Lecture 31: Social cognition

Question 1

What is the population founder effect?

Answer 1

the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population

Question 2

What is phonetic complexity related to?

Answer 2

geographical location

Question 3

What is FOXP2?

Answer 3

a member of the forkhead transcription factor family and is expressed in numerous locations in the brain and other organs during development

Question 4

Where is FOXP2 mainly seen in the mature human and mouse brain?

Answer 4

in the basal ganglia (including the nucleus accumbens) and the brainstem (including neurons involved in the control of respiration)

Question 5

Where in the brain is social cognition produced?

Answer 5

in the orbital region of the prefrontal cortex

Question 6

What is a particularly important aspect of our social competence?

Answer 6

development of the so-called “self conscious” emotions

Question 7

When are self conscious emotions experienced?

Answer 7

when an individual is able to internalize social constructs and evaluate their performance in relation to them

Question 8

What is crucial to human interaction?

Answer 8

the ability to “lie” and to detect lies

Question 9

What is a great deal of information on the function of the prefrontal lobes in humans derived from?

Answer 9

the fact that head injuries from frontal impacts characteristically damage the prefrontal cortex

Question 10

What are the features of “acquired sociopathy”?

Answer 10

distractibility, emotional lability, tactlessness, a tendency towards outbursts, extrovertness / impulsiveness, slight euphoric states

Question 11

What crucial role of the prefrontal cortex does clinical data provide evidence for?

Answer 11

being able to cognitively represent emotional states

Question 12

What has been reported following prefrontal lobotomy?

Answer 12

patients no longer being able to sympathise with other people

Question 13

What do animals with prefrontal lesions exhibit?

Answer 13

abnormalities in temperament, emotion and social behaviour

Question 14

What neural substrates could we expect to mediate social cognition?

Answer 14

internalisation and learning of rules linked to affective experiences

Question 15

What are the main centres for complex social cognition?

Answer 15

the ventral and medial prefrontal cortex, and sub-cortical structures with which it is associated (particularly the medial dorsal thalamus, and the amygdaloid complex)

Question 16

What are the bodily states associated with emotional experiences produced by?

Answer 16

selective activations of the autonomic nervous system

Question 17

What controls selective activations of the autonomic nervous system (in regards to bodily states associated with emotional experiences)?

Answer 17

the amygdala, hypothalamus and brainstem autonomic control centres

Question 18

What does the somatic marker theory of emotion-based decision making require?

Answer 18

that the bodily actions accompany the autonomic activity in arousal states
-> gut feelings are detected and used to guide social judgments

Question 19

What force shapes social compliance?

Answer 19

the capacity to feel bad

Question 20

What does socially salient stimuli (or thoughts) evoke?

Answer 20

visceral activation and the associated emotional experiences which can be very unpleasant

Question 21

What do regions involved in production of emotional experiences receive input from? Where do they project?

Answer 21

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