Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology最新文献

Objectives

Social feedback plays a pivotal role in human interactions, significantly impacting psychological and behavioral processes. This study explored the effect of different types of social feedback on neurophysiological function in the context of psychosocial stress and performance.

Methods

Thirty-nine healthy adults underwent a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test, in which they prepared and gave five short speeches, each associated with a different social feedback condition: No Feedback, (NoF), Neutral Feedback (NF), Annoyed Feedback (AF), Bored Feedback (BF), and Positive Feedback (PF). Data on electroencephalography (EEG), heart rate (HR), and electrodermal activity (SCL) were collected during the speech preparation phase and following social feedback.

Results

HR and SCL were significantly lower in the AF and BF conditions compared to the NoF and NF conditions. Furthermore, EEG data showed higher gamma band activity in the posterior region of interest compared to frontal and central areas; this activity increased from the NoF to the PF, NF, and BF conditions, peaking before declining in the AF condition. Beta band activity was higher in central and posterior regions than in the frontal area and increased from NoF to NF before decreasing in the BF and AF conditions.

Conclusions

These results illustrate how social feedback may or may not induce psychosocial stress depending on its valence and identify some potential neurophysiological correlates of adaptive and maladaptive performance under stress.

Purpose

The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which violent intergroup conflict may be associated with human life history trajectories.

Methods

We examined life histories in a postconflict socioecology (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo: N = 699) and compared them with a control condition (Serbia: N = 628) using the network analysis approach.

Results

Participants from the postconflict environment had higher number of children and reproduction planning, followed by lower age of first reproduction which suggest accelerated life histories. Network analysis showed that fertility and mating-related events in the control ecology were relatively independent from childhood environmental conditions, while fertility itself was positively associated with current socioeconomic status. In contrast, fertility and mating were linked with childhood economic family status and stability of the environment in the postconflict condition; current socioeconomic status was only related to childhood economic status in this network. Short-term mating and the onset of sexual behavior were more strongly positively related to the age of first reproduction in the postconflict socioecology, compared to the control socioecology. Fertility was positively associated with long-term mating and pregnancy planning, and negatively linked with the age of first reproduction in both ecological conditions.

Conclusions

Obtained findings are discussed within the theoretical frameworks of fast-slow continuum in life history trajectories and predictive adaptive response hypothesis. The results provide insights into how intergroup conflict may affect human life history dynamics and highlights the fruitfulness of using the network approach to analyze life history trajectories.

Purpose

The Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH) states that offspring sex should vary depending on parent condition, and TWH effects have been studied extensively. Findings have been equivocal, however, and recent work has challenged the TWH’s theoretical predictions. One possible reason for variation in TWH findings is that few studies have investigated effects of mate selection for condition on offspring sex. Here we tested whether more dominant parents (N = 104 dyads from Prolific) would be more likely to share a first-born son than a first-born daughter.

Methods

Parent couples completed a survey of family demographics and dominance measures then submitted facial photographs. Photographs were standardized and rated by undergraduates for perceived facial dominance. Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) was also measured.

Results

We found that rated paternal facial dominance, but not rated maternal facial dominance or their interaction, predicted the likelihood of having a first-born son. Self-reported dominance was not a reliable predictor of offspring sex, and fWHR did not predict OSR.

Conclusion

These results suggest that fathers’ facial dominance might influence the likelihood of a couple producing male offspring. We propose a plausible mechanism through which maternal personality, hormones, and mate preferences influence the sex of offspring. Relationships between facial cues of dominance and offspring sex warrant further investigation.

Purpose

Sexual behavior plays a prominent role in adult descriptions of psychopathy, and research shows associations between psychopathy in males and distinct aspects of sexuality, including impersonal, precocious, and coercive sexuality involving reproductively mature sexual partners. Evolutionary perspectives have suggested that consistent links with these sexual outcomes may reflect a male mating strategy that can result in reproductive success. But fewer studies have examined the various aspects of sexuality and psychopathic traits during adolescence, a time when reproductive strategies may become entrained.

Method

Using a mixed sample of 156 criminal justice-involved and at-risk community male adolescents (M_age = 17.4, SD = 1.2), we examined associations of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version with impersonal, precocious, coercive, and mature (i.e., sexual interest in reproductively mature females) sexuality.

Results

Psychopathic traits were associated with each aspect of sexuality, including impersonal, precocious, coercive sexuality as well as increased likelihood of showing a sexual interest in reproductively mature adult females.

Conclusion

The results suggest that psychopathy in adolescent males is associated with a unique pattern of sexuality like that seen in adult males and may suggest the beginnings of a young male mating strategy whose pattern of impersonal and coercive sexuality may continue into adulthood.

Objective

The innate drive for humans to belong is coupled with the strategies they use to gain and maintain resources (Sapolsky, Annual Review of Anthropology, 33(1), 393–418,2004), and individuals in higher levels of social status (such as dominant individuals) use different strategies to gain that status (Hawley, Developmental Review, 19(1), 97–132, 1999; Hawley, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 49(3), 279–309, 2003). Just as the environment is important for human development, it is also important to consider the genetic components that can impact thoughts and behaviors. Oxytocin has been connected to many affiliative behaviors which assist in gaining social status (Massey-Abernathy, Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(3), 212–220, 2017). OXTR rs53576 is a specific oxytocin polymorphic receptor site that when G homozygous, meaning possessing two G alleles (GG), individuals show more empathetic concern (Smith, Social Neuroscience, 9(1), 1–9, 2014), an increased ability to infer the emotional state of others (Domes, Biological Psychiatry, 61(6), 731–733, 2007), and increased emotional regulation (Massey-Abernathy, Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(3), 212–220, 2017).

Methods

In the current study, the relationships between self-report questionnaires on popularity types (sociometric/perceived), resource control strategies, empathy (cognitive and affective), and emotional intelligence was examined. Then a smaller sub-sample was used to look at their relationship to OXTR rs53576 using saliva sampling.

Results

This study’s results indicate in this sample, the use of coercive strategies alone created perceived popular individuals. Additionally, emotional intelligence and cognitive empathy were important for increased perceived popularity, and these characteristics were also seen in those who are OXTR rs53576G homozygous.

Conclusion

Examining these relationships may help researchers understand why “popular” individuals use certain tactics to create and maintain their high social status.

Objective

Intrauterine exposure to testosterone (T_intrauterine) can permanently organize the brain. A putative marker of this endocrine exposure is the 2D:4D finger-digit ratio. In contrast to early prenatal androgen, testosterone concentrations in adulthood (T_adult) are purported to have transient activational effects. Lesbian women typically show lower 2D:4D ratios (indicative of greater T_intrauterine) and higher T_adult levels compared to heterosexual women. However, few studies, with mixed results, have assessed differences in T_adult and T_intrauterine between heterosexual, femme, and butch lesbians (respectively, feminized and masculinized styles). This study aimed to compare the 2D:4D ratio and T_adult levels in saliva between masculine, feminine lesbian, and heterosexual women.

Results

T_adult levels were higher in masculine compared to feminine lesbians and heterosexual women. However, there were no differences between the groups regarding the 2D:4D ratio, nor did it show a correlation between T_adult levels and the 2D:4D ratio.

Conclusion

Our study suggests the existence of biological differences at the activational level between masculine and feminine lesbians. These results do not exclude the possibility of prenatal influence on female homosexuality. We recommend further studies to address this question while circumventing the limitations of the present study.

Purpose

During intersex interactions heterosexual men show a temporary cognitive impairment and an increase in risky behaviors. These effects have been interpreted as caused by the negative emotion and stress experienced by men attempting to produce a positive impression of themselves. Under this line of reasoning men’s cognitive performance during a heterosexual interaction is maladaptive and perhaps it could be improved when the audience or target of men’s public performance express positive, supportive feedback.

Methods

Fifty-eight heterosexual young males were asked to provide a self-presentation and to perform a difficult arithmetical task in front of two female confederates. One group of men interacted with a negative unsupportive audience while the other group interacted with a friendly and supportive audience. We tested men’s decision making in the Iowa Gambling Task after they engaged in this public performance task.

Results

We found that men self-presenting in front of a friendly female audience engaged in more risky decision making during the last two blocks of the Iowa Gambling Task. There were no differences in parameters of cardiovascular reactivity and no differences of perceived judge’s attractiveness between the two groups. Men exposed to the unfriendly female audience perceived the female judge as more interested in them.

Conclusion

When heterosexual men self-present and perform in front of a supportive and friendly female audience their risk-taking in the Iowa Gambling Task increases but the exact mechanism leading to this behavior requires further study.

Objectives

Specific combinations of personality- and sociality attributes may index distinct life-history strategies (LHSs). In later life, partnerships are key loci of psychosocial influences, and arguably of corresponding LH-related selective pressures. Yet, few studies have examined their role in older adults’ LHSs. In the current study, I began to fill these gaps by examining coupled dynamics in later-life extraversion and strong ties.

Methods

Data were from the Health and Retirement Study, nationally representative of older U.S. adults. For analysis, I used a recent fixed effects-cross lagged panel modeling method.

Results

Contrary to previous cross-sectional findings, results indicated that upturns in partnered men’s extraversion may lower their integration into strong-tie networks. Theory suggests such patterns could reflect extraverted men’s avoidance of constraint-imposing close relationships. Men’s social integration also negatively predicted their own extraversion—and enhanced that of their partner—supporting interactional modulation of personality states. Finally, women’s extraversion appeared to increase their partner’s stakeholder integration, arguably due to women’s network gatekeeping role.

Conclusions

Sociality and personality seem dynamically intertwined within older couples. Patterns suggest gendered adaptations in response to relational cues. I discuss implications for plasticity in later-life LHSs.

Purpose

Food acquisition is an adaptive problem resolved via both physiological and psychological processes. Hunger could serve as a coordinating mechanism for these processes. When hunger increases, it may be beneficial to shift cognitive resources away from other adaptive problems and towards functions that increase the chances of acquiring food, such as memory for food information. However, there is limited research exploring the impacts of hunger on food-related memory, and the results are mixed. We conducted two studies investigating whether increased hunger levels improve memory for food images and prices – but not non-food images and prices – in image recognition and price recall tasks, respectively.

Methods

Study 1 was an online, observational study (N = 91) using self-reported hunger as a continuous measure. Study 2 was an in-person, between-subjects interventional study (N = 102) where participants were randomly allocated to a hungry or sated condition. We predicted that higher levels of hunger would improve participants’ ability to discriminate between food images they have and have not seen before and correctly recall food prices.

Results

We found no evidence of a hunger-related memory enhancement for food stimuli in either study in image recognition or price recall tasks.

Conclusion

Our findings contrast with older research but support more recent work, suggesting that the effect of hunger on food memory may be sensitive to study design and not as broadly generalisable as first thought.

Purpose

A recent study has found that Polish territories with history of forced population displacement exhibit a faster life history compared to other Polish territories. Whether the spatial overlap between historical forced population displacement and faster life history represents a common pattern or merely an isolated phenomenon remains to be seen. Czechia provides an avenue to test this, since its borderlands (specifically the so-called Sudetenland) were mainly inhabited by a German-speaking population who were forcefully displaced post-WWII.

Methods

Differences in life history speed amongst Czech districts were estimated based on multiple life history indicators via a factor analysis.

Results

Faster life history for Sudetenland is confirmed, a pattern consistent across numerous life history indicators.

Conclusion

The spatial overlap between fast life history and population displacement (herein dubbed the r-displacement distribution) might be contingent on stable socioeconomic environment, potentially limiting its generality beyond socioeconomically developed societies. Further replications of r-displacement distribution might be needed to confirm its generality.