Social cognition Flashcards
what is social cognition
cognition about people
what suggests that humans are social animals
we have specialized brain areas for social cues
being social does not mean…
thinking about thought -> bees and ants are social too!
self-reflexive thought
human beings can see themselves as objects/entities separate from the world, and look at their own behaviour as an observer
self recognition in monkeys and chimpanzees
can recognize themselves in the mirror, therefore maybe share our capacity for self reflexive thought
egocentric
object-self
Where is an object relative to me? Where is food/a mate/a predator?
Representation changes when we move
allocentric
object-object
Where is an object relative to other objects? E.g., your hands are connected to your arms
Representation does not change when we
move
disruption of self image in humans 2 vormen
– Fugue state
– Dissociative identity disorder
fugue state
temporary/permanent loss of autobiographical
memory
dissociative identity disorder
- ook wel multiple personality disorder
- Behaviour seems to be controlled by separate identities
which brain areas are involved in self reflection and self image?
- default mode network -> inward focussed attention
- limbic/paralimbic system -> interoception (senses perceiving the internal state of the body)
default mode network waar zit het
klein beetje voor en veel achter in het brein
default mode network facts
Active when a person is not focused on the
outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest
When you think about yourself there’s more
activity in the default mode network than
when you think about other things
When retrieving autobiographical memory,
the default mode network is active
TMS on the medial parietal cortex sometimes
blocks the retrieval of self-knowledge
when is the medial prefrontal cortex (dorsal mode network) not deactivated (stays activated)….
making trait judgements about self (wel about friends or lettercase), or looking at pictures you have taken (vs pictures others have taken)
interoception which brain part is activated
ACC
ACC when active
during subjective experience of negative emotions and pain
insula when active
during interoception (voelen van dingen in je eigen lichaam zoals hartslag etc)
welk deel van brein: subjective experience negative emotions and pain
ACC
is eerste deel van die soort c vorm die om de thalamus enzo heen zit
welk deel van brein: interoception
insula (=limbic/paralimbic system). en ACC
zit onder bovenste laag.
embodiment
the feeling that you are in your own body
necessary for:
- self-location (where am i)
- egocentric space representation (where am i going)
which brain regions for embodiment
- extrastriate body area
- temporoparietal junction
extrastriate body area
EBA
active when you imagine your own body (probably for visual representation of your body)
vooral achter bij occipital lobe
temporoparietal junction
when imagine body rotations
zit op grens parietal - temporal
experiment temporoparietal junction
One hand with a grey glove and black strap
Make right-left judgments after having imagined yourself to be in the body position of the figure.
Interference with the TPJ by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) at this time impaired mental transformation of one’s own body in healthy volunteers relative to TMS over a control site. Dit gebeurde niet bij de interparietal sulcus, alleen bij temporoparietal junction. No such TMS effect was observed for imagined spatial transformations of external objects, suggesting the selective implication of the TPJ in mental imagery of one’s own body.
Dus: TPJ is a crucial structure for the conscious experience of the normal self, mediating spatial unity of self and body, and also suggest that impaired processing at the TPJ may lead to pathological selves such as OBEs.
wanneer was er error bij IPS
Only problems for mentally rotating the letters with TMS at IPS
dus TPJ = body rotation, IPS = letter rotation
dus conclusie rotation
TMS on temporoparietal junction leads to
difficulties with mental rotation of your body
but not of objects,
TMS on the intraparietal sulcus leads to
difficulties with mental rotation of objects
but not of your body
A double dissociation indicating that
different brain regions are used for these
rotation tasks
out of body experience
OBE, non-egocentric.
seeing your self from the back (when it feels real)
- door ketamine
- of door stick tegen chest whilst wearing goggles?
- door stimulation TPJ
self reflective thoughts/internal attention door welke brain areas
medial prefrontal cortex
posterior cingulate cortex
parietal lobe
default mode network!
emotions and physical feelings
insula
anterior cingulate cortex
visual/spatial representation of own body
temporoparietal junction
extrastriate body area
two areas for face perception
- fusiform face area FFA
- superior temporal sulcus
fusiform face area function
identity, name retrieval, person recognition
superior temporal sulcus
the changing aspects of faces
- lip movement (!!) -> important for speech perception
- frowning
- gaze direction
- expression
which route for fusiform face area
inferior temporal hippocampal route
which route for superior temporal sulcus
superior temporal amygdala route
brain areas that the superior temporal sulcus is related to
- parietal (for detecting gaze shifts and head movements -> where pathway)
- multisensory (for detecting lip movements)
- amygdalae and limbic system: to recognize emotions
emotional reaction when someone looks in your eyes
amygdala more activity
single cell recordings in monkeys regarding faces
- superior temporal sulcus (voorste deel temporal): emotion in faces
- inferior temporal sulcus (achterste deel temporal): identity of faces
prosopagnosia
- problems recognizing faces
- due to damage FFA
wat kan je nog wel bij prosopagnosia
de sociale aspecten van het gezicht zien (emotie etc)
wat gebeurt er bij damage to superior temporal sulcus en amygdala
geen social aspects meer kunnen zien, nog wel gezichten kunnen herkennen
double dissociation
a research process for demonstrating the action of two separable psychological or biological systems, such as differentiating between types of memory or the function of brain areas. One experimental variable is found to affect one of the systems, whereas a second variable affects the other.
wat doet de superior temporal sulcus naast emotie?
ook kijken naar body movements (social cues)
experiment body movements en STS
- watch someone follow an object with eyes
- more activation when they do this the wrong way vs. the right way
dus wanneer activation van STS
bij conflicting information, which could lead to social cues
wat doet de STS met deze conflicting informatie
stuurt door naar attentional, motor and limbic areas
another clue that humans are social beings
deviations from normal social interactions are processed in special areas of the brain
- might be important for survival
- But note that brain activity is correlated with behaviour: the patterns might also be learned, spurious, or the consequence of behaviour
interpersonal attention and direction of action
we need approval from others, what we do is based on their reaction (babies only cross the cliff if parents are encouraging)
ERPs
average measurements of brain activity after presentation of many stimuli of the same type
what do early peaks (P1 and N1) indicate
increased attentional processing
joint attention
when you direct your attention because others look/point at it
hoe meet je joint attention
gaze-direction attentional cueing task (= social posner task, met valid and invalid cues)
A valid gaze causes stronger P1 and N1 components (from
extrastriate cortex) than an invalid gaze
difference in ERPs based on race
out-groups faces -> larger responses than in-group faces (krijgen meer attention)
two measures for racism
- implicit association test (positive and negative words vs black and white faces)
- startle eye blink rate (activation sympathetic nervous system -> maybe negative associaton)
white participants…
- more amygdala activity for black faces
- higher startle response for black faces
but less activity when…
- familiar face
- show for a longer time (because control systems can intervene)
- when the faces do not look in the lens
- when the task emphasizes individuated instead of categorical processing of people.
maar = correlation!
Bias:
– Activity is not measured in the real world
* When do you actively classify faces as “black”
or “white”?
– May reflect semantic knowledge of
cultural stereotypes instead of personal
attitudes
– Activity may relate to how you initially
process information, but not to what you
ultimately do!
monitoring and control of bias
- ACC detects conflicting information
- prefrontal areas apply control if there is conflicting information
how do we measure conflict
conflict -> need for cognitive control -> error-related negativity in ERPs
experiment measuring bias
Task
– Watch two pictures
– Categorise the second
picture as either a gun or
a tool
“White” participants made a
disproportionate number of
errors on trials that
required “black”-stereotype
inhibition (i.e., they often
responded ‘‘gun’’ on Black–
tool trials)
- ERNs from the ACC
were larger for errors
than for correct
responses - Stereotyping is also
reflected in the ERNs
– response gun caused
a larger “conflict” for
black-tool trials than
for white-tool trials
(upper panel)
mensen die liever geen prejudice hebben…
greated demand for monitoring of response conflicts
There is a similar
involvement of the
dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex (= control processes)
This activity also correlates
with the IAT score
Greater cognitive control
among people with larger
implicit biases
oke
more activity in the insula (faces)
is judged as less trustworthy (amygdala = equal activity)
patients with bilateral amygdala damage…
trust everybody
thinking about other peoples thoughts
theory of mind
intentional stance
assuming that others behave due to their mental state (may be different than your own)
mirror neurons activate when…
you perform an action
when others perform an action
more activity during goal-directed actions!
problems with this mirror neuron theory
humans =/= monkeys
no signle neuron studies
macaque monkeys do not learn bij imitation
mentalizing
thinking about what another person thinks or feels
which brain areas are active during perspective taking
- temporal pole (anterior part)
- superior temporal sulcus (posterior part)
- medial prefrontal cortex
sophisticated perspective taking
- what would i do -> placing yourself, with your skills, knowledge and beliefs, in the position of the other
- what would they do -> placing yourself in your position with their knowledge, skills and beliefs
theory of mind which age
4
testing theory of mind
unexpected content task (The juice box containing ribbons)
fool other people (monkey sticker)
location change task (maxi and the doll)
theory of mind in apes
- they fool each other
- non dominant apes: go for food that the dominant ape cannot see
empathy sympathy difference
empathy = experiencing their emotions
sympathy = understanding their emotions
verschillen emotion sharing and perspective taking fMRI
perspective taking: prefrontal en voorste deel temporal
emotion sharing: posterior part frontal cortex (beetje in midden)
4 components of empathy
- emotion sharing
- self-awareness
- mental flexibility
- emotion regulation
emotion sharing which brain areas
ACC, insula, limbic system, somatosensory cortex
self-awareness
inferior parietal lobe, insula, PFC
mental flexibility
dorsal and medial PFC
emotion regulation
ACC, PFC
which areas are active during pain of others whilst watching and pain experiencing yourself
anterior insula and ACC
