Showing papers in "Social Neuroscience in 2013"
TL;DR: These findings are the first to document differential associations between both threat- and reward-related neural processes and distinct facets of psychopathy and thus provide a more comprehensive picture of the pattern of neural vulnerabilities that may predispose to maladaptive outcomes associated with psychopathy.
Abstract: Recent studies suggest that psychopathy may be associated with dysfunction in the neural circuitry supporting both threat- and reward-related processes. However, these studies have involved small samples and often focused on extreme groups. Thus, it is unclear to what extent current findings may generalize to psychopathic traits in the general population. Furthermore, no studies have systematically and simultaneously assessed associations between distinct psychopathy facets and both threat- and reward-related brain function in the same sample of participants. Here, we examined the relationship between threat-related amygdala reactivity and reward-related ventral striatum (VS) reactivity and variation in four facets of self-reported psychopathy in a sample of 200 young adults. Path models indicated that amygdala reactivity to fearful facial expressions is negatively associated with the interpersonal facet of psychopathy, whereas amygdala reactivity to angry facial expressions is positively associated with the lifestyle facet. Furthermore, these models revealed that differential VS reactivity to positive versus negative feedback is negatively associated with the lifestyle facet. There was suggestive evidence for gender-specific patterns of association between brain function and psychopathy facets. Our findings are the first to document differential associations between both threat- and reward-related neural processes and distinct facets of psychopathy and thus provide a more comprehensive picture of the pattern of neural vulnerabilities that may predispose to maladaptive outcomes associated with psychopathy.
189 citations
TL;DR: Patients' evaluation of interpersonal trust seems to depend more on attractiveness features of their counterparts than in controls, a finding that may have important implications for further research on the usefulness of “prosocial” peptides as an adjunct to psychotherapeutic interventions.
Abstract: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by interpersonal difficulties, whereby patients are negatively biased concerning the evaluation of others' trustworthiness. Here, we examined the effect of oxytocin on interpersonal behavior of BPD patients in a trust game, emphasizing the assessment of facial attractiveness of the patients' counterparts in the game, and patients' history of childhood trauma. Thirteen BPD patients and thirteen healthy controls played a trust game after receiving oxytocin or placebo in a randomized, double-blind crossover design. Childhood trauma was evaluated using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Patients transferred less money in the oxytocin condition compared to placebo. While healthy controls transferred more money units (MUs) to attractive counterparts than to unattractive ones only after the administration of oxytocin, BPD patients showed this pattern in both conditions. Emotional neglect during childhood negatively correlated with the amount of MUs transferred by patients under oxytocin, but not placebo. Oxytocin had a trust-lowering effect in BPD, which was correlated with patients' history of childhood trauma. Patients' evaluation of interpersonal trust seems to depend more on attractiveness features of their counterparts than in controls, a finding that may have important implications for further research on the usefulness of "prosocial" peptides as an adjunct to psychotherapeutic interventions.
96 citations
TL;DR: This study is the first to examine depression-related differences in mothers' neural response to their own infant's emotion faces, considering both effects of perinatal depression history and current depressive symptoms.
Abstract: Depressed mothers show negatively biased responses to their infants' emotional bids, perhaps due to faulty processing of infant cues. This study is the first to examine depression-related differences in mothers' neural response to their own infant's emotion faces, considering both effects of perinatal depression history and current depressive symptoms. Primiparous mothers (n = 22), half of whom had a history of major depressive episodes (with one episode occurring during pregnancy and/or postpartum), were exposed to images of their own and unfamiliar infants' joy and distress faces during functional neuroimaging. Group differences (depression vs. no-depression) and continuous effects of current depressive symptoms were tested in relation to neural response to own infant emotion faces. Compared to mothers with no psychiatric diagnoses, those with depression showed blunted responses to their own infant's distress faces in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Mothers with higher levels of current symptomatology showed reduced responses to their own infant's joy faces in the orbitofrontal cortex and insula. Current symptomatology also predicted lower responses to own infant joy-distress in left-sided prefrontal and insula/striatal regions. These deficits in self-regulatory and motivational response circuits may help explain parenting difficulties in depressed mothers.
88 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that empathy deficits might serve as potential trigger of emotion dysregulation, suggesting that adaptive emotion regulation and social information processing are associated with higher levels of aggression.
Abstract: Emotion regulation is a crucial skill in adulthood; its acquisition represents one of the key developmental tasks in early childhood. Difficulties with adaptive emotion regulation increase the risk of psychopathology in childhood and adulthood. This is, for instance, shown by a relation between emotion regulation and aggressive behavior in childhood age, indicating emotion dysregulation as an important risk factor of aggressive behavior and potential precursor of psychopathology. Based on (1) interrelations between emotion processes and social information processing (maladaptive emotion regulation and social information processing are associated with higher levels of aggression) and (2) recent neuroscientific findings showing that empathy deficits might not only result in difficulties labeling others' emotions but one's own emotions too, we suggest that empathy deficits might serve as potential trigger of emotion dysregulation. Different studies investigating the relation between empathy and emotion regulation are presented and discussed. Discussions are based on the assumed potential of empathy deficits triggering emotion dysregulation. Furthermore, developmental neuroscientific findings on empathy and emotion regulation are highlighted which provide further insights on how these processes might relate. Finally, possible directions for future research are presented.
81 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used fMRI to measure BOLD responses associated with two coaching styles: Positive Emotional Attraction (PEA) coaching and negative emotional attraction (NEA), focusing on externally defined criteria for success and the individual's weaknesses in relation to them.
Abstract: Effective coaching and mentoring is crucial to the success of individuals and organizations, yet relatively little is known about its neural underpinnings. Coaching and mentoring to the Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA) emphasizes compassion for the individual's hopes and dreams and has been shown to enhance a behavioral change. In contrast, coaching to the Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA), by focusing on externally defined criteria for success and the individual's weaknesses in relation to them, does not show sustained change. We used fMRI to measure BOLD responses associated with these two coaching styles. We hypothesized that PEA coaching would be associated with increased global visual processing and with engagement of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), while the NEA coaching would involve greater engagement of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Regions showing more activity in PEA conditions included the lateral occipital cortex, superior temporal cortex, medial parietal, subgenual cingulate, nucleus accumbens, and left lateral prefrontal cortex. We relate these activations to visioning, PNS activity, and positive affect. Regions showing more activity in NEA conditions included medial prefrontal regions and right lateral prefrontal cortex. We relate these activations to SNS activity, self-trait attribution and negative affect.
81 citations
TL;DR: The results showed that joint action planning compared with individual action planning resulted in amplitude modulations of the frontal P3a and parietal P3b event-related potentials, which are associated with stimulus classification, updating of representations, and decision-making.
Abstract: It has been postulated that when people engage in joint actions they form internal representations not only of their part of the joint task but of their co-actors' parts of the task as well. However, empirical evidence for this claim is scarce. By means of high-density electroencephalography, this study investigated whether one represents and simulates the action of an interaction partner when planning to perform a joint action. The results showed that joint action planning compared with individual action planning resulted in amplitude modulations of the frontal P3a and parietal P3b event-related potentials, which are associated with stimulus classification, updating of representations, and decision-making. Moreover, there was evidence for anticipatory motor simulation of the partner's action in the amplitude and peak latency of the late, motor part of the Contingent Negative Variation, which was correlated with joint action performance. Our results provide evidence that when people engage in joint tasks, they represent in advance each other's actions in order to facilitate coordination.
79 citations
TL;DR: A summary of studies on emotion, perspective-taking, memory, object perception, attention, language, and the self, showing cultural differences in behavior as well as in neural activation attest to the plasticity of the brain and its adaptation to cultural contexts.
Abstract: The aim of this review is to highlight an emerging field: the neuroscience of culture. This new field links cross-cultural psychology with cognitive neuroscience across fundamental domains of cognitive and social psychology. We present a summary of studies on emotion, perspective-taking, memory, object perception, attention, language, and the self, showing cultural differences in behavior as well as in neural activation. Although it is still nascent, the broad impact of merging the study of culture with cognitive neuroscience holds mutual distributed benefits for multiple related fields. Thus, cultural neuroscience may be uniquely poised to provide insights and breakthroughs for longstanding questions and problems in the study of behavior and thought, and its capacity for integration across multiple levels of analysis is especially high. These findings attest to the plasticity of the brain and its adaptation to cultural contexts.
78 citations
TL;DR: Evidence suggesting that the orbitofrontal cortex rapidly responds to a range of infant communicative cues, such as faces and voices, supporting their efficient processing may be fundamental in supporting adults to respond rapidly and appropriately to infant needs is reviewed.
Abstract: The bond between a parent and an infant often appears to form effortlessly and intuitively, and this relationship is fundamental to infant survival and development. Parenting is considered to depend on specific brain networks that are largely conserved across species and in place even before parenthood. Efforts to understand the neural basis of parenting in humans have focused on the overlapping networks implicated in reward and social cognition, within which the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is considered to be a crucial hub. This review examines emerging evidence that the OFC may be engaged in several phases of parent–infant interactions, from early, privileged orienting to infant cues, to ongoing monitoring of interactions and subsequent learning. Specifically, we review evidence suggesting that the OFC rapidly responds to a range of infant communicative cues, such as faces and voices, supporting their efficient processing. Crucially, this early orienting response may be fundamental in supporting adults t...
73 citations
TL;DR: In IPV perpetrators, high T/C ratios were linked to better self-esteem and good mental health, and may serve as a marker to identify men at high risk of reacting violently to their partners.
Abstract: Testosterone to cortisol (T/C) ratios could be associated with feelings and expression of anger as high testosterone and low cortisol levels indicate a predisposition to violence. The basal T/C ratio has recently been proposed as a marker for proneness to social aggression; so far, however, only its value as an indicator of state anger or violence has been investigated. Given this, we aimed to establish whether the T/C ratio response to acute stress was a specific psychobiological feature in individuals with a history of violence, namely, perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV). T/C ratio and anger responses were compared in men jailed for IPV and controls using the Trier Social Stress Test. IPV perpetrators had higher T/C ratios than controls, during the preparation period, and 15 and 30 minutes post-task. In IPV perpetrators, high T/C ratios were linked to better self-esteem and good mental health. An increase in anger may increase proneness to violence by altering hormones and, thereby, increasing T/C ratios. The basal T/C ratio together with acute stress responses and other indicators could serve as a marker to identify men at high risk of reacting violently to their partners.
61 citations
TL;DR: The findings suggest that accessible collectivistic/individualistic mind-set induced by self-construal priming is associated with modulations of both task-related and resting-state activity in the default mode network.
Abstract: Self-construal priming modulates human behavior and associated neural activity. However, the neural activity associated with the self-construal priming procedure itself remains unknown. It is also unclear whether and how self-construal priming affects neural activity prior to engaging in a particular task. To address this gap, we scanned Chinese adults, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, during self-construal priming and a following resting state. We found that, relative to a calculation task, both interdependent and independent self-construal priming activated the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). The contrast of interdependent vs. independent self-construal priming also revealed increased activity in the dorsal MPFC and left middle frontal cortex. The regional homogeneity analysis of the resting-state activity revealed increased local synchronization of spontaneous activity in the dorsal MPFC but decreased local synchronization of spontaneous activity in the PCC when contrasting interdependent vs. independent self-construal priming. The functional connectivity analysis of the resting-state activity, however, did not show significant difference in synchronization of activities in remote brain regions between different priming conditions. Our findings suggest that accessible collectivistic/individualistic mind-set induced by self-construal priming is associated with modulations of both task-related and resting-state activity in the default mode network.
60 citations
TL;DR: The view that multiple neurocognitive “routes” operate during visual perspective taking (VPT) is supported, supported by considering how an observed actor's location and action influence the neural bases of visual perspective judgments.
Abstract: Taking another person’s viewpoint and making sense of their actions are key processes that guide social behavior. Previous neuroimaging investigations have largely studied these processes separately. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine how the brain incorporates another person’s viewpoint and actions into visual perspective judgments. Participants made a left‐right judgment about the location of a target object from their own (egocentric) or an actor’s visual perspective (altercentric). Actor location varied around a table and the actor was either reaching or not reaching for the target object. Analyses examined brain regions engaged in the egocentric and altercentric tasks, brain regions where response magnitude tracked the orientation of the actor in the scene and brain regions sensitive to the action performed by the actor. The blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) was sensitive to actor orientation in the altercentric task, whereas the response in right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was sensitive to actor orientation in the egocentric task. Thus, dmPFC and right IFG may play distinct but complementary roles in visual perspective taking (VPT). Observation of a reaching actor compared to a non-reaching actor yielded activation in lateral occipitotemporal cortex, regardless of task, showing that these regions are sensitive to body posture independent of social context. By considering how an observed actor’s location and action influence the neural bases of visual perspective judgments, the current study supports the view that multiple neurocognitive “routes” operate during VPT.
TL;DR: The data suggest that Asian-Americans and those with interdependent self-construals process the relationship between perceived facial emotion and affective background context to a greater degree than European Americans andThose with independent self- construals.
Abstract: East Asians and Asian-Americans tend to allocate relatively greater attention to background context compared to European Americans across a variety of cognitive and neural measures. We sought to extend these findings of cultural differences to affective stimuli using the N400, which has been shown to be sensitive to deep processing of affective information. The degree to which Asian-Americans and European Americans responded to semantic incongruity between emotionally expressive faces (i.e., smiling or frowning) and background affective scenes was measured. As predicted, Asian-Americans showed a greater N400 to incongruent trials than to congruent trials. In contrast, European Americans showed no difference in amplitude across the two conditions. Furthermore, greater affective N400 incongruity was associated with higher interdependent self-construals. These data suggest that Asian-Americans and those with interdependent self-construals process the relationship between perceived facial emotion and affective background context to a greater degree than European Americans and those with independent self-construals. Implications for neural and cognitive differences in everyday social interactions, and cultural differences in analytic and holistic thinking are discussed.
TL;DR: The amygdala was responsive to emotional, animacy, and looming information (particularly to looming threats and looming animate stimuli), and Periaqueductal gray was also sensitive to emotional information and particularly responsive to loomingthreats.
Abstract: Looming stimuli are processed as threatening and activate basic neural defense systems. However, it is unclear how animacy information modulates this response. Participants (N = 25) viewed threatening or neutral images that were either animate (animals) or inanimate (objects) and which either approached (loomed) or receded from the participant. The amygdala was responsive to emotional, animacy, and looming information (particularly to looming threats and looming animate stimuli). Periaqueductal gray was also sensitive to emotional information and particularly responsive to looming threats. The data are interpreted within category-specific models of the amygdala and temporal cortex.
TL;DR: Findings show that the processing of social signals such as gaze and facial expression interact rather late and in a complex manner to modulate spatial attention.
Abstract: The impact of emotions on gaze-oriented attention was investigated in non-anxious participants. A neutral face cue with straight gaze was presented, which then averted its gaze to the side while remaining neutral or expressing an emotion (fear/surprise in Exp.1 and anger/happiness in Exp.2). Localization of a subsequent target was faster at the gazed-at location (congruent condition) than at the non-gazed-at location (incongruent condition). This Gaze-Orienting Effect (GOE) was enhanced for fear, surprise, and anger, compared to neutral expressions which did not differ from happy expressions. In addition, Event Related Potentials (ERPs) to the target showed a congruency effect on P1 for fear and surprise and a left lateralized congruency effect on P1 for happy faces, suggesting that target visual processing was also influenced by attention to gaze and emotions. Finally, at cue presentation, early postero-lateral (Early Directing Attention Negativity (EDAN)) and later antero-lateral (Anterior Directing Attention Negativity (ADAN)) attention-related ERP components were observed, reflecting, respectively, the shift of attention and its holding at gazed-at locations. These two components were not modulated by emotions. Together, these findings show that the processing of social signals such as gaze and facial expression interact rather late and in a complex manner to modulate spatial attention.
TL;DR: During induced anger control, functional connectivity was increased between the amygdala and a top-down prefrontal cortical control network, and the amygdala-PFC connectivity was strongest among those high in testosterone and low in cortisol.
Abstract: Research with violent offenders and delinquent adolescents suggests that endogenous testosterone concentrations have the strongest positive correlations with violence among men who have low concentrations of cortisol. The present study tested the hypothesis that testosterone and cortisol would similarly interact to determine neural activation in regions supporting self-regulation in response to anger provocation. Nineteen healthy Asian male participants were insulted and asked to control their anger during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). When cortisol levels were low, testosterone positively correlated with activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and thalamus, but not when cortisol levels were high. During induced anger control, functional connectivity was increased between the amygdala and a top-down prefrontal cortical control network. Moreover, the amygdala-PFC connectivity was strongest among those high in testosterone and low in cortisol. This research highlights a possible neural mechanism by which testosterone and cortisol may influence anger control.
TL;DR: The results show that the early stages of face processing where emotional expressions are coded are not sensitive to verbal information about the situation in which they appear, and suggests that integration of facial expression with situational information occurs at a later stage, probably related to the detection of affective congruency.
Abstract: Numerous studies using the event-related potential (ERP) technique have found that emotional expressions modulate ERP components appearing at different post-stimulus onset times and are indicative of different stages of face processing. With the aim of studying the time course of integration of context and facial expression information, we investigated whether these modulations are sensitive to the situational context in which emotional expressions are perceived. Participants were asked to identify the expression of target faces that were presented immediately after reading short sentences that described happy or anger-inducing situations. The main manipulation was the congruency between the emotional content of the sentences and the target expression. Context-independent amplitude modulation of the N170 and N400 components by emotional expression was observed. On the other hand, context effects appeared on a later component (late positive potential, or LPP), with enhanced amplitudes on incongruent trials. These results show that the early stages of face processing where emotional expressions are coded are not sensitive to verbal information about the situation in which they appear. The timing of context congruency effects suggests that integration of facial expression with situational information occurs at a later stage, probably related to the detection of affective congruency.
TL;DR: Data support the proposal that negative moods are associated with increased sensitivity to visual contextual influences from top-down elaborative modulations, as reflected in an enhanced LPP deflection.
Abstract: An adaptation paradigm was used to investigate the influence of a previously experienced visual context on the interpretation of ambiguous emotional expressions. Affective classification of fear-neutral ambiguous expressions was performed following repeated exposure to either fearful or neutral faces. There was a shift in the behavioral classification of morphs toward "fear" following adaptation to neutral compared to adaptation to fear with a nonsignificant trend toward the high-anxiety group compared to the low being more influenced by the context. The event-related potential (ERP) data revealed a more pronounced late positive potential (LPP), beginning at ~400 ms poststimulus onset, in the high but not the low-anxiety group following adaptation to neutral compared to fear. In addition, as the size of the behavioral adaptation increased, there was a linear increase in the magnitude of the late-LPP. However, context-sensitivity effects are not restricted to trait anxiety, with similar effects observed with state anxiety and depression. These data support the proposal that negative moods are associated with increased sensitivity to visual contextual influences from top-down elaborative modulations, as reflected in an enhanced LPP deflection.
TL;DR: This review attempts to concisely describe main neuroscience findings in the context of this game, with a special emphasis on the parameters potentially influencing the results.
Abstract: The Trust Game has been increasingly used in the emerging field of neuroeconomics to study brain mechanisms underlying decision-making in social interactions with financial outcomes. In this review, we attempt to concisely describe main neuroscience findings in the context of this game, with a special emphasis on the parameters potentially influencing the results. Factors modulating trust when the subject plays the part of the Investor are clustered into a few major categories: the Trustee, the administration of the game (single-shot or repeated interactions), the impact of hormones and genetics, inter-individual differences, time and other experimental settings. The few studies focusing on the Trustee are then briefly summarized, drawing again the attention of the future experimenter on possible pitfalls as well as offering some interpretation keys to the reader facing divergent results.
TL;DR: Viewing human and animal suffering led to large overlapping regions of activation previously implicated in empathic responding to suffering, including the anterior cingulate gyrus and anterior insula, which were examined in participants while they were presented with pictures of human versus dog suffering.
Abstract: The human ability to perceive and understand others' suffering is critical to reinforcing and maintaining our social bonds. What is not clear, however, is the extent to which this generalizes to nonhuman entities. Anecdotal evidence indicates that people may engage in empathy-like processes when observing suffering nonhuman entities, but psychological research suggests that we more readily empathize with those to whom we are closer and more similar. In this research, we examined neural responses in participants while they were presented with pictures of human versus dog suffering. We found that viewing human and animal suffering led to large overlapping regions of activation previously implicated in empathic responding to suffering, including the anterior cingulate gyrus and anterior insula. Direct comparisons of viewing human and animal suffering also revealed differences such that human suffering yielded significantly greater medial prefrontal activation, consistent with high-level theory of mind, where...
TL;DR: People differing in levels of anxiety showed distinct behavior patterns and autonomic neural responses during social decision-making, whereas the levels of self-esteem, impulsivity, and depression might be additional moderating factors.
Abstract: Anxiety plays an important role in social behavior. For instance, high-anxious individuals are more likely to avoid such social interactions as communicating with strangers. In this study, we investigate the impact of anxiety on social decision-making. The classic ultimatum game (UG) paradigm was utilized in concert with skin conductance recording. Behavioral results reveal that when playing as responders, high-trait anxiety (HTA) participants with lower levels of self-esteem, as well as low-trait anxiety (LTA) participants with higher levels of impulsivity, were more likely to accept human-proposed inequitable offers. In addition, the HTA participants rejected more computer-proposed inequitable offers than did LTA participants. Moreover, the skin conductance response to inequitable offers was correlated with levels of anxiety in the HTA group, but not in the LTA group. In conclusion, people differing in levels of anxiety showed distinct behavior patterns and autonomic neural responses during social decision-making, whereas the levels of self-esteem, impulsivity, and depression might be additional moderating factors. These findings contextualize high-anxious people's avoidance tendency in social interaction.
TL;DR: Examining the processes involved in the observation of full body movements in 4-month-old infants using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure localized brain activation found that infant premotor cortex responded more strongly to observe robot-like motion compared with human- like motion.
Abstract: Much research has been carried out to understand how human brains make sense of another agent in motion. Current views based on human adult and monkey studies assume a matching process in the motor system biased toward actions performed by conspecifics and present in the observer's motor repertoire. However, little is known about the neural correlates of action cognition in early ontogeny. In this study, we examined the processes involved in the observation of full body movements in 4-month-old infants using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure localized brain activation. In a 2 × 2 design, infants watched human or robotic figures moving in a smooth, familiar human-like manner, or in a rigid, unfamiliar robot-like manner. We found that infant premotor cortex responded more strongly to observe robot-like motion compared with human-like motion. Contrary to current views, this suggests that the infant motor system is flexibly engaged by novel movement patterns. Moreover, temporal cortex responses indicate that infants integrate information about form and motion during action observation. The response patterns obtained in premotor and temporal cortices during action observation in these young infants are very similar to those reported for adults. These findings thus suggest that the brain processes involved in the analysis of an agent in motion in adults become functionally specialized very early in human development.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used magnetoencephalography (MEC) to investigate the neural responses of infants with cleft lip compared with typical infants and adult faces and found that the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was activated at 140 ms in response to typical infant faces but diminished activity to infants having cleft lips.
Abstract: Infant faces elicit early, specific activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a key cortical region for reward and affective processing. A test of the causal relationship between infant facial configuration and OFC activity is provided by naturally occurring disruptions to the face structure. One such disruption is cleft lip, a small change to one facial feature, shown to disrupt parenting. Using magnetoencephalography, we investigated neural responses to infant faces with cleft lip compared with typical infant and adult faces. We found activity in the right OFC at 140 ms in response to typical infant faces but diminished activity to infant faces with cleft lip or adult faces. Activity in the right fusiform face area was of similar magnitude for typical adult and infant faces but was significantly lower for infant faces with cleft lip. This is the first evidence that a minor change to the infant face can disrupt neural activity potentially implicated in caregiving.
TL;DR: This work developed a highly naturalistic fMRI paradigm utilizing eye-tracking to create real-time, contingent social responses to participant-initiated JA, highlighting the importance of utilizing interactive fMRI paradigms in social neuroscience and the impact of congruency in recruiting integrated social, reward, and attention circuits for processing JA.
Abstract: Joint attention (JA) is a cornerstone of adaptive human social functioning. Little functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research has examined, in interactive paradigms, neural activation underlying bids for JA, met with a congruent or an incongruent social response. We developed a highly naturalistic fMRI paradigm utilizing eye-tracking to create real-time, contingent social responses to participant-initiated JA. During congruent responses to JA bids, we observed increased activation in the right amygdala, the right fusiform gyrus, anterior and dorsal anterior cingulate cortices, striatum, ventral tegmental area, and posterior parietal cortices. Incongruent responses to JA bids elicited increased activity localized to the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and bilateral cerebellum. No differences in eye-gaze patterns were observed during congruent or incongruent trials. Our results highlight the importance of utilizing interactive fMRI paradigms in social neuroscience and the impact of congruency in recruiting integrated social, reward, and attention circuits for processing JA.
TL;DR: It is concluded that masked subliminal emotional information is suited to trigger processing in brain areas which have been implicated in empathy and, thereby in social encounters.
Abstract: The recognition of emotional facial expressions is an important means to adjust behavior in social interactions. As facial expressions widely differ in their duration and degree of expressiveness, they often manifest with short and transient expressions below the level of awareness. In this combined behavioral and fMRI study, we aimed at examining whether or not consciously accessible (subliminal) emotional facial expressions influence empathic judgments and which brain activations are related to it. We hypothesized that subliminal facial expressions of emotions masked with neutral expressions of the same faces induce an empathic processing similar to consciously accessible (supraliminal) facial expressions. Our behavioral data in 23 healthy subjects showed that subliminal emotional facial expressions of 40 ms duration affect the judgments of the subsequent neutral facial expressions. In the fMRI study in 12 healthy subjects it was found that both, supra- and subliminal emotional facial expressions shared a widespread network of brain areas including the fusiform gyrus, the temporo-parietal junction, and the inferior, dorsolateral, and medial frontal cortex. Compared with subliminal facial expressions, supraliminal facial expressions led to a greater activation of left occipital and fusiform face areas. We conclude that masked subliminal emotional information is suited to trigger processing in brain areas which have been implicated in empathy and, thereby in social encounters.
TL;DR: Results revealed that popularity and gregariousness-based network status is significantly associated with hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity.
Abstract: We employed a social network analysis approach to examine the associations between friendship network position and cortisol levels. The sample consisted of 74 first-year students (93% female, ages 22–38 years, M = 27) from a highly competitive, accelerated Nursing program. Participants completed questionnaires online, and the entire group met at one time to complete a series of sociometric nominations and donated a saliva sample. Saliva was later assayed for cortisol. Metrics derived from directed friendship nominations indexed each student's friendship network status regarding popularity, gregariousness, and degree of interconnectedness. Results revealed that (1) individuals with lower gregariousness status (i.e., lowest number of outgoing ties) had higher cortisol levels, and (2) individuals with higher popularity status (i.e., higher numbers of incoming ties) had higher cortisol levels. Popularity and gregariousness-based network status is significantly associated with hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal ax...
TL;DR: Results indicate that using inhibitory continuous theta-burst magnetic stimulation to target the left DLPFC was associated with a greater increase in aggressive responses than right DLP FC stimulation, and it is concluded that D LPFC asymmetry is involved in modulating reactive and proactive aggression.
Abstract: Aggressive behavior is aimed at causing damage or pain to another individual. Aggression has been associated with structural and functional deficits in numerous brain areas, including the dorsolateral region of the prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), typically related to inhibition and impulse control. In this study, we used inhibitory continuous theta-burst magnetic stimulation (cTBS) to explore the role of the right and left DLPFC in aggression. Sixteen healthy right-handed volunteers underwent two sessions involving random, real and sham, right and left DLPFC stimulations. These sessions were followed by the Social Orientation Paradigm (SOP), a monetary task that was specially designed to assess participants' aggressive tendencies by measuring the patterns of their reactive aggression (a response to a perceived provocation) and proactive aggression (an aggressive act with goal-oriented purposes). Results indicate that using cTBS to target the left DLPFC was associated with a greater increase in aggressive respo...
TL;DR: Triallelic 5-HTTLPR genotype was significantly associated with prosocial behavior and the effect was partially mediated by social anxiety, such that those carrying the S′ allele reported higher levels of social avoidance and lower rates of helping others.
Abstract: There is growing evidence that the serotonin system influences prosocial behavior. We examined whether anxiety mediated the association between variation in the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region (5-HTTLPR) and prosocial behavior. We collected self-reported tendencies to avoid certain situations and history of helping others using standard instruments and buccal cells for standard 5-HTTLPR genotyping from 398 undergraduate students. Triallelic 5-HTTLPR genotype was significantly associated with prosocial behavior and the effect was partially mediated by social anxiety, such that those carrying the S′ allele reported higher levels of social avoidance and lower rates of helping others. These results are consistent with accounts of the role of serotonin on anxiety and prosocial behavior and suggest that targeted efforts to reduce social anxiety in S′ allele carriers may enhance prosocial behavior.
TL;DR: The current findings provide further evidence that antisocial children have a general defensive motivational system dysfunction and present with impairments in neural systems that subserve emotion processing, and show for the first time that those with more severe conduct problems have reduced startle responses compared to those who are less severely affected.
Abstract: Emotion processing difficulties are observed in antisocial individuals exhibiting serious antisocial behavior. This study examined emotion processing in 40 male juvenile offenders (JOs) and 52 male controls by measuring startle reflex responses to aversive sounds during the passive viewing of affective and neutral images. JOs as a group exhibited reduced startle-elicited blinks across all slide categories compared to normal controls. Moreover, within the offender group those with more conduct disorder symptoms and higher levels of psychopathic traits displayed reduced startle amplitudes compared to lower-scoring offenders. The finding that startle magnitudes were inversely related to severity of conduct problems supports a dimensional or continuous approach to understanding externalizing disorders. Reductions in amygdala activity could lead to blunted startle magnitudes. The current findings not only provide further evidence that antisocial children have a general defensive motivational system dysfunction and present with impairments in neural systems that subserve emotion processing, but also show for the first time that those with more severe conduct problems have reduced startle responses compared to those who are less severely affected. The implications of these findings for interventions with JOs are discussed.
TL;DR: The data indicate that emotionally hypo-reactive offenders (with psychopathic traits) constitute a special subgroup within antisocial offenders characterized by a limited capacity to emotionally represent uncertainty and to anticipate punishment.
Abstract: Recent approaches suggest that emotional reactivity can be used to differentiate between subgroups of individuals who are at risk for showing elevated levels of aggression and violence. In this study, we examined how emotion governs decision making within two subgroups of antisocial criminal offenders with either emotional hypo- or hyper-reactivity compared with healthy, noncriminal controls. Offenders were recruited from high-security forensic treatment facilities and penal institutions and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a financial decision-making task. In this task, participants were required to choose between low-risk (bonds) and high-risk alternatives (stocks). Bonds were always the safe choice; stocks could win or lose, with a varying degree of uncertainty. We found that emotionally hypo-reactive offenders differed most from healthy controls by showing diminished neural activation in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex in response to uncertainty as well as decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex when trying to regulate their behavior accordingly (i.e., when consistently choosing "safe alternatives"). Hence, the data indicate that emotionally hypo-reactive offenders (with psychopathic traits) constitute a special subgroup within antisocial offenders characterized in particular by a limited capacity to emotionally represent uncertainty and to anticipate punishment.
TL;DR: Systematic differences in EI ability appear to be significantly related to the responsiveness of the vmPFC and rostral ACC to facial movements suggesting potential trustworthiness.
Abstract: Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to a constellation of traits, competencies, or abilities that allow individuals to understand emotional information and successfully navigate and solve social/emotional problems. While little is known about the neurobiological substrates that underlie EI, some evidence suggests that these capacities may involve a core neurocircuitry involved in emotional decision-making that includes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, and amygdala. In a sample of 39 healthy volunteers (22 men; 17 women), scores on the Bar-On EQ-i (a trait/mixed model of EI) and Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT; an ability model of EI) were correlated with functional magnetic resonance imaging responses during brief presentations of moving facial expressions that changed in the level of perceived trustworthiness. Core emotion neurocircuitry was responsive to dynamic changes in facial features, regardless of whether they reflected in...