NRSC 2249 - Social Cognition

sociobiology

• exploring the biological basis of social behavior

• how evolution and development shapes social interaction

social psychology

• behavior of individuals in social settings

• understanding dynamics of interpersonal relationships

mentalizing

• processes supporting understanding one’s own and others’ mental states

self-perception

• ones’ view of themselves and their traits and feelings

theory of mind

• ability to infer and understand others’ thoughts, beliefs, and intentions

self-perception

• cognitive process involving the self as both observer and observed

  • observable attributes such as physical characteristics

  • unobservable attributes such as memories, internal states, and personality traits

self-referential effect

• people tend to encode and remember information better when processed in relation to themselves

default mode network

• while at rest, brains continue to engage in psychological processes

• MPFC, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex, retrosplenial cortex, tempero-parietal junction (TPJ), medial temporal lobe, inferior parietal lobule

• active during autobiographical memory, moral dilemmas, evaluating intentions of others

  • envisioning self in conditional situation

self-knowledge biases

• unrealistic positive self-perception

  • more likely than others to be smart, above average, or experience positive future events

neural basis of positive perception

• activity in ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC) associated with making positive vs. negative self-descriptive judgements

  • different activation with imagining positive vs. negative future events

• patients with OFC damage have unrealistically positive self-views, bring up impolite conversation topics, unaware until watching a recording

future mental states

• vmPFC/OFC important for generating predictions about future mental states

  • damage leads to inconsistency about own likes/dislikes

embodiment

• awareness of observable attributes such as physical characteristics about one’s body

• temperoparietal junction (TPJ) plays a crucial role

  • low stimulation produces an experience that feels like falling, high stimulation produces an out-of-body experience

autoscopy

• seeing one’s own body in external space similar to looking at a mirror

• sense of self-location within the body (unlike OBE)

• damage to right aprieto-occipital / right temporo-occipital cortex

heautoscopy

• seeing a double of oneself in extra personal space where double can act independently and interact

  • experiencing a doppelgänger

• damage to left temporoparietal cortex

xenomelia

• dysfunction of the superior parietal lobule

  • integration of the somatosensory, visual, and vestibular signals

• feeling that a limb does not belong to one’s body

experience sharing theory

• theory of how we translate external observables into inferences about others’ psychological states

• simulating others’ behaviors within one’s own mental framework

  • observing and mimicking actions and emotional responses, using own mental state to model and predict others

  • “sharing” experience to gain insight

theory of mind

• ability to perceive and recognize mental states of others and recognize that they can be different from our own

• levels of complexity:

  • first order: predicting based on beliefs and desires

  • second order: understanding what one thinks about another person’s thoughts

• depend more on medial premotor cortex (internal)

false-belief task

• schematic in which Sally and Anne interact with a marble

• participant must disregard own knowledge and consider Sally’s perspective

neural basis of mental states of others

• MPFC, temporoparietal junction (TPJ), superior temporal sulcus, temporal poles

  • MPFC: broad range of social cognitive processes, forming impression of others’ mental states, interpreting others’ beliefs, desires, emotions

  • rTPJ: false-belief tasks, understanding the internal representations of another person, mentalizing, shifting attention to social information

mirror neurons

• play crucial role in extracting information about mental state from external cues

  • active when an individual performs and actuaron and when observing someone else performing the same action

  • fire even when action is not fully observed, purposeful actions

• facial expression, eye gaze, body movement

• depend more on lateral premotor cortex (external)

superior temporal sulcus (STS)

• important for processing eye gaze and interpreting mental states

• signaling focus of attention, social signals

  • also active for posture, facial movement, recognizing voice

  • abnormalities in childhood autism

empathy

• enables us to understand and respond to emotions and mental states of others

empathetic accuracy

• accurate ability to infer another’s thoughts and feelings

• vital mechanism served by mirror neurons

insula

• active when experiencing disgust and perceiving disgust

• active when experiencing pain and perceiving (especially a loved one) experience of pain

autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

• mental disorder

• may have difficulties understanding mental states of others

• heterogeneous in biology and symptoms

  • abnormal stem cell proliferation, leading to abnormal neuronal migration

• general intelligence normal, often struggle with social intelligence and theory of mind (mindblindness), reduced cognitive empathy

• difficulty picking up on basic social cues

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

• mental disorder

• children may have difficulties understand the perspectives of others

schizophrenia

• mental disorder

• multiple deficits in theory of mind

  • may have trouble recognizing emotions in others and understanding social cues

  • lost ability to distinguish between own thoughts and those of others

• reduction in gray matter thickness for social cue perception/theory of mind, including MPFC, cingulate, STS, ínsula, striatum, thalamus

borderline personality disorder (BPD)

• mental disorder

• may have difficulty understanding emotions of others

• disrobed sense of own mental state

Williams Syndrome

• genetic condition, mental disorder

• associated with range of cognitive and behavioral features

  • difficulty with theory of mind

neural correlates of ASD

• no single brain region/system

• abnormal function in: MPFC, amygdala, FFA, STS, ínsula, and TPJ

  • abnormal functioning of default mode network, no change in MPFC when switching tasks

mirror neurons and ASD

• children with ASD lack same degree of automatic mimicry

  • can imitate familiar individuals/actions, but impaired in copying unfamiliar/meaningless actions

• abnormal functioning of mirror neurons

social behavior

• navigating social interactions: complex, lacking rules

• OFC plays crucial role in evaluating social situations and determining appropriate rules

  • important for learning and applying social knowledge

feedback of social behavior

• updating behavior based on feedback

• damage to vmPFC / OFC may have learning from negative experiences and adjusting behavior

negative consequences of social behavior

• vmPFC important for evaluating negative consequences of social decisions

  • more strongly for negative than positive

• FTLD (frontotemporal lobar degeneration) patients lack awareness of socially inappropriate or illegal behavior