Chapter 13: Social cognition Flashcards
What is the role of the prefrontal cortex?
Social cognition and cognitive control
What does the vmPFC do?
Self-referential processing
What does the orbitofrontal cortex do?
Processing reward and social cognition
What is the consequence of social deprivation in childhood? Name 4 consequences
Impairs social development
- Decreases dopamine, increases serotonin in PFC
- Decreased neuronal density PFC
- Higher stress (cortisal + blood pressure)
- Agression, anxiety, impulsivity, fear
What is the consequence of social stress in adults?
Contributes to neural degeneration
What is the difference between acquired lesions and neurodegenerative disorders?
Acquired: trauma, tumours, strokes, surgery
Neurodegenerative: huntington, parkinson, alzheimer
What is the consequence of damage to OFC?
- less inhibited
- less tolerant for frustation, more tolerant for anger
- increased aggression
- impaired goal-directed behavior
- lack insight to changes
- Unrealistic positive self-views
Name 3 neurodevelopmental disorders and state how these affect social cognition
- Antisocial personality disorder (APD)
- Aware of social norms, but ignore them
- low impulse control, aggressive, bad at planning - Schizophrenia
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- Communication deficits
- Repetitive patterns of behavior/ interest
- Poor facial perception social judgments
What is self-referential processing and what is the role of the medial PFC in this?
People remember information concerning themselves much better
MPFC has increased activity with self-referential processing
Are self-descriptive personality traits related to episodic memory?
No they aren’t linked to recall specific past behavior
Trait based semantic knowledge exists outside general semantic knowledge
What is the consequence of MTL damage for self-knowledge?
Impairs ability to form new episodic memories for oneself, but not other systems of self-knowledge
What is meant with the baseline mode of the brain?
When in resting state, the brain has most activity in the default mode network (DMN).
- self-referential processing such as evaluating
Of what areas does the default mode network consist?
MPFC, precuneus and PCC
What is the sentinel hypothesis?
Default mode network ensures we always have some idea of what’s going on around us
Why do we often consider the past in self-referential processing?
MPFC is connected to MTL
Why is reading a good distraction for sinking in our thoughts?
Reading involves sensory/motor areas, that aren’t linked to the MPFC
What is the difference between the vmPFC and dmPFC?
vmPFC: thinking about yourself
dmPFC: thinking about others
Where is the precuneus located?
Above the PCC in the parietal cortex
What is the function of the vACC?
Distinguishing positive self-relevant information from negative ones
Does goal-directed behavior lead to an increase or decrease in activity in the DMN?
Decrease, but there still is some activity
What is the role of the OFC in self-perception?
Important for spontaneous reflection of own behavior. OFC patients lack insight, but if shown another time, they do get that they were rude
What does embodiment mean? What brainstructures are important for this?
Feeling of body ownership and feeling of spatial unity between the self and the body
- Extrastriate body in lateral occipitotemporal cortex: imagined/executed movements of one’s own body
- Temporal parietal junction (TPJ): self-processing and integrating multisensory body-related info
What are the three types of autoscopic phenomena? Where are they located?
- Out of body experience (OBE): awake, but sees his body from outside of his body
- Angular gyrus/TPJ (temporoparietal) - Autoscopic hallucination: seeing a double, without feeling disembodied
- Temporo-occipital/parieto-occipital - Heautoscopy: seeing a double, unsure if you feel disembodied
- Left tempoparietal
What is xenomelia and what is the neural origin?
Able bodied people think a limb doesn’t belong to their body and want it amputated
- Touch unwanted limb doesn’t elicit cortical response in parietal lobule
- Decreased cortical thickness parietal lobule and decreased response
- Decreased surface area anterior insula
What is empathic accuracy?
Ability to correctly infer someone’s thoughts and feelings
What is the difference between the mental state attribution theory and the simulation theory?
Mental state attribution:
- Use commonsense folk psychology to infer thoughts of others (family, culture)
Simulation:
- Observe someone’s behavior, simulate and observe own behavior
What is the theory of mind?
Ability to assign mental states to oneself and others
How is theory of mind expressed in infants?
Mimicking facial expressions
What is the Sally-Anne false-belief task used for and why is there critique on it?
It assesses theory of mind ability in young children. They pass at an age of 4
Criticism: too complicated and under-developed cognitive control for inhibition. Children do show signs of theory of mind under age 4 –> innate /automatic
What is joint attention?
Two individuals share focus on the same object
What does the experience sharing theory propose?
People make inferences about actions of others by using their own expectations and experiences
What is the topographic layout of the MPFC and how do the functions overlap?
vmPFC: related to self
pmPFC: related to others
Close relatives are processed more ventral. Level of relatedness determines overlap
What are mirror neurons and what do they prove?
Neurons modulate activity when you do an action or someone else does
There is an overlap between action understanding and action performance
What is empathy? What areas play a large role in this? What is the role of mirror neurons in this?
Capacity to understand and respond to unique affective experiences of another person
- Insula + ACC
Mirror neurons: watching disgust increasing in other’s facial expression, increases activity in insula
What is the relationship between high empathy and activity in insula/ACC?
People who score high on empathy, have increased activity in insula/ACC
How can empathic responses be modulated?
Activation of mirror neurons are different in goal-directed processes
- Less activity insula/ACC
- More activity MPFC/TPJ for self-regulation
When is the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) activated and what is the difference with the MPFC?
TPJ: For specialized reasoning about mental states of others
MPFC: broader reasoning about other people including mental states
What is the role of the STS in social cognition?
It integrates mental states with non-verbal cues, such as eye gaze and position of the head. It incorporates information in understanding what is happening
- focus on eyes is unique in humans
Who did a lot of research into ASD?
Simon Baron-Cohen
What are anatomical differences in people with ASD? Name 4 things
- Hyperconnectivity frontal cortex
- Decreased long-range connectivity
- Decreased reciprocal interactions with other regions
- Different white matter connectivity
What is different in the default mode network in people with ASD?
- Less active MPFC: less active during resting state and social interactions
- Reduced vmPFC and vACC activity for all tasks
- Decreased activity dmPFC and PCC for internal tasks, increase in external tasks
What is the neural cause of ASD?
Brains are not being prepared for the type of social thought for social cognition
How does the mirror neuron network work in people with ASD? What is the consequence of this?
The network only activates when people are doing the action themselves, but not when it’s performed by others
Consequence: lack of comprehension of intention of others
Where are social rules represented in the brain?
Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)
What is the consequence of damage to the vmPFC concerning positive and negative feedback?
Can’t learn from negative feedback
Can learn from positive feedback
What brain areas are activated for impersonal vs. personal decisions?
Impersonal: lateral PFC and bilateral parietal lobe (working memory)
Personal: MPFC, PCC, amygdala
