Lecture 19, 20, & 21 - Social Cognition, Technology, Education Flashcards
Which networks are critical for social cognition?
Default mode network and limbic network
What is the anatomy of social cognition?
- TPJ (tempoparietal junction)
- Insula
- mPFC
- OFC (limbic)
What does the TPJ do for social cognition?
Mentalizing
What does the insula do for social cognition?
Interoception & empathy
What does the mPFC do for social cognition?
Sense of self
What does the OFC (limbic) do for social cognition?
Emotional processing
What network of the brain lights up when thinking about self?
“Me”-dial prefrontal cortex which is in the DMN
What area of the brain is engaged for judgements about similar people (ex. Liberals thinking of liberals)?
DMN mPFC
What network in the brain lights up when thinking of dissimilar others (ex. Liberals thinking of conservatives)?
Control DMPFC
What are mental states?
Beliefs, feelings, desires, intentions, knowledge
What is the theory of mind?
The ability to understand and take into account other individual’s mental state or of “mind-reading”
What area of the brain is involved in the theory of mind?
TPJ
What is the Sally-Anne Theory of Mind task?
Sally puts a marble in a bucket, sally leaves, Anne transfers the marble to a drawer, sally reenters, sally will look in the bucket for the marble
How do you non-human primates display ToM?
They understand other’s false beliefs & other’s goals, shown by the experiment where the human would expect something to be under a box but it was switched and the primate points it to the right box
What has increased activity in non-human primates during social prediction?
Medial Superior temporal sulcus
What does an inhibitory TMS to the right TPJ do?
Alters moral judgements
What are symptoms of autism?
- qualitative impairments in social interaction
- qualitative impairments in communication
- restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities
What are some neural differences in people with autism?
- RTPJ is not selective for theory of mind judgements
- In youth, decreased lateralization is correlated with increased ASD severity
- People with autism have smaller corpus callosums
What is higher in neurotypical men than in men with autism?
Fractional anisotropy
What is believed to mediate empathy?
Mirror neurons
How does vision of disgust and a disgusting odorant relate?
The activation of the brain in the insula overlaps
What does empathy for pain involve?
The affective but not sensory components of pain
How does expertise affect empathy?
Experts have a much lower reaction to seeing a needle than controls do
What is associated with antisocial behavior/psychopathy?
Low empathy
How much activation is there in the Amygdala and insula in psychopaths when thinking of others’ perspective?
Very low or even negative
What does orbitofrontal damage lead to?
Deficits in social awareness, hypersexuality, rudeness, boring-ness
What is TMS FDA approved to treat by quieting certain brain areas?
- MD
- migraine pain
- OCD
- smoking cessation
What is Neurofeedback?
A technique that allows you to manipulate your own brain signals and you get a feedback signal
How is neurofeedback commonly done?
With EEG and fMRI
What are the ethical problems with neurotech?
- effectiveness (many are Mickey Mouse)
- safety
- privacy (should our thoughts be available to everyone?)
- personhood ( what does it mean to be a person?)
- distributive justice (who is able to access this tech?)
- agency (losing agency of life due to neurotech)
- coercion
What are the two domains that have been studied for cognitive enhancement?
Memory and cognitive control
What are some of the methods for cognitive enhancement?
- pharmacology
- cognitive training
- neurofeedback
- stimulation
What do pharmacological enhancements usually modulate?
Neurotransmitters
What did the halo experiment show?
Video game training participants had much better attention
What did training with neurofeedback (trying to increase your BOLD signal) do for training cyber defense tasks?
Neurofeedback group improved much more
What does entorhinal stimulation do to Spatial memory?
IMPROVES spatial memory
What does hippocampal stimulation do to spatial memory?
Nothing for spatial memory
We only use 10% of our brains: T or F?
F, we use 100% 100% of the time
We are either left brained or right brained: T or F?
F
Listening to music makes you smarter: T or F?
F, it doesn’t do anything for stress however it can improve mood and reduce stress, also learning to play an instrument has wide amounts of benefits
We learn best when instruction matches our “preferred learning styles”: T or F?
F, studies show everyone learns better from visual information
It is possible to become fluent in a language even after a “critical period”: T or F?
T, younger makes it easier but its still possible for adults to learn a language
What do perineural nets do?
Prevent connections between neurons, constant brain stimulation can support microglia to remove these
What is the nACC critical for?
Reward
What does stress do to brain cells in the hippocampus?
Prevents formation of new brain cells in the hippocampus and reduce their size and reduce learning
What does stress do to brain cells in the amygdala?
Increase cell size in the amygdala and increases fear
What are the impacts of stress on the brain (in short term)?
- impaired emotion regulation (MPFC & amygdala)
- impaired motivation circuitry (MPFC & VTA)
- impaired attention network (LPFC and Parietal lobe)
What can protect against stress?
Meditation, it improves attention, and improves connectivity between many parts of the brain
What does sleep loss do when it comes to emotion?
Impairs emotional regulation, it increases irritability as it weakens the connections between amygdala and PFC
What is sleep important for? Two things
Memory and creativity
How can you improve your sleep?
- consistent sleep schedule
- restrict caffeine
- limit media use at bedtime
- reduce noise
What can exercise do to hippocampal growth?
Increases it
What thing increases in the brain when you exercise?
BDNF (brain derived neutrophic factor)
What does regular exercise do for attention in kids?
Increases attention
What does dopamine boost?
Brain plasticity
Boosting motivation boosts ___
Brain plasticity
