Decreased salivary alpha-amylase reactivity for excluded young women after a speech task.

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) has gained popularity as an easily collected biomarker for sympathetic nervous system activation, and research has shown increases in sAA after completing experimental stress tasks in certain groups. However, recent work suggests that salivary cortisol, another stress biomarker, is suppressed after a speech task among experimentally induced exclusion in young women. The present analysis investigated the sAA response in biologically female undergraduates (n=31) who completed a game of Cyberball and then a speech anticipation task. Results showed that women in the social exclusion experimental group had a greater decrease in sAA compared to young women in the inclusion group after the speech task. Results of this study provide support for stress response suppression in women who have experienced social exclusion. The present findings provide pilot evidence for future, larger studies to advance the tend-and-befriend theory.

The Family Biorhythm: Contributions of the HPA and HPG Axes to Neuroendocrine Attunement.

Objective: The vast majority of research on biobehavioral influences on development has focused on mothers and infants, whereas research on paternal biobehavioral influences remains sparse. This study aims to increase understanding of paternal influences on the biobehavioral dynamics of the family unit, using a multi-system approach. Methods: Participants consisted of 32 predominantly high-risk families recruited during pregnancy who completed monthly questionnaires and in-home visits when infants were 4, 12, and 18 months of age. In-home visits included semi-structured interaction tasks and saliva samples for cortisol and progesterone assays. Results: Mothers and infants, but not fathers and infants, showed adrenocortical attunement, with the strongest attunement at 18 months. Second, mothers' couple satisfaction did not significantly impact infants' cortisol levels or mother-infant cortisol attunement, but mothers' progesterone moderated the relationship between couple satisfaction and infant cortisol levels such that mothers with low couple satisfaction, but high progesterone, had infants with lower cortisol levels. Finally, mothers' and fathers' progesterone levels were attuned across the time points. Conclusions: This is some of the first evidence of the establishment of the family biorhythm and suggests that fathers play an indirect role in facilitating mother-infant adrenocortical attunement. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40750-023-00215-0.

Women's Mating Strategies and Mate Value Are Associated with Viewing Time to Facial Masculinity.

Sexual selection has shaped women's preferences for ideal physical features in men that signal good health. Facial masculinity is often used as a proxy in signaling health, viability, and disease resistance, and it is thought to be attractive because it advertises heritable benefits. Preferences for facial masculinity are also associated with individual differences in one's sociosexuality and mate value, where women oriented toward a short-term mating orientation and are of high mate value may prefer men with masculine features. The current study examined women's sociosexuality and mate value (i.e., self-rating of overall desirability) in rating attractiveness and visual attention to facial masculinity in men's faces using an eye-tracking task. Overall, women (N = 72) did not show any significant preferences for men with masculinized over feminized faces. However, women who scored high on sociosexuality (i.e., unrestricted sociosexuality) and mate value demonstrated increased visual attention and looking frequency to masculinized over feminized faces. The study highlights the unique role of cognitive mechanisms in visually assessing a potential mate and how individual differences in short-term mating strategies and mate value may moderate those preferences. These findings underscore the importance of examining individual differences in mate preferences research.

An Eye Tracking Study Examining the Role of Mating Strategies, Perceived Vulnerability to Disease, and Disgust in Attention to Pathogenic Cues.

Disgust is an emotion that regulates disease avoidance and reduces the likelihood of pathogenic infections. Existing research suggests a bidirectional relationship between disgust and mating, where disgust inhibits sexual behavior and sexual behavior inhibits disgust. In the current study, we investigated the role of individual differences and mating motivations on visual attention to pathogenic cues. Participants (N = 103) were randomly assigned to a mating prime or control condition, and they were asked to view images of pathogenic cues (i.e., rotten food, exposed cuts, bodily fluids) paired with their non-pathogenic counterparts. The findings showed no effect of mating prime on visual attention to pathogenic stimuli; however, dispositional mating strategies (SOI-R) were associated with attention to pathogenic stimuli. Individuals with unrestricted sociosexual orientations viewed pathogenic stimuli longer. The findings demonstrate that dispositional mating orientation is associated with greater attention to disgusting images, a link between pathogens and mating orientation that warrants further exploration.

Ecological influences and visual attention to infant phenotypes.

In humans, the allocation of resources, such as parental care and attention, is vital to offspring survival. Life history strategies are influenced by cues in the environment, particularly those that signal the availability of resources. What has yet to be determined is how individuals allocate resources to infants as a function of perceived ecological harshness and life history strategy. In the current research we hypothesized that perceived ecology would influence infant ratings (Study 1), and that visual attention to infant phenotypes would be associated with life history strategies (Study 2). Study 1 investigated the effect of ecological conditions (control vs. harsh) on preferences to infant phenotypes (i.e., underweight, average weight, overweight). Participants (N = 246) were less likely to rate infants favorably under a harsh ecological condition. Study 2 investigated visual perception in processing infant images. Using an eye-tracking task, participants (N = 239) viewed images of infants while their eye movements were recorded. Participants displayed an early attentional bias (i.e., first fixation duration) to the head of the infant and focused most of their visual attention to the torso of infants (i.e., total visit duration). The results of the both studies indicate that ecological factors play an important role in rating infants, and data from eye-tracking demonstrates that phenotypes influence the amount of attention given to infants.

The role of hormones in attraction and visual attention to facial masculinity.

The current study investigated the ovulatory shift hypothesis, which suggests that women prefer more masculine traits when estradiol is high, and progesterone is low (E/P ratio). The current study used an eye tracking paradigm to measure women's visual attention to facial masculinity across the menstrual cycle. Estradiol (E) and progesterone (P) were collected to determine if salivary biomarkers were associated with visual attention to masculine faces in a short- and long-term mating context. Women (N = 81) provided saliva samples at three time points throughout their menstrual cycle and were asked to rate and view men's faces that had been manipulated to appear feminine and masculine. Overall, masculine faces were viewed longer compared to feminine faces and this was moderated by mating context, where women viewed masculine faces longer for a long-term relationship. There was not any evidence suggesting that E/P ratio was associated with preferences for facial masculinity, but there was evidence to suggest that hormones were associated with visual attention to men in general. In line with sexual strategies theory, there was evidence to suggest that mating context and facial masculinity are important in mate choice; however, there was no evidence to suggest that women's mate choice was associated with shifts across the menstrual cycle.

Parents of Children With High Weight Are Viewed as Responsible for Child Weight and Thus Stigmatized.

Courts in seven U.S. states have removed children with "obesity" from parental custody until children could maintain "healthy weights." These rulings-alongside qualitative reports from parents of children with high weight (PoCHs)-suggest that PoCHs are judged as bad parents. Yet little work has tested whether people genuinely stigmatize PoCHs or what drives this phenomenon. In three experiments with U.S. online community participants (N = 1,011; two preregistered), we tested an attribution theory model: Social perceivers attribute children's weights to parents and thus stigmatize those parents. Experiments 1 and 2 support this model (across parent and child gender). Experiment 3 manipulated attributions of parental responsibility for child weight, revealing attenuated stigma with low attributions of responsibility. Findings are among the first to describe and explain stigma toward a large demographic (parents of children with obesity)-with real-world implications (e.g., for family separation, health care)-and may additionally illuminate the psychology underlying stigma toward parents of children with other potentially stigma-evoking identities.

The Modification of Offspring Stress-Related Behavior and the Expression of Drd1, Drd2, and Nr3c1 by a Western-Pattern Diet in Mus Musculus.

The impact of early developmental experience on neurobiological pathways that may contribute to the association between diet and behavior have not yet been elucidated. The focus of the current study was to determine whether the impact of prenatal stress (PS) could be mitigated by a diet that stimulates the same neuroendocrine systems influenced by early stress, using a mouse model. Behavioral and genetic approaches were used to assess how a Western-pattern diet (WPD) interacts with PS and sex to impact the expression of anxiety-like behavior in an open-field arena, as well as the expression of the glucocorticoid receptor in the hippocampus, D1 dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens, and D2 dopamine receptors in the ventral tegmental area. Overall, the results demonstrated that a prenatal WPD mitigates the effects of maternal stress in dams and offspring. These results help to elucidate the relationship between pre- and post-natal nutrition, gene expression, and behaviors that lead to long-term health effects.

Women's Preferences for Strong Men Under Perceived Harsh Versus Safe Ecological Conditions.

Ecological conditions provide information about available resources for one's environment. In humans, this has been shown to influence reproductive behavior, as individuals may engage in trade-offs between partner quality and investment. For instance, many women may trade-off preferences for men with physical features indicative of social dominance and health over physical features indicative of commitment and investment. The current study explored women's preferences for formidable men under safe vs. harsh ecological conditions. Across three studies, U.S. university women (N = 1,098) were randomly assigned to a perceived harsh or safe ecological condition. They were asked to rate the attractiveness of men's body types (i.e., muscular vs. less muscular). Findings revealed that in general, women rated stronger men as more attractive than weaker men irrespective of the ecological condition. Evidence for preference as a function of ecology appeared only when a two-alternative forced-choice task was used (Study 3), but not in rating tasks (Studies 1 and 2). Study 3 showed that women had a relatively stronger preference for stronger men for short-term relationships in a resource scarce ecological condition. This research provides some evidence that perceived ecological conditions can drive women's preferences for men with enhanced secondary sex characteristics as a function of mating context. These findings are consistent with previous research indicating the importance of physical characteristics in men's attractiveness, and it adds to the existing literature on ecological factors and mating preferences.

Stress response asymmetries in African American emerging adults exposed to chronic social adversity.

Chronic stress is linked to social adversity and underlies many health disparities among ethnic minorities. Cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) reflect sensitivity to adversity and are related to health outcomes. Our aim was to understand how social adversity influences biological responses to experimental and daily stressors in a sample of low-income African American emerging adults. In the three-week study, participants completed questionnaires, the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST), and provided four salivary samples. In week 2, participants collected saliva at home immediately after waking and just before bed for three days. Results demonstrated an asymmetrical pattern between cortisol and sAA reactivity that was related to experiences with racism and interpersonal trauma. Further, daily stress was related to lower morning and higher nighttime cortisol, indicating atypical diurnal rhythm. These findings are consistent with other forms of social adversity that lead to long-term changes in the HPA axis response pattern.LAY SUMMARYAfrican American emerging adults showed divergent cortisol and sAA responses.Social adversity predicted an asymmetrical response pattern for sAA and cortisol.Atypical diurnal rhythms were found for participants reporting high daily stress.

The endocrinology of female friendships: Cortisol and progesterone attunement after separation.

Friendships constitute important relationships, and often function to reduce stress, but have been under-studied. In mother-child dyads, infants coordinate their stress response with their caregivers without experiencing the stressor themselves. The current study used a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test to examine whether i) friends are physiologically attuned (i.e., cortisol and progesterone); ii) attunement differs as a function of social acceptance or rejection external to the dyad; and, iii) friends can 'catch' a stress response only through non-verbal cues. Friends showed both cortisol and progesterone attunement at the beginning of the study. Friends showed cortisol attunement across time and conditions. Friends' progesterone levels were significantly, but negatively associated across time and conditions. They did not, however, show a stress contagion as a result of one friend experiencing stress. These findings suggest that cortisol and progesterone play different roles in the attunement of stress and subsequent affiliation.

Effects of Women's Short-Term Mating Orientation and Self-Perceived Attractiveness in Rating and Viewing Men's Waist to Chest Ratios.

Women's mating strategies are dependent on multiple factors, such as identifying which men advertise physical features indicating high genetic quality, as well as identifying which men are willing to invest in offspring. Research has suggested that women pursuing short-term mating prioritize physical attraction to facilitate the acquisition of good genes. Although it is known that physical characteristics are important in mate choice, research investigating the saliency of physical features in assessing male fitness has not been readily explored. The current study used an eye-tracking paradigm to investigate the role of short-term mating in women and their attraction and visual attention to men's waist to chest ratios (WCRs). Women's short-term mating orientation (N = 130) was associated with attraction to men with low WCRs; however, their visual attention was not influenced by their mating strategy. Interestingly, women who perceived themselves as attractive rated men with low WCRs as more attractive and allocated attentional resources to physical features important in mate choice, such as the head and midriff region. The findings from this study lend some support to sexual strategies theory (Buss & Schmitt, 1993) and strategic pluralism (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000), and they suggest that mate preferences may be calibrated as a function of one's mate value.

Adrenocortical attunement, reactivity, and potential genetic correlates among parent-daughter dyads from low-income families.

Examining the multitude of influences on the development of adolescent stress responses, especially among low-income families, is a critical and understudied topic in the field. The current study examined cortisol attunement between adolescent girls and parents (mostly mothers) from predominantly low-income, single parent, ethnic minority families before and after an in-laboratory disagreement discussion task. The sample consisted of 118 adolescents (Mage  = 13.79 years, 76.3% ethnic minorities, 23.7% European Americans) and primary caregivers (Mage  = 40.62 years; Mdn yearly income = $24,000; 43.2% single parents; 50% living below poverty line). We investigated oxytocin receptor (OXTR rs53576) gene variations as a potential contributor to attunement within the dyad. Results showed that parents and adolescents showed stress system attunement across the disagreement task, but that parent and adolescent oxytocin receptor genotype did not impact attunement. Future studies should detail biological factors that contribute to the calibration of stress response systems of adolescents across a variety of samples, particularly those experiencing a combination of stressors.

Exposure to a sex-specific stressor mitigates sex differences in stress-induced eating.

Literature suggests that stress-induced consumption of highly palatable food is a behavior pertaining almost exclusively to women. Given the overall association between stress levels and obesity in the United States transcends sex, it seems likely that males also engage in stress-induced consumption of highly palatable food in certain contexts. In the current study, 168 males and females (54.2% female) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: achievement stress, social rejection stress, and a control condition. Stress was measured with cortisol and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity. Post stressor food consumption was measured by weighing several categories of food (highly palatable (sweet, salty), nutritious sweet, nutritious non-sweet, and bland) before and after the participant was introduced to the food items. Males demonstrated greater parasympathetic withdrawal and cortisol reactivity in the achievement condition than females; whereas females demonstrated greater parasympathetic withdrawal and cortisol reactivity in the social rejection condition than males. There were no significant differences in parasympathetic withdrawal between males and females in the control condition. Post-stressor highly palatable food consumption followed this trend. While there was no main effect for sex on the amount of post-stressor highly palatable food consumed, there was a significant main effect for condition and an interaction effect for sex and condition on the amount of post-stressor highly palatable food consumed. Our results challenge the prevailing notion that stress-induced eating of hyper palatable food is mainly found among women by finding that males also engage in such behavior if their experience leads to an adequate stress response.

The role of co-rumination and adrenocortical attunement in young women's close friendships.

Attunement, or synchrony, of behavior and physiology has been well documented in family, mother-child, and romantic relationships. This study aimed to determine whether attunement of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis occurs in women's close friendships, and the role of a common social style, co-rumination in that attunement. Saliva samples (later assayed for cortisol) were collected from 37 dyads (74 individuals) during a laboratory task in which they were either asked to work together toward a common goal (control task) or discuss interpersonal problems, providing opportunity for co-rumination. Findings suggest that friends demonstrated adrenocortical attunement prior to engaging in either task, and that the level of attunement prior to the task predicted co-rumination and its components for both groups. Co-rumination, in turn, predicted adrenocortical attunement after the task. These findings suggest that bidirectional attunement of HPA activity may serve a bonding function within women's close friendships. Implications for how these findings fit with the tend-and-befriend hypothesis are discussed.

Communication and social interaction anxiety enhance interleukin-1 beta and cortisol reactivity during high-stakes public speaking.

BACKGROUND: Worry or fear related to speaking in front of others, or more broadly, communicating and interacting with others, is common. At elevated levels, however, it may contribute to heightened stress reactivity during acute speaking challenges. The purpose of this study was to examine multi-system physiological stress reactivity in the context of high-stakes public speaking while considering the impact of hypothesized individual difference risk factors. METHODS: University student participants (n = 95) delivering speeches as a heavily-weighted component of their final grade had saliva samples collected immediately prior to speaking, immediately after, and 20 min after speech completion. Saliva samples were assayed for alpha amylase (sAA), cortisol, and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1ß). Self-reported communication anxiety, social interaction anxiety, rejection sensitivity, and sex were assessed as risk factors for heightened stress reactivity. RESULTS: Salivary sAA, cortisol, and IL-1ß significantly changed following speech delivery. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that elevated levels of self-reported communication anxiety and social interaction anxiety were independently associated with increased cortisol and IL-1ß responses and combined to enhance HPA axis and inflammatory cytokine activity further (i.e., cortisol and IL-1ß AUCI). Sex and rejection sensitivity were unrelated to physiological stress reactivity. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that individuals with elevated communication and interaction fears may be at increased risk of heightened neuroendocrine and inflammatory responses following exposure to acute social stressors. Both types of anxiety may combine to increase physiological reactivity further, with unknown, though likely insalubrious, health consequences over time.

Neural responses to maternal praise and criticism: Relationship to depression and anxiety symptoms in high-risk adolescent girls.

BACKGROUND: The parent-child relationship may be an important factor in the development of adolescent depressive and anxious symptoms. In adults, depressive symptoms relate to increased amygdala and attenuated prefrontal activation to maternal criticism. The current pilot study examined how depressive and anxiety symptoms in a high-risk adolescent population relate to neural responses to maternal feedback. Given previous research relating oxytocin to maternal behavior, we conducted exploratory analyses using oxytocin receptor (OXTR) genotype. METHODS: Eighteen females (ages 12-16) listened to maternal praise, neutral, and critical statements during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants completed the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders. The OXTR single nucleotide polymorphism, rs53576, was genotyped. Linear mixed models were used to identify symptom or allele (GG, AA/AG) by condition (critical, neutral, praise) interaction effects on brain activation. RESULTS: Greater symptoms related to greater right amygdala activation for criticism and reduced activation to praise. For left amygdala, greater symptoms related to reduced activation to both conditions. Anxiety symptoms related to differences in superior medial PFC activation patterns. Parental OXTR AA/AG allele related to reduced activation to criticism and greater activation to praise within the right amygdala. CONCLUSIONS: Results support a relationship between anxiety and depressive symptoms and prefrontal-amygdala responses to maternal feedback. The lateralization of amygdala findings suggests separate neural targets for interventions reducing reactivity to negative feedback or increasing salience of positive feedback. Exploratory analyses suggest that parents' OXTR genetic profile influences parent-child interactions and related adolescent brain responses.

Common oxytocin receptor gene variant interacts with rejection sensitivity to influence cortisol reactivity during negative evaluation.

The study tested the hypothesis that variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR rs53576) and self-report of rejection sensitivity are associated with adrenocortical reactivity to social stress. Participants (N=94; 36.17% male; Mage=20.18yrs; 62.8% Caucasian) completed a writing task on a salient problem in society, provided self-report via questionnaire of rejection sensitivity, and were then informed that a committee of peers would evaluate their written comments. Participants received either scripted praise or criticism as a way to induce social evaluative threat. Saliva was collected before and after the stress task and assayed for cortisol. Results revealed that cortisol levels increased in participants with moderate levels of social rejection sensitivity-inferred by rs53576 genotype and reported rejection sensitivity-while cortisol levels decreased in participants with high and low levels of social rejection sensitivity. Our findings suggest a curvilinear relationship between social rejection sensitivity and cortisol reactivity in the context of social rejection, warranting further consideration in future studies.

The role of beliefs on learning about homosexuality in a college course.

The present research investigated how personal beliefs about homosexuality influence learning in a college course. We tested students in introductory psychology over material on the science of homosexuality by Simon LeVay (2010). All students reported information about their typical academic habits and the extent to which homosexuality was consistent with their beliefs and values. The results showed that students' personal beliefs were related to academic behaviors (e.g., reading assignments, skipping class) and retention of the course material. The results also showed that students' recall of course material six weeks later was predicted by the extent to which they reported studying information that is inconsistent with their beliefs for an exam and then forgetting it. Students who reported the material to be inconsistent with their beliefs engaged in selective forgetting of the material on homosexuality. The results provide evidence that personal beliefs can reduce the retention of belief-inconsistent information in a college course.