Chapter 11: Social Cognition Pt. 1 Flashcards
What is self-reflexive thought? How is this related to the default mode of brain activity?
involves the ability to think about yourself as an object . Involves the ability to recognized oneself (e.g., in a mirror) and to engage in self-reflective thought. Default mode might represent an ongoing internal stream of consciousness. [mPFC, posterior cingulate, parietal cortices]
What area of the brain is related to self-relevant thinking? Provide one piece of evidence in favour of this assertion.
mPFC
When performing a self-endorsement task, activity in the medial PFC predicts whether self-relevant words will be remembered later. No effect for words that are not self-relevant. (Participants viewed photos that were either taken by themselves or were taken by another person (i.e., self experiences vs. other experiences). “Other” photos led to larger deviations from the default mode, suggesting more extra-personal ‘not you’ activity.)
What are fugue states?
transient states of confusion in which self relevant knowledge is temporarily unavailable to consciousness
What is embodiment? What areas of the brain are related to feelings of embodiment? Provide two pieces of evidence in favour of your answer.
The sense of being localized within the body. Are you aware of your body? The insula signals awareness of bodily sensations related to arousal (heart rate and respiration changes). The anterior cingulate gyrus interprets some unpleasant aspects of painful stimuli. Extrastriate body area. Temporoparietal junction. Electrical stimulation of the temporoparietal junction in surgical epilepsy patients led to feelings of disembodiment. Applying TMS to the right temporoparietal junction slows reaction times on a body-orientation task. Applying TMS to the intraparietal sulcus affect letter-orientation perception.
When you see a caricature, you can still recognize the face; is this an early or a late eigenvector influencing your perception?
Caricatures are recognizable because most of the variability (the earlier eigenvectors) still remains constant; it is the later details that are exaggerated
What are two pathways related to face perception?
There are two pathways that extend from the extrastriate cortex and lead to more specialized processing of these stimuli. Identity: (semantif info with the face. lateral temporal cortex, temporal pole, and hippocampus.) Emotion: (Emotional expression, gaze direction, mouth movements. This system involves the superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, and limbic forebrain ) Both pathways feed back into the extrastriate
Do we have neurons that fire for specific patterns of eye gaze?
Superior temporal sulcus fires when the direction of head movements and eye gaze match.
How does amygdala damage influence our ability to encode emotional faces? What about autism?
Damage to the amygdala results in abnormal processing of fear. Patients no longer attend to the correct emotional geometry. Autistic individuals show a similar impairment in acquiring socially relevant information. Likely due to amygdala dysfunction. Autistics show amygdala activation in response to neutral faces!
Why can humans, but not non-human primates, easily pick up gaze information?
The sclera is dark in non-human primates, but is white in hominids. Enhances our ability to follow one’s gaze and to distinguish between emotions.
Can the direction of another person’s gaze influence you attentional systems?
Gaze can cue attention in the same way as an arrow. Valid trials speed up reaction times and elicit larger P1 and N1 waveforms (improved encoding). Larger responses to threatening expressions when the gaze is directed forward (at you) than when it is averted.
What is the difference between self-referencing and joint attention? And no, it is not about paying attention to joints.
Social refrencing: the use of emotions expressed by another individual to guide ones own behaviour. Joint: the sharing of a common focus of attention cross at least two invididuals. (tuen attention to object cued by another individual)
What brain areas uniquely respond during the perception of body language? Which brain areas respond to both emotional faces and bodies?
Enhanced activity in the extrastriate body area occurred only for body language. Emotional face and body is the temp lobe with STS (amyg insulla and limbic system)
What effects occur when you perceive a mismatch between someone’s emotional expression and body language?
Mismatched facial expressions and body language trigger a larger P1 in occipital regions.
What brain areas are related to the perception of biological motion? Describe two studies that support this view.
The superior temporal sulcus responses more to human and robotic walking than to pendulums, or other movements. Participants viewed an animated character whose eyes moved in response to a peripheral target. STS activity was larger when the eye movement did NOT match the target location. Similar effects occurred when an avatar’s facial expression (happy vs. disgusted) did not match the situation (accept/reject the coin offered by the participant).
Do social categories such as race influence only late stages of perception? Provide support for your answer.
Asian and African American faces elicited a larger P200 amplitude in the frontal central regions than did Caucasian faces. If the race of the photo changed during a gender judgment (or a gender change during a race judgment), a larger P300 waveform occurred in the parietal lobe.
