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Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism?

We have known for decades that social support is associated with positive health outcomes. And yet, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood. The link between social support and positive health outcomes is likely to depend on the neurophysiological regul...

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Autores principales: Guerra, Pedro, Sánchez-Adam, Alicia, Anllo-Vento, Lourdes, Ramírez, Isabel, Vila, Jaime
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3402448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22911829
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041631
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author Guerra, Pedro
Sánchez-Adam, Alicia
Anllo-Vento, Lourdes
Ramírez, Isabel
Vila, Jaime
author_facet Guerra, Pedro
Sánchez-Adam, Alicia
Anllo-Vento, Lourdes
Ramírez, Isabel
Vila, Jaime
author_sort Guerra, Pedro
collection PubMed
description We have known for decades that social support is associated with positive health outcomes. And yet, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood. The link between social support and positive health outcomes is likely to depend on the neurophysiological regulatory mechanisms underlying reward and defensive reactions. The present study examines the hypothesis that emotional social support (love) provides safety cues that activate the appetitive reward system and simultaneously inhibit defense reactions. Using the startle probe paradigm, 54 undergraduate students (24 men) viewed black and white photographs of loved (romantic partner, father, mother, and best friend), neutral (unknown), and unpleasant (mutilated) faces. Eye–blink startle, zygomatic major activity, heart rate, and skin conductance responses to the faces, together with subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance, were obtained. Viewing loved faces induced a marked inhibition of the eye-blink startle response accompanied by a pattern of zygomatic, heart rate, skin conductance, and subjective changes indicative of an intense positive emotional response. Effects were similar for men and women, but the startle inhibition and the zygomatic response were larger in female participants. A comparison between the faces of the romantic partner and the parent who shares the partner’s gender further suggests that this effect is not attributable to familiarity or arousal. We conclude that this inhibitory capacity may contribute to the health benefits associated with social support.
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spelling pubmed-34024482012-07-30 Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism? Guerra, Pedro Sánchez-Adam, Alicia Anllo-Vento, Lourdes Ramírez, Isabel Vila, Jaime PLoS One Research Article We have known for decades that social support is associated with positive health outcomes. And yet, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this association remain poorly understood. The link between social support and positive health outcomes is likely to depend on the neurophysiological regulatory mechanisms underlying reward and defensive reactions. The present study examines the hypothesis that emotional social support (love) provides safety cues that activate the appetitive reward system and simultaneously inhibit defense reactions. Using the startle probe paradigm, 54 undergraduate students (24 men) viewed black and white photographs of loved (romantic partner, father, mother, and best friend), neutral (unknown), and unpleasant (mutilated) faces. Eye–blink startle, zygomatic major activity, heart rate, and skin conductance responses to the faces, together with subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance, were obtained. Viewing loved faces induced a marked inhibition of the eye-blink startle response accompanied by a pattern of zygomatic, heart rate, skin conductance, and subjective changes indicative of an intense positive emotional response. Effects were similar for men and women, but the startle inhibition and the zygomatic response were larger in female participants. A comparison between the faces of the romantic partner and the parent who shares the partner’s gender further suggests that this effect is not attributable to familiarity or arousal. We conclude that this inhibitory capacity may contribute to the health benefits associated with social support. Public Library of Science 2012-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3402448/ /pubmed/22911829 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041631 Text en Guerra et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Guerra, Pedro
Sánchez-Adam, Alicia
Anllo-Vento, Lourdes
Ramírez, Isabel
Vila, Jaime
Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism?
title Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism?
title_full Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism?
title_fullStr Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism?
title_full_unstemmed Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism?
title_short Viewing Loved Faces Inhibits Defense Reactions: A Health-Promotion Mechanism?
title_sort viewing loved faces inhibits defense reactions: a health-promotion mechanism?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3402448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22911829
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041631
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