Different Types of Social Feedback can Enhance or Reduce Performance, and Induce or Alleviate Psychosocial Stress: An Exploratory Study of the Underlying Neurophysiological Mechanisms

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.