Lecture 3 - Love and prosocial behaviour 2 Flashcards
What are the two components of empathising?
1) A cognitive ability component:
‘mindreading’ i.e. inferring others’ beliefs, emotions etc
2) An emotional/motivational personality component:
warmth & caring for the other person
How could you make people come together more?
1a) By increasing the immediate reward from, & 1b) reducing the barriers (anxiety and stress) to, social interaction
What is enhancing the social approach? (1a)
Enhancing the rewards of social interaction
i.e. it is rewarding to be near another, be hugged and chat and get smiles
What are natural and artificial ways to decrease the anxiety and stress of social interaction? (1b)
Artificial - alcohol and ecstasy - ecstasy directly relates to oxytocin
Natural - oxytocin and vasopressin
What is social buffering of stressful events? (1b)
Animals including humans reduce their stress by being with each other. More resilient to stressful events when they are shared.
2) What are the three ways of improving the outcomes of interaction?
Enhancing memory for social identity
Increasing trust in interacting partner
Increasing the empathy in social interaction
2a) How does enhancing memory for social identity improve social interaction outcomes?
Rewarding events with person X aids attachment to X.
No ‘partner preference’ (friendship) if no memory for that person.
Reap more rewards when you remember people and thus form bonds
- Social identification helps reciprocal altruism - only works if you remember each other
- “You scratched my back two days ago, I will scratch yours now, then you will scratch mine…etc” . Need to recall ‘you’.
- Can trade off strengths and weaknesses in a group by identifying who people are and what they are good at
2b) How does increasing trust in interacting partner improve the outcomes of interaction?
This enhances the gains achievable from longer-term, co-operative behaviour.
Couple as economic unit. Gains from division of labour. Friendship network gains.
‘I am doing a lot of nesting work for our child, while I could be on the make with another mate, don’t let me down!’
‘It’s uncertain you will pay me back, but I will risk it for you!’
Go beyond Zero-sum games.
e.g. think of children, any multi-month projects, and trading exchanges (‘I give you spice, you give me axes’.)
2ci) What are examples of cognitive empathy and how does it improve outcomes of interaction?
‘mind-reading’, inferring mental states
- ‘I can tell from your non-verbal cues that you feel hurt.’ or
- ‘You can infer I am jealous when you talk to that guy.’
This makes for better adult pair bond, friendships, parenting.
This may help us come to an exchange agreement.
2cii) What are examples of emotional empathy?
‘I feel your pain’. ‘I am so sad your friend died’.
These are dissociable: e.g. ‘I understand your feelings, but I just don’t care about you.’ or ‘I didn’t guess your hurt, but now you have told me about it, I am distraught too.’
Predictions - should OXT and VASP increase the frequency and closeness of social interaction, and increase the beneficial outcomes from social interaction?
The frequency & closeness of social interaction
1a) OXT & VASP should increase rewards (warmth?) of social interaction
1b) OXT & VASP should reduce social anxiety
2) Beneficial outcomes from social interaction
OXT & VASP should
2a) enhance memory for social identity
2b) enhance trust
2c) enhance cognitive empathy and emotional empathy
All these effects together enhance pair bonding & parenting.
Lecture summary: category 1 (increasing frequency and closeness of social interaction)
OXT (& VASP) systems have various effects enhancing social ties, e.g.:
Category 1:
Increasing frequency & closeness of social interaction
1a) ↑ Interpersonal warmth (MDMA effect via OXT – Thompson et al 2007)
1b) ↓ Anxiety/Stress
Lecture summary: category 2 (beneficial outcomes from social interaction)
Category 2:
Beneficial outcomes from social interaction
2a) ↑ Recognition memory
2b) ↑ Trust
2c) ↑ EMPATHY
↑ Attention to social cues (e.g. eyes vs mouth, face vs objects)
↑ Mind-reading’ - inferring mental states (e.g. ‘mind in the eyes’)
↑ Empathic concern
Lecture summary: what are three ways to measure social interaction?
a) In objective tests with implied interaction (Mind in the eyes test)
b) In objective tests with actual interaction (Parenting, a bit ‘forced’?)
c) In self-report questionnaires (e.g. Davis Empathy Q, 1983)
Lecture summary: what is a positive and a negative of testosterone?
Positive: Increase partner n! have lots of progeny
Negative: Delayed-maturing young need resources to thrive.
Lecture summary: What is a positive and a negative of oxytocin?
Oxytocin: Care sensitively for progeny! (time, attention, mindreading, ‘love’).
Limitation: Too few progeny.
1) What did Thompson et al. (2007) find out about the role of MDMA-induced OXT in rats? How did they increase OXT?
Key results:
MDMA increases social interaction – rats huddle up together
MDMA activates Oxytocin-containing hypothalamic neurons
Hypothalamus then releases OXT into bloodstream
MDMA increases Oxytocin levels in plasma
1) What do studies of clubbing humans show about the hormonal changes MDMA induces?
MDMA increases plasma OXT and vasopressin levels
[Wolff et al, 2006, J Psychopharmacology]
1) What behaviour change is observed when an Oxytocin-receptor antagonist is co-administered with MDMA?
Blunts the pro-social effects of MDMA
Shows OXT induces pro-sociality
1) What two components do oxytocin pro-social effects involve?
1) Increased social approach
2) Reduced avoidance
2a) What is the social recognition test in rodents?
Procedure:
Social isolation for 3 days
Test rat appears for 3 min
Then, either retest same for 3 min
OR retest different for 3 min
2a) What results are expected in the social recognition test in rodents?
The success depends upon accurate perception of another’s individual olfactory signature, AND memory for previous olfactory signatures,
THUS social novelty detection
As rats are polygamous, they tend to spend more time with novel person
Success in polygamous - recognising who they have already spent time with, spending time with someone else - oxytocin mediated
Oxytocin facilitates social recognition
2a) Why are female mice’s ovaries sometimes removed in psychological studies?
So there is no menstrual cycle variation and so female does not do any sexual behaviour
2a) How is the social recognition test done on mice?
Basically same as rats
Male mouse is exposed to female ovariectomized mouse for 1 min for 4 trials in a row.
Then to a novel ovariectomized female.
Mice displaying normal social recognition show a decline in investigation of female 1 over 4 trials, then increase again in investigation of female 2 in trial 5
2a) Does knocking out the vasopressin receptor V1aR in male mice severely impair social recognition? (Bielsky et al, Neuropharmacology, 2004, LJ Young’s group)
Yes
2a) What is a crucial brain region for V1aR-mediated social recognition? (Bielsky et al, Neuropharmacology, 2004, LJ Young’s group)
Lateral septum
2a) If someone has more vasopressin receptors, are they more likely to have more accurate social recognition behaviour?
Yes
2b) What effect did intranasal oxytocin have in (Kosfeld et al, Nature, 2005)? (Investors)
Intranasal Oxytocin increased trust in investors in an investment game where ‘investor’ and ‘trustee’ stand to gain money, but the trustee can ‘betray’ the investor.
- Investor giving money to trustee - can give some, all or none to them - whatever trustee gets is multiplied by 3 - they can then choose to take all money themselves or give some back to investor
- If they were selfish they could take all the money
- Investor has to decide whether to potentially get more money by investing in trustee, or ensure they have the same amount of money by not investing
2b) In the investment experiment (Kosfield et al., 2005), was the oxytocin-increased investment specific to the social risk version of the game?
Yes - only happened when investor knew trustee was real person and not a computer - shows social element
2b) An fMRI study that followed up on Kosfield et al. (2005) investor study showed what about oxytocin? (betrayal, amygdala and caudate)
It promoted trust even after ‘betrayal’ in this investment game, (builds resilience to betrayal)
- Reduced amygdala activation (meaning not clear!: reduced fear? Reduced social avoidance?), & increased caudate activation (involved in rewards and decision-making).
- Amygdala and caudate have high oxytocin receptor density.
2c) Are eyes generally the most powerful facial social cue
Yes
2c) How did Guastella, Mitchell and Dadds (2008) investigate the effect of oxytocin on gazing at eye region?
Double-blind, placebo control
Tracking eye movements while subjects saw:
24 faces, 2 seconds each face
(Neutral faces)
Intranasal OXT (n = 24) vs placebo (n = 24)
2c) What were the results of Guastella, Mitchell and Dadds (2008) study on the effect of oxytocin on gazing at eye region?
OXT = more gazing and fixation at eye region than placebo, large effect sizes for both
OXT = reduction in forehead and cheek region gazing and fixation, none for placebo
Overall, OXT induces less looking at areas not giving social cues as much
2c) How is face looking behaviour different in people with ASD?
Do not show same ratio of looking behaviour at different parts of face
Less attention on socially relevant parts of face
2c) What is the reading the mind in the eyes test?
A picture of only someone’s eyes is shown - you have to choose one of four mental states as to what this person is thinking
2c) In Baron-Cohen et al (2001), how did high-functioning autistic, asperger’s syndrom and neurotypical controls perform on the mind in the eyes test?
Those diagnosed as high-functioning autistic, and as having Asperger’s syndrome, score significantly worse than controls
e.g. means around
~22/36 for HFA/AS,
~26-28 for standard controls,
~30 for controls IQ-matched to HFA/AS group
2c) Baron-Cohen et al, 2001 - was there an inverse correlation between MindinEyes test score and Autism Spectrum Quotient? Were men slightly better than women at MindinEyes test?
Yes, there was an inverse correlation
No, women were slightly better than men but this was not significant
2c) What five categories does the autism spectrum quotient test? (Baron-Cohen et al, 2001)
Social skill, attention switching, attention to detail, communication, imagination
2c) What did autistic vs non-autistic people score on the autism spectrum quotient?
Means were around:
~38 for HFA/AS
~16-18 for randomly selected and student controls
2c) Do men have higher scores on the autism spectrum quotient than women?
Yes - modestly higher scores
2c) What does the inverse correlation between Mindineyes test score and Autism Spectrum Quotient show?
The more autistic traits a person has, the worse they are at judging person’s thoughts based on their eyes - cognitive empathy
Autistic people do not typically focus as much as neurotypical people on eye region
2c) How were Mindineyes scores changed due to intranasal oxytocin? (Domes et al., 2007)
Higher scores after intranasal oxytocin - better cognitive empathy skills
Only a strong difference observed for difficult items - no difference for easy items
OXT increases mentalising ability for other humans
Promotes cognitive empathy
2c) Rodrigues et al (2009) examined variation in the gene coding for the oxytocin receptor - particularly if individuals have 0, 1 or 2 copies of rs53576 portion of gene. What did the adenine allele of this gene increase likelihood of?
Adenine allele increases likelihood of Autistic Spectrum Disorder diagnosis
Adenine allele predisposes to higher stress
2c) What are endogenous vs exogenous changes to oxytocin levels
Endogenous = pre-existing e.g. gene variability
Exogenous = experimentally induced e.g. OXT nasal spray
2c) In Rodrigues et al. (2009), what were the three aspects of empathy in the Davis questionnaire for individual differences in empathy?
1) Perspective taking – ‘cognitive’
e.g. “I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective”
2) Empathic concern – ‘emotional’
e.g. “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me”
3) Fantasy – bit of both?
e.g. “I really get involved with the feelings of the characters in a novel” immersion in book or film
2c) In Rodrigues et al. (2009), what differences did they find for the Mindineyes test and Davis questionnaire of empathy for people with AA/AG allele (increased autism risk) and the GG allele?
People with the GG allele get more answers correct in the Mind-in-eyes test than those with AA/AG allele.
About ½ a SD better
Those with GG allele scored higher than AA/AG on empathy questionnaire
2c) What did Bartels and Zeki find regards to neural correlates of maternal and romantic love?
Using a neuroimaging subtraction technique (looking at own daughter/partner vs another’s daughter/partner), they found core brain activations underlying parental and romantic love
Both types of attachment [ie maternal and romantic love] activated regions specific to each, as well as overlapping regions in the brain’s reward system that coincide with areas rich in oxytocin and vasopressin receptors
2c) What is the parenting strategy that oxytocin and vasopressin promote?
‘Quality of bond not quantity’
Commitment to existing bonds
i.e. enhancement of adult pair bond
i.e. enhancement of parenting
Reduced aggression with mate & progeny
Co-operative:
brings the benefits
of monogamy
Promotes ‘love’
The ‘mammalian’ strategy
2c) What is the parenting strategy that testosterone promotes?
‘Quantity of mates not quality’
Focus upon more partners
More attractive partner?
i.e. more ‘mating’, less ‘pair bonding’
i.e. more children
Higher aggression with mate & progeny?
Competitive:
brings the benefits
of polygamy
(infidelity)
Promotes ‘lust/sex’
2c) (Gordon et al., 2010) - after measuring parent’s oxytocin level in their blood and videotaping 10-minute play sessions, what two parent-child behaviours were coded for?
Affectionate play, which consists of:
Positive Affect (praising child)
Motherese Vocalisation
Affectionate Touch
Stimulatory play, which consists of:
Proprioceptive touch
Object presentation
Stimulatory Touch
2c) (Gordon et al., 2010) - how did oxytocin correlate with mother’s and father’s stimulatory and affectionate play?
Higher OXT in mother = more affectionate play
Higher OXT in father = more stimulatory play
OXT mediates different types of play in different gendered parents
2c) (Feldman et al., 2012) -
Polymorphisms (mutations) in Oxytocin related genes create greater risk for what?
ASD
2c) (Feldman et al., 2012) - what is the relation between OXT and touching baby behaviour in mothers and fathers?
Higher OXT - more touching their babies
Positive correlation in both fathers and mothers:
The higher the levels of oxytocin, the more they touch their babies
Low risk alleles for ASD also show more touching behaviour
2c) (Feldman et al., 2012) - what predicted the longest gaze synchrony?
High OXT levels and low risk allele for ASD
(Low OXT and high risk allele had the shortest gaze synchrony)
So assuming gaze synchrony is a good measure of sensitive parenting
Then it’s good to have high oxytocin levels
And it’s better if oxytocin-related signalling is working well
2c) Are married father’s more likely to have low testosterone levels than unmarried non-fathers?
Yes
2c) Is it rare to find someone with high levels of both oxytocin and testosterone?
Yes - almost always are opposite levels
2c) What are the predisposition and experience explanations for testosterone levels?
Predisposition?:
Higher Testosterone man less likely to get married and have kids
Experience?:
Higher T man produces less T because of subsequent romantic and paternal activity
2c) Neighbouring Tanzanian tribes - Hadza exhibit more paternal care, Datoga provide minimal direct paternal care - were measured for T levels - what was found? (Muller et al., 2009)
No differences between Datoga non-fathers and uninvolved Datoga fathers
Lower testosterone in involved Hadza fathers compared to Hadza non-fathers
Children in household in both - the thing affecting T is the role of being a father and interacting with the kids - simply having children does not increase T
2c) Are testosterone levels heritable?
Yes - Harris et al. (1998) showed that:
Correlations in MZ > correlations in DZ
Identical twin values (MZ) are very similar (in both males & females) and higher than for non-identical twins:
males: 0.66 > 0.34 females: 0.60 > -0.01
2c) How does testosterone change due to age, romantic relationship and high-caring fatherhood?
Age – low as kid, higher as young adult, lower as older adult
Lowers in long-term romantic relationship
Lowers in high-caring fatherhood
2c) How do testosterone levels and tesicular volume correlate with parental caregiving in fathers?
The larger a man’s testes, the less his parental caregiving.
The higher a man’s Test levels, the less his parental caregiving.
2c) Higher baseline testosterone levels predict less time spent affectionately touching baby, predict less time spent gazing towards baby, and predict less time speaking in higher pitch ‘motherese’. True or false?
True
2c) (Chin et al., 2020) - Measured:
PREnatal testosterone (averaged over Wks 12,20,28,&36)
POSTnatal Questionnaires re relationship & parenting
The lower the T levels in a birth mother, how much baby care did she do relative to her partner and how good did she feel at parenting?
More baby care relative to partner
She felt she was good at parenting
2c) According to Mascaro, Hackett and Rilling (and others), the biology of human males represents a trade-off between what two things?
a) effort spent on mating
&
b) effort spent on parenting
A simple interpretation and hypothesis:
The effort on mating is mediated by testosterone
The effort on parenting is mediated by oxytocin
Of course there will be many other factors than testosterone and oxytocin explaining individual differences in parenting
