Although neural systems thought to underlie social bonding and the social regulation of emotion are increasingly well documented in animals and nonhuman primates, the candidate neural mechanisms responsible for these effects in humans remain speculative. Moreover, very little work to date has sought specifically to identify how social affiliation and emotion circuits function in a context that combines social interaction with externally generated emotional stress. In the proposed study, we plan to closely examine human social contact, attachment, and the social regulation of emotion, in vivo, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We will monitor functional brain activity related to physical social contact, physical contact from a familiar other, and the social regulation of both threat responding and empathy, across four conceptually linked studies utilizing 124 participants drawn from a larger (n = 172) normative sample of young adults (ages 24 to 28) whose social behaviors, parental and peer social experiences, and personality characteristics have been assessed annually from the ages of 13-22. This proposal will greatly expand our knowledge of how social bonding, familiarity, and soothing are instantiated neurally, as well as how social contact and soothing regulate neural systems supporting emotional responding. Moreover, the proposed design will allow us to evaluate the moderating influences on these neural systems of relationship characteristics such as status, quality and closeness;individual characteristics such as broad dimensions of emotion-regulatory personality, attachment and overt social behavior;and historical factors such as levels of parental affection versus abuse and neglect, and levels of adolescent peer integration versus rejection. A deeper understanding of the neural circuitry underlying social behavior and the social regulation of emotional responding promises not only to contribute to basic progress in neuroscience, biomedical research, social science, public health, and epidemiology, but also to our understanding of, and efficacy in treating, a number of severely debilitating affective and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism, Fragile X, William's Syndrome, Schizophrenia and even Major Depression.

Public Health Relevance

A deeper understanding of the neural circuitry underlying social behavior and the social regulation of emotional responding promises not only to contribute to basic progress in neuroscience, biomedical research, social science, public health, and epidemiology, but also to our understanding of, and efficacy in treating, a number of severely debilitating affective and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism, Fragile X, William's Syndrome, Schizophrenia and even Major Depression.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH080725-02
Application #
7903415
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-ERB-Z (01))
Program Officer
Simmons, Janine M
Project Start
2009-07-30
Project End
2013-04-30
Budget Start
2010-05-01
Budget End
2011-04-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$327,121
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Virginia
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
065391526
City
Charlottesville
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
22904
Brown, Casey L; Beckes, Lane; Allen, Joseph P et al. (2017) Subjective General Health and the Social Regulation of Hypothalamic Activity. Psychosom Med 79:670-673
Coan, James A; Beckes, Lane; Gonzalez, Marlen Z et al. (2017) Relationship status and perceived support in the social regulation of neural responses to threat. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 12:1574-1583
Gonzalez, Marlen Z; Allen, Joseph P; Coan, James A (2016) Lower neighborhood quality in adolescence predicts higher mesolimbic sensitivity to reward anticipation in adulthood. Dev Cogn Neurosci 22:48-57
Gonzalez, Marlen Z; Beckes, Lane; Chango, Joanna et al. (2015) Adolescent neighborhood quality predicts adult dACC response to social exclusion. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 10:921-8
IJzerman, Hans; Janssen, Janneke A; Coan, James A (2015) Maintaining warm, trusting relationships with brands: increased temperature perceptions after thinking of communal brands. PLoS One 10:e0125194
Coan, James A; Sbarra, David A (2015) Social Baseline Theory: The Social Regulation of Risk and Effort. Curr Opin Psychol 1:87-91
Zhang, Tingting; Li, Fan; Gonzalez, Marlen Z et al. (2014) A semi-parametric nonlinear model for event-related fMRI. Neuroimage 97:178-87
Beckes, Lane; Coan, James A; Hasselmo, Karen (2013) Familiarity promotes the blurring of self and other in the neural representation of threat. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 8:670-7
Zhang, Tingting; Li, Fan; Beckes, Lane et al. (2013) A semi-parametric model of the hemodynamic response for multi-subject fMRI data. Neuroimage 75:136-45
Johnson, Susan M; Burgess Moser, Melissa; Beckes, Lane et al. (2013) Soothing the threatened brain: leveraging contact comfort with emotionally focused therapy. PLoS One 8:e79314

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