Integrated processing of different social threats? Probing the specificity of a common expectancy-based system with electrophysiological markers
Final Report Abstract
Our basic social needs, such as belonging or control, are challenged in daily living - intentionally or unintentionally. In order to examine the processing of such ‘threats’, experimental designs have been developed in the last decades. Unfortunately, these designs are focussed on a single need, and cannot consider interaction effects. The latter, however, are important in several respects: As everyday experience shows, social threats usually expand to different needs. Moreover, psychological models explicitly assume that aversive events processed in a common system. To test the validity of these theoretical assumption, the modified a standard experimental design: In the Cyberball design, social exclusion - a threat to the need for belonging - is elicited in a virtual ball throwing game. By adding a putative supervisor, an intervention in the participant’s decision can be implemented which elicits a threat to control. In a series of four experiments, we examined the interaction of the processing of these threats. In addition to the participants self-reports, we recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In contrast to the retrospective self-reports, ERPs allow us to monitor the processing of the threats ‘online’, and to relate distinct components to specific steps in cognitive processing. Most importantly, the ERPs allow us to disentangle the brain’s responses to the different threats of needs (belonging, control). Our first experimental studies were focussed on a preexposure setup: Here, we asked the question whether the processing of a certain threat is modulated if participants were previously exposed to a different social threat. In the ERPs, a preexposure effect was reliably observed for the expression of the P3 component, a positive deflection occurring at about 300-400 ms: The amplitude of this components was reduced in an exclusionary experimental condition if a loss-of-control was experienced previously, and vice versa. Previous results suggest that this reduction is due to an adjustment of subjective expectancies. Following the idea of an overarching expectancy system, the preexposure to a specific threat of a social need consequently reduces our general expectation on social participation and control. Importantly, this process did not determine the retrospective self-reports which were rather determined by the fate of the preexposure threat: If the onset of the (second) threat was associated with the offset of the preexposure threat, the self-reported threat and the negative mood were less expressed. In other words, the offset of the preexposure threat modulates the affective than die cognitive state of the participant. A further test for the interaction was provided in a study which implemented the concurrent presentation of two different threats. In contrast to the onset of a single threat, we observed an increase in sensitivity: The P3 response to exclusionary cues was significantly enhanced if a loss-of-control was experienced in the same setting, and vice versa. This mutual effect supports the notion of a common expectancy system involved in the processing of different inconsistencies. In a final study, we extended our range to a positive social cue. Using a preexposure design, we aimed to test whether the previous experience of a loss-of-control will affect the processing of an overinclusion. In contrast to our hypothesis, we did not observe a modulation of the P3 amplitude pending of the preexposure to a threat – questioning the idea of a continuum of social connection (ranging from exclusion to overinclusion). In sum, the series of experiments showed that social threats are not processed independently: Depending on the temporal sequence, the experience of threat prepares us for an upcoming one – or enhances our sensitivity. These interactions types will have to considered when the impact of social aversive events on mental health and well-being is explored.
Publications
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From Loss of Control to Social Exclusion: ERP Effects of Preexposure to a Social Threat in the Cyberball Paradigm. Brain Sciences, 12(9), 1225.
Fang, Xu; Yang, Yu-Fang; Kerschreiter, Rudolf & Niedeggen, Michael
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Electrophysiological evidence for sensitization effects elicited by concurrent social threats. Scientific Reports, 13(1).
Niedeggen, Michael; Fang, Xu; Yang, Yu-Fang & Kerschreiter, Rudolf
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Preexposure to one social threat alters responses to another social threat: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 24(1), 126-142.
Fang, Xu; Kerschreiter, Rudolf; Yang, Yu-Fang & Niedeggen, Michael
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Electrophysiological and Behavioral Responses to Overinclusion Following Preexposure to Social Threat. Psychophysiology, 62(7).
Fang, Xu; Kerschreiter, Rudolf; Yang, Yu‐Fang & Niedeggen, Michael
