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Brain and Cognition > Chapter 13: Social cognition > Flashcards

Chapter 13: Social cognition Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the role of the prefrontal cortex?

A

Social cognition and cognitive control

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2
Q

What does the vmPFC do?

A

Self-referential processing

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3
Q

What does the orbitofrontal cortex do?

A

Processing reward and social cognition

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4
Q

What is the consequence of social deprivation in childhood? Name 4 consequences

A

Impairs social development
- Decreases dopamine, increases serotonin in PFC
- Decreased neuronal density PFC
- Higher stress (cortisal + blood pressure)
- Agression, anxiety, impulsivity, fear

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5
Q

What is the consequence of social stress in adults?

A

Contributes to neural degeneration

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6
Q

What is the difference between acquired lesions and neurodegenerative disorders?

A

Acquired: trauma, tumours, strokes, surgery
Neurodegenerative: huntington, parkinson, alzheimer

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7
Q

What is the consequence of damage to OFC?

A
  • less inhibited
  • less tolerant for frustation, more tolerant for anger
  • increased aggression
  • impaired goal-directed behavior
  • lack insight to changes
  • Unrealistic positive self-views
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8
Q

Name 3 neurodevelopmental disorders and state how these affect social cognition

A
  1. Antisocial personality disorder (APD)
    - Aware of social norms, but ignore them
    - low impulse control, aggressive, bad at planning
  2. Schizophrenia
  3. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
    - Communication deficits
    - Repetitive patterns of behavior/ interest
    - Poor facial perception social judgments
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9
Q

What is self-referential processing and what is the role of the medial PFC in this?

A

People remember information concerning themselves much better

MPFC has increased activity with self-referential processing

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10
Q

Are self-descriptive personality traits related to episodic memory?

A

No they aren’t linked to recall specific past behavior

Trait based semantic knowledge exists outside general semantic knowledge

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11
Q

What is the consequence of MTL damage for self-knowledge?

A

Impairs ability to form new episodic memories for oneself, but not other systems of self-knowledge

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12
Q

What is meant with the baseline mode of the brain?

A

When in resting state, the brain has most activity in the default mode network (DMN).
- self-referential processing such as evaluating

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13
Q

Of what areas does the default mode network consist?

A

MPFC, precuneus and PCC

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14
Q

What is the sentinel hypothesis?

A

Default mode network ensures we always have some idea of what’s going on around us

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15
Q

Why do we often consider the past in self-referential processing?

A

MPFC is connected to MTL

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16
Q

Why is reading a good distraction for sinking in our thoughts?

A

Reading involves sensory/motor areas, that aren’t linked to the MPFC

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17
Q

What is the difference between the vmPFC and dmPFC?

A

vmPFC: thinking about yourself
dmPFC: thinking about others

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18
Q

Where is the precuneus located?

A

Above the PCC in the parietal cortex

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19
Q

What is the function of the vACC?

A

Distinguishing positive self-relevant information from negative ones

20
Q

Does goal-directed behavior lead to an increase or decrease in activity in the DMN?

A

Decrease, but there still is some activity

21
Q

What is the role of the OFC in self-perception?

A

Important for spontaneous reflection of own behavior. OFC patients lack insight, but if shown another time, they do get that they were rude

22
Q

What does embodiment mean? What brainstructures are important for this?

A

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
23
Q

What are the three types of autoscopic phenomena? Where are they located?

A
  1. Out of body experience (OBE): awake, but sees his body from outside of his body
    - Angular gyrus/TPJ (temporoparietal)
  2. Autoscopic hallucination: seeing a double, without feeling disembodied
    - Temporo-occipital/parieto-occipital
  3. Heautoscopy: seeing a double, unsure if you feel disembodied
    - Left tempoparietal
24
Q

What is xenomelia and what is the neural origin?

A

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
25
Q

What is empathic accuracy?

A

Ability to correctly infer someone’s thoughts and feelings

26
Q

What is the difference between the mental state attribution theory and the simulation theory?

A

Mental state attribution:
- Use commonsense folk psychology to infer thoughts of others (family, culture)

Simulation:
- Observe someone’s behavior, simulate and observe own behavior

27
Q

What is the theory of mind?

A

Ability to assign mental states to oneself and others

28
Q

How is theory of mind expressed in infants?

A

Mimicking facial expressions

29
Q

What is the Sally-Anne false-belief task used for and why is there critique on it?

A

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

30
Q

What is joint attention?

A

Two individuals share focus on the same object

31
Q

What does the experience sharing theory propose?

A

People make inferences about actions of others by using their own expectations and experiences

32
Q

What is the topographic layout of the MPFC and how do the functions overlap?

A

vmPFC: related to self
pmPFC: related to others

Close relatives are processed more ventral. Level of relatedness determines overlap

33
Q

What are mirror neurons and what do they prove?

A

Neurons modulate activity when you do an action or someone else does

There is an overlap between action understanding and action performance

34
Q

What is empathy? What areas play a large role in this? What is the role of mirror neurons in this?

A

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

35
Q

What is the relationship between high empathy and activity in insula/ACC?

A

People who score high on empathy, have increased activity in insula/ACC

36
Q

How can empathic responses be modulated?

A

Activation of mirror neurons are different in goal-directed processes
- Less activity insula/ACC
- More activity MPFC/TPJ for self-regulation

37
Q

When is the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) activated and what is the difference with the MPFC?

A

TPJ: For specialized reasoning about mental states of others

MPFC: broader reasoning about other people including mental states

38
Q

What is the role of the STS in social cognition?

A

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

39
Q

Who did a lot of research into ASD?

A

Simon Baron-Cohen

40
Q

What are anatomical differences in people with ASD? Name 4 things

A
  • Hyperconnectivity frontal cortex
  • Decreased long-range connectivity
  • Decreased reciprocal interactions with other regions
  • Different white matter connectivity
41
Q

What is different in the default mode network in people with ASD?

A
  • 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
42
Q

What is the neural cause of ASD?

A

Brains are not being prepared for the type of social thought for social cognition

43
Q

How does the mirror neuron network work in people with ASD? What is the consequence of this?

A

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

44
Q

Where are social rules represented in the brain?

A

Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)

45
Q

What is the consequence of damage to the vmPFC concerning positive and negative feedback?

A

Can’t learn from negative feedback
Can learn from positive feedback

46
Q

What brain areas are activated for impersonal vs. personal decisions?

A

Impersonal: lateral PFC and bilateral parietal lobe (working memory)

Personal: MPFC, PCC, amygdala

Brain and Cognition (11 decks)

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