title: Adolescents growing up amidst intractable conflict attenuate brain response to pain of outgroup.
abstract: Adolescents' participation in intergroup conflicts comprises an imminent global risk, and understanding its neural underpinnings may open new perspectives. We assessed Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Palestinian adolescents for brain response to the pain of ingroup/outgroup protagonists using magnetoencephalography (MEG), one-on-one positive and conflictual interactions with an outgroup member, attitudes toward the regional conflict, and oxytocin levels. A neural marker of ingroup bias emerged, expressed via alpha modulations in the somatosensory cortex (S1) that characterized an automatic response to the pain of all protagonists followed by rebound/enhancement to ingroup pain only. Adolescents' hostile social interactions with outgroup members and uncompromising attitudes toward the conflict influenced this neural marker. Furthermore, higher oxytocin levels in the Jewish-Israeli majority and tighter brain-to-brain synchrony among group members in the Arab-Palestinian minority enhanced the neural ingroup bias. Findings suggest that in cases of intractable intergroup conflict, top-down control mechanisms may block the brain's evolutionary-ancient resonance to outgroup pain, pinpointing adolescents' interpersonal and sociocognitive processes as potential targets for intervention.
authors.affiliation: Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.affiliation: Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.|Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9349-0621
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
authors.forename: Moran
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Influs
authors.affiliation: College of Academic Studies, Or-Yehuda 60218, Israel.
authors.forename: Shafiq
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Masalha
authors.affiliation: Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.|Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
authors.forename: Orna
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Zagoory-Sharon
authors.affiliation: Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; feldman.ruth@gmail.com.|Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.|Child Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feldman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D018912:Arabs / Q000523:psychology; D001290:Attitude; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews / Q000523:psychology; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008877:Middle East; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000378:metabolism; D011057:Politics; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: alpha oscillations; brain-to-brain synchrony; empathy; intergroup conflict; oxytocin