EEG Microstate Associated with Trait Nostalgia.

Nostalgia, a self-related emotion characterized by its bittersweet yet predominantly positive nature, plays a vital role in shaping individual psychology and behavior. This includes impacts on mental and physical health, behavioral patterns, and cognitive functions. However, higher levels of trait nostalgia may be linked to potential adverse outcomes, such as increased loneliness, heightened neuroticism, and more intense experiences of grief. The specific electroencephalography (EEG) feature associated with individuals exhibiting trait nostalgia, and how it differs from others, remains an area of uncertainty. To address this, our study employs microstate analysis to investigate the differences in resting-state EEG between individuals with varying levels of trait nostalgia. We assessed trait nostalgia in 63 participants using the Personal Inventory of Nostalgia and collected their resting-state EEG signals with eyes closed. The results of the regression analysis indicate a significant correlation between trait nostalgia and the temporal characteristics of microstates A, B, and C. Further, the occurrence of microstate B was significantly more frequent in the high trait nostalgia group than in the low trait nostalgia group. Independent samples t-test results showed that the transition probability between microstates A and B was significantly higher in the high trait nostalgia group. These results support the hypothesis that trait nostalgia is reflected in the resting state brain activity. Furthermore, they reveal a deeper sensory immersion in nostalgia experiences among individuals with high levels of trait nostalgia, and highlight the critical role of self-referential and autobiographical memory processes in nostalgia.

Mental Time Travel as Self-Affirmation.

ACADEMIC ABSTRACT: This article integrates and advances the scope of research on the role of mental time travel in bolstering the self. We propose that imagining the self in the future (prospection) or in the past (retrospection) highlights central and positive self-aspects. Thus, bringing to mind one's future or past broadens the perceived bases of self-integrity and offers a route to self-affirmation. In reviewing corresponding research programs on self-prospection and nostalgia, we illustrate that mental time travel serves to affirm the self in terms of self-esteem, coherence, and control. Mental time travel could be implemented as a source of self-affirmation for facilitating coping and behavior change in several domains such as relationships, health, education, and organizational contexts. PUBLIC ABSTRACT: People can mentally travel to their future or to their past. When people imagine what they will be like in the future, or what they were like in the past, they tend to think about themselves in terms of the important and positive attributes that they possess. Thinking about themselves in such an affirming way expands and consolidates their self-views. This broader image of themselves can increase self-esteem (the extent to which one likes who they are), coherence (the extent to which one perceives life as meaningful), and control (the extent to which one feels capable of initiating and pursuing goals or effecting desirable outcomes). Mental time travel, then, has favorable or affirming consequences for one's self-views. These consequences can be harnessed to modify one's behavior in such life domains as relationships, health, education, and work.

Blinded by wistfulness: on how nostalgia strengthens attitudes.

Across four studies, we explored how feeling nostalgic about an attitude object impacts the metacognitive characteristics of the attitude toward that object and how those metacognitions predict the evaluation's underlying strength. In each study, participants reflected on and evaluated a song or television show that either did or did not elicit nostalgia. Across these studies, we found support for the hypotheses that nostalgic attitude objects are viewed more positively, appraised with greater attitudinal importance, and exhibited less objective ambivalence. In Study 4, we observed that nostalgic attitudes are associated with greater behavioural intentions and that this relationship was mediated both by attitudinal importance and objective ambivalence. These studies contribute to our understanding of how nostalgia affects attitude formation processes.

The Long Shadow of Addiction-Related Nostalgia: Nostalgia Predicts Ambivalence and Undermines the Benefits of Optimism in Recovery.

Background: Previous research has shown that nostalgia for the pre-addicted self can motivate people living with addiction to engage in behavior change. Objective: Herein, we explored nostalgia for the addictive behavior-labeled addiction-related nostalgia (ARN)-among people in recovery from engaging in addictive behavior. We tested the novel idea that ARN is positively associated with ambivalence about recovery. We also hypothesized that ARN may counteract the positive influence of optimism on individuals' commitment to recovery. Results: In two studies involving individuals in recovery from a gambling (Study 1; N=301) or alcohol use disorder (Study 2; N=604), ARN was linked to increased ambivalence about recovery, while optimism was associated with decreased ambivalence. As expected, the interaction between optimism and ARN revealed that nostalgia either eliminated (Study 1) or reduced (Study 2) the negative relation between optimism and ambivalence. Conclusions: These findings underscore the challenges posed by ARN in the recovery process and emphasize the importance of interventions that address and mitigate its impact while considering the moderating role of optimism.

Relationship Between Nostalgia Proneness, Generativity, and Ego Integrity.

This study examined the effect of nostalgia proneness on the level of achievement of developmental tasks during the later stages of adulthood (generativity and ego integrity) and the indirect effect of nostalgia on ego integrity. The level of nostalgia proneness changes with age and contributes to subjective well-being in old age. We assumed that nostalgia proneness affects generativity and ego integrity. To confirm the causal relationship between nostalgia proneness and achievement of developmental tasks, a longitudinal study was conducted. We conducted an Internet survey twice with 600 Japanese adults (aged 20-87). The first and second surveys (T1 and T2) were conducted in March 2021 and March 2022, respectively. The questionnaire comprised the Inventory of Psychosocial Balance scale, positive/negative nostalgia proneness scale, and state functions of the nostalgia scale. An autoregressive path model indicated that high and low levels of positive and negative proneness, respectively, predicted ego integrity. The results of the mediation analysis suggested that social connections have an indirect effect on ego integrity and that people who tend to feel positive emotions are less likely to feel negative emotions when they remember nostalgic memories, which leads to a sense of social connection and the acquisition of ego integrity. The findings provide an understanding of the processes through which developmental tasks are facilitated in later adulthood and elucidate the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in older adults.

'Nostalgic food heals for us': A qualitative exploration of experiences with nostalgia, food, and mood.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Nostalgia-the bittersweet reliving of the past-has been linked to social connection and psychological wellbeing. Although food consumption is often an intrinsically social experience, relatively little research has examined how individuals experience and understand how food consumption relates to feelings of nostalgia, food and mood. METHODS: In the current study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight Australians from varying cultural backgrounds to explore their experiences with nostalgia, food and mood. RESULTS: Reflexive thematic analysis identified three key themes from the data: (i) The bittersweet experiences of food-evoked nostalgia-individuals' descriptions of food-evoked nostalgia and how it impacted their mood both positively and negatively (ii) social connection and identity continuity-participants' description of food-evoked nostalgia and how this provides an opportunity for social connection and identity continuity throughout life, which positively influences mood, and (iii) the role and relationship of food-evoked nostalgia and mood-individual descriptions of the important role that nostalgic food plays in their life, in addition to their relationship with food, and how this impacts mood. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the positive component of nostalgic foods allowed individuals to bolster positive mood states with food-evoked nostalgia, increasing their quality of life. SO WHAT?: Understanding the link between food-evoked nostalgia and mood has significant implications, suggesting that negative mood states altered by nostalgic foods may result in positive mood states. Appropriate use of food-evoked nostalgia may increase the quality of life for individuals experiencing low mood states.

Positive autobiographical memory recall does not influence temporal discounting: an internal meta-analysis of experimental studies.

People tend to discount the value of future rewards as the delay to receiving them increases. This phenomenon, known as temporal discounting, may underlie many impulsive behaviors, such as drug abuse and overeating. Given the potential role of temporal discounting in maladaptive behaviors, many efforts have been made to find experimental manipulations that reduce temporal discounting. One class of manipulations that has held some promise involves recalling positive autobiographical memories prior to making intertemporal choices. Just as imagining positive future events has been shown to reduce temporal discounting, a few studies have shown that recalling positive past events reduces temporal discounting, especially if memory retrieval evokes positive affective states, such as gratitude and nostalgia. However, we failed to replicate these findings. Here we present an internal meta-analysis combining data from 14 studies (n = 758) that involved within-subjects positive memory recall-based manipulations. In each study, temporal discounting was assessed using a monetary intertemporal choice task. The average effect size was not significantly different from zero. This finding helps elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms of temporal discounting; whereas engaging the episodic memory system to imagine future events might promote more patience, engaging the episodic memory system to imagine past events does not.

Community Building Through Place-Making Activities: Older Landscapers in a Singaporean Residential Town.

This paper explores how some older residents in B Town, a residential estate in northern Singapore, engage in community building through their 'serious leisure' and 'devotee work' participation in a resident landscaper program. Using data from ethnographic fieldwork conducted from February to November 2020 with participants aged from 60 to 81, I analyze how they built connections with each other, and the wider B Town community, through their participation. Particularly, I examine how the shared identity marker of being former farmers in now-evicted kampungs (villages) before the 1980s drew them together, and informed their continued involvement as resident landscapers. The 'kampung spirit' that they built up through the program enabled the construction of not only social connections, but also exclusionary mechanisms that prevented more older adults from engaging in the activities. These findings highlight participants' agency, and complicate static and/or monolithic conceptualizations of 'aging in place/the community' and 'active aging'.

Stations Along the Via Dolorosa Towards Good-Enough Endings.

This article focuses on the prevailing aspiration to reach a "good-enough ending" in analysis, a concept that is partly realistic and partly illusional. I discuss some of the obstacles that interfere with achieving this yearned for goal, and lead to endings that are far from the misleading illusion of the good-enough termination, that many of us believe we have achieved and are many more than it is commonly reported. I describe characteristics, obstacles, blockages, dreads within the analysand, within the analyst and in the space in between, which lead to endings which are far from good enough, by any criteria we might choose. These obstacles include the failure to distinguish between "real" versus "similar to"; emotional excess; emptying out of internal resources and toxemia of therapy/analysis; a fascination with certain levels of mind versus a neglect of others; osmotic pressure for oneness and the terror of perfection; and malignant nostalgia. Reflecting on such complex facets in the analytic process is relevant not only for a deeper understanding of illusions that we and our analysands hold with regard to endings, but also, implicitly, to the understanding of illusions, beliefs, and myths we and our patients have regarding beginnings.

Thalamocortical Mechanisms for Nostalgia-Induced Analgesia.

As a predominately positive emotion, nostalgia serves various adaptive functions, including a recently revealed analgesic effect. The current fMRI study aimed to explore the neural mechanisms underlying the nostalgia-induced analgesic effect on noxious thermal stimuli of different intensities. Human participants' (males and females) behavior results showed that the nostalgia paradigm significantly reduced participants' perception of pain, particularly at low pain intensities. fMRI analysis revealed that analgesia was related to decreased brain activity in pain-related brain regions, including the lingual and parahippocampal gyrus. Notably, anterior thalamic activation during the nostalgia stage predicted posterior parietal thalamus activation during the pain stage, suggesting that the thalamus might play a key role as a central functional linkage in the analgesic effect. Moreover, while thalamus-PAG functional connectivity was found to be related to nostalgic strength, periaqueductal gray-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PAG-dlPFC) functional connectivity was found to be associated with pain perception, suggesting possible analgesic modulatory pathways. These findings demonstrate the analgesic effect of nostalgia and, more importantly, shed light on its neural mechanism.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Nostalgia is known to reduce individuals' perception of physical pain. The underlying brain mechanisms, however, are unclear. Our study found that the thalamus plays a key role as a functional linkage between nostalgia and pain, suggesting a possible analgesic modulatory mechanism of nostalgia. These findings have implications for the underlying brain mechanisms of psychological analgesia.

Distress prospectively predicts higher nostalgia, and nostalgia prospectively predicts lower distress.

OBJECTIVE: We were concerned with the relation between distress and nostalgia. At the state level, extensive research has established that momentary nostalgia is evoked by (experimentally manipulated) distress. However, at the trait level, the directionality of this relation is unclear. We conducted a longitudinal study to clarify the directional relation between these two constructs. METHOD: We surveyed first-year university students (N = 3167) twice across six months. We assessed nostalgia, psychological distress (depression), and physical distress (somatization) at both timepoints. We also assessed Big Five personality at the first timepoint. RESULTS: Initial distress prospectively predicted increased nostalgia, and initial nostalgia prospectively predicted reduced distress, six months later and independently of the Big Five. CONCLUSIONS: Habitual nostalgia follows rather than precedes naturalistically occurring distress and serves to relieve it.

Episodic memory and personal semantics as triggers of nostalgia: its relationships between abstraction of memory content and temporal distance.

Nostalgia, an autobiographically relevant positive emotion, is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. Autobiographical memory, which is one of the cognitive bases of nostalgia, includes both abstract semantic and detailed episodic memories. Recent studies have defined and classified memories that are located between semantic and episodic memory as personal semantics. Although autobiographical memory and personal semantics range over a continuum, past nostalgia research has not focused on or controlled them. In two experiments, undergraduate students retrieved episodic memory and personal semantics and rated cognitive and affective items. The intensity of nostalgia differed according to the types of memory content and temporal distance of the memory from the present. These results revealed that not only unique events but also repeated events and autobiographical facts induced nostalgia; furthermore, repeated events from both the distant and recent past (primary and high school, respectively) consistently induced relatively greater nostalgia, but in some cases, they were not significantly different from other types of memory (i.e., unique events and autobiographical facts). These findings suggest that both episodic memory and personal semantics are involved in the occurrence of nostalgia.

Food-evoked nostalgia.

In three studies, we examined food as an elicitor of nostalgia. Study 1 participants visualised eating either a nostalgic or regularly consumed food. Study 2 participants visualised consuming 12 foods. Study 3 participants consumed 12 flavour samples. Following their food experiences, all participants responded to questions regarding the profile of food-evoked nostalgia (i.e. autobiographical relevance, arousal, familiarity, positive and negative emotions) and several psychological functions (i.e. positive affect, self-esteem, social connectedness, meaning in life). Study 2 and 3 participants also reported their state nostalgia. Results revealed that food is a powerful elicitor of nostalgia. Food-evoked nostalgia has a similar contextual profile to previously examined elicitors, but is a predominantly positive emotional experience. Food-evoked nostalgia served multiple psychological functions and predicted greater state nostalgia.

Nostalgia enhances route learning in a virtual environment.

Salient landmarks enhance route learning. We hypothesised that semantically salient nostalgic landmarks would improve route learning compared to non-nostalgic landmarks. In two experiments, participants learned a route through a computer-generated maze using directional arrows and wall-mounted pictures. On the test trial, the arrows were removed, and participants completed the maze using only the pictures. In the nostalgia condition, pictures were of popular music artists and TV characters from 5 to 10 years ago. In the control condition, they were recent pictures of these same artists and characters. In Experiment 1, in the test trial, participants in the nostalgia condition completed the maze faster than controls. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated these findings and extended them by exploring boundary conditions. Participants had to learn two mazes sequentially. In Maze 1, we placed nostalgic/control landmarks only at non-decision points (whereas we placed them at decision points in Experiment 1). In Maze 2, we placed nostalgic/control landmarks at decision points during acquisition but removed them in the test trial (whereas they were present in the test trial in Experiment 1). In both mazes, participants in the nostalgia (compared to control) condition completed the test trial faster.

Polluted air evokes nostalgic reverie: A preliminary investigation in China.

Air pollution is related to a variety of psychological distresses (e.g., insecurity), and such distresses may in turn evoke nostalgia as a coping response. Three studies with complementary methodologies were conducted to examine the potential relationship between air pollution and nostalgia in China. Drawing on panel data from 2011 to 2018 covering 31 provincial regions, Study 1 indicated that air pollution positively predicted nostalgia. Study 2 found that air-polluted days were correlated with elevated nostalgia during the 212-day study period. Study 3 further demonstrated that compared with the control condition, participants in the experimentally induced air pollution condition reported more nostalgia, and insecurity mediated this effect. Collectively, our findings provide preliminary evidence that air pollution is positively associated with nostalgia. The implications and limitations of this work were discussed.

The resentful undergrowth of nostalgia: Ontological insecurity, relative deprivation and powerlessness.

This article untangles competing conceptualisations of nostalgia and identifies a specific form of collective-restorative nostalgia as politically significant. We argue that the link between resentment and this type of nostalgia emerges from their joint critique of the socio-political realities of the present. Nostalgia provides spatial and temporal orientations for a group's experiences of resentment through highly selective recollections of the heartland and an idealised golden age. We hypothesize that nostalgia leverages the heartland and the golden age to formulate claims for recognition and restored status on behalf of those who feel left behind by late modernity. Next, the article uses structural equation modelling and the 2019 Belgian National Election Study to reveal how resentment (consisting of ontological insecurity, group relative deprivation, and powerlessness) mediates between structural characteristics and nostalgia. Our findings suggest that each component of resentment individually contributes to explaining the nostalgia of less educated and economically deprived individuals.

Can Good Memories of the Past Instill Happiness? Nostalgia Improves Subjective Well-Being by Increasing Gratitude.

The positive effect of nostalgia provides an effective way to improve subjective well-being. However, there is little research on the relationship between nostalgia and subjective well-being, especially the mechanism of this link. This study tested the positive effects of nostalgia on emotional well-being (positive affect and negative affect) and cognitive well-being (satisfaction with life) via gratitude. Two experiments were conducted in samples of young adults who were randomized to experimental or control conditions. The analyses involved group comparisons as well as regression-based analyses of mediation. In Experiment 1 (N = 196), we induced nostalgia using a guided autobiographical recall procedure. The nostalgia group had higher positive affect and gratitude, and gratitude partially mediated the association between nostalgia and positive affect. In Experiment 2 (N = 102), we induced nostalgia by showing a nostalgic video from the period when the participants were children. The nostalgia group had higher positive affect and lower negative affect, and gratitude partially mediated these associations. The findings suggest that nostalgia could improve emotional well-being by increasing gratitude, but may not alter cognitive well-being.

The moderating effects of nostalgia on mood and optimism during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The initial waves of the coronavirus pandemic amplified feelings of depression, psychological fatigue and pessimism for the future. Past research suggests that nostalgia helps to repair negative moods by boosting current and future-oriented positive affect, thereby strengthening psychological resilience. Accordingly, the present study investigated whether nostalgia moderated the relationship between pandemic experience and individual differences in mood and optimism. Across two studies we assessed psychosocial self-report data from a total of 293 online participants (22-72 years old; mean age 38; 109 females, 184 males) during the first two waves of the pandemic. Participants completed comprehensive questionnaires that probed state and trait characteristics related to mood and memory, such as the Profile of Mood States, Nostalgia Inventory and State Optimism Measure. Our findings indicate that during the initial wave of coronavirus cases, higher levels of nostalgia buffered against deteriorating mood states associated with concern over the pandemic. Nostalgia also boosted optimism for participants experiencing negative mood, and optimism predicted subjective mood improvement one week later. This shielding effect of nostalgia on optimism was replicated during the second wave of coronavirus cases. The present findings support the role of nostalgia in promoting emotional homeostasis and resilience during periods of psychological distress.

Adaptation of a short-form nostalgia scale: convergent and divergent validity in a sample of French elders.

Nostalgia is an efficient coping strategy that helps elders overcome major life transitions. To better explore the protective functions of nostalgia, we set out to adapt a short-form nostalgia scale to French elders and examine its convergent and divergent validity in terms of self-esteem, depression, and wellbeing. Participants were 175 institutionalized French elders. After providing their written informed consent, they were asked to complete a demographic information form and respond to four questionnaires probing self-esteem, nostalgia, depression, and wellbeing. Principal component analyses and fit indices were used to explore convergent validity. An 8-item version showed acceptable psychometric properties and measured two dimensions of nostalgia. Spearman correlations were conducted to explore divergent validity. In our sample, the first dimension was negatively associated with global cognitive functioning, while the second dimension was positively associated with self-esteem and wellbeing, and negatively associated with depression. The negative relationship between depression and nostalgia supports the idea that nostalgia is a positive concept. Future research should explore factors liable to impact nostalgia, such as cultural differences and reminiscence therapy.

Nostalgia, Gratitude, or Optimism: The Impact of a Two-Week Intervention on Well-Being During COVID-19.

Research indicates that brief 2-min positive psychology interventions (PPIs) increase well-being during COVID-19 lockdowns. The present study extended this to assess the effectiveness over two-weeks. Participants (n = 150) were randomly allocated to one of three PPIs; nostalgia, gratitude, best possible self (BPS), or control. The interventions were slightly adapted for the lockdown and were completed three times, every seven days over two-weeks. Well-being measures were completed immediately after the first intervention (T1), after the next two interventions (T2-T3) and at one-week follow-up (T4) (but no baseline measure of well-being was taken). At T1, participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had higher self-esteem than those in the control intervention. At T1 and T2, participants in the gratitude and BPS intervention reported higher social connectedness than participants in the nostalgia and control intervention. Then at follow-up (T4), participants in the nostalgia, gratitude, and BPS intervention had lower fear of COVID-19 than those in the control intervention. Overall, the results show the benefits of nostalgia, gratitude and optimism, compared to the control, during lockdown. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10902-022-00513-6.