Neural mechanisms of the link between giving social support and health

Abstract

Giving social support to others has emerged as an additional route by which social ties influence health. Thus, giving support to others not only influences the health of the individual receiving support, but also the health of the individual giving the support. However, the neural mechanisms by which giving support leads to health are only beginning to be explored. In hopes of consolidating and guiding future research on giving support and health, the current review considers why, how, and when giving support is health promoting. Special emphasis is placed on neural regions known to contribute to parental care in animals that both reinforce giving support behavior (ventral striatum and septal area) and reduce stress-related responding (e.g., amygdala) to facilitate care. Hypothesized links between neural regions involved in giving support and peripheral physiology (sympathetic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and related inflammatory responding) are considered as well as the conditions under which giving support should be most beneficial for health. Finally, the implications of the current perspective for understanding how social relationships, more broadly, contribute to health and suggestions for future directions are offered.

Individual differences in resting-state connectivity and giving social support: implications for health

“…DACC, AI and amygdala activity to other people’s negative emotional social cues may have implications for giving support to others ( Inagaki, 2018 ). Consistent with this notion and in a conceptual replication of previous correlational findings ( Inagaki & Ross, 2018 ), greater reports of giving emotional support, taken at the time of the scan, were associated with less DACC, AI and amygdala activity to negative ( vs neutral) emotional social cues ( r = −0.252, P = 0.050; BCa 95% CI, −0.508 to −0.014).…”

“…The health relevance of social support has long been appreciated. However, a relatively new perspective is that giving support to others, in addition to any support one receives, also contributes to health in positive ways ( Brown & Brown, 2006 ; Inagaki, 2018 ). Thinking about and understanding others, a process linked with the DMPFC default network subsystem, is theorized to be a major function of our inherent, ‘default state’ ( Mitchell, 2006 ; Schilbach et al, 2008 ; Lieberman, 2013 ; Meyer, 2019 ).…”

“…If engaging the DMPFC subsystem at rest is associated with support giving, we would also expect that functional connectivity in this subsystem at rest corresponds with less dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (DACC), anterior insula (AI) and amygdala activity in response to others’ negative experiences, a salient signal that they may be in need. Indeed, it has been proposed that less activity in these regions in response to targets in need may facilitate social approach, allowing an individual to nurture and care for them ( Brown & Brown, 2006 ; Numan, 2007 ; Preston, 2013 ; Inagaki & Orehek, 2017 ; Inagaki, 2018 ). In support of this hypothesis, greater self-reports of giving support to others in need are associated with less activity in the DACC, AI and amygdala to negative emotional social cues, including negative facial expressions ( Inagaki et al, 2016 ; Inagaki & Ross, 2018 ).…”

“…Based on the importance of the DMPFC subsystem for understanding others, we hypothesized that individuals with greater integrity of the DMPFC subsystem, as evidenced by stronger functional connectivity within this network at rest, would report greater support giving in their daily life. In addition, we hypothesized that greater functional connectivity within the DMPFC subsystem at rest would correlate with attenuated DACC, AI and amygdala activity to others’ negative emotional social cues, a response that may facilitate providing support to others in need ( Inagaki, 2018 ). Finally, we further assessed whether DMPFC connectivity at rest preferentially relates to giving support, relative to other similar, health-relevant individual differences in social tendencies, such as receiving support, perceiving support and extraversion.…”

“…Giving nurturing, supportive care to other people is an emerging predictor of health and well-being ( Inagaki, 2018 ). For instance, giving support is associated with greater longevity ( Brown et al, 2003 ; Poulin et al, 2013 ) and greater self-reported mental and physical health ( Lum & Lightfoot, 2005 ).…”