Lecture 30- Social cognition

Question 1

What part of the brain is activated during facial recognition?

Answer 1

-inferior temporal gyrus (IT area= part of the ventral stream)

Question 2

What part of the brain is activated during judgments of trustworthiness?

Answer 2

• amygdala
• important social judgement
• involves memory, predictive behaviour, also evaluation relating to an emotion
• how we feel about things guides this
• amygdala activated

Question 3

What part of the brain is synonymous with our mind?

Answer 3

• prefrontal cortex
• this is where our mental thinking happens, evaluating people etc.

Question 4

Is social cognition innate?

Answer 4

-some of it is -cultural inheritance -much is learned, we have a model of behaviour and this changes over time (like how gay people are more accepted now etc.)

Question 5

What was the experiment with children and display of emotions?

Answer 5

-children were given a toy, it would break, ashamed -body collapses etc when ashamed, = in children visible, as adults we get good at hiding the body language

Question 6

What is an important aspect of our social competence?

Answer 6

-development of the so called self conscious emotions -these are experiences when an individual is able to internalize social constructs and evaluate their performance in relation to them (develops later in life)

Question 7

What is the model with evolution of emotion with age?

Answer 7

• 7 innate emotions (surprise, interest, joy, anger, sadness, fear and disgust)
• then display at 1.5 years= recognise themselves as agents of change= develop embarrassment, envy etc, =so can recognise themselves as individuals

=later they will recognise themselves as individuals in context to others, rules of behaviour =then evaluative embarassment, sham, pride, guilt

Question 8

Do animals have models of behaviour?

Answer 8

-yes -it is not just about understanding rules, -animals understand the rules, dog knows the bear is not a threat -manipulation of cognitive dispositions

Question 9

What role does this play in human social life?

Answer 9

• different control pathways
• so you control= volitional movement so you don’t show the real emotion
• on the other side= must detect the difference between voluntary and involuntary
• politicians are very good at this social cognition, can tell lies

Question 10

What is the case of Phineas Gage?

Answer 10

-damage to prefrontal cortex -mostly medial and ventral damage (dorsal and lateral intact) -resulted -personality change, befor ehe was serious, industrious, energetiic then not as nice as before, given to animal passions -cannot carry out plans (acquired sociopathy) -“no longer Gage” -probably exegarrated -one of the changes= seems like a child, very tenacious, demanding, changing their minds etc….

Question 11

What were the frontal lobotomies that used to be popular in the early 20th century?

Answer 11

-very popular for misbehaviour, depression, childhood disorders, criminal behaviour etc. -over 50 000 procedures were performed in the US between 1936-1950 -psychiatric neurosurgery -developed even a really quick method= 15 mins through the eye

Question 12

What is prefrontal lobotomy good for?

Answer 12

-you take out most of the prefrontal cortex -broca’s etc is not damaged -drive of language is no longer there -therapeutical value in certain psychoses

Question 13

What is acquired sociopathy?

Answer 13

-arises as a result of brain injury -distractibility, emotional lability, tactlessness, a tendency towards outbursts, extraverness, impulsiveness, slight euphoric states

Question 14

What part of the brain is crucial in being able to cognitively represent emotional states?

Answer 14

-prefrontal cortex -we imagine emotions, situation= then how they make us feel -people with prefrontal lobotomies have reported that something inside them died, they can’t feel real happiness or sorrow -a nurse cannot feel empathy after prefrontal lobotomy

Question 15

What abnormal behaviour do animals with prefrontal lesions exhibit?

Answer 15

-monkey with lesions in orbital ventromedial prefrontal cortex exhibit indifference to physical environment and other monkeys, they are timid and withdrawn -grooming and other social behaviour is diminished, = poor sexual partners and bad mothers -reduction in facial expressiveness, no longer vocalize or communicate, -the orbital prefrontal animal is a social cripple, incapable of social interaction and securing a place in social order (can die as a result)

Question 16

What neural substrates mediate social cognition?

Answer 16

-internalisation and learning of rules -linked to affective experiences -ventral and medial prefrontal cortex -sub cortical structures (medial dorsal thalamus, amygdala) (emotions motivate us= make us do what we should do, rule following and what it feels ike medial prefrontal cortex and subcortical structures= amygdala and medial dorsal thalamus)

Question 17

What are the main centers of social cognition?

Answer 17

-ventral and medial prefrontal cortex -sub cortical structures (medial dorsal thalamus, amygdala)

Question 18

What are the bodily states associated with emotional experience driven by?

Answer 18

-they are selective activations of the autonomic nervous system mediated through the amygdala, hypothalamus, and brainstem autonomic control centers

Question 19

What forces shape social compliance?

Answer 19

-the capacity to feel bad (socially salient stimuli or thoughts evoke visceral activation and the associated emotional experiences = these can be unpleasant) -somatic marker hypothesis “ gut feelings”are detected and used to make social judgments (even imagining the social situation= then set the scenario= feel some way about it= somaic markers= the feelings guide our decision to do it or not

Question 20

What are the 3 principal zones of the hypothalamus?

Answer 20

1. Lateral
2. Medial
3. Periventricular
   - hypothalamus= goes downstream = sweating,

upstream= take off your shirt get out of the sun etc

Question 21

What do lateral and medial zones of the hypothalamus do?

Answer 21

-behavioural patterns

Question 22

What does the periventricular zone of the hypothalamus do?

Answer 22

-neurosecretory

Question 23

What is the summary?

Answer 23

-These regions receive input, directly from the spinal cord and via the medial frontal thalamus from enteroceptors (sensory nerves of the internal organs) and also cutaneous nociceptors, and project to autonomic control centres. These connections mediate the bodily changes that accompany emotional experience and may, through their activation by prefrontal cortex, serve as the driving force behind social compliance.