Social Neuroscience

Question 1

Neuroscience research of social cognition can be broadly categorized along these two dimensions:

Answer 1

Study of the neural basis of the feeling, understanding and evaluation of self

Study of the neural basis of the recognition, understanding and evaluation of others.

Question 2

Self-reflection

Answer 2

Experience yourself experiencing

Think abstractly about yourself

Become the object of your own thought process.

Plan for the future and your place in it.

Question 3

Default mode network:

Answer 3

a set of brain regions active when NOT referencing external events or stimuli

Become more active when not engaged in a task.

Reflects a resting state activity or “Default Mode” of the brain.

May form the basis for self reference and reflection.

Question 4

Medial prefrontal cortex and self reflection

Answer 4

Similar findings associated with recalling photos taken by the participant or someone else.

Viewed photos and judged if they took the photo or if someone else did.

Founds greater activity (less deactivation) of the medial prefrontal cortex when recalling information about the photo they took themselves.

Implies that the regions is invovled in aspects of self referencing.

Question 5

self-relevance vs valence in self reflection

Answer 5

Participants judged personal relevance of personality characteristics.

Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC)

Self relevancy of words, cognitive aspects of self reflection.

Ventral anterior cingulate was related to the valence of the trait.

More active for positive traits.

Emotional aspects of self reflection.

Question 6

VMPFC Lesions

Answer 6

Impairments in personal and social decision making.

Understand social rules but have difficulty judging the appropriateness of their social interactions or behaviors.

Make the same decisions repeatedly even though they lead to negative consequences.

Decisions are based on immediate reward regardless of future consequences.

VMPFC allows emotion to influence decision making and judgment Iowa Gambling Task)

Also impacts Moral Decision Making.

Question 7

Koenig and moral decision making

Answer 7

Location of lesion in 6 patients suffering from alterations in moral judgments.

Particularly impaired in making personal moral judgments – trolley car scenario

Performed normally when judgments were based on impersonal moral scenarios.

Question 8

Development of moral competency

Answer 8

VMPFC is involved in developing moral competency – understanding and adopting moral rules.

When VMPFC Lesions occur early in life (D-vMPFC in figure) participants are more likely violate moral rules for personal gain.

Does not occur with controls or VMPFC lesions that occur in adulthood.

Rate of violation is greater when lesion occurred earlier in life.

Question 9

Mental state attribution

Answer 9

Right Temporal parietal junction may play a role.

Becomes active when considering the thoughts of others but not when considering other aspects.

Activates when reading about thoughts of others.

Unable to consider thoughts of others when disrupted using TMS

Question 10

What does stimulation of the Tempo-parietal junction result in?

Answer 10

Tempo-parietal junction - stimulation can result in out of body experiences

Question 11

Extrastriate body area

Answer 11

Extrastriate body area responds preferentially to the perception and imagination of body parts.

May be specialized for the selection of information for social processing.

Question 12

TMS and Extrastriate Body Area

Answer 12

TMS studies confirm the causal role of TPJ/EBA in processing information related to body parts.

TMS of EBA also results in delayed RT in a grip posture recognition task.

Control stimulation over other cortical regions does not result in the same impairment.

Question 13

Biological Motion

Answer 13

Social interaction relies on evaluation of body language.

Not just recognition of body parts, but also what those parts are doing.

Speaks to its possible survival importance

Recent research has suggested the existence of neural regions specific for processing of biological motion.

Question 14

Point light biological motion -

Answer 14

distinguish motion from shape

Question 15

Superior temporal sulcus and biological function

Answer 15

Superior temporal sulcus active in response to the perception of biological motion.

Distinct from:
Area MT - perception of general motion
EBA - perception of body parts
FFA - perception of faces

Question 16

Haxby and faces

Answer 16

Haxby has proposed two parallel pathways for the perception of faces.

Question 17

Person recognition from faces

Answer 17

invariant facial features.

purpose of identifying the person and connecting that information to semantic knowledge.

Ventral pathway:
Fusiform face area –> anterior temporal lobe

Question 18

Dynamic features of faces

Answer 18

processing of changing facial features

eye gaze, mouth movements, facial expression

Superior temporal sulcus, parietal cortex, amygdala

Important for speech perception, understanding of emotion

Question 19

fMRI evidence for a distinction between person and emotion recognition.

Answer 19

Faces on a screen were gradually changed in both identity and emotion.

Ventral regions including fusiform face areas are more sensitive to the identify of the face.

Dorsal regions including the superior temporal sulcus is more sensitive to the emotion of the face.

Question 20

social expectancy and its connection to face recognition

Answer 20

Brain areas associated with faces and biological motion will also respond when there is a lack of congruence.

Positive reaction when a negative one is expected and visa versa,

Increase in activity in superior temporal sulcus and inferior frontal gyrus.

Indicates that knowledge of social expectancy provides a context for evaluation of faces and actions.

Question 21

social categorization

Answer 21

Can be both automatic and controlled.

Shaped by culture, personal beliefs, social group, social status, etc.

May be expressed implicitly but controlled or suppressed to meet social expectations.

Serve both an important survival function and a dangerous social function.

Question 22

N170 and faces

Answer 22

ERP that is most sensitive to faces.

Represents structural encoding of faces.

Reflects activity in a number of face related processing regions including occipital face area and fusiform face area.

Question 23

N170 and categorization

Answer 23

Differences at N170 (140-200 ms) for:

Asians viewing Caucasian faces.
Caucasian’s viewing Asian Faces

Does not matter whether you attend to these features or not.

Suggests that information about racial group is extracted rapidly and automatically from faces.

Suggests more difficult structural encoding of other race faces.

Question 24

FFA and categorization of races

Answer 24

Different race faces result in different processing in fusiform face area.

Accounts for differences in remembering self and other race faces.

May be related to expertise with other race faces.

Question 25

Possible systems related to racial bias

Answer 25

Social bias and stereotypes may be implicit but can be controlled. Suggest three possible systems that :

automatically response to other social groups

monitor and detect conflicts related to bias.

control bias reactions and responses.

Question 26

Implicit Association Test

Answer 26

Measure of implicit bias.

Respond with one hand to one category and good words.

Respond with other hand to second category and bad words.

Switch pairings.

Response times reflect implicit bias towards one category.

Question 27

Startle eye blink response test

Answer 27

Implicit response to noxious stimuli including an airpuff, loud noise, electric shock.

Increases when we dislike or are more afraid of something.

Decreases when we approve or like something.

Measures your implicit bias towards external stimuli.

Question 28

Implicit bias and emotion

Answer 28

Show black faces to white participants

Amygdala activity increases with increasing bias measured by

A: IAT
B: Startle eye-blink response

Suggests basic emotional responses to stereotypes may be automatic.

Can be attenuated when faces are familiar, shown for longer or when one attends to personal rather than racial features.

Question 29

Error Related Negativity

Answer 29

Frontal - negative response observed when one makes an incorrect response.

Related to the recognition of a mistake.

Indicates monitoring of the appropriateness and correctness of behavior.

Question 30

Weapons Identification Task

Answer 30

Identify each target as either a weapon or tool.

Primed by white or black faces.

All white participants

Measure EEG during weapons identification task

Question 31

Weapons Identification Task results

Answer 31

Reveals identification of racial bias in individuals making response errors.

Larger ERN to Black-tool errors
Saying a tool is a weapon when preceded by a black face.

Indicates the recognition of ones own racial bias.

Correlated with reaction time on the subsequent trial.

Larger when one is internally motivated to regulate prejudice.

Suggests online monitoring of inappropriate bias and association.

Question 32

amygdala and black faces

Answer 32

Amygdala was more active for black than white faces when faces were shown for 30 ms.

Frontal regions were more active for black than white faces when faces were shown for 525 ms.

Suggests they play a role in evaluation that can modulate amygdala activity

Question 33

Prefrontal cortex and racial recognition

Answer 33

Increases in activity when other race faces are shown for longer periods

Associated with correlated decrease in amygdala.

PFC activity increases with greater bias as indicated by the IAT.

Suggests - those with greater bias require more prefrontal activity to control or suppress automatic responses.

Question 34

Frontal asymmetry and Control

Answer 34

Growing evidence that more left frontal resting alpha activity indicates greater ability to suppress negative emotions.

Same individuals are more likely to approach than avoid – have a tendency to social interaction.

Also will automatically regulated negative emotional reaction.

Have the same negative emotion as others, but recover more quickly.

Question 35

Ochsner (2004) investigated ability to reappraise stimuli.

Answer 35

Enhance negative emotion by taking a personal perspective.
Decrease negative emotion by taking a detached perspective.
Found that in either case similar frontal and cingulate regions were recruited.
Similar regions to those we discussed as involved in emotional control and monitoring.

Question 36

Frontal regions and conscious regulation

Answer 36

Activity in the amygdala was modulated by task.

Increased when participants enhanced the negative emotion.

Decreased when participants reappraised the emotion.

Suggests frontal regions play a general role in modulation of emotion.

Question 37

Sally-Anne task - what does it tell us about theory of mind?

Answer 37

Theory of mind is required to understand sally’s reaction in the scenario.

This explicit form of TOM develops at 3-4.

Question 38

Theory of mind in other species

Answer 38

Species appropriate tests of a false beliefs test suggest that they do have TOM.

May be a difference between implicit expression of TOM ability and the explicit representation of the beliefs associated with theory of mind.

Question 39

Implicit vs Explicit Theory of Mind

Answer 39

Implicit - ability to internally represent the mental state of others.

Explicit - “I know that sally thinks the doll is in the basinet when it is really in Sally’s toy box”
Supports that theory of mind may develop earlier.

Question 40

Mental state attribution - which regions are involved?

Answer 40

Right Temporal parietal junction may play a role.
Becomes active when considering the thoughts of others but not when considering other aspects.
Activates when reading about thoughts of others.
Unable to consider thoughts of others when disrupted using TMS

Question 41

What is the connection between theory of mind and mental state attribution?

Answer 41

Some suggest that TOM involves attributing mental states to others.

Question 42

Gallagher and Frith (2003) - Simulation Hypothesis

Answer 42

Medial prefrontal cortex is a key brain area for theory of mind

Important for understanding beliefs of others.

May use the same mechanisms for understanding other as understanding ourselves.

General role in social cognition – considering oneself or another.