Previous research suggests that the proximity of individuals in a social network predicts how similarly their brains respond to naturalistic stimuli. However, the relationship between social connectedness and brain connectivity in the absence of external stimuli has not been examined. To investigate whether neural homophily between friends exists at rest we collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 68 school-aged girls, along with social network information from all pupils in their year groups (total 5,066 social dyads). Participants were asked to rate the amount of time they voluntarily spent with each person in their year group, and directed social network matrices and community structure were then determined from these data. No statistically significant relationships between social distance, community homogeneity and similarity of global-level resting-state connectivity were observed. Nor were we able to predict social distance using a regularised regression technique (i.e. elastic net regression based on the local-level similarities in resting-state whole-brain connectivity between participants). Although neural homophily between friends exists when viewing naturalistic stimuli, this finding did not extend to functional connectivity at rest in our population. Instead, resting-state connectivity may be less susceptible to the influences of a person's social environment.

Friends are sometimes similar in their academic motivation. The current study examines the mechanisms underlying similarity by disentangling selection and influence processes in adolescent friendship networks, using longitudinal data. A total of 495 adolescents from an independent school for girls were assessed for their academic motivation (including perceived competence, interest, boredom, autonomous motivation, grit, mindset and value) and social network information, annually, for 3 years. Stochastic actor-based modelling showed both selection and influence effects for perseverance of effort, a measure of grit, meaning that peers nominated friends whose level of perseverance was similar (selection), and also that friends influenced each other, becoming more similar in their perseverance over time (influence). Growth mindset also showed an influence effect. Additionally, a selection effect was found for adolescents’ level of value. These results suggest social dynamics play an important role in effort-related motivation constructs. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Previous research suggests that the proximity of individuals in a social network predicts how similarly their brains respond to naturalistic stimuli. However, the relationship between social connectedness and brain connectivity in the absence of external stimuli has not been examined. To investigate whether neural homophily between friends exists at rest we collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 68 school-aged girls, along with social network information from all pupils in their year groups (total 5066 social dyads). Participants were asked to rate the amount of time they voluntarily spent with each person in their year group, and directed social network matrices and community structure were then determined from these data. No statistically significant relationships between social distance, community homogeneity and similarity of global-level resting-state connectivity were observed. Nor were we able to predict social distance using a machine learning technique (i.e. elastic net regression based on the local-level similarities in resting-state whole-brain connectivity between participants). Although neural homophily between friends exists when viewing naturalistic stimuli, this finding did not extend to functional connectivity at rest in our population. Instead, resting-state connectivity may be less susceptible to the influences of a person's social environment.

This article provides an overview of research on social contagion in the context of education. We highlight the importance of students' social interactions in school, considering contagion between peers and contagion from teachers to students, using a motivation perspective. The framework of contagion is introduced broadly, followed by a focused review on social contagion in school environments, both peer and teacher related. Then we introduce methodology for mapping behavior change to networks that are a direct representation of school cohorts. We argue that these different lines of research can be coherently interpreted from a motivation perspective, suggesting the critical role of motivation in social contagion, in the context of education. We highlight the limited amount of research on positive contagion effects and we call for further investigation into ways in which to increase the contagion of positive, academic behaviors. Finally, the neuroscience behind social contagion, both for the mechanisms and the interactions, is discussed.

Some individuals show a congenital deficit for music processing despite normal peripheral auditory processing, cognitive functioning, and music exposure. This condition, termed congenital amusia, is typically approached regarding its profile of musical and pitch difficulties. Here, we examine whether amusia also affects socio-emotional processing, probing auditory and visual domains. Thirteen adults with amusia and 11 controls completed two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants judged emotions in emotional speech prosody, nonverbal vocalizations (e.g., crying), and (silent) facial expressions. Target emotions were: amusement, anger, disgust, fear, pleasure, relief, and sadness. Compared to controls, amusics were impaired for all stimulus types, and the magnitude of their impairment was similar for auditory and visual emotions. In Experiment 2, participants listened to spontaneous and posed laughs, and either inferred the authenticity of the speaker's state, or judged how much laughs were contagious. Amusics showed decreased sensitivity to laughter authenticity, but normal contagion responses. Across the experiments, mixed-effects models revealed that the acoustic features of vocal signals predicted socio-emotional evaluations in both groups, but the profile of predictive acoustic features was different in amusia. These findings suggest that a developmental music disorder can affect socio-emotional cognition in subtle ways, an impairment not restricted to auditory information.

Musical abilities and active engagement with music have been shown to be positively associated with many cognitive abilities as well as social skills and academic performance in secondary school students. While there is evidence from intervention studies that musical training can be a cause of these positive relationships, recent findings in the literature have suggested that other factors, such as genetics, family background or personality traits, might also be contributing factors. In addition, there is mounting evidence that self-concepts and beliefs can affect academic performance independently of intellectual ability. Students who believe that intelligence is malleable are more likely to attribute poor academic performances to effort rather than ability, and are more likely to take remedial action to improve their performance. However, it is currently not known whether student's beliefs about the nature of musical talent also influence the development of musical abilities in a similar fashion. Therefore, this study introduces a short self-report measure termed "Musical Self-Theories and Goals," closely modeled on validated measures for self-theories in academic scenarios. Using this measure the study investigates whether musical self-theories are related to students' musical development as indexed by their concurrent musical activities and their performance on a battery of listening tests. We use data from a cross-sectional sample of 313 secondary school students to construct a network model describing the relationships between self-theories and academic as well as musical outcome measures, while also assessing potential effects of intelligence and the Big Five personality dimensions. Results from the network model indicate that self-theories of intelligence and musicality are closely related. In addition, both kinds of self-theories are connected to the students' academic achievement through the personality dimension conscientiousness and academic effort. Finally, applying the do-calculus method to the network model we estimate that the size of the assumed causal effects between musical self-theories and academic achievement lie between 0.07 and 0.15 standard deviations.

The present study investigated developmental changes in the ability to detect a change in pitch and to discriminate the direction of a pitch change using pitch glides. Adaptive-tracking procedures established separate thresholds for both of these abilities in musically untrained participants across nine age-groups (5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 13-year-olds, and adults). The use of an odd-one-out paradigm avoided the need for participants to use semantic labels when determining the direction of a pitch change, and screening of the adaptive-staircase profile plots permitted the exclusion of inattentive performers. Although adults achieved equivalent thresholds for pitch-change detection and pitch-direction discrimination, there were age-related improvements for pitch-direction discrimination but not pitch-change detection in children between the ages of 6 and 11 years. The findings may indicate that the capacities to detect a change in pitch versus to discriminate the direction of a pitch change follow different developmental trajectories.