Social cognition 1

Question 1

What is the Social Brain Hypothesis and who created it?

Answer 1

Dunbar, 1998.

That neocortex size is related to social group size.

Question 2

What did Brothers (1990) state about the social brain hypothesis and what areas did he involve?

Answer 2

That humans possess a neural system which generates a psychological model of others in the limbic emotion regions and inferotemporal cortex.

Question 3

What 4 brain regions are involved in the social brain and what do they do?

Answer 3

• Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus/Temporal Parietal Junction: Perspective taking and social prediction
• Amygdala: attaching social value to stimuli
• Temporal Pole: Social-emotional semantic knowledge
• Medial PFC: Represent mental states of self and others

Question 4

Describe Mills et al.’s (2014) study.

Answer 4

• Longitudinal structural MRI study.
• 2 scans 2 years apart.
• GM volume changes partly cause development of social brain.
• Changes in how regions activate and cognition due to structure changes (GM)

Question 5

What is special about faces?

Answer 5

• Processed preferentially from birth.
• Central to social interactions.
• Changes in processing in childhood and adolescence.

Question 6

What is different about child and adult processing?

Answer 6

Domain specificity vs generality: adults mainly use configural information whereas children use featural.

Question 7

What was Mondloch et al.’s (2002) findings?

Answer 7

• Jane and her sisters
• 4 groups x 36 participants: 6, 8, 10 years and adults.
• Greater inversion effect for adults suggests they use configural processing more.
• Adult-like face processing only after 10 years.
• Abilities overall increase with age.
• Configural develops slower.

Question 8

Carey, Diamond and Wood, 1980?

Answer 8

• Forced choice recognition of unfamiliar faces: sex or likeability.
• 30 ppts per group: 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14y and adults.
• 10y = significantly increase performance on upright faces.
• Inverted U development for face processing.
• Supports maturational hypothesis of memory and face encoding.

Question 9

Thomas et al., 2007?

Answer 9

• 31 x 7-13y, 23 x 14-18y, 48 x 25-57y.
• Emotion Face Morph: fear, anger and neutral.
• Adults showed more sensitivity than children and adolescents.
• Late maturation of PF-limbic cognitive and affective processes: linked to social dysfunction in mood disorders.

Question 10

What are the 3 theories of face processing?

Answer 10

Adolescent non-specific, Adolescent Emergent, Adolescent Specific.

Question 11

What is suggested about the development of neural processing of faces?

Answer 11

The same core regions are activated across development, but show less task specific activity and activate additional regions before adulthood.

Question 12

What areas are involved in the Core Face Brain Network?

Answer 12

Inferior Occipital Gyri -> Superior Temporal Sulcus

-> Lateral Fusiform gyrus

Question 13

What did Cohen-Kadosh (2011) suggest about effective connectivity?

Answer 13

• No task-dependent modulation of effective connectivity
• IOG influences activation separately in FG and STS
• Strength of EC increases with age
• Modulation of task demands differed across age