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Showing papers in "Social Neuroscience in 2015"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An integrative developmental account of the social buffering of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) stress reactivity in humans, from infancy to adulthood is presented.
Abstract: Social buffering, a subset of social support, is the process through which the availability of a conspecific reduces the activity of stress-mediating neurobiological systems. While its role in coping and resilience is significant, we know little about its developmental history in humans. This brief review presents an integrative developmental account of the social buffering of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) stress reactivity in humans, from infancy to adulthood. During infancy, parents are powerful stress-regulators for children, but child temperament also plays a role and interacts with parenting quality to predict the magnitude of stress responses to fear or pain stimuli. Recent work indicates that parental support remains a potent stress buffer into late childhood, but that it loses its effectiveness as a buffer of the HPA axis by adolescence. Puberty may be the switch that alters the potency of parental buffering. Beginning in middle childhood, friends may serve as stress buffers, particularly when other peers are the source of stress. By adulthood, romantic partners assume this protective role, though studies often reveal sex differences that are currently not well understood. Translational research across species will be critical for developing a mechanistic understanding of social buffering and the processes involved in developmental changes noted in this review.

145 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
Guy Kahane1
TL;DR: An alternative approach to studying proto-utilitarian tendencies in everyday moral thinking is proposed, which suggests that what is currently classified as “utilitarian judgment” does not in fact share essential features of a genuine utilitarian outlook, and is better explained in terms of commonsensical moral notions.
Abstract: Research into moral decision-making has been dominated by sacrificial dilemmas where, in order to save several lives, it is necessary to sacrifice the life of another person It is widely assumed that these dilemmas draw a sharp contrast between utilitarian and deontological approaches to morality, and thereby enable us to study the psychological and neural basis of utilitarian judgment However, it has been previously shown that some sacrificial dilemmas fail to present a genuine contrast between utilitarian and deontological options Here, I raise deeper problems for this research paradigm Even when sacrificial dilemmas present a contrast between utilitarian and deontological options at a philosophical level, it is misleading to interpret the responses of ordinary folk in these terms What is currently classified as "utilitarian judgment" does not in fact share essential features of a genuine utilitarian outlook, and is better explained in terms of commonsensical moral notions When subjects deliberate about such dilemmas, they are not deciding between opposing utilitarian and deontological solutions, but engaging in a richer process of weighing opposing moral reasons Sacrificial dilemmas therefore tell us little about utilitarian decision-making An alternative approach to studying proto-utilitarian tendencies in everyday moral thinking is proposed

133 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: These are the first direct demonstrations that OXTR plays a critical role in alloparental behavior and adult social attachment, and suggest that natural variation in OX TR expression in this region alone can create variation in social behavior.
Abstract: Oxytocin modulates many aspects of social cognition and behaviors, including maternal nurturing, social recognition and bonding. Natural variation in oxytocin receptor (OXTR) density in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) is associated with variation in alloparental behavior, and artificially enhancing OXTR expression in the NAcc enhances alloparental behavior and pair bonding in socially monogamous prairie voles. Furthermore, infusion of an OXTR antagonist into the NAcc inhibits alloparental behavior and partner preference formation. However, antagonists can promiscuously interact with other neuropeptide receptors. To directly examine the role of OXTR signaling in social bonding, we used RNA interference to selectively knockdown, but not eliminate, OXTR in the NAcc of female prairie voles and examined the impact on social behaviors. Using an adeno-associated viral vector expressing a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting Oxtr mRNA, we reduced accumbal OXTR density in female prairie voles from juvenile age through adulthood. Females receiving the shRNA vector displayed a significant reduction in alloparental behavior and disrupted partner preference formation. These are the first direct demonstrations that OXTR plays a critical role in alloparental behavior and adult social attachment, and suggest that natural variation in OXTR expression in this region alone can create variation in social behavior.

111 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This special issue describes a symposium aimed at characterizing the special modulatory (buffering) effects of parental cues on fear- and stress-relevant neurobiology and behaviors of the offspring and to discuss examples of impaired buffering when the parent–infant relationship is disrupted.
Abstract: It has been long recognized that parents exert profound influences on child development. Dating back to at least the seventeenth-century Enlightenment, the ability for parents to shape child behavior in an enduring way has been noted. Twentieth-century scholars developed theories to explain how parenting histories influence psychological development, and since that time, the number of scientific publications on parenting influences in both human and nonhuman animal fields has grown at an exponential rate, reaching numbers in the thousands by 2015. This special issue describes a symposium delivered by Megan Gunnar, Regina Sullivan, Mar Sanchez, and Nim Tottenham in the Fall of 2014 at the Society for Social Neuroscience. The goal of the symposium was to describe the emerging knowledge on neurobiological mechanisms that mediate parent-offspring interactions across three different species: rodent, monkey, and human. The talks were aimed at designing testable models of parenting effects on the development of emotional and stress regulation. Specifically, the symposium aimed at characterizing the special modulatory (buffering) effects of parental cues on fear- and stress-relevant neurobiology and behaviors of the offspring and to discuss examples of impaired buffering when the parent-infant relationship is disrupted.

109 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review finds that the authors can rapidly identify social status based on a wide range of cues, and suggests that there may be an underlying neural network, including regions involved in executive, emotional, and reward processing, that is sensitive to status information.
Abstract: Social groups across species rapidly self-organize into hierarchies, where members vary in their level of power, influence, skill, or dominance. In this review, we explore the nature of social hierarchies and the traits associated with status in both humans and nonhuman primates, and how status varies across development in humans. Our review finds that we can rapidly identify social status based on a wide range of cues. Like monkeys, we tend to use certain cues, like physical strength, to make status judgments, although layered on top of these more primitive perceptual cues are sociocultural status cues like job titles and educational attainment. One's relative status has profound effects on attention, memory, and social interactions, as well as health and wellness. These effects can be particularly pernicious in children and adolescents. Developmental research on peer groups and social exclusion suggests teenagers may be particularly sensitive to social status information, but research focused specifically on status processing and associated brain areas is very limited. Recent evidence from neuroscience suggests that there may be an underlying neural network, including regions involved in executive, emotional, and reward processing, that is sensitive to status information. We conclude with questions for future research as well as stressing the need to expand social neuroscience research on status processing to adolescents.

99 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Taking advantage of this naturalistic animal model of adverse maternal caregiving, it is shown that competent maternal care is critical for the development of healthy attachment, social behavior, and emotional and stress regulation, as well of the neural circuits underlying these functions.
Abstract: Social buffering, the phenomenon by which the presence of a familiar individual reduces or even eliminates stress- and fear-induced responses, exists in different animal species and has been examined in the context of the mother-infant relationship, in addition to adults. Although it is a well-known effect, the biological mechanisms that underlie it as well as its developmental impact are not well understood. Here, we provide a review of evidence of social and maternal buffering of stress reactivity in nonhuman primates, and some data from our group suggesting that when the mother-infant relationship is disrupted, maternal buffering is impaired. This evidence underscores the critical role that maternal care plays for proper regulation and development of emotional and stress responses of primate infants. Disruptions of the parent-infant bond constitute early adverse experiences associated with increased risk for psychopathology. We will focus on infant maltreatment, a devastating experience not only for humans, but for nonhuman primates as well. Taking advantage of this naturalistic animal model of adverse maternal caregiving, we have shown that competent maternal care is critical for the development of healthy attachment, social behavior, and emotional and stress regulation, as well as of the neural circuits underlying these functions.

86 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A novel interpretation of the meta-analytic findings is put forward suggesting that cerebellar activity during social judgments might reflect a more domain-specific mentalizing functionality in some areas of the cerebellum than assumed before.
Abstract: A recent meta-analysis explored the role of the cerebellum in social cognition and documented that this part of the brain is critically implicated in social cognition, especially in more abstract and complex forms of mentalizing. The authors found an overlap with clusters involved in sensorimotor (during mirror and self-judgment tasks) as well as in executive processes (across all tasks) documented in earlier nonsocial cerebellar meta-analyses, and hence interpreted their results in terms of a domain-general function of the cerebellum. However, these meta-analytic results might be interpreted in a different, complementary way. Indeed, the results reveal a striking overlap with the parcellation of cerebellar topography offered by a recent functional connectivity analysis. In particular, the majority of social cognitive activity in the cerebellum can also be explained as located within the boundaries of a default/mentalizing network of the cerebellum, with the exception of the involvement of primary and integrative somatomotor networks for self-related and mirror tasks, respectively. Given the substantial overlap, a novel interpretation of the meta-analytic findings is put forward suggesting that cerebellar activity during social judgments might reflect a more domain-specific mentalizing functionality in some areas of the cerebellum than assumed before.

65 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The argument is made that the development of this circuitry in humans is intimately associated with caregiving, such that parental availability during childhood provides important and enduring scaffolding of neuroaffective processes that ultimately form of the nature of the adult phenotype.
Abstract: Strong evidence indicates that reciprocal connections between the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) support fundamental aspects of emotional behavior in adulthood. However, this circuitry is slow to develop in humans, exhibiting immaturity in childhood. The argument is made that the development of this circuitry in humans is intimately associated with caregiving, such that parental availability during childhood provides important and enduring scaffolding of neuroaffective processes that ultimately form of the nature of the adult phenotype.

65 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is concluded that greed may explain risky and reckless behavior in diverse settings, such as investment banking, and may account for phenomena such as stock market bubbles.
Abstract: We investigated whether greed would predict risky decision-making and recorded neural responses during a monetary gambling task using the electroencephalogram. We found that individuals high in trait-greed took higher risks to maximize monetary outcome. Furthermore, this relation was moderated by state-greed; specifically, trait-greed had a stronger impact on risky decision-making when activated by situational characteristics. On the neural level, greedy individuals showed a specific response to favorable and unfavorable outcomes. Specifically, they had a reduced feedback-related negativity-difference score to these events, indicating that they might have difficulty in learning from experience, especially from mistakes and negative feedback. It is concluded that greed may explain risky and reckless behavior in diverse settings, such as investment banking, and may account for phenomena such as stock market bubbles.

65 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that the modulatory effect of OT on empathy when taking the other-perspective may be mediated by its role in self- and other-distinctiveness and corollary by itsrole in increasing salience to social agents and cues.
Abstract: There is growing evidence that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) facilitates various forms of sensitivity to others, but the mechanism by which OT enhances empathy in humans is unclear. In this study, we examined whether OT increases empathy by the way of blurring the distinction between self and other, or by enhancing the difference between self and other. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject crossover design, empathic responses of healthy participants were compared when imagining oneself (i.e., self-perspective empathy) versus when imagining the other (i.e., other-perspective empathy) in painful and nonpainful situations. Under OT treatment, participants expressed more empathy when imagining others than when imagining oneself in pain. This was in contrast to the placebo condition where there were no differences between the empathic responses during the self- and the other-perspective. We propose that the modulatory effect of OT on empathy when taking the other-perspective may be mediated by its role in self- and other-distinctiveness and corollary by its role in increasing salience to social agents and cues.

63 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results implicate a pattern of WM and GM damage in TBI that may play a role in emotional processing impairments.
Abstract: Emotional processing deficits have recently been identified in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), specifically in the domain of facial affect recognition. However, the neural networks underlying these impairments have yet to be identified. In the current study, 42 individuals with moderate to severe TBI and 23 healthy controls performed a task of facial affect recognition (Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT)) in order to assess their ability to identify and discriminate six emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, shame, and fear. These individuals also underwent structural neuroimaging including diffusion tensor imaging to examine white matter (WM) integrity. Correlational analyses were performed to determine where in the brain WM damage was associated with performance on the facial affect recognition task. Reduced performance on the FEIT was associated with reduced WM integrity (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity) in the inferior lo...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Greater variance in interpersonal distance preferences in the ASD group than in the control group is found, and this variance can be explained by differences in SA level and can be predicted by the N1 amplitude, an early ERP component related to attention and discrimination processes.
Abstract: An inherent feature of social interactions is the use of social space or interpersonal distance-the space between one individual and another. Because social deficits are core symptoms of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), we hypothesized that individuals on this spectrum will exhibit abnormal interpersonal distance preferences. The literature on interpersonal distance in ASD is not conclusive. While some studies show preferences for closer distances among this group, others show preferences for farther distances than controls. A common symptom of ASD that may explain the variance in responses to interpersonal distance in this population is social anxiety (SA), which has been shown to correlate with interpersonal distance preferences. In the current study, we investigated interpersonal distance preferences in a group of individuals with ASD using both behavioral and ERP measures. We found greater variance in interpersonal distance preferences in the ASD group than in the control group. Furthermore, we showed that this variance can be explained by differences in SA level and can be predicted by the N1 amplitude, an early ERP component related to attention and discrimination processes. These results hint at the early sensory and attentional processes that may be affecting higher social behaviors, both in subclinical and in clinical populations.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is claimed that future efforts in this domain should distinguish between processes of racial prejudice and racial stereotypes to fully understand the social neuroscience of empathy in cross-racial contexts.
Abstract: Recent studies on empathy toward other-race individuals demonstrate a preferential neural response to own-race members' pain. Based on the observation that existing studies, using different techniques, did not provide a convergent scenario on how implicit racial prejudice relate to empathy in cross-racial contexts, in the current commentary we claim that future efforts in this domain should distinguish between processes of racial prejudice and racial stereotypes. These concepts have been differentiated in social psychology, and two independent measures have been provided to assess them. We propose that these aspects should be taken into further consideration in future studies to fully understand the social neuroscience of empathy in cross-racial contexts.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results of this neuroimaging study suggest that mental state concepts are represented in a dynamic way, using context-relevant interoceptive and sensorimotor resources.
Abstract: According to embodied cognition theories, concepts are contextually situated and grounded in neural systems that produce experiential states. This view predicts that processing mental state concepts recruits neural regions associated with different aspects of experience depending on the context in which people understand a concept. This neuroimaging study tested this prediction using a set of sentences that described emotional (e.g., fear, joy) and nonemotional (e.g., thinking, hunger) mental states with internal focus (i.e., focusing on bodily sensations and introspection) or external focus (i.e., focusing on expression and action). Consistent with our predictions, data suggested that the inferior frontal gyrus, a region associated with action representation, was engaged more by external than internal sentences. By contrast, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region associated with the generation of internal states, was engaged more by internal emotion sentences than external sentence categories. Similar patterns emerged when we examined the relationship between neural activity and independent ratings of sentence focus. Furthermore, ratings of emotion were associated with activation in the medial prefrontal cortex, whereas ratings of activity were associated with activation in the inferior frontal gyrus. These results suggest that mental state concepts are represented in a dynamic way, using context-relevant interoceptive and sensorimotor resources.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results showed that the rVLPFC is specifically involved in emotion regulation and suggest that cathodal stimulation can increase negative emotional responses to social exclusion.
Abstract: Social exclusion, ostracism, and rejection can be emotionally painful because they thwart the need to belong. Building on studies suggesting that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) is associated with regulation of negative emotions, the present experiment tests the hypothesis that decreasing the cortical excitability of the rVLPFC may increase negative emotional reactions to social exclusion. Specifically, we applied cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the rVLPFC and predicted an increment of negative emotional reactions to social exclusion. In Study 1, participants were either socially excluded or included, while cathodal tDCS or sham stimulation was applied over the rVLPFC. Cathodal stimulation of rVLPFC boosted the typical negative emotional reaction caused by social exclusion. No effects emerged from participants in the inclusion condition. To test the specificity of tDCS effects over rVLPFC, in Study 2, participants were socially excluded and received cathodal tDCS or sham stimulation over a control region (i.e., the right posterior parietal cortex). No effects of tDCS stimulation were found. Our results showed that the rVLPFC is specifically involved in emotion regulation and suggest that cathodal stimulation can increase negative emotional responses to social exclusion.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that social buffering of pups by the mother attenuates the neurobehavioral stress response in infancy and prevents pups from learning about threat within mother-infant interactions.
Abstract: Social buffering, which is the attenuation of stress hormone release by a social partner, occurs in many species throughout the lifespan. Social buffering of the infant by the caregiver is particularly robust, and animal models using infant rodents are uncovering the mechanisms and neural circuitry supporting social buffering. At birth, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress system is functional but is suppressed via extended social buffering by the mother: the profound social buffering effects of the mother can last for 1–2 hours when pups are removed from the mother. At 10 days of age, pups begin to mount a stress response immediately when separated from the mother. The stimuli from the mother supporting social buffering are broad, for tactile stimulation, milk, and an anesthetized mother (no maternal behavior) all sufficiently support social buffering. The mother appears to produce social buffering by blocking norepinephrine (NE) release into the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), whi...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings suggest that autistic traits influence attention orienting to gaze and its modulation by social emotions such as happiness, and suggest it relies on facial configuration.
Abstract: The relationship between autistic traits and gaze-oriented attention to fearful and happy faces was investigated at the behavioral and neuronal levels. Upright and inverted dynamic face stimuli were used in a gaze-cueing paradigm while event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Participants responded faster to gazed-at than to non-gazed-at targets, and this gaze orienting effect (GOE) diminished with inversion, suggesting it relies on facial configuration. It was also larger for fearful than happy faces but only in participants with high autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores. While the GOE to fearful faces was of similar magnitude regardless of AQ scores, a diminished GOE to happy faces was found in participants with high AQ scores. At the ERP level, a congruency effect on target-elicited P1 component reflected enhanced visual processing of gazed-at targets. In addition, cue-triggered early directing attention negativity and anterior directing attention negativity reflected, respectively, attention orienting and attention holding at gazed-at locations. These neural markers of spatial attention orienting were not modulated by emotion and were not found in participants with high AQ scores. Together, these findings suggest that autistic traits influence attention orienting to gaze and its modulation by social emotions such as happiness.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The current review will examine recent progress that has been made toward understanding the neural mechanisms underlying consociate social attachments in autistic spectrum disorder.
Abstract: Over 70 years since the first description of the disease, disrupted social behavior remains a core clinical feature of autistic spectrum disorder. The complex etiology of the disorder portends the need for a better understanding of the brain mechanisms that enable social behaviors, particularly those that are relevant to autism which is characterized by a failure to develop peer relationships, difficulty with emotional reciprocity and imitative play, and disrupted language and communication skills. Toward this end, the current review will examine recent progress that has been made toward understanding the neural mechanisms underlying consociate social attachments.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Social closeness is highlighted as an important factor in understanding the impact of SFB on neural mechanisms of decision-making and the level of closeness with feedback provider (friend, confederate) and the framing effect was observed in both experiments.
Abstract: Although we often seek social feedback (SFB) from others to help us make decisions, little is known about how SFB affects decisions under risk, particularly from a close peer. We conducted two experiments using an established framing task to probe how decision-making is modulated by SFB valence (positive, negative) and the level of closeness with feedback provider (friend, confederate). Participants faced mathematically equivalent decisions framed as either an opportunity to keep (gain frame) or lose (loss frame) part of an initial endowment. Periodically, participants were provided with positive (e.g., “Nice!”) or negative (e.g., “Lame!”) feedback about their choices. Such feedback was provided by either a confederate (Experiment 1) or a gender-matched close friend (Experiment 2). As expected, the framing effect was observed in both experiments. Critically, an individual's susceptibility to the framing effect was modulated by the valence of the SFB, but only when the feedback provider was a close friend....

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The present results suggest that social status not only guides social behavior, but it also influences cognitive processes and subjects’ performance.
Abstract: In the present research, we manipulated the perceived superior/inferior status during a competitive cognitive task. In two experiments, we created an explicit and strongly reinforced social hierarchy based on incidental rating on an attentional task. Based on our hypotheses, social rank may influence nonverbal cues (such as facial mimic related to emotional response), cortical lateralized activity in frontal areas (brain oscillations), and cognitive outcomes in response to rank modulation. Thus, the facial mimic (corrugators vs. zygomatic muscle activity), frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta), and real cognitive performance [(error rate (ER); response times (RTs)] were considered. Specifically, a peer-group comparison was enrolled and an improved (experiment 1, N = 29) or decreased (experiment 2, N = 31) performance was artificially manipulated by the experimenter. Results showed a significant improved cognitive performance (decreased ER and RTs), an increased zygomatic activity (positive emotions)...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results show an early interaction between emotion and agency processes, and suggest that self-serving cognition can be grounded in embodied knowledge from low-level sensorimotor mechanisms.
Abstract: The emotional consequences of our own and others' actions can influence our agentive self-awareness in social contexts. Positive outcomes are usually linked to the self and used for self-enhancement, whereas negative outcomes are more often attributed to others. In most situations, these causal attribution tendencies seem to be immediately present instead of involving reflective interpretations of the action experience. To address the question at which level of the cognitive hierarchy emotions and action perception interact, we adopted a social reward anticipation paradigm. Here, participants or their interaction partner received positive or negative action outcomes and performed speeded attribution choices regarding causation of the action outcome. Event-Related Potential (ERP) results showed that the emotional value of an outcome already influenced the classical N1 self-attenuation effect, with reduced embodied agentive self-awareness for negative outcomes at initial sensorimotor stages. At the level of the N300, the degree of updating and affective evaluation associated with the respective attributive decision was reflected and particularly associated to attribution tendencies for positive events. Our results show an early interaction between emotion and agency processes, and suggest that self-serving cognition can be grounded in embodied knowledge from low-level sensorimotor mechanisms.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Empirical differences in empathic ability are related to lower response times in the PD game, suggesting that empathy is related to faster social choices, independent of whether they choose to cooperate or defect.
Abstract: Decision-making in social dilemmas is suggested to rely on three factors: the valuation of a choice option, the relative judgment of two or more choice alternatives, and individual factors affecting the ease at which judgments and decisions are made. Here, we test whether empathy—an individual’s relative ability to understand others’ thoughts, emotions, and intentions—acts as an individual factor that alleviates conflict resolution in social decision-making. We test this by using a framed, iterated prisoners’ dilemma (PD) game in two settings. In a behavioral experiment, we find that individual differences in empathic ability (the Empathy Quotient, EQ) were related to lower response times in the PD game, suggesting that empathy is related to faster social choices, independent of whether they choose to cooperate or defect. In a subsequent neuroimaging experiment, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we find that EQ is positively related to individual differences in the engagement of brain structure...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results suggest neural correlates of the adolescent social reorientation toward peers and away from parents that may be associated with adolescents’ real-life risk-taking behaviors and social relationships.
Abstract: Social reorientation from parents to same-age peers is normative in adolescence, but the neural correlates of youths’ socioemotional processing of parents and peers have not been explored. In the current study, 22 adolescents (average age 16.98) underwent neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging) while viewing and rating emotions shown in brief video clips featuring themselves, their parents, or an unfamiliar peer. Viewing self vs. other and parents vs. the peer activated regions in the medial prefrontal cortex, replicating prior findings that this area responds to self-relevant stimuli, including familiar and not just similar others. Viewing the peer compared with parents elicited activation in posterior ‘mentalizing’ structures, the precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus and right temporoparietal junction, as well as the ventral striatum and bilateral amygdala and hippocampus. Relative activations in the PCC and precuneus to the peer vs. the ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results from neuroimaging studies showing that compassion is linked to helping and forgiveness behavior, whereas empathic distress not only decreases helping behavior, but is even associated with increased aggressive behavior provide encouraging evidence for the plasticity of adaptive social emotions.
Abstract: Social emotions such as empathy or compassion greatly facilitate our interactions with others. Despite the importance of social emotions, scientific studies have only recently revealed functional neural plasticity associated with the training of such emotions. Using the framework of two antagonistic neural systems, the threat and social disconnection system on the one hand, and the reward and social connection system on the other, this article describes how training compassion and empathy can change the functioning of these systems in a targeted manner. Whereas excessive empathic sharing of suffering can increase negative feelings and activations in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex (corresponding to the threat and social disconnection system), compassion training can strengthen positive affect and neural activations in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and striatum (corresponding to the reward and social connection system). These neuroimaging findings are complemented by results from behavioral studies showing that compassion is linked to helping and forgiveness behavior, whereas empathic distress not only decreases helping behavior, but is even associated with increased aggressive behavior. Taken together, these data provide encouraging evidence for the plasticity of adaptive social emotions with wide-ranging implications for basic science and applied settings.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A selectively lowered STG activation to auditory anger cues in ADHD patients is identified, which might mirror compensatory attention allocation and be used for evaluation of psychotherapy effects.
Abstract: Neurobiological studies on facial affect recognition have demonstrated reduced response amplitudes to anger cues in patients suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is still unclear whether a similar deficit exists in the auditory domain. Therefore, this near-infrared spectroscopy study focused on neuronal correlates of affective prosody processing. Fourteen boys suffering from ADHD and fourteen healthy boys were exposed to emotionally intoned, standardized sentences of the categories anger, sadness, happiness, and to affectively neutral sentences. Relative to controls, the patients displayed a diminished activation of the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) when processing anger prosody, which was correlated with aggressive behavior. There were no group differences for the other emotions. Additionally, the ADHD group showed increased supramarginal gyrus (SMG) activation in the anger condition. This might mirror compensatory attention allocation. In summary, we identified a selectively lowered STG activation to auditory anger cues in ADHD patients. Consequently, STG recruitment during anger exposure might be used for evaluation of psychotherapy effects.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The influence of the altruism of the dictator, the anonymity of the decision and the income of the receiver on the offer made by a dictator is investigated, and midfrontal theta activity predicts upcoming fair offers, maybe indicating altruistic motivation or empathy on physiological basis.
Abstract: In the dictator game, a proposer can share a certain amount of money between himself or herself and a receiver, who has no opportunity of influencing the offer. Rational choice theory predicts that dictators keep all money for themselves. But people often are offering money to receivers, despite their opportunity to maximize their own profit and therefore showing altruistic behavior. In this study, we investigated the influence of the altruism of the dictator, the anonymity of the decision and the income of the receiver on the offer made by a dictator. Additionally, we were interested in the influence of midfrontal theta activity prior to the offer, indicating the upcoming decision. The height of the offer made by the dictator was dependent on all variables investigated: Altruism of the dictator led to higher offers and income of the receiver led to higher offer the poorer the receivers are. The anonymity of the decision had two effects, depending on the altruism of the dictator, with higher offers for highly altruistic dictators, when they were not observed, and lower offers for less altruistic dictators in this condition. Finally, midfrontal theta activity predicts upcoming fair offers, maybe indicating altruistic motivation or empathy on physiological basis.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: As in previous studies, T-allele carriers exhibited better performance in measures of social processing indicating that the rs2268498 polymorphism is an important candidate for understanding the genetic basis of social functioning.
Abstract: Social perception is an important prerequisite for successful social interaction, because it helps to gain information about behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of interaction partners. Previous pharmacological studies have emphasized the relevance of the oxytocin system for social perception abilities, while knowledge on genetic contributions is still scarce. In the endeavor to fill this gap in the literature, the current study searches for associations between participants' social perception abilities as measured by the interpersonal perception task (IPT) and the rs2268498 polymorphism on the OXTR-gene, which has repeatedly been linked to processes relevant to social functioning. N = 105 healthy participants were experimentally tested with the IPT and genotyped for the rs2268498 polymorphism. T-allele carriers (TT and TC genotypes) exhibited significantly better performance in the IPT than carriers of the CC-genotype. This difference was also significant for the subscales measuring the strength of social bonding (kinship and intimacy). As in previous studies, T-allele carriers exhibited better performance in measures of social processing indicating that the rs2268498 polymorphism is an important candidate for understanding the genetic basis of social functioning.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results showed that in comparison with the control conditions the dissonance experience led to higher levels of activation in several brain regions, and dissonance was associated with increased neural activation in key brain regions including the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, inferior frontal gyrus, and precuneus.
Abstract: This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study explored the neural substrates of cognitive dissonance during dissonance "induction." A novel task was developed based on the results of a separate item selection study (n = 125). Items were designed to generate dissonance by prompting participants to reflect on everyday personal experiences that were inconsistent with values they had expressed support for. One experimental condition (dissonance) and three control conditions (justification, consonance, and non-self-related inconsistency) were used for comparison. Items of all four types were presented to each participant (n = 14) in a randomized design. The fMRI analysis used a whole-brain approach focusing on the moments dissonance was induced. Results showed that in comparison with the control conditions the dissonance experience led to higher levels of activation in several brain regions. Specifically dissonance was associated with increased neural activation in key brain regions including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula, inferior frontal gyrus, and precuneus. This supports current perspectives that emphasize the role of anterior cingulate and insula in dissonance processing. Less extensive activation in the prefrontal cortex than in some previous studies is consistent with this study's emphasis on dissonance induction, rather than reduction. This article also contains a short review and comparison with other fMRI studies of cognitive dissonance.

Journal ArticleDOI
Xiaozhe Peng1, You Li1, Pengfei Wang1, Lei Mo1, Qi Chen1 
TL;DR: Although participants’ ratings did not show they were particularly happy on hearing negative gossip about celebrities, the significantly enhanced neural activity in the reward system suggested that they were indeed amused, and via enhanced functional connectivity, the prefrontal executive control network was involved in regulating the rewards system by giving explicit pleasure ratings according to social norm compliance, rather than natural true feelings.
Abstract: In contrast to abstract trait words which describe people's general personality, gossip is about personal affairs of others. Although neural correlates underlying processing self-related trait words have been well documented, it remains poorly understood how the human brain processes gossip. In the present fMRI study, participants were instructed to rate their online emotional states upon hearing positive and negative gossip about celebrities, themselves, and their best friends. Explicit behavioral ratings suggested that participants were happier to hear positive gossip and more annoyed to hear negative gossip about themselves than about celebrities and best friends. At the neural level, dissociated neural networks were involved in processing the positive gossip about self and the negative gossip about celebrities. On the one hand, the superior medial prefrontal cortex responded not only to self-related gossip but also to moral transgressions, and neural activity in the orbital prefrontal cortex increased linearly with pleasure ratings on positive gossip about self. On the other hand, although participants' ratings did not show they were particularly happy on hearing negative gossip about celebrities, the significantly enhanced neural activity in the reward system suggested that they were indeed amused. Moreover, via enhanced functional connectivity, the prefrontal executive control network was involved in regulating the reward system by giving explicit pleasure ratings according to social norm compliance, rather than natural true feelings.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The present study examined the temporal dynamics of the IAT that measures prosocial attitude using event-related potentials (ERPs) and revealed enhanced N2 amplitudes for incongruent trials when compared with congruent trials and enhanced P300 amplitudes with significantly correlated with individual prosocial behavior.
Abstract: The implicit association test (IAT) is a promising method used to assess individual implicit attitudes by indirectly measuring the strengths of associations between target and attribute categories. To date, the cognitive processes involved in the prosocial attitude IAT task have received little attention. The present study examined the temporal dynamics of the IAT that measures prosocial attitude using event-related potentials (ERPs). ERP results revealed enhanced N2 amplitudes for incongruent trials when compared with congruent trials and enhanced P300 amplitudes for congruent trials when compared with incongruent trials. In addition, the N2 amplitude differences were significantly correlated with individual prosocial behavior (the amount of donation). Our findings suggest that conflict monitoring and stimulus categorization processes are involved in the prosocial attitude IAT task and that the ERP indices of IATs that measure prosocial attitude may predict individual prosocial behavior.