Social Neuroscience: More Friends, More Problems…More Gray Matter?

SummaryThe social brain hypothesis generically posits that increasing social group size relates is associated with an increase in neocortex size. A new study identifies, within a species, the specific neural circuit that may confer the primate ability to manage social relationships as they increase in number

Associations Between Daily Affect and Sleep Vary by Sleep Assessment Type: What Can Ambulatory EEG Add to the Picture?

Objective/Background Disrupted sleep can be a cause and a consequence of affective experiences. However, daily longitudinal studies show sleep assessed via sleep diaries is more consistently associated with positive and negative affect than sleep assessed via actigraphy. The objective of the study was to test whether sleep parameters derived from ambulatory electroencephalography (EEG) in a naturalistic setting were associated with day-to-day changes in affect. Participants/Method Eighty adults (mean age = 32.65 years, 63% female) completed 7 days of affect and sleep assessments. We examined bidirectional associations between morning positive affect and negative affect with sleep assessed via diary, actigraphy, and ambulatory EEG. Results Mornings with lower positive affect than average were associated with higher diary- and actigraphy-determined sleep efficiency that night. Mornings with higher negative affect than average were associated with longer actigraphy-determined total sleep time that night. Nights with longer diary-determined total sleep time, greater sleep efficiency, and shorter sleep onset latency than average were associated with higher next-morning positive affect, and nights with lower diary-determined wake-after-sleep-onset were associated with lower next-morning negative affect. EEG-determined sleep and affect results were generally null in both directions: only higher morning negative affect was associated with longer rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that night. Conclusions Self-reported sleep and affect may occur in a bidirectional fashion for some sleep parameters. EEG-determined sleep and affect associations were inconsistent but may still be important to assess in future studies to holistically capture sleep. Single-channel EEG represents a novel, ecologically valid tool that may provide information beyond diaries and actigraphy

Beyond Dyadic Interactions: The Dynamics of Triadic Interactions in the Common Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)

Most studies model vocal communication in dyadic (two-way) interactions. Yet dyadic interactions fail to capture the full range of naturalistic interactions that occur between multiple interlocutors. This study compared the dynamics of common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) vocalizations in triadic (three-way) interactions with dyadic interactions in order to determine whether dyadic interactions are indeed a valid model for multi-speaker interactions. The timing and duration of marmosets’ phee calls varied in dyadic and triadic interactions. The probability of paired cagemates, opposite-sex non-cagemates, and same-sex non-cagemates calling to each other also varied within and across social contexts. Social context, sex, and sociosexual relationships appeared to influence communication. Triadic interactions therefore represent more than the sum of two dyadic interactions

Exploring the Role of Sleep Stage Transitions in Overnight Affect Change

The goal of the present study is to explore the relationship between transitions between sleep stages (scored by both human and automatic staging methods) and changes from pre- to post-sleep affect

Sleep, affect reactivity, and affect regulation in the context of sleep bruxism

This study examines the relationship between sleep and negative affect reactivity and regulation. The sample contains adults with or without sleep bruxism

Sleep quality and treatment of social anxiety disorder.

Background and Objectives: Poor sleep is prevalent among individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and may affect treatment outcome. We examined whether: (1) individuals with SAD differed from healthy controls (HCs) in sleep quality, (2) baseline sleep quality moderated the effects of treatment (Cognitive-behavioral group therapy [CBGT] vs. mindfulness-based stress reduction [MBSR] vs. waitlist [WL]) on social anxiety, (3) sleep quality changed over treatment, and (4) changes in sleep quality predicted anxiety 12-months post-treatment. Design: Participants were 108 adults with SAD from a randomized controlled trial of CBGT vs. MBSR vs. WL and 38 HCs. Methods: SAD and sleep quality were assessed pre-treatment and post-treatment; SAD was assessed again 12-months post-treatment. Results: Participants with SAD reported poorer sleep quality than HCs. The effect of treatment condition on post-treatment social anxiety did not differ as a function of baseline sleep quality. Sleep quality improved in MBSR, significantly more than WL, but not CBGT. Sleep quality change from pre- to post-treatment in CBGT or MBSR did not predict later social anxiety. Conclusions: MBSR, and not CBGT, improved sleep quality among participants. Other results were inconsistent with prior research; possible explanations, limitations, and implications for future research are discussed. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02036658

Stress, Sleep, and Coping Self-Efficacy in Adolescents

10.1007/s10964-020-01337-4JOURNAL OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE503485-50

Pre-sleep affect predicts subsequent REM frontal theta in non-linear fashion

This study explores the relationship between evening pre-sleep affect and sleep architecture and the EEG power spectrum