well as the most important principles of his second phase of expressionist production.His second phase begins in 1926 with the dramatic text Škorpion which symbolizes the transition from his first to the second phase of his expressionist dramatic work. In this phase of the author’s work, expression-istic features are still dominant, but they begin to intertwine in places with realistic, sometimes naturalistic dramatic properties and psychological, social and existential dramatic signals that will characterize later drama. On the level of dramatic expression and content, expressionist features still stand out, but they are no longer so extreme and radical, and the concept of original, German dramatic expressionism replaces the view of Croatian dramatic expressionism and its already mentioned, specific features that will be present in all Croatian expressionist dramatists of the third decade of the 20th century. In the second phase of his expressionist dramatic creation, his plays will increasingly take on the characteristics of national literary and theatrical expressionism, thus securing Kulundžić’s position as one of the most prominent and prolific expressionist playwrights of Croatian expressionism. The paper will present typical and paradigmatic expressionist features in all segments of the dramatic text, from the plan of expression through stylistic features to the content part of the text. Also, the paper will present the characteristics of typical expressionist characters with an emphasis on the main character, the expressionist ironic anti-hero.

What matters to a mouse? Effects of internal and external context on male vocal response to female squeaks.

House mice adjust their signaling behavior depending on the social context of an interaction, but which aspects of context elicit the strongest responses from these individuals is often difficult to determine. To explore how internal and external contextual factors influence how house mice produce and respond to social signals, we assessed how dominant and subordinate male mice differed in their ultrasonic vocalization (USV) production in response to playback of broadband vocalizations (BBVs, or squeaks) when given limited access to a stimulus female. We used a repeated measures design in which each male was exposed to two types of trials with different odor conditions: either just female odors (Fem condition) or female odors in addition to the odors of potential competitors, other males (Fem+Male condition). The presence of odors from other males in this assay served as a proxy for an "audience" as the male interacted with the stimulus female. These conditions were replicated for two distinct cohorts of individuals: males exposed to the odor of familiar competitors in the Fem+Male condition (Familiar odor cohort), and males exposed to the odor of unfamiliar competitors in the Fem+Male condition (Unfamiliar odor cohort). By assessing dominance status of the focal individual and familiarity of the "audience", we are able to explore how these factors may affect one another as males respond to BBVs. Dominants and subordinates did not differ in their baseline vocal production (vocalizations produced prior to squeak playback) or response to squeaks. However, all groups, regardless of dominance status or odor condition, reduced their vocal production in response to BBV playback. The presence of unfamiliar male odor prompted mice to decrease their baseline level of calling and decrease the complexity of their vocal repertoire compared to trials that only included female odor, and this effect also did not differ across dominance status. Importantly, the presence of male odor did not affect vocal behavior when the male odor was familiar to the focal individual. These findings suggest that mice alter their vocal behavior during courtship interactions in response to cues that indicate the presence of potential competitors, and this response is modulated by the familiarity of these competitor cues.

Дисрегуляция эмоций и ее нейрофизиологический базис у людей с расстройствами аутистического спектра

Introduction. Emotion dysregulation is a characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This study aims to systematize and analyze data on the specificity of emotion dysregulation in children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and their neurophysiological correlates. Emotion regulation in ASDs. Typical manifestations of emotion dysregulation in different age groups with ASDs, the relationship between efficient and inefficient regulatory mechanisms and concomitant disorders, external and internal problems, and key symptoms of autism are described. The emotion regulation system in ASDs shows a developmental delay. Neurobiological mechanisms of disorders in the emotional sphere and social interactions in ASDs. Data on the neurobiological mechanisms of emotion dysregulation in ASDs show a number of structural, functional, and molecular characteristics in the brain regions associated with the processing of social information, as well as an imbalance of excitation and inhibition processes, which obviously decreases stress resistance. Due to the increase in avoidance behavior and reduction in social experience, low stress resistance to social stimuli creates secondary obstacles to the formation of effective self-regulation strategies. Neurobiological mechanisms of emotion dysregulation in ASDs. There is a single neurophysiological basis for disturbances in the processing of emotional and social signals and in emotion dysregulation in ASDs.

Learning to fear novel stimuli by observing others in the social affordance framework.

Learning to fear novel stimuli by observing others in the social affordance framework.

Cross-channel adaptation reveals shared emotion representation from face and biological motion.

Emotions in interpersonal interactions can be communicated simultaneously via various social signals such as face and biological motion (BM). Here, we demonstrate that even though BM and face are very different in visual properties, emotions conveyed by these two types of social signals involve dedicated and common processing mechanisms (N = 168, college students, 2020-2024). By utilizing the visual adaptation paradigm, we found that prolonged exposure to the happy BM biased the emotion perception of the subsequently presented morphed BM toward sad, and vice versus. The observed aftereffect disappeared when the BM adaptors were shown inverted, indicating that it arose from emotional information processing rather than being a result of adaptation to constitutive low-level features. Besides, such an aftereffect was also found for facial expressions and similarly vanished when the face adaptors were inverted. Critically, preexposure to emotional faces also exerted an adaptation aftereffect on the emotion perception of BMs. Furthermore, this cross-channel effect could not only happen from faces to BMs but also from BMs to faces, suggesting that emotion perception from face and BM are potentially driven by common underlying neural substrates. Overall, these findings highlighted a close coupling of BM and face emotion perception and suggested the existence of a dedicated emotional representation that can be shared across these two different types of social signals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Social odors drive hippocampal CA2 place cell responses to social stimuli.

Social odors drive hippocampal CA2 place cell responses to social stimuli.

Baby don't cry: Unconscious sensitivity to sad baby faces.

Baby don't cry: Unconscious sensitivity to sad baby faces.

The neuroscience of conformity: How social pressure biases value-based decision-making

Social signals—for example, approval, disapproval, or perceived norms of groups—are very important in our decisions. Not surprisingly, interest in the role of social conformity within a connected society on the individual's choice-making process has been in the eye of the public. Knowing the neurobiological bases of this behavior may provide important insights into human cognition. Computation of social signals within brain regions such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, estimating feedback from others, and adjusting one's behavior is crucial. While it is well researched, the particular neural pathways through which social conformity influences value-based decision-making remain unknown. This knowledge gap prevents the construction of complete models of how the social environment influences economic decisions and risk-taking behaviors. Addressing this challenge, studies were reviewed using neuroimaging, electrophysiological measurements, and computational modeling to outline shared neural mechanisms of social conformity and their impact on decision-making. The present paper reviews these findings, describes experimental methodologies, and discusses how social feedback is integrated into the brain's decision-making circuitry. Emphasizing the integration of these insights into broader social neuroscience questions, the study tries to bridge gaps in understanding how social pressure affects decision processes. The main brain areas involved in social conformity include the caudate nucleus, the subgenual ACC, and the vmPFC. These regions are involved with processing social rewards and punishments, monitoring social conflict, and predicting social outcomes. Future work should further examine neural pathways and computational models of social conformance, with possible interventions to modulate these neural responses.

Brain Activation Patterns and Dopaminergic Neuron Activity in Response to Conspecific Advertisement Calls in Reproductive versus Non-Reproductive Male Plainfin Midshipman Fish (Porichthys notatus)

Introduction: The plainfin midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) relies on the production and reception of social acoustic signals for reproductive success. During spawning, male midshipman fish produce long duration advertisement calls to attract females, which use their auditory sense to locate and access calling males. While seasonal changes based on reproductive state in inner-ear auditory sensitivity and frequency encoding in midshipman are well documented, little is known about reproductive-state-dependent changes in central auditory sensitivity and auditory neural responsiveness to conspecific advertisement calls. Previous research indicates that forebrain dopaminergic neurons are preferentially active in response to conspecific advertisement calls and during female auditory-driven behavior in the breeding season. These dopamine neurons project to both the inner ear and central auditory nuclei and contribute to regulation of inner-ear auditory sensitivity based on reproductive state. The present study tested the hypothesis that exposure to the male advertisement call would elicit differential activation in auditory brain nuclei and in the forebrain auditory-projecting dopaminergic nucleus in reproductive versus non-reproductive male midshipman. Methods: Fish were collected during the spring reproductive and winter non-reproductive months and were exposed to a playback of the advertisement call or ambient noise (control). Immunohistochemistry identified activated neurons (pS6-ir; proxy for neural activation) in midbrain and forebrain auditory and dopaminergic nuclei. Results and Conclusions: Our results revealed that in key auditory and dopaminergic areas, the greatest activation (most pS6-ir cells) occurred in reproductive males exposed to the advertisement call.

The Path to Loneliness for Psychiatric Patients: A Qualitative Study of a Journey Marked by Pain, Hopelessness, Prosocial Signaling Deficits, and Coping Strategies That Are Not Effective.

Enduring loneliness has serious physical and mental health implications. Patients with mental health problems are at risk of experiencing problems related to loneliness. Therefore, it is important to increase knowledge about how loneliness is experienced and managed in this particular group. The aim of the study was to explore (1) psychiatric patients' experiences of different forms of loneliness, (2) associated problems, including difficulties with prosocial signaling, and (3) strategies used to combat loneliness, to better understand how loneliness affects psychiatric patients and how patients manage their loneliness. A total of 110 psychiatric patients were recruited at eight outpatient clinics in Region Stockholm for a larger study of loneliness. The first fifteen patients who also agreed to participate in the present substudy were invited to meet a trainee psychologist who conducted a semi-structured interview. A reflexive thematic analysis with a codebook approach was used to analyze the transcripts. The described experiences of loneliness were primarily examples of social and emotional loneliness with one prominent theme: "Hopelessly lonely". Associated problems were summarized in two themes: "The inevitable road to loneliness" and "Social signals are confusing and push others away". Regarding patients' strategies for combating loneliness, one theme emerged: "Using strategies that focus on the current moment". The results also included a total of sixteen subthemes. Loneliness was described as something painful that is inevitable and unchangeable, with a self-reinforcing loneliness loop leading to social and emotional loneliness, and as something that is intertwined with mental health problems. These results are in accordance with research. In addition, patients described a variety of prosocial signaling deficits and feelings of being disconnected from others. They also reported using strategies that primarily alleviated their immediate suffering when they were alone, rather than focusing on approaches with long-term effects on reducing loneliness, such as participating in social activities combined with effective social signaling. Future research should investigate whether increased awareness of social signaling, as well as social activities combined with improved prosocial signaling and strengthened self-belief, would constitute effective steps for patients to combat enduring loneliness. It also seems important to help patients reduce hopelessness related to loneliness.

Why does recency guide pronoun comprehension? It’s not just topicality, attention, or predictability

ABSTRACT It is well known that comprehenders assume that pronouns are more likely to refer to recently mentioned referents than less-recent referents; for example, in Ana ordered a croissant with her latte. Liz ordered a cappuccino. She grabbed a table by the window, people are more likely to assign she to Liz than Ana. Why does this bias occur? Is it just recency, or do apparent recency effects stem from some other cognitive mechanism? We consider three proposals about what underlies the recency bias: (1) recent things tend to be topical; (2) recent things tend to be attended by the speaker and listener; and (3) recent things tend to be predictable. For each we test whether they modulate the recency bias in a series of five experiments. Results confirm that recency is a strong constraint for pronoun comprehension, and this bias can be modulated by pointing, but not significantly by gazing or discourse topicality. Pointing is known to modulate the addressee’s attention, but we also saw that it strongly affected measures of predictability. However, recency itself was not associated with predictability. In sum, the strongest effects on pronoun comprehension were the most proximal signals: recent mention in subject position and social signals about the speaker’s meaning. Although recency is associated with topicality, attention, and predictability, it cannot be reduced to any one dimension.

Multisensory integration of social signals by a pathway from the basal amygdala to the auditory cortex in maternal mice.

Multisensory integration of social signals by a pathway from the basal amygdala to the auditory cortex in maternal mice.

Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Affective Disorders: An Updated Review.

Hormonal contraceptives have given women historic freedoms and control over their fertility. At the same time, the potential side effects and unintended consequences of hormonal contraceptive use remain unclear due to a severe lack of funding and research. In this review, we summarize what is currently known about the impact of hormonal contraceptive use on mood symptoms, depression, and premenstrual disorders, and propose using the Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression as a framework to generate predictions about the mechanistic pathways through which contraceptive use is associated with depression risk. The highest-quality evidence suggests that some types of contraceptives increase depression risk for some women. However, some contraceptives also appear to decrease depression risk in some instances. Key risk factors that predict depression following hormonal contraceptive use include age/age at onset of contraceptive use and mental health history/susceptibility. Hormonal contraceptives differ in ways that influence mood-related outcomes and can be used to treat depression in some women, especially those whose depression symptoms fluctuate across the cycle, indicating the potential presence of a premenstrual disorder. Looking forward, research, and funding for this research, is needed to elucidate the mechanistic pathways through which the use of different contraceptives impacts mood in different women to allow for a precision medicine approach to contraceptive treatment. In the meantime, health care providers should adopt patient-centered, "mindful prescribing" approaches to contraceptive counseling.

Dynamic Neural Network States During Social and Non-Social Cueing in Virtual Reality Working Memory Tasks: A Leading Eigenvector Dynamics Analysis Approach.

This research investigates brain connectivity patterns in reaction to social and non-social stimuli within a virtual reality environment, emphasizing their impact on cognitive functions, specifically working memory. Employing the LEiDA framework with EEG data from 47 participants, I examined dynamic brain network states elicited by social avatars compared to non-social stick cues during a VR memory task. Through the integration of LEiDA with deep learning and graph theory analyses, unique connectivity patterns associated with cue type were discerned, underscoring the substantial influence of social cues on cognitive processes. LEiDA, conventionally utilized with fMRI, was creatively employed in EEG to detect swift alterations in brain network states, offering insights into cognitive processing dynamics. The findings indicate distinct neural states for social and non-social cues; notably, social cues correlated with a unique brain state characterized by increased connectivity within self-referential and memory-processing networks, implying greater cognitive engagement. Moreover, deep learning attained approximately 99% accuracy in differentiating cue contexts, highlighting the efficacy of prominent eigenvectors from LEiDA in EEG analysis. Analysis of graph theory also uncovered structural network disparities, signifying enhanced integration in contexts involving social cues. This multi-method approach elucidates the dynamic influence of social cues on brain connectivity and cognition, establishing a basis for VR-based cognitive rehabilitation and immersive learning, wherein social signals may significantly enhance cognitive function.

Haptiknit: Distributed stiffness knitting for wearable haptics.

Haptic devices typically rely on rigid actuators and bulky power supply systems, limiting wearability. Soft materials improve comfort, but careful distribution of stiffness is required to ground actuation forces and enable load transfer to the skin. We present Haptiknit, an approach in which soft, wearable, knit textiles with embedded pneumatic actuators enable programmable haptic display. By integrating pneumatic actuators within high- and low-stiffness machine-knit layers, each actuator can transmit 40 newtons in force with a bandwidth of 14.5 hertz. We demonstrate the concept with an adjustable sleeve for the forearm coupled to an untethered pneumatic control system that conveys a diverse array of social touch signals. We assessed the sleeve's performance for discriminative and affective touch in a three-part user study and compared our results with those of prior electromagnetically actuated approaches. Haptiknit improves touch localization compared with vibrotactile stimulation and communicates social touch cues with fewer actuators than pneumatic textiles that do not invoke distributed stiffness. The Haptiknit sleeve resulted in similar recognition of social touch gestures compared to a voice-coil array but represented a more portable and comfortable form factor.

Explanation needs and ethical demands: unpacking the instrumental value of XAI

AbstractThe call for XAI rests on a normative claim: ‘Good AI is explainable AI’ or even the stronger claim: ‘Only explainable AI is good AI.’ However, this valorization runs the risk of being overgeneralized because explanations are not per se useful, appropriate, or demanded. Explainability should not be seen as a value in itself but as a means to certain ends. In this paper, we put the valorization of explainability into question, which is discursively connected to the idea of ‘users’ needs’ and the will to design and develop ethically aligned AI systems. By making the instrumental character of the value of explainability explicit, we address two key issues that necessitate more theoretical attention: (i) to analyze the link between explainability and its presumed purpose; and (ii) to clarify the conceptions of these presumed purposes, namely users’ needs and ethical principles XAI is meant to promote. From a philosophical and from a psychological perspective, we constructively criticize the undertheorized and undercomplex way of talking about ‘users’ needs’ and ethical demands. We plea to carefully differentiate the value of explainable AI in social contexts and signal further need for research.

Artificial intelligence-generated feedback on social signals in patient-provider communication: technical performance, feedback usability, and impact.

Implicit bias perpetuates health care inequities and manifests in patient-provider interactions, particularly nonverbal social cues like dominance. We investigated the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for automated communication assessment and feedback during primary care visits to raise clinician awareness of bias in patient interactions. (1) Assessed the technical performance of our AI models by building a machine-learning pipeline that automatically detects social signals in patient-provider interactions from 145 primary care visits. (2) Engaged 24 clinicians to design usable AI-generated communication feedback for their workflow. (3) Evaluated the impact of our AI-based approach in a prospective cohort of 108 primary care visits. Findings demonstrate the feasibility of AI models to identify social signals, such as dominance, warmth, engagement, and interactivity, in nonverbal patient-provider communication. Although engaged clinicians preferred feedback delivered in personalized dashboards, they found nonverbal cues difficult to interpret, motivating social signals as an alternative feedback mechanism. Impact evaluation demonstrated fairness in all AI models with better generalizability of provider dominance, provider engagement, and patient warmth. Stronger clinician implicit race bias was associated with less provider dominance and warmth. Although clinicians expressed overall interest in our AI approach, they recommended improvements to enhance acceptability, feasibility, and implementation in telehealth and medical education contexts. Findings demonstrate promise for AI-driven communication assessment and feedback systems focused on social signals. Future work should improve the performance of this approach, personalize models, and contextualize feedback, and investigate system implementation in educational workflows. This work exemplifies a systematic, multistage approach for evaluating AI tools designed to raise clinician awareness of implicit bias and promote patient-centered, equitable health care interactions.