week 7 - social cognition

Question 1

Social cognitive neuroscience

Answer 1

: a new field aimed at tackling the problem of understanding how brain function supports the cognitive processes underlying social behaviour. Emphasises that situations and contexts influence how we think or act.

Question 2

Social Cognition:

Answer 2

An umbrella term used to describe a collection of advanced cognitive functions that involve detecting and manipulating interpersonal cues to construct representations of the relation between oneself and others.

Failure to understand the feelings and intentions of others has an immediate, deleterious impact on interpersonal interactions. Social Cognition = prerequisite for adaptive social behaviour

Emotion recognition and perceptual abilities (especially facial expression of emotion) are the hallmarks of social cognition. These processes refer to an individual’s capacity to accurately infer the emotions of others

Question 3

Attribution biases

Answer 3

are perceptual errors (i.e., motivational and cognitive) that distort an individual’s interpretation of an event.

Question 4

Empathy

Answer 4

an individual’s ability to understand and respond to the emotional experiences of others.

Question 5

Affective empathy

Answer 5

The ability to have affective reactions consistent with the observed experiences of others (e.g., feeling the heartache of a friend who recently separated from their partner).

Question 6

Cognitive empathy

Answer 6

capacity to engage another person’s psychological point of view (e.g., appreciating your friend has conflicting feelings but not sharing in these feelings).

Question 7

First and Second Order Processes

Answer 7

A theory of mind is required because no-one has direct access into the mind and thoughts of others. To talk to other people, emphathise with them, you have to be aware of the behavioral, social and cultural cues that indicate both what they are thinking, feeling and planning.

First order cognitive and affective TOM/Em

Question 8

Anatomical Substrates of Self-referential processing:

Answer 8

MPFC, DLPFC, VMPFC, posterior cingulate cortex, and medial and lateral parietal cortex

Question 9

Anatomical Substrates of Subjective feelings contributing to our sense of self:

Answer 9

OFC, anterior cingulate cortex, (ACC) insula, ANS, endocrine systems that regulate emotion and reactivity and temporal lobe (memory)

Question 10

Anatomical substrates of Understanding others (ToM, empathy):

Answer 10

amygdala, superior temporal sulcus, medial PFC, OFC, ACC, fusiform face area, mirror neuron systems, temporoparietal junction, medial parietal cortex

Question 11

OPFC Damage

Answer 11

Coup contre-coup injuries
Social Symptoms
Socially inappropriate – discuss personal or boring topics
Inappropriate conduct: Stare, sit too close, hug inappropriately, less inhibition
Lower tolerance for frustration, increased aggression, immaturity
Impaired goal directed behavior
Low insight into changes – they understand social rules, but fail to recognize when they have broken these rules in the moment.
Blunted affected and emotional coldness.

Question 12

OPFC Damage -famous cases etc

Answer 12

Many patients can perform normally on neuropsychological tests despite huge changes in social functioning and decision making abilities.

Coup injuries – from eye sockets incl. jagged bony ridges provide support for eye but likes knives slicing brain tissue

Famous cases: Phineas Gage, E. V. R.

EVR – lost most of his VMPFC when a tumour was removed – meningioma which had extended bilaterally.

Question 13

Self-Referential processing

Answer 13

Sense of self relies on being able to distinguish self-knowledge and the knowledge we have about other’s characteristics, desires, and thoughts

Information processed in a more meaningful way is remembered better than information processed in a superficial way (e.g., remember happy and how well it describes yourself vs. judging its font).
Evidence suggests that our self-knowledge does not depend on reflecting on actual experiences to understand and determine personality features, but rather is based on information abstracted from these experiences
It is possible to maintain a sense of self in the absence of autobiographical memories (e.g., patients with retrograde amnesia or korsakoffs syndrome), because a distinct neural system supports the summaries of personality traits typically used to make self-descriptive judgements.

Question 14

Self-reference effect:

Answer 14

enhanced memory for information processed in relation to the self

Studies show that participants are most likely to remember words from the self condition (does this word describe you) and least likely to remember words from the printed-format condition (is this word printed in upper case?)
MPFC differentially activated during self-conditions
Level of activity in MPFC predicted which items would be remembered on surprise memory test

Question 15

Me Vs. You Processing

Answer 15

Self-descriptive

We rely on summaries of our personality traits rather than considering evidence from our lives

Other-descriptive

When we make judgments of other people we focus on specific instances that are associated with the adjective.

Question 16

Self-Referential processing

Answer 16

Chronic self-referential processing thought to be a ‘default’ mode of brain function

Higher activity in the MPFC = thinking about what we might do or evaluating current condition

Sentinel hypotheses: the default network ensures that an individual always has some idea of what is going on around them.

Default network: MPFC, precuneus, temporoparietal junction, medial temporal lobe, lateral parietal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex.

DMPFC activity enhanced during daydreams

DMPFC activity attenuated during goal-directed behaviour

Question 17

Self-Referential processing\ -MORE

Answer 17

Brain doesn’t turn off like a TV during rest

When at rest blood continues to circulate around your brain indicating that our brains continue to engage in a number of psychological processes that describe a default mode of brain function

Default network also involved in autobiogrpahical memory tasks, tasks envisioning the self in the future or navigating to a different location, or evaluating a personal moral delimma (e.g., would you push one person off a sinking boat to save 5 others).

Question 18

How accurately do we process information?

SELF-REF PROC

Answer 18

How accurately do we process information?
ACC – selectively attends to positive information about the self
–70% of school-students rank above average in leadership
–93% of college professors believe they are above average in their work
–50% rate above average in intelligence and physical attractiveness.

OFC – ensures that positively biased self-views do not deviate too far reality

VMPFC – helps us predict what we like and dislike
Px with damage made inconsistent decisions about their likes/dislikes (e.g., Cruise vs. Affleck?)

VMPFC – predicts our state of mind
The more activated it is when we consider the future, the less short-sighted our decisions will be

Question 19

how do we predict our own mental state?

Answer 19

We often view ourselves through rose-coloured glasses: Network of frontal cortex regions permit a focus on positive aspects of the self without deviating too far from reality

How do we predict our own mental states? Do we consider actual experiences and predict from there? Or do we use a set of rules that output a prediction?

When participants had to make predictions about their mental states in novel scenarios (e.g., would you prefer to spend a year on Mars or in a submarine under a polar icecap) fMRI revealed that the ventral region of the MPFC was consistently engaged. As these types of questions nobody has experienced, and there are no general rules about how to choose – it suggests that we begin by simulating the experience and then predict which one we would like better.

Question 20

Theory of mind (toM)

Answer 20

Using verbal and non-verbal cues to understanding the thoughts, feelings and intentions (mental states) of others, whilst distinguishing them from our own (viz., mentalising)

Empathic accuracy – the perceiver’s accuracy in inferring a target person’s thoughts and feelings (spouses: empathic accuracy is between 30-35%)
.
ToM basis of human cooperation and predicts successful performance in a wide range of social activities
—80% of waking time is spent in company of others
—80-90% of conversations are spent talking about ourselves and others.

Understanding the consistency or discrepancy between nonverbal cues and mental states of others helps us to judge their actions and determine characteristics such as trustworthiness.

Impairments: ASD, brain injured populations, schizophrenia

Question 21

What sort of activities does one need intact ToM for?

Answer 21

A big part of ToM is being able to identify if someone is being genuine, making excuses, lying etc. E.g., imagine asking someone on a date, and that person declines apologetically claiming to have other plans, but smiles and touches your arm  how you interpret this will largely influence whether you pursue things further or whether you are dissuaded from trying again.

Question 22

Sally-Anne test

Answer 22

marble is put into the box, if a person (kid) has TOM - they should say sally should look in the box

Question 23

Developmental Milestones

Answer 23

Curiosity about others appears at birth and is a primary source of motivation throughout life (e.g., infants prefer to look at human face rather than other objects)

Sally-Anne Test – false-belief task – first order cognitive ToM - presence or absence of ToM

12m can point to location of object that an adult is looking for
15m surprise to changed location of an object understanding that the person didn’t expect to find the object there
17m – understand that another can hold a false belief
3-4yrs – understand physical vantage point gives them a different perspective
5-6 yrs– understand their mental states are distinct from those of other people
6-7 yrs – understand difference between literal meanings of words and sarcasm (irony, joke and lie)
9-11 yrs – simultaneously represent more than one mental state

Question 24

Theories of Theory of Mind:

Simulation theory (experience sharing system)

Answer 24

Observe behaviour > imitate it >physiological response > infer the other person is feeling the same way
Involves mirror neuron system
The medial prefrontal cortex (MPC) is involved in the perception of others, when we use ourselves to understand others

Question 25

Theory Theory (mental state attribution system)

Answer 25

Build a theory about the mental states of others from what we know about them
Knowledge = memories about them, the situation they are in, their family, culture, etc.

Theorists are interested in how the brain supports our ability to make inferences about what other people are thinking, how we read their cues, and how we pull this information together.

Question 26

Neural Substrates of ToM - 1

Answer 26

Superior Temporal Sulcus – integrating nonverbal cues and mental states
Paying attention to nonverbal cues important when trying to determine if a person is hiding something from you
Body language, eye faze, facial expression, posture etc. play powerful role in person perception

Right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ)– activated when reasoning about other people’s mental states (but not other social information such as the person’s life events)
–Supports the control of attention for social and nonsocial stimuli (invalid information)

Question 27

Neural Substrates of ToM - II

Answer 27

Medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)- involved in forming impressions about the internal states of other people

• -Not involved in thinking about other types of information regarding another person
• -Activation specific to animate beings (e.g., dogs) but not inanimate objects

NO definitive information about the differential roles of the rTPJ and MPFC

Importance of attending to nonverbal in determining mental states- People with language comprehension deficits are better at detecting when someone is lying than either patients without language deficits or control participants

Question 28

Empathy

Answer 28

Our capacity to understand and respond to the unique experiences of others
Need the ability to accurately detect the emotional information being transmitted by that person

Perception-action model: perceiving another person’s state of mind automatically activates the same mental state in the observer, triggering somatic and automatic responses

• Mirror neuron system – allow us to have the same representation of another’s internal state within our own bodies (i.e., embodied simulation)
• Brain regions supporting our emotional states are also activated when we perceive these emotional states of other people (e.g., limbic system, insular)
• The magnitude of insula activation when observing facial expressions of disgust increases with the intensity of the other person’s facial expression of disgust

Question 29

empathy - in a series of experiments

Answer 29

In humans, a series of experiments have found that the experience of disgust and the perception of facial expressions of disgust activate similar regions within the anterior insular
Insula an important structure for experiencing disgust, as well as perceiving disgust in others
Patients with lesions to insula lost ability to recognise digust

Question 30

Empathy and Pain

Answer 30

Insula and ACC activated when experiencing physical pain in oneself as well as when perceiving physical pain in others (observing painful stimulation to romantic partner’s hand)

Participants who scored high on a questionnaire that measured empathy showed greatest activation in the insula and ACC when perceiving pain in their partners.

‘Fairness’ found to influence empathy (e.g., robber vs. child who falls)

Research indicates that activation of the mirror neuron system can be modulated by a goal-directed process that enhances flexible responses.
-Emotion regulation occurs very early in the stimulus-driven processing of the processing of pain in others

Question 31

empathy and pain - II (study)

Answer 31

We need to be able to understand other’s pain, but not to the point that it incapacitates us (e.g., psychologists, doctors, dentists, vets).

Study: participants played a card game with a confederate – one who cheated and one who didn’t. confederates received shokes. Normal activation in empathy areas (e.g., insular and ACC) but less for confederate who cheated.
* Also associated with higher activation in reward areas – indicating a sense of enjoyment in watching the cheater… also correlated with an increased desire for revenge as assessed by a questionnaire.

Question 32

Autism

Answer 32

Mindblindness: Difficulty understanding mental states of others and using non-verbal cues (e.g., facial expressions) to reason about another’s internal states

Less interest in other individuals or social interactions

Prefer to focus on internal thoughts or inanimate external stimuli

Prefer routine activities

Prefer to engage in repetitive behaviors by themselves

Self-sooth (rocking bodies, twisting hands)

Hypersensitive to sensory stimuli (fabrics, temperatures)

Research indicates that eye gaze is not aversive for children with ASD (as once thought) – rather individuals with ASD may fail to recognise the importance of eye gaze as a cue for understanding their social worlds.

Question 33

Autism and ToM

Answer 33

ToM skills do not develop properly

• Struggle with false belief tasks wben when they are well past the age when mst children are able to solve these problems
• E.g., think that Sally knows that Anne moved the marble to the drawer

Do not automatically distinguish eye-gaze as an especially meaningful cue for perceiving other people

The default network in autistic individuals shows no change in activation between rest and doing an active task (involving ToM).

Multiple brain systems appear to function differently in ASD

Mirror neuron deficit – results in failure of linking motor acts into action chains that allow motor intentions to be understood
Understanding of a motor action only during final stage of motor chain (e.g., when food reaches mouth vs. when arm reaches forward)

Question 34

Gaze abnormalities in ASD

Answer 34

typically developing kids normally focus on the eyes/nose triangle

ASD appear t o focus on hair, etc.

Question 35

The difference between What and Why

Answer 35

Intention can be broken down into what a person is doing and why they are doing it

Why – important when recognized that the motor act is atypical for the perceived object (therefore relies on mental state attribution)
What involves 1) matching through mirror neurons or 2) semantic cues from object (i.e., just knowing what the object is can cue a person to what motor action will follow)
-E.g., seeing scissors in a persons hand
-Sometimes the ‘what’ process doesn’t depend on a person’s mental state – because recognizing the object is all the information we need to predict the goal (e.g. scissors = cutting)

Question 36

ASD and the Struggle with ‘why’

Answer 36

Children with ASD can use semantic information, derived from an objects standard use or the context in which it is being used

Children with ASD have difficulties understanding the intentions of others when they have to rely exclusively on motor cues

They understand the intentions from external cues but not internal cues > indicating deficit in the mechanics of the mirror neuron system

Question 37

Social Knowledge

Answer 37

Social knowledge – understanding what is acceptable in different contexts; using social knowledge to make sense of social interactions

Assessed using Faux Pas tests (also assesses first order affective ToM)

OFC – important in social decision making

• Individuals with damage to this region often do not feel embarrassment that might motivate them to behave differently in the future
• Report an understanding of social rules but do not apply these to their own behaviour
• Damage impairs learning new social rules (problematic for pediatric TBI)

Helps individuals identify which social rules are appropriate for a given situation so

Allows for flexibility and the change of behaviour in different contexts
—E.g., swearing with friends vs. not with your grandparents

Question 38

Faux Pas test examples

Answer 38

Faux Pas Example: Faux Pas Recognition Test: Jeannette and Anne. Anne receives a vase as a wedding gift from Jeannette. One year later, Jeannette was visiting and knocked over the vase. Anne tells Jeannette not to worry because she got the gift for her wedding and she never liked it anyway.

Social reasoning assessed by asking participants to identify whether someone in this scenario made a social mistake, and if so, who and why.

Participants with OPFC damage reported that Anne had intended to hurt Jeanette’s feelings (hyper ToM)

Individuals with schizophrenia were unable to recognise that a Faux Pas actually occurred (no ToM)

Question 39

SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE AND DECISIONS

Answer 39

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (incl. OPFC) evaluates the negative consequences of social decision making and applies social knowledge to our decisions in social settings
–Helps us choose correct behaviour by reversal learning (embarrassment = reductions in behaviour) that supports considering negative consequences of social decisions

Damage to ventromedial prefrontal cortex = poor social decision making

• Evidenced in gambling tasks, where by clinical participants had difficulty making decisions when the outcome was uncertain
• Difficulty making value-based decision making (e.g., preference between colours, actors, foods)
• Difficulty adjusting to changing patterns of reward and punishment
• E.g., learn a stimuli is rewarding, but when it becomes punishing, they still choose it.
  
  • No reversal learning (i.e., does not learn from negative experience)

Question 40

Social Cognition Tasks

Answer 40

The Eyes Test

Hinting Task - Ten short passages present an interaction between 2 characters, and each passage ends with one of the characters dropping a hint. Passages were read aloud by the experimenter, and participants were asked what the character truly meant.

False Belief Recognition Task

Yoni Task

Virtual Assessment of Social Cognition

Movie Assessment of Social Cognition