The reduction of aversive emotions by a conspecific’s presence—called social buffering—is a universal phenomenon in the mammalian world and a powerful form of human social emotion regulation. Animal and human studies on neural pathways underlying social buffering typically examined physiological reactions or regional brain activations. However, direct links between emotional and social stimuli, distinct neural processes and behavioural outcomes are still missing. Using data of 27 female participants, the current study delineated a large-scale process model of social buffering’s neural underpinnings, connecting changes in neural activity to emotional behaviour by means of voxel-wise multilevel mediation analysis. Our results confirmed that three processes underlie human social buffering: (i) social support-related reduction of activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, anterior and mid-cingulate; (ii) downregulation of aversive emotion-induced brain activity in the superficial cortex-like amygdala and mediodorsal thalamus; and (iii) downregulation of reported aversive feelings. Results of the current study provide evidence for a distinct neural process model of aversive emotion regulation in humans by social buffering.

中文翻译：

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你的存在使我安心：通过社交缓冲进行厌恶情绪调节的神经过程模型。

由于特定物种的存在而减少的厌恶情绪（称为社会缓冲）是哺乳动物世界中的普遍现象，是人类社会情绪调节的有力形式。动物和人类对社会缓冲基础神经通路的研究通常检查生理反应或区域性大脑激活。然而，情感和社会刺激，独特的神经过程和行为结果之间的直接联系仍然缺失。本研究使用27位女性参与者的数据，描绘了社会缓冲神经基础的大规模过程模型，通过体素多级中介分析将神经活动的变化与情绪行为联系起来。我们的结果证实了人类社会缓冲的三个过程：（i）与社会支持有关的眼眶额叶皮层，腹内侧和背外侧前额叶皮层，前扣带和中扣带的活动减少；（ii）下调表层皮质样杏仁核和地中海中丘脑的厌恶情绪诱导的大脑活动；（iii）下调所报告的厌恶情绪。本研究的结果为通过社交缓冲对人类厌恶情绪调节的独特神经过程模型提供了证据。