Developing interventions to change health behaviors—especially those targeting cross-cutting health risk factors like alcohol use—is a public health priority. In this study, we used a translational neuroscience approach to evaluate the underlying mechanisms and individual differences in a mindful distancing intervention designed to reduce alcohol consumption among college students. We combined functional neuroimaging and machine learning to develop a brain-based predictive model (a “neural signature”) of mindful distancing. This model allowed us to track moment-to-moment variation in how participants implemented the strategy, as well as differences between individuals. Students completed a mindful distancing task involving alcohol cues during fMRI scanning. They then completed a 28-day, smartphone-based, experience sampling intervention. In the laboratory, mindfully attending to alcohol decreased craving, particularly among people who more strongly expressed the mindful distancing signature. In daily life, the mindful distancing intervention increased mindful responses to alcohol and decreased subsequent alcohol consumption through two distinct pathways: mindful responses directly influenced alcohol consumption and indirectly influenced it by reducing cravings for alcohol. Individuals with stronger expression of the neural signature experienced the greatest benefits from the intervention. These findings extend theoretical models of how mindfulness-based emotion regulation strategies impact alcohol use in emerging adults without alcohol use disorders. They also demonstrate the potential of using neural signatures to evaluate health behavior change interventions within a translational neuroscience framework.

Persuasive communication in marketing, political, and health domains influences sales, elections, and public health. We present a mega-analysis (a pooled analysis of raw data) of 16 functional MRI datasets (572 participants, 739 messages, and 21,688 experimental trials) assessing the neural correlates of the effectiveness of messages in individual message receivers and at scale (in large groups of message receivers who did not undergo neuroimaging). Existing theories suggest that decision-making is driven by expected rewards and perceived social relevance associated with the expected outcomes of a given choice. Consistent with these theories, we find that (i) brain activity implicated in reward and social processing is associated with message effectiveness in individuals and at scale across diverse domains (e.g. marketing and health campaigns); (ii) exploratory analysis further suggests language, emotion, and sensorimotor processes as pertinent to message effectiveness; and (iii) brain activity provides complementary information on message effectiveness at scale beyond self-reports provided by the same neuroimaging participants. This study offers novel insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying effective messaging, highlights a path toward greater unity and efficiency in persuasion research, and suggests practical intervention targets for message design.

People with larger body sizes often face underrepresentation in popular media. However, the rise of social media has led to increased visibility for this demographic group. Our research, encompassing five studies, investigated how audiences react to social media images featuring individuals with larger body sizes, focusing on affective responses and social transmission dynamics. We identified a gender-specific gap in sharing behavior such that male viewers show lower sharing intentions for such images (Study 1), mediated by stereotypic perceptions of low competence in larger-sized people and decreased positive affect (Study 2). This pattern holds for images with both female and male models (Study 3) and extends to contexts where body size is not a central factor (Study 4). To address this, we developed social norm-based interventions that effectively increase sharing intentions evoked by images of people with larger bodies, mediated by social perceptions and affective responses (Study 5). Overall, our findings shed light on the psychological factors that influence the spread of body-related imagery on social media, demonstrating how stereotypes can shape affective responses and subsequent actions like social media sharing. Beyond theoretical insights, our research offers practical strategies for amplifying societal focus on underrepresented groups and promoting more diverse and inclusive representations of body image in digital spaces.

It is critical to support healthy development of alcohol-related habits, particularly in contexts with heightened risk such as college campuses. Mindfulness-based strategies are frequently used in interventions to reduce substance use in clinical populations, but their utility as a preventative strategy among emerging adults is less clear. Combining multivariate neuroimaging, intervention, and experience sampling methodologies, we tested the degree to which mindful attention reduces alcohol cravings in the laboratory and consumption in daily life in a sample of college students. Students completed a mindful attention task towards alcohol in an fMRI scanner followed by a 28-day, smartphone-based, experience sampling intervention. We leveraged functional neuroimaging and machine learning to develop a neural measure (signature) of mindful attention that enabled us to examine moment-to-moment fluctuations and individual differences in effective implementation of mindful attention. In the laboratory, mindfully attending to alcohol decreased craving, particularly among people who more strongly expressed the mindful attention signature. In daily life, the mindful attention intervention increased mindful responses to alcohol and decreased lagged alcohol consumption through two distinct pathways: mindful responses directly influenced alcohol consumption and indirectly influenced it by reducing cravings for alcohol. Moreover, individuals who more strongly expressed the mindful attention signature benefitted the most from the intervention. Broadly, our study highlights how mindful attention can reduce alcohol consumption among emerging adults in college via a scalable smartphone-based intervention.

Information sharing within social networks can catalyze widespread attitudinal and behavioral change and the chance to share information with others has been characterized as inherently valuable to people. But what are the sources of value and how might they be leveraged to promote sharing? We test ideas from the value-based virality model that the value of sharing increases when people perceive messages as more relevant to themselves and to people they know, resulting in stronger intentions to share. We extend this work by considering how sharing context-broadcasting to a wide audience or narrowcasting directly to someone-may alter these relationships. Six online studies with adults in the United States (N participants = 3,727; messages = 362; message ratings = 30,954) showed robust evidence that self and social relevance are positively and uniquely related to sharing intentions within- and between-person. Specification curve analysis showed these relationships were consistent across message content (COVID-19, voting, general health, climate change), medium (social media post and news articles), and sharing context (broad- and narrowcasting). A preregistered experiment showed that manipulating the self and social relevance of messages through a framing manipulation causally increased sharing intentions. These causal effects were mediated by changes in both self and social relevance, but the relative strength of the causal pathways differed depending on sharing context. These findings extend existing models of information sharing, and highlight self and social relevance as psychological mechanisms that motivate information sharing that can be targeted to promote sharing across contexts.

Modifying behaviors, such as alcohol consumption, is difficult. Creating psychological distance between unhealthy triggers and one's present experience can encourage change. Using two multisite, randomized experiments, we examine whether theory-driven strategies to create psychological distance-mindfulness and perspective-taking-can change drinking behaviors among young adults without alcohol dependence via a 28-day smartphone intervention (Study 1, N = 108 participants, 5492 observations; Study 2, N = 218 participants, 9994 observations). Study 2 presents a close replication with a fully remote delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. During weeks when they received twice-a-day intervention reminders, individuals in the distancing interventions reported drinking less frequently than on control weeks-directionally in Study 1, and significantly in Study 2. Intervention reminders reduced drinking frequency but did not impact amount. We find that smartphone-based mindfulness and perspective-taking interventions, aimed to create psychological distance, can change behavior. This approach requires repeated reminders, which can be delivered via smartphones.

Background: Vaccine hesitancy and inconsistent mitigation behavior performance have been significant challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In Canada, despite relatively high vaccine availability and uptake, willingness to accept booster shots and maintain mitigation behaviors in the post-acute phase of COVID-19 remain uncertain. The aim of the Canadian COVID-19 Experiences Project (CCEP) is threefold: 1) to identify social-cognitive and neurocognitive predictors of mitigation behaviors, 2) to identify optimal communication strategies to promote vaccination and mitigation behaviors, and 3) to examine brain health outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection and examine their longevity. Methods: The CCEP is comprised of two components: a conventional population survey (Study 1) and a functionally interconnected laboratory study (Study 2). Study 1 will involve 6 waves of data collection. Wave 1, completed between 28 September and 21 October 2021, recruited 1,958 vaccine-hesitant (49.8%) and fully vaccinated (50.2%) adults using quota sampling to ensure maximum statistical power. Measures included a variety of social cognitive (e.g., beliefs, intentions) and neurocognitive (e.g., delay discounting) measures, followed by an opportunity to view and rate a set of professionally produced COVID-19 public service announcement (PSA) videos for perceived efficacy. Study 2 employs the same survey items and PSAs but coupled with lab-based eye tracking and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to directly quantify neural indicators of attention capture and self-reflection in a smaller community sample. In the final phase of the project, subjective impressions and neural indicators of PSA efficacy will be compared and used to inform recommendations for construction of COVID-19 PSAs into the post-acute phase of the pandemic. Discussion: The CCEP provides a framework for evaluating effective COVID-19 communication strategies by levering conventional population surveys and the latest eye-tracking and brain imaging metrics. The CCEP will also yield important information about the brain health impacts of SARS-CoV-2 in the general population, in relation to current and future virus variants as they emerge.

Self-reflection and thinking about the thoughts and behaviors of others are important skills for humans to function in the social world. These two processes overlap in terms of the component processes involved, and share overlapping functional organizations within the human brain, in particular within the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). Several functional models have been proposed to explain these two processes, but none has directly explored the extent to which they are distinctly represented within different parts of the brain. This study used multivoxel pattern classification to quantify the separability of self- and other-related thought in the MPFC and expanded this question to the entire brain. Using a large-scale mega-analytic dataset, spanning three separate studies (n = 142), we find that self- and other-related thought can be reliably distinguished above chance within the MPFC, posterior cingulate cortex and temporal lobes. We highlight subcomponents of the ventral MPFC that are particularly important in representing self-related thought, and subcomponents of the orbitofrontal cortex robustly involved in representing other-related thought. Our findings indicate that representations of self- and other-related thought in the human brain are described best by a distributed pattern rather than stark localization or a purely ventral to dorsal linear gradient in the MPFC.

People are influenced by their peers, but the mechanisms that translate social observations into changes in emotion are not completely understood. In four planned pre-registered experiments, we will test a model whereby information about other people's actions influences emotional experience and behavior by contributing to how an event's meaning is appraised.

There are pronounced individual differences in the extent to which affective responses are associated with daily stressor exposure. These individual differences have implications for health and well-being. We use 21 days of daily diary data in 167 participants (mean age = 25.37, SD = 7.34; 81.44% women) and test (1) the moderating effect of flourishing on daily stressor-related negative mood and (2) the moderating effect of daily curiosity on daily stressor-related negative mood. Results indicate that people high in flourishing show lower stressor-related negative mood and that stressor-related negative mood is higher than usual on days of lower than usual curiosity. Together, these findings extend a large body of work indicating associations between stressor-related negative mood and both psychopathology and poor physical health to trait and state markers of well-being.

Little is known about the neural mechanisms of threat learning through social means, such as observation of others.We address this dearth of knowledge through a multi-brain framework by recording brain activity (Magnetoencephalography, MEG) in Observers learning the threat value of stimuli through watching Demonstrators' aversive reactions to the same stimuli.We expect brain activity between Demonstrator and Observer to couple together (synchronize) in a way that predicts observational threat learning and reflects social hierarchies.

AbstractIntroductionVaccine hesitancy and inconsistent mitigation behavior performance have been significant challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In Canada, despite relatively high vaccine availability and uptake, willingness to accept booster shots and maintain mitigation behaviors in the post-acute phase of COVID-19 remain uncertain. The aim of the Canadian COVID-19 Experiences Project (CCEP) is two-fold: 1) to identify social-cognitive and neurocognitive correlates of vaccine hesitancy and mitigation behaviors, and 2) to identify optimal communication strategies to promote vaccination and mitigation behaviors into the post-acute phase of the pandemic.Methods and analysesThe CCEP is comprised of two components: a conventional population survey (Study 1) and a functionally interconnected laboratory study (Study 2). Study 1 will involve 3 waves of data collection. Wave 1, completed between 28 September and 21 October, 2021, recruited 1,958 vaccine-hesitant (49.8%) and fully vaccinated (50.2%) adults using quota sampling to ensure maximum statistical power. Measures included a variety of social cognitive (e.g., beliefs, intentions) and neurocognitive (e.g., delay discounting) measures, followed by an opportunity to view and rate a set of professionally produced COVID-19 public service announcement (PSA) videos for perceived efficacy. Study 2 employs the same survey items and PSAs but coupled with lab-based eye tracking and functional brain imaging to directly quantify neural indicators of attention capture and self-reflection in a smaller community sample. In the final phase of the project, subjective impressions and neural indicators of PSA efficacy will be compared and used to inform recommendations for construction of COVID-19 PSAs into the post-acute phase of the pandemic.Ethics and disseminationThe CCEP has received ethical review and approval by the University of Waterloo Office of Research Ethics. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at scientific meetings.

OBJECTIVE Health behavior is affected by competing sources of influence like media messages and peers. In the context of alcohol consumption, college students are targeted by antidrinking media messages, but tend to have proalcohol conversations with peers. How do humans integrate competing sources of influence on daily behavior? We observed individuals under exposure to antialcohol media messages and proalcohol conversations and tested a "common neural value" account of how contradictory influences are integrated to affect behavior. METHODS Participants were instructed to cognitively regulate responses to antidrinking media messages while undergoing fMRI at baseline. Individual differences in success in message-consistent or -derogating regulation were indexed by changes in activity within the neural valuation system (ventral striatum/VS, ventromedial prefrontal cortex/VMPFC), providing a proxy for success in finding value in message-consistent/-derogating engagement. To measure peer influence, we tracked daily drinking-related conversations and drinking behavior for 30 days using mobile electronic diaries. RESULTS Peer conversations, on average, were positive toward drinking. More positive conversations led to more future drinking, particularly for participants who showed greater neural value signals when derogating antidrinking media. Susceptibility to risky peer influence decreased with increasing success in up-regulating message-consistent neural valuation responses to antidrinking media. Neural effects were driven by VS-activity. CONCLUSIONS Results are consistent with a dynamic value integration process where contradictory influences inform a common neural value signal. Reductions in the value of a behavior (through antidrinking campaigns) may buffer against future value increases after exposure to competing influences (proalcohol peers) with important real-world consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

There are marked individual differences in the impact of daily stress on health. We use trait measures of well-being, here quantified as flourishing, and daily reports of stress and negative mood to test (i) the moderating effects of flourishing on affective reactivity and recovery in response to increases in daily stress. To examine whether high curiosity acts as a resource to diminish stress effects, we additionally test (ii) the association between flourishing and curiosity and (iii) the associations between day’s curiosity and both affective reactivity and recovery. We then test for (iv) prospective associations between affective reactivity and recovery and change in flourishing over 3 months. People high in flourishing show lower affective reactivity and augmented recovery. Participants high in flourishing exhibit more frequent days of high curiosity and high curiosity buffers the effects of stress on day’s mood. Finally, greater affective reactivity is associated with longitudinal decreases in flourishing.

Background Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for many patients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD), but predictors of treatment outcome are lacking, and little is known about its neural mechanisms. We recently identified longitudinal changes in neural correlates of conscious emotion regulation that scaled with clinical responses to CBT for MDD, using a negative autobiographical memory-based task. Methods We now examine the neural correlates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation during viewing of emotionally salient images as predictors of treatment outcome with CBT for MDD, and the relationship between longitudinal change in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses and clinical outcomes. Thirty-two participants with current MDD underwent baseline MRI scanning followed by 14 sessions of CBT. The fMRI task measured emotional reactivity and emotion regulation on separate trials using standardized images from the International Affective Pictures System. Twenty-one participants completed post-treatment scanning. Last observation carried forward was used to estimate clinical outcome for non-completers. Results Pre-treatment emotional reactivity Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal within hippocampus including CA1 predicted worse treatment outcome. In contrast, better treatment outcome was associated with increased down-regulation of BOLD activity during emotion regulation from time 1 to time 2 in precuneus, occipital cortex, and middle frontal gyrus. Conclusions CBT may modulate the neural circuitry of emotion regulation. The neural correlates of emotional reactivity may be more strongly predictive of CBT outcome. The finding that treatment outcome was predicted by BOLD signal in CA1 may suggest overgeneralized memory as a negative prognostic factor in CBT outcome.

Objective: Health behavior is affected by competing sources of influence like media messages and peers. In the context of alcohol consumption, college students are targeted by anti-drinking media messages, but tend to have pro-alcohol conversations with peers. How do humans integrate competing sources of influence on daily behavior? We observed individuals under exposure to anti-alcohol media messages and pro-alcohol conversations and tested a “common neural value” account of how contradictory influences are integrated to affect behavior. Methods: Participants were instructed to cognitively regulate responses to anti-drinking media messages while undergoing fMRI at baseline. Individual differences in success in messageconsistent or -derogating regulation were indexed by changes in activity within the neural valuation system (ventral striatum/VS, ventromedial prefrontal cortex/VMPFC), providing a proxy for success in finding value in message-consistent/-derogating engagement. To measure peer influence, we tracked daily drinking-related conversations and drinking behavior for 30 days using mobile electronic diaries. Results: Peer conversations, on average, were positive towards drinking. More positive conversations led to more future drinking, particularly for participants who showed greater neural value signals when derogating anti-drinking media. Susceptibility to risky peer influence decreased with increasing success in up-regulating message-consistent neural valuation responses to anti-drinking media. Neural effects were driven by VS-activity. Conclusions: Results are consistent with a dynamic value integration process where contradictory influences inform a common neural value signal. Reductions in the value of a behavior (through anti-drinking campaigns) may buffer against future value increases after exposure to competing influences (pro-alcohol peers) with important real-world consequences.