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Mutations in the highly conserved Pax6 transcription factor have been implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders and behavioral abnormalities, yet the mechanistic basis of the latter remain poorly understood. Our study, using behavioral phenotyping, has identified aberrant social interactions, characterized by withdrawal behavior, and olfactory deficits in Pax6 heterozygous mutant mice. The molecular mechanisms underlying the observed phenotypes were characterized by means of RNA-sequencing on isolated olfactory bulbs followed by validation with qRT-PCR. Comparative analysis of olfactory bulb transcriptomes further reveals an imbalance between neuronal excitation and inhibition, synaptic dysfunction, and alterations in epigenetic regulation as possible mechanisms underlying the abnormal social behavior. We observe a considerable overlap with autism-associated genes and suggest that studying Pax6-dependent gene regulatory networks may further our insight into molecular mechanisms implicated in autistic-like behaviors in Pax6 mutations, thereby paving the way for future research in this area., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare no competing or financial interests., (© 2025. Published by The Company of Biologists.)

Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) refers to the dynamic process where a regulator employs specific strategies to alleviate a target's distress. It remains unclear whether successful IER could facilitate interpersonal relationship closeness (IRC). The present study aimed to explore whether successful IER, based on two typical strategies-cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES)-for down-regulating the target's negative emotions, could enhance IRC among friend dyads, and to identify the underlying neural correlates of this process using functional near-infrared spectroscopy system. Seventy-four female dyads (friends) were randomly assigned to one of two strategy groups (CR vs. ES), with one participant as the target and the other as the regulator. Our findings revealed that both strategies have down-regulated the target's negative emotions, however, CR strategy was associated with more successful IER outcomes (more improvement of the targets' negative emotions; higher IRC) than ES strategy. IER recruited the enhanced interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) of the prefrontal and temporal areas among friend dyads. CR strategy recruited higher IBS of the above-mentioned brain networks than ES strategy in down-regulating the target's sadness, and the reversed IBS pattern was found in down-regulating the target's anger, inferring that CR was more successive in IER of sadness, and ES was more effective in IER of anger. The increased IBS pattern of these brain regions played a mediational role between the effectiveness of down-regulating targets' negative emotions and the increment of IRC. Our findings revealed a neural coupling mechanism through which successful IER fostered supportive social bonds., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We have no known conflict of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Touch has a key role in the social development of infant primates and in the regulation of social interactions, even so, there's a rarity of studies on infants' use of social touch. In this work, we document chimpanzee infants and human infants' touching of other's faces, a behavior already described in wild capuchin monkey infants, and investigate possible functions of infants' social touch. A strength of this study is that we sampled chimpanzee and human infants from three different social ecologies each. Each infant was observed naturalistically, in their everyday environments. In 36 h of observation, we found 269 touch events, specifically 222 face touches and 47 head touches. We found significant differences between groups, within species. Face touching occurred preferentially with adult females in all groups, and preferentially in prosocial contexts, although the most preferred contexts differed across groups. A unifying concept was that almost all infant face touching occurred during joint attention events. We interpret this as the ability of 1-year-olds to use face touching as a behavioral marker of mutual engagement during bouts of triadic connectedness, that is when they engage together with a social partner about an object or an event. In this study, we document an understudied behavior of young chimpanzees and humans, one that is not only part of prosocial interactions, but one that may function to highlight infants' active role in engagement with another, while they together engage in triadic connectedness., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Balancing food foraging with social interaction is crucial for survival and reproduction in many species of mammals. We wanted to investigate the reward preferences in adult male rats by allowing them to lever-press for both food and social rewards (interaction with another rat), while their performance and electrophysiological activities were recorded. Local field potentials (LFPs) were analyzed across five neuroanatomical regions involved in reward processing, decision-making, and social behavior. Despite ad libitum food availability, rats consistently prioritized food. LFP analysis revealed a decrease in nucleus accumbens (NAc) spectral power following social interaction, accompanied by specific alterations in delta and theta bands within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The spectral power of LFPs delta and/or theta bands were different for the five selected regions following food reward vs. social interactions. Cross-frequency coupling analysis provided further insights, demonstrating dynamic changes in theta-to-gamma coupling during both food and social rewards, with distinct roles for slow- and fast-gamma frequencies. These findings shed light on the intricate neural processes underlying reward preferences and/or decision-making choices, highlighting the NAc's potential role in social reward processing, and the mPFC's involvement in modulating theta-gamma rhythms during reward-related decision-making., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Interpersonal judgments play a central role in human social interactions, influencing decisions ranging from friendships to presidential elections. Despite extensive research on the accuracy of these judgments, an overreliance on broad personality traits and subjective judgments as criteria for accuracy has hindered progress in this area. Further, most individuals involved in past studies (either as judges or targets) came from ad-hoc student samples which hampers generalizability. This paper introduces Who Knows ( https://whoknows.uni-muenster.de ), an innovative smartphone application designed to address these limitations. Who Knows was developed with the aim to create a comprehensive and reliable database for examining first impressions. It utilizes a gamified approach where users judge personality-related characteristics of strangers based on short video introductions. The project incorporates multifaceted criteria to evaluate judgments, going beyond traditional self-other agreement. Additionally, the app draws on a large pool of highly specific and heterogenous items and allows users to judge a diverse array of targets on their smartphones. The app's design prioritizes user engagement through a responsive interface, feedback mechanisms, and gamification elements, enhancing their motivation to provide judgments. The Who Knows project is ongoing and promises to shed new light on interpersonal perception by offering a vast dataset with diverse items and a large number of participants (as of fall 2024, N = 9,671 users). Researchers are encouraged to access this resource for a wide range of empirical inquiries and to contribute to the project by submitting items or software features to be included in future versions of the app., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval: This research was approved by the institutional review board of the department of psychology at University of Münster, Germany (protocol number: 2021–25-RR). Consent to publish: All subjects participating as targets have consented to using their photo, videos, self-chosen nick name, and age in the Who Knows app and for these data to appear in publications related to the Who Knows project. Consent to participate: All subjects who participated in this research, both as users and as targets, provided informed consent before participating. Preregistration: These analyses reported as validity checks were not preregistered. Conflict of Interest: All authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

With rapid technological advances, social media has become an everyday form of human social interactions. For the first time in evolutionary history, people can now interact in virtual spaces where temporal, spatial, and embodied cues are decoupled from one another. What implications do these recent changes have for socio-cognitive phenotypes and mental disorders? We have conducted a systematic review on the relationships between social media use and mental disorders involving the social brain. The main findings indicate evidence of increased social media usage in individuals with psychotic spectrum phenotypes and especially among individuals with disorders characterized by alterations in the basic self, most notably narcissism, body dysmorphism, and eating disorders. These findings can be understood in the context of a new conceptual model, referred to here as 'Delusion Amplification by Social Media', whereby this suite of disorders and symptoms centrally involves forms of mentalistic delusions, linked with altered perception and perpetuation of distorted manifestations of the self, that are enabled and exacerbated by social media. In particular, an underdeveloped and incoherent sense of self, in conjunction with 'real life' social isolation that inhibits identify formation and facilitates virtual social interactions, may lead to use of social media to generate and maintain a more or less delusional sense of self identity. The delusions involved may be mental (as in narcissism and erotomania), or somatic (as in body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders, encompassing either the entire body or specific body parts). In each case, the virtual nature of social media facilitates the delusionality because the self is defined and bolstered in this highly mentalistic environment, where real-life exposure of the delusion can be largely avoided. Current evidence also suggests that increased social media usage, via its disembodied and isolative nature, may be associated with psychotic spectrum phenotypes, especially delusionality, by the decoupling of inter and intra-corporeal cues integral to shared reality testing, leading to the blurring of self-other boundaries., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Objectives: Social relationships are associated with various positive physical, psychological, and emotional outcomes in older adults. In line with the growing understanding of the role of subjective views of aging (VoA) for older adults' quality of life, the current work examines how daily fluctuations in VoA affect social relationships. Moreover, as the ability to mentalize others' states of mind (i.e. Theory of Mind) considerably enhances such relationships, this study assesses whether mentalization abilities mediate the VoA-social relationships link., Method: Eighty-two Israeli older adults (mean age = 73.44, SD  = 8.64, range = 60-95) completed a baseline online questionnaire containing background information, and subsequently filled out daily online questionnaires assessing ageist attitudes, subjective age, mentalization abilities, and positive social relationships for 14 consecutive days., Results: Positive VoA (reduced ageist attitudes and/or a young subjective age) were associated with enhanced mentalization and positive relationships on a given day and in time-lagged analyses. Moreover, mentalization mediated the effect of previous-day VoA on next-day positive social relationships. VoA also mediated the effect of previous-day mentalization on next-day positive social relationships., Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of mentalization capabilities for maintaining positive VoA/social relationships and expands the understanding of underlying factors associated with meaningful and close relationships in older adults.

Although previous research has shown that speakers adapt on the words they use, it remains unclear whether speakers adapt their phonological representations, leading them to perceive new phonemic contrasts following a social interaction. This event-related potential (ERP) study investigates whether the neuronal responses to the perception of the /e/-/ε/ vowel merger in Northern French speakers show evidence for discriminating /e/ and /ε/ phonemes after interacting with a speaker who produced this contrast. Northern French participants engaged in an interactive map task and we measured their ERP responses elicited after the presentation of a last syllable which was either phonemically identical to or different from preceding syllables. There was no evidence for discrimination between /e/ and /ε/ phonemes before the social interaction, while mismatch negativity (MMN) and late responses revealed /e/-/ε/ discrimination after the social interaction. The findings suggest rapid neuronal adaptations of phonemic representations thanks to the social interaction., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article integrates insights from the Journal of Personality's Registered Report-only special issue, which explores the relationship between personality and experiences within solitude. Contrary to the traditional view that solitude primarily serves those who are introverted or seeking refuge from social interactions, findings in this issue demonstrate that solitude is actively sought by, and may hold benefits for, a broad spectrum of personality types. We discuss these findings and suggest there may be more complex interactions between personality and solitude than previously recognized. We highlight the importance of conceptual and methodological clarity in studying both personality and solitude. Studies also show that the benefits of solitude for well-being depend on contextual factors including the function and purpose of solitude, and activities undertaken (or not) when alone. Preferences for, and enjoyment of, solitude are influenced by more than just personality traits; they are shaped by how personality interacts with specific situations and contexts. We provide practical recommendations for future research to refine methods in order to better understand the nuanced experiences of solitude. These approaches will help clarify the conditions under which solitude is most beneficial and offer deeper insights into how solitude can improve well-being for different individuals., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Representing the mental state of the partner lays the foundation for successful social interaction. While the representation of group members has been extensively studied, it is unclear how intergroup interactions affect it. In three experiments utilizing the joint flanker task, we found that competition between groups brought about a greater joint flanker effect (Experiment 1). Such phenomenon was not due to competition per se, as competition that occurred between individuals from different groups did not enhance the joint flanker effect (Experiment 2). Using the minimal grouping method to directly manipulate group entitativity, we found that the joint flanker effect was larger when participants perceived the group as being more closely connected; conversely, when they perceived the group as less close, the joint flanker effect was attenuated (Experiment 3). These results suggested that beliefs about the group may be key to how group competition enhanced the joint flanker effect. The potential cognitive mechanisms producing this phenomenon are fully discussed. Overall, our study is the first to explore the impact of intergroup interactions on the joint flanker effect and provides a new perspective on understanding the relationship between within-group representations and intergroup interactions., (© 2024 The Author(s). PsyCh Journal published by Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Rationale: positive social interactions are essential for mental health, by offering emotional support, reducing stress levels, and promoting resilience against drugs of abuse effects. However, not all individuals perceive social interaction as rewarding., Objectives: the goal of this study was to investigate whether the modulation of the orexin system can shift passive coping and non-social behavior (vulnerable) to active coping and social behavior (resilient). This knowledge is primordial for stress- and addiction-related disorders, and for other psychiatric disorders involving impairment in social interaction., Methods: male C57/BL6N mice categorized into social and non-social groups, received injections of SB334867, a selective orexin 1 receptor (OX1R) antagonist, before the conditioning sessions with a male conspecific of the same weight and age., Results: our results from the conditioned place preference test (CPP) show that SB334867 has no effect on social preference in non-social mice, but it reduces their stress levels and depression-like behavior. These effects appear to be due to a higher OX1R expression in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a stress-related brain area, of non-social mice compared to their social counterparts., Conclusions: these data suggest that the orexin system may be a target to alleviate stress and depression-like behavior in non-social individuals rather than to promote social reward., Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of interest: none., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Hippocampal region CA2 is essential for social memory processing. Interaction with social stimuli induces changes in CA2 place cell firing during active exploration and sharp wave-ripples during rest following a social interaction. However, it is unknown whether these changes in firing patterns are caused by integration of multimodal social stimuli or by a specific sensory modality associated with a social interaction. Rodents rely heavily on chemosensory cues in the form of olfactory signals for social recognition processes. To determine the extent to which social olfactory signals contribute to CA2 place cell responses to social stimuli, we recorded CA2 place cells in rats freely exploring environments containing stimuli that included or lacked olfactory content. We found that CA2 place cell firing patterns significantly changed only when social odors were prominent. Also, place cells that increased their firing in the presence of social odors alone preferentially increased their firing during subsequent sharp wave-ripples. Our results suggest that social olfactory cues are essential for changing CA2 place cell firing patterns during and after social interactions. These results support prior work suggesting CA2 performs social functions and shed light on processes underlying CA2 responses to social stimuli., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Virtual meetings, facilitated through videoconferencing or virtual reality, have become a common form of workplace communication. Despite the advantages these meetings offer, enabling collaboration among workers in dispersed locations, the phenomenon of virtual meeting fatigue, commonly referred to as Zoom fatigue, has emerged as a significant concern. This study explores whether facial appearance dissatisfaction, a known contributor to Zoom fatigue, leads to reduced engagement in virtual meeting interactions by mediating the role of Zoom fatigue. Furthermore, this study examines the impact of facial dissatisfaction and Zoom fatigue on virtual meeting engagement cross-culturally, within the contexts of South Korea and the United States. The findings indicate that in the United States, facial dissatisfaction led to a lower level of virtual meeting engagement through the mediating role of Zoom fatigue, while in South Korea, facial dissatisfaction negatively impacted virtual meeting engagement regardless of Zoom fatigue levels. Additionally, we reveal that Zoom fatigue and facial dissatisfaction are more pronounced among U.S. women than U.S. men, but differences were not observed between South Korean women and men. These results underscore the influence of societal competitiveness, as seen in South Korea, on impression management concerns in technology-mediated work environments. We highlight the importance of developing virtual meeting features to mitigate facial dissatisfaction and Zoom fatigue, thereby enhancing engagement in virtual interactions.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a psychiatric condition characterized by reduced social interaction, anxiety, and stereotypic behaviors related to neuroinflammation and microglia activation. We demonstrated that maternal exposure to Western diet (cafeteria diet or CAF) induced microglia activation, systemic proinflammatory profile, and ASD-like behavior in the offspring. Here, we aimed to identify the effect of alternate day fasting (ADF) as a non-pharmacologic strategy to modulate neuroinflammation and ASD-like behavior in the offspring prenatally exposed to CAF diet. We found that ADF increased plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) levels in the offspring exposed to control and CAF diets but not in the cortex (Cx) and hippocampus (Hpp). We observed that ADF increased the CD45 + cells in Cx of both groups; In control individuals, ADF promoted accumulation of CD206 + microglia cells in choroid plexus (CP) and increased in CD45 + macrophages cells and lymphocytes in the Cx. Gestational exposure to CAF diet promoted defective sociability in the offspring; ADF improved social interaction and increased microglia CD206 + in the Hpp and microglia complexity in the dentate gyrus. Additionally, ADF led to attenuation of the ER stress markers (Bip/ATF6/p-JNK) in the Cx and Hpp. Finally, biological modeling showed that fasting promotes higher microglia complexity in Cx, which is related to improvement in social interaction, whereas in dentate gyrus sociability is correlated with less microglia complexity. These data suggest a contribution of intermittent fasting as a physiological stimulus capable of modulating microglia phenotype and complexity in the brain, and social interaction in male mice., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics Approval: Not applicable. Consent to Participate: Not applicable. Consent for Publication: Not applicable. Competing Interests: Not applicable., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Inter-brain synchrony occurs between individuals who feel connected socially, but how synchrony relates to felt connectedness under naturalistic social interaction has remained enigmatic. We hypothesized that inter-brain synchrony between naturally interacting individuals might be associated with the internalization of a social identity, a link between an individual's personal identity and the social group to which the individual belongs. A convenience sample of sixty participants were split into dyads and interacted naturalistically on a social task. Through mapping EEG oscillatory waveforms onto a conceptual model categorizing the formation of a social identity within a naturalistic conversation, greater inter-brain synchrony was observed in the emergent stage within the formation of a social identity compared to earlier stages, where a social identity was not present. We provide evidence for greater neural synchrony related to higher socio-psychological connectedness during the development of social identity under naturalistic social interaction., (© 2024 The Author(s). British Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.)

Interpersonal connectedness is a central feature of human interaction that can be compromised during illness. Nonverbal signals play a crucial role in this context, and humans, like other animals, have evolved a behavioral immune system that enables individuals to detect subtle cues of sickness in others. Conversely, sick individuals often tend to avoid social interaction, a key component of sickness behavior. The coordination of body movements between two individuals (movement synchrony) is a measure of the quality of relationships that could provide insights into an interlocutor's sickness state. In the present study, we explored the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration, a naturalistic stimulus for inflammation-induced sickness, on movement synchrony in healthy volunteers randomly assigned to a double-blind interview with a non-treated interviewer conducted 2.5 h after intravenous injection of either LPS (N = 26) or placebo (N = 25). Movement synchrony was assessed by automated video analysis of subject's and interviewer's head movements. Lagged cross-correlations were used to objectively quantify coordination in dyads and to assess patterns of temporal movement synchronization. Data analysis revealed that dyads with subjects under placebo displayed a pattern of movement coordination comparable to that seen in previous studies. However, dyads with subjects under LPS showed a loss of simultaneous movement (i.e. moving at the same time) with the interview partner, which is normally the temporal domain providing the highest level of synchrony. Together, the findings suggest that immediate social interaction is attenuated when one interlocutor is exposed to systemic inflammation, while the other is unaffected. This effect can be attributed to both sickness behavior on one hand and correlates of the behavioral immune system on the other hand., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms which is treated with antipsychotics. However, these drugs present several side effects and, some schizophrenia symptoms, like cognitive, are difficult to treat. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-gamma (PPAR-γ) are expressed in dopaminergic neurons of the midbrain participating in the modulation of dopamine-mediated behavior . We investigated the effects of pioglitazone, an agonist of PPAR-γ, on the behavioral alterations induced by ketamine and, whether alterations in monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD 67 ), PPAR-γ or tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunoreactivity in brain tissues are involved in these effects. Male mice received ketamine (30 mg/kg), intraperitoneally, for 14 consecutive days, and pioglitazone (3 or 9 mg/kg), by gavage (day 8 up to day 14). Ketamine decreased nail-biting increasing the time exploring the center of the open field on day 8 and the number of rearing evaluated 30 min after its administration on day 14. Furthermore, ketamine decreased the percentage of investigation in the NOR test and the immunoreactivity of GAD 67 in the hippocampus. No significant changes were found in other behavioral and biochemical tests. Pioglitazone attenuated the effects of ketamine on rearing and GAD 67 immunoreactivity in the hippocampus, recovering the ketamine effects on NOR test. At a dose of 9 mg/kg, pioglitazone alone reduced the immunoreactivity of GAD 67 in the hippocampus. Pioglitazone at both doses recovered the cognitive symptoms induced by ketamine an effect that seems to involve the modulation of GAD 67 immunoreactivity in the hippocampus. In conclusion, pioglitazone improved the effects of ketamine on the NOR test which was, at least in part, associated with the modulation of GAD 67 immunoreactivity in the hippocampus suggesting its beneficial role in cognitive symptoms., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Adolescents often experience heightened socioemotional sensitivity warranting their use of regulatory strategies. Yet, little is known about how key socializing agents help regulate teens' negative emotions in daily life and implications for long-term adjustment. We examined adolescent girls' interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) with parents and peers in response to negative social interactions, defined as parent and peer involvement in the teen's enactment of emotion regulation strategies. We also tested associations between rates of daily parental and peer IER and depressive symptoms, concurrently and one year later. Adolescent girls ( N = 112; M age = 12.39) at temperamental risk for depressive disorders completed a 16-day ecological momentary assessment protocol measuring reactivity to negative social interactions, parental and peer IER, and current negative affect. Results indicated that adolescents used more adaptive strategies with peers and more maladaptive strategies with parents in daily life. Both parental and peer IER down-regulated negative affect, reflected by girls' decreased likelihood of experiencing continued negative affect. Higher proportions of parental adaptive IER predicted reduced depressive symptoms one year later. Findings suggest that both parents and peers effectively help adolescent girls down-regulate everyday negative emotions; however, parents may offer more enduring benefits for long-term adjustment.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons, leading to motor symptoms such as tremors, rigidity, and bradykinesia. Non-motor symptoms, including depression, hyposmia, and sleep disturbances, often emerge in the early stages of PD, but their mechanisms remain poorly understood. The 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rodent model is a well-established tool for preclinical research, replicating key motor and non-motor symptoms of PD. In this review, we systematically analyzed 135 studies that used 6-OHDA rodent models of PD to investigate non-motor symptoms. The review process adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Our analysis highlights the growing use of 6-OHDA PD models for experimental research of non-motor symptoms. It also reveals significant variability in methodologies, including choices of brain target, toxin dosage, lesion verification strategies, and behavioral assessment reporting. Factors that hinder reproducibility and comparability of findings across studies. We highlight the need for standardization in 6-OHDA-based models with particular emphasis on consistent evaluation of lesion extent and reporting of the co-occurrence of non-motor symptoms. By fostering methodological coherence, this framework aims to enhance the reproducibility, reliability, and translational value of 6-OHDA models in PD non-motor symptom research., (© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Neurochemistry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society for Neurochemistry.)

The fluctuations in emotions during constant help are unexplained by traditional emotion theories but may align with the predictive coding theory. This theory suggests that individuals tend to form expectations of others' help during social interactions. When outcomes exceed expectations, positive prediction errors are generated, potentially increasing gratitude. Conversely, constant help may build up expectations that surpass outcomes, resulting in negative prediction errors and reduced gratitude. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies to examine the relationship between prediction errors and gratitude and its underlying mechanism. Here, we conducted two studies. Study 1 consistently found that higher expectations were associated with lower gratitude, when benefactors refused to help, in both reward-gaining and punishment-avoiding tasks. Moreover, prediction errors were positively and reliably linked to gratitude. Study 2 further identified that gratitude dynamically changed through an expectation-updating mechanism. A computational model incorporating predictive coding outperformed traditional theories in predicting the dynamics of gratitude. The findings support predictive coding theory, providing a temporal perspective and a mechanistic understanding of the fluctuations in gratitude, thus having implications for new interventions to improve mental health and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Empathic behavior is crucial in promoting positive social outcomes and strengthening interpersonal bonds. Research on how empathy modulates responses to others' emotions remains scarce yet is fundamental for elucidating mechanisms of impaired social functioning in psychopathology and its treatment., Methods: Two ecological momentary assessment studies (Ns = 125 and 204) investigated participants' empathy and usage of interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in 5537 social interactions. We measured empathy, a multi-faceted construct, as dissected into its components of mentalizing and experience sharing in Study 1, while Study 2 additionally investigated empathic concern and personal distress., Results: Findings revealed that empathizers engage in significantly increased other-focused regulation, especially when feeling empathic concern. We also found differences in the strengths of the links between empathy and responses to others' emotions: When we mentalize, share others' emotions, or feel concerned, we choose more relationship-oriented strategies, including validation and soothing, and less cognitive reappraisal and avoidance to regulate others' emotions. In contrast, when personally distressed by others' emotions, we select more cognitive reappraisal and avoidance and less relationship-oriented strategies., Limitations: Both studies relied on regulator reports., Conclusions: Empathy facets distinctly shape our responses to others' emotions and can make us increasingly emotionally responsive and relationship-oriented. Understanding these dynamics can enhance the treatment of affective disorders characterized by deficits in social functioning., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

There is no consensus on the definition of recovery of people with psychosis. This may be attributed to the broad concept including clinical, functional and personal recovery domains and the diverse interests of stakeholders involved. We hypothesized that service users, informal caregivers and healthcare professionals would exhibit differences in prioritization, reflecting varying roles and viewpoints. Through an open online anonymous questionnaire, stakeholders shared their perspectives on most important aspects of clinical, functional and personal recovery and on facilitators and barriers of recovery. Stakeholder collaboration in study design and interpretation enhanced the study's robustness. The answers on open questions of respondents were categorized for statistical analyses to compare the answers between respondent groups on the different aspects of recovery. 226 stakeholders participated. While commonalities prevailed, distinctions emerged in recovery domain priorities. Service users and informal caregivers accorded equal importance to clinical, functional and personal recovery, whereas healthcare professionals emphasized clinical recovery. Regarding functional recovery, service users seemed to focus on practical issues while informal caregivers addressed the underlying causes. Disparities were notable in the role of healthcare that was considered as both a facilitator or a barrier to recovery, with informal caregivers prioritizing aspects of healthcare more frequently as most important than healthcare professionals. While commonalities prevailed, we identified several differences in prioritizing recovery domains among stakeholder groups. Awareness and understanding of these differences is crucial for effective communication and collaboration between stakeholders in recovery-oriented healthcare. The study underscores the need for ongoing dialogue between stakeholders., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing Interest: The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. Ethical Approval: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Medical Centre Utrecht (Protocol Number 21-068-C). Consent to Participate: Informed consent was obtained from all individual respondents included in the study., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective/background: Flow, a psychological state of intense engagement in and enjoyment of an activity, can arise during both solitary and socially interactive experiences. In the literature, whereas people high in extraversion have difficulty achieving flow in solitude, those with an autotelic personality-a combination of traits that make people prone to flow-readily experience flow in both solitary and interactive conditions. In this pre-registered experiment, we investigated whether autotelic personality mitigates the negative association between solitary flow and extraversion., Method: Participants and their romantic partners (final N = 368) played the game Perfection™ in three conditions (order was counterbalanced): alone (solitary condition), in the presence of their partner without interaction (mere-presence condition), and collaboratively (interactive condition)., Results: There were independent, positive main effects of extraversion and autotelic personality on flow experience in mere-presence and interactive conditions. However, the positive effect of extraversion on solitary flow was only significant among participants with high (vs. low) autotelic personality. In all conditions, flow experience was associated with greater low-arousal positive affect and lesser high-arousal negative affect., Conclusions: The findings shed light on the role of personality in promoting solitary flow experiences, and particularly how traits might interact to determine optimal and non-optimal conditions for achieving flow., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Atypical executive functions (EFs) are well-documented in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) across all ages. However, most research focuses on EFs impairments in school-aged children and older, with less attention to preschool children. Understanding EF deficits in this age group is challenging and underexplored due to limited studies and measurement difficulties. The current short narrative review's aim is to provide an update on the knowledge on EFs in preschool children with ASD and their association with ASD symptoms. Despite varied results, recent research suggests early EF difficulties, potentially linked to greater impairments in social skills and externalizing behaviors. This suggests the importance of implementing early interventions that take into account the enhancement of these areas from an early age. Further investigation in this age group could enhance our understanding of ASD., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a severe neuromuscular disorder, caused by mutations in the DMD gene. Normally, the DMD gene gives rise to multiple dystrophin isoforms, of which multiple are expressed in the brain. The location of the mutation determines the number of dystrophin isoforms affected, and the absence thereof leads to behavioral and cognitive impairments. Even though behavioral studies have thoroughly investigated the effects of the loss of Dp427, and to a lesser extend of Dp140, in mice, direct comparisons between models lacking multiple dystrophin isoforms are sparse. Furthermore, a behavioral characterization of the DMD-null mouse, which lacks all dystrophin isoforms, has never been undertaken. Using a wide variety of behavioral tests, we directly compared impairments between mdx5cv, mdx52 and DMD-null mice. We confirmed the role of Dp427 in emotional reactivity. We did not find any added effects of loss of Dp140 on fear, but showed the involvement of Dp140 in spontaneous behavior, specifically in habituation and activity changes due to light/dark switches. Lastly, Dp71/Dp40 seems to play an important role in many behavioral domains, including anxiety and spontaneous behavior., (© 2025. Published by The Company of Biologists.)

Objectives: This study was aimed at improving clarity regarding the goals underlying motivation for attendance at international meetings to accommodate evolving needs., Methods: We performed a case study of a large international medical conference by undertaking (a) semi-structured interviews with 13 multi-disciplinary stakeholders, which underwent thematic analysis, and (b) surveys of 1229 conference attendees, which underwent descriptive statistical analysis and directed content analysis., Results: Interviews suggested scientific updates and networking are priorities for in-person formats whereas flexibility and reduced travel are priorities for virtual formats. Surveys suggested motivations for attending both in-person and virtual conferences included: scientific updates (81.3% and 85.4%, respectively) and advancements in patient care (76.6%, 78.2%). Social interaction (e.g., to meet experts 80.6% and make/deepen professional connections 69.3%) was highly rated for in-person meetings, but not virtual meetings (51.0% and 30.8%, respectively). 58.9% of attendees prefer future meetings to be hybrid, including both in-person and virtual formats., Conclusions: We found a disconnect between attendees' preferences and recommendations currently put forward as socially responsible in terms of climate, equity and diversity. Meeting organisers may need to educate others about the value and costs involved in hybrid formats. When hybrid formats are possible, our data provide guidance on what to prioritize during in-person components and how to combine those with the benefits of global accessibility and flexibility enabled by virtual technology.

Facial emotional expressions are crucial in face-to-face social interactions, and recent findings have highlighted their interactive nature. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. This electroencephalography study investigated whether the interactive exchange of facial expressions modulates socio-emotional processing. Participants (N = 41) displayed a facial emotional expression (angry, neutral, or happy) toward a virtual agent, and the agent then responded with a further emotional expression (angry or happy) or remained neutral (control condition). We assessed subjective experience (valence, arousal), facial EMG (Zygomaticus, Corrugator), and event-related potentials (EPN, LPP) elicited by the agent's response. Replicating previous findings, we found that an agent's happy facial expression was experienced as more pleasant and elicited increased Zygomaticus activity when participants had initiated the interaction with a happy compared to an angry expression. At the neural level, angry expressions resulted in a greater LPP than happy expressions, but only when participants directed an angry or happy, but not a neutral, expression at the agent. These findings suggest that sending an emotional expression increases salience and enhances the processing of received emotional expressions, indicating that an interactive setting alters brain responses to social stimuli., (© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Despite the growing interest in understanding creativity-the ability to produce novel and useful ideas-most research in the field focuses on examining the neural networks underlying creativity in isolated individuals. However, numerous creative breakthroughs in arts, sciences, and industries occur through social interactions, where ideas are generated collaboratively by dyads and groups. The accumulating evidence indicates that cooperative settings foster higher levels of creativity compared to individual settings, suggesting that social factors play a role in creativity.In this review, we synthesize the findings on individual and group creativity and propose a new brain model for understanding group creativity. We extend the twofold model of creativity and suggest that creativity in social setting involves an interplay between idea generation, social influence and flexibility. Building on this model we suggest that group creativity is mediated by activity as well as interbrain coupling in neural circuits associated with associative thinking (default mode network), flexibility (executive control network) and observation-execution (inferior frontal gyrus). By shifting the focus from isolated individuals to social settings, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of creativity and its neural mechanisms. This research direction holds the potential to uncover valuable insights into how group dynamics and social interactions facilitate the generation of creative ideas., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Authors report no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Creating age-friendly cities (AFCs) is essential for supporting older adults' well-being. The WHO's 2007 guide outlines key features of AFCs, including social inclusion. Despite increasing numbers of AFC programmes, diverse experiences of ageing are often overlooked. This scoping review explores innovative programmes implemented by AFCs to enhance social inclusion for older adults., Design: A scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines., Data Sources: Systematic searches were conducted between December 2023 and January 2024 across relevant databases (Ovid Medline, OVID Embase, OVID PsycINFO, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and Scopus) and the grey literature., Eligibility Criteria for Selecting Studies: Selection criteria included English language publications describing evaluated age-friendly, social inclusion programmes for older adults., Data Extraction and Synthesis: Data extraction followed Gonyea and Hudson's (2015) framework assessing programmes on population, environment and/or sector inclusion levels. Inductive analysis identified and evaluated aspects of social inclusion., Results: We identified 20 peer-reviewed publications and 18 grey literature sources. Most programmes (peer review, n=19, 95.0%; grey, n=18, 100.0%) addressed population inclusion, incorporated environment (peer review, n=10, 50.0%; grey, n=15, 83.3%) and/or sector inclusion (peer review, n=7, 35.0%; grey, n=15, 83.3%). Key outcomes included an improved sense of belonging, increased engagement with community resources and activities, enhanced digital literacy and connectivity, and a reduction in feelings of loneliness and isolation. A notable gap was the absence of studies focused on Indigenous populations., Conclusion: We highlight that programmes addressing population, environment and sectoral inclusion may improve the well-being of older adults in urban settings. Our findings will inform AFC practices and policies by deepening our understanding of how social inclusion can be improved for older adults, including those from under-represented groups, ensuring an equitable approach to enhancing quality of life., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group.)

Civic organizations, ranging from interest groups to voluntary associations, significantly influence policy formation in representative democracies. This work presents a local case study that examines the relationship between voluntary associations and local political institutions in a village with nearly two thousand residents. Traditionally, sociologists' approaches have focused on individual characteristics such as age, gender, or socio-professional status. In this study, we analyze social interactions between members of organizations modeled through a hypergraph. Specifically, we model interactions as hyperedges that correspond to activities proposed by organizations and involve the individuals who participate in those activities. Our analysis reveals a community-based structure, where members of similar types of organizations tend to interact more frequently. To quantify 'political participation,' we introduce an interaction-based measure that extends degree centrality. We also introduce the 'diversity coefficient' as an extension of degree centrality to capture an individual's ability to participate in activities composed of members from different communities. Among other centrality measures, we find that the diversity coefficient is the most significant factor in explaining political participation among members of associations., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Azaiez, Salot. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Rates of loneliness and other forms of social disconnection have been increasing worldwide. Prior studies have suggested that brief behavioral interventions can teach skills that may improve social functioning and connection but, currently, access to such interventions is limited. One previously untested approach for addressing this gap is to teach these skills using immersive, multi-user virtual reality (VR). To measure the feasibility of this approach, 33 young adults experiencing social discomfort were enrolled in a study of a VR-based application called Reconnecting with Ourselves and Others in virtual Meetings (ROOM), which delivered a previously validated, mindfulness-based intervention. Satisfaction ratings, qualitative feedback, and quantitative measures of aspects of social functioning, including social comfort, interpersonal distance, and facial affect recognition, were collected from participants. All of the participants attended more than half of the sessions and 90.3% found ROOM to be beneficial and useful. In addition, comfort with others in the real world (p = 0.02) and facial affect recognition accuracy (p = 0.02) significantly increased, while interpersonal distances remained unchanged, following ROOM. An immersive, multi-user VR intervention may represent one feasible, scalable approach for disseminating skills that can improve social functioning and connection. Trial registration Clinicaltrial.org # NCT06360562., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Depression significantly impacts an individual's thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and moods; this prevalent mental health condition affects millions globally. Traditional approaches to detecting and treating depression rely on questionnaires and personal interviews, which can be time consuming and potentially inefficient. As social media has permanently shifted the pattern of our daily communications, social media postings can offer new perspectives in understanding mental illness in individuals because they provide an unbiased exploration of their language use and behavioral patterns., Objective: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a methodological language framework that integrates psychological patterns, contextual information, and social interactions using natural language processing and machine learning techniques. The goal was to enhance intelligent decision-making for detecting depression at the user level., Methods: We extracted language patterns via natural language processing approaches that facilitate understanding contextual and psychological factors, such as affective patterns and personality traits linked with depression. Then, we extracted social interaction influence features. The resultant social interaction influence that users have within their online social group is derived based on users' emotions, psychological states, and context of communication extracted from status updates and the social network structure. We empirically evaluated the effectiveness of our framework by applying machine learning models to detect depression, reporting accuracy, recall, precision, and F 1 -score using social media status updates from 1047 users along with their associated depression diagnosis questionnaire scores. These datasets also include user postings, network connections, and personality responses., Results: The proposed framework demonstrates accurate and effective detection of depression, improving performance compared to traditional baselines with an average improvement of 6% in accuracy and 10% in F 1 -score. It also shows competitive performance relative to state-of-the-art models. The inclusion of social interaction features demonstrates strong performance. By using all influence features (affective influence features, contextual influence features, and personality influence features), the model achieved an accuracy of 77% and a precision of 80%. Using affective features and affective influence features also showed strong performance, achieving 81% precision and an F 1 -score of 79%., Conclusions: The developed framework offers practical applications, such as accelerating hospital diagnoses, improving prediction accuracy, facilitating timely referrals, and providing actionable insights for early interventions in mental health treatment plans., (©Xingwei Yang, Guang Li. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 20.01.2025.)

The formation of new social interactions is vital for social animals, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We identified CeA Npbwr1 neurons, a population in central amygdala expressing neuropeptide B/W receptor-1 (NPBWR1), that play a critical role in these interactions. CeA Npbwr1 neurons were activated during encounters with unfamiliar, but not with familiar, mice. Manipulations of CeA Npbwr1 neurons showed that their excitation is essential for maintaining physical interactions with novel conspecifics. Activation of CeA Npbwr1 neurons alleviated social deficits induced by chronic social defeat stress, suggesting therapeutic potential. Conversely, overexpression of human NPBWR1 in CeA Npbwr1 neurons reduced activity of these neurons and impaired social interactions with unfamiliar mice. This effect was absent in a polymorphic variant of the human NPBWR1 gene (404A>T). These findings highlight how CeA Npbwr1 neurons promote social novelty seeking and reveal a complex interplay between NPBWR1 genetic variations and social behavior.

Purpose: We aim to understand the link between field-level institutional logics and practice-level social interactions and relationships between public and private actors and their influences on the responses and resolutions to the issues causing tensions., Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a multiple logics perspective with a focus on social interactions and relationships between public and private actors, we conducted a multiple case study in five city hospitals recently established under a public-private partnership model in the Turkish healthcare field., Findings: We found that the state and market logics that predominantly characterize the Turkish healthcare field were enacted in each of the five hospitals in different manners and constitute three different configurations as compatible, complementary and contradictory. The social interactions and relationships developed between the public and private actors occur based on these configurations, and they all together shape the responses and resolutions to the issues causing tensions., Research Limitations/implications: Since we did all analyses between the organizational actors at the partnership level, we did not consider possible differences arising from individual and positional roles in each partnership. It is therefore important to acknowledge that the interviews, which are central to the research results, might be influenced by the motivation and power dynamics of the participants in terms of their positions, roles and responsibilities. Thus, much work must be done to understand the management of tensions in public-private partnership organizations (PPPOs) influenced by institutional logics with a greater focus on individual, partnership, organizational and field-level interactions., Practical Implications: Tensions arising between public and private actors in PPPOs can be understood better and managed more effectively when the enactment of institutional logics is considered together with their social interactions and relationships., Originality/value: The novelty of our study is that we advance the knowledge on the management of tensions in PPPOs by empirically showing the link between field-level institutional logics and practice-level social interactions and relationships and their influences on the responses and resolutions to the issues causing tensions. Our results indicate that tensions arising between public and private actors in PPPOs are primarily responded to by private actors mainly with avoidance, defiance or decoupling and subsequently resolved by their joint efforts through informal collaboration, formalization, formalized collaboration, enforcement or coercive pressure, depending on how the state and market logics are enacted within the hospitals and how social interactions and relationships between public and private side actors are formed accordingly., (© Emerald Publishing Limited.)

Repeated closed-head injuries (rCHI) from activities like contact sports, falls, military combat, and traffic accidents pose a serious risk due to their cumulative impact on the brain. Often, rCHI is not diagnosed until symptoms of irreversible brain damage appear, highlighting the need for preventive measures. This study assessed the prophylactic efficacy of remote photobiomodulation (PBM) targeted at the lungs against rCHI-induced brain injury and associated behavioral deficits. Utilizing the "Marmarou" weight-drop model, rCHI was induced in rats on days 0, 5, and 10. Remote PBM, employing an 808 nm continuous wave laser, was administered daily in 2-min sessions per lung side over 20 days. Behavioral deficits were assessed through three-chamber social interaction, forced swim, grip strength, open field, elevated plus maze, and Barnes maze tests. Immunofluorescence staining and 3D reconstruction evaluated neuronal damage, apoptosis, degeneration, and the morphology of microglia and astrocytes, as well as astrocyte and microglia-mediated excessive synapse elimination. Additionally, 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing analyzed changes in the lung microbiome following remote PBM treatment. Results demonstrated that remote PBM significantly improved depressive-like behaviors, motor dysfunction, and social interaction impairment while enhancing grip strength and reducing neuronal damage, apoptosis, and degeneration induced by rCHI. Analysis of lung microbiome changes revealed an enrichment of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis pathways, suggesting a potential link to neuroprotection. Furthermore, remote PBM mitigated hyperactivation of cortical microglia and astrocytes and significantly reduced excessive synaptic phagocytosis by these cells, highlighting its potential as a preventive strategy for rCHI with neuroprotective effects., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Social functioning impairment is a core symptom of schizophrenia (SCZ). Yet, the computational and neural mechanisms of social coordination in SCZ under real-time and naturalistic settings are poorly understood. Here, we instructed patients with SCZ to coordinate with a healthy control (HC) in a joint finger-tapping task, during which their brain activity was measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy simultaneously. The results showed that patients with SCZ exhibited poor rhythm control ability and unstable tapping behaviour, which weakened their interpersonal synchronization when coordinating with HCs. Moreover, the dynamical systems modeling revealed disrupted between-participant coupling when SCZ patients coordinated with HCs. Importantly, increased inter-brain synchronization was identified within SCZ-HC dyads, which positively correlated with behavioural synchronization and successfully predicted dimensions of psychopathology. Our study suggests that SCZ individuals may require stronger interpersonal neural alignment to support their deficient coordination performance. This hyperalignment may be relevant for developing inter-personalized treatment strategies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests. The study received approval from the ethics committee of Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences at Zhejiang University (No. 2022068) and adhered to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants were informed about the research objectives and provided written consent. Participants were paid for their participation., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Distinct brain circuits control sex preferences in mice.

Backgrounds: The influence of serotonin function on social phobia has been well-documented, yet the polygenic risk score of serotonergic polymorphisms for social phobia remains unclear., Methods: We assessed two aspects of social phobia (i.e., social interaction anxiety and social phobia scrutiny fear) and created a polygenic risk score of seven serotonergic polymorphisms in two independent samples., Results: The results from both samples indicated that a greater polygenic risk score, denoting a higher risk of anxiety, was associated with higher levels of social interaction anxiety and social phobia scrutinizing fear. Interestingly, the association between polygenic risk score and social interaction anxiety was mediated by interpersonal adaptability., Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the importance of serotonergic polymorphisms in social phobia and unveil a psychological pathway whereby interpersonal adaptability mediates the effect of serotonergic polymorphisms on social phobia., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest concerning their authorship or the publication of this article., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Sociosexual preference is critical for reproduction and survival. However, neural mechanisms encoding social decisions on sex preference remain unclear. In this study, we show that both male and female mice exhibit female preference but shift to male preference when facing survival threats; their preference is mediated by the dimorphic changes in the excitability of ventral tegmental area dopaminergic (VTA DA ) neurons. In males, VTA DA projections to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) mediate female preference, and those to the medial preoptic area mediate male preference. In females, firing-pattern (phasic-like versus tonic-like) alteration of the VTA DA -NAc projection determines sociosexual preferences. These findings define VTA DA neurons as a key node for social decision-making and reveal the sexually dimorphic DA circuit mechanisms underlying sociosexual preference.

Increasing evidence suggests that interlocutors use visual communicative signals to form predictions about unfolding utterances, but there is little data on the predictive potential of facial signals in conversation. In an online experiment with virtual agents, we examine whether facial signals produced by an addressee may allow speakers to anticipate the response to a question before it is given. Participants (n = 80) viewed videos of short conversation fragments between two virtual humans. Each fragment ended with the Questioner asking a question, followed by a pause during which the Responder looked either straight at the Questioner (baseline), or averted their gaze, or accompanied the straight gaze with one of the following facial signals: brow raise, brow frown, nose wrinkle, smile, squint, mouth corner pulled back (dimpler). Participants then indicated on a 6-point scale whether they expected a "yes" or "no" response. Analyses revealed that all signals received different ratings relative to the baseline: brow raises, dimplers, and smiles were associated with more positive responses, gaze aversions, brow frowns, nose wrinkles, and squints with more negative responses. Qur findings show that interlocutors may form strong associations between facial signals and upcoming responses to questions, highlighting their predictive potential in face-to-face conversation., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Purpose: Social isolation is a common consequence of Parkinson's disease (PD), and social prescribing has become a crucial aspect for fostering well-being in this population. In fact, group work has been shown to improve levels of social connectedness in older adults across different domains. Increased technology use in older adults may also contribute to increased social connections, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the impact of digital use on social connectedness remains to be further explored in individuals with PD. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of social connectedness in relation with group-based activities and use of digital technologies in this population., Method: Ten individuals with PD participated in focus groups. Transcripts of the video-recorded groups were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis., Results: The three constructed themes not only revealed changes and challenges in social connectedness but also underscored the power of family and new relationships established through PD. Results also highlighted the overall positive impact of current digital technologies, although the view on telehealth per se was multifaceted., Conclusions: Referrals for group rehabilitation programs can enhance social connectedness in individuals with PD through fostering new social connections and community building. Hence, group rehabilitation programs should be viewed as a form of social prescribing. The use of digital technologies should be further explored as a means to maximize social engagements in this population.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the association between oral function and mental health status in older adults and to determine the potential mediating roles of fruit and vegetable intake and social interaction., Methods: This cross-sectional study included 478 community-dwelling older adults aged ≥75 years in Japan. Oral functions (occlusal force, masticatory performance, tongue pressure, tongue-lip motor function, and swallowing function), mental health status, dietary assessment, frequency of outings and interactions with others, and the following confounders were evaluated: educational level, financial satisfaction, residential status, comorbidities, and cognitive function. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the following: (a) a basic model, which hypothesized that oral function has a direct effect on mental health status, and (b) a mediation model, which hypothesized that fruit and vegetable intake and social interaction have potential mediating effects on the association between oral function and mental health status., Results: The basic model revealed a positive direct association between oral function and mental health status (standardized coefficient = 0.10, P = 0.04). Fruit and vegetable intake and social interactions were identified as mediators; however, no direct association with oral function was observed in the mediation model (P = 0.28), indicating that oral function was indirectly associated with mental health status through the mediating effects of fruit and vegetable intake and social interactions., Conclusions: Oral function showed a significant association with mental health status in community-dwelling older adults. Fruit and vegetable intake along with social interactions mediate this relationship.

Introduction: Reaching social milestones is an important goal of childhood. Children with acquired brain injury (ABI) and cerebral palsy (CP) frequently experience challenges with social functioning and participation. The Programme for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) is a group-based social skills programme for adolescents. This study will compare an adapted PEERS programme with usual care in a pilot randomised waitlist-controlled trial for primary and early high school-aged children with brain injuries., Methods and Analysis: This single-centre study will be conducted at the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre at the Centre for Children's Health Research in Brisbane, Australia. Thirty-two school-aged children (grades 3+; 8-13 years) with an ABI or CP and their caregiver(s) will be recruited and randomly assigned to either 12 week PEERS Plus or waitlist usual care. The waitlist group will then participate in PEERS Plus after the 3 month retention time point. The primary outcome will measure individualised social participation goals on the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure immediately postintervention at the primary endpoint (12 weeks). Secondary outcomes include the Social Skills Improvement System Social-Emotional Learning Edition Rating Forms and Quality of Play Questionnaire immediately postintervention, 12 weeks postintervention (26 weeks postbaseline), 36 weeks postintervention (52 weeks postbaseline) for retention. Following completion of the PEERS Plus programme, semistructured focus group interviews will be conducted separately with caregivers and children to explore the lived experience of PEERS. Interpretive description will be used to identify patterns and themes related to participants' experiences. Analyses will follow standard principles for randomised controlled trials using two-group comparisons on all participants on an intention-to-treat basis. Comparisons between groups for primary and secondary outcomes will be conducted using regression models. This study will estimate the unit costs of providing PEERS Plus at different levels of public health facilities in Australia., Ethics and Dissemination: This study has been approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee of The University of Queensland (2022/HE002031) and the Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/22/QCHQ/87450). Recruitment and participant informed consent process will be completed in accordance with institutional ethic procedures. Dissemination plans include peer-review publication of study results, presentations, and instructional workshops at national and international conferences., Trial Registration Number: ACTRN12623000515695., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group.)

The development of the Internet has significantly changed the way people live and interact with each other. Interaction is the foundation for building trust and may therefore also be influenced by the Internet. This study aims to examine the impact of Internet use on different dimensions of social trust, focusing on the roles of perceived fairness and social support, using the latest data from the CGSS from China. The results show that Internet use has a significant negative predictive effect on the level of social trust, and the perception of social fairness plays a fully mediating role in this relationship. That is, Internet use can indirectly reduce people's level of social trust by reducing their perception of social fairness. Furthermore, the results indicate that social support can moderate people's perceptions of social fairness and thus mitigate the negative effects of Internet use on social trust. These results suggest that we should raise the profile of the impact of internet use, actively improve people's perceptions of social fairness to increase their level of social trust, and finally, focus on the positive role of social support, which can reduce the negative impact of internet use., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Miao, Kuang, Yang, Chen and Tian.)

Online meetings have become increasingly prevalent, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Although they offer convenience and effectiveness in various contexts, there is a pertinent question about whether they truly replicate the richness of in-person communication. This study delves into the distinctions between online and face-to-face interactions, with a particular focus on the synchronization of brain activity. Previous research has indicated a connection between synchronization and the quality of communication. Therefore, our hypothesis posits that face-to-face interactions lead to greater brain synchronization compared to online interactions, which often lack certain social cues. To investigate this, we conducted a study using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning during an eye-contact task involving 28 male participants organized into 14 pairs. We assessed brain signal synchronization using wavelet coherence analysis. After comparing face-to-face and online conditions, our findings revealed significantly higher synchronization in face-to-face scenarios, particularly within the right temporoparietal region. These results align with the outcomes of other hyperscanning studies and suggest that face-to-face communication elicits a higher level of brain synchronization compared with online communication. In the future, this approach holds promise for evaluating the effectiveness of online meeting tools in achieving a more authentic virtual communication experience., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors have no relevant financial interests in this article and no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Conversational repair has been proposed as a universal system for maintaining mutual understanding during social interactions. The repair system has been studied extensively in offline synchronous interactions (e.g., face-to-face, phone calls) and has been observed across cultures and languages. However, the prevalence of conversational repairs is unclear in online asynchronous text-based interactions. Online interactions are increasingly important for public deliberation, and it is therefore important to understand how conversational repairs manifest in different online contexts. To address this gap, we conducted two analyses of Other-initiated repairs in 25 English-language Reddit communities (subreddits), covering a diverse range of topics and communication norms. Analysis 1 examines the frequency of repair initiations across subreddits, finding them to be widespread (in every subreddit) and frequent (58.48% of interactions experience a repair initiation). Analysis 2 examines the emergence of repairs, finding that a repair initiation becomes increasingly likely the longer a comments thread progresses (Median time-to-repair = 6 turns). These results suggest that the prevalence and emergence of repair initiations in online interactions are comparable to offline contexts. However, we also find 44.80% of initiations receive no reply, precluding the possibility of a repair completion. Thus, conservatively, nearly half of the repair initiations in our data went uncompleted. This suggests that the online medium alters the way initiations are completed compared to offline interactions. We discuss the implications of this finding and avenues for future research., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Goddard, Gillespie. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Social robots are being developed as a technological solution to alleviate older adults' loneliness due to separation from their offspring. This study explores how and why offspring-like voices affect older adults' acceptance of social robots from an auditory perspective, which differ from the visual aspects of human-robot interactions. Three scenario-based studies are conducted among a large number of cognitively intact older adults. Our findings reveal a positive correlation between the offspring-like voices of social robots and older adults' acceptance of the robots. Further, social identity served as a psychological mechanism mediating the effect of offspring-like voices on the acceptance of older adults, whereas spatial distance acted as a positive moderator of these direct and indirect effects. Notably, older adults were more willing to accept social robots with grandchildren-like voices. These insights offer theoretical contributions to the literature on social identity theory and the similarity attraction paradigm, as well as practical implications for social robot design and development, thereby contributing to the evolving landscape of human-robot interaction acceptance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Good social connection is associated with better physical and mental health but care home residents experience barriers to social connection. Activities present a potential avenue for improving social connection in care homes but residents often experience loneliness despite access to activity programmes. We therefore aimed to identify what aspects of activities facilitate social connection in care home residents., Method: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews that were analysed using Thematic Analysis. A purposive sample of 35 participants, including 12 residents, 10 family caregivers, nine care home staff and four clinicians, recruited from UK care homes., Results: We found four main themes describing features of activities important for facilitating social connection: (1) personalisation with respect to residents' interests, social preferences, and cognitive ability; (2) activities which foster a s ense of community ; (3) finding and emphasising things in common that residents share; and (4) facilitating a s ense of involvement with others., Conclusion: We identified the key aspects of activities which facilitate social connection in care homes. These findings can be applied to a range of existing and newly designed activities in care homes and inform the development and testing of psychosocial interventions aiming to improve social connection.

Mealtimes shared with other people define how, what, how much, and with whom we eat. On such occasions, whether in private or public spaces, and as formal or informal events, our eating practices are inseparable from our interactions with other people. In this Editorial for the Special Issue on Interactional approaches to eating together and shared mealtimes, we provide an overview of the interdisciplinary field of research on eating together and shared mealtimes to illustrate the breadth and depth of work that has been developed in this area to date. The overview is divided into three broad clusters of research that focus primarily on (1) cultural or societal aspects, (2) individual outcomes, or (3) interactional practices. Commonalities across these clusters are discussed, the need for more research across a greater global and cultural diversity of eating practices is highlighted, and the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration on research on eating together and shared mealtimes across diverse scientific disciplines is explored. The papers in this Special Issue showcase a sample of contemporary work from within the cluster of research on interactional practices, and a brief overview of these papers is discussed. Finally, it is argued that as a common area of interest, social interaction as the foundation of eating practices within shared mealtimes poses considerable potential for interdisciplinary collaboration across scientific disciplines, and between scientists, professionals, and participants from the study populations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare, other than being the guest editors for the Special Issue on Interactional approaches to eating together and shared mealtimes. This manuscript is intended to be published as Editorial for the Special Issue., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Emotions drive and influence social interactions. Actions and reactions driven by emotions are dynamically modulated by continuous feedback loops between all interacting subjects. In this framework, interacting brains operate as an integrated system, with neural dynamics coevolving over time. Neuronal synchronization across brains has been observed in a range of species, including humans, monkeys, bats, and mice. This inter-neural synchrony (INS) has been proposed as a potential mechanism facilitating social interaction by enabling the functional integration of multiple brains. However, the role of emotions in modulating these processes remains underexplored and warrants further investigation. Here we provide a brief overview of studies on inter-neural synchrony in humans and other species, emphasizing the critical role that emotions might play in shaping multibrain dynamics., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)