Sample records for abnormal social interaction

  1. Severe Impairments of Social Interaction and Associated Abnormalities in Children: Epidemiology and Classification.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wing, Lorna; Gould, Judith

    1979-01-01

    The prevalence of severe impairments of social interaction, language abnormalities, and repetitive stereotyped behaviors was investigated in a group of 132 children under 15 years old, consisting of a socially impaired group (more than half of whom were severely retarded) and a comparison group of sociable severely mentally retarded. Author/DLS)

  2. Abnormalities of social interactions and home-cage behavior in a mouse model of Rett syndrome.

    PubMed

    Moretti, Paolo; Bouwknecht, J Adriaan; Teague, Ryan; Paylor, Richard; Zoghbi, Huda Y

    2005-01-15

    Rett syndrome (RTT) is an autistic spectrum disorder with a known genetic basis. RTT is caused by loss of function mutations in the X-linked gene MECP2 and is characterized by loss of acquired motor, social and language skills in females beginning at 6-18 months of age. MECP2 mutations also cause non-syndromic mental retardation in males and females, and abnormalities of MeCP2 expression in the brain have been found in autistic spectrum disorders. We studied home-cage behavior and social interactions in a mouse model of RTT (Mecp2(308/Y)) carrying a mutation similar to common RTT causing alleles. Young adult mutant mice showed abnormal home-cage diurnal activity in the absence of motor skill deficits. Nesting, a phenotype related to social behavior, and social interactions were both impaired in these animals. Mecp2(308/Y) mice showed deficits in nest building and decreased nest use. Although there were no differences in aggression or exploration of novel inanimate stimuli, mutant mice took less initiative and were less decisive approaching unfamiliar males and spent less time in close vicinity to them in several social interaction paradigms. The abnormalities of diurnal activity and social behavior in Mecp2(308/Y) mice are reminiscent of the sleep/wake dysfunction and autistic features of RTT. These data suggest that MECP2 regulates the expression and/or function of genes involved in social behavior. The study of Mecp2(308/Y) mice will allow the identification of the molecular basis of social impairment in RTT and related autistic spectrum disorders.

  3. Social anhedonia is associated with neural abnormalities during face emotion processing.

    PubMed

    Germine, Laura T; Garrido, Lucia; Bruce, Lori; Hooker, Christine

    2011-10-01

    Human beings are social organisms with an intrinsic desire to seek and participate in social interactions. Social anhedonia is a personality trait characterized by a reduced desire for social affiliation and reduced pleasure derived from interpersonal interactions. Abnormally high levels of social anhedonia prospectively predict the development of schizophrenia and contribute to poorer outcomes for schizophrenia patients. Despite the strong association between social anhedonia and schizophrenia, the neural mechanisms that underlie individual differences in social anhedonia have not been studied and are thus poorly understood. Deficits in face emotion recognition are related to poorer social outcomes in schizophrenia, and it has been suggested that face emotion recognition deficits may be a behavioral marker for schizophrenia liability. In the current study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to see whether there are differences in the brain networks underlying basic face emotion processing in a community sample of individuals low vs. high in social anhedonia. We isolated the neural mechanisms related to face emotion processing by comparing face emotion discrimination with four other baseline conditions (identity discrimination of emotional faces, identity discrimination of neutral faces, object discrimination, and pattern discrimination). Results showed a group (high/low social anhedonia) × condition (emotion discrimination/control condition) interaction in the anterior portion of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex, right superior temporal gyrus, and left somatosensory cortex. As predicted, high (relative to low) social anhedonia participants showed less neural activity in face emotion processing regions during emotion discrimination as compared to each control condition. The findings suggest that social anhedonia is associated with abnormalities in networks responsible for basic processes associated with social cognition, and provide a

  4. Neural correlates of genetically abnormal social cognition in Williams syndrome.

    PubMed

    Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas; Hariri, Ahmad R; Munoz, Karen E; Mervis, Carolyn B; Mattay, Venkata S; Morris, Colleen A; Berman, Karen Faith

    2005-08-01

    Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS), caused by a microdeletion of approximately 21 genes on chromosome 7q11.23, is characterized by unique hypersociability combined with increased non-social anxiety. Using functional neuroimaging, we found reduced amygdala activation in individuals with WBS for threatening faces but increased activation for threatening scenes, relative to matched normal controls. Activation and interactions of prefrontal regions linked to amygdala, especially orbitofrontal cortex, were abnormal, suggesting a genetically controlled neural circuitry for regulating human social behavior.

  5. Cognitive underpinnings of social interaction.

    PubMed

    Hamilton, Antonia F de C

    2015-01-01

    Human social interaction is part of what defines us. Here I present an overview of recent studies of imitation, a subdomain of social interaction that can be dissected and examined in a scientific fashion. I use these studies to test two core claims: (a) that there is more than one copying mechanism in the human brain and (b) that mimicry (a form of copying) is particularly relevant for understanding social behaviour. Evidence in favour of the first claim comes from neuroimaging studies that show distinct brain systems for understanding action kinematics, action goals, and irrational actions. Further studies of participants with autism show abnormal copying of irrational actions. Evidence in favour of the second claim comes from behavioural studies of the social cues that prime mimicry and from neuroimaging studies of the pathways involved in this priming. These studies suggest that medial prefrontal cortex has a core role in controlling mimicry responses and support the STORM (social top-down response modulation) model. Future work should determine what organizing principles govern the control of social responses and how these critical mechanisms for interpersonal connection differ in autism.

  6. Preliminary evidence of white matter abnormality in the uncinate fasciculus in generalized social anxiety disorder.

    PubMed

    Phan, K Luan; Orlichenko, Anton; Boyd, Erin; Angstadt, Mike; Coccaro, Emil F; Liberzon, Israel; Arfanakis, Konstantinos

    2009-10-01

    Individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) exhibit exaggerated amygdala reactivity to aversive social stimuli. These findings could be explained by microstructural abnormalities in white matter (WM) tracts that connect the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, which is known to modulate the amygdala's response to threat. The goal of this study was to investigate brain frontal WM abnormalities using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in patients with social anxiety disorder. A Turboprop DTI sequence was used to acquire diffusion tensor images in 30 patients with GSAD and 30 matched healthy control subjects. Fractional anisotropy, an index of axonal organization, within WM was quantified in individual subjects, and an automated voxel-based, whole-brain method was used to analyze group differences. Compared with healthy control subjects, patients had significantly lower fractional anisotropy localized to the right uncinate fasciculus WM near the orbitofrontal cortex. There were no areas of higher fractional anisotropy in patients than controls. These findings point to an abnormality in the uncinate fasciculus, the major WM tract connecting the frontal cortex to the amygdala and other limbic temporal regions, in GSAD, which could underlie the aberrant amygdala-prefrontal interactions resulting in dysfunctional social threat processing in this illness.

  7. Preliminary Evidence of White Matter Abnormality in the Uncinate Fasciculus in Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder

    PubMed Central

    Phan, K. Luan; Orlichenko, Anton; Boyd, Erin; Angstadt, Mike; Coccaro, Emil F.; Liberzon, Israel; Arfanakis, Konstantinos

    2009-01-01

    Background Individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) exhibit exaggerated amygdala reactivity to aversive social stimuli. These findings could be explained by microstructural abnormalities in white matter (WM) tracts that connect the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, which is known to modulate the amygdala’s response to threat. The goal of this study was to investigate brain frontal WM abnormalities by using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in patients with social anxiety disorder. Method A Turboprop DTI sequence was used to acquire diffusion tensor images in thirty patients with GSAD and thirty matched healthy controls. Fractional anisotropy, an index of axonal organization, within WM was quantified in individual subjects and an automated voxel-based, whole-brain method was used to analyze group differences. Results Compared to healthy controls, patients had significantly lower fractional anisotropy localized to the right uncinate fasciculus WM near the orbitofrontal cortex. There were no areas of higher fractional anisotropy in patients than controls. Conclusions These findings point to an abnormality in the uncinate fasciculus, the major WM tract connecting the frontal cortex to the amygdala and other limbic temporal regions, in GSAD which could underlie the aberrant amygdala-prefrontal interactions resulting in dysfunctional social threat processing in this illness. PMID:19362707

  8. Effects of resocialization on post-weaning social isolation-induced abnormal aggression and social deficits in rats.

    PubMed

    Tulogdi, Aron; Tóth, Máté; Barsvári, Beáta; Biró, László; Mikics, Eva; Haller, József

    2014-01-01

    As previously shown, rats isolated from weaning develop abnormal social and aggressive behavior characterized by biting attacks targeting vulnerable body parts of opponents, reduced attack signaling, and increased defensive behavior despite increased attack counts. Here we studied whether this form of violent aggression could be reversed by resocialization in adulthood. During the first weak of resocialization, isolation-reared rats showed multiple social deficits including increased defensiveness and decreased huddling during sleep. Deficits were markedly attenuated in the second and third weeks. Despite improved social functioning in groups, isolated rats readily showed abnormal features of aggression in a resident-intruder test performed after the 3-week-long resocialization. Thus, post-weaning social isolation-induced deficits in prosocial behavior were eliminated by resocialization during adulthood, but abnormal aggression was resilient to this treatment. Findings are compared to those obtained in humans who suffered early social maltreatment, and who also show social deficits and dysfunctional aggression in adulthood. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. Reduced expression of the NMDA receptor-interacting protein SynGAP causes behavioral abnormalities that model symptoms of Schizophrenia.

    PubMed

    Guo, Xiaochuan; Hamilton, Peter J; Reish, Nicholas J; Sweatt, J David; Miller, Courtney A; Rumbaugh, Gavin

    2009-06-01

    Abnormal function of NMDA receptors is believed to be a contributing factor to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. NMDAR subunits and postsynaptic-interacting proteins of these channels are abnormally expressed in some patients with this illness. In mice, reduced NMDAR expression leads to behaviors analogous to symptoms of schizophrenia, but reports of animals with mutations in core postsynaptic density proteins having similar a phenotype have yet to be reported. Here we show that reduced expression of the neuronal RasGAP and NMDAR-associated protein, SynGAP, results in abnormal behaviors strikingly similar to that reported in mice with reduced NMDAR function. SynGAP mutant mice exhibited nonhabituating and persistent hyperactivity that was ameliorated by the antipsychotic clozapine. An NMDAR antagonist, MK-801, induced hyperactivity in normal mice but SynGAP mutants were less responsive, suggesting that NMDAR hypofunction contributes to this behavioral abnormality. SynGAP mutants exhibited enhanced startle reactivity and impaired sensory-motor gating. These mice also displayed a complete lack of social memory and a propensity toward social isolation. Finally, SynGAP mutants had deficits in cued fear conditioning and working memory, indicating abnormal function of circuits that control emotion and choice. Our results demonstrate that SynGAP mutant mice have gross neurological deficits similar to other mouse models of schizophrenia. Because SynGAP interacts with NMDARs, and the signaling activity of this protein is regulated by these channels, our data in dicate that SynGAP lies downstream of NMDARs and is a required intermediate for normal neural circuit function and behavior. Taken together, these data support the idea that schizophrenia may arise from abnormal signaling pathways that are mediated by NMDA receptors.

  10. Social and Abnormal Psychology Textbooks: An Objective Analysis.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Christopher, Andrew N.; Griggs, Richard A.; Hagans, Chad L.

    2000-01-01

    Provides feature and content analyses of 14 social and 17 abnormal psychology full-length textbooks from 1995-98 that are available for undergraduate psychology courses. Provides instructors of these courses a means for more informed text selection. (CMK)

  11. Abnormal Social Reward Responses in Anorexia Nervosa: An fMRI Study.

    PubMed

    Via, Esther; Soriano-Mas, Carles; Sánchez, Isabel; Forcano, Laura; Harrison, Ben J; Davey, Christopher G; Pujol, Jesús; Martínez-Zalacaín, Ignacio; Menchón, José M; Fernández-Aranda, Fernando; Cardoner, Narcís

    2015-01-01

    Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) display impaired social interactions, implicated in the development and prognosis of the disorder. Importantly, social behavior is modulated by reward-based processes, and dysfunctional at-brain-level reward responses have been involved in AN neurobiological models. However, no prior evidence exists of whether these neural alterations would be equally present in social contexts. In this study, we conducted a cross-sectional social-judgment functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of 20 restrictive-subtype AN patients and 20 matched healthy controls. Brain activity during acceptance and rejection was investigated and correlated with severity measures (Eating Disorder Inventory -EDI-2) and with personality traits of interest known to modulate social behavior (The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire). Patients showed hypoactivation of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) during social acceptance and hyperactivation of visual areas during social rejection. Ventral striatum activation during rejection was positively correlated in patients with clinical severity scores. During acceptance, activation of the frontal opercula-anterior insula and dorsomedial/dorsolateral prefrontal cortices was differentially associated with reward sensitivity between groups. These results suggest an abnormal motivational drive for social stimuli, and involve overlapping social cognition and reward systems leading to a disruption of adaptive responses in the processing of social reward. The specific association of reward-related regions with clinical and psychometric measures suggests the putative involvement of reward structures in the maintenance of pathological behaviors in AN.

  12. Communication and abnormal behaviour.

    PubMed

    Crown, S

    1979-01-01

    In this paper the similarities between normal and abnormal behaviour are emphasized and selected aspects of communication, normal and aberrant, between persons are explored. Communication in a social system may be verbal or non-verbal: one person's actions cause a response in another person. This response may be cognitive, behavioural or physiological. Communication may be approached through the individual, the social situation or social interaction. Psychoanalysis approaches the individual in terms of the coded communications of psychoneurotic symptoms or psychotic behaviour; the humanist-existential approach is concerned more with emotional expression. Both approaches emphasize the development of individual identity. The interaction between persons and their social background is stressed. Relevant are sociological concepts such as illness behaviour, stigma, labelling, institutionalization and compliance. Two approaches to social interactions are considered: the gamesplaying metaphor, e.g. back pain as a psychosocial manipulation--the 'pain game'; and the 'spiral of reciprocal perspectives' which emphasizes the interactional complexities of social perceptions. Communicatory aspects of psychological treatments are noted: learning a particular metaphor such as 'resolution' of the problem (psychotherapy), learning more 'rewarding' behaviour (learning theory) or learning authenticity or self-actualization (humanist-existential).

  13. Response to an Abnormal Ovarian Cancer Screening Test Result: Test of the Social Cognitive Processing and Cognitive Social Health Information Processing Models

    PubMed Central

    Andrykowski, Michael A.; Pavlik, Edward J.

    2009-01-01

    All cancer screening tests produce a proportion of abnormal results requiring follow-up. Consequently, the cancer screening setting is a natural laboratory for examining psychological and behavioral response to a threatening health-related event. This study tested hypotheses derived from the Social Cognitive Processing and Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing models in trying to understand response to an abnormal ovarian cancer (OC) screening test result. Women (n=278) receiving an abnormal screening test result a mean of 7 weeks earlier were assessed prior to a repeat screening test intended to clarify their previous abnormal result. Measures of disposition (optimism, informational coping style), social environment (social support and constraint), emotional processing, distress, and benefit finding were obtained. Regression analyses indicated greater distress was associated with greater social constraint and emotional processing and a monitoring coping style in women with a family history of OC. Distress was unrelated to social support. Greater benefit finding was associated with both greater social constraint and support and greater distress. The primacy of social constraint in accounting for both benefit-finding and distress was noteworthy and warrants further research on the role of social constraint in adaptation to stressful events. PMID:20419561

  14. Studying the neurobiology of human social interaction: Making the case for ecological validity.

    PubMed

    Hogenelst, Koen; Schoevers, Robert A; aan het Rot, Marije

    2015-01-01

    With this commentary we make the case for an increased focus on the ecological validity of the measures used to assess aspects of human social functioning. Impairments in social functioning are seen in many types of psychopathology, negatively affecting the lives of psychiatric patients and those around them. Yet the neurobiology underlying abnormal social interaction remains unclear. As an example of human social neuroscience research with relevance to biological psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology, this commentary discusses published experimental studies involving manipulation of the human brain serotonin system that included assessments of social behavior. To date, these studies have mostly been laboratory-based and included computer tasks, observations by others, or single-administration self-report measures. Most laboratory measures used so far inform about the role of serotonin in aspects of social interaction, but the relevance for real-life interaction is often unclear. Few studies have used naturalistic assessments in real life. We suggest several laboratory methods with high ecological validity as well as ecological momentary assessment, which involves intensive repeated measures in naturalistic settings. In sum, this commentary intends to stimulate experimental research on the neurobiology of human social interaction as it occurs in real life.

  15. Ethnic differences in social support after initial receipt of an abnormal mammogram.

    PubMed

    Molina, Yamile; Hohl, Sarah D; Nguyen, Michelle; Hempstead, Bridgette H; Weatherby, Shauna Rae; Dunbar, Claire; Beresford, Shirley A A; Ceballos, Rachel M

    2016-10-01

    We examine access to and type of social support after initial receipt of an abnormal mammogram across non-Latina White (NLW), African American, and Latina women. This cross-sectional study used a mixed method design, with quantitative and qualitative measures. Women were recruited through 2 community advocates and 3 breast-health-related care organizations. With regard to access, African American women were less likely to access social support relative to NLW counterparts. Similar nonsignificant differences were found for Latinas. Women did not discuss results with family and friends to avoid burdening social networks and negative reactions. Networks' geographic constraints and medical mistrust influenced Latina and African American women's decisions to discuss results. With regard to type of social support, women reported emotional support across ethnicity. Latina and African American women reported more instrumental support, whereas NLW women reported more informational support in the context of their well-being. There are shared and culturally unique aspects of women's experiences with social support after initially receiving an abnormal mammogram. Latina and African American women may particularly benefit from informational support from health care professionals. Communitywide efforts to mitigate mistrust and encourage active communication about cancer may improve ethnic disparities in emotional well-being and diagnostic resolution during initial receipt of an abnormal mammogram. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  16. Progranulin haploinsufficiency causes biphasic social dominance abnormalities in the tube test.

    PubMed

    Arrant, A E; Filiano, A J; Warmus, B A; Hall, A M; Roberson, E D

    2016-07-01

    Loss-of-function mutations in progranulin (GRN) are a major autosomal dominant cause of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a neurodegenerative disorder in which social behavior is disrupted. Progranulin-insufficient mice, both Grn(+/-) and Grn(-/-) , are used as models of FTD due to GRN mutations, with Grn(+/-) mice mimicking the progranulin haploinsufficiency of FTD patients with GRN mutations. Grn(+/-) mice have increased social dominance in the tube test at 6 months of age, although this phenotype has not been reported in Grn(-/-) mice. In this study, we investigated how the tube test phenotype of progranulin-insufficient mice changes with age, determined its robustness under several testing conditions, and explored the associated cellular mechanisms. We observed biphasic social dominance abnormalities in Grn(+/-) mice: at 6-8 months, Grn(+/-) mice were more dominant than wild-type littermates, while after 9 months of age, Grn(+/-) mice were less dominant. In contrast, Grn(-/-) mice did not exhibit abnormal social dominance, suggesting that progranulin haploinsufficiency has distinct effects from complete progranulin deficiency. The biphasic tube test phenotype of Grn(+/-) mice was associated with abnormal cellular signaling and neuronal morphology in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. At 6-9 months, Grn(+/-) mice exhibited increased mTORC2/Akt signaling in the amygdala and enhanced dendritic arbors in the basomedial amygdala, and at 9-16 months Grn(+/-) mice exhibited diminished basal dendritic arbors in the prelimbic cortex. These data show a progressive change in tube test dominance in Grn(+/-) mice and highlight potential underlying mechanisms by which progranulin insufficiency may disrupt social behavior. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

  17. A quantitative estimate of schema abnormality in socially anxious and non-anxious individuals.

    PubMed

    Wenzel, Amy; Brendle, Jennifer R; Kerr, Patrick L; Purath, Donna; Ferraro, F Richard

    2007-01-01

    Although cognitive theories of anxiety suggest that anxious individuals are characterized by abnormal threat-relevant schemas, few empirical studies have estimated the nature of these cognitive structures using quantitative methods that lend themselves to inferential statistical analysis. In the present study, socially anxious (n = 55) and non-anxious (n = 62) participants completed 3 Q-Sort tasks to assess their knowledge of events that commonly occur in social or evaluative scenarios. Participants either sorted events according to how commonly they personally believe the events occur (i.e. "self" condition), or to how commonly they estimate that most people believe they occur (i.e. "other" condition). Participants' individual Q-Sorts were correlated with mean sorts obtained from a normative sample to obtain an estimate of schema abnormality, with lower correlations representing greater levels of abnormality. Relative to non-anxious participants, socially anxious participants' sorts were less strongly associated with sorts of the normative sample, particularly in the "self" condition, although secondary analyses suggest that some significant results might be explained, in part, by depression and experience with the scenarios. These results provide empirical support for the theoretical notion that threat-relevant self-schemas of anxious individuals are characterized by some degree of abnormality.

  18. Social interaction reward decreases p38 activation in the nucleus accumbens shell of rats

    PubMed Central

    Salti, Ahmad; Kummer, Kai K.; Sadangi, Chinmaya; Dechant, Georg; Saria, Alois; El Rawas, Rana

    2016-01-01

    We have previously shown that animals acquired robust conditioned place preference (CPP) to either social interaction alone or cocaine alone. Recently it has been reported that drugs of abuse abnormally activated p38, a member of mitogen-activated protein kinase family, in the nucleus accumbens. In this study, we aimed to investigate the expression of the activated form of p38 (pp38) in the nucleus accumbens shell and core of rats expressing either cocaine CPP or social interaction CPP 1 h, 2 h and 24 h after the CPP test. We hypothesized that cocaine CPP will increase pp38 in the nucleus accumbens shell/core as compared to social interaction CPP. Surprisingly, we found that 24 h after social interaction CPP, pp38 neuronal levels were decreased in the nucleus accumbens shell to the level of naïve rats. Control saline rats that received saline in both compartments of the CPP apparatus and cocaine CPP rats showed similar enhanced p38 activation as compared to naïve and social interaction CPP rats. We also found that the percentage of neurons expressing dopaminergic receptor D2R and pp38 was also decreased in the shell of the nucleus accumbens of social interaction CPP rats as compared to controls. Given the emerging role of p38 in stress/anxiety behaviors, these results suggest that (1) social interaction reward has anti-stress effects; (2) cocaine conditioning per se does not affect p38 activation and that (3) marginal stress is sufficient to induce p38 activation in the shell of the nucleus accumbens. PMID:26300300

  19. How attention gates social interactions.

    PubMed

    Capozzi, Francesca; Ristic, Jelena

    2018-05-25

    Social interactions are at the core of social life. However, humans selectively choose their exchange partners and do not engage in all available opportunities for social encounters. In this review, we argue that attentional systems play an important role in guiding the selection of social interactions. Supported by both classic and emerging literature, we identify and characterize the three core processes-perception, interpretation, and evaluation-that interact with attentional systems to modulate selective responses to social environments. Perceptual processes facilitate attentional prioritization of social cues. Interpretative processes link attention with understanding of cues' social meanings and agents' mental states. Evaluative processes determine the perceived value of the source of social information. The interplay between attention and these three routes of processing places attention in a powerful role to manage the selection of the vast amount of social information that individuals encounter on a daily basis and, in turn, gate the selection of social interactions. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

  20. The (ab)normal-social-personality catena: Exploring The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology during the interwar years.

    PubMed

    Davidson, Ian J

    2018-05-01

    This article is a cocitation network analysis of The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology ( JASP ) from 1925 to 1942. The analysis was conducted to help shed light on the historical roots of the intellectual and institutional relationships among social, personality, and abnormal psychology. JASP was a main venue for the boundary work of early- to mid-twentieth-century American psychologists. One of the main goals of these various research communities was to appropriate psychoanalytic and sociological concepts into preferred methods and approaches that favored an individualistic, quantifiable, and ultimately normal subject. Five major research communities are identified using the citations, and historically contextualized: Community #1, Measuring Social Aspects; Community #2, Psychometrics; Community #3, Operationalizing Psychoanalysis; Community #4, Introversion Studies; and Community #5, Experimental Social Psychology. This analysis demonstrates how disciplinary psychologists, at least within JASP , were united by the work of delimiting their research from closely aligned fields studying the same concepts-even while psychologists' methodological commitments to experimentalism or psychological testing might have ostensibly divided them. Possible future research incorporating post-World War II research and dynamic networking approaches is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  1. Social interaction reward decreases p38 activation in the nucleus accumbens shell of rats.

    PubMed

    Salti, Ahmad; Kummer, Kai K; Sadangi, Chinmaya; Dechant, Georg; Saria, Alois; El Rawas, Rana

    2015-12-01

    We have previously shown that animals acquired robust conditioned place preference (CPP) to either social interaction alone or cocaine alone. Recently it has been reported that drugs of abuse abnormally activated p38, a member of mitogen-activated protein kinase family, in the nucleus accumbens. In this study, we aimed to investigate the expression of the activated form of p38 (pp38) in the nucleus accumbens shell and core of rats expressing either cocaine CPP or social interaction CPP 1 h, 2 h and 24 h after the CPP test. We hypothesized that cocaine CPP will increase pp38 in the nucleus accumbens shell/core as compared to social interaction CPP. Surprisingly, we found that 24 h after social interaction CPP, pp38 neuronal levels were decreased in the nucleus accumbens shell to the level of naïve rats. Control saline rats that received saline in both compartments of the CPP apparatus and cocaine CPP rats showed similar enhanced p38 activation as compared to naïve and social interaction CPP rats. We also found that the percentage of neurons expressing dopaminergic receptor D2R and pp38 was also decreased in the shell of the nucleus accumbens of social interaction CPP rats as compared to controls. Given the emerging role of p38 in stress/anxiety behaviors, these results suggest that (1) social interaction reward has anti-stress effects; (2) cocaine conditioning per se does not affect p38 activation and that (3) marginal stress is sufficient to induce p38 activation in the shell of the nucleus accumbens. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  2. Neurologic abnormalities in murderers.

    PubMed

    Blake, P Y; Pincus, J H; Buckner, C

    1995-09-01

    Thirty-one individuals awaiting trial or sentencing for murder or undergoing an appeal process requested a neurologic examination through legal counsel. We attempted in each instance to obtain EEG, MRI or CT, and neuropsychological testing. Neurologic examination revealed evidence of "frontal" dysfunction in 20 (64.5%). There were symptoms or some other evidence of temporal lobe abnormality in nine (29%). We made a specific neurologic diagnosis in 20 individuals (64.5%), including borderline or full mental retardation (9) and cerebral palsy (2), among others. Neuropsychological testing revealed abnormalities in all subjects tested. There were EEG abnormalities in eight of the 20 subjects tested, consisting mainly of bilateral sharp waves with slowing. There were MRI or CT abnormalities in nine of the 19 subjects tested, consisting primarily of atrophy and white matter changes. Psychiatric diagnoses included paranoid schizophrenia (8), dissociative disorder (4), and depression (9). Virtually all subjects had paranoid ideas and misunderstood social situations. There was a documented history of profound, protracted physical abuse in 26 (83.8%) and of sexual abuse in 10 (32.3%). It is likely that prolonged, severe physical abuse, paranoia, and neurologic brain dysfunction interact to form the matrix of violent behavior.

  3. Autism-Relevant Social Abnormalities and Cognitive Deficits in Engrailed-2 Knockout Mice

    PubMed Central

    Brielmaier, Jennifer; Matteson, Paul G.; Silverman, Jill L.; Senerth, Julia M.; Kelly, Samantha; Genestine, Matthieu; Millonig, James H.

    2012-01-01

    ENGRAILED 2 (En2), a homeobox transcription factor, functions as a patterning gene in the early development and connectivity of rodent hindbrain and cerebellum, and regulates neurogenesis and development of monoaminergic pathways. To further understand the neurobiological functions of En2, we conducted neuroanatomical expression profiling of En2 wildtype mice. RTQPCR assays demonstrated that En2 is expressed in adult brain structures including the somatosensory cortex, hippocampus, striatum, thalamus, hypothalamus and brainstem. Human genetic studies indicate that EN2 is associated with autism. To determine the consequences of En2 mutations on mouse behaviors, including outcomes potentially relevant to autism, we conducted comprehensive phenotyping of social, communication, repetitive, and cognitive behaviors. En2 null mutants exhibited robust deficits in reciprocal social interactions as juveniles and adults, and absence of sociability in adults, replicated in two independent cohorts. Fear conditioning and water maze learning were impaired in En2 null mutants. High immobility in the forced swim test, reduced prepulse inhibition, mild motor coordination impairments and reduced grip strength were detected in En2 null mutants. No genotype differences were found on measures of ultrasonic vocalizations in social contexts, and no stereotyped or repetitive behaviors were observed. Developmental milestones, general health, olfactory abilities, exploratory locomotor activity, anxiety-like behaviors and pain responses did not differ across genotypes, indicating that the behavioral abnormalities detected in En2 null mutants were not attributable to physical or procedural confounds. Our findings provide new insight into the role of En2 in complex behaviors and suggest that disturbances in En2 signaling may contribute to neuropsychiatric disorders marked by social and cognitive deficits, including autism spectrum disorders. PMID:22829897

  4. Mental exercising through simple socializing: social interaction promotes general cognitive functioning.

    PubMed

    Ybarra, Oscar; Burnstein, Eugene; Winkielman, Piotr; Keller, Matthew C; Manis, Melvin; Chan, Emily; Rodriguez, Joel

    2008-02-01

    Social interaction is a central feature of people's life and engages a variety of cognitive resources. Thus, social interaction should facilitate general cognitive functioning. Previous studies suggest such a link, but they used special populations (e.g., elderly with cognitive impairment), measured social interaction indirectly (e.g., via marital status), and only assessed effects of extended interaction in correlational designs. Here the relation between mental functioning and direct indicators of social interaction was examined in a younger and healthier population. Study 1 using survey methodology found a positive relationship between social interaction, assessed via amount of actual social contact, and cognitive functioning in people from three age groups including younger adults. Study 2 using an experimental design found that a small amount of social interaction (10 min) can facilitate cognitive performance. The findings are discussed in the context of the benefits social relationships have for so many aspects of people's lives.

  5. Cerebellar ataxia: abnormal control of interaction torques across multiple joints.

    PubMed

    Bastian, A J; Martin, T A; Keating, J G; Thach, W T

    1996-07-01

    1. We studied seven subjects with cerebellar lesions and seven control subjects as they made reaching movements in the sagittal plane to a target directly in front of them. Reaches were made under three different conditions: 1) "slow-accurate," 2) "fast-accurate," and 3) "fast as possible." All subjects were videotaped moving in a sagittal plane with markers on the index finger, wrist, elbow, and shoulder. Marker positions were digitized and then used to calculate joint angles. For each of the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints, inverse dynamics equations based on a three-segment limb model were used to estimate the net torque (sum of components) and each of the component torques. The component torques consisted of the torque due to gravity, the dynamic interaction torques induced passively by the movement of the adjacent joint, and the torque produced by the muscles and passive tissue elements (sometimes called "residual" torque). 2. A kinematic analysis of the movement trajectory and the change in joint angles showed that the reaches of subjects with cerebellar lesions were abnormal compared with reaches of control subjects. In both the slow-accurate and fast-accurate conditions the cerebellar subjects made abnormally curved wrist paths; the curvature was greater in the slow-accurate condition. During the slow-accurate condition, cerebellar subjects showed target undershoot and tended to move one joint at a time (decomposition). During the fast-accurate reaches, the cerebellar subjects showed target overshoot. Additionally, in the fast-accurate condition, cerebellar subjects moved the joints at abnormal rates relative to one another, but the movements were less decomposed. Only three subjects were tested in the fast as possible condition; this condition was analyzed only to determine maximal reaching speeds of subjects with cerebellar lesions. Cerebellar subjects moved more slowly than controls in all three conditions. 3. A kinetic analysis of torques generated at

  6. Grey matter abnormalities in social anxiety disorder: a pilot study.

    PubMed

    Syal, Supriya; Hattingh, Coenraad J; Fouché, Jean-Paul; Spottiswoode, Bruce; Carey, Paul D; Lochner, Christine; Stein, Dan J

    2012-09-01

    While a number of studies have explored the functional neuroanatomy of social anxiety disorder (SAD), data on grey matter integrity are lacking. We conducted structural MRI scans to examine the cortical thickness of grey matter in individuals with SAD. 13 unmedicated adult patients with a primary diagnosis of generalized social anxiety disorder and 13 demographically (age, gender and education) matched healthy controls underwent 3T structural magnetic resonance imaging. Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes were estimated using an automated algorithm (Freesurfer Version 4.5). Compared to controls, social anxiety disorder patients showed significant bilateral cortical thinning in the fusiform and post central regions. Additionally, right hemisphere specific thinning was found in the frontal, temporal, parietal and insular cortices of individuals with social anxiety disorder. Although uncorrected cortical grey matter volumes were significantly lower in individuals with SAD, we did not detect volumetric differences in corrected amygdala, hippocampal or cortical grey matter volumes across study groups. Structural differences in grey matter thickness between SAD patients and controls highlight the diffuse neuroanatomical networks involved in both social anxiety and social behavior. Additional work is needed to investigate the causal mechanisms involved in such structural abnormalities in SAD.

  7. Bilateral amygdala damage impairs the acquisition and use of common ground in social interaction

    PubMed Central

    Gupta, Rupa; Duff, Melissa C.; Tranel, Daniel

    2010-01-01

    Objective The development of “common ground,” or mutual knowledge of shared information, is believed to require the ability to update a mental representation of another person’s thoughts and knowledge based on verbal information and nonverbal social and emotional signals, in order to facilitate economical communication. As in other forms of everyday social communication, the development of common ground likely requires the orchestration of multiple cognitive processes supported by various neural systems. Here, we investigate the contribution of the amygdala to these processes. Methods SM, a patient with complete, focal, bilateral amygdala damage and deficits in social and emotional processing, and five healthy comparison participants, each interacted with a familiar partner. We investigated the participants’ ability to develop and use referential labels across twenty-four dynamic, collaborative interactions. Participants verbally directed their partner how to arrange a set of 12 abstract tangrams while separated by a low barrier, allowing them to see each other but hiding their tangrams. Results In contrast to comparison participants, SM exhibited an impaired rate of learning across trials and did not show the typical simplification in the labels generated during the interactions. Detailed analyses of SM’s interactional discourse and social behavior suggested that she has impaired perspective-taking or what can be interpreted as deficient “theory of mind,” manifested in abnormal “language-in-use.” Conclusions These results support the conclusion that the amygdala, a structure critical for social and emotional processing, plays an important role in the acquisition and use of common ground and in social communication more broadly. PMID:21381821

  8. Abnormal Functional Connectivity in Autism Spectrum Disorders during Face Processing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kleinhans, Natalia M.; Richards, Todd; Sterling, Lindsey; Stegbauer, Keith C.; Mahurin, Roderick; Johnson, L. Clark; Greenson, Jessica; Dawson, Geraldine; Aylward, Elizabeth

    2008-01-01

    Abnormalities in the interactions between functionally linked brain regions have been suggested to be associated with the clinical impairments observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We investigated functional connectivity within the limbic system during face identification; a primary component of social cognition, in 19 high-functioning…

  9. Psychological distress, social withdrawal, and coping following receipt of an abnormal mammogram among different ethnicities: a mediation model.

    PubMed

    Molina, Yamile; Beresford, Shirley A A; Espinoza, Noah; Thompson, Beti

    2014-09-01

    To explore ethnic differences in psychological distress and social withdrawal after receiving an abnormal mammogram result and to assess if coping strategies mediate ethnic differences. Descriptive correlational. Two urban mobile mammography units and a rural community hospital in the state of Washington. 41 Latina and 41 non-Latina Caucasian (NLC) women who had received an abnormal mammogram result. Women completed standard sociodemographic questions, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the social dimension of the Psychological Consequences Questionnaire, and the Brief COPE. Ethnicity, psychological distress, social withdrawal, and coping. Latinas experienced greater psychological distress and social withdrawal compared to NLC counterparts. Denial as a coping strategy mediated ethnic differences in psychological distress. Religious coping mediated ethnic differences in social withdrawal. Larger population-based studies are necessary to understand how ethnic differences in coping strategies can influence psychological outcomes. This is an important finding that warrants additional study among women who are and are not diagnosed with breast cancer following an abnormal mammogram. Nurses may be able to work with Latina patients to diminish denial coping and consequent distress. Nurses may be particularly effective, given cultural values concerning strong interpersonal relationships and respect for authority figures.

  10. Social Interaction in Adventure Recreation Participation

    Treesearch

    Michael A. Schuett

    1992-01-01

    This study investigated the social interaction of white water kayakers and attempted to predict the level of enduring involvement of participants. It was hypothesized that social interaction would shift from classes and programs to peers of similar interests as level of involvement increased. The results did show that social interaction is a primary reason for...

  11. Social Interaction and Collaboration among Oncology Nurses.

    PubMed

    Moore, Jane; Prentice, Dawn; McQuestion, Maurene

    2015-01-01

    Collaboration is a complex process influenced by organizational, professional, interpersonal, and personal factors. Research has demonstrated that collaboration may also be influenced by social factors. Nurses spend much of their time working in collaborative teams, yet little is known about how they socially interact in practice. This qualitative case study explored nurse perceptions of social interaction in relation to collaboration. Data were collected using telephone interviews and documentary reviews from fourteen oncology nurses employed at one cancer center in Canada. Thematic analysis revealed two themes: knowing you is trusting you and formal and informal opportunities. Nurses reported that social interaction meant getting to know someone personally as well as professionally. Social interaction was enacted inside of work during breaks/meals and outside of work at planned events. Social interaction was facilitated by having a long-term current and/or previous professional and personal relationship. The barriers to social interaction included a lack of time to get to know each other, workload issues, and poor interpersonal skills. Findings suggest that social interaction is an important factor in the collaborative relationship among oncology nurses. Nurse leaders need to promote social interaction opportunities and facilitate educational sessions to improve social and interpersonal skills.

  12. An examination of social interaction profiles based on the factors measured by the screen for social interaction.

    PubMed

    Mahoney, Emery B; Breitborde, Nicholas J K; Leone, Sarah L; Ghuman, Jaswinder Kaur

    2014-10-01

    Deficits in the capacity to engage in social interactions are a core deficit associated with Autistic Disorder (AD) and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). These deficits emerge at a young age, making screening for social interaction deficits and interventions targeted at improving capacity in this area important for early identification and intervention. Screening and early intervention efforts are particularly important given the poor short and long term outcomes for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) who experience social interaction deficits. The Screen for Social Interaction (SSI) is a well-validated screening measure that examines a child's capacity for social interaction using a developmental approach. The present study identified four underlying factors measured by the SSI, namely, Connection with Caregiver, Interaction/Imagination, Social Approach/Interest, and Agreeable Nature. The resulting factors were utilized to compare social interaction profiles across groups of children with AD, PDD-NOS, children with non-ASD developmental and/or psychiatric conditions and typically developing children. The results indicate that children with AD and those with PDD-NOS had similar social interaction profiles, but were able to be distinguished from typically developing children on every factor and were able to be distinguished from children with non-ASD psychiatric conditions on every factor except the Connection with Caregiver factor. In addition, children with non-ASD developmental and/or psychiatric conditions could be distinguished from typically developing children on the Connection with Caregiver factor and the Social Approach/Interest factor. These findings have implications for screening and intervention for children with ASDs and non-ASD psychiatric conditions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Impaired social decision making in patients with major depressive disorder.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yun; Zhou, Yuan; Li, Shu; Wang, Peng; Wu, Guo-Wei; Liu, Zhe-Ning

    2014-01-23

    Abnormal decision-making processes have been observed in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, it is unresolved whether MDD patients show abnormalities in decision making in a social interaction context, in which decisions have actual influences on both the self-interests of the decision makers per se and those of their partners. Using a well-studied ultimatum game (UG), which is frequently used to investigate social interaction behavior, we examined whether MDD can be associated with abnormalities in social decision-making behavior by comparing the acceptance rates of MDD patients (N = 14) with those of normal controls (N = 19). The acceptance rates of the patients were lower than those of the normal controls. Additionally, unfair proposals were accepted at similar rates from computer partners and human partners in the MDD patients, unlike the acceptance rates in the normal controls, who were able to discriminatively treat unfair proposals from computer partners and human partners. Depressed patients show abnormal decision-making behavior in a social interaction context. Several possible explanations, such as increased sensitivity to fairness, negative emotional state and disturbed affective cognition, have been proposed to account for the abnormal social decision-making behavior in patients with MDD. This aberrant social decision-making behavior may provide a new perspective in the search to find biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of MDD.

  14. Assessing Preference for Social Interactions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clay, Casey J.; Samaha, Andrew L.; Bloom, Sarah E.; Bogoev, Bistra K.; Boyle, Megan A.

    2013-01-01

    We examined a procedure to assess preference for social interactions in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Preferences were identified in five individuals using a paired-choice procedure in which participants approached therapists who provided different forms of social interactions. A subsequent tracking test showed that…

  15. Student’s social interaction in mathematics learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Apriliyanto, B.; Saputro, D. R. S.; Riyadi

    2018-03-01

    Mathematics learning achievement is influenced by the internal and external factor of the students. One of the influencing external factors is social interaction with friends in learning activities. In modern learning, the learning is student-centered, so the student interaction is needed to learn about certain basic competence. Potential and motivation of students in learning are expected to develop with good social interaction in order to get maximum results. Social interaction is an important aspect of learning Mathematics because students get the opportunity to express their own thoughts in order to encourage a reflection on the knowledge they have. This research uses the correlational descriptive method involving 36 students for the tenth grade, eleventh grade, and twelfth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Wuryantoro and data collecting technique using questionnaire for social interaction and documentation for learning outcome. The result of this research shows that learning achievement and social interaction of students are not good. Based on the result of data analysis, it is shown that the social interaction and Mathematics learning achievement are still in the low level. This research concludes that students’ social interaction influences student learning achievement in Mathematics subjects.

  16. Sensing sociality in dogs: what may make an interactive robot social?

    PubMed

    Lakatos, Gabriella; Janiak, Mariusz; Malek, Lukasz; Muszynski, Robert; Konok, Veronika; Tchon, Krzysztof; Miklósi, A

    2014-03-01

    This study investigated whether dogs would engage in social interactions with an unfamiliar robot, utilize the communicative signals it provides and to examine whether the level of sociality shown by the robot affects the dogs' performance. We hypothesized that dogs would react to the communicative signals of a robot more successfully if the robot showed interactive social behaviour in general (towards both humans and dogs) than if it behaved in a machinelike, asocial way. The experiment consisted of an interactive phase followed by a pointing session, both with a human and a robotic experimenter. In the interaction phase, dogs witnessed a 6-min interaction episode between the owner and a human experimenter and another 6-min interaction episode between the owner and the robot. Each interaction episode was followed by the pointing phase in which the human/robot experimenter indicated the location of hidden food by using pointing gestures (two-way choice test). The results showed that in the interaction phase, the dogs' behaviour towards the robot was affected by the differential exposure. Dogs spent more time staying near the robot experimenter as compared to the human experimenter, with this difference being even more pronounced when the robot behaved socially. Similarly, dogs spent more time gazing at the head of the robot experimenter when the situation was social. Dogs achieved a significantly lower level of performance (finding the hidden food) with the pointing robot than with the pointing human; however, separate analysis of the robot sessions suggested that gestures of the socially behaving robot were easier for the dogs to comprehend than gestures of the asocially behaving robot. Thus, the level of sociality shown by the robot was not enough to elicit the same set of social behaviours from the dogs as was possible with humans, although sociality had a positive effect on dog-robot interactions.

  17. Emotional intelligence and social interaction.

    PubMed

    Lopes, Paulo N; Brackett, Marc A; Nezlek, John B; Schütz, Astrid; Sellin, Ina; Salovey, Peter

    2004-08-01

    Two studies found positive relationships between the ability to manage emotions and the quality of social interactions, supporting the predictive and incremental validity of an ability measure of emotional intelligence, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). In a sample of 118 American college students (Study 1), higher scores on the managing emotions subscale of the MSCEIT were positively related to the quality of interactions with friends, evaluated separately by participants and two friends. In a diary study of social interaction with 103 German college students (Study 2), managing emotions scores were positively related to the perceived quality of interactions with opposite sex individuals. Scores on this subscale were also positively related to perceived success in impression management in social interactions with individuals of the opposite sex. In both studies, the main findings remained statistically significant after controlling for Big Five personality traits.

  18. Abnormal illness behaviour: physiological, psychological and social dimensions of coping with distress.

    PubMed

    Kirmayer, Laurence J; Looper, Karl J

    2006-01-01

    Pilowsky introduced the term 'abnormal illness behaviour' to characterize syndromes of excessive or inadequate response to symptoms, including hypochondriasis, somatization, and denial of illness. This review summarizes recent work from sociology, health psychology and psychiatry that contributes to an understanding of the processes that may underlie abnormal illness behaviour. Disturbances in the regulation of physiological systems may account for many 'unexplained' symptoms and sickness behaviour. Increased attention to bodily sensations, sensitivity to pain and catastrophizing play important roles in illness behaviour in medical illness. Developmental adversities and parental modelling of illness behaviour in childhood may increase bodily preoccupation and health care utilization. Apparent cross-national differences in illness behaviour may reflect differences in health care systems, but cultural models of illness and social stigma remain important determinants of illness denial and avoidance of mental health services. Research into illness behaviour is relevant to efforts to rethink the psychiatric nosology of somatoform disorders. The discrete somatoform disorders might well be replaced by a dimensional framework that identifies specific pathological processes in cognition, perception and social behaviour that contribute to bodily distress, impaired coping, inappropriate use of health services, chronicity and disability.

  19. Visual cognition during real social interaction

    PubMed Central

    Skarratt, Paul A.; Cole, Geoff G.; Kuhn, Gustav

    2012-01-01

    Laboratory studies of social visual cognition often simulate the critical aspects of joint attention by having participants interact with a computer-generated avatar. Recently, there has been a movement toward examining these processes during authentic social interaction. In this review, we will focus on attention to faces, attentional misdirection, and a phenomenon we have termed social inhibition of return (Social IOR), that have revealed aspects of social cognition that were hitherto unknown. We attribute these discoveries to the use of paradigms that allow for more realistic social interactions to take place. We also point to an area that has begun to attract a considerable amount of interest—that of Theory of Mind (ToM) and automatic perspective taking—and suggest that this too might benefit from adopting a similar approach. PMID:22754521

  20. Social Interactions and Mathematics Learning.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cesar, Margarida

    In the 1970s W. Doise, G. Mugny and A.-N. Perret-Clermont underlined for the first time the essential role played by social interactions in cognitive development. Since then, many authors have been studying social interactions and their mediating role in knowledge apprehension and in skills acquisition. Inspired by L. Vygotsky's theory, many…

  1. Social support and social interaction ties on internet addiction: integrating online and offline contexts.

    PubMed

    Wang, Edward Shih-Tse; Wang, Michael Chih-Hung

    2013-11-01

    This study explores the relationship between social support and social interaction ties on Internet addiction by integrating both online and offline social encounters. A total of 1,642 members of online social communities participated in this research, for which structural equation modeling was used for analysis. The findings show that social support is positively associated with social interaction ties in both online and offline contexts. In addition, online social support and online social interaction ties are positively associated with Internet addiction, whereas offline social support and social interaction ties on Internet addiction are negatively associated. This finding has important implications not only for understanding the cause of Internet addiction but also for understanding the diminishing Internet addiction due to social support and social interaction ties.

  2. Constructing an understanding of mind: the development of children's social understanding within social interaction.

    PubMed

    Carpendale, Jeremy I M; Lewis, Charlie

    2004-02-01

    Theories of children's developing understanding of mind tend to emphasize either individualistic processes of theory formation, maturation, or introspection, or the process of enculturation. However, such theories must be able to account for the accumulating evidence of the role of social interaction in the development of social understanding. We propose an alternative account, according to which the development of children's social understanding occurs within triadic interaction involving the child's experience of the world as well as communicative interaction with others about their experience and beliefs (Chapman 1991; 1999). It is through such triadic interaction that children gradually construct knowledge of the world as well as knowledge of other people. We contend that the extent and nature of the social interaction children experience will influence the development of children's social understanding. Increased opportunity to engage in cooperative social interaction and exposure to talk about mental states should facilitate the development of social understanding. We review evidence suggesting that children's understanding of mind develops gradually in the context of social interaction. Therefore, we need a theory of development in this area that accords a fundamental role to social interaction, yet does not assume that children simply adopt socially available knowledge but rather that children construct an understanding of mind within social interaction.

  3. Uncertainty about social interactions leads to the evolution of social heuristics.

    PubMed

    van den Berg, Pieter; Wenseleers, Tom

    2018-05-31

    Individuals face many types of social interactions throughout their lives, but they often cannot perfectly assess what the consequences of their actions will be. Although it is known that unpredictable environments can profoundly affect the evolutionary process, it remains unclear how uncertainty about the nature of social interactions shapes the evolution of social behaviour. Here, we present an evolutionary simulation model, showing that even intermediate uncertainty leads to the evolution of simple cooperation strategies that disregard information about the social interaction ('social heuristics'). Moreover, our results show that the evolution of social heuristics can greatly affect cooperation levels, nearly doubling cooperation rates in our simulations. These results provide new insight into why social behaviour, including cooperation in humans, is often observed to be seemingly suboptimal. More generally, our results show that social behaviour that seems maladaptive when considered in isolation may actually be well-adapted to a heterogeneous and uncertain world.

  4. Is Human-Computer Interaction Social or Parasocial?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sundar, S. Shyam

    Conducted in the attribution-research paradigm of social psychology, a study examined whether human-computer interaction is fundamentally social (as in human-human interaction) or parasocial (as in human-television interaction). All 30 subjects (drawn from an undergraduate class on communication) were exposed to an identical interaction with…

  5. Interactive Social Neuroscience to Study Autism Spectrum Disorder

    PubMed Central

    Rolison, Max J.; Naples, Adam J.; McPartland, James C.

    2015-01-01

    Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate difficulty with social interactions and relationships, but the neural mechanisms underlying these difficulties remain largely unknown. While social difficulties in ASD are most apparent in the context of interactions with other people, most neuroscience research investigating ASD have provided limited insight into the complex dynamics of these interactions. The development of novel, innovative “interactive social neuroscience” methods to study the brain in contexts with two interacting humans is a necessary advance for ASD research. Studies applying an interactive neuroscience approach to study two brains engaging with one another have revealed significant differences in neural processes during interaction compared to observation in brain regions that are implicated in the neuropathology of ASD. Interactive social neuroscience methods are crucial in clarifying the mechanisms underlying the social and communication deficits that characterize ASD. PMID:25745371

  6. Interactive social neuroscience to study autism spectrum disorder.

    PubMed

    Rolison, Max J; Naples, Adam J; McPartland, James C

    2015-03-01

    Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate difficulty with social interactions and relationships, but the neural mechanisms underlying these difficulties remain largely unknown. While social difficulties in ASD are most apparent in the context of interactions with other people, most neuroscience research investigating ASD have provided limited insight into the complex dynamics of these interactions. The development of novel, innovative "interactive social neuroscience" methods to study the brain in contexts with two interacting humans is a necessary advance for ASD research. Studies applying an interactive neuroscience approach to study two brains engaging with one another have revealed significant differences in neural processes during interaction compared to observation in brain regions that are implicated in the neuropathology of ASD. Interactive social neuroscience methods are crucial in clarifying the mechanisms underlying the social and communication deficits that characterize ASD.

  7. Perceived live interaction modulates the developing social brain.

    PubMed

    Rice, Katherine; Moraczewski, Dustin; Redcay, Elizabeth

    2016-09-01

    Although children's social development is embedded in social interaction, most developmental neuroscience studies have examined responses to non-interactive social stimuli (e.g. photographs of faces). The neural mechanisms of real-world social behavior are of special interest during middle childhood (roughly ages 7-13), a time of increased social complexity and competence coinciding with structural and functional social brain development. Evidence from adult neuroscience studies suggests that social interaction may alter neural processing, but no neuroimaging studies in children have directly examined the effects of live social-interactive context on social cognition. In the current study of middle childhood, we compare the processing of two types of speech: speech that children believed was presented over a real-time audio-feed by a social partner and speech that they believed was recorded. Although in reality all speech was prerecorded, perceived live speech resulted in significantly greater neural activation in regions associated with social cognitive processing. These findings underscore the importance of using ecologically-valid and interactive methods to understand the developing social brain. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  8. Glimpses into the blind spot: Social interaction and autism.

    PubMed

    Bottema-Beutel, Kristen

    2017-07-01

    A primary feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is marked difficulty in social interactions. Despite the centrality of social interaction differences to the clinical presentation of ASD, only a small portion of research in this field characterizes interaction in everyday social contexts. This theoretical paper reviews the growing corpus of interactional research on ASD, including discourse analysis (DA) and conversation analysis (CA) approaches. DA and CA are micro-analytic methods aimed at understanding the organizational structure of, and actions pursued within, social encounters. These methods are aligned with enactive theories of social interaction. The bulk of current ASD research construes social interaction as involving isolated individuals who represent and/or theorize about the minds of an interlocutor. Enactive approaches posit that achieving intersubjectivity does not require theories of other minds, but instead a propensity for coordinating social actions with others. Through the complementary lenses of enactivism and interactional research, I offer an account of autistic social interaction as involving differences in interactional coordination, interactional priorities, and the enactment of meaning across conversational turns. This characterization challenges the explanatory role of cognitive processes such as Theory of Mind, and points to new avenues for conceptualizing, measuring, and supporting social interaction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Development and use of behavior and social interaction software installed on Palm handheld for observation of a child's social interactions with the environment.

    PubMed

    Sarkar, Archana; Dutta, Arup; Dhingra, Usha; Dhingra, Pratibha; Verma, Priti; Juyal, Rakesh; Black, Robert E; Menon, Venugopal P; Kumar, Jitendra; Sazawal, Sunil

    2006-08-01

    In settings in developing countries, children often socialize with multiple socializing agents (peers, siblings, neighbors) apart from their parents, and thus, a measurement of a child's social interactions should be expanded beyond parental interactions. Since the environment plays a role in shaping a child's development, the measurement of child-socializing agents' interactions is important. We developed and used a computerized observational software Behavior and Social Interaction Software (BASIS) with a preloaded coding scheme installed on a handheld Palm device to record complex observations of interactions between children and socializing agents. Using BASIS, social interaction assessments were conducted on 573 preschool children for 1 h in their natural settings. Multiple screens with a set of choices in each screen were designed that included the child's location, broad activity, state, and interactions with child-socializing agents. Data were downloaded onto a computer and systematically analyzed. BASIS, installed on Palm OS (M-125), enabled the recording of the complex interactions of child-socializing agents that could not be recorded with manual forms. Thus, this tool provides an innovative and relatively accurate method for the systematic recording of social interactions in an unrestricted environment.

  10. Is social interaction associated with alcohol consumption in Uganda?

    PubMed

    Tumwesigye, Nazarius Mbona; Kasirye, Rogers; Nansubuga, Elizabeth

    2009-07-01

    Little is documented about the association of alcohol consumption and social interaction in Uganda, a country with one of the highest per capita alcohol consumptions in the world. This paper describes the pattern of social interaction by sex and establishes the relationship between social interaction and alcohol consumption with and without the consideration of confounders. The data used had 1479 records and were collected in a survey in 2003. The study was part of a multinational study on Gender, Alcohol, and Culture International Study (GENACIS). Each question on social interaction had been pre-coded in a way that quantified the extent of social interaction. The sum of responses on interaction questions gave a summative score which was used to compute summary indices on social interaction. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify the best combination of variables for a social interaction index. The index was computed by a prediction using a PCA model developed from the selected variables. The index was categorised into quintiles and used in bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis of alcohol consumption and social interaction. The stronger the social interaction the more the likelihood of taking alcohol frequently (chi(trend)(2)=4.72, p<0.001). The strength of the association remains significant even after controlling for sex, age group and education level (p=0.008). The strength of relationship between social interaction and heavy consumption of alcohol gets weak in multivariate analysis. Communication messages meant to improve health, well-being and public order need to incorporate dangers of negative influence of social interaction.

  11. Sense of social interaction in the elderly.

    PubMed

    Pokorski, M; Cajdler, A; Menzyk, K

    2008-12-01

    The intuit is that the need for social interaction increases in the elderly. The issue, however, has not been thoroughly investigated. In the present study we posed the following main questions: (i) does the need for social interaction indeed increase in older age? and (ii) is there a defined personality trait that would interact with the level of social interaction? The study was one of a self-reported group survey. A total of 50 women were enrolled, who were divided into two even contrasting age-groups: young, 20-30 years, and senior, 60-80 years old. The main exclusion criterion was depression, which was screened for before subject enrollment. The results demonstrate that the need for interpersonal meetings was similar in the young and old women; the mean score amounted to 15.4 +/-0.5 and 15.6 +/-0.6 points, respectively. The most frequent reason for the meetings in both young and old women was to socialize; 80 and 68% of women, respectively. The rarest, in turn, reason was to get help in everyday life matters; 8% young and 12% old women. Thus, we failed to show appreciable differences in the need, character, and goals of social interaction between the two age-groups of women. Social interaction had most often a free and selfless character. We also found that extraversion, independent of age, facilitated social interaction. In conclusion, although to the question asked of whether 'the older the person, the more he/she misses the interaction with others' 76-88% of the surveyed women in both age-groups answered affirmatively, the findings of the present study failed to confirm that.

  12. Social interaction in synthetic and natural microbial communities.

    PubMed

    Xavier, Joao B

    2011-04-12

    Social interaction among cells is essential for multicellular complexity. But how do molecular networks within individual cells confer the ability to interact? And how do those same networks evolve from the evolutionary conflict between individual- and population-level interests? Recent studies have dissected social interaction at the molecular level by analyzing both synthetic and natural microbial populations. These studies shed new light on the role of population structure for the evolution of cooperative interactions and revealed novel molecular mechanisms that stabilize cooperation among cells. New understanding of populations is changing our view of microbial processes, such as pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance, and suggests new ways to fight infection by exploiting social interaction. The study of social interaction is also challenging established paradigms in cancer evolution and immune system dynamics. Finding similar patterns in such diverse systems suggests that the same 'social interaction motifs' may be general to many cell populations.

  13. The joint influence of emotional reactivity and social interaction quality on cardiovascular responses to daily social interactions in working adults.

    PubMed

    Cornelius, Talea; Birk, Jeffrey L; Edmondson, Donald; Schwartz, Joseph E

    2018-05-01

    Social interaction quality is related to cardiovascular functioning. Trait emotional reactivity may amplify cardiovascular responses to social interactions, but is often examined as a tendency to react to negative events. We took a broader approach by examining the joint effects of positive and negative emotional reactivity and social interaction quality on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and heart rate (HR) responses to daily social interactions. Participants were part of a larger study on BP and cardiovascular health (N = 805; M Age  = 45.3; 40.1% male). Participants completed a measure of emotional reactivity (BIS/BAS) and 24-hour ABP monitoring accompanied by ecological momentary assessments (EMA) about just-experienced social interactions and their pleasantness. Multilevel models tested the associations of emotional reactivity, average pleasantness, and momentary pleasantness with BP and HR. Participants who reported more pleasant interactions on average had lower BP (systolic BP: B = -0.51 mmHg; diastolic BP: B = -0.46 mmHg). These effects did not depend on emotional reactivity. The effect of momentary pleasantness depended on BIS/BAS; in less reactive participants, greater pleasantness was associated with lower HR, B = -0.13 bpm; in more reactive participants, greater pleasantness was associated with increased HR, B = 0.16). Participants who had more pleasant social interactions throughout the day had lower mean ABP. The acute effect of a given social interaction on HR depended on emotional reactivity: HR increased for participants high in emotional reactivity during pleasant interactions. Thus, emotional reactivity may influence cardiovascular responses to social stimuli. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Allelic interaction of F1 pollen sterility loci and abnormal chromosome behaviour caused pollen sterility in intersubspecific autotetraploid rice hybrids.

    PubMed

    He, J H; Shahid, M Q; Li, Y J; Guo, H B; Cheng, X A; Liu, X D; Lu, Y G

    2011-08-01

    The intersubspecific hybrids of autotetraploid rice has many features that increase rice yield, but lower seed set is a major hindrance in its utilization. Pollen sterility is one of the most important factors which cause intersubspecific hybrid sterility. The hybrids with greater variation in seed set were used to study how the F(1) pollen sterile loci (S-a, S-b, and S-c) interact with each other and how abnormal chromosome behaviour and allelic interaction of F(1) sterility loci affect pollen fertility and seed set of intersubspecific autotetraploid rice hybrids. The results showed that interaction between pollen sterility loci have significant effects on the pollen fertility of autotetraploid hybrids, and pollen fertility further decreased with an increase in the allelic interaction of F(1) pollen sterility loci. Abnormal ultra-structure and microtubule distribution patterns during pollen mother cell (PMC) meiosis were found in the hybrids with low pollen fertility in interphase and leptotene, suggesting that the effect-time of pollen sterility loci interaction was very early. There were highly significant differences in the number of quadrivalents and bivalents, and in chromosome configuration among all the hybrids, and quadrivalents decreased with an increase in the seed set of autotetraploid hybrids. Many different kinds of chromosomal abnormalities, such as chromosome straggling, chromosome lagging, asynchrony of chromosome disjunction, and tri-fission were found during the various developmental stages of PMC meiosis. All these abnormalities were significantly higher in sterile hybrids than in fertile hybrids, suggesting that pollen sterility gene interactions tend to increase the chromosomal abnormalities which cause the partial abortion of male gametes and leads to the decline in the seed set of the autotetraploid rice hybrids. © 2011 The Author(s).

  15. Early social enrichment rescues adult behavioral and brain abnormalities in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome.

    PubMed

    Oddi, Diego; Subashi, Enejda; Middei, Silvia; Bellocchio, Luigi; Lemaire-Mayo, Valerie; Guzmán, Manuel; Crusio, Wim E; D'Amato, Francesca R; Pietropaolo, Susanna

    2015-03-13

    Converging lines of evidence support the use of environmental stimulation to ameliorate the symptoms of a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders. Applying these interventions at very early ages is critical to achieve a marked reduction of the pathological phenotypes. Here we evaluated the impact of early social enrichment in Fmr1-KO mice, a genetic mouse model of fragile X syndrome (FXS), a major developmental disorder and the most frequent monogenic cause of autism. Enrichment was achieved by providing male KO pups and their WT littermates with enhanced social stimulation, housing them from birth until weaning with the mother and an additional nonlactating female. At adulthood they were tested for locomotor, social, and cognitive abilities; furthermore, dendritic alterations were assessed in the hippocampus and amygdala, two brain regions known to be involved in the control of the examined behaviors and affected by spine pathology in Fmr1-KOs. Enrichment rescued the behavioral FXS-like deficits displayed in adulthood by Fmr1-KO mice, that is, hyperactivity, reduced social interactions, and cognitive deficits. Early social enrichment also eliminated the abnormalities shown by adult KO mice in the morphology of hippocampal and amygdala dendritic spines, namely an enhanced density of immature vs mature types. Importantly, enrichment did not induce neurobehavioral changes in WT mice, thus supporting specific effects on FXS-like pathology. These findings show that early environmental stimulation has profound and long-term beneficial effects on the pathological FXS phenotype, thereby encouraging the use of nonpharmacological interventions for the treatment of this and perhaps other neurodevelopmental diseases.

  16. A Social-Interactive Neuroscience Approach to Understanding the Developing Brain.

    PubMed

    Redcay, Elizabeth; Warnell, Katherine Rice

    2018-01-01

    From birth onward, social interaction is central to our everyday lives. Our ability to seek out social partners, flexibly navigate and learn from social interactions, and develop social relationships is critically important for our social and cognitive development and for our mental and physical health. Despite the importance of our social interactions, the neurodevelopmental bases of such interactions are underexplored, as most research examines social processing in noninteractive contexts. We begin this chapter with evidence from behavioral work and adult neuroimaging studies demonstrating how social-interactive context fundamentally alters cognitive and neural processing. We then highlight four brain networks that play key roles in social interaction and, drawing on existing developmental neuroscience literature, posit the functional roles these networks may play in social-interactive development. We conclude by discussing how a social-interactive neuroscience approach holds great promise for advancing our understanding of both typical and atypical social development. © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Animal models of social stress: the dark side of social interactions.

    PubMed

    Masis-Calvo, Marianela; Schmidtner, Anna K; de Moura Oliveira, Vinícius E; Grossmann, Cindy P; de Jong, Trynke R; Neumann, Inga D

    2018-05-10

    Social stress occurs in all social species, including humans, and shape both mental health and future interactions with conspecifics. Animal models of social stress are used to unravel the precise role of the main stress system - the HPA axis - on the one hand, and the social behavior network on the other, as these are intricately interwoven. The present review aims to summarize the insights gained from three highly useful and clinically relevant animal models of psychosocial stress: the resident-intruder (RI) test, the chronic subordinate colony housing (CSC), and the social fear conditioning (SFC). Each model brings its own focus: the role of the HPA axis in shaping acute social confrontations (RI test), the physiological and behavioral impairments resulting from chronic exposure to negative social experiences (CSC), and the neurobiology underlying social fear and its effects on future social interactions (SFC). Moreover, these models are discussed with special attention to the HPA axis and the neuropeptides vasopressin and oxytocin, which are important messengers in the stress system, in emotion regulation, as well as in the social behavior network. It appears that both nonapeptides balance the relative strength of the stress response, and simultaneously predispose the animal to positive or negative social interactions.

  18. Social reward: interactions with social status, social communication, aggression, and associated neural activation in the ventral tegmental area.

    PubMed

    Gil, Mario; Nguyen, Ngoc-Thao; McDonald, Mark; Albers, H Elliott

    2013-07-01

    Nearly all species engage in a variety of intraspecific social interactions, and there is evidence that these interactions are rewarding. Less is known, however, about the factors that influence social reward. Using the conditioned place preference paradigm, we tested whether social interactions are rewarding for male Syrian hamsters. We also tested whether social stimuli increase neural activation in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a component of the mesolimbic reward system, and how individual differences in social behavior and experience influence neural activation. In the present study, we found that hamsters developed a conditioned place preference for social interactions, but the effects were significantly stronger in dominant animals compared with subordinates. The number of Fos-immunoreactive cells in the VTA was significantly higher in hamsters that had engaged in a direct social encounter compared with hamsters exposed to a caged stimulus hamster or controls. Interestingly, socially experienced males had more Fos-immunoreactive cells in the VTA than socially naive males after exposure to a social stimulus. Surprisingly, the amount of Fos immunoreactivity in the VTA induced by a social stimulus was correlated with the amount of aggressive/dominance behaviors that had been observed during interactions that had occurred 2 months earlier. Our results indicate that social interactions between males are rewarding, and that social dominance increases the reward value. Social interactions stimulate the mesolimbic reward system, and social experience enhances its response to novel social stimuli and may produce long-term changes in the neural mechanisms that mediate the maintenance of dominance over long periods of time. © 2013 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Dyadic social interaction as an alternative reward to cocaine.

    PubMed

    Zernig, Gerald; Kummer, Kai K; Prast, Janine M

    2013-09-12

    Individuals suffering from substance use disorders often show severely impaired social interaction, preferring drugs of abuse to the contact with others. Their impaired social interaction is doubly harmful for them as (1) therapy itself is based and dependent on social interaction and as (2) social interaction is not available to them as an "alternative", i.e., non-drug reward, decreasing their motivation to stop drug use. We therefore developed an animal experimental model to investigate the neurobiology of dyadic social interaction- vs. cocaine reward. We took care to avoid: (a) engaging sexual attraction-related aspects of such a social interaction and (b) hierarchical difference as confounding stimuli. The cocaine- or social interaction stimulus was offered - in a mutually exclusive setting - within the confines of a conditioned place preference (CPP) apparatus. In our paradigm, only four 15-min episodes of social interaction proved sufficient to (i) switch the rats' preference from cocaine-associated contextual stimuli to social interaction CPP and (ii) inhibit the subsequent reacquisition/reexpression of cocaine CPP. This behavioral effect was paralleled by a reversal of brain activation (i.e., EGR1 expression) in the nucleus accumbens, the central and basolateral amygdala, and the ventral tegmental area. Of relevance for the psychotherapy of addictive disorders, the most rewarding sensory component of the composite stimulus "social interaction" was touch. To test our hypothesis that motivation is encoded in neuron ensembles dedicated to specific reward scenarios, we are currently (1) mapping the neural circuits involved in cocaine- vs. social-interaction reward and (2) adapting our paradigm for C57BL/6 mice to make use of the plethora of transgenic models available in this species.

  20. Reciprocity in Preschool Peers' Social Interaction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chiu, Jih-Perng Peter

    This study sought to describe the norms of reciprocity in social interaction from the viewpoint of immediate behavioral exchanges by examining the social interaction of preschool peers in a free-play situation. Seventeen 4-year-old children, eight girls and nine boys, were observed during free play activity periods after a picture sociometric test…

  1. Social motor coordination during adult-child interactions.

    PubMed

    Pfeiffer, Rita; Wallace, Mark; Lense, Miriam

    2018-05-04

    Social motor coordination (SMC) pertains to the timing of contingent movements during social interactions and is of high relevance for successful social and musical interactions. Semi-automated, objective methods are increasingly being used to analyze SMC, though it is unclear if these methods are feasible in naturalistic settings with young children. The purpose of the current preliminary study was to explore SMC in adult-child dyads during semi-structured social interactions. Thirteen dyads (mean age of children = 36 months) participated in a predictable turn-taking task from a social communication assessment, and a semi-automated frame-difference approach was used to capture movement activity. Relative timing and activity approaches revealed that, while there is some evidence of co-occurring movement, the dyad predominantly exhibited patterns of responsive movement activity (e.g., turn taking or alternating movement) consistent with the activity's structure. Future work may extend these approaches to social musical interactions in order to examine movement coordination and prosocial behavior during joint music-making activities with young children. © 2018 New York Academy of Sciences.

  2. Skype me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language

    PubMed Central

    Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick

    2013-01-01

    Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This paper focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24- to 30-months (N=36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and non-contingent video training (yoked video). Results suggest that children only learned novel verbs in socially contingent interactions (live interactions and video chat). The current study highlights the importance of social contingency in interactions for language learning and informs the literature on learning through screen media as the first study to examine word learning through video chat technology. PMID:24112079

  3. Infertile Japanese women's perception of positive and negative social interactions within their social networks.

    PubMed

    Akizuki, Yuri; Kai, Ichiro

    2008-12-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine positive and negative social interactions experienced by infertile Japanese women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 infertile women. The informants were asked about their experiences of positive (helpful) and negative (unhelpful) social interactions with members of their social networks, excluding their partners, with regard to their infertility. Nine positive social interaction categories were clarified, including listening closely to the distress experienced in infertility and treatment, not prying or interfering with the topic of children and respecting the women's decision regarding fertility treatment and taking a wait-and-see attitude. Nine negative social interaction categories were also identified, including prying with the topic of children, showing a negative attitude toward infertility or reproductive medicine, being criticized for not having children and avoiding contact. The present findings systematically and qualitatively determined the positive and negative social interactions experienced by infertile Japanese women within their social networks. This is essential knowledge for medical staff to counsel patients and their family members. To form a supportive social environment for infertile women, we recommend practical measures for health workers and helpful advice with regard to interactions between infertile women and their social networks.

  4. Social interaction enhances motor resonance for observed human actions.

    PubMed

    Hogeveen, Jeremy; Obhi, Sukhvinder S

    2012-04-25

    Understanding the neural basis of social behavior has become an important goal for cognitive neuroscience and a key aim is to link neural processes observed in the laboratory to more naturalistic social behaviors in real-world contexts. Although it is accepted that mirror mechanisms contribute to the occurrence of motor resonance (MR) and are common to action execution, observation, and imitation, questions remain about mirror (and MR) involvement in real social behavior and in processing nonhuman actions. To determine whether social interaction primes the MR system, groups of participants engaged or did not engage in a social interaction before observing human or robotic actions. During observation, MR was assessed via motor-evoked potentials elicited with transcranial magnetic stimulation. Compared with participants who did not engage in a prior social interaction, participants who engaged in the social interaction showed a significant increase in MR for human actions. In contrast, social interaction did not increase MR for robot actions. Thus, naturalistic social interaction and laboratory action observation tasks appear to involve common MR mechanisms, and recent experience tunes the system to particular agent types.

  5. Skype me! Socially contingent interactions help toddlers learn language.

    PubMed

    Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta M

    2014-01-01

    Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This study focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24-30 months (N = 36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live interaction training, socially contingent video training over video chat, and noncontingent video training (yoked video). Results suggest that children only learned novel verbs in socially contingent interactions (live interactions and video chat). This study highlights the importance of social contingency in interactions for language learning and informs the literature on learning through screen media as the first study to examine word learning through video chat technology. © 2013 The Authors. Child Development © 2013 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  6. Oxytocin attenuates deficits in social interaction but not recognition memory in a prenatal valproic acid-induced mouse model of autism.

    PubMed

    Hara, Yuta; Ago, Yukio; Higuchi, Momoko; Hasebe, Shigeru; Nakazawa, Takanobu; Hashimoto, Hitoshi; Matsuda, Toshio; Takuma, Kazuhiro

    2017-11-01

    Recent studies have reported that oxytocin ameliorates behavioral abnormalities in both animal models and individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, the mechanisms underlying the ameliorating effects of oxytocin remain unclear. In this study, we examined the effects of intranasal oxytocin on impairments in social interaction and recognition memory in an ASD mouse model in which animals are prenatally exposed to valproic acid (VPA). We found that a single intranasal administration of oxytocin restored social interaction deficits for up to 2h in mice prenatally exposed to VPA, but there was no effect on recognition memory impairments. Additionally, administration of oxytocin across 2weeks improved prenatal VPA-induced social interaction deficits for at least 24h. In contrast, there were no effects on the time spent sniffing in control mice. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that intranasal administration of oxytocin increased c-Fos expression in the paraventricular nuclei (PVN), prefrontal cortex, and somatosensory cortex, but not the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 regions of VPA-exposed mice, suggesting the former regions may underlie the effects of oxytocin. These findings suggest that oxytocin attenuates social interaction deficits through the activation of higher cortical areas and the PVN in an ASD mouse model. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Socially intelligent robots: dimensions of human-robot interaction.

    PubMed

    Dautenhahn, Kerstin

    2007-04-29

    Social intelligence in robots has a quite recent history in artificial intelligence and robotics. However, it has become increasingly apparent that social and interactive skills are necessary requirements in many application areas and contexts where robots need to interact and collaborate with other robots or humans. Research on human-robot interaction (HRI) poses many challenges regarding the nature of interactivity and 'social behaviour' in robot and humans. The first part of this paper addresses dimensions of HRI, discussing requirements on social skills for robots and introducing the conceptual space of HRI studies. In order to illustrate these concepts, two examples of HRI research are presented. First, research is surveyed which investigates the development of a cognitive robot companion. The aim of this work is to develop social rules for robot behaviour (a 'robotiquette') that is comfortable and acceptable to humans. Second, robots are discussed as possible educational or therapeutic toys for children with autism. The concept of interactive emergence in human-child interactions is highlighted. Different types of play among children are discussed in the light of their potential investigation in human-robot experiments. The paper concludes by examining different paradigms regarding 'social relationships' of robots and people interacting with them.

  8. Behavioral Confirmation in Social Interaction: From Social Perception to Social Reality

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Snyder, Mark; Swann, William B., Jr.

    1978-01-01

    Of what importance are our impressions and perceptions of others? This empirical investigation suggests that social perceptions can and do exert powerful channeling effects on subsequent social interaction such that actual behavioral confirmation of these beliefs is produced. Outlines a theoretical account of the processes believed to underlie…

  9. Socialization and Adolescent Self-Esteem: Symbolic Interaction and Social Learning Explanations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Openshaw, D. Kim; And Others

    1983-01-01

    Investigated the effects of social learning and symbolic interaction on adolescent self-esteem. Adolescents (N=368) and their parents completed measures of self-esteem, parental behavior and parental power. Results suggested adolescent self-esteem is more a function of social interaction and the reflected appraisals of others than a modeling of…

  10. A fashion model with social interaction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nakayama, Shoichiro; Nakamura, Yasuyuki

    2004-06-01

    In general, it is difficult to investigate social phenomena mathematically or quantitatively due to non-linear interactions. Statistical physics can provide powerful methods for studying social phenomena with interactions, and could be very useful for them. In this study, we take a focus on fashion as a social phenomenon with interaction. The social interaction considered here are “bandwagon effect” and “snob effect.” In the bandwagon effect, the correlation between one's behavior and others is positive. People feel fashion weary or boring when it is overly popular. This is the snob effect. It is assumed that the fashion phenomenon is formed by the aggregation of individual's binary choice, that is, the fashion is adopted or not. We formulate the fashion phenomenon as the logit model, which is based on the random utility theory in social science, especially economics. The model derived here basically has the similarity with the pioneering model by Weidlich (Phys. Rep. 204 (1991) 1), which was derived from the master equation, the Langevin equation, or the Fokker-Planck equation. This study seems to give the behavioral or behaviormetrical foundation to his model. As a result of dynamical analysis, it is found that in the case that both the bandwagon effect and the snob effect work, periodic or chaotic behavior of fashion occurs under certain conditions.

  11. Developmental social isolation affects adult behavior, social interaction, and dopamine metabolite levels in zebrafish.

    PubMed

    Shams, Soaleha; Amlani, Shahid; Buske, Christine; Chatterjee, Diptendu; Gerlai, Robert

    2018-01-01

    The zebrafish is a social vertebrate and an excellent translational model for a variety of human disorders. Abnormal social behavior is a hallmark of several human brain disorders. Social behavioral problems can arise as a result of adverse early social environment. Little is known about the effects of early social isolation in adult zebrafish. We compared zebrafish that were isolated for either short (7 days) or long duration (180 days) to socially housed zebrafish, testing their behavior across ontogenesis (ages 10, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 days), and shoal cohesion and whole-brain monoamines and their metabolites in adulthood. Long social isolation increased locomotion and decreased shoal cohesion and anxiety in the open-field in adult. Additionally, both short and long social isolation reduced dopamine metabolite levels in response to social stimuli. Thus, early social isolation has lasting effects in zebrafish, and may be employed to generate zebrafish models of human neuropsychiatric conditions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. Dynamics of deceptive interactions in social networks.

    PubMed

    Barrio, Rafael A; Govezensky, Tzipe; Dunbar, Robin; Iñiguez, Gerardo; Kaski, Kimmo

    2015-11-06

    In this paper, we examine the role of lies in human social relations by implementing some salient characteristics of deceptive interactions into an opinion formation model, so as to describe the dynamical behaviour of a social network more realistically. In this model, we take into account such basic properties of social networks as the dynamics of the intensity of interactions, the influence of public opinion and the fact that in every human interaction it might be convenient to deceive or withhold information depending on the instantaneous situation of each individual in the network. We find that lies shape the topology of social networks, especially the formation of tightly linked, small communities with loose connections between them. We also find that agents with a larger proportion of deceptive interactions are the ones that connect communities of different opinion, and, in this sense, they have substantial centrality in the network. We then discuss the consequences of these results for the social behaviour of humans and predict the changes that could arise due to a varying tolerance for lies in society. © 2015 The Author(s).

  13. Aircraft Abnormal Conditions Detection, Identification, and Evaluation Using Innate and Adaptive Immune Systems Interaction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Al Azzawi, Dia

    Abnormal flight conditions play a major role in aircraft accidents frequently causing loss of control. To ensure aircraft operation safety in all situations, intelligent system monitoring and adaptation must rely on accurately detecting the presence of abnormal conditions as soon as they take place, identifying their root cause(s), estimating their nature and severity, and predicting their impact on the flight envelope. Due to the complexity and multidimensionality of the aircraft system under abnormal conditions, these requirements are extremely difficult to satisfy using existing analytical and/or statistical approaches. Moreover, current methodologies have addressed only isolated classes of abnormal conditions and a reduced number of aircraft dynamic parameters within a limited region of the flight envelope. This research effort aims at developing an integrated and comprehensive framework for the aircraft abnormal conditions detection, identification, and evaluation based on the artificial immune systems paradigm, which has the capability to address the complexity and multidimensionality issues related to aircraft systems. Within the proposed framework, a novel algorithm was developed for the abnormal conditions detection problem and extended to the abnormal conditions identification and evaluation. The algorithm and its extensions were inspired from the functionality of the biological dendritic cells (an important part of the innate immune system) and their interaction with the different components of the adaptive immune system. Immunity-based methodologies for re-assessing the flight envelope at post-failure and predicting the impact of the abnormal conditions on the performance and handling qualities are also proposed and investigated in this study. The generality of the approach makes it applicable to any system. Data for artificial immune system development were collected from flight tests of a supersonic research aircraft within a motion-based flight

  14. Learning through social interaction in game technology.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Waern, Annika; Raybourn, Elaine Marie

    2005-05-01

    The present ITSE journal special issue on 'Learning About Social Interaction through Gaming' is the result of an invitation to the attendees of a one-day workshop on 'Social Learning Through Gaming' co-organized by the guest editors and held at the Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) conference on April 26, 2004 in Vienna, Austria. CHI is one of the premiere conferences on human-computer interaction. CHI 2004 attracted hundreds of delegates from all over the world. The CHI workshop program results from a competitive selection process. The Social Learning through Gaming workshop was filled to capacity and attended by approximately 25more » participants from Europe and North America who submitted position papers that were refereed and selected for participation based on the relevancy and innovativeness of the research. The participants came together to share research on play, learning, games, interactive technologies, and what playing and designing games can teach us about social behaviors. The present special issue focuses on learning about social aspects through gaming: learning to socialize through games and learning games through social behavior.« less

  15. Virtual social interactions in social anxiety--the impact of sex, gaze, and interpersonal distance.

    PubMed

    Wieser, Matthias J; Pauli, Paul; Grosseibl, Miriam; Molzow, Ina; Mühlberger, Andreas

    2010-10-01

    In social interactions, interpersonal distance between interaction partners plays an important role in determining the status of the relationship. Interpersonal distance is an important nonverbal behavior, and is used to regulate personal space in a complex interplay with other nonverbal behaviors such as eye gaze. In social anxiety, studies regarding the impact of interpersonal distance on within-situation avoidance behavior are so far rare. Thus the present study aimed to scrutinize the relationship between gaze direction, sex, interpersonal distance, and social anxiety in social interactions. Social interactions were modeled in a virtual-reality (VR) environment, where 20 low and 19 high socially anxious women were confronted with approaching male and female characters, who stopped in front of the participant, either some distance away or close to them, and displayed either a direct or an averted gaze. Gaze and head movements, as well as heart rate, were measured as indices of avoidance behavior and fear reactions. High socially anxious participants showed a complex pattern of avoidance behavior: when the avatar was standing farther away, high socially anxious women avoided gaze contact with male avatars showing a direct gaze. Furthermore, they showed avoidance behavior (backward head movements) in response to male avatars showing a direct gaze, regardless of the interpersonal distance. Overall, the current study proved that VR social interactions might be a very useful tool for investigating avoidance behavior of socially anxious individuals in highly controlled situations. This might also be the first step in using VR social interactions in clinical protocols for the therapy of social anxiety disorder.

  16. Understanding complex interactions using social network analysis.

    PubMed

    Pow, Janette; Gayen, Kaberi; Elliott, Lawrie; Raeside, Robert

    2012-10-01

    The aim of this paper is to raise the awareness of social network analysis as a method to facilitate research in nursing research. The application of social network analysis in assessing network properties has allowed greater insight to be gained in many areas including sociology, politics, business organisation and health care. However, the use of social networks in nursing has not received sufficient attention. Review of literature and illustration of the application of the method of social network analysis using research examples. First, the value of social networks will be discussed. Then by using illustrative examples, the value of social network analysis to nursing will be demonstrated. The method of social network analysis is found to give greater insights into social situations involving interactions between individuals and has particular application to the study of interactions between nurses and between nurses and patients and other actors. Social networks are systems in which people interact. Two quantitative techniques help our understanding of these networks. The first is visualisation of the network. The second is centrality. Individuals with high centrality are key communicators in a network. Applying social network analysis to nursing provides a simple method that helps gain an understanding of human interaction and how this might influence various health outcomes. It allows influential individuals (actors) to be identified. Their influence on the formation of social norms and communication can determine the extent to which new interventions or ways of thinking are accepted by a group. Thus, working with key individuals in a network could be critical to the success and sustainability of an intervention. Social network analysis can also help to assess the effectiveness of such interventions for the recipient and the service provider. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  17. How social factors and behavioural strategies affect feeding and social interaction patterns in pigs.

    PubMed

    Boumans, Iris J M M; de Boer, Imke J M; Hofstede, Gert Jan; Bokkers, Eddie A M

    2018-04-26

    Animals living in groups compete for food resources and face food conflicts. These conflicts are affected by social factors (e.g. competition level) and behavioural strategies (e.g. avoidance). This study aimed to deepen our understanding of the complex interactions between social factors and behavioural strategies affecting feeding and social interaction patterns in animals. We focused on group-housed growing pigs, Sus scrofa, which typically face conflicts around the feeder, and of which patterns in various competitive environments (i.e. pig:feeder ratio) have been documented soundly. An agent-based model was developed to explore how interactions among social factors and behavioural strategies can affect various feeding and social interaction patterns differently under competitive situations. Model results show that pig and diet characteristics interact with group size and affect daily feeding patterns (e.g. feed intake and feeding time) and conflicts around the feeder. The level of competition can cause a turning point in feeding and social interaction patterns. Beyond a certain point of competition, meal-based (e.g. meal frequency) and social interaction patterns (e.g. displacements) are determined mainly by behavioural strategies. The average daily feeding time can be used to predict the group size at which this turning point occurs. Under the model's assumptions, social facilitation was relatively unimportant in the causation of behavioural patterns in pigs. To validate our model, simulated patterns were compared with empirical patterns in conventionally housed pigs. Similarities between empirical and model patterns support the model results. Our model can be used as a tool in further research for studying the effects of social factors and group dynamics on individual variation in feeding and social interaction patterns in pigs, as well as in other animal species. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Conceptual Acquisition and Change through Social Interaction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kobayashi, Yoshikazu

    1994-01-01

    Examines the role of social interaction as a facilitator of learning in general and conceptual change in particular. Three conditions are proposed as necessary for social interaction to facilitate knowledge construction--horizontal information, comparable domain knowledge, and availability of cognitive tools. Suggests that these conditions assure…

  19. Predictors of social instability stress effects on social interaction and anxiety in adolescent male rats.

    PubMed

    Hodges, Travis E; Baumbach, Jennet L; McCormick, Cheryl M

    2018-06-21

    Adolescence is an important phase of development of social behaviors, which may be disrupted by the experience of stressors. We previously reported that exposure to social instability stress in adolescence (SS; postnatal day [PND] 30-45) in rats reduced social interactions with unfamiliar peers compared with non-stressed controls (CTL). In experiment 1, we replicated the effect of SS on social interaction and found that the pattern of neural activations based on Fos immunohistochemistry in brain regions during social interactions differed for SS and CTL rats. In experiment 2, we found that individual differences in novelty-seeking behavior on PND 30 and SS exposure were unique predictors of anxiety in the elevated plus maze on PND 46, and interacted to predict social interaction on PND 47; among high novelty-seeking rats, SS and CTL rats do not differ, whereas among low-novelty seeking rats, SS rats engaged in less social interaction than did CTL rats. Thus, high novelty-seeking may be a resilience factor against the effects of social stressors in adolescence. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Automated identification of social interaction criteria in Drosophila melanogaster.

    PubMed

    Schneider, J; Levine, J D

    2014-10-01

    The study of social behaviour within groups has relied on fixed definitions of an 'interaction'. Criteria used in these definitions often involve a subjectively defined cut-off value for proximity, orientation and time (e.g. courtship, aggression and social interaction networks) and the same numerical values for these criteria are applied to all of the treatment groups within an experiment. One universal definition of an interaction could misidentify interactions within groups that differ in life histories, study treatments and/or genetic mutations. Here, we present an automated method for determining the values of interaction criteria using a pre-defined rule set rather than pre-defined values. We use this approach and show changing social behaviours in different manipulations of Drosophila melanogaster. We also show that chemosensory cues are an important modality of social spacing and interaction. This method will allow a more robust analysis of the properties of interacting groups, while helping us understand how specific groups regulate their social interaction space. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  1. Nonsocially housed rats (Ratus norvegicus) seek social interactions and social novelty more than socially housed counterparts.

    PubMed

    Templer, Victoria L; Wise, Taylor B; Dayaw, Katrina Isabel T; Dayaw, Judith Nicole T

    2018-04-23

    Sociability is the act or quality of social interaction and can be quantified by determining the number and duration of interactions with conspecifics. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which sustained social contact, as achieved by constant social living conditions, influenced social behavior. Beginning in juvenility, 19 male Long-Evans rats were housed in enriched environments, with half living socially in a large group and half living individually. After several months in these housing conditions, rats were tested on a sociality test and a social novelty preference test. Nonsocially housed rats exhibited more social behavior than socially housed rats. In the sociality test, nonsocially housed rats engaged with an unfamiliar rat more than socially housed rats. Similarly, in the social novelty test, nonsocially housed rats visited a novel stranger more than the now-familiar rat (from the sociality test) as compared with the socially housed rats. It is unlikely that general anxiety factors can account for between-groups social effects, as there were no group differences in behavior on the elevated zero maze and open field test. Furthermore, socially and nonsocially housed rats were matched in spontaneous object exploration and novelty preference in a novel object recognition test, eliminating the possibility that general exploratory behavior or novelty preference accounted for group differences in the sociability tasks. These results suggest that lack of social interaction in nonsocially housed rats may be more powerful for social motivation than the consistent opportunity for social contact afforded by social living conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. Social Interactions in Online Gaming

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Griffiths, Mark; Hussain, Zaheer; Grüsser, Sabine M.; Thalemann, Ralf; Cole, Helena; Davies, Mark N. O.; Chappell, Darren

    2011-01-01

    This paper briefly overviews five studies examining massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). The first study surveyed 540 gamers and showed that the social aspects of the game were the most important factor for many gamers. The second study explored the social interactions of 912 MMORPG players and showed they created strong…

  3. Centrality of Social Interaction in Human Brain Function.

    PubMed

    Hari, Riitta; Henriksson, Linda; Malinen, Sanna; Parkkonen, Lauri

    2015-10-07

    People are embedded in social interaction that shapes their brains throughout lifetime. Instead of emerging from lower-level cognitive functions, social interaction could be the default mode via which humans communicate with their environment. Should this hypothesis be true, it would have profound implications on how we think about brain functions and how we dissect and simulate them. We suggest that the research on the brain basis of social cognition and interaction should move from passive spectator science to studies including engaged participants and simultaneous recordings from the brains of the interacting persons. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. The Double Meaning of Online Social Space: Three-Way Interactions Among Social Anxiety, Online Social Behavior, and Offline Social Behavior.

    PubMed

    Koo, Hoon Jung; Woo, Sungbum; Yang, Eunjoo; Kwon, Jung Hye

    2015-09-01

    The present study aimed to investigate how online and offline social behavior interact with each other ultimately to affect the well-being of socially anxious adolescents. Based on previous studies, it was assumed that there might be three-way interactive effects among online social behavior, offline social behavior, and social anxiety regarding the relationship with well-being. To measure social anxiety, online and offline social behavior, and mental well-being, self-report questionnaires such as the Korean-Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, Korean version of the Relational Maintenance Behavior Questionnaire, and Korean version of Mental Health Continuum Short Form were administered to 656 Korean adolescents. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the three-way interaction of online social behavior, offline social behavior, and social anxiety was indeed significant. First, online social behavior was associated with lower well-being of adolescents with higher social anxiety under conditions of low engagement in offline social behavior. In contrast, a higher level of online social behavior predicted greater well-being for individuals with high social anxiety under conditions of more engagement in offline social behavior. Second, online social behavior was not significantly related to well-being in youths with low social anxiety under conditions of both high and low engagement in offline social behavior. Implications and limitations of this study were discussed.

  5. Playground Accessibility and Neighbourhood Social Interaction among Parents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bennet, Scott A.; Yiannakoulias, Nikolaos; Williams, Allison M.; Kitchen, Peter

    2012-01-01

    While the positive association between social interaction and access to green space is well accepted, little research has sought to understand the role of children's playgrounds in facilitating social interaction within a community. Playgrounds are spaces designed to facilitate play and the interaction of children, but may also be important places…

  6. Social interaction recruits mentalizing and reward systems in middle childhood.

    PubMed

    Alkire, Diana; Levitas, Daniel; Warnell, Katherine Rice; Redcay, Elizabeth

    2018-06-08

    Social cognition develops in the context of reciprocal social interaction. However, most neuroimaging studies of mentalizing have used noninteractive tasks that may fail to capture important aspects of real-world mentalizing. In adults, social-interactive context modulates activity in regions linked to social cognition and reward, but few interactive studies have been done with children. The current fMRI study examines children aged 8-12 using a novel paradigm in which children believed they were interacting online with a peer. We compared mental and non-mental state reasoning about a live partner (Peer) versus a story character (Character), testing the effects of mentalizing and social interaction in a 2 × 2 design. Mental versus Non-Mental reasoning engaged regions identified in prior mentalizing studies, including the temporoparietal junction, superior temporal sulcus, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Moreover, peer interaction, even in conditions without explicit mentalizing demands, activated many of the same mentalizing regions. Peer interaction also activated areas outside the traditional mentalizing network, including the reward system. Our results demonstrate that social interaction engages multiple neural systems during middle childhood and contribute further evidence that social-interactive paradigms are needed to fully capture how the brain supports social processing in the real world. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. Social Dynamics in Web Page through Inter-Agent Interaction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Takeuchi, Yugo; Katagiri, Yasuhiro

    Social persuasion abounds in human-human interactions. Attitudes and behaviors of people are invariably influenced by the attitudes and behaviors of other people as well as our social roles/relationships toward them. In the pedagogic scene, the relationship between teacher and learner produces one of the most typical interactions, in which the teacher makes the learner spontaneously study what he/she teaches. This study is an attempt to elucidate the nature and effectiveness of social persuasion in human-computer interaction environments. We focus on the social dynamics of multi-party interactions that involve both human-agent and inter-agent interactions. An experiment is conducted in a virtual web-instruction setting employing two types of agents: conductor agents who accompany and guide each learner throughout his/her learning sessions, and domain-expert agents who provide explanations and instructions for each stage of the instructional materials. In this experiment, subjects are assigned two experimental conditions: the authorized condition, in which an agent respectfully interacts with another agent, and the non-authorized condition, in which an agent carelessly interacts with another agent. The results indicate performance improvements in the authorized condition of inter-agent interactions. An analysis is given from the perspective of the transfer of authority from inter-agent to human-agent interactions based on social conformity. We argue for pedagogic advantages of social dynamics created by multiple animated character agents.

  8. Invisible excess of sense in social interaction

    PubMed Central

    Koubová, Alice

    2014-01-01

    The question of visibility and invisibility in social understanding is examined here. First, the phenomenological account of expressive phenomena and key ideas of the participatory sense-making theory are presented with regard to the issue of visibility. These accounts plead for the principal visibility of agents in interaction. Although participatory sense-making does not completely rule out the existence of opacity and invisible aspects of agents in interaction, it assumes the capacity of agents to integrate disruptions, opacity and misunderstandings in mutual modulation. Invisibility is classified as the dialectical counterpart of visibility, i.e., as a lack of sense whereby the dynamics of perpetual asking, of coping with each other and of improvements in interpretation are brought into play. By means of empirical exemplification this article aims at demonstrating aspects of invisibility in social interaction which complement the enactive interpretation. Without falling back into Cartesianism, it shows through dramaturgical analysis of a practice called “(Inter)acting with the inner partner” that social interaction includes elements of opacity and invisibility whose role is performative. This means that opacity is neither an obstacle to be overcome with more precise understanding nor a lack of meaning, but rather an excess of sense, a “hiddenness” of something real that has an “active power” (Merleau-Ponty). In this way it contributes to on-going social understanding as a hidden potentiality that naturally enriches, amplifies and in part constitutes human participation in social interactions. It is also shown here that this invisible excess of sense already functions on the level of self-relationship due to the essential self-opacity and self-alterity of each agent of social interaction. The analysis consequently raises two issues: the question of the enactive ethical stance toward the alterity of the other and the question of the autonomy of the

  9. Interactions among Social Welfare Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lewis, Gordon H.; Morrison, Richard J.

    1990-01-01

    This paper explores interactions between social welfare programs and associated supportive taxation programs. Focus was on the effect of one program on another, effects of one program on a set of other programs, effects of tax and benefit reduction rates, and effects of interacting programs on the governments that create/maintain them. (TJH)

  10. Social Interactions of Preschool Children as Correlates of Play Activities.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beehler, Kay A.; And Others

    The purpose of this study was to summarize an examination of the social interactions of a sample of 370 preschool children and to demonstrate from the summary that social settings within the preschool environment differentially affect both the quality and quantity of social interaction. The Social Interaction Observation Procedure was used to…

  11. Mapping Social Interactions: The Science of Proxemics.

    PubMed

    McCall, Cade

    Interpersonal distance and gaze provide a wealth of information during face-to-face social interactions. These "proxemic" behaviors offer a window into everyday social cognition by revealing interactants' affective states (e.g., interpersonal attitudes) and cognitive responses (e.g., social attention). Here we provide a brief overview of the social psychological literature in this domain. We focus on new techniques for experimentally manipulating and measuring proxemics, including the use of immersive virtual environments and digital motion capture. We also discuss ways in which these approaches can be integrated with psychophysiological and neuroimaging techniques. Throughout, we argue that contemporary proxemics research provides psychology and neuroscience with a means to study social cognition and behavior as they naturally emerge and unfold in vivo.

  12. Object-Based Attention on Social Units: Visual Selection of Hands Performing a Social Interaction.

    PubMed

    Yin, Jun; Xu, Haokui; Duan, Jipeng; Shen, Mowei

    2018-05-01

    Traditionally, objects of attention are characterized either as full-fledged entities or either as elements grouped by Gestalt principles. Because humans appear to use social groups as units to explain social activities, we proposed that a socially defined group, according to social interaction information, would also be a possible object of attentional selection. This hypothesis was examined using displays with and without handshaking interactions. Results demonstrated that object-based attention, which was measured by an object-specific attentional advantage (i.e., shorter response times to targets on a single object), was extended to two hands performing a handshake but not to hands that did not perform meaningful social interactions, even when they did perform handshake-like actions. This finding cannot be attributed to the familiarity of the frequent co-occurrence of two handshaking hands. Hence, object-based attention can select a grouped object whose parts are connected within a meaningful social interaction. This finding implies that object-based attention is constrained by top-down information.

  13. Design for Engaging Experience and Social Interaction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Harteveld, Casper; ten Thij, Eleonore; Copier, Marinka

    2011-01-01

    One of the goals of game designers is to design for an engaging experience and for social interaction. The question is how. We know that games can be engaging and allow for social interaction, but how do we achieve this or even improve on it? This article provides an overview of several scientific approaches that deal with this question. It…

  14. Stressful Social Interactions Experienced by Adults with Mild Intellectual Disability

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hartley, Sigan L.; MacLean, William E., Jr.

    2009-01-01

    Adults with intellectual disability are vulnerable to stressful social interactions. We determined frequency and severity of various stressful social interactions, identified the social partners in these interactions, and examined the specific interpersonal skill difficulties of 114 adults with mild intellectual disability. Participants'…

  15. A Probabilistic Model of Social Working Memory for Information Retrieval in Social Interactions.

    PubMed

    Li, Liyuan; Xu, Qianli; Gan, Tian; Tan, Cheston; Lim, Joo-Hwee

    2018-05-01

    Social working memory (SWM) plays an important role in navigating social interactions. Inspired by studies in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and machine learning, we propose a probabilistic model of SWM to mimic human social intelligence for personal information retrieval (IR) in social interactions. First, we establish a semantic hierarchy as social long-term memory to encode personal information. Next, we propose a semantic Bayesian network as the SWM, which integrates the cognitive functions of accessibility and self-regulation. One subgraphical model implements the accessibility function to learn the social consensus about IR-based on social information concept, clustering, social context, and similarity between persons. Beyond accessibility, one more layer is added to simulate the function of self-regulation to perform the personal adaptation to the consensus based on human personality. Two learning algorithms are proposed to train the probabilistic SWM model on a raw dataset of high uncertainty and incompleteness. One is an efficient learning algorithm of Newton's method, and the other is a genetic algorithm. Systematic evaluations show that the proposed SWM model is able to learn human social intelligence effectively and outperforms the baseline Bayesian cognitive model. Toward real-world applications, we implement our model on Google Glass as a wearable assistant for social interaction.

  16. Social Story Effectiveness on Social Interaction for Students with Autism: A Review of the Literature

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karal, Muhammed A.; Wolfe, Pamela S.

    2018-01-01

    Social stories frequently have been used to improve the social interaction of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This literature review examines the effectiveness of social story interventions on the social interactions of students with ASD including with whom, where, and what formats have been implemented, as well as the methodological…

  17. Examining ecological validity in social interaction: problems of visual fidelity, gaze, and social potential.

    PubMed

    Reader, Arran T; Holmes, Nicholas P

    2016-01-01

    Social interaction is an essential part of the human experience, and much work has been done to study it. However, several common approaches to examining social interactions in psychological research may inadvertently either unnaturally constrain the observed behaviour by causing it to deviate from naturalistic performance, or introduce unwanted sources of variance. In particular, these sources are the differences between naturalistic and experimental behaviour that occur from changes in visual fidelity (quality of the observed stimuli), gaze (whether it is controlled for in the stimuli), and social potential (potential for the stimuli to provide actual interaction). We expand on these possible sources of extraneous variance and why they may be important. We review the ways in which experimenters have developed novel designs to remove these sources of extraneous variance. New experimental designs using a 'two-person' approach are argued to be one of the most effective ways to develop more ecologically valid measures of social interaction, and we suggest that future work on social interaction should use these designs wherever possible.

  18. Characterizing Social Interaction in Tobacco-Oriented Social Networks: An Empirical Analysis.

    PubMed

    Liang, Yunji; Zheng, Xiaolong; Zeng, Daniel Dajun; Zhou, Xingshe; Leischow, Scott James; Chung, Wingyan

    2015-06-19

    Social media is becoming a new battlefield for tobacco "wars". Evaluating the current situation is very crucial for the advocacy of tobacco control in the age of social media. To reveal the impact of tobacco-related user-generated content, this paper characterizes user interaction and social influence utilizing social network analysis and information theoretic approaches. Our empirical studies demonstrate that the exploding pro-tobacco content has long-lasting effects with more active users and broader influence, and reveal the shortage of social media resources in global tobacco control. It is found that the user interaction in the pro-tobacco group is more active, and user-generated content for tobacco promotion is more successful in obtaining user attention. Furthermore, we construct three tobacco-related social networks and investigate the topological patterns of these tobacco-related social networks. We find that the size of the pro-tobacco network overwhelms the others, which suggests a huge number of users are exposed to the pro-tobacco content. These results indicate that the gap between tobacco promotion and tobacco control is widening and tobacco control may be losing ground to tobacco promotion in social media.

  19. Characterizing Social Interaction in Tobacco-Oriented Social Networks: An Empirical Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Liang, Yunji; Zheng, Xiaolong; Zeng, Daniel Dajun; Zhou, Xingshe; Leischow, Scott James; Chung, Wingyan

    2015-01-01

    Social media is becoming a new battlefield for tobacco “wars”. Evaluating the current situation is very crucial for the advocacy of tobacco control in the age of social media. To reveal the impact of tobacco-related user-generated content, this paper characterizes user interaction and social influence utilizing social network analysis and information theoretic approaches. Our empirical studies demonstrate that the exploding pro-tobacco content has long-lasting effects with more active users and broader influence, and reveal the shortage of social media resources in global tobacco control. It is found that the user interaction in the pro-tobacco group is more active, and user-generated content for tobacco promotion is more successful in obtaining user attention. Furthermore, we construct three tobacco-related social networks and investigate the topological patterns of these tobacco-related social networks. We find that the size of the pro-tobacco network overwhelms the others, which suggests a huge number of users are exposed to the pro-tobacco content. These results indicate that the gap between tobacco promotion and tobacco control is widening and tobacco control may be losing ground to tobacco promotion in social media. PMID:26091553

  20. Measuring social interaction in music ensembles

    PubMed Central

    D'Ausilio, Alessandro; Badino, Leonardo; Camurri, Antonio; Fadiga, Luciano

    2016-01-01

    Music ensembles are an ideal test-bed for quantitative analysis of social interaction. Music is an inherently social activity, and music ensembles offer a broad variety of scenarios which are particularly suitable for investigation. Small ensembles, such as string quartets, are deemed a significant example of self-managed teams, where all musicians contribute equally to a task. In bigger ensembles, such as orchestras, the relationship between a leader (the conductor) and a group of followers (the musicians) clearly emerges. This paper presents an overview of recent research on social interaction in music ensembles with a particular focus on (i) studies from cognitive neuroscience; and (ii) studies adopting a computational approach for carrying out automatic quantitative analysis of ensemble music performances. PMID:27069054

  1. Measuring social interaction in music ensembles.

    PubMed

    Volpe, Gualtiero; D'Ausilio, Alessandro; Badino, Leonardo; Camurri, Antonio; Fadiga, Luciano

    2016-05-05

    Music ensembles are an ideal test-bed for quantitative analysis of social interaction. Music is an inherently social activity, and music ensembles offer a broad variety of scenarios which are particularly suitable for investigation. Small ensembles, such as string quartets, are deemed a significant example of self-managed teams, where all musicians contribute equally to a task. In bigger ensembles, such as orchestras, the relationship between a leader (the conductor) and a group of followers (the musicians) clearly emerges. This paper presents an overview of recent research on social interaction in music ensembles with a particular focus on (i) studies from cognitive neuroscience; and (ii) studies adopting a computational approach for carrying out automatic quantitative analysis of ensemble music performances. © 2016 The Author(s).

  2. Motor-visual neurons and action recognition in social interactions.

    PubMed

    de la Rosa, Stephan; Bülthoff, Heinrich H

    2014-04-01

    Cook et al. suggest that motor-visual neurons originate from associative learning. This suggestion has interesting implications for the processing of socially relevant visual information in social interactions. Here, we discuss two aspects of the associative learning account that seem to have particular relevance for visual recognition of social information in social interactions - namely, context-specific and contingency based learning.

  3. Social Eavesdropping in Zebrafish: Tuning of Attention to Social Interactions

    PubMed Central

    Abril-de-Abreu, Rodrigo; Cruz, José; Oliveira, Rui F.

    2015-01-01

    Group living animals may eavesdrop on signalling interactions between conspecifics in order to collect adaptively relevant information obtained from others, without incurring in the costs of first-hand information acquisition. This ability (aka social eavesdropping) is expected to impact Darwinian fitness, and hence predicts the evolution of cognitive processes that enable social animals to use public information available in the environment. These adaptive specializations in cognition may have evolved both at the level of learning and memory mechanisms, and at the level of input mechanisms, such as attention, which select the information that is available for learning. Here we used zebrafish to test if attention in a social species is tuned to the exchange of information between conspecifics. Our results show that zebrafish are more attentive towards interacting (i.e. fighting) than towards non-interacting pairs of conspecifics, with the exposure to fighting not increasing activity or stress levels. Moreover, using video playbacks to manipulate form features of the fighting fish, we show that during the assessment phase of the fight, bystanders’ attention is more driven by form features of the interacting opponents; whereas during the post-resolution phase, it is driven by biological movement features of the dominant fish chasing the subordinate fish. PMID:26242246

  4. Risperidone and aripiprazole alleviate prenatal valproic acid-induced abnormalities in behaviors and dendritic spine density in mice.

    PubMed

    Hara, Yuta; Ago, Yukio; Taruta, Atsuki; Hasebe, Shigeru; Kawase, Haruki; Tanabe, Wataru; Tsukada, Shinji; Nakazawa, Takanobu; Hashimoto, Hitoshi; Matsuda, Toshio; Takuma, Kazuhiro

    2017-11-01

    Rodents exposed prenatally to valproic acid (VPA) exhibit autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-like behavioral abnormalities. We recently found that prenatal VPA exposure causes hypofunction of the prefrontal dopaminergic system in mice. This suggests that the dopaminergic system may be a potential pharmacological target for treatment of behavioral abnormalities in ASD patients. In the present study, we examined the effects of antipsychotic drugs, which affect the dopaminergic system, on the social interaction deficits, recognition memory impairment, and reduction in dendritic spine density in the VPA mouse model of ASD. Both acute and chronic administrations of the atypical antipsychotic drugs risperidone and aripiprazole increased prefrontal dopamine (DA) release, while the typical antipsychotic drug haloperidol did not. Chronic risperidone and aripiprazole, but not haloperidol, increased the expression of c-Fos in the prefrontal cortex, although they all increased c-Fos expression in the striatum. Chronic, but not acute, administrations of risperidone and aripiprazole improved the VPA-induced social interaction deficits and recognition memory impairment, as well as the reduction in dendritic spine density in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. In contrast, chronic administration of haloperidol did not ameliorate VPA-induced abnormalities in behaviors and dendritic spine density. These findings indicate that chronic risperidone and aripiprazole treatments improve VPA-induced abnormalities in behaviors and prefrontal dendritic spine density, which may be mediated by repeated elevation of extracellular DA in the prefrontal cortex. Our results also imply that loss of prefrontal dendritic spines may be involved in the abnormal behaviors in the VPA mouse model of ASD.

  5. Interactive lung segmentation in abnormal human and animal chest CT scans

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kockelkorn, Thessa T. J. P., E-mail: thessa@isi.uu.nl; Viergever, Max A.; Schaefer-Prokop, Cornelia M.

    2014-08-15

    Purpose: Many medical image analysis systems require segmentation of the structures of interest as a first step. For scans with gross pathology, automatic segmentation methods may fail. The authors’ aim is to develop a versatile, fast, and reliable interactive system to segment anatomical structures. In this study, this system was used for segmenting lungs in challenging thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans. Methods: In volumetric thoracic CT scans, the chest is segmented and divided into 3D volumes of interest (VOIs), containing voxels with similar densities. These VOIs are automatically labeled as either lung tissue or nonlung tissue. The automatic labeling resultsmore » can be corrected using an interactive or a supervised interactive approach. When using the supervised interactive system, the user is shown the classification results per slice, whereupon he/she can adjust incorrect labels. The system is retrained continuously, taking the corrections and approvals of the user into account. In this way, the system learns to make a better distinction between lung tissue and nonlung tissue. When using the interactive framework without supervised learning, the user corrects all incorrectly labeled VOIs manually. Both interactive segmentation tools were tested on 32 volumetric CT scans of pigs, mice and humans, containing pulmonary abnormalities. Results: On average, supervised interactive lung segmentation took under 9 min of user interaction. Algorithm computing time was 2 min on average, but can easily be reduced. On average, 2.0% of all VOIs in a scan had to be relabeled. Lung segmentation using the interactive segmentation method took on average 13 min and involved relabeling 3.0% of all VOIs on average. The resulting segmentations correspond well to manual delineations of eight axial slices per scan, with an average Dice similarity coefficient of 0.933. Conclusions: The authors have developed two fast and reliable methods for interactive lung segmentation

  6. Dopamine and dopamine receptor D1 associated with decreased social interaction.

    PubMed

    Liu, Qiang; Shi, Jieyun; Lin, Rongfei; Wen, Tieqiao

    2017-05-01

    Deficits in social interaction are hallmarks of neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, its underlying mechanism is still unclear. Here, we show that the loss of dendritic cell factor 1 (Dcf1) in the nervous system of mice induces social interaction deficiency, autism-like behaviour, and influences social interaction via the dopamine system. Dopamine receptor D1 agonist rescues this social cognition phenotype, and improves short-term plasticity. Together, this study presents a new genetic mechanism that affects social interaction and may provide a new way to improve positive social interaction and treat autism spectrum disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Social consequences of subclinical negative symptoms: An EMG study of facial expressions within a social interaction.

    PubMed

    Riehle, Marcel; Lincoln, Tania M

    2017-06-01

    The negative symptoms of schizophrenia are related to lower social functioning even in non-clinical samples, but little is known about the distinct social consequences of motivational and expressive negative symptoms. In this study we focused on expressive negative symptoms and examined how these symptoms and varying degrees of pro-social facial expressiveness (smiling and mimicry of smiling) relate to the social evaluations by face-to-face interaction partners and to social support. We examined 30 dyadic interactions within a sample of non-clinical participants (N = 60) who were rated on motivational and expressive negative symptoms with the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS). We collected data on both interaction partners' smiling-muscle (zygomaticus major) activation simultaneously with electromyography and assessed the general amount of smiling and the synchrony of smiling muscle activations between interaction partners (mimicry of smiling). Interaction partners rated their willingness for future interactions with each other after the interactions. Interaction partners of participants scoring higher on expressive negative symptoms expressed less willingness for future interactions with these participants (r = -0.37; p = 0.01). Smiling behavior was negatively related to expressive negative symptoms but also explained by motivational negative symptoms. Mimicry of smiling and both negative symptom domains were also associated with participants' satisfaction with their social support network. Non-clinical sample with (relatively) low levels of symptoms. Expressive negative symptoms have tangible negative interpersonal consequences and directly relate to diminished pro-social behavior and social support, even in non-clinical samples. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Social Interaction of Reading Groups.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guthrie, John T.

    1980-01-01

    Describes the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Terms it an exceptional reading program illustrating how certain dynamics of social interaction may be essential for reading achievement. (FL)

  9. The influence of age on wild rhesus macaques' affiliative social interactions.

    PubMed

    Liao, Zhijie; Sosa, Sebastian; Wu, Chengfeng; Zhang, Peng

    2018-02-01

    The social relationships that individuals experience at different life stages have a non-negligible influence on their lives, and this is particularly true for group living animals. The long lifespan of many primates makes it likely that these animals have various tactics of social interaction to adapt to complex changes in environmental or physical conditions. The different strategies used in social interaction by individuals at different life stages, and whether the position (central or peripheral) or role (initiator or recipient) of an individual in the group social network changes with age, are intriguing questions that remain to be investigated. We used social network analysis to examine age-related differences in social interaction patterns, social roles, and social positions in three affiliative social networks (approach, allogrooming, and social play) in a group of wild rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Our results showed that social interaction patterns of rhesus macaques differ between age classes in the following ways: i) young individuals tend to allocate social time to a high number of groupmates, older individuals prefer to focus on fewer, specific partners; ii) as they grow older, individuals tend to be recipients in approach interactions and initiators in grooming interactions; and iii) regardless of the different social interaction strategies, individuals of all ages occupy a central position in the group. These results reveal a possible key role played by immature individuals in group social communication, a little-explored issue which deserves closer investigation in future research. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. Factors associated with social interaction anxiety among Chinese adolescents.

    PubMed

    Peng, Z W; Lam, L T; Jin, J

    2011-12-01

    To investigate potential risk factors for social anxiety, particularly social interaction anxiety among the Chinese adolescents. A cross-sectional health survey was conducted in Guangzhou city of the Guangdong Province where high school students aged 13 to 18 years were recruited. The sample was selected from all high schools in the city using a 2-stage random cluster sampling technique. Social interaction anxiety was assessed using the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. Information collected in the survey included: demographics, self-perception on school performance, relationship with teachers and peers, satisfaction with self-image, achievements, and parenting style of the mother. The parent-child relationship, specifically the relationship between respondents and their mothers, was assessed using the mother attachment subscale of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment. Self-esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The multiple linear regression technique was applied to investigate associations between selected potential risk factors and social interaction anxiety, with adjustments for cluster sampling. Lower family income, lower self-esteem, and hostility were significantly associated with social interaction anxiety among adolescents. Variables identified as risk factors of anxiety disorder in the literature, such as gender, were not associated with social interaction anxiety in this sample. These results were consistent with those of other studies conducted mainly in the United States and Europe. Regarding non-significant results related to gender, they need viewing in the context of parenting styles of Chinese mothers.

  11. [Human interaction, social cognition, and the superior temporal sulcus].

    PubMed

    Brunelle, Francis; Saitovitch, Anna; Boddaert, Nathalie; Grevent, David; Cambier, Jean; Lelord, Gilbert; Samson, Yves; Zilbovicius, Monica

    2013-01-01

    Human beings are social animals. This ability to live together is ensured by cognitive functions, the neuroanatomical bases of which are starting to be unraveled by MRI-based studies. The regions and network engaged in this process are known as the "social brain ". The core of this network is the superior temporal sulcus (STS), which integrates sensory and emotional inputs. Modeling studies of healthy volunteers have shown the role of the STS.in recognizing others as biological beings, as well as facial and eye-gaze recognition, intentionality and emotions. This cognitive capacity has been described as the "theory of mind ". Pathological models such as autism, in which the main clinical abnormality is altered social abilities and communication, have confirmed the role of the STS in the social brain. Conceptualisation of this empathic capacity has been described as "meta cognition ", which forms the basis of human social organizationand culture.

  12. Skype Me! Socially Contingent Interactions Help Toddlers Learn Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roseberry, Sarah; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta M.

    2014-01-01

    Language learning takes place in the context of social interactions, yet the mechanisms that render social interactions useful for learning language remain unclear. This study focuses on whether social contingency might support word learning. Toddlers aged 24-30 months (N = 36) were exposed to novel verbs in one of three conditions: live…

  13. Entangling mobility and interactions in social media.

    PubMed

    Grabowicz, Przemyslaw A; Ramasco, José J; Gonçalves, Bruno; Eguíluz, Víctor M

    2014-01-01

    Daily interactions naturally define social circles. Individuals tend to be friends with the people they spend time with and they choose to spend time with their friends, inextricably entangling physical location and social relationships. As a result, it is possible to predict not only someone's location from their friends' locations but also friendship from spatial and temporal co-occurrence. While several models have been developed to separately describe mobility and the evolution of social networks, there is a lack of studies coupling social interactions and mobility. In this work, we introduce a model that bridges this gap by explicitly considering the feedback of mobility on the formation of social ties. Data coming from three online social networks (Twitter, Gowalla and Brightkite) is used for validation. Our model reproduces various topological and physical properties of the networks not captured by models uncoupling mobility and social interactions such as: i) the total size of the connected components, ii) the distance distribution between connected users, iii) the dependence of the reciprocity on the distance, iv) the variation of the social overlap and the clustering with the distance. Besides numerical simulations, a mean-field approach is also used to study analytically the main statistical features of the networks generated by a simplified version of our model. The robustness of the results to changes in the model parameters is explored, finding that a balance between friend visits and long-range random connections is essential to reproduce the geographical features of the empirical networks.

  14. Refining and validating the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

    PubMed

    Carleton, R Nicholas; Collimore, Kelsey C; Asmundson, Gordon J G; McCabe, Randi E; Rowa, Karen; Antony, Martin M

    2009-01-01

    The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale are companion measures for assessing symptoms of social anxiety and social phobia. The scales have good reliability and validity across several samples, however, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have yielded solutions comprising substantially different item content and factor structures. These discrepancies are likely the result of analyzing items from each scale separately or simultaneously. The current investigation sets out to assess items from those scales, both simultaneously and separately, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in an effort to resolve the factor structure. Participants consisted of a clinical sample (n 5353; 54% women) and an undergraduate sample (n 5317; 75% women) who completed the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale, along with additional fear-related measures to assess convergent and discriminant validity. A three-factor solution with a reduced set of items was found to be most stable, irrespective of whether the items from each scale are assessed together or separately. Items from the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale represented one factor, whereas items from the Social Phobia Scale represented two other factors. Initial support for scale and factor validity, along with implications and recommendations for future research, is provided. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  15. Inferring the rules of social interaction in migrating caribou.

    PubMed

    Torney, Colin J; Lamont, Myles; Debell, Leon; Angohiatok, Ryan J; Leclerc, Lisa-Marie; Berdahl, Andrew M

    2018-05-19

    Social interactions are a significant factor that influence the decision-making of species ranging from humans to bacteria. In the context of animal migration, social interactions may lead to improved decision-making, greater ability to respond to environmental cues, and the cultural transmission of optimal routes. Despite their significance, the precise nature of social interactions in migrating species remains largely unknown. Here we deploy unmanned aerial systems to collect aerial footage of caribou as they undertake their migration from Victoria Island to mainland Canada. Through a Bayesian analysis of trajectories we reveal the fine-scale interaction rules of migrating caribou and show they are attracted to one another and copy directional choices of neighbours, but do not interact through clearly defined metric or topological interaction ranges. By explicitly considering the role of social information on movement decisions we construct a map of near neighbour influence that quantifies the nature of information flow in these herds. These results will inform more realistic, mechanism-based models of migration in caribou and other social ungulates, leading to better predictions of spatial use patterns and responses to changing environmental conditions. Moreover, we anticipate that the protocol we developed here will be broadly applicable to study social behaviour in a wide range of migratory and non-migratory taxa.This article is part of the theme issue 'Collective movement ecology'. © 2018 The Authors.

  16. Factors affecting quality of social interaction park in Jakarta

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mangunsong, N. I.

    2018-01-01

    The existence of social interactions park in Jakarta is an oasis in the middle of a concrete jungle. Parks is a response to the need for open space as a place of recreation and community interaction. Often the social interaction parks built by the government does not function as expected, but other functions such as a place to sell, trash, unsafe so be rarely visited by visitors. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that affect the quality of social interaction parks in Jakarta by conducting descriptive analysis and correlation analysis of the variables assessment. The results of the analysis can give an idea of social interactions park based on community needs and propose the development of social interactioncity park. The object of study are 25 social interaction parks in 5 municipalities of Jakarta. The method used is descriptive analysis method, correlation analysis using SPSS 19 and using crosstab, chi-square tests. The variables are 5 aspects of Design, Plants composition: Selection type of plant (D); the beauty and harmony (Ind); Maintenance and fertility (P); Cleanliness and Environmental Health (BS); Specificity (Drainage, Multi Function garden, Means, Concern/Mutual cooperation, in dense settlements) (K). The results of analysis show that beauty is the most significant correlation with the value of the park followed by specificity, cleanliness and maintenance. Design was not the most significant variable affecting the quality of the park. The results of this study can be used by the Department of Parks and Cemeteries as input in managing park existing or to be developed and to improve the quality of social interaction park in Jakarta.

  17. Abnormal synergistic effects between Lewis acid-base interaction and halogen bond in F3B···NCX···NCM

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, Qingjie; Li, Qingzhong

    2015-12-01

    An abnormal synergistic effect was found between the Lewis acid-base interaction and halogen bond in triads F3B···NCX···NCM (X and M are halogen atoms), where the strong Lewis acid-base interaction between F3B and NCX has a larger enhancement than the weak halogen bond between NCX and NCM. This is in contrast with the traditional cooperative effect. It is interesting that the alkali-metal substituent as well as the heavier halogen atom play a more remarkable role in the enhancement of the interaction F3B···NCX than that of NCX···NCM, particularly, the alkali-metal substituent makes the abnormal synergistic effect be the traditional cooperative one.

  18. Stigma's Effect on Social Interaction and Social Media Activity.

    PubMed

    Boudewyns, Vanessa; Himelboim, Itai; Hansen, Derek L; Southwell, Brian G

    2015-01-01

    Stigmatized topics, such as HIV/STD, likely constrain related information sharing in ways that should be apparent in social interactions both on and off the Internet. Specifically, the authors predicted that the more people perceive an issue as stigmatized, the less likely they are to talk about the issue both privately (with sexual partners and peers) and publicly (on Twitter). Study 1 tested the effect of stigma on conversations at the individual level: The authors asked a group of participants (N = 138) about perceived STD-testing stigma, interactions with a sexual partner, and conversations with peers about STD testing. Study 2 assessed whether health conditions, in the aggregate, were less likely to generate social media activity as a function of current stigmatization. Using 259,758 archived Twitter posts mentioning 13 medical conditions, the authors tested whether level of stigma predicted the volume of relevant social media conversation, controlling for each condition's amount of advocacy and Google search popularity from a user's perspective. Findings supported our hypotheses. Individuals who reported perceiving a given health conditions in more stigmatic ways also reported interacting less with others about that topic; Twitter results showed a similar pattern. Results also suggest a more complex story of influence, as funding from the National Institutes of Health (i.e., each conditions amount of advocacy) associated with the examined health conditions also predicted Twitter activity. Overall, these results indicated that stigma had a similar, dampening effect on face-to-face and Twitter interactions. Findings hold theoretical and practical implications, which are discussed.

  19. Association between social interaction and affect in nursing home residents with dementia.

    PubMed

    Jao, Ying-Ling; Loken, Eric; MacAndrew, Margaret; Van Haitsma, Kimberly; Kolanowski, Ann

    2018-06-01

    Social interactions that lead to positive affect are fundamental to human well-being. However, individuals with dementia are challenged to achieve positive social interaction. It is unclear how social interactions influence affect in people with dementia. This study examined the association between social interactions and affect in nursing home residents with dementia. This repeated measures study used baseline data from a clinical trial in which 126 residents from 12 nursing homes were enrolled. Participants were video recorded twice daily on five days. Ratings of social interaction and affect were taken from the videotapes using the Interacting with People subscale of the Passivity in Dementia and the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Apparent Affect Rating Scale. Linear mixed models were used for analysis. Social interaction was significantly related to higher interest and pleasure at within- and between-person levels. Social interaction significantly predicted anxiety and sadness at the between-person level only. Residents with higher cognitive function also displayed greater pleasure. Greater interest and anxiety was evident during the afternoon hours. This study supports the impact of social interactions on positive and negative affect. Findings can guide intervention development, aimed at promoting positive social interactions and improving affect for people with dementia.

  20. Autism, the superior temporal sulcus and social perception.

    PubMed

    Zilbovicius, Monica; Meresse, Isabelle; Chabane, Nadia; Brunelle, Francis; Samson, Yves; Boddaert, Nathalie

    2006-07-01

    The most common clinical sign of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is social interaction impairment, which is associated with communication deficits and stereotyped behaviors. Based on recent brain-imaging results, our hypothesis is that abnormalities in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) are highly implicated in ASD. STS abnormalities are characterized by decreased gray matter concentration, rest hypoperfusion and abnormal activation during social tasks. STS anatomical and functional anomalies occurring during early brain development could constitute the first step in the cascade of neural dysfunction underlying ASD. We will focus this review on the STS, which has been highly implicated in social cognition. We will review recent data on the contribution of the STS to normal social cognition and review brain-imaging data implicating this area in ASD. This review is part of the INMED/TINS special issue "Nature and nurture in brain development and neurological disorders", based on presentations at the annual INMED/TINS symposium (http://inmednet.com/).

  1. Positive affect predicts avoidance goals in social interaction anxiety: testing a hierarchical model of social goals.

    PubMed

    Trew, Jennifer L; Alden, Lynn E

    2012-01-01

    Models of self-regulation suggest that social goals may contribute to interpersonal and affective difficulties, yet little research has addressed this issue in the context of social anxiety. The present studies evaluated a hierarchical model of approach and avoidance in the context of social interaction anxiety, with affect as a mediating factor in the relationship between motivational tendencies and social goals. This model was refined in one undergraduate sample (N = 186) and cross-validated in a second sample (N = 195). The findings support hierarchical relationships between motivational tendencies, social interaction anxiety, affect, and social goals, with higher positive affect predicting fewer avoidance goals in both samples. Implications for the treatment of social interaction anxiety are discussed.

  2. Multitasking during social interactions in adolescence and early adulthood

    PubMed Central

    Mills, Kathryn L.; Dumontheil, Iroise; Speekenbrink, Maarten; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

    2015-01-01

    Multitasking is part of the everyday lives of both adolescents and adults. We often multitask during social interactions by simultaneously keeping track of other non-social information. Here, we examined how keeping track of non-social information impacts the ability to navigate social interactions in adolescents and adults. Participants aged 11–17 and 22–30 years old were instructed to carry out two tasks, one social and one non-social, within each trial. The social task involved referential communication, requiring participants to use social cues to guide their decisions, which sometimes required taking a different perspective. The non-social task manipulated cognitive load by requiring participants to remember non-social information in the form of one two-digit number (low load) or three two-digit numbers (high load) presented before each social task stimulus. Participants showed performance deficits when under high cognitive load and when the social task involved taking a different perspective, and individual differences in both trait perspective taking and working memory capacity predicted performance. Overall, adolescents were less adept at multitasking than adults when under high cognitive load. These results suggest that multitasking during social interactions incurs performance deficits, and that adolescents are more sensitive than adults to the effects of cognitive load while multitasking. PMID:26715991

  3. Multitasking during social interactions in adolescence and early adulthood.

    PubMed

    Mills, Kathryn L; Dumontheil, Iroise; Speekenbrink, Maarten; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

    2015-11-01

    Multitasking is part of the everyday lives of both adolescents and adults. We often multitask during social interactions by simultaneously keeping track of other non-social information. Here, we examined how keeping track of non-social information impacts the ability to navigate social interactions in adolescents and adults. Participants aged 11-17 and 22-30 years old were instructed to carry out two tasks, one social and one non-social, within each trial. The social task involved referential communication, requiring participants to use social cues to guide their decisions, which sometimes required taking a different perspective. The non-social task manipulated cognitive load by requiring participants to remember non-social information in the form of one two-digit number (low load) or three two-digit numbers (high load) presented before each social task stimulus. Participants showed performance deficits when under high cognitive load and when the social task involved taking a different perspective, and individual differences in both trait perspective taking and working memory capacity predicted performance. Overall, adolescents were less adept at multitasking than adults when under high cognitive load. These results suggest that multitasking during social interactions incurs performance deficits, and that adolescents are more sensitive than adults to the effects of cognitive load while multitasking.

  4. A Contextual Approach to Experiential Avoidance and Social Anxiety: Evidence from an Experimental Interaction and Daily Interactions of People with Social Anxiety Disorder

    PubMed Central

    Kashdan, Todd B.; Goodman, Fallon R.; Machell, Kyla A.; Kleiman, Evan M.; Monfort, Samuel S.; Ciarrochi, Joseph; Nezlek, John B.

    2014-01-01

    Experiential avoidance, the tendency to avoid internal, unwanted thoughts and feelings, is hypothesized to be a risk factor for social anxiety. Existing studies of experiential avoidance rely on trait measures with minimal contextual consideration. In two studies, we examined the association between experiential avoidance and anxiety within real-world social interactions. In the first study, we examined the effect of experiential avoidance on social anxiety in everyday life. For two weeks, 37 participants with Social Anxiety Disorder [SAD] and 38 healthy controls provided reports of experiential avoidance and social anxiety symptoms during face-to-face social interactions. Results showed that momentary experiential avoidance was positively related to anxiety symptoms during social interactions and this effect was stronger among people with SAD. People low in EA showed greater sensitivity to the level of situational threat than high EA people. In the second study, we facilitated an initial encounter between strangers. Unlike Study 1, we experimentally created a social situation where there was either an opportunity for intimacy (self-disclosure conversation) or no such opportunity (small-talk conversation). Results showed that greater experiential avoidance during the self-disclosure conversation temporally preceded increases in social anxiety for the remainder of the interaction; no such effect was found in the small-talk conversation. Our findings provide insight into the association between experiential avoidance on social anxiety in laboratory and naturalistic settings, and demonstrate that the effect of EA depends upon level of social threat and opportunity. PMID:24749634

  5. Prefrontocortical dopamine loss in rats delays long-term extinction of contextual conditioned fear, and reduces social interaction without affecting short-term social interaction memory.

    PubMed

    Fernandez Espejo, Emilio

    2003-03-01

    Prefrontal dopamine loss delays extinction of cued fear conditioning responses, but its role in contextual fear conditioning has not been explored. Medial prefrontal lesions also enhance social interaction in rats, but the role of prefrontal dopamine loss on social interaction memory is not known. Besides, a role for subcortical accumbal dopamine on mnesic changes after prefrontal dopamine manipulation has been proposed but not explored. The objective was to study the involvement of dopaminergic neurotransmission in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and nucleus accumbens in two mnesic tasks: contextual fear conditioning and social interaction memory. For contextual fear conditioning, short- and long-term freezing responses after an electric shock were studied, as well as extinction retention. Regarding social interaction memory, the recognition of a juvenile, a very sensitive short-term memory test, was used. Dopamine loss was carried out by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine, and postmortem catecholamine levels were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Prefrontocortical dopamine loss (>76%) led to a reactive enhancement of accumbal dopamine content (p<0.01), supporting the hypothesis that a hyperdopaminergic tone emerges in the nucleus accumbens after prefrontocortical dopamine loss. In lesioned rats, long-term extinction of contextual fear conditioning was significantly delayed and extinction retention was impaired without changes in acquisition and short-term contextual fear conditioning and, on the other hand, acquisition and short-term social interaction memory were not affected, although time spent on social interaction was significantly reduced. Added dopamine loss in the nucleus accumbens (>76%) did not alter these behavioral changes. In summary, the results of the present study indicate that the dopaminergic network in the mPFC (but not in the nucleus accumbens) coordinates the normal long-term extinction of contextual fear conditioning

  6. Abnormal regional cerebral blood flow in childhood autism.

    PubMed

    Ohnishi, T; Matsuda, H; Hashimoto, T; Kunihiro, T; Nishikawa, M; Uema, T; Sasaki, M

    2000-09-01

    Neuroimaging studies of autism have shown abnormalities in the limbic system and cerebellar circuits and additional sites. These findings are not, however, specific or consistent enough to build up a coherent theory of the origin and nature of the brain abnormality in autistic patients. Twenty-three children with infantile autism and 26 non-autistic controls matched for IQ and age were examined using brain-perfusion single photon emission computed tomography with technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer. In autistic subjects, we assessed the relationship between regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and symptom profiles. Images were anatomically normalized, and voxel-by-voxel analyses were performed. Decreases in rCBF in autistic patients compared with the control group were identified in the bilateral insula, superior temporal gyri and left prefrontal cortices. Analysis of the correlations between syndrome scores and rCBF revealed that each syndrome was associated with a specific pattern of perfusion in the limbic system and the medial prefrontal cortex. The results confirmed the associations of (i) impairments in communication and social interaction that are thought to be related to deficits in the theory of mind (ToM) with altered perfusion in the medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate gyrus, and (ii) the obsessive desire for sameness with altered perfusion in the right medial temporal lobe. The perfusion abnormalities seem to be related to the cognitive dysfunction observed in autism, such as deficits in ToM, abnormal responses to sensory stimuli, and the obsessive desire for sameness. The perfusion patterns suggest possible locations of abnormalities of brain function underlying abnormal behaviour patterns in autistic individuals.

  7. Reversal of Stress-Induced Social Interaction Deficits by Buprenorphine.

    PubMed

    Browne, Caroline A; Falcon, Edgardo; Robinson, Shivon A; Berton, Olivier; Lucki, Irwin

    2018-02-01

    Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder frequently report persistent problems with social interactions, emerging after a traumatic experience. Chronic social defeat stress is a widely used rodent model of stress that produces robust and sustained social avoidance behavior. The avoidance of other rodents can be reversed by 28 days of treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the only pharmaceutical class approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. In this study, the sensitivity of social interaction deficits evoked by 10 days of chronic social defeat stress to prospective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder was examined. The effects of acute and repeated treatment with a low dose of buprenorphine (0.25 mg/kg/d) on social interaction deficits in male C57BL/6 mice by chronic social defeat stress were studied. Another cohort of mice was used to determine the effects of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine (10 mg/kg/d), the NMDA antagonist ketamine (10 mg/kg/d), and the selective kappa opioid receptor antagonist CERC-501 (1 mg/kg/d). Changes in mRNA expression of Oprm1 and Oprk1 were assessed in a separate cohort. Buprenorphine significantly reversed social interaction deficits produced by chronic social defeat stress following 7 days of administration, but not after acute injection. Treatment with fluoxetine for 7 days, but not 24 hours, also reinstated social interaction behavior in mice that were susceptible to chronic social defeat. In contrast, CERC-501 and ketamine failed to reverse social avoidance. Gene expression analysis found: (1) Oprm1 mRNA expression was reduced in the hippocampus and increased in the frontal cortex of susceptible mice and (2) Oprk1 mRNA expression was reduced in the amygdala and increased in the frontal cortex of susceptible mice compared to non-stressed controls and stress-resilient mice. Short-term treatment with buprenorphine and fluoxetine

  8. Effect of synergistic interaction between abnormal adiposity-related metabolism and prediabetes on microalbuminuria in the general population

    PubMed Central

    Lee, Chang Hwa

    2017-01-01

    Central obesity and related metabolic components are important risks for microalbuminuria. To describe the effects of interactions between central obesity and related metabolic components on microalbuminuria, we conducted a nation-wide, population-based interaction analysis using cardio-metabolic index (CMI) as a candidate indicator of central obesity and related abnormal lipid metabolism. We recruited native Koreans aged 20 years or older with no medical illness. A total of 5398 participants were divided into quintiles according to CMI with sex as a covariate factor. Participants in the highest CMI quintile had elevated blood pressure (BP), increased glycemic exposure, poor lipid profile, and increased urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio compared to other lower quintiles. Multiple logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, systolic BP, and diastolic BP showed that CMI had an independent association with increased glycemic exposure and increased urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio. Our interaction analysis revealed a significant interaction between the highest CMI quintile and prediabetes with an increased risk of microalbuminuria (adjusted RERI = 0.473, 95% CI = 0.464–0.482; adjusted AP = 0.276, 95% CI = 0.156–0.395; adjusted SI = 2.952, 95% CI = 1.234–4.670). Our findings suggest a significant association between central obesity-related abnormal lipid metabolism and prediabetes, and their interaction may exert a synergistic effect on renal vascular endothelial dysfunction even before the appearance of full-blown diabetes mellitus. To confirm these findings, large population-based prospective studies are needed. PMID:28715448

  9. Mother-Infant and Extra-Dyadic Interactions with a New Social Partner: Developmental Trajectories of Early Social Abilities during Play.

    PubMed

    Fadda, Roberta; Lucarelli, Loredana

    2017-01-01

    Mother-infant interactions during feeding and play are pivotal experiences in the development of infants' early social abilities (Stern, 1985, 1995; Biringen, 2000). Stern indicated distinctive characteristics of mother-infant interactions, respectively, during feeding and play, suggesting to evaluate both to better describe the complexity of such early affective and social experiences (Stern, 1996). Moreover, during the first years of life, infants acquire cognitive and social skills that allow them to interact with new social partners in extra-dyadic interactions. However, the relations between mother-child interactions and infants' social skills in extra-dyadic interactions are still unknown. We investigated longitudinally the relations between mother-child interactions during feeding and play and child's pre-verbal communicative abilities in extra-dyadic interactions during play. 20 dyads were evaluated at T 1 (infants aged between 9-22 months) and 6 months later, at T 2 . The interdyadic differences in mother-infant interactions during feeding and play were evaluated, respectively, with the "Feeding Scale" (Chatoor et al., 1997) and with the "Play Scale" (Chatoor, 2006) and the socio-communicative abilities of children with a new social partner during play were evaluated with the "Early Social Communication Scales" (Mundy et al., 2003). We distinguished the dyads into two categories: dyads with functional interactions (high dyadic reciprocity, low dyadic conflict) and dyads with dysfunctional interactions (lower dyadic reciprocity, higher dyadic conflict). At T 1 , infants belonging to dyads with dysfunctional interactions were significantly lower in "Initiating Joint Attention" and in "Responding to Joint Attention" in interaction with a new social partner compared to the infants belonging to dyads with functional interactions. At T 2 , infants belonging to dyads with dysfunctional interactions were significantly lower in "Initiating Social Interactions" with

  10. Live interaction distinctively shapes social gaze dynamics in rhesus macaques

    PubMed Central

    Piva, Matthew; Morris, Jason A.; Chang, Steve W. C.

    2016-01-01

    The dynamic interaction of gaze between individuals is a hallmark of social cognition. However, very few studies have examined social gaze dynamics after mutual eye contact during real-time interactions. We used a highly quantifiable paradigm to assess social gaze dynamics between pairs of monkeys and modeled these dynamics using an exponential decay function to investigate sustained attention after mutual eye contact. When monkeys were interacting with real partners compared with static images and movies of the same monkeys, we found a significant increase in the proportion of fixations to the eyes and a smaller dispersion of fixations around the eyes, indicating enhanced focal attention to the eye region. Notably, dominance and familiarity between the interacting pairs induced separable components of gaze dynamics that were unique to live interactions. Gaze dynamics of dominant monkeys after mutual eye contact were associated with a greater number of fixations to the eyes, whereas those of familiar pairs were associated with a faster rate of decrease in this eye-directed attention. Our findings endorse the notion that certain key aspects of social cognition are only captured during interactive social contexts and dependent on the elapsed time relative to socially meaningful events. PMID:27486105

  11. Differences in social interaction- vs. cocaine reward in mouse vs. rat.

    PubMed

    Kummer, Kai K; Hofhansel, Lena; Barwitz, Constanze M; Schardl, Aurelia; Prast, Janine M; Salti, Ahmad; El Rawas, Rana; Zernig, Gerald

    2014-01-01

    We previously developed rat experimental models based on the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm in which only four 15-min episodes of dyadic social interaction with a sex- and weight-matched male Sprague Dawley (SD) rat (1) reversed CPP from cocaine to social interaction despite continuing cocaine training, and (2) prevented the reacquisition/re-expression of cocaine CPP. In a concurrent conditioning schedule, pairing one compartment with social interaction and the other compartment with 15 mg/kg cocaine injections, rats spent the same amount of time in both compartments and the most rewarding sensory component of the composite stimulus social interaction was touch (taction). In the present study, we validated our experimental paradigm in C57BL/6 mice to investigate if our experimental paradigm may be useful for the considerable number of genetically modified mouse models. Only 71% of the tested mice developed place preference for social interaction, whereas 85% of the rats did. Accordingly, 29% of the mice developed conditioned place aversion (CPA) to social interaction, whereas this was true for only 15% of the rats. In support of the lesser likelihood of mice to develop a preference for social interaction, the average amount of time spent in direct contact was 17% for mice vs. 79% for rats. In animals that were concurrently conditioned for social interaction vs. cocaine, the relative reward strength for cocaine was 300-fold higher in mice than in rats. Considering that human addicts regularly prefer drugs of abuse to drug-free social interaction, the present findings suggest that our experimental paradigm of concurrent CPP for cocaine vs. social interaction is of even greater translational power if performed in C57BL/6 mice, the genetic background for most transgenic rodent models, than in rats.

  12. Social interactions, trust and risky alcohol consumption.

    PubMed

    Seid, Abdu Kedir

    2016-12-01

    The association of social capital and alcohol consumption is one of the most robust empirical findings in health economics of the past decade. However, the direction of the relationship between the two is heavily dependent on which dimension of social capital is studied and which alcohol measure is used. In this paper, we examine the effect of social interactions and generalised trust on drinking in the general Danish population survey. Participants (n = 2569) were recruited as part of a larger study. The double-hurdle model for the volume of alcohol consumption and the multivariate logistic model for heavy episodic drinking were estimated. We found evidence that social networking with male friends, membership in voluntary organisations, and generalised trust were significantly associated with the mean volume of alcohol consumption and heavy drinking. We also observed that social support at the community level had a buffering effect against heavy episodic drinking. The findings support previous findings in which social interactions and generalised trust were found to predict individuals' volume of drinking and heavy episodic drinking. However, the results varied across the indicators.

  13. Social anxiety in online and real-life interaction and their associated factors.

    PubMed

    Yen, Ju-Yu; Yen, Cheng-Fang; Chen, Cheng-Sheng; Wang, Peng-Wei; Chang, Yi-Hsin; Ko, Chih-Hung

    2012-01-01

    Social anxiety was compared between online and real-life interaction in a sample of 2,348 college students. Severity of social anxiety in both real-life and online interaction was tested for associations with depression, Internet addiction, Internet activity type (gaming versus chatting), and scores on Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)/Behavioral Activation System (BAS) scales. The results showed that social anxiety was lower when interacting online than when interacting offline. Depression, Internet addiction, and high BIS and BAS scores were associated with high social anxiety. The social anxiety decreased more in online interaction among subjects with high social anxiety, depression, BIS, and BAS. This result suggests that the Internet has good potential as an alternative medium for delivering interventions for social anxiety. Further, the effect of BIS on social anxiety is decreased in online interaction. More attention should be paid for BIS when the treatment for social anxiety is delivered online.

  14. Social interaction and pain: An arctic expedition.

    PubMed

    Block, Per; Heathcote, Lauren C; Burnett Heyes, Stephanie

    2018-01-01

    Complex human behaviour can only be understood within its social environment. However, disentangling the causal links between individual outcomes and social network position is empirically challenging. We present a research design in a closed real-world setting with high-resolution temporal data to understand this interplay within a fundamental human experience - physical pain. Study participants completed an isolated 3-week hiking expedition in the Arctic Circle during which they were subject to the same variation in environmental conditions and only interacted amongst themselves. Adolescents provided daily ratings of pain and social interaction partners. Using longitudinal network models, we analyze the interplay between social network position and the experience of pain. Specifically, we test whether experiencing pain is linked to decreasing popularity (increasing isolation), whether adolescents prefer to interact with others experiencing similar pain (homophily), and whether participants are increasingly likely to report similar pain as their interaction partners (contagion). We find that reporting pain is associated with decreasing popularity - interestingly, this effect holds for males only. Further exploratory analyses suggest this is at least partly driven by males withdrawing from contact with females when in pain, enhancing our understanding of pain and masculinity. Contrary to recent experimental and clinical studies, we found no evidence of pain homophily or contagion in the expedition group. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. What can music tell us about social interaction?

    PubMed

    D'Ausilio, Alessandro; Novembre, Giacomo; Fadiga, Luciano; Keller, Peter E

    2015-03-01

    Humans are innately social creatures, but cognitive neuroscience, that has traditionally focused on individual brains, is only now beginning to investigate social cognition through realistic interpersonal interaction. Music provides an ideal domain for doing so because it offers a promising solution for balancing the trade-off between ecological validity and experimental control when testing cognitive and brain functions. Musical ensembles constitute a microcosm that provides a platform for parametrically modeling the complexity of human social interaction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Altered social attention in anorexia nervosa during real social interaction.

    PubMed

    Dalmaso, Mario; Castelli, Luigi; Scatturin, Pietro; Carli, Lorenza; Todisco, Patrizia; Palomba, Daniela; Galfano, Giovanni

    2016-03-17

    The capacity to devote attentional resources in response to body-related signals provided by others is still largely unexplored in individuals with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Here, we tested this capacity through a novel paradigm that mimics a social interaction with a real partner. Healthy individuals (Experiment 1) and individuals with AN (Experiment 2) completed a task with another person which consisted in performing, alternatively, rapid aiming movements to lateralised targets. Generally, this task leads to a form of Inhibition of Return (IOR), which consists of longer reaction times when an individual has to respond to a location previously searched by either himself (individual IOR) or by the partner (social IOR) as compared to previously unexplored locations. IOR is considered as an important attentional mechanism that promotes an effective exploration of the environment during social interaction. Here, healthy individuals displayed both individual and social IOR that were both reliable and of the same magnitude. Individuals with AN displayed a non-significant individual IOR but a reliable social IOR that was also significantly stronger than individual IOR. These results suggest the presence of a reduced sensitivity in processing body-related stimuli conveyed by oneself in individuals with AN which is reflected in action-based attentional processes.

  17. Melanin or a Melanin-Like Substance Interacts with the N-Terminal Portion of Prion Protein and Inhibits Abnormal Prion Protein Formation in Prion-Infected Cells

    PubMed Central

    Hamanaka, Taichi; Nishizawa, Keiko; Sakasegawa, Yuji; Oguma, Ayumi; Teruya, Kenta; Kurahashi, Hiroshi; Hara, Hideyuki; Sakaguchi, Suehiro

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Prion diseases are progressive fatal neurodegenerative illnesses caused by the accumulation of transmissible abnormal prion protein (PrP). To find treatments for prion diseases, we searched for substances from natural resources that inhibit abnormal PrP formation in prion-infected cells. We found that high-molecular-weight components from insect cuticle extracts reduced abnormal PrP levels. The chemical nature of these components was consistent with that of melanin. In fact, synthetic melanin produced from tyrosine or 3-hydroxy-l-tyrosine inhibited abnormal PrP formation. Melanin did not modify cellular or cell surface PrP levels, nor did it modify lipid raft or cellular cholesterol levels. Neither did it enhance autophagy or lysosomal function. Melanin was capable of interacting with PrP at two N-terminal domains. Specifically, it strongly interacted with the PrP region of amino acids 23 to 50 including a positively charged amino acid cluster and weakly interacted with the PrP octarepeat peptide region of residues 51 to 90. However, the in vitro and in vivo data were inconsistent with those of prion-infected cells. Abnormal PrP formation in protein misfolding cyclic amplification was not inhibited by melanin. Survival after prion infection was not significantly altered in albino mice or exogenously melanin-injected mice compared with that of control mice. These data suggest that melanin, a main determinant of skin color, is not likely to modify prion disease pathogenesis, even though racial differences in the incidence of human prion diseases have been reported. Thus, the findings identify an interaction between melanin and the N terminus of PrP, but the pathophysiological roles of the PrP-melanin interaction remain unclear. IMPORTANCE The N-terminal region of PrP is reportedly important for neuroprotection, neurotoxicity, and abnormal PrP formation, as this region is bound by many factors, such as metal ions, lipids, nucleic acids, antiprion compounds

  18. Social affiliation in same-class and cross-class interactions.

    PubMed

    Côté, Stéphane; Kraus, Michael W; Carpenter, Nichelle C; Piff, Paul K; Beermann, Ursula; Keltner, Dacher

    2017-02-01

    Historically high levels of economic inequality likely have important consequences for relationships between people of the same and different social class backgrounds. Here, we test the prediction that social affiliation among same-class partners is stronger at the extremes of the class spectrum, given that these groups are highly distinctive and most separated from others by institutional and economic forces. An internal meta-analysis of 4 studies (N = 723) provided support for this hypothesis. Participant and partner social class were interactively, rather than additively, associated with social affiliation, indexed by affiliative behaviors and emotions during structured laboratory interactions and in daily life. Further, response surface analyses revealed that paired upper or lower class partners generally affiliated more than average-class pairs. Analyses with separate class indices suggested that these patterns are driven more by parental income and subjective social class than by parental education. The findings illuminate the dynamics of same- and cross-class interactions, revealing that not all same-class interactions feature the same degree of affiliation. They also reveal the importance of studying social class from an intergroup perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  19. Comparing the Teaching Interaction Procedure to Social Stories for People with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leaf, Justin B.; Oppenheim-Leaf, Misty L.; Call, Nikki A.; Sheldon, Jan B.; Sherman, James A.; Taubman, Mitchell; McEachin, John; Dayharsh, Jamison; Leaf, Ronald

    2012-01-01

    This study compared social stories and the teaching interaction procedure to teach social skills to 6 children and adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder. Researchers taught 18 social skills with social stories and 18 social skills with the teaching interaction procedure within a parallel treatment design. The teaching interaction procedure…

  20. Social Anxiety in Online and Real-Life Interaction and Their Associated Factors

    PubMed Central

    Yen, Ju-Yu; Yen, Cheng-Fang; Chen, Cheng-Sheng; Wang, Peng-Wei; Chang, Yi-Hsin

    2012-01-01

    Abstract Social anxiety was compared between online and real-life interaction in a sample of 2,348 college students. Severity of social anxiety in both real-life and online interaction was tested for associations with depression, Internet addiction, Internet activity type (gaming versus chatting), and scores on Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)/Behavioral Activation System (BAS) scales. The results showed that social anxiety was lower when interacting online than when interacting offline. Depression, Internet addiction, and high BIS and BAS scores were associated with high social anxiety. The social anxiety decreased more in online interaction among subjects with high social anxiety, depression, BIS, and BAS. This result suggests that the Internet has good potential as an alternative medium for delivering interventions for social anxiety. Further, the effect of BIS on social anxiety is decreased in online interaction. More attention should be paid for BIS when the treatment for social anxiety is delivered online. PMID:22175853

  1. Dementia, distributed interactional competence and social membership.

    PubMed

    Gjernes, Trude; Måseide, Per

    2015-12-01

    The article analyzes how a person with dementia playing a guitar collaborates with other people in a joint activity. The analysis shows that a person with dementia may gain social membership in a group of persons with and without dementia through social interaction, collaboration, scaffolding and use of material anchors. It shows that interactional skills as well as skills as guitar player are not only products of a mind-body system, but also a product of collaboration between different actors with different participant statuses in a particular situation. The guitar player's mind emerges in the social context of the joint activity and scaffolding. Scaffolding comes from interactive moves from the other participants without dementia and from the guitar. The guitar represents a material anchor. It is a tool for participation, experiences of pleasure, and coping, but it is also a challenge that requires management of face threatening events. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Visual analytics of geo-social interaction patterns for epidemic control.

    PubMed

    Luo, Wei

    2016-08-10

    Human interaction and population mobility determine the spatio-temporal course of the spread of an airborne disease. This research views such spreads as geo-social interaction problems, because population mobility connects different groups of people over geographical locations via which the viruses transmit. Previous research argued that geo-social interaction patterns identified from population movement data can provide great potential in designing effective pandemic mitigation. However, little work has been done to examine the effectiveness of designing control strategies taking into account geo-social interaction patterns. To address this gap, this research proposes a new framework for effective disease control; specifically this framework proposes that disease control strategies should start from identifying geo-social interaction patterns, designing effective control measures accordingly, and evaluating the efficacy of different control measures. This framework is used to structure design of a new visual analytic tool that consists of three components: a reorderable matrix for geo-social mixing patterns, agent-based epidemic models, and combined visualization methods. With real world human interaction data in a French primary school as a proof of concept, this research compares the efficacy of vaccination strategies between the spatial-social interaction patterns and the whole areas. The simulation results show that locally targeted vaccination has the potential to keep infection to a small number and prevent spread to other regions. At some small probability, the local control strategies will fail; in these cases other control strategies will be needed. This research further explores the impact of varying spatial-social scales on the success of local vaccination strategies. The results show that a proper spatial-social scale can help achieve the best control efficacy with a limited number of vaccines. The case study shows how GS-EpiViz does support the design

  3. COMPARING THE TEACHING INTERACTION PROCEDURE TO SOCIAL STORIES FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM

    PubMed Central

    Leaf, Justin B; Oppenheim-Leaf, Misty L; Call, Nikki A; Sheldon, Jan B; Sherman, James A; Taubman, Mitchell; McEachin, John; Dayharsh, Jamison; Leaf, Ronald

    2012-01-01

    This study compared social stories and the teaching interaction procedure to teach social skills to 6 children and adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder. Researchers taught 18 social skills with social stories and 18 social skills with the teaching interaction procedure within a parallel treatment design. The teaching interaction procedure resulted in mastery of all 18 skills across the 6 participants. Social stories, in the same amount of teaching sessions, resulted in mastery of 4 of the 18 social skills across the 6 participants. Participants also displayed more generalization of social skills taught with the teaching interaction procedure to known adults and peers. PMID:22844137

  4. Live interaction distinctively shapes social gaze dynamics in rhesus macaques.

    PubMed

    Dal Monte, Olga; Piva, Matthew; Morris, Jason A; Chang, Steve W C

    2016-10-01

    The dynamic interaction of gaze between individuals is a hallmark of social cognition. However, very few studies have examined social gaze dynamics after mutual eye contact during real-time interactions. We used a highly quantifiable paradigm to assess social gaze dynamics between pairs of monkeys and modeled these dynamics using an exponential decay function to investigate sustained attention after mutual eye contact. When monkeys were interacting with real partners compared with static images and movies of the same monkeys, we found a significant increase in the proportion of fixations to the eyes and a smaller dispersion of fixations around the eyes, indicating enhanced focal attention to the eye region. Notably, dominance and familiarity between the interacting pairs induced separable components of gaze dynamics that were unique to live interactions. Gaze dynamics of dominant monkeys after mutual eye contact were associated with a greater number of fixations to the eyes, whereas those of familiar pairs were associated with a faster rate of decrease in this eye-directed attention. Our findings endorse the notion that certain key aspects of social cognition are only captured during interactive social contexts and dependent on the elapsed time relative to socially meaningful events. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

  5. Attachment, attractiveness, and social interaction: a diary study.

    PubMed

    Tidwell, M C; Reis, H T; Shaver, P R

    1996-10-01

    To what extent are attachment styles manifested in natural social activity? A total of 125 participants categorized as possessing secure, avoidant, or anxious-ambivalent attachment styles kept structured social interaction diaries for 1 week. Several theoretically important findings emerged. First, compared with secure and anxious-ambivalent persons, avoidant persons reported lower levels of intimacy, enjoyment, promotive interaction, and positive emotions, and higher levels of negative emotions, primarily in opposite-sex interactions. Analyses indicated that avoidant persons may structure social activities in ways that minimize closeness. Second, secure people differentiated more clearly than either insecure group between romantic and other opposite-sex partners. Third, the subjective experiences of anxious-ambivalent persons were more variable than those of the other groups. Finally, the authors examined and rejected the possibility that attachment effects might be confounded with physical attractiveness. These findings suggest that feeling and behaviors that arise during spontaneous, everyday social activity may contribute to the maintenance of attachment styles in adulthood.

  6. Comparing the Teaching Interaction Procedure to Social Stories: A Replication Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kassardjian, Alyne; Leaf, Justin B.; Ravid, Daniel; Leaf, Jeremy A.; Alcalay, Aditt; Dale, Stephanie; Tsuji, Kathleen; Taubman, Mitchell; Leaf, Ronald; McEachin, John; Oppenheim-Leaf, Misty L.

    2014-01-01

    This study compared the teaching interaction procedure to social stories implemented in a group setting to teach social skills to three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The researchers taught each participant one social skill with the teaching interaction procedure, one social skill with the social story procedure, and one social…

  7. The influence of intention and outcome on evaluations of social interaction.

    PubMed

    Wu, Xiaoying; Hua, Rui; Yang, Zhangxiang; Yin, Jun

    2018-01-01

    Reading and making sense of social interactions between individuals is an important part of our daily social lives. Given that actions tend to be interpreted in terms of intent within the observed outcome, we investigated how intent and outcome interactively influence evaluations of social interactions. Through visual animations, intent was operationalized as an agent's (i.e., actor's) act intentionally or unintentionally having an influence on another agent (i.e., affectee). In Experiment 1, the act was helpful and the consequences brought small or great benefits to the affectee. In Experiment 2, the act was harmful and brought small or great losses to the affectee. We found that for both helpful and harmful contexts, social interaction evaluations were influenced by an interaction between the intent and outcome of the act. Specifically, great help/harm (i.e., the great-benefits or great-losses condition) was rated as a stronger social interaction than small help/harm, and the difference was larger in the intentional condition than in the unintentional condition. Furthermore, regardless of the interaction valence, the effect of the intent was larger than the effect of the outcome when evaluating social interaction. This result suggests that observers consider the intent and outcome jointly when evaluating a given social interaction, and the intent has a privileged role in this process. These findings are consistent with the idea that the intent is often deemed to be the cause driving the effect of outcome, and they help us to understand how social interactions are constructed within the action understanding system. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Daily Social Interactions and the Biological Stress Response: Are There Age Differences in Links Between Social Interactions and Alpha-Amylase?

    PubMed

    Birditt, Kira S; Tighe, Lauren A; Nevitt, Michael R; Zarit, Steven H

    2017-12-12

    According to the strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) model, older people are better able to avoid negative social interactions than younger people, but when they do experience negative interactions, they are equally or more emotionally and physiologically reactive than younger people. Less is known about the links between daily negative and positive social encounters and the sympathetic adrenal medullary system (a key stress pathway) and whether there are age differences in these links. This study considers whether negative and positive social interactions are associated with diurnal alpha-amylase (a measure of the sympathetic adrenal medullary system) and whether there are differences in these links by age. Participants were from the Daily Health, Stress, and Relationship Study, which includes a random sample of 89 individuals (aged 40-95) who completed 14 days of daily diary interviews and provided saliva samples four times a day (wake, 30 min after wake, lunch, and bedtime) for four of those days that were assayed for alpha-amylase. Days in which people reported more negative interactions were associated with flatter morning declines in alpha-amylase, indicating greater stress. Links between positive interactions and diurnal alpha-amylase varied by age group. Findings are consistent with the SAVI model indicating that older adults respond differently to social stimuli than younger people. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  9. Functional analysis of inappropriate social interactions in students with Asperger's syndrome.

    PubMed

    Roantree, Christina F; Kennedy, Craig H

    2012-01-01

    We analyzed the inappropriate social interactions of 3 students with Asperger's syndrome whose behavior was maintained by social positive reinforcement. We tested whether inappropriate social behavior was sensitive to social positive reinforcement contingencies and whether such contingencies could be reversed to increase the probability of socially appropriate responding. Our results show that social positive reinforcers can be identified for inappropriate social interactions and that appropriate social behaviors can be sensitive to reinforcement contingency reversals.

  10. Comparison of dogs and humans in visual scanning of social interaction.

    PubMed

    Törnqvist, Heini; Somppi, Sanni; Koskela, Aija; Krause, Christina M; Vainio, Outi; Kujala, Miiamaaria V

    2015-09-01

    Previous studies have demonstrated similarities in gazing behaviour of dogs and humans, but comparisons under similar conditions are rare, and little is known about dogs' visual attention to social scenes. Here, we recorded the eye gaze of dogs while they viewed images containing two humans or dogs either interacting socially or facing away: the results were compared with equivalent data measured from humans. Furthermore, we compared the gazing behaviour of two dog and two human populations with different social experiences: family and kennel dogs; dog experts and non-experts. Dogs' gazing behaviour was similar to humans: both species gazed longer at the actors in social interaction than in non-social images. However, humans gazed longer at the actors in dog than human social interaction images, whereas dogs gazed longer at the actors in human than dog social interaction images. Both species also made more saccades between actors in images representing non-conspecifics, which could indicate that processing social interaction of non-conspecifics may be more demanding. Dog experts and non-experts viewed the images very similarly. Kennel dogs viewed images less than family dogs, but otherwise their gazing behaviour did not differ, indicating that the basic processing of social stimuli remains similar regardless of social experiences.

  11. Absence of social conditioned place preference in BTBR T+tf/J mice: relevance for social motivation testing in rodent models of autism

    PubMed Central

    Pearson, Brandon L.; Bettis, Jaclyn K.; Meyza, Ksenia Z.; Yamamoto, Lace Y.; Blanchard, D. Caroline; Blanchard, Robert J.

    2012-01-01

    A major goal of translation research in autism is to characterize the physiological and psychological processes underlying behavioral abnormalities. Since autism reflects impairments in social motivation, we modified the mouse three-chamber social approach apparatus for use as a social conditioned place preference arena. We paired one of two unique contexts with social interactions in juvenile mice for five or ten conditioning sessions in BTBR T+tf/J mice and a control strain with normal approach behaviors (C57BL/6J) since the BTBR T+tf/J inbred mouse strain displays a variety of behavioral alterations analogous to symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. While C57BL/6J mice formed a conditioned place preference to the context associated with social interactions, particularly those receiving ten days of conditioning, BTBR T+tf/J mice did not. Neither absence of social proximity nor avoidance due to high rates of autogrooming appeared to underlie the impaired positive incentive value of the unconditioned social stimulus in the BTBR T+tf/J strain. These data contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting that the BTBR T+tf/J strain shows impairments in all diagnostic domains of autism including social motivation. Additionally, social conditioning testing might provide an important social motivation measure in other rodent models of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by social abnormalities. PMID:22562042

  12. Social curiosity and interpersonal perception: a judge x trait interaction.

    PubMed

    Hartung, Freda-Marie; Renner, Britta

    2011-06-01

    The present study examined the impact of social curiosity on the utilization of social information and the accuracy of personality judgments. In total, 182 individuals who never met each other before were asked to interact for 10 minutes and afterwards to evaluate the personality (Big Five) of their interaction partner. High socially curious judges were more accurate in evaluating the degree of Extraversion and Openness of their interaction partners. Interestingly, high and low curious judges differed significantly in the utilization of verbal and nonverbal cues displayed by their interaction partner. Specifically, high socially curious judges more often used valid cues for inferring Extraversion and Openness. No differences in interpersonal accuracy and cue utilization were found for Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. The results suggest that high socially curious individuals are more accurate in judging visible traits and that this higher accuracy is grounded in a more comprehensive utilization of valid cues.

  13. Gray matter abnormalities in patients with social anxiety disorder: A voxel-based morphometry study.

    PubMed

    Tükel, Raşit; Aydın, Kubilay; Yüksel, Çağrı; Ertekin, Erhan; Koyuncu, Ahmet; Taş, Cumhur

    2015-10-30

    The main objective of this study was to investigate the gray matter volume (GMV) differences between the patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and healthy controls, using VBM analysis. A total of 27 consecutive patients (15 women and 12 men) with SAD and 27 age and sex-matched healthy control subjects were included in this study. With magnetic resonance imaging, we examined GMV differences between SAD and healthy control groups. We found that GMV in the right middle and inferior temporal, left superior parietal, left precuneus and right fusiform areas were significantly greater in patients with SAD than in healthy controls. In addition, GMV in the right inferior and middle temporal regions were positively correlated with the social avoidance and total social anxiety scores of the participants in the SAD group. Lastly, greater GMV in the left superior parietal and precuneal regions were correlated with the higher disability in the social life of the patients with SAD. Our results suggest that the regions that showed significant GMV differences between the two groups play an important role in the pathophysiology of SAD and increased GMV in these regions might reflect a pathological process of neural abnormalities in this disorder. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Melanin or a Melanin-Like Substance Interacts with the N-Terminal Portion of Prion Protein and Inhibits Abnormal Prion Protein Formation in Prion-Infected Cells.

    PubMed

    Hamanaka, Taichi; Nishizawa, Keiko; Sakasegawa, Yuji; Oguma, Ayumi; Teruya, Kenta; Kurahashi, Hiroshi; Hara, Hideyuki; Sakaguchi, Suehiro; Doh-Ura, Katsumi

    2017-03-15

    Prion diseases are progressive fatal neurodegenerative illnesses caused by the accumulation of transmissible abnormal prion protein (PrP). To find treatments for prion diseases, we searched for substances from natural resources that inhibit abnormal PrP formation in prion-infected cells. We found that high-molecular-weight components from insect cuticle extracts reduced abnormal PrP levels. The chemical nature of these components was consistent with that of melanin. In fact, synthetic melanin produced from tyrosine or 3-hydroxy-l-tyrosine inhibited abnormal PrP formation. Melanin did not modify cellular or cell surface PrP levels, nor did it modify lipid raft or cellular cholesterol levels. Neither did it enhance autophagy or lysosomal function. Melanin was capable of interacting with PrP at two N-terminal domains. Specifically, it strongly interacted with the PrP region of amino acids 23 to 50 including a positively charged amino acid cluster and weakly interacted with the PrP octarepeat peptide region of residues 51 to 90. However, the in vitro and in vivo data were inconsistent with those of prion-infected cells. Abnormal PrP formation in protein misfolding cyclic amplification was not inhibited by melanin. Survival after prion infection was not significantly altered in albino mice or exogenously melanin-injected mice compared with that of control mice. These data suggest that melanin, a main determinant of skin color, is not likely to modify prion disease pathogenesis, even though racial differences in the incidence of human prion diseases have been reported. Thus, the findings identify an interaction between melanin and the N terminus of PrP, but the pathophysiological roles of the PrP-melanin interaction remain unclear. IMPORTANCE The N-terminal region of PrP is reportedly important for neuroprotection, neurotoxicity, and abnormal PrP formation, as this region is bound by many factors, such as metal ions, lipids, nucleic acids, antiprion compounds, and

  15. Deciphering human motion to discriminate social interactions: a developmental neuroimaging study

    PubMed Central

    Sapey-Triomphe, Laurie-Anne; Centelles, Laurie; Roth, Muriel; Fonlupt, Pierre; Hénaff, Marie-Anne; Assaiante, Christine

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Non-verbal communication plays a major role in social interaction understanding. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we explored the development of the neural networks involved in social interaction recognition based on human motion in children (8–11), adolescents (13–17), and adults (20–41). Participants watched point-light videos depicting two actors interacting or moving independently and were asked whether these agents were interacting or not. All groups successfully performed the discrimination task, but children had a lower performance and longer response times than the older groups. In all three groups, the posterior parts of the superior temporal sulci and middle temporal gyri, the inferior frontal gyri and the anterior temporal lobes showed greater activation when observing social interactions. In addition, adolescents and adults recruited the caudate nucleus and some frontal regions that are part of the mirror system. Adults showed greater activations in parietal and frontal regions (part of them belonging to the social brain) than adolescents. An increased number of regions that are part of the mirror system network or the social brain, as well as the caudate nucleus, were recruited with age. In conclusion, a shared set of brain regions enabling the discrimination of social interactions from neutral movements through human motion is already present in 8-year-old children. Developmental processes such as refinements in the social brain and mirror system would help grasping subtle cues in non-verbal aspects of social interactions. PMID:28008075

  16. Interacting With Robots to Investigate the Bases of Social Interaction.

    PubMed

    Sciutti, Alessandra; Sandini, Giulio

    2017-12-01

    Humans show a great natural ability at interacting with each other. Such efficiency in joint actions depends on a synergy between planned collaboration and emergent coordination, a subconscious mechanism based on a tight link between action execution and perception. This link supports phenomena as mutual adaptation, synchronization, and anticipation, which cut drastically the delays in the interaction and the need of complex verbal instructions and result in the establishment of joint intentions, the backbone of social interaction. From a neurophysiological perspective, this is possible, because the same neural system supporting action execution is responsible of the understanding and the anticipation of the observed action of others. Defining which human motion features allow for such emergent coordination with another agent would be crucial to establish more natural and efficient interaction paradigms with artificial devices, ranging from assistive and rehabilitative technology to companion robots. However, investigating the behavioral and neural mechanisms supporting natural interaction poses substantial problems. In particular, the unconscious processes at the basis of emergent coordination (e.g., unintentional movements or gazing) are very difficult-if not impossible-to restrain or control in a quantitative way for a human agent. Moreover, during an interaction, participants influence each other continuously in a complex way, resulting in behaviors that go beyond experimental control. In this paper, we propose robotics technology as a potential solution to this methodological problem. Robots indeed can establish an interaction with a human partner, contingently reacting to his actions without losing the controllability of the experiment or the naturalness of the interactive scenario. A robot could represent an "interactive probe" to assess the sensory and motor mechanisms underlying human-human interaction. We discuss this proposal with examples from our

  17. Odorant binding protein 69a connects social interaction to modulation of social responsiveness in Drosophila.

    PubMed

    Bentzur, Assa; Shmueli, Anat; Omesi, Liora; Ryvkin, Julia; Knapp, Jon-Michael; Parnas, Moshe; Davis, Fred P; Shohat-Ophir, Galit

    2018-04-01

    Living in a social environment requires the ability to respond to specific social stimuli and to incorporate information obtained from prior interactions into future ones. One of the mechanisms that facilitates social interaction is pheromone-based communication. In Drosophila melanogaster, the male-specific pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA) elicits different responses in male and female flies, and functions to modulate behavior in a context and experience-dependent manner. Although it is the most studied pheromone in flies, the mechanisms that determine the complexity of the response, its intensity and final output with respect to social context, sex and prior interaction, are still not well understood. Here we explored the functional link between social interaction and pheromone-based communication and discovered an odorant binding protein that links social interaction to sex specific changes in cVA related responses. Odorant binding protein 69a (Obp69a) is expressed in auxiliary cells and secreted into the olfactory sensilla. Its expression is inversely regulated in male and female flies by social interactions: cVA exposure reduces its levels in male flies and increases its levels in female flies. Increasing or decreasing Obp69a levels by genetic means establishes a functional link between Obp69a levels and the extent of male aggression and female receptivity. We show that activation of cVA-sensing neurons is sufficeint to regulate Obp69a levels in the absence of cVA, and requires active neurotransmission between the sensory neuron to the second order olfactory neuron. The cross-talk between sensory neurons and non-neuronal auxiliary cells at the olfactory sensilla, represents an additional component in the machinery that promotes behavioral plasticity to the same sensory stimuli in male and female flies.

  18. Autism in Action: Reduced Bodily Connectedness during Social Interactions?

    PubMed

    Peper, C Lieke E; van der Wal, Sija J; Begeer, Sander

    2016-01-01

    Autism is a lifelong disorder, defined by deficits in social interactions and flexibility. To date, diagnostic markers for autism primarily include limitations in social behavior and cognition. However, such tests have often shown to be inadequate for individuals with autism who are either more cognitively able or intellectually disabled. The assessment of the social limitations of autism would benefit from new tests that capture the dynamics of social initiative and reciprocity in interaction processes, and that are not dependent on intellectual or verbal skills. New entry points for the development of such assessments may be found in 'bodily connectedness', the attunement of bodily movement between two individuals. In typical development, bodily connectedness is related to psychological connectedness, including social skills and relation quality. Limitations in bodily connectedness could be a central mechanism underlying the social impairment in autism. While bodily connectedness can be minutely assessed with advanced techniques, our understanding of these skills in autism is limited. This Perspective provides examples of how the potential relation between bodily connectedness and specific characteristics of autism can be examined using methods from the coordination dynamics approach. Uncovering this relation is particularly important for developing sensitive tools to assess the tendency to initiate social interactions and the dynamics of mutual adjustments during social interactions, as current assessments are not suited to grasp ongoing dynamics and reciprocity in behavior. The outcomes of such research may yield valuable openings for the development of diagnostic markers for autism that can be applied across the lifespan.

  19. Fermented foods, neuroticism, and social anxiety: An interaction model.

    PubMed

    Hilimire, Matthew R; DeVylder, Jordan E; Forestell, Catherine A

    2015-08-15

    Animal models and clinical trials in humans suggest that probiotics can have an anxiolytic effect. However, no studies have examined the relationship between probiotics and social anxiety. Here we employ a cross-sectional approach to determine whether consumption of fermented foods likely to contain probiotics interacts with neuroticism to predict social anxiety symptoms. A sample of young adults (N=710, 445 female) completed self-report measures of fermented food consumption, neuroticism, and social anxiety. An interaction model, controlling for demographics, general consumption of healthful foods, and exercise frequency, showed that exercise frequency, neuroticism, and fermented food consumption significantly and independently predicted social anxiety. Moreover, fermented food consumption also interacted with neuroticism in predicting social anxiety. Specifically, for those high in neuroticism, higher frequency of fermented food consumption was associated with fewer symptoms of social anxiety. Taken together with previous studies, the results suggest that fermented foods that contain probiotics may have a protective effect against social anxiety symptoms for those at higher genetic risk, as indexed by trait neuroticism. While additional research is necessary to determine the direction of causality, these results suggest that consumption of fermented foods that contain probiotics may serve as a low-risk intervention for reducing social anxiety. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. How relevant is social interaction in second language learning?

    PubMed Central

    Verga, Laura; Kotz, Sonja A.

    2013-01-01

    Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthened by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicates that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language (L2) learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints, especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor. PMID:24027521

  1. How relevant is social interaction in second language learning?

    PubMed

    Verga, Laura; Kotz, Sonja A

    2013-09-03

    Verbal language is the most widespread mode of human communication, and an intrinsically social activity. This claim is strengthened by evidence emerging from different fields, which clearly indicates that social interaction influences human communication, and more specifically, language learning. Indeed, research conducted with infants and children shows that interaction with a caregiver is necessary to acquire language. Further evidence on the influence of sociality on language comes from social and linguistic pathologies, in which deficits in social and linguistic abilities are tightly intertwined, as is the case for Autism, for example. However, studies on adult second language (L2) learning have been mostly focused on individualistic approaches, partly because of methodological constraints, especially of imaging methods. The question as to whether social interaction should be considered as a critical factor impacting upon adult language learning still remains underspecified. Here, we review evidence in support of the view that sociality plays a significant role in communication and language learning, in an attempt to emphasize factors that could facilitate this process in adult language learning. We suggest that sociality should be considered as a potentially influential factor in adult language learning and that future studies in this domain should explicitly target this factor.

  2. Development of Social Anxiety: Social Interaction Predictors of Implicit and Explicit Fear of Negative Evaluation

    PubMed Central

    Allen, Joseph P.

    2012-01-01

    Little is known about how to predict which individuals with known temperament vulnerabilities will go on to develop social anxiety problems. Adolescents (N = 185) were followed from age 13 to 18 to evaluate psychosocial, prospective predictors of social anxiety symptoms and fears of negative evaluation (FNE), after accounting for pre-existing social withdrawal symptoms. Results from structural equation modeling suggest that lack of perceived social acceptance predicts subsequent explicit social anxiety and FNE, whereas the emotional intensity of close peer interactions predicts subsequent implicit FNE. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of peer interaction in the development of social anxiety, and the value of measuring both implicit and explicit FNE. PMID:17171538

  3. Myths on Bi-direction Communication of Web 2.0 Based Social Networks: Is Social Network Truly Interactive?

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-03-10

    more and more social interactions are happening on the on-line. Especially recent uptake of the social network sites (SNSs), such as Facebook (http...results give overviews on social interactions on a popular social network site . As each twitter account has different characteristics based on...the public and individuals post their private stories on their blogs and share their interests using social network sites . On the other hand, people

  4. The Effect of Social Interaction on Learning Engagement in a Social Networking Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lu, Jie; Churchill, Daniel

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the impact of social interactions among a class of undergraduate students on their learning engagement in a social networking environment. Thirteen undergraduate students enrolled in a course in a university in Hong Kong used an Elgg-based social networking platform throughout a semester to develop their digital portfolios…

  5. Quantifying the abnormal hemodynamics of sickle cell anemia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lei, Huan; Karniadakis, George

    2012-02-01

    Sickle red blood cells (SS-RBC) exhibit heterogeneous morphologies and abnormal hemodynamics in deoxygenated states. A multi-scale model for SS-RBC is developed based on the Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) method. Different cell morphologies (sickle, granular, elongated shapes) typically observed in deoxygenated states are constructed and quantified by the Asphericity and Elliptical shape factors. The hemodynamics of SS-RBC suspensions is studied in both shear and pipe flow systems. The flow resistance obtained from both systems exhibits a larger value than the healthy blood flow due to the abnormal cell properties. Moreover, SS-RBCs exhibit abnormal adhesive interactions with both the vessel endothelium cells and the leukocytes. The effect of the abnormal adhesive interactions on the hemodynamics of sickle blood is investigated using the current model. It is found that both the SS-RBC - endothelium and the SS-RBC - leukocytes interactions, can potentially trigger the vicious ``sickling and entrapment'' cycles, resulting in vaso-occlusion phenomena widely observed in micro-circulation experiments.

  6. Evolving the theory and praxis of knowledge translation through social interaction: a social phenomenological study

    PubMed Central

    McWilliam, Carol L; Kothari, Anita; Ward-Griffin, Catherine; Forbes, Dorothy; Leipert, Beverly

    2009-01-01

    Background As an inherently human process fraught with subjectivity, dynamic interaction, and change, social interaction knowledge translation (KT) invites implementation scientists to explore what might be learned from adopting the academic tradition of social constructivism and an interpretive research approach. This paper presents phenomenological investigation of the second cycle of a participatory action KT intervention in the home care sector to answer the question: What is the nature of the process of implementing KT through social interaction? Methods Social phenomenology was selected to capture how the social processes of the KT intervention were experienced, with the aim of representing these as typical socially-constituted patterns. Participants (n = 203), including service providers, case managers, administrators, and researchers organized into nine geographically-determined multi-disciplinary action groups, purposefully selected and audiotaped three meetings per group to capture their enactment of the KT process at early, middle, and end-of-cycle timeframes. Data, comprised of 36 hours of transcribed audiotapes augmented by researchers' field notes, were analyzed using social phenomenology strategies and authenticated through member checking and peer review. Results Four patterns of social interaction representing organization, team, and individual interests were identified: overcoming barriers and optimizing facilitators; integrating 'science push' and 'demand pull' approaches within the social interaction process; synthesizing the research evidence with tacit professional craft and experiential knowledge; and integrating knowledge creation, transfer, and uptake throughout everyday work. Achieved through relational transformative leadership constituted simultaneously by both structure and agency, in keeping with social phenomenology analysis approaches, these four patterns are represented holistically in a typical construction, specifically, a

  7. Psychometric evaluation of the Social Interaction Phobia Scale.

    PubMed

    Reilly, Alison R; Carleton, R Nicholas; Weeks, Justin W

    2012-01-01

    The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of a novel measure of social anxiety symptoms, the Social Interaction Phobia Scale (SIPS), as a stand-alone item set, using an undergraduate sample (N=512). The 14-item SIPS has three subscales assessing Social Interaction Anxiety, Fear of Overt Evaluation, and Fear of Attracting Attention. Confirmatory factor analyses replicated the three-factor structure for the SIPS originally reported by Carleton et al. All SIPS scores demonstrated good internal consistency. The convergent validity of the SIPS was supported by strong and positive correlations between all SIPS scores and measures of social anxiety and fear of evaluation; the finding that the relationships between all SIPS scores and a social anxiety measure were stronger than relationships between all SIPS scores and measures of other constructs supported the discriminant validity of the SIPS. Results suggest that the SIPS possesses excellent psychometric properties.

  8. Extended cognition and the space of social interaction.

    PubMed

    Krueger, Joel

    2011-09-01

    The extended mind thesis (EM) asserts that some cognitive processes are (partially) composed of actions consisting of the manipulation and exploitation of environmental structures. Might some processes at the root of social cognition have a similarly extended structure? In this paper, I argue that social cognition is fundamentally an interactive form of space management--the negotiation and management of "we-space"--and that some of the expressive actions involved in the negotiation and management of we-space (gesture, touch, facial and whole-body expressions) drive basic processes of interpersonal understanding and thus do genuine social-cognitive work. Social interaction is a kind of extended social cognition, driven and at least partially constituted by environmental (non-neural) scaffolding. Challenging the Theory of Mind paradigm, I draw upon research from gesture studies, developmental psychology, and work on Moebius Syndrome to support this thesis. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Does Social Interaction Matter Psychological Well-Being in Persons With Dementia?

    PubMed

    Lee, Kyung Hee; Boltz, Marie; Lee, Hana; Algase, Donna L

    2017-06-01

    Social interaction between residents and staff is an important factor influencing sense of well-being. This study examined the relationship between staff-resident interactions and psychological well-being of persons with dementia. A total of 831 observations of 110 persons with dementia in 17 nursing homes and 6 assisted living facilities were included. Psychological well-being was measured by observed displays of positive and negative emotional expressions. Social interaction was determined by the type of social interaction (ie, verbal interaction, nonverbal interaction, and both verbal and nonverbal interactions) and the quality of interaction (ie, positive, negative, and neutral). Verbal or both verbal and nonverbal interactions showed significant relationship with positive and negative emotional expressions. Positive interaction was significantly associated with more positive emotional expression, whereas negative interaction was not. Staff-resident interactions are important to promote the psychological well-being of persons with dementia in residential care.

  10. Does social presence or the potential for interaction reduce social gaze in online social scenarios? Introducing the "live lab" paradigm.

    PubMed

    Gregory, Nicola J; Antolin, Jastine V

    2018-05-01

    Research has shown that people's gaze is biased away from faces in the real world but towards them when they are viewed onscreen. Non-equivalent stimulus conditions may have represented a confound in this research, however, as participants viewed onscreen stimuli as pre-recordings where interaction was not possible compared with real-world stimuli which were viewed in real time where interaction was possible. We assessed the independent contributions of online social presence and ability for interaction on social gaze by developing the "live lab" paradigm. Participants in three groups ( N = 132) viewed a confederate as (1) a live webcam stream where interaction was not possible (one-way), (2) a live webcam stream where an interaction was possible (two-way), or (3) a pre-recording. Potential for interaction, rather than online social presence, was the primary influence on gaze behaviour: participants in the pre-recorded and one-way conditions looked more to the face than those in the two-way condition, particularly, when the confederate made "eye contact." Fixation durations to the face were shorter when the scene was viewed live, particularly, during a bid for eye contact. Our findings support the dual function of gaze but suggest that online social presence alone is not sufficient to activate social norms of civil inattention. Implications for the reinterpretation of previous research are discussed.

  11. Embodied social interaction constitutes social cognition in pairs of humans: a minimalist virtual reality experiment.

    PubMed

    Froese, Tom; Iizuka, Hiroyuki; Ikegami, Takashi

    2014-01-14

    Scientists have traditionally limited the mechanisms of social cognition to one brain, but recent approaches claim that interaction also realizes cognitive work. Experiments under constrained virtual settings revealed that interaction dynamics implicitly guide social cognition. Here we show that embodied social interaction can be constitutive of agency detection and of experiencing another's presence. Pairs of participants moved their "avatars" along an invisible virtual line and could make haptic contact with three identical objects, two of which embodied the other's motions, but only one, the other's avatar, also embodied the other's contact sensor and thereby enabled responsive interaction. Co-regulated interactions were significantly correlated with identifications of the other's avatar and reports of the clearest awareness of the other's presence. These results challenge folk psychological notions about the boundaries of mind, but make sense from evolutionary and developmental perspectives: an extendible mind can offload cognitive work into its environment.

  12. Embodied social interaction constitutes social cognition in pairs of humans: A minimalist virtual reality experiment

    PubMed Central

    Froese, Tom; Iizuka, Hiroyuki; Ikegami, Takashi

    2014-01-01

    Scientists have traditionally limited the mechanisms of social cognition to one brain, but recent approaches claim that interaction also realizes cognitive work. Experiments under constrained virtual settings revealed that interaction dynamics implicitly guide social cognition. Here we show that embodied social interaction can be constitutive of agency detection and of experiencing another's presence. Pairs of participants moved their “avatars” along an invisible virtual line and could make haptic contact with three identical objects, two of which embodied the other's motions, but only one, the other's avatar, also embodied the other's contact sensor and thereby enabled responsive interaction. Co-regulated interactions were significantly correlated with identifications of the other's avatar and reports of the clearest awareness of the other's presence. These results challenge folk psychological notions about the boundaries of mind, but make sense from evolutionary and developmental perspectives: an extendible mind can offload cognitive work into its environment. PMID:24419102

  13. "Jeopardy" in Abnormal Psychology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Keutzer, Carolin S.

    1993-01-01

    Describes the use of the board game, Jeopardy, in a college level abnormal psychology course. Finds increased student interaction and improved application of information. Reports generally favorable student evaluation of the technique. (CFR)

  14. Social Network Extraction and Analysis Based on Multimodal Dyadic Interaction

    PubMed Central

    Escalera, Sergio; Baró, Xavier; Vitrià, Jordi; Radeva, Petia; Raducanu, Bogdan

    2012-01-01

    Social interactions are a very important component in people’s lives. Social network analysis has become a common technique used to model and quantify the properties of social interactions. In this paper, we propose an integrated framework to explore the characteristics of a social network extracted from multimodal dyadic interactions. For our study, we used a set of videos belonging to New York Times’ Blogging Heads opinion blog. The Social Network is represented as an oriented graph, whose directed links are determined by the Influence Model. The links’ weights are a measure of the “influence” a person has over the other. The states of the Influence Model encode automatically extracted audio/visual features from our videos using state-of-the art algorithms. Our results are reported in terms of accuracy of audio/visual data fusion for speaker segmentation and centrality measures used to characterize the extracted social network. PMID:22438733

  15. Sleep to be social: The critical role of sleep and memory for social interaction.

    PubMed

    Diekelmann, Susanne; Paulus, Frieder M; Krach, Sören

    2018-01-01

    Humans are highly social animals who critically need to remember information from social episodes in order to successfully navigate future social interactions. We propose that such episodic memories about social encounters are processed during sleep, following the learning experience, with sleep abstracting and consolidating social gist knowledge (e.g., beliefs, first impressions, or stereotypes) about others that supports relationships and interpersonal communication.

  16. Social Interactions Sparked by Pictorial Warnings on Cigarette Packs

    PubMed Central

    Hall, Marissa G.; Peebles, Kathryn; Bach, Laura E.; Noar, Seth M.; Ribisl, Kurt M.; Brewer, Noel T.

    2015-01-01

    The Message Impact Framework suggests that social interactions may offer smokers the opportunity to process pictorial warnings on cigarette packs more deeply. We aimed to describe adult smokers’ social interactions about pictorial cigarette pack warnings in two longitudinal pilot studies. In Pilot Study 1, 30 smokers used cigarette packs with one of nine pictorial warnings for two weeks. In Pilot Study 2, 46 smokers used cigarette packs with one of five pictorial warnings for four weeks. Nearly all smokers (97%/96% in Pilot Study 1/2) talked about the warnings with other people, with the most common people being friends (67%/87%) and spouses/significant others (34%/42%). Pilot Study 2 found that 26% of smokers talked about the warnings with strangers. Discussions about the health effects of smoking and quitting smoking were more frequent during the first week of exposure to pictorial warnings than in the week prior to beginning the study (both p < 0.05). Pictorial warnings sparked social interactions about the warnings, the health effects of smoking, and quitting smoking, indicating that pictorial warnings may act as a social intervention reaching beyond the individual. Future research should examine social interactions as a potential mediator of the impact of pictorial warnings on smoking behavior. PMID:26506363

  17. Comparing Social Interactions in Supported Employment Options.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Storey, Keith; Horner, Robert H.

    Direct observation procedures were utilized in assessing the social interactions of 37 adults with severe disabilities in 18 employment programs, representing 3 different supported employment contexts (individual, enclave, and work crew). The data gathered focused on: (1) job engagement time; (2) extent of interaction with work supervisor, human…

  18. Why we interact: on the functional role of the striatum in the subjective experience of social interaction.

    PubMed

    Pfeiffer, Ulrich J; Schilbach, Leonhard; Timmermans, Bert; Kuzmanovic, Bojana; Georgescu, Alexandra L; Bente, Gary; Vogeley, Kai

    2014-11-01

    There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions with conspecifics as intrinsically rewarding. Focusing on gaze behavior as a crucial means of human interaction, this study employed a unique combination of neuroimaging, eye-tracking, and computer-animated virtual agents to assess the neural mechanisms underlying this component of behavior. In the interaction task, participants believed that during each interaction the agent's gaze behavior could either be controlled by another participant or by a computer program. Their task was to indicate whether they experienced a given interaction as an interaction with another human participant or the computer program based on the agent's reaction. Unbeknownst to them, the agent was always controlled by a computer to enable a systematic manipulation of gaze reactions by varying the degree to which the agent engaged in joint attention. This allowed creating a tool to distinguish neural activity underlying the subjective experience of being engaged in social and non-social interaction. In contrast to previous research, this allows measuring neural activity while participants experience active engagement in real-time social interactions. Results demonstrate that gaze-based interactions with a perceived human partner are associated with activity in the ventral striatum, a core component of reward-related neurocircuitry. In contrast, interactions with a computer-driven agent activate attention networks. Comparisons of neural activity during interaction with behaviorally naïve and explicitly cooperative partners demonstrate different temporal dynamics of the reward system and indicate that the mere experience of engagement in social interaction is sufficient to recruit this system. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Social interactions in massively multiplayer online role-playing gamers.

    PubMed

    Cole, Helena; Griffiths, Mark D

    2007-08-01

    To date, most research into massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) has examined the demographics of play. This study explored the social interactions that occur both within and outside of MMORPGs. The sample consisted of 912 self-selected MMORPG players from 45 countries. MMORPGs were found to be highly socially interactive environments providing the opportunity to create strong friendships and emotional relationships. The study demonstrated that the social interactions in online gaming form a considerable element in the enjoyment of playing. The study showed MMORPGs can be extremely social games, with high percentages of gamers making life-long friends and partners. It was concluded that virtual gaming may allow players to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because of their appearance, gender, sexuality, and/or age. MMORPGs also offer a place where teamwork, encouragement, and fun can be experienced.

  20. Peer social interaction is facilitated in juvenile rhesus monkeys treated with fluoxetine.

    PubMed

    Golub, Mari S; Hogrefe, Casey E; Bulleri, Alicia M

    2016-06-01

    Fluoxetine improves social interactions in children with autism, social anxiety and social phobia. It is not known whether this effect is mediated directly or indirectly by correcting the underlying pathology. Genetics may also influence the drug effect. Polymorphisms of the MAOA (monoamine oxidase A) gene interact with fluoxetine to influence metabolic profiles in juvenile monkeys. Juvenile nonhuman primates provide an appropriate model for studying fluoxetine effects and drug*gene interactions in children. Male rhesus monkeys 1-3 years of age living in permanent social pairs were treated daily with a therapeutic dose of fluoxetine or vehicle (n = 16/group). Both members of each social pair were assigned to the same treatment group. They were observed for social interactions with their familiar cagemate over a 2-year dosing period. Subjects were genotyped for MAOA variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphisms categorized for high or low transcription rates (hi-MAOA, low-MAOA). Fluoxetine-treated animals spent 30% more time in social interaction than vehicle controls. Fluoxetine significantly increased the duration of quiet interactions, the most common type of interaction, and also of immature sexual behavior typical of rhesus in this age group. Specific behaviors affected depended on MAOA genotype of the animal and its social partner. When given fluoxetine, hi-MOAO monkeys had more social invitation and initiation behaviors and low-MAOA subjects with low-MAOA partners had more grooming and an increased frequency of some facial and vocal expressive behaviors. Fluoxetine may facilitate social interaction in children independent of remediation of psychopathology. Common genetic variants may modify this effect. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Peer social interaction is facilitated in juvenile rhesus monkeys treated with fluoxetine

    PubMed Central

    Golub, Mari S.; Hogrefe, Casey E.; Bulleri, Alicia M.

    2016-01-01

    Background Fluoxetine improves social interactions in children with autism, social anxiety and social phobia. It is not known whether this effect is mediated directly or indirectly by correcting the underlying pathology. Genetics may also influence the drug effect. Polymorphisms of the MAOA (monoamine oxidase A) gene interact with fluoxetine to influence metabolic profiles in juvenile monkeys. Juvenile nonhuman primates provide an appropriate model for studying fluoxetine effects and drug*gene interactions in children. Methods Male rhesus monkeys 1–3 years of age living in permanent social pairs were treated daily with a therapeutic dose of fluoxetine or vehicle (n=16/group). Both members of each social pair were assigned to the same treatment group. They were observed for social interactions with their familiar cagemate over a 2-year dosing period. Subjects were genotyped for MAOA variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphisms categorized for high or low transcription rates (hi-MAOA, low-MAOA). Results Fluoxetine-treated animals spent 30% more time in social interaction than vehicle controls. Fluoxetine significantly increased the duration of quiet interactions, the most common type of interaction, and also of immature sexual behavior typical of rhesus in this age group. Specific behaviors affected depended on MAOA genotype of the animal and its social partner. When given fluoxetine, hi-MOAO monkeys had more social invitations and initiation behaviors and low-MAOA subjects with low-MAOA partners had more grooming and an increased frequency of some facial and vocal expressive behaviors. Conclusions Fluoxetine may facilitate social interaction in children independent of remediation of psychopathology. Common genetic variants may modify this effect. PMID:26905291

  2. Friendship, Social Interaction, and Coping with Stress.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winstead, Barbara A.; And Others

    1992-01-01

    Examines how interacting with a friend as opposed to a stranger in anticipation of a stressful event (giving an extemporaneous speech) affects college students' coping. Finds that subjects perceived more social support after interacting with a friend than with a stranger. Describes specific verbal and nonverbal behaviors contributing to successful…

  3. Friends in Passing: Social Interaction at an Adult Day Care Center.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Williams, Barbara; Roberts, Pamela

    1995-01-01

    Participant observation study explored social interactions and friendships among cognitively impaired adult day-care participants. Found clients engage in a variety of social interactions and friendships, enabling them to maintain a sense of self and to adjust to group norms. Discussed general socializing, enduring friendships, helping…

  4. The Two Faces of Social Interaction Reward in Animal Models of Drug Dependence

    PubMed Central

    Rawas, Rana El

    2016-01-01

    Drug dependence is a serious health and social problem. Social factors can modify vulnerability to developing drug dependence, acting as risk factors or protective factors. Whereas stress and peer environment that encourage substance use may increase drug taking, strong attachments between family members and peer environment that do not experience drug use may protect against drug taking and, ultimately, drug dependence. The rewarding effects of drug abuse and social interaction can be evaluated using animal models. In this review we focus on evaluating social interaction reward in the conditioned place preference paradigm. We give an overview of how social interaction, if made available within the drug context, may facilitate, promote and interact with the drug’s effects. However, social interaction, if offered alternatively outside the drug context, may have pronounced protective effects against drug abuse and relapse. We also address the importance of the weight difference parameter between the social partners in determining the positive or “agonistic” versus the hostile or “antagonistic” social interaction. We conclude that understanding social interaction reward and its subsequent effects on drug reward is sorely needed for therapeutic interventions against drug dependence. PMID:26088685

  5. The Two Faces of Social Interaction Reward in Animal Models of Drug Dependence.

    PubMed

    El Rawas, Rana; Saria, Alois

    2016-03-01

    Drug dependence is a serious health and social problem. Social factors can modify vulnerability to developing drug dependence, acting as risk factors or protective factors. Whereas stress and peer environment that encourage substance use may increase drug taking, strong attachments between family members and peer environment that do not experience drug use may protect against drug taking and, ultimately, drug dependence. The rewarding effects of drug abuse and social interaction can be evaluated using animal models. In this review we focus on evaluating social interaction reward in the conditioned place preference paradigm. We give an overview of how social interaction, if made available within the drug context, may facilitate, promote and interact with the drug's effects. However, social interaction, if offered alternatively outside the drug context, may have pronounced protective effects against drug abuse and relapse. We also address the importance of the weight difference parameter between the social partners in determining the positive or "agonistic" versus the hostile or "antagonistic" social interaction. We conclude that understanding social interaction reward and its subsequent effects on drug reward is sorely needed for therapeutic interventions against drug dependence.

  6. Social instability stress in adolescent male rats reduces social interaction and social recognition performance and increases oxytocin receptor binding.

    PubMed

    Hodges, Travis E; Baumbach, Jennet L; Marcolin, Marina L; Bredewold, Remco; Veenema, Alexa H; McCormick, Cheryl M

    2017-09-17

    Social experiences in adolescence are essential for displaying context-appropriate social behaviors in adulthood. We previously found that adult male rats that underwent social instability stress (SS) in adolescence had reduced social interactions with unfamiliar peers compared with non-stressed controls (CTL). Here we determined whether SS altered social recognition and social reward and brain oxytocin and vasopressin receptor density in adolescence. We confirmed that SS rats spent less time interacting with unfamiliar peers than did CTL rats (p=0.006). Furthermore, CTL rats showed a preference for novel over familiar conspecifics in a social recognition test whereas SS rats did not, which may reflect reduced recognition, impaired memory, or reduced preference for novelty in SS rats. The reward value of social interactions was not affected by SS based on conditioned place preference tests and based on the greater time SS rats spent investigating stimulus rats than did CTL rats when the stimulus rat was behind wire mesh (p=0.03). Finally, oxytocin receptor binding density was higher in the dorsal lateral septum and nucleus accumbens shell in SS rats compared with CTL rats (p=0.02, p=0.01, respectively). No effect of SS was found for vasopressin 1a receptor binding density in any of the brain regions analyzed. We discuss the extent to which the differences in social behavior exhibited after social instability in adolescence involve changes in social salience and social competency, and the possibility that changes in oxytocin signaling in the brain underlie the differences in social behavior. Copyright © 2017 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Children's Understanding of Social Interaction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Flapan, Dorothy

    To investigate children's ability to describe and make inferences about feelings, thoughts, and intentions that occur in interpersonal relationships, 60 middle class girls were divided into three age groups: 6, 9, and 12 years. Each group viewed two sections of a movie portraying episodes of social interaction. After each section, the children…

  8. Social niche specialization under constraints: personality, social interactions and environmental heterogeneity

    PubMed Central

    Montiglio, Pierre-Olivier; Ferrari, Caterina; Réale, Denis

    2013-01-01

    Several personality traits are mainly expressed in a social context, and others, which are not restricted to a social context, can be affected by the social interactions with conspecifics. In this paper, we focus on the recently proposed hypothesis that social niche specialization (i.e. individuals in a population occupy different social roles) can explain the maintenance of individual differences in personality. We first present ecological and social niche specialization hypotheses. In particular, we show how niche specialization can be quantified and highlight the link between personality differences and social niche specialization. We then review some ecological factors (e.g. competition and environmental heterogeneity) and the social mechanisms (e.g. frequency-dependent, state-dependent and social awareness) that may be associated with the evolution of social niche specialization and personality differences. Finally, we present a conceptual model and methods to quantify the contribution of ecological factors and social mechanisms to the dynamics between personality and social roles. In doing so, we suggest a series of research objectives to help empirical advances in this research area. Throughout this paper, we highlight empirical studies of social niche specialization in mammals, where available. PMID:23569291

  9. Fashion, Cooperation, and Social Interactions

    PubMed Central

    Cao, Zhigang; Gao, Haoyu; Qu, Xinglong; Yang, Mingmin; Yang, Xiaoguang

    2013-01-01

    Fashion plays such a crucial rule in the evolution of culture and society that it is regarded as a second nature to the human being. Also, its impact on economy is quite nontrivial. On what is fashionable, interestingly, there are two viewpoints that are both extremely widespread but almost opposite: conformists think that what is popular is fashionable, while rebels believe that being different is the essence. Fashion color is fashionable in the first sense, and Lady Gaga in the second. We investigate a model where the population consists of the afore-mentioned two groups of people that are located on social networks (a spatial cellular automata network and small-world networks). This model captures two fundamental kinds of social interactions (coordination and anti-coordination) simultaneously, and also has its own interest to game theory: it is a hybrid model of pure competition and pure cooperation. This is true because when a conformist meets a rebel, they play the zero sum matching pennies game, which is pure competition. When two conformists (rebels) meet, they play the (anti-) coordination game, which is pure cooperation. Simulation shows that simple social interactions greatly promote cooperation: in most cases people can reach an extraordinarily high level of cooperation, through a selfish, myopic, naive, and local interacting dynamic (the best response dynamic). We find that degree of synchronization also plays a critical role, but mostly on the negative side. Four indices, namely cooperation degree, average satisfaction degree, equilibrium ratio and complete ratio, are defined and applied to measure people’s cooperation levels from various angles. Phase transition, as well as emergence of many interesting geographic patterns in the cellular automata network, is also observed. PMID:23382799

  10. Should I trust you? Learning and memory of social interactions in dementia.

    PubMed

    Wong, Stephanie; Irish, Muireann; O'Callaghan, Claire; Kumfor, Fiona; Savage, Greg; Hodges, John R; Piguet, Olivier; Hornberger, Michael

    2017-09-01

    Social relevance has an enhancing effect on learning and subsequent memory retrieval. The ability to learn from and remember social interactions may impact on susceptibility to financial exploitation, which is elevated in individuals with dementia. The current study aimed to investigate learning and memory of social interactions, the relationship between performance and financial vulnerability and the neural substrates underpinning performance in 14 Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 20 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients and 20 age-matched healthy controls. On a "trust game" task, participants invested virtual money with counterparts who acted either in a trustworthy or untrustworthy manner over repeated interactions. A non-social "lottery" condition was also included. Participants' learning of trust/distrust responses and subsequent memory for the counterparts and nature of the interactions was assessed. Carer-rated profiles of financial vulnerability were also collected. Relative to controls, both patient groups showed attenuated learning of trust/distrust responses, and lower overall memory for social interactions. Despite poor learning performance, both AD and bvFTD patients showed better memory of social compared to non-social interactions. Importantly, better memory for social interactions was associated with lower financial vulnerability in AD, but not bvFTD. Learning and memory of social interactions was associated with medial temporal and temporoparietal atrophy in AD, whereas a wider network of frontostriatal, insular, fusiform and medial temporal regions was implicated in bvFTD. Our findings suggest that although social relevance influences memory to an extent in both AD and bvFTD, this is associated with vulnerability to financial exploitation in AD only, and is underpinned by changes to different neural substrates. Theoretically, these findings provide novel insights into potential mechanisms that give rise to vulnerability in

  11. The influence of emotion regulation on social interactive decision-making

    PubMed Central

    van ’t Wout, Mascha; Chang, Luke J.; Sanfey, Alan G.

    2010-01-01

    Although adequate emotion regulation is considered to be essential in every day life, it is especially important in social interactions. However, the question as to what extent two different regulation strategies are effective in changing decision-making in a consequential socially interactive context remains unanswered. We investigated the effect of expressive suppression and emotional reappraisal on strategic decision-making in a social interactive task, i.e. the Ultimatum Game. As hypothesized, participants in the emotional reappraisal condition accepted unfair offers more often than participants in the suppression and no-regulation condition. Additionally, the effect of emotional reappraisal influenced the amount of money participants proposed during a second interaction with partners that had treated them unfairly in a previous interaction. These results support and extend previous findings that emotional reappraisal as compared to expressive suppression, is a powerful regulation strategy that influences and changes how we interact with others even in the face of inequity. PMID:21171756

  12. The influence of emotion regulation on social interactive decision-making.

    PubMed

    van't Wout, Mascha; Chang, Luke J; Sanfey, Alan G

    2010-12-01

    Although adequate emotion regulation is considered to be essential in every day life, it is especially important in social interactions. However, the question as to what extent two different regulation strategies are effective in changing decision-making in a consequential socially interactive context remains unanswered. We investigated the effect of expressive suppression and emotional reappraisal on strategic decision-making in a social interactive task, that is, the Ultimatum Game. As hypothesized, participants in the emotional reappraisal condition accepted unfair offers more often than participants in the suppression and no-regulation condition. Additionally, the effect of emotional reappraisal influenced the amount of money participants proposed during a second interaction with partners that had treated them unfairly in a previous interaction. These results support and extend previous findings that emotional reappraisal as compared to expressive suppression, is a powerful regulation strategy that influences and changes how we interact with others even in the face of inequity.

  13. Models of dyadic social interaction.

    PubMed Central

    Griffin, Dale; Gonzalez, Richard

    2003-01-01

    We discuss the logic of research designs for dyadic interaction and present statistical models with parameters that are tied to psychologically relevant constructs. Building on Karl Pearson's classic nineteenth-century statistical analysis of within-organism similarity, we describe several approaches to indexing dyadic interdependence and provide graphical methods for visualizing dyadic data. We also describe several statistical and conceptual solutions to the 'levels of analytic' problem in analysing dyadic data. These analytic strategies allow the researcher to examine and measure psychological questions of interdependence and social influence. We provide illustrative data from casually interacting and romantic dyads. PMID:12689382

  14. MDMA alters emotional processing and facilitates positive social interaction.

    PubMed

    Wardle, Margaret C; de Wit, Harriet

    2014-10-01

    ±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") produces "prosocial" effects, such as feelings of empathy and closeness, thought to be important to its abuse and its value in psychotherapy. However, it is not fully understood how MDMA alters basic emotional processes to produce these effects, or whether it produces corresponding changes in actual social behavior. Here, we examined how MDMA affects perceptions of and responses to emotional expressions, and tested its effects on behavior during a social interaction. We also examined whether MDMA's prosocial effects related to a measure of abuse liability. Over three sessions, 36 healthy volunteers with previous ecstasy use received MDMA (0.75, 1.5 mg/kg) and placebo under double-blind conditions. We measured (i) mood and cardiovascular effects, (ii) perception of and psychophysiological responses to emotional expressions, (iii) use of positive and negative words in a social interaction, and (iv) perceptions of an interaction partner. We then tested whether these effects predicted desire to take the drug again. MDMA slowed perception of angry expressions, increased psychophysiological responses to happy expressions, and increased positive word use and perceptions of partner empathy and regard in a social interaction. These effects were not strongly related to desire to take the drug again. MDMA alters basic emotional processes by slowing identification of negative emotions and increasing responses to positive emotions in others. Further, it positively affects behavior and perceptions during actual social interaction. These effects may contribute to the efficacy of MDMA in psychotherapy, but appear less closely related to its abuse potential.

  15. Perceived functional impact of abnormal facial appearance.

    PubMed

    Rankin, Marlene; Borah, Gregory L

    2003-06-01

    Functional facial deformities are usually described as those that impair respiration, eating, hearing, or speech. Yet facial scars and cutaneous deformities have a significant negative effect on social functionality that has been poorly documented in the scientific literature. Insurance companies are declining payments for reconstructive surgical procedures for facial deformities caused by congenital disabilities and after cancer or trauma operations that do not affect mechanical facial activity. The purpose of this study was to establish a large, sample-based evaluation of the perceived social functioning, interpersonal characteristics, and employability indices for a range of facial appearances (normal and abnormal). Adult volunteer evaluators (n = 210) provided their subjective perceptions based on facial physical appearance, and an analysis of the consequences of facial deformity on parameters of preferential treatment was performed. A two-group comparative research design rated the differences among 10 examples of digitally altered facial photographs of actual patients among various age and ethnic groups with "normal" and "abnormal" congenital deformities or posttrauma scars. Photographs of adult patients with observable congenital and posttraumatic deformities (abnormal) were digitally retouched to eliminate the stigmatic defects (normal). The normal and abnormal photographs of identical patients were evaluated by the large sample study group on nine parameters of social functioning, such as honesty, employability, attractiveness, and effectiveness, using a visual analogue rating scale. Patients with abnormal facial characteristics were rated as significantly less honest (p = 0.007), less employable (p = 0.001), less trustworthy (p = 0.01), less optimistic (p = 0.001), less effective (p = 0.02), less capable (p = 0.002), less intelligent (p = 0.03), less popular (p = 0.001), and less attractive (p = 0.001) than were the same patients with normal facial

  16. Symbolic Interaction and Applied Social Research

    PubMed Central

    Kotarba, Joseph A.

    2014-01-01

    In symbolic interaction, a traditional yet unfortunate and unnecessary distinction has been made between basic and applied research. The argument has been made that basic research is intended to generate new knowledge, whereas applied research is intended to apply knowledge to the solution of practical (social and organizational) problems. I will argue that the distinction between basic and applied research in symbolic interaction is outdated and dysfunctional. The masters of symbolic interactionist thought have left us a proud legacy of shaping their scholarly thinking and inquiry in response to and in light of practical issues of the day (e.g., Znaniecki, and Blumer). Current interactionist work continues this tradition in topical areas such as social justice studies. Applied research, especially in term of evaluation and needs assessment studies, can be designed to serve both basic and applied goals. Symbolic interaction provides three great resources to do this. The first is its orientation to dynamic sensitizing concepts that direct research and ask questions instead of supplying a priori and often impractical answers. The second is its orientation to qualitative methods, and appreciation for the logic of grounded theory. The third is interactionism’s overall holistic approach to interfacing with the everyday life world. The primary illustrative case here is the qualitative component of the evaluation of an NIH-funded, translational medical research program. The qualitative component has provided interactionist-inspired insights into translational research, such as examining cultural change in medical research in terms of changes in the form and content of formal and informal discourse among scientists; delineating the impact of significant symbols such as "my lab" on the social organization of science; and appreciating the essence of the self-concept "scientist" on the increasingly bureaucratic and administrative identities of medical researchers. This

  17. Reliability of a Novel Social Activity Questionnaire: Perceived Social Support and Verbal Interaction in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention.

    PubMed

    Zuelsdorff, Megan L; Koscik, Rebecca L; Okonkwo, Ozioma C; Peppard, Paul E; Hermann, Bruce P; Sager, Mark A; Johnson, Sterling C; Engelman, Corinne D

    2018-02-01

    Social activity is associated with healthy aging and preserved cognition. Such activity includes a confluence of social support and verbal interaction, each influencing cognition through rarely parsed, mechanistically distinct pathways. We created a novel verbal interaction measure for the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP) and assessed reliability of resultant data, a first step toward mechanism-driven examination of social activity as a modifiable predictor of cognitive health. Two WRAP subsamples completed a test-retest study to determine 8-week stability ( n = 107) and 2-year stability ( n = 136) of verbal interaction, and 2-year stability of perceived social support. Reliability was determined using quadratic-weighted kappa, percent agreement, or correlation coefficients. Reliability was fair to almost perfect. The association between social support and interaction quantity decreased with age. Social activity data demonstrate moderate to excellent temporal stability. Moreover, in older individuals, social support and verbal interaction represent two distinct dimensions of social activity.

  18. Illuminating the dark matter of social neuroscience: Considering the problem of social interaction from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives

    PubMed Central

    Przyrembel, Marisa; Smallwood, Jonathan; Pauen, Michael; Singer, Tania

    2012-01-01

    Successful human social interaction depends on our capacity to understand other people's mental states and to anticipate how they will react to our actions. Despite its importance to the human condition, the exact mechanisms underlying our ability to understand another's actions, feelings, and thoughts are still a matter of conjecture. Here, we consider this problem from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives. In a critical review, we demonstrate that attempts to draw parallels across these complementary disciplines is premature: The second-person perspective does not map directly to Interaction or Simulation theories, online social cognition, or shared neural network accounts underlying action observation or empathy. Nor does the third-person perspective map onto Theory-Theory (TT), offline social cognition, or the neural networks that support Theory of Mind (ToM). Moreover, we argue that important qualities of social interaction emerge through the reciprocal interplay of two independent agents whose unpredictable behavior requires that models of their partner's internal state be continually updated. This analysis draws attention to the need for paradigms in social neuroscience that allow two individuals to interact in a spontaneous and natural manner and to adapt their behavior and cognitions in a response contingent fashion due to the inherent unpredictability in another person's behavior. Even if such paradigms were implemented, it is possible that the specific neural correlates supporting such reciprocal interaction would not reflect computation unique to social interaction but rather the use of basic cognitive and emotional processes combined in a unique manner. Finally, we argue that given the crucial role of social interaction in human evolution, ontogeny, and every-day social life, a more theoretically and methodologically nuanced approach to the study of real social interaction will nevertheless help the field of social cognition

  19. Illuminating the dark matter of social neuroscience: Considering the problem of social interaction from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives.

    PubMed

    Przyrembel, Marisa; Smallwood, Jonathan; Pauen, Michael; Singer, Tania

    2012-01-01

    Successful human social interaction depends on our capacity to understand other people's mental states and to anticipate how they will react to our actions. Despite its importance to the human condition, the exact mechanisms underlying our ability to understand another's actions, feelings, and thoughts are still a matter of conjecture. Here, we consider this problem from philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspectives. In a critical review, we demonstrate that attempts to draw parallels across these complementary disciplines is premature: The second-person perspective does not map directly to Interaction or Simulation theories, online social cognition, or shared neural network accounts underlying action observation or empathy. Nor does the third-person perspective map onto Theory-Theory (TT), offline social cognition, or the neural networks that support Theory of Mind (ToM). Moreover, we argue that important qualities of social interaction emerge through the reciprocal interplay of two independent agents whose unpredictable behavior requires that models of their partner's internal state be continually updated. This analysis draws attention to the need for paradigms in social neuroscience that allow two individuals to interact in a spontaneous and natural manner and to adapt their behavior and cognitions in a response contingent fashion due to the inherent unpredictability in another person's behavior. Even if such paradigms were implemented, it is possible that the specific neural correlates supporting such reciprocal interaction would not reflect computation unique to social interaction but rather the use of basic cognitive and emotional processes combined in a unique manner. Finally, we argue that given the crucial role of social interaction in human evolution, ontogeny, and every-day social life, a more theoretically and methodologically nuanced approach to the study of real social interaction will nevertheless help the field of social cognition

  20. Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction

    PubMed Central

    de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

    2015-01-01

    Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children’s social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a “mental model” of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot’s performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot’s bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance. PMID:26422143

  1. Why Robots Should Be Social: Enhancing Machine Learning through Social Human-Robot Interaction.

    PubMed

    de Greeff, Joachim; Belpaeme, Tony

    2015-01-01

    Social learning is a powerful method for cultural propagation of knowledge and skills relying on a complex interplay of learning strategies, social ecology and the human propensity for both learning and tutoring. Social learning has the potential to be an equally potent learning strategy for artificial systems and robots in specific. However, given the complexity and unstructured nature of social learning, implementing social machine learning proves to be a challenging problem. We study one particular aspect of social machine learning: that of offering social cues during the learning interaction. Specifically, we study whether people are sensitive to social cues offered by a learning robot, in a similar way to children's social bids for tutoring. We use a child-like social robot and a task in which the robot has to learn the meaning of words. For this a simple turn-based interaction is used, based on language games. Two conditions are tested: one in which the robot uses social means to invite a human teacher to provide information based on what the robot requires to fill gaps in its knowledge (i.e. expression of a learning preference); the other in which the robot does not provide social cues to communicate a learning preference. We observe that conveying a learning preference through the use of social cues results in better and faster learning by the robot. People also seem to form a "mental model" of the robot, tailoring the tutoring to the robot's performance as opposed to using simply random teaching. In addition, the social learning shows a clear gender effect with female participants being responsive to the robot's bids, while male teachers appear to be less receptive. This work shows how additional social cues in social machine learning can result in people offering better quality learning input to artificial systems, resulting in improved learning performance.

  2. Nonverbal behavior during face-to-face social interaction in schizophrenia: a review.

    PubMed

    Lavelle, Mary; Healey, Patrick G T; McCabe, Rosemarie

    2014-01-01

    Patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia display social cognitive deficits. However, little is known about patients' nonverbal communication during their social encounters with others. This review identified 17 studies investigating nonverbal communication in patients' unscripted face-to-face interactions, addressing a) nonverbal differences between patients and others, b) nonverbal behavior of the patients' partners, c) the association between nonverbal behavior and symptoms, and d) the association between nonverbal behavior and social outcomes. Patients displayed fewer nonverbal behaviors inviting interaction, with negative symptoms exacerbating this pattern. Positive symptoms were associated with heightened nonverbal behavior. Patients' partners changed their own nonverbal behavior in response to the patient. Reduced prosocial behaviors, inviting interaction, were associated with poorer social outcomes. The evidence suggests that patients' nonverbal behavior, during face-to-face interaction, is influenced by patients symptoms and impacts the success of their social interactions.

  3. Sex chromosome abnormalities and psychiatric diseases

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Xinzhu; Yang, Jian; Li, Yuhong; Ma, Xin; Li, Rena

    2017-01-01

    Excesses of sex chromosome abnormalities in patients with psychiatric diseases have recently been observed. It remains unclear whether sex chromosome abnormalities are related to sex differences in some psychiatric diseases. While studies showed evidence of susceptibility loci over many sex chromosomal regions related to various mental diseases, others demonstrated that the sex chromosome aneuploidies may be the key to exploring the pathogenesis of psychiatric disease. In this review, we will outline the current evidence on the interaction of sex chromosome abnormalities with schizophrenia, autism, ADHD and mood disorders. PMID:27992373

  4. The Usefulness of the Popular Social Interactive Media in the Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sofowora, Olaniyi Alaba

    2013-01-01

    The paper is an investigation into the possibility of using the popular social interactive media in the classroom in the developing world. There has been different school of thoughts about the usefulness of the interactive social media. The question being widely asked today is, can these popular social media be used constructively in the…

  5. Hostility moderates the effects of social support and intimacy on blood pressure in daily social interactions.

    PubMed

    Vella, Elizabeth J; Kamarck, Thomas W; Shiffman, Saul

    2008-03-01

    This study sought to determine the role of hostility in moderating the effects of positive social interactions on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP). Participants (341 adults) completed the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and underwent ABP monitoring, assessed every 45 min during waking hours across 6 days. An electronic diary measuring mood and social interactions was completed at each ABP assessment. The dependent variables from the ABP monitor included systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate. Different patterns of ambulatory diastolic blood pressure (ADBP) responding to social interactions perceived as intimate or supportive among high- versus low-hostile individuals were observed. Higher intimacy ratings were linked to reductions in ADBP among low-hostile but not high-hostile individuals. Conversely, high-hostile, but not low-hostile, individuals showed increases in ADBP to situations rated high in social support. Although findings for ambulatory systolic blood pressure were nonsignificant, the pattern of results was similar to ADBP. Hostile individuals may find offers of support stressful and may fail to benefit from intimacy during daily life. The pathogenic effects of hostility may be mediated in part by responses to social interactions, both positive and negative. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved

  6. [Cognitive/affective processes, social interaction and social structure].

    PubMed

    Cicourel, Aaron V

    2012-01-01

    Research on brain and structural analysis are overlapping but developed most often in independent ways. Here we consider biological mechanisms and environmental pressures for survival as simultaneously creating a gradual intersection of these various registers and changes in collaborative social interaction and communicative skills. We consider the ways humans have learned to characterize their brain life often depend on unexamined "representational redescriptions" that facilitate the depiction of practices.

  7. Emotional valence and context of social influences on drug abuse-related behavior in animal models of social stress and prosocial interaction.

    PubMed

    Neisewander, J L; Peartree, N A; Pentkowski, N S

    2012-11-01

    Social factors are important determinants of drug dependence and relapse. We reviewed pre-clinical literature examining the role of social experiences from early life through the development of drug dependence and relapse, emphasizing two aspects of these experiences: (1) whether the social interaction is appetitive or aversive and (2) whether the social interaction occurs within or outside of the drug-taking context. The models reviewed include neonatal care, isolation, social defeat, chronic subordination, and prosocial interactions. We review results from these models in regard to effects on self-administration and conditioned place preference established with alcohol, psychostimulants, and opiates. We suggest that in general, when the interactions occur outside of the drug-taking context, prosocial interactions are protective against drug abuse-related behaviors, whereas social stressors facilitate these behaviors. By contrast, positive or negative social interactions occurring within the drug-taking context may interact with other risk factors to enhance or inhibit these behaviors. Despite differences in the nature and complexity of human social behavior compared to other species, the evolving animal literature provides useful models for understanding social influences on drug abuse-related behavior that will allow for research on the behavioral and biological mechanisms involved. The models have contributed to understanding social influences on initiation and maintenance of drug use, but more research is needed to understand social influences on drug relapse.

  8. Emotional valence and context of social influences on drug abuse-related behavior in animal models of social stress and prosocial interaction

    PubMed Central

    Neisewander, J.L.; Peartree, N.A.; Pentkowski, N.S.

    2014-01-01

    Rationale Social factors are important determinants of drug dependence and relapse. Objectives We reviewed preclinical literature examining the role of social experiences from early life through the development of drug dependence and relapse, emphasizing two aspects of these experiences: 1) whether the social interaction is appetitive or aversive and 2) whether the social interaction occurs within or outside of the drug-taking context. Methods The models reviewed include neonatal care, isolation, social defeat, chronic subordination, and prosocial interactions. We review results from these models in regard to effects on self-administration and conditioned place preference established with alcohol, psychostimulants, and opiates. Results We suggest that in general, when the interactions occur outside of the drug-taking context, prosocial interactions are protective against drug abuse-related behaviors whereas social stressors facilitate these behaviors. By contrast, positive or negative social interactions occurring within the drug-taking context may interact with other risk factors to enhance or inhibit these behaviors. Conclusions Despite differences in the nature and complexity of human social behavior compared to other species, the evolving animal literature provides useful models for understanding social influences on drug abuse-related behavior that will allow for research on the behavioral and biological mechanisms involved. The models have contributed to understanding social influences on initiation and maintenance of drug use, but more research is needed to understand social influences on drug relapse. PMID:22955569

  9. Mental health and social networks in early adolescence: a dynamic study of objectively-measured social interaction behaviors.

    PubMed

    Pachucki, Mark C; Ozer, Emily J; Barrat, Alain; Cattuto, Ciro

    2015-01-01

    How are social interaction dynamics associated with mental health during early stages of adolescence? The goal of this study is to objectively measure social interactions and evaluate the roles that multiple aspects of the social environment--such as physical activity and food choice--may jointly play in shaping the structure of children's relationships and their mental health. The data in this study are drawn from a longitudinal network-behavior study conducted in 2012 at a private K-8 school in an urban setting in California. We recruited a highly complete network sample of sixth-graders (n = 40, 91% of grade, mean age = 12.3), and examined how two measures of distressed mental health (self-esteem and depressive symptoms) are positionally distributed in an early adolescent interaction network. We ascertained how distressed mental health shapes the structure of relationships over a three-month period, adjusting for relevant dimensions of the social environment. Cross-sectional analyses of interaction networks revealed that self-esteem and depressive symptoms are differentially stratified by gender. Specifically, girls with more depressive symptoms have interactions consistent with social inhibition, while boys' interactions suggest robustness to depressive symptoms. Girls higher in self-esteem tended towards greater sociability. Longitudinal network behavior models indicate that gender similarity and perceived popularity are influential in the formation of social ties. Greater school connectedness predicts the development of self-esteem, though social ties contribute to more self-esteem improvement among students who identify as European-American. Cross-sectional evidence shows associations between distressed mental health and students' network peers. However, there is no evidence that connected students' mental health status becomes more similar in their over time because of their network interactions. These findings suggest that mental health during early

  10. MDMA alters emotional processing and facilitates positive social interaction

    PubMed Central

    Wardle, Margaret C.; de Wit, Harriet

    2014-01-01

    Background ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “ecstasy”) produces “prosocial” effects, such as feelings of empathy and closeness, thought to be important to its abuse and its value in psychotherapy. However, it is not fully understood how MDMA alters basic emotional processes to produce these effects, or whether it produces corresponding changes in actual social behavior. Here we examined how MDMA affects perceptions of and responses to emotional expressions, and tested its effects on behavior during a social interaction. We also examined whether MDMA’s prosocial effects related to a measure of abuse liability. Methods Over three sessions 36 healthy volunteers with previous ecstasy use received MDMA (0.75mg/kg, 1.5mg/kg) and placebo under double-blind conditions. We measured i) mood and cardiovascular effects, ii) perception of and psychophysiological responses to emotional expressions iii) use of positive and negative words in a social interaction and iv) perceptions of an interaction partner. We then tested whether these effects predicted desire to take the drug again. Results MDMA slowed perception of angry expressions, increased psychophysiological responses to happy expressions, and increased positive word use and perceptions of partner empathy and regard in a social interaction. These effects were not strongly related to desire to take the drug again. Conclusions MDMA alters basic emotional processes by slowing identification of negative emotions and increasing responses to positive emotions in others. Further, it positively affects behavior and perceptions during actual social interaction. These effects may contribute to the efficacy of MDMA in psychotherapy, but appear less closely related to its abuse potential. PMID:24728603

  11. Characterizing interactions in online social networks during exceptional events

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Omodei, Elisa; De Domenico, Manlio; Arenas, Alex

    2015-08-01

    Nowadays, millions of people interact on a daily basis on online social media like Facebook and Twitter, where they share and discuss information about a wide variety of topics. In this paper, we focus on a specific online social network, Twitter, and we analyze multiple datasets each one consisting of individuals' online activity before, during and after an exceptional event in terms of volume of the communications registered. We consider important events that occurred in different arenas that range from policy to culture or science. For each dataset, the users' online activities are modeled by a multilayer network in which each layer conveys a different kind of interaction, specifically: retweeting, mentioning and replying. This representation allows us to unveil that these distinct types of interaction produce networks with different statistical properties, in particular concerning the degree distribution and the clustering structure. These results suggests that models of online activity cannot discard the information carried by this multilayer representation of the system, and should account for the different processes generated by the different kinds of interactions. Secondly, our analysis unveils the presence of statistical regularities among the different events, suggesting that the non-trivial topological patterns that we observe may represent universal features of the social dynamics on online social networks during exceptional events.

  12. Let's chat: developmental neural bases of social motivation during real-time peer interaction.

    PubMed

    Warnell, Katherine Rice; Sadikova, Eleonora; Redcay, Elizabeth

    2018-05-01

    Humans are motivated to interact with each other, but the neural bases of social motivation have been predominantly examined in non-interactive contexts. Understanding real-world social motivation is of special importance during middle childhood (ages 8-12), a period when social skills improve, social networks grow, and social brain networks specialize. To assess interactive social motivation, the current study used a novel fMRI paradigm in which children believed they were chatting with a peer. The design targeted two phases of interaction: (1) Initiation, in which children engaged in a social bid via sharing a like or hobby, and (2) Reply, in which children received either an engaged ("Me too") or non-engaged ("I'm away") reply from the peer. On control trials, children were told that their answers were not shared and that they would receive either engaged ("Matched") or non-engaged ("Disconnected") replies from the computer. Results indicated that during Initiation and Reply, key components of reward circuitry (e.g., ventral striatum) were more active for the peer than the computer trials. In addition, during Reply, social cognitive regions were more activated by the peer, and this social cognitive specialization increased with age. Finally, the effect of engagement type on reward circuitry activation was larger for social than non-social trials, indicating developmental sensitivity to social contingency. These findings demonstrate that both reward and social cognitive brain systems support real-time social interaction in middle childhood. An interactive approach to understanding social reward has implications for clinical disorders, where social motivation is more affected in real-world contexts. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Social interactions predict genetic diversification: an experimental manipulation in shorebirds.

    PubMed

    Cunningham, Charles; Parra, Jorge E; Coals, Lucy; Beltrán, Marcela; Zefania, Sama; Székely, Tamás

    2018-01-01

    Mating strategy and social behavior influence gene flow and hence affect levels of genetic differentiation and potentially speciation. Previous genetic analyses of closely related plovers Charadrius spp. found strikingly different population genetic structure in Madagascar: Kittlitz's plovers are spatially homogenous whereas white-fronted plovers have well segregated and geographically distinct populations. Here, we test the hypotheses that Kittlitz's plovers are spatially interconnected and have extensive social interactions that facilitate gene flow, whereas white-fronted plovers are spatially discrete and have limited social interactions. By experimentally removing mates from breeding pairs and observing the movements of mate-searching plovers in both species, we compare the spatial behavior of Kittlitz's and white-fronted plovers within a breeding season. The behavior of experimental birds was largely consistent with expectations: Kittlitz's plovers travelled further, sought new mates in larger areas, and interacted with more individuals than white-fronted plovers, however there was no difference in breeding dispersal. These results suggest that mating strategies, through spatial behavior and social interactions, are predictors of gene flow and thus genetic differentiation and speciation. Our study highlights the importance of using social behavior to understand gene flow. However, further work is needed to investigate the relative importance of social structure, as well as intra- and inter-season dispersal, in influencing the genetic structures of populations.

  14. Social interactions in virtual reality exposure therapy: A proof-of-concept pilot study.

    PubMed

    Morina, Nexhmedin; Brinkman, Willem-Paul; Hartanto, Dwi; Kampmann, Isabel L; Emmelkamp, Paul M G

    2015-01-01

    Research on virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) has demonstrated good treatment efficacy with regards to several anxiety disorders. Yet, there is lack of knowledge about the value of integrating interaction between clients and virtual humans in VRET. Such interaction might prove effective in treating psychological complaints that involve social interactions, such as social anxiety. A VRET system specifically designed to expose clients with social anxiety disorder to anxiety provoking social situations was applied to 16 and 18 individuals with high and low levels of social anxiety, respectively. Participants engaged in two exposure sessions in several free speech dialogues with virtual humans while being monitored by a therapist. Participants with high levels of social anxiety reported significantly lower levels of social anxiety three months after exposure to two virtual reality interaction sessions than before treatment (p < 0.01). In the group with low levels of social anxiety, no significant change of social anxiety was reported between pre-treatment and follow-up. Additionally, participants in both groups reported higher self-efficacy three months after treatment than before treatment (ps ≤ 0.001). These findings indicate that virtual reality technology that incorporates social interactions may be successfully applied for therapeutic purposes.

  15. Effects of muscle dysmorphia, social comparisons and body schema priming on desire for social interaction: an experimental approach.

    PubMed

    Schneider, Catharina; Agthe, Maria; Yanagida, Takuya; Voracek, Martin; Hennig-Fast, Kristina

    2017-06-15

    Muscle dysmorphia (MD) is a relatively young diagnosis referring to the desire for a high degree in lean muscle mass, while simultaneously believing that one is insufficiently muscular, mostly found in men. It goes along with a risk for social withdrawal to maintain rigid exercise and dietary regimen. The aim of the current study was thus, to explore differences in men with and without a risk for muscle dysmorphia regarding their desire for social interaction. Furthermore, we investigated potential effects of individual social comparison tendencies (the tendency to compare oneself with persons who are perceived to be superior or inferior to oneself on a certain dimension) and of one's own body schema on the desire for social interaction. One hundred physically active, college aged Austrian men were recruited via social media and flyers at fitness centers and the sports department of the University of Vienna. Participants were randomly assigned to a priming condition evoking their own body schema or a control condition and had to state their desire for social interaction with male or female stimulus persons of high or average attractiveness. We conducted a 2 (group of participant; men with vs. without a risk for MD) × 2 (priming condition; priming vs. non-priming) × 2 (attractiveness of stimulus person; highly attractive vs. less attractive) experimental design with different social comparison tendencies as covariates. Men with a risk for muscle dysmorphia showed lesser desire for social interaction than men without this risk, which can be seen as a risk factor for psychopathological outcomes. Generally, men with and without a risk for muscle dysmorphia did not differ with regard to their preferences for attractive stimulus persons as subjects for social interaction. We confirmed the notion that a tendency for downward social comparisons goes along with a diminished desire for social interaction. This study showed that men with a risk for muscle dysmorphia

  16. Catching fire? Social interactions, beliefs, and wildfire risk mitigation behaviors

    Treesearch

    Katherine Dickinson; Hannah Brenkert-Smith; Patricia Champ; Nicholas Flores

    2015-01-01

    Social interactions are widely recognized as a potential influence on risk-related behaviors. We present a mediation model in which social interactions (classified as formal/informal and generic-fire-specific) are associated with beliefs about wildfire risk and mitigation options, which in turn shape wildfire mitigation behaviors. We test this model using survey data...

  17. Assessment of social interaction behaviors.

    PubMed

    Kaidanovich-Beilin, Oksana; Lipina, Tatiana; Vukobradovic, Igor; Roder, John; Woodgett, James R

    2011-02-25

    Social interactions are a fundamental and adaptive component of the biology of numerous species. Social recognition is critical for the structure and stability of the networks and relationships that define societies. For animals, such as mice, recognition of conspecifics may be important for maintaining social hierarchy and for mate choice. A variety of neuropsychiatric disorders are characterized by disruptions in social behavior and social recognition, including depression, autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and schizophrenia. Studies of humans as well as animal models (e.g., Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus) have identified genes involved in the regulation of social behavior. To assess sociability in animal models, several behavioral tests have been developed (reviewed in (3)). Integrative research using animal models and appropriate tests for social behavior may lead to the development of improved treatments for social psychopathologies. The three-chamber paradigm test known as Crawley's sociability and preference for social novelty protocol has been successfully employed to study social affiliation and social memory in several inbred and mutant mouse lines (e.g. (4-7)). The main principle of this test is based on the free choice by a subject mouse to spend time in any of three box's compartments during two experimental sessions, including indirect contact with one or two mice with which it is unfamiliar. To quantitate social tendencies of the experimental mouse, the main tasks are to measure a) the time spent with a novel conspecific and b) preference for a novel vs. a familiar conspecific. Thus, the experimental design of this test allows evaluation of two critical but distinguishable aspects of social behavior, such as social affiliation/motivation, as well as social memory and novelty. "Sociability" in this case is defined as propensity to spend time with another

  18. Effects of Heterogeneous Social Interactions on Flocking Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miguel, M. Carmen; Parley, Jack T.; Pastor-Satorras, Romualdo

    2018-02-01

    Social relationships characterize the interactions that occur within social species and may have an important impact on collective animal motion. Here, we consider a variation of the standard Vicsek model for collective motion in which interactions are mediated by an empirically motivated scale-free topology that represents a heterogeneous pattern of social contacts. We observe that the degree of order of the model is strongly affected by network heterogeneity: more heterogeneous networks show a more resilient ordered state, while less heterogeneity leads to a more fragile ordered state that can be destroyed by sufficient external noise. Our results challenge the previously accepted equivalence between the static Vicsek model and the equilibrium X Y model on the network of connections, and point towards a possible equivalence with models exhibiting a different symmetry.

  19. (+/-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'Ecstasy') increases social interaction in rats.

    PubMed

    Morley, K C; McGregor, I S

    2000-11-10

    A series of experiments administered a low dose range (0, 1.25, 2.5 and 5 mg/kg) of (+/-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'Ecstasy') to rats and assessed them in a variety of standard tests of anxiety. These tests included the emergence and elevated plus-maze tests, social interaction, cat odor avoidance and footshock-induced ultrasonic vocalizations. MDMA increased anxiety-related behaviours in the emergence and elevated plus-maze tests at all dose levels. A 5 mg/kg dose of MDMA also significantly reduced the time spent in close proximity to an anxiogenic cat odor stimulus. The 5 mg/kg dose also significantly reduced footshock-induced ultrasonic vocalizations. In the social interaction test, MDMA decreased aggressive behaviours at all doses tested, while the highest dose (5 mg/kg) also significantly increased the duration of social interaction. These results indicate that MDMA has both anxiogenic and anxiolytic effects depending upon the test situation employed. The facilitation of social interaction produced by MDMA in rats concurs with human experience of MDMA as a uniquely prosocial drug.

  20. Social Organization, Physical Environment, and Infant-Caretaker Interaction.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Woodson, R. H.; da Costa-Woodson, E. M.

    1984-01-01

    Relationships of infant/caretaker interaction with the social organization and the physical environment of the home were examined in rural Malay and Chinese families living in Malaysia. Findings are discussed in terms of the integration of behavioral characteristics, patterns of social organization, and arrangements of the physical environment…

  1. Neural correlate of human reciprocity in social interactions

    PubMed Central

    Sakaiya, Shiro; Shiraito, Yuki; Kato, Junko; Ide, Hiroko; Okada, Kensuke; Takano, Kouji; Kansaku, Kenji

    2013-01-01

    Reciprocity plays a key role maintaining cooperation in society. However, little is known about the neural process that underpins human reciprocity during social interactions. Our neuroimaging study manipulated partner identity (computer, human) and strategy (random, tit-for-tat) in repeated prisoner's dilemma games and investigated the neural correlate of reciprocal interaction with humans. Reciprocal cooperation with humans but exploitation of computers by defection was associated with activation in the left amygdala. Amygdala activation was also positively and negatively correlated with a preference change for human partners following tit-for-tat and random strategies, respectively. The correlated activation represented the intensity of positive feeling toward reciprocal and negative feeling toward non-reciprocal partners, and so reflected reciprocity in social interaction. Reciprocity in social interaction, however, might plausibly be misinterpreted and so we also examined the neural coding of insight into the reciprocity of partners. Those with and without insight revealed differential brain activation across the reward-related circuitry (i.e., the right middle dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsal caudate) and theory of mind (ToM) regions [i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and precuneus]. Among differential activations, activation in the precuneus, which accompanied deactivation of the VMPFC, was specific to those without insight into human partners who were engaged in a tit-for-tat strategy. This asymmetric (de)activation might involve specific contributions of ToM regions to the human search for reciprocity. Consequently, the intensity of emotion attached to human reciprocity was represented in the amygdala, whereas insight into the reciprocity of others was reflected in activation across the reward-related and ToM regions. This suggests the critical role of mentalizing, which was not equated with reward expectation during social interactions

  2. Neural correlate of human reciprocity in social interactions.

    PubMed

    Sakaiya, Shiro; Shiraito, Yuki; Kato, Junko; Ide, Hiroko; Okada, Kensuke; Takano, Kouji; Kansaku, Kenji

    2013-01-01

    Reciprocity plays a key role maintaining cooperation in society. However, little is known about the neural process that underpins human reciprocity during social interactions. Our neuroimaging study manipulated partner identity (computer, human) and strategy (random, tit-for-tat) in repeated prisoner's dilemma games and investigated the neural correlate of reciprocal interaction with humans. Reciprocal cooperation with humans but exploitation of computers by defection was associated with activation in the left amygdala. Amygdala activation was also positively and negatively correlated with a preference change for human partners following tit-for-tat and random strategies, respectively. The correlated activation represented the intensity of positive feeling toward reciprocal and negative feeling toward non-reciprocal partners, and so reflected reciprocity in social interaction. Reciprocity in social interaction, however, might plausibly be misinterpreted and so we also examined the neural coding of insight into the reciprocity of partners. Those with and without insight revealed differential brain activation across the reward-related circuitry (i.e., the right middle dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsal caudate) and theory of mind (ToM) regions [i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and precuneus]. Among differential activations, activation in the precuneus, which accompanied deactivation of the VMPFC, was specific to those without insight into human partners who were engaged in a tit-for-tat strategy. This asymmetric (de)activation might involve specific contributions of ToM regions to the human search for reciprocity. Consequently, the intensity of emotion attached to human reciprocity was represented in the amygdala, whereas insight into the reciprocity of others was reflected in activation across the reward-related and ToM regions. This suggests the critical role of mentalizing, which was not equated with reward expectation during social interactions.

  3. Localized coherence in two interacting populations of social agents

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    González-Avella, J. C.; Cosenza, M. G.; San Miguel, M.

    2014-04-01

    We investigate the emergence of localized coherent behavior in systems consisting of two populations of social agents possessing a condition for non-interacting states, mutually coupled through global interaction fields. We employ two examples of such dynamics: (i) Axelrod’s model for social influence, and (ii) a discrete version of a bounded confidence model for opinion formation. In each case, the global interaction fields correspond to the statistical mode of the states of the agents in each population. In both systems we find localized coherent states for some values of parameters, consisting of one population in a homogeneous state and the other in a disordered state. This situation can be considered as a social analogue to a chimera state arising in two interacting populations of oscillators. In addition, other asymptotic collective behaviors appear in both systems depending on parameter values: a common homogeneous state, where both populations reach the same state; different homogeneous states, where both population reach homogeneous states different from each other; and a disordered state, where both populations reach inhomogeneous states.

  4. Audience Design through Social Interaction during Group Discussion

    PubMed Central

    Rogers, Shane L.; Fay, Nicolas; Maybery, Murray

    2013-01-01

    This paper contrasts two accounts of audience design during multiparty communication: audience design as a strategic individual-level message adjustment or as a non-strategic interaction-level message adjustment. Using a non-interactive communication task, Experiment 1 showed that people distinguish between messages designed for oneself and messages designed for another person; consistent with strategic message design, messages designed for another person/s were longer (number of words) than those designed for oneself. However, audience size did not affect message length (messages designed for different sized audiences were similar in length). Using an interactive communication task Experiment 2 showed that as group size increased so too did communicative effort (number of words exchanged between interlocutors). Consistent with a non-strategic account, as group members were added more social interaction was necessary to coordinate the group's collective situation model. Experiment 3 validates and extends the production measures used in Experiment 1 and 2 using a comprehension task. Taken together, our results indicate that audience design arises as a non-strategic outcome of social interaction during group discussion. PMID:23437343

  5. An Activity Theoretical Approach to Social Interaction during Study Abroad

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shively, Rachel L.

    2016-01-01

    This case study examines how one study abroad student oriented to social interaction during a semester in Spain. Using an activity theoretical approach, the findings indicate that the student not only viewed social interaction with his Spanish host family and an expert-Spanish-speaking age peer as an opportunity for second language (L2) learning,…

  6. [Internet addiction disorder and social networks: statistical analysis of correlation and study of the association with social interaction anxiousness].

    PubMed

    Rusconi, Anna Carlotta; Valeriani, Giuseppe; Carlone, Cristiano; Raimondo, Pasquale; Quartini, Adele; Coccanari de' Fornari, Maria Antonietta; Biondi, Massimo

    2012-01-01

    Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is an emerging psychiatric disorder, assimilable to impulse control problems and related to maladaptive use of new networks and social and virtual technologies. Our study aims to analyze the presence of IAD among adolescents and to study the correlation with social interaction anxiousness. We investigated also the possibility that the Social Network (SN) represent a source of risk for the development of IAD. The test group was composed of 250 subjects, aged between 14 and 18 years. They were administered: Young's IAT; IAS (Interaction Anxiousness Scale), AAS (Audience Anxiousness Scale) and SISST (Social Interaction Self-Statement Test) to analyze the dimension of social interaction anxiousness. We found a rate of 2% of the IAD. The SN are the most common use of the Net in our sample, but not the most clicked sites by subjects with IAD. It should be noted, finally, a correlation between social interaction anxiety and IAD, but not a significant difference in scores of social anxiousness scales based on the SN use/non-use. The use of SN intended as single variable doesn't correlate with increased risk for IAD, or for increased social interaction anxiousness. However, if associated with prolonged use of the net for 5-6 hours or more, or concomitant use of chat rooms and/or net gambling, we find a more significant risk of psychopathology. The data presented require further investigations, in order to guide new pathogenetic models and appropriate intervention strategies.

  7. Civility vs. Incivility in Online Social Interactions: An Evolutionary Approach

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Evidence is growing that forms of incivility–e.g. aggressive and disrespectful behaviors, harassment, hate speech and outrageous claims–are spreading in the population of social networking sites’ (SNS) users. Online social networks such as Facebook allow users to regularly interact with known and unknown others, who can behave either politely or rudely. This leads individuals not only to learn and adopt successful strategies for using the site, but also to condition their own behavior on that of others. Using a mean field approach, we define anevolutionary game framework to analyse the dynamics of civil and uncivil ways of interaction in online social networks and their consequences for collective welfare. Agents can choose to interact with others–politely or rudely–in SNS, or to opt out from online social networks to protect themselves from incivility. We find that, when the initial share of the population of polite users reaches a critical level, civility becomes generalized if its payoff increases more than that of incivility with the spreading of politeness in online interactions. Otherwise, the spreading of self-protective behaviors to cope with online incivility can lead the economyto non-socially optimal stationary states. JEL Codes: C61, C73, D85, O33, Z13. PsycINFO Codes: 2240, 2750. PMID:27802271

  8. Civility vs. Incivility in Online Social Interactions: An Evolutionary Approach.

    PubMed

    Antoci, Angelo; Delfino, Alexia; Paglieri, Fabio; Panebianco, Fabrizio; Sabatini, Fabio

    2016-01-01

    Evidence is growing that forms of incivility-e.g. aggressive and disrespectful behaviors, harassment, hate speech and outrageous claims-are spreading in the population of social networking sites' (SNS) users. Online social networks such as Facebook allow users to regularly interact with known and unknown others, who can behave either politely or rudely. This leads individuals not only to learn and adopt successful strategies for using the site, but also to condition their own behavior on that of others. Using a mean field approach, we define anevolutionary game framework to analyse the dynamics of civil and uncivil ways of interaction in online social networks and their consequences for collective welfare. Agents can choose to interact with others-politely or rudely-in SNS, or to opt out from online social networks to protect themselves from incivility. We find that, when the initial share of the population of polite users reaches a critical level, civility becomes generalized if its payoff increases more than that of incivility with the spreading of politeness in online interactions. Otherwise, the spreading of self-protective behaviors to cope with online incivility can lead the economyto non-socially optimal stationary states. JEL Codes: C61, C73, D85, O33, Z13. PsycINFO Codes: 2240, 2750.

  9. Characterization of human-dog social interaction using owner report.

    PubMed

    Lit, Lisa; Schweitzer, Julie B; Oberbauer, Anita M

    2010-07-01

    Dog owners were surveyed for observations of social behaviors in their dogs, using questions adapted from the human Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) pre-verbal module. Using 939 responses for purebred and mixed-breed dogs, three factors were identified: initiation of reciprocal social behaviors (INIT), response to social interactions (RSPNS), and communication (COMM). There were small or no effects of sex, age, breed group or training. For six breeds with more than 35 responses (Border Collie, Rough Collie, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Standard Poodle), the behaviors eye contact with humans, enjoyment in interactions with human interaction, and name recognition demonstrated little variability across breeds, while asking for objects, giving/showing objects to humans, and attempts to direct humans' attention showed higher variability across these breeds. Breeds with genetically similar backgrounds had similar response distributions for owner reports of dog response to pointing. When considering these breeds according to the broad categories of "herders" and "retrievers," owners reported that the "herders" used more eye contact and vocalization, while the "retrievers" used more body contact. Information regarding social cognitive abilities in dogs provided by owner report suggest that there is variability across many social cognitive abilities in dogs and offers direction for further experimental investigations. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Interaction matters: A perceived social partner alters the neural processing of human speech.

    PubMed

    Rice, Katherine; Redcay, Elizabeth

    2016-04-01

    Mounting evidence suggests that social interaction changes how communicative behaviors (e.g., spoken language, gaze) are processed, but the precise neural bases by which social-interactive context may alter communication remain unknown. Various perspectives suggest that live interactions are more rewarding, more attention-grabbing, or require increased mentalizing-thinking about the thoughts of others. Dissociating between these possibilities is difficult because most extant neuroimaging paradigms examining social interaction have not directly compared live paradigms to conventional "offline" (or recorded) paradigms. We developed a novel fMRI paradigm to assess whether and how an interactive context changes the processing of speech matched in content and vocal characteristics. Participants listened to short vignettes--which contained no reference to people or mental states--believing that some vignettes were prerecorded and that others were presented over a real-time audio-feed by a live social partner. In actuality, all speech was prerecorded. Simply believing that speech was live increased activation in each participant's own mentalizing regions, defined using a functional localizer. Contrasting live to recorded speech did not reveal significant differences in attention or reward regions. Further, higher levels of autistic-like traits were associated with altered neural specialization for live interaction. These results suggest that humans engage in ongoing mentalizing about social partners, even when such mentalizing is not explicitly required, illustrating how social context shapes social cognition. Understanding communication in social context has important implications for typical and atypical social processing, especially for disorders like autism where social difficulties are more acute in live interaction. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Culture, interpersonal perceptions, and happiness in social interactions.

    PubMed

    Oishi, Shigehiro; Koo, Minkyung; Akimoto, Sharon

    2008-03-01

    The authors examined cultural differences in interpersonal processes associated with happiness felt in social interactions. In a false feedback experiment (Study 1a), they found that European Americans felt happier when their interaction partner perceived their personal self accurately, whereas Asian Americans felt happier when their interaction partner perceived their collective self accurately. In Study 1b, the authors further demonstrated that the results from Study 1a were not because of cultural differences in desirability of the traits used in Study 1a. In Studies 2 and 3, they used a 2-week event sampling method and replicated Study 1. Unlike Asian Americans, African Americans were not significantly different from European Americans in the predictors of happiness in social interactions. Together, this research shows that interpersonal affirmation of important aspects of the self leads to happiness and that cultural differences are likely to emerge from the emphasis placed on different aspects of the self.

  12. A Peer-Delivered Social Interaction Intervention for High School Students with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hughes, Carolyn; Harvey, Michelle; Cosgriff, Joseph; Reilly, Caitlin; Heilingoetter, Jamie; Brigham, Nicolette; Kaplan, Lauren; Bernstein, Rebekah

    2013-01-01

    Limited social interaction typically occurs between high school students with autism and their general education peers unless programming is introduced to promote interaction. However, few published social interaction interventions have been conducted among high school students with autism and their general education classmates. Such studies…

  13. Intranasal oxytocin modulates neural functional connectivity during human social interaction.

    PubMed

    Rilling, James K; Chen, Xiangchuan; Chen, Xu; Haroon, Ebrahim

    2018-02-10

    Oxytocin (OT) modulates social behavior in primates and many other vertebrate species. Studies in non-primate animals have demonstrated that, in addition to influencing activity within individual brain areas, OT influences functional connectivity across networks of areas involved in social behavior. Previously, we used fMRI to image brain function in human subjects during a dyadic social interaction task following administration of either intranasal oxytocin (INOT) or placebo, and analyzed the data with a standard general linear model. Here, we conduct an extensive re-analysis of these data to explore how OT modulates functional connectivity across a neural network that animal studies implicate in social behavior. OT induced widespread increases in functional connectivity in response to positive social interactions among men and widespread decreases in functional connectivity in response to negative social interactions among women. Nucleus basalis of Meynert, an important regulator of selective attention and motivation with a particularly high density of OT receptors, had the largest number of OT-modulated connections. Regions known to receive mesolimbic dopamine projections such as the nucleus accumbens and lateral septum were also hubs for OT effects on functional connectivity. Our results suggest that the neural mechanism by which OT influences primate social cognition may include changes in patterns of activity across neural networks that regulate social behavior in other animals. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Intercorporeality and aida: Developing an interaction theory of social cognition

    PubMed Central

    Tanaka, Shogo

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this article is to develop an interaction theory (IT) of social cognition. The central issue in the field of social cognition has been theory of mind (ToM), and there has been debate regarding its nature as either theory-theory or as simulation theory. Insights from phenomenology have brought a second-person perspective based on embodied interactions into the debate, thereby forming a third position known as IT. In this article, I examine how IT can be further elaborated by drawing on two phenomenological notions—Merleau-Ponty’s intercorporeality and Kimura’s aida. Both of these notions emphasize the sensory-motor, perceptual, and non-conceptual aspects of social understanding and describe a process of interpersonal coordination in which embodied interaction gains autonomy as an emergent system. From this perspective, detailed and nuanced social understanding is made possible through the embodied skill of synchronizing with others. PMID:28626341

  15. Intercorporeality and aida: Developing an interaction theory of social cognition.

    PubMed

    Tanaka, Shogo

    2017-06-01

    The aim of this article is to develop an interaction theory (IT) of social cognition. The central issue in the field of social cognition has been theory of mind (ToM), and there has been debate regarding its nature as either theory-theory or as simulation theory. Insights from phenomenology have brought a second-person perspective based on embodied interactions into the debate, thereby forming a third position known as IT. In this article, I examine how IT can be further elaborated by drawing on two phenomenological notions-Merleau-Ponty's intercorporeality and Kimura's aida . Both of these notions emphasize the sensory-motor, perceptual, and non-conceptual aspects of social understanding and describe a process of interpersonal coordination in which embodied interaction gains autonomy as an emergent system. From this perspective, detailed and nuanced social understanding is made possible through the embodied skill of synchronizing with others.

  16. A dedicated network for social interaction processing in the primate brain.

    PubMed

    Sliwa, J; Freiwald, W A

    2017-05-19

    Primate cognition requires interaction processing. Interactions can reveal otherwise hidden properties of intentional agents, such as thoughts and feelings, and of inanimate objects, such as mass and material. Where and how interaction analyses are implemented in the brain is unknown. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging in macaque monkeys, we discovered a network centered in the medial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex that is exclusively engaged in social interaction analysis. Exclusivity of specialization was found for no other function anywhere in the brain. Two additional networks, a parieto-premotor and a temporal one, exhibited both social and physical interaction preference, which, in the temporal lobe, mapped onto a fine-grain pattern of object, body, and face selectivity. Extent and location of a dedicated system for social interaction analysis suggest that this function is an evolutionary forerunner of human mind-reading capabilities. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  17. Exposure to virtual social interactions in the treatment of social anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial.

    PubMed

    Kampmann, Isabel L; Emmelkamp, Paul M G; Hartanto, Dwi; Brinkman, Willem-Paul; Zijlstra, Bonne J H; Morina, Nexhmedin

    2016-02-01

    This randomized controlled trial investigated the efficacy of a stand-alone virtual reality exposure intervention comprising verbal interaction with virtual humans to target heterogeneous social fears in participants with social anxiety disorder. Sixty participants (Mage = 36.9 years; 63.3% women) diagnosed with social anxiety disorder were randomly assigned to individual virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), individual in vivo exposure therapy (iVET), or waiting-list. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that both treatment groups improved from pre-to postassessment on social anxiety symptoms, speech duration, perceived stress, and avoidant personality disorder related beliefs when compared to the waiting-list. Participants receiving iVET, but not VRET, improved on fear of negative evaluation, speech performance, general anxiety, depression, and quality of life relative to those on waiting-list. The iVET condition was further superior to the VRET condition regarding decreases in social anxiety symptoms at post- and follow-up assessments, and avoidant personality disorder related beliefs at follow-up. At follow-up, all improvements were significant for iVET. For VRET, only the effect for perceived stress was significant. VRET containing extensive verbal interaction without any cognitive components can effectively reduce complaints of generalized social anxiety disorder. Future technological and psychological improvements of virtual social interactions might further enhance the efficacy of VRET for social anxiety disorder. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Temporal dynamics and impact of event interactions in cyber-social populations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Yi-Qing; Li, Xiang

    2013-03-01

    The advance of information technologies provides powerful measures to digitize social interactions and facilitate quantitative investigations. To explore large-scale indoor interactions of a social population, we analyze 18 715 users' Wi-Fi access logs recorded in a Chinese university campus during 3 months, and define event interaction (EI) to characterize the concurrent interactions of multiple users inferred by their geographic coincidences—co-locating in the same small region at the same time. We propose three rules to construct a transmission graph, which depicts the topological and temporal features of event interactions. The vertex dynamics of transmission graph tells that the active durations of EIs fall into the truncated power-law distributions, which is independent on the number of involved individuals. The edge dynamics of transmission graph reports that the transmission durations present a truncated power-law pattern independent on the daily and weekly periodicities. Besides, in the aggregated transmission graph, low-degree vertices previously neglected in the aggregated static networks may participate in the large-degree EIs, which is verified by three data sets covering different sizes of social populations with various rendezvouses. This work highlights the temporal significance of event interactions in cyber-social populations.

  19. Social interaction anxiety and personality traits predicting engagement in health risk sexual behaviors.

    PubMed

    Rahm-Knigge, Ryan L; Prince, Mark A; Conner, Bradley T

    2018-06-01

    Individuals with social interaction anxiety, a facet of social anxiety disorder, withdraw from or avoid social encounters and generally avoid risks. However, a subset engages in health risk sexual behavior (HRSB). Because sensation seeking, emotion dysregulation, and impulsivity predict engagement in HRSB among adolescents and young adults, the present study hypothesized that latent classes of social interaction anxiety and these personality traits would differentially predict likelihood of engagement in HRSB. Finite mixture modeling was used to discern four classes: two low social interaction anxiety classes distinguished by facets of emotion dysregulation, positive urgency, and negative urgency (Low SIAS High Urgency and Low SIAS Low Urgency) and two high social interaction anxiety classes distinguished by positive urgency, negative urgency, risk seeking, and facets of emotion dysregulation (High SIAS High Urgency and High SIAS Low Urgency). HRSB were entered into the model as auxiliary distal outcomes. Of importance to this study were findings that the High SIAS High Urgency class was more likely to engage in most identified HRSB than the High SIAS Low Urgency class. This study extends previous findings on the heterogeneity of social interaction anxiety by identifying the effects of social interaction anxiety and personality on engagement in HRSB. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Social interaction among people with psychiatric disabilities--does attending a day centre matter?

    PubMed

    Argentzell, Elisabeth; Leufstadius, Christel; Eklund, Mona

    2014-09-01

    Engaging in social interaction has, for people with psychiatric disabilities, been shown to enhance well-being and the experience of meaning and to generally prevent the worsening of mental illness. The aim of the study was to investigate how day centre attendees differed from non-attendees regarding different aspects of social interaction and to investigate how occupational factors, including day centre attendance, and previously known predictors were related to social interaction in the study sample as a whole. A total of 93 day centre attendees and 82 non-attendees with psychiatric disabilities were examined regarding social interaction, subjective perception of occupation, activity level, sense of self-mastery and socio-demographic and clinical variables. Data were analysed with non-parametric statistics, mainly logistic regression. Social support was mainly provided by informal caregivers such as family members. The day centre attendees had more social relations but did not experience better quality or closeness in their relationships than non-attendees. Important factors for social interaction were subjective perceptions of daily occupation, being married/cohabiting, self-mastery and severity of psychiatric symptoms. Alternative ways of enhancing social interactions in the community is needed, targeting the group's feeling of satisfaction and value in daily life together with self-mastery. © The Author(s) 2013.

  1. The Social Climate and Peer Interaction on Outdoor Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mirkin, Benjamin J.; Middleton, Michael J.

    2014-01-01

    This two-study report investigates achievement goal theory in the social domain to gain greater understanding of how the social climate of outdoor courses relates to peer interactions. In Study 1, we used mixed methods to examine how adolescents experienced the social climate of weeklong outdoor courses and how those perceptions related to peer…

  2. Informal Language Learning Setting: Technology or Social Interaction?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bahrani, Taher; Sim, Tam Shu

    2012-01-01

    Based on the informal language learning theory, language learning can occur outside the classroom setting unconsciously and incidentally through interaction with the native speakers or exposure to authentic language input through technology. However, an EFL context lacks the social interaction which naturally occurs in an ESL context. To explore…

  3. Exploring Classroom Interaction with Dynamic Social Network Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bokhove, Christian

    2018-01-01

    This article reports on an exploratory project in which technology and dynamic social network analysis (SNA) are used for modelling classroom interaction. SNA focuses on the links between social actors, draws on graphic imagery to reveal and display the patterning of those links, and develops mathematical and computational models to describe and…

  4. Accuracy of Wearable Cameras to Track Social Interactions in Stroke Survivors.

    PubMed

    Dhand, Amar; Dalton, Alexandra E; Luke, Douglas A; Gage, Brian F; Lee, Jin-Moo

    2016-12-01

    Social isolation after a stroke is related to poor outcomes. However, a full study of social networks on stroke outcomes is limited by the current metrics available. Typical measures of social networks rely on self-report, which is vulnerable to response bias and measurement error. We aimed to test the accuracy of an objective measure-wearable cameras-to capture face-to-face social interactions in stroke survivors. If accurate and usable in real-world settings, this technology would allow improved examination of social factors on stroke outcomes. In this prospective study, 10 stroke survivors each wore 2 wearable cameras: Autographer (OMG Life Limited, Oxford, United Kingdom) and Narrative Clip (Narrative, Linköping, Sweden). Each camera automatically took a picture every 20-30 seconds. Patients mingled with healthy controls for 5 minutes of 1-on-1 interactions followed by 5 minutes of no interaction for 2 hours. After the event, 2 blinded judges assessed whether photograph sequences identified interactions or noninteractions. Diagnostic accuracy statistics were calculated. A total of 8776 photographs were taken and adjudicated. In distinguishing interactions, the Autographer's sensitivity was 1.00 and specificity was .98. The Narrative Clip's sensitivity was .58 and specificity was 1.00. The receiver operating characteristic curves of the 2 devices were statistically different (Z = 8.26, P < .001). Wearable cameras can accurately detect social interactions of stroke survivors. Likely because of its large field of view, the Autographer was more sensitive than the Narrative Clip for this purpose. Copyright © 2016 National Stroke Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Increasing social interaction using prelinguistic milieu teaching with nonverbal school-age children with autism.

    PubMed

    Franco, Jessica H; Davis, Barbara L; Davis, John L

    2013-08-01

    Children with autism display marked deficits in initiating and maintaining social interaction. Intervention using play routines can create a framework for developing and maintaining social interaction between these children and their communication partners. Six nonverbal 5- to 8-year-olds with autism were taught to engage in social interaction within salient play routines. Prelinguistic milieu teaching (PMT) techniques were used to teach the children to communicate intentionally during these routines. Intervention focused on the children's social interaction with an adult. The effects of intervention were evaluated using a multiple baseline design across participants. At study onset, the participants demonstrated few consistent interaction with others. With intervention, all of the children improved their ability to sustain social interactions, as evidenced by an increase in the number of communicative interactions during play routines. Participants also increased their overall rate of initiated intentional communication. Development of intentional prelinguistic communication within salient social routines creates opportunities for an adult to teach social and communication skills to young school-age children with autism who function at a nonverbal level.

  6. Increased frequency of social interaction is associated with enjoyment enhancement and reward system activation

    PubMed Central

    Kawamichi, Hiroaki; Sugawara, Sho K.; Hamano, Yuki H.; Makita, Kai; Kochiyama, Takanori; Sadato, Norihiro

    2016-01-01

    Positive social interactions contribute to the sense that one’s life has meaning. Enjoyment of feelings associated through social interaction motivates humans to build social connections according to their personal preferences. Therefore, we hypothesized that social interaction itself activates the reward system in a manner that depends upon individual interaction preferences. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which 38 participants played a virtual ball-toss game in which the number of ball tosses to the participant was either similar to (normal-frequency condition) or higher than (high-frequency condition) the number of tosses to the other players. Participants reported greater-than-anticipated enjoyment during the high-frequency condition, suggesting that receiving a social reward led to unexpected positive feelings. Consistent with this, the high-frequency condition produced stronger activation in the ventral striatum, which is part of the reward system, and the precuneus, representing positive self-image, which might be translated to social reward. Furthermore, ventral striatal activation covaried with individual participants’ preference for interactions with others. These findings suggest that an elevated frequency of social interaction is represented as a social reward, which might motivate individuals to promote social interaction in a manner that is modulated by personal preference. PMID:27090501

  7. Increased frequency of social interaction is associated with enjoyment enhancement and reward system activation.

    PubMed

    Kawamichi, Hiroaki; Sugawara, Sho K; Hamano, Yuki H; Makita, Kai; Kochiyama, Takanori; Sadato, Norihiro

    2016-04-19

    Positive social interactions contribute to the sense that one's life has meaning. Enjoyment of feelings associated through social interaction motivates humans to build social connections according to their personal preferences. Therefore, we hypothesized that social interaction itself activates the reward system in a manner that depends upon individual interaction preferences. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in which 38 participants played a virtual ball-toss game in which the number of ball tosses to the participant was either similar to (normal-frequency condition) or higher than (high-frequency condition) the number of tosses to the other players. Participants reported greater-than-anticipated enjoyment during the high-frequency condition, suggesting that receiving a social reward led to unexpected positive feelings. Consistent with this, the high-frequency condition produced stronger activation in the ventral striatum, which is part of the reward system, and the precuneus, representing positive self-image, which might be translated to social reward. Furthermore, ventral striatal activation covaried with individual participants' preference for interactions with others. These findings suggest that an elevated frequency of social interaction is represented as a social reward, which might motivate individuals to promote social interaction in a manner that is modulated by personal preference.

  8. Social learning requires plasticity enhanced by fluoxetine through prefrontal Bdnf-TrkB signaling to limit aggression induced by post-weaning social isolation

    PubMed Central

    Umemori, Juzoh; Tóth, Máté; Biró, László; Miskolczi, Christina; Balázsfi, Diána; Zelena, Dóra; Castrén, Eero

    2017-01-01

    Escalated or abnormal aggression induced by early adverse experiences is a growing issue of social concern and urges the development of effective treatment strategies. Here we report that synergistic interactions between psychosocial and biological factors specifically ameliorate escalated aggression induced by early adverse experiences. Rats reared in isolation from weaning until early adulthood showed abnormal forms of aggression and social deficits that were temporarily ameliorated by re-socialization, but aggression again escalated in a novel environment. We demonstrate that when re-socialization was combined with the antidepressant fluoxetine, which has been shown to reactivate juvenile-like state of plasticity, escalated aggression was greatly attenuated, while neither treatment alone was effective. Early isolation induced a permanent, re-socialization resistant reduction in Bdnf expression in the amygdala and the infralimbic cortex. Only the combined treatment of fluoxetine and re-socialization was able to recover Bdnf expression via epigenetic regulation. Moreover, the behavior improvement after the combined treatment was dependent on TrkB activity. Combined treatment specifically strengthened the input from the ventral hippocampus to the mPFC suggesting that this pathway is an important mediator of the beneficial behavioral effects of the combined psychosocial and pharmacological treatment of abnormal aggression. Our findings suggest that synergy between pharmacological induction of plasticity and psychosocial rehabilitation could enhance the efficacy of therapies for pathological aggression. PMID:28685757

  9. Social interactions promote adaptive resource defense in ants

    PubMed Central

    Heeb, Eva Linda; Neupert, Stefanie

    2017-01-01

    Social insects vigorously defend their nests against con- and heterospecific competitors. Collective defense is also seen at highly profitable food sources. Aggressive responses are elicited or promoted by several means of communication, e.g. alarm pheromones and other chemical markings. In this study, we demonstrate that the social environment and interactions among colony members (nestmates) modulates the propensity to engage in aggressive behavior and therefore plays an important role in allocating workers to a defense task. We kept Formica rufa workers in groups or isolated for different time spans and then tested their aggressiveness in one-on-one encounters with other ants. In groups of more than 20 workers that are freely interacting, individuals are aggressive in one-on-one encounters with non-nestmates, whereas aggressiveness of isolated workers decreases with increasing isolation time. We conclude that ants foraging collectively and interacting frequently, e.g. along foraging trails and at profitable food sources, remain in a social context and thereby maintain high aggressiveness against potential competitors. Our results suggest that the nestmate recognition system can be utilized at remote sites for an adaptive and flexible tuning of the response against competitors. PMID:28910322

  10. Interactive social contagions and co-infections on complex networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Quan-Hui; Zhong, Lin-Feng; Wang, Wei; Zhou, Tao; Eugene Stanley, H.

    2018-01-01

    What we are learning about the ubiquitous interactions among multiple social contagion processes on complex networks challenges existing theoretical methods. We propose an interactive social behavior spreading model, in which two behaviors sequentially spread on a complex network, one following the other. Adopting the first behavior has either a synergistic or an inhibiting effect on the spread of the second behavior. We find that the inhibiting effect of the first behavior can cause the continuous phase transition of the second behavior spreading to become discontinuous. This discontinuous phase transition of the second behavior can also become a continuous one when the effect of adopting the first behavior becomes synergistic. This synergy allows the second behavior to be more easily adopted and enlarges the co-existence region of both behaviors. We establish an edge-based compartmental method, and our theoretical predictions match well with the simulation results. Our findings provide helpful insights into better understanding the spread of interactive social behavior in human society.

  11. [Social interactions of preschool children with Down syndrome during extracurricular activities].

    PubMed

    Lucisano, Renata Valdívia; Pfeifer, Luzia Iara; Pinto, Maria Paula Panuncio; Santos, Jair Lício Ferreira; Anhão, Patrícia Páfaro Gomes

    2013-01-01

    The aim of this research was to identify the process of social interaction of children with Down Syndrome (DS) during extracurricular activities in the regular early childhood education in Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brazil. Six children aged 3-6 years participated in this study. There were two recordings of each child in situations of social interaction during extracurricular activities, and analyzed by 15 behaviors, divided into two categories of social skills: interpersonal and self-expression. The results demonstrate that, in the interpersonal skill category, the higher occurrence was the behavior "occurs interaction with other children". In the self-expression skills category, only the behaviors "smiles" and "imitates other children" have significant occurrence. The behaviors more frequently identified in this study permit to understand that the school environment is a facilitator for the interaction of child with DS with the typical developmental children, allowing him/her to develop the expected social skills.

  12. The Affective Regulation of Social Interaction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clore, Gerald L.; Pappas, Jesse

    2007-01-01

    The recent publication of David Heise's "Expressive Order" (2007) provides an occasion for discussing some of the key ideas in Affect Control Theory. The theory proposes that a few dimensions of affective meaning provide a common basis for interrelating personal identities and social actions. It holds that during interpersonal interactions, social…

  13. How predation shapes the social interaction rules of shoaling fish

    PubMed Central

    Rosén, Emil; Ioannou, Christos C.; Rogell, Björn; Perna, Andrea; Ramnarine, Indar W.; Kolm, Niclas

    2017-01-01

    Predation is thought to shape the macroscopic properties of animal groups, making moving groups more cohesive and coordinated. Precisely how predation has shaped individuals' fine-scale social interactions in natural populations, however, is unknown. Using high-resolution tracking data of shoaling fish (Poecilia reticulata) from populations differing in natural predation pressure, we show how predation adapts individuals' social interaction rules. Fish originating from high predation environments formed larger, more cohesive, but not more polarized groups than fish from low predation environments. Using a new approach to detect the discrete points in time when individuals decide to update their movements based on the available social cues, we determine how these collective properties emerge from individuals' microscopic social interactions. We first confirm predictions that predation shapes the attraction–repulsion dynamic of these fish, reducing the critical distance at which neighbours move apart, or come back together. While we find strong evidence that fish align with their near neighbours, we do not find that predation shapes the strength or likelihood of these alignment tendencies. We also find that predation sharpens individuals' acceleration and deceleration responses, implying key perceptual and energetic differences associated with how individuals move in different predation regimes. Our results reveal how predation can shape the social interactions of individuals in groups, ultimately driving differences in groups' collective behaviour. PMID:28855361

  14. How predation shapes the social interaction rules of shoaling fish.

    PubMed

    Herbert-Read, James E; Rosén, Emil; Szorkovszky, Alex; Ioannou, Christos C; Rogell, Björn; Perna, Andrea; Ramnarine, Indar W; Kotrschal, Alexander; Kolm, Niclas; Krause, Jens; Sumpter, David J T

    2017-08-30

    Predation is thought to shape the macroscopic properties of animal groups, making moving groups more cohesive and coordinated. Precisely how predation has shaped individuals' fine-scale social interactions in natural populations, however, is unknown. Using high-resolution tracking data of shoaling fish ( Poecilia reticulata ) from populations differing in natural predation pressure, we show how predation adapts individuals' social interaction rules. Fish originating from high predation environments formed larger, more cohesive, but not more polarized groups than fish from low predation environments. Using a new approach to detect the discrete points in time when individuals decide to update their movements based on the available social cues, we determine how these collective properties emerge from individuals' microscopic social interactions. We first confirm predictions that predation shapes the attraction-repulsion dynamic of these fish, reducing the critical distance at which neighbours move apart, or come back together. While we find strong evidence that fish align with their near neighbours, we do not find that predation shapes the strength or likelihood of these alignment tendencies. We also find that predation sharpens individuals' acceleration and deceleration responses, implying key perceptual and energetic differences associated with how individuals move in different predation regimes. Our results reveal how predation can shape the social interactions of individuals in groups, ultimately driving differences in groups' collective behaviour. © 2017 The Authors.

  15. Social interactions of autistic and nonhandicapped children during free play.

    PubMed

    McHale, S M

    1983-01-01

    Ten small groups of second and third graders participated in weekly play sessions with autistic children over a period of ten weeks. Observations of 28 nonhandicapped children indicated that the frequency of their social interaction and communication increased across the week of their daily visits. Autistic children displayed increases in social interaction and decreases in solitary behavior from the first to the tenth week of observation.

  16. The social-sensory interface: category interactions in person perception

    PubMed Central

    Freeman, Jonathan B.; Johnson, Kerri L.; Adams, Reginald B.; Ambady, Nalini

    2012-01-01

    Research is increasingly challenging the claim that distinct sources of social information—such as sex, race, and emotion—are processed in discrete fashion. Instead, there appear to be functionally relevant interactions that occur. In the present article, we describe research examining how cues conveyed by the human face, voice, and body interact to form the unified representations that guide our perceptions of and responses to other people. We explain how these information sources are often thrown into interaction through bottom-up forces (e.g., phenotypic cues) as well as top-down forces (e.g., stereotypes and prior knowledge). Such interactions point to a person perception process that is driven by an intimate interface between bottom-up perceptual and top-down social processes. Incorporating data from neuroimaging, event-related potentials (ERP), computational modeling, computer mouse-tracking, and other behavioral measures, we discuss the structure of this interface, and we consider its implications and adaptive purposes. We argue that an increased understanding of person perception will likely require a synthesis of insights and techniques, from social psychology to the cognitive, neural, and vision sciences. PMID:23087622

  17. The Impact of Social Interaction on Student Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hurst, Beth; Wallace, Randall; Nixon, Sarah B.

    2013-01-01

    Due to the lack of student engagement in the common lecture-centered model, we explored a model of instructional delivery where our undergraduate and graduate classes were structured so that students had opportunities for daily interaction with each other. Specifically, we examined how students perceived the value of social interaction on their…

  18. AIDS-related stigma and social interaction: Puerto Ricans living with HIV/AIDS.

    PubMed

    Varas-Díaz, Nelson; Serrano-García, Irma; Toro-Alfonso, José

    2005-02-01

    People living with HIV/AIDS are stigmatized. Although personal and social consequences of this stigmatization have been documented, research regarding its impact on social interactions is scarce. Latinos, and Puerto Ricans in particular, have voiced concern regarding AIDS stigma. The authors investigated the key role of social interaction in the process of stigmatization through in-depth, semistructured interviews in a sample of 30 Puerto Ricans living with HIV/AIDS. Participants reported instances in which AIDS stigma negatively influenced social interactions with family, friends, sexual partners, coworkers, and health professionals. Some of the consequences they described were loss of social support, persecution, isolation, job loss, and problems accessing health services. Findings support the need for interventions to address AIDS stigma and its consequences.

  19. Ethological Evaluation of the Effects of Social Defeat Stress in Mice: Beyond the Social Interaction Ratio

    PubMed Central

    Henriques-Alves, Aron M.; Queiroz, Claudio M.

    2016-01-01

    In rodents, repeated exposure to unavoidable aggression followed by sustained sensory treat can lead to prolonged social aversion. The chronic social defeat stress model explores that phenomenon and it has been used as an animal model for human depression. However, some authors have questioned whether confounding effects may arise as the model also boosts anxiety-related behaviors. Despite its wide acceptance, most studies extract limited information from the behavior of the defeated animal. Often, the normalized occupancy around the social stimulus, the interaction zone, is taken as an index of depression. We hypothesized that this parameter is insufficient to fully characterize the behavioral consequences of this form of stress. Using an ethological approach, we showed that repeated social defeat delayed the expression of social investigation in long (10 min) sessions of social interaction. Also, the incidence of defensive behaviors, including stretched-attend posture and high speed retreats, was significantly higher in defeated mice in comparison to controls. Interestingly, a subpopulation of defeated mice showed recurrent and non-habituating stretched-attend posture and persistent flights during the entire session. Two indexes were created based on defensive behaviors to show that only recurrent flights correlates with sucrose intake. Together, the present study corroborates the idea that this model of social stress can precipitate a myriad of behaviors not readily disentangled. We propose that long sessions (>150 s) and detailed ethological evaluation during social interaction tests are necessary to provide enough information to correctly classify defeated animals in terms of resilience and susceptibility to social defeat stress. PMID:26869895

  20. Ethological Evaluation of the Effects of Social Defeat Stress in Mice: Beyond the Social Interaction Ratio.

    PubMed

    Henriques-Alves, Aron M; Queiroz, Claudio M

    2015-01-01

    In rodents, repeated exposure to unavoidable aggression followed by sustained sensory treat can lead to prolonged social aversion. The chronic social defeat stress model explores that phenomenon and it has been used as an animal model for human depression. However, some authors have questioned whether confounding effects may arise as the model also boosts anxiety-related behaviors. Despite its wide acceptance, most studies extract limited information from the behavior of the defeated animal. Often, the normalized occupancy around the social stimulus, the interaction zone, is taken as an index of depression. We hypothesized that this parameter is insufficient to fully characterize the behavioral consequences of this form of stress. Using an ethological approach, we showed that repeated social defeat delayed the expression of social investigation in long (10 min) sessions of social interaction. Also, the incidence of defensive behaviors, including stretched-attend posture and high speed retreats, was significantly higher in defeated mice in comparison to controls. Interestingly, a subpopulation of defeated mice showed recurrent and non-habituating stretched-attend posture and persistent flights during the entire session. Two indexes were created based on defensive behaviors to show that only recurrent flights correlates with sucrose intake. Together, the present study corroborates the idea that this model of social stress can precipitate a myriad of behaviors not readily disentangled. We propose that long sessions (>150 s) and detailed ethological evaluation during social interaction tests are necessary to provide enough information to correctly classify defeated animals in terms of resilience and susceptibility to social defeat stress.

  1. Fear of emotion as a moderator between PTSD and firefighter social interactions.

    PubMed

    Farnsworth, Jacob K; Sewell, Kenneth W

    2011-08-01

    Despite high levels of exposure to stress, questions remain regarding how social interactions and beliefs about emotion interact to influence posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in firefighters. United States urban firefighters (N = 225) completed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, the Unsupportive Social Interactions Inventory, the Affective Control Scale, and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist. Each independent variable predicted PTSD beyond variance accounted for by demographic variables. Additionally, fear of emotion emerged as the strongest individual predictor of PTSD and a moderator of the relation between social interactions and PTSD symptoms. These findings emphasize the importance of beliefs about emotion both in how these beliefs might influence the expression of PTSD symptoms, and in how the social networks of trauma survivors might buffer distress. Copyright © 2011 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

  2. Functional interactivity in social media: an examination of Chinese health care organizations' microblog profiles.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Shaohai

    2017-09-08

    Social media hold enormous potentials as a communication tool for health care due to its interactive nature. However, prior research mainly focused on contingency interactivity of social media, by examining messages sent from health care organizations to audiences, while little is known about functional interactivity, which refers to social media's presence of functions for facilitating communication between users and its interface. That is, how health care organizations use interactive features on social media to communicate with the public. Thus, with a general basis of the functional interactivity framework proposed by Waters et al. (Engaging stakeholders through social networking: how nonprofit organizations are using Facebook. Pub Relat Rev 2009;35:102-106), the current study investigated three aspects of functional interactivity in microblogging, and its subsequent effects. Specifically, this study analyzed 500 Chinese hospitals' profiles on Sina Weibo, the most popular microblogging platform in China. The results showed that the most common functional interactivity feature was organization disclosure, followed by information dissemination, and audience involvement. These interactive features all positively predicted the number of followers. Also, Chinese private hospitals scored significantly higher than public hospitals to use interactive features offered by social media. The findings of this study provide important implications for health care organizations to understand new communicative functions available on social media, incorporate more functions into their profiles and thus provide audiences with greater opportunity to interact with them via social media. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. User-Centric Secure Cross-Site Interaction Framework for Online Social Networking Services

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ko, Moo Nam

    2011-01-01

    Social networking service is one of major technological phenomena on Web 2.0. Hundreds of millions of users are posting message, photos, and videos on their profiles and interacting with other users, but the sharing and interaction are limited within the same social networking site. Although users can share some content on a social networking site…

  4. Discourse as Social Interaction. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Volume 2.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van Dijk, Teun A., Ed.

    The collection of essays on discourse as a form of social interaction includes: "Discourse as Interaction in Society" (Teun A. van Dijk); "Discourse Pragmatics" (Shoshana Blum-Kulka); "Conversation Analysis: An Approach to the Study of Social Action as Sense Making Practices" (Anita Pomerantz, B. J. Fehr); "Institutional Dialogue" (Paul Drew,…

  5. Correspondence between Preference Assessment Outcomes and Stimulus Reinforcer Value for Social Interactions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davis, Tonya N.; Hodges, Abby; Weston, Regan; Hogan, Emily; Padilla-Mainor, Kristen

    2017-01-01

    Preferred forms of social interaction were identified using a paired-stimulus format in which two 3-5 s videos of the experimenter providing the social interaction to the participant were presented. Reinforcer efficacy of the high-, medium-, and low-preferred interactions was evaluated using a progressive-ratio schedule to determine the amount of…

  6. Neonatal face-to-face interactions promote later social behaviour in infant rhesus monkeys

    PubMed Central

    Dettmer, Amanda M.; Kaburu, Stefano S. K.; Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Paukner, Annika; Sclafani, Valentina; Byers, Kristen L.; Murphy, Ashley M.; Miller, Michelle; Marquez, Neal; Miller, Grace M.; Suomi, Stephen J.; Ferrari, Pier F.

    2016-01-01

    In primates, including humans, mothers engage in face-to-face interactions with their infants, with frequencies varying both within and across species. However, the impact of this variation in face-to-face interactions on infant social development is unclear. Here we report that infant monkeys (Macaca mulatta) who engaged in more neonatal face-to-face interactions with mothers have increased social interactions at 2 and 5 months. In a controlled experiment, we show that this effect is not due to physical contact alone: monkeys randomly assigned to receive additional neonatal face-to-face interactions (mutual gaze and intermittent lip-smacking) with human caregivers display increased social interest at 2 months, compared with monkeys who received only additional handling. These studies suggest that face-to-face interactions from birth promote young primate social interest and competency. PMID:27300086

  7. Ordinary Social Interaction and the Main Effect Between Perceived Support and Affect.

    PubMed

    Lakey, Brian; Vander Molen, Randy J; Fles, Elizabeth; Andrews, Justin

    2016-10-01

    Relational regulation theory hypothesizes that (a) the main effect between perceived support and mental health primarily reflects ordinary social interaction rather than conversations about stress and how to cope with it, and (b) the extent to which a provider regulates a recipient's mental health primarily reflects the recipient's personal taste (i.e., is relational), rather than the provider's objective supportiveness. In three round-robin studies, participants rated each other on supportiveness and the quality of ordinary social interaction, as well as their own affect when interacting with each other. Samples included marines about to deploy to Afghanistan (N = 100; 150 dyads), students sharing apartments (N = 64; 96 dyads), and strangers (N = 48; 72 dyads). Perceived support and ordinary social interaction were primarily relational, and most of perceived support's main effect on positive affect was redundant with ordinary social interaction. The main effect between perceived support and affect emerged among strangers after brief text conversations, and these links were partially verified by independent observers. Findings for negative affect were less consistent with theory. Ordinary social interaction appears to be able to explain much of the main effect between perceived support and positive affect. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Detection of Social Interaction in Smart Spaces.

    PubMed

    Cook, Diane J; Crandall, Aaron; Singla, Geetika; Thomas, Brian

    2010-02-01

    The pervasive sensing technologies found in smart environments offer unprecedented opportunities for monitoring and assisting the individuals who live and work in these spaces. An aspect of daily life that is important for one's emotional and physical health is social interaction. In this paper we investigate the use of smart environment technologies to detect and analyze interactions in smart spaces. We introduce techniques for collect and analyzing sensor information in smart environments to help in interpreting resident behavior patterns and determining when multiple residents are interacting. The effectiveness of our techniques is evaluated using two physical smart environment testbeds.

  9. Detection of Social Interaction in Smart Spaces

    PubMed Central

    Cook, Diane J.; Crandall, Aaron; Singla, Geetika; Thomas, Brian

    2010-01-01

    The pervasive sensing technologies found in smart environments offer unprecedented opportunities for monitoring and assisting the individuals who live and work in these spaces. An aspect of daily life that is important for one's emotional and physical health is social interaction. In this paper we investigate the use of smart environment technologies to detect and analyze interactions in smart spaces. We introduce techniques for collect and analyzing sensor information in smart environments to help in interpreting resident behavior patterns and determining when multiple residents are interacting. The effectiveness of our techniques is evaluated using two physical smart environment testbeds. PMID:20953347

  10. The Training and Generalization of Social Interaction Skills with Autistic Youth.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gaylord-Ross, Robert J.; And Others

    Two experiments were conducted to increase the initiations and durations of social interactions between autistic and nonhandicapped youths. Experiment 1 involved teaching two autistic youths (17-20 years old) to initiate and elaborate social interactions with three age appropriate and commonly used leisure objects; a radio, a video game, and gum.…

  11. Limitation of degree information for analyzing the interaction evolution in online social networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shang, Ke-Ke; Yan, Wei-Sheng; Xu, Xiao-Ke

    2014-04-01

    Previously many studies on online social networks simply analyze the static topology in which the friend relationship once established, then the links and nodes will not disappear, but this kind of static topology may not accurately reflect temporal interactions on online social services. In this study, we define four types of users and interactions in the interaction (dynamic) network. We found that active, disappeared, new and super nodes (users) have obviously different strength distribution properties and this result also can be revealed by the degree characteristics of the unweighted interaction and friendship (static) networks. However, the active, disappeared, new and super links (interactions) only can be reflected by the strength distribution in the weighted interaction network. This result indicates the limitation of the static topology data on analyzing social network evolutions. In addition, our study uncovers the approximately stable statistics for the dynamic social network in which there are a large variation for users and interaction intensity. Our findings not only verify the correctness of our definitions, but also helped to study the customer churn and evaluate the commercial value of valuable customers in online social networks.

  12. The Reciprocal Relationship between Bipolar Disorder and Social Interaction: A Qualitative Investigation.

    PubMed

    Owen, Rebecca; Gooding, Patricia; Dempsey, Robert; Jones, Steven

    2017-07-01

    Evidence suggests that social support can influence relapse rates, functioning and various clinical outcomes in people with bipolar disorder. Yet 'social support' is a poorly defined construct, and the mechanisms by which it affects illness course in bipolar disorder remain largely unknown. Key aims of this study were to ascertain which facets of social interaction affect mood management in bipolar disorder, and how symptoms of bipolar disorder can influence the level of support received. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 individuals with bipolar disorder. Questions were designed to elicit: the effects of social interaction upon the management and course of bipolar disorder; and the impact of bipolar disorder upon social relationships. An inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Empathy and understanding from another person can make it easier to cope with bipolar disorder. Social interaction can also provide opportunities to challenge negative ruminative thoughts and prevent the onset of a major mood episode. The loss of social support, particularly through bereavement, creates a loss of control and can trigger mania or depression. Hypomanic symptoms can facilitate new social connections, whereas disinhibited and risky behaviour exhibited during mania can cause the breakdown of vital relationships. An in-depth clinical formulation of an individual's perceptions of how their illness affects and is affected by social interaction is crucial to understanding psychosocial factors which influence mood management. These results have clear application in interventions which aim to promote improved wellbeing and social functioning in bipolar disorder. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The relationship between bipolar-related experiences and social interaction is complex and multi-faceted. Bipolar disorder can damage social relationships and create a loss of social control via extreme mood states, but it can also offer a

  13. The Social Fabric of Elementary Schools: A Network Typology of Social Interaction among Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moolenaar, Nienke M.; Sleegers, Peter J. C.; Karsten, Sjoerd; Daly, Alan J.

    2012-01-01

    While researchers are currently studying various forms of social network interaction among teachers for their impact on educational policy implementation and practice, knowledge on how various types of networks are interrelated is limited. The goal of this study is to understand the dimensionality that may underlie various types of social networks…

  14. High-precision spatial localization of mouse vocalizations during social interaction.

    PubMed

    Heckman, Jesse J; Proville, Rémi; Heckman, Gert J; Azarfar, Alireza; Celikel, Tansu; Englitz, Bernhard

    2017-06-07

    Mice display a wide repertoire of vocalizations that varies with age, sex, and context. Especially during courtship, mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) of high complexity, whose detailed structure is poorly understood. As animals of both sexes vocalize, the study of social vocalizations requires attributing single USVs to individuals. The state-of-the-art in sound localization for USVs allows spatial localization at centimeter resolution, however, animals interact at closer ranges, involving tactile, snout-snout exploration. Hence, improved algorithms are required to reliably assign USVs. We develop multiple solutions to USV localization, and derive an analytical solution for arbitrary vertical microphone positions. The algorithms are compared on wideband acoustic noise and single mouse vocalizations, and applied to social interactions with optically tracked mouse positions. A novel, (frequency) envelope weighted generalised cross-correlation outperforms classical cross-correlation techniques. It achieves a median error of ~1.4 mm for noise and ~4-8.5 mm for vocalizations. Using this algorithms in combination with a level criterion, we can improve the assignment for interacting mice. We report significant differences in mean USV properties between CBA mice of different sexes during social interaction. Hence, the improved USV attribution to individuals lays the basis for a deeper understanding of social vocalizations, in particular sequences of USVs.

  15. Play along: effects of music and social interaction on word learning.

    PubMed

    Verga, Laura; Bigand, Emmanuel; Kotz, Sonja A

    2015-01-01

    Learning new words is an increasingly common necessity in everyday life. External factors, among which music and social interaction are particularly debated, are claimed to facilitate this task. Due to their influence on the learner's temporal behavior, these stimuli are able to drive the learner's attention to the correct referent of new words at the correct point in time. However, do music and social interaction impact learning behavior in the same way? The current study aims to answer this question. Native German speakers (N = 80) were requested to learn new words (pseudo-words) during a contextual learning game. This learning task was performed alone with a computer or with a partner, with or without music. Results showed that music and social interaction had a different impact on the learner's behavior: Participants tended to temporally coordinate their behavior more with a partner than with music, and in both cases more than with a computer. However, when both music and social interaction were present, this temporal coordination was hindered. These results suggest that while music and social interaction do influence participants' learning behavior, they have a different impact. Moreover, impaired behavior when both music and a partner are present suggests that different mechanisms are employed to coordinate with the two types of stimuli. Whether one or the other approach is more efficient for word learning, however, is a question still requiring further investigation, as no differences were observed between conditions in a retrieval phase, which took place immediately after the learning session. This study contributes to the literature on word learning in adults by investigating two possible facilitating factors, and has important implications for situations such as music therapy, in which music and social interaction are present at the same time.

  16. Play along: effects of music and social interaction on word learning

    PubMed Central

    Verga, Laura; Bigand, Emmanuel; Kotz, Sonja A.

    2015-01-01

    Learning new words is an increasingly common necessity in everyday life. External factors, among which music and social interaction are particularly debated, are claimed to facilitate this task. Due to their influence on the learner’s temporal behavior, these stimuli are able to drive the learner’s attention to the correct referent of new words at the correct point in time. However, do music and social interaction impact learning behavior in the same way? The current study aims to answer this question. Native German speakers (N = 80) were requested to learn new words (pseudo-words) during a contextual learning game. This learning task was performed alone with a computer or with a partner, with or without music. Results showed that music and social interaction had a different impact on the learner’s behavior: Participants tended to temporally coordinate their behavior more with a partner than with music, and in both cases more than with a computer. However, when both music and social interaction were present, this temporal coordination was hindered. These results suggest that while music and social interaction do influence participants’ learning behavior, they have a different impact. Moreover, impaired behavior when both music and a partner are present suggests that different mechanisms are employed to coordinate with the two types of stimuli. Whether one or the other approach is more efficient for word learning, however, is a question still requiring further investigation, as no differences were observed between conditions in a retrieval phase, which took place immediately after the learning session. This study contributes to the literature on word learning in adults by investigating two possible facilitating factors, and has important implications for situations such as music therapy, in which music and social interaction are present at the same time. PMID:26388818

  17. Social interaction anxiety and the discounting of positive interpersonal events.

    PubMed

    Vassilopoulos, Stephanos P; Banerjee, Robin

    2010-10-01

    Recent research has indicated that individuals with social interaction anxiety make biased interpretations of positive social interactions, with greater general apprehension in response to such events and more negative predictions about the future. There has also been some preliminary evidence for a second facet of interpretation bias, namely a failure to accept others' positive reactions at face value, but this has so far not been adequately studied. The present study developed a new measure of this "discounting" dimension and utilized a nonclinical sample of undergraduate students to provide an initial analysis of the scale. Results provide early support for the psychometric properties of our scale, and indicate that discounting mediates the relationship between social interaction anxiety and low positive affect, over and above the previously studied aspect of positive event interpretation bias. The implications for treatment interventions and further research are discussed.

  18. Impairments of Social Motor Coordination in Schizophrenia

    PubMed Central

    Varlet, Manuel; Marin, Ludovic; Raffard, Stéphane; Schmidt, R. C.; Capdevielle, Delphine; Boulenger, Jean-Philippe; Del-Monte, Jonathan; Bardy, Benoît G.

    2012-01-01

    It has been demonstrated that motor coordination of interacting people plays a crucial role in the success of social exchanges. Abnormal movements have been reported during interpersonal interactions of patients suffering from schizophrenia and a motor coordination breakdown could explain this social interaction deficit, which is one of the main and earliest features of the illness. Using the dynamical systems framework, the goal of the current study was (i) to investigate whether social motor coordination is impaired in schizophrenia and (ii) to determine the underlying perceptual or cognitive processes that may be affected. We examined intentional and unintentional social motor coordination in participants oscillating hand-held pendulums from the wrist. The control group consisted of twenty healthy participant pairs while the experimental group consisted of twenty participant pairs that included one participant suffering from schizophrenia. The results showed that unintentional social motor coordination was preserved while intentional social motor coordination was impaired. In intentional coordination, the schizophrenia group displayed coordination patterns that had lower stability and in which the patient never led the coordination. A coupled oscillator model suggests that the schizophrenia group coordination pattern was due to a decrease in the amount of available information together with a delay in information transmission. Our study thus identified relational motor signatures of schizophrenia and opens new perspectives for detecting the illness and improving social interactions of patients. PMID:22272247

  19. Functional Analysis of Inappropriate Social Interactions in Students with Asperger's Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roantree, Christina F.; Kennedy, Craig H.

    2012-01-01

    We analyzed the inappropriate social interactions of 3 students with Asperger's syndrome whose behavior was maintained by social positive reinforcement. We tested whether inappropriate social behavior was sensitive to social positive reinforcement contingencies and whether such contingencies could be reversed to increase the probability of…

  20. Attachment style and oxytocin receptor gene variation interact in influencing social anxiety.

    PubMed

    Notzon, S; Domschke, K; Holitschke, K; Ziegler, C; Arolt, V; Pauli, P; Reif, A; Deckert, J; Zwanzger, P

    2016-01-01

    Social anxiety has been suggested to be promoted by an insecure attachment style. Oxytocin is discussed as a mediator of trust and social bonding as well as a modulator of social anxiety. Applying a gene-environment (G × E) interaction approach, in the present pilot study the main and interactive effects of attachment styles and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene variation were probed in a combined risk factor model of social anxiety in healthy probands. Participants (N = 388; 219 females, 169 males; age 24.7 ± 4.7 years) were assessed for anxiety in social situations (Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory) depending on attachment style (Adult Attachment Scale, AAS) and OXTR rs53576 A/G genotype. A less secure attachment style was significantly associated with higher social anxiety. This association was partly modulated by OXTR genotype, with a stronger negative influence of a less secure attachment style on social anxiety in A allele carriers as compared to GG homozygotes. The present pilot data point to a strong association of less secure attachment and social anxiety as well as to a gene-environment interaction effect of OXTR rs53576 genotype and attachment style on social anxiety possibly constituting a targetable combined risk marker of social anxiety disorder.

  1. Memories of social interactions: age differences in emotional intensity.

    PubMed

    Charles, Susan Turk; Piazza, Jennifer R

    2007-06-01

    The current study examined age differences in the intensity of emotions experienced during social interactions. Because emotions are felt most intensely in situations central to motivational goals, age differences in emotional intensity may exist in social situations that meet the goals for one age group more than the other. Guided by theories of emotional intensity and socioemotional selectivity, it was hypothesized that social partner type would elicit different affective responses by age. Younger (n = 71) and older (n = 71) adults recalled experiences of positive and negative emotions with new friends, established friends, and family members from the prior week. Compared with younger adults, older adults reported lower intensity positive emotions with new friends, similarly intense positive emotions with established friends, and higher intensity positive emotions with family members. Older adults reported lower intensity negative emotions for all social partners than did younger adults, but this difference was most pronounced for interactions with new friends. ((c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

  2. Cannabidiol exhibits anxiolytic but not antipsychotic property evaluated in the social interaction test.

    PubMed

    Almeida, Valéria; Levin, Raquel; Peres, Fernanda Fiel; Niigaki, Suzy T; Calzavara, Mariana B; Zuardi, Antônio W; Hallak, Jaime E; Crippa, José A; Abílio, Vanessa C

    2013-03-05

    Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotomimetic compound of the Cannabis sativa, has been reported to have central therapeutic actions, such as antipsychotic and anxiolytic effects. We have recently reported that Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRs) present a deficit in social interaction that is ameliorated by atypical antipsychotics. In addition, SHRs present a hyperlocomotion that is reverted by typical and atypical antipsychotics, suggesting that this strain could be useful to study negative symptoms (modeled by a decrease in social interaction) and positive symptoms (modeled by hyperlocomotion) of schizophrenia as well as the effects of potential antipsychotics drugs. At the same time, an increase in social interaction in control animals similar to that induced by benzodiazepines is used to screen potential anxiolytic drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of CBD on social interaction presented by control animals (Wistar) and SHRs. The lowest dose of CBD (1mg/kg) increased passive and total social interaction of Wistar rats. However, the hyperlocomotion and the deficit in social interaction displayed by SHRs were not altered by any dose of CBD. Our results do not support an antipsychotic property of cannabidiol on symptoms-like behaviors in SHRs but reinforce the anxiolytic profile of this compound in control rats. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Perception of Social Interactions for Spatially Scrambled Biological Motion

    PubMed Central

    Thurman, Steven M.; Lu, Hongjing

    2014-01-01

    It is vitally important for humans to detect living creatures in the environment and to analyze their behavior to facilitate action understanding and high-level social inference. The current study employed naturalistic point-light animations to examine the ability of human observers to spontaneously identify and discriminate socially interactive behaviors between two human agents. Specifically, we investigated the importance of global body form, intrinsic joint movements, extrinsic whole-body movements, and critically, the congruency between intrinsic and extrinsic motions. Motion congruency is hypothesized to be particularly important because of the constraint it imposes on naturalistic action due to the inherent causal relationship between limb movements and whole body motion. Using a free response paradigm in Experiment 1, we discovered that many naïve observers (55%) spontaneously attributed animate and/or social traits to spatially-scrambled displays of interpersonal interaction. Total stimulus motion energy was strongly correlated with the likelihood that an observer would attribute animate/social traits, as opposed to physical/mechanical traits, to the scrambled dot stimuli. In Experiment 2, we found that participants could identify interactions between spatially-scrambled displays of human dance as long as congruency was maintained between intrinsic/extrinsic movements. Violating the motion congruency constraint resulted in chance discrimination performance for the spatially-scrambled displays. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that scrambled point-light dancing animations violating this constraint were also rated as significantly less interactive than animations with congruent intrinsic/extrinsic motion. These results demonstrate the importance of intrinsic/extrinsic motion congruency for biological motion analysis, and support a theoretical framework in which early visual filters help to detect animate agents in the environment based on several fundamental

  4. Mouse Social Interaction Test (MoST): a quantitative computer automated analysis of behavior.

    PubMed

    Thanos, Panayotis K; Restif, Christophe; O'Rourke, Joseph R; Lam, Chiu Yin; Metaxas, Dimitris

    2017-01-01

    Rodents are the most commonly used preclinical model of human disease assessing the mechanism(s) involved as well as the role of genetics, epigenetics, and pharmacotherapy on this disease as well as identifying vulnerability factors and risk assessment for disease critical in the development of improved treatment strategies. Unfortunately, the majority of rodent preclinical studies utilize single housed approaches where animals are either entirely housed and tested in solitary environments or group housed but tested in solitary environments. This approach, however, ignores the important contribution of social interaction and social behavior. Social interaction in rodents is found to be a major criterion for the ethological validity of rodent species-specific behavioral characteristics (Zurn et al. 2007; Analysis 2011). It is also well established that there is significant and growing number of reports, which illustrates the important role of social environment and social interaction in all diseases, with particularly significance in all neuropsychiatric diseases. Thus, it is imperative that research studies be able to add large-scale evaluations of social interaction and behavior in mice and benefit from automated tracking of behaviors and measurements by removing user bias and by quantifying aspects of behaviors that cannot be assessed by a human observer. Single mouse setups have been used routinely, but cannot be easily extended to multiple-animal studies where social behavior is key, e.g., autism, depression, anxiety, substance and non-substance addictive disorders, aggression, sexual behavior, or parenting. While recent efforts are focusing on multiple-animal tracking alone, a significant limitation remains the lack of insightful measures of social interactions. We present a novel, non-invasive single camera-based automated tracking method described as Mouse Social Test (MoST) and set of measures designed for estimating the interactions of multiple mice at the

  5. Hedonic Benefits of Close and Distant Interaction Partners: The Mediating Roles of Social Approval and Authenticity.

    PubMed

    Venaglia, Rachel B; Lemay, Edward P

    2017-09-01

    The current research utilized ecological momentary assessment methodology to examine affective responses to interacting with close versus distant interaction partners during naturally occurring social interactions, and to test predictions regarding the mediating roles of perceived social approval and authenticity. Analysis of 4,602 social interactions reported by 176 participants suggested that, relative to interactions with distant partners, interactions with close partners were characterized by more positive affect. This effect was mediated by perceived social approval and authenticity. These findings suggest that social interactions with close others confer greater hedonic benefits relative to interactions with distant partners due to greater confidence in social approval and feelings of authenticity. Exploratory analyses suggested that interactions with close partners featured warmer and less shy behavior, and that participants who placed more importance on close relationships (as measured by high relational-interdependent self-construal) experienced more approval and authenticity in their interactions, particularly with distant partners.

  6. Boldness by habituation and social interactions: a model.

    PubMed

    Oosten, Johanneke E; Magnhagen, Carin; Hemelrijk, Charlotte K

    2010-04-01

    Most studies of animal personality attribute personality to genetic traits. But a recent study by Magnhagen and Staffan (Behav Ecol Sociobiol 57:295-303, 2005) on young perch in small groups showed that boldness, a central personality trait, is also shaped by social interactions and by previous experience. The authors measured boldness by recording the duration that an individual spent near a predator and the speed with which it fed there. They found that duration near the predator increased over time and was higher the higher the average boldness of other group members. In addition, the feeding rate of shy individuals was reduced if other members of the same group were bold. The authors supposed that these behavioral dynamics were caused by genetic differences, social interactions, and habituation to the predator. However, they did not quantify exactly how this could happen. In the present study, we therefore use an agent-based model to investigate whether these three factors may explain the empirical findings. We choose an agent-based model because this type of model is especially suited to study the relation between behavior at an individual level and behavioral dynamics at a group level. In our model, individuals were either hiding in vegetation or feeding near a predator, whereby their behavior was affected by habituation and by two social mechanisms: social facilitation to approach the predator and competition over food. We show that even if we start the model with identical individuals, these three mechanisms were sufficient to reproduce the behavioral dynamics of the empirical study, including the consistent differences among individuals. Moreover, if we start the model with individuals that already differ in boldness, the behavioral dynamics produced remained the same. Our results indicate the importance of previous experience and social interactions when studying animal personality empirically.

  7. Social Skills as a Mediator between Anxiety Symptoms and Peer Interactions among Children and Adolescents

    PubMed Central

    Motoca, Luci M.; Williams, Sandra; Silverman, Wendy K.

    2012-01-01

    Objective The present study used a cross-sectional design to examine the relations among youth anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills. Also examined was the mediating role of social skills in the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. Youth sex and age were examined as moderators. Method The sample consisted of 397 children and adolescents (M = 10.11 years; 53.4% boys; 74.8% Hispanic Latino) referred to an anxiety disorders clinic. Anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills were assessed using youth and parent ratings. Results Structural equation modeling results indicated that for youth ratings only, youth anxiety symptoms were negatively related to positive peer interactions controlling for primary social phobia and comorbid depressive disorders. For both youth and parent ratings, youth anxiety symptoms were positively related to negative peer interactions and negatively related to social skills. Also for both youth and parent ratings, social skills mediated the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. For parent ratings only, the effects of youth anxiety symptoms and social skills on peer interactions were significantly moderated by youth age. Youth sex was not a significant moderator using youth and parent ratings. Conclusions Findings suggest difficulties with social skills and peer interactions are problematic features of youth referred for anxiety problems. Findings highlight the need to improve understanding of anxiety symptoms, social skills, and peer interactions in this population. PMID:22471319

  8. Social skills as a mediator between anxiety symptoms and peer interactions among children and adolescents.

    PubMed

    Motoca, Luci M; Williams, Sandra; Silverman, Wendy K

    2012-01-01

    The present study used a cross-sectional design to examine the relations among youth anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills. Also examined was the mediating role of social skills in the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. Youth sex and age were examined as moderators. The sample consisted of 397 children and adolescents (M = 10.11 years; 53.4% boys; 74.8% Hispanic Latino) referred to an anxiety disorders clinic. Anxiety symptoms, positive and negative peer interactions, and social skills were assessed using youth and parent ratings. Structural equation modeling results indicated that for youth ratings only, youth anxiety symptoms were negatively related to positive peer interactions controlling for primary social phobia and comorbid depressive disorders. For both youth and parent ratings, youth anxiety symptoms were positively related to negative peer interactions and negatively related to social skills. Also for both youth and parent ratings, social skills mediated the relations between youth anxiety symptoms and positive and negative peer interactions. For parent ratings only, the effects of youth anxiety symptoms and social skills on peer interactions were significantly moderated by youth age. Youth sex was not a significant moderator using youth and parent ratings. Findings suggest that difficulties with social skills and peer interactions are problematic features of youth referred for anxiety problems. Findings highlight the need to improve understanding of anxiety symptoms, social skills, and peer interactions in this population.

  9. Cultural Differences in Social Interaction during Group Problem Solving.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gabrenya, William K., Jr.; Barba, Lourdes

    Cross-cultural psychology has begun to analyze cultural differences on collectivism and the implications of these differences for social processes such as group productivity. This study examined natural social interaction during a problem-solving task that required discussion and the establishment of a consensus. The relationship of collectivist…

  10. Epigenetic regulation of dorsal raphe GABA(B1a) associated with isolation-induced abnormal responses to social stimulation in mice.

    PubMed

    Araki, Ryota; Hiraki, Yosuke; Nishida, Shoji; Kuramoto, Nobuyuki; Matsumoto, Kinzo; Yabe, Takeshi

    2016-02-01

    In isolation-reared mice, social encounter stimulation induces locomotor hyperactivity and activation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), suggesting that dysregulation of dorsal raphe function may be involved in abnormal behaviors. In this study, we examined the involvement of dorsal raphe GABAergic dysregulation in the abnormal behaviors of isolation-reared mice. We also studied an epigenetic mechanism underlying abnormalities of the dorsal raphe GABAergic system. Both mRNA and protein levels of GABA(B1a), a GABA(B) receptor subunit, were increased in the DRN of isolation-reared mice, compared with these levels in group-reared mice. In contrast, mRNA levels for other GABAergic system-related genes (GABA(A) receptor α1, β2 and γ2 subunits, GABA(B) receptor 1b and 2 subunits, and glutamate decarboxylase 67 and 65) were unchanged. Intra-DRN microinjection of 0.06 nmol baclofen (a GABA(B) receptor agonist) exacerbated encounter-induced hyperactivity and aggressive behavior, while microinjection of 0.3 nmol phaclofen (a GABA(B) receptor antagonist) attenuated encounter-induced hyperactivity and aggressive behavior in isolation-reared mice. Furthermore, microinjection of 0.06 nmol baclofen elicited encounter-induced hyperactivity in group-reared mice. Neither baclofen nor phaclofen affected immobility time in the forced swim test and hyperactivity in a novel environment of isolation reared mice. Bisulfite sequence analyses revealed that the DNA methylation level of the CpG island around the transcription start site (TSS) of GABA(B1a) was decreased in the DRN of isolation-reared mice. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis showed that histone H3 was hyperacetylated around the TSS of GABA(B1a) in the DRN of isolation-reared mice. These findings indicate that an increase in dorsal raphe GABA(B1a) expression via epigenetic regulation is associated with abnormal responses to social stimulation such as encounter-induced hyperactivity and aggressive behavior in isolation

  11. Social Interaction with Adults with Severe Intellectual Disability: Having Fun and Hanging Out

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Hilary; Douglas, Jacinta; Bigby, Christine; Iacono, Teresa

    2012-01-01

    Background: Social interaction is integral to social inclusion. Little is known about the nature of social interaction between adults with severe intellectual disability and those with whom they engage. Method: Participants were six adults with intellectual disability and people identified as those with whom they shared demonstrable pleasurable…

  12. Romantic Relationship Satisfaction and Ambulatory Blood Pressure During Social Interactions: Specificity or Spillover Effects?

    PubMed

    Cornelius, Talea; Birk, Jeffrey L; Edmondson, Donald; Schwartz, Joseph E

    2018-05-08

    People in high-quality romantic relationships tend to have lower blood pressure (BP). People may experience lower BP specifically when interacting with romantic partners. This study parsed the effects of different types of social interactions on ambulatory BP (ABP) and tested whether romantic relationship satisfaction moderated these effects during interactions with partners in particular (specificity) or with others (spillover; e.g., friends, co-workers). Partnered participants (N = 594) were drawn from a larger study on BP and cardiovascular health (age = 46.5 ± 9.3; 57.4% female). Participants reported on romantic relationship satisfaction and completed 24-hr ABP monitoring. At each reading, participants reported whether they had a social interaction and with whom. Multilevel models accounted for nesting of data over time. Romantic relationship satisfaction significantly modified the effects of some social interactions on systolic and diastolic BP (SBP, DBP). Participants with high (+1 SD) relationship satisfaction had significantly lower SBP (-0.77 mmHg, p = .02) during partner interactions compared with no social interaction; low-satisfaction (-1 SD) participants had a nonsignificant 0.59 mmHg increase (p = .14). A similar pattern emerged for DBP. Relationship satisfaction also modified SBP response during friend interactions (elevated SBP for low-satisfaction participants) and DBP response during "other" interactions (elevated DBP for high-satisfaction participants). Participants with high levels of romantic relationship satisfaction experienced significantly lower BP during social interactions with their partner compared with situations without social interaction. Although there was some evidence for spillover to other types of relationships, effects were largely restricted to partner interactions.

  13. Mobile Video in Everyday Social Interactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reponen, Erika; Lehikoinen, Jaakko; Impiö, Jussi

    Video recording has become a spontaneous everyday activity for many people, thanks to the video capabilities of modern mobile phones. Internet connectivity of mobile phones enables fluent sharing of captured material even real-time, which makes video an up-and-coming everyday interaction medium. In this article we discuss the effect of the video camera in the social environment, everyday life situations, mainly based on a study where four groups of people used digital video cameras in their normal settings. We also reflect on another study of ours, relating to real-time mobile video communication and discuss future views. The aim of our research is to understand the possibilities in the domain of mobile video. Live and delayed sharing seem to have their special characteristics, live video being used as a virtual window between places whereas delayed video usage has more scope for good-quality content. While this novel way of interacting via mobile video enables new social patterns, it also raises new concerns for privacy and trust between participating persons in all roles, largely due to the widely spreading possibilities of videos. Video in a social situation affects cameramen (who record), targets (who are recorded), passers-by (who are unintentionally in the situation), and the audience (who follow the videos or recording situations) but also the other way around, the participants affect the video by their varying and evolving personal and communicational motivations for recording.

  14. Orexin signaling during social defeat stress influences subsequent social interaction behaviour and recognition memory.

    PubMed

    Eacret, Darrell; Grafe, Laura A; Dobkin, Jane; Gotter, Anthony L; Rengerb, John J; Winrow, Christopher J; Bhatnagar, Seema

    2018-06-11

    Orexins are neuropeptides synthesized in the lateral hypothalamus that influence arousal, feeding, reward pathways, and the response to stress. However, the role of orexins in repeated stress is not fully characterized. Here, we examined how orexins and their receptors contribute to the coping response during repeated social defeat and subsequent anxiety-like and memory-related behaviors. Specifically, we used Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) to stimulate orexins prior to each of five consecutive days of social defeat stress in adult male rats. Additionally, we determined the role of the orexin 2 receptor in these behaviors by using a selective orexin 2 receptor antagonist (MK-1064) administered prior to each social defeat. Following the 5 day social defeat conditioning period, rats were evaluated in social interaction and novel object recognition paradigms to assess anxiety-like behavior and recognition memory, respectively. Activation of orexin neurons by DREADDs prior to each social defeat decreased the average latency to become defeated across 5 days, indicative of a passive coping strategy that we have previously linked to a stress vulnerable phenotype. Moreover, stimulation of orexin signaling during defeat conditioning decreased subsequent social interaction and performance in the novel object recognition test indicating increased subsequent anxiety-like behavior and reduced working memory. Blocking the orexin 2 receptor during repeated defeat did not alter these effects. Together, our results suggest that orexin neuron activation produces a passive coping phenotype during social defeat leading to subsequent anxiety-like behaviors and memory deficits. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  15. Association Between Parental Social Interaction and Behavior Problems in Offspring: a Population-Based Study in Japan.

    PubMed

    Ochi, Manami; Fujiwara, Takeo

    2016-08-01

    Research in parental social support has chiefly examined received social support. Studies have suggested that provided social support may also be protective for child mental health problems. We aim to investigate the association between parental social interaction (both received and provided social support) and offspring behavior problems. We analyzed the data of 982 households, including 1538 children aged 4 to 16 years, from the Japanese Study of Stratification, Health, Income, and Neighborhood (J-SHINE) survey conducted over 2010-2011. We used a 5-point Likert scale to assess social interaction including parental emotional and instrumental support received from and provided to the spouse, other co-residing family members, non-co-residing family members or relatives, neighbors, and friends. Behavior problems in offspring were assessed using parental responses to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Associations between parental social interaction and behavior problems were analyzed using ordered logistic regression. We found that higher maternal social interaction is significantly associated with lower odds of both difficult and prosocial behavior problems, while the same associations were not found for paternal social interaction. Further, maternal provided social support showed an independent negative association with prosocial behavior problems in offspring, even when adjusted for received maternal social support and paternal social interaction. This study showed that maternal social interaction, but not paternal social interaction, might have a protective effect on offspring behavior problems. Further study is required to investigate the effect of the intervention to increase social participation among mothers whose children have behavior problems.

  16. Social media use profile, social skills, and nurse-patient interaction among Registered Nurses in tertiary hospitals: A structural equation model analysis.

    PubMed

    Mariano, Micah Celine O; Maniego, John Christian M; Manila, Hariette Lou Marie D; Mapanoo, Ram Cedrick C; Maquiran, Kerwin Miguel A; Macindo, John Rey B; Tejero, Lourdes Marie S; Torres, Gian Carlo S

    2018-04-01

    Social media has become increasingly important over the past decades and has been integrated in various environments, including the healthcare setting. Yet, the influence of social media use on the social skills and nurse-patient interaction of nurses is an area in nursing that requires further studies. This study determined the interrelationships among social media use profile, social skills, and nurse-patient interaction of Registered Nurses in tertiary hospitals. Employing structural equation modeling, a descriptive-correlational study was conducted among 212 consecutively-selected nurses from two tertiary hospitals. Consenting respondents completed a two-part survey composed of the respondent profile sheet and the Social Skills Inventory. The respondent profile sheet assessed demographic profile and social media use profile in terms of the mode, frequency, and duration of utilization. Three trained team members observed each nurse-patient dyad and completed the Nurse-Patient Bonding Instrument. A good fit model illustrated the negative effects of frequent social media use to patient openness (β = -0.18, p < 0.05) and engagement (β = -0.11, p ≤ 0.05). Longer use of social media on a daily basis, however, positively affected both dimensions of social skills. Accessing social media platforms using non-handheld devices showed the most influential positive effects to social skills and nurse-patient interaction. Additionally, although verbal social skills positively affected most dimensions of nurse-patient interaction, non-verbal social skills negatively influenced patient engagement (β = -0.19, p = 0.019) and nurse openness (β = -0.38, p ≤ 0.05). The structural model illustrates the effects of using social media on the social skills and nurse-patient interaction of nurses and emphasizes the need for implementing institutional policies on the judicious use and application of social media in the workplace. Further, social

  17. Exercise self-identity: interactions with social comparison and exercise behaviour.

    PubMed

    Verkooijen, Kirsten T; de Bruijn, Gert-Jan

    2013-01-01

    Possible interactions among exercise self-identity, social comparison and exercise behaviour were explored in a sample of 417 undergraduate students (mean age = 21.5, SD = 3.0; 73% female). Two models were examined using self-report data; (1) a mediation model which proposed an association between social comparison and exercise behaviour mediated by exercise self-identity and (2) a moderation model proposing an association between exercise behaviour and self-identity moderated by social comparison. Results of the mediation analyses revealed partial mediation of the social comparison--exercise behaviour relationship by self-identity in females. Results of the moderation analyses revealed in males a significant interaction of social comparison with exercise behaviour in the prediction of self-identity - the positive association between exercise behaviour and exercise self-identity showed only significant among male students who believed to exercise equally much or less than peers. Possible explanations and implications for exercise promotion are discussed.

  18. Perceived Density, Social Interaction and Morale in New South Wales Rural Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Argent, Neil

    2008-01-01

    This paper explores the relationships between population density, social interaction patterns, and morale in rural communities. It tests two apparently competing hypotheses concerning rural population density, social interaction patterns and overall levels of morale: one, that low (and rapidly declining) rural densities lead to feelings of…

  19. Using Multitouch Collaboration Technology to Enhance Social Interaction of Children with High-Functioning Autism.

    PubMed

    Gal, Eynat; Lamash, Liron; Bauminger-Zviely, Nirit; Zancanaro, Massimo; Weiss, Patrice L Tamar

    2016-01-01

    Children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD) have major difficulties in social communication skills, which may impact their performance and participation in everyday life. The goal of this study was to examine whether the StoryTable, an intervention paradigm based on a collaborative narrative, multitouch tabletop interface, enhanced social interaction for children with HFASD, and to determine whether the acquired abilities were transferred to behaviors during other tasks. Fourteen boys with HFASD, aged 7-12 years, participated in a 3-week, 11-session intervention. Social interactions during two nonintervention tasks were videotaped at three points in time, one prior to the intervention (pre), a second immediately following the intervention (post) and a third three weeks after the intervention (follow-up). The video-recorded files were coded using the Friendship Observation Scale to ascertain the frequencies of positive and negative social interactions and collaborative play. Differences in these behaviors were tested for significance using nonparametric statistical tests. There were significantly higher rates of positive social interactions and collaborative play, and lower rates of negative social interactions following the intervention suggesting generalization of the social skills learned during the intervention. Improvement was maintained when tested three weeks later. These findings provide support for the use of collaborative technology-based interventions within educational settings to enhance social interaction of children with HFASD.

  20. Social behavior, interaction appraisals, and suicidal ideation in schizophrenia: The dangers of being alone

    PubMed Central

    Depp, Colin A.; Moore, Raeanne C.; Perivoliotis, Dimitri; Holden, Jason L.; Swendsen, Joel; Granholm, Eric L.

    2016-01-01

    Despite the increasing attention to social appraisals in suicide risk, the interpersonal correlates of suicidal thoughts and behavior in schizophrenia are not well understood. Ecological momentary assessment could reveal whether dysfunctional social appraisals and behavior are evident in people with schizophrenia with suicidal ideation. A total of 93 outpatients with diagnoses of schizophrenia with (n = 18, 19%) and without (N = 75; 81%) suicidal ideation participated in one week of intensive daily monitoring via mobile devices, generating real-time reports on the quantity of social interactions and appraisals about them, as well as information concerning concurrent affect and symptoms. The presence of suicidal ideation was not associated with the quantity of social interactions or time spent alone, but it was associated with the anticipation of being alone as well as greater negative and lower positive affect when alone. Despite this aversive experience of being alone, people with suicidal ideation reported negative appraisals about the value of recent and potential social interactions. These findings suggest that suicidal ideation in schizophrenia may not be associated with the quantity of social interactions, but with negative expectations about the quality of social interactions coupled with an aversive experience of being alone. Cognitive therapy interventions that address negative expectations and pleasure about social interactions, especially when alone, may reduce suicidal ideation. PMID:26948502

  1. Information flow between interacting human brains: Identification, validation, and relationship to social expertise.

    PubMed

    Bilek, Edda; Ruf, Matthias; Schäfer, Axel; Akdeniz, Ceren; Calhoun, Vince D; Schmahl, Christian; Demanuele, Charmaine; Tost, Heike; Kirsch, Peter; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas

    2015-04-21

    Social interactions are fundamental for human behavior, but the quantification of their neural underpinnings remains challenging. Here, we used hyperscanning functional MRI (fMRI) to study information flow between brains of human dyads during real-time social interaction in a joint attention paradigm. In a hardware setup enabling immersive audiovisual interaction of subjects in linked fMRI scanners, we characterize cross-brain connectivity components that are unique to interacting individuals, identifying information flow between the sender's and receiver's temporoparietal junction. We replicate these findings in an independent sample and validate our methods by demonstrating that cross-brain connectivity relates to a key real-world measure of social behavior. Together, our findings support a central role of human-specific cortical areas in the brain dynamics of dyadic interactions and provide an approach for the noninvasive examination of the neural basis of healthy and disturbed human social behavior with minimal a priori assumptions.

  2. Strategies To Increase Interaction in Online Social Learning Environments.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tu, Chih-Hsiung

    This study was designed to examine social presence, to determine how it relates to online interaction, and to provide an operational definition. Participants were students in a graduate level course on the Internet for teachers at Arizona State University. By examining the learner's perception of social presence in three CMC (Computer Mediated…

  3. Comparing short forms of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

    PubMed

    Carleton, R Nicholas; Thibodeau, Michel A; Weeks, Justin W; Teale Sapach, Michelle J N; McEvoy, Peter M; Horswill, Samantha C; Heimberg, Richard G

    2014-12-01

    The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS; Mattick & Clarke, 1998) are companion scales developed to measure anxiety in social interaction and performance situations, respectively. The measures have strong discriminant and convergent validity; however, their factor structures remain debated, and furthermore, the combined administration length (i.e., 39 items) can be prohibitive for some settings. There have been 4 attempts to assess the factor structures of the scales and reduce the item content: the 14-item Social Interaction Phobia Scale (SIPS; Carleton et al., 2009), the 12-item SIAS-6/SPS-6 (Peters, Sunderland, Andrews, Rapee, & Mattick, 2012), the 21-item abbreviated SIAS/SPS (ASIAS/ASPS; Kupper & Denollet, 2012), and the 12-item Readability SIAS and SPS (RSIAS/RSPS; Fergus, Valentiner, McGrath, Gier-Lonsway, & Kim, 2012). The current study compared the short forms on (a) factor structure, (b) ability to distinguish between clinical and non-clinical populations, (c) sensitivity to change following therapy, and (d) convergent validity with related measures. Participants included 3,607 undergraduate students (55% women) and 283 patients with social anxiety disorder (43% women). Results of confirmatory factor analyses, sensitivity analyses, and correlation analyses support the robust utility of items in the SIPS and the SPS-6 and SIAS-6 relative to the other short forms; furthermore, the SIPS and the SPS-6 and SIAS-6 were also supported by convergent validity analyses within the undergraduate sample. The RSIAS/RSPS and the ASIAS/ASPS were least supported, based on the current results and the principle of parsimony. Accordingly, researchers and clinicians should consider carefully which of the short forms will best suit their needs. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  4. Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers.

    PubMed

    Logel, Christine; Walton, Gregory M; Spencer, Steven J; Iserman, Emma C; von Hippel, William; Bell, Amy E

    2009-06-01

    Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person's many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women's performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women's underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women's performance in school and at work.

  5. Lateralized interactive social content and valence processing within the human amygdala

    PubMed Central

    Vrtička, Pascal; Sander, David; Vuilleumier, Patrik

    2013-01-01

    In the past, the amygdala has generally been conceptualized as a fear-processing module. Recently, however, it has been proposed to respond to all stimuli that are relevant with respect to the current needs, goals, and values of an individual. This raises the question of whether the human amygdala may differentiate between separate kinds of relevance. A distinction between emotional (vs. neutral) and social (vs. non-social) relevance is supported by previous studies showing that the human amygdala preferentially responds to both emotionally and socially significant information, and these factors might even display interactive encoding properties. However, no investigation has yet probed a full 2 (positive vs. negative valence) × 2 (social vs. non-social content) processing pattern, with neutral images as an additional baseline. Applying such an extended orthogonal factorial design, our fMRI study demonstrates that the human amygdala is (1) more strongly activated for neutral social vs. non-social information, (2) activated at a similar level when viewing social positive or negative images, but (3) displays a valence effect (negative vs. positive) for non-social images. In addition, this encoding pattern is not influenced by cognitive or behavioral emotion regulation mechanisms, and displays a hemispheric lateralization with more pronounced effects on the right side. Finally, the same valence × social content interaction was found in three additional cortical regions, namely the right fusiform gyrus, right anterior superior temporal gyrus, and medial orbitofrontal cortex. Overall, these findings suggest that valence and social content processing represent distinct kinds of relevance that interact within the human amygdala as well as in a more extensive cortical network, likely subserving a key role in relevance detection. PMID:23346054

  6. A test of the social cohesion hypothesis: interactive female marmots remain at home.

    PubMed

    Blumstein, Daniel T; Wey, Tina W; Tang, Karisa

    2009-08-22

    Individuals frequently leave home before reaching reproductive age, but the proximate causes of natal dispersal remain relatively unknown. The social cohesion hypothesis predicts that individuals who engage in more (affiliative) interactions are less likely to disperse. Despite the intuitive nature of this hypothesis, support is both limited and equivocal. We used formal social network analyses to quantify precisely both direct and indirect measures of social cohesion in yellow-bellied marmots. Because approximately 50 per cent of female yearlings disperse, we expected that social relationships and network measures of cohesion would predict dispersal. By contrast, because most male yearlings disperse, we expected that social relationships and cohesion would play a less important role. We found that female yearlings that interacted with more individuals, and those that were more socially embedded in their groups, were less likely to disperse. For males, social interactions were relatively unimportant determinants of dispersal. This is the first strong support for the social cohesion hypothesis and suggests that the specific nature of social relationships, not simply the number of affiliative relationships, may influence the propensity to disperse.

  7. A test of the social cohesion hypothesis: interactive female marmots remain at home

    PubMed Central

    Blumstein, Daniel T.; Wey, Tina W.; Tang, Karisa

    2009-01-01

    Individuals frequently leave home before reaching reproductive age, but the proximate causes of natal dispersal remain relatively unknown. The social cohesion hypothesis predicts that individuals who engage in more (affiliative) interactions are less likely to disperse. Despite the intuitive nature of this hypothesis, support is both limited and equivocal. We used formal social network analyses to quantify precisely both direct and indirect measures of social cohesion in yellow-bellied marmots. Because approximately 50 per cent of female yearlings disperse, we expected that social relationships and network measures of cohesion would predict dispersal. By contrast, because most male yearlings disperse, we expected that social relationships and cohesion would play a less important role. We found that female yearlings that interacted with more individuals, and those that were more socially embedded in their groups, were less likely to disperse. For males, social interactions were relatively unimportant determinants of dispersal. This is the first strong support for the social cohesion hypothesis and suggests that the specific nature of social relationships, not simply the number of affiliative relationships, may influence the propensity to disperse. PMID:19493901

  8. Social instability stress in adolescence increases anxiety and reduces social interactions in adulthood in male Long-Evans rats.

    PubMed

    Green, Matthew R; Barnes, Brittany; McCormick, Cheryl M

    2013-12-01

    We investigated the effects of social instability stress (daily 1-hr isolation, change of cage partner, postnatal day 30-45) in adolescence in male rats on open field exploration and social behavior in adulthood. Social stressed rats had longer latencies to enter the center of an open field and then took longer to approach an object placed in the center of the field. When another rat was placed in the open field, stressed rats spent less time in social interaction than control rats, particularly when paired with another stressed, rather than a control, rat. The groups did not differ in social approach tests (when a stimulus rat was separated by wire mesh) nor in novel object exploration (when controlling for open field anxiety). The results suggest social stress in adolescence increases open field anxiety while maintaining exploratory behavior, and alters social interactions in adulthood. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  9. How Abnormal Is the Behaviour of Captive, Zoo-Living Chimpanzees?

    PubMed Central

    Birkett, Lucy P.; Newton-Fisher, Nicholas E.

    2011-01-01

    Background Many captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show a variety of serious behavioural abnormalities, some of which have been considered as possible signs of compromised mental health. The provision of environmental enrichments aimed at reducing the performance of abnormal behaviours is increasing the norm, with the housing of individuals in (semi-)natural social groups thought to be the most successful of these. Only a few quantitative studies of abnormal behaviour have been conducted, however, particularly for the captive population held in zoological collections. Consequently, a clear picture of the level of abnormal behaviour in zoo-living chimpanzees is lacking. Methods We present preliminary findings from a detailed observational study of the behaviour of 40 socially-housed zoo-living chimpanzees from six collections in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. We determined the prevalence, diversity, frequency, and duration of abnormal behaviour from 1200 hours of continuous behavioural data collected by focal animal sampling. Results, Conclusion and Significance Our overall finding was that abnormal behaviour was present in all sampled individuals across six independent groups of zoo-living chimpanzees, despite the differences between these groups in size, composition, housing, etc. We found substantial variation between individuals in the frequency and duration of abnormal behaviour, but all individuals engaged in at least some abnormal behaviour and variation across individuals could not be explained by sex, age, rearing history or background (defined as prior housing conditions). Our data support a conclusion that, while most behaviour of zoo-living chimpanzees is ‘normal’ in that it is typical of their wild counterparts, abnormal behaviour is endemic in this population despite enrichment efforts. We suggest there is an urgent need to understand how the chimpanzee mind copes with captivity, an issue with both scientific and welfare

  10. How abnormal is the behaviour of captive, zoo-living chimpanzees?

    PubMed

    Birkett, Lucy P; Newton-Fisher, Nicholas E

    2011-01-01

    Many captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) show a variety of serious behavioural abnormalities, some of which have been considered as possible signs of compromised mental health. The provision of environmental enrichments aimed at reducing the performance of abnormal behaviours is increasing the norm, with the housing of individuals in (semi-)natural social groups thought to be the most successful of these. Only a few quantitative studies of abnormal behaviour have been conducted, however, particularly for the captive population held in zoological collections. Consequently, a clear picture of the level of abnormal behaviour in zoo-living chimpanzees is lacking. We present preliminary findings from a detailed observational study of the behaviour of 40 socially-housed zoo-living chimpanzees from six collections in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. We determined the prevalence, diversity, frequency, and duration of abnormal behaviour from 1200 hours of continuous behavioural data collected by focal animal sampling. Our overall finding was that abnormal behaviour was present in all sampled individuals across six independent groups of zoo-living chimpanzees, despite the differences between these groups in size, composition, housing, etc. We found substantial variation between individuals in the frequency and duration of abnormal behaviour, but all individuals engaged in at least some abnormal behaviour and variation across individuals could not be explained by sex, age, rearing history or background (defined as prior housing conditions). Our data support a conclusion that, while most behaviour of zoo-living chimpanzees is 'normal' in that it is typical of their wild counterparts, abnormal behaviour is endemic in this population despite enrichment efforts. We suggest there is an urgent need to understand how the chimpanzee mind copes with captivity, an issue with both scientific and welfare implications.

  11. Developing the Second Language Writing Process through Social Media-Based Interaction Tasks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gómez, Julian Esteban Zapata

    2015-01-01

    This paper depicts the results from a qualitative research study focused on finding out the effect of interaction through social media on the development of second language learners' written production from a private school in Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia. The study was framed within concepts such as "social interaction," "digital…

  12. Information flow between interacting human brains: Identification, validation, and relationship to social expertise

    PubMed Central

    Bilek, Edda; Ruf, Matthias; Schäfer, Axel; Akdeniz, Ceren; Calhoun, Vince D.; Schmahl, Christian; Demanuele, Charmaine; Tost, Heike; Kirsch, Peter; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas

    2015-01-01

    Social interactions are fundamental for human behavior, but the quantification of their neural underpinnings remains challenging. Here, we used hyperscanning functional MRI (fMRI) to study information flow between brains of human dyads during real-time social interaction in a joint attention paradigm. In a hardware setup enabling immersive audiovisual interaction of subjects in linked fMRI scanners, we characterize cross-brain connectivity components that are unique to interacting individuals, identifying information flow between the sender’s and receiver’s temporoparietal junction. We replicate these findings in an independent sample and validate our methods by demonstrating that cross-brain connectivity relates to a key real-world measure of social behavior. Together, our findings support a central role of human-specific cortical areas in the brain dynamics of dyadic interactions and provide an approach for the noninvasive examination of the neural basis of healthy and disturbed human social behavior with minimal a priori assumptions. PMID:25848050

  13. Collective states in social systems with interacting learning agents

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Semeshenko, Viktoriya; Gordon, Mirta B.; Nadal, Jean-Pierre

    2008-08-01

    We study the implications of social interactions and individual learning features on consumer demand in a simple market model. We consider a social system of interacting heterogeneous agents with learning abilities. Given a fixed price, agents repeatedly decide whether or not to buy a unit of a good, so as to maximize their expected utilities. This model is close to Random Field Ising Models, where the random field corresponds to the idiosyncratic willingness to pay. We show that the equilibrium reached depends on the nature of the information agents use to estimate their expected utilities. It may be different from the systems’ Nash equilibria.

  14. Measuring neural and behavioral activity during ongoing computerized social interactions: an examination of event-related brain potentials.

    PubMed

    Themanson, Jason R

    2014-11-15

    Social exclusion is a complex social phenomenon with powerful negative consequences. Given the impact of social exclusion on mental and emotional health, an understanding of how perceptions of social exclusion develop over the course of a social interaction is important for advancing treatments aimed at lessening the harmful costs of being excluded. To date, most scientific examinations of social exclusion have looked at exclusion after a social interaction has been completed. While this has been very helpful in developing an understanding of what happens to a person following exclusion, it has not helped to clarify the moment-to-moment dynamics of the process of social exclusion. Accordingly, the current protocol was developed to obtain an improved understanding of social exclusion by examining the patterns of event-related brain activation that are present during social interactions. This protocol allows greater precision and sensitivity in detailing the social processes that lead people to feel as though they have been excluded from a social interaction. Importantly, the current protocol can be adapted to include research projects that vary the nature of exclusionary social interactions by altering how frequently participants are included, how long the periods of exclusion will last in each interaction, and when exclusion will take place during the social interactions. Further, the current protocol can be used to examine variables and constructs beyond those related to social exclusion. This capability to address a variety of applications across psychology by obtaining both neural and behavioral data during ongoing social interactions suggests the present protocol could be at the core of a developing area of scientific inquiry related to social interactions.

  15. Reciprocal and Complementary Sibling Interactions: Relations with Socialization Outcomes in the Kindergarten Classroom

    PubMed Central

    Harrist, Amanda W.; Achacoso, Joseph A.; John, Aesha; Pettit, Gregory S.; Bates, John E.; Dodge, Kenneth A.

    2013-01-01

    Research Findings To examine associations between sibling interaction patterns and later social outcomes in single- and two-parent families, 113 kindergarteners took part in naturalistic observations at home with siblings, classmates participated in sociometric interviews, and teachers completed behavior ratings. Sibling interactions were coded using a newly-developed 39-item checklist, and proportions of complementary and reciprocal sibling interactions computed. Complementarity occurred more among dyads where kindergartners were with toddler or infant siblings than among kindergartners with older or near-age younger siblings. Higher levels of complementarity predicted lower levels of internalizing but were not related to externalizing problems. Kindergartners’ sociometric status in the classroom differed as a function of sibling interaction patterns, with neglected and controversial children experiencing less complementarity/more reciprocity than popular, average, and rejected children. Finally, there was some evidence for differential associations of sibling interaction patterns with social outcomes for children in single- versus two-parent families: regressions testing interaction effects show sibling reciprocity positively associated with kindergartners’ social skills only in single-parent families, and complementary sibling interactions positively related to internalizing problems only in two-parent families. Implications for Practice Those working with divorcing or other single-parent families might consider sibling interactions as a potential target for social skill building. PMID:26005311

  16. The two-brain approach: how can mutually interacting brains teach us something about social interaction?

    PubMed Central

    Konvalinka, Ivana; Roepstorff, Andreas

    2012-01-01

    Measuring brain activity simultaneously from two people interacting is intuitively appealing if one is interested in putative neural markers of social interaction. However, given the complex nature of interactions, it has proven difficult to carry out two-person brain imaging experiments in a methodologically feasible and conceptually relevant way. Only a small number of recent studies have put this into practice, using fMRI, EEG, or NIRS. Here, we review two main two-brain methodological approaches, each with two conceptual strategies. The first group has employed two-brain fMRI recordings, studying (1) turn-based interactions on the order of seconds, or (2) pseudo-interactive scenarios, where only one person is scanned at a time, investigating the flow of information between brains. The second group of studies has recorded dual EEG/NIRS from two people interacting, in (1) face-to-face turn-based interactions, investigating functional connectivity between theory-of-mind regions of interacting partners, or in (2) continuous mutual interactions on millisecond timescales, to measure coupling between the activity in one person's brain and the activity in the other's brain. We discuss the questions these approaches have addressed, and consider scenarios when simultaneous two-brain recordings are needed. Furthermore, we suggest that (1) quantification of inter-personal neural effects via measures of emergence, and (2) multivariate decoding models that generalize source-specific features of interaction, may provide novel tools to study brains in interaction. This may allow for a better understanding of social cognition as both representation and participation. PMID:22837744

  17. Exploring the Peer Interaction Effects on Learning Achievement in a Social Learning Platform Based on Social Network Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Yu-Tzu; Chen, Ming-Puu; Chang, Chia-Hu; Chang, Pu-Chen

    2017-01-01

    The benefits of social learning have been recognized by existing research. To explore knowledge distribution in social learning and its effects on learning achievement, we developed a social learning platform and explored students' behaviors of peer interactions by the proposed algorithms based on social network analysis. An empirical study was…

  18. Brain-Computer Interfaces: A Neuroscience Paradigm of Social Interaction? A Matter of Perspective

    PubMed Central

    Mattout, Jérémie

    2012-01-01

    A number of recent studies have put human subjects in true social interactions, with the aim of better identifying the psychophysiological processes underlying social cognition. Interestingly, this emerging Neuroscience of Social Interactions (NSI) field brings up challenges which resemble important ones in the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). Importantly, these challenges go beyond common objectives such as the eventual use of BCI and NSI protocols in the clinical domain or common interests pertaining to the use of online neurophysiological techniques and algorithms. Common fundamental challenges are now apparent and one can argue that a crucial one is to develop computational models of brain processes relevant to human interactions with an adaptive agent, whether human or artificial. Coupled with neuroimaging data, such models have proved promising in revealing the neural basis and mental processes behind social interactions. Similar models could help BCI to move from well-performing but offline static machines to reliable online adaptive agents. This emphasizes a social perspective to BCI, which is not limited to a computational challenge but extends to all questions that arise when studying the brain in interaction with its environment. PMID:22675291

  19. Brain regions associated with the acquisition of conditioned place preference for cocaine vs. social interaction.

    PubMed

    El Rawas, Rana; Klement, Sabine; Kummer, Kai K; Fritz, Michael; Dechant, Georg; Saria, Alois; Zernig, Gerald

    2012-01-01

    Positive social interaction could play an essential role in switching the preference of the substance dependent individual away from drug related activities. We have previously shown that conditioned place preference (CPP) for cocaine at the dose of 15 mg/kg and CPP for four 15-min episodes of social interaction were equally strong when rats were concurrently conditioned for place preference by pairing cocaine with one compartment and social interaction with the other. The aim of the present study was to investigate the differential activation of brain regions related to the reward circuitry after acquisition/expression of cocaine CPP or social interaction CPP. Our findings indicate that cocaine CPP and social interaction CPP activated almost the same brain regions. However, the granular insular cortex and the dorsal part of the agranular insular cortex were more activated after cocaine CPP, whereas the prelimbic cortex and the core subregion of the nucleus accumbens were more activated after social interaction CPP. These results suggest that the insular cortex appears to be potently activated after drug conditioning learning while activation of the prelimbic cortex-nucleus accumbens core projection seems to be preferentially involved in the conditioning to non-drug stimuli such as social interaction.

  20. Brain regions associated with the acquisition of conditioned place preference for cocaine vs. social interaction

    PubMed Central

    El Rawas, Rana; Klement, Sabine; Kummer, Kai K.; Fritz, Michael; Dechant, Georg; Saria, Alois; Zernig, Gerald

    2012-01-01

    Positive social interaction could play an essential role in switching the preference of the substance dependent individual away from drug related activities. We have previously shown that conditioned place preference (CPP) for cocaine at the dose of 15 mg/kg and CPP for four 15-min episodes of social interaction were equally strong when rats were concurrently conditioned for place preference by pairing cocaine with one compartment and social interaction with the other. The aim of the present study was to investigate the differential activation of brain regions related to the reward circuitry after acquisition/expression of cocaine CPP or social interaction CPP. Our findings indicate that cocaine CPP and social interaction CPP activated almost the same brain regions. However, the granular insular cortex and the dorsal part of the agranular insular cortex were more activated after cocaine CPP, whereas the prelimbic cortex and the core subregion of the nucleus accumbens were more activated after social interaction CPP. These results suggest that the insular cortex appears to be potently activated after drug conditioning learning while activation of the prelimbic cortex—nucleus accumbens core projection seems to be preferentially involved in the conditioning to non-drug stimuli such as social interaction. PMID:23015784

  1. The Dutch Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale: Reliability, Validity, and Clinical Utility

    PubMed Central

    Tielen, Deirdre; Wollmann, Lisa

    2014-01-01

    The social interaction anxiety scale (SIAS) and the social phobia scale (SPS) assess anxiety in social interactions and fear of scrutiny by others. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Dutch versions of the SIAS and SPS using data from a large group of patients with social phobia and a community-based sample. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the SIAS is unidimensional, whereas the SPS is comprised of three subscales. The internal consistency of the scales and subscales was good. The concurrent and discriminant validity was supported and the scales were well able to discriminate between patients and community-based respondents. Cut-off values with excellent sensitivity and specificity are presented. Of all self-report measures included, the SPS was the most sensitive for treatment effects. Normative data are provided which can be used to assess whether clinically significant change has occurred in individual patients. PMID:24701560

  2. The dutch social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale: reliability, validity, and clinical utility.

    PubMed

    de Beurs, Edwin; Tielen, Deirdre; Wollmann, Lisa

    2014-01-01

    The social interaction anxiety scale (SIAS) and the social phobia scale (SPS) assess anxiety in social interactions and fear of scrutiny by others. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Dutch versions of the SIAS and SPS using data from a large group of patients with social phobia and a community-based sample. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the SIAS is unidimensional, whereas the SPS is comprised of three subscales. The internal consistency of the scales and subscales was good. The concurrent and discriminant validity was supported and the scales were well able to discriminate between patients and community-based respondents. Cut-off values with excellent sensitivity and specificity are presented. Of all self-report measures included, the SPS was the most sensitive for treatment effects. Normative data are provided which can be used to assess whether clinically significant change has occurred in individual patients.

  3. Social Interaction Development through Immersive Virtual Environments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beach, Jason; Wendt, Jeremy

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if participants could improve their social interaction skills by participating in a virtual immersive environment. The participants used a developing virtual reality head-mounted display to engage themselves in a fully-immersive environment. While in the environment, participants had an opportunity…

  4. Human agency beliefs influence behaviour during virtual social interactions

    PubMed Central

    Brock, Jon

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, with the emergence of relatively inexpensive and accessible virtual reality technologies, it is now possible to deliver compelling and realistic simulations of human-to-human interaction. Neuroimaging studies have shown that, when participants believe they are interacting via a virtual interface with another human agent, they show different patterns of brain activity compared to when they know that their virtual partner is computer-controlled. The suggestion is that users adopt an “intentional stance” by attributing mental states to their virtual partner. However, it remains unclear how beliefs in the agency of a virtual partner influence participants’ behaviour and subjective experience of the interaction. We investigated this issue in the context of a cooperative “joint attention” game in which participants interacted via an eye tracker with a virtual onscreen partner, directing each other’s eye gaze to different screen locations. Half of the participants were correctly informed that their partner was controlled by a computer algorithm (“Computer” condition). The other half were misled into believing that the virtual character was controlled by a second participant in another room (“Human” condition). Those in the “Human” condition were slower to make eye contact with their partner and more likely to try and guide their partner before they had established mutual eye contact than participants in the “Computer” condition. They also responded more rapidly when their partner was guiding them, although the same effect was also found for a control condition in which they responded to an arrow cue. Results confirm the influence of human agency beliefs on behaviour in this virtual social interaction context. They further suggest that researchers and developers attempting to simulate social interactions should consider the impact of agency beliefs on user experience in other social contexts, and their effect on the achievement

  5. Human agency beliefs influence behaviour during virtual social interactions.

    PubMed

    Caruana, Nathan; Spirou, Dean; Brock, Jon

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, with the emergence of relatively inexpensive and accessible virtual reality technologies, it is now possible to deliver compelling and realistic simulations of human-to-human interaction. Neuroimaging studies have shown that, when participants believe they are interacting via a virtual interface with another human agent, they show different patterns of brain activity compared to when they know that their virtual partner is computer-controlled. The suggestion is that users adopt an "intentional stance" by attributing mental states to their virtual partner. However, it remains unclear how beliefs in the agency of a virtual partner influence participants' behaviour and subjective experience of the interaction. We investigated this issue in the context of a cooperative "joint attention" game in which participants interacted via an eye tracker with a virtual onscreen partner, directing each other's eye gaze to different screen locations. Half of the participants were correctly informed that their partner was controlled by a computer algorithm ("Computer" condition). The other half were misled into believing that the virtual character was controlled by a second participant in another room ("Human" condition). Those in the "Human" condition were slower to make eye contact with their partner and more likely to try and guide their partner before they had established mutual eye contact than participants in the "Computer" condition. They also responded more rapidly when their partner was guiding them, although the same effect was also found for a control condition in which they responded to an arrow cue. Results confirm the influence of human agency beliefs on behaviour in this virtual social interaction context. They further suggest that researchers and developers attempting to simulate social interactions should consider the impact of agency beliefs on user experience in other social contexts, and their effect on the achievement of the application's goals.

  6. Ghost-in-the-Machine reveals human social signals for human-robot interaction.

    PubMed

    Loth, Sebastian; Jettka, Katharina; Giuliani, Manuel; de Ruiter, Jan P

    2015-01-01

    We used a new method called "Ghost-in-the-Machine" (GiM) to investigate social interactions with a robotic bartender taking orders for drinks and serving them. Using the GiM paradigm allowed us to identify how human participants recognize the intentions of customers on the basis of the output of the robotic recognizers. Specifically, we measured which recognizer modalities (e.g., speech, the distance to the bar) were relevant at different stages of the interaction. This provided insights into human social behavior necessary for the development of socially competent robots. When initiating the drink-order interaction, the most important recognizers were those based on computer vision. When drink orders were being placed, however, the most important information source was the speech recognition. Interestingly, the participants used only a subset of the available information, focussing only on a few relevant recognizers while ignoring others. This reduced the risk of acting on erroneous sensor data and enabled them to complete service interactions more swiftly than a robot using all available sensor data. We also investigated socially appropriate response strategies. In their responses, the participants preferred to use the same modality as the customer's requests, e.g., they tended to respond verbally to verbal requests. Also, they added redundancy to their responses, for instance by using echo questions. We argue that incorporating the social strategies discovered with the GiM paradigm in multimodal grammars of human-robot interactions improves the robustness and the ease-of-use of these interactions, and therefore provides a smoother user experience.

  7. Ghost-in-the-Machine reveals human social signals for human–robot interaction

    PubMed Central

    Loth, Sebastian; Jettka, Katharina; Giuliani, Manuel; de Ruiter, Jan P.

    2015-01-01

    We used a new method called “Ghost-in-the-Machine” (GiM) to investigate social interactions with a robotic bartender taking orders for drinks and serving them. Using the GiM paradigm allowed us to identify how human participants recognize the intentions of customers on the basis of the output of the robotic recognizers. Specifically, we measured which recognizer modalities (e.g., speech, the distance to the bar) were relevant at different stages of the interaction. This provided insights into human social behavior necessary for the development of socially competent robots. When initiating the drink-order interaction, the most important recognizers were those based on computer vision. When drink orders were being placed, however, the most important information source was the speech recognition. Interestingly, the participants used only a subset of the available information, focussing only on a few relevant recognizers while ignoring others. This reduced the risk of acting on erroneous sensor data and enabled them to complete service interactions more swiftly than a robot using all available sensor data. We also investigated socially appropriate response strategies. In their responses, the participants preferred to use the same modality as the customer’s requests, e.g., they tended to respond verbally to verbal requests. Also, they added redundancy to their responses, for instance by using echo questions. We argue that incorporating the social strategies discovered with the GiM paradigm in multimodal grammars of human–robot interactions improves the robustness and the ease-of-use of these interactions, and therefore provides a smoother user experience. PMID:26582998

  8. Conspecific Interactions in Adult Laboratory Rodents: Friends or Foes?

    PubMed

    Lukas, Michael; de Jong, Trynke R

    2017-01-01

    Interactions between adult conspecifics, including sexual behaviors, affiliation, and aggression are crucial for the well-being, survival, and reproduction of mammals. This holds true for any mammalian species, but certainly for humans: An inability to optimally navigate the social system can have a strong negative impact on physical and mental health. Translational rodent models have been used for decades to unravel the neural pathways and substrates involved in normal and abnormal conspecific interactions. Researchers in the field of translational social neuroscience face a double challenge: Not only do they need to pay considerable attention to the behavioral ecology of their model species or their ancestors, they also have to expect a relatively large variability in behavior and adjust their experimental design accordingly. In this chapter, we will lay out traditional and novel rodent models and paradigms to study sexual, affiliative, and aggressive interactions among adult conspecifics. We will discuss the merits and main findings and briefly consider the most promising novel directions. Finally, we review the modulatory involvement of two major players in mammal social interaction: the central oxytocin and vasopressin system.

  9. The Dynamic Reactance Interaction - How Vested Interests Affect People's Experience, Behavior, and Cognition in Social Interactions.

    PubMed

    Steindl, Christina; Jonas, Eva

    2015-01-01

    In social interactions, individuals may sometimes pursue their own interests at the expense of their interaction partner. Such self-interested behaviors impose a threat to the interaction partner's freedom to act. The current article investigates this threat in the context of interdependence and reactance theory. We explore how vested interests influence reactance process stages of an advisor-client interaction. We aim to explore the interactional process that evolves. In two studies, participants took the perspective of a doctor (advisor) or a patient (client). In both studies we incorporated a vested interest. In Study 1 (N = 82) we found that in response to a vested interest of their interaction partner, patients indicated a stronger experience of reactance, more aggressive behavioral intentions, and more biased cognitions than doctors. A serial multiple mediation revealed that a vested interest engendered mistrust toward the interaction partner and this mistrust led to an emerging reactance process. Study 2 (N = 207) further demonstrated that doctors expressed their reactance in a subtle way: they revealed a classic confirmation bias when searching for additional information on their preliminary decision preference, indicating stronger defense motivation. We discuss how these findings can help us to understand how social interactions develop dynamically.

  10. Neural correlates of non-verbal social interactions: a dual-EEG study.

    PubMed

    Ménoret, Mathilde; Varnet, Léo; Fargier, Raphaël; Cheylus, Anne; Curie, Aurore; des Portes, Vincent; Nazir, Tatjana A; Paulignan, Yves

    2014-03-01

    Successful non-verbal social interaction between human beings requires dynamic and efficient encoding of others' gestures. Our study aimed at identifying neural markers of social interaction and goal variations in a non-verbal task. For this, we recorded simultaneously the electroencephalogram from two participants (dual-EEG), an actor and an observer, and their arm/hand kinematics in a real face-to-face paradigm. The observer watched "biological actions" performed by the human actor and "non-biological actions" performed by a robot. All actions occurred within an interactive or non-interactive context depending on whether the observer had to perform a complementary action or not (e.g., the actor presents a saucer and the observer either places the corresponding cup or does nothing). We analysed the EEG signals of both participants (i.e., beta (~20 Hz) oscillations as an index of cortical motor activity and motor related potentials (MRPs)). We identified markers of social interactions by synchronising EEG to the onset of the actor's movement. Movement kinematics did not differ in the two context conditions and the MRPs of the actor were similar in the two conditions. For the observer, however, an observation-related MRP was measured in all conditions but was more negative in the interactive context over fronto-central electrodes. Moreover, this feature was specific to biological actions. Concurrently, the suppression of beta oscillations was observed in the actor's EEG and the observer's EEG rapidly after the onset of the actor's movement. Critically, this suppression was stronger in the interactive than in the non-interactive context despite the fact that movement kinematics did not differ in the two context conditions. For the observer, this modulation was observed independently of whether the actor was a human or a robot. Our results suggest that acting in a social context induced analogous modulations of motor and sensorimotor regions in observer and actor

  11. Transdiagnostic psychiatric symptoms related to visual evoked potential abnormalities.

    PubMed

    Bedwell, Jeffrey S; Butler, Pamela D; Chan, Chi C; Trachik, Benjamin J

    2015-12-15

    Visual processing abnormalities have been reported across a range of psychotic and mood disorders, but are typically examined within a particular disorder. The current study used a novel transdiagnostic approach to examine diagnostic classes, clinician-rated current symptoms, and self-reported personality traits in relation to visual processing abnormalities. We examined transient visual-evoked potentials (VEPs) from 48 adults (56% female), representing a wide range of psychotic and mood disorders, as well as individuals with no history of psychiatric disorder. Stimuli were low contrast check arrays presented on green and red backgrounds. Pairwise comparisons between individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD), chronic mood disorders (CMD), and nonpsychiatric controls (NC) revealed no overall differences for either P1 or N1 amplitude. However, there was a significant interaction with the color background in which the NC group showed a significant increase in P1 amplitude to the red, vs. green, background, while the SSD group showed no change. This was related to an increase in social anhedonia and general negative symptoms. Stepwise regressions across the entire sample revealed that individuals with greater apathy and/or eccentric behavior had a reduced P1 amplitude. These relationships provide clues for uncovering the underlying causal pathology for these transdiagnostic symptoms. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. The Effectiveness of Using a Social Story Intervention to Improve Social Interaction Skills of Students with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al zyoudi, Mohammed; Al Murhairi, Oshua; Sartaiwi, AbedAlziz; Olimat, Enas; Al zyoudi, Abedsalm

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a social story intervention to improve social interaction skills in three students with autism aged between 7-8 years. A multiple-baseline-across participants design was used. To achieve the purpose of the study, the social stories were implemented. The intervention included reading…

  13. Infant Twins’ Social Interactions with Caregivers and Same-Age Siblings

    PubMed Central

    Aldrich, Naomi J.; Brooks, Patricia J.; Yuksel-Sokmen, P. Ozlem; Ragir, Sonia; Flory, Michael J.; Lennon, Elizabeth M.; Karmel, Bernard Z.; Gardner, Judith M.

    2015-01-01

    The study of twin behavior offers the opportunity to study differential patterns of social and communicative interactions in a context where the adult partner and same-age peer are equally familiar. We investigated the development of social engagement, communicative gestures, and imitation in 7- to 25-month-old twins. Twin dyads (N = 20 pairs) participated in ten-minute, semi-structured play sessions, with the mother seated in a chair completing paperwork for half the session, and on the floor with her children for the other half. Overall, twins engaged more with their mothers than with their siblings: they showed objects and imitated speech and object use more frequently when interacting with their mothers than with their siblings. When the mother was otherwise engaged, the twins played with toys separately, observed each other’s toy play, or were unengaged. These results demonstrate that adult scaffolding of social interactions supports increased communicative bids even in a context where both familiar peers and adults are available as communicative partners. PMID:26476957

  14. Infant twins' social interactions with caregivers and same-age siblings.

    PubMed

    Aldrich, Naomi J; Brooks, Patricia J; Yuksel-Sokmen, P Ozlem; Ragir, Sonia; Flory, Michael J; Lennon, Elizabeth M; Karmel, Bernard Z; Gardner, Judith M

    2015-11-01

    The study of twin behavior offers the opportunity to study differential patterns of social and communicative interactions in a context where the adult partner and same-age peer are equally familiar. We investigated the development of social engagement, communicative gestures, and imitation in 7- to 25-month-old twins. Twin dyads (N=20 pairs) participated in 10-min, semi-structured play sessions, with the mother seated in a chair completing paperwork for half the session, and on the floor with her children for the other half. Overall, twins engaged more with their mothers than with their siblings: they showed objects and imitated speech and object use more frequently when interacting with their mothers than with their siblings. When the mother was otherwise engaged, the twins played with toys separately, observed each other's toy play, or were unengaged. These results demonstrate that adult scaffolding of social interactions supports increased communicative bids even in a context where both familiar peers and adults are available as communicative partners. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Marginal and mindful: deviants in social interactions.

    PubMed

    Frable, D E; Blackstone, T; Scherbaum, C

    1990-07-01

    Master status people's behavior, physical appearance, or life circumstance is statistically unusual and centrally defining (e.g., the physically attractive, the obese, the intellectually gifted, the facially scarred, the talented, the athletic, Blacks, gays, the wealthy, rape and incest victims). These individuals were paired with people without such conditions. Each pair was left alone on a pretext and covertly videotaped. Pairs were then separated; each member spontaneously recalled information about her partner and the experimental room and provided a record of her thoughts and feelings during the interaction. As hypothesized, all master status Ss were particularly likely to be mindful in social interactions; they recalled detailed information about the situation and often took their partner's perspective during the interaction. The positive or negative connotations of the master status conditions were irrelevant in predicting Ss cognitions (mindfulness) but were critical in determining Ss behaviors (interaction strategies).

  16. Using the Teaching Interactions Procedure to Teach Social Skills to Children With Autism and Intellectual Disability.

    PubMed

    Hui Shyuan Ng, Aubrey; Schulze, Kim; Rudrud, Eric; Leaf, Justin B

    2016-11-01

    This study implemented a modified teaching interaction procedure to teach social skills to 4 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder with an intellectual disability. A multiple baseline design across social skills and replicated across participants was utilized to evaluate the effects of the modified teaching interaction procedure. The results demonstrated that the teaching interaction procedure resulted in all participants acquiring targeted social skills, maintaining the targeted social skills, and generalizing the targeted social skills.

  17. Social Interaction and Stereotypic Responses to Homosexuals.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Farrell, Ronald A.; Morrione, Thomas J.

    This work focuses on the variations in societal responses perceived by male homosexuals in various group settings of interaction and on the relationship of these responses to their social status and related behavioral characteristics. Conclusions were based on the analysis of data collected from a sampling of 148 male homosexuals in and around a…

  18. Second Language Socialization through Team Interaction among Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vickers, Caroline H.

    2007-01-01

    This article, based on a longitudinal, ethnographic study among engineering students, examines the interactional processes surrounding second language (L2) socialization. L2 socialization perspectives argue that the cognitive and the social are interconnected, and that learning an L2 is a process of coming to understand socially constructed…

  19. Complex patterns of abnormal heartbeats

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schulte-Frohlinde, Verena; Ashkenazy, Yosef; Goldberger, Ary L.; Ivanov, Plamen Ch; Costa, Madalena; Morley-Davies, Adrian; Stanley, H. Eugene; Glass, Leon

    2002-01-01

    Individuals having frequent abnormal heartbeats interspersed with normal heartbeats may be at an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. However, mechanistic understanding of such cardiac arrhythmias is limited. We present a visual and qualitative method to display statistical properties of abnormal heartbeats. We introduce dynamical "heartprints" which reveal characteristic patterns in long clinical records encompassing approximately 10(5) heartbeats and may provide information about underlying mechanisms. We test if these dynamics can be reproduced by model simulations in which abnormal heartbeats are generated (i) randomly, (ii) at a fixed time interval following a preceding normal heartbeat, or (iii) by an independent oscillator that may or may not interact with the normal heartbeat. We compare the results of these three models and test their limitations to comprehensively simulate the statistical features of selected clinical records. This work introduces methods that can be used to test mathematical models of arrhythmogenesis and to develop a new understanding of underlying electrophysiologic mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmia.

  20. Selling Innovations Like Soap: The Interactive Systems Framework and Social Marketing.

    PubMed

    McAlindon, Kathryn

    2017-09-01

    Despite the popularity and noted utility of Wandersman and colleagues' (2008) Interactive Systems Framework, the literature currently provides a primary focus on delivery organizations' and supportive stakeholders' capacities and strategies to implement innovations, presenting a critical gap in understanding. Unfortunately, reflective of a larger void in community dissemination and implementation efforts, there is a more limited focus on the dissemination of innovations. This paper presents the social marketing literature as a supplement to the Prevention Synthesis and Translation System (PSTS), the system responsible for dissemination. The study and practice of innovation synthesis and translation is examined in the literature; and based on the conclusions drawn, social marketing theory is used to provide a systematic approach to improving dissemination within the Interactive Systems Framework. Specifically, three gaps related to the PSTS are identified in the literature that align with and can be filled using social marketing. Social marketing is defined and presented as a supplement by providing theory and practices, within a systems context, for effectively communicating and influencing change. By blending social marketing with the Interactive Systems Framework, the aim is to improve the understanding of strategic communication and its role in the effective dissemination, and subsequent implementation, of innovations. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

  1. War and peace: social interactions in infections

    PubMed Central

    Leggett, Helen C.; Brown, Sam P.; Reece, Sarah E.

    2014-01-01

    One of the most striking facts about parasites and microbial pathogens that has emerged in the fields of social evolution and disease ecology in the past few decades is that these simple organisms have complex social lives, indulging in a variety of cooperative, communicative and coordinated behaviours. These organisms have provided elegant experimental tests of the importance of relatedness, kin discrimination, cooperation and competition, in driving the evolution of social strategies. Here, we briefly review the social behaviours of parasites and microbial pathogens, including their contributions to virulence, and outline how inclusive fitness theory has helped to explain their evolution. We then take a mechanistically inspired ‘bottom-up’ approach, discussing how key aspects of the ways in which parasites and pathogens exploit hosts, namely public goods, mobile elements, phenotypic plasticity, spatial structure and multi-species interactions, contribute to the emergent properties of virulence and transmission. We argue that unravelling the complexities of within-host ecology is interesting in its own right, and also needs to be better incorporated into theoretical evolution studies if social behaviours are to be understood and used to control the spread and severity of infectious diseases. PMID:24686936

  2. Huntingtin Interacting Protein 1 mutations lead to abnormal hematopoiesis, spinal defects and cataracts.

    PubMed

    Oravecz-Wilson, Katherine I; Kiel, Mark J; Li, Lina; Rao, Dinesh S; Saint-Dic, Djenann; Kumar, Priti D; Provot, Melissa M; Hankenson, Kurt D; Reddy, Venkat N; Lieberman, Andrew P; Morrison, Sean J; Ross, Theodora S

    2004-04-15

    Huntingtin Interacting Protein 1 (HIP1) binds clathrin and AP2, is overexpressed in multiple human tumors, and transforms fibroblasts. The function of HIP1 is unknown although it is thought to play a fundamental role in clathrin trafficking. Gene-targeted Hip1-/- mice develop premature testicular degeneration and severe spinal deformities. Yet, although HIP1 is expressed in many tissues including the spleen and bone marrow and was part of a leukemogenic translocation, its role in hematopoiesis has not been examined. In this study we report that three different mutations of murine Hip1 lead to hematopoietic abnormalities reflected by diminished early progenitor frequencies and resistance to 5-FU-induced bone marrow toxicity. Two of the Hip1 mutant lines also display the previously described spinal defects. These observations indicate that, in addition to being required for the survival/proliferation of cancer cells and germline progenitors, HIP1 is also required for the survival/proliferation of diverse types of somatic cells, including hematopoietic progenitors.

  3. Improvement by methylphenidate and atomoxetine of social interaction deficits and recognition memory impairment in a mouse model of valproic acid-induced autism.

    PubMed

    Hara, Yuta; Ago, Yukio; Taruta, Atsuki; Katashiba, Keisuke; Hasebe, Shigeru; Takano, Erika; Onaka, Yusuke; Hashimoto, Hitoshi; Matsuda, Toshio; Takuma, Kazuhiro

    2016-09-01

    Rodents exposed prenatally to valproic acid (VPA) show autism-related behavioral abnormalities. We recently found that prenatal VPA exposure causes a reduction of dopaminergic activity in the prefrontal cortex of male, but not female, mice. This suggests that reduced prefrontal dopaminergic activity is associated with behavioral abnormalities in VPA-treated mice. In the present study, we examined whether the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs methylphenidate and atomoxetine (which increase dopamine release in the prefrontal cortex, but not striatum, in mice) could alleviate the behavioral abnormalities and changes in dendritic spine morphology induced by prenatal VPA exposure. We found that methylphenidate and atomoxetine increased prefrontal dopamine and noradrenaline release in VPA-treated mice. Acute treatment with methylphenidate or atomoxetine did not alleviate the social interaction deficits or recognition memory impairment in VPA-treated mice, while chronic treatment for 2 weeks did. Methylphenidate or atomoxetine for 2 weeks also improved the prenatal VPA-induced decrease in dendritic spine density in the prefrontal cortex. The effects of these drugs on behaviors and dendritic spine morphology were antagonized by concomitant treatment with the dopamine-D1 receptor antagonist SCH39166 or the dopamine-D2 receptor antagonist raclopride, but not by the α2 -adrenoceptor antagonist idazoxan. These findings suggest that chronic treatment with methylphenidate or atomoxetine improves abnormal behaviors and diminishes the reduction in spine density in VPA-treated mice via a prefrontal dopaminergic system-dependent mechanism. Autism Res 2016, 9: 926-939. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. Quantifying long-range correlations and 1/f patterns in a minimal experiment of social interaction

    PubMed Central

    Bedia, Manuel G.; Aguilera, Miguel; Gómez, Tomás; Larrode, David G.; Seron, Francisco

    2014-01-01

    In recent years, researchers in social cognition have found the “perceptual crossing paradigm” to be both a theoretical and practical advance toward meeting particular challenges. This paradigm has been used to analyze the type of interactive processes that emerge in minimal interactions and it has allowed progress toward understanding of the principles of social cognition processes. In this paper, we analyze whether some critical aspects of these interactions could not have been observed by previous studies. We consider alternative indicators that could complete, or even lead us to rethink, the current interpretation of the results obtained from both experimental and simulated modeling in the fields of social interactions and minimal perceptual crossing. In particular, we discuss the possibility that previous experiments have been analytically constrained to a short-term dynamic type of player response. Additionally, we propose the possibility of considering these experiments from a more suitable framework based on the use and analysis of long-range correlations and fractal dynamics. We will also reveal evidence supporting the idea that social interactions are deployed along many scales of activity. Specifically, we propose that the fractal structure of the interactions could be a more adequate framework to understand the type of social interaction patterns generated in a social engagement. PMID:25429277

  5. The social comfort of wearable technology and gestural interaction.

    PubMed

    Dunne, Lucy E; Profita, Halley; Zeagler, Clint; Clawson, James; Gilliland, Scott; Do, Ellen Yi-Luen; Budd, Jim

    2014-01-01

    The "wearability" of wearable technology addresses the factors that affect the degree of comfort the wearer experiences while wearing a device, including physical, psychological, and social aspects. While the physical and psychological aspects of wearing technology have been investigated since early in the development of the field of wearable computing, the social aspects of wearability have been less fully-explored. As wearable technology becomes increasingly common on the commercial market, social wearability is becoming an ever-more-important variable contributing to the success or failure of new products. Here we present an analysis of social aspects of wearability within the context of the greater understanding of wearability in wearable technology, and focus on selected theoretical frameworks for understanding how wearable products are perceived and evaluated in a social context. Qualitative results from a study of social acceptability of on-body interactions are presented as a case study of social wearability.

  6. Unsupportive social interactions and affective states: examining associations of two oxytocin-related polymorphisms.

    PubMed

    McInnis, Opal A; McQuaid, Robyn J; Matheson, Kimberly; Anisman, Hymie

    2017-01-01

    Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on oxytocin-related genes, specifically the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) rs53576 and the CD38 rs3796863 variants, have been associated with alterations in prosocial behaviors. A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate students (N = 476) to examine associations between the OXTR and CD38 polymorphisms and unsupportive social interactions and mood states. Results revealed no association between perceived levels of unsupportive social interactions and the OXTR polymorphism. However, A carriers of the CD38 polymorphism, a variant previously associated with elevated oxytocin, reported greater perceived peer unsupportive interactions compared to CC carriers. As expected, perceived unsupportive interactions from peers was associated with greater negative affect, which was moderated by the CD38 polymorphism. Specifically, this relation was stronger among CC carriers of the CD38 polymorphism (a variant thought to be linked to lower oxytocin). When examining whether the OXTR polymorphism moderated the relation between unsupportive social interactions from peers and negative affect there was a trend toward significance, however, this did not withstand multiple testing corrections. These findings are consistent with the perspective that a variant on an oxytocin polymorphism that may be tied to lower oxytocin is related to poor mood outcomes in association with negative social interactions. At the same time, having a genetic constitution presumed to be associated with higher oxytocin was related to increased perceptions of unsupportive social interactions. These seemingly paradoxical findings could be related to previous reports in which variants associated with prosocial behaviors were also tied to relatively more effective coping styles to deal with challenges.

  7. Physiological State Influences the Social Interactions of Two Honeybee Nest Mates

    PubMed Central

    Wright, Geraldine A.; Lillvis, Joshua L.; Bray, Helen J.; Mustard, Julie A.

    2012-01-01

    Physiological state profoundly influences the expression of the behaviour of individuals and can affect social interactions between animals. How physiological state influences food sharing and social behaviour in social insects is poorly understood. Here, we examined the social interactions and food sharing behaviour of honeybees with the aim of developing the honeybee as a model for understanding how an individual's state influences its social interactions. The state of individual honeybees was manipulated by either starving donor bees or feeding them sucrose or low doses of ethanol to examine how a change in hunger or inebriation state affected the social behaviours exhibited by two closely-related nestmates. Using a lab-based assay for measuring individual motor behaviour and social behaviour, we found that behaviours such as antennation, willingness to engage in trophallaxis, and mandible opening were affected by both hunger and ethanol intoxication. Inebriated bees were more likely to exhibit mandible opening, which may represent a form of aggression, than bees fed sucrose alone. However, intoxicated bees were as willing to engage in trophallaxis as the sucrose-fed bees. The effects of ethanol on social behaviors were dose-dependent, with higher doses of ethanol producing larger effects on behaviour. Hungry donor bees, on the other hand, were more likely to engage in begging for food and less likely to antennate and to display mandible opening. We also found that when nestmates received food from donors previously fed ethanol, they began to display evidence of inebriation, indicating that ethanol can be retained in the crop for several hours and that it can be transferred between honeybee nestmates during trophallaxis. PMID:22427864

  8. Mutual Group Hypnosis: A Social Interaction Analysis.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanders, Shirley

    Mutual Group Hypnosis is discussed in terms of its similarity to group dynamics in general and in terms of its similarity to a social interaction program (Role Modeling) designed to foster the expression of warmth and acceptance among group members. Hypnosis also fosters a regression to prelogical thought processes in the service of the ego. Group…

  9. Hyperscanning: simultaneous fMRI during linked social interactions.

    PubMed

    Montague, P Read; Berns, Gregory S; Cohen, Jonathan D; McClure, Samuel M; Pagnoni, Giuseppe; Dhamala, Mukesh; Wiest, Michael C; Karpov, Igor; King, Richard D; Apple, Nathan; Fisher, Ronald E

    2002-08-01

    "Plain question and plain answer make the shortest road out of most perplexities." Mark Twain-Life on the Mississippi. A new methodology for the measurement of the neural substrates of human social interaction is described. This technology, termed "Hyperscan," embodies both the hardware and the software necessary to link magnetic resonance scanners through the internet. Hyperscanning allows for the performance of human behavioral experiments in which participants can interact with each other while functional MRI is acquired in synchrony with the behavioral interactions. Data are presented from a simple game of deception between pairs of subjects. Because people may interact both asymmetrically and asynchronously, both the design and the analysis must accommodate this added complexity. Several potential approaches are described.

  10. Why does interactional justice promote organizational loyalty, job performance, and prevent mental impairment? The role of social support and social stressors.

    PubMed

    Otto, Kathleen; Mamatoglu, Nihal

    2015-01-01

    Using social exchange theory as a conceptual framework, we investigated the relationship between interactional justice and the outcomes organizational loyalty (affective commitment, turnover intentions), perceived job performance (self-rated performance, personal accomplishment), and mental impairment (cognitive irritation, emotional exhaustion) in an online survey of 218 employees working in the field of computer technology. Specifically, we predicted that interactional justice would heighten the quality of social exchange relationships and therefore expected perceived social support (POS) and bullying to mediate the proposed relationships. We tested our hypotheses applying a latent structural equation model. Our findings revealed that POS mediated the relationship between interactional justice and organizational loyalty, whereas bullying mediated the relationship between interactional justice and mental impairment. Practical implications are discussed concerning how to foster interactional justice and POS and how to weaken bullying behavior.

  11. Validation of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale across the Anxiety Disorders.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Elissa J.; And Others

    1997-01-01

    The psychometric adequacy of the Social Interaction Scale and the Social Phobia Scale (both by R. P. Mattick and J. C. Clark, 1989) was studied with 165 patients with anxiety disorders and 21 people without anxiety. Results support the usefulness of the scales for screening and treatment design and evaluation. (SLD)

  12. The Meaning of Terrace as Social Interaction Place in Vertical Kampung

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sihombing, Antony; Gumay Poetri, Nurul

    2018-01-01

    The pros and cons of vertical housing development in Jakarta make me intend to raise the issue of the vertical kampung. In the kampung, there are social spaces where people interact to create a culture of rukun and gotong-royong. It is the terrace which become a container of social interaction. The purpose of this study is to reveal the meaning of the terrace in social interaction in the vertical kampung and its influence when the terrace room is not presented in the vertical kampung. The lost meaning of kampung when terrace is not presented in vertical kampung can be known through cognitive maps. Cognitive maps are the methodologies used to gain a human perception or view of life experiences in a particular place. This study involved several families in West Jatinegara Rusunawa to find out how people looked at the terrace in their life while in Kampung Pulo. Based on the cognitive maps method that has been done by the respondents, the terrace referred to by the villagers is an open space where people can see and interact with each other. Social space in the form of terraces which is needed by the kampung dweller, in fact is not a terrace house which is used as a place to receive guests and as a barrier between the fence and the body of the house.

  13. Interactions and user-perceived helpfulness in diet information social questions & answers.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Yin; Wang, Peilin

    2016-12-01

    Online health information seeking using social questions and answers (Social Q&A) sites has been increasingly popular in recent years. It calls for better understanding of health information seeking behaviour and interactions between information seekers and information providers. The study investigates how diet information seekers interact with information providers on WebMD Answers, which is a Social Q&A site devoted to health-related topics, and examines the factors that constitute a 'helpful' answer from an information seeker's perspective. Bales' interaction process analysis was applied as the framework to analyse 568 diet-related Q&As from WebMD Answers to identify interaction patterns. Most diet information seekers post questions anonymously and without any detailed description. Individual experts or health organisations provide most answers. Overall, answers are positively received and had a high satisfaction rating. It was also found that information seeker-perceived helpfulness does not depend on who answered the question but to how an information seeker posted the question. This study indicates that answers at WebMD Answers are helpful for diet information seekers. It sheds new light on the interactions during the Q&A process, preferred site functions and important factors that contribute to perceived helpful answers. © 2016 Health Libraries Group.

  14. Personality Traits and Social Media Use in 20 Countries: How Personality Relates to Frequency of Social Media Use, Social Media News Use, and Social Media Use for Social Interaction.

    PubMed

    Gil de Zúñiga, Homero; Diehl, Trevor; Huber, Brigitte; Liu, James

    2017-09-01

    This study examines the relationship between peoples' personality traits and social media uses with data from 20 societies (N = 21,314). A measure of the "Big Five" personality traits is tested on key social media dimensions: frequency of use, social interaction, and news consumption. Across diverse societies, findings suggest that while extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are all positive predictors of different types of social media use, emotional stability and openness are negatively related to them.

  15. Triggering social interactions: chimpanzees respond to imitation by a humanoid robot and request responses from it.

    PubMed

    Davila-Ross, Marina; Hutchinson, Johanna; Russell, Jamie L; Schaeffer, Jennifer; Billard, Aude; Hopkins, William D; Bard, Kim A

    2014-05-01

    Even the most rudimentary social cues may evoke affiliative responses in humans and promote social communication and cohesion. The present work tested whether such cues of an agent may also promote communicative interactions in a nonhuman primate species, by examining interaction-promoting behaviours in chimpanzees. Here, chimpanzees were tested during interactions with an interactive humanoid robot, which showed simple bodily movements and sent out calls. The results revealed that chimpanzees exhibited two types of interaction-promoting behaviours during relaxed or playful contexts. First, the chimpanzees showed prolonged active interest when they were imitated by the robot. Second, the subjects requested 'social' responses from the robot, i.e. by showing play invitations and offering toys or other objects. This study thus provides evidence that even rudimentary cues of a robotic agent may promote social interactions in chimpanzees, like in humans. Such simple and frequent social interactions most likely provided a foundation for sophisticated forms of affiliative communication to emerge.

  16. Design of a Gaze-Sensitive Virtual Social Interactive System for Children With Autism

    PubMed Central

    Lahiri, Uttama; Warren, Zachary; Sarkar, Nilanjan

    2013-01-01

    Impairments in social communication skills are thought to be core deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In recent years, several assistive technologies, particularly Virtual Reality (VR), have been investigated to promote social interactions in this population. It is well known that children with ASD demonstrate atypical viewing patterns during social interactions and thus monitoring eye-gaze can be valuable to design intervention strategies. While several studies have used eye-tracking technology to monitor eye-gaze for offline analysis, there exists no real-time system that can monitor eye-gaze dynamically and provide individualized feedback. Given the promise of VR-based social interaction and the usefulness of monitoring eye-gaze in real-time, a novel VR-based dynamic eye-tracking system is developed in this work. This system, called Virtual Interactive system with Gaze-sensitive Adaptive Response Technology (VIGART), is capable of delivering individualized feedback based on a child’s dynamic gaze patterns during VR-based interaction. Results from a usability study with six adolescents with ASD are presented that examines the acceptability and usefulness of VIGART. The results in terms of improvement in behavioral viewing and changes in relevant eye physiological indexes of participants while interacting with VIGART indicate the potential of this novel technology. PMID:21609889

  17. Design of a gaze-sensitive virtual social interactive system for children with autism.

    PubMed

    Lahiri, Uttama; Warren, Zachary; Sarkar, Nilanjan

    2011-08-01

    Impairments in social communication skills are thought to be core deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In recent years, several assistive technologies, particularly Virtual Reality (VR), have been investigated to promote social interactions in this population. It is well known that children with ASD demonstrate atypical viewing patterns during social interactions and thus monitoring eye-gaze can be valuable to design intervention strategies. While several studies have used eye-tracking technology to monitor eye-gaze for offline analysis, there exists no real-time system that can monitor eye-gaze dynamically and provide individualized feedback. Given the promise of VR-based social interaction and the usefulness of monitoring eye-gaze in real-time, a novel VR-based dynamic eye-tracking system is developed in this work. This system, called Virtual Interactive system with Gaze-sensitive Adaptive Response Technology (VIGART), is capable of delivering individualized feedback based on a child's dynamic gaze patterns during VR-based interaction. Results from a usability study with six adolescents with ASD are presented that examines the acceptability and usefulness of VIGART. The results in terms of improvement in behavioral viewing and changes in relevant eye physiological indexes of participants while interacting with VIGART indicate the potential of this novel technology. © 2011 IEEE

  18. Sex Differences in Social Interaction Behavior Following Social Defeat Stress in the Monogamous California Mouse (Peromyscus californicus)

    PubMed Central

    Trainor, Brian C.; Pride, Michael C.; Villalon Landeros, Rosalina; Knoblauch, Nicholas W.; Takahashi, Elizabeth Y.; Silva, Andrea L.; Crean, Katie K.

    2011-01-01

    Stressful life experiences are known to be a precipitating factor for many mental disorders. The social defeat model induces behavioral responses in rodents (e.g. reduced social interaction) that are similar to behavioral patterns associated with mood disorders. The model has contributed to the discovery of novel mechanisms regulating behavioral responses to stress, but its utility has been largely limited to males. This is disadvantageous because most mood disorders have a higher incidence in women versus men. Male and female California mice (Peromyscus californicus) aggressively defend territories, which allowed us to observe the effects of social defeat in both sexes. In two experiments, mice were exposed to three social defeat or control episodes. Mice were then behaviorally phenotyped, and indirect markers of brain activity and corticosterone responses to a novel social stimulus were assessed. Sex differences in behavioral responses to social stress were long lasting (4 wks). Social defeat reduced social interaction responses in females but not males. In females, social defeat induced an increase in the number of phosphorylated CREB positive cells in the nucleus accumbens shell after exposure to a novel social stimulus. This effect of defeat was not observed in males. The effects of defeat in females were limited to social contexts, as there were no differences in exploratory behavior in the open field or light-dark box test. These data suggest that California mice could be a useful model for studying sex differences in behavioral responses to stress, particularly in neurobiological mechanisms that are involved with the regulation of social behavior. PMID:21364768

  19. Social-ecological outcomes in recreational fisheries: the interaction of lakeshore development and stocking.

    PubMed

    Ziegler, Jacob P; Golebie, Elizabeth J; Jones, Stuart E; Weidel, Brian C; Solomon, Christopher T

    2017-01-01

    Many ecosystems continue to experience rapid transformations due to processes like land use change and resource extraction. A systems approach to maintaining natural resources focuses on how interactions and feedbacks among components of complex social-ecological systems generate social and ecological outcomes. In recreational fisheries, residential shoreline development and fish stocking are two widespread human behaviors that influence fisheries, yet emergent social-ecological outcomes from these potentially interacting behaviors remain under explored. We applied a social-ecological systems framework using a simulation model and empirical data to determine whether lakeshore development is likely to promote stocking through its adverse effects on coarse woody habitat and thereby also on survival of juvenile and adult fish. We demonstrate that high lakeshore development is likely to generate dependency of the ecosystem on the social system, in the form of stocking. Further, lakeshore development can interact with social-ecological processes to create deficits for state-level governments, which threatens the ability to fund further ecosystem subsidies. Our results highlight the value of a social-ecological framework for maintaining ecosystem services like recreational fisheries. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

  20. Work-Based Social Interactions, Perceived Stress, and Workload Incongruence as Antecedents of Athletic Trainer Burnout.

    PubMed

    DeFreese, J D; Mihalik, Jason P

    2016-01-01

    Burnout is an important psychological health concern for working professionals. Understanding how psychological stress and markers of workload contribute to athletic trainers' (ATs') perceptions of burnout is highly valuable. Both positive (social support) and negative social interactions should be considered when examining relationships among markers of ATs' health and wellbeing. To examine the potential effects of social interactions on the relationships between (1) burnout and perceived stress and (2) burnout and workload incongruence in ATs. Cross-sectional study. Participating ATs completed a computer-based survey during the fall sports season. Responding participants were ATs randomly sampled from the National Athletic Trainers' Association membership (N = 154; men = 78, women = 76; age = 36.8 ± 9.5 years). Participants completed self-report assessments (Perceived Stress Scale, Social Support Questionnaire, Positive and Negative Social Exchanges, Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey) via a secure e-mail link. Workload incongruence was calculated by subtracting anticipated work hours from actual current work hours (6.0 ± 9.6 hours). We used hierarchical multiple regression analyses to examine hypothesized relationships among study variables. Social interactions did not affect the relationships between burnout and perceived stress or workload incongruence at the global or dimensional level. However, perceived stress (β = .47, P < .001), workload incongruence (β = .12, P < .05), and social support (β = -.25, P < .001) predicted global AT burnout. Negative social interactions trended toward significance (β = .12, P = .055). Our findings suggest that stress perceptions and social support drive the dimensional AT burnout experience, whereas workload incongruence (emotional exhaustion) and negative social interactions (depersonalization) were linked to specific burnout dimensions. Social interactions and markers of stress and workload should be

  1. Work-Based Social Interactions, Perceived Stress, and Workload Incongruence as Antecedents of Athletic Trainer Burnout

    PubMed Central

    DeFreese, J. D.; Mihalik, Jason P.

    2016-01-01

    Context Burnout is an important psychological health concern for working professionals. Understanding how psychological stress and markers of workload contribute to athletic trainers' (ATs') perceptions of burnout is highly valuable. Both positive (social support) and negative social interactions should be considered when examining relationships among markers of ATs' health and wellbeing. Objective To examine the potential effects of social interactions on the relationships between (1) burnout and perceived stress and (2) burnout and workload incongruence in ATs. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Participating ATs completed a computer-based survey during the fall sports season. Patients or Other Participants Responding participants were ATs randomly sampled from the National Athletic Trainers' Association membership (N = 154; men = 78, women = 76; age = 36.8 ± 9.5 years). Main Outcome Measure(s) Participants completed self-report assessments (Perceived Stress Scale, Social Support Questionnaire, Positive and Negative Social Exchanges, Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Services Survey) via a secure e-mail link. Workload incongruence was calculated by subtracting anticipated work hours from actual current work hours (6.0 ± 9.6 hours). We used hierarchical multiple regression analyses to examine hypothesized relationships among study variables. Results Social interactions did not affect the relationships between burnout and perceived stress or workload incongruence at the global or dimensional level. However, perceived stress (β = .47, P < .001), workload incongruence (β = .12, P < .05), and social support (β = −.25, P < .001) predicted global AT burnout. Negative social interactions trended toward significance (β = .12, P = .055). Our findings suggest that stress perceptions and social support drive the dimensional AT burnout experience, whereas workload incongruence (emotional exhaustion) and negative social interactions (depersonalization) were linked

  2. Examining relations between locus of control, loneliness, subjective well-being, and preference for online social interaction.

    PubMed

    Ye, Yinghua; Lin, Lin

    2015-02-01

    The unprecedented popularity of online communication has raised interests and concerns among the public as well as in scholarly circles. Online communications have pushed people farther away from one another. This study is a further examination of the effects of online communications on well-being, in particular: Locus of control, Loneliness, Subjective well-being, and Preference for online social interaction. Chinese undergraduate students (N = 260; 84 men, 176 women; M age = 20.1 yr., SD = 1.2) were questioned about demographic information and use of social media as well as four previously validated questionnaires related to well-being. Most participants used QQ, a popular social networking program, as the major channel for online social interactions. Locus of control was positively related to Loneliness and Preference for online social interaction, but negatively related to Subjective well-being; Loneliness (positively) and Subjective well-being (negatively) were related to Preference for online social interaction; and Loneliness and Subjective well-being had a full mediating effect between the relationships of Locus of control and Preference for online social interaction. The findings of the study showed that more lonely, unhappy, and externally controlled students were more likely to be engaged in online social interaction. Improving students' locus of control, loneliness, and happiness may help reduce problematic Internet use.

  3. Understanding Physical Activity through Interactions Between the Built Environment and Social Cognition: A Systematic Review.

    PubMed

    Rhodes, Ryan E; Saelens, Brian E; Sauvage-Mar, Claire

    2018-05-16

    Few people in most developed nations engage in regular physical activity (PA), despite its well-established health benefits. Socioecological models highlight the potential interaction of multiple factors from policy and the built environment to individual social cognition in explaining PA. The purpose of this review was to appraise this interaction tenet of the socioecological model between the built environment and social cognition to predict PA. Eligible studies had to have been published in peer-reviewed journals in the English language, and included any tests of interaction between social cognition and the built environment with PA. Literature searches, concluded in October 2017, used five common databases. Findings were grouped by type of PA outcomes (leisure, transportation, total PA and total moderate-vigorous PA [MVPA]), then grouped by the type of interactions between social cognitive and built environment constructs. The initial search yielded 308 hits, which was reduced to 22 independent studies of primarily high- to medium-quality after screening for eligibility criteria. The interaction tenet of the socioecological model was not supported for overall MVPA and total PA. By contrast, while there was heterogeneity of findings for leisure-time PA, environmental accessibility/convenience interacted with intention, and environmental aesthetics interacted with affective judgments, to predict leisure-time PA. Interactions between the built environment and social cognition in PA for transport are limited, with current results failing to support an effect. The results provide some support for interactive aspects of the built environment and social cognition in leisure-time PA, and thus highlight potential areas for integrated intervention of individual and environmental change.

  4. Interacting Cannabinoid and Opioid Receptors in the Nucleus Accumbens Core Control Adolescent Social Play

    PubMed Central

    Manduca, Antonia; Lassalle, Olivier; Sepers, Marja; Campolongo, Patrizia; Cuomo, Vincenzo; Marsicano, Giovanni; Kieffer, Brigitte; Vanderschuren, Louk J. M. J; Trezza, Viviana; Manzoni, Olivier J. J.

    2016-01-01

    Social play behavior is a highly rewarding, developmentally important form of social interaction in young mammals. However, its neurobiological underpinnings remain incompletely understood. Previous work has suggested that opioid and endocannabinoid neurotransmission interact in the modulation of social play. Therefore, we combined behavioral, pharmacological, electrophysiological, and genetic approaches to elucidate the role of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) in social play, and how cannabinoid and opioid neurotransmission interact to control social behavior in adolescent rodents. Systemic administration of the 2-AG hydrolysis inhibitor JZL184 or the opioid receptor agonist morphine increased social play behavior in adolescent rats. These effects were blocked by systemic pretreatment with either CB1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1R) or mu-opioid receptor (MOR) antagonists. The social play-enhancing effects of systemic morphine or JZL184 treatment were also prevented by direct infusion of the CB1R antagonist SR141716 and the MOR antagonist naloxone into the nucleus accumbens core (NAcC). Searching for synaptic correlates of these effects in adolescent NAcC excitatory synapses, we observed that CB1R antagonism blocked the effect of the MOR agonist DAMGO and, conversely, that naloxone reduced the effect of a cannabinoid agonist. These results were recapitulated in mice, and completely abolished in CB1R and MOR knockout mice, suggesting that the functional interaction between CB1R and MOR in the NAcC in the modulation of social behavior is widespread in rodents. The data shed new light on the mechanism by which endocannabinoid lipids and opioid peptides interact to orchestrate rodent socioemotional behaviors. PMID:27899885

  5. Effects of Korean red ginseng extracts on neural tube defects and impairment of social interaction induced by prenatal exposure to valproic acid.

    PubMed

    Kim, Pitna; Park, Jin Hee; Kwon, Kyoung Ja; Kim, Ki Chan; Kim, Hee Jin; Lee, Jong Min; Kim, Hahn Young; Han, Seol-Heui; Shin, Chan Young

    2013-01-01

    Ginseng is one of the most widely used medicinal plants, which belongs to the genus Panax. Compared to uncured white ginseng, red ginseng has been generally regarded to produce superior pharmacological effects with lesser side/adverse effects, which made it popular in a variety of formulation from tea to oriental medicine. Using the prenatal valproic acid (VPA)-injection model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in rats, which produces social impairrment and altered seizure susceptibility as in human ASD patients as well as mild neural tube defects like crooked tail phenotype, we examined whether chronic administration of red ginseng extract may rescue the social impairment and crooked tail phenotype in prenatally VPA-exposed rat offspring. VPA-induced impairment in social interactions tested using sociability and social preference paradigms as well as crooked tail phenotypes were significantly improved by administration of Korean red ginseng (KRG) in a dose dependent manner. Rat offspring prenatally exposed to VPA showed higher sensitivity to electric shock seizure and increased locomotor activity in open-field test. KRG treatment reversed abnormal locomotor activity and sensitivity to electric shock to control level. These results suggest that KRG may modulate neurobehavioral and structural organization of nervous system adversely affected by prenatal exposure to VPA. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Reputation, a universal currency for human social interactions

    PubMed Central

    Milinski, Manfred

    2016-01-01

    Decision rules of reciprocity include ‘I help those who helped me’ (direct reciprocity) and ‘I help those who have helped others’ (indirect reciprocity), i.e. I help those who have a reputation to care for others. A person's reputation is a score that members of a social group update whenever they see the person interacting or hear at best multiple gossip about the person's social interactions. Reputation is the current standing the person has gained from previous investments or refusal of investments in helping others. Is he a good guy, can I trust him or should I better avoid him as a social partner? A good reputation pays off by attracting help from others, even from strangers or members from another group, if the recipient's reputation is known. Any costly investment in others, i.e. direct help, donations to charity, investment in averting climate change, etc. increases a person's reputation. I shall argue and illustrate with examples that a person's known reputation functions like money that can be used whenever the person needs help. Whenever possible I will present tests of predictions of evolutionary theory, i.e. fitness maximizing strategies, mostly by economic experiments with humans. PMID:26729939

  7. Reputation, a universal currency for human social interactions.

    PubMed

    Milinski, Manfred

    2016-02-05

    Decision rules of reciprocity include 'I help those who helped me' (direct reciprocity) and 'I help those who have helped others' (indirect reciprocity), i.e. I help those who have a reputation to care for others. A person's reputation is a score that members of a social group update whenever they see the person interacting or hear at best multiple gossip about the person's social interactions. Reputation is the current standing the person has gained from previous investments or refusal of investments in helping others. Is he a good guy, can I trust him or should I better avoid him as a social partner? A good reputation pays off by attracting help from others, even from strangers or members from another group, if the recipient's reputation is known. Any costly investment in others, i.e. direct help, donations to charity, investment in averting climate change, etc. increases a person's reputation. I shall argue and illustrate with examples that a person's known reputation functions like money that can be used whenever the person needs help. Whenever possible I will present tests of predictions of evolutionary theory, i.e. fitness maximizing strategies, mostly by economic experiments with humans. © 2016 The Authors.

  8. Normal or abnormal? 'Normative uncertainty' in psychiatric practice.

    PubMed

    Bassett, Andrew M; Baker, Charley

    2015-06-01

    The 'multicultural clinical interaction' presents itself as a dilemma for the mental health practitioner. Literature describes two problematic areas where this issues emerges--how to make an adequate distinction between religious rituals and the rituals that may be symptomatic of 'obsessive compulsive disorder' (OCD), and how to differentiate 'normative' religious or spiritual beliefs, behaviours, and experiences from 'psychotic' illnesses. When it comes to understanding service user's 'idioms of distress', beliefs about how culture influences behaviour can create considerable confusion and 'normative uncertainty' for mental health practitioners. In the absence of clear diagnostic and assessment criteria on distinguishing between 'culture' and 'psychopathology', practitioners have had to rely on their own intuition and seek out possible 'strategies' or 'procedures' from a contradictory and cross-disciplinary evidence base. Decontextualisation of service users' experiences may result in the pathologisation of culturally 'normative' phenomenon, 'category fallacy' errors, and poor health care experiences and outcomes for service users.This paper situates this dilemma within a wider debate that has concerned both the biomedical and social sciences, namely, the unresolved question of 'normality' or 'abnormality'. Indeed, issues that arise from dilemmas surrounding the question of 'culture' or 'psychopathology' are intimately tied to wider cultural ideas about what is considered 'normal'. The disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, and medical anthropology have struggled to establish workable criteria against which to judge behaviour as 'normal', 'abnormal', or 'pathological'. Three models for understanding mental 'abnormality' are evident in 'transcultural psychiatry' (what is now commonly known as 'cultural psychiatry'), and these models have corresponded closely to the interpretive models used by anthropologists attempting to make sense of the apparent diversity of

  9. Perception of social interaction compresses subjective duration in an oxytocin-dependent manner

    PubMed Central

    2018-01-01

    Communication through body gestures permeates our daily life. Efficient perception of the message therein reflects one’s social cognitive competency. Here we report that such competency is manifested temporally as shortened subjective duration of social interactions: motion sequences showing agents acting communicatively are perceived to be significantly shorter in duration as compared with those acting noncommunicatively. The strength of this effect is negatively correlated with one’s autistic-like tendency. Critically, intranasal oxytocin administration restores the temporal compression effect in socially less proficient individuals, whereas the administration of atosiban, a competitive antagonist of oxytocin, diminishes the effect in socially proficient individuals. These findings indicate that perceived time, rather than being a faithful representation of physical time, is highly idiosyncratic and ingrained with one’s personality trait. Moreover, they suggest that oxytocin is involved in mediating time perception of social interaction, further supporting the role of oxytocin in human social cognition. PMID:29784084

  10. Perception of social interaction compresses subjective duration in an oxytocin-dependent manner.

    PubMed

    Liu, Rui; Yuan, Xiangyong; Chen, Kepu; Jiang, Yi; Zhou, Wen

    2018-05-22

    Communication through body gestures permeates our daily life. Efficient perception of the message therein reflects one's social cognitive competency. Here we report that such competency is manifested temporally as shortened subjective duration of social interactions: motion sequences showing agents acting communicatively are perceived to be significantly shorter in duration as compared with those acting noncommunicatively. The strength of this effect is negatively correlated with one's autistic-like tendency. Critically, intranasal oxytocin administration restores the temporal compression effect in socially less proficient individuals, whereas the administration of atosiban, a competitive antagonist of oxytocin, diminishes the effect in socially proficient individuals. These findings indicate that perceived time, rather than being a faithful representation of physical time, is highly idiosyncratic and ingrained with one's personality trait. Moreover, they suggest that oxytocin is involved in mediating time perception of social interaction, further supporting the role of oxytocin in human social cognition. © 2018, Liu et al.

  11. Perception of arousal in social anxiety: Effects of false feedback during a social interaction

    PubMed Central

    Wild, Jennifer; Clark, David M.; Ehlers, Anke; McManus, Freda

    2008-01-01

    Cognitive models suggest that during social interactions, socially anxious individuals direct their attention to internal cues of arousal and use this information to erroneously infer how they appear to others. High (N=36) and low (N=36) socially anxious adults had a conversation with a stooge, and were led to believe by false feedback that they were experiencing either an increase or decrease in arousal, or evaluating the comfort level of the feedback equipment. Compared to the other groups, participants who believed their arousal had increased, reported greater anxiety, poorer perceived performance, more physical cues of anxiety, and greater underestimation of their performance and overestimation of the visibility of their anxiety. The effects were not specific to participants with high social anxiety. Observers rated the behaviour of participants who believed that their arousal had decreased most favourably. The results have implications for the treatment of social phobia. PMID:17223072

  12. Perceptual Incongruity and Social Interaction as Determinants of Infants' Reaction to Novel Persons

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Greenberg, David J.; And Others

    1975-01-01

    A study on the effects of birth order on infants' reactions to novel persons was conducted to test the differing predictions of incongruity theory and social interaction theory. Findings indicated that infants' reactions to novel persons are determined by infants' social interaction within the family during the first year rather than by the number…

  13. New Frontiers in Analyzing Dynamic Group Interactions: Bridging Social and Computer Science.

    PubMed

    Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nale; Hung, Hayley; Keyton, Joann

    2017-10-01

    This special issue on advancing interdisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists and social scientists documents the joint results of the international Lorentz workshop, "Interdisciplinary Insights into Group and Team Dynamics," which took place in Leiden, The Netherlands, July 2016. An equal number of scholars from social and computer science participated in the workshop and contributed to the papers included in this special issue. In this introduction, we first identify interaction dynamics as the core of group and team models and review how scholars in social and computer science have typically approached behavioral interactions in groups and teams. Next, we identify key challenges for interdisciplinary collaboration between social and computer scientists, and we provide an overview of the different articles in this special issue aimed at addressing these challenges.

  14. Neuroticism modulates the effects of intranasal vasopressin treatment on the neural response to positive and negative social interactions.

    PubMed

    Feng, Chunliang; DeMarco, Ashley C; Haroon, Ebrahim; Rilling, James K

    2015-07-01

    Neuroticism is a fundamental personality trait associated with proneness to feel negative affect. Here we ask how Neuroticism influences the neural response to positive and negative social interactions and how Neuroticism modulates the effect of intranasal oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) on the neural response to social interactions. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 153 male participants were randomized to receive 24 IU intranasal OT, 20 IU AVP or placebo. Afterwards, they were imaged with fMRI while playing an iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game. On a different day, subjects completed the NEO personality inventory to measure Neuroticism. Neuroticism was positively correlated with the neural response to negative social interactions in the anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex and with the neural response to positive social interactions in the insula, indicating that Neuroticism modulates neuropsychological processing of both negative and positive social interactions. Neuroticism did not modulate the effect of intranasal OT treatment on the neural response to either positive or negative social interactions. On the other hand, AVP treatment significantly interacted with Neuroticism to modulate the BOLD response to both positive and negative social interactions. Specifically, AVP increased anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex and lateral temporal lobe responses to negative social interactions to a greater extent in participants scoring high rather than low on Neuroticism. AVP also increased the insula response to positive social interactions to a greater extent in participants scoring high rather than low on Neuroticism. These results imply that AVP may increase emotion regulation in response to negative social interactions and the salience of positive social interactions to a greater extent in individuals high compared to low in Neuroticism. The current findings urge caution against uniform clinical application of nonapeptides

  15. Normal and abnormal human vestibular ocular function

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Peterka, R. J.; Black, F. O.

    1986-01-01

    The major motivation of this research is to understand the role the vestibular system plays in sensorimotor interactions which result in spatial disorientation and motion sickness. A second goal was to explore the range of abnormality as it is reflected in quantitative measures of vestibular reflex responses. The results of a study of vestibular reflex measurements in normal subjects and preliminary results in abnormal subjects are presented in this report. Statistical methods were used to define the range of normal responses, and determine age related changes in function.

  16. Communication and cognition: the social beyond language, interaction and culture.

    PubMed

    Mascareño, Aldo

    2008-06-01

    Cognition theories describe the social with terms like language, interaction or culture, whose theoretical status has also been discussed in modern sociology. These concepts are not well-positioned to understand the emergence and autonomy of social orders. Sociological theory of self-referential systems can be useful to reconstruct the bottom-up process which contributes to the emergence of the social as communication as well as to describe the way in which society exerts downward causation upon cognitive phenomena. The core of this theory is the systemic category of meaning as a shared horizon for psychic and social systems.

  17. Nonpathologizing trauma interventions in abnormal psychology courses.

    PubMed

    Hoover, Stephanie M; Luchner, Andrew F; Pickett, Rachel F

    2016-01-01

    Because abnormal psychology courses presuppose a focus on pathological human functioning, nonpathologizing interventions within these classes are particularly powerful and can reach survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators. Interventions are needed to improve the social response to trauma on college campuses. By applying psychodynamic and feminist multicultural theory, instructors can deliver nonpathologizing interventions about trauma and trauma response within these classes. We recommend class-based interventions with the following aims: (a) intentionally using nonpathologizing language, (b) normalizing trauma responses, (c) subjectively defining trauma, (d) challenging secondary victimization, and (e) questioning the delineation of abnormal and normal. The recommendations promote implications for instructor self-reflection, therapy interventions, and future research.

  18. Mirror Neuron System and Mentalizing System connect during online social interaction.

    PubMed

    Sperduti, Marco; Guionnet, Sophie; Fossati, Philippe; Nadel, Jacqueline

    2014-08-01

    Two sets of brain areas are repeatedly reported in neuroimaging studies on social cognition: the Mirror Neuron System and the Mentalizing System. The Mirror System is involved in goal understanding and has been associated with several emotional and cognitive functions central to social interaction, ranging from empathy to gestural communication and imitation. The Mentalizing System is recruited in tasks requiring cognitive processes such as self-reference and understanding of other's intentions. Although theoretical accounts for an interaction between the two systems have been proposed, little is known about their synergy during social exchanges. In order to explore this question, we have recorded brain activity by means of functional MRI during live social exchanges based on reciprocal imitation of hand gestures. Here, we investigate, using the method of psychophysiological interaction, the changes in functional connectivity of the Mirror System due to the conditions of interest (being imitated, imitating) compared with passive observation of hand gestures. We report a strong coupling between the Mirror System and the Mentalizing System during the imitative exchanges. Our findings suggest a complementary role of the two networks during social encounters. The Mirror System would engage in the preparation of own actions and the simulation of other's actions, while the Mentalizing System would engage in the anticipation of the other's intention and thus would participate to the co-regulation of reciprocal actions. Beyond a specific effect of imitation, the design used offers the opportunity to tackle the role of role-switching in an interpersonal account of social cognition.

  19. Interacting with Users in Social Networks: The Follow-back Problem

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-05-02

    interacting with the friends of the target(s). Because forming a connection is known as following in social networks such as Twitter , we refer to this as...of an interaction resulting in a follow-back, we conduct an empirical analysis of several thousand interactions in Twitter . We build a model of the...define as the followback score. We show through simulation that these heuristic policies perform well on real Twitter graphs. Thesis Supervisor: Dr

  20. A Preliminary Examination of the Relationship Between Social Networking Interactions, Internet Use, and Thwarted Belongingness.

    PubMed

    Moberg, Fallon B; Anestis, Michael D

    2015-01-01

    Joiner's (2005) interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide hypothesizes that suicidal desire develops in response to the joint presence of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. To consider the potential influence of online interactions and behaviors on these outcomes. To address this, we administered an online protocol assessing suicidal desire and online interactions in a sample of 305 undergraduates (83.6% female). We hypothesized negative interactions on social networking sites and a preference for online social interactions would be associated with thwarted belongingness. We also conducted an exploratory analysis examining the associations between Internet usage and perceived burdensomeness. Higher levels of negative interactions on social networking sites, but no other variables, significantly predicted thwarted belongingness. Our exploratory analysis showed that none of our predictors were associated with perceived burdensomeness after accounting for demographics, depression, and thwarted belongingness. Our findings indicate that a general tendency to have negative interactions on social networking sites could possibly impact suicidal desire and that these effects are significant above and beyond depression symptoms. Furthermore, no other aspect of problematic Internet use significantly predicted our outcomes in multivariate analyses, indicating that social networking in particular may have a robust effect on thwarted belongingness.

  1. Gender differences of social interactions and their effects on subjective well-being among Japanese elders.

    PubMed

    Okabayashi, Hideki; Hougham, Gavin W

    2014-01-01

    Gender differences of social interactions and their effects on subjective well-being among Japanese elders over three years were examined. Repeated measurements of 498 elders over a three-year survey interval were obtained from a baseline mail survey and two- and three-year follow-up surveys. Outcomes were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Male elders were more likely to have a spouse and work at paid jobs, while female elders were likely to have more frequent contacts with their child/children and more interactions with friends. As the elders aged over three years, life satisfaction decreased, while depression did not show any significant overall trend. There were no beneficial effects of social interactions on change in well-being, although social participation, interaction with friends, and conversation with spouse were beneficially related to baseline levels of both depressive tendency and life satisfaction. Among female elders only, the number of children had beneficial effects on life satisfaction. There are modest gender differences of the impact of social interactions on the well-being of Japanese elders, and the number of children seems to be more important as potential sources of support for female rather than male elders. Spousal conversation and non-obligatory social interaction such as unpaid social activities and friendship seem to be important for both male and female elders in Japan. These findings suggest that social relations among Japanese elders may be moving away from more gender dependent patterns seen in the past.

  2. Concurrent choice for social interaction and amphetamine using conditioned place preference in rats: effects of age and housing condition.

    PubMed

    Yates, Justin R; Beckmann, Joshua S; Meyer, Andrew C; Bardo, Michael T

    2013-05-01

    Social interaction can serve as a natural reward that attenuates drug reward in rats; however, it is unknown if age or housing conditions alter the choice between social interaction and drug. Individually- and pair-housed adolescent and adult male rats were tested using conditioned place preference (CPP) in separate experiments in which: (1) social interaction was conditioned against no social interaction; (2) amphetamine (AMPH; 1mg/kg, s.c.) was conditioned against saline; or (3) social interaction was conditioned against AMPH. Social interaction CPP was obtained only in individually-housed adolescents, whereas AMPH CPP was obtained in both individually-housed adolescents and adults; however, the effect of AMPH was not statistically significant in pair-housed adults. When allowed to choose concurrently between compartments paired with either social interaction or AMPH, individually-housed adolescents preferred the compartment paired with social interaction, whereas pair-housed adolescents preferred the compartment paired with AMPH. Regardless of housing condition, adults showed a similar preference for the compartments paired with either social interaction or AMPH. Although some caution is needed in interpreting cross-experiment comparisons, the overall results suggest that individually-housed adolescents were most sensitive to the rewarding effect of social interaction, and this hypersensitivity to social reward effectively competed with AMPH reward. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Early life family conflict, Social interactions and Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness in Adulthood

    PubMed Central

    John-Henderson, Neha A.; Kamarck, Thomas W.; Muldoon, Matthew F.; Manuck, Stephen B.

    2015-01-01

    Objective Conflict in early life family environments is known to affect psychosocial functioning and coping styles into adulthood and is reported to negatively affect access to psychosocial resources that are critical to the management of stress. However, it remains unknown whether early life family conflict similarly affects subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adulthood. We predicted that family conflict in early life would be associated with greater mean Intima-Media thickness (IMT), a subclinical marker of CVD risk, in adulthood. Methods Data were collected in a community sample of 503 adults (47.4 % male, mean age: 42.8 years [SD=7.3]). Associations between family conflict in early life with IMT (assessed using B-mode ultrasound) in adulthood were examined using regression analysis. We also tested for indirect effects of early life family conflict on mean IMT through ecological momentary assessment (EMA) reports of social interactions, diversity of social roles, and perceived social support. Results Linear regression analyses adjusted for demographics and physiological risk factors showed conflict in early life associated with greater mean IMT (β=0.08, t(447)=2.13, p=0.034, R2=0.46). Early life conflict was significantly related to diversity of social roles, perceived social support, and EMA reports of pleasant and social conflict interactions. Significant indirect effects of early life conflict on mean IMT were observed through fewer pleasant social interactions and more frequent social conflict interactions in adulthood (β = 0.001, 95% CI, 0.0001–0.0014 and β=0.001, 95% CI, 0.0002–0.0015, respectively). Conclusions These findings provide initial evidence that family conflict in early life heightens CVD risk in adulthood, in part by shaping the quality of adulthood social interactions. PMID:26809109

  4. Early Life Family Conflict, Social Interactions, and Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness in Adulthood.

    PubMed

    John-Henderson, Neha A; Kamarck, Thomas W; Muldoon, Matthew F; Manuck, Stephen B

    2016-04-01

    Conflict in early life family environments is known to affect psychosocial functioning and coping styles into adulthood and is reported to negatively affect access to psychosocial resources that are critical to the management of stress. However, it remains unknown whether early life family conflict similarly affects subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adulthood. We predicted that family conflict in early life would be associated with greater mean intima-media thickness (IMT), a subclinical marker of CVD risk, in adulthood. Data were collected in a community sample of 503 adults (47.4 % male, mean [standard deviation] age = 42.8 [7.3] years). Associations between family conflict in early life with IMT (assessed using B-mode ultrasound) in adulthood were examined using regression analysis. We also tested for indirect effects of early life family conflict on mean IMT through ecological momentary assessment reports of social interactions, diversity of social roles, and perceived social support. Linear regression analyses adjusted for demographics and physiological risk factors showed conflict in early life associated with greater mean IMT (β = 0.08, t(447) = 2.13, p = .034, R = 0.46). Early life conflict was significantly related to diversity of social roles, perceived social support, and ecological momentary assessment reports of pleasant and social conflict interactions. Significant indirect effects of early life conflict on mean IMT were observed through fewer pleasant social interactions and more frequent social conflict interactions in adulthood (β = 0.001 [95% confidence interval = 0.0001-0.0014] and β = 0.001 [95% confidence interval = 0.0002-0.0015], respectively). These findings provide initial evidence that family conflict in early life heightens CVD risk in adulthood, in part by shaping the quality of adulthood social interactions.

  5. Studying social interactions through immersive virtual environment technology: virtues, pitfalls, and future challenges

    PubMed Central

    Bombari, Dario; Schmid Mast, Marianne; Canadas, Elena; Bachmann, Manuel

    2015-01-01

    The goal of the present review is to explain how immersive virtual environment technology (IVET) can be used for the study of social interactions and how the use of virtual humans in immersive virtual environments can advance research and application in many different fields. Researchers studying individual differences in social interactions are typically interested in keeping the behavior and the appearance of the interaction partner constant across participants. With IVET researchers have full control over the interaction partners, can standardize them while still keeping the simulation realistic. Virtual simulations are valid: growing evidence shows that indeed studies conducted with IVET can replicate some well-known findings of social psychology. Moreover, IVET allows researchers to subtly manipulate characteristics of the environment (e.g., visual cues to prime participants) or of the social partner (e.g., his/her race) to investigate their influences on participants’ behavior and cognition. Furthermore, manipulations that would be difficult or impossible in real life (e.g., changing participants’ height) can be easily obtained with IVET. Beside the advantages for theoretical research, we explore the most recent training and clinical applications of IVET, its integration with other technologies (e.g., social sensing) and future challenges for researchers (e.g., making the communication between virtual humans and participants smoother). PMID:26157414

  6. Studying social interactions through immersive virtual environment technology: virtues, pitfalls, and future challenges.

    PubMed

    Bombari, Dario; Schmid Mast, Marianne; Canadas, Elena; Bachmann, Manuel

    2015-01-01

    The goal of the present review is to explain how immersive virtual environment technology (IVET) can be used for the study of social interactions and how the use of virtual humans in immersive virtual environments can advance research and application in many different fields. Researchers studying individual differences in social interactions are typically interested in keeping the behavior and the appearance of the interaction partner constant across participants. With IVET researchers have full control over the interaction partners, can standardize them while still keeping the simulation realistic. Virtual simulations are valid: growing evidence shows that indeed studies conducted with IVET can replicate some well-known findings of social psychology. Moreover, IVET allows researchers to subtly manipulate characteristics of the environment (e.g., visual cues to prime participants) or of the social partner (e.g., his/her race) to investigate their influences on participants' behavior and cognition. Furthermore, manipulations that would be difficult or impossible in real life (e.g., changing participants' height) can be easily obtained with IVET. Beside the advantages for theoretical research, we explore the most recent training and clinical applications of IVET, its integration with other technologies (e.g., social sensing) and future challenges for researchers (e.g., making the communication between virtual humans and participants smoother).

  7. Mentalizing and motivation neural function during social interactions in autism spectrum disorders☆

    PubMed Central

    Assaf, Michal; Hyatt, Christopher J.; Wong, Christina G.; Johnson, Matthew R.; Schultz, Robert T.; Hendler, Talma; Pearlson, Godfrey D.

    2013-01-01

    Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are characterized by core deficits in social functions. Two theories have been suggested to explain these deficits: mind-blindness theory posits impaired mentalizing processes (i.e. decreased ability for establishing a representation of others' state of mind), while social motivation theory proposes that diminished reward value for social information leads to reduced social attention, social interactions, and social learning. Mentalizing and motivation are integral to typical social interactions, and neuroimaging evidence points to independent brain networks that support these processes in healthy individuals. However, the simultaneous function of these networks has not been explored in individuals with ASDs. We used a social, interactive fMRI task, the Domino game, to explore mentalizing- and motivation-related brain activation during a well-defined interval where participants respond to rewards or punishments (i.e. motivation) and concurrently process information about their opponent's potential next actions (i.e. mentalizing). Thirteen individuals with high-functioning ASDs, ages 12–24, and 14 healthy controls played fMRI Domino games against a computer-opponent and separately, what they were led to believe was a human-opponent. Results showed that while individuals with ASDs understood the game rules and played similarly to controls, they showed diminished neural activity during the human-opponent runs only (i.e. in a social context) in bilateral middle temporal gyrus (MTG) during mentalizing and right Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) during reward-related motivation (Pcluster < 0.05 FWE). Importantly, deficits were not observed in these areas when playing against a computer-opponent or in areas related to motor and visual processes. These results demonstrate that while MTG and NAcc, which are critical structures in the mentalizing and motivation networks, respectively, activate normally in a non-social context, they fail to respond

  8. Early-Life Risperidone Administration Alters Maternal-Offspring Interactions and Juvenile Play Fighting

    PubMed Central

    Gannon, Matthew A.; Brown, Clifford J.; Stevens, Rachel M.; Griffith, Molly S.; Marczinski, Cecile A.; Bardgett, Mark E.

    2015-01-01

    Risperidone is an antipsychotic drug that is approved for use in childhood psychiatric disorders such as autism. One concern regarding the use of this drug in pediatric populations is that it may interfere with social interactions that serve to nurture brain development. This study used rats to assess the impact of risperidone administration on maternal-offspring interactions and juvenile play fighting between cage mates. Mixed-sex litters received daily subcutaneous injections of vehicle or 1.0 or 3.0 mg/kg of risperidone between postnatal days (PNDs) 14-42. Rats were weaned and housed three per cage on PND 21. In observations made between PNDs 14-17, risperidone significantly suppressed several aspects of maternal-offspring interactions at one-hour post-injection. At 23 hours post-injection, pups administered risperidone had lower activity scores and made fewer non-nursing contacts with their moms. In observations of play-fighting behavior made once a week between PNDs 22-42, risperidone profoundly decreased many forms of social interaction at one hour post-injection. At 23 hours post-injection, rats administered risperidone made more non-social contacts with their cage mates, but engaged in less social grooming. Risperidone administration to rats at ages analogous to early childhood through adolescence in humans produces a pattern of abnormal social interactions across the day that could impact how such interactions influence brain development. PMID:25600754

  9. Exploration of Problematic Internet Use and Social Interaction Anxiety among Turkish Pre-Service Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cuhadar, Cem

    2012-01-01

    The current study investigated the relationship between problematic Internet use and social interaction anxiety among pre-service teachers. Participants were 1235 students attending teacher training programs at a Turkish state university. The "Problematic Internet Use Scale" and "Social Interaction Anxiety Scale" were used to…

  10. Short forms of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

    PubMed

    Fergus, Thomas A; Valentiner, David P; McGrath, Patrick B; Gier-Lonsway, Stephanie L; Kim, Hyun-Soo

    2012-01-01

    Mattick and Clarke's (1998) Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) are commonly used self-report measures that assess 2 dimensions of social anxiety. Given the need for short, readable measures, this research proposes short forms of both scales. Item-level analyses of readability characteristics of the SIAS and SPS items led to the selection of 6 items from each scale for use in the short forms. The SIAS and SPS short forms had reading levels at approximately the 6th and 5th grade level, respectively. Results using nonclinical (Study 1: N = 469) and clinical (Study 2: N = 145) samples identified these short forms as being factorially sound, possessing adequate internal consistency, and having strong convergence with their full-length counterparts. Moreover, these short forms showed convergence with other measures of social anxiety, showed divergence from measures assessing related constructs, and predicted concurrent interpersonal functioning. Recommendations for the use of these short forms are discussed.

  11. Socialization and Self-Esteem: A Test of Symbolic Interaction and Social Learning Explanations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Openshaw, D. Kim; Thomas, Darwin L.

    Two questions were examined in this study: (1) Do symbolic interaction and social learning processes independently contribute to adolescents' self-esteem? and (2) If they do, what is the relative magnitude of their contribution? Data for the investigation were gathered through self-report questionnaires. Fourteen to 18-year-old adolescents, and…

  12. Neural mirroring and social interaction: Motor system involvement during action observation relates to early peer cooperation.

    PubMed

    Endedijk, H M; Meyer, M; Bekkering, H; Cillessen, A H N; Hunnius, S

    2017-04-01

    Whether we hand over objects to someone, play a team sport, or make music together, social interaction often involves interpersonal action coordination, both during instances of cooperation and entrainment. Neural mirroring is thought to play a crucial role in processing other's actions and is therefore considered important for social interaction. Still, to date, it is unknown whether interindividual differences in neural mirroring play a role in interpersonal coordination during different instances of social interaction. A relation between neural mirroring and interpersonal coordination has particularly relevant implications for early childhood, since successful early interaction with peers is predictive of a more favorable social development. We examined the relation between neural mirroring and children's interpersonal coordination during peer interaction using EEG and longitudinal behavioral data. Results showed that 4-year-old children with higher levels of motor system involvement during action observation (as indicated by lower beta-power) were more successful in early peer cooperation. This is the first evidence for a relation between motor system involvement during action observation and interpersonal coordination during other instances of social interaction. The findings suggest that interindividual differences in neural mirroring are related to interpersonal coordination and thus successful social interaction. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  13. Single aggressive and non-aggressive social interactions elicit distinct behavioral patterns to the context in mice.

    PubMed

    Crestani, Ariela M; Cipriano, Ana C; Nunes-de-Souza, Ricardo L

    2018-04-16

    Aggressive interactions between conspecific animals have been used as a social stressor with ethological characteristics to study how social interactions can modulate animal's behavior. Here, a new protocol based on aggressive and non-aggressive interactions was developed to study how different social interactions can alter the behavioral profile of animals re-exposed to the context in which the interaction occurred. We used factor analysis to trace the behavioral profile of socially defeated and non-defeated mice when they were re-exposed to the apparatus [three interconnected chambers: home chamber, tunnel and surface area]; we also compared the behavior presented before (habituation) and 24 h after (re-exposure) the non-aggressive or aggressive interactions. A final factor analysis from defeated animals yielded 4 factors that represented 72.09% of total variance; whereas non-defeated animal's analysis was loaded with 5 factors that represented 85.46% of total variance. A 5-min non-aggressive interaction reduced the frequency of stretched attend behavior in the tunnel, whereas a single social defeat reduced time in the tunnel and increased time spent performing self-grooming in the home chamber without conditioning any other spatio-temporal and complementary measures. Together, these results suggest that different social interactions may modulate distinct behavioral profiles in animals when re-exposed to the context. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Social interactions in an online self-management program for rheumatoid arthritis.

    PubMed

    Shigaki, Cheryl L; Smarr, Karen L; Gong, Yang; Donovan-Hanson, Kathleen; Siva, Chokkalingam; Johnson, Rebecca A; Ge, Bin; Musser, Dale R

    2008-12-01

    To evaluate social interactions among individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), participating in an empirically based, cognitive-behavioural, self-management (SM), and peer-support program, delivered in an online format. Thirty individuals with RA were recruited online. Subjects were a subset of participants in the treatment arm of a waiting-list controlled study testing the effectiveness of a 10-week, online, SM education and peer support program. Primary outcomes were process variables describing social activity in the online environment during active treatment. Qualitative review of discussion board posts was undertaken to gain insight into participants' perceptions of social interactions. Participants spent a large proportion of logged-in time accessing educational materials and community-level activity was vibrant, with members utilizing the discussion board and e-mail. The Chat feature was less well-used. Discussion board posts regarding RAHelp were very positive, especially in regard to perceived supportiveness and bonding among participants, and a sense of feeling uniquely understood by others who have RA. Concern arose in response to periods in which the discussion board was 'too quiet'. Our work complements the emerging literature supporting acceptance and utility of Internet-based programming as a venue for SM education and social interaction among individuals with chronic illness.

  15. Residential Mobility, Self-Concept, and Positive Affect in Social Interactions

    PubMed Central

    Oishi, Shigehiro; Lun, Janetta; Sherman, Gary D.

    2008-01-01

    The present research examined (a) the link between personal history of residential mobility and the self-concept and (b) the implications of such a link for positive affect in social interactions. Study 1 showed that the personal self was more central to the self-definition of frequent movers than to that of nonmovers, whereas the collective self was more central to the self-definition of nonmovers than to that of frequent movers. Results from a laboratory and a 2-week event sampling study (Studies 2 and 3) demonstrated that frequent movers felt happier when an interaction partner accurately perceived their personal selves, whereas nonmovers felt happier when a partner accurately perceived their collective selves. These findings present the first direct evidence on how personal history of residential mobility is linked to important individual differences in the self and positive affect in social interactions. PMID:17605594

  16. Residential mobility, self-concept, and positive affect in social interactions.

    PubMed

    Oishi, Shigehiro; Lun, Janetta; Sherman, Gary D

    2007-07-01

    The present research examined (a) the link between personal history of residential mobility and the self-concept and (b) the implications of such a link for positive affect in social interactions. Study 1 showed that the personal self was more central to the self-definition of frequent movers than to that of nonmovers, whereas the collective self was more central to the self-definition of nonmovers than to that of frequent movers. Results from a laboratory and a 2-week event sampling study (Studies 2 and 3) demonstrated that frequent movers felt happier when an interaction partner accurately perceived their personal selves, whereas nonmovers felt happier when a partner accurately perceived their collective selves. These findings present the first direct evidence on how personal history of residential mobility is linked to important individual differences in the self and positive affect in social interactions. Copyright 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

  17. Potential job facilitation benefits of "water cooler" conversations: the importance of social interactions in the workplace.

    PubMed

    Lin, Iris Y; Kwantes, Catherine T

    2015-01-01

    This study looked at the extent to which personality and cultural factors predicted participants' perceptions of the importance private interactions played in the workplace. The 134 participants read a vignette (where a new employee socially interacted at low or high levels with co-workers) and completed the Big Five Inventory, Social Axioms Survey, and questions concerning expected workplace experiences. Results indicated employees who engaged in high levels of private interaction with co-workers were expected to be better liked, to receive better performance evaluations, were more likely to receive co-worker assistance, and were thought to be more likely chosen for future projects. However, the personality and social axiom variables studied did not significantly interact with social interaction to influence expectations of workplace outcomes.

  18. Self-construal, affective valence of the encounter, and quality of social interactions: Within and cross-culture examination.

    PubMed

    Kafetsios, Konstantinos; Hess, Ursula; Nezlek, John B

    2018-01-01

    In two samples, one from Greece and another from Germany, we examined relationships between self-construal, emotional experience, and the quality of social interactions. In Greece, a more collectivistic culture, the negative affect people experienced in social interactions was more weakly related to the quality of social interactions for those higher in interdependent self-construal than it was for those lower in interdependent self-construal. In Germany, a more independent culture, a contrasting pattern was observed such that the positive affect people experienced in social interaction was more strongly related to the quality of social interactions for those higher in independent self-construal than it was for those lower in independent self-construal. These findings suggest that positive and negative affect in social encounters can have different effects for persons with independent and interdependent cultural orientations within different cultural settings.

  19. Behaviour modification in the management of chronic habits of abnormal eye rubbing.

    PubMed

    McMonnies, Charles W

    2009-04-01

    To describe how and why many keratoconus patients do not comply with strong advice to control chronic habits of abnormal rubbing. To outline a behaviour modification approach for controlling chronic habits of abnormal rubbing. Common reasons for chronic habits of abnormal rubbing have been reviewed as a basis for specifying a behavioural modification approach to habit reversal. The methods described are organized into the classic behavioural modification structure of: (1) habit awareness, (2) competing responses, (3) development of motivation, and (4) social support. This structure is supported by the application of social influence principles to achieve optimum compliance. The use of take-home written information in the form of an Abnormal Rubbing Guide is the basis for the development of motivation. Family social support is based upon a widening of the responsibility for avoiding eye rubbing to all family members. Some patients will need minimal application of these principles with patient education being sufficient intervention to achieve habit reversal. For patients with strong provocation to rubbing and/or by having a well established rubbing habit, a greater exposure to the habit reversal program described is indicated. Successful habit reversal may slow the rate of ectasia progression. Prophylactic application of the methods described for patients who are at risk for developing keratoconus, or post-laser assisted in situ keratomileusis keratectasia, may show that some forms of keratectasia are preventable.

  20. Factor solutions of the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in a Swedish population.

    PubMed

    Mörtberg, Ewa; Reuterskiöld, Lena; Tillfors, Maria; Furmark, Tomas; Öst, Lars-Göran

    2017-06-01

    Culturally validated rating scales for social anxiety disorder (SAD) are of significant importance when screening for the disorder, as well as for evaluating treatment efficacy. This study examined construct validity and additional psychometric properties of two commonly used scales, the Social Phobia Scale and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, in a clinical SAD population (n = 180) and in a normal population (n = 614) in Sweden. Confirmatory factor analyses of previously reported factor solutions were tested but did not reveal acceptable fit. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) of the joint structure of the scales in the total population yielded a two-factor model (performance anxiety and social interaction anxiety), whereas EFA in the clinical sample revealed a three-factor solution, a social interaction anxiety factor and two performance anxiety factors. The SPS and SIAS showed good to excellent internal consistency, and discriminated well between patients with SAD and a normal population sample. Both scales showed good convergent validity with an established measure of SAD, whereas the discriminant validity of symptoms of social anxiety and depression could not be confirmed. The optimal cut-off score for SPS and SIAS were 18 and 22 points, respectively. It is concluded that the factor structure and the additional psychometric properties of SPS and SIAS support the use of the scales for assessment in a Swedish population.

  1. Social Interaction and Linguistic Gain during Study Abroad

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Magnan, Sally Sieloff; Back, Michele

    2007-01-01

    This study investigates the role of social interaction in language gain among study abroad students in France. Using the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), the Can-Do self-assessment scale (Clark, 1981), a revised version of the Language Contact Profile (LCP; Freed, Dewey, Segalowitz, & Halter, 2001), and pre- and postdeparture…

  2. Different impressions of other agents obtained through social interaction uniquely modulate dorsal and ventral pathway activities in the social human brain.

    PubMed

    Takahashi, Hideyuki; Terada, Kazunori; Morita, Tomoyo; Suzuki, Shinsuke; Haji, Tomoki; Kozima, Hideki; Yoshikawa, Masahiro; Matsumoto, Yoshio; Omori, Takashi; Asada, Minoru; Naito, Eiichi

    2014-09-01

    Internal (neuronal) representations in the brain are modified by our experiences, and this phenomenon is not unique to sensory and motor systems. Here, we show that different impressions obtained through social interaction with a variety of agents uniquely modulate activity of dorsal and ventral pathways of the brain network that mediates human social behavior. We scanned brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 16 healthy volunteers when they performed a simple matching-pennies game with a human, human-like android, mechanical robot, interactive robot, and a computer. Before playing this game in the scanner, participants experienced social interactions with each opponent separately and scored their initial impressions using two questionnaires. We found that the participants perceived opponents in two mental dimensions: one represented "mind-holderness" in which participants attributed anthropomorphic impressions to some of the opponents that had mental functions, while the other dimension represented "mind-readerness" in which participants characterized opponents as intelligent. Interestingly, this "mind-readerness" dimension correlated to participants frequently changing their game tactic to prevent opponents from envisioning their strategy, and this was corroborated by increased entropy during the game. We also found that the two factors separately modulated activity in distinct social brain regions. Specifically, mind-holderness modulated activity in the dorsal aspect of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and medial prefrontal and posterior paracingulate cortices, while mind-readerness modulated activity in the ventral aspect of TPJ and the temporal pole. These results clearly demonstrate that activity in social brain networks is modulated through pre-scanning experiences of social interaction with a variety of agents. Furthermore, our findings elucidated the existence of two distinct functional networks in the social human brain

  3. New Frontiers in Analyzing Dynamic Group Interactions: Bridging Social and Computer Science

    PubMed Central

    Lehmann-Willenbrock, Nale; Hung, Hayley; Keyton, Joann

    2017-01-01

    This special issue on advancing interdisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists and social scientists documents the joint results of the international Lorentz workshop, “Interdisciplinary Insights into Group and Team Dynamics,” which took place in Leiden, The Netherlands, July 2016. An equal number of scholars from social and computer science participated in the workshop and contributed to the papers included in this special issue. In this introduction, we first identify interaction dynamics as the core of group and team models and review how scholars in social and computer science have typically approached behavioral interactions in groups and teams. Next, we identify key challenges for interdisciplinary collaboration between social and computer scientists, and we provide an overview of the different articles in this special issue aimed at addressing these challenges. PMID:29249891

  4. Some characteristics of social interactions among adolescents in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia

    PubMed Central

    Klarin, Mira; Pororoković, Ana; Šašić, Slavica Šimić; Arnaudova, Violeta

    2012-01-01

    Introduction The bioecological model refers to the basic social needs that a person has satisfied through social interactions. In individualist cultures, the need for independence is emphasized with the aim of self-realization and personal achievement. In collectivist cultures, togetherness is encouraged and it prevails over individuality. Aim The aim of this study was to determine whether there were differences in adolescents (n = 1033) from three different cultural environments (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia) with regard to the various aspects of the social interactions and behaviors these adolescents exercise with their parents and friends. Methods Three groups of questionnaires were used: those that measure family interactions (the quality of family interactions, loneliness in the family, and family influence); those that assess peer interactions (quality of friendships, social loneliness, and influence of friendships); and those that examined behavioral variables (self-esteem, aggression, and prosocialness). Results Discriminant analysis has shown that there are two significant functions that differentiate subjects from the three different cultural environments. The first discriminant function that adequately discriminates between subjects in all three cultural environments is related to social and family loneliness and the influence of friends. Loneliness in the family, social loneliness, and influence of friends are most prevalent among adolescents in Macedonia and least among adolescents in Croatia. The second function that distinguished adolescents in Croatia from those in the other two cultural environments was primarily connected with the quality of family interactions, aggressiveness, parent influence, and self-esteem. Finally, it was found that adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina were more likely to engage in family interactions, have greater levels of parental influence, and appeared to be less aggressive and had lower self

  5. Qualities of Peer Relations on Social Networking Websites: Predictions from Negative Mother-Teen Interactions.

    PubMed

    Szwedo, David E; Mikami, Amori Yee; Allen, Joseph P

    2011-09-01

    This study examined associations between characteristics of teenagers' relationships with their mothers and their later socializing behavior and peer relationship quality online. At age 13, teenagers and their mothers participated in an interaction in which mothers' and adolescents' behavior undermining autonomy and relatedness was observed, and indicators of teens' depressive symptoms and social anxiety were assessed. At age 20, youth self-reported on their online behaviors, youths' social networking webpages were observationally coded to assess peer relationship quality online, and symptoms of depression and social anxiety were reassessed. Results suggested that problematic mother-teen relationships were predictive of youths' later preference for online communication and greater likelihood of forming a friendship with someone met online, yet poorer quality in online relationships. Findings are discussed within a developmental framework suggesting the importance of considering youths' family interactions during early adolescence as predictors of future online socializing behavior and online interactions with peers.

  6. Social Presence and Interaction in Learning Environments: The Effect on Student Success

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kožuh, Ines; Jeremic, Zoran; Sarjaš, Andrej; Bele, Julija Lapuh; Devedžic, Vladan; Debevc, Matjaž

    2015-01-01

    With the increased use of social media there is a growing interest in using social interaction and social presence in education. Despite this phenomenon, no appropriate methodology was found on effective integrating of both concepts into online learning. In this study, we propose integrating two different kinds of learning tools to provide social…

  7. Tips for Teachers Selecting Toys to Facilitate Social Interaction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vail, Cynthia O.; Elmore, Shannon Renee

    2011-01-01

    Toy selection is an important role for early childhood teachers. This research-to-practice article describes what research tells us about how toys can affect the social interactions and communication of young children including those with developmental delays.

  8. A Model for Enhancing Social Communication and Interaction in Everyday Activities for Primary School Children with ASD

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peters, Brenda

    2016-01-01

    Children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder may find the social aspects of learning particularly challenging because of the traits of diffculty with social communication and interaction. This paper evaluates the impact of an interactive model designed to support social communication and interaction for twelve students with ASD, who…

  9. Effects of neonatal excitotoxic lesions in ventral thalamus on social interaction in the rat.

    PubMed

    Wolf, Rainer; Dobrowolny, Henrik; Nullmeier, Sven; Bogerts, Bernhard; Schwegler, Herbert

    2017-03-30

    The role of the thalamus in schizophrenia has increasingly been studied in recent years. Deficits in the ventral thalamus have been described in only few postmortem and neuroimaging studies. We utilised our previously introduced neurodevelopmental animal model, the neonatal excitotoxic lesion of the ventral thalamus of Sprague-Dawley rats (Wolf et al., Pharmacopsychiatry 43:99-109, 22). At postnatal day (PD7), male pubs received bilateral thalamic infusions with ibotenic acid (IBA) or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (control). In adulthood, social interaction of two animals not familiar to each other was studied by a computerised video tracking system. This study displays clear lesion effects on social interaction of adult male rats. The significant reduction of total contact time and the significant increase in distance between the animals in the IBA group compared to controls can be interpreted as social withdrawal modelling a negative symptom of schizophrenia. The significant increase of total distance travelled in the IBA group can be hypothesised as agitation modelling a positive symptom of schizophrenia. Using a triple concept of social interaction, the percentage of no social interaction (Non-SI%) was significantly larger, and inversely, the percentage of passive social interaction (SI-passive%) was significantly smaller in the IBA group when compared to controls. In conclusion, on the background of findings in schizophrenic patients, the effects of neonatal ventral thalamic IBA lesions in adult male rats support the hypothesis of face and construct validity as animal model of schizophrenia.

  10. Understanding and Designing for Interactional Privacy Needs within Social Networking Sites

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wisniewski, Pamela J.

    2012-01-01

    "Interpersonal boundary regulation" is a way to optimize social interactions when sharing and connecting through Social Networking Sites (SNSs). The theoretical foundation of much of my research comes from Altman's work on privacy management in the physical world. Altman believed that "we should attempt to design responsive…

  11. Utilizing Teaching Interactions to Facilitate Social Skills in the Natural Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kassardjian, Alyne; Taubman, Mitchell; Rudrud, Eric; Leaf, Justin B.; Edwards, Andrew; McEachin, John; Leaf, Ron; Schulze, Kim

    2013-01-01

    Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often display deficits in social skills. While research has shown behavioral interventions to be effective in teaching and/or increasing a variety of appropriate social skills, limited research has shown generalization of these skills to the natural setting. The Teaching Interaction procedure…

  12. Play Time/Social Time: Organizing Your Classroom To Build Interaction Skills.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Odom, Samuel L.; McConnell, Scott R.; Ostrosky, Michaelene; Peterson, Carla; Skellenger, Annette; Spicuzza, Richard; Chandler, Lynette K.; McEvoy, Mary A.

    This curriculum guide provides classroom organizational guidelines, activities, and lesson plans to promote social interaction and the development of social competence in preschool children with disabilities or at risk for developmental problems or delays. The program is designed to include peers who are either developing normally or have higher…

  13. Gender differences of social interactions and their effects on subjective well-being among Japanese elders

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Objectives Gender differences of social interactions and their effects on subjective well-being among Japanese elders over three years were examined. Methods Repeated measurements of 498 elders over a three-year survey interval were obtained from a baseline mail survey and two- and three-year follow-up surveys. Outcomes were analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Results Male elders were more likely to have a spouse and work at paid jobs, while female elders were likely to have more frequent contacts with their child/children and more interactions with friends. As the elders aged over three years, life satisfaction decreased, while depression did not show any significant overall trend. There were no beneficial effects of social interactions on change in well-being, although social participation, interaction with friends, and conversation with spouse were beneficially related to baseline levels of both depressive tendency and life satisfaction. Among female elders only, the number of children had beneficial effects on life satisfaction. Conclusions There are modest gender differences of the impact of social interactions on the well-being of Japanese elders, and the number of children seems to be more important as potential sources of support for female rather than male elders. Spousal conversation and non-obligatory social interaction such as unpaid social activities and friendship seem to be important for both male and female elders in Japan. These findings suggest that social relations among Japanese elders may be moving away from more gender dependent patterns seen in the past. PMID:23614456

  14. Social interaction in management group meetings: a case study of Finnish hospital.

    PubMed

    Laapotti, Tomi; Mikkola, Leena

    2016-06-20

    Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of management group meetings (MGMs) in hospital organization by examining the social interaction in these meetings. Design/methodology/approach - This case study approaches social interaction from a structuration point of view. Social network analysis and qualitative content analysis are applied. Findings - The findings show that MGMs are mainly forums for information sharing. Meetings are not held for problem solving or decision making, and operational coordinating is limited. Meeting interaction is very much focused on the chair, and most of the discussion takes place between the chair and one other member, not between members. The organizational structures are maintained and reproduced in the meeting interaction, and they appear to limit discussion. Meetings appear to fulfil their goals as a part of the organization's information structure and to some extent as an instrument for management. The significance of the relational side of MGMs was recognized. Research limitations/implications - The results of this study provide a basis for future research on hospital MGMs with wider datasets and other methodologies. Especially the relational role of MGMs needs more attention. Practical implications - The goals of MGMs should be reviewed and MG members should be made aware of meeting interaction structures. Originality/value - The paper provides new knowledge about interaction networks in hospital MGMs, and describes the complexity of the importance of MGMs for hospitals.

  15. Social Interaction Strategies and Techniques for Today's Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saurino, Dan R.; Saurino, Penelope; Clemente, Robert

    2009-01-01

    An emerging research tool used in recent years to better understand and improve teacher thinking has been the use of collaboration and collaborative action research. In our study, we were interested in whether teachers could enhance the learning of their subjects through the use of teaching techniques and strategies involving social interaction.…

  16. Increasing Social Interaction Using Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching with Nonverbal School-Age Children with Autism

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Franco, Jessica H.; Davis, Barbara L.; Davis, John L.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: Children with autism display marked deficits in initiating and maintaining social interaction. Intervention using play routines can create a framework for developing and maintaining social interaction between these children and their communication partners. Method: Six nonverbal 5- to 8-year-olds with autism were taught to engage in…

  17. Interactive Effects of Anxiety Sensitivity and Subjective Social Status on Psychological Symptomatology in Black Adults.

    PubMed

    Reitzel, Lorraine R; Childress, Sarah D; Obasi, Ezemenari M; Garey, Lorra; Vidrine, Damon J; McNeill, Lorna H; Zvolensky, Michael J

    2017-01-01

    Anxiety sensitivity is the fear of anxiety-related sensations and subjective social status is a self-perception of social standing relative to others: both constructs have been linked to psychological symptomatology. This study investigated the interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity and social status in relation to anxiety and depressive symptomatology expression among 124 black adults. Participants provided sociodemographics and completed self-report questionnaires. The interactive associations between anxiety sensitivity and social status on anxiety symptomatology and depressive symptomatology were examined with hierarchical linear regressions adjusted for sociodemographics and negative affectivity. Significant interactions between anxiety sensitivity and social status were evident only for anxiety symptoms: specifically, the association between anxiety sensitivity and anxiety symptoms was much stronger for individuals with lower (versus higher) subjective social status. Black adults with this higher anxiety sensitivity/lower social status phenotype may be at heightened risk for the expression of anxiety symptomatology, and may benefit from interventions to reduce anxiety sensitivity.

  18. Musical friends and foes: The social cognition of affiliation and control in improvised interactions.

    PubMed

    Aucouturier, Jean-Julien; Canonne, Clément

    2017-04-01

    A recently emerging view in music cognition holds that music is not only social and participatory in its production, but also in its perception, i.e. that music is in fact perceived as the sonic trace of social relations between a group of real or virtual agents. While this view appears compatible with a number of intriguing music cognitive phenomena, such as the links between beat entrainment and prosocial behaviour or between strong musical emotions and empathy, direct evidence is lacking that listeners are at all able to use the acoustic features of a musical interaction to infer the affiliatory or controlling nature of an underlying social intention. We created a novel experimental situation in which we asked expert music improvisers to communicate 5 types of non-musical social intentions, such as being domineering, disdainful or conciliatory, to one another solely using musical interaction. Using a combination of decoding studies, computational and psychoacoustical analyses, we show that both musically-trained and non musically-trained listeners can recognize relational intentions encoded in music, and that this social cognitive ability relies, to a sizeable extent, on the information processing of acoustic cues of temporal and harmonic coordination that are not present in any one of the musicians' channels, but emerge from the dynamics of their interaction. By manipulating these cues in two-channel audio recordings and testing their impact on the social judgements of non-musician observers, we finally establish a causal relationship between the affiliation dimension of social behaviour and musical harmonic coordination on the one hand, and between the control dimension and musical temporal coordination on the other hand. These results provide novel mechanistic insights not only into the social cognition of musical interactions, but also into that of non-verbal interactions as a whole. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  19. Criteria for Public Open Space Enhancement to Achieve Social Interaction: a Review Paper

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salih, S. A.; Ismail, S.

    2017-12-01

    A This paper presents a various literatures, studies, transcripts and papers aiming to provide an overview of some theories and existing research on the significance of natural environments and green open spaces to achieve social interaction and outdoor recreation. The main objective of the paper is to identify the factors that affecting social interaction in green open spaces, through proving that an appropriate open spaces is important to enhance social interaction and community. This study employs (qualitative) summarizing content analysis method which mainly focused on collect and summarizing of documentation such as transcripts, articles, papers, and books from more than 25 source, regarding the importance of public open spaces for the community. The summarizing content analysis of this paper is the fundament for a qualitative oriented procedure of text interpretation used to analyse the information gathered. Results of this study confirms that sound social interaction need an appropriate physical space including criteria of: design, activities, access and linkage, administration and maintenance, place attachment and users’ characteristics, also previous studies in this area have a health perspective with measures of physical activity of open spaces in general.

  20. The Dynamic Reactance Interaction – How Vested Interests Affect People’s Experience, Behavior, and Cognition in Social Interactions

    PubMed Central

    Steindl, Christina; Jonas, Eva

    2015-01-01

    In social interactions, individuals may sometimes pursue their own interests at the expense of their interaction partner. Such self-interested behaviors impose a threat to the interaction partner’s freedom to act. The current article investigates this threat in the context of interdependence and reactance theory. We explore how vested interests influence reactance process stages of an advisor–client interaction. We aim to explore the interactional process that evolves. In two studies, participants took the perspective of a doctor (advisor) or a patient (client). In both studies we incorporated a vested interest. In Study 1 (N = 82) we found that in response to a vested interest of their interaction partner, patients indicated a stronger experience of reactance, more aggressive behavioral intentions, and more biased cognitions than doctors. A serial multiple mediation revealed that a vested interest engendered mistrust toward the interaction partner and this mistrust led to an emerging reactance process. Study 2 (N = 207) further demonstrated that doctors expressed their reactance in a subtle way: they revealed a classic confirmation bias when searching for additional information on their preliminary decision preference, indicating stronger defense motivation. We discuss how these findings can help us to understand how social interactions develop dynamically. PMID:26640444

  1. Long-term outcome of social skills intervention based on interactive LEGO play.

    PubMed

    Legoff, Daniel B; Sherman, Michael

    2006-07-01

    LEGO building materials have been adapted as a therapeutic modality for increasing motivation to participate in social skills intervention, and providing a medium through which children with social and communication handicaps can effectively interact. A 3 year retrospective study of long-term outcome for autistic spectrum children participating in LEGO therapy (N = 60) compared Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale socialization domain (VABS-SD) and Gilliam Autism Rating Scale social interaction subscale (GARS-SI) scores preand post-treatment with a matched comparison sample (N = 57) who received comparable non-LEGO therapy. Although both groups made significant gains on the two outcome measures, LEGO participants improved significantly more than the comparison subjects. Diagnosis and pre-treatment full-scale IQ scores did not predict outcome scores; however, Vineland adaptive behavior composite, Vineland communication domain, and verbal IQ all predicted outcome on the VABS-SD, especially for the LEGO therapy group. Results are discussed in terms of implications for methods of social skills intervention for autistic spectrum disorders.

  2. Nonverbal expressive behaviour in schizophrenia and social phobia.

    PubMed

    Del-Monte, Jonathan; Raffard, Stéphane; Salesse, Robin N; Marin, Ludovic; Schmidt, Richard C; Varlet, Manuel; Bardy, Benoît G; Philippe Boulenger, Jean; Christine Gély-Nargeot, Marie; Capdevielle, Delphine

    2013-11-30

    Expressive behaviour plays a crucial role in the success of social interactions. Abnormality of expressive behaviour has been reported in interpersonal interactions of patients suffering from schizophrenia and social phobia, two debilitating mental disorders with important social deficits. However, no study has compared the expressive behaviour in these two disorders. Thirty schizophrenia patients, 21 social phobia patients and 30 healthy controls were evaluated and compared on expressive, cognitive and clinical dimensions. Expressive behaviour was assessed using the Motor Affective subscale of the Motor-Affective-Social-Scale (MASS). Covariables include the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the anxiety level Liebowitz-Social-Anxiety-Scale (LSAS) and cognitive tasks. After controlling for depression, schizophrenia and social phobia patients both exhibited significantly fewer expressive behaviours compared to healthy controls. Moreover, our results showed specific signatures: schizophrenia patients performed fewer spontaneous gestures (hand gestures and smiles) whereas social phobia patients had an impaired ability to produce voluntary smiles in comparison to healthy controls. Interestingly, poor social functioning was significantly correlated with a decrease of expressive behaviour for schizophrenia patients. Expressive behaviour is impaired in different ways in social phobia and schizophrenia and is associated in schizophrenia with poorer social functioning. The Motor Affective subscale of the MASS is an interesting tool for assessing the dysfunction of interpersonal expressive behaviour in mental disorders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Social inequalities in health: measuring the contribution of housing deprivation and social interactions for Spain

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Introduction Social factors have been proved to be main determinants of individuals’ health. Recent studies have also analyzed the contribution of some of those factors, such as education and job status, to socioeconomic inequalities in health. The aim of this paper is to provide new evidence about the factors driving socioeconomic inequalities in health for the Spanish population by including housing deprivation and social interactions as health determinants. Methods Cross-sectional study based on the Spanish sample of European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for 2006. The concentration index measuring income-related inequality in health is decomposed into the contribution of each determinant. Several models are estimated to test the influence of different regressors for three proxies of ill-health. Results Health inequality favouring the better-off is observed in the distribution of self-assessed health, presence of chronic diseases and presence of limiting conditions. Inequality is mainly explained, besides age, by social factors such as labour status and financial deprivation. Housing deprivation contributes to pro-rich inequality in a percentage ranging from 7.17% to 13.85%, and social interactions from 6.16% to 10.19%. The contribution of some groups of determinants significantly differs depending on the ill-health variable used. Conclusions Health inequalities can be mostly reduced or shaped by policy, as they are mainly explained by social determinants such as labour status, education and other socioeconomic conditions. The major role played on health inequality by variables taking part in social exclusion points to the need to focus on the most vulnerable groups. JEL Codes H51, I14, I18 PMID:23241384

  4. Qualities of Peer Relations on Social Networking Websites: Predictions from Negative Mother-Teen Interactions

    PubMed Central

    Szwedo, David E.; Mikami, Amori Yee; Allen, Joseph P.

    2010-01-01

    This study examined associations between characteristics of teenagers’ relationships with their mothers and their later socializing behavior and peer relationship quality online. At age 13, teenagers and their mothers participated in an interaction in which mothers’ and adolescents’ behavior undermining autonomy and relatedness was observed, and indicators of teens’ depressive symptoms and social anxiety were assessed. At age 20, youth self-reported on their online behaviors, youths’ social networking webpages were observationally coded to assess peer relationship quality online, and symptoms of depression and social anxiety were reassessed. Results suggested that problematic mother-teen relationships were predictive of youths’ later preference for online communication and greater likelihood of forming a friendship with someone met online, yet poorer quality in online relationships. Findings are discussed within a developmental framework suggesting the importance of considering youths’ family interactions during early adolescence as predictors of future online socializing behavior and online interactions with peers. PMID:21860584

  5. Introduction: Links between Social Interaction and Executive Function

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lewis, Charlie; Carpendale, Jeremy I. M.

    2009-01-01

    The term executive function is used increasingly within developmental psychology and is often taken to refer to unfolding brain processes. We trace the origins of research on executive function to show that the link with social interaction has a long history. We suggest that a recent frenzy of research exploring methods for studying individual…

  6. Personal space regulation in childhood autism: Effects of social interaction and person's perspective.

    PubMed

    Candini, Michela; Giuberti, Virginia; Manattini, Alessandra; Grittani, Serenella; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe; Frassinetti, Francesca

    2017-01-01

    Studies in children with Typical Development (TD) and with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) revealed that autism affects the personal space regulation, influencing both its size (permeability) and its changes depending on social interaction (flexibility). Here, we investigate how the nature of social interaction (Cooperative vs. Uncooperative) and the person perspective influence permeability and flexibility of interpersonal distance. Moreover, we tested whether the deficit observed in ASD children, reflects the social impairment (SI) in daily interactions. The stop-distance paradigm was used to measure the preferred distance between the participant and an unfamiliar adult (first-person perspective, Experiment 1), and between two other people (third-person perspective, Experiment 2). Interpersonal distance was measured before and after the interaction with a confederate. The Wing Subgroups Questionnaire was used to evaluate SI in everyday activities, and each ASD participant was accordingly assigned either to the lower (children with low social impairment [low-SI ASD]), or to the higher SI group (children with high social impairment [high-SI ASD]). We observed larger interpersonal distance (permeability) in both ASD groups compared to TD children. Moreover, depending on the nature of social interaction, a modulation of interpersonal distance (flexibility) was observed in TD children, both from the first- and third-person perspective. Similar findings were found in low-SI but not in high-SI ASD children, in Experiment 1. Conversely, in Experiment 2, no change was observed in both ASD groups. These findings reveal that SI severity and a person's perspective may account for the deficit observed in autism when flexibility, but not permeability, of personal space is considered. Autism Res 2017, 10: 144-154. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. Relational utility as a moderator of guilt in social interactions.

    PubMed

    Nelissen, Rob M A

    2014-02-01

    The capacity to experience guilt is assumed to benefit individuals, as the rewards of repeated, cooperative interactions are likely to exceed the rewards of acting selfishly. If that assumption is true, the extent to which people experience guilt over interpersonal transgressions should at least partly depend on the utility of another person for the attainment of personal goal(s) through social interaction (relational utility). Three experiments confirmed the relational utility hypothesis by showing that people felt guiltier (a) over excluding someone from a fun game if this person could subsequently distribute more money in a dictator game, (b) over hypothetical social transgressions toward a person who was instrumental to the attainment of a salient goal than toward a person who was not instrumental to the attainment of that goal and toward the same person when no goal was salient, and (c) over a low contribution in a social dilemma game if they were more dependent on their group members for performing well in a subsequent debating contest. Closeness with the other person, differences in severity of the transgression, and strategic motives for expressing guilt were consistently excluded as alternative accounts of the effects. By showing that relational utility may affect guilt, these findings (a) provide support for the individual level function of guilt; (b) extend research on the antecedents of guilt in social interactions, which mainly focused on retrospective appraisals; and (c) bear implications for the status of guilt as a moral emotion. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  8. Sexual assertiveness mediates the effect of social interaction anxiety on sexual victimization risk among college women.

    PubMed

    Schry, Amie R; White, Susan W

    2013-03-01

    Sexual victimization is prevalent among college women and is associated with adverse psychological consequences. Social anxiety, particularly related to interpersonal interaction, may increase risk of sexual victimization among college women by decreasing sexual assertiveness and decreasing the likelihood of using assertive resistance techniques. This study examined social interaction anxiety as a risk factor for sexual victimization. College women (n=672) completed online measures of social interaction anxiety, sexual assertiveness, and sexual victimization experiences. Social interaction anxiety was significantly positively related to likelihood of experiencing coerced sexual intercourse, and significant indirect effects, via decreased sexual refusal assertiveness, were found for both coerced sexual intercourse and rape. Social anxiety may be an important psychological barrier to assertive resistance during risky sexual situations, and developers of risk reduction programs for college women should consider including methods to help women overcome their social anxiety in order to successfully use assertive resistance techniques. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  9. Influence of long-term social interaction on chirping behavior, steroid levels and neurogenesis in weakly electric fish.

    PubMed

    Dunlap, Kent D; Chung, Michael; Castellano, James F

    2013-07-01

    Social interactions dramatically affect the brain and behavior of animals. Studies in birds and mammals indicate that socially induced changes in adult neurogenesis participate in the regulation of social behavior, but little is known about this relationship in fish. Here, we review studies in electric fish (Apteronotus leptorhychus) that link social stimulation, changes in electrocommunication behavior and adult neurogenesis in brain regions associated with electrocommunication. Compared with isolated fish, fish living in pairs have greater production of chirps, an electrocommunication signal, during dyadic interactions and in response to standardized artificial social stimuli. Social interaction also promotes neurogenesis in the periventricular zone, which contributes born cells to the prepacemaker nucleus, the brain region that regulates chirping. Both long-term chirp rate and periventricular cell addition depend on the signal dynamics (amplitude and waveform variation), modulations (chirps) and novelty of the stimuli from the partner fish. Socially elevated cortisol levels and cortisol binding to glucocorticoid receptors mediate, at least in part, the effect of social interaction on chirping behavior and brain cell addition. In a closely related electric fish (Brachyhypopomus gauderio), social interaction enhances cell proliferation specifically in brain regions for electrocommunication and only during the breeding season, when social signaling is most elaborate. Together, these studies demonstrate a consistent correlation between brain cell addition and environmentally regulated chirping behavior across many social and steroidal treatments and suggest a causal relationship.

  10. Faculty Perceptions of Appropriate Faculty Behaviors in Social Interactions With Student Pharmacists

    PubMed Central

    Jones, Melissa C.; Farris, Karen B.; Havrda, Dawn; Jackson, Kenneth C.; Hamrick, Terri S.

    2011-01-01

    Objective To determine faculty and administrator perceptions about appropriate behavior in social interactions between pharmacy students and faculty members. Methods Four private and 2 public colleges and schools of pharmacy conducted focus groups of faculty members and interviews with administrators. Three scenarios describing social interactions between faculty members and students were used. For each scenario, participants reported whether the faculty member's behavior was appropriate and provided reasons for their opinions. Results Forty-four percent of those surveyed or interviewed considered interactions between faculty members and pharmacy students at a bar to be a boundary violation. Administrators were more likely than faculty members to consider discussing other faculty members with a student to be a boundary violation (82% vs. 46%, respectively, P <0.009). A majority (87%) of faculty members and administrators considered “friending” students on Facebook a boundary violation. Conclusions There was no clear consensus about whether socializing with students at a bar was a boundary violation. In general, study participants agreed that faculty members should not initiate friendships with current students on social networks but that taking a student employee to lunch was acceptable. PMID:21769146

  11. Genetic predispositions and parental bonding interact to shape adults' physiological responses to social distress.

    PubMed

    Esposito, Gianluca; Truzzi, Anna; Setoh, Peipei; Putnick, Diane L; Shinohara, Kazuyuki; Bornstein, Marc H

    2017-05-15

    Parental bonding and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene genotype each influences social abilities in adulthood. Here, we hypothesized an interaction between the two - environmental experience (parental bonding history) and genetic factors (OXTR gene genotype) - in shaping adults' social sensitivity (physiological response to distress). We assessed heart rate and peripheral temperature (tip of the nose) in 42 male adults during presentation of distress vocalizations (distress cries belonging to female human infants and adults as well as bonobo). The two physiological responses index, respectively, state of arousal and readiness to action. Participants' parental bonding in childhood was assessed through the self-report Parental Bonding Instrument. To assess participants' genetic predispositions, buccal mucosa cell samples were collected, and region rs2254298 of the oxytocin receptor gene was analyzed: previous OXTR gene findings point to associations between the G allele and better sociality (protective factor) and the A allele and poorer sociality (risk factor). We found a gene * environment interaction for susceptibility to social distress: Participants with a genetic risk factor (A carriers) with a history of high paternal overprotection showed higher heart rate increase than those without this risk factor (G/G genotype) to social distress.Also, a significant effect of the interaction between paternal care and genotype on nose temperature changes was found. This susceptibility appears to represent an indirect pathway through which genes and experiences interact to shape mature social sensitivity in males. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Genetic predispositions and parental bonding interact to shape adults’ physiological responses to social distress

    PubMed Central

    Esposito, Gianluca; Truzzi, Anna; Setoh, Peipei; Putnick, Diane L.; Shinohara, Kazuyuki; Bornstein, Marc H.

    2018-01-01

    Parental bonding and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene genotype each influences social abilities in adulthood. Here, we hypothesized an interaction between the two – environmental experience (parental bonding history) and genetic factors (OXTR gene genotype) – in shaping adults’ social sensitivity (physiological response to distress). We assessed heart rate and peripheral temperature (tip of the nose) in 42 male adults during presentation of distress vocalizations (distress cries belonging to female human infants and adults as well as bonobo). The two physiological responses index, respectively, state of arousal and readiness to action. Participants’ parental bonding in childhood was assessed through the self-report Parental Bonding Instrument. To assess participants’ genetic predispositions, buccal mucosa cell samples were collected, and region rs2254298 of the oxytocin receptor gene was analyzed: previous OXTR gene findings point to associations between the G allele and better sociality (protective factor) and the A allele and poorer sociality (risk factor). We found a gene * environment interaction for susceptibility to social distress: Participants with a genetic risk factor (A carriers) with a history of high paternal overprotection showed higher heart rate increase than those without this risk factor (G/G genotype) to social distress. Also, a significant effect of the interaction between paternal care and genotype on nose temperature changes was found. This susceptibility appears to represent an indirect pathway through which genes and experiences interact to shape mature social sensitivity in males. PMID:27343933

  13. Teaching Human Poses Interactively to a Social Robot

    PubMed Central

    Gonzalez-Pacheco, Victor; Malfaz, Maria; Fernandez, Fernando; Salichs, Miguel A.

    2013-01-01

    The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher's explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth) -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics. PMID:24048336

  14. Teaching human poses interactively to a social robot.

    PubMed

    Gonzalez-Pacheco, Victor; Malfaz, Maria; Fernandez, Fernando; Salichs, Miguel A

    2013-09-17

    The main activity of social robots is to interact with people. In order to do that, the robot must be able to understand what the user is saying or doing. Typically, this capability consists of pre-programmed behaviors or is acquired through controlled learning processes, which are executed before the social interaction begins. This paper presents a software architecture that enables a robot to learn poses in a similar way as people do. That is, hearing its teacher's explanations and acquiring new knowledge in real time. The architecture leans on two main components: an RGB-D (Red-, Green-, Blue- Depth) -based visual system, which gathers the user examples, and an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system, which processes the speech describing those examples. The robot is able to naturally learn the poses the teacher is showing to it by maintaining a natural interaction with the teacher. We evaluate our system with 24 users who teach the robot a predetermined set of poses. The experimental results show that, with a few training examples, the system reaches high accuracy and robustness. This method shows how to combine data from the visual and auditory systems for the acquisition of new knowledge in a natural manner. Such a natural way of training enables robots to learn from users, even if they are not experts in robotics.

  15. Complex interaction between symptoms, social factors, and gender in social functioning in a community-dwelling sample of schizophrenia.

    PubMed

    Vila-Rodriguez, F; Ochoa, S; Autonell, J; Usall, J; Haro, J M

    2011-12-01

    Social functioning (SF) is the ultimate target aimed in treatment plans in schizophrenia, thus it is critical to know what are the factors that determine SF. Gender is a well-established variable influencing SF, yet it is not known how social variables and symptoms interact in schizophrenia patients. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the interaction between social variables and symptoms is different in men compared to women. Our aim is to test whether social variables are better predictors of SF in community-dwelled individuals with schizophrenia, and whether men and women differ in how symptoms and social variables interact to impact SF. Community-dwelling individuals with schizophrenia (N = 231) were randomly selected from a register. Participants were assessed with symptom measures (PANSS), performance-based social scale (LSP), objective social and demographic variables. Stratification by gender and stepwise multivariate regression analyses by gender were used to find the best-fitting models that predict SF in both gender. Men had poorer SF than women in spite of showing similar symptom scores. On stepwise regression analyses, gender was the main variable explaining SF, with a significant contribution by disorganized and excitatory symptoms. Age of onset made a less marked, yet significant, contribution to explain SF. When the sample was stratified by gender, disorganized symptoms and 'Income' variable entered the model and accounted for a 30.8% of the SF variance in women. On the other hand, positive and disorganized symptoms entered the model and accounted for a 36.1% of the SF variance in men. Community-dwelling men and women with schizophrenia differ in the constellation of variables associated with SF. Symptom scores still account for most of the variance in SF in both genders.

  16. Collaboration by Design: Using Robotics to Foster Social Interaction in Kindergarten

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Kenneth T. H.; Sullivan, Amanda; Bers, Marina U.

    2013-01-01

    Research shows the importance of social interaction between peers in child development. Although technology can foster peer interactions, teachers often struggle with teaching with technology. This study examined a sample of (n = 19) children participating in a kindergarten robotics summer workshop to determine the effect of teaching using a…

  17. Changes in social interaction over 20 years and the effects of community resources use among community-dwelling elderly persons.

    PubMed

    Watanabe, Kumi; Tanaka, Emiko; Wu, Bailiang; Kobayashi, Zyunko; Mochizuki, Yukiko; Kim, Yeon; Watanabe, Taeko; Okumura, Rika; Ito, Sumio; Anme, Tokie

    2017-01-01

    Objectives Recently, social isolation has been reported to be a critical problem among Japanese elderly persons. However, few studies have compared social interaction in the past and the present or investigated its predictive factors. This study aimed to clarify the transitional changes in social interaction over 20 years and explore the factors related to social interaction focusing on the use of community resources.Methods The participants were community-dwelling elderly persons aged 65 years and over. A survey was conducted 8 times from 1994 to 2014 in the suburban area of Tobishima, Japan. The Index of Social Interaction Scale was used and each subscale and the total score were calculated. Subsequently, the 2014 scores were compared with the 1994 scores using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to clarify the factors related to social interaction, focusing on the association between the use of community resources (local elderly management center, health care center, health promotion facility, library) in 2011 and social interaction 3 years later. Age, gender, disease, and mobility were also entered into the model as control variables.Results Comparing social interaction in 1994 and 2014, total scores were found to have significantly increased in all age groups. Independence scores significantly increased in the overall group and in females aged 75-84. Curiosity scores also increased in both males and females. These results show that social interaction has increased over 2 decades. In addition, the use of local elderly management and health care centers, and health promotion facilities was associated with total social interaction scores 3 years later.Conclusion The current study clarified changes in social interaction, both comprehensively and for each of its aspects, among community-dwelling elderly adults. Increasing social isolation has been reported in recent years; however, the current study showed that social

  18. The specific social costs of expressive negative symptoms in schizophrenia: reduced smiling predicts interactional outcome.

    PubMed

    Riehle, M; Mehl, S; Lincoln, T M

    2018-04-17

    We tested whether people with schizophrenia and prominent expressive negative symptoms (ENS) show reduced facial expressions in face-to-face social interactions and whether this expressive reduction explains negative social evaluations of these persons. We compared participants with schizophrenia with high ENS (n = 18) with participants with schizophrenia with low ENS (n = 30) and with healthy controls (n = 39). Participants engaged in an affiliative role-play that was coded for the frequency of positive and negative facial expression and rated for social performance skills and willingness for future interactions with the respective role-play partner. Participants with schizophrenia with high ENS showed significantly fewer positive facial expressions than those with low ENS and controls and were also rated significantly lower on social performance skills and willingness for future interactions. Participants with schizophrenia with low ENS did not differ from controls on these measures. The group difference in willingness for future interactions was significantly and independently mediated by the reduced positive facial expressions and social performance skills. Reduced facial expressiveness in schizophrenia is specifically related to ENS and has negative social consequences. These findings highlight the need to develop aetiological models and targeted interventions for ENS and its social consequences. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. The Effects of Structured Physical Activity Program on Social Interaction and Communication for Children with Autism.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Mengxian; Chen, Shihui

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of structured physical activity program on social interaction and communication of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Fifty children with ASD from a special school were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. 25 children with ASD were placed in the experimental group, and the other 25 children as the control group participated in regular physical activity. A total of forty-one participants completed the study. A 12-week structured physical activity program was implemented with a total of 24 exercise sessions targeting social interaction and communication of children with ASD, and a quasi-experimental design was used for this study. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative instruments. SSIS and ABLLS-R results showed that an overall improvement in social skills and social interaction for the experimental group across interim and posttests, F = 8.425, p = 0.001 ( p < 0.005), and significant improvements appeared in communication, cooperation, social interaction, and self-control subdomains ( p < 0.005). Conversely, no statistically significant differences were found in the control group ( p > 0.005). The study concluded that the special structured physical activity program positively influenced social interaction and communication skills of children with ASD, especially in social skills, communication, prompt response, and frequency of expression.

  20. Social interactions of eating behaviour among high school students: a cellular automata approach

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is a global epidemic posing problems for both developed and developing nations. The prevalence is particularly alarming in developed nations, such as the United States, where approximately one in three school-aged adolescents (ages 12-19) are overweight or obese. Evidence suggests that weight gain in school-aged adolescents is related to energy imbalance exacerbated by the negative aspects of the school food environment, such as presence of unhealthy food choices. While a well-established connection exists between the food environment, presently there is a lack of studies investigating the impact of the social environment and associated interactions of school-age adolescents. This paper uses a mathematical modelling approach to explore how social interactions among high school adolescents can affect their eating behaviour and food choice. Methods In this paper we use a Cellular Automata (CA) modelling approach to explore how social interactions among school-age adolescents can affect eating behaviour, and food choice. Our CA model integrates social influences and transition rules to simulate the way individuals would interact in a social community (e.g., school cafeteria). To replicate these social interactions, we chose the Moore neighbourhood which allows all neighbours (eights cells in a two-dimensional square lattice) to influence the central cell. Our assumption is that individuals belong to any of four states; Bring Healthy, Bring Unhealthy, Purchase Healthy, and Purchase Unhealthy, and will influence each other according to parameter settings and transition rules. Simulations were run to explore how the different states interact under varying parameter settings. Results This study, through simulations, illustrates that students will change their eating behaviour from unhealthy to healthy as a result of positive social and environmental influences. In general, there is one common characteristic of

  1. Aversive disinhibition of behavior and striatal signaling in social avoidance.

    PubMed

    Ly, Verena; Cools, Roshan; Roelofs, Karin

    2014-10-01

    Social avoidance is a major factor contributing to the development and maintenance of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Converging evidence suggests that social avoidance is associated with abnormal aversive processing and hyperactive amygdala signaling. However, what are the consequences of such abnormal aversive processing for action and for the neural mechanisms implementing action is unclear. Existing literature is conflicting, pointing at either enhanced or reduced action inhibition. We investigated the interaction between aversion and action in social avoidance by comparing the effects of aversive vs appetitive faces on a go/no-go task and associated striatal signals in 42 high and low socially avoidant individuals. We combined fMRI with a novel probabilistic learning task, in which emotional valence (angry and happy faces) and optimal response (go- and no-go-responses) were manipulated independently. High compared with low socially avoidant individuals showed reduced behavioral inhibition (proportion no-go-responses) for angry relative to happy faces. This behavioral disinhibition correlated with greater striatal signal during no-go-responses for angry relative to happy faces. The results suggest that social avoidant coping style is accompanied by disinhibition of action and striatal signal in the context of social threat. The findings concur with recent theorizing about aversive disinhibition and affective disorders. © The Author (2013). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  2. The evolution of generalized reciprocity in social interaction networks.

    PubMed

    Voelkl, Bernhard

    2015-09-01

    Generalized reciprocity has been proposed as a mechanism for enabling continued cooperation between unrelated individuals. It can be described by the simple rule "help somebody if you received help from someone", and as it does not require individual recognition, complex cognition or extended memory capacities, it has the potential to explain cooperation in a large number of organisms. In a panmictic population this mechanism is vulnerable to defection by individuals who readily accept help but do not help themselves. Here, I investigate to what extent the limitation of social interactions to a social neighborhood can lead to conditions that favor generalized reciprocity in the absence of population structuring. It can be shown that cooperation is likely to evolve if one assumes certain sparse interaction graphs, if strategies are discrete, and if spontaneous helping and reciprocating are independently inherited. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Social Interaction Affects Neural Outcomes of Sign Language Learning As a Foreign Language in Adults.

    PubMed

    Yusa, Noriaki; Kim, Jungho; Koizumi, Masatoshi; Sugiura, Motoaki; Kawashima, Ryuta

    2017-01-01

    Children naturally acquire a language in social contexts where they interact with their caregivers. Indeed, research shows that social interaction facilitates lexical and phonological development at the early stages of child language acquisition. It is not clear, however, whether the relationship between social interaction and learning applies to adult second language acquisition of syntactic rules. Does learning second language syntactic rules through social interactions with a native speaker or without such interactions impact behavior and the brain? The current study aims to answer this question. Adult Japanese participants learned a new foreign language, Japanese sign language (JSL), either through a native deaf signer or via DVDs. Neural correlates of acquiring new linguistic knowledge were investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The participants in each group were indistinguishable in terms of their behavioral data after the instruction. The fMRI data, however, revealed significant differences in the neural activities between two groups. Significant activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were found for the participants who learned JSL through interactions with the native signer. In contrast, no cortical activation change in the left IFG was found for the group who experienced the same visual input for the same duration via the DVD presentation. Given that the left IFG is involved in the syntactic processing of language, spoken or signed, learning through social interactions resulted in an fMRI signature typical of native speakers: activation of the left IFG. Thus, broadly speaking, availability of communicative interaction is necessary for second language acquisition and this results in observed changes in the brain.

  4. Developing nurses' intercultural/intraprofessional communication skills using the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Social Interaction Maps.

    PubMed

    Henderson, Saras; Barker, Michelle

    2017-09-27

    To examine how the use of Social Interaction Maps, a tool in the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Program, can enhance the development of nurses' intercultural/intraprofessional communication skills. Nurses face communication challenges when interacting with others from similar background as well as those from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. We used the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Program's Social Interaction Maps tool to foster intercultural/intraprofessional communication skills in nurses. Social Interaction Maps describe verbal and nonverbal communication behaviours that model ways of communicating in a culturally appropriate manner. The maps include four stages of an interaction, namely Approach, Bridging, Communicating and Departing using the acronym ABCD. Qualitative approach was used with a purposeful sample of nurses enrolled in a postgraduate course. Fifteen participants were recruited. The Social Interaction Map tool was taught to participants in a workshop where they engaged in sociocultural communication activities using scenarios. Participants were asked to apply Social Interaction Maps in their workplaces. Six weeks later, participants completed a semistructured open-ended questionnaire and participated in a discussion forum on their experience of using Social Interaction Maps. Data were content-analysed. Four themes identified in the use of the Social Interaction Maps were (i) enhancing self-awareness of communication skills; (ii) promoting skills in being nonconfrontational during difficult interactions; (iii) highlighting the importance of A (Approach) and B (Bridging) in interaction with others; and (iv) awareness of how others interpret what is said C (Communicating) and discussing to resolve issues before closure D (Departing). Application of the EXCELLence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership Social Interaction Mapping tool was shown to be useful in

  5. The factor structure of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

    PubMed

    Heidenreich, Thomas; Schermelleh-Engel, Karin; Schramm, Elisabeth; Hofmann, Stefan G; Stangier, Ulrich

    2011-05-01

    The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) are two compendium measures that have become some of the most popular self-report scales of social anxiety. Despite their popularity, it remains unclear whether it is necessary to maintain two separate scales of social anxiety. The primary objective of the present study was to examine the factor analytic structure of both measures to determine the factorial validity of each scale. For this purpose, we administered both scales to 577 patients at the beginning of outpatient treatment. Analyzing both scales simultaneously, a CFA with two correlated factors showed a better fit to the data than a single factor model. An additional EFA with an oblique rotation on all 40 items using the WLSMV estimator further supported the two factor solution. These results suggest that the SIAS and SPS measure similar, but not identical facets of social anxiety. Thus, our findings provide support to retain the SIAS and SPS as two separate scales. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Psychometric properties of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and separation criterion between Spanish youths with and without subtypes of social anxiety.

    PubMed

    Zubeidat, Ihab; Salinas, José María; Sierra, Juan Carlos; Fernández-Parra, Antonio

    2007-01-01

    In this study, we analyzed the reliability and validity of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and propose a separation criterion between youths with specific and generalized social anxiety and youths without social anxiety. A sample of 1012 Spanish youths attending school completed the SIAS, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, the Youth Self-Report for Ages 11-18 and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent. The factor analysis suggests the existence of three factors in the SIAS, the first two of which explain most of the variance of the construct assessed. Internal consistency is adequate in the first two factors. The SIAS features an adequate theoretical validity with the scores of different variables related to social interaction. Analysis of the criterion scores yields three groups pertaining to three clearly differentiated clusters. In the third cluster, two of social anxiety groups - specific and generalized - have been identified by means of a quantitative separation criterion.

  7. Abnormal Neural Activation to Faces in the Parents of Children with Autism

    PubMed Central

    Yucel, G. H.; Belger, A.; Bizzell, J.; Parlier, M.; Adolphs, R.; Piven, J.

    2015-01-01

    Parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show subtle deficits in aspects of social behavior and face processing, which resemble those seen in ASD, referred to as the “Broad Autism Phenotype ” (BAP). While abnormal activation in ASD has been reported in several brain structures linked to social cognition, little is known regarding patterns in the BAP. We compared autism parents with control parents with no family history of ASD using 2 well-validated face-processing tasks. Results indicated increased activation in the autism parents to faces in the amygdala (AMY) and the fusiform gyrus (FG), 2 core face-processing regions. Exploratory analyses revealed hyper-activation of lateral occipital cortex (LOC) bilaterally in autism parents with aloof personality (“BAP+”). Findings suggest that abnormalities of the AMY and FG are related to underlying genetic liability for ASD, whereas abnormalities in the LOC and right FG are more specific to behavioral features of the BAP. Results extend our knowledge of neural circuitry underlying abnormal face processing beyond those previously reported in ASD to individuals with shared genetic liability for autism and a subset of genetically related individuals with the BAP. PMID:25056573

  8. Young People's Preferences for Social Interaction in Terms of Homophily and Social Inclusion: A Critical Discussion about Respect

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koutsouris, George

    2014-01-01

    This paper reports findings from a study about young people's preferences for social interaction with similar and different others, in terms of a tension between social inclusion and homophily--the concept that similarity breeds connection. The issue was explored empirically using moral dilemmas scenarios to conduct in-depth semi-structured…

  9. Influence of long-term social interaction on chirping behavior, steroid levels and neurogenesis in weakly electric fish

    PubMed Central

    Dunlap, Kent D.; Chung, Michael; Castellano, James F.

    2013-01-01

    Summary Social interactions dramatically affect the brain and behavior of animals. Studies in birds and mammals indicate that socially induced changes in adult neurogenesis participate in the regulation of social behavior, but little is known about this relationship in fish. Here, we review studies in electric fish (Apteronotus leptorhychus) that link social stimulation, changes in electrocommunication behavior and adult neurogenesis in brain regions associated with electrocommunication. Compared with isolated fish, fish living in pairs have greater production of chirps, an electrocommunication signal, during dyadic interactions and in response to standardized artificial social stimuli. Social interaction also promotes neurogenesis in the periventricular zone, which contributes born cells to the prepacemaker nucleus, the brain region that regulates chirping. Both long-term chirp rate and periventricular cell addition depend on the signal dynamics (amplitude and waveform variation), modulations (chirps) and novelty of the stimuli from the partner fish. Socially elevated cortisol levels and cortisol binding to glucocorticoid receptors mediate, at least in part, the effect of social interaction on chirping behavior and brain cell addition. In a closely related electric fish (Brachyhypopomus gauderio), social interaction enhances cell proliferation specifically in brain regions for electrocommunication and only during the breeding season, when social signaling is most elaborate. Together, these studies demonstrate a consistent correlation between brain cell addition and environmentally regulated chirping behavior across many social and steroidal treatments and suggest a causal relationship. PMID:23761468

  10. Social Interaction with an "Unidentified Moving Object" Elicits A-Not-B Error in Domestic Dogs.

    PubMed

    Gergely, Anna; Compton, Anna B; Newberry, Ruth C; Miklósi, Ádám

    2016-01-01

    Mechanical "unidentified moving objects" (UMO's) are useful for controlled investigations into features of social interaction that generate cooperativeness and positive social affiliation in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). We hypothesized that, if a UMO interacted socially with a dog, the UMO would become associated with certain social cues and would subsequently affect dog behaviour. We assigned dogs to a Human, Social UMO or Non-Social UMO partner. In the Human and Social UMO conditions, the partner interacted with the dog cooperatively whereas the Non-Social UMO partner was unresponsive to the dog's actions. We then tested dogs with their partner in a Piagetian A-not-B error paradigm, predicting that the Human and Social UMO partners would be more likely to elicit A-not-B errors in dogs than the Non-Social UMO partner. Five trials were conducted in which the dog watched its partner hide a ball behind one of two screens (A or B). As predicted, dogs in the Human and Social UMO conditions were more likely to search for the ball behind the A screen during B trials than dogs in the Non-Social UMO condition. These results reveal that the unfamiliar partner's social responsiveness leads rapidly to accepting information communicated by the partner. This study has generated a better understanding of crucial features of agents that promote dog social behaviour, which will facilitate the programming of robots for various cooperative tasks.

  11. Network centrality and seasonality interact to predict lice load in a social primate

    PubMed Central

    Duboscq, Julie; Romano, Valeria; Sueur, Cédric; MacIntosh, Andrew J.J.

    2016-01-01

    Lice are socially-transmitted ectoparasites. Transmission depends upon their host’s degree of contact with conspecifics. While grooming facilitates ectoparasite transmission via body contact, it also constrains their spread through parasite removal. We investigated relations between parasite burden and sociality in female Japanese macaques following two opposing predictions: i) central females in contact/grooming networks harbour more lice, related to their numerous contacts; ii) central females harbour fewer lice, related to receiving more grooming. We estimated lice load non-invasively using the conspicuous louse egg-picking behaviour performed by macaques during grooming. We tested for covariation in several centrality measures and lice load, controlling for season, female reproductive state and dominance rank. Results show that the interaction between degree centrality (number of partners) and seasonality predicted lice load: females interacting with more partners had fewer lice than those interacting with fewer partners in winter and summer, whereas there was no relationship between lice load and centrality in spring and fall. This is counter to the prediction that increased contact leads to greater louse burden but fits the prediction that social grooming limits louse burden. Interactions between environmental seasonality and both parasite and host biology appeared to mediate the role of social processes in louse burden. PMID:26915589

  12. Network centrality and seasonality interact to predict lice load in a social primate.

    PubMed

    Duboscq, Julie; Romano, Valeria; Sueur, Cédric; MacIntosh, Andrew J J

    2016-02-26

    Lice are socially-transmitted ectoparasites. Transmission depends upon their host's degree of contact with conspecifics. While grooming facilitates ectoparasite transmission via body contact, it also constrains their spread through parasite removal. We investigated relations between parasite burden and sociality in female Japanese macaques following two opposing predictions: i) central females in contact/grooming networks harbour more lice, related to their numerous contacts; ii) central females harbour fewer lice, related to receiving more grooming. We estimated lice load non-invasively using the conspicuous louse egg-picking behaviour performed by macaques during grooming. We tested for covariation in several centrality measures and lice load, controlling for season, female reproductive state and dominance rank. Results show that the interaction between degree centrality (number of partners) and seasonality predicted lice load: females interacting with more partners had fewer lice than those interacting with fewer partners in winter and summer, whereas there was no relationship between lice load and centrality in spring and fall. This is counter to the prediction that increased contact leads to greater louse burden but fits the prediction that social grooming limits louse burden. Interactions between environmental seasonality and both parasite and host biology appeared to mediate the role of social processes in louse burden.

  13. Group Rumination: Social Interactions Around Music in People with Depression

    PubMed Central

    Garrido, Sandra; Eerola, Tuomas; McFerran, Katrina

    2017-01-01

    One of the most important roles that music serves in human society is the promotion of social relationships and group cohesion. In general, emotional experiences tend to be amplified in group settings through processes of social feedback. However, previous research has established that listening to sad music can intensify negative emotions in people with tendencies to rumination and depression. This study therefore investigated the phenomenon of ruminating with music, and the question of whether listening to sad music in group settings provides social benefits for emotionally vulnerable listeners, or whether it further exaggerates depressive tendencies. Participants recruited via online depression groups and mental health websites were surveyed as to music listening habits. Results revealed that people with depression were more likely to engage in “group rumination” using music, and that this behavior could be partially explained by a general tendency to ruminate using music. Both affective states and coping styles were found to be related to the affective outcomes of group interactions around music. These findings go some way toward clarifying the situations in which group interactions around music are able to provide important social benefits for those involved, and situations in which negative emotions can be amplified by the group context. PMID:28421014

  14. Early-life risperidone administration alters maternal-offspring interactions and juvenile play fighting.

    PubMed

    Gannon, Matthew A; Brown, Clifford J; Stevens, Rachel M; Griffith, Molly S; Marczinski, Cecile A; Bardgett, Mark E

    2015-03-01

    Risperidone is an antipsychotic drug that is approved for use in childhood psychiatric disorders such as autism. One concern regarding the use of this drug in pediatric populations is that it may interfere with social interactions that serve to nurture brain development. This study used rats to assess the impact of risperidone administration on maternal-offspring interactions and juvenile play fighting between cage mates. Mixed-sex litters received daily subcutaneous injections of vehicle or 1.0 or 3.0mg/kg of risperidone between postnatal days (PNDs) 14-42. Rats were weaned and housed three per cage on PND 21. In observations made between PNDs 14-17, risperidone significantly suppressed several aspects of maternal-offspring interactions at 1-hour post-injection. At 23 h post-injection, pups administered risperidone had lower activity scores and made fewer non-nursing contacts with their moms. In observations of play-fighting behavior made once a week between PNDs 22-42, risperidone profoundly decreased many forms of social interaction at 1h post-injection. At 23h post-injection, rats administered risperidone made more non-social contacts with their cage mates, but engaged in less social grooming. Risperidone administration to rats at ages analogous to early childhood through adolescence in humans produces a pattern of abnormal social interactions across the day that could impact how such interactions influence brain development. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Developing social interaction and understanding in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: a groupwork intervention.

    PubMed

    Mackay, Tommy; Knott, Fiona; Dunlop, Aline-Wendy

    2007-12-01

    Difficulties with social interaction and understanding lie at the heart of the communication disorder that characterises the autism spectrum. This study sought to improve social communication for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by means of a groupwork intervention focusing on social and emotional perspective-taking, conversation skills, and friendship skills. It also aimed to address some of the limitations of previous interventions, including a lack of generalisation to other settings, so as to maximise inclusion in the community. A group of 46 high functioning children and adolescents with ASD (38 boys, 8 girls, age range 6-16 years) were allocated to one of 6 intervention groups. Each group met over a period of 12-16 weeks for a minimum of one 1(1/2)-hour weekly session aimed at promoting key areas of social interaction and understanding, supported by home-based practice. Significant gains were achieved in comparison with a normative population, and individual parent ratings showed marked and sustained changes in the key areas targeted in the group sessions. Social communication in children and adolescents with ASD can be enhanced through the use of a groupwork intervention addressing social interaction and understanding.

  16. The Rules Grid: Helping Children with Social Communication and Interaction Needs Manage Social Complexity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Devlin, Niall

    2009-01-01

    This article introduces a new practical visual approach, the Rules Grid, to support children who have social communication and interaction needs. The Rules Grid involves a system whereby behaviours of concern can be broken down into smaller behavioural manifestations which in turn lead not only to problem identification and specification, but…

  17. A novel escapable social interaction test reveals that social behavior and mPFC activation during an escapable social encounter are altered by post-weaning social isolation and are dependent on the aggressiveness of the stimulus rat

    PubMed Central

    Goodell, Dayton J.; Ahern, Megan A.; Baynard, Jessica; Wall, Vanessa L.; Bland, Sondra T.

    2016-01-01

    Post-weaning social isolation (PSI) has been shown to increase aggressive behavior and alter medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) function in social species such as rats. Here we developed a novel escapable social interaction test (ESIT) allowing for the quantification of escape and social behaviors in addition to mPFC activation in response to an aggressive or nonaggressive stimulus rat. Male rats were exposed to 3 weeks of PSI (ISO) or group (GRP) housing, and exposed to 3 trials, with either no trial, all trials, or the last trial only with a stimulus rat. Analysis of social behaviors indicated that ISO rats spent less time in the escape chamber and more time engaged in social interaction, aggressive grooming, and boxing than did GRP rats. Interestingly, during the third trial all rats engaged in more of the quantified social behaviors and spent less time escaping in response to aggressive but not nonaggressive stimulus rats. Rats exposed to nonaggressive stimulus rats on the third trial had greater c-fos and ARC immunoreactivity in the mPFC than those exposed to an aggressive stimulus rat. Conversely, a social encounter produced an increase in large PSD-95 punctae in the mPFC independently of trial number, but only in ISO rats exposed to an aggressive stimulus rat. The results presented here demonstrate that PSI increases interaction time and aggressive behaviors during escapable social interaction, and that the aggressiveness of the stimulus rat in a social encounter is an important component of behavioral and neural outcomes for both isolation and group-reared rats. PMID:27633556

  18. An exploration of motivations for two screen viewing, social interaction behaviors, and factors that influence viewing intentions.

    PubMed

    Shim, Hongjin; Oh, Poong; Song, Hyunjin; Lee, Yeonkyung

    2015-03-01

    This study explores whether, and how, motivations for two screen viewing predicted social interaction behaviors and subsequent viewing intention of TV programs. A total of 453 respondents who responded that they use social networking sites (SNSs) via smartphones and actively watch entertainment programs completed an online survey questionnaire. In agreement with uses and gratifications assumptions, motivations for TSV predicted distinctive sets of social interaction behaviors, which mediated the influence of motivations on viewing intentions. Respondents' two screen viewing was meaningfully related with social interaction, engagement with programs, information seeking, and passing time. Results suggest that two screen viewing could provide shared experiences nourishing social capital and reintegrate TV audiences by social adhesive resulting from TV with SNSs.

  19. The Effects of Structured Physical Activity Program on Social Interaction and Communication for Children with Autism

    PubMed Central

    Zhao, Mengxian

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of structured physical activity program on social interaction and communication of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Fifty children with ASD from a special school were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. 25 children with ASD were placed in the experimental group, and the other 25 children as the control group participated in regular physical activity. A total of forty-one participants completed the study. A 12-week structured physical activity program was implemented with a total of 24 exercise sessions targeting social interaction and communication of children with ASD, and a quasi-experimental design was used for this study. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative instruments. SSIS and ABLLS-R results showed that an overall improvement in social skills and social interaction for the experimental group across interim and posttests, F = 8.425, p = 0.001 (p < 0.005), and significant improvements appeared in communication, cooperation, social interaction, and self-control subdomains (p < 0.005). Conversely, no statistically significant differences were found in the control group (p > 0.005). The study concluded that the special structured physical activity program positively influenced social interaction and communication skills of children with ASD, especially in social skills, communication, prompt response, and frequency of expression. PMID:29568743

  20. The front line of social capital creation--a natural experiment in symbolic interaction.

    PubMed

    Patulny, Roger; Siminski, Peter; Mendolia, Silvia

    2015-01-01

    This paper offers theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding the micro-sociological processes behind the creation of social capital. Theoretically, we argue that the emotional and shared experience of participating in symbolic interaction rituals may affect social capital in four different ways, via: (i) a 'citizenship' effect, connecting participants symbolically to the broader, civic society; (ii) a 'supportive' effect, bonding participants with each other; (iii) an exclusive 'tribal' effect, which crowds-out connections with other groups and the wider society; and (iv) an 'atomising' effect, whereby intense experiences create mental health problems that damage social capital. We illustrate this with a case study of Australian veterans of the Vietnam War. The randomness of the National Service conscription lotteries of that era translates into a high-quality natural experiment. We formulate several hypotheses about which of the four effects dominates for veterans who participated in the 'symbolic interaction' of training and deployment. We test these hypotheses using data from the 2006 Australian Census of Population and Housing, and the NSW 45 & Up Study. We found that war service reduced 'bonding' social capital, but increased 'bridging' social capital, and this is not explained completely by mental health problems. This suggests that while the combined 'tribal' and 'atomizing' effects of service outweigh the 'supportive' effects, the 'citizenship' effect is surprisingly robust. Although they feel unsupported and isolated, veterans are committed to their community and country. These paradoxical findings suggest that social capital is formed through symbolic interaction. The emotional and symbolic qualities of interaction rituals may formulate non-strategic (perhaps irrational) connections with society regardless of the status of one's personal support networks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Social interaction-induced activation of RNA splicing in the amygdala of microbiome-deficient mice.

    PubMed

    Stilling, Roman M; Moloney, Gerard M; Ryan, Feargal J; Hoban, Alan E; Bastiaanssen, Thomaz Fs; Shanahan, Fergus; Clarke, Gerard; Claesson, Marcus J; Dinan, Timothy G; Cryan, John F

    2018-05-29

    Social behaviour is regulated by activity of host-associated microbiota across multiple species. However, the molecular mechanisms mediating this relationship remain elusive. We therefore determined the dynamic, stimulus-dependent transcriptional regulation of germ-free (GF) and GF mice colonised post weaning (exGF) in the amygdala, a brain region critically involved in regulating social interaction. In GF mice the dynamic response seen in controls was attenuated and replaced by a marked increase in expression of splicing factors and alternative exon usage in GF mice upon stimulation, which was even more pronounced in exGF mice. In conclusion, we demonstrate a molecular basis for how the host microbiome is crucial for a normal behavioural response during social interaction. Our data further suggest that social behaviour is correlated with the gene-expression response in the amygdala, established during neurodevelopment as a result of host-microbe interactions. Our findings may help toward understanding neurodevelopmental events leading to social behaviour dysregulation, such as those found in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). © 2018, Stilling et al.

  2. Cultural Differences in Korean- and Anglo-American Preschoolers' Social Interaction and Play Behaviors.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Farver, Jo Ann M.; And Others

    1995-01-01

    Compared Korean American and Anglo-American preschoolers' social and play behavior to determine the influence of culture on early development and to understand how culture shapes and organizes the environment in which children's social and play activities take place. Suggests that children's social interaction and pretend play are influenced by…

  3. Human sensorimotor communication: a theory of signaling in online social interactions.

    PubMed

    Pezzulo, Giovanni; Donnarumma, Francesco; Dindo, Haris

    2013-01-01

    Although the importance of communication is recognized in several disciplines, it is rarely studied in the context of online social interactions and joint actions. During online joint actions, language and gesture are often insufficient and humans typically use non-verbal, sensorimotor forms of communication to send coordination signals. For example, when playing volleyball, an athlete can exaggerate her movements to signal her intentions to her teammates (say, a pass to the right) or to feint an adversary. Similarly, a person who is transporting a table together with a co-actor can push the table in a certain direction to signal where and when he intends to place it. Other examples of "signaling" are over-articulating in noisy environments and over-emphasizing vowels in child-directed speech. In all these examples, humans intentionally modify their action kinematics to make their goals easier to disambiguate. At the moment no formal theory exists of these forms of sensorimotor communication and signaling. We present one such theory that describes signaling as a combination of a pragmatic and a communicative action, and explains how it simplifies coordination in online social interactions. We cast signaling within a "joint action optimization" framework in which co-actors optimize the success of their interaction and joint goals rather than only their part of the joint action. The decision of whether and how much to signal requires solving a trade-off between the costs of modifying one's behavior and the benefits in terms of interaction success. Signaling is thus an intentional strategy that supports social interactions; it acts in concert with automatic mechanisms of resonance, prediction, and imitation, especially when the context makes actions and intentions ambiguous and difficult to read. Our theory suggests that communication dynamics should be studied within theories of coordination and interaction rather than only in terms of the maximization of information

  4. Triadic social interactions operate across time: a field experiment with wild chimpanzees.

    PubMed

    Wittig, Roman M; Crockford, Catherine; Langergraber, Kevin E; Zuberbühler, Klaus

    2014-03-22

    Social animals cooperate with bonding partners to outcompete others. Predicting a competitor's supporter is likely to be beneficial, regardless of whether the supporting relationship is stable or transient, or whether the support happens immediately or later. Although humans make such predictions frequently, it is unclear to what extent animals have the cognitive abilities to recognize others' transient bond partners and to predict others' coalitions that extend beyond the immediate present. We conducted playback experiments with wild chimpanzees to test this. About 2 h after fighting, subjects heard recordings of aggressive barks of a bystander, who was or was not a bond partner of the former opponent. Subjects looked longer and moved away more often from barks of the former opponents' bond partners than non-bond partners. In an additional experiment, subjects moved away more from barks than socially benign calls of the same bond partner. These effects were present despite differences in genetic relatedness and considerable time delays between the two events. Chimpanzees, it appears, integrate memories of social interactions from different sources to make inferences about current interactions. This ability is crucial for connecting triadic social interactions across time, a requirement for predicting aggressive support even after a time delay.

  5. Analysing Health Professionals' Learning Interactions in an Online Social Network: A Longitudinal Study.

    PubMed

    Li, Xin; Verspoor, Karin; Gray, Kathleen; Barnett, Stephen

    2016-01-01

    This paper summarises a longitudinal analysis of learning interactions occurring over three years among health professionals in an online social network. The study employs the techniques of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and statistical modeling to identify the changes in patterns of interaction over time and test associated structural network effects. SNA results indicate overall low participation in the network, although some participants became active over time and even led discussions. In particular, the analysis has shown that a change of lead contributor results in a change in learning interaction and network structure. The analysis of structural network effects demonstrates that the interaction dynamics slow down over time, indicating that interactions in the network are more stable. The health professionals may be reluctant to share knowledge and collaborate in groups but were interested in building personal learning networks or simply seeking information.

  6. An Attentional Goldilocks Effect: An Optimal Amount of Social Interactivity Promotes Word Learning from Video

    PubMed Central

    Nussenbaum, Kate; Amso, Dima

    2015-01-01

    Television can be a powerful education tool; however, content-makers must understand the factors that engage attention and promote learning from screen media. Prior research suggests that social engagement is critical for learning and that interactivity may enhance the educational quality of children’s media. The present study examined the effects of increasing the social interactivity of television on children’s visual attention and word learning. Three- to 5-year-old (MAge = 4;5 years, SD = 9 months) children completed a task in which they viewed videos of an actress teaching them the Swahili label for an on-screen image. Each child viewed these video clips in four conditions that parametrically manipulated social engagement and interactivity. We then tested whether each child had successfully learned the Swahili labels. Though 5-year-old children were able to learn words in all conditions, we found that there was an optimal level of social engagement that best supported learning for all participants, defined by engaging the child but not distracting from word labeling. Our eye-tracking data indicated that children in this condition spent more time looking at the target image and less time looking at the actress’s face as compared to the most interactive condition. These findings suggest that social interactivity is critical to engaging attention and promoting learning from screen media up until a certain point, after which social stimuli may draw attention away from target images and impair children’s word learning. PMID:27030791

  7. An Attentional Goldilocks Effect: An Optimal Amount of Social Interactivity Promotes Word Learning from Video.

    PubMed

    Nussenbaum, Kate; Amso, Dima

    2016-01-01

    Television can be a powerful education tool; however, content-makers must understand the factors that engage attention and promote learning from screen media. Prior research suggests that social engagement is critical for learning and that interactivity may enhance the educational quality of children's media. The present study examined the effects of increasing the social interactivity of television on children's visual attention and word learning. Three- to 5-year-old ( M Age = 4;5 years, SD = 9 months) children completed a task in which they viewed videos of an actress teaching them the Swahili label for an on-screen image. Each child viewed these video clips in four conditions that parametrically manipulated social engagement and interactivity. We then tested whether each child had successfully learned the Swahili labels. Though 5-year-old children were able to learn words in all conditions, we found that there was an optimal level of social engagement that best supported learning for all participants, defined by engaging the child but not distracting from word labeling. Our eye-tracking data indicated that children in this condition spent more time looking at the target image and less time looking at the actress's face as compared to the most interactive condition. These findings suggest that social interactivity is critical to engaging attention and promoting learning from screen media up until a certain point, after which social stimuli may draw attention away from target images and impair children's word learning.

  8. ESL students learning biology: The role of language and social interactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jaipal, Kamini

    This study explored three aspects related to ESL students in a mainstream grade 11 biology classroom: (1) the nature of students' participation in classroom activities, (2) the factors that enhanced or constrained ESL students' engagement in social interactions, and (3) the role of language in the learning of science. Ten ESL students were observed over an eight-month period in this biology classroom. Data were collected using qualitative research methods such as participant observation, audio-recordings of lessons, field notes, semi-structured interviews, short lesson recall interviews and students' written work. The study was framed within sociocultural perspectives, particularly the social constructivist perspectives of Vygotsky (1962, 1978) and Wertsch (1991). Data were analysed with respect to the three research aspects. Firstly, the findings showed that ESL students' preferred and exhibited a variety of participation practices that ranged from personal-individual to socio-interactive in nature. Both personal-individual and socio-interactive practices appeared to support science and language learning. Secondly, the findings indicated that ESL students' engagement in classroom social interactions was most likely influenced by the complex interactions between a number of competing factors at the individual, interpersonal and community/cultural levels (Rogoff, Radziszewska, & Masiello, 1995). In this study, six factors that appeared to enhance or constrain ESL students' engagement in classroom social interactions were identified. These factors were socio-cultural factors, prior classroom practice, teaching practices, affective factors, English language proficiency, and participation in the research project. Thirdly, the findings indicated that language played a significant mediational role in ESL students' learning of science. The data revealed that the learning of science terms and concepts can be explained by a functional model of language that includes: (1

  9. Differentiating emotions across contexts: comparing adults with and without social anxiety disorder using random, social interaction, and daily experience sampling.

    PubMed

    Kashdan, Todd B; Farmer, Antonina S

    2014-06-01

    The ability to recognize and label emotional experiences has been associated with well-being and adaptive functioning. This skill is particularly important in social situations, as emotions provide information about the state of relationships and help guide interpersonal decisions, such as whether to disclose personal information. Given the interpersonal difficulties linked to social anxiety disorder (SAD), deficient negative emotion differentiation may contribute to impairment in this population. We hypothesized that people with SAD would exhibit less negative emotion differentiation in daily life, and these differences would translate to impairment in social functioning. We recruited 43 people diagnosed with generalized SAD and 43 healthy adults to describe the emotions they experienced over 14 days. Participants received palmtop computers for responding to random prompts and describing naturalistic social interactions; to complete end-of-day diary entries, they used a secure online website. We calculated intraclass correlation coefficients to capture the degree of differentiation of negative and positive emotions for each context (random moments, face-to-face social interactions, and end-of-day reflections). Compared to healthy controls, the SAD group exhibited less negative (but not positive) emotion differentiation during random prompts, social interactions, and (at trend level) end-of-day assessments. These differences could not be explained by emotion intensity or variability over the 14 days, or to comorbid depression or anxiety disorders. Our findings suggest that people with generalized SAD have deficits in clarifying specific negative emotions felt at a given point of time. These deficits may contribute to difficulties with effective emotion regulation and healthy social relationship functioning.

  10. Differentiating Emotions Across Contexts: Comparing Adults with and without Social Anxiety Disorder Using Random, Social Interaction, and Daily Experience Sampling

    PubMed Central

    Kashdan, Todd B.; Farmer, Antonina S.

    2014-01-01

    The ability to recognize and label emotional experiences has been associated with well-being and adaptive functioning. This skill is particularly important in social situations, as emotions provide information about the state of relationships and help guide interpersonal decisions, such as whether to disclose personal information. Given the interpersonal difficulties linked to social anxiety disorder (SAD), deficient negative emotion differentiation may contribute to impairment in this population. We hypothesized that people with SAD would exhibit less negative emotion differentiation in daily life, and these differences would translate to impairment in social functioning. We recruited 43 people diagnosed with generalized SAD and 43 healthy adults to describe the emotions they experienced over 14 days. Participants received palmtop computers for responding to random prompts and describing naturalistic social interactions; to complete end-of-day diary entries, they used a secure online website. We calculated intraclass correlation coefficients to capture the degree of differentiation of negative and positive emotions for each context (random moments, face-to-face social interactions, and end-of-day reflections). Compared to healthy controls, the SAD group exhibited less negative (but not positive) emotion differentiation during random prompts, social interactions, and (at trend level) end-of-day assessments. These differences could not be explained by emotion intensity or variability over the 14 days, or to comorbid depression or anxiety disorders. Our findings suggest that people with generalized SAD have deficits in clarifying specific negative emotions felt at a given point of time. These deficits may contribute to difficulties with effective emotion regulation and healthy social relationship functioning. PMID:24512246

  11. The use of skilled strategies in social interactions by groups high and low in self-reported social skill.

    PubMed

    Channon, Shelley; Collins, Ruth; Swain, Eleanor; Young, Mary-Beth; Fitzpatrick, Sian

    2012-07-01

    Individuals high or low in self-reported social skill were recruited opportunistically. When presented with everyday social scenarios ending with an awkward request or offer, the high social skill participants more often used sophisticated strategies that showed greater consideration for all parties. By contrast, the low skill participants were more reliant on simple strategies including acquiescence or refusal, and the emotional tone of their responses was less positive. Greater reliance on sophisticated rather than simple strategies may be linked to more successful social interactions. The potential implications are considered for understanding everyday performance in skilled individuals and populations with limited social skills, such as those with autistic spectrum disorders.

  12. Effects of Isolate and Social Toys on the Social Interactions of Preschoolers in an Inclusive Head Start Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elmore, Shannon Renee; Vail, Cynthia O.

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of manipulating toy sets on the social verbal interaction that occurs between preschool-age children with disabilities and their typically developing peers. A single-subject alternating-treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of manipulating social toy sets and isolate toy sets on…

  13. The Dynamics of Social Interaction in Telecollaborative Tandem Exchanges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Janssen Sanchez, Brianna

    2015-01-01

    Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry, this dissertation study undertakes an exploration of the dynamics of the social interaction in discourse co-constructed by pairs of college students in telecollaborative tandem exchanges. Two groups of participants, Mexican learners of English as a foreign language and American learners…

  14. Daily social interactions, close relationships, and systemic inflammation in two samples: Healthy middle-aged and older adults.

    PubMed

    Bajaj, Amoha; John-Henderson, Neha A; Cundiff, Jenny M; Marsland, Anna L; Manuck, Stephen B; Kamarck, Thomas W

    2016-11-01

    Systemic inflammation is thought to be a biological mediator between social relationship quality and premature mortality. Empirical work has yielded mixed support for an association of social relationship variables with systemic inflammation, perhaps due to methodological limitations. To date, research in this literature has focused on global perceptions of social relationships, with limited attention to the covariance of characteristics of daily social interactions with inflammation. Here, we examine whether daily interactions, as assessed by ecological momentary assessment (EMA), associate with peripheral markers of inflammation among midlife and older adults. Global social support and integration were measured using the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) and the Social Network Index (SNI), respectively, in older adults from the Pittsburgh Healthy Heart Project (PHHP), and in middle-aged adults from the Adult Health and Behavior Project-II (AHAB-II). Using time-sampled EMA, we assessed the proportion of the day spent in positive and negative social interactions. Systemic markers of inflammation were interleukin (IL)-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP). Global measures of support and integration did not associate with inflammation in either sample. In older adults, relative frequency of total positive interactions, those with close others (i.e. spouse, friends, family), and those with coworkers predicted lower concentrations of IL-6 in fully adjusted models, accounting for age, sex, race, education, BMI, smoking and alcohol. In middle-aged adults, relative frequency of positive interactions with close others was also inversely associated with IL-6 level and relative frequency of negative marital interactions was unexpectedly inversely associated with CRP level. Characteristics of daily social interactions among midlife and older adults associate with markers of systemic inflammation that are known to predict risk for cardiovascular disease. Ambulatory

  15. Detrimental social interactions predict loss of dignity among patients with cancer.

    PubMed

    Philipp, R; Mehnert, A; Lehmann, C; Oechsle, K; Bokemeyer, C; Krüll, A; Vehling, S

    2016-06-01

    This prospective study aimed to determine the extent to which cancer patients experience loss of dignity during primary cancer care (baseline) and at 3-month follow-up and the contribution of positive social support and detrimental social interactions on loss of dignity at follow-up. At baseline, we enrolled N = 270 cancer patients (advanced cancer 57 %) undergoing oncological treatment. At follow-up, n = 178 patients (72 %) participated. Patients completed the following questionnaires: sense of dignity item (SDI), physical problem list of the NCCN Distress Thermometer, Illness-Specific Social Support Scale (SSUK), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7). We conducted ordinal regression analyses controlling for age, gender, tumor stage, number of physical symptoms, depression, and anxiety. At baseline, 18 % of the patients experienced moderate to extreme loss of dignity (follow-up 23 %, p = 0.27). Detrimental interactions significantly predicted loss of dignity (OR = 1.42, 95 % CI 1.06-1.90) in a model including positive support (OR = 1.10, 95 % CI 0.82-1.49), depression (OR = 1.55, 95 % CI 0.96-2.51), and anxiety (OR = 1.20, 95 % CI 0.83-1.74). Items in relation to detrimental interactions with significant others such as "made you feel like you couldn't take care of yourself" (r = 0.29, p < 0.001) and "felt uncomfortable in illness conversations" (r = 0.24, p = 0.002) showed the highest associations with perceived loss of dignity. Loss of dignity was a frequent problem in our mixed cancer patient sample. Detrimental interactions that weaken the sense of dignity may result from discrepancies with patients' needs for autonomy and security. Tailoring social support to attachment-related patient needs may help to conserve patients' sense of dignity.

  16. Right-wing authoritarianism and stereotype-driven expectations interact in shaping intergroup trust in one-shot vs multiple-round social interactions

    PubMed Central

    Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Liuzza, Marco Tullio

    2017-01-01

    Trust towards unrelated individuals is often conditioned by information about previous social interactions that can be derived from either personal or vicarious experience (e.g., reputation). Intergroup stereotypes can be operationalized as expectations about other groups’ traits/attitudes/behaviors that heavily influence our behavioral predictions when interacting with them. In this study we investigated the role of perceived social dimensions of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM)–Warmth (W) and Competence (C)—in affecting trusting behavior towards different European national group members during the Trust Game. Given the well-known role of ideological attitudes in regulating stereotypes, we also measured individual differences in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). In Experiment 1, we designed an online survey to study one-shot intergroup trust decisions by employing putative members of the European Union states which were also rated along SCM dimensions. We found that low-RWA participants’ trusting behavior was driven by perceived warmth (i.e., the dimension signaling the benevolence of social intentions) when interacting with low-C groups. In Experiment 2, we investigated the dynamics of trust in a multiple-round version of the European Trust Game. We found that in low-RWA participants trusting behavior decreased over time when interacting with high-W groups (i.e., expected to reciprocate trust), but did not change when interacting with low-W groups (i.e., expected not to reciprocate trust). Moreover, we found that high-RWA participants’ trusting behavior decreased when facing low-W groups but not high-W ones. This suggests that low-RWA individuals employ reputational priors but are also permeable to external evidence when learning about others’ trustworthiness. In contrast, high-RWA individuals kept relying on stereotypes despite contextual information. These results confirm the pivotal role played by reputational priors triggered by perceived

  17. Right-wing authoritarianism and stereotype-driven expectations interact in shaping intergroup trust in one-shot vs multiple-round social interactions.

    PubMed

    Ponsi, Giorgia; Panasiti, Maria Serena; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Liuzza, Marco Tullio

    2017-01-01

    Trust towards unrelated individuals is often conditioned by information about previous social interactions that can be derived from either personal or vicarious experience (e.g., reputation). Intergroup stereotypes can be operationalized as expectations about other groups' traits/attitudes/behaviors that heavily influence our behavioral predictions when interacting with them. In this study we investigated the role of perceived social dimensions of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM)-Warmth (W) and Competence (C)-in affecting trusting behavior towards different European national group members during the Trust Game. Given the well-known role of ideological attitudes in regulating stereotypes, we also measured individual differences in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). In Experiment 1, we designed an online survey to study one-shot intergroup trust decisions by employing putative members of the European Union states which were also rated along SCM dimensions. We found that low-RWA participants' trusting behavior was driven by perceived warmth (i.e., the dimension signaling the benevolence of social intentions) when interacting with low-C groups. In Experiment 2, we investigated the dynamics of trust in a multiple-round version of the European Trust Game. We found that in low-RWA participants trusting behavior decreased over time when interacting with high-W groups (i.e., expected to reciprocate trust), but did not change when interacting with low-W groups (i.e., expected not to reciprocate trust). Moreover, we found that high-RWA participants' trusting behavior decreased when facing low-W groups but not high-W ones. This suggests that low-RWA individuals employ reputational priors but are also permeable to external evidence when learning about others' trustworthiness. In contrast, high-RWA individuals kept relying on stereotypes despite contextual information. These results confirm the pivotal role played by reputational priors triggered by perceived warmth in shaping

  18. Cooperation, psychological game theory, and limitations of rationality in social interaction.

    PubMed

    Colman, Andrew M

    2003-04-01

    Rational choice theory enjoys unprecedented popularity and influence in the behavioral and social sciences, but it generates intractable problems when applied to socially interactive decisions. In individual decisions, instrumental rationality is defined in terms of expected utility maximization. This becomes problematic in interactive decisions, when individuals have only partial control over the outcomes, because expected utility maximization is undefined in the absence of assumptions about how the other participants will behave. Game theory therefore incorporates not only rationality but also common knowledge assumptions, enabling players to anticipate their co-players' strategies. Under these assumptions, disparate anomalies emerge. Instrumental rationality, conventionally interpreted, fails to explain intuitively obvious features of human interaction, yields predictions starkly at variance with experimental findings, and breaks down completely in certain cases. In particular, focal point selection in pure coordination games is inexplicable, though it is easily achieved in practice; the intuitively compelling payoff-dominance principle lacks rational justification; rationality in social dilemmas is self-defeating; a key solution concept for cooperative coalition games is frequently inapplicable; and rational choice in certain sequential games generates contradictions. In experiments, human players behave more cooperatively and receive higher payoffs than strict rationality would permit. Orthodox conceptions of rationality are evidently internally deficient and inadequate for explaining human interaction. Psychological game theory, based on nonstandard assumptions, is required to solve these problems, and some suggestions along these lines have already been put forward.

  19. Security of attachment and quality of mother-toddler social interaction in a high-risk sample.

    PubMed

    Haltigan, John D; Lambert, Brittany L; Seifer, Ronald; Ekas, Naomi V; Bauer, Charles R; Messinger, Daniel S

    2012-02-01

    The quality of children's social interactions and their attachment security with a primary caregiver are two widely studied indices of socioemotional functioning in early childhood. Although both Bowlby and Ainsworth suggested that the parent-child interactions underlying the development of attachment security could be distinguished from other aspects of parent-child interaction (e.g., play), relatively little empirical research has examined this proposition. The aim of the current study was to explore this issue by examining concurrent relations between toddler's attachment security in the Strange Situation Procedure and quality of mother-child social interaction in a high-risk sample of toddlers characterized by prenatal cocaine exposure and low levels of maternal education. Analyses of variance suggested limited relations between attachment security and quality of social interaction. Further research examining the interrelations among various components of the parent-child relationship is needed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Nutritional ecology beyond the individual: a conceptual framework for integrating nutrition and social interactions

    PubMed Central

    Lihoreau, Mathieu; Buhl, Jerome; Charleston, Michael A; Sword, Gregory A; Raubenheimer, David; Simpson, Stephen J

    2015-01-01

    Over recent years, modelling approaches from nutritional ecology (known as Nutritional Geometry) have been increasingly used to describe how animals and some other organisms select foods and eat them in appropriate amounts in order to maintain a balanced nutritional state maximising fitness. These nutritional strategies profoundly affect the physiology, behaviour and performance of individuals, which in turn impact their social interactions within groups and societies. Here, we present a conceptual framework to study the role of nutrition as a major ecological factor influencing the development and maintenance of social life. We first illustrate some of the mechanisms by which nutritional differences among individuals mediate social interactions in a broad range of species and ecological contexts. We then explain how studying individual- and collective-level nutrition in a common conceptual framework derived from Nutritional Geometry can bring new fundamental insights into the mechanisms and evolution of social interactions, using a combination of simulation models and manipulative experiments. PMID:25586099

  1. Genetic Interactions with Prenatal Social Environment: Effects on Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Conley, Dalton; Rauscher, Emily

    2013-01-01

    Numerous studies report gene-environment interactions, suggesting that specific alleles have different effects on social outcomes depending on environment. In all these studies, however, environmental conditions are potentially endogenous to unmeasured genetic characteristics. That is, it could be that the observed interaction effects actually…

  2. The Effects of Social Skills Training on the Peer Interactions of a Nonnative Toddler

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wu, Cheng-Hsien; Hursh, Daniel E.; Walls, Richard T.; Stack, Samuel F., Jr.; Lin, I-An

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of the present study was to increase peer interactions of a toddler who is nonnative. A 30-month old boy evidenced social withdrawal when playing at playgrounds. Social skills training served as the intervention to increase social initiations by this participant. Targeted social skills included greeting peers, gesturing to peers,…

  3. Effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unconstrained social interaction.

    PubMed

    Wood, W; Wong, F Y; Chachere, J G

    1991-05-01

    This article provides a meta-analytic review of the experimental effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unstructured social interaction. In the reviewed experiments, children or adolescents were exposed to violent or control presentations and their postexposure behavior was coded for aggression during spontaneous social interaction. Exposure to media violence significantly enhanced viewers' aggressive behavior when the findings were aggregated across studies, but the effect was not uniform across investigations. Only suggestive evidence was obtained concerning moderators of the effect: Marginally stronger relations were obtained in those studies using a cross-section of the normal population of children (vs. emotionally disturbed children) and in those studies conducted in laboratory settings (vs. other contexts).

  4. Abnormal Magnetic Field Effects on Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pan, Haiping; Shen, Yan; Wang, Hongfeng; He, Lei; Hu, Bin

    2015-03-01

    We report abnormal magnetic field effects on electrogenerated chemiluminescence (MFEECL) based on triplet emission from the Ru(bpy)3Cl2-TPrA electrochemical system: the appearance of MFEECL after magnetic field ceases. In early studies the normal MFEECL have been observed from electrochemical systems during the application of magnetic field. Here, the abnormal MFEECL suggest that the activated charge-transfer [Ru(bpy)33+ … TPrA•] complexes may become magnetized in magnetic field and experience a long magnetic relaxation after removing magnetic field. Our analysis indicates that the magnetic relaxation can gradually increase the density of charge-transfer complexes within reaction region due to decayed magnetic interactions, leading to a positive component in the abnormal MFEECL. On the other hand, the magnetic relaxation facilitates an inverse conversion from triplets to singlets within charge-transfer complexes. The inverse triplet --> singlet conversion reduces the density of triplet light-emitting states through charge-transfer complexes and gives rise to a negative component in the abnormal MFEECL. The combination of positive and negative components can essentially lead to a non-monotonic profile in the abnormal MFEECL after ceasing magnetic field. Nevertheless, our experimental studies may reveal un-usual magnetic behaviors with long magnetic relaxation from the activated charge-transfer [Ru(bpy)33+ … TPrA•] complexes in solution at room temperature.

  5. Instagram Use, Loneliness, and Social Comparison Orientation: Interact and Browse on Social Media, But Don't Compare.

    PubMed

    Yang, Chia-Chen

    2016-12-01

    Ever since the emergence of social networking sites (SNSs), it has remained a question without a conclusive answer whether SNSs make people more or less lonely. To achieve a better understanding, researchers need to move beyond studying overall SNS usage. In addition, it is necessary to attend to personal attributes as potential moderators. Given that SNSs provide rich opportunities for social comparison, one highly relevant personality trait would be social comparison orientation (SCO), and yet this personal attribute has been understudied in social media research. Drawing on literature of psychosocial implications of social media use and SCO, this study explored associations between loneliness and various Instagram activities and the role of SCO in this context. A total of 208 undergraduate students attending a U.S. mid-southern university completed a self-report survey (M age  = 19.43, SD = 1.35; 78 percent female; 57 percent White). Findings showed that Instagram interaction and Instagram browsing were both related to lower loneliness, whereas Instagram broadcasting was associated with higher loneliness. SCO moderated the relationship between Instagram use and loneliness such that Instagram interaction was related to lower loneliness only for low SCO users. The results revealed implications for healthy SNS use and the importance of including personality traits and specific SNS use patterns to disentangle the role of SNS use in psychological well-being.

  6. The human dynamic clamp as a paradigm for social interaction

    PubMed Central

    Dumas, Guillaume; de Guzman, Gonzalo C.; Tognoli, Emmanuelle; Kelso, J. A. Scott

    2014-01-01

    Social neuroscience has called for new experimental paradigms aimed toward real-time interactions. A distinctive feature of interactions is mutual information exchange: One member of a pair changes in response to the other while simultaneously producing actions that alter the other. Combining mathematical and neurophysiological methods, we introduce a paradigm called the human dynamic clamp (HDC), to directly manipulate the interaction or coupling between a human and a surrogate constructed to behave like a human. Inspired by the dynamic clamp used so productively in cellular neuroscience, the HDC allows a person to interact in real time with a virtual partner itself driven by well-established models of coordination dynamics. People coordinate hand movements with the visually observed movements of a virtual hand, the parameters of which depend on input from the subject’s own movements. We demonstrate that HDC can be extended to cover a broad repertoire of human behavior, including rhythmic and discrete movements, adaptation to changes of pacing, and behavioral skill learning as specified by a virtual “teacher.” We propose HDC as a general paradigm, best implemented when empirically verified theoretical or mathematical models have been developed in a particular scientific field. The HDC paradigm is powerful because it provides an opportunity to explore parameter ranges and perturbations that are not easily accessible in ordinary human interactions. The HDC not only enables to test the veracity of theoretical models, it also illuminates features that are not always apparent in real-time human social interactions and the brain correlates thereof. PMID:25114256

  7. The human dynamic clamp as a paradigm for social interaction.

    PubMed

    Dumas, Guillaume; de Guzman, Gonzalo C; Tognoli, Emmanuelle; Kelso, J A Scott

    2014-09-02

    Social neuroscience has called for new experimental paradigms aimed toward real-time interactions. A distinctive feature of interactions is mutual information exchange: One member of a pair changes in response to the other while simultaneously producing actions that alter the other. Combining mathematical and neurophysiological methods, we introduce a paradigm called the human dynamic clamp (HDC), to directly manipulate the interaction or coupling between a human and a surrogate constructed to behave like a human. Inspired by the dynamic clamp used so productively in cellular neuroscience, the HDC allows a person to interact in real time with a virtual partner itself driven by well-established models of coordination dynamics. People coordinate hand movements with the visually observed movements of a virtual hand, the parameters of which depend on input from the subject's own movements. We demonstrate that HDC can be extended to cover a broad repertoire of human behavior, including rhythmic and discrete movements, adaptation to changes of pacing, and behavioral skill learning as specified by a virtual "teacher." We propose HDC as a general paradigm, best implemented when empirically verified theoretical or mathematical models have been developed in a particular scientific field. The HDC paradigm is powerful because it provides an opportunity to explore parameter ranges and perturbations that are not easily accessible in ordinary human interactions. The HDC not only enables to test the veracity of theoretical models, it also illuminates features that are not always apparent in real-time human social interactions and the brain correlates thereof.

  8. A novel escapable social interaction test reveals that social behavior and mPFC activation during an escapable social encounter are altered by post-weaning social isolation and are dependent on the aggressiveness of the stimulus rat.

    PubMed

    Goodell, Dayton J; Ahern, Megan A; Baynard, Jessica; Wall, Vanessa L; Bland, Sondra T

    2017-01-15

    Post-weaning social isolation (PSI) has been shown to increase aggressive behavior and alter medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) function in social species such as rats. Here we developed a novel escapable social interaction test (ESIT) allowing for the quantification of escape and social behaviors in addition to mPFC activation in response to an aggressive or nonaggressive stimulus rat. Male rats were exposed to 3 weeks of PSI (ISO) or group (GRP) housing, and exposed to 3 trials, with either no trial, all trials, or the last trial only with a stimulus rat. Analysis of social behaviors indicated that ISO rats spent less time in the escape chamber and more time engaged in social interaction, aggressive grooming, and boxing than did GRP rats. Interestingly, during the third trial all rats engaged in more of the quantified social behaviors and spent less time escaping in response to aggressive but not nonaggressive stimulus rats. Rats exposed to nonaggressive stimulus rats on the third trial had greater c-fos and ARC immunoreactivity in the mPFC than those exposed to an aggressive stimulus rat. Conversely, a social encounter produced an increase in large PSD-95 punctae in the mPFC independently of trial number, but only in ISO rats exposed to an aggressive stimulus rat. The results presented here demonstrate that PSI increases interaction time and aggressive behaviors during escapable social interaction, and that the aggressiveness of the stimulus rat in a social encounter is an important component of behavioral and neural outcomes for both isolation and group-reared rats. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. The Factor Structure and Screening Utility of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rodebaugh, Thomas L.; Woods, Carol M.; Heimberg, Richard G.; Liebowitz, Michael R.; Schneier, Franklin R.

    2006-01-01

    The widely used Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS; R. P. Mattick & J. C. Clarke, 1998) possesses favorable psychometric properties, but questions remain concerning its factor structure and item properties. Analyses included 445 people with social anxiety disorder and 1,689 undergraduates. Simple unifactorial models fit poorly, and models that…

  10. A Review of Peer-Mediated Social Interaction Interventions for Students with Autism in Inclusive Settings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Watkins, Laci; O'Reilly, Mark; Kuhn, Michelle; Gevarter, Cindy; Lancioni, Giulio E.; Sigafoos, Jeff; Lang, Russell

    2015-01-01

    This review addresses the use of peer-mediated interventions (PMI) to improve the social interaction skills of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive settings. The purpose of this review is to (a) identify the characteristics and components of peer-mediated social interaction interventions, (b) evaluate the effectiveness of PMI…

  11. The Link between Social Interaction with Adults and Adolescent Conflict Coping Strategy in School Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yao, Zhuojun; Enright, Robert

    2018-01-01

    Based on social learning theory, this study aimed at providing a better understanding of the influence of social interaction on adolescents' conflict coping strategy. This study used the data from the Taiwan Educational Panel Survey (N = 8717) to test the unique contribution of religious involvement, parent-child interaction, teacher-student…

  12. Mentor-Mentee Interaction and Laboratory Social Environment: Do They Matter in Doctoral Students' Publication Productivity?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ynalvez, Marcus Antonius; Ynalvez, Ruby A.; Ramírez, Enrique

    2017-01-01

    We explored the social shaping of science at the micro-level reality of face-to-face interaction in one of the traditional places for scientific activities--the scientific lab. We specifically examined how doctoral students' perception of their: (i) interaction with doctoral mentors (MMI) and (ii) lab social environment (LSE) influenced…

  13. Scaling identity connects human mobility and social interactions.

    PubMed

    Deville, Pierre; Song, Chaoming; Eagle, Nathan; Blondel, Vincent D; Barabási, Albert-László; Wang, Dashun

    2016-06-28

    Massive datasets that capture human movements and social interactions have catalyzed rapid advances in our quantitative understanding of human behavior during the past years. One important aspect affecting both areas is the critical role space plays. Indeed, growing evidence suggests both our movements and communication patterns are associated with spatial costs that follow reproducible scaling laws, each characterized by its specific critical exponents. Although human mobility and social networks develop concomitantly as two prolific yet largely separated fields, we lack any known relationships between the critical exponents explored by them, despite the fact that they often study the same datasets. Here, by exploiting three different mobile phone datasets that capture simultaneously these two aspects, we discovered a new scaling relationship, mediated by a universal flux distribution, which links the critical exponents characterizing the spatial dependencies in human mobility and social networks. Therefore, the widely studied scaling laws uncovered in these two areas are not independent but connected through a deeper underlying reality.

  14. Scaling identity connects human mobility and social interactions

    PubMed Central

    Deville, Pierre; Song, Chaoming; Eagle, Nathan; Blondel, Vincent D.; Barabási, Albert-László; Wang, Dashun

    2016-01-01

    Massive datasets that capture human movements and social interactions have catalyzed rapid advances in our quantitative understanding of human behavior during the past years. One important aspect affecting both areas is the critical role space plays. Indeed, growing evidence suggests both our movements and communication patterns are associated with spatial costs that follow reproducible scaling laws, each characterized by its specific critical exponents. Although human mobility and social networks develop concomitantly as two prolific yet largely separated fields, we lack any known relationships between the critical exponents explored by them, despite the fact that they often study the same datasets. Here, by exploiting three different mobile phone datasets that capture simultaneously these two aspects, we discovered a new scaling relationship, mediated by a universal flux distribution, which links the critical exponents characterizing the spatial dependencies in human mobility and social networks. Therefore, the widely studied scaling laws uncovered in these two areas are not independent but connected through a deeper underlying reality. PMID:27274050

  15. Gaze Aversion during Social Style Interactions in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Williams Syndrome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa; Riby, Deborah M.

    2013-01-01

    During face-to-face interactions typically developing individuals use gaze aversion (GA), away from their questioner, when thinking. GA is also used when individuals with autism (ASD) and Williams syndrome (WS) are thinking during question-answer interactions. We investigated GA strategies during face-to-face social style interactions with…

  16. Type and Frequency of Social Interaction among Workers with and without Mental Retardation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ferguson, Brad; And Others

    1993-01-01

    The social/verbal interactions of six employees with moderate or severe mental retardation and six workers without mental retardation were observed in restaurant settings. Among findings was that interactions between workers with mental retardation and the job coach correlated negatively with the workers' initiation of interactions with co-workers…

  17. Self-Concept and Social Interaction in a Deaf Population.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Garrison, Wayne M; And Others

    Investigated were self concept levels of 109 deaf college students, and examined were social interaction behaviors among a subset of 27 Ss from the study sample. Results of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale indicated a response pattern demonstrating psychological distress or maladjustment, but reliability and comprehension analysis suggested that a…

  18. Design guidelines for interactive multimedia learning environments to promote social inclusion.

    PubMed

    Brown, D J; Powell, H M; Battersby, S; Lewis, J; Shopland, N; Yazdanparast, M

    There is a continuing need for guidelines to aid in the design of Interactive Multimedia Learning Environments (IMLE) to promote effective learning. The project introduced in this paper looks at an important subset of this problem, the design of interactive learning environments to promote social inclusion. A consortium of six partners contributed toward defining learning material to develop a range of work based skills, including horticulture, IT and catering. These were then developed into IMLE prototypes. Formative evaluation of these prototypes then revealed a range of usability problems, which were grouped into generic types and frequency of occurrence. The most important and frequently occurring problems were used to distil a set of design guidelines for the development of effective IMLE. The results from this usability content analysis were also used to refine the initial prototypes to improve their usability and effectiveness. These guidelines, termed the Greenhat Design Guidelines, can be adopted for use by all multimedia developers aiming to promote the social inclusion of vulnerable or socially disadvantaged groups of people. The refined IMLE can be accessed via the Greenhat Server to improve the employment-related skills of socially excluded people.

  19. Providing Children and Adolescents Opportunities for Social Interaction as a Standard of Care in Pediatric Oncology.

    PubMed

    Christiansen, Heather L; Bingen, Kristin; Hoag, Jennifer A; Karst, Jeffrey S; Velázquez-Martin, Blanca; Barakat, Lamia P

    2015-12-01

    Experiences with peers constitute an important aspect of socialization, and children and adolescents with cancer may experience reduced social interaction due to treatment. A literature review was conducted to investigate the evidence to support a standard of care evaluating these experiences. Sixty-four articles were reviewed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) criteria. Moderate quality of evidence suggest that social interaction can be beneficial to increase knowledge, decrease isolation, and improve adjustment and constitute an important, unmet need. The evidence supports a strong recommendation for youth with cancer to be provided opportunities for social interaction following a careful assessment of their unique characteristics and preferences. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Social Inclusion--the Next Step: User-Friendly Strategies to Promote Social Interaction and Peer Acceptance of Children with Disabilities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Batchelor, Denise; Taylor, Heather

    2005-01-01

    Research tells us that children with developmental disabilities and delays have reduced social interaction and reduced social acceptance by other children in comparison with their same-aged peers within early childhood settings. The consequence of this is that these children have limited access to the possible developmental opportunities within…