Luis Marcos-Vidal, Helena Gil-Buitrago, Irene Cisma, Rosamunde C Hendricks, Scott Atran, Clara Pretus
{"title":"When group grievances become personal: The neural correlates of group and personal rejection.","authors":"Luis Marcos-Vidal, Helena Gil-Buitrago, Irene Cisma, Rosamunde C Hendricks, Scott Atran, Clara Pretus","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01257-x","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01257-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Witnessing rejection against one's group can have similar impacts on psychological distress and aggression as experiencing rejection personally. In this study, we investigated the neural activity patterns of group rejection and whether they resemble those of personal-level rejection. We first identified the neural correlates of social rejection (exclusion based on negative attention) compared with ostracism (exclusion based on lack of social connection) and then compared group-level to personal-level rejection. We employed a novel social exclusion task, \"RateME,\" to induce group and personal rejection and Cyberball to evoke ostracism during fMRI scans. Our results showed that personal rejection increased activity in regions associated with autobiographical memory and self-identity, such as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the lingual gyrus, whereas ostracism engaged areas related to social pain and salience, including the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula. Additionally, group and personal-level rejection elicited similar neural activity patterns, regardless of participants' fusion with the rejected groups. Therefore, group membership seems sufficient for group rejection to trigger self-referential processing pathways similar to those activated by personal rejection. Our findings highlight the overlapping neural mechanisms underlying personal and group-level grievances, which may explain the detrimental effects of group rejection on aggression, extremism, and intergroup conflict.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"799-813"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12130114/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142958491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Steven J Granger, Elizabeth A Olson, Sylvie J Weinstein, Isabelle R Vratimos, Brian Lynch, Boyu Ren, Isabelle M Rosso
{"title":"Aberrant neural event segmentation during a continuous social narrative in trauma-exposed older adolescents and young adults.","authors":"Steven J Granger, Elizabeth A Olson, Sylvie J Weinstein, Isabelle R Vratimos, Brian Lynch, Boyu Ren, Isabelle M Rosso","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01252-2","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01252-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Post-traumatic stress and major depressive disorders are associated with \"overgeneral\" autobiographical memory, or impaired recall of specific life events. Interpersonal trauma exposure, a risk factor for both conditions, may influence how symptomatic trauma-exposed (TE) individuals segment everyday events. The ability to parse experience into units (event segmentation) supports memory. Neural state transitions occur within a cortical hierarchy and play a key role in event segmentation, with regions like the occipital cortex, angular gyrus, and striatum involved in parsing event structure. We examined whether interpersonal trauma exposure was associated with alterations in the cortical hierarchy and striatal activity at neural state transitions in symptomatic TE versus healthy control (HC) individuals. Fifty older adolescents and young adults (29 TE, 21 HC) viewed the film \"Partly Cloudy\" during functional magnetic resonance imaging. A greedy-state boundary search algorithm assessed the optimal number of events, quality, and segmentation agreement of neural state transitions in the occipital cortex and angular gyrus. Striatal (nucleus accumbens, caudate, and putamen) activity was assessed at occipital and angular gyrus-evoked state transitions. Compared to HCs, TE participants displayed less occipital and greater angular gyrus-evoked optimal number of neural state transitions. TE participants also displayed lower quality of neural state segmentation solutions in occipital and angular cortices compared to HCs. Additionally, TE participants had less putamen activity at angular gyrus-evoked state transitions than HCs. This investigation provides neurobiological insights into aberrant event segmentation in symptomatic TE individuals, shedding light on mechanisms influencing overgeneral memory in trauma-related disorders.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"832-851"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12243063/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142958455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rhiannon Jones, Joost M Leunissen, Adrian Whyte, Alessa Werson, Joydeep Bhattacharya
{"title":"Obsessive-compulsive symptoms predict increased fronto-parahippocampal synchronisation during thought suppression.","authors":"Rhiannon Jones, Joost M Leunissen, Adrian Whyte, Alessa Werson, Joydeep Bhattacharya","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01316-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01316-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Thought suppression is suggested as a causal factor in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), as it can lead to an increase in intrusive thoughts. However, the neural mechanisms through which obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) influence thought suppression, particularly in the context of preferential processing of negatively valenced stimuli, remains unclear. We hypothesized that OCS would predict increased inhibitory communication between frontal and parahippocampal neurocircuitry during the suppression of negative words. Additionally, we tested an exploratory analysis to see whether this was mediated by preferential processing of these stimuli.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>EEG was recorded from 47 participants tasked with directed forgetting of negative and neutral words. Data from 38 of these participants were analyzed. We examined the influence of OCS on fronto-parahippocampal beta-1 (13-18 Hz) synchronization during a Directed Forgetting task. An exploratory analysis of the mediating role of stimulus processing bias, measured via the late positive potential following the word stimulus, was assessed using a mediated moderation model.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Obsessive-compulsive symptoms predicted enhanced fronto-parahippocampal beta-1 synchronisation when instructed to forget negative words. The moderating effect of valence was mediated by preferential processing of negative stimuli, as indicated by increased late positive potential.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Healthy individuals with relatively high OCS exhibit compensatory connectivity between frontal and parahippocampal regions when attempting to suppress negative emotional stimuli. Exploratory analysis showed this compensatory activity is influenced by both preferential processing of negative stimuli and the severity of OCS, providing preliminary evidence of a neural mechanism that may contribute to the persistence of intrusive thoughts in OCD.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144183358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Li Wang, Ting Li, Xiaoqing Li, Feilong Liu, Chunliang Feng
{"title":"Mapping trait justice sensitivity in the Brain: Whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity as a predictor of other-oriented not self-oriented justice sensitivity.","authors":"Li Wang, Ting Li, Xiaoqing Li, Feilong Liu, Chunliang Feng","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01312-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01312-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Justice sensitivity (JS) reflects personal concern and commitment to the principle of justice, showing considerable heterogeneity among the general population. Despite a growing interest in the behavioral characteristics of JS over the past decades, the neurobiological substrates underlying trait JS are not well comprehended. We addressed this issue by employing a machine learning approach to decode the trait JS, encompassing its various orientations, from whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity. We demonstrated that the machine-learning model could decode the individual trait of other-oriented JS but not self-oriented JS from resting-state functional connectivity across multiple neural systems, including functional connectivity between and within parietal lobe and motor cortex as well as their connectivity with other brain systems. Key nodes that contributed to the prediction model included the parietal, motor, temporal, and subcortical regions that have been linked to other-oriented JS. Additionally, the machine learning model can distinctly distinguish between the distinct roles associated with other-oriented JS, including observer, perpetrator, and beneficiary, with key brain regions in the predictive networks exhibiting both similarities and disparities. These findings remained robust using different validation procedures. Collectively, these results support the separation between other-oriented JS and self-oriented JS, while also highlighting the distinct intrinsic neural correlates among the three roles of other-oriented JS: observer, perpetrator, and beneficiary.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144182048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael J Wenger, James T Townsend, Sarah F Newbolds
{"title":"The neurocognitive efficiency score: Derivation, validation, and application of a novel combination of concurrent electrophysiological and behavioral data.","authors":"Michael J Wenger, James T Townsend, Sarah F Newbolds","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01311-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-025-01311-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Perceptual and cognitive effort require the expenditure of brain energy, and the efficiency of that energy expenditure can vary as a function of a range of exogenous and endogenous factors. The same is true for physical work, and tools have been developed to quantify energetic efficiency in the performance of physical work. The same is not true for the study of perceptual and cognitive effort. Here we draw on two lines of research - the formal characterization of workload capacity in perception and cognition, and the study of physical work - to propose a novel measure of neurocognitive efficiency. This neurocognitive efficiency score (NES) combines reaction time data with measures on concurrently acquired electroencephalographic (EEG) data to form a ratio that can be interpreted in terms of work accomplished relative to energy expended. We consider three measures on the EEG and show that one of them - global field power (GFP) - evidences a strong relationship to measures of metabolic energy expended. We then show how the NES can provide insights into differences in perceptual performance as a function of biological state. We argue that the NES has the potential for a wide range of applications in the study of effort exerted in perception and cognition in the context of factors including (but not limited to) aging, disease, stress, and differences in levels of expertise.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144128745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T H Stanley Seah, Kristen L Eckstrand, Tina Gupta, Michael P Marshal, Erika E Forbes
{"title":"Understanding suicide in sexual minority youth: neural reactivity to social cues as a moderating influence.","authors":"T H Stanley Seah, Kristen L Eckstrand, Tina Gupta, Michael P Marshal, Erika E Forbes","doi":"10.3758/s13415-025-01296-y","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-025-01296-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sexual minority youth (SMY) experience heightened suicide risk, partly because of stigma surrounding sexual orientation identity. Neurobiological characteristics can influence reactivity to social cues (e.g., perceived liking or rejection) and suicide risk. These effects are exacerbated during adolescence-a developmental period of heightened sensitivity to social contexts. In this cross-sectional study of youth at varying psychiatric risk, we examined whether neural reactivity to social cues moderated the link between sexual minority status and suicidal ideation (SI) and whether sexual orientation victimization experiences further influenced these effects. Seventy-five youth (aged 14-22 years; 52% SMY, 48% heterosexual) reported depression, SI, and victimization, and completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging task involving viewing of unfamiliar face stimuli and receipt of social cues in rewarding and ambiguous contexts. Regions-of-interest analyses examined task-related neural reactivity in neural social regions. Moderation analyses were conducted using linear regressions. Sexual minority youth reported more severe depression, victimization, and SI (p < .05). Left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) activation to social cues, regardless of the degree of valence and certainty, moderated the link between sexual minority status and SI, where SMY (vs. non-SMY) with dampened left TPJ activity had higher SI. Exploratory analyses indicated that these associations were not further influenced by victimization. Results indicate enhanced suicide risk in SMY with altered social processing in the TPJ-a key region of neural social systems-across contexts, regardless of victimization history. Findings suggest that individual differences in neural reactivity to social cues are critical for understanding SMY suicide risk and have potentially important clinical implications.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12371562/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144054213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ying-Chun Chen, Yun-Hsin Huang, Pai-He Hsiao, Nai-Shing Yen
{"title":"How interoceptive sensibility moderates decision-making: an fMRI study of neuroforecasting mobile games engagement.","authors":"Ying-Chun Chen, Yun-Hsin Huang, Pai-He Hsiao, Nai-Shing Yen","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01238-0","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01238-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neuroscientists in decision science have advanced an affect-integration-motivation (AIM) framework, demonstrating that neural activity associated with positive affect or value integration can predict individual and aggregate choice. Given that individuals with higher interoceptive sensibility (IS) have tendency to engage their bodily sensations and thus exhibit a more coherent pattern between their neural, affective, and behavioral measures, we investigated how IS may interact with the affective/integrative components for predicting individual and aggregate choice. Thus, we 1) explored neural underpinnings of individual choice, affective ratings, aggregate outcomes, 2) examined how the above-mentioned measures predict individual and aggregate choices on mobile games, and 3) tested the moderation effect of IS by comparing the differences in how these measures perform in prediction models between subgroups of IS. Neuroimaging results showed that individual choice associated with NAcc activity, aggregate download rate tracked by regions in salience network, and revenue additionally tracked by regions in motor tendency and attention regulation. Affective ratings and AIns activity predicted individual download choice; mPFC activity forecasted aggregate download rate, and positive arousal forecasted aggregate revenue. As hypothesized, the high IS group displayed coherent correlations between affective ratings, individual choice, and neural measures. More importantly, at the aggregate level, mPFC activity (integrative component), forecasted aggregate download rate above and beyond ratings and individual choice in the high IS group, with this prediction significantly stronger compared with the low IS group. These findings extend the AIM framework by shedding light on the influence of interoceptive sensibility on the neurobehavioral mechanisms underlying human decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"415-433"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142802989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jakub Skałbania, Łukasz Tanajewski, Marcin Furtak, Todd A Hare, Marek Wypych
{"title":"Pre-choice midbrain fluctuations affect self-control in food choice: A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study.","authors":"Jakub Skałbania, Łukasz Tanajewski, Marcin Furtak, Todd A Hare, Marek Wypych","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01231-7","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01231-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent studies have shown that spontaneous pre-stimulus fluctuations in brain activity affect higher-order cognitive processes, including risky decision-making, cognitive flexibility, and aesthetic judgments. However, there is currently no direct evidence to suggest that pre-choice activity influences value-based decisions that require self-control. We examined the impact of fluctuations in pre-choice activity in key regions of the reward system on self-control in food choice. In the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner, 49 participants made 120 food choices that required self-control in high and low working memory load conditions. The task was designed to ensure that participants were cognitively engaged and not thinking about upcoming choices. We defined self-control success as choosing a food item that was healthier over one that was tastier. The brain regions of interest (ROIs) were the ventral tegmental area (VTA), putamen, nucleus accumbens (NAc), and caudate nucleus. For each participant and condition, we calculated the mean activity in the 3-s interval preceding the presentation of food stimuli in successful and failed self-control trials. These activities were then used as predictors of self-control success in a fixed-effects logistic regression model. The results indicate that increased pre-choice VTA activity was linked to a higher probability of self-control success in a subsequent food-choice task within the low-load condition, but not in the high-load condition. We posit that pre-choice fluctuations in VTA activity change the reference point for immediate (taste) reward evaluation, which may explain our finding. This suggests that the neural context of decisions may be a key factor influencing human behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"387-401"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11906498/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142394952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Apoorva Veerareddy, Huihua Fang, Nooshin Safari, Pengfei Xu, Frank Krueger
{"title":"Social network size, empathy, and white matter: A diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) study.","authors":"Apoorva Veerareddy, Huihua Fang, Nooshin Safari, Pengfei Xu, Frank Krueger","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01225-5","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01225-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social networks are fundamental for social interactions, with the social brain hypothesis positing that the size of the neocortex evolved to meet social demands. However, the role of fractional anisotropy (FA) in white matter (WM) tracts relevant to mentalizing, empathy, and social networks remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the relationships between FA in brain regions associated with social cognition (superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), cingulum (CING), uncinate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus), social network characteristics (diversity, size, complexity), and empathy (cognitive, affective). We employed diffusion tensor imaging, tract-based spatial statistics, and mediation analyses to examine these associations. Our findings revealed that increased social network size was positively correlated with FA in the left SLF. Further, our mediation analysis showed that lower FA in left CING was associated with increased social network size, mediated by cognitive empathy. In summary, our findings suggest that WM tracts involved in social cognition play distinct roles in social network size and empathy, potentially implicating affective brain regions. In conclusion, our findings offer new perspectives on the cognitive mechanisms involved in understanding others' mental states and experiencing empathy within supportive social networks, with potential implications for understanding individual differences in social behavior and mental health.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"471-487"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142362457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yang Liu, Yuan Gao, Zhidong Ma, Qingge Zhang, Ruiqiang Sun, Ling Wang, Sishun Zhao, Changjiang Li, Bo Lian, Hongwei Sun, Lin Sun
{"title":"Low emotional contagious behavior induces PTSD susceptibility in observers and is related to the regulation of oxytocin receptor in mice.","authors":"Yang Liu, Yuan Gao, Zhidong Ma, Qingge Zhang, Ruiqiang Sun, Ling Wang, Sishun Zhao, Changjiang Li, Bo Lian, Hongwei Sun, Lin Sun","doi":"10.3758/s13415-024-01244-2","DOIUrl":"10.3758/s13415-024-01244-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious psychiatric disorder that occurs after an individual has witnessed or experienced a major traumatic event. Emotional contagion seems to play an important role in witnessing trauma, highlighting the importance of understanding the neurobiological consequences of psychological or emotional stress and its impact on the individual's mental health. Therefore, understanding the relationship between emotional contagion and PTSD susceptibility and the abnormal neurobiological and behavioral changes behind it could help find effective molecular treatment targets.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The formalin pain test was used to distinguish the level of emotional contagion in observer mice, dividing them into quartiles according to their pain response. The upper and lower quartiles were the emotional contagion-prone (ECP) and -resistant (ECR) groups, respectively. The vicarious social defeat stress (VSDS) procedure was used to establish PTSD models in mice with various emotional contagion levels when witnessing stress. Open field, elevated plus maze, social interaction test, and forced swimming test were used to examine PTSD-like symptoms. Changes in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) mRNA expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and oxytocin receptor (OTR) were detected by qPCR, and their protein levels were analyzed by Western blot and immunofluorescence staining.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The formalin pain test induced emotional contagion behaviors in mice between the ECP and ECR levels. The VSDS procedure resulted in PTSD symptoms in mice; mice in the lowest quartile were characterized by high levels of anxiety, depression, and social avoidance behaviors, such as decreased autonomous activity and residence time in the open field test or open arms position and increased immobility time and social avoidance behavior. These were accompanied by reduced OTR and BDNF protein expression levels and fluorescence intensity, as well as reduced OTR and BDNF mRNA levels in the mPFC.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Emotional contagion can induce PTSD-like behavior in mice that witnessed stress. Low emotional contagion behavior increased PTSD susceptibility in the observer mice and might be related to the regulation of their oxytocin receptors.</p>","PeriodicalId":50672,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"515-530"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143025561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}