{"title":"Interpersonal synchronization: An overlooked factor in development, social cognition, and psychopathology","authors":"Jessica Fattal, Dan P. McAdams, Vijay A. Mittal","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106037","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106037","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Intact social functioning relies on a combination of explicit and implicit behavioral, attentional, and interpersonal processes referred to as “social cognition”. Characterizing these interpersonal processes forms a critical underpinning to understanding and treating psychopathology, particularly in disorders where deficits in social functioning do not emerge as a secondary symptom but rather as an essential feature of the disorder. Two of such disorders are autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SZ). However, despite the substantial overlap in the features of social dysfunction between ASD and SZ, including social cognitive deficits in theory of mind, perspective-taking, and empathy, there is a limited understanding of the mechanisms underlying those shared deficits, and how to treat them. We suggest that disruptions of interpersonal functioning emerge over the course of development, and that interpersonal synchronization, a phenomenon in which behavioral and physiological cues align between interacting partners, forms a critical component of social cognition that underlies the disruption in social functioning in ASD and SZ. We present a conceptual review of typical and atypical development of social processes and highlight the role of interpersonal synchronization across the course of development. Then, we review the existing evidence suggesting impairments in both the intentional and spontaneous synchronization of interpersonal processes in ASD and SZ, as well as studies suggesting that interpersonal synchronization and clinical symptoms may be improved through body-oriented interventions within these disorders. Finally, we suggest potential mechanisms that may underpin typical and atypical development of interpersonal synchronization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"170 ","pages":"Article 106037"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143392451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Austin T. Jones , Alaa Marwan Abu Taha , Grover P. Miller
{"title":"The resurgence of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists as adulterants in the Era of Cannabis legalization: Lessons from prior epidemics and clinical implications","authors":"Austin T. Jones , Alaa Marwan Abu Taha , Grover P. Miller","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106043","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106043","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Momentum towards legalization of medical and recreational cannabis drives a convergence between natural cannabinoids and their synthetic counterparts, creating new clinical challenges in a second wave of exposures. This review critically examines the emerging challenges posed by synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) and semi-synthetic cannabinoids, emphasizing their clinical implications. SCRAs are potent full agonist activity that have been identified as adulterants in several recreational substances, including cannabis and opioids. Adulteration often leads to unpredictable clinical outcomes and exacerbates the potential for drug interactions. Drawing parallels with other drug epidemics, this paper highlights the urgent need for clinical preparedness to address the nuanced presentations of cannabinoid toxicity, stressing the importance of patient history, physical examination, and judicious use of supportive laboratory tests. This review serves as a cautionary tale and call to action for researchers and policymakers. There is a clear need for robust quality control measures, enhanced public awareness campaigns, and development of evidence-based clinical guidelines to mitigate the health risks associated with intentional and unintentional use of synthetic cannabinoids.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"170 ","pages":"Article 106043"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143375033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Temporal integration as an adaptive process in visual perception, attention, and working memory","authors":"Elkan G. Akyürek","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106041","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106041","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>I propose that temporal integration is ubiquitous in visual perception, because it serves an adaptive role. To support this idea, I draw together evidence from historically separated research fields that target different timescales. At one extreme, this concerns the detection and discrimination of successive stimuli within intervals of less than a quarter of a second. At an intermediate level, associated with attentional episodes, intervals between half a second up to a few seconds are considered. Finally, at the other extreme, this involves high-level, conceptual events across intervals of multiple seconds or even minutes. Across such varying intervals, the nature of temporal integration and the resultant perceptual events are clearly different. I nevertheless propose that temporal integration should be understood as a continuous process that serves a common adaptive goal: To maximize the amount of useful information, at minimal costs, tailored to the observer’s current needs and circumstances. Emerging from this viewpoint are several research directions that might be pursued on the topic of temporal integration, and on its consequences for perception and memory.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"170 ","pages":"Article 106041"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143375032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhengyang Wang , Yajie Xiang , Ruozhi Dang , Peng Wang , Xiaoyan Du , Peng Xie
{"title":"Sex-specific differences in peripheral blood metabolites and biological functions in major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis","authors":"Zhengyang Wang , Yajie Xiang , Ruozhi Dang , Peng Wang , Xiaoyan Du , Peng Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106052","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106052","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To explore the sex-specific peripheral blood metabolites and biological functions altered in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). A search was conducted on PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Web of Science, and other databases published up to 11/2023. To maximize the search, we also reviewed systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the same topic. We included studies that conducted metabolic characterizations during current depressive episodes or after antidepressant treatments, with all data stratified by sex. Fifty-eight studies involving 83 cohorts with 5285 MDD participants were included in this meta-analysis. Random effects meta-analysis was conducted for data from ≥3 cohorts. We identified 5 sex-specific metabolites from 22 candidate peripheral blood metabolites. In males with MDD, we observed lower levels of estradiol and progesterone, alongside higher levels of androstenedione, dihydrotestosterone, and uric acid compared with female MDD patients. In addition, steroid hormone biosynthesis has been identified as a potentially sex-specific pathway. Our findings highlight significant evidence for targeting sex hormones as a broad understanding of MDD, providing potentially objective diagnostic and therapeutic insights.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"170 ","pages":"Article 106052"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143349194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neural control of sex differences in affiliative and prosocial behaviors.","authors":"Sanja Mikulovic, Constanze Lenschow","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106039","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social interactions are vital for various taxa and species. Prosocial and affiliative dynamics within a group and between individuals are not only pleasurable and rewarding, but also appear to actively contribute to well-being, cognitive performance, and disease prevention. Moreover, disturbances in acting or being prosocial can represent a major burden for an individual and their affective partners. These disruptions are evident across a spectrum of neuropsychiatric conditions, including depression and autism spectrum disorders. Importantly, interactive patterns of prosocial and affiliative behavior can vary with sex. The fact that genders are differentially affected by neuropsychiatric disorders associated with social impairment underscores the high importance of this research in uncovering the underlying neural correlates and mechanisms. This review focuses on elucidating sex-related differences in prosocial and affiliative behaviors and their potential association with sexually different neural correlates. Specifically, we aim to shed light on the complex interplay between sex, behavior, and neurobiology in affiliative and prosocial interaction patterns.</p>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"106039"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143366916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Circadian rhythm, microglia-mediated neuroinflammation, and Alzheimer’s disease","authors":"Fan Geng, Na Zhao, Qingguo Ren","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106044","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106044","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microglia, the brain's resident macrophages, are key mediators of neuroinflammation, responding to immune pathogens and toxins. They play a crucial role in clearing cellular debris, regulating synaptic plasticity, and phagocytosing amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent studies indicate that microglia not only exhibit intrinsic circadian rhythms but are also regulated by circadian clock genes, influencing specific functions such as phagocytosis and the modulation of neuroinflammation. Disruption of the circadian rhythm is closely associated with AD pathology. In this review, we will provide an overview of how circadian rhythms regulate microglia-mediated neuroinflammation in the progression of AD, focusing on the pathway from the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral immune system. We also discuss potential therapeutic targets, including hormone modulation, lifestyle interventions, and anti-inflammatory therapies, aimed at maintaining brain health in AD. This will shed light on the involvement of circadian rhythm in AD and explore new avenues for AD treatment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"170 ","pages":"Article 106044"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143201267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Madeline V Stein, Monika Heller, Natasha Hughes, Danielle Marr, Benjamin Brake, Sarah Chapman, G James Rubin, Devin B Terhune
{"title":"Moderators of nocebo effects in controlled experiments: A multi-level meta-analysis.","authors":"Madeline V Stein, Monika Heller, Natasha Hughes, Danielle Marr, Benjamin Brake, Sarah Chapman, G James Rubin, Devin B Terhune","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106042","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nocebo effects are a heterogenous phenomenon in which contextual cues trigger or exacerbate symptoms independently of active interventions. Suggestion, conditioning, and social observation are widely recognised as hallmark methods for inducing nocebo effects, but the extent to which nocebo effects are differentially influenced by suggestion type (e.g., direct or indirect suggestion) and mode of administration (e.g., verbal, textual, visual, etc.) across symptom domains remains unknown. We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis (PROSPERO registration number CRD42023402097) to quantitatively synthesize available research on the factors that moderate effects in controlled nocebo experiments. Of 8,469 search results, 105 experiments comprising 5,017 participants and 391 effect sizes were analyzed. A multi-level meta-analysis revealed an overall moderate effect size for nocebo effects, g=0.50, [0.39, 0.62]. The magnitude of symptom expectancy effects was a significant moderator of nocebo effects. Verbal suggestion and social observation yielded moderate and comparable nocebo effects whereas technological devices, sham stimulation, and conditioning were independently associated with the induction of large nocebo effects. Greater specificity in the reporting of nocebo induction methods is required to elucidate the efficacy of different types of suggestions in inducing nocebo effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":" ","pages":"106042"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143366913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Katja Langer, Oliver T. Wolf, Christian J. Merz, Valerie L. Jentsch
{"title":"The effects of stress hormones on cognitive emotion regulation: A systematic review and integrative model","authors":"Katja Langer, Oliver T. Wolf, Christian J. Merz, Valerie L. Jentsch","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106040","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106040","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The experience of stress and the need to regulate emotions are pervasive in everyday life. Emotion regulation (ER) is particularly required under stress to facilitate successful adaptation and recovery. Importantly, a growing body of work has identified stress and ER deficits as transdiagnostic risk factors for psychopathology. This highlights the relevance of understanding how stress impacts ER to elucidate individual vulnerability to mental disorders. Stress alters cognitive and emotional functioning via stress hormones secreted by the two major stress systems: sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamus-pituitary adrenocortical axis. This review aims to compile and synthesize empirical studies in humans investigating the effects of acute stress and stress hormones on ER. A systematic literature search yielded 14 relevant studies, 11 investigating acute stress effects and 3 examining the influence of pharmacological cortisol elevations on ER. The results of the stress studies are mixed revealing either impairing, beneficial or no effects at all. Cortisol administration mostly facilitated ER attempts. Notably, we detected timing differences in measuring ER performance relative to stress exposure that potentially reconcile divergent findings. Here, we propose the <strong>PRESSURE</strong> model (<em><strong>Pre</strong>dominant <strong>S</strong>tress <strong>S</strong>ystem <strong>U</strong>nderpins <strong>R</strong>egulation of <strong>E</strong>motions</em>) postulating that the direction and magnitude of stress effects on ER depends on the relative predominance of one stress system over the other. Additionally, sex-stress hormone interactions, stimulus intensity and ER strategy are discussed as possible moderators. Finally, we highlight limitations in current research and provide recommendations for future studies that will further advance our understanding of the intricate relationship between stress and ER.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"170 ","pages":"Article 106040"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143257402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pulak R. Manna , Shengping Yang , Chayan Manna , Hope Waters , Md Ariful Islam , Arubala P. Reddy , Priyanka Rawat , P. Hemachandra Reddy
{"title":"Steroidogenic acute regulatory protein mediated variations of gender-specific sex neurosteroids in Alzheimer’s disease: Relevance to hormonal and neuronal imbalance","authors":"Pulak R. Manna , Shengping Yang , Chayan Manna , Hope Waters , Md Ariful Islam , Arubala P. Reddy , Priyanka Rawat , P. Hemachandra Reddy","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105969","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105969","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein mediates the rate-liming step in neuro/steroid biosynthesis. Multifaceted and delicate changes during aging, disrupting hormonal and neuronal homeostasis, constitute human senescence, an inevitable phenomenon that attributes to increased morbidity and mortality. Aging, along with progressive decreases in bioactive neurosteroids, is the primary risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which preferentially impacts two-thirds of women and one-third of men. AD is neuropathologically characterized by the accumulation of extracellular amyloid-β and intracellular phosphorylated Tau containing neurofibrillary tangles, resulting in dementia. Postmortem brains pertaining to gender-specific AD patients exhibit varied suppression of StAR and sex neurosteroid levels compared with age-matched cognitively healthy subjects, in which the attenuation of StAR is inversely correlated with the AD pathological markers. Interestingly, retinoid signaling upregulates StAR-motivated neurosteroid biosynthesis and reinstates various neurodegenerative vulnerabilities that promote AD pathogenesis. This review summarizes current understanding of StAR-driven alterations of sex neurosteroids in gender-specific AD risks and provides biochemical and molecular insights into therapeutic interventions for preventing and/or alleviating dementia for healthy aging.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 105969"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142781926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S.V. Wass, M. Perapoch Amadó, T. Northrop, I. Marriott Haresign, E.A.M. Phillips
{"title":"Foraging and inertia: Understanding the developmental dynamics of overt visual attention","authors":"S.V. Wass, M. Perapoch Amadó, T. Northrop, I. Marriott Haresign, E.A.M. Phillips","doi":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105991","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105991","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>During early life, we develop the ability to choose what we focus on and what we ignore, allowing us to regulate perception and action in complex environments. But how does this change influence how we spontaneously allocate attention to real-world objects during free behaviour? Here, in this narrative review, we examine this question by considering the time dynamics of spontaneous overt visual attention, and how these develop through early life. Even in early childhood, visual attention shifts occur both periodically and aperiodically. These reorientations become more internally controlled as development progresses. Increasingly with age, attention states also develop self-sustaining attractor dynamics, known as attention inertia, in which the longer an attention episode lasts, the more the likelihood increases of its continuing. These self-sustaining dynamics are driven by amplificatory interactions between engagement, comprehension, and distractibility. We consider why experimental measures show decline in sustained attention over time, while real-world visual attention often demonstrates the opposite pattern. Finally, we discuss multi-stable attention states, where both hypo-arousal (mind-wandering) and hyper-arousal (fragmentary attention) may also show self-sustaining attractor dynamics driven by moment-by-moment amplificatory child-environment interactions; and we consider possible applications of this work, and future directions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56105,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews","volume":"169 ","pages":"Article 105991"},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142900604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}