Social support, spirituality, and executive functions: An event-related potential (ERP) study of neural mechanisms of cultural protective factors in American Indians (AIs).

Résumé

A resilience-based approach in American Indian (AI) communities focuses on inherent sociocultural assets that may act as protective resilience buffers linked to mitigated mental health risks (e.g., deep-rooted spiritual, robust social support networks). Executive control functions are implicated as mechanisms for protective factors, but little evidence exists on the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms that support resilience. This study examined how sustainable and community-centric factors of social support and Native Spirituality were linked to neural mechanisms of executive control functions in a heterogeneous AI community. Fifty-nine self-identified AI participants underwent electroencephalography recordings during a stop signal task and completed measures of social support and spirituality engagement. Event-related potential components indexed attentional resource allocation for inhibitory processing (N2, P3a) and for response error monitoring (error/correct-related negativity; error positivity). Greater social support was linked to attenuated attentional demands for early and sustained inhibitory processing (N2, P3a). Greater Native Spirituality beliefs were linked to greater attentional resources for early but not sustained error-monitoring error-related negativity. Results provide novel evidence for neurocognitive mechanisms of resilience, contribute a deeper understanding of resilience within Indigenous communities, and highlight the role of salient protective factors in mental health that offer a foundation for targeted resilience-based treatment(s). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).