Hippocampus Oxytocin Signaling Promotes Prosocial Eating in Rats.

BACKGROUND: Oxytocin (OT) is a hypothalamic neuropeptide involved in diverse physiological and behavioral functions, including social-based behavior and food intake control. The extent to which OT's role in regulating these 2 fundamental behaviors is interconnected is unknown, which is a critical gap in knowledge given that social factors have a strong influence on eating behavior in mammals. Here, we focus on OT signaling in the dorsal hippocampus (HPCd), a brain region recently linked to eating and social memory, as a candidate system where these functions overlap. METHODS: HPCd OT signaling gain- and loss-of-function strategies were used in male Sprague Dawley rats that were trained in a novel social eating procedure to consume their first nocturnal meal under conditions that varied with regard to conspecific presence and familiarity. The endogenous role of HPCd OT signaling was also evaluated for olfactory-based social transmission of food preference learning, sociality, and social recognition memory. RESULTS: HPCd OT administration had no effect on food intake under isolated conditions but significantly increased consumption in the presence of a familiar but not an unfamiliar conspecific. Supporting these results, chronic knockdown of HPCd OT receptor expression eliminated the food intake-promoting effects of a familiar conspecific. HPCd OT receptor knockdown also blocked social transmission of food preference learning and impaired social recognition memory without affecting sociality. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, the results of the current study identify endogenous HPCd OT signaling as a novel substrate in which OT synergistically influences eating and social behaviors, including the social facilitation of eating and the social transmission of food preference.

Effects of Social Facilitation and Introduction Methods for Cattle on Virtual Fence Adaptation.

Agricultural industries rely on physical fences to manage livestock. However, these present practical, financial, and ecological challenges, which may be solved using virtual fencing. This study aimed to identify how experienced cattle through social facilitation and the introduction method influence inexperienced cattle. Based on three stocks held in Fanø, Denmark, containing 12, 17 and 13 Angus (Bos taurus), we examined the virtual fence learning in three case studies using one gradual introduction with zero experienced cattle (A) and two different instant introductions with one (B) and ten (C) experienced cattle. Gradual introduction had the virtual fence moved 20 m every other day for eleven days, and in the two instant introductions, the physical fence was removed in one day. Warnings and impulses were recorded during an 11-day learning period and a 26-day post-learning period, using the impulses per warning to quantify if the cattle adapted. Case studies A and B showed a significant reduction in the warnings and impulses, but only A showed a significant reduction in the impulses per warning when comparing the learning period to the post-learning period. Due to the non-standardised experiments, it was not possible to conclude if the number of experienced cattle or the introduction method had an effect on the results.

The relationship between prescribed ratings of perceived exertion and force production in repeated isometric contractions.

Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) are frequently used to monitor and prescribe exercise intensity. However, studies examining the shape and robustness of how feelings of effort map onto objective outputs are limited and report inconsistent results. To address this, we investigated whether (1) producing isometric forces according to RPE levels reliably leads to differences in force output, (2) if feelings of effort map linearly or non-linearly onto force output, and (3) if this mapping is robust when visual feedback and social facilitation are present. In a counterbalanced repeated measures design, N = 26 participants performed isometric handgrip contractions prescribed by ten levels of the Borg CR-10 scale. They did so either with or without the availability of concurrent visual feedback regarding their force production, and in the presence or absence of another person performing the same task simultaneously. We found that subjects reliably produced different force outputs that corresponded to each RPE level. Furthermore, concurrent visual feedback led to a linearization of force output, while in the absence of feedback, the produced forces could also be described by quadratic and cubic functions. Exploratory post-hoc analyses revealed that participants perceived moderate RPE levels to be more challenging to produce. By shedding light on the dynamic nature of the mapping between RPE and objective performance, our findings provide helpful insights regarding the utility of RPE scales.

Parenting Practices Are Associated With Out-of-School Physical Activity in US Adolescents in 2014.

INTRODUCTION: Lack of physical activity (PA) is associated with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Parenting practices influence PA in young children. However, there is little evidence available for adolescents. We examined whether parenting practices were associated with out-of-school PA (OSPA) in US adolescents. METHODS: This cross-sectional 2019 study analyzed data from the 2014 FLASHE study, a web-based, quota-sampled survey of parent-adolescent dyads. Inclusion required survey completion and parents to live with their teen (ages 12-17 y old). Physically limited adolescents were excluded. Dyads were stratified by teen age. Exposures included parental modeling, monitoring, facilitation, restriction, guided choice, and pressure. The outcomes of interest were OSPA Youth Activity Profile scores. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using adjusted logistic regressions. RESULTS: A total of 1109 dyads were included. Guided choice increased odds of OSPA for 15- to 17-year-olds (OR = 2.12; 95% CI, 1.17-3.84). Facilitation increased odds of OSPA for 12- to 14-year-olds (OR = 2.21; 95% CI, 1.13-4.33). Monitoring decreased odds of OSPA for 15- to 17-year-olds (OR = 0.34; 95% CI, 0.20-0.57) and 12- to 14-year-olds (OR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.27-0.74). Friend support increased odds of OSPA in 15- to 17-year-olds (OR = 4.03; 95% CI, 2.29-7.08) and 12- to 14-year-olds (OR = 3.05; 95% CI 1.69-5.51). CONCLUSION: Future interventions should prioritize (1) shared decision making for older teens, (2) access to PA opportunities for younger adolescents, and (3) promoting peer PA and friend support for everyone.

Autistic preschoolers display reduced attention orientation for competition but intact facilitation from a parallel competitor: Eye-tracking and behavioral data.

LAY ABSTRACT: Recent research suggests that we might have underestimated the social motivation of autistic individuals. Autistic children might be engaged in a social situation, even if they seem not to be attending to people in a typical way. Our study investigated how young autistic children behave in a "parallel" situation, which we call "parallel competition," where people participate in friendly contests side-by-side but without direct interaction. First, we used eye-tracking technology to observe how much autistic children pay attention to two video scenarios: one depicting parallel competition, and the other where individuals play directly with each other. The results showed that autistic children looked less toward the parallel competition video than their typically developing peers. However, when autistic children took part in parallel competitions themselves, playing physical and cognitive games against a teacher, their performance improved relative to playing individually just as much as their typically developing peers. This suggests that even though autistic children pay attention to social events differently, they can still benefit from the presence of others. These findings suggest complementing traditional cooperative activities by incorporating parallel activities into educational programs for young autistic children. By doing so, we can create more inclusive learning environments for these children.

Meta-Analysis of Social Presence Effects on Stroop Task Performance.

In this paper, we conducted a meta-analytic review to examine the impact of social presence on individuals' performance on the Stroop task, shedding light on the cognitive processes underlying social facilitation. We followed PRISMA guidelines to identify and include 33 relevant studies in a multivariate random-effects meta-analysis. Our results show that social presence reliably modulates Stroop interference (a measure of cognitive control); specifically, participants exhibit lower Stroop interference when performing the task in the presence of others compared to performing it in isolation. We also found that the strength of the effect varies depending on the type of social presence: it is stronger with an attentive audience compared to an inattentive one, and null with an evaluative audience. Additionally, different features of the Stroop task itself moderate the effect; the effect is stronger for the classic version of the task compared to the semantic version, and for experiments that use mixed within-block trials compared to those with homogenous blocks. We also observed a negative relationship between the number of trials and the magnitude of the effect. Overall, these findings provide insights into the mechanisms by which the presence of others affects performance on the Stroop task, and how they align with social facilitation theories.

Alcohol does not influence trust in others or oxytocin, but increases positive affect and risk-taking: a randomized, controlled, within-subject trial.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption to facilitate social interaction is an important drinking motive. Here, we tested whether alcohol influences trust in others via modulation of oxytocin and/or androgens. We also aimed at confirming previously shown alcohol effects on positive affect and risk-taking, because of their role in facilitating social interaction. METHODS: This randomized, controlled, within-subject, parallel group, alcohol-challenge experiment investigated the effects of alcohol (versus water, both mixed with orange juice) on perceived trustworthiness via salivary oxytocin (primary and secondary endpoint) as well as testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, positive affect, and risk-taking (additional endpoints). We compared 56 male participants in the alcohol condition (1.07 ± 0.18 per mille blood alcohol concentration) with 20 in the control condition. RESULTS: The group (alcohol versus control condition) × time (before [versus during] versus after drinking) interactions were not significantly associated with perceived trustworthiness (η2 < 0.001) or oxytocin (η2 = 0.003). Bayes factors provided also substantial evidence for the absence of these effects (BF01 = 3.65; BF01 = 7.53). The group × time interactions were related to dihydrotestosterone (η2 = 0.018 with an increase in the control condition) as well as positive affect and risk-taking (η2 = 0.027 and 0.007 with increases in the alcohol condition), but not significantly to testosterone. DISCUSSION: The results do not verify alcohol effects on perceived trustworthiness or oxytocin in male individuals. However, they indicate that alcohol (versus control) might inhibit an increase in dihydrotestosterone and confirm that alcohol amplifies positive affect and risk-taking. This provides novel mechanistic insight into social facilitation as an alcohol-drinking motive.

Are you better than me? Social comparisons in carrion crows (Corvus corone).

Comparing oneself to others is a key process in humans that allows individuals to gauge their performances and abilities and thus develop and calibrate their self-image. Little is known about its evolutionary foundations. A key feature of social comparison is the sensitivity to other individuals' performance. Recent studies on primates produced equivocal results, leading us to distinguish between a 'strong' variant of the social comparison hypothesis formulated for humans and a 'weak' variant found in non-human primates that would comprise some elements of human social comparison. Here, we focus on corvids that are distantly related to primates and renowned for their socio-cognitive skills. We were interested in whether crows' task performances were influenced (i) by the presence of a conspecific co-actor performing the same discrimination task and (ii) by the simulated acoustic cues of a putative co-actor performing better or worse than themselves. Crows reached a learning criterion quicker when tested simultaneously as compared to when tested alone, indicating a facilitating effect of social context. The performance of a putative co-actor influenced their performance: crows were better at discriminating familiar images when their co-actor was better than they were. Standard extremity (how pronounced the difference was between the performance of the subject and that of the co-actor), and category membership (affiliation status and sex), of the putative co-actors had no effect on their performance. Our findings are in line with the 'weak' variant of social comparison and indicate that elements of human social comparison can be found outside of primates.

Dyadic visual perceptual learning on orientation discrimination.

The belief that learning can be modulated by social context is mainly supported by high-level value-based learning studies. However, whether social context can even modulate low-level learning such as visual perceptual learning (VPL) is still unknown. Unlike traditional VPL studies in which participants were trained singly, here, we developed a novel dyadic VPL paradigm in which paired participants were trained with the same orientation discrimination task and could monitor each other's performance. We found that the social context (i.e., dyadic training) led to a greater behavioral performance improvement and a faster learning rate compared with the single training. Interestingly, the facilitating effects could be modulated by the performance difference between paired participants. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results showed that, compared with the single training, social cognition areas including bilateral parietal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex displayed a different activity pattern and enhanced functional connectivities to early visual cortex (EVC) during the dyadic training. Furthermore, the dyadic training resulted in more refined orientation representation in primary visual cortex (V1), which was closely associated with the greater behavioral performance improvement. Taken together, we demonstrate that the social context, learning with a partner, can remarkably augment the plasticity of low-level visual information process by means of reshaping the neural activities in EVC and social cognition areas, as well as their functional interplays.

Do chimpanzee food calls bias listeners toward novel items?

Social learning is beneficial in almost every domain of a social animal's life, but it is particularly important in the context of predation and foraging. In both contexts, social animals tend to produce acoustically distinct vocalizations, alarms, and food calls, which have remained somewhat of an evolutionary conundrum as they appear to be costly for the signaller. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that food calls function to direct others toward novel food items, using a playback experiment on a group of chimpanzees. We showed chimpanzees novel (plausibly edible) items while simultaneously playing either conspecific food calls or acoustically similar greeting calls as a control. We found that individuals responded by staying longer near items previously associated with food calls even in the absence of these vocalizations, and peered more at these items compared with the control items, provided no conspecifics were nearby. We also found that once chimpanzees had access to both item types, they interacted more with the one previously associated with food calls than the control items. However, we found no evidence of social learning per se. Given these effects, we propose that food calls may gate and thus facilitate social learning by directing listeners' attention to new feeding opportunities, which if integrated with additional cues could ultimately lead to new food preferences within social groups.

Social Presence and Social Facilitation in Gambling: Some Comments on Yokomitsu et al. (2022).

This brief commentary adds to the recent study by paper by Yokomitsu, Kono and Takada (2022). Their study examined social presence in gambling by experimentally investigating the effects of the presence of other people on risky betting among high-risk gamblers. This commentary argues that the paper by Yokomitsu et al. provided a highly selective review on available studies and omitted many of the key studies in the area of social presence and social facilitation in which their findings could have been compared. The commentary also briefly outlines a number of studies that have I co-authored in this area over the past three decades using a variety of different methodologies (e.g., non-participant observation studies, experiments, data mining of account-based tracking data), none of which were mentioned by Yokomitsu et al. despite their clear relevance to this area.

Social facilitation effects in online coaction: the moderating role of social comparison direction.

Online and face-to-face coactions are widely used work organization modes. This study aims to investigate the effect of social comparison direction on task performance when people coact online. A total of 40 individuals were recruited to participate in a 2 (coaction type: online and face to face) × 3 (social comparison direction: upward, downward and no comparison) × 2 (phase: pre-comparison and post-comparison) within-subject experiment. The participants performed visual search tasks while their response time and search accuracy rates were measured. Results showed that the participants were reported to perform faster when they coacted online than face to face. The upward comparison led to a stronger social facilitation effect than the downward and no comparison directions, either in online or face-to-face coaction. These findings provide practical implications in the design of coaction modes for groups and teams working remotely.

The Effect of Eating Alone and Eating with Familiar or Unfamiliar Others on Food Intake: A Systematic Review

@#Aims and Design: Individuals’ food intake may vary depending on their situation and with whom they are having their meal. Thus this systematic review aimed to compare the effect of social facilitation between eating alone and eating with others, and evaluate the social modeling effect when eating with familiar or unfamiliar others, on food intake. Data Sources: Articles were screened and reviewed based on titles, abstracts and keywords. Inclusion criteria included experimental design, English language, open-accessed, and published from 1980 until the review was conducted in 2018. Review Methods: Using the PRISMA method, potential studies were identified on Science Direct, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, and BASE databases using two different keywords combinations. Results: Seventeen studies were included. For social facilitation, seven studies found that food intake increases when eating alone while five others stated it would increase when eating with others. One study suggested that it increases in both situations. For social modeling of food intake, two studies found that it commonly occurs when an individual eats in the presence of unfamiliar others, while one study reported that it happens more often with familiar others. Two other studies observed that social modeling occurs in both situations. Conclusion and Impact: Food intake tends to increase when eating alone than eating with others while the presence of familiar or unfamiliar others may either increase or limit an individual’s food consumption to socially match their co-eaters’ intake. Thus, good self-control is crucial for setting a dietary limit regardless of whether ones are eating alone or with familiar or unfamiliar others.

The impact of co-acting competitors on shooting performance in elite biathletes.

Grounded in social facilitation theory, this study examined the impact of co-acting competitors (i.e., opponents) on elite biathletes' shooting performance based on World Cup competition data. To this end, the impact of the number as well as the mean overlapping time with co-acting competitors at the shooting range on both shooting time and shooting accuracy was assessed. Competition data of World Cup races from 2005 to 2020 were analysed. This included 115 mass start and 195 pursuit events of a total of 758 elite biathletes amounting to 57.251 shooting bouts equivalent to a total of 286.255 shots. Data was analysed using a fixed effects model. Results revealed two main findings: First, the more co-acting opponents were present at the shooting range, the shorter (i.e., better) was shooting time. However, more co-acting opponents were also associated with decreased shooting accuracy in mass start, but not in pursuit. Second, a longer temporal overlap with co-acting opponents negatively affected biathletes' shooting time. There was no effect on shooting accuracy. To conclude, the present study provides first evidence for a link between co-acting competitors and shooting performance in elite biathletes by analysing ecologically valid, real world data.

Awareness of Social Influences on Eating Is Dependent on Familiarity With Imagined Dining Partners and Type of Eating Occasion.

When eating with strangers, people tend to eat less than they would when eating alone (social inhibition of eating), whereas they tend to eat more with family and friends (social facilitation of eating). To assess awareness of the social inhibition and facilitation of eating we conducted two online studies (Study 1:N = 481; Study 2:N = 485). In Study 1, participants imagined a dining scenario and indicated whether they would eat the same, more, or less when eating with someone who was more or less familiar to them (friend; family member; acquaintance; stranger) compared with when eating alone. Results from Study 1 indicated that participants imagined eating special meals with friends/family and so, in Study 2, another group of participants made the same predictions as for Study 1, but they did so for special and regular meals. In Study 1, a significant majority of participants said that they would "eat less" with a stranger/acquaintance. A similar proportion of participants said that they would "eat the same" or "eat more" when with a friend/family member and significantly fewer participants said that they would "eat less" with a friend/family member. In Study 2, the majority of participants said that they would "eat less" with a stranger across both special and regular meals. For meals with an acquaintance, the majority of participants reported that they would "eat the same" during regular meals, while for special meals, equal numbers said that they would "eat the same" as would "eat less." The majority of participants indicated that they would "eat more" during a special meal with a friend/family member. However, for regular meals with a friend/family member, a significant majority of participants said that they would "eat the same." Hence, participants acknowledge the social inhibition of intake and the social facilitation of eating at special meals, but they are either unwilling or unable to acknowledge that they would eat more with a friend/family member at a regular meal compared with eating alone. Raising awareness that eating with friends/family is associated with greater intake at regular meals may be helpful for individuals who are trying to manage their intake.

People's intended serving behaviour at social vs. non-social meals.

The social facilitation of eating refers to people's tendency to eat more food when dining with others than when dining alone. Recent research suggests that social facilitation may be driven by people's tendency to make more food available even before social meals begin, a phenomenon referred to as social "precilitation." In order to uncover the mechanisms underlying social precilitation, it is helpful to first understand whether people consciously and deliberately make more food available for social meals. Three studies (total N = 792) used an online serving paradigm to investigate this question. Participants were asked to imagine dining alone and dining socially, and indicated how much food they would serve themselves in each scenario. Unexpectedly, participants consistently reported intending to serve themselves smaller portions for social meals than for non-social meals (Study 1). This effect emerged even when they were asked about how someone else would behave (Study 2), and when they were informed that there was plenty of food available at the social meal (Study 3). This research highlights a disconnect between people's intended serving behaviour and the actual serving behaviour observed in laboratory studies, and suggests that people may not be aware of how their behaviour is influenced by the social context. Future research should examine why the disconnect between people's intended and actual serving behaviour occurs, whether it is related to the amount of food provided for social meals, and what implications the disconnect has for people's ability to manage their food intake.

Social Facilitation in Fear Appeals Creates Positive Affect but Inhibits Healthy Eating Intentions.

The social facilitation of eating plays a significant role in influencing individuals' eating decisions. However, how social eating cues are processed in health promotion messages is unclear. This study examined individuals' food craving in response to social cues in images (Experiment 1) and emotional experiences, perceived threat, perceived efficacy, behavioral intentions, and motivational coactivation elicited by social eating cues in obesity prevention fear appeals (Experiment 2). Results suggested that the presence of a group of people eating in an image facilitated food craving for the presented foods. Moreover, fear appeals that presented obesity and its consequences with more social eating cues, versus individual eating cues, generated greater positive emotional responses, perceived threat severity, response and self-efficacy, and motivational coactivation indicating more attention and threat vigilance. However, these cues also generated fewer self-reported intentions to change unhealthy eating behaviors. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

An EEG-Based Investigation of the Effect of Perceived Observation on Visual Memory in Virtual Environments.

The presence of external observers has been shown to affect performance on cognitive tasks, but the parameters of this impact for different types of tasks and the underlying neural dynamics are less understood. The current study examined the behavioral and brain activity effects of perceived observation on participants' visual working memory (VWM) in a virtual reality (VR) classroom setting, using the task format as a moderating variable. Participants (n = 21) were equipped with a 57-channel EEG cap, and neural data were collected as they completed two VWM tasks under two observation conditions (observed and not observed) in a within-subjects experimental design. The "observation" condition was operationalized through the addition of a static human avatar in the VR classroom. The avatar's presence was associated with a significant effect on extending the task response time, but no effect was found on task accuracy. This outcome may have been due to a ceiling effect, as the mean participant task scores were quite high. EEG data analysis supported the behavioral findings by showing consistent differences between the no-observation and observation conditions for one of the VWM tasks only. These neural differences were identified in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the occipital cortex (OC) regions, with higher theta-band activity occurring in the dlPFC during stimulus encoding and in the OC during response selection when the "observing" avatar was present. These findings provide evidence that perceived observation can inhibit performance during visual tasks by altering attentional focus, even in virtual contexts.

A Systematic Review of the Sport Psychology Mixed Martial Arts Literature: Replication and Extension.

MMA is a global sport with a growing body of psychological literature. Our main objective was to replicate and extend a past review concerning the sport psychology literature with MMA participants. We conducted our electronic search in EBSCO with the following databases: SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, ERIC, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. Our eligibility criteria were research articles (a) found in academic journals, (b) with MMA participants, and (c) at least one topic found in sport psychology literature. After conducting a PRISMA-guided search, 16 studies met our inclusion criteria. The studies spanned from 2011 to 2021, with 795 MMA participants from the USA (n = 7), Brazil (n = 4), and one study each from Czechia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. From studies reporting mean ages, MMA participants were in their mid-20s (M = 26.55 ± 2.38 years of age). The results section includes risk of bias ratings across five areas (i.e., subject selection, sample's MMA background, participant anonymity, data collection procedures, and questionnaire or qualitative theme reporting). More risk of bias concerns resulted with the quantitative than qualitative articles. To best represent the studies, we presented separate results tables with many specifics for both the quantitative (i.e., topic, main analysis, time frame, summary of results, and meaningfulness) and qualitative studies (topic, main analysis, time frame, and main themes). The included studies covered a variety of historic and meta-analyzed topics such as confidence, mood, motivations, and social facilitation. Based on our review, we discussed the literature strengths and limitations, and suggested future research directions. Last, we provided practical points for both MMA participants and their trainers.

Ability to share emotions of others as a foundation of social learning.

The natural habitats of most species are far from static, forcing animals to adapt to continuously changing conditions. Perhaps the most efficient strategy addressing this challenge consists of obtaining and acting upon pertinent information from others through social learning. We discuss how animals transfer information via social channels and what are the benefits of such exchanges, playing out on different levels, from theperception of socially delivered information to emotional sharing, manifesting themselves across different taxa of increasing biological complexity. We also discuss how social learning is influenced by different factors including pertinence of information for survival, the complexity of the environment, sex, genetic relatedness, and most notably, the relationship between interacting partners. The results appear to form a consistent picture once we shift our focus from emotional contagion as a prerequisite for empathy onto the role of shared emotions in providing vital information about the environment. From this point of view, we can propose approaches that are the most promising for further investigation of complex social phenomena, including learning from others.