W9 - Social Neuroscience Flashcards
Who coined the term ‘Social Neuroscience,’ and when?
Cacioppo and Berntson, 1992
What is the definition of social neuroscience?
Links psychology (mind and behavior) with neuroscience (brain and biology)
What key shift does social neuroscience focus on compared to classical social psychology?
From relationships to processes like decision-making and emotion
Which methods are commonly used in social neuroscience?
fMRI/MRI, MEG, TMS, pharmacology, lesion studies, non-human animal studies
What is the primary limitation of reductionism in neuroscience?
Over-simplifies by suggesting one explanation type may replace others
What is the domain general theory of social cognition?
Brain areas process diverse inputs, not exclusively social (e.g., reasoning)
What is the domain specific theory of social cognition?
Specialized brain areas respond to social inputs (e.g., faces, emotions)
What evidence supports domain-specificity in social cognition?
Theory Theory by Frith & Frith (2006), emphasizing folk psychological theories
What evidence supports domain generality in social cognition?
Simulation Theory by Gallese (2003), supported by mirror neuron findings
What is reverse inference, and why is it problematic?
Assuming brain activation implies specific cognitive functions (Poldrack, 2006)
How can reverse inference errors be minimized?
Using multi-modality approaches (e.g., fMRI + TMS) and advanced statistics
What does the ‘Dead Salmon Study’ demonstrate?
The need for rigorous statistics to avoid false positives (Bennett et al., 2010)
What are voodoo correlations in neuroscience?
Circular ROI definitions inflating false findings
What is the Social Brain Hypothesis?
Larger brains in primates evolved due to social navigation demands
What study supports the Social Brain Hypothesis?
Behrens et al. (2009), showing increased brain activity for social reasoning
Which brain areas are central to empathy?
Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and insula
What did Singer et al. (2004) discover about empathy and the brain?
ACC and insula activate for pain empathy, with individual variability
What is the role of ACCg in vicarious reward?
Processes others’ rewards, as shown by Lockwood et al. (2015)
What does the placebo analgesia effect suggest about empathy?
Shared representations between self and others (Rutgen et al., 2015)
How does congenital insensitivity to pain challenge shared representation theories?
Patients show ACC activation without personal pain experience (Danziger et al., 2009)
What methods are used to investigate social cognition and behavior?
Computational fMRI, economic games, lesion studies
What is the Dictator Game used to measure?
Prosocial behavior
What did Engel’s meta-analysis (2011) reveal about prosocial behavior?
Altruistic tendencies persist even with anonymity
How does brain damage in sgACC affect prosocial learning?
Impairs learning from prosocial prediction errors (Gueguen et al., in prep)
What effect does oxytocin have on prosocial learning?
Modulates sgACC activity, enhancing prosocial outcomes (Martins et al., 2022)
What did Lockwood et al. (2016) find about empathy and learning?
Higher empathy correlates with better prosocial learning rates
What did Cutler et al. (2021) discover about prosocial behavior in older adults?
Greater willingness to help others despite reduced associative learning
What is a key takeaway about the ventral striatum and sgACC?
Ventral striatum tracks general prediction errors; sgACC tracks prosocial errors
How do economic games clarify moral decision-making?
Highlight trade-offs between self-interest and moral considerations
Why is precision in brain anatomy crucial for social neuroscience?
Differentiates domain-general from domain-specific functions
