Social Cognition Flashcards
Broadly describe face perception. In particular, have an understanding for the role of the amygdala in processing emotion in faces very, very quickly
- a network of regions processes faces
- Amygdala can process emotional expressions in faces very quickly
- can form fairly stable – though, of course, not necessarily accurate – judgments of qualities like trustworthiness in fewer than 100ms
Similarly, describe how we can make snap judgments of personality traits and personal qualities based on how faces look and how these judgments may be an overgeneralization of our ability to read emotions in faces.
- we make snap judgments regarding abstract personal qualities – e.g., TRUSTWORTHINESS AND DOMINANCE – based on physical qualities of a face
- one explanation for this may be that this is an overgeneralization of our abilities to infer emotions from facial expression
Provide evidence demonstrating the importance of the amygdala in judging the trustworthiness of faces
amygdala responds strongly to faces rated as very trustworthy or very untrustworthy
patients with BILATERAL AMYGDALA DAMAGE have trouble evaluating trustworthiness
Describe how emotion and social cognition are intertwined and provide evidence to support their close link
Social perception and social cognition tasks often
involve emotion
Much of our emotional life occurs in social contexts
Emotion tasks typically use social stimuli (happy/angry
faces, social memories, etc.)
Emotion & social cognition depend on common
processes and neural systems
affiliation: expressions ; frown—>frown, laugh—>laugh
evidence that social cues like (sad face/frown) can emit emotional responses
Describe Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and its symptoms
Differences in:
- social perception/reading social cue
- nonverbal social interaction
- Inferring others’ mental states
- developing peer relationships
- demonstrating emotional or social reciprocity
- etc.
Describe experimental evidence demonstrating how face perception may differ in
people with ASD, compared to controls
• Using eye-tracking to examine how people look at faces
• Typically see triangle shape, as
most salient socioemotional information is in the eyes and around the mouth
• In ASD, see more disordered patterns
—> When viewing faces, people with ASD show
reduced activation in
FUSIFORM GYRUS, INFERIOR TEMPORAL GYRUS, SUPERIOR TEMPORAL SULCUS, and AMYGDALA
Describe differences in brain development in people with ASD compared to age-matched controls
ASD associated with differences in synaptic connections
—-> too many, too few, too strong, too weak synapses or in wrong place
—> excitatory and inhibitory synapses = abnormal balance (too many synapses=excitatory=overstimulation, too few=inhibitory=understimulation)
General pattern of brain enlargement followed by arrested growth
- More white matter in cerebrum and cerebellum and larger cerebral gray matter volume, especially in frontal lobes and other regions implicated in social processing
- More short- and medium-range connections within hemispheres but fewer longer-range connections
Define theory of mind and its various levels
- ToM: The ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions potentially different from one’s own.
- first-order theory of mind refers to being able to predict the thoughts of a second person
- second-order theory of mind refers to being able to predict a third person’s thoughts on a second person
—> helpful in anticipating the actions of competitors, predators, or prey to optimize survival
—> also helpful in cooperative interactions
• Commonly tested through “false belief” tasks, like
the “Sally-Anne task”
Describe how a false-belief task, like the Sally-Anne task, works and explain how it assesses theory of mind.
Describe how theory of mind develops in children at different ages.
from the age of NINE MONTHS, a human infant can look at a pointing finger and understand that the signal means “look where I’m pointing” rather than “look at my finger”
false belief task: researchers have assessed ToK in humans by testing subjects’ capacity to understand others’ FALSE beliefs —>
- Sally has a ball. She places it in basket and walks away.
- Anne takes ball out of basket and puts it into box.
- Sally comes back for ball. Where will Sally look?—> children under AGE FIVE will answer incorrectly
FALSE BELEIF TASK:
Bill is going to have a picnic lunch. He leaves his sandwich on the picnic table, while he goes to get a drink.
While he’s gone, a gust of wind comes and blows his sandwich onto the ground.
Ted is also going to have a picnic lunch. He leaves his sandwich on the picnic table and goes to get some napkins.
Bill comes back. Which sandwich will he take —
the one on the ground or the one on the table?
3YR OLD: the one on the ground — because that’s his sandwich
5YR OLD: the one on the table — because that’s where he left it, so that’s where he thinks his sandwich is
Identify key areas in “theory of mind networks” in the brain
how to study brain associations:
—> viewing cartoons that require ToM to understand
—> Rock-Paper-Scissors or other competitive social interactions that require one to think about opponent’s mindset (ex: Prisoner’s Dilemma)
—> comprehension of irony/sarcasm
—> subjects give responses to moral dilemmas
Theory of mind network:
MEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX, RIGHT TEMPOPARIETSAL JUNCTION, PRECUNEUS, POSTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX, SUPERIOR TEMPORAL SULCUS
Describe experimental evidence –both correlational and causal – in support of the idea that the right temporoparietal junction is a key area for theory of mind
temporoparietal junction active during tasks that require representing the intentions of others
RTPJ (blue circle): Important for theory of mind,
understanding the goals, intentions, desires of others
Greater RTPJ response associated with assigning
less blame in the accidental harm condition.
ex: poison story
Describe the trolley and footbridge dilemmas and how people typically respond to each
decision making in moral dilemmas:
(a) if a trolley is out of control and about to kill five people —> would you flip a switch to send it to another track where it will only kill one?
(b) A runaway trolley is headed for five people. They
will be killed if the trolley continues on its current
course. You are standing next to a stranger on a
footbridge that spans the tracks, in between the
oncoming trolley and the five people. The only way
to save the five people is to push the stranger off
the bridge, onto the tracks below. If you do this, the
stranger will die, but the five others will be saved.
Would you save the others by pushing the stranger
to his death?
do no harm; loss-averse —> medial
areas, amygdala, and striatum
utilitarian —> activity stronger in lateral areas
Describe differences in brain activity when we’re making moral judgments based on internal emotional cues vs. based on more external rules
do no harm; loss-averse —> medial
areas, amygdala, and striatum
utilitarian —> activity stronger in lateral areas
Describe what empathy is and what it entails and how it is often assessed experimentally
Ability to comprehend, recognize, feel, and share another person’s emotional state. Helps us better tend to others’ needs.
Empathy can lead to prosocial behaviors —though not
always.
Empathy has emotional and cognitive components:
• sharing emotions (e.g., feeling another’s pain/distress)
• self-awareness
• mental flexibility
• emotion regulation
• imagination
• perspective-taking
Brain regions including the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula become more active when person is experiencing pain – and when seeing their loved one experience pain
Describe experimental results demonstrating brain activity when people experience pain themselves vs. when they watch a loved one experience pain
Brain regions including the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula become more active when person is experiencing pain – and when seeing their loved one experience pain
