SOCIAL COGNITION

Question 1

Phineas

Gage

Answer 1

– 1848; railroad foreman

– Accidental explosion
»> tamping iron through skull

– Remained conscious, wounds
healed

– Dramatically altered personality

“irreverent, indulging in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting little deference to his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires.”

Question 2

Frontal Lobotomies

Answer 2

1930's-1950's
–  Common treatment for depression & neurosis
–  Successful(ish)....
much less anxious, impulsive,
depressed
–  But....
withdrawn, under-active, lacking in affect/responsiveness
(overly docile)

Question 3

Orbitofrontal Tumors Story

Answer 3

“She had neither the energy nor the desire to do the things she normally did, like sing in the church choir or participate in other church activities (she was a deaconess, active in
women’s ministries, etc.) She seemed emotionally flat–no real passion for the things she normally cared deeply about. She had no
emotional depth–no anger or sadness or excitement or joy. She also stopped working for me in my ministry (she ran the office of Understanding Your Teenager). I had to hire someone else to replace her. She stopped doing household duties (I eventually hired a housekeeper and learned how to cook!) When she was awake,
she just sat in her chair and watched
TV (which was not like her at all.)
As you can imagine, this was hard for me to deal with. I experienced emotions that ranging from anxiety and sorrow to frustration and anger. I told her more than once that I “wanted my wife back” but she seemed unable or unwilling to change.”

http://
waynerice.com/marci.htm#MARCI%27S
%20SYMPTOMS:

– Acquired pedophilia that disappeared after surgery.

Question 4

“Self-referential processing”

Answer 4

– Memory is better for information processed in relation to self
. We are more likely to remember an adjective if asked to judge how well it describes themselves (vs the president)
. ”Self-referent effect”

– Why do we pay more attention to self?
. Is self is a special cognitive structure?

Question 5

Medial Prefrontal Cortex

MPFC

Answer 5

– fMRI Study:
MPFC was differentially activated in Self condition
(does this trait describe
you?) vs Other (does this trait describe George Bush?) and Printed Format (is this word presented in capital letters?)

Question 6

Evidence for mPFC
(medial prefrontal cortex)
in self-referent processing:

Answer 6

– fMRI
– Profound amnesia (due to hypoxia in patient R.B., retrograde & anterograde) still leaves intact ability to describe personality.

• These people still know themselves

Question 7

Default Mode Network

fMRI

Answer 7

• Most
brain
regions
show
ac2va2on
to
tasks
compared
to
“rest”
• Default
Mode
Network
shows
deac2va2ons
– More
acIve
during
“rest”
– Why?
– What are we doing during “rest”?
• Daydreaming
• Thinking
about self
– What
do I need
to do later?
– How do
I feel?
– Includes MPFC

Question 8

Perception of others

fMRI

Answer 8

Judge personality or sentence structure (mPFC)

Question 9

Theory of Mind

Answer 9

Theory of mind =
understanding the beliefs, thoughts, and intentions of others

– Developmental Milestones:
. Age 3-4, recognition that
physical vantage point is
unique
. Age 5-6, recognition that mental states of others are
different
. Age 6-7, difference
between literal meaning of words and speaker’s intention
(irony, joking, lying)
. Age 9-11: represent mental states of multiple people

Question 10

Theory of Mind:

Sally-Anne Test

Answer 10

– 3yr olds fail

– 5yr olds pass

Question 11

Localizer Task

Answer 11

False beliefs about people
vs.
False photos (e.g., inaccurate map)
acIvates right Temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ)

Question 12

rTPJ

Answer 12

right Temporal-parietal junction

False beliefs about people
vs.
False photos (e.g., inaccurate map)

Question 13

Neural
Correlates
of
Theory
of
Mind

Answer 13

– Read passages describing:
. Thoughts
("Nicky knew that his sister's
flight was delayed by 10 hrs")
. Bodily Sensations
("Sheila's stomach was starving because she skipped breakfast")
. Appearance
("Joe was a heavy-set man")

– rTPJ is more active for
descriptions of others’ thoughts than bodily sensations or appearance
– rTPJ is sensitive to thinking
about mental states of others

Question 14

Non-Verbal

Cues

Answer 14

Joint Attention =
ability to monitor another
person’s attention

. Superior temporal sulcus
(STS); near TPJ
. Greater activity when eyes shifted away from salient stimulus (social cue)
. Greater activity when face making eye-contact with you vs. looking away

Question 15

Joint Attention

Answer 15

the ability to monitor another

person’s attention

Question 16

Biological Motion

Answer 16

. ”point-light walkers”
hTp://www.biomoIonlab.ca/Demos/
BMLwalker.html
. Also acIvates STS

Question 17

Animacy

Answer 17

. hTp://percepIon.research.yale.edu/animacy/HS–]
Darts–]QT.mov
. Also acIvates STS

Question 18

Deficits in Theory of Mind & Non-Verbal Cues:

Autism

Answer 18

”I find people confusing… the first main reason is that people do a lot of talking without
using any words… the second
main reason is that people often talk using metaphors.”
~ main character from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Question 19

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Answer 19

– Developmental disorder
– Affecting 1 in 68 children
– Primarily social disorder
–  Severe autism >>>
intellectual disabilities
–  Asperger's >>>
normal to above-normal intellect; impaired social intellect

Question 20

Characteristics of Autism

Answer 20

– Social Interaction
. Impairments in use or understanding of non-verbal cues (e.g., eye contact)
. Lack intuition
about others
. Poor facial emotion recognition
. Lack interest/ability in
interacting with others

– Communication
. Delayed/lack of speech
. Stereotyped speech
(lack of affect)
. Difficulty understanding
sarcasm, irony, etc.

– Repetitive Behaviors
. Repetitive movements, compulsive behaviors
. Resistance to change
. Ritualistic behavior
. Restricted
interests/pre-occupaLons

Question 21

More
quotes
from
The
Curious
Incident
of
the
Dog
in
the
Night--]9me

Answer 21

–“I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has 4 moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.”

– “The word “metaphor”
means carrying something
from one place to another… and it is when you describe something by using a word for something that it isn’t. This means that the word “metaphor” is a metaphor. I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people do not have skeletons in their cupboards. And when I try and make a picture of the phrase in my head it just confuses me because imagining an apple in someone’s eye doesn’t have anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking about.”

– “Siobhan says that if you raise one eyebrow it can means lots of different things. It can mean ‘I want to do sex with you’ and it can also mean ‘I think what you just said was very stupid.”

Question 22

Autism Research

eye-tracking

Answer 22

• Where do children
look? (eye-­‐tracking)
Autistic children look less at eyes, more at mouth

– Typical Children: look more at upright point light walkers than
inverted
– Autism: look equally at upright and inverted (no preference for normal biological motion)
• BUT…
when add audiovisual
synchrony, look right at it
– Reason why they prefer mouths to eyes?

Question 23

Autism Research:

Face Perception

Answer 23

– Autistic individuals are impaired at face recognition
(identity & facial emotion
expressions)

– Weaker FFA?

Question 24

Autism Research:

Global vs Local Processing

Answer 24

– Autistics prefer local
– But when specifically
instructed to report global, can do task (and similarly to controls)

Images and other stimuli contain both local features (details, parts) and global features (the whole). Precedence refers to the level of processing (global or local) to which attention is first directed. Global precedence occurs when an individual more readily identifies the global feature when presented with a stimulus containing both global and local features. The global aspect of an object embodies the larger, overall image as a whole, whereas the local aspect consists of the individual features that make up this larger whole. Global processing is the act of processing a visual stimulus holistically. Although global precedence is generally more prevalent than local precedence, local preference also occurs under certain circumstances and for certain individuals. Global precedence is closely related to the Gestalt principles of grouping in that the global whole is a grouping of proximal and similar objects. Within global precedence, there is also the global interference effect, which occurs when an individual is directed to identify the local characteristic, and the global characteristic subsequently interferes by slowing the reaction time.

Basic methods
Global precedence was first studied using the Navon figure, where many small letters are arranged to form a larger letter that either does or does not match. Variations of the original Navon figure include both shapes and objects. Individuals presented with a Navon figure will be given one of two tasks. In one type of task, participants are told before the presentation of the stimulus whether to focus on a global or local level, and their accuracy and reaction times are recorded.

Question 25

Moral Reasoning:
Trolley dilemma
(classic philosophy problem)

Answer 25

– Conductor loses control of trolley, headed toward crowded station
– If nothing is done, 5 people in path will likely die.

– Case A:
You can throw switch to divert trolley, but single worker on track will be killed….
Do you throw the switch?

– Case B:
The only way to stop the
trolley is by pushing a person off a footbridge into path of trolley….
Do you push the stranger onto the tracks?

Most people think A is acceptable but B is not.
Why?
-­‐Emotional decision making
-­‐Impersonal (Utilitarian) decisions: activate Lateral PFC
-­‐Emotional
(Non-­‐utilitarian) decisions:
activate ACC, medial frontal,
amygdala

Question 26

Anti-Social Personality Disorder

Psychopaths

Answer 26

DSM criteria:
– Pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation
of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years,
as indicated by three or more of the following:
• failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by
repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
• deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
• impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;
• irritability and aggressiveness,
as indicated by repeated
physical fights or assaults;
• reckless disregard for safety
of self or others;
• consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated
failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
• lack of remorse, as indicated
by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another;

Question 27

Decreased gray matter volume in PFC

Answer 27

AnL–]Social Personality Disorder

Psychopaths

Question 28

Ethical

QuesLons

Answer 28

. If there is a neural correlate for sociopathic behavior, how much is the person at fault?
. If someone commits a heinous
crime and is later found to have a personality-altering brain
tumor, should they be held responsible?
. h`p://www.theatlanLc.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/
the–]brain–]on–]trial/308520/
. Does the discovery of Charles Whitman’s brain tumor modify your feelings about the senseless murders he committed? Does it affect the
sentence you would find appropriate for him, had he survived that day? Does the tumor change the degree to which you consider
the killings “his fault”?
Couldn’t you just as easily be unlucky enough to develop a tumor, and lose control of your behavior?
. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be dangerous to conclude that people with a tumor are free of guilt, and that they should be let off the hook for their crimes?

Question 29

Brain damage
causing socially
inappropriate
behaviors

Answer 29

• PFC damage
– Don’t take context into account
– Classic example:
• PaLent enters Dr.’s office
• Sees hammer, nail, and picture sitting on table
• Spontaneously uses hammer
and nail to hang picture
– “Utilization behavior”
= extreme dependency
on prototypical
response

• Orbitofrontal damage:

– Social faux pas test
• Anne receives vase as wedding gift from Jeannette
• Years later, Anne has forgotten the vase was from Jeannette
• Jeannette accidentally breaks
vase
• Anne tells Jeannette not
to worry because it was a wedding gift she never liked anyway
• Did someone in this
scenario make a social
mistake?
– OFC damage:
understand Anne made mistake, but think Anne intended to hurt Jeannette’s
feelings

Question 30

Orbitofrontal

damage

Answer 30

– Social faux pas test
• Anne receives vase as wedding gift from Jeannette
• Years later, Anne has forgotten vase was from Jeannette
• Jeannette accidentally breaks
vase
• Anne tells Jeannette not to worry because it was a wedding gift she never liked anyway
• Did someone in this scenario
make a social
mistake?
– OFC damage:
understand Anne made mistake, but think Anne intended to hurt Jeannette’s
feelings

– More likely to introduce impolite conversation.
– Know that it is inappropriate to discuss these things
– Are unaware their actual behavior violated rules
– Don’t experience
embarrassment&raquo_space;>
don’t generate emotional feedback to prevent future mistakes
– OFC is important
for emo9onal
learning

Question 31

PFC

damage

Answer 31

– Don’t take context into
account

– Classic example:
• Patient enters Dr.’s office
• Sees hammer, nail, and picture sitting on table
• Spontaneously uses hammer and nail to hang picture

– “Utilization behavior”
= extreme dependency on prototypical response