Interpersonal context and desired emotional closeness in neural response to negative visual stimuli: Preliminary findings

Abstract

Introduction: Emotions typically emerge in interpersonal contexts, but the neural circuitry involved remains insufficiently understood. Two key features of interpersonal contexts are interpersonal interactions (e.g., supportive physical touch serving as a form of social regulation) and interpersonal traits. Social regulation research has predominately focused on fear by using physical threat (i.e., electric shock) as the stimulus. Given that social regulation helps with various negative emotions in the real world, using visual stimuli that elicit negative emotions more broadly would also be beneficial. Differing from trait loneliness-which is related to lower recruitment of social circuitry in negative socioaffective contexts-trait desired emotional closeness is related to adaptive outcomes and may demonstrate an opposite pattern. This study investigated the roles of social regulation and desired emotional closeness in neural response to aversive social images.

Methods: Ten pairs of typically developing emerging adult friends (N = 20; ages 18-25) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) handholding task. Each friend viewed negative and neutral social images in the scanner under two conditions: (a) holding their friend's hand and (b) having their friend in the room.

Results: Handholding attenuated response to aversive social images in a region implicated in emotion and inhibitory control (right dorsal striatum/anterior insula/ventrolateral prefrontal cortex). Desired emotional closeness was positively associated with response to aversive social images (in the no handholding condition) in self and social processing (right ventral posterior cingulate cortex) and somatosensory regions (right postcentral gyrus).

Discussion: These findings extend previous research on the roles of interpersonal behaviors and tendencies in neural response to aversive stimuli.

Keywords: desired emotional closeness; emotion; fMRI; interpersonal; social regulation.