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Adrenocortical attunement—similarity in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity—has been well-documented in close relationships (e.g., between romantic partners, parents and children, and close friends). However, little is known about adrenocortical attunement during early relationship formation. In the current study, we examine dyadic adrenocortical attunement during a guided conversation in which two new acquaintances (N = 140 people, 70 dyads), who were university students or adults in the community, answered questions about themselves. Dyads were randomly assigned to answer questions designed to elicit dyad members to reveal a high or low amount of personal information (i.e., to self-disclose at high or low levels). We collected saliva samples (assayed for cortisol) before and after the conversation, and we coded behavioral self-disclosure—the extent to which people revealed their thoughts, feelings, and facts about themselves—during the conversation. As expected, dyads who were assigned to ask and answer high self-disclosure questions disclosed more than those assigned to ask and answer low self-disclosure questions. In addition, greater self-disclosure during the conversation was associated with greater similarity in cortisol change—that is, dyad members who revealed more about themselves experienced more similar cortisol changes in response to their conversation. This work reveals one social process through which adrenocortical attunement occurs during early relationship formation, and, in doing so, describes how our physiological functioning is linked to those around us—even people we have just met.

Self-expansion theory suggests that people are motivated to broaden the self (Aron & Aron, 1986; Aron & Aron, 1996; Aron, Aron, & Norman, 2001). A primary way of expanding the self is through close relationships, where others become included in the self-concept. A large body of research on self-expansion theory has examined self-expansion in close relationships in the context of romantic dyads. We expand on this research to shed light on a growing line of work that explores self-expansion and intergroup contact. We begin with an overview of self-expansion theory, focusing on the motivational aspect and the cognitive aspect of inclusion of other in the self. We then discuss self-expansion and intergroup contact at the level of friendships and broaden this application to intergroup contact in romantic couples. Further, we discuss individual differences in motivation to self-expand via intergroup relations and examine research on intergroup relations, both as a means of individual self-expansion and as a mechanism for prejudice reduction and improved outgroup attitudes. We also review the literature on how inclusion of other in the self is linked with positive intergroup outcomes. Finally, we suggest next steps to broaden and deepen this important work and discuss implications and connections with work on self-construal.

Inclusion of other in the self, a key principle of the self-expansion model, suggests that close others overlap with the self in terms of resources, perspectives, and identities. Research from beha...

Although research has investigated the neuroendocrine correlates of romantic relationships, the neuroendocrine correlates of friendship formation are largely unexplored. In two conditions, participants’ salivary testosterone and cortisol were measured before and after a high versus low closeness activity with another same-sex participant. In the high closeness task, participants took turns answering questions that fostered increases in self-disclosure. The low closeness task fostered low levels of self-disclosure. Dyadic multilevel models indicated that lower basal testosterone and decreases in testosterone were associated with increased closeness between recently acquainted strangers. Our results suggest that people high in testosterone felt less close to others and desired less closeness. Further, lower basal cortisol and dynamic cortisol decreases were associated with greater closeness and desired closeness in the high closeness condition. Finally, we found that the partners of those who had lower cortisol desired more closeness. These findings suggest that lower testosterone and cortisol are linked to the facilitation of initial social bonds and that these social bonds may, in turn, be associated with changes in these hormones.

The present study examined how the interplay of partners' attachment styles influences cortisol response, actual closeness, and desired closeness during friendship initiation. Participants provided salivary cortisol samples at four timepoints throughout either a high or low closeness task that facilitated high or low levels of self-disclosure with a potential friend (i.e., another same-sex participant). Levels of actual closeness and desired closeness following the task were measured via inclusion of other in the self. Results from multi-level modeling indicated that the interaction of both participants' attachment avoidance predicted cortisol response patterns, with participants showing the highest cortisol response when there was a mismatch between their own and their partners' attachment avoidance. Further, the interaction between both participants' attachment anxiety predicted actual closeness and desired closeness, with participants both feeling and wanting the most closeness with partners when both they and their partners were low in attachment anxiety.

Depersonalization disorder (DPD) is characterized by a core sense of unfamiliarity. Nine DPD participants and 10 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing self and unfamiliar faces. Compared with control subjects, the DPD group exhibited significantly greater activation in several brain regions in response to self vs. stranger faces. Implications are discussed.

This study focused on a possible temperament-by-culture interaction. Specifically, it explored whether a basic temperament/personality trait (sensory processing sensitivity; SPS), perhaps having a genetic component, might moderate a previously established cultural difference in neural responses when making context-dependent vs context-independent judgments of simple visual stimuli. SPS has been hypothesized to underlie what has been called inhibitedness or reactivity in infants, introversion in adults, and reactivity or responsivness in diverse animal species. Some biologists view the trait as one of two innate strategies—observing carefully before acting vs being first to act. Thus the central characteristic of SPS is hypothesized to be a deep processing of information. Here, 10 European-Americans and 10 East Asians underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing simple visuospatial tasks emphasizing judgments that were either context independent (typically easier for Americans) or context dependent (typically easier for Asians). As reported elsewhere, each group exhibited greater activation for the culturally non-preferred task in frontal and parietal regions associated with greater effort in attention and working memory. However, further analyses, reported here for the first time, provided preliminary support for moderation by SPS. Consistent with the careful-processing theory, high-SPS individuals showed little cultural difference; low-SPS, strong culture differences.

State University of New York at StonyBrook, Stony Brook, MA, 11794, USAThe current study employed functional MRI to investigate the contribution of domain-general (e.g. executive functions) anddomain-specific (e.g. semantic knowledge) processes to differences in semantic judgments across cultures. Previous behavioralexperiments have identified cross-cultural differences in categorization, with East Asians preferring strategies involving thematicor functional relationships (e.g. cow-grass) and Americans preferring categorical relationships (e.g. cow-chicken). East Asians andAmerican participants underwent functional imaging while alternating between categorical or thematic strategies to sort triadsof words, as well as matching words on control trials. Many similarities were observed. However, across both category andrelationship trials compared to match (control) trials, East Asians activated a frontal-parietal network implicated in controlledexecutive processes, whereas Americans engaged regions of the temporal lobes and the cingulate, possibly in response toconflict in the semantic content of information. The results suggest that cultures differ in the strategies employed to resolveconflict between competing semantic judgments.Keywords: cognition; culture; executive function; fMRI; semantic

Depersonalization disorder is associated with emotional responding deficits. Ability to regulate emotion was measured by heart rate, skin conductance, and subjective responses to pictures. Compared to controls, depersonalized participants were better able to suppress, but not enhance, emotions irrespective of valence (heart rate). Emotion regulation in depersonalization merits further study. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Research has demonstrated that our experiences, including the culture in which we are raised, shape how we attend to and perceive the world. Behavioral studies have found that individuals raised in Western cultures tend toward analytic processing and prefer tasks emphasizing independent contexts rather than tasks emphasizing interdependent contexts. The opposite is true for individuals raised in East Asian cultures, who tend toward holistic processing and prefer tasks emphasizing interdependent contexts. Recently, cognitive neuroscientists have extended these behavioral findings to examine the brain activity of individuals from different cultures during the performance of cognitive tasks. Results from these initial studies indicate that culture may shape how the brain processes even very abstract stimuli and may influence the features of the environment to which individuals attend. The present chapter reviews evidence that culture influences attention and related systems, which, in turn, impact other cognitive and social processes and their neural correlates.

Research has demonstrated that our experiences, including the culture in which we are raised, shape how we attend to and perceive the world. Behavioral studies have found that individuals raised in Western cultures tend toward analytic processing and prefer tasks emphasizing independent contexts rather than tasks emphasizing interdependent contexts. The opposite is true for individuals raised in East Asian cultures, who tend toward holistic processing and prefer tasks emphasizing interdependent contexts. Recently, cognitive neuroscientists have extended these behavioral findings to examine the brain activity of individuals from different cultures during the performance of cognitive tasks. Results from these initial studies indicate that culture may shape how the brain processes even very abstract stimuli and may influence the features of the environment to which individuals attend. The present chapter reviews evidence that culture influences attention and related systems, which, in turn, impact other cognitive and social processes and their neural correlates.

Behavioral research has shown that people from Western cultural contexts perform better on tasks emphasizing independent (absolute) dimensions than on tasks emphasizing interdependent (relative) dimensions, whereas the reverse is true for people from East Asian contexts. We assessed functional magnetic resonance imaging responses during performance of simple visuospatial tasks in which participants made absolute judgments (ignoring visual context) or relative judgments (taking visual context into account). In each group, activation in frontal and parietal brain regions known to be associated with attentional control was greater during culturally non-preferred judgments than during culturally preferred judgments. Also, within each group, activation differences in these regions correlated strongly with scores on questionnaires measuring individual differences in culture-typical identity. Thus, the cultural background of an individual and the degree to which the individual endorses cultural values moderate activation in brain networks engaged during even simple visual and attentional tasks.

Visually guided grasping movements require a rapid transformation of visual representations into object-specific motor programs. Here we report that graspable objects may facilitate these visuomotor transformations by automatically grabbing visual spatial attention. Human subjects viewed two task-irrelevant objects--one was a 'tool', the other a 'non-tool'--while waiting for a target to be presented in one of the two object locations. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we found that spatial attention was systematically drawn to tools in the right and lower visual fields, the hemifields that are dominant for visuomotor processing. Using event-related fMRI, we confirmed that tools grabbed spatial attention only when they also activated dorsal regions of premotor and prefrontal cortices, regions associated with visually guided actions and their planning. Although it is widely accepted that visual sensory gain aids perception, our results suggest that it may also have consequences for object-directed actions.