Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

Profile

Project description

Bonding, cooperation, and affiliation are vital for human survival, with individual differences in social regulation skills—our ability to manage and engage in social interactions—playing a crucial role in social success. These skills are particularly important during adolescence, a developmental stage marked by heightened social dynamics and vulnerability to mental health issues. Given that adolescence is the peak period for the onset of most mental health diagnoses (Solmi et al., 2022), loneliness in this age group becomes a key risk factor, potentially contributing to a disruption of social connectedness. While previous research has largely focused on how we perceive and process social stimuli (i.e., social cognition), less attention has been paid to socially relevant behavior and the underlying neural mechanisms. Understanding how social regulation skills influence the experience of (dis)connectedness and mental health is especially essential in adolescence, a period characterized by both increased social and mental health vulnerabilities.

Studies have shown that adolescents at risk for antisocial behavior exhibit reduced activation in brain regions (such as the supplementary motor area [SMA] and anterior insula when exposed to contagious laughter), indicating neural differences in social contagion (O'Nions et al., 2017). These findings suggest that social regulation skills may be impaired in individuals with social difficulties. Additionally, premotor cortical regions involved in facial movement preparation are activated when listening to emotional vocalizations, suggesting these areas support empathic and social responses (Warren et al., 2006). Individual differences in the ability to judge the authenticity of laughter have also been associated with activation in the pre-SMA and lateral somatosensory cortex, linking these regions to social understanding and regulation (McGettigan et al., 2015).

Study Protocol:

The proposed fundamental and transdiagnostic research study will use fMRI to examine brain responses to peer laughter as a proxy for social contagion and connectedness in adolescents with various mental health problems. The study will focus on identifying neural correlates of social regulation skills in this population, predicting that individuals with better social regulation abilities will show stronger activation in sensorimotor and premotor cortical regions in response to peer laughter. This would indicate more effective social engagement and emotional resonance with others. Additionally, we will investigate how adolescents experiencing high levels of loneliness or increased mental health problems respond to social scenarios of dyads synchronizing their behavior (Bierlich et al., 2024). Outside of the scanner, the same adolescents will perform a dyadic interaction task with a peer and we will assess interaction success in terms of ratings of rapport and portable sensing tools such as portable eye-tracking (to measure eye contact), wearables (to measure electrodermal activity and heart rate), and motion trackers (to measure interpersonal motor synchrony).

We predict that higher social regulation skills will correlate with increased activation in sensorimotor and premotor regions, facilitating more successful social interactions. In contrast, adolescents with heightened loneliness or mental health challenges will show diminished activity in these areas, reflecting compromised social connectedness and regulation, alongside increased neural indicators of social distress. This research will provide crucial insights into the neural mechanisms of social regulation skills in adolescents with mental health problems, highlighting the role of peer interactions in mental health outcomes.

Keywords: Social regulation, social contagion, loneliness, fMRI, adolescence, peer interactions, mental health problems, social neuroscience.