Helping me, helping you: behavioral and neural development of social competence from childhood to adolescence

Why do some children easily find their way in social situations and are satisfied with their social lives, while others experience more difficulties? One key component that may explain this is social competence: the ability to fulfill both own and other’s social goals. This thesis focused on individual differences in social competence from childhood to adolescence by examining contextual, developmental and neurobiological influences on aggressive and prosocial responses to social evaluation. Findings showed robust neural processes related to social feedback and subsequent aggression already in middle childhood. Additionally, this thesis revealed that the period between childhood and adolescence is important for the behavioral and neural development of inhibition of aggression following negative, neutral and positive social feedback. Aggression following social feedback decreased towards adolescence, but aggression following positive feedback decreased earlier in childhood than following negative feedback. Moreover, the involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, known for its role in executive functioning, decreased over time. Finally, results indicated that the co-occurrence of aggression following rejection and prosocial behavior following observed rejection may possibly protect against externalizing behaviors and promote wellbeing. This thesis highlights the importance of examining the interplay of developmental processes across social contexts to understand mental health outcomes. Netherlands Organziation for Scientific Research (NWO)Pathways through Adolescenc

Episodic memory enhancement versus impairment is determined by contextual similarity across events

For over a century, stability of spatial context across related episodes has been considered a source of memory interference, impairing memory retrieval. However, contemporary memory integration theory generates a diametrically opposite prediction. Here, we aimed to resolve this discrepancy by manipulating local context similarity across temporally disparate but related episodes and testing the direction and underlying mechanisms of memory change. A series of experiments show that contextual stability produces memory integration and marked reciprocal strengthening. Variable context, conversely, seemed to result in competition such that new memories become enhanced at the expense of original memories. Interestingly, these patterns were virtually inverted in an additional experiment where context was reinstated during recall. These observations 1) identify contextual similarity across original and new memories as an important determinant in the volatility of memory, 2) present a challenge to classic and modern theories on episodic memory change, and 3) indicate that the sensitivity of context-induced memory changes to retrieval conditions may reconcile paradoxical predictions of interference and integration theory

Perceived stress as mediator for longitudinal effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on wellbeing of parents and children

Dealing with a COVID-19 lockdown may have negative effects on children, but at the same time might facilitate parent-child bonding. Perceived stress may influence the direction of these effects. Using a longitudinal twin design, we investigated how perceived stress influenced lockdown induced changes in wellbeing of parents and children. A total of 106 parents and 151 children (10-13-year-olds) filled in questionnaires during lockdown and data were combined with data of previous years. We report a significant increase in parental negative feelings (anxiety, depression, hostility and interpersonal sensitivity). Longitudinal child measures showed a gradual decrease in internalizing and externalizing behavior, which seemed decelerated by the COVID-19 lockdown. Changes in parental negative feelings and children's externalizing behavior were mediated by perceived stress: higher scores prior to the lockdown were related to more stress during the lockdown, which in turn was associated with an increase in parental negative feelings and children's' externalizing behavior. Perceived stress in parents and children was associated with negative coping strategies. Additionally, children's stress levels were influenced by prior and current parental overreactivity. These results suggest that children in families with negative coping strategies and (a history of) parental overreactivity might be at risk for negative consequences of the lockdown.Pathways through Adolescenc

Large area photonic crystal cavities: A local density approach

Large area photonic crystal cavities are devices of interest for photovoltaics, optoelectronics, and solid-state lighting. However, depending on their dimensions they pose a large computational challenge. Here, we use a local density approach to avoid direct simulation of the device.We capture the effect of both ideal and distorted photonic crystals in an effective mass and an effective potential. We use these to map the problem of calculating the electromagnetic field modes to solving a simple time-independent Schrödinger equation. We show that, in the case that the hole radius varies quadratically as a function of position, the eigenmodes of the photonic crystals can be described by the corresponding eigenmodes of the quantum harmonic oscillator with typical agreements well above 90%

A bi-dimensional taxonomy of social responsivity in middle childhood: prosociality and reactive aggression predict externalizing behavior over time

Developing social skills is essential to succeed in social relations. Two important social constructs in middle childhood, prosocial behavior and reactive aggression, are often regarded as separate behaviors with opposing developmental outcomes. However, there is increasing evidence for the co-occurrence of prosociality and aggression, as both might indicate responsivity to the social environment. Here, we tested whether a bi-dimensional taxonomy of prosociality and reactive aggression could predict internalizing and externalizing problems over time. We re-analyzed data of two well-validated experimental tasks for prosociality (the Prosocial Cyberball Game) and reactive aggression (the Social Network Aggression Task) in a developmental population sample (n = 496, 7-9 years old). Results revealed no associations between prosociality and reactive aggression, confirming the independence of those constructs. Interestingly, although prosociality and reactive aggression independently did not predict problem behavior, the interaction of both was negatively predictive of changes in externalizing problems over time. Specifically, only children who scored low on both prosociality and reactive aggression showed an increase in externalizing problems 1 year later, whereas levels of externalizing problems did not change for children who scored high on both types of behavior. Thus, our results suggest that at an individual level, reactive aggression in middle childhood might not always be maladaptive when combined with prosocial behavior, thereby confirming the importance of studying social competence across multiple dimensions.Pathways through Adolescenc

Development of social feedback processing and responses in childhood: an fMRI test-replication design in two age cohorts

This study investigated behavioral and neural correlates underlying social feedback processing and subsequent aggressive behaviors in childhood in two age cohorts (test sample: n=509/n=385 and replication sample: n=354/n=195, 7-9 years old). Using a previously validated Social Network Aggression Task (Achterberg et al., 2020), we showed that negative social feedback resulted in most behavioral aggression, followed by less aggression after neutral and least aggression after positive feedback. Receiving positive and negative social feedback was associated with increased activity in the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Responding to feedback was associated with additional activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex following positive feedback. This DLPFC activation correlated negatively with aggression. Furthermore, age analyses showed that older children showed larger reductions in aggression following positive feedback and more neural activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when responding to positive feedback compared to younger children. To assess the robustness of our results, we examined these processes in two independent behavioral/fMRI samples using equivalence testing, thereby contributing to replicable reports. Together, these findings demonstrate an important role of social saliency and regulatory processes where regulation of aggression rapidly develops between ages 7-9 years.Pathways through Adolescenc

The nature of the self: neural analyses and heritability estimates of self-evaluations in middle childhood

How neural correlates of self-concept are influenced by environmental versus genetic factors is currently not fully understood. We investigated heritability estimates of behavioral and neural correlates of self-concept in middle childhood since this phase is an important time window for taking on new social roles in academic and social contexts. To do so, a validated self-concept fMRI task was applied in a twin sample of 345 participants aged between 7 and 9 years. In the self-concept condition, participants were asked to indicate whether academic and social traits applied to them whereas the control condition required trait categorization. The self-processing activation analyses (n = 234) revealed stronger medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation for self than for control conditions. This effect was more pronounced for social-self than academic self-traits, whereas stronger dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation was observed for academic versus social self-evaluations. Behavioral genetic modeling (166 complete twin pairs) revealed that 25-52% of the variation in academic self-evaluations was explained by genetic factors, whereas 16-49% of the variation in social self-evaluations was explained by shared environmental factors. Neural genetic modeling (91 complete twin pairs) for variation in mPFC and anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation for academic self-evaluations confirmed genetic and unique environmental influences, whereas anterior PFC activation for social self-evaluations was additionally influenced by shared environmental influences. This indicates that environmental context possibly has a larger impact on the behavioral and neural correlates of social self-concept at a young age. This is the first study demonstrating in a young twin sample that self-concept depends on both genetic and environmental factors, depending on the specific domain.Pathways through Adolescenc

Neural and behavioral signatures of social evaluation and adaptation in childhood and adolescence: The Leiden consortium on individual development (L-CID)

The transition period between early childhood and late adolescence is characterized by pronounced changes in social competence, or the capacity for flexible social adaptation. Here, we propose that two processes, self-control and prosociality, are crucial for social adaptation following social evaluation. We present a neurobehavioral model showing commonalities in neural responses to experiences of social acceptance and rejection, and multiple pathways for responding to social context. The Leiden Consortium on Individual Development (L-CID) provides a comprehensive approach towards understanding the longitudinal developmental pathways of, and social enrichment effects on, social competence, taking into account potential differential effects of such enrichment. Using Neurosynth based brain maps we point towards the medial prefrontal cortex as an important region integrating social cognition, self-referential processing and self-control for learning to respond flexibly to changing social contexts. Based on their role in social evaluation processing, we suggest to examine medial prefrontal cortex connections with lateral prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum as potential neural differential susceptibility markers, in addition to previously established markers of differential susceptibility