Influences of social reward experience on behavioral responses to drugs of abuse: Review of shared and divergent neural plasticity mechanisms for sexual reward and drugs of abuse

Different factors influence the development of drug addiction in humans, including social reward experiences. In animals, experience with social rewards, such as sexual behavior, pair bonding, social and environmental enrichment, can be protective. However, loss or lack of social rewards can lead to a vulnerability to drug-seeking behavior. The effects of social reward experience on drug-seeking behavior are associated with changes in the neural pathways that control drug-related behavior. This review will provide an introduction and overview of the mesolimbic pathway and the influence of social reward experience on drug-seeking behavior in rodents. Moreover, the research from our laboratory on effects of sexual experience and loss of sex reward on psychostimulant and opiate reward will be reviewed. Finally, we will review current knowledge of the neural mechanisms that underlie these interactions. Investigations of the neural underpinnings by which social and drug rewards interact contribute to improved understanding of the neural basis of vulnerability for drug addiction and reward-related behaviors in general.     

5‐HTTLPR moderates the association between interdependence and brain responses to mortality threats

While behavioral research suggests an association between cultural worldview and decreased anxiety of death, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. Using functional MRI, we investigated whether and how the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5‐HTTLPR), which has been associated with mental disorders such as anxiety and depression, moderates the associations between a cultural trait (i.e., interdependence) and self‐report of death anxiety/depression and between interdependence and brain responses to mortality threats. Long/long and short/short allele carriers of the 5‐HTTLPR were scanned using fMRI while they performed a one‐back task on death‐related, death‐unrelated negative, and neutral words. Participants’ interdependence and death anxiety/depression were assessed using questionnaires after scanning. We found that participants who assessed themselves with greater interdependence reported lower death anxiety/depression and showed decreased neural response to death‐related words in emotion‐related brain regions including the anterior cingulate, putamen, and thalamus. However, these results were evident in long/long allele carriers of the 5‐HTTLPR but not in short/short allele carriers who even showed positive associations between interdependence and neural activities in the anterior cingulate, putamen and thalamus in response to death‐related words. Our findings suggest candidate mechanisms for explaining the complex relationship between genotype, cultural traits, and mental/neural responses to mortality threats. Hum Brain Mapp 38:6157–6171, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

新冠肺炎疫情下不同群体的认知、情绪和行为反应

目的了解新冠肺炎(COVID-19)疫情下不同群体的认知、情绪和行为状态,以期在今后的工作中进行更有针对性的心理援助。方法通过问卷星发放问卷,共957名社会人士完成量表评定。问卷内容分别从认知(压力和强迫思维)、情绪(抑郁、愤怒和焦虑)及行为(强迫行为和情绪调节困难)层面考察个体面对疫情时的心理反应。结果①医务人员的认知反应水平和行为表现与其他职业人员比较差异均有统计学意义(P0. 05或0. 01);②除抑郁水平外,女性的认知和情绪反应水平与男性比较差异有统计学意义(F=6. 109～14. 020,P0. 05或0. 01);③情绪调节困难量表(DERS)评分与被试的所有症状均呈正相关(r=0. 280～0. 723,P均0. 01)。结论在新冠肺炎疫情下,不同社会群体的认知、情绪和行为反应存在差异。     

Self-dependent neural variability predicts recovery from depressive symptoms

Researchers have increasingly paid attention to the neural dynamics of depression. This study examined whether self-dependent neural variability predicts recovery from depressive symptoms. Sixty adults with depressive symptoms who were not officially diagnosed with major depressive disorder participated in this study. Participants completed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, including a resting-state and a self-reflection task. The fMRI data were used to estimate neural variability, which refers to the temporal variability in regional functional connectivity patterns. Participants then completed the Self-Construal Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The change in BDI scores over 3 months indicated the degree of recovery from depressive symptoms. Self-construal moderated the effects of general neural variability on predicting recovery from depressive symptoms. Interdependent individuals became less depressive with higher general neural variability, but the relationship was not significant in independent individuals. The differences in neural variability between self-related and other-related conditions also predicted recovery from depressive symptoms. The regions contributing to the prediction were mainly distributed in the default-mode network. Based on these results, the harmony between individuals’ neural dynamics and self-concept is important for recovery from depressive symptoms, which might be a foundation for individualized treatment and counseling.