“...The social baseline theory (SBT) proposes that organisms are adapted to social ecology—the presence of other conspecifics—more so than any physical ecology. Consequently, the social proximity to other individuals (characterized by familiarity, joint attention, shared goals, and interdependence) should be considered as the default or baseline assumption of the human brain (Beckes and Coan, 2011; Coan, 2011). The SBT is grounded in empirical studies that have found that neural pathways and hormonal stress responses associated with self-regulation of emotion are less active when social support is provided or even anticipated (Gunnar and Quevedo, 2007; Hostinar et al., 2012). The neural response to threat cues is minimized when a high-quality relational partner is on hand. Individuals whose relationships are marked by perceived mutuality and responsiveness are characterized by decreased self-regulatory effort and by reduced preparation to respond to threat cues (Coan et al., 2013). Importantly, animal research demonstrates similar physiological effects. For instance, one study found that female mice approaching a dyad member in physical pain led to less writhing from the mouse in pain (Langford et al., 2010). These positive effects of social approach were seen only when the mouse was a cage mate of the mouse in pain and not for a stranger. These results replicate previous findings reporting reduced pain sensitivity in mice when interacting with siblings, but no such analgesic effect when mice interact with a stranger (D’Amato and Pavone, 1993). journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00457/full
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 07:24:54 +0000
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