Proximity within adolescent peer networks predicts neural similarity during affective experience.

ABSTRACT: Individuals befriend others who are similar to them. One important source of similarity in relationships is similarity in felt emotion. In the present study, we used novel methods to assess whether greater similarity in the multivoxel brain representation of affective stimuli was associated with adolescents' proximity within real-world school-based social networks. We examined dyad-level neural similarity within a set of brain regions associated with the representation of affect including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), amygdala, insula, and temporal pole. Greater proximity was associated with greater vmPFC neural similarity during pleasant and neutral experiences. Moreover, we used unsupervised clustering on social networks to identify groups of friends and observed that indiv

SUBMITTER: Feldman MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11540295 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature