A lived experience perspective on social connection in mental health research

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Central amygdala somatostatin neurons modulate stress-induced sleep-onset insomnia

Sleep-onset insomnia, characterized by difficulty falling asleep, is linked to increased health risks. Previous studies have shown that the central amygdala (CeA) plays a crucial role in stress regulation, with the somatostatin neurons in the CeA (CeASST+) involved in adaptive stress responses. However, the role of CeASST+ neurons in stress-induced sleep-onset insomnia remains unclear. In this study, we found that the activity of CeASST+ neurons is closely associated with stressful events using fiber photometry in mice. Acute optogenetic activation of CeASST+ neurons induced a rapid transition from non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep to wakefulness. Semi-chronic optogenetic and chemogenetic activation of CeASST+ neurons led to prolonged sleep-onset latency and increased wakefulness. Chemogenetic inhibition of these neurons ameliorated sleep-onset insomnia induced by stressful stimuli, but did not affect sleep-wake behavior under physiological conditions. Collectively, our results suggested that CeASST+ neurons are a key neural substrate for modulating stress-induced sleep-onset insomnia, without influencing physiological sleep. These findings highlight CeASST+ neurons as a promising target for treating stress-related sleep-onset insomnia in clinical practice.

Weak ties and the value of social connections for autistic people as revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic

A diverse portfolio of social relationships matters for people’s wellbeing, including both strong, secure relationships with others (‘close ties’) and casual interactions with acquaintances and strangers (‘weak ties’). Almost all of autism research has focused on Autistic people’s close ties with friends, family and intimate partners, resulting in a radically constrained understanding of Autistic sociality. Here, we sought to understand the potential power of weak-tie interactions by drawing on 95 semi-structured interviews with Autistic young people and adults conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed the qualitative data using reflexive thematic analysis within an essentialist framework. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Autistic people deeply missed not only their close personal relationships but also their “incidental social contact” with acquaintances and strangers. These weak-tie interactions appear to serve similar functions for Autistic people as they do for non-autistic people, including promoting wellbeing. These findings have important implications both for future research into Autistic sociality and for the design of practical services and supports to enhance Autistic people’s opportunities to flourish.

Interracial contact shapes racial bias in the learning of person-knowledge

During impression formation, perceptual cues facilitate social categorization while person-knowledge can promote individuation and enhance person memory. Although there is extensive literature on the cross-race recognition deficit, observed when racial ingroup faces are recognized more than outgroup faces, it is unclear whether a similar deficit exists when recalling individuating information about outgroup members. To better understand how perceived race can bias person memory, the present study examined how self-identified White perceivers’ interracial contact impacts learning of perceptual cues and person-knowledge about perceived Black and White others over five sessions of training. While person-knowledge facilitated face recognition accuracy for low-contact perceivers, face recognition accuracy did not differ for high-contact perceivers based on person-knowledge availability. The results indicate a bias towards better recall of ingroup person knowledge, which decreased for high-contact perceivers across the five-day training but simultaneously increased for low-contact perceivers. Overall, the elimination of racial bias in recall of person-knowledge among high-contact perceivers amid a persistent cross-race deficit in face recognition suggests that contact may have a greater impact on the recall of person-knowledge than on face recognition.

Higher income is associated with greater life satisfaction, and more stress

Is there a cost to our well-being from increased affluence? Drawing upon responses from 2.05 million U.S. adults from the Gallup Daily Poll from 2008 to 2017 we find that with household income above ~$63,000 respondents are more likely to experience stress. This contrasts with the trend below this threshold, where at higher income the prevalence of stress decreases. Such a turning point for stress was also found for population sub-groups, divided by gender, race, and political affiliation. Further, we find that respondents who report prior-day stress have lower life satisfaction for all income and sub-group categories compared to the respondents who do not report prior-day stress. We find suggestive evidence that among the more satisfied, healthier, socially connected, and those not suffering basic needs deprivations, this turn-around in stress prevalence starts at lower values of income and stress. We hypothesize that stress at higher income values relates to lifestyle factors associated with affluence, rather than from known well-being deprivations related to good health and social conditions, which may arise even at lower income values if conventional needs are met.

The individual determinants of morning dream recall

Evidence suggests that (almost) everyone dreams during their sleep and may actually do so for a large part of the night. Yet, dream recall shows large interindividual variability. Understanding the factors that influence dream recall is crucial for advancing our knowledge regarding dreams’ origin, significance, and functions. Here, we tackled this issue by prospectively collecting dream reports along with demographic information and psychometric, cognitive, actigraphic, and electroencephalographic measures in 217 healthy adults (18–70 y, 116 female participants, 101 male participants). We found that attitude towards dreaming, proneness to mind wandering, and sleep patterns are associated with the probability of reporting a dream upon morning awakening. The likelihood of recalling dream content was predicted by age and vulnerability to interference. Moreover, dream recall appeared to be influenced by night-by-night changes in sleep patterns and showed seasonal fluctuations. Our results provide an account for previous observations regarding inter- and intra-individual variability in morning dream recall.

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