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Synchrony is a well-established behavior that is frequently seen in cetaceans where surfacing events serve as a commonly used marker to spot synchrony due to its visibility from land. However, underwater behavior prior to and followed by synchronous surfacing is limited despite dolphins spending most of their time underwater. Therefore, we report an examination of the relationship between synchronous surfacing and an underwater swimming behavior ‘partnered swimming’ (parallel swimming of dolphins in close-proximity for an extended period of time) based on an observational study of 7 Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) kept under human care in Brookfield Zoo, Chicago. Results demonstrated that synchronous surfacing serves as a reliable predictor of partnered swimming both before and after the surfacing events and further suggest that subjects’ preferential associate for the two indices are positively correlated during synchronous swimming in close proximity and aligned orientation. Further results on triadic analysis suggest that proximity in partnered swimming indicates a higher frequency of close-proximity synchronous surfacing between the two that are in closer proximity than the third animal. These results are consistent with previous research on synchrony and proximity and suggest that proximity can indicate the level of synchrony, as evidenced by shorter latency periods between closer-proximal synchronous surfacing events. These findings contribute to our understanding of the social dynamics and affiliative behavior of bottlenose dolphins as surfacing is a social marker to provide a peak in the understanding of a more complex underwater behavior.

Social behaviours are typically modelled using neighbour-modulated fitness, which focuses on individuals having their fitness altered by neighbours. However, these models are either interpreted using inclusive fitness, which focuses on individuals altering the fitness of neighbours, or not interpreted at all. This disconnect leads to interpretational mistakes and obscures the adaptive significance of behaviour. We bridge this gap by presenting a systematic methodology for constructing inclusive-fitness models. We find a behaviours inclusive-fitness effect by summing primary and secondary deviations in reproductive value. Primary deviations are the immediate result of a social interaction; for example, the cost and benefit of an altruistic act. Secondary deviations are compensatory effects that arise because the total reproductive value of the population is fixed; for example, the increased competition that follows an altruistic act. Compared to neighbour-modulated fitness methodologies, our approach is often simpler and reveals the models inclusive-fitness narrative clearly. We implement our methodology first in a homogeneous population, with supplementary examples of help under synergy, help in a viscous population and Creels paradox. We then implement our methodology in a class-structured population, where the advantages of our approach are most evident, with supplementary examples of altruism between age classes, and sex-ratio evolution.

Vocal communication is essential for social behaviors in humans and non-human primates. While the frontal cortex is crucial to human speech production, its role in vocal production in non-human primates has long been questioned. It is unclear whether activities in the frontal cortex represent diverse vocal signals used in non-human primate communication. Here we studied single neuron activities and local field potentials (LFP) in the frontal cortex of male marmoset monkeys while the animal engaged in vocal exchanges with conspecifics in a social environment. We found that both single neuron activities and LFP were modulated by the production of each of the four major call types. Moreover, neural activities showed distinct patterns for different call types and theta-band LFP oscillations showed phase-locking to the phrases of twitter calls, suggesting a neural representation of vocalization features. Our results suggest important functions of the marmoset frontal cortex in supporting the production of diverse vocalizations in communication.

We will apply insights from game theory to explain human social behavior, focusing on novel applications which have heretofore been the realm of psychologists and philosophers—for example, why people speak indirectly, in what sense beauty is socially constructed, and where our moral intuitions come from—and eschewing traditional economic applications such as industrial organization or auctions. We will employ standard games such as the prisoners dilemma, coordination, hawk-dove, and costly signaling, and use standard game theory tools such as Nash Equilibria, Subgame Perfection, and Perfect Bayesian Equilibria. These tools will be taught from scratch and no existing knowledge of game theory, economics, or mathematics is required. At the same time, students familiar with these games and tools will not find the course redundant because of the focus on non-orthodox applications.

BACKGROUND: Nearly one-in-two Vietnamese men smoke cigarettes placing them among the highest tobacco consumers in the world. Despite the need for smoking cessation to curb the burden of tobacco-related diseases in Vietnam, this rate remains at less than 30%. Therefore, this study examines individual-, social- and policy factors associated with smoking cessation among adult male smokers in Vietnam. METHODS: We established a longitudinal International Tobacco Control study of male smokers in Hanoi, Vietnam, in September 2018. This paper analyses 1525 men who participated in baseline and one-year follow-up. We applied a weighted multivariable logistic regression to examine the association between smoking cessation and individual-, social- and policy predictors. RESULTS: At follow-up, 14.8% of participants had quit smoking for at least 30 consecutive days during the last year. Among the persistent smokers, 56.6% expressed intention to quit smoking. Factors associated with smoking cessation included a lower number of cigarettes smoked per day (aOR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.94, 0.99) and having several attempts to quit smoking (aOR = 2.16, 95% CI 1.13, 4.12). Intention to quit smoking was associated with multiple quit attempts, a chronic condition diagnosis, more tobacco-related knowledge, greater self-efficacy, and more worries about their future health. The perceived impact of smoke-free policy and health warning labels were positively associated with intention to quit at any stage. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions aimed at increasing smoking cessation should focus on all aspects of individual, social, and policy factors. Persistent smokers are more motivated to quit if they have made multiple quit attempts, more self-efficacy of quitting and worried about their future health, indicating that increasing smokers' beliefs and knowledge may be important for behavioural change. Health warning labels and tobacco taxation policies should be maintained and promoted as they are perceived to

The article proposes: to assess the influence of urban tribes on the social behavior and health of young Cubans who belong to them. An articulation is presented based on the criteria of authors, both from the social sciences and the medical sciences, with the search for the interrelation between the categories identity(ies) and youth(s), main urban tribes that exist in Cuba, their social behavior and the possible implications for the health of their members. The role of nurses and doctors in the prevention, detection, and accompaniment of young people is signified. During the youth stage, life projects play a leading role, however, the search and achievement of these goals does proceed in a linear or harmonious way. The health care professional must carry out a personalized work in the prevention of addictions, with vulnerable or high-risk groups., El artículo se propone: valorar la influencia de las tribus urbanas en el comportamiento social y la salud de los jóvenes cubanos que pertenencen a ellas. Se presenta una articulación basada en criterios de autores, tanto de las Ciencias Sociales como de las Ciencias Médicas, con la búsqueda de la interrelación entre las categorías identidad (es) y juventud(es), principales tribus urbanas que existen en Cuba, su comportamiento social y las posibles implicaciones para la salud de sus miembros. Se significa el rol de enfermeros/as y médicos(as) en la prevención, detección, y acompañamiento de los (las) jóvenes. Durante la etapa juvenil, los proyectos de vida juegan un rol protagónico, no obstante, la búsqueda y alcance de esas metas no transcurre de manera lineal ni armónica. El (la) profesional de la salud debe realizar una labor personalizada en la prevención de las adicciones, con grupos vulnerables o de alto riesgo.

This article presents research within an area of study between psychology and social communication. The study approaches how the term “mental illness” is used in academic communication within a dataset compared with other two online databases: one of newspaper articles and another of film abstracts. More than 5000 abstracts extracted from those databases have been analyzed using computational techniques with R programming: network relations, longitudinal analysis, correlations calculus and sentiment analysis. We have been able to describe the social imaginaries present in communication about mental illness in those datasets. Our findings revealed a significant gap between the scientific standards and common view on mental health, somehow related with the stigma linked to mental illness. Two social imaginaries of mental illness have been identified mining those three datasets: the academical and the popular social imaginary of mental illness. Only by understanding how complexity is simplified in social communication we would be able to manage better, not just the suffering of living with a mental illness, but also the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Childhood is a stage of discovery and exploration in which learning develops naturally. In this sense, games are essential because through these activities children get to know their environment, develop their skills and learn to interact. At the same time, toys allow them to face reality when they are tools that facilitate conflict resolution. For this research, a qualitative methodology was used, with an exploratory and descriptive scope. Additionally, a previous research was carried out to establish the design parameters of two electronic devices and their didactic strategies. Such devices are characterized as toys that can be used as elements to help stimulate logical thinking and facilitate the development of various abilities, such as attention, abstraction, memory, representation, symbolization and problem solving in children between five and seven years of age., La etapa de la niñez constituye una época para el descubrimiento y la exploración en la que se desarrolla el aprendizaje de una forma natural, en este sentido los juegos son esenciales porque a través de estas actividades los niños conocen su entorno, desarrollan sus habilidades y aprenden a relacionarse, mientras que los juguetes les permiten enfrentarse a la realidad cuando son herramientas que facilitan la resolución de conflictos. Para el proyecto se empleó una metodología cualitativa, con alcance exploratorio y descriptivo, junto a una investigación previa que permitió establecer los parámetros de diseño de dos dispositivos electrónicos junto con sus estrategias didácticas, que tienen las características de ser juguetes que pueden ser utilizados como elementos para ayudar en la estimulación del pensamiento lógico en niños de entre cinco y siete años, los cuales facilitan el desarrollo de diversas habilidades, como la atención, la abstracción, la memoria, la representación, la simbolización y la resolución de problemas.

The aims were to determine if the contact with estrous females stimulates testosterone and cortisol secretion in Iberian ibex bucks during or out of the breeding season and if their social rank affects this response. Nine Iberian ibex bucks (Capra pyrenaica), were challenged with estrous does during two periods: winter-spring and autumn (three tests at each season, separated 10 days). Individual success index (SI) was calculated in both season. Bucks were exposed to an estrous doe, their sexual and agonistic behavior was recorded, testosterone and cortisol concentrations were measured. There were no sexual interactions toward the estrous doe in any test. Testosterone concentration was unrelated to the SI in any season and was not modified with the tests. Cortisol concentration was greater in the first than in the second and third tests in both seasons (winter-spring: 99.7 ± 15.7 ng/mL, 65.9 ± 9.4 ng/mL and 62.3 ± 10.1 ng/mL P < 0.0001; autumn: 110.1 ± 15.8 ng/mL, 79.2 ± 13.4 ng/mL, and 87.6 ± 13.5 ng/mL; P < 0.01). Iberian ibex bucks allocated in captivity did not display sexual behaviors nor modify the testosterone secretion, which was not modified by social hierarchy, after estrous doe exposition, during or out of the pre-rutting period.

The article proposes: to assess the influence of urban tribes on the social behavior and health of young Cubans who belong to them. An articulation is presented based on the criteria of authors, both from the social sciences and the medical sciences, with the search for the interrelation between the categories identity(ies) and youth(s), main urban tribes that exist in Cuba, their social behavior and the possible implications for the health of their members. The role of nurses and doctors in the prevention, detection, and accompaniment of young people is signified. During the youth stage, life projects play a leading role, however, the search and achievement of these goals does proceed in a linear or harmonious way. The health care professional must carry out a personalized work in the prevention of addictions, with vulnerable or high-risk groups., El artículo se propone: valorar la influencia de las tribus urbanas en el comportamiento social y la salud de los jóvenes cubanos que pertenencen a ellas. Se presenta una articulación basada en criterios de autores, tanto de las Ciencias Sociales como de las Ciencias Médicas, con la búsqueda de la interrelación entre las categorías identidad (es) y juventud(es), principales tribus urbanas que existen en Cuba, su comportamiento social y las posibles implicaciones para la salud de sus miembros. Se significa el rol de enfermeros/as y médicos(as) en la prevención, detección, y acompañamiento de los (las) jóvenes. Durante la etapa juvenil, los proyectos de vida juegan un rol protagónico, no obstante, la búsqueda y alcance de esas metas no transcurre de manera lineal ni armónica. El (la) profesional de la salud debe realizar una labor personalizada en la prevención de las adicciones, con grupos vulnerables o de alto riesgo.

This book takes the reader on an exciting journey presenting the development of resource theory of social exchange originated from Uriel G. Foa and Edna B. Foa. This groundbreaking theory has inspired and generated a tremendous amount of basic and applied research in various disciplines of psychology, sociology, management, economics, marketing, and political science. This book, edited by Kjell Törnblom and Ali Kazemi, two prominent and leading scholars in this field, complements and deepens the Foas' pioneering work from 1974. Within these covers the reader will find an abbreviated version of the Foas' out-of-print original, which is increasingly referred to by current researchers, alongside new chapters on current issues, developments, and applications written by eleven scholars. The book has a simple and clear-cut message: resource theory is not an exercise in academic hair-splitting but has far-reaching societal implications in that it can provide interesting solutions to a wide range of social issues., Publikationen är elektroniskt tillgänglig för Högskolan Västs anställda och studenter.The publication is electronically available to Högskolan Väst's employees and students.

BACKGROUND: Nearly one-in-two Vietnamese men smoke cigarettes placing them among the highest tobacco consumers in the world. Despite the need for smoking cessation to curb the burden of tobacco-related diseases in Vietnam, this rate remains at less than 30%. Therefore, this study examines individual-, social- and policy factors associated with smoking cessation among adult male smokers in Vietnam. METHODS: We established a longitudinal International Tobacco Control study of male smokers in Hanoi, Vietnam, in September 2018. This paper analyses 1525 men who participated in baseline and one-year follow-up. We applied a weighted multivariable logistic regression to examine the association between smoking cessation and individual-, social- and policy predictors. RESULTS: At follow-up, 14.8% of participants had quit smoking for at least 30 consecutive days during the last year. Among the persistent smokers, 56.6% expressed intention to quit smoking. Factors associated with smoking cessation included a lower number of cigarettes smoked per day (aOR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.94, 0.99) and having several attempts to quit smoking (aOR = 2.16, 95% CI 1.13, 4.12). Intention to quit smoking was associated with multiple quit attempts, a chronic condition diagnosis, more tobacco-related knowledge, greater self-efficacy, and more worries about their future health. The perceived impact of smoke-free policy and health warning labels were positively associated with intention to quit at any stage. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions aimed at increasing smoking cessation should focus on all aspects of individual, social, and policy factors. Persistent smokers are more motivated to quit if they have made multiple quit attempts, more self-efficacy of quitting and worried about their future health, indicating that increasing smokers' beliefs and knowledge may be important for behavioural change. Health warning labels and tobacco taxation policies should be maintained and promoted as they are perceived to

Deficient social interactions are a hallmark of major neuropsychiatric disorders, and accumulating evidence points to altered social reward and motivation as key underlying mechanisms of these pathologies. In the present study, we further explored the role of the balance of activity between D1 and D2 receptor-expressing striatal projection neurons (D1R- and D2R-SPNs) in the control of social behavior, challenging the hypothesis that excessive D2R-SPN activity, rather than deficient D1R-SPN activity, compromises social behavior., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The health crisis caused by Covid-19 has consequences that go beyond the strictly biomedical, having a differential impact on the labor market, economic and subjective well-being of the population, causing high vulnerability and prolonged uncertainty. The pandemic has produced events that escape the biomedical, impacting differentially on people’s economic and subjective well-being. By means of contingency tables and Classification Trees, we analyze the perception, uncertainty and feelings that young people between 14 and 24 years old have about the pandemic and its effects, reported in the Covid-19 Youth survey. Of special interest are those who fear losing the school year due to the health crisis. The results highlight that young people recognize the seriousness of Covid-19, although they perceive that adults exaggerate the crisis and that young people are not infected; in addition, they report high levels of uncertainty due to the death of a family member or friend, family economic problems, and fear of losing the school year. Educational uncertainty is predominant among younger youth and is linked to high levels of worry, anxiety and fear, together with the manifestation of compulsive drinking and insomnia. The conclusions highlight the impacts that the pandemic has had on the subjective wellbeing of the young population; socioemotional deterioration related to the fear of death of close ones, family economic problems, and losing the school year. This problem raises the need for a multidimensional and extended approach beyond the end of the pandemic., La crisis sanitaria por la Covid-19 tiene secuelas que van más allá de los aspectos estrictamente biomédicos impactando diferencialmente sobre el mercado del trabajo, bienestar económico y subjetivo de la población, provocando una alta vulnerabilidad y una prolongada incertidumbre. Con datos de la Encuesta Jóvenes Covid-19 y mediante tablas de contingencia y árboles de clasificación, el objetivo de este artículo es analizar la percepción, incertidumbre y sentimientos que jóvenes entre 14 y 24 años tienen sobre la pandemia y sus efectos, con especial énfasis en quienes temen perder el año escolar por la crisis sanitaria. Los resultados destacan que los y las jóvenes reconocen la gravedad de la Covid-19, aunque perciben que los adultos exageran la crisis y que los jóvenes no se contagian; además, reportan altos niveles de incertidumbre por la muerte de algún familiar o amigo/a, problemas económicos familiares y temor a perder el año escolar. Incertidumbre educativa predominante en jóvenes de menor edad con altos niveles de preocupación, angustia y miedo, junto con la manifestación de ingesta compulsiva e insomnio. Las conclusiones remarcan los impactos que la pandemia ha tenido sobre el bienestar subjetivo de la población joven, deterioro socioemocional cimentado sobre un extendido miedo a la muerte de cercanos/ as, los problemas económicos familiares y perder el año escolar; problemática que plantea la necesidad de un abordaje multidimensional y extendido más allá del término de la pandemia.

Human beings face stressful situations on a daily basis and must respond effectively to survive and adapt to the environment. However, the high intensity and persistence of the stressor, as happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, could have a negative effect on people’s neurology, cognition and behavior. Structures such as the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex are affected by acute and persistent stress, being the explanatory basis for the maladaptive attitudes and behaviors that occur in emergency situations. Processes such as the latency between stress and decision-making, cognitive reappraisal, and imitation, all dependent on the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, explain the rapid spread of fake news, denialism, and compulsive purchases during COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the analysis of the information, some approach guidelines can be established, based on neurocognitive knowledge, with which to face emergency situations: 1) Monitor the level of population stress; 2) Manage the information transmitted (intensity / frequency); 3) Avoid informational contradictions (uncertainty); 4) Promote imitation models; 5) Establish support systems for vulnerable groups; 6) Facilitate controlled leisure., Los seres humanos se enfrentan a diario a situaciones estresantes ante las que deben responder con eficacia para sobrevivir y adaptarse al entorno. Sin embargo, la elevada intensidad y persistencia del estresor, como sucedió durante la pandemia del COVID-19, podría tener un efecto negativo sobre la neurología, cognición y conducta de las personas. Estructuras como la amígdala y la corteza prefrontal se ven afectadas por el estrés agudo y persistente, siendo la base explicativa de las actitudes y conductas desadaptativas que ocurren en situaciones de emergencia. Procesos como la latencia entre el estrés y la toma de decisiones, la reevaluación cognitiva, y la imitación, todos dependientes de la corteza prefrontal y la amígdala, permiten explicar la rápida difusión de las fake news, el negacionismo, y las compras compulsivas durante la pandemia del COVID-19. A partir del análisis realizado de la información, se pueden establecer unas pautas de abordaje, basadas en los conocimientos neurocognitivos, con las que afrontar situaciones de emergencia: 1) Monitorear el nivel de estrés poblacional; 2) Gestionar la información trasmitida (intensidad/frecuencia); 3) Evitar contradicciones informativas (incertidumbre); 4) Promover modelos de imitación; 5) Establecer sistemas de ayuda a grupos vulnerables; 6) Facilitar el ocio controlado.

In this review, we synthesize evidence to highlight cognitive appraisal as an important developmental antecedent of individual differences in emotion differentiation and adept emotion regulation. Emotion differentiation is the degree to which emotions are experienced in a nuanced or "granular" way-as specific and separable phenomena. More extensive differentiation is related to positive wellbeing and has emerged as a correlate of emotion regulation skill among adults. We argue that the cognitive appraisal processes that underlie these facets of emotional development are instantiated early in the first year of life and tuned by environmental input and experience. Powerful socializing input in the form of caregivers' contingent and selective responding to infants' emotional signals carves and calibrates the infant's appraisal thresholds for what in their world ought to be noticed, deemed as important or personally meaningful, and responded to (whether and how). These appraisal thresholds are thus unique to the individual child despite the ubiquity of the appraisal process in emotional responding. This appraisal infrastructure, while plastic and continually informed by experience across the lifespan, likely tunes subsequent emotion differentiation, with implications for children's emotion regulatory choices and skills. We end with recommendations for future research in this area, including the urgent need for developmental emotion science to investigate the diverse sociocultural contexts in which children's cognitive appraisals, differentiation of emotions, and regulatory responses are being built across childhood.

Relations among White (non-Latinx) children's empathy-related responding, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes toward White and Black peers were examined. In 2017, 190 (54% boys) White 5- to 9-year-old children (M = 7.09 years, SD = 0.94) watched a series of videos that depicted social rejection of either a White or Black child. Empathy-related responses, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes were measured using multiple methods. Results showed that younger children showed less facial concern toward Black than White peers and greater increases with age in concern and prosocial behaviors (sharing a desirable prize) for Black, compared to White, targets. Children's facial anger increased with age for White but not Black targets. The findings can extend our understanding children's anti-racism development.

In mammals, sleep duration is highest in the early postnatal period of life and is critical for shaping neural circuits that control the development of complex behaviors. The prairie vole is a wild, highly social rodent that serves as a unique model for the study of complex, species-typical social behaviors. Previous work in our laboratory has found that early life sleep disruption (ELSD) in prairie voles during a sensitive window of postnatal development leads to long lasting changes in social and cognitive behaviors as well as structural changes in excitatory and inhibitory neural circuits in the brain. However, it is currently unknown how later sleep is impacted by ELSD, both shortly after ELSD and over the long term. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the effects of ELSD on later life sleep, compared to sleep in normally developing prairie voles. First, we conducted tethered electroencephalogram/electromyogram (EEG/EMG) recordings in juvenile prairie voles undergoing ELSD, compared to Control conditions. Second, we conducted 24 h of home cage tethered EEG/EMG recordings in either adolescent or adult male and female prairie voles that had previously undergone ELSD or Control conditions as juveniles. We found that, as adults, male ELSD prairie voles showed persistently lower REM sleep duration and female ELSD prairie voles showed persistently higher NREM sleep duration compared to Controls, but no other sleep parameters differed. We concluded that 1) persistent effects of ELSD on sleep into adulthood may contribute to the social and cognitive deficits observed in adult voles, and 2) sleep disruption early in life can influence later sleep patterns in adulthood.

Collective behaviours, such as flocking in birds or decision making by bee colonies, are some of the most intriguing behavioural phenomena in the animal kingdom. The study of collective behaviour focuses on the interactions between individuals within groups, which typically occur over close ranges and short timescales, and how these interactions drive larger scale properties such as group size, information transfer within groups and group-level decision making. To date, however, most studies have focused on snapshots, typically studying collective behaviour over short timescales up to minutes or hours. However, being a biological trait, much longer timescales are important in animal collective behaviour, particularly how individuals change over their lifetime (the domain of developmental biology) and how individuals change from one generation to the next (the domain of evolutionary biology). Here, we give an overview of collective behaviour across timescales from the short to the long, illustrating how a full understanding of this behaviour in animals requires much more research attention on its developmental and evolutionary biology. Our review forms the prologue of this special issue, which addresses and pushes forward understanding the development and evolution of collective behaviour, encouraging a new direction for collective behaviour research. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Collective behaviour through time'.

Our understanding of the key players in evolution and of the development of all organisms in all domains of life has been aided by current knowledge about RNA stem-loop groups, their proposed interaction motifs in an early RNA world and their regulative roles in all steps and substeps of nearly all cellular processes, such as replication, transcription, translation, repair, immunity and epigenetic marking. Cooperative evolution was enabled by promiscuous interactions between single-stranded regions in the loops of naturally forming stem-loop structures in RNAs. It was also shown that cooperative RNA stem-loops outcompete selfish ones and provide foundational self-constructive groups (ribosome, editosome, spliceosome, etc.). Self-empowerment from abiotic matter to biological behavior does not just occur at the beginning of biological evolution; it is also essential for all levels of socially interacting RNAs, cells and viruses.

Over the past 3 decades, the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased globally from 20 to 28 million cases making ASD the fastest-growing developmental disability in the world. Neurexins are a family of presynaptic cell adhesion molecules that have been increasingly implicated in ASD, as evidenced by genetic mutations in the clinical population. Neurexins function as context-dependent specifiers of synapse properties and critical modulators in maintaining the balance between excitatory and inhibitory transmission (E/I balance). Disrupted E/I balance has long been established as a hallmark of ASD making neurexins excellent starting points for understanding the etiology of ASD. Herein we review neurexin mutations that have been discovered in ASD patients. Further, we discuss distinct synaptic mechanisms underlying the aberrant neurotransmission and behavioral deficits observed in different neurexin mouse models, with focus on recent discoveries from the previously overlooked neurexin-2 gene (Nrxn2 in mice and NRXN2 in humans). Hence, the aim of this review is to provide a summary of new synaptic insights into the molecular underpinnings of ASD.

ObjectivesThis study examines the relationship between social engagement and loneliness in female and male autistic children and adolescents in school-based social settings. Secondary aims sought to explore the emergence of loneliness across different age groups and differences in social engagement and loneliness between genders.MethodsThis study conducted an analysis of previously collected data from two multi-site randomized control trials. This study included 58 autistic students (29 females, 29 males) between the ages 6 through 18 years. Female and male participants were matched on age and intelligence quotient. Concurrent mixed methods were used to examine participants' social engagement and loneliness.ResultsFindings revealed a significant relationship between joint engagement and loneliness, such that autistic students reported more loneliness when they were mutually engaged with social groups than when they were isolated or alone. Positive correlations between joint engage and loneliness were identified in elementary-age girls and secondary-age boys, suggesting that being mutually engaged with peers leads to increased loneliness. Negative correlations between parallel and loneliness identified in secondary-age boys suggested that boys in close proximity to peers felt less lonely than boys who were mutually engaged with peers. Qualitative analysis of social behaviors indicated that elementary girls and secondary boys were more likely to be mutually engaged or in close proximity to activities, but they had difficulty sustaining this engagement throughout the entire social period. Secondary girls and elementary boys, on the other hand, were more likely to be solitary and less likely to engage with peer groups.ConclusionStudy findings highlight the relationship between social engagement and loneliness in school-based autistic populations, and that more engagement itself can lead to more loneliness for younger girls and older boys. The influence of age and gender

The success of personal non-pharmaceutical interventions as a public health strategy requires a high level of compliance from individuals in private social settings. Strategies to increase compliance in these hard-to-reach settings depend upon a comprehensive understanding of the patterns and predictors of protective social behavior. Social cognitive models of protective behavior emphasize the contribution of individual-level factors while social-ecological models emphasize the contribution of environmental factors. This study draws on 28 waves of survey data from the Understanding Coronavirus in America survey to measure patterns of adherence to two protective social behaviors-private social-distancing behavior and private masking behavior-during the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess the role individual and environmental factors play in predicting adherence. Results show that patterns of adherence fall into three categories marked by high, moderate, and low levels of adherence, with just under half of respondents exhibiting a high level of adherence. Health beliefs emerge as the single strongest predictor of adherence. All other environmental and individual-level predictors have relatively poor predictive power or primarily indirect effects.

Addiction to social networks increases the chances of partner infidelity. This research aimed to determine the relationship between unfaithful behavior and addiction to social networks in adults from the commercial areas of Tarapoto, Lamas, San José de Sisa, Moyobamba, and Naranjos, in the Peruvian Amazon region, during the first four-month period of 2021. Thus, a study with a non-experimental design and correlational research type was developed in a sample of 318 individuals between 20 and 40 years old. The Multidimensional Infidelity Inventory and the Social Networks Addiction Questionnaire were applied. 62.3% of the participants were male, 57.5% were between 30 and 59 years old, 66.7% lived with their partners without marriage, and 51.6% were in the second stage of the couple relationship. There were significant differences between men and women regarding unfaithful behavior (U=6387,500; p<0.000). In this context, a predominance of the medium level of addiction to social networks in the participants and the low level in the dimensions of infidelity behavior were observed, establishing a statistically significant correlation between both variables., La adicción a las redes sociales potencia las probabilidades de infidelidad de pareja. Esta investigación tuvo el objetivo de determinar la relación entre conducta infiel y adicción a redes sociales en adultos de las áreas comerciales de Tarapoto, Lamas, San José de Sisa, Moyobamba y Naranjos, región de la Amazonía Peruana, durante el primer cuatrimestre de 2021. Así, se desarrolló un estudio con diseño no experimental y tipo de investigación correlacional, en una muestra de 318 individuos con edades entre 20 y 40 años, a los que se aplicó el Inventario Multidimensional de Infidelidad y el Cuestionario de Adicción a Redes Sociales. El 62,3% de los participantes perteneció al sexo masculino, el 57,5% tenía edades entre 30 y 59 años, el 66,7% convivía con sus parejas sin estar casados y el 51,6% se encontraban en la segunda etapa de la relación de pareja. Existieron diferencias significativas entre hombres y mujeres en cuanto a la conducta infiel (U=6387,500; p<0,000). En este contexto, se observó un predominio del nivel medio de la adición a las redes sociales en los participantes y del bajo en las dimensiones de la conducta de infidelidad, estableciéndose correlación estadísticamente significativa entre ambas variables.

The article proposes: to assess the influence of urban tribes on the social behavior and health of young Cubans who belong to them. An articulation is presented based on the criteria of authors, both from the social sciences and the medical sciences, with the search for the interrelation between the categories identity(ies) and youth(s), main urban tribes that exist in Cuba, their social behavior and the possible implications for the health of their members. The role of nurses and doctors in the prevention, detection, and accompaniment of young people is signified. During the youth stage, life projects play a leading role, however, the search and achievement of these goals does proceed in a linear or harmonious way. The health care professional must carry out a personalized work in the prevention of addictions, with vulnerable or high-risk groups., El artículo se propone: valorar la influencia de las tribus urbanas en el comportamiento social y la salud de los jóvenes cubanos que pertenencen a ellas. Se presenta una articulación basada en criterios de autores, tanto de las Ciencias Sociales como de las Ciencias Médicas, con la búsqueda de la interrelación entre las categorías identidad (es) y juventud(es), principales tribus urbanas que existen en Cuba, su comportamiento social y las posibles implicaciones para la salud de sus miembros. Se significa el rol de enfermeros/as y médicos(as) en la prevención, detección, y acompañamiento de los (las) jóvenes. Durante la etapa juvenil, los proyectos de vida juegan un rol protagónico, no obstante, la búsqueda y alcance de esas metas no transcurre de manera lineal ni armónica. El (la) profesional de la salud debe realizar una labor personalizada en la prevención de las adicciones, con grupos vulnerables o de alto riesgo.

An increasingly popular animal model for studying the neural basis of social behavior, cognition, and communication is the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). Interest in this New World primate across neuroscience is now being driven by their proclivity for prosociality across their repertoire, high volubility, and rapid development, as well as their amenability to naturalistic testing paradigms and freely moving neural recording and imaging technologies. The complement of these characteristics set marmosets up to be a powerful model of the primate social brain in the years to come. Here, we focus on vocal communication because it is the area that has both made the most progress and illustrates the prodigious potential of this species. We review the current state of the field with a focus on the various brain areas and networks involved in vocal perception and production, comparing the findings from marmosets to other animals, including humans.

Mammalian infants depend on parental care for survival, with numerous consequences for their behavioral development. We investigated the epigenetic and neurodevelopmental mechanisms mediating the impact of early biparental care on development of alloparenting behavior, or caring for offspring that are not ones own. We find that receiving high parental care early in life leads to slower epigenetic aging of both sexes and widespread male-specific differential expression of genes related to synaptic transmission and autism in the nucleus accumbens. Examination of parental care composition indicates that high-care fathers promote a male-specific increase in excitatory synapses and increases in pup retrieval behavior as juveniles. Interestingly, females raised by high-care fathers have the opposite behavioral response and display fewer pup retrievals. These results support the concept that neurodevelopmental trajectories are programmed by different features of early-life parental care and reveal that male neurodevelopmental processes are uniquely sensitive to care by fathers.

The purpose of this research study was to research and present data on social interaction in VR, specifically in the game VRChat. The aim of the study was to get a better understanding of social interaction in VRChat and contribute additional knowledge on the subject. The research primarily focused on VRChat users’ own experiences, thoughts, and perspectives on social interaction in VRChat. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews and an ethnographic field study that was conducted in VRChat among VRChat users. The research also present and discuss findings from different aspects of social interaction in VRChat. The results of the research consist of themes and common patterns from VRChat users’ own experiences, thoughts, and perspectives on social interaction in VRChat, as well as observations from within the game.

Domestication is a well-known example of the relaxation of environmentally based cognitive selection that leads to reductions in brain size. However, little is known about how brain size evolves after domestication and whether subsequent directional/artificial selection can compensate for domestication effects. The first animal to be domesticated was the dog, and recent directional breeding generated the extensive phenotypic variation among breeds we observe today. Here we use a novel endocranial dataset based on high-resolution CT scans to estimate brain size in 159 dog breeds and analyze how relative brain size varies across breeds in relation to functional selection, longevity, and litter size. In our analyses, we controlled for potential confounding factors such as common descent, gene flow, body size, and skull shape. We found that dogs have consistently smaller relative brain size than wolves supporting the domestication effect, but breeds that are more distantly related to wolves have relatively larger brains than breeds that are more closely related to wolves. Neither functional category, skull shape, longevity, nor litter size was associated with relative brain size, which implies that selection for performing specific tasks, morphology, and life history does not necessarily influence brain size evolution in domesticated species.

Introduction The aim of the Common factors, Responsiveness and Outcome in Psychotherapy (CROP) study is to identify client and psychologist characteristics and therapeutic processes associated with the outcome of psychotherapy delivered by psychologists employed in the Danish primary sector or fully self-employed. The study addresses two main questions. First, how are specific characteristics of clients and psychologists related to the outcome of therapy and do these characteristics moderate the outcome of different psychotherapeutic approaches? Second, to what extent do therapists adapt their approach to client characteristics and preferences and how does such responsiveness impact the process and outcome of therapy? Methods and analysis The study is a naturalistic prospective cohort study carried out in collaboration with psychologists in private practice in Denmark. Self-reported data are collected from the participating psychologists and their participating clients before, during (weekly and postsession) and after psychotherapy (at end of treatment and 3 months follow-up). The estimated target sample size is 573 clients. The data are analysed using multilevel modelling and structural equation modelling approaches to capture predictors and moderators of the effect and rate of change in psychotherapy as well as session-to-session changes during the therapy process. Ethics and dissemination The study has been approved by the IRB at the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen (IRB number: IP-IRB/01082018) and the Danish Data Protection Agency. All study data are fully anonymised and all clients have given informed consent to participation in the study. The study findings will be presented in articles in international, peer-reviewed journals as well as to psychotherapy practitioners and other professionals across Denmark. Trial registration number NCT05630560.

Purpose: This study aimed to illustrate upper secondary school pupils’ experience using a self-administered web-based health-promoting tool, the Swedish Physical Power, Mental Harmony, and Social Capacity (FMS) student profile. Method: Five upper secondary schools in Sweden were included. Focus group interviews with pupils (10 girls, 5 boys, 15–19 years) were conducted, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Result: Two themes were generated from six categories: a sense of participation and self-control of health: everyday well-being, objective formulation, disappointment, health awareness, limitations, and health-promoting change. The participants experienced that using the FMS made them aware of factors that influence their health. They also reported that being given feedback visually from the FMS, peers, and staff involved in the school was beneficial in increasing their motivation to maintain a health-promoting change regarding physical activity and lifestyle factors. Conclusion: The use of a self-administered web-based health-promoting tool is viewed as beneficial for raising awareness and motivation to implement strategies that help attain a healthier lifestyle in upper secondary school students regarding factors affecting perceived health.

The purpose of this research study was to research and present data on social interaction in VR, specifically in the game VRChat. The aim of the study was to get a better understanding of social interaction in VRChat and contribute additional knowledge on the subject. The research primarily focused on VRChat users’ own experiences, thoughts, and perspectives on social interaction in VRChat. Data were gathered from semi-structured interviews and an ethnographic field study that was conducted in VRChat among VRChat users. The research also present and discuss findings from different aspects of social interaction in VRChat. The results of the research consist of themes and common patterns from VRChat users’ own experiences, thoughts, and perspectives on social interaction in VRChat, as well as observations from within the game.

For social animals, group social structure has important consequences for disease and information spread. While prior studies showed individual connectedness within a group has fitness consequences, less is known about the fitness consequences of group social structure for the individuals who comprise the group. Using a long-term dataset on a wild population of facultatively social yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer), we showed social structure had largely no relationship with survival, suggesting consequences of individual social phenotypes may not scale to the group social phenotype. An observed relationship for winter survival suggests a potentially contrasting direction of selection between the group and previous research on the individual level; less social individuals, but individuals in more social groups experience greater winter survival. This work provides valuable insights into evolutionary implications across social phenotypic scales.

Based on the Ecological Stress-Based Model of Immigrant Worker Safety and Health, we hypothesized that occupational stress and physical safety would be negatively linked to workers' depression, which in turn, would increase family conflict and decrease youth prosocial behaviors. A total of 242 Latino immigrant cattle feedyard workers from Nebraska and Kansas (90.9% male; M age = 37.7 years) answered questions assessing depression, occupational stress, whether they had ever been injured at work, familial conflict, and youth prosocial behaviors. All four indirect relations among occupational stress and injury and the outcomes (family conflict and youth prosocial behaviors) via depressive symptomatology were significant. Additionally, ever injured was negatively related to youth prosocial behaviors and occupational stress was positively related to youth prosocial behaviors. The findings support our model and suggest that increased stress and work-related injuries on cattle feedyards are linked to mental health problems, which in turn, is linked to more conflict experienced at home and less youth prosocial behaviors. Feedyard employers should focus on improving safety culture including providing robust training in the workplace. Practical implications to improve availability and access to mental and behavioral health resources to mitigate negative family outcomes are provided.

Many consider moral decisions to follow an internal "moral compass", resistant to social pressures. Here we examine how social influence shapes moral decisions under risk, and how it operates in different decision contexts. We employed an adapted Asian Disease Paradigm where participants chose between certain losses/gains and probabilistic losses/gains in a series of moral (lives) or financial (money) decisions. We assessed participants' own risk preferences before and after exposing them to social norms that are generally risk-averse or risk-seeking. Our results showed that participants robustly shifted their own choices towards the observed risk preferences. This conformity holds even after a re-testing in three days. Interestingly, in the monetary domain, risk-averse norms have more influence on choices in the loss frame, whereas risk-seeking norms have more influence in the gain frame, presumably because norms that contradict default behavior are most informative. In the moral domain, risk-averse as opposed to risk-seeking norms are more effective in the loss frame but in the gain frame different norms are equally effective. Taken together, our results demonstrate conformity in risk preferences across contexts and highlight unique features of decisions and conformity in moral and monetary domains.

The scientific study of animal behaviour is called ethology, and it often focuses on behaviour in its natural environment andsees behaviour as an adaptive quality that has evolved over time. The term "behaviourism" also refers to the scientific andobjective study of animal behaviour, typically focusing on trained behavioural responses in a lab setting or measurableresponses to stimuli without a focus on evolutionary adaptability. Numerous naturalists have investigated various facets ofanimal behaviour throughout history. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and American and German ornithologists from the late19th and early 20th centuries, such as Wallace Craig, Charles O. Whitman, and Oskar Heinroth (1871–1955), laid thefoundations for ethology. The work of three biologists who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine—Dutchbiologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988), Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch (1886–1982)—isgenerally regarded as having launched the current field of ethology in the 1930s.

Male songbirds sing to establish territories and to attract mates.1,2 However, increasing reports of singing in non-reproductive contexts3 and by females4,5 show that song use is more diverse than previously considered. Therefore, alternative functions of song, such as social cohesion3 and synchronization of breeding, by and large, were overlooked even in such well-studied species such as the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata). In these social songbirds, only the males sing, and pairs breed synchronously in loose colonies,6,7 following aseasonal rain events in their arid habitat.8,9 As males are not territorial, and pairs form long-term monogamous bonds early in life, conventional theory predicts that zebra finches should not sing much at all; however, they do and their song is the focus of hundreds of lab-based studies.10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 We hypothesize that zebra finch song functions to maintain social cohesion and to synchronize breeding. Here, we test this idea using data from 5 years of field studies, including observational transects, focal and year-round audio recordings, and a large-scale playback experiment. We show that zebra finches frequently sing while in groups, that breeding status influences song output at the nest and at aggregations, that they sing year round, and that they predominantly sing when with their partner, suggesting that the song remains important after pair formation. Our playback reveals that song actively features in social aggregations as it attracts conspecifics. Together, these results demonstrate that birdsong has important functions beyond territoriality and mate choice, illustrating its importance in coordination and cohesion of social units within larger societies.

The scientific study of animal behaviour is called ethology, and it often focuses on behaviour in its natural environment andsees behaviour as an adaptive quality that has evolved over time. The term "behaviourism" also refers to the scientific andobjective study of animal behaviour, typically focusing on trained behavioural responses in a lab setting or measurableresponses to stimuli without a focus on evolutionary adaptability. Numerous naturalists have investigated various facets ofanimal behaviour throughout history. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and American and German ornithologists from the late19th and early 20th centuries, such as Wallace Craig, Charles O. Whitman, and Oskar Heinroth (1871–1955), laid thefoundations for ethology. The work of three biologists who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine—Dutchbiologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988), Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch (1886–1982)—isgenerally regarded as having launched the current field of ethology in the 1930s.

The scientific study of animal behaviour is called ethology, and it often focuses on behaviour in its natural environment andsees behaviour as an adaptive quality that has evolved over time. The term "behaviourism" also refers to the scientific andobjective study of animal behaviour, typically focusing on trained behavioural responses in a lab setting or measurableresponses to stimuli without a focus on evolutionary adaptability. Numerous naturalists have investigated various facets ofanimal behaviour throughout history. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and American and German ornithologists from the late19th and early 20th centuries, such as Wallace Craig, Charles O. Whitman, and Oskar Heinroth (1871–1955), laid thefoundations for ethology. The work of three biologists who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine—Dutchbiologist Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907–1988), Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch (1886–1982)—isgenerally regarded as having launched the current field of ethology in the 1930s.

This study looks into the role that eye contact plays in helping people to control themselves in social settings and to avoid breaking social norms. Based on previous research, it is likely that eye contact increases prosocial behavior via heightened self-awareness and increased interpersonal synchrony. In our study, we propose that eye contact can also support constructive social behavior by causing people to experience heightened embarrassment when they are breaking social norms. We tested this in a lab experiment (N = 60) in which participants read insults at the experimenter (i.e., they exhibited norm breaking behavior). In the experimental condition, participants maintained eye contact with the experimenter. In the control condition, the experimenter did not maintain eye contact. We measured embarrassment with a self-report measure, heart rate to capture arousal, and two observational indicators of embarrassment (hesitation and laughter). In line with our hypotheses, having eye contact during norm breaking behavior as compared to no eye contact led to a stronger increase in self-reported embarrassment, a higher heart rate as well as more hesitation and more laughter. We conclude that eye contact does indeed lead to more embarrassment, while breaking social norms. This implies that eye contact gives people the power to punish norm breaking in others by inducing an aversive emotional experience.

The objective of this doctoral thesis is to contribute to the current discussion of the origins of language in our species. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain this conundrum, many of them with antithetical views. The framework adopted in this thesis, and the fundamental basis of the investigation conducted therein, is the human self-domestication hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, specific characteristics of the human phenotype are a result, in part, of a process similar to that experienced by domesticated animals. The fact that many domesticated animals share common traits, known as the ‘domestication syndrome’ (DS) has led researchers to hypothesize that these cognitive, behavioral, and physical traits are the result of sexual selection of individuals with lower levels of aggression, in response to changes in a variety of environmental factors. One consequence of selfdomestication, according to this hypothesis, is the creation of a ‘cultural niche’, that is, a sociocultural environment that allows for the complexification of language via a cultural mechanism (Thomas and Kirby, 2018; Benítez-Burraco and Progovac, 2020). In this view, human language (particularly, languages used and spoken currently) can be seen as not only the product of biological factors, but also of advanced cultural aspects that characterise us as a species, which of course are also brought about by the same biological factors that shape language. This thesis is centered on the more variable aspects of human selfdomestication; since self-domestication is thought to be the result of physical changes related to control of aggression, it stands to reason that factors which favor prosocial behavior also heighten traits associated with self-domestication, and vice versa. Because more recently evolved traits are more vulnerable to ontogenetic damage, neurodevelopmental disorders prove to be key areas of study. A fundamental objective of the thesis is to determine the extent to wh, El objetivo de la presente tesis doctoral es contribuir a la actual discusión acerca del origen del lenguaje, acerca del cual se han formulado hipótesis muy diversas, en muchos casos contradictorias y a veces, antitéticas. El marco evolutivo en el que se encuadra es el de la autodomesticación humana, en esencia, la posibilidad de que el fenotipo humano sea, al menos en parte, el resultado de un proceso similar al experimentado por los animales domésticos, resultante de la selección de individuos con niveles de agresividad menores en respuesta a cambios en determinados factores ambientales. Una consecuencia de dicho proceso de autodomesticación habría sido la creación del ambiente (o “nicho”) sociocultural que permite el incremento de complejidad de las lenguas mediante un mecanismo cultural (Thomas y Kirby, 2018; Benítez-Burraco y Progovac, 2020). El lenguaje humano (y en particular, el tipo de lenguas habladas en la actualidad) sería así no solo el producto de los cambios biológicos que nos distinguen de otras especies de homininos, sino, asimismo, de las formas de cultura avanzadas que nos caracterizan y que son también el resultado, en cierta media, de dichos cambios biológicos. La tesis se centra en los aspectos de la autodomesticación que presentan una mayor variabilidad. Puesto que la autodomesticación es el resultado, en última instancia, de cambios fisiológicos relacionados con los mecanismos de control de la agresividad, cabe esperar que los factores que favorezcan un comportamiento prosocial incrementen los rasgos asociados a la autodomesticación, y viceversa. Dichos factores pueden ser endógenos (por ejemplo, la mutación de determinados genes, si afectan al desarrollo de nuestro cerebro social) o exógenos (por ejemplo, cualquier alteración del proceso normal de socialización del individuo). Como consecuencia, cabe esperar también que el grado de autodomesticación de nuestra especie haya ido variando (en buena medida, para incrementarse) con el tiempo (Ben

The avian homologue of oxytocin (OT), formerly called mesotocin, influences social behaviors in songbirds and potentially song production. We sought to characterize the distribution of OT peptide in the brain of two songbird species: canaries (Serinus canaria) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). To visualize OT, we performed immunocytochemistry using an antibody previously shown to identify OT in avian species. In both canaries and zebra finches, dense OT-ir perikarya were located in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), preoptic area (POA), supraoptic nucleus (SON), and medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTm). We also observed morphologically distinct OT-ir cells scattered throughout the mesopallium. OT-ir fibers were observed in the PVN, ventral medial hypothalamus (VMH), periaqueductal gray (PAG), intercollicular nucleus (ICo), and ventral tegmental area (VTA). We also observed punctate OT-ir fibers in the song control nucleus HVC. In both male and female canaries, OT-ir fibers were present in the lateral septum (LS), but innervation was greater in males. We did not observe this sex difference in zebra finches. Much of the OT staining observed is consistent with general distributions within the vertebrate hypothalamus, indicating a possible conserved function. However, some extra-hypothalamic distributions, such as perikarya in the mesopallium, may be specific to songbirds and play a role in song perception and production. The presence of OT-ir fibers in HVC and song control nuclei projecting dopaminergic regions provides anatomical evidence in support of the idea that OT can influence singing behavior—either directly via HVC or indirectly via the PAG, VTA, or POA.

The ability to behave in ways that benefit other individuals well-being is among the most celebrated human characteristics crucial for social cohesiveness. Across mammalian species, animals display various forms of prosocial behaviors - comforting, helping, and resource sharing - to support others emotions, goals, and/or material needs. In this review, we provide a cross-species view of the behavioral manifestations, proximate and ultimate drives, and neural mechanisms of prosocial behaviors. We summarize key findings from recent studies in humans and rodents that have shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying different processes essential for prosocial interactions, from perception and empathic sharing of others states to prosocial decisions and actions.

Social deficit is a major feature of neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but its neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we examined neuronal discharge characteristics in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) of IRSp53/Baiap2-mutant mice, which show social deficits, during social approach. We found a decrease in the proportion of IRSp53-mutant excitatory mPFC neurons encoding social information, but not that encoding non-social information. In addition, the firing activity of IRSp53-mutant neurons was less differential between social and non-social targets. IRSp53-mutant excitatory mPFC neurons displayed an increase in baseline neuronal firing, but decreases in the variability and dynamic range of firing as well as burst firing during social and non-social target approaches compared to wild-type controls. Treatment of memantine, an NMDA receptor antagonist that rescues social deficit in IRSp53-mutant mice, alleviates the reduced burst firing of IRSp53-mutant pyramidal mPFC neurons. These results suggest that suppressed neuronal activity dynamics and burst firing may underlie impaired cortical encoding of social information and social behaviors in IRSp53-mutant mice.

Introduction: Health is loaded with symbolisms and practical manifestations that differ according to social groups and sociocultural contexts. In order to make everyday life and needs visible, the Theoretical Paradigm of Social Representations provides the theoretical-methodological bases necessary to understand the common sense knowledge associated with health among the Nicaraguan migrant population in Costa Rica. Methodology: Qualitative study with ethnographic approach that aimed to identify the social representation of health, through the process of objectification, present among Nicaraguan migrants living in Costa Rica. Data collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and field diaries. Processing according to Content Analysis. Results: The social representation of health found behaves analogously to a formula; where, the search for peaceful environments is added to the achievement of financial stability to result in two interdependent representations: 1) Health as physical-mental strength; and 2) Health as a future and abstract sensation of well-being, happiness and transcendence. The socio-political antecedents in Nicaragua, the migratory process, and the adaptation to Costa Rica play a preponderant role in shaping the representation on health. Conclusion: Social representations about health have direct practical implications on the ways of life and needs of migrant groups. Understanding their common sense knowledge allows to move towards more contextualized public policies. More integration of the thoughts, opinions and feelings of migrants in decision-making platforms is recommended., Introducción: la salud está cargada de simbolismos y manifestaciones prácticas que difieren según los grupos sociales y los contextos socioculturales. Con el fin de visibilizar la cotidianidad y las necesidades, el paradigma teórico de las representaciones sociales aporta las bases teórico-metodológicas pertinentes para comprender los conocimientos de sentido común asociados a la salud entre la población migrante nicaragüense en Costa Rica. Metodología: estudio de abordaje cualitativo y enfoque etnográfico con el fin de identificar la representación social de la salud por medio de los procesos de la objetivación y el anclaje presentes entre las personas migrantes nicaragüenses radicadas en Costa Rica. Datos recolectados por medio de entrevistas semiestructuradas, observación participante y diarios de campo. Procesamiento según análisis de contenido. Resultados: la representación social de la salud hallada se comporta de manera análoga a una fórmula, en donde la búsqueda de ambientes pacíficos se suma a la consecución de estabilidad financiera para dar como resultado dos representaciones interdependientes: 1) salud como fuerza físico-mental y 2) salud como sensación futura y abstracta de bienestar, felicidad y trascendencia. Los antecedentes socio-políticos en Nicaragua, el proceso migratorio, y la adaptación a Costa Rica juegan un rol preponderante en dicha conformación. Conclusión: las representaciones sociales sobre la salud poseen implicaciones prácticas directas sobre los modos de vida y las necesidades de los colectivos migrantes. Comprender su conocimiento de sentido común permite avanzar hacia políticas públicas más contextualizadas. Se recomienda mayor integración de los pensamientos, las opiniones y los sentimientos de las personas migrantes en plataformas de toma de decisiones.

The present paper deepen in the theoretical understanding of the social imaginaries from an anthro-pological perspective, but keeping a dialog with the social sciences in general. It is argued that the imaginary it should not be separated of the empirical, is consubstantial. To clarify this, we move into a conceptual-comparative methodological framework, first, by establishing a brief comparison between anthropological studies of the symbolic and its relationship with the imaginary, to later establish some definitions from fundamental theoretical references, to build a small conceptual framework that accounts for the qualities that manifest the social imaginaries. Subsequently, a second section, we delves into these qualities through meta-empirical structures of social and individual, giving account of the di-mensions that should be considered necessary in the studies of the social imaginaries. This converge, in a last section, with the proposal of an anthropological-imaginary trajectory, whose purpose is to contri-bute to the theoretical understanding of the social imaginaries in anthropology and the social sciences., El presente artículo tiene por objetivo profundizar en la comprensión teórica de los imaginarios sociales desde una perspectiva antropológica, pero manteniendo un diálogo con las ciencias sociales en general. Se sostiene que lo imaginario no debe concebirse separado de lo empírico, es consustancial. Para dilucidar esto nos adentramos desde un marco metodológico comparativo-conceptual; primero, estableciendo una breve comparación entre los estudios antropológicos de lo simbólico y su relación con lo imaginario, para posteriormente establecer algunas definiciones desde referentes teóricos fundamentales a modo de construir un pequeño marco conceptual que dé cuenta de las cualidades que manifiestan los imaginarios sociales. Posteriormente, un segundo apartado profundiza en estas cualidades mediante las estructuras metaempíricas de lo socio-individual, dando cuenta de las dimensiones que deben considerarse necesarias en los estudios de los imaginarios sociales. Lo que converge, en un último apartado, con la propuesta de un trayecto imaginario-antropológico, cuya finalidad es contribuir a la comprensión teórica de los imaginarios sociales en antropología y ciencias sociales.

The objective of this study was to understand the perception that parents of adolescents with high intellectual abilities or giftedness (HIAs/G) have regarding family dynamics, educational practices used, indicators of emotional/behavioral problems, and prospects for their children. This is an exploratory and qualitative research, in which three mothers and two fathers participated. All of them individually answered a semi-structured interview consisting of 15 topics that dealt with family routine, educational practices and their concerns with their children. Deductive thematic analysis indicated that the parents identified their children’s high intellectual abilities but needed additional information to manage these traits. There was a poor family routine in some cases, as well as the coexistence of authoritative and authoritarian practices in the same family. It was possible to observe that the parents feared their children’s expression of aggressiveness and isolation, and how much this could lead to these young individuals committing illegal acts. Thus, it was found that the parents are attentive to their children but have doubts about how to educate them., Objetivou destetrabalho foi compreender a percepção de pais de adolescentes com altas habilidades ou superdotação (AH/SD) intelectiva sobre dinâmica familiar, práticas educativas utilizadas, indicadores de problemas emocionais/comportamentais e perspectivas de futuro emrelação aos filhos/as. Trata-se de uma pesquisa exploratória e qualitativa, da qual participaram três mães e dois pais. Todos responderam individualmente uma entrevista semiestruturada constituída por 15 tópicos que versavam sobre rotina familiar, práticas educativas e preocupações parentais com os filhos. A análise temática dedutiva indicou que os pais identificaram as altas habilidades dos filhos, porém necessitavam de informações adicionais para gerenciar tais características. Observou-se uma interação familiar carente em alguns casos e a coexistência de práticas autoritativas e autoritárias em uma mesma família. Constatou-se o receio com a expressão de agressividade e isolamento dos filhos/as e o quanto isso poderia propiciar o envolvimento em atos ilícitos. Assim, verificou-se que os pais estão atentos aos filhos, mas apresentam dúvidas sobre como educá-los., El objetivo de este trabajo fue comprender la percepción de los padres de adolescentes con alta capacidad intelectual/superdotación (AC/SD) sobre la dinámica familiar y las prácticas educativas utilizadas, los indicadores de problemas emocionales/conductualesy las perspectivas de futuro relacionadas con los hijos. Se trata de una investigación exploratoria y cualitativa, en la que participaron tres madres y dos padres. Todos respondieron individualmente a una entrevista semiestructurada con 15 temas que trataban sobre la rutina familiar, prácticas educativas y las preocupaciones sobre los hijos. El análisis temático deductivo indicó que los padres identificaron las altas habilidades de sus hijos, pero que necesitaban información adicional para manejar tales características. En algunos casos se observó escasa interacción familiar y la coexistencia de prácticas autoritativas y autoritarias en una misma familia. Se verificó el miedo con la expresión de agresión y aislamiento de los niños y cuánto esto podría promover la participación en actos ilegales. Se descubrió que estaban atentos a los adolescentes, pero les preocupaba cómo educarlos.

Dysfunctional sociability is a core symptom in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that may arise from neural-network dysconnectivity between multiple brain regions. However, pathogenic neural-network mechanisms underlying social dysfunction are largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that circuit-selective mutation (ctMUT) of ASD-risk Shank3 gene within a unidirectional projection from the prefrontal cortex to the basolateral amygdala alters spine morphology and excitatory-inhibitory balance of the circuit. Shank3 ctMUT mice show reduced sociability as well as elevated neural activity and its amplitude variability, which is consistent with the neuroimaging results from human ASD patients. Moreover, the circuit hyper-activity disrupts the temporal correlation of socially tuned neurons to the events of social interactions. Finally, optogenetic circuit activation in wild-type mice partially recapitulates the reduced sociability of Shank3 ctMUT mice, while circuit inhibition in Shank3 ctMUT mice partially rescues social behavior. Collectively, these results highlight a circuit-level pathogenic mechanism of Shank3 mutation that drives social dysfunction.

Despite the importance of understanding the relations between parenting and youth's prosocial behavior, there is surprisingly little research focused on the relations among parenting practices, shame, guilt, and prosocial behaviors. The present study was designed to examine the intervening roles of shame and guilt in relations between parental support and psychological control and public and altruistic prosocial behaviors in college students. The participants were 304 (62.5% female, 76.3% European American, Mage= 18.71, SD = 0.92) college students. We found partial support for our hypotheses. Specifically, we found that parental psychological control was positively linked to shame which, in turn, was positively linked to public prosocial behaviors. In contrast, parental support was positively linked to guilt which, in turn, was positively linked to altruistic prosocial behaviors and negatively linked to public prosocial behaviors. Further, psychological control was directly and positively linked to public prosocial behaviors and negatively linked to altruistic prosocial behaviors. Parental support was directly and positively linked to public prosocial behaviors. Discussion will focus on the implications of the findings for theories of moral socialization and prosocial development.

The current study sought to determine how prosocial behaviors reflecting various motivations (altruistic and public prosocial behaviors) and situations (i.e., anonymous, compliant, dire, and emotional prosocial behaviors) jointly inform subtypes of prosocial personality groups. Undergraduates (N = 324, M age = 19.47 years, 80% female) completed a measure of these six prosocial behaviors (Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised). Latent profile analysis results supported a three-group solution: altruistic helpers (AH), public helpers (PH), and altruistic idealists (AI). The AH and AI profiles were defined by elevated altruistic prosocial behaviors, but the AH profile was higher on situational helping and socioemotive and sociocognitive correlates. The PH profile was characterized by elevated public prosocial behaviors and moderate levels of situational helping. These identified profiles support multiple competing ideas of the true nature of prosocial personality, but also introduce the possibility that some individuals idealize motives but fail to engage in behavior.