Abstract Adapting to natural disasters requires rapid and flexible regulation of emotional and physiological responses, yet the large-scale brain dynamics supporting this process remain poorly understood. Using an immersive virtual reality (VR) earthquake simulation, we investigated real-time neural adaptation to acute environmental threat and its modulation by resilience. Seventy-six participants were randomly assigned to a VR earthquake condition (VR-ES, n = 38) or a control VR condition (VR-CTRL, n = 38). Resting-state EEG was recorded before and after the VR experience, and continuous mobile EEG was recorded during the simulation. EEG microstate analysis was used to characterize large-scale brain dynamics associated with threat exposure and recovery. Exposure to the simulated disaster induced distinct alterations in microstate dynamics, with opposing changes in microstates C (p<0.001, r b =0.55) and D (p<0.001, r b =0.52) observed specifically in the VR-ES group. Moreover, our results confirm that distinct neural patterns are activated during the recovery resting-state phase following VR-ES. Critically, resilience and childhood adversity moderated the patterns of associations with emotional recovery, such that individuals with higher resilience exhibited more adaptive microstate configurations associated with improved recovery outcomes. These findings suggest that flexible reorganization of large-scale brain states supports adaptation to acute environmental stress and that resilience shapes the neural dynamics underlying recovery. This work highlights the value of ecologically valid VR paradigms combined with mobile neurophysiology for understanding individual differences in responses to environmental threat and their adaptive neural mechanisms.

The study explored the effects of a set of beginner-level actor training exercises on first-year theatre and psychology university students. Participants took part in an eight-session intervention, during which global and momentary stress, well-being and group closeness were assessed using self-report measures. Both groups showed reduced momentary stress and increased group closeness, with psychol-ogy students also experiencing reduced global stress and improved well-being. The findings suggest these exercises may promote stress management and social bond-ing, with further research needed to address limitations

IntroductionRole-play, a key creative process in theatre, is used in therapeutic interventions to improve social skills, emotion regulation, and memory. Although role-play is widely used as a psychotherapeutic technique, its mechanisms of action are not fully understood.MethodsOur study introduces a standardized controlled procedure for promoting role-play in the laboratory based on the portrayal of a fictional persona and examines its effects on anxiety, affect, prosocial attitudes, and salivary oxytocin dynamics in 38 participants.ResultsIn our experiment, role-play significantly increased positive affect and prosocial attitudes and decreased anxiety compared to a control condition. Basal salivary oxytocin levels predicted higher gains in positive affect following role-play, suggesting a specific moderating effect of oxytocin. The fictional persona used in the procedure was rated as very happy by subjects, creating a positive social context for the role-play social interaction.DiscussionsWe propose that the observed moderation effect of oxytocin in our study is specific to the role-play condition due to the capacity of role-play to generate an affective regulatory context based on congruency toward the emotional state of the fictional persona. Our findings indicate that basal oxytocin levels could predict specific outcomes of role-play in therapeutical setting. We discuss several psychological and biological mechanisms that could account for the observed effects of role-play and how oxytocin could act as a substrate for them.

Variability in brain activity that persists after accounting for overt behavioral and physiological states is often considered noise and controlled as a covariate in research. However, studying intra-individual variability in brain function can provide valuable insights into the dynamic nature of the brain. To explore this, we conducted a study on 43 participants analyzing the EEG microstate dynamics and self-reported spontaneous mental activity during five-minute resting-state recordings on two separate days with a twenty days average delay between recordings. Our results showed that the associations between EEG microstates and spontaneous cognition significantly changed from one day to another. Moreover, microstate changes were associated with changes in spontaneous cognition. Specifically, inter-day changes in Verbal thoughts about Others and future Planning were positively related to bottom-up sensory network-related microstate changes and negatively associated with top-down, attention, and salience network-related microstates. In addition, we find that personality traits are related to inter-day changes in microstates and spontaneous thoughts. Specifically, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness to experience moderated the relationship between inter-day changes in EEG microstates and spontaneous thoughts. Our study provides valuable information on the dynamic changes in the EEG microstate-spontaneous cognition organization, which could be essential for developing interventions and treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Role play is one of the core creative processes in theatrical performance. Play leads to positive emotions in both children and adults. Role-play, a distinctive type of play is used in several types of therapeutic interventions to increase social competence as well as for other benefits. The highly individualized use of role-play in psychotherapy, drama therapy and psychodrama is effective but not generalizable. In the present study we developed a standardized controlled procedure to promote role-play in 38 participants, and we monitored its impact on affect, anxiety, prosocial attitudes, and salivary oxytocin dynamics. Compared to the control condition where participants participated as selves, role-play significantly increased perceived levels of positive affect and prosocial attitudes and decreased self-reported levels of anxiety. Basal salivary oxytocin levels predicted gains in positive affect following the role-play procedure. Our study points to standardized role-play as a mean to reduce anxiety, and to increase sociability and positive affect. Possible mechanisms of how role-play induces the observed changes in affect and attitudes are discussed.

Abstract Training of autobiographical memory has been proposed as an intervention to improve cognitive function. The neural substrates for such improvements are poorly understood. Several brain areas have been previously linked to autobiographical recollection, including structures in the default mode network (DMN) and the sensorimotor network. Here, we tested the hypothesis that changes in connectivity within different neural networks support distinct aspects of memory improvement in response to training on a group of 59 human subjects. We found that memory training using olfactory cues increases resting-state intranetwork DMN connectivity, and this associates with improved recollection of cue-specific memories. On the contrary, training decreased resting-state connectivity within the sensorimotor network, a decrease that correlated with improved ability for voluntary recall. Moreover, preliminary data indicate that only the decrease in sensorimotor connectivity associated with the training-induced decrease in the tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) factor, an immune modulation previously linked to improved cognitive performance. We identified functional and biochemical factors that associate with distinct memory processes improved by autobiographical training. Pathways which connect autobiographical memory with both high-level cognition and somatic physiology are discussed.

The human mind wanders spontaneously and frequently, revisiting the past and imagining the future of self and of others. External and internal factors can influence wandering spontaneous thoughts, whose content predicts subsequent emotional states. We propose that social imitation, an action that increases well-being and closeness by poorly understood mechanisms, impacts behavioural states in part by modulating post-imitation mind-wandering. In 43 young subjects, we find that imitating the arm movements of an actor alters the dynamics and the content of subsequent resting-state spontaneous thoughts. Imitation-sensitive features of spontaneous thoughts correlate with behavioural states and personality traits. EEG microstate analysis reveals that global patterns of correlated neuronal activity predict imitation-induced changes in spontaneous thoughts. Exploratory analyses indicate a possible modulatory effect of social imitation via the endogenous release of oxytocin. Thus, social imitation can induce selective modulations of ongoing activity in specific neural networks to change spontaneous thought patterns as a function of personality traits, and to ultimately orchestrate behavioural states.

Social imitation increases well-being and closeness by mechanisms that remain poorly understood. We propose that imitation impacts behavioural states in part by modulating post-imitation mind-wandering. The human mind wanders spontaneously and frequently, revisiting the past and imagining the future of self and of others. External and internal factors can influence wandering spontaneous thoughts, whose content predicts subsequent emotional states. In 43 young subjects, we find that imitating the arm movements of an actor alters the dynamics and the content of subsequent resting-state spontaneous thoughts. Imitation-sensitive features of spontaneous thoughts correlate with both behavioural states and salivary oxytocin levels. EEG microstate analysis reveals that global patterns of correlated neuronal activity predict imitation-induced changes in spontaneous thoughts. Thus, imitation can modulate ongoing activity in specific neural networks to change spontaneous thought patterns as a function of oxytocin levels, and to ultimately orchestrate behavioural states.

In humans and animal models, oxytocin increases social closeness, attachment and prosocial behaviors, while decreasing anxiety and stress levels. Efficiently triggering the release of endogenous oxytocin could serve as a powerful therapeutic intervention for disorders of social behavior and for anxiety. We designed a new version of a social sensorimotor synchronization task to investigate the role of social approval in inducing biochemical and psychological changes following behavioral synchrony in a sample of 80 college students. Social approval in the form of real time positive feedback increased well-being only in women, while increasing social closeness in both genders. Social disapproval in the form of real time negative feedback prevented a decrease in stress levels that otherwise women reported following engagement in either social or non-social synchronization. Surprisingly, for certain personality traits, negative social feedback during sensorimotor synchronization was psychologically beneficial irrespective of gender. Salivary oxytocin levels increased only in women after the social but not the non-social synchronization tasks. Oxytocin dynamics were independent of the type of real time feedback that subjects received, indicating the existence of distinct mechanisms for hormonal versus behavioral changes following synchronization. Nevertheless, changes in salivary oxytocin after positive social feedback correlated with changes in well-being and predicted changes in prosocial attitudes. Our findings show evidence of distinct mechanisms for behavioral versus hormonal changes following social sensorimotor synchronization, and indicate that gender and personality traits should be carefully considered when designing behavioral therapies for improving social attitudes and for stress management.