Relationship Neuroscience Flashcards
Long-term pair bonds
A pair bond is a preferential and enduring relationship between two adult conspecifics
It is uncommon in mammals but is associated with biparental care of offspring
Ubiquitous across all human societies (regardless of monogamy/polygamy practices)
Advantages
Co-operative parental partnerships allow mutual support, reliable food provision (one cares, one hunts) and the transfer of information
Associated with better health and social outcomes and improved survival
Disadvantages
Lifelong commitment is high-risk
needs to be a worthy investment
Romantic love and commitment
Romantic love is socially functional - promotes and preserves enduring commitment between 2 people
The experience of love motivates approach towards an intimate partner
lRomantic love in close relationships, Gozanga et al.
60 romantic student couples who had been together at least 6 months
Measured how much partner influences long-term goals, the number of recent joint activities, self-reports of trust and self-reports of love/desire
Videotaped during interactions of:
1) disclosing a positive event to each other (eliciting love)
2) playful teasing (measure intimacy)
3) conflict discussion (testing commitment)
- coded for displays in these interactions
The experience of love correlated with approach-related states
4 nonverbal displays of love were correlated with self-reports and partner estimates of love
The experience and expression of love correlated with commitment-enhancing processes during relationship conflict and higher trust scores
Oxytocin (OT)
9 amino acid peptide hormone
In the body as peripheral OT and the brain as central OT
Originally to support reproductive behaviours
- birth, lactation, ejaculation
Central OT stimulates mammalian psychological processes involved in parental care
Human parental core and OT
Measured blood oxytocin of mothers and fathers at 1 week and 6 months post-partum
Measured affectionate parenting in mothers - expressions, touch
Measured stimulating parenting in parents - physical play, stimulatory touch
The higher maternal OT, the more affectionate parenting
The higher paternal OT, the more stimulating behaviour
OT increased over the bonding period
Prairie vole models
Praire vole - highly social, lasting pair bonds, bi-parental care, nest guarding, young stay in nest beyond weaning
Montane vole - solitary, promiscuous, don’t pair bond, don’t participate in paternal care, abandon pups after 2-3 weeks
– otherwise very genetically similar
Main difference is the number of OT receptors in their brains
Chamber experiment
Chambers with partner vole, neutral chamber (their chamber) and stranger chamber, connected to each other
Prairie voles show sig. preference for moving to chamber with their partner
Montane voles show sig. preference for staying alone
Oxytocin manipulation in voles
Injected praire voles with oxytocin or placebo
When given oxytocin, physical contact increased with their bonded partner compared to the stranger
– encourages pair bonding
Manipulating OT in humans
Two methods; measure naturally circulating blood OT, or manipulate via nasal spray
Oxytocin: pair bonding and romantic love
Female ppts recalled and relived positive emotional experiences regarding love or infatuation
Measured changes in blood oxytocin from pre-test baseline to recalling love
Coded face and body for displays of love and displays of desire
Love condition = sig. increased oxytocin in blood, and displays of love were associated with increased OT
Desire condition = no sig. increase in OT and no correlation between displays of desire and OT
– specific for love and bonding
Human pair bond formation - Schneider
Compared couples and people who were single
Measured OT at baseline
OT levels at 6 months predicted how likely they were to still be in the relationship in another 6 months
OT also correlated with couples interactive reciprocity
OT and partner preference
20 males in 6 month relationships
Either received intransal OT or placebo
Viewed photos of their partner, similar unfamiliar women and houses
Also viewed photos of their partner, familiar women and unfamiliar women
Rated relative attractiveness of partner vs. other women
OT increased relative partner preference and feelings of commitment
fMRI showed that parts of brain associated w OT were more active
Social systems for maintaining social bonds
1) Social reward system - pushes towards bonding
2) Separation distress system - pulling away from being too along
Social/physical pain overlap theory (SPOT)
Evolutionarily, physical pain was adapted to social attachment system to regulate safety in the context of social relationships and signal to help
Pain signal tells us to turn back to our group
– aversive, automatic, salient
Physical and social pain therefore share parts of a common underlying neural system
Social Pain
Unpleasant experience associated with actual or potential damage to one’s sense of social connection - can be just perceived
Encompasses any experience that signifies loss or potential loss of a significant social bond
Physical pain in the brain
1) Somatosensory cortex perceives pain from correlating part of the body to localise
2) dAAC is the affective part of pain, e.g. angry/upset/annoyed
Hypnotic suggestion to dACC
Healthy volunteers received noxious thermal stimuli
Used hypnotic suggestion to increase or decrease how unpleasant the pain felt
Elicited changes in activation in the dACC but not somatosensory cortex
Social ostracism
Social ostracism tasks = individuals remain visible to others while being ignored
- threatens the need to belong
fMRI of social exclusion - Heisenberger
Ppts played Cyberball game - included in game with 2 others at first but then start getting excluded for the remaining time
13 undergraduates fMRI scanned during game - included or excluded
Self-reported distress after the scan/game
dACC was more active during exclusion - no physical pain, responsible for social pain
Rejection sensitivity
Individual differences in sensitivity to social pain - rejection sensitive individuals expect rejection, respond with greater distress, and perceive intentional hurt in ambiguous behaviour
Measured rejection sensitivity in young adolescents with a questionnaire involving hypothetical social exclusion
Activity in the dACC correlated with increased rejection sensitivity
Physical pain of romantic rejection
40 ppts recently rejected from a relationship
scanned with fMRI
Given noxious vs. non-noxious thermal stimuli
Either viewed photo of ex-partner and dwell on rejection or view photo of a friend and think of a positive event
Rated physical and rejection pain the same
When social pain was significant (ecologically valid, too) the somatosensory cortex was more active
If physical and social pain share network, does sensitivity to physical pain overlap with social pain sensitivity? Eisenberger
Measured pain threshold with heat stimulation; say when pain gets unbearable
Play cyberball and rate social distress
The higher pain threshold, the lower social distress
aIf the social-physical pain overlap theory is true, does social pain reduce with physical pain relief? DeWall
Study 1) Ppts took 500mg paracetamol 2x daily, or took placebo for 3 weeks - reported social pain daily
Study 2) ppts took 1000mg x2 daily or took placebo for 3 weeks - fMRI of Cyberball with exclusion vs. inclusion conditions
Paracetamol group = feelings of social pain decreased over time while taking; blunting dACC response to Cyberball exclusion
