Social regulation of survival circuits through learning

Somatovisceral influences on emotional development

Frameworks of emotional development have tended to focus on how environmental factors shape children's emotion understanding. However, individual experiences of emotion represent a complex interplay between both external environmental inputs and internal somatovisceral signaling. Here, we discuss the importance of afferent signals and coordination between central and peripheral mechanisms in affective response processing. We propose that incorporating somatovisceral theories of emotions into frameworks of emotional development can inform how children understand emotions in themselves and others. We highlight promising directions for future research on emotional development incorporating this perspective, namely afferent cardiac processing and interoception, immune activation, physiological synchrony, and social touch.

The benefits of learning movement sequences in social interactions

Although we frequently acquire knowledge and skills through social interactions, the focus of most research on learning is on individual learning. Here we characterize Interaction Based Learning (IBL), which represents the acquisition of knowledge or skill through social interactions, and compare it to Observational Learning (OL)—learning by observation. To that end, we designed a movement synchronization paradigm whereby participants learned Tai-Chi inspired movement sequences from trained teachers in two separated sessions. We used a motion capture system to track the movement of 40 dyads comprised of a teacher and learner, who were randomly divided into OL or IBL groups, and calculated time-varying synchrony of three-dimensional movement velocity. While in the IBL group both the learner and the teacher could see each other through a transparent glass, in the OL group dyads interacted through a one-way mirror, such that the learners observed the teacher, but the teacher could not see the learners. Results show that although the number of movements recalled was not different between groups, we found improved movement smoothness in the IBL compared to the OL group, indicating movement acquisition was better in the IBL group. In addition, we found that motor synchronization levels in dyads improved over time, indicating that movement synchronization can be learned and retained. In the first session, the IBL group, but not the OL group, showed a significant improvement in synchronization. This suggests that dyadic interaction is important for learning movement sequences, and that bidirectional communication of signals and mutual feedback are essential for the consolidation of motor learning.

Children's value-based decision making

To effectively navigate their environments, infants and children learn how to recognize events predict salient outcomes, such as rewards or punishments. Relatively little is known about how children acquire this ability to attach value to the stimuli they encounter. Studies often examine children’s ability to learn about rewards and threats using either classical conditioning or behavioral choice paradigms. Here, we assess both approaches and find that they yield different outcomes in terms of which individuals had efficiently learned the value of information presented to them. The findings offer new insights into understanding how to assess different facets of value learning in children.

Being the third wheel: Toddlers use bystander learning to acquire cue-specific valence knowledge

Observing others is an important means of gathering information by proxy regarding safety and danger, a form of learning that is available as early as infancy. In two experiments, we examined the specificity and retention of emotional eavesdropping (i.e., bystander learning) on cue-specific discriminant learning during toddlerhood. After witnessing one adult admonish another for playing with Toy A (with no admonishment for Toy B), toddlers learned to choose Toy B for themselves regardless of whether they were tested immediately or 2 weeks later (Experiment 1). However, if asked to make a toy choice for someone else (i.e., when toddlers' personal risk was lower), approximately half the toddlers instead selected Toy A (Experiment 2). However, such choices were accompanied by toddlers' social monitoring of the adults, suggesting that toddlers may have been attempting to safely gain (via surrogacy) more information about risk contingencies. These findings suggest that toddlers can learn to discriminate valence in a cue-specific manner through social observation.

The mutuality of social emotions: How the victim's reactive attitude influences the transgressor's emotional responses

Would a transgressor be guiltier or less after receiving the victim's forgiving or blaming attitude? Everyday intuitions and empirical evidence are mixed in this regard, leaving how interpersonal attitudes shape the transgressor's reactive social emotions an open question. We combined a social interactive game with multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data to address this question. Participants played an interactive game in an fMRI scanner where their incorrect responses could cause either high or low pain stimulation to an anonymous co-player. Following incorrect responses, participants were presented with the co-player's (i.e., the victim's) attitude towards the harm (Blame, Forgive, or Neutral). Behaviorally, the victim's attitude and the severity of harm interactively modulated the transgressor's social emotions, with expectation violation serving as a mediator. While unexpected forgiveness following severe harm amplified the participants' guilt, unexpected blame following minor harm reduced the participants' guilt and increased their anger. This role of expectation violation was supported by multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI, revealing a shared neural representation in ventral striatum in the processing of victim's attitude-induced guilt and anger. Moreover, we identified a neural re-appraisal process of guilt in the transgressor, with the involvement of area related to self-conscious processing (i.e., perigenual anterior cingulate cortex) before knowing the victim's attitude transiting to the involvement of other-regarding related area (i.e., temporoparietal junction) after knowing the victim's attitude. These findings uncover the neurocognitive bases underlying the transgressor's social emotional responses, and highlight the importance of the mutuality of social emotions.

Living in a Disadvantaged Neighborhood Affects Neural Processing of Facial Trustworthiness

Neighborhood disorder (i.e., physical or social decay) is associated with decreased trust, which reinforces criminal behavior among some individuals in these communities. However, past research largely is descriptive and has not measured processes underlying trust. Using behavioral and neural indices [the late positive potential (LPP), a marker of salience elaboration] in a sample of adults (N = 55), we examined the association between perceived neighborhood disorder and facial trustworthiness perception as well as the potential moderating role of trustworthiness perception on the association between PND and criminal behavior. Individuals with higher perceived neighborhood disorder displayed less LPP differentiation between untrustworthy and trustworthy faces. Moreover, individuals with higher perceived neighborhood disorder and less LPP differentiation were less likely to commit a variety of crimes, whereas those with higher perceptions of neighborhood disorder and high LPP differentiation were more likely to commit a variety of crimes. Combined, these findings suggest that similarly processing trustworthy and untrustworthy faces, as indexed by less LPP differentiation, may reflect an adaptation among those with higher perceived neighborhood disorder that mitigates against deviant behavior and contacts with the law. Understanding the intersection between neighborhood characteristics and individual-level cognitive-affective processing may provide insight into what shapes beliefs and behaviors about important social information.

Neurocognitive Underpinnings of Aggressive Predation in Economic Contests

Competitions are part and parcel of daily life and require people to invest time and energy to gain advantage over others and to avoid (the risk of) falling behind. Whereas the behavioral mechanisms underlying competition are well documented, its neurocognitive underpinnings remain poorly understood. We addressed this using neuroimaging and computational modeling of individual investment decisions aimed at exploiting one's counterpart ("attack") or at protecting against exploitation by one's counterpart ("defense"). Analyses revealed that during attack relative to defense (i) individuals invest less and are less successful; (ii) computations of expected reward are strategically more sophisticated (reasoning level k = 4 vs. k = 3 during defense); (iii) ventral striatum activity tracks reward prediction errors; (iv) risk prediction errors were not correlated with neural activity in either ROI or whole-brain analyses; and (v) successful exploitation correlated with neural activity in the bilateral ventral striatum, left OFC, left anterior insula, left TPJ, and lateral occipital cortex. We conclude that, in economic contests, coming out ahead (vs. not falling behind) involves sophisticated strategic reasoning that engages both reward and value computation areas and areas associated with theory of mind.