Self-disclosure is associated with adrenocortical attunement between new acquaintances.

Adrenocortical attunement-similarity in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity-has been well-documented in close relationships (e.g., between romantic partners, parents and children, and close friends).

Attachment predicts cortisol response and closeness in dyadic social interaction.

The present study examined how the interplay of partners' attachment styles influences cortisol response, actual closeness, and desired closeness during friendship initiation. Participants provided salivary cortisol samples at four timepoints throughout either a high or low closeness task that facilitated high or low levels of self-disclosure with a potential friend (i.e.

The roles of testosterone and cortisol in friendship formation.

Although research has investigated the neuroendocrine correlates of romantic relationships, the neuroendocrine correlates of friendship formation are largely unexplored. In two conditions, participants' salivary testosterone and cortisol were measured before and after a high versus low closeness activity with another same-sex participant. In the high closeness task, participants took turns answering questions that fostered increases in self-disclosure.

Face processing in depersonalization: an fMRI study of the unfamiliar self.

Depersonalization disorder (DPD) is characterized by a core sense of unfamiliarity. Nine DPD participants and 10 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while viewing self and unfamiliar faces. Compared with control subjects, the DPD group exhibited significantly greater activation in several brain regions in response to self vs.

Preliminary physiological evidence for impaired emotion regulation in depersonalization disorder.

Depersonalization disorder is associated with emotional responding deficits. Ability to regulate emotion was measured by heart rate, skin conductance, and subjective responses to pictures. Compared to controls, depersonalized participants were better able to suppress, but not enhance, emotions irrespective of valence (heart rate).

Temperament trait of sensory processing sensitivity moderates cultural differences in neural response.

This study focused on a possible temperament-by-culture interaction. Specifically, it explored whether a basic temperament/personality trait (sensory processing sensitivity; SPS), perhaps having a genetic component, might moderate a previously established cultural difference in neural responses when making context-dependent vs context-independent judgments of simple visual stimuli. SPS has been hypothesized to underlie what has been called inhibitedness or reactivity in infants, introversion in adults, and reactivity or responsivness in diverse animal species.

Neural differences in the processing of semantic relationships across cultures.

The current study employed functional MRI to investigate the contribution of domain-general (e.g. executive functions) and domain-specific (e.

Culture and attention: evidence from brain and behavior.

Research has demonstrated that our experiences, including the culture in which we are raised, shape how we attend to and perceive the world. Behavioral studies have found that individuals raised in Western cultures tend toward analytic processing and prefer tasks emphasizing independent contexts rather than tasks emphasizing interdependent contexts. The opposite is true for individuals raised in East Asian cultures, who tend toward holistic processing and prefer tasks emphasizing interdependent contexts.

Cultural influences on neural substrates of attentional control.

Behavioral research has shown that people from Western cultural contexts perform better on tasks emphasizing independent (absolute) dimensions than on tasks emphasizing interdependent (relative) dimensions, whereas the reverse is true for people from East Asian contexts. We assessed functional magnetic resonance imaging responses during performance of simple visuospatial tasks in which participants made absolute judgments (ignoring visual context) or relative judgments (taking visual context into account). In each group, activation in frontal and parietal brain regions known to be associated with attentional control was greater during culturally nonpreferred judgments than during culturally preferred judgments.

Graspable objects grab attention when the potential for action is recognized.

Visually guided grasping movements require a rapid transformation of visual representations into object-specific motor programs. Here we report that graspable objects may facilitate these visuomotor transformations by automatically grabbing visual spatial attention. Human subjects viewed two task-irrelevant objects--one was a 'tool', the other a 'non-tool'--while waiting for a target to be presented in one of the two object locations.