Assessing neural similarity for emotion processing in adolescence

• In Event: How adolescents’ behaviors and brain shape and are shaped by their peer social networks

Abstract

Background: In adolescence, emotional well-being and mood are often similar amongst close friends (Elmer et al., 2017) but the mechanisms behind this similarity are still being studied. Remarkably, individuals who are closer in their real-world social networks also tend to show more similar responses to audiovisual stimuli at the neural level (Parkinson et al., 2018), suggesting that close friendships are more likely amongst those who, on a neural level, interpret the world around them in a similar way. In adolescence, when friendship networks are more fluid, individuals may be more likely to seek and maintain friendships with those who process emotions similarly. The proposed study tested whether similarity in neural responding to affective images predicts proximity in adolescents’ social networks. We examined the extent to which similarity in responding to affective stimuli in regions associated with affective reactivity (e.g., amygdala) and conceptualization and abstraction about emotion (e.g., vmPFC) each relate to social network proximity. We hypothesize that, regardless of valence, greater similarity in affective processing in these regions will be associated with greater proximity in the social network.
Methods: Friendship nominations from 6th and 7th graders (n= 873) from three middle schools were used to generate social networks for each grade (6 networks total). Of these participants, 148 also completed an affective picture rating task during an fMRI scan. Using representational similarity analysis for amygdala and vmPFC seed regions, we will generate measures of neural similarity for all dyads within each network for responses to positively, negatively, and neutrally valenced images. Then, we will use multiple regression to analyze whether neural similarity predicts social network proximity for each condition in the amygdala and vmPFC.
Results: Preliminary analyses in one of the six networks from our sample (n = 27) revealed that similarity in neural responding to positive - but neither negative nor neutral images - in the vmPFC predicted social network proximity (see Figure 1A). These results held after controlling for other factors that may explain social network proximity, such as whether dyads are the same sex, race, or ethnicity. Neural similarity in amygdala response did not predict proximity for any of the conditions (see Figure 1B).
Conclusion: Although emotional processing plays a large role in adolescents’ social development, the degree to which emotional similarity shapes social networks is under-studied. Our study is the first to examine whether similar neural responses to emotional stimuli is related to proximity in social networks. Our findings suggest that similarity in the neural processing of positive emotional experiences may play a role in how adolescents seek and maintain friendships. Moreover, findings specific to the vmPFC, which is often implicated in conceptualizing and representing emotional states (Roy et al., 2012), can contribute to our knowledge of the mechanisms behind emotional homophily in adolescence.

Authors

• Jimmy Capella, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Mallory J. Feldman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Adrienne Bonar, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Junqiang Dai, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Elizabeth Nick, Vanderbilt University

• Nathan Field, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Kevin Lewis, UC San Diego

• Mitchell J Prinstein, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Kristen A Lindquist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Eva H Telzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill