Social feedback, such as praise or critique, profoundly impacts our mood and social interactions. It is unknown, however, how parents experience praise and critique about their child and whether their mood and neural responses to such ‘vicarious’ social feedback are modulated by parents’ perceptions of their child. Parents (n = 60) received positive, intermediate and negative feedback words (i.e. personality characteristics) about their adolescent child during a magnetic resonance imaging scan. After each word, parents indicated their mood. After positive feedback their mood improved and activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus increased. Negative feedback worsened parents’ mood, especially when perceived as inapplicable to their child, and increased activity in anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and precuneus. Parents who generally viewed their child more positively showed amplified mood responses to both positive and negative feedback and increased activity in dorsal striatum, inferior frontal gyrus and insula in response to negative feedback. These findings suggest that vicarious feedback has similar effects and engages similar brain regions as observed during feedback about the self and illustrates this is dependent on parents’ beliefs of their child’s qualities and flaws. Potential implications for parent–child dynamics and children’s own self-views are discussed.

中文翻译：

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替代性赞美和痛苦：父母对青春期孩子的社会反馈的神经反应

社交反馈，例如表扬或批评，会深刻影响我们的情绪和社交互动。然而，尚不清楚父母如何体验对孩子的表扬和批评，以及他们对这种“替代性”社会反馈的情绪和神经反应是否受到父母对孩子的看法的调节。父母（n = 60）在磁共振成像扫描期间收到了关于他们青春期孩子的正面、中间和负面反馈词（即人格特征）。每个字之后，父母都会表达他们的心情。在积极反馈后，他们的情绪得到改善，腹内侧前额叶皮层和后扣带皮层/楔前叶的活动增加。负面反馈会恶化父母的情绪，尤其是当被认为不适用于他们的孩子时，并且会增加前扣带皮层、前岛叶的活动，背内侧前额叶皮层和楔前叶。普遍认为孩子更积极的父母对正反馈和负反馈都表现出放大的情绪反应，并且背侧纹状体、额下回和岛叶对负反馈的反应增加。这些研究结果表明，替代反馈具有与在自我反馈过程中观察到的相似的影响和参与相似的大脑区域，并说明这取决于父母对孩子品质和缺陷的信念。讨论了对亲子动态和孩子自己的自我看法的潜在影响。额下回和岛叶对负反馈的反应。这些研究结果表明，替代反馈具有与在自我反馈过程中观察到的相似的影响和参与相似的大脑区域，并说明这取决于父母对孩子品质和缺陷的信念。讨论了对亲子动态和孩子自己的自我看法的潜在影响。额下回和岛叶对负反馈的反应。这些研究结果表明，替代反馈具有与在自我反馈过程中观察到的相似的影响和参与相似的大脑区域，并说明这取决于父母对孩子品质和缺陷的信念。讨论了对亲子动态和孩子自己的自我看法的潜在影响。